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The alder – alnus glutinoas – is a native to Britain, growing to a height of 20m and living up 150 – 200 years. It has nitrogen fixing nodules on its roots and this can improve the soil in which it is growing. Alders often grow in areas of poor soil making the soil fit for other plants. It grows happily in damp areas where its roots can help prevent erosion. These roots also make ideal places for otter holts. Adapted to the damp, its wood can withstand or and has traditionally been used for water pipes, foundation piles (much of Venice is built on alder piles), boats and sluice gates. Today alder is often used to make plywood.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4
The best way not to feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. Barack Obama | <urn:uuid:7b816f62-d851-4939-999d-00d12795c298> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://greentau.org/2022/03/11/lent-reflection-8/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662588661.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220525151311-20220525181311-00795.warc.gz | en | 0.960618 | 228 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Croeso i Flwyddyn 5 / Welcome to Year 5
Tymor yr Hydref / Autumn Term
Theme – The Victorians / Working Whispers
This theme has a history focus and teaches children about the Victorian era including the lives of the rich and poor and other significant social and moral changes of the 19thcentury. At the heart of this project children learn how to write newspaper and other reports on an historical theme and learn additional skills of explanation writing. Children will learn about the Victorian era, the social, moral and technological issues of the day, the important people of the day including those who influenced and changed things. It will also enable children to reflect on the life of children in the Victorian era and compare this to their lives today. The topic is rich in local history and children will get a flavor of what life was like socially for people who lived in Pontarddulais during this time.
Year 5 will be working with the artist Dr Julian Lewis and various other talented artists over the forthcoming months on a collaborative project with St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, that will incorporate a multi-sensory discipline approach to materials and media. Focusing on the work of Josef Herman and the mining history of the South Wales Valleys. Pupils will explore the skills of drawing through line, tone and texture upon a wide variety of surfaces. This work will progress to branch out into large paintings, 3D sculptures, illustration and slate etching.
Year 5 Autumn Term Big Question
Spring Term 2020
Theme – Gallery
This theme has an art focus and explores the artwork of a variety of artists from different periods of history and develops children’s painting skills using a variety of materials. Children will learn to write structured poetry and narrative, developing additional skills in the use of descriptive language. Pupils will learn about how the work of various artists throughout history has been used to express their views, and how artists’ work reflected the times they lived in. Pupils will learn how to use art, poetry and narrative to express their feelings and opinions and then display their art and creative work effectively.
Gallery Big Questions Spring 2020
Summer Term 2020
Theme – Energy (Science)
This theme has a Science focus and teaches children about different types and sources of energy and the social, environmental and economic impact of these. At the heart of this project children write letters to communicate with a range of fictional and real organizations and develop additional skills to writing explanations and making scientific recordings. Pupils will apply their skills and understanding by creating a micro wind farm on the school grounds. Children will learn about different sources of energy and how these work and what forces they use. About the uses of different power and energy sources in our everyday lives and about the impact of energy sources on humans, economy, the environment and the generation of Energy from Wales. How to carry out fair tests and how to make a range of models to generate energy. How to record and draw inferences from data and how to write letters in a formal style. | <urn:uuid:54885266-b7ec-41fe-9e77-25f9bea4e1bb> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.pontarddulaisprimaryschool.co.uk/big-questions-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038464146.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418013444-20210418043444-00558.warc.gz | en | 0.942549 | 617 | 3.46875 | 3 |
More than 12% of the total land area of the United States and almost 20% of its marine area are protected by a combination of state and federal protections. However, only 5% of the U.S.’ total land mass is designated federally protected wilderness. The Wilderness Act, the strongest federal protection for public lands, preserves these protected areas for biodiversity conservation, watershed protection, and outdoor recreation; mining, farming, and other extraction proceedings are banned.
From the period 1959-2012, the largest changes in land use in the U.S. were the expansion of special uses, including protected areas and public lands, the reduction in forest use, expansion of grassland, and recent reduction in cropland.
Under the Trump Administration, protections for public lands that expanded under Obama have been drastically scaled back by an estimated 35 million acres, or almost 15%. While many of the rollbacks are being challenged in the courts before they can be fully implemented, they still represent a significant threat to the integrity of the extensive protections from mining and development efforts.
The United States is an incredibly diverse country, and as such has many important ecosystems that provide life support services to the local residents and the planet as a whole. The map below shows the 15 Level I ecoregions of North America, including the nine regions in the continental United States and the additional two in Alaska. These include Tundra, Taiga, Northern Forests, Northwestern Forested Mountains, Marine West Coast Forest, Eastern Temperate Forests, Great Plains, North American Deserts, Mediterranean California, Southern Semi-Arid Highlands, and Tropical Wet Forests.
Given the most recent attacks by the Trump Administration on the United States’ public lands, protected areas in Alaska like the Tongass National Forest, as well as national monuments like Bears’ Ears need protection from destruction by fossil fuel mining and extraction. Additionally, the Everglades, a unique ecosystem in south Florida that hosts some of the most biodiverse areas on the continent and provides essential services including water regulation and climate benefits is in need of protection from human development and the effects of climate change.
Activity Rating: ** Standing Still
While the U.S. is known for its national parks and federal protections for wild lands, their integrity is under threat from the Trump Administration’s continuous rollbacks of these protections and awarding of leases in these lands for resource extraction.
Tell U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt to stop the relentless attacks on American public lands.
Dear Secretary Bernhardt,
Our public lands and wilderness areas are vital to the diverse needs of our nation’s humans and wildlife, and represent a core pillar of our nation’s identity. Rather than reducing the land we protect and preserve, we need to expand conservation measures to keep resource extraction out of our most precious wild lands. Please cease all rollbacks of protections for public lands.
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone (with employee directory): (202) 208-3100
This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard US Country Manager Stephanie Gagnon | <urn:uuid:5c0a8198-0777-4150-9c6e-876076b880d5> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.climatescorecard.org/2020/06/american-public-lands-are-under-threat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657140337.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20200712211314-20200713001314-00296.warc.gz | en | 0.929126 | 643 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Scientists suspect there’s a mathematical formula underpinning nature: specifically, the ratio of predators to their prey. (Video via National Parks Service)
A massive analysis shows this scaling is present across entire ecosystems, in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, from apex predators on the African savanna to krill and plankton — and the tiny things they eat. (Videos via BBC, The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, National Geographic)
Biologists say, "Even little zooplankton that eat phytoplankton show the same structural pattern." And it’s gone unrecognized until now.
Researchers analyzed the data from more than 1,000 existing studies on predators, prey and their relationships. Only at that large scale did formulaic connections start to show up. (Video via Oregon Zoo)
"We find that predator and prey biomass follow a general scaling law with exponents consistently near 3/4."
This means the relationships between predator and prey are consistent. But the behavior of each group can appear confusing. (Video via National Geographic)
If available prey doubles, the predator population increases, but not by the same proportion. (Video via PBS)
The faster prey gets added to an ecosystem, the slower predator numbers increase. (Video via Smithsonian Channel)
And the fewer predators there are, the slower prey numbers increase. (Video via Woodland Park Zoo)
Scientists aren’t sure why the two groups balance this way yet. All they know is the math works. (Video via Discovery)
"What we have is a baseline," one of the researchers told The Washington Post. "We know that if there’s this many prey, we should be able to explain how many predators there are."
The formulas could provide new ways for conservationists and other researchers to track the distribution of predators and monitor the health of ecosystems. (Video via Brookfield Zoo)
The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science. | <urn:uuid:fefe01fc-8e58-4018-8708-251c511c2aa3> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.newsy.com/videos/the-balance-of-predators-and-prey-comes-down-to-math/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267865995.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20180624005242-20180624025242-00161.warc.gz | en | 0.893065 | 403 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Author: Gregory Parks
Publisher: The New Press
Release Date: 2011-01-11
Genre: Social Science
When Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was approached by the police on the front porch of his home in an affluent section of Cambridge, many people across the country reacted with surprise and disbelief. But many African American men from coast to coast were not surprised in the least. “Gatesgate” serves as the most recent manifestation of a phenomenon many black men experience regularly: being the subject of increased suspicion because of the color of their skin. In Twelve Angry Men, a dozen eloquent authors tell their own personal versions of this story. From a Harvard law school student tackled by security guard on the streets of Manhattan, a federal prosecutor detained while walking in his own neighborhood in Washington, DC, and a high school student in Colorado arrested for “loitering” in the subway station as he waits for the train home, to a bike rider in Austin, Texas, a professor at a big ten university in Iowa, and the head of the ACLU’s racial profiling initiative (who was pursued by national guardsmen after arriving on the red-eye in Boston’s Logan airport), here are true stories of law-abiding Americans who happen also to be black men. Cumulatively, the effect is staggering, and will open the eyes of anyone who thinks we live in a “post-racial” or “color-blind” America.
Insight Study Guides are written by experts and cover a range of popular literature, plays and films. Designed to provide insight and an overview about each text for students and teachers, these guides endeavor to develop knowledge and understanding rather than just provide answers and summaries.
Literature Review from the year 2007 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1, University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: In this paper I will look at the film Twelve Angry Men (1957) by Sidney Lumet. In short the film is about a criminal case in America in which a young Hispanic boy is accused of killing his father and the twelve members of the jury have to decide on his verdict. In this case “guilty” means death. After talking about the film in more detail I will also look at the jury system in America and discuss some of its most important aspects, e.g. jury selection, possible verdicts or the principle “Burden of Proof”. In doing so, I will raise questions on how fair the jury system really is and what its weaknesses or points of criticism might be. I will then also discuss the various roles and duties of jurors and I will include ethical problems they might be confronted with in their deliberations. Furthermore, the question if a jury is capable of reaching a fair and legally correct verdict will be discussed and being looked at from different perspectives. To conclude this paper I will show why the jury system, despite its controversial position, is still used and probably will never be abolished.
Temporarily putting aside his role as playwright, director, and screen-writer, David Mamet digs deep and delivers thirty outrageously diverse vignettes. On subjects ranging from the vanishing American pool hall, family vacations, and the art of being a bitch, to the role of today's actor, his celebrated contemporaries and predecessors, and his undying commitment to the theater, David Mamet's concise style, lean dialogue, and gut-wrenching honesty give us a unique view of the world as he sees it.
Author: George P. Garrett
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
Release Date: 2013-10-01
Genre: Performing Arts
(Applause Books). The Film Scripts Series is a new printing of some of the greatest screenplays ever written. Each of the four volumes in the series edited by George P. Garrett, O. B. Hardison, Jr., and Jane R. Gelfman contains three classic shooting scripts written by some of the finest writers to ever work in Hollywood. Every volume also features a highly informative introduction, a glossary of technical terms, an extensive bibliography, and the credits for each film. These enduring screenplays will be of great interest to the general film buff, the aspiring screenwriter, and the professional filmmaker. Of particular value to the screenwriter and filmmaker is the fact that all scripts are printed in standard screenplay format. Film Scripts Two features: High Noon (1952, United Artists): Script by Carl Foreman; Directed by Fred Zinnemann; Starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly; Academy Awards for Gary Cooper, best film editing, best song, and best score; Academy Award nominations for best picture, best director, and best writing. Twelve Angry Men (1957, United Artists): Script by Reginald Rose; Directed by Sidney Lumet; Starring Martin Balsam, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, and Henry Fonda; Academy Award nominations for best picture, best director, and best writing. The Defiant Ones (1958, United Artists): Script by Nathan E. Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith; Directed by Stanley Kramer; Starring Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, and Lon Chaney; Academy Awards for best writing and best cinematography; Academy Award nominations for Tony Curtis, Theodore Bikel, best picture, best director, and best film editing.
Author: Reginald Rose
Release Date: 1983-01
Genre: Motion picture plays
Arena Stage, Zelda Fichandler, producing director presents "Twelve Angry Men," by Reginald Rose, directed by Mrs. Fichandler, with the Arena Stage Acting Company, settings by Robert Green, lighting by Leo Gallenstein, costumes supervised by Marianna Elliott.
This book is based on the movie 12 angry men, a black-and-white film produced in 1957, and based on the book by the same name. It narrates the story of twelve jurors bound by the acceptance of their civic duty and thrust together into a hot, humid room to deliberate the guilto or innocence of a boy accused of killing his father in a moment of rage.
Author: Scott Eyman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 2017-10-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
New York Times bestselling author Scott Eyman tells the story of the remarkable friendship of two Hollywood legends who, though different in many ways, maintained a close friendship that endured all of life’s twists and turns. Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for forty years. They became friends and then roommates as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they roomed together again. Between them they made such memorable films as The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, and On Golden Pond; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Philadelphia Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, and Rear Window. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican, but after one memorable blow-up over politics, they agreed never to discuss that subject again. Fonda was a ladies’ man who was married five times; Stewart remained married to the same woman for forty-five years. Both men volunteered during World War II and were decorated for their service. When Stewart returned home, still unmarried, he once again moved in with Fonda, his wife, and his two children, Jane and Peter, who knew him as Uncle Jimmy. For Hank and Jim, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda’s widow and children as well as three of Stewart’s children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men—in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together. This is not another Hollywood story, but a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary friendship that lasted through war, marriages, children, careers, and everything else.
Why does a director choose a particular script? What must they do in order to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a single scene? How do you stage a shootout—involving more than one hundred extras and three colliding taxis—in the heart of New York’s diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchos happy? From the first rehearsal to the final screening, Making Movies is a master’s take, delivered with clarity, candor, and a wealth of anecdote. For in this book, Sidney Lumet, one of our most consistently acclaimed directors, gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on forty years of experience on movies that range from Long Day’s Journey into Night to Network and The Verdict—and with such stars as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino—Lumet explains how painstaking labor and inspired split-second decisions can result in two hours of screen magic. | <urn:uuid:e88ec193-58d4-4333-8374-40b68ec8bf0f> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://myvocabbook.com/download/twelve-angry-men | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221219109.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20180821210655-20180821230655-00600.warc.gz | en | 0.947879 | 1,907 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Erosion refers to the process where soil and rock are worn away from the Earth’s surface, often through natural elements, such as water, wind or ice, and are then transported to and deposited in other locations.
Although erosion is a natural process, human activity, such as intensive agricultural methods, has accelerated the rate of soil erosion, globally.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 24 percent of the global land area has declined in productivity over the past 25 years due to unsustainable land-use. UNEP points to various assessments indicating that some kinds of intensive agriculture are triggering soil erosion at rates that are about 100 times greater than the rates at which nature can form soil. Other studies on soil erosion also suggest that increased rainfall will lead to greater rates of erosion. Therefore, unless preventive measures are taken, soil erosion can have serious negative implications on the future of our planet.
Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development and construction. This usually involves the creation of some sort of physical barrier, such as vegetation or rock, to absorb the energy that is causing erosion. Effective erosion control measures are vital to prevent water pollution and soil loss.
CoirGreen™ manufactures the following environmental friendly erosion control products using natural coir fiber and its extracts as raw material: | <urn:uuid:a6d84c77-7c77-4889-8fea-709065019431> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://coirgreen.com/erosion_control.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049277313.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002117-00122-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94824 | 270 | 4.15625 | 4 |
English revenge essays
Elizabethan Revenge in Hamlet: Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare that very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theater.
The earliest writer of the tragedy in English language, Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, fastened on a story of revenge for their Gorboduc, which first produce in. re·venge (rĭ-vĕnj′) tr.v. re·venged, re·veng·ing, re·veng·es 1. To inflict punishment in return for (injury or insult). 2. Archaic To seek or take vengeance.
English revenge essays
Professor Douglas Kerr. Tel: (852) 3917 7938 E-mail: [email protected] Office: Room 840, 8/F, Run Run Shaw Tower (Building B, Arts), Centennial Campus Essays - largest database of quality sample essays and research papers on The Crucible Theme Of Revenge Free Hamlet Revenge papers, essays, and research papers.
AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 2015 SCORING GUIDELINES © 2015 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard. org. Books. Cicero's De Officiis Why Cicero | Contents & Index Only | Contents, Index &Text Seneca's Essays Volume I Why Seneca | Contents & Index Only | Contents, Index. Oct 17, 2016 · RATIONALE The Modernist novel's turn away from the techniques of representation of nineteenth-century realism towards formal experimentation has left …
Free revenge papers, essays, and research papers.. These results are sorted by most relevant first (ranked search). You may also sort these by color rating or. EnerFest Inc. EnerFest, Inc. is a solution provider for field instrumentation that includes a complete range of valves and a provider of integrated electrical solutions. TIQA*: Your body paragraphs should provide a topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph should provide context for a quote or a paraphrase example.
Bacon argues in his essay "Of Revenge" that the "wild justice" of personal revenge is a fundamental challenge to the rule of law. W.S. Penn teaches in the Creative Writing Program and is one of the founding members of the Native American Writer' ' s Circle (initially the Wordcraft Circle of. Mar 27, 2010 · Achilles vs. Hector in the Iliad In the Iliad, both Achilles, who fights for the Greeks and Hector, who fights for the Trojans display heroic.
Aboukhadijeh, Feross. "Sample Character Analysis Essay - "Hamlet"" StudyNotes.org. Study Notes, LLC., 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2016. … Critical reception. Though Bacon considered the Essays "but as recreation of my other studies", he was given high praise by his contemporaries, even to the point of. | <urn:uuid:5f9833eb-6fe7-40c6-8c96-235e8513c771> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://docourseworkxjrj.casestudyhouse26.com/english-revenge-essays.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823731.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020044747-20171020064747-00490.warc.gz | en | 0.852318 | 612 | 2.921875 | 3 |
TUESDAY, April 30, 2013 — It’s no secret that children with difficult childhoods can go on to develop serious emotional problems, but according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it can manifest in physical problems as well.
Children who are maltreated, exposed to domestic violence, or live with someone with a serious mental illness are more likely die a premature death, smoke or abuse drugs and alcohol, and suffer from obesity, cardiovascular disease and depression than children who are not, according researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who added that for many, the scars of childhood last long into adulthood.
“While there are stories of heroic youth who overcome the most disadvantageous of backgrounds, for most, early adversity casts a long shadow into adult life,” David Brent, MD, the lead researcher, wrote in the study.
But while the effects of childhood adversity are severe, researchers said, it’s possible to avoid long-lasting effects.
"The good news is that, if detected early enough, the impact of family adversity on child health outcomes can be reversed, or at least attenuated,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Economic interventions that provide local employment and move parents out of poverty have been shown to be temporally related to a decreased risk for behavioral disorders in the children of the assisted families. Earlier foster placement can, to some extent, reverse the deleterious neurobiological and cognitive effects of extreme deprivation in infancy."
But removing children from their homes should not be the first course of action, said Carole Lieberman M.D., clinical faculty member of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute.
“Removing children from their family of origin is extremely traumatic in itself, causing powerful abandonment issues, so it has to be the solution of last resort,” she said. “Instead, child development should be taught in junior high school and high school, so that children can better understand how their home environment is affecting them.”
By teaching a child to better understand their feelings, they can better manage them, she added.
“For example, if children were taught that having an alcoholic parent may make them feel shame, anger, and fear of life's unpredictability, they would understand themselves better and be more able to avoid becoming an alcoholic in turn,” Dr. Lieberman said.
It isn’t clear exactly why childhood adversity can lead to so many problems later in life, researchers said, but it’s possible that it can cause immune dysfunction and insulin resistance, which can result in various health problems.
In addition, childhood adversity can also cause cognitive problems that can lead to risky behaviors and depression — problems that affect not just the family, but all of society.
"The economic cost weighs heavily on families burdened with adversity but ultimately is borne by society as a whole,” the researchers wrote in the study. “In the drive to improve quality of health care and contain costs, the huge price tag to society of early adversity cannot be neglected.”
And since children often do not recognize the effects of their problems at home, parents, teachers and physicians need to be on the lookout to ensure that the problems are dealt with as early as possible, Lieberman said.
“Adults need to be more vigilant when it comes to looking out for children,” she said.”The signs are there, but adults too often miss them. For example, on one extreme, troubled children may seem sad, shy, or listless, but they may also go to the other extreme and seem angry and aggressive.”
But simply addressing cases as they come is not enough, researchers said. The findings make it clear that more research needs to be done to better understand the effects of childhood adversity.
“Through research, clinical care, and advocacy, physicians can shine a light on the dark shadow of adversity and diminish its reach from generation to generation,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Society can either invest in combating the effect of adversity on families now, or pay later." | <urn:uuid:94e4eaeb-3d3c-4420-a99e-587778068037> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/kids-health/children-with-tough-home-life-suffer-serious-health-problems-study-finds-8262.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246639325.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045719-00100-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965176 | 849 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Social Work Exam: Social Growth, Development, and the Socialization Process
This post will begin our series on typical and atypical social growth, development, and the socialization process, as it pertains to the ASWB bachelor’s social work licensure exam. We will first look at models for typical growth and development, then focus on atypical growth and explore a major atypical social development disorder. Finally we will finish by examining the socialization process in greater detail.
In this post we will be focusing on social growth and development theory. First let us begin by defining social growth and development as the process in which an individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others, and that way that this process changes over time.
One of the main theorists in social growth theory is Lev Vygotsky and his theory on social constructivism. Vygotsky argues that culture is a dominant force in a child’s development, and that development moves from the social level to the individual level. Vygotsky is also famous for founding cultural-historical psychology.
Vygotsky believed that knowledge was passed socially, and that social interactions with parents and adults led to the formation of speech, language, and other developmental processes. This process is a key premise of Vygotsky’s work, and is called cultural mediation. Essentially, Vygotsky argues that cultural development occurs from knowledge that is passed from adults to children, or even from among other children. Simply put, when you are immersed in a culture, you are learning all the time how to be part of that culture on many different levels.
While taking the social work exam, remember that this theory is highly related to and builds upon Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development. The difference is that the main tool of growth in social learning theory is interaction, and in cognitive theory takes place by observation.
Another important figure in social growth and development is Erik Erikson and his eight stages of psychosocial development. We have discussed his work in a separate post, so I will not be going into great detail, but this is a theory of development from infancy to adulthood that takes place in eight discrete stages, and contains important developmental milestones focused on social behavior.
That concludes our look at the figures behind social growth and development theory. In our next post we will go into further detail behind the social development milestones, and look at how these relate to the theories of growth and development that we have discussed so far. I hope that you are enjoying this blog series of posts, and I look forward to seeing you for our next post. | <urn:uuid:54e30afe-7a33-41fb-b472-4711531d8341> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://thesocialworkexam.com/social-growth-and-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738660801.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173740-00000-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956973 | 544 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Many people who suffer sexual abuse during childhood come to equate their sexuality with their self-worth. Over the years, the person may have come to “accept” the abuse as though it was the only aspect of their character which offered gratification to another person. It greatly skews a person’s perception of who they are, what their purpose in life is, and their understanding of appropriate relationship dynamics.
Suffering sexual abuse at a young age also lights up neural pathways in the person’s brain which are linked to sexual arousal. This can be damaging to a child’s brain because they have not developed the structure to properly process this type of arousal. When sexual arousal occurs at an age when one has matured enough to place it within a context of healthy desire and connection, it helps them develop a healthy perspective on intimacy and sex. But, when it occurs before they have matured enough, these same neural pathways become associated with negative emotions such as fear, shame, secrecy, confusion, physical distress, jealousy, and rage.
When a man who has been sexually abused as a child reaches a reasonable age at which he should be able to comprehend the connection between sexual interactions and relationships, his perception is, by this point, already distorted due to his tendency to associate sex with negative emotions. While he may to begin to crave the idea of being wanted by another person, he may only feel comfortable attempting to gain this kind of gratification through the use of sexually aggressive tactics. Men often desire the increase in self-esteem that they believe an intimate relationship could provide, but find it difficult to develop and maintain a real relationship due, at least in part, to the ways in which their brains connect the idea of sexual intimacy with danger. | <urn:uuid:688ad36a-5270-4cbd-99a0-19ebe8616b21> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://betterblokes.org.nz/2020/08/consequences-of-sexual-harm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585380.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20211021005314-20211021035314-00340.warc.gz | en | 0.975043 | 353 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Good soil preparation for flower beds helps create and maintain a healthy garden and can also reduce water requirements.
Things to keep in mind include:
- Conduct a soil test to determine existing soil texture, nutrients, and pH
- Tilling wet soil can destroy soil structure
- Add organic matter to improve soil drainage and texture
- Prepare planting beds in late summer or fall to avoid wet soil
- Weed treatment and sod removal can be done in the fall without affecting flower beds
Proper preparation of holes for planting trees is necessary for tree growth and survival.
Trees are available at plant nurseries and garden centers in different container sizes and as bare root, and balled and burlapped.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages and requires different handling and planting techniques.
Information on planting trees and shrubs is available from the resources listed below.
Florida – Planting Hole Size and Configuration
South Carolina – Planting Trees Correctly
Properly prepared soil provides a healthy substrate for producing an abundant supply of nutritious vegetables from the home garden.
Characteristics of Properly Prepared Soil for Vegetable Gardens
- Improved seed germination
- Increased aeration and drainage
- Improved soil texture and structure
- Higher biological activity
- Improved fertility
Soil Preparation Basics
- A soil test provides an understanding of soil pH and nutrient availability
- Proper tillage aerates the soil allowing for better drainage and deeper root penetration
- Adding organic matter improves soil structure, increases water-holding | <urn:uuid:53e4bf6a-fc0e-444d-8311-43511951a95e> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://landscape-water-conservation.extension.org/tag/soil-preparation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585997.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20211024111905-20211024141905-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.870996 | 307 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Research into the growing emergence of drug-resistant bacteria could be greatly assisted by the discovery of bacteria from deep within Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico. The previously unknown strains of bacteria, which have never before been exposed to humans, were found to possess a naturally occurring resistance to multiple types of antibiotics that doctors currently use to treat patients. This means that these forms of bacteria may have been exposed to naturally occurring antibiotics which, in turn could be used against currently untreatable infections.
Scientists from McMaster University and the University of Akron discovered the bacteria in deep recesses of a cave that has until recently been isolated from human contact. It was found that none of the bacteria can cause diseases in humans and have never been exposed to human sources of antibiotics. But remarkably, all of the cave bacteria are resistant to at least one known antibiotic, and some have been found to be resistant to at least 14 different antibiotics.
The previously unknown bacteria seem to have built up a resistance to the natural antibiotics present in this isolated environment over a period of possibly millions of years. The pristine Lechuguilla Cave, located in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, has had restricted access, limited to scientific researchers since its discovery in 1986. It is 1,604 feet (489 m) deep and surrounded by impermeable rock, meaning it can take up to 10,000 years for water to reach its deepest depths. In this environment, free from the influence of human derived antibiotics, the bacteria have developed defenses that have surprised researchers.
"Our study shows that antibiotic resistance is hard-wired into bacteria. It could be billions of years old, but we have only been trying to understand it for the last 70 years," says Gerry Wright, scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. "This has important clinical implications. It suggests that there are far more antibiotics in the environment that could be found and used to treat currently untreatable infections."
Resistance to antibiotics is a growing worldwide concern, with much of the resistance attributed to the over-use of antibiotics in humans and animals, and heavy use in agriculture. Antibacterial-resistant strains, or "superbugs," now contribute to a number of diseases that were traditionally well-controlled. The implications of this discovery could mean that a new breed of antibiotics could emerge to fight off an increasing number of infections.
Source: McMaster University
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Try New Atlas Plus. Learn more | <urn:uuid:6534613a-8f7a-4bbd-bd0d-580319b8c122> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://newatlas.com/antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-lechuguilla-cave/22198/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247479159.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20190215204316-20190215230316-00173.warc.gz | en | 0.968091 | 509 | 4.09375 | 4 |
The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn.
In fulfillment of our designation by Congress as "America's National WWII Museum," we will:
- Inspire people, young and old, to embrace the lessons of this monumental global conflict from its stories of heroism, human tragedies, voices of liberation, and the fruits and responsibilities of victory.
- Create and maintain a world-class museum campus of pavilions and exhibitions.
- Engage worldwide audiences by providing access to our collections, exhibits, and oral histories through innovative outreach, distance learning, new media, and creative museum experiences.
- Interact with diverse communities to expand their understanding of the history and meaning of America’s role in World War II and its relevance for today and for the future.
- Become a place for people to understand and feel America's strengths and values.
- Serve as a catalyst for cultural tourism to strengthen the economic and community development of New Orleans and Louisiana.
COMMITMENT TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM
We are committed to accomplishing this vision in a way that is consistent with the highest standards of excellence, authenticity, professionalism, and fiscal responsibility through visionary leadership, enterprising staff, and enthusiastic volunteers.
The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations can understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn. Through exhibits, multimedia experiences, and thousands of personal accounts, the Museum takes visitors on an immersive tour of World War II in every theater of war. | <urn:uuid:41116a4a-dd2b-4b0b-9780-7f43260685b6> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/mission-vision-values | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578765115.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190426093516-20190426115516-00307.warc.gz | en | 0.934129 | 374 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The D-558-2 is mounted to a P2B-1 Mothership.
In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Douglas D-558-2 #2 is being mounted under the left wing of the P2B-1 launch aircraft in 1956. The P2B-1 has been lifted on mechanical jacks in the hangar for a possible fit check or a rare attachment of the Skyrocket for a flight.
The National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) was a precursor to NASA. NACA was created by Congress in 1915.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive). | <urn:uuid:323ce8d4-092b-43be-abbc-8328fb88299c> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.space.com/18297-d5582-being-mounted-to-p2b1-mothership.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398445080.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205405-00305-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94152 | 142 | 2.5625 | 3 |
It was common place in anthropological literature until recently to identify the contributions that each social stock has made to the composite heritage of India in terms of local customs, beliefs and practices. One feature of the post independence tribals scenario in the emergence of the tribal people as distinct category of population. The development in recent years has been the tribals own attempts to define their identity. A vast body of literature has developed. The tribes has begun writing in their own language in many areas such as poetry, history as they perceive it, and political text articulturating their relationship with the larger society. One is struck by the magnitude of such sndogenous efforts to define and sustain tribal idebntity in various ways. One has only to visit the exhibitions organized by the tribal people themselves covering the entire tribal gamut, their life and culture in order to understand how they perceive their identity in its multiple forms and project it at various levels and how they are keen to preserve it. How to revitalize the best in disappearing culture which is under drastie transition? One of the ways of providing impetus to the attempt to retain what is good among to tribal and which speaks of their heritage is to strengthen what is disintegrating. This is best possible by creation of tribal museums, where their material and non-material life can be depicted. They should also be made to realize of importance of what is more valuable among them so that they can preserve the same. | <urn:uuid:7a060943-6d4d-413b-bbf9-4995870f9947> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://himanshupublications.com/product/tribal-heritage-museum-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710685.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20221129031912-20221129061912-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.978226 | 325 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus has its origins in the gloomy summer of 1816, and a now-famous gathering of vacationing friends who decided to entertain each other with scary stories. Then 18, and still Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley wasn’t exactly in the company of literary lightweights — her fellow participants included her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. But it would be her story, the tale of a scientist who attempts to one-up God by creating human life out of lifeless matter, that would strike a chord.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s unholy creation embodied both a wariness about the Enlightenment’s claims that science and reason could answer any question, and the Romantic movement’s desire to upset received wisdom and overturn the order of the day. He was a monster created by a brilliant author, drawing from a particular moment in history.
Nearly 200 years later, he would be played by a shredded-to-the-max Aaron Eckhart as a demon-fighting badass.
How did that happen? In truth, it’s not even the strangest chapter in the long film and TV afterlife of Frankenstein’s Monster, the nameless creature Shelley described as a towering ghoul with watery eyes, covered in yellow skin that “scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath.” Over the years he’s been made alternately horrific, cuddly, pitiable, fearsome, comical and disgusting — and sometimes several of the above at once. He’s also proven resilient, open to one reinterpretation after another, as with this week’s release of Depraved, a new spin on the old story from inventive indie horror director Larry Fessenden, that touches on contemporary issues.
Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster started to take on lives of their own almost from the moment Shelley published her book (initially anonymously, partly out of fear of losing custody of her children). The first stage production appeared in 1823 and others followed. But as with the monster himself, it would be technological innovations that gave Frankenstein a second life. Shelley’s novel had already achieved immortality, kickstarting modern horror fiction and more or less creating science fiction. But it took movies to make Frankenstein’s Monster a star.
The first Frankenstein movie is nearly as old as film itself. Shot in the Bronx and released in 1910, the Edison Studios production billed itself as “a liberal adaptation from Mrs. Shelley’s famous story,” and that’s no joke. Running less than 15 minutes, the film condenses the action and ends with the Monster looking at himself in a mirror, then disappearing for reasons unknown (maybe it’s because the Monster, as played by the hardworking silent-era actor Charles Stanton Ogle, looks so bizarre, with his spider-like hands and wiry hair). Long thought lost, the only known print of the film resurfaced in the 1970s in the hands of eccentric Wisconsin collector Alois F. Dettlaff, who refused to let anyone touch it. Years later, the Library of Congress got their hands on it and restored it, but only after Dettlaff’s 2005 death (his corpse, it should be noted, didn’t return from the grave to prevent its restoration).
Other silent versions, all believed to be lost, followed, but the Monster’s brightest stardom still lay ahead of him. In the early 1930s, Universal Pictures opted to go all-in on monsters, a decision that paid off almost immediately. Released in November 1931, Frankenstein whetted the public’s appetite for more dread-filled visions to come. In shambled Boris Karloff, whose interpretation of the Monster would be the touchstone for all Frankenstein’s Monsters that followed (even those who played against it). A graceful English actor with a delicate speaking voice (you know it from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which he narrated), Karloff became a lurching beast made of confusion and anger, beneath the now iconic flat-top and neck-bolts make-up of genius designer Jack Pierce.
Directed by James Whale, the film creates an unsettling atmosphere rich in gothic trappings, but it’s the decision to make the Monster more pitiable and childlike than evil that makes it a masterpiece. Sure, the Monster murders a child and lashes out at the slightest provocation, but he doesn’t really have the opportunity to learn any other way. The poor guy never had a chance.
Karloff and Whale reteamed four years later for the even-better Bride of Frankenstein, in which the not-as-dead-as-he-seemed-to-be-at-the-end-of-the-last-movie Monster returns and demands his creator (Colin Clive) fashion him a companion. Now capable of speech, and far more peevish than before, Karloff’s Monster remains sympathetic, particularly in a climactic scene of rejection in which he meets his Bride (Elsa Lanchester) only to be reminded that he’s an unholy creation that no one could ever love.
Karloff returned to the role, sans Whale, for the stylish Son of Frankenstein before handing the part off to others for future sequels and crossovers like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and The House of Frankenstein, the latter a team-up with the Wolf Man and Dracula (Universal’s monster movies were kind of like the MCU years before the MCU).
The fun 1948 film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein breathed life into the careers of two different Universal mainstays: Frankenstein’s Monster and the venerable comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It also made the Monster a punchline: If Bud and Lou could survive an encounter with him, how scary could he be? So began a process of making Frankenstein’s Monster kind of, well, cute. Thanks to television and publications like Famous Monsters of Filmland, the 1950s and early 1960s saw the rise of a whole culture dedicated to adoring monsters. Frankenstein’s Monster was no longer a feared fiend to be encountered at the movie theater — he was there when you turned on Chiller Theatre on a Saturday evening. He was a model kit you built in your room. On the radio, he did the mash. He did “The Monster Mash.”
He also had a wife and kids, or at least, a character who looked an awful lot like Frankenstein’s Monster did on the early-1960s sitcom The Munsters. As played by Fred Gwynne, Herman Munster bore a strong resemblance to Karloff’s Monster, and that was no accident — Universal produced the show and fashioned the characters after some of their most famous creations. The Monster’s domestication didn’t end there. He appeared again in Mad Monster Party?, an amiable feature-length animated goof created by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, the team behind Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and other stop-motion animated specials. (Playing his creator, Baron Boris von Frankenstein: none other than Boris Karloff.)
Other comedies and lighter treatments would continue the deghoulization in the decades the followed, some inventive, some dull. Mel Brooks lovingly spoofed Universal Monster movies in general, and Son of Frankenstein in particular, via the hilarious Young Frankenstein, featuring Peter Boyle as a soulful (and tuneful) Monster created by Gene Wilder’s reluctant heir to the Frankenstein (or “Fronk-en-steen”) legacy. In the Spielberg-inspired 1987 film The Monster Squad, he’s part of a gang of classic monsters terrorizing some suburban kids (they eventually get the better of him, but he at least looks great, thanks to an effects team that included Stan Winston). Tim Burton would pay direct homage to Universal’s Frankenstein twice, first via the short film “Frankenweenie,” then later with the animated feature of the same name, both the story of a kid who brings his dog back from the dead. Meanwhile, as voiced by Kevin James and named “Frank,” the Monster recently took up residence in the Hotel Transylvania films.
Yet even as one strand of movies and shows tamed Frankenstein’s Monster, another took him back to his horrific roots. In the mid-1950s, the British production company Hammer decided that what had worked for Universal two decades earlier might also work for them. They made the commitment to horror and came out swinging with the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein, starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as his shambling creation. Both would go on to serve as anchors for many Hammer horror films that followed, all taking their cues from this Terence Fisher outing.
The Curse of Frankenstein immediately establishes the Hammer trademarks: arch performances, gothic atmospherics, garish colors and more blood and gore than audiences were used to seeing. It’s spooky and a little nauseating: Lee’s Monster looks far more corpse-like than Karloff’s and Frankenstein’s lab is filled with jars and beakers of what looks like gray hot dog water preserving all manner of organs, tissues and other gross material. Sequels followed, and while Lee would move on to other monsters, Cushing remained a mainstay in a series of films that, with English politeness, continued to push the boundaries of gore as standards grew less restrictive in the 1960s and 1970s.
Inspired by Hammer’s more serious approach, other films tried to get to the undead heart of Frankenstein’s monster. The 1980s saw Sting take on the role of Victor Frankenstein in The Bride, and three films (Gothic, Haunted Summer and Rowing with the Wind) attempted to retell the fateful gathering that led Shelley to write Frankenstein.
Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein should have been the culmination of these efforts. Given a big budget and an all-star cast (Robert De Niro as The Monster! Helena Bonham Carter as Victor Frankenstein’s Bride-to-Be!) Branagh should have created a Frankenstein for the ages. Instead, it’s mostly a slog, hampered by Branagh’s hammy work as Victor Frankenstein, heavy-handed Freudian symbolism and a sluggish pace. (A strong middle section in which De Niro’s Monster roams the countryside on his own suggests the better film that might have been.)
The years since haven’t been particularly kind to Frankenstein’s Monster. A would be franchise-starter, I, Frankenstein landed with an unimaginative thud, and Universal’s attempt to revive its monsters via the ill-fated Dark Universe imploded before Bill Condon’s Bride of Frankenstein remake even started filming (rumored to have starred Javier Bardem as the Monster and Angelina Jolie as his Bride, it could only have improved on The Mummy). That said, Condon’s Gods and Monsters, a fictionalized look at James Whale’s final days, is certainly worth your time.
Nonetheless, we undoubtedly haven’t seen the last of Frankenstein and his creation (or of fun riffs on the same, as evidenced by the amazingly titled David Harbour-starring Netflix special Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein). Shelley’s novel has strong roots in the early 19th century, but the story has proven remarkably adaptive, and meaningful in new ways to each succeeding era. Maybe that’s why the best Frankenstein movie isn’t an adaptation at all but a film about what the Monster means.
Released in 1973, near the end of the Franco regime, Spanish director Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive captures the turning point in the life of Ana (Ana Torrent), a six-year-old who becomes obsessed with Frankenstein’s monster after seeing a screening of Frankenstein in 1940. Not fully understanding what she’s seen, she comes to believe the Monster real, and as she tends to a wounded soldier on the run from Franco’s forces, the Monster becomes both a kind of guiding spirit and an embodiment of death, a concept she doesn’t fully grasp.
But then who does? Our rational mind might accept what death means, but part of us will always reject it and wonder if it can be beat, a thought both wondrous and wrong. Frankenstein’s Monster, in just about every form, gives shape to this strange impulse. We can fear him or we can make a joke of him, but nothing will make him go away. | <urn:uuid:f5b69ad6-aaf9-48f4-923e-04a56496579a> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/undead-again-and-again-why-we-cant-let-go-of-frankensteins-monster | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402131986.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20201001174918-20201001204918-00011.warc.gz | en | 0.950472 | 2,669 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Are low interest rates masking the deficit?(Read article summary)
Artificially low interest rates have allowed the government to finance more than $1 trillion worth of deficits every year from 2009 to 2012. When interest rates do pick up, there may be a very big bill on the table to pay.
Thanks to artificially low interest rates, the United States has been able to finance deficits exceeding $1 trillion every year from 2009 through 2012 at very low cost. Throughout the period, the ratio of interest to the GDP has remained almost stable and is not expected to start rising until 2015. Some argue that this has encouraged the Congress to be fiscally irresponsible, although others believe that deficits have not been large enough given the severity of the recession.
But low interest rates will not last. In June, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the impression – apparently unintentionally — that the Fed would soon reduce its purchases of Treasury debt and mortgage-related securities. That helped propel a major increase in bond yields. The 10-year Treasury rate rose from under 2.0 percent to over 2.8 percent in a matter of days.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline assumes rates will gradually rise over the next few years until the 10-year rate stabilizes at a more normal 5.2 percent in 2018 and thereafter. The implications for federal interest payments are alarming. The bill is assumed to rise almost four-fold between 2013 and 2023 or at a rate of 14 percent per year. Interest would become the fastest growing expenditure item in the budget by far, leaving health costs in the dust.
CBO’s baseline must assume that current law does not change. For example, numerous tax reductions, such as the research and experimentation tax credit, are temporary under current law and the CBO must assume that they expire, even though Congress has routinely extended them over the years.
CBO provides an alternative fiscal scenario that incorporates more realistic policy assumptions. Before the fiscal cliff deal that made most of the “temporary” Bush tax cuts permanent, the alternative fiscal scenario and the baseline were very different. They have come together recently, but the alternative is still more pessimistic than the baseline, implying a debt-GDP ratio of 83 percent at the end of 2023 compared to the baseline’s 74 percent. That would make interest costs grow even faster than 14 percent per year, though the difference is small relative to the usual error in forecasting interest rates.
Countries are often pushed into a sovereign debt crisis because of growing interest payments. It becomes politically impossible for them to increase taxes or reduce noninterest spending fast enough to keep up with rising interest costs. The debt-GDP ratio begins to explode. A debt crisis is sure to follow.
Today, it is hard to see that happening in the U.S. over the next 10 years. But throw in another recession and/or an increase in interest rates above normal levels and the risks grow. Recent good news on the fiscal front has caused CBO to project a fall in the baseline debt-GDP ratio from 75 percent in 2013 to 71 percent in 2017. However, it begins to rise after that at an increasing rate. Given these downside risks, a growing interest bill would severely limit government flexibility. And no one should be happy with that.
Rudolph G. Penner is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. | <urn:uuid:24601df6-75f3-4228-8cb9-61a03881cc25> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://m.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2013/0710/Are-low-interest-rates-masking-the-deficit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591497.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20180720041611-20180720061611-00036.warc.gz | en | 0.955755 | 689 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Do you feel like you forget everything? How many times have you walked into a room and completely forgotten what you went in for? Short term memory loss can be a problem but eventually your long term memory is affected. You can improve both types of memory with these simple steps.
1. Give Your Brain a Workout
Your brain needs exercise, just like your body does. Spend some time giving it a workout every day. This doesn’t have to be something very strenuous.
Try crossword puzzles, Sudoku and word searches. Riddles are also great to get the brain working and improve your memory.
2. Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is essential for your memory. It keeps your brain working as it should and allows it to recover from the previous day. Your brain controls everything that you do, so is it surprising that it gets tired out?
Six to eight hours sleep is perfect for your brain to recover. Much more than that and you can actually feel worse and it could be worse for your brain!
3. Eat More Berries
Some studies show that berries are linked to better memory. In fact, just half a cup of berries every day could help to avoid Alzheimer’s.
These are beneficial in many other ways, as berries are full of antioxidants, meaning that you’re less likely to struggle with free radicals, which can cause cancer.
4. You Can Have Caffeinated Coffee
Do you constantly hear that you should stop drinking coffee? While it isn’t the best thing for you—it does speed up the heart rate—in moderation it is good for your brain and memory.
The chemicals in the caffeine help boost your brain power. You really don’t need that much though. Just two or three cups a day is perfect. If you don’t like coffee, tea is great—green tea does have some caffeine, although you’ll need to drink more of it!
5. Exercise During the Day
You still need to give your body a workout as well as your brain. Exercise helps to release good chemicals from your brain and keeps your whole body younger.
You could use exercise as a time to memorise things—this is a great chance to run through speeches, lines for a play and your notes for any university exams.
6. Beat the Stress
You’ll be surprised by the amount of damage that stress does to your body, especially to your mind. It makes you forgetful! It’s time to start handling your stress levels.
There are many ways of doing this but to start with, if you can’t do something about a problem, it isn’t worth stressing over!
7. Eat More Omega 3
Omega 3 is a fatty oil that is mainly found in oily fish. However, some bread makers have started adding it to the flour and it is found in other fruits and vegetables.
Omega 3 is excellent for the brain. It helps to make your brain seem younger than it really is, so your memory is saved. | <urn:uuid:f9692907-b0c9-4cf8-822b-15403e5990db> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://www.thetrentonline.com/improve-memory-7-steps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107910204.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20201030093118-20201030123118-00271.warc.gz | en | 0.966842 | 631 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Gardening for Kids: The Fun of Growing Their OwnApr 30, 2019 02:45PM ● By Ronica A. O’Hara
It’s May, and the temperature is rising, as is the sap and green shoots. It’s the perfect time to involve kids in growing their own garden that will get them outdoors, teach them planning and perseverance, and develop their motor, literacy and scientific skills.
A South Korean study found that gardening provides both high- and moderate-intensity exercise for kids. It builds good eating habits, too: A British study of 46 9- and 10-year-olds found that they ate 26 percent more vegetables and fruit after growing a school garden, and a University of Florida study of 1,351 college students showed them more likely to eat veggies if they had gardened as children.
For the most gratifying results, give kids a sense of ownership. “Let them make the decisions and be in charge of the care of the garden as much as developmentally possible,” advises Sarah Pounders, senior education specialist at KidsGardening.org, in Burlington, Vermont.
Order some seed catalogues, look online—or better yet, take a child to the local garden nursery. Let them decide what to grow. Their choices are as diverse as their interests.
Veggies, flowers and plants that draw butterflies each have their own appeal. Some, like sunflowers, radishes and lettuce, are fast-growing, offering quick gratification. Or, they can choose a theme.
“If your child likes Italian food, plant tomatoes and basil. If they enjoy Mexican food, then peppers and cilantro. For flowers—zinnias and cosmos—let them make flower arrangements from early summer into the fall,” suggests Susan Brandt, of Bristow, Virginia, co-founder of the gardening site Blooming Secrets.
Visiting a plant nursery offers the perfect opportunity to put kids on the path to healthy living. Point out and discuss the differences between organic and nonorganic seeds and between chemical fertilizers containing Roundup—labeled “Keep Out of Reach of Children”—and organic fertilizers containing fish, seaweed and other natural nutrients.
Choose the Spot
A three-foot-by-three-foot plot is an ideal size for a child’s garden, as long as it gets lots of sunshine. If living in an urban area, go with pots of soil in a sunny window.
Get the Right Tools
For young kids with short attention spans, small plastic spades, rakes and hoes might work. But older kids need hardier tools. Get them properly fitted garden gloves, plus sunhats and sunscreen.
Plant the Seeds
Help them read and interpret the seed package directions, if necessary, and use a ruler to measure proper spacing. “I always try to have a mix of plants that start from seed and from transplants, so that kids can have both immediate and delayed gratification,” says Pounders.
Water, Weed and Mulch
Show them how to use the watering can or hose properly, usually watering only when the soil is dry to a depth of one inch. They can mix their own non-toxic pesticide out of vinegar and salt, and spread such organic mulches as straw, newspaper, grass clippings and leaves to discourage weeds.
Get Scientific“They can look at the soil to see all the living creatures in it, which is especially fun through a microscope,” says Dixie Sandborn, an extension specialist at Michigan State University. “They can learn about vermiculture by making a worm bin and feeding the worms their table scraps.” With a ruler, they can measure the growth of various plants and create a chart comparing rates. By taking photos or drawing pictures on a daily or weekly basis, they can compile an album, along with their commentary on weather patterns.
“Let them add personal touches like stepping stones, signs and other decorations that let them express their personality in their garden space,” says Pounders. Help them build a scarecrow, bird feeder, toad house, bird bath, sundial or a tent. Make a teepee or small enclosure and cover it with flowers, vines or climbing beans.
Harvest the Crop
After picking ripe vegetables, kids can find recipes and prepare snacks or a dish; arrange plucked flowers in vases and take photos; do craft activities with seeds, plants and flowers, like making potpourri or framing dried flowers; or throw a garden-themed party with favors that include herbs or seed packets. “You could have a ‘pa-jam-a’ party. Kids could wear their pajamas, pick berries, and make jam to take home,” suggests Sandborn.
