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Greenland has an undeveloped road network, and the main road traffic is mostly limited to the urban areas with surroundings. Most transport, especially freight transport, therefore goes by sea. For passenger transport, air and helicopter traffic have become increasingly important. Domestic traffic is operated by the domestic company Air Greenland A / S, and the most important hubs are Nuuk (Godthåb), Ilulissat (Jakobshavn), Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord) and Narssarssuaq.
Almost all passenger traffic to and from Greenland is by air, mainly at Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord), from where SAS maintains regular traffic with Copenhagen. Periodically, there have also been regular routes between Greenland and the United States, Canada and Iceland. Nuuk (Godthåb) has Greenland’s most important port, but also Paamiut (Frederikshåb), Maniitsoq (Sugarcup) and Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg), all with ice-free ports, fulfill important functions. Passenger transport takes place year-round along the west coast, from Upernavik in the northwest to Nanortalik in the south, while connections with eastern Greenland are limited to the summer months.
In 2008, the road network covered 1,130 km, of which 600 were permanently covered. The country lacks rail. Saint George’s is the island’s largest port. Point Salinas, 10 km southwest of Saint George’s, has an international airport.
El Salvador is a small country with well-developed transport routes. Pan-American Highway crosses the entire inland area in the west-east direction, and along the coast goes a parallel road (La Litoral). There are connecting routes between these main roads, and all major cities in the country are connected to the highway system.
The rail network connects, among other things, San Salvador to the port city of Acajutla. The country’s other important port is in the eastern part of La Unión. El Salvador also has, by agreement, access to the port of Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean Sea in neighboring Guatemala. El Salvador’s only international airport (Comalapa) is run as well as the state-owned ports and rail network.
The road network covers 19 700 km, of which just over 30 per cent are paved. Public passenger transport is mainly by bus. There is 500 km of railroad, but for the most part it is used only for the sugar industry’s transport. Passenger train traffic is only 142 km. The Caribbean’s first real metro was opened in 2009 in Santo Domingo.
The country has seven international airports, most of which are located in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and Burahona. The largest and most important ports are in Santo Domingo, La Romana on the south coast and Puerto Plata on the north coast.
Dominica lacks railways. The road network covers 780 km, of which 300 are designated as main roads. A deep harbor is located in Roseau, the country’s main port city. There are two airports on the island, Melville Hall, 65 km from Roseau, and Canefield, 5 km from the same city.
Both road and rail networks are well developed. The railway is used mainly for freight transport. The national lines amount to 8,600 km. The main highway is Carretera Central, which runs along the entire island from Pinar del Río in the west to Santiago de Cuba in the east. It is on some stretches (Havana-Santa Clara) extended to an eight-lane highway. Private motoring is severely limited. Most important for passenger transport is bus traffic, which, however, had major problems in the 1990’s as a result of the lack of fuel.
For longer distances, flight matters. Both domestic and international traffic is handled by the state airline Cubana. International airports are located in Havana (José Martí), Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey and Varadero / Matanzas. Cuba’s most important trading ports are Havana and Cienfuegos.
The transport network is relatively well developed. Most important are the roads (35,300 km, of which 5,000 are paved), including the Pan-American Highway, which crosses the entire country. The main railroad connects San José with the port cities of Limón on the Caribbean and Puntarenas on the Pacific coast. The new port of Caldera now replaces Puntarenas as the main port of the Pacific. Almost all foreign passenger traffic is by air. Juan Santamaría International Airport is located outside San José.
The communication systems are poorly developed. Although the road length is only 3,000 km, of which only a small part is paved, the roads are of greatest importance. The rivers and coastal shipping also play some role. The only deep port is in Belize City, the country’s largest city, which also has an international airport. Smaller airfields and runways are found in many cities (Corozal, Orange Walk, Dangriga and others) and on some islands. Railway is missing.
The flat island has one of the world’s densest road networks, a total of 1,600 km of paved road. Barbados location has made it a natural bunkering site for ocean-going shipping. Bridgetown has deep harbor and lively traffic of cargo and passenger ships as well as pleasure yachts. Barbados has an international airport (Grantley Adams International Airport), located 18 km east of Bridgetown.
Nassau and Freeport on the Grand Bahama have international ports and airports. According to Countryaah, Bahama is one of countries in Central America and Nassau is connected to both North America and Europe via regular flights. The road network amounts to 2,717 km, and on the larger islands there are roads of good quality.
The main roads, the Pan-American Highway from Mexico in the north to El Salvador in the south and the roads to the port cities, are in good condition. The port city on the Atlantic coast, Puerto Barrios, is busier than the Pacific port of San José. There are rail links between the port cities and along the Pacific coast to Mexico, but they are poorly maintained. The bus network is well developed, but the buses are often in miserable condition. Aviateca operates domestic and international traffic. Both the airline and the Aurora International Airport are controlled by Japanese interests. For a long time, the military had control of the telecommunications company Guatel.
Trinidad and Tobago
Port of Spain and Scarborough in southern Tobago have deep ports. The road network is well developed and covers 8 320 km, of which almost half are paved. There are bus lines, but the railways have been closed down. The Piarco International Airport, located outside the Port of Spain, is an important hub for air traffic in the Caribbean and northern South America. Tobago has a local airport.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Public transport is provided by buses, railway is missing. The road network covers 830 km, of which about half have permanent cover. Deep Harbor is located in Kingstown. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have four airports, one of which is international, in the Arnos Vale southeast of Kingstown.
Saint Lucia has a well-developed road network covering 1 210 km, of which 80 per cent are paved. Cruise ships regularly call the ports of Castries and Vieux Fort. In the industrial free zone in Cul-de-Sac, the port has been expanded. There is an international airport near Vieux Fort and a smaller airport at Castries.
Saint Christopher and Nevis
The road network covers 383 km, evenly distributed between the islands. A state ferry company handles boat transport between the islands, and there is a deep harbor in Basseterre. Golden Rock International Airport is 3 km outside Basseterre. Nevis has a smaller airfield for traffic between the islands.
The road network is most developed in the western parts of Panama and measures a total of 15 100 km (2010). The main roads are Pan-American Highway, which connects Chepo and Panama City with Costa Rica, as well as a major highway between Panama City and Colón. The main railroad runs along the Panama Canal between Ancón in Panama City’s metropolitan area and Cristóbal. The large banana companies have their own transport railways.
About 20 airlines have air services to and from Panama’s Tocumen International Airport. Important ports are Cristóbal, Balboa and Las Minas (just outside Colón) adjacent to the Panama Canal as well as Almirante and Puerto Armuelles. Panama has one of the world’s largest merchant fleets. The majority of the vessels sail under the flag of convenience. Through the Panama Canal, 4 percent of the world’s shipping passes, and it has made Panama an international trading center.
Most of the transport work in the country goes on roads. The road network is well developed in the western parts of the country, while it is deficient in the east. Truck traffic from Honduras and Costa Rica has completely taken over the import of goods into the country. The port city of Corinto on the Pacific coast has been refurbished during the 00’s, while the ports on the Caribbean coast have little activity. Domestic flight is of great importance. Managua has an international airport.
Jamaica’s rail network extends over 272 km and is subsidized by the government. The road network is relatively well developed and follows the coast around the island and cuts through the country in a north-south direction in three places.
The country has two international airports: Norman Manley in Palisadoes (outside Kingston) and Sangster in Montego Bay. The largest ports are Kingston, Montego Bay and Montego Freeport.
The road network, which comprises a total of 14,200 km, links the most important cities and communities. Pan-American Highway runs through the southern part of the country. About 16 percent of the road network is paved. In some places, rivers and canals are transported by smaller boats and canoes for private use. The main ports are Puerto Cortés, La Ceiba, Tela and Trujillo on the Caribbean coast as well as Amapala and San Lorenzo on the Pacific coast. A smaller railway links Puerto Cortés with Potrerillos. The large banana companies have their own railways for their transport. International airports are located at the cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba and Roatán.
The road network, which covers 4,160 km, is poor, and a large part of the rural population lives in isolation. With American assistance, for example, some road construction projects are in progress. Port-au-Prince is the completely dominant port and has an international airport with regular services to Miami, Puerto Rico and Europe. | <urn:uuid:1c83b901-a192-4f8a-84bb-900ee0e2a904> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.holidaysort.com/transportation-in-central-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154158.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20210801030158-20210801060158-00029.warc.gz | en | 0.952473 | 2,316 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Use these conflict-resolution and management skills to communicate your difference of opinion with a trusted friend, loved one, or colleague, without fighting, losing confidence, and without letting an upset tone of voice or short fuse cause confusion or hurt feelings.
It seems like people with adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) either seek conflict or try to avoid it at all costs (perhaps as a result of some painful encounter in the past). I suppose the same can be said for the general population -- most people just aren’t adept at confrontation. But I do believe this is a skill most of us ADHDers could benefit from acquiring.
Have you ever heard the phrase “care enough to confront”? When I first heard it, I thought it was an oxymoron. Why would I want to argue with someone I care about? Wouldn’t it be better to keep the peace and spare her any discomfort my disagreement might bring? This line of thinking reflects a false belief that raising a debate has to be ugly. I have since learned that confrontation is healthy if you do it right.
Confrontation isn’t yelling or fighting. If practiced in a constructive manner, you'll simply acknowledge that your viewpoint is different than the other person’s and then try to work together to seek a resolution.
Healthy confrontation is synonymous with caring because it helps us...
Get things out in the open and remove the tension and bad feelings that can build up between people when they don't speak what's on their minds. These bad feelings end up coming out sideways in the form of snide comments and sarcasm if we don’t deal with them constructively.
Problem-solve together. We tend to obsessover things that are upsetting to us. Confronting the source of the problem will stop these ruminations, allowing us to focus on more important things in life. Or sleep.
Help a loved one meet our needs. Sometimes you have to ask a friend, partner, or co-worker for what you want, or you won’t get it. It’s not healthy, for you, or the person you care about (or have to work with), to have your needs continue to go unmet. They don’t want you to be cranky any more than you do.
Build trust. By confronting someone about something that’s not copacetic, you’re indicating that you’re willing to take a bit of temporary discomfort for the sake of the saving and strengthening the relationship in the long run.
Here are some healthy ways to initiate a confrontation:
Ask permission. Make sure it’s a good time for the other person to talk. If it’s not a good time, ask when would be better.
State your problem in a calm, non-threatening manner. For example, “I am concerned about the loose ends in this contract,” instead of “What the heck where you thinking when you wrote this piece of crap?!” Plan your opening lines in advance.
Ask the other person’s viewpoint. For example, “Does this seem unclear to you?”
Here are some successful strategies to use while you’re in the midst of a confrontation:
Be very aware of your tone at all times. Focus on it as much as your actual words. Confrontations can escalate into arguments the second one person raises his voice or speeds up his pace, even if he doesn’t realize it.
Use “I” messages. For example, “I am concerned about…” rather than “You should…”
Give the other person a chance to speak. Monopolizing the conversation might make you feel better temporarily, but it won’t accomplish your ultimate goal of resolving the issue. Practice active listening.
Brainstorm together. Be prepared with at least one possible solution to the problem, and also solicit ideas from the other person.
What’s your confrontation style? Do you tend to fight or take flight? Regardless of whether you’re drawn to conflict or shy away from it, these strategies should go a long way towards improving your personal and professional relationships. | <urn:uuid:65dd4407-83c1-4e5f-85d5-6e947f3736c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.additudemag.com/adhdblogs_6/print/7545.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704933573/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114853-00091-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946492 | 878 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Let’s Go Zero school action:Comberton Village College – Cambridgeshire, England
Comberton Village College is a rural school in Cambridgeshire. The school inspires its students by transforming their views on sustainability, they have taken many steps to do so, including:
Explore the Let’s Go Zero map to see where else teachers, students and school communities are taking action to become zero carbon by 2030.
Sean Sycamore Deputy Principal
To limit paper waste, they have moved students to digital devices instead of textbooks. After COVID, students started campaigning to reduce the school’s waste. They are challenging everything from food to fork, analysing packaging and composability of the materials used in the school’s kitchen.
The school has innovated its heating with two underground pumps for heating. The project takes two years to build but it had little to no disruption to the classes aware of the student’s priorities.
By installing retrofit infrastructure, the school aims to decrease its carbon footprint and involve its students as much as possible to increase awareness of energy sources and the impact of a rural school. But also, creating an appreciation for the different aspects of the build, the design, engineering, and the application, motivating them with their different interests.
The school has also invested in installing solar panels and fully converting to LED lighting for the buildings. The plan is to display them for students and parents to appreciate.
There is a student-led Green Group and an Environmental Group. They campaign for different environmental initiatives around the school, including reducing waste, increasing composting, and tree planting. They have also been introduced to professionals in their fields like chief engineers that motivate students to discover new career paths aligned with sustainability.
While construction work was taking place, the school maximized its opportunity to install 10 electric vehicle charging points, in preparation for the 2030 electric vehicle target with the possibility to increase to 60 charging points soon.
The main aim was to involve their students in all the various Retrofit projects around the school, inspiring them towards green careers and encouraging them to learn from real-life scenarios.
In geography modules students review case studies of green energy principles which are recorded and set as a learning tool for the rest of the school. | <urn:uuid:99c148ed-cc78-4819-8a98-864ce332f66c> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://letsgozero.org/comberton-village-college-england/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652161.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605185809-20230605215809-00422.warc.gz | en | 0.968431 | 473 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Artificial Fragrances, fragrances can contain a wide variety of harmful ingredients. These ingredients may include phthalates, petrochemicals, benzene, toluene, xylene, methanol, and others. Chief among these are; phthalates. Phthalates have been proved to be endocrine disruptors and are also highly suspected of being carcinogenic. The additional danger of the chemicals used in artificial fragrances is that they are absorbed through the skin AND are inhaled. Items which are inhaled reach the bloodstream much more rapidly than those which are absorbed through the skin.
A study conducted by the Environmental Working Group found that most perfumes and colognes contain harmful or suspect chemicals which are not included in the ingredients listed on the label.
How do companies get away with not listing ingredients in skin care products? Because fragrances are exempt from all FDA labeling laws. The reason for the exemption is that fragrance blends are “proprietary” and it would cause undue harm to companies to have to list these ingredients and share their “secret formula” with others. The danger and harm caused to us is apparently irrelevant.
The best option for fragrances in body care products is essential oils. Essential Oils are the plant oils that give flowers and herbs their scent. They are 100% natural and have many health benefits. When reading labels in search of Essential Oils, look for INCI names such as “Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil” for Lavender Essential Oil; ”Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil” for Sandalwood Essential Oil; and “Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil” for Sweet Orange Essential Oil. | <urn:uuid:889f1b4c-6e18-40e4-941a-219735bc5451> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.capellisalonspaboutique.com/blog/2013/04/17/FragranceArtificial-vs-Essential-Oils.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987822458.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20191022155241-20191022182741-00334.warc.gz | en | 0.953026 | 370 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Color blindness is a disorder affecting the ability to see colors under normal lighting conditions or to discern colors as they are viewed by normal individuals. Commonly, the condition is present at birth, but it can also be caused by old age or a variety of eye diseases.
The discernment of different hues depends on the cones found in the eye. People are typically born with three varieties of pigmented cones, each of which perceives various wavelengths of color tone. When it comes to colors, the size of the wave is directly linked to the resulting color. Long waves produce red tones, moderately-sized waves are seen as green tones and shorter waves are perceived as blue tones. The pigmented cone that is missing impacts the spectrum and severity of the color deficiency.
Being a sex-linked recessive trait, many more males are found to be green-red color blind than females. Nevertheless, there are a small number of females who do experience varying degrees of color vision deficiency, specifically blue-yellow color blindness.
Some people acquire color blindness later in life resulting from another condition including aging, injuries and especially macular degeneration. Fortunately, with these situations, treatment of the condition may be able to improve color vision.
Eye doctors use a number of exams for color blindness. The most widely used is the Ishihara color test, named after its designer. In this test, a plate is shown with a circle of dots in various colors and sizes. Inside the circle one with proper color vision can see a digit in a particular shade. The patient's ability to see the number within the dots of contrasting tones indicates the level of red-green color blindness.
While inherited color vision deficiencies can't be corrected, there are a few measures that can help to improve the situation. Some people find that wearing tinted contacts or glasses which minimize glare can help people to see the distinction between colors. More and more, computer programs are being developed for standard computers and even for mobile machines that can assist people to enhance color distinction depending upon their particular condition. There are also interesting experiments being conducted in gene therapy to improve color vision.
How much color blindness limits an individual depends on the variant and degree of the deficiency. Some patients can accommodate to their deficiency by learning alternative cues for determining a color scheme. For instance, they can familiarize themselves with the shapes of traffic signs rather than recognizing red or compare items with reference objects like the blue sky or green plants.
If you suspect that you or your loved one could be color blind it's recommended to see an eye doctor. The sooner you are aware of a problem, the sooner you can help. Contact our Albertville, AL optometry practice for more details about color blindness. | <urn:uuid:eaace9c5-0859-4f50-a7b2-be2a255de58f> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.clinicforvision.com/color-blindness-an-in-depth-look/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764495001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20230127164242-20230127194242-00857.warc.gz | en | 0.943554 | 548 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Looking for the most efficient vehicle that meets your daily needs? Look for the car that gets an “A” for efficiency. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed new fuel economy labels for cars and light-trucks coming to showrooms.
The new labels come on the heels of recently improved standards for fuel economy and global warming pollution finalized last April. The standards, which phase in during model years 2012 to 2016, increase the average fuel economy of new vehicles to 34.1 miles per gallon and hold emissions of greenhouse gases to no more than 250 grams of CO2 per mile. EPA plans to require the labels beginning with model year 2012 vehicles.
EPA and NHTSA have proposed two label designs. Both contain the traditional miles per gallon, or mpg, metric and an estimated annual fuel cost but the new labels also introduce greenhouse gas emissions rates (in gCO2/mile) and a fuel consumption rate (gallons/100 mi). The fuel consumption metric is helpful because it relates directly to operational costs and environmental performance. For example, when comparing two cars that differ in fuel consumption rates by 20 percent, their fuel costs and global warming emissions will also differ by 20 percent. If you compare two vehicles that have a difference in fuel economy of, say, 4 mpg the size of the fuel and cost savings will depend on whether the 4 mpg improvement is relative to a 15 mpg or 25 mpg vehicle.
The redesign of the fuel economy label was partly driven by the need to label emerging vehicles that run, at least partially, on electricity instead of gasoline or diesel fuel. Advanced technology vehicles such as the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and the all electric Nissan LEAF will be available to consumers later this year. Label designs that include global warming pollution ratings and cost of operation allow consumers to compare the value of these new non-petroleum technologies with their conventional oil-powered counterparts.
EPA and NHTSA propose to further simplify the process of finding the cleanest, most efficient vehicles by grading all cars, minivans, SUVs and pickups with A+ (best) to D (worst) letter grades. The letters summarize the characteristics of fuel efficiency, global warming pollution and cost of operation.
You can weigh in on what the new labels should ultimately look like. Check out the designs and submit comments at EPA’s website: www.epa.gov/fueleconomy.
New fuel economy and global warming pollution standards mean that consumers will have more choices of cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles at dealerships. Revisions to the label can help consumers quickly find the most efficient vehicles that meet their travel needs and therefore use less gas, save money at the pump and cut pollution. | <urn:uuid:a96f0352-1b8f-4a40-b9d0-261e41d9e42c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.nrdc.org/bio/luke-tonachel/new-labels-could-make-finding-efficient-cars-easier | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473871.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222225655-20240223015655-00618.warc.gz | en | 0.926083 | 571 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The dictionary definition of inflation is a “substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency.” In other words, inflation means you get less bang for your buck. And, according to a new outlook from Freddie Mac, it has shown signs it may be about to increase, which could have an impact on the housing market. “Which course inflation takes over the next year will have important implications for housing and mortgage markets,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. If inflation heads higher – the outlook imagines – interest rates could also rise and lead to falling home sales and mortgage originations. The good news, however, is that Freddie Mac believes inflation will rise only modestly over the next two years. That’s encouraging for potential home buyers worried about deteriorating affordability conditions. “With the housing market on the verge of the spring home buying season, this is good news in an environment where historically low mortgage rates will help offset the pace of house price growth and lack of for-sale inventory in many markets,” Becketti says. In short, there is a chance inflation could rise depending on upcoming trends and economic policy but, more than likely, the increase will be gradual and shouldn’t affect housing market activity in the near term. More here. | <urn:uuid:371b1279-c9a0-457f-a88b-90298d1717d9> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://citadelnyc.com/how-inflation-might-affect-the-housing-market/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656788.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609164851-20230609194851-00625.warc.gz | en | 0.950465 | 283 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A Day in the Life of Miranda Toad:
Laura looked at Miranda's feet to tell she was a female! Female toads
are larger than males, but male toads have thicker, stronger feet.
This helps the males to hang onto the females' backs while they are
mating. Their eggs must be laid in water, and without strong feet,
the male might slide right off the slippery female.
When people handle toads, it's a good idea to wash our hands when we're done, just in case any of the gland secretions have gotten on our hands. It's a good idea to wash our hands BEFORE we handle a toad or frog, too, or at least to dip them in water, so the oils on our human skin can't cause skin problems for the toad or frog. It's a myth that handing toads causes warts. But human hands can cause skin problems for some amphibians and fish.
On the previous page, we asked if you think toads have better vision for things that are close up or far away. A toad's sharpest vision is probably in the area within a few feet of it. But it's important to be aware of things farther away, in order to escape from hungry predators.
We also asked if you think this toad's eyes had anything to do with Laura naming her Miranda. The name Miranda was created by William Shakespeare for the heroine of his play, The Tempest. The Latin word mirer means "to look at," and the Latin word mirus means "wonderful."
On Page 4, we'll see what Miranda does when she notices danger. | <urn:uuid:575dc578-5adf-4d9c-936d-8337268a1f76> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/frog/ToadDay3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701150206.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193910-00095-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966182 | 340 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Power is a key issue for almost anyone working for a healthier, more just society. Often activists focus on changing political or other dominant power structures. But with all that focus on the external conditions of hegemony, many of us haven’t taken time to understand our own relationship to power. This can limit how effective we are at catalyzing change over the long-term, and sometimes at seeing how we are part of the very problem we’re trying to solve.
Power is defined as our ability to influence and define reality for ourselves and others, both in ways that are visible and hidden. Power doesn’t just come from a title or position – history, culture, beliefs and behaviour all play a role in creating the conditions that lead some people to have more power than others, depending on their social identity. For example, the racist attacks on United States President Barack Obama, as well as challenges to his nationality, education, and religion, are fuelled by much more than simple political disagreement. While President Obama occupies one of the most powerful positions in the world, his social identity as an African American is being used to undermine his power.
Each of us grows up in a context of power relations that are influenced by our social identities, including our internalized belief systems. That’s why understanding our social identity – including the social, familial and cultural factors that have played a role in shaping who we are and how we live – is an important step towards strengthening our relationship with power and ensuring we are using it effectively in our change work.
Understanding one’s social identify also includes identifying our explicit and implicit positions of “rank” and the privilege we experience as a result of who we are and where we come from. In Heather Berthoud and Bob Greene’s article The Paradox of Diversity in Social Change Organizations, they note: “Activists who work long hours for change, and who are, often, underpaid, not surprisingly may recoil from the fact that they have unearned privilege vis-à-vis colleagues due to skin color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other identity characteristics.
For example, white men, whose cultural position leads to expectations that they will be listened to and respected, may frequently dominate discussions.” These unconscious dynamics cause hidden friction and tension that can undermine an activist’s or organization’s work. Unacknowledged rank and privilege is at the root of the unconscious use of power. If someone has low social rank, they may struggle to express the pain or trauma that comes with the oppression of low rank. Meanwhile, those with high social rank may get stuck as a result of being unaware of their rank and insensitive to the way their rank affects others. Sometimes, privilege and marginalization may inhabit us simultaneously.
You can start to get clear on your social identity, rank and privilege by asking yourself questions like:
- Where were you born, where did you grow up and where have you lived?
- Is there any significance in your given or last name, its meaning or history within your family?
- Has your family name changed and if so, why?
- What social class were you raised in? Even though it may have shifted, the class you were born into still impacts your identity.
- What other social identities are important to you: gender, race/ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, education, physical/mental abilities, etc.?
- Think about factors that may not be immediately visible or apparent but have altered your world view of yourself and others: ancestors, family connectedness, immigration, birth order, siblings’ stories and issues, mental illness, near-death experiences, illnesses.
- Which social identities do you think about most often? Which least often?
- What experiences lead you to think more often about some social identities than others?
Being aware of our social identities and developing our ability to consciously use power helps make us better changemakers and empower others we work with, whether they are inside our collaborations, coalitions or in external organizations.
Ian Curtin is Project Director for the Inner Activist. Our upcoming course, Conscious Use of Power, helps social and environmental justice advocates learn skills for responding more effectively to power and its use. | <urn:uuid:8f0fa124-9070-445a-8b73-7d1b00c0b380> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://www.inneractivist.com/your_relationship_to_power | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823114.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20171018195607-20171018215607-00342.warc.gz | en | 0.957267 | 870 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Pronunciation: (blOO'bon"it),[key] —n. 1. the cornflower, Centaurea cyanus. 2. a blue-flowered lupine, esp. Lupinus subcarnosus, having spikes of light blue flowers with a white or yellow spot: the state flower of Texas.
3. a broad, flat cap of blue wool, formerly worn in Scotland.
4. a Scottish soldier who wore such a cap.
5. any Scot. Also called blue•capPronunciation: (blOO'kap").[key] | <urn:uuid:12b607f7-a39e-4441-8e11-ebdf6c0ee207> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://dictionary.factmonster.com/bluebonnet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170940.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00339-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.823797 | 125 | 2.625 | 3 |
A new blood test can locate the presence of a tumor in a particular tissue, which may circumvent the need for invasive procedures such as biopsies and aid in cancer diagnosis according to a recent study published in Nature Genetics.1
Cancer blood tests detect cancer by screening for traces of DNA released by dying tumor cells. However, they do not provide information about the location of the tumor. “Knowing the tumor’s location is critical for effective early detection,” said Kun Zhang, a bioengineering professor at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and an investigator on the recent study.
The investigators identified the location of a tumor using CpG methylation haplotype, a type of DNA signature. CpG methylation is the addition of methyl groups to CG sequences in DNA. Each tissue can be identified by its unique collection of methyl groups, known as a methylation haplotype. As a tumor grows it competes for nutrients and space in the tissue, causing normal cells to die. DNA from dying normal cells released into the bloodstream can then be used to identify tumor location using methylation haplotype.
“We made this discovery by accident. Initially, we were taking the conventional approach and just looking for cancer cell signals and trying to find out where they were coming from. But we were also seeing signals from other cells and realized that if we integrate both sets of signals together, we could actually determine the presence or absence of a tumor, and where the tumor is growing,” explained Zhang.
The researchers created 2 databases: one of tissue CpG methylation patterns (liver, intestine, colon, lung, brain, kidney, pancreas, spleen, stomach, and blood), and the other of cancer-specific genetic markers. The test requires both cancer-specific genetic markers and a tissue specific methylation pattern above a statistical cutoff to assign a positive match.
1. Guo S, Diep D, Plongthongkum N, et al. Identification of methylation haplotype blocks aids in deconvolution of heterogeneous tissue samples and tumor tissue-of-origin mapping from plasma DNA. Nat Genet. 2017 Mar 6. doi: 10.1038/ng.3805 [Epub ahead of print] | <urn:uuid:f34d177f-f339-46c0-815f-92344e273a46> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/home/cancer-types/general-oncology/novel-blood-test-detects-cancer-locates-tumor-without-invasive-procedures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578551739.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20190422095521-20190422121521-00420.warc.gz | en | 0.929221 | 465 | 3.546875 | 4 |
K Thru 2 Can Do! Math and Economics
Kindergarten, First and Second grade lesson plans integrating economics and mathematics.
Economics Arkansas is pleased to present K Thru 2 Can Do! Math and Economics. This guide was developed to provide developmentally appropriate lessons for students in Kindergarten through Second Grade. The lessons are active, varied and written to appeal to young students.
Although “Math” comes before “Economics” in the title, the focus of each lesson is economic concept introduction. Each lesson provides a student-centered introduction of a basic economic concept that is reinforced through math activities. Lessons are not intended to teach math, but to provide teachers an additional tool for reviewing and reinforcing prior math learning. | <urn:uuid:b705eba3-05f4-4847-9318-64c9c7dad0c6> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://store.councilforeconed.org/products/k-thru-2-can-do-math-and-economics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131294307.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172134-00013-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934805 | 152 | 3.515625 | 4 |
By Prof. Yoon-Bo Shim
Conductive polymers have seen great advancement during the last two decades. In general a half filled valence band, formed from a continuous delocalized π –system, is an ideal condition for conduction of electricity. However, a π –conjugated polymer can lower its energy more efficiently by bond alteration (alternating single and double bonds) and can introduce a band width of 1.5 eV making it a high energy gap semiconductor.
Conducting polymers are extensively studied due to their remarkable electronic properties such as electrical conductivity, low energy optical transitions, low ionization potential, and high electron affinity. Their fundamental spectroelectrochemistry, and the applications to solar cells, biosensors, and biofuelcells have been extensively explored by our laboratory during the last decade. Some important contributions are highlighted below.
Fundamental Spectroelectrochemistry of Conductive Polymers
The spectrochemical properties of conducting polymers provide information about their electronic properties and this helps in the construction of conducting polymer biosensors. One of example is a newly synthesized 1-(3-pyridinyl)-2,5-di (2-thienyl)-1H-pyrrole (PTPy) and 1-(1,10-phenanthrolinyl)-2,5-di(2-thienyl)-1H-pyrrole (PhenTPy) bearing 2,5-di(2-thienyl)-1H-pyrrole derivatives monomer that is electrochemically polymerized to conductive PTPy and PhenTPy from a solution of dichloromethane in our laboratory (see fig. 1).
The spectroelectrochemical data for the poly-PTPy clearly distinguished the neutral, polaron states and bipolaron states of the absorption bands at 430 nm, 520 nm, and 836 nm, respectively. In the case of PhenTPy, the absorption bands at 451, 544, and 836 nm correspond to the neutral, polaron, and bipolaron formations, respectively. The band gap energies of poly-PTPy and poly-PhenTPy were 2.1 and 1.85 eV, respectively, and therefore, can be used in electron transporting materials.
The poly-PTPy and poly-PhenTPy film exhibits a good switching time (about 1.0 s) and good stability. Based on these properties, poly-PTPy and poly-PhenTPy are promising candidates for both electrochromic devices and the construction of conducting polymer based biosensors . The electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical characterizations of these films reveal that the conducting polymers are highly electroactive and robust in terms of electrochromics.
Fig. 1. (A) The synthetic route to PTPy and PhenTPy. (B-a) UV-vis absorption and (B-b) photoluminescence (PL) spectra of PTPy and PhenTPy in dichloromethane solution.
Conductive Polymers in Solar Cells
Silicon-based solar cells are commercially available due to their high solar-to-electric energy conversion efficiency. However, several disadvantages, such as, heavy weight, high cost, and lack of flexibility necessitated the development of organic photovoltaic cells and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) . DSSCs have a maximum energy conversion efficiency of ∼10% and hence, conducting polymers are used as electron transfer mediators or photoreceptors to increase the efficiency. Poly(terthiophene) derivative-sensitized solar cells have been successfully fabricated in our laboratory. Conducting polymer layers were formed on the TiO2 electrode by electropolymerization of the monomers in a 0.1M tetrabutylammonium perchlorate/CH2Cl2 solution using the potential cycling method. The band gap energies of poly 5,2’:5’,2”-terthiophene-3’-carboxylic acid (poly-TTCA), poly 3’-cyano-5,2’:5’,2”-terthiophene (poly –CTT), and poly 3’,4-diamino-2,2’:5’,2”-terthiophene (poly-DATT) are in the range of 1.93-2.10 eV. The band gap energies are similar, however, the carboxylic group containing poly-TTCA exhibits a higher energy conversion efficiency than that of poly-CTT and poly-DATT. In the case of poly-TTCA, the anchoring group, -COOH enhances the adsorption of the dye onto the TiO2 layer effectively and strongly through the formation of C-O-Ti bonds, which improve the transfer of the electrons from poly-TTCA to TiO2. Furthermore, poly-TTCA exhibits relatively fast electron transfer at theTiO2/poly-TTCA/electrolyte interface, which leads to a greater energy conversion efficiency. The poly(terthiophene) derivative bearing carboxylic acid groups are the most efficient photosensitizer, and it is a possible alternative material to the Ruthenium complexes. The maximum energy conversion efficiency of the poly-TTCA solar cell is 2.3% under an AM 1.5 solar simulated light irradiation of 100mW.cm−2 .
Recently poly-TTBA has been synthesized by introduction of a benzene ring at the para position into poly-TTCA which enhances the energy conversation efficiency of polymer dye solar cell by about 3.9% . The LUMO orbital of TTBA, electrons move towards the acceptor moiety from therthiophene moiety through a benzene ring compared with TTCA, which is located at the junction between terthiophene and acceptor moiety (see fig. 2). This means that the modification of the polymer structure to be efficient for the electron transfer with small steric hinderance and enhanced conjugation structure.
Fig. 2. (A) Schematic of a solar cell composed of the pTTBA dye polymerized on TiO2 and I3-/I- electrolyte. (B) Frontier molecular orbital of the HOMO and LUMO levels of (a) TTBA, and (b) TTCA
Conductive Polymers in Biosensors
Biosensors based on conductive polymers have been used to detect an inducible nitric oxide synthase , peroxynitrite , superoxide , NADH , thrombin , DNA [10, 11], glutamate , heavy metal ions , etc (see fig. 3). For example, nitric oxide (NO) or superoxide can be detected with a microbiosensor based on an enzyme or a heme protein and phospolipids alternatively immobilized onto a functionalized-conducting polymer. 5,2′:5,2″-terthiophene-3′-carboxylic acid (poly-TTCA) provides a biomembrane environment for the in vivo measurement of NO or superoxide release stimulated by an abuse drug cocaine. A nitric oxide (NO) microbiosensor based on cytochrome c (cyt c), a heme protein immobilized onto a functionalized-conducting polymer (poly-TTCA) layer has been fabricated for the in vivo measurement of NO release stimulated by an abuse drug cocaine. Based on the direct electron transfer of cyt c, determination of NO with the cyt c-bonded poly-TTCA electrode was studied using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The interference of the sensor by NO by foreign species such as oxygen and hydrogen peroxide were minimized by covering a nafion film on the modified electrode surface. The concentrations of NO levels fluctuated by acute and repeated injections of cocaine were determined. The high sensitivity of the microbiosensor in monitoring NO concentrations in the in vivo intact brain of rats indicates that this system is very useful in clinical research and particularly in monitoring the effect of abuse drugs .
Fig. 3. The example of DNA and protein sensor probe with conductive polymer
The complexation between polyTTCA and Mn(II) through the formation of the Mn-O bond was used as a biosensor specifically to detect bilirubin through the mediated electron transfer by the Mn(II) ion. The bilirubin sensor exhibited good stability and fast response time (5 s). The applicability of this sensor has been demonstrated to monitor bilirubin in a human serum sample . Conductive polymers are also known for their ability to be compatible with biological molecules and cells, thus allowing their applicability in in vitro and in vivo biosensor fabrication. Moreover, the polymer itself can be modified to bind biomolecules to a biosensor probe. This aspect has been demonstrated by us in the studies on detection of NADH. A biomimetic layer composed of cyt c, lipids [1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) and cardiolipin], and ubiquinone was utilized for the detection of NADH. For this purpose, firstly DOPE is chemically bonded onto the conducting polymer film. The developed system selectively detects NADPH into the HT-29 cell lines .
This study is very useful in understanding the critical role of NADH in the multiple biological processes, including energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, biosynthesis, gene expression, calcium homeostasis, cell death, aging, and carcinogenesis.
Similarly, an in vivo microbiosensor is designed for the detection of glutamate released by cocaine stimulation in the extracellular fluids by using glutamate oxidase (GlOx) immobilized onto the conducting polymer layer. Glutamate is the most important excitatory neurotransmitter that plays a major role in the mammalian central nervous system and its high concentration in the extracellular fluid caused by excessive release may play a major neurotoxic role in a wide range of neurological disorders. Thus, this in vivo microbiosensor is an effective tool for monitoring the change in extracellular glutamate levels in the human body system .
Recently, another in vivo microbiosensor based on glutathione reductase (GR) and β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) has been studied through their immobilization on the nanocomposite conducting polymer films . The microbiosensor is used for glutathione disulfide (GSSG) detection in a rat liver as a model organ for GSSG detection (see fig. 4). The purpose of this study is to monitor and investigate the oxidative stress since high concentration of GSSG in the rat liver is a biomarker of oxidative stress. The results obtained are very impressive implying a promising approach for a GSSG biosensor in clinical diagnostics and oxidative stress monitoring. Thus, we believe that these systems can be very useful as a point of care medical device in clinical laboratories.
Fig. 4. Schematic preparation of the in vivo glutathione biosensors.
Conductive Polymers in Biofuel Cells
Conventionalfuel cells use metals like platinum and nickel as catalysts, whereas, the enzymatic biofuel cells use enzymes obtained from living cells. However, the primary requirement is that the enzymes which allow the fuel cell to operate must be stably immobilized as the anode and cathode. Our laboratory utilized polyTTCA and poly-Fe(III)-[N,N’-bis[4-(5,2’:5’,2”-terthien-3’-yl)salicyliden]-1,2-ethanediamine] (polyFeTSED) which were electrochemically polymerized on an Au surface for use, as mediators and catalysts for a biofuel cell . The enzymes [glucose oxidase (GOx) or horseradish peroxidase (HRP)] were immobilized onto the conducting polymer layer through covalent bond formation, which allowed the direct electron transfer processes of the enzymes. The anode with immobilized GOx and the cathode with immobilized HRP were used as model enzyme systems in biofuel cells for glucose and H2O2 detection, respectively (see fig. 5).
The copolymer of polyFeTSED complex with polyTTCA revealed a catalytic activity for the electrochemical reduction of H2O2 and resulted in approximately a seven fold increase in the power density of the biofuel cell over that of polyTTCA itself. Moreover, the conjugated polymers extended the lifetime of biofuel cell to 4 months through the stabilization of immobilized enzymes. The biofuel cell operated in a solution containing glucose and anode-produced H2O2 generated an open-circuit voltage of approximately 366.0 mV, while the maximum electrical power density extracted from the cell was 5.12 µW cm−2 at an external optimal load of 25.0 kΩ. The biofuel cell electrodes fabricated in this study had a wide range of potential applications as substrates for various potential bio- and chemical sensors and bio-devices.
Fig. 5. (A) Schematic diagram of a biofuel cell with a conducting polymer catalyst. (B) CVs for electropolymerization using (a) TTCA, (b) FeTSED, and (C) TTCA + FeTSED (1:1 mole ratio) monomers. AFM images for (d) bare, (e) polyTTCA, and (f) poly(TTCA–FeTSED) coated on the highly ordered pyrolytic graphite electrodes.
- . J. Hwang, J. I. Son, and Y.-B. Shim, Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells, 94 (2010) 1286.
- . D.G McGehee, and M.A. Topinka, Nature Mater. 5 (2006) 675
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Article source: http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5969 | <urn:uuid:6997fba8-a854-470d-873e-18be054e30d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.liquidlevelmeasurement.com/conductive-polymers-applications-for-electronic-devices-and-sensors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049274994.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002114-00032-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884453 | 3,658 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The message was clear. The fate of America — or at least of white America, which was the only America that counted — was at stake. On the autumn evening of Thursday, Oct. 7, 1948, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, the segregationist Dixiecrat nominee for President, addressed a crowd of 1,000 inside the University of Virginia’s Cabell Hall in Charlottesville, Va. Attacking President Truman’s civil rights program, one that included anti-lynching legislation and protections against racial discrimination in hiring, Thurmond denounced these moves toward racial justice, saying such measures “would undermine the American way of life and outrage the Bill of Rights.” Interrupted by applause and standing ovations, Thurmond was in his element in the Old Confederacy. “I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen,” Thurmond had told the breakaway States’ Rights Democratic Party at its July convention in Birmingham, Ala., “that there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, into our churches.”
Seventy years on, in the heat of a Virginia August, heirs to the Dixiecrats’ platform of hate and exclusion — Klansmen, neo-Nazis and white supremacists of sundry affiliations — gathered in Charlottesville, not far from where Thurmond had taken his stand. The story is depressingly well known by now: a young counterprotester, Heather Heyer, was killed by a barreling car allegedly driven by a man who was seen marching with a neo-Nazi group. In the wake of Heyer’s death, the President of the United States — himself an heir to the white populist tradition of Thurmond and of Alabama’s George Wallace — flailed about, declining to directly denounce the white supremacists for nearly 48 hours. There was, he said, hate “on many sides,” as if there were more than one side to a conflict between neo-Nazis who idolize Adolf Hitler and Americans who stood against Klansmen and proto–Third Reich storm troopers. Within days Donald Trumphad wondered aloud why people weren’t more upset by the “alt-left,” clearly identifying himself with neo-Confederate sentiment.
Perennially latent, extremist and racist nationalism tends to spike in periods of economic and social stress like ours. Americans today have little trust in government; household incomes woefully lag behind our usual middle-class expectations. As the world saw in Charlottesville — and in the alt-right universe of the Web — besieged whites, frightened of change, are seeking refuge in the one thing a shifting world cannot take away from them: the color of their skin.
If the current climate of grievance is of ancient origin, though, the white supremacists’ sense of urgency — indeed of increasing legitimacy — seems new. Today’s fringe sees itself not as a fringe but as the tip of the spear for the incumbent President’s nationalist agenda. “We are determined to take our country back,” said David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, in Charlottesville. “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump. Because he said he’s going to take our country back. That’s what we gotta do.”
Perhaps President Trump disagrees, but how to know for certain? He rose in national politics, after all, in part by questioning whether Barack Obama had been born in the U.S., thus capitalizing on, and fueling, the racist and xenophobic reaction to the election of the first African-American President. Now in power, Trump governs for his base, and the alt-right is part of that base — a fact that gives white supremacists a kind of privileged status in the tangled political thickets of Trumpland. He may denounce such groups in the end, but he tends to do so only after confounding caesuras — and even then he equivocates. Why? “Darkness is good,” Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, has said. When Joshua Green, the author the new book Devil’s Bargain, asked Bannon about Hillary Clinton’s 2016 attacks on Trump’s popularity among white nationalists, Bannon replied, “We polled the race stuff and it doesn’t matter.”
But it does. To understand where we are, we need to understand the history of hate in America — a history that sheds a good deal of light on how we’ve reached a place in the life of the nation where a former Grand Wizard of the KKK can claim, all too plausibly, that he is at one with the will of the President of the United States.
I. In the Shadow of Defeat: The KKK, Reconstruction and the Bolsheviks
It was Christmas Eve, 1865, in Pulaski, Tenn., barely eight months after Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Gloomy about the failure of the war and anxious about Union-run Reconstruction, six former Confederates founded the Ku Klux Klan in Thomas M. Jones’ law office. The organization’s name was derived from kuklos, the Greek word for ring or circle, and featured elaborate titles, costumes and hoods fashioned from bed linens, and horseback rides through the night.
Over the next few years, the KKK, with Nathan Bedford Forrest as its Grand Wizard, grew in influence and in menace, devoting itself to terrorizing freed African Americans and to undermining Reconstruction authorities. Put down by three federal laws in 1870 and 1871, the Klan dissipated as an active force. Yet its essential aim, the establishment of white supremacy, was achieved in ensuing years with pro-Southern Supreme Court decisions and the withdrawal of federal forces from the Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida statehouses after the disputed 1876 presidential election. That same year, future South Carolina Senator and Governor Ben Tillman, a prominent voice of white supremacy, was part of an attack on African-American Republicans at Hamburg, S.C. “The purpose of our visit was to strike terror,” Tillman recalled in a speech to the Senate in 1900. “And the next morning when the Negroes who had fled to the swamp returned to the town the ghastly sight … of seven dead Negroes lying stark and stiff certainly had its effect.”
By the 1890s, Jim Crow laws were effectively undoing the verdict of Appomattox. In 1894, Mississippi voted to include the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag; two years later, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court sanctioned the principle of “separate but equal.” Within three decades of Lee’s surrender, angry and alienated Southern whites who had lost a war had successfully used terror and political inflexibility to re-create the antebellum world of American apartheid. Lynchings, church burnings and the systematic denial of access to equal education and to the ballot box were the order of the decades.
The novelist Richard Wright vividly captured the realities of life under Jim Crow. “We know that if we protest we will be called ‘bad niggers,'” Wright wrote in a book titled Twelve Million Black Voices. “The Lords of the Land will preach the doctrine of ‘white supremacy’ to the poor whites who are eager to form mobs. In the midst of general hysteria they will seize one of us — it does not matter who, the innocent or guilty — and, as a token, a naked and bleeding body will be dragged through the dusty streets … The Ku Klux Klan attacks us in a thousand ways, driving our boys and girls off the jobs in the cities and keeping us who live on the land from protesting or asking too many questions.”
The white supremacists’ enmity was not limited to blacks. During World War I and in the years after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, a resurgent Klan, boosted in part by the movie The Birth of a Nation, targeted immigrants, Roman Catholics and Jews. The fear was that the “huddled masses” of Emma Lazarus’ poem would destroy the America that whites had come to know. As cities swelled with people of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds — immigrants thought to be agents of a global communist conspiracy — the decline of familiar farm life gave new force to the Klan, which staged massive marches down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in 1925 and 1926.
