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- Covering the Past, Present and Future of
HOUND DOG Fact Sheet
Written and Edited by Cliff Lethbridge
Classification: Air-to-Surface Cruise Missile
Length: 42 feet, 6 inches
Diameter: 2 feet, 4 inches
Wingspan: 12 feet
Range: 710 miles
The Hound Dog missile was developed by North American Aviation, later Rockwell International, beginning in 1957.
A bomber-launched air-to-surface winged cruise missile, the Hound Dog was
designed to help
Indeed, the Hound Dog's configuration was adapted directly from the Navaho X-10 test vehicle, which was also built by North American Aviation.
Initially designated AGM-77, the Hound Dog featured small canard foreplanes, rear delta wings with ailerons, plus a small fin and rudder.
The vehicle was powered by a Pratt and Whitney turbojet which could produce a thrust of 7,500 pounds. The engine was located in an underslung rear pod. It featured variable inlet and nozzle systems which could adjust the speed and altitude of the missile.
This allowed the Hound Dog to cruise at altitudes which ranged from tree-top level to 55,000 feet.
Guided by a North American Autonetics Division inertial guidance system which was eventually upgraded to incorporate a Kollsman Star Tracker, the Hound Dog could carry a one-magaton nuclear payload.
The Hound Dog was declared operational at Eglin Air Force Base,
The deployed Hound Dog missiles were designated AGM-28A, with a slightly improved version designated AGM-28B.
For a time, all U.S. Air Force B-52G and B-52H bombers were equipped with one Hound Dog pylon under each wing. The Hound Dog actually transformed these bombers from eight-engine to ten-engine aircraft at takeoff.
One Hound Dog missile located under each wing was actually ignited at takeoff, providing extra thrust for the bomber itself. The Hound Dog engines were then shut down, and the missiles were re-fueled directly from the B-52's own tanks during flight.
Once re-fueled, the missiles were ready to be fired again and sent on their way, after the proper guidance and target information could be entered and verified.
Filling a vital role in providing a diverse pattern of offensive capabilities for the U.S. Air Force, the Hound Dog was not completely removed from active service until 1976.
Copyright © 2012 Spaceline, Inc. | <urn:uuid:02415c42-da28-4a83-a3a9-0cc282d57273> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/hound-dog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320539.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625152316-20170625172316-00357.warc.gz | en | 0.961276 | 519 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Between 2010 and 2016, the community group Friends of Flora Inc., in partnership with the Department of Conservation, translocated 44 roroa (Apteryx haastii) to the Flora Stream area in Kahurangi National Park, New Zealand. Each kiwi was fitted with a VHF transmitter and their subsequent locations were monitored for two to eight years by radio-telemetry. Monitoring showed that short to medium term translocation goals relating to survival and home range establishment were met. Dispersal occurred for 9 to 878 days prior to home ranges being established. This post- translocation monitoring was used to inform management decisions to extend predator control from 5,000 to 9,000 ha and to retrieve four of the kiwi that dispersed outside the project area. At the end of the study, 68% of the translocated kiwi were known to have home ranges within the trapped area. The study illustrates the benefit of long-term post- translocation monitoring and a flexible approach to deal with unforeseen dispersal. | <urn:uuid:f64aad08-f611-45b1-858f-09a8bd93e32a> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/publications/post-translocation-dispersal-and-home-range-establishment-of-roroa-great-spotted-kiwi-apteryx-haastii-need-for-long-term-monitoring-and-a-flexible-management-strategy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711017.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20221205132617-20221205162617-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.959803 | 216 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Photo courtesy AEM.
All modern countries are crisscrossed with high-voltage
transmission lines, which
transport electrical power from generators at power plants to substations and
ultimately consumers. Why are high voltages used? What are the advantages of
alternating current (AC) versus direct current (DC)? How much energy is lost
in transmitting electrical power over long distances? The main physics principle
this topic addresses is electrical resistance.
Electrical current, the flow of charge, has a sort of friction
associated with it,
which is called resistance. Good conductors, like most metals,
allow current to flow
without much loss. Poor conductors, like most non-metals, impede the flow of
current to a great extent. Superconductors like very cold
niobium-tin, are special substances that allow
current to flow with essentially zero loss; semiconductors,
like silicon, are either good or poor conductors depending on certain conditions.
You get current to flow through a conductor by applying a voltage across
it. The amount of current that flows is measured in
amperes, or amps,
named after a 19th-century French physicist and abbreviated
A. An ampere is a fairly large amount of current: 0.1 A flowing between
your hands across your heart will kill you. (Fortunately, your body
has fairly high resistance so it takes a substantial voltage to drive
that much current.) Voltage, or electric potential, is measured
in volts, named after a
physicist named Volta, and abbreviated V.
Most small batteries (size AAA, AA, C, D) are 1.5 V; there is the
familiar box-like 'transistor' 9 V
battery, and car batteries are 12 V. In contrast, high-voltage lines
have many thousands of volts between them.
Resistance quantifies how much current you get across something per
volt applied. Namely, if you apply a voltage V across a
wire and measure current I, the resistance R is
R = V/I
Resistance therefore has units of V/A, which get another name, ohms,
represented by the Greek letter .
We are all aware that electric current can transport energy from
one place to another: the energy given off by a 100 Watt light
bulb in your bedroom originated by burning coal or slowing down
falling water or releasing nuclear energy at a power plant, for
example. The expression for electric power comes from
the definitions of electric potential (volts) and electric
The MKS unit of energy is the joule (J) and the
MKS unit of electric charge is the coulomb (C), which is the
amount of charge that flows by in one second if the current is
one amp. The volt is therefore defined by saying that if a
charge of 1 C moves across a potential drop of 1 V it picks up
energy 1 J:
1 V = 1 J/C
In general, then, a charge Q picks up energy
U = QV
when it moves across a
potential drop V.
Electric power is the rate at which energy is
transported. Since current is the rate of transport of charge,
electric power is given by the above expression, but using
current I instead of charge Q:
P = IV
This is a very handy formula. For example, you may see written
on your hair dryer that it draws 10 A current on the hot setting
from a standard US 110 V outlet. This means that the power
drawn by the hair dryer is 10x110=1100 W, or 1.1 kW. That's
about as high a power as home appliances go,
and this is not too far from tripping a 15 A
circuit breaker, standard in modern US houses. For very high
power appliances, like a clothes washer or dryer, you may need a special
outlet and dedicated circuit breaker. (Note: even though house
current is alternating, or AC, at 60 cycles/sec (50 in Europe),
this formula works because the
average or RMS current and voltage are quoted and you
therefore get the average power.)
Another handy version of the power formula replaces voltage
V with resistance and current: V=IR:
P = I²R
High-Voltage Transmission Lines
So we now finally come to the topic of this page: the transport
of large amounts of electrical power over long distances. This
is done with high-voltage transmission lines, and the question
is: why high voltage? It certainly has a negative safety aspect,
since a low voltage line wouldn't be harmful (you can put your
hands on a 12 V car battery, for example, you won't even feel
it; but make sure you don't put metal across the
terminals, you'll get a huge current and a nasty spark!).
Electric energy is transported across the countryside with
high-voltage lines because the line losses are much
smaller than with low-voltage lines.
All wires currently used have some resistance (the development
of high-temperature superconductors will probably change this
some day). Let's call the total resistance of the transmission
line leading from a power station to your local substation
R. Let's also say the local community demands a
power P=IV from that substation. This means the
current drawn by the substation is I=P/V and the
higher the transmission line voltage, the smaller the current.
The line loss is given by Ploss=I²R,
or, substituting for I,
Ploss = P²R/V²
Since P is fixed by community demand, and
R is as small as you can make it (using big fat
copper cable, for example),
line loss decreases strongly with increasing voltage.
The reason is simply that you want the smallest amount of
current that you can use to deliver the power P.
Another important note: the loss fraction
Ploss/P = PR/V²
increases with increasing load
P: power transmission is less efficient at times of
higher demand. Again, this is because power is proportional to
current but line loss is proportional to current squared. Line
loss can be quite large over long distances, up to 30% or so.
By the way, line loss power goes into heating the transmission
line cable which, per meter length, isn't very much heat.
Alternating (AC) vs. Direct Current (DC)
Given that we want to reduce line loss by using high voltage,
the choice between AC and DC becomes straightforward. It is
quite difficult to reduce a DC high voltage to low voltage
without additional loss; it is easy to reduce an AC high voltage
to low voltage using a step-down transformer. You see
lots of these when you walk by a substation. An ideal
transformer reduces V and increases I so
that the power IV is constant. A neighborhood
substation typically reduces the voltage to a reasonable value
for street lines, say 330 V, and then a small transformer
outside and/or inside your house reduces it to 110 V (220 in
Europe). Since the current and voltage are alternating with
sine waves, the power delivered to, say, a toaster also
oscillates. The current or voltage oscillation frequency is 60
cycles/sec (60 Hz) in the US and 50 Hz in Europe. The figure
below shows how the current, voltage and power look as a
function of time along with the average (RMS) values for a load
drawing 10 A in the US.
Voltage, current and power for a resistive appliance that draws
10 amps (like a toaster). The average (RMS) values are shown
with dotted lines. This appliance draws 1100 watts RMS.
- electric resistance: R = V/I
- electric power: P = IV = I²R
- Resistance quantifies the amount of current that
will flow in a wire per volt.
- Power loss due to wire resistance increases as the
square of the current and therefore decreases as the square of
the voltage at fixed total power. The loss fraction in a
transmission line increases with demand. | <urn:uuid:bcc3c7ee-5a28-4966-8d32-7b466bca8382> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.bsharp.org/physics/transmission | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999653202/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060733-00065-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917915 | 1,765 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Do you know that what’s on our plate can impact the world’s climate? Do you know how much water does it take to produce a hamburger patty? For truth be told, the reality of today’s meat industry is damaging our planet to a great degree. That being so, switching to vegetarian options can make big differences. Here’s why.
Global greenhouse gas emissions
Livestock and their byproducts responsible for 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than all emissions from the world’s transportation systems combined. Besides, dairy cows produce large quantities of methane gas, a greenhouse gas which is roughly 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Over the years, a huge amount of greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, disrupting natural greenhouse effect and making our planet warmer.
Meanwhile, growing vegetables contributes to fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Since animal agriculture uses the land for the rearing of livestock, a vast forest area need to be cleared. Currently, livestock covers about 45 per cent of the Earth’s total land. It is also responsible for up to 91% of Amazon destruction. This includes land cleared to plant crops in order to fed farming animals. Therefore, a lot of species lost their home and became endangered. On the other hand, it takes less land to feed someone on a plant-based diet.
70 per cent of the planet is covered by water, but only a small percentage of it is drinkable. About one-third of the world’s water consumption is for producing meat and dairy. One hamburger patty needs 660 gallons of water to produce, which is equal to two months of showering. While runoff from factory farms and livestock contaminates rivers and groundwater, causing pollution and harming the marine ecosystem.
Meanwhile, fewer water resources are required to grow crops.
Undeniably, poor health outcomes are common in high meat consumption
communities. It may be hard to fight the temptation of all the luxuries meaty meals around us, especially if we are living in the industrialized area. Hence, making a positive switch to a plant-based diet is good for your body too.
To sum up, including more greens into your diet can help reduce the high demand for meat and dairy production. Be a flexitarian *a person who eats mainly vegetarian food but eats meat occasionally with an occasional serving of chicken or meat. We can also start our own vegetable garden to grow fresh green produce. But if you are already a flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan, then keep up the momentum! | <urn:uuid:16b77362-48d3-4d76-91ae-a231dbd4dfc8> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://thehiveecostore.com/en-sg/blogs/blog/why-eating-less-meat-can-help-save-the-planet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510528.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929190403-20230929220403-00528.warc.gz | en | 0.931582 | 538 | 3.28125 | 3 |
The voltage of the windings in a transformer is directly proportional to the number of turns on
the coils. This relationship is expressed in Equation (13-4).
VP = voltage on primary coil
VS = voltage on secondary coil
NP = number of turns on the primary coil
NS = number of turns on the secondary coil
The ratio of primary voltage to secondary voltage is known as the voltage ratio (VR). As
mentioned previously, the ratio of primary turns of wire to secondary turns of wire is known as
the turns ratio (TR). By substituting into the Equation (13-4), we find that the voltage ratio is
equal to the turns ratio.
VR = TR
A voltage ratio of 1:5 means that for each volt on the primary, there will be 5 volts on the
secondary. If the secondary voltage of a transformer is greater than the primary voltage, the
transformer is referred to as a "step-up" transformer. A ratio of 5:1 means that for every 5 volts
on the primary, there will only be 1 volt on the secondary. When secondary voltage is less than
primary voltage, the transformer is referred to as a "step-down" transformer.
Figure 2 Example 1 Transformer
A transformer (Figure 2) reduces
voltage from 120 volts in the primary
to 6 volts in the secondary. If the
primary winding has 300 turns and the
secondary has 15 turns, find the
voltage and turns ratio. | <urn:uuid:13a083ad-086d-4228-9ff2-ce7375c94f72> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://nuclearpowertraining.tpub.com/h1011v4/css/Voltage-Ratio-49.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145657.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200222085018-20200222115018-00174.warc.gz | en | 0.900686 | 308 | 4.125 | 4 |
Alkaline phosphatase is responsible for breaking down proteins in the body, according to Healthline. This enzyme appears in different forms depending on where it is produced in the body. Most alkaline phosphatase is produced in the liver.
The enzyme is found in the bloodstream, Healthline says. In addition to the liver, alkaline phosphatase is produced in the bones, kidneys and intestines.
A blood test for alkaline phosphatase levels can determine whether a patient has liver, gallbladder or bone disease, Healthline states. Some doctors require the test to make sure medication is not damaging the liver. The test is also routine for determining liver function.
High enzyme levels may indicate diseases like hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver, Healthline says. Other conditions linked to high alkaline phosphatase include problems with bile ducts, including cancer, as well as gallbladder inflammation.
The alkaline phosphatase test can also determine bone conditions, such as vitamin D deficiency, tumors and unusual bone growth, Healthline states. It can also determine rickets and Paget's disease.
A normal alkaline phosphatase level for an non-pregnant adult is 25 to 100 units per liter of blood and 350 for children, notes Healthline. Pregnant women may have higher levels because alkaline phosphatase is produced in the placenta. | <urn:uuid:b5c7b8cc-d74f-4e14-ba0c-b89d3e059190> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.reference.com/health/functions-alkaline-phosphatase-c7603a366e683907 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247505838.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221152543-20190221174543-00425.warc.gz | en | 0.937081 | 288 | 3.59375 | 4 |
In the 1950s, an experimental train that had a mass of 2.5 x 10^4kg was powered across level track by a jet engine that produced a thrust of 5 x 10^5N for a distance of 500m. a) find the work done on the train. b) find the change in kinetic energy. c) find the final kinetic energy of the train if it started from rest. d) find the final speed of the train if there was no friction. ok, part A was easy. part b and c confuse me. since the train started at rest, wouldn't the change in kinetic energy be equal to the final kinetic energy? am i missing something very important here or am i just missunderstanding this problem? | <urn:uuid:7d7f9854-d0e1-4968-9119-cb6aaedf07ec> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/rocket-train.13585/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818695375.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20170926085159-20170926105159-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.971233 | 151 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fraunces' Tavern
FRAUNCES' TAVERN, an ancient building at the southeast corner of Broad and Pearl streets, New York. It was originally built by the Delancey family and long occupied as a mansion. Afterward it was transformed into a tavern. After the British evacuation of New York it was for a time the headquarters of Gen. George Washington, who here on 4 Dec. 1783 delivered his farewell address to his officers. In 1768 the New York Chamber of Commerce was founded here, and in 1902 it was purchased and restored by the Sons of the Revolution, who have thus preserved for posterity one of the famous landmarks of Revolutionary days. The tavern is still maintained. | <urn:uuid:c25d7a4e-c9f7-4699-99da-c9bfe443a63b> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Fraunces%27_Tavern | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661277.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00115-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979153 | 151 | 2.578125 | 3 |
A discovery in a transparent roundworm has brought scientists one step closer to understanding why nerves degenerate.
University of Queensland researchers have identified a key molecule that protects the axons of nerve cells from degenerating.
Queensland Brain Institute researcher Associate Professor Massimo Hilliard said axons – long, thread-like nerve cell sections that transmit information – were often the first parts of neurons destroyed in neurodegenerative disease.
“Using roundworms we identified the lin-14 molecule as being crucial to protecting the axon,” Dr Hilliard said.
“When this molecule is lacking, the axon spontaneously degenerates.”
Nerve axons are damaged in neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The researchers studied roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), a small organism about one millimetre long with only 302 neurons.
C. elegans was the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced.
Researcher Fiona Ritchie said it enabled researchers to study neurons on a molecular and genetic level.
“What was surprising is that the lin-14 molecule is not necessary only within the axon, but also needs to be present in the surrounding tissue,” she said.
“Our research highlights that complex connections between axons and their surrounding environment are critical for the survival of the axons later in life.”
Dr Hilliard said the discovery created new avenues for researchers seeking to limit the degenerative process.
“Although this particular molecule doesn’t exist in humans, I don’t think we can exclude that similar mechanisms with a similar role may exist in humans,” he said.
“The next step is to better understand the interactions between axons and their surrounding tissue, as well as to look for similar molecules that mediate the same degenerative process in humans.”
The study, led by Fiona Ritchie and QBI’s Justin Chaplin with key collaborators including Monash University’s Dr Brent Neumann and California State University’s Professor Maria Gallegos, is published in Cell Reports.
The University of Queensland | <urn:uuid:80333233-cbeb-40fd-8968-57836da2b8b6> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.healthcanal.com/brain-nerves/240714-new-nerve-degeneration-molecule-identified.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583792338.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20190121111139-20190121133139-00005.warc.gz | en | 0.935 | 459 | 3.140625 | 3 |
1. Material of Stainless Steel Sink
A. Classification of Stainless Steel Sink Materials:
(1) 304 # stainless steel
(2) 202 # stainless steel
(3) 201 # stainless steel
The biggest difference between the above types of stainless steel materials is the difference in corrosion resistance, 304 is the best, 202 is slightly worse, 201 is the worst, of course the price is also difference.
B. Whether there is magnetism or not cannot judge the quality of stainless steel (304 # stainless steel also has magnetism)
People often verify the quality and authenticity of stainless steel by whether the magnet absorbs it.
Stainless steel is considered to be good if it does not absorb magnets. On the other hand, it is considered fake.
In fact, this is a wrong identification method.
There are many kinds of stainless steel, which can be divided into several types according to their structure at room temperature:
(1) Austenite type: 304, 321, 316, 310, etc.
(2) Martensite or ferrite type: 430, 420, 410, etc.
Austenite is nonmagnetic or weakly magnetic, while martensite and ferrite are magnetic.
Most stainless steels used as decorative sheets are austenitic 304 materials, which are generally nonmagnetic or weak magnetic. However, magnetism may also occur due to fluctuations in chemical composition or different processing states caused by smelting.
What is the reason?
Due to composition segregation during smelting or improper heat treatment, a small amount of martensite or ferrite structure will be produced in austenitic 304 stainless steel. In this way, 304 stainless steel will have weak magnetism.
In addition, the microstructure of 304 stainless steel will also transform to martensite after cold working. The greater the degree of cold working deformation, the more martensite transformation, and the greater the magnetic properties of steel.
Like a batch of steel strip, Φ 76 tubes are produced without obvious magnetic induction. For Φ 9.5 tubes, the magnetic induction is more obvious due to large bending deformation.
The deformation of the square rectangular tube is larger than that of the round tube, especially at the corner, which results in more intense deformation and more obvious magnetism.
In order to completely eliminate the magnetism of 304 steel caused by the above reasons, stable austenite structure can be restored by high temperature solid solution treatment, thus eliminating the magnetism.
2. Classification of surface treatment
Matte, wiredrawing and mercerizing refer to the surface of the sink that has been polished once, twice and three times respectively.
Polishing treatment can improve the abrasion resistance and pH resistance of the sink. Among them, the mercerizing water tank after three polishing treatments has the highest brightness, sparkling and delicate touch.
On the other hand, the matte and brushed sink is slightly inferior in brightness, but its durability and smoothness are as satisfactory.
(1) Matte sandblasting pearl silver surface
Matte pearl silver surface is more popular now, and its process is to sandblast its surface first, and then carry out chemical surface treatment on it. The surface is luxurious, lasting and new, with both high gloss brightness and sanding durability.
Its advantages are oil-proof and beautiful. But it is not as wear-resistant as embossing and sanding.
(2) Scrubbed and brushed surface
Wire drawing is also a common treatment method. Linear stripes are formed on the surface of stainless steel, which is easy to distinguish and reflects the true color of stainless steel.
Its advantage is that the more it is used, the newer it is.
(3) Mercerized Surface
Mercerized surface is becoming more and more popular. Its characteristic is that it combines the advantages of frosted wire drawing process with the advantages of polished mirror surface. It is delicate and silky like satin.
(4) Polishing Mirror
Polished like a mirror, it has a high degree of finish, but it is prone to scratches. It looks good, but many scratches will occur when it is used for a long time. So this kind of sink gradually withdrew from the market.
(5) Embossed surface
Embossed surface is made of embossed material, but its cost is relatively high and it is very wear-resistant. Durability is above the above four water tanks.
(6) Spray layer treatment method
This is a cheap treatment method, mainly spraying a layer of material on the surface of stainless steel to make the surface more wear-resistant and do some color treatment. | <urn:uuid:9c24d574-9401-4da6-8125-5d8b82476cbd> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://vadania.com/blogs/news/stainless-steel-sink | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176864.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124140942-20201124170942-00340.warc.gz | en | 0.944665 | 973 | 2.90625 | 3 |
We're here to help: 800-387-3100
Pomegranates are the quintessential winter fruit. Arriving in the fall, and lasting only through winter, they have been centerpieces and Holiday treats for ages.
The pomegranate is an extremely old plant, believed to have originated between 4000 BC and 3000 BC in Turkey, and domesticated in Egypt and Mesopotamia. It’s name, however, comes from the French words “pome” and “granate” meaning “apple with many seeds”. With beautiful but tough reddish skin, the pomegranate is one of the unique fruits where the seeds are sought. Cutting into a pomegranate, you’ll see a whiteish interior filled with bright red seeds. The seeds are enclosed in a translucent, juicy pulp, and have a delicious sweet-tart flavor. The tough outer skin is not edible, only the juice and seeds are consumed. The juice from a pomegranate is frequently used in jams and jellies, added to other juices for a fruity beverage, or used in desserts. The seeds are likewise eaten fresh from the fruit, baked in pastries or dried.
POMEGRANATE TASTE & RIPENESS
When looking for a good pomegranate, you should always choose fruits with bright red flesh, free from brown soft spots. They will have a somewhat flexible though leathery skin. No need to keep these in your refrigerator, they keep well even at room temperature for up to two weeks. | <urn:uuid:0fffdf8f-f1f7-47f9-ac31-07ce7d04efd6> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.thefruitcompany.com/fruit-encyclopedia/tropical-fruit/pomegranate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131304412.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172144-00183-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94119 | 327 | 3.015625 | 3 |
UNESCO Castles of Bellinzona
With its castles, walls, towers, battlements and gates, this impressive fortress is a source of wonder and amazement.
In earlier times, the medieval castles of Castelgrande, Castello Montebello and Castello Sasso Corbaro protected the city they now adorn. Only remnants now remain of the fortress walls that once surrounded Bellinzona. Bellinzona was a very important line of defence for the ancient Romans, and the first written reference dates back to 590.
Castelgrande, also known as Castello di San Michele or Burg Uri, is the oldest of these 13th century castles. Two towers, Torre Nera (28 metres) and Torre Bianca (27 metres) dominate Bellinzona's Old Town. The Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Art are located in the Castelgrande.
Castello Montebello, also known as Schwyz or San Martino, and the castle with the highest elevation, Sasso Corbaro – once known as Unterwalden or Santa Barbara, are among the best preserved medieval castles in Switzerland and are Unesco World Cultural Heritage sites. | <urn:uuid:ca96cf1f-c9a9-4d4f-bf2f-a61f97709ea7> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.magicswitzerland.com/grand-tour-of-switzerland/unesco-castles-of-bellinzona/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251694071.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200126230255-20200127020255-00312.warc.gz | en | 0.910036 | 245 | 2.796875 | 3 |
I know the posts have been a little scanty here at the Corner for a week; I’ve been swamped with administrative work (including doing my taxes!) but I’m back and ready to keep readers informed about the writing life. Today I want to talk about a specific style technique in writing that you can use to your advantage to create a certain tone. The two variations I’m talking about are parataxis and hypotaxis.
Both of these terms refer to sentence structures and how sentences relate to one another in your writing. They are one of the most important ways readers get a feel for your writing and get clues about your mood, tone, and seriousness. So to begin, parataxis is when all of your sentences carry the same weight. They usually have very few clauses, and more importantly, none of the clauses are subordinated to one another. We use subordinated clauses to indicate what the most important part of a sentence is (the most important part is in the independent clause), so when there is no subordinate part, it makes every part of the sentence seem equally important. The effect is flat, declarative, and often somewhat bleak-sounding. Hemingway made this style famous. Here is an example of parataxis:
There were no rooms at the inn. We drove farther until we found a hotel. It was raining heavily and we got soaked on the way to the door. Our socks stank of mildew. We ate dinner there and talked little.
As you can see in that example, the tone feels flat but also spare and uncompromised. It is declarative and direct. It doesn’t beat around the bush, but it also leaves it a little mysterious about what the most important part of that paragraph is.
Hypotaxis, on the other hand, is when clauses in sentences are subordinated to one another. This makes it clear what we should be focusing on, and therefore also can give an emotional cast to the writing. It points clearly at what is important and what should be read with the most weight. Here’s an example of hypotaxis:
Because she didn’t want to go shopping, she decided to go to the park instead. While strolling along a path, she discovered a hidden garden. Inside the garden, while squirrels chattered at her, she rolled delightedly in the grass.
In this case, you can clearly see what the most important parts of the sentences are. She decides to go to the park; she discovers a garden; she rolls in the grass. But with the added coloration of subordination, we get more of a scene, more of an emotional background. Neither choice is better than the other, but you can see how different writers have used these two styles to tell very different stories. Hemingway’s parataxis, for example, is great for showing shocking or traumatizing scenes of war and destruction because it carries that horror and desire to distance ourselves. Jane Austen, on the other hand, might use a sophisticated mix of independent and dependent clauses in order to convey the complex social niceties of her world. Remember these techniques when you next start a writing project, and choose which one will most aptly tell your story. | <urn:uuid:fb5a4179-92ea-44ea-98f3-3f005d49b511> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.writerlylife.com/2010/04/parataxis-and-hypotaxis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657131545.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011211-00049-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962709 | 670 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Posted on Friday, March 15, 2013
in Emotional, How To, Relational, Social, Spiritual, Values
Simple and realistic optimism are central to caring support. It is important not to overwhelm parents and children with information, so a good rule of thumb is to explain in as simple terms as possible.
Put succinctly: Think Complex — Talk Simple
Good clinical practice involves matching the amount of information given about the formulation and treatment plan to the client’s readiness to understand and accept it.
A second important rule of thumb is to create a realistic level of hope when giving feedback by focusing on strengths and protective factors first. Put succinctly:
Put succinctly: Create Hope — Name Strengths
“Faith points us beyond our problems to the hope we have in Christ,” explained Billy Graham. “Our world today desperately hungers for hope, and yet uncounted people have almost given up. There is despair and hopelessness on every hand. Let us be faithful in proclaiming the hope that is in Jesus!”
Here are Five Key Beliefs To Get You Through A Loss that have helped me and helped others as they grieve.
You will survive
You have a right to grieve
You don’t have to go it alone
God is good
Love never goes to waste
Adapted from Frank W. Bond and Windy Dryden’s Handbook Of Brief Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. | <urn:uuid:aaffe985-85c4-4962-86f8-7c18752f7ac6> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://mysilentscream.com/speak-to-express-your-compassion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645330816.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031530-00249-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91357 | 298 | 2.734375 | 3 |
When the parents of Hannah Poling, a nine-year-old, Athens, Ga., girl who was diagnosed with autism just after the age of two, announced that a federal vaccine injury court had awarded them a settlement, the case reignited a decade-old debate about whether vaccines could potentially trigger the disorder. But what was somewhat lost in much of the coverage of the case was a little-known condition that the court said was aggravated by the vaccine, and which gave Hannah the features of autism.
That little known condition—"mitochondrial disorder"—involves the parts of cells frequently referred to as their "power plants," because they turn sugar into energy. Mitochondria are found in all tissues and organs in the body, and when they do not work properly they can cause or worsen diseases from diabetes to brain disorders. Jay Gargus, a specialist in human genetics and metabolism at the University of California, Irvine, says mitochondrial disorders are a bit like an electrical brownout: "As the electrical voltage starts falling, different appliances will start to fail," he says. "First, the television might turn off, then the lights might go off."
In July 2000, at 19 months of age, Poling received five vaccines containing nine immunizations—including inoculations against rubella (German measles), mumps and chicken pox. The girl had been developing normally, according to her parents—her father, Jon, is a Johns Hopkins–trained, practicing neurologist, her mother is an attorney and registered nurse—but in the months after the shots, she developed a fever and litany of other symptoms: diarrhea, appetite loss and intermittent screaming. A pediatric neurologist examining her in February 2001 later noted that she had lost some of the speech she had previously acquired, was no longer making eye contact, and was no longer sleeping through the night.
In its November 2007 decision the vaccine court said that the inoculations Poling received in July 2000 worsened her underlying mitochondrial disorder (which was discovered nearly a year later) and led to brain disease that appeared as symptoms of autism.
Theoretically, that makes sense: David Holtzman, a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, notes that the brain is particularly dependent on the energy supplied by the mitochondria. "What's surprising and hard to specifically understand is why it's so characteristically affecting language function and social function," he adds. (In addition to symptoms of autism, Poling also reportedly had muscle weakness, difficulty with motor coordination, and a host of gastrointestinal problems.)
So how common are mitochondrial disorders? Could they explain why some children who receive vaccines develop autism, but the vast majority do not?
In an opinion piece in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Poling's father cited a 2005 study by a Portuguese research team that estimates as many as one in five kids diagnosed with autism also have a mitochondrial disorders. He notes that such a rate "does not qualify as 'rare.' In fact, mitochondrial dysfunction may be the most common medical condition associated with autism."
Hannah's disorder is likely due to a rare mutation in her DNA. Most of the DNA responsible for mitochondria is inherited from mothers, because mitochondrial genes are carried in the egg but not sperm. Salvatore DiMauro, a mitochondria expert at Columbia University, notes that the point mutation mentioned in Poling's case history--published in the Journal of Child Neurology--would imply that both she and her mother carried the genetic variation in all their tissues. So, he says, "you would expect to see the same results" in both the mother and the daughter. But Poling's mother, Terry, who is an attorney and a registered nurse, is not autistic.
That suggests the genetic defect responsible for Poling's condition is part of her nuclear DNA, which is separate from the mitochondrial variety, says DiMauro. This means that, scientifically, from the documents presented in the vaccine court, the Polings did not make a case that deserved compensation. (Attempts to contact Jon Poling about DiMauro's concern went unanswered; however, he agreed that his daughter's causative genetic defect was likely not in her mitochondrial DNA in an open letter on the blog NeuroLogica.)
John Shoffner, a mitochondrial disease expert who runs a laboratory in Atlanta, agrees. In at study of 40 patients with autism—including Poling, he found that two thirds had muscle weakness. If muscle weakness is seen early on in children, it may be a tip-off to an underlying mitochondrial disorder that could cause autism, because muscles are heavily dependent on mitochondria as an energy source. He also believes that the new work—he presented preliminary results last week at the American Academy of Neurology Conference in Chicago—will help explain why some children, such as Poling, experience worsening symptoms as a result of a fever.
He notes that the route from the vaccine to the child's autism was by no means direct. Hannah's mitochondria were already underperforming, so when she developed a fever from her vaccine, the increased energy requirements likely pushed them past their thresholds. A fever caused by an ear infection or the flu would likely have triggered the autism symptoms if they occurred before or between the ages of 24 and 36 months, he says, which is when classic, regressive autism, which affects one third of sufferers, usually appears.
Shoffner notes that parents and advocates looking to impugn vaccines as triggers for autism—or mitochondrial disease—need direct, not just circumstantial, evidence. "If you were sitting in a waiting room full of people and one person suddenly fell ill or died or something," he says, "would you arrest the person sitting right next to them?"
Jon Poling, says Shoffner, has been "muddying the waters" with some of his comments. "There is no precedent for that type of thinking and no data for that type of thinking," Shoffner says. | <urn:uuid:d3477136-1d6e-4241-b9db-266378f291af> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccine-injury-case-offer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500671.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20230208024856-20230208054856-00247.warc.gz | en | 0.979858 | 1,217 | 2.75 | 3 |
Carli, Denis an Italian Capuchin missionary, was a native: of Placentia. He was sent, in 1667, by the Propaganda to Africa, with Michael Angelo Guattini de Reggio, and fourteen other Capuchins. On their arrival at Guinea they were appointed to the provinces of Bamba, Congo, and Danda. They baptized three thousand children, and made a good number of converts among the adults. Guattini, overcome by the effects of the climate and fatigue, perished; but Carli, after recovering from a severe illness, returned to Europe. On reaching Bologna, he wrote a history of their journey and labors, entitled, Il moro Transportata in Venezia (Reggio,1672; Bologna, 1674; Bassano, 1687). This was republished under another title translated and published in French, English, and German. Carli died about 1680. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, s.v. | <urn:uuid:bee0e6d6-1e99-4d1a-9a6c-54d374e331ca> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/C/carli-denis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710534.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20221128171516-20221128201516-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.954878 | 220 | 2.96875 | 3 |
- Explore the lives of the peoples who lived in this region—which today includes Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and adjacent parts of Syria—for thousands of years.
- Learn how pottery vessels record changes in economic conditions, technology, and social values, then trace these changes over many centuries.
- Imagine life in Beth Shean (Israel), where Penn archaeologists uncovered 18 city levels spanning almost 6,000 years: Beth Shean was a crossroads of cultures in ancient times and housed an Egyptian garrison, then Israelite, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic settlements.
The region today encompassing Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and adjacent parts of Syria for thousands of years experienced occupation by foreign rule. The artifacts in this Gallery explore how people responded and adapted to occupation, and how they lived their daily lives. The Gallery also shows how ancient artifacts—such as weapons, jewelry, cosmetics, and funerary objects—can provide insight into the past. The Canaan and Ancient Israel Gallery is organized by themes including politics and social organization, religion, domestic life, agriculture and crafts, trade and commerce, and death and burial.
The gallery title comes from two ancient names of the region and its inhabitants. Canaan is the earliest name found in texts referring to a group of people with a common language in the land which the tribes of Israel later conquered. Israel referred first to a people within Canaan and then to a political entity.
The Penn Museum began excavating in the region in 1921, at Beth Shean, Israel. Excavations expanded to other biblical sites including Beth Shemesh, Gibeon (el-Jib, in the Palestinian Territories), and Zarethan (Tell es-Sa’idiyah, in Jordan). Artifacts from these excavations make up most of the Museum’s collection from the region, which spans four millennia.
Sarcophagus LidThis clay sarcophagus (coffin) lid was excavated by Penn archaeologists from a cemetery at Beth Shean, in modern-day Israel. It depicts a face, possibly female, with crossed hands. Around 50 other clay sarcophagi were found in the same cemetery. They all date to around 1200 BCE, which was close to the end of the Egyptian Empire in Canaan. The practice of burial inside sarcophagi originated in Egypt, so these sarcophagi demonstrate how practices traveled across empires to become part of other cultures. | <urn:uuid:85482fa2-62df-4b98-88b4-06b709f08c1e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.penn.museum/on-view/past/canaan-ancient-israel-gallery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571284.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811103305-20220811133305-00467.warc.gz | en | 0.935438 | 516 | 3.75 | 4 |
We all know and love the delicious dessert that usually comes after a Mexican meal: churros. The deep-fried treat comes in different forms with unique flavors and tastes, including chocolate or caramel.
But we have to ask – where did they come from? And how did they get so popular? Let’s take a look at the history of churros.
Most people believe that the churro originated in Spain, but this dessert has a messy past. There are two theories on where it came from.
The first claim is that it was founded in China from a pastry called youtiao, which is fried in oil. However, this salty pastry did not pair with chocolate or cinnamon. Portuguese explorers brought youtiao back, and it evolved into the star-shaped dessert that we know today. From there, it gained popularity throughout Spain.
The second theory is that it was invented by nomadic Spanish shepherds as a substitute for bread, as they did not have access to fresh food. The shepherds used flour, water and oil to create the treat. The name was inspired by the horns of the Churra sheep, and it was from here that it became popular.
Though we don’t know it’s beginning, what we definitely know is that churros were introduced to South America during the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500s; from there, it spread like wildfire. This was also when Spaniards returned to Europe with cacao.
They experimented and sweetened the cacao using sugar cane. This created hot chocolate, something that is still paired with churros to this day. Café con leche and churros is another popular breakfast item.
Funny enough, Disneyland is also credited for the churros’ growing popularity, as the theme park has been selling the delicious treat since the 1980s. Today, the churro can be found in several different flavors.
No matter their history, making churros is a simple technique. Simply mix flour, water and salt before frying the batter until it is crunchy. The distinct star-shape comes from being piped from a churrera, a syringe-like utensil that features that unique shape. Churros can either be straight or spiral-shaped.
The fun part is deciding what to pair the churro with. They can come with cinnamon, chocolate or caramel. Some even have cheese or fruit!
At Benny’s Tacos, our churros are filled with Bavarian cream. To get your fill, stop by Benny’s Tacos today. | <urn:uuid:e4c9dc4d-76ab-4388-a2ed-29adeb44c67e> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://bennystacos.com/2020/03/01/the-history-of-churros/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400245109.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200926200523-20200926230523-00790.warc.gz | en | 0.974733 | 539 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Used just once in the New Testament ὀπώρα is the time of year marked by the harvest of summer fruits - "late summer", "early autumn" - similar to how we might say "harvest" with the meaning of the period of time, or of the crop itself, ὀπώρα is used of the fruit both in Revelations (and in Ἱερεμίας).Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:For me ideal would be to have several pictures of one thing in different contexts. For example: sundial (clock in sunlight) - clock on a wall - maybe a watch in a wrist?. A dead fish, fish in a pond, fish in a small river, one fish/many fishes, fish being caught by fishermen, fishes are swimming. Their would be one headword repeated in every picture and then other related words. It would be easy to guess the headword, the other related words would be more for fun or looking up for in a dictionary if one wants to. Or you could give glosses.
Not used by itself in the New Testament, φθί(ν)ειν means "waste away", "come to an end", "perish".Revelations 18:14 wrote:Καὶ ἡ ὀπώρα τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ψυχῆς σου ἀπῆλθεν ἀπὸ σοῦ,
I think it would be a challenge to illustrate either the noun τό φθινόπωρον (not used in the New Testament, but perhaps easier to illustrate than the adjective) or the adjective (used in the New Testament) φθινοπωρινός. φθινοπωρινός is a regular word in Greek, not a neologism thought up by Jude, but in the one New Testament usage, Jude is apparently evoking a feeling of the waning or withering, rather than just a reference to the time of year.
.Jude 12b wrote:δένδρα φθινοπωρινά, ἄκαρπα, δὶς ἀποθανόντα, ἐκριζωθέντα·
Does anyone have ideas on how to use a series of images, or a few series of images to illustrate the feeling of the transition from the harvest of plenty to the waning and decay of when the harvest is no longer bountiful, and the seasonally undernourished state of the trees, and they way that they are subsequently dealt with. Those are perhaps "related words" according to Eeli's words quoted. | <urn:uuid:b4bf6261-f500-4e73-880e-c983abb64b86> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=3250 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825123.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214001053-20181214022553-00626.warc.gz | en | 0.941768 | 651 | 3.125 | 3 |
In an important article, Ahmed Charai of the Huffington Post tells the often overlooked story of Morocco’s progressive path to reform, facilitated by a unique political and social culture, that weathered the violent unrest that swept much of the Arab world
|King Mohammed VI - 15 years of wise leadership|
Only three and a half years ago, the idea that Morocco would evolve differently than its Arab neighbors did not seem, to many observers, to be a foregone conclusion. High hopes had been placed on "Arab spring" states, then in the midst of overthrowing their rulers. International interest in Morocco was limited to the street demonstrations of the time - and speculation as to whether they would grow fiercer. But the real story of Morocco, harder for outsiders to perceive in 2011, lies in the reasons why the country bucked the revolutionary trend: King Mohammed VI had been working since the beginning of his reign to address young people's concerns before they had even voiced them. By the time the protests had begun, the country was well on its way to realizing freedoms and opportunities which Arabs across the region are still a generation away from attaining. The monarch built on the legacy of his late father, Hassan II, but also broke with it -- reconciling the kingdom's traditions with the 21st century, and tackling daunting social challenges which had gone largely unaddressed.
|Moroccan women - standing up for their rights|
The first major street protests under King Mohammed VI began a decade before the Arab spring, in March 2000. Back then, the main fault line of civil unrest was a conflict between modernizing forces and Islamist movements. The social democrats in parliament had been pressing for reforms in family law which would raise the legal age of marriage to 18 for girls, abolish polygamy, and establish equitable legal recourse for women in divorce court, including fair division of property. Islamists opposed all of the above. The king, in his capacity as "Commander of the Faithful" -- meaning, the highest ranking religious authority in the country -- stepped in to reconcile the feuding forces. He used his special status to pronounce new legal norms based on the Islamic principle of "Ijtihad" (independent reasoning). These norms became known as the "Mudawana" - a personal status code guaranteeing rights to the Moroccan family. Formalized in 2004, it has rescued underage Moroccan girls from a life of subjugation and divorced women from abject poverty.
The king also inherited a country that ranked near the bottom of countries surveyed in the United Nations Human Development Index. In May 2005, he declared that the war on poverty and disenfranchisement would be a principal driver of his policies. Nine years later, some 29,000 projects have been implemented for the benefit of the country's eight million most vulnerable citizens - from razing urban shantytowns to granting micro loans to female entrepreneurs. In the realm of health care, infant mortality has fallen off sharply. Sweeping educational reforms are in the works, as are anti-corruption measures geared toward strengthening governance, transparency, and the public trust.
|Abedelilah Benkirane, head of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development|
Whereas elsewhere in the region Arab states are struggling to grapple with the forces of political Islam, the Moroccan monarchy has found a way to engage Islamist moderates while containing extremist elements: The head of Morocco's Islamist Party of Justice and Development was empowered, through a constitutional process, to control much of the government, while at the same time proclaiming his allegiance and deference to the king. This may not have sat so well initially with some of the elites close to the royal family who have been vocal critics of political Islam for years. But over time, the wisdom of the king's approach to the PJD has been vindicated: The party's powerful role in government demonstrates the credibility of the new 2011 constitution, and grants Islamists who would like to serve their country a systemic framework in which to do so. Meanwhile, revolutionary Islamist and jihadist groups are weaker and more marginal than ever, and the king vests his own considerable religious authority in supporting the country's most tolerant forms of Islam, including its mystical Sufi traditions.
|Morocco values and protects its Sufi culture (Photo: Suzanna Clarke)|
The many transformations in state and society alike are steadied in Morocco by a flourishing civil society sector, which the king has also fostered. Over fifteen years, NGOs have vastly increased their scope of action and prominence in the public discussion, with as many as 60,000 private associations now active. Especially in rural areas, villages, and slums, these groups mitigate the shortcomings of the state in areas such as education, disenfranchisement, and public services. NGOs pursuing social justice work hand in hand with the government, and have been tapped by the kingdom as a prime mover in the war on poverty. Meanwhile, other groups aggressively pursue a variety of causes, ranging from human rights and gender equality to the struggle against corruption -- as well as ethnically-oriented causes, notably Berber cultural and civil rights. (Morocco is still the only country in North Africa where Berber languages are taught in schools.)
|The future looks bright for Moroccan women (Photo: Suzanna Clarke)|
Last week in his annual "Speech of the Anniversary " - akin to a "State of the Union" address - King Mohammed VI noted that his population aspires "to reach the highest peaks, and catch up with the most advanced nations. This is not a pipe dream ... It can be a tangible reality, relying on the concrete steps which Morocco has taken on a path of democracy and development achievements." Fifteen years into the king's reign, Moroccans remain grateful to have wise leadership, and hopeful about their future.
