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Asinus, in silvam veniens, exuvias leonis offendit. Quibus indutus, in pascua redit, greges et armenta territans fugansque. Herus autem, qui vagum fallacemque Asinum perdiderat, occurrit. Asinus, viso Hero, cum rugitu obviam fecit. At Herus, prehensis quae extabant auriculis, “Alios licet (inquit) fallas; ego te probe novi.”Asinus, in silvam veniens,
= As usual, we meet one of the main characters in the story here in the opening lines: the donkey.
exuvias leonis offendit.
= Just how there happened to be a lion skin lying around the woods is something that Aesop does not feel a need to explain!
= The referent of this relative pronoun quibus is exuvias in the previous sentence: quibus (exuviis) indutus.
in pascua redit,
= Since no new subject has been stated, we can safely assume that the subject of this verb is the same as the subject of previous verb: the donkey.
greges et armenta territans fugansque.
= The participles agree with the subject of the main verb, the donkey.
= Now we meet the other main character of the fable: the master. Note the postpositive particle in second position, as you would expect.
qui vagum fallacemque Asinum perdiderat,
= The relative clause lets us know just what the master knows about his donkey: the donkey is prone to wander around, and is a deceitful creature as well - two traits that are embodied in the plot of this fable!
= We use a similar idiom in English: the man "ran into" the donkey.
= Now we will discover what the donkey is going to do now that the master has arrived on the scene!
= Ablative absolute construction.
cum rugitu obviam fecit.
= The phrase obviam facere means “to meet, run towards.” The rugitus of the donkey here is presumably his best attempt to roar at his master, and terrify the man just as he has been terrifying the other animals.
= The adversative at lets us know the master's reaction is going to be different from that of the terrified animals.
prehensis quae extabant auriculis,
= The phrase prehensis...auriculis is an ablative absolute construction using the diminutive auriculis - an ironic diminutive, of course, since the donkey’s ears are hardly little! The referent of the relative pronoun quae is the noun auriculis.
“Alios licet (inquit) fallas;
= The hypothetical subjunctive is introduced by licet, meaning “even if, although."
ego te probe novi.”
= Note the emphatic use of the personal pronoun in the nominative case; the subject is already implied in the verb, but the use of the pronoun adds emphasis and creates a contrast with the accusative pronoun, te.
Here is the illustration of the fable by Francis Barlow:
The Aesopus Ning is now open for business - so, for more fables and to share your questions and comments with others, come visit the Ning! | <urn:uuid:3dbc2941-9aab-4874-9982-1cb7eaaaf1be> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://latinviafables.blogspot.com/2008/12/fable-40-asinus-leonis-pelle-indutus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375096061.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031816-00002-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.872253 | 747 | 2.953125 | 3 |
|Eagle River Light||Seeing The Light|
To guide maritime traffic into this busy harbor, Congress appropriated $6,500 for the construction of a light at Eagle River on September 28, 1850, and while a site for the station was selected that year, it took until the Michigan Legislature's 1853 session to obtain a clear title to the site, allowing work to commence.
While Lighthouse Board records indicate that the contractor was actively working at the site in 1855, construction was not completed until 1857. The contractor's work was evidently poor, since the District Inspector refused acceptance of the station due to it's not being constructed "in conformity to the terms of the contract." While the exact nature of the deficiencies were undefined, the contractor evidently undertook the appropriate modifications, since the Inspector subsequently accepted the structure after a second inspection.
Situated on the edge of a sand bluff on the west bank of the river, the station consisted of one-and-a-half story yellow brick keeper's dwelling with a twelve-foot square brick tower incorporated into its northeast corner. Although the tower stood only twenty-four feet in height, it's location on the bluff provided the station's fixed white Sixth Order Fresnel lens with a focal plane of 61 feet, allowing the light to be seen from a distance of ten nautical miles.
Evidently, the original concern for the station's construction were well-founded, as in 1867 large cracks were found to have developed at the base of the tower. When these cracks enlarged noticeably over the following winter, the District Inspector reported that the entire structure was in danger of collapse, and needed immediate repair or replacement. Congress appropriated $14,000 for the station's replacement on March 3, 1869, and while plans were put in place for the station's replacement the following year, the project was canceled when the appropriated funds were recalled by a financially strapped Congress on July 12, 1870.
While the Lighthouse Board reiterated its case for the funds to replace the deteriorating station in its annual report for that year, it would appear that its pleas fell on deaf ears, and without the necessary funds, only minor "patch and repair" work could be conducted over the following decade.
With every boom, there is an inevitable bust, and Eagle River was no exception. Reacting to rapidly declining copper prices, the Cliff Mine closed its doors in 1873, and Eagle River's once busy docks sat rotting. Without maritime traffic, the river mouth became silted to a point that the harbor became inaccessible to all but the shallowest draft vessels. However, serving as the only light between the Keweenaw Waterway and Eagle Harbor, the Eagle River light station continued to serve duty as a marker for vessels coasting the shore of the peninsula.
Finally, in 1884 the much needed work was conducted at the station, with the walls rebuilt and the entire keepers dwelling renovated. In its annual report for that year, the Eagle River station was once again reported as being "in good order."
By 1890, virtually the only vessel making its way into the decaying Eagle River harbor was the lighthouse tender on its annual supply trips, and the Lighthouse Board was well aware of the futility of continuing to maintain a light to protect the non-existent harbor.
In its 1892 annual report, the Lighthouse Board noted that traffic patterns on the lake had changed, and that eastbound vessels were making a turn off Sand Hills, some seven miles to the west of Eagle River, and approximately midway between the coast lights of Ontonagon and Eagle Harbor. With the treacherous Sawtooth Reef located just offshore at this point, the Board recommended to Congress that $20,000 be appropriated to decommission the light at Eagle River, and construct a new coast light at Sand Hills.
Congress responded with an act authorizing the construction of the new station on February 15, 1893, but failed to make an appropriation for the necessary funds. While the Board reiterated the need for the appropriation in each of its' annual reports for the following seven years, no moneys were forthcoming. Citing rising costs, in its 1899 annual report, the Board increased its estimate of the necessary funds to $25,000, an amount which subsequently grew to $38,000 in its 1902 report, and yet Congress still failed to authorize the necessary funds.
The Board continued to request the $38,000 in every subsequent annual report through 1907, when it temporarily abandoned the project, and ceased to mention the planned station.
The Eagle River Light Station was
decommissioned in 1908, and with its buildings no longer
serving any purpose to maritime interests, Major Charles Keeler of the
Eleventh Lighthouse District determined that it would be advantageous to
offer the property for sale at public auction. An auction was held on
Monday, August 2 of that year, at which the property was purchased by
John Vertin of Calumet with his winning bid of $925.00, making the Eagle
River light the first in the Keweenaw to pass into private ownership.
As a result of early deactivation in 1908, this lighthouse was sold into private ownership early in the game. The various owners through the years have maintained the building in excellent condition.
Sadly, a four-unit condominium has been built on the small strip of land between
the low bluff on which the lighthouse sits and the lakeshore. Being three stories high,
this condominium serves as a modern intrusion to the station's
historically commanding view of the lake. | <urn:uuid:0dc40772-2510-4098-8c98-7d37fbf39d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.terrypepper.com/lights/superior/eagleriver/eagleriver.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163037903/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131717-00044-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976862 | 1,133 | 2.9375 | 3 |
A sustainable tourism is a responsible tourism which works in balance with the environment and responds to the actual requirements of the guests and communities, promoting and
amplifying this opportunities in the future.
It is thus based in the management of the necessities and economic, social and environmental resources, having in consideration the culture, local traditions and natural environment, with the need to protect and improve, in order that the new generations may enjoy of equal possibilities and conditions.
This is a process of consistent management of all resources that entitles accomplishing several requirements, assuring simultaneously the continuity of the cultural and social integrity, of the ecological processes, biological diversity and the life sustainable systems.
The implementation of sustainable environment practices was made with the support of Escola Superior de Biotecnologia da Unviersidade Católica in a project financed by FEDER
The photovoltaic system implemented in Paço de Calheiros allows for the transformation of the direct light into electric energy, through solar cells. The system works connected to the electric network.
The micro-hydro power had the main purpose the use of a renewal energy locally available. It is in operation in the old watermill, being necessary for its integration the revitalization of the mil, promoting the preservation and valorization of the builded heritage.
The photovoltaic and hydric micro production allowed to lower the electricity outlays, taking advantage of the natural resources.
FitoETAR – Water treatment and reutilization
Wastewater production in tourism units located in rural areas undergoes through high oscillations in terms of effluent quality and quantity, due to variations in guest occupation along the year, negatively affecting the performance of conventional treatment systems. The costs of implementation and operation of conventional systems for hotels or small communities is prohibitive in many situations, mainly in rural and mountain areas where there are no systems for collecting and processing waste water.
The use of Constructed Wetlands as main functional unit, for example in domestic wastewater treatment, or as a complementary treatment system, enables possibilities for water reuse.
What is a Constructed Wetland?
It is a man-made biological system that intents to mimic the biogeochemical processes that occur in natural wetlands in order to promote water depuration.
How does it work?
The wastewater coming from the primary treatment is forward to the Constructed Wetland and passes through the biological system, with horizontal subsurface flow, promoting its
depuration. The main components are the plants, substrate and microorganisms. The substrate is an expanded clay that besides other functions acts as support to different
ornamental plant species: Canna flaccida, Canna indica, Zantedeschia aethiopica, Agapanthus africanus and Watsonia borbonica. With the application of the integrated system of the Constructed Wetland followed by a small pond it is possible to reuse the produced wastewater for irrigation.
Puddle of Peirão
Poça do Peirão is a permanent pond that has been implemented in Paço de Calheiros, being integrated in the strategy of water management. Is characterized by the abundant presence of amphibious and emergent plants.
The water coming from the Constructed Wetland is forward to this water reservoir acting as a strategic point for its retention, promoting also the biodiversity and natural resources
Within the scope of the program “Charcos com Vida”, a range of activities related with dissemination of good practices, scientific research and pedagogic materials are periodically
carried out. The intention is to mobilize the guests, the community and schools for the preservation of the ponds as reservoirs of biodiversity and living laboratories. Please access
the Portuguese Pond Inventory in: www.charcoscomvida.org
The Paço de Calheiros organizes events and awareness actions related to the dissemination of good practices, concerning the environmental performance, implemented in Quinta do Paço de Calheiros, including the Eco Circuit.
In this actions, the intention is to sensitize and inform the community and guests for the social and environmental values. The Eco Circuit urges from the necessity of ecosystem preservation and sustainable resources management, comprising two main strands: sustainable management of the resources at an energetic level (photovoltaic systems and micro-hydric) and at hydric level (wastewater treatment through a constructed wetland and followed by a small pond).
Please contact us to book a visit or participate in an event. | <urn:uuid:363c71ea-34c8-4533-b970-431d34905960> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.pacodecalheiros.com/sustainable-tourism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710941.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20221203212026-20221204002026-00765.warc.gz | en | 0.923726 | 948 | 3.125 | 3 |
DFG: Department of Fish and Game
Animal Rights Articles
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DFG: Department of Fish and Game
A story of wildlife's last hope in post-mass extinction Alaska
Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.
–Cree Indian saying
A proud, magnificent Alaskan grizzly, the greatest remaining symbol of the American wilderness, strides hurriedly along an ancient bear trail somewhere in the forests of Interior Alaska. Her three cubs lag not far behind, tired and grumpy as they plod onward attempting to keep up with her. Never set foot upon anymore by the great giants that once treaded this path, the trail they follow is now almost impossible to detect. Nevertheless, somehow this mother intuitively knows where it is, and what it leads to.
This mother has been named “62847GF” by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). She is not the animal scientifically known as Ursus arctos, or commonly know as the “grizzly” or “brown” bear. Such giant predators have long since succumbed to extinction. This mother is of course not really a bear at all, but a grizzly coon (Procyon lotor gigantis), a subspecies that developed from an isolated population of raccoons that migrated to and flourished in Alaska even as other wildlife began to die out. Now, the mighty grizzly coon is the largest predator in post-mass extinction Alaska.
The trek is frustrating and tiring for all four of the grizzly coons as they lumber over miles of rough terrain. This is a region where the rapid melting of permafrost, occurring from rising temperatures, resulted in extensive land subsidence. This bumpy, uneven landscape of Interior Alaska has been dubbed the "lumplands". The taiga forests, as in most areas of Alaska, died and withered away decades before during the darkening days of the 6th mass extinction! The grey skeletons of the forest’s trees are tilted and leaning in every direction, giving the dead forests a "drunken" appearance. In these wasteland wilds there is little to survive upon, save for some arctic ground (red) squirrels and lemmings among the thick choking grass which are difficult prey to catch. A few wide muddy creeks are home to freshwater crabs and crayfish, but those areas are mainly dominated by males, who are fiercely protective of their fishing grounds, and are in no mood to share.
No matter how difficult the voyage, though, the destination they are headed to is worth the tiring journey. 62847GF is taking her cubs to the few remaining settlements on the outskirts of the village of New Dallas. Here they should find sufficient food to keep them alive. Aside from the human waste found here there is little else to survive upon. As for easy food there were people there that always left extravagant banquets laying outside in easily accessible garbage containers, as if just for them. 62847GF had been taken there by her own mother when she was a cub to this wonderful place, and taught how to effortlessly lift open the lids of garbage cans with their hand-like paws and feast on an easy, delicious meal. Here she would go as well to sustain herself well enough to keep her cubs healthy, and teach them to forage for garbage as well as soon as they’re weaned. She pauses momentarily to lift her head and sniff the air, and detects a subtle scent in calm breeze. The slightest hint of sweet garbage aroma reaches her nose. They are getting near. She walks faster.
Her three young cubs straggle behind, churring complaints to stop and rest. She ignores them, and continues on unabated, when she suddenly pauses and stands icily still in midwalk, slowly lifting her head. Her spade-shaped ears forward. She cautiously stands upright and listens harder. Her cubs stop behind her, thinking they’ve finally convinced her and gladly stop to wrestle. She silences them with a sharp hiss and listens more. She shrugged it off, assuming it was probably just another impulse of her overcautious imagination. She turns and pays heed to her cubs, who are now wrestling each other again. The strongest, fastest-growing daughter aggressively nips her submissive smaller brother, who squeals loudly. Meanwhile, the other sister bites her bigger sister’s tail while she’s preoccupied her brother, and the two sisters both turn on each other in a vicious looking, yet harmless romp. 62847GF puts an end to their goofing off by agreeing to stop and rest. She gently lays back against a stump to allow them to anxiously nurse again, and lays her head back, closing her eyes in maternal relaxation. Moments like this should have cleared her mind and made her feel at least slightly comfortable and cheerful of motherhood, but it only left her mind open to fill in with worries and pains. 62847GF wanted to be joyful about watching her beautiful cubs grow up, but she couldn’t, the post-mass extinction world of Alaska had taken its toll on her heart. Her life had too many deep wounds. She had been hunted all her life, and from an early age had openly experienced the horrors of the summer raccoon hunt, when countless men invaded the woods with deadly pulse rifles and hydraulic bows, precisely during the time of the year when all mother grizzlies are bringing their newborn cubs into the world.
When 62847GF was a bouncing young cub herself, she was playing in the woods with her own mother one overcast summer day when they came for them. She was told by her mother to quickly hide in a tree, and watched in horrified silence as her mother was suddenly pelted with arrows like a pincushion right before her eyes. She watched in despair as the men approached her dead mother and gathered around her, peeled off her skin, and left the rest of her exposed muscular corpse behind to rot. Even as an adult, 62847GF was still haunted by the memory of her mother’s lifeless, lidless eyes staring back at her from a bare, bloody skull. But even more painful was the memory of how it felt to be all alone, knowing death was inevitable. She wandered, for weeks by herself, hopelessly searching for food and warmth, for someone to comfort and protect her, but all in vain. 62847GF finally collapsed as an emaciated heap outside a neighborhood. But unlike most cubs orphaned every year like her, she was found in time by caring people, and the chance for a new life came to her. Her life slightly improved afterwards, and she learned then that not all men are foul death-bringers. She was nursed back to health by those people she would never forget and always love, and eventually re-released as a healthy young adult back into the world, renewed with a new strength and spirit of survival. However, as she matured, cruel men returned. Many close friends and companions she had made along the way in life’s journey were lost to them, and she herself had just barely escaped getting sniped on numerous occassions. 62847GF was a strong survivor, she had made it all the way to surviving to produce a second litter of cubs. She often thought about her first litter, one much like this one, only two male cubs and one female cub. She wondered where they could be now. By now they’d be almost old enough to start raising their own litters. 62847GF had not seen any of them since they had matured and left her. Although she wanted to believe they had perhaps migrated a great distance to another area, she knew in her heart that most likely none of them had been as successful as her at escaping hunters every season. Few grizzly coons ever survived to their third year. This tough mother had cheated death, and was almost five years old. 62847GF knew that she was fortunate to have lived this long, and that her luck would eventually run out. This was of no concern to 62847GF, for she felt that her life had been long and successful, but all that mattered in the world to her now was her cubs, and if she didn’t survive until they could be off on their own, they would certainly perish. During these times of the year she knew to be as cautious and protective as possible, almost every unfamiliar sound and smell frightened her and with good reason. She exhales deeply and tries her best to relax, making her cubs fidget, when she suddenly senses something again. And now she knows it is for real. A very low rumble, below a frequency that humans can hear, comes to her ears like rolling thunder, only instead of chaotic, the sound is rhythmic and repetitive. She quickly jumps up lightning fast, before her kits were even comfortably settled down, and shrieked in panicked alarm for all three of her cubs to flee up a tree. The rumbling soon grows nearer, and then on the horizon she sees it: a huge flying object, coming straight towards them. Terrified, the mother runs away from her three kits now hiding high up in a dead, diagonally-leaning white spruce. The incessantly roaring, flying object now veers its course straight towards her. She is terrified, but glad they are at least following her and not her cubs. Running terror from this huge, cumbersome monster, she tries to play a trick on the flying beast, quickly changing direction and ducking under thick brush to hide her from view. However, before she even makes it, a fog issued from under the creature’s belly and quickly shot like a bolt towards her, enveloping her in a mist that made her head spin and her brain tingle painfully. She stood on her hind legs one last time to desperately try and see better through the fog and then lost consciousness, dizzily falling over on her side. As the fog slowly dissipated, the massive flying beast, an ADFG field cruiser, hovered and landed nearby in a small clearing among the dead trees. The side doors slid open, and a small team of 4 game wardens slipped out and walked towards the unconscious grizzly. All bore the mandatory warden uniforms. They included traditional tan shirts with badges and patches of ranking, ADFG logo caps, and of course a pair of large, elusively reflective sunglasses over their eyes. Their belts were full of fieldwork devices and each carried pulse rifles on holsters over their shoulders. Almost as regular as their uniforms was the expression on all of their faces, cold and stern. Except for one of them.
One of them was a middle aged, sallow-faced man with short, spiked grey hair. His name was Roger Rytzaljak, a high-ranking field agent, also an inner member of the department’s Board of Game. The two other men were Bobby Trevalswek and Derin Davisson. But then there was a fourth one, one that stood out from them. This warden was a young, tall and lanky blonde woman. Her name was Jennifer Feldis, a new recruit only 5 months on the force. She stood out in more ways than one from the rest of them.
Roger cautiously approached the female grizzly first. "Hurry, apply the after-tranq before she starts convulsing" he said. Jennifer nervously pulled a tranquilizer gun out of its belt holster on her side, stooped down next to the giant-sized raccoon and pressed it into the animal’s shoulder.
"Good work, Jennifer.", Roger complimented.
The four of them stood back and admired the animal.
"Wow, look at the size of that proin! She must be 3 ˝ feet long." Bobby said, pulling out an infared ruler and measured her for the more precise length of 3 feet 7/14 inches. The other man spread out a special plastic tarp on the ground. Roger and Jennifer unraveled protective gloves from their sleeves and both picked up and layed the grizzly down on it. A reading on the corner of the tarp showed that the mother grizzly weighed in at 97.4 pounds. She was a huge grizzly coon indeed. The tarp also detected 6 types of minor external parasites and slightly unhealthy skin due to several mineral and nutritional deficiencies.
"Do we have this one already down in our files?", Derin asked.
"Yeah, this is PLA-SC-62847GF. She’s one of the largest Her archaic tracking chip’s still working, but her immune system destroyed the mn’s we injected her with last time. It’s time for a booster." Roger said, holding up a strange looking device similar to Jennifer’s tranquil gun and pressing it to the mother raccoon’s side near her heart, injecting her with hundreds of nanites used to monitor her bodily systems and life processes. They gave her several more mostly harmless injections, for rabies, mange and distemper resistance, and parasite eradication. Several other supplements were administered that contained minerals and nutrients that she lacked according to the nanite readings. While he administered the injections, Jennifer was stooped down next to the grizzly across from him, sympathetically stroking the grizzly’s ears and neck fur. When Roger noticed this, he suddenly pushed her hand away, and eyed her warningly.
"Don’t do that." he said in a dangerous tone. "We can’t let you get soft for any of these beasts. You must remember why we’re out here. We’re here to conduct a sustainable harvest level survey and ONLY for that. We've got to make sure their turnover rate is high enough to sustain a population that will meet hunters' demands this year. As professional game wardens we can’t have compassion for any individual, you must remember that the individual does not matter, it is the whole of the population that we must manage and conserve."
"Yeah. Sorry to seem rude there, Jen, I know this is all strange for you since you’re new on our force, but it’s not a good idea to interact with or get emotional with any particular grizzly too well. Especially one that’s likely not going to make it another season." Bobby elaborated.
"Allright, allright, I’m sorry, I… I wasn’t petting him anyway, I was, er... just checking for external parasites on her ears and neck" Jennifer said defensively.
"Her new cubs for the season are somewhere nearby, the readings showed three of them. They’re somewhere in that direction. We need to find them, we haven’t logged them in yet", Roger said, pointing to the Northeast. Derrin and Bobby went searching for them in that direction.
A few seconds later, Bobby yelled back that they spotted them. It was impossible for any creature to hide itself among the dead trees of the drunken forests. Roger walked over to them and saw the three helpless cubs crying and wailing fearfully at the top of the diagonally leaning tree. Roger loaded tranquilizer rails into his pulse rifle and set it to low power before aiming up at them and firing. One single unaimed shot precisely delivered a tranquilizer dart into all three cubs without harming them. Jennifer and the two men, with the tarp held between them, caught two of the cubs when they almost immediately plummeted drowsily from the high top of the tree, but the strongest female cub put up a struggle, dopily trying to climb higher up the tree, until drowsily falling 45 feet to the ground into the thick grass, missing the tarp.
Jennifer screamed in alarm and began to panic, but the rest of the men assured her that the cub probably suffered little bodily harm. Roger carefully picked the cub up and scanned over her unconcious body with a handheld ultrasonic device and found no broken or fractured bones or internal organ damage.
"Wow. That is one tough cub. Did you see the way she put up that fight after you tranquiled her?" said Bobby in amazement.
"She gave good sport, didn’t she" Derin said icily.
"Yeah, what a pugnacious proin. I can tell she wouldn’t go down easily. She’s gonna give one lucky hunter quite a thrilling chase one day." Bobby said lustfully.
"Yup. This one’s already turning out to be just like her mother. PLA-SC-62847GF is one of the best wild stocks we have logged in. I can’t believe how long she’s survived. This is her second litter, by the way" Roger informed them.
"Really? How was her first litter?", Bobby asked.
"Oh, from what I heard from the hunter that harvested two of them, her first litter were magnificent sporting game. They’ve already been fully harvested, all three of them, and I saw two of the males after they were mounted. They were top-quality trophies.", said Roger happily.
“Nice.”, remarked Derin sharply.
Jennifer looked the other way to hide the expression of disgust that she could not prevent showing on her face.
At that, they logged and numbered the cubs, who went through the same routine procedure of weighing, measuring, and drugging as their mother, and were carefully laid down at her side to let them wake together up in several minutes’ time. Jennifer and the rest repacked their equipment, Her lazy, dazed eyes stared at them blankly from out of her large black mask of a face, and her tongue flopped reflexively in her slouched mouth. They stood back to watch them one last time. Suddenly, the mother grizzly quickly sat upright, startling the men so much that Bobby and Derril nearly fell over backwards. The grizzly eyed them with startled, aggressive eyes, but was still too uncoordinated and dazed to get back on her feet and charge them.
"Come on, leave her alone now, get back in the cruiser, quick, before she gets too dangerous.", Roger said alarmingly, and they jogged back to the cruiser, with only Jennifer looking back one last time.
They stepped back into the cruiser and took off. Below them, the endless landscape of the lumplands was spread before them in all its grandeur desolation. Where thick, healthy taiga once stood, now an endless landscape of towering skeletons rotted in ruins. Long killed off by waves of infestation and disease decades before, the trunks and stumps of the drunken forests were tilted, leaning and fallen in every direction. Between the dead trees the lumpy ground was choked by a thick, grey-green carpet of invasive weedgrass gone awry that no poison contrived by man could kill anymore. …And even this was overgrazed in most areas. About 20 miles further traveling southeast back to their headquarters,
A familiar structure came into view ahead of them on the ground. They were approaching game feed station 16A-BT. Below them, in a huge flat area of man-made clearing, was one of the primary areas where Alaska’s remaining wildlife resources were sustained. A complex consisting of several large industrial metal structures stood. Amassed around this complex of cylindrical tanks was a dense congregation of nearly 5,000 Sitka deer, gorging themselves at rows and rows of circular feeding troughs arranged around the cylindrical structures, which were giant feed tanks that kept the troughs filled. The deer were obviously hungry. There was not enough naturally growing grass to graze on (or rodents to prey upon) to feed most of their burgeoning numbers, numbers that hunters demanded and the ADFG expected, so their survival was mollified at several complexes like this one located all around the refuge. There were also many devices at this complex that made sure that every deer got the proper amount of feed and nutrition. Numerous robots roved among this miserable horde, shocking and prodding the deer feeding at the troughs to move on once they’ve had a share; to allow the next deer waiting in line to feed access. Many bucks among the mass were nearly driven to madness with nervousness at the unnatural over-crowdedness of the environment, and often panicked in aggressive flails and kicks, doing whatever they could to gain personal space, which was nonexistent while they were packed in flank to flank with the rest of the writhing masses. But order was always soon restored; the panic-stricken bucks were soon shocked with prods and subdued with tranquilizers into submission by the tranquility bots that had to clear their way through the crowd to get to them. Does and fawns were isolated from the bucks by the shep-bots to use troughs in a different section of the complex, and where the the does fed, a team of very specialized robots patrolled, the arti-sem bots. When the arti-sem bots detected a doe in estrus season at the feeding troughs, clamps sprang up and restrained them by the neck, and the arti-sem bots rolled up to them from behind and did unspeakable things to conceive within them a new generation of future trophies.
These horrified, screaming does, who no longer had any desire to mate or give birth naturally, were forced against their will to bring more young fawns into the world, to raise a child not planned or wanted, born and destined to live a short, unnatural life. A life just like theirs, a life of gorging, prodding, drugging, tranquilizations, checkups by robots, and death at an early age by pulse rifle or hydraulic bow.
"Isn’t agri-conservation wonderful? Why does the IGEC hate it so much?" said Roger admirably, staring down at the massive herd below. "Only 15 years ago sitka deer and nearly every other large game animal in this state was dwindling on the edge of extinction. Now look... The herds are larger than they’ve ever been in history. ...Larger than they've been in history! I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would be able to bring about such a successful comeback in the post-mass extinction age. It just shows what true conservationists and sportsmen can do when we put our minds to it. The harvest will be tremendously bountiful this fall. Hunter success rates should be at 150% or better. I can’t wait to take my own crack at them this year with my new hydraulic bow." said Roger, staring down at the herd lustfully.
Jennifer’s face showed an expression of deep skepticism.
"You do know that blacktail deer used to have antlers, don’t you?" she reminded Roger.
"Of course I know that! A lot of them still do... You just can’t see them from here." Roger said with tenability.
"I don’t mean just those sharp, narrow spikes that some of them have, Roger; I’m saying that one time all the bucks had branching, multiple-pointed antlers that looked like magnificent crowns."
"I told you already, we’re trying as hard as we can to bring back that kind.", Roger remarked irritably, "We have a few in isolated breeding stocks right now, but it’s hard to get anything through the damn IGEC department of wildlife genetics. But aside from that, the herd is very healthy this year, and I’d say sustainable harvest levels could be anywhere from 2,500,000-3,000,000 trophies. Oh, and the moose herds are also quite healthy. Those disastrous population crash cycles that used to occur on a yearly basis are a thing of the past. Embryonic absorption is down to minimal levels since we added improved fertility hormones to their game feed, and the new updated arti-sem bots are--"
"--Moose used to have antlers too." Jennifer interrupted.
"I KNOW!" Roger snapped. What did I just tell you about the blacktail? We’re working on it! If it wasn’t for that stupid IGEC full of those subjective bioethicist yuppies, we could all right now be bringing home 75-point mega-racks just like what you used to hear the hunter legends of the 40’s gloat about.", Roger complained. Jennifer remained silent. She thought about reminding Roger of the fact that the legendary "mega-racks" of the 2040s were actually severe antler malformations due to a velvet infection from mange epidemics that swept through the genetically weak herds of the time. However, she decided not to irritate Roger, Bobby and Derrin any more than she already had that day, and let that one go. Jennifer’s thoughts went back to that grizzly coon. She felt terribly sorry for it, and said a small prayer on its behalf for its safety and survival.
And somewhere miles behind them, a grizzly coon mother was just regaining her full consciousness. Her cubs were also waking up around her, and as they did began to stumble around drunkily, crying in terror from the trauma of the experience. She hissed for them to stay close, and they walked clumsily back towards her. She held them close and comforted them the best she could, but she too was terrified. She knew that there was no hope of escaping man forever, those men already had them captured, and could have easily killed them all. Why didn’t they?, she wondered. This was the third time in her life that she had been captured by such men, but not harmed. However, She knew that her luck would eventually run out, and the next time men came they likely wouldn’t be so merciful again to her or her cubs. She shook with despair at this thought. However, along with this great oppressive feeling of fear and hopelessness came another. Something was different about this particular traumatic experience. She didn’t understand by any means why or how, but a sudden feeling of hope came over her. It issued forth from a mysterious well of empathic resonance deeper and more ancient and complex than subjective thought, reasoning or even instinct. During her tranquilized state, she had subconsciously felt a hand caressing her, a reassuring touch of compassion, and in it was a clear meaning: someone felt love and sympathy for her, another being that transcended to her across the species barrier with altruism and kinship. This being had been there by her side during her unconscious helplessness.
…and somehow she suddenly knew that someone out there deeply loved and cared about her, someone out there with the power to watch over her and even protect her and her children from harm. In this 628-47GF found solace, and a warm feeling of hope suddenly filled her. …Perhaps there was some small chance, some glimmer of hope that someday in the desolate wasteland she called home, she and her cubs would no longer have to live in fear of torment and death under man‘s cruelty. She calmed and quieted her cubs back down, and they found their way back onto the unused bear trail and all set off once again across the vast uneven terrain of the lump lands to satisfy that most powerful emotion in all grizzlies--hunger.
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Thank you for visiting all-creatures.org. | <urn:uuid:d159672a-5ff6-4b13-9f19-9fbc8db071a3> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-dfg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413558066932.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017150106-00298-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975956 | 6,091 | 2.546875 | 3 |
“Identity lives in the space between invention and reality.”
What is truth? Truth is the sum of a society’s conventions. There are rules and meta-rules, which are unknown knowns, call them habits or unspoken conventions that set the parameters for moving flawlessly through a society. It is a social network of implicit rules that tell you how to deal with the explicit rules.
Immigrants come into a new set of rules that are the makeup of their host society. Some rules are obvious, some are not. Assimilation and integration starts with learning of the explicit rules. But the meta-rules or implicit rules we only learn over time by trial and error, by using our intuition and assessing situations and reactions to us.
When too many people do not know the implicit rules of a society, the context for these rules weakens. Once the rules lose their context, they collapse. That is what ‘fear of the Other’ really is – a fear of losing one’s own truth.
[Watch 90 absolutely fascinating minutes of Slavoy Zizek’s discourse in Prague (2007) on “How are we Embedded in Ideology”.] | <urn:uuid:c03fe24b-5af6-4a9d-8953-7fb8cab32f17> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://ninafroriep.blogspot.com/2011/03/truth-part-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823220.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20171019031425-20171019051425-00360.warc.gz | en | 0.949154 | 249 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Sustainable living is an essential concept for all of us to adopt in our daily lives. The 17 sustainable development goals which include no poverty, sustainable cities, decent work and economic growth etc. these goals are ultimately focused on welfare of society and also makes a favour for nature.
17 sustainable development goals given by UN in 2015
Earth5R is working on Circular economy, Waste management, Sustainable development and various livelihood programs. Volunteers are guiding people of various communities in slum areas of Mumbai. Earth5R team has covered major slum areas of Mumbai city, Sangharsh Nagar area is one of them.
Sangharsh nagar, located in Chandivali, is an upmarket residential neighbourhood located in Andheri East. Near Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) which is located at a distance of less than 1 km.
Image Source: cdc.gov
It is located near the Arabian sea hence the humidity is respectively high in this area it is about 58% and that’s why it is important to improve the waste management system and hygiene habits of these particular communities.
Earth5R’s volunteers have conducted such training among the streets of Mumbai to spread awareness for these topics. Sustainable development and circular economy are already in list of alimentary goals of these trainings.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Mumbai is among the 20 most polluted cities in the world from 13 cities of India.
These training have made a huge impact on the people who are not educated and not aware about these things. Earth5R training involves such topics like,
• Waste management
• Segregation waste
• Circular economy
• Reusing waste material for various purpose
• Reducing carbon footprint
• Improving the economical condition on slum area and providing resources for earning
• Cleaning rivers etc.
Ground level actions like spreading awareness and improving lifestyle can make significant changes in the long term. Sustainable development includes the goal of working on climate change and enhancing life in all aspects with minimum harm to nature.
In total 41 percent of the population of Mumbai is still living in slum Besides Dharavi, one of the largest slums in the world.
HEP training is all about 15 actions which can be adopted in the target of sustainable lifestyle and circular economy.
As Sangharsh Nagar is an area with high humidity around 58% which can cause some hygiene issues and occurrence of virus and bacteria. That’s why it is a remarkable domain to work on.
This guidance involves such tips for citizens like,
• Waste segregation techniques
• Reducing use of private vehicle
• Buying local products
• Reducing use of food packets
• Reusing old clothes, bags, bottles, containers…etc.
• Being more physically active
• Spending time in nature & many more.
Circular economy itself means a proper circulation of economy or money to have a proper resource for basic needs in maximum numbers of families.
Earth5R is an environmental organization from India with its head office in Mumbai. It works with the NGO sector, Companies and helps them conduct environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs across India.
–Reported by Hemanshi Gusani, Edited by Om Nair | <urn:uuid:845ed4dd-266b-4207-b305-3b540f56d8af> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://earth5r.org/sustainable-development-livelihood-mumbai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153791.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20210728185528-20210728215528-00438.warc.gz | en | 0.946312 | 675 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Change the following sentences into reported speech:
1. The coach said to Tommy, 'You'll never be a top banana.'
2. He asked, 'How many times do I have to tell you that you should rather pass the ball?'
3. Tommy replied, ' I took our chance but unfortunately didn't succeed.'
4. The coach said to him, 'Don't argue all the time! You'll not be on the team the next time.'
5. Debbie advised him, 'Go to the coach and apologize for what you did!'
6. Debbie also said, 'Our team must play against Weston High School next weekend.'
7. Pat replied to her boyfriend, 'I'm sorry, but I have already promised Steve to go with him to the dance.'
8. Tommy simply said, 'You needn't come with me. And if you don't go with me I'll never ask you again.'
9. The coach again shouted at his team, 'Why don't you pass the ball faster?'
10. At the end he said, 'It's your own fault that you lost today.' | <urn:uuid:58730a58-aecb-4d09-b0fe-7a0f23042881> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://englischlehrer.de/tests/repspeech4.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608648.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170526071051-20170526091051-00491.warc.gz | en | 0.979395 | 233 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Creation of believable and multidimensional characters is like steeplechase. Like in athletics there are rules and tricks to make jumping over barriers easier.
“Gender is the social construct”. FALSE.
Difference between male and female is obvious. How to show it in a book? The book exists as a material object you can use it as decoration or even to level your wardrobe or table, but her real value is spiritual. The book fulfills its purpose in minds of writers and readers. There in the mind lies difference between genders we as writers can use. Female and male brains work differently and we think in different ways. Female writers need to write male characters and vice versa – this is our first obstacle. Best way to show gender difference is in the dialog, actions and inner thoughts of our characters (Show, don’t tell). How to achieve this? We will ask our characters psychological questions.
How concrete is your character? Men will make concrete statements, while women use metaphors.
How do your characters share their emotions? Men will speak about their emotions only when under stress or when forced. They like to brag while women will talk about their accomplishments in modest fashion. Men get angry and aggressive while women are indirect and manipulative. She will consider effects of her statements and actions.
Do your characters explain themselves? Men will avoid justification of their actions. If they explain themselves you need to give them a good reason to do so. Man will give advice when asked about something, tell what should be done. Woman will show empathy and tell about similar thing which happened to her – share experience.
How much details do your characters notice? Men stick to general picture, women will notice specific details like emotions, body posture, colors, styles etc. If your female character doesn’t notice the way others act you should give her good reason to be detached.
How your characters ask questions? Man will want brief, specific answer. He plans his questions in such way to get them. Woman will more often than a man ask rhetorical questions – intended to make a point and not to provoke an answer. Simple example from my novel: Lillium looked at Schnew, “Do you even listen?” – She is pointing out that he doesn’t. Women also ask for approval and validation of their actions. Male comments will be less dependent on reaction of others.
Second obstacle is how to describe our character. Don’t go with generic descriptions as young girl, old bold man and so on. Try to include background and personality. Example: I wear beard and long hair as a sign of mourning for the lost monarchy, someone else will wear it because he listens to metal, or he was hippy when he was young. Other people will wear short hair because they were in the army. I always have notebook and pen in my pocket to write my thoughts. Don’t be afraid to go through your character’s pockets. Someone else will carry medications or gun. My sister will make grocery lists and calculate prices in the store. Just be careful to choose details that reveal inner personality. Example: Subito my main characters walk little sideways so he could easy unsheat his sword. In one of my short stories main character is schizophrenic psychopath his hands hang and do not move as he walks, he looks through the people like they were not there. (When you write crazy killers it is important to know that they have feelings. Sociopaths will have same feelings as any normal person only they will disregard them because of learned behavior in traumatic childhood. Psychopaths can’t feel everything normal person does, their enzyme receptors don’t work like they should which makes them capable to react just to intense emotions.)
It is always better to show your characters in motion for example reading a book. My grandfather used to read the book’s ending before he would read the rest. When we show the world through our character’s eyes it is important to think what effects do their inner state have on their view of the world. Example: In my short story jealous girl at a party finds music annoying and her head hurts while other people enjoy dancing. We are trying to avoid info dump which is boring and cold and to engage reader’s emotions. Background information on our character is like a pill which cures readers curiosity and drag him into story, but don’t overdose the patient. Give him small doses in regular intervals.
Don’t make your character to perfect or pretty. Such people do not exist, only God is without flaw.
Don’t repeat same description over and over again. It is enough to describe his hair color and such near the beginning.
Don’t say everything about him/her in the same sentence use several spread around the chapter and in action. Example: He scratched his balding head is better than He was bald.
Don’t over explain. Example: She cried, instead of She cried because she was sad he left her.
Third obstacle: villains. We need to give villain a good reason to do what he does, even if we don’t agree with him. He can’t just do evil deeds, he needs to have objective same as the good characters. Objectives can be divided into ones he goes to (ideas, gain, approval…) and ones he runs from (bad experience, chores, duties…) He same as the main character has to have full personality with good and bad qualities. Hero needs to have something personal at stake, something readers don’t want him to lose. Don’t just make him want to stop the bad guy; he needs to depend on stopping the bad guy. It is important to remember that villain believes he is right, and we should give him good reasons to do so. From his point of view, he is a good guy, and our hero is a villain. If he is aware he is doing bad things, he thinks his actions are justified and have many reasons to believe so: teaching a lesson, cleansing the world from “bad” people, revenging wrongs done to them… Villain should be at least as strong as a hero or stronger. He should be defeated due to pre-defined character flaw. Villain or his assistants shouldn’t ever be stupid. To beat challenged person is not a nice thing to do, and we don’t want to put our heroes in such situations.
Fourth obstacle: How to introduce main character? We base our opinion of people (and characters) on our first impressions. Publisher needs to connect with a main character to publish your book. To make that connection grab your character by the collar and throw him into action. He needs to be doer, to brave unfavorable odds. Don’t make him conflict observer (even if he is a reporter from war zone). He shouldn’t complain but work to change what he doesn’t like. Don’t make him contemplate to show his past or problems, he should work to resolve them. He doesn’t need to succeed in solving problems. His actions can get him deeper into troubles. We can’t resolve every problem we face at once. It’s human to have weaknesses and fears, but it’s also human to always try to find a way around them. How character solves the problems keeps reader interested in story. Well written character has: conflict (obstacles on his way, man vs man, man vs nature, man vs self, obstacles should increase in severity), motivation (Motivation has to be personal, not just sense of right and wrong. If he confronts a gang member, that gang member should have something he wants or endanger someone he cares for. No one will risk his life just to show how good he is.), objective (what he is trying to achieve), good traits (he uses to resolve the conflict), bad traits (flaws he needs to overcome to resolve the conflict), and character arc (ugly duckling becomes a swan, character needs to grow and change from first chapter to the end, best way to do this is to show how he overcomes his bad traits and becomes a better person, himself – because he was afraid or in denial, or his environment should resist the change).
Obstacle number five: all characters sound the same. Here writer becomes an actor; he needs to give each character unique voice. First, we need to know who is our character, to become him, to speak in his words. What was his childhood? Was he encouraged or forbidden to take initiative and express emotions? That will make him shy or not. How educated is he, what does he work? Soldier and artist don’t speak or think same way. How old is he? Five year old, twenty years old and seventy years old don’t speak same way, and don’t have same world view. Neat trick is to assign certain phrases to characters and use them consistently. For instance someone will say “Hi”, other one “Hello”; teens will use slang; “OK” and “Alright”; curse words and colloquialisms,…
Last obstacle: make multidimensional characters. Surround your characters with people opposite to them to stress their characteristics. It also works with romance. Couple in love who are different doesn’t have to change; they can complement each other with qualities coming from their differences. You should make quirks for your characters to make them unique. These little habits should make sense, magnify main traits of characters. Example: In my novel Lillium desires knowledge above anything else. Her quirk is to collect old things – her house looks like a museum, that made her leave her clan and travel the world which is strange in the eyes of her people. Give your character a secret, something that would change his life for worse if revealed. This makes them vulnerable and reader is compelled to care about them. Multidimensional character has to be composed of at least two conflicting one-dimensional characters. They shouldn’t be total opposites (like angel and devil sitting on each shoulder), just have different ideals (like two angels with different ideas of duty and good on each shoulder). Example: Miratur has grown without a father. She wants family and peaceful life. She also wants to clear the name of her father, executed as a traitor, which means she needs to go to war. Internal conflict between good and good is created, she is not sure which one to choose and it gives her character a depth.
My character sheet:
|Motivation(what does he want):
|Conflict(what is keeping him from getting what he wants):
· Physical appearance
· Eye color
· Hair color
· Body type / height & weight
· Predominant feature
· Manner of walk
· Biggest fear
· He hates most
· Bad habit
· Speech patterns + Curse words
· Most prized possession
· Musical instrument?
· Animal companions?
· Very skilled at
· Very unskilled at
· Character flaw
· Quirks / strange behavior patterns
· Weird talents
· How does he face problems?
· How does he react to change?
|What can she do at the end that he can’t at the beginning?
|Dark wound from past: | <urn:uuid:1a3c51d7-e06e-4496-a190-93203d007cff> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://constantinedeboudox.wordpress.com/2016/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887414.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20180118131245-20180118151245-00224.warc.gz | en | 0.967782 | 2,357 | 2.75 | 3 |
Join Ray Villalobos for an in-depth discussion in this video Using ordinal scales, part of D3.js: Data Visualization.
…In the last video, we took a look at quantitative skills, and…now we need to look at something else called an ordinal scale.…An ordinal scale lets you map a series of values that have a meaningful order.…So whereas before we were concerned with the value of the data, so the numbers here…were what we wanted to re-map so that they fit the height of this chart.…What we're interested now is we're dealing with the actual position of these elements…so they remap horizontally to fit the allotted room for this chart.…
So the problem that we're having now is if we keep on adding values,…eventually we're going to get to the right side and they're going to sort of go off.…So we need to fix that so that no matter how many values we enter,…the width of everything will fit according to the size that we have.…In order to do that we'll need to work with ordinal scales and…you can read more about them at this url.…And as you can see when you scroll down the ordinal scales are really…about repositioning.…Existing values the order of some data.…
- What is D3.js?
- Creating a basic document structure
- Controlling HTML DOM elements
- Binding data to the DOM
- Drawing SVG graphics with D3
- Using ordinal scales
- Adding events and transitions
- Working with data
- Creating and adjusting layouts
Skill Level Intermediate
1. Setting Up and Installing
What is D3.js?3m 18s
2. Learning the Basics
3. Working with SVG Graphics
4. Using D3 Methods
5. Using Data
6. Working with Layouts
Next steps2m 2s
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By Kiki Sideris
Red crowned and white naped cranes glide over the lush green valley of rice paddies that constitute the demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreas for more than 70 years. But they are the only living creatures that can bridge this divide, which is armed to the teeth. Hidden among the jagged green peaks that tower over the lush valley on the North Korean side, are enough artillery to level Seoul, 35 miles south of the DMZ, in minutes–and there’s nothing that either the Korean or the U.S. military could do to stop such an attack. Nothing in the ongoing peace talks have lessened that threat so far.
Despite this continual threat, many in the two Koreas yearn to reunite. Says a sign on the southern side of the DMZ, “I don’t want to see North Korea through binoculars anymore.”
As North Korea’s mountainous artillery suggests, the question of reunification is complicated. While some South Koreans say that reunification will lead to an economic boom, others say that taking on North Korea will result in a heavy economic burden.
“The younger generation has little support of reunification due to the economic burden South Korea would take on,” said Dr. Bo-hyuk Suh, a professor at the Institute of Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. “Basically all of the older generation in South Korea supports reunification.”