II. Ashes of the Reich: The Rise of Neo-Nazism
On Thursday, Sept. 11, 1941, Charles Lindbergh — American aviation hero and leading isolationist — stepped to the microphones at an America First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa. He had long taken it upon himself to speak, as he had once put it, for “that silent majority of Americans who have no newspaper, or newsreel, or radio station at their command.” Now it was time, he had decided, to make himself very clear on what he saw as a critical issue facing the nation as it debated whether to go to war against Adolf Hitler: the role of American Jews. “No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany,” Lindbergh said in Des Moines. “But” — and the but here is epochal — “no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them … Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”
Outright Nazi sympathy was evident in America in the prewar years. “When we get through with the Jews in America,” Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic radio priest, said, “they’ll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing.” Pro-Nazi groups held huge rallies at Madison Square Garden; one sponsored by the German-American Bund in February 1939 featured a 20,000-strong crowd chanting cries of “Heil Hitler.”
Isolationism was a complex phenomenon, but fear was a fairly common theme among its disparate elements: fear of entanglement; fear of sacrificing American blood and treasure for the advantage of others; fear of putting foreign demands ahead of national needs. Even after Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war on the U.S. in December 1941, there were still those who peddled a toxic blend of anti-Semitism (which came to include Holocaust denial) and virulent anticommunism and racist ideology. Eventually, Cold War anxieties were oxygen to the flames of neo-Nazism. Just as the Klan had benefitted from the fears of the 1920s after the Russian Revolution, white supremacists after World War II linked their cause with the apocalyptic rhetoric of right-wing anticommunism. These were the years of Joseph McCarthy and of the John Birch Society, of IMPEACH EARL WARREN billboards and White Citizens’ Councils. In a November 1963 lecture that formed the basis, a year later, of a Harper’s cover story and later a book, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” the historian Richard Hofstadter discerned a pattern of extreme conspiratorial theories about fundamental threats to the country.
“The paranoid spokesman … traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values,” Hofstadter wrote. “He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point: it is now or never in organizing resistance to conspiracy.” Ranging from fears of the Bavarian Illuminati in the 1790s to the dark anxieties of the anticommunists of the 1960s, Hofstadter identified the recurrent tendency to see powerful forces at work to undermine American life or politics or, often, both. (Immigrants, Jews and international bankers were favorites.) Hofstadter’s point: there’s always a war on to make America great again, for there are always those who believe American greatness is under assault from “the other.” | <urn:uuid:d36e7703-337a-4a82-b544-98615c6f5dc5> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://theweeklychallenger.com/american-hate-a-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499654.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20230128184907-20230128214907-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.956868 | 2,594 | 2.515625 | 3 |
|Title||Characterizing differences in precipitation regimes of extreme wet and dry years: Implications for climate change experiments|
|Publication Type||Journal Article|
|Year of Publication||2015|
|Authors||Knapp, AK, Hoover, DL, Wilcox, KR, Avolio, ML, Koerner, SE, La Pierre, KJ, Loik, ME, Luo, Y, Sala, OE, Smith, MD|
|Journal||Global Change Biology|
Climate change is intensifying the hydrologic cycle and is expected to increase the frequency of extreme wet and dry years. Beyond precipitation amount, extreme wet and dry years may differ in other ways, such as the number of precipitation events, event size, and the time between events. We assessed 1614 long-term (100 year) precipitation records from around the world to identify key attributes of precipitation regimes, besides amount, that distinguish statistically extreme wet from extreme dry years. In general, in regions where mean annual precipitation (MAP) exceeded 1000 mm, precipitation amounts in extreme wet and dry years differed from average years by ~40% and 30%, respectively. The magnitude of these deviations increased to >60% for dry years and to >150% for wet years in arid regions (MAP<500 mm). Extreme wet years were primarily distinguished from average and extreme dry years by the presence of multiple extreme (large) daily precipitation events (events >99th percentile of all events); these occurred twice as often in extreme wet years compared to average years. In contrast, these large precipitation events were rare in extreme dry years. Less important for distinguishing extreme wet from dry years were mean event size and frequency, or the number of dry days between events. However, extreme dry years were distinguished from average years by an increase in the number of dry days between events. These precipitation regime attributes consistently differed between extreme wet and dry years across 12 major terrestrial ecoregions from around the world, from deserts to the tropics. Thus, we recommend that climate change experiments and model simulations incorporate these differences in key precipitation regime attributes, as well as amount into treatments. This will allow experiments to more realistically simulate extreme precipitation years and more accurately assess the ecological consequences. | <urn:uuid:2ed29957-81a4-4ae1-8e7e-3739ea218f46> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/content/characterizing-differences-precipitation-regimes-extreme-wet-and-dry-years-implications | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949355.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330163823-20230330193823-00391.warc.gz | en | 0.90744 | 543 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Health & Safety – Using Electrical Thermal Imaging to create a safe working environment
Health & Safety is playing in increasing role in all aspects of the workplace, be it a commercial or industrial environment.
In the workplace, it is primarily the employers responsibility to provide a safe working environment.
However the employee is also responsible for their own health & safety as well as that of their colleagues. Both employers and employees have a duty of care to each other.
Health & Safety is not just about common sense, it is about putting procedures in place to protect employees, their employers and to keep businesses operating safely and efficiently.
Electrical engineers can use thermal imaging to enhance the health & safety of a workforce and protect the assets of a business. The thermal imaging camera is used to detect unusual hot spots in fuse boards and electrical panels that control machinery, such as production lines in a food factory or manufacturing facility.
Prevention is better than cure
As with all things health & safety related, prevention is better than cure. The health & safety of employees can be increased by using thermal imaging (or thermography) to perform predictive maintenance on electrical equipment, by forecasting where an issue is likely to arise, before the potential risk of fire due to an electrical fault increases and becomes a reality.
For more information about the technical aspects of the process, you can visit our page on thermal imaging reporting available in the Peterborough area. | <urn:uuid:bfa27d46-5aaa-41b8-aee6-cb3891e5cc4c> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.peterboroughelectricians.co.uk/health-safety-electrical-thermal-imaging-safe-working-environment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347419056.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20200601145025-20200601175025-00598.warc.gz | en | 0.959195 | 285 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Presentation of activities from italian school, which were presented in the conference Creativity in Class.
Category: Education systems
Activity for connecting geometry and everyday life. Danger sign Triangle Prohibition or obligation sign Circle Indication sign Other forms Example of excercises from italian books:
“The more a child has seen and understood, the more he wants to see and understand”. Starting from the premise that “you must enlighten the
Educational system in Czech Republic In Czech educational system we could divide education in four main stages. First stage is preschool education. Originally it was
Creativity is really important both in life and in teaching and learning since it is widely believed to be a factor which enriches the quality
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, every citizen has the right to education which is free of charge for the compulsory primary | <urn:uuid:1ee6b755-df2c-4d5d-b0e9-57a5cc2a263a> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.colourfulnumbers.eu/category/activities/education-systems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511220.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20231003192425-20231003222425-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.968147 | 178 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Has abortion made America more prosperous? Chelsea Clinton seems to think so.
The former first daughter spoke recently at a “Rise up for Roe” event in New York City, one of a series of meetings organized by NARAL and Planned Parenthood to oppose the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In the course of her remarks, she suggested that one way to strengthen support for keeping abortion legal and readily available is to emphasize what a boon Roe v. Wade has been for the US economy.
“American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy,” Clinton said. “The net, new entrance of women — that is not disconnected from the fact that Roe became the law of the land in January of 1973.”
As Clinton sees it, the freedom to destroy unborn children has been a powerful economic stimulus. Her argument is that by legalizing abortion nationwide, Roe freed more women to go to work unencumbered by motherhood, and those women over time have added $3.5 trillion to the US economy.
As a matter of history, economics, and — above all — morality, this is a singularly wretched argument.
History first. The mass entrance of women into the workforce over the past half century occurred throughout the developed world. It was a vast social transformation, driven by changes more universal and deep-rooted than a shift in US abortion law. One of those changes was the ascendance of the feministmovement, which permanently changed perceptions about a woman’s “proper place.” Another was the steady displacement of manufacturing jobs requiring physical strength by jobs in the service sector more reliant on brainpower. A third was the explosion in women’s access to higher education. In 1950, American women earned less than 25 percent of college degrees; today they earn roughly 60 percent. The rise of women in the modern workplace wasn’t achieved by abortion.
Clinton’s grasp on Roe’s economic impact is as skewed as her historical understanding.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973, there have been 60 million abortions in the United States, the overwhelming majority of them for nonmedical reasons. What would it have meant to the American economy if those tens of millions of babies had been born?
Of course, there would have been costs. With more children to educate, feed, and clothe, the US economy would necessarily have faced a much higher price tag for childrearing.
But those tens of millions of additional babies would have grown into tens of millions of additional productive adults. They would have generated an immensity of new value — more goods, more services, more innovations, more art, more entertainment, more businesses. They would have created more capital, both financial and social. Their taxes alone would have flooded government coffers with trillions of dollars (the average US adult pays $10,000 in taxes per year). Whatever the US economy may have gained as a result of the post-Roe abortion culture, it plainly lost far more.
What makes Clinton’s argument truly deplorable, though, isn’t history or economics, but morality. Her approach is chillingly utilitarian, treating the destruction of life in the womb as, ultimately, a question of dollars and cents. It is reminiscent of the hypothesis promoted by the authors of the 2005 bestseller “Freakonomics” that legalizing abortion caused a historic drop in violent crime. That hypothesis has since been debunked pretty conclusively (by Steven Pinker, among others). But even if it were true, the idea that abortion should be embraced as a social good because it eliminates children before they can become criminals is grotesque.
Clinton’s “Rise up for Roe” argument is equally grotesque. It is always possible to find silver linings, monetary or otherwise, in tragic or wrongful behavior. But there are boundaries of decency that public advocacy shouldn’t cross. Even for ardent supporters of abortion rights, it should be possible to back Roe v. Wade without extolling it as an engine of financial progress. Sixty million abortions since 1973 is nothing to celebrate, no matter how much the economy grew.Jeff Jacoby can be reached at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_jacoby. | <urn:uuid:acc24737-fefd-43e6-b4d0-5527b47d4ed0> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/08/22/chelsea-clinton-twisted-argument-about-abortion-and-economic-growth/6ajP713rANYAOizO30hLeN/story.html?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=e192a4d6fe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_22_12_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-e192a4d6fe-400018517 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578530253.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421060341-20190421082341-00209.warc.gz | en | 0.96308 | 893 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Thai or Siamese kingdom has always understood itself as a homogeneous imagined national community, in which the Siamese in the Center of Ayutthaya and Bangkok have gradually expanded to the frontiers in the North, Northeast and the South and have, in the rulers understanding, civilising the wild and barbarian peoples living at the edge of the nation. Peoples living in Southern Thailand were divided between Buddhists in upper Southern Thailand until Songkhla, while Muslims tended to dominate the lower part of Southern Thailand, beginning in Pattani. The city of Nakhorn Sri Thammarat used to be the central military garrison, from which the Siamese kingdom expanded towards the lower South, only to be stopped by the British. In Southern Thailand, the Thai Buddhist civilisation met with the Malay Muslim civilisation in the Malay peninsula, marginalising the indigenous people from the coastal regions and the islands, living in the maritime worlds of the oceans. In the lower South, Malay Muslim local elites have been disempowered by the expanding Thai state and Malay identity has been negated. Resistance on the part of the Malay Muslim intellectuals has been violently suppressed, resulting in a low-intensity insurgency and warfare, leaving thousands of people dead. The Malays in Southern Thailand remain marginal and poor and are subjected to structural and everyday discrimination in all Thai institutions, including elementary schools. Malays are bi-lingual and continue to speak a Malay dialect of Southern Thailand as well as standard Thai.
The uneasy and uncompleted integration has been well described by Anusorn Unno in his ethnography of the violent transformation of the lower South: In a state ceremony, aiming to develop a patriotic identification with the Thai kingdom, the Thai Malay villagers , in light of a positive paradigm of subjectification, negotiate the domination of the Thai state by subjecting themselves to the King´s sovereignty: They commit a small spelling mistake by writing “We love Mr. King” on the ceremonial tray, which may have been interpreted either as a marker of their underdeveloped literacy in Thai language or misinterpreted as an intended disrespect to the highly-revered Thai monarch. Lacking integration and poor social mobility completed a sense of identity crisis, in which only Islamic identity has been allowed to proliferate. The local middle class has identified itself as Thai, Malay and Muslim, a complex hybrid identity, based on multiple identities, characterised by tensions. Simply, it was not possible to be Malay, and Malay identity had no right of existence. Malay people in the villages often had little future perspectives and often felt beleaguered by security forces and police, by a discriminating state, by the distress of cultural pollution.
The long-lasting rebellion in the South has mingled with criminality in the black market (drugs, weapons) and has transformed the lower South into a no-go area identified with danger, has propelled migration of Thai Buddhists towards the upper South and Central Thailand, has put Malay and Buddhist villagers in very vulnerable situations and has stifled a mixed culture, characterised by Southern Thai art forms and ritual exchange, blending Thai, Malay ethnic and religious elements and ancestral cosmologies.
The conflict has aggravated since 2004, as the heavy-handed policies of Thaksin Shinawatra have angered the Malays, who have been mobilised by the newly organised BRN. BRN embarrassed a heavily armed Thai military by decentralised hit-and-run tactics, organising in small and mobile platoons. The BRN was largely invisible and did not put forward any claims or vision. Instead, it focused on terror on Thais – civil and military alike – to make the lower South inhabitable. Civil society, albeit weak, developed against all odds and the Thai Malay Muslim elites integrated best by joining political parties in the capital city. Relatively little is known of the Thai South, with many of academics specialising in the North. This special issue sheds spotlight on interesting dimensions of the current political and cultural transformation in the South: The difficult peace process at the negotiation table, the cultural crisis and conflict-stridden coexistence of Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims, and the alliances of the Thai Malay local elites from the lower South with major politicians from different regions of Thailand.
The contribution by Gerard McDermott highlights the inefficiency of the MARA negotiations, which resulted primarily from not involving the dominating actor of the insurgency- the BRN. The inefficiency was also spurred by the lack of willingness on the part of the Thai military junta to invite a third party as well as the BRN’s decreasing bargaining power when it came to the negotiation table as well as by spoilers who wanted to fight on the ground. This is followed by insider Don Pathan who takes off where McDermott ended. The military junta’s inclusivity strategy failed to recognise that not all Patani Malay movements were created equal. In addition, the more the military junta squeezed the BRN’s ruling council, the more the BRN’s combatants staged violence in retaliation. The peace process is also complicated by competitions among foreign facilitators and moderators.
While the peace process faced several obstacles, to solve violent conflict by parliamentary politics remains gloomy. A political scientist Duncan McCargo analyses the political behavior of the Thai Malay local elites and their navigation with Thai politicians and with their network parties. Thai Malay politicians did not find an easy place with either the Democrat party or the opposition parties. An exception to the rule was Wan Nor who excelled under the patronage of Chaovalit and Thaksin, rose as speaker of parliament, but then fell together with his sponsors. Although the 2019 Election is the first time all elected MPs in the region are Malay Muslims, Malay ethnicity and Islam are by no means decisive factors. It has a lot to do with the country’s political conflict and old-time politicians’ pragmaticism and election campaigns.
The remaining two pieces take a different track, offering local insights on the political and cultural crisis. Alisa Hasamoh has written a report for UNICEF on the wounds of traumatised children. Her insightful contribution provides valuable data on civil society in the lower South. The piece of Samak Kosem is unique in the sense that Samak gives voice to queer sexual identities, using the creativity and narrative of a young artist and scholar in conjunction with nonhuman ethnography. He compares queer women and men to non-human (sheep, ghost, wave) in order to illustrate the painful circumstances which queer people endure in the Malay Muslim world. As their sexual identity is not accepted, they also escape to Bangkok to join the queer community. They are thus doubly marginalised: In Thai society and by their own community. Queer people also question the myth of a homogenous Malay identity in the South. Samak also illustrates the agency of young queer who have their coming out and who leave the Islamic patriarchal structure of their parents and Islamic schools.
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Asian Studies
Tallinn University, Estonia
Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology
Articles 1: Duncan McCargo
Articles 2: Don Pathan
Articles 3: Samak Kosem
Antropologi Seni dan Narasi Non-manusia/Queer di Perbatasan Selatan
Nhân học Nghệ thuật và Các câu chuyện phi con người/Lệch pha ở Vùng biên phía Nam
Antropolohiya ng Sining at Naratibong Di-Tao/Queer sa Katimugang Hangganan
Articles 4: Gerard McDermott
Yang Terakhir dalam Daftar langkah awal yang serba keliru? Prakarsa MARA untuk Thailand Selatan (2015-2019)
รายการสุดท้ายในบัญชีหางว่าวของการเริ่มต้นผิดพลาด? ความริเริ่มมาราปาตานีเพื่อแก้ปัญหาชายแดนภาคใต้ของประเทศไทย (2558-2562)
Điều cuối cùng trong một danh sách những hoạt động sai lầm? Hoạt động của nhóm MARA vì Miền Nam Thái Lan (2015-2019)
Ang huli sa listahan ng mga huwad na simula? Ang Inisyatibang MARA Initiative para sa Timog Thailand (2015-2019)
Articles 5: Alisa Hasamoh
Masyarakat Sipil di Thailand Selatan dan Negara yang Lemah
Xã hội dân sự ở Cực Nam Thái Lan và Nhà nước yếu kém
Ang Civil Society sa Malalim na Timog ng Thailand at ang Mahinang Estado
ตาสว่าง [Ta Sawang]
The Marawi Siege and Its Aftermath: The Continuing Terrorist Threat
Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the struggle to remake Indonesia
The Rise of Sophisticated Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia (Elements in Politics and Society in Southeast Asia)
Thailand: History, Politics and the Rule of Law
A Life Beyond Boundaries: A Memoir | <urn:uuid:c18fb62b-7093-41c0-92cd-9d519d9f121a> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://d3p25nbl7zmrao.cloudfront.net/issue-28/editors-introduction-at-the-margins-of-the-siamese-kingdom-violent-conflict-in-southern-thailand/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506669.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924191454-20230924221454-00647.warc.gz | en | 0.909228 | 2,663 | 2.59375 | 3 |
NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Crashes into the Moon
After completing its mission and surviving a Lunar eclipse, the LADEE spacecraft has impacted the far side of the moon.
Update - April 18, 2014 - The LADEE spacecraft has crashed into the moon. Ground Controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center report that the craft made impact some time between 9:30 and 10:22 PM PDT on April 17. Engineers believe that during its descent the lunar explorer heated up to the point that some materials could have vaporized, and whatever remained upon impact was likely buried in shallow craters.
“At the time of impact, LADEE was traveling at a speed of 3,600 miles per hour – about three times the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet,” said LADEE project scientist Rick Elphic. “There’s nothing gentle about impact at these speeds–it’s just a question of whether LADEE made a localized craterlet on a hillside or scattered debris across a flat area. It will be interesting to see what kind of feature LADEE has created.”
LADEE crashed on the far side of the moon, which is not visible from Earth and where no prior lunar mission has landed. NASA hopes to piece together the exact time of impact over the coming months and to obtain an image of the impact site through the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Original Story - April 8, 2014 - NASA’s LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) spacecraft has been orbiting the moon since October 6, 2013—a month after its launch—gathering scientific data and accomplishing several milestones as it circled our planet’s nearest celestial body’s equator.
LADEE was the first spacecraft to communicate with Earth using Optical Laser Communications (a system that sends information six times faster than radio). It is also the first deep space spacecraft to be designed and built entirely in NASA’s Ames Research Center, the first payload launched on a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket integrated by Orbital Sciences Corp, and the first deep space mission launched from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility.
The machine was sent to collect data on the moon’s atmosphere and dust environment in an effort to determine whether lunar dust, electrically charged by the sun, was the cause of a pre-sunrise glow above the lunar horizon seen during several Apollo missions. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also used the vending machine-sized craft to gather information about the composition of the moon’s atmosphere.
LADEE’s mission is now drawing to a close, however, and at some point over the next two weeks will crash into the moon’s surface. On Friday, April 11, ground controllers will have the spacecraft perform its last orbital maintenance maneuver just days before a four-hour total lunar eclipse occurs on April 15. That eclipse will put LADEE on the cusp of the conditions under which it was designed to operate and survive.
The maneuver will make sure that LADEE hits the far side of the moon, which is neither viewable from Earth nor near any prior lunar landings, but it will not set a specific location or time for impact. As the craft runs out of fuel its orbit will decay and it could strike the moon at any time on or before April 21.
“The moon's gravity field is so lumpy, and the terrain is so highly variable with crater ridges and valleys that frequent maneuvers are required or the LADEE spacecraft will impact the moon’s surface,” said LADEE project manager Butler Hine. “Even if we perform all maneuvers perfectly, there's still a chance LADEE could impact the moon sometime before April 21, which is when we expect LADEE's orbit to naturally decay after using all the fuel onboard.”
Since NASA is uncertain of exactly when LADEE will make impact, it has put together a contest asking the general public to guess when the spacecraft will hit. The contest is open to all, and asks participants to simply take their best guess as to the date, hour, and minute that LADEE will fall.
Winners will be announced after impact, and will also be e-mailed a commemorative, personalized certificate from the LADEE program. Submissions must be entered by 3 PM on Friday, April 11. | <urn:uuid:87008ff1-fe28-4e2b-9bc0-abd895be464e> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.longisland.com/news/04-08-14/nasa-ladee-impact-moon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860123840.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161523-00126-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939894 | 923 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict and Resistance to Modernity
The story of Afghanistan resembles a Greek tragedy, says Riaz Mohammad Khan. There is "no dearth of good intentions," but "overall a history of failures." For decades, the country has been beset by violent conflict, much of it driven by foreign interventions, internecine fighting, and religious militancy. This strife has had a major impact in neighboring Pakistan, a troubled state in its own right. Khan, the Woodrow Wilson Center's current Pakistan Scholar, is writing a book that chronicles the effects of the Afghan conflict on Pakistan, with particular emphasis on the toll it has taken on societal development and progress. He addressed this topic at a July 23 presentation organized by the Asia Program and co-sponsored by the Middle East Program.
Khan first identified several missed opportunities in Afghanistan. For example, the world donor community "abandoned" Afghanistan for much of the 1990s; more international interest and funding "could have made a difference." Between 1992 and 1997, the country netted little global aid, while Russia received $50 billion from the international community. Additionally, Khan argued, the "diversion" of U.S. attention from Afghanistan to Iraq soon after the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan "contributed to the continuation" of the Afghan conflict.
How has Afghanistan's turmoil affected Pakistan? Khan spoke about the militancy and insurgency in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan, and the "intellectual crisis"—the "confusion in public discourse"—that pervades Pakistani society today. He described this crisis as a constricting influence on Pakistan's progress and modernization, and traced it to three factors: (1) tensions between religious orthodoxy and reformist forces; (2) the "security orientation" of the Pakistani state, fuelled by the perceived "historic injustice" over Kashmir that has taken on a religious dimension; and (3) the growth of a religious culture that has weakened vocational education and culture in Pakistan. Khan declared that the lack of a sound national educational system represents a government failure, and averred that this poor focus on education illustrates another crisis—one of governance. Pakistan, he said, is rife with leadership and institutional failure.
Khan addressed prospects for stabilization and reconciliation in Afghanistan. He argued that attaining the former will require the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to maintain a "coercive presence," to be used for selective military action. The United States has the "lead role" in Afghanistan's stabilization, and must coordinate its military strategy with Pakistan—particularly those aspects having an impact on Pakistan's border region. Khan acknowledged that Washington and Islamabad have "different tactical approaches" vis-à-vis Pakistan's tribal areas near Afghanistan, though he contended that "close consultations" among top Pakistani and American officials can "keep misgivings at a minimum."
As for reconciliation, he opined that next month's national elections in Afghanistan will be a crucial factor. Additionally, Khan noted that both the 2006 Afghanistan Compact (a political agreement between Afghanistan's government and the international community) and President Obama's new "Af-Pak" policy envision the "co-opting" of moderate Taliban members as a component of the reconciliation process. Reconciliation efforts will be helped by according more attention to the revival of the economy, agriculture, employment, infrastructure, and education in Afghanistan. Khan concluded that reconciliation and economic development are important features of a "comprehensive approach" to ending conflict in Afghanistan.
According to Khan, the reconciliation process has not yet successfully addressed what lies "at the heart" of the prolonged Afghan conflict: the breakdown of the "erstwhile" Afghan national consensus. This collapse, he explained, was triggered by the 1978 Saur Revolution, when Afghan communists seized power and set the stage for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Reconciliation efforts, he asserted, have yet to restore this earlier consensus.
How do Afghanistan and Pakistan ultimately move forward? Khan noted that there is no "quick fix," and that the challenges faced by both nations are rooted in complexities that stretch back 30 years. He stressed the importance of the economy and social development (particularly education), which can help turn young people away from violence. Above all, however, these countries—whose fates have often been influenced by external actors and events—must resolve their challenges themselves. Pakistan's much-needed focus on education "will have to come from within Pakistan." And while Khan conceded that Afghans have long exploited outside powers' interests "for their own individual and parochial interests," reconciliation is a strictly domestic matter. It "cannot happen from outside," and must involve local groups, such as the tribal assemblies known as jirgas. Additionally, if the winner of the upcoming presidential election is seen to have been sponsored by outsiders, then he or she will not be credible, and efforts toward reconciliation will be undermined.
Drafted by Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Associate
Robert M. Hathaway, Director, Asia Program, Ph: (202) 691-4020 | <urn:uuid:c5e15f76-e00d-4828-966b-0e57730a499d> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/afghanistan-and-pakistan-conflict-and-resistance-to-modernity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042988048.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002308-00030-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952216 | 1,040 | 2.796875 | 3 |
C. G. Sibley & J. A. Ahlquist, 1990
Artamidae is a family of passerine birds found in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and Southern Asia. It includes 23 extant species in four genera and two subfamilies: Artaminae (with only one genus, the woodswallows) and Cracticinae (currawongs, butcherbirds, and the Australian magpie). Artamidae was formerly monotypic, containing only the woodswallows, but it was expanded to include the family Cracticidae in 1994. Some authors, however, still treat the two as separate families.
|This article about ornithology is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:54491f48-92a2-446d-bbef-3882f0550e8f> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artamidae | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042989234.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002309-00063-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.800963 | 156 | 3.125 | 3 |
Perl was originally developed for text manipulation, but now it is used for various purposes, such as system administration, web development, GUI development, and many more. It is a stable and cross-platform programming language created by Larry Wall. Though it is not that popular, it offers excellent features as compared to other programming languages like C, AWK, BASIC, SED, etc. It is also not that easy to learn and implement; thus, the unit testing framework for Perl-based applications is very limited.
The only general unit testing framework available for Perl-based applications is PerlUnit, which is a xUnit testing framework. It was initially designed for testing of Perl-based applications, but now it is available as a project on SourceForge. It is based on the JUnit 3.2 model and capable of producing a ‘Green Bar.’ Like JUnit, it is also an open-source Unit Test Framework that can be integrated with the Selenium Grid to automate unit testing.
There are not any specific requirements for using PerlUnit, but it is based on xUnit, so you need to have:
- Enough knowledge of xUnit frameworks and Perl language
- Installation knowledge of perlmodiInstall
There are very limited features and functionalities available with PerlUnit, such as:
- It supports older versions of Perl
- Included with two mailing lists – perlunit-devel for low volume discussion, and perlunit-users
There are no drawbacks to using PerlUnit unless you want to test other web applications with it because it is only compatible with Perl-based applications and xUnit frameworks. | <urn:uuid:1efed18b-2e8f-4d65-b2be-42cb9465a490> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://community.lambdatest.com/question/1183829199278837760 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401585213.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20200928041630-20200928071630-00512.warc.gz | en | 0.931606 | 333 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Head of a King
Sculptors working for the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt occasionally showed their royal subjects in traditional style. This head depicts a Ptolemaic ruler wearing the ancient nemes-headcloth with a protective uraeus cobra. The king's ovoid face with full, fleshy cheeks suggests that the artisan may have been trying to reproduce the physical features of a specific ruler. However, in the absence of dated parallels for this head, we do not know whom it represents.
- Medium: Basalt
- Reportedly From: Egypt
- Dates: 3rd century B.C.E. (probably)
- Period: Ptolemaic Period
- Dimensions: 16 x 16 1/2 x 16 in. (40.6 x 41.9 x 40.6 cm) (show scale)
- Collections:Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, 19th Dynasty to Roman Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
- Accession Number: 53.75
- Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
- Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY
- Caption: Head of a King, 3rd century B.C.E. (probably). Basalt, 16 x 16 1/2 x 16 in. (40.6 x 41.9 x 40.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 53.75. Creative Commons-BY
- Catalogue Description: Black granodiorite head of a king wearing nemes headdresss with out pleats. Uraeus in high relief with body extending on to crown of head. Full face, conventionalized features, eyebrows not indicated, puckered mouth deeply recessed at each end. Condition: Headdress extremely broken, especially on rear; one portion reattached. Chin broken. Surface of face abraded in scattered areas. Preserved to base of neck.
- Record Completeness: Best (87%) | <urn:uuid:6ec9e87a-15b9-4e33-bad6-cc2b1512d59d> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3583/Head_of_a_King/image/8411/image/right_tab/talk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163997905/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133317-00007-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883189 | 431 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Our laboratory uses a cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms of voluntary and reflexive attention in humans. We bring to bear a variety of complementary tools to study attention, including behavioral and psychophysical methods, human electrophysiological measures, and functional neuroimaging. Behavioral and psychophysical methods permit us to analyze the properties of the human attention system and how attention influences perception and performance. Recordings of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and evoked responses known as event-related potentials (ERPs) permit a fine-grained view of the temporal properties of attentional control and selection. This is done by placing more than 100 electrodes on the scalp and recording the electrical activity of populations of neurons as the human subjects participate in carefully controlled attention tasks. Finally, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to investigate the functional brain anatomy of the attention system and where in the brain attention influences various information processing transactions during perception and action. This work continues with the support of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Increasingly, the laboratory has developed new interests in several translational cognitive neuroscience topics, including work in schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this work, we are bringing knowledge from our two decades of basic science investigations to bear on issues that represent major mental health problems. Because selective attention is a core cognitive process, elucidating attentional mechanisms in humans remains a high priority in efforts to understand, diagnose and treat psychiatric conditions that involve deficits in attention, including ADHD, autism and schizophrenia. This work continues with the support of NIMH and private donations.
Title art credit: Elizabeth Jameson "Kaleidoscopes" | <urn:uuid:aa4e8af9-f8b2-4d1a-9141-65502243fce7> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/labs/Mangun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413558067609.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017150107-00097-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91346 | 356 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Everything You’d Ever Want to Know:
How many car trips have begun with that memorable word? The correct answer is undoubtedly “countless” or “how many stars are in the sky?”
This article concerns all things riding shotgun: definition, history, origin, rights, privileges, duties and rules.
Just so there’s no disputes about the definition of ‘shotgun’, here’s a good one:
The term “Shotgun” refers to the front passenger seat of an automobile. “Calling Shotgun” is the act of claiming the position of Shotgun for one’s self. As this position is the most coveted of all positions when riding in a car, the following list of rules has been created to ensure that Shotgun can be acquired in a fair and equitable manner by any passenger of an automobile.
For readers wanting a second opinion, here’s the Wikipedia version
To ride shotgun is to sit in the front passenger seat when riding a car or other vehicle, a phrase commonly heard in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Due to the influence of American popular culture it is also heard in several European countries such as Iceland, Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom, as well as other countries with large English-speaking populations such as South Africa and Israel.
Where did the term “riding shotgun” originate?
The first known reference to “riding shotgun” in print occurred in Western pulp fiction in the March 27, 1921 issue of the Washington Post’s “Magazine of Fiction,” in a story entitled “The Fighting Fool” by Dane Coolidge. It was used to refer to riding as an armed guard in the front of a stagecoach, next to the driver (this would usually have been on the left, as stage drivers traditionally sat on the right, near the brake).
Historians have been unable to find a use of the term “riding shotgun” in the actual time of the Old West, when the terminology actually used was riding as “shotgun messenger.” The use of the phrase in print to refer to automobiles occurred in 1954 simultaneously with the TV series Gunsmoke, which became extremely popular, and used the terminology of riding shotgun nearly weekly.
There are many local variations of the rules below. But the basic rules, like truth, beauty and hope, always remain the same. It’s good to get the ground and local rules in place before any important–or incidental–trip.
of Calling Shotgun
1) The first person to yell “SHOTGUN” gets to ride in the front seat.
Read the rest of “Riding Shotgun: Rules, History, Duties of Riding Shotgun” at DBKP.com
* Riding Shotgun: Rules, History, Duties of Riding Shotgun
DBKP.com – Bigger, Better!.
DBKP at Blogger | <urn:uuid:bf54ba83-f614-441a-88df-98d37efb030c> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://dbkp.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/rules-of-the-road-riding-shotgun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948517917.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20171212192750-20171212212750-00063.warc.gz | en | 0.943681 | 621 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Augmented reality in physical security
Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology, but physical security experts are already anticipating how it will impact the industry. Unlike virtual reality, which completely immerses the user in a digital world, augmented reality keeps the user functional in the real world by superimposing digital information, such as images or GPS data, onto the user’s real-world view. Early AR hardware includes the Microsoft HoloLens and Google Glass.
In this first part in a two-part series, we talk with Brian Schwab about the how to apply early AR technology in physical security – and what future applications might look like.
“When it comes to AR and its impact on security, this technology is all about enhancing effective response times,” he says. Brian is Senior Director Corporate Security at Amtrak. He has more than 25 years of experience in physical security, including with the United States military and the federal government.
Four main areas where AR could enhance physical security:
- Accessible project information
- Photo and video capture
- Tracking and “X-Ray vision”
- Precise GPS
In this article, we’ll look at the benefits of accessible project information and photo and video capture.
AR for locksmiths and technicians
“As I conduct physical security assessments, I use the M100 to call up drawings and floor plans of the site,” says Brian. Having the information at his fingertips has proved invaluable. Access to site information can also assist first responders trying to navigate a facility, helping them to plot the quickest, safest route to their destination.
I see things that I wouldn’t be able to see just by looking at a diagram on my smart phone or tablet
“Let’s say I have an electronic lock that has malfunctioned,” Brian says. “I can call up the wiring diagrams and superimpose them over the door. I can trace conduit diagrams through floors and walls and see things that I wouldn’t be able to see just by looking at a diagram on my smart phone or tablet.”
Photo and Video Capture
AR also enables security professionals to transmit images and video back to a central location. “As I walk through an assessment, I can record and transmit what I’m seeing back to a central location,” Brian says.
So, not only do I have a record, but others can be looking to see what I see in real tim
While current technology only allows the AR user to interface with a single central location at one time, Brian believes multiple interfaces to multiple locations are in the not-too-distant future. Photo and video capture could also eventually help security professionals effectively communicate security needs, Brian says.
“One of the biggest obstacles I encounter in physical security is being able to get a budget to do what needs doing,” he says. “But if in a few generations of this technology I could project these photographs or overlays from my headset onto a platform that others can view, say, in a boardroom, then people can see with their own two eyes. I won’t just say: ‘You need to replace a 1,000 foot stretch of fence.’ They’ll be able to see that the fence is worn out, that there’s a section lying on the ground. Visuals like that could have an impact of the funding of physical security projects.”
We will soon follow up on this topic to explore the final two areas where AR is poised to have a big impact on physical security: X-Ray Vision, and Precise GPS.
By Rachel Sa
What is Augmented reality (AR)?
Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.
It is related to a more general concept called computer-mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.
By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. | <urn:uuid:337425ea-6857-4e5a-b9f6-f99be90d2ebf> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://futurelab.assaabloy.com/en/augmented-reality-in-physical-security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578527865.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20190419161226-20190419183226-00268.warc.gz | en | 0.947277 | 885 | 2.546875 | 3 |
In this video Paul Andersen describes the defining characteristics of members in the domain archaebacteria. He starts with a brief description of the phylogeny of this group. He then describes the major characteristics on an archaea, such as differences in the phospholipids. He explains how they reproduce through binary fission and finishes with a discussion of archaebacteria diversity.
Courtesy of bozemanbiology | <urn:uuid:57d56086-2101-4193-9868-6656e9d545f4> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.ck12.org/life-science/Archaea-in-Life-Science/?by=all&difficulty=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698541907.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170901-00505-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892365 | 82 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Sometimes we organise our courses according to a hierarchy of learning outcomes, such as Blooms Taxonomy of Learning Objectives. We use the hierarchy to identify the level of outcome we want from our students: Do we want them to merely comprehend what we teach, or do we want them to apply this knowledge to solve problems, or even to create new ideas and solutions?
These hierarchies imply that the higher outcomes are dependent on the lower outcomes. For example, students can only apply their knowledge, critically analyse, evaluate and create once they have they know, remember and comprehend the basic knowledge of the field. This is often thought to also imply that you should first teach students the knowledge they need, and then later you can ask them to analyse this knowledge or create with it. The assumption is that students need the basic knowledge before they evaluate it or apply it. While this second implication is true, it is also fundamentally mistaken and leads to poor course design. In fact, we should start our courses at the higher level before going back down to the bottom.
Start at the top so that learning is meaningful for students
If students first learn isolated bits of knowledge, what they have learned is inert. It is stored as meaningless fragments that are effectively useless. For the knowledge to be useable it has to be stored in meaningful chunks. Once students have learned isolated bits of knowledge, they find it difficult, if not impossible, to arrange these into meaningful categories. Learning is more effective if students first understand the meaningful categories and then, as they learn new bits of information, they organise what they learn according to these categories. For example, you don’t learn a lot of facts about what people do in different countries and then create a concept of culture. You learn what culture is, and then each isolated fact you subsequently learn makes sense as an illustration of differences in culture. In a second example, you don’t ask students to memorise all the parts of a cell and then expect students to put them together to understand cell function. You start by enabling students to understand the function of a cell within a body, and then they learn how all the parts fit together. In both of these examples, it is best to start with a broad synthesis or analysis of fundamental concepts and principles, and then go to the detailed knowledge that will fit within this meaningful big picture.
Start at the top to engage your students and motivate their learning
Starting at the bottom of the hierarchy also gives no motivation for students to learn. Why would they care to remember a whole lot of meaningless facts? Instead, you motivate learning by starting at the top, where you can engage students and inspire them to inquire. For example, if you start by showing students a big, interesting problem, case or question that needs some complex analysis and evaluation to solve, and you show them why this problem is important so they want to solve it, then they will then be motivated to learn all the little bits of knowledge they will need for a solution. Even though the students cannot solve this problem at the start of the course, the problem provides a meaningful context for their learning, so when you teach them the detail it is no longer unrelated info to try to remember, but meaningful data because of its usefulness in solving the problem. They understand the facts because they see it within the big picture of solving the problem they are engaged with. | <urn:uuid:30a07844-771f-48e0-b645-67ae8878ee90> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://clintongolding.com/2017/08/27/where-to-start-big-picture-or-detail/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178360745.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20210228084740-20210228114740-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.957601 | 683 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a very important public health concern in many developing countries where epidemics of hepatitis E are common. Sporadic cases of clinical hepatitis E not only occur in these countries but also occur uncommonly in patients with no known epidemiological exposure to HEV in industrialized countries. The source of infection in industrialized countries is unknown but it has been suggested that animals might serve as a reservoir for HEV in both settings. We recently identified and characterized an HEV strain (swine HEV) that infects large numbers of pigs in the United States. To assess the potential of pigs to serve as a global reservoir of HEV, we measured the prevalence of HEV antibodies in pigs in two countries where hepatitis E is endemic and two countries where it is not. Swine herds in all four countries contained many pigs that were seropositive for IgG anti-HEV, although the percentage of seropositive pigs varied greatly from herd to herd. A very limited number of pig handlers in the two endemic countries were also tested and most of them were found to be seropositive for HEV. The results from this study suggest that hepatitis E is enzootic in pigs regardless of whether HEV is endemic in the respective human population. J. Med. Virol. 59:297-302, 1999. Published 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc. | <urn:uuid:33ee396b-a2ce-40af-8f57-816a8ab86808> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10502259/?dopt=Abstract | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107869785.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20201020021700-20201020051700-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.96767 | 284 | 3 | 3 |
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A configuration management database (CMDB) is a type of database that consists of information related to all information system components in an organization and the relationship between them.
It was initially conceived and used in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework to identify and track the information system components in an IT infrastructure/environment.
A CMDB contains the configuration items (CI) or information system components within an enterprise IT infrastructure. It helps identify the different components of an information system and their configuration and stores this data in the form of metadata.
The CI stored by a CMDB can be any IT component from hardware, software, network and/or IS policies and documentations. Typically, a CMDB automatically detects all components/CIs within an IT infrastructure/environment and keeps track of changes as they occur. CMDB provides data about these components in an organized way, making it easier for an organization to review and evaluate the data. | <urn:uuid:aa11857f-8432-4da5-9cf8-3f91db835148> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4438/configuration-management-database-cmdb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578530527.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421100217-20190421122217-00508.warc.gz | en | 0.893768 | 221 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Diagnostics and Pathology Reports Quiz
Which of these patients is probably in stage IIIC?
A. A tumor of any size that has spread to lymph nodes behind the breastbone and under the arm.
B. A tumor that has grown into the skin of the breast, which might cause swelling and lumps in the skin
C. A tumor 5 cm or less that has spread to 3 lymph nodes
D. A tumor 2 cm or less that has spread to underarm lymph nodes
If a cell undergoes mitosis repeatedly, but does not undergo cytokinesis, predict what the cells would look like:
A. Many individual cells each with their own nucleus.
B. One large cell with many nuclei.
C. Two large cells with many nuclei in each cell.
D. Many individual cells, each lacking a nucleus.
Taking samples from the body for clues that might indicate certain diseases.
Which tumor grade indicates that cells are the most aggressive, and appear very different compared to healthy cells?
A. Grade 1
B. Grade 2
C. Grade 3
D. Grade 4
The goal of a pathologist is to (pick the BEST answer)
A. diagnose diseases
B. recommend the best treatment
C. determine cancer stage
D. interact with patients
Using sound waves to create images of areas within the body.
C. CAT scan
If patient’s HER2/neu test results are 3+, then…
A. They will probably respond well to hormone treatments
B. They will probably respond well to biological therapy using antibodies
A patient’s tumor is between 2-5 cm and has spread to underarm lymph nodes. Which stage is the patient in?
A. Stage 0
B. Stage I
C. Stage IIB
D. Stage IIIA
Which cancer would probably respond best to hormone therapies that block interactions between hormones and receptors?
A. ER 1+
B. PR 3+
C. ER 0
D. HER2/neu 3+
What is true about stage I breast cancers?
A. There is a single tumor that is less than 2 cm
B. There is a single tumor that is between 2-5 cm
C. Cancer has spread to at least 3 underarm lymph nodes
D. Cancer has spread to distant organs like the lungs
What is the removal of a breast tumor and surrounding tissue to help treat breast cancer?
C. radiation therapy
As this number increases, the cancer appears more serious to a pathologist
A. Number of nodes examined
B. Number of positive nodes
Which of these would you NOT find in the description part of a pathology report?
A. tumor (histological) grade
B. stage of cancer
C. number of positive lymph nodes
D. past procedures
Which is NOT an early sign of breast cancer?
A. Lumps in the breast
B. Change of shape or size of the breast
C. Feelings of repeated nausea
D. Skin changes on or around the breast
What can tumor grade (histological grade) tell you about a patient’s cancer?
A. How widespread cancer is in the body
B. The size of the tumor
C. How different tumors cells are compared to healthy cells
D. The medical history of the patient
Medical Quiz should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. All content on this website is for informational and educational purposes only. | <urn:uuid:cf06742a-ccee-4197-ae2b-8c8c74e2c4e3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://medicalquiz.net/diagnosticsandpathologyreports-quiz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.926521 | 806 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The decision comes days before a UNESCO meeting which is proposing that Venice be added to the list of endangered heritage sites.
Large cruise ships are to be banned from the historic centre of Venice from August 2021, according to the Italian government.
The decision comes days before a UNESCO meeting which is proposing that Venice be added to the list of endangered heritage sites. The city was originally put on the heritage list in 1987 and hailed as an "extraordinary architectural masterpiece".
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is determined not to risk causing irreparable damage to the lagoon city.
“The decree adopted today represents an important step for the protection of the Venetian lagoon system," said Draghi in a statement.
From August onwards, ships will be diverted to the city's industrial port of Marghera, rather than passing through the protected area.
It's a historic win for activists who have been calling for cruise ships to be banned from sailing past the iconic St Mark's Square and down the central Giudecca Canal for a number of years.
In our changing climate, sea levels are rising so a city such as Venice, which is also sinking, is particularly susceptible to such changes.
The enormous vessels pose environmental and safety risks to the canal and the sinking city. Some weigh over 81,000 tonnes and carry hundreds of thousands of passengers to and from Venice on a yearly basis.
The ban is a “necessary step to protect the environmental, landscape, artistic and cultural integrity of Venice,” said Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini.