About the author:
Ahmed Charai is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council; Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Boards of Trustees of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the National Interest. | <urn:uuid:376bf925-df19-4f85-bf77-f62ab19ad652> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://riadzany.blogspot.com/2014/08/understanding-morocco-why-is-it-so.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189734.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00557-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969144 | 1,228 | 2.828125 | 3 |
jamstar7 writes "According to Universe Today, 'Astronomers have witnessed the first evidence of a planet's destruction by its aging star as it expands into a red giant. "A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the Sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth's orbit some five-billion years from now," said Alex Wolszczan, from Penn State, University, who led a team which found evidence of a missing planet having been devoured by its parent star (abstract, pre-print). Wolszczan also is the discoverer of the first planet ever found outside our solar system. The planet-eating culprit, a red-giant star named BD+48 740, is older than the Sun and now has a radius about eleven times bigger than our Sun. The evidence the astronomers found was a massive planet in a surprising and highly elliptical orbit around the star — indicating a missing planet — plus the star's wacky chemical composition.' Five billion years or so is a long way off, so it's likely none of us has to worry about it. But still, watching a star eating its own planets is not only cool in its own right, but also provides food for thought as to how to keep the human species going long after the Sun starts going off the main sequence into red giant-hood. And, of course, putting more funding into astronomers' and physicists' hands now can give us a closer estimate of when it'll happen. It's all in the math..."
DEAL: For $25 - Add A Second Phone Number To Your Smartphone for life! Use promo code SLASHDOT25. Also, Slashdot's Facebook page has a chat bot now. Message it for stories and more. Check out the new SourceForge HTML5 internet speed test! × | <urn:uuid:88d14593-1caf-43d8-8441-168603f87c6b> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://science.slashdot.org/story/12/08/21/2054257/astronomers-watch-star-devouring-planet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187717.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00517-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948295 | 381 | 3.015625 | 3 |
A new website by The United Soybean Board (USB) highlights the important role biotechnology plays in allowing U.S. farmers to continue to meet the world’s food demand as well as ensuring our environment and food supply remains as safe as ever. Whether you know it as biotech, genetically modified or GM—the technology that allows farmers to grow more per acre with fewer inputs plays a critical role in feeding our growing world.
Biotechnology allows researchers to select the desired characteristics in a variety of seeds and crops, resulting in improved nutrition, increased pest and disease resistance and greater crop yields. This technology enables farmers to generate a sustainable supply of food, feed and fuel for customers here at home and abroad.
Click here for additional information on biotechnology.
About the United Soybean Board
The United Soybean Board (USB) represents a group of volunteer farmer-leaders administering a U.S. soy research and promotion program known most commonly as the “soybean checkoff.” Through the soybean checkoff, U.S. soybean farmers invest a portion of their sales in research and promotion to provide food, feed, fuel and fiber to the world. By building demand for such things as soy biodiesel, soybean meal, soybean oil, soy exports and more, USB and the soybean checkoff help provide profit opportunities for all U.S. soybean farmers. | <urn:uuid:010fc001-5335-460c-abf6-4ff5ebe20352> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://www.eprbiotechnews.com/2010/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039742117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20181114150002-20181114172002-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.930659 | 285 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What determines a good living wage? The answer varies widely around the country. What works in Miami may not work in Chicago. A good salary in Manhattan, Kansas is nothing compared to what you’d need to earn in Manhattan, New York in order to survive.
Using data from MIT, NBC has compiled a list of what constitutes a good living wage in each state.
As the chart demonstrates, your mileage may vary. Not surprisingly, large urban centers along the coasts tend to be more expensive places to live. Rural parts of the south and mid west often have a lower cost of living.
The Highs and Lows
States in the red (high cost of living) areas tend to have higher taxes and home costs. At the same time, the opposite is true for the lighter shaded states. There are other factors to consider, but cities and states with large cities tend to be more expensive to live in.
The state with the lowest cost of living wage? Kentucky, where a yearly salary of $43,408 is enough to constitute a good living wage. At the same time, Kentucky has a median household income of $46,659; meaning that for the most part, residents are earning above the “good” living wage.
The state with the highest cost of living? Hawaii ranks as the state with the highest necessary wage with $60,700. Due to Hawaii’s remote status, the cost of living has been going up. Hawaii is frequently cited as one of the most expensive states in the country, and one of the most difficult to earn a good living wage.
Not to be outdone, Washington, D.C. ranks as the most difficult place in the country to earn a good living wage. Whereas a Kentucky resident needs to earn $43,000 to live comfortably; D.C. residents must earn a staggering $68,000!
Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about living richly. These numbers are only what a resident must earn to live “comfortably” rather than exorbitantly.
Moving Up Or Out?
Cost of living varies greatly, not only from state to state; but city to city as well. There are expensive parts of Kentucky to live in the same way there are less expensive neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.
How do you know which city works best for you? That’s where City vs City can help. Our powerful cost of living calculator examines costs at the zip-code level. We factor after tax income, savings, expenses, and all major state and local taxes.
As a result, City vs City shows you a side by side comparison of your chosen cities and reveals the true cost of living in both. So whether you’re thinking of moving from Honolulu to Manhattan, Houston to Hartford, or any point in-between; City vs City can help! | <urn:uuid:b0b082e9-7bbd-432f-a939-46811ab733f9> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://cityversus.com/whats-good-living-wage-state/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703514121.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20210118030549-20210118060549-00447.warc.gz | en | 0.953992 | 592 | 2.734375 | 3 |
A literary analysis of the survivor
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A literary analysis of the survivor
This project incorporates poetry analysis and appreciation, visual and oral presentations, as well as comparisons of different literary works survivor: poetry island.
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Mark twain, literary analysis - huckleberry finn: survivor title length color rating : the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain and little big man by jack crabb. Struggling with art spiegelman's maus: a survivor's tale check out our thorough summary and analysis of this literary masterpiece. Find used or imported a literary analysis of the survivor submit your query directly to scrap yards, importers and suppliers within south africa. Is it a comic is it biography, or fiction is it a literary work, or a yet in other ways maus does have a profound and a survivor of auschwitz, an. | <urn:uuid:fe1e8848-7e2b-41fa-8250-9ea231fa0047> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://ojessayirrn.gnomes-inc.info/a-literary-analysis-of-the-survivor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221211935.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20180817084620-20180817104620-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.904804 | 1,040 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Page 9 – Food, drink and dress
The Māori diet
Māori combined food-gathering with extensive cultivation of the kūmara – a sweet potato which reached Polynesia from South America. They pounded the roots of the bracken fern to produce a starchy paste, and treated the poisonous kernels of the karaka tree to make them edible.
Kai moana (food from the sea) was important in the traditional diet, and remains important to Māori today. Many species of fish were caught on lines or in nets, and shellfish – mussels, pāua, pūpū and pipi, among others – were gathered from the shore. Birds were snared in the native forests and eels and whitebait taken from inland or estuarine waters.
Māori still follow the traditional Polynesian practice of cooking for large numbers in a hāngī, an earth oven in which hot stones create steam to cook wrapped food. Non-Māori New Zealanders are increasingly familiar with its distinctive taste.
Not any moa
When the first East Polynesians reached New Zealand, the giant flightless moa bird was still abundant. Numerous archaeological sites attest to the importance of moa meat in the early Māori diet. Hunting contributed to the moa’s extinction long before Europeans arrived. Early Māori also ate sea mammals. Seals survived the depredations of European and American sealers in the late 18th and early 19th century, and are now increasing in numbers. But seal meat has not reappeared on New Zealand dining tables.
Traditional European cooking
The dominance of people from Britain among New Zealand’s immigrants was reflected in the country’s eating habits. Until about the 1950s, New Zealand cooking was based almost exclusively on Britain’s. From the 19th century on, the amount of meat eaten by New Zealanders was considered remarkable – on early sheep stations lamb chops were eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Changing tastes and products
Immigrant groups arriving from Europe after the Second World War introduced new flavours and products to a nation accustomed to plain English fare such as meat, potatoes, and a cup of tea. Some of these newcomers opened up cafés, restaurants and shops. People recognised that the New Zealand climate was more like the Mediterranean than the Northern European, and vegetables as eggplant, zucchini and garlic partly edged out the cabbage, cauliflower and carrots of traditional British cooking.
As travelling New Zealanders were exposed to a wide variety of cuisines, and immigrants arrived from Asia and other regions, cooking at home and in restaurants became cosmopolitan. By the early 2000s Kiwi chefs were winning awards around the globe and New Zealand’s restaurants offered world-class cuisine.
Along with a booming wine industry, there is a much wider variety of foodstuffs than in the past. Over 2,000 speciality food manufacturers produce cheese, oil, honey, ice cream and other gourmet items for local and overseas consumers.
Restaurants and cafés abound. All the major world cuisines are on offer, including fusion and Pacific Rim cooking.
Hamburgers reached New Zealand in the late 1940s and early 1950s and were established in the cities by the mid-1960s. Pizzas followed a few years later. The first restaurant chain to open was Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) in 1971. Pizza Hut (1974) and McDonald’s (1976) followed. But a 2001 survey found that the traditional British fish and chips were still the most popular fast food.
Beer was the staple alcoholic drink for most New Zealand males until the later 20th century. Overseas travel, new immigrant groups and the growth of the New Zealand wine industry increased the popularity of wine-drinking. Per capita wine consumption more than doubled between 1975 and 2003.
Wine is a significant export. New Zealand’s overseas reputation as a wine-making country was based initially on white wines, notably Marlborough sauvignon blanc. By the early 2000s pinot noir was emerging as a promising New Zealand wine. Many of New Zealand’s vineyards are tiny by international standards.
The first coffee bars were opened soon after the Second World War, but it was not until the 1990s that New Zealanders became serious coffee fans. Tea has lost the near monopoly it had enjoyed 50 years before.
Until the 1950s most people dressed up for social occasions. Men almost always wore hats outdoors and women wore dresses, hats and gloves, and carried handbags, on public occasions. Even as late as 2002, when the dress code had been relaxed for decades, Prime Minister Helen Clark was criticised for wearing trousers to a state banquet.
In the 2000s clothing was more sophisticated and urban. Younger fashion was dictated by global culture, but also reflected Māori and Pacific Island trends. A number of New Zealand designers have achieved international recognition. | <urn:uuid:d41fbf40-6881-4cab-9015-fb820cf305d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/society/page-9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464054526288.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524014846-00189-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971349 | 1,033 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Although I don’t want to get bogged down with sociological jargon too much, I should probably briefly explain exactly what I mean by both “gender” and “gender expression” before I begin this article.
Quite a lot of the time, people use the terms “gender” and “sex” to refer to the same thing. However, I’ll be using the sociological definitions of these terms here – because they’re more interesting (and more accurate too).
In other words, “sex” refers to a person’s physical body, but “gender” refers to whether they see themselves as being innately male or female. Most people’s sex and gender are the same (so much so that they probably find the idea that there’s any difference between the two things to be puzzling) – but sometimes they’re not.
This brings us on the whole subject of gender expression – this refers to how a person expresses a particular gender (eg: how they look, how they sound, what they call themselves, their outward personality, how they dress, how they talk, their body language etc…).
And, yes, each of these genders has about a million different ways that it can be expressed- so there’s no “one true way” to be male or female. Be very wary of anyone who suggests that there is.
Again, with most people, the gender that they express when they are around other people is the same as the gender that they actually are. But sometimes due to subtle social expectations and/or ignorance, unfortunately, it isn’t.
Since I don’t want to turn this into an essay about gender, I’ll move on to why and how this is relevant to making art.
For starters, I’d like to point out that the idea that male and female people make “different” kinds of art is absolutely ridiculous. With six or seven billion unique people on the planet, the idea that the things we create can be easily divided into two simplistic groups is absolutely ridiculous.
Plus, generally speaking, if you look at a work of art – it’s usually difficult to tell whether a man or a woman made it unless someone tells you. For example, with a still life painting – a bowl of fruit is a bowl of fruit, regardless of whether it was painted by someone called Dave or someone called Laura.
Still, one of the great things about art is that it can be a form of gender expression if you want it to be. And the great thing about this is that not only is it not always easy to notice at first glace, but that it allows you to express your own gender in a much more nuanced way than you can do in real life.
The main reasons for this is that most people accept that art is something separate from “real life”. It’s something that’s completely imaginative where there aren’t really as many “rules” as there are in real life.
As such, you can use art to express your innate gender in a way that would probably be impossible (or very strange) in reality.
This can also be a surprisingly good source of inspiration if you’re feeling “blocked”. I mean, if you can’t think of anything to paint or draw, then just say to yourself “I’m going to make a really girly painting” or “I’m going to make a really manly drawing” and then just see what emerges.
Since your personal ideas and experiences of what is “girly” and/or “manly” will differ very slightly from everyone else’s, you’ll end up producing something at least slightly unique.
Not only that, since you have total control over how everything and everyone is portrayed in your art – you aren’t really subject to anyone else’s rules or expectations. So, for example, you can make things as stylised or as realistic as you want to in your art. In other words, you can express your gender in a realistic way or in an exaggerated way. It’s up to you.
What this all means, of course, is that if your inner gender is different from the one that everyone else expects you to express on a daily basis – then art is one of the few spaces where you can actually be yourself without attracting the wrong kind of attention.
It’s one of the few spaces where you don’t have to worry about what everyone will think. It’s one of the few spaces where you can be truly alive rather than having to act all of the time.
Ok, the previous two paragraphs probably aren’t relevant to most people who read this article. But, never underestimate the value of art when it comes to expressing who you are.
Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂 | <urn:uuid:f46bad46-1c4a-42ec-b20e-1088780f38ff> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://pekoeblaze.wordpress.com/2014/09/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590348517506.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20200606155701-20200606185701-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.960388 | 1,050 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Save Sharks from Swimming Away Forever
One hundred eighty-one sharks and rays are threatened for extinction on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, including the great white, the hammerhead, the oceanic white tip, and the whale shark. One wouldn’t think this possible, as sharks have been a top ocean predator for over 4 million years. But it’s the over/illegal fishing for their fins—used to make expensive Asian shark fin soup—combined with ocean habitat loss that have placed sharks in peril.
An estimated 25% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction and require action. Every year, fins from as many as 73 million sharks end up in the global fin trade. Fishermen capture live sharks, fin them, and dump the finless animal back into the water to die from suffocation or predators. Sharks and rays typically grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. These traits render them particularly vulnerable to overfishing and slow to recover from depletion.
The good news is good people and good organizations are fighting to protect these sharks and rays, like our partners at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In May 2016, an 18-month investigation into a sophisticated crime ring in Indonesia ended with the successful release of two whale sharks back into the wild unharmed. The whale sharks were being held in submerged pens, and WCS’s Wildlife Crimes Unit (WCU) intelligence suggests that the suspects illegally caught these animals and other marine megafauna for sale to facilities being built in China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. “The bust is a testament to the dedication of the Indonesian government, the work of the WCU, and the partnerships that the WCU has been building across Indonesia to combat illegal trade in Indonesia’s threatened marine megafauna,” said Dr. Noviar Andayani, Director of WCS’s Indonesia program.
You can help save sharks and rays from disappearing forever. Click here to donate.
Project Peril is a new program of GreaterGood.org to protect the world’s most threatened species. Whether tall like a giraffe or small like a bee, all life deserves a fighting chance in a world increasingly threatened by human influences. Project Peril identifies these key species on the brink of extinction and helps fund groups doing the best work to save these species around the world.
by Jim Kober, April 19, 2017 | <urn:uuid:ff53c4ad-a7f3-4aad-972c-93effcd20b0a> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://greatergood.org/blog/2017/04/19/save-sharks-swimming-away-forever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917125719.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031205-00081-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922925 | 501 | 3.125 | 3 |
Seedling diseases and seed rot accounted for more than 20% of soybean establishment problems in the past five years, and farmers had to replant almost 20% of affected acres. (This comes from a March 2012 survey of Midwestern and Southeastern certified crop advisors in 12 major soybean-producing states as part of a soybean seedling disease study.)
From 2005 to 2007, the seedling disease yield cost is estimated at 37 million bushels/year, yet “many states don’t know a great deal about what causes seedling diseases in their area,” says Martin Chilvers, a Michigan State field crop pathologist.
Chilvers’ lab, together with university collaborators from 12 major producing states, is examining soybean seedling diseases to identify the range of soybean pathogens. Testing in the laboratory and greenhouse will follow to determine which ones cause disease and rule out organisms that are only “guilty by association.”
Identifying what’s actually causing disease, will lead to better seed treatments or genetic solutions, he notes.
“We might need to tailor seed treatments to different growing regions. So far, species tend to group by similar geography,” says Chilvers of the 55 species of Pythium and two species of Phytophthora identified in 2011 and the 40 species of Pythium and two Phytophthora from 2012.
“We noticed a big shift in species composition from 2011 to 2012 that is very likely associated with weather. Certain soil components also seem to drive what’s there. Temperature, soil texture and precipitation seem to be linked to this,” he explains.
“We’ve opened a can of worms,” says Alison Robertson, Iowa State University plant pathologist, speaking at a January Crop Advantage workshop in Ames. “We’re finding a range of species that will cause disease, and not all will respond to fungicide seed treatments.”
Robertson cites a complex disease triangle as one of the challenges to control seedling disease.
“The three points on the triangle are a host, the pathogen and the right conditions; and all have to be present to have disease, but one field may have many different pathogens. Maybe if the temperature is 50 degrees, you get one pathogen, but at 63 degrees you get a different one, yet we can’t predict what the soil temperature will be a week after planting and which pathogen will be a threat.
With that complexity, she concludes, “When growers have problems, the failure may not be because the treatment failed, but because they are dealing with a pathogen population that is less sensitive to the treatment.”
With this information, “we now have a much better idea that it is a diversity of species causing seedling stand issues and that the common seed treatments were not controlling them,” says Anne Dorrance, University of Ohio professor of soybean pathology and host resistance. “There is no silver bullet to management – and it will take several approaches to eliminate the replant issues and one strategy will not work for all of the Pythium species. The seed treatment compounds have changed dramatically in the past decade – and more products are expected to be labeled in the next two to four years.
“Producers will have a wide range of choices of seed treatments,” Dorrance adds. “There has also been a change in germplasm as companies have deployed new technologies.” (There's a big unknown regarding Pythium resistance in today's germplasm, whether it has increased or decreased.) “The next step is to focus on best management techniques.”
No single seed treatment “is effective against all seedling pathogens, ” says Jim Kurle, University of Minnesota associate professor, plant pathology. “This suggests a number of possibilities: Growers need to apply seed treatments based on the pathogen causing stand problems in their particular situation; no single compound is going to be effective in all situations, and applying an inappropriate fungicide may increase damage from seedling pathogens,” he says.
“Alison Robertson’s (Iowa) observations apply equally well for Minnesota,” says Minnesota’s Kurle. “We've had very erratic results with the seed treatments because the seedling pathogen most important in a particular year depends upon environmental conditions, moisture and temperature. For instance, Pythium is more likely to be important in saturated soils at low temperatures. And there are multiple Pythium species with differing temperature requirements. If saturated conditions occur later after soils have warmed, Phytophthora can be more important.”
Michigan’s Chilvers adds, “Right now it is hard to rapidly diagnose which species is which.” His work relies on DNA analysis in the laboratory.”
What is the bottom line for seed treatments?
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that seed treatments do protect stand in cold, wet soils,” Robertson says. “I have demonstration plots and growth chamber work that clearly show this – plus there are a few scientific publications that report this. In good seedbed conditions (moist and above 60 degrees F), the benefits of a seed treatment may not be evident. However when soil temps drop below 60 degrees and germination and emergence is retarded, seed treatments become vital.
“However, just because a seed treatment is used doesn't mean a farmer is "in the clear" - what we are learning from our research is that seed treatments are not the silver bullet. Farmers still need to scout their fields and assess stand. If they do come across problem fields, its not that seed treatment didn't work, its just the conditions were favorable for a pathogen that the seed treatment was not very effective against.”
The 12-state soybean seedling disease research effort was funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture with matching funds by the United Soybean Board and the North Central Soybean Research Program It will also develop diagnostics for seedling diseases.
“Eventually this work should lead to better diagnostic tools,” Robertson notes.
The ultimate goal is better technology to see what is causing problems at the root level and how it can be controlled.
“With seed getting more and more expensive, the question is how you make sure every seed you plant becomes productive,” Robertson says. “A single fungicide won’t control all types of pathogens.” | <urn:uuid:93b8af57-0f7c-44ea-9885-d685acb6f0d8> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/print/soybeans/soybean-seedling-diseases-cause-37-million-bushel-yield-decrease-each-year | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507454577.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005734-00187-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951671 | 1,353 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Pope Francis Sunday described the use of nuclear bombs as “a crime”, as he took his appeal for an end to atomic weapons to Hiroshima in an emotional meeting with survivors.
The visit came hours after a highly symbolic stop in the city of Nagasaki, where Francis railed against all nuclear weapons, including their use as a deterrent.
At least 140,000 people died after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, with another 74,000 killed after a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
“In barely an instant, everything was devoured by a black hole of destruction and death. From that abyss of silence, we continue even today to hear the cries of those who are no longer,” Francis said at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.
“With deep conviction, I wish once more to declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home,” he added.
He first signed the book of remembrance, saying he would “grieve in solidarity” with the victims, receiving warm applause from the assembled worshippers.
He then clasped hands with several elderly survivors, some of them overcome with emotion on meeting the 82-year-old pontiff and sharing their harrowing testimony.
Francis has made the call for a world without nuclear weapons a central theme of his four-day trip to Japan, starting his visit in two cities synonymous with the horrors of the atomic bomb.
He said he felt a “duty to come here as a pilgrim of peace” and paid tribute to the “strength and dignity” of those who survived the attack and the physical and emotional toll of the aftermath.
Like in Nagasaki earlier on Sunday, he laid a wreath of white flowers as a tribute and bowed his head in prayer before a moment of reflection with deep bells tolling in the background to remember those killed in the catastrophe.
– True peace is unarmed : Francis –
Survivors from Hiroshima described to the pope their personal experiences and backed his abolitionist message, including Yoshiko Kajimoto, who was 14 at the time of the attack.
She recalled “people walking side by side like ghosts,” telling Francis: “No one in this world can imagine such a scene of hell.”
The ageing survivors of the attacks have expressed fear that the memory of the bombings may disappear after their death, and some hope the pope will bring renewed attention to their stories.
“I believe that passing on the experience of Hiroshima to the next generation is the final mission assigned to us A-bomb survivors,” survivor Koji Hosokawa told Francis in testimony read out as he was unable to attend.
In Hiroshima, the Argentine pontiff repeated his insistence that there was no place in the world for nuclear weapons, even as a deterrent.
This marks a break with past pontiffs — in a 1982 UN speech, Pope John Paul II described nuclear deterrence as a necessary evil.
“How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” Francis said.
“A true peace can only be an unarmed peace.”
In Nagasaki earlier, he also took aim at the arms industry, describing money spent and made on weapons as an “affront crying out to Heaven”.
– Fondness and affection –
The Argentine pontiff is fulfilling a long-held ambition to preach in Japan — a country he wanted to visit as a young missionary.
“Ever since I was young I have felt a fondness and affection for these lands,” said Francis when he arrived in Japan.
As in Thailand, the first leg of his Asian tour, Catholicism is a minority religion in Japan.
Most people follow a mix of Shinto and Buddhism, with only an estimated 440,000 Catholics in the country.
Christians in Japan suffered centuries of repression, being tortured to recant their faith, and Francis paid tribute in Nagasaki to the martyrs who died for their religion, saying they had inspired him as a young Jesuit.
Francis returns to Tokyo on Sunday night where he will on Monday meet victims of Japan s “triple disaster” — the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
He is also scheduled to deliver a mass at a Tokyo baseball stadium, meet Japan s new Emperor Naruhito and hold talks with Japanese government officials and local Catholic leaders. | <urn:uuid:ac59eed8-c363-4d8a-8c0f-525cf3e1127e> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://coptsunited.com/Details.php?I=2538&A=40080 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474360.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223021632-20240223051632-00619.warc.gz | en | 0.967628 | 947 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Brunskill, R. W. Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1987.
Carter, Thomas, and Elizabeth C. Cromley. Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005.
Deetz, James. In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Revised ed. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
Glassie, Henry H. Vernacular Architecture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Lanier, Gabrielle M., and Bernard L. Herman. Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
Lewis, Peirce. “Learning from Looking: Geographic and Other Writing about the American Cultural Landscape.” American Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1983): 242-261.
Schlereth, Thomas J., ed. Material Culture: A Research Guide. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1985.
St. George, Robert Blair, ed. Material Life in America, 1600-1860. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988.
Upton, Dell, ed. America's Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America. New York: John Wiley, 1995.
Upton, Dell. Architecture in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Upton, Dell, and John Michael Vlach, eds. Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
Upton, Dell, and John Michael Vlach. “Introduction.” In Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, edited by Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach, xv-xvii. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
Wells, Camille. “Old Claims and New Demands: Vernacular Architecture Studies Today.” In Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture II, edited by Camille Wells, 1-11. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986. | <urn:uuid:8fb09b7d-e659-4226-999e-b8cbc13e9dbd> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org/Getting-Started | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141737946.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204131750-20201204161750-00704.warc.gz | en | 0.693229 | 452 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Despite Democrats’ cataclysmal framing of every weather event, Americans are safer than ever.
They will never surrender the wealth and safety that technology has afforded and continues to afford them.
Climate isn’t the same as weather—unless, of course, weather happens to be politically useful. In that case, weather portends climate apocalypse.
So warns Elizabeth Warren as she surveyed Iowan rainstorms, which she claims, like tornadoes and floods, are more frequent and severe. “Different parts of the country deal with different climate issues,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–Malthusia) cautioned as she too warned of extreme tornadoes. “But ALL of these threats will be increasing in intensity as climate crisis grows and we fail to act appropriately.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.) recently sent a fundraising email warning Democrats that climate change was causing “growing mega-fires, extremely destructive hurricanes, and horrific flooding” in which “American lives are at stake.”
Even if we pretend that passing a bazillion-dollar authoritarian Green New Deal would do anything to change the climate, there is no real-world evidence that today’s weather is increasingly threatening to human lives. By every quantifiable measure, in fact, we’re much safer despite the cataclysmal framing of every weather-related event.
How many of those taken in by alarmism realize that deaths from extreme weather have dropped somewhere around 99.9 percent since the 1920s? Heat and cold can still be killers, but thanks to increasingly reliable and affordable heating and cooling systems, and other luxuries of the age, the vast majority of Americans will never have to fear the climate in any genuine way.
Since 1980, death caused by all natural disasters and heat and cold is somewhere under 0.5 percent.
It’s true that 2019 has seen a spike in tornadoes, but mostly because 2018 was the first year recorded without a single violent tornado in the United States. Tornadoes killed 10 Americans in 2018, the fewest since we started keeping track of these things in 1875, only four years after the nefarious combustion engine was invented.
After a few devastating hurricanes around a decade ago, we were similarly warned that it was a prelude to endless storms and ecological disaster. This was followed by nine years without a single major hurricane in the United States. Or, in other words, six fewer hurricanes than we experienced in 1908 alone.
According to the U.S. Natural Hazard Statistics, in fact, 2018 saw below the 30-year average in deaths not only by tornadoes and hurricanes (way under average) but also from heat, flooding, and lighting. We did experience a slight rise in deaths due to cold.
Pointing out these sort of things usually elicits the same reaction: Why do you knuckle-dragging troglodytes hate science? Well, because science’s predictive abilities on most things, but especially climate, have been atrocious. But mostly because science is being used as a cudgel to push leftist policy prescriptions without considering economic tradeoffs, societal reality, or morality.
There are two things in this debate that we can predict with near certitude: First, that modern technology will continue to allow human beings to adapt to organic and anthropogenic changes in the environment. Second, that human beings will never surrender the wealth and safety that technology has afforded and continues to afford them.
see also Why Climate Alarm Is A Vote Loser
The post Will Climate Hysteria Cost US Democrats The Next Elections? appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).
via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
May 31, 2019 at 05:31AM | <urn:uuid:3bb21e5a-f577-43b4-ab43-0ac411870a57> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://iowaclimate.org/2019/05/31/will-climate-hysteria-cost-us-democrats-the-next-elections/?like_comment=2561&_wpnonce=24da1372bd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655890157.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200706073443-20200706103443-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.961547 | 785 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Chlorella is hailed as a golden grail of healthy and nutrient-dense algae-based food supplements that show promising health benefits.
Tagged as one of Earth’s superfoods, chlorella has proven beneficial to our immunity and skin, hair, and cardiovascular health. That’s why it is valued as a miraculous gift from mother nature.
In this article, we’ll explore the health benefits of chlorella, its possible side effects, and how to take it as a food supplement.
Key Benefits of Chlorella
Chlorella is a single-celled organism that belongs to the freshwater green algae family native to Taiwan and Japan. Of all chlorella species, Chlorella Vulgaris and Chlorella Pyrenoidosa are the ones that are being examined the most by scientists.
The chlorella species’ nutrients are encased with a rigid and fibrous cell wall, making it indigestible for the digestive system.The internal nutrients must be extracted to maximize all the biggest benefits chlorella offers.
Chlorella can be specifically cultured and commercially produced as dietary supplements. It is now available in different forms: powdered, capsules, or tablets.
Research has discovered that chlorella contains a broad range of nutrients and bioactive compounds that may help prevent certain diseases and promote overall health.
You only need to consume small amounts of Chlorella, because the nutritional density is very high. Consuming smaller amounts also reduces the risk of side effects which we will cover later in this article.
Chlorella is an abundant protein source containing all nine essential amino acids. This plant-based protein makes an excellent dietary source of complete protein for vegans/vegetarians.
Besides protein, chlorella is rich in iron and vitamin C, essential for maintaining the health of red blood cells (RBC).
Chlorella also has vitamin K, fiber, omega-3, B vitamins, and minerals such as copper, zinc, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and folic acid.
In this quick introduction, you have learned about the nutritional value of Chlorella, the availability of Chlorella in different forms, and some of the specific reasons why Chlorella can be an effective supplement.
In the next section, we will review possible health benefits of Chlorella.
Boost the immune system
One of the possible health benefits of chlorella is that it could help boost your immune system.
The immune system shields your body from germs, harmful substances, and cell changes that can potentially harm your health.
In an eight-week research, chlorella supplementation was found to effectively stimulate immune and inflammatory responses among healthy individuals.
Another study claims that taking chlorella supplementation can significantly increase the body’s ability to produce more antibodies than taking the placebo. Antibodies or immunoglobulins are responsible for combating infection-causing foreign invaders that enter your body.
Reduce chronic disease risks
Chlorella is also like a pot of gold when it comes to antioxidants. It is rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, astaxanthin, chlorophyll, lycopene, lutein, pheophytin, and other antioxidants.
Antioxidants reduce your chances of getting chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), cancer, and arthritis.
Lower cholesterol levels
Your body requires cholesterol for hormone production and to build healthy cells. However, elevated levels of triglycerides and total cholesterol, are thought to increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases due to fat deposits that build up in your blood vessels. Over time, bad cholesterol can block your arteries and force your heart to overwork just to let your blood flow throughout the body.
Several studies have linked chlorella supplementation to lowering cholesterol levels.
In a small open-label trial, chlorella supplementation effectively reduced serum cholesterol levels among patients with hyperlipidemia and mild hypercholesterolemia.
Another study suggested that chlorella supplementation might have the potential to inhibit the intestinal absorption of endogenous and dietary lipids for patients with mild hypercholesterolemia. The study concluded significant desirable changes were observed in serum lipid such as total cholesterol, triglycerides, very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein/triglyceride levels.
Improve skin health
There are also claims that chlorella has also shown potential health benefits for skin health.
Chlorella supplements contain bioactive compounds, which have become a hot topic in the skincare industry. In particular, Chlorella Vulgaris contains amino acids that are akin to collagen fibers. They stimulate collagen synthesis in the skin and help fight signs of aging such as wrinkles. Chlorella also contains omega-3 fatty acids, which can help fight skin inflammation.
The use of chlorella has also shown positive effects on skin lesions. The research revealed that the oral and topical use of chlorella could minimize skin inflammation and shortens the wound healing process.
Weaken heavy metal toxins
Heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and other poisonous compounds are mostly found in food, water, and industrial sources. Long term exposure to these heavy metals can result in accumulation in your body and increase your risk for heavy metal poisoning.
Chlorella has a unique cellular structure that binds to these heavy metals and weakens its potency to harm the body. This was shown in a cell study wherein chlorella can absorb 40% of the heavy metals in a test solution in just seven days.
Improve breast milk quality
Toxins from breastmilk can be passed on to infants.
According to this study, chlorella supplementation lowers dioxin levels, and it improves the quality of breastmilk. With 6 grams of the chlorella supplement, it can increase antibody concentration in breastmilk. Furthermore, it was also found that chlorella can prevent hormonal imbalance and strengthen the immune system.
Side Effects of Chlorella Supplements
Taking chlorella supplements is tolerable for most people.
However, some people have experienced nausea, vomiting, and gastrointestinal disturbance, such as bloating or indigestion, cramping, and green stools on their first-time consuming this food supplement.
Photosensitivity reactions were also reported after ingesting chlorella.
Chlorella may also decrease anticoagulants’ effectiveness, such as warfarin since this supplement contains high amounts of vitamin K.
Greenish breast milk discoloration was experienced among lactating mothers after taking chlorella. That doesn’t mean it will necessarily cause adverse effects to the infants’ health. It is usually safe. This effect is similar to eating plenty of green leafy vegetables such as spinach, which can also turn the breast milk green.
You should always consult with your doctor before taking any supplements during pregnancy or if you have a pre-existing health condition.
Other chlorella supplements are enriched with iodine. To those who have iodine sensitivity or hyperthyroidism, this supplement should be avoided.
For the most part, Chlorella’s side effects may indicate that your body is trying to adjust to the introduction of chlorella. Therefore, it might be advisable to start consuming it in smaller amounts, then work your way up to ease digestive symptoms over time.
Spirulina or chlorella?
Chlorella is a green alga, while spirulina is a blue-green alga. If you wonder which of the two are better, both chlorella and spirulina are considered by experts to be to provide benefits for your health.
Spirulina and chlorella are superfoods that are packed with essential nutrients, and they are associated with boosting your nutrient levels, improving overall health, and preventing diseases.
However, this does not mean that one is better than the other. Instead of asking which food supplement is better, you’ll have to find out which of the two is best for you.
How Much Should I Take?
There are no specific recommended dosages for taking chlorella. Researchers have used different dosages to study the benefits of chlorella. The effectiveness of chlorella in these studies was observed in different doses, starting from 300mg, 1.2g, 5g, and 10g.
Most chlorella supplements you can find in the market indicate that you can take a dose of 2–3 grams per day.
If you are pregnant, adding a chlorella supplement to your diet will give more healthful benefits for you and your baby. Since chlorella is highly nutritious, it can help improve breast milk’s carotenoid status and prevent pregnancy-associated proteinuria, edema, and anemia. However, you should always consult your doctor before taking any supplements during pregnancy or if you have any pre-existing conditions.
Where to Buy Chlorella Supplements?
You can purchase chlorella in reputable online stores, natural food stores, and dietary supplements shops. You can select a natural or organic chlorella supplement in tablets, powder, capsules, or extract form. Choose whichever form you prefer.
When buying chlorella, make sure to find a quality supplement. Look for the ones that have been tested by third-party testing organizations. You pay attention to the quality assurance seal.
How to Consume Chlorella?
Just know for a fact that chlorella is highly nutritious. What kind of nutrition density are we talking about? That will depend on the form you choose to consume (e.g. powder, capsule, or tablet). Also, different manufacturers will contain different concentrations. So you should review the label to see what are the specific ingredients before purchasing.
Chlorella can be taken one hour before or after taking any medications. Others would prefer to take the supplement in the morning and before bedtime.
Make sure to give space between taking chlorella and drinking coffee. Why? Coffee interferes with the body’s nutrient absorption, washing away the healthy and nutritious goodies of your chlorella.
Most consumers would prefer to buy chlorella in powder form because you can mix it with other foods and drinks. The best about powdered chlorella is that it is easily digestible and absorbed in the body. The downside about the powdered chlorella is that you might need to get used to its strong flavor when mixed with only water. Sounds bland and boring, right?
So to make your chlorella experience more interesting, you can add a small amount of powder in a smoothie or a green vegetable juice. Start in small doses first and observe how your body responds.
You can also sprinkle chlorella powder on salad dressings, cereals, yogurts, baked goods, or beverages to make it more nutritious.
Other people would prefer to buy chlorella in tablet form for simplicity and convenience sake, especially when you can’t always find extra time to prepare your food. Just one gulp away, and you’re good to go. Also, you won’t have to savor the strong taste or odor of the supplement.
Remember not to get too excited about immediately taking a high-dose or multiple chlorella tablets yet. You have to give time for your digestive system to get used to the newly introduced substance.
Tablet or powdered chlorella?
Should you take a chlorella tablet or the powdered one? Both forms are actually excellent options. Just choose depending on your needs and lifestyle.
Chlorella is a highly nutritious food supplement that makes a great addition to a healthy diet. This green algae superfood can help improve your overall health and reduce the risk of certain lifestyle diseases.
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Bito, T., Okumura, E., Fujishima, M., & Watanabe, F. (2020). Potential of chlorella as a dietary supplement to promote human health. Nutrients, 12(9), 1–21. Burger, B., Kühl, C. M. C., Candreva, T., Cardoso, R. da S., Silva, J. R., Castelucci, B. G., … Rodrigues, H. G. (2019). Oral administration of EPA-rich oil impairs collagen reorganization due to elevated production of IL-10 during skin wound healing in mice. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1–13. Citation, N. L. M., Database, L., Library, N., & Url, B. (2020). Remdesivir Drug Levels and Effects Effects in Breastfed Infants Substance Identification Substance Name, (Md), 1–2. Ebrahimi-Mameghani, M., Sadeghi, Z., Abbasalizad Farhangi, M., Vaghef-Mehrabany, E., & Aliashrafi, S. (2017). Glucose homeostasis, insulin resistance and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Beneficial effects of supplementation with microalgae Chlorella vulgaris: A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial. Clinical Nutrition. Jaishankar, M., Tseten, T., Anbalagan, N., Mathew, B. B., & Beeregowda, K. N. (2014). Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals. Interdisciplinary Toxicology, 7(2), 60–72. Kwak, J. H., Baek, S. H., Woo, Y., Han, J. K., Kim, B. G., Kim, O. Y., & Lee, J. H. (2012). Beneficial immunostimulatory effect of short-term Chlorella supplementation: Enhancement of Natural Killer cell activity and early inflammatory response (Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial). Nutrition Journal, 11(1), 1–8. Lordan, S., Ross, R. P., & Stanton, C. (2011). Marine bioactives as functional food ingredients: Potential to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases. Marine Drugs, 9(6), 1056–1100. Merchant, R. E., & Andre, C. A. (2001). A review of recent clinical trials of the nutritional supplement Chlorella pyrenoidosa in the treatment of fibromyalgia, hypertension, and ulcerative colitis. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. Nakano, S., Takekoshi, H., & Nakano, M. (2007). Chlorella (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) supplementation decreases dioxin and increases immunoglobulin A concentrations in breast milk. In Journal of Medicinal Food (Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 134–142). Otsuki, T., Shimizu, K., Iemitsu, M., & Kono, I. (2011). Salivary Secretory Immunoglobulin a secretion increases after 4-weeks ingestion of chlorella-derived multicomponent supplement in humans: A randomized cross over study. Nutrition Journal, 10(1), 91. Panahi, Y., Ghamarchehreh, M. E., Beiraghdar, F., Zare, M., Jalalian, H. R., & Sahebkar, A. (2012). Investigation of the effects of Chlorella vulgaris supplementation in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A randomized clinical trial. Hepato-Gastroenterology. Rani, K., Sandal, N., & Sahoo, P. K. (2018). A comprehensive review on chlorella-its composition, health benefits, market and regulatory scenario. ~ 584 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal, 7(7), 584–589. Retrieved from www.thepharmajournal.com Reena Singh, Neetu Gautam, Anurag Mishra, and R. G. (2010). Heavy metal sorption by microalgae. Ryu, N. H., Lim, Y., Park, J. E., Kim, J., Kim, J. Y., Kwon, S. W., & Kwon, O. (2014). Impact of daily Chlorella consumption on serum lipid and carotenoid profiles in mildly hypercholesterolemic adults: A double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Nutrition Journal, 13(1), 1–8. Roy, A., & Das, B. (2015). Effects of caffeine on health: A review. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology, 8(9), 1312–1319. Shibata, S., Hayakawa, K., Egashira, Y., & Sanada, H. (2007). Hypocholesterolemic mechanism of Chlorella: Chlorella and its indigestible fraction enhance hepatic cholesterol catabolism through up-regulation of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase in rats. Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry, 71(4), 916–925. | <urn:uuid:a36f7418-b23f-4718-b1f2-c2a1d04fe3cb> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://archive.beautyandwellbeing.com/well-being/well-being-benefits-of-chlorella/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510498.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929054611-20230929084611-00406.warc.gz | en | 0.885674 | 3,590 | 2.625 | 3 |
AZ Partners in Science - 2013
Spin-dependent transport of electrons in magnetic tunneling junctions
Creating Next-Generation Transistors
There is an urgent need to solve the problem of excessive energy consumption in next-generation transistors. It is caused by greatly increased current leakage when transistor size is reduced below 10 nm. (A nanometer is almost unimaginably small -- one-billionth of a meter.)
If no solution is found, according to one prediction, transistors used in information technology could gobble up to 20 percent of the world’s electricity by 2025.
Sadequn Nahar, Sunnyside High School, is working with Associate Professor Weigang Wang, UA Department of Physics, to find a technological fix.
Nahar’s research, funded by a Partners in Science Award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement, is focused on exploiting spin-based magnetic nanostructures. Electrons carry a charge, positive or negative, but they also have a quality called “spin,” which comes in two modes – up or down. (Electron spin in atoms is the main source of ferromagnetism.)
“Spintronics” – rather than “electronics” -- could solve the leaky current problem in transistors. However, the power consumption required to switch spin modes is relatively high. Nahar is looking at novel mechanisms to dramatically reduce magnetization reversal energy.
She has been testing various magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs). These incredibly tiny devices consist of two magnetic layers separated by an ultrathin oxide layer (1 nm – 2 nm). Electrons can tunnel through the oxide barrier under a bias voltage. The resistance of the system depends on the relative orientation of the magnetic layers. Generally the resistance is low if the magnetizations of two magnetic layers are parallel (P state) and the resistance is high if the magnetizations are antiparallel (AP) state.
Nahar is exploring mechanisms that increase the resistance difference in the P and AP states.
“Our goal is to fabricate a sample that can give us a resistance of better than 300 percent,” she said. “We haven’t gotten there yet, but the research continues. The other thing we want to achieve is consistency, to reproduce samples the yield the same effects every time. We haven’t achieved that yet.”