Ronica A. O’Hara is a Denver-based freelance health writer. Connect at [email protected]
More to Grow By
KidsGardening.org: Designed for schools and families, this site has a wealth of kid-friendly information on everything from seeds to pollinators to creating pirate gardens.
Build-your-own worm farm
Youth Gardening Clubs: Many local chapters of garden clubs have these.
4-H: Many state 4-H organizations conduct special gardening activities, which can be found by Googling the name of a state along with “4-H gardening”.
This article appears in the May 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings. | <urn:uuid:51f0d8b3-b2de-4bdd-9f1a-7bd2f8db1009> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://www.naatlanta.com/2019/04/30/225381/gardening-for-kids-the-fun-of-growing-their-own | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618039601956.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20210423041014-20210423071014-00185.warc.gz | en | 0.945273 | 1,143 | 3.265625 | 3 |
May 20, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – Flu indicators fell again in the United States last week as the 2010-11 flu season approaches its end, with very little activity occurring elsewhere in the world, US and global surveillance organizations said today.
All levels were below baseline, even the percentage of deaths from pneumonia and flu, which has lagged the decline of other flu signals, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Visits to the doctor for flu-like illness decreased again for the 12th week in a row, keeping at a summertime level.
No states reported widespread, regional, or local flu activity. Puerto Rico and 27 states reported only sporadic activity, the CDC said.
Three pediatric flu deaths were reported, raising the season's total to 105. One was from the 2009 H1N1 virus, one was from H3N2, and one was from an unsubtyped influenza A virus.
Influenza B was the dominant strain, followed by H3N2, unsubtyped influenza A, and 2009 H1N1, according to the CDC.
Routine surveillance for oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-resistant 2009 H1N1 viruses found one more isolate, pushing the season's total to 40.
In global flu developments, a few tropical countries are reporting low-grade transmission, including the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Jamaica, Rwanda, and Madagascar, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. The predominant viruses in those locations vary and range from 2009 H1N1 in the Dominican Republic to influenza B in Madagascar.
In Venezuela, an earlier surge in 2009 H1N1 activity that peaked in late March has now subsided to very low levels. Several countries in Central and South America are reporting increases in respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Only small numbers of viruses have recently been detected in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Of the few detected, influenza B has been most common. Likewise, in eastern Asian countries such as China and Japan flu levels are very low, with influenza B as the most commonly detected strain, the WHO reported.
So far the surveillance findings don't suggest that flu season has started yet in the Southern Hemisphere's temperate countries, where the season typically runs from May through October. Australia had previously reported higher-than-expected numbers of flu detections in two northern states, but detections have decreased in most areas in recent weeks, the WHO noted. Over the Southern Hemisphere's summer the country reported low-level but persistent H3N2 circulation, but over the past week 2009 H1N1 and influenza B strains have been more frequently detected.
May 20 WHO flu update | <urn:uuid:7f51b0f1-08dd-4af4-82d5-8d4aec6420f5> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2011/05/flu-situation-stays-sedate-locally-and-globally | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297429.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00078-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962799 | 565 | 2.671875 | 3 |
There are several state-of-the-art test rigs and facilities at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) operated by GRC’s mTRAX Planetary Exploration team. These rigs serve to test planetary roving vehicle systems and components in simulated planetary and lunar conditions.
There are several state-of-the-art test rigs and facilities at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) operated by GRC’s mTRAX Planetary Exploration team. Most of the facilities are located in the Engine Research Building (ERB). These rigs serve to test planetary roving vehicle systems and components in simulated planetary and lunar conditions. Most of the test capabilities are focused on the interactions between rover components (such as tires and excavation tools) and the terrain, though there are environmental test capabilities as well. A few examples of ongoing research in these labs includes conducting full-scale vehicle mobility tests to determine new methods for traversing challenging terrain, evaluating the performance of novel rover tires in lunar and Martian environments, and testing various excavation techniques for digging on the Moon.
The following test rigs and facilities all fall under the mTRAX Planetary Exploration umbrella:
Simulated Lunar OPErations (SLOPE) Lab
The Simulated Lunar OPErations (or SLOPE) Lab serves to provide controlled test conditions to evaluate the tractive performance of roving vehicles on simulated Lunar and Martian terrain. Because the lab is indoors, the facility has stable temperature and humidity levels which limits variability in soil conditions between tests. Full-scale vehicles, or sub-systems and components, can be tested here.
The lab consists of three distinct test areas:
- 12m x 3m x 0.3m soil tank filled with GRC-1 lunar simulant. Here, vehicles can traverse prepared lunar simulant as well as obstacles to assess performance. A drawbar pull rig can be positioned at the end of the test bed, which applies a desired resistive force to the rover via a smart-winch system. The tractive performance of the rover or it’s mobility components can be assessed as a function of drawbar pull force.
- 6m x 5m x 0.3m adjustable tilting soil tank. Using a hydraulic lift system, the tilt-bed is adjustable up to 45 degrees of inclination for sloped surface operations; however the maximum angle is typically limited by the angle of repose of the simulants in the bed. Currently the tilt-bed is filled with GRC-1 but can be changed out to the desired granular material.
- 12m x 3m x 0.6m “Sink Tank”. This soil tank is twice as deep as the others and filled with a high-sinkage material called “Fillite”. Due to its particle shape, this material mimics the wind-blown dune soil on Mars and has extremely low shear strength, which produces a very challenging trafficability case for roving vehicles.
The SLOPE lab is equipped with 32 infrared OptiTrak motion tracking cameras; 20 are mounted permanently on the walls and 12 are on tripods, providing a full 360-degree field of view. The test vehicles or subjects can be outfitted with trackers so that the rover position and orientation, with sub millimeter accuracy, can be captured in real time.
As mentioned above, the soil tanks in the SLOPE Lab are currently filled with two simulants: GRC-1 lunar simulant, and Fillite high-sinkage medium. GRC-1 is a custom poorly-graded soil consisting of semi-angular silica particles. It was developed to match the bulk strength properties of the equatorial lunar terrain explored during the Apollo missions, with a focus on targeting the “softer”, more conservative range of properties with respect to vehicle mobility. The soil density can be controlled providing a range of conditions. Fillite consists of hollow alumino-silicate microspheres and is intended to mimic the wind-blown dune soil found on Mars that has produced entrapped conditions for rovers. Though the material is not a high-fidelity simulant, it has low bearing and shear strength, and produces a very challenging case for roving vehicles. The material in the soil tanks can be changed out for alternate simulants upon request.
TRaction and Excavation Capabilities (TREC) Rig
The TRaction and Excavation Capabilities (TREC) Rig is a single wheel dynamometer used to determine the tractive performance of various wheel and tire designs in simulated lunar and Mars soils. The TREC Rig offers independent motion control of the carriage and the tire such that forced slip conditions ranging from 0 to 90% can be achieved. The tire load is adjustable from approximately 90 N to 1300 N, including off-loading capability. The linear speed is also adjustable with a maximum rate of 6 cm/s. Tires up to 95 cm in diameter can be tested in the rig’s current configuration; however, it can be adapted for larger tires if needed.
An in-hub mounted 6-axis load cell captures the drive force and the ground force such that a net traction versus slip curve can be generated. In addition, a laser displacement sensor is used to measure and record the tire sinkage with time.
The TREC rig features two available simulants contained in adjacent soils tanks that are 2m x 1m x 0.75m in depth. One tank contains GRC-3, a custom silty-sand lunar soil simulant consisting of semi-angular silica particles and Bonnie silt to provide added strength for ISRU considerations such as excavation. It can be prepared to a wide range of densities. The other tank contains a commercial sand identified as #90: a poorly graded silica sand designed to represent the aeolian regions of the Martian terrain.
A semi-automated rake and screed method is used to prepare the simulants to repeatable conditions. Similar to SLOPE, the simulant in the TREC soil tanks can be removed and replaced with alternate granular media upon request.
In addition to single wheel tractive performance, the dynamic and static net traction of a tire or wheel over bedrock can be obtained using the TREC rig.
This laboratory is used to test and develop excavation tools and techniques for lunar and planetary human and robotic surface operations in granular simulated regolith.
The Advanced Planetary Excavator (APEX), a heavy-duty robotic arm capable of excavating from multiple adjacent soil bins, is used to evaluate excavation tools and forces. The APEX is a 4 degree-of-freedom, backhoe-like, robotic arm designed to expose only sealed rotary joints to environmental dust. It can rotate 360 degrees around a vertical axis and has a >2m reach, fine position control, and power and ethernet available to the implement on the end of the arm. Excavation tools can be lowered to desired digging depths and driven at controlled rates on pre-programmed paths while digging forces are measured using a 6-axis load cell. The APEX operates by electrical linear actuators.
Currently, GRC-3B, a specific silica sand and silt mixture with particle size distribution that is similar to lunar regolith, is used to simulate the geotechnical properties of lunar regolith. Other simulants can be used. A dust enclosure with HEPA filter air exchange surrounds the APEX and soil bins to protect operators from respiratory hazards. The soil bin sits on a shaker table used to compact the simulant.
- Test duration: User defined
- Power to experiments: Excavation tools can be tethered (wall AC power) or powered from APEX (nominally 300 VDC)
- Data: force, torque, mass of soil dug, depth, velocity, data from tool, power
- Thermal environment of test hardware: Lab ambient (air conditioned)
- Operation: Joy-stick control and designed planned trajectories for repeatability
Advanced Planetary Excavator (APEX) Specifications
- APEX can rotate 360 degrees.
- 3-meter maximum swing around radius with bucket and load cell.
- APEX has electrically powered linear actuators.
|Joint||Max Speed||Full Throw|
|Shoulder||4.67 cm/s||5.42 sec|
|Elbow||9.37 cm/s||2.71 sec|
|Wrist||11.71 cm/s||1.31 sec|
- Max vertical force = 1165 lbf / 5184 N
- As installed in Excavation Lab:
- Max vertical force controlled to 900 lbf / 4005 N
- Max horizontal force controlled to 400 lbf / 1780 N
- 6 axis load cell:
- Range: 1300 N Fx, Fy and 3900 N Fz; 203 N-m Tx, Ty, Tz
- FS uncertainty: 1.25% Fx, Fy, Tx, Ty; 2.00 % Fz and Tz
- Diameter: 156.5 mm
- Facility 208 VAC – 3 phase power is converted to 325 VDC, 100 amps to power the actuators.
- Pea Gravel bin: 61cm W x 91cm L x 51cm H
- GRC-3B soil bin: 76.2cm W x 183cm L x 76cm H – sits on shaker table
- Dump bin sits on 61cm x 61cm platform scale to weigh delivered load.
- Shaker table: 81cm W x 188cm L x 36cm H, 22.24 kN Max. load.
- Digital power meter is used with 50-amp shunt to measure DC power to APEX.
- Platform scale
- 61 x 61 cm
- Range = 2224 N x 0.22 N
Extreme Cyclic Environmental Load (XCEL) Test Rig
The Extreme Cyclic Environmental Load (XCEL) Test Rig is a hydraulic load frame coupled with an environmental chamber sized to enclose a full-scale wheel or tire. This test rig is used for cyclic radial compression tests at temperatures ranging from 77K to 370K. Liquid Nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide can be used to cool the chamber to the desired temperature. The nominal inner dimensions of the environmental chamber are 139 cm tall x 101 cm deep x 121 cm wide; the maximum tire size is dependent on the hardware and fixture needs, as well as stroke length. The nominal cyclic rate is 1-5 Hz depending on the desired stroke length.
Extreme Terrain Endurance Rig (XTERra)
The Extreme Terrain Endurance Rig (XTERra) is a new single wheel life test rig used to evaluate the durability of new wheels and tires at planetary temperatures over representative terrain elements. The XTERra carousel and tire are independently driven to create a forced slip condition ranging from 0 to 100%. The maximum linear speed is on the order of 10 to 13 cm/s depending on the desired tire load. The rig is designed to operate at temperatures ranging from 77K and 323K. Currently tires up to 70 cm in diameter can be tested in
XTERra; however accommodations can be made for larger tires.
During a life test, the load and temperature are recorded with time. Up to eight different video frames can also be recorded during a test.
Terrain panels are custom designed and can be created with a range of obstacle and terrain types.
Note: The rig will become online in December of 2022 for room temperature testing and in the spring of 2023 for cryogenic testing.
Vacuum Operations in Dust Environment (VOiD) Facility
The test rig provides capability to study sub-meter cubed experiments in simulated extraterrestrial environments. Designed to operate under thermal and vacuum control with regolith simulant in the chamber, the chamber serves to promote the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of payloads past component-level testing.
A thermal shroud inside the chamber is cooled with LN2 dewars and heated with internal heaters. A series of filters and a throttle valve allow safe pump down with simulant in the chamber.
|Internal Working Dimensions||35 W X 35 D X 32.5 H (89 X 89 X 82.5)||in (cm)|
|Working Temperature||-180 to +150 (-290 to +300)||°C (°F)|
The test rig includes 4 mounting points on the ceiling for instrumentation, each with a 50 lb load capacity.
The table below outlines several auxiliary ports for use by the customer for thermocouple, power, and data feedthrough. All of the auxiliary ports are KF / QF or LF type flanges, which allow for faster and cheaper instrument installation. The DN-250 ports and 2 of the DN-40 ports are line-of-sight to the center of the chamber.
|DN-40||KF / QF||14|
Note: this rig is currently being built and is slated to be operational in Summer of 2023
Engine Research Building (ERB)
Facility Manager: Gwynn Severt
Test Facility Management Branch
Branch Chief: Michael S. McVetta
Using Our Facilities
NASA’s Glenn Research Center provides ground test facilities to industry, government, and academia. If you are considering testing in one of our facilities or would like further information about a specific facility or capability, please let us know.
Did you test in one of our facilities? Let us know about your experience by participating in our customer facility evaluation survey. | <urn:uuid:2cf51e76-2010-47d0-94f4-3508305c8b9c> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/facilities/slope-lab/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510941.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001205332-20231001235332-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.897624 | 2,942 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Of the 500,000 people who died from drug overdoses over the last 15 years, opioids account for the majority of those deaths. Since 1999, opioid-related deaths have quadrupled.
These sobering statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with increasing outcry from the medical community and the people affected by opioid addiction, led the president to officially declare the heroin and opiate epidemic a national emergency.
“The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had,” Trump said.
The new declaration is a promising development in that it could divert significant cash flow toward fighting the crisis. How exactly these funds are used remains to be seen, but recommendations include:
- Rapidly increasing treatment capacity for those who need substance abuse help
- Establishing and funding better access to medication-assisted treatment programs
- Ensuring that health care providers are aware of the potential for misuse and abuse of prescription opioids by enhancing prevention efforts at medical and dental schools.
The Raleigh House: On the Front Line of the National Opioid Emergency
At The Raleigh House we’ve been helping to fight the heroin and prescription painkiller epidemic by offering comprehensive opioid rehab that addresses all aspects of addiction. From underlying causes and co-occurring conditions to the psychological and emotional impact of addiction, our approach focuses on treating the whole person. | <urn:uuid:fcb65980-b137-4408-ab76-997544002158> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.theraleighhouse.com/addiction-blog/opioid-crisis-national-emergency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402127075.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200930141310-20200930171310-00688.warc.gz | en | 0.945302 | 331 | 2.65625 | 3 |
How quickly can we achieve climate justice? Does climate justice mean we need to be careful and considered and/or hurry up? In what ways does declaring and responding to the ‘climate emergency’ contribute to climate justice, or potentially undermine it? What steps need to be taken to ensure that declaring a climate emergency doesn’t lead to ‘states of emergency’ and authoritarianism?
Recent events in Australia highlight the need to consider the pros and cons of declaring a ‘climate emergency’. Efforts to outlaw climate protests demonstrate that some groups are threatened less by climate change than protests about it. Yet ‘climate emergency’ was the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2019 Word of the Year, demonstrating the reach and power of this phrase to capture the world’s imagination and inspire urgent climate action.
Join leading climate change researchers and practitioners as we tackle the pressing questions that the ‘climate emergency’ raises.
Associate Professor Lauren Rickards, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies (GUSS), RMIT University.
A Lead Author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s forthcoming Sixth Assessment Report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation, Lauren co-leads the Climate Change Transformations research program at the Centre for Urban Research and teaches on climate change into undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Sustainability and Urban Planning area of GUSS. Among other realms of climate in/justice, Lauren’s research has investigated climate change’s ‘slow emergencies’ such as drought, as well as the logics through which societies ignore, normalise, deny or tolerate the harms climate change inflicts on marginalised people and the non-human world.
Dr Bronwyn Lay, Ecological Justice Coordinator for Jesuit Social Services and Coordinator of the Climate Change Exchange at RMIT University.
Bronwyn has engaged with the intersection of grassroots communities and ecological justice for the past 13 years.
With a background in criminal and family law she completed her PhD on land governance and ecology at the European Graduate School in 2014 with a focus on ecocide law. While living in France she worked as a legal consultant for international NGO’s and expert organisations on environmental crime at the Hague and United Nations and was the Director of the International Caux Dialogue on Land and Security. She has published in a wide variety of forums on the subject of ecological justice, including her book Juris Materiarum: Empires of Earth, Soil and Dirt.
Dr Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer at RMIT University in the Sustainability and Urban Planning Discipline.
Mittul completed her PhD research in 2018, investigating the long-term impacts of post-disaster housing reconstruction projects in terms of building community resilience. She entered academia after 10 years of practice in architecture industry in Australia, Switzerland and India. She is co-founder of a Melbourne-based design + build studio Giant Grass (GG) and coordinator of RMIT’s Urban Futures Early Career Researchers’ Network. She is currently the lead researcher working with rural communities in Victoria to co-produce their climate resilience action plan. She is also part of a team of researchers involved in a large-scale action-research project in the Solomon Islands, ‘Climate Resilient Honiara’, funded by the UNFCCC Adaptation Fund and administered by UN-Habitat. Her teaching, practice and research lies in co-creation of knowledge around issues of housing, ecologically sustainable built environment, urban design, disaster recovery and community resilience.
David Mieklejohn, Executive Officer of the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA) and PhD Candidate in RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research.
David currently works as the Executive Officer for the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA), a network of nine Melbourne metropolitan councils working together on climate change projects. In this role, David coordinates climate action among a broad range of Victorian actors. David’s research as a PhD student investigates how local councils in Australia are implementing behaviour change programs to respond to climate change, as well as how their declarations of a climate emergency are changing their governance practices.
Dr Briony Towers, Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Social and Urban Studies (GUSS), RMIT University
Briony has been conducting disaster risk reduction research with children and young people for over ten years. Her PhD in socio-cultural psychology at the University of Tasmania involved an in-depth investigation of children’s knowledge of vulnerability and resilience to wildfire risk in south eastern Australia. She is currently the lead investigator on the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project ‘Building Best Practice in Child-Centred Disaster Risk Reduction’. She is also a member of the National Disaster Resilience Education Strategy group and a research advisor on the European Commission’s CUIDAR project. Briony’s primary research interests concern the root causes of disasters and how these can be addressed through place-based critical pedagogies and children’s genuine participation in disaster management policy, research and practice. She is also interested in intergenerational climate justice and student-led climate activism.
Dr Blanche Verlie, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute, the University of Sydney.
Blanche has been teaching climate change mitigation and adaptation at RMIT University in the Sustainability and Urban Planning Discipline since 2015, and completed her PhD in climate change education at Monash University in 2019. Her research investigates people’s emotional responses to learning about climate change, and how this affects their identity and relationships, including how this is an issue of intergenerational in/justice, which you can read about here and here. She has recently moved to the University of Sydney to continue her research, and is working on the Multispecies Justice research program there.
This event is part of the 2020 National Sustainable Living Festival.
RMIT University have been a proud major partner of the National Sustainable Festival for over 10 years
RMIT University, 124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000
11 February 2020 | <urn:uuid:4e8b2db4-250a-4732-90ce-d2c1ce8de602> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://cur.org.au/events/can-we-achieve-climate-justice-at-emergency-speed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439736962.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20200806121241-20200806151241-00341.warc.gz | en | 0.939158 | 1,257 | 2.71875 | 3 |
We then progressed to reading the whole story and thought about Joseph's coat and why it was so special. The children then used their art skills to work as a team to create a coat for Joseph.
In RE this term, we have been learning about Joseph. We have read the story of Joseph the dreamer and Joseph the prisoner. We have thought about how he feels throughout the story and what the most important parts. Take a look below at our shapes that we painted, representing the emotions Joseph felt when being taken prisoner. | <urn:uuid:1388148a-95d7-4388-be77-2060da1a1fea> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.stthomaswernethprimary.co.uk/joseph/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251778272.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200128122813-20200128152813-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.952868 | 106 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women; only lung cancer kills more women in the United States than breast cancer.
There is a well-known connection between breast cancer and smoking. Women who smoke have a 33% lower chance of survival at the time of diagnosis.
Young women who smoke are more likely to develop breast cancer. So are older women who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Smoking causes other problems for breast cancer patients, too, beyond the correlations between smoking and breast cancer incidence or death.
For example, smokers may have more damage to the lungs from radiation therapy. They may find it harder to recover from surgery. They have a higher chance of blood clots.
Nicotine and breast cancer
New research at Wake Forest School of Medicine has now found that nicotine encourages breast cancer to spread to the lungs.
Nicotine is just one of the chemicals people are exposed to through smoking or vaping, but it may be the most familiar.
Previous studies had found that nicotine use was associated with more aggressive breast cancers. Breast cancers among nicotine users were more likely to spread.
Nicotine was also found to increase resistance to cancer treatments.
The new research shows that nicotine can make the lungs more susceptible to cancer, even as it leads to more aggressive breast cancers and makes treatments less effective.
Another reason to stop smoking
If you have not started smoking or vaping, you should not do so. If you currently smoke or vape, you should stop.
The Wake Forest research also suggests that smokers should try to quit without nicotine therapies or vaping.
Smoking is also strongly linked to lung cancer, apart from its role in breast cancer.
Talk with your physician about ways to quit smoking. Contact the Breast Center with any questions about breast cancer. | <urn:uuid:206b2968-fdc9-48c9-a418-01f8864d6967> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.mana.md/smoking-and-breast-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499744.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20230129144110-20230129174110-00014.warc.gz | en | 0.968795 | 366 | 3.625 | 4 |
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Datoga, Tatog, Tatoga, Datoog, and Mangati.
Location and Linguistic Affiliation
The core Datoga area has for several centuries been the Hanang and Mbulu Districts of Arusha Region in northern Tanzania, but Datoga groups are spread over much of Tanzania in small localized enclaves.
Datoga is a Southern Nilotic language. The various subsections have different dialects which are internally comprehended among all Datoga.
Overview of the Culture
The Size of the Population
The size of the Datoga population is rather uncertain owing to the lack of ethnic variables in recent censa and to the considerable dispersion of Datoga throughout Tanzania. The Datoga population of Hanang District has been estimated at 30,000 (Lane, 1996), but the total number of Datoga in Tanzania is probably several times that number.
Economy and Occupations
Datoga are pastoral in the sense that there is an immense cultural emphasis on cattle. The cultural elaboration of cattle | <urn:uuid:c9388144-d817-4f40-8733-31759bdc8172> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/2978.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698080772/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095440-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860252 | 303 | 3.21875 | 3 |
【关 键 词 】：
信息化教学； 职业教育； 德国； 情境学习
In vocational education and training (VET), digitalized teaching-learning approach has close links with talent training model, curriculum, instruction model and its social-cultural context. This paper makes a brief introduction to some typical digitalization projects of VET in Germany. It is found that in those projects, situated-learning and action-oriented learning concepts are adopted, learning tasks in cross-occupational and multi-learning environment are designed based on real work tasks and processes, and a tutorial working system is established. Digitalized learning system in VET has not only software for teaching and learning, but a brand new digital learning environment as well as a holistic design of its institutions, organizations and culture. That experience is bound to provide valuable enlightenments for the digitalization in VET in China. | <urn:uuid:036a3c25-cdab-4777-9156-4cd9eae9bdb3> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://aver.nwnu.edu.cn/Index/ArtShowArticle.do?id=1391297&gid=1212175 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583874494.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20190122202547-20190122224547-00386.warc.gz | en | 0.752702 | 220 | 2.546875 | 3 |
What happens to your body when you sprain something?
This can happen from a fall, twist, or blow to the body, In a mild sprain, a ligament is stretched, but the joint remains stable and is not loosened. A moderate sprain partially tears the ligament, causing the joint to be unstable. With a severe sprain, ligaments tear completely or separate from the bone.
What muscles can be sprained?
The most common location for a sprain is the ankle joint. A joint strain is the overstretching or tearing of muscles or tendons. Tendons are the dense fibrous cords of tissue that connect bones to muscles. The most common locations for a muscle strain are the hamstring muscle and the lower back.
What type of injury is sprain?
A sprain is an injury to a ligament caused by tearing of the fibers of the ligament. The ligament can have a partial tear, or it can be completely torn apart. Ankle sprains are the most common type of sprain. Wrist, knee and thumb sprains are also common.
What causes of sprain?
A sprain is caused by either a direct or indirect injury (trauma) that knocks the joint out of position and overstretches, sometimes tearing the supporting ligaments. Examples of injuries that cause a sprain can include: Rolling your ankle — either while running, changing direction or landing from a jump.
What are the 4 types of sprains?
The 4 Types of Knee Sprains
- Medial collateral ligament (MCL) The MCL is a supporting ligament found on the inside of the knee.
- Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ACL injuries are a prevalent sports injury, especially for female athletes.
- Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)
- Lateral collateral ligament (LCL)
Can you sprain knee?
What Is a Knee Sprain? Knee sprains can be significant injuries that occur from a stretch or tear of the ligaments in and around the knee. Ligaments are string-like bands of tissue that connect your bones and create stability for the joint.
What causes sprain injury?
A sprain occurs when you overextend or tear a ligament while severely stressing a joint. Sprains often occur in the following circumstances: Ankle — Walking or exercising on an uneven surface, landing awkwardly from a jump. Knee — Pivoting during an athletic activity.
Which joints are most often sprained?
A sprain occurs when tissue, called a ligament, connects two bones and passes over a joint while stabilizing that joint is overstretched or torn. The most common place to have a sprain is where the ankle joint connects to the bone of the lower leg (i.e., sprained ankle).
Can you sprain your shoulder?
A shoulder sprain occurs when the ligaments overstretch or tear, while a shoulder stain is when some of the fibers in the shoulder muscles or tendons overstretch or tear. These injuries can limit your ability to move and lift your arms and can cause acute or chronic pain.
Can you sprain foot?
When the foot lands awkwardly, some ligaments can stretch and tear. This is called a sprain. When the injury occurs to the middle part of the foot, this is called a mid-foot sprain.
Can you sprain arm?
Sprained arm can happen due to a blow to the joint, falling on an out-stretched arm or forceful twisting of the arm. Sprained arm refers to sprain in the shoulder or/and elbow joints. Common symptoms of a sprained arm are swelling, pain, redness and tenderness in the joint. | <urn:uuid:64d9dc6b-1ecd-4b42-9913-9162ba3bae46> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://ottovonschirach.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-sprain-something/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652959.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606150510-20230606180510-00640.warc.gz | en | 0.922565 | 784 | 3.515625 | 4 |
About Kyrgyzstan : The Kyrgyzstan is formerly called Kirghizia. It is bordered by Uzbekistan in the southwest, by Kazakhstan on the north and northwest, by China in the southeast, and by Tajikistan in the south. The mountain tops are almost covered by snow and the glaciers. The Kyrgyzstan officially named the Kyrgyz Republic. The official languages of Kyrgyzstan are Kyrgyz and Russian. | <urn:uuid:cf0ea339-3979-4ca8-b2aa-a40d1263dc20> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://newspaperhunt.com/papers/Lists/C-list/Kyrgyzstan-List.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376826530.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214232243-20181215014243-00125.warc.gz | en | 0.96956 | 93 | 2.796875 | 3 |
According to a recent United Nations report, 42 percent of Jordanian women suffer physical abuse and continue to face discrimination in economic and political spheres. The reports states two out of every three women will suffer abuse at least once in their lifetimes, reports the Jordan Times. In addition, the report states that educated women are less likely to suffer acts of violence, as only 1 percent of the victims were educated women.
According to the United Nations Development Fund's (UNIFEM) report, "Status of Jordanian Women: Demography, Economic Participation, Political Participation and Violence," a woman's potential to affect her own well-being and that of her community is hampered by social and cultural factors, reports the Jordan Times. However, the study did find that more women are running for Jordan's parliamentary elections than in previous years.
The report is the first that statistically analyzes violence against women in Jordan, reports BBC News. | <urn:uuid:50ca2fe6-6416-4584-a97f-51955e3b29eb> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?id=8351 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657132007.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011212-00164-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971838 | 184 | 2.515625 | 3 |
There are various ways in which a person can contract mucositis. All the same, it is quite common to a large number of cancer patients who have begun their treatment sessions. Radiation and chemotherapy are ideal for cancer treatment, but they contribute quite significantly to mucositis. If a cancer patient is diagnosed with mucositis, treatment should begin early enough as it can lead to suspension of chemotherapy sessions so as to give it some time to healios. A reliable mucositis management technique should get rid of all the symptoms rapidly so that the patient can live comfortably.
Oral mucositis affects the mouth of a patient, therefore, proper oral hygiene is the best management and prevention technique that is all natural. Even so, it is important to note that bad oral hygiene is not a factor that can cause mucositis, but it has numerous impacts that can hinder a patient’s ability to heal. Oral hygiene is simply observed by brushing the teeth after every meal so as to get rid of food particles and bacteria that could be in the mouth. It is recommended that people brush their teeth before bed as this minimizes the chances of bacteria build-up during sleep. The right toothbrush for use should have soft bristles that do not harm the mucosa.
Chapped lips are uncomfortable, and they are more vulnerable to damage and infections. However, people always acquire a good lip balm to avoid the chapping. In this case, water acts as the lip balm in the prevention of mucositis. The act of drinking eight glasses of water every day gives the body sufficient raw materials for processing saliva that keeps the mouth moist. If you want to stay hydrated during radiation or chemotherapy treatment, you can have some ice chips that you can suck throughout the period. Apart from drinking water and sucking on some ice chips, a person can lubricate his or her mouth by sucking on a tart, chewing sugarless gums or candy that is sugar free.
Another way to prevent and manage mucositis is by using natural rinse to treat the symptoms. Table salt is mixed with water to make a good rinse solution that can bring about a number of benefits. A table salt rinse solution must not be spit out before ten seconds of swishing are over so that it can work perfectly. Apart from salt water, baking soda can also be dissolved in water to form a perfect rinsing solution that has helped many people in solving inflammatory conditions associated with mucositis.
The natural prevention and management methods of mucositis are more than ones explained here above; hence, a person should not confine him or herself to just a few. All the same, a person should not ignore the doctor’s advice. | <urn:uuid:8c9fd02f-dd1a-4fa5-ba4e-47d41fa009b5> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://healthandwellnesssitesite.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/information-regarding-treatment-methods-for-mucositis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376827175.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20181216003916-20181216025916-00531.warc.gz | en | 0.957199 | 551 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The Golden Lampstand (Ex 25:31-40)
Exod 25:31-40 "You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side. Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower-- and so for the six branches that come out of the lampstand. On the lampstand itself four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower. And there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand. Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece; all of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it. And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils. And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain."
In the holy place there was no window or place to let in the light. It was lit from a glorious golden lampstand, which stood directly opposite the table on the south side in the Holy Place. Made from one piece of solid beaten gold it weighed about 43 kg. (over 100 lbs.). In Hebrew it is known as the 'menorah' and has developed into one of the most commonly used symbols of Judaism.
The Menorah which stands outside Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
The menorah within the holy place of the ancient tabernacle was a work of extraordinary beauty and consisted of three main parts: the base, the shaft and the branches. Out of the base a vertical shaft arose and from either side of the shaft there sprang three branches curving outward and upward.
Each of the six branches and the center shaft ended in a cup made in the form of an open almond flower. At the very top the opened petals of the flower held an oil lamp. The branches and the central shaft were skillfully decorated with that same open-almond blossom design with three on each branch and four on the center shaft.
Each of the six branches ended in a cup made like an open almond flower. The seven oil lamps resting in the flower petals were like small bowls.
The decoration was so exquisite and intricate that God commanded that only the most highly skilled craftsmen anointed by the Holy Spirit should make it. No measurements are given as to its exact size (who can measure the light of God?). The seven oil lamps resting in the flower petals were like small bowls. A flax or linen wick would be placed in the lamp and the fire was never to go out (Lev. 24:2).
Twice every day, morning and evening, a priest attended to the wick and replenished the pure beaten olive oil for the lamps ( Ex 30:7).
Ex 27:20-21 "And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. "In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.
Still today the Jews use pure olive oil (shemen zayit) to light the menorah on Hanukkah because it is the finest quality to be found. The word shemen is an acronym for:
shemen - oil
mizayit- from olives
nivhar - chosen
The first Hebrew consonant of each word spells shemen.
It was the high priest alone who trimmed and dressed the lamp. He alone was responsible for the light shining.
Lev 24:3 "Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the LORD continually; it shall be a statute forever in your generations.
All day and all night, whether anyone was present or not, these seven lamps constantly lit up the glory of the Holy Place and especially on the table of the shewbread as a reminder that Gods Presence is always with His people.
The Rabbis interpret the lamp as a symbol of Israel, whose mission is to become a "light to the nations" (Is 42:7). In the present day synagogue there are similar religious items. The ark is located on the east wall of the synagogue; it contains the Torah scrolls. Above the ark, an eternal lamp is kept burning. To the side of the ark a menorah or seven branched candelabra is placed.
Almond in Hebrew means "the awakening one", because the almond tree was the first tree to awake from the sleep of winter and blossom. It spoke of the speedy and powerful result of light.
Gen 43:11 And their father Israel said to them, "If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man-- a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.
Eccl 12:5 Also they are afraid of height, and of terrors in the way; when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets.
Jer 1:11-12 11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree." Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word."
note: See also Numbers and Scripture about the number 7
A Type of Christ
The golden lampstand was the only source of light in the holy place. Its primary purpose was to give light in front of it. It was to shine on the table of shewbread and never to be put out. It was never to stop shining. This was a constant reminder that God was with His people. The Bible says that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the apostle John said, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it," he was referring to Jesus coming into the world. Jesus made the world and created life and came to bring Gods life to fallen man but since man is in darkness apart from Jesus they could not comprehend the light that comes with the life of God. The golden lampstand illuminated the shewbread and so God illuminates His people. The Spirit of God illuminates the dark mind of man to the knowledge of God and to spiritual life. John went on to say, "That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Man is blind apart from Jesus. Man cannot know God apart from Jesus. Even if God were to come Himself to His very home, man is incapable of perceiving any spiritual light because the darkness has made him blind. The golden lampstand speaks of Jesus as the light of the world.
Jn 9:5 "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
Is 49:6 Indeed He says, `It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
Is 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious;
Is 11:1-2 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
Ps 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Matt 4:16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."
Jn 1:4-5 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Jn 3:19-21 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
Jn 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Eph 5:14 Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
Phil 2:15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Matt 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.Matt 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden
The Purpose and Heart of the Law - A Devotional Message
Blood Atonement - A Bible Study
The Tabernacle of Ancient Israel was a sanctuary which was given in a vision to Moses as a pattern and constructed by the children of Israel. God's promise was that He would dwell within the Holy of Holies above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Why Study the Tabernacle?
A) 50 Chapters Mention The Tabernacle
Because at least 50 chapters (13-Ex, 18-Lev, 13-Num, 2-Deut, 4-Heb) in the Bible tell of the construction, the ritual, the priesthood, the carrying of the tabernacle, and the meaning of it all. Also many other places in Scripture speak in figurative language concerning the tabernacle. In many Bible studies this subject is overlooked and considered insignificant.
B) The Tearing of the Veil
God Himself thought so much of the importance of the type, as shown by the tearing of the veil:Matt 27:50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
If we don't understand the meaning in Scripture of the holy of holies and the veil we miss out on extremely significant information concerning exactly what Christ's death meant to sinful mankind.
C) The Tabernacle is a Type of Christ:
Remember what the Word says, "all Scripture is given by inspiration (God-breathed) of God..." When we look at the Bible we must remember that it is completely God-breathed. When we look at each Word we must remember that every Word is specifically God-breathed. That was the view of Christ when it came to the Scriptures, that was the view of the apostles, and that must be our view. This is the very Word of God. It doesn't just contain the Word of God, or just point to religious experience, this is the Word of God.
Is it any wonder then that each and every detail and Word about the tabernacle has spiritual significance? As we look to the tabernacle structure itself and its unique pieces of redemptive furniture there is great symbolism and typology found in them. Remember, everything was a finger pointing to the Messiah. The tabernacle, as a type, designed specifically and in detail by God, would point to the character and aspects of the ministry of Christ. The more we become familiar with the tabernacle the more we become familiar with Christ and all that He means to us. What a great reason to become familiar with the Scriptures concerning the tabernacle.
Heb 10:20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
Col 2:17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Jn 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
D) It is a Representation of the True Tabernacle in Heaven:
The Lord wants us to be aware of His nature and character. Even the angels don't fully understand the nature and character of God but they learn from watching His dealings with His church (Eph 3). Things are really happening in the heavenly dimension and the Lord wants to reveal to us what took place in heaven after the resurrection of Christ. There is a real tabernacle in the heavenlies and Christ really appeared before the throne of heaven as the Lamb of God (Rev 5). There is no doubt that some of these things are a mystery but the more we draw close to God and His Word the more He draws close to us.
Heb 9:11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
E) The Presence Within the Holy of Holies Dwells Within the Believer in Jesus:
Jesus said I am the temple (Mishkan) of God. When the glory (Heb. Sh'chinah) would come down like a tornado or funnel right through the roof of the holy of holies and the Presence would manifest on the mercy seat between the cherubim after the blood was sprinkled, that was the mishkan. That Presence was what Jesus said dwelt within Him. And in fact Paul said about the church, "Know ye not that you are the temple (Mishkan) of God?" We, as the body of Christ, have the same Presence dwelling within us. God doesn't dwell in buildings now but within His people.
1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
F) Its teaching covers in type almost all of New Testament truth.
The study of the tabernacle is so rich in meaning to the Christian and so pregnant with Messianic significance that we can spend a lifetime in the study of it and only begin to understand the riches and the depth of truth that lies within the study of the tabernacle.Rom 15:4 "Whatever things that were written before were written for our learning."
G) Studying the Tabernacle will absolutely strengthen our faith in the Bible.
Be assured that anyone who has delved into the wonderful details of the tabernacle will confess that the Bible is more than just a book. No man could have thought of this. The Bible is the Word of God.
"all Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
The Children of Israel | <urn:uuid:213dc768-7fff-436f-98d1-ae3986829fb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Golden_Lampstand.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164931675/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134851-00031-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965857 | 3,614 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Total energy intensity (index 1995=100), relative energy intensity (as PPS) and per capita consumption
Also include information for World, Africa, Middle-East, China, India, Russia and United States.
The year for the reference index value is 1995 because GDP was not available for all EU countries before 1995. The second last column shows the energy intensity measured in purchasing power standards relative to the EU-27. These are currency conversion rates that both convert to a common currency and equalize the purchasing power of different currencies. They eliminate the differences in price levels between countries, allowing meaningful volume comparisons of GDP. They are an optimal unit for benchmarking country performance in a particular year.
For references, please go to www.eea.europa.eu/soer or scan the QR code.
This briefing is part of the EEA's report The European Environment - State and Outlook 2015. The EEA is an official agency of the EU, tasked with providing information on Europe’s environment.
PDF generated on 30 May 2015, 12:33 PM | <urn:uuid:dd1771fb-07f7-4112-801f-20b1cf3f575a> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/total-energy-intensity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207930995.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113210-00134-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.853942 | 218 | 2.765625 | 3 |
There are many opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of various areas of law. Our professors are passionate about sharing the most fascinating aspects of their areas of expertise with students in the classroom. Programs, courses, journals, and student groups round out the learning experience for students, giving students freedom to explore their interests and refine their skills.
Legislation and the Law of Political Process
A large part of the work done by lawyers involves drafting, enforcing, implementing, interpreting, and litigating about statutes. In addition, many lawyers deal regularly with legislative bodies. A knowledge and appreciation of the legislative lawmaking process is not only a prerequisite to working with legislative bodies but an important aid in working with statutes, ordinances, and regulations. Moreover, a lawyer’s knowledge of legal remedies must include that which might be called the legislative remedy.
Legislation, as a subject of study in law school, does not present itself as a coherent body of law, information, or processes. Rather, it generally combines a mix of knowledge and ideas, such as constitutional law, legislative rules and procedures, political philosophies and traditions, statutes as a source of public policy, statutory drafting, and statutory interpretation.
Find course offerings in this area with our Course Explorer.
Programs & Other Opportunities
- American Constitution Society
- Election Law @ Moritz
- Federalist Society
- Law School Democrats
- Law School Republicans
- Legislation Clinic
- Moot Court and Lawyering Skills Governing Board
- Ohio State Law Journal | <urn:uuid:2114dcce-c530-4708-be01-11390870c315> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/admissions/jd/areas-of-study/legislation-and-the-law-of-political-process/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038862159.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418224306-20210419014306-00361.warc.gz | en | 0.949949 | 308 | 2.71875 | 3 |
History has always been one of my favorite subjects. I especially enjoy reading or listening to firsthand accounts of historical events from people who were there. It is so much more powerful than learning about it second-hand. I also think it is a much more effective way to teach.
Eyewitness to History is a website I found that provides firsthand accounts of important historical events. They include narratives, radio broadcasts, and historical documents. (It’s not a fancy site, but it has neat content!)
It is a perfect website for researching historical topics or trying to help learners understand how events impacted real people like them. It could be a great tool for teachers and homeschoolers alike.
Some of the topics include:
- Charles Lindbergh speaking after his historic flight
- The Invasion of Normandy – A civilian’s view
- Thomas Jefferson’s Advice to His Eleven Year Old Daughter, 1783
- Christmas in the Trenches, 1914 – British and German troops meet in no-mans-land
Eyewitness to History is a fun and easy way to add living history to your learner’s life! | <urn:uuid:b788f84f-1988-4a52-87f9-a120abf12e02> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://sallieborrink.com/eyewitness-to-history-firsthand-accounts-of-historical-events/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00787.warc.gz | en | 0.962605 | 232 | 3.234375 | 3 |
America, the land of the free... and the fat. A new study published in this month’s Journal of Nutrition shows that second- and third-generation Mexican-American youth are more likely to be obese than those who were not born in the United States.
According to the study, unusual in its focus on 12- to 19-year-olds instead of adults, second-gen Mexican Americans are two and a half times more likely to be obese than their first-gen peers; third-gen are twice as likely. Given that this group is the country's fastest growing demographic, that spells serious consequences for U.S. health care.
The traditional Mexican diet focuses on healthy fruits and vegetables, such as papaya, squash, avocado, corn, and beans, with smaller amounts of meat than a typical American diet. Unfortunately, the more removed teens get from their culinary roots, the more high-fat, high-sodium foods they eat, along with copious amounts of high-fructose soda.
According to Jihong Liu, PhD, the study’s lead author, “Our findings... verified what we expected: the greater the acculturation that a young person has experienced, the less healthy their diet.”
Is food's affordability the issue?
Researchers lay some of the blame on the purported “lower socioeconomic status [of many immigrant families who] therefore cannot afford to buy fruits and vegetables and healthier foods, which are more expensive.”
But according to Martin Lopez, president and founder of Herbs of Mexico, a natural products retailer in East Los Angeles, “I don’t agree so much with the affordability or access to healthy foods for immigrants. What I believe is true is the accessibility of unhealthy foods for these young people.” Lopez spoke to retailers, manufacturers, and other attendees of Natural Products Expo West on Friday, March 9, in a session titled “Marketing to the Hispanic and Latino Populations.” In his experience, he said, education is the key. "We pass out tons of literature, focusing more on wellness before illness," he explained.
According to Liu, “Future studies should continue to examine the barriers that Mexican-American adolescents encounter in maintaining their native diet and identify strategies to address those barriers.”
What do you think will turn the tide on Mexican-American obesity? Leave a comment. | <urn:uuid:51f41960-e68e-4015-995a-18b1d9030990> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.newhope.com/blog/us-food-isnt-doing-mexican-american-teens-any-favors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948551501.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215001700-20171215021700-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.965541 | 493 | 2.671875 | 3 |
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen, NGC 6543, nicknamed the "Cat's Eye Nebula." Hubble reveals surprisingly intricate structures including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas and unusual shock-induced knots of gas. Estimated to be 1,000 years old, the nebula is a visual "fossil record" of the dynamics and late evolution of a dying star.
A preliminary interpretation suggests that the star might be a double-star system. The dynamical effects of two stars orbiting one another most easily explains the intricate structures, which are much more complicated than features seen in most planetary nebulae. (The two stars are too close together to be individually resolved by Hubble, and instead, appear as a single point of light at the center of the nebula.)
According to this model, a fast "stellar wind" of gas blown off the central star created the elongated shell of dense, glowing gas. This structure is embedded inside two larger lobes of gas blown off the star at an earlier phase. These lobes are "pinched" by a ring of denser gas, presumably ejected along the orbital plane of the binary companion.
The suspected companion star also might be responsible for a pair of high-speed jets of gas that lie at right angles to this equatorial ring. If the companion were pulling in material from a neighboring star, jets escaping along the companion's rotation axis could be produced.
These jets would explain several puzzling features along the periphery of the gas lobes. Like a stream of water hitting a sand pile, the jets compress gas ahead of them, creating the "curlicue" features and bright arcs near the outer edge of the lobes. The twin jets are now pointing in different directions than these features. This suggests the jets are wobbling, or precessing, and turning on and off episodically.
The image was taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 on September 18, 1994. NGC 6543 is 3,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Draco.
The term planetary nebula is a misnomer; dying stars create these cocoons when they lose outer layers of gas. The process has nothing to do with planet formation, which is predicted to happen early in a star's life.
This material was presented at the 185th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, AZ on January 11, 1995.
Object Names: NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula
Image Type: Astronomical
Credit: J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NASA
To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below: | <urn:uuid:2b4c9fb1-220e-4cec-80ff-7aa2f037b0ea> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1995/01/image/b/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049270513.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002110-00183-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923521 | 568 | 3.765625 | 4 |
In 1947, the Jawi script was very much alive and thriving in the Malay community in the British colony, Malaya. In this article I found in NLB, it reported that Major D. R. Burgess, a welfare officer of the blind in Malaya announced that a Braille system in Jawi script will be available soon in hopes that the script would educate the blind Malays. The proposed plan was to set up a school where examinations will be held in Jawi Braille.
Who knew Jawi was such a thriving and modern script? It’s a shame that this orthography got replaced by Rumi.
Source: Ishak, A. (1947). Braille In Jawi To Be Started. The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19471106-1.2.29.aspx | <urn:uuid:3cb4993c-70a8-41c0-a287-253d3572b1b8> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://firqin.com/2016/06/24/jawi-in-braille/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371662966.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406231617-20200407022117-00545.warc.gz | en | 0.936092 | 198 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Canadian Letters and Images Project is an online archive of the Canadian war experience, from any war, as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves. Begun in August 2000, the Project is located in the Department of History at Vancouver Island University. Through the digitization of contemporary letters, diaries, photographs, and other related materials, the Project permits Canadians to tell their story, and Canada’s story, through their own words and images. It is history without a lens of interpretation by the present.
As a starting point to understand what we do, please have a look at the CHEK TV story about the project from November, 2013. Also have a look at the CTV News story about the project from November, 2012. Click here to view the story .
There is also a short video about the project done by a student at Vancouver Island University currently available on YouTube. You can access the video here.
The Project was created as a resource to make these important materials of our past accessible to all Canadians. Its purpose is to make the past available to the present and to preserve it for future generations. Too often the story told of Canada at war has been one of great battles and great individuals, an approach that unfortunately misses the 'ordinary' Canadian and the richness of their wartime experience. This project attempts to make visible again those who have who have made contributions and sacrifices for Canada, but who now have become largely invisible.
Due to their personal nature these materials remind us that the story of war is ultimately the story of individuals. This Project is a means to put a human face to war and to remind us that those statistics of wartime battles, or the names on the cenotaphs, are far more than simply numbers or names etched in stone. The materials help to recreate some of the richness of their lives, ordinary individuals who did extraordinary things for our nation.
It is our hope is that through the Project Canadians can share with one another the more personal side of a country at war. Such a collection allows us to better appreciate the struggles, anguish and joy, of Canada during wartime. It also stands as a tribute to all Canadians, past and present, home front and battlefront, who have in any manner contributed to Canada's wartime efforts.
The materials which comprise this Project come from every part of the country, and from outside the country as well. In many respects this Project is a partnership with Canadians, as most of the materials found in this Project come from private families who have generously shared those materials with us.