Recent polls prove the apparent divide. Survey Billy, a South Korean survey platform, asked 578 adults over the age of 19 in May if they wanted reunification. The survey found that 24 percent believe reunification is necessary, 48 percent think reunification should happen if possible, 11 percent think reunification should not happen if it can be avoided, and 15 percent said they do not have an opinion on the matter. The remaining 2 percent believe that the North and South should never reunite.
South Korea and its volatile neighbour have never officially ended the Korean War, which was prompted at the end of World War II in 1945 by the division of Korea. Since then, North and South Korea have been gripped in a conflict, which exploded into open warfare in 1950. The conflict ended three years later. Each side agreed to an armistice to move their troops back 2,200 yards from the front line, creating a buffer zone known as the DMZ.
In 2018, the North and South’s relationship saw a major diplomatic breakthrough. North Korea participated in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. In April, the two countries agreed to work together to end the Korean War and the Korean conflict when they signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification of the Korean Peninsula.
“Unification is the most positive opportunity to develop the Korean economy. It’s a perfect combination,” said Dr. Young-Dall Lee, a professor of entrepreneurship at Dongguk University in Seoul. “North Korea has a great size and a bunch of raw materials like steel, coal, etc. In South Korea, we have very skillful manufacturing plants and technological infrastructure.”
Dr. Lee added that information, communication, and technology (ICP) companies strongly favor unification because they want to expand their consumer market. “North Korea has no telecommunication infrastructure,” he said. “So when we can be unified, we’d get big size market demands for infrastructure development and consumer consumption as well.”
But the people remain divided.
Dr. Suh explained that South Korean people have two images of North Korea. Some view North and South Korea as family or friends. They believe in reunification and a common future of prosperity. Others view the North Koreans as enemies and do not wish to reunite.
“Reunification is something that we must do,” said Haedoh Lee, 76, a former elementary school principal from Seoul. Although he has no relatives in North Korea, he believes “we are family and we share the same blood.”
Katie Park, a DMZ tour guide, said that she did not want reunification until she met a North Korean defector. “After I met some defectors, I really wanted reunification for the people of Korea. I really think it’s necessary,” she said. “We have some political differences. Even though we have some chaos, I think it’s necessary.”
Seung Hyun Kim, a 24-year-old student at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that he prefers to keep his political stance private, noting that expressing one’s political opinion is not common in Korean culture. Regardless of political opinion, though, he said that South Koreans can all agree on one thing: “There’s a huge economic gap between North and South Korea. If they reunify, we’d have to help the North. That’s a huge cost of reunification,” he said. “We’d have to help them industrialize. How will we pay for this cost? The older and younger generation are both concerned with that.”
Dr. Lee said that those who oppose reunification are concerned with how government expenditure might influence their personal lives. “Most of the older generation have already invested big-sized pension funds,” he explained. “They wouldn’t want to be unified because the governmental expenditure level is going to [increase] when we get unification.”
Kim also questions North Korea’s motives. “Now is the right time to think about why Kim Jong-un is starting to meet with South Korea and the United States,” he mentioned.
Dr. Suh said that reunification depends on North Korea. “The inter-Korean relationship could be developed, but the scope could be influenced by the speed of the denuclearization process.”
As talks of reunification persist, Panmunjom, a truce village in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ, shows hope. A new chapel is up for construction in front of its Visitor Center. The facility is located as close to North Korea as possible, where it will act as a “chapel of peace.” There, Koreans can pray for a peaceful reunification. | <urn:uuid:b1c39283-0265-466c-8142-075977056601> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://www.journalismwithoutwalls.com/korea2018/2018/07/a-divided-korea-struggles-the-idea-of-unification/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583658681.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20190117020806-20190117042806-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.961323 | 1,331 | 3.109375 | 3 |
One of the hardest jobs of a parent is getting a child to sleep at the appropriate time. For some, it is a constant nighttime battle that leaves both the parent and child sleep-deprived. The following tips can help parents create a simple bedtime routine that will make nighttime a peaceful time in the home.
Decide on a time that will ensure your child gets enough sleep. Depending upon the age of the child, most children need at least 10-12 hours of sleep. In addition to setting a bedtime, parents should decide when to implement the new routine. Implementing a new routine when there are hectic schedules, impending travels, or other distractions may not be the best idea.
Create a Ritual
Come up with some signals for your child that indicates it is time for bed. This could include a bath, putting play things away, or turning off the television and unnecessary lights. The point is to help the child relax and decompress from all of the stimuli throughout the day.
Prepare for Battle
At first, some kids will put up resistance to the new routine. Parents must try to remain calm, speak gently, but firmly to children who put up resistance. Losing your temper will do more harm than good. Do not give in to attempts to delay bedtime.
Make Bedtime Appealing
Sometimes kids avoid bedtime because they think they are missing out on something. Try to make going to bed more appealing by doing special activities with them that is only offered at bedtime. Ideas include, having a special bedtime storybook selection, singing lullabies, or quiet games. Do not allow any distractions to interfere during this time.
Children thrive on consistency. Parents must be willing to stick with the routine for however long is necessary. While there may be a need for minor adjustments and flexibility in the routine, consistency is key to making it work.
Other ideas that are helpful in creating a bedtime routine is involving both parents in the implementation. Parents should work together in creating rituals and activities that will help the child prepare for bed. | <urn:uuid:0ac242d1-884d-4b86-a3c8-5183301427c7> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.familytoday.com/family/5-tips-to-create-a-bedtime-routine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046155529.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210805095314-20210805125314-00525.warc.gz | en | 0.953134 | 420 | 2.625 | 3 |
Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources
by Paul Allan Mirecki, Jason BeDuhn
A thousand books will be preserved ... they will come into the hand of the just and the faithful [the] Gospel and the Treasury of Life, the Pragmateia and the Book of Mysteries, the Book of Giants and the Epistles, the Psalms and [the] Prayers of my lord, his Icon and his Revelations, his Parables and his Mysteries ... How many will be lost? How many will be destroyed? A thousand lost, another thousand recovered; for they will find them at the end. They will kiss then, and say "O Wisdom of Greatness, O Armor of the Apostle of Light! When you were lost ... where did they find you?" ... And you shall find them reading them aloud, uttering the name [of each book] among them: the name of its lord .. and the name of those who gave all [for it to be written] and the name of the scribe who wrote it... and of the one who punctuated it... (Manichaean Homilies 23.13-25.19)
When this prophecy was written down, some seventeen hundred years ago, the author scarcely could have imagined that the recovery of his religion's precious books would come not at the hands of "the just and the faithful" but at the quite profane hands of 20th century academics. For the last one hundred years, archaeologists, philologists, art historians, and historians of religion, have labored to restore to human memory the Manichaean religion which their ancestors worked so hard to obliterate. As we approach the end of this century, we can look back on a remarkable success story that has brought as much closer than ever before to a full understanding of the faith of Mani.
In the absence of the Manichaeans themselves, the task of retrieving their tenets and practices primarily depends upon the recovery and painstaking reconstruction of Manichaean remains. The modern scholar has at her disposal the material of four major discoveries and two isolated texts. In the early part of this century, Manichaean literary and artistic remains were recovered from Turfan and Dunhuang in China, including material in Middle Iranian, Turkic, and Chinese. In the late 1920s, a third cache of texts, this time in Coptic, was found at Medinet Madi, in Egypt. The leading role of German scholars with respect to both the Turfan and Medinet Madi finds resulted in the tragic loss of portions of both collections in the devastation of Berlin in the second World War. Α fourth revelation of Manichaean materials has occurred in recent years at Kellis in the Dakhleh Oasis of Egypt, including texts in Coptic, Greek, and Syriac. In addition to these four major finds, the Cologne Mani Codex (a Greek text from Egypt) and the Tebessa Codex (a Latin composition found in Algeria) are essential sources for the Manichaeanist. Moreover, the anti-Manichaean literature of the Christian, Islamic, Zoroastrian, and Chinese literati traditions continues to yield valuable data, especially in light of the control supplied by normative Manichaean texts.
Throughout the 20th century, codicological and philological work necessarily dominated the field of Manichaean studies. In fact, Manichaean texts base been as important in the reconstruction of ancient languages as the developing understanding of those languages have been in permuting the recovery of the Manichaean tradition. This is a slow and arduous process. Even today, some fifty percent of the surviving material remains unpublished. Nonetheless, the last quarter-century has seen an accelerated pace of scholarship, fostered with respect to the eastern sources by a reorganized and re-energized Turfan working group in Berlin and with respect to the western sources by the attention generated by the Cologne Mani Codex. As a result, the availability of sources has increased rapidly and the number of publications appearing annually in the field has multiplied exponentially. Well grounded synthetic work has become an important component of research beside philology. These developments culminated in the formation of an International Association of Manichaean Studies in the 1980s and the covering of conferences and symposia in Europe where for the first time scholar it the held at Manichaean studies could meet in a forum devoted entirely to their subject.... | <urn:uuid:3202d8fc-d869-4215-b18f-6d8d88b97c7d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://gnosis.org/library/mani-sources.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721141.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00435-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960295 | 917 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act of India, Explained
Authors: Raktima Roy, Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna
Raktima Roy is a Privacy Attorney with several years of experience in India and holds an LLM in Law and Technology from Georgetown University, as well as an FPF Global Privacy Intern.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act of India (DPDP) sprinted through its final stages last week after several years of debates, postponements and negotiations, culminating with its publication in the Official Gazette on Friday, August 11, 2023. In just over a week, the Bill passed the lower and upper Houses of the Parliament and received Presidential assent. India, the most populous country in the world with more than 1.4 billion people, is the largest democracy and the 19th country among the G20 members to pass a comprehensive personal data protection law – which it did during its tenure holding the G20 Presidency.
The adoption of the DPDP Bill in the Parliament comes 6 years after Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v Union of India, a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of India recognized a fundamental right to privacy in India, including informational privacy, within the “right to life” provision of India’s Constitution. In this judgment, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court urged the Indian Government to put in place “a carefully structured regime” for the protection of personal data. As part of India’s ongoing efforts to create this regime, there have been several rounds of expert consultations and reports, and two previous versions of the bill were introduced in the Parliament in 2019 and 2022. A brief history of the law is available here.
The law as enacted is transformational. It has a broad scope of application, borrowing from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) approach when defining “personal data” and extending coverage to all entities who process personal data regardless of size or private status. The law also has significant extraterritorial application. The DPDP creates far reaching obligations, imposing narrowly defined lawful grounds for processing any personal data in a digital format, establishing purpose limitation obligations and their corollary – a duty to erase the data once the purpose is met, with seemingly no room left for secondary uses of personal data, and creates a set of rights for individuals whose personal data are collected and used, including rights to notice, access and erasure. The law also creates a supervisory authority, the Data Protection Board of India (Board), which has the power to investigate complaints and issue fines, but does not have the power to issue guidance or regulations.
At the same time, the law provides significant exceptions for the central government and other government bodies, the degree of exemption depending on their function (such as law enforcement). Other exemptions include those for most publicly available personal data, processing for research and statistical purposes, and processing the personal data of foreigners by companies in India pursuant a contract with a foreign company (such as outsourcing companies). Some processing by startups may also be exempt, if notified by the government. The Act also empowers the central government to act upon a notification by the Board and request access to any information from an entity processing personal data, an intermediary (as defined by the Information Technology Act, 2000 – the “IT Act”) or from the Board, as well as to order suspension of access of the public to specific information. The Central Government is also empowered to adopt a multitude of “rules” (similar to regulations under US state privacy laws) that detail the application of the law.
It is important to note that the law will not come into effect until the government provides notice of an effective date. The DPDP Act does not contain a mandated transitional period akin to the two-year gap between the 2016 enactment of the GDPR and its entry into force in May 2018. Rather, it empowers the Government to determine the dates on which different sections of the Act will come into force, including the sections governing the formation of the new Board that will oversee compliance with the law.
This blog will lay out the most important aspects of the DPDP Act, understanding nonetheless that many of its key provisions will be shaped up through subsequent rules issued by the central government, and through practice.
- The DPDP Act Applies to “Data Fiduciaries,” “Significant Data Fiduciaries,” and provides rights for “Data Principals”
The DPDP Act seeks to establish a comprehensive national framework for processing personal data, replacing a much more limited data protection framework under the IT Act and rules that currently provide basic protections to limited categories of “sensitive” personal data such as sexual orientation, health data, etc. The new law by contrast covers all “personal data” (defined as “any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data”) and does not contain heightened protection for any special category of data. The definition of “personal data,” thus, relies on the broad “identifiability” criterion, similar to the GDPR. Only “digital” personal data, or personal data collected through non-digital means that have been digitized subsequently are covered by the law.
The DPDP Act uses the term “data principal” to refer to the individual that the personal data relates to (the equivalent of “data subject” under the GDPR). A “data fiduciary” is the entity that determines the purposes and means of processing of personal data, alone or in conjunction with others, and is the equivalent to a “data controller” under GDPR. While the definition of data fiduciaries includes a reference to potential joint fiduciaries, the Act does not provide any other details about this relationship.
The definition of fiduciaries does not distinguish between private and public, natural and legal persons, technically extending to any person as long as the other conditions of the law are met.
Specific Fiduciaries, Public or Private, Are Exempted or May Be Exempted from the Core Obligations of the Act
The law includes some broad exceptions for government entities in general, and others apply to specific processing purposes. For instance, the law allows the government to exempt activities that are in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, maintenance of public order, or preventing incitement to commit crimes if it provides notice of the exemptions. Justice Srikrishna, who as the head of an expert committee set up to recommend a data protection law in India led the creation of the 2017 first draft of the law, has been critical of these government exemptions, as have been several Members of Parliament during the legislative debate.
Some targeted exceptions also apply to companies, and are either well defined in the law or left to the government for specification. Under what can be called an “outsourcing exception,” the Act exempts companies based in India who process the personal data of people outside of India pursuant to a contract with a company based outside of India from core DPDP obligations including the rights of access and erasure normally held by data principals. Instead, such companies are largely required to only comply with data security obligations.
In addition, the government is empowered to exempt any category of data fiduciaries from some or all of the law, with the DPDP itself referring to “startups” in this context. These are fairly broad provisions and do not include any guidance on how they will apply or who could benefit from them. The government will need to make a specific designation for this exception to operate.
Significant Data Fiduciaries Have Significant New Obligations, such as DPOs, DPIAs and Audits
The DPDP Act empowers the Government to designate any data fiduciary or class of data fiduciaries as a “Significant Data Fiduciary” (SDF), which is done using a series of criteria that lack quantifiable thresholds. These factors range from assessing characteristics of the processing operations (volume and sensitivity of personal data processed and the risk posed to the rights of data principals), to broader societal and even national sovereignty concerns (potential impact of the processing on the sovereignty and integrity of India; risk to electoral democracy; security of the state; and public order).
The designation of companies as SDFs is consequential, because it comes with enhanced obligations. Chief among them, SDFs will need to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who must be based in India and be the point of contact for a required grievance redressal mechanism. SDFs must also appoint an independent data auditor to carry out data audits and evaluate the SDF’s compliance with the DPDP Act, and to undertake periodic Data Protection Impact Assessments.
It is important to note that appointing a DPO is not an obligation for all data fiduciaries. However, all fiduciaries are under an obligation to establish a “readily available” mechanism for redressing grievances by data principals in a timely manner. In order for such a process to be operationalized, usually an internal privacy compliance function or a dedicated privacy officer would be helpful.
The DPDP Act Recognizes the Role of Data Processors
Data processors are recognized by the DPDP Act, which makes it clear that fiduciaries may engage, appoint or otherwise involve processors to process personal data on their behalf “only under a valid contract” (Section 8(2)). There are no prescribed rules for what a processing contract should entail. However, the DPDP Act places all obligations on data fiduciaries, which remain liable for complying with the law.
Data fiduciaries remain liable for overall compliance, regardless of any contractual arrangement to the contrary with data processors. The DPDP Bill requires data fiduciaries to mandate that a processor delete data when a data principal withdraws consent, and fiduciaries be able to share information of processors they have engaged when requested by a data subject.
- The DPDP Act Has Broad Extraterritorial Effect and Almost No Restrictions for International Data Transfers
The DPDP Act applies to the processing of “digital personal data” within India. Importantly, the definition of the “data principal” does not include any condition related to residence or citizenship, meaning that it is conceivable fiduciaries based in India who process the personal data of foreigners within the territory of the country may be covered by the Act (outside of the “outsourcing exception” mentioned above).
The Act also applies extraterritorially to processing of digital personal data outside India, if such processing is in connection with any activity related to offering of goods or services to data principals within India. The extraterritorial effect is similar in scope to the GDPR, and it may leave room for a broader interpretation through its inclusion of “any activity” connected to the offering of goods or services.
The DPDP Act does not currently restrict the transfer of personal data outside of India. It reverses the typical paradigm of international data transfer provisions in laws like the GDPR, by presuming that transfers may occur without restrictions, unless the Government specifically restricts transfers to certain countries (blacklisting) or enacts any other form of restriction (Section 16). No criteria for such restrictions have been mentioned in the law. This is a significant departure from previous instances of the Bill, which at one point contained data localization obligations (2018), and evolved at another point into “whitelisting” of countries (2022).
It should also be noted that other existing sectoral laws (e.g., those governing specific industries like banking and telecommunications) already contain restrictions on cross-border transfers of particular kinds of data. The DPDP Act clarifies that existing localization mandates will not be affected by the new law.
- Consent Remains Primary Means for Lawful Processing of Personal Data Under the Act
Data fiduciaries are under an obligation to process personal data for a lawful purpose and only if they either obtain consent from the data principal for that purpose, or they identify a “legitimate use” consistent with Section 4. This process is conceptually similar to the approach proposed by the GDPR, requiring a lawful ground before personal data can be collected or otherwise processed. However, in contrast to the GDPR (which provides for six possible lawful grounds), the DPDP Act includes only two: strictly defined “consent” and “legitimate use.”
Which lawful ground is used for a processing operation is consequential. Based on the wording of the Act and in the absence of further specification, the obligations of fiduciaries to give notice and respond to access, correction and erasure requests (see Section 4 of this blog) are only applicable if the processing is based on consent and on voluntary sharing of personal data by the principal.
Valid Consent Has Strict Requirements, Is Withdrawable, And Can be Exercised Through Consent Managers
The DPDP Act requires that consent for processing of personal data be “free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous with a clear affirmative action.” These conditions are similarly strict to those required under the GDPR, highlighting that the people whose personal data are processed must be free to give consent, and their consent must not be tied to other conditions.
In order to meet the “informed” criterion, the Act requires that notice be given to principals before or at the time that they are asked to give consent. The notice must include information about the personal data to be collected, the purpose for which it will be processed, the manner in which data principals may exercise their rights under the DPDP Act, and how to make a complaint to the Board. Data principals must be given the option to receive the information in English or a local language among the languages specified in the Constitution.
The DPDP Act addresses the issue of legacy data for which companies may have received consent prior to the enactment of the law. Fiduciaries should provide the same notice to these data principals as soon as “reasonably practicable.” In that case, however, the data processing may continue until the data principal withdraws consent.
Data fiduciaries may only process personal data for the specific purpose provided to the data principal and must obtain separate consent to process the data for a new purpose. In practice, this will make it difficult for data fiduciaries to rely on “bundled consent.” Provisions around “secondary uses” of personal data or “compatible purposes” are not addressed in the Act, making the purpose limitation requirements strict.
Data principals may also withdraw their consent at any time – and data fiduciaries must ensure that the process for withdrawing consent is as straightforward as that for giving consent. Once consent is withdrawn, personal data must be deleted unless a legal obligation to retain data applies. Additionally, data fiduciaries must ask any processors to cease processing any personal data for which consent has been withdrawn, in the absence of legal obligations imposing data retention.
The DPDP Act allows principals to give, manage, review and withdraw their consent through a “Consent Manager,” which will be registered with the Board and must provide an accessible, transparent, and interoperable platform. Consent Managers are part of India’s “Data Empowerment And Protection Architecture” policy, and similar structures have been already functional for some time, such as in the financial sector. Under the DPDP Act, Consent Managers will be accountable to data principals and act on their behalf as per prescribed rules. The Government will notify (in the Gazette) the conditions necessary for a company to register as a Consent Manager, which may include fulfilling minimum technical or financial criteria.
“Legitimate Uses” Are Narrowly Defined and Do Not Include Legitimate Interests or Contractual Necessity
As alternative to consent, all other lawful grounds for processing personal data have been amalgamated under the “legitimate uses” section, including some grounds of processing that previously appeared under a “reasonable purposes” category in previous iterations of the bill. It is notable that the list of “legitimate uses” in Section 7 of the Act does not include similar provisions to the grounds of “contractual necessity” and “legitimate interests” found in GDPR-style data protection laws, leaving limited options to private fiduciaries for grounding processing of personal data outside of consent, including for routine or necessary processing operations.
Among the defined “legitimate uses”, the most relevant ones for processing personal data outside of a government, emergency or public health context, are the “voluntary sharing” of personal data under Section 7(a) and the “employment purposes” use under Section 7(i).
The lawful ground most likely to raise interpretation questions is “voluntary sharing.” It allows a fiduciary to process personal data for a specified purpose for which a principal has voluntarily provided their personal data to the data fiduciary (presumably, provided it without the fiduciary seeking to obtain consent), and for which the principal has not indicated to the fiduciary an objection to the use of the personal data. For instance, one of the illustrations included in the law to explain Section 7(a) is the hypothetical of a buyer requesting a receipt of purchase at a store be sent to her phone number, permitting the store to use the number for that purpose. There is a possibility that subsequent rules may expand this “legitimate use” to cover instances of “contractual necessity” or “legitimate interests.”
A fiduciary may also process personal data without consent for purposes of employment or those related to safeguarding the employer from loss or liability, such as prevention of corporate espionage, maintenance of confidentiality of trade secrets, intellectual property, classified information or provision of any service to employees.
- Data Principals Have a Limited Set of “Data Subject Rights,” But Also Obligations
The DPDP Act provides data principles a set of enumerated rights, which is limited compared to those offered under modern GDPR-style data protection laws. The DPDP guarantees a right of access and a right to erasure and correction, in addition to a right to receive notice before consent is sought (similar to the right to information in the GDPR). Thus, a right to data portability, a right to object to processing based on other grounds than consent, and the right not to be subject to solely automated decision-making are missing.
Instead, the DPDP Act provides for two other rights – a right to “grievance redressal,” which entails the right to have an easily accessible point of contact provided by the fiduciary to respond to complaints from the principal, and a right to “appoint a nominee,” which permits the data principal to nominate someone who can exercise rights on their behalf in the event of death or incapacity.
Notably, the rights of access, erasure and correction are limited to personal data processing based on consent or the “voluntary disclosure,” legitimate use, which means that whenever government bodies or other fiduciaries rely on any of the “legitimate uses” grounds they will not need to reply to access or erasure/correction requests, unless further rules adopted by the government specify otherwise.
In addition, the right of access is quite limited in scope. It only gives data principals the right to request and obtain a summary of the personal data being processed and of the relevant processing activities (as opposed to obtaining a copy of the personal data), and the identities of all fiduciaries and processors with whom the personal data has been shared by the fiduciary, along with a summary of the data being shared. However, Section 11 of the law leaves space for subsequent rules that may specify additional information to be given access to.
Data principals have the right to request erasure of personal data pursuant to Section 12(3), but it is important to highlight that erasure may also be required automatically – after the withdrawal of consent or when the specified purpose is no longer being served (Section 8(7)(a)). Similarly, correction, completion and updating of personal data can be requested by the principal, but must also occur automatically when the personal data is “likely to be used to make a decision that affects” the principal (Section 8(3)).
Data Principals May Be Fined if They Do Not Comply With Their Obligations
Unlike the majority of international data protection laws, Section 15 of the DPDP Act imposes duties on data principals, similar to Article 10 of Vietnam’s recently adopted Personal Data Protection Decree (titled “Obligations of data subjects”).
These obligations include, among others, a duty not to impersonate someone else while providing personal data for a specified purpose, not suppress any material information while providing personal data for any document issued by the Government, and, significantly, not register a false or frivolous grievance or complaint. Noncompliance may result in a fine (see clause 5 of the Schedule). This may hamper the submission of complaints with the Board, per expert analysis.
- Fiduciaries are Bound by a Principle of Accountability and Have Data Breach Notification Obligations
The DPDP Act does not articulate Principles of Processing, or Fair Information Practice Principles, but the content of several of its provisions put emphasis on purpose limitation (as explained in previous sections of the blog) and on the principle of accountability.
Section 8 of the Act includes multiple obligations for data fiduciaries, all under an umbrella expectation in paragraph 1 that they are “responsible for complying” with the provisions of the Act and any subsequent implementation rules, both regarding processing undertaken by the data fiduciary and by any processor on its behalf. This specification echoes the GDPR accountability principle. In addition, data fiduciaries are under an obligation to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the effective implementation of the law.
Data security is of particular importance, considering that data fiduciaries must both take reasonable security safeguards to prevent personal data breaches, and notify the Board and each affected party if such breaches occur. The details related to modalities and timeline of notification will be specified in subsequent implementation rules.
A final obligation of data fiduciaries to highlight is the requirement they establish a “readily available” mechanism for redressing “grievances” by data principals in a timely manner. The “grievance redress” mechanism is of utmost importance, considering that data principals cannot address the Board with a complaint until they “exhaust the opportunity of redressing” the grievance through this mechanism (Section 13(3)). The Act leaves determination of the time period for responding to grievances to delegated legislation, and it is possible that there may be different time periods for different categories of companies.
- Fiduciaries Have a Mandate to Verify Parental Consent for Processing Personal Data of Minors under 18
The DPDP Act creates significant obligations concerning the processing of children’s personal data, with “children” defined as minors under 18 years of age, without any distinguishing sub-category for older children or teenagers. As a matter of principle, data fiduciaries are forbidden to engage in any processing of children’s data that is “likely to cause any detrimental effect on the well-being of the child.”
Data fiduciaries are under an obligation to obtain verifiable parental consent before processing the personal data of any child. Similarly, consent must be obtained from a lawful guardian before processing the data of a person with disability. This obligation, which is increasingly common to privacy and data protection laws around the world, may create many challenges in practice. A good resource for untangling its complexity and applicability is FPF’s recently published report and accompanying infographic – “The State of Play: Is Verifiable Parental Consent Fit For Purpose?”
Finally, the Act also includes a prohibition on data fiduciaries engaging in tracking or behavioral monitoring of children, or targeted advertising directed at children. Similar to many other provisions of the Act, the government may issue exemptions from these obligations for specific classes of fiduciaries, or may even lower the age of digital consent for children when their personal data is processed by designated data fiduciaries.
- The Act Creates a Data Protection Board to Enforce the Law, But Reserves Regulatory Powers For the Government
The DPDP Act empowers the Government to establish the Board as an independent agency that will be responsible for enforcing the new law. The Board will be led by a Chairperson and will have Members appointed by the Government for a renewable two-year mandate.
The Board is vested with the power to receive and investigate complaints from data principals, but only after the principal has exhausted the internal grievance redress mechanism set up by the relevant data fiduciaries. The Board can issue binding orders against those who breach the law, can direct urgent measures to remediate or mitigate a data breach, imposing financial penalties and direct parties to mediation.
While the Board is granted “the same powers as are vested in a civil court” – including summoning any person, receiving evidence, and inspecting any documents (Section 28(7)), the Act specifically excludes any access to civil courts in the application of its provisions (Section 39), creating a de facto limitation on effective judicial remedy similar to the relief provided in Article 82 GDPR. The Act grants any person affected by a decision of the Board the right to pursue an appeal in front of an Appellate Tribunal, which is designated the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal established under other Indian law.
Penalties for breaches of the law have been stipulated in a Schedule attached to DPDP Act and range from the equivalent in rupees of USD $120 to USD $30.2 million. The Board can determine the penalty amount from a preset range based on the offense.
However, the Board does not have the power to pass regulations to further specify details related to the implementation of the Act. The Government is conferred broad discretion in adopting delegated legislation to further specify the provisions of the Act, including clarifying modalities and timelines for fiduciaries to respond to requests from data principals, the requirements of valid notice for obtaining a data principal’s consent for processing of data, details related to data breach notifications, and more. The list of operational details that may be specified by the Government in subsequent rules is open-ended and detailed in Section 40(2)(a) to (z). Subsection (z) of this provision provides a catch-all permitting the Central Government to prescribe rules on “any other matter” related to the implementation of the Act.
In practice, it is expected that it will take time for the new Board to be established and for rules to be issued in key areas for compliance.
Besides rulemaking power, the Central Government has another significant role in the application of the law. Pursuant to Section 36, it can require any information (including presumably personal data) that it wants (or “call for”) from the Board, data fiduciaries, and “intermediaries” as defined by the IT Act. No further specifications are made in relation to such requests, other than that they must be made “for the purposes of the Act.” This provision is broader and subject to fewer restrictions than provisions on data access requests in the existing IT Act and its subsidiary rules.
Additionally, the Central Government may also order or direct any governmental agency and any “intermediary” to block information for access by the public “in the interests of the general public.” To issue such an order, the Board will need to have sanctioned the data fiduciary concerned at least twice in the past, and the Board must advise the Central Government to issue such an order. An order blocking public access may refer to “any computer resource” that enables data fiduciaries to offer goods or services to data principals within the territory of India. While it is now common among modern comprehensive data protection laws around the world for independent supervisory authorities to order erasure of personal data unlawfully processed, or to order international data transfers or sharing of personal data to cease if conditions of the law are not met, these provisions of the DPDP Act are atypical because the orders will come directly from the Government, and also because they more closely resemble online platform regulation than privacy law.
- Exceptions for Publicly Available Data And Processing for Research Purposes Are Notable for Training AI
Given that this law comes in the midst of a global conversation about how to regulate artificial intelligence and automated decision-making, it is critical to highlight provisions in the law that seem directed at facilitating development of AI trained on personal data. Specifically, the Act excludes from its application most publicly available personal data, as long as it was made publicly available by the data principal – for example, a blogger or a social media user publishing their personal data directly – or by someone else under a legal obligation to publish the data, such as personal data of company shareholders that regulated companies must publicly disclose by law.
Additionally, the Act exempts the processing of personal data necessary for research or statistical purposes (Section 17(2)(b)). This exemption is extremely broad, with only one limitation in the core text: the Act will still apply to research and statistical processing if the processing activity is used to make “any decision specific to the data principal.”
There is only one other instance in the DPDP Act where processing data to “make decisions” about a data principal is raised. Data fiduciaries are under an obligation to ensure the “completeness, accuracy and consistency” of personal data if it is used to make a decision that affects the data subject. In other words, while the Act does not provide for a GDPR-style right not to be subject to automated decision-making, it does require that when personal data are used for making any individual decisions, presumably including automated or algorithmic decisions, such data must be kept accurate, consistent and complete.
Additionally, the DPDP Act remains applicable to any processing of personal data through AI systems, if the other conditions of the law are met, given the broad definitions of “processing” and of “personal data.” Further rules adopted by the Central Government or other notifications may provide more guidance in this regard.
Notably, the Act does not exempt processing of personal data for journalistic purposes, a fact criticized by the Editors’ Guild of India. In previous versions of the Bill, especially the expert version spearheaded by Justice Srikrishna in 2017, this exemption was present. It is still possible that the Central Government will address this issue through delegated legislation.
Key Takeaways and Further Clarification
India’s data protection Act has been in the works for a significant period of time and the passage of the law is a welcome step forward after the recognition of privacy as a fundamental right in India by the Supreme Court in its landmark Puttaswamy judgment.
While the basic structure of the law is similar to many other global laws like the GDPR and its contemporaries, India’s approach has its differences, such as more limited grounds of processing, wide exemptions for government actors, regulatory powers for the government to further specify the law and to exempt specific fiduciaries or classes of fiduciaries from key obligations, no baked-in definition or heightened protection for special categories of data, and the rather unusual inclusion of powers for the Government to request access to information from fiduciaries, the Board and “intermediaries”, as well as to block access by the public to specific information in “computer resources”.
Finally, we note that many details of the Act are still left to be clarified once the new Data Protection Board of India is set up and further rules for the specification of the law are drafted and officially notified.
Editors: Lee Matheson, Dominic Paulger, Josh Lee Kok Thong | <urn:uuid:78705969-d6fb-463a-a8d5-9aaa85167efb> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://fpf.org/blog/the-digital-personal-data-protection-act-of-india-explained/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100452.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202203800-20231202233800-00769.warc.gz | en | 0.934265 | 6,705 | 2.75 | 3 |
Viewpoint: Gifts That Endure
- The Grinch, a character in a children’s story by Dr. Seuss, hates Christmas and attempts to “keep Christmas from coming.”
- The retelling of the Grinch’s story is a reminder to all of us that Christmas doesn’t come from a store.
- President Thomas S. Monson said one way to bring meaning to the Christmas season is to focus on God-given gifts, such as the gifts of birth, peace, love, and life eternal.
“For a few moments, may we set aside the catalogs of Christmas, with their gifts of exotic description … and direct our thoughts to those God-given gifts that endure. I have chosen from a long list just four: 1. The gift of birth. 2. The gift of peace. 3. The gift of love. 4. The gift of life eternal.” —President Thomas S. Monson
The Grinch, from Dr. Seuss’s children’s story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is a bitter, grouchy creature with a heart “two sizes too small.” He lives in a cave on snowy Mount Crumpit — where he looks down on Whoville and the happy Whos.
This view of Whoville creates a problem for the Grinch that resurfaces every December:
Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas a lot,
But the Grinch,
Who lived just north of Who-ville,
Annoyed by the merriness of the Whos, the Grinch descends Mount Crumpit and steals Christmas presents, Who-hash, and decorations with one objective in mind: to “prevent Christmas from coming.”
But his plan fails.
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!”
(Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas )
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said the purpose of retelling the Grinch’s story is that it is a reminder to all of us that Christmas doesn’t come from a store.
“Indeed, however delightful we feel about it, even as children, each year it ‘means a little bit more.’ And no matter how many times we read the biblical account of that evening in Bethlehem, we always come away with a thought—or two—we haven’t had before. …
“… I, like you, need to remember the very plain scene, even the poverty, of a night devoid of tinsel or wrapping or goods of this world. Only when we see that sacred, unadorned child of our devotion—the Babe of Bethlehem—will we know why ‘tis the season to be jolly’ and why the giving of gifts is so appropriate” (“Without Ribbons and Bows,” New Era, Dec. 1994, 4, 6).
Remembering this simple scene that changed the world, however, is not always easy—even during the Christmas season.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said during the 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional that “perhaps the Grinch’s story is so memorable because, if we are honest, we may be able to relate to him. Who among us has not felt concern over the commercialization and even greed of the Christmas season? Who hasn’t felt overwhelmed by the packed calendars, the stress of finding gifts, the pressure of planning meals and events? In fact, psychologists tell us that during this season of cheer and goodwill, many feel sorrow and depression.
“We know what the Christmas season ought to be—we know it should be a time of reflection on the birth of the Savior, a time of celebration and of generosity. But sometimes our focus is so much on the things that annoy and overwhelm us that we can almost hear ourselves say in unison with the Grinch: ‘Why, for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now! I MUST stop this Christmas from coming! … But HOW?’
“While it’s true that we can find materialism and anxiety in Christmas, it is also true that if we have eyes to see, we can experience the powerful message of the birth of the Son of God and feel the hope and peace He brings to the world. We, like the Grinch, can see Christmas through new eyes” (“Seeing Christmas through New Eyes,” 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, Dec. 5, 2010).
President Thomas S. Monson said one way to bring meaning to the Christmas season is to focus on God-given gifts.
“I reflect on the contrasts of Christmas,” said President Monson. “The extravagant gifts, expensively packaged and professionally wrapped, reach their zenith in the famed commercial catalogs carrying the headline ‘For the person who has everything.’ In one such reading I observed a four-thousand-square-foot home wrapped with a gigantic ribbon and comparable greeting card which said, ‘Merry Christmas.’ Other items included diamond studded clubs for the golfer, a Caribbean cruise for the traveler, and a luxury trip to the Swiss Alps for the adventurer. Such seemed to fit the theme of a Christmas cartoon which showed the Three Wise Men traveling to Bethlehem with gift boxes on their camels. One says, ‘Mark my words, Balthazar, we’re starting something with these gifts that’s going to get way out of hand!’ …
“For a few moments, may we set aside the catalogs of Christmas, with their gifts of exotic description. Let’s even turn from the flowers for Mother, the special tie for Father, the cute doll, the train that whistles, the long-awaited bicycle—even the ‘Star Trek’ books and videos—and direct our thoughts to those God-given gifts that endure. I have chosen from a long list just four:
“1. The gift of birth.
“2. The gift of peace.
“3. The gift of love.
“4. The gift of life eternal” (“Gifts,” Ensign, May 1993, 59–60).
This Christmas season may we remember that Christmas means “a little bit more” than packages, boxes, or bags.
May the true meaning of Christmas change us, just as it changed the Grinch before his small heart grew three sizes and “he himself, the Grinch, carved the roast-beast!” | <urn:uuid:1e0f9afe-3181-4f04-9b9a-c7798eb7c259> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.lds.org/church/news/viewpoint-gifts-that-endure?lang=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257651481.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20180325005509-20180325025509-00320.warc.gz | en | 0.930505 | 1,569 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The organ presently in Lichfield Cathedral dates from 1861, the year that Gilbert Scott completed the refurbishment of the Quire. The organ was first placed in St Stephen's Chapel, situated on the east side of the North Transept. It is reported to have been a noteworthy instrument, not least because it sported the earliest full pedal specification of stops along continental lines in England.
In 1884 William Hill and Sons were contracted to rebuild the Organ. In fact, they replaced the majority of stops on the manual divisions, retaining much of Holdich's Pedal Organ. Towards the turn of the century its position in the chapel was felt to be increasingly undesirable. The console was placed in the North Quire Aisle which did not allow great rapport between the organist and the choir, and the sound of the organ had insufficient egress into the body of the Cathedral. In 1907 a new chamber was built outside the Cathedral above the North Quire Aisle, the glass was removed from the windows and the organ resited aloft in the position is occupies today. The organ was enlarged, and a new console provided in 1908.
Rebuilding took place again in 1974 by Hill, Norman, and Beard. Minor alterations were made to the Solo, Swell, Great and Pedal departments, and the Choir organ was completely remodelled. The most recent rebuild in 2000 by Harrison and Harrison saw the addition of the Nave organ, and a return of the Choir organ to a specification closer to the 1908 organ.
The 1908 organ had 63 speaking stops, and 3,774 pipes, this was augmented in the 1974 rebuild to 66 speaking stops and 4,064. The latest work on the organ gives the 2000 organ 80 speaking stops, and a noteworthy 5,038 pipes.
Before the 1908 rebuild, there are records of three earlier organs: Samuel Green's organ of 1789; George's Holdich's of 1861; and William Hill and Son's organ of 1884.
The organ is tuned to a sharp pitch, C=540 hertz. | <urn:uuid:825fabf6-a3e7-45e2-9ec9-a2406ce30ba7> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.cathedralchoir.org.uk/organ.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257825366.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071025-00119-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975824 | 419 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Today, we can screen unborn fetuses for abnormalities. Currently, up to 90% of Down’s Syndrome fetuses are currently aborted before birth, and a recent report from Britain shows that parents are now even aborting for such treatable maladies as club foot and cleft palate.
But now, we can choose BEFORE implantation – designer babies are a reality. How is the “design” done? As in the recent case of a British woman, “fertility engineers” screened fertilized embryos for the right genetic combo needed to provide bone marrow for her existing son who has a blood disorder.
But let’s go one step further. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) now allows us to screen pre-implanted embryos for over 6000 markers for genetic disease, and eliminate the ones that have too many markers.
So, how do we navigate this morally? We have to answer these questions for both abortion and pre-implantation selection:
- Why are we not more active on opposing sex-seletion abortion? What about the ethics of sex-selection of embryos? What about simpler forms of sex selection like alkaline deuches before sex? Where and how do we draw the line, if at all?
- Is it OK to use abortion to eliminate a baby that is the “wrong” gender, or has the possibility of being of the wrong “gender orientation”? (the latter is not possible yet because no genetic markers or causes for homosexuality have been identified), or has a treatable malady? I doubt it.
And if the embryo in a dish is NOT a person (as I have argued, along with (ugh) liberals), is it ok to choose one embryo over another? Are we, like China, going to cause ourselves all kinds of problems by offesetting the male/female ration, or even more importantly, skewing the gene pool and removing diversity? | <urn:uuid:e920a559-316b-4e34-a84c-2163065aadd9> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.wholereason.com/2006/06/gattaca-comes-to-life-in-pgd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662532032.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20220520124557-20220520154557-00393.warc.gz | en | 0.933098 | 402 | 2.59375 | 3 |
From the Library: Coquelicots
Featured in the BHL Books collection is the atlas from Jean Gourdon and Philibert Naudin’s 1871 work Nouvelle iconographie fourragère: histoire botanique, économique et agricole des plantes fourragères et des plantes nuisibles qui se rencontrent dans les prairies et les paturages : avec planches gravées sur cuivre et coloriées / par J. Gourdon, P. Naudin. This item was digitized in 2009 by The New York Botanical Garden’s Mertz Library.
The atlas includes an illustration of a coquelicot, or corn poppy:
(Side note: also in the 1870s, in Argenteuil, France, Claude Monet painted his famous Coquelicots (Poppies), which today resides at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.)
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of twelve natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.”
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is a BHL partner. | <urn:uuid:16627651-c6d9-4e34-958a-cfb6c4d67feb> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://blogs.nybg.org/plant-talk/2011/09/from-the-library/from-the-library-coquelicots/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645257890.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031417-00261-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.720338 | 288 | 3.09375 | 3 |
IBM today announced new semiconductor technology that, combined with UK chip developer ARM's designs, could lead to mobile data networks that could transmit a year's text messages in less than 10 seconds, or download a full-length HD movie to a cellphone in under a minute.
The Cu-32 Custom Logic designed by IBM Research allows chip-makers to increase dramatically the memory capacity and processing speeds of chips used in fibre optic and wireless networks, and in routers and switches.
Key to the breakthrough is IBM's embedded DRAM technology. It enables more than 1Gbyte of memory on a single chip. This provides the most dense on-chip dynamic memory available today, IBM claimed on Tuesday.
"IBM eDRAM performance has advanced to a point where it can replace conventional on-chip static memory (SRAM) in many applications, taking up 60% less space on the chip, and consuming up to 90% less power," the company said in a statement.
"IBM's Cu-32 technology with ARM advanced physical IP enables chip-makers to get powerful system-on-a-chip solutions quickly to market," said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, ARM physical IP division.
The firms said that systems using chips made with Cu-32 could lead to
- Cellular networks that could move one year's worth of text messages (six trillion, worldwide in 2010) in less than 10 seconds
- Download a feature-length film to a smart phone in less than 10 seconds, or a HD version in under a minute
- Routers that could stream every movie ever produced in less than a minute
- Network equipment makers needed new technology to build devices capable of handling fixed and especially mobile data traffic volumes that were rising exponentially, the firms said.
They said two billion people logged on in 2010, double the number five years ago. The type and number of devices that could access the networks now included TV sets, gaming consoles, GPS locators and MP3 players.
But their traffic would be dwarfed by that generated by machine to machine sensor traffic as the world's energy, transport, health and other infrastructures went online, they said.
"By any measure, from the growing number of mobile users to the explosion we're seeing in data, network traffic will grow at a pace we haven't seen before," said IBM's vice-president for semiconductor products, Mark Ireland.
Cu-32, invented in 1998, offered the semiconductor industry's first set of High Speed Serial (HSS) cores in 32nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology including:
- 15Gbyte backplane core supporting 16Gb Fibre Channel standard
- 15Gbyte chip-to-chip core supporting low-power optical and chip-to-chip applications
- 28Gbyte backplane core supporting 32Gb Fibre Channel standard
- 6Gbyte standards core supporting PCI-Express Gen1 & Gen2 standards
- PCI-Express Gen3 core supporting PCI-Express Gen1, Gen2, and Gen3 standards
They provide better jitter performance and equalisation support for enhanced system performance with a very low bit error ratio.
IBM also released an eDRAM compiler that can create more than 3,000 designs with memory optimised for applications from high-end servers and networking applications to game processors.
IBM's SOI technology provided up to 25% better chip performance, up to 30% better energy efficiency and up to twice the density compared to 45nm SOI technology, it said.
Design kits for standard cell libraries, memory compilers, eDRAM and supporting Fibre Channel HSS standards were available now, with extra HSS standards availabilities slated for the end of 2010. | <urn:uuid:da868ae7-2f88-4a7e-acc6-23e86ccdce20> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240104523/IBM-and-ARM-unveil-true-superfast-network-chip-technology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207924991.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113204-00172-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931847 | 769 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Follow the link in the text to see images of the site at the fine Asian Historical Architecture website (from which the photo is taken), also click through to the notes on the site at livius.org. – Buddhist art news
TAXILA, Aug 28: The recent rains have caused severe damage to scores of priceless stucco sculptures of the Buddhist period (4–5th century AD) at Taxila valley’s Mohra Moradu Stupa and Monastery which could have been saved had the archaeology department taken necessary steps to protect them.
This site is among the three most important of Taxila’s 18 Buddhist remains containing a rich collection of stucco sculptures and figures of Buddha which were still intact in the cellars of the monastery before the torrential rains.
The Mohra Moradu Monastery is located in a small valley between the ancient city of Sirkap and Jaulian, the site of the famous Buddhist University.
The site was savaged by treasurehunters who split apart the main stupa in the hope of finding gold inside. However the lower portion of the stupa buried under the ground remained protected as the vandals could not reach there and was found in good condition when the site was excavated by John Marshall in early 20th century. The stupa is famous for the many bas-reliefs of Buddha that adorn its base. The monastic cells around the stupa though badly crumbled yielded a treasure of stone stupas.
The settlement had been restored briefly before it was abandoned, after the invasion of the White Huns at the end of the fifth century. Unesco put this site on its list of the world cultural heritage sites in 1980. But the officials of Federal Department of Archaeology and museums, the custodians of the cultural heritage of the country, neglected the maintenance of the protective sheds which are all in a poor state and have exposed the sculptures and images to the ravages of the current monsoon rains.
A large number of these precious figures are now crumbling and may turn to dust if their decay is not stopped by necessary restorative work.