Giovannini also announced that there would be compensation for those who lost out from the change in law and that 157 million euros would be invested in the Marghera port. | <urn:uuid:ce549624-7118-4f36-a7f2-3438a486203b> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/07/14/italy-to-ban-cruise-ships-from-venice-to-prevent-the-city-from-sinking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100568.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20231205204654-20231205234654-00731.warc.gz | en | 0.949859 | 354 | 2.578125 | 3 |
We have learned emphatically in the past 25 years that morphology is not the best guide for phylogeny. Yet we currently have no options when it comes to long dead forms from the Mesozoic. In the least, we can comfort ourselves that at least broad lines of phylogeny can be still reliably established using morphology though highly derived forms will continue to defeat us. Thus, we can be fairly sure of the broad lines of archosaur phylogeny. The archosaurs are divided into two great lines, the Pan-Crocodylia, represented today by the crocodiles and the Pan-Aves represented, today by the birds. Pan-Aves appears first in the fossil record in the form footprints from the Early Triassic of Poland, a primitive quadrupedal form from around 249 Mya and a fully bipedal form from around 246 Mya. Both these sets of footprints have been attributed to dinosauromorpha suggesting within 3-6 million years of the catastrophic Permian-Triassic transition the Pan-Aves had already split into their two great clades, Pterosauromorpha represented by Scleromochlus and the pterosaurs on one side and Dinosauromorpha on the other. The Dinosauromorpha rapidly radiated first spawning the basal lineages like the Lagerptonids (Lagerpeton and Dromomeron) and a succession of clades closer to the crown dinosaurs, like Marasuchus, Saltopus and the widely distributed sillesaurids. While what appear to be the basal-most sillesaurids, like Lewisuchus are carnivorous, the crown sillesaurids are clearly herbivorous. The dinosaurs themselves can be divided unequivocally into two major lineages, the ornithischians and the saurischians. The saurischians in turn can be unambiguously divided into theropods and sauropodomorphs.
In this broad phylogenetic framework, which is likely to be correct, we can confidently state that the ancestral dinosauromorph was a carnivorous animal similar to the ancestral archosauriform that spawned the great radiation of archosauriformes almost immediately after the catastrophic Permian-Triassic extinction event. However, in the dinosauromorph lineage there were several independent acquisitions of the herbivory. As noted above the sillesaurids probably mark the the first such transition known to us and had already taken place before 242 Mya as indicated by Asilisaurus from the Manda beds of Tanzania. With the origin of dinosaurs there were more such transitions. Whereas the earliest sauropodomorphs like Eoraptor and Pangphagia were probably omnivores in the least, the complete transition to herbivory happened rapidly within sauropodmorpha. In the case of the ornithischians, we do not know of mode of nutrition of the basal-most form Pisanosaurus, but the heterodontosaurids had already transitioned at least partially to herbivory.
For long, the understanding had been that the transition to herbivory in theropods happened only within ornithomimosaurs, birds and perhaps oviraptorosaurs. There was one more enigmatic clade of theropods, the therizinosaurs, that looked like possible herbivores – they were so aberrant that early workers saw them as a distinct clade of dinosaurs or even a transitional group between basal sauropods and ornithischians in a clade termed phytodinosauria or a monophyletic group of herbivorous dinosaurs. However, more recent studies have firmly placed them inside coelurosauria, along with the other herbivore-containing clades like birds, ornithomimosaurs, and oviraptorosaurs. A recent analysis by Zanno and Makovicky confirmed the pervasive herbivory in these clades and also suggested that the troodontid Jinfengopteryx might be a herbivore. Based on their results, they suggested that the crown-ward coelurosaurians, after the separation of the tyrannosaurs and compsognathids were predominantly herbivorous with hyper-carnivory only secondarily evolving in the deinonychosaurs. While, the secondary evolution of hyper-carnivory of the deinonychosaurs may be questioned, it is clear that the crown-ward coelurosauria had a propensity for repeatedly evolving herbivory.
In contrast, the more basal theropods were, to date, considered to be largely hyper-carnivorous with very rare emergence of herbivory as seen in the case of the ceratosaur Limusaurus (and likely the related Elaphrosaurus). But a new twist to the story has emerged with the publication of a preliminary description of Chilesaurus from the Upper Jurassic Toqui Formation, Chile, of the Tithonian age. It occurs in a late Jurassic fauna along side basal crocodiles and sauropods of the diplodocid and titanosaurian clades as indicated by fragmentary remains. This is one of the most remarkable dinosaurs I have ever come across and displays a striking chimera of features described by Novas et al:
● A short deep premaxilla with a rugosity indicative of a covering by a keratinous beak over the upper jaw is vaguely reminiscent of an ornithischian rather than a theropod.
● A short deep dentary, with a down-turned symphyseal region, which is typical of herbivorous saurischians.
● The teeth are rod-like and blunt, typical of herbivores, and reminiscent of sauropodomorph teeth.
● The limb bones are stout, as in sauropodomorphs.
● The hands are like theropods with digits I and II being fully functional with terminal unguals. However, digit III is degenerate with only a slender metatarsal and a single minute phalanx. Thus, Chilesaurus appears to have been convergently two-fingered like Tyrannosaurus and its close relatives.
● The pubis is fully retroverted like in ornithischians, therizinosaurs and dromeosaurs.
● The trunk is long and reminiscent in a general way of the ceratosaurs Elaphrosaurus or Limusaurus.
● The tarsus resembles basal saurischians.
● The foot approaches the tetradactyl condition of early sauropodomorphs, ornithischians and derived therizinosaurs.
● The cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae have pneumatic fossae suggesting that these vertebra were associated with diverticula of the cervical airsacs and the lungs, suggesting an airsac layout typical of saurischians.
Novas et al performed several phylogenetic analysis with different data matrices and all of them indicated that this bizarre dinosaur was nested inside Theropoda; their preferred position is that of Chilesaurus as a basal tetanuran. This suggests that right at the base of a clade considered to be primitively hyper-carnivorous we have a herbivorous form. The unusual morphology of Chilesaurus raises the question if this phylogenetic position might be right. Indeed, if it were not for an articulated skeleton the individual elements would have looked like coming from distantly related dinosaurs. The recovery of Chilesaurus inside Theropoda with different datasets generally suggests that the theropod position is likely, though within Neotheropoda there could still be room for some doubt. Interestingly, it appears to be convergent with respect to the therizinosaurs and a genuine close relationship to them appears to be very unlikely. Importantly, it brings back focus on the fragmentary Chinese form, Eshanosaurus, which the authors do not address. Eshanosaurus was reported to be an early Jurassic therizinosaur. While this affinity has been questioned, even the conservative and regressive English paleontologist, Barrett, who performed a very thorough analysis of Eshanosaurus, concluded that it might be a therizinosaur after all. Now with the discovery of forms like Chilesaurus with features generally reminiscent of therizinosaurs we know with certainty that there was an early clade of potential basal tetanurans that possessed therizinosaur-like features. Could Eshanosaurus be a member of this clade or yet another theropod converging on to such an anatomy? It does look rather plausible.
In ecological terms, Chilesaurus comes from a time when dinosaur faunas are considered to be rather uniform throughout the world, with the small to medium sized herbivore guilds dominated by ornithischians. However, in the South American Toqui Formation we see Chilesaurus to be the dominant herbivore in the lower size range as indicated by its relative abundance in the fossil record from this stratum. Thus, it brings home how little we really know of dinosaur evolution and biogeography. Importantly, it shows how much more frequent the switch to herbivory was in dinosauromorpha, including basal theropods. | <urn:uuid:41cbf2dd-f63c-41f3-9460-3bca76793914> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/chilesaurus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323730.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628185804-20170628205804-00220.warc.gz | en | 0.937311 | 1,897 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Q From Elma Brooks: What is the source of the whole kit and kaboodle?
A Caboodle has a complicated history. It’s been spelt down the years in many different ways, and these days is usually listed in dictionaries with an initial “c”. It means a collection of objects, sometimes of people. It commonly turns up in the whole caboodle, meaning “the whole lot”. It’s recorded in the US from the middle of the nineteenth century. It’s probable that the word was originally boodle, with the phrase being the whole kit and boodle, but that the initial sound “k” was added to boodle for euphony.
There are examples of similar phrases around the beginning of the nineteenth century, such as whole kit and boiling (or whole kit and bilin’) and whole kit and cargo, with the original very likely to have just been the whole kit — it’s recorded in this form in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785. It was also current in the US as the whole boodle from the 1830s. It seems that the whole kit and caboodle eventually won the linguistic battle for survival in the US because of that repeated “k” sound, though Dialect Notes in 1908 said that these other versions were still known from various parts of the country. Sinclair Lewis used one of them in Main Street in 1920: “The whole kit and bilin’ of ’em are nothing in God’s world but socialism in disguise”.
Boodle is familiar as the relatively modern US word for money illegally obtained, particularly linked to bribery and corruption. This is usually suggested as coming from the Dutch boedel, “inheritance, household effects; possessions”. But it’s uncertain whether it’s the same word as the one in the whole kit and boodle. Some writers suggest the latter comes from the English buddle, meaning a bundle or bunch (closely connected with bindle, as in the North American bindlestiff for a tramp). As kit here means one’s equipment, to put the two together in the sense of everything that one has, equipment and personal possessions, seems reasonable.
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Of course, statins inhibit the production of cholesterol–they do this very well. Nowhere is the failure of our medical system more evident than in the wholesale acceptance of cholesterol reduction as a way to prevent disease–have all these doctors forgotten what they learned in Biochemistry 101 about the many roles of cholesterol in the human biochemistry? Every cell membrane in our body contains cholesterol because cholesterol is what makes our cells waterproof–without cholesterol we could not have a different biochemistry on the inside and the outside of the cell. When cholesterol levels are not adequate, the cell membrane becomes leaky or porous, a situation the body interprets as an emergency, releasing a flood of corticoid hormones that work by sequestering cholesterol from one part of the body and transporting it to areas where it is lacking. Cholesterol is the body’s repair substance: scar tissue contains high levels of cholesterol, including scar tissue in the arteries.
Cholesterol is the precursor to vitamin D, necessary for numerous biochemical processes including mineral metabolism. The bile salts, required for the digestion of fat, are made of cholesterol. Those who suffer from low cholesterol often have trouble digesting fats. Cholesterol may also protect us against cancer as low cholesterol levels are associated with increased rates of cancer.
Cholesterol is vital to proper neurological function. It plays a key role in the formation of memory and the uptake of hormones in the brain, including serotonin, the body’s feel-good chemical. When cholesterol levels drop too low, the serotonin receptors cannot work. Cholesterol is a major component of the brain, much of it in the myelin sheaths that insulate nerve cells and in the synapses that transmit nerve impulses.
Some researchers believe that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant.2 This is the likely explanation for the fact that cholesterol levels tend to go up with age. As an antioxidant, cholesterol protects us against free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer.
Finally, cholesterol is the precursor to all the hormones produced in the adrenal cortex including glucocorticoids, which regulate blood sugar levels, and mineralocorticoids, which regulate mineral balance. Corticoids are the cholesterol-based adrenal hormones that the body uses in response to stress of various types; they promote healing and balance the tendency to inflammation. The adrenal cortex also produces sex hormones, including testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, out of cholesterol. Thus, low cholesterol–whether due to an innate error of metabolism or induced by cholesterol-lowering diets and drugs–can be expected to disrupt the production of adrenal hormones and lead to blood sugar problems, edema, mineral deficiencies, chronic inflammation, difficulty in healing, allergies, asthma, reduced libido, infertility and various reproductive problems.
Enter the Statins
Statin drugs entered the market with great promise. They replaced a class of pharmaceuticals that lowered cholesterol by preventing its absorption from the gut. These early drugs often had immediate and unpleasant side effects, including nausea, indigestion and constipation, and in the typical patient they lowered cholesterol levels only slightly. Patient compliance was low: the benefit did not seem worth the side effects and the potential for use was very limited. By contrast, statin drugs had no immediate side effects: they did not cause nausea or indigestion and they were consistently effective, often lowering cholesterol levels by 50 points or more. | <urn:uuid:328dc778-a558-400d-a1ad-78da27f960c4> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://managehealthnaturally.com/info/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257648207.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20180323102828-20180323122828-00660.warc.gz | en | 0.940664 | 689 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Fundations Sheet (” marking up the words” means underline the digraphs th, wh, sh, ch, ck)
Math pages 121-122
Math pages 123-126 Chapter 2 test
Wednesday 10/20 – Math test today
Math test today, no homework pages
Rosary Rally today! Please bring rosary beads to school in a zip lock bag labeled with your child’s name.
Math pages 135-136
Friday 10/22 – Half day: dismissal at noon (please still pack a snack). Say a prayer for the 8th graders who will be confirmed today!
In ELA: Wit & Wisdom curriculum this week. We continue in Module 1. Our focusing text will be: That Book Woman parenttipmodule1 We are focusing also on identifying story parts: characters, setting, problem, and resolution. Our grammar focus is on identifying adjectives, and noting the difference between declarative sentences and questions. We also continue to explore what a complete sentence looks and sounds like. Writing will focus on story parts as well.
We have begun using our Geodes. These are stories written specifically to enhance reading at the first grade level. I will be sending the first set of stories home soon in a zip lock bag. Have your child practice reading the stories to you and add to your reading log. Even advanced readers should use these stories to practice fluent reading skills such as: reading with expression, good pausing and pacing.
In Fundations, we will begin Unit 3. The focus in Unit 3 is on consonant digraphs (th, wh, sh, ch, ck ) and buddy letters qu. Identifying sound patterns will be critical to fluent reading. Please use the home packet and hw sheets to practice reading words with these sounds.
In Math, we will complete Chapter 2 on Monday. Tuesday we will do our practice test in class. Please use the practice test as a study guide. We will have our Math test this Wednesday. Chapter 3 will begin this Thursday. The focus of Chapter 3 is on Addition Strategies ( using doubles facts to help add; knowing we can add in any order; doubles plus 1 and minus 1, and friends of ten (3+7, 6+4, 5+5, 8+2, etc. ) ).
In Religion, we will continue Unit 1, our essential question will be: What do we believe? We will begin lesson 5 this week. Instead of a test of lessons 4-5, we will complete all of Unit 1 and have a Unit test next week. Use the Unit 1 study guide to review. We will also be completing a Religion project focusing on All Saints Day in the near future =) You can begin to think of a saint to research now.
In Social Studies, we will use a variety of resources but one main resource will be Scholastic News. This month the focus will be on our classroom learning community. You have access to scholastic at home as well. Go to https://sn1.scholastic.com/ Our classroom password is: fastred9475
We have explored what it is to be a class and school community. Look for a simple study guide on the topic of communities, as we will have a social studies test on that topic soon.
In Science, we will explore our bones! We will also compare our bones to those of a bat. We will then focus our studies on bats.
St. Francs de Sales, pray for us! | <urn:uuid:5b5f4b6a-0894-4c07-afa2-b1834d9d34fb> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://stfrancisacademybh.org/first-grade-b-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585522.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20211022212051-20211023002051-00244.warc.gz | en | 0.904892 | 724 | 3.34375 | 3 |
A very powerful test for testing the significance of the discrepancy between theory and experiment was given by Prof. Karl Pearson in 1900 and is known as “Chi-Square test of goodness of fit”. It enables us to find if the deviation of the experiment from theory is just by chance or is it really due to the inadequacy of the theory to fit the observed data.
If Oi, (i= 1, 2,…, n) is a set of observed frequencies and Ei, (i= 1, 2,…, n) is the corresponding set of expected frequencies, then Karl Pearson’s chi-square, given by
Follows chi-square distribution with (n-1) degrees of freedom.
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Write My Essay Services | <urn:uuid:3484c616-64f4-48ce-bca4-7db2efef7c74> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.assignmenthelp.net/assignment_help/chi-square-test-of-goodness-of-fit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540529955.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20191211045724-20191211073724-00441.warc.gz | en | 0.838782 | 308 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You can now follow me on Twitter at @geologywriter.
Stone or Rock? Is there a difference? Working on Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology forced me to consider this question and its implications. Throughout the book, I use the terms interchangeably, based mostly on how they sound or how frequently I used one or the other.
When I did a bit of searching on the web, I found that some people thought that stone was more British; that rock could be hard and soft, whereas stone was always hard; that stones are smooth and rocks rough; and that stones are small and rocks are big. In his wonderful book, Stone by Stone, Robert Thorson writes “Rock is raw material in situ. Stone usually connotes either human handling or human use, although it can also be used to describe naturally produced fragments of rock larger than a cobble.”
Curiously, the word stonerock, defined as “A pointed or projecting rock, a peak, a crag; a detached mass of rock, a boulder or large stone,” predates either of the singular words stone or rock. Stonerock, or stanrocces, as it was spelled, dates from the Early Old English, used from 600 to 950. I am not sure that this clarifies my quest but as is the norm for the OED, I got sucked into the many definitions and uses, which run to three pages for rock, including rock nosing, rockchuck, and rock-embosomed; and four and a half for stone, with such nifty combinations as stone harmonicon, stone-pock, and stone-toter.
Perhaps I could find a bit of clarity from on high. In the King James Bible, stone and rock seemed interchangeable, such as in Genesis 31:46, where we read of Jacob telling his brethren to “Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap.” (Now why they didn’t just say cairn here is beyond me!) But there are two situations where stone and rock cannot be substituted for one another. The first is the surprisingly common pastime (at least a dozen times) where somebody must “stone them/him/her with stones.” You can “stone them with rocks” but no matter how tin your ear is you cannot “rock them with rocks,” which allows for the introduction of this silly phrase: you can, at least since the 1960s, “rock them with The Stones.”
More common than death by stone is the affirmation of a Holy Being as the “rock of one’s salvation.” This sense highlights a central difference between the words. People often use rock to refer to something solid, large, grounded, substantial, something to base your faith upon, such as a mountain or palisade. No one would say the “stone of one’s salvation.” Stone, while connoting a hard mineral substance, favors smaller objects, such as something you can pick up in your hands, for example, the stones for the heap gathered by Jacob’s pals.
Seeking out an even higher authority I turned to Shakespeare. He also incorporated stone and rock into his writings, more than 115 times and 50 times, respectively (which includes the plural forms.) One of his most famous uses comes from As You Like It, in the banished Duke’s ode to a new forested life “And this our life exempt from public haunt/Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,/Sermons in stones and good in every thing.” Clearly the Bard chose stone for the alliteration and sound, as he did in Titus Andronicus, where the title character states “A stone is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than stones; A stone is silent, and offendeth not.” (One of my favorite poets, Robinson Jeffers, refers to the “insolent quietness of stone.”)
Shakespeare’s use of rock was often specific to the sea, as something to fear. “Rocks threaten us with wreck.” “And then there is the peril of waters, winds and rocks.” “Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks.” No one, especially one with Shakespeare’s gifts, would substitute stone in these situations. Again, his use of rock reflects the idea that rock refers to massive, immovable matter, though this idea does not limit rock to this definition.
I cannot end my consideration of these two terms without turning to one final source of inspiration, that of big time wrestling, or “rassling,” as one former National Park superintendent called it. I refer to the two icons of that theater, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Surely these two men illustrate the differences between the two words.
Ultimately, I have concluded that there is some difference between the terms. I agree with Thorson that stone more often implies some sort of human use. Stone also does seem restricted to smaller material. But rock can also be used in these situations. In this sense all rocks are stones but not all stones are rocks. Clear as mud.
If you feel inclined to support a rock geek (and who wouldn’t be after reading such a lovely little post!), here’s a way to donate a buck or two or three to my “training to kick The Rock’s butt” fund. (Via Square) Thanks kindly for your support. | <urn:uuid:e48b51eb-46a7-4f04-8c65-0a6eca8ed72c> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://geologywriter.com/tag/shakespeare/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195967.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129004335-20201129034335-00646.warc.gz | en | 0.966685 | 1,168 | 3.15625 | 3 |
I would like to create a column with letters from alphabet in a sequence.
If I write A and in cell below I put B then highlight the two cells and drag down I get a repetition of A and B.
How do I get the following alphabet letters ie. C,D, E etc.?
If you type the first letter into first cell (say A1), then below:
note once you get beyond Z you will get odd results, do you plan to go beyond Z and if so what should succeed Z ... if it is AA you can revert to an ADDRESS approach.
Say first letter was always A and was to start in A1:
27th entry would become AA, 28th AB etc... | <urn:uuid:36e02954-9a4e-40cf-83a2-7c7895049842> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://hidden-features-of-software.blogspot.in/2012/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824104.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020120608-20171020140608-00821.warc.gz | en | 0.912096 | 150 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Mouth Ulcers : Treatment
The goal of treatment is to relieve the symptoms. The cause, if known, should be treated.
Gentle, thorough oral hygiene may relieve some of the symptoms. Topical (rubbed on) antihistamines, antacids, corticosteroids, or other soothing preparations may be recommended for applying directly to the ulcer.
Avoid hot or spicy foods, which often increase the pain of mouth ulcers.
- Cellulitis of the mouth, from secondary bacterial infection of ulcers
- Dental infections (tooth abscesses)
- Oral cancer
- Spread of contagious disorders to other people
Good oral hygiene may help prevent some types of mouth ulcers, as well as some complications from mouth ulcers. Good oral hygiene includes brushing the teeth at least twice per day, flossing at least daily, and getting regular professional dental cleanings and examinations. | <urn:uuid:06916788-efd6-4f8b-b75a-fe06f0c268ee> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://jollyga.com/mouth-ulcers-treatment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721355.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00423-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928326 | 188 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Fun fact: Did you know that your heart starts beating only 22 days after you were conceived and continues to do so until the day you die? well, here is how you target your heart rate to burn calories.
If your heart were to stop beating, you would technically be dead, even if you were later revived.
Your heart rate is the rate at which your heart beats, it is usually measured in beats per minute(BPM). Your heart rate simply gives an idea of how many times your heart beats in a single minute. For instance, the average person has a heart rate of between 60 to a hundred BPM while at rest. This means that the average person’s heart beats between 60 to 100 times every minute while they aren’t carrying out any physical tasks. That is: if you were lounging on your couch, watching tv, your heart rate would be between 60 to 100BPM.
If you are physically exerting yourself, your body tries to turn the glucose in your blood into energy. Hence, if you continue exerting yourself, your heart will try to compensate for the required energy by pumping oxygenated blood at a faster rate in order to supply more oxygen. More oxygen supply means more oxygen to breakdown glycogen and fat in order to fuel your muscles.
How your heart rate relates to fat loss
Primarily the source of fuel for your muscles is glucose. However, the secondary source can be found in your fat cells. Glycogen is used to store carbohydrates and fat in the body. In the event that your body runs out of glucose, your body breaks down glycogen to form glucose in order to fuel your muscles.
In order to break down glycogen, oxygen is required. This means that the oxygen in your blood will be used to break down your fat stores or glycogen.
As you work out, your glucose levels begin to deplete. When you continue exerting yourself during an exercise, your body will eventually run out of glucose and begin to break down your fat stores. When this happens your heart begins to pump blood faster in an attempt to supply the required oxygen to break down your fat stores.
The knowledge of your heart rate and how it influences fat burning can be used to target your heart rate to optimize fat burning.
According to the explanation above, you might think that you only need to work out harder to burn more fat. This is not strictly true. Optimal fat-burning occurs at lower-intensity than we think. This is especially good news for people that may not be able to work out so much.
Even better news: finding your optimal fat-burning zone is not as hard as you think.
Finding your heart rate
before you are able to target heart rate to burn calories, you first need to find your heart rate. These days, technology has advanced to the level that it has become so easy to find your heart rate even while you are working out. The use of wearable gadgets and smartphones have made it easy to keep track of your heart rate in real-time. Some people might prefer to use a chest strap, however, it has been discovered that the accuracy is similar to any wearable gadget.
If you monitor your heart rate as you work out, you will notice a correlation between the difficulty of the workout and your heart rate.
It is important to note that environmental conditions such as temperature also affect your heart rate. Hence, working out in a hot environment produces a higher heart rate than in a cold environment.
In addition to environmental factors, recovery also plays an important role in how are or how low your heart rate is going to be doing your workouts. If you have not fully recovered, your heart rate is likely to be higher.
check out these 10 weight loss exercises
Finding your fat-burning zone (preplans for targetting your heart rate to burn calories).
Since individuals are unique and different in their own way, the fat-burning zone for every individual differs based on individual uniqueness. Asides targetting your heart rate to burn calories, you need to find your fat-burning zone.
Your fat-burning zone is the zone at which your body burns the most fat. If your heart rate is below or above the zone, your body will still continue to burn fat, but not at the most efficient rate.
Luckily there is a technique for tailoring your fat burning zone to you. You can estimate your maximum heart rate by subtracting the products of your age and 0.66 from 220. Expressed mathematically as follows;
Maximum heart rate = 220 – age * 0.66
For instance, if you are 30 years of age, simply multiply the number 30 by 0.66. subtract the results from 220. Your maximum heart rate can be estimated at 200.
Calculating the maximum heart rate using this method does not require any technology. However, it is accurate.
Once you have estimated your maximum heart rate, you can then divide your heart rate into zones. These zones will provide you with a general idea of how much hard work you need to put in during your workout session.
For moderate intensity, your fat-burning zone is estimated to be between 64 to 76% of your maximum heart rate.
This zone is suitable for endurance athletes who may not wish to push themselves further. Weight lifting workouts can remain in this range as well.
For instance, a 30-year-old person has a maximum heart rate of 200. This means that the fat burning zone will range between 128 to 152 beats per minute.
If your intention is to burn as many calories as possible, vigorous-intensity workouts are the best option. With vigorous-intensity workouts, your heart rate should range between 77 to 93% of your maximum heart rate.
This means that if you are 30 years old, vigorous-intensity workouts should have your heart rate between 154 to 186 beats per minute.
Some gadgets may provide you with their own heart rate zones, however, the information in this article was gotten from recommendations made by the center for disease control and prevention (CDC).
Heart rate reserve (targetting heart rate to burn calories).
The heart rate reserve is an accurate way of determining the intensity of exercises. This method was developed by Martti Karvonen, a Finnish scientist.
You can calculate your heart rate reserve by subtracting your resting heart rate from your maximum heart rate.
When you lie down and relax for a few minutes with a smartwatch or fitness tracker on, you should be able to determine your resting heart rate. If you do not have access to any gadgets, you only need to put your fingers on the side of your neck or your wrist to feel your pulse.
Once you feel you are relaxed enough, then check your heart rate on your gadget or do the manual method.
The manual method involves placing your index and middle finger on the side of your neck until you can feel your pulse. You can also feel your pulse on your wrist by placing your thumb or index and a middle finger firmly between the hard muscular tissue of the wrist and the adjoining bone that ends at the bottom of your thumb.
Once you have detected your pulse, begin counting how many times you can feel your pulse in 15 seconds. Whatever your pulse count in 15 seconds multiplies it by 4. That is your estimated heart rate.
You can also do this while active to determine your heart rate at any given time.
You can track your heart rate over a few minutes for a more accurate average.
So, if you are 30 years old, and you have a resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute. Your heart rate reserve is 200 minus 60. That means that 140 BPM is your heart rate reserve.
Once you have found your heart rate reserve, you can then map out your exercise intensities.
To map out your exercise intensities, multiply your heart rate by the following values for each intensity:
- 90% or above for maximum intensity.
- 60 to 89% for vigorous activity.
- 40 to15 9% for moderate activity.
- 30 to 39% four-light activity.
- 30% or less for very light activity.
Using the example above for a 30-year-old with a heart rate reserve of 140, we can get the heart rate for vigorous activity by multiplying the heart rate reserve of 140 by 0.6 and 0.89. which should give us 84 and 124 respectively. This means that the heart rate range for a vigorous activity for this person would be between 84 and 124 beats per minute.
Using the same calculation moderate-intensity activity will have your heart rate ranging from 56 to 83 beats per minute.
However, your target heart rate requires one more step.
You need to add your resting heart rate so you’re moderate activity heart rate.
This means that you will add 60 to 56 and then add 60 to 83. This should put your target heart rate range between 116 and 143.
So, when you keep your workout intensity between 116 and 143 beats per minute, you will burn fat at the optimal level.
The calculation may seem complicated, but if you take it step-by-step and substitute the figures as it applies to you, you should be able to easily get your accurate target heart rate range.
You can then use this range to adjust your workouts. It is much easier if you wear the heart rate monitoring gadget. However, if you do not have it, you can still estimate it as explained above.
If your workout is focused on endurance, you should stay in a moderate intensity.
If your workout is at intervals, begin by reaching vigorous-intensity heart rate range and then slowing down to a moderate or light range as you rest.
Choosing the right workout for your goals (heart rate to burn calories)
Now that you have a good idea of your heart rate and workout intensity heart rates, you can then proceed to choose the workout that will more efficiently cater to your goals.
Avid runners will need to run faster to reach their fat burning zone competitive someone that just took up running. We have put together a guide for every fitness level below;
Most of our daily activities keep our heart rates low, and as a result, we have very few fat-burning opportunities in our day-to-day lives. However, we can maximize these few activities by doing the following;
- Take the stairs rather than the elevator.
- Take a bicycle to lunch or walk instead of driving.
- When exercising your dog, take a long walk rather than playing fetch.
- When you reach a parking lot, park at the back and then walk the distance to the entrance.
Generally, if you run at a slow pace for longer and cover more distance, you can stay in the fat-burning zone all through your workout. You need to keep the following in mind;
- If you want to increase your weekly total mileage, do not exceed 10%. This will reduce the risk of an overuse injury.
- Try to complete a long, slow, long-distance run between three to five times a week.
- Start by doing a brisk walk especially if you are a beginner. As your fitness level increases you will eventually be able to level up from a walk to a steady jog without having to come out of the fat-burning zone.
- Ensure that you keep your pace moderate enough to remain in your target heart rate zone.
Regardless of where you work out, either in the gym, at home or in a park, try this routine for maximum fat burning results;
- Do three sets of cardio exercises for an equal amount of time(for instance 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 10 minutes on the treadmill, and 10 minutes on the elliptical)
- Workout for between 3 to 5 times every week, you can switch out different types of cardio exercises.
The fat-burning zone is excellent for helping you to get rid of fat at a much faster rate. However, you still need to work out with more discipline and optimal consistency in order to see reasonable results. There you have it; that’s how you target your heart rate to burn calories and get into that fat-burning zone.
Note: If you have a heart condition or underlying cardiovascular issues, consult your doctor before trying this method. | <urn:uuid:34c8271d-8421-4840-9cfe-ad510436a40c> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://odesya.com/target-your-heart-rate-to-burn-calories/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038066981.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20210416130611-20210416160611-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.936893 | 2,527 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Children enter our preschool classrooms excited to play and explore the things that make them curious. We can foster that curiosity and create a love of learning by making children feel capable or we can destroy it. The way in which we approach extending their knowledge lays the foundation for all future learning experiences. When selecting a preschool or working with your preschooler at home, parents need to consciously examine the effects of methodology on self-esteem.
A foundation for a love of learning is created by making children feel that their curiosity has merit and that they are capable. Education theorists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky showed us that children develop at their own rates and that development has to derive from play and other joyful experiences. Erik Erikson, who studied the psychosocial development of humans, showed that young children’s experiences can make them feel trusting, autonomous and capable of taking initiative or can make them feel full of mistrust, shame and doubt. As parents, we want our children to be self-assured; yet, we often put them in situations that undermine their self-worth.
What happens when we sit young children in front of endless worksheets and constantly point out their errors and inadequacies? What happens when their artwork must look like evidence of learning so we tell them that they are wrong to glue something in a certain place or that the sky cannot be green? What happens when instructors or coaches are exasperated at them because they did not hit the ball, kick it well or perfect the dance?
We have plenty of time in our lives to be wrong. It is not true that young children learn to handle criticism well by being wrong. They learn that they are not capable. The process of shutting down begins. They become reluctant and fearful of trying new things. They stop thinking and start trying to avoid being wrong. They do things just to get them done so they can do something more pleasurable. The goal in the early childhood years should be to make learning the pleasurable activity and not the thing that must get done so we can move on. Young children who enter the elementary school years feeling capable are able to handle correction without a feeling of defeat and are confident enough to try again.
Many people argue that you can’t just let the children be wrong. We must correct them. Again, it is all in the methodology. First, we must acknowledge that worksheets, workbooks and endless pieces of paper do not capture curiosity. Should we offer young learners the opportunity to write? Of course. When we do, we have to accept that their fine motor and cognitive skills develop at different rates. Let them write only for as long as they want to write and know that they are too young to master the skill. We can take turns writing with them so they watch and attempt to imitate. We can smile at them and say, “Do you want to see an easy way to do that?” We should not force them to sit when they do not want to and tell them that they have done it wrong. They will not scribble forever. As their fine motor muscles strengthen, their coordination improves and the pathways in their brains are formed, their ability to write and read will improve. In the meantime, applaud their efforts so they keep joyfully trying.
Next, we need to understand that just because a child paints the sky green or scribbles and tells us that the drawing is a car, it doesn’t mean that they won’t go outside and say the sky looks blue or that they won’t be able to find a car in the parking lot. Allowing children to draw, cut and paste freely is actually a window into what they are thinking, not what knowledge they possess. The minute we hand them a pre-cut window and say “Glue it here on the house,” they stop thinking and just start trying to please us. Arts & crafts should never have a right and wrong answer. They should be self-expression. As adults, we understand that art is self-expression. We need to stop trying to use it as some grand lesson about the world for young children. That paper plate full of cotton balls is not a sheep. We know it and they know it. It is merely a paper plate full of cotton balls – an exercise in gluing.
Finally, we need to be careful to match our children up with the right coaches, instructors and purveyors of other lessons. It is okay to pull your child from a team or activity and find another if you see the adults making them feel inadequate. If it is hard for us to watch how children are being treated, then imagine how they feel being the receivers of the treatment. Winning is nice but acknowledgement of the effort is important too. Losing with dignity is something children learn by example. When adults are disgusted, the lesson becomes “you are not able” instead of “you can try again.”
Poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing…” It was true when Wadsworth said it in the 1800s and it is still true of our children today. Consider how we are teaching our young children to judge themselves.
Please do not sell, post, curate, publish, or distribute all or any part of this article without author's permission. You are invited, however, to share a link to this post on your webpage, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social networking sites.
Copyright 2012 © Cindy Terebush
All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:224f2076-9e1e-4038-80ff-93b69e70d12a> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://cindyterebush.blogspot.com/2012/10/should-preschoolers-ever-be-wrong.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223204388.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032004-00437-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974615 | 1,142 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Originally, a painting in colors such as those in mediæval manuscripts; in modern times, any very small painting, especially a portrait.
- A copy or model that represents or reproduces something in a greatly reduced size.
- Something small of its class.
- A small painting executed with great detail, often on a surface such as ivory or vellum.
- A small portrait, picture, or decorative letter on an illuminated manuscript.
- The art of painting miniatures.
- Being on a small or greatly reduced scale. See Synonyms at small.
Malayalam MeaningTransliteration ON/OFF | Not Correct/Proper?
ഹ്രസ്വരൂപം - Hrasvaroopam | Hraswaroopam ;ചെറിയ - Cheriya ;ചെറുചിത്രം - Cheruchithram ;ചെറിയഘടന - Cheriyaghadana ;ലഘുരൂപം - Laghuroopam ;അയിര് - Ayiru ; | <urn:uuid:da13bace-815b-473f-8c29-fe577607b831> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://jenson.in/dicts_mal.php?word=miniature&submit=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170609.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00388-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.715752 | 313 | 2.71875 | 3 |
It’s popular today for people and companies to try to offset their carbon footprint. But there’s a lot of debate about just how to measure that footprint. Now a new program called Carbon Hero may have one solution. The device was invented by a graduate student at the Royal College of Art in London and recently won the 2007 European Satellite Navigation Competition. The idea is to get an accurate read on how much carbon you use as you travel. It’s a hand-held unit, about the size of a key chain. It automatically identifies the form of transportation the carrier is taking by measuring the speed, location, and pattern of the movement. Then the information is automatically downloaded to a cellphone, which immediately displays the carbon generated and the impact of the user’s actions.
Of course, the device doesn't measure other aspects of a carbon footprint, such as the size of your house. And it’s not yet available to consumers. But the inventor hopes to develop the device, and that the immediate feedback will convince people to change their transportation. Maybe to walking. Which leaves a tiny footprint. | <urn:uuid:fb433330-100a-4f2d-b2ef-32d846db2c5d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/753B8587-C02E-0E98-A8CBE564ADDFC575/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141723602.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203062440-20201203092440-00113.warc.gz | en | 0.952179 | 227 | 3.53125 | 4 |
A New York High School Is Using Oysters In Its Curriculum–And To Protect The City’s Coastline #makereducation
Great piece from FastCoExist on a NYC high school that’s developed a curriculum which immerses students in the local ecosystem.
At the Harbor School, literature classes leaned to Life on the Mississippi, math problems ran to boats. Today, it’s forging a unique effort to make ordinary city kids thrive as leaders in and on the urban waterfront. It admits students by lottery, so a young person from landlocked Queens can as easily gain admission as anyone who grew up sailing. In 2010, the school moved its operations to Governors Island (it was founded in 2003), a cupcake-shaped former military base. Now it’s in the midst of rolling out a three-year curriculum that aims to lock in competitive skills through on-water experience.
Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!
Eink, E-paper, Think Ink – Collin shares six segments pondering the unusual low-power display technology that somehow still seems a bit sci-fi – http://adafruit.com/thinkink
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand. | <urn:uuid:da2c533a-2811-44eb-8932-93e1fc82ab14> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/09/06/a-new-york-high-school-is-using-oysters-in-its-curriculum-and-to-protect-the-citys-coastline-makereducation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703517559.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20210119011203-20210119041203-00610.warc.gz | en | 0.921863 | 475 | 2.546875 | 3 |
• serendipity •
se-rên-dip-ê-ti • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass
Meaning: 1. The act of making a fortunate discovery by capricious or quixotic accidence. 2. The discovery of one thing while looking for another.
Notes: Serendipitous is the adjective, and serendipitously, the adverb that accompanies today's noun. A person given to serendipitous discovery is a serendipitist, if you want to push the derivations that far. Serendipity is a word that is a bit ironic and often slightly misused. For a discovery to be serendipitous, you must not be looking for the object of the discovery in any way; in fact, you might even be looking for something else.
In Play: It is not serendipitous that the cookbook you ordered arrives the day of the big dinner to which you invited your boss. This is just good luck. However, if you spoil the sauce for your cutlets and your boss's wife turns out to be a gourmet chef at a French restaurant who would just love to help out, you are then dipping into the serendipity. "What serendipity! I was looking for my car keys and stumbled across a pair of glasses I lost last year."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from a fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip by the 18th-century British author Horace Walpole. The three princes were always making fortuitous discoveries of things they were not looking for. Serendip was the former name of Sri Lanka. (If it wasn't serendipity it was certainly our great good fortune that Vicenzo suggested today's quirky little bit of lexical caprice.)
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources! | <urn:uuid:651248bc-2486-421a-8f6b-42162dc585c2> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/word/serendipity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644064420.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025424-00029-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956194 | 409 | 2.890625 | 3 |
|The purpose of this web site is to provide current scientific and philosophical information to those who believe that a higher power was involved in the creation of the universe, this earth and it's inhabitants, yet who have been taught that Darwinian Evolution is the only "acceptable" scientific answer for human existence.|
Did you know...
- ...that Darwinian Evolution is based on an atheistic, materialistic philosophy that does not allow for any involvement of a higher power and that the proponents of Darwinian Evolution are doing everything in their power to stop, not only the teaching of other scientific explanations, but even criticism of Darwinian Evolution?
- ...that there are many highly qualified scientists in every discipline, including Nobel laureates, microbiologists, astrophysicists, mathematicians, chemists who believe that Darwinian Evolution is not the answer?
- ...that there is abundant evidence that Evolution DOES occur on a Micro scale, within species, BUT that there is little factual evidence that Evolution occurs on a Macro scale, meaning between species?
- ...that the "Icons of Evolution", those "facts and evidences" that have been taught in virtually all biology textbooks from Junior High through advanced courses have for the most part been proven false or at least shown to have serious questions about their validity including the Peppered Moth, the Miller-Urey Origin of Live experiments, the similarity in early embryo development, etc.?
- ...that there is a scientific method for verifying whether something has been designed?
- ...that the statistical probabilities of mutation/natural selection being the mechanism for the creation of all living organisms on this earth is far beyond what statisticians consider impossible?
Questions and ideas such as these
will be explored on this web site. | <urn:uuid:8ccca6f2-808d-4ddc-b33c-4e422f250e24> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.discoveringdesign.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768169.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00042-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955143 | 356 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Writing is exciting, but it has challenges. Good writers want their stories to connect with readers. Common writing mistakes to avoid is important. We talk about ten mistakes to avoid. Planning, storytelling, editing, research, being consistent, and marketing well. By avoiding these, your writing can improve and touch readers’ hearts.
Importance of writing for authors in paragraph
Writing is important for authors. It helps them express themselves and share stories with readers. Authors use words to take readers to new places, make them feel emotions, and make them think. Writing errors in English also lets authors create special characters, and talk about important things. You can use these best tools for Content Writing. It is not a skill; it is a passion that inspires others and makes them remember for their work.
1) Experiment with Writing Styles
Trying different writing styles can be beneficial for serious writers. It helps them become more creative and adaptable. By exploring various styles, authors can discover fresh ways to express ideas.
(1) Using different styles will be helpful for writers.
(2) More creative in their work.
(3) Exploring various styles helps express ideas, evoke emotions, and connect with readers.
2) Harness the Power of Emotion
Emotions can be a strong tool to create interesting and relatable stories. Power of emotion, writers can connect with readers on a deep level. Here are some writing errors examples on how to use emotions in your writing:
(1) Show, Don’t Tell: Instead of saying how characters feel. You can show their emotions and words.
(2) Create Characters Readers Care About: Make characters with real emotions. It will help readers to understand.
(3) Use Senses to Describe Emotions: Use details that appeal to the senses to show emotions.
Example: Rather than saying, “It was a frightening evening.”
3) Embrace Vulnerability
Being open about your feelings can make your writing more meaningful and genuine. Letting yourself be vulnerable in your work helps you connect with readers.
(1) Being open about feelings makes writing more meaningful and genuine.
(2) Embracing vulnerability helps writers connect with readers on a deeper level.
(3) Sharing personal experiences and struggles can inspire and strengthen readers.
4) Use Symbolism and Metaphors
Symbolism and metaphors are strong writing tools. It makes your writing more meaningful. Here are some ways to use them in your writing:
(1) Symbolism and metaphors add deeper meanings to writing.
(2) They create vivid imagery in the reader’s mind.
(3) Using symbols evokes strong emotions and enhances the impact of the story.
5) Create Compelling Characters
Make interesting and believable characters with unique qualities.
(1) Make characters with strengths and weaknesses
(2) Show their feelings and struggles to make them real
(3) Give each character clear goals to move the story forward
6) Explore Unconventional Perspectives
Tell stories from different angles that surprise readers and give new ideas.
(1) Tell stories from unique perspectives
(2) Share voices and experiences rarely heard
(3) Give new and fresh ideas about familiar things
7) Master the Art of Show
Use actions, talk, and details to show emotions and events in the story instead of telling them.
(1) Use actions, words, and details to reveal emotions and events
(2) Let readers understand characters through what they do
(3) Avoid too much explaining and let the story happen
8) Use Humor and Wit
Add funny and clever parts to types of errors in writing to make readers enjoy it and create a happy feeling.
(1) Add funny parts to make the story more interesting
(2) Write clever conversations and remarks to show the characters’ personalities
(3) Keep the right balance of humor with the story tone.
9) Capture the Essence of Place
This means describing a location in a way that helps readers imagine. Writers use vivid and sensory details to bring a place to life and create a strong sense of setting.
(1) Describe the setting in detail to bring it to life for readers.
(2) Use sensory language to immerse readers in the atmosphere.
(3) Show how the place influences the characters and the story.
10) Develop Empowering Themes
Creating strong and positive messages or ideas in your writing. Empowering themes inspire and uplift readers, giving them hope and encouragement. Themes of courage, resilience, and self-discovery are examples of empowering themes in stories.
(1) Choose themes that inspire and uplift readers.
(2) Show characters overcoming challenges and growing stronger.
(3) Use storytelling to convey messages of hope and resilience.
Emotions are a strong part of writing that can grab readers’ attention. Show emotions through actions and describe what characters see, hear, or feel. Most writers make these mistakes in writing, but you can stop making these English Grammar Mistakes. Connect with readers by writing about feelings. Everyone understands and uses characters’ words to show their emotions. By using emotions well, writers can make readers feel connected. It will make them remember their stories. | <urn:uuid:0625762b-4d9f-4de6-8426-61f87280a0a8> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://englishphobia.com/10-common-writing-mistakes-to-avoid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511369.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004120203-20231004150203-00697.warc.gz | en | 0.902972 | 1,097 | 2.96875 | 3 |
An expert advises parents on what to do if they witness symptoms in their children.
Published on: 06-01-2020
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on May 14, 2020, that Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is associated with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
MIS-C is a condition in which parts of a child’s body become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Physicians are urging parents to contact their child’s doctor or seek immediate medical attention if their child is showing symptoms of MIS-C.
Maulin Soneji, attending pediatric infectious disease specialist at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in Loma Linda, California, said children with MIS-C often present with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease — another childhood condition that causes inflammation in blood vessels. Symptoms include fever, rash, gastrointestinal issues such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, vomiting, bloodshot eyes, trouble breathing, fatigue, and neck pain for more than five days.
“Cases are showing that this syndrome does have something to do with COVID-19,” Soneji said. “Patients being treated had prior COVID-19 illness or exposure but are now often testing negative in their nasal swab. However, in some of these patients, we’re also seeing that their bodies don’t have the antibodies that are usually created while fighting the virus. There is much we are still learning about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the illnesses it causes.”
Alexandra Clark, division chief of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, said physicians are seeing that the infection from SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — might be triggering an overreaction in children’s immune systems.
“We think the body’s response to the virus itself is creating a downstream cascade of inflammation affecting many systems of the body,” Clark said. “We don’t yet have enough evidence to support a definitive timeline, but this inflammation can sometimes occur weeks after the original exposure or infection.”