The most important aspect of the Project’s work is that we do not keep original materials. The Canadian Letters and Images Project is seeking to borrow any correspondence, diaries, photographs or other personal materials connected to Canadians at war, home front and battlefront, from any conflict in which Canadians have participated. They are then digitized and returned to the family. In this manner Canadians can share these important materials from Canada’s past and yet still retain their valued family heirlooms. It is due to the generous sharing of these materials that the Project continues to grow.
The Canadian Letters and Images Project will make arrangements at our expense to have any materials picked up and returned by courier to ensure the safety of those materials.
We believe it is important to collect and recreate the personal side of the wartime experience as soon as possible, before such materials are forever lost or destroyed. Each and every piece of correspondence, every photograph, or any other item connected to Canadians during wartime, is a valuable artifact linking us to our past. While one letter or photograph may by itself seem insignificant, in combination with the multitude of other materials found in the Project that single item can help to tell a remarkable story of the unyielding spirit of a country at war.
We believe that every item that comes to us in the collections has merit and so all collections will appear in their entirety. The Project does not edit or censor any materials in its collections. We do not edit correspondence or select portions of collections, but include if at all possible all materials submitted to us. Our place is not to judge the historic merit of one person's experiences over those of another, nor is it to judge the appropriateness of language or content from the perspective of the present
The Project has retained as closely as possible the original spelling, punctuation, and paragraph structure in the transcribed versions. We have not noted irregularities in spelling by the use of [sic] in order to remain as unobtrusive as possible in the transcribed versions. Words or portions of words which are missing or illegible are noted by the use of [?]. Overall the policy is to provide minimal explanatory notes unless absolutely essential to the understanding of the material, and instead to permit the material to tell its own story in its own words in the original form. | <urn:uuid:12f1b8c6-c3c6-4a6d-add4-9c19b3b796c4> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.canadianletters.ca/aboutus.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042986444.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002306-00169-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960345 | 986 | 2.65625 | 3 |
भाग (Part) – Part – V – (English Language)
परीक्षा आयोजक (Organized) – CBSE
कुल प्रश्न (Number of Question) – 30
परीक्षा तिथि (Exam Date) – September 2016 (Morning Shift)
(Qus. 121-129): Answer the following questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.
The art of Madhubani painting is the traditional style developed in the Mithila region, in the villages around Madhubani, Bihar. Madhubani literally means a forest of honey. This style of painting has been traditionally used by the women of the region, though today men are also involves to meet the demand. The work is done on freshly plaster mud walls. For commercial purposes, it is now being do on paper, cloth, etc.
The paintings are basically of religious nature. They are done in the special rooms of their homes in the Pooja room, ritual. area, bridal room), on the main village walls, etc., for cremonial or ritualistic purposes. The women offer prayers to the deity before starting the work. Figures from nature and mythology are adapted to suit their style. The themes and designs widely painted are the worship of Hindu deities such as Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Sun and Moon, Tulsi plant, court scenes, wedding scenes and other social events taking place around them.
Floral, animal and bird motifs, geometrical designs are used to fill up all the gaps. There is hardly any empty space in this style. Cotton wrapped around a bamboo stick forms the brush. The colours applied are prepared by the artists. The skill is handed down the generations, and hence the traditional designs and patterns are widely maintained. It is believed that the genesis of Madhubani paintings came about when King Janaka asked for paintings to be developed for his daughter Sita’s wedding.
121. Madhubani paintings are no longer done exclusively by women on walls:
A. as men are better painters
B. as paper is cheaper
C. because cloth is more durable
D. to meet their widespread demand
122. Madhubani paintings are essentially of religious nature when they are done:
A. on the village walls
B. using figures from nature.
C. in the Pooja room
D. in the bridal room
123. These paintings become secular when they depict:
A. Tulsi plant
B. wedding scenes.
C. court scenes
D. Worship of Saraswati
124. A Madhubani painting shows only:
A flowers and plants
B. geometrical designs
C. a balanced portrayal of all of them
D. Hindu deities
125. The art of Madhubani painting is learnt in the
A families at home
B. homes of renowned artists
C. Ashrams of Madhubani
D. schools of art
126. “Floral’ is an adjective derived from the noun, “flower’. Aural is derived from the noun:
127. ….. on freshly plastered mud walls.” The word ‘plastered is a/an:
128. The word “genesis’ means the same as:
D. birth Directions
(Qus. 129-143): Answer the following questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.
129. Language is not:
130. When language development is a deliberate and conscious effort, language is:
C. brushed up
131. What is a ‘ask’ in task-based language learning.
A. A piece of work which exposes learners to language
B. A piece of work which enables learners to do an activity
C. A piece of work for the parents to do their children’s homework
D. A piece of activity for teachers to do in the classroom
132. Travelogue is a genre of:
133. The most important aspect of an effective language classroom is to provide learners with an opportunity to:
134. A teacher of Class V is practicing interactive listening in the class. She should focus on:
A. listening and responding
B. listening and observing speakers’ attitude
C. listening to word stress and intonation
D. listening to the pronunciation
135. A word with same spelling and same pronunciation as another, but with a different meaning is a/an: | <urn:uuid:682e4e9c-3c20-48dd-95c8-6b0b84d1d90d> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.gyanacademy.in/ctet-september-2016-paper-i-english-language-answer-key/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178366959.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20210303104028-20210303134028-00175.warc.gz | en | 0.935717 | 978 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Let’s begin with a bit of astro news. A new comet named C/2011 L4 (PANSTAARS)Â was discovered on images taken by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala, Hawaii on June 6. Currently the comet is exceedingly faint, but come April 2013 it may become as bright as 2nd magnitude and easily visible with the naked eye. Of course that’s a long way off, and the comet’s orbit is still being refined. We’ll have occasional updates in the months ahead. You’ll find more information in the Remanzacco Observatory blog maintained by Italian observers Giovanni Sostero and Ernesto Guido.
I got yet another look at supernova 2011 dh in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) last night. Even in moonlight, it was rather easy to see in my 10-inch telescope. The star continues to climb in brightness.
Using a chart from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), I estimated it at magnitude 12.9. That puts the supernova within range of 4 to 6-inch telescopes under dark skies. If you do have a scope that size, be patient. In a week, the moon will be past full and out of the sky, and you’ll have a much easier time spotting it. And who knows – the supernova may shine even more brightly by then.
The Voyager space probes appear to have entered a strange realm of frothy magnetic bubbles at the edge of the solar system
The twin Voyager space probes, launched in the 1970s, were the first study the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune up close. They’re now about 9 billion miles away in the heliosheath, the “border crossing” zone between the realm of the sun and the rest of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. One day soon, the probes will leave the influence of the sun and enter true interstellar space.
Late this week, astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University, announced that the probes have entered a strange realm of magnetic bubbles at the solar system’s fringe. Each is about 100 million miles across or about the same distance Earth is from the sun.
“The sun’s magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system,” explains Opher. “Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina’s skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are now, the folds of the skirt bunch up.”
And when they bunch up, magnetic field lines, similar to those traced by iron filings around a magnet, criss-cross and reconnect – sometimes explosively – to form a froth of magnetic bubbles distinct from the rest of the sun’s magnetic field.
The reason anyone should care about this is that the bubbles form a membrane of sorts that defines how our solar system interacts with the rest of the galaxy. Think of it as a cell wall that allows desirable chemicals inside and prevents undesirable materials from entering. In the case of magnetic bubbles, astronomers aren’t yet sure whether froth is a good absorber of powerful galactic cosmic rays or if these tiny, atom-sized cannonballs find it easier to penetrate such a porous shield.
Despite their name, cosmic rays are subatomic particles shot out from black holes and supernova explosions. They pack a huge wallop despite their tiny size, because they’re traveling at close to the speed of light. All their energy is bound up in speed or what physicists call kinetic energy. The vast majority are simple protons or hydrogen atom nuclei.
Cosmic rays pose a health hazard to astronauts on missions that would take them beyond the protective shield of Earth’s magnetic field. High speed protons can damage DNA and increase cancer risk.
Whether or not the solar system’s “foam zone” makes a good shield, it’s interesting to reflect on the fact that supernovas and other highly energetic processes that happen in distant corners of the universe can have so direct an effect on our bodies, when we leave the safety of Earth.
Those particles that do make it past our planet’s magnetic field strike the upper atmosphere, where they create showers of secondary, less energetic particles that dissipate the cosmic ray’s original energy. One of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced regarding cosmic rays was a muon detector set up by the University of Minnesota-Duluth physics club. Muons are subatomic particles similar to electrons but heavier that are produced in profusion when cosmic rays strike the upper atmosphere. Everytime a muon arrived at the detector, it made a little click. And yes, they kept coming all day long. I remember thinking how the universe, vast and distant as so much of it is, can touch you in very real ways. | <urn:uuid:69112c23-597d-4be4-9993-974d7bb248a6> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2011/06/12/voyager-probes-enter-the-foam-zone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463612502.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170529165246-20170529185246-00029.warc.gz | en | 0.908868 | 1,031 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Holy Wells in Yorkshire – 2
by Edna Whelan
St Cedd’s Well, Lastingham (SE 729 904)
On the end of the bridge which spans the beck near the centre of the village stands St Cedd’s Well. It has a canopy of stonework brought from Rosedale Abbey, and is inscribed with a reference to Cedd’s foundation of a monastery at Lastingham in AD 648, and to his death in 664. This is probably another example of an earlier well being reconsecrated to a Christian saint, with the coming of the monks in the 7th century.
St Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons, was granted land to found a monastery by King Ethelwold and he administered the monastery until his death, when it passed to his brother Chad. This is a well-preserved Holy Well still providing a source of drinking water. Lastingham has two other wells;
St Chad’s Well, Lastingham (SE 729 905)
Situated on the east side of the High Street, consisting of a stone trough inside a graceful well-house flanked by a high stone wall. St Chad was one of three brothers. Cedd and Cynebel were involved in the building of the first monastery, and Chad later became Bishop of Lichfield, of York, and of Lindisfarne. The only legend attached to this well is that of Wulfhere, King of Mercia who, filled with remorse after putting his two sons to death for worshipping at Chad’s cell, adopted the faith of his murdered children at the instance of his Queen, Ermenilda.
The well is dry and according to a lady of the locality the water was piped away quite recently because it was being used for washing cars. A sad desecration of a sacred site, and typical of the car-worship of modern times. Lastingham’s third well is;
St Ovin’s Well, Lastingham (SE 729 904)
Across the road from the Post Office, and consisting of an arched well-house set into a stone wall. This well is also dry but there is a large oblong stone set into the back of the well-house which could be one side of a trough. The only surviving legend is the story of St Ovin as told by Bede; that he gave up high position in the household of Queen Ethelrid and went to Lastingham carrying an axe and a hatchet to denote that he joined the monastery to work not idle. He later went to Lichfield with Chad and was allowed to hear sounds of angelic melody, interpreted as a heavenly call to Chad, who died 7 days later. Although these legends are attributed to saints, one wonders if there lies within them a symbolism of earlier attributes of prophecy, fertility and healing at the well.
St Alkelda’s Well, Middleham (SE 113 904)
This well is close by Middleham House and not far from the famous Middleham Castle. The parish church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St Alkelda, of whom little is known. She is also the patron of Giggleswick church (see below) and one legend has her as a Saxon lady living in Yorkshire who suffered martyrdom at the hands of Danish women, being strangled for her faith. Her name is first mentioned with Middleham church in the late 13th century, and with Giggleswick in the will of one James Carr, 1528, who expressed a wish to be buried ‘in the church of the Holie and Blessed Virgin Saint Alkeld’. Some scholars suggest the name is simply derived from the Old English ‘haeligkeld’ meaning Holy Well. There is, once more, the link between sacred wells of ancient origin and the invasion of the Christian religion. No healing attributes have been given to this well within living knowledge but a fair is held in Middleham on the 5th November, a date connected with Alkelda, and close enough to the pagan Samhain to be possibly significant.
See also Source Six (First Series).
Hart Leap Well, Hauxwell Moor, Barden Fell (SE 135 965)
This well remains in tradition and in the poetry of Wordsworth but is now choked up. The tradition is that a hart, an animal of unusual strength and beauty, led a chase of long duration and great speed across this moorland. Horses and hounds dropped out one by one until a single horseman remained. Worn out at last, the exhausted hart gave three tremendous leaps down the declivity and dropped dead beside this well. Hope states that ‘three pillars, each a rough stone, marked the site of the three astonishing leaps’ (were these mark stones for an alignment?). The stones remained conspicuous until very lately but are now either removed or concealed by a recent wall. An old withered tree overhangs the spring, which may be found by the bright green of its grass, which contrasts with the darker heather all around.
Holy Well, Hunsingore (approx. SE 428 536)
A remarkable occurrence relating to Hunsingore is recorded in the Sessions Rolls of the West Riding of Yorkshire 1597-8 (at Wetherby) – ‘Forasmuch as it is manifestlie proven to this Court that Ffrancis Thompson and George Allen of Hunsingore did, in a most contemptous manner, bring into Hunsingore Church a Toie called the Flower of the Well in the tyme of divine service, wherebie the Vicar was disturbed in saieing the said service. It is therefore ordered that the said Ffrancis and George shall be presently stripped naked from the middle upwards and whipped throwe this town of Wetherby for their said offence’.
‘The (Toie) toy here referred to,’ says a Mr J.S. Fletcher in 1900, ‘was in all probability an image which had been used at one of the old well-deckings, in celebrating which it was usual to construct an effigy of the saint or nymph to whom the well was dedicated and to trick it out with gew-gaws and flowers and carry it in procession’.
The old church at Hunsingore in which this curious instance of sacrilege took place was pulled down and the present modern edifice built close by. The above account provides evidence that a Holy Well existed in Hunsingore at one time, and research into relocating it will certainly continue.
St Mary Magdalene’s Well, Spaunton Bank, near Lastingham (SE 722 904)
This is a spring of sweet clear water issuing from a bank into a stone trough and is thickly covered with water-cress. Above the spring and set into the bank is a slab of local stone with the well’s dedication inscribed on it. The well was re-dug in 1964 by a Mr H. Frank and the stone trough was then exposed. Grateful thanks are due to Mr Frank for his work. In his digging he found a sherd of Roman or Saxon ware and pottery of the 13th century. The well has clearly been used for drinking water, or for its healing qualities, or other worship.
Our Lady’s Well, Threshfield (SD 998 638)
This is one of several wells situated beside the River Wharfe on its long journey from Beckermonds in Langstrothdale to its meeting with the Ouse, North of Cawood. Threshfield is near Linton-in-Craven, on the upper stretches of the Wharfe and the Well of Our Lady emerges as a clear spring of water near to Grassington Bridge. The well was looked on as a sure and certain place of safety and refuge from all supernatural visitants, as shown by a certain legend; Pam the Fiddler was a teacher at Threshfield school many years ago and as he played his fiddle to entertain his pupils a ghost would appear and stand listening to the music. After Pam’s death a local man returning home late one night saw Pam on the roof of the school fighting with the local vicar and accompanied by imps. The witness sneezed, and the imps and Pam’s ghost chased him; he took refuge in the shelter of the well where he stayed till cock-crow, safe from attack. This story was told to me by Robert Greenwood, a farmer’s son who was born and still lives in the area, and attended the school in the 1970s.
The well formerly attracted pilgrims from far and near, its waters being famed for their healing properties for many ailments. Now it is still in good condition and attracts visitors out of curiosity. In the early 1900s it was used by the youth of the district who ‘being held by Cupid’s Chain seemed to gain fresh inspirations from copious draughts of the cooling waters’ [Arthur Millar, Yorkshire Notes & Queries]. Could ‘Pam’ derive from Pan?
Ebbing and Flowing Well, Giggleswick (SD 803 654)
Situated at the foot of Giggleswick Scar beside the road which runs from Settle to Clapham, and 1 mile west of Giggleswick. The water of this celebrated well periodically ebbs and flows, at times brimming over to run across the road, other times being at least 8 feet below the edge of the stone trough into which it runs. There are two legends attached to the well and a stained- glass window in the nearby church of St Alkelda, Giggleswick depicts possible ‘sacrifices’ at the well.
One legend was written into Polyolbion by Michael Drayton;
‘At Giggleswick, where I a fountain can you show
That eight times a day is said to ebb and flow
Who sometime was a nymph, and in the mountains high
Of Craven, whose blue heads for caps put on the sky,
Amongst the Oreads there, and Sylvans made abode
(It was ere human foot upon these hills had trod)
Of all the mountain kind, and, since she was most fair
It was a Satyr’s chance to see her silver hair
Flow loosely at her back, as up a cliffe she clame,
Her beauties noting well, her features, and her frame.
And after her he goes; which when she did espy
Before him like the wind the nimble nymph doth fly;
They hurry down the rocks, o’er hill and dale they drive;
To take her he doth strain, t’outstrip him she doth strive,
As one his kind that knew, and greatly feared his rape,
And to the topick gods by praying to escape,
They turned her to a spring, which as she then did pant,
When wearied with her cause her breath grew wonderous scant
Even as the fearful nymph, then thick and short did blow,
Now made by them a spring, so doth she ebb and flow.‘
This is of course reproduced in Hope’s book but it is so evocative that it needs to be quoted in full.
The second legend is that the spirit of this well gave to Ben Nevison, the highwayman, a magic bridle which, when he was chased, allowed him to perform extraordinary feats to evade capture, one of which was to leap on horseback across the awe-inspiring chasm of Hell Gill. Until recently the tradition of mixing the well water with liquorice and shaking them together in a bottle to be drunk on Easter Sunday was still carried on by children and young people. A stone head in the fabric of Giggleswick church is depicted as emerging from waves. Whether this connects with the ancient tradition of placing stone heads (and skulls) in wells is uncertain. A sad footnote is that, since certain people dug out the well some years ago, in order to find out the reason for its ebb and flow, the rhythm of this phenomenon has almost ceased, even though the fabric of the well was supposedly replaced exactly as it was before.
St Leonard’s Well, High Belthorpe, Pocklington (SE 780 535)
Situated about ½ mile from High Belthorpe Farm which is built on the moated site of an ancient farmstead. Here there were some years ago plainly visible two springs both flowing from grit stone and having each formed a basin in the stone. The larger was irregularly elliptical and about 30 inches wide, 18 inches broad and 24 inches deep, the smaller almost circular, with both its diameter and depth being 18 inches. The springs have now formed a pond with willows growing near. The waters were formerly noted for their healing powers, and are still thought to be beneficial. Many used the waters in the late 1800s, taking it away in bottles, and one Belthorpe farmer used to rise at five o’clock in the morning to drink of the water and left a cup nearby for anyone’s use. St Leonard was a hermit and monk of France in the 6th century and the patron saint of prisoners. This well is the terminal point of a ley from Pocklington Church, and a point on other alignments in the area.
Robin Hood’s Well, Fountains Abbey
This well in the grounds of Fountains Abbey is supposed to be the well near which Robin Hood and Friar Tuck had a trial of strength in which the Friar cudgelled Robin into the water. Could this be a symbolic story?
Robin-Round-Cap Well, Spaldington (SE 761 336)
Spaldington is a hamlet 4 miles from Howden. Until 1838 there was a fine Elizabethan mansion here, where Robin-Round-Cap is said to have made his home. He is a fairy figure, also known as Robin Goodfellow, who is connected with wells in the East Riding of Yorkshire. At times Robin was good-natured and helped the people of the mansion, assisting in the threshing and butter-making; but at other times he became exceedingly mischievous, knocking over the milk pails, putting out the fire, and re-mixing the winnowed wheat with the chaff. Three clergymen were called to charm him or pray him into the well, which has since borne his name; he was compelled to remain there for a given number of years, and to agree to molest the family no longer.
In visiting as many of these wells as possible, in order to note their condition and take photographs, one cannot help but come under their spell, particularly those which are situated a distance away from the noise and traffic of roads and villages. It seems important to keep up the traditions of the Wells and so I invariably find it imperative to leave a rag, torn from a handkerchief, tied to a convenient tree near the water, if possible. The need to curtsey or bow on leaving the well is also very strong; even if only mentally, the recognition seems necessary.
Text & Illustrations © Edna Whelan (1986)
Designed & Maintained by Richard L. Pederick (© 1999) | Created 04/01/00 | <urn:uuid:dc5992cf-262f-484b-948b-c14769dcda12> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings.com/source-first-series-contents/holy-wells-in-yorkshire-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999130.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620024754-20190620050754-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.977408 | 3,237 | 2.640625 | 3 |
28th President of the United States
March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921
Vice President(s) Thomas R. Marshall (1913-1921) Preceded by William Howard Taft Succeeded by Warren G. Harding
Born December 28, 1856
Died February 3, 1924, age 67
Political party Democratic Spouse Ellen Axson Wilson
Edith Galt Wilson
Religion Presbyterian Signature
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (28th President of the United States. A devout Presbyterian and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as president of Princeton University then became the reform governor of New Jersey in 1910. With Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dividing the Republican vote, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912. He proved highly successful in leading a Democratic Congress to pass major legislation including the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Underwood Tariff, the Federal Farm Loan Act and most notably the Federal Reserve System. Re-elected narrowly in 1916, his second term centered on World War I. He tried to negotiate a peace in Europe but when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against American shipping he called on Congress to declare war. Ignoring military affairs, he focused on diplomacy and finance. On the home front he began the first effective draft in 1917, raised billions through Liberty loans, imposed an income tax on the wealthy, set up the War Industries Board, promoted labor union growth, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever Act, took over control of the railroads, and suppressed left-wing anti-war movements. He paid surprisingly little attention to military affairs, but provided the funding and food supplies that made Allied victory in 1918 possible. In the late stages of the war he took personal control of negotiations with Germany, especially with the Fourteen Points and the Armistice. He went to Paris in 1919 to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles, with special attention on creating new nations out of defunct empires. Wilson collapsed with a debilitating stroke in 1919, as the homefront saw massive strikes and race riots, and wartime prosperity turn into postwar depression. He refused to compromise with the Republicans who controlled Congress after 1918, effectively destroying any chance for ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations went into operation anyway, but the U.S. never joined. The consensus of presidential experts ranks him in the first or second tier of best presidents.
- 1 Early Life
- 2 Physical appearance
- 3 Law practice
- 4 Political writings and academic career
- 5 Campaign for Presidency in 1912
- 6 Presidency 1913-1921
- 6.1 Federal Reserve 1913
- 6.2 Election of 1916
- 6.3 Second term
- 6.4 Significant presidential acts
- 6.5 Administration and Cabinet
- 6.6 Supreme Court appointments
- 7 Wilson and race
- 8 Later life
- 9 Trivia
- 10 Media
- 11 See also
- 12 References
- 13 External links
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1856 as the third of four children to Reverend Dr. Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822–1903) and Janet E. Woodrow (1826–1888). His ancestry was Scots-Irish and Scottish. His paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Strabane, County Tyrone, in modern-day Northern Ireland. Wilson's father was originally from Steubenville, Ohio where his grandfather had been an abolitionist newspaper publisher and his uncles were Republicans. But his parents moved South in 1851 and identified with the Confederacy. His father defended slavery and set up a Sunday school for them. They cared for wounded soldiers at their church. The father also briefly served as a chaplain to the Confederate army. Wilson’s father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church PCUS after it split from the northern Presbyterians in 1861. Joseph R. Wilson served as the first permanent clerk of the southern church’s General Assembly, was Stated Clerk from 1865-1898 and was Moderator of the PCUS General Assembly in 1879. Wilson spent the majority of his childhood, to age 14, in Augusta, Georgia, where his father was minister of the First Presbyterian Church. During Reconstruction he lived in the South Carolina state capital Columbia, South Carolina from 1870-1874, where his father was professor at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Wilson did not learn to read until he was about 12 years old. His difficulty reading may have indicated dyslexia or A.D.D., but as a teenager he taught himself shorthand to compensate and was able to achieve academically through determination and self-discipline. He studied at home under his father's guidance and took classes in a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he sepnt a year at Davidson College in North Carolina, then transferred to Princeton as a freshman, graduating in 1879. Beginning in his second year, he read widely in political philosophy and history. He was active in the undergraduate discussion club, and organized a separate Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at University of Virginia for one year but he never graduated. His frail health dictated withdrawal, and he went home to Wilmington, North Carolina where he continued his studies. Wilson was also a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
As an adult Wilson was a man of above-average height and weight, standing around five feet 11 inches tall and weighing around 175-185 pounds. From age eight he wore eyeglasses, including pince nez glasses as an adult. He had blue eyes and pale brown-gray hair.
Wilson’s mother was probably a hypochondriac and Wilson seemed to think that he was often in poorer health than he really was. However, he did suffer from hyper-tension at a relatively early age and may have suffered his first stroke at age 39. He bicycled regularly, including several bicycling vacations in the Lake District in Britain. Unable to bicycle around Washington, D.C. as President, Wilson took to playing golf, although he played with more enthusiasm than skill. During the Winter the Secret Service would paint some golf balls black so Wilson could hit them around in the snow on the White House lawn.
In January 1882, Wilson decided to start his first law practice in Atlanta. One of Wilson’s University of Virginia classmates, Edward Ireland Renick, invited Wilson to join his new law practice as partner. Wilson joined him there in May 1882. He passed the Georgia Bar in October 1882 in a performance rated as “not short of brilliant” by the presiding judge. However, Renick and Wilson was a short-lived firm. Competition was fierce in the city with 143 other lawyers, so with few cases to keep him occupied, Wilson quickly grew disillusioned. Moreover, Wilson had studied law in order to eventually enter politics, but he discovered that he could not continue his study of government and simultaneously continue the reading of law necessary to stay proficient. On October 19, 1882 he appeared in court before Judge George Hillyer to take his examination for the bar, which he passed with flying colors and he began work on his thesis Congressional Government in the United States. In April 1883, Wilson applied to the new Johns Hopkins University to study for a Ph.D. in history and political science, which he completed in 1886. In July 1883, Wilson left his law practice to begin his academic career.
Political writings and academic career
Wilson came of age in the decades after the American Civil War, when Congress was supreme— "the gist of all policy is decided by the legislature" —and corruption was rampant. Instead of focusing on individuals in explaining where American politics went wrong, Wilson focused on the American constitutional structure.
Under the influence of Walter Bagehot's The English Constitution, Wilson saw the United States Constitution as pre-modern, cumbersome, and open to corruption. An admirer of Parliament (though he first visited London in 1919), Wilson favored a parliamentary system for the United States. Writing in the early 1880s, Wilson wrote:
- "I ask you to put this question to yourselves, should we not draw the Executive and Legislature closer together? Should we not, on the one hand, give the individual leaders of opinion in Congress a better chance to have an intimate party in determining who should be president, and the president, on the other hand, a better chance to approve himself a statesman, and his advisers capable men of affairs, in the guidance of Congress?"
Wilson started Congressional Government, his best known political work, as an argument for a parliamentary system, but Wilson was impressed by Grover Cleveland, and Congressional Government emerged as a critical description of America's system, with frequent negative comparisons to Westminster. Wilson himself claimed, "I am pointing out facts—diagnosing, not prescribing remedies.".
Wilson believed that America's intricate system of checks and balances was the cause of the problems in American governance. He said that the divided power made it impossible for voters to see who was accountable for ill-doing. If government behaved badly, Wilson asked,
- "...how is the schoolmaster, the nation, to know which boy needs the whipping? ... Power and strict accountability for its use are the essential constituents of good government.... It is, therefore, manifestly a radical defect in our federal system that it parcels out power and confuses responsibility as it does. The main purpose of the Convention of 1787 seems to have been to accomplish this grievous mistake. The 'literary theory' of checks and balances is simply a consistent account of what our Constitution makers tried to do; and those checks and balances have proved mischievous just to the extent which they have succeeded in establishing themselves... [the Framers] would be the first to admit that the only fruit of dividing power had been to make it irresponsible."
The longest section of Congressional Government is on the United States House of Representatives, where Wilson pours out scorn for the committee system. Power, Wilson wrote, "is divided up, as it were, into forty-seven signatories, in each of which a Standing Committee is the court baron and its chairman lord proprietor. These petty barons, some of them not a little powerful, but none of them within reach [of] the full powers of rule, may at will exercise an almost despotic sway within their own shires, and may sometimes threaten to convulse even the realm itself.". Wilson said that the committee system was fundamentally undemocratic, because committee chairs, who ruled by seniority, were responsible to no one except their constituents, even though they determined national policy.
In addition to their undemocratic nature, Wilson also believed that the Committee System facilitated corruption.
- "the voter, moreover, feels that his want of confidence in Congress is justified by what he hears of the power of corrupt lobbyists to turn legislation to their own uses. He hears of enormous subsidies begged and obtained... of appropriations made in the interest of dishonest contractors; he is not altogether unwarranted in the conclusion that these are evils inherent in the very nature of Congress; there can be no doubt that the power of the lobbyist consists in great part, if not altogether, in the facility afforded him by the Committee system.
By the time Wilson finished Congressional Government, Grover Cleveland was President, and Wilson had his faith in the United States government restored. When William Jennings Bryan captured the Democratic nomination from Cleveland's supporters in 1896, however, Wilson refused to stand by the ticket. Instead, he cast his ballot for John M. Palmer, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Party, or Gold Democrats, a short-lived party that supported a gold standard, low tariffs, and limited government.
After experiencing the vigorous presidencies from William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson no longer entertained thoughts of parliamentary government at home. In his last scholarly work in 1908, Constitutional Government of the United States, Wilson said that the presidency "will be as big as and as influential as the man who occupies it". By the time of his presidency, Wilson merely hoped that Presidents could be party leaders in the same way prime ministers were. Wilson also hoped that the parties could be reorganized along ideological, not geographic, lines. "Eight words," Wilson wrote, "contain the sum of the present degradation of our political parties: No leaders, no principles; no principles, no parties."
Wilson served on the faculties of Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University (where he also coached the football team) before joining the Princeton faculty as professor of jurisprudence and political economy in 1890. While there, he was one of the faculty members of the short-lived coordinate college, Evelyn College for Women.
Wilson delivered an oration at Princeton's sesquicentennial celebration (1896) entitled "Princeton in the Nation's Service". (This has become a frequently alluded-to motto of the University, sometimes expanded to "Princeton in the World's Service.") In this famous speech, he outlined his vision of the university in a democratic nation, calling on institutions of higher learning "to illuminate duty by every lesson that can be drawn out of the past".
The trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president of Princeton in 1902. He had bold plans. Although the school's endowment was barely $4 million, he sought $2 million for a preceptorial system of teaching, $1 million for a school of science, and nearly $3 million for new buildings and salary raises. As a long-term objective, Wilson sought $3 million for a graduate school and $2.5 million for schools of jurisprudence and electrical engineering, as well as a museum of natural history. He achieved little of that because he was not a strong fund raiser, but he did increase the faculty from 112 to 174 men, most of them personally selected as outstanding teachers. The curriculum guidelines he developed proved important progressive innovations in the field of higher education. To enhance the role of expertise, Wilson instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements where students met in groups of six with preceptors, followed by two years of concentration in a selected major. He tried to raise admission standards and to replace the "gentleman C" with serious study. Wilson aspired, as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys performing tasks into thinking men."
In 1906-10, he attempted to curtail the influence of the elitist "social clubs" by moving the students into colleges. This was met with resistance from many alumni. Wilson felt that to compromise "would be to temporize with evil.". Even more damaging was his confrontation with Andrew Fleming West, Dean of the graduate school, and West's ally, former President Grover Cleveland, a trustee. Wilson wanted to integrate the proposed graduate building into the same area with the undergraduate colleges; West wanted them separated. The trustees rejected Wilson's plan for colleges in 1908, and then endorsed West's plans in 1909. The national press covered the confrontation as a battle of the elites (West) versus democracy (Wilson). Wilson, after considering resignation, decided to take up invitations to move into New Jersey state politics. - In 1910, Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey, and served in this office until becoming President in 1913. Wilson experienced early success by implementing his "New Freedom" pledges of antitrust modification, tariff revision, and reform in banking and currency matters.
Campaign for Presidency in 1912
Gov. Wilson ran for President on the Democratic ticket. The Democratic National Committee met in Baltimore in 1912 to select Wilson as their candidate. He then chose the officers of the Democratic National Committee that would serve the campaign: Charles R. Crane (Taft's Ambassador to China), Vice-President of the Finance Committee; Rolla Wells, twice mayor of St. Louis (from 1901 to 1909), and later Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank at St. Louis, as Treasurer; Henry Morgenthau, Sr., President of the Finance Committee. His running mate was Gov. Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana.
In the election Wilson ran against two major candidates, incumbent President William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt, who broke with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. The election was bitterly contested. Vice President James S. Sherman died on October 30, 1912, less than a week before the election, leaving Taft without a running mate. And with the Republican Party divided, Wilson captured the presidency handily on November 5. Wilson won with just 41.8% of the votes, but he won 435 electoral votes.
Wilson experienced early success by implementing his "New Freedom" pledges of antitrust modification, tariff revision, and reform in banking and currency matters.
Federal Reserve 1913
Historians agree that, "The Federal Reserve Act was the most important legislation of the Wilson era and one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of the United States." Wilson had to outmaneuver bankers and enemies of banks, North and South, Democrats and Republicans to secure passage of the Federal Reserve system in late 1913.[Link 1954 pp 43-53; Link 1956 pp 199-240] He took a plan that had been designed by conservative Republicans—led by Nelson W. Aldrich and banker Paul M. Warburg—and passed it. However, Wilson had to find a middle ground between those who supported the Aldrich Plan and those who opposed it, including the powerful agrarian wing of the party, led by William Jennings Bryan, which strenuously denounced banks and Wall Street. They wanted a government-owned central bank which could print paper money whenever Congress wanted. Wilson’s plan still allowed the large banks to have important influence, but Wilson went beyond the Aldrich plan and created a central board made up of persons appointed by the President and approved by Congress who would outnumber the board members who were bankers. Moreover, Wilson convinced Bryan’s supporters that because Federal Reserve notes were obligations of the government, the plan fit their demands. Wilson’s plan also decentralized the Federal Reserve system into 12 districts. This was designed to weaken the influence of the powerful New York banks, a key demand of Bryan’s allies in the South and West. This decentralization was a key factor in winning the support of Congressman Carter Glass (D-VA) although he objected to making paper currency a federal obligation. Glass was one of the leaders of the currency reformers in the U.S. House and without his support, any plan was doomed to fail. The final plan passed, in December 1913, despite opposition by bankers, who felt it gave too much control to Washington, and by some reformers, who felt it allowed bankers to maintain too much power.
Wilson named Warburg and other prominent bankers to direct the new system. Despite the reformers' hopes, the New York branch dominated the Fed and thus power remained in Wall Street. The new system began operations in 1915 and played a major role in financing the Allied and American war efforts.
Other economic policies
In 1913, the Underwood tariff lowered the tariff. The revenue thereby lost was replaced by a new federal income tax (authorized by the 16th Amendment, which had been sponsored by the Republicans). The "Seaman's Act" of 1915 improved working conditions for merchant sailors. As response to the RMS Titanic disaster, it also required all ships to be retrofitted with lifeboats. Ironically, although in the long term the lifeboat provision would save lives, it may have contributed to the "Eastland" disaster in which the top-heavy cruise ship capsized and sank in Chicago—killing over 800 tourists.
A series of programs was targeted at farmers. The "Smith Lever" act of 1914 created the modern system of agricultural extension agents sponsored by the state agricultural colleges. The agents taught new techniques to farmers. The 1916 "Federal Farm Loan Board" issued low-cost long-term mortgages to farmers.
Child labor was curtailed by the Keating-Owen act of 1916, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1918. Additional child labor bills would not be enacted until the 1930s.
The railroad brotherhoods threatened in summer 1916 to shut down the national transportation system. Wilson tried to bring labor and management together, but when management refused he had Congress pass the "Adamson Act" in September 1916, which avoided the strike by imposing an 8-hour work day in the industry (at the same pay as before). It helped Wilson gain union support for his reelection; the act was approved by the Supreme Court.
Wilson broke with the "big-lawsuit" tradition of his predecessors Taft and Roosevelt as "Trustbusters", finding a new approach to encouraging competition through the Federal Trade Commission, which stopped "unfair" trade practices. In addition, he pushed through Congress the Clayton Antitrust Act making certain business practices illegal (such as price discrimination, agreements forbidding retailers from handling other companies’ products, and directorates and agreements to control other companies). The power of this legislation was greater than previous anti-trust laws, because individual officers of corporations could be held responsible if their companies violated the laws. More importantly, the new laws set out clear guidelines that corporations could follow, a dramatic improvement over the previous uncertainties. This law was considered the "Magna Carta" of labor by Samuel Gompers because it ended union liability antitrust laws. In 1916, under threat of a national railroad strike, he approved legislation that increased wages and cut working hours of railroad employees; there was no strike.
War policy—World War I
Wilson spent 1914 through the beginning of 1917 trying to keep America out of the war in Europe. He offered to be a mediator, but neither the Allies nor the Central Powers took his requests seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, strongly criticized Wilson’s refusal to build up the U.S. Army in anticipation of the threat of war. Wilson won the support of the U.S. peace element by arguing that an army buildup would provoke war. He vigorously protested Germany’s use of submarines as illegal, causing his Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan to resign in protest in 1915.
While German submarines were sinking allied ships, Britain had declared a blockade of Germany, preventing neutral shipping carrying “contraband” goods to Germany. Wilson protested this violation of neutral rights by London. However, his protests to the British were not viewed as being as forceful as those he directed towards Germany. This reflects the fact that while Britain was violating international law towards neutral shipping by mining international harbors and killing sailors (including americans), their violations were not direct attacks on the shipping of Americans or other neutrals, while German submarine warfare directly targeted shipping that benefited their enemies, neutral or not, violating international law and resulting in visible American deaths.
Election of 1916
Renominated in 1916, Wilson's major campaign slogan was "He kept us out of the war" referring to his administration's avoiding open conflict with Germany or Mexico while maintaining a firm national policy. Wilson, however, never promised to keep out of war regardless of provocation. In his acceptance speech on September 2, 1916, Wilson pointedly warned Germany that submarine warfare that took American lives would not be tolerated:
- The nation that violates these essential rights must expect to be checked and called to account by direct challenge and resistance. It at once makes the quarrel in part our own.
Wilson narrowly won the election, defeating Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes. As governor of New York from 1907-1910, Hughes had a progressive record strikingly similar to Wilson's as governor of New Jersey. However, Hughes had to try to hold together a coalition of conservative Taft supporters and progressive Roosevelt partisans and so his campaign never seemed to take a definite form. Wilson ran on his record and ignored Hughes, reserving his attacks for Roosevelt. When asked why he did not attack Hughes directly, Wilson told a friend to “Never murder a man who is committing suicide.”
The final result was exceptionally close and the result was in doubt for several days. The vote came down to several close states. Wilson won California by 3,773 votes out of almost a million votes cast and New Hampshire by 54 votes. Hughes won Minnesota by 393 votes out of over 358,000. In the final count, Wilson had 277 electoral votes vs. Hughes 254. Wilson was able to win reelection in 1916 by picking up many votes that had gone to Teddy Roosevelt or Eugene V. Debs in 1912.
Decision for War, 1917
When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 and made a clumsy attempt to enlist Mexico as an ally (see Zimmermann Telegram), Wilson took America into World War I as a war to make "the world safe for democracy." He did not sign a formal alliance with Great Britain or France but operated as an "Associated" power. He raised a massive army through conscription and gave command to General John J. Pershing, allowing Pershing a free hand as to tactics, strategy and even diplomacy.
Wilson had decided by then that the war had become a real threat to humanity. Unless the U.S. threw its weight into the war, as he stated in his declaration of war speech, Western civilization itself could be destroyed. His statement announcing a "war to end all wars" meant that he wanted to build a basis for peace that would prevent future catastrophic wars and needless death and destruction. This provided the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were intended to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade and commerce, and establish a peacemaking organization, which later emerged as the League of Nations.
To stop defeatism at home, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 through Congress to suppress anti-British, pro-German, or anti-war opinions. He welcomed socialists who supported the war, such as Walter Lippmann, but would not tolerate those who tried to impede the war or, worse, assassinate government officials, and pushed for deportation of foreign-born radicals. His wartime policies were strongly pro-labor, though again, he had no love for radical unions like the Industrial Workers of the World. The American Federation of Labor and other 'moderate' unions saw enormous growth in membership and wages during Wilson's administration. There was no rationing, so consumer prices soared. As income taxes increased, white-collar workers suffered. Appeals to buy war bonds were highly successful, however. Bonds had the result of shifting the cost of the war to the affluent 1920s.
Wilson set up the United States Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel (thus its popular name, Creel Commission), which filled the country with patriotic anti-German appeals and conducted various forms of censorship.
The Fourteen Points
President Woodrow Wilson articulated what became known as the Fourteen Points before Congress on January 8, 1918. The Points were the only war aims clearly expressed by any belligerent nation and thus became the basis for the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. The speech was highly idealistic, translating Wilson's progressive domestic policy of democracy, self-determination, open agreements, and free trade into the international realm. It also made several suggestions for specific disputes in Europe on the recommendation of Wilson's foreign policy advisor, Colonel Edward M. House, and his team of 150 advisors known as “The Inquiry.” The points are:
I. Abolition of secret treaties
II. Freedom of the seas
III. Free Trade
V. Adjustment of colonial claims (decolonization and national self-determination)
VI. Russia to be assured independent development and international withdrawal from occupied Russian territory
VII. Restoration of Belgium to antebellum national status
VIII. Alsace-Lorraine returned to France from Germany
IX. Italian borders redrawn on lines of nationality
X. Autonomous development of Austria-Hungary as a nation, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved
XI. Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and other Balkan states to be granted integrity, have their territories deoccupied, and Serbia to be given access to the Adriatic Sea
XII. Sovereignty for the Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire as the Empire dissolved, autonomous development for other nationalities within the former Empire
XIII. Establishment of an independent Poland with access to the sea
XIV. General association of the nations – a multilateral international association of nations to enforce the peace (League of Nations)
The speech was controversial in America, and even more so with her Allies. France wanted high reparations from Germany as French agriculture, industry, and lives had been so demolished by the war, and Britain, as the great naval power, did not want freedom of the seas. Wilson compromised with Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and many other European leaders during the Paris Peace talks to ensure that the fourteenth point, the League of Nations, would be established. In the end, Wilson's own Congress did not accept the League and only four of the original Fourteen Points were implemented fully in Europe.
Other foreign affairs
Between 1914 and 1918, the United States intervened in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The U.S. maintained troops in Nicaragua throughout his administration and used them to select the president of Nicaragua and then to force Nicaragua to pass the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty. American troops in Haiti forced the Haitian legislature to choose the candidate Wilson selected as Haitian president. American troops occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934.
After Russia left the war in 1917 following the Bolshevik Revolution and started providing help to the Germans, the Allies sent troops to prevent a German or Bolshevik takeover of allied-provided weapons, munitions and other supplies which had been previously shipped as aid to the Czarist government. Wilson sent expeditionary forces to assist the withdrawal of Czech exiles along the Trans-Siberian Railway, hold key port cities at Arkangel and Vladivostok, and safeguard supplies sent to the Tsarist forces. Though not sent to engage the bolsheviks, the U.S. forces did have several clashes with them. Wilson withdrew the soldiers on April 1, 1920, though some remained as late as 1922. As Davis and Trani conclude, "Wilson, Lansing, and Colby helped lay the foundations for the later Cold War and policy of containment. There was no military confrontation, armed standoff, or arms race. Yet, certain basics were there: suspicion, mutual misunderstandings, dislike, fear, ideological hostility, and diplomatic isolation....Each side was driven by ideology, by capitalism versus communism. Each country sought to reconstruct the world. When the world resisted, pressure could be used."
After World War I, Wilson participated in negotiations with the stated aim of assuring statehood for formerly oppressed nations and an equitable peace. On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations, an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike.
Wilson intended the Fourteen Points as a means toward ending the war and achieving an equitable peace for all the nations. He spent six months at Paris for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (making him the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office). He worked tirelessly to promote his plan. The charter of the proposed League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's Treaty of Versailles.
For his peacemaking efforts, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. However, Wilson failed to win Senate support for ratification and the United States never joined the League. Republicans under Henry Cabot Lodge controlled the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to give them a voice at Paris and refused to agree to Lodge's proposed changes. The key point of disagreement was whether the League would diminish the power of Congress to declare war. Historians generally have come to regard Wilson's failure to win U.S. entry into the League as perhaps the biggest mistake of his administration, and even as one of the largest failures of any American presidency.
Post war: 1919-20
Wilson had ignored the problems of demobilization after the war, and the process was chaotic and violent. Four million soldiers were sent home with little planning, little money and few benefits. A wartime bubble in prices of farmland burst, leaving many farmers bankrupt or deeply in debt after they purchased new land. In 1919, major strikes in steel and meatpacking broke out. Serious race riots hit Chicago and other cities.
After a series of bombings by radical anarchist groups in New York and elsewhere, Wilson directed Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to put a stop to the violence. Palmer then ordered the Palmer Raids, with the aim of collecting evidence on violent radical groups, to deport foreign-born agitators, and jail domestic ones.
Wilson broke with many of his closest political friends and allies in 1918-20, including Colonel House. Historians speculate that a series of minor strokes may have affected his personality. He desired a third term, but his Democratic party was in turmoil, with German voters outraged at their wartime harassment, and Irish voters angry at his failure to support Irish independence.
Support of Zionism
Wilson, a staunch opponent of anti-Semitism was sympathetic to the plight of Jews, especially in Poland. As President Wilson repeatedly stated in 1919 that U.S. policy was to "acquiesce" in the Balfour Declaration but not officially support Zionism . After he left office Wilson wrote a letter of strong support to the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine and objected to territorial concessions regarding its borders.
Until Wilson announced his support for suffrage, a group of women calling themselves Silent Sentinels protested in front of the White House, holding banners such as "Mr. President—What will you do for woman suffrage?" In January 1918, after years of lobbying and public demonstrations, Wilson finally announced his support of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The Amendment passed the House but failed in the Senate. Finally, on June 4, 1919, the Senate passed the amendment.
On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a serious stroke that almost totally incapacitated him; he was paralyzed on his left side and blind in his left eye. For a few months at least, he was confined to a wheelchair. Afterwards he could walk only with the assistance of a cane. The full extent of his disability was kept from the public until after his death.
Wilson was purposely, with few exceptions, kept out of the presence of Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, his cabinet or Congressional visitors to the White House for the remainder of his presidential term. Meanwhile, his second wife, Edith Wilson, served as steward, selecting issues for his attention and delegating other issues to his cabinet heads. This was, as of 2006, the most serious case of presidential disability in American history and was later cited as a key example why ratification of the 25th Amendment was seen as important.
Significant presidential acts
- Signed Revenue Act of 1913
- Signed Federal Reserve Act of 1913
- Signed Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916
- Signed National Park Service Act of 1916
- Signed Jones Act of 1917
- Signed Espionage Act of 1917
- Signed Sedition Act of 1918
- Vetoed Volstead Act in 1919. It was passed over his veto.
Administration and Cabinet
Wilson's chief of staff ("Secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty 1913-1921, but he was largely upstaged after 1916 by Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, who assumed full control of Wilson's schedule after September 1919. An important foreign policy advisor and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House.
OFFICE NAME TERM President Woodrow Wilson 1913–1921 Vice President Thomas R. Marshall 1913–1921 Secretary of State William J. Bryan 1913–1915 Robert Lansing 1915–1920 Bainbridge Colby 1920–1921 Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo 1913–1918 Carter Glass 1918–1920 David F. Houston 1920–1921 Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison 1913–1916 Newton D. Baker 1916–1921 Attorney General James C. McReynolds 1913–1914 Thomas W. Gregory 1914–1919 A. Mitchell Palmer 1919–1921 Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson 1913–1921 Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels 1913–1921 Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane 1913–1920 John B. Payne 1920–1921 Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston 1913–1920 Edwin T. Meredith 1920–1921 Secretary of Commerce William C. Redfield 1913–1919 Joshua W. Alexander 1919–1921 Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson 1913–1921
Supreme Court appointments
Wilson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
- James Clark McReynolds – 1914
- Louis Dembitz Brandeis – 1916
- John Hessin Clarke – 1916
Wilson and race
While president of Princeton University, Wilson discouraged blacks from even applying for admission. Princeton would not admit its first black student until the 1940s.
Wilson allowed many of his cabinet officials to establish official segregation in most federal government offices, in some departments for the first time since 1863. "His administration imposed full racial segregation in Washington and hounded from office considerable numbers of black federal employees." Wilson and his cabinet members fired many black Republican office holders, but also appointed a few black Democrats. W.E.B. DuBois, a leader of the NAACP, campaigned for Wilson and in 1918 was offered an Army commission in charge of dealing with race relations. (DuBois accepted but failed his Army physical and did not serve.) When a delegation of blacks protested his discriminatory actions, Wilson told them that "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen." In 1914, he told New York Times that "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."