Mohammed Afzal, the caretaker of the monastery, said the weather beaten sheds built decades ago have developed holes and cracks through which water flows into the cellars and damages the ancient pieces of art. The sheds are not in a repairable condition and need to be replaced entirely. He said he had informed the higher au thorities about the condition of the sheds.There was seepage in the walls of the cellars which was highly dangerous for the sculpted antiques.The cell walls could collapse any time. One source at the Taxila office told this correspondent that higher officials were aware of the alarming situation at the site. He said last year a huge amount was spent on building a wall, iron grill and guard room under the Taxila to Swat Preservation and Restoration Project but no preservation work was undertaken as it was lengthy, technical work which did not yield any ‘profit’ for the authorities, whereas new constructions were lucrative for the managers.
When contacted, Deputy Director of Federal Department of Archaeology and Museums Bahadur Khan had the usual explanations for the neglect and damage to the antiques. He said due to financial problems the department was unable to undertake the expensive preservation and restoration work.
About the rain damage to sculptures at Mohra Maradu stupa, he said the matter had been reported to Ministry of Culture for provision of funds to save the stucco sculptures from further destruction. He said an SOS call had been made to Unesco and other donor agencies of Japan, Korea, France, Italy and Buddhist countries to help save these sites as the country in its present crisis could not do this job alone. | <urn:uuid:18e48066-9baf-4a46-9dc2-e6269d6c8f3e> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | https://buddhistartnews.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/sos-to-unesco-as-rain-endangers-ancient-buddhist-sites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049281978.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002121-00092-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974435 | 781 | 2.71875 | 3 |
- Can you have symptoms of a brain tumor without actually having one?
- Could fake light cause this?
- How does vitamin a recycling in the brain control photoperiodicity?
- What happens when we lose control of our photo period?
- How does modern life play a role in this?
It has been close to a year that we last did a CPC blog post. (CPC #5 The Leaky Gut/Adrenal Fatigue Case) CPC stands for a clinico-pathologic conference that we often see in medical schools that our used for teaching students and doctors.
Today we are going to talk about a disease that has perplexed medicine for hundreds of years. Pseudotumor cerebri is also known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) today. It goes by many names in the literature. I have decided to discuss this disease because it highlights many of the cornerstone principles of how quantum electrodynamic theory affect water chemistry. Dr. Gilbert Ling’s work on water helped me unlock these ideas in the last ten years. This change in water chemistry can lead to biologic effects. The biologic effects of water can be seen in modern humans when we look for them and correctly observe what is really going on. So today we see how the macrocosm affects the microcosm of a modern disease.
Pseudotumor Cerebri History
The first report of IIH was by the German physician Heinrich Quincke, who described it in 1893 under the name serous meningitis. The term “pseudotumor cerebri” was introduced in 1904 by his compatriot Max Nonne. Numerous other cases appeared in the literature subsequently; in many cases, the raised intracranial pressure may actually have resulted from underlying conditions. For instance, the ‘otitic hydrocephalus’ reported by London neurologist Sir Charles Symonds may have resulted from venous sinus thrombosis caused by middle ear infection. The strict diagnostic criteria for IIH were developed in 1937 by neurosurgeon Walter Dandy; Dandy also introduced subtemporal decompressive surgery in the treatment of the condition. Dandy was able to tell us what to look for to diagnose the condition and treat it, but he was clueless on why it actually occurs. Even to modern neurosurgeons pseudotumor’s etiology remains an enigma. In 1974, CSF studies were done that showed even with abject signs of increased intracranial in pseudotumor patients, their CSF pressures were really low. This confused many when it was published.
Possible Quantum Diagnosis of IIH
Today I am going to give you a few of my own ideas of why this disease may not be idiopathic at all. It’s basis maybe based in chronobiology due to the inability to tell quantum time (as discussed in EMF 6).
At its core, this condition, (and its associated condition migraines) is a disease of chronic blue light toxicity that causes an internal disruption of the tight control of Vitamin A regulation in the brain and in the molecular organ clocks to cause a dramatic change in the proportions of high density water (HDW) to low density water (LDW) in the CSF of the brain. Most people associate the light cycle with Vitamin D in animals and mammals. I do not. Vitamin A controls the photoperiod clock in the mammalian brain.
When we loose the tight control of Vitamin A in the brain for any reason, the patient develops substantial increases in intracranial pressure without any other mass present in the brain on MRI or CT imaging. We see the effect because of the pressure placed upon the cranial nerves which have to traverse the CSF spaces within the head to exit the skull to go onto their destinations. The major symptoms associated with this disease is a loss of vision as the chronicity of the process increases. Physicians can find clues of this disease when they look into your eyes with an opthalmascope to look for papilledema.
The four diagnostic criteria we use today to diagnose this condition are:
1. CSF pressure > 20 cm H2O, but pressures up to 40 are not uncommon. I use 25 cm because many normals are at 20 cm.
2. CSF composition shows normal glucose and cell count. Protein is normal or in 2/3rd it is LOW (<20%). (epigenetic clue)
3. Symptoms are those of elevated ICP alone: No cause is found like a mass or clotted sinus, or infection. No consciousness change.
4. Normal imaging on CT or MRI. They might have slit ventricles or empty sella syndrome. (abducens palsy is allowed)
The terms “benign” and “pseudotumor” derive from the fact that increased intracranial pressure may be associated with brain tumors. These patients have no tumor however on imaging studies. Those patients in whom no tumor was found were therefore diagnosed with “pseudotumor cerebri”, describing it like a disease mimicking a brain tumor. The disease was renamed “benign intracranial hypertension” in 1955 to distinguish it from intracranial hypertension due to life-threatening diseases such as cancer; however, this was also felt to be misleading because any disease that can blind someone should not be thought of as benign, and the name was therefore revised in 1989 to “idiopathic“. Physicians use the term idiopathic to ascribe no identifiable cause to the intracranial hypertension. This makes IIH a diagnosis of exclusion. A severe visual defect only develops in 4-12% of patients, and ironically it is not tied to duration of symptoms (another clue), degree of papilledema, or number of recurrences. (two more clues) Visual perimetry examination is the best means to detect and follow the visual loss. Visual loss is when a neurosurgeon or neuro-opthomologist will consider surgery for this condition.
From national hospital admission databases it appears that the need for neurosurgical intervention for IIH has increased markedly over the period between 1988 and 2002. This increase in incidence and prevalence of this disease completely corresponds to obesity incidence and prevalence trends and NHANES charts over the same time period. The median age of diagnosis is 28 years old. It is especially more common in the ages 20 to 45, number continues to fall over the last 50 years. This is an epigenetic signal to us paying attention. Women are far more effected than men. This is another deep epigenetic clue for those paying attention. Women are designed by evolution to be more sensitive to environmental changes to pass on to the next generation as we covered in a recent webinar, Breast Cancer. When I was in residency, the female to male incidence was 4-5 to 1. Today it has risen to 8-9 to one in 20 years. Here is another epigenetic clue for you. There is an infantile form of this disease as well. This is another clue for transgenerational epigenetics at play. Despite several reports of IIH in families, there is no known genetic cause for IIH. People from all ethnicities may develop IIH. In children, there is no difference in incidence between males and females. (Another clue)
The Leptin Link:
Overweight and obesity strongly predispose a person to IIH: women who are more than ten percent over their ideal body weight are thirteen times more likely to develop IIH, and this figure goes up to nineteen times in women who are more than 20 percent over their ideal body weight. In men, this relationship also exists, but the increase is only five-fold in those over 20 percent above their ideal body weight. Here is another huge epigenetic clue to what is really behind this disease. Most of these people have elevated estrone levels when it is looked for. There is a link to hormones. (another big clue)
Further Clues That There is a Quantum Cause Lurking
Their is a pressure-volume relationship between intracranial pressure (ICP), volume of CSF, blood, and brain tissue, and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) that every first year neurosurgery resident learns about and becomes a master at controling and treating as their training increases. It is known as the Monro-Kellie doctrine: the ICP (literally: pressure inside the skull) is determined by the amount of brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood inside the bony cranial vault. Remember, the skull in adults has a fixed volume. In children with open sutures the volume can expand within limits. In adults the amount of brain tissue is relatively constant. The two main variables for volume in adults are the amount of CSF and the amount of blood in the brain. Both are tightly controlled normally by our physiology.
Three other “conventional theories” therefore exist as to why the pressure might be raised in IIH:
A. an excess of CSF production
B. increased volume of blood or brain tissue
C. obstruction of the veins that drain blood from the brain.
None of these have held up to scientific scrutiny so far. I have another idea that might tell us about the cause of this ‘idiopathic’ condition. I think the cause is directly tied to both the CSF and the blood volume……..due to a change in density of its water content in the brain. We talked about density of water and current in the last two blogs extensively. Now I am showing a disease state where density matters. This disease, pseudotumor, is always linked to conditions of energy inefficiency as you will see. It is also tied to an altered circadian signal because of its tie to altered Vitamin A signaling in the brain. . Obesity is the most common one, as I mentioned above.
Here is a list of others diseases linked to pseudotumor:
1. exogenous corticosteroid use ( it dehydrates you)
2. tetracycline antibiotics, tamoxifen, cimetidine, lithium, bactrim, naldixic acid (all cause lower progesterone levels, which also dehydrates you)
3. Accutane use (Causes massive alterations in Vitamin A outside of the photoperiod which affect Vitamin A recycling in the brain)
4. SLE (lupus=autoimmune disease)
5. Cushing’s Disease (dehydrates you and causes massive lipodystrophy)
6. Addison’s disease (true Adrenal failure with a side of more dehydration)
7. Hypoparathyroidism/hypothyroidism/anemia (massive water and protein changes in the serum)
8. Chronic renal failure (high BUN creat ratio= dehydration)
9. Radiation treatment to head and neck (massive loss of photons, electrons, and water due to the effects of XRT on cells and intracellular water)
10. Hyper or Hypo vitaminosis of Vitamin A ( loss of circadian control of the hypothalamus and neurogenesis)
Every one of the diseases listed above are directly tied to water deficits in the human body at some point. When water loses its coherence it loses more low density water and gains more high density component. We spoke about this in the blog post, Quantum Biology 5: Coherent Water. This means that the pressure volume curves for CSF and blood can change immediately when water loses its ability to super conduct protons or electrons. This explains why IIH shows no biochemical changes or changes in imaging. It also explains why low protein is often found. Water acts as a super conductor for electrons and protons and collagen and protein are the other major one semiconductors in the body. If one is energy inefficient you are unlikely to be optimal in every semiconductor in biology. (Collagen, water, DHA, etc.) Any time a person is energy inefficient, one is also considered leptin resistant. We covered this directly in EMF 2: Einstein, Meet Leptin. The ten conditions mentioned above all have two things in common. They are all associated with dehydration and leptin resistance at some level physiologically. The common tie is a lack of coherent water.
CSF is an ultra-filtrate of the blood’s plasma, which is made up mostly of water. This is why I think IIH is tied to both to density changes of CSF and blood via their common chemistry to water. When you consider what happens to the ratio or LDW to HDW as the total energy in a system drops things become quite clear this disease is not caused by an “idiopathic cause”. This is caused by the physical chemistry that diuctates the density in water. As we lose the ability to pre load our semiconductors, we lose the amount of LDW that can become coherent and increase the amount of HDW in terms of a percentage.
Moreover, this further increases the metabolic demands in the brain to live off of alternative energy sources, like ATP, to power its energy needs. This is another reason why sleep apnea is commonly seen in people with IIH too.
Conservative Treatment Also Points to Water Cause
Neurosurgeons and neurologists use Acetazolamide to treat pseudotumor. Let us look at how it is designed to work.
Acetazolamide (DIAMOX) is often used to lower fluids in the body that are ultra-filtrates from blood. Acetazolamide is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor.
Carbonic anhydrase (CA) catalyzes the first part of the following reversible reaction in which carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) are converted to carbonic acid (H2CO3) and vice-versa (the second half happens spontaneously, favouring production of H+ + HCO3-):
CO2 + H2O <–CA–> H2CO3 <–> H+ + HCO3
Acetazolamide has been used for the treatment of sufferers of IIH and glaucoma. When used to treat glaucoma, acetazolamide inhibits production of HCO3-. In health, it is the production of HCO3- which draws Na+ into the eye; water follows by osmosis to form the aqueous humour. In glaucoma treatment, the goal is often to reduce the intraocular pressure and acetazolamide does this by reducing production of aqueous humour. In IIH, the goal is to lower CSF production to limit intracranial pressures and reduce the patients symptoms.
What Other Quantum Effects Might Be At Play?
In people with diseases that include bad headaches, like pseudotumor or migraines, I always first think of artificial light toxicity that cause elevations or declines of the tight control of Vitamin A in the brain. What does Vitamin A do in circadian biology? Vitamin A entrains the central and peripheral clock to work correctly.
When Vitamin A’s tight regulation in the brain goes awry, you lose control of neurogenesis and control of the hypothalamus where hormones are regulated by leptin. It is a very complex quantum dance that goes awry because of the effect of artificial light on retinoic acid and its receptor (RXR). The alteration of the tight allosteric control of Vitamin A in the brain. Today, we know that vitamin A control is tightly linked to our photoperiod.
Our photoperiod is tied to our exposure of artificial light. The more artificial light we get the less control we have over Vitamin A in the brain. Why is this important?
When we lose the control of Vitamin A we lose the ability to tell proper quantum time. Telling proper quantum time allows us to have two major controls for neurogenesis and for our circadian rhythm.
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered that vitamin A promotes learning, and they have provided the first evidence that the vitamin affects brain cell activity in a region linked to learning and memory. Vitamin A is critical in fetal life in the hippocampus to make new neurons in embryology but also during our adult life spans. It also is a giant clue why alterations in our photoperiod are closely linked to poor memory formation in neurodegenerative diseases. All neurodegenerative diseases are tied to alterations in circadian rhythms and fake light has huge links to these diseases and the diseases that predispose to them like T2D. (cycloset alert)
The neurons in the hippocampus of the brain express particular receptors (RXR) that are present in the nucleus and they control the genes that are essential to regulate the cell function. Currently there is two areas that neural science is particularly interested in regarding the brain where we think Vitamin A has particularly powerful actions. One is the hippocampus, and that’s an area where it’s involved in learning and memory, and has links with depression. The other region that researchers particularly interested in lately is the hypothalamus, where leptin controls all the hormones of the body. This is a huge clue for us to follow.
For evolution to work, a cell first must adapt to its environment. So the first thing a cell would see in an earth day is a period of day and night. It also has to eat to make energy and it also has to control its own cellular division. So in essence the circadian cycle has to “yoke” to the metabolic cycle and its growth cycle. Evolution apparently agreed with that assessment because we now know it to be true. When it is night time, the cell becomes more reduced chemically and electrically. (A lower redox state like we saw in the mitochondrial series). During a low redox time, cells are usually recycling their components using autophagy. During the day while energy is being made to explore the environment, the cell is more oxidized because of increased leakiness of the mitochondria. Another interesting coupling occurs between the circadian cycle with the cell cycle. They are linked via the PER 1 and PER 2 genes. PER 2 directly effects the cell cycle in mitosis. Mitosis is the phase in the cell that occurs just before cell division to generate an offspring. The mammalian period 2 gene plays a key role in tumor growth in mice; mice with a mPER2 knockout show a significant increase in tumor development and a significant decrease in apoptosis (levee 19). This is thought to be caused by mPER2 circadian deregulation of common tumor suppression and cell cycle regulation genes, such as Cyclin D1, Cyclin A, Mdm-2, and Gadd45α, as well as the transcription factor c-myc, which is directly controlled by circadian regulators through E box-mediated reactions. This means that sleep is tied directly into to cell cycle functioning and directly into cell mediated immunity at some level. It appears that sleep directly effects the chronic diseases of aging and likely plays a role in cancer development.
Many people wrongly believe light cycles are tied to Vitamin D and its receptor in the skin and brain. Few know about vitamin A and how it controls the human photoperiod in our brain. It is the major player in determining photoperiodicity.
Photoperiodicity is accounted for by changes in Vitamin A in the brain. It accurately mirrors the changes in the brain and the body that occur between the seasons.
When comparing the effects of the short days that occur in winter with long days that occur in the summer Vitamin A (retinoic acid) swings in massive amounts. Researchers are finally beginning to understand how the brain converts the electromagnetic signal of light, first to an electric message, and then to a chemical one in the neuron synapse called a neurotransmitter. We know that there are big changes between seasonal conditions on the planet even at the equator, and that seems to be how the wild animal controls weight gain and energy balance naturally in the environment. It also explains why obese women with IIH have massive alterations of Vitamin A too. Humans tend to gain weight in winter. If you open any newspaper in January in the northern hemisphere, you will see tons of ads for New Years resolutions and gym memberships at this time to humans lose weight. This is unusual when you consider that wild animals do the opposite in January. Wild animals tend to get fatter going into the summer, and leaner into the winter when the light cycle is lowest and food is more sparse.
The reason becomes quite obvious when you consider that wild animals live by the dictums of their environment, but modern humans create their own environment via culture and socialization. This creation of their own environments destroys their photoperiodicity, and dramatically alters Vitamin A signaling in the brain. Vitamin A is crucial in properly regulating the clocks tied to the hypothalamus that controls appetite, feeding, and energy balance. This is how quantum time is altered.
Today researchers have found that between winter and summer, retinoic acid changes dramatically itself in all mammals. There is a lot more to this ‘quantum dance’ of Vitamin A too. It appears there is much more powerful retinoic acid signalling during the periods of summer compared to the short days of winter. This implies that Vitamin A levels in the brain must be correctly tied to the season or severe alterations in ‘adiposity’ and depression will result. Vitamin D gets all the press, but Vitamin A control in your brain is way more important seasonally. It seems counterintuitive until you understand how QED works in the brain.
Overdoing or Underdoing Vitamin A Levels
Excessive artificial light (blue light) causes allosteric and homeostatic issues in the Vitamin A cycle in the brain. This directly affects gene expression by alteration in the molecular organ clocks body wide, but the brain really takes a hit because the hypothalamus loses control of its ability to balance hormones because it can no longer tell ‘quantum time‘ using the photoperiod. This is why IIH is closely associated with low or high levels of Vitamin A.
It is not tied to a dietary problem!!!…….it is a sign that the person is bathing their brain in a lot of blue light and this totally has destroyed the tight control of Vitamin A in the brain. We also know that obesity is tied to excessive blue light exposure, so this is why pseudotumor and obesity appear linked. The real linkage is in an altered Vitamin A signaling in the hypothalamic molecular clock. When this happens, the result is a loss in low density water (LDW) in the CSF and blood and the intracranial pressure in our head builds up to cause serious complaints. This loss of LDW result in a % increase in high density water in our CSF and blood causing a rise in our intracranial pressure. Migraines are caused by a very similar mechanism, but the percentage change is not as large or as chronic as the one that occurs in pseudotumor cerebri.
These neurologic complaints often go on without anyone finding anything during a work up because few people understand how photoperiodicity affects the brain’s tight control network of Vitamin A and the hormone cascade we covered in Brain Gut 11: Is Technology an Achilles Heel? You may remember from the Hormones 101: Clinical Thoughts Revealed blog post that I told you cholesterol is converted to pregnenolone when there is a proper amount of free T3 present from the thyroid and the proper amount of Vitamin A. You might want to go back and have a look at that blog.
When you add in the effect of a change in water densities from the CSF and blood, to the etiology of IIH via an altered Vitamin A recycling in the hypothalamus, this disease goes from idiopathic one to very understandable condition.
I believe pseudotumor cerebri is tied to a toxic exposure of blue light that alters Vitamin A levels up or down in our brain, while it acts to dehydrate us via a developing pregnenolone steal syndrome. When we get dehydrated this is a signal to our osmole receptor in the circumventricular organs to increase the ratio or HDW to LDW in CSF and our plasma. I also think people with atypical migraines also might have a touch of this condition as well on a shorter duration basis. I believe the type of artificial light too plays a role too. In several of my patients who have had this condition, I have found weight loss and limitation of fake light has been massively helpful in improving headaches, constipation, and depression. Improving the ratio of LDW to HDW, using ‘quantum hydration principles’ intracellularly also seems to help their symptoms. Here avoiding dielectric blockers becomes critical.
This condition can have periods of high or low Vitamin A levels, and symptoms can be affected by a diet that is incongruent with the perceived light cycle. If you have an altered circadian rhythm to light to begin with, then diet can make a huge difference in the symptoms of this disease. This is where “sweet potatoes” can cause you a massive problem. I have seen quite a few young crossfitters develop this syndrome. They tend to have more depression than patients with a frank diagnosis of IIH syndrome because they are not leptin resistant at the outset, like those diagnosed with IIH. Why do they get this syndrome? Because they have a very high comorbid exposure to blue artificial light than any group I have seen because of how they use and consume modern technology.
I have seen patients eating foods with high levels of Vitamin A, like sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin pie, and spinach that can immediately trigger headache, malaise, constipation, and migraines. Moreover, even a mild to moderate depression can develop quickly in them without a large dietary exposure. The amount of blue light exposure is really the ‘epigenetic signal’ that the person might have a toxic dose of blue light to begin with. Many times they sense it, but do not trust their intuition.
Obesity rates and tech spending are linked for this reason. Every ten percent increase in tech spending leads to a 1% rise in obesity rates. This is how fake light alters our molecular sense of timing. It has very little to do with ‘reward pathways’ in the brain. This explains why obesity research has failed to make a dent in the obesity epidemic the world now faces.
Very low levels of dietary Vitamin A is rare, unless you are a strict raw vegan. Liver and eggs are great sources of Vitamin A. I think supplementation is not a good plan with Vitamin A because it can these cause symptoms on the high or low side. They key to vitamin A recycling is tight allosteric control in the brain yoking light cycles of the season you are in currently and to your current location on the planet and your diet. This is how vitamin A codifies the photoperiod in maintaining our proper energy balance. This is another example of how the quantum world touches biology.
Light and energy balanced are coupled via the photoelectric effect. Diet plays a role, but a very small role. The role is designed to be small by evolution, unless you are already blue light toxic for any reason. The reason evolution has this built in feature is because excessive blue light is not common at all on this planet. In nature, it is rare to get excessive blue light because it is only a small part of visible light’s spectrum. Today, blue light exposure is an epidemic because humans have created it in abundance in technology gadgets. These gadgets are used in younger groups and those groups are growing fastest in our tech driven world. This partially helps explain the NHANES charts we all see today.
I think this neurologic condition might really help you understand the how some of the building blocks present in other blogs come together to unlock a modern diseases called” idiopathic”…………everything is quantized, and it is time we all begin to realize it.
More Support: Webinars by Dr. Kruse
- Breast Cancer Webinar and Q&A (October 2012)
- CPC #5 The Leaky Gut/Adrenal Fatigue Case
- EMF 6: Quantum Time
- Quantum Biology 5: Coherent Water
- EMF 2: Einstein, Meet Leptin
- Why Do We Sleep?
- THE QUILT (Autophagy)
- THE QUILT (Apoptosis)
- Brain Gut 11: Is Technology an Achilles Heel?
- Hormones 101: Clinical thoughts revealed
- American Medical Association (AMA), House of Delegates. Resolution 516 e Advocating and Support for Light Pollution Control Efforts and Glare Reduction for Both Public Safety and Energy Savings. 2009.
- Behr GA, Schnorr CE, Simões-Pires A, da Motta LL, Frey BN, Moreira JC. Increased cerebral oxidative damage and decreased antioxidant defenses in ovariectomized and sham-operated rats supplemented with vitamin A. Cell Biol Toxicol. 2012 Jul 18.
- Navigatore-Fonzo LS, Golini RL, Ponce IT, Delgado SM, Plateo-Pignatari MG, Gimenez MS, Anzulovich AC. Retinoic acid receptors move in time with the clock in the hippocampus. Effect of a vitamin-A-deficient diet. J Nutr Biochem. 2012 Aug 16.
- Shirai H, Oishi K, Ishida N. Circadian expression of clock genes is maintained in the liver of Vitamin A-deficient mice. Neurosci Lett. 2006 May 1;398(1-2):69-72.
- Tafti M, Ghyselinck NB. Functional implication of the vitamin A signaling pathway in the brain. Arch Neurol. 2007 Dec;64(12):1706-11.
- Gooley JJ, Chamberlain K, Smith KA, Khalsa SB, Rajaratnam SM, Van Reen E, Zeitzer JM, Czeisler CA, Lockley SW. Exposure to room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset and shortens melatonin duration in humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Mar;96(3):E463-72. | <urn:uuid:ddbcd33d-0aff-4fc6-9559-4623bf75ecb0> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.jackkruse.com/cpc-6-pseudotumor-cerebri/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297146.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00272-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938941 | 6,322 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Chocolate is made from beans of the cacao tree which is indigenous to the rainforests of the Americas. First cultivated by the Maya and Aztec, the cacao tree was discovered over 2,000 years ago, and the cacao beans were used to make spiced chocolate drinks for important members of society. Spanish conquerors took cacao beans from the Aztecs and brought them back to Europe in the 1500s. Over the next century, chocolate spread throughout Europe, quickly becoming a crowd favorite.
The very first people to discover cacao were the Maya who took the cacao tree from the rainforest and planted it in their backyards to grow and harvest the cacao beans. The Mayans would grind the beans into a paste, and add water, cornmeal, and chile peppers to make a spicy yet bitter chocolate drink. The Maya had no access to sugar, so the first chocolate beverages (known as chocolatl) were not sweet. Around 1400, the Aztecs discovered cacao through trade with the Maya. The Aztecs actually used the cacao beans as a form of currency, demanding that citizens and conquered peoples supply cacao beans as payment. In both Aztec and Maya religious ceremonies priests would offer cacao beans to the gods. Chocolate drinks were served during these religious ceremonies as well. For the Maya, chocolate drinks were consumed by everyone occasionally, but were often consumed by royalty. In Aztec society, mainly rulers, soldiers, and other high status individuals could drink the chocolate beverage.
Spanish conquistadors reached Mexico in approximately 1521 where they observed the consumption of chocolate among the Aztec people. The Spaniards understood the value of the cacao bean and brought it back to Europe with them, making the chocolate beverage for European royalty. When the cacao was shipped back to Europe, the Aztec drink was too bitter for Europeans, so they added sugar cane, vanilla, and even cinnamon, and began heating the chocolate concoction to be enjoyed warm. Cacao beans were an expensive import, so the chocolate drink was a status symbol among the upper class people of Europe who would drink the chocolate out of elaborate porcelain and silver cups. Eventually, cacao beans became available to the rest of Europe when the price of cacao beans dropped, and the hot chocolate beverage became wildly popular.
To keep up with demand for the cacao bean, Spaniards set up colonial plantations using slaves and wage laborers to grow and harvest the cacao and sugar cane. Small European shops would make the beans into chocolate drinks, and eventually one company called Fry & Sons introduced solid chocolate in 1847. Then in 1876, Daniel Peter of Switzerland developed a way to add milk to chocolate, giving the chocolate a sweeter flavor and smoother texture, creating milk chocolate. A steam engine was introduced during the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s which ground large amounts of cacao beans and processed them into solid chocolate. This mass production method made chocolate affordable to the majority of the public for the very first time. As chocolate became more inexpensive, manufacturers began advertising chocolate heavily to women and children. Chocolate for breakfast was encouraged to provide a boost of energy, and many people began to use chocolate in desserts and confections.
Today, most chocolate is processed and manufactured by machinery, but the cacao beans are still farmed and harvested basically the same way as the Aztecs and Maya farmed them – by hand. In 1910, William Cadbury brought together a group of American and English chocolate companies who refused to buy chocolate from cacao plantations with harsh working conditions. Still, some cacao plantations, most of which are found in West Africa, use slave labor when the prices of cacao beans fall.
Chocolate is still related to holidays such as Easter and Christmas, and is enjoyed throughout the world. It is provided as a ration for the United States military who introduced chocolate to Japan during World War 2, and is even used in medicines and cosmetics. Chocolate is continually studied for possible health benefits, and has been found to provide flavonoids and antioxidants that protect the body from disease. Many chocolate companies have come and gone, but a few manufacturers such as Cadbury, Hershey, and Mars remain, all of which began in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
A tale beginning in the depth of the American rainforests over 2000 years ago, the history of chocolate includes religious worship, slavery, high-society snobbery, and a transformation in production methods to make chocolate available to the masses. The same cacao bean that was so highly regarded by the Maya and Aztecs still remains a beloved treat of modern society. | <urn:uuid:b5aaaf90-d522-478a-9653-d2e65417fc75> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.professorshouse.com/history-of-chocolate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243990449.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20210514091252-20210514121252-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.976323 | 949 | 3.390625 | 3 |
When it comes to data transfer, you can be sure that there will always be a need for speed. In fact, researchers and scientists continue in their quest to roll out ways where data can be transferred faster than ever before, and we have seen the baton change hands before where networking speeds and wireless data transfer is concerned. Denmark’s researchers in DTU Photonics’ High-Speed Optical Communications Group (HSOC) have managed to achieve a brand new world record when it comes to single-transmitter data transfer, making me mull over the possibility of moving to this Scandinavian country.
How was this new world record achieved? Well, it required the use of a new kind of optical fiber, where the team is then able to hit their target transfer speeds of 43 terabits per second (!). Just in case you were wondering how much data is transferred at 43 terabits per second, we are talking about at least five 1TB hard drives that are chock full of data being transferred from place to another in a matter of under one second, tops.
That’s crazy fast no matter how you look at it, and this was done using but a single laser transmitter. There is no doubt that faster speeds have been achieved in the past with the use of lasers that measure in the hundreds of times over. [Press Release]
Filed in science.. Read more about | <urn:uuid:500164a2-1524-46b7-8f1b-c306a5336189> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/07/data-transfer-world-record/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042987228.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002307-00192-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957187 | 283 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Aside from assisting with instruction, artificial intelligence can also help colleges organize and share information and streamline back-end processes, writes Natalie Schwartz for Education Dive.
In fact, in the future, these adaptations of AI will be critical to a college's success, according to predictions from Paul Freedman, CEO and co-founder of investment firm Entangled Group, and Richard Boyd, CEO of machine learning company Tanjo. "Those who get it right are going to prosper," says Boyd. "Those who don't won't be relevant for very long."
That's one reason why the North Carolina Community Colleges System (NCCCS) is rolling out a custom AI "brain." "With so much content available to us across our network, it became apparent that we could do a better job of organizing and sharing that knowledge when and where needed more efficiently and effectively," says NCCCS CIO Jim Parker.
Here's how AI will assist the system's faculty and staff:
1: Map and organize digital content
NCCCS has thousands of files stored across all of its 58 campuses, making it difficult for faculty to find relevant resources, writes Schwartz. But the new AI system will move the digital files to a central location, allowing faculty and staff to find learning resources with ease.
"Say a faculty member goes to a conference and learns about cloud computing... and comes back with stuff they can use to build a new curriculum," says Boyd. "That has been captured, it's mapped and it's made available to anybody else who's trying to do something similar. That's extraordinarily powerful."
2: Streamline operational tasks
While companies have used AI for years to streamline back-end tasks, higher ed has been slower to follow suit, says Freedman. "[That] is somewhat surprising if you compare the progression of higher education to other industries, where we're seeing a lot of people put their hands up saying how much money they've saved through these kinds of process improvements," says Freedman.
Also see: 5 things presidents need to know about IT
When colleges adopt AI to complete tasks, they save not only money, but also time. For instance, faculty at NCCCS will likely spend far fewer hours tagging and searching content, writes Schwartz. And as the AI system grows its knowledge, the more valuable it becomes.
"The more things it connects to, the smarter it gets and the more valuable it becomes to everybody," says Boyd. "That's going to be the difference between the winners and losers in the corporate environment. But certainly, among higher education, it's going to be who is most efficient at bringing the best resources to bear on these problems."
"The result," suggests Parker, "is a uniquely secure, cost-effective, data-intelligent system that we all benefit from and evolve with."
3: Academic planning and advising
When it comes to student success, AI has been used predominately for student-facing services.
Jim Mathews, EAB's CTO, suggests that AI can help solve "decisions like, 'which students should we focus extra attention on to prevent them from dropping out'...or 'where can we make the most impact by adding an additional course section."'
"These are the kind of use cases where AI can add tremendous value because individuals might not have an opportunity to make that decision frequently enough with clear feedback to learn from their choices—and mistakes could be costly," adds Mathews (Schwartz, Education Dive, 2/27; Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 3/11).
Related: The promises and perils of student success predictive modeling
Next in Today's Briefing
Most leaders are average listeners—at best. These 5 steps can make you better. | <urn:uuid:c9cb4223-7ff1-4631-8a51-3225a5b9d435> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2019/03/26/3-ways-colleges-can-use-ai-on-campus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578530161.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20190421020506-20190421042506-00319.warc.gz | en | 0.960083 | 768 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By putting human genes into monkeys, scientists managed to stimulate the growth of their brains.
Even though chimps are our closes living relatives, their brains are three times smaller than ours.
It is presumed that the size of our brains makes us the dominant species over our primate cousins.
But what if we could increase their brain’s size? Would it make them smarter?
The size of our brains has evolved. The human brain was once around the size of a current chimpanzee brain, and over time, it tripled in size, so we now have the largest and most complex brains of any living primate.
Yet, the brain size of our ancestors only increased in small increments for the first several million years of human evolution. Therefore, they were able to do simple tasks, like making primitive tools.
The human brain started evolving rapidly about eight hundred thousand years ago, and for the next six hundred thousand years, it continued this trend.
Most scientists believe that this was a result of the increasingly unpredictable environment, and the larger and larger brains helped people to adapt.
Moreover, one of the main differences between our brains and chimpanzee brains lies in the temporal cortex. Humans have dramatically more white matter in this brain area, meaning that we have more connections between nerve cells, and a greater ability to process information.
The evolution of the neocortex was one of the biggest changes that happened to the human brain during the time. As the human brain was rapidly growing, the cranium (aka- skulls) couldn’t keep up, so the brain became cramped, and the neocortex began folding. This is the reason why the human brain is distinctly wrinkled, unlike the brains of other animals.
The neocortex accounts for about 76 percent of the brain’s volume, and it is extremely important, as it is involved in higher functions like spatial reasoning, language, sensory perception, generation of motor commands, and conscious thought.
Numerous scientists believe that the enlargement and subsequent elaboration of this brain area is the secret behind humans’ mental abilities.
Yet, they do not know the reason behind this change and the thing that made it happen, so they placed human genes into monkeys to find out.
Scientists have identified a specific gene, unique to humans, ARHGAP11B. Its expression might have been what gave the human brains the extra oomph they needed.
Therefore, researchers from Germany and Japan, from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany and Japan’s Central Institute for Experimental Animals, introduced this gene into the fetus of a marmoset monkey to investigate whether it would make their brains grow.
And it did!
The ARHGAP11B gene caused the monkey fetus’ neocortex to enlarge!
Other studies have also shown that the same would work in mice and ferrets as well. T
Yet, this was the first time scientists have used the gene in a non-human primate.
They also introduced it in the same quantity as what is present in a typical human.
This confirms that this gene played a key role in our evolution as human beings.
Michael Heide, the lead author of the study, explained that once they put human genes into the monkeys, their neocortex got bigger and began to fold. He added:
“Furthermore, we could see increased numbers of basal radial glia progenitors in the outer subventricular zone and increased numbers of upper-layer neurons, the neuron type that increases in primate evolution.”
We have to mention that such experiments on primates often raise numerous ethical questions. Plus, the introduction of human genes into monkeys adds a whole other layer to those questions.
This was why the scientists limited their research to only monkey fetuses. After one hundred days, they removed the fetuses via c-section.
The study coauthor Weilend Huttner added that it would be irresponsible and unethical to go past that point and have monkeys born with human genes:
“We confined our analyses to marmoset fetuses because we anticipated that the expression of this human-specific gene would affect the neocortex development in the marmoset.”
So, to sum it all up:
- After putting human genes into the brains of monkeys, researchers confirmed that the ARHGAP11B gene likely caused neocortex expansion during human evolution.
- The experiment was ended once they got the result due to ethical concerns. Therefore, it is still unclear whether this brain growth has made the monkeys smarter.
Therefore, the study has given us a better understanding of our own history. Such studies help us understand how we came to be, and why we are the way we are. | <urn:uuid:41b876af-b9cf-4649-80d2-ef912e8c8b38> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.healthyfoodhouse.com/scientists-used-human-genes-to-make-monkey-brains-bigger-and-it-worked/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046150000.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20210723175111-20210723205111-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.950392 | 978 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Official Cash Rate (OCR)
The Reserve Bank uses monetary policy to maintain price stability as defined in the Policy Targets Agreement (PTA). The current PTA requires the Bank to keep inflation between 1 and 3 percent on average over the medium term. The Bank implements monetary policy by setting the Official Cash Rate (OCR), which is reviewed eight times a year.
Currently the OCR is 1.75%
What is the Official Cash Rate?
The Official Cash Rate (OCR) is the interest rate set by the Reserve Bank to meet the inflation target specified in the Policy Targets Agreement. The current PTA, signed in December 2008, defines price stability as annual increases in the Consumers Price Index (CPI) of between 1 and 3 per cent on average over the medium term.
The OCR was introduced in March 1999 and is reviewed eight times a year by the Bank. Monetary Policy Statements are issued with the OCR on four of those occasions. Unscheduled adjustments to the OCR may occur at other times in response to unexpected or sudden developments, but to date this has occurred only once, following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
What the OCR does
The OCR influences the price of borrowing money in New Zealand and provides the Reserve Bank with a means of influencing the level of economic activity and inflation. An OCR is a fairly conventional tool by international standards. In the past, the Reserve Bank used a variety of tools to influence inflation, including influencing the supply of money and signaling desired monetary conditions to the financial markets. Such mechanisms were more indirect, more difficult to understand, and less conventional.
How the OCR works
Most registered banks hold settlement accounts at the Reserve Bank, which are used to settle obligations with each other at the end of the day. For example, if you write out a cheque or make an EFT-POS payment, the money is paid by your bank to the bank of the recipient. Many hundreds of thousands of such transactions are made every day. The Bank pays interest on settlement account balances, and charges interest on overnight borrowing, at rates related to the OCR. These rates are reviewed from time to time, as is the OCR. The most crucial part of the system is the fact that the Reserve Bank sets no limit on the amount of cash it will borrow or lend at rates related to the OCR.
As a result, market interest rates are generally held around the Reserve Bank’s OCR level. The practical result, over time, is that when market interest rates increase, people are inclined to spend less on goods and services. This is because their savings get a higher rate of interest and there is an incentive to save; and conversely, people with mortgages and other loans may experience higher interest payments.
When people save more or spend less, there is less pressure on prices to rise, and therefore inflation pressures tend to reduce. Although the OCR influences New Zealand’s market interest rates, it is not the only factor doing so. Market interest rates – particularly for longer terms – are also affected by the interest rates prevailing offshore since New Zealand financial institutions are net borrowers in overseas financial markets. Movements in overseas rates can lead to changes in interest rates even if the OCR has not changed.
Call us on 0800 ADVOCO (0800 238 626) or email us. | <urn:uuid:23899afa-0594-4da1-91a5-4900d011bef3> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://www.fixarate.co.nz/fixarate_newsandviews.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039741192.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20181113020909-20181113042909-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.959818 | 697 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Pectoralis Major Sternal Head
Deltoid Posterior, Latissimus Dorsi, Teres Major, Triceps Brachii
- Place a dumbbell standing up on a flat bench.
- Ensuring that the dumbbell stays securely placed at the top of the bench, lie perpendicular to the bench (torso across it as in forming a cross) with only your shoulders lying on the surface. Hips should be below the bench and legs bent with feet firmly on the floor. The head will be off the bench as well.
- Grasp the dumbbell with both hands and hold it straight over your chest at arms length. Both palms should be pressing against the underside one of the sides of the dumbbell. This will be your starting position.
- Caution: Always ensure that the dumbbell used for this exercise is secure. Using a dumbbell with loose plates can result in the dumbbell falling apart and falling on your face.
- While keeping your arms straight, lower the weight slowly in an arc behind your head while breathing in until you feel a stretch on the chest.
- At that point, bring the dumbbell back to the starting position using the arc through which the weight was lowered and exhale as you perform this movement.
- Hold the weight on the initial position for a second and repeat the motion for the prescribed number of repetitions. | <urn:uuid:eb1a8797-fdb8-44e9-bd6a-e6bab1eafe90> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://workoutsofficial.com/exercise/dumbbell-pullover/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662534773.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220521014358-20220521044358-00446.warc.gz | en | 0.888117 | 314 | 2.625 | 3 |
The largest cave in the world is soon to be opened to tourists in Vietnam, tourism officials have disclosed.
The Son Doong Cave, discovered just 20 years ago, will be opened up on a test basis to visitors.
The tourism authority of Quang Binh Province said the cave would be open between February and August of next year, with small expeditionary groups of up to eight persons permitted entry.
"After that we will decide whether to keep the cave open on a regular basis," said the tourism authority's deputy director Nguyen Van Ky. "We'll be studying whether the visits will have any adverse environmental effects."
Tours must be booked via the Vietnamese tour operator Oxalis. Already, the company says it has more requests than it has capacity for in the coming year. Oxalis says a total of just 220 visitors to the cave are planned for 2014.
An expedition in Son Doong, located in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park 500 kilometres south of the capital Hanoi, is not for beginners.
Tourism officials say the underground trek is 17 kilometres. The expeditions will start after an overnight stay at the site. The cave contains spectacular rock formations and pools of water and unique flora and fauna, Nguyen says.
A tour costs 3,000 dollars per person. The national park was declared a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO in 2003.
Local inhabitants of the area of central Vietnam bordering on Laos discovered the cave with its underground river in 1991.
In 2009, British scientists carried out the first expedition, with researcher Howard Limbert reporting a cavern length of 6,481 metres.
At some points it is 150 metres wide and 200 metres tall, surpassing what till then had been the largest known cave in the world, the Deer Cave on Borneo. | <urn:uuid:32b43dd9-dbb7-40bb-bf91-28734ee8348d> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/asia/9229661/Worlds-largest-cave-opened-to-visitors-in-Vietnam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608765.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170527021224-20170527041224-00412.warc.gz | en | 0.940191 | 367 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Five Foods That Fuel Your Brain
In 1/10,000 of a second, your brain can respond to input and generate an action. Although it accounts for only about 3% of your body weight, it uses 30% of the blood your heart pumps, and burns 300 calories daily.
Plus, it takes your whole brain to make sense of what’s being said. While speaking and comprehending languages is mainly a left-brain activity, language processing happens on the right side, which lets you know if the words are sarcastic or kind or the punchline of a joke.
No wonder your brain needs the right balance of foods to stay sharp. So here are five things you can eat to keep you bright.
1. Salmon and ocean trout. The omega-3s and -7s in these fish increase blood flow to the brain and help strengthen neurons’ protective coat.
2. 70% cacao dark chocolate. This kind of chocolate contains compounds that support blood flow to the brain and bolster neuron strength; plus, it promotes brain plasticity — an ability to modify neural connections, which promotes learning and memory.
3. Berries (especially blueberries) and black coffee. They contain flavonoids that improve communication between brain cells, boost learning and memory, and help reduce or delay cognitive decline.
4. Nuts and seeds, including sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. Walnuts contain omega-3s, and almost all nuts have other polyphenols that protect brain function, reduce inflammation, and protect against Alzheimer’s.
5. Broccoli and other cruciferous veggies, like bok choy, cabbage, and cauliflower. These vegetables contain glucosinolates, which produce a chemical in the body that lowers your risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
We are in this Together!
Health and Wellness Associates | <urn:uuid:4e6f08e6-aa82-4e6b-ba8d-101022918f44> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://healthandwellnessassociates.co/2020/02/26/five-foods-that-fuel-your-brain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153515.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20210727233849-20210728023849-00630.warc.gz | en | 0.894171 | 389 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Reason Why Everyone Love Medical Professional.
A Physician, also referred to as a clinical doctor or expert, is an individual who specializes in the care of individuals. Physicians are trained to identify as well as treat medical conditions, detect ailment, as well as provide diagnosis. In addition to promoting wellness, physicians can aid bring back and deal with injuries and problems. To find out more about what a Doctor does, read on. Listed here are some characteristics of a Doctor. Listed below are a few of the most common duties of a Medical professional.
There more than one million medical professionals in the USA. Some concentrate on basic healthcare while others concentrate on a details part of the body. After finishing clinical institution, aspiring doctors then full residency training in their selected specialty. Residency training can last anywhere from three to 7 years. Listed below, we’ll talk about 20 usual medical professional specializeds as well as offer a short summary of each. For additional information, visit the web site of the American Board of Medical Specialties.
A medical professional is trained to take a look at individuals and also determine whether a particular wellness condition is life-threatening. Their competence lies in medical diagnosis, which is based upon solid evaluation, expertise, and judgment. In addition to giving severe care to their clients, physicians handle chronic conditions. This needs constant surveillance of a person’s wellness and a keen understanding of threat factors, complexity, as well as altering scenarios. There are several kinds of physicians, so you can choose an area that fascinates you.
The origins of the function of a medical professional are challenged. Some chroniclers think the profession dates back to regarding 25,000 BC, when cave paintings in France reveal healers utilizing plants as treatments and also piercing an individual’s head with a sharp things. Old people used similar medical practices and also a Doctorate Level was first awarded in the 12th century in Paris to extremely enlightened people. Some historians think that the first physician was Elizabeth Blackwell, a doctor who finished from SUNY Upstate Medical University.
Prior to coming to be a medical professional, you must finish your bachelor’s level in a field related to the clinical field. Several doctors don’t pursue an academic degree prior to making an application for the article. Instead, most people make a bachelor’s level in biology, chemistry, or one more life science. The pre-medical course includes studying composition and also physiology and also chemistry along with biology. The level will certainly likewise assist you get a far better understanding of the area of medicine in its entirety.
In addition to serving patients, physicians enlighten the general public regarding medical problems and offer guidance on healthy living. They likewise show clinical students, homeowners, physician’s aides, as well as progressed practice nurses. The difference between a doctor as well as a medical professional is very little and can be made use of reciprocally in everyday applications. When it comes to health care, doctors are the specialists. There are no other experts that can do the job better. It is a great honor to operate in the field of medication.
Clinical college commonly takes 4 years to finish. After graduation, a medical professional will certainly then have three to six years of residency. Depending on the state, there might be extra coursework required. Many candidates, however, choose to finish a pre-med or biology major to increase their opportunities of acceptance. In addition to medical college, aiming physicians have to finish a teaching fellowship or residency program. During the residency, they gain real-world experience. Depending on the specialty, residency programs might take three to six years to finish.