Nahar said some of her Sunnyside High students have shown an interest in her work. “I’m expecting them to visit this lab,” she said. “And we have a chapter on electricity and magnetism, which fits nicely into this research. Also, Dr. Wang is open to recruiting some of my good students to work in his lab, and he’s willing to visit my class to give a talk.” | <urn:uuid:6697083e-2542-48ff-af18-3a04f3dcb9fd> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://rescorp.org/awards-database/awardee/2013-azpis-nahar-sadequn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917124297.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031204-00296-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939774 | 593 | 3.015625 | 3 |
How to Get Children to Behave from the Inside Out
As parents, we have heard that the days are long and the years are short. The days can be filled with mistakes, sibling rivalry, tantrums, boundary testing, bedtime battles and tough discussions—and even as they are interspersed with fun, excitement, pride, connection and love, as parents, it’s normal to feel frustrated at times and want tools to help make the days go a bit more smoothly. The truth is, we DO only have a relatively short time to help raise our children to become responsible, capable and confident before they head out the door as adults. Vicki Hoefle reminds us, “parent the child who will be 24 in a hot second. Parenting is not about what happens for you between the ages of 0 and 18, Parenting is what happens for our children between the ages of 18 and 80.” Let that sink in for a bit there.
So, how do we parent our children, knowing that we don’t have a lot of time to, in fact, parent them, but the time we spend is so important.
- When we parent with love and good boundaries, our children internalize this and it guides them as they get older.
- Message of hope: The key is to help parents have a good relationship with their kids no matter the age.
- Basic old approach- get really mad when make mistake and then have a consequence? Then the kids get so focused on not making kids mad—rather than thinking about how the decision will affect his life.
- Instead: yes, hold kids accountable but with empathy. “Oh I can imagine how upsetting it must be to get a report card like this. The good news is we love you regardless for the number of years it takes you to get through school. What are you going to do?”
- The message becomes: We are sad FOR you rather than we are mad AT you.”
- Soundbite: Sad instead of mad. Be sad for your kids rather than mad at our kids.
- Get kids to think: how is this next decision going to affect my life? Rather than “how is this next decision going to look to other people?” Then children go through life thinking all is fine if they don’t get caught. Outside in: Am I going to make somebody mad?
- Self concept comes from our kids seeing that they are capable. Inside out. Self concept gets destroyed when we try to create it from the outside in—lathering on false praise and smoothing everything out for kids.
- Good self-concept comes from doing hard things well.
- “Oh Bud. You broke Grandma’s vase. You must feel terrible. What are you going to do? Love you—but how are you going to solve this problem?” Maybe they do yard work or sell something of their own—and then they solve their own problem and they feel great and capable!
- Allow kids to make lots of mistakes when they price tag is small.
- Allow your child to forget their homework! Even though you feel the bad parent- let it happen! When their kids remember the next day or put together a plan so that they remember, great! If they want help or ideas, they can have them. But if they say “I’m fine!” then back off and honor it.
- If you need to be sarcastic—be internally sarcastic not externally sarcastic!
- Parenting- emotion-filled and daily. Hard job! Kids bond with imperfect people.
- Self control- up the odds that it will be developed. Three Es. (1) Example- modeling. Let your kids see you struggle with self-control and “eavesdrop” on your thinking through the problem. Cope out loud. “It is so hard not to eat all of these butterfingers right now. If I do, it’s not going to go well for me.”
- We want our kids to hear us struggling with temptation and overcoming it.
- Self control- Need to have a template that starts with us. Limits. Describing. “I allow kids to drive the car when they are paying for at least have of the cost.”
- (2) Experience: Need limits but also need practice testing them. Sometimes we get upset that kids test limits—but it’s a great learning experience if we stick with the limit. “I’m feeling like the tone of voice is not good. I’m happy to take you to this place as long as I feel like we are speaking nicely to one another.” Test limit. But then, prove it. Car makes a u-turn and you go back. Don’t need to say anything.
- (3) Empathy. We shut our mouths and open our hearts. We don’t say a whole lot. “I love you and I want to do this with you but I love you too much to have this kind of experience with you. It’s hard.” Might not feel good in the short term- but do we want to be the bad guy or do we want the kid’s bad attitude to be the bad guy? We start saying “don’t you do this and that” and “how dare you this and that” and “if you do this, you’ll get that”- we become the bad guy. Instead be loving. One spot on brain might say that we aren’t so bad- maybe it was the decision that made things bad.
- Lots of empty buckets and empty hearts- so people will fill them with whatever they can regardless of what the consequences are. Alcoholics, for example. Simple stuff is more important- spending time with people.
- How to teach kids about money? Even if you have the money you need to buy everything you want. “The way we teach our kids about money is by living our lives putting emphasis on true wealth, which is relationships.”
- Fine to give a gift- when it feels good. But don’t want to have a love of stuff. Don’t give when they demand it. Or when they argue that everyone else has it. Must earn the stuff! Sample convo: “Oh, you want X? Oh I think you should definitely have that! You deserve it! Buy it for yourself, absolutely.”
- Blessed with wealth? Make sure they don’t have access to it as soon as you die unless they are at least 30 or 40.
- King Solomon: Money can’t buy you everything you want in life.
- Yugo car: Terrible car. Very reliable because it never worked. You can be a yugo or a slot machine. Yugo not exciting. They don’t budge. Slot machine tricks you. Even if it takes 9.6 million to get the 30-dollar jackpot, I’m going back! Because the next time, it will deliver, we think! Parents afraid to be yugos. Know where they will be!
- Parents- empathetic but consistent. Remember, this isn’t personal! “But you must not love me and I’ll just die if I don’t get a phone!” “Oh honey, what did I say?” This kid is doing just what he’s supposed to do to become a fantastic, solid, young person some day. Let this child do it with me now so when later with a boyfriend or girlfriend, partner, spouse, it will go well.
- Enough! Get to end of rope. Normal! Then, I really blew it. “Aren’t you so fortunate to have parents that are imperfect.”
- Slot machine parents- think they are in control. Say no. Then finally give in. Kids learn that if they nag or whine, they’ll get what they want.
- Listening starts really early. Don’t wait. 10 month old on ground. Crawl towards something they aren’t supposed to—“uh oh!” Poor decision. Then change their location. Put them in lap. Knocking bottle off high chair. Then again. No anger. “Oh, so sad.” Eating is over. Food goes up and they go down. 15 minutes later- try again. Cause and effect. “Honey, we get to stay as long as long as we listen the first time. Then, the first time they act up, you leave, no matter what the circumstance, so that your kids learn that what you say is true no matter if it’s in public or not. Pick a place that you don’t like so there’s no hesitation about leaving.
- Plane: little toys- hide them, long trip, reach in the bag and get something new.
- 8 year old: Takes the ipad before school even if it’s against the family rules. “Oh, are you sure that’s what you want to do? Is that a wise decision?” But don’t get into an altercation before school. Then put the ipad away. “I love you too much to fight with you about this. I’ll take care of it.” Think they got away with it. Then- it’s gone. Called names- so damaging to have that level of disrespect. Diminishes self concept. Sold ipad. “I love you too much to let these things to become a problem.”
- “I allow the use of this device in this home as long as I never feel that it’s damaging our relationship.” (Sneaky, irritable, won’t get off, won’t put it back where it’s supposed to be). But need for school- “so how you going to explain that to your teacher? Maybe your teacher will have some ideas so that you can get that credit.”
- Take action. In car. In good mood. “How in the world have you learned to cook the way you do? That’s a gift. Many people can follow a cook book but they don’t cook like you! What do you think I’m going to say that isn’t so good about that? If someone is so good at cooking, then probably so good at cleaning too. Have ideas?” Celebrate who she is. Then problem solving. “Well then maybe I just won’t cook!” “Well, that’s an idea but that would be sad for you! Some kids decide to clean as they go. Others allow their parents to do it and pay for it out of their allowance or other means. Going to be fun to figure out how to solve that problem.) Parent can do it but it will be costly!
- Sibling rivalry. “I love you guys. And I know you love each other. The problem is that my ears don’t love this so you’ll need to take this someplace else and if you’d like someone to do mediation, I’m happy to do that- I don’t take sides. But what you need to do is to take it someplace else so it doesn’t bother others in the home.” If they don’t, bonding time! Do things together to further relationship- pull weeds, cleaning toilets- helping bonding experience. Pretend to like each other and get along so they don’t wind up doing this!
- Top tip: Empathy! Remember- “I’m not the one who has to teach the kid responsibility, it’s the poor decision and the consequence that teaches the responsibility. I can be the good guy.” That takes the pressure off. Don’t have to nag. Allow mistakes. Hold accountable. Provide empathy. Comes out in the wash later with maturity and time.
- “We want to condition our kids to believe that ‘when I make poor decisions, it can dramatically diminish the quality
- of my life. Every choice matters. It affects me and it affects other people.’”
- “Be sad for our kids rather than mad at our kids when they make a mistake.”
- “If we start using empathy in our parenting, then we create kids who are thinking; ‘how is this next decision going to affect my life?’ rather than ‘how is this next decision going to look to other people?’”
- “Good self-concept comes from doing hard things well.”
- “Good self-concept is forged in the furnace of reflection.”
- “How can you have a success when you don’t have a failure first?”
- “Let’s allow our kids to make lots and lots of little mistakes when they price tag is small.”
- “Allow your children to forget their homework. You may feel like a bad parent but do you really want to have to remind your kid to bring their work…to work?”
- “Kids are more likely to bond with people who are imperfect!”
- “Self-control starts with a template that comes from us.”
- “Kids can’t learn to say ‘no’ to themselves if they’ve never seen us say ‘no’ to them.”
- “How in the world are kids going to learn that limits are real and how to internalize limits if they don’t practice testing them?”
- “Do we want to be the bad guy or do we want the kid’s bad attitude to be the bad guy?”
- “There are a lot of empty buckets and empty hearts. And when there are a lot of empty buckets or empty hearts, people will find something to fill them with regardless of the consequences.”
- “The way we teach our kids about money is by living our lives putting emphasis on true wealth, which is relationships.”
- “I allow the use of this device in this home as long as I never feel that it’s damaging our relationship.”
- “I’m not the one who has to teach the kid responsibility, it’s the poor decision and the consequence that teaches the responsibility. I can be the good guy.”
From the blog of Dr. Robyn Silverman | <urn:uuid:d142f65c-74a4-43a8-a084-97e4ec65002b> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.northroyaltonmartialarts.com/how-to-get-children-to-behave-from-the-inside-out/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704847953.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20210128134124-20210128164124-00669.warc.gz | en | 0.956061 | 3,118 | 2.828125 | 3 |
During author studies, my goal is to connect the children to the author. By teaching children to read like a writer, their world of mentors multiplies immensely. When studying an author, I will often state that I noticed how they are writing like a particular author. My smile spreads when I hear a child say, “Hey, I’m writing like (this author)” to a fellow classmate.
Videos and interviews of the author brings them to life. Children can see how the author is an ordinary person like themselves. As authors share how they get their ideas to write, it inspires our students.
Below you will find links to authors websites, interviews, or videos. Inspire your students today.
Nic Bishop: his website; my Author Tidbit post; He has written over 60 nonfiction books. His specialty is his close up photographs. Your students will enjoy his angle on each featured creature. View the YouTube videos to meet the author.
Eve Bunting: Seven 1 to 3 min. short video clips about her parents’ influence on her story-telling, writing, and reading; she also shares how she came to the US and books that will connect children to the needs around them.
Jim Arnosky: his website; He shares about some of his visits in the wild. He has several videos you can view of the natural habits, but there is a slight cost. The photographs are great for sharing with students and building their background knowledge of the books and biology.
Robert Burleigh: his website; he is an artist as well and explains his pseudo name; I love his comments about his books: “I like the book to convey the feeling of immediacy, of being there – whether there is flying an airplane, hitting a baseball, or painting a picture.”
Nancy Carlson: her website; my Author Tidbit post; a video clip about her blog and ideas for her doodles and the books that are created from the daily practice. After visiting a school, Nancy is interviewed and shares how she connects with a few of her characters. To inspire creativity and encourage illustrating, Nancy posts a daily doodle on her blog: blog.nancycarlson.com. She is an uplifting and affirming author/illustrator who will inspire you and your students.
Henry Cole: illustrator/author: his website; my Author Tidbit Post; he shows the process of illustrating, including a minute video clip of Henry drawing one of his characters, Celeste. Henry has illustrated several books and author some as well, including a chapter book called A Nest for Celeste.
Susan Stevens Crummel: her website; my post; She has several teacher tip activities linked to her books. For example, her book, My Big Dog, has lesson ideas on perspective and differences. She has pictures of family photos, including her sister, Janet Stevens.
Denise Fleming: her website;
Debra Frasier: her website; She has vocabulary lessons to build on from her book, Miss Alaineus A Vocabulary Disaster. Debra has seven short video clips about the making of Miss Alaineus. She has recently written a book about a fair and has a video clip with slide show as well of the Minnesota State Fair. Fun!
Nikki Giovanni: her website; A powerful orator and writer. She captures emotions that will tug at your heart. View a 4 minute video clip about her book Rosa and the importance of feelings within a text.
Rhonda Gowler Greene: her website; She has several teacher resource ideas for her books such as The Very First Thanksgiving and Jamboree Day. Rhonda advocates for using picture books as mentor texts in reading and in writing. Her poetry site gives ideas for mini-lessons.
Kevin Henkes: his website is kevinhenkes.com (On October 19, 2011, I received a warning when I went to Kevin Henkes’s website, so I unlinked it on my computer. I have since checked the website and have not received the warning, but I wanted to make sure I did not have a virus.) ; my Author Tidbit post; One video features an interview with Kevin Henkes. Your students can see how he illustrates. He has a section devoted to his mouse books on his website. If you click on each character, each shares about him/herself. I found several short video clips featuring Kevin Henkes speaking about his books. Fantastic!
Leigh Hodgkinson: her website is on wonkybutton. My post about Smile. She’s a director of animation as well as an illustrator of children’s books. She also has a blog with some quick notes about being a writer, illustrator, and animator. Fun.
Bill Hurley: his website; He has great information and resources for teachers on his website. Four videos are linked on his website, but I found several others on YouTube, such as The Ballad of Dirty Joe (7 minutes in length).
Kathleen Krull: her website; the Author Tidbits post; my post about Phil Farnsworth who created TV; She has a section for using biographies in the classroom and other resource links for history. Seven 1 to 2 min. video clips highlight the author and her thinking behind the books. She states that she likes to be a detective and help kids to remember people in history.
Wendell Minor: his website; author and illustrator. He has 5 YouTube video links of his books. On his “Let’s Explore!” section, he has several interactive flip books and animated stories to notice. I love it.
Margie Palatini: her website; my Author Tidbit post with a YouTube video of her book Hogg, Hogg, & Hog. For teachers, Margie has included several study guides and reader’s theaters. On her website, Margie shares an equation on how she gets her ideas for writing. A fun author to read and study!
Jerry Pallotta: his website; He has a fun Hangman game based on his books’ images and research. Jerry shares his hidden illustrations for several of his books on the Hidden Secrets tab.
Marissa Moss: her website; she has journaling tips
Janet Stevens: her website; my Author Tidbit’s post; In her “stuff” section, Janet has a link titled “Blue Jay Reading Group”. She writes a letter to 3rd graders, sharing her story becoming a reader. I love her line “Jump into a book like a cool swimming pool on a hot summer day, and feel it all around you.” What a great way to encourage your students to read. Her books: My Big Dog, The Little Red Pen.
Mark Teague: his website; 3 short video clips on being an author, his early writing as a kid, and where he gets his ideas
Audrey Vernick: View a 2 min. video clip about her book, She Loved Baseball: the Effa Manley Story. The jazz music sets the tone for the time period of the book. She has an awesome discussion guide for the book as well.
Rosemary Wells: her website; On my Author Tidbit post, you will view one interview video and another video on how her dogs play into her writing. She has three videos in the Parents & Educators section explaining her two young adult novels. You will find some teacher guides for several of her picture books.
David Wiesner: his website; 2 minute video about his books featuring Art & Max
Alan Zweibel: his website; he has several videos, two being on David Letterman; | <urn:uuid:e9e03de1-f400-4ba3-8e2c-66a137be6de9> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://booksavors.wordpress.com/authors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218193716.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212953-00013-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976109 | 1,598 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Developing safety habits is the best way to reduce your risk and make sure you are prepared for any emergency.
Look! Assess your surroundings!
- What hazards are readily apparent?
- Identify potential hazards.
- Recognize “out of the ordinary”
Have a plan – How will you respond?
- “What if”______ happens?
- What will you do?
- Where should you go?
Make a conscious effort to do these things every time you enter a new environment.
Have an emergency preparedness kit!
- Acquire necessary items to sustain yourself (food, water, medications, identification, money, telephone, etc.).
- Learn more about emergency preparedness kits at www.ready.gov and www.whatstheplan.org
Being prepared will enable you to have an effective response!
In an emergency situation, follow these steps:
- Step One: Make yourself safe – or you can be of no further benefit to anyone else.
- Step Two: Warn others of the situation
- Step Three: Call 911 assistance – Do Not Assume someone else will
For further information please contact the UNM Office of Emergency Management. | <urn:uuid:d368dd3b-de9b-47d1-a86d-5674242574f6> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://campussafety.unm.edu/emergency-preparedness/personal-preparedness.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818690035.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20170924152911-20170924172911-00679.warc.gz | en | 0.830446 | 248 | 3.84375 | 4 |
If a patient is challenged in breathing on his own, medical professionals attending to his aid would resort to the use of a mechanical ventilator. Ventilators are pieces of equipment that will help ease up their respiration since they are specifically designed to help someone breathe on their own.
Modern design of ventilators usually come with a tube and pump machine. Healthcare professionals will be sliding this tube into the windpipe of the patient to help in controlling and regulating airflow to his lungs. COVID-19 patients who are critically ill due to the coronavirus will be in dire need of such devices, respirators, to help them keep on breathing.
Situations described above are putting a great amount of pressure on hospitals and healthcare institutions where the vast majority of which are currently brimming with disproportionate numbers of patients. Most of the time these hospitals are handling a huge number of patients, far greater than what they can actually accommodate.
As of this writing, the US reportedly has at least 170,000 ventilators available. Despite that, the American Hospital Association is anticipating that the COVID-19 patients who are going to require intensive medical attention and treatment will be escalating to a minimum of 960,000.
With this in mind, we understand the crucial need to slow down the virus and its spread so as to ensure that not every single patient will be in desperate need of medical attention at the same time.
Nevertheless, we need to double time on our production efforts for ventilators considering the fact that containing the coronavirus is proving to be much harder than earlier anticipated. This is vouched for by recent events.
With this scenario in mind, can we take advantage of 3D printing machines to scale up our production for this type of medical equipment?
3D Printing Machines and Scaling Up the Production
Exploiting 3D printing technologies in our global situation now will put us all at a greater advantage. In no time at all, medical equipment manufacturing companies will be empowered and enabled to produce the respirator equipment we have an urgent need for.
But it is much harder when it comes to scaling up its production.
In Italy, like for instance, they began to mobilize a handful of medical equipment companies and charged them with 3D printing a few dozen valves to be used in intensive care respiratory units. The said valves are a primary component that will link the oxygen mask to the ventilators.
The Italian design company that was delegated to create the valves and their digital files, its CEO Cristian Fracassi, explained that they were able to act fast because they utilized 3D printing machines for the project. It actually allowed them to test out a small production first which would be nearly impossible if they will do so on an industrial scale.
In the UK, the manufacturing team behind LCD 3D printers, Photocentric, disclosed that they carried out an overnight test for their 3 large-format machines. It allowed the printing of an estimated 600 valves.
In addition to this, they also divulged that they can turn 40,000 printed valves in just a week’s time — which would mean they will 3D print for 5 straight days, and that is 24 hours a day. With that level of production capability, they’d be able to reach out to local hospitals and similar health care institutions that are in dire shortage of it.
Photocentric further explained that they made use of the open-source valve model that can be found on GrabCAD. Then, with the help of their current SLA machines, they were able to successfully vertically print the valve as tightly as they could on the bed without any need for external support mechanisms.
Naturally, these devices will need to get approved first. But in the days coming, we will witness how these devices will be deployed. | <urn:uuid:c6311c80-ef5e-4fb0-b1ff-bbb84bffcc06> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | http://brisbanehousing.com/why-we-need-to-scale-up-breathing-equipment-production-using-3d-printing-machines-for-covid-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107891624.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20201026175019-20201026205019-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.963894 | 777 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Just 200 Kms from the hustle and bustle of the state capital lies a pristine wilderness. The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve is a mosaic of dense sal forests, rolling grasslands and marshy ‘taals’ stretching across 1300 sq/km. It comprises the Dudhwa National Park, Kishanpur and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuaries spread across Lakhimpur-Kheri, Bahraich and Shahjahanpur districts. Apart from preserving one of the most unique habitats, the sub Himalayan terai, the alluvial plains of the Suheli and Geruwa Rivers support an incredible diversity and concentration of wildlife. Dudhwa supports a majority of UP’s 117 Royal Bengal Tigers (Census 2014). Its wetlands are the last stronghold of the magnificent Soft-ground Barasingha or Swamp Deer and many other endangered species like Asian Elephant, Gangetic Dolphin, Hispid Hare, Fishing Cat and the critically endangered Gharial and Bengal Florican.
It is also the site for one of the most successful reintroduction projects of the Great Indian One Horned Rhinoceros. Historically, the rhino was present throughout the terai but was hunted to local extinction in the 19th century. In 1984, few rhinos were relocated from Pobitora Sanctuary in Assam and Nepalese terai in a 27 sq/km enclosure, fortified with electric fencing. Today there is a breeding population of 34 rhinos and park authorities are ready with the second enclosure in the Bellerian area.
However, this paradise is in danger. Dudhwa, while relatively safe from organized poaching, faces a lot of threats in terms of habitat degradation, depleting forest corridors and man-animal conflict. Here is a look at the key problems and their possible solutions.
In terms of Habitat, dudhwa has many wetlands/grasslands of international significance which have degraded over the years. A case in point being ‘Sathiana’, which along with the neighboring ‘Ghola’ used to support 60% of the park’s Swamp Deer Population. Noted Conservationist George Schaller wrote about counting nearly a thousand swamp deer here in 1963, but as per a recent WWF report in 2005, less than 150 are left. Primary reason for this decline is that the Ghola region, being at higher elevation was the refuge of swamp deer when Sathiana was flooded during monsoons, however Ghola did not become a part of Dudhwa National Park and was lost to cultivation. Dudhwa’s famous conservationist ‘Billy’ Arjan Singh had suggested in his book “A Tiger’s Story”, that 300 acres of farmland in ‘Ghola’ can be reacquired and ‘Sathiana’ can be returned to its past glory. Such wetlands can be given the benefit of international funds and best practices by approaching the ‘Ramsar Convention’, an international body that manages over 2000 wetlands worldwide. India currently has 26 ‘Ramsar Sites’, which includes Upper Ganga in Uttar Pradesh, Dudhwa’s wetlands can also be nominated to become ‘Ramsar Sites’.
Dudhwa is a part of the Terai Arc Landscape, an area of 5 million hectares spanning 14 protected areas across India and Nepal. Preserving forest corridors connecting these large forest tracts is important for dispersion of elephants and tigers. Dudhwa is separated from Kishanpur by 15 Km of farmland, but this can be reclaimed with help of private funding from organizations like the World Land Trust, which has recently acquired 2 Cr worth of private land in Kerala and handed it back to the forest department. Reviving habitat alone will not bring back the wildlife to its historic numbers, human intervention in the form of captive breeding and relocation is required for endangered species such as swamp deer, hog deer and Bengal florican, just like the captive breeding programme for gharial established at Kukrail which saved them from extinction.
One of the most serious problems is man-animal conflict. In Dudhwa, human settlements are present inside the core area along with numerous villages clustered within the 2 km radius of the park boundary. While the forest suffers from overgrazing, illegal logging and in extreme cases poaching using local snares, the villagers also suffer from wild animals raiding their crops and tigers preying on cattle. Looking at national best practices in mitigating man-animal conflict, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is distributing rice husk stoves to villagers in Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve to reduce dependence on firewood, while WWF India & Uttarakhand Govt. are jointly distributing cattle feed to reduce grazing in the Corbett Tiger Reserve. MP’s Pench Tiger Reserve authorities have made conservation clubs comprising village youths to monitor fire incidences, illegal grazing and tree felling etc.
Apart from ground level work, we the citizens of UP need to start an awareness generation movement by involving students of schools and colleges, to showcase the ways in which these forests impact human lives. Dudhwa has numerous wetlands, and a study by WWF reveals wetlands act as giant sponges, soaking up rainfall and slowly releasing it over time, as well as absorb chemicals, filter pollutants and neutralize harmful bacteria. Similarly, a recent study by the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) done in 6 tiger reserves placed their economic valuation at 1.5 Lac crore which included water provisioning, gene-pool protection and carbon storage etc. An ideal starting point would be training ‘Eco Volunteers’, regularly carried out in Karnataka’s Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, where students get to spend a week in the forests along with the rangers and get hands-on education.
Lastly, responsible eco-tourism should also be encouraged as it boosts the economy of the area and provides valuable employment to locals. Dudhwa has got tremendous tourism potential, one can come face to face with the Royal Bengal Tiger, spot the Great Indian Rhinoceros wallowing in the marshes, Wild Elephants trampling through the forest, Swamp Deer in the hundreds locking horns at Kishanpur’s ‘Jhaadi Taal’, Bengal Florican doing its brilliant mating dance and dolphins diving in the Geruwa river. It’s a wildlife experience that can match and even exceed the best tiger reserves in India.
It’s worth saving at any cost, it’s worth fighting for!!
Copyrights of all images with Shikhar Ranjan. Year: 2017 | <urn:uuid:29aaa339-50b0-4b43-9bf6-855111677b65> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://experiencesandobservations.blog/2017/03/25/dudhwa-tiger-reserve-conserving-a-fragile-paradise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991659.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20210516013713-20210516043713-00050.warc.gz | en | 0.942271 | 1,383 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Conic Sections/Conic Sections Introduction< Conic Sections
There exists a certain group of curves called Conic Sections that are conceptually kin in several astonishing ways. Each member of this group has a certain shape, and can be classified appropriately: as either a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, or a hyperbola. The term "Conic Section" can be applied to any one of these curves, and the study of one curve is not essential to the study of another. However, their correlation to each other is one of the more intriguing coincidences of mathematics.
But that's enough about conic sections. Perhaps you would instead like to view this short dialog between a mathematical novice and an expert about pi ():
- Novice: So, what's pi?
- Expert: Pi a mathematical constant. It's always the same value, about 3.1415926. It's irrational and transcendental.
- Novice: Great. So what good is it?
- Expert: Well, the first thing that I can think of is for calculating volumes of surfaces of revolutions. That's calculus. And of course, radian measure.
- Novice: That's not what I meant. Why does it exist? Does it have a practical definition?
- Expert: Of course! It's the ratio of a circle's circumference to that circle's diameter. Pi a mathematical constant, you know. It's always the same value. I thought everybody knew that.
- Novice: (sardonically) Thanks.
This completely conic section-free piece of literature has some sort of application to conic sections. You may have caught that pi can be defined by a series of digits, but that doesn't help one use it, for there are plenty of numbers that can be defined by 3,1,4, and/or other numerals. Why is pi more useful than, for example, 2.7182818, that a letter of the Greek alphabet was chose to represent it? On the other hand, any conic section can basically be defined with a general equation. On the other hand, most curves can be defined with a general equation. These equations do not get to the issue of what a conic section is any more than a string of digits actually defines pi.
Equations of Conic SectionsEdit
Nonetheless, here is just a sample of the sort of equations that are considered conic sections:
Browsing this list reveals several subtle similarities. For example, you might see that there are only several types of terms in these equations. A conic section is a quadratic curve, meaning that there are only two variables used, and , and these variables only appear as themselves or squared, and possibly multiplied by a constant. One feature of conic sections is that they can be simplified down so that they only have these terms in them! (Another term, times , can be used when rotating conic sections, but it's not relevant at the moment.)
Here are a couple of other equations for conic sections:
The last equation above uses the xy term, which can be eliminated by a rotation. You'll notice that there are squared binomials (terms like ) in some of the equations. However, these equations can always be simplified so that , , , , and a constant are the only terms in the equation. This is a conic section's General Form, and looks like , where A, C, D, E, and F are constants.
The use of squared binomials is one way to find graphical information about conic sections. A binomial is any algebraic expression that's the sum or difference of two terms. , , and are all binomials. The word binomial means "having two parts", hence the two different terms in a binomial.
Conic sections aren't all that different. Circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas have several properties: the existence of foci, the locus of the intersection of a cone and a plane, and the consistency between the multiple definitions of eccentricity, including the ratio between the distance between foci and the distance between vertices, the slant of the plane, and the constant ratio between the distance from a focus to a directrix for any point on the curve. In addition, all conic sections are equations of the second degree or less. You basically can't have one characteristic and not have all the others.
We'll now conclude via the definition of conic sections from whence the term "conic section" derives it name. | <urn:uuid:b7177089-24ea-4cd7-8627-e2ed6af98c57> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Conic_Sections/Conic_Sections_Introduction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701160582.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193920-00166-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949788 | 950 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The Kurobe Dam (黒部ダム is a variable-radius arch dam located on the Kurobe River in Toyama Prefecture, Kurobe Damu)Japan. It was completed in 1963 after 7 years of construction. It is featured in the 1964 Godzilla film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and 1966 Gamera film Gamera vs. Barugon.
After the Z-Plan rocket collided with a meteorite while en-route to Mars, Gamera was freed and returned to Earth to attack the power facility at the base of the Kurobe Dam. Gamera retracted into his shell and deliberately flew into the dam until it breached, sending a torrent of water to flood into the valley below. Gamera then flew off toward an erupting volcano at the equator.
Showing 0 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators. | <urn:uuid:0e39cc5b-2015-4277-981b-3dd6bc0c68b4> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Kurobe_Dam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370491857.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328104722-20200328134722-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.942234 | 203 | 2.765625 | 3 |
- Barr , Murray Llewellyn
- (1908–) Canadian geneticist and anatomistBarr was born in Belmont, Ontario, and was educated at the University of Western Ontario, gaining his BA in 1930, MD in 1933, and MSc in 1938. His association with Western Ontario was continued with his appointment as an instructor in 1936. He subsequently became professor of microscopical anatomy (1952), professor of anatomy and head of the anatomy department (1964), and emeritus professor (1979).Barr is best known for his discovery, made in 1949 in conjunction with Ewart Bertram, of the densely staining nuclear bodies present in the somatic cells of female humans and other female mammals. These are called sex chromatin or Barr bodies. Later studies by Barr and others revealed that the single Barr body in normal cells is one of the two X-chromosomes in a highly condensed and genetically inactive state. The other X-chromosome is in the diffuse state and is genetically active.Their discovery enabled Barr and his co-workers to devise a relatively simple diagnostic test for certain genetic abnormalities, in which cells rubbed from the lining of the mouth cavity (a buccal smear) were stained and examined microscopically. For instance, individuals suffering from Turner's syndrome, which usually affects females, have only one X-chromosome and lack Barr bodies. In contrast, males affected by Klinefelter's syndrome possess an extra X-chromosome and exhibit Barr bodies in their cells.Besides his work in cytogenetics and inherited human disorders, Barr is also noted for his descriptions of nervous-system anatomy. His publications include The Human Nervous System: an Anatomical Viewpoint (1972; 5th edn. (with J. A. Kiernan) 1988).
Scientists. Academic. 2011.
Look at other dictionaries:
Murray L. Barr — Murray Barr Pour les articles homonymes, voir Barr. Murray Llewellyn Barr est un biologiste américain, né le 20 juin 1908 à Belmont, Ontario et décédé le 4 mai 1995. Il a découvert en 1948 le corpuscule de Barr, amas de chromatine du noyau… … Wikipédia en Français
Barr body — A microscopic feature of female cells due to the presence of two X chromosomes in the female. One of these X chromosomes is inactive and is crumpled up to form the Barr body. * * * Barr body bär n a densely staining inactivated condensed X… … Medical dictionary
Murray Barr — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Barr. Murray Llewellyn Barr est un biologiste américain, né le 20 juin 1908 à Belmont, Ontario et décédé le 4 mai 1995. Il a découvert en 1948 le corpuscule de Barr, amas de chromatine du noyau spécifique des… … Wikipédia en Français
Murray Barr — Murray Llewellyn Barr, OC, FRSC, FRS (June 20, 1908 – May 4, 1995) was a Canadian physician and medical researcher who discovered with graduate student Ewart George Bertram, in 1948, an important cell structure, the Barr body . Born in… … Wikipedia
Barr-Körper — Der Zellkern eines menschlichen, weiblichen Fibroblasten wurde mit dem blau fluoreszierenden … Deutsch Wikipedia
Barr-Körperchen — Der Zellkern eines menschlichen, weiblichen Fibroblasten wurde mit dem blau fluoreszierenden … Deutsch Wikipedia
Barr body — noun Etymology: Murray Llewellyn Barr died 1995 Canadian anatomist Date: 1961 a densely staining inactivated condensed X chromosome that is present in each somatic cell of most female mammals and is used as a test of genetic femaleness (as in a… … New Collegiate Dictionary
barr body — ˈbär , ˈbȧ(r noun Usage: usually capitalized 1st B Etymology: after Murray Llewellyn Barr died 1995 Canadian anatomist : a densely staining inactivated condensed X chromosome that is present in each somatic cell of most female mammals and is… … Useful english dictionary
University of Western Ontario — This article is about the University located in Ontario. For the University located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, known as “UW O”, see University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. The University of Western Ontario Motto Latin: Veritas et Utilitas Motto in English … Wikipedia
Университет Западной Онтарио — осенью Университет Западной Онтарио, англ. The University of Western Ontario, сокращённые наимено … Википедия | <urn:uuid:7ef60ed4-a84f-43be-beab-39e692e20c3a> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://scientists.academic.ru/89/Barr_%2C_Murray_Llewellyn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735990.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20200806001745-20200806031745-00196.warc.gz | en | 0.796975 | 1,111 | 3.265625 | 3 |
For a given deal of cards, the simulator performs an arbitrary number of random matches of some card games.
At present, two Italian card games are implemented, Tressette and Beccaccino. Tressette
are somewhat similar to other card games such as Whist, Spades and Hearts.
The simulator below computes the frequency distribution of the scores.
The moves are consistent with the rules of the games and are determined randomly. Artificial Intelligence is not implemented yet.
The simulator can help answer questions such as:
What would the score have been if another trump was picked?
What was the minimum/maximum possible score for the given deal?
What would the score have been if another player started the game?
How could a small variation of the deal have affected the score?
Insert the number of cards per suit [3-13]:
Choose the game:
The couples are Player 0 - Player 2 and Player 1 - Player 3.
Insert the card numbers in the table below for each player and each suit (the first index of each suit is 1).
It doesn't matter what and how many characters you use between the numbers.
It doesn't even matter the order in which you write down the numbers.
In the Beccaccino case, choose the trump for the match (set by Player 0):
The maximum number of matches with this number of cards is
(then in the Beccaccino case multiply by the number of suits to account for the choices of the trump)
The number of possible card deals is
The score of a match goes from 0 to
number of matches:
Score distribution for the couple Player 0 - Player 2
Enable text output (check it only for debugging purposes) | <urn:uuid:b69b043d-c4ff-4240-8a2b-ca0cd8a045b9> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.math.ttu.edu/~gbornia/personal/cards.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224647895.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20230601143134-20230601173134-00434.warc.gz | en | 0.897797 | 492 | 2.78125 | 3 |
|Clun Castle Key Facts|
|County||Shropshire (13 castles)|
|Categories||Motte & Bailey / Stone / Norman Square Keep|
|Remains||Small amount survives|
|Access to site||At any reasonable time|
The Norman Conquerors built their castles in locations where they could keep control of the local populations of Saxons or at important locations such as river crossings or on key roads. Many motte and bailey castles were built on the border with Wales to try and keep the Welsh at bay. The advantage of this type of castle was that it was quick to construct. Making a fortification from wood was much easier than making one of stone.
White Tower, London
One of the most important types of building in the time of William the Conqueror and William Rufus were the Norman keeps. Although many were rebuilt in the following century there are many good examples still remaining. The White Tower in London (pictured left), Dover and Rochester in the south east, Newcastle, Appleby, Carlisle, Brough, Richmond in the north are all examples of this type of castle. Other examples include Portchester, Guilford, Goodrich, Norwich, Castle Rising, Hedingham and Colchester. The castles are all built from a roughly uniform plan. A massive square tower with a square turret at each of the corners that project slightly. Each of the main faces of the castle has a flat buttress running up the centre of the wall for extra strength. The only parts that have decoration are usually the main doorway at the entrance and the chapel. At the centre of the keep are large halls. Some keeps have a dividing wall down the middle. Access to different levels and sections of the castle are by passages and spiral staircases built into the thick walls.
Do you want to explore a Saxon Hall, a medieval church or a large stone keep? Click the images below to enter a medieval world.
Transport yourself back up to a thousand years and explore historical buildings as they may have appeared in the past. | <urn:uuid:41bb4ec1-4181-4492-88a4-036b4508a841> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://timeref.com/places/clun_castle.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424683.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724022304-20170724042304-00172.warc.gz | en | 0.959056 | 423 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Kevin Shanley, FASLA / SWA Group
You were recently in Washington, D.C. speaking at the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation on improving the resiliency of our coasts in an effort to protect them from increasingly damaging storms and sea-level rise brought on by climate change. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, this is an issue on the minds of just about everybody who lives on the coast. What were the lessons of this disaster?
There are several lessons. There are real-world lessons and then "should-be" lessons. The real-world lesson is that everybody is at risk. These storms don’t just happen to Florida or Bangladesh. They can hit New York City. The storm could have hit Washington, D.C., with disastrous results. We’re not ready.
The other lesson we need to learn is quite important: we forget really quickly. Katrina happened, now eight years ago. Some structural changes were made to the levee system, but all of the really great plans to re-build New Orleans as a more sustainable community, a better community, a more integrated community came to nothing. In Houston in 2008, Hurricane Ike was a near miss. The SSPEED Center at Rice University is involved with this and has been working to make sure we don't forget what happened with Ike. If Ike had come in, it would have been a disaster ten-fold Katrina. It didn't, so we were lucky. It swerved about sixty miles to the east and it literally wiped the Bolivar Peninsula clean, virtually every structure on the peninsula was gone. It went up Chambers County, an agricultural community, and created huge damage, but relatively light because there’s nobody there, which is a lesson to learn.
Hurricane Ike damage at the Bolivar Peninsula / Bryan Carlile, Beck Geodetix
The challenge after Sandy is to ask ourselves what’s the next thing that’s going to distract everybody? In 2001, Houston was hit not with a hurricane but with a really amazing tropical storm called Allison. It dumped thirty inches of rain in twenty-four hours. It flooded seventy-five thousand homes and ninety five thousand cars. It was an amazing flood. It actually tracked all the way up to Canada. Post-Allison, many good things started to happen and a number actually did happen. There were bigger policy changes and changes that many of us were working on, but then in September 2001, guess what happened? The national attention, the local attention, everybody’s attention totally changed and a lot of policy-changing momentum was lost.
So will there be a diversion from Sandy? Yes. North Korea is percolating, and, now we’re focused on whether or not something terrible will happen there?” As is the case with media and big events, each successive one diverts energy and intellectual focus from the present problem—in this case, Hurricane Sandy. Sandy will be forgotten in the national attention, and unfortunately at the local level, attention might diminish as well. While there will be some good policy people working at it, and the number of people personally affected won’t forget, our national focus on Sandy will fade. In some respects, the recovery is amazing. The human species is amazingly resilient. The Bolivar Peninsula was wiped clean. Today, you wouldn’t know it. People have rebuilt right there in exactly the same place. It’s phenomenal. The key is finding a way to rebuild strategically and learn lessons from these disasters to shape our future plans. We also need to find a way to take a long-term view on many of these problems.
The New York Times reported that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to spend $400 million to buy up homes in New York City, demolish them, and then preserve the flood-prone land as undeveloped coastline. The idea is to spend some big bucks to turn some coastal areas into wetland or parkland. Does this approach make sense? Can this model be realistically scaled-up elsewhere in the U.S.? What are the alternatives?
It's a potentially very powerful tool. Speaking globally, the British and Dutch have been at it for decades. It's called “managed retreat”. It's about getting out of harm's way. FEMA has been funding buyouts like that for a while now. It's a really good program to remove the most at-risk structures, particularly federally-insured structures that time after time are repeat sinks for federal flood insurance claims.
What needs to be thought about, however, if you're talking about scaling it up, is how to replace the economic value of the development that's being removed from harm's way. It's about the loss of tax revenue. There are sales taxes based on the occupants, all kinds of revenue to the community. This revenue pays for schools, sewer systems, security, and all of the other things that we take for granted in government. Coastal real estate is expensive because it's attractive. If you take that out of the equation, you've got to be ready to think how to replace that. That's the challenge facing all of us. Great ecological strategies need to be considered economically, and vice versa.
New York City seems to be seriously considering using "soft" green infrastructure instead of "hard" infrastructure, like hugely expensive seawalls, to protect against another disaster. In a recent Metropolis magazine piece, Susannah Drake, ASLA, ASLA NY Chapter president, described soft infrastructure as "transforming the waterfront from a definitive boundary into a subtly graded band." The Dutch are already moving ahead with this kind of infrastructure, having seen the ecological damage caused by hard infrastructure. Will American policymakers ever buy into this?
Soft green infrastructure along coastal fringe areas can play a really important role in restoring ecological functions to our coastlines. Our coastlines have been severely degraded from an ecological performance standpoint. Green infrastructure as protection for urban areas needs really serious science and engineering studies to figure out the effectiveness of the interventions across different scenarios. Just how effective is a coastal marsh of several hundred yards wide? We're not talking about miles wide. We're talking probably several hundred yards or hundreds of feet. What is the benefit to, say, Manhattan? How does that compare to other strategies? Can we take a blended approach to soften our edges and create redundant and resilient strategies?
I've seen some beautiful renderings of the edge of Manhattan as it could be. There would be dramatic changes in ecological performance and a transformation in public perception about the city as a green place. There are a lot of wonderful aspects to this. But from a surge and hurricane risk-protection standpoint, we need to be careful not to set up false expectations. To what extent do coastal marshes protect us when a surge comes in that is 15 or 20 feet above those marshes? The green infrastructure could impede the wave action and the movement of the water or even exacerbate the run-up of a surge in shallow waters. The Gulf Coast of the North American continent has a long, shallow coastal run-up, which tends to exacerbate wind-driven surge.
We need to ask specific questions about where the benefits are. We need to ask our scientists, engineers, policymakers, and economists if we are looking at increased sea-level rise rates that are projected to be about a meter every 100 years (three feet every 100 years). Also, rising water levels drown coastal marshes. That's what has happened in the Galveston Bay complex. Because of subsidence caused by groundwater withdrawal, we lost square miles of emergent coastal marsh. The bottom dropped out and it drowned the marshes. How does this progression work? One can say, "Well, the marsh will just march inland." Well, will it? Does the actual geography allow it to just march inward? Will there be a period where there's nothing and then it has to get above a small bluff elevation? Those are important questions to ask if we're talking about putting really significant resources into this green infrastructure approach to improving coastal resiliency.
Galveston Texas Galveston Island State Park near the gulf of Mexico / Chris Cornwell. Flickr
Respected scientists argue that sea levels could
rise four feet by 2100. If any of the recent hurricanes to hit the U.S.
had occurred at higher sea levels, the damages would have been that much
more extensive and costly to repair. What are you hearing about seal
level rise? how does this change the timeline for action on improving
Sea level rise is like watching the hour hand move. We are like grammar school students: the hour hand doesn’t seem to move during class. Our time horizons are measured in just a few years at best. If we're forward-thinking, we might think out 10 years. The meaningful impacts of sea level rise, the really serious impacts are happening right now, but this is a process that's been going on for thousands of years, millennia, actually millions of years.