Wilson was understandably attacked by African-Americans for his actions, but ironically, he was also attacked by southern hard line racists, such as Georgian Thomas E. Watson, for not going far enough in restricting black employment in the federal government. The segregation introduced into the federal workforce by the Wilson administration was kept in place by the succeeding Republican presidents and was not finally rescinded until the Truman Administration.
Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People explained the Ku Klux Klan of the late 1860s as the natural outgrowth of Reconstruction, a lawless reaction to a lawless period. Wilson noted that the Klan “began to attempt by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot or by any ordered course of public action.” . In short, Wilson accepted the Southern version of Reconstruction with Southern whites being victimized.
Wilson's words were repeatedly quoted in the film The Birth of a Nation, which has come under fire for racism. Thomas Dixon, author of the novel The Clansman upon which the film is based, was one of Wilson's graduate school classmates at Johns Hopkins in 1883-1884. Dixon arranged a special White House preview (this was the first time a film was shown in the White House) without telling Wilson what the film was about. Wilson most likely did not make the statement, "It is like writing history with lightning, my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." That was invented by a Hollywood press agent. In fact, Wilson felt he had been tricked by Dixon and publicly said he did not like the film; Wilson blocked its showing during the war. In a 1923 letter to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas Wilson noted of the reborn Klan, “...no more obnoxious or harmful organization has ever shown itself in our affairs.”
Wilson had some harsh words to say about immigrants in his history books. However, after he entered politics in 1910, Wilson worked to integrate new immigrants into the Democratic party, into the army, and into American life. For example, the war bond campaigns were set up so that ethnic groups could boast how much money they gave. He demanded in return during the war that they repudiate any loyalty to the enemy.
Irish Americans were powerful in the Democratic party and opposed going to war alongside their enemy Britain, especially after the violent suppression of the Easter Rebellion of 1916. Wilson won them over in 1917 by promising to ask Britain to give Ireland its independence. At Versailles, however, he reneged and the Irish-American community vehemently denounced him. Wilson, in turn, blamed the Irish Americans and German Americans for the lack of popular support for the League of Nations, saying,
"There is an organized propaganda against the League of Nations and against the treaty proceeding from exactly the same sources that the organized propaganda proceeded from which threatened this country here and there with disloyalty, and I want to say--I cannot say too often--any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."
In 1921, Wilson and his wife retired from the White House to a home in the Embassy Row section of Washington, D.C. Wilson continued going for daily drives and attended Keith's vaudeville theater on Saturday nights. Wilson died in his S Street home on February 3, 1924. He was buried in Washington National Cathedral. Mrs. Wilson stayed in the home another 37 years, dying on December 28, 1961. Mrs. Wilson left the home to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to be made into a museum honoring her husband. Woodrow Wilson House opened as a museum in 1964.
- Wilson was an early automobile enthusiast, and he took daily rides while he was President. His favorite car was a 1919 Pierce-Arrow.
- Wilson was an avid baseball fan. In 1916 he became the first sitting president to attend a World Series game. Wilson had been a center fielder during his Davidson College days. When he transferred to Princeton he was unable to make the varsity and so became the assistant manager of the team. He was the first President officially to throw out a first ball at a World Series.
- His earliest memory, from age 3, was of hearing that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming.
- Wilson would forever recall standing for a moment at Robert E. Lee's side and looking up into his face.
- As a boy, Wilson owned a greyhound named "Mountain Boy."
- Wilson (born in Virginia and raised in Georgia) was the first Southerner to be elected since 1848 (Zachary Taylor), and the first Southerner to take office since Andrew Johnson in 1865.
- Wilson was also the first Democrat elected to the presidency since Grover Cleveland in 1892. The next Democrat elected was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.
- Wilson was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
- Wilson appeared on the now-out of print (but still technically legal tender) $100,000 bill .The bill was used only to transfer money between Federal Reserve banks.
- Wilson is the only U.S. President buried in Washington, D.C.
- Wilson's first wife Ellen Louise Wilson was related to Confederate General James Longstreet and Union General/President U.S. Grant;
Wilson's second wife Edith Bolling Wilson was descended from Pocahontas.
- Wilson was one of two U.S. Presidents to serve as a university president.
- Wilson remains the only American President to have earned a research doctoral degree.
- His carved initials are still visible on the underside of a table in the History Department at Johns Hopkins University.
- Wilson was one of only two Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt was the first) to become president of the American Historical Association.
- Wilson was president of the American Political Science Association in 1910.
- Wilson was the subject of the 1944 biographical film Wilson, directed by Henry King and starring Alexander Knox as Wilson. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture was a commercial failure, despite receiving ten Oscar nominations and winning five.
- The Italian steam locomotive group FS 735, designed and built by ALCO and Montreal Locomotive Works for Ferrovie dello Stato while Italy was fighting World War I, was nicknamed Wilson after T.W. Wilson, then president of United States .
- In Harry Turtledove's "Great War" trilogy of alternate history novels, Wilson is elected 9th President of the Confederate States of America on the Whig ticket in 1910.
- Wilson at a parade (1918) (file info)
- Wilson tips his hat as he exits the White House on his way to a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue (1918).
- Woodrow Wilson video montage (file info)
- Collection of video clips of the president. (7.5 MB, ogg/Theora format).
- Problems seeing the videos? See media help.
- U.S. presidential election, 1912
- U.S. presidential election, 1916
- History of the United States (1865–1918)
- USS Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624) (An USN SSBN named after President Wilson.)
- Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
- The Woodrow Wilson House (Washington, D.C.)
- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
- World War I
- ^ Walworth ch 1
- ^ Link Road to the White House pp. 3-4.
- ^ Link, Wilson I:5-6; Wilson Papers I: 130, 245, 314
- ^ for details on Wilson's health see Edwin A. Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography (Princeton 1981)
- ^ Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (2005-01-14). Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
- ^ Mulder, John H. Woodrow Wilson: The Years of Preparation. (Princeton, 1978) 71-72.
- ^ Congressional Government, 180
- ^ The Politics of Woodrow Wilson, 41–48
- ^ Congressional Government, 205
- ^ Congressional Government, 186–7
- ^ Congressional Government, 76
- ^ Congressional Government, 132
- ^ David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900,"Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555-75.
- ^ Frozen Republic, 145
- ^ Walworth 1:109
- ^ Walworth v 1 ch 6, 7, 8
- ^ New York Times, Aug 7, 1912
- ^ Arthur S. Link, "Woodrow Wilson" in Henry F. Graff ed., The Presidents: A Reference History (2002) p 370
- ^ Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press, 1991
- ^ Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani, The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations. (2002) p. 202.
- ^ http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060218/presidential_errors_060218/20060218?hub=World
- ^ The successful Communist takeover of Russia in 1917 was also a background factor: many anarchists believed that the worker's revolution that had taken place there would quickly spread across Europe and the United States. Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press, 1991
- ^ Walworth (1986) 473-83, esp. p. 481; Melvin I. Urofsky, American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust, (1995) ch. 6; Frank W. Brecher, Reluctant Ally: United States Foreign Policy toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt. (1991) ch 1-4.
- ^ In 1923 he wrote "The Zionist cause depends on rational northern and eastern boundaries for a self-maintaining, economic development of the country. This means, on the north, Palestine must include the Litani River and the watersheds of the Hermon, and on the east it must include the plains of the Jaulon and the Hauran. Narrower than this is a mutilation...I need not remind you that neither in this country nor in Paris has there been any opposition to the Zionist program, and to its realization the boundaries I have named are indispensable". Quoted in Palestine: The Original Sin , Meir Abelson
- ^ Arthur Link, The Road to the White House (Princeton University Press, 1947) 502
- ^ http://www.umich.edu/%7eurel/admissions/legal/expert/foner.html
- ^ Ellis, Mark. "'Closing Ranks' and 'Seeking Honors': W. E. B. du Bois in World War I" Journal of American History 1992 79(1): 96-124. ISSN 0021-8723 Fulltext in Jstor
- ^ Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People (1931) V:59.
- ^ Link vol 2 pp 252-54.
- ^ Link, Papers of Woodrow Wilson 68:298
- ^ American Rhetoric, "Final Address in Support of the League of Nations", Woodrow Wilson, delivered 25 Sept 1919 in Pueblo, CO. John B. Duff, "German-Americans and the Peace, 1918-1920" American Jewish Historical Quarterly 1970 59(4): 424-459. and Duff, "The Versailles Treaty and the Irish-Americans" Journal of American History 1968 55(3): 582-598. ISSN 0021-8723
- 'Wilson and the Federal Reserve'
- Ambrosius, Lloyd E., “Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies,” Diplomatic History, 30 (June 2006), 509–43.
- Bailey; Thomas A. Wilson and the Peacemakers: Combining Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace and Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (1947)
- Brands, H. W. Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921'’ (2003)
- Clements, Kendrick, A. Woodrow Wilson : World Statesman (1999)
- Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992)
- Clements, Kendrick A. "Woodrow Wilson and World War I," Presidential Studies Quarterly 34:1 (2004). pp 62+.
- Davis, Donald E. and Eugene P. Trani; The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations (2002)online
- Greene, Theodore P. Ed. Wilson at Versailles (1957)
- Hofstadter, Richard. "Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal" in The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 10.
- Knock, Thomas J. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1995)
- N. Gordon Levin, Jr., Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution (1968)
- Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson" in Henry F. Graff ed., The Presidents: A Reference History (2002) pp 365-388
- Link, Arthur Stanley. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1972) standard political history of the era
- Link, Arthur Stanley. Wilson: The Road to the White House (1947), first volume of standard biography (to 1917); Wilson: The New Freedom (1956); Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality: 1914-1915 (1960); Wilson: Confusions and Crises: 1915-1916 (1964); Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: 1916-1917 (1965), the last volume of standard biography
- Link, Arthur S.; Wilson the Diplomatist: A Look at His Major Foreign Policies (1957)
- Link, Arthur S.; Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913-1921 (1982)
- Livermore, Seward W. Woodrow Wilson and the War Congress, 1916-1918 (1966)
- Malin, James C. The United States after the World War 1930. online
- May, Ernest R. The World War and American Isolation, 1914-1917 (1959)
- Saunders, Robert M. In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior (1998)
- Trani, Eugene P. “Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Intervene in Russia: A Reconsideration.” Journal of Modern History (1976). 48:440—61. in JSTOR
- Walworth, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson 2 Vol. (1958), Pulitzer prize winning biography.
- Arthur Walworth; Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 W. W. Norton, 1986
- (12)-Taken directly from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
- The Papers of Woodrow Wilson ed. By Arthur S. Link complete in 69 vol, at major academic libraries. Annotated edition of all of WW's letters, speeches and writings plus many letters written to him
- Tumulty; Joseph P. Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (1921) memoir by chief of staff
- Wilson, Woodrow. The New Freedom (1913) 1912 campaign speeches
- Wilson, Woodrow. Why We Are at War (1917) six war messages to Congress, Jan- April 1917
- Wilson, Woodrow. Selected Literary & Political Papers & Addresses of Woodrow Wilson (3 vol 1918 and later editions)
- Wilson, Woodrow. Messages & Papers of Woodrow Wilson 2 vol (ISBN 1-135-19812-8)
- Wilson, Woodrow. The New Democracy. Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Other Papers (1913-1917) 2 vol 1926 (ISBN 0-89875-775-4
- Wilson, Woodrow. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918).
- The 14 points
This article might use material from a Wikipedia article, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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Social Determinant of Health
Social Determinant of Health
The quality of health is determined by an individual’s environment and access to various opportunities. Typically, people upholds their health by eating healthy and being physically active. Furthermore, access to quality healthcare plays an instrumental role in upholding the quality of life of an individual. In essence, various factors bar people from accessing quality healthcare. The factors are denoted as social determinants. Most social determinant of health factors are linked to an individual’s academic back ground, home environment, neighborhood, workplace safety, and the cleanliness of the food, water and air (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The social determinants differentiate the disparity in health among people in the community. It is prudent for health personnel to identify the social determinants of their patients to establish any barriers to effective care for the patients. Furthermore, doing so will aid the health personnel to know the ideal intervention and treatment to accord a patient.
Nurses can use various strategies to determine their patients’ social determinants. One of the best data collection methods is an open-ended questionnaire. According to O’Cathain and Thomas (2004), use of open ended questions in questionnaires plays a significant role in seeking clarifications and disclose hidden information the researcher did not know about a patient. Notably, it aids the health personnel make informed decision the best treatment to accord the patient. I formulated five questions to assess the patient’s social determinants of health. The questions are
1. What is your highest level of education and job specialization?
I have a Bachelor Degree and working as University Staff.
2. Do you have insurance or access to quality healthcare?
I have medical insurance provided by my employer. I risk losing it now that am nearing retirement.
3. What kind of society or neighborhood do you live in?
My neighborhood comprises of many single-family houses and has sidewalks. Most social amenities are close to the place I live especially the grocery store and gas stations. Moreover, I drive myself most of the time thus accessing the social amenities is not a challenge.
4. What is your home environment like (is it supportive or stressful, do you have children, a wife or a person you live with)?
I am married and got one child. My home environment is supportive.
5. What are your interest and hobbies?
I like cooking and artistic works. Most of the times am indoors either drawing or surfing the internet for the latest development in technology. I like doing research. I also like going out with friends to have drinks at our favorite joint.
Another ideal assessment strategy to apply on the patient is the patient teach back method. The technique entails confirming the patient has understood health education passed to them by a health professional by asking the patient strategic questions (Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, 2015). In essence, the techniques helps a health professional to identify the points the patient did not understand for further clarification. After filling the questionnaire, I asked the patient oral questions associated with the questions he had filled to confirm whether the information he had provided was correct. He responded effectively thus assuring me that the information he had filled was correct. The patient confirmed that his lifestyle had contributed to his health condition since his neighbor did not promote physical activities considering social amenities were near. Moreover, his interests were indoor activities. I also had a one on one interview with the patient where he opened up about his health condition and its association with his lifestyle.
Impact of Patient’s Social Economic Ability on Health
Assessment of the patient’s social economic ability shows that the individual has the potential to afford quality healthcare but lacks awareness of upholding quality healthcare. The patient has medical insurance thus can access quality healthcare. Moreover, the patient works in a renowned institution; consequently, he can afford quality healthcare in an instance where the health insurance cover is limited. The patient has been in employment for a long time and is due to retire in a few years. The socioeconomic ability of the patient will dwindle upon retiring and is likely to lead to a crisis in the family. He is likely to lose his medical insurance cover upon retiring, and with his reduced income, he might find it challenging to afford quality healthcare. In light of the above, the patient’s future economic stability has a significant impact on his health considering he is suffering from a cardiovascular complication.
Education is an important social determinant of health. According to Shankar, Khalema, Couture, Tan, Zulla and Lam (2013), higher education plays a significant role in shaping an individual employment opportunity. Higher education achievement opens an individual to lucrative employment opportunities and improves an individual decision making ability on health issues. The patients is a bachelor’s degree holder, which has earned him a well-paying job at the university. Zulla and Lam assert that education enables an individual to secure a job that allows him to provide for his family (2013). The patient is well paid as he can afford a luxurious lifestyle. He lives in an upscale neighborhood. The man is enlightened considering he knows the latest development in the technology. Access to the internet allows the individual to conduct vast research on topics of interest. The patient shows he has vast ability to make informed decisions about his health. Unfortunately, the patient lacks awareness of the impact of his lifestyle on his health.
Literacy is the capability of an individual to read and write. The patient is highly literate considering his academic qualifications. Health literacy, on the other hand, is the ability of an individual to access and process health information and health services thus enabling him or her to make an informed decision (Office of Disease Prevention and Health). Factors such as an individual’s culture lay and professional knowledge of health topics determine the health literacy of a patient. The patient has a Bachelor’s degree thus can make informed health decisions. Moreover, the patient has an excellent opportunity to obtain health information since he has access to the internet. For this, the patient is likely to make an informed decision and take charge of his health. However, in this instance, the patient is ignorant of the effects of his lifestyle on his health; he chooses to live an unhealthy lifestyle at the expense of his health. For this, it is ideal to conclude that he has contributed partially to his health predicament.
The patient’s education level creates numerous health opportunities and limited barriers for the patients. The patient can surf the internet for the latest health information about his condition and the strategies he can apply to improve the quality of his health (Office of Disease Prevention and Health). His education has secured him medical insurance through his job. His education has given considerable purchasing power that he can afford a luxurious life. Poor social interaction is a major hindrance to upholding quality health for the patient since he is alcoholic thus is likely to interact with alcoholics. Associating with people who practice a certain habit encourages an individual to uphold the behavior (Shankar et al., 2013).
Health and HealthCare Status
The patient is living an unhealthy lifestyle that is likely to aggravate his health condition. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, heavy drinking is likely to lead to blood clots, which makes an individual prone to heart attacks or strokes. In essence, alcoholism makes the patient vulnerable to getting anemia since heavy drinking destroys red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). The patient’s inactivity might make him gain weight uncontrollably making him obese. In return, the patient is likely to get high blood pressure and diabetes because of increased sugar levels in his body. In light of the above, the patient’s lifestyle reduces his quality of life gradually. Unless the patient takes the necessary precautionary measures, he is likely to suffer significantly in his old age.
The patient is living in a high-income area. The patient has an effective means of transport to access healthcare facility for he own a car. Moreover, people living in high-income areas have a high purchasing power attracting all sort of businesspersons. For this, licensed healthcare personnel are likely to establish healthcare clinics in the regions ensuring access to quality care for the individuals. He has access to healthy foods considering there is a grocery in the neighborhood where he can source fresh fruits and vegetables. Notably, patients living in up-scale areas are likely to suffer from various lifestyle conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular complications because of their unhealthy lifestyles and poor eating habits.
Persons living in upscale areas have the ability to afford quality healthcare considering most of them have effective means of transport to access healthcare facilities. Moreover, most of them have financial power to afford quality healthcare since most of them can afford to pay for medical insurance. The situation is different in low-income areas where healthcare clinics are limited and crowded. It makes access to quality healthcare challenging because the individuals have limited purchasing power. Furthermore, the quality of healthcare in the regions is limited considering most patients cannot afford specialized care. Patients living in low scale areas have limited chances of suffering from lifestyle conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular complications since they have limited purchasing power to afford foods and drinks that can contribute to lifestyle diseases (Bissonnete et al., 2012). Moreover, they engage in various physical activities in their jobs.
Notably, patients living in rural areas face challenges accessing healthcare facilities considering the region’s infrastructure is poor especially transport system (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2017). The healthcare facilities in rural areas are underequipped because of limited infrastructure such as electricity and most lack qualified personnel (Bissonnette et al., 2012). Furthermore some hospitals lack essential vaccines to be offered to patients since they lack the necessary equipment to preserve them. The quality of healthcare in the urban centers on the other hand is advanced considering most healthcare facilities are well equipped and have qualified personnel to accord patients quality healthcare (Office of Disease Prevention and Health). Moreover, the hospitals have sufficient medicine stock since they have the facilities to preserve most medicine especially vaccines. The hospitals are linked to crucial infrastructure such as electricity and water. Patients in urban centers can access healthcare facilities easily compared to those living in rural areas. the only similarity between rural and urban healthcare facilities is that they both have the capability to offer basic healthcare services. the quality of health in urban centers is advanced compared to rural areas.
Addressing social determinants
Social determinants determine the quality of health of a patient. The major social determinants that need addressing are health literacy, access to health, and access to technology. The three social determinants are reducing the quality of life of the patient and aggravating the health condition of the patient.
Health Care Plan
The medical records of the patient show that the patient might be suffering from a cardiovascular complication thus I will refer him to a cardiologist for a thorough diagnosis. I will then advise him on the health complications of alcoholism on the patients since his alcoholism puts him at a significant risk of suffering major cardiovascular complications that can lead to death if not attended to efficiently (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). I will advise to seek help in a rehabilitation center in case he finds quitting the habit challenging. I will request a physiotherapist to help me develop simple works for the elderly patient to exercise regularly to reduce his inactivity. According to Booth, Roberts and Laye (2014), I will encourage him to be taking long walks and limit driving often to increase his physical activity. The barrier am likely to experience is lack of co-operation from the patient considering is old age. I will monitor the patient’s progress by making him visit the healthcare facility one bi-weekly.
Conclusively, the patient lifestyle and limited health literacy have contributed to his healthcare condition. However, with the right intervention, the patient is guaranteed of maximum recovery. The patient is fortunate he has limited social determinants that are easily addressable.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2015). Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, 2nd Edition. Retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/quality-resources/tools/literacy-toolkit/healthlittoolkit2-tool5.html
Bissonnette, L., Wilson, K., Bell, S. & Shah, T. (2012). Neighbourhoods and potential access to health care: The role of spatial and aspatial factors. Health & Place. 18(4). 841-853
Booth, F. W., Roberts, C. & Laye, M. (2014). Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases. Comr Physiol. 2(2). Pp.1143-1211
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Featured Resources Addressing Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (n.d). Alcohol's Effects on the Body. Retrieved from https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body
O’Cathain. A & Thomas, K. (2004). "Any other comments?" Open questions on questionnaires – a bane or a bonus to research?. BMC Med Res Methodol. 4(25)
Office of Disease Prevention and Health. (n.d). Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health
Shankar, J., Ip, E, Khalema, E, Couture, J., Tan, S, Zulla, R., & Lam, G. (2013). Education as a Social Determinant of Health: Issues Facing Indigenous and Visible Minority Students in Postsecondary Education in Western Canada. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 10(9). 3908-3929.
Sherwood, G. & Barnsteiner, J. (2017). Quality and safety in nursing : a competency approach to improving outcomes. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. | <urn:uuid:8779b056-d01f-40e9-a6eb-9063642a5998> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.assignmenthelp.net/social-determinant-of-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499468.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20230127231443-20230128021443-00341.warc.gz | en | 0.953685 | 2,919 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)
My favorite clover. This patch was found growing alongside a forested trail near our land.
Trifolium reflexum is a rare native clover which is globally (G3G4) and locally (S3) vulnerable. Its numbers have plummeted in the past 200 years, possibly due to fire suppression.
''Trifolium reflexum'', the buffalo clover, is a species of clover native to the Eastern United States. It is found in areas of natural openings including woodlands, glades, and prairies, often in acidic areas. It is an annual or biennial that produces white to dark pink flowers in the late spring. | <urn:uuid:39164ec9-334b-447a-bb59-78793ccedca0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.jungledragon.com/image/94291/buffalo_clover_trifolium_reflexum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335034.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927131111-20220927161111-00132.warc.gz | en | 0.95667 | 148 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Solid waste industry needs to prepare for disasters
Hurricane season is now underway, with an above-average chance that a major hurricane will hit the Gulf Coast this year, repeating the destructive 2005 season. It is not just the possibilities of hurricanes, however. There are wildfires, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and even an avian flu outbreak, not to mention acts of terrorism.
What kinds of risk-management plans need to be in place for municipal solid waste programs across North America? Is enough being done now to prepare?
Most municipalities have proper plans in place for day-to-day collection and disposal of waste, said Romasa Mohapatra, an architect, environmental planner, and scholar at the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Canada.
“What one doesn’t think about is a well-laid-out plan in case a natural disaster strikes a city,” Mohapatra said. “Disasters themselves generate large quantities of waste, not to forget that a lot of the waste is hazardous and contaminates the soil.”
Planners need to consider the immediate danger to a large landfill site very close to growing neighborhoods, Mohapatra said. “Any kind of risk management plan is futile without the involvement of the community. Plans need to be proactive in nature.”
Dangers need to be considered prior to a disaster. “There needs to be integration at the urban planning level, where cities need to identify risks prior to laying out plans,” Mohapatra said. Cities need to identify and map out the most vulnerable locations and risks related to solid waste. “What one really needs to do is go into communities and start with awareness programs, which emphasize issues related to solid waste,” Mohapatra said.
Bruce Parker, president and chief executive officer of the Washington DC-based trade group National Solid Wastes Management Association, said solid waste companies are often better prepared for a disaster than most cities and other units of government.
“Most major disaster cleanups are done by private waste-management companies working as contractors with local and federal government,” Parker said.
“The national companies and large regional firms have an advantage in that they have more equipment, drivers and other assets to deploy to assist in a disaster.”
Disaster plans for municipalities need to include directives for recycling, materials reuse, hazardous waste treatment, disposal options, environmental and permitting compliance requirements, emergency waivers and compensation, Parker said.
“Execution is where things will break down,” Parker said.
“Solid waste companies are an absolutely critical component to any disaster plan. But, the ultimate success of waste companies is dependent on the affected local government having a comprehensive and well-organized disaster preparedness plan.”
To help members and others prepare for potential disasters, the trade group prepared a research report on how to prepare for an avian influenza outbreak.
The report explores the role the waste management industry may play in managing infected carcasses and associated materials, such as feces, bedding and feed. The paper also provides guidance on the protection of waste management employees involved in the treatment, transportation, and disposal of infected carcasses.
Because the influenza virus is highly contagious, immediate culling of infected and exposed birds is the first line of defense for the protection of human health.
“Most disposal options require special procedures for the transportation of infected carcasses from the point of origin to the disposal site to prevent the spread of the disease. The safe transport of carcasses and associated contaminated materials may be a role for the private solid waste management industry,” according to the report.
“Waste management companies need to decide soon what role they are going to play in the management of infected carcasses and associated materials, including consideration of transportation and disposal issues as well as whether their employees are willing to handle these types of materials,” the research report concludes.
Roxanne Smith, press officer with the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC, said the location and nature of any potential disaster and the resulting types and quantities of waste could vary significantly and would impact a municipality or solid waste service provider’s ability to handle disaster debris.
“Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, ice storms, and tornadoes generate different types of waste, and the severity of the situation dictates the amount of waste to be managed. Municipalities and solid-waste service providers commonly work with neighbors and state agencies to develop disaster debris management plans,” Smith said.
“Discussions between the solid waste industry, communities and state solid-waste agencies could lead to a better understanding of existing capacity for debris and the potential need for developing new or expanded capacity, if preplanning indicates that the potential amount of debris could exceed current capacity.”
Smith said that the solid waste providers would have the ability to recycle some debris after a disaster, which would lessen the burden on landfill capacity.
“Communities should hold discussions to arrange pre-negotiated contracts for debris-management services. It is far better to have pre-negotiated contracts in place prior to a disaster rather than developing them after the fact,” Smith said.
“In addition to pre-negotiated contracts, communities should estimate potential debris amounts; perform an inventory of existing management operations; locate potential areas for staging/storage of debris; identify equipment and administrative needs; and develop a community awareness plan so people know what actions to take.”
Finally, communities need to know all the options available, Smith said. She said reimbursement from state/federal agencies may be easier to obtain if a cleanup plan is already in place before a disaster strikes. | <urn:uuid:9e7d48e5-0c84-4750-bfe6-c1b5d05692a2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanrecycler.com/0807/solid.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942965 | 1,180 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Humboldt Squid, Dosidicus gigas: The Giant Humboldt Squid is a cephalopod and member of the Ommastrephidae Family. Among the true monsters from the deep, it has generated much folklore. The lifecycle and biology of the Humboldt Squid are not well known since it normally resides at depths between 660 and 2,300 feet and spends a great deal of time in the ocean’s “oxygen minimum layer” where very little life exists. It is considered to be the most alien intelligence in the sea and possibly the world since it is so different and exhibits totally unpredictable behavior.
The Giant Humboldt Squid is a fiercely cannibalistic opportunistic predator, attacking anything that moves with lightning strength and speed. It travels in large schools and employs cooperative hunting techniques, feeding primarily on fish. The Humboldt Squid has a large brain, large primate-like stereoscopic eyes, three hearts, blue blood, and eight arms equipped with suction cups rimmed with a bony ring of teeth about the size of a dime.
It seizes its prey with two lightning-fast, hook-laden tentacle clubs, draws the captive into a squirming nest of eight arms, and proceeds to tear chunks of flesh from its body with a disproportionately large, razor-sharp, parrot-like beak that is heavy in mass and very powerful. The tongue or radula has also has a series of rings of curved teeth. The Humboldt Squid has the ability to change color several times per second, from a deep maroon to an opalescent white. It reaches lengths of up to 8 feet and weights to 110 pounds, with lifespans of one to two years. The Humboldt Squid is considered by many biologists to be among the most cunning and ferocious of all animals.
The Humboldt Squid is a pelagic species found in abundance in the central portion of the Sea of Cortez and in other northern waters in times of El Niño. It is a target of commercial fishermen in the central portion of the Sea of Cortez with estimated annual catches of 100,000 tons per year, all on hand lines and most from pangas. Chumming with squid heads is utilized to start the bite. There are an estimated 10 million Giant Squid living in one particularly dense 25-square mile area off the coast of Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico, alone, where it is found in the summer. During the winters, for unknown reasons, the Humboldt Squid is found in the Guaymas area.
There are mixed reports, but the Humboldt Squid is generally not considered dangerous, unless provoked, to humans. In the Los Cabos area it is rare and only appears sporadically. The Humboldt Squid does not give up the fight once on a boat, but bites, grasps with tentacles, and in anger sends out a 5-gallon, fire-hose-like blast of blackish-brown ink that will cover humans from head to toe. | <urn:uuid:f6daaef2-e486-4205-8712-690f14d33e12> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.mexfish.com/fish/hbsquid/hbsquid.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400373899.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123253-00253-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940565 | 640 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Peridot: The Golden Gem of Egypt
At times overlooked in the gemstone world, peridot is nothing short of spectacular natural occurrence. If anything, the way this gem is formed is glorious at the very least.
Just like diamond, it forms as a result of pressure but not in earth’s crust. Instead, it’s birthed in the molten rock of the upper mantle and brought to the surface by no other than volcanoes and earthquakes. Therefore, in Hawaii, peridot symbolizes the tears of Pele – the volcano goddess of fire who controls the flows of lava. Some cool stuff, that is!
Known as the national gemstone of Egypt, peridot was first mined there centuries ago in a small island in Red Sea. In Egypt peridot is referred to as “the gem of the sun” as it is believed that it protects the wearer from the terrors of the night.
Today, the largest peridot deposits are found in San Carlos town in Arizona, near Apache Indian Reservations. Around 85% of all world peridots come from there. Other places include Pakistan, Myanmar, Tanzania, Vietnam, China, and Antarctica.
On Mohs scale of hardness, peridot is ranked at 6.5. Due to its vast availability it is a relatively inexpensive compared to other gems.
Peridot is associated with cycles of life and removal of emotional struggles from one’s body. It is also celebrated as the stone of protection and, in ancient cultures, it served as an evil eye to guard from malice and negative energy.
Until next time, | <urn:uuid:f2ac5964-be44-409c-991e-cd4421eb35ec> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://foxypearljewelry.com/peridot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499524.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20230128054815-20230128084815-00368.warc.gz | en | 0.943786 | 365 | 2.953125 | 3 |
This operation was considered so top secret that Hitler refused to issue a written order. Instead, he communicated verbally his desire that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel should assemble and ultimately command 11 divisions for the occupation of Italy to prevent an Allied foothold in the peninsula.
The Salerno landing (Operation Avalanche) was not the first by the Allies on the Italian mainland. On 3 September Montgomery’s Eighth Army had crossed the Straits of Messina to take Reggio Calabria as a preliminary to the occupation of the toe of Italy. Hitler had nevertheless decided to discount this move as unimportant, a view shared by Montgomery, who was disgruntled at being shunted into a secondary role. The Salerno landing, by contrast, stirred Hitler to order Operation Alarich to begin. Although he failed to prevent the sailing of the Italian fleet to Malta as required by the armistice terms, the Luftwaffe did succeed in sinking the battleship Roma en route by release of one of its new weapons, a guided glider bomb. In almost every other respect, Operation Alarich (now codenamed Achse) worked with smoothness.
Washington was reluctant to commit forces to Italy because it was determined the Alliance should launch an invasion of north-west Europe without avoidable delay. Accordingly, it was very much to Hitler’s advantage that Eisenhower’s lack of landing craft and divisions had obliged him to go ashore so far to the south. In consequence Hitler was able to use the divisions which had escaped from Sicily to concentrate against the Avalanche forces, while he deployed those brought from France and elsewhere (the 1st SS Panzer Division was temporarily transferred from Russia for the mission) to occupy Rome and subdue the Italian army in the centre and north of the peninsula. Before the invasion he had received contradictory advice: Rommel, one of his favourites, had warned against trying to hold the south; Kesselring, the general on the spot and an acute strategic analyst, had assured him that a line could safely be established below Rome. He now employed both men’s talents. While Rommel took charge of the divisions which had been rushed through the Alps to put down military and civilian resistance in Milan and Turin (and to recapture the tens of thousands of Allied prisoners liberated from captivity on Italy’s defection), Kesselring organised the Tenth Army in the south to check and contain the Salerno landing.
German troops elsewhere moved rapidly to disarm and imprison Italian troops or extinguish their resistance when it was offered. The areas of Yugoslavia under Italian occupation were brought under German control or that of their Croat (Ustashi) puppets. Italian-occupied France was taken over by German troops (with tragic consequences for the Jews who had found refuge there). Sardinia and Corsica, regarded as indefensible, were both skilfully evacuated, the former on 9 September, the latter by 1 October after a Free French invading force had come to the rescue of the local insurgents, who had risen in revolt on news of the armistice. In the Italian-occupied sectors of Greece the Germans actually scored a remarkable success against the run of strategic events. Encouraged by an outbreak of fighting between the Germans and the Italian garrison of the Ionian islands on 9 September (brutally put down by the Germans, who shot all the Italian officers they captured), the British, in the teeth of strong and wise American discouragement, invaded the Italian-occupied Dodecanese islands on 12 September and, with Italian acquiescence, took Kos, Samos and Leros. Sensing an easy success, offered by their local command of the air – as the Americans had perceived but the British refused to acknowledge – the Germans assembled a superior triphibious force, retook Kos on 4 October, forced the evacuation of Samos and seized back Leros by 16 November. The Dodecanese operation, painfully humiliating to the British, was then extended into the Cyclades. By the end of November the Germans directly controlled the whole of the Aegean, had taken over 40,000 Italian and several thousand British prisoners, and had actually set back the likelihood of Turkey’s entering the war on the Allied side – Churchill’s justification for mounting his second Greek adventure in the first place.
These were not the only chestnuts plucked by Hitler from the fire raised by Italy’s defection. On 16 September an airborne task force, led by an SS officer, Otto Skorzeny, rescued Mussolini from the mountain resort in the Gran Sasso where he was currently confined. Mussolini at once proclaimed the existence of an ‘Italian Social Republic’ in the north of the country; after 9 October it was to have its own army, formed from soldiers still loyal to him and led by Marshal Rudolfo Graziani, once governor of Libya and Wavell’s opponent in Egypt. The creation of Mussolini’s successor state to fascist Italy ensured that the growing resistance to German occupation of the north would swell into a civil war, with brutal and tragic consequences. To those consequences Hitler was entirely indifferent. Italy’s change of alliance relieved him of the obligation to supply a large part of the country with the coal on which it depended for energy; it added a captive labour force to the body of Italian volunteer workers in German industry; and it brought him nearly a million military prisoners who could also be set to work for the Reich.
Meanwhile the strategic effort to minimise the effect of the Allied invasion of the mainland was developing to his satisfaction. Rommel’s deprecation of the chances of defending Italy south of Rome had proved ill founded. Kesselring, by affiliation an officer of the Luftwaffe but by training and background a product of the general staff elite, had correctly argued that the Italian terrain lent itself admirably to defence. The peninsula’s central mountain spine, rising in places to nearly 10,000 feet, throws numerous spurs east and west towards the Adriatic and Mediterranean. Between the spurs, rivers flow rapidly in deep valleys to the sea. Rivers, spurs and mountain spine together offer a succession of defensible lines at close intervals, made all the more difficult to breach because the spine pushes the north-south highways into the coastal strip, where the bridges that carry them are dominated by natural strongpoints on the spurs above.
Salerno, the spot chosen by the Central Mediterranean Force staff for the main landing in Italy, falls exactly within this topographical pattern. Although the coastal strip is unusually wide and level (the factor recommending the beaches to the planners), it is dominated on all sides by high ground and the exit northward is blocked by the massif of Mount Vesuvius. Had Kesselring had sufficient force available at the outset, he might have formed the line across the peninsula that he had assured Hitler was militarily feasible, perhaps as far south as Naples. Commanding as he did, however, only seven divisions in his Tenth Army, of which the 16th Panzer alone was at full strength, he was obliged to commit what strength he had against the northern edge of the bridgehead with the aim of denying the invaders a swift exit towards Naples, and thus win time to construct a front above the city (eventually to be known as the Winter Position).
Despite the Tenth Army’s immediate weakness, it nevertheless gave the Avalanche force a bad time in the first week of the invasion. Mark Clark, the American general commanding the Fifth Army, had two corps under his command, the British X and US VI. Supported by overwhelming naval and air bombardments, both got easily ashore on 9 September. They were slow to exploit their initial superiority, however, and next day came under heavy counter-attack from German reserves, including those from the toe of Italy who had escaped Montgomery’s army. Counter-attacks by the 16th Panzer Division were particularly effective. On 12 September it retook from the British the key village of Battipaglia, close to their boundary with the Americans; the next day, together with 29th Panzergrenadier Division, it redoubled the pressure, threatening to break the bridgehead in half and cut the British off from the Americans who lost Altavilla and Persano and were preparing to re-embark their assault divisions. The Allies managed to stabilise the bridgehead by unleashing a tremendous weight of firepower on the advancing Germans. While the infantry of the US 45th Division took to their heels, the division’s artillerymen stuck to their guns and, with naval and air support, eventually halted the German Panzergrenadiers in their tracks.
By 15 September, thanks to the landing of British armour and American airborne infantry in the bridgehead, the crisis had passed. General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, in direct command of the Tenth Army, recognised that the balance of force had now shifted against him, and Kesselring accordingly sanctioned a fighting withdrawal towards the first of his chosen mountain lines further north. Montgomery’s Eighth Army had been reinforced by the British 1st Airborne Division, which on 9 September had landed at Taranto. On 16 September spearheads of the Eighth Army, advancing from Calabria, made contact with the Americans in the bridgehead south of Salerno. Two days later the Germans began their withdrawal, covering it by blowing the bridges in their rear as the Fifth Army pursued them. On 1 October British troops entered Naples. Meanwhile the Eighth Army had pushed two divisions, including the 1st Canadian, up the Adriatic coast to capture the complex of airfields at Foggia, from which it was intended to mount strategic bombing raids into southern Germany. In early October the Fifth and Eighth Armies established a continuous line across the peninsula, 120 miles long, running along the Volturno river north of Naples and the Biferno river which flows into the Adriatic at Termoli. | <urn:uuid:9d22c42a-23df-4a2d-8865-06079b2aed3d> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/03/17/hitlers-counter-measures-in-italy-1943/?replytocom=11540 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540518882.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20191209121316-20191209145316-00467.warc.gz | en | 0.978934 | 2,037 | 3.34375 | 3 |
If you are allergic to strawberries, your immune system triggers the production of IgE (immunoglobulin E), an antibody and histamine each time that you eat strawberries. The production of the antibodies and histamine cause specific symptoms within the body, and according to the National Institutes of Health, the symptoms usually occur within 2 hours of ingestion. In addition to avoiding strawberries themselves, watch out for products with strawberries in them -- such as condiments, juices, yogurts, ice creams and baked goods -- or foods that have been handled or prepared near strawberries
The first symptoms that occur with a food allergy, such as strawberries, usually occur in the mouth area. You may feel a tingling sensation in, or around, the mouth. The tingling may soon be followed by swelling, which can affect the lips, the mouth, the tongue and the throat, which may feel like it is closing shut. The swelling of the throat is a very serious symptom and you should seek medical attention immediately, as the swelling could cut off the air flow to your lungs.
Strawberry allergy symptoms also are visible on the skin. You may suddenly develop red blotches on the skin, such as hives, which is accompanied by an itch. The redness that develops on the skin may not be in blotches or hives, but can also appear as a generalized rash, or eczema. You may notice swelling in the hands, fingers or facial area. Along with swelling of the facial skin, you may have watery, itchy eyes as well as a runny or congested nose.
A strawberry allergy can affect the gastrointestinal system as well. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and a general upset stomach, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. These symptoms may be accompanied by diarrhea, abdominal swelling, abdominal cramps and abdominal pain.
Respiratory symptoms are the most disturbing symptoms of a strawberry allergy, and can be the most severe. They can occur within minutes, or hours, of eating a strawberry or strawberry product, and include trouble breathing, possibly accompanied by a wheezing sound, and a tightening of the chest. These symptoms may or may not be accompanied by chest pains, but if the allergic reaction is severe, you may also experience a rapid pulse, sudden drop in blood pressure, dizziness, fainting, shock and a loss of consciousness.
If you experience any of these symptoms when eating strawberries, or any food, seek medical attention immediately. | <urn:uuid:9b1e1567-fccb-4f44-9b6a-fdba83dbdfea> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://www.livestrong.com/article/32259-symptoms-strawberry-allergies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738662856.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173742-00172-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951828 | 506 | 3.015625 | 3 |
What is Plant Protein?
Plant protein is exactly what it sounds like — protein that comes from a plant. Proteins are considered essential nutrients, and they’re classified as macronutrients. There are two other macronutrients: fats and carbohydrates.
Proteins are made up of chains of various amino acids, and different proteins can contain different amino acids.
Plant proteins play a key role in eating patterns across the globe. According to the study Plant proteins in relation to human protein and amino acid nutrition, “Plant protein foods contribute approximately 65% of the per capita supply of protein on a worldwide basis and approximately 32% in the North American region.”
How is Plant Protein Different from Animal Protein?
Many animal proteins contain all the essential amino acids that the human body needs. Plant proteins, on the other hand, are more varied. Some of them have fewer essential amino acids than animal proteins, which can make it harder for the body to process and use them (source). The way to sidestep this imbalance is to eat a variety of plant proteins. When a different plant protein foods are consumed together, they can contain all the different amino acids that the human body needs. Lots of research confirms this, including the study Plant proteins in relation to human protein and amino acid nutrition, which asserts, “mixtures of plant proteins can serve as a complete and well-balanced source of amino acids that effectively meet human physiological requirements,” concluding,”Mixtures of plant proteins can be fully adequate for meeting human requirements.”
Variety is especially important when it comes to protein foods — both plant and animal. The Dietary Guidelines for Americansrecommend that people eat protein foods from a variety of sources, asserting, “Consumption of a balanced variety of protein foods can contribute to improved nutrient intake and health benefits.” Why is this so important? In addition to ensuring that people get enough of each essential amino acid, eating a variety of protein foods means variation from a few protein staples that aren’t as good for people’s health. Many animal sources of protein are also loaded with saturated fat. Steaks, sausages, bacon, and drumsticks are all examples of animal protein foods that are high in saturated fat. MyPlate insists “To lower risk for heart disease, [people should] cut back on foods containing saturated fats.” The Dietary Guidelines for Americans back up this assertion, advising people to “Replace protein foods that are higher in solid fats with choices that are lower in solid fats and calories and/or are sources of oils.”
Plant proteins do not contain nearly the amount of saturated fat that many animal protein sources feature. In fact, most plant protein doesn’t have any saturated fat at all! In addition to not containing this unhealthful fat, these plant sources of protein may actually have health-boosting effects. According to the study, Health benefits and risks of plant proteins, “A sufficient consumption of plant proteins has […] protective effects against chronic degenerative diseases.” The authors of another study, Plant and animal protein intakes are differently associated with nutrient adequacy of the diet of French adults, assert “Plant protein is a robust marker of a healthy diet.” There are many other sources that highlight the positive health impact of plant-protein-based foods, which is whyMyPlate recommends that people “Eat plant protein foods more often.”
The most common foods that contain plant protein include…
- Black beans
- Chickpeas/garbanzo beans
- Kidney beans
- Pinto beans
- Tofu and other soy products
- Brazil nuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sesame seeds
- Sunflower seeds
The following grain foods also contain some plant protein…
- Whole wheat products
Here are a few great recipes for tasty foods that contain plant protein…
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans (USDA, USDHHS)
- Health benefits and risks of plant proteins (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
- Plant and animal protein intakes are differently associated with nutrient adequacy of the diet of French adults (Journal of Nutrition)
- Plant proteins in relation to human protein and amino acid nutrition(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
- What are Solid Fats? (USDA)
- With Protein Foods, Variety is Key (MyPlate)
“Copyright foodandhealth.com, reprinted with permission” | <urn:uuid:ece7a7af-d247-40cf-a70c-9fbe69d6ec62> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.z-physique.com/plant-protein/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652663016373.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20220528093113-20220528123113-00422.warc.gz | en | 0.949415 | 997 | 3.65625 | 4 |
It is a real treat and a privilege to be able to hear Grada talk about the emerging practice of live blood analysis. Here are her Purple house notes and also below a bit of the background reading I’ve been doing on the subject and a most excellent contribution from Robyn Hennessy.
Although not so long ago a microscope was standard equipment in a doctors office there is plenty of bad press surrounding the use of Live Cell Microscopy in primary patient health care at the present time in western medicine. Routine pathology now relies mainly on samples being shipped to distant laboratories. Even if the cells are not quite dead by the time they arrive, the staining and fixing techniques commonly used for imaging under a light microscope will render them non functional.
However Live Cell Imaging techniques are very much in the forefront of modern biological research and experimentation even if its not part of a visit to the Devonport Super clinic yet. The major microscope manufacturers such as Nikon and Leica maintain excellent websites if you would like to learn more about mainstream live cell imaging. This year at the Howard Hughes medical research centre “A new kind of microscope has been invented that is able to non-invasively take a three dimensional look inside living cells with stunning results.”
The diagnostic interpretation of the live images you will see is what remains controversial. Some practitioners such as Grada subscribe to the pleomorphic theory of disease put forward by Antoine Bechamp which is in direct conflict with the germ paradigm set out by his contemporary Louis Pasteur.
“Bechamp discovered tiny organisms he called “microzymas” which are present in all things – animal, vegetable, and mineral, whether living or dead. Depending upon the condition of the host, these microzymas could assume various forms. Bad bacteria and viruses were simply the forms assumed by the microzymas when there was a condition of disease. In a diseased body, the microzymas became pathological bacteria and viruses. In a healthy body, microzymas formed healthy cells.” http://www.whale.to/v/bechamp1.html
( Modern medicine has not exactly refuted this theory and i suspect even may have a slightly different way of describing an essentially similar process. I have been much interested in following the developments in the understanding of the effect of selenium deficiency on the virulence of emerging viruses )
A vastly more powerful light microscope system – the Ergonom microscope, marketed by Grayfield Optical inc. has recently been invented by the german engineer Kurt Olbrich who also subscribes to this camp. It allows for unstained living samples to be observed, even cultured and studied reacting in realtime to various conditions.
The Hidden Cause of Cancer and Autoimmune Diseases http://www.health-science-spirit.com/pleomorphics.htm By Walter Last (PLEOMORPHIC MICROBES – printer friendly word doc)
Many thanks to Robyn Hennessy for passing along this information. The videos from the (Olbrich) Grayfield microscope website mentioned in the article are astonishing in their detail. As Walter says – ignore the sometimes difficult audio and concentrate on what you are seeing….. an be amazed!
Carolyn Rutter VP | <urn:uuid:76f91363-7843-4b94-9c84-ce96e1ffbde1> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://astrotas.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/live-cell-microscopy-primer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823731.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020044747-20171020064747-00712.warc.gz | en | 0.943822 | 669 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The outstanding success of the exhibition is a testimony to Kahlo’s international eminence in the art world and her powerful image as a cult figure and feminist icon. More than fifty years after her death she is admired not only for her work, but also for her rebellious bohemian nonconformity, her passionate socialism, and her iron-willed determination to overcome her many misfortunes and live life to the full.
But to admire her work is one thing, to fully appreciate it is another. To do so it is necessary to know something of her story and her cultural background.
Frida was born on July 6, 1907, the third daughter of Matilde Calderon, a Mexican woman, and Wilhelm Kahlo, a German Jew of Hungarian parentage who arrived in Mexico when he was 19 years old. From an early age she was acutely aware of the frailty of the human frame, often witnessing her father’s epileptic fits while she was still in her infancy. When she was six years old she was stricken by polio, which left her right leg and foot thin and deformed. Other children called her “Peg-leg Frida”, which must have hurt her deeply, but her father did his best to help her through the ordeal; he massaged her leg, encouraged her with her therapy, and displayed his great love for his favourite daughter. She was always much closer to him than to her deeply religious mother.
In 1922 she was one of only 35 girls in an intake of 2,000 pupils accepted into the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, the best school in Mexico. There she would study languages and natural sciences, hoping eventually to become a doctor.
This was at a time when Mexico was experiencing a rebirth of national pride, rejecting the old European colonial influences and reviving its native culture.