A doctor concentrates on dealing with kids. They study diseases as well as injuries connected to children, and do pediatric surgical treatments. An orthopedic doctor treats problems of the bone as well as joint system. A urologist focuses on treatment of diseases and injuries of the urinary system system as well as related structures of the face. This sort of doctor might perform birth controls to avoid the incident of abnormality. These are simply a few of the many specializeds of a doctor.
As a medical professional, you require to be knowledgeable about the larger context of healthcare and recognize exactly how to accessibility and use resources to treat patients. There are different types of medical professionals – MDs, DOs, and osteopathic physicians. Both kinds of physicians have their very own specialized and might concentrate on a particular part of the body. The difference between a DO as well as an MD is the training you total for each. Despite the specialty, however, there are numerous resemblances between both.
In addition to your medical care provider, you might also talk to a doctor aide or a nurse practitioner. Normally, health care providers work in outpatient setups, but may likewise aid with hospital treatment when needed. While there are differences between health care as well as various other medical professionals, the role of a primary care carrier is crucial for the health of a patient. If you have health insurance, you will require to find a company who accepts it.
A medical professional is a doctor who is a trained healthcare provider. Their obligations include promoting wellness, maintaining wellness, as well as restoring health. This function also includes establishing an individual’s problem and also treating injury or impairment. A physician is additionally called a medical practitioner or a clinical doctor. They deal with the general public to boost their lives through the stipulation of medical care solutions. Whether it is a straightforward check-up or a complex procedure, a doctor can treat an individual’s medical demands.
A doctor’s training can be in among the 30 specialties offered. Many specializeds involve both in as well as out-patient care. Individuals with a particular rate of interest can focus on operating in an emergency room or in a dermatology technique. There are also numerous specialties beyond emergency treatment. These specialties may have specialized training, which can be useful for people that like to work in an environment without a great deal of individuals. The number of specializeds readily available to choose from is endless and also might not coincide as you ‘d initially think. Visit the website
Several physicians seek jobs in various other locations of medication. Some become attorneys, public health managers, and also licensed financial coordinators. Others end up being artists or sculptors. Still others operate in the arts, functioning as team medical professionals in sporting activities and community events. A growing populace and also growing maturing population will certainly develop more job opportunities for medical professionals. These professions need significant time as well as commitment. However, the rewards of being a physician will exceed the prices. There are numerous obstacles dealing with medical professionals, yet most will at some point achieve their professional objectives.
The origins of the career of doctor can be traced as far back as 25,000 B.C. Some cave paintings in France portray therapists utilizing plants to alleviate discomfort. From there, ancient human beings created their clinical methods. During the Middle Ages, the very first Doctorate Level was awarded in Paris, France, to a very found out person in the fields of medicine, regulation, and theology. So, it is no surprise that physicians have been exercising medication for countless years. | <urn:uuid:9d236af5-eae0-4e84-8ea0-90f3bd404ec5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://thaimapguide.com/2022/08/06/the-reason-why-everyone-love-medical-professional/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573242.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818154820-20220818184820-00612.warc.gz | en | 0.971471 | 1,470 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Across all age groups, poor sleeping patterns have been linked to poorer current and future mental health.
In 2017, VicHealth commissioned the Sleep Health Foundation to conduct a rapid review of recent research in the areas of:
- population-level sleep patterns
- the evidence for how these patterns affect mental wellbeing
- the role of lifestyle factors in sleep disturbances
- effective behavioural interventions to improve sleep in young people.
The review related to Australian and Victorian populations in general, but where possible attempted to draw out specific evidence and conclusions relevant to young people (adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 25). | <urn:uuid:9836b08a-8178-4cba-8c1a-5f8ae701ccc5> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/sleep-and-mental-wellbeing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400189264.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20200918221856-20200919011856-00420.warc.gz | en | 0.910699 | 125 | 2.875 | 3 |
It is crucial to help your child establish good oral hygiene habits during the first years of their life. If your children learn early on how to take care of their teeth, they are more likely to maintain their teeth throughout their lifetime.
Good oral hygiene begins even before your child gets teeth. Your child generally contracts mouth bacteria from you--to help prevent this, don't share utensils with your child, and don't do things like "cleaning" a pacifier with your mouth. Clean your child's gums with a soft cloth before they have teeth. Once your child gets teeth, brush them gently with a soft-bristled toothbrush.
Model good tooth brushing habits. Let your child watch you brush your teeth and answer their questions. When your child gets interested in brushing their own teeth, let them, but monitor their brushing, and give them a touch-up of areas they might have missed. Don't let them chew on their toothbrush--this can be harmful.
Another essential part of oral hygiene is regular visits to a pediatric dentist. Your child's first visit to the dentist should be before age 1, often, but not necessarily, after the first teeth emerge. The first visit will likely just be an opportunity for the dentist to look in your child's mouth and also a way to familiarize your child with the office.
Remember, never play up dental fears before a visit to the dentist. Don't use threats of the dentist to coerce your child into brushing. This may seem effective, but in the long run it can have negative consequences.
To get your child started on the road to proper oral hygiene, please contact Dumont Cosmetic Dental in Bergen County for an appointment. | <urn:uuid:6a54dfdc-c44c-40b3-a82b-0771aadfa852> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.oradellfamilydental.com/blog/pediatric-oral-hygiene.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128319688.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170622181155-20170622201155-00243.warc.gz | en | 0.960172 | 349 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Researchers at San Francisco State University set up The Great Sunflower Project in 2008 to better understand the reason for and impact of declines in bee populations. The idea behind the project is to plant flowers, observe how many and how often bees visit those flowers, and then enter that information into a database on The Great Sunflower Project Web site. The project has since expanded so that citizen scientists can also plant Bee balm, Cosmos, Rosemary, Tickseed, and Purple coneflower for the purposes of this research.
Some bee populations have had severe declines, and this may be affecting food production. There have been few efforts to measure how much pollination is happening over any given region so it is unclear how these declines in bees influence gardens. As the researchers point out, many plants can’t set fruit until they have been visited by a bee. The Great Sunflower project uses observational bee data collected by citizen scientists to create a nationwide (and hopefully worldwide) online map of bee populations.
- The Birds and the Bees [Life Lines] (scienceblogs.com)
- Floral ‘roads’ to help bees (independent.co.uk)
- UCSF finds new bee viruses, offers baseline to study colony collapse (eurekalert.org)
- A World Without Bees (thistimethisspace.com) | <urn:uuid:59334492-4d9a-4f12-81dc-fac8ec6a3522> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2011/06/the-great-sunflower-project-for-bees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886739.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20180116204303-20180116224303-00404.warc.gz | en | 0.920896 | 275 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Using VEX IQ (1st generation)? See this article.
The Buttons on the Brain
On the Brain there are four main buttons that are used to navigate the Brain screen:
The Check button
The Check button is used to power on the Brain as well as to select different choices on the screen.
The X button
The X button is used to power off the Brain. It is also used as a “go back” button to return to previous screens.
The Left and Right Buttons
The left and right buttons are used to navigate between different options on the Brain screen.
The Home Screen
When the Brain is turned on with the Check button, the Home Screen will appear, and the green indicator light with show green.
To the left is an example of the Brain screen when it is powered on, with each element labeled for reference. | <urn:uuid:0efab481-280e-47c6-aa63-81cd0e997ae8> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://kb.vex.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407024174996-Navigating-the-VEX-IQ-2nd-gen-Brain-Screen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301263.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220119033421-20220119063421-00624.warc.gz | en | 0.923434 | 179 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Framework for Enhancing Student Learning (FESL)
Each school is required to have a Framework for Enhancing Student Learning (FESL) document which outlines specific goals and objectives to improve student success. We are in year one of three in our FESL.
Our goal is for students, staff, and families, to feel they belong at BICS. We will facilitate this sense of belonging in the following areas:
Area 1: Build Connection and Character by incorporating the Seven Sacred Teachings into classrooms and our school culture.
Area 2: Improve academic achievement of students focusing specifically on K-4 Reading and 5-7 Numeracy so students feel successful in key areas of our School’s purpose.
Area 3: Develop leadership skills and interests of our Grades 5-7 students, with a focus on Grade 5s engaging and empowering them to contribute to students’ positive experiences at school.
Please reach out to Principal Slater if you have any questions or wish to learn more.
You can access our FESL here: BICS FESL Year One, 2022-2023. | <urn:uuid:fd0d8937-82f9-41fc-b5e4-a58a35b073c1> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://westvancouverschools.ca/bics-elementary/our-school/framework-for-enhancing-student-learning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474686.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227184934-20240227214934-00869.warc.gz | en | 0.924449 | 229 | 2.8125 | 3 |
There's an epidemic in our country that our government is refusing to respond to. For Indigenous women in Canada, the idea that they might go missing is a terrifying reality. The United Nations has urged Canada to launch a national inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women. But Harper has not been willing to act. Disappointing as the news is, it's, unfortunately, not surprising that a settler-colonial state does not value the lives of Indigenous women as much as other citizens.
The RCMP recently released information stating that the number of missing and murdered is around 1,200 women. The rate that Indigenous women go missing is disproportionately larger that any other group in this country and Indigenous women are three times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women are.
All these statistics are part of the narrative of a country that has marginalized Indigenous women for centuries. It's time to hear their voices.
"We have entire communities living with knowing that it's a fact that, in their lifetime, their mother or their sister or their daughter or at least someone they know is going to go missing," says Jessica Brant, a Mohawk woman who participated in the recent VIA rail blockade protest to bring attention the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
"There's proof in numbers the fact that Aboriginal women are the most at risk group," says Brant. "There is proof in the numbers that Aboriginal women are sought out, they're targeted, they're preyed upon, simply because they are Aboriginal."
Marian Horne, president of the Yukon Aboriginal Women's Council and the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General for the Yukon, believes that the government has not done nearly enough in addressing this issue. And she's absolutely right.
"I'm absolutely appalled with our federal government for not doing something about this issue," says Horne. "It's been ongoing for so long and it's being ignored." She points out that when the Rehtaeh Parsons, a Halifax teenager, killed herself due to cyber-bullying, Prime Minister Harper reached out to the family personally and quickly put forward an anti-cyber-bullying bill. No such action has been seen for the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Horne says that when Loretta Saunders went missing and was eventually found dead, Harper did not reach out to her family in any way whatsoever.
Horne is a survivor of the controversial residential schooling system where many Indigenous children were subject to horrific abuse. She says she feels that public education and awareness on this issue is one of the key ways in tackling it and reducing the number of Indigenous women who go missing.
"The public just goes on every day thinking that this is something normal that should happen," says Horne. "It's taken as a norm because it has been made so. It is systemic racism in our society that has lead to the situation that we're in."
Samantha Dawson, an Indigenous woman and journalist based out of the Yukon, believes that the media needs to be doing more about addressing the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
"As journalists, what we need to do in this situation is bring out the human element of the people that we're writing about," says Dawson, "so the fact that these women aren't just prostitutes, they aren't just sex workers. They had families, they were sisters, cousins, wives, auntie, granddaughters. There's a whole narrative there that doesn't often come out."
Dawson is referring to the increased media attention on Indigenous women who are sex workers that go missing, even though according to Pearce's dataset, 80 per cent of the Indigenous women who went missing were not in the sex trade. Dawson feels that the Loretta Saunders case garnered more media attention than other cases, because Saunders was a bright student with a future of potential ahead of her, rather then the popular narrative of sex workers going missing.
"In the media, it's pretty prevalent that Aboriginal women and girls- the idea that they are disposable members of our society is perpetuated a lot," says Dawson.
Horne feels similarly. "That's why so many First Nations women are targeted, because it's believed that our lives are useless, that we don't contribute to society, we're seen as lesser, not equal to non-First Nations," says Horne.
"As an aboriginal woman," says Dawson, "I am mostly disappointed by the coverage that I see, as the framing is always around victimization and sexualization. Aboriginal women and girls are not objects, they are people, and this is something that I think all self-identifying non-white women contend with."
Dawson urges journalists who are covering this issue to do more research and educate themselves on the colonial history of Canada that has allowed an issue like this to exacerbate.
Brant says she feels that though the media has taken a while to home in on this issue, the recent attention is a victory in and of itself.
Still, there is much more work to be done to adequately tackle this issue. Horne says she would like to see more representation of Indigenous people in the government and more education on the history of Indigenous people in Canada being a requirement for recruitment in all levels of government.
"Although we say were not racist, its there. It's just under the surface. I've seen it in the government," says Horne. "They don't know us, they don't know our culture. That's why these issues keep multiplying. It's a vicious circle."
But there is hope for the issue. Increased media attention, as well as extensive research on how many Indigenous women go missing and high-risk areas being done by the Native Women's Association in Canada and Sister's In Spirit, means that the issue is slowly, but surely, coming to the forefront of Canada's consciousness. Though there is collective frustration and pain among Indigenous communities, many continue to speak out.
"It's important for me as an Aboriginal women, as a person, to get up and bring light to an issue that other people don't have the ability to do," says Brant. "I feel like it's my job as another person to stand up for other people."
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Age: 19 Last Seen: Oct. 19, 1973 in Clearwater. Body found April 6, 1974 along Yellowhead Highway. Believed hitchhiking to Kamloops.
Age: 16 Last seen: Aug. 9, 1974 near Lac La Hache. Body found Sept. 5, 1974 near 100 Mile House. Was believed to be hitchhiking. RCMP have determined through DNA testing that Bobby Jack Fowler was responsible for her death.
Age: 19 Last Seen: Nov. 6, 1973 in Kamloops. Body found Nov. 7, 1973 in a city park. Believed to be hitchhiking at the time.
Age: 19 Last Seen: Oct. 7, 1995 at a service station in Thornhill, B.C.
Age: 16 Last Seen: June 14, 1990, along Highway 16 in Smithers.
Age: 25 Last Seen: June 21, 2002 in Prince George. Believed to be hitchhiking on Highway 16.
Age: 22 Last Seen: Sept. 21, 2005 in Prince Rupert. Believed to be hitchhiking on Highway 16.
Age: 24 Last Seen: Aug. 26, 1989 in Prince Rupert. Body found Sept. 16, 1989 on Highway 16.
Age: 16 Last Seen: June 11, 1994, hitchhiking to a friend's home in Smithers. Body found April 1995, Smithers Airport.
Age: 15 Last Seen: Nov. 1994 in Prince George. Body found near Burns Lake.
Age: 15 Her body was found Dec. 9, 1994.
Last Seen: 1989
Age: 14 Last Seen: Dec. 13, 1974 in Thornhill, B.C. Body found Apr. 6, 1975 near Terrace.
Age: 14 Last Seen: Feb. 2, 2006 in Prince George. Body found Feb. 10, 2006 on Highway 16.
Age: 27 Last Seen: Oct. 25, 1969 in Williams Lake. Body found Oct. 26 1969.
Age: 18 Last Seen: July 1970 along Fort St. John/Hudson's Hope Highway. Body found Aug. 8, 1970 near Hudson's Hope. Last seen hitchhiking to a ranch.
Age: 16 Last Seen: May 3, 1983 near Hinton, Alberta. Seen walking along Highway 16.
Age: 12 Last Seen: May 6, 1978 near Nicola Lake. Body found in June 1995 north of Merritt.
Age: 33 Last Seen: May 8, 1981 in Salmon Arm. Body found May 9, 1981 near Kamloops. Believed to have been hitchhiking.
Follow Hana Shafi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HanaShafi | <urn:uuid:2b32fe11-06d2-44a2-83db-14f010c237ba> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/hana-shafi/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women_b_6097234.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171171.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00164-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974294 | 1,841 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Pipelines are essential to get crude oil and natural gas from a production site to processing and then for use in the market. When properly constructed, operated and maintained within the pipeline safety rules, they provide an efficient method to transport these products that are so valuable to our economy. However, in recent years, it has become more and more common for environmental groups to protest the construction of new (and safer) pipelines.
The years-long and still ongoing saga of the Keystone XL Pipeline is well known. After undergoing numerous environmental reviews that established it had little overall environmental impact, President Obama declined to grant authority to construct the trans-boundary portion of the pipeline. President Trump issued a Presidential Memoranda in which he invited TransCanada to resubmit its application and stated a final permitting decision must be made within 60 days of the resubmittal. TransCanada submitted its application within several days.
The Dakota Access Pipeline has become as well known and has engendered actual protests at the construction site. Although there are several existing pipelines along the same route, and although the pipeline does not cross the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, protests to the pipeline have taken on a life of their own, with arguments based more on emotions than the actual facts. The Corps of Engineers under the Obama administration declined to grant certain easements. However, President Trump instructed the Corps of Engineers to “review and approve in an expedited manner, to the extent permitted by law and as warranted, … requests for approvals to construct and operate the” pipeline, including any “permits or approvals under section 404 of the Clean Water Act.” The Corps recently announced it would grant the necessary approvals.
While these are nationally known pipeline protests, others simmer around the country. The Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana has generated large crowds at public hearings. Some of the arguments raised in written comments in opposition include increased climate risks and a general opposition to the oil and gas industry. In Pennsylvania, opponents of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project planned a large-scale encampment to protest.
Although there may actually be spontaneous, grassroots movements that arise organically in opposition to these pipelines, more likely than not national organizations are the genesis of these local protests. Some national environmental groups have community organizers on the payroll or have strong alliances with local groups. When a project comes up in a community and opposition to it will align with the national organization’s overall agenda, the organizing begins, culminating in local groups acting as proxies for advancing the agenda of the national organization.
The agenda or motive for organizing these protests seems to be a commitment to stopping the use of fossil fuels and/or a belief that spending money on such infrastructure is an unwise investment that should be spent on renewable energy. Regardless of the motive, having a local group out in front as the face of the protest removes criticism that out-of-state groups are the only ones worried about the project.
This tactic and protest trend will not go away anytime soon. President Trump has vowed to unlock the $50 trillion potential of untapped oil and gas resources to make this country energy independent and create thousands of jobs. This approach is in direct opposition to certain national groups’ stated plan to move beyond fossil fuels to other forms of energy. Many more protests are already “in the pipeline” and coming to a community near you. | <urn:uuid:28357cdb-c503-4986-a696-97ff2745832d> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://bswenviroblog.com/2017/02/13/more-protests-in-the-pipeline/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320304217.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20220123081226-20220123111226-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.961401 | 680 | 2.734375 | 3 |
PlanetSolar is a multi-hull vessel topped by a large array of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and is being constructed at the shipyard Knierim Yachtbau in Kiel, Germany.
The solar-powered boat will make a round-the-world trip in 2010 with stopovers along the equator, where the maximum amount of sunlight is available. The over 40,000 km voyage will last 120 days, assuming an average speed of 10 knots.
PlanetSolar's two-man crew will cross the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and finally the Suez Canal, to return to the Mediterranean. It will stop in cities like Monaco, Paris, Marseille, Dubaï, Abu-Dhabi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hamburg, New York and San Francisco.
The aim of the stunt is to promote hybrid vehicle technology. If successful, it will spawn technological developments in fields such as the manufacture of composite materials and structures, and the generation and storage of PV energy.
The French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Land Settlement supports the project which, according to Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, is “a terrific demonstration of the potential of renewable energies.” | <urn:uuid:59dd2339-8d03-4cbf-a86a-4d94652d8a99> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/1554/solar-boat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115861872.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161101-00237-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.88813 | 258 | 2.671875 | 3 |
From Toledo, Ohio, USA:
What is the youngest a child can be diagnosed with diabetes? Are there any early signs and symptoms to watch for in a baby between 5 months and 2 years?
This question was referred to several members of the Diabetes Team, who have each given an answer:
Answer from Dr. O'Brien:There is a benign transient form of hyperglycemia and glucosuria that may occur in the newborn period that has been called 'pseudodiabetes.' It is not related to Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes is very uncommon in the first two years of life. In a recent multicenter study in Germany which involved over 1000 newborn infants who had either a mother or a father with Type 1 diabetes, only three developed clinical diabetes in the first two years, the youngest being at 13 months of age. If neither parent is affected, the incidence would be much lower still. Autoantibodies (which indicated that the destructive immune process had begun) were present several months before the clinical onset.
Signs of diabetes in infancy are more frequent urination, thirst and failure to gain weight. If you were worried about this very unlikely event, your pediatrician could help you to test for sugar in the urine or even to do a fasting blood sugar.
Answer from Dr. Lebinger:True insulin-dependent diabetes can occur in very young infants under 5 months of age, though this is less common than in older infants and children. Although usually the first symptoms in an older infant or child are excessive thirst and urination followed by weight loss, these symptoms may not be noticed in a young infant who is in a diaper and being fed formula or mother's milk.
In my experience, the babies I have seen who were diagnosed at 2-3 months of age were diagnosed as part of the evaluation of severe vomiting and dehydration or difficulty breathing initially diagnosed as severe bronchiolitis or asthma. (When ketoacidosis develops, vomiting can become severe, and breathing can be very rapid). Only retrospectively when questioned further had some of the parents noticed that their child's diapers were being saturated more quickly or that the child wanted to drink more, and usually they thought this was normal because the child was growing.
The progression from the early symptoms when the child does not appear sick to the late symptoms when the child can be dangerously ill, can progress very rapidly in an infant.
You may want to read the personal stories written by parents of children who were diagnosed in infancy in our Parents and Kids section. You might want to read the story of Jacob in the Kids' Voices section. He was diagnosed with diabetes at 23 days of life!
Original posting 29 Jan 97
Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:08:52
This Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other health care professional.
This site is published by T-1 Today, Inc. (d/b/a Children with Diabetes), a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, which is responsible for its contents.
© Children with Diabetes, Inc. 1995-2016. Comments and Feedback. | <urn:uuid:622e2173-bed6-411a-9a9c-c9ffe063a5f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/dteam/1997-01/d_0d_1id.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701166570.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193926-00116-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971071 | 667 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Listen to this episode of the Focus with Marlene Podcast:
Get caught up with all episodes in the Developing a New Focus series.
How do you see the world?
How does your perception differ from others you know, including your family?
Why does it matter?
Those differences become obvious as we talk, act, and live our lives. It also influences the observations we make and the insights we get, and how we use them.
Perceptions are the personal assessments we make about the world, and they begin to form early in life, becoming more specific as we age. They influence all our relationships and how we communicate and interact with others.
We are often unaware of the perceptions we have created and how they might be working against us, sabotaging our relationships, aspirations, and goals and the ability to see things in a more positive way.
We are a combination of many things: DNA, personality, childhood experiences and the fundamental beliefs we put in place while growing up.
We form perceptions of who we think we are based on how we interpret those experiences.
Think about two kids growing up in the same household. Each can have very different perceptions of what their family is like. Simply put, it is the ability to determine life through our senses, awareness, and comprehension.
Attitudes, motivations, and expectations are also affected by perceptions. How we perceive the world shapes and forms these attitudes and mindsets, as well as the view we have of ourselves. It is affected by our personality, what interests us, and past experiences.
Remember that our perceptions are not reality.
Perceptions will influence the observations we make on a day-to-day basis. I live in the Pacific Northwest, where there are many days of gray skies. I like blue skies and sunshine. But looking at it from a different perspective, I am reminded that those gray skies and the rain that follows give us the beautiful green that I enjoy year-round.
So, I have a choice. When it is gray outdoors, I can allow myself to get into a funk or I can create comforting spaces inside my home that reflect light and color.
I may turn on a light or two.
In the spring when the gray skies seem endless, I focus on the exploding color of spring: tulips, daffodils, and flowering trees.
With thoughts and attitude challenged, I focus on what I want to accomplish, and my day is transformed.
I can do the same when challenged by negative situations.
I can choose to look at my problems in a more productive way. For example, I can choose to look beyond my first instinct to treat the grouchy neighbor in kind and instead offer him grace.
I can make a conscious choice to pray for that person I really don’t like. After all, God loves me even when I am at my worst. Maybe that difficult person needs to know and feel God’s grace as well. I find ways to set my boundaries while extending grace.
Perceptions and how we make sense of the world enable us to survive.
Without the ability to perceive, we wouldn’t recognize danger, and learn how to react to it or protect ourselves. For example, you might love dogs but when you come up to one that growls at you, you stand back even if you want to pet it because that growl is a warning they might bite.
Children growing up in an emotionally dysfunctional home learn that when their parent is scowling, it is a warning sign to not antagonize.
Perceptions we put in place can keep us alive.
However, when we perceive danger or caution in everything, we can become super-vigilant, depressed, and eventually worn out. We judge people adversely and we consider all situations as unfair. We develop biases and prejudices and we stereotype everything in a negative way. Anxiety replaces laughter or happiness. We no longer can make accurate assessments and we no longer experience joy.
So, in many ways, perception becomes the lens through which we view our reality, and it influences everything, from how we process to how we interpret things. The perceptions we put in place determine how we make assessments and then choose the best way to act.
Every day will present challenges that trigger an immediate response. If we develop the habit of responding without thinking, we can spend a lifetime feeling angry, resentful, and sometimes bitter. If we stop and consider, we can change or alter that first response to one that is both protective and accommodating or helpful.
When life seems like one problem after another, we will get depressed and strike out, or build resentments and blame others for all our difficulties and distress. Sometimes we just condemn ourselves.
However, remaining in that mindset takes away our personal power to find the solutions we need and will keep us locked in a never-ending cycle of bitterness and resentment.
Similar to changing a habit, we can alter our perceptions and replace illogical ones with logical ones.
We can learn to change our perspective and focus.
When we do, we see the wounds and pain that cause people to strike out; we see the losses that have colored their internal skies not only gray, but black; and we can appreciate the loving traits of friends and family and the people we work with.
And perhaps, when I am able to change my perspective, in the process others might view life differently. | <urn:uuid:9f3ef353-c187-460e-8c86-cb8dd81753ff> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://focuswithmarlene.com/how-our-perceptions-of-the-world-work-for-or-against-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476464.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304165127-20240304195127-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.953287 | 1,110 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Graphs are among the most interesting and useful objects in mathematics. Any situation or idea that can be described by objects with connections is a graph, and one of the most prominent examples of a real-world graph that one can come up with is a social network.
Recall, if you aren’t already familiar with this blog’s gentle introduction to graphs, that a graph is defined by a set of vertices , and a set of edges , each of which connects two vertices. For this post the edges will be undirected, meaning connections between vertices are symmetric.
One of the most common topics to talk about for graphs is the notion of a community. But what does one actually mean by that word? It’s easy to give an informal definition: a subset of vertices such that there are many more edges between vertices in than from vertices in to vertices in (the complement of ). Try to make this notion precise, however, and you open a door to a world of difficult problems and open research questions. Indeed, nobody has yet come to a conclusive and useful definition of what it means to be a community. In this post we’ll see why this is such a hard problem, and we’ll see that it mostly has to do with the word “useful.” In future posts we plan to cover some techniques that have found widespread success in practice, but this post is intended to impress upon the reader how difficult the problem is.
The simplest idea
The simplest thing to do is to say a community is a subset of vertices which are completely connected to each other. In the technical parlance, a community is a subgraph which forms a clique. Sometimes an -clique is also called a complete graph on vertices, denoted . Here’s an example of a 5-clique in a larger graph:
Indeed, it seems reasonable that if we can reliably find communities at all, then we should be able to find cliques. But as fate should have it, this problem is known to be computationally intractable. In more detail, the problem of finding the largest clique in a graph is NP-hard. That essentially means we don’t have any better algorithms to find cliques in general graphs than to try all possible subsets of the vertices and check to see which, if any, form cliques. In fact it’s much worse, this problem is known to be hard to approximate to any reasonable factor in the worst case (the error of the approximation grows polynomially with the size of the graph!). So we can’t even hope to find a clique half the size of the biggest, or a thousandth the size!
But we have to take these impossibility results with a grain of salt: they only say things about the worst case graphs. And when we’re looking for communities in the real world, the worst case will never show up. Really, it won’t! In these proofs, “worst case” means that they encode some arbitrarily convoluted logic problem into a graph, so that finding the clique means solving the logic problem. To think that someone could engineer their social network to encode difficult logic problems is ridiculous.
So what about an “average case” graph? To formulate this typically means we need to consider graphs randomly drawn from a distribution.
The simplest kind of “randomized” graph you could have is the following. You fix some set of vertices, and then run an experiment: for each pair of vertices you flip a coin, and if the coin is heads you place an edge and otherwise you don’t. This defines a distribution on graphs called , which we can generalize to for a coin with bias . With a slight abuse of notation, we call the Erdős–Rényi random graph (it’s not a graph but a distribution on graphs). We explored this topic form a more mathematical perspective earlier on this blog.
So we can sample from this distribution and ask questions like: what’s the probability of the largest clique being size at least ? Indeed, cliques in Erdős–Rényi random graphs are so well understood that we know exactly how they work. For example, if then the size of the largest clique is guaranteed (with overwhelming probability as grows) to have size or , where is about . Just as much is known about other values of as well as other properties of , see Wikipedia for a short list.
In other words, if we wanted to find the largest clique in an Erdős–Rényi random graph, we could check all subsets of size roughly , which would take about time. This is pretty terrible, and I’ve never heard of an algorithm that does better (contrary to the original statement in this paragraph that showed I can’t count). In any case, it turns out that the Erdős–Rényi random graph, and using cliques to represent communities, is far from realistic. There are many reasons why this is the case, but here’s one example that fits with the topic at hand. If I thought the world’s social network was distributed according to and communities were cliques, then I would be claiming that the largest community is of size 65 or 66. Estimated world population: 7 billion, . Clearly this is ridiculous: there are groups of larger than 66 people that we would want to call “communities,” and there are plenty of communities that don’t form bona-fide cliques.
Another avenue shows that things are still not as easy as they seem in Erdős–Rényi land. This is the so-called planted clique problem. That is, you draw a graph from . You give to me and I pick a random but secret subset of vertices and I add enough edges to make those vertices form an -clique. Then I ask you to find the -clique. Clearly it doesn’t make sense when because you won’t be able to tell it apart from the guaranteed cliques in . But even worse, nobody knows how to find the planted clique when is even a little bit smaller than (like, even). Just to solidify this with some numbers, we don’t know how to reliably find a planted clique of size 60 in a random graph on ten thousand vertices, but we do when the size of the clique goes up to 100. The best algorithms we know rely on some sophisticated tools in spectral graph theory, and their details are beyond the scope of this post.
So Erdős–Rényi graphs seem to have no hope. What’s next? There are a couple of routes we can take from here. We can try to change our random graph model to be more realistic. We can relax our notion of communities from cliques to something else. We can do both, or we can do something completely different.
Other kinds of random graphs
There is an interesting model of Barabási and Albert, often called the “preferential attachment” model, that has been described as a good model of large, quickly growing networks like the internet. Here’s the idea: you start off with a two-clique , and at each time step you add a new vertex to , and new edges so that the probability that the edge is added to is proportional to the degree of (as a fraction of the total number of edges in ). Here’s an animation of this process:
The significance of this random model is that it creates graphs with a small number of hubs, and a large number of low-degree vertices. In other words, the preferential attachment model tends to “make the rich richer.” Another perspective is that the degree distribution of such a graph is guaranteed to fit a so-called power-law distribution. Informally, this means that the overall fraction of small-degree vertices gives a significant contribution to the total number of edges. This is sometimes called a “fat-tailed” distribution. Since power-law distributions are observed in a wide variety of natural settings, some have used this as justification for working in the preferential attachment setting. On the other hand, this model is known to have no significant community structure (by any reasonable definition, certainly not having cliques of nontrivial size), and this has been used as evidence against the model. I am not aware of any work done on planting dense subgraphs in graphs drawn from a preferential attachment model, but I think it’s likely to be trivial and uninteresting. On the other hand, Bubeck et al. have looked at changing the initial graph (the “seed”) from a 2-clique to something else, and seeing how that affects the overall limiting distribution.
Another model that often shows up is a model that allows one to make a random graph starting with any fixed degree distribution, not just a power law. There are a number of models that do this to some fashion, and you’ll hear a lot of hyphenated names thrown around like Chung-Lu and Molloy-Reed and Newman-Strogatz-Watts. The one we’ll describe is quite simple. Say you start with a set of vertices , and a number for each vertex , such that the sum of all the is even. This condition is required because in any graph the sum of the degrees of a vertex is twice the number of edges. Then you imagine each vertex having “edge-stubs.” The name suggests a picture like the one below:
Now you pick two edge stubs at random and connect them. One usually allows self-loops and multiple edges between vertices, so that it’s okay to pick two edge stubs from the same vertex. You keep doing this until all the edge stubs are accounted for, and this is your random graph. The degrees were fixed at the beginning, so the only randomization is in which vertices are adjacent. The same obvious biases apply, that any given vertex is more likely to be adjacent to high-degree vertices, but now we get to control the biases with much more precision.
The reason such a model is useful is that when you’re working with graphs in the real world, you usually have statistical information available. It’s simple to compute the degree of each vertex, and so you can use this random graph as a sort of “prior” distribution and look for anomalies. In particular, this is precisely how one of the leading measures of community structure works: the measure of modularity. We’ll talk about this in the next section.
Other kinds of communities
Here’s one easy way to relax our notion of communities. Rather than finding complete subgraphs, we could ask about finding very dense subgraphs (ignoring what happens outside the subgraph). We compute density as the average degree of vertices in the subgraph.
If we impose no bound on the size of the subgraph an algorithm is allowed to output, then there is an efficient algorithm for finding the densest subgraph in a given graph. The general exact solution involves solving a linear programming problem and a little extra work, but luckily there is a greedy algorithm that can get within half of the optimal density. You start with all the vertices , and remove any vertex of minimal degree to get . Continue until , and then compute the density of all the . The best one is guaranteed to be at least half of the optimal density. See this paper of Moses Charikar for a more formal analysis.
One problem with this is that the size of the densest subgraph might be too big. Unfortunately, if you fix the size of the dense subgraph you’re looking for (say, you want to find the densest subgraph of size at most where is an input), then the problem once again becomes NP-hard and suffers from the same sort of inapproximability theorems as finding the largest clique.
A more important issue with this is that a dense subgraph isn’t necessarily a community. In particular, we want communities to be dense on the inside and sparse on the outside. The densest subgraph analysis, however, might rate the following graph as one big dense subgraph instead of two separately dense communities with some modest (but not too modest) amount of connections between them.
Indeed, we want a quantifiable a notion of “dense on the inside and sparse on the outside.” One such formalization is called modularity. Modularity works as follows. If you give me some partition of the vertices of into two sets, modularity measures how well this partition reflects two separate communities. It’s the definition of “community” here that makes it interesting. Rather than ask about densities exactly, you can compare the densities to the expected densities in a given random graph model.
In particular, we can use the fixed-degree distribution model from the last section. If we know the degrees of all the vertices ahead of time, we can compute the probability that we see some number of edges going between the two pieces of the partition relative to what we would see at random. If the difference is large (and largely biased toward fewer edges across the partition and more edges within the two subsets), then we say it has high modularity. This involves a lot of computations — the whole measure can be written as a quadratic form via one big matrix — but the idea is simple enough. We intend to write more about modularity and implement the algorithm on this blog, but the excited reader can see the original paper of M.E.J. Newman.
Now modularity is very popular but it too has shortcomings. First, even though you can compute the modularity of a given partition, there’s still the problem of finding the partition that globally maximizes modularity. Sadly, this is known to be NP-hard. Mover, it’s known to be NP-hard even if you’re just trying to find a partition into two pieces that maximizes modularity, and even still when the graph is regular (every vertex has the same degree).
Still worse, while there are some readily accepted heuristics that often “do well enough” in practice, we don’t even know how to approximate modularity very well. Bhaskar DasGupta has a line of work studying approximations of maximum modularity, and he has proved that for dense graphs you can’t even approximate modularity to within any constant factor. That is, the best you can do is have an approximation that gets worse as the size of the graph grows. It’s similar to the bad news we had for finding the largest clique, but not as bad. For example, when the graph is sparse it’s known that one can approximate modularity to within a factor of the optimum, where is the number of vertices of the graph (for cliques the factor was like for some , and this is drastically worse).
Another empirical issue is that modularity seems to fail to find small communities. That is, if your graph has some large communities and some small communities, strictly maximizing the modularity is not the right thing to do. So we’ve seen that even the leading method in the field has some issues.
Something completely different
The last method I want to sketch is in the realm of “something completely different.” The notion is that if we’re given a graph, we can run some experiment on the graph, and the results of that experiment can give us insight into where the communities are.
The experiment I’m going to talk about is the random walk. That is, say you have a vertex in a graph and you want to find some vertices that are “closest” to . That is, those that are most likely to be in the same community as . What you can do is run a random walk starting at . By a “random walk” I mean you start at , you pick a neighbor at random and move to it, then repeat. You can compute statistics about the vertices you visit in a sample of such walks, and the vertices that you visit most often are those you say are “in the same community as . One important parameter is how long the walk is, but it’s generally believed to be best if you keep it between 3-6 steps.
Of course, this is not a partition of the vertices, so it’s not a community detection algorithm, but you can turn it into one. Run this process for each vertex, and use it to compute a “distance” between all the pairs of vertices. Then you compute a tree of partitions by lumping the closest pairs of vertices into the same community, one at a time, until you’ve got every vertex. At each step of the way, you compute the modularity of the partition, and when you’re done you choose the partition that maximizes modularity. This algorithm as a whole is called the walktrap clustering algorithm, and was introduced by Pons and Latapy in 2005.
This sounds like a really great idea, because it’s intuitive: there’s a relatively high chance that the friends of your friends are also your friends. It’s also really great because there is an easily measurable tradeoff between runtime and quality: you can tune down the length of the random walk, and the number of samples you take for each vertex, to speed up the runtime but lower the quality of your statistical estimates. So if you’re working on huge graphs, you get a lot of control and a clear idea of exactly what’s going on inside the algorithm (something which is not immediately clear in a lot of these papers).
Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any concrete theoretical guarantees for walktrap clustering. The one bit of theoretical justification I’ve read over the last year is that you can relate the expected distances you get to certain spectral properties of the graph that are known to be related to community structure, but the lower bounds on maximizing modularity already suggest (though they do not imply) that walktrap won’t do that well in the worst case.
So many algorithms, so little time!
I have only brushed the surface of the literature on community detection, and the things I have discussed are heavily biased toward what I’ve read about and used in my own research. There are methods based on information theory, label propagation, and obscure physics processes like “spin glass” (whatever that is, it sounds frustrating).
And we have only been talking about perfect community structure. What if you want to allow people to be in multiple communities, or have communities at varying levels of granularity (e.g. a sports club within a school versus the whole student body of that school)? What if we want to allow people to be “members” of a community at varying degrees of intensity? How do we deal with noisy signals in our graphs? For example, if we get our data from observing people talk, are two people who have heated arguments considered to be in the same community? Since a lot social network data comes from sources like Twitter and Facebook where arguments are rampant, how do we distinguish between useful and useless data? More subtly, how do we determine useful information if a group within the social network are trying to mask their discovery? That is, how do we deal with adversarial noise in a graph?
And all of this is just on static graphs! What about graphs that change over time? You can keep making the problem more and more complicated as it gets more realistic.
With the huge wealth of research that has already been done just on the simplest case, and the difficult problems and known barriers to success even for the simple problems, it seems almost intimidating to even begin to try to answer these questions. But maybe that’s what makes them fascinating, not to mention that governments and big businesses pour many millions of dollars into this kind of research.
In the future of this blog we plan to derive and implement some of the basic methods of community detection. This includes, as a first outline, the modularity measure and the walktrap clustering algorithm. Considering that I’m also going to spend a large part of the summer thinking about these problems (indeed, with some of the leading researchers and upcoming stars under the sponsorship of the American Mathematical Society), it’s unlikely to end there.
Until next time! | <urn:uuid:7eb6bb71-c3e4-4d35-873f-1a796a1a5344> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jeremykun.com/2014/05/19/community-detection-in-graphs-a-casual-tour/?replytocom=35291 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571996.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814052950-20220814082950-00464.warc.gz | en | 0.955243 | 4,333 | 3.25 | 3 |
The 2014 Human Development Report “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience” - shows that overall global trends in human development are positive. Yet, people at all ages are also facing threats and challenges to their wellbeing, including by natural or human-induced disasters and crises.
For decades we have been talking on poverty, on millennium development goals, etc. We try to find out if poverty in Africa has been reduced or not ... and we do not really know because there are no data. National statistical systems are weak and donors have other priorities ...
The Center for Global Development wants a better focus on reliable data and makes proposals for the post-2015 agenda.
'Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice'
The ILO published its new Social Protection Report with the latest trends. It provides information on social protection systems, coverage, benefits and expenditures in more than 190 countries.
Read the report
ITUC's frontline report 2014 on social protection: a must read
Very important final report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
The OECD report on development cooperation in 2013 about 'ending poverty', looking for a fast way to achieve this goal ... It also has a chapter on 'social protection', seen as a tool for ending poverty ... important for those who still believed 'social protection' was about building welfare states ...
Oxfam report on why the poor are often left behind when it comes to health care: health care has to be universal and most of all health coverage has to be universal
A Feminist Declaration for Post 2015.As the United Nations decides on the future course of international development Post 2015, women of all ages, identities, ethnicities, cultures and across sectors and regions, are mobilizing for gender, social, cultural, economic and ecological justice, sustainable development and inclusive peace. We seek fundamental structural and transformational changes to the current neoliberal, extractivist and exclusive development model that perpetuates inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries, within countries and between men and women. We challenge the current security paradigm that increases investments in the military-industrial complex, which contributes to violent conflict between and within countries.
The Open UN Working Group preparing the post-2015 development agenda has published its progress report. It gives a first idea of what the new 'development goals' might become.
At this moment, two remarks can be made:
- all or almost all expected items are mentioned, from poverty to hunger and essential services, through peace and human rights.
- for meeting these new development goals, the UN wants to work with 'partnerships'. This means the official and strengthened entry of transnational corporations within the UN. It could become a 'worthy' complement of the new rights TNC's are acquiring through investment treaties, such as TPP and TTIP ... what about States? what about democracy?
Read the progress report | <urn:uuid:94acc2ca-11da-49f2-a105-42fa25a14bda> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://globalsocialjustice.eu/index.php/articles/documents?start=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121528.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00381-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942326 | 591 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A Green member of Parliament has suggested that the federal government is hoping to use the Paris Agreement to obtain a break on emissions for shipping liquefied natural gas out of the country.
In Question Period on Friday (June 14), Paul Manly said he was "astounded to learn" that the Trudeau government thinks it can invoke article 6 of the landmark climate pact "to earn carbon credits for exporting fracked gas to Asian markets".
It was in reference to previous comments by Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi.
"Does the government not realize that fracked gas has the same carbon footprint as coal?" the recently elected Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP asked.
Sean Fraser, parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change, replied that he's aware of article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
It authorizes "internationally transferred mitigation outcomes to achieve nationally determined contributions". These "shall be voluntary and authorized by participating Parties".
"Our plan to reduce emissions is not just to displace global emissions by producing more and more oil and gas products in Canada," Fraser said, "but to actually reduce our consumption in Canada as well.
"We are doing so through over 50 measures, including putting a price on pollution, moving toward 90 percent of our electricity being generated from non-emitting resources by 2030, and making the largest investment in public transit and record investments in efficiency, green technology and others."
Proponents of the LNG industry claim that this fuel will replace the use of coal in other countries, reducing overall emissions globally.
But critics, including Manly, say this overlooks the magnitude of methane emissions associated with fracking natural gas, which is later liquefied and shipped abroad.
"While carbon dioxide is typically painted as the bad boy of greenhouse gases, methane is roughly 30 times more potent as a heat trapping gas," Science Daily reported in 2014, citing research at Princeton University.
Hence the claim that fracked gas is just as devastating for the climate as coal.
Others sharing those concerns also point out that LNG exports might actually displace renewable energy use in Asia.
One thing is clear: no matter how many fossil fuels are exported from Canada, their use overseas will not be counted in the country's overall emissions under the Paris Agreement.
That was made clear in a 2017 report by Marc Lee, a senior economist in the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
In Extracted Carbon: Re-examining Canada's Contribution to Climate Change Through Fossil Fuel Exports, he pointed out that just over half of the carbon extracted in Canada is used for domestic purposes, with the rest exported.
Overall, Canada's extracted carbon resources rose by 26 percent from 2000 to 2015, according to Lee.
"A major shortcoming of the Paris Agreement is that countries have committed to reducing emissions within their borders, but not the carbon that is extracted and burned elsewhere," he wrote. "For example, when Canada expands its production of fossil fuels, only the emissions from extraction and processing prior to export are counted in Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, not the much larger emissions when those exported fossil fuels are combusted in the United States or Asia."
To cite one example, a City of Vancouver analysis concluded that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project would result in 71.1 megatonnes of downstream carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year.
Because this diluted bitumen will be burned in other countries, its downstream use is not counted as part of Canada's emissions by the federal government.
This is the case even though each year, they will exceed the entire total of carbon dioxide equivalents—62.3 megatonnes—released in British Columbia in 2016.
Those are in addition to the 7.7 megatonnes of annual new upstream emissions from the pipeline expansion, as estimated by the city. These upstream emissions will be included in Canada's reported total under the Paris Agreement. | <urn:uuid:dd1d9270-37a9-42ac-9185-87f86fd44654> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.straight.com/news/1255576/climate-shocker-canada-aims-carbon-credits-fracking-natural-gas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402131412.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20201001112433-20201001142433-00637.warc.gz | en | 0.953069 | 811 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Growth hormone, or somatotropin, is a collective name for a number of hormones that are responsible in general for body growth. And, first of all, for the growth in the literal sense-that is, the growth hormone stimulates the growth of bones. That is why the large secretion and the ...
Growth hormone, or somatotropin, is a collective name for a number of hormones that are responsible in general for body growth. And, first of all, for the growth in the literal sense-that is, the growth hormone stimulates the growth of bones. That is why the large secretion and the highest concentration in the blood of this hormone falls on the infant and children's period. In the future the level of secretion of somathropin steadily decreases.
Growth hormone affects almost all metabolic processes in the body-its role is very high in protein, carbohydrate, fat and mineral metabolism, because for the growth of the bones need to be active in the areas of bone growth of a number of minerals (eg, calcium) , the growth of muscles holding bones, etc., is also important.
With the cessation of bone growth in 20-25 years, the surplus of growth hormone becomes particularly dangerous for the body, because under its influence the processes that cause the violation of the proportions of the skeleton in some areas (face, feet, hands, etc.). In order that this does not happen, the body has mechanisms, lowering both concentration in the blood of the growth hormone, and the level of its secretion. In particular, the increase in the concentration of somathropin causes the activation of gluconeogenesis, leading to an increase in blood glucose levels and, as a response, increased insulin secretion. Insulin is the antagonist of growth hormone in carbohydrate and fat metabolism. In addition, the high concentration of somathropin leads to increased production of somatostatin, suppressing its secretion.