Because symptoms of Kawasaki disease and MIS-C are somewhat overlapping, Clark said, there is also overlapping treatment. “Children who have MIS-C and are brought to the hospital in a timely fashion seem to do well after receiving appropriate care,” she said.
According to Soneji, cases of MIS-C are currently being treated at Children’s Hospital and throughout southern California.
Clark wants to clarify that while MIS-C is connected with COVID-19, it is a separate inflammatory process that requires different treatment and medications than just supportive care for the virus itself.
“This treatment is needed to modulate the child’s inappropriate immune response to the prior COVID-19 infection or exposure,” she said. “There are some significant risks for complications, including death. The sooner the child is brought to medical attention, the better the chance of recovery.”
A Word of Advice
“Don’t let prolonged fevers or atypical symptoms continue in your child,” Soneji said. “While other symptoms and illnesses might not be COVID-19, many other things are impacting our children that can be serious. We don’t want any ill effects from delayed care. Seek medical attention.” | <urn:uuid:4262db11-d8d0-43e3-9d83-4523209957cf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.adventistworld.org/multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-in-children-related-to-covid-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570793.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808092125-20220808122125-00360.warc.gz | en | 0.958624 | 742 | 3.15625 | 3 |
This post is by BSUFN member Abigail Wincott.
Indeed from requests for donations to plant conservation charities to the lifestyle sections of newspaper to serried ranks of heritage tomato plants, demands on consumers to buy into the protection of this peculiar new kind of heritage come from many directions.
Rarely are these claims questioned – naturally not by those selling ‘heritage’ seeds and produce – but also not by journalists, who tend to reproduce claims about the value of ‘heritage’ and the work to conserve it, made by conservation bodies, chefs or seed sellers.
In many ways the term ‘heritage’ seems a rather pompous one to apply to food. It more commonly applies to castles and cathedrals, solid evidence of human civilisation, handed on through the generations, and preserved for the good of humanity. What on earth can ‘heritage’ mean when applied to vegetables and seeds, which rot or are eaten or otherwise transformed, and surely seem pretty ephemeral, not to mention trivial?
And as consumers, should we buy into these claims – implicit or explicit – that we can shop to save ‘heritage’ – whatever it is?
Well, maybe yes. Actually.
For the past few years I’ve been collecting and analysing a database of texts about heritage vegetables, seeds and fruit trees, looking at the way the narrative of ‘heritage’ is created. The range of people involved is phenomenal – from the UN to Reclaim the Fields, via Waitrose, which would make a fairly bizarre shopping trip.
One thing stands out across the database, though, which is that the process of heritage is driven a sense of loss and ongoing risk to that which we inherit from the past. Social justice NGO Practical Action warns that ‘More than 90% of crop varieties have been lost from farmers’ fields in the past century’ and it dubs this a ‘haemorrhage’ of biodiversity. A National Trust webpage about lost apples says they had ‘all but vanished by the late 1970s’ though luckily, the Trust retains those grown from twigs snatched from a bonfire.
These tales of loss lead logically to the idea that something must be done to protect what’s left. Indeed the concept of loss produces a key component in the process of heritage – the guardian or trustee.
The National Trust puts itself forward as a guardian of plant heritage through its network of historic kitchen gardens. So do the John Innes Centre, the Heritage Seed Library and many, many more.
But the place you might more commonly come across this idea of ‘heritage’ vegetables, as a middle-class British consumer in particular, is the lifestyle section of the broadsheets and the heritage produce labels in supermarkets’ luxury ranges and the menus of the posher sort of pub.
Here the idea of loss is very muted. Rather than the sense we’re driving off the end of a biodiversity cliff, the consumerist story of heritage vegetables is that of a burgeoning ‘heritage vegetable movement’, powered by dissatisfied consumers, who ‘expect more’ and are forming a ‘back-to-the-roots revolution‘.
As a result, the loss is relegated to some vague recent past in lifestyle texts. The present is a time of revival, renewal and growth, where ‘the outlook for heritage varieties has changed’ as they have ‘moved out of the history books and back into vegetable patches, gardens and orchards’.
To me this is a striking difference. It might seem self-evident that consumer-oriented writing would stress the feel good factor, while charities and not-for-profits would emphasise tragedy. But both make their living, if you like, from ‘heritage’, whether that be through justifying public funding, appealing for donations, selling produce or selling advertising space and the consumers to look at it. If feel-good narratives are more appealing, then why would all interest groups not employ the burgeoning movement narrative?
One very good reason is that the feel-bad narrative suggests the need for official institutions of some kind to step in and ‘do something’. These are the very groups who reproduce that catastrophising version of the heritage story. That narrative also very effectively constructs ephemeral materials like vegetables, and abstract concepts like diversity or taste, as materials, at immediate risk of destruction. As such, their safekeeping in walled gardens or seed vaults seems very appropriate.
But seeds and vegetables are not like castles and cathedrals. Even when they’re ‘rare’ there are likely to be hundreds of them. They can be reproduced, often with little expertise. You can keep them in an old jar in your shed. As you may well do. And perhaps this is why this form of heritage is not uniquely identified as a properly expert domain, but remains a lively and contested field (forgive the pun).
Which is a good thing. Even those who work in the ‘expert’ conservation sector are aware of the limited effectiveness of trying to protect diversity by storing a very small number of samples in a box somewhere, and there is some recognition that home gardens represent important vestiges of diversity. But gardens and allotments are absolutely outside the sphere of influence of these groups, and inaccessible to the professional crop breeding sector.
While the lifestyle and ‘posh’ retail uses for ‘heritage’ entail their own problems, they nonetheless promote the idea of a broad-based movement to revive, rather than refrigerate, diverse food crops. And so, if it takes your fancy, by all means try a heritage tomato plant or heritage beetroot salad. And if they’re beyond your budget, you may be able to grow your own. Seed swaps take place in community centres around the country, and online. And it is just possible in this case your consumption will, aspart of a wider movement, help conserve this peculiarly ephemeral kind of heritage.
You can read more detail about the research which is published as Wincott, A. (2015) Heritage in danger or mission accomplished? Diverging accounts of endangerment, conservation and ‘heritage’ vegetables in print and online. Food, Culture and Society 18 (4). A limited number of free views are available by clicking | <urn:uuid:c0d9e86c-72c6-4f5c-9121-c0eecec4ba5c> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | https://bsufn.com/2016/04/09/should-we-buy-into-heritage-vegetables/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463613738.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170530011338-20170530031338-00009.warc.gz | en | 0.949912 | 1,335 | 2.53125 | 3 |
By Simon JenkinsThe UK’s Natural Gas Council is predicting the growth of natural gas transport in the UK will outpace that of oil, coal and gas by 2025.
The report, published on Tuesday, said natural gas would outpace oil by 2025 and coal by 2026.
It said the increase in natural gas consumption will lead to a “significant increase in the emissions associated with oil and gas” over the next five years.
Natural gas will account for 20% of UK emissions in 2025, up from 17% currently.
UK Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said naturalgas was an “economic driver” in the country.
“The Government is investing in natural-gas infrastructure and creating the greenest economy in the world.”
With gas being a key part of the UK’s energy mix, our new Natural Gas Investment Strategy is about getting more gas to market, ensuring that more of our energy needs are met and ensuring that our communities benefit from the benefits of a cleaner, more resilient and secure energy future,” she said.
British Gas is one of the biggest producers of natural-gases and its new fleet of trucks will be used to deliver the gas to customers.
British Gas also announced plans to increase its UK natural gas delivery network from 40 to 100 natural gas pipelines by 2021.
Gas companies and industry groups are calling for a moratorium on new gas exploration, development and production. | <urn:uuid:d4d296e1-d354-4101-b77d-f92a4f01edcd> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://capitolcouple.com/2021/07/06/natural-gas-trucks-to-take-over-natural-gas-trucking-by-2025/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057083.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20210920161518-20210920191518-00453.warc.gz | en | 0.953308 | 294 | 2.78125 | 3 |
“Tell me your zip code and I’ll tell you how long you are going to live.” Four years ago, at an Annenberg conference in California, that statement came as a shock. Not any more.
The New York Times reported this weekend (March 16) on the disparities between Fairfax County, Virginia and McDowell County, West Virginia.
“Residents of Fairfax County are among the longest-lived in the country: Men have an average life expectancy of 82 years and women, 85, about the same as in Sweden. In McDowell, the averages are 64 and 73, about the same as in Iraq.”
The correlation is easy: higher incomes mean longer lives. As the income gap widens, so does the life expectancy gap. A multitude of factors contribute to the gap: poor communities have less access to hospitals and health care, fewer grocery stores, high rates of pollution. They have less access to parks, fewer safe places to walk or jog, fewer swimming pools and health clubs. People with lower income have to work more hours. They are subject to a hundred stresses that diminish both quality of life and longevity. As the New York Times puts it:
“Finally, and perhaps most powerfully, researchers say that a life in poverty is a life of stress that accumulates in a person’s very cells. Being poor is hard in a way that can mean worse sleep, more cortisolin the blood, a greater risk of hypertension and, ultimately, a shorter life.”
Longevity-by-zip-code has been documented in the Twin Cities by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:
Wilder Research has details in a 2012 report, Health Inequities in the Twin Cities. The summary includes a finding of an eight-year difference in average life expectancy between highest and lowest income areas, poorer health tied to poverty and lower education levels, and life expectancy varying by race.
A February 1 Minnesota Department of Health report, Advancing Health Equity in Minnesota, focused on the racial disparities in health:
“Even where health outcomes have improved overall, as in infant mortality rates, the disparities in these outcomes remain unchanged: American Indian and African American babies are still dying at twice the rate of white babies.”
The report discussed the various factors that contribute to health, such as genes and biology, physical environment, clinical care, health behaviors, and social and economic factors. Those social and economic factors make up 40 percent of the determinants of health.
MDH Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger emphasized
“These health disparities persist and are neither random nor unpredictable. The groups that experience the greatest disparities in health outcomes also have experienced the greatest inequities in the social and economic conditions that are such strong predictors of health.”
The report distinguished between health disparity and health inequity. A health disparity is a difference in health outcomes for different populations. For example, women have more breast cancer than men.
A health inequity, however, is “based in inequitable, socially-determined circumstances,” and “Because health inequities are socially-determined, change is possible.”
Health inequities and consequent disparities affect African American, American Indian, and Hispanic/Latino communities. They also affect gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, people with mental illness, low-income students, and older Minnesotans.
The MDH report recognizes that health is not isolated from other parts of life, and urges improvement in living conditions, nutrition, transportation, education and income as necessary parts of improving health.
The New York Times article on longevity-by-zip-code appeared in the business section, which seems like exactly the right place. Health is everybody’s business — and policies that reduce disparities and inequities in education, housing, and wealth will also reduce disparities in health and longevity. | <urn:uuid:bb6f834e-b38c-42dd-8dc4-af685e0a7af3> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://maryturck.com/2014/03/16/dying-by-zip-code/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323583408.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20211016013436-20211016043436-00542.warc.gz | en | 0.950056 | 797 | 3.015625 | 3 |
a geometric drawing that uses a limited set of tools (compass and straight edge)
extends in one dimension (has lenght); usually represented by a line with arrows at each end; always straight
two adjacent angles whose noncommon sides are opposite rays
A pair of opposite congruent angles formed by intersecting lines., two angles whose sides form two pairs of opposite rays
something accepted as true without proof; an axiom
measures exactly 180 degrees and forms a straight line
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The original draft of the Declaration of Independence outlined the “inalienable rights” of all men as including “life, liberty, and property.” Benjamin Franklin convinced Thomas Jefferson to change the wording to “and the pursuit of happiness,” simply because it sounded better, but the Lockesian philosophy Jefferson alluded to has remained the cornerstone of American thought. John Locke was one of the great Enlightenment philosophers, one of the first to espouse the idea of “natural rights.” He was, for his time, incredibly radical in that he was among the first to assert that individuals have rights that derive from something more fundamental than the whim or a monarch ruling by divine right. Locke narrowed down these rights to three basics: life, liberty, and property. During the French revolution, one philosopher defined the differences between liberals and conservatives as one of priority: to conversatives, property rights are more important; to liberals, life and liberty. While few would argue Locke’s point on the first two, the right to property remains problematic, at best.
The radical Left of American political philosophy is deeply influenced by Marx, who rejected the notion of personal property as inherently exploitative. This has led to significant questioning of property rights among the Left, but mainstream liberalism still supports the concept of ownership, as Locke described. Yet, Locke’s argument is rife with unexamined implications that we need to examine more closely.
For Locke, the right to property comes from the application of one’s time, talents and labor to an object; it is that part of nature which an individual transforms into something useful and valuable. Thus, to rob a person of his property is to rob her of the products of her past–just as murder robs her of her future life, and slavery of her present liberty. All well and good, if one accepts a pivotal, unspoken assumption that nature has no value of its own and is free for our taking.
This certainly was Locke’s assumption, and the assumption of all his readers. In their understanding, G-d had bequeathed nature to mankind’s use. Humanity was destined to rule as the earth’s masters, and nature existed only to serve mankind. In this context, Locke’s philosophy makes perfect sense. To date, however, no philosopher has ever successfully divorced Lockesian property rights from monotheism.
Obviously, nature cannot offer consent to being plundered, as there is no “nature” to request it from–nature is, at best, a shorthand for referring to all the complex, interrelated cycles of life going on throughout the universe. First, we must assume that nature has no value in itself, that it is, in a sense, itself “property” to some form of deity. In a sense, then, Locke’s property rights are already relying on circular logic: human property rights are dependent on divine property rights, so that we have a right to property because there is a right to property.
Nor can Locke’s argument even stand in all theistic formulations. Does Thor really have the right to give us free access to nature? What would Odin think of that? If there are many gods, which ones “own” nature, and which ones do not? For Locke’s argument to hold in a polytheistic world, the gods must all grant us free access to that part of nature they “own.” In short, the gods must act as one–essentially mimicking the behavior of one, monotheistic god.
Once we have either a monotheistic deity, as Locke presumed, or at least a pantheon acting as one, then Locke’s argument is at least tenable, if circular. Let us, for a moment, consider the theological implications of this monotheistic god that Locke supposes.
Such a god creates nature, thus making nature his “property” to do with as he pleases–including allow humans free access to it, if he so desires. Does this god know the ultimate outcome of such an arrangement, and of all the suffering and death that will be unleashed on the various plants and animals he has made, essentially selling them into slavery to another of his creations? If he cannot foresee this, he is not only not omniscient, but in fact incredibly short-sighted and rather dim, frankly. If he can foresee this, then his grant of such access means that he approves of such an arrangement–making him an evil tyrant. The implication of Locke’s argument is either that G-d is stupid, or G-d is evil.
I believe neither; instead, I reject Locke’s argument. His justification for the “right to property” is far too problematic. But we cannot simply stop here. We have dismantled the concept of “ownership,” but humans, like any other animal, have practical needs that must be met. At a minimum, we require clean air and water, food, and in some climates, shelter and clothing. Jeff Vail echoes my own thoughts on this matter in A Theory of Power:
When one steps back and examines the notion of “owning� something, the abstraction becomes readily apparent. Ownership represents nothing more than a power-relationship—the ability to control. The tribal institution of “Ownership by use� on the other hand, suggests simply that one can only “own� those things that they put to immediate, direct and personal use to meet basic needs—and not more. A society crosses the memetic Rubicon when it accepts the abstraction that ownership can extend beyond the exclusive needs of one individual for survival. Abstract ownership begins when society accepts a claim of symbolic control of something without the requirement of immediate, direct and personal use. Hierarchy, at any level, requires this excess, abstract ownership—it represents the symbolic capital that forms the foundation of all stratification.
Most of us feel wronged when something is stolen from us, but why? Much of it is acculturation, but what bothers is most is the denial of our own use. As I write this on my laptop, Giuli is using my desktop. This does not bother me in the least, though by Lockesian logic it should. After all, is she not violating my sacred rights as “owner”? I do not mind, because it does not impinge on my own use. If I wanted to use it right now, the situation would change, but so long as another’s actions do not change my ability to use those resources, it doesn’t bother me.
The theft of material goods leaves us feeling wronged because it robs us of our ability to use a given resource. If someone broke in and took my computer, I would feel wronged, because I could no longer use my computer. It is not that my “right to ownership” has been violated that bothers me; it is the violation of my “right to use.”
Such a distinction may seem like splitting hairs at first, but there are important–if subtle–implications. One is that the “right to property” is devalued from the realm of sacred rights, to mere practicality. Robbing someone of their use of some object is no longer “wrong,” but simply “mean.” Enforcement of laws against theft is no longer upholding some moral order; it is merely oiling the gears of a smooth society.
The implications are profound for intellectual property. The RIAA and MPAA have recently recruited the U.S. courts in a campaign against sharing over the internet. They call such sharing “theft,” based on the speculation that every download is a lost sale. This, despite the empirical evidence that file sharing has no effect on sales, to say nothing of common sense, forms the entire basis for their claim, ignoring the very real difference between potential and actual loss. Yet they have managed to prevail, and their unfounded presumptions are now accepted as fact, with an increasing and dismal precedent forming the law on this issue.
Thus, sharing is illegal. But it is by no means immoral. The RIAA and MPAA argue that it is, sometimes supporting such bogus evidence as summarized above, but ultimately relying on their sacred rights of “ownership.” If we accept, instead, a paradigm of “property by use,” this issue is transformed. If I have a song, and someone copies that song, then my ability to listen to that song again is in no way compromised. Neither the RIAA’s nor the MPAA’s members have lost any of the discs they have imprinted data on. No one has lost anything, but someone–the one with the copy–has gained something in that copy. If we believe in “property by ownership,” sharing is wrong, because one’s ownership has been violated. If we believe in “property by use,” though, sharing is good.
We are currently seeing the logic of ownership unravel as computers provide a purely abstract environment for these ideas to play out, forcing us to refine our thinking and be more precise with what, exactly, we believe. It gives the lie to “property by ownership” with increasingly draconian measures such as the DMCA, and forcing its proponents often to rely on completely fabricated evidence.
“Property by use,” on the other hand, was the pragmatic reigning paradigm of human society throughout our evolution, abandoned only recently with the rise of civilization and hierarchy. It is a practical arrangement that promotes the idea of sharing–something we instinctively see as “good,” because of its long history as a basic underpinning of our society and survival. “Property by ownership” ends up being an unfounded mythology that must be maintained in spite of all facts and logic; “property by use” ends up being a practical, reasonable understanding of property rights that fits nicely with our moral intuitions. “Property by ownership” is new, untested, and already falling apart at the seams; “property by use” has been proven by two million years of human evolution.
We own nothing; we have no “right to property,” and nature is not ours to take and do with as we please. We can use the things we need, just like any other animal, within the same bounds as any other animal. But to pretend we have some kind of divinely protected claim to anything is simply delusional. | <urn:uuid:173f0bb4-77c3-46b1-9392-2ff4133bc84e> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://rewild.com/anthropik/2005/07/the-right-to-property/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246660628.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045740-00167-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963207 | 2,222 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In 2002, a young Berkeley professor, Tyrone Hayes, reported that deformed frogs were most prevalent in farm ponds in counties across the United States where the herbicide atrazine was sold in the largest quantities. Atrazine is a widely used herbicide, especially in corn, to control weeds at planting time. Atrazine affects the photosynthetic mechanism in plants, but its molecular structure is an endocrine disruptor, inasmuch as it resembles the growth hormones of other organisms, including frogs and potentially humans.
Hayes has spent the past 20 years investigating atrazine’s effects on amphibians , finding that at levels of less than a part per billion, atrazine produced growth abnormalities, including the “demasculinization” of male frogs. Needless to say the work was hotly contested, especially by Syngenta (now owned by Bayer Inc.) who was the major producer. Citing the precautionary principle, the European Union banned the use of atrazine in 2004, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved atrazine for continued use in the U.S. Various studies attempting to reproduce Hayes’work have reported somewhat inconsistent results, but deformed frogs are still observed in many areas without good explanation.
One of the problems with atrazine is that it is mobile in the environment. It is easily soluble in water, so it is found in runoff and groundwater from fields of application. It is sparingly volatile, but it is often found in rainfall downwind of use. A just-published study has found atrazine in 32% of 900 waterbodies that were sampled across the U.S., at levels of 0.17 parts per billion when detected—within the range that Hayes has found harmful to amphibians. While most atrazine is decomposed by soil microbes within days, a certain fraction can persist for years, accounting for its persistence in groundwater.
Atrazine is a classic example of the tradeoffs we face in environmental issues: a chemical that is useful to the farmers who grow our food, enormously profitable to the companies that produce it, yet potentially threatening to humans who are directly and inadvertently exposed. Is its continued use a risk to human health, or are the risks to food prices and corporate profits more important? The producers are few, focused, with deep pockets, and the greatest influence with regulators.
The frogs may be speaking to us, but who speaks for the frogs?
Beaulieu, M., H. Cabana, Z. Taranu, and Y. Huot. 2020. Predicting atrazine concentrations in waterbodies across the contiguous United States: the importance of land use, hydrology, and water physiochemistry. Limnology and Oceanography doi: 10.1002/lno.11568
Burt, G. 1974. Volatility of atrazine from plant, soil and glass surfaces. Journal of Environmental Quality 3: 114-117.
Dankwardt, A., S. Wust, W. Elling, E.M. Thurman, and Bertold Hock. 1994. Determination of atrazine in rainfall and surface water by enzyme immunoassay. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 1: 196-204.
Hayes, T., K. Haston, M. Tsu, A. Hoang, C. Haeffele, and A. Vonk. 2002. Herbicides: feminization of male frogs in the wild. Nature 419: 895-896
Hayes, TB; Khoury, V; Narayan, A; Nazir, M; Park, A; Brown, T; Adame, L; Chan, E; et al. 2010. Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107 (10): 4612–7. | <urn:uuid:8c9eb2c7-986b-4c55-9432-3f973c1b36c9> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/blog-translational-ecology/atrazine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511386.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004152134-20231004182134-00463.warc.gz | en | 0.935756 | 821 | 3.234375 | 3 |
|Classification and external resources|
A chest X-ray showing a very prominent wedge shaped pneumonia in the right lung.
|ICD-10||J12., J13., J14., J15., J16., J17., J18., P23.|
|Pneumonias caused by infectious or noninfectious agents|
Pneumonia is an abnormal inflammatory condition of the lung. It is often characterized as including inflammation of the parenchyma of the lung (that is, the alveoli) and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid (consolidation and exudation).
The alveoli are microscopic air-filled sacs in the lungs responsible for gas exchange. Pneumonia can result from a variety of causes, including infection with bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites, and chemical or physical injury to the lungs. Its cause may also be officially described as idiopathic—that is, unknown—when infectious causes have been excluded.
Typical symptoms associated with pneumonia include cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty in breathing. Diagnostic tools include x-rays and examination of the sputum. Treatment depends on the cause of pneumonia; bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics.
Pneumonia is a common illness which occurs in all age groups, and is a leading cause of death among the elderly and people who are chronically and terminally ill. Additionally, it is the leading cause of death in children under five years old worldwide. Vaccines to prevent certain types of pneumonia are available. The prognosis depends on the type of pneumonia, the appropriate treatment, any complications, and the person's underlying health.
Pneumonias can be classified in several ways. Pathologists originally classified them according to the anatomic changes that were found in the lungs during autopsies. As more became known about the microorganisms causing pneumonia, a microbiologic classification arose, and with the advent of x-rays, a radiological classification. Another important system of classification is the combined clinical classification, which combines factors such as age, risk factors for certain microorganisms, the presence of underlying lung disease and underlying systemic disease, and whether the person has recently been hospitalized.
The discovery of x-rays made it possible to determine the anatomic type of pneumonia without direct examination of the lungs at autopsy and led to the development of a radiological classification. Early investigators distinguished between typical lobar pneumonia and atypical (e.g. Chlamydophila) or viral pneumonia using the location, distribution, and appearance of the opacities they saw on chest x-rays. Certain x-ray findings can be used to help predict the course of illness, although it is not possible to clearly determine the microbiologic cause of a pneumonia with x-rays alone.
With the advent of modern microbiology, classification based upon the causative microorganism became possible. Determining which microorganism is causing an individual's pneumonia is an important step in deciding treatment type and length. Sputum cultures, blood cultures, tests on respiratory secretions, and specific blood tests are used to determine the microbiologic classification. Because such laboratory testing typically takes several days, microbiologic classification is usually not possible at the time of initial diagnosis.
Traditionally, clinicians have classified pneumonia by clinical characteristics, dividing them into "acute" (less than three weeks duration) and "chronic" pneumonias. This is useful because chronic pneumonias tend to be either non-infectious, or mycobacterial, fungal, or mixed bacterial infections caused by airway obstruction. Acute pneumonias are further divided into the classic bacterial bronchopneumonias (such as Streptococcus pneumoniae), the atypical pneumonias (such as the interstitial pneumonitis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae or Chlamydia pneumoniae), and the aspiration pneumonia syndromes.
Chronic pneumonias, on the other hand, mainly include those of Nocardia, Actinomyces and Blastomyces dermatitidis, as well as the granulomatous pneumonias (Mycobacterium tuberculosis and atypical mycobacteria, Histoplasma capsulatum and Coccidioides immitis).
The combined clinical classification, now the most commonly used classification scheme, attempts to identify a person's risk factors when he or she first comes to medical attention. The advantage of this classification scheme over previous systems is that it can help guide the selection of appropriate initial treatments even before the microbiologic cause of the pneumonia is known. There are two broad categories of pneumonia in this scheme: community-acquired pneumonia and hospital-acquired pneumonia. A recently introduced type of healthcare-associated pneumonia (in patients living outside the hospital who have recently been in close contact with the health care system) lies between these two categories.
Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is infectious pneumonia in a person who has not recently been hospitalized. CAP is the most common type of pneumonia. The most common causes of CAP vary depending on a person's age, but they include Streptococcus pneumoniae, viruses, the atypical bacteria, and Haemophilus influenzae. Overall, Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia worldwide. Gram-negative bacteria cause CAP in certain at-risk populations. CAP is the fourth most common cause of death in the United Kingdom and the sixth in the United States. The term "walking pneumonia" has been used to describe a type of community-acquired pneumonia of less severity (because the sufferer can continue to "walk" rather than require hospitalization). Walking pneumonia is usually caused by the atypical bacterium, Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Hospital-acquired pneumonia, also called nosocomial pneumonia, is pneumonia acquired during or after hospitalization for another illness or procedure with onset at least 72 hrs after admission. The causes, microbiology, treatment and prognosis are different from those of community-acquired pneumonia. Up to 5% of patients admitted to a hospital for other causes subsequently develop pneumonia. Hospitalized patients may have many risk factors for pneumonia, including mechanical ventilation, prolonged malnutrition, underlying heart and lung diseases, decreased amounts of stomach acid, and immune disturbances. Additionally, the microorganisms a person is exposed to in a hospital are often different from those at home . Hospital-acquired microorganisms may include resistant bacteria such as MRSA, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter, and Serratia. Because individuals with hospital-acquired pneumonia usually have underlying illnesses and are exposed to more dangerous bacteria, it tends to be more deadly than community-acquired pneumonia. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a subset of hospital-acquired pneumonia. VAP is pneumonia which occurs after at least 48 hours of intubation and mechanical ventilation.
People with infectious pneumonia often have a cough producing greenish or yellow sputum, or phlegm and a high fever that may be accompanied by shaking chills. Shortness of breath is also common, as is pleuritic chest pain, a sharp or stabbing pain, either experienced during deep breaths or coughs or worsened by them. People with pneumonia may cough up blood, experience headaches, or develop sweaty and clammy skin. Other possible symptoms are loss of appetite, fatigue, blueness of the skin, nausea, vomiting, mood swings, and joint pains or muscle aches. Less common forms of pneumonia can cause other symptoms; for instance, pneumonia caused by Legionella may cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, while pneumonia caused by tuberculosis or Pneumocystis may cause only weight loss and night sweats. In elderly people, manifestations of pneumonia are seldom typical. They may develop a new or worsening confusion (delirium) or may experience unsteadiness, leading to falls. Infants with pneumonia may have many of the symptoms above, but in many cases they are simply sleepy or have a decreased appetite.
Symptoms of pneumonia need immediate medical evaluation. Physical examination by a health care provider may reveal fever or sometimes low body temperature, an increased respiratory rate, low blood pressure, a high heart rate, or a low oxygen saturation, which is the amount of oxygen in the blood as indicated by either pulse oximetry or blood gas analysis. People who are struggling to breathe, who are confused, or who have cyanosis (blue-tinged skin) require immediate attention.
Findings from physical examination of the lungs may be normal, but often show decreased expansion of the chest on the affected side, bronchial breathing on auscultation with a stethoscope (harsher sounds from the larger airways transmitted through the inflamed and consolidated lung), and rales (or crackles) heard over the affected area during inspiration. Percussion may be dulled over the affected lung, but increased rather than decreased vocal resonance (which distinguishes it from a pleural effusion). While these signs are relevant, they are insufficient to diagnose or rule out a pneumonia; moreover, in studies it has been shown that two doctors can arrive at different findings on the same patient.
Pneumonia can be caused by microorganisms, irritants and unknown causes. When pneumonias are grouped this way, infectious causes are the most common type.
The symptoms of infectious pneumonia are caused by the invasion of the lungs by microorganisms and by the immune system's response to the infection. Although more than one hundred strains of microorganism can cause pneumonia, only a few are responsible for most cases. The most common causes of pneumonia are viruses and bacteria. Less common causes of infectious pneumonia are fungi and parasites.
Viruses invade cells in order to reproduce. Typically, a virus reaches the lungs when airborne droplets are inhaled through the mouth and nose. Once in the lungs, the virus invades the cells lining the airways and alveoli. This invasion often leads to cell death, either when the virus directly kills the cells, or through a type of cell controlled self-destruction called apoptosis. When the immune system responds to the viral infection, even more lung damage occurs. White blood cells, mainly lymphocytes, activate certain chemical cytokines which allow fluid to leak into the alveoli. This combination of cell destruction and fluid-filled alveoli interrupts the normal transportation of oxygen into the bloodstream.
As well as damaging the lungs, many viruses affect other organs and thus disrupt many body functions. Viruses can also make the body more susceptible to bacterial infections; for which reason bacterial pneumonia often complicates viral pneumonia.
Viral pneumonia is commonly caused by viruses such as influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus, and metapneumovirus. Herpes simplex virus is a rare cause of pneumonia except in newborns. People with weakened immune systems are also at risk of pneumonia caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV).
Bacteria typically enter the lung when airborne droplets are inhaled, but can also reach the lung through the bloodstream when there is an infection in another part of the body. Many bacteria live in parts of the upper respiratory tract, such as the nose, mouth and sinuses, and can easily be inhaled into the alveoli. Once inside, bacteria may invade the spaces between cells and between alveoli through connecting pores. This invasion triggers the immune system to send neutrophils, a type of defensive white blood cell, to the lungs. The neutrophils engulf and kill the offending organisms, and also release cytokines, causing a general activation of the immune system. This leads to the fever, chills, and fatigue common in bacterial and fungal pneumonia. The neutrophils, bacteria, and fluid from surrounding blood vessels fill the alveoli and interrupt normal oxygen transportation.
Bacteria often travel from an infected lung into the bloodstream, causing serious or even fatal illness such as septic shock, with low blood pressure and damage to multiple parts of the body including the brain, kidneys, and heart. Bacteria can also travel to the area between the lungs and the chest wall (the pleural cavity) causing a complication called an empyema.
The most common causes of bacterial pneumonia are Streptococcus pneumoniae and "atypical" bacteria. Atypical bacteria are parasitic bacteria that live intracellular or do not have a cell wall. Moreover they cause generally less severe pneumonia, thus atypical symptoms, and respond to different antibiotics than other bacteria.
The types of Gram-positive bacteria that cause pneumonia can be found in the nose or mouth of many healthy people. Streptococcus pneumoniae, often called "pneumococcus", is the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia in all age groups except newborn infants. Pneumococcus kills approximately one million children annually, mostly in developing countries. Another important Gram-positive cause of pneumonia is Staphylococcus aureus, with Streptococcus agalactiae being an important cause of pneumonia in newborn babies. Gram-negative bacteria cause pneumonia less frequently than gram-positive bacteria. Some of the gram-negative bacteria that cause pneumonia include Haemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Moraxella catarrhalis. These bacteria often live in the stomach or intestines and may enter the lungs if vomit is inhaled. "Atypical" bacteria which cause pneumonia include Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila.
Fungal pneumonia is uncommon, but it may occur in individuals with immune system problems due to AIDS, immunosuppresive drugs, or other medical problems. The pathophysiology of pneumonia caused by fungi is similar to that of bacterial pneumonia. Fungal pneumonia is most often caused by Histoplasma capsulatum, blastomyces, Cryptococcus neoformans, Pneumocystis jiroveci, and Coccidioides immitis. Histoplasmosis is most common in the Mississippi River basin, and coccidioidomycosis in the southwestern United States.
A variety of parasites can affect the lungs. These parasites typically enter the body through the skin or by being swallowed. Once inside, they travel to the lungs, usually through the blood. There, as in other cases of pneumonia, a combination of cellular destruction and immune response causes disruption of oxygen transportation. One type of white blood cell, the eosinophil, responds vigorously to parasite infection. Eosinophils in the lungs can lead to eosinophilic pneumonia, thus complicating the underlying parasitic pneumonia. The most common parasites causing pneumonia are Toxoplasma gondii, Strongyloides stercoralis, and Ascariasis.
Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIP) are a class of diffuse lung diseases. In some types of IIP, e.g. some types of usual interstitial pneumonia, the cause, indeed, is unknown or idiopathic. In some types of IIP the cause of the pneumonia is known, e.g. desquamative interstitial pneumonia is caused by smoking, and the name is a misnomer.
If pneumonia is suspected on the basis of a patient's symptoms and findings from physical examination, further investigations are needed to confirm the diagnosis. Information from a chest X-ray and blood tests are helpful, and sputum cultures in some cases. The chest X-ray is typically used for diagnosis in hospitals and some clinics with X-ray facilities. However, in a community setting (general practice), pneumonia is usually diagnosed based on symptoms and physical examination alone. Diagnosing pneumonia can be difficult in some people, especially those who have other illnesses. Occasionally a chest CT scan or other tests may be needed to distinguish pneumonia from other illnesses.
An important test for pneumonia in unclear situations is a chest x-ray. Chest x-rays can reveal areas of opacity (seen as white) which represent consolidation. Pneumonia is not always seen on x-rays, either because the disease is only in its initial stages, or because it involves a part of the lung not easily seen by x-ray. In some cases, chest CT (computed tomography) can reveal pneumonia that is not seen on chest x-ray. X-rays can be misleading, because other problems, like lung scarring and congestive heart failure, can mimic pneumonia on x-ray. Chest x-rays are also used to evaluate for complications of pneumonia (see below.)
If antibiotics fail to improve the patient's health, or if the health care provider has concerns about the diagnosis, a culture of the person's sputum may be requested. Sputum cultures generally take at least two to three days, so they are mainly used to confirm that the infection is sensitive to an antibiotic that has already been started. A blood sample may similarly be cultured to look for bacteria in the blood. Any bacteria identified are then tested to see which antibiotics will be most effective.
A complete blood count may show a high white blood cell count, indicating the presence of an infection or inflammation. In some people with immune system problems, the white blood cell count may appear deceptively normal. Blood tests may be used to evaluate kidney function (important when prescribing certain antibiotics) or to look for low blood sodium. Low blood sodium in pneumonia is thought to be due to extra anti-diuretic hormone produced when the lungs are diseased (SIADH). Specific blood serology tests for other bacteria (Mycoplasma, Legionella and Chlamydophila) and a urine test for Legionella antigen are available. Respiratory secretions can also be tested for the presence of viruses such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and adenovirus. Liver function tests should be carried out to test for damage caused by sepsis.
One study created a prediction rule that found the five following signs best predicted infiltrates on the chest radiograph of 1134 patients presenting to an emergency room:
The probability of an infiltrate in two separate validations was based on the number of findings:
A subsequent study comparing four prediction rules to physician judgment found that two rules, the one above and also were more accurate than physician judgment because of the increased specificity of the prediction rules.
Several diseases and/or conditions can present with similar clinical features to pneumonia and as such care must be taken in the proper diagnosis of the disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma can present with a polyphonic wheeze, similar to that of pneumonia. Pulmonary edema can be mistaken for pneumonia (and vice versa), especially in the elderly, due to its similar symptoms and signs. Other diseases to be taken into consideration include bronchiectasis, lung cancer and pulmonary emboli.
There are several ways to prevent infectious pneumonia. Appropriately treating underlying illnesses (such as AIDS) can decrease a person's risk of pneumonia. Smoking cessation is important not only because it helps to limit lung damage, but also because cigarette smoke interferes with many of the body's natural defenses against pneumonia.
Research shows that there are several ways to prevent pneumonia in newborn infants. Testing pregnant women for Group B Streptococcus and Chlamydia trachomatis, and then giving antibiotic treatment if needed, reduces pneumonia in infants. Suctioning the mouth and throat of infants with meconium-stained amniotic fluid decreases the rate of aspiration pneumonia.
Vaccination is important for preventing pneumonia in both children and adults. Vaccinations against Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae in the first year of life have greatly reduced the role these bacteria play in causing pneumonia in children. Vaccinating children against Streptococcus pneumoniae has also led to a decreased incidence of these infections in adults because many adults acquire infections from children. Hib vaccine is now widely used around the globe. The childhood pneumococcal vaccine is still as of 2009 predominantly used in high-income countries, though this is changing. In 2009, Rwanda became the first low-income country to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine into their national immunization program.
A vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae is also available for adults. In the U.S., it is currently recommended for all healthy individuals older than 65 and any adults with emphysema, congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus, cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholism, cerebrospinal fluid leaks, or those who do not have a spleen. A repeat vaccination may also be required after five or ten years.
Influenza vaccines should be given yearly to the same individuals who receive vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae. In addition, health care workers, nursing home residents, and pregnant women should receive the vaccine. When an influenza outbreak is occurring, medications such as amantadine, rimantadine, zanamivir, and oseltamivir can help prevent influenza.
Most cases of pneumonia can be treated without hospitalization. Typically, oral antibiotics, rest, fluids, and home care are sufficient for complete resolution. However, people with pneumonia who are having trouble breathing, people with other medical problems, and the elderly may need more advanced treatment. If the symptoms get worse, the pneumonia does not improve with home treatment, or complications occur, the person will often have to be hospitalized.
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial pneumonia. The antibiotic choice depends on the nature of the pneumonia, the most common microorganisms causing pneumonia in the local geographic area, and the immune status and underlying health of the individual. Treatment for pneumonia should ideally be based on the causative microorganism and its known antibiotic sensitivity. However, a specific cause for pneumonia is identified in only 50% of people, even after extensive evaluation. Because treatment should generally not be delayed in any person with a serious pneumonia, empiric treatment is usually started well before laboratory reports are available. In the United Kingdom, amoxicillin and clarithromycin or erythromycin are the antibiotics selected for most patients with community-acquired pneumonia; patients allergic to penicillins are given erythromycin instead of amoxicillin. In North America, where the "atypical" forms of community-acquired pneumonia are becoming more common, macrolides (such as azithromycin and clarithromycin), the fluoroquinolones, and doxycycline have displaced amoxicillin as first-line outpatient treatment for community-acquired pneumonia. The duration of treatment has traditionally been seven to ten days, but there is increasing evidence that shorter courses (as short as three days) are sufficient.
Antibiotics for hospital-acquired pneumonia include third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins, carbapenems, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, and vancomycin. These antibiotics are usually given intravenously. Multiple antibiotics may be administered in combination in an attempt to treat all of the possible causative microorganisms. Antibiotic choices vary from hospital to hospital because of regional differences in the most likely microorganisms, and because of differences in the microorganisms' abilities to resist various antibiotic treatments.
Viral pneumonia caused by influenza A may be treated with rimantadine or amantadine, while viral pneumonia caused by influenza A or B may be treated with oseltamivir or zanamivir. These treatments are beneficial only if they are started within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Many strains of H5N1 influenza A, also known as avian influenza or "bird flu," have shown resistance to rimantadine and amantadine. There are no known effective treatments for viral pneumonias caused by the SARS coronavirus, adenovirus, hantavirus, or parainfluenza virus.
There is no evidence to support the use of antibiotics in chemical pneumonitis without bacterial superinfection. If infection is present in aspiration pneumonia, the choice of antibiotic will depend on several factors, including the suspected causative organism and whether pneumonia was acquired in the community or developed in a hospital setting. Common options include clindamycin, a combination of a beta-lactam antibiotic and metronidazole, or an aminoglycoside. Corticosteroids are commonly used in aspiration pneumonia, but there is no evidence to support their use either.
Sometimes pneumonia can lead to additional complications. Complications are more frequently associated with bacterial pneumonia than with viral pneumonia. The most important complications include:
Because pneumonia affects the lungs, often people with pneumonia have difficulty breathing, and it may not be possible for them to breathe well enough to stay alive without support. Non-invasive breathing assistance may be helpful, such as with a bi-level positive airway pressure machine. In other cases, placement of an endotracheal tube (breathing tube) may be necessary, and a ventilator may be used to help the person breathe.
Pneumonia can also cause respiratory failure by triggering acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which results from a combination of infection and inflammatory response. The lungs quickly fill with fluid and become very stiff. This stiffness, combined with severe difficulties extracting oxygen due to the alveolar fluid, create a need for mechanical ventilation.
Sepsis and septic shock are potential complications of pneumonia. Sepsis occurs when microorganisms enter the bloodstream and the immune system responds by secreting cytokines. Sepsis most often occurs with bacterial pneumonia; Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause. Individuals with sepsis or septic shock need hospitalization in an intensive care unit. They often require intravenous fluids and medications to help keep their blood pressure from dropping too low. Sepsis can cause liver, kidney, and heart damage, among other problems, and it often causes death.
Occasionally, microorganisms infecting the lung will cause fluid (a pleural effusion) to build up in the space that surrounds the lung (the pleural cavity). If the microorganisms themselves are present in the pleural cavity, the fluid collection is called an empyema. When pleural fluid is present in a person with pneumonia, the fluid can often be collected with a needle (thoracentesis) and examined. Depending on the results of this examination, complete drainage of the fluid may be necessary, often requiring a chest tube. In severe cases of empyema, surgery may be needed. If the fluid is not drained, the infection may persist, because antibiotics do not penetrate well into the pleural cavity.
Rarely, bacteria in the lung will form a pocket of infected fluid called an abscess. Lung abscesses can usually be seen with a chest x-ray or chest CT scan. Abscesses typically occur in aspiration pneumonia and often contain several types of bacteria. Antibiotics are usually adequate to treat a lung abscess, but sometimes the abscess must be drained by a surgeon or radiologist.
With treatment, most types of bacterial pneumonia can be cleared within two to four weeks. Viral pneumonia may last longer, and mycoplasmal pneumonia may take four to six weeks to resolve completely. The eventual outcome of an episode of pneumonia depends on how ill the person is when he or she is first diagnosed.
The death rate (or mortality) also depends on the underlying cause of the pneumonia. Pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma, for instance, is associated with little mortality. However, about half of the people who develop methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia while on a ventilator will die. In regions of the world without advanced health care systems, pneumonia is even deadlier. Limited access to clinics and hospitals, limited access to x-rays, limited antibiotic choices, and inability to treat underlying conditions inevitably leads to higher rates of death from pneumonia. For these reasons, the majority of deaths in children under five due to pneumococcal disease occur in developing coutries.
Adenovirus can cause severe necrotizing pneumonia in which all or part of a lung has increased translucency radiographically, which is called Swyer-James Syndrome. Severe adenovirus pneumonia also may result in bronchiolitis obliterans, a subacute inflammatory process in which the small airways are replaced by scar tissue, resulting in a reduction in lung volume and lung compliance.
Clinical prediction rules have been developed to more objectively prognosticate outcomes in pneumonia. These rules can be helpful in deciding whether or not to hospitalize the person.
Pneumonia is a common illness in all parts of the world. It is a major cause of death among all age groups. In children, many of these deaths occur in the newborn period. The World Health Organization estimates that one in three newborn infant deaths are due to pneumonia. Over two million children under five die each year worldwide. WHO also estimates that up to 1 million of these (vaccine preventable) deaths are caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, and over 90% of these deaths take place in developing countries. Mortality from pneumonia generally decreases with age until late adulthood. Elderly individuals, however, are at particular risk for pneumonia and associated mortality. Because of the very high burden of disease in developing countries and because of a relatively low awareness of the disease in industrialized countries, the global health community has declared November 2 to be World Pneumonia Day, a day for concerned citizens and policy makers to take action against the disease.
In the United Kingdom, the annual incidence of pneumonia is approximately 6 cases for every 1000 people for the 18–39 age group. For those over 75 years of age, this rises to 75 cases for every 1000 people. Roughly 20–40% of individuals who contract pneumonia require hospital admission of which between 5–10% are admitted to a critical care unit. Similarly, the mortality rate in the UK is around 5–10%.
More cases of pneumonia occur during the winter months than during other times of the year. Pneumonia occurs more commonly in males than females, and more often in Blacks than Caucasians due to differences in synthesizing Vitamin D from sunlight. Individuals with underlying illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, tobacco smoking, alcoholism, or immune system problems are at increased risk for pneumonia. These individuals are also more likely to have repeated episodes of pneumonia. People who are hospitalized for any reason are also at high risk for pneumonia.