Are anthropomorphic forces going to increase the rate of change? It's a really good question and there are certainly many scientists who think that the burning of all this fossil fuel is increasing carbon dioxide, which is increasing the temperature of the globe, which is melting the icecap and raising sea levels. Will public policymakers be able to think out beyond a year or even 10 years to 100-year thresholds? The dialogue is there, but I don't see it coming down to meet real public policy changes yet.
There are outliers in the predictive scientific community who suggest the possibility that if the Greenland icecap, which is the big gorilla in the room, increased its rate of melt or disintegrated due to some threshold that we're not sure about, sea levels could rise very rapidly within an individual's lifetime. It could be a disaster. Would we be prepared for that? Absolutely not. As somebody who thinks about public policy, I think we should be running scenarios. We are uncertain as to the disposition of our climate and sea levels. When you're not sure of something you should be thinking about different scenarios. You should be thinking "Well, what if it's only three feet in 100 years? What do I need to do? But what if it's six feet? What if it's 10 meters, 30 feet, in 100 years? What should I do?" This dialogue should be occurring so that if the natural world presents us with an existential challenge at least some part of the community has been grappling with it and may have some appropriate paths to take.
You've been a long-time advocate for using natural systems to deal with water. In a recent article in The Huffington Post you write that Houston and other cities along the Galveston Bay rely on "antiquated storm-protection techniques and land practices doomed to repeated failures." What's needed are "policy shifts rooted in a natural systems-approach that work with nature's tremendous forces." What's holding back these policy shifts? Where are the biggest obstacles at the federal and local levels?
The biggest obstacle is the lack of public awareness. FEMA creates flood-risk maps or flood insurance rate maps. In the coastal areas of North America they are woefully inadequate. FEMA realizes that and they're in the process of updating them. In our region we haven't seen the updates. We're waiting with bated breath. We're not sure we'll entirely agree with their characterization of risk. Large swaths of the community rely on this public information to advise them about the level of risk. They look at the maps and say "I'm not at risk," whereas actual surge models being prepared show huge areas are at risk. So, first there has to be clear science that determines what defines the level of risk.
Second, there needs to be clear communication about the risks. That can be through things like flood insurance rate maps, but it also needs to be through public education and policy. There needs to be clear disclosure on every real estate transaction. There was an effort in the Clear Lake City area, which is in the Houston metro region where NASA's Johnson Space Center is located. They actually put up signs, little colored pylons, that indicated "This is the water level for a category four storm. This is the water level for a category five storm." These little pylons were 10 feet tall and very clear. You see it there and you would wonder, "Gee, should I buy a house here?" or certainly "Gee, should I make sure I renew my flood insurance?" A local politician, at the behest of the real estate community, insisted they be taken down.
Beyond research you've also made these natural systems work in real-world landscapes. The Buffalo Bayou Promenade in Houston really set the example for how to turn a trash-soaked eyesore into a beautiful piece of parkland that also supports flood control. Houston seems to really understand the value of this kind of multi-use infrastructure. What led to the changes in Houston's approach to its waterways and green space?
Houston is just beginning to learn the value of its waterfront real estate and for Houston it’s the value of our rivers and streams (we call them bayous).
ASLA 2009 General Design Award of Excellence. Buffalo Bayou Promenade. SWA Group / Bill Tatham
A lot of cities around the country are actually way ahead of Houston in having recognized that value, whether it's a coastal waterfront or a river waterfront. In Houston, the new riverfront has been the result of years of work by lots of individuals, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Each main bayou in the city has its own citizen advocacy organizations. Some of them are fairly significant and have permanent staff, whereas others are purely volunteer citizen groups. There have been willing ears in the public agencies. More recently, there has been support at an elected official-level, including a very supportive mayor right now. That's very encouraging. But we have a long ways to go. We're just starting on this effort. We have 2,000 miles of open stream channels in Harris County alone, so we're just beginning.
You've done a lot of work in China. What is your impression about how they are approaching coastal resiliency? Is there a uniquely Chinese approach to these issues that we can learn from in the West?
The universe of what's going on in China is amazing. You might think "Ah, Beijing controls everything. They can tell everyone what to do." Well, it actually doesn't work like that. The local government officials can have a surprising amount of independence and resistance to federal or provincial policies. There's that normal political friction that happens between different units of government. Good policies are being generated at the federal level, at the Beijing level; good policies are being generated at provincial levels. Good policies and projects are being implemented at local municipal levels. That's exciting news.
The country is doing great wetlands restoration projects. Wetland parks are all the rage across China. Kongjian Yu, FASLA, principal at Turenscape and professor at Beijing University, probably has a dozen wetland parks on his desk in his office at any given time. We're working on a number of them. It puts to shame anything we're doing here. On the other hand, one has to balance that against the unbelievable rate of urbanization and its impact on the environment in China. It's maybe only a drop in the bucket toward mitigating the impacts of urbanization that are going on right now.
Fuyang Waterfront Park / SWA Group
The good thing is they're very interested in the topic. The people that we work with, which is a very self-selected group who are willing to pay a foreign consultant to come and advise them, are already interested. I have a biased view… I could paint this rosy picture of China because we go over there and we are talking to people that share our environmental values. But there are many who don't share those values and that are in business just like in any country anywhere in the world. They're just trying to add value and sell that value and profit and move on to the next project.
You take the whole climate issue in China. China's doing some of the most progressive carbon-capture energy production in the world. For a while, they were the largest producer of solar cells. They're the largest producer of wind generating equipment. There are all these sort of extremes of what they are doing. Yet in the global sense, they're producing more carbon dioxide than anybody on a more rapid basis. They're increasing their carbon and energy footprints. They're still below us on a per-capita basis, but they're working very hard to catch up to our own huge footprints. So you will find a really mixed bag in China.
What can we learn from China? We ought to be studying what they are doing right and trying to learn from their successes. To the extent they're interested in partnering so they can learn from us, we ought to be sharing those solutions with them. It's a wild ride, like a rollercoaster, and one who’s end we can’t see from our vantage point.
Kevin Shanley, FASLA, is CEO of SWA Group and a long-time resident of Houston.
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A. The Ark of the Covenant is brought to the temple.
1. (1-2) All of Israel assembles at Jerusalem.
Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
a. Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel: Solomon intended this to be a spectacular "opening ceremony" for the temple. It was probably on the scale of the large productions in our modern Olympic opening ceremonies.
b. That they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord: The temple wasn't "open" until the ark of the covenant was set in the most holy place. The ark was the most important item in the temple.
c. Which is the seventh month: The temple was finished in the eighth month (1 Kings 6:38), but Solomon chose the seventh month for the dedication, eleven months later, "which time he chose with common respect to his people's convenience, because now they had gathered in all their fruits, and now they were come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of tabernacles." (Poole)
i. There may have also been another reason. "It has already been observed that Solomon deferred the dedication of the temple to the following year after it was finished, because that year, according to Archbishop Usher, was a jubilee." (Clarke)
2. (3-9) The ark of the covenant is set in the Holy of Holies.
So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. Then they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
a. The priests took up the ark: Solomon was careful to obey what God commanded about transporting the ark of the covenant, that it was only to be carried by priests. He will not repeat the error of his father David in 2 Samuel 6:1-8.
b. And all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle: The ark of the covenant was the most important item in the temple, but not the only item. They also brought the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense from the tabernacle into the temple.
i. "It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles, one at Gibeon, and the other in the city of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark." (Clarke)
c. Sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude: Solomon went "over-the-top" in his effort to honor and praise God on this great day.
d. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb: At an earlier point in Israel's history there were three items in the ark of the covenant. Earlier, inside the ark were the golden pot that had the manna (Exodus 16:33), Aaron's rod that budded (Numbers 17:6-11), and the tablets of the covenant (Exodus 25:16). We don't know what happened to the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod, but they were not in the ark when Solomon set it in the most holy place.
e. When the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt: The reminder of the deliverance from Egypt is significant, because there is a sense in which this - some 500 years after the Exodus - is the culmination of the deliverance from Egypt. Out of Egypt and into the wilderness Israel, out of necessity, lived in tents - and the dwelling of God was a tent. Now since Solomon built the temple, the dwelling of God among Israel was a building, a place of permanence and security.
3. (10-13) The glory of God fills the temple.
And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke:
"The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud.
I have surely built You an exalted house,
And a place for You to dwell in forever."
a. The cloud filled the house of the Lord: This was the cloud of glory, seen often in the Old and New Testaments, sometimes called the cloud of Shekinah glory. It is hard to define the glory of God; we could call it the radiant outshining of His character and presence. Here it is manifested in a cloud.
· This is the cloud that stood by Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21-22)
· This is the cloud of glory that God spoke to Israel from (Exodus 16:10)
· This is the cloud from which God met with Moses and others (Exodus 19:9, 24:15-18, Numbers 11:25, 12:5, 16:42)
· This is the cloud that stood by the door of the Tabernacle (Exodus 33:9-10)
· This is the cloud from which God appeared to the High Priest in the Holy Place inside the veil (Leviticus 16:2)
· This is the cloud of Ezekiel's vision, filling the temple of God with the brightness of His glory (Ezekiel 10:4)
· This is the cloud of glory that overshadowed Mary when she conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35)
· This is the cloud present at the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:34-35)
· This is the cloud of glory that received Jesus into heaven at His ascension (Acts 1:9)
· This is the cloud that will display the glory of Jesus Christ when He returns in triumph to this earth (Luke 21:27, Revelation 1:7)
i. "There is a parallel to this event in Acts 2:1-4 in which God marks the inception of the church as the temple of the Holy Spirit by making his presence known through the sound of a mighty rushing win and by filling those present with the Holy Spirit." (Patterson and Austel)
b. So that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud: The extreme presence of the glory of God made normal service impossible. The sense of the presence of God was so intense that the priests felt it was impossible to continue in the building.
i. We know that God is good and that God is love; why should an intense presence of goodness and love make the priests feel they could not continue? Because God is not only goodness and love, He is also holy - and the holiness of God made the priests feel that they could no longer stand in His presence.
ii. The intense sense of the presence of our holy God is not a "warm and fuzzy" feeling. Men like Peter (Luke 5:8), Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5), and John (Revelation 1:17) felt stricken in the presence of God. This was not because God forced an uncomfortable feeling upon them, but because they simply could not be comfortable sensing the difference between their sinfulness and the holiness of God.
iii. We can also think of the priests as those who ministered unto God under the Old Covenant. The New Covenant - the covenant of grace and truth (John 1:17) - offers us a better access to God.
iv. This glory remained at the temple until Israel utterly rejected God in the days of the divided monarchy. The prophet Ezekiel saw the glory depart the temple (Ezekiel 10:18).
c. I have surely built You an exalted house, and a place for You to dwell in forever: Solomon rightly sensed that the presence of the cloud meant that God dwelt in the temple in a special way. As long as this did not slip into a superstitious misunderstanding, it was good to recognize a special place to come and meet with God.
i. "Language experts say the poem is incomplete and fragmented, and that it apparently had another opening line in its original form." (Dilday)
4. (14-21) Solomon's speech at the dedication of the temple.
Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. And he said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying, 'Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel.' Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father David, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.' So the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; and I have filled the position of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised; and I have built a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And there I have made a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt."
a. Who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it: Solomon recognized that the temple was the fulfillment of God's plan, not David's or Solomon's. David and Solomon were human instruments, but the work was God's.
b. Out of Egypt . . . out of the land of Egypt: Solomon presses the remembrance of the Exodus. Though it happened 500 years before, it was just as important and real for Israel as the day it happened.
B. Solomon's prayer.
1. (22-23) Solomon recognizes the nature and character of God.
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: "Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.
a. Stood before the altar of the Lord: Solomon did not dedicate the temple from within the temple. It would be inappropriate for him to do so, because he was a king and not a priest. The holy place and most holy place were only for chosen descendants of the High Priest.
b. And spread out his hands toward heaven: This was the most common posture of prayer in the Old Testament. Many modern people close their eyes, bow their head, and fold their hands as they pray, but the Old Testament tradition was to spread out the hands toward heaven in a gesture of surrender, openness, and ready reception.
i. "It is worthy of remark concerning this prayer that it is as full and comprehensive as if it were meant to be the summary of all future prayers offered in the temple." (Spurgeon)
ii. "One is struck, moreover, with the fact that the language is far from new, and is full of quotations from the Pentateuch, some of which are almost word for word, while the sense of the whole may be found in those memorable passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy." (Spurgeon)
c. There is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You: Solomon recognized that God was completely unique. The pretended gods of the nations could not compare to Him in any way.
2. (24-26) Solomon recognizes God as the maker and keeper of promises.
"You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.' And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father."
a. You have kept what You promised: Solomon first thanked and praised God for His past fulfillment of promises.
b. Now keep what You promised Your servant David: Solomon called upon God to keep the promises that He made. This is the great secret to power in prayer - to take God's promises to heart in faith, and then boldly and reverently call upon Him to fulfill the promises.
i. "God sent the promise on purpose to be used. If I see a Bank of England note, it is a promise for a certain amount of money, and I take it and use it. But oh I my friend, do try and use God's promises; nothing pleases God better than to see his promises put in circulation; he loves to see his children bring them up to him, and say, 'Lord, do as thou hast said.' And let me tell you that it glorifies God to use his promises." (Spurgeon)
ii. This kind of prayer lays hold of God's promise. Just because God promises doesn't mean that we possess. Through believing prayer like this, God promises and we appropriate. If we don't appropriate in faith, God's promise is left unclaimed.
3. (27-30) Solomon asks God to dwell in this place and honor those who seek Him here.
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, 'My name shall be there,' that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive.
a. How much less this temple which I have built! We are glad that Solomon said this. From his statement in 1 Kings 8:12-13 we might have thought that he drifted towards a superstitious idea that God actually lived in the temple to the exclusion of other places. It was important to recognize that though God had a special presence in the temple, He was far too great to be restricted to the temple.
b. May You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place: Solomon asked God to incline His ear towards the king and the people when they prayed from the temple. For this reason, many observant Jews still pray facing the direction of the site of the temple in Jerusalem.
c. When You hear, forgive: Solomon knew that the most important thing Israel needed was forgiveness. This was the greatest answer to prayer Israel could expect from God.
4. (31-32) Hear when Your people take an oath at the temple.
"When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
a. And comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple: The temple grounds were used as a place to verify and authorize oaths. When a dispute came down to one word against another, Solomon asked that the temple would be a place to properly swear by.
b. Hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants: Solomon asked the God who can see what man can't - who knows the hidden heart of man - and to enforce from heaven the oaths made at the temple.
i. The old Puritan commentator John Trapp could not resist mentioning a fulfillment of this principle in his own day: "Anne Averies, who, forswearing herself, a.d. 1575, February 11, at a shop of Wood Street in London, praying God she might sink where she stood if she had not paid for the wares she took, fell down presently speechless, and with horrible stink died."
5. (33-34) Hear when Your people are defeated.
"When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.
a. When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy: Many times in their history, Israel suffered defeat and could only cry out to God. It was even worse when the defeat was because they had sinned against the Lord Himself.
b. When they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in the temple, then hear in heaven: Solomon asked God to hear the prayers of a defeated, yet humble and penitent Israel. God answered this prayer of Solomon, and He forgives and restores His defeated people when they come in humble repentance.
6. (35-40) Hear in times of plague and famine.
"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
a. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain: Drought was a constant threat for the agriculturally based economy of Israel. If there was no rain, there was no food.
b. When they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven: Solomon doesn't take it for granted that God would forgive and hear His repentant people. God's good response to our repentance comes from His grace, not from justice.
c. When each one knows the plague of his own heart: Solomon recognized that some plagues are easily seen, but other plagues come from our own heart. Many are cursed by a plague that no one else can see, but lives in their own heart. Solomon asks God to answer such a plague-stricken man when he humbly pleads at the temple.
i. A man did not have to be sinless or righteous to have his prayer answered at the temple. He could be a guilty man, stricken by the plague of his own heart - and still find a gracious God when He came in humble repentance.
ii. "A great many men think they know the plague of other people’s hearts, and there is a great deal of talk in the world about this family, and that person, and the other. I pray you let the scandals of the hour alone, and think of your own evils." (Spurgeon)
7. (41-43) Hear when a foreigner prays.
"Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name's sake (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.
a. Moreover, concerning a foreigner: The temple was in Israel but it was always intended to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7). God wanted the court of the Gentiles to be a place where the nations could come and pray.
i. The violation of this principle made Jesus angry. When He came to the temple and found the outer courts - the only place where the Gentile nations could come a pray - more like a swap meet than a house of prayer, He drove out the moneychangers and the merchants (Matthew 21:13).
b. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You: Solomon asked God to hear the prayer of the foreigner out of a missionary impulse. He knew that when God mercifully answered the prayers of foreigners, it drew those from other nations to the God of all nations.
8. (44-53) Hear when Israel goes out to battle and prays from captivity.
"When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, 'We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness'; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them (for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace), that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD."
a. When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them: Solomon prayed with the idea that God should answer the prayers for victory made in foreign lands towards the temple, but only when they battle as God sent them. This was not a blanket request for blessing on every military adventure.
b. When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin): This is a succinct Old Testament statement of the principle most clearly stated in Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
c. When they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive: Solomon also asked God to hear Israel's prayer from captivity in a foreign land. This recognized that the God of the Temple could answer prayers made away from the temple.
C. Solomon blesses the people.
1. (54-61) The blessing: may God answer my prayer, that we'll be blessed
And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day."
a. He arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven: 1 Kings 8:22 tells us that Solomon began this prayer standing, but some time before he finished, he fell to his knees in reverence to God.
i. Ezra prayed on his knees (Ezra 9:5), the Psalmist called us to kneel (Psalm 95:6), Daniel prayed on his knees (Daniel 6:10), people came to Jesus kneeling (Matthew 17:14, Matthew 20:20, Mark 1:40), Stephen prayed on his knees (Acts 7:60), Peter prayed on his knees (Acts 9:40), Paul prayed on his knees (Acts 20:36, Ephesians 3:14), and other early Christians prayed on their knees (Acts 21:5). Most importantly, Jesus prayed on His knees (Luke 22:41). The Bible has enough prayer not on the knees to show us that it isn't required, but it also has enough prayer on the knees to show us that it is good.
b. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses: Since Solomon prayed often appealing to God's promises, it makes sense that he praised God for the past fulfillment of His promises. Knowing this gave Solomon confidence in prayer.
c. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers: God promised to be with Israel, but Solomon knew it was important to ask God to fulfill His promise. He comes pleading the promises of God.
d. That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God: Solomon again shows the often-neglected missionary impulse God wanted in Israel. Blessing to Israel wasn't meant to end with Israel; God wanted to bless the world through Israel.
2. (62-66) The feast of dedication for the temple.
Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. On the same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven more days; fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the Lord had done for His servant David, and for Israel His people.
a. He offered to the Lord, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep: This is a staggering - almost grotesque - amount of sacrifice. Each animal was ritually sacrificed and a portion was dedicated to the Lord, and a portion given to the priests and the people. It was enough to feed a vast multitude for two weeks.
i. It was such a great amount of sacrifice that they specially consecrated the area in front of the temple to receive sacrifices, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings.
b. At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him: From the time of year and the length of this feast, we understand that this was the Feast of Tabernacles, extended beyond its normal seven days on this special occasion.
i. "The Feast of Booths was in itself a grand occasion for rejoicing and for an enhanced spirit of community among all Israelites. The dedication of the temple made this occasion all the more joyful and memorable, and the time of the celebration was suitably extended." (Patterson and Austel)
c. For all the good that the Lord had done for His servant David, and for Israel His people: This account of the dedication of the temple ends where the story of the temple began - with David, not Solomon. The writer remembers that it was David's heart and vision that started the work of the temple (2 Samuel 7:1-3 and following).
i. "How happy must these people have been, and how prosperous, had their king continued to walk uprightly before God! But alas! the king fell, and the nation followed his example." (Clarke)
© 2004 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission | <urn:uuid:93e3d3bb-7a3a-49b0-a8c2-1198ab7d6794> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://enduringword.com/commentaries/1108.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223206770.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032006-00020-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97226 | 6,740 | 2.875 | 3 |
In 2013, a future full of solar-powered drones beaming internet across the globe looked like a sure thing. Huge companies like Facebook and Google were investing millions to get these sun-fueled birds in the air. But after years of setbacks and crashes, Google (technically Alphabet, the Google spinoff that runs this program) is throwing in the towel.
First reported by 9to5Google and confirmed by Business Insider, Google's surrender in the race to create viable solar drones is just another piece of the company's larger retreat from its self-described "moonshots," or far-flung projects dedicated to investigating the Next Big Thing in health, science, consumer technology, transportation, and aerospace. Last year, Google gave up on trying to create the world's first truly modular smartphone and it also has also scaled back its plans for its own self-driving car. Project Titan, the internet-beaming solar drone, is another failed venture on that growing list.
Google says Titan employees will be relocated to other teams within X, the Alphabet subsidiary in charge of moonshots. Most likely, many of the employees will begin working with the Project Loon team, which uses balloons instead of drones to beam internet down from the sky, and Project Wing, which for now is little more than a stunt drone delivery concept to rival Amazon's own drone delivery system.
The only other company still trying to create an internet-emitting solar drone is Facebook, which has faced its own share of adversity with its Aquila drone after that aircraft crashed on its first test flight. Facebook engineers maintain that they can fix the vulnerability.
The rosy future of solar-powered drones has significantly dimmed over the past year. But with the simultaneous proliferation of drones and solar power, it's hard to image these two pieces technology stay apart forever.
Source: Business Insider | <urn:uuid:314c8f14-3e6b-44d6-b7df-d40c9f9eca26> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/a24716/alphabet-kill-titan-aerospace-drone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202188.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20190320004046-20190320030046-00455.warc.gz | en | 0.955781 | 377 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Franken, M. McComish, J. (2005). Characteristics of quality teaching for students in New Zealand schools whose first language is not English. In LED 2003: 1st International Conference on Language, Education and Diversity, Refereed Conference Proceedings and Keynotes, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 26-29 November 2003 [CD-ROM]. Hamilton, New Zealand: Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, The University of Waikato.
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/3228
The current paper draws on the findings of two recent research reports commissioned by the New Zealand Ministry of Education (Alton-Lee, 2003; Franken & McComish, 2003) in order to generate a synthesised statement of characteristics of quality teaching for students for whom English is not the first language (referred to from here as NESB students1) in New Zealand schools. Alton-Lee (2003, see Ministry of Education website, www.minedu.govt.nz) provides a synthesis of research-based evidence addressing the nature of quality teaching in schooling for the full range of diverse students. In this work, diversity encompasses “many characteristics including ethnicity, socio-economic background, home language, gender, special needs, disability, and giftedness” (Alton-Lee, 2003, p. v). Because her synthesis addresses diversity in the student population, she focusses on what is common to diverse students and thus does not specify particular conditions that pertain to any one sub-group of diverse students. Franken and McComish (2003) on the other hand, is a research report into the English language support for NESB (Non English Speaking Background) students in New Zealand schools. It includes a literature review of evidence-based research into second language teaching and learning, particularly classroom based research. It also reports on observations and analysis of practices in New Zealand schools, and discusses how these documented practices relate to the research findings from the literature.
Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, The University of Waikato
- Education Papers | <urn:uuid:2e349fd2-5b8f-4bd1-8b02-e1ad402ee41f> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/3228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948563629.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215040629-20171215060629-00705.warc.gz | en | 0.901512 | 436 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Ear has three parts outer, middle and inner ear.
Middle ear is air filled cavity, separated from external ear by ear drum and is connected to space behind the back of nose (nasopharynx) by Eustachian tube.
Function of Eustachian tube is to drain fluid from middle ear which then can be swallowed and to provide ventilation of middle ear space.
If Eustachian tube gets blocked because of some reason middle ear air replacement fails and potential vacuum forms, this vacuum draws fluid inside the middle ear, condition known as otitis media with effusion.
Diagnsis is important specially to differentiate it (fig on right hand side) from incipient acute otits media (fig on left side)-
1. Clinical History is important in diagnosis.
Otitis media with effusion may have no symptoms at all.
Most frequent presentation is covert and overt hearing loss which is mostly fluctuating with season and may be affected with changing position. Child may describe it as plugged ear or stuffy or wooly feeling in the ear.
Only sign by which parents come to know that the condition exists may be loud talking, not responding to verbal commands and turning up the volume of the television or music system, sometimes it is detected on routine audiometry (test of hearing).
Hearing loss can slow up language and academic skill development; children may develop behavioral and social problems like he may appear to be distracted, or inattentive.
Infant and young children may present as delayed or defective speech development.
There may be mild earache (pain in the ear) especially with upper respiratory tract infection.
Otoscope is an instrument to see magnified view of ear drum.
Doctor first removes any ear wax in order to visualize ear drum clearly.
Ear drum may be dull and opaque instead of usual transparent or pearly white colour. It may be pulled inside or may be bulged out. Sometimes characteristic fluid level or air-bubble may be seen.
Pneumatic otoscope has a rubber bulb attachment, air is pushed inside on pressing the bulb and reduced mobility of ear drum can be judged.
It gives more magnification and better visualization of minute details of ear drum.
Tuning fork tests and pure-tone audiometry may be helpful in children above 4 years and may show some conductive type of deafness.
Tympanometry is rapid and reliable even in infants.
5. Definitive and direct evidence of diseases is only when presence of fluid in the middle ear is confirmed by myringotomy.
<a href=”http://technorati.com/tag/otitis-media-with-effusion” rel=”tag”><img style=”border:0;vertical-align:middle;margin-left:.4em” src=”http://static.technorati.com/static/img/pub/icon-utag-16×13.png?tag=otitis-media-with-effusion” alt=” ” />otitis media with effusion</a> | <urn:uuid:a28632bd-4b79-4e7f-b5ad-30b7fcf2456f> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://entcare.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/how-otitis-media-with-effusion-is-diagnosed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647044.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20180319175337-20180319195337-00239.warc.gz | en | 0.898306 | 644 | 3.59375 | 4 |
WHAT YOU NEED
- French Press
- Paddle or Dinner Knife
- Mug or Decanter
- Coffee (coarse grind)
To know how much coffee to use:
- 3 cup French Press: 15-16 grams of coffee
- 4 cup French Press: 22-23 grams of coffee
- 8 cup French Press: 45 grams of coffee
Pour the coffee grounds inside the French Press and place the French Press on the scale.
To know how much water to use (water to use looks less because there needs to be room for your ground coffee):
- 3 cup French Press: 200 grams of water
- 4 cup French Press: 270 grams of water
- 8 cup French Press: 540 grams of water
You will need to get the timer ready for this. Pour enough boiling water (200˚F) using double the amount of coffee to saturate the grounds for about 30-40 seconds. For example, 15-16 grams of coffee, use 30 grams of boiling water to saturate. Immediately start the timer as soon as water hits the coffee grounds.
After saturating the grounds for 30-40 seconds, add rest of the water. For example, if you use 22-23 grams of coffee, you’ll need 270-30 grams = 240 grams (account for water used for saturating).
Place the plunger on top and do not plunge. Let the coffee brew for 4 minutes.
Apply pressure on the plunger, pushing the coffee grounds to the bottom.
Pour the coffee immediately to your mug or a decanter. You do not want to leave remaining coffee inside the French Press to avoid over-extraction.
Enjoy your coffee! | <urn:uuid:3c508662-c0e6-4147-9d64-d3fbb2a01707> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://espressorepublic.com/brewing-guides/french-press/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986657586.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20191015055525-20191015083025-00346.warc.gz | en | 0.893942 | 352 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Russia plans to build one BN-1200 reactor at Beloyarsk NPP and the South Urals NPP.
Fast breeders, such as the cutting-edge BN-1200, a 1200-megawatt reactor, use a liquid metal heat-transfer agent as a coolant. Fast neutron reactors significantly minimize radioactive waste and expand the range of fuel used at nuclear power plants.
According to the experts, the fast reactors are most effective when used as part of a dual-component system combined with thermal neutron reactors and not on their own.
Only a few countries possess fast neutron reactor technology, with Russia leading in this field. Such reactors are believed to be able to significantly improve the safety of the nuclear power industry as well as making it more competitive.
Also according to the plan, a nuclear power unit, comprising a facility to produce high-density uranium-plutonium neutron fuel and a fast neutron reactor with a closed on-site nuclear fuel cycle, called the BREST-OD-300, should be constructed by 2025. The power unit will be included in the Proryv (Breakthrough) project which is focused on developing technologies to close the fuel cycle.
Russia’s first medium-capacity nuclear power reactor — the WWER-600 developed by Gidropress OKB — is expected to become operational at the Kolskaya-2 nuclear power plant in Russia’s north.
Interest in small- and medium-capacity nuclear power reactors has increased in recent years and is driven both by a desire to reduce the impact of capital costs and to generate power away from large grid systems, especially in remote areas where it is difficult to deliver other types of fuel.
In total, seven WWER-TOI (V-510) nuclear reactors are planned to be finished by 2030.
According to the information provided by its developer Gidropress OKB, the WWER-TOI has a standard optimized and informatized design with the WWER reactor having an estimated output capacity of 1250 MW.
Two reactors are planned to be build at Smolensk NPP-2, Nizhny Novgorod NPP, Kostroma NPP and one at Tatar NPP. | <urn:uuid:85d0d180-2ce0-442d-9e06-ca93d7b808d8> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://sputniknews.com/20160809/npp-russia-construction-1044101163.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780060538.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20210928062408-20210928092408-00335.warc.gz | en | 0.944444 | 458 | 2.578125 | 3 |
(CNN) — Human activity and climate change have left about 75% of the world’s coral reefs threatened, putting the livelihoods of many countries that depend on the ocean ecosystems at risk, according to a report released this week.
Local threats such as overfishing, coastal development, and watershed- and marine-based pollution are responsible for the immediate and direct threat to more than 60% of the world’s reefs. Add to that thermal stress from rising ocean temperatures and the number of threatened reefs jumps to 75%, the World Resources Institute found in the report, titled “Reefs at Risk,” released Wednesday.
“This report serves as a wake-up call for policy-makers, business leaders, ocean managers, and others about the urgent need for greater protection for coral reefs,” said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “As the report makes clear, local and global threats, including climate change, are already having significant impacts on coral reefs, putting the future of these beautiful and valuable ecosystems at risk.”
The threat is the highest in Southeast Asia where nearly 95% of the region’s reefs are threatened, mainly due to overfishing and destructive fishing, according to the report. Australia, home to the world’s largest reef system, the Great Barrier Reef, had the lowest threat level at 14%.
The numbers represent an alarming trend: a dramatic increase in the percentage of reefs rated as threatened. According to the report, the level has increased by 30% in 10 years, mainly due to a rise in overfishing and destructive fishing.
The report attributes the rise to the growth in coastal populations in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.
Similarly, climate change is playing an increasing role in the growing threat levels as the warming atmosphere causes ocean temperatures to rise.
As a result, “mass coral bleaching, a stress response to warming waters, has occurred in every region and is becoming more frequent as higher temperatures recur,” the report says, noting that “extreme bleaching kills corals outright.”
“Our projections suggest that during the 2030s, roughly half of reefs globally will experience stress sufficient to induce severe bleaching in most years,” the study says. “During the 2050s, this percentage is expected to grow to more than 95%.”
Many countries, especially small island nations in the Pacific and Caribbean, rely on coral reefs for fishing, tourism and coastal protection, and the report says that “degradation and loss of reefs will result in significant social and economic impacts.”
In addition to the global threats of warming oceans and acidification, the local threats pose the most immediate and direct risks, the report finds, threatening more than 60 percent of coral reefs today.
This analysis addresses the local threats of:
- Coastal development, coastal engineering, land filling, runoff from construction, sewage discharge, and impacts from unsustainable tourism
- Watershed-based pollution such as erosion and nutrient fertilizer runoff from agriculture that flows down rivers to coastal waters
- Marine-based pollution and damage such as solid waste, nutrients, toxins from oil and gas installations and shipping, and physical damage from anchors and ship groundings
- Overfishing and destructive fishing, including unsustainable harvesting of fish or invertebrates, and damaging fishing practices such as the use of explosives or poisons.
The 27 countries and territories identified as highly vulnerable to reef loss are spread across the world’s reef regions. Nineteen are small island states.
Nine countries – Haiti, Grenada, the Philippines, Comoros, Vanuatu, Tanzania, Kiribati, Fiji, and Indonesia – are most vulnerable to the effects of coral reef degradation. The report points out that these countries have high ratings for exposure to reef threat and reef dependence, combined with low ratings for adaptive capacity.
In order to help with recovery, “local threats must be tackled head-on with direct management interventions, while efforts to quickly and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions are of paramount concern not only for reefs but for nature and humanity as a whole,” the report says.
Former Vice President Al Gore cautions in the report’s introduction that if efforts “fail to address the multiple threats they (reefs) face, we will likely see these precious ecosystems unravel, and with them the numerous benefits that people around the globe derive from these ecological wonders.”
- Three-quarters of the world’s reefs at risk (environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com) | <urn:uuid:f4fe831d-aead-410e-9a50-853cf4b1681e> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://oceangirlproject.org/2011/02/27/reefs-at-risk-world-resources-institute-report/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084888302.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119224212-20180120004212-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.939204 | 945 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Albania Ancient Shipwreck Survey
For a complete list of INA projects > SEE MORE
The Adriatic coast has a long tradition of ancient civilizations, trade, conflict, colonization and settlement, and other maritime activities that have left a varied and significant record on the seabed. With the generous support of INA Director Claude Duthuit, INA’s Elizabeth Greene conducted a preliminary survey of the Albanian coast off Butrint in 2000. A new survey program, initiated by Auron Tare of Albania and INA’s partner organization, the RPM Nautical Foundation, has brought new technology and deeper water surveys in collaboration with partners in Albania, and has resulted in a number of significant discoveries.
On the heels of an enlightening, educative, and successful inaugural expedition, the 2008 field season of the Albanian Coastal Survey Project proved equally rewarding. Multibeam survey of the shoreline continued northward and included Porto Palermo, while diver investigation addressed selected areas of the shoreline. RPM Nautical Foundation (RPMNF) provided equipment, personnel, and funding to carry out the project and worked in partnership with the Instituti i Arkeologjisë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology-AIA) as well as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Through the 2008 field season in Albania, the discovery of numerous shipwreck and artifact finds carrying Corinthian goods established this city as one of the foremost in the Greek settlement efforts along the shores of Illyria. Little is known, however, about colonization efforts and the nature of trade north of Apollonia. Maritime evidence of Roman trade from southern Albania is also present, to a lesser extent relative to Greek evidence, but does indicate widening Mediterranean contacts. Although the cities that rose to prominence during the Roman period remain further north, in the current 2009 field season a A.D. 4th-century shipwreck carrying N. African amphoras has been discovered just south of Porto Palermo.Selected Bibliography
“Ancient wrecks being hunted in once forbidden sea off Albania,” by Llazar Semini, January 28, 2009 in SERBIANNA (Feb. 1, 2009)
“Albania: Ancient wreck hunt in once forbidden sea” in International Herald Tribune The Global Edition of the New York Times. The Associated Press. Published February 1, 2009.> Read Less | <urn:uuid:37127d5c-e72a-47cb-973c-ab6a79f2bf3a> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://nauticalarch.org/projects/albania-ancient-shipwreck-survey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251687958.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20200126074227-20200126104227-00159.warc.gz | en | 0.931611 | 493 | 2.78125 | 3 |
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1. A carving in the base material of a denture that simulates the contours of the natural tissue that is being replaced by the denture.
2. A distinguishing characteristic of certain hard tick species, consisting of small rectangular areas separated by grooves along the posterior margin of the dorsum of both males and females.
Origin: thr. Fr. Fr. L. Festum, festival, hence festive decorations
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These small lifestyle changes can help keep your heart healthy.
Heart disease remains the number one cause of death among both women and men in the United States. As treatments improve with each passing year, so does our knowledge of what we can do to prevent the disease.
Here are 3 steps you can take to help improve your heart health:
- Lose weight. One of the most important things you can do to improve your heart health is to lose weight. Even modest weight loss can improve a host of heart health indicators, from lowering blood pressure to reducing the risk of diabetes. Many doctors recommend following the Mediterranean diet as a way to improve heart health. It’s a high-fiber diet that encourages you to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as other plant-based foods such as whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It also focuses on replacing foods high in saturated fats with foods that have healthier fats. So for example, you can use olive oil instead of butter and eat fish instead of red meat.
- Exercise more. Ideally, you should do at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise 5 times a week, such as walking, riding a bike or swimming. But even if you can’t find a block of 30 minutes or more to exercise, remember that every little bit counts. So take a brisk 10-minute walk after lunch or choose the stairs instead of the elevator. Over the course of the day, those short bits of activity add up to a healthier heart.
- Know your numbers. Ask your doctor to test your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. These are numbers you should know and they should be checked on a regular basis. If your numbers are high, you can work to control them before you run into serious health issues. In some cases, lifestyle changes are enough to bring your numbers into the normal range or you may need medication to help control these heart health risk factors.
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Health eCooking® is a registered trademark of Baldwin Publishing, Inc. Cook eKitchen™ is a designated trademark of Baldwin Publishing, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein without the express approval of Baldwin Publishing, Inc. is strictly prohibited.
Date Last Reviewed: March 3, 2021
Editorial Review: Andrea Cohen, Editorial Director, Baldwin Publishing, Inc. Contact Editor
Medical Review: Thomas Metkus, MD | <urn:uuid:722d50b0-884d-44b8-af50-82b5265d10df> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://firstphysiciansgroup.com/3-simple-steps-to-a-healthier-heart/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652663039492.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220529041832-20220529071832-00089.warc.gz | en | 0.917719 | 574 | 2.5625 | 3 |
It’s no secret that Henry VIII had a somewhat complicated dating history. From a schoolyard rhyme to their own Broadway musical: his wives have remained the legacy of the Tudor king’s dynasty. Perhaps one of his most divisive wives, Anne Boleyn’s story is still the topic of impassioned debate to this day. A tale of lust, love, scandal, and murder: despite the distance of history, Anne remains to this day the villain of the storied Tudor lineage. Found guilty of multiple crimes against her husband, Anne was beheaded at the Tower of London on 19 May, 1536. But what exactly did she do that led to her death?
Anne’s rise to infamy began long before her execution. When Henry declared his separation from the Vatican and his wife Catherine, the blame was most commonly laid at the feet of Anne. In fact the motivation for his break from the Catholic church was one more of legacy than lust. Desperate to have a male heir to inherit his throne, Henry believed that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was the reason behind his inability to sire a male heir.
As Catherine had originally been married to Henry’s older brother, Arthur, Henry believed that this made their marriage illegitimate in the eyes of God. He petitioned the Vatican to annul his marriage to Catherine so that he could marry Anne who he believed would give him a son and legitimate heir. When refused, Henry put in motion the beginning of the English Reformation in order to legitimise his marriage to Anne and ensure that any male heirs she produced could inherit the throne without contestation.
Married in January of 1533 after seven long years of waiting for Henry’s divorce, Anne and Henry’s marriage was one of adoration and fiery passion. Shortly after their marriage they would conceive their daughter Elizabeth. Sadly what followed was a series of miscarriages, stillbirths, and heartache.
Trouble in paradise?
Severely injured in a jousting accident in January 1536, Henry came incredibly close to death. After being thrown from his horse in full armour, the horse (also fully armoured) fell on top of him leaving him unconscious for two hours. Many believed the accident would be fatal, and the stress of losing her husband and king caused Anne to miscarry. The child she was carrying was the long-anticipated son that both Henry and Anne had prayed for.
The fallout from Henry’s accident and suspected brain damage marked the beginning of the end for Henry and Anne, and she was executed after being found guilty of three separate crimes less than six months later.
So what misdeeds did Anne commit in those final months that would warrant her arrest, incarceration, and execution?
The most well known of Anne’s crimes was her alleged adultery with several different men of the Tudor court. Mark Smeaton was a Swedish musician who was one of the accused. Arrested in April, he eventually confessed to having had carnal knowledge of the queen. It is believed that this confession was the result of torture or emotional pressure, but it carried the same weight nonetheless. His confession led to the further arrest of Sir Henry Norris, the King’s own Groom of the Stool, Sir Francis Weston, and Sir William Brereton. Maintaining their innocence throughout, all were found guilty at trial. One of the jury that presided over the case was Thomas Boleyn - Anne’s own father.
Unfortunately, whilst being held in the Tower of London, the queen had recounted conversations and flirtations with various members of the court that implicated herself and the men in something more sinister. In a playful conversation between herself and Norris, Anne had implied that (were the king to die) Norris would be looking to step into his shoes as Anne’s husband. Not realising just how much danger she was in, she was unaware that all conversations were being reported back to her husband. What was recounted as an innocent joke had just implicated Anne in a crime far more sinister than adultery: Anne had just admitted to treason.
Treason in the Tudor court was one of the most feared crimes. Having gained the throne during the war of the roses, Henry’s father won the throne of England in battle and not through succession. The years before his reign had been tumultuous, and Henry was very aware of the fact that stronger claims to the throne could be out there. The fear of further war in the name of the throne meant that any criticism of the crown was met with swift justice. Treason was considered such a threat to the king that it encompassed everything from plotting against the crown to simply mentioning the mortality of the king or predicting his death.
The revelations of Anne’s conversations meant that Henry now had proof to charge her with conspiracy against the king. Had Henry had any hesitations before about whether moving to execute Anne was the right thing to do, now he had the proof to show that he had been betrayed.
Witchcraft and incest
Though already armed with reason enough to execute his queen, the charges Anne faced continued to dishonour and discredit her further. It wasn’t enough that she be executed: her enemies at court wanted to ensure no legacy remained after her death.
The rumour that Anne was a witch wasn’t a new one, but her incarceration and impending trial fuelled stories about her use of supernatural forces to secure her seat in court. From having an extra finger, to the rumoured deformities of stillborn children - the court revelled in stories of Anne’s debauchery; and whilst her charges didn’t include witchcraft, the long list of historic whisperings against the queen helped to pave the way for the final charge levied against Anne: something so heinous that it would discredit her not only in the eyes of her husband, but in the eyes of God. An unforgivable sin.
The last of the men arrested and accused of having committed adultery with Anne was George Boleyn: Anne’s brother. Having been found guilty in a trial whose jury included his own father, George was executed for conspiracy against the king and for incest. There was no evidence provided to suggest that Anne and George had maintained any kind of incestuous relationship other than the fact that they spent considerable time together and were seen to be close. However, in finding his son guilty along with the others accused of adultery, Thomas Boleyn had sealed his daughter's fate.
Despite no solid evidence against her Anne was executed on the 19th May 1536 (two days after her brother and the other accused). Henry commuted Anne’s sentence from burning to beheading, and hired a French swordsman renowned for his expertise in executions to ensure a swift execution. Anne gave a short speech upon the scaffold before kneeling to accept her sentence.
Henry waited on Tower Hill for the cannons to announce Anne’s death, before swiftly turning his horse and riding to Hampton Court for a game of tennis. He demanded that all paintings of Anne be removed and destroyed, and declared their marriage illegitimate (removing their daughter Elizabeth from the line of succession). This meant that when Henry married his third wife Jane Seymour 11 days later there was no question about the legitimacy of the match. It was as if Anne had never existed. | <urn:uuid:51b4e351-6838-47e4-815d-8335869493f0> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.history.co.uk/articles/guily-or-innocent-the-crimes-of-anne-boleyn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988759.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20210506175146-20210506205146-00426.warc.gz | en | 0.987058 | 1,514 | 2.8125 | 3 |
"Lovely Nelly" - Jan 1st 1861
On January 1st 1861, Cullercoats Lifeboat was asked to save life on a brig called "Lovely Nelly". The description below was written a few years after the event by Richard Lewis. The illustration is a painting called "The Women", painted in 1904 by John Charlton, and rather
dramatically shows the women of Cullercoats pulling the lifeboat through a blizzard to launch it near the wreck.