In addition to bone growth, growth hormone increases muscle growth, both by improving transport in muscle cells amino acids, and by stimulating protein synthesis processes.
Interestingly, the stimulation of muscle growth by HGH has a somewhat virtual character, since cell growth occurs primarily due to the accumulation of water and therefore there is no increase in strength and endurance. So (given the role of somatotropin (HGH) in splitting fats) increasing muscle mass by means of HGH is important to achieve a beautiful relief, but useless in power sports such as weightlifting and powerlifting.
It is also important that anabolic effects are only possible in the presence of insulin and testosterone, with their deficiency hormone growth does not have anabolic action.
Somatotropin contributes to the activation of fat metabolism, prevents the growth of fat tissue, accelerates the splitting of fats, and thus helps to reduce the weight of adipose tissue, in connection with which the growing muscle mass is drier.
The decrease of secretion of growth hormone in mature and especially old age entails a number of negative effects – lowering of immunity, propensity to accumulation of fat, weakening of processes of protein synthesis and degradation of muscle tissue.
This possibility exists, as a number of preparations containing synthetic somatotropin are developed. However, the intake of exogenous growth hormone has a number of side effects. Above all, the increase in somathropin concentration causes the rise of concentration glucose in the blood, thus exerting a large strain on the pancreas, Vyrabatyvajushhuju insulin to reduce the level of sugar and somatostatin for oppression of secretion Growth hormone. Thus, the intake of drugs containing growth hormone can lead to diabetes mellitus and pancreatic diseases, as well as disrupt the thyroid gland, cause the development of arterial hypertension and much more. And this is just the immediate and direct negative effects of the additional intake of somathropin. Not to mention that the drugs with growth hormone are very expensive and therefore actively counterfeited.
Therefore, we strongly recommend: Do not put experiments on yourself, risking to completely adjust the hormonal balance in the body and come to the need for serious treatment.
If you decide to take drugs with HGH-be sure to consult an experienced endocrinologist, and accept somatotropin only under his supervision, following his recommendations.
We, as advocates of a healthy way of life, will stop on ways of natural increase of secretion of growth hormone. It is known that the highest peak of secretion of somatotropin (HGH) falls on the first half hour-an hour after falling asleep. In addition, it is important that increased physical activity also stimulates the production of growth hormone.
From here we can draw a conclusion about how to naturally increase the secretion of somatotropin (HGH) by your body.
Do not reduce the natural secretion of the use of foods that lead to an increase in blood glucose and fatty acids. In practice it means to abstain from fatty and sweet (and in general from simple carbohydrates).
Provide your body with a calm and comfortable sleep. Rest will contribute to recovery after training and active secretion of somatotropin (HGH).
Of course, actively train. This is the main necessary condition, ensuring both the disposal of excess fat and the growth of muscle mass with somatotropin (HGH).
If you want more-try to take more products with high amino acids, positively influencing the development of growth hormone-arginine, ornithine, glutamine, lysine. It is possible to try such food additives as creatine (stimulates development of insulin factor of growth of IGF-1) and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid stimulates development of growth hormone).
Take care of your health and do not turn yourself into an experimental animal. Do not chase the stunning results and do not expect magic pills. Use universal well-known techniques and means to achieve high athletic results, beautiful figure and good health!
I.u.. buy online 36mg GENOTROPIN 12 Product: Genotropin 12 I.u.. 36mg Each order unit includes: 12 GENOTROPIN I.u.. 36 mg Active ingredient: somatropin HGH Manufacturer / brand: Pfizer I.u.. buy online 36mg GENOTROPIN 12 Product: Genotropin 12...
Jіntrоріn 12IU GеnеSсіеnсе x 10 vialsJіntrоріn іѕ оnе оf thе mоѕt роtеnt rесоmbіnаnt Humаn Grоwth Hоrmоnеѕ оn thе mаrkеt tоdау. It'ѕ 191 аmіnо асіd ѕеԛuеnсе HGH (nаturаl tо humаn bоdу) аnd іѕ рrоduсеd bу GеnеSсіеnсе Phаrmасеutісаls Inс аnd mаrkеtеd wоrldwіdе. ... | <urn:uuid:b93e96db-5d7e-4715-9697-b01db12ea7ae> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://roids4you.org/en/77-hgh | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578527865.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20190419161226-20190419183226-00239.warc.gz | en | 0.90899 | 1,515 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The procedure performed on very small structures like the nerves and blood vessels using specialized instruments (under a microscope) is called microsurgery.
Many surgical specialties use microsurgical techniques.
- Otolaryngologists (ear, nose, and throat doctors) – performs microsurgery on the delicate and small structures of the vocal cords or the inner ear.
- Ophthalmologists (eye doctors) – performs microsurgery in corneal transplants and cataract removals and when treating eye conditions like glaucoma.
- Urologists and gynecologists – performs microsurgery to reverse vasectomies (male sterilization) and perform tubal ligations (female sterilization).
- Plastic surgeons – performs microsurgical techniques to reconstruct disfigured or damaged muscles, skin, and other tissues and transplant tissues from other parts of the body.
Equipment used in microsurgical procedures magnify the operating field, provides precise instrumentation for easier maneuvering under high magnification, and makes it possible for the surgeons to be able operate on structures that are barely visible to the naked eye.
While operating microscopes can vary, depending on their specific uses, they share similar standard features.
The microscope can be ceiling or floor mounted and it comes with a moveable arm to ensure easier manipulation.
A high-intensity light source and a set of lenses ensures a clear view of the surgical site.
Two (or more) sets of lenses makes it possible for the surgeon and an assistant not just to view the operating field but to also independently zoom in and focus.
The rest of the surgical team can view the operating site on a display screen.
Other features include motorized zoom and focus and mouth or foot switch controls.
A five to forty times magnification (5–40x) is usually required for microsurgical procedures.
A lower magnification is used when identifying and exposing structures while a higher magnification is needed when performing microsurgical repair.
Microsurgical instruments have distinct differences compared to conventional instruments.
They are designed to make delicate manipulation of small structures possible and they come with handles large enough to hold securely and comfortably.
Some of the common instruments used in microsurgery include:
- Vascular clamps
- Needle holders
- Vessel dilators
- Other standard surgical tools
Stitching or suturing is done using specialized needles and thread.
The diameter (gauge) of the suture thread can vary in size depending on the tissue that needs suturing and the procedure that will be performed.
Suture threads can be absorbable (broken down in the body after a certain amount of time) or non-absorbable (retains its strength indefinitely).
It can also be natural (made of gut, linen, silk, and other natural materials) or synthetic (made of wire, polyester, nylon, and other man-made materials).
The type of suture thread that will be used will depend on the tissue that will be sutured and the procedure that will be performed.
Suture needles can come in various shapes (curved or straight) and sizes (length and diameter).
It also has different point types (blunt, cutting, or rounded).
Generally, needles that are 0.15 mm in diameter are used in microsurgery.
Microsurgical procedures use a set of basic techniques that needs to be mastered by the surgeon.
These techniques include vein grafting, blood vessel repair, and nerve repair and grafting.
Blood Vessel Repair
Connecting two cut or separate blood vessels in order to form a continuous channel is called blood vessel repair or vascular anastomosis.
Anastomoses may be end-to-side (connecting one cut end to the wall of another vessel) or end-to-end (between two cut ends).
If the cut ends of a blood vessel cannot be attached without any tension, vein grafting is performed. It is an alternative procedure to end-to-end anastomosis.
Nonessential veins that are same in diameter to the recipient blood vessel can be taken from the foot, arm, or hand.
When two cut ends of the nerve are connected, the process is referred to as neurorrhaphy or nerve anastomosis.
Nerve repair may involve suturing of the perineurium only, epineurium only, or through both layers.
If a large gap is present between the end of the nerves that are cut, neurorrhaphy cannot be performed without creating any tension in the nerve.
Any tension created can end up interfering with the patient’s postsurgical function.
A piece of the nerve (from another part of the body) may be utilized to create a nerve graft.
It is then stitched into place using anastomosis techniques.
Before a surgeon performs microsurgery in a clinical setting, extensive practice and training will be required.
In addition, basic knowledge of surgical techniques and anatomy will also be needed.
After comprehensive introduction to microsurgical equipment and the operating microscope, basic techniques will be introduced.
Specifically, surgeons must also learn the following basic skills:
- How to maintain correct posture during the procedure
- How to maintain constant visual contact with the microscope
- How to properly hold the instruments
- How to minimize hand tremors
- How to perform basic techniques
Once proficiency in the abovementioned skills has been attained, more advanced techniques will be introduced including procedures when treating specific conditions. | <urn:uuid:814a07ce-3aea-4a30-860c-97e51d7c3bcc> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://bjiosrthopaedics.blogspot.com/2017/04/what-are-basic-techniques-used-in.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607649.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523183134-20170523203134-00178.warc.gz | en | 0.919934 | 1,145 | 3.75 | 4 |
Washington, May 30 (IANS) Mothers in the US are increasingly becoming the primary breadwinners in their families, a study has revealed.
Marking a dramatic shift in US household finances, a record 40 percent of homes with children now rely on mothers as their main or only source of income, BBC reported, citing a survey by the Pew Research Center.
Of the women supporting their families, 37 percent were married women who earned more than their husbands, while 63 percent were single mothers, the report said.
In the 1960s, just 11 percent of families were supported primarily by mothers.
According to the report, married women with a higher income than their husbands tended to be older, white and college-educated.
The married women were likely to earn much more than single mothers, who on average tended to be younger, more likely to be black or Hispanic, and less likely to have attended an institution of higher education, BBC said.
For married women, the median total family income was almost $80,000 compared to the median income of $23,000 for the families of single mothers.
The report said it was not clear if the financial crisis in the US had an effect on the trends.
But it noted that since 2007, more women have said they wanted to work full time and fewer said they would prefer not to work at all.
However, the study also found that three-quarters of adults said it was harder to raise children if their mothers worked, and half said it was harder for marriage to succeed under those circumstances. | <urn:uuid:da006f40-cb0c-479b-ace4-2eb43324058e> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://cricket.yahoo.com/news/us-mothers-now-main-breadwinners-134709468.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164977792/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134937-00011-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991613 | 316 | 2.8125 | 3 |
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KDDI, J-Phone and Tu-Ka Cellular will join in the research led by NTT DoCoMo that examines the effects of radio waves from mobile phones and base stations at both the cell and genetic level, the companies said. NTT DoCoMo started preparing for the study in July 2001.
The research, which has been commissioned to Mitsubishi Chemical Safety Institute, is to expose as many as one million cell samples to radio waves for a long period of time.
As evaluation and analysis may take at least four years to complete, the companies plan to release updates on the research periodically, Kato said. The four companies will publish the final results.
The study will be conducted in accordance with the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards set by the Japanese government.
It has not been scientifically proven that radio waves from mobile phones and base stations have any effect on people, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has been calling for research to substantiate the safety of these waves. | <urn:uuid:d3ea32a2-a16a-4b28-9414-45c1e30ea9f7> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240048562/DoCoMo-to-study-radio-wave-effects-on-people | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891813608.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180221103712-20180221123712-00324.warc.gz | en | 0.961829 | 232 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Teaching English as an Additional Language In The Global Classroom: A Transnational Study In The United States and United Kingdom
Global research has shown the persistence of inequality with regard to accessing curriculum with a view to obtaining suitable work and making useful contributions to society.  The intersection of race, gender, language and low socio-economic levels creates situations which often marginalize ethnic minorities in school settings (Freire, 1968; Nieto & Turner, 2012).  The graduation rates in the United States for Native American, African American and Hispanic students are lower than the graduation rates of Whites and Asian Americans.  In addition, Bangladeshis and African Caribbeans currently living in the UK are under-represented in higher education, particularly young men in those communities.  The research questions that guide this inquiry are:  (1) According to databases, how does the academic performance of language minority groups compare to the academic performance of non-linguistic minority groups at the elementary and secondary levels of education?  (2) According to language support teachers and university students, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the instructional practices for language minorities who are learning English in the United Kingdom (UK) (Bristol) and the United States (US) (Henrico)?  Participants were: five UK teachers, four UK university students, five US teachers, four US university students.  Data collection supervised by lead researchers included interviews, focus groups, classroom observation, and performance documents.  Data analysis utilized a mixed-methods approach. Overall, linguistic minority groups performed lower than their English proficient peers.   Culturally, UK teachers provided a greater emphasis on religious instruction, whereas US teachers addressed patriotic topics more frequently.  Teachers in the United States and the United Kingdom were culturally supportive with slight variation in the encouraged use of the students’ heritage languages.
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Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
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- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). | <urn:uuid:1b916ed7-a28f-44bf-8898-2811e246e944> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/112 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107880014.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20201022170349-20201022200349-00304.warc.gz | en | 0.929609 | 577 | 2.609375 | 3 |
In January 15th, Brussels unveiled its financial plan for moving to a green economy and making the EU climate neutral. In fact, it represents a vast policy program aimed at protecting the environment and climate, that will make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050.
The EU acknowledges that becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our times. This most ambitious package of measures should enable European citizens and businesses to benefit from sustainable green transition. Above all, the European Green Deal sets a path for a transition that is just and socially fair, as well as an effective transition towards carbon neutrality.
One key element of the Green Deal is a proposal by next March for a European Climate Law. The package of measures of the Green Deal will reportedly overhaul the entire European legislation and establish a transition fund of 100 billion euros.
Despite critics that alert that the program is not enough to change the energy, mobility, housing and food systems – especially as regards the targeted greenhouse gas emissions reduction, the European Commission is proposing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 55% by 2030, compared with 40% currently, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, while promoting green growth. | <urn:uuid:57431ee5-f658-43ab-a43e-d09b591d02d0> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.greenfinancelac.org/european-green-deal-the-european-commission-unveils-e1-trillion-plan-to-make-eu-carbon-neutral-by-2050/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370518767.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20200403220847-20200404010847-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.947417 | 243 | 2.859375 | 3 |
1. Digital storytelling and computer-based math go hand in hand. I think one of the greatest benefits, other than the visual nature, is how personalized the material can be. Digital storytelling is based on the speaker, who controls the story. Rather than teaching from a textbook, the teacher can make the math relatable to students in any way she chooses. Plus, she has the opportunity to make things engaging, perhaps by adding in familiar names or places that will get children excited about the problem. Additionally, the medium of storytelling varies slightly (as it can be a Prezi, a youtube clip, etc.) so the children won't get bored of the same thing.
2. Here's one good example I found of math digital storytelling. It's about a boy who needs to buy a new bike, and wants to know how many weeks of pay he'll need to save up. The problem is something the children can understand easily, and has a strong foundation in real, everyday math.
3. Here's my math video. I made it using Windows Live Movie Maker, and then posted it to youtube. | <urn:uuid:3499a0e9-ab8b-444a-b902-54f43b8e42a7> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | https://p2pu.org/en/groups/ed218-developing-mathematics-the-early-years/content/week-7-digital-storytelling-february-27-march-4/?pagination_page_number=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463165.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00082-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939696 | 225 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Visar resultat 1 - 5 av 230 avhandlingar innehållade ordet manganese.
Sammanfattning : Structural properties of adsorbed overlayers on well-defined single crystals and of Palladium-Manganese surface alloys formed on Pd(100) have been investigated using synchrotron-based photoemission, scanning tunneling microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The experimental valence electronic structure of PdMn systems on Pd(100) is compared to density functional calculations (DFT). LÄS MER
2. Manganese and Iron Heterodimers and Homodimers in Enzymes : Insights from Density Functional Theory
Sammanfattning : The enzyme ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) catalyzes the reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, and is essential for all organisms. Canonical class I RNR R2 proteins use a diiron cofactor to generate a tyrosyl radical, which is required for catalysis. LÄS MER
3. Electron Transfer in Ruthenium-Manganese Complexes for Artificial Photosynthesis : Studies in Solution and on Electrode Surfaces
Sammanfattning : In today’s society there is an increasing need for energy, an increase which for the most part is supplied by the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel resources are limited and their use has harmful effects on the environment, therefore the development of technologies that produce clean energy sources is very appealing. LÄS MER
Sammanfattning : .... LÄS MER
Sammanfattning : One alternative proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is carbon capture and storage, where the carbon dioxide emitted from large point sources is captured, compressed and stored in underground geological formations. Many of the largest point sources of carbon dioxide are power plants and industries fuelled by fossil fuels or biomass. LÄS MER | <urn:uuid:bd15fb07-3650-4f95-9805-d097f8a895db> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.avhandlingar.se/om/manganese/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184123.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125183823-20201125213823-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.839353 | 427 | 2.703125 | 3 |
OPERATION PAVE: PVA’s Vocational Program!
You should be aware that there are other laws that protect the rights of qualified persons with disabilities from discrimination in an employment context other than Title I of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
What is a reasonable accommodation?
Under the ADA, a reasonable accommodation includes modifications or adjustments that enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job. Whether an accommodation is reasonable in a particular case involves an analysis of the facts of the particular situation, including the cost of the accommodation and the employer’s ability to pay for it. Some examples of possible accommodations include the following: allowing an employee to take time off from work for doctor’s appointments or visits to a therapist; allowing an employee a flexible work schedule so that the employee may work more hours on good days and fewer hours when necessary; restructuring the job description to eliminate non-essential functions; providing a wheelchair accessible work site, a sign language interpreter, or Braille materials; or simply educating and reshaping co-worker attitudes.
How do I ask for a reasonable accommodation?
If you need an accommodation, you should tell your employer (1) that you have a disability (unless your disability is obvious), (2) how your disability interferes with your ability to do your job functions, and (3) what accommodations you need in order to do your job functions. Although you may make your request orally or in writing, it is better practice to put your request in writing so you have a record of it.
What documentation can my employer request?
If the need for an accommodation is not obvious (e.g. an employee uses a wheelchair), an employer can ask the employee for reasonable supporting documentation. This is documentation sufficient to establish that the employee has a covered disability and establish the need for the accommodation the employee seeks. The documentation should not be a “blank check” to seek the employee’s entire medical record.
Is my employer obligated to provide any accommodation that I request?
No. Once your employer knows about your need for an accommodation, he or she must engage in an interactive process with you to help determine what accommodations might be appropriate. Your employer does not have to provide the exact accommodation you are requesting, but must have meaningful discussions with you about what will work and what is reasonable. Employers must make reasonable efforts to determine the appropriate accommodation for you, by consulting with you and giving primary consideration to your preference. The employer may select a less expensive alternative as long as it is appropriate and meets your needs.
Can an employer ever say “no” to my reasonable accommodation request?
Employers are not required to provide an accommodation if it would create an “undue hardship” on the employer. In general, the term “undue hardship” means an action requiring significant difficulty or expense, when considered in light of several factors including the nature and cost of the accommodation as well as the employer’s resources.
How can I work with my employer and protect my rights?
You should participate in the process of developing or implementing the accommodation. If you and your employer do not initially agree on the accommodation, you can offer your employer a referral to accommodation specialists such as the Job Accommodation Network (800 526-7234; http://askjan.org/); or enlist assistance from a third party such as your Department of Rehabilitation Counselor or an advocate. You can also contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): http://www.eeoc.gov.
What can I do if my employer denies my request for reasonable accommodations?
You may file a Title I complaint with the EEOC either by telephone at (800) 669-4000; or visit its website for more information at http://www.eeoc.gov. If the EEOC issues a right-to-sue letter (a letter saying you may file in court), you have 90 days to sue in US Federal District Court. You must receive a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC before filing an action under Title I in court.
Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury or Spinal Cord Disease who may be receiving SSDI or SSI and wish to work may consider calling Paralyzed Veterans of America Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Susan Sprayberry, M.Ed, CRC by phone at (210) 617-5300 x 10148 or email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
If you are a veteran, spouse, or caregiver and are interested in learning more about the PAVE program, please visit: www.operationpave.org. | <urn:uuid:4a6e9a0b-619d-46bd-bffb-ad4ad3c07390> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://www.pvablog.com/reasonable-accommodations-in-the-workplace/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864022.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621040124-20180621060124-00025.warc.gz | en | 0.938894 | 957 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The first duke of Bragança was Afonso (d. 1461), an illegitimate son of the Portuguese king John I. When Portugal gained its independence from Spain in 1640, João II, 8th duke of Bragança, ascended the Portuguese throne as John IV. Thereafter the title duke of Bragança was borne by the heir presumptive to the throne. The new dynasty lasted until the death of Maria II in 1853. Her two sons (Peter V and Louis), grandson (Charles), and great grandson (Manuel II), all of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry (their father’s dynastic house), ruled until the end of the monarchy in 1910.
Meanwhile, after Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822, two successive members of the House of Bragança ruled Brazil as emperors until the formation of the Brazilian republic in 1889. | <urn:uuid:0d440114-d780-4ff5-a2eb-97753d57c9d8> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Braganca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375096991.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031816-00161-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954485 | 193 | 3.109375 | 3 |
There are two forms of knowledge: logos and mythos. From an old post of mine, based on Karen Armstrong’s division of knowledge:
Mythos: “myth”, from greek musteion – to close eyes or mouth. Myth as a mode of Knowledge was rooted in silence and intuitive insight, and gave meaning to life, human existence, but cannot be explained in rational terms. In the premodern world, mythical knowledge was complementary to logos.
Logos: “word” or rational, logical, scientific discourse
Both were essential and complementary ways of arriving at the truth for each had its area of competence. Myth was regarded as primary, for it dealt with the timeless or constant elements of human existence. Myth was about the origins of life, the very foundations of culture and the most essential nature of human mind. However, myth has little to do with practical stuff, or anything other than the meaning of life. If people cannot or do not find significance in their lives, despair is the result. The mythos of a society is the context that makes sense of the daily life, and points at the eternal and universal. Moreover, myth is rooted in unconscious. The various stories of myth, which were not meant to be taken literally, was ancient psychology. All these stories of heroes in the underworld, in labyrinths, and fighting monsters, was the premodern way of dealing with the obscure realm of unconscious, which is completely inaccessible to rational investigation, but had profound effects on experience and behavior. Since myth is absent in modern society we instead developed the science of psychoanalysis to deal with our inner world. Continue reading Mythos and Logos | <urn:uuid:e7ff74a4-79f5-4a82-8534-f71b7179f744> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://www.hyperboreans.com/heterodoxia/?tag=pascal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591837.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20180720213434-20180720233434-00191.warc.gz | en | 0.971679 | 343 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Migration is the movement of people, animals or things from one place to another due to some factors. The reasons for migration can be economic, social, political or environmental. There are usually push factors and pull factors at work. Migration can be internal or international. Internal migration is when people or things migrate within the same country or region – for example, moving from London to Plymouth. International migration is when people migrate from one country to another – for example, moving from Mexico to the USA. People or animals usually migrate from their comfort zone in hope of a better place or thing.
Reading the Natalie Zervou’s review project of Fragments of the European Refugee Crisis: Performing Displacement and the Re-Shaping of Greek Identity reminds me of a question my professor asked us in class in China, why western white migrants are specifically called expatriates and others as migrants? When we come to the definition of expatriate, it means a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The professor left the question suspended but in my view, it reflects hierarchy despite its definition. Zervou highlight migration on her review as, “In the rapidly changing urban demographic of Athens, the performing arts have become the main sites for addressing issues of migration and othering.” This shows how people constantly move to Athens for some factors and these people are addressed as migrants on the article which implies they are not western white people.
I chose migration because it is a forthcoming word when I start thinking about movement. Migration has many forms refugee, resettlement, or step migration. I consider myself as step migrant who migrated from my small village in my country to the capital city and then to the United Arab Emirates now. All these my movements, migration have meaning. | <urn:uuid:3fa31e2b-a7da-4d2e-9f81-4cbd670e4cfe> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://howmovementmakesmeaning.tome.press/migration-project-muse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986705411.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020081806-20191020105306-00114.warc.gz | en | 0.949398 | 368 | 3.125 | 3 |
If there were a pill that could make you feel sexy, energetic and joyful, while producing colorful visions and enhancing your sensory experience, would you try it? Millions of people have tried MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy, to achieve these effects. But at the same time, they have exposed themselves to risks like heart problems, heatstroke, dizziness, muscle spasms, and seizures. On top of that, regular use of Ecstasy can alter your brain chemistry, causing depression, anxiety, dependence and addiction.
What Is Ecstasy?
MDMA, or 3-4 methylenedixoymethamphetamine, was first developed in Germany in the 1900s. In the 1970s, psychiatrists in the US used the drug experimentally to help their patients feel more relaxed and enhance the benefits of psychotherapy. But in the mid-1980s, when the physical and psychological dangers of MDMA became apparent, the drug was made illegal.
MDMA is now classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, along with heroin, LSD and other drugs that have no accepted medical purpose. Using Ecstasy is not only hazardous to your health — it can put you at risk of arrest or even incarceration. However, Ecstasy continues to be one of the most popular designer drugs, especially among teens.
The University of Michigan reports that although Ecstasy use declined among middle school and high school students in the years 2000-2004, it began to increase again after 2005. Although Ecstasy is perceived as less dangerous than other illicit drugs, like cocaine or heroin, it poses a host of risks to the users physical and psychological health.
What Are the Effects?
On the streets, Ecstasy is known as a club drug, or a designer drug. Common slang terms include “Molly,” “X,” “the hug drug,” “lover’s speed” and “XTC.” Available in liquid form or in tablets — sometimes imprinted with cute symbols — Ecstasy is most often used by teenagers and college students at clubs, raves and concerts. Recreational users take the drug for the following effects:
- Feelings of warmth and emotional closeness
- Alterations in sensory experience and time perception
- Feelings of sexual attraction and desire
- Lowering of inhibitions
- Increased self-confidence
Because Ecstasy has multiple chemical properties, it falls under several categories. The drug is classified as a stimulant, a hallucinogen, and an empathogen (a substance that generates feelings of intimacy). It is also classified as an entactogen — a class of drugs that produces all of the above effects. Ecstasy stimulates the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, which regulates moods and certain cognitive functions, and norepinephrine, which boosts energy levels and accelerates vital functions like heart rate.
What Are the Dangers?
The same neurological effects that make Ecstasy so alluring also make it extremely dangerous. In the 1990s, the German scientific journal Nervenarzt warned that although MDMA was considered to be a “safe” drug on the club scene, it actually had dangerous effects on the body and mind, including:
- Potentially fatal hyperthermia, or overheating of the body
- Severe dehydration
- Breakdown of muscle tissue
- Liver and kidney toxicity
- Blood-clotting problems
- Chronic anxiety
In addition to these risks, Ecstasy can raise your heart rate and blood pressure, interfere with sleep, and affect your appetite. Ecstasy can cause unpleasant or terrifying hallucinations and distortions in sensory experience. Because Ecstasy affects the brain’s production of serotonin, long-term use may lead to mood swings, depression, and problems with learning or memory.
Ecstasy lowers inhibitions, which means that even a casual user is exposed to risks like unprotected sex, sexually transmitted diseases, polydrug abuse, and driving while intoxicated. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration notes that in a driving simulator study, a single dose of Ecstasy made drivers more willing to take risks. In addition, that single dose affected the drivers’ information processing speed, their overall cognitive performance, and their ability to control a vehicle. Higher doses only increase the risk of a collision, injury or fatality.
Can I Get Addicted to Ecstasy?
For years, recreational Ecstasy users believed that the drug was not addictive. While Ecstasy may not hold the same addictive power as heroin or cocaine, its effects on serotonin levels can produce symptoms of physical and psychological dependence, such as:
- The need to take more MDMA to get the same effects (tolerance)
- The need to take Ecstasy just to feel physically or psychologically normal
- Failure to stop using Ecstasy, in spite of a strong desire to do so
- Feelings of guilt, depression or remorse after using Ecstasy
According to Brown University, a study of teens and young adults who used Ecstasy found that 34 percent were actively abusing the drug, and nearly 45 percent could be considered dependent.
Recognizing the Signs of Addiction
How can you identify signs of Ecstasy abuse in someone close to you? The following changes in appearance, attitude and behavior may provide clues:
- Giddiness or euphoria
- Changes in sleeping patterns
- Confusion or forgetfulness
- Loss of appetite or weight loss
- Nausea and vomiting
- Reports of muscle pain
- Isolation from family and friends
- Loss of interest in favorite activities
Traditionally, Ecstasy has been used in underground social settings, like concerts or nightclubs. But today, users have started to take the drug in a wider variety of settings, including the privacy of their homes. Just because a teenager isn’t staying out all night or hanging out at clubs doesn’t mean that he or she isn’t experimenting with Ecstasy.
Where Can I Find Help?
If someone you care about has a potential problem with this drug, it’s crucial to seek help to avoid serious health problems, accidental injuries, psychological disturbances, and legal trouble. The addiction treatment specialists at Axis are here to answer your questions and provide the support you need to get help for yourself or a loved one.
Located in Indian Wells and Los Angeles, CA, Axis Treatment Centers provide inpatient and outpatient recovery services for individuals in search of a drug-free life. We offer a full spectrum of resources, including detoxification, intensive psychotherapy, 12-step groups, family counseling, holistic therapies, and aftercare services. Call our toll-free number today to learn about our personalized treatment plans for drug and alcohol rehab. | <urn:uuid:d9007dee-ab9a-45d6-8a78-82e94bbc0d1d> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.axisresidentialtreatment.com/ecstasy-abuse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701161946.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193921-00251-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940285 | 1,371 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Accessibility in User-Centered Design: Reporting Usability Testing
The Evaluating for Accessibility page provides guidance on incorporating accessibility into common evaluation methods, including standards review, heuristic evaluation, design walkthroughs, and informal evaluation with users with disabilities. The Usability Testing section is an overview of usability testing with participants with disabilities.
Analyzing data from and reporting on a usability study that includes participants with disabilities involves the following considerations:
- Distinguishing Between Accessibility and Usability Issues
- Including Relevant Study Parameters
- Being Careful about Categorizations and Comparisons
- Clarifying Conclusions
- Writing about People with Disabilities
In addition to finding accessibility problems, usability testing with participants with disabilities will find general usability problems that impact all users, that is, including users without disabilities.
Understand the difference between accessibility and general usability. The "Accessibility related to usability" section in the Background chapter discusses the relationship between accessibility and usability. There is not a clear distinction between accessibility for people with disabilities and general usability for all. Some things are clearly accessibility; some are clearly usability; and many things are in a gray area where accessibility and usability overlap.
One way to start looking at the distinction between the two is to categorize interface problems:
- Usability problems impact all users equally, regardless of ability; that is, a person with a disability is not disadvantaged to a greater extent by usability issues than a person without a disability.
- Accessibility problems decrease access to a product by people with disabilities. When a person with a disability is at a disadvantage relative to a person without a disability, it is an accessibility issue.
The distinction between usability and accessibility is especially difficult to define when considering cognitive and language disabilities. Many of the accessibility guidelines to improve accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities are the same as general usability guidelines. The distinction is further blurred by the fact that features for people with disabilities benefit people without disabilities because of situational limitations (that is, limitations from circumstance, environment, or device—such as using a mobile phone in bright sunlight with one hand because you're holding a sleeping baby with the other), and accessibility increases general usability.
Another point to cloud the distinction is “usable accessibility”—how usable are accessibility solutions. For example, if a website uses images for navigation and there's no alt text, the site is clearly not accessible. If the site has frustratingly verbose alt text (such as "This image is a line art drawing of a dark green magnifying glass. If you click on it, it will take you to the Search page for this Acme Company website" instead of just "Search"), one might say that the site is technically accessible because there is alt text; however, the alt text is so bad that the usability of the site is awful for anyone who relies on alt text.
Distinguish between usability and accessibility issues, as appropriate. When designing products, it's rarely useful to differentiate between usability and accessibility. However, there are times when such a distinction is important, such as when looking at discrimination against people with disabilities and when defining specific accessibility standards. In some usability test reporting it may be important to distinguish between accessibility and usability problems.
When usability test reports are used internally to improve the usability of the product for all users, it is usually not necessary to distinguish between usability and accessibility issues. However, when usability test reports make statements about accessibility, it can be vital to distinguish between usability and accessibility issues.
There can be problems when people don't understand the issues around the distinction between usability and accessibility.
A research study reported results on website accessibility without clearly separating general usability issues not related to accessibility. Because usability issues were mixed with accessibility issues, the study reported incorrect conclusions about web accessibility guidelines.
Academic discussions of accessibility and usability can actually harm the cause of accessibility if they are not presented carefully for people who don't understand the complexity of the issue.
Include relevant study details in published reports of usability testing with people with disabilities. In order for readers to understand and use study data, you may need to include more details than usual on the scope of the study and the evaluation parameters, such as testing methods and user characteristics. For example, in some study reports you may only generally list the software used; however, in a study that includes screen readers, it is usually important to also list version numbers and even customization settings because these impact study results and their applicability to other situations.
Include relevant participant characteristics in the report, and don't include irrelevant participant information. Generally internal reports for product design need little participant information; whereas a public research report might need more.
A participant's specific medical diagnosis and personal history are usually not relevant. Information that usually is relevant includes the adaptive strategies and assistive technologies used and the participant's experience with similar products. For example, that the participant has been blind from birth and has been using a mobile phone for 5 years is relevant; whereas, the medical condition that caused blindness is probably not relevant.
Confirm that any categorizations are appropriate and useful. See "Careful with categorization" in the Planning Usability Testing section.
Confirm that any comparisons are appropriate and useful. Be careful about reporting comparisons, especially with small sample sizes.
In one case, a published usability test report compared data between participants with disabilities and participants without disabilities. The products evaluated had poor accessibility and thus the results showed poor performance by participants with disabilities. Had the study included accessible products, it could have shown that it was the inaccessibility of the products that caused the poor performance, instead of leaving some readers to conclude that participants with disabilities always have poorer performance.
Clearly indicate what the report asserts and what it does not assert, especially when people who are not familiar with accessibility evaluation will likely read the report. For example, if a study included only participants who are blind, its report should clarify that it did not evaluate conformance to accessibility guidelines and that it does not apply to all people with visual disabilities, nor people with other disabilities. Thus the report can help readers draw appropriate conclusions.
Avoid the pitfall that a few participants represent all people with disabilities, as explained in the "Individual Differences" section of Analysis Phase.
Successful usability test results do not guarantee that the product is accessible to all people with disabilities, nor that it conforms to accessibility standards. Even large-scale usability studies cannot cover the diversity of disabilities, adaptive strategies, and assistive technologies. Use other evaluation techniques described in Evaluating for Accessibility to help cover the diversity, and standards review to determine if a product meets standards.
Use appropriate language to refer to people with and without disabilities. See "Use 'people first' language" and "Avoid potentially offensive terms or euphemisms" in the Interacting with People with Disabilities chapter for more guidance related to writing about people with disabilities.
When referring to participants who are not disabled, use "people without disabilities" or "nondisabled." Avoid "normal," "able-bodied," and "healthy," in contrast with people with disabilities.
In writing usability reports, don't portray a successful participant with a disability as superhuman or a hero. Report about participants with disabilities in the same tone that you would use in writing about any usability test participant.
The next section provides a reference for this chapter on usability testing with participants with disabilities: a checklist.
- Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities. The Arc of the United States. | <urn:uuid:f49925c8-7d64-4f7a-ac2d-4957fd9a761e> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.uiaccess.com/accessucd/ut_report.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189667.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00025-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945921 | 1,530 | 3.359375 | 3 |
White spots or white patches in mouth can be due to varied number of causes. White spots are common symptoms of infection, trauma, inflammation and malignancy. These can result from pathogens like bacteria, fungi, or viruses as these can inflame the lining of the mouth and cause swelling, redness and ulcers as well.
These spots can appear anywhere inside the oral cavity on the mucus membrane like tongue, gums, inner cheeks and manifest in the form of groups and patches.
One of the most common causes of white spots in mouth is Oral Thrush that is a mouth infection caused by Candida, a yeast germ. This is not a serious condition and can be cured with proper treatment. Let’s look at the causes of white spots in mouth in details:
We all have a small amount of Candida albicans living in our mouth but that is healthy and harmless but when this percentage increases, it leads to Oral Thrush. Certain conditions can lead to the overgrowth of Candida and cause Oral Thrush like ill-fitting dentures, using antibacterial mouthwash for a long time, use of inhalers or steroids, intake of certain antibiotics, diabetes, lack of vitamin B12 or iron etc. Smokers and people who have a weak immune system are also more likely to get this infection.
This is not contagious in nature and results in white spots that form a spider-web pattern and it affects the mucus membrane inside the oral cavity. This condition is caused by nutritional deficiencies, tobacco chewing, allergenic reactions, smoking etc.
In this case, the white spots manifests into white patches and appear mostly near the molars on the buccal mucosa. These spots can be pulled out and are asymptotic in nature and can be caused by smoking, tobacco chewing etc.
Some of the other probable causes of white spots in mouth are:
- Mouth ulcers
- Keratosis pharyngis
The treatment depends on the causes of the white spots:
- Anti Thrush Tablets: There are anti thrush tablets available that helps in getting rid of the thrush infection present in your body. These are recommended by the doctors when it is serious case of oral thrush. Tablets need to be taken for a period of 7 days which clears the infection usually. Oral thrush as already mentioned can be caused if you are taking some other medications like antibiotics and steroids. Doctors might change these medications or lower to dose in order to get rid of oral thrush infection.
- In case of ill fitting dentures, these need to be replaced properly
- Lichen planus has no treatment and the doctor might prescribe anti inflammatory drugs to sooth any inflammation and pain
- Intake of tobacco should be stopped in case of leukoplakia and you would need to use vitamin A enriched ointment.
When you see white spots in your mouth, do not touch them and visit the doctor immediately so as to know the reason and thus start the treatment. | <urn:uuid:973c2f9d-a13a-4204-90ed-3be4323a2a6f> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://healthwatchcenter.com/2015/09/white-spots-mouth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146744.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20200227160355-20200227190355-00150.warc.gz | en | 0.933658 | 616 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Part One of the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences: The Logic
Development of the Object
Mechanism - Chemism - Teleology
The Object is immediate being, because insensible to difference, which in it has suspended itself. It is, further, a totality in itself, while at the same time (as this identity is only the implicit identity of its dynamic elements) it is equally indifferent to its immediate unity. It thus breaks up into distinct parts, each of which is itself the totality. Hence the object is the absolute contradiction between a complete independence of the multiplicity, and the equally complete non-independence of the different pieces.
The definition, which states that the Absolute is the Object, is most definitely implied in the Leibnitzian Monad. The Monads are each an object, but an object implicitly 'representative', indeed the total representation of the world. In the simple unity of the Monad, all difference is merely ideal, not independent or real. Nothing from without comes into the monad: it is the whole notion in itself, only distinguished by its own greater or less development. None the less, this simple totality parts into the absolute multeity of differences, each becoming an independent monad. In the monad of monads, and the Pre-established Harmony of their inward developments, these substances are in like manner again reduced to 'identity' and unsubstantiality. The philosophy of Leibnitz, therefore, represents contradiction in its complete development.
(1) As Fichte in modern times has especially and with justice insisted, the theory which regards the Absolute or God as the Object and there stops, expresses the point of view taken by superstition and slavish fear. No doubt God is the Object, and, indeed, the Object out and out, confronted with which our particular or subjective opinions and desires have no truth and no validity. As absolute object, however, God does not therefore take up the position of a dark and hostile power over against subjectivity. He rather involves it as a vital element in himself. Such also is the meaning of the Christian doctrine, according to which God has willed that all men should be saved and all attain blessedness. The salvation and the blessedness of men are attained when they come to feel themselves at one with God, so that God, on the other hand, ceases to be for them mere object, and, in that way, an object of fear and terror, as was especially the case with the religious consciousness of the Romans. But God in the Christian religion is also known as Love, because in his Son, who is one with him, he has revealed himself to men as a man among men, and thereby redeemed them. All of which is only another way of saying that the antithesis of subjective and objective is implicitly overcome, and that it is our affair to participate in this redemption by laying aside our immediate subjectivity (putting off the old Adam), and learning to know God as our true and essential self.
Just as religion and religious worship consist in overcoming the antithesis of subjectivity and objectivity, so science too and philosophy have no other task than to overcome this antithesis by the medium of thought. The aim of knowledge is to divest the objective world that stands opposed to us of its strangeness, and, as the phrase is, to find ourselves at home in it: which means no more than to trace the objective world back to the notion - to our innermost self. We may learn from the present discussion the mistake of regarding the antithesis of subjectivity and objectivity as an abstract and permanent one. The two are wholly dialectical. The notion is at first only subjective: but without the assistance of any foreign material or stuff it proceeds, in obedience to its own action, to objectify itself. So, too, the object is not rigid and processless. Its process is to show itself as what is at the same time subjective, and thus form the step onwards to the idea. Any one who, from want of familiarity with the categories of subjectivity and objectivity, seeks to retain them in their abstraction will find that the isolated categories slip through his fingers before he is aware, and that he says the exact contrary of what he wanted to say.
(2) Objectivity contains the three forms of Mechanism, Chemism, and Teleology. The object of mechanical type is the immediate and undifferentiated object. No doubt it contains difference, but the different pieces stand, as it were, without affinity to each other, and their connection is only extraneous. In chemism, on the contrary, the object exhibits an essential tendency to differentiation, in such a way that the objects are what they are only by their relation to each other: this tendency to difference constitutes their quality. The third type of objectivity, the teleological relation, is the unity of mechanism and chemism. Design, like the mechanical object, is a self-contained totality, enriched however by the principle of differentiation which came to the fore in chemism, and thus referring itself to the object that stands over against it. Finally, it is the realisation of design which forms the transition to the Idea.
The object (1) in its immediacy is the notion only potentially; the notion as subjective is primarily outside it; and all its specific character is imposed from without. As a unity of differents, therefore, it is a composite, an aggregate; and its capacity of acting on anything else continues to be an external relation. This is Formal Mechanism. Notwithstanding, and in this connection and non-independence, the objects remain independent and offer resistance, external to each other.
Pressure and impact are examples of mechanical relations. Our knowledge is said to be mechanical or by rote, when the words have no meaning for us, but continue external to sense, conception, thought; and when, being similarly external to each other, they form a meaningless sequence. Conduct, piety, etc., are in the same way mechanical, when a man's behaviour is settled for him by ceremonial laws, by a spiritual adviser, etc.; in short, when his own mind and will are not in his actions, which in this way are extraneous to himself.
Mechanism, the first form of objectivity, is also the category which primarily offers itself to reflection, as it examines the objective world. It is also the category beyond which reflection seldom goes. It is, however, a shallow and superficial mode of observation, one that cannot carry us through in connection with Nature and still less in connection with the world of Mind. In Nature it is only the veriest abstract relations of matter in its inert masses which obey the law of mechanism. On the contrary the phenomena and operations of the province to which the term 'physical' in its narrower sense is applied, such as the phenomena of light, heat, magnetism, and electricity, cannot be explained by any mere mechanical processes, such as pressure, impact, displacement of parts, and the like.
Still less satisfactory is it to transfer these categories and apply them in the field of organic nature; at least if it be our aim to understand the specific features of that field, such as the growth and nourishment of plants, or, it may be, even animal sensation. It is at any rate a very deep-seated, and perhaps the main, defect of modern researches into nature, that, even where other and higher categories than those of mere mechanism are in operation, they still stick obstinately to the mechanical laws; although they thus conflict with the testimony of unbiased perception, and foreclose the gate to an adequate knowledge of nature. But even in considering the formations in the world of Mind, the mechanical theory has been repeatedly invested with an authority which it has no right to. Take as an instance the remark that man consists of soul and body. In this language, the two things stand each self-subsistent, and associated only from without. Similarly we find the soul regarded as a mere group of forces and faculties, subsisting independently side by side.
Thus decidedly must we reject the mechanical mode of inquiry when it comes forward and arrogates to itself the place of rational cognition in general, and seeks to get mechanism accepted as an absolute category. But we must not on that account forget expressly to vindicate for mechanism the right and import of a general logical category. It would be, therefore, a mistake to restrict it to the special physical department from which it derives its name. There is no harm done, for example, in directing attention to mechanical actions, such as that of gravity, the lever, etc., even in departments, notably in physics and in physiology, beyond the range of mechanics proper. It must however be remembered that within these spheres the laws of mechanism cease to be final or decisive, and sink, as it were, to a subservient position. To which may be added that in Nature, when the higher or organic functions are in any way checked or disturbed in their normal efficiency, the otherwise subordinate category of mechanism is immediately seen to take the upper hand. Thus a sufferer from indigestion feels pressure on the stomach, after partaking of certain food in slight quantity; whereas those whose digestive organs are sound remain free from the sensation, although they have eaten as much. The same phenomenon occurs in the general feeling of heaviness in the limbs, experienced in bodily indisposition. Even in the world of Mind, mechanism has its place; though there, too, it is a subordinate one. We are right in speaking of mechanical memory, and all sorts of mechanical operations, such as reading, writing, playing on musical instruments, etc. In memory, indeed, the mechanical quality of the action is essential: a circumstance of which the neglect has not unfrequently caused great harm in the training of the young, from the misapplied zeal of modern educationalists for the freedom of intelligence. It would betray bad psychology, however, to have recourse to mechanism for an explanation of the nature of memory, and to apply mechanical laws straight off to the soul. The mechanical feature in memory lies merely in the fact that certain signs, tones, etc., are apprehended in their purely external association, and then reproduced in this association, without attention being expressly directed to their meaning and inward association. To become acquainted with these conditions of mechanical memory requires no further study of mechanics, nor would that study tend at all to advance the special inquiry of psychology.
The want of stability in itself which allows the object to suffer violence, is possessed by it (see preceding §) only in so far as it has a certain stability. Now as the object is implicitly invested with the character of notion, the one of these characteristics is not merged into its other; but the object, through the negation of itself (its lack of independence), closes with itself, and not till it so closes, is it independent. Thus at the same time in distinction from the outwardness, and negativing that outwardness in its independence, does this independence form a negative unity with self - Centrality (subjectivity). So conceived, the other itself has direction and reference towards the external. But this external object is similarly central in itself, and being so, is no less only referred towards the other centre; so that it no less has its centrality in the other. This is (2) Mechanism with Affinity (with bias, or 'difference'), and may be illustrated by gravitation, appetite, social instinct, etc.
This relation, when fully carried out, forms a syllogism. In that syllogism the immanent negativity, as the central individuality of an object (abstract centre) relates itself to non-independent objects, as the other extreme, by a mean which unites the centrality with the non-independence of the objects (relative centre). This is (3) Absolute Mechanism.