The symptoms of pneumonia were described by Hippocrates (c. 460 BC – 370 BC):
Peripneumonia, and pleuritic affections, are to be thus observed: If the fever be acute, and if there be pains on either side, or in both, and if expiration be if cough be present, and the sputa expectorated be of a blond or livid color, or likewise thin, frothy, and florid, or having any other character different from the common... When pneumonia is at its height, the case is beyond remedy if he is not purged, and it is bad if he has dyspnoea, and urine that is thin and acrid, and if sweats come out about the neck and head, for such sweats are bad, as proceeding from the suffocation, rales, and the violence of the disease which is obtaining the upper hand.
However, Hippocrates referred to pneumonia as a disease "named by the ancients." He also reported the results of surgical drainage of empyemas. Maimonides (1138–1204 AD) observed "The basic symptoms which occur in pneumonia and which are never lacking are as follows: acute fever, sticking [pleuritic] pain in the side, short rapid breaths, serrated pulse and cough." This clinical description is quite similar to those found in modern textbooks, and it reflected the extent of medical knowledge through the Middle Ages into the 19th century.
Bacteria were first seen in the airways of individuals who died from pneumonia by Edwin Klebs in 1875. Initial work identifying the two common bacterial causes Streptococcus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae was performed by Carl Friedländer and Albert Fränkel in 1882 and 1884, respectively. Friedländer's initial work introduced the Gram stain, a fundamental laboratory test still used to identify and categorize bacteria. Christian Gram's paper describing the procedure in 1884 helped differentiate the two different bacteria and showed that pneumonia could be caused by more than one microorganism.
Sir William Osler, known as "the father of modern medicine," appreciated the morbidity and mortality of pneumonia, describing it as the "captain of the men of death" in 1918, as it had overtaken tuberculosis as one of the leading causes of death in his time. (The phrase was originally coined by John Bunyan with regard to consumption, or tuberculosis. ) However, several key developments in the 1900s improved the outcome for those with pneumonia. With the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics, modern surgical techniques, and intensive care in the twentieth century, mortality from pneumonia dropped precipitously in the developed world. Vaccination of infants against Haemophilus influenzae type b began in 1988 and led to a dramatic decline in cases shortly thereafter. Vaccination against Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults began in 1977 and in children began in 2000, resulting in a similar decline.
Normal AP CXR
Normal lateral CXR
AP CXR showing left lower lobe pneumonia associated with a small left sided pleural effusion
AP CXR showing right lower lobe pneumonia
A lateral CXR showing right lower lobe pneumonia
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Multnomah Speaker Series
Tuesday, November 14, 7pm • Tabor Space, 5441 SE Belmont St. Portland
In 2016, the subject of heavy metals, especially in the Portland metro area, was an area of concern for many home owners. The words “heavy metals”, as they relate to health, always cause a lot of anxiety, especially for parents with young children. Should we be concerned? What is a heavy metal? Is it possible there could be some benefits from ingesting some types of heavy metals? These are questions to which many people seek answers. Please join us as Sam Angima, Oregon State University, talks about heavy metals in our gardening and landscape spaces.
Come and learn about arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, chromium, copper, zinc, nickel, and mercury as they relate to your gardening and health expectations. We will discuss the major things you need to know about heavy metals, how to test your soils for heavy metals and whether all heavy metals in our soils are dangerous.
Sam Angima, Oregon State University
Dr. Angima is an agronomist by profession and understands crop production processes and issues that hinder plant growth and health. His current role at Oregon State University as the Asst. Dean for Agricultural Extension is to work with all faculty and staff as well as community groups and businesses to ensure that the needs of communities are met as they relate to education. Dr. Angima’s history of strong and positive leadership is the mainstay of his administrative work along with his willingness to listen and discuss creative ideas that strengthen the OSU-community partnerships across Oregon.
Our Community Demonstration Garden
The Demo Garden is winding down for the year. It’s been a very productive season, with our total harvest reaching 2116 pounds of which 2036 pounds was donated to local food banks. Master Gardeners donated 289 pounds from their own gardens to add to that total. Sixty-eight MGs volunteered at least 2668 hours of their time to make this possible. We had 133 visitors, including a wonderful class of kids from an alternative high school who had a great time learning about the garden and harvesting produce to make a yummy salsa for an afternoon treat.
We’ve started work on the new Annex with building a shed, marking paths and beds and beginning to dig out the paths and mulch beds. There is lots of work to be done in the Annex, so watch for notices of a work day when weather permits. Donations of cardboard for lasagna mulching would be most appreciated. Monday, November 6 will be our last day in the garden for 2017. We’ll start up again in February and hope to see you then.
Coming Up Next Month...
Winter Greens Gathering
Tuesday, December 12
TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont
6:30pm (note early start)
Spend an evening with fellow Master Gardeners. Enjoy sweet treats, lovely music and warm beverages, while Chapter gurus and friends offer guidance in making your wreath, swag, centerpiece or other creative decorations.
We are excited that fellow Master Gardeners flutist, Lynda Hess and violinist, Sally Campbell will serenade our Greens Gathering with both familiar holiday tunes along with short Baroque-era classical duets. Making for a truly special event.
Note: crafting is optional. This is also a great evening just to come, listen to beautiful music and socialize.
The Chapter will supply some greens, but we’d love to have cuttings from your garden to share, too:
- Evergreen boughs,
- incense cedar (a favorite!)
- rosemary (15” stems work well in wreaths)
- anything with berries (beauty berry, juniper, or nandina)
- interesting cones or seedpods, attractive textures, variegation, or bark.
You’ll need decorating supplies – wreath rings, baskets, vases, or other items that can be used to create a beautiful winter arrangement/wreath or swag. Please bring items for yourself or extras that you would like to share.
The Chapter will have wire, oasis, and some ribbon.
Bring your own pruners, wire cutters, gloves, containers for arrangements and ribbon.
Multnomah County Master Gardeners - Contact us at: firstname.lastname@example.org
Grapevine Editor—Lorna Schilling 503-334-5162, email@example.com | <urn:uuid:0dc36e64-3d5e-4a75-8f9b-897188765b60> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www.multnomahmastergardeners.org/grapevine201711 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814140.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20180222160706-20180222180706-00756.warc.gz | en | 0.933111 | 950 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Why the Crusades Were Not a ‘Clash of Civilizations’
Ask pretty much anyone – whether terrorists, politicians (of all camps), dinner party guests, or religious leaders – and the one thing that they will say with confidence about the Crusades is that they were a conflict between two diametrically opposed religions: Christianity and Islam – a clash of civilizations. This is a widely-held judgement – but is it correct?
The First Crusade (1095-1099) – the massive expedition that marched across Europe and the Middle East to capture Jerusalem – underlines some of the difficulties surrounding this toxic assessment. These became evident during research I conducted for two books: Encountering Islam on the First Crusade and The Field of Blood : The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East (forthcoming).
Problems become clear from the campaign’s outset. The documents produced by crusaders preparing for the journey, known as charters, only occasionally mention any enemy and concentrate their attention on reaching and conquering Jerusalem.
A romantic 19 th century vision of Godfrey de Bouillon and the leaders of the first Crusade, 1095-99. ( Public Domain )
Of course, they knew that achieving this objective would require warfare, but they demonstrated little interest in their enemies’ identity, often labelling them as “pagans” – essentially, “non-Christians”. Jerusalem at this time was steadily moving into the epicenter of contemporary religious culture and it was this goal that galvanized thousands to participate, not the desire to attack an enemy religion.
The pope’s military objectives were more mixed. In addition to Jerusalem, Pope Urban II also wanted crusading knights to defend the distant Byzantine Empire against attack – but this aspiration does not seem to have resonated with his audience in the same way as the thought of reaching the Holy Land.
- The Children's Crusade: Thousands of Children March to Holy Land but Never Return
- Godfrey of Bouillon: Leader in the First Crusades and Ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Unmasking King Richard: Does the Lionhearted King of England Have a Better Reputation Than He Deserves?
Godfrey de Bouillon passing the Jordan and killing a camel. ( Public Domain )
Uninformed and Uninterested
By extension, throughout the crusade, the Franks (crusaders) proved both uninformed and uninterested in the Islamic faith (or the “Saracen law” as it was known). They knew “Saracens” to be non-Christians and some were vaguely aware of the division between Sunni and Shia Islam, but rarely more. A few thought, erroneously, that Muslims were polytheists. Even many years after the crusade, one 12th century Western writer, William of Malmesbury, in his Gesta Regum Anglorum , found it necessary to explain that “Saracens” did not practice the same faith as Baltic pagans.
In short, Jerusalem, not Islam, was the target and they knew little about this religion.
Battle of Antioch 1098, ( Public Domain )
On campaign, the crusaders’ main opponents were the Seljuk Turks. The Turks were originally a largely shamanistic and nomadic people who had migrated from the Central Asian Steppe region to conquer much of the Muslim world during the century preceding the crusade. They had seized Syria and the Holy Land only 20 years previously.
By the 1090s, the Turks had begun to convert to Islam but many retained elements of their former beliefs. During the crusade – and in later decades – observers noted that some Turks still (among other things): buried their dead with grave goods, scalped enemies, and conducted colossal drinking parties. All these customs reflected their former traditions and many of these and other practices conflicted with Islamic teaching. So the Turks – the crusaders’ main opponents – were hardly longstanding adherents of Islam but instead were part of the way through a long-term process of religious transition.
- Mystery of the Knights Templars: Protectors or Treasure Hunters on a Secret Mission?
- The Mysterious Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod and its Legendary Protective Powers
- The Krak des Chevaliers: Can this Crusader Fortress Survive the Current Syrian Conflict?
Peter the Hermit preaching the First Crusade - from the painting by James Archer. ( Public Domain )
Then, with the escalating conflict brought about by the crusaders’ advance into Turkish territory, several local peoples rebelled against the Turks. These included many native Muslim communities who wanted to throw off their Turkish overlords. And while some were prepared to fight against the crusaders, many remained neutral and some – especially following the crusade – sought crusader assistance (which the crusaders were prepared to offer). Some Bedouin tribes began to cooperate with the Franks soon after the First Crusade.
The crusade’s final act occurred in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem from the Fatimids (the Shia Muslim rulers of Egypt), following a hard-fought siege. The city’s fall concluded with a general massacre of its population (around 3,000 people were killed, both Muslims and Jews) that was explicitly described by its perpetrators as an act of religious cleansing.
This deed has long been taken as proof of the crusaders’ anti-Islamic hatred. Even so, there are problems with this kind of assessment. The crusaders’ actions in Jerusalem are not mirrored by their behavior towards Muslims elsewhere. They did perpetrate several massacres throughout the crusade. In the Near East these typically occurred when a town refused to surrender to their forces and consequently was taken by storm. Having said this, they were also open on other occasions to cooperative action and treaties with the Near East’s non-Christian powers.
Detail of a medieval miniature of the Siege of Antioch from Sébastien Mamerot's Les Passages d'Outremer ( Public Domain )
Indeed, since 1097 both the Fatimids and the crusaders had been trying to forge a mutually beneficial alliance against the Turks. It was only when these talks collapsed that the crusaders’ initiated their siege on Jerusalem. They also admired many of the enemy leaders and warriors who they encountered, either over the negotiating table or on the field of battle, noting their strengths and virtues. One source, entitled the Gesta Francorum , even suggested that the Turks and Franks might be related to one another.
It seems more likely that the massacre was connected more to the crusaders’ ideological ideas surrounding the sanctity of Jerusalem itself than to any specifically anti-Islamic sentiment. According to this script, the crusaders deemed any non-Christian presence within its walls to be spiritually unacceptable, but this did not inhibit cooperation elsewhere.
In this way, the crusade was an event of enormous brutality, yet it defies easy classification as a clash of civilizations. The crusaders were not generally interested in Muslims/Islam, aside from the plain fact that they were non-Christians. They were prepared to ally with Muslim communities when it served their purposes and their primary opponents were only partially Islamified. The regions’ local Muslim populace found itself trapped between two conquerors (crusaders and Turks) and forced to take sides, many opting to resist the Turks.
It is fashionable today in some circles to characterize the First Crusade as a “clash of civilizations”, but in the 11th century, the reality was considerably more nuanced.
Top image: Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099, Emile Signol ( Public Domain )
The article ‘ Why the Crusades were not a ‘clash of civilizations ’ by Nicholas Morton was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license. | <urn:uuid:1ba763c0-b64d-43e6-a6ca-fbf89a79d3b1> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/why-crusades-were-not-clash-civilizations-009142 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499819.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130133622-20230130163622-00800.warc.gz | en | 0.968036 | 1,616 | 2.96875 | 3 |
What are Social Problems?
- A social issue is any circumstance or conduct that is considered to have negative consequences for the majority of individuals and is generally accepted as a problem that requires attention.
- The phrase “social problem” is often used to mean a social issue that causes distress or harm to the community i.e crimes, racism.
- Social problems are an issue within the social structures that make it hard for individuals to reach their maximum potential. Examples of social issues include poverty, unemployment unequal opportunities, racism, and malnutrition, etc.
- social issues do not just impact a lot of people directly but also impact everyone indirectly. A drug-abusing driver is a possible traffic accident and does not pick its victims according to race or color however, it does so at random.
- As per Reinhardt, “A situation confronting a group or a section of society which inflicts injurious consequences that can be handled only collectively”.
- As per Walsh as well as Furfey, “deviation from the social ideal remediable by group effort”.
- As per Fuller as well as Myers,” condition which is identified by a significant amount of people as a departure from accepted social norms that they believe in”.
- Merton as well as Nisbet identify the social issue in terms of “a way of behavior that is regarded by a substantial part of a social order as being in violation of one or more generally accepted or approved norms”.
- Raab, as well as Selznick, have described social issues as “a problem in human relationships which seriously threatens society or impedes the important aspirations of many people”.
- Based on Horton as well as Leslie, A social issue refers to “a condition affecting a significant number of people in ways considered undesirable, about which it is felt that something can be done through collective social action”. | <urn:uuid:35b7ec74-44d9-448a-be46-2a5905804a98> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://cuitutorial.com/courses/data-base/lessons/what-are-social-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224654031.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608003500-20230608033500-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.968491 | 400 | 3.4375 | 3 |
How to Read Music - Tempo & Dynamics
So far, in learning how to read music, you've studied all of the mechanical details that you need to know, just to read the music. Now, it's time to learn the 'art' of making music.
To do that, you'll need to learn:
- how softly or how loud to play
- how fast or how slow to play
- when to slow down or speed up
- when to hold a note for longer than its time value
- when to play short, choppy notes
- when to play smooth notes that flow together
- much more!
There's so much to cover that I won't be able to do it all here, but I can get you started on the most important stuff.
Part of learning how to read music is knowing how fast to play. In piano music, we call the speed at which we play "tempo".
There are a couple of different ways songwriters tell us what tempo to play. You'll almost always see something in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of the music that tells you what the tempo should be.
In most popular music, there's just a general description such as "play it like a ballad". In this case, it's up to you to use your judgment about what that means.
Sometimes, especially in classical music, you'll see a word in Italian. These words are generally understood to represent specific speed ranges.
Most metronomes will give you a range of how many beats per minute for each Italian tempo, like this:
|Tempo ||Meaning ||Beats |
|Largo ||broadly ||40-60 |
|Larghetto ||rather broadly" ||60-66 |
|Adagio ||slow and stately, at ease ||66-76 |
|Andante ||at walking pace ||76-108 |
|Moderato ||moderately ||108-120 |
|Allegro ||fast, quickly and brightly ||120-168 |
|Presto ||very fast ||168-200 |
|Prestissimo ||extremely fast ||200-208 |
For more tempos and their meanings, see Wikipedia's article on music tempo.
A Tiny Note
Another way we indicate tempo is by placing a tiny note with an equal sign and a range of speeds in that same place, at the upper left hand corner.
For example, you might see a tiny dotted quarter note, indicating that each tick or beep of the metronome represents a dotted quarter note's worth of time at the indicated speed.
Using a Metronome
Timing can be difficult, but it's one of the most important parts of learning how to read music. It's easy to hold notes too long, or not long enough.
The best tool in the world for working out timing issues is a metronome. A metronome can be either electronic, with buttons to adjust speed, or mechanical, with a dial or pendulum and a weight that slides up and down to control speed.
As a general rule, every time the metronome ticks or beeps, that's one beat. So if you're reading in "four-four" time, each tick or beep of the metronome is one quarter note, with other note values being different fractions of beats or combinations of beats.
Practice playing the music until you have no trouble following the metronome. You'll know you've got your timing down when it starts to feel like your fingers pressing the keys are what's driving the metronome.
Sometimes changing the number of beats per tick can help you figure out the timing more easily.
For example, you might see a tiny dotted quarter note indicating one beat per dotted quarter note, with a time signature of "six-eight". In this case, it might actually be easier to figure out what speed you want to go, then multiply that by three so each tick fits an eighth note instead.
This way, if you're having trouble fitting three eighth notes inside of a beat, you have a way to work out how it should all sound together.
AS you learn how to read music, I think you'll find the metronome to be indispensable at helping you figure out the timing.
In addition to tempo, there are other things you need to know as you're learning how to read music.
In piano music, there are symbols that indicate how soft or loud to play, when and how long to gradually play softer or louder, whether to play smoothly - legato - or choppy - stacato, and a whole lot more. We'll only be able to cover some of it here, but this will give you all the most important symbols that tell you how to read music.
Like the tempo names, the words we use to indicate "soft" or "loud" are also Italian. The symbols you see in the music are abbreviations of those words.
This chart shows the most common dynamics ranging from "pianissimo possibile" - softest possible - to "fortissimo possibile" - loudest possible:
|Dynamic ||Name ||Meaning |
|p ||piano ||soft |
|ƒ ||forte ||strong |
|mp ||mezzo-piano ||moderately soft |
|mƒ ||mezzo-forte ||moderately strong |
|pp ||pianissimo ||very soft |
|ƒƒ ||fortissimo ||very strong |
|ppp ||pianissimo possible ||softest possible |
|ƒƒƒ ||fortissimo possibile ||strongest possible |
For more information about music dynamics, see Wikipedia's article on music dynamics.
Getting Louder, Getting Softer
The chart above shows how to know fixed levels of "loudness" or "softness". But what if the music is supposed to get gradually louder or softer? Part of learning how to read music is knowing when, for how long, and how quickly to get louder or softer.
To get gradually louder, we use what's called a crescendo. This looks like a 'less-than' sign, only it's stretched out for however long you're supposed to be gradually getting louder.
To get gradually softer, we use a decrescendo. As you might guess, this looks like a 'greater-than' sign and does exactly the opposite: it tells you to gradually soften until the decrescendo ends.
Quite often, at the right end of a crescendo or decrescendo, you'll see softness or loudness indicated, showing what level you're transitioning to.
Faster and Slower
Another part of learning how to read music is learning when to play faster and when to play slower. When you need to slow the music down, you'll see the italian word 'ritardo' or an abbreviation of it - 'rit.'. When it's time to go back to playing normal speed, you'll see 'a tempo', meaning 'at tempo'.
Hold a Note Indefinitely
Sometimes, you'll hear music seem to pause for emphasis. When you are supposed to hold a note for longer than it's indicated value, you'll see a fermata. It looks like a bird's eye hanging above or below the note you're supposed to hold.
One last part of learning how to read music: knowing when to play sudden, short notes, and when to blend the notes together.
When we play short, choppy, sudden notes, this is called "staccato". This is shown by a dot above or below the note.
When we blend the notes together and play them smoothly and evenly, this is called "legato", meaning "linked". For this, you'll usually see the word 'legato', or you'll see slurs joining a series of notes that need to flow together.
Now You Know
Now you know how to tell what tempo to play at, and how to read some of the more common dynamics symbols. These may not seem as important as learning how to find 'A' above middle 'C' on a clef or knowing how long to hold a half note, but I still think tempo and dynamics are the most important part of learning how to read music.
These dynamics add emotion, and that's the whole reason for having the music in the first place.
You wouldn't play Brahms Lullaby at 'fortissimo' or like it's a military march. Nor would you play your national anthem at 'pianissimo', like a lullaby.
If you've ever heard the Star Wars anthem, you know that parts of it are softer and parts are louder.
When the music gets louder, you can almost hear the rythmic cadence of boots marching down the halls of the Death Star, with the Empire's stormtroopers goose-stepping, closer and closer... and closer.
When it gets softer again, you can almost see the rebel fighter ships disappearing, victorious, into the vast expanse of space, their hyper-drives blurring the stars around them.
A faster tempo evokes the high-speed chase, rebels evading the Empire on Ewok speeders, while a slower tempo lets us feel what Luke and Leia were feeling when they learned they were brother and sister.
As Für Elise gets louder and then softer, faster and then slower again, you can relate to Beethoven's sweet, powerful feelings for his beloved Elise, ebbing and flowing with the music.
You're not really done learning how to read music until you can play it with feeling - and that's why we have tempo and dynamics.
Back to Learn Piano online...
Done learning how to read music? Look around some more!
Are you itching to try your hand at some simple Star Wars music? Pick out an
Easy Star Wars Piano
Looking for something a little more advanced? Try this:
All Star Wars Piano Music.
Feeling like playing some classical music? How about some
Easy Für Elise
for the piano? Or maybe you'd like to learn an
Easy Brahms Lullaby
Wittner Taktell Super-Mini metronome
Wikipedia Music Tempo
Wikipedia Music Dynamics | <urn:uuid:c15aa0be-5b6f-4e48-a89f-56042ac1861b> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.enjoy-your-piano.com/how-to-read-music-tempo-dynamics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997893859.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025813-00106-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93164 | 2,165 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Do you find your car battery dead quite often? If so, then your car may be experiencing the problem of battery drainage, leading to an exhausted battery. Most of the times unwanted battery drainage is caused due to prolonged switched on headlights, the radio system or the internal lights when the car is not running. Again, it may be your proximity keys which always keep scanning for radio signals or your music system in the stand by mode. Apart from these visible reasons, there are some minute facts which may cause your battery to drain away slowly. These may be untidiness of the battery, a leaked battery or inappropriateness of the wires used for the various electrical and electronic gadgets in your car. Here are some checkpoints which will help you to watch out for a car battery drain:
Car Battery Drain
Difficulty level: Easy
Time required: It varies person to person.
- A low range multi-meter (having milli ampere current measuring range)
- A screwdriver (you can use the one in your car's utility box)
- A rag (to clean the battery terminals, if found dirty)
Frequently asked questions1. Which devices mostly cause a car battery drain?
- First of all, let us check if there is any minute battery drain in your car. Switch off and disconnect each and every electrical and electronic gadget in your car which makes use of the battery. These equipments are nothing but your radio, music system, internal lights, GPS system, proximity key sensor, etc. Thereafter, connect the meter in series by removing any fuse connected directly with the battery terminals. Alternately, you can also remove a battery terminal and connect the meter in series with the whole electrical circuitry of your car. Switch on the multimeter and put it in the ammeter mode within the range of 2 A or 200 mA. If you find about 10-20 mA reading in the meter, then this is the residual current drainage that is occurring from your battery.
- If your car is suffering from an abnormal battery drain, check your battery physically for dirt or loose connections. Both dirt and loose connection at the terminals may cause the battery to die down slowly. Loose connections generate heat, putting an extra load on the battery. If found, loose connections should be fixed properly to save the battery. Keep the battery and it's terminals clean using a rag or duster.
- Switch off all electrical gadgets and systems in your car when it is not running. When you need to leave your car in a parking lot for a week, make sure that no electrical component is running inside which may drain away your battery.
- Many speakers (usually the ones which are not the branded ones) come with wires with poor conductivity and more resistance. These causes more power loss causing your battery to die off. If the amplifiers fail to go to standby, the speakers stay powered for a long time exhausting the battery even if they are not producing any sound. Thus always use a music system manufactured by a good brand for your car.
It is your proximity sensor key always scanning for radio signals or your massive sound system which hasn't switched over to the stand-by mode when your car is in the parking lot. It may also be your GPS receiver always tracking your position by communicating with the GPS satellites.
2. How frequently do I need to check my battery?
Well, you should go for a scheduled car battery checkup once in every 2-3 months. Physically examine the battery and replace it if any major problem is found.
Things to watch out for:
- Don't forget to turn off the internal lights or dim lights when you park your car.
- Switch over the audio systems to the stand by mode when not in use.
- Unplug any unused mobile or laptop charger plug as it drains your battery even if they are not charging anything, when connected to the mains.
- If your car battery is still dying away despite following the above steps, better visit a good technician and have it inspected.
- Always look out for short circuited terminals. Your d.c. battery will produce sparks if the terminals get shorted by any means or gets touched with the ground circuit.
- While checking your battery's current drain with a meter, do not do any stupid things like switching on your headlight or blowing the horn as it will draw a large amount of current from the battery, thus blowing off the fuse of the meter (as the meter will then be in a low ampere range).
- Always have the maintenance manual of your vehicle by your hand and strictly follow the instructions therein to open the battery cover or dismantle the battery. | <urn:uuid:a4260791-d873-41d1-be1b-af003a0186e9> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.automotto.com/entry/stop-car-battery-drains/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535921550.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20140901014521-00065-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925663 | 958 | 2.65625 | 3 |
When a loved one begins to show troublesome signs of changes in behavior, especially if related to memory, understanding the why behind the behavior is extremely important. Dementia is only the word used to describe the collection of changed behaviors, not a separate disease. They are only symptoms pointing to a variety of different causes. Often, symptoms may be the result of physical problems or illness unrelated to long term dementia. Examples might be urinary tract infections or other causes for which treatments might eliminate the problem behaviors.
Managing and treating dementia behaviors depends in great measure on knowing which underlying disease is behind the change. Not only does understanding enable proper treatment, it can impact long term care planning and the necessary legal documents.
For example, knowing which disease(s) may be involved helps project the time-frame for asset preservation strategies, the kinds of documents and interventions that may be required along the way, and the variety of supportive services available. Most importantly, it gives guidance as to what care options might be needed as the disease progresses, for example, home-care, assisted living, memory care or skilled nursing.
WHAT IS DEMENTIA?
Dementia is a descriptor for changes in a variety of behaviors:
MEMORY - look for changes in ability to retain new learning and recall. Memory involves the processes of encoding, storing and retrieving information. In dementia, making new memories is generally most impaired. That is why individuals with dementia can often remember minute details from their past, but be unable to remember what they did ten minutes earlier.
LANGUAGE - look for what is referred to as aphasia. Individuals with aphasia may have one or more of these problems:
Difficulties producing language:
- difficulty coming up with the words; finding the wrong words
(e.g., “beef” for “steak”);
- switching word sounds (e.g., “wave migrator” for “microwaver”);
- difficulty putting words together to form sentences;
- making sentences that flow, but make no sense.
Difficulty understanding language:
- misunderstanding, especially when spoken fast (e.g., radio or television news);
- finding it hard to understand what is said in large groups or with loud background noise (e.g., in restaurants);
- misinterpreting jokes or taking figures of speech literally
(e.g., “he eats like a pig”; “she’s dying of shame.”)
Difficulty reading and writing:
VISUAL - look for what is referred to as agnosia, difficulties with visual/spatial matters. Individuals with agnosia may have one of more of these problems:
- inability to locate items in space;
- inability to identify (e.g., faces or objects)
MOVEMENT - Apraxia refers to movement issues that are not related to physical causes. Apraxia can occur in a variety of forms. For example, someone suffering from orofacial apraxia is unable to voluntarily perform certain movements involving facial muscles (e.g., inability to lick their lips or wink). Apraxia can also affect a person’s ability to intentionally move their arms or legs.
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION - look for changes in a person’s ability to organize ideas or the flow of steps in a complex task (e.g., organizing or following schedules for medications) or exercise good judgement (e.g., handing someone a blank check to fill out).
WHAT ILLNESSES CAN DEMENTIA POINT TO?
Symptom and behavior management and treatment require as clear as possible correct diagnosis of the underlying disease. Treatment for the wrong disease in someone showing signs of dementia can be like pouring kerosene on an open fire.
Here are five different diagnoses that can be made in dementia:
Lewy Body Disease
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Let’s look at each one.
Alzheimer’s Disease (generally slow decline with plateaus of stability)
This is a brain pathology that reveals itself through structures that over-run the brain and are believed to be the source of damaging and killing of brain cells. Plaques are deposits of protein fragments called beta-amyloid which build up in the spaces between nerve cells. The other, Tangles, are twisted fibers of another protein called tau that build up inside cells. Though most people develop some plaques and tangles as they age, those with Alzheimer’s tend to develop far more. They also tend to develop them in a predictable pattern, beginning in areas important for memory before spreading to other regions. While scientists don’t know specifically the role of plaques and tangles in Alzheimer’s, it is suspected that they block communication among nerve cells and disrupt processes that cells need to survive. It is this destruction and death of nerve cells that causes the memory failure, personality changes, problems in performing daily activities and the other symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Vascular Dementia (progressive decline)
Vascular dementia is a dementia generally related to stroke or similar brain traumas. VD can show a progression as the number of strokes or TIAs (small stroke incidents) increase. Often it will appear as a focal deficit (a neurological problem affecting a specific location (e.g., the left side of the face, the left arm or even a small area of the tongue.)
Lewy Body Disease (LBD) (often rapid, dramatic declines)
Pathologically, LBD is characterized by the development of abnormal collections of certain kinds of protein within the cytoplasm of neurons (these proteins are known as Lewy bodies.) These are intracellular collections of protein and are very similar to the pathologies associated with Parkinson’s disease. For many, it is like having Parkinson’s without the tremors. It presents itself via difficulties in balance, falls, blackouts and often hallucinations.
Frontal-temporal Dementia (progressive)
Frontal-temporal disorders are the result of damage to neurons (nerve cells) in the parts of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes. As neurons die in these regions, they atrophy, or shrink. Gradually, this damage causes difficulties in thinking and behaviors normally controlled by these parts of the brain. For example, victims may exhibit inappropriate social behaviors such as bizarre dress (e.g., dressing for work without socks and shoes) or shouting in a theater as well as focusing on insignificant matters while ignoring serious ones (e.g., focusing on the style of sunglasses the officer who puller her over is wearing).
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
MCI is generally the diagnosis for individuals who are experiencing isolated episodes of memory loss or mild changes in a number of areas of thinking. These difficulties don’t impact activities of daily living but are nevertheless noticeable; which can cause distress both in the individual experiencing the changes as well as those around him. In a society where the concern for Alzheimer’s disease is so strong, these experiences can be terrifying. However, examination by a health-care professional trained in the differential diagnoses of dementia can determine if the experiences are precursors to Alzheimer’s or the impact of physical ailments or other causes such as depression. | <urn:uuid:f32c0d81-68d5-455e-b0dc-98f2387e22f0> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.wiesnerlaw.com/news/2019/september/isn-t-it-all-dementia-/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704833804.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20210127214413-20210128004413-00108.warc.gz | en | 0.929215 | 1,529 | 3.625 | 4 |
By Kristin Schrader
Waterfowlers mark time according to the season and where the ducks are. From spring courtship flights and summer brood-rearing to the fall migration and wintering period, waterfowl use a variety of habitats throughout the year. Thanks to sound science, we know more than ever about what these magnificent birds need to thrive during their annual journey. Ducks Unlimited's continental conservation work supports waterfowl throughout all phases of their life cycle. In the Atlantic Flyway, the aptly named Completing the Cycle Initiative will focus on the most important threats to waterfowl populations in this region and ensure that the birds return to their breeding grounds healthy and ready to successfully reproduce.
The Completing the Cycle Initiative area stretches from Maryland north to Ontario, Québec, and Canada's Atlantic Provinces, a region that supports millions of breeding, migrating, and wintering ducks and geese. At least 34 species of waterfowl migrate through or winter in this initiative area. Many of the Atlantic Flyway's remaining wetlands are in close proximity to some of the most populated areas of the United States and Canada. Key habitats include wetlands associated with Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain River Valleys, Lakes Erie and Ontario, the hardwood and Boreal forests of eastern Canada, and the northeast Atlantic coastal zones. These wetlands are not only vital to the needs of waterfowl, but also provide recreation, improved water quality, and flood protection for millions of people.
The Completing the Cycle Initiative is DU's approach to addressing the extensive habitat loss that has occurred in this region. The health of waterfowl populations depends on high-quality habitat at every stage of their life cycle. The American black duck, for instance, migrates thousands of miles between its breeding and wintering grounds each year. Black ducks that winter along the Atlantic coast breed from Maine to Ontario to Newfoundland, largely on beaver ponds and other freshwater wetlands in the eastern Boreal Forest. Many of these birds fly south in fall across the lower Great Lakes before finally arriving on their wintering grounds in coastal areas of Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
Common eiders will also benefit from the Completing the Cycle Initiative. These sea ducks primarily nest on rocky islands off the coasts of eastern and northern Canada and winter along the New England coast as far south as Massachusetts. They migrate along the coastline between their breeding and wintering grounds, relying on mussels and other invertebrates to sustain them during their travels.
HELPING MILLIONS OF WATERFOWL COMPLETE THE CYCLE The Completing the Cycle Initiative area is located in the northeastern portion of the Atlantic Flyway. This landscape provides vital habitat for a great abundance and diversity of waterfowl, including:
- An estimated 2.5 million breeding ducks from Maine to Virginia, and an estimated 4.5 million in Canada
- The majority of American black ducks
- Approximately half of the continent's canvasbacks
- The bulk of wintering Atlantic Population Canada geese
- The majority of the eastern population of black scoters
- The entire population of Atlantic brant/li>
DU utilizes an assortment of conservation tools to provide habitat for breeding, migrating, and wintering waterfowl, and one of the most effective is public policy. The 2014 Farm Bill, for example, created a new Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which merges several existing programs and provides funding incentives for state, federal, private, and nongovernmental organizations to form conservation partnerships to improve the health of major watersheds. Such conservation partnerships have been highly successful in the past, and that model will continue to serve waterfowl well through this new program.
The North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) has contributed to the conservation of almost 27 million acres of habitat across North America, including many key projects in the Completing the Cycle Initiative area. NAWCA remains one of the most important sources of funding for wetlands conservation, and its reauthorization is at the top of DU's public-policy priority list. This voluntary, nonregulatory program is a bargain for taxpayers, as every federal dollar allocated through NAWCA is matched with more than three dollars from nonfederal sources.
Because waterfowl do not recognize international borders, DU must work across North America to ensure a bright future for these magnificent birds and the people who enjoy them. Your gift to DU's Completing the Cycle Initiative will support crucial waterfowl habitat conservation work not only in the Atlantic Flyway, but also in the Prairie Pothole Region, Western Boreal Forest, and lower Great Lakes—the areas where the majority of this continent's waterfowl are raised. For more information about how you can support the Completing the Cycle Initiative, visit the DU website at ducks.org/DUinitiatives.
Kristin Schrader is a regional communications manager at DU's Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SALT MARSH RESTORATION FOR BLACK DUCKS There isn't a more iconic waterfowl species in the Atlantic Flyway than the American black duck. Unfortunately, populations of these prized birds have declined significantly over the long term. DU's efforts to stem this decline have focused on conserving key salt marsh habitats on important black duck staging and wintering areas along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Habitat managers assume that salt marsh restoration will increase the abundance and accessibility of foods important to black ducks. These resources should result in greater use of restored habitats, increased winter survival, and improved body condition among black ducks prior to the breeding season. However, it's unclear how many black ducks can be supported by existing habitats and how the birds are responding to ongoing restoration efforts.
Through a cooperative research project, Ducks Unlimited and several partners are working to understand the relationship between salt marsh restoration activities and the health, behavior, and movements of black ducks. Data will be collected over four field seasons on three study sites in Connecticut: Silver Sands State Park, Great Harbor Wildlife Management Area, and Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. Silver Sands State Park will undergo habitat restoration activities in 2014, while the other two areas will serve as control sites. Information gathered from this work will help guide coastal habitat restoration and protection efforts to benefit black ducks and other waterfowl along the Atlantic coast. Currently entering its second field season, this research is supported by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Black Duck Joint Venture, Waterfowl Research Foundation Inc., Camp Fire Conservation Fund Inc., and Ducks Unlimited. | <urn:uuid:471aea80-b5fa-4a5e-b113-29201c787013> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://www.ducks.org/conservation/du-conservation-initiatives/completing-the-cycle-initiative/the-completing-the-cycle-initiative/page2/poe/mostrecent | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806070.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20171120145722-20171120165722-00456.warc.gz | en | 0.932993 | 1,359 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The new highly infectious Delta variant of COVID is making more and more child victims and the number of children hospitalized in Texas Children’s campuses is now higher than ever. What is worst, most children also suffer from RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), a virus which can be particularly dangerous for children as it leads to numerous deaths and hospitalizations for children worldwide. In 2020, the Respiratory Syncytial Virus did not represent a major risk as it was mostly dormant, but it appears that this year RSV made a dangerous combo with the newest strains of COVID.
“What may be happening is the population has become more susceptible because they had not seen this virus in a while. Once it got introduced into our community, it spread rapidly. It’s been in our community for about a month,” explained Dr. Piedra Pedro from the Baylor College of Medicine.
The virus is a seasonal one and it is expected to peak during the cold season, and disappear by spring. RSV is a severe risk especially for infants that are six months old and younger. Texas Children’s have 45 children hospitalized with COVID-19 and according to the hospital there are at least 25 who also suffer from RSV.
The good news is that hospitalization won’t be needed for most infected children and adults, and the virus can be very similar to a regular cold, spreading by droplets and having similar symptoms. Nevertheless, it is important to pay close attention to babies as this virus can lead to “major respiratory distress”.
Protecting ourselves from RSV is not different from the ways in which we protect ourselves against COVID. It is important to try to avoid sick persons and maintain good hygiene. Those who get sick should also try to stay home and avoid people until recovering. | <urn:uuid:59db9951-a239-4e34-9a23-8f490329ed10> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.opticflux.com/children-hospitalized-with-the-delta-variant-and-rsv/9982/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057417.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923044248-20210923074248-00295.warc.gz | en | 0.975425 | 378 | 2.75 | 3 |
What do you do when the money's too short to run your expensive experiment? Reach for the duct tape, ping pong balls and taco sauce
In 1996, Andre Geim was a junior professor at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. His day job was teasing out the magnetic properties of superconductors, but he itched to investigate a more basic question: could you make water magnetic?
The textbook answer was no. "But sometimes if something hasn't been done before, you have to do something," says Geim. "Sometimes something ridiculously simple." For him, late one Friday evening, that something turned out to be pouring water into his lab's mighty 20-Tesla electromagnet.
It could all have gone disastrously wrong, but the dancing balls of levitating water that Geim saw in the electromagnet's core provided all the answer he needed. In a dense enough field, water droplets were magnetic ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | <urn:uuid:8f7fccf1-f447-4ca1-9313-e7f01a92262c> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029481.800-improvise-shoestring-solutions-to-big-physics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400376728.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123256-00242-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965575 | 220 | 3.09375 | 3 |
X15 Faesulae (225 BC)
“Swords of the Celts”: Prelude The Battle of Faesulae 225BC
Gallic Tribes vs the Republic of Rome
“The Celts, then, descended on Etruria and overran the whole region, plundering the country as they chose, and as they met no opposition, they advanced on Rome itself.
When they had arrived at Clusium, a city only three days march from Rome, news reached them that the army which the Romans had posted in Etruria was coming up in their rear and was close upon them, whereupon they turned back to meet it, full of ardour to engage the enemy. At sunset the two armies were almost in contact, and they encamped for the night with only a short distance separating them. When it was dark the Celts lit their camp-fires. They left their cavalry with orders that they should wait for daybreak, and then as soon as they became visible to the enemy they were to follow the route which the infantry had already taken. In the meanwhile the Celts with drew their main body under cover of darkness towards a town named Faesulae and took up positions. Their plan was to wait for the cavalry, and at the same time disconcert any attack by the enemy by confronting them with an unforeseen situation. When the Romans sighted the cavalry at daybreak and saw them unsupported, they concluded that the Celts had fled, and so pursued the cavalry along the line of the enemy’s supposed retreat. Then, as they approached, the main body of the Celts sprang forward from their positions and charged them. A fierce battle followed, which was stubbornly contested on both sides, but in the end the courage and superior numbers of the Celts prevailed. The Romans lost 6,000 men, and the rest took to flight, most of these retreating to a hill which offered them a naturally strong position. The Celts at first tried to take the hill by assault, but were exhausted from their march of the previous night and by the suffering and hardship caused by the fighting, and so they made haste to rest and refresh themselves. But they left a detachment of cavalry to guard the hill, and determined to attack the fugitives next day unless they offered to surrender.”
Meanwhile the…consul Lucius Ameilius Paullus, who was in command of the second Roman army near the Adriatic, had been informed that the Celts had invaded Etruria…He hurried southward to help, and fortunately reached the battlefield at the critical moment..
He encamped near the enemy, and the Romans on the hill, as soon as they saw his camp-fires, understood what had happened….The commanders of the Gauls, who had also seen the camp-fires, concluded that the enemy had arrived and held a council of war. At this King Aneroestes argued that since they had by now captured so much booty…that they should not battle again and thus put all their gains to risk, but should return home in safety….The council decided in the circumstances to follow Aneroestes’ advice. They agreed on this during the night, broke camp before daybreak and marched through Etruria along the coast. Paullus then rescued the surviving remnant of the Roman army from the hill and united it with his own force. He decided that this was not the moment to risk a , pitched battle, but chose to follow the enemy’s rear and watch for a favorable place or moment to harass him, or recover some of the plunder….
(From Book II of Polybius’ Rise of the Roman Empire written in the 2nd century BC)
(Paullus, of course, shortly thereafter, with the help of his consular colleague returning from Sardinia, managed to corner this Gallic Army up the coast of Etruria at Telamon and destroy it. See the Telamon 225BC scenario, for an extensive excerpt from Polybius that covers these events)
Leader: King Aneroestes
5 Command Cards Move First —The Gallic Player moves twice before the first Roman move.
5 Command Cards
8 Banners for both sides
Special Scenario Rules:
1) Gallic Elite Warriors: All Gallic medium infantry units are treated as Warriors for all purposes, they are Elite Warriors—in addition they receive one extra dice the very first time in the scenario they battle back or engage in close combat as long as the unit still has three or more blocks.
2) Gallic Auxillia and Noble cavalry:
a) The Gallic Auxillia units have no missile capability.
b) All Gallic Heavy Cavalry are considered to be Noble Cavalry—they move three hexes, their normal Close Combat dice is 3 dice (not 4) --- in addition they receive one extra dice the very first time in the scenario they battle back or engage in close combat as long as the unit still has two or more blocks
3) Gallic Chariots: Likely some of the Gallic vehicles were war chariots, but their main purpose in battle was probably a blocking one—their role as a decisive battle force in the field had long since passed in 225BC
Gallic Chariots may only move one hex when moving
a) The only way to inflict hits on Gallic Chariots is to engage them in Close Combat or Battle Back and roll the matching “red’ symbol. Gallic Chariots are totally immune to Roman Missile fire—Gallic Chariots totally ignore any Flag hits inflicted on them—Flag results are always No effect.
b) Gallic Chariots normally roll only 2 dice in close combat or battle back—but may have that increased through the + # on the cards if ordered by such cards.
4) Special Leader Rules:
A Leader attached (stacked with) a friendly unit may cancel one sword hit on the unit in lieu of canceling a retreat hit.
A unit involved in close combat with the support of a Leader may only count one helmet hit amongst those rolled to inflict a hit on an opposing unit.
5) Gallic Line Commands
The maximum number of units the Gallic player may move/order with a Line Command Card is five units. | <urn:uuid:153d420f-755b-451d-9e44-ef17b4dbd850> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.commandsandcolors.net/ancients/maps/59-celtic-war-225-222-bc/72-x15-faesulae-225-bc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057447.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923195546-20210923225546-00064.warc.gz | en | 0.971277 | 1,307 | 3.203125 | 3 |
With its exceptional natural beauty, this area has always attracted nature lovers, and already on 8 April 1949, it was proclaimed Croatia’s first national park. The process of tufa formation, which results in the building of the tufa, or travertine, barriers and resulted in the creation of the lakes, is the outstanding universal value, for which the Plitvice Lakes were internationally recognised on 26 October 1979 with their inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1997, the boundaries of the national park were expanded, and today it covers an area just under 300 km2.
The park is primarily covered in forest vegetation, with smaller areas under grasslands. The most attractive part of the park – the lakes – cover just under 1% of the total park area.
The lake system is comprised of 16 named and several smaller unnamed lakes, cascading one into the next. Due to the geological substrate and characteristic hydrogeological conditions, the lake system has been divided into the Upper and Lower lakes. The twelve lakes forming the Upper Lakes are: Prošćansko jezero, Ciginovac, Okrugljak, Batinovac, Veliko jezero, Malo jezero, Vir, Galovac, Milino jezero, Gradinsko jezero, Burgeti and Kozjak. These lakes were formed on impermeable dolomite rock, and are larger, with more indented and gentler shores than the Lower Lakes. The Lower Lakes, consisting of the lakes Milanovac, Gavanovac, Kaluđerovac and Novakovića Brod, were formed in permeable limestone substrate, cut into a deep canyon with steep cliffs. The lakes end in the impressive waterfalls Sastavci, with the Korana River springing under the base of the falls.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park offers visitors seven different routes to tour the lake system, and four hiking trails. The park is open to visitors year round. All visitors are required to follow the instructions listed on the information panels, to keep on the marked trails, and to leave no traces of their visit, such as litter, or marking or devastating nature in any form.
The following is strictly prohibited in the National Park:
- Collection of plant materials, or taking any “souvenirs” of natural origin
- Feeding the animals
- Swimming in the lakes
- Disposal of litter along the trails or elsewhere, except in the garbage bins installed throughout the park
- Straying off the marked trails
- Wearing the appropriate clothing and footwear
- Bringing adequate rain and sun protection (umbrella, raincoat; sunglasses, hat, sunscreen – depending on the season)
- Check the weather forecast before coming to the park
- Be sure to check the information listed on our website about the length of certain trails, to ensure to you have enough time to complete the desired tour
For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us!