The Preparatoria was at the very heart of this revival and it was here that Frida’s pride in her Mexican heritage was intensified; hereafter she would give her year of birth as 1910, the year which saw the start of the Mexican revolution. In the school there were several cliques; most prominent among them was “The Cachuchas”, several of whom were later to become left-leaning members of Mexico’s intelligentsia. Frida joined this clique and became the girl friend of its undisputed leader, a handsome young law student named Alejandro Gomez Arias. Throughout her student days she still had to work to help support her family, but life was looking good, the future was full of promise. Then, on the afternoon of September 17, 1925, all her dreams were shattered.
It was the most terrible day in her life; she and Alejandro were travelling in a wooden bus which was hit by an electric trolley car, apparently not an unusual occurrence in Mexico City in those days. Her injuries were horrendous: her collarbone was broken, her right leg had eleven fractures and her right foot was dislocated and crushed. Her spinal column was broken in three places, her left shoulder dislocated and two ribs broken. Her pelvis was also broken in three places, thus denying her the children she longed for in later life. A steel handrail had pierced the left side of her body and exited through her vagina. To add indignity to her pain the wreckage had by some fluke ripped the clothes from her body, leaving her completely nude. Alejandro, who had been sitting beside her, was not seriously injured.
The doctors did not believe she would survive, but a month later she was released from hospital to convalesce at home. From then onwards her life was a struggle against her relentlessly deteriorating physical condition. She would undergo dozens of operations, suffer almost constant pain, and be continually reminded of her own mortality. It was at this time that she began to paint. Her parents had a canopy placed over her bed with a mirror on the underside so that she could paint herself. She sent her first self-portrait as a gift to her beloved Alejandro, along with many letters imploring him to visit her. But although they remained good friends Alejandro was no longer interested in a romantic relationship with the battered, broken eighteen-year-old who so recently had been the object of his affection.
So Frida continued to paint, gradually adapting her style until it became more identifiably Mexican. She struck up a friendship with the beautiful American photographer Tina Modoti, and it was through her that she joined the Communist party. She also became acquainted with the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She had seen Diego at work in the Preparatoria when she was a student there. She and Diego fell in love and in 1928 he included her in his painting “The Ballad of the Revolution”. He depicted her distributing guns to revolutionary fighters. The following year they were married. Her mother was strongly opposed to the marriage because Diego was ugly, he was twenty years her senior, and he was a communist. She did not attend the wedding.
Diego was an incurable philanderer, but although women found him irresistible he was no handsome prince; once when they were trading insults Frida told him he had a face like a frog, and she was not exaggerating – any frog within earshot would have demanded an apology! But there was a plus side to the flamboyant artist; he was generous to Frida and her family, and he was sincere in his socialist beliefs. In 1929 he was expelled from the Communist party because of his opposition to Stalin, so Frida resigned out of loyalty to her husband. She continued to paint, and her painting continued to improve, but for years she felt that she was living under the shadow of her husband.
In 1930, after her first pregnancy was terminated, she accompanied Diego to San Francisco where he had a commission. Diego’s next commission was in Detroit, where Frida’s second pregnancy ended with a miscarriage in 1932. Her mother died the same year, and although she had always claimed there was no real bond between her and her mother, she wept uncontrollably at the news. Diego’s last major commission before returning to Mexico was a mural for the Rockefeller centre in New York. This led to his famous altercation with Rockefeller, who ordered him to remove Lenin’s face from the mural. To his credit Diego refused, so Rockefeller paid him off, had him evicted from the centre, and later destroyed the mural. They returned to Mexico at the end of 1933.
Although she did not like America’s puritanical bourgeois society she did make many good friends there, including Dr. Leo Eloesser, who became her lifelong medical adviser. She also conceded that when the Americans fight you “…even the Rockefellers don’t stab you in the back.” Her visit to America also inspired two of her best-known paintings, ‘My Dress Hangs Here’ and ‘Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States’. It was also during their stay in New York that Diego angered Frida’s American friends by neglecting her in order to have an affair with a young divorcee. “I have this deplorable trend of hurting those I love,” he explained. The following year he was to hurt her even more.
1934 was a terrible year in Frida’s life: her third pregnancy was terminated, her right foot was operated on and several toes amputated, and to add to her anguish Diego had an affair with her sister Cristina. This was too much. In 1935 she moved into a small apartment in Mexico City. She could not stop loving Diego, but from now she was going to give as good as she got; that year she met and had an affair with the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Diego threatened to shoot him. All Frida’s pain and anger can be seen in the painting she did that year: ‘A few small nips’.
They were reunited and parted several times after that, but Frida was now moving out of Diego’s shadow. In 1936 she had another operation on her right foot. She was back in the couple’s joint home that year and was very active in her support of the Spanish Republicans. At this time the plight of the great hero of the Russian revolution, Leon Trotsky, became desperate. Expelled from Norway under pressure from Russia, he and his wife had been refused asylum by country after country. Diego Rivera presented president Cárdenas with a petition for Trotsky’s asylum, and Cárdenas consented; thus on the morning of January 9, 1937, Trotsky and his wife set foot on Mexican soil.
Frida gave them the use of the Blue House in Coyoacán, the house in which she had been born.
It has been suggested that Frida’s affair with Trotsky was an attempt by her to get revenge on Diego for his affair with her sister. Utter nonsense! When Frida Kahlo looked at Leon Trotsky she knew she was looking at no ordinary man. This was the intellectual giant driven by an unshakeable resolve to change the world, this was the living legend hero-worshipped by revolutionaries the world over; it is hardly surprising that these two outstanding personalities were drawn to each other.
Their liaisons took place in Cristina’s house, but it was doomed to be a brief affair. Trotsky’s bodyguards were worried that the volatile Diego would get wind of it and impulsively end the career of his political idol with a bullet, and furthermore, Natalia Trotsky was no fool; she knew what was going on and she did not deserve to be hurt this way. So after a few weeks the affair was ended. Trotsky moved to a farm eighty miles outside of Mexico City. The affair was not just another conquest for Frida; she gave him a gift of a self-portrait inscribed: “For Leon Trotsky with all love I dedicate this painting.” She also wrote to a friend in 1938 that meeting Trotsky was the best thing that ever happened in her life.
In the following years she greatly increased her painting output, and concentrated on improving her technique; she was determined to be financially independent although she pretended to be modest, implying that anyone who would buy her paintings had more money than sense. But people did start buying her pictures. It began when Diego showed some of her work to the film actor and serious art collector Edward G. Robinson. He bought four of them at $200 each. She was delighted at this breakthrough: “This way I’ll be free, I’ll be able to travel and do what I want without asking Diego for money.” Her confidence boosted by this unexpected sale, she held her first solo exhibition in the Julian Levy gallery in New York.
Although the exhibition gained much favourable publicity from the fact that she was Diego’s wife it established her reputation as an artist in her own right. More than half the paintings were sold and she received great acclaim from the press and the art world. She had now truly emerged from Diego Rivera’s shadow. And just to emphasize the point she had an affair with the photographer Nicholas Murray.
From there she took her work to Paris where the French surrealist André Breton had helped arrange an exhibition of her works. Before the exhibition could open she wound up in hospital with inflammation of the kidneys and bladder. When she recovered she arranged, with Diego’s help, for four hundred refugees from the Spanish Civil War to gain asylum in Mexico. When the show opened in March 1939, it was a critical but not a financial success. Afterwards she returned to New York for a short stay then moved back to her family home in Coyoacán. That year she and Diego were divorced.
There are several rumours about the reason for the divorce (which was instigated by Diego). Both claimed it was the only way to preserve their friendship, and it is also thought that Diego was trying to protect her from possible reprisals by his political enemies. In any case the split was amicable and they continued to see each other and work together, although Frida confided in a letter to her ex-lover Nick Murray that she was feeling rejected and depressed. In truth, she was heartbroken.
During that period she worked harder than ever, not only because she needed to make a living, but also because she needed to smother the pain that Diego had caused her. Her friends rallied round her at this time, sending her money and helping with her medical bills.
In May, 1940, an unsuccessful attempt was made on Trotsky’s life by a group of Stalinists. Diego Rivera was wrongly implicated and had to leave Mexico for his own safety. He went to San Francisco where he had been promised some work. But on August 20, a Stalinist agent named Ramón Mercader murdered Trotsky by smashing into his skull with an ice pick. Because she had known Mercader, Frida was also wrongly suspected of complicity. Although her health was very poor at this time, she and Cristina were arrested and imprisoned for two days. Worried about Frida’s worsening health, Diego informed her medical adviser Dr Eolesser about her situation. The doctor immediately contacted her and implored her to come to San Francisco. She did so and under his supervision her health greatly improved. During this time Diego realized how badly the divorce had affected Frida’s health; he also realized that he needed her as much as she needed him. They remarried on December 5. Frida stipulated that there would be no more sexual intercourse between them and that she would accept no money from him, living only on the money from her paintings. Diego was happy to have her back whatever the conditions. She returned to Mexico to spend Christmas with her family and Diego followed her in February after being cleared of any implication in Trotsky’s assassination. They settled quickly into a much more contented relationship, but Frida’s new found happiness was marred by the death of her beloved father that year.
In the 1940s Frida’s artistic reputation continued to grow. She became a member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicano in 1942, and the following year was awarded a professorship at the La Esmeralda School of Art. She taught twelve lessons a week there.
After a few months, crippled by pain and forced to wear a steel corset, she became housebound; undeterred, she conducted her lessons from her home. In the years that followed her health deteriorated at an increasing pace, but she still remained politically active (she rejoined the Communist Party in 1948) and still continued to paint when she could, although the quality of her work would decline along with her health. In 1946 the Ministry of Public Education awarded her a national prize for her picture ‘Moses,’ and that same year she had to go to New York for a spinal operation.
In 1950 she underwent seven operations on her spine and had to spend nine months in hospital. After being discharged from hospital she spent most of her time in a wheelchair and was constantly dependent on painkillers.
In 1953, sensing that Frida had not long to live, her friend Lola Alvarez Bravo planned the first solo exhibition of Frida’s work in Mexico. Frida was delighted and was determined to ignore her doctor’s advice and attend the exhibition personally. On the opening night her four-poster bed was wheeled into the hall. Shortly afterwards Frida arrived by ambulance and was laid on the bed wearing one of her traditional Mexican dresses. Her friends gathered round her and they drank and sang songs well into the night. Despite her pain and great physical discomfort it must surely have been one of the happiest nights of her life. The show was such a success that it had to be extended for a month.
But yet another setback was in store for her that year; she was told that she would have to lose her right leg. There was no choice, she was in terrible pain, her body was ravaged by drugs and the gangrene was advancing. She became deeply depressed after the operation, but her spirits lifted when, after a few months, she learned to walk short distances with the aid of an artificial leg.
Still full of fight, Frida defied doctor’s orders in July, 1954, to take part in a demonstration. She joined thousands of Mexicans in the streets, Diego pushing her wheelchair, to protest against the CIA’s interference in Guatemala. A photograph of her at the protest shows her looking ill and tired, but still defiant.
On the July 12, she gave Diego a ring as a twenty-fifth anniversary present. When Diego asked why she was giving him it when the anniversary date was still about a month away, she said “Because I feel I’m going to leave you soon.”
The next day, in the very same house where it began, her life came to an end.
Let us now view some of her work at the exhibition and see what it can tell us.
Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress, 1926
This was the painting she gave as a gift to Alejandro Gomez Arias in an unsuccessful attempt to regain his affections while she was recovering from the horrendous injuries she sustained in the streetcar accident. A strong European influence is obvious in her style, reminiscent of the old Italian masters. It is a style she was soon to change.
My Grandparents, My Parents and I, 1936
She was intensely conscious of her roots, of where she was coming from and who she was. She portrays herself as a very young child standing in the garden of her family home. She is holding a red ribbon, one end of which reaches up to her maternal grandparents hovering above the Mexican landscape, the other reaching to her paternal grandparents hovering above the sea. She also paints herself as a foetus in her mother’s womb, and below that, the moment of her conception. This fascination with her origins would appear in many of her works.
La Adelita, Pancho Villa, and Frida, 1927
Political from an early age, here she identifies herself with The Mexican Revolution by painting herself with its heroes.
My Birth, 1932
Her lifelong fascination with birth, life and death. While she was working on this picture her own mother died. The child being born is herself and the covered head and upper torso is almost certainly a reference to her mother’s death.
A Few Small Nips, 1935
This work was inspired by a real murder case in which the killer tried to defend his actions by claiming, “…it was only a few small pricks.” We see the jealous man showing no sign of remorse as he looks down on the bloody corpse of the woman he has just butchered. It refers not only to the violent abuse of women but also to the pain beyond measure that Frida felt on discovering that her husband and her favourite sister were having an affair.
Henry Ford Hospital, 1932
This was one of the paintings that gained her recognition among the surrealists but strictly speaking her work was not surrealist and she did not wish to be associated with the movement. Many of her paintings were symbolic and could be easily decoded. All the objects surrounding her in this painting are related to her miscarriage at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She was still desperately longing for a child of her own.
My Nurse and I, 1937
When she was born Frida was wet nursed by a native woman. There is no sign of affection on the woman’s mask like face but Frida is absorbing the culture of her native land and her Mexican ancestors.
Self-Portrait On The Borderline Between Mexico and The United States, 1932
Here we see Frida standing between her ancient Mexican homeland and the brash, heavily industrialized United States. The Mexican flag she holds indicates where her loyalties lie. Unlike Diego, who loved being in America, she was never happy to be away from her native land.
My Dress Hangs Here, 1933
Here she is showing her strong dislike of American capitalism with its destructive, wasteful vulgarity and its lack of basic human values.
The Two Fridas, 1939
Possibly her best-known work, she painted this while she was divorced from Diego Rivera. The Frida on the right is the one Diego loves; she is wearing a Tehuana costume and holding a small picture of Diego as a child (she often referred to him as a child). An artery from her exposed heart is connected to the heart of the other Frida, the one he does not love. This Frida wears a European dress and she is trying unsuccessfully to stop the artery from her heart bleeding on to her dress; she is slowly dying because Diego does not love her.
Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
“See if I loved you, it was only for your hair. Now that you’re bald I don’t love you any more.” These are the words, written in Spanish at the top of the painting, of a song that was popular in Mexico at the time. Believing that she was loved only for her feminine allure, Frida crops her hair to make herself less sexually attractive. She also wears a man’s suit, probably to reflect her bisexuality. More than half of her paintings were self-portraits. This was not vanity; she often exaggerated her joined eyebrows and the facial hair on her upper lip; she even entitled one of her self-portraits ‘Very Ugly.’
The Broken Column, 1944
A lonely desolate figure stands in a lonely desolate landscape. The broken column is her shattered spine and her body is held together by the steel corset she was forced to wear. The pins obviously represent her mental and physical pain and the tear stained face says it all. There have been many fanciful interpretations put on this painting, but the picture speaks for itself: “I still want to live, my friends, but how much more can I take?” Never in the history of art has there been a more powerful portrayal of human loneliness and despair.Conclusion
Frida Kahlo’s work is gaining a huge number of admirers all over the world. It is significant that once she was famous for being Diego Rivera’s wife, but now her fame has eclipsed even that of the great Mexican muralist who gave her so much joy and caused her so much pain. Her too brief life was an incessant struggle against physical and emotional torture and she fought hard against increasingly insurmountable odds until the fight became just too much for her. To know her, and to empathize with her, makes it so much easier to appreciate the unique greatness of her art. Standing in a gallery looking at her work the viewer feels as if he can see right into her heart and soul. | <urn:uuid:65b24dd7-8dcd-470e-ba2f-1f2b808e80e4> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://www.marxist.com/frida-kahlo-tate071005/print.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221213666.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20180818114957-20180818134957-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.991627 | 4,770 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Prince George's County
Prince George’s County lies primarily within the Atlantic Coastal Plain physiographic region, which ranges from nearly level to gently rolling topography. A small section of the county along the border with Montgomery County is considered part of the Piedmont Plateau and is somewhat more hilly. The population in 1998 was approximately 778,000 and is projected to reach 852,400 by 2010. Prince George’s County is almost entirely suburbanized because of its strategic metropolitan location and its physical suitability for development. A good portion of new development is occurring in the Indian Head Highway (Rt. 210) and the Rt. 50/301 corridors.
The county covers approximately 311,750 land acres. Scattered agricultural land is located in the southeast and central east portions of the county. The county has about 24,000 acres in its park system. The park system has about 6,200 acres of river parks, 7,100 acres of stream valley parks, and 5,200 acres of community parks. The acquisition of stream valleys for public parkland has been a major endeavor of Prince George’s County since 1927 with the creation of the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).
The local greenways network is being invigorated by the county’s Community/Park Schools Centers design concept. New schools are being proposed near existing parkland and community centers. A new mixture of funding will provide better facilities that can serve a variety of educational and community needs.
Site specific park plans (e.g., the Patuxent River Park Plan and plans for the Anacostia River) establish conceptual uses for specific lands within a designated area of the park system. Sixty-two hundred (6,200) acres have been preserved as the Patuxent Greenways. The county has received transportation enhancement funds to complete the Anacostia Tributary Trail System inside the Capital Beltway.
The county’s current General Plan calls for the staging of the development of recreational facilities to be proportional to population growth in specific areas. Future needs for parkland were anticipated (in 1982 and 1992) for the northern, central, and southern portions of the county. The open space goals, established by the General Plan, are redefined by each Area Master Plan where achievable and measurable growth objectives are established. The county is an active participant in the state’s Rural Legacy Program.
1) Anacostia Tributary Trails System
The Anacostia Tributary Trails System is an existing network of stream valley parks including: Beaverdam Creek, Indian Creek, Little Paint Branch, Northeast Branch, Northwest Branch, Paint Branch, and Sligo Creek stream valley parks. This greenways system extends through most of the northern third of the county and into Montgomery County. It serves resource protection, recreation, and transportation purposes.
The Anacostia Tributary Trail system located within the Anacostia Headwaters Greenways, contains approximately 25 miles of trails. This trail system includes popular facilities such as Lake Artemesia in College Park. The system also provides linkages between densely populated residential communities and four Metro stations.
1a) Beaverdam Creek
This corridor originates north of Bowie and connects with Indian Creek to the southwest. The greenways corridor is owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
1b) Indian Creek
Indian Creek originates south of Laurel and flows through the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Greenbelt, and Berwyn Heights. Linkages occur with both Beaverdam Creek and Paint Branch. M-NCPPC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture own a majority of the Indian Creek stream corridor. A multi-use trail is located in the southern section of the greenways. This path links with the Paint Branch and Northeast Branch trails and Lake Artemesia.
1c) Little Paint Branch
The greenways corridor along Little Paint Branch begins north of Calverton at Fairland Regional Park and flows south to connect with Paint Branch. Portions of the stream valley are owned by M-NCPPC. The greenways protects riparian resources and provides recreational opportunities. A segment of multi-use trail exists along the stream valley between Sellman Road and Rt. 212.
1d) Northeast Branch
Northeast Branch originates at the confluence of Indian Creek and Paint Branch. The stream flows to the south, connecting with Northwest Branch to form the Anacostia River just below Hyattsville. A multi-use trail exists along the Northeast Branch from Indian Creek and Paint Branch to the Anacostia River. Transportation enhancement funds were used to complete this trail. The trail system provides non-motorized access to the West Hyattsville and College Park Metro stations.
1e) Northwest Branch
Northwest Branch originates in Montgomery County and links with Sligo Creek near Chillum. The corridor is owned by M-NCPPC. A multi-use trail exists in the Northwest Branch corridor. Transportation enhancement funds have been used to complete the trail and provide a connection to Northeast Branch. The trail system provides non-motorized access to Metro stations.
1f) Paint Branch
Paint Branch originates in Montgomery County. The stream valley makes connections with Little Paint Branch, Indian Creek, and Northeast Branch. M-NCPPC owns portions of the corridor, providing paved trail connections to the University of Maryland, Metro, and Lake Artemesia.
1g) Sligo Creek
Sligo Creek originates in Montgomery County and connects with Northwest Branch near Chillum. M-NCPPC owns and manages the corridor. The Sligo Creek Park includes a bicycling-walking route along the greenways, providing an important, non-motorized link between the red and green Metro lines.
2) Cabin Branch
Cabin Branch, which runs through a heavily urbanized section of the county, is the number one trail/bikeway priority in the county. M-NCPPC owns some land along the stream valley. The proposed multi-use trail would link Cheverly and Addison Road Metro stations.
3) Charles Branch
There is a partially established stream valley greenways across Charles Branch. This greenways provides connections to several major greenways projects, including the Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail, Western Branch, the Patuxent Regional Greenways, and Piscataway Creek stream valley park. The corridor includes several parks owned by M-NCPPC as well as Rosaryville State Park.
4) Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail
The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is a potential regional multi-use trail system that will utilize the original railroad route from Washington, D.C. to Chesapeake Beach. This corridor will serve as the spine for a number of potential greenways branches that would provide access to public lands, the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. M-NCPPC has acquired portions of the corridor through the subdivision process. The trail would be owned, managed, and maintained by M-NCPPC. The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is being considered in Calvert and Anne Arundel counties where several segments of the 28-mile rail corridor also exist. Eleven miles of the corridor lie in Prince George’s County.
The trail would connect M-NCPPC’s Walker Mill Regional Park and Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Anne Arundel County. It would also connect to the south with the town of Chesapeake Beach.
5) Collington Branch
Collington Branch is a component of the Patuxent River watershed that originates near Bowie, runs southerly and connects to the Western Branch tributary in Upper Marlboro, which continues into the Patuxent River. The Collington Branch is also planned for a proposed multi-use trail that will connect Bowie with Upper Marlboro. The county owns much of the corridor and plans to fill in any gaps through acquisition and the development process. The Prince George’s County Bicycle and Trails Advisory Group recommended this trail as the number seven trail/bikeway priority in the county.
6) D.C. Trolley Right-of-Way Rail Trail
The D.C. Trolley Right-of-Way Trail is a potential rail trail running between Hyattsville and Beltsville. This trail would provide links to the Paint Branch stream valley park system. The City of College Park owns a segment of the right-of-way and is constructing a portion of the trail along this segment.
7) Henson Creek
Henson Creek is a stream valley greenways running between the Suitland Parkway and the Potomac River. M-NCPPC owns the majority of the corridor. The greenways provides water quality and resource protection benefits and a connection to the planned Potomac Heritage Trail. A 5.5-mile hiker/biker/equestrian trail exists in this corridor, with an estimated 2 miles to complete. Upon completion, this trail will provide access to the future Branch Avenue Metro station and Suitland Parkway Trail.
8) Mattawoman Creek
Mattawoman Creek is a planned stream valley greenways originating near Cedarville State Forest and connecting westward to the Potomac River. Mattawoman Creek forms part of the border between Prince George’s County and Charles County. The Prince George’s County portion of the corridor is largely privately owned; however, M-NCPPC has begun to acquire floodplain lands and buffers along the creek.
9) Patuxent Regional Greenways
The Patuxent Regional Greenways is a partially established regional greenways that includes seven jurisdictions extending from central Maryland through southern Maryland. The Patuxent River serves as the spine for the greenways which runs through Howard, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties. DNR currently owns about 15,000 acres along the Patuxent River and is working with local officials to extend protection along the mainstem.
In Prince George’s County the Patuxent River forms the northern and eastern county boundaries. Public properties under the management of DNR, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, M-NCPPC and WSSC make a substantial contribution to the Patuxent Regional Greenways. These lands provide many opportunities for nature study and outdoor recreation.
Prince George’s County has adopted land-use and development regulations for the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area and the Patuxent River Primary Management Area to channel development away from sensitive areas in the Patuxent corridor. Public acquisition of the Patuxent Regional Greenways will continue, and these policies will provide a mechanism for protecting water quality and riparian resources on non-public lands.
9a) Patuxent River Water Trail
The Patuxent River Water Trail is a potential water route consisting of a series of public access sites along the Patuxent River. The route runs from Montgomery County to St. Mary’s County. The effort to establish this water trail is being led by the Maryland Department of Planning in partnership with the Patuxent River Commission and others.
10) Piscataway Creek Greenways
The Piscataway Creek Greenways is a stream valley greenways originating south of Andrews Air Force Base and connecting with the Potomac River. M-NCPPC owns portions of the corridor. Piscataway Creek also links with the Tinkers Creek Greenways and Rosaryville State Park. Piscataway Creek stream valley park is also planned for a multi-use trail.
11) Potomac River Greenways
The Potomac River Greenways is a potential extension to the Maryland side of the proposed multi-state Potomac River Greenways. Several national parks, (Piscataway, Fort Washington, Oxon Cove, and Fort Foote) contribute to the protection of the Potomac River Greenways. M-NCPPC also owns several parcels in the corridor. The county’s Chesapeake Bay Critical Area regulations also promote water quality and resource protection considerations in the Potomac corridor. Prince George’s County and M-NCPPC have expressed a definite interest in implementing segments of the Potomac Heritage Trail by adopting and approving the trail proposal master plans in 1975, 1981, and 1985. The Prince George’s County Bicycle and Trails Advisory Group is currently studying potential trail alignments and recommended this trail as the number two bikeway priority in the county.
11a) Potomac River Water Trail
The Potomac River Water Trail is a potential paddling route along the tidal portion of the Potomac River. The development of this route is part of a larger bi-state effort to establish water trails along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
12) Southwest Branch
The Southwest Branch is a partially protected corridor that originates near District Heights and flows into Western Branch south of Kettering. Although most of the stream’s headwater region is heavily developed, M-NCPPC owns a substantial amount of the lower corridor. A trail is proposed along much of the stream valley.
13) Suitland Parkway
The Suitland Parkway is owned and operated by the National Park Service. Part parkway and part greenways, the Suitland Parkway is located between the Washington, D.C. line, Southern Avenue, and Rt. 4 (Pennsylvania Avenue) in Prince George’s County. In addition, this corridor is planned and partially designed for a multi-use trail that will connect the District of Columbia and Prince George’s County. It will link to several existing and planned trails in both jurisdictions and form part of the planned regional trails network. The Prince George’s County Bicycle and Trails Advisory Group recommended this trail as the number four on-road trail priority in the county.
14) Tinkers Creek
Tinkers Creek is a partially established greenways that originates southwest of Andrews Air Force Base and connects with Piscataway Creek near Fort Washington. M-NCPPC owns portions of the greenways corridor. A multi-use (hiker/biker/equestrian) trail has been proposed for this greenways.
15) WB&A Trail
The WB&A Trail is a rail-trail for hikers, bikers, and equestrians that will eventually connect Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis. In Prince George’s County, the trail will span 5.6 miles from the Patuxent River just north of Bowie, to Rt. 450 in Lanham. Representatives from Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County are working jointly to plan and construct a pedestrian bridge across the Patuxent River to link the two segments of the trail. A portion of the WB&A Trail will double as a segment of the American Discovery Trail. A suitable connection into Washington, D.C. is needed to meet the goals of this national trail.
16) Western Branch
The Western Branch is a stream valley greenways that originates near Glenarden and connects into the Patuxent River south of Upper Marlboro. Major tributaries of the Western Branch are Bald Hill and Folly and Lottsford branches. Connections will occur with Collington Branch, Southwest Branch, and the Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail corridor. M-NCPPC owns sections in all of these corridors. The Western Branch Greenways is second in size only to the Patuxent Greenways in Prince George’s County. The corridor is under continuing acquisition and will have the longest trail system of any Patuxent tributary in the county. | <urn:uuid:a3f06539-754a-40ea-99e2-bc81992f30cf> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://dnr.maryland.gov/greenways/counties/princegeorges.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737913815.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221833-00115-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929866 | 3,260 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Maria Diaz Crego wrote in commemoration of 20 June, World Refugee Day: A long way to safety that :
According to UNCHR, those fleeing their own countries for fear of persecution travel collectively around two billion kilometres per year to reach a safe haven. To honour their resilience and determination and to remind us of the long and tortuous journeys they are forced to make on their way to safety, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched the www.stepwithrefugees.org campaign to mark 2019 World Refugee Day.
Meanwhile, a New paper: Teachers need support to better help migrant and refugee students suffering from trauma Posted on 20 June 2019 by GEM Report reads as follows:
The number of migrant and refugee school-age children around the world has grown by 26% since 2000. Eight years on from the beginning of the Syrian conflict, a new paper released today and at an event in the Netherlands looks at the importance of making sure that education systems are set up to address the trauma that many of these children face before, and during their journeys to new countries. In particular, teachers need better training to provide psychosocial support to these children, including through social and emotional learning.
In Germany, about one-third of refugee children suffer from mental illness, and one-fifth suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable. One third of 160 unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Norway from Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Somalia suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Among 166 unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents in Belgium, 37-47% had ‘severe or very severe’ symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD.
Rates of trauma among the displaced in low and middle income countries are also high. For instance, 75% of 331 internally displaced children in camps in southern Darfur in Sudan met diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, and 38% had depression.
In the absence of health centres, schools can play a key role in restoring a sense of stability. Teachers are not and should never be leant on as mental health specialists, but they can be a crucial source of support for children suffering from trauma if they’re given the right training. But they need basic knowledge about trauma symptoms and providing help to students, which many do not have. NGOs, including the International Rescue Committee, iACT, and Plan International, are training teachers to face this challenge through their programmes, but their reach is not enough.
In Germany, the majority of teachers and day-care workers said that they did not feel properly prepared to address the needs of refugee children. In the Netherlands, 20% of teachers with more than 18 years of experience working in mainstream schools reported that they experienced a high degree of difficulty dealing with students with trauma. The vast majority of these teachers (89%) encountered at least one student with trauma in their work. A review of early childhood care and education facilities for refugee children in Europe and North America found that, although many programmes recognized the importance of providing trauma-informed care, appropriate training and resources were ‘almost universally lacking’.
The paper shows the importance of social and emotional learning, as an approach to psychosocial support which targets skills, such as resilience, to manage stress, and is often rolled out through interactive, group-based discussions or role play. It shows the importance of this approach for less acute situations but emphasizes that for more challenging cases trained specialists are needed.
It is also important to involve parents in social and emotional learning so that activities can continue at home. One programme in Chicago looked at addressing symptoms of depression among Mexican immigrant women and primary school children with in- and after- school programmes and home visits, for instance, and improved school work, child mental health and family communication.
- Learning environments must be safe, nurturing and responsive.
- Teachers working with migrant and refugee students who have suffered trauma face particular hardships and need training to cope with challenges in the classroom.
- Psychosocial interventions require cooperation between education, health and social protection services.
- Social and emotional learning interventions need to be culturally sensitive and adapted to context. They should be delivered through extra-curricular activities as well.
- Community and parental involvement should not be neglected. | <urn:uuid:1c66f034-be98-4f6b-b151-a57a84082667> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://mena-forum.com/20-june-world-refugee-day-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541307797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20191215070636-20191215094636-00160.warc.gz | en | 0.962052 | 868 | 3.046875 | 3 |
So, if you are new to the digital photography then you might be wondering, “WTF is ‘F-stop’?” F-stop is the control point for Aperture in Digital Cameras. It basically affects the Depth of Field, when you take picture. Now the question is now what is Depth of Field? Depth of filed determines the sharpness in the photo or picture. I feel you must have seen many pictures where only single subject or small part of the picture is in sharp focus and rest is blurred or out of focus. Similarly there are certain pictures, where both the foreground and background are in sharp focus. If you haven’t noticed, then look at the two pictures below. One on the left side has only foreground flowers in sharp focus and rest of the flowers in background are blurred or out of focus. The image on the right side on the other hand, has everything in sharp focus from foreground to background. All the flowers as well as sky or tree all are sharp.
So the area which is in sharp focus is called depth of field and the same is controlled by “F-stop” or F-number in your camera. Small ‘F-number’ like f-1.8 is called wider aperture, which gives shallow depth of filed and makes small part of the picture in focus by blurring the background. Whereas the Big ‘F-number’ like f-22 is called Narrow aperture, which makes everything in the picture in sharp focus and is called wider depth of filed. Now the question is why do I need different ‘F-stops’? The answer is simple to create a wow factor in the picture or to give creative touch to the picture F-stop is indispensable tool. Like example in case of creating impactful Portraiture shots, you need to keep the focus on the subject by blurring the background, which can be easily done by using smallest ‘F-number’ available in your camera. If you are having a DSLR camera, in that case the lens which came along with your lens, which is also called kit lens, like 18-55mm has minimum f-3.5 or f-4.5. You can use that to create wonderful portrait or still life shots. But if you have purchase a prime lens like 50mm or 35mm which are also called Nifty-Fifty due to their quality and affordable price, has more wider aperture of f-1.8, which are capable of blurring the background even further. Look in the example below. In the picture on the Left side, the same is shot with 18-55 mm lens at f-5.0, Shutter Speed 1/13 ISO 200 and picture on the Right side, has been shot by 50 mm prime lens at f-1.8, Shutter Speed 1/3200 ISO 100 which has blurred the background even further, giving more pleasant result.
The only limitation these prime 50 mm or 35 mm lens have is that they are of fixed focal length compared to your kit lens, like 18-55 mm, which means you don’t have zoom feature and you have to use your steps to composed the photo. This is great for learning or mastering the composition as zoom lenses tend to make you lazy. One of the reasons, for these prime lenses, to be cheaper is that they don’t have zoom feature and have fixed focal length. Similarly for the Landscape shots, narrow aperture like f-11-22 is indispensable to keep everything in focus, unless you want the result to be otherwise. Thanks for Reading! If you like please consider sharing it! Follow me on Twitter & Facebook & Other Platforms https://twitter.com/harshvardhanart https://facebook.com/harshartography Contact Me firstname.lastname@example.org https://aboutme.com/harshvardhanart https://harshvardhanart.tumblr.com https://youtube.com/user/harshvardhanroy | <urn:uuid:971842c6-af9f-449b-80f5-64ece3ba5187> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://harshvardhanart.com/dof-aperture-fstop/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738888.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20200812083025-20200812113025-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.95233 | 831 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Atlas of World Heritage—China: A Photographic Journey of China’s Most Famous Cultural and Natural Sites
- About the Book
The 29 sites in China on the World Heritage list are introduced and illustrated in this striking reference guide. Filled with photographs and presented in an easy-to-access format, this book takes you on an information-filled journey to the sites of wonder in China, man-made and natural: the Great Wall of China; the Terracotta Warriors, the Forbidden City, the holy Taoist mountain of Wudang Shan; the sacred Buddhist pilgrimage site of Emei Shan; the massive irrigation project of Dujiangyan; and the elegant classical gardens of Suzhou. A great reference guide for the traveller of the world.
– The Great Wall: This is one of the greatest engineering projects in human history. Built from the 7th century BC to the 15th century AD, it extends for almost 4000 miles.
– The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties: This is the Forbidden City—the largest and best-preserved ancient palatial architectural complex in the world.
– Classical gardens of Suzhou: Their origin can be dated to the 6th century BC. These spectacular gardens offer beauty and inspiration to visitors from around the globe. | <urn:uuid:330b2cf1-63d4-4b2a-ad24-04cc8e62f1dd> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/product/atlas-of-world-heritage-china-a-photographic-journey-of-chinas-most-famous-cultural-and-natural-sites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027319155.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20190823235136-20190824021136-00344.warc.gz | en | 0.861295 | 264 | 2.875 | 3 |
Tolkien is part of a line of English writers who have given us an understanding of the great history; the History of Salvation, God's mighty works on our behalf.
Bede's History of the English is beyond compare; the whole history of this country is presented from the perspective of the Redemption. Indeed, before Bede there was hardly any history written down at all, since it is Christ Jesus who throws light on human affairs.
Shakespear, although a Catholic, gave us only glimpses into a deeper reality, a reality that had to be hidden because the ruling clique of that age despised it.
Christopher Dawson, perhaps more so than any other English writer in the contemporary age, wrote about human history in the light of Christian Revelation, giving us a fuller appreciation of our past and also of the times in which we live.
Tolkien, whose fantasy literature can do no more than parallel the Mystery of Christ, has kept alight those genuine images and values, because they express the Life of Grace. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings at at time when England was (perhaps sub-consciously) choosing anew the secular project. However, his work stands before us all and, whether you acknowledge its Christian references or not, that deepest of all relationships - Nature and Grace - is nonetheless expressed. A sign to us, whether we will or no, of a very great Love. | <urn:uuid:a7c09b43-fa5f-45d1-a11f-143d527fe226> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://friendswithchrist.blogspot.com/2015_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424623.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723222438-20170724002438-00353.warc.gz | en | 0.961739 | 283 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Earlier this week Pope Francis convened a major conference in Rome on climate disruption. It is one of several events planned by the Vatican ahead of his much-anticipated encyclical on global warming and the environment. The conference included speeches by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of the pontifical academies, along with panels on the relevant scientific, moral, and economic issues.
The Vatican did not pull its punches In the run up to the conference or at the conference itself, signaling its determination to move the conversation to a new level of urgency.
Last month Cardinal Peter Turkson, who helped write the first draft of the encyclical, declared that global inequality and the destruction of the environment “are the greatest threats we face as a human family today.” “A changing of human hearts in which the good of the human person, and not the pursuit of profit, is the key value,” he insisted, would be required to meet these threats.
Striking a similarly resolute tone, the Vatican issued a statement at the close of the conference on Tuesday, emphasizing that “human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity.” Pointing out that the climate summit in Paris later this year “may be the last effective opportunity to negotiate arrangements that keep human-induced warming below 2-degrees C,” it called for a rapid transition “to a world powered by renewable and other low-carbon energy and the sustainable management of ecosystems.”
The Pope’s encyclical on climate change will not be the first time that the Church has addressed this issue. But it is the first time that it will be the subject of an encyclical, which carries great authoritative weight for Roman Catholics.
The Vatican’s sustained engagement with the threat of global warming underscores the fact that science and technology can only take the discussion so far. They can explain the causes and consequences of climate destabilization and pose technical solutions. But it is values, especially a commitment to the generations that come after us, that will provide the motivation to implement the solutions, which are likely to be expensive and politically fraught.
Building a sustainable world, in short, is as much a cultural and ethical project as it is a scientific and engineering endeavor. It is a task that requires imagination, compassion, collaboration, and creativity, a willingness to live our lives differently. In Pope Francis’s words, “We need to care for the earth so that it may continue, as God willed, to be a source of life for the entire human family.” | <urn:uuid:20f4e972-43d2-4ece-8b1e-5e71533f9286> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://rebootingthefuture.com/2015/04/30/the-pope-speaks-out-on-climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703547333.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20210124044618-20210124074618-00342.warc.gz | en | 0.951997 | 548 | 2.5625 | 3 |
||One of the popular manufacturing process in industry is the rapid sintering, however, due to the limited time, there always exists thermal gradient inside. This thermal gradient has deterministic effect on the microstructure of the greenware and hence the quality of the final product. Therefore, in order to understand this complex process, the first step is study its heat transfer behavior. Since thermal radiation is the dominant mode of energy transport, it is important to understand its behavior. In this work, the greenware is modeled as a system of uniform sized packed sphere. The objective of this work is to develop the basis ground for computing the temperature solution. A non-statistical ray tracing scheme has been developed for studying different packed sphere system such as specular, diffuse and directional reflecting spheres. Also, an two-objective functions typed inversion scheme has been setup for accurately capture the system properties of the system. Due to the fact that the microstructure has direct effect on the final product's quality. In this study, it is also taken care. A random packing algorithm has been developed to study the microstructural behavior - the mean coordination number and the mean contact area, of the packed structure. | <urn:uuid:0ad4cb84-f061-4ffc-a703-27eda3a6fef7> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://repository.ust.hk/ir/Record/1783.1-5199 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423183.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170720121902-20170720141902-00380.warc.gz | en | 0.943576 | 242 | 2.75 | 3 |
Driven by a competitive market, FPInnovations’ Forestry 4.0 initiative aims at automating the forest operation sector. However, a lack of adequate communication networks reaching remote locations is a barrier to real-time supply chain management data for forestry operations.
Low Earth orbit satellite constellations (LEOs) are a complex network of hundreds or thousands of satellites that orbit closer to Earth than traditional geostationary orbit satellites. Travelling at much faster speeds, LEOs traverse the Earth approximately ten times per day. The advantage: global coverage and reduced latency (required for teleoperation).
Opportunities and challenges
LEOs promise to provide high-speed internet coverage to remote areas where forestry companies operate and typically do not have cell coverage. With crews frequently changing locations, LEOs are a desirable solution for providing real-time monitoring of forestry machinery and constant connectivity for the transmission of large amounts of data.
Before forest operations can benefit from the technology, LEOs will require lower manufacturing costs through large scale, serial production. Economies of scale of phased array antennas, which direct frequencies to constantly moving satellites, are also needed to reach a broader market and are crucial for eliminating fixed infrastructure.
It’s a race to see which companies will fully deploy the first high-speed, high bandwidth LEO satellite constellation, but there are still many unknowns. “FPInnovations will continue to monitor and report on marketing developments and determine when these solutions will be available to the industry,” explains Maxime Tanguay-Laflèche, FPInnovations Researcher – Transportation. “With our understanding of industry needs and requirements, FPInnovations will arm forestry operations with insights to feed their decision-making processes.” | <urn:uuid:00f2bc72-c9f3-492d-a75a-fc8f0fc8dd54> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://www.paperadvance.com/blogs/fpinnovations/the-future-of-4-0-connectivity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514576345.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20190923084859-20190923110859-00140.warc.gz | en | 0.920636 | 363 | 2.75 | 3 |
Automotive Fire Protection and Friction Materials
How Vermiculite Can Be Used
Specialty Vermiculite planned to attend SAMPE 2020—North America’s Premier Advanced Materials & Process Engineering Conference & Exhibition—this year to discuss the use of vermiculite to impart fire and friction protection in automotive and aerospace applications. Like many other conferences, it was canceled. Since we can’t share the information in person, today we are going to take a look at how vermiculite can be used for automotive and aerospace fire and friction protection to help products meet rigid safety requirements.
Safety Requirements for Automotive and Aerospace Manufacturers
Safety is the number one priority for automotive and aerospace manufacturers. When designing vehicles and their components, each piece needs to be carefully designed with safety in mind. Using flame-retardant materials is particularly important for the automotive industry where fire is a severe possibility in the event of an accident or malfunction. In an emergency situation, fire-blocking materials can be the difference between life and death. When it comes to user safety, you can’t delay in developing fire protection and friction-safe products for automotive and aerospace applications.
MicroLite Vermiculite Dispersions: High-Temperature Safety Fabrics
MicroLite is produced by the chemical exfoliation of vermiculite. Vermiculite dispersions are stable dispersions of vermiculite in water. They are produced by the chemical exfoliation of vermiculite, a naturally occurring magnesium aluminum-silicate mineral.
MicroLite vermiculite dispersions have high-temperature resistance up to 1400°c. MicroLite’s easy application and our proprietary binders allow for direct application on fabrics and other industrial materials to provide a fire-rated material. This makes vermiculite dispersions a flexible option for imparting fire resistance to nearly all automotive and aerospace fabrics, like seat covers.
Specialty Vermiculite’s MicroLite vermiculite dispersions are stable dispersions of vermiculite in water. They are produced by the chemical exfoliation of vermiculite, a naturally occurring magnesium aluminum-silicate mineral. The resulting high aspect ratio vermiculite platelets are then suspended in water.
MicroLite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral: (Mg,Fe2,Fe3) 3(Al,Si) 4(OH2) 4H20
- REACH exempt
- Low SG 2.4-2.7 when expanded
- Lower bulk density 70kg -110kg/Mt in its expanded state
- Low Mohs hardness
- High-temperature resistance up to 1400°c
- High aspect ratio platelets up to 20,000/1
- Dv50 circa 30 microns
Fine Particle Size Vermiculite (FPSV): Automotive Fire Protection for Friction Linings
A friction material is any type of woven or non-woven material designed to create or facilitate a particular contact interaction between parts. In the automotive industry, that contact interaction is usually greater friction. To function properly, friction materials must meet a number of performance standards, namely high-energy absorption requirements—which, in the case of most automotive applications, means heat resistance and a high-coefficient of friction are needed. Friction materials are most frequently used in braking systems and clutches. These materials are used to allow the proper functioning of:
- Brake bands
- Brake blocks
- Brake facing
- Brake lining
- Brake pads
- Disc brake pads
- Brake shoes
- Clutch discs
- Clutch facing
- Clutch sets
- Dual clutch assemblies
Both organic and inorganic high-performance materials such as polyimide, aramid, graphite, ceramic, and others have been developed for automotive applications. While each of these materials has merit in commercial automotive, friction lining, and gasket applications, no single material has been found to be adequate, and it is common practice to use a multiplicity of substances to develop such products. While vermiculite has a similar structure to exfoliated graphite, it does not oxidize and is therefore very appropriate for automotive applications.
About Fine Particle Size Vermiculite
Fine Particle Size Vermiculite (FPSV) is produced by thermal exfoliation in specially designed furnaces at ~1500°F where it expands up to 11 times in volume. The expanded vermiculite is then purified to remove contaminants and further processed to consistently meet particle size and bulk density requirements. Qualities include:
- High thermal stability
- Large surface area
- Excellent resin compatibility
- Low Mohs hardness
- Insulating capability
- Consistent particle size
- Controlled moisture content
- Chemically inert
- Free-flowing powder
- Platy (flat-plate) morphology
See You At SAMPE 2021!
SAMPE is already scheduled for next year. It is taking place in Long Beach, California May 24 through 27. We encourage you to join us to learn more about advanced materials and process engineering. Attendees directly engage with domestic and international buyers, manufacturers, and suppliers from the aerospace/aircraft, automotive, marine, energy and other industries. It includes a variety of programs that engage and educate on ground-breaking technologies, industry advances, and provide opportunities to source solutions for critical challenges.
Request Your Free Sample of MicroLite or FPSV for Automotive and Aerospace Fire Protection.
Specialty Vermiculite Corp is a Dicalite Management Group brand. Our knowledgable team is standing by, ready to help you discover how MicroLite vermiculite dispersions and fine particle size vermiculite (FPSV) can be used to improve your products. Call us today at 866-728-3303, option 2, or email firstname.lastname@example.org to learn more about MicroLite and request your free sample.
Join Our Mailing List
Our blog offers insight and information about new and exciting uses for perlite, diatomaceous earth, and vermiculite deriving from years of research and application. From passive fire resistance to mineral depth filtration, by subscribing to our mailing list, you will receive the latest information surrounding the Dicalite, Dicaperl, and Specialty Vermiculite brands and products. | <urn:uuid:600c6e9c-3bfe-4dc6-9958-33259c7bcedb> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.dicalite.com/2020/05/automotive-fire-protection-and-friction-material/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103329963.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20220627073417-20220627103417-00389.warc.gz | en | 0.872838 | 1,370 | 2.921875 | 3 |
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Clément, Jacques
CLEMENT, JACQUES (1567–1589), murderer of the French king Henry III., was born at Sorbon in the Ardennes, and became a Dominican friar. Civil war was raging in France, and Clément became an ardent partisan of the League; his mind appears to have become unhinged by religious fanaticism, and he talked of exterminating the heretics, and formed a plan to kill Henry III. His project was encouraged by some of the heads of the League; he was assured of temporal rewards if he succeeded, and of eternal bliss if he failed. Having obtained letters for the king, he left Paris on the 31st of July 1589, and reached St Cloud, the headquarters of Henry, who was besieging Paris. On the following day he was admitted to the royal presence, and presenting his letters he told the king that he had an important and confidential message to deliver. The attendants then withdrew, and while Henry was reading the letters Clément mortally wounded him with a dagger which had been concealed beneath his cloak. The assassin was at once killed by the attendants who rushed in, and Henry died early on the following day. Clément's body was afterwards quartered and burned. This deed, however, was viewed with far different feelings in Paris and by the partisans of the League, the murderer being regarded as a martyr and extolled by Pope Sixtus V., while even his canonization was discussed. | <urn:uuid:316abcd4-27a1-4380-9081-c15b7c4b3a0a> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Cl%C3%A9ment,_Jacques | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401583556.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20200928010415-20200928040415-00208.warc.gz | en | 0.989479 | 315 | 3.265625 | 3 |
South America is in the grip of an unprecedented climate phenomenon that has unleashed unusually heavy rains and taken a destructive toll. Worse still, it could be several weeks away from abating.
Several countries have declared a state of emergency, including Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, where deadly landslides in Lima Province and flooding in Piura in the northwest have displaced 300,000 people and killed more than 100.
In the latest weather-related disaster, 13 centimetres (more than five inches) of rain fell in the municipality of Mocoa in southern Colombia on Friday, most of it in just three hours. It caused three rivers to burst their banks and a torrent of muddy water and debris to sweep through the town early on Saturday morning. Most people were still sleeping. Entire neighbourhoods were levelled, and at least 270 people lost their lives.
President Juan Manuel Santos has declared a state of emergency and promised $13.9 million in aid, while blaming the disaster on climate change caused by rich countries.
More than 500 other Colombian municipalities are reportedly at risk of landslides, which, according to the World Meteorological Organization are linked to extreme weather, but also deforestation and poor land management.