The syllogism thus indicated (I - P - U) is a triad of syllogisms. The wrong individuality of non-independent objects, in which formal Mechanism is at home, is, by reason of that non-independence, no less universality, though it be only external. Hence these objects also form the mean between the absolute-and the relative centre (the form of syllogism being U - I - P): for it is by this want of independence that those two are kept asunder and made extremes, as well as related to one another. Similarly absolute centrality, as the permanently underlying universal substance (illustrated by the gravity which continues identical), which as pure negativity equally includes individuality in it, is what mediates between the relative centre and the non-independent objects (the form of syllogism being P - U - I). It does so no less essentially as a disintegrating force, in its character of immanent individuality, than in virtue of universality, acting as an identical bond of union and tranquil self-containedness. Like the solar system, so for example in the practical sphere, the state is a system of three syllogisms.
(1) The Individual or person, through his particularity or physical or mental needs (which when carried out to their full development give civil society), is coupled with the universal, i.e. with society, law, right, government.
(2) The will or action of the individuals is the intermediating force which procures for these needs satisfaction in society, in law, etc., and which gives to society, law, etc., their fulfilment and actualisation.
(3) But the universal, that is to say the state, government, and law, is the permanent underlying mean in which the individuals and their satisfaction have and receive their fulfilled reality, intermediation, and persistence. Each of the functions of the notion, as it is brought by intermediation to coalesce with the other extreme, is brought into union with itself and produces itself: which production is self-preservation. It is only by the nature of this triple coupling, by this triad of syllogisms with the same terming that a whole is thoroughly understood in its organisation.
The immediacy of existence, which the objects have in Absolute Mechanism, is implicitly negatived by the fact that their independence is derived from, and due to, their connections with each other, and therefore to their own want of stability. Thus the object must be explicitly stated as in its existence having an Affinity (or a bias) towards its other - as not-indifferent.
The not-indifferent (biased) object has an immanent mode which constitutes its nature, and in which it has existence. But as it is invested with the character of total notion, it is the contradiction between this totality and the special mode of its existence. Consequently it is the constant endeavour to cancel this contradiction and to make its definite being equal to the notion.
Chemism is a category of objectivity which, as a rule, is not particularly emphasised, and is generally put under the head of mechanism. The common name of mechanical relationship is applied to both, in contradistinction to the teleological. There is a reason for this in the common feature which belongs to mechanism and chemism. In them the notion exists, but only implicit and latent, and they are thus both marked off from teleology where the notion has real independent existence. This is true: and yet chemism and mechanism are very decidedly distinct. The object, in the form of mechanism, is primarily only an indifferent reference to self, while the chemical object is seen to be completely in reference to something else. No doubt even in mechanism, as it develops itself, there spring up references to something else: but the nexus of mechanical objects with one another is at first only an external nexus, so that the objects in connection with one another still retain the semblance of independence.
In nature, for example, the several celestial bodies, which form our solar system, compose a kinetic system, and thereby show that they are related to one another. Motion, however, as the unity of time and space, is a connection which is purely abstract and external. And it seems therefore as if these celestial bodies, which are thus externally connected with each other, would continue to be what they are, even apart from this reciprocal relation. The case is quite different with chemism. Objects chemically biased are what they are expressly by that bias alone. Hence they are the absolute impulse towards integration by and in one another.
The product of the chemical process consequently is the Neutral object, latent in the two extremes, each on the alert. The notion or concrete universal, by means of the bias of the objects (the particularity), coalesces with the individuality (in the shape of the product), and in that only with itself. In this process too the other syllogisms are equally involved. The place of mean is taken both by individuality as activity, and by the concrete universal, the essence of the strained extremes; which essence reaches definite being in the product.
Chemism, as it is a reflectional nexus of objectivity, has pre-supposed, not merely the bias or non-indifferent nature of the objects, but also their immediate independence. The process of chemism consists in passing to and fro from one form to another; which forms continue to be as external as before. In the neutral product the specific properties, which the extremes bore towards each other, are merged. But although the product is conformable to the notion, the inspiring principle of active differentiation does not exist in it; for it has sunk back to immediacy. The neutral body is therefore capable of disintegration. But the discerning principle, which breaks up the neutral body into biased and strained extremes, and which gives to the indifferent object in general its affinity and animation towards another; that principle, and the process as a separation with tension, falls outside of that first process.
The chemical process does not rise above a conditioned and finite process. The notion as notion is only the heart and core of the process, and does not in this stage come to an existence of its own. In the neutral product the process is extinct, and the existing cause falls outside it.
Each of these two processes, the reduction of the biased (not-indifferent) to the neutral, and the differentiation of the indifferent or neutral, goes its own way without hindrance from the other. But that want of inner connection shows that they are finite, by their passage into products in which they are merged and lost. Conversely the process exhibits the nonentity of the presupposed immediacy of the not-indifferent objects. By this negation of immediacy and of externalism in which the notion as object was sunk, it is liberated and invested with independent being in face of that externalism and immediacy. In these circumstances it is the End (Final Cause).
The passage from chemism to the teleological relation is implied in the mutual cancelling of both of the forms of the chemical process. The result thus attained is the liberation of the notion, which in chemism and mechanism was present only in the germ, and not yet evolved. The notion in the shape of the aim or end thus comes into independent existence.
In the End the notion has entered on free existence and has a being of its own, by means of the negation of immediate objectivity. It is characterised as subjective, seeing that this negation is, in the first place, abstract, and hence at first the relation between it and objectivity still one of contrast. This character of subjectivity, however, compared with the totality of the notion, is one-sided, and that, be it added, for the End itself, in which all specific characters have been put as subordinated and merged. For it therefore even the object, which it presupposes, has only hypothetical (ideal) reality - essentially no-reality. The End, in short, is a contradiction of its self-identity against the negation stated in it, i.e. its antithesis to objectivity, and being so, contains the eliminative or destructive activity which negates the antithesis and renders it identical with itself. This is the realisation of the End: in which, while it turns itself into the other of its subjectivity and objectifies itself, thus cancelling the distinction between the two, it has only closed with itself, and retained itself.
The notion of Design or End, while on one hand called redundant, is on another justly described as the rational notion, and contrasted with the abstract universal of understanding. The latter only subsumes the particular, and so connects it with itself: but has it not in its own nature. The distinction between the End or final cause, and the mere efficient cause (which is the cause ordinarily so called), is of supreme importance. Causes, properly so called, belong to the sphere of necessity, blind, and not yet laid bare. The cause therefore appears as passing into its correlative, and losing its primordiality thereby sinking into dependency. It is only by implication, or for us, that the cause is in the effect made for the first time a cause, and that it there returns into itself. The End, on the other hand, is expressly stated as containing the specific character in its own self - the effect, namely, which in the purely causal relation is never free from otherness. The End therefore in its efficiency does not pass over, but retains itself, i.e. it carries into effect itself only, and is at the end what it was in the beginning or primordial state. Until it thus retains itself, it is not genuinely primordial. The End then requires to be speculatively apprehended as the notion, which itself in the proper unity and ideality of its characteristics contains the judgment or negation - the antithesis of subjective and objective - and which to an equal extent suspends that antithesis.
By End however we must not at once, nor must we ever merely, think of the form which it has in consciousness as a mode of mere mental representation. By means of the notion of Inner Design Kant has resuscitated the Idea in general and particularly the idea of life. Aristotle's definition of life virtually implies inner design, and is thus far in advance of the notion of design in modern Teleology, which had in view finite and outward design only.
Animal wants and appetites are some of the readiest instances of the End. They are the felt contradiction, which exists within the living subject, and pass into the activity of negating this negation which mere subjectivity still is. The satisfaction of the want or appetite restores the peace between subject and object. The objective thing which, so long as the contradiction exists, i.e. so long as the want is felt, stands on the other side, loses this quasi-independence, by its union with the subject. Those who talk of the permanence and immutability of the finite, as well subjective as objective, may see the reverse illustrated in the operations of every appetite. Appetite is, so to speak, the conviction that the subjective is only a half-truth, no more adequate than the objective. But appetite in the second place carries out its conviction. It brings about the supersession of these finites: it cancels the antithesis between the objective which would be and stay an objective only, and the subjective which in like manner would be and stay a subjective only.
As regards the action of the End, attention may be called to the fact, that in the syllogism, which represents that action, and shows the end closing with itself by the means of realisation, the radical feature is the negation of the termini. That negation is the one just mentioned both of the immediate subjectivity appearing in the End as such, and of the immediate objectivity as seen in the means and the objects presupposed. This is the same negation as is in operation when the mind leaves the contingent things of the world as well as its own subjectivity and rises to God. It is the 'moment' or factor which (as noticed in the Introduction and § 192) was overlooked and neglected in the analytic form of syllogisms, under which the so-called proofs of the Being of a God presented this elevation.
In its primary and immediate aspect the Teleological relation is external design, and the notion confronts a presupposed object. The End is consequently finite, and that partly in its content, partly in the circumstance that it has an external condition in the object, which has to be found existing, and which is taken as material for its realisation. Its self-determining is to that extent in form only. The unmediatedness of the End has the further result that its particularity or content - which as form-characteristic is the subjectivity of the End - is reflected into self, and so different from the totality of the form, subjectivity in general, the notion. This variety constitutes the finitude of Design within its own nature. The content of the End, in this way, is quite as limited, contingent, and given, as the object is particular and found ready to hand.
Generally speaking, the final cause is taken to mean nothing more than external design. In accordance with this view of it, things are supposed not to carry their vocation in themselves, but merely to be means employed and spent in realising a purpose which lies outside of them. That may be said to be the point of view taken by Utility, which once played a great part even in the sciences, but of late has fallen into merited disrepute, now that people have begun to see that it failed to give a genuine insight into the nature of things. It is true that finite things as finite ought in justice to be viewed as non-ultimate, and as pointing beyond themselves. This negativity of finite things however is their own dialectic, and in order to ascertain it we must pay attention to their positive content.
Teleological observations on things often proceed from a well-meant wish to display the wisdom of God as it is especially revealed in nature. Now in thus trying to discover final causes for which the things serve as means, we must remember that we are stopping short at the finite, and are liable to fall into trifling reflections: as, for instance, if we not merely studied the vine in respect of its well-known use for man, but proceeded to consider the cork-tree in connection with the corks which are cut from its bark to put into the wine-bottles. Whole books used to be written in this spirit. It is easy to see that they promoted the genuine interest neither of religion nor of science. External design stands immediately in front of the idea: but what thus stands on the threshold often for that reason is least adequate.
The teleological relation is a syllogism in which the subjective end coalesces with the objectivity external to it, through a middle term which is the unity of both. This unity is on one hand the purposive action, on the other the Means, i.e. objectivity made directly subservient to purpose.
The development from End to Idea ensues by three stages, first, Subjective End; second, End in process of accomplishment; and third, End accomplished. First of all we have the Subjective End; and that, as the notion in independent being, is itself the totality of the elementary functions of the notion. The first of these functions is that of self-identical universality, as it were the neutral first water, in which everything is involved, but nothing as yet discriminated. The second of these elements is the particularising of this universal, by which it acquires a specific content. As this specific content again is realised by the agency of the universal, the latter returns by its means back to itself, and coalesces with itself. Hence too when we set some end before us, we say that we 'conclude' to do something: a phrase which implies that we were, so to speak, open and accessible to this or that determination. Similarly we also at a further step speak of a man 'resolving' to do something, meaning that the agent steps forward out of his self-regarding inwardness and enters into dealings with the environing objectivity. This supplies the step from the merely Subjective End to the purposive action which tends outwards.
(1) The first syllogism of the final cause represents the Subjective End. The universal notion is brought to unite with individuality by means of particularity, so that the individual as self-determination acts as judge. That is to say, it not only particularises or makes into a determinate content the still indeterminate universal, but also explicitly puts an antithesis of subjectivity and objectivity, and at the same time is in its own self a return to itself; for it stamps the subjectivity of the notion, presupposed as against objectivity, with the mark of defect, in comparison with the complete and rounded totality, and thereby at the same time turns outwards.
(2) This action which is directed outwards is the individuality, which in the Subjective End is identical with the particularity under which, along with the content, is also comprised the external objectivity. It throws itself in the first place immediately upon the object, which it appropriates to itself as a Means. The notion is this immediate power; for the notion is the self-identical negativity, in which the being of the object is characterised as wholly and merely ideal. The whole Middle Term is this inward power of the notion, in the shape of an agency, with which the object as Means is immediately united and in obedience to which it stands.
In finite teleology the Middle Term is broken up into two elements external to each other, (a) the action and (b) the object which serves as Means. The relation of the final cause as power to this object, and the subjugation of the object to it, is immediate (it forms the first premise in the syllogism) to this extent, that in the teleological notion as the self-existent ideality the object is put as potentially null. This relation, as represented in the first premise, itself becomes the Middle Term, which at the same time involves the syllogism, that through this relation-in which the action of the End is contained and dominant-the End is coupled with objectivity.
The execution of the End is the mediated mode of realising the End; but the immediate realisation is not less needful. The End lays hold of the object immediately, because it is the power over the object, because in the End particularity, and in particularity objectivity also, is involved. A living being has a body; the soul takes possession of it and without intermediary has objectified itself in it. The human soul has much to do, before it makes its corporeal nature into a means. Man must, as it were, take possession of his body, so that it may be the instrument of his soul.
(3) Purposive action, with its Means, is still directed outwards, because the End is also not identical with the object, and must consequently first be mediated with it. The Means in its capacity of object stands, in this second premise, in direct relation to the other extreme of the syllogism, namely, the material or objectivity which is presupposed. This relation is the sphere of chemism and mechanism, which have now become the servants of the Final Cause, where lies their truth and free notion. Thus the Subjective End, which is the power ruling these processes, in which the objective things wear themselves out on one another, contrives to keep itself free from them, and to preserve itself in them. Doing so, it appears as the Cunning of reason.
Reason is as cunning as it is powerful. Cunning may be said to lie in the intermediative action which, while it permits the objects to follow their own bent and act upon one another till they waste away, and does not itself directly interfere in the process, is nevertheless only working out its own aims. With this explanation, Divine Providence may be said to stand to the world and its process in the capacity of absolute cunning. God lets men do as they please with their particular passions and interests; but the result is the accomplishment of - not their plans, but his, and these differ decidedly from the ends primarily sought by those whom he employs.
The Realised End is thus the overt unity of subjective and objective. It is however essentially characteristic of this unity, that the subjective and objective are neutralised and cancelled only in the point of their one-sidedness, while the objective is subdued and made conformable to the End, as the free notion, and thereby to the power above it. The End maintains itself against and in the objective: for it is no mere one-sided subjective or particular, it is also the concrete universal, the implicit identity of both. This universal, as simply reflected in itself, is the content which remains unchanged through all the three termini of the syllogism and their movement.
In Finite Design, however, even the executed End has the same radical rift or flaw as had the Means and the initial End. We have got therefore only a form extraneously impressed on a pre-existing material: and this form, by reason of the limited content of the End, is also a contingent characteristic. The End achieved consequently is only an object, which again becomes a Means or material for other Ends, and so on for ever.
But what virtually happens in the realising of the End is that the one-sided subjectivity and the show of objective independence confronting it are both cancelled. In laying hold of the means, the notion constitutes itself the very implicit essence of the object. In the mechanical and chemical processes, the independence of the object has been already dissipated implicitly, and in the course of their movement under the dominion of the End, the show of that independence, the negative which confronts the Notion, is got rid of. But in the fact that the End achieved is characterised only as a Means and a material, this object, viz. the teleological, is there and then put as implicitly null, and only 'ideal'. This being so, the antithesis between form and content has also vanished. While the End by the removal and absorption of all form-characteristics coalesces with itself, the form as self-identical is thereby put as the content, so that the notion, which is the action of form, has only itself for content. Through this process, therefore, there is made explicitly manifest what was the notion of design: viz. the implicit unity of subjective and objective is now realised. And this is the Idea.
This finitude of the End consists in the circumstance, that, in the process of realising it, the material, which is employed as a means, is only externally subsumed under it and made conformable to it. But, as a matter of fact, the object is the notion implicitly: and thus when the notion, in the shape of End, is realised in the object, we have but the manifestation of the inner nature of the object itself. Objectivity is thus, as it were, only a covering under which the notion lies concealed. Within the range of the finite we can never see or experience that the End has been really secured. The consummation of the infinite End, therefore, consists merely in removing the illusion which makes it seem yet unaccomplished. The Good, the absolutely Good, is eternally accomplishing itself in the world: and the result is that it need not wait upon us, but is already by implication, as well as in full actuality, accomplished. This is the illusion under which we live. It alone supplies at the same time the actualising force on which the interest in the world reposes.
In the course of its process the Idea creates that illusion, by setting an antithesis to confront it; and its action consists in getting rid of the illusion which it has created. Only out of this error does the truth arise. In this fact lies the reconciliation with error and with finitude. Error or other-being, when superseded, is still a necessary dynamic element of truth: for truth can only be where it makes itself its own result.
The Idea (next section)
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Music piracy is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent. It has a long history, as Beethoven was afflicted with pirated copies of his music, which reduced the income he could make from publishing. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which is a civil wrong and, under certain circumstances, even a crime in many countries. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy about copyright piracy, regarding the ethics of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing, and the very scope of what ought to be considered "piracy"—and cases involving the piracy of music were among the most frequently discussed in the debate.
Music piracy was very limited in the decades prior to the invention of the internet and digital media. With the invention of newer technology that allowed for the piracy process to become less complicated, it became much more common. Users of the web began adding media files to the internet, and prior potential risks and difficulties to pirating music, such as the physicality of the process, were eliminated. It was much easier for people with little to no knowledge of technology and old piracy methods to gather media files.
The first application that demonstrated the implications of music piracy was Napster. Napster enabled users to exchange music files over a common free server without any regard for copyright laws. Napster was quickly shut down after a lawsuit filed by Metallica and a separate lawsuit in regards to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Other music sharing services such as Limewire continued to be a resource to those searching for free music files. These platforms were also removed after a few years of service due to copyright laws and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. After finding some loopholes, piracy began to exist in more legal forms, an example being Pirate Bay. This technical legality was due to the format of the websites and their country of origin and administration. The websites were set up so that the site itself did not host any of the illegal files, but gave the user a map as to where they could access the files. Additionally, in Pirate Bay's case, the website was hosted under Swedish law, where this “map” was not illegal.
Arguments over legality
In face of the growing encroachment on potential sales from internet piracy, industry associations like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have lobbied for stricter laws and stricter punishment of those breaking copyright law. Record companies have also turned to technological barriers to copying, such as DRM, to some controversy. These organizations have tried to add more controls to the digital copy of the music to prevent consumers from copying the music. For the most part, the industry has come to a consensus that, if not DRM, then some similar measures are necessary for them to continue to make a profit.
According to the article, "The Illegal Downloading Debate: Is it OK to Download Songs without Paying?" By Stephen Richards, Copyright laws are put into place to try to ensure that people in creative industries (filmmakers, musicians, music engineers, writers, composers, software developers etc.) are able to get paid for the things they create (their intellectual property). If artists work hard to compose and record songs, shouldn’t they be able to gain financial rewards like professionals in any other field? Not paying for something which is supposed to be paid for, no matter whether it is a physical object or not, is still wrong.
Critics of the record companies' strategy have proposed that the attempts to maintain sales rates are impeding the rights of legitimate listeners to use and listen to the music as they wish. When the US Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1909, it deliberately gave less copyright control to music composers than that of novelists: "Its fear was the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle follow-on creativity". According to the internationally established Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, "Existing laws and regulations may be too broad and general to deal adequately with the rapid technological developments that facilitate digital piracy, and policy makers may need to consider enacting some specific provisions to deal with these infringements. Such provisions should not unduly impede legitimate digital communications, nor unreasonably impact on the Internet as an effective communications platform, commercial channel and educational tool..."
There have been several means of free access to copyrighted music for the general public including Napster, Limewire, and Spotify. Napster was a free file sharing software created by college student Shawn Fanning to enable people to share and trade music files in mp3 format. Napster became hugely popular because it made it so easy to share and download music files. However, the heavy metal band Metallica sued the company for copyright infringement. This led to other artists following suit and shutting down Napster’s service. Likewise, Limewire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing software similar to that of Napster. The software enabled unlimited file sharing between computers and ended being one of the most popular sharing networks around. Like Napster, Limewire struggled through multiple legal battles and inevitably wound up being shut down.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) since Shawn Fanning started the program file sharing program Napster in 1999 music revenue has gone down 53% from $14.6 billion to $7.0 billion in 2013. A study done in 2007 by the Institute of Policy Innovation music piracy resulted in a loss of 71,060 U.S. jobs, out of which 23,860 would have been in the recording industry and 44,200 jobs in other unrelated industries.
The RIAA, a powerful lobby for the recording industry, is responsible for carrying out most of the lawsuits against music piracy in the United States. Some claim that the enforcement against music piracy, which may cost copyright violators up to $150,000 per infringement, is unreasonable, and that it may even violate United States constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Some have accused the RIAA of outright bullying, as when one of their lawyers, Matt Oppenheimer, told the defendant in one lawsuit, “You don’t want to pay another visit to a dentist like me". In that same case, according to Lawrence Lessig, "the RIAA insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny [the defendant] had saved".
Further attempts at progress towards controlling the privacy of public media content by targeting the elimination of piracy were made when the highly anticipated yet often debated bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was passed in recent years. The bill was first introduced in October 2011 by the United States House representative Lamar S. Smith. The general scope of the law was to fulfill the goal of putting a stop to online piracy by expanding upon existing criminal laws regarding copyright violations. The essential goal of the bill was to protect intellectual property of content creators by raising awareness of the severity of punishments for copyright infringement. Naturally, the bill was met with considerable opposition from various parties. One instance of this was an article comment by Edward J. Black, president and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, who questioned the potential effectiveness of the bill by reasoning that the major pirate websites that SOPA attempts to eliminate could just as easily respawn under a different name if taken down as early as a few hours later. Additionally, strong protest attempts were made across the internet when numerous high profile online organizations including Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and participating in American Censorship Day on January 18, with some sites including Reddit and Wikipedia going as far as completely blacking out all of their pages, redirecting the user to SOPA protest messages. Ultimately, as a result of aggressive protests and lack of consenting opinions within the congress, SOPA was tabled on January 20 by its creator, House representative Lamar Smith.
Piracy's real effect on music sales is difficult to accurately assess. In neoclassical economics prices are determined by the combination of the forces of supply and demand, but the participators in the digital market do not always follow the usual motives and behaviors of the supply and demand system. First, the cost of digital distribution has decreased significantly from the costs of distribution by former methods. Furthermore, the majority of the filesharing community will distribute copies of music for a zero price in monetary terms, and there are some consumers who are willing to pay a certain price for legitimate copies even when they could just as easily obtain pirated copies, such as with pay what you want vendors.
Another issue is that because many people in the world illegally download music because they cannot afford to purchase legitimate copies, not every illegal download necessarily equates to a lost sale. This has some effect on music sales, but as Lawrence Lessig points out, there is wide asymmetry between the estimated volume of illegal downloading and the projected loss of sales:
|“||In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent. This confirms a trend over the past few years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since 1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales... But let’s assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is because of Internet sharing. Here’s the rub: In the same period that the RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 percent... [So] there is a huge difference between downloading a song and stealing a CD.||”|
According to Woolley's introduction each year It is estimated that 12.5 billion dollars are lost due to file sharing and music piracy, and 5 billion of that is profits lost from the music industry directly. Due to this dramatic loss in profits the music industry has been forced to cut down their staffing. Music piracy has become such an issue that the industry is encouraged to adapt to this new era and change.
The article, "The Music Industry On (The) Line? Surviving Music Piracy In A Digital Era" By Jelle Janssens, Stijn Vandaele, and Tom Vander Beken presents an analysis of the prevalence of piracy in music trade, which has affected the global sales of CDs. This article points out that technological development such as file sharing; MP3 players, and CDRs have increased music piracy. The most common forms of music piracy are Internet Piracy and compact disc piracy. It also discusses the association between music piracy and organized crime, which is defined as profit-driven illegal activities. The fact that digital products are virtual instead of physical affects the economic mechanisms behind the production and distribution of content, and how piracy works for digital as opposed to physical products: "the main consequence of the non-physical form of digital products is their virtually negligible marginal cost of reproduction and their ability to be digitally delivered." The cost of burning a CD drastically lowered the overhead for record companies, as well as for music pirates, and with the growing tendency toward online distribution among legitimate and illicit distributors alike, the expense of distributing shrunk further from the costs of printing and transporting CDs to merely the costs of maintaining a website. By sheer volume of file transfers, though, distributing music through traditional web servers and FTP servers were not as popular as peer to peer (P2P) now, because the traditional direct download method is slower.
The 2008 British Music Rights survey showed that 80% of people in Britain wanted a legal P2P service. This was consistent with the results of earlier research conducted in the United States, upon which the Open Music Model was based. In addition, the majority of filesharers in the survey preferred to get their music from "local sources" such as LAN connections, email, flash drives, sharing with other people they know personally. The other most common method of filesharing was with P2P technologies. By 2007, P2P networks' popularity had grown so much that they used as much as 39% of the total volume of information exchanged over the internet.
Rights Holders Solution
Alongside the RIAA and BPI's industry anti-piracy service sit a number of other independent companies offering anti-piracy solutions. These companies tend to have a better reach and success rate than the slower industry bodies and provide an alternative solution. Notable market leaders include AudioLock, Web Sheriff, Topple Track, Detecnet, Muso and Attributor.
Minimising Online Music Piracy
There are ways to minimise music piracy on using the latest Google court decisions on the right to be forgotten as well as using some proven techniques relating to adding a watermark to the tracks and uploading the files yourself with promotional intent.
A paper called the Music Anti-Piracy Best Practise Guidelines has been published by music anti-piracy specialists AudioLock and endorsed by the Association of Independent Music, the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM), music distributors Believe Digital and Judge Jules (DJ and Lawyer). These guidelines give advice on how to minimise exposure to music-piracy and how best to utilise the solutions that are not available.
Statistics have shown that since the latter half the 2000s, there has been a decline in music piracy. According to a NPD survey, in 2012, approximately one in ten Internet users in the United States downloaded music through a file sharing service similar to BitTorrent or LimeWire. This number is significantly less than 2005, the peak of the piracy phenomenon, when one in five users used peer-to-peer networks to gather music files. The emergence of free streaming services has decreased the amount of users who pirate music on the internet. Services such as Spotify and Pandora have easy-to-use interfaces and decrease the risk for computer viruses and spyware. In comparison to the illegal software used by older music piracy networks such as Napster or Limewire, current music streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio offer cheap yet legal access to copyrighted music by paying the rights holders through money made off of payments made by premium users and through advertisements
- Music industry
- Music copyright infringement in the People's Republic of China
- Music download
- Legal aspects of file sharing
- Trade group efforts against file sharing
- Anontune, a music site by Anonymous
- File sharing
- Neuwirth, Robert. Stealth of Nations. Google Books (Knopf). Retrieved 30 July 2014.
- "Online Piracy-History". Online Piracy. UNC Digital Commons. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
- "Internet Piracy". Retrieved 30 April 2015.
- Lawrence Lessig (2004). Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: The Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-006-8. OCLC 53324884.
- Stryszowski, Piotr; Scorpecci, Danny, eds. (2009). Piracy of Digital Content. OECD Publishing. ISBN 978-92-64-06543-7. OCLC 663833839.
- Doan, Amy. "Metallica Sues Napster". Forbes.
- http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/oct/27/limewire-shut-down. Missing or empty
- "RIAA - Scope Of The Problem - June 14, 2015". http://www.riaa.com. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
- Kang, Cecilia (26 October 2011). "House introduces Internet piracy bill". The Washington Post.
- "Internet Users, Free Speech Experts, Petition Against SOPA". Huffington Post. 13 December 2011.
- http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2011-11-16/-american-censorship-day-makes-an-online-statement-the-ticker. Missing or empty
- http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-timeline-january-blackout/. Missing or empty
- Woolley, D. J. (2010). The cynical pirate: how cynicism effects music piracy. Academy of Information and Management Sciences Journal, 13(1), 31+. Retrieved from http://bi.galegroup.com.prxy4.ursus.maine.edu/essentials/article/GALE%7CA241861851/b8772514a705be025bdcd7edee6d5cdc?u=maine_orono
- Andrew Orlowski. 80% want legal P2P - survey. The Register, 2008.
- Shuman Ghosemajumder. Advanced Peer-Based Technology Business Models. MIT Sloan School of Management, 2002.
- Luckerson, Victor (18 February 2013). "Revenue Up, Piracy Down: Has the Music Industry Finally Turned a Corner?". Time Magazine. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- Peckham, Matt (19 March 2014). "13 Streaming Music Services Compared by Price, Quality, Catalog Size and More". Time. | <urn:uuid:2b8644b7-c6ac-437c-9ecc-34e013b9400e> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music_piracy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398451872.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205411-00337-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946562 | 3,614 | 3.5625 | 4 |
The Body Manual: Lecture 4 | Immunity
Welcome to The Body Manual — a series of lectures that cover stress, movement, food, and immunity. Dr. Zachary J. LaVigne, BS, DC, CCEP will be your lecturer.
The human body is 300,000 years old. It was designed to be living in a different environment. The body is so intelligent, but only if we keep it in a setting that is similar to what it evolved in. Take a fish out of the water, its environment, and we all know what is going to happen.
Placing the human body in an artificial environment has devastating effects on its systems and processes. On our health. Mental and Physical.
This talk focuses on the ways to boost and strengthen the immune system. It touches on:
1. How we have an army inside of us surveying, scanning, and detaining foreign invaders.
2. How we are interfering with our bodies natural ability to heal.
3. The devastating health effects that this has on the human body.
4. What to do to change our outcome so that we allow our bodies to fight off bacteria, viruses, and cancer.
You can find more on The Body Manual Series in our blog.
Follow us on Instagram: @anyspine
If you have a video you want Dr. Zach to do, let us know in the comments. | <urn:uuid:161986ee-5468-46fa-97bb-31af46735592> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://anyspine.com/2019/04/02/immunity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655892516.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200707111607-20200707141607-00533.warc.gz | en | 0.935034 | 289 | 2.625 | 3 |
Bank of the United States, Bank chartered in 1791 by the U.S. Congress. It was conceived by Alexander Hamilton to pay off the country’s debts from the American Revolution and to provide a stable currency. Its establishment, opposed by Thomas Jefferson, was marked by extended debate over its constitutionality and contributed significantly to the evolution of pro- and anti-bank factions into the first U.S. political parties, the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party. The national bank played the unexpected but beneficial role of preventing private state banks from overextending credit, a restriction that some nevertheless considered an affront to states’ rights. Meanwhile, agrarian populists regarded the bank as an institution of privilege and wealth and the enemy of democracy and the interests of the common people. Antagonism over the bank issue grew so heated that its charter could not be renewed in 1811. Criticism of the bank reached its height during the administration of Pres. Andrew Jackson, who led anti-bank forces in the long struggle known as the Bank War. The bank’s charter expired in 1836. Its reorganization as the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania ended its regulation of private banks. | <urn:uuid:4a0a5262-dd84-409c-9ae4-8f177926faf8> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.britannica.com/summary/Bank-of-the-United-States | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585671.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20211023095849-20211023125849-00318.warc.gz | en | 0.970834 | 247 | 3.953125 | 4 |
The Amateur Astronomers Association Delhi (AAAD) in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Nehru Planetarium is organising a public Mars watch to celebrate the landing of NASA’s Curiosity Rover in the Gale Crater on Mars.
AAAD is setting up a number of telescopes in the lawns of Nehru Planetarium on August 5, 2012 , 7PM onwards to observe Mars and to celebrate the human endeavor to reach our neighboring planet Mars. This observation is open to general public. A live webcast of this observation at New Delhi will be available on NASA’s website www.nasa.gov/mars
Getting Curiosity to the surface of Mars will not be easy. During a critical period lasting 7 minutes, the MSL spacecraft carrying Curiosity must slow down from about 13,200 mph (about 5,900 meters per second) to allow the rover to land on the surface at about 1.7 mph (three-fourths of a meter per second). For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing. All are controlled autonomously by the spacecraft.
In the first several weeks after landing, JPL mission controllers will put the rover through a series of checkouts and activities to characterize its performance on Mars while gradually ramping up scientific investigations. Curiosity then will begin investigating whether an area with a wet history inside Mars’ Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life.
The mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
Time of Mars landing: 05:31 Aug. 6 Universal Time plus or minus a minute. This is Earth-received time, which includes one-way light time for radio signal to reach Earth from Mars. The landing will be at about 3 p.m. local time at the Mars landing site.
Landing site: 4.6 degrees south latitude, 137.4 degrees east longitude, near base of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater
Earth–Mars distance on landing day: 248 million kilometers
One-way radio transit time, Mars to Earth, on landing day: 13.8 minutes
Total distance of travel, Earth to Mars: 567 million kilometers
Primary mission: One Martian year (98 weeks)
Expected near-surface atmospheric temperatures at landing site during primary mission: minus 90 C to zero C
For Further Info:
+91-9990224091, Raghu Kalra | <urn:uuid:9826cf0b-e4fa-4061-b95d-2aeaeb9f9a9a> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://aaadelhi.org/nasa-land-mars-indian-amateurs-astronomers-collaborate-celebration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578733077.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20190425193912-20190425215912-00255.warc.gz | en | 0.88907 | 523 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Discussing the weather isn’t just idle chatter for some people. It’s life-altering stuff.
Most of us are probably aware that as the weather gets hotter, outbreaks of hives (urticaria) tend to increase. Heat is among the main triggers of the condition. About one in five people will develop hives at some time in their lives, and summer is the season that seems to bring the most discomfort.
Heat hives is an allergic reaction and is medically known as cholinergic urticaria. It’s basically the condition of being hypersensitive to heat, or to sweating. People with this condition wonder if they are allergic exercise. (Technically, they’re not. It’s the sweating that’s the culprit.)
Most people with this type of hives have no symptoms at all when they are in normal room temperature. But in high temperatures they begin to feel a stinging or itching feeling. This may be randomly spread through the body, or it may begin in an individual area like the wrists, face, chest, legs, or back.
It’s Not Just the Heat
The vast majority of weather-induced hives come from the hotter weather, but there is also something called cold-induced urticaria. It’s relatively rare condition, but it kicks in as the temperatures dip.
The “familial” type of cold hives runs in a family’s genes and emerges in infancy. The more common cold-induced form is “acquired.” It’s not genetic, and cases have occurred in babies as well as senior citizens.
Some unfortunate people are actually afflicted with hives that break out in situations of both heat and cold. Those folks find room temperature comfortable, but venturing outside to experience significant changes (mainly in summer or winter) triggers their hives.
How Do I Fight the Weather?
Well, you don’t. If you find that your hives are triggered by sunlight, atmospheric pressure, cold or heat, the only real “cure” is to avoid that trigger. (No one went to medical school to come up with that remedy.) If sunlight is the problem, sunblock lotions or fabrics that block specific wavelengths of light can be effective.
In the end, awareness is really the best weapon you have in minimizing the severity and duration of your weather-related hives outbreaks.
Diane is a Senior Content Producer at Remedy Health Media, LLC. She writes the Daily Dose for HealthCentral and is the editorial director at HealthCommunities. Her goal is to contribute to a valuable, trustworthy, and informative experience for people who are searching for health information online. | <urn:uuid:6f234d54-ae8f-4d29-a6bd-c1d87c722b12> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.healthcentral.com/article/how-weather-changes-affect-chronic-hives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689775.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923175524-20170923195524-00423.warc.gz | en | 0.951859 | 568 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Most have heard of the weight gain or loss phenomenon that we call the “First-Year 15.” While not all college students will experience a change in their weight, up or down, there are several contributing factors that may increase the potential for it.
Studies show that the cause of weight gain is not isolated to just increased food intake. Significant changes in what foods are consumed, exercise and sleep patterns, and stress levels contribute as well. The inverse is also true for weight loss. Think about your patterns as a new student here at Wesleyan, and compare them to your patterns before college.
- Are you making the time to eat regular meals?
- Do you start the day off with breakfast?
- When you get stressed do you snack more or eat less?
- Are you eating proper portion sizes for your body’s needs?
- Do you get enough sleep?
- Do you eat while you study?
- Are you getting 30 minutes of exercise at least 3 times a week?
A change in environment can cause stress, but it doesn’t have to affect your health. If you want to do some research on nutrition, check out the Bon Appétit website available to you at circleofresponsibility.com. Click on the Well Being tab at the top of the page, and explore the information that is offered to you as a student.
WesWELL, the Office of Health Education, also offers a wide range of health information on their website under Wellness A to Z. Health Services also has a registered dietician available for nutritional counseling; call 860.685.2470 to schedule your appointment.
Contact Lisa Currie, director of WesWELL, at 860.685.2466. | <urn:uuid:f7ef9ec3-b44a-40a7-a0d7-bb631b223347> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://classof2013.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/09/25/the-first-year-15/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506480.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20230923062631-20230923092631-00887.warc.gz | en | 0.947959 | 365 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Economy and Society in Latin America and Africa
Conceived as a response to the economic naïvety and implicit metropolitan bias of many 1950s and 60s studies of ‘the sociology of development’ , this volume, first published in 1975, provides actual field studies and theoretical reviews to indicate the directions which a conceptually more adequate...
Published March 28th 2013 by Routledge
Series: Improving Learning
While many books explore the possibilities for developing inclusive practices in schools, and ‘inclusion’ is widely regarded as a desirable goal, much of the literature on the subject has been narrowly concerned with the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. This book however, takes...
Published September 14th 2006 by Routledge
Inclusion concerns the overcoming of barriers to learning and participation for all, regardless of ability or disability, and is now a central tenet of basic education policy globally. Increasingly, teachers need to be able to implement inclusion into their daily practice.This book stems from its...
Published July 17th 2003 by Routledge
An International Study of Inclusion in Education
Inclusive education has become a phrase with international currency shaping the content of conferences and national educational policies around the world. But what does it mean? Is it about including a special group of disabled learners or students seen to have 'special needs' (them) or is it...
Published May 28th 1998 by Routledge
The emphasis in this book shifts to the coordination of practice into schools, regional and national policies and the power and interest groups concerned with educational difficulties and disability. In the opening section the authors review the location of power in the systems; the impact of Local...
Published December 5th 1991 by Routledge
They can make a start by recognising and accepting difference in their students and by providing curricula that are accessible to all. This volume portrays attempts to alleviate difficlties in learning across the curriculum, in history, mathematics, poetry and science, and explores ways of...
Published November 7th 1991 by Routledge | <urn:uuid:94377e34-212b-4979-9901-1ba51b62f776> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.psypress.com/books/search/author/tony_booth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119648008.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030048-00006-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96232 | 413 | 2.71875 | 3 |
I. Introduction and Purpose
This series of blog posts is an adaptation of a set of classes on unit-testing that I teach at ProQuest (a leading academic and corporate search engine for ‘paywalled’ articles and data). ProQuest has been kind enough to allow me to publish this series for anyone to read and learn from.
This is the first in a five-part series on unit-testing in Java. The complete series covers:
- What is unit-testing? why do we do it, what do we gain?
- An exercise in “TDD”, test-driven development.
- Writing tests with “EasyMock” mock objects.
- Patterns for cleaning up existing (messy) unit-tests
- Advanced unit-testing. (Possibly including taking a big ugly mess of legacy code, and making it testable.)
The goal of this series is to improve developers’ skill and comfort level with unit-tests, and thereby improving the overall number and quality of unit-tests in any Java application.
II. What is unit-testing?
Mike Cohn breaks automated software testing into three layers of a triangle, based on the “Three Little Pigs” story:
- Straw is the end-to-end, GUI testing, usually driven from a framework like Selenium. It’s the easiest and quickest to build, and covers a lot of ground. But it’s terribly brittle, falls over easily, and is expensive to maintain.
- Sticks are “integration” testing. It means testing high level (but not GUI) classes against real (often external) services and dependencies. Integration tests are often driven from Junit.
- Bricks are “unit-testing”. They are solid, expensive to build, but cheap to maintain. They test small “units” of code — the smaller, the better! They are totally self-contained — in fact, I frequently run all of our unit-tests w/o a network connection, just to make certain!
As an aside, Cohn recommends that the investment into testing match the areas of the three different parts of the triangle. All three levels are valuable, and for different reasons. And manual testing is still useful too, but that’s another story.
(I stole the triangle from Patrick Wilson-Welsh’s excellent article about flipping the testing triangle, which is well worth reading separately. Plus it has cool pictures.)
A Unit-test Exercise
OK, but what does a unit-test actually look like? What does it test?
When I interview Java developer candidates, I give them a simple coding exercise to do in-person. (A practice which I borrowed from Menlo.) It’s just a simple “reverse the words in text” exercise, but I require that they write unit-tests along the way. Here’s the exercise class itself, under src/main/java:
Then, under src/test/java, there’s a matching unit-test class:
We use the Junit framework to run the tests. In Eclipse, this is as simple as right-clicking in the test class, and selecting “run as Junit Test”. Every method annotated with “@Test” gets run. The assertEquals() method (and a whole host of other assertions) is provided by Junit. If the assert succeeds, the test passes, and Eclipse shows a green bar. If any assert fails, we get a red bar, and Eclipse tells us what failed and why.
So a unit-test is exercising a small chunk of code, with defined inputs and outputs. A nicely contained black-box, if you will. Sometimes those boxes can get pretty big… but more about that later. But in essence, a unit-test is an experimental framework, wrapped around the “black-box” we want to test, that tells us if the box does everything we think it should do.
There’s a key phrase right there: everything we think it should do. When I’m interviewing a candidate, I’m looking for:
- Could they actually write the code? Did they write a method that passed shouldReverseHelloWorld() ? (You may think that’s trivial, but do it under pressure with an interviewer watching you.)
- Did they write other tests? Tests with more text and spaces. Text with multiple lines.
- Did they consider edge cases? A null input. An empty line. White-space characters other than “space”? (E.g. tabs, weird Unicode spaces, etc.)
- Did their tests actually exercise all of the code that they wrote? (We’ll demonstrate how to see that in a little bit.)
This is all about “did it do everything we think it should do”. Not just the happy paths, but edge cases, null inputs, and so on. We have to think all the way around the box, in order to be sure. A good set of unit-tests covers all of those cases, while managing to avoid exponential explosion. (We don’t really need to test the entire works of Shakespeare.)
So try it for yourselves. If you’ve already checked-out the CodeExercise project from git, it’s in the package com.proquest.codeexercise. Alternately you can check it out via svn from svn://caucus.com/CodeExercise/trunk.
More about Junit
Junit has several other method annotations that may be used in a test class:
|@Before||Execute this method before every @Test method. Put common initialization/preparation code in this method.|
|@After||Execute this method after every @Test method. Put common cleanup code here. (Rarely needed.)|
|@Ignore||Ignore (don’t run) an @Test method. If you do this, add a comment explaining why!|
|@BeforeClass||Run this method once, before executing any tests. Used mostly to set up statics. Rare (because statics are evil!)|
|@AfterClass||Run this method once, after executing all tests. Used mostly to cleanup statics. (I use it to kill threads accidentally started by some tests.)|
|@Test(expected=Exception.class)||Test fails if the method does not throw the named exception.|
Junit also has a suite of assert methods. The most commonly used ones include:
- assertEquals(a, b)
- assertTrue (a)
- fail() (If you get to this point in the code, the test has failed! Often used with try/catch.)
More detailed information can be found at:
- http://www.vogella.com/articles/JUnit/article.html (a good tutorial)
- https://github.com/junit-team/junit/wiki (The official Junit Wiki)
III. Why Unit-test?
Why do we write unit-tests? What’s the benefit? After all, if we’re writing the code correctly in the first place, why do we need the extra cost of writing tests?
The simple answer is, we’re all human. We make mistakes. Tests help protect us from our mistakes. Remember the Mars Climate Orbiter, which was destroyed because the on-board software used metric units, and the ground-control software used English units. Keeping the tests as part of the project means we can run all of them at any time, and raise our confidence that we haven’t made any new mistakes.
But the real answer is much deeper than that. Over the course of several years, I found that writing unit-tests forced me to write better code. Not just code with fewer mistakes, but literally better code. Like many things, this is a lesson perhaps better learned through experience. But I can sum it up in these bullet points:
- Fewer mistakes. OK, that’s the easy one. Code that has tests typically has fewer mistakes.Change == Surprise. Unit-tests save us from the Law of Unintended Consequences. A unit-test can save us from future bugs that are “accidentally” inserted, especially by “other” people. That’s why, when we’re about to merge our changes into a project, we run all tests. Not just the ones concerned with the code we were working on.
- No Fear. Take #2 a little further. When we don’t have good unit-test coverage, there’s always a risk in making changes to existing, (presumably) working, code. (And if you’re not afraid of this case… well, you should be!) When you do have good test coverage, you have a safety net. You can make changes, fix bugs, improve existing code… and at least have some confidence that if you break anything in a really bad way, the existing tests will catch you. Entirely too much bad code gets written because someone hacked around existing code, fearful of changing its behavior, when they would have been much better off rewriting the (small) relevant part. (I’ve written a unabashedly geeky article, just about how programmers misuse this fear, called the Junit / Green Lantern Oath)
- Tests are part of the code. They’re not just bolted on afterwards. This forces us to think about how we’ll test a method, as we’re writing it. There’s a methodology called “TDD” (Test Driven Design), where tests are written first: the design of a method is built up, piece by piece, by adding tests… writing just enough code to pass each test in turn. I’m not religious about TDD. But tests should be written along with the production code, in some form. Use the tests as a kind of scaffolding, supporting the structure as we’re building it.
- Tests document the code. Good tests essentially become the specifications for the code! Even better: add commented links, in each test, to acceptance criteria in the original story. This gives us an easily-travelled highway, from story to code and back again. Writing the tests often expose ambiguities in the original story.
- Tests force smaller methods. Long methods are simply harder to test. If I know I’m going to be writing tests in the next few minutes, I’m going to make it easy on myself and break the new code into smaller pieces, each of which can be tested independently. And while I’m doing that, I now have the opportunity to name the (new, smaller) methods in a way that is more self-documenting than a longer, single method. These smaller methods with better names in turn invite me to break up the flow of the code into more abstract concepts, that can become a sort of higher-level “domain” language about the problem that is being solved. All because I wanted to write tests!