On a New Year's morning some years since, a severe tempest was experienced on our north-east coast, and soon after daybreak, the coastguard-men on the look-out at the Spanish Battery, Tynemouth, saw the brig "Lovely Nelly" of Seaham, deeply laden, with a flag of distress
flying. She was struggling to get to the northward, but struggling in vain, and driving rapidly in upon the coast.
The coastguard-men followed her along the shore with the rocket-apparatus, and, as they went on, the people of the
villages turned out to join them : so that, ere long, each headland had its anxious crowd of lookers-on. It was a very sad sight to see. Some of the vessel's sails had been blown away, and she grew more unmanageable amid the heavy seas that broke around and over her.
At length, abandoning the desperate effort to get to the northward, her crew, as the last chance of life, ran her for Whitley Sands, five miles north of Shields. She was so deeply laden, that she struck on a ridge of sunken rocks and was still three-quarters of a mile from the
shore. It was impossible to reach her with rockets. Only one hope remained - the Lifeboat!
As fast as they could run through the snow, driving wind and rain, Life-boat men and fishermen made off to Cullercoats for the Lifeboat belonging to the National Life-boat Institution. Six horses were fastened to her carriage and down they came at a gallop to the sands. She
was speedily manned - by a gallant crew of Cullercoats men, who pulled out as for their own lives; not a moment too soon did they reach the ship, which was now broadside on to the sea, her crew in the rigging, and the waves breaking over her half mast-high.
Cleverly and deftly was the
Life-boat laid alongside; the vessel was grappled, and the boat held to her by a strong rope. Instantly, the crew made towards their deliverers; but even as they left the rigging, one man was much cut in the face and the head, the mate had his shoulder dislocated, and three of them were swept
into the sea. The Life-boat was handled with great skill; two of the crew were at once picked up, and as the third man went down to his death, a strong hand seized him, with a grasp of iron, by his hair, and dragged him up to life.
Did any remain on the ship? Yes: how overlooked, how so
left to die, we know not - but the little cabin-boy remained. The boy's cry for help grew very pitiful: for some time he dared not venture out of the weather rigging; at last he did so, and was seen in the lee shrouds: "he had got wounded in the head, and his face was covered with blood".
One of the Lifeboat's crew has since said to the Author that every face around him grew pale, and tears came from eyes little used to shed them - "They clenched their teeth, and with their own lives in their hands", dashed in their boat to save him. The sea beat her back. They dashed in
again, to be swept back once more.
Again and again they tried; the poor boy, meanwhile, crying terribly in great loneliness and despair. He was so young, and the coast was so near! But the vessel began to part, and the unstepped mast must fall, and would crush the Life-boat if she stayed
one minute longer in her then position. Then, sacrificing one life to save many, a brave man gave the order, in a hoarse and broken voice, to "cut the rope". In an instant she was swept away under the vessel's stern - not a second too soon, for at once the mainmast fell, on the very spot she had
just left, and the vessel immediately broke up. The boy - "his face covered with blood" - fell into the sea. Clenched in agony or clasped in prayer, his little hands were seen once - twice - lifted above the waves! The Life-boat again rushed towards him, but the tempest swept away his boyish cry
before the roar and tumult of the winds: he did not rise again. The LifeBoat was pulled back to the land.
The crew of the lifeboat that day were Coxswain John Redford, Second Coxswain John Taylor, Bowman John Chisholm, William Dodds, William Harrison, Thomas Mills, Joseph Robinson, John
Smith, George Smith, Robert Storey, Francis Storey, William Storey, William Stocks, Barty Taylor and Robert Taylor. In addition, some believe, the Chief Boatman of the local Coastguard was also aboard. He was called Lawrence Byrne.
The cabin-boy's name was Thomas Thompson.
The Mystery behind the Wreck of the "Lovely Nelly"
The brig "Lovely Nelly" was in her 57th year when she was wrecked. A collier brig was said to have a lifespan of about 60
years. Owned by a Seaham Harbour company since 1856, she had seen previous service with Wright & Co of Kings Lynn in Norfolk, during which time she was insured through Lloyds of London. This insurance policy did not continue under the new ownership, who presumably sought cover elsewhere.
Her new 1856 owner, James W Watson, was born in Gateshead in about 1829. He was married to Mary, a year younger than himself, who was born in Burnopfield a small village a few miles southwest of Gateshead. In the census of April 1861,
they are not shown as having any children. At the time of buying "Lovely Nelly", Mr Watson and his wife were moving into a newly built house in Marlborough Street in Seaham. This was a middle class part of town and the residents were all well-to-do. In other words, it was a posh place to live.
The Prelude to the Fateful Voyage
"Lovely Nelly" was normally captained by Sunderland-born Wilkinson Bond, who was aged 36 at the time of her loss. His mate was Henry Stanbridge (aged 38). These men had charge of "Lovely Nelly" on her
voyages immediately prior to her loss. She shuttled back and forth between Seaham and London from July until December of 1860 when she bypassed Seaham and berthed in Sunderland on the 4th of that month. She idled her time in Sunderland for several weeks and on the 14th of December, her captain
and mate were discharged from the ship, while the remainder of the crew were retained on the ship's books. Later in the same day, the mate (Stanbridge) was re-instated and promoted to Captain.
Why should there be such a commotion over appointments which seem to have worked perfectly well
in the past? Were the captain and mate concerned over some aspect of the ship's condition? Did the mate later recognise an opportunity for advancement which he could not afford to ignore? Stanbridge did not formally gain a mate's certificate until 1864 (three years after the loss of "Lovely
Nelly"), when one was issued to him at Seaham Harbour.
Fully laden with coal, the brig sailed from Sunderland on December 28th 1860, bound for London with Henry Stanbridge in control.
The Final Voyage
"Lovely Nelly" set out for
London and was reported to have reached Flamborough Head when she had to turn back, apparently because of a heavy leak. This incident took place on the morning of Sunday, December 30th 1860.
(Was this issue of seaworthiness the background to the dispute between the owner and the captain
earlier in the month?)
The weather worsened but Stanbridge, who must have had many years' experience of the sea to be entrusted with the command of a ship, attempted the run to Sunderland - some 62 miles - rather than put into any of number of nearer ports. As time passed, the storm grew
stronger and "Lovely Nelly" was swept past Sunderland, whither it seems that Stanbridge had sought to shelter while, perhaps, having repairs carried out.
This strategy failed and he and his ship were driven further north, missing the entrance to the Tyne. Watched from the shore on New
Year's Day, "Lovely Nelly" continued past Tynemouth and Cullercoats with alarmed observers calling for the emergency services of the day (the coastguardmen) to "do something". These fellows followed the ship with their rocket equipment, ready to bring it into play should the opportunity arise.
Eventually, the crew of the brig realised that they losing the battle against wind and sea and turned their craft towards Whitley Sands. While threequarters of a mile offshore and still heavily laden, the boat struck a reef - beyond the range of the rocket apparatus!
Nothing would do now
but to send for the Cullercoats Lifeboat and its crew. This was speedily fetched and the gallant crew put out into the storm to attempt a rescue.
The rescued crew were:
while the only fatality was:- Thomas Brown Thompson (apprentice) aged 12.
The survivors were treated
well by the shore party, dried out and warmed and, upon recovery, made their way home. Thomas Thompson's body was soon recovered from the sea and returned to his family for burial in his home town of Seaham.
The owner of "Lovely Nelly", Mr Watson, you may remember, lived in a well-to-do
part of town. On March 25th 1861, he re-located to The National School, Church Street in Seaham. This school had been set up in 1848 but by the early 1860s it was so neglected that it very rarely qualified for its annual Government grants. The headmaster, John Hetherington, was also a shipowner
and was well noted for keeping both eyes on his profits from the sea. It would seem that Mr Watson had suddenly fallen on very hard times indeed, to have moved from his respectable and comfortable home to take up some form of lodgings. Had he been bankrupted by the loss of his ship? Presumably,
she had not been insured and he had been forced to meet the demands of his creditors from his own pocket.
Final Resting Place
Tommy Thompson was buried on January 13th 1861 at St John's Church in Seaham Harbour. A re-organisation of the
churchyard in the 1950s led to the removal of the old headstones without a plan being made of their previous whereabouts. Thus, the final resting place of the real victim in this story will now never be known.
"Lovely Nelly" still lies off Whitley Sands, opposite the Brier Dene, three
quarters of a mile from the shore. There are several more wrecks to keep her company now. Maybe sports divers will one day identify her position more accurately and recover some relic or memento.
This information has been made available to me by Mr Alan M Gregg of Chester-le-Street. He researched the ship, the crew and the owner, including paying for the use of a professional researcher in the London maritime archives.
Pictures and text from | <urn:uuid:e53ff8ad-8e4b-4a6b-9029-7050ba808acb> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://www.east-durham.co.uk/seaham/lovely_nelly.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257767.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20190524204559-20190524230559-00197.warc.gz | en | 0.988239 | 2,501 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Preparation for College & Work
1. From the 18th century, as democracy spread from the United States to Europe, Canada, and Australia, newly enfranchised democratic citizens demanded more access to primary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities. Today, around 85 percent of young people in OECD countries graduate from high school (OECD, 2012, Table A2.1). However, just over 60 percent of these high school graduates enter a college or university for higher education (Table C3.3). This is actually good news. In 2000, less than 50 percent of young people in OECD countries entered a university. More and more young people are going to college.
2. But entering college and graduating with a degree is another matter. Today, only around 39 percent of young people in OECD countries graduate with a college or university degree (OECD, 2012, Table A3.2). This is up from around 20 percent in 1995. On top of this, around 11 percent of young people graduate from a college, community college, or polytechnic school with a vocational certificate or degree. This number is slightly lower than in 1995. University graduation rates in the United States are slightly lower than the OECD average, outpaced by thirteen other countries, including England, Australia, and Japan. England has one of the highest graduation rates with over 50 percent of young people earning a university degree. In the U.S., the most prepared students with the highest chance of success enter a 4-year college or university right after high school, declare a major, and enroll full-time, but on average only 55 to 58 percent of this student population will earn a bachelor's degree after six years (NCES, 2012).
3. 21st century literacy includes more than just the traditional skills learned in primary and secondary education, skills such as reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. In order to meet the new challenges of the 21st century, students need advanced skills taught only in institutions of higher education. Many of these advanced skills apply to everyone, like critical thinking, arguing, and scientific reasoning. This book will introduce you to these skills. Some of these skills apply only to certain groups, depending on the specific profession you choose to enter. But are most people prepared to enter higher education, learn these new 21st century skills, and graduate with a degree? Sadly, the answer is no.
13.1 Preparation for College
4. Many students do not master the basic skills learned in high school (especially reading, writing, and math), which means they are not prepared for higher education. But even for those students who do possess basic skills, many are still lacking important knowledge or skills that are needed to successfully earn a degree. Most students do not fully understand how the university is organized. They do not know how to choose a major that fits their ability and aptitudes. And further, most students are not prepared for the difficulty and intensity of higher education.
5. If you are reading this book, then most likely you are an undergraduate in a university or college. While you will be required to master new and difficult forms of knowledge, it is more than likely that you are not prepared for this challenging learning that will be expected of you. If you are like the typical undergraduate, then you likely have not mastered the basic reading, writing, and thinking skills of high school. In fact, most students reading this book right now did not learn all they should have in high school, and thus, they are not adequately prepared to succeed in higher education. Because of this fact, many of you reading this book will not make it to your 2nd year.
6. How do I know this? Scholars in the field of higher education have been researching this subject for over three decades. It is now widely recognized that the prosperity of nations in the globalized world is largely predicated on the ability of people to graduate high school, attend higher education, and graduate with at least a bachelor's degree. But most people are not prepared to successfully enter higher education and complete a degree. Here is a brief report on what scholars know about academic preparation in high school and how it affects success in higher education and the labor market. Because this book is primarily written for a North American audience, and because of the limitations of my expertise, I will mostly be using data on the United States.
7. Around 70 percent of all U. S. high school students go to college, around half to 2-year community colleges and the other half to 4-year universities. Most students who attend community colleges have the goal of transferring to a 4-year university. One of the best predictors of success in higher education is whether a student takes academically rigorous high school courses (Long, Conger, & Iatarola, 2012). However, less than half of high school students take university preparatory classes while in high school. And those that do don't necessarily learn the actual skills they need to be successful in higher education (Carey, 2011, p. 49; Lee, 2012; Rosenbaum, 2001). Some critics of high school AP courses call them a "scam" because many of these courses do not come close to meeting college-level standards or work-loads (Tierney, 2012).
8. ACT is a non-profit organization that administers standardized testing in the United States. Its College Readiness Standards (2011) are used to gauge the preparedness of elite high school seniors for higher education. Many students take university preparatory classes while in high school, but they have to pass the ACT test in order to get university credit for the course. ACT tests basic university subjects in math, science, reading, and English. A student who passes an ACT test would be expected to earn a C or higher in that subject in a first-year college course. In 2011, 1.62 million high school seniors took the ACT, representing roughly 49 percent of all high school students in the U.S. (Redden, 2011). Only 25 percent of these seniors who took the ACT passed all four areas, up slightly from 24 percent in 2010. Approximately 50 percent of test takers passed at least one area, while 25 percent failed all four areas. This is not good news. It means that only about 12.5 percent high school seniors are actually prepared for the full range of university level work.
9. But this stark figure masks different levels of academic achievement for different groups of students. These differences can be partially attributed to the lingering effects of racism and institutional segregation in the U.S. They are also due to disparities of local school funding between urban, suburban, and rural locations, which are highly correlated with the lingering effects of segregation. Approximately 41 percent of Asian students and 31 percent of whites passed all four areas. But only 11 percent of Latinos and 4 percent of black students passed all four areas. Also, it should be noted that only around 52 percent passed the reading section, which means that almost half of these elite high school students cannot read at the university level.
10. The grades you earn in high school classes are a particularly strong predictor of your success in higher education. According to one study, around 13.9 percent of high school seniors with low grades earned a degree, compared to almost 66 percent of A level students, 41.5 percent of B level students, and 16.1 percent of C level students (Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 66). Around 69 percent of the highest achieving high school students had either earned a degree or were still enrolled after six years of higher education, compared with only 34 percent of the lowest achieving (Tinto, 1993, p. 30).
11. But around 40 percent of high school students believe that academic effort and grades do not matter in high school, and many high school students falsely believe that they can still earn a university degree even with mediocre or poor high school grades (Rosenbaum, 2001, pp. 63-64). Based on his long-term research, sociology professor James Rosenbaum (2001) argued, "The strong predictive power of high school grades is important - it tells seniors how to place their bets. Although students are correct in believing that they can enter a college with low grades, they are usually mistaken in thinking that they can complete the degree" (p. 68).
12. Based on one long-term study, 95 percent of a 1992 high school class wanted to go to into higher education, but half of these students lacked even 9th grade level math and verbal skills, let alone the more advanced skills needed to be successful at a university (Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 57). There is strong evidence to suggest that most high school math standards do not adequately prepare students for university-level mathematics (Lee, 2012). Around 33 to 50 percent of all college freshmen have to take at least one remedial "basic skills" class their first year because they were not adequately prepared for university level work (Barnett, 2002, p. 3; Haycock & Huang, 2001, p. 8). Around 10 percent of freshmen need to take a remedial reading class and around 39 percent need to take at least one remedial class (but not a reading class), like math or writing (Haycock & Huang, 2001, p. 8).
13. A lack of basic skills is part of the reason why it takes at least six years for the average student to actually graduate with a university degree. But many university students do not make it that far. Around 26 percent of all 4-year university students will drop out before their 2nd year. This number goes up to approximately 45 percent for 2-year community college students (Beach, 2011; Haycock & Huang, 2001). More seriously, only a third to half of all 1st year students actually earn a university degree (Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 57; Tinto, 1993, p. 29).
14. And there are clear differences in who earns a university degree, based on race and class. Approximately 60 percent of white students earn a degree or are still enrolled in college after six years, compared to only 47 percent for Hispanics and 40 percent for blacks (Tinto, 1993, p. 31). Approximately 67 percent of the richest quartile of students earn a degree or are still enrolled over the same period, compared to only 42 percent for the lowest quartile (p. 30). While this is serious news, it is not surprising to scholars who study the history of higher education. Institutions of higher education have always had to deal with unprepared students, and dropout rates have always been high; however, in our current age of "college for all," this phenomenon seems to be getting worse (Rosenbaum, 2001).
13.2 Social Inequality: The Achievement Gap & The Earnings Gap
15. You might be asking yourself right now, "Am I prepared for higher education?" "Will I be one of the lucky ones to actually graduate with a degree?" In the United States, if you are a middle-class or rich white or Asian student who went to a private school or a suburban public school, then you are most likely prepared. If you are poor or lower-middle class, a non-white or non-Asian ethnic minority, and went to a rural or inner-city public school, then most likely you are not prepared.
16. Historically, high schools were actually designed to separate university-bound students from the majority who were not expected to go into higher education. This usually included discriminatory policies based on race, class, and gender. Lower class and ethnic minorities (and sometimes women) were often put on the lower track curriculum away from university – that is, if they were even admitted to the high school at all. And while many of the older forms of "tracking" and racial or gender segregation were largely dismantled during the 1970s and 80s, dual-level placements continue. Middle-class and upper-class students still get the better education and leave high schools more prepared for higher education (Brantlinger, 1993; Lucas, 1999; Rosenbaum, 2001).
17. This is what scholars call an "achievement gap." Different groups of students in the United States, as measured by class, race and geography, have different overall levels of academic achievement, including earning high grades, passing standardized tests, graduating from high school, entering higher education, and graduating with a university degree. For instance, in America only about seven percent of lower-class students earn a bachelor's degree compared to 77 percent for upper-class students (The Pell Institute, 2015, p. 31). These different levels of achievement are mostly a legacy of traditional social values, economic inequality, racial segregation, and disparities in public school funding between rich and poor school districts (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2006, p.3). In fact, scholars have found that much of the achievement gap can be explained by the unequal funding of public schools, especially in terms of access to quality learning resources, smaller class sizes, and qualified teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2010, pp. 99, 106; Kozol, 1991).
18. Once students leave high school or university and get a job in the labor market, there is also an "earnings gap." This is partly based on the major you choose, i.e. the skills and knowledge you have acquired in school. But this earnings gap is also based on the discriminatory markers of race, gender, and class, which still stratify the labor market (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004; Rosenbaum, 2001). In all countries, workers face discrimination in the labor market, some of it is for good reasons and some for bad reasons. Employers naturally discriminate based on knowledge and skills. This is generally considered to be a good form of discrimination because it is based on the merit of the worker. But there still remain many bad forms of discrimination against various groups of people. According to one economist, racism, sexism, and ageism all cause “inequalities in the marginal benefits" of higher education, which means that a black man and a white man with the same degree from the same university may be paid differently in the labor market due to racial discrimination (Paulsen, 2001, p. 76).
19. The financial rewards of schooling and degrees reflect deep-set inequality in American society and continuing discrimination in the labor market. Women still make on average about 20 percent less than men for the same type of work (Closing the gap, 2011). In 2000 the average earnings of a black male with a professional degree was more than $8,000 less than a white male with a bachelor's degree. A Latina woman with a doctorate degree earned only $3,000 more than a white male with a high school diploma. There are also mostly modest returns for community college or trade-school certificates and associates degrees. Thus, many economists wonder if obtaining only “some college” is worth the financial costs and forgone wages (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004, p. 158; Mishel, Bernstein & Allegretto, 2007; Rosenbaum, 2001). Likewise, getting a masters degree doesn't always pay off financially, especially in terms of the high cost of graduate school and the lost wages when you are a student; however, some masters degrees do lead to increased earning potential, although not equally for all people.
20. It is also important to remember that traditional racism is alive and well in the United States, despite the claims of many politicians and some social scientists about a post-racial world (Hollinger, 2000). Based on research conducted within the last decade, sociologist Devah Pager (2007) documented the "continuing significance of race in employment decisions" (p. 98). In particular, she discovered that "blacks are less than half as likely to receive consideration by employers than equally qualified whites" (p. 98). She even found that blacks with no criminal record were hired at about the same rates as whites with "prior felony convictions" (p. 98).
21. While the achievement gap and the earnings gap are connected to broader forms of discrimination in U.S. society, these phenomena are also partly due to individual effort, especially in high school. The larger racial and class patterns of the achievement gap are influenced by individual factors, such as a student's high school grades, time spent on homework, and achievement scores on standardized tests (Rosenbaum, 2001, pp. 72, 74). The types of high school classes you took (Long, Conger, & Iatarola, 2012) and your grades (Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 66) are two of the strongest predictors of your future success in higher education. And, of course, some measures of success will be determined by decisions you make your first couple of years at the university. For instance, the type of university you enroll in matters a great deal. At mid-career, a graduate from an elite private university will be earning over $37,000 more than a graduate from a moderately ranked state university (Vedder, Denhart, & Robe, 2013, p. 27). Also, the major you choose will largely determine your ability to find employment and the income you will earn. Not all degrees are rewarded equally in the labor market. Some fields, such as Economics and Engineering, are highly valued, while other fields, such as Education and Social Work, are not.
22. In order to earn the maximum value from your college degree, you need to find employment in the same field as your major. For instance, using a degree in Economics to become an economist or a degree in Accounting to become an accountant. Many students earn degrees in fields for which there are little or no actual jobs and they often have to find work in unrelated fields, such as an English major working as a bartender or a history major working as a waitress. Such people are called “over-educated” because they have more education than they need for the type of work they do (Vedder, Denhart, & Robe, 2013, p. 30). These people also tend to become “underemployed” because they often cannot find full-time employment, sometimes working two or three jobs to make ends meet (Vedder, Denhart, & Robe, 2013, p. 30). Over the next decade in the United States, over 31 percent of Americans will have a bachelor’s degree or higher, but only approximately 14.3 percent of the jobs in the U.S. will require at least a bachelor’s degree (Vedder, Denhart, & Robe, 2013, p. 21). There will be over twice as many college graduates as there are jobs that require college degrees, which means that many college graduates will be forced to take low-paying work and their college degree will not be financially rewarded. Did you know that almost 15 percent of taxi drivers in the U.S. have earned a college degree (Vedder, Denhart, & Robe, 2013, p. 23)? And many of the jobs that currently exist are at risk of disappearing due to the rise of automation, robots, and artificial intelligence. But it is important to remember that while earning a college degree is more important than ever, there are still many good jobs with high pay that do not require a bachelors degree, and some of these jobs are in high demand.
13.3 Prepare Yourself for Success in College
23. Now how does all of this relate to you and your chances of succeeding in higher education? And how is all this related to reading and writing? First, the odds are that many students who are reading this book were not fully prepared in high school to be successful in higher education. And because the United States remains a highly unequal society (Jilson, 2004), there are some larger sociological characteristics, like race and class, which also are connected to both success in higher education and in the labor market. For instance, racialized minorities and the poor often go to impoverished schools lacking important resources, like trained teachers, and they often live in socially and economically challenged environments (Beach, 2010; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Hochschild & Scovonick, 2003; Grubb & Lazerson, 2004). These same groups also face discrimination in the labor market.
24. These general trends are important to understand for many reasons. You need to recognize that these trends will be affecting your future success, whether you realize it or not. You need to think hard about your background experience, especially your high school academic record and socio-economic background. Psychologists call this type of critical thinking "reference class forecasting" (Kahneman, 2011, p. 251). In order to better predict what will happen in the future, you need to think about the "reference class," or general group, to which you belong. You need to research the relevant statistics about the reference class to which you belong in order to see how the average member of this group performs. For instance, if you visit a doctor, this professional will likely explain how your personal characteristics fit into general patterns that may be associated with a disease, and thereby, the doctor will warn you about modifying your behavior so that you can live a longer life.
25. I am trying to do something similar in this chapter. I have just given you some basic trends that help predict a major marker of social success (i.e. earning a degree) for various students with different backgrounds. You need to use this information to think about your experiences and socio-economic status in order to gauge your "baseline" (p. 251) chances of success in higher education. Then you need to use this information to modify your behavior accordingly.
26. Most importantly, you need to realize that you cannot succeed in higher education without the foundational skills taught in high school: reading, writing, and math. Many students do not have these skills when they enter higher education. If they do not, then they have to learn these skills at the same time that they are required to learn the new, higher order information and skills of the university. Learning both basic and higher order skills at the same time is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. It also puts disadvantaged students even further behind because they have to learn high school and college skills all at once. If you are one of these unprepared students, then you will have to work twice as hard than more prepared students in order to succeed in higher education.
27. More importantly, you will most likely need extra help in order to succeed. But unlike in high school, you will be treated like a free adult at the university. Everyone will expect you to direct your own education. Your academic advisers will be overseeing hundreds, if not thousands, of students. Your professors will be busy with their primary job, which is not teaching, but conducting and publishing their research. If you need extra help from these busy people, then you will have to ask for it.
28. There are many people at the university who want to help you. But they will not know that you need help, or know the type of help that you need, unless you ask for it. You need to approach your professors with questions during class. You need to go to professors’ office hours to ask for additional help. You need to make appointments in the Writing and Learning centers on campus to meet with a tutor. You need to study with hard-working peers. If you were lucky enough to enroll at a very good, selective school, then most likely there are a lot more resources available to help you succeed. But not all institutions of higher education have the same types or amounts of additional resources available to help you succeed in your classes.
29. You need to realize that one of the most important predictors of your success in college will be having a clear goal and taking the steps needed to achieve that goal (Tinto, 1993, p. 38). However, as this chapter explained, your previous educational preparation in high school is an important mediating variable affecting your ability to realize your goals, especially if you have set very high and ambitious goals, like earning a bachelors degree (Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 72). Rosenbaum (2001) found that a clear goal has about a 27 percent correlation with bachelor degree attainment, while high school grades have about a 31 percent correlation (p. 73). Thus, while having a clear goal is important, it is more important to adequately prepare yourself to reach that goal and to have the motivation to succeed.
30. In higher education, you are in charge of your learning. Unlike high school, most university professors will not reprimand you for missing assignments or failing tests. If you are struggling to learn, in classes with fifty to two hundred students, most likely your professors will not notice. If you fail a class, most likely no one will seek you out to council you. Besides maybe your adviser, no one will be checking up on you. No one will be pushing you to work hard. No one will be coaching you to succeed. You are largely on your own.
31. Higher education is an optional activity designed to train only the best and brightest students. You will have to motivate yourself. You will have to push yourself to learn and succeed in this tough environment. There is a strong statistical correlation between high levels of motivation and academic success (Wise & Demars, 2005). In order to pass a class, you have to do all of the assigned work for a class (and usually much, much more), and you have to demonstrate expertise on exams and course projects. If you fail a class, this means that you become more likely to drop out of higher education and could fail to earn a degree. You will need to organize your life. You will need to find ways to motivate yourself to do every assignment. You will need to meet the high expectations of each and every professor. You will need to push yourself towards your goal of earning a degree, and later finding a rewarding job.
32. Finally, you need to realize that your professors will be very difficult to understand. Much of what professors know will remain "tacit" knowledge (Polanyi, 1962). This is a type of "inarticulate intelligence" (p. 71) based on a lifetime of learning. Your professors have read thousands of books and articles. They have argued with hundreds of other professors during their career. They cannot always explain all that they expect you to know. As strange as this may seem, professors don't often realize how much they actually know and they can overwhelm students with floods of information. They don't always appreciate how difficult it is to understand the complex issues that they have spent a lifetime studying. Also, most of your professors will not be very good teachers (Grubb, 2003, p. 30). They will only lecture about important information, but you will have to memorize, understand, and demonstrate mastery of this information through exams. Your professors will not always explain subjects clearly. Your professors will assume that you understand all of the words they use and the concepts they explain. They will assume that if you don't understand something, then you will make the effort to ask a question or to look it up yourself. These are the basic unstated rules of higher education. You must rise to level demanded by your professor, and if you need more help, then you must help yourself to learn.
33. In order to succeed at higher education, you will need to develop what the scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi (1962) called an "educated mind" (p. 103). He defined this as "the capacity continually to enrich and enliven its own conceptual framework by assimilating new experience" and information (p. 103). As the Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein explained, "The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think" (Isaacson, 2007, p. 299). If you have not done so already, you will need to develop an educated mind in order to be successful in higher education and in life (Bain, 2012). You will need to learn how to become an autodidact, which is a self-educating person. You will need to know how to learn on your own and how to teach yourself. You will need to learn how to ask questions and discuss issues with knowledgeable peers. But more importantly, you will need to know how to read at an advanced level. You will need to find the best sources of information so that you can learn independently and fill in the many gaps that your professor will not fully explain. You will need to learn how to read and think like an academic.
34. Almost all of the learning you do in higher education will be done outside of the classroom on your own, as you read sources, think about complex ideas, and write papers or complete course projects. Class time will be used mostly to disseminate information, often in the form of lectures, and also to take exams, which will test how much you have learned. But your actual learning, the most important part of the process, will be done on your own time outside of class. You are in charge of your own learning. You will ultimately decide how much effort you want to exert on your education, how much or little you want to know.
35. There is no secret to success. Expertise is not magic. As the noble prize winning psychologist and behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman (2011) wrote, "The acquisition of expertise in complex tasks such as high-level chess, professional basketball, or firefighting is intricate and slow because expertise in a domain is not a single skill but rather a large collection of mini-skills" (p. 238). The journalist Malcolm Gladwell (2008) surveyed the scientific literature on successful achievement and found that there is one key factor behind every successful person, around 10,000 hours of sustained practice in a specific domain. That's the secret: practice and hard work (p. 39; Sennett, 2008, p.172). Gladwell (2008) writes, "The thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder" (p. 39).
36. It is a great responsibility and a terrible burden to be in charge of your own success. For many young adults, it is simply terrifying. You've been told what to do by parents and teachers for years, but in higher education nobody really takes notice if you succeed or fail. Nobody will make much of an effort to help you unless you ask, and even then, they will only be able to give you some guidance. In order to succeed, you must have the motivation to learn (Liu, Bridgeman, & Adler, 2012). You must learn how to read, think, and develop an educated mind. You will need to spend hours a day practicing the skills that you will need as a professional. You will have to supply the intellectual tenacity and sustained effort to master and apply these skills. You are in charge of your own learning.
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Buddhism: Details about 'Iconography Of The Buddha'
Gautama Buddha, the Indian spiritual teacher (circa 563-483 BCE) known as The Buddha, who is the central figure in Buddhism, is represented in the arts of Thailand and Laos according to an iconography with specific rules. In other Buddhist countries, different iconographies are used.
The Buddha is always represented with certain physical attributes, and in specified dress and specified poses. Each pose, and particularly the position and gestures of the Buddha's hands, has a defined meaning which is familiar to Buddhists.
For Buddhists, the correct depiction of the Buddha is not merely an artistic matter. Buddhists believe that a properly rendered Buddha image is a hypostasis: an actual spiritual emanation of the Buddha, which possesses supernatural qualities. Although the Buddha is not a god, Buddhists seek to communicate with the supernatural world through Buddha images, making sacrifices to them and praying before them.
Buddha images are not intended to be naturalistic representations of what Gautama Buddha looked like. There are no contemporary images of him, and the oldest Buddha images date from 500 to 600 years after his lifetime. But Buddhists believe that Buddha images represent an ideal reality of the Buddha, and that every Buddha image stands at the end of a succession of images reaching back to the Buddha himself.
When creating a Buddha image, the artist is expected to be in a spiritual and mental state (samādhi) that will enable him to visualise this ideal reality. There is no requirement that every Buddha image be identical, and in fact there is a wide variety of artistic styles and national traditions in representing the Buddha. There are, however, certain rules of representation that must be adhered to.
The current range of postures in which the Buddha may be shown, and the gestures which may be depicted, evolved over the first millennium of the Buddhist era (roughly 500 BCE to 500 CE), mainly in India, the original homeland of Buddhism. In the early part of this period, the Buddha was usually shown giving a general gesture of benediction, with the right hand held at shoulder-height with the palm facing forward and the fingers together and slightly bent. By the end of the Gupta Empire (about 550 CE), the canon of representation had become more varied, with the seated meditative position (dhyāna mudrā - see below)
becoming common, particularly in Sri Lanka. By the 7th century CE the canon was largely as it is seen today.
As Buddhism spread from India to other countries, variations in the depiction of the Buddha evolved. This article describes the canon of Buddha representation in Thailand and Laos. This canon was not formalised until the 19th century, as part of the general project of "modernisation" that followed the Buddhist world's encounter with Western civilisation. A key figure in this process was the Siamese royal prince and Buddhist monk Paramanuchit Chinorot, a son of King Rama I, who in 1814 was appointed administrator of the Wat Pho royal temple in Bangkok. At the request of King Rama III, Paramanuchit described and represented 40 different postures of the Buddha in an illustrated treatise called Pathama Sambodhikatha. Some of these, such as "Buddha threading a needle," were new, although justified through reference to the literary accounts of the Buddha's life. Paramanuchit's illustrations were later rendered as bronze miniatures, which can be seen today at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok and serve as templates for the creation of modern Buddhist imagery.
Attributes of the Buddha
The Dīgha Nikāya, a Pāli text of the 1st century BCE, gives a list of 32 physical attributes of the Buddha. Some of these are poetic or fanciful ("legs like an antelope's," "ankles like rounded shells"), while others are more specific: feet with level tread, projecting heels, long and slender fingers and toes, a tuft of hair between the eyebrows. Although it is not required that Buddha images reflect all of these attributes, many of them have acquired canonical status.
Most curiously, the Buddha is said to have had a protruberance on the top of his skull, the usnīsa. This is sometimes shown as a spire or spike, and sometimes only as a small bump. The Buddha always has a serene expression or a faint smile. The Buddha is also always depicted with very long ear-lobes. This was because in his earlier life as a prince he had always worn heavy earrings.
Posture and dress
The Buddha may be depicted in one of four postures:
The Buddha is nearly always depicted wearing a monastic robe, of the type worn by Buddhist monks today. The robe may be shown as worn in the "covering mode" (draped over both shoulders) or in the "open mode" (leaving the right shoulder and breast uncovered). The robe is a representation of the Buddha's humility. (Gautama was originally a prince, who renounced the world to seek enlightenment, and his original robe was made from the shroud of a corpse.) The robe is sometimes shown as diaphanous, transparent or billowing mysteriously, suggesting the spiritual power emanating from the Buddha. Buddha images are often draped with real robes, which are renewed periodically, usually at major festivals. The Buddha may also be shown wearing royal attire, but this is uncommon.
The most important aspect of the iconography of the Buddha is gestures made with the hands, known as mudrā. These gestures have meanings which are known throughout the Buddhist world, and when combined with the postures described above, give a complete representation, usually associated with a particular incident in the life of the Buddha.
The six mudrā associated with the Buddha are:
Over the centuries combinations and variations of these six mudrā have evolved. For example the "double abhāya mudrā", with both hands held up in the abhāya mudrā position, became common in Thailand and Laos in the 16th century, and is now one of the most common representations of the Buddha in south-east Asian countries. It is sometimes interpreted as "Buddha teaching on reason." As artists wished to depict more of the specific incidents in the life of the Buddham, new, secondary mudrās evolved, such as "Buddha holding an alms bowl", "Buddha recieving a mango" and Buddha performing various miracles. Many of these orginated in Burma and then spread to other parts of the Buddhist world. | <urn:uuid:e0a03e9a-66eb-4c9b-adf1-c0e4b6c7038e> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://buddhism-guide.com/buddhism/iconography_of_the_buddha.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123635.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00408-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957441 | 1,370 | 4.15625 | 4 |
I’ve always been fascinated by origami. You start with plain, flat squares of paper and transform them into incredible 3-dimensional shapes. The forms you can make are limited by the material chosen. By size, of course, but also by the physical properties of the paper itself.
I want to go over all of the different types of origami so that my students have a reference (hey guys!) in the future.
Origami is a compound Japanese word, from “ori”, to fold and “kami”, paper. So, it literally means to fold paper. And it seems as though the Japanese began folding paper for ceremonial purposes as soon as they were introduced to paper in the 6th century.
There have been all sorts of origami developed and designed in the centuries since: from traditional origami to curved folds and origami composed of hundreds of individual units.
Traditionally, origami is made from a single, square sheet of paper, and is created without any tearing, cutting, tape, or glue. You know, a thousand paper cranes, each and every one the same.
Action origami is origami that you can animate, that moves, and is often a form of traditional origami. You’re probably familiar with paper fortune tellers from recess in middle school, but there are also much more elaborate are pieces. Each of these figures is from a single sheet of paper, designed and built by Robert Lang. They play their instruments when you pull on them!
In Germany in the 1920s, Josef Albers taught a Bauhaus preliminary course on paper study. He encouraged his students to investigate and experiment with paper as a material, and they developed several groundbreaking, er, paperbreaking techniques that definitely changed the course of paper folding.
My favorite of these is curved-crease folding. Concentric circles are folded in opposite directions (mountain folds alternating with valley folds), and they automatically take on a saddle structure.
Akira Yoshizawa, the grandmaster of origami, pioneered the wet folding technique in the 1950s. It involves just what it sounds like: wetting the paper. This lets you sculpt the model; it’s basically halfway to paper mache. Wet folding works well on thick paper that will hold up, and can give curves to wings or character to animal ears.
Origami is no longer a term restricted to paper. People make origami using all sorts of different materials, which become their own genres because the material shape, thickness, texture, and other attributes determine what you can actually create from it. There’s dollar bill origami, toilet paper origami (seen in hotels), cloth napkin origami (featured in fancy restaurants), and towel origami (my aunt does this).
Modular origami is composed of many individual units assembled together to create one large structure. They often feature complex symmetries, but sometimes are used for figurative or freeform creations.
The wireframe models of Byriah Loper have been a recent obsession of mine. These sculptures can be made up of hundreds of different units, and are designed by investigating complex geometric forms. Like these twenty interlocking tetrahedra: | <urn:uuid:f81bcff8-68a0-46b6-aba5-b6e2a06b1a9a> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.kidspaceexpress.com/origins-of-different-types-of-origami/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823228.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20181209232026-20181210013526-00382.warc.gz | en | 0.955194 | 667 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Last week, as the nation celebrated Martin Luther King Jr., I reflected on the history of the YWCA. Many people in our community don’t recognize the YWCA as a social justice organization and are shocked to learn that the mission includes eliminating racism in addition to empowering women.
People wonder how this mission came about.
YWCA’s national and local mission of eliminating racism and empowering women is the result of the historical struggle to become an anti-racist and inclusive organization. Through the leadership of women of color, YWCA’s view of poverty, labor and women’s issues expanded to include race, in addition to gender, as a critical factor for understanding the root causes of social disparities.
During its inception in the U.S. in the 1850s, YWCA began in response to single women flocking to urban centers to work and live on their own. Groups of local women provided supportive services for these emerging employees including affordable housing, employment bureaus and job training.
Wages for working women were low and conditions were poor. Stories show that women were working so many hours that some gave custody of their children to orphanages and some turned to prostitution for additional earnings.
Due to these challenges, in 1911 YWCA USA committed itself to educating the public on the need for a living wage for women and the need to support legislation to regulate hours and wages of women workers. Today, economic advancement has remained a central focus of YWCAs across the country including in Olympia.
Over time, YWCA USA recognized that it was impossible to empower all women without also addressing institutional and structural racism. Interracial efforts included desegregating the organization. Policies designed to address racism and bias began near the start of World War I and continued thereafter.
In 1946 YWCA USA proclaimed itself an interracial organization.
Nearly 20 years later Rev. Dr. King gave a speech in London. On MLK Jr. Day, I listened to this speech and was enthralled by the following segment:
“There are those individuals who argue that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice in the United States, in South Africa or anywhere else; you’ve got to wait on time…The only answer that I can give to that myth is that time is neutral.
“It can be used either constructively or destructively ... somewhere along the way it is necessary to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.
“It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God. And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation.
“And so we must help time, and we must realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
These words still resonate.
The documented inequality of all women across the U.S. and here in Thurston County shows that race and gender still matter. These disparities have not been resolved over time.
One example is the wage gap in Thurston County. Women who work full time, year round earn 68 cents on average for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. However, state data show that across Washington, black and Native American women who work full time, year-round earn 60.3 percent of what white men earn, and Hispanic women earn 46.6 percent.
If we rely on time to fix this issue, white women in our county won’t earn the same as men until 2071, and it will take even longer for women of color to reach economic parity. The wage gap is a good example of how the intersections of gender and race place women of color at a dual disadvantage when it comes to economic advancement.
YWCA has historically and continues to believe that the entire community benefits when all people are valued. However, to bring about economic advancement for all individuals and support overall community vitality, we must collectively agree that we cannot be indifferent and we cannot rely on time to solve these challenges.
In the words of Dr. King, “The time is always ripe to do right.”
Hillary Soens, CEO of YWCA Olympia, is a member of the 2016 Board of Contributors. She can be reached via firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:59ea9de3-3782-44e6-8560-8416f753d3a3> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://www.theolympian.com/opinion/op-ed/article56148070.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864776.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20180622182027-20180622202027-00379.warc.gz | en | 0.968507 | 899 | 3.59375 | 4 |
In this part of the game we want to fix the moving of the cannon with the NXT buttons (moving left and right). It is also important to keep in mind we have to move the bullet at the same time. To program this we must create a new WHILE loop in our program:
These loops will run in parallel, so this is in fact a way to do multitasking. Let’s start with programming the right button task: moving the cannon and bullet to the right. We need the icon read sensor:
We place this in the WHILE loop:
Now the WHILE loop looks like this:
This icon reads the specified NXT button (left,enter, right). The yes/no (true/false) output will return a yes if the specified NXT button is pressed at the moment:
Now this icon will return a yes (true) any time the right button is pressed. We connect the Yes/No connector to the handy icon select:
This icon returns the value wired to the t input or f input, depending on the value of s. If s is TRUE, this function returns the value wired to t. If s is FALSE, this function returns the value wired to f. The select command is found in the palette NXT programming/Comparison:
We place this icon on the diagram window, and connect the Yes/no connector on the NXT Btns to the select:
The value is by default set to zero. We must change it to 1 because we want to add 1 to the cannons x coordinate when we press the right button. Now it looks like this:
Notice this constant is orange. This is because it is of the type double precision. The advanced picture command use the type 32-bits integer, so we have to change the representation. Right-click on the constant and select representation/I32:
The constant will now change to the colour blue:
The value for this one must be zero because we don’t want to add anything to the cannons x coordinate when the right button is not pressed. Also notice this will automatically be an integer because the two inputs always will be the same. So the question of interest is: how to add the number from the select command to the control Xcannon on the front panel, so the x coordinate of the cannon will increase with 1? The answer is local variables. Local variables are found in the palette NXT programming/Structures:
We place a local variable on the block diagram:
We can see a question mark inside the local variable. This means the variable is not configured. We have to select which control or indicator it should read or write. Left-click on the local variable and you’ll get a list of all the controls and indicators in the front panel:
In this list all the controls and indicators are listed. Here we select Xcannon. Now it looks like this:
To the left of the local variable you can see an arrow. It is pointing in to the house, which means this local variable is configured for writing. At this moment we want to read the local variables value (the cannons x-value). So we right-click and select Change to read:
Notice the changes in the local variable:
Now the arrow is to the right and it is pointing out of the house/local variable, meaning we are reading the variable. If we now insert an add command and do some wiring our diagram looks like this:
So let’s add a second local variable:
So you can left-click the local variable and select Xcannon:
Finally wire the add command to this local variable:
So, it’s time to give an explanation on how this code works.