Community members in Chosica, along the banks of the River Rimac in Peru’s Lima Province, know that heavy and prolonged rain in the mountains that surround them is an ominous sign. On 16 March, following two months of continual downpours, a landslide hurtled down nearby ravines gathering up everything in its wake, including scores of houses.
“It was the biggest landslide we have ever seen,” said 53-year-old Daniel Humberto Rojas Ponce, who has lived in the area most of his life and is president of a local group set up by international NGO Practical Action to educate the community on disaster risk management and response.
Using machinery provided by the Ministry of Housing, Chosica’s residents had built retaining walls designed to withstand most landslides, but “this time the landslide was so big that all the retaining walls collapsed into the river”, said Rojas Ponce.
A week later, in the northwestern city of Piura, several large neighbourhoods were completely destroyed by flooding.
“The people in the city centre were desperately trying to protect their businesses,” recalled Gladys Chulga, a local resident and volunteer helping affected families. “The local government could only offer sandbags. I felt useless; I didn’t know what to do and I could only watch as people lost their livelihoods.”
Peru’s flooding has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and destroyed water and sanitation systems, according to the UN’s humanitarian aid coordination body, OCHA, which estimates that 160,000 people are also lacking sufficient food.
By international monitoring standards, the heavy rains in Peru and elsewhere in the region do not follow usual patterns triggered by the seasonal El Niño weather phenomenon. Instead, they are the result of unusually warm surface temperatures in this part of the Pacific Ocean that began in January and continued until late March. The National Centre for the Study of El Niño (ENFEN) in Peru is referring to this localised version of the global phenomenon as a coastal El Niño.
“Scientists have not yet made a direct connection between climate change and El Niño or a climate phenomenon such as we are experiencing right now,” said Pedro Ferradas Mannucci, who manages Practical Action’s programme for risk management and adaptation to climate change in Latin America. “But increasingly we are questioning whether this may indeed be the case.
“I’ve been talking with the people in charge of Civil Defense in Ecuador who are closely monitoring the situation. They fear that this effect, El Niño or not, is set to last for a while yet and could become a global phenomenon that affects everyone.”
In a statement released at the end of March, ENFEN warned that the current weather pattern is set to last until the end of May.
Time to act
Peru has always experienced a highly variable climate and, over the last two decades, has become increasingly familiar with the effects of extreme weather. But the extent of recent disasters has exposed gaps in the country’s approach to prevention and risk management.
Poor urban planning here and elsewhere in the region has multiplied the impacts of the flooding and landslides. Across Latin America, millions of people squat on unclaimed land in illegal settlements known as invasiones. The settlers are usually aware of the risks they run by building on areas vulnerable to flooding, but with few other options, they take their chances.
“Seventy percent of people in [Peru] live on invaded land,” said Mannucci. “Not only that, but they also build the houses themselves without technical assessments, and under these circumstances houses made of clay are destroyed incredibly rapidly.”
Jocelyn Lance coordinates resilience and rapid response in the region for the EU’s emergency aid department, ECHO, which is one of the only major donors providing funding for disaster risk reduction and preparedness in Latin America. He said that changing climate scenarios mean local authorities in Peru and elsewhere need to do more to stop people building in high-risk areas.
“There are so many places in Latin America where there’s a high risk of landslides [that] it’s impossible to cover everywhere in terms of early warning systems,” he told IRIN. “What needs to be done is to clearly inform people – to tell them there’s no future for you if you stay there, near a river or at the base of a mountain.
“Lots of municipalities are trying to work on this, but it needs scaling up now and it’s a lot more urgent because of climate change.”
The topic of climate change mitigation has been slow to rise up the Peruvian government’s agenda. Lance noted that initiatives to discourage building in vulnerable areas and to implement early warning systems varied significantly from one department to another, often in relation to the resources at their disposal. During the recent flooding, warning systems worked in some cities but not in others where there were no evacuations. Lance added that some people also waited too long to evacuate, out of fear their homes would be looted.
“If we are to succeed in preventing disasters like this and to reduce disaster losses then we need to ensure that there is a much broader understanding of the nature of disaster risk in society at large and this includes better understanding of the impacts of climate change and how it alters local weather patterns. Risk has to be addressed in local development plans,” said Robert Glasser, the UN’s special representative for disaster risk reduction in a statement.
“Multi-hazard early warning systems must include estimates of the potential impact of the emerging hazards and be tailored to local needs. This will be a key issue at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which will be held in Mexico in May.”
Juan Bazo is a technical advisor with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre based in Peru and part of a team working on a forecast-based financing (Fbf) mechanism being piloted in vulnerable areas of the country. The model uses seasonal and short-term forecasts to trigger funding to prepare for a disaster before it strikes.
“What would help the most would be to have well-developed evacuation and safety plans, and to have stocks available such as water supplies for a couple of days, and mosquito nets,” explained Bazo. “We are aware that the lead time between the alarm being raised and help arriving when an incident has happened is too long at present.”
In Chosica, Rojas Ponce is working with Practical Action to better prepare his community for the next disaster.
“In my area, we have alarms, megaphones and a system of lights to warn people of landslides” he explained. “But we need more help and more coordination.”
(TOP PHOTO: Flooding has destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Piura, Peru. Rodrigo Rodrich/Practical Action) | <urn:uuid:76cb4aea-226c-4559-8b82-a99850366657> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/04/05/colombia-peru-disasters-show-growing-risk-%E2%80%98coastal-el-ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%99 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320257.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624101204-20170624121204-00627.warc.gz | en | 0.966174 | 1,695 | 3.21875 | 3 |
There are many different types of smart home hubs available, but what do they do? and do you need them?
Unfortunately the term hub is used in very general fashion and can mean anything from a simple protocol hub e,g Zigbee to Wi-Fi or a complete home automation system e.g Samsung Smartthings.
- Hardware only hubs
- Software only hubs
- Hardware and Software hubs.
Some of these hubs are required by the networking technology you are using or planning to use..e.g Zwave, Zigbee.- See home automation protocols and devices.
Other Hubs are add-ons and are used for making home automation easier.
Others connect networks of different type together e.g Zwave to TCP/IP.
Some Smart Hubs e.g. Samsung Smarthings do all of these .
Smart Hub Features
The main feature you need to look out for are:
- Voice control
- Work with Alexa, Google Home or Apple
- Multiple protocol support-Wi-Fi, Zwave, Zigbee,Wi-Fi etc
- Control via IOS, Android and Windows
- Ability to use IFTTT rules (If This Then That)
- MQTT support
- IP support for connecting the cloud.
Important Things to Consider
- Are my current devices e.g. locks,lights etc supported by the hub?
- Is the Hub open or closed? A closed hub only supports devices designed to work with that hub e.g Apple Homepod.
- Does it require an Internet Connection to work.
- Samsung Smarthings- Home page
- Amazon Alexa –Home Page
- Google Home –Support Home Page
- Apple Homepod –
- Homeassistant –Home Page
- OPenHabb –Home Page
Software Only Hubs
There are several free software only hubs available. These are usually installed on a PC.
These types of hubs are integration hubs which basically make managing a home network using lots of different devices easier.
The most popular ones are:
- Homeassistant – Free Open source written in Python
- OPenHab – Free Open source Java Application
- domoticz -Free Open source C++ Application
Here are two very useful articles comparing these systems:
Do You Need a smart home hub?
Common Questions and Answers
Q- Do I Need A Hub?
A- Whether or not you need a hub will depend on the networking technology that you are using or planning to use. Generally if you are using Z-Wave or Zigbee then you will need a hub.
Q- What is the difference between a hub and a gateway?
A- In networking terms a hub connects the devices of the same type together. For example a Wi-Fi hub connects wi-Fi devices together. Whereas a Gateway connects devices of different types together. For example you need a gateway to connect a wi-Fi network to a Z-wave network. However the terms are used very loosely and you often find hubs ( e.g Samsung smartthings hub) are hubs and gateways.
Q- I thought Amazon Echo was a smart speaker not a hub?
A- It is also a integration hub as it allows you control a selection of devices from a single interface. | <urn:uuid:675f6873-b1b5-4c81-99d9-934ec9593924> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://stevessmarthomeguide.com/smart-home-hubs-guide/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739370.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20200814190500-20200814220500-00008.warc.gz | en | 0.86814 | 675 | 2.59375 | 3 |
My answer to How do you drive a motor boat?
Answer by Desmond Last:
A shopping trolley which tends to veer left or right when pushed slowly but straight ahead when you go quite quickly is close to the directional characteristics of a boat.
A boat has to push water away from its bow until it goes fast enough to drive over the bow wave it is creating and begin to drive on the surface of the water.
A motor-boat is normally a ‘planing boat’ It will go fast enough to drive the hull out of the bow wave and plane on the surface of the water.
A boat that does not plane is called a ‘displacement boat’. It displaces the water ahead of it down its hull as it travels forward. It will travel at no more than about 10 knots for say a 30 foot boat.
A recreational production family motor boat can go as fast as 40 plus knots.
Therefore you will need to learn how to drive at speed on a motor boat and will need lessons.
It is nothing like a car. You cannot stop and pull on the handbrake in an emergency.
Get proper lessons it will save lives. | <urn:uuid:96826157-8e35-42c9-8c91-90cc33c4c193> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://desmondlast.com/2017/03/07/how-do-you-drive-a-motor-boat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710734.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20221130092453-20221130122453-00192.warc.gz | en | 0.955771 | 245 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Up and Coming Educational Technology Trends
Modern education is influenced by the technological development as well as other industries. No wonder innovative technologies change the way we used to learn and that happens incredibly quickly. Let’s see what major technologies will define the future of modern education and in what way.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of “objects endowed with computing power through processors or embedded sensors that are capable of transmitting information across networks.” When applied to student learning and campus activity, it can inform the direction of content delivery and institutional planning: “Institutions are partnering with industry to provide students with hands-on experiences designing and building IoT devices, equipping them with the skills to meet workforce needs.”
Distant learning continues to get popularity, and virtual classrooms play an important role in the modern way of learning. A virtual classroom is an online tool or a part of the learning platform that provides students with course materials, home assignment, assessment tests as well as means to communicate and discuss the topics. They might also be connected with social media as well as be an integral part of LMS. Virtual classrooms allow students to be a part of the learning environment and get instructions from the teacher. Being a kind of
distant education, they are provided with contemporary synchronous technologies like web conferencing, lifestreaming, VoIP, etc. That guarantees real-time discussions that are as effective as learning in customary classrooms.
Delivering deeper engagement than a traditional textbook, virtual reality inside the classroom promotes content-rich learning and social interaction. It provides a context for learning because the visual element of virtual reality enhances the relationships between concepts and information much better than reading alone.
Tools like Google Cardboard are both a platform and a product to experience and encourage interest in virtual reality.
Witness the cult-like popularity of Pokémon Go. Augmented reality, which superimposes digital content, including hologram images, onto a user’s view of what they see is still relatively new. Unlike virtual reality, it allows the user to ‘maintain control’ of their environment by seeing the real world around them.
Improvements in the performance and cost of solutions like Microsoft HoloLens (think first generation iPod versus latest iPod) will help drive this technology into the mainstream.
Perhaps the least educationally applicable but most complex technology of the New Media Consortium (NMC) report is wearable technology. Google’s “Project Glass” is one of the most talked-about current examples. One of the most promising potential outcomes of wearable technology in higher education is productivity: tools that
could automatically send information via text, e-mail, and social networks on behalf of the user – based on voice commands, gestures, and other indicators – that would help students and educators communicate with one another, keep track of updates, and better organize notifications.
While no one can ever predict the future with absolute accuracy, educators can plan for likely outcomes. There are also massive opportunities to embrace the potential of new and emerging technologies within education. There is no denying that the ability to deliver accessible education for all, that is meaningful and relevant to the future workplace, will be crucial. | <urn:uuid:46d1ee68-73c7-4274-8dbe-795d2ee7973c> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://brittanywashburn.com/2018/01/up-and-coming-educational-technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499768.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20230129211612-20230130001612-00326.warc.gz | en | 0.934629 | 678 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Meningitis (meh-nin-JY-tis) is an inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord (the meninges, meh-NIN-jeez). Meningitis is most often caused by infection with a virus or a bacterium.
for searching the Internet and other reference sources
What Is Meningitis?
Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the membranes that enclose and protect the brain and the spinal cord. It is usually caused by infection, most often with viruses or bacteria. Meningitis caused by bacteria is known as septic meningitis. Meningitis caused by other organisms, including viruses, fungi, and parasites, is called aseptic (a-SEP-tik) meningitis. Viral meningitis is the most common and mildest form of the disease, and most people fully recover from it without complications. Bacterial meningitis, if not diagnosed early, can cause serious and sometimes fatal complications.
Enteroviruses, a group of viruses that includes several strains of coxsackieviruses (kok-SAH-kee-vy-ruh-sez) and echoviruses, cause about 90 percent of cases of aseptic meningitis. Two types of bacteria that are most likely to cause septic meningitis are Streptococcus pneumoniae (strep-tuh-KAH-kus nu-MO-nye) and Neisseria meningitidis (nye-SEER-e-uh meh-nin-JIH-tih-dis), also called meningococcus (meh-NIN-guh-kah-kus). Before the introduction of a vaccine * in the 1980s to prevent infection with Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), the bacterium was a common cause of septic meningitis in young children. Meningitis can be caused by other pathogens * as well, such as some species of parasites and fungi and the bacteria that cause Lyme disease * , tuberculosis * , and syphilis * . Meningitis from these organisms is usually a complication of widespread infection throughout the body and is more likely to be seen in people who have immune problems or other diseases, such as those with AIDS * or cancer. Sometimes, chemical irritations, severe drug allergies, or tumors can lead to inflammation in the central nervous system * , resulting in meningitis.
* vaccine (vak-SEEN) is a preparation of killed or weakened germs. or a part of a germ or product it produces, given to prevent or lessen the severity of the disease that can result if a person is exposed to the germ itself. Use of vaccines for this purpose is called immunization.
* pathogens (PAH-tho-jens) are microorganisms that can cause disease in another living organism.
* Lyme (LIME) disease is a bacterial infection that is spread to humans by the bite of an infected tick. It begins with a distinctive rash and/or flulike symptoms and, in some cases, can progress to a more serious disease with complications affecting other body organs.
* tuberculosis (too-ber-kyoo-LO-sis) is a bacterial infection that primarily attacks the lungs but can spread to other ports of the body.
* syphilis (SIH-fih-lis) is a sexually transmitted disease that, if untreated, can lead to serious lifelong problems throughout the body, including blindness and paralysis.
How Common Is Meningitis?
Bacterial meningitis, especially meningococcal meningitis, sometimes occurs in epidemics * in underdeveloped parts of the world, but epidemics are less common in the United States. Because of vaccinations (vak-sih-NAY-shunz) against some of the bacteria that can cause meningitis, the overall number of cases of septic meningitis has steadily declined since 1990. Vaccinated infants and young children are much less likely to contract bacterial meningitis. However, since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of cases of meningococcus infection
How Does Meningitis Spread?
Some forms of bacterial meningitis are contagious, but these are not easily spread (compared to germs that cause colds and the flu). Bacterial meningitis almost never results from simply being in the same room or building with someone who has meningitis. Only a small fraction of people who come in contact with these bacteria and viruses will actually develop meningitis.
Bacteria that can cause meningitis are sometimes found in the throats and noses of healthy people. They are spread through direct contact with respiratory secretions (drops of fluid from the mouth, nose, or lungs). This means they can be passed to someone who kisses an infected person or to someone who touches the secretions from someone who is sneezing or coughing and then touches his or her own nose or mouth. Meningococcus can spread in this way through households, daycare centers, and college dormitories.
* AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency (ih-myoo-no-dih-FIH-shen-see) syndrome, is an infection that severely weakens the immune system; it is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
* central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord.
* epidemics (eh-pih-DEH-miks) are outbreaks of diseases, especially infectious diseases, in which the number of cases suddenly becomes far greater than usual. Usually, epidemics are outbreaks of diseases in specific regions. whereas worldwide epidemics are called pandemics.
Enteroviruses commonly are passed from person to person through contact with respiratory secretions, by breathing in drops from someone who is coughing or sneezing, and from contact with an infected person's feces (FEE-seez, or bowel movements).
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Meningitis?
Symptoms of meningitis often include fever, headache, stiff neck and back, photophobia (painful sensitivity of the eyes to light), abnormal sleepiness, and confusion. Vomiting may also be seen. Infants' symptoms are not as specific as those in older children and adults but usually include irritability, lethargy, poor feeding, crying when moved, and vomiting. Infants may not have neck or back stiffness while ill with meningitis. Meningococcus can cause a reddish-purple rash (from bleeding under the skin) that rapidly spreads over the body. Seizures * can occur in anyone with meningitis, regardless of age.
How Is Meningitis Diagnosed and Treated?
A doctor will first ask questions about the illness, do a physical examination, and then perform some tests. The brain is sometimes viewed with a computerized tomography * (CT) scan to rule out other reasons for severe headache and illness, such as an abscess * , tumor, or other problems within the brain. A lumbar puncture (also called a spinal tap) is usually done to take a sample of the cerebrospinal (seh-ree-bro-SPY-nuhl) fluid (CSF), the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The CSF will be examined under a microscope to look for bacteria or other infectious agents, and increased numbers of white blood cells indicating inflammation.
Antibiotics are not used to treat viral meningitis because it is caused by a virus, not bacteria. Once a case of meningitis is known to be viral, rest and pain medication for body aches and headache can help the person feel better until the infection resolves on its own.
Bacterial meningitis requires prompt medical treatment, usually in the hospital. Antibiotics are given to fight the invading organism for at least 2 weeks. Treatment of complications may require intensive care and other medications.
Meningitis that results from other types of infection or other causes is treated with medications, such as antifungal or antiparasitic drugs, and may require hospitalization, especially during the early stages of medical care.
Most cases of viral meningitis last 1 to 2 weeks, and most people recover completely. Symptoms from bacterial meningitis can last weeks, and people may have severe complications from the disease, especially if it is not diagnosed and treated promptly.
What Complications Can Meningitis Cause?
Complications from viral meningitis are not as common as those from bacterial meningitis, but they can include inflammation and swelling of the brain. Sometimes, permanent learning disability and other brain damage can result.
* seizures (SEE-zhurs) are sudden bursts of disorganized electrical activity that interrupt the normal functioning of the brain, often leading to uncontrolled movements in the body and sometimes a temporary change in consciousness.
* computerized tomography (kom-PYOO-ter-ized toe-MAH-gruh-fee) or CT, also called computerized axial tomography (CAT), is a technique in which a machine takes many X rays of the body to create a three-dimensional picture.
* abscess (AB-ses) is a localized or walled off accumulation of pus caused by infection that can occur anywhere in the body.
* sepsis is a potentially serious spreading of infection, usually bacterial, through the bloodstream and body.
* shock is a serious condition in which blood pressure is very low and not enough blood flows to the body's organs and tissues. Untreated, shock may result in death.
Complications from bacterial meningitis can occur rapidly and be severe, even with quick diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Complications include sepsis * , brain swelling, seizures, shock * , organ failure (such as of the kidneys * ), and death. Up to 15 percent of cases of meningitis caused by meningococcus are fatal. Long-term effects are seen in about 10 percent of those who survive bacterial meningitis and can include hearing loss, seizure disorder, learning disabilities, and other problems resulting from brain injury. Meningitis caused by the bacteria that cause tuberculosis is particularly likely to damage the nervous system.
Can Meningitis Be Prevented?
Vaccinations against Haemophilus influenzae type b and Streptococcus pneumoniae are now given routinely to American children before the age of 2. A vaccine against meningococcus is also available, although it is not regularly used in the United States and is not effective in young children. Young people going off to college, especially those who plan to live in a dormitory, should consider getting the vaccine, as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It also is recommended for people traveling outside the United States, people living in certain institutional settings, the elderly, and people with some chronic * medical conditions.
During outbreaks of bacterial meningitis, especially those caused by meningococcus, in schools, dormitories, or daycare people may be given prophylactic * antibiotics to keep the disease from occurring in those who were in close contact with the infected person.
It is difficult to keep viruses such as enteroviruses from spreading from person to person. Risk of viral infection can be decreased by washing hands regularly, especially after using the toilet, and avoiding close contact with anyone who is ill, including not sharing food, eating or serving utensils, razors, or other personal items.
* kidneys are the pair of organs that filter blood and remove waste products and excess water from the body in the form of urine.
* chronic (KRAH-nik) means continuing for a long period of time.
* prophylactic (pro-fih-LAK-tik) refers to something that is used to prevent an illness or other condition, such as an infection or pregnancy.
Meningitis Foundation of America Inc., 6610 North Shadeland Avenue,
Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46220. The Meningitis Foundation of America
offers information about the disease, including prevention and
treatment, at its website.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1600 Clifton
Road, Atlanta, GA 30333. The CDC is the U.S. government authority for
information about infectious and other diseases. It provides fact sheets
about meningitis at its website. | <urn:uuid:3369dc4e-eea3-4d45-b559-49d11e2d18ae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.humanillnesses.com/Infectious-Diseases-He-My/Meningitis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932791 | 2,615 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Common names: Cabbage Looper, Looper, Inch Worm
Scientific name: Order Lepidoptera, family Noctuidae, Trichoplusia ni
Size: Adult wing span--1 1/2" to 2", larva--1" to 1 1/2"
Identification: Adults are brownish gray moths with silvery spots in the center of each wing. Active at night. Eggs are greenish white, round and laid singly on the upper sides of leaves. Larvae are green with pale stripes down the back. They form a loop when walking--thus the name.
Biology and life cycle: Loopers overwinter as greenish to brownish pupae wrapped with delicate cocoons of white thread. The cocoons are so thin that the pupae outlines can be seen. Adult moths emerge in the spring to lay eggs on the surface of leaves. Larvae emerge and feed from two to four weeks and then spin cocoons similar to the ones used to pass the winter. Three to four generations per year or more. The number of worms increases with each generation. Complete metamorphosis.
Habitat: Vegetable gardens, especially those with brassicas. Enjoy cabbage, broccoli, celery, kale, parsley, peas, potatoes, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, lettuce, beans, radishes, tomatoes, and other garden crops.
Feeding habits: Larvae eat lots of holes in green leaves.
Economic importance: Destruction of food crop foliage.
Natural control: Trichogramma wasps, birds, paper wasps, and yellow jackets. Loopers are usually controlled by natural diseases and parasites; these function effectively only in an organic program.
Organic control: Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) products.
Insight: Even the organiphobes recommend Bt because the chemical poisons don't work on this animal. Here is a quote from a 1962 college text: "The looper caterpillars are often almost completely destroyed, usually late in the season, by a wilt disease which causes their bodies to rot." Bacillus thuringiensis was the wilt pathogen, but not yet discovered, named, and made available to gardeners.
Caterpillar damage to kale. | <urn:uuid:8f9f345b-d140-4930-849f-e2b78deaa7c7> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Looper_vq779.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701159985.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193919-00275-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900279 | 474 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Vitamin D: cod-liver oil for modern times
A recent national survey has shown that over 80% of New Zealand women are deficient in vitamin D. Many processes in the body are affected by vitamin D, with deficiency causing bone disease in children and increasing the risk of osteoporosis in the elderly.
Not just for bones
Vitamin D not only keeps your bones strong but also is important for tissue growth, healing, sleep, mood and supporting your immune system. Recent studies have even suggested that vitamin D may protect against some forms of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Adults can experience vitamin D deficiency as a dull ache in their muscles and bones with weakness that can develop into a condition called osteomalacia. Vitamin D is important in the production of melatonin and serotonin, so a deficiency can cause problems such as insomnia and depression.
How you get vitamin D
Your skin uses sunlight to make vitamin D, which is then used throughout your body. Of course, these days most people are concerned about excessive sun exposure and use sunscreen or cover up with clothing, limiting our ability to make vitamin D. Being over 60 or having naturally dark skin will also make your skin slower to use sunlight to make vitamin D. As we head into shorter days and colder, wetter weather, we tend to have even lower vitamin D levels which makes us prone to a host of health issues like colds and flu. Unlike many vitamins and minerals, you are unlikely to get enough vitamin D from food and drink. Supplementation is the easiest way to ensure our bodies have a sufficient supply. It's like a modern version of cod-liver oil, without the unpleasant fishy taste.
Supplementing your vitamin D
The vitamin D supplement we stock at Health Within is an inexpensive and palatable vanilla-flavoured liquid. It comes in the active D3 form that is ready for your body to use immediately. Just 3 drops a day will give you 1000 international units, the recommended intake. | <urn:uuid:5b17a5d7-60aa-4db2-9914-9c25b68d0bbf> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://healthwithin.co.nz/vitamin-d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376829429.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20181218143757-20181218165757-00210.warc.gz | en | 0.938536 | 406 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Ready to Eat
A survival food packet must be ready to eat at a moment’s notice. Conditions that they are used in will vary, and heating may not be an option. Preparation typically involves little more than opening the packet or adding water.
Provides Emergency Nutrition
Emergency survival food packets are carefully assembled to provide solid nutrition. The bars consist mostly of carbohydrate calories, followed by fat calories. These calories can sustain the body for several days, and are easy to digest.
Require little or no water
Fresh drinking water is another resource that may not be available during an emergency situation. The compressed food bars are low in protein so that additional water is not needed for digestion. The tea, soup and gravy bases require only 14 ounces of water to prepare.
Long shelf life
Emergency food can be stored for long periods of time, allowing them to be available without watching the expiration date. Typically survival food packets stay good for up to five years.
Easy to carry
Survival food packets are lightweight and compact. This makes them easy to pack and carry. Packets weigh less than one pound; their compressed packing keeps damage during transport low.
Article Written By Sarah Shelton
Based in Oregon, Sarah Shelton has worked as a freelance writer since 2008. She enjoys covering travel, home and garden, and automotive topics. Her articles have appeared nationwide with Internet Broadcasting, Adventure Travel and Real Estate Experts. With a major in biology, Shelton received her Bachelor of Science from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. | <urn:uuid:20759245-bfef-4387-8726-3ac6cf397ae7> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.trails.com/facts_40002_general-purpose-survival-food-packet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376827769.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20181216143418-20181216165418-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.953355 | 312 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Preventing Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Sounding The Alarm On A Silent Killer
The most important thing to know about carbon monoxide is that you cannot see, smell or taste it. Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen from faulty furnaces, space and water heaters, clothes dryers, and cars left running in garages. Breathing in too much can make you sick, and even kill you within minutes.
- Install a carbon monoxide alarm on every level in your home, and near sleeping areas. Place them at least 15 feet away from any fuel-burning appliances, like stoves and water heaters.
- The detector’s batteries should be checked at least two times each year, at the same time smoke detector batteries are checked. As a handy reminder, you can do this at the beginning and end of Daylight saving time each year.
- It is best to have carbon monoxide alarms that are interconnected. This way, when one sounds, they all sound.
- Replace the batteries in each carbon monoxide detector every year, or when the battery is low. Most carbon monoxide detectors will alert you when the battery is low by chirping.
- Carbon monoxide alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms and vice versa. For more information on smoke alarms, go here.
- While everyone is at risk, a child’s body reacts faster and more severely to carbon monoxide. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are similar to a virus or the flu. Symptoms include unexplained headache, nausea, muscle aches, vomiting and fatigue. These can all quickly turn into confusion, chest pain, heart attacks and loss of consciousness.
- If the alarm sounds, or if you or anyone in your home is experiencing symptoms, treat it like there is a fire. Quickly get everyone outside of the house.
- Once outside, call 911. First responders will test and clear your home, and determine if a hospital visit is needed for anyone in the home.
- DO NOT go back into the house until you have been told it’s safe. Once given the all-clear, have your fuel-burning appliances inspected.
- Your oven or stovetop should not be used to heat your home.
- Always use grills, generators and camping stoves outside of your home or garage, and away from open windows.
- Make a yearly appointment to have fuel-burning appliances, like your furnace or fireplace, inspected by certified technicians.
- Never leave a car or motorcycle running in the garage—even if you keep the door open.
- Outside of your home, clear all debris and snow, so it doesn’t block the vents from your dryer, furnace, stove and fireplace.
More than 400 children and adults die every year from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning not linked to fires. | <urn:uuid:3fa39988-ec2d-4a01-a733-aa9c390f59a6> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://makesafehappen.com/articles/preventing-carbon-monoxide-poisoning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499842.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20230131023947-20230131053947-00818.warc.gz | en | 0.895073 | 602 | 3.265625 | 3 |
In mental health, recovery does not always refer to the process of complete recovery from a mental health problem in the way that we may recover from a physical health problem.
For many people, the concept of recovery is about staying in control of their life despite experiencing a mental health problem. Professionals in the mental health sector often refer to the 'recovery model' to describe this way of thinking.
Putting recovery into action means focusing care on supporting recovery and building the resilience of people with mental health problems, not just on treating or managing their symptoms.
There is no single definition of the concept of recovery for people with mental health problems, but the guiding principle is hope - the belief that it is possible for someone to regain a meaningful life, despite serious mental illness.
The recovery process
Recovery is often referred to as a process, outlook, vision, conceptual framework or guiding principle.
The recovery process:
- provides a holistic view of mental illness that focuses on the person, not just their symptoms
- believes recovery from severe mental illness is possible
- is a journey rather than a destination
- does not necessarily mean getting back to where you were before
- happens in 'fits and starts' and, like life, has many ups and downs
- calls for optimism and commitment from all concerned
- is profoundly influenced by people's expectations and attitudes
- requires a well organised system of support from family, friends or professionals
- requires services to embrace new and innovative ways of working.
The recovery model aims to help people with mental health problems to look beyond mere survival and existence. It encourages them to move forward, set new goals and do things and develop relationships that give their lives meaning.
Recovery emphasises that, while people may not have full control over their symptoms, they can have full control over their lives. Recovery is not about 'getting rid' of problems. It is about seeing beyond a person's mental health problems, recognising and fostering their abilities, interests and dreams.
Mental illness and social attitudes to mental illness often impose limits on people experiencing ill health. health professionals, friends and families can be overly protective or pessimistic about what someone with a mental health problem will be able to achieve. Recovery is about looking beyond those limits to help people achieve their own goals and aspirations.
Recovery can be a voyage of self-discovery and personal growth. Experiences of mental illness can provide opportunities for change, reflection and discovery of new values, skills and interests.
What supports recovery?
Research has found that important factors on the road to recovery include:
- good relationships
- financial security
- satisfying work
- personal growth
- the right living environment
- developing one's own cultural or spiritual perspectives
- developing resilience to possible adversity or stress in the future.
Further factors highlighted by people as supporting them on their recovery journey include:
- being believed in
- being listened to and understood
- getting explanations for problems or experiences
- having the opportunity to temporarily resign responsibility during periods of crisis.
In addition, it is important that anyone who is supporting someone during the recovery process encourages them to develop their skills and supports them to achieve their goals.
What are the links between recovery and social inclusion?
"Too many services fail to empower their users to 'get their life back on track' and get back into the community."
There is a strong link between the recovery process and social inclusion. A key role for services is to support people to regain their place in the communities where they live and take part in mainstream activities and opportunities along with everyone else. There is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates that taking part in social, educational, training, volunteering and employment opportunities can support the process of individual recovery.
Are there tools to help service users and mental health services?
Three approaches that may help are:
WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning)
WRAP is a self-management and recovery system developed in the US by people with mental health difficulties. People are supported to create their own wellness recovery action plan, setting out their goals, what help they need to get there, what helps keep them well, and what puts their mental health at risk. WRAP aims to:
- increase the person's sense of control over their mental health problems
- increase personal empowerment
- improve quality of life
- assist people in achieving their own life goals and dreams.
A WRAP will also state how the person wants others to respond when symptoms have made it impossible for them to continue to make decisions safely for themselves and take care of themselves.
You can find out more about WRAP on the Mental Health Recovery and WRAP website.
DREEM (Developing Recovery Enhancing Environments Measure)
DREEM is an outcome measure and research tool to see how 'recovery-oriented' a service is. It is a self-report instrument that gathers information about mental health recovery from people who using mental health services. The DREEM asks people where they are in their process of mental health recovery and what markers of recovery they are currently experiencing.
You can find out more about DREEM on the Recovery Devon website.
Checklist of Good Practice
Service users have written extensively about the approaches to recovery which they would like mental health professionals to take. For an example which represents the views of service users from both dominant and marginalised communities, see the Recovery checklist in appendix one of our Recovery in Action project report (PDF). | <urn:uuid:976de4bf-b70a-469a-8f46-70ad83ea1603> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/r/recovery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823322.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20181210101954-20181210123454-00576.warc.gz | en | 0.96174 | 1,122 | 3.671875 | 4 |
This illustration is from “The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends”, a children’s book aimed to educate children about the myths and legends centring around Greece and Rome. This image shows the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, the half bull, half man which King Minos of Crete kept inside a labyrinth and fed sacrifices to appease it.
The image serves it’s purpose by showing children what the scene in the story may have looked like and what big a task this would have been for a mortal man such as Theseus. The image would have made children want to read the story next to it, to find out more about this massive, vague creature.
I really enjoy how the minotaur is a solid black shape against the brighter walls for the labyrinth, this leaves some details of the creature to the imagination which can be filled in by the viewer of the picture. The black really makes sure the minotaur can be seen against the walls of the labyrinth except for his red eyes which leave the viewer in no doubt that the minotaur is looking directly at Theseus and there is no sympathy in it’s eyes.
I think this image is quite interesting as it shows Theseus about to battle the Minotaur, looking as if it really is a challenge or s great feat he will have to accomplish, rather than having him look quite heroic. I think this image shows the Minotaur for what it would be, a terrifying block of a creature which dwarfs the hero of the story. This enhances the storyline of the myth as it gives the impression of Theseus being brave and strong for having bested such a terrifying creature. | <urn:uuid:fd32e5e6-e26f-4454-ac14-bea84d535a9a> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://oliviacriticaljournal.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/fmp-martin-and-alice-provensen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257648207.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20180323102828-20180323122828-00341.warc.gz | en | 0.972942 | 336 | 3.234375 | 3 |
See also Eve; Family; Parents
A sacred title referring to a woman who bears or adopts children. Mothers assist in God’s plan by providing mortal bodies for God’s spirit children.
Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living, Gen. 3:20 (Moses 4:26).
Honor thy father and thy mother, Ex. 20:12 (Eph. 6:1–3; Mosiah 13:20).
Forsake not the law of thy mother, Prov. 1:8.
A foolish man despises his mother, Prov. 15:20 (Prov. 10:1).
Do not despise your mother when she is old, Prov. 23:22.
Her children and husband rise up and call her blessed and her husband praises her, Prov. 31:28.
The mother of Jesus stood by the cross, John 19:25–27.
Two thousand Lamanite warriors had been taught by their mothers, Alma 56:47 (Alma 57:21).
Our glorious Mother Eve was among the great and mighty whom the Lord instructed in the spirit world, D&C 138:38–39. | <urn:uuid:5141cdb5-2201-459b-af95-6502260985a4> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/mother?lang=eng&letter=m&country=ca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118310.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00007-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938467 | 253 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Spalling is most often identified by signs such as flaking (concrete spalling), rust stains that leach from the concrete. Bulging of the concrete or in some cases even fall off the building. The real problem lies within the concrete itself and is not a result of weathering.
The process can start in many ways, but generally, it is due to one of the following:
- The reinforcing steel being too close to the surface allowing water to seep through concrete and react with the steel.
- Fractures in the concrete allowing water to penetrate the concrete and react with the steel.
- Incompatible metals being used in close proximity to each other, thus causing a reaction.
- Poorly treated reinforcing steel being used in the original pour of the slab.
Spalled concrete is an eyesore and a hazard. Over time, with increased exposure to the elements, falling concrete debris causing likely injury and damage to property. Spalling concrete should be repaired immediately, as deferring the treatment will inevitably lead to increased problems into the future.
We will begin the process of concrete spalling repair by removing all loose concrete, grinding back the reinforcing steel to remove all rust, treating the steel with anti-corrosives. Then patching the repair with a top quality concrete to match the original surface. | <urn:uuid:60ca251c-b2c7-4291-a90c-29db3434e834> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://firstworks.co.za/spalling-repairs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703548716.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20210124111006-20210124141006-00550.warc.gz | en | 0.933204 | 268 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By Alyssa Shaffer
Straining your brain to remember someone's name or where you left your wallet? Forgetting things can be a pesky problem, but it can get serious without the proper attention. Thankfully, a few simple tricks are all it takes to prevent those forgetful moments and get your memory in shape. Find out what you can start doing now. Photo by Fotolia.com
New research shows that older people who have higher levels of vitamins B, C, D and E in their blood have stronger memory and thinking skills. Make sure you're getting enough vitamin B 12 in particular (found in meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk)-low levels of this vitamin have been linked to memory problems. Whenever possible, try to get these nutrients from food instead of pills. But if you're a vegetarian, over 50 years old and/or taking certain medications for diabetes or heartburn, ask your doctor about B 12 supplements, since you may be at a higher risk for a deficiency. On the flip side, avoid foods that contain trans fats (including fried foods and many packaged baked goods). Studies show that people with high levels of this dangerous fat had worse cognitive functioning.
Orly Avitzur, MD, fellow of the American Academy of Neurology
Related: Ease stress with these 8 calming foods.
The psychologist says...Play games
Try doing a word scramble, a crossword puzzle or Sudoku against the clock. Giving yourself a time limit challenges your brain's focus, speed and flexibility. Also choose hobbies that keep your mind engaged-painting, writing, playing board games-and do them regularly. Research shows that activities like these help keep your brain function strong throughout your lifetime.
Cynthia Green, PHD, author of 30 Days to Total Brain Health and president of Memory Arts, Montclair, NJ
The neuroscientist says...Take a brisk walk
Exercise triggers positive changes in your brain, including forging new connections between nerve cells, increasing blood flow and even creating new brain cells-all of which help strengthen your memory and problem-solving skills. A brisk half-hour walk every day can also lower your chances of developing dementia, since it helps keep blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check. Best of all, it's never too late to make a difference. Research shows that even longtime couch potatoes who started a regular exercise program experienced positive changes in brain function almost immediately.
Arthur F. Kramer, PHD, director, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Related: See 20 easy ways to burn more fat. | <urn:uuid:5c4a6627-239f-42d1-a648-9a9c712885d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://ca.style.yahoo.com/blogs/healthy-living/improve-memory-160400081.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501174276.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104614-00365-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934654 | 537 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The whole plant of Adonis vernalis, Linné. (Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae). Southern Europe, Siberia, and Labrador. Dose, ½ to 3 grains.
Common Name: Pheasant's Eye.
Principal Constituent.—Adonidin, probably a mixture of acids and glucosides.
Preparation.—Specific Medicine Adonis. Dose, ½ to 3 drops.
Specific Indications.—Weak cardiac action, with low blood pressure, and shortened diastole, with consequent venous stasis, with increased back-pressure, and feeble intermittent or irregular pulse; cardiac dropsy, with weak heart.
Action.—Fresh adonis is irritant and vesicant. Upon the circulation it acts much like digitalis, but is prompter in action and not cumulative. It is an energetic agent and capable of poisoning. Adonis slows, regulates, and strengthens the heart's contractions, raises blood pressure, and thereby acts as a diuretic. It also causes deeper and slower breathing, and in proper cases overcomes dyspnea. Large doses paralyze the heart and blood vessels.
Therapy.—On account of its quicker action Adonis has been preferred by some to digitalis and strophanthus in the same class of heart affections to which these are applicable, or in which for some reason it is undesirable to employ them. It is especially commended where arrhythmia with feeble cardiac force and dyspnoea and dropsy are present. It has long been a popular remedy in Russia for dropsies of both heart and kidney origin. It is probably less valuable than digitalis where the cardiac valves are greatly affected. Scudder valued adonis in heart-strain from overexertion; Hale recommended it in endocarditis and in weak and irregular heart action resulting from chronic nephritis. Wilcox used it in chronic albuminuria, with pale urine and delirium with good results and in uremic convulsions, which had been frequent, without a return of the eclampsia for two years, when the patient died. It is undoubtedly emmenagogue and has been advised in epilepsy, administering it with bromide of potassium. It should not be given when there is gastro-intestinal irritation or inflammation. | <urn:uuid:4cf791bd-58f2-448d-98b8-35eb9d94ec44> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/felter/adonis-vernalis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00366-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905435 | 476 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A Georgia State University researcher is mining social media data to document the experiences of so-called “long-haulers,” people who remain sick long after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Experts know little about the clinical course of COVID-19. In the early days of the pandemic, clinicians did not believe coronavirus symptoms could persist past two or three weeks. Patients tended to either recover quickly or die from the infection. In late July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report acknowledging that in a third of patients—even young adults with no preexisting conditions—COVID-19 can result in prolonged illness.
Juan Banda, assistant professor of computer science at Georgia State, has amassed one of the world’s largest publicly available datasets of COVID-19 Twitter chatter, made up of more than 602 million individual Tweets. Collaborating with researchers from Oxford University and Harvard Medical School, he used the dataset to identify common symptoms shared by long-haulers, some of whom take months to recover. The work is important because clinical reports documenting long-term symptoms of COVID-19 are not accessible to the public.
“Clinical data is not easily available, and it does not always capture detailed follow-up of the patients,” Banda said. “However, those patients are sharing their experiences on social media, allowing us to study the progression of the disease based on self-reported experiences.”
The researchers analyzed Tweets that were published in May—more than 60 days after the start of the pandemic—through July. The 10 most commonly mentioned symptoms were malaise and fatigue, labored breathing, tachycardia or heart palpitations, chest pain, insomnia/sleep disorders, cough, headache and joint pain or fever.
Some of the most serious reported health impacts for long-haulers were acute respiratory failure and acute organ injury, including kidney injury in 20 percent of patients and damage to the heart muscle in 20 to 30 percent of patients. Consequently, long-haulers may be likely to develop chronic conditions such as chronic kidney disease, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Banda and his colleagues chose to make the preliminary study public through the pre-print website medRxiv to aid the global push to learn more about the clinical manifestations of COVID-19.
“We have demonstrated that researchers can leverage social media data, specifically from Twitter, to conduct long-term studies of self-reported symptoms,” Banda said.
The work is part of a massive research project to collect and track social media chatter related to COVID-19. Banda’s team at Georgia State began collecting Tweets dedicated to coronavirus on March 10 and continue to collect nearly 4.5 million Tweets each day. Banda has also used the dataset to investigate the spread of misinformation relating to COVID-19 in various geographic areas. The dataset, which you can find here, is publicly available as a resource for the global research community.
Source: Read Full Article | <urn:uuid:b28efb88-793b-4d64-8b5d-70b9fa40496c> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://genpill.info/health-news/researchers-use-social-media-data-to-learn-more-about-covid-19-long-haulers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320304954.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20220126131707-20220126161707-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.941349 | 635 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Since the beginning of the nation on the shores of Virginia, has remained highly diverse I terms of race and ethnicity. Recent statistics have indicated how more than a third of Americans are unable to trace their specific origin, making America to stand at the verge of being dominated by pre-conceived minorities in the next few years. This is evidenced by the predominance of racial diversity in the major cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles among others in America.
This prevalent racial diversity arouses the fundamental question about America’s cultural historical identity. Perhaps, it is not possible to tell the story of the United States without considering racial and ethnic lens. According to Takaki (7), the significance or racial diversity in America’s history remains remarkable with respect to the prevalent demographic trends in the country. This paper analyses the role of immigration and laws based on ethnicity to describe America’s historical pathway.
As it has been revealed, much of what is known in America’s cultural setting has ethnic perspective. It is important to note that, some outstanding figures like Martin Luther and Ah Bing among others are not Native Americans, yet their contribution in shaping the nation remains remarkable (Takaki 19). More so, president Barrack Obama’s origin is traced in Africa, yet his superiority in the nation is inarguable.
Despite being the central minority all through the nation’s history, African Americans are currently becoming majorities in many academic institutions in US today. This is an indication that, America is taking new shape as a result of its diverse ethnic background in its historical development. It thus goes without saying that, historical immigrations in America are of great significance in telling the history of the United States.
With reference to Takaki (8), massive migrations from various parts of the world to America have largely been focused by historians to explain the prevalent American culture. For instance, artisan manual workers of Philadelphia and the Irish immigrants are described as historians as key elements in the revolution of various artistic works in America.
Basically, studying each ethnic group in America separately reveals one or more aspects of the entire American culture at large. It is the integration of these diverse cultural values and practices that have shaped the prevalent American culture today. In the historical make-up, the nationality of Americans can be attributed to the various ethnic groups that migrated into the country several decades ago.
Various laws in United States have as well contributed towards the prevalent situation in terms of the nation’s culture. For instance, the immigration and marriage laws in the US have largely contributed towards the homogeneity of the previous diverse cultural practices. Since the immigration laws have been liberated, many people from various global regions have migrated into the country, increasing the level of cosmopolitanism in the country today (Takaki 29).
Having fewer restrictions in marriage amongst races and ethnic groups, the current states laws in US can be considered as having played significant role in promoting cultural integration in the country. Indeed, immigration and law based on the race and ethnicity has played remarkable role in the historical development of the United States of America.
Generally, studying America’s past from racial and ethnic diversity can form a fundamental perspective of understanding the current demographic trends in US. The realization of how America’s pre-conceived minorities as the future’s majority is becoming a real issue in explaining America’s history. In this regard, it is not possible to unravel the history of the United States without focusing on racial and ethnic lens.
Takaki, Ronald. A Different mirror: A history of multi-cultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. | <urn:uuid:97ff7450-9a33-4159-a57f-e7a84bd93b24> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://lucasdipasquale.com/tracing-the-americas-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540484815.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206050236-20191206074236-00437.warc.gz | en | 0.951409 | 745 | 3.984375 | 4 |
Nanotechnology may offer a better, safer way to diagnose and treat ectopic pregnancies, which cause about 70 pregnant people to die every year in the United States.
Research jointly led by Leslie Myatt, Ph.D., at Oregon Health & Science University, and Olena Taratula, Ph.D., at Oregon State University, shows that an approach involving nanoparticles, photoacoustic imaging and infrared light works in mice. Their study was published this month in the journal Small.
“Too many people become seriously ill and even die because the best-available methods to detect and treat ectopic pregnancies simply aren’t good enough,” said Myatt, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, as well as the director of perinatal research in the OHSU School of Medicine. “I hope research like this will create better options for those who unfortunately experience an ectopic pregnancy.”
About 1 to 2% of all pregnancies are ectopic, meaning an embryo is implanted in a fallopian tube or otherwise outside the uterus, and cannot develop normally. An abnormally implanted embryo invades nearby blood vessels and can cause internal bleeding if not treated early. Symptoms for this serious pregnancy complication include severe pelvic pain and sometimes bleeding. Ectopic pregnancies must be treated to prevent significant illness, reduced fertility and even death of the pregnant person.
This serious pregnancy complication is currently detected during a pelvic ultrasound exam. However, this method may miss up to 40% of ectopic pregnancies due to limitations in imaging methods. Better diagnostic methods are needed to reduce the uncertainty that many people face in the early stages of pregnancy when the complication is a concern.
Today, most ectopic pregnancies are treated with the drug methotrexate, which stops rapidly dividing cells from multiplying — but the drug is also associated with serious side effects. Additionally, the medication fails to end about 10% of ectopic pregnancies, which can require re-treatment or surgery. More advanced cases can both require immediate surgery and be associated with significant blood loss.
As a scientist who studies the placenta and other organs involved in pregnancy, Myatt was intrigued a few years ago when he heard an OHSU colleague was collaborating with OSU to develop a potential nanotechnology-based treatment for endometriosis, a painful condition that causes dangerous lesions in ovaries and fallopian tubes. Research in mice has shown that technology effectively removes lesions without surgery.
Myatt contacted Taratula, a nanotechnology researcher at the OSU College of Pharmacy, with an idea: use nanoparticles to detect and treat ectopic pregnancies. They worked alongside other OHSU and OSU colleagues to develop a nanoparticle material that is fluorescent and generates heat when exposed to infrared light. They paired their nanoparticles with a photoacoustic imaging device, which detects sound waves that occur when pulsed lasers hit tissue.
To test if their new concept might improve ectopic pregnancy detection and treatment, they injected a non-toxic solution containing nanoparticles and a light-responsive agent into pregnant mice. The solution traveled with the blood stream until it concentrated on the surface of the placenta. Next, the researchers placed their imaging device outside the mouse’s body, and pointed it toward the mouse’s uterus. The resulting images clearly showed the placenta’s surface was lit up by nanoparticles. This suggested the technology could be used to show if a placenta is developing where it should be — or should not be, in the case of a dangerous ectopic pregnancy.
The nanoparticles were designed to serve another purpose: to heat up under focused, near-infrared light. When evaluating their technology in lab mice, they found placental tissue became non-viable when nanoparticles that covered the tissue’s surface became warm. As a result, the team hypothesizes their technology could offer a non-invasive and effective way to treat ectopic pregnancies.
Importantly, the researchers didn’t observe nanoparticles passing through placental tissue. That suggests the non-toxic solution could remain in place without causing harm, should their novel imaging approach indicate a placenta is growing safely and a pregnancy is not ectopic.