- Tests force de-coupling. Classes that have tight coupling to other classes are hard to work with. They’re even harder to test. The worst cases are classes that are tied to specific implementations of other classes. These are most often the result of using static methods from another class (see Why Static Classes Are Evil), or from over-using ‘new’ (constructors) of other complicated objects. If tight-coupling gets in the way of testing, then it’s getting in the way of good design, period. I’d rather have a class with a few more arguments in its constructors, than a class that always depends on a specific implementation of another class. When writing tests becomes painful, it’s an early warning that my code is starting to smell.
- Tests force fewer side-effects. The easiest method to test is one that takes some arguments, and returns a (single) result, with no changes to the object’s internal state, or any other side-effects. That’s not often practical: frequently a method has to change its object’s state, by design. In that case the change of state should be testable! (E.g. there should be a getter method that lets you examine the new state.) If the method changes the state of some other object… now we’re sliding down the slippery slope of side-effects. Once again, if it’s hard to test, it’s hard to use, and suggests that the design itself is flawed.
IV. Emma Code Coverage
Once you have unit-tests, it’s really nice to know how much testing you have in place. Enter EMMA, the unit-test writer’s friend. Emma works hand-in-hand with Junit, to measure how many lines (or instructions, or blocks, etc.) of your code is actually exercised by your tests. Emma can produce a statistical report, e.g. such-and-such a percentage of the lines of code in project X, or package Y, or class Z, are covered (or not covered) by tests.
With the EclEmma Eclipse-plugin, you can also see visually how much of a class is covered. When the plugin is installed (Help, Eclipse marketplace, find “emma”. Install EclEmma, done), right-click on a test class or an entire project, and choose “coverage as… Junit”. You’ll see lines covered by tests in green, lines not covered in red, and lines that are partly covered (e.g. an if with only one of the two possible outcomes covered) in yellow.
Code coverage isn’t everything, however. It’s possible to write a bad test… that exercises a method, but never actually makes any useful assertions about the result of the test. The best use of Emma is to find the “red” code, paths that are definitely not tested, and add tests that both cover it and verify that the results of the code are correct.
V. A Chess Exercise
The rest of this module is devoted to working an actual exercise, writing both tests and code, that involves chess. I’ve found that chess programming problems are small enough to work with, but sufficiently complicated (and object-oriented enough) to make useful exercises. I’ve built the underpinnings of a very simple chess board in the com.proquest.chess package in the CodeExercise project mentioned earlier. It includes some tests, to give you a feel for the pattern.
The goal of this exercise is to add a Rook class that correctly identifies all of the possible moves that a rook can make. For our purposes, ignore whether a move leaves (or puts) a King in check: this is just about where a Rook can move, or capture, depending on its location and other pieces around it.
The fundamental classes are:
- Color. An enum: Black or White.
- Type. Another enum. K, Q, R, B, N, or P. Or Nothing.
- Position. Just an (x,y) pair that represents a spot on the board. Positions are either valid or invalid: an invalid position is “off the board”.
- Piece. An abstract class. All specific pieces (e.g. King, Knight, Rook) extend Piece. A piece has a Color, a Type, and a Position.
- Move. Each move has a position (where a piece ends up after making a move), the type of promotion (for pawns only), and the piece captured by the move (if any).
- Board. The actual board where everything happens, plus collections of the white and black pieces currently on the board. A new Board is empty. The two most useful methods in Board are placePiece (puts a piece on the Board) and print (displays the entire board in an easy-to-see format).
Take some time to wander through the classes, and their tests (notably BoardTest), to see how they operate. They’re not complete by any means, but they provide enough infrastructure to write the Rook class. We’re not concerned with efficiency here — although if we write the tests correctly, we could improve efficiency later without changing the tests!
Once you feel familiar with the infrastructure, start by creating a Rook class that extends Piece, and returns an empty List of Move’s. Then write a test for just that much.
After that, start working on generating a list of Move’s for your Rook. When you write the tests, you may find the ChessTestUtils class helpful.
When you are confident that your Rook is working properly, you can add my unit-tests to the project, and see if they also run green. (Or you can just merge in the branch ‘rooktest’, which is probably easier.) But don’t do this until you are completely confident in your own code (and your own tests!).
VI. Other Resources
- Shaun Abram has a very good article about Software Quality via Unit Testing, where he makes a strong case for the economic value of unit-testing. The first few pages are an excellent introduction for managers who may not be familiar with the ins and outs of coding.
- A good book for total beginners is Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java with Junit. (It’s somewhat dated, as it’s based on a older version of Junit, but still worth the read.)
- I believe every developer should own a copy of “Uncle” Bob Martin’s Clean Code. It’s only partially about unit-testing, but this one book captures the essence of how to write clean code, including clean unit-tests!
- Michael Feathers’ book Working Effectively With Legacy Code offers many, many strategies for how to add tests to a project that doesn’t have any. This is a slow but very valuable read — I found myself just reading a few pages at a time, and pondering them for a day or two before moving on.
- A short but valuable article by Juri Strumpflohner on descriptive assert messages. | <urn:uuid:6527d1c6-9373-4225-a8e2-547e6809aaeb> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | http://lookfar.caucuscare.com/index.php/2012/09/11/unit-testing-tutorial-01-introduction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739347.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20200814160701-20200814190701-00318.warc.gz | en | 0.922273 | 3,902 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology -
Originally from the French ambre (amber) possibly initially derived from the Arabic 'anbar (ambergris). The original meaning of the word amber was ambergris. The modern word is derived from the French ambre gris (gray amber, ambergris) in distinction to ambre jaune (Prussian amber, yellow amber or true amber). The English and French confusion over the terms may have arisen early since both raw substances are relatively similar in appearance, with the exception of color, are rare, are costly and are found on or along seacoasts.
Oxford English Dictionary -
From the French ambre gris (gray amber, ambergris). To this substance the word amber originally referred. Spelling variants may owe their origins to confused attempts to describe the substance as greasy in feel or as coming from Greece or to associate it with amber (yellow amber), itself.
Reported variants are:
Also related are:
Random House Dictionary of the English Language -
Derived from the French ambre gris (gray amber). The word amber originally meant ambergris and was initially derived from the Arabic word 'anbar (ambergris) but was confused with true amber which is also rare, is also found along coasts and may be similar in appearance.
Roget's Thesaurus - | <urn:uuid:d15c3e34-adca-480c-b429-e7f9996b3707> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netstrider.com/documents/ambergris/dictionaries/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700380063/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89828 | 281 | 3.578125 | 4 |
It’s a typical morning as Delhi awakens to its usual chaos.
Legendary traffic jams.
Vendors on the street.
Beggars faces longingly pressed against car windows… selling flowers.
But like many of the word’s urban centers, Delhi is thirsty… even parched. As the 3rd largest population center in the world, its 25 million people need water, — and lots of it — to survive.
On this day, I want to learn more about how millions of people live literally bucket to bucket, not necessarily knowing when and if their water will come.
So I take my camera to the neighborhood of Sangram Vihar — one of the city’s countless informal, poor communities — where every drop counts. On this summer day, on a street made muddy by leaking sewage pipes, we come across women who have gathered to fill buckets and barrels from a water truck as it makes its delivery.
They pay for the tanker to deliver water because the city’s connections aren’t reliable, are unsafe, or aren’t available at all.
As the truck leaves, there are smiles of relief on this steamy day. While they may or may not have a toilet, they take comfort in knowing that their families will have water to drink and wash in the week ahead.
Yet many parts of India are not even as fortunate.
Unlike the delivery truck, the water never came.
Areas of the nation like Rajasthan to the west have faced one of the driest periods in history — and, in May, the hottest weeks ever recorded when temperatures reached 51 degrees Centigrade — that’s 124 degrees Fahrenheit.
Water scarcity and blinding heat have disrupted farming and energy production — the two largest users of water in the country.
The cruel irony here in Delhi… is that many living in the poorest informal neighborhoods like this one… are water refugees.
They are families from nearby states like Rajasthan and Bundelkhand where fiercely persistent drought and over-pumping has caused wells to go dry… farms to go bankrupt… and some farmers… even to take their own lives…
It’s clear that how India responds in the next months and years will have effects for generations. How will it mange the intensifying competition between water, food and energy in a changing climate? | <urn:uuid:d83810b6-29c3-4504-b368-80d668b9b4c1> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.circleofblue.org/indiavideos/?s= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247490107.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190219122312-20190219144312-00280.warc.gz | en | 0.949769 | 487 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Submitted by: Amanda Jarrett
Within the traditional sense of defining one’s self, a civilization constructs its identity based on how they define the ‘other.’ Characterizing the ‘other’ begins with a set of contrasts between one’s own civilization and the ‘other.’ While one is civilized and enlightened, the other is uncivil and barbaric; one practices freedom, the other restricts it; one liberates women, the other denies them autonomy. Western civilization has been distinguishing themselves as being vastly different from the ‘other’ in a superior way. Though, reality reflects another truth. In Salih’s book “Season of Migration to the North,” he demonstrates how the disparity between Eastern and Western civilizations are not stark, but are in fact more comparable than theyoriginally thought. He argues through the themes of woman’s rights and colonialism that these two civilizations have a similar treatment of women and an intertwining fate. The East and the West can no longer see themselves as vastly different; they can no longer use each other in order to define themselves because their identities and societies are infused. By observing aspects of Salih’s book such as Mustafa’s role in the suicides of women, the deaths of Hosna Bint Mahmoud and Wad Rayyes, and the narrator’s relationship with Bint Mahmoud, there will be a discussion of the patriarchy and its reiteration in both the West and the East. Once this part of the book has been examined, Mernissi’s “A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam,” Bhutto’s “Politics and the Muslim Woman,” and Amin’s “Emancipation of Women” and “The New Woman” will be used to further interrogate the concept of women’s rights and the patriarchy. As for the colonialist aspect of Salih’s book, there will be a detailed investigation behind Mustafa’s relationship with not only his wife but also with other women in how it relates to the colonialist structure and colonialist narrative. To amplify this observation, Fadlallah’s “Islam and the Logic of Power” will be addressed.
Salih’s book follows an unnamed narrator and his journey in discovering the hidden truths of Mustafa. After pursuing him out of curiosity, the narrator builds a quasi-friendship with Mustafa. Soon, the narrator begins unfolding the unpleasant reality of this man’s life. Mustafa admits to his obsession of manipulating women, which eventually contributed to many of their suicides. Though, he is not held accountable for the majority of these actions, both in the personal sphere and in the public sphere. During the time Mustafa stood trial for the murder of his wife, the court attempted to push for the justice of the women who committed suicide. One such woman was Ann Hammond. When Colonel Hammond took the stand to testify, Mustafa thought that he would be held accountable. This was not the case. Ann’s father stated that “He could not say for sure whether her suicide was due to some spiritual crisis or because of finding out that Mr. Mustafa Sa’eed had deceived her” (Salih, 57). Mustafa was appalled, thinking that the father would understand his obvious influence on his daughter’s death. He even explicitly narrates the moment with his contrasting view of fault by stating that he convinced her to marry him as a way to “be a bridge between north and south” (Salih, 57). Additionally, since the blame of her suicide does not fall on Mustafa, it lays on Ann. Her truths and reality of Mustafa’s manipulation get brushed away due to society’s attitude towards women. The blame falls on her curiosity of Eastern philosophy and how the confusion of her spiritual self was what really lead her to her death. In this there is a reinforcement of patriarchal thinking because women are the ones who cannot think rationally and therefore should be at fault for their circumstances, not the men. Amin furthers this argument by saying that women should not be allowed political rights because they are not ready to handle something of that magnitude.
This narrative of men doing no wrong is further perpetuated by how Mustafa’s lawyer frames his nature during the trial. Professor Maxwell Foster-Keen drew Mustafa to be a “genius whom circumstances had driven to killing in a moment of passion” and emphasized his rule as a contributing individual to society due to his contribution to the field of economics (Salih, 28-29). With the refusal to place the blame for Ann’s death on Mustafa by her father and his lawyer’s presentation of an individual who contributes to society, there is a reinforcement of the patriarchal structure of society. On one hand, the narrative of women are dismissed while the narrative of the men overpower their voices. On the other hand, there is the excuse of a man’s career and the harm that can be done to it if he is properly punished. These reduce the reality of the women whom Mustafa manipulated and their positioning in society, denying their basic right to justice. Furthermore, Amin’s denial of women’s political rights perpetuates the patriarchal narrative by enforcing the rights of men to exercise their power over women, furthering elitist narrative by only wanting to improve the rights of upper class women, and reducing the rest to being mules for men.
The next aspect of women’s rights addresses the lack of autonomy and voice women have in society. Within the story, Salih’s narrator returns home from abroad only to be faced with the horrors of a tragedy. Though, it was entirely possible for this tragedy to have been avoided if there was not a reiteration of their patriarchal structure. Beginning with the death of Mustafa, he turns the responsibility of his wife and family over to his quasi-friend. The narrator, not wanting this responsibility, rarely involves himself in the title of trustee. Only when Wad Rayyes voices his intentions for marrying Bint Mahmoud. The narrator voices his opposition, but Wad Rayyes insists. Bint Mahmoud makes it abundantly clear that she does not want to be married to him and asks the narrator to save her from her fate. Bint Mahmoud is unable to speak for herself because her voice has been drowned out by her father, brothers, and village elders. In this situation, she has no autonomy. Bhutto negates the positioning of Mustafa’s widow by stating that men do not have attributes that make them superior to women. Instead, they “Both are the creatures of God. Both have certain rights” (Bhutto, 109).
Ignoring these certain rights, the village and the narrator allow for Bint Mahmoud to be forced into marriage with Wad Rayyes. As time went by, he became more and more anger towards his new wife because she has refused to let him go near her. Her request for space is warranted, though undesired by the male. One night, the village heard extraneous amounts of screaming coming from their household. Once Bint Majzoub arrived at the house, she described how Bint Mahmoud was naked with her clothes torn, bites and scratches covering her whole body with one of her nipples having bitten off. Wad Rayyes had been stabbed more than ten times. The villagers, upon assessing the scene, made the assumption that Bint Mahmoud had murdered Wad Rayyes and then committed suicide. By doing so, they set the narrative of blame on Bint Mahmoud instead of on Wad Rayyes. This reverts to the earlier discussion on this need for a positive perception of men and how they cannot be the ones at fault. No one seemed to consider the possibility that the she had been raped and the damages she incurred on him were in self-defense. They seem to disregard their previous observations of Wad Rayyes becoming a mad man and how he forced his new wife into a married she repeatedly objected to.
Stepping back from the specific scenarios in Salih’s book and observing the overarching theme, Bhutto and Mernissi both interrogate how society’s reiterate the patriarchal framework apart from religion. Bhutto states that “It is not religion which makes the difference. The difference comes from man-made law […] What took place was the emergence or the assertiveness of the patriarchal society, and religion was taken over to justify the norms of the tribal society” (Bhutto, 109). This demonstrates how religion is not the cause of the patriarchy and therefore cannot be solely associated with one civilization’s religion. The blame of restricting a woman’s position in society cannot be limited to one civilization, East or West. This distinction allows for the separation of tradition and religion, placing the blame for the lack of women’s rights on man-made laws. Mernissi adds to this argument by stating: “A new community still under the influence of pre-Islamic customs, had to act rapidly and severely to see that a key idea of Islam, the patriarchal family, became rooted in the minds of believers” (Mernissi, 119). This shows a key moment in Islamic culture where the relationship between tradition and religion become inseparable from one another. Through the arguments of Bhutto and Mernissi along with the displays of women’s issues in Salih, there is an rejection of the Western narrative of which claims themselves as superior to other civilizations, especially in the East. The oppression of women’s rights and narratives can be observed in both the West with Colonel Hammond testimony at Mustafa’s trial and in the East with the treatment of Bint Mahmoud. Both civilizations can be faulted for denying the autonomy of women due to the reinforcement of the patriarchy.
In addition to observing the different ways women are explicitly minimized in society, there is a another theme in Salih’s book: colonialism. First, the relationship between Mustafa and his wife, Jean Morris, exemplify the violent structure of colonialist relationship. In the beginning of their relationship, he was very persistent in obtaining a woman who did not want him. Eventually after three years of chasing, she agreed to marry him saying “‘You’re a savage bull that does not weary of the chase […] I am tired of your pursuing me and of my running before you. Marry me’” (Salih, 29). Once they were married, she refused to sleep with him. In retaliation, he threatened to kill her, which was a temptation that she welcomed. While he held the knife over, she dared him to commit the act, knowing that he would not be able to go through with it. Mustafa continuously describes their relationship as a war, a set of violent acts towards each other, pushing the limits of civility. Jean would incite conflicts and push his boundaries by sleeping with other men, leaving items of their clothing lying around, and flirting with other men in public. Jean encouraged him to fulfill an image in her head of a violent, barbaric man by forcing him into situations where she manipulated him to act out. Mustafa had thought about escaping the relationship. Though, could not bring himself, realizing that “She was my destiny and in her lay my destruction” (Salih, 132). He knew that there was no point in leaving, his fate had already decided his destiny. Jean pushed him to the edge of his civility until he finally cracked. The moment came where she knew that she had pushed him too far and that he was finally going to submit to violence, to which she was happy about. In this scenario, Jean Morris represents the colonizer whereas Mustafa represents the colonized. The colonizer instigates the violence in the relationship by first subjugating those that are colonized due to the belief that they are superior to the ‘other.’ The colonizer is civilized, the colonized are barbaric. There is a back and forth between the two, any sort of push back is viewed as violent while violent acts by the colonizer are considered to a lesser degree of retaliation. The colonizer tests the boundaries of those they oppress. When the colonized give into the violence, the cycle is perpetuated and they give into the narrative the colonizers have created about the ‘other.’ The acts of violence by the colonized only affirms the narrative of the colonizer, therefore reestablishing their positioning over the colonized. This violence also causes an interconnectedness of destinies that can no longer be separated. Fadlallah reiterates this brutal relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. He states that the colonized often use violence as a way to cleanse themselves of the colonizers, reinforcing the violent relationship between the two. This violence reflects how the colonized are unable to use their power effectively because they do not know how to wield it.
This colonial relationship of exerting power over another can be translated to Mustafa’s treatment and manipulation of women. Knowing his positioning of being a foreigner in the colonizer’s world, he needed to find a way to demonstrate his power. The outlet he found was women, capitalizing on his exotic nature. For women, it was this primitive nature that attracted them to him which is actually realized in the way he scouts for his next prey. On instance that can be described was when he met Isabelle Seymour at a bar. He sought her out and was determined to have her. Once they began chatting, he lied about his name but shared some truths about his family. Though, once he began talking about his home back in the South. “There came a moment when I felt I had been transformed in her eyes into a naked, primitive creature, a spear in one hand and arrows in the other, hunting elephants and lions in the jungles” (Salih, 33). Mustafa has caught his prey, gradually taking away her autonomy as she falls more and more in love with him. His desire to assert his power over these European women is because, to him, they represent those who colonized him. To him, he wants to exploit and violate these women as a way to perpetuate his revenge. Mustafa sees the women as the West and he wants to conquer it the way the West has conquered him. This mode of thinking contradicts Fadlallah’s hope for a common humanity. He claims that in order to find this common ground there must be a level ofmutual respect and similar interests. Mustafa’s goals are not for the goal of a common humanity.
In conclusion, Salih investigates a multitude of important themes in his book, two of which being women’s rights and colonialization. In terms of women’s rights, Bhutto and Mernissi commented on the patriarchy while Amin discussed women’s rights. Salih displayed several issues with the representation, narratives, and rights of women through Mustafa’s relationship with Ann Hammond as well as the representation and rights of Bint Mahmoud. When discussing colonialization, Mustafa and his wife, Jean Morris, exemplified the violent relationship between the colonizer and the colonized demonstrating how dangerous negative narrative can be. Though having caused so much suffering and pain, Mustafa’s plan of revenge was a success.
Benazir Bhutto, “politics and the Muslim Woman,” in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, edited by Charles Kurzman, pp. 107-111.
Fatima Mernissi, “A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam,” Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, edited by Charles Kurzman, pp. 112-126.
Qasim Amin, “The Emancipation of Woman” and “The New Woman,” Modernist Islamby Charles Kurzman, pp. 61-69.
Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, “Islam and the Logic of Power,” in Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’s The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam, pp. 56-61.
Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North. | <urn:uuid:fb90cf76-5ac6-419b-bbd8-458febc7742c> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://orphicmagazine.com/2019/06/29/women-and-colonialization-the-ties-between-the-east-and-the-west/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305317.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220127223432-20220128013432-00053.warc.gz | en | 0.97554 | 3,371 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Differentiate, distinguish, compare and explain what is the main difference between Reversible and Irreversible Changes with examples.
Difference between Reversible and Irreversible Changes with examples
1. Glowing of electric bulb is an reversible change as it glows when switched on and becomes dark when switched off. Burning of paper or wood is an irreversible change as it gives smoke and ash, which cannot form paper or wood again.
2. Distillation of liquid is reversible change as liquid evaporates into vapour and vapour again can be condensed into liquid form. Rusting of iron is an irreversible change as rust cannot be changed into iron again.
3. Sublimation is reversible as solid when heated changes into vapour and vapour when cooled becomes solid. Making of curd from milk is irreversible change.
4. Collapsing of mimosa (touch me not) leaves on touching and opening up on removing the finger is reversible. Growth of plants and animals are irreversible changes. | <urn:uuid:da3959e6-99b5-4b31-96a6-1a6355be82bf> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://steadyrun.com/differences-and-comparison/difference-reversible-irreversible-changes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218188553.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212948-00427-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933501 | 202 | 3.59375 | 4 |
What is the Bangladesh Clean Air Act?
Tahjeeb Hossain Chowdhury: The Bangladesh Clean Air Act has been introduced and there are quite a few radical changes here of note. The well-documented issue of air pollution has come up again and again in the conscience of Bangladeshi Citizens and lawmakers. In recent years, Dhaka alongside New Delhi has been in the rankings as the top uninhabitable cities in the world. A major part of that can be chalked up to how much air pollutants have skyrocketed. The government has been taking isolated steps in order to reduce pollution. But this time it seems like the wheels have turned and the government has decided to concentrate their efforts into making air pollution reduced.
The Department of Environment along with The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association have teamed up to draft the new Bangladesh Clean Air Act. This is in part done to help the preservation of air and reduction of Air Pollution across the regions of Bangladesh. This new set of regulations is a long time coming. It includes Jail time and Fines for violations of the clean air act regulations. With a varied set of rules, the act is said to have good provisions for encouraging preservation and threatening pollution activities
The Act has some notable highlights including:
- The Department of Environment will put together a National Air Quality Management Plan.
- The government can put out a declaration that an area is “critical” if the air quality deteriorates to an intolerable level, to deal with the restoration of the Air Quality
- Will initiate a 29-member advisory council with delegates representing different ministries and departments to monitor and recommend implementation of the National Air Quality Management Plan.
- A maximum jail time of 10 years or fine according to the severity or both as the punishments for violation of the law.
- In the case of faults and discrepancies by any government agency, the head of the said organization will be considered the guilty party for the violation. Further punishment measures will be dealt to the agency head.
The brick kilns, generators, and other sources of pollution have been recorded. It all comes down to the unchecked industrial work that goes into urbanization. But the Clean Air Act should bring order to the chaos and help in saving our citizens. Only time will tell if the execution is in line with the regulations.
(The writer is a marketing graduate, content writer, and data science enthusiast from Dhaka, reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org) | <urn:uuid:8ebea94d-7d5b-45be-80e1-a74bbab71c04> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://bdenvironment.com/2020/06/15/what-is-the-bangladesh-clean-air-act/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500288.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20230205193202-20230205223202-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.954016 | 506 | 3.1875 | 3 |
history of Germany...elections later that month. In contrast, the Green Party, which had long opposed nuclear power, captured enough support to form a government in Baden-Württemberg, a CDU stronghold since 1953. Joachim Gauck was elected president of Germany in March 2012, becoming the third person to hold that office in as many years. Unaffiliated with any political party, Gauck was a popular choice for the...
President of Germany
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Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review. | <urn:uuid:cdd2ecf3-e6be-4598-8145-b879f97ed566> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1731877/Joachim-Gauck | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299877.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00036-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974149 | 131 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Automotive painters work on the surfaces of motor vehicles, primarily in restoring vehicles to their original condition following damage and subsequent auto body repair. Generally, automotive painting begins when body work has been completed. Some of the duties that an automotive painter completes include: removing exterior trim and hardware; removing layers of sub-coating; matching colours and mixing paints; preparing metal surfaces for painting by spot filling, sanding, and masking; applying primers, primer surfacers, enamels, clearcoats and urethanes; cleaning and polishing painted surfaces including removing and replacing decals; and applying anti-corrosive treatments.
Automotive painters use hand and power tools in their work. Commonly used tools are sanders and spray guns. Computers and related software may be used in some workplaces for computerized paint colour reading, generating paint formulas and tinting. In some workplaces, decals and graphics are produced by computerized equipment.
Journeypeople in this trade usually work indoors and can expect a work environment that includes paint fumes, dust and noise. Health and safety are important issues for automotive painters, as they are exposed to chemical (e.g. paints, compounds, solvents) and physical (e.g. spray guns, sanders) hazards. Ongoing safety training and a good knowledge of government safety standards and regulations are important in providing a safer working environment.
Many automotive painters work in close contact with motor vehicle body repairers who tend to work in auto body shops or dealerships. Automotive painting duties may overlap with motor vehicle body repairers' duties, particularly in small shops. In larger places of employment, automotive painters likely work as specialists, after body repairs have been completed. While they may work as part of the repair team, automotive painters tend to work independently.
Key attributes for people entering this trade include: mechanical aptitude; manual dexterity; good colour vision; the ability to do precise work that requires attention to detail; and an eye for creativity. Good physical condition and agility are important because the work often requires considerable standing, bending, crouching, kneeling and reaching.
Being an automotive painter is very self-rewarding. With experience, journeypersons have a number of career options, including supervisory or teaching/training in the field.
Grant for Students from Middle Income Families
Under this grant, students from middle-income families who qualify for a federal student loan and meet the specific grant eligibility requirements will receive $100 per month of study. This grant is available for all years of a university undergraduate, college or trade school program. Delivered by: Human Resources and Skills... More >
Volunteer Centres in Saskatchewan
Volunteer Saskatoon 100-506 25th St East Saskatoon SK S7K 4A7 Tel: 306-975-3477 Fax: 306 244 0583 email@example.com More >
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program
The Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) Program - Doctoral Scholarships provides scholarships to doctoral students who have achieved academic excellence in their undergraduate and graduate studies in the field of social sciences and humanities. Delivered by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Candidates must meet the... More >
House of Commons Page Program for High School Students
Each year, 40 students are selected from high schools and CEGEPs across Canada to come to Ottawa and work as Pages in the House of Commons. Pages have the opportunity to learn about the House of Commons while witnessing the legislative process first hand. Those hired as Pages work on... More >
Veterinary Colleges in Canada
The Atlantic Veterinary College University of Prince Edward Island 550 University Avenue Charlottetown, PEI, Canada C1A 4P3 Université de Montréal 3200, rue Sicotte Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada J2S 7C6 The Ontario Veterinary College University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 The Western College of Veterinary Medicine University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon,... More >
Canada Student Loans and Grants
The Canada Student Loans Program and the Canada Student Grants Program help by providing student financial assistance in the form of loans and grants to Canadians attending post-secondary education in most provinces and territories. The federal governmentâ??s student loans and grants make it easier for Canadian students and families to... More >
Ironworkers (reinforcing) cut, bend, lay out, place and weld reinforcing steel rods, welded wire fabric and composite materials in a wide variety of poured concrete products and structures such as buildings, highways, bridges, stadiums and towers. They also place and stress various post-tensioning systems in structures such as parking garages,... More >
Tool and Die Maker
Tool and die makers make, repair and test dies, cutting tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, prototypes and specialty tools. In some jurisdictions, they may also build moulds. They lay out, set up, machine, fit and finish metal components. They design and make items to meet exacting standards in dimensions, strength and... More > | <urn:uuid:33965223-8071-4176-b14c-560f0ea3875c> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://novascotiascholarships.ca/resources/9/automotive-painter.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500456.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20230207102930-20230207132930-00314.warc.gz | en | 0.929613 | 1,107 | 2.671875 | 3 |
- USGS scientist Edward Josberger discusses research from the past 50 years to measure changes in the mass (length and thickness) of three glaciers in Alaska and Washington. These are the longest such records in North America and among the longest in the world.
- Coral reefs are one of Earth's most beautiful and vital ecosystems—and they are declining at a rapid pace. Mike Field, Chief of the USGS Pacific Coral Reef Project, talks about the importance of coral reefs and how pollution, climate change, and other factors are affecting them
- Photo captures the Rio Grande, volcanic San Luis Hills, and Blanca Peak massif in the San Luis Basin, part of the Rio Grande rift. The basin - currently being studied by the USGS - is of interest for groundwater, petroleum, and mineral resources. | <urn:uuid:908a00af-19f0-471a-a9c3-8873c9a59172> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.usgs.gov/faq/categories/10169 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300578.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920931 | 162 | 3.5625 | 4 |
We’re proud to have such a diverse range of wildlife here are Blue Planet Aquarium – from swift sharks and feisty piranhas to slithery snakes, sneaky spiders and much more.
You’ll already know quite a bit about your favourite creatures, but there’s always more to learn – including some very strange facts to get your head around.
With that in mind, here’s our selection of 10 weird and wonderful facts about some of the creatures in our aquarium.
Just like humans! That’s a long time compared to many other animals, both in the sea and on land.
But, very much UNLIKE humans, these unborn sand tiger pups will eat their own siblings in the womb. Yep, that makes them cannibals. Gross.
It gets even grosser. Once they’re full up with their brothers and sisters, they sometimes eat their mother’s unfertilised eggs as well.
Talk about hungry. And awkward.
Cichlids are among the most loving and caring parents in the ocean, showing huge commitment to protecting their unborn children. Instead of placing their eggs in nests, cichlids carry the eggs around in the mouths – better safe than sorry!
This behaviour is known as “mouthbrooding”, and is also found in several other fish species, including catfish. And, although it is very rare among cichlids, some of them are even paternal mouthbrooders – which means that the dads are the ones who carry the eggs for the mums!
Goliath groupers must be in a rush or very impatient, because they just swallow their prey whole, without chewing, even though they have teeth. Can you imagine doing that? Definitely don’t try it at home, or anywhere else!
But don’t worry: they’re designed to be able to do this (unlike us!). A goliath grouper’s mouth is extremely large, and they use it to generate negative pressure that sucks the prey in quickly. Yep, kind of like a vacuum cleaner.
If you thought pelicans use their bills to catch fish, you’d be right! They don’t store fish in there once caught, though – they just swallow the fish immediately. That doesn’t sound too comfy to us, but it’s how they do it.
The other main use of the bill is to store water – a lot of water. Imagine a can of Coke or Fanta. The capacity of a fully grown pelican’s bill is more than 30 of those!
… Yep, you’ve probably guessed it…
These creatures are omnivorous, meaning they’re not fussy about whether they animals or plants, but they sometimes find that their habitats dry up in terms of food sources.
When this happens, the mud turtle will either leave their current habitat in search of a new one, or will burrow into the mud and hibernate, living in a state of dormancy for several months, saving their energy up until they can emerge and flourish again.
How incredible is that?!
Blacktip sharks are capable of fertilising eggs by themselves – and this process is known as parthenogenesis.
We should point out, however, that it is very uncommon for this to happen. Scientists have only found evidence of this twice during many years of DNA testing.
When hunting for food, a desert viper can take three different approaches:
This, plus the fact that their venom contains 13 different toxins, and the fact that their colour matches their natural environments, means they can ambush and immobilise their prey easily. No wonder they’re such efficient predators!
We are talking pound for pound here, of course, but it’s still impressive that something so small can match the ferocity of one of the world’s most feared predators!
And did you know that their teeth are interlocking? So when they chomp down with those razor-sharp gnashers, that’s what makes their bites so devastating to prey.
Then again, don’t believe the myths: a pack of piranhas can’t strip an animal down to its skeleton in just a few seconds. That’s just silly movie and cartoon stuff!
You probably already knew that electric eels emit strong charges to defend themselves and to stun their prey, but did you know that they also use their electricity to navigate around?
They have to, because their eyesight is pretty dreadful! So they emit low-power charges that act as a kind of built-in radar system.
Get right up close to these fascinating creatures here at our exhibits, and see them in action for yourself.
Have a wander through our 70-metre Underwater Shark Tunnel… Say hi to your thirsty new friends at Pelican Cove… Check out the freshwater fish in the Northern Streams… Brave the creepy-crawlies in Venom! (if you dare)… | <urn:uuid:e322344f-a873-4b1d-9bed-12ccb111f1c9> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://www.blueplanetaquarium.com/blog/uncategorized/10-weird-wonderful-facts-about-blue-planet-creatures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573173.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20190918003832-20190918025832-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.958555 | 1,051 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Web development and software development are two broadly utilized sayings that people, who are not engaged with the PC field, will quite often stir up. Software designing or configuration is fundamentally the method involved with making any software item while web application development relates to the coding required to deliver any type of site or program for the internet or private organizations. Software development is a far reaching term with different fields and aptitude, joining the different types of web application development. A Software Development Organization will regularly give more than one software related arrangement. It draws in experts in both electronic applications and work area applications. Already, web creating consolidated less coding ability and fundamental practice and courses could approve people for the work. Be that as it may, at present the web-based applications require progressed capacities and structures, bigger frameworks and request broad information in a few coding languages and working frameworks.
Therefore, the verifiable contrasts among software and web development are obscuring. The fundamental contrast left is the point of interaction being utilized. While reaching a dependable software development organization, rather than individual independent engineers, you can be sure that your necessities will be settled by the most suitable advances. A software development organization has the skill to coordinate you with a group that focuses on the arrangements your task requires. You should simply be intelligent and clear with your rundown of particulars and give a total portrayal of your goal, wanted execution, the framework capacities and different necessities. The Check out this site software development life-cycle is pretty much indistinguishable for non-web and web application growing yet the stages request might be adjusted by various styles. The principle steps include investigation, statistical surveying, software necessities determination, software and connection point plan, execution, assessment, course of action and upkeep.
The web works on things. Regardless of whether you actually do not exactly comprehend the subtleties portraying software and web application development you cannot turn out badly with picking the right organization or individual to complete your arrangement. Scan the web for software creating organization and look at the arrangements and past work supports to create specific it can furnish you with the best arrangement. It is fitting 100 of the time to look at proposition, administrations and costs of a couple of suppliers, particularly on the off chance that you are curious about the sort of turn out expected for the undertaking. A few creating organizations could attempt to utilize software, recently produced for different requirements, rather than making another one that impeccably accommodates your particular requests. Ensure no one compromises for you to stay away from overabundance work. | <urn:uuid:28730dd8-58e6-4ed7-9e30-885cc9c80adb> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | http://waitthouseinc.org/the-qualification-with-respect-to-web-application-and-software-development.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510130.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926011608-20230926041608-00713.warc.gz | en | 0.928561 | 504 | 2.515625 | 3 |
To use terminology such as "inmate," "offender," "convict," "felon," "criminals" — even with the "ex" — invokes despair, and despair leads to the loss of hope, and the loss of hope leads to depression. This negative language is impactful regardless of whether it comes from public, private or philanthropic sectors.
Richard Brouillette's article, Dehumanization is Causing a Global Mental Health Crisis, discusses the correlation between dehumanization and mental health. Brouilette states: "To feel dehumanized is to feel treated as an object, as a thing, with no self-direction, sense of justice, or will — to feel part of a situation over which you have no control."
Individuals who are incarcerated, under community supervision or transitioning (reentry) back into the community often have that feeling of helplessness and dehumanization. That hopeless mentality is only perpetuated further by the common language used to refer to them or their past. There is a severe mental health crisis within the justice system, and I believe that we can start making a difference by simply changing the dialogue around it.
For example, to have an "offender" or "inmate" reentry program, product or service pronounces a permanent state over the "clients," "residents" or "participants." A person is not an offender, which implies a permanent state; people commit offenses, which appropriately categorizes their decisions. Using those terms when assisting individuals in the rehabilitation process is more humanizing because every human can make decisions, good and bad.
I believe we all acknowledge that cultural changes do not happen overnight, and this movement needs to spread to make a significant difference. It is imperative to acknowledge, educate, and consciously practice with all community members about how to adopt this better use of dialogue. Especially when supporting the rehabilitation of an individual. I believe that together as a society, we can reduce the mental impact of the people seeking assistance during their journey by merely changing the way we speak about them.
It is important to me to recognize that several state justice agencies have already embraced the cultural changes by adding the word “rehabilitation” to the agency’s name. Those justice agencies are:
- California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (2004)
- North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2009)
- Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (2006)
- Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2017)
- West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2018)
In my opinion, the inclusion of the word rehabilitation in the justice agencies names signifies several things: (1) an outward demonstration to the general public that the agency's charge is two-fold, (2) the responsibility of the agency is not only to make a "correction" or redirect misguided decisions, and (3) the responsibility of the agency is to provide public safety until correction, rehabilitation or habilitation has occurred to ensure the welfare and safety of the general public.
There are several organizations that have brought attention to this issue over the years, JustLeadershipUSA and The Fortune Society, just to name a few. However, the most legendary effort to raise awareness on language is An Open Letter to Our Friends on the Question of Language, by the late Edwin “Eddie” Ellis, founder and president of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions.
In this letter, Ellis stated: “The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions believes that if we can get progressive publications, organizations and individuals like you to stop using the old offensive language and simply refer to us as “people,” we will have achieved a significant step forward in our life giving struggle to be recognized as the human beings we are.”
As the leader of The Securus Foundation, I have decided that we will accept Ellis’ charge and not only outwardly support the use of humanizing language. We are launching the “Language Matters” campaign on Jan. 1, 2020. The campaign will identify mainstream publications and/or social media posts that use dehumanizing language to refer to justice-involved individuals, we will rewrite the publication and/or post, replacing dehumanizing language with humanizing language and then we share this better way to dialogue on social media.
In preparation for this campaign, we are looking at public perception, from both the impacted and nonimpacted communities, and examining how people describe incarcerated, supervised and formerly incarcerated individuals. As a collective, we need to make a concerted effort to understand what is the best dialogue to use at each stage that demonstrates habilitation and rehabilitation. As Ellis said, “We firmly believe that if we cannot persuade you to refer to us, and think of us, as people, then all our other efforts at reform and change are seriously comprised.”
Dawn Freeman is president and CEO of The Securus Foundation. You can take the foundation's language poll by visiting https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RYBHR87.
"Perspectives" is a regular feature written by guest authors on access to justice issues. To pitch article ideas, email email@example.com.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization, or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice. | <urn:uuid:fd452ef3-2ccd-4ca0-89f0-debfb30b769c> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/1216449/changing-the-way-we-dialogue-about-justice-reform | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250594662.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200119151736-20200119175736-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.94366 | 1,139 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Main Article Content
This article discusses the writing styles in Lanna texts on ethics by analyzing the characters transliterated from Lanna to Thai script in seven Lanna texts about ethics. This study found that these texts have an introduction, main content and a close as was customary in texts written on palm leaves. The introduction would be in two styles: the use of auspicious words or a declaration of the purpose of the message. According to Robert E. Longacre’s theoretical framework of discourse types, the main content could be categorized as behavioral discourse or narrative discourse. Behavioral discourse would have a beginning, main content and a close, but the beginning and the close were not essential. The type of beginning and ending in each behavioral text affected its categorization and association to other texts. Main content in the narrative style would also be used for the purpose of teaching and had three types of introduction: the stories themselves would focus on actions and the results of actions so that people could apply them to daily life. The ending of narrative texts similarly had three styles and the end would be declared. This would be followed by information concerning the inscription. | <urn:uuid:c550d57a-8f21-4ee8-899c-491064a716b1> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/JHUMANS/article/view/163234 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655891884.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20200707080206-20200707110206-00310.warc.gz | en | 0.955988 | 228 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Red Fort at Delhi was the official Residence of the Mughal Emperors for nearly Two Centuries from mid 16th century to mid 18th century. 1857 Rebellion against the British saw the British winning the rebellion. The British had destroyed two-thirds of the inner structures of the Red fort. Later on, under Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, repairers to the fort walls, gardens and water channels were made. Heritage buildings, Gardens, Palaces, etc, in the red fort museum complex are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
On the ramparts of Red Fort, the Prime Mister of India hoists national flag each year on Indian Independence day, i.e. on August 15th.
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan constructed the Red fort as the Mughal capital in 1648 and shifted the capital from Red Fort Agra to Red Fort Delhi. It is made of Red sandstone and hence got its name. The Fort is adjacent to Salimgarh Fort, an older fort built by Islam Shah Suri in 1546. The Palace and other buildings inside the Red fort complex on 254.67 acres of land, are connected by a water channels (called Stream of Paradise), which used to be fed by waters from the the Yamuna river, which was flowing next to the Fort during those days. River Yumuna has changed its course slightly afterwards.
Red Fort was designed by the same designer who designed the Taj Mahal at Agra. The Red fort architecture is considered ultimate Mughal creativity under Shah Jahan. His son and successor, Emperor Aurangzeb, added the Pearl Mosque to the private quarters of the emperor. Persian emperor Nadir Shah has defeated the Mughals in 1739 and looted most of the valuables including the Peacock Throne (which cost twice as much as the cost of construction of Taj Mahal) and world’s most expensive diamond Kohinoor or Koh-i-Noor. Kohinoor Diamond is currently part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Crown.
There is a sound & light show at the fort in the evenings, which describes the Mughal history to the tourists. Most the original structure are damaged now. The extensive water channels with its fragrant waters are dry. Most of its Marble inlaid flowers were looted by invaders. The tea house now houses a restaurant, even though not in original form. Pearl mosque and hamam ( Turkish Bath) are now closed for the public.
Red Fort is one of the must see places to visit in Delhi. Delhi sightseeing would not be complete, without a visit to Red Fort.
Structures Inside the Red Fort Museum or Complex
Major structures inside the UNESCO World Heritage site of Red Fort Museum Complex today are Chawari Bazar, Lahori Gate, Chhatta Chowk, Naubat Khana, Delhi Gate, Water Gate, Diwan-i-Aam,Mumtaz Mahal, Rang Mahal, Nahr-i-Behisht, Khas Mahal, Diwan-i-Khas, Hammam, Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque), Hira Mahal, Hayat Bakhsh Bagh & Princes’ Quarters.
How Do I Go to Red Fort, Delhi?
Red Fort at Delhi is situated in the heart of the city and is accessible by road. Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station , a major terminal station in New Delhi, is close to red Fort. New Delhi Railway station is another Major railway station which connects the city with the rest of the country. There is an International airport at New Delhi.
What are The Entry Timings at Red Fort Delhi
The Red Fort is open from 9:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. on all days, except Mondays.
Sound and Light show timings are from 6 pm on-wards (in English and Hindi). It is charged separately. It costs Rs. 80 for adults and Rs. 30 for children for this show.
How much is the Entry Fees at Red Fort Delhi
There is an entry fee to enter this UNESCO Heriatge site. Red fort Delhi ticket rate is INR 35 for Indian citizens,
Red fort Delhi ticket charges for foreigners is INR 500. Please confirm the rates mentioned above at your end. | <urn:uuid:3348f2a3-a404-4a4a-8c12-914c3e3f11a5> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://touristinindia.com/blog/tag/red-fort-architecture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000610.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20190627015143-20190627041143-00125.warc.gz | en | 0.947577 | 898 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Welcome to “Robot Boot Camp.” In this two-part article series, I’ll explain what you can do with a basic mobile machine, a few sensors, and behavioral programming techniques. Behavioral programming provides distinct advantages over other programming techniques. It is independent of any environmental model, and it is more robust in the face of sensor error, and the behaviors can be stacked and run concurrently.
My objectives for my recent robot design were fairly modest. I wanted to build a robot that could cruise on its own, avoid obstacles, escape from inadvertent collisions, and track a light source. I knew that if I could meet such objective other more complex behaviors would be possible (e.g., self-docking on low power). There certainly many commercial robots on the market that could have met my requirements. But I decided that my best bet would be to roll my own. I wanted to keep things simple, and I wanted to fully understand the sensors and controls for behavioral autonomous operation. The TOMBOT is the fruit of that labor (see Photo 1a). A colleague came up with the name TOMBOT in honor of its inventor, and the name kind of stuck.
Photo 1a—The complete TOMBOT design. b—The graphics display is nice feature.
In this series of articles, I’ll present lessons learned and describe the hardware/software design process. The series will detail TOMBOT-style robot hardware and assembly, as well as behavior programming techniques using C code. By the end of the series, I’ll have covered a complete behavior programming library and API, which will be available for experimentation.
The TOMBOT robot is certainly minimal, no frills: two continuous-rotation, variable-speed control servos; two IR (850 nm) analog distance measurement sensors (4- to 30-cm range); two CdS photoconductive cells with good lux response in visible spectrum; and, finally, a front bumper (switch-activated) for collision detection. The platform is simple: servos and sensors on the left and right side of two level platforms. The bottom platform houses bumper, batteries, and servos. The top platform houses sensors and microcontroller electronics. The back part of the bottom platform uses a central skid for balance between the two servos (see Photo 1).
Given my background as a Microchip Developer and Academic Partner, I used a Microchip Technology PIC32 microcontroller, a PICkit 3 programmer/debugger, and a free Microchip IDE and 32-bit complier for TOMBOT. (Refer to the TOMBOT components list at the end of this article.)
It was a real thrill to design and build a minimal capability robot that can—with stacking programming behaviors—emulate some “intelligence.” TOMBOT is still a work in progress, but I recently had the privilege of demoing it to a first grade class in El Segundo, CA, as part of a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative. The results were very rewarding, but more on that later.
A control system for a completely autonomous mobile robot must perform many complex information-processing tasks in real time, even for simple applications. The traditional method to building control systems for such robots is to separate the problem into a series of sequential functional components. An alternative approach is to use behavioral programming. The technique was introduced by Rodney Brooks out of the MIT Robotics Lab, and it has been very successful in the implementation of a lot of commercial robots, such as the popular Roomba vacuuming. It was even adopted for space applications like NASA’s Mars Rover and military seekers.
Programming a robot according to behavior-based principles makes the program inherently parallel, enabling the robot to attend simultaneously to all hazards it may encounter as well as any serendipitous opportunities that may arise. Each behavior functions independently through sensor registration, perception, and action. In the end, all behavior requests are prioritized and arbitrated before action is taken. By stacking the appropriate behaviors, using arbitrated software techniques, the robot appears to show (broadly speaking) “increasing intelligence.” The TOMBOT modestly achieves this objective using selective compile configurations to emulate a series of robot behaviors (i.e., Cruise, Home, Escape, Avoid, and Low Power). Figure 1 is a simple model illustration of a behavior program.