Please take care of the natural environment you are visiting, because if we do not care for it today, our children will not have any place to visit tomorrow!
We wish you a pleasant stay at plitvice lakes national park!
More detailed information about the conditions in Plitvice Lakes National Park and the touring opportunities are available daily from our Marketing and Sales Department. Contact us at tel: +385 (0)53 751 014, +385 (0)53 751 015, or e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:606e9f7f-885f-4ada-9607-c301371ecbe4> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/en/about-the-park/general-information/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676595531.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180723071245-20180723091245-00288.warc.gz | en | 0.915155 | 751 | 3.140625 | 3 |
"My father went to war and was with the Federal Army. I never heard him say how he come to go to war. He came back when it was all over and we stayed on John Herrin's place till I was grown." Walter Homes, Ex-Slave of Arkansas
In October 1862, King married Nancy Anding who was also a slave of B. F. Anding. They married on the Anding Plantation with the consent of their owner. Nancy was born about 1843 in Mississippi, parents unknown. Among Martin’s inventory listing of slaves, there is a Nancy listed as being valued at $900.
The Civil War captivated the attention of King. He escaped the plantation and left his pregnant wife to fight with the Union troops at Natchez, MS, in the winter of 1863 - 1864. He enlisted March 1, 1864 with the 6th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery, Company I. King’s military service was short lived. He contracted dysentery in the line of duty and was treated for dysentery on May 17, 1864 in Regimental Hospital in Natchez where he died of diphtheria, June 03, 1864.
Nancy Anding, King’s widow, gave birth to the couple’s only child Stephen Anding on September 06, 1864. B. F. Anding was present for the birth and his wife Mary served as midwife. After the Civil War, Nancy and her child remained on the home plantation until 1866 when she and her child moved to live with Mrs. Hannah Gilbert (widow of Webster Gilbert). Nancy may have known of King’s death or she may have given up hope of his return as on October 28, 1866, Nancy married Edward Johnson also known as Calvin Johnson in Copiah County. After the marriage, Nancy and Calvin moved to the neighboring David Buie’s plantation where they resided for many years.
Former slave owner B. F. and his wife Mary gave affidavits in Nancy’s pension case. The affidavits testified to Nancy's identity, her slave marriage with King, and to the identity of the couple’s son. Former neighborhood slaves John Magee, Edmund Lyons and W. H. Gibbs also gave affidavits on her behalf. John Magee was owned by Mrs. B. F. Anding’s father, Chester Magee.
After David Buie’s death in 1874, Nancy and Calvin Johnson remained on the Buie land with David’s son Prentiss Buie, sharecropping the land. Prentiss made application and was approved for orphan’s pension as the minor child Stephen Anding’s guardian. Nancy and her husband Calvin remained in the Caseyville area raising their family until their deaths.
According to the 1860 Copiah County Slave Schedule, Benjamin Franklin Anding owned 5 slaves. King, Nancy and Milly were the names of three of his slaves.
Caseyville, MS, was a village located in Copiah County prior to 1870. After county lines were redrawn to form the new county of Lincoln, Caseyville became a part of Lincoln County.
1880 Lincoln County, Page 130, ED35
Calvin Johnson, 35
Nancy, wife, 35
Jane Johnson, daughter, 18
Stephin Anding, stepson, 16
Mary Johnson, daughter, 14
Eliza Johnson, daughter, 11
(Note: This is the last census for Calvin and Nancy. They probably died between 1880 - 1900. Death certificates were not found for the years 1912 - 1943.)
1900 Copiah County, Beat 3, V13-ED39-S8-L23
Stephen Anding, 30
Liza Anding, wife, 25
Clara Firman, stepdaughter, 8
Walter Anding, son, 6
Effie Anding, daughter, 5
(Note: Stephen married Eliza McDaniel. Eliza was the daughter of Alford McDaniel and Pattie Robinson.)
1910 Copiah County, ED51-S14
Eliza, wife, 38
Walter, son, 17
Ethel, daughter, 15
Josie, daughter, 12
Jake, son, 10
1920 - Lincoln County, Page 10B, ED96
Steve Anding, 58
Liza, wife, 42
Thelma Lea Wilson, granddaughter, 3
(Note: Eliza Anding died June 12, 1928.)
1930 - Lincoln County, Page 13A, ED
Steve Anding, 60
Hence Trabb, lodger, 18
Federal Military Pension Record of King Anden
Copiah County Wills - Microfilm Number: 8178
1850 Copiah County, MS Slave Schedule
1860 Copiah County, MS Slave Schedule
1850 Copiah County, MS Federal Census
1860 Copiah County, MS Federal Census
1870 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
1880 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
1900 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
1910 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
1920 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
1930 Lincoln County, MS Federal Census
Benjamin Franklin Anding's Genealogy Provided by Randy Kimbel
Eliza Anding's Death Certificate - #1928-12679
Mary M. Anding's Death Certificate - #1923-958
Remembering Their Names
Anding Family Bible Record - Slave Births
Mississippi Death Index - Anding | <urn:uuid:5f5f71a7-2ba1-47ca-8a5d-726641c82f6e> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.angelfire.com/folk/gljmr/AndingK.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246640124.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045720-00108-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958762 | 1,152 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Video: Mouse kidney branches out like a tree as it forms
Peek inside this mouse kidney and watch a bunch of cells turn into an organ. Captured by Nils Lindstrom from the University of Edinburgh, UK, this video reveals how cells are instructed to branch out like a tree to form the kidney’s internal plumbing.
By analysing time-lapse images, Lindstrom and his team discovered that a protein called beta-catenin manages the organ’s development by ordering cells to form winding tubes called nephrons. These produce urine by filtering waste from blood.
In the video, yellow areas show where the protein is most active. The amount of activity seems to determine which part of the structure the cells should form. The researchers found that they could alter which part of the nephron grew where by tweaking the activity of the protein.
(Image: Nils Lindstrom, University of Edinburgh)
The vivid close-up above gives a static view of two nephrons developing in the lab. Gold and red areas indicate where waste is filtered before urine is collected and carried away for excretion by the blue regions.
Identifying the molecular messages that drive the development of nephrons will help researchers grow them in the lab to understand why they sometimes do not function properly. If waste isn’t separated out and eliminated it can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure.
Journal reference: eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.04000 | <urn:uuid:957cee7f-6e3c-4358-b675-a9937f1fb1ef> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26935-watch-a-kidney-branch-out-like-a-tree-as-it-forms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027321696.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20190824194521-20190824220521-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.935044 | 308 | 3.734375 | 4 |
In all the campaigns of Generals Banks and Pope in the Valley of the Shenandoah and on the Rappahannock, the detachment of the corps-its officers, on one occasion, at least, serving within the enemy's limes and always active-won the regard of those generals, and sometimes determined great movements. He flank movement of Lee's grand army for the first invasion of Maryland is reported to have been first recognized from a signal station.
At the siege of Yorktown officers of the corps kept the communication with the navy lying some miles distant in the bay, while their stations of observation reached the James River.
At the battle at West Point, Va., without their aid the naval broadsides could not have been turned, as they were, against the enemy, but must have been largely wasted at random.
Before Richmond, at Williamsburg, and at White House they were constantly on duty, and their services were frequently important.
On the battle-field at Malvern Hill the aid of signal officers subjected to control, from land, the fire and movement of the fleet through both days" battle. It is difficult to compute the value, there, of this service, whilst, thenceforth, throughout all the service of the land and naval forces on the Peninsula their aid was in requisition.
At South Mountain and Antietam signal officers won, by their conduct and the value of their services, the commendation of the general there commanding.
In the first attack on Fredericksburg, and in the long campaign before that city, they had, for their efficiency, the praise of General Burnside.
In the movements at Chancellorsville, crippled as the corps was by the failure (through no fault of its members) of some of the apparatus, they rendered such service, as that may be, which kept ut the communication with General Sedwick's Sixth Army Corps- at that time utterly cut off from the main body of the army and from headquarters-over the heads of the rebel forces, and when, the retreat being ordered and the army falling back in the night upon the river, the pontoons on the right wing of the army were swept away, a message went, by their aid, across the swollen river to hold the army in its lines instead of crowding it, with danger of a panic, on the banks of a torrent it could not cross.
In the movements to Gettysburg the field telegraphic lines and the signal stations apart in front of Washington, and orders went from corps to corps when the enemy's cavalry prevented the passage of couriers, and even contested with heavy escorts. If all the services of the corps in this campaign to Pennsylvania thus expedited the movements of our army by one day to reach the field of Gettysburg, that service alone was worthy of consideration.
When the rebel army in this campaign, recrossing the Potomac, hesitated at Martinsburg, as if to return to Maryland, and the Army of the Potomac east of the Blue Ridge was held uncertain of the enemy's intentions, the information obtained, and which went far to show, if it did not of itself fix their course, elicited for the corps the thanks of the commander of our army.
In the now (October 30) just finished movement of the rebel army threatening the right of the Army of the Potomac, near the Rappahannock, it is stated that the first report of the enemy's design was made from the signal station on Thoroughfare Mountain many hours before the counter movement of our army was needed. | <urn:uuid:bee8c9a2-57b6-4fa7-8df7-c40a20c2487a> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/124/0951 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703537796.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123094754-20210123124754-00710.warc.gz | en | 0.974227 | 733 | 2.75 | 3 |
Who knows what secrets you can find just by digging up the soil? It could be fascinating or cringe worthy just like what these archaeologists dug up.
There are a lot of history that’s buried underneath the soil waiting to be discovered. Who knows, you could make the next best discovery. So gather up your tools and start digging. But before that let’s check out what these archaeologists found on a 2000-year-old body.
10. Accidental Discovery
Archaeologists find pretty amazing and sometimes horrifying things underneath the soil. Like what they found back in 1950. But before the archaeologists came, two brothers were cutting peat from a peat bog when they discovered a body.
It was just an ordinary day for these two when they stumbled upon something cringe worthy. But before checking out what they discovered let’s find out what a peat bog is.
9. Peat Bog
A bog is a wetland that accumulates partially decayed plants or organic matter. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in some parts of the world. So we can say that the two brothers were busy at work when they stumbled upon a body.
Aside from dead bodies, which is actually rare to find at peat bogs, bog butter is usually found. Like the one on the photo above. It is made up of lard, tallow or dairy fat. It has a yellowish color and disgusting smell. It’s likely an old method of making and preserving butter, some tested lumps were made of dairy products while others were meat-based. We’ll pass on this one.
8. Dead Body
The two brothers who unearthed this body thought that this person must have been a recent murder victim. So they immediately called up the police to report the incident.
The police then consulted archaeologists because the body didn’t look ordinary and was perfectly preserved. Even its clothing was still intact.
7. Tollund Man
When the archaeologists examined the body it was no ordinary dead body. It was named the Tollund Man and is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 4th century BC, during the period described in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age.
He was found in 1950 on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, buried in a peat bog which preserved his body. This find is known as a bog body. | <urn:uuid:baa51fe1-07c3-4a82-9be5-0fa01144f5d9> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | http://cyber-breeze.com/archaeologists-found-body-2000-years-old-discovered-will-make-cringe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912201521.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20190318172016-20190318194016-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.973649 | 497 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Global Food Security: 10 Challenges
World Food Day reminds us of the fragility of food security in the 21st century.
October 15, 2013
October 16 is World Food Day. It offers the opportunity to strengthen national and international solidarity in the fight to end hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures make it difficult to feed growing populations. As a result, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security.
Here are some challenges to consider:
1. Rising population
There will be 219,000 people at the dinner table tonight who were not there last night, many of them with empty plates.
2. Rising incomes, changing diets
Today, with incomes rising fast in emerging economies, there are at least 3 billion people moving up the food chain toward Westernized diets. They consume more grain-intensive livestock and poultry products.
Today, the growth in world grain consumption is concentrated in China. It is adding over 8 million people per year, but the big driver is the rising affluence of its nearly 1.4 billion people.
As incomes go up, people tend to eat more meat. China’s meat consumption per person is still only half that of the United States. That leaves a huge potential for future demand growth.
3. Falling water tables
In India some 190 million people are being fed with grain produced by overpumping groundwater. For China, the number is 130 million. Aquifer depletion now threatens harvests in the big three grain producers — China, India and the United States—that together produce half of the world’s grain. The question is not whether water shortages will affect future harvests in these countries, but rather when they will do so.
4. More foodless days
In Nigeria, 27% of families experience foodless days. In India, it is 24%; in Peru, 14%.
The world is in transition from an era dominated by surpluses to one defined by scarcity. Not eating at all on some days is how the world’s poorest are coping with the doubling of world grain prices since 2006. But even as we face new constraints on future production, the world population is growing by 80 million people each year.
5. Slowing irrigation
Water supply is now the principal constraint on efforts to expand world food production. During the last half of the 20th century, the world’s irrigated area expanded from some 250 million acres in 1950 to roughly 700 million in 2000.
This near tripling of world irrigation within 50 years was historically unique. Since then, the growth in irrigation has come to a near standstill, expanding only 10% between 2000 and 2010.
6. Increasing soil erosion
Nearly a third of the world’s cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming. This reduces the land’s inherent fertility. Future food production is also threatened by soil erosion.
The thin layer of topsoil that covers the earth’s land surface was formed over long stretches of geological time as new soil formation exceeded the natural rate of erosion. Sometime within the last century, the situation was reversed as soil erosion began to exceed new soil formation.
Now, nearly a third of the world’s cropland is now losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming. Soil that was formed on a geological time scale is being lost on a human time scale. Peak soil is now history.
7. Climate change
The generation of farmers now on the land is the first to face manmade climate change.
Agriculture as it exists today developed over 11,000 years of rather remarkable climate stability. It has evolved to maximize production within that climate system. Now, suddenly, the climate is changing. With each passing year, the agricultural system is more and more out of sync with the climate system.
8. Melting water reserves
At no time since agriculture began has the world faced such a predictably massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mountain glaciers of Asia.
Mountain glaciers are melting in the Andes, the Rocky Mountains, the Alps and elsewhere. But nowhere does melting threaten world food security more than in the glaciers of the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau that feed the major rivers of India and China.
Ice melt helps sustain these rivers during the dry season. In the Indus, Ganges, Yellow and Yangtze river basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, the loss of glacial-fed, dry-season flow will shrink harvests and could create potentially unmanageable food shortages.
9. Flattening yields
After several decades of raising grain yields, farmers in the more agriculturally advanced countries have recently hit a glass ceiling. That production ceiling is imposed by the limits of photosynthesis itself.
In Japan, the longtime leader in raising cropland productivity, the rise in the yield of rice that began in the 1880s essentially came to a halt in 1996. Having maximized productivity, farmers ran into the inherent limits of photosynthesis and could no longer increase the amount they could harvest from a given plot.
In China, rice yields are now just 4% below Japan’s. Unless China can raise its yields above those in Japan, which seems unlikely, it, too, is facing a plateauing of rice yields.
Yields of wheat, the world’s other food staple, are also plateauing in the more agriculturally advanced countries. For example, France, Germany and the United Kingdom — Europe’s leading wheat producers — had been raising wheat yields for several decades. Roughly a decade ago, all three hit plateaus.
We have already begun to see the consequences of wheat demand outpacing supply.
Corn yields in the United States, which accounts for nearly 40% of the world corn harvest, are starting to level off. Yields in some other corn-growing countries such as Argentina, France and Italy also appear to be stagnating.
10. Little time to prepare
To state the obvious, we are in a situation both difficult and dangerous. The world today desperately needs leadership on the food security issue. Any further progress requires a total restructuring of the energy economy.
The gravity and urgency of the tightening food situation is such that we are not looking at a crisis in 2030 or 2050. We are looking at an abrupt disruption in the world food supply that could be just one poor harvest away.
An abrupt disruption in the world food supply could be just one poor harvest away.
Aquifer depletion now threatens grain harvests in the big 3 producers: China, India, US.
China’s meat consumption is already half that of the US. Meat production is grain-intensive.
Not eating at all some days is how the world’s poor have coped with the doubling of food prices since 2006.
Water supply is now the principal constraint on efforts to expand world food production.
President of the Earth Policy Institute Lester R. Brown has been described by the Washington Post as "one of the world’s most influential thinkers." The Telegraph of Calcutta called him "the guru of the global environmental movement." In May 2001, he founded Earth Policy Institute, where he now serves as president. The purpose of the […] | <urn:uuid:4ac10efa-b42f-452c-90d4-b0ca97aa1721> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.theglobalist.com/global-food-security-10-challenges/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499819.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130133622-20230130163622-00778.warc.gz | en | 0.947113 | 1,529 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The Impact of Oceanic Heat Content on the Rapid Intensification of Atlantic Hurricanes
With the increased infrastructure and amount of people living along the United States coastline, it is imperative to improve the accuracy of Atlantic hurricane intensity forecasts. Over the last 10 years, there have been many Atlantic hurricanes, including Hurricanes Katrina and Charley that surprised many forecasters with their rapid intensification and power. The rapid intensification of tropical cyclones is the most serious aspect, when it comes to forecasting. It is generally accepted that sufficient surface ocean temperatures (approximately 26°C) are needed to produce and sustain tropical cyclone formation. However, the sea-surface temperature (SST) has shown not to be critical in intensity forecasting by itself, particularly with rapid intensification (Schade & Emmanuel, 1999; Law & Hobgood 2007). Tropical cyclones derive much of their energy from warm, deep ocean water. Therefore, a quantified measure of the amount of this warm, deep water is a better way to measure the amount of energy available to the storm. The oceanic heat content (OHC) is such a variable to measure the amount of warm water available for the tropical cyclone to convert into energy and has been shown to be a much better predictor than SST alone (Zebiak, 1989; McDougall, 2003; Wada & Usui 2007; Palmer & Haines, 2009; Shay & Brewster, 2010).
Law K. 2011. The Impact of Oceanic Heat Content on the Rapid Intensification of Atlantic Hurricanes, Chapter 17. In: Lupo, A., eds. Recent Hurricane Research - Climate, Dynamics, and Societal Impacts . Croatia : InTech: 331-354. | <urn:uuid:67b77f03-5f68-456f-bddd-9e16a353e9ce> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://mds.marshall.edu/geography_faculty/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687606.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170921025857-20170921045857-00354.warc.gz | en | 0.881881 | 349 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Two companies recently pitched me on their semantic engines. These are not search engines, which is what most people think. Rather, they are databases and algorithms that hold the structure of language (in both cases, the English language). At the most basic level semantic engines tell you what's synonymous with what. At the advanced end of the spectrum they know how grammatically similar phrases like "take a seat," "take a stand," and "take a lollipop," mean completely different things.
These engines can be used by search products to greatly improve results. Powerset, now a part of Microsoft, made a big deal of its semantic chops by showing how vaguely worded search queries would return just the results you wanted. Now, it seems, that raw semantic technology is about to become mainstream.
Cognition recently announced its "world's largest semantic map of the English language," sporting more than "10 million semantic connections." The company is rolling the technology into products like CognitionSearch for the Enterprise, which is a knowledge mining tool, as well as an "eDiscovery" product for the legal industry that enables lawyers to "quickly and efficiently find incriminating, smoking gun documents." The company is also applying its technology to a new advertising engine.
The much smaller and newer company, Eeggi, which I was introduced to at Web 2.0 Expo in New York, is also building an engine for discerning meaning. Founder and chief scientist Frank Bandach told me his model was mathematical (his training is as a prime number theorist) and that his engine goes well beyond understanding synonyms. In his demo, he entered the query "Mary kissed John," and showed how traditional word-matching engines picked up pages there were also about John kissing Mary. His system understands English well enough to filter those out as misses.
Bandach says that he's got most of the English language in his system, and that he did English first, "because it's hard. Only Finnish is harder." He's going to work on German next, by feeding it some German dictionaries, which sounds like a science-fiction way to seed a semantic engine, but he said it's enough to get the system going. Bandach says his algorithms are efficient and not, like Powerset's, CPU hogs.
Unlike Cognition, Eeggi is an early-stage project with only four people working on it. It's far too early to tell if the technology is robust and scalable enough to compete with Cognition or Powerset. But I am encouraged to see small companies working on this problem and claiming intellectual breakthroughs. I really would not be surprised to see "meaning engines" become available to Web developers in the same way spelling checkers and grammar engines are now. I have no idea what developers will build with this technology, but I can't wait to see it.
See also: Cycorp.
Click here for full coverage of Web 2.0 Expo | <urn:uuid:7e0460ed-1ba8-4f0a-afaf-e7a5abf7ae61> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.cnet.com/au/news/two-new-semantic-engines-cognition-and-eeggi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125948426.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20180426164149-20180426184149-00632.warc.gz | en | 0.98023 | 603 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the retrovirus accountable for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been with us since involving 1884 and 19-24 (whereas lentiviruses, the genus to which HIV belongs, have existed for over 14 million several years ) as it entered the population from the chimpanzee in southeastern Cameroon within a period of rapid urbanization. At the time, no one observed nor understood it would lead in another of those most bizarre pandemics. Nor was anybody mindful that many would possess a natural immunity, a treatment could stay elusive a decade into the 21stcentury, and also an important amount of dead victims would be gleaned from mortality statistics distorting the crab’s seriousness.
Since the range of cases propagate in Cameroon to neighboring countries, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and also the Central African Republic they attracted little focus as victims died in scattered numbers from a set of difficulties (e.g. Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), Kaposi’s sarcoma, etc.. ) later credited to AIDS. That was likely due to of Africa’s limited interaction together using the designed world until the widespread use of air travel, the isolated, yet low incidence of instances, HIV’s prolonged incubation period (up to ten years) until the onset of AIDS, and also the absence of technology, trustworthy testing procedures and knowledge enclosing the virus. The earliest supported instance centered on ZR59, a blood sample obtained from an individual at Kinshasha, DRC goes to 1959.
The epidemic of AIDS finally gained attention on June 5, 1981, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found a cluster of deaths against PCP from Los Angeles along with New York. From August 1982, as the prevalence of instances disperse, the CDC referred to the epidemic as AIDS. The accountable retrovirus, HIV, has been dispersed not exactly per year later (May 1983) by researchers from the Pasteur Institute in France and awarded its own official title in May 1986 from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. In this period of time, HIV-related mortality prices climbed steadily from the United States peaking in 1994-1995. | <urn:uuid:e91cf592-2140-4daa-a26c-654a44fbb77e> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://www.constellagroup.com/news/impact/2007/hiv_aids_model_law_071707.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999946.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625192953-20190625214953-00358.warc.gz | en | 0.955539 | 469 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Welcome to the MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) web portal on water and sanitation projects in developing countries. Over the past eleven years, students, staff, and faculty have been working on issues of water and sanitation in developing countries, primarily through the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) Degree program offered in the CEE Department. This website contains information and links to student theses, project reports, photos, WHO Household Treatment Network, and other useful resources focused on the development and improvement of water and sanitation in many countries.
The 9-month M.Eng. program is intended primarily for students planning to enter or re-enter professional practice; however, a few students continue for additional studies, including their Ph.D. The program involves coursework, group project work and a thesis. For students in the environmental engineering tract, the thesis is typically based on project work completed in the field during January.
The global community faces a tough challenge: to halve the number of people without access to improved water supply and sanitation by the year 2015. This bold objective, also known as one of the Millennium Development Goals, was again committed to by governments from around the world during the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg South Africa. UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate that 884 million people lack access to improved drinking water supplies and 2.5 billion lack access to improved sanitation facilities, including 1.2 billion peole who have no sanitation facility whatsoever - click here for more information. Considering the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation, this works out to delivering improved water supply at a rate of ~100,000 people per day and improved sanitation facilities at ~200,000 people per day between the years 2000 and 2015. Can governments alone realistically meet these ambitious goals by the year 2015 through conventional centralized water supply and sanitation systems?
New approaches to delivering water and sanitation services, such as household water treatment, are gaining recognition within international development organizations. The World Health Organization, for example, recently published a report on Combatting Waterborne Disease at the Household Level and UNICEF sponsored an online virtual forum on Household Water Security in cooperation with WHO and the Network for Cost-effective Technologies in Water Supply and Sanitation. A recent statement issued by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights goes one step further by declaring water as a human right, which, taken into the context of the Millennium Development Goals, puts pressure on governments to live up to their commitment to halve the number of people without access to improved water supply and sanitation services by the year 2015. | <urn:uuid:767c97b3-a6b2-430f-8a37-f355d4cfb06b> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://web.mit.edu/watsan/about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645195983.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031315-00317-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94396 | 523 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Prevalence and Severity of Dental Caries by Gender, Age and Educational Levels in Rural Dominican Republic
determine prevalence and severity of dental caries using WHO methods by age,
gender and educational levels and compare actual DMFT scores to self-reported
study was conducted using face-to-face interviews and oral examinations in La
Esquina community, Province Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Dominican Republic (DR) among
104 adult participants. Caries experience was determined using DMFT scores.
of caries was high with 94.2% of participants affected by it. Mean DMFT index (11.95±9.67)
for participants having ≤ 8 years of school education was significantly higher
than the mean score (6.69±4.39) for people with >8 years of education (F=9.3;
p<0.01). Likewise, mean DMFT score for age group ≥55 years was significantly
higher than for younger age categories (F=5.87; p<0.01). Caries severity was
found to be statistically significant by age groups (χ2 =17.42, p=.002)
with more proportion of participants ≥ 55 years having DMFT score≥14. Actual
mean DMFT score was 4.51 higher than mean self-reported score (9.51 versus
5.08) (Spearman r=.27; p= .01).
study provides preliminary data on caries prevalence and identifies unmet
treatment needs in rural DR. While caries experience among adults increased
significantly both by age and educational levels, caries severity increased
significantly with age alone.
Astroth, J., Berg, R.,
Berkey, D., McDowell, J., & Hamman, R. (1998). Dental caries prevalence and
treatment need in Chiriqui Province, Panama. International Dental Journal,
Becker, T., Levin, L.,
Shochat, T., & Einy, S. (2007, May). How much does the DMFT index
underestimate the need for restorative care? Journal of Dental Education, 71(5).
3. Dominican Republic Population Mid-2014. (2014). Retrieved from Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Geography/Data.aspx?loc=329
Dowsett, S. A.,
Archila, L., & Kowolik, M. J. (2001). Oral health status of an indigenous
adult population of Central America. Community Dental Health, 18,
(2005). Promoting oral health: the use of salt fluoridation to prevent
dental caries. Washington D C: Pan American Health Organization.
Fadnes, L. T., Taube,
A., & Tylleskär, T. (2008). How to identify information bias due to
self-reporting in epidemiological research. 7.
Guiglia, R., Musciotto,
A., Compilato, D., Procaccini, M., Russo, L. L., Ciavarella, D., … Campisi, G.
(2010). Aging and Oral Health: Effects in Hard and Soft tissues. Current
Pharmaceutical Design, 16(6), 619-630.
Hobdell, M., Peterson,
P. E., Clarkson, J., & Johnson, N. (2003). Global goals for oral health
2020. International Dental Journal, 5, 285-288.
Milner, T. A. (1998). The
salt industry of the Dominican Republic- An Assessment. Pan American Health
10. (2005). Opportunity and strategy for improving general
health in the Americas through Critical advancements in Oral Health, The way
forward 2005-2015. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization.
Retrieved from World Health Organization.
11. Oral Health Surveys. Basic methods (Third ed.). (1987). Geneva: World Health Organization.
12. PAHO Basic Health Indicator Data Base. (n.d.). Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www1.paho.org/english/dd/ais/cp_214.htm
13. Peterson, P. E. (2003). The World Oral Health Report. Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/oral_health/media/en/orh_report03_en.pdf?ua=1
14. Peterson, P. E., & Baez, R. J. (2013). Oral Health
Surveys. Basic Methods (Fifth ed.). France: World Health Organization.
15. Peterson, P. E., & Yamamoto, T. (2005). Improving the
oral health of older people: the approach of the WHO Global Oral Health
Programme. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 33, 81-92.
16. Peterson, P. E., Bourgeois, D., Ogawa, H., Estupinan-Day, S.,
& Ndiaye, C. (2005). The global burden of oral diseases and risks to oral
health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83, 661-669.
17. Smith, A. C., & Lang, W. P. (1993). CPITN, DMFT, and
treatment requirements in a Nicaraguan population. Community Dental Oral
Epidemiology, 21, 190-193.
18. Tisone, C. (2004). The relationship between family health
care practices and child growth in the Dominican Republic, Thesis. Indiana
University, Department of Anthropology. | <urn:uuid:d7c2b607-a866-4ab8-9118-a0b032dde50a> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.texilajournal.com/public-health/article/91-prevalence-and-severity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656737.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609132648-20230609162648-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.757276 | 1,278 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!
The exact nature and full extent of General Washington’s New York problem was as clear as daylight. Anyone who looked to the harbor in midsummer of 1776 could see, as one New Yorker described, “something resembling a wood of pine trees trimmed… the whole Bay was as full of shipping as ever it could be. I… thought all London was afloat.” Admiral Richard, Lord Howe and his warships were gathering to help Sir William Howe’s army seize New York from Washington’s control. General Charles Lee, said to be brilliant, was at least perfectly sensible if not particularly helpful when he wrote to Washington about the defense of New York: “What to do with this city, I own it puzzles me. It is so encircled with deep navigable water, that whoever commands the sea must command the town.” With the harbor on Washington’s front, the Hudson River on his right flank, and the East River on his left, only ill winds or bad weather could keep the British from striking wherever and whenever they chose. It may be that in the end the defense of New York was simply not possible. Outnumbered on land and overwhelmed on the water, Washington might have prudently fallen back on Westchester or even farther north on the Hudson highlands for a chance to fight on more promising ground. But at this point in the struggle the general was unwilling to surrender the island without giving battle. To that end he divided his army into five divisions: three he posted on Manhattan’s southern tip, one on the northern end of the island at Fort Washington, and the fifth across the East River on Brooklyn Heights. Just as Dorchester Heights commanded Boston, the high ground on Long Island would be the key to the defense of New York. Throughout the summer Washington kept his men sweating away with the pick and the spade, and strong works rose up out of New York’s stony soil. Still, it was a dangerous division of his army’s strength: his lines encircled more ground than he had manpower to hold, and the Howe brothers were perfectly capable of striking at any isolated part.
As Washington’s men dug deeper, the British power that opposed them grew stronger. In addition to William Howe’s command down from Halifax, Sir Henry Clinton was under sail with eight full regiments after their bruising failure to seize Charleston. Admiral Howe’s fleet likewise carried heavy reinforcement from England. Among them was a new element in the contest: the German mercenaries, 8,000 initially and some 30,000 before the war was over. Their very presence was an early sign of reluctance on the part of the British people to prosecute this war against their American cousins. When recruiting efforts on the home front came to little, King George had turned first to Catherine the Great of Russia to hire twenty thousand troops. Failing there, he found willing merchants among the three hundred German princes who had been in the business for nearly a century now. The Duke of Brunswick, for example, supplied 4,300 troops for the British cause for a little more than 11,000 pounds sterling. It was a precisely brutal business: a dead man earned the duke an additional seven pounds, four shillings, and four pence, and three wounded were reckoned as one dead. Because something like half of the German troops were pawns of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, these unfortunates came to be known collectively as Hessians in America. Of the 30,000 who served in America, only 17,000 ever saw their native land again. Perhaps the luckiest were the 5,000 who deserted a cause that was never theirs in the first place. For these, being sold like cattle proved to be the first step toward freedom and dignity. It would be interesting to know how many living Americans can trace their descent to desperate soldiers who had the nerve to throw down their muskets and begin a new life in a new land.
For the time being, though, the Germans were simply pleased to be released from the stinking holds of British transports. A bloody battle might be about to blow up, but at least they had an opportunity to breathe the fresh air of Staten Island and eat something more satisfying and sustaining than rancid salt horse and weevily biscuit. And a battle was brewing. This one, however, would begin with a peace offensive. Admiral Howe was a highly capable and combative seaman–Black Dick to the men who fought under him. (When Black Dick smiled, they said, battle was at hand.) But, like his brother William, his heart was not fully committed to this American war. He had conferred with Benjamin Franklin in London back when peace was still a possibility, and while blood had now been shed on both sides, he continued to believe that reconciliation was to be preferred to conquest. As the price of his willingness to serve in America, he received from Lord George Germain a curious peace commission. The actual powers therein, granted to both him and his brother, were limited: they could grant pardons to Americans when (and if) the Rebels submitted to royal authority. In July Admiral Howe sent a young lieutenant through the lines to New York, bearing a letter addressed “To George Washington Esquire,” an address that pointed to a perfectly proper refusal to recognize Washington as the commanding general of the army of a foreign nation. The same was promptly refused by Washington’s adjutant Joseph Reed on the grounds that “We have no such person here in our army with that address.” Back the letter went to Howe and back it came addressed to “George Washington Esq., &ca, &ca,” this time carried by the adjutant general of the British army, Lieutenant Colonel James Patterson. After more polite but unsatisfactory hemming and hawing about Washington’s proper rank, Patterson finally asked if “General Washington” would be willing to discuss peace with Lord Howe. Having at last got to the point of the peace commission, Howe had nothing whatever to show for this punctilious dance. Refusing to meet with Howe, Washington was forthright now: first, he had no power from the Continental Congress to treat for peace, and second, he recognized that the Howes had no proper power from their government to do so either. The Howes could only grant pardons, and the Americans, believing in the justice of their cause, “wanted no pardons.” Not much of a gambit to begin with, Howe’s well-intentioned effort produced only a minor propaganda victory for the American cause. Back in Philadelphia Dr. Franklin wondered openly and icily how the admiral, whom he liked and respected, could have been so speciously used by his government “in so fruitless a business.” Americans were not to be deceived into submission by Lord Howe’s flimsy instrument. Back to the maps went the Howes to plot out the use of their truly formidable instrument: the British army and the royal navy. Washington would be defeated and driven from New York and absolute control of the Hudson River established. With the Hudson in British hands Sir Guy Carleton would march south from Canada, completing the isolation of New England, which the British believed to be the heart of the rebellion. With New England and New York effectively out of the struggle, there was good reason to think that the war effort in the mid-Atlantic and southern colonies would soon collapse. If all went well, there might be real peace, on British terms, before the year was out.
It was the third week of August before the Howes were ready to move, but when they did, they did so with brisk efficiency. Early on 22 August red-coated Britons and blue-coated Germans clambered aboard some eighty flat-bottomed transports on Staten Island and began pulling for Gravesend Bay on Long Island’s south shore. Under the guns of Lord Howe’s frigates and bomb ketches they landed virtually without opposition. By midday 15,000 Regulars had pushed inland as far as Flatbush and were fanning out along a six-mile arc opposite the American positions. There were actually two lines of American defense. The first line of defense was two miles from Brooklyn village, nearly to Flatbush, and ran along the crest of the Heights of Guan. This steeply pitched and heavily wooded ground was pierced by four important passes: from west to east, Gowanus Road, Flatbush Road, Bedford Pass, and Jamaica Pass beyond the American left. Washington’s plans for its defense were fairly straightforward: William Alexander, a New Jersey brigadier, would hold the American right opposite Gowanus Road and closest to Gowanus Bay; Major General John Sullivan could redeem his poor performance in Canada by holding the American center opposite Flatbush; and Colonel Samuel Miles of Pennsylvania held the American left. The second line of American defense was on Brooklyn Heights proper, a sturdy line studded with eight forts and supported by nearly thirty guns; it faced southeast with its back to the East River shore. In overall command on Long Island was Israel Putnam, a last-minute replacement for Nathanael Greene, who was down with some kind of vicious camp fever. Greene’s fever was an unfortunate twist of fate for the American cause. No one doubted Putnam’s combative spirit and Washington had committed ten thousand of his best troops to Long Island, but Putnam did not know the men in his command and, more importantly, had hardly seen the ground he was to defend before the battle blew up in his face.
In fact William Howe’s camp, thanks to the counsel of Queens County Loyalists, knew the Heights of Guan better than the Americans, and especially what lay on the far left of the American line in the direction of Jamaica Pass–which was virtually nothing. Howe, who had seen his army mangled on the slopes of Breed’s Hill, had no intention of driving the Americans from this high ground by brute force. Now Major General Grant’s Regulars would demonstrate against the American right while the Hessians under General Philip von Heister would hold the American center opposite Flatbush. The business end of the battle would be carried by a column marching well around the American left and smashing down on the American center from behind. By nine o’clock on the night of 26 August Howe’s plan was in motion: Sir Henry Clinton lead a column of dragoons and light infantry down the dark roads that ran eastward to Jamaica Pass; immediately behind marched Lord Charles Cornwallis with the grenadiers, two regiments of foot, and the field artillery; bringing up the rear was the redoubtable Lord Percy with the rest of the striking force. By three o’clock the next morning the attackers reached the pass and scooped up five hapless American horsemen, all that stood between them and Bedford Village in the American rear. It was nearing dawn as they marched quickly and quietly westward now down the Jamaica Road. That silence was broken by the distant rattle of musketry and the muffled booming of field guns from Grant’s command holding the American right and von Heister’s Germans opposite Flatbush on the center. The first sign of the looming disaster was actually right in front of Colonel Miles on the left. His men had been skirmishing for several days now, but in the first light of the 27th it was becoming clear that the bulk of Howe’s men were no longer on his front. Indeed, by nine o’clock they were almost directly in his rear at the crossroads village of Bedford. The banging of two signal guns from Bedford told William Howe anyway that his well-laid trap was about to be sprung.
Clinton’s light infantry drove into the American rear with a disciplined surge and smashed most of Miles’ and Sullivan’s commands into terrified fragments at the first shock. Prepared to grapple with an enemy on their front, it must have seemed to them that every redcoat in the world was between them and their comrades on Brooklyn Heights. Some surrendered, overwhelmed in the first wave, others legged it for Brooklyn through the wooded countryside, but the plain fact was that anything like organized resistance on the left collapsed in less than an hour. Of course not every redcoat in the world was in their rear. In a crisply coordinated effort Howe sent Grant’s redcoats smashing up the Gowanus Road to push Alexander’s command off the high ground and von Heister’s jagers and grenadiers driving through Flatbush Pass to attack Sullivan. On the Hessian front the fighting was especially savage. The German troops had been told truthfully that the Americans bore particular malice for mercenaries but falsely that they would give no quarter to them. The brutal result was that many desperate Continentals were bayonetted to death as they tried to surrender. It was an ugly business that shocked even the British Regulars, who were not easy to shock. Only on the right were the Americans putting up a fight but this was a spirited one. Grant had once boasted that he could march the length of colonial America with five thousand Regulars. He was discovering now that simply driving Alexander’s men from the Gowanus Road would be a formidable undertaking. Here Alexander (known to Americans as Lord Stirling for his claim to a lapsed Scottish title) was handling his regiments with determined skill. One of the attackers remembered a Delaware regiment in particular with “their ranks full, their uniforms smart . . . and their courage high.” For a time they maintained a stiff stand-up fight and gave as good as they got.
But with the collapse of the center and left, Alexander’s men were quickly becoming an American island in a surging sea of British and Hessian infantry. One last perilous passage to Brooklyn Heights remained: broad, marshy Gowanus Creek on the far right. Whether this tidal creek would be safe passage or another killing ground depended on stopping the British advance at least long enough to give the bulk of his regiments a chance to cross the marsh. Alexander detached some 250 Maryland men under Mordecai Gist and lead them at the point of his sword into the onrushing redcoats. The first attack was blunted by musketry and cannon fire, but–incredibly–they reformed and made five more determined but doomed attacks. Washington, watching the disaster unfold from Brooklyn Heights, cried out, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!” And the loss here was very nearly complete: only eight of the Maryland men ever reached Brooklyn. Alexander himself was taken prisoner, surrendering his sword to von Heister, about the same time that General Sullivan was likewise seized by Germans in a nearby cornfield. If there was any solace besides the sheer gallantry of Alexander’s resistance, it was that a body of Americans, in numbers yet unknown, had reached the works on Brooklyn Heights. One of these was a sixteen-year-old Connecticut lad, Joseph Plumb Martin, who with many of his comrades slogged out of the mire of Gowanus Creek “looking like water rats, a truly pitiful sight.”
And it could have hardly looked more pitiful for the American cause by noon of the 27th: though the Brooklyn works themselves were generally strong, they were manned by the fragments of Washington’s broken Long Island command, demoralized, disorganized, many disarmed. It would take time to reckon the loss, but of the 10,000 committed to the battle, nearly 1,500 were killed, wounded, or captured at a cost to the British of less than 400. Most critical to the very survival of the American command was the fatal Jamaica Road, a vulnerable approach to the Heights and still virtually undefended, though a New York outfit was even then digging in there with sweaty desperation. If Fort Putnam on the American left could be taken or flanked, the entire Long Island command, with nothing at their backs but the East River and the British fleet, would be gobbled up. It would mean the loss of fully half of the American army, and this the best trained and best equipped to boot. It might mean the end of the rebellion then and there. This was precisely what Sir Henry Clinton, who had lead the smashing flanking column, now hotly urged on Sir William Howe. Washington had been outgeneraled and his men outfought. One British officer swore his grenadiers could take Fort Putnam in five minutes and inside of an hour drive the whole milling mob of Rebels to the Brooklyn Ferry. But deliverance for the Americans, at least for the time being, was at hand in the persons of the two most important men on the battlefield. The first was Sir William Howe, who, having crisply won half a battle, was now willing to settle into a siege of Brooklyn Heights by “regular approaches.” He would follow, as he later wrote, “the dictates of prudence rather than those of vigor”–to the undisguised disgust of many of his subordinates. The second was General George Washington. It may be that inwardly he was as shaken as his men by the disaster, but outwardly he was an imperturbable and active presence. What he would do tomorrow he did not know, but on this dismal night he would hold this ground. With a brace of pistols in his hands he vowed to shoot the first man who ran.
Indeed, no man doubted Washington’s courage or resolve, but it would certainly be fair to question his judgment at this point. Still convinced that the Heights could be held, he ferried three additional regiments from Manhattan to Brooklyn the next morning. It was a move that violated a perfectly sound military principle: never reinforce failure. If General Howe moved aggressively against the Heights while Admiral Howe brought his frigates into the East River basin, Washington would simply add three regiments to the toll of the captured. But it was Washington’s good fortune just then to see the Howes violate a perfectly sensible military principle themselves: never surrender the initiative, or, as hard-driving Nathan Bedford Forrest would put it a century later, always “keep up the scare.” It is difficult to understand or explain the strange inertia of the Howes. Both had well-earned reputations for aggressive, decisive leadership. Some have blamed unfavorable winds for Admiral Howe’s failure to block the East River, though the sailors under him at the time did not think so. As for General Howe, it may be, as many have argued, that Howe was never quite the same after the slaughter on Breed’s Hill. Certainly it was sound judgment to husband his manpower carefully. As Lord Percy wrote that summer, “Our army is so small that we cannot even afford a victory.” It is also possible that both feared that an aggressive war of conquest would make of America another Ireland–not a productive partner in empire, but a seat of endless and insoluble enmity. Perhaps in the end the Howe hearts were simply not in this fight against their American cousins. In any case, right before them was a rare and remarkable opportunity–a decisive victory to be had at bargain prices. The day after the battle a sullen rain fell, and the Americans shivered in their sodden trenches, trying to keep their powder dry and their spirits up. But the bombardment by sea and bayonet attack by land that all dreaded never came: Admiral Howe’s warships stood patiently at anchor in the harbor while General Howe’s sappers dug regular approaches to Fort Putnam. The Howes’ inertia was a gift beyond reckoning. Washington, always sensitive to slights his reputation, could barely bring himself to contemplate retreat on top of defeat. He seemed for a time prepared to lose his army to save his reputation. But by the morning of 29 August, he was willing to listen to good counsel and retreat to Manhattan–if the British would let him.
Now Washington called for every boat “from Hellgate on the Sound to Spuyten Devil Creek that could be kept afloat and had either sails or oars.” While he gathered what could be gathered, he would have to pull his army out of line, regiment by regiment, in absolute silence and secrecy and retreat to Manhattan. Even the Howes would not fail to seize the opportunity of smashing a beaten enemy as it attempted to disengage and cross a mile of open water. But it may be as Washington believed: a benevolent providence was at work in the affairs of men. One instrument of that providence was in the northeast wind that now kept British warships in the harbor and out of the East River. A second was in the very capable hands and strong backs of the seamen in Washington’s army. As providence would have it, the reinforcement sent to Long Island included John Glover’s Marblehead outfit and Israel Hutchinson’s 27th Massachusetts recruited out of Salem–fishermen and sailors all. In a dreadful hush the boats were loaded at Brooklyn Ferry and the Marblehead and Salem men rowed with a right good will across to Manhattan, a two-mile haul back and forth. As oarsmen say, they moved a lot of water that dark night–and a beaten army to safety. In the late hours the wind shifted to the southwest–an opportunity for the British fleet to wreak havoc–but with the wind came a thick cloak of concealing fog. Some six hours later virtually the whole of Washington’s Long Island command was on the far shore, nine thousand men and all their gear but a few rusted cannon. Washington himself stepped into one of the last of John Glover’s boats to join his men. It had been a magnificent, perhaps a miraculous night’s work. As one Briton wrote, “Those who are best acquainted with the difficulty, embarrassment, noise and tumult which attend even by day, and with no enemy at hand, a movement of this nature… will be the first to acknowledge that this retreat should hold a high place among military transactions.”