The research team continues to study their approach in mice, and hopes to also study it in nonhuman primates, which are more closely related to humans. Thanks to support from the OHSU Center for Women’s Health Circle of Giving, the team is also tweaking the technology by adding molecules to the nanoparticles’ exterior in an effort to more precisely target the placenta and use fewer nanoparticles.
This research was supported by Oregon State University, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grants R03 TR004020-01 and KL2 TR002370), the National Cancer Institute (grants R01CA237569 and R37CA234006), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant R01HD101450) and Oregon Health & Science University.
All research involving animal subjects at OHSU must be reviewed and approved by the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC’s priority is to ensure the health and safety of animal research subjects. The IACUC also reviews procedures to ensure the health and safety of the people who work with the animals. The IACUC conducts a rigorous review of all animal research proposals to ensure they justify the use of live animals and species selected; outline steps to minimize pain and distress; document appropriate training of all staff involved; and, establish, through a detailed review of published sources, the proposed study does not unnecessarily duplicate previous research. No live animal work may be conducted at OHSU without IACUC approval.
REFERENCE: Abraham S. Moses, Leena Kadam, Anna St Lorenz, Maureen K. Baldwin, Terry Morgan, Jessica Hebert, Youngrong Park, Hyelim Lee, Ananiya A. Demessie, Tetiana Korzun, Babak Mamnoon, Adam W. G. Alani, Oleh Taratula, Leslie Myatt, and Olena R. Taratula, Nano-Theranostic Modality for Visualization of the Placenta and Photo-Hyperthermia for Potential Management of Ectopic Pregnancy, Small, Nov. 17, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202202343 | <urn:uuid:ad30894b-cbd3-472c-a574-ae0433fe4d5a> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://news.ohsu.edu/2022/11/21/nanotechnology-may-better-identify-treat-ectopic-pregnancy?print=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506658.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924155422-20230924185422-00180.warc.gz | en | 0.930173 | 1,343 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Preventing Heart Disease: What Not To Eat
About 12.6 million Americans currently have heart disease.
1.1 million Americans will experience a serious heart event this year.
One in four Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. Every 34 seconds one American will die as a result of cardiovascular disease.
No other disease claims as many women's lives as cardiovascular disease. One American woman dies each minute as a result of cardiovascular disease.
Around 700,000 Americans will have a stroke this years. That's one stroke every 45 seconds.
HEART DISEASE IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST KILLER OF AMERICANS. IT KILLS AS MANY AMERICANS AS THE NEXT 5 LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH.
One important step in reducing your risk of heart disease is to change your diet.
These are what you should consume less of:
1. Solid margarines, commercial white bread, high-fat baked items like doughnuts or cakes, any product saying "partially hydrogenated vegetable oils", french fries, potato chips, corn chips and many crackers, and commercially fried foods.
These foods contain trans fatty acids. These badly affect cholesterol levels and hence your risk of heart disease. They increase the levels of bad cholesterol and decrease the levels of good cholesterol.
Trans fatty acids are dangerous for the heart and may be worse than saturated fats. They also harm the linings of the arteries and may even increase your risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
2. Meat and dairy products.
These foods contain saturated fatty acids. These are bad for the heart.
The amount of trans fat and saturated fat in your diet should be less than 10 percent of your total calorie intake. In fact, you should try to eliminate them out of your diet altogether.
You should have no more than one teaspoon of salt each day.
Kevin Davies is webmaster of preventingheartfailure.com and author of "Preventing Heart Failure" eBook. In this eBook you'll learn how to significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. To buy "Preventing Heart Failure" please visit http://www.preventingheartfailure.com
Eating Healthy in a Time-Starved World
Americans are literally running out of time. Achieving a work-life balance, which is still a luxury for tens of millions of working parents, has been overtaken by an even greater demand: a work-life-nutrition balance.
Guidelines to a Healthy Diet
The American Heart Association recommends that you eat a variety of foods from the different food groups. In order for women to lose one to two pounds a week, they should consume between 1200 and 1500 calories a day.
Eating Disorders Do Not Discriminate
Who suffers from Eating Disorders?Eating Disorder sufferers are male and female alike. We are of all ethnicity's, religions,and economic backgrounds.
Is Organic Really Better for You?
I had finally come to a place in my life where I was concerned about my health and that of my family. After all, it's not the quantity, but the quality of life right? And if you can increase both, all the better! We started exercising, eating healthier and taking vitamins.
Just What Is A Carbohydrate Anyway?
During a recent discussion with my father about low carb diets, he pointed to the butter on the table and said "is that a carbohydrate?" when I started to explain, he then pointed to the sugar and said "well, what about that?"Unfortunately, you cannot just point to a food and label it a "carbohydrate" as each food is made up of protein, carbs and fats in varying degrees. Some foods are almost all carb, and some, like meat, eggs and fish have none.
Face Check Up
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the healthiest of them all? Here is your handy-dandy checklist for a healthy you. Discover how your face reveals your health.
Blueberries: Healthy and Easy on the Tummy After WLS
All of my life I believed the best way to eat blueberries was with a muffin wrapped around them. No way could plain off-the-bush berries taste good.
Manganese is a metallic mineral that was discovered by a 17th century German chemist named Johann Glauber, though it was not isolated in a pure form until 1774, by Johan Gahn. It was Gahn's associate, a Swedish chemist, Carl Scheele, who first determined that manganese was an element.
The History of the Acai Berry
The acai (ah-sigh-ee) berry has been around for thousands of years and not until the 1990's was it introduced to the western world. The acai berry was found to possess tremendous health properties.
Minimum Health or Maximum Health? That is the Question!
Picture yourself in one of the following scenarios.You're cruising along in your new car by the ocean or in the mountains near the ski lodge, or just a leisurely drive through a beautiful forest or in the country.
Post Workout Nutrition: Secrets to a Hard, Lean Body
As you've probably heard before, your post-workout meal may very well be your most important meal of the day. The reason is that when you're finished with an intense workout, you're entering a catabolic state where your muscle glycogen is depleted and increased cortisol levels are beginning to excessively break down muscle tissue.
True Culprits of High Cholesterol
What if I told you tap water and homogenized milk may be two of the biggest culprits in skyrocketing rates of high cholesterol? Cholesterol is actually being produced by our own bodies all of the time as a natural mechanism to combat oxidation when our bodies are diseased. Therefore, if we are not well, our cholesterol levels are likely to be higher regardless of what we eat that contains cholesterol.
3 Important Differences Between White Bread and Whole Wheat
For any kid who grew up eating doughy, thick Wonder Bread forlunch, the encouragement by dietitians and nutritionists toswitch to whole wheat bread can be a tough transition.Bread, like any other part of our diet, is an acquired taste.
Anti oxidants - Why Its a Must in Your Diet
While oxygen is the key to human survival, it is also responsible for maximum damage to the human body as 'free radicals'. Free radicals form when oxygen is metabolized or burned by the body for its functions.
Sports Nutrition Made Simple
Following these simple nutrition guidelines will allow you to lose weight, and an abundance of energy throughout the day.1) Hydrate with water throughout the day.
The Ins and Outs of Proper Nutrition
Secretly we all want just a few things in life, none theleast of which is to live a life that is healthy andenergetic. One way to accomplish this is to eat a wellbalanced diet that fuels the body to take on life'schallenges.
Poor Dental Hygiene May Account for Poor Health
Bright white teeth and fresh breath does not necessarily mean you have a healthy mouth! General health is directly related to gum health. Gum disease has been linked to several medical conditions such as stroke, diabetes, heart attack and worsening lung disease.
The Benefits Of Drinking Herbal Teas
Herbal teas have long been known to have medicinal benefits as well as being tasty to drink! Some of my favorite teas are chamomile tea, jasmine tea and ginger tea. Each of these has a distinctive taste as well as health benefit.
Foods Can Lower Cholesterol and C-reactive Protein
If you have high cholesterol, the American Heart Association's low-cholesterol, low-saturated fat diet will fail you. Even when applied conscientiously, it achieves a disappointingly modest reduction in LDL cholesterol of approximately 7%.
Choosing Organic for Health
We come from a society where growing organic and just growing produce and livestock for food Was once one of the same. Small, family farms still grow their own food using traditional methods passed down through the generations. | <urn:uuid:049912be-5ce1-4266-af2d-858f2a33c64c> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.boxingscene.com/nutrition/59770.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218188962.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212948-00459-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949257 | 1,677 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Biologic sulphate reduction in mine shaft lakesJari Väätäinen2018-11-13T13:45:01+02:00
Biologic sulphate reduction in mine shaft lakes
Jarno Mäkinen, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd; P.O. Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Finland, e-mail: jarno.makinen(at)vtt.fi
Abandoned mine shafts are typically filled naturally with water when drainage pumping has been stopped. Especially in sulphide mines water becomes rich in sulphate and various metals causing well known environmental problems when water is discharging into the environment (Johnson 2003). In the technology presented here, mine shaft lakes are harnessed to a passive bioreactor-type of systems with the help of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) for sulphate and heavy metals removal.
Description of the technology
The mine shaft lakes, rich in sulphate and heavy metals, can be treated in-situ and passively with sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). These bacteria require organic substrate and anoxic conditions to reduce sulphate to hydrogen sulphide, which precipitates, together with raised alkalinity and pH, various heavy metals from water as poorly soluble sulphides (Kaksonen et al. 2003, Liamleam & Annachhatre 2007):
3SO42− + 2CH3CHOHCOOH → 3H2S + 6HCO3−
H2S + M2+ → MS(s) + 2H+
Precipitates settle to the bottom of the mine shaft and are separated from water discharges (Lu 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008).
In Finland, biologic sulphate reduction in mine shaft lakes is used at least in four mines or their specific shafts: Ruostesuo, Hammaslahti, Kangasjärvi and Kotalahti (Vestola & Mroueh 2008). In Sweden, Rävlimyran mine shaft lake has been treated with lime and sewage sludge to enhance the biologic sulphate reduction and precipitation of heavy metals (Lu 2004). Performance of SRB water treatment of Hammaslahti mine site is presented in the case studies of Closedure pages: Biological sulphate redution of mine water – Hammaslahti mine site.
Biologic sulphate reduction can be utilised in mine shafts that have anoxic deep water layer throughout the year, i.e. rather stable stratification to prevent mixing of oxygen rich top water with anoxic bottom water. Proper stratification is developed due to sufficient depth or suitable shape of a shaft, but also due to high salinity of water. Moreover, seasonal variations in rainfall and temperature have an effect on stratification. In some cases, stratification is disturbed by oxygen rich seepage water flowing into the mine shaft lake through e.g. bedrock fissures. Situation may be improved by water management in the mine area, by constructing ditches that will lead the oxygen rich (non-polluted) water away from the shaft location (Lu 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008). The mine shaft depth has also an important role for water temperature, especially in northern regions. In Finnish case examples it is seen that in 50 meter depth the temperature is constant at 4- 6°C, which is rather low for sulphate reducing bacteria and therefore hampers the speed of sulphate reduction. However, if the mine shaft lake is clearly deeper, bottom water is usually warmer, favouring the biologic sulphate reduction. (Vestola & Mroueh 2008) Also case specific parameters, like pH and redox-potential have significant effect on biologic sulphate reduction. Main sulphate reducing bacteria require conditions of pH > 5.5 and redox < -100 mV to perform efficiently (García et al. 2001), but activity of some microbes is observed also in pH < 3.0 (Johnson 2003).
Advantages of the technology are related to its passive and in situ nature, providing rather economic and easily operated system. Practically, only anaerobic sludge or animal manure addition is required as they contain both the source of sulphate reducing bacteria and suitable organic substrate for them. Even the addition amount of these substrates is rather massive, and addition may have to be repeated several times to establish strong microbial colony, the price of the substrates is relatively low. When bacteria are thriving and there is enough substrate, it is possible that additions are not anymore needed and treatment can function without any actions. Only monitoring of the mine shaft lake and its discharge water quality is then needed (Lu 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008).
The main disadvantage of the technology is significant lag phase – development of proper bacterial colony and positive changes in mine shaft water take usually 2 – 3 years. Other parameters that can slow down the start-up and sulphate/metals reduction from waters is the low temperature and pH of the bottom water, as well as high concentration of sulphate, metals, As, and some anions like F and Cl. (Tsukamoto et al. 2004, Vestola and Mroueh 2008) As inhibition levels in different studies seem to vary, importance of laboratory testing is essential before starting the large-scale projects. One particular concern is also the release of nutrients (N, P) and pathogens to the surrounding environment (Vestola & Mroueh 2008).
Successful case example of Vehkankuilu (Kotalahti, Finland) has shown that biologic sulphate reduction in mine shaft lakes can be very efficient method for removing sulphate and heavy metals from water. In the Vehkankuilu a ten year monitoring campaign has revealed that initial concentrations of sulphate (960 mg/l), iron (3.0 mg/l), nickel (3.0 mg/l) and manganese (4.6 mg/l) have decreased by 88%, 76%, 97% and 93%, respectively. Simultanously, the pH has increased from 6.6 to 7.5. The reason for successful treatment is probably the depth of Vehkankuilu (hundreds of meters), only slightly acidic conditions, moderate concentrations of sulphate and heavy metals, and finally, multiple additions of substrate and microbial inoculum during 1996 – 1997. However, in the case examples of Kangasjärvi and Hammaslahti “N” mine shaft lakes, both in Finland, results are not so encouraging, even though some sulphate and iron reduction has been observed. Common for these two mine shaft lakes is the depth of approximately 50 meters and therefore very low bottom water temperature (Vestola & Mroueh 2008). Results of the performance of the Hammaslahti case study are discussed in a more detail in the article: Biological sulphate redution of mine water – Hammaslahti mine site.
The costs of biologic sulphate reduction consist of characterization of the site, and then purchasing, transportation and pumping of the substrate and bacterial inoculation. After the establishment of the treatment, costs consist of monitoring of mine shaft and discharge water. If proper sulphate reduction is observed, monitoring can be done in longer intervals, but if not, more substrate must be added, or other actions, like liming, executed. (Lu 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008)
Design requirements include the understanding of the mine shaft geochemical and limnological properties. These include mine shaft depth, shape, water quality and stratification in all seasons as well as water flow volume, quality and seasonal variations into the shaft. These parameters identify how successful the passive and in situ biologic treatment would be. The most important factor is the stratification throughout the year to maintain bottom water anoxic as biologic sulphate reduction is not occurring when oxygen is present. Therefore, also leakages of oxygen rich water into the mine shaft bottom must be prevented. If the water is strongly acidic prior lime treatment is suggested to lift the pH ≥ 6. This also decreases concentrations of metals, which may be initially high and therefore cause inhibition to bacteria (Lu 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008). The mine shaft depth and resulted bottom temperature are parameters that cannot be affected on and therefore it must only be understood that ≤ 6 °C temperatures significantly slow down the process (Tsukamoto et al. 2004, Vestola & Mroueh 2008).
Proper selection and dosing of substrate and microbial inoculum is very important. The easiest way is to utilise anaerobic sludge or animal manure to provide microbes, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus all in the same feed. Theoretically, sulphate reducing bacteria require 0.25 tons of total organic carbon (TOC) to remove 1 ton of sulphate, which serves as a basis for dosing calculations. However, in the nature utilisation ratio is never 100% and also rivalry is observed between sulphate reducers and other microbes. Therefore, the needed dosing is more or less higher than theoretical value (Vestola & Mroueh 2008). Optimal performance of sulphate reducing bacteria is observed with C:N:P ratios of 100:7:1 (Cocos et al. 2002), while anaerobic sludges or manures contain clearly higher shares of nitrogen and/or phosphorus, compared to carbon. Therefore, these nutrients are not completely used by bacteria and they may be discharged into the surrounding environment. The C:N:P ratio of a feed can be improved by addition of e.g. ethanol into the mine shaft lake (Vestola & Mroueh 2008). Laboratory-scale testing is essential when selecting and determining adequate dosage of the organic substrate, and determining the amount of excess nutrients in the system to avoid discharges. The more detailed review of organic substrates is presented by Liamleam & Annachhatre (2007).
Cocos, I.A., Zagury, G.J., Clément, B. & Samson, R. 2002. Multiple factor design for reactive mixture selection for use in reactive walls in mine drainage treatment. Water Research 32, 167-177
García, C., Moreno, D.A., Ballester, A., Blásquez, M.L. & González, F. 2001. Bioremediation of an industrial acid mine water by metal-tolerant sulphate-reducing bacteria. Minerals Engineering 9, 997-1008
Johnson, D.B. 2003. Chemical and microbiological characteristics of mineral spoils and drainage waters at abandoned coal and metal mines. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 3, 47-66
Kaksonen, A.H., Riekkola-Vanhanen, M.-L. & Puhakka, J.A. 2003. Optimization of metal sulphide precipitation in fluidized-bed treatment of acidic wastewater. Water Research 37, 255-266
Liamleam, W. & Annachhatre, A.P. 2007. Electron donors for biological sulfate reduction. Biotechnology Advances 25, 452-463.
Lu, M. 2004. Pit lakes from sulphide ore mining, geochemical and limnological characterization before treatment, after liming and sewage sludge treatments. Doctoral Thesis, Luleå University of Technology
Tsukamoto, T.K., Killion, H.A. & Miller, G.C. 2004. Column experiments for microbiological treatment of acid mine drainage: low temperature, low-pH and matrix investigations. Water Research 38, 1405-1418
Vestola, E. & Mroueh, U-M. 2008. In Situ Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage by Sulphate Reducing Bacteria – Guide to the pit lake treatment. VTT Research Notes 2422 (in Finnish) | <urn:uuid:673c6fc0-c9a8-4f7e-880a-9c5e9f7a3655> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://mineclosure.gtk.fi/biologic-sulphate-reduction-in-mine-shaft-lakes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188800.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126142720-20201126172720-00486.warc.gz | en | 0.890725 | 2,470 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A strawberry a day (or more accurately, 37 of them) could keep not just one doctor away, but an entire fleet of them, including the neurologist, the endocrinologist, and maybe even the oncologist, a recent study from scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests.
Investigations conducted in the Salk Institute''s Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory (CNL) will appear in the June 27, 2011, issue of PLoS ONE
. The report explains that fisetin, a naturally-occurring flavonoid found most abundantly in strawberries and to a lesser extent in other fruits and vegetables, lessens complications of diabetes. Previously, the lab showed that fisetin promoted survival of neurons grown in culture and enhanced memory in healthy mice. That fisetin can target multiple organs strongly suggests that a single drug could be used to mitigate numerous medical complications.
"This manuscript describes for the first time a drug that prevents both kidney and brain complications in a type 1 diabetes mouse model," says David Schubert, Ph.D., professor and head of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory and one of the manuscript''s co-authors. "Moreover, it demonstrates the probable molecular basis of how the therapeutic is working."
Pam Maher, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist in the CNL, is the study''s corresponding author. Maher initially identified fisetin as a neuroprotective flavonoid ten years ago. "In plants, flavonoids act as sunscreens and protect leaves and fruit from insects," she explains. "As foods they are implicated in the protective effect of the ''Mediterranean Diet.''"
Other celebrity flavonoids include polyphenolic compounds in blueberries and red wine.
Although her group''s focus is neurobiology, Maher and colleagues reasoned that, like other flavonoids, fisetin might ameliorate a spectrum of disorders seen in diabetic patients. To test this, they evaluated effects of fisetin supplementation in Akita mice, a very robust model of type 1 diabetes, also called childhood onset diabetes.
Akita mice exhibit increased blood sugar typical of type 1 diabetes and display pathologies seen in serious human complications of both type 1 and 2 diabetes. Those include diabetic nephropathy or kidney disease, retinopathy, and neuropathies in which patients lose touch or heat sensations.
Mice fed a fisetin-enriched diet remained diabetic, but acute kidney enlargement-or hypertrophy-seen in untreated mice was reversed, and high urine protein levels, a sure sign of kidney disease, fell. Moreover, fisetin ingestion ameliorated anxiety-related behaviors seen in diabetic mice. "Most mice put in a large area become exploratory," says Maher. "But anxious mice tend not to move around. Akita mice showed enhanced anxiety behavior, but fisetin feeding restored their locomotion to more normal levels."
The study also defines a likely molecular mechanism underlying these effects. Researchers observed that blood and brain levels of sugars affixed to proteins known as advanced glycation end-products-or AGEs-were reduced in fisetin-treated compared to untreated Akita mice. These decreases were accompanied by increased activity of the enzyme glyoxalase 1, which promotes removal of toxic AGE precursors.
The discovery of an AGE-antagonizing enzyme upregulated by fisetin is very intriguing, because substantial evidence implicates high blood AGE levels with many if not most diabetic complications. "We know that fisetin increases activity of the glyoxalase enzyme and may increase its expression," says Maher. "But what is important is that ours is the first report that any compound can enhance glyoxalase 1 activity."
Interestingly, excessively high AGE levels also correlate with inflammatory activity thought to promote some cancers. In fact, studies published by others confirm that fisetin decreases tumorigenicity of prostate cancer cells both in culture and in animal models, which if supported would represent a major added incentive to eat your strawberries.
To ingest fisetin levels equivalent to those fed Akita mice, Maher estimates that humans would have to eat 37 strawberries a day, assuming that strawberry fisetin is as readily metabolizable by humans as fisetin-spiked lab chow is by mice. Rather than through diet, Maher envisions that fisetin-like drugs could be taken as a supplement.
Schubert notes that fisetin is also effective in mouse models of Alzheimer''s disease. "We and others have shown that diabetes may be a risk factor for Alzheimer''s disease, making identification of a safe prophylactic like fisetin highly significant," he says.
Maher acknowledges that the public may be suffering from flavonoid-fatigue, given media coverage of the promises of these compounds. "Polyphenolics like fisetin and those in blueberry extracts are found in fruits and vegetables and are related to each other chemically," she says. "There is increasing evidence that they all work in multiple diseases. Hopefully some combination of these compounds will eventually get to the clinic."
Schubert concurs that their findings only reinforce what common sense and our mothers told us was a healthy lifestyle. "Eat a balanced diet and as much freshly prepared organic food as possible, get some exercise, keep socially and mentally active and avoid sodas with sugar and highly processed foods since they can contain high levels of AGEs," he advises.
But he also worries that hoops that must be jumped through to bring a natural product like fisetin, as opposed to a totally synthetic drug, to clinical trials are daunting because it is difficult to protect patents on natural products. "We will never know if a compound like fisetin works in humans until someone is willing to support a clinical trial."
Also contributing to this study were Richard Dargusch and Jennifer L. Ehren, Ph.D.,of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, and Kumar Sharma, M.D., and Shinichi Okada, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Diego.
Funding for the study came from the Fritz B. Burns Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Hewitt Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world''s preeminent basic research institutions, where internationally renowned faculty probe fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative, and creative environment. Focused both on discovery and on mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer''s, diabetes and infectious diseases by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology, and related disciplines.
Faculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, M.D., the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark. | <urn:uuid:6bce4d58-c8ce-4fe4-b168-b55ffe6b7e0c> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.medindia.net/news/Two-Fisted-Assault-on-Diabetic-Complications-and-Nervous-System-Disorders-Via-Flavonoids-87114-1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818696696.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170926212817-20170926232817-00038.warc.gz | en | 0.944761 | 1,470 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Elizabethan drama and iconic theatres
Hampton Court Palace itself was built in around 1514 for Henry VIII’s one-time favourite Cardinal Wolsey. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from grace, the king claimed the palace for himself, adding the present Great Hall between 1532 and 1535. The space is often described as the last medieval great hall of the English monarchy, with its magnificent hammerbeam roof and sumptuous wall hangings. It is open to the public. (S 0844 482 7777 www.hrp.org.uk/hamptoncourtpalace/)
The Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Where Mary Queen of Scots made her extravagant royal entry
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has long been associated with official royal entries and often saw street theatre meet royal performance in a triumphant celebration of the monarch.
On 2 September 1561, Mary Queen of Scots and her royal party set out on a royal entry into Edinburgh, travelling from Holyrood House along the Royal Mile to the sound of cannon fire. The party was met first on Castle Hill by 50 young men dressed up like fantastic blackamoors, a fairly common feature of Renaissance pageants symbolising exotic forces of disorder, which had to be tamed by the authority of a Christian ruler.
With crowds filling the streets, Mary continued her procession, borne aloft by 16 ‘honest’ men of the town and followed by a cart containing child singers and musicians. The party made several stops along the way to witness a particular pageant or staged tableau. At the first stop was a wooden archway, decorated “with fine colours”, where the queen paused to listen to the singing of “certain bairns in the maist heavenly wise”. Upon a scenery cloud, under the arch, was a young boy about six years old who, according to the Domestic Annals of Scotland, “descended down as it had been ane angel, and deliver it to her hieness the keys of the town, together with ane Bible and ane Psalm-buik coverit with fine purpour velvet”.
Royal entries across Europe were important public relations opportunities for the crown, as well as excellent examples of street theatre and other forms of lavish entertainment in which the monarch was expected to participate. Edinburgh’s Royal Mile connects Edinburgh Castle with Holyrood House and is thought to be the city’s oldest street. (www.edinburgh-royalmile.com) | <urn:uuid:eab0b853-b5c7-4dbb-9998-6f80e9843c5d> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110503-elizabethan-drama-and-iconic-theatres/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802769305.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075249-00100-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95707 | 517 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Molecular diversity of coral reefs illuminated
An international research team, including UvA-biologist Mark Vermeij, made two important advances in the understanding of the molecular diversity as found on coral reefs, as well as the use of this knowledge in the development of medication. The study was published in PNAS this week.
Molecules for immune response
Scientific methods are useful for detecting a great number of molecules produced by organisms for the benefit of an immune response. However, only for a handful of these, scientists understand precisely what they are and how they function. This lack of information is particularly noteworthy on coral reefs. The organisms living there are known for the wide range of molecules they produce, some of which have been turned into life-saving drugs.
Relationship between molecules illuminated
This study makes two advancements in this area. First, the researchers offer a method to glean substantially more information from existing molecular datasets, including information about molecules that are unknown to science. Based on molecular fingerprints, the relationships between tens of thousands of molecules are illuminated. By understanding how molecules are related, scientists can better understand how they are created and what they do for the organisms that make them. This tool is particularly valuable because it requires no new sample collection or measurements; all it requires is an existing dataset, be it from a coral reef or from a human.
Molecular diversity coral reefs explained
Second, this study addressed an unanswered question in coral reef ecology: why are coral reefs sites of incredible molecular diversity? By applying the new method to a dataset of coral reef organisms sampled in the remote and pristine Line Islands, it was revealed that the same molecules are modified in different ways depending on the organism that produced them. Modifications of molecules result in new molecules and can signal the activation of molecules in organisms, such as when they mount an immune response. Thus, the finding that different organisms have their own modification patterns, even among common molecules, offers a new explanation for why molecular diversity is high on coral reefs.
Meta-mass shift chemical (MeMSChem) profiling of metabolomes from coral reefs Aaron C. Hartmann, Daniel Petras, Robert A. Quinn, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 2017. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1710248114 | <urn:uuid:74e47985-c135-49e3-ac3e-1473dbdca6fb> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://ibed.uva.nl/shared/faculteiten/en/faculteit-der-natuurwetenschappen-wiskunde-en-informatica/news/2017/10/molecular-diversity-of-coral-reefs-illuminated.html?origin=01eESFdOQSO3%2Fn7VNhihcA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934804680.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20171118075712-20171118095712-00144.warc.gz | en | 0.941213 | 468 | 3.3125 | 3 |
The Hong Kong Mint, 1866-1868
Hugh Farmer: When Hong Kong was established as a free trading port in 1841, there was no local currency available for daily circulation. Foreign currencies such as Indian rupees, Spanish and Mexican 8 Reales, Chinese cash coins and British currency were used instead. Coins specially issued for Hong Kong did not appear until 1863 when the first regal coins of Hong Kong, i.e. coins bearing the portrait or Royal Cypher of the reigning monarch, were issued. They were produced by the Royal Mint, London and comprised the silver ten cent, the bronze one cent and one mil, the last being one-tenth of a cent.
For a brief period in the late 1860s coins were minted at a factory in Sugar Street, Causeway Bay.
The Mint was established by ordinance on 26th February 1864 and opened on 7th May 1866 under the direction of Thomas William Kinder with the purpose of producing Hong Kong silver dollars and half dollar coins.
After two years having incurred a huge loss to the government it closed on 25th April 1868.
The mint machinery was sold first to Jardine Matheson in 1868 and in turn to the Japan Mint in Osaka, Japan where it was used to make the first yen coins in 1870.
The fullest account of the HK Mint I have found is in a HKBRAS article The Hong Kong Mint 1864-1868: The History of an Early Engineering Experiment by P Kevin MacKeown linked below.
The article covers:
The background to the rather chaotic monetary system of the mid-1850s in HK
Proposals for a HK Mint
Personnel to be appointed
The design of the building
The purchase of coining presses
The appointment of the Mint’s Master – Thomas William Kinder
The site for the Mint in Causeway Bay
Its opening on 7th May 1866 by the Governor
Engineering production problems
Details of the coins produced
Difficulties fulfilling expected quantities of coins
Unanticipated competition – stolen coin dies and forgery
An October 1866 Commission to investigate the Mint’s future
Closure of the Mint, the fate of the staff and the sale of plant to Japan
The Final Judgement
This article was first posted on 1st September 2014.
For a detailed account of The Mint:
The Hong Kong Mint, 1864-1868: The History of an Early Engineering Experiment by P Kevin MacKeown,HKBRAS Journals Vol 47 2007
- Hamsom, Ray “Regal Coinage of Hong Kong” Hong Kong Museum of History, 1966, revised 1975
- Hong Kong Currency Local History Unit, Hong Kong Museum of History 1993
- The Hong Kong Early Currency and the Unsuccessful Hong Kong Mint in Chinese | <urn:uuid:2d2a7096-b0c6-4f48-8a76-40543b5fdedc> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://industrialhistoryhk.org/hong-kong-mint/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948517350.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20171212153808-20171212173808-00510.warc.gz | en | 0.930561 | 580 | 3.125 | 3 |
March 12 2011
It was 2.46pm when the chandeliers began swinging wildly in Tokyo’s parliament chamber. Japan’s Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, stared in growing panic as the tremors intensified. Outside, buildings swayed like giant metronomes, roads cracked apart and people screamed and ran for shelter. The biggest earthquake in the country’s history had struck.
In the minutes that followed, a series of 10-metre high tsunami waves peeled 80 miles across a calm Pacific ocean from the quake’s epicentre to Japan’s north east coast. Their symmetry belied a raging power that left behind a boiling back wash. Hundreds were last night confirmed dead and tens of thousands missing after the huge surges crashed ashore, rocking Japan as ships and trains went missing, cities and industrial plants blazed and a dam burst sweeping away homes.
It was all captured in horrifying detail as TV channels broadcast the most vivid footage yet of the devastating power of a tsunami which was by turns heart-breaking and bewildering.
The foaming white tsunami turned black on landfall as it bought death and destruction and crushed everything in its path. It churned up the earth, shredded buildings, trees and crops and tossed boats and cars around like corks. The sludge surged inland surrounding homes where survivors waved white sheets from top floor windows, desperate for help. The tide erased carefully tended fields and mowed down rows of poly-tunnel greenhouses.
Up to 300 bodies were found in the coastal city of Sendai which bore the brunt of the waves. Most were feared drowned. Cars were swept across the city’s airport runway where people gathered on the terminal roof for safety, trapped by the water all around them. About 140 people, including children, were trapped on top of an elementary school.
“I was trying to get up to high ground,” said one elderly man in a baseball cap in the city of Ofunato, 80 miles up the coast, which had no power after more than 300 houses were swept away. “People up there were saying hurry up, get up here. Once I got up we watched cars flow by.”
“The aftershocks gave us no reprieve,” added a woman with a baby strapped to her back. “Then the tsunami came when we tried to run for cover.”
The port at Miyako offered no shelter either and boiled like a cauldron. Cars, trucks and even a large building were churned in the tumult which pounded against the harbour wall, detonating like a string of explosive charges.
Off the coast, a giant whirlpool, hundreds of metres in diameter like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie, turned slowly with a leisure yacht caught in its vortex.
Commercial vessels were hammered into breakwaters while a ship carrying 100 people was swept away, according to Kyodo news agency. Footage showed a trawler ploughing head on into the on-rushing tsunami pitching almost too vertical. In one town ships, buildings and cars were tossed around together in an incongruous mix.
The images were reminiscent of the tsunami which struck Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2004, but far more comprehensive and clearer from being professionally shot from helicopters. In one heart-rending piece of footage, a lone cyclist could be seen pedalling fast away from the advancing morass of timber and sludge surging from behind him. In another scene, a large fishing boat was forced by torrents into a road bridge still being used by cars. The boat emerged the other side with its wheelhouse torn off. Cars and trucks were tossed around like toys after a smaller tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass appeared to have collapsed and vehicles turned around and speed away from the danger. A train running north of Sendai on the Senseki line was reported missing with an unknown number of passengers on board. Then after the water came the fire. Swaths of Kesennuma, a hillside coastal town of 74,000 people in the hardest hit Miyagi prefecture, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of the flames being extinguished. A witness told the public broadcaster NHK it was sparked after the tsunami overturned several cars, causing them to leak oil and petrol. More than a dozen fires broke out across Tokyo where 4 million people were left without power.
At an oil refinery, infernos raged out of control and a huge orange explosion rose into the sky in the shape of a mushroom cloud. Another blast tore through a petrochemical complex in Miyagi prefecture.
Japan’s infrastructure was collapsing fast. Roads were impassable, trains were cancelled and airports were closed for long periods with international flights into Narita resuming last night. An irrigation dam reportedly burst in the northeast Fukushima prefecture and homes were washed away. But the greatest concern was for the safety of four nuclear reactors in the area.
The government declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency a heightened state of alert at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power, north of Tokyo, and some 3,000 residents evacuated the area. The Tokyo Electric Power Company said the cooling function at the nuclear plant had been knocked out causing the pressure in the reactor to rise, but there was no radioactive leakage.
“The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan,” the prime minister told a news conference. He said the government needed to act to “save the country”.
“We urge the people of Japan to be cautious and vigilant and listen to the news reports and we ask the people of Japan to act calmly,” he said.
Standing on the Pacific “ring of fire” Japan is one of the best prepared countries in the world to cope with an earthquake, but tremors were more powerful and more prolonged than any residents had ever experienced. The land felt like liquid.
Ritsuko Tachikawa, 34, a corporate consultant was sitting at a red traffic light in her car in Saitama, north of Tokyo, when the earthquake struck.
“It felt like we were in a large vessel,” she told the Guardian. “It started getting worse and worse and we started kind of freaking out. The ground was shaking but like big and slow waves. We could barely stand up. The brick walls beside our cars were collapsing and it seemed safer to stay in cars. It felt like the end of the world today.”
Last night, with the city’s power down, her family gathered around a kerosene stove and drank green tea and ate porridge by candlelight while listening to the news on a radio.
A Tokyo resident posting on the New York Times website reported he and his fellow swimmers doing laps at the Izumi Garden Tower in the Roppongi district “were sloshed around like rubber duckies in a bathtub”.
Another on the ninth floor of a residential tower in the Sumida area marvelled at the engineering of his earthquake-proofed building which “flexed and bounced like an airliner in turbulence”. Rooftop lightning rods swayed like giant metronomes and after the tremors, a public address system broadcast a pre-recorded message, evidence of how Japan is one of the world’s best-prepared countries for seismic shocks: “This is Sumida City. Just now, a large earthquake happened. Please be careful.”
Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers’ hands to remain standing.
Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop to find out what was happening. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds pointed to construction cranes on an office building up the street. “They’re still shaking”, they cried. “Are they going to fall?”
Matt Alt, an American translator in west Tokyo, described the quake as “a sustained attack”, while in Fukishima, in northeast Japan 150 miles from the epicentre, British citizen Ben Sabers told the BBC the quake got “bigger and bigger and bigger”.
“It went on for five or 10 minutes and it was like ‘when is it going to stop?'” he said. “After a couple of minutes being under the table you realised this is really serious.”
By nightfall trains across the country were halted and the roads in Tokyo were jammed with millions of commuters trying to get home, in spite of official advice for people to stay where they are in a safe place.
“The big problem is that all the businessmen and women who commute into town from outside can’t get home,” Rie Kiyasu, an illustrator living in the Nakano district of Tokyo told the Guardian.
“We are back at home now, and outside the streets are full of people just walking. They don’t have anywhere to stay for the night.” Other residents said noodle shops were packed with people who would normally eat at home, while long queues had formed behind every payphone and out of every convenience store.
“Unending salary man hordes, in orderly lines, waiting for eight hours or more for cabs and buses that will never come,” Adam Ismail, 32, an equities analyst said in an email to The Guardian. Hotels filled up and people slept in offices.
In downtown Tokyo, Tomoko Suzuki and her elderly mother stood at a crowded corner, unable to get to their 29th-floor condominium because the elevator wasn’t working.
They unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi to a relative’s house and couldn’t find a hotel room. “We are so cold,” said Suzuki. “We really don’t know what to do.”
he damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor has already been leaking radiation outside the plant, confirms Japan’s nuclear safety agency and the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power company.
A radius of 10km is now being evacuated. | <urn:uuid:294c3982-3d91-4939-b42b-f9b52315ce06> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://muslimvillage.com/2011/03/12/9334/earthquake-followed-by-tsunami-cause-widespread-death-and-destruction-in-japan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475757.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302052634-20240302082634-00823.warc.gz | en | 0.97327 | 2,102 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Date of Award:
Master of Science (MS)
David Rich Lewis
The study of environmental history suggests that nature and culture change all the time, but that the rate and scale of such change can vary enormously. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Anglo settlement in the American West transformed landscapes and ecologies, creating new and complex environmental problems. This transformation was particularly impressive in Cache Valley, Utah's Bear River Range. From 1860 to 1910, Mormon settlers overused or misused the Bear River Range's lumber, grazing forage, wild game, and water resources and introduced invasive plant and animal species throughout the area. By the turn of the 20th century, broad overuse of natural resources caused rivers originating in the Bear River Range to decline. To address the water shortage, a small group of conservation-minded intellectuals and businessmen in Cache Valley persuaded local stockmen and farmers to support the creation of the Logan Forest Reserve in 1903. From 1903 to1910, forest managers and forest users attempted to restore the utility of the landscape (i.e., bring back forage and improve watershed conditions) however, they quickly discovered that the landscape had changed too much; nature would not cooperate with their human-imposed restoration timelines and desires for greater profit margins. Keeping in mind the impressive rate and scale of environmental decline, this thesis tells the heretofore untold environmental history of the Bear River Range from 1860 to 1910. It engages this history from an ecological and social perspective by (1) exploring how Mormon settlers altered the landscape ecology of the Bear River Range and (2) discussing the reasons why forest managers and forest users failed to quickly restore profitability to the mountain landscape from 1903-1910. As its value, a study of the Bear River Range offers an intimate case study of environmental decline and attempted restoration in the western United States, and is a reminder of how sensitive our mountain ranges really are.
Hansen, Bradley Paul, "An Environmental History of the Bear River Range, 1860-1910" (2013). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 1724.
Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at . | <urn:uuid:7ee3b53d-ffa9-4f65-b5a6-5a5a834bf134> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1724/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178356232.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20210226060147-20210226090147-00591.warc.gz | en | 0.907039 | 453 | 2.75 | 3 |
Martin Seligman's Journey (continued)
The Child Optimist
One psychology program whose effectiveness won't require
much study to ratify is Seligman's brilliant Penn Depression Prevention
Program, which broke new ground in 1990. Detailed in his fascinating 1995
book The Optimistic Child, this remarkable program was developed
by Seligman and three young psychologists at Penn -- Dr. Karen Reivich,
C'88, G'92, Gr'96, Dr. Lisa Jaycox, G'89, Gr'93, and Dr.
Jane Gillham, G'90, Gr'94. It has, in several different situations
and over several years, repeatedly reduced the occurrences of depression
in children by half.
The program, which has since been renamed the Penn Resiliency
Project, was inspired by a life-changing discussion that took place in
1984, when Seligman attended a conference at the MacArthur Foundation.
He describes those meetings as a "face-off between prominent psychologists
and immunologists." The issue was what to do (and in particular,
how to fund) a fledgling discipline called psychoneuroimmunology, a field
of science widely investigated today, which basically studies how the
mind affects the body's immune system.
Among the many celebrated participants at this 1984
conference was Dr. Jonas Salk, whose polio vaccine had changed the world
decades before. Being the most famous immunologist in the world, the elderly
Salk attempted to arbitrate the heated arguments being waged between the
biological immunologists and the psychologists. And his private words
to Seligman, recounted in Learned Optimism, resonated:
"If I were a young scientist today, I would still
do immunization. But instead of immunizing kids physically, I'd do it
your way. I'd immunize them psychologically. I'd see if these psychologically
immunized kids could then fight off mental illness better. Physical illness
The Penn Resiliency Project typifies how Seligman was
able to switch his scientific gears away from learned helplessness and
toward psychological immunization. By then, his work on learned helplessness
had already made him an expert on depression and pessimism. He had created
powerful tools capable of diagnosing how a person's level of pessimism
could measure their risk for developing depression. Inspired by the work
of Penn's legendary "depression wizard," Dr. Aaron T. Beck,
the University Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Seligman had also spent
years refining a number of cognitive techniques and exercises which helped
to relieve and heal persons with depression, and prevent future recurrences
of that ever-more-pervasive illness.
To vastly oversimplify the very complex field of cognitive
psychology, its fundamental, revolutionary concept, first articulated
by Beck in the late 1960s, is that severely negative or depressed emotional
states are caused by the negative thoughts we tell ourselves. This may
seem like simple common sense, but at the time it was revolutionary, and
its implications staggering.
Since Freud invented psychotherapy, the basis of all
therapy rested on the nature of events that had affected people
in their lives, and the behaviors and emotional states that people developed
as a consequence of those events. Beck, soon joined by Seligman, postulated
that it was not the events themselves but the thoughts we used to explain
these events to ourselves that were the major determinants of whether
or not, for example, we might develop depression. If so, Beck and Seligman
maintained, then people at risk for depression should be able to fend
it off by intellectually "disputing" the severely negative thoughts
they think to explain various events in their lives.
For example, with the benefit of treatment to alter
his or her "self-explanatory style" and develop a reflex of
disputing negative thoughts, the ruminations of someone going through
a painful divorce might sound something like this: "I failed at my
marriage -- well, there's nothing particularly unusual about that, marriages
fail half the time Š in the end, it was my fault: I could have saved it
-- well, then again, my lousy spouse could have saved it too, and now
that I think about it, what I'm missing most about our marriage were those
terrific early memories when it was good; in fact, if we were still together
right now, we'd probably still be at least as miserable together as we
were the last few years Š I made so many terrible mistakes -- well, I
wasn't the only one in this marriage, and after all, to err is human Š
With astounding scientific power, Seligman and a host
of collaborators around the country (and even beyond) have proven that
learning these inner "disputation skills" can speed the recovery
of depression, and, perhaps more important, can actually prevent it.
Feeling Good Versus Doing Well
The Penn Resiliency Project has for the past eight years
proven that cognitive therapy can not only help adults, but also can successfully
immunize children against depression. It recently earned a five-year,
$2 million grant from NIMH to continue its work.
Even the most jaded critics of government-funded science
would be hard-pressed to object to this use of their tax dollars. Whereas
childhood depression (in a strict, clinical sense) was a relative rarity
just two generations ago, American children are now suffering from a full-fledged
epidemic of depression. Today, about one in four children experiences
serious, debilitating depression before reaching adulthood.
What's gone wrong? Seligman has a few answers. To again
oversimplify a complicated argument, Seligman lays a lot of blame on the
"self-esteem" movement for replacing the old-fashioned goal
of "doing well" with the contemporary goal of "feeling
While the Penn Resiliency Project has earned the attention
of child- psychology experts around the world for its effectiveness, its
cost-efficiency has also earned the admiration of school administrators,
whose focus is the bottom line. The program consists of just 12 sessions,
held once a week for about 90 minutes, with children whose answers to
a questionnaire indicate that they are particularly susceptible to depression.
Employing an engaging series of exercises utilizing stories, cartoons,
group discussions, and other techniques, the program ingrains powerful
reflexes in pessimistic children -- to change what they tell themselves
about failures and to encourage them to persist in the face of those failures.
In essence, the project tries to re-imbue today's children
with the values taught a generation ago. In his speech to the North Carolina
psychologists, Seligman touched upon what was my own favorite book as
a child. "Thirty years ago," he said, "the most influential
children's book of the time was The Little Engine That Could,"
the endearing tale of the little locomotive engine who wasn't sure if
she could pull a train over the mountain but who kept telling herself,
"I think I can, I think I can" and prevailed.
"Think for a moment about what you are most proud
of," Seligman asked his audience, then paused briefly. "I'll
bet that what you just thought of now has something to do with some goal
at which you at first encountered failure, but which you persistently
kept pursuing until you achieved your goal, whether it was love Š work
Š or play Š "
This sense of persistence in the face of failure forms
the heart of Seligman's vaccine against depression in children. It involves
not only sophisticated disputation skills but also a lot of good old-fashioned
hard work. Seligman's emphasis on hard work clearly separates, and elevates,
him from his more popular, less scientific peers in the wide world of
popular culture's optimism gurus.
"A pessimistic attitude may seem so deeply rooted
as to be permanent," Seligman writes in the introduction to his profoundly
realistic 1993 mass-market book, What You Can Change And What You Can't.
"I have found, however, that pessimism is escapable. Pessimists
can in fact learn to be optimists, and not through mindless devices like
whistling a happy tune or mouthing platitudes Š "
By putting a happy face on failure, he argues, the blind
optimism pushed by the self-esteem movement is actually counterproductive.
"Optimism that is not accurate is empty and falls apart," he
writes in The Optimistic Child. "Life defeats it." In
the long run, he says, encouraging your child to work harder to achieve
his or her specified goals will be far more effective.
As he writes in The Optimistic Child, "The
feeling of self-esteem is a byproduct of doing well. Once a child's self-esteem
is in place, it kindles further success. Tasks flow more seamlessly, troubles
bounce off, and other children seem more receptive. There is no question
that feeling high self-esteem is a delightful state to be in, but trying
to achieve the feeling side of self-esteem directly, before achieving
good commerce with the world, confuses profoundly the means and the end."
January/February Contents | Gazette
Copyright 1999 The Pennsylvania
Gazette Last modified 1/4/99 | <urn:uuid:5f58ab64-bfd3-4311-9063-472e967733e3> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0199/hirtz3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246642012.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045722-00312-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95874 | 2,011 | 2.75 | 3 |
This book describes the heart and its parts as a major entity of the cardiovascular system. The main focus of the book will be the function of the heart, its various structures, and the pathway of blood through the heart. By reading this book one will better understand the heart and the important role that it plays in the human body.
This book is ideal for high school and college level students interested in anatomy, medicine, or the health care field.
When some people think of the heart, they may think of the popular valentine image that expresses love and sentiments towards others. However, the heart in the human body is a muscular double pump with two important functions: (1) the right side pumps blood to the lungs to pick oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide; (2) the left side receives the oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps the blood throughout the body to supply body tissues with oxygen and nutrients. The blood vessels that carry oxygenated and deoxygenated blood are part of the pulmonary circuit and the systemic circuit. The heart has the atria, which are two receiving chambers that receive blood coming from the pulmonary circuit and systemic circuit. To pump blood around the two circuits, the heart has two main pumping chambers called ventricles.
The heart is an incredible muscle with strength and resilience. It is about the size of fist, hollow, and cone-shaped. For years, people have been trying to understand this unique organ but the most amazing thing about the heart is that it is constantly beating without voluntary control. We only become aware of this organ when and if it occasionally skips a beat. Until something like this happens or something even more serious occurs, such as a heart attack, we are not aware of how much we depend on this organ for life.
The heart is vital to the human body. Understanding how it works leads to better life choices in terms of health, fitness, and diet. Not only that, understanding this organ opens opportunities in science to provide better medicine and care for patients with heart abnormalities. | <urn:uuid:2fedc77c-741a-4a99-b756-066bc308a753> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://brainmass.com/ebooks/HeartAndParts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886946.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117142113-20180117162113-00295.warc.gz | en | 0.953854 | 413 | 3.8125 | 4 |
- Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Zither \Zith"er\, n. [G. zither. See Cittern.] (Mus.) An instrument of music used in Austria and Germany. It has from thirty to forty wires strung across a shallow sounding-board, which lies horizontally on a table before the performer, who uses both hands in playing on it. Note: [Not to be confounded with the old lute-shaped cittern, or cithern.] [1913 Webster] | <urn:uuid:32c0ed1a-c30c-4377-810d-73b2f8059842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crosswordpuzzlehelp.net/old/definition/zither | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704253666/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113733-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.846743 | 122 | 3.25 | 3 |
Treating food allergies might be a simple matter of teaching the immune system a new trick, researchers at Duke Health have found.