At first the value of the Xcannon is read (from the control). Let’s say the value is 34. Then, if the right button on the NXT is pressed, the number one is added to the value of Xcannon. It is important to know that the value of Xcannon is not changed until the last local variable is executed. This local variable has an arrow pointed in, which means this value is written to Xcannon. In this way we have changed the value of a control on the front panel. The value of Xcannon is changed from 34 to 35. If we press the right button once again, it will change to 36 and so on.
But what if we press the left button? As the program is now of course nothing will happen. To change this we first delete the wire between the add and the local variable:
So let’s add a subtract command:
Here we need the same code as for the right button. The only difference is the constant Right button. So, by selecting this part of the code we can in fact program by using copy/paste short cut keys. First, select the code you want to copy:
Around the code we have selected there is a dashed line. Press CTRL+C to copy the code. Then, point with the mouse pointer where you want the code to appear. Finally press CTRL+V to paste the code:
Press the arrow keys on your keyboard and move the code so it won’t lie over the other code:
So we must change the constant Right Button to Left button by clicking on the drop-down menu:
So we can wire the select command to the subtract command:
Now almost everything is perfect, but there is still a problem. If we press the Right button long enough, the cannon will leave the screen (the x coordinate becomes greater than 100). To solve this problem we must use the function “In Range and Coerce”.
You’ll find it in the palette NXT Robotics/NXT Programming/Numeric:
Below is the help-text for this command:
Here x is the value we want to check (at this time Xcannon). If it is between the upper and lower limit, the value will be unchanged. But if it is greater than the upper limit it is coerced to the value of the upper limit. The same of course for the lower limit. The boolean In Range? is true if the value lies between upper and lower limit, else it is false.
At this moment we are not interested in that value, but we’ll have a closer look on this feature while checking out for collisions (when we want to check if the bullet hit the stone). We now insert the command in the diagram as shown below:
It is naturally to think the limits are 0 and 100. But let’s take a closer look at the cannon drawn with gridlines for the coordinates:
It is important to know that the CopyBits coordinates is the lower left corner of the object. So when the cannons coordinates are (100,64) as shown above, the whole cannon is outside the NXT screen. Hence the upper limit must be 100-14=86 (since the cannon is 14 pixels wide). The lower limit is of course 0. We add constants to the connectors upper limit and lower limit, and add the numbers 0 and 86:
So let’s have a look at the whole WHILE loop:
This loop will fix the moving of the cannon, but NOT the bullet. To fix the movement of the bullet let us first look at the figure below:
Here the bullet and cannon has the right positions, it looks like the bullet comes out of the cannon at the middle position. The coordinates for the x-values are Xcannon=34 and Xbullet=40. The difference is 6 pixels. This means the bullets X-coordinate always must be 6 greater than the caons X-coordinate. we solve this by inserting an add command:
The upper left corner we connect to the value of the Xcannon. For the lower left corner we create a constant with the number 6:
The result of the add command is the X-coordinate for the bullet. Let’s add a local variable for Xbullet, and write to it as shown below:
The WHILE structure is nearly finished. but we have to wire the loop condition in the lower right corner. We could have created constant for this. But we want it to stop the loop when the game is over. Therefore we add a local variable for the control game over?, change it to read and wiring this to the loop conditinal:
You can test the program now. But you will soon discover the cannon moves too fast. We can add a Wait for time (ms). Go to NXT Robotics/NXT I/O:
We can place the Wait command anywhere in the WHILE structure:
Press the dropdown menu on the comman and select Time (msec):
Right click the lower left corner and select Create constant:
As a suggestion try with 25 msec. You can also try other values of course. it depends on how difficult you want it.
So this part of the program is OK. Lets move to how to check for collisions between the falling stone and the bullet. | <urn:uuid:78fe94c4-016d-4722-899f-f264d600d9c7> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.legoengineering.com/riceditor-tutorial-create-a-cannon-game/5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507441801.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005721-00098-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.86856 | 1,877 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The History of Urbanization and the Future of Cities [TED Animation]
More than half the people in the world live in urban areas. By mid-century this figure will increase to 70%. But just 100 years ago only 20% of us lived in cities. How have we transitioned from nomadic hunters and gatherers who move from place to place in search of food to hip city slickers?
About 10,000 years ago, our ancestors learned the process of selective breeding and early agricultural techniques. For the first time, people could raise food instead of constantly searching for it, which led to the establishment of the first villages and the concept of a society. These villages needed to relocate every several years because of soil degradation and other land conditions. It wasn’t until the advent of techniques like irrigation and soil tilling 5,000 some years ago that humans could establish more permanent locations to inhabit.
As food surpluses starting to grow, fewer people had to farm and more people had time to take on other kinds of work. This spurred trade, which in turn gave birth to the concept of the city we know and love today where goods, ideas, and other services can be freely exchanged. And as trade flourished, so too did the technologies created to facilitate them like carts, ships, roads, and ports.
Do you think modern-day metropolises like New York and Rome are congested? Well, in 2000 B.C. some cities had twice the population densities of Shanghai and Calcutta today! One major reason for this was that functional transportation systems weren’t widely available, let alone clean water sources, meaning everything needed to be located in close proximity to each other. Additionally, land had to be defended with walls against rogue attacks, which further limited city sizes.
It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that the concept of a city truly took off, where technology could be rolled out on a massive scale enabling key infrastructure like road networks, police and fire departments, sanitation, electricity distribution, and modern architecture.
What will the future of our cities look like? Right now there are over 7 billion people in the world, with that number likely to reach as high as 10 billion. Much of this growth is expected to occur in the urban areas of the world’s poorest countries.
1) Develop ways to provide adequate food, sanitation, and education for everyone
2) Make sure that growth doesn’t damage the environment, which provides the resources we need to survive. One way we could preserve the environment is to look to the skies and start producing food via vertical farms on skyscrapers and rooftop gardens. And of course, we should also find ways to produce power from renewable energy systems.
In the future, you can expect to see more multi-resident homes along with even smaller cities more focused on self-sustaining production.
The future of our cities no longer reflects just a single industry but rather an increasingly changing, diverse, and connected world.
Do you prefer to live in an urban city or more rural area? | <urn:uuid:bd61acdd-bd2a-4cc2-9d9e-9b221fd63529> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://blog.dashburst.com/video/urbanization-history-future-of-cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794869732.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20180527170428-20180527190428-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.961606 | 630 | 3.6875 | 4 |
In general, a bike design is self-stable at those forward speeds for which the real parts of all the eigenvalues are less than zero. For example, the bike whose eigenvalues are shown at the right it is self-stable in the region of speeds (between 5.3 and 8 m/s) where both dark blue lines are below the x-axis.
Self-stable means that without external input, the bike will eventually roll straight and upright even if perturbed.) Such behavior can easily be seen in real-world bicycles, when rolled without a rider.
The bike must meet a couple simple criteria:
Finally, a down-slope may also be helpful to maintain speed.
Follow these links to see the video: mpeg 3.7mb or mov 13.7mb
Please email us with questions or comments.
Copyright © 2003-2015 Schwab, Papadopoulos, Ruina, & Dressel, Delft University of Technology & Cornell University | <urn:uuid:efb79818-fe30-46c3-9fb3-0f00b4849aae> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://ruina.tam.cornell.edu/research/topics/bicycle_mechanics/JBike6_web_folder/JBike6_self_stable.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464051342447.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524005542-00114-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879319 | 202 | 2.625 | 3 |
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl in ancient Egypt during the reign of Hatshepsut. She yearns for freedom, and one day is presented with the chance to earn it. The nobleman Nahereh employs her as a spy for himself and Queen Hatshepsut, promising her freedom in return for her services. However, during her mission she in approached by another powerful man Lord Sheftu who wants her to spy on his behalf in order to help with a planned rebellion. Thus, Mara becomes embroiled in the dangerous role of double-agent and quickly must learn to play the game of politics, no longer to gain her freedom but to simply stay alive.
Published in 1986, McGraw's book is still seen today as a classic of teen historical writing. Her scenes are rich and vivid and her dialogue snappy and full of emotional depth. This is a great book for those teenagers who are stepping in to more YA literature and themes. | <urn:uuid:29148306-5db9-4e6a-b61e-777d26189c38> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/m/mara-daughter-of-the-nile/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027318243.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190823083811-20190823105811-00307.warc.gz | en | 0.974679 | 203 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Switzerland is a federation of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, arguably putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.
According to the popular legend, in 1291, representatives of the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden signed the Federal Charter. The charter united the involved parties in the struggle against foreign rule by the Habsburgs, who then held the German imperial throne of the Holy Roman Empire. At the Battle of Morgarten in 1315, the Swiss defeated the Habsburg army and secured quasi-independence as the Swiss Confederation. The authenticity of the Federal Charter is disputed with many historians agreeing that it is in fact a forgery of the 14th century.
By 1353, the three original cantons had been joined by the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the city states of Lucerne, Zürich and Berne, forming the "Old Federation" of eight states that persisted during much of the 15th century (although Zürich was expelled from the confederation during the 1440s due to a territorial conflict) and led to a significant increase of power and wealth of the federation, in particular due to the victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the 1470s, and the success of the Swiss mercenaries. The Swiss victory in a war against the Swabian League in 1499 amounted to de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire.
The expansion of the federation, and the reputation of invincibility acquired during the earlier wars, suffered a first setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano. The success of Zwingli's Reformation in some cantons led to inter-cantonal wars in 1529 and 1531 (Kappeler Kriege). The conflict between Catholic and Protestant cantons persisted, erupting in further violence at the battles of Villmergen in 1656 and 1712.
Switzerland proclaimed neutrality in World War I and was not involved militarily in the conflict. Neutrality was again proclaimed in World War II, and although a German intervention was both planned and anticipated, it ultimately didn't occur. The massive mobilization of Swiss armed forces under the leadership of General Henri Guisan is often cited as a decisive factor that the German invasion was never initiated. Modern historical findings, such as the research done by the Bergier commission, indicate that another major factor was the continued trade by Swiss banks with Nazi Germany.
Women were granted the right to vote in the first cantons in 1959, at the federal level in 1971, in the last canton only in 1990. In 1979, parts of the canton of Berne attained independence, forming the new canton of Jura. On April 18, 1999 the Swiss population and the cantons voted in favor of a completely revised federal constitution.
In 2002 Switzerland became a full member of the United Nations, leaving the Vatican as the last widely recognized state without full UN membership. Switzerland is not a member state of the EU but applied for membership therein in May 1992. Switzerland has not advanced this application since the rejection, by referendum, of the European Economic Area in December 1992. However, Swiss law is gradually being adjusted to that of the EU and the government has signed a number of bilateral agreements with the European Union. Switzerland (together with Liechtenstein) has been surrounded by the EU since Austria's membership in 1995. On June 5, 2005, Swiss voters agreed, by a 55% majority, to join the Schengen treaty, a result that was welcomed by EU commentators as a sign of goodwill by a Switzerland that is traditionally perceived as isolationist. | <urn:uuid:49779911-b854-4ff9-bb58-8383e76349ee> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://sheppardsoftware.com/Europeweb/snapshot/Snapshot-Europe41.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917124478.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031204-00123-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971951 | 759 | 3.953125 | 4 |
THIS IS ONE of those things that you almost have to be a local to grasp, but Taiwan is about to be hit by an equivalent to the so called millennium bug, but in the case of Taiwan, it’s a centenary bug. What many people don’t know is that Taiwan has its own calendar and this year it’s the year 99 in Taiwan and next year it’s 100 years since the Republic of China (ROC) was formed.
The ROC was formally established on the first of January 1912 and as China used to count time based on which emperor was ruling the nation it was just natural for the nation to start over when the republic was established. In 1949 the Kuomintang as the leading party of the ROC is known as locally, or KMT for short, was kicked out of China by the Communist party of the People’s Republic of China. The KMT and many of its loyal followers fled to Taiwan and expected to be returning to the mainland of China within a few years, but as things turned out, that didn’t quite work out. As such the nation that, to most of you, is known as Taiwan is actually the Republic of China of yore and for whatever reason the KMT decided to keep its own system for counting time. (Please note that this is a simplified explanation of much more complex history.)
Taiwan’s unusual way of telling time is now getting ready to wreak havoc on many older computer systems across the island, as when computers were starting to become a commodity and installed for all sorts of business uses in Taiwan, some genius decided that no more than two digits were needed for the year indicator in software. Jump forward in time to the now and over 60 percent of local businesses could be affected by the centenary bug which would reset the time count to year one. This could cause much bigger problems than the millennium bug ever caused, although in this case the problem is unique to Taiwan.
Government run Taipower (Taiwan’s power company) has already been bit by the centenary bug which has resulted in several hundreds of customers receiving astronomical electrical bills. One customer got an electricity bill of $2.2 million, talk about getting a shock in the mail. Some 20 percent of local companies aren’t even aware of the potential of problems being caused by the centenary bug. Although this is somewhat amusing as a problem, it’s still very likely to cause some problems for the 23 million people of Taiwan over the next few months in the run-up to the New Year.S|A
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- IEEE approves the IEEE 802.16m standard - Apr 1, 2011
- LucidLogix scores Intel as first Virtu customer - Apr 1, 2011 | <urn:uuid:89e3fbc4-34d8-4eec-9c98-11802c97863d> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/16/taiwan-isnt-ready-centenary-bug/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578530176.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421040427-20190421062427-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.97478 | 638 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Supplement to Possible Worlds
The Extensionality of Possible World Semantics
As noted, possible world semantics does not make modal logic itself extensional; the substitutivity principles all remain invalid for modal languages under (basic) possible worlds semantics. Rather, it is the semantic theory itself — more exactly, the logic in which the theory is expressed — that is extensional. Specifically, basic possible world semantics for a given modal language ℒ, when formalized, is expressed in a (non-modal) first-order language ℒPWS that contains the set membership predicate ‘∈’ supplemented with dedicated predicates, function symbols, and constants, as well as mechanisms for talking about the expressions of ℒ and their possible world interpretations, notably:
|World(w):||w is a world|
|T(φ,w):||(formula) φ is true at (world) w|
|dom(w):||the domain of world w|
|ext(π,w):||the extension of (n-place predicate) π at world w|
|den(τ):||the denotation of (constant or variable) τ|
|@:||the actual world|
Thus, for example, by formalizing the definition of truth simpliciter as truth in the actual world:
- True(φ) =def T(φ,@)
the complete statement of the truth conditions for (6), expressed more formally in ℒPWS, take on the following form:
- True(‘◻∀x(Px → Mx)’) ↔ ∀w∀x((World(w) ∧ x ∈ dom(w)) → (x ∉ ext(‘ P’,w) ∨ x ∈ ext(‘M’,w))).
The semantic theory for this language ℒPWS, of course, is just our Tarskian semantics above. Thus, the logic of possible world semantics is simply an extensional first-order logic in a dedicated language. It is in this clear sense that basic possible world semantics is an extensional semantic theory for modal languages. It can therefore be said that modal logic with a basic possible world semantics is itself extensional in a derivative sense: the logic that gives full expression to the meanings of modal sentences is extensional in the primary sense that, in that logic, all substitutivity principles are valid. | <urn:uuid:b2c44bfc-846a-4ad7-b82a-228549d19cd0> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/possible-worlds/semantics-extensionality.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300031.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00209-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.826981 | 530 | 2.609375 | 3 |
posted by Hayley .
1.All of the balloons on the string (popped) except two.
2.Do you (want) to buy those books?
3.Daniel's dog is (following) the trail to the river's edge.
4.For thirty years the noon whistle has (blown) exactly on time.
5.The players have (challenged) their parents to a game of soccer.
I have to tell if the verb form in () is base form, present participle, past, or past participle.
2) Isn't "base form" the infinitive? This is not the infinitive but the Present Indicative Tense.
to want = base form
you want, you DO want, you ARE wantING = all forms of the Present Indicative Form.
I don't know what your text book is, but the above is what it is to me.
Sra (aka Mme) | <urn:uuid:938f9fea-4e67-41dd-ad35-b9cb2075bb71> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1296191682 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886106865.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170820170023-20170820190023-00332.warc.gz | en | 0.950231 | 201 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The death Valley is a fantastic location school tours. Below you will find excellent education resources suitable for your Death Valley school trip.
Over 1 million people flock to the United States Hottest, Driest, Lowest national park A superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons and 3 million acres of wilderness. Home to the Timbisha Shoshone people and to plants and animals unique to the harshest desert.
The Death Valley visitor guide is full of useful information including environmental issues, Death Valley Wildlife, Desert survival, wilderness and historic information.
USGC's timeline is an educational Geology teaching resource
Rhyolite Ghost Town History - an old gold rush town
BROWSE ALL OUR TRIP IDEAS AND JOIN OUR TEACHER REWARDS SCHEME FOR UNIQUE BENEFITS | <urn:uuid:63965b8b-e474-473c-b14f-8413f6bc7a96> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://easchooltours.com/blog/death-valley-school-tour-resources/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891811794.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20180218062032-20180218082032-00400.warc.gz | en | 0.854662 | 187 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Every year in the United States, more than 800,000 people are diagnosed with heart failure and more than 375,000 people die from heart disease. Current therapies such as heart transplants and bioartificial hearts are helpful, but not optimal. Decellularization of porcine whole hearts followed by recellularization with patient-specific human cells may provide the ultimate solution for patients with heart failure. Great progress has been made in the development of efficient processes for decellularization, and the design of automated bioreactors. In this study, the decellularization of porcine hearts was accomplished in 24 h with only 6 h of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) exposure and 98% DNA removal. Automatically controlling the pressure during decellularization reduced the detergent exposure time while still completely removing immunogenic cell debris. Stimulation of macrophages was greatly reduced when comparing native tissue samples to the processed ECM. Complete cell removal was confirmed by analysis of DNA content. General collagen and elastin preservation was demonstrated by SEM and histology. The compression elastic modulus of the ECM after decellularization was lower than native at low strains but there was no significant difference at high strains. Polyurethane casts of the vasculature of native and decellularized hearts demonstrated that the microvasculature network was preserved after decellularization. A static blood thrombosis assay using bovine blood was also developed. A perfusion bioreactor was designed and right ventricle of the decellularized hearts were recellularized with human endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts. An effective, reliable, and relatively inexpensive assay based on human blood hemolysis was developed for determining the remaining cytotoxicity of the cECM and the results were consistent with a standard live/dead assay using MS1 endothelial cells incubated with the cECM. Samples from the left ventricle of the hearts were prepared with 300 µm thickness, mounted on 10 mm round glass coverslips. Human induced pluripotent stem cells were differentiated into cardiomyocytes (CMs) and 4 days after differentiation, cardiac progenitors were seeded onto the decellularized cardiac slices. After 10 days, the tissues started to beat spontaneously. Immunofluorescence images showed confluent coverage of CMs on the decellularized slices and the effect of the scaffold was evident in the arrangement of the CMs in the direction of fibers. This study demonstrated the biocompatibility of decellularized porcine hearts with human CMs and the potential of these scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering. Further studies can be directed toward 3D perfusion recellularization of the hearts and improving repopulation of the scaffolds with various cell types as well as adding mechanical and electrical stimulations to obtain more mature CMs.
College and Department
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Chemical Engineering
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Momtahan, Nima, "Extracellular Matrix from Whole Porcine Heart Decellularization for Cardiac Tissue Engineering" (2016). All Theses and Dissertations. 6225.
heart, acellular biological matrices, extracellular matrix, automation, cardiomyocytes, induced pluripotent stem cells, differentiation, decellularization, recellularization | <urn:uuid:7007d022-a1ff-4915-8918-6468a50a14e7> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6225/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823067.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20171018180631-20171018200631-00015.warc.gz | en | 0.937534 | 715 | 2.53125 | 3 |
From the very early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, public, private and university researchers have been working to develop vaccines. There are now ten such vaccines being administered worldwide, with Russian and Chinese governments producing public sector-led versions, Oxford University developing AstraZeneca, and the private sector coming forward with the Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J products, these latter the most widely tested, certified and applied in the Western world. Optimism that we may yet overcome this pandemic is on the rise, but could it be misplaced?
Some of the vaccines are produced using a first time ever, new mRNA technique, others are produced the old-fashioned way, but whichever way, the results, and speed from research, development, to production, has been nothing short of a miracle. While not a “silver bullet”, virtually all knowledgeable experts see wide-scale vaccination as the major weapon in stunting if not reversing pandemic expansion. It is fair to say we are at the dawn of the “New Vaccine Era”.
This plethora of vaccine options has created optimism, suspicion, and anger over inequity for countries and individuals.
Optimism on the Rise: End of the Pandemic in Sight?
Because many countries are achieving or planning to achieve high levels of vaccinated populations in order to reach some form of “herd immunity”, optimism is spreading.
Since February 2021, Israel has the highest vaccination rate followed by the United Arab Emirates; as of 6 April, aside from Israel that still leads the pack, the country rankings have changed, as shown by this chart prepared by the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project:
The daily “push” to get as many people vaccinated as possible varies by country, but the latest data (6 April) shows Israel still ahead of everyone, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the United States:
That is just the tip of the iceberg: There are huge gaps between vaccination programs in different countries and divides between continents.
Some countries and regions which should be doing better, aren’t. Notably, Western Europe has been experiencing unjustified delays that have resulted in a “Vaccine Mess” – all the more unjustified that some European countries, particularly France, Italy and Germany, have public health systems with a stellar reputation. A reputation that European citizens, however, are now coming to realize is no longer justified: In fact, neoliberal austerity policies and misguided attempts to “contain” public debt over the last decade have damaged their effectiveness. For example, in response to demands to cut public funding, Italy has systematically shut down small hospitals that served rural areas and as a result, when COVID-19 hit, the country found itself short of beds for pandemic victims.
Then there is the United States. After a very bad beginning with the numbers of cases and deaths remaining the highest in the world, the United States has been rapidly expanding vaccinations with prospects of more than 200 million by the end of April 2021.
Optimism from the individual’s perspective, both in countries with robust vaccination programs and those without, is because there is a sense that “help is on the way”. This is what was desperately needed for most of 2020, and now seems to be taking hold.
But Suspicion Is Also Spreading
Because of the speed with which these vaccines have come onstream, mistrust exploded, a result of past bad experiences with government vaccine approvals, and insufficient time allowed to conduct trials on various cohorts. Indeed, the Government of Netherlands suspended use of AstraZeneca at least in part because of instances of blood clotting in different populations, including pregnant women.
The AstraZeneca saga is far from over. On 8 April, EMA underlined that a link between the vaccine and very rare forms of thrombosis did indeed exist, but it reiterated that the benefits outweighed the risks, leaving the choice of any limitations to individual countries. Italy, for example, immediately took the decision to limit the vaccine to over-60s. The UK has already gone ahead with suspension for under-30s and so have the Netherlands and Germany.
Further, and more worryingly, AstraZeneca made a significant blunder in early-on releasing efficacy data that was too high which undermined trust in its reliability, and indirectly in vaccines writ large. And most recently, J&J had to discard 15 million vaccines because of a production error in Baltimore, Maryland.
Suspicion has also been exacerbated because public officials have sent confusing messages about what is mandated, what they can do voluntarily, and/or what the science dictates.
The United States shows how bad it can get: An ex-President and many of his most vocal advisors made and continue to cast doubt about the need for a vaccine, complemented with mockery of wearing face masks. President Biden has been assiduously expressing reliance on what the “science” tells him; he got vaccinated and always wears a mask. Yet, some sub-national leaders talk and do the very contrary with anti-science rhetoric.
But even when a President turns away from the politically and economically expedient to rely on the scientific, there is still confusion.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) is the national authoritative voice on this, but its messaging has been changing almost on a daily basis with respect to safe levels of social interaction when vaccinated, when schools can safely open, where and when does it remain necessary to wear a mask. The U.S. CDC website guidance has become a sort of “breaking news”, making it harder for institutions and individuals to know what to do.
The European Union is no better and disunited despite the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC). In theory “All countries in the EU have responded to the situation by implementing a comprehensive package of measures, including surveillance, testing, increased hospital and isolation capacity, contact tracing, case management and strategies to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, such as physical distancing measures.”
But without addressing Member State compliance or noncompliance, the ECDC website notes:
“Transmission is still widespread in the EU/EEA. It is possible that further increases in admissions to hospital, ICU and mortality will follow in the coming weeks in those countries that are currently observing increasing case notification rates. Hence, it is still important to maintain public health and physical distancing measures.”
Furthermore, Europe is awash with national medical centers designed to monitor diseases and guide vaccination policies, plus, of course, a European-level institution, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) tasked, inter alia, with approving COVID vaccines. Over the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, the confusion reached absurd levels, with the German medicines center advising suspension of the vaccine (due to a suspicious series of thrombosis cases) with, as a result, a majority of European countries following suit, while EMA continued to advocate vaccination, arguing that the benefits were too large to pass up.
It would appear that there is an urgent need for Europe to pull its act together and decide once and for all who does what: the EMA, the ECDC or the national medical centers. We all know that COVID-19 is likely the first pandemic of this century and that many more are in the offing. A confused institutional structure for public health is the last thing any country or group of countries (like the EU) should have.
And Anger over Inequities Explodes
Vaccination has further divided the world, and the distance between the haves and have-nots has never been greater as billions of people are left without any prospect of getting vaccinated anytime soon. Predictably this has led to an outcry over the inequity all this has caused.
However, it is not just a matter of equity or lack thereof. There is serious medical evidence that allowing free rein for the COVID virus to spread in an uncontrolled manner in the developing world means increasing the chances of one or more variants emerging. At the time of writing, the situation in Brazil and India is fast becoming dramatic:
This in turn threatens the efficacy of currently available vaccines, even if (so far) pharmaceutical companies have had nothing but reassuring words about the efficacy of their vaccines.
But the threat is there and cannot be denied. And the conclusion is clear: Unless the whole world is vaccinated in such a way that herd immunity kicks in, we remain at the mercy of possible virus variants that present vaccines cannot control.
Vaccine manufacturers will need to address COVID variants and both national and regional public health institutions need to issue guidance in this respect. In short, it has become an urgent public health priority to define an expedited regulatory process for the adaptation of vaccines to protect against current or future variants. The European Union has just started to invest in COVID variants research:
📢 Great news in our fight against #coronavirus!
— Mariya Gabriel (@GabrielMariya) April 7, 2021
There are ongoing discussions at the regional level in Europe – and this involves EMA – on how to approach variants and vaccines in a coordinated way. But this is also something that should be done on an international level with the engagement of all willing national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The neoliberal ideology that calls for a full-throated defense of intellectual property and patents (the idea is to defend innovation) has so far guided the reaction of many large vaccine manufacturers. As a result, much of the private sector pharmaceutical industry, supported by those countries with strong pharmaceutical private sectors, has not been prepared to require companies to make their vaccine formulas available to other producers.
To date, it has translated into limiting access principally to those who can pay for it, or have sufficient political leverage to gain access. What happens, in essence, is that many developing countries are denied coverage.
A Washington Post article spells out the consequences of such an approach, pointing out that “Billions of people are left with an uncertain wait, with most of Africa and parts of South America and Asia not expected to achieve widespread vaccination coverage until 2023, according to some estimates.” And the vaccine manufacturers maintain that “the rapid development of new vaccines” are in fact “evidence that the drug industry’s traditional business model, based on exclusive patents and know-how, is working.”
Claims that the system is working are not credible in the face of billions of unvaccinated people who won’t (or can’t) be protected before 2023 if business goes on as usual.
But things, they are a-changin’: hope is coming from the international community. The creation of COVAX, an international multi-partner financing mechanism to provide the money and the wherewithal to both obtain and administer vaccines in developing countries, is garnering new traction. The European Union has always been in the forefront supporting COVAX:
#COVAX has now delivered vaccines to 100 countries.
This is a real milestone. I’m proud of #TeamEurope‘s contribution to this global effort of solidarity.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 8, 2021
And now that Trump has left the scene, both President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson have announced substantial, in fact, game-changing increases in contributions. COVAX. The Center for Global Development’s executive vice president Amanda Glassman, a global health expert and former principal technical lead for health at the Inter-American Development Bank, welcomed them with the following statement:
“The Biden Administration’s move to commit $4 billion to COVAX is a long-overdue step toward ending the pandemic globally, especially since the rise of new variants means that the only way to truly control COVID is to make sure everyone can get vaccinated—not just people in rich countries.”
The major international financial institutions are now well aware of the damages of this pandemic, and that it will not be contained until many people, worldwide, are vaccinated. At the World Bank Group and IMF Spring Meetings which will end this week, it has been on the leaders’ minds, taking into consideration ideas proffered by both insiders and outsiders as to how to significantly ramp up COVAX’s funding and reach, and well beyond.
The Rockefeller Foundation, in particular, issued a 22-page report whose contributors included former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Columbia U. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, urging the IMF to approve and swiftly distribute $650 billion in additional reserve assets to help developing countries vaccinate as much as 70% of their population by the end of next year. “Any plan should incorporate strategies to mitigate the risk of future pandemics by addressing ongoing microbial threats, including antimicrobial resistance,” said Olga Jonas, a senior fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute. “What is really needed is an urgent plan for robust core veterinary and human public-health systems in all low- and middle-income countries.”
The Vaccines’ Next Chapter: Is There Hope?
The vaccine research story is an ongoing one, with prospects of new delivery systems being researched and developed by the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. For example, CEPI, another part of the international multi-partnership, is providing financing to a University of Hong Kong effort to bring an intranasal vaccine into the mix.
An Israeli company has indicated an oral COVID-19 vaccine should become available in a reasonably short time. The advantage is obvious: people could self-vaccinate at home.
Moderna has announced that it is creating a combination flu-COVID vaccine. With the same mRNA technology, it plans to target the seasonal flu, Nipah virus, and HIV. That would definitely be an extraordinary time-saver, accelerating vaccine distribution the world over.
Perhaps the most exciting discovery is the brainchild of Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin, considered by many a genius. This is not his first discovery but the latest in a string of discoveries that are the basis of the new much-touted mRNA technology. He identified a six-spike protein that he dubbed Hexapro: Once inserted into a vaccine, it could make it far more potent than current COVID vaccines and far cheaper to produce.
The new vaccine, called NDV-HXP-S, is now entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam. If it proves safe and effective (for now it has shown to work for mice), then it could be produced very cheaply in the billions of doses. This is so, because contrary to current vaccines, NVD-HXP-S can be mass-produced in chicken eggs using widespread, available know-how in existing flu vaccine factories in countries like Vietnam, Brazil, or India. As Andrea Taylor, assistant director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center says: “That’s staggering — it would be a game-changer.”
And there are many other researchers still at it, ones which have not yet gone public but are ongoing. It is fair to conclude that, if the past is a prologue to our future, and therefore how we deal with COVID-19 will determine how well we will address future pandemics, then perhaps, all hope is not lost. Consider that if innovations keep pouring in, we won’t need to fear the future as much as we did in 2020 or even today. Still, a very big if. | <urn:uuid:259e930e-0364-4d9a-848f-2caf933133bc> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://impakter.com/covid-19-vaccines-anger-inequity-optimism-misplaced/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103036176.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20220625220543-20220626010543-00370.warc.gz | en | 0.953658 | 3,253 | 2.875 | 3 |
"Loved this and I'm not a big history buff. This was an eye-opener. This will make you have an even deeper respect for those who went through slavery and all they endured." — Pollard House
During the 1850s and 1860s more than 100,000 people escaped slavery in the American South by following the Underground Railroad, a complex network of secret routes and safe houses. This inexpensive compilation of firsthand accounts offers authentic insights into the Civil War era and African-American history with compelling narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and lesser-known refugees.
Thirty selections include the story of Eliza Harris, "The Slave Woman Who Crossed the Ohio River on the Drifting Ice with Her Child in Her Arms," whose experience inspired a memorable scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Other accounts include that of Henry "Box" Brown, who hid in a crate mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists; Theophilus Collins's escape after "A Desperate, Bloody Struggle — Gun, Knife and Fire Shovel, Used by Infuriated Master"; excerpts from Harriet Jacobs's 1861 narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; and the remarkable flight of William and Ellen Craft, "Female Slave in Male Attire, Fleeing as a Planter, with Her Husband as Her Body Servant." | <urn:uuid:4e505dd8-1d18-4688-b1dd-0da7eb066b12> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://store.doverpublications.com/0486780619.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039741510.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20181113215316-20181114001316-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.946648 | 275 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Scrying: What, how and why?
What is Scrying?
Have you ever seen images of fortune tellers looking into their crystal balls to seek prophecies and psychic guidance? Or pictures of witches staring into their boiling, bubbling cauldrons and watching as images dance across the surface?
That, my love, is scrying.
Scrying is essentially the art of symbol interpretation—typically initiated by looking into a shiny or reflective surface and divining the images that appear.
While there are dozens of Scrying methods, some of the more popular ones include using tools such as mirrors (blackened mirrors typically made of Obsidian), crystal balls, and dark bowls filled with water.
Scrying is a highly intuitive practice—which many would say is entirely dependent on the strength of your psychic-seeing abilities.
But, contrary to what most might think, these psychic abilities are present in all of us! For some, the abilities may be more naturally available than others, but with some practice, everyone can make use of this ancient art.
A Brief History.
Scrying is a divinatory practice that dates back thousands of years.
Ancient Scrying artifacts have been discovered throughout Ireland and many parts of Western Europe—with Scrying having been a notable Druidic form of divination. Many Native American tribes have used smoke as a form of Scrying—interpreting the movement, color, and shapes as a language of its own. We can even see evidence dating back as far as 2500 BC in both China and Egypt pointing to Scrying practices as a well-loved form of divining answers and truth.
But it wasn’t until the 19th century that Scrying as a widely-popular practice (featuring crystal balls and magic mirrors) made its debut. Although, at the time, it was mostly written-off as a charlatan stage act, the truly revered art of Scrying carried on behind closed doors.
Today, Scrying has re-emerged in more popular circles as an honored divination practice available to all those who wish to seek it.
How to Scry:
While there are a variety of different Scrying methods, one of the easiest and most widely accessible ways is the Scrying Bowl. All you need is a dark bowl, water, and a candle.
Scrying Bowl Practice:
Find a plain, dark-colored bowl and fill it with water.
Place the bowl on a flat surface inside a dimly-lit room (candlelight is best).
Next, open up the space the same way you would before any ritual (through invocation, prayer, chanting, etc.). Clearly state your intentions for this Scrying session (to practice, to divine specific information, etc.).
Take a deep breath, relax your body and your mind, and begin to gaze into the bowl. Tip on positioning: you don’t want to be hovering over the bowl so that your face is reflected back to you—it’s best to sit at such an angle that no objects in the room are reflected back in the water. Also, it’s helpful to set your gaze on the water as if you’re looking just past it. Be patient, and hold your gaze until images begin to appear on the water’s surface.
Remember to record what you’re seeing. Oftentimes, it’s easy to forget what images we saw after we finish a Scrying session.
Once you feel like you’re done, wrap up the session by giving your gratitude to the bowl, as well as any Spirits/guides/beings you may have called in to assist. Many people prefer to dispose of their water by giving it back to the earth, but how you choose to get rid of the water is ultimately up to you. | <urn:uuid:9e547412-b593-4c2f-b43f-dcc63f3eb905> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.tamedwildblog.com/home/2019/2/26/scrying-what-how-and-why | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232255536.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190520021654-20190520043654-00251.warc.gz | en | 0.958901 | 789 | 2.5625 | 3 |
By Michelle Werts
Here at American Forests, we love big trees — as is evident by our 70-plus-year-old National Big Tree Program. We love big trees for a variety of reasons, like their size and the histories they tell, but perhaps the biggest reason is the most hidden of all: They’re good for our forests.
A study released this week in the online science journal PloS ONE reveals the exact extent of big trees’ impact on their ecosystems. It turns out that trees three-plus feet in diameter account for almost half of the biomass in the 63-acre section in Yosemite National Park that was studied, but are only one percent of the trees growing there. Now, what does this mean to those of us who didn’t major in ecology? Well, ecosystems at their most basic level are comprised of living (plants, animals, organisms) and non-living things (air, sunlight, minerals). Biomass represents the living side of that equation; all of the things that are alive and kicking (or were recently alive and kicking) make up an ecosystem’s biomass. So back to that conclusion earlier, if you had a forest area of 100,000 trees, just 1,000 big trees in that area would be responsible for 50 percent of the area’s biomass. That’s just crazy, right?
Actually, not so crazy.
Let’s start with the trees themselves. They’re big, so they take in more light than other trees nearby, which means more photosynthesis, carbon sequestration, transpiration (the absorption and dispersal of water through their roots and leaves) and other activities. When you combine all of these activities, the big trees actually can form their own microclimate. Then, there are the animals that love to use these big trees as their homes, burrowing into their trunks and making nests in their canopies — plus, the animals that use the trees for food. And, then there are all of the insects and microscopic organisms that feast on and around these trees. Basically, the bigger the tree, the more living things that can flock to it.
But, this alone isn’t what accounts for big trees’ 50 percent of the biomass — they contribute in death, too. When any tree falls in the forest, it becomes a woody haven for the earthbound organisms of the forest, and the bigger the tree, the more it can support. Plants and trees can grow from fallen trunks. Even animal species that won’t set foot in a big tree’s canopy can find comfy digs in it once it’s on the ground. And, of course, they continue to store carbon and nutrients, as they slowly release them back into the environment.
Basically, a big tree is a big deal to life in at least temperate forests, where this study was conducted. Which means, big trees — and conversely, old trees since you can’t get big without some years on you — need to be protected. This also calls into question the paradigm for many development projects: cutting down a tree even if you’re going to plant a new tree in its place does not an even exchange make. As this study shows, we lose a whole lot more than one tree when old, big trees are lost. That’s why we’re fighting the good fight and honor our big trees every year with our National Register of Big Trees so that the biggest trees in the country can be recognized and appreciated for the value they provide. | <urn:uuid:e2613faf-06a8-45a3-8405-1a6c34fbf098> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www.americanforests.org/blog/how-much-is-a-tree-worth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812405.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20180219052241-20180219072241-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.958743 | 741 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn
cf. D. granti
(male, females are sans horns)
County Record Data from E.G. Riley, Dec. 2005
Plus Kaufman Co,
Range: Occurs from Illinois east to New York, south to the Gulf Coast, west to Central Texas.
There are some 29 Texas specimens in the TAMU Insect Collection collected from January to August, most from June.
Usually uncommon, but has been recoded in great congregations on ash trees (Fraxinus spp., Oleaceae) by Manee (1915) and Cartwright (1976).
Adult 40 to 60 mm long (including the "horns" of the male) and 20 to 27 mm wide.
Color of adult variable, ranging from yellow-green or gray with mahogany spots to a uniform dark-mahogany color.
Sometimes with one elytron spotted and the other mahogany colored.
Larvae feed for 12 to 18 months on decaying wood of wild cherry, black locust, oak, pine, willow, and other trees.
Pupation occurs in late summer.
Adults hibernate for two to three months in their pupal cells in decaying wood.
Adult emerge from their pupal cells a few weeks after completing pupation, but remain underground for some time.
Adults feed on the sap of ash trees at scars made in the bark; they are also attracted to rotting fruit.
During the summer up to 40 eggs are laid over a one month period which hatch in about 30 days (per lab studies).
Large larvae overwinter leading to a two year life cycle.
Adults typically live three to six months, rarely up to a year plus (per lab studies).
Similar Species: Six species of Dynastes are found in the New World, three of which are found in the U.S. and Mexico.
Dynastes granti Horn, 1870 - Arizona
Dynastes tityus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Eastern North America
Dynastes hyllus Chevrolat, 1843 - Occurs as far north as Tamaulipas, Mexico
Dynastes tityus (Linnaeus, 1763) - University of Nebraska State Museum
Eastern Hercules Beetle (Dynastes tityus) - Texas A&M
Dynastes tityus, the rhinoceros beetle - Jay Comeaux
Captive Breeding Manual for Beetles of the Family Scarabaeidae - C. Campbell
Rearing the Hercules Beetle. Dynastes tityus - University of Kentucky
Dorsal male, Melanistic female, Close-up of male head, Partial melanism, Minimally spotted - BugGuide.Net
Male pupa, Male & female pupa, Larvae, Larva - BugGuide.Net
Male and Female - Elytra and Antenna
Misc: Was featured on a U.S. stamp in October 1999, drawn by Steve Buchanan
Etymology: Dynastes tityus (Linnaeus, 1763)
dyn, -am, -amo, -ast (G). Be able; power, energy
titan, -o (G My). Gigantic; chalk
Biography: Carl Linnaeus
(1707-1778) - University of California, Berkeley
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P.E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL. xiv + 861 pp.
Borror, D.J. 1960. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. National Press Books, Palo Alto. v + 134 pp.
Cartwright, O.L. 1976. Adult feeding by Dynastes tityus (Linn.) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). 30(4): 336.
Endrödi, S. 1985. The Dynastinae of the World. Dr. W. Junk Publisher, Dordrecht. 800 pp., 46 plates.
Glaser, J.D. 1976. The biology of Dynastes tityus (Linn.) in Maryland (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Coleopterists Bulletin, 30(2): 133-138.
Harpootlian, P.J. 2001. Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of South Carolina. Biota of South Carolina 2: 1-157.
Lachaume, G. 1985. Dynastini 1: Dynastes-Megasoma-Golofa. Les Coléoptères du Monde, vol. 5. Sciences Nat, Venette, France. 85 pp., 29 plates.
Manee, A.H. 1915. Observations in Southern Pines, North Carolina (Hym., Col.). Entomological News 26: 265-268.
McMonigle, O. 2001. The Complete Guide to Rearing Grant's Rhinoceros Beetle. Elytra and Antenna, Brunswick Hills, OH. 37 pp.
Riley, E.G. & C.S. Wolfe. 2003. An annotated checklist of the Scarabaeoidea of Texas. Southwestern Entomologist, Supplement, no. 26. 37 pp.
Ritcher, P.O. 1966. White Grubs and Their Allies, a Study of North American Scarabaeoid Larvae. Oregon State University Monograph Series No. 4: 1-219.
Saylor, L.W. 1948. Synoptic revision of the United States scarab beetles of the subfamily Dynastinae, No. 4: Tribe Oryctini (Part). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 38(5): 176-183.
White, R.E. 1983. A Field Guide to the Beetles of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 368 pp.
09 Dec 2008 © Mike Quinn / Texas Entomology / Texas Beetles / Texas Beetle Photos / | <urn:uuid:354c92e6-1412-4a63-b69b-bad4c90475a1> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://texasento.net/Dynastes.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886794.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117023532-20180117043532-00766.warc.gz | en | 0.774572 | 1,325 | 2.65625 | 3 |
World Humanitarian Day is a time to recognise those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. The day was designated by the General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq.
August 19, 2013 marks 10 years since that tragic event, which claimed 22 lives. This year, the international community will pause to remember those who died, as well as the dozens of aid workers, who have died in the years since.
But World Humanitarian Day is also an opportunity to celebrate the spirit that inspires humanitarian work around the globe.
This year the UN and its humanitarian partners are launching a ground-breaking campaign called The world needs more… This is a first-of-its-kind project that will quite literally turn words into aid.
To get involved and to learn more about the campaign visit: www.worldhumanitarianday.org | <urn:uuid:f46c1fc3-9947-41a1-8700-f4690be80fe0> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/08/2013819151328422145.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501169776.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104609-00147-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958796 | 184 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The Jews : Story of a People by Howard Fast
Howard Fast was a most brilliant author. I have read his novels that revolve around the history of Ancient Israel: My Glorious Brothers; Moses, Prince of Egypt and Agrippa's Daughter.