A skillful retreat had kept Washington’s army alive, and that would have to pass for an American victory for the time being. As for General Howe, having seen opportunity come and go at least three times, he was in no particular hurry to press the fight on Manhattan. He even conferred with the captured American generals, William Alexander and the luckless John Sullivan, and tried to persuade them to join a new peace initiative. Alexander, a tough-minded Scot who nourished an abiding mistrust for the British, would have none of it. Sullivan, though, was given a pass to Philadelphia to put Howe’s peace proposal before Congress. All he achieved there was to persuade some that he was both an incompetent on the battlefield and a fool in counsel. John Adams wished that the first musket ball fired on Long Island had gone through John Sullivan’s head. | <urn:uuid:771f36b2-f576-48b3-ab3b-ccdb7ba374d2> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://www.troubadourinteractive.com/born-in-battle-the-american-revolution-online/text/iv-wearied-almost-to-death/3-angel-in-the-whirlwind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540490972.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206200121-20191206224121-00190.warc.gz | en | 0.980187 | 4,766 | 2.953125 | 3 |
On September 1st, 2010, ISTC hosted the 2010 Biochar Symposium that featured presentations on biochar production, properties, and use in agricultural environments. Click on the link above to view the slides and presentations from the symposium.
Global climate change and uncertain fossil oil reserves are two major energy, economic, and environmental challenges of our time. Fossil fuels as non-renewable energy resources will eventually be exhausted in the foreseeable future due to finite reserves and rapidly increasing energy demands of modern societies. Also, there is growing scientific consensus that the current climate change is attributed to the large emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the extensive use of fossil fuels.
Scientists at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) are exploring an innovative way to off-set fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions: using pyrolysis at low temperatures to convert waste biomass into valuable products. Pyrolysis is a thermochemical conversion process where waste biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen to produce a series of energy products such as bio-oil, syngas, and biochar. Bio-oil and syngas can be captured and used as energy carriers. Also, bio-oil can be used at petroleum refineries as a feedstock that is greenhouse-gas-neutral and renewable.
Biochar can be used as a fuel or as a soil amendment. When used as a soil amendment, biochar can boost soil fertility, prevent soil erosion, and improve soil quality by raising soil pH, trapping moisture, attracting more beneficial fungi and microbes, improving cation exchange capacity, and helping the soil hold nutrient. Moreover, biochar is a more stable nutrient source than compost and manure. Therefore, biochar as a soil amendment can increase crop yields, reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, and minimize the adverse environmental effects of agrochemicals on the environment.
Another potentially enormous environmental benefit associated with biochar used in soil is that it can sequester atmospheric carbon. In the natural carbon cycle, plants take up CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow, and subsequently CO2 is emitted when the plant matter decomposes rapidly after the plants die. Thus, the overall natural cycle is carbon neutral. In contrast, pyrolysis can lock up this atmospheric carbon as biochar for long periods (e.g., centurial or even millennial time scales). Therefore, the biochar approach is an attractive solution to alleviating global warming concerns. James Lovelock, famous for his Gaia hypothesis, is now advocating biochar as "One last chance to save mankind".
ISTC's biochar studies include: production of biochar from a variety of waste biomass, characteristics of biochar, biochar for sustainable agriculture, and potential environmental implication associated with biochar use. For more information on ISTC's biochar research, or if you are interested in exploring biochar production at your facility or establishing collaboration on biochar research, please contact Dr. Wei Zheng.
For more information on Illinois biochar research, please see: www.biochar.illinois.edu. | <urn:uuid:c7ed841f-ac80-4250-8820-ff5cdba1a08e> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.istc.illinois.edu/research/biochar.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644068098.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025428-00343-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921563 | 623 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The bleeding obvious is usually missed in the debate about the sociology of science (6 October, p 50). If science is working properlyand it has a pretty good track recordthe starting point makes little difference to the final understanding of the underlying real world.
Of course, belief systems of individual scientists will determine the path that they take to the truth. Beliefs can also blind the scientist to the correct interpretation of evidence, but persistence and consideration of the evidence eventually lead all scientists to similar conclusions.
Thus the furious debates of historical science have dissolved in the light of more science, because science reflects the underlying reality not the social beliefs of the participants. Is it not truer to say that the development of our social systems has reflected our science (knowledge) rather than the other way around?
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | <urn:uuid:71d414b4-0ea6-4a97-b96d-45277ef7bd0e> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17223156.400-science-gets-it-right.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207927634.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113207-00126-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929553 | 185 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Helping Kids Set and Reach Goals
Learning to set and achieve goals boosts kids’ success in a big way.
Got goals? According to researchers, learning to set and achieve goals boosts kids’ success in a big way. In a recent study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, students who took part in a goal-setting program boosted academic performance by a whopping 30 percent. As important as goals are, setting them doesn’t come naturally to most children. Here’s how to support your child’s success, whether that means acing a test or scoring the winning goal in a soccer game.
Pride and Joy
Though children can begin setting personal goals as early as preschool, parents should remember that young brains have difficulty grasping the concept of the future, says David Willis, owner and operator of educational child care center Kiddie Academy of Charlotte – Blakeney.
“Their brains tend to think in concrete, rather than abstract, terms,” Willis says. Young children are also prone to reflecting what they believe their parents want them to achieve, instead of their own objectives. Start the goal-setting process by asking your child about what would make him feel proud of himself.
Simple, age-appropriate goals could include climbing all the way to the top of a play structure (with supervision), saving a small sum of money for a new toy or completing an art project to give to Grandma. In general, goals for young children should be short-term — no more than a week or two into the future — and represent something a child can achieve with only minimal parental support. Achievable, near-term goals help spark motivation and self-pride in a job well done.
Risk and Reward
As school-age kids begin setting more intense, focused goals — like earning an A on a math test, selling 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies or making a competitive sports team — parents may wonder about using cash rewards or other motivational carrots to spur achievement. Not so fast! A researcher from Rochester University in New York found that using these types of rewards has a negative impact on motivation.
Yes, the child may work hard to reach the initial goal and earn the reward, but they’ll be less motivated to work toward a goal that doesn’t include cash and prizes. Achieving a goal should be its own reward, says Lewis Howes, bestselling author of “The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Your Dreams, Making an Impact, and Leaving a Lasting Legacy.” “By constantly reinforcing that your child can do anything they put their mind to, they will learn to trust their own abilities and try something new,” he says. “Rewards aren’t necessary.”
During the teen years, goals often shift toward professional aspirations as kids set their sights on a certain college or career path. But parents would be wise to encourage teens to think about future goals for family life, too. A study from Penn State University suggests that teens who set goals for success in both work and family life were more likely to be happier with their performance in both areas as adults.
Also important to future success was the teens’ self-efficacy, or belief in their ability to reach goals they set. Teens with higher self-efficacy were more likely to achieve their educational and career goals compared to teens with only moderate confidence.
When teens dream out loud about the future, prompt them to consider their goals for family life alongside professional success and their path for achieving both, and encourage self-efficacy by recognizing and celebrating the goals — big and small — they achieve along the way.
Malia Jacobson is an award-winning health and parenting journalist and mom of three. | <urn:uuid:10406cc5-0529-4c25-9f7d-898a990434eb> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.charlotteparent.com/Helping-Kids-Set-and-Reach-Goals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247489304.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20190219020906-20190219042906-00048.warc.gz | en | 0.964155 | 775 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Isolated fetal choroid plexus cysts
Overview: Isolated choroid plexus cyst(s) are common findings, seen in 1-2% of normal fetuses in the second trimester. When choroid plexus cyst(s) are identified, an experienced provider should perform a detailed fetal anatomic survey and assess for aneuploidy risk factors.
Diagnosis/definition: A choroid plexus cyst is a small fluid-filled structure within the choroid of the lateral ventricles of the fetal brain. Sonographically, choroid plexus cysts appear as echolucent cysts within the echogenic choroid (Figure 1). A choroid plexus cyst is not considered a structural or functional brain abnormality.
Epidemiology/Incidence: Choroid plexus cysts are identified in approximately 1% to 2% of fetuses in the second trimester and they occur equally in male and female fetuses.
Risk factors/associations: The only association of some significance between an isolated choroid plexus cyst and a possible fetal problem is with trisomy 18. When a fetus is affected by trisomy 18, multiple structural anomalies are almost always evident, including structural heart defects, clenched hands, talipes deformity of the feet, growth restriction, and polyhydramnios. When a structural anomaly is present in addition to choroid plexus cysts, the probability of trisomy 18 is 37%.o In the absence of associated sonographic abnormalities, the likelihood of trisomy 18 is extremely low in otherwise low-risk pregnancies.
- Counseling for a woman after prenatal identification of a fetal choroid plexus cyst should be guided by the presence or absence of other sonographic markers or structural abnormalities, results of maternal screening for risk of trisomy 18 (if performed), and maternal age (Figure 2).
- In women who screen negative for trisomy 18 (either first- or second-trimester screening) and in whom no other fetal structural abnormalities are visualized on a detailed ultrasound, the finding of an isolated choroid plexus cyst does not require additional genetic testing.
- More than 90% of choroid plexus cysts resolve, most often by 28 weeks. Studies evaluating neurodevelopmental outcomes in euploid children born after a prenatal diagnosis of choroid plexus cysts have not shown differences in neurocognitive ability, motor function, or behavior. Therefore, neither serial antenatal ultrasounds nor post-natal evaluation are clinically useful. | <urn:uuid:d4fe101b-9ce9-4e5f-8e2e-2790d1f4e201> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.smfm.org/publications/74-isolated-fetal-choroid-plexus-cysts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247482788.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217213235-20190217235235-00111.warc.gz | en | 0.899071 | 558 | 2.671875 | 3 |
- A Study of the Devastating Impact of the British Rule on Agriculture, Farming and Lifestyle of the People of India
- A comparative study of Indian and Western agricultural system and the impact of Green Revolution
- The Perils of the Genetically Modified Food
- The Present Situation – Various Practices Adopted in Processing and Dealing with Food at various stages
- Some Issues of Critical Importance
The seeds of the present day situation were already laid down by the foreign invasions in India, more specifically by the establishment of the British dominion in India.
Here are some selected excerpts from two books i.e. “The Economic History of British India” (EHBI, Published by: KEGAN PAUL, TEENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Ltd., Sixth Edition) by Romesh Dutt – Lecturer in Indian History at University College, London, and “The Corporations that changed the World” (CCW, Published by Pluto Press, London, Year 2006) by Nick Robins that give us a feel for the impact of the rule of British in India.
“…a change came over India under the rule of the East India Company. They considered India as a vast estate or plantation, the profits of which were to be withdrawn from India and deposited in Europe. They reserved all the high appointments in India for their own nominees seeking a lucrative career in the East. They bought their merchandise out of the revenues of India, and sold it in Europe for their own profit. They vigorously exacted from India a high interest on their stock-in-trade. In one shape or another all that could be raised in India by an excessive taxation flowed to Europe, after paying for a starved administration.
The East India Company’s trade was abolished in 1833, and the Company was abolished in 1858, but their policy remains. Their capital was paid off by loans which were made into an Indian Debt, on which interest is paid from Indian taxes. The empire was transferred from the Company to the Crown, but the people of India paid the purchase-money. The Indian Debt, which was £51,000,000 in 1857, rose to £97,000,000 in 1862. Within the forty years of peace which have succeeded, the Indian Debt has increased continuously, and now (1901) amounts to £200,000,000. The “Home Charges” remitted annually out of the Indian revenues to Great Britain have increased to sixteen millions. The pay of European officers in India, virtually monopolising all the higher services, comes to ten millions. One-half of the net revenues of India, which are now forty-four millions sterling, flows annually out of India. Verily the moisture of India blesses and fertilizes other lands.” (EHBI, pages xii-xiii)
“What are the causes of this intense poverty and these repeated famines in India? Superficial explanations have been offered one after another, and have been rejected on close examination. It was said that the population increased rapidly in India, and that such increase must necessarily lead to famines; it is found on inquiry that the population has never increased in India at the rate of England, and that during the last ten years it has altogether ceased to increase. It was said that the Indian cultivators were careless and improvident, and that those who did not know how to save when there was plenty, must perish when there was want; but it is known to men who have lived all their lives among these cultivators, that there is not a more abstemious, a more thrifty, a more frugal race of peasantry on earth. It was said that the Indian money-lender was the bane of India, and by his fraud and extortion kept the tillers of the soil in a chronic state of indebtedness; but the inquiries of the latest Famine Commission have revealed that the cultivators of India are forced under the thralldom of money-lenders by the rigidity of the Government revenue demand. It was said that in a country where the people depended almost entirely on their crops, they must starve when the crops failed in years of drought; but the crops in India, as a whole, have never failed, there has never been a single year when the food supply of the country was insufficient for the people, and there must be something wrong, when failure in a single province brings on a famine, and the people are unable to buy their supplies from neighbouring provinces rich in harvests.
Deep down under all these superficial explanations we must seek for the true causes of Indian poverty and Indian famines….It is, unfortunately, a fact which no well-informed Indian official will ignore, that, in many ways, the sources of national wealth in India have been narrowed under British rule. India in the eighteenth century was a great manufacturing as well as a great agricultural country, and the products of the Indian loom supplied the markets of Asia and of Europe…. the East Indian Company and the British Parliament, following the selfish commercial policy of a hundred years ago, discouraged Indian manufacturers in the early years of British rule in order to encourage the rising manufactures of England.” (EHBI pages vi-viii)
[heading style=”1″]1. Excessive and Unprecedented Land Taxes Levied[/heading]
“The invention of the power-loom in Europe completed the decline of the Indian industries; and when in recent years the power-loom was set up in India, England once more acted towards India with unfair jealousy. An excise duty has been imposed on the production of cotton fabrics in India which disables the Indian manufacturer from competing with the manufacturer of Japan and China, and which stifles the new steam-mills of India, Agriculture is now virtually the only remaining source of national wealth in India, and four-fifths of the Indian people depend on agriculture. But the Land Tax levied by the British Government is not only excessive, but, what is worse, it is fluctuating and uncertain in many provinces. In England, the Land Tax was between one shilling and four shillings in the pound, i.e., between 5 and 20 per cent, of the rental, during a hundred years before 1798, when it was made perpetual and redeemable by William Pitt. In Bengal the Land Tax was fixed at over 90 per cent, of the rental, and in Northern India at over 80 per cent, of the rental, between 1793 and 1822. It is true that the British Government only followed the precedent of the previous Mahomedan rulers, who also claimed an enormous Land Tax. But the difference was this, that what the Mahomedan rulers claimed they could never fully realise; what the British rulers claimed they realised with rigour. The last Mahomedan ruler of Bengal, in the last year of his administration (1764), realised a land revenue of £817,553; within thirty years the British rulers realised a land revenue of £2,680,000 in the same Province. In 1802 the Nawab of Oudh ceded Allahabad and some other rich districts in Northern India to the British Government. The land revenue which had been claimed by the Nawab in these ceded districts was; £1,352,347; the land revenue which was claimed by the British rulers within three years of the cession was £1,682, 306. In Madras, the Land Tax first imposed by the East India Company was one-half the gross produce of the land! In Bombay, the land revenue of the territory conquered from the Mahrattas in 1817 was £800,000 in the year of the conquest; it was raised to £1,500,000 within a few years of British rule; and it has been continuously raised since. “No Native Prince demands the rent which we do,” wrote Bishop Heber in 1826, after travelling all through India, and visiting British and Native States. “A Land Tax like that which now exists in India,” wrote Colonel Briggs in 1830, “professing to absorb the whole of the landlord’s rent, was never known under any Government in Europe or Asia.” (EHBI pages viii-x)
[heading style=”1″]2. (a) To Force the Indian People to Grow Raw Produce for Factories of Great Britain[/heading]
“Their fixed policy…was to make India subservient to the industries of Great Britain, and to make the Indian people grow raw produce only, in order to supply material for the looms and manufactories of Great Britain. This policy was pursued with unwavering resolution and with fatal success; orders were sent out, to force Indian artisans to work in the Company’s factories; commercial residents were legally vested with extensive powers over villages and communities of Indian weavers; prohibitive tariffs excluded Indian silk and cotton goods from England; English goods were admitted into India free of duty or on payment of a nominal duty.
The British manufacturer, in the words of the historian, H. H. Wilson, “…employed the arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle a competitor with whom he could not have contended on equal terms; “millions of Indian artisans lost their earnings; the population of India lost one great source of their wealth. It is a painful episode in the history of British rule in India; but it is a story which has to be told to explain the economic condition of the Indian people, and their present helpless dependence on agriculture.” (EHBI page viii)
[heading style=”1″]2. b) Peasants Forced to Grow Commercial Crops at Lower Prices[/heading]
“In the wider economy, Hastings rigorously enforced the longstanding ban on private trade. Learning the lessons of Clive’s failed Society of Trade, Hastings decided to establish corporate rather than private monopolies over opium, salt and saltpetre as a way of further increasing revenues. In the case of opium, Hastings argued that such a ‘pernicious article of luxury’ should be carefully regulated and only permitted ‘for the purpose of foreign commerce’. So, in 1773, Hastings deprived the Company’s Council in Patna of its opium privileges. In its place, the Company was given the exclusive rights to buy all opium, a function that Hastings farmed out to contractors to manage on its behalf. ‘All types of compulsion and coercion were used’, writes Chandra Prakash Sinha, ‘to force the ryots [peasants]to grow opium against their will, for which they received arbitrarily low prices.’ Before the Company took over, opium was selling for about three rupees a seer. Peasants were compelled to sell their poppy to the contractor, and the price they received soon fell to between one and two rupees. The average auction price, however, was six rupees a seer, winning the Company a substantial profit. When Francis complained that the monopoly was producing ‘universal poverty and depopulation’ in Bihar, Hastings handed the opium contract to Francis’s friend, John Mackenzie, thereby silencing the criticism. But Mackenzie’s tenure was no better, and in 1777 a group of peasants complained that a large area of corn had been forcibly cut down and replaced with opium.” (CCW pages119-20)
[heading style=”1″]3. Forcing More Land on a Farmer Than he could Cultivate[/heading]
“Travelling further westwards, Dr. Buchanan reached Palachy on the 24th November.…The worst grounds in this district were left for pasture and paid no rent, and the remainder belonging to each village was reckoned as arable, and had an average assessment fixed, ranging from 2s. l0.75d. to 7s. 3d. the acre. “The farmers complain that the land is forced on them, and that they are compelled to rent more than they have stock to enable them to cultivate. A man who rents seventeen Bullas of land (a Bulla = 4.25 to 6 acres) is able only to plough nine of them, whereas, if he had full stock, he would plough between eleven and twelve, leaving one-third part in fallow. The rents, however, have been lowered, in some villages one-fifth, in others one-third, in order to compensate the loss which the farmer suffers by this manner of renting lands, where there is not a sufficient stock to cultivate the whole. This sort of tenure seems to be a great evil.” (EHBI page 220)
[heading style=”1″]4. Forcing People to Abandon their Occupation and Work for the Company[/heading]
“It was not, however, the policy of the East India Company to foster Indian industries. It has been stated in a previous chapter that, as early as 1769, the Directors wished the manufacture of raw silk to be encouraged in Bengal, and that of silk fabrics discouraged. And they also directed that silk-winders should be made to work in the Company’s factories, and prohibited from working outside “under severe penalties, by the authority of the Government.” This mandate had its desired effect. The manufacture of silk and cotton goods declined in India, and the people who had exported these goods to the markets of Europe and Asia in previous centuries began to import them in increasing quantities.”(EHBI page 256)
An entire section of the book is devoted to such policies that led to the decline of Indian industries that were directly or indirectly related to agriculture.
[heading style=”1″]5. Charging Heavy Duties and Taxes on Country Traders[/heading]
“In the eighteenth century, the transit of goods by roads and navigable rivers was subject to inland duties in India, as in other parts of the world. The East India Company had, however, obtained a Firman, or royal order, exempting their export and import trade from these payments. The goods which the Company imported from Europe, and those which they purchased in India for export to Europe, were thus permitted to pass through the country without duties. A Dustuck, or certificate, signed by the English President or by chiefs of English factories, was shown at the toll-houses, and protected the Company’s merchandise from all duties…” (EHBI page 18)
“…the difficulty about the inland trade increased from year to year. The Company’s servants conveyed their goods from place to place duty-free, while the goods of the country merchants were heavily taxed in the transit. The country traders were ruined; the Nawab’s revenues declined; and the servants of the Company monopolised the trade and reared colossal fortunes.” (EHBI page 19)
“As Smith had predicted, the Company was soon unable to compete against the surge of new entrepreneurs, and it ceased exporting merchandise to India in 1824, largely because there was little it could buy in India for sale back in Britain. For India’s producers, this so called opening of trade brought little relief. In the wake of the Bengal Revolution, the East India Company had used its political position to establish monopoly control over Bengal’s weavers. Its hunger for the weavers’ output was still as strong, if not stronger, than ever before as it looked for new ways of returning the wealth of Bengal to Britain through increased exports of cloth. Exploitation certainly followed in the most cruel form, and for the weavers the result was dislocation and impoverishment. Paradoxically, however, it was the end of the Company’s trading monopoly in 1813 that would turn this terrible situation into one of complete destitution. A 20 per cent increase in import duties on Indian goods was added in 1813 to ensure that open competition did not challenge the British producer. This took the tariff wall to a huge 78 per cent on calicoes and 31 per cent on muslins. ‘Had not such prohibitory duties and decrees existed,’ wrote Henry Wilson in 1858, ‘the mills of Paisley and Manchester would have stopped in their outset and could scarcely have been set in motion, even by the powers of steam.’ In place of its earlier position as the monopoly purchaser of Indian cloth, the Company’s new role was simply to prevent the introduction of any countervailing measures to ‘level the playing field’.
The earthquake that struck Dhaka in 1812 – demolishing the Company’s agency building in Tejgaon – was only a portent of a far more savage economic disaster that was about to strike. In 1753, just before Plassey, Dhaka exported Rs2,850,000 in textiles to Britain; by the end of the century, this had already fallen to Rs1,362,000. But it took only four years following the removal of the Company’s monopoly for exports to cease altogether, and in 1818, the Company’s cloth ‘factory’ at Dhaka was wound up. The city imploded upon itself, and by 1840, its population had fallen from 150,000 to just 20,000, with jungle and malaria ‘fast encroaching upon the town’. Once again, horrific acts of mutilation are said to have accompanied this upheaval. In a grisly repeat of earlier cruelties, when machine-made yarns were first introduced into Dhaka in 1821, the ‘thumb and index finger of some of the renowned artisans began to be chopped off in order to disable them from twisting finer yarns’, according to Syed Muhammed Taifoor. Taifoor adds that some reputed artisans also ‘chopped off their own finger-ends in order to avoid the tyranny of the middlemen’.” (CCW pages 147-48)
[heading style=”1″]6. Forcible Acquisition and Public Auction of Estates[/heading]
“Agriculture had always been the main source of the subsistence of the people …but it declined under the new system of land settlements introduced by the Company’s servants. … The Company’s servants, however, introduced a new system in Burdwan and Midnapur soon after they had acquired those districts from Mir Kasim in 1760; they disregarded the customary rights of the Zemindars, and sold their estates by public auction to increase the revenue, with the most lamentable results.” (EHBI page 43)
“Cornwallis’s main task was to bring some order to the Company’s ad hoc system of tax collection. Taxes had certainly risen under Company rule in Bengal. One estimate suggests that the annual taxes collected in Bengal during Mir Kasim’s reign in the early 1760s amounted to about £646,000, rising to £1,470,000 in the first year of the Company’s diwani. During the 1770s, the collection had advanced to £2,577,000 and by 1790-1 to £2,680,000, a four-fold increase in 30 years. But the revenue system remained forever temporary, with frequent changes to the rates and management methods. Starting with Philip Francis, a growing number within the Company believed that the only way to resolve the situation was to fix the system of tax collection in perpetuity. In a case of tragic misperception, the Company’s analysts came to see the zamindari class of Mughal taxfarmers as equivalent to the propertied landed gentry of England, with the ryots as their tenant farmers. But self-interest was at work as well. The Company wanted to build up a political class of landholders who would support their presence. In place of complex systems of ownership, with intersecting rights and responsibilities, the Company introduced the English model of landlordship.
For Cornwallis, a ‘permanent settlement’ was ‘the only effectual mode to render the proprietors of the lands economical landlords and the prudent trustees of the public interest’. And so on 22 March 1793, a proclamation was made fixing the jumma at £3 million ‘for ever’. For this, Bengal’s peasantry were sacrificed in the same way as the rights of England’s commoners had been smashed by the enclosure movement. The zamindars were given exclusive rights over their lands and, in Ranajit Guha’s phrase, a ‘rule of property’ was introduced, bringing a total rupture with previous systems of landholding and governance. According to John Capper, writing in the 1850s, the result was that ‘20 million small landholders were dispossessed of their rights, and handed over, bound hand and foot to the tender mercies of a set of exacting rack-renters’. From an imperial perspective, this was Cornwallis’s greatest achievement – absorbing the Company’s territories in Bengal into a legal and administrative system that was fully aligned to the wider needs of the British Empire. On his return to England, the grateful merchants of London made Cornwallis an honorary freeman of the City, awarding him a gold medal in a gilded box. But back in Bengal, large numbers of zamindars were unable to pay the new levy, with the result that their lands were forcibly auctioned off. By 1796 perhaps one-tenth of the whole of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was advertised for sale, and 163,000 lawsuits over arrears remained outstanding in 1812.” (CCW pages 137-38)
[heading style=”1″]7. All Policies Resulting in Famine Condition and no Relief at the Time of Famine[/heading]
“..the famines which have desolated India within the last quarter of the nineteenth century are unexampled in their extent and intensity in the history of ancient or modern times. By a moderate calculation, the famines of 1877 and 1878, of 1889 and 1892, of 1897 and 1900, have carried off fifteen millions of people. The population of a faired-sized European country has been swept away from India within twenty-five years.” (EHBI page vi)
“..Famines in India are directly due to a deficiency in the annual rainfall; but the intensity of such famines and the loss of lives caused by them are largely due to the chronic poverty of the people. If the people were generally in a prosperous condition, they could make up for local failure of crops by purchases from neighbouring provinces, and there would be no loss of life. But when the people are absolutely resourceless, they cannot buy from surrounding tracts, and they perish in hundreds of thousands, or in millions, whenever there is a local failure of crops. Early in 1769 high prices gave an indication of an approaching famine, but the land-tax was more rigorously collected than ever. “The revenues were never so closely collected before.” Late in the year the periodical rains ceased prematurely, and the Calcutta Council in their letter of the 23rd November to the Court of Directors anticipated a falling off of the revenues, but specified no relief measures to be undertaken. On the 9th May 1770 they wrote: “The famine which has ensued, the mortality, the beggary, exceed all description. Above one-third of the inhabitants have perished in the once plentiful province of Purneah, and in other parts the misery is equal.” On the 11th September they wrote: “It is scarcely possible that any description could be an exaggeration of the misery the inhabitants . . . have encountered with. It is not then to be wondered that this calamity has had its influence on the collections; but we are happy to remark they have fallen less short than we supposed they would.” On the 12th February 1771 they wrote: “Notwithstanding the great severity of the late famine and the great reduction of people thereby, some increase has been made in the settlements both of the Bengal and the Behar provinces for the present year.” On the 10th January 1772 they wrote: “The collections in each department of revenue are as successfully carried on for the present year as we could have wished.” (EHBI pages 51-52)
“While the London establishment were contemplating the costs of its financial excesses in the summer of 1769, across the world in Bengal a drought of unprecedented ferocity was just commencing. For six whole months from August 1769 to January 1770, the monsoon rains failed to arrive, delivering a chronic water shortage that destroyed up to half the crops, particularly in the west and north-west of Bengal. With the New Year, drought started to turn into famine. Plentiful rain fell in June 1770, but ‘hopes of relief were disappointed by the overflowing of the rivers in the eastern provinces’, adding flood to famine.
Famine had been an established part of India’s social reality for thousands of years, and was only truly defeated following Independence in 1947. Early English travellers had commented with horror on the scale of the terrible famine of 1631, which had severely disrupted normal trade. Yet, the incidence of famine expanded dramatically, first under Company and then under the British Crown. In fact, British control of India started with a famine in Bengal in 1770 and ended in a famine – again in Bengal – in 1943. Working in the midst of the terrible 1877 famine that he estimated had cost another 10 million lives, Cornelius Walford calculated that in the 120 years of British rule there had been 34 famines in India, compared with only 17 recorded famines in the entire previous two millennia. One of factors that explained this divergence was the Company’s abandonment of the Mughal system of public regulation and investment. Not only did the Mughals use tax revenues to finance water conservation, thus boosting food production, but when famine struck they imposed ‘embargos on food exports, anti-speculative price regulation, tax relief and distribution of free food’. More brutally, if merchants were found to have short-changed peasants during famines, an equivalent weight in human flesh would be taken from them in exchange.
Like previous failures of the natural cycle, the inadequate monsoon of 1769 in Bengal could have been managed without great loss of life. But the Company had significantly increased Bengal’s vulnerability to natural disaster. Bengal had been picked clean by the Company and its executives in the preceding decade. Revenue collection had increased dramatically from just £606,000 the year before the Company took over the diwani to a peak of £2,500,000 two years later. Flows of bullion into Bengal fell from £345,000 in 1764 to £54,000 in 1765, and ceased entirely in 1766. Instead, silver started leaving Bengal to pay for the Company’s tea trade. By 1769, Richard Becher, the Company’s Resident at Murshidabad, admitted with some shame that ‘the condition of the people of this country has been worse than it was before’, arguing that ‘this fine country, which flourished under the most despotic and arbitrary government, is verging towards its ruin while the English have so great a share in the Administration’.
Throughout 1769, the Company monitored the situation, and in November, the Calcutta Council wrote back to London that revenues would be reduced in the year ahead. A harrowing letter published under the name of J.C. in the Gentleman’s Magazine in September 1771 reveals the unrelenting pursuit of self-interest that governed the Company’s approach to the crisis. Rather than take action to curb price speculation in grain, ‘as soon as the dryness of the season foretold the approaching dearness of rice’, wrote J.C., ‘our Gentlemen in the Company’s service were as early as possible in buying up all they could lay hold of’. The peasants quickly complained to the Nawab that the English had ‘engrossed all the rice’. But when these accusations were put before the Company’s Calcutta Council, the complaint was met with howls of laughter and thrown out. Huge fortunes were made as Company staff cornered the market. One junior executive accumulated over £60,000, as rice prices soared from 120 seers of rice per rupee at the beginning of the famine to just three seers a rupee in June 1770. At the time, a seer was equivalent to about 2 lb in weight. The Nawab and other Bengali nobles tried to respond in the traditional way and distributed rice free of charge. But because of the hoarding by the Company’s executives, their stocks were soon depleted.
As the famine intensified, thousands flocked to Calcutta, many dying in the streets. Whoever he was, J.C. clearly had humanitarian feelings and would hand out food to the starving who gathered near his Calcutta residence. But he was also squeamish. On one occasion, he sent his servants to get the starving to move away from his house. But one of the near-dead rebelled, and cried out: ‘Baba! Baba!, my Father, My Father! This affliction comes from the hands of your countrymen, and I am come here to die, if it pleases God, in your presence.’ J.C. concludes his letter by describing Calcutta’s good fortune of having both vultures and dogs to deal with the dead – the first to take out the eyes and intestines, and the latter to gnaw the feet and the hands.
With no pictures or photographs to drive home the horror of the event, we are left with eye-witness accounts of the living feeding off the dead, of the Hugli full of swollen bodies and, in the words of Karim Ali, author of Muzaffarnamah, of whole families being yielded up to the ‘talons of the wrath of the godless’. However, the Company’s first concern was to feed its army and then to ensure that its taxes were secure. Not only did the Company continue to collect its land revenues throughout the famine – instead of introducing some form of relief in the Mughal fashion – it actually increased the rate. In February 1771, Calcutta reported back to the directors that ‘notwithstanding the great severity of the late famine and the great reduction of people thereby, some increase has been made’ in revenue collection. Many of the Company’s leading executives used their position to purchase grain by force – even seed for the next year’s planting – and then sold this at famine prices in the big cities of Calcutta and Murshidabad. Eventually, the Company did act, providing Rs90,000 in relief, a pittance in a land of some 30 million people with annual revenues of over Rs17 million. Even later imperial historians admitted that the Company did not even ‘attempt to cope with the disaster’. This was a man-made catastrophe.
The absence of comprehensive records means that it is impossible to calculate accurately the numbers of those who died in the famine. In 1772, Warren Hastings estimated that 10 million Bengalis had starved to death, equating to perhaps a third of the population. Hastings also concluded that the famine was caused by an artificial shortage of food supplies caused by market manipulation. For this, Hastings blamed the local merchants, ignoring the role of the Company executives themselves. Mortality was highest among low-income groups, the rural artisans and urban poor, neither of whom had direct access to food stocks. In Purnea, one of the worst-affected districts, the Company’s agent reported that ‘on the high and sandy soils, more than half the ryots are dead’. Mortality in Malda also approached 50 per cent, while in Rajshahi between a third and a half of the people died, and in Birbhum up to a quarter perished. Re-examining the data, Rajat Datta has recently argued that the accepted estimate of 10 million deaths is inflated, suggesting a death toll of 1.2 million instead. Yet, even if this more conservative figure is taken, the terrible outcome of the famine can still be barely understood. This was a time when the population of London was well under a million. All of these and more would have been wiped out if the famine had hit the Company’s home town, instead of far-off Bengal. In effect, London would have been left a ghost town. Instead, it was Bengal that was depopulated, with one-third of the Company’s territory lying ‘as jungle inhabited only by wild beasts’. The sheer barbarity of the Company’s conduct during the 1770 famine lies in its refusal to temper its demands for taxes with a sense of responsibility for the people of Bengal. As Warren Hastings acknowledged in a letter to the Company’s directors in November 1772, ‘it was naturally to be expected that the diminution of the revenue should have kept an equal pace with other consequences of so great a calamity’. The reason that revenues were maintained was ‘owing to its being violently kept up to its former standard’.” (CCW pages 90-93)
“In London, news of the famine generated a genuine sense of horror and humanitarian concern. The first inklings of what was taking place reached London in December 1770, when the Gentleman’s Magazine reported that ‘provisions were so scarce in the Company’s new acquisitions that parents brought their children to sell them for a morsel of bread’. When the full story became known, horror turned to outrage at the Company’s negligence. As Horace Walpole said at the time, ‘we have murdered, deposed, plundered, usurped – nay, what think you of the famine in Bengal, in which three millions perished, being caused by a monopoly of provisions by the servants of the East Indies’.” (CCW page 95)
[heading style=”1″]8. Weavers of Bengal Reduced to Virtual Slavery under the Company[/heading]
“Never rich, Bengal’s weavers still had a better standard of living than their counterparts in contemporary England, largely owing to their ability to determine their terms and conditions. According to Prasannan Parthasarathi, there is compelling evidence that India’s weavers had ‘higher earnings than their British counterparts and lived lives of greater financial security’. Economic tradition in India supported the position of the weaver against the merchant. At a time when the British state was intervening on the side of the employer – for example, to set maximum levels for wages – Indian weavers were able to act as a collective body, improving their ability to negotiate favourable prices. This bargaining power combined with strong European demand for cloth in the first half of the eighteenth century created a seller’s market, enabling Indian weavers to enjoy a ‘golden age’ of low costs and high prices.
All this ended following Plassey. From a situation of relative economic independence, Bengal’s weavers were forced into a position of near slavery, unable to sell to others and obliged to accept whatever the Company’s agents (gomastas) would offer for their cloth. ‘The Company went to market as Sovereigns and Tyrants’, argued a revealing briefing written for Philip Francis in the 1770s. ‘Instead of seeking a preference by paying better,’ it added, ‘they forced the manufacturers to Work for them and to work at an under price, at the same time that they prohibited all private merchants from dealing in the Assortments required for their Investment.’ The outcome was inevitable: ‘thus a general Monopoly was at once rigorously established’.” (CCW page 77)
[heading style=”1″]9. Misuse of Political Power to Concentrate all Trade in the Hands of the Few[/heading]
“Clive also turned his hand to private trade, despite the directors’ insistent ban on all involvement in Bengal’s internal market. A month after his arrival in Calcutta, he formed a syndicate that turned a profit of 45 per cent from the trade in salt over the next six months. Then in August 1765 came his cunning plan to eliminate the anarchy of private trade by installing an exclusive business in its place. A peculiar ‘special purpose vehicle’ known as the Society of Trade was established with monopoly rights over the trade in betel nut, salt and tobacco, with shares allocated free to the Company’s leading executives in Calcutta. Out of 56 shares, Clive allocated himself five, or just under 10 per cent of this elite enterprise. The ten other members of the Council received two shares each, but lower down the chaplain only got two-thirds of a share, and the poor sub-export warehouse keeper a measly one-third of a share. By this measure, a tiny gang of 60 executives simply engrossed the whole of the inland trade, excluding not only Asian merchants, but also junior executives and independent European traders. In theory, the scheme would provide the Company’s elite with sufficiently high returns that they would not be tempted by private trade; the Company would also receive a guaranteed flow of revenues from duty payments. The reality was scandalous, doubling prices for salt, defaulting on duty payments and siphoning off profits for a select few. Clive alone received £21,000 in profits from the first year of trading.
When the Company’s directors learned of this novel moneymaking machine in 1766, they protested that it was ‘a determined resolution to sacrifice the interests of the Company and the peace of the country to lucrative and selfish views’, forbidding any executive from taking part. Just as with the ban on presents, however, Clive and the Calcutta Council studiously ignored the directors’ orders for as long as they could, only winding up its affairs in September 1768. Public opinion back in London was incensed by Clive’s Society of Trade scam. For the Gentleman’s Magazine, Clive’s establishment of a monopoly over the necessaries of life had ‘signed the death warrant for two millions of his fellow creatures’.” (CCW page 86)
[heading style=”1″]10. Uprising Against Forced Economic Hardship[/heading]
““In June 1782, peasants from Dinajpur travelled to Calcutta with a petition against the oppressive behaviour of Debi Singh, the Company’s agent in the region. The ryots wanted relief from unpayable levels of tax, the removal of unauthorised levies and an end to the forcible sale of property to pay tax arrears, as well as redress for the violence of the Company’s agents. But the Company rejected the complaint as ‘frivolous’ and ‘fabricated’. By November, ryots were refusing to pay their rents, and in January, full-scale revolt broke out in Dinajpur and Rangpur. Peasant grievances merged with the holy war of the sannyasin led by Shah Munju and Shah Musa. This rebellion was, however, quickly suppressed by the Company’s troops. But neighbouring Awadh also rose up in revolt against Hastings’s mounting demands for tribute, which had resulted in those unable to pay being ‘confined in open cages’. Again, the uprising was easily crushed, only to be followed by a vicious famine in 1784, thankfully not on the scale of the 1770 disaster.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya would later base his groundbreaking novel, Anandamath, on the story of sannyasin uprisings against the Company during Hastings’s tenure. Central to the story of Mahatma Satya, Mahendra, Bhavan and Kalyani is the inclusion of the nationalist anthem, ‘Bande Mataram’ (Hail to the Mother) as the song of the rebels. What was striking about the novel was the emphasis that the main characters placed on armed rebellion as the only way to rid India of the British, a strategy that was later adopted by Bengal’s revolutionary movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the novel, the radical Bhavan attempts to convince Mahendra of the need for revolt: ‘the British are shipping our wealth to their treasuries in Calcutta’, he says, ‘and from there that wealth is to be shipped again to England. There is no hope for India until we drive the British out … by sheer force of arms.’” (CCW page 123)
[heading style=”1″]11. Some other relevant excerpts from EHBI:[/heading]
“Ramsay asserted that the condition of Ryots, who laboured for European planters, was worse than that of other Ryots; that European planters compelled them to sow a larger portion of their land with indigo than they would otherwise have done; that European planters interfered with the tiller’s right to cultivate his land as he liked.” (EHBI page 278)
“Lord Ellenborough in England took up this report, and in his own forcible language pointed out to the East India Company in 1835 the evils of the system. “The effect upon the national morals is yet more serious than the effect upon national wealth. Every merchant, every manufacturer, and every traveller is, as it were, compelled, for the security of his property or the protection of his personal comfort, and not unfrequently for that of the feelings of the females of his family, to enter into unlawful collusion with the officers of Government. It is a system which demoralizes our own people, and which appears to excite the aversion of all the foreign traders of Asia. . . .(EHBI pages 306-07)
“No system could be devised by human ingenuity better calculated to keep an agricultural nation permanently poor and resourceless than the system which left to the revenue officials the absolute and unrestricted power to increase the revenue demand at each recurring settlement. The cultivator had no voice in the settlement of the Land-Tax; he was not consulted in fixing that tax; he was called upon, after the demand was settled, to pay it or to quit his ancestral land and starve.
That we are not exaggerating the evils of the new system will appear from the testimony of those who took a part in the making of the Settlement. The Company’s charter came up for renewal in 1853, and, as usual, there was a Parliamentary inquiry into all branches of the Company’s Indian administration before the charter was renewed. Select Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons recorded evidence in 1852 and framed their Reports. They recorded further evidence in 1853, and the Lords submitted three Reports and the Commons six. From this voluminous mass of evidence we will select that of a young officer, Goldfinch, who had himself done Settlement work in Bombay, and described it on the 20th June 1853.
“After the survey was finished, when you found a field, say No. 11, of five Bighas [about two acres]of land, in the possession of some particular person, did the Collector assess the revenue upon it arbitrarily, or did he ask the occupant or proprietor whether he was willing to pay the amount?” The assessment was fixed by the Superintendent of Survey, without any reference to the cultivator; and when those new rates were introduced, the holder of each field was summoned to the Collector and informed of the rate at which his land would be assessed in future; and if he chose to retain it on those terms, he did; if he did not choose, he threw it up.” …“To Goldfinch it appeared that to fix the Land-Tax “without any reference to the cultivator,” and then to ask him to accept the assessment or to throw up his land, was a fair and equitable procedure. It did not strike him that the land belonged to the cultivator, and had been held by his ancestors at a fixed Land-Tax; and that the option of throwing up the land meant a confiscation of his hereditary property.” (EHBI pages 380-82) | <urn:uuid:37ea5ad6-c795-4fbf-a4b9-a99e02cc5b04> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | http://new.resurgentindia.org/a-study-of-the-devastating-impact-of-british-rule-on-agriculture-farming-and-the-lifestyle-of-the-people-of-india/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100599.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206130723-20231206160723-00736.warc.gz | en | 0.972417 | 9,364 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Did you know that there are three primary types of patents? They are: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Utility patents are the ones most commonly sought, and what most people are referring to when they say they have “patented” their invention. Utility patents cover things that function in some way to create a new utility. Mechanical devices, electronics, pharmaceuticals, business processes — essentially anything that can be made or fabricated would be appropriate for a utility patent.
Design patents cover the visual design of the invention — that is, the invention’s visual characteristics or ornamental shape / design. If you have an item that has a unique visual appearance (such as a unique shape or design for a telephone, water glass, computer case, etc.), that unique design can be patented by way of a design patent.
Plant patents, as the name implies, cover unique strains of plants — such as trees, flowers, shrubs, and vegetables. Knowing the three types of patents will help you as your chart your course on the invention patent waters.
How long does a patent last?
A common question is how long do patents last?
In the U.S., utility patents and plant patents are valid for 20 years after their filing date. (This slightly longer change in duration came about in June 1995. Utility patents filed before that date are valid for 17 years from their issue date.) As for the third type of patent, a design patent, this patent type is valid for 14 years from date of issuance.
Each year hundreds of marketable inventions are wasted simply because the inventor did not follow through with his or her great idea. InventHelp will package your idea, provide a patent referral, and submit your idea to companies who want to receive new ideas. InventHelp firm maintains a database of more than 9000 companies which have agreed to confidentially review our clients’ ideas. If you have a new invention idea, https://sites.duke.edu/perspective/2018/11/12/bringing-ideas-to-the-world-with-inventhelp/ is an invention service, that will help you patent and submit your invention ideas to companies.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There are various patent “maintenance fees” imposed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over the lifetime of a patent. And if those fees aren’t paid, a patent could prematurely expire. | <urn:uuid:bc665103-da64-4111-b4f2-38c7419898ac> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://businessinsidercom.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/how-to-patent-an-idea-the-three-types-of-patents/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578633464.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20190424054536-20190424080536-00151.warc.gz | en | 0.942783 | 509 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Single-wire transmission line
A single-wire transmission line (or single wire method) is a method of transmitting electrical power or signals using only a single electrical conductor. This is in contrast to the usual use of a pair of wires providing a complete circuit, or a cable likewise containing (at least) two conductors for that purpose. Systems relying on a return current through the ground, using the earth as a second conductor, are rather termed single wire earth return.
As early as the 1780s Luigi Galvani first observed the effect of static electricity in causing the legs of a frog to twitch, and observed the same effect produced just due to certain metallic contacts with the frog involving a complete circuit. The latter effect was correctly understood by Alessandro Volta as an electric current inadvertently produced by what would become known as a voltaic cell (battery). He understood that such a current required a complete circuit to conduct the electricity, even though the actual nature of electric currents was not at all understood (only a century later would the electron be discovered). All subsequent development of electrical motors, lights, etc. relied on the principle of a complete circuit, generally involving a pair of wires, but sometimes using the ground as the second conductor (as with commercial telegraphy).
At the end of the 19th century, Tesla demonstrated that by using an electrical network tuned to resonance and using, what at the time would be called "high frequency AC" (radio frequencies), it was possible to transmit electric power using only a single wire, with no need for a metal or Earth return conductor. This was spoken of as the "transmission of electrical energy through one wire without return".
In 1891, 1892, and 1893 demonstration lectures with electrical oscillators before the AIEE at Columbia College, N.Y.C., the IEE, London, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and National Electric Light Association, St. Louis, it was shown that electric motors and single-terminal incandescent lamps can be operated through a single wire without a return conductor. Although apparently lacking a complete circuit, such a topology effectively obtains a return circuit by virtue of the load's self-capacitance.