In a study using mice bred to have peanut allergies, the Duke researchers were able to reprogram the animals' immune systems using a nanoparticle delivery of molecules to the lymph nodes that switched off the life-threatening reactions to peanut exposures.
"This study in mice proves the concept of this approach, so tests in humans are not that far off," said Soman N. Abraham, Ph.D., professor in Duke's Department of Pathology. Abraham is senior author of a study published this month in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Food allergies affect an estimated 4 percent of adults in the United States, and up to 6 percent of children. Peanuts are among the most common allergen and can trigger a life-threatening immune response, so people must learn to be vigilant about hidden exposures in everyday food choices.
In recent years, efforts have been made to desensitize allergic people to peanuts and other foods with a series of measured exposures that are gradually increased over time. Such treatments can be effective, but they're also risky and time-consuming.
The approach -- planned by lead author Ashley St. John, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore -- appears to resolve those issues.
Starting with the observation that allergic reactions basically result from an imbalance of key messages between cells, called cytokines, the researchers set out to devise a way to restore order.
They focused on the Th2-type cytokine immune response, which is increasingly understood as a driver of the overactive immune responses in allergy attacks. In an appropriate immune response, Th2 works in tandem with Th1, but during allergic reactions, Th2 is overproduced and Th1 is diminished.
The solution appears simple enough: deliver more Th1-type cytokines ahead of an allergen exposure to restore balance. But it has proven difficult. A test of this type was attempted as an asthma therapy, but it required a massive dose to the lungs and was ineffective.
In their experiment with the peanut-allergy mice, St. John and colleagues instead delivered antigen- and cytokine-loaded nanoparticles into the skin. The nanoparticles traveled to the lymph nodes, where they dissolved and dispensed their payload at the source of the immune response.
Animals that received this therapy no longer went into an acute allergic response called anaphylaxis when they were subsequently exposed to peanuts. The new-found tolerance was long-lasting, so did not need to be repeated ahead of each exposure to the allergen.
"The Th1 and Th2 sides of immunity balance each other," St. John said. "We reasoned that since we know Th2 immunity is over-produced during allergic responses, why not try to skew the immune response back the other direction? By delivering cytokines to the lymph nodes where immune responses are established, we were able to re-educate the immune system that an allergic response is not an appropriate one."
The approach could theoretically be applied to other allergens, including environmental triggers such as dust and pollen. Additional experiments are underway to move the findings into human trials.
"We are encouraged by these findings, because it's a fairly simple way to reprogram the immune system," Abraham said. | <urn:uuid:a5614ea3-594e-42d0-9634-dd6edb1b2dff> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180221/Duke-researchersc2a0show-how-to-retrain-immune-system-of-peanut-allergy-mice.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987779528.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20191021143945-20191021171445-00016.warc.gz | en | 0.964772 | 693 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Paralysis is most frequently caused by harm within the system, particularly the neural structure. Alternative major causes square measure stroke, trauma with nerve injury, polio, botulism, spina bifida, degenerative disorder, and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Temporary paralysis happens throughout REM sleep, and deregulation of this method will cause episodes of waking dysfunction. Medications that interfere with nerve operate, like plant toxin, can even cause dysfunction. There area unit several best-known causes for dysfunction, and maybe a lot of nevertheless to be discovered.
Paralysis may affect an individual’s body fully or partly. Partial dysfunction can have an effect on an area of the body and complete dysfunction build the entire body in paralytic state. Palsy is that the term used once dysfunction have an effect on the lower a part of the body or dysfunction of arms and legs. Dysfunction chiefly happens as a result of strokes or injuries. Minor dysfunction will be cured simply, however the key ones would like longer to be cured.
Ayurveda in Paralysis
The disease conditions with similar clinical presentation are Pakshaghata, Pakshavadha, Ardita, Khanja,and Ekanga Vata in Ayurveda classics like Charaka Samhita.
In Ayurveda the treatment documented based on the state of disease, chronicity, & constitution, age, physical-mental& Agni[digestive-metabolic status] strength of the patient
The traditional therapies like Abhyanga, Pinzichil, Nadi-swedana, Patra-pinda- swedana, Shashthishali-pinda- swedana, Sarvangasvedana, Shiro- Vasti, Shiraodhara,, & among Panchakarma therapeutics like Nasyam, Virechanam, Vasti are advocated & among them are selected depending on state of disease & diseased.
Dr Prasher developed herbal products in two combinations in convenient dosages form for paralysis, 1. to reverse the underlying cause of the disease & 2. to regenerate the neurons. | <urn:uuid:c30465f7-c029-4212-9ad7-d26891051041> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.vedantaayurveda.com/paralysis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257828283.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071028-00270-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896426 | 444 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Edward R. Murrow Biography, Life, Interesting Facts
Died On :
Also Known For :
Birth Place :
Edward Roscoe Murrow was a pioneer American radio and television broadcaster. Born on April 25, 1908, he played a pivotal role in America broadcast journalism during its early years. Murrow became one of the influential broadcasters in America. He first came to the limelight as a war correspondent during World War II. Working with a team of other war correspondents later known as the Murrow Boys, he did some live radio reports from Europe for CBS news.
Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born on April 25, 1908, in Polecat, in Guilford County of North Carolina. He was the youngest of three sons by Roscoe Conklin and Ethel F. (née Lamb) Murrow. At the age of six, the family moved to Skagit County, Washington, where they homestead near Blanchard. Murrow received high school education in Edison. Following his graduation, he enrolled entered the Washington State College (currently Washington State University) Pullman, majoring in speech. From 1929 to 1931, he was the president of the National Student Association. It was during his university days that he changed his first name from Egbert to Edward. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1930.
Following his graduation, Murrow moved to New York. While there, he served as an assistant director of the Institute of International Education. He held the position from 1932 to 1935. Also, he became the assistant secretary of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Scholars. The organization assisted German scholars dismissed from their academic positions by the Nazi government.
In 1935, Murrow joined the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as the director of talks and education. He spent almost his entire broadcasting career with the network. Two years later, he moved to London as the director of CBS's European Bureau.
Rise to fame
Murrow gained national attention for his eyewitness report on the March 1938 Anschluss, during which German Nazi-annexed Austria. His later timely and accurate reports on events like the 1938 Munich Conference and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 added to his fame. He subsequently reported the Battle of Britain during World War II. Murrow became an icon, and his style of reporting was somewhat a radio journalism revolutionary.
Upon his return to the US in 1941, CBS organized a dinner in his honor, attended by about 1,100 guests. Murrow and Bill Shadel became the first reporters to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany on April 12, 1945. He became the vice president of CBS and head of the network’s news in December 1945. In September 1947, he returned to radio taking over a weeknight newscast. He hosted the show, This I Believe form 1951 to 1955. The programme allowed ordinary people to speak on the radio for five minutes. In partnership with producer Fred W. Friendly, he recorded the series, Hear it Now, for Columbia Records. This record would later into the weekly CBS Radio Show, Hear It Now hosted by Murrow.
Murrow began his television career in the 1950s by appearing on the CBS Evening News. The following year, he started the series, See It Now, on television. The show focused on controversial issues. It is best known for its critic of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. This eventually caused the political downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy. From 1953 to 1960, he produced the weekly TV show, Person to Person. Murrow started having friction with CBS chairman, William Parley, due to his reporting style. Consequently, he resigned in 1960.
Following his resignation, Murrow accepted a position from President John F. Kennedy, as director of the US Information Agency in 1961.
Murrow and Janet Huntington Brewster married on March 12, 1935. The couple had a son Charles Casey Murrow. Murrow was a chain smoker and allegedly smoked fifty to sixty sticks of cigarette a day. As a result, he developed lung cancer. He, therefore, underwent an operation to remove his left lungs. Murrow died on April 27, 1965, at his Pawling, New York home. He was 57 years.
Edward Murrow received several honors including Alfred I. DuPont Award, 1947, and Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, in 1967. On March 5, 1965, Queen Elizabeth II honored him Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. | <urn:uuid:8ac49acf-1d2f-40b3-bed9-a09258d9920e> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.sunsigns.org/famousbirthdays/profile/edward-r-murrow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511717.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20231005012006-20231005042006-00508.warc.gz | en | 0.984093 | 943 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog
Information from electronic data provided by the publisher. May be incomplete or contain other coding.
Chapter 1. Contours and Form. Definition. Constructing a Section. Contour Signatures and Landform. Characteristics of Contour Lines. Exercises. Chapter 2. Interpolation and Slope. Topographic Data. Interpolation. Calculating Slope. Slopes Expressed as Ratios and Degrees. Exercises. Chapter 3. Slope Formula Application. Slope Analysis. Slopes for Surface Drainage. Terrace Grading. Path Layout with a Maximum Gradient. Grading of Roads. Grading by Proportion. Visualizing Topography from Contour Lines. Swales to Divert Runoff. Exercises. Chapter 4. Grading Constraints. Environmental Constraints. Functional Constraints. Summary of Critical Constraints. Exercises. Chapter 5: Grading Design and Process. Grading Design. Grade Change Devices. Grading Process. Applying the Grading Process. Grading Plan Graphics. Exercises. Chapter 6. Soils in Construction. Introduction. Role of Soil in Site Planning. Implications of Soils to Site Construction. Geotechnical Exploration and Soil Investigation. Soil Characteristics. Soil Classification. Engineering Properties of Soil. Structural Soils. Geotextiles. Construction Sequence for Grading. Placing and Compacting Soils. Earthwork Specifications. Exercises. Chapter 7. Earthwork. Definitions. Grading Operations. Computation of Cut and Fill Volumes. Exercises. Chapter 8: Grading and Landform Case Studies. Introduction. Gasworks Park. Olympic Park. Westpark. University of Urbino. Leventritt Garden, Arnold Arboretum. Cedar River Watershed Interpretive Education Center. Loantaka Preserve. Exercises. Chapter 9. Storm Water Management. Storm Runoff. Hydrologic Cycle. Nature of the Problem. Storm Water Management Strategies. Principles and Techniques. Summary. Exercises. Chapter 10. Erosion and Sediment Control. Introduction. Regulatory Requirements. Soil Erosion Factors. Erosion and Sedimentation Processes. Erosion and Sediment Control Principles. Development of an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan. Runoff Considerations. Construction Sequencing. Erosion Control Measures. Sediment Control Measures. Summary. Exercises. Chapter 11. Determining Rates and Volumes of Storm Runoff: The Rational and Modified Rational Methods. Introduction. Rational Method. Modified Rational Method. Volumes of Runoff, Storage, and Release. Required Storage for Detention or Retention Ponds by the Modified Rational Method. Summary. Exercises. Chapter 12. Natural Resources Conservation Service Methods of Estimating Runoff Rates, Volumes, and Required Detention Storage. Introduction. Rainfall. Procedures of TR55. Volume for Detention Storage. Summary. Exercises. Chapter 13. Designing and Sizing Storm Water Management Systems. Management Systems. Design and Layout of Drainage Systems. Applications. Subsurface Drainage. Summary. Exercises. Chapter 14. Site Layout and Dimensioning. Introduction. Hierarchy of Dimensioning. Dimensioning Guidelines. Horizontal Layout Methods. Layout and Computers. Exercises. Chapter 15. Horizontal Road Alignment. Types of Horizontal Curves. Circular Curve Elements. Circular Curve Formulas. Degree of Curve. Stationing. Horizontal Sight Distance. Construction Drawing Graphics. Horizontal Alignment Procedures. Superelevation. Exercises. Chapter 16. Vertical Road Alignment. Vertical Curve Formula. Equal Tangent Curves. Calculating the Locations of High and Low Points. Unequal Tangent Curves. Construction Drawing Graphics. Vertical Sight Distances. Road Alignment Procedure. Exercises. Chapter 17. Grading, Storm Water Management, and Road Alignment: Case Studies. Introduction. Earthworks Park. Merrill Lynch Corporate Campus. Morris Arboretum. Pennswood Village. S.E.A. Streets. Waterworks Gardens. Exercises. Appendix I. Table of Metric Equivalents. Appendix II. Drawing Scales. Glossary. Bibliography. Permissions. Index. | <urn:uuid:a563634c-cc74-4c8b-8732-7850d5218bd0> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/wiley041/2004013110.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637899132.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025819-00025-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.789494 | 900 | 3 | 3 |
the challenge of understanding the human auditory brain
Physical variability of speech combined with its perceptual constancy make speech recognition a challenging task. The human auditory brain, however, is able to perform speech recognition effortlessly.
How does the auditory brain learn to robustly recognise auditory objects, such as naturally spoken words, in a transform invariant manner even despite the huge variability within the raw auditory wave inputs? What are the areas within the extensive auditory brain hierarchy that are important for this task? What is the simplest neural code sufficient to represent the learnt auditory objects within the output layers of the auditory brain hierarchy? Does the brain use rate or temporal encoding to represent auditory objects? These are some of the questions that we are trying to address.
making sense of sound
Neurophysiological studies have provided insights into the architecture and response properties of different areas within the auditory brain hierarchy, however the precise computational mechanisms used to learn stimulus specific transform invariant representations of auditory objects, such as phonemes or words, are currently unknown. In order to understand these computational mechanisms, we have developed an unsupervised spiking neural network model grounded in the known neurophysiology of the auditory brain. This model can be used to make neurophysiologically testable hypotheses about the mechanisms used by the brain to perform auditory object recognition. We are working closely with the Oxford Auditory Neuroscience Group to test the hypothesis generated by the model. Furthermore, the model can be used as a prototype for developing a novel approach to automatic speech recognition (ASR), which, due to its grounding in the neurophysiology of the auditory brain, should be able to cope with the robustness problems that current modern ASR systems are struggling to solve, such as speaker variability and speech recognition in noise among others. | <urn:uuid:bafeefeb-8490-4067-bbca-50c2982e9206> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.oftnai.org/research/audition | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376828318.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20181217042727-20181217064727-00232.warc.gz | en | 0.939846 | 355 | 2.65625 | 3 |
- The critically endangered great Indian bustard is now down to just 160-odd individuals, most of them surviving in the Thar Desert in India’s Rajasthan state.
- In a last-ditch effort, wildlife researchers along with the forest department have started a hunt for the birds’ eggs to begin the process of captive breeding of the species. Last week, they managed to collect two bustard eggs from the wild; they have permission to collect up to six a year.
- Two captive breeding facilities for the bustard are being built: a main, bigger facility in the south of Rajasthan, and a second, smaller facility in the west, close to where many of the wild birds breed.
- This is the first time that great Indian bustard eggs have ever been collected from the wild for the purpose of captive breeding, and protocols are still being figured out, says Rajasthan’s chief wildlife warden.
The great Indian bustard has been in deep trouble for a while. Once found across India’s grasslands and dry landscapes, the critically endangered bird is now down to just 160-odd individuals, most of them surviving in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan state.
Even in this last stronghold, survival is hard. Agricultural fields and a growing network of power lines and wind turbines have taken over their habitats, while predators like dogs destroy the eggs that the ostrich-like birds painstakingly lay down. In a last ditch effort, wildlife researchers along with the forest department have started a hunt for the birds’ eggs in Rajasthan to begin the process of captive breeding. On June 20, they managed to collect two bustard eggs from the wild.
“A beginning has been made and I hope we are able to save the bird,” Arindam Tomar, the state’s chief wildlife warden, told Mongabay.
The Wildlife Institute of India, Rajasthan Forest Department and India’s environment ministry have entered into an agreement to build two captive breeding facilities for the great Indian bustards (Ardeotis nigriceps). The main, bigger facility is being constructed in the village of Sorsan in southeast Rajasthan, while a second, smaller facility is being built in Jaisalmer, in the west, close to where many of the wild birds breed.
The buildings will take a year or two to come up, Tomar said, but the hunt for eggs is on because the teams “did not want to miss this year’s breeding season.”
“That was the urgency of doing it,” he said. “There are only 150 great Indian bustards surviving in the wild, so every day is precious. We don’t have any captive population of great Indian bustards at all, we don’t have them in any zoos or anywhere else.”
Mongabay contacted two experts from the Wildlife Institute of India involved in the project; one declined to comment and the other did not respond.
Tomar said the road ahead was going to be very long and challenging. This is the first time that Indian bustard eggs have ever been collected from the wild for the purpose of captive breeding, and protocols ranging from the incubation of the eggs to rearing any chicks that hatch are still being figured out.
“It’s going to be very difficult first to incubate the eggs, then to rear the chicks,” Tomar said. “Then there’s the next challenge of whether the birds are able to breed or not. If they start breeding, then we might have a population that we can start releasing in the wild again. The effort now is to create a founder population of breeding birds, chicks of which can probably be rewilded. So it’s going to be a very long process.”
For now, the teams have permission to collect up to six eggs from the wild per year, Tomar added.
A lot still needs to be figured out, but the teams have help from the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) in Abu Dhabi, an organization that’s had some success with the captive breeding of the Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii), a bustard species found across northeast Asia, central Asia, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula, and nearly hunted to extinction in the past.
In general, though, bustards are difficult birds to breed in captivity, Nigel Collar, a bustard expert and Leventis Fellow in Conservation Biology at BirdLife International, said in an earlier interview with Current Conservation. So it remains to be seen if collecting eggs from a tiny population of an imperiled species actually translates to a group of breeding individuals, ones that can later survive in the wild.
Some experts are hopeful.
“We’re only hearing gloomy news of the great Indian bustard,” Sumit Dookia, a wildlife biologist working in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert and an assistant professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, told Mongabay. “We need stories of success as well — that at least we’re moving in the right direction. There is a chance of predation of the eggs on the ground also. But the two eggs that have been collected are under controlled conditions now. Although we cannot expect anything right now, it is one step towards the right direction.” | <urn:uuid:711d9cb4-09a4-4184-a33f-c946242c0368> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/great-indian-bustard-eggs-being-collected-to-kick-start-captive-breeding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540481076.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20191205141605-20191205165605-00112.warc.gz | en | 0.949304 | 1,143 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Rotator Cuff Tear
The rotator cuff is a group of tendons in the shoulder joint that cover and provide support to the shoulder joint, enabling wider range of motion. A tear in the rotator cuff is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain in middle aged adults and older individuals. It may occur with repetitive movements while working or playing sports, during motor accidents, lifting a heavy object or a fall on an outstretched arm. As aging occurs, bone spurs may develop and can damage tendon tissue causing tears.
Rotator cuff tears cause severe pain (even at rest), weakness and a crackling sensation on moving your shoulder in certain positions. There may be stiffness, swelling, loss of movement and tenderness in front of the shoulder.
Rotator cuff tears can be diagnosed with a medical review and thorough physical exam, and confirmed following X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound. Symptomatic relief may be obtained with conservative treatments including rest, shoulder sling, pain medications, NSAIDs, steroidal injections and shoulder exercises. However, surgery is required when these methods do not help relieve symptoms. Rotator cuff repair may be performed by traditional open surgery (involving a large incision) or minimally invasive with arthroscopy (a lighted narrow fiber-optic tube with a camera is inserted through tiny incisions). Surgery may involve removal of bone spurs, repairing and re-attaching torn tendons with suture anchors to the shoulder bone and sometimes transferring a functional tendon (graft) from its original location to restore function. Following the surgery you may be advised to practice motion and strengthening exercises. | <urn:uuid:e564e193-fdb6-40ff-81ec-0dd11a9d9b58> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://wbcarrellclinic.com/rotator-cuff-tear/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886108709.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821133645-20170821153645-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.924494 | 337 | 2.75 | 3 |
This article, under the title, Creative Diversity, Artistic Valuing and the Peaceable Imagination, was the Keynote speech/paper to the National Association of Schools of Dance, September 1993; it also appeared in Arts Policy Review, May/June 1994. Reprinted with permission of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. Published by Heldref Publications, 1319 Eighteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036-1802. Copyright © 1994.
Listen to this paraphrase of Genesis, a mite on the free side, but, to my mind, every bit true.
In the beginning God thought up and made the heavens and the earth. He thought up and made light, dark, the waters, the heavens, the dry lands, vegetation, plants, fruit trees, the sun, the moon, swarms of creatures in the seas, birds, great sea monsters, cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the field. And God thought up and made laws--laws which rule the things that were made, how they move, slow down, and stop; how things can ignite and be transformed into other things; forces that pull apart and attract. God continued to think and to make up even more laws, among them, laws that control sounds and the ways they can be made and varied; the ways they can be transmitted.
And God put sound making parts in the bodies of his creatures, and they began to create diverse sounds--whistling sounds, pitched and piping sounds, growls, whinnies, screeches, buzzings and scraping sounds; mewlings, grunts, roars, and yappings. And He liked what He heard.
Then God decided that amidst all of this goodness, He would think up and make two creatures after His own image and likeness--man and woman. He did so and immediately knew this to be very good. He put it in their minds that they, too could think up and make things. God then looked down from eternity and ahead into time--something else He had thought up and made--and saw this man and woman and their multiplied thousands of children experimenting, shaping and texturing, trying this out, remembering that and casting another thing aside. He began to hear them spinning out wondrous variety, differently colored, textured, shaped, and sounded. He heard pitches and mixtures of pitches of all kinds, on instruments of all kinds, tuned to rhythms and colors that swarmed over the earth. He heard from the throats and from the instruments of all His creatures multiples sounds, clanging sonorities, fluting ditties, bowed and plucked things. And he heard someone call all this wondrous stuff music. He heard others say, "No it is not." And God said, "Oh yes it is." And God called all of this acoustical riot very good.
Creative diversity is at the root of things. But note that I said creative diversity, not cultural diversity nor artistic diversity, for I consider each to be derivative. Creativity is first of all a word about being human, down where the uniqueness of individuation and imagination lie, down where Genesis One is, down where imago dei was graciously bequeathed to each of us. It is not further up where the secondary stuff of socio-cultural talk is, up where the statistics, the studies, the political provincialism and pseudo-artistic pressures are. As much as all of us must strive to love the unloved and celebrate unnumbered cultural differences, there is something more profound to the concept of diversity than we find in so many of our liturgies of political correctness. We cannot forget that in all human groupings there are both virtues and flaws, excellence and mediocrity, elegance and abuse, treasure and trash. When we forget this we end up with some pretty bland talk about the uniqueness of just about everything. Or failing this, we break things apart all over again, coddling this and bashing that, the only difference is that we choose new things to coddle--everything popular or ethnic--and new things to bash--Euro-American, white, male art music, with the exception of Pachelbel's Canon and the unleashing of plainchant on New Age ears, our newest pieces of classical ear candy.
I take the uncreated Creator as my starting point. I submit my work and thought to the only unimagined Imaginer, who thinks things up out of no-thing, who then makes all things out no-thing, and does so with limitless variety, for as long as He wishes, in paradoxical combinations of loveliness, strangeness, surprise and mystery. Who but God could think up a rose or a chambered nautilus or a baby and then turn right around and, without changing His mind or His mood, think up a hippopotamus or a stinkweed or an ostrich? Who but God would know how to call every crazy-quilt creature good, bestowing individual dignity and worth on each? Who but God would then be imaginative, generous, and selfless enough to make a whole race of beings in His own image, granting them creativity, the gift of imagining and making things, allowing them to use the very stuff of His own handiwork, to come up with a riot of sounds, shapes, machines, textures, gestures, lauds, and laments? Who but God would include lessons about making things in the very things He has made? For God is not just our Maker. He is our redeeming Teacher. His handiwork is not just out there to be admired and lived in; it also guides us in our own imaginings. Let me try to say how.
Listen to this. When we yammer, whine and fidget over the kind of art and music--the truly new and crazy stuff--the stuff that surprises and dislodges, remember this: God was the first abstract artist. When He imagined and crafted the first eucalyptus and the first gazelle, the first galaxy and the first cucumber, there were none around for Him to imitate or compare them to. They simply broke into unexampled being. Go back to those first days when everything was never before seen, when there were no reference points or comparisons and God was flooding the heavens and the earth with His imaginings, and then look at and listen to the art you would separate yourself from, and then you'll understand why Paul Klee said that art is Genesis eternal.
Listen to this. In the way God imagined and crafted, He showed us from the beginning that everything that He made has worth, yet serves a purpose; and everything that serves a purpose has worth. Thus for God and therefore for us, quality and usefulness must go hand in hand.
Listen to this. In the way God creates, He shows us that simplicity and complexity can play hide and seek with one another, each contingent upon the other. And if push were to come to shove, it just may be that simplicity may well be the greater mystery because complexity depends on it. Thus, in His way of imaging and crafting galaxies out of elemental particles which turn right around and act like galaxies, God may be showing us how an Appalachian ballad and the Sistine Chapel somehow participate in each other.
Listen to this. God has shown us that He is no less the caring craftsman, no less interested in quality when making a grape as when flinging out a galaxy-- the one quickly eaten, used up, gone in a trice, the other enduring for billions of years. From this we learn that the dispensable and the monumental, the simple and complex, the small and the grand, the transient and long-lasting are to be crafted with equal care and integrity. For with God, there are not two creations: a cheapened one for consumption and throwing away and another sophisticated one for the museums, the critics, and the ages. There is one creation, imagined and made by the One whose integrity never changes from creational act to creational act.
Listen to this. God has shown us that even though He loves each thing He makes and calls it good, He somehow allows a particular bird of paradise or duck-billed platypus to be more beautifully formed than another bird of paradise or another duck-billed platypus. But this does not mean that a bird of paradise is more desirable than a duck-billed platypus--just try to get one to set up housekeeping with the other. Long before our solemn litanies of aesthetic universalism were replaced by our simpering dances around the multicultural tree, it was God who set down the first principles for a discerning and authentic pluralism, namely that there are diverse kinds of quality, each to be sought out within the kind. Just as the beauty of a platypus is not to be interpreted by that of a bird of paradise, so the beauty of a Guatemalan lullaby is not to be interpreted by that of a Renaissance dance.
Here we are, a world full of created creators, imagined imaginers, going about things diversely--no two of us alike--imagining and crafting things, no two of which should ever be alike. Here we are, a world full of children, of teenagers, of parents, aunts and uncles, friends, fellows, and lovers, knit in the dignity of our humanness. Here we are, an ecology of spirit, mind, and body, needing one another and not always knowing it, capable of helping one another and not fully wanting to. Here we are, created by the uncreated Creator, imagined by the unimagined Imaginer, capable of stupendous feats and bursts of creative uniqueness. Here we are, improvising, composing, crafting, arranging, building, organizing, sketching, erasing, improving, exchanging, influencing, starting over again. Here we are, some average, some below average, some virtuosic, but each of us humanly and diversely imaginative. And all too paradoxically, here we are, some profoundly moral and others horribly aberrant, each fundamentally creative and each using that creativity to bring something about, whether in usefulness or destruction. It is all of these and more that make this world up. It is all of these and more which, wrongly used, divide us up and tear us down.
In the most current scientific sense of the word, creative diversity is magnificent chaos. Chaos is the creational and creative rightness of unrepeated, unpredictable variation, housed in order, structure, and overall sense. Chaos is not a fabrication of rationalized, Euclidianized straight lines and symmetries, but a riotous scatter, found in meadows, weather patterns, and coral reefs; found within the larger perimeters of natural law, creative wisdom, and structural discipline. Chaos is the poetry, the surprise, the ambiguity, and nuance which justifies and beautifies the grammar tucked away down inside. Chaos is why, with only 12 pitches at our disposal, no two symphonies or blues are alike. Chaos is why no two Petrushkas are ever the same and why no one should ever want them to be. Chaos is why, with only three primary colors, Andrew Wyeth's whites are unlike Vermeer's, why Gauguin saw things differently than Van Gogh. Chaos is why, with only 26 letters in our alphabet, words emerge--hundreds of thousands of them--combining and recombining in ceaseless nuance. Chaos is why no two dancers, with the same choreographic map, can ever dance alike. Chaos is the ceaseless conversation between stability and instability, between the depersonalized geometries of the drafting table and the poetic force of a hand-drawn shape. Chaos is the antithesis of imitation and the champion of variety, a refreshing answer to the ideal/real perplexities of Platonism.
And chaos is never over, starting from the first day of creation and continuing throughout the eternities. And remember, even eternity, filled with eternally nuancing variegation, can only happen once. As long as we are allowed to remain alive, we shall always be delighted and stunned by one creative upset and dislodgment after another. It is of these that cultures are made and changed, and it is because of these that a sensible, workable pluralism can take place. Cultures do not diversify nor inter-relate in the abstract. Diversity, pluralism, multiculturalism--call it what you like--comes about because diverse imaginers are diversely--chaotically--at work, creatively unable to repeat themselves, surviving in any number of conditions, ready to give and receive creative counsel. From rap to Bach to Picassos and Wyeths, Citizen Kane to Remains of the Day; from Pakistani chant to mariachi bands to Zimbabwe harvest songs to gospel, jazz, folk, Cajun, and Walker Percy, we celebrate magnificent chaos--ongoing pluralism, deep-down diversity.
And who are the real pluralists? There are two groups, one comprising virtually 100% of all populations, the other a significant minority in many populations. As to the first group, it is imperative that they be cherished and nurtured as never before. As to the second, it is less important as to how many there are than that they exist at all, and are determined to act, create, and teach, whatever the cost.
The first are our children. These wonderful and inherently creative people are the true naturals at diversity. They are multi-lingual; the width of their perceptual and cognitive proficiencies is astonishing. They are our intrinsic pluralists, the ones in whom the first day of creation is summarized. They are at once as capable of cavorting to a Bach gigue, as of being quieted by a Nigerian lullaby, as of being enamored of a Picasso, as of learning several languages at once. They dance, they improvise, they imagine, they ask profound questions. They are idiomatically diverse. Their world is of one cloth and they have a need for it as boundless as their need for their mother's breast. They not only must live but they must abound within the abundance around them. They are scribbling, babbling poets before they know what grammar is. Yet, early on they begin to sense the importance of imposing structure on their poetry. Somehow they intuit that order and syntax are part of the relational, communal side of life. And the poetry and the grammar grow up together. As the linguist Noam Chomsky would put it, they bring the sentence with them, we just give them the vocabularies.
But to our dismay, all of this wondrous stuff begins to be constricted and shut down by a slickened and cynical culture in which our children and young people are made to think that they are personally unique, while unwittingly being made into each other's image. It is really commercial totalitarianism: this massive hype, this cynical flattening of human diversity, this ornamented stasis. Our children are Michael Jordaned, and Barneyed, mega-churched, Sandi Pattied, Nintendoed, and MTV'd clean out of their uniqueness. The local, home-grown heroes--those necessary stay-at-home mentors--are almost no more. They have either left us, trying for bigger things, or if they humbly choose to stay at home, their worth is belittled by the steroided hype and illusion which surround the super-stars. Their options are curiously shut down by the gatekeepers: these product mongers who choose our culture for us and then manipulate us into thinking we have freely chosen it.
This brings us to the second group of pluralists. These are the ones who have broken through the narrowness and the hype and are grown up into a completion. These are the wholly educated (a quite different group than the highly educated). These are the ones who celebrate the chaos of diversity, who see into the order and union behind the riot and variegation, who sense the deeper structures beneath the shifts and the nuances. They live comfortably with the simple and the complex; they understand the union of function and worth; they know the difference between the ornamental and the developmental, understanding where each belongs and how they can merge. They choose carefully among the diversity of artistic languages and dialects; they patiently school those who are floundering in pseudo-diversity. They have stripped away the rhetoric that confuses a creative act with a socio-political one. They know that the distance between high culture and low culture is not a separation but a reciprocation and a continuum. They have come to recognize the dignity and integrity in everything from a Rembrandt to a southern Indiana pie safe to Delta blues to Pakistani chant. And they know enough not to try to convert the one into the other.
They further know that in true diversity oldness is not irrelevance. When they hear that the words of an 18th century hymn, the sound of a pipe organ, or a Mozart rondo are ". . . outdated, do not speak my language, are not properly seeker-sensitive, do not communicate, and fail to meet a tub full of felt needs," they understand this to be nothing other than the sorriest kind of churchmanship and narrowest kind of narcissism. They also know that the solution is not to become trend hoppers, to "go relevant," but to hang in with real diversity, to demonstrate that quality is never out of date. Above all, these are the ones, who, by choice, stay close to our children, to nurture them in the rich context of creative diversity. And these should be, these must be, among the ones who are our public school teachers, for in my estimation, there are no more important individuals in our society than K-6 teachers. Some have PhD's, some have never finished high school. They come from Pakistan, from Philadelphia, Abilene and Lubbock, Ghana, Belfast, Alequippa, Virginia, the Bronx, and--let us pray--from Southern Seminary. And we need every one of them.
But diversity must have honest limits. It cannot be a simpering everything-is-OK-ism. All credible pluralists must have an artistic and cultural locating point, a home, a center. This center then forms a perceptual and intellectual base to and from which excursions are diversely made and to which all else relates. Furthermore, this sense of home should be perfectly natural to those whose artistic styles they wend their way, because they too have a center, a home. Diversity is therefore an intercourse among centers, each one loved by those who inhabit them. In the best sense of the word, then, ethnocentrism--there's that terrible word--is simply the act and process of knowing, loving, and acting within and upon our own civilizational, cultural, and behavioral ways, with the promise that if we genuinely love ourselves, culturally, artistically, and ethnically, we will naturally love the ways of others, who are freely responsible to come to love ours. Thus, we have a relationship among centers rather than a rearranged aesthetic caste system, multicultural facelessness, or forced assimilation. This kind of centeredness is simply the Golden Rule stated artistically: If and as I truly love myself and my immediate cultural and artistic world, I will love that of others.
So despite the current debate about multiculturalism, despite the negative twists, turns, and incompleteness of present efforts; despite the new prejudices it seems t o be breeding, I hang on to the worth of the concept itself and hope that something better will transpire--something which centers itself in the worth of people, their incredible creative diversity, warts and all, and the kind of love which nurtures and teaches. It is this kind of diversity, a centered diversity, centered in the uniqueness and integrity of the imago dei, the authentic synergy of each local gathering, that the Church so desperately needs. We must thus rid ourselves of three kinds of false pluralism: 1) provincial pluralism, where the center is too narrow to be broken out of; 2) faceless pluralism, where "all things to all men" has led away from authenticity and into pseudo-relevance; 3) layered pluralism, where, for example, a congregation is divided up into any number of practitional parts, traditional, contemporary, and who knows what else--each one carefully kept away from the other, and each one singing its provincial ditty to the glory of a very creatively limited God.
It is only now that we can talk about artistic quality and values. As I have already suggested, creativity itself is a sorting out process which in itself cannot exclude valuing. Artistic choices are not just feel-goodisms or trendy everything-is-OKism. Even though all artistic actions, good and bad, possess intrinsic worth, we need to go beyond the worth and into conscious and intelligent choosing. In other words, there is a legitimate difference between general goodness and better-than-ness. Totally relativized pluralism, in which everything is considered of equal quality, is an intellectual, perceptual, and theological travesty. And I'll just bet you that even the most vocal relativists have some little values clock ticking inside themselves, to which they secretly go, if only now and then, to find out what time it is.
While the issue of artistic valuing may eventually take in the subject of aesthetics, it should not begin with aesthetics. It is erroneous to assume that just because some people do not love great art, they do not love art. It is likewise erroneous to assume that someone who has poor taste has no taste. Additionally, it is erroneous to assume that everyone who loves great art possesses artistic discernment. Furthermore, I'm not convinced that everyone who is devoted to great art truly loves art. It is one thing to love certain institutions of art as an adopted mannerism, and another to go down deeper into the nature of the creative and artistic impulse itself, back behind the manners and reflexes and into the very substance. There is therefore a difference between being artistically sensitive and being cultured. And it is entirely possible to be Pavlovianly conditioned to great art without knowing that it is great.
I don't know of anyone who doesn't love or value art, or who isn't somehow drawn to the aesthetic quality of something: a finely wrought tool, a beautifully sutured incision, a quilt, or a Chevrolet. The love of quality--whether or not beauty is consciously thought of--is universal. The educational and ministerial question, therefore, is not to create a love or a sense of beauty and quality in our constituencies, but to find musically exampled ways that train, refine, reform, and diversify the love and the valuing that is already going on.
However, among the many loves of music, there is one kind in particular, if we can call it a love, which should trouble us all. Art can be addictively loved. In this case, the intrinsic value of art no longer lies directly in an active engagement with artistic content or quality, but in the way it is craved. There is gluttony, overuse, and misuse; music and art become so mindlessly omnipresent that they become strangely absent--nothing more than insignificant significance. Music is piped in everywhere, pasted up everywhere, craved everywhere. It is crack for the ears, eyes, and bodies, with which all too many of us shoot up, whether in worship, pleasure, or in a confusion of the two--just another substance abused by an addictive society. It is this addictive love which seems of late to be so prevalent. It goes on all around us. Our children and students, and many churches, live in the middle of it and may easily be caught up that way. Without a doubt we are the most musicked culture in the history of civilization, and it may not be a coincidence at all that this overwhelming urge for music accompanies the near death of meaningful speech.
But what may be even more serious is that this addiction to music, along with addiction to drugs and violence, may be symptomatic of an even more deeply rooted illness. Perhaps being a contemporary American demands that all of us be addicted to something: single interest groups, with their cramped morality and political leverage; rabid fundamentalism, whatever its stripe; political correctness, whatever its content; ideological fascism, whatever its agenda; orgasmic frivolity, whatever its orientation and medium; technological obsession, whatever its powers and costs to individual uniqueness; unbridled litigation, with its revenges and rewards--each of these claims its addicts. And because each addicted sector has but one solitary objective, namely to feed the addiction, we may have become a society united only by addiction itself, but divided over the multiple directions our addictions take us. And in our rush to feed the addiction, we end up trampling each other.
It is from within this context that we must find out how artistic love can degenerate into addiction and how addiction can be turned back into love. We need to teach this generation how to distance itself from music so as to be free of it, using less of it, contemplating it more deeply, then free to engage in it with new found discernment and temperance--masters, not slaves; users, not abusers, worshippers, not idolaters.
We need also to teach our children and youth that the very best reason to value art is because their priceless worth as human beings demands it. It's not that we need great art for the sake of art--this is simply idolatry--rather, it's that we have art, we share art, first for the glory of God and only then for the sake of each other, the least of whom has more value than the greatest piece of art ever made. Let me put it extremely. Which has more worth, the entire St. Matthew Passion or one single street waif in a Mexican barrio? Let me push this even further. What if I were faced with the choice of sacrificing the last remaining copy of the St. Matthew Passion, never to hear it again, in order to keep this waif alive? The beauty which rises out of our response to this question is that saving the child is what great art is ultimately made of, whereas preferring an art piece over a child is what holocausts are made of.
I'm convinced that love for the essential dignity and worth of people is what should really drive artistic valuing. As mentioned in the previous presentation, we bear the responsibility for no less than the nurturing of the imago dei. People are so important that they must have the best, even if it means going against the relativistic grain and working painstakingly from bad to good to better to best. If I can exemplify artistic values out of the kind of love for people which might lead to my giving up art for their sake--and if our students deeply and truly knew that we have mastered art in this way--they would then understand what it means to value art. Valuing humanity validates artistic valuing. There is an aesthetic impulse behind the arts, but this does not go quite far enough, for behind the aesthetic impulse there is a whole world of active imaginers whose creative impulses--no matter how vibrant or feeble, aesthetic or unaesthetic--call for artistic valuing.
Of course, this means that, in addition to my knowing my art and my aesthetic paradigms profoundly well, I must learn those of others, knowing them just as well. I must acknowledge that they value their art--just listen to them sometime, arguing in their own way and in their vernaculars, over the artistic sludge that they find in their own idiomatic world. The very recognition that they are somehow plugging away at values--no matter how timidly, stumblingly, or crassly--is my starting point, for I cannot forget that my own aesthetic start and my present aesthetic state were influenced--for good and for bad--by the way I was taught.
Then I must hunt down the wisdom and pedagogical skill to join with them, to know how their heads are working, to try to see with their eyes and hear with their ears, to understand that their artistic world first of all comprises what they know, not what they don't know or what I know. Only then have I earned the right to take their thoughts, their values, and their art up and away into freshened dimensions.
Artistic valuing never devalues the people who make and value it. As ministers, servants, and teachers we should never take away their songs or their dances. Instead, we add to the song; we refine the dance; we unite the excelling with all the other human excelling. It is worth the pain and, in these morally, intellectually, deconstructed days, the possible censure.
I am both proud of my country and ashamed of it. I certainly do not want to be perceived as a national naysayer, but I do want to spend a few minutes on some aspects of American culture that deeply concern me. I then want to attempt an application in the direction of what I call the peaceable imagination.
The worlds of mass culture and the electronic media subsist on images, set in the context of a loss of an integrative moral center and the near death of meaningful language. We live, both inside and outside the church, in a world of spin doctors, sound bites, lip synching, applause and laugh tracks, fabricated ambiguity, doublespeak and technospeak. The lines between entertainment and crucial theological, social, moral, and political functions have become increasingly blurred.
Media stars are employed to make political statements, to mouth profundities, and politicians may rise or fall on their ability to appear as media stars. Commentators and reporters are hired and retained on their ability to make ordinary news into something larger than it is--to search, in fact, for the "right" kind of news and to shape it so that it becomes more than informative content. Investigative reporting, the docudrama, and talk show have become strangely alike. The people who make the news--the serial killers, the darlings of social event, media stars, and world power figures--are all on stage. Their actions are blurred into the stuff of the docudrama and docudrama becomes the substantive stuff of factuality. The sum of it all is that mass culture has settled into a rhythm of electronic voyeurism, peering into war, rape, violence, discontent, scandal, pseudo issues, scam, and an occasional tidbit of joy. The end result is that most of contemporary society, overwhelmed by the power and presence of the media, lives in the generic world of contrived subjectivity, in which spin--long or short, simple or complex--is of the essence.(1)
And then there is the presentational mode, the overall style: hype, glitter, opulence, pushiness, coarseness, and swagger; and the megabatteries of sound, the overkill of gesture and costume--kitsch gone wild--the persistently overt, the driven, the exaggerated, the narcissistic soloism.
And violence. We know how much of it there is; we know that nothing has been left out--it's all there to see, to hear, to dance out, to market, to repeat, and repeat, and repeat again.
So we have these three giants, or perhaps this giant with three heads: culture as docudrama, culture as swagger and narcissism, and culture as violence. All three are frightening in themselves, but the way they have synergized is all the more ominous: the blurring of reality with fantasy, the horror of violence lost in the perceptual blur, and the massive, life-sucking ego personifying the whole.
In present day media/cinematic violence, our technological capability has brought us to the point where we can say, "That's really what real violence must look like. Life is life; this is its mirror, not a symbolic hint, but a full dose." But wait a minute. Even the most vivid, the most "realistic" stuff, to my way of thinking, does something else. All the while we're watching, caught up in the most graphic parts, repulsed, titillated or fascinated, there is the sense underneath it all, that we're in a kind of protective, perceptual envelope. We're only a reach away, after all, from the chips and dip, comfortable in the ergonomics of the family room or theater, near the touch of someone. And paradoxically the technical accuracy of the violence sanitizes it, makes it explainable, depersonalizes it. We know down deep that our worst fears, our most visceral reactions, will pass. We can leave the envelope, rewind the VCR, clean up the chips, and re-enter the "real" stuff of real life. But in the face of the threeheaded monster just mentioned, do we?
I'm not prepared to enumerate all the reasons why this nation dotes on self-gratifying violence, nor am I fully prepared to say if or how there may be a causal relationship between media violence and societal violence. But I have a hunch about something and it disturbs me greatly. Might it not be possible that we have come to live in one world of diffused reality--macro-deconstruction, the entire whole an extension of the perceptual envelope? If so, then this question: Which or where is the real world? Has everything merged into one huge docudrama, a myth world of no consequence? Have I merged into it as well? Have I joined the world of diffused reality, the docudrama? And in the absence of an integrative moral center, does it matter what world I'm in anyway? Have violence and civility become deconstructed? Have techno-violence and real violence merged, the one relativizing and sanitizing the other? And if there is a connection between media violence and street violence, as many think there is, it may not be that ugliness stimulates ugliness, but that the perceptual envelope, this massive global docudrama has preempted the real and turned violence and civility into mythological happenstances. Accountability, therefore, is just as mythological as everything else.
And for our children, this is all the more horrible, because for them, life is naturally whole--one perceptual envelope, in which reality, myth, legend, and play-acting have yet to be rationally separated. They live in one real, unified world. And if we present this world to them backwards, if the myth/docudrama world drives and discounts the real world, having already lost its moral and factual center, have we not abused them in a way compared to which all other forms of abuse are but symptomatic drops in the bucket?
But what about the greatest art? Does it not also deal with violence? Yes, but with a significant difference. The Guernicas, the executions, the medieval crucifixes have their own ways of taking the primal stuff of violence and smoothing it over with the sheer aesthetic sweep of the art work itself. We can look at a medieval crucifix, or listen to the "Crucifixus" of the B minor Mass and be profoundly moved by the sheer artistic beauty of the symbolized horror. Granted. But there's a profound difference: Great art does not diffuse or confuse reality. It respects reality for what it is in all of its primary force. And art--the best of it--is its own reality, with its own interior consequence, its own inherent burden. It has no intent of mirroring, or imitating, or substituting. Thus, whether its creators have moral consciences or not; whether its creators believe that art may or may not speak with moral force, it remains true that great art does not mistreat reality.
In the face of this, we must, as never before, seek out and produce an art which contemporary life has very little of. We must strive for an art which creates a freshening perceptual envelope, a new parenthesis, if you will. And even if it turned out that reality were diffused, perhaps even swallowed it up, we should be satisfied. For what we should long for and what all of us need--especially our children--is peaceable art. What we need is quieted and humbled creativity, flowing out of the peaceable imagination.
There is a word, the phonetic beauty of which comes very near matching its meaning, and here I owe a debt to the thinking of Nicholas Wolterstorff. That word is shalom. We need the art of shalom, not a smarmy dabble of what might be nice--fluffy idealism, or a vacuous absence of hostility--but resounding, prophetic utterances of peaceableness, joy, responsible action, and good will--the dances and musics of shalom. The peaceable imagination is forceful, dynamic, prophetic. It knows and understands reality without mirroring it. It protects against what is wrong and aberrant, and confirms what is right. The peaceable imagination is one of meekness, politeness, humility, and servant hood.
What would it be like for an entire society to become artistically meek and lowly of heart? What would it mean for a society aesthetically to quiet itself, to seek out silence, to trade corporate narcissism for community? What would it mean to understand that true meekness and humility are strong, bold, tender, and passionate, to know that peaceableness is empowered integrity through which everything from joyous celebration to uncompromising protest, to quiet nurturing, and redemptive grieving, is expressed? What would it mean to rear our children in an artistic world of grace, of calm, of diverse joy--a world free of hype, swagger, frenzy, exaggeration and synergized ego? And above all, what would it be like for the Church to rid herself of the musical and artistic pomp, the bombast, the steroided strutting and hyping, its parade-ground brassiness? What would it be like for us to shut up for a change and let the quiet undulations of the peaceable imagination overtake the hype? In the midst of the battery of loudspeakers, the forests of mike stands, the mixing boards, sequencers, drum machines, faked accompaniments--all of these masks and proxies for the broken and contrite heart, the mild talent that most of us possess--what would it be like if the fuses blew and we were left technologically naked so that the very power of the Holy Spirit could enter in and empower our God-given weaknesses?
So we come full circle, from the diversity of creative imagination, to the values which guide and inform it, and on to the need to direct creativity away from confusion, swagger, and hurt, provincialism, manipulation, spiritual self-indulgence, and finally to peaceable action. It all comes down to three groups of people: our children, for whose health all our efforts must be bent. They need the peaceable imagination. They need shepherding, not manipulation. They need pastorals and lullabies, not frenzy and swagger. And they need to dance the inside and outside dance, not death dances, but gigues, rondos, leapings, and cavortings.
Then there are the pastors, the evangelists, the Christian education leaders, and teachers, who shape content, interpret contexts, share wisdom and personal grace, and prepare the mind and make the spirit ready for the lively dance, the dance of shalom. And there are the artists themselves: the musicians, the painters, the dancers, and dramatists, who imagine diversely and authentically, who craft, music, paint, sculpt, and dance us into the most humanly redemptive contexts.
So I say to all: imagine, craft, finish, love, be quiet, be meek, be humble, let the thousand tongues burst forth and wing their way into the eternities. Dance imaginatively; make music diversely; sculpt discerningly; write the excelling poem; dance the peaceable dance; music forth shalom; paint us into elegance; sing and dance with the children; make us children again and then teach us how to put away childish things. Make art beyond the darkness and the diffusion; craft the terror away; dance the living hellishness out of our lives, and imagine the graces back into being.
God bless the artists. God bless the children. God bless the teachers. God bless you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. AMEN. | <urn:uuid:c42b8909-023e-4142-9616-534b36eebb00> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.leaderu.com/offices/haroldbest/diversity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171004.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00537-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955105 | 8,465 | 2.65625 | 3 |
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