In this work , published in 1968, he puts his pen to the service of documenting the history of the Jewish Nation.
The result is compelling and fascinating, in the incredible style of Howard Fast. The first three chapters deal with his theory as to the origin of the Hebrew people, and cannot be said to be really history. It is simply theory - which largely departs from the Biblical narrative- without any real proof or substance. Yet it is an interesting theory nonetheless. He deals comprehensively with Israel at the time of Herod and Hillel, and the life of Yehoshuah Ben Yosef (Jesus) and the birth of Christianity, under the ideas of Saul of Tarsus (Paul). Fast writes at length about how the Church planted the seeds of hatred that lead to the centuries of anti-Semitic terror and bloodshed against the Jewish people in Europe. He documents the Diaspora of the Jews when most of them where forced out of their homeland of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), by the Roman Empire, into the Mediterranean Lands the Balkans, Spain, Greece and Italy, and from there into Germany, France and England and then into Poland, Russia, the Baltic Lands, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The story of the Jews is a long and tragic tale of suffering and bloodshed of a people separated from their homeland for so many centuries and unable to determine their own future... Take this passage about the genocide visited upon the Jews in Mediaeval Germany by the Crusaders: " In Neuss, the Crusaders where drunk, and in the spirit of good fun they flung more than twenty women and a hundred children into the river, seeing how far two men could fling a screaming child. At Mors almost a thousand Jewish bodies where observed floating in the Rhine. At Alternah, the humane Archbishop Egbert attempted to defend the Jews and was beaten half to death. In Regensburg, the Jews where cut down in the streets. A Count Agthar likened it to rabbit hunting. A great pile of Jewish bodies was dragged into the main square, and crusaders amused themselves by beheading the dead. Over four thousand Jews where killed in the Rhine district alone."
But it also the story of their great contribution to all the lands in which they where dispersed, how they gave so much to the advancement of finance, commerce, medicine, navigation, astronomy, science, medicine and ideas.
And we also read in this volume the intriguing story of the Jews in other lands, like China and India, where thriving Jewish communities existed, as well as the large Jewish communities of the Middle East, which lived under the ebb and flow of alternating prosperity and persecution by their Muslim overlords.
There is a chapter of the Jews in America, and their remarkable contribution to that remarkable land.
Fast gives a fascinating account of the journey of Jewish history until the horrors of the most devastating blow of all, Hitler's holocaust.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.
Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.
Fast points out that there was NEVER a time when there where not Jewish communities living in the Land of Israel, from the time of Moses until today: " In 1495 there where over two hundred Jewish families in Jerusalem, and there where functioning synagogues in half a hundred other spots in Palestine. In 1520, in Safed alone, there where two thousand Jewish families...By 1600, we must conclude that somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 Jews where resident in Palestine."
The State of Israel embodies the hopes and lives on the Jewish Nation, with 5 million Jews today living in Israel. The destruction of Israel would mean another holocaust of Jews.
Hope writes in this book, what should ring out as an answer to Israel's loathsome critics: "The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in Palestine have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed , who would raise no hand in their defense , had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Palestine at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , Arab feudal lords in Palestine organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. Palestine was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life..." | <urn:uuid:3a205daa-dac1-41b1-9282-01eb1c8dbb44> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.amazon.ca/The-Jews-Story-Of-People/dp/0743498410 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657120446.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011200-00266-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956491 | 1,263 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Where was Vinland?
In the 1960’s, the Norwegian explorer and writer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife, Stine, decided to resolve the question of whether Vinland meant “Grassland” or “Wine-land?”
Following the sailing instructions outlined within the sagas, Ingstad ended up at L’Anse aux Meadows, a grassy expanse located on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland.
Excavations began in 1961 and revealed the remains of eight turf-walled houses. One of these was a longhouse measuring 22m by 15 m (72 ft by 50 ft), and contained five rooms along with a “great hall,” and a smithy, where bog iron was smelted. Several of the houses had stone ember pits identical to those found in Norse houses in Greenland. Another artifact unearthed was a soapstone spindle whorl, similar to those discovered in Norse ruins in Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia. This find suggests that women as well as men were present at the site, which is also consistent with the sagas.
The land they found had fertile soil, abundant game resources for either fishing or hunting, and iron. The climate was mild and provided a stable environment for crops if they chose to raise them. Was this in fact Vinland? The question still stands, but we do know that this is undoubtedly the site of a Norse settlement from around AD 1000.
The Vikings were probably the first Europeans to reach North America. The only physical remains today are those of remnants of a Viking settlement in Canada near St. Lunaire, Newfoundland at L’Anse aux Meadows.
Historians suggest hostile Indians forced the settlers to abandon what many believe was the ‘Vinland’ of the Sagas.
Much controversy exists about the Viking incursions into North America. Some rune stones have been unearthed to the SW of the Great Lake Region of the U.S.A. but generally discounted as fakes.
A trip to L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland July 7, 1995
Written for The Viking Network by Robert W. Easton
At the cliff’s edge, looking over the water, I can see the southern coast of Labrador across the Strait of Belle Isle. Dim through the haze, it is fading quickly out of sight. In the water, icebergs move slowly with the current, and I scan the sea hopefully for the spouts of whales. Even though this is July, the wind has an icy bite to it; part of the Labrador Current flows south through the Straits to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cold fog tails are beginning to show over the headlands, and they block my view across the straits. From my rocky outpost, looking down at the small harbor below me, I can see back about a thousand years. A small boat glides towards the crescent of rocky beach. Over the steady crash of breaking waves, pebbles crunch as a Viking knarr, with its gracefully curved bow and stern, grounds on the rough shore. The crew shout to each other as they leap over the gunwales, splashing in the water, pulling the boat up beyond the waves. They grab their few belongings and hurry up the beach. The fog is thickening and it’s getting dark, so they have returned just in time. Their hump-backed sod huts are dark shapes waiting silently for them to come home. Finally, the last man disappears into a low doorway, and I am alone again.
I have been inside those huts, but just as a tourist. The low flickering fires make dark shadows, and fill the rooms with smoke. Almost a thousand years ago, the talk among friends and families filled these rooms with life. Fresh fish went on a spit over the fire; flat bread and vegetables came out from their bins, and all shared an abundant meal. Old tales and new stories mingled with the smoke, and the lonesome shadows of this Viking outpost disappeared for another evening. That was long ago.
This is L’Anse aux Meadows, at the furthest end of the Northern Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada. In the year 1000, it was the site of a Viking encampment, the only documented Viking site in North America. This is where Europeans first came to this continent. Leif Eiriksson might have slept here, along with 80 or so other Viking men and women. This was probably a base camp, that could be reached easily from Greenland. Small groups of explorers left from here to explore the land and waters to the south, possibly sailing to Vinland. Described in the Icelandic Sagas, Vinland was a place with a mild climate that abounded with timber, salmon, and ample supplies of grapes. According to the sagas, the grapes gave the site its name, but the sagas don’t give quite enough information to find its exact location. It could have been anywhere from here in Newfoundland, to the southern coast of New York’s Long Island.
Now a Canada National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, L’Anse aux Meadows was first excavated in 1960 by Helge Ingstad. A careful reading of the Vinland Sagas suggested to Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine, that Vikings must have had a settlement somewhere along the Newfoundland coast. After a long search, and aided by a local fisherman who recalled some odd rectangular “humps” in the ground, they uncovered and carefully excavated the site. Today there is a small museum to house the artifacts uncovered by the dig, and re creations of three Viking sod houses. Near the beach and surrounded by a rude woven fence, the huts present a realistic setting. An overturned longboat is ready to slide into the water, a fish flake, for drying cod and capelin, stands empty, waiting for the day’s catch to be cleaned and hung, while pine smoke pours from the opening in the roof of the longest house. Maybe it will be warm inside, not just in my hopeful imagination! | <urn:uuid:fc9cc9db-5395-4a11-a2fd-86d555b654e2> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.viking.no/the-viking-travels/vinland-the-vikings-in-north-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818690307.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170925021633-20170925041633-00575.warc.gz | en | 0.962937 | 1,265 | 2.984375 | 3 |
To help parents ensure their children stay safe online whilst getting to explore and discover new things we’ve pulled together a list of our resources you can access for free which provide information and advice for parents about internet safety.
A family agreement is a great way to start a conversation with your whole family about how you all use the internet and discuss together how to behave in a positive way when online at home, at school or at a friend’s house.
Our family agreement advice provides a list of things to consider when creating a family agreement and some examples.
The family agreement template provides a framework that will help families set clear expectations for positive and safe internet use.
We also have guidance to help you to create your own family agreement and put it into practice
Supporting young people online – Information & advice for parents & carers
Information and advice for parents, carers and teachers to address the online issues that children and young people face online today. The leaflet includes details about the potential risks, tips and conversation starters.
The leaflet is available to download in 13 languages including, Arabic, French Punjabi, Turkish and Welsh. Download it for free at: Supporting young people online – Information & advice for parents & carers
The leaflet is available online and can be ordered in English in batches of 20. Postage and packing costs apply. Order here.
Information and resources sheet
An information and advice sheet for parents and carers including links to web-based resources such as Internet Matters, ChildLine, CEOP and the Internet Watch Foundation.
Download the leaflet for free at: Information and resources sheet
The leaflet can be ordered in batches of 50. Postage and packing costs apply. Order here.
For parents of 3-11 year olds
Keeping young children safe online
This leaflet contains top tips for parents and carers for keeping young children safe online.
Download the leaflet for free at: Keeping young children safe online
More advice about how to keep young people safe can be found in our hot topic – Keeping young children safe online.
Digiduck’s big decision
Help arrives just in time for Digiduck® when faced with a difficult decision! Follow Digiduck® and his pals in this story of friendship and responsibility online.
The Digiduck® collection is a great way to educate younger children about how to be a good friend online. The collection now includes a book, PDF and interactive app.
Although you can purchase the book in our store, there is also a free PDF of the book available here: http://www.childnet.com/resources/digiducks-big-decision
The adventures of Kara, Winston and the SMART Crew
These cartoons illustrate 5 e-safety SMART rules and include a real life SMART Crew of young people, who guide the cartoon characters in their quest, and help them make safe online decisions.
Do this fun quiz together as a family to see how much your family know about being SMART online!
For parents of 11-18 year olds
Young people and social networking sites
A leaflet for parents, carers and teachers with advice about social networking sites like Facebook. The leaflet includes information about reporting, digital footprint, privacy settings and online friendship. There’s also an FAQ’s section.
Download the leaflet for free at: Young people and social networking sites
The leaflet can be ordered in batches of 20. Postage and packing costs apply. Order here.
Social media guides
These guides can be used to find out more about the safety features available on some of the most popular social media websites and apps.
See the collection of guides here: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/social-media-guides
Social Media checklists
These checklists provide advice and guidance on how to set privacy settings and other account settings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
View all of the checklists here https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/social-media-checklists | <urn:uuid:fa690c80-c34a-45f9-8548-1e1080e411aa> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.childnet.com/blog/free-internet-safety-resources-for-parents | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027314353.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20190818231019-20190819013019-00214.warc.gz | en | 0.906427 | 846 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Help Spikenard Farms Save the Honeybees!
Spikenard Farm Was founded with the intention of creating a safe haven and for honeybees in peril, and it is shining example of how healthy honeybee colonies should function. At this time, with Colony Collapse Disorder and a host of illnesses bees are in grave danger. Instead of focusing on how much honey we can get from the bees, Spikenard farms is asking what can be done to protect, strengthen and heal them.
This week only, you can help Spikenard Sanctuary save the honeybees when you purchase any item on our website: receive 15% off your purchase and we will donate an additional 15% to Spikenard farms!
The honeybee is a member of the insect order Hymenoptera which plays a key role in the human and natural world. Honeybees are more than just honey producers – they create formic acid – an essential acid and the basis for all plant life. Honeybees are responsible for pollinating 40-70% of our diet!
According to reports from scientific community that the population of honeybees has been adversely affected by:
- Neurotoxic pesticides
- Mites & viruses
- Mono-crop agribusiness
Spikenard farms believes that the loss in vitality and reduced capability of the survival of honeybees is not only caused by conventional agricultural practices, but also by the attempt of making beekeeping as profitable as possible. These practices include:
- Artificial queen breeding
- Recycled wax or plastic foundations
- Feeding sugar/corn syrup in large quantities
- Exploitive honey harvests
- Swarm prevention
- Migratory beekeeping
How can we help
There are many ways you can help the honeybees yourself! Some of Spikenards suggestions include:
- Plant bee forage in your yard or on your balcony
- Become a beekeeper by hosting a natural honeybee hive.
- Learn what you need to know by attending a lectures and workshop from Spikenard Farms or another local Honey bee sanctuary close to you.
- Purchase and consume non GMO food and produce
- Purchase organic Wild-crafted honey
You can also help Spikenard farms by purchasing any product from our website this week! Get 15% off any purchase and we will donate an additional 15% to Spikenards Honeybee Sanctuary! Visit the Spikenard Farms website for more information. | <urn:uuid:bdf5a7bb-e576-41b7-8317-ebfe9bc70f17> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://medicinemamasapothecary.com/blogs/news/16246357-help-spikenard-farms-save-the-honeybees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549427766.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170729112938-20170729132938-00224.warc.gz | en | 0.927796 | 495 | 2.625 | 3 |
Go Down Moses
Dating back to the times of slavery, Negro Spirituals were songs that were used as a source of reflection for black people to voice their feelings on the struggles and the hardships they were going through. Being grabbed from their homes, and forced into slavery life was from plantation to plantation. These songs were used to inspire those who thought they couldn’t go on. They often expressed this form of music in their church services (the only thing that they felt was there’s). Some of these songs were hymns and organized in a call and response form. But as time went on, they evolved. Today, they have been arranged so many different ways. They also went on to influence Jubilee Quartets (with a beat added) and choir spirituals. Famous Negro Spiritual composers included: Harry Thacker Burleigh (“Deep River”), Charles Albert Tindley (“Stand by Me”), Paul Robeson (“Congo Lullaby”) and Moses Hogan (“Elijah Rock”). Negro Spirituals were the root of the music we love today. It shows us just what our ancestors went through and what they overcame, and gives us the opportunity to feel the souls of our ancestors. | <urn:uuid:e2c4e3ac-02e2-40dc-81c7-c6fb1063da28> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blackmusicscholar.com/negro-spirituals-20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573630.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819070211-20220819100211-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.990011 | 260 | 3.46875 | 3 |
We all know how important it is to brush your teeth at least twice a day to prevent gum disease and cavities. However, since most children struggle long-term thinking, convincing them to brush their teeth can sometimes be an uphill battle. Below are some tips to help convince your child that tooth brushing is a fun, rewarding, normal activity.
Get a New Toothbrush
This may seem like a small thing, but from a child’s perspective, a new toothbrush is like an exciting new toy. You can surprise them with a new brush featuring their favorite TV or movie character, or simply opt for a new color. Some children feel more invested if they get to select the toothbrush themselves at the store. If you’re really struggling to make brushing a habit, you might consider making getting a new toothbrush a fun new ritual each month – even if it’s not completely necessary. You may also find that having a few different toothbrushes helps to pique your child’s interest. Getting to select which toothbrush to use each night can make it feel more fun.
Use Flavored Toothpaste
Most adults are used to the taste of minty toothpaste, but children are more sensitive and may dislike the strong taste. Luckily, toothpastes are available in all sorts of flavor, from chocolate, to marshmallow, to strawberry, and even bacon. Spend some time browsing around the internet for a fun new flavor, and try different ones until you find a match. If your tot simply hates every flavor you bring home, brushing without toothpaste altogether is better than nothing at all.
Your child is much less likely to brush their teeth if they feel they are the only one undergoing this unique form of dental torture. Let them see you brushing your teeth, and consider doing it together. Once your toddler sees that everyone brushes their teeth, they will be much more likely to accept it for themselves.
Create a Reward System
We have already mentioned that children are simply not incentivized by the threat of cavities or gum disease. They are much more motivated by short-term rewards than long-term good hygiene. So, you could consider keeping a sticker calendar, and providing a reward once a certain goal has been met.
If you ever get too frustrated, remember that you have been brushing your teeth – probably twice per day, if not more – for years. But for your child, this is a fairly new experience. It has not become habit, and they are not used to the idea or sensation of teeth brushing. As long as you maintain your patience and avoid making tooth brushing a punishment, even the most stubborn child should be able to make brushing part of a normal routine, just as you did.
Lowcountry Dental Arts is a James Island family dentist specializing in dental crowns, tooth whitening, dental exams, root canals, oral surgery, and more. To schedule an appointment, click here. | <urn:uuid:8033b149-5cb8-4ec6-bd42-aaf5c72f89d0> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://lowcountrydentalarts.com/how-to-encourage-kids-to-brush-their-teeth-from-a-james-island-dentist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655027.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608135911-20230608165911-00054.warc.gz | en | 0.953574 | 607 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Written by Sharon Guynup
In a vast, water-pocked region of Western Siberia, a Russian crew explores the Messoyahka natural-gas field, drilling deep into thick permafrost. Engineers—ever alert for changes in downward progress that could signal an oil or gas deposit—note that suddenly the drill rig blasts through something that isn’t bedrock. They carefully examine the rock cuttings and dirt and mud that flow up from the drill hole. Oddly, they also find something they’ve never seen in the mix before. There are icy chunks embedded in the core sample. The ice melts and the chunks disintegrate when pulled to the surface.
The drilling crew soon learned that they had found a substance thought to exist naturally only in the farthest reaches of the solar system. They had discovered methane hydrate, or “methane ice,” in nature on Earth. What they couldn’t know then—in 1964, in the remote fields of Messoyahka—was that the frozen gas may hold a key to solving 21st-century energy problems.
Today, it’s known that abundant methane hydrate riddles permafrost across the Arctic and also lies entombed under deep-ocean sediment, forming the planet’s single-largest carbon reservoir. The ice chunks form when bubbles of methane gas rise from, say, a fault into a frigid, high-pressure environment that squeezes water and methane gas together into a solid. The methane molecules are then trapped within water cages in ice-like crystals.
With about 23 percent of Earth’s surface frozen as permafrost and much of the ocean deep enough to form hydrates, the potential size of these deposits appears to be staggering. Methane hydrate is likely to be far more abundant than all of the remaining oil, coal, and gas fields combined, according to Timothy Collett, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Could these mysterious subterranean deposits be harnessed as a future source of natural gas? With most methane hydrate deposits buried a minimum of a quarter-mile below the surface of the sea or buried in Arctic ice, these formations are extremely difficult to study. Yet, Pitt chemist Kenneth D. Jordan is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to explore methane hydrate’s mysterious properties from afar: He’s conducting up-close research from his office in Eberly Hall on the Pittsburgh campus.
Jordan is using computer simulation to explore methane as it exists in Arctic permafrost and in deep-ocean terrain. In essence, he’s applying mathematic formulas to simulate methane hydrate’s structure and dynamics.
Using “virtual” modeling, Jordan and his team run a series of calculations to examine how the properties of methane hydrate depend on temperature and the occupation of the water cages.Computer modeling allows them to conduct experiments that couldn’t be carried out in nature or in a laboratory, like examining how the crystals are created and whether the presence of the methane molecules affects how efficiently the crystals conduct heat. Jordan explains that in nature, under high enough pressure and at low enough temperature, water and methane form methane hydrate crystals, trapping the methane molecules in water cages. “On the computer, you can build these structures with or without methane molecules to analyze how the presence of methane affects heat movement through the crystals,” he says.
Jordan, Distinguished Professor of Computational Chemistry at Pitt, runs these simulations on anywhere from 8 to 32 computers simultaneously, a method called parallel processing. Even when combining the power of multiple computers, the calculations can take anywhere from a few days to a week to calculate, depending on the nature and complexity of the simulation. The computers are linked together on a lightning-fast “InfiniBand” network, some 30 times faster than gigabit Ethernet.
“We couldn’t have done this type of study 15 years ago,” he says. Back then, computers could only model a few hundred atoms; now, with much faster computers working together in parallel, researchers can model the behavior of systems containing thousands, even millions of atoms. “It means that we can model much more accurately.”
Even with these advances, researchers still face the challenge of dealing with many research problems that span a wide range of time and/or length scales, requiring the development of new multiscale algorithms. Jordan is just one of scores of Pitt scientists working across many disciplines who are pairing multiscale modeling and parallel processing with traditional laboratory experiments. This means that physicists, biologists, chemists, engineers, doctors and others are now collaborating closely with top computer programmers—although there are rare birds who can do both.
This fall, the University of Pittsburgh launched a new, multidisciplinary Center for Simulation and Modeling (SAM), which will speed development of innovation and discoveries in computational-based research. Research can be conducted using any of the networked supercomputers clustered around campus. The center will help researchers wean themselves from limited serial processing and gain expertise in parallel processing and multiscale modeling. It will bring together about 50 faculty members and more than 100 graduate students from very diverse areas to discuss problems and work with the center’s newly hired consultants who are experts in translating research problems into computer programs that will help to answer researchers’ questions.
“What we’re doing is providing researchers with resources to tackle their problems,” says George Klinzing, Pitt’s vice provost for research. “We want them to be at the forefront with the tools they need to make important breakthroughs.” The new center is located in Bellefield Hall. Jordan is codirecting the center with J. Karl Johnson, interim chair and W.K. Whiteford Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.
For some problems, researchers use existing computer codes; all that’s needed is to plug in and run the data. But for others, it’s necessary to write code from scratch. Helping scientists to write such codes is the main work of the center consultants. The process starts with identifying the research questions and then selecting one of two possible simulation methods according to the time and physical scale of the project. The “Monte Carlo” technique is used to try to find different configurations, perhaps rotating and grouping or moving molecules, while “molecular dynamics” is used to track movement over time, like the possible configurations of protein folding during a nanosecond transformation.
Also key to the center’s mission is helping researchers at Pitt take advantage of parallel computing, which, says Johnson, is a tool that’s revolutionizing researchers’ ability to model complex systems. “Anything that can be analyzed quantitatively, turned into an equation, translated into an algorithm, and put on a computer can be simulated and modeled,” he says. “Parallel computing means you can tackle more realistic, more important problems.”
Indeed, computers can be used to carry out experiments that would be too costly, too complicated, or simply impossible to do in a traditional laboratory setting. Jordan remembers a time, not that many years ago, when lab scientists were suspicious of computer modeling, but notes that today many breakthroughs are only possible as a result of collaborations between computational and experimental researchers. “This close coupling between simulation and more traditional experiments is changing the way that a lot of modern science is done,” he says. Computer modeling allows researchers to tackle complex questions on everything from energy and climate change, to the ups and downs of the world economy, to the spread of infectious diseases.
Predicting the spread—and prevention—of a global viral epidemic is just such an example. To simulate the path and infection rate of a rampaging infectious disease, Donald S. Burke, dean of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, led a research team at the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, and Imperial College in London to craft a complex model. He and his team needed to consider how many people lived in a particular location, where they lived, and in what concentrations. He had to put virtual people into households, use transportation data to figure out where and how they went to work or school, places where they would mix germs freely—and then carry those bugs back home. Then he introduced a disease, Avian flu. Using pandemic information from the 1918 flu, he entered information about how long a carrier is contagious, how quickly the disease spreads, and in what proximity.
After putting all this data into a simulation format, he watched individuals on the screen turn red as they contracted the disease, and turn green as they recovered. Then he changed the parameters to watch what would happen if the flu strain was more or less deadly or infectious than the 1918 strain. Using his models detailing the speed and patterns of infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have crafted new policies on how to respond to an outbreak, including things like school closings and restrictions on travel.
Burke, who also is director of Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research and is UPMC-Jonas Salk Professor of Global Health, collaborated with the Ministry of Health in Thailand to see if it would be possible to stop just such an epidemic before it raged out of control if it were to strike in Southeast Asia—and how big a stockpile of antiviral drugs it would take. His computer model needed to reflect the fact that the drug would need to be administered to everyone within one kilometer of a known outbreak. He quizzed public health experts on how quickly the drug could be distributed (48 hours, even in an emergency) and what fraction of the population would really take it (about 60 percent). His model showed that a maximum of three million courses of antiviral drugs would be needed to quench the spread of the disease. In response to his study, the pharmaceutical firm Hoffmann-La Roche donated three million doses to the World Health Organization.
“With this kind of computing power,” says Burke, “it’s possible to track what would happen to 85 million people in Thailand.”
Over the next four years, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Burke will use this kind of modeling to identify what is needed in new or improved vaccines for maladies such as measles, malaria, dengue fever, and influenza.
When asked about the importance of modeling in his work, Burke notes that Pitt is on the cutting edge, using methods that he expects to change the face of public health research. Then he laughs and quotes J.W. Forrester, the father of systems science: “‘All decisions are based on the models,’” he said. “‘Most models are in our heads; mental models are not true and accurate images of our surroundings but are a set of assumptions and observations gained from experiences. Computer simulation models can compensate for weakness in mental models.’”
Through Pitt’s new simulation center, codirector J. Karl Johnson and his team are studying new ways of storing carbon dioxide, a major contributor to the planet’s recent and worrisome warm-up. Johnson’s simulation work at Pitt is helping researchers to design materials that could capture CO2for storage underground or under the sea.
Johnson says that until the nation and the world develop efficient renewable sources of energy, we’ll still be using fossil fuels, probably for the next few decades. The question he’s tackling, using computer simulations, is whether we can use oil, gas, coal, and natural gas without releasing CO2into the atmosphere. That solution would help to prevent CO2’s increasing environmental damage until new alternative energy sources become viable.
In other CO2 research, Johnson’s team is trying to enhance oil recovery from “dry” oil wells. Team members are modeling changes to CO2using various polymers that make the molecule more closely resemble oil—so when injected into a well, it could push remaining oil to the surface. “The United States has a lot of oil wells that are not producing anymore,” says Johnson. “If we could squeeze more oil out of them, it would aid in our quest for energy independence.”
Simulation is particularly valuable in the creation of new materials and is capable of “computational discovery”—the virtual discovery of something that has not yet been seen in the laboratory. Geoffrey Hutchison, assistant professor of chemistry at Pitt, is investigating what could prove to be an inexpensive, innovative energy source—a new kind of solar cell made from conductive plastic. The cells could be dissolved, like ink, and painted on roofs or cars to supply electricity. They could be produced in flexible, lightweight rolls that people could buy at the hardware store and trim to size.
So far, though, the polymers being used do not conduct electricity well enough. The more traditional silicon solar panels currently in use are roughly 20 percent energy efficient; the new solar-cell materials in development are just five to six percent efficient. Hutchison is using simulations to guide the synthesis of new materials.
Hutchison is trying to understand how electrical current moves on the nanoscale level (about 1,000th the diameter of a human hair.) Do the currents weave, move in straight lines, or bounce off the walls like billiard balls? Do impurities always act as roadblocks? How long do they hold a charge? Computer simulations are giving him the answers.
Hutchison uses computational chemistry to build a hundred or more possible new materials, adding a carbon atom here, exchanging it for an oxygen atom there—sometimes with surprising results. “Making what seems like a subtle change may change the entire shape of a molecule,” he says. “We like molecules to be flat, which spreads the electrical charge over a larger area than twisted or spiral-shaped molecules, which are less conductive.”
The result: He has already come up with five new molecules that look like promising solar materials. In the lab, it would take many months to synthesize an array of polymers, then months more to test them. Instead, using computer simulations, Hutchison was able to find a number of possibilities in a fraction of the time and at much lower cost. Now, he will collaborate with colleagues at Pitt and elsewhere to make and test these new polymers.
The new Center for Simulation and Modeling, says Klinzing, puts Pitt on a vast frontier for the next scientific revolutions in many fields. Among the primary areas of research are: energy and sustainability, nanoscience and materials engineering, medicine and biology, public health, economics and the social sciences, and visualization.
“This center provides our faculty with top-notch resources and the ability to be truly cutting edge on multiple fronts,” states Klinzing. He adds that, going forward, multiscale modeling will have a major impact on understanding a large range of physical and biological processes, enabling the design of completely new molecules and materials for specific, targeted functions.
Back in Eberly Hall, Jordan’s work with methane ice extends beyond its potential as a major source of future energy. The hydrate fields have been in the news recently for other reasons.There is concern that warming oceans and a melting Arctic could trigger a massive, potentially catastrophic methane release. Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas—about 20 times more potent than CO2—a large influx into our atmosphere would quickly heat oceans and thaw permafrost, creating a cycle that could seriously accelerate global warming.
Computer simulation enables researchers like Jordan to gain an intimate understanding of methane hydrate, even from thousands of miles away. Solutions are as close as a computer screen and the brainpower of colleagues next door. A few decades ago that was unthinkable. Instead, an isolated Russian crew on a vast Siberian plain huddled around the ice-like material retrieved while drilling for oil gas. They wondered about their find while, before their eyes, the unusual chunks began to melt away.
For more information about Pitt’s new Center for Simulation and Modeling, please visit www.sam.pitt.edu. | <urn:uuid:ca4f711d-7f7f-42da-adc5-698943d616b2> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.pittmag.pitt.edu/?p=67 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119651455.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030051-00299-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941646 | 3,395 | 4 | 4 |
February 28, 2007
GCRIO Program Overview
Our extensive collection of documents.
Archives of the
Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999
FROM VOLUME 7, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1994
PERIODICALS... GENERAL INTEREST AND POLICY
Aerosol and Climatic Change," R.J. Charlson, T.M.L. Wigley, Scientific
American, 270(2), 48-57, Feb. 1994.
Sulfur compounds counteract global warming by reflecting
sunlight to space. However, distribution of anthropogenic sulfate
aerosols is uneven. Because they are found in specific parts of
the Northern Hemisphere, global warming will proceed unabated in
the Southern Hemisphere and in rural parts of the Northern
We Stand, Divided We Fall," H. Sharan,New Scientist,
39-40, Apr. 2, 1994.
Looks at the parameters of sustainability: time, consumption
and population. The world has 40-50 years to stabilize greenhouse
gases before risking irreversible climate change;
over-consumption will cause serious instabilities over the next
100 years; population growth is advancing to a point beyond its
carrying capacity. The northern and southern nations must take
simultaneous actions on all three fronts.
The Final Frontier," S. Nadis, ibid., 28-31, Feb. 5,
Introduces "terraforming," changing a planet's
atmosphere to make it fit for humans. On Mars the process would
involve factories to produce greenhouse gases, spreading Martian
soil over polar caps to reduce reflectance of sunlight, and
orbital mirrors to direct sunlight towards the poles. Initial
warming would allow release of trapped CO2, creating a positive
issue: Coal Voice (Natl. Coal Assoc., 1130 17th St.
NW, Washington DC 20036), 17(1), Winter 1994:
"Earth Worship," C. Adamec, 19-22. Traces the growth
of religious environmentalism.
"Understanding the Global Decisionmaker," R.
Reinstein, 23-27. Discusses the role of the United Nations in
debating and implementing policies regarding climate change.
"A Free Lunch," A. Gerson, 28-29. Explains why
international climate treaties could hurt the coal industry.
"The Global Compromise," C. Holmes, 30-33. Reports
on the status of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"The Cold Facts on Global Warming," S. Baliunas,
34-35. Points out discrepancies in global warming theory and
problems with using the theory as a basis for policy.
items in Our Planet (UNEP, POB 30552, Nairobi, Kenya), 6(1),
1994, regarding problems faced by small island nations.
"Power to the Small," G. Lean, 4-5. Reports on the
formation of the 36-member Alliance of Small Island States,
launched at the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva,
and some of its successes.
"Danger in 'Paradise'," S. Ramphal, 6-7. Among the
dangers are climate change and sea level rise. Calls on all
nations to share the responsibility of moving towards
"Insuring Against Disaster," J. Leggatt, 22-23.
Small island nations could utilize the insurance-pool scheme
proposed by the Alliance of Small Island States. The main
greenhouse-gas emitters would pay into an insurance pool, from
which claims would be drawn once sea level rise reaches a certain
Climate Review, Winter 1994. (Available at no charge from
Dept. Environ. Sci., Univ. Virginia, Charlottesville VA 22903.)
Includes "Voluntary Cooling" (pp. 14-16), on the
Climate Change Action Plan released by President Clinton and Vice
President Gore in October, and "Science by Press
Release" (pp. 23-24), on biased and erroneous science
reporting by the media .
Fathers' Toxic Sins," W. Stigliani, W. Salomons, New
Scientist, 38-42, Dec. 11, 1993.
Changes in temperature and rainfall would affect elemental
cycles linked to soil properties. This in turn would alter the
way soils and sediments adsorb and release toxic materials.
on the Coast: Coastal Erosion's Influencing Factors Include
Development, Dams, Wells, and Climate Change," D.G. Aubrey, Oceans,
5-9, Summer 1993.
Looks at potential global-change effects on coastal erosion:
sea level rise, coastal storms, altered sediment delivery, and
destruction of coral reefs. Suggests that guidelines for
mitigation be developed by an international body such as the U.N.
Guide to Publishers
Index of Abbreviations | <urn:uuid:42ea4a89-73b6-45aa-9ba8-b240cc20d004> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.gcrio.org/gccd/gcc-digest/1994/d94jun23.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999656144/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060736-00080-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.844643 | 1,059 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Written by Sheila Geraghty
Historic Flight Foundation inspires and educates students of all ages. With aviation-based STEM as its cornerstone, it also offers flight experiences and training for pilots and mechanics. History presentations emphasize imagination, courage and dedication for the advancement of technology. Historic Flight Foundation Spokane also encourages activities to stimulate aerospace economic development. High quality social and community events make use of its facility.
Last fall, the Foundation opened within the Felts Field Historic District . The new building features a permanent STEM Lab with artifacts, personal histories and restorations to help our students appreciate the many ways science, technology, engineering and mathematics play a vital role in everyday life. Science and engineering STEM offerings align with Washington learning standards required for grades 5, 8 and 11. Consequently, the program becomes the ally of teachers as required subject matter is covered in a creative and interactive way.
In more typical times, the aviation-based STEM experience begins with a classroom presentation by an experienced teacher/docent. Most members of our STEM faculty have enjoyed tremendous careers as aerospace engineers or pilots. The hour-long presentations end with background reading assignments and exercises in preparation for a visit to the museum where groups engage in concept identification and problem-solving. We are grateful local philanthropists, such as Avista Foundation, have provided resources for such critical aspects as transportation. Should the presentations of necessity become virtual, we will pivot to production of the same content through the Internet. Since closure in March, HFF has produced nine virtual presentations on aviation history ranging from the Battle of Britain to the Trans-Pacific Dole Race. You may find these on Youtube.
Also during the shutdown, HFF has held successful social distancing “Tarmac Tours” enabling families and supporters to view the vintage plane collection from their cars, on the Felts Field tarmac, and have a great time doing so. Look for our next one August 15 (10-4) featuring a display of antique planes and cars. If we do not see you on August 15, we hope to see you when Spokane County advances to Phase 3 and HFF returns to a regular museum schedule.
For more information contact: Sheila Geraghty at 535-6000 | <urn:uuid:4189988e-813c-4e10-848c-d08ccf940f48> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://greaterspokane.org/stem/historic-flight-foundation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652959.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606150510-20230606180510-00395.warc.gz | en | 0.939358 | 449 | 2.6875 | 3 |
By Kirsti Hurne, marketing executive, Arconic Fastening Systems and Rings
For most heavy equipment applications, design engineers have focused on a stable, consistently tight joint for long-term durability and vibration resistance. At the same time, torque has long been the standard by which the tightness, and maybe even the overall integrity, of a joint is measured.
This conventional thinking was based on the idea that the more power applied to a nut and bolt assembly in the form of torque, the tighter, more secure, and vibration resistant the joint. And as it turns out, like much conventional thinking, the belief that higher torque resulted in a more secure and durable joint was wrong.
Torque, as it relates to fasteners, is the twisting force required to spin a nut along the thread of a bolt. The basic formula for torque is T = (KDP)/12, where T = torque in foot pounds, D = nominal diameter in inches, P = desire clamp load or tension in pounds, and K = coefficient of friction. The problem with this equation is that K is extremely hard to predict or measure, since it is impacted by a wide range of variables such as surface texture, oil, rust, debris, type of thread, material, and even humidity.
Another element in the joining equation, tension, is the stretch or elongation of a bolt that provides the clamp on the joint. A further explanation would define tension as the load on the joint brought about by drawing the fastener components together. Critical to the joining process, tension, is for the most part unrelated to torque. At best, torque is an indirect measurement of the tension applied to the bolt.
Clamp – the real measure of joint integrity
Clamp, defined as the load on the joint brought about by the drawing together of the fastener components, is virtually unrelated to torque. In fact, ongoing studies of clamp using sophisticated Skidmore-Wilhelm pre-load test equipment have clearly established that even when torque between two or more nuts and bolts is absolutely the same, the clamp value of these fasteners can vary by more than 30% (Chart one). By comparison, a HuckBolt® lockbolt will vary by 5% or less. This is an important point, given the fact that clamp is the critical element in joint integrity and durability.
Not only is clamp the true measurement of joint quality, it is critical to its long-term durability. If there is low or inconsistent clamp, a bolt can experience the very same service load as the joint. With a loose bolt, the cyclical loading is put on the bolt, which will subject it to fatigue. This pattern of failure usually occurs when there is high frequency loading, and often only several cycles are required to slowly propagate a crack across the cross section of a bolt. The nut and bolt will either loosen or fail when the diminished cross-sectional area of the bolt is low enough to where it can no longer support the load.
Similarly, if there are several bolts in a joint and inconsistent clamp exists between them – some bolts having more than others – the outcome is going to be problematic. The bolts having more clamp will carry more of the service load. The bolts that are less clamped contribute little or nothing to the strength of the joint as compared to those exhibiting proper clamp. For instance, in an application where only three bolts out of six exhibit proper clamp, those three fasteners having proper clamp are forced to carry most of the load. Since the design of the joint calls for the use of six bolts, the joint is actually being supported by only three of the six bolts originally envisioned in the design. Because those three bolts are carrying most of the load designed for six bolts, they are highly prone to failure.
True clamp – not achievable through the application of torque
The dated belief system is that a nut and bolt are brought to consistent clamp via the following simplified process:
However, the process does not normally play out in such a predictable manner. The X factor is K, the coefficient of friction, being highly variable based on the many factors listed previously. Based on the many variations of K, the following scenarios could play out after the bolt is torqued to the estimated value:
These and many other unmanageable variables can, and will, create unpredictable results.
Direct tension fastening – the surest method for achieving consistent clamp
Today, many product engineers are moving away from conventional nuts and bolts fastening, with even various locking washers and nuts being seen as inadequate to provide the consistent clamp and secure locking needed for high vibration applications. Direct tensioned HuckBolts, offered by Arconic Fastening Systems and Rings, are more often being utilised to provide both the reliability of consistent clamp, along with vibration resistance.
Structural HuckBolts, offered in a wide range of sizes (up to 36mm) and materials, have been proven in some of the most challenging equipment applications including heavy transportation, agriculture, and mining. Consisting of a pin and collar, these fasteners are installed via a direct tension technique, in which the pin is pulled and the collar is simultaneously swaged into the locking grooves of the pin. Based on their design and unique direct tension installation, HuckBolts deliver consistent clamp for a strong, long-term stable joint. A comparison of various fastener installation methods is included in the table below:
Eliminating the effects of vibration
In addition to providing the most reliable clamp performance, there are several design elements of HuckBolts that also ensure their ultimate resistance to the effects of vibration. In conventional nut and bolt installations, gaps between the nut and bolt threads are universally encountered – providing the opportunity for loosening in high-vibration environments. By contrast, the Huck design, featuring the collar fully swaged into the locking grooves of the pin, creates no such problematic gap (Chart two).
Instead of the deep threads required to achieve a tolerance fit between conventional nuts and bolts, the HuckBolt pin requires only shallow locking grooves into which the collar is swaged. The shallow design of the locking grooves allows for a much larger root radius, which contributes significantly to the fatigue strength – up to 5 times that of a conventional nut and bolt. Overall, a HuckBolt lockbolt provides superior vibration resistance as indicated by the study charted below (Chart three).
Vibration resistance equals maintenance-free performance
As advanced Huck® brand fastening technology is proven to withstand the effects of vibration without ever loosening, HuckBolts never need to be inspected, tightened, or re-torqued. The benefits that accrue from this ability to withstand the effects of vibration are significant:
The unique vibration resistant performance of HuckBolts is further confirmed by the fact that the BobTail® HuckBolt is the only fastener of its kind to be certified as maintenance-free by the prestigious DIBt Institute (12mm, 14mm, 16mm, 20mm, and 1 inch diameters). Based on this certification, one can now use the advanced BobTail; secure in the fact it meets the Institute’s high standards for both static and dynamic civil engineering applications.
BobTail® – the HuckBolt for wind tower applications
The DIBt certified BobTail HuckBolt has proven its value in the fabrication of wind towers. In addition to proven vibration resistance, this advanced lockbolt fastener delivers five times the fatigue strength of conventional nuts and bolts. BobTail is available in sizes ranging from 10mm – 36mm, making it applicable to a wide range of wind tower related fastening applications.
Unlike conventional lockbolts, the BobTail does not require a pintail to be snapped off as part of the installation process – eliminating the potential issue of corrosion in the exposed pin break area. In addition, ergonomic BobTail tooling does not subject installation personnel to the constant jarring that occurs when a conventional lockbolt pintail snaps. Workers are much more productive, and certainly less prone to the kinds of repetitive stress issues that can result from the jarring that occurs when a pintail is snapped.
There are a number of other benefits associated with
employing BobTail fasteners technologies in the fabrication of wind energy structures. Installation is fast and easy, and very little training is required for installation personnel. Additionally, all that is required to ensure the fastener is accurately installed is a quick visual inspection.
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 12 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector - interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe.
Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the Magazine is renowned. | <urn:uuid:b68f7f99-bd6d-4958-99ba-b2e64f3015ab> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.fastenerandfixing.com/technical/torque-vs-clamp-and-what-it-means-for-joint-integrity-and-vibration-resistance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401598891.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20200928073028-20200928103028-00110.warc.gz | en | 0.946235 | 1,802 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Generally, people define the Paleo diet as consuming food that Paleolithic people may have eaten. This means that the paleo diet consists of food that contains only completely natural ingredients. These ingredients can be meats, fish, various seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables, natural fats and oils. What this diet tries to avoid are the most is processed foods, grains, refined sugar and of course everything that is artificial. You can eat anything that people could have hunted or collected in the Paleolithic age. Experts also claim that following a paleo diet can help you lose weight and control body functions such as blood sugar, blood pressure, digestion or metabolism. So how does this work in reality? Let's get into it!
What is the Paleo diet?
The Paleo diet is a very simple lifestyle, the essence of which is to ban certain types of food from our diet. In the Paleolithic age, there was no agriculture or animal husbandry yet, so only cooked meat, fish, mussels, eggs, nuts, vegetables, roots, fruits, berries and mushrooms were consumed by mankind. The human body has also adapted perfectly to these foods, so digestion is not a problem for us. Later, however, Neolithic foods also appeared with the development of agriculture: various dairy products, beans and legumes, potatoes, sugar, and other “fake” foods.
According to optimum nutrition theories, our ancestors usually ate foods that they could locally obtain through hunting and gathering. These are called "A" quality foods. And on top of that, it’s not hard to get these foods, as it’s mostly meat as well as fruits and vegetables.
It is said that whoever follows the paleo diet will be able to perform at maximum sports performance and will also have excellent health. So many athletes and groups have started to follow this diet and more and more books have been published on the subject. Though, it is preferred not only by athletes but also by those who want to avoid foreign proteins and the resulting diseases of civilization (cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, acne, gastrointestinal diseases, depression, migraine headaches, and autoimmune diseases).