- "Thus coils of the proper dimensions might be connected each with only one of its ends to the mains from a machine of low E. M. F., and though the circuit of the machine would not be closed in the ordinary acceptance of the term, yet the machine might be burned out if a proper resonance effect would be obtained."
This observation has been rediscovered several times, and described, for instance, in a 1993 patent. Single-wire transmission in this sense is not possible using direct current and totally impractical for low frequency alternating currents such as the standard 50–60 Hz power line frequencies. At much higher frequencies, however, it is possible for the return circuit (which would normally be connected through a second wire) to utilize the self-capacitance of a large conductive object, perhaps the housing of the load itself. Although the self-capacitance of even large objects is rather small in ordinary terms, as Tesla himself appreciated it is possible to resonate that capacitance using a sufficiently large inductor (depending on the frequency used), in which case the large reactance of that capacitance is cancelled out. This allows a large current to flow (and a large power to be supplied to the load) without requiring an extremely high voltage source. Although this method of power transmission has long been understood, it is not clear whether there has been any commercial application of this principal for power transmission.
Single conductor waveguides
As early as 1899, Arnold Sommerfeld published a paper predicting the use of a single cylindrical conductor (wire) to propagate radio frequency energy as a surface wave. Sommerfeld's "wire wave" was of theoretical interest as a propagating mode, but this was decades before technology existed for the generation of sufficiently high radio frequencies for any such experimentation, let alone practical applications. What's more, the solution described an infinite transmission line without consideration of coupling power into (or out of) it.
Of particular practical interest, though, was the prediction of a substantially lower signal attenuation compared to using the same wire as the center conductor of a coaxial cable. Contrary to the previous explanation of the full transmitted power being due to a classical current through a wire, in this case the currents in the conductor itself are much smaller, with the energy transmitted in the form of an electromagnetic wave (radio wave). But in this case, the presence of the wire acts to guide that wave toward the load, rather than radiating away.
The reduction of ohmic losses compared to using coax (or other two-wire transmission lines) is especially an advantage at higher frequencies where these losses become very large. Practically speaking, use of this transmission mode below microwave frequencies is very problematic due to the very extended field patterns around the wire. The fields associated with the surface wave along the conductor are significant out to many wavelengths, therefore metallic or even dielectric materials inadvertently present in these regions will distort the propagation of the mode and typically will increase propagation loss. For these reasons, and at frequencies available prior to about 1950, the practical disadvantages of such transmission completely outweighed the reduced loss due to the wire's finite conductivity.
In 1950 Georg Goubau revisited Sommerfeld's discovery of a surface wave mode along a wire, but with the intent of increasing its practicality. One major goal was to reduce the extent of the fields surrounding the conductor so that such a wire would not require an unreasonably large clearance. Another problem was that Sommerfeld's wave propagated exactly at the speed of light (or the slightly lower speed of light in air, for a wire surrounded by air). That meant that there would be radiation losses. The straight wire acts as a long wire antenna, robbing the radiated power from the guided mode. If the propagation velocity can be reduced below the speed of light then the surrounding fields become evanescent, and are thus unable to propagate energy away from the area surrounding the wire.
Goubau investigated the beneficial effect of a wire whose surface is structured (rather than an exact cylinder) such as would be obtained using a threaded wire. More significantly, Goubau proposed the application of a dielectric layer surrounding the wire. Even a rather thin layer (relative to the wavelength) of a dielectric will reduce the propagation velocity sufficiently below the speed of light, eliminating radiation loss from a surface wave along the surface of a long straight wire. This modification also had the effect of greatly reducing the footprint of the electromagnetic fields surrounding the wire, addressing the other practical concern.
Finally, Goubau invented a method for launching (and receiving) electrical energy from such a transmission line. The patented Goubau line (or "G-line") consists of a single conductor coated with dielectric material. At each end is a wide disk with a hole in the center through which the transmission line passes. The disk may be the base of a cone, with its narrow end connected typically to the shield of coaxial feed line, and the transmission line itself connecting to the center conductor of the coax.
Even with the reduced extent of the surrounding fields in Goubau's design, such a device only becomes practical at UHF frequencies and above. With technological development at terahertz frequencies, where metallic losses are yet greater, the use of transmission using surface waves and Groubau lines appears promising.
From 2003 through 2008 patents were filed for a system returns to using Sommerfeld's original bare (uncoated) wire, but employing the launchers developed by Goubau. It was promoted under the name "E-Line" through 2009. Thus the resulting wave velocity is not reduced by a dielectric coating, however the resulting radiation losses may be tolerable for the transmission distances intended. The intended application in this case is not power transmission but power line communication, that is, creating supplementary radio frequency channels using existing power lines for communications purposes. This has been proposed for transmission of frequencies from below 50 MHz to above 20 GHz using pre-existing single or multistrand overhead power conductors.
Losses of such a system are dependent on the signal frequency and details of the power conductor and its environment. For instance, at lower radio frequencies (longer wavelengths) the larger extent of the surrounding fields implies that "a nearby conductor other than the line itself may provide a termination point and thereby reduce energy coupled into the TM wave." At very high frequencies, the increased losses of the metal conductor, despite the advantage obtained using the surface wave mode, are increased. The effects of line taps, bends, insulators and other impairments normally found on power distribution systems have been described as "predictable and manageable". Depending on these factors, the resulting insertion loss, along with the transmitted power and receiver sensitivity, will determine the maximum distance attained by such a system. An increased end-to-end communications path can be obtained through the use of repeaters.
To take advantage of existing lines, the conical launcher elements are built with a slot through the cone, so that they can be fitted over an existing power line (rather than having to be threaded through the cone). Systems using higher microwave frequencies can employ a launch device of only 15–20 cm in diameter.
- "Why did Tesla make his coil in the first place? . . . do they have any practical purposes?," 21st Century Books.
- Nikola Tesla, "Talking with the Planets (1901)". Collier's Weekly, February 19, 1901, pp. 4–5.
- "Some ten years ago, I recognized the fact that to convey electric currents to a distance it was not at all necessary to employ a return wire, but that any amount of energy might be transmitted by using a single wire. I illustrated this principle by numerous experiments, which, at that time, excited considerable attention among scientific men."
- Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Columbia College, N.Y., May 20, 1891.
- Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency, Institution of Electrical Engineers Address, London, February 1892.
- On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, February 1893, and National Electric Light Association, St. Louis, March 1893.
- U.S. Patent 6,104,107, "Method and apparatus for single line electrical transmission". Avramenko, et al.
- A. Sommerfeld, Ann. Phys. u. Chemie (Neue Folge) 67-1, 233 (1899)
- Georg Goubau, "Surface waves and their Application to Transmission Lines," Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 21, Nov. (1950)
- U.S. Patent 2,685,068, "Surface wave transmission line". George J. E. Goubau
- U.S. Patent 2,921,277, "Launching and receiving of surface waves". George J. E. Goubau
- Tahsin Akalin, "Single-wire transmission lines at terahertz frequencies", IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (IEEE-MTT), Volume 54, Issue 6, June 2006 Page(s): 2762 - 2767
- U.S. Patent 7,009,471, "Method and apparatus for launching a surfacewave onto a single conductor transmission line using a slotted flared cone". Glenn E. Elmore
- U.S. Patent 7,567,154, " Surface wave transmission system over a single conductor having E-fields terminating along the conductor " Glenn E. Elmore
- "E-Line". Corridor Systems Inc. 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
- Glenn Elmore (July 27, 2009). "Introduction to the Propagating TM Wave on a Single Conductor". Corridor Systems. Retrieved November 6, 2013. | <urn:uuid:2f91eecc-9ba0-432a-9946-d2dce62cdc0c> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394021856395/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305121736-00089-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933317 | 2,488 | 3.875 | 4 |
PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 08: In this photo illustration, the social medias applications logos, ... [+] Twitter, Google, Google+, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are displayed on the screen of an Apple iPhone on October 08, 2018 in Paris, France. Google has decided to close its Google+ social network after discovering a security vulnerability that has affected the data of at least 500,000 users. (Photo Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)Getty Images
This month Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before U.S. lawmakers about the dangers Facebook and its subsidiaries pose to children and teens. Of particular concern is the toxic mental health impact of the social media giant’s Instagram platform, which makes body-image issues worse for one in three teenage girls, according to the company’s own internal research.
The Senate hearing launches a new crisis for Facebook as lawmakers from both parties discuss regulatory efforts to tamp down on what they say is a plethora of societal problems prompted by the company. Repeatedly, senators compared the social media giant to Big Tobacco–addictive, profitable, but ultimately bad.
In our work at the Reboot Foundation we continually study the cross section of critical thinking and social media. Our research mirrors what was said during the Senate hearing: social media platforms lead to anxiety, depression, and other ills in users. Reboot’s findings point to one conclusion: like tobacco, social media should be treated like a public health crisis.
Yet the alarm bells ringing in response to last week’s hearings may not register for parents of teens and tweens. After all, fewer than 4 percent of Facebook users are under the age of 18. Young people are much more likely to be on TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Discord, Twitch, and an abundance of others – platforms that so far have largely escaped public backlash.
Just because most young people are not using Facebook does not mean their parents should breathe easy. In fact, many platforms popular with teens are rife with their own dangers that require close parental monitoring.
TikTok is a known hotbed of COVID and vaccine misinformation. A July study of 124 TikTok videos that contained COVID-19 misinformation found that they had been viewed more than 20 million times by users. YouTube has been called “The Great Radicalizer” because its algorithms continually push users toward more and more incendiary content. Last spring, the chat-platform Discord made headlines when it announced it banned more than 2,000 extremist communities from its services – double the number that were operating on the platform in 2020.
Clearly, parents need to be hyper vigilant no matter the platform. So where to start?
An immediate step parents can take is a so-called “digital detox.” The whole family could turn off their screens, put down their phones, and step away from the online world for a weekend, or longer. For too many, it’s hard to step away from the screen, even when it’s bad for us.
When Reboot surveyed American social media users last year, more than half acknowledged that their social media use intensified their feelings of anxiety, depression or loneliness. They also reported that it contributed to their low self-esteem and made it harder for them to concentrate. Yet despite recognizing the negative impact social media had on their psyches, only about a third said they took steps to limit their social media use.
Teens, in particular, need the guidance, encouragement and, yes, even the discipline of a parent, to stop scrolling, even for a few days during a digital detox. But the results can be invigorating. One writer took a two-week detox recently, and called it “one of the best things I ever did for myself.”
Beyond putting limits on screen time, one of the most important steps parents can take is to foster critical thinking skills in their children. This is crucial to helping prepare and protect them from the harmful aspects of social media, such as the misinformation and disinformation that is rampant online. Parents should strive to inspire critical thinking from an early age and consistently encourage the development of these skills in their kids.
The Reboot Foundation offers several resources to facilitate critical thinking development in children, including a free Parent’s Guide with age-group specific research and tips, and series of simple tip sheets that are free to download.
For instance, among 5 to 7 year olds, helping children manage their emotions so that they can think calmly and objectively, and craft thoughtful arguments, helps establish a strong foundation for better managing social media later. By the time children reach the tween years, around 10 to 12 years old, puberty begins to set in and that can exacerbate their emotions–making it more difficult for them to manage.
Another primary challenge for pre-teens is to resist the temptations of their impulses and their need for instant gratification. Social media preys on this weakness with algorithms that pump a steady stream of emotionally-charged content to our devices. One expert called it “behavioural cocaine.”
Being able to control and distance ourselves from our own emotions is indispensable to critical thinking and reasoning at any age, but especially so with these young people. It too, is an invaluable skill for managing social media usage.
This is also the time for young people to practice humility (admitting you don’t know everything and could be wrong), to show confidence (being strong enough to ask tough questions and challenge authority when appropriate), and to conduct analysis (examining arguments on their merits, instead of judging the person making them). These three traits are central to being a successful critical thinker, and it’s never too early for parents to encourage their development.
So as U.S. lawmakers continue to grill Facebook and Instagram executives–even as many other social media platforms avoid the crosshairs–parents must take seriously their role in ensuring that their children are equipped with the skills and capabilities to successfully navigate the ever-changing world of social media. It begins at home, and it's never too early to start. No matter the platform. | <urn:uuid:a04135eb-aa80-4571-8401-799ed6bb42b2> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.newsreports.com/your-kids-not-on-facebook-don-t-let-your-guard-down-309270.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323587719.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20211025154225-20211025184225-00204.warc.gz | en | 0.953235 | 1,251 | 2.609375 | 3 |
People and communities
Small-scale fishers and communities
Large numbers of people are involved in small-scale fisheries and their supply chain and service functions - their importance cannot be overemphasized. This is often associated with high levels of dependence which touch on important issues of nutrition, food security, health, livelihoods and poverty alleviation – particularly in developing countries.
Small-scale fisheries provide employment for millions of fishers directly engaged in fishing activities, including rural aquaculture, and for millions more working in fisheries-related activities such as fish processing and marketing, boat building and net making. Including family members, hundreds of millions of rural people in developing countries depend on fisheries for their livelihood. In addition, in many least developed countries of Africa and Asia, fish accounts for more than 50 percent of the total animal protein intake.
In almost all these countries small-scale fisheries provide over three-quarters of the domestic fish supply. In southeast Asia, possibly a billion people rely predominantly on fish for animal protein. A fundamental problem of most small-fishing families around the developing world is their comparatively low standard of living and, frequent poverty despite decades of remarkable overall fisheries development and national economic growth.
Policy focussed on the people
Policy and development themes of small-scale fisheries must be just as focused on people and communities as on the classical issues of fisheries resources and management. It is clear that without resources or with severely depleted stocks, no fishery activity can hope to be sustained. However, the processes of poverty, the need for livelihoods and the implications for how, why, where and when people fish are equally crucial in defining the needs and priorities in small-scale fisheries policy and implementation.
Policy must focus on the complexities of the people and communities involved in small-scale fisheries in order to unlock and address the essential issues: | <urn:uuid:ed856038-dcae-42f6-9dc2-5de39df43954> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.fao.org/fishery/ssf/people/155792/en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010128060/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305090208-00010-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95118 | 372 | 3.125 | 3 |
Not just pretty, edible flowers pack nutritional punch
09/03/2013 10:00 AM
09/02/2013 8:04 PM
Do you ever wonder why chefs put nasturtium flowers in your salads?
My mom used to put them in salads and cook them in greens — lambs quarter and squares root —as she called them when we were growing up.
Little did I know at the time the nutrition value of the nasturtium? I thought it was only for looks in a salad.
In the cooked greens, I just thought my mom hadn’t picked enough and needed more for all of us kids to eat.
Nasturtium originated from northwestern South America. This annual plant includes more than 100 varieties.
In the 16th Century, the plant was introduced to Europe where it became known as Indian cress. It’s thought this was because of the confusion, at that time, between the Indies and India, and also because the flavor of the nasturtium leaves is similar to cress.
In the 1800s, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus named the genus Tropaeolaceae, which included nasturtium, after the Latin work tropaeolum, meaning trophy. Linnaeus compared the funnel shape of nasturtium’s flowers to battle helmets and its flat leaves to shields, which were traditionally hung on trees after an army was victorious.
Nasturtium plants were not valued as food until they were taken to the orient where the petals and buds were eaten and used to make tea.
Nasturtium flowers and buds have a slight spicy flavor with a mustard-like aroma. They can be added to salads, but are best added after the vinaigrette so as to preserve their shape. The buds or seeds can be pickled and used as an alternative to capers.
The leaves and petals of nasturtium are extremely nutritious as they contain vitamin C and iron. The leaves also have antibiotic properties which are at their most effective just before the plant flowers.
In traditional medicine, an ointment is made from nasturtium flowers and used to treat skin conditions as well as hair loss. The group of phenols in the pigments of orange and red flowers helps naturalize the damaging effects of free radicals, thereby helping to protect us from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Here’s an easy recipe to try:Nasturtium Pesto 2 cups nasturtium leaves 1/2 cup thinly sliced nasturtium stems 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts 4 cloves garlic 1 cup olive oil 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare an ice-water bath and set aside. Add nasturtium leaves to boiling water and cook for 10 seconds. Drain and transfer to ice-water bath until cool. Drain and set aside. Place leaves, pine nuts, garlic and oil in the jar of a blender. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl and fold in stems and cheese.
I have thrown everything in a blender including the stems and cheese and processed and it worked fine.
Donna Cook is the owner of Rabbit Creek Gourmet Foods in Louisburg, Kan. She is also a Master Gardener, Master Food Volunteer and on the board of directors of the Home Baking Association.
Join the Discussion
The Kansas City Star is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts. | <urn:uuid:b98295ee-634c-45ee-a119-40b880f4d29f> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.kansascity.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/chow-town/article326554/Not-just-pretty-edible-flowers-pack-nutritional-punch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115861872.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161101-00058-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970558 | 796 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Property owners who hold title as tenants in common own a percentage of the property rather than the sharing joint ownership of the entire property. Tenancy in common occurs in business properties and sometimes in residential properties. The percentage of ownership comes from the percentage of investment each owner brought to the transaction.
Other People Are Reading
Tenancy in common is a legal mechanism that allows two or more people to jointly own a piece of real estate even though the people are not married or related and have no formal business entity binding them. Through a voluntary decision, the owners agree to share the ownership of and responsibility for the selected real estate. The proportion of interest each owns depends on the ownership agreement.
Tenancy in common allows two or more people to own property together as individuals, without requiring the formation of a formal corporation or other business establishment. Each owner has control over his own percentage and can sell it without permission of the other owner or owners. He can claim any applicable tax deductions for the property, such as property tax, in the percentage he holds. Should an owner die, his portion passes to his heirs as part of his estate rather than the other owner as it would in joint tenancy.
Ownership shares may be based on percentage of financial investment each owner makes, but may take other forms. Some such arrangements match a financial backer with a skilled craftsman to rehabilitate a property for resale. The portions each hold in the property would be spelt out based on their valuation of the craftsperson's work in comparison to the cash investment. More than two owners may invest together but in different proportions.
Each owner bears responsibility for the liabilities associated with the property in the same proportion as his ownership share. Owners share in decision-making for the property, so the owners must have a similar vision for the property to avoid stalemates and dissension.
John, Bill and Elaine pool their resources to purchase a house as a rental property as tenants in common. John invests £16,250, Bill invests £8,125 and Elaine invests £16,250 in the down payment. John and Elaine each hold a 40 per cent share in the property; Bill holds 20 per cent. Their contributions to the monthly mortgage payment and other expenses would be in the same percentages. Each year, any tax deductions would be divided the same way. Each would receive a portion of any profit from the property in the same ratio.
- 20 of the funniest online reviews ever
- 14 Biggest lies people tell in online dating sites
- Hilarious things Google thinks you're trying to search for | <urn:uuid:66b821a2-738a-49b2-9030-b4a0e2d0007d> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_6804217_tenants-common-unequal-shares.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501172775.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104612-00186-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967305 | 522 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Hannaford Supermarket in Augusta, Maine, has the distinction of being the first LEED-Platinum supermarket in the world, and was a collaboration among owner, designers, and constructor through true integrated design. The project was designed by a national consulting team with WBRC Architects Engineers as architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer of record.
Supermarkets have traditionally been one of the highest energy-consuming building types in retail. WBRC Architects ∙ Engineers worked with the Hannaford team and consultant Fore Solutions to minimize energy consumption by using heat recovery, green roofs, solar PV system, geothermal loops, Green-Chill refrigeration, and solar tube and light-shelf daylighting systems. LEED strategies resulted in 95% of construction waste being recycled, a 30% reduction in water use, and a 43% reduction in energy use.
Designed to teach as well as perform, this store includes branded signage and kiosks that describe its many sustainable features. This unique Hannaford store was built on a formerly abandoned, remediated site. | <urn:uuid:da2f34f3-0db3-4e5f-86d3-6a26deb8007d> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.wbrcae.com/project/hannaford-supermarket-augusta/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027314667.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20190819052133-20190819074133-00492.warc.gz | en | 0.960685 | 219 | 2.546875 | 3 |
What You Need:
- Several sheets of construction paper in a variety of colors
- Ruler (optional)
What You Do:
- Have your child cut up strips of construction paper in varying widths (You may want to whip out the ruler here.) If your child is making a sun, for example, he should decide how many strips of yellow he will need, in addition to some red and orange for accents.
- Now take your strips and roll them up into circles of different sizes. You can make it easier by rolling the strips around a pencil. You might want to roll some really tight and others fairly loose, depending on the look you want for your design. Lay the rolled paper out on your design until you are happy with how it looks—feel free to experiment. Would it look better to have smaller rolls inside bigger ones? Should some be placed their sides?
- Once you’re done creating these paper spirals, arrange and glue them to another piece of paper.
- Wait at least half an hour for the rolls to dry, and then give your spiral paper creation to someone special!
Spiral paper also make a great addition to any homemade card! So the next time you're creating a card for a loved one, you might want to add on some pretty spirals. | <urn:uuid:d3b1f3b1-345e-4aca-a96a-a0527eb81e9c> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.education.com/activity/article/roll-paper-cards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687711.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170921082205-20170921102205-00175.warc.gz | en | 0.938778 | 268 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Gulf spill still an enigma | Dec. 4
Science the key to restoring gulf
Craig Pittman's article about how scientists are still learning from the Deepwater Horizon disaster points to a new study that shows the dispersant used during the BP cleanup boosts the toxicity of oil to some kinds of marine life by 52 times. This is a somber reminder that research, long-term monitoring and science is more important than ever if we are going to reverse damage from the BP oil disaster and decades of environmental degradation. We simply do not know enough about the ecological workings of Gulf of Mexico and the effects of using dispersants, but we can change this.
Decisionmakers must seize the opportunity to fully restore the people, economy and environment of the Gulf Coast, including the open water environment that is often out of sight. Fully restoring the gulf means restoring everything from the coast to the deep sea, and science is the cornerstone of restoration planning and implementation.
Money from the Natural Resources Damage Assessment, the RESTORE Act, and BP's criminal fines can fund the kind of science that can detect delayed impacts from the BP oil disaster, and provide much needed information for decisionmakers to reverse the trajectory of an ecosystem in peril.
Elizabeth Fetherston, Ocean Conservancy, St. Petersburg
Online courses mean no dorm, gym or debt Dec. 5, commentary
Online isn't a cure-all
Former Gov. Jeb Bush and co-author Randy Best paint a rosy picture of online education. Given that their company designs online courses, this is understandable. The problem is that shifting college education to the online format involves far more than just miraculous reductions in expenditures.
Many courses, perhaps entire disciplines, are not suited to the online format, and what is sacrificed in forcing this transition is both the quality of education and the student's journey through the college experience.
Bush and Best state that "learning measures for online courses have matched or exceeded those for on-campus students." This assertion, while convenient for their argument and their bottom line, is a gross oversimplification of a substantial literature measuring the impacts of online education on students and on learning outcomes. The results of these studies are far more mixed than Bush and Best would have us believe.
Online education also significantly alters the college experience. A college education is a critical time of personal and behavioral growth, in which young people learn about themselves and their society, and master the art of navigating complex situations and relationships as independent adults in a supportive environment. Online education cannot provide this experience.
Rebecca Johns, Ph.D., associate professor of geography, USF St. Petersburg
Treaty voted down in Senate | Dec. 5
It is incredible to me that 38 Republican senators voted against ratifying a U.N. treaty modeled on the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, which was enacted 22 years ago. The treaty has already been signed by 155 nations, and ratified by 26 of them, including China and Russia.
The lame excuse made by some Republicans — that the treaty could pose a threat to U.S. national sovereignty — is despicable. We have ratified treaties making torture a war crime. The ratification of those treaties didn't stop us from torturing numerous prisoners in our custody at Guantanamo Bay, including many we have released from detention.
The juvenile parochialism of these recalcitrant senators is nothing short of shameful.
Dorsett Bennett, Lutz
Fox News chief urged Petraeus to seek presidency | Dec. 5
This article is very troubling — and not the part about David Petraeus. It is troubling if Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp., which owns Fox, did in fact say that he would "bankroll" a presidential campaign. I guess "fair and balanced" is just an empty marketing campaign. In 2016, should we expect candidates "bankrolled" by CBS, NBC and ABC?
Charles J. Rutz, Clearwater
Mars rover may have found clays | Dec. 5
Spend money on Earth
Why isn't there more objection to this country spending billions of dollars just to find clay on another planet? And then we're sending another rover up in 2020? Why? Even if we found that Mars was made out of gold, how does that benefit the United States?
I say we can find all the clay we need right here on this planet and use the savings to help struggling earthlings in the United States.
David Hoover, St. Petersburg
Obama, Boehner try one-on-one fiscal talks Dec. 7
Just do your job
House Speaker John Boehner told the House to take the weekend off because there wasn't a plan ready for a vote to avoid the "fiscal cliff." Mr. Speaker, your job is to put a bill together for the House to vote on, and send it to the Senate for approval and to the president to sign. What do you not understand about your job?
You are the head of the House, responsible for leading and representing all House members, not just Republicans. You are again speeding down the highway toward going down in history as the "do-nothing" Congress, at the expense of the American public. We told you what we want, now do it.
Dick Hrebik, Lecanto
No time for a vacation
We are at the cusp of a fiscal crisis, and the president, with only days to go before we fall off the fiscal cliff, is planning a three-week vacation in Hawaii. Where is the dedication to the American people to keep our country on a firm footing?
Never have I seen such arrogance by a president and a complete disregard for our country's well-being.
Carmen LaBianca, Largo
TIA asks drivers to move along | Dec. 7
Try shuttle service to cell lot
Has there been any consideration of offering shuttle service to the cellphone lot to reduce congestion? I would be willing to take a shuttle to save the person picking me up from having to deal with the arrival area congestion.
Kendra Craven, Tampa | <urn:uuid:ea05fcbc-afa2-4959-86ee-cbb972c15c7e> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/mondays-letters-science-is-key-in-gulf-restoration/1265104 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646519.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00200-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952578 | 1,234 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Six ESL Writing Activities
Looking for fresh ideas for the writing class (and conversation class)?
Here are six lesson ideas that help students learn English and build writing skills.
Two activities that improve accuracy are here. The first works on articles and is good for all skill levels. The second activity, suitable for intermediate+, teaches students to write appositives.
Three easy to implement activities to help students read, write and speak faster.
A pair work conversation activity with a writing component. One student reads a short story. Another asks questions to learn the details. It’s a remarkably simple, but challenging, exercise that forces students to think about their questions. This inquiry-based activity helps students develop a range of skills – reading, questioning, listening and critical thinking.
Got a gap to fill? These three vocabulary exercises work great when you need a sponge activity that fosters language learning.
A writing and speaking activity based on Edward De Bono’s ideas about multiple thinking perspectives? Why not? The core lesson starts by looking at a roll of candy from six perspectives. The lesson can easily be extended to more complex ideas.
A writing class without a lesson about parallel structure? Impossible, I say. So, here it is, a lesson, suitable for high beginners and up, to help students improve clarity, grammar and style.
Get the ebook Teach Essential Writing Skills. Transform the quality of EFL student writing by focusing on four essential skills. Click here for details about the ebook that should be part of every writing teacher’s resource library.
Save time. Teach well.
Cut your lesson prep time with this 240-page collection of ESL resources that stimulate language learning and critical thinking: awesome pair work speaking activities, logic puzzles, trivia, word games and much more. Simplify your lesson planning because teaching should be a joy, not a chore.
Image Credit: Featured image by Jaime González. Its use complies with the owner’s creative commons licensing terms. | <urn:uuid:ab70abfd-cabe-4de4-9c66-0b114af053aa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.eslwriting.org/learn-english-six-must-have-esl-writing-activities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00245-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920967 | 409 | 4 | 4 |
Snowcover Increasing Since 1950s, But Newsweek’s Reality Is That Christmas Snow May Soon Be History
Snowcover Increasing Since 1950s, But Newsweek’s Reality Is That Christmas Snow May Soon Be History
Image Source: 22 December 2017 Newsweek Christmas Day has arrived. With the advent of this cheery holiday comes a somber warning from Newsweek, purveyor of climate doom. “[A]s global temperatures rise due to climate change, snow on Christmas Day could increasingly become a rarity—even a distant memory.” Contrary to Newsweek‘s claims, however, snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere has been increasing in recent decades. In the Southern Hemisphere, snow and ice have been expanding in the Antarctic region for centuries (since 1800). Apparently the journalists penning climate alarm scenarios that warn readers white Christmases are on the way out haven’t been keeping up with the latest scientific publications. Changnon, 2017 Heavy 30-day snowfall amounts were evaluated to identify spatial and temporal characteristics east of the Rockies in the United States during the period 1900-2016. An extensive data assessment identified 507 stations for use in this long-term climate study. The top 30-day heavy snowfall amount and the average of the top five 30-day heavy snowfall amounts were examined. … The northern Great Plains, Great Lakes, Midwest, and Northeast experienced more top five periods [more snow] in the second half of the 117-year period [1958-2016], where most of the southern states experienced top five periods throughout the study period. Examining extremes at periods beyond the daily event and less than the season contributes to our knowledge of climate and provides useful information to snow-sensitive sectors. Andrews et al., 2016 Long-term observations of increasing snow cover in the western Cairngorms [Scotland] … For 13 consecutive winters between 2002 and 2015, the date for the onset of continuous winter snow cover, and subsequent melt, was recorded on slopes of north and north-easterly aspect at altitudes between 450m and 1111m amsl. Results show that the period of time during which snow is continuously present in the catchment has increased significantly by 81 (±21.01) days over the 13-year period, and that this is largely driven by a significantly later melt date, rather than earlier onset of winter snow cover. Coleman and Schwartz, 2017 Data revealed 713 blizzards over the 55 years, with a mean of 13 events per season. Seasonal blizzard frequency ranged from one blizzard in 1980/81 to 32 blizzards in 2007/08. Federal disaster declarations resulting from blizzards totaled 57, with more than one-half of them occurring in the twenty-first century. Storm Data attributed 711 fatalities during the 55-yr study period, with an average of one individual per event; 2044 injuries were reported, with a mean of nearly three per blizzard. Property damage totaled approximately $9.11 billion in unadjusted dollars, with an approximate mean of $12.6 million per storm. Seasonal blizzard frequencies displayed a distinct upward trend, with a more substantial rise over the past two decades. … The modeled increase in blizzard activity showed a nearly fourfold upsurge between the start and end of the study period at 5.9 and 21.6 blizzards, respectively. On the basis of current model trends, the expected blizzard total for a season is 32 blizzards by 2050; uncertainty s on whether the linear trend will continue or stabilize in the near future. Wang et al. 2017 No evidence of widespread decline of snow cover on the Tibetan Plateau over 2000–2015 … Our results show no widespread decline in snow cover over the past fifteen years and the trends of snow cover phenology over the TP has high spatial heterogeneity. Ice Stable, Thickening, Growing In Recent Years Goel et al., 2017 Ice rises are a useful resource to investigate evolution and past climate of the DML coastal region. We investigate Blåskimen Island ice rise, one of the larger isle-type ice rises at the calving front of the intersection of Fimbul and Jelbart Ice Shelves, using geophysical methods. … Using the Input-Output method for a range of parameters and column setups, we conclude that Blåskimen Island has been thickening over the past nine years [2005-2014]. Thickening rates cannot be determined precisely, but ensemble results show that thickening rate averaged over the ice rise varies between 0.07 m a−1 and 0.35 m a−1 [per year]. On longer timescales, we speculate that the summit of Blåskimen Island has been stable within several kilometers at least in the past ∼600 years but no longer than several millennia. Oliva et al., 2017 However, a recent analysis (Turner et al., 2016) has shown that the regionally stacked temperature record for the last three decades has shifted from a warming trend of 0.32 °C/decade during 1979–1997 to a cooling trend of − 0.47 °C/decade during 1999–2014. … This recent cooling has already impacted the cryosphere in the northern AP [Antarctic Peninsula], including slow-down of glacier recession, a shift to surface mass gains of the peripheral glacier and layer of permafrost in northern AP islands. Wang et al., 2016 “Pamir–Karakoram–Western-Kunlun-Mountain (northwestern Tibetan Plateau) Glacier Anomaly” has been a topic of debate due to the balanced, or even slightly positive glacier mass budgets in the early 21st century. Here we focus on the evolution of glaciers on the western Kunlun Mountain and its comparison with those from other regions of the Tibetan Plateau. The possible driver for the glacier evolution is also discussed. Western Kunlun Mountain glaciers reduce in area by 0.12 % yr−1 from 1970s to 2007–2011. However, there is no significant area change after 1999. Averaged glacier thickness loss is 0.08 ± 0.09 m yr−1 from 1970s to 2000, which is in accordance with elevation change during the period 2003–2008 estimated by the ICESat laser altimetry measurements. These further confirm the anomaly of glaciers in this region. Slight glacier reduction over the northwestern Tibetan Plateau may result from more accumulation from increased precipitation in winter which to great extent protects it from mass reductions under climate warming during 1961–2000. Warming slowdown since 2000 happening at this region may further mitigate glacier mass reduction, especially for the early 21st century. Zhang et al., 2016 Our results indicated that the glacier area of MAKT [Muztag Ata and Kongur Tagh] decreased from 1018.3 ± 12.99 km2 in 1971/ 76 to 999.2 ± 31.22 km2 in 2014 (–1.9 ± 0.2%). Weak area shrinkage of glaciers by 2.5 ± 0.5 km2 (0.2 ± 0.1%) happened after 2000 and the period 2009–2014 even saw a slight expansion by 0.5 ± 0.1 km2 (0.1 ± 0.0%). The glaciers in this region have experienced an overall loss of –6.99 ± 0.80 km3 in ice volume or –0.15 ± 0.12 m water equivalent (w.e.) a–1 from 1971/76 to 2013/14. The mass budget of MAKT was –0.19 ± 0.19 m w.e. a−1 for the period ~1971/76–1999 and –0.14 ± 0.24 m w.e. a−1 during 1999–2013/2014. Similar to previous studies, there has been little mass change in the Pamir over recent decades despite such uncertainties. Glacier mass change showed spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with strong mass loss on debris-covered glaciers with an average of –0.32 ± 0.12 m w.e. a−1 from the 1970s to 2013/14. Sobota et al., 2016 This study investigated the surge dynamics of Aavatsmarkbreen, a glacier in Svalbard and its geomorphological impact based on remote sensing data and field observations. The main objective was to analyse and classify subglacial and supraglacial landforms in the context of glacial deformation and basal sliding over a thin layer of thawed, water-saturated deposits. The study also focused on the geomorphological evidence of surge-related sub- and supraglacial crevassing and glacier front fracturing. From 2006 to 2013, the average recession of Aavatsmarkbreen was 363 m (52 m a−1). A subsequent surge during 2013–2015 resulted in a substantial advance of the glacier front of over 1 km and an increase in its surface area of more than 2 km2. Antarctica Ice Sheet Will Continue Gaining Mass Lenaerts et al., 2016 We present climate and surface mass balance (SMB) of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) as simulated by the global, coupled ocean–atmosphere–land Community Earth System Model (CESM) with a horizontal resolution of ∼1∘ in the past, present and future (1850–2100). CESM correctly simulates present-day Antarctic sea ice extent, large-scale atmospheric circulation and near-surface climate, but fails to simulate the recent expansion of Antarctic sea ice. The present-day Antarctic ice sheet SMB equals 2280±131 Gtyear−1, which concurs with existing independent estimates of AIS SMB. When forced by two CMIP5 climate change scenarios (high mitigation scenario RCP2.6 and high-emission scenario RCP8.5), CESM projects an increase of Antarctic ice sheet SMB [surface mass balance] of about +70 Gt year−1 per degree warming. This increase is driven by enhanced snowfall, which is partially counteracted by more surface melt and runoff along the ice sheet’s edges. This intensifying hydrological cycle is predominantly driven by atmospheric warming, which increases (1) the moisture-carrying capacity of the atmosphere, (2) oceanic source region evaporation, and (3) summer AIS cloud liquid water content. Thomas et al., 2017 Our results show that SMB [surface mass balance] for the total Antarctic Ice Sheet (including ice shelves) has increased at a rate of 7 ± 0.13 Gt decade−1 since 1800 AD representing a net reduction in sea level of ∼ 0.02 mm decade−1 since 1800 and ∼ 0.04 mm decade−1 since 1900 AD. The largest contribution is from the Antarctic Peninsula (∼ 75 %) where the annual average SMB during the most recent decade (2001–2010) is 123 ± 44 Gt yr−1 higher than the annual average during the first decade of the 19th century. Pittard et al., 2017 We suggest the Lambert-Amery [Antarctica] glacial system will remain stable, or gain ice mass and mitigate a portion of potential future sea level rise over the next 500 years, with a range of +3.6 to -117.5 mm GMSL-equivalent.
— gReader Pro | <urn:uuid:7e05e071-5be7-4ab8-acab-52bef68da56c> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.climatedepot.com/2017/12/26/snowcover-increasing-since-1950s-but-newsweeks-reality-is-that-christmas-snow-may-soon-be-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347413624.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20200531182830-20200531212830-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.924972 | 2,326 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The competitiveness of European agri-food production relies on the efficient and sustainable use of resources. The essential element phosphorus (P) is a finite resource but is not used efficiently in agriculture yet global food demand is increasing rapidly along with population growth. The EU imports 90% of its mineral P which creates vulnerability to shocks in the global mineral P supply chain and this could jeopardise EU food security. Reaching sustainability and resilience in the P cycle will require addressing multiple aspects including changes in P-use efficiency in animals and plants, P losses from manure management and the role of micro-organisms in influencing P availability and storage in soils, all with a multidisciplinary approach. PEGaSus has been developed to tackle these issues and to strive for improving sustainability and efficiency regarding P use with an emphasis on monogastrics since pigs and chicken contribute to global food security but are major P excretors and sources of P losses.
The strategic objective of PEGaSus is to contribute to resource-efficient and economically competitive animal production systems by; identifying strategies for increasing the bioavailability, digestibility and efficiency of plant-derived P by monogastrics so as to reduce P supplements; reducing P losses and emissions from pig and chicken husbandry targeting benefits for animal health, welfare, and the environment; developing technical, policy and governance strategies to minimise P discharges from farms, P in runoff from soil and subsequent enrichment in aquatic ecosystems.
Design and development by Soapbox. | <urn:uuid:43e9ac9b-1130-4bf8-b48a-9d4dd092ea6b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.sei.org/projects/pegasus-phosphorus-management-eu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474697.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228044414-20240228074414-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.924474 | 297 | 2.890625 | 3 |
ATLANTA - Health officials say this year's flu outbreak, which has spread faster and earlier than usual, appears to be the worst in at least three years. Here are answers to some common flu season questions:
Q: What's the difference between a cold and flu?
A: Colds usually begin slowly and last only two to seven days, although it can be two weeks. They start with a scratchy, sore throat, followed by sneezing and a runny nose. You may get a mild cough later. Infants and young children can sometimes run temperatures up to 102 F. with a cold.
Flu often begins with a sudden headache and dry cough, possibly a runny nose and sore throat; also achy muscles and extreme fatigue. You may run a fever up to 104. Most people feel better in a couple of days, but the tiredness and cough can last for two weeks or longer. Flu can cause severe illness and life-threatening complications in some people.
Children may have symptoms - nausea, vomiting or diarrhea - that are not common for adults.
Flu can be confirmed with a test if given within two to three days after symptoms begin, but getting it isn't always practical.
Q: What flu symptoms are dangerous?
A: A combination of symptoms - sustained fever and chills, chest pain that gets worse when taking a deep breath and sputum that's a yellow color - can indicate pneumonia and a doctor should be consulted.
Q: Can I get the flu even though I got a flu shot this year?
A: Yes, although it often lessens the severity of the virus and can prevent deadly complications. Typically, the flu shot protects between 70 percent and 90 percent of healthy people under age 65. The elderly are more susceptible.
The power of the flu shot also depends on how well it matches the flu virus in circulation. The current Fujian flu strain that is affecting most people is not the strain in this year's flu shot. But disease experts say it is a close enough match that considerable protection should be provided.
Q: What are complications from the flu?
A: They include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration and worsening of chronic medical conditions such as congestive heart failure, asthma or diabetes. Seniors and those with chronic medical conditions are at highest risk.
Q: How is flu spread?
A: It spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks and the virus is sent into the air.
Q: How soon can I get sick from the flu?
A: It takes one to four days - on average two days - for a person exposed to the flu virus to develop symptoms.
Q: How do I protect myself?
A: The best way for individuals, particularly those at high risk for its serious complications, is to get a flu shot. It is particularly recommended for the elderly and children 6 months to 23 months.
Q: How many people get sick or die from the flu?
A: It's estimated 10 percent to 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu and 114,000 are hospitalized each season for flu-related complications. Typically, it kills about 36,000 people in the United States each year, but experts say this year could be worse.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday, December 6, 2003.
© 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us | <urn:uuid:c3d0a3eb-5574-488b-ac34-24b2cb44330d> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://onlineathens.com/stories/120603/hea_flu3.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818690318.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170925040422-20170925060422-00677.warc.gz | en | 0.956723 | 710 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Are You EMF Sensitive?
Hypersensitive To EMF?
Are you hypersensitive to electromagnetic Fields (EMF) and why do I react to them? EMF is an "electrostatic" field or electromagnetic field that comes off any electronic device that emits energy, frequencies, radiation or field of energy of any type.
Many of the new small electronic devices we use these days emit electromagnetic fields of varying degrees. Many of us find that our body is under stress when exposed to these electromagnetic fields, and constant exposure to these is now making a lot of us very sensitive to these small electronic devices, and very unwell.
The reason you may develop electromagnetic hypersensitivity to EMR, EMF, digital iPhones, computers, Smart Meters, the new style Digital televisions or other radiation emitting devices, is that it may be possible that you most likely have Systemic Health issues.
These may include heavy metals and Mercury toxicity, a Candida yeast infection (moulds and fungi), bacterial or viral infections, bio-toxins or parasites. This is because your Aura or energy fields around your body become weak, leaving you with less resistance to all forms of harmful radiation.
Watch what happens when micro-organisms are exposed to harmful energy and what causes electromagnetic hypersensitivity
Pyroluria, Autism and Lyme's Disease Also Cause Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
What else causes Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity?
Did you know that the biggest source of Mercury and Heavy metals in the body come from the Placenta before you are born?
Our parents carry Mercury and heavy metals in their bodies which we are born with. This then leads to a yeast infection called Candida, and many other underlying Systemic Health conditions. It is these that cause Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. | <urn:uuid:614feff7-f724-42b0-8191-3a2765084da4> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.orgoneenergy.org/pages/are-you-emf-sensitive | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670558.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20191120111249-20191120135249-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.916327 | 368 | 3.421875 | 3 |
On more than one occasion I have been told that the B-Tree index is the index structure which was designed after the A-Tree index. Another common misconception is that it stands for Binary-Tree. As logical as those may seem, they are false. The ‘B’ in B-Tree does not actually have any specific meaning. Check out Ed McCreight’s explanation here (16:08) where he admits that the name discussion was never settled.
In its most basic form, the B-Tree index is a hierarchy of data pages (page structures lightly touched on in the next post of this series). The lowest level is called the leaf level, the highest level is the index root, and all levels in between are the intermediate levels. This structure is an improvement over the Binary Tree index because its balanced nature greatly improved the performance of maintenance operations such as, INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE.
On the terminological point, I’d always heard that the “B” stood for “Balanced” because of the level flatness—in contrast to a “normal” tree, you wouldn’t have more than a pre-defined number of levels separation (usually one) between leaf nodes. | <urn:uuid:5bb8a115-3e68-4c8c-b15b-84ad3f8f48a8> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://curatedsql.com/2016/04/05/b-tree-indexes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247518425.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20190222135147-20190222161147-00248.warc.gz | en | 0.963398 | 260 | 3.375 | 3 |
Altruism and Fear
The National Institute of Health recently published the results of a study about the ability to read fear in facial expressions. According to the study, those better able to recognize fear were more inclined to behave in more altruistic and compassionate ways. For example, such people are apparently more inclined to donate money and time to help others. In another example, they are willing to say that people are more attractive-if saying otherwise would hurt the feelings of those being assessed.
It has been speculated that psychopaths and criminal types might be less capable of recognizing fear. From this, it has been suggested that such people become that way because they were less capable of discerning suffering and hence less likely to develop empathy and the associated feelings of guilt from wrongdoing.
This is an interesting hypothesis and is similar in some ways to Socrates’ explanation of evil. According to Socrates, people do evil out of ignorance. His view is what is known as ethical intellectualism-to know the good is to do the good. The hypothesis discussed above is similar in that people would do evil things because they apparently do not realize that they are causing harm.
This hypothese does have a certain degree of plausibility. Based on anectdotal evidence, it is common to hear stories about people who treat others poorly described as just not understanding the pain they are inflicting. Of course, there are many altenrative explanations. It might be that these people are well aware of the suffering they inflict but are simply not affected by it in a way that deters such behavior. In short, they know the other people are afraid, but it does not bother them.
To use an analogy, think of how dogs behave. Having observed dogs for years I am fairly confident that a vicious dog knows when other dogs (or humans) are afraid and this actually inclines them to attack such dogs (or people). They know to associate fear with weakness and weakness means an easier kill. Dogs that are better natured also know when other dogs (or people)are afraid of them and act in ways to reduce their fear (lying down and being non-threatening, for example). | <urn:uuid:f17ade9a-792c-4b2f-9c55-598b7de624f3> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | https://aphilosopher.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/altruism-and-fear/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398445142.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205405-00025-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979944 | 437 | 2.765625 | 3 |
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