Proponents of the trend say the human genome has not changed anything for more than 2.5 million years, and our bodies are genetically programmed for the lifestyles of our Paleolithic ancestors, and biologically this diet is best for our body as it naturally provides the right balance of nutrients and reduces the risk of chronic diseases.
According to Loren Cordain, a professor at Colorado State University and the best-known proponent of the paleo diet, clinical research has shown that the paleo diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long run, normalizes blood pressure, eliminates inflammation in the body, helps lose weight, and eliminates acne, also provides excellent physical-mental performance.
According to Cordain, the typically unhealthy Western lifestyle is responsible for the spread of illnesses such as obesity or heart and diabetes, among other things.
The Western world, so today’s civilization, suffers from a number of diseases that are completely unknown to the indigenous peoples still alive today, as well as among those who lived in the Paleolithic age. All this is due to the fact that the human body was not able to fully genetically adapt to the nutrient sources introduced 5-10 thousand years ago by the agriculture.
Of course, there are plenty of deniers who question the theory above, and argue that the diet cannot be sustained in the long run due to limited diet, high cost of healthy nutrients and possible vitamin deficiencies due to the exclusion of certain food groups (grains, dairy products, legumes). However, Cordain said the mentioned nutrient sources are seemingly healthy, although can cause inflammation at the cellular level and contribute to the development of various diseases.
According to Cordain, maximum compliance with the mentioned rules is not mandatory (and is not realistically possible), it is enough if we approximately follow the recommendations at a rate of 80%. Let’s try the diet for 15 days, exercise alongside it regularly, and experience the beneficial effects yourself.
What can we eat according to the Paleolithic diet?
The diet primarily allows for foods that were already available to the people of the Paleolithic age, i.e. meat, fish, mussels, eggs, nuts, roots, mushrooms, vegetables, and fruits. In these modern conditions, we should eat the meat of animals fed on grass and eat a lot of whitewater fish. Sugar is strictly forbidden, but sweet-mouthed people can replace it to a limited extent with birch sugar or raw honey. Proponents of the diet say we should drink primarily water (some also recommend coconut milk and organic green tea), but alcohol and fermented beverages are prohibited.
According to the regulations, the nutrient intake should be 50-60% of animal origin and 50-40% of plant origin (vegetables, fruits), and all this should be accompanied by a high protein and low carbohydrate content.
List of foods that you can eat
- Lean meats, fats
- Fish, seafood, shellfish
- Oily seeds, stone fruits (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chestnuts, etc.)
- Fruits and vegetables
- Cold pressed vegetable oils (olive oil, coconut fat)
Protein from lean meats results in strong muscles, strong bones and an optimal immune system, in addition, protein intake also reduces hunger.
Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that reduce the risk of developing many degenerative diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, and dementia in old age).
Healthy fats (single unsaturated and Omega-3 fatty acids) from nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, fish oil have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of obesity, cancer and heart disease.
What can we NOT eat according to the Paleolithic diet?
Due to their inflammatory and allergenic effects, the paleo diet excludes the consumption of foods with a high glycemic index and saturation (such as fast-absorbing carbohydrates). For example:
- Sugars (beet sugar, cane sugar, fructose)
- Grains (wheat, barley, mousse, oats, rice, wild rice, rye, maize, sorghum, etc.)
- Vegetables high in starch (potatoes)
- Milk and dairy
- Legumes (beans, peas, soy, American hazelnuts, etc.)
- Vegetable oils (hydrogenated vegetable oil, trans fat, margarine)
- Ready meals
There are several nutritional problems with grains:
They produce refined carbohydrates, which is the main cause of diseases in civilization. In addition to starch, it contains gluten, opiates and lectin.
Gluten and fast-absorbable carbohydrates
Gluten is a protein found only in grain that the human body cannot process properly. Humans have not consumed grain for millions of years.
Gluten is a protein complex found in wheat, barley, rye.
Gluten-containing grains and flours contain substances that inhibit the absorption of nutrients and damage the intestinal walls. There is a high chance that a detrimental autoimmune response is provoked by foreign proteins entering the bloodstream through the intestinal wall.
Genes that cause gluten sensitivity can be activated at any time, at any stage of our lives.
It is not the fats but the rapidly absorbed refined carbs (with their high glycemic index) that cause the risk of cardiovascular disease as they put a heavy strain on the pancreas.
Grains to avoid:
What paleo product should we consume to replace grain in the diet?
Paleo flours, Paleolithic flour mixtures:
- Flaxseed flour,
- Coconut flour,
- Plantain flour,
- Sesame flour,
- Almond flour,
- Chestnut flour,
- Poppy flour,
- Amaranth flour,
- Hazelnut flour,
- Arrowroot flour
Paleo flours and Paleolithic flour mixtures can be used in a gluten-free diet, they can also be consumed by gluten-sensitive people. They can be used for those following the paleo diet.
The dangers of eating potato
As the glycemic index of potatoes is the highest among carbohydrates, it greatly helps in the development of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer.
What should we eat in a paleo diet instead of potatoes?
- Brussels sprout,
Milk and dairy are forbidden
In adulthood, the enzyme needed to break down milk sugar, aka the enzyme that breaks down lactose is inactivated. Milk is one of the most common foods that can cause allergies. Regular consumption increases insulin resistance, so it aggravates the metabolic syndrome. In a country, the more milk consumed, the more common type I diabetes is.
With what should we replace milk and dairy products in paleo diet?
Paleo, Paleolithic dairy substitutes:
- Coconut milk,
- Coconut cream,
- Coconut milk powder,
- TOTU egg curd,
- plant based milk to replace regular milk,
- Cocomas coconut water
- Birch sugar,
- Organic Date Syrup
Sugar is also forbidden
Consumption of refined sugar is associated with the rapid absorption of sugar. High levels of sugar overstimulate pancreatic function, causing a sudden increase in insulin production.
Paleolithic sugar substitutes:
Fats and oils in the paleo diet
The cholesterol theory is a hoax, as cholesterol is not the cause of cardiovascular disease and heart attack.
Based on observations and statistics, the more vegetable oil and trans fat we consume, the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease is.
Vegetable oils are decomposed by heat and toxic substances are released in the process.
What should we use to replace fats and oils in Paleo diet?
Paleo, Paleolithic oils:
- Coconut oil,
- Sesame oil,
- Flaxseed oil,
- Almond oil,
- Poppy seed oil,
- Walnut oil,
- Avocado oil
Sooo will you try it or not?
I think it's definitely worth a try, you won't lose anything. The fact that the paleo lifestyle excludes certain foods from your diet can lead to vitamin deficiencies, but this can easily be offset by planning in advance and with continuous intake of multivitamins and minerals. Proponents of the paleo diet, by the way, strongly recommend the inclusion of vitamin D, calcium, magnesium and fish oil (Omega-3 fatty acids) in your daily diet.
The advantage of the diet is that it prefers casein- and gluten-free nutrient sources. Casein and gluten are also proteins (casein is in dairy products, gluten is in grains), and since milk and grains are responsible for 90 percent of food allergic reactions, eliminating them guarantees a high degree of allergen freedom during the Paleo diet.
High-fiber, wholesome foods are essential to a healthy diet: fiber prevents constipation, normalizes cholesterol levels, and reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and diabetes.
Last but not least, the paleo diet helps us to lose weight easily: low carb and high fiber diet is more effective in the short term than classic low calorie / fat diets anyway. In the longer term, it plays a key role in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
How did I find the Paleothic diet?
For me, my girlfriend drew my attention to the fact that my poor energy level, my constant fatigue, was due to my everyday diet. I thought I was living healthy. I go to the gym, run on the weekends and eat fruit. Then, after a long conversation and research, it turned out that my eating habit was actually really unhealthy. I’m not claiming to have mastered every part of this diet yet. For now, I have managed to get rid of milk and grains in my diet. I have to admit that I feel better. After a few weeks, I have already felt positive changes. Like I have more energy, and I generally feel better. At the suggestion of my girlfriend, we downloaded the Paleo Beginners Guide, which saved us a lot of time spent searching on the internet. Because you can read a lot of bullshit with the keyword paleo.
Paleo guide for beginners
This is a free ebook that will show you a lot of practical examples of how you can easily adjust the paleo diet into your life and why it would be important to you. It will make your lifestyle change easier for you with many interesting recipes and shopping lists. In addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes, the book summarizes 15 healthy snacks and a number of delicious and properly prepared smoothie recipes. In my opinion, it is worth get on a healthy path as soon as possible. This book is for everyone, regardless of age, to read and use at least some of the easy-to-follow elements in their diet.
How can we stick to this diet?
If you often go out to eat with your friends or family, it also includes some tips to help you find paleo food at any restaurant. Speaking for myself, this is really helpful because you can still go out with your friends and dine together in a restaurant and eat something that is compatible with the paleo diet. Finally, with this book, you can learn a lot about food labels, and they also help you know what to look for on food labels and which foods to avoid in the supermarket because of the harmful ingredients.
This free ebook also includes two bonuses. As a first bonus, they offer paleo-courses that can help with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes or inflammation. This can be extremely helpful if you or any member of your family has any of these problems. The second bonus is about seasonal food. This will help you learn how to make seasonal paleo dishes and which ingredients to use. It’s great, for example, if you’re trying to make something healthy for your family as a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.
If you have any, make a good use of your garden
If you are in the fortunate position of having your own garden then you can produce for yourself some of the most basic vegetables that you can be sure are chemical-free. You can have fresh tomatoes, onions, or even fruits like blueberries.
If you are more serious about exploiting the potential of your garden, I suggest you get a composting bin where you can recycle leftover food waste, leaves, and leftover plants. This maintains chemical-free gardening. You may want to supplement the garden with a greenhouse or foil tent to protect the crop and achieve better growth with it.
Some useful advice if you only apply this diet partially, as I do
If we choose the Paleolithic diet, it is important to pay attention to eating meat and vegetables as well as fruits every day. But what standards do we still have to pay attention to?
Do not add salt to foods. Cavemen did not use salt in their food either. Salt is very harmful because its taste-enhancing effect weakens the effectiveness of the taste buds and after a while, we will feel the flavors less. Without salt, however, we can feel the natural flavor of the food.
The only drink that the Paleolithic diet allows is none other than water, but we should only drink water when we are thirsty. The best is mineral water that is certified free of all kinds of additives, chlorine and fluorine. You should buy these in large PET bottles. If you crave caffeine, you can drink some organic green tea instead of coffee as it is the least processed. Coconut milk is also a very healthy paleo drink.
Avoid agave nectar as it is high in fructose and highly refined. Honey, stevia and birch sugar are considered Paleo sweeteners, but you should also consume only in limited quantities. Otherwise, after a while, we will feel that our body will crave a less sweet taste.
Alcoholic beverages should also be avoided in the paleo diet as we do not know that any of our ancestors ate the fermented fruits. Yeast is also a highly controversial substance, better to avoid.
Paleo foods are very high in nutrients, so no added vitamin supplementation is required. There is one exception to this: vitamin D. Vitamin D should be taken by those who do not stay in the sun all year or do not eat enough liver. If you don’t eat enough fish, then you should also take omega-3 capsules as well.
With the Paleolithic diet you should eat when you are hungry and not at certain times of the day.
The essence of the Paleolithic diet is therefore that the food you eat should be free of modern substances and micronutrients. We should also use oils that have been extracted from fruits or seeds (olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, almond oil, peanut oil, etc.) to avoid over-artificial fats. Of the meats, game meat would be the most ideal, but this can be perfectly replaced by meat from grass-fed animals. (Grass feeding is important because it will contain the right proportions of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the animal's meat.) Do not eat processed meats. Animal fats can also be consumed. It should be noted that our ancestors consumed nearly 300 plants (flowers, shoots of plants) that are still available today, but we don't eat them anymore. It is worth rediscovering these for ourselves! Take advantage of leafy vegetables, and broaden the range of herbs. | <urn:uuid:2073a1d6-4fa4-4d9e-a756-9bf083d3b7a2> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://davesopinion.com/opinions/the-beginner-s-guide-to-paleo-diet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703550617.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20210124173052-20210124203052-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.947588 | 3,644 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Posted: Tuesday 7th February 2017 by AdultLearning
© Dave Foker
A few weeks before Christmas the Adult Ed team had a call from a woman who was curious to know about all of the bird courses we were offering in 2017.
She wanted to buy a special gift for her boss, Kate, who was a keen ornithologist. She chose the Garden Bird Identification course that was scheduled for the Thursday before the national Big Garden Birdwatch hosted by the RSPB. It was the perfect time to hone any rusty ID skills.
On that freezing day in January, Kate arrived full of enthusiasm to learn more about her passion for our feathered friends. Rob and Timothy from the local RSPB – Epsom & Ewell group shared their extensive knowledge with the delegates through a broad selection of photographs. Then Lucy from the Godstone SWT Education team guided the group around the nature reserve in search of some native fowl. While the cold weather kept many of the birds sheltered out view, they did see a few species that braved the frigid temperatures, making it all worthwhile.
Kate was thrilled with this present from her colleague and thoroughly enjoyed the day (although her frozen feet were not too happy). She said she is now deciding on which course to take next.
There are currently no comments, why not be the first. | <urn:uuid:43b961dd-7ad4-4dd8-ab55-6b26f4ad2f59> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/blog/adultlearning/2017/02/07/below-zero-bird-id | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171781.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00033-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979362 | 272 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Ask parents about their kids’ use of social media and texting, and chances are they will voice dismay about the amount of time spent online, the content encountered there, the danger kids run of becoming targets of bullies or other predators, sexting, and the inevitable loss of interpersonal skills. Those predictions, while incredibly common, are not coming to fruition, says Dan Romer, research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). Parents’ concerns are not only over amplified but, in most cases, flat out wrong.
“A lot of assumptions are not holding up under examination,” Romer says. “So far, the evidence is either not clear about negative impacts, or it’s going the other way and showing that kids who are well connected on social media are not becoming social isolates or necessarily engaging in risky behavior.”
In fact, a new and wide-ranging assessment of research shows that social media and texting appear to be enhancing the lives of most adolescents. No matter the platform—be it social networking, mobile apps, internet searches, or gaming—the results were the same.
“Many are better off because of those technologies,” Romer says. “They are in touch with friends, including those outside their immediate geographical areas. We think being connected online is a good thing. If there are bad things about social media and texting, they are balanced by the good things.”
Romer and his colleagues reported their conclusions in a special issue of the journal Media and Communication titled “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development.” Released in June and edited by Romer, the issue compiled research conducted by a team of experts from a variety of disciplines and academic institutions, including physicians, public health professionals, and communications experts from the University of Oregon, Northwestern, University of Sydney, Ursinus, Penn’s School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine, as well as the APPC, which sees itself as a natural home for such cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Romer and his colleagues examined some of the greatest hits of teenage taboos: sex, alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes. Some authors drew together evidence from a variety of studies previously conducted by the Pew Research Center, Common Sense Media, and other national organizations, while others conducted original research via online surveys.
They found that, contrary to popular belief, social media are not having a direct impact on risky adolescent behaviors. Romer and his colleagues note that in broad terms, this is not all that surprising; after all, the results of those risky behaviors—including car accidents, unintended teen pregnancies, transmission of STDs and HIV, and teen smoking—are at all-time lows, despite the prevalence of social media.
But problem areas remain, including bullying, gun violence, and suicide, though the research is mixed on the impact of social media on them. For example, Romer referred to an old academic finding that teens who experience the suicide of friends or family members are more likely to attempt it themselves. But Romer cited more recent research indicating that kids who hear about suicides on Facebook are less likely to attempt it themselves, possibly because they see messages of love and support posted for the person who died and his family. However, adolescents who go into suicide-themed chat rooms do have a high rate of attempts, even if they are looking for help. Romer, who says that more research needs to be done in that area, admits to frustration in finding clear ways to counteract negative messaging through social media, or any kind of media. In fact, one of the special issue’s big takeaways is that the current digital media landscape has made it increasingly hard to deliver any kind of positive public-health messages to adolescents, since teenagers live in social media worlds that are difficult for adults to penetrate.
“Digital neighborhood” is the term used by Robin Stevens Gr’09, director of the School of Nursing’s Health Equity & Media Lab, to describe the personalized social-media realms organized around the music, sports, books, and movies teens follow online.
Identifying and targeting digital neighborhoods is critical to understanding the behaviors of adolescents from various backgrounds. Stevens co-authored a paper that continues her research into the ways social media influences the sex lives of African-American and Latino teenagers, particularly those who live in poor or lower-middle-class areas.
“Most research is done on white, suburban adolescents who live in good neighborhoods, so we have to be careful about blanket statements if we don’t have good data about black and Latino groups,” Stevens says. She adds that even ethnicity is a limited guide to where a given adolescent will spend time in the virtual realm. “Take two young people of the same age, race, and geography. One is gay and one is straight. They will have very different digital neighborhoods.”
Regardless of their digital neighborhood, adolescents commonly use the internet to learn about health-related issues like birth control. Unfortunately, Googling anything related to sex usually leads to a cornucopia of pornography, Stevens says. She is researching methods of using social media to provide teenagers with correct and positive information about everything from relationship advice to reviews of local, teen-friendly clinics and doctors, and the positives and negatives of various birth control methods.
A key to transmitting information about sex—or drugs, drunk driving, or any other risky behavior—is accessing the digital neighborhoods in which the adolescents live. Furthermore, Stevens says, lecturing kids won’t work and never has. What’s needed are authentic messages delivered by credible messengers, people Stevens calls “super peers.”
Enlisting them in public health campaigns is a must. “Any positive message needs to come from within,” explains Amy Bleakley, a senior research scientist at the Annenberg School who co-authored two papers in the special issue. “You need to nurture these campaigns, plant little seeds and gain credibility in groups. It has to be a genuine attempt on the part of the people involved to incorporate the dynamics of youth.”
Among risky behaviors identified by the special issue’s authors is internet use itself. As Romer explains, there’s no clear academic or clinical definition of internet addiction because it is hard to quantify. So, in the Annenberg Media Environment Survey, Romer, Bleakley, and their co-authors identified 1,833 US kids aged 12-17 whose internet use displayed addictive tendencies, including staying online longer than they intend to, frequently thinking about going online when they aren’t, and having online behavior negatively impact offline lives. Of that group, 899 parents also answered survey questions.
Bleakley laughs as she describes how seldom parents accurately judged their kids’ online usage. “They have no clue,” she says, “and while that is not entirely surprising, it does confirm how out of touch parents are with kids’ problematic internet use.”
Parents’ efforts at restricting their kids’ online behavior have been largely ineffective. Romer and his colleagues grouped those efforts into two approaches: “mediation” and “monitoring.” Mediation includes conversations about social media, rules about its usage, and co-watching suspicious content. According to Romer, those methods simply don’t work. In fact, they backfire.
“Mediation that included checking their child’s email/online accounts or installing tracking software was actually related to participation in more online risky activities,” the authors wrote. The reasons are timeless. “They don’t want to be told what not to do, and view those messages as authoritarian,” Romer explains. “It gives them something to rebel against, so they do.”
Much more effective is monitoring social-media behavior, which includes calm conversations between parents and adolescents. Bleakley admits that’s a big ask. “Parents think they are acting in the best interest of their kids and they want to take action,” she says. “But the key is to focus on the mindset of an adolescent, not the world of social media.”
To that end, Romer just finished work on a new version of Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders , first published in 2005. Scheduled for publication in 2017, the book’s chapters on depression, eating disorders, drug use, and suicide are updated to reflect the influence of social media, and there is new material on subjects like internet addiction and online gambling. But based on the journal issue he edited, one takeaway is that while the digital realm contains hazards for adolescents, parents would do best to focus most of their attention on what’s happening in the real one. | <urn:uuid:a86b72d4-6963-4912-8cc1-da09ddec6a04> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://thepenngazette.com/sex-suicide-and-snapchat-adolescent-health-in-the-digital-age/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814290.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20180222200259-20180222220259-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.954315 | 1,830 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Simply put, inflation describes a lowering in the buying power of our currency. It is a long-term, widespread increase in the cost of goods and services, which then in turn means that our money doesn’t go as far.
There are several causes of inflation, and certain factors that may lead to an increase in inflation will affect the overall rate differently at various times. Here are a few reasons inflation may occur in layman’s terms, though there are several more potential reasons according to various schools of economics.
It makes sense that when the economy is doing well that people are making more money. This means that people have more money to spend and they are more able to buy things, creating more of a demand for goods and services. When goods and services are more in demand, the companies or people offering them are able to charge more. When this scenario is sustained, inflation occurs.
On top of the supply and demand inflation creator above, when the economy is doing well and people expect inflation to occur, they tend to make the choice to buy the things they need or want now rather than later when they expect their purchases might be more expensive. This, sort of ironically, drives inflation, as well.
This one falls under the category of a growing economy as well. When companies are doing well, they’re able to employ more people. When more people are employed, more people have the cash to afford goods and services, which drives up demand.
Another reason low unemployment may lead to inflation is that when there are more jobs, workers are more in demand and this generally means that they can demand higher wages, leaving themselves with more income.
Inflation is generally related in terms of the amount of goods or services a dollar can buy you at a given time. The inflation rate is often described in an annual percentage increase.
The Federal Reserve sets a 2% target inflation rate, which ideally doesn’t exceed the inflation that people expect, but yet still leaves room for prices to increase slowly.
Inflation, in moderation and in theory, at least, is actually a good thing. It means that the economy is growing and should ideally signal that finances are better across the country. Conversely, deflation, or when the prices of goods and services go down, is harmful to the economy.
However, current figures and those of the past several years show that wages aren’t increasing as fast as the prices of goods and services, leaving the average American in a lurch despite a “booming economy”.
For many people, the current level of inflation combined with wages not increasing proportionally to said inflation means that it’s getting harder and harder each year for them to afford the things they did the year before. If you’ve found that your current lifestyle is no longer sustainable because everything costs more but you’re not making any more, consider learning more about Sell and Stay, to see if it could be the answer to your problems. | <urn:uuid:e6f4998a-2c00-4780-b045-22d7734d0068> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://blog.easyknock.com/what-is-inflation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221209884.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20180815043905-20180815063905-00613.warc.gz | en | 0.978213 | 611 | 3.625 | 4 |
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb. | <urn:uuid:f4c9feb1-f950-4aeb-a8d6-a0721ba48356> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://nassau.overdrive.com/media/592DC9AF-49E9-4FA7-95C8-CB69D3A384C8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946120.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20180423164921-20180423184921-00203.warc.gz | en | 0.924014 | 140 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Phone use causing horns to grow on young people's skulls, study believes
MIAMI – New research shows young people are growing horn-like features on their skulls, and constant phone usage is being suggested as the reason.
The study by Scientific Reports examined 1,200 X-rays of Australian adults between 18 and 30 and found over 40 percent had developed a spur at the base of their skulls.
According to the report, some of the spurs had grown to over an inch.
Researchers believe the spurs are being caused by the head tilting forward, with the weight now being shifted to muscles at the back of the head.
Since the growths are being found mainly in young people due to tilting the head forward, the researchers claim the constant use of phones and other hand-held devices are to blame.
"However, we hypothesise that the use of modern technologies and hand-held devices, may be primarily responsible for these postures and subsequent development of adaptive robust cranial features in our sample." said the authors of the study.
The Washington Post reports giving up the devices is not the only answer to avoiding the spurs, and that good posture can help "ward off its associated effects."
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The Ray (or Mineral Creek) district is in northeastern Pinal County about 17 miles south of Miami. It lies between the Dripping Springs Range to the east and the Tortilla Range to the west. Copper is the major commodity of this district; gold is a byproduct.
The district was organized by silver prospectors, probably before 1873, and the first locations were made about 1880 (Arizona Bureau of Mines, 1938, p. 80-81). The first copper company was organized in 1883, but attempts at exploitation over the next 23 years failed, owing to the generally low grade of the ore. In 1906 some high-grade copper ore was mined. In 1907 the Ray Consolidated Copper Co. was organized, and extensive surface drilling and underground exploration revealed enormous copper ore bodies which were mined on a large scale in the spring of 1911 (Ransome, 1919, p. 17-19). Ray Consolidated soon became the largest producer in the district. The property continued to be an important source of copper, though ownership was changed to Ray Division of Kennecott Copper Corp.
The Ray district has produced a surprisingly small amount of gold, considering the large production of copper. Total gold production through 1959 was about 35,250 ounces.
The rocks exposed in the Ray district are similar to those of the Globe-Miami district. The oldest rocks are granitic intrusives and Pinal Schist of Precambrian age. Unconformably overlying them are altered sedimentary rocks of the Apache Group and the Troy Quartzite of late Precambrian age. Great sills of diabase were intruded into the Apache Group and the older rocks (A. F. Shride, oral com-mun., 1962). In the eastern part of the district lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks are exposed in a few fault blocks. Dikes, sills, and irregular bodies of quartz diorite, quartz monzonite, and granite, of probable early or middle Tertiary age intrude the Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks. Conglomerate and a dacite flow of late Tertiary age and the Gila Conglomerate of Tertiary and Quaternary age discordantly overlap the older rocks (Ransome, 1919, p. 123-126). The rocks in the eastern part of the district are displaced by a mosaic of normal faults. West of Mineral Creek, which is in general parallel to the Ray fault (the major structural element in the district), Precambrian and Tertiary rocks are exposed and are considerably less faulted than the rocks east of Mineral Creek (Ransome, 1919, p. 127, 128).
The ore deposits consist of disseminated chalcocite of secondary origin associated with primary pyrite and are chiefly in the Pinal Schist and in diabase adjacent to quartz monzonite intrusives and in the intrusives themselves. The primary deposits, which underlie the chalcocite ore, contain pyrite and chalcopyrite. The chalcocite ore is generally overlain by a leached capping of variable thickness which locally is rich in chrysocolla and malachite. The ore bodies are undulate, flat-lying masses of irregular outline and thickness (Ransome, 1919, p. 12).
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The thin wobble motors that are required to hold rating shafts employ an electropermanent magnet. This turns the holding force on and off by applying a momentary electrical pulse. To design the magnet devices without the need for finite element analyses, a theoretical force model is necessary for predicting the attractive force. In this paper, first, a force model is derived by estimating the permeance around the air gap. A magnetic circuit is constructed, employing a relatively simple method to build the model in clouding leakage flux. Thus, the basic structure and driving principle are also presented. Next, an analytical force model is constructed on the basis of distribution parameter analysis between the stator and the rotating shaft. The design of the electromagnet core and the control method are presented. Finally, a prototype model of the motor that is 30 mm in diameter and 7 mm in thick is fabricated. The two models are verified by comparing the results of FEM with the results of the experiments. They can properly predict the attractive force, so the thin wobble motor with holding force can be applied in portable electric equipment.
Bibliographical notePublisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Materials Science(all)
- Process Chemistry and Technology
- Computer Science Applications
- Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes | <urn:uuid:c6129dd0-191c-4811-ba1c-1ff36985a9e0> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://yonsei.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/a-theoretical-method-for-designing-thin-wobble-motor-using-an-ele | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964358953.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20211130050047-20211130080047-00353.warc.gz | en | 0.885657 | 295 | 2.75 | 3 |
The Aqueduct of Segovia is one of the most well preserved elevated Roman aqueducts in the world. It was likely constructed toward the end of the first century or beginning of the second century CE, and yet it still stands today. It was designed to transported water from the Rio Frio River to the city of Segovia, Spain, spanning a distance of nearly eleven miles. The elevated portion of the aqueduct measures 2388 feet in length and is 93.5 feet tall at its maximum height. It consists of approximately 24,000 granite blocks fit together to make 165 arches, which are more than 30 feet tall. This amazing feat of engineering continued to carry water to the people of Segovia up until the 20th century when it ceased operation.
According to legend, it was decided that the aqueduct should be preserved rather than used. So, modern pipes were installed to bring drinking water to the town, allowing the aqueduct to rest as a treasured monument. But something unexpected happened. The aqueduct began to deteriorate. Apparently, the absence of water flowing through the aqueduct allowed the sun to dry out the rocks and mortar, which then caused the structure to crumble. As a result, the Aqueduct of Segovia is listed by the World Monuments Fund as a monument to watch due to its deteriorating state. Ultimately, the lack of use brought about the aqueduct’s demise.
We often refer to such deterioration as atrophy. Atrophy can be defined as a gradual decline in effectiveness or vigor due to underuse or neglect, and it can affect any of our living organs. Atrophy affects our physique if we fail to use our muscles. For example, over the past few months, I have been regularly jogging and/or walking on my treadmill a few miles each day. Running has always been my preferred form of exercise because, when I was in high school, I competed on the cross country and track teams. But once I exited high school, I quit running because I was no longer engaged in a sport for which it was required. As a result, my muscles and joints grew accustomed to not being intensely used. So, for the first few days of my newfound effort to exercise, my body hated me. Had I continued to exercise after high school, I would not have had to endure the growing pains of returning to an exercise routine. The point is that physical exercise is necessary for physical health in part because it prevents the deterioration of our muscles.
Atrophy is not limited to our physique; it can also affect our intellect. Failure to continue using the information you learned can cause that information to be lost. For example, I studied Greek during my freshman and sophomore years of college, which occurred before the inauguration of the twenty-first century. After passing those classes, I decided not to continue my study of Greek because I was entering into youth ministry, and I didn’t think that I needed more Greek to be an effective minister. Years later, I found myself in pulpit work and realized that the knowledge I once possessed about the Greek language could be useful in my sermon preparation and delivery. So, in recent years, I began trying to relearn concepts that I learned nearly two decades ago but lost because I failed to exercise that knowledge. The point is that mental exercise is necessary for mental health because it promotes the retention of information.
So, there is a correlation between health and exercise when it comes to our physique and our minds, but is there a correlation between health and exercise when it comes to our spirit? The answer is a resounding, YES! Scripture repeatedly indicates that spiritual growth necessitates exercise.
First, Jesus said that becoming like Him should be the objective of every disciple. In Luke 6:40, He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone WHEN HE IS FULLY TRAINED WILL BE LIKE HIS TEACHER” (emphasis added). In this passage, Jesus established an expectation that disciples would seek to be “fully trained.” Additionally, Jesus indicated that such training leads us to be like Him. In other words, our training should produce Christlikeness, which, according to Paul, is the basis of the mindset (Philippians 2:5-8) and behavior (1 Corinthians 11:1) we are to emulate.
Second, Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7-8 to “have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather TRAIN YOURSELF FOR GODLINESS; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (emphasis added). In this passage, Paul indicated that our spirit needs “training” just like our bodies. And such spiritual training is more beneficial because it impacts not only our “present life” but also our eternal life. Additionally, Paul indicated that our training should produce godliness, which is one of the attributes that Peter says we are to add to our faith (2 Peter 1:5-7) and one of the characteristics that Paul instructed Timothy to pursue (1 Timothy 6:11).
Finally, Paul, speaking to Timothy again, told him in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (emphasis added). In this passage, Paul indicated that the Bible exists to provide us with spiritual training so that we may be “complete.” Additionally, Paul indicated that our training should produce righteousness. Righteousness is an attribute that John indicates we are to practice as evidence of our relationship to God (1 John 3:7-10) and one of the characteristics that Paul instructed Timothy to pursue (1 Timothy 6:11).
All three of these passages presume that followers of God will engage in spiritual exercise. And the reason Scripture expects us to exercise is because a failure to exercise our faith will result in spiritual atrophy. Such is the point being made by James when he wrote, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). What James was saying is that a confession of faith absent activity is a faith that has atrophied. So, we engage in spiritual exercises such as prayer, meditation, memorization, fasting, confession, service, and worship, all of which are activities presented in Scripture as disciplines of the individual who pursues Christlikeness, godliness, and righteousness.
Today, I encourage you to examine your spiritual exercise routine and determine whether or not you are allowing your faith to atrophy because the one thing for which we do not want to be guilty is a dead faith. | <urn:uuid:2666d42d-8a24-4c62-91c5-ca23f797cd7b> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://bufordcoc.com/dont-forget-to-exercise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250601040.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20200120224950-20200121013950-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.967793 | 1,419 | 2.875 | 3 |
IBM has created a tool that uses sales data to track down contaminated food sources that cause outbreaks of food poisoning.
Using novel algorithms, visualisation, and statistical techniques, the tool can use information on the date and location of the billions of supermarket food items sold each week to quickly identify with high probability a set of potentially ‘guilty’ products with in as few as 10 outbreak case reports.
The tool could help food retailers, distributors and public health officials identify the source of outbreaks far quicker than current methods, which can take anywhere from days to weeks – vital to minimise the spread of illness, healthcare costs and loss of revenue for food companies.
In the USA alone, IBM says one in six people are affected by food-borne diseases each year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations, 3,000 deaths, and a nearly $80bn economic burden.
“Predictive analytics based on location, content, and context are driving our ability to quickly discover hidden patterns and relationships from diverse public health and retail data,” said James Kaufman, Manager of Public Health Research for IBM Research.
“We are working with our public health clients and with retailers in the U.S. to scale this research prototype and begin focusing on the 1.7 billion supermarket items sold each week in the United States.”
The system is described in research published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Computational Biology together with collaborators from Johns Hopkins University, Purdue University and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).
The data used by the system already exists as part of the inventory systems used by retailers and distributors today, which manage up to 30,000 food items at any given time with nearly 3,000 of them being perishable.
IBM scientists built a system that automatically identifies, contextualises and displays data from multiple sources to help reduce the time to identify the mostly likely contaminated sources by a factor of days or weeks.
It integrates pre-computed retail data with geo-coded public health data to allow investigators to see the distribution of suspect foods and, selecting an area of the map, view public health case reports and lab reports from clinical encounters.
The algorithm effectively learns from every new report and re-calculates the probability of each food that might be causing the illness.
To demonstrate the system’s effectiveness, IBM scientists worked with the Department of Biological Safety of the BfR, simulating 60,000 outbreaks of food-borne disease across 600 products using real-world food sales data from Germany.
“The success of an outbreak investigation often depends on the willingness of private sector stakeholders to collaborate pro-actively with public health officials. This research illustrates an approach to create significant improvements without the need for any regulatory changes,” said Dr Bernd Appel, head of the Department Biological Safety at BfR.
“This can be achieved by combining innovative software technology with already existing data and the willingness to share this information in crisis situations between private and public sector organizations.” | <urn:uuid:b93f77a0-7c77-4056-9b2d-018ee57bbbe5> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2014/07/ibm-tool-speeds-tracking-of-food-poisoning-sources/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171418.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00192-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935954 | 624 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Everyone is concerned about getting a proper breakfast, since it’s supposed to “break the fast”, or the long hours since the last consumption of food at dinner. We are so hyped about eating a “quick” and “traditional” breakfast and running out the door to work that we somehow forget to see what is in these breakfast foods, and how it may affect our health. A breakfast that is unhealthy can actually make you feel sluggish during the day, instead of giving you a head start on your activities. Aside from that, there are health issues that might come up in the long run if you continue with the habit of ingesting unhealthy foods for breakfast. Here are a dozen foods you should steer clear of in the morning.
Cereals have become a breakfast staple for kids and adults alike. A lot of people think that a bowl of sugary cereal is enough to hold them until lunch. While this may be true in large amounts, you have to consider that the usual pack of cereal is mostly a carbohydrate source, converted into sugar inside the body. This sugar gives you your much-needed energy spike, for an hour or two only, unfortunately. After this period comes the sugar crash, the time wherein you will feel lazy and wanting to consume another sugar-filled snack. This cycle goes on and on.
Bad news for bacon-lovers, processed meats for breakfast aren’t good for you. Processed meats contain nitrates, substances linked to the development of colorectal cancer. Although it is one of the few breakfast options that can supply you with a good amount of protein without the danger of added sugars, it is a costly alternative, health-wise. Opt for eggs or nuts, instead.
From the name itself, “breakfast bars” imply that they provide complete nutrition equivalent to a healthy breakfast meal. This can be true, if what you consider “a healthy breakfast meal” is a large portion of sugar. Breakfast bars have nuts and granola, so at least some form of protein and fiber, but most of them only contain minimal amounts of both (fiber is 1-3 grams per bar). What it is loaded with is added sugar, which makes you feel full for a short period of time.
A lot of people simply grab a glass of juice for breakfast and consider themselves ready to face the morning. This is not a healthy option for your energy level, your stomach, and your health. A lot of juices in the market contain only a small amount of real juice. Most of them are added with high-fructose corn syrup as well as other added sugars that increase your risk for type-II diabetes. Juice is also an acid, and will not be good for an empty stomach, increasing your risk for developing ulcers in the long run.
Donuts and Danishes
The convenience of grabbing a donut at some drive-through on the way to work is not worth the long-term consequences. These baked/fried flour-based treats are empty of true nutrition, and will lead to a hunger pang before lunch. The sweet toppings add to the temptation, yet also add to the health risk. You wouldn’t want to start the day with a very unhealthy pastry; it’s like eating candy for breakfast!
Muffins can be a very deceiving breakfast option, giving you the notion that it’s a healthy option, especially when paired with names such as “bran, all-natural”. The typical muffin size sold in the US actually exceeds the USDA portion size by 333%! That means you are consuming the worth of 3.33 regular muffins for your breakfast. Aside from that, we all know that muffins are just small cakes in disguise with added chocolate chips, dried fruit and maybe even syrup and sprinkles! When it comes to nutrition, they’re basically breakfast cakes, so you can do the math.
This quick breakfast fix can be a go-to for people who love sweets and want a quick dose of sugar overload in the morning. Flour, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and soybean oil are the ingredients for a perfect sugary cocktail, which can lead to diabetes and other health problems in the long run. All of these ingredients are also found in toaster pastries, making it a recipe for disaster early in the morning. The sugar does give you an energy boost for breakfast, but makes you hungrier during the day, making you eat more and gain weight.
This goes without saying, because burgers are a form of processed meat just fried and packaged in a bun. It might be tempting to just grab a burger from a fast food joint on your way to work, but the risk associated with breakfast burgers outweighs the benefits. The cholesterol and fat accumulation can lead to serious diseases after some time.
Having a cup of joe in the morning is one of the basic breakfast necessities of millions of people around the world. Coffee in itself is good to stimulate the brain and give you a kick when you’re still groggy, however, the coffee add-ons aren’t good for you. Most of these are sugar bombs sneaking calories into your system, and a lot of them come in packages wherein the serving size isn’t clear, and you end up putting worth three cups of add-ons to your morning brew. Syrups and creamy sweeteners are no exception to this, and is just an excuse to satisfy sugary cravings in the morning.
No matter how many kinds of foods aren’t good for breakfast, having none at all will always be more detrimental. Your brain and body requires energy after a good 8-10 hour fast, and if you deprive it of nutrition, it might cost you serious health risks in the long run. It increases the stress in your body when you attempt to work on an empty stomach, and will lead to high blood pressure, weight gain, and an accumulation of unhealthy fats, which can contribute to the risk of diseases such as stroke and coronary artery disease. | <urn:uuid:770f9a5c-bae7-4283-985c-7c431cb98755> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.health2blog.com/10-breakfast-foods-to-avoid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170651.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00168-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94987 | 1,252 | 2.640625 | 3 |
If there’s one clear sign of climate change, it’s extreme heat. And people all across the US know it as they have been facing it this summer with long heat waves. According to new research, this will likely be the new normal across the country.
Climate change will probably make extreme heat conditions and their health risks much more frequent in almost every part of the US, according to research published in the journal Environmental Research Communications.
“Our analysis shows a hotter future that’s hard to imagine today,” study co-author Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Nearly everywhere, people will experience more days of dangerous heat in the next few decades.”
By 2050, hundreds of US cities could see around 30 days each year with heat index temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) if nothing is done to rein in global warming. The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature — so it’s a measure of how temperature actually feels.
This is the first study to take the heat index — instead of just temperature — into account when determining the impacts of global warming. The number of days per year when the heat index exceeds 100 degrees will more than double nationally, according to the study.
“We have little to no experience with ‘off-the-charts’ heat in the U.S.,” said Erika Spanger-Siegfried, lead climate analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists and report co-author. “These conditions occur at or above a heat index of 127 degrees. Exposure to conditions in that range makes it difficult for human bodies to cool themselves.”
The research suggests that there will be few areas of the country able to avoid these extreme heat events, except for some high-altitude mountainous regions. Currently, the only place that experiences these “off-the-charts” days is the Sonoran Desert on the border of southern California and Arizona.
The National Weather Service of the US typically issues a “heat advisory” when a maximum heat index is expected to hit at least 100°F for two or more days, and an “excessive heat warning” when it will hit at least 105°F for two or more days. These heat levels can lead to health risks such as dehydration and heatstroke.
The expected increase in heatwaves will require additional efforts to help people cope, especially those who aren’t used to it, the study concluded. This should be in line with a further reduction in global greenhouse emissions, now considered not sufficient to meet the 2ºC global warming limit established by the Paris Agreement. | <urn:uuid:545ff674-b4c7-4b32-b3e9-03472063da71> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/extreme-heat-becoming-normal-17072019/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703538226.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123160717-20210123190717-00367.warc.gz | en | 0.926575 | 575 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Welcome to a short introduction of the theory behind chords. You will learn how a chord is built and what separates different groups of chords.
In the cases when we only have a letter, for example a C, it’s a simple major chord. A major chord consists of three notes: 1st, 3rd and the 5th notes in the scale. In which scale, you may ask. In the C major scale we have:
C – D – E – F – G – A – B
So for a C major chord we can locate the 1st, 3rd and 5th as C, E and G.
Sometimes we find chords with names like Cm, Dm, Em and so on. The “m” stands for minor and in a minor chord we also have three notes: 1st, 3rd minor and 5th. The notes in Cm are C, Eb (E flat) and G.
You may ask how it comes that we only have three notes in a C major chord then you have learn to strum five strings playing this chord:
C major chord
The reason is the instrument. The notes are ordered less symmetrical on the guitars fretboard opposed to the piano keyboard. Another reason is that musical context differs from piano to guitar: you cannot play the harmony with your left hand and the melody with your right hand simultaneously on the guitar. Therefore, we don’t need to worry about too many notes being played on the same time.
As we can see in the diagram above, there's five notes played together in a C major chord: C, E, G (open string), C and E (open string). It's the most practical way to play the open C chord. In chords, we often find numbers after the letters: C5, C7, and C9 to list a few. In a C5 chord (also called power chord), we only have two notes: the 1st and the 5th. That's pretty simple. The C5, therefore, consist of C and G.
In the case of the seven,things are little messier. First of all: there’s C7, Cm7 and Cmaj7. C7 is called the dominant 7th. A C7 consist of the C major chord plus the flat 7th. In a C scale the flat 7th is Bb (B flat). In a Cm7 chord we add the flat 7th to a C minor chord. Finally, in a Cmaj7 chord we add the major 7th to a C major chord.
On this site you find lots of other chords like sus chords and slash chords. These chords have special sections and are explained with its theory there also. You can also learn more about this subject by reading What is a chord?. | <urn:uuid:629a899b-3a3c-409b-8b90-f9bb2c75229d> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://guitar-chord.org/chord-theory.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223206647.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032006-00396-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961485 | 586 | 4.34375 | 4 |
Paper spreads its fingers like a blade on a blanket
Palm down in a prayer for victory
Before casting a spell on gravity.
Scissors look like an alert rabbit hunting for carrots
Looking for signs of peace
Before cutting into roots.
Rock is a fist made for breaking any number but five
Fingers curl onto the palm lines
Before one’s thumb shows some life.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
I love teaching my students fun variations of rock paper scissors. Changing rock to zero, paper to five, and scissors to two felt logical at the time. It still does! Next time you play, use these numbers. 🙂 This poem came about when I thought about adding another poetic layer to the game. The thumb up at the end is a sign that there is a winner. | <urn:uuid:e22d5ee4-d9c7-4bae-9ef0-106d2b9481b0> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://spillwords.com/5-2-0/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510983.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002064957-20231002094957-00853.warc.gz | en | 0.915251 | 170 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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