Figure 1: Behavior program
Joseph Jones’s Robot Programming: A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics (TAB Electronics, 2003) is a great reference book that helped guide me in this effort. It turns out that Jones was part of the design team for the Roomba product.
Debugging a mobile platform that is executing a series of concurrent behaviors can be daunting task. So, to make things easier, I implemented a complete remote control using a wireless link between the robot and a PC. With this link, I can enable or disable autonomous behavior, retrieve the robot sensor status and mode of operations, and curtail and avoid potential robot hazard. In addition to this, I implemented some additional operator feedback using a small graphics display, LEDs, and a simple sound buzzer. Note the TOMBOT’s power-up display in Photo 1b. We take Robot Boot Camp very seriously.
As you can see in the robot’s block diagram (see Figure 2), the TOMBOT is very much a minimalist system with just enough components to demonstrate autonomous behaviors: Cruise, Escape, Avoid, and Home. All these behaviors require the use of left and right servos for autonomous maneuverability.
Figure 2: The TOMBOT system
The Cruise behavior just keeps the robot in motion in lieu of any stimulus. The Escape behavior uses the bumper to sense a collision and then 180° spin with reverse. The Avoid behavior makes use of continuous forward-looking IR sensors to veer left or right upon approaching a close obstacle. The Home behavior utilizes the front optical photocells to provide robot self-guidance to a strong light highly directional source. It all should add up to some very distinct “intelligent” operation. Figure 3 depicts the basic sensor and electronic layout.
Figure 3: Basic sensor and electronic layout
The TOMBOT uses the low-cost robot platform (ArBot Chassis) and wheel set (X-Wheel assembly) from Budget Robotics (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: The platform and wheel set
A picture is worth a thousand words. Photo 2 shows two views of the TOMBOT prototype.
Photo 2a: The TOMBOT’s Sharp IR sensors, photo assembly, and more. b: The battery pack, right servo, and more.
Photo 2a shows dual Sharp IR sensors. Just below them is the photocell assembly. It is a custom board with dual CdS GL5528 photoconductive cells and 2.2-kΩ current-limiting resistors. Below this is a bumper assembly consisting of two SPDT Snap-action switches with lever (All Electronics Corp. CAT# SMS-196, left and right) fixed to a custom pre-fab plastic front bumper. Also shown is the solderless breakout board and left servo. Photo 2b shows the rechargeable battery pack that resides on the lower base platform and associated power switch. The electronics stack is visible. Here the XBee/Buzzer and graphics card modules residing on the 32-bit Experimenter. The Experimenter is plugged into a custom carrier board that allows for an interconnection to the solderless breakout to the rest of the system. Finally, note that the right servo is highlighted. The total TOMBOT package is not ideal; but remember, I’m talking about a prototype, and this particular configuration has held up nicely in several field demos.
I used Parallax (Futaba) continuous-rotation servos. They use a three-wire connector (+5 V, GND, and Control).
Figure 5 depicts a second-generation bumper assembly. The same snap-action switches with extended levers are bent and fashioned to interconnect a bumper assembly as shown.
Figure 5: Second-generation bumper assembly
A 32-bit Micro Experimenter is used as the CPU. This board is based the high-end Microchip Technology PIC32MX695F512H 64-pin TQFP with 128-KB RAM, 512-KB flash memory, and an 80-MHz clock. I did not want to skimp on this component during the prototype phase. In addition the 32-bit Experimenter supports a 102 × 64 monographic card with green/red backlight controls and LEDs. Since a full graphics library was already bundled with this Experimenter graphics card, it also represented good risk reduction during prototyping phase. Details for both cards are available on the Kiba website.
The Experimenter supports six basic board-level connections to outside world using JP1, JP2, JP3, JP4, BOT, and TOP headers. A custom carrier board interfaces to the Experimenter via these connections and provides power and signal connection to the sensors and servos. The custom carrier accepts battery voltage and regulates it to +5 VDC. This +5 V is then further regulated by the Experimenter to its native +3.3-VDC operation. The solderless breadboard supports a resistor network to sense a +9-V battery voltage for a +3.3-V PIC processor. The breadboard also contains an LM324 quad op-amp to provide a buffer between +3.3-V logic of the processor and the required +5-V operation of the servo. Figure 6 is a detailed schematic diagram of the electronics.
Figure 6: The design’s circuitry
A custom card for the XBee radio carrier and buzzer was built that plugs into the Experimenter’s TOP and BOT connections. Photo 3 shows the modules and the carrier board. The robot uses a rechargeable 1,600-mAH battery system (typical of mid-range wireless toys) that provides hours of uninterrupted operation.
Photo 3: The modules and the carrier board
PIC32 On-Chip Peripherals
The major PIC32 peripheral connection for the Experimenter to rest of the system is shown. The TOMBOT uses PWM for servo, UART for XBee, SPI and digital for LCD, analog input channels for all the sensors, and digital for the buzzer and bumper detect. The key peripheral connection for the Experimenter to rest of the system is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Peripheral usage
The PIC32 pinouts and their associated Experimenter connections are detailed in Figure 8.
Figure 8: PIC32 peripheral pinouts and EXP32 connectors
The TOMBOT Motion Basics and the PIC32 Output Compare Peripheral
Let’s review the basics for TOMBOT motor control. The servos use the Parallax (Futaba) Continuous Rotation Servos. With two-wheel control, the robot motion is controlled as per Table 1.
Table 1: Robot motion
The servos are controlled by using a 20-ms (500-Hz) pulse PWM pattern where the PWM pulse can from 1.0 ms to 2.0 ms. The effects on the servos for the different PWM are shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Servo PWM control
The PIC32 microcontroller (used in the Experimenter) has five Output Compare modules (OCX, where X =1 , 2, 3, 4, 5). We use two of these peripherals, specifically OC3, OC4 to generate the PWM to control the servo speed and direction. The OCX module can use either 16 Timer2 (TMR2) or 16 Timer3 (TMR3) or combined as 32-bit Timer23 as a time base and for period (PR) setting for the output pulse waveform. In our case, we are using Timer23 as a PR set to 20 ms (500 Hz). The OCXRS and OCXR registers are loaded with a 16-bit value to control width of the pulse generated during the output period. This value is compared against the Timer during each period cycle. The OCX output starts high and then when a match occurs OCX logic will generate a low on output. This will be repeated on a cycle-by-cycle basis (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: PWM generation
Next Comes Software
We set the research goals and objectives for our autonomous robot. We covered the hardware associated with this robot and in the next installment we will describe the software and operation.
Tom Kibalo holds a BSEE from City College of New York and an MSEE from the University of Maryland. He as 39 years of engineering experience with a number of companies in the Washington, DC area. Tom is an adjunct EE facility member for local community college, and he is president of Kibacorp, a Microchip Design Partner. | <urn:uuid:9a07c996-bdf0-4994-8785-0c7b14d7b87f> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://circuitcellar.com/2012/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982292608.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195812-00175-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904775 | 2,701 | 3 | 3 |
© 2010 – Routledge
The Countdown Series provides all the support you need in helping pupils to improve their literacy skills. It is a comprehensive and flexible resource which you can use in different ways, and includes:
In short, the Countdown Series Set saves valuable planning time and gives you all the flexibility you need in helping pupils to to become confdent with literary techniques. The structure of the book allows teachers to utilise the modules for ‘self-study’, as a longer programme following the ‘countdown’ structure, or to dip into the book for individual lesson activities and ideas to fit in with wider programmes of study.
Developing children's writing abilities boosts their confidence, creates enjoyment and relevance in the task and cultivates a range of decision-making and problem-solving skills that can then be applied across the curriculum. The Countdown series provides all the support you need in helping children to improve their prose, poetry and non-fiction writing. | <urn:uuid:0ee8584c-1a3f-4b11-af51-9748b522d06e> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415558754 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860122420.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161522-00137-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945084 | 197 | 2.875 | 3 |
Agua Hedionda means "stinking water" in English. The name is supposed to have been given the area by the first Spanish explorers. The odor they reported might have come from a nearby Indian village, a sulphur spring, or possibly from decayed matter on the shores of the lagoon.
Don Juan María Marrón ruled Rancho Agua Hedionda in the 1840s. His 13,311 acres extended from the Pacific Ocean inland almost to Vista and from Carlsbad south of Encina Canyon.
Don Juan had been a ship's captain before coming to San Diego in the early 1820s. He soon became prominent politically and married Doña Felipa, daughter of Juan María Osuna, the first alcalde of the pueblo of San Diego and the owner of Rancho San Dieguito. Rancho Agua Hedionda was granted to Marrón in 1842. Original diseño supporting claim to the land.
During the Mexican War, Don Juan supported the Americans against many of his Mexican friends. This support caused him considerable hardship and embarrassment at time. Richard F. Pourade in his book, The Silver Dons, relates an incident which took place in 1846:
"One morning, along the road from the mission, came Alcade Juan María Marrón, husband of Felipa Osuna, carrying a white flag. He wanted to visit his wife. Capt. Miguel de Pedroena took him into custody, but Commodore Robert F. Stockton finally gave Felipa and her husband a pass through the lines, to go to their rancho. With their children they walked all the way to San Luis Rey Mission, where another band of Californios seized them and threatened to shoot Marrón for having collaborated with the Americans. They released him but stripped his Agua Hedionda Rancho of horses and cattle."
Several adobe homes were built on the rancho by members of the Marrón family through the years. Most of the strutures have disappeared, but several were incorporated into modern residences.
One of these was the home of Carroll R. Kelly, whose grandfather was Matthew Kelly Sr., brother of the fourth owner of the rancho. Carroll Kelly farmed and raised cattle on the rancho for thirty-five years. In 1958 he rebuilt the house where Don Juan lived, reinforcing the twenty-six-inch walls and constructing additional wings along the foundation lines laid out by the original owner.
Another ancient adobe built by Juan María Marrón, grandson of the original grantee, was in ruins in 1968 but several of its walls were still standing. It was on the north side of Highway 78 less than a mile east of El Camino Real intersection, in a grove of pepper and eucalyptus trees.
This property was owned by the Steiger family of Oceanside. John A. Steiger, a realtor, said his grandfather started making the bricks for the house about 1895. His mother, Mrs. Laura Steiger, lived in the adobe as a child. Steiger's grandmother was Doña Lorenza Serrano de Marró, a direct descendant of José Antonio Serrano, grantee of Rancho Pauma.
On the south side of Highway 78, nearby, was the adobe home of Silvestre Marrón, brother of Don Juan. Two walls were all that remained of it in 1968.
Don Juan María Marrón died in 1853 at the age of forty-five; his widow and four children inherited Rancho Agua Hedionda, with the exception of 360 acres bequeathed to Silvestre. The latter also was given grazing rights on all of the huge rancho.
The Marróns leased Rancho Agua Hedionda to Francis Hinton in 1860 for a loan of $6000, with José Marrón and José María Estudillo retaining the right to come and gather salt from the lagoons for their families.
In 1865, Hinton assumed ownership of the rancho. Six thousand dollars seems a small price for land worth millions today, but it was considered fair at that time, as drought had laid waste to thousands of acres of grazing land and there was no market for the starving cattle.
Hinton was born in New York in 1818. His real name was Abraham Ten Eyck de Witt Hornbeck. When he was twenty-seven years old he changed his name, joined the Army and served throughout the Mexican War. He was a supply sergeant of Company A, 1st U.S. Dragoons. Cave Couts, later to become owner of Rancho Guajome, was a lieutenant in the same unit. Both Hinton and Couts came to California with the Boundary Commission guard.
Hinton died at the rancho in 1870. He had never been married and willed Agua Hedionda to his mayordomo, Robert Kelly, who also was a bachelor.
Kelly had been mayordomo of Jamacha Rancho on the Sweetwater River and also a merchant in San Diego. He died in 1890, leaving Rancho Agua Hedionda to his nine nephews and nieces, children of his brother, Matthew Kelly.
The last of these heirs, William Sherman Kelly, died on May 10, 1950, at the age of eighty-five. Holdings of his son, Allan, 820 acres of the Marrón grant, included the upper part of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
From Allan Kelly's home can be seen the lagoon into which empties the creek of the same name, the Encina power plant and the ocean. In the distance to the south is Palomar Airport which had been carved out of the original land grant. Within the same boundaries are two high hills, or mountains, which on county maps bear the historic names of Mount Kelly and Mount Hinton.
Although Matthew Kelly Sr. never owned Rancho Agua Hedionda, he lived on adjacent patented land, Rancho Los Quiotes, until his death. The Kelly heirs in 1922 sold Los Quiotes to a San Francisco syndicate, from which Leo Carrillo, movie actor, purchased the ranch in 1938. Carrillo died in 1961, leaving the property, 840 acres, to his adopted daughter, Mrs. Marie Antoinette Carrillo Delpy. The actor had remodeled the old two-story Kelly adobe ranchouse and made it into a modern showplace.
More information on Don Juan María Marrón and Rancho Agua Hedionda on Virginia Debley's web page.
Back to Carlsbad History.
Back to Carlsbad, California.
Copyright © 1994-2007 Dan Anderson. All rights reserved.
Source: Historic Ranchos of San Diego (Union-Tribune Publishing Co., 1969) by Cecil C. Moyer (1899-1981). Richard F. Pourade (1908-1981), Editor.
This website is not authorized or sponsored by any government agency. The bear fetish is the 7000-year-old Official State Prehistoric Artifact from Carlsbad. Last updated 10 July 2011.
If you have problems or comments concerning our web service, send a message to Dan Anderson. | <urn:uuid:2870db19-3ea9-4e10-b1a8-5ebfca323e2f> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://www.carlsbad.ca.us/hedionda.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416931010149.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20141125155650-00226-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967017 | 1,502 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Chicken Keeping can be easy, Val prides herself knowing that new and existing people who complete the keeping chickens course are: happy, contented and armed with all the necessary knowledge, to keep healthy chickens in their back garden.
This ‘how to keep chickens’ course is very informative, fun and gives you an opportunity to meet like minded people; come and see how it all works in a functional back garden. To allow for focused individual attention each course has a maximum of 6 people.
This one day chicken keeping course has been specifically designed for new and existing back garden keepers, to help you successfully start up and keep chickens in your backyard. The aim of this course is to show you how easy and enjoyable keeping chickens can be, if done correctly; with hands-on advice and practical tips. It will help you select the right breed to suit you, based on your expectations of chicken keeping, look at important features to identify the right coop and show you how to keep your hens healthy and laying, using preventative methods.
Group Chicken Keeping Courses Cover:
- Benefits and Rewards of Keeping Chickens.
- The cost of keeping hens and the savings you can make
- The Ease of Keeping Chickens: a chicken’s basic needs and welfare requirements
- Breeds: discuss and help with the importance of choosing the right breed to match your expectations
- Housing: the importance of choosing the correct coop, review a housing checklist; discuss the pros and cons of different coops available to help you make the right purchase. Guidelines of space required, nest boxes, perches etc. Tips for making your hens comfortable and safe; how to make it low maintenance.
- Handling: how to handle and hold your chickens correctly, with practical handling on live hens and advice on inspecting health.
- Feeding: present the various feeds available giving their advantages and disadvantages; along with other essential requirements to their diet. Tips on rodent distraction.
- Predators consider who they are, danger times and ways to protect your hens.
- Training: demonstration and discussion, how and why you need to train them
- Eggs: your first eggs discuss when she will come into lay, how long it takes to produce an egg and the amount of eggs a breed can lay.
- Health: observe and discuss signs of health and sickness; ‘what to look for’, preventative methods to keep them healthy and the supplements/medication available.
- Parasites: the signs of various external and internal parasites, treatment and preventative methods to keep them at bay.
- Moulting: when and why it occurs, care and maintenance to help the process.
- Broodiness: identifying a broody hen, the problems and discuss ways of dealing with her.
- Flying Hens: the advantages and disadvantages and how to clip a wing.
- The Pecking Order: top chick and the hierarchy
- Every day, weekly and monthly / quarterly care required
- Your new arrivals: settling them in their new home
- Dust-baths: it’s function, how to make one and additives to maintain good health
- Introducing new hens: helping make the difficult transaction easy.
- Cockerels, discuss the pros and cons
- All questions answered and much much more…….
Times of course 10:30 to 15:00hrs.
A tasty two course lunch and refreshments will be provided free of charge (Please advise if you are vegetarian).
You will be given a free 34 page information pack to use as a reference book, containing all the information covered on the course (value £10).
The hen keeping course will be held outside so you see how it all works (weather permitting).
Cost £60 per person. A Non refundable deposit of £20 per person is required.
We reserve the right to cancel or postpone the course but will provide as much notice as possible (deposits will be returned if we do so) or we may amalgamate courses if attendance is low.
Qualified: Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Leaning Sector (PTLLS). Fully Insured and CRB Checked
This Keeping Chickens Course is not suitable for children under the age of 14, children are fully catered for on the unique 1-2-1 course. Sorry no dogs.
To book a chicken course, please use our contact page to speak to Val
02nd Apr 2017 Fully Booked
28th May 2017
25th June 2017 Fully Booked
23rd July 2017 Fully Booked
For families or specific needs or more personal individual attention please see the 121 course Here
If there are no dates suitable for you please feel free to use the 121 course Here
What some of our customers say about our chicken keeping course:
for a full list of testimonials please click here
Judy and Martin – Devizes
We can wholeheartedly recommend Val’s course. She is so thorough and so knowledgable and the booklet given to us at the end covers everything you need to know about keeping chickens!
We believe anyone who is about to embark on chicken keeping should do this course…and not just for the sheer delight of seeing her bantams charge up from the bottom of the garden when she calls them!!
Lunch was great too…what more can we say??
David – Wantage
Thanks Val for a very informative day, I really enjoyed getting ALL my questions answered. Although I already have chickens this course is equally relevant for a complete beginner or people just wanting reassurance that they are doing the right thing. I would certainly recommend this course and the rhubarb crumble and custard was superb
Tim – Cheltenham
I think that this course is essential for anyone thinking of starting to keep chickens or indeed anyone with very little experience . Every aspect was covered in a clear and concise way and any queries that were raised were answered very precisely. Val is very knowledgeable and has filled me with enthusiasm. Any doubts that I had about keeping chickens in my garden were dispelled.There are so many potential pitfalls especially with respect to choosing a hen house and the best breed, and both these topics among many others were covered in detail. All in all, a very enjoyable and rewarding day, with the bonus of an excellent lunch and plenty of tea!
Hugh – Bristol
Val gave an excellent day of information. We covered a lot of ground but it was fun and practically based. I came away with enthusiasm for, and a belief in the possibility of, keeping hens in a very small garden. Practical tips came thick and fast as did encouragement. Thank you for a warm welcome; relaxing atmophere in which to learn and, a delicious lunch! I will recommend this course.
Elaine & Peter – Penhow, GWENT
What can I say, thank you for a fantastic day Val; I had been on a course prior to Chicken School and learnt nothing. I learnt so much from Val, the information pack is fab as was your lovely cooking. I would advise any and everyone to come to one of her courses. Chicken School says what it does on the label and more: is very informative and fun
Nikki – Swindon
Thank you so much Val for a wonderful day, the course was at an excellent pace. I have no knowledge of chicken keeping, yet I have come away feeling very confident in caring for them. Also I was very impressed with the literacy that was handed out, it’s nice to have something to take home and read through. All-in-all I was very impressed.
Once again thank you Val, GREAT course and fantastic food.
Neil Forbes (Recognised RCVS and European College Specialist in Bird Medicine) states that it is imperative that poultry owners are well informed and trained in the care and husbandry of their birds. Neil states that suitable training is most readily gained by attending a chicken keeping course as run by organisations such as Chicken School. | <urn:uuid:21cdd42f-a928-47c0-9aea-e218e2b9d6b8> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://chickenschool.co.uk/chicken-keeping-group-course/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189242.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00386-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952637 | 1,654 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Pantone helps various industries through color language: some initiatives it helps are textiles, apparel, beauty, interior, architectural and industrial design. Pantone helps them by providing over 10,000 different color standards through materials including printing textiles, plastics, pigments, and coatings.
Though they talk a lot about their target audience in graphic designers, fashion designers, interior designers, they don't reference the illustrators that use their services.
Pantone struggles to showcase one of their target audiences across different mediums, this being illustrators and artist. They also struggle to explain the significance of color psychology and how they use it.
Create a marketing campaign that will include magazine advertisements, landing page, social media, and a mural design. This campaign will focus on using illustrations as the main focal point.
These advertisements bring awareness to both Pantone itself and how color psychology can help make your artwork stand out. It also shows illustrators that Pantone isn’t just something used for printing or other graphic design areas of work, that it can also be utilized to create works of art.
The landing page aims to bring more awareness to color psychology and explain the evoked emotions that the colors bring. The landing page allows users to understand that Pantone colors aren’t just used when printing but can be used in various work industries or hobbies.
The goal of having a mural design for the campaign is to showcase a fun, visual way of how color can help bring out emotions. Each mural will utilize one color to create a monochromatic piece that helps bring out the feelings that the color represents or makes others feel.
One key takeaway came from the research that was conducted for this project is how valuable research can be in finding out the best way to solve a problem.
Another takeaway is you should always take a step back and look into what you are creating. While creating the advertisements, I had to step back and take in the feeling of each illustration. This was to make sure that each color blended and portrayed the feelings I wanted to provoke. | <urn:uuid:3d220c1f-b44f-4549-827a-ee46c0ab62bf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.megancdesign.com/project-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572215.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815235954-20220816025954-00718.warc.gz | en | 0.948612 | 421 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Hand Book of Tropical Plants
Agriculture Is Witnessing A Gradual Change Particularly In The Cropping System, Land Use System And Input Utilization. The Quest For Higher Productivity Is Leading To The Serious Problems Of Soil Salinity And High Water-Table In Irrigated Areas. All These Factors Have Provided Ideal Conditions For Major Trends Towards Diversification In Favour Of Tropical Plans Such As Fruit Plantation Crops, Spices, Vegetables And Ornamental Crops.Though There Are Number Of New Books Relating To The Agriculture And Horticulture Of Tropics And Subtropics But The Demand For Macmillian S Handbook Of Tropical Plants, Is Ever Increasing. It Is Recognized As A Standard Book Which Can Be Recommended With Confidence.This Book Will Be Highly Useful To All Those Who Are Interested In Agricultural Or Horticultural Undertakings In The Tropics. Thus, This Will Prove Vade Mecum To Students And Academics In The Field Of Botany And Agricultural Sciences Besides The Botanists And Scientists In The Field.
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. | <urn:uuid:54daddb7-0628-462b-984b-d1031ea6b479> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://books.google.com/books?id=YGQ6Bodo_JcC&pg=PA265&sig=GgwRiuY7icfss5lyKmLbmoOZ270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657104119.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011144-00226-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.710033 | 238 | 2.703125 | 3 |
This step by step tutorial shows how to draw blueberries in a small bunch along with a few blueberry leaves to make the drawing look nicer.
Step 1 – Draw the Outer Shapes of Each of the Blueberries
Make the blueberries very slightly oval in shape. The ovals don’t need to be perfect as some unevenness will make them look more natural.
It’s a good idea to do the first few stages of the drawing using light pencil lines.
Step 2 – Draw the Outer Shapes of the Leaves
Draw the leaves sticking out form behind the blueberries. For this step you can draw each leaf with just two curved lines.
For drawing other types of leaves see:
Step 3 – Draw the Tips of the Berries
You can indicate the tips of each of the berries with another series of “ovals” Technically these are circles but because the views we are drawing them are on an angle they will look like ovals.
Step 4 – Draw the Inner Details of the Berries
Now outside the ovals from the previous step draw a sets of petal like shapes. These should basically look like stars with curved edges. Inside the same ovals draw some tiny inner ovals (almost just dots).
Once done you should have a what actually now looks like a blueberry.
Step 5 – Finish the Line Drawing
To finish the line drawing add the ribs of the leaves and go over your pencil drawing with a pen or marker. Alternatively you can also just darken the liens with the same pencil.
Step 6 – Add Some Color
When coloring the line drawing you can simply make the leaves green. Color the blueberries blue but leave small white spots for the reflections. Shade the inner parts of the “tips” and “petals” a darker blue.
While the the blueberries in this tutorial are somewhat simplified they still definitely look like blueberries. Sometimes simplifying or stylizing an object can actually make it more recognizable than a more realistic drawing.
For more similar tutorials see:
- How to Draw Cherries Step by Step
- How to Draw Grapes Step by Step
- How to Draw a Plum Step by Step
- Strawberry Drawing Step by Step
- How to Draw a Flower Step by Step | <urn:uuid:5b140f44-c203-47ff-98ef-69618acac38b> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.easylinedrawing.com/how-to-draw-blueberries-step-by-step/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991641.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20210511025739-20210511055739-00492.warc.gz | en | 0.920934 | 474 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Older servicemen who have had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have almost twice the risk of dementia compared to soldiers without PTSD. Dr Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco studied 181,098 veterans of whom 53,155 had PTSD. After taking into account other risk factors associated with dementia such as depression and traumatic brain injury the veterans with PTSD had double the risk of developing dementia. Over the course of the study 10% of the veterans with PTSD developed dementia compared to just over 6.6% of those without PTSD. It is not known why there should be this link but some studies have found a link between PTSD and a shrinking of part of the brain called the hippocampus which is involved in memory and in people's response to stress.
You can find out more about this research at | <urn:uuid:2b231fd6-37b1-424f-9d17-ec6aee3b6870> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://mentalhealthupdate.blogspot.com/2009/07/ptsd-linked-to-increased-risk-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084892802.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20180123231023-20180124011023-00572.warc.gz | en | 0.959474 | 167 | 2.96875 | 3 |
France, 16 May 2007: The origin and movement of waves reaching up to 11 metres that devastated France’s Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean on evening of May 12, have been detected with ESA’s Envisat satellite.
The waves that thrashed the southern port of Saint Pierre, causing several piers to collapse and flooding several homes and businesses, originated at south of Cape Town, South Africa, and travelled northeast for nearly 4000 km over a period of three days before slamming into Reunion Island.
Dr Bertrand Chapron of IFREMER, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, and Dr Fabrice Collard of France’s BOOST Technologies located and tracked the swells using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).
“Swells are still surprise factors, which can unfortunately be deadly,” Chapron said. “The SAR Wave Mode product allows us to locate and systematically track swells globally. In the near future we anticipate using SAR wave data to predict their arrival time and intensity.”
“Although waves were forecast to hit Reunion Island, their intensity was predicted to be only a couple of metres”, Collard explained.”Strong swells are preceded by calm water, it is impossible to detect their arrival from shore,” Collard said. “SAR is the swell instrument and can typically observe swell periods in the range of 12 to 25 seconds.”
A larger wave period correlates to a more extreme wind event. The one that hit Saint Pierre, Reunion Island, had a 19-second range and initially originated from very intense storm winds on 8 May.
Envisat is equipped with an advanced version of the SAR instrument, Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR), flown on the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions. Its wave mode acquires 10 by 5 km small images, or ‘imagettes’, of the sea surface every 100 km along the satellite orbit. These small ‘imagettes’, which depict the individual wave heights, are then mathematically transformed into averaged-out breakdowns of wave energy and direction, called ocean-wave spectra, which is made available to scientists and weather centres. | <urn:uuid:8224b6d0-c620-4b46-95c1-cdbf1568e3b4> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.geospatialworld.net/news/envisat-tracks-waves-hit-reunion-island/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867417.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20180526112331-20180526132331-00558.warc.gz | en | 0.940419 | 466 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Registration, atlases and cortical flattening
© Oxford University Press 2001. All rights reserved. This chapter discusses the details of structural analysis methods in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to interpret, relate and compare spatial locations, beginning with a description of some preliminary and related processing methods. It proceeds with a discussion of registration including both manual and automatic registration, and gives a brief overview of the important concepts and various approaches involved in registration. The chapter also discusses the two basic tasks for which an atlas is helpful, and mentions that when analysing the functional response of the brain, it is the spatial relationships between different parts of the cortical surface which are of interest. Therefore, an understanding and analysis of these spatial relationships is critical for the knowledge of cognitive function. Analysing the spatial relations in three dimensions, however, is complicated. It is more natural to express the relations in a two-dimensional representation, since the cortical grey matter is in effect a folded two-dimensional surface. Cortical flattening provides a way of creating such a two-dimensional map from the three-dimensional images of the brain. Finally, the chapter discusses the three main applications of structural analysis in fMRI. | <urn:uuid:2e94ac42-35fa-4b03-bcf4-07c762ec08b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.win.ox.ac.uk/publications/542252 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662531762.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20220520061824-20220520091824-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.925586 | 245 | 2.8125 | 3 |
ADHD or Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a chronic neuro-behavioral condition that has been affecting children and adults alike. The condition is known to begin in childhood and goes on till adulthood. It is the most common disorder that most expert psychologists believe that it is sometimes even over-diagnosed.
Since ADHD issue is highly misunderstood, therefore, it is highly important to understand the symptoms of ADHD before you seek ADHD counselling:
It is important to note that the children with ADHD conditions can exhibit one or two or even all three behaviours and this can change from time-to-time. It is normal for children to be absent minded. However, if this behaviour persists beyond the specific age bracket, then it's time you seek help from a professional ADHD counsellor.
And if you haven’t been diagnosed ever, and want to know if you have adult ADHD then, ask yourself a few questions just to keep a check:
Many expert psychologists and online counsellors have long researched the cause of ADHD but the exact reason is still unknown. However, there are studies that show ADHD can occur from a combination of genetics/biology, brain trauma, poor nutrition or environment. Also, if a mother has had abuse issues - alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, brain injury, and consumed food additives, it tends to have effects on the brain of the child.
There is no definitive test for ADHD issues, but a trained psychologist or a professional child therapist, or child psychiatrist, should be able to evaluate your child on the basis of his/her behaviour. This will help you to rule our other mental health conditions like depression, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems with ADHD. An expert ADHD counsellor will help you evaluate the condition, possible causes, and treatment options for you and your child. This may include parenting counselling or anger management counselling too.
It is very important for you to know that there is no specific ADHD treatment but ADHD counselling from a trained child psychologist will help you curb and manage most of its symptoms so that it doesn't negatively affect his/her life. Some of the treatments include counselling, lifestyle changes like healthy diet, proper sleep, regular exercise and medication.
Speak to our highly trained online counselling therapists and take ADHD treatment sessions from the comforts of your home.
At OnlineCounselling4U, our online child counselling therapists and adult therapists are available 24x7 to help. Find ADHD advice at just a single click on chat or phone in your preferred language like Hindi, English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia and Punjabi within India and abroad.
But first and foremost the first step is always to recognise and accept that your child’s ADHD can get worse and affect life negatively. It is important to seek professional counselling treatment.
When you take advice from any of our top online counselling psychologists, your information is kept 100% confidential, private & anonymous. Even so, that once the consultation & online counseling session is over, not even your therapist can contact you thereafter.
Yes. Definitely, behaviour counselling can definitely help improve the conditions and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’s negative effects.
Until he/she gets treatment, try to remain calm, reward good behaviour, praise and follow the same routine everyday.
Yes. However, adult ADHD is not even diagnosed and symptoms tend to be more varied.
Mood Disorder, anxiety, and personality disorders like narcissistic and borderline personality disorder
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Thursday 3rd December, 2020
In recent times everyone is in hustle it is hard for everyon
"you are searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the source of power, and yet you have the key in your own hands, and you may make use of it the moment you learn to control your thoughts." ~ Napoleon Hill | <urn:uuid:ec2a9780-c892-4dc5-9e0c-48e150527a47> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.onlinecounselling4u.com/adhd-counselling.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988753.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210506114045-20210506144045-00369.warc.gz | en | 0.935003 | 853 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Africa remains the poorest region in the world. The reasons for poverty in Africa cannot be narrowed down to a single cause. Some factors bedeviling Africa require good governance and effective policy making on the part of Africa. However, some causes of poverty in Africa require global cooperation to solve. Reasons for Africa’s poverty range from poor governance, corruption, wars and violence. In addition, disease burden and poor education are also contributing to poverty in Africa. We have developed a list of the top eight reasons why Africa is still poor.
Africa has gone through some economic, social, and demographic changes in the last two decades. Africa's economies have been rising steadily. Every year, people are lifted out of poverty in some countries. Looking ahead, Africa's story shows a promising future. However, this upward trend is neither consistent nor even. Things are undoubtedly improving for some people, but not for all, and for some places, but not for all. Africa remains impoverished as a result of this uneven growth. This rate of growth is far too slow, and millions of Africans continue to live in abject poverty. Africa is still commonly regarded as the world's poorest continent. In Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 220 million people live in poverty. The reasons of Africa’s poverty cannot be reduced to a single factor.
1) Poor governance
Africa's failure to progress seventy years after independence is primarily due to poor governance. Africa has been in the hands of inept leaders who are uninterested in the continent's development. In state institutions, there has been a lack of transparency and accountability. Resources are not being utilized efficiently. In Africa, poor governance includes a variety of state and employee malpractices. Many African leaders are not genuinely interested in moving the continent forward by appointing competent people to key positions. African politicians openly appoint underqualified people to prominent positions at state-owned organizations and government ministries, seeing their roles as a sort of property and personal gain. The poorest people are harmed by this type of governance, as they are denied basic necessities such as healthcare, food, and shelter.
In Africa, corruption is a key challenge in the fight against poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa is regarded as one of the most corrupt regions in the world. According to a recent Transparency International report, corruption is on the rise across Africa. Numerous African countries have faced and continue to experience severe levels of corruption in the last 20 months. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst-performing region on the CPI, with an average score of 32, indicating little improvement from previous years. According to the Transparency International rankings of 2020, the top two most corrupt countries are in Africa. South Sudan and Somalia are the most corrupt countries in the world, with the same lowest score of 12. An audit of COVID-19 spending in South Africa uncovered overpricing, fraud, and corruption. In the second quarter of 2020, money earmarked for the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) was stolen in a number of nations. For example, in Zimbabwe in 2020, a scandal was discovered in which tenders for purchasing equipment were offered to a businessman connected to the first family. While some African countries, such as Ghana, Tanzania, and Rwanda, have made headway in the battle against corruption, many others are still far behind. A lack of effort to address this issue exacerbates the current causes of poverty in Africa.
3) Wars and Violence
Wars and political violence have exacerbated poverty across Africa. Extremist organizations, government repression, and natural resources are the main causes of conflict in Africa. According to the Amnesty International report of 2020, Africa was the only continent to experience an increase in political violence in 2020 compared to 2019. More than 17200 violent incidents were documented, with more than 37600 people killed. In 2021, African conflicts mainly occurred in Cameroon , Ethiopia (Tigray), Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Lake Chad Region (Boko Haram), DRC, Somalia, and South Sudan. According to the Institute of Security Studies, a think tank based in South Africa, since 2011, there has been an increase in the number of people compelled to flee their homes across Africa. In Africa, more than 32 million people are internally displaced, refugees, or asylum seekers. Economic pursuits, such as agriculture and mining, grind to a standstill in violent communities. People are forced to flee their houses. Because of the uncertainty, businesses close and investors flee. All of this is harmful to economic progress, and insecure African communities will remain impoverished.
4) Poor Education and the Knowledge gap
A key issue that adds to the causes of poverty in Africa is a lack of education. This void is felt most acutely in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates of educational marginalization in the world. According to the United Nations International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF), over one-fifth of children between the ages of six and eleven are out of school, followed by one-third of adolescents aged 12 to 14 in Africa. Almost 60% of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 do not attend school. The United Nations has connected education to poverty, as the data illustrates, because individuals who cannot read or write have little opportunity of finding competent work and building a livelihood. Because there is no trained workforce to drive the economy, it is crippled by a lack of skills and information. Due to a lack of education and technical skills, the majority of African youth are currently unemployed. Education, particularly for girls, has, however, been shown to be one of the most cost-effective measures for encouraging economic growth. Studies have shown that educated moms have healthier, better-nourished newborns and their own children are more likely to attend school, thereby helping to break the vicious cycle of poverty.
5) Poor Health and the Disease Burden
Poverty is a cause as well as a result of bad health. Inadequate living conditions raise the likelihood of bad health. As a result, poor health confines communities to a never-ending cycle of poverty. People living in poverty are at a serious disadvantage due to a lack of education on how to prevent infectious diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS, as well as the high cost of consultations, testing, and medicine, which only serves to perpetuate the poverty cycle. In Africa, diseases like AIDS, malaria, and Ebola are both the cause and the outcome of poverty. Diseases spread faster and cannot be treated in many areas due to a lack of education and inadequate medical care. The population's average life expectancy is declining, while the number of orphans is rising. Labor shortages are particularly visible in agriculture, resulting in lower food output. Diseases, particularly communicable diseases, spread more quickly in disadvantaged populations with limited access to basic services. HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses all contributed to Africa's rising poverty rates. Apart from killing individuals, these diseases leave families and communities in debt, severely compromising their ability to survive.
6) Rapid Population growth
Despite several preventive and education initiatives, population growth on the African continent is rapid. According to recent UNICEF report, Africa's population will double to two billion people by 2050. African governments are failing to meet the demands of a growing population by failing to build the necessary infrastructure. On limited resources, the population per capita is increasing. People are increasingly living in slums as a result of a lack of housing. Water and energy shortages are common across Africa. In addition, healthcare facilities are overcrowded, thereby compromising patient outcomes. Africa is sowing the seeds of its own implosion by failing to meet the needs of its growing population. However, the growing population can be good for Africa’s economy if opportunities are created by African governments. By the year 2035, Africa will have the world's largest workforce. The growing population can support the economy if policies are created to promote industrial development.
7) International Aid
International aid is now commonly viewed as one of the factors contributing to Africa's continued poverty. Nothing much has changed in the 70 years since independence. Every year, billions of dollars in charity are provided to Africa, but little has changed. Aid money ends up in the hands of those who aren't supposed to be receiving it. Despots utilize the same aid money to oppress the people. International aid encourages corruption among African governments. In her much publicized book, Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo argued that international aid might lead to governments abdicating their responsibility to provide public goods to their citizens. Governments and politicians will no longer be held accountable or answerable to citizens if they are always rescued by aid money. International aid promotes a dependency syndrome and suffocates African ingenuity. There will be no incentive for Africans to come up with innovative ways to solve their problems when they are always helped by developed countries.
8) Protectionist Trading Policies
Rich countries establish unfair trade systems by protecting their markets and extensively subsidizing their own agriculture. The slow growth of African economies is due to Europe's unified agriculture policy and America's farm subsidies. This hinders the growth of agriculture on the African continent, putting the continent at a disadvantage from the start. As a result of their actions, the governments of the United States, Europe, and other rich countries contribute to poverty in Africa. The United States and the European Union are shielding major industries with which Africa may compete, such as agriculture, making trade in this sector more difficult. Hence, Africa remains trapped in poverty because of these protectionist policies by developed countries.
Although Africa’s economic outlook looks positive in the long term, the continent continues to struggle with poverty in the here and now. There are a number of reasons why Africa is still poor today, despite efforts being made to eradicate poverty. The scourge of corruption and poor governance is taking a toll on Africa’s growth and a chance to meaningfully put a dent in poverty. Insecurity, poor education, health and rapid population growth are also pulling the continent behind. With effective policy making and good governance, Africa has a shot at catching up to the rest of the world. | <urn:uuid:7cde69ef-f991-4060-8b59-ea7352cfa3e6> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.africanexponent.com/post/17590-top-8-reasons-why-africa-is-still-poor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305266.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20220127133107-20220127163107-00093.warc.gz | en | 0.961121 | 2,052 | 3.375 | 3 |
In May, the National Eye Institute usually organizes Healthy Vision Month. May is the perfect time of year to raise awareness about healthy practices when it comes to eye care.
It’s the end of spring and almost the start of summer. It’s also a time when people spend more time outdoors and in the sun.
This month, we encourage you to think about you and your family’s eye health by following these tips!
Protect Your Eyes
One of the best habits for your eyes you can get into is to always wear appropriate eye protection. For most people, this means wearing sunglasses when it’s bright out.
UV rays cause long-term ocular damage. They can also increase your risk for conditions later in life like cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
Wearing the right protection like sunglasses keeps your eyes safe from these harmful rays. Be sure to wear a pair that blocks out 99% of UV light.
There should be a label on them when you buy them. Some cheaper sunglasses may not make the cut.
But there are other ways you should be protecting your eyes, especially if you’re active. When playing any sports, you should consider wearing an eye guard.
Even if you play tennis or a sport with hard projectiles, you’re better off wearing some eye protection. If you’re a swimmer, be sure to wear air-tight goggles whenever you swim.
Make sure to take out your contacts when you get in the pool, as chlorine and contacts don’t mix!
Stay Healthy and Active
For better long term eye health, one of the best things you can do is maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This means eating a balanced diet, exercise, drinking in moderation, and not smoking.
Studies show that conditions like obesity and diabetes increase your risk of developing eye conditions. A poor diet can also trigger dry eye syndrome in certain people, especially in hotter weather.
Be sure to stay hydrated. If you struggle to get your nutrients from food, consider taking supplements like fish or flaxseed oil.
Omega-3 fatty acids help your eyes produce enough tears and promote better eye health.
Have Regular Eye Exams
Everyone should have regular eye exams. For most people, this means going to the eye doctor once every two years.
This number changes if you have existing eye conditions or refractive errors. You may need to see your eye doctor for an eye exam once a year in this case.
If you have a refractive error, you should see the doctor annually to make sure your prescription is up to date.
For all individuals fifty and older, you should see an eye doctor annually for retinal exams. Older individuals are at increased risk of retinal damage.
This is most likely to occur from macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Diagnosing these conditions early on with an eye exam before they present symptoms is the only way to slow down irreversible damage.
If you’re over fifty and suffer from a pre-existing condition like diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension, your doctor may want you to have regular exams more than once a year.
Concerned about your eye health? Schedule an appointment at Eyecare Medical Group in Portland, ME to learn more! | <urn:uuid:0a2c72df-db0d-4583-9313-60c488be351f> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.eyecaremed.com/featured/healthy-vision-month/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320303884.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20220122194730-20220122224730-00590.warc.gz | en | 0.933798 | 683 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Preservatives are chemicals used to keep food fresh. Although there are a number of different types of food preservatives, antimicrobials, antioxidants, and products that slow the natural ripening process are some of the most common. Despite their important function, preservatives can pose a number of serious health risks.
Video of the Day
Increased Risk of Cancer
Cancer is a serious side effect associated with the use of preservatives. In fact, the National Toxicology Program reports that propyl gallate -- a preservative commonly used to stabilize certain cosmetics and foods containing fat -- may cause tumors in the brain, thyroid and pancreas. Similarly, InChem -- an organization that provides peer-reviewed information on chemicals and contaminants -- notes that nitrosames, including nitrates and nitrites, can lead to the development of certain cancer-causing compounds as they interact with natural stomach acids. Nitrosamines are found in a variety of foods, including cured meat, beer and nonfat dried milk.
Hyperactivity in Children
Hyperactivity in children is another possible side effect associated with the use of preservatives. A study published in 2004 in "Archives of Disease in Childhood" noted a significant increase in hyperactive behavior in 3-year-olds who took benzoate preservatives. Children who were enrolled in the study also demonstrated a decrease in hyperactive behavior after they stopped taking benzoate preservatives. While benzoates can be found in a number of foods, they are often used to preserve acidic foods and beverages, like soda, pickles and fruit juice.
Reduced Heart Health
Some people may experience damage to their heart as a result of preservative use, reports InChem. Sodium nitrates can cause blood vessels to narrow and become stiffer. In addition, nitrates may affect the way the body processes sugar and may be to blame for the development of some types of diabetes, the Harvard School of Public Health notes.
Cutting preservatives entirely from your diet may be difficult. However, reducing their intake as much as possible can be beneficial for those who want to avoid chronic health conditions. Incorporating fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy into your diet is an effective way to reduce preservative intake. Read the labels on packaged foods to identify sources of nitrates, benzoates, propyl gallates and other dangerous preservatives. For example, the University of Texas MD Anderson Center reports that cured or smoked foods -- which typically include preservatives -- will likely list nitrates or nitrites on the ingredient list. | <urn:uuid:42ee0222-b155-4303-89e0-55f6b1cba3ac> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.livestrong.com/article/29302-dangers-preservatives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864257.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621192119-20180621212119-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.951329 | 524 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Happiness is making your own paper bag!
Paper bag day is celebrated on July 12th all over the world. The day’s aim is to spread awareness about using paper bags instead of plastic bags. The main advantage of using paper bags is that they are biodegradable. Paper bags are recyclable and environment friendly when compared to plastic bags. The paper bags are generally box shaped in design that allows them to stand upright and hold more goods.
ELP students of CPS Global School Thirumazhisai celebrated the Paper Bag Day on 10 July 2020. The children were encouraged to make a paper bag with the help of their parents. They used newspaper, colored sheets, Fevistick and decorative add-ons like glitters, stickers etc. to customize their paper bags. The students diligently followed the step by step instructions given by their teachers and made their paper bags with guidance from their parents. The students and their parents enjoyed doing the activity together. The beautiful pictures of the paper bags made by our tiny tots were shared by the proud parents with the teachers. | <urn:uuid:91a8e2c2-d515-411c-84d6-bff4b2654b9c> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.cpsglobalschool.com/blogs/national-paper-bag-day-cpsgs-tmz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178383355.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20210308082315-20210308112315-00183.warc.gz | en | 0.978612 | 221 | 2.625 | 3 |
Union Pacific’s rich history continues to motivate and inspire employees and visitors today, says Brunswick’s Mike France
Every company has a history. But not every company belongs in history books.
Union Pacific is the exception. The Omaha-based railroad, the largest in the US by revenue ($19.9 billion in 2016), was formed when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law in 1862. Its mission – uniting the East Coast and the West Coast through the first transcontinental railroad – changed American history. Towns that were on its path thrived; many that were bypassed died.
The company’s rails carried not just lumber, wheat and tools, but modernity itself. When Union Pacific was founded, the time of day varied in the many communities on its tracks. It was usually noon when the big clock on the town square said noon, regardless of what the big clock said in the next town over. Unable to coordinate arrivals, departures and employee schedules, the company led a coalition to standardize time throughout the country. In 1883, the railroads developed their own time zones, and Congress finally followed suit in 1918 by passing the Standard Time Act officially adopting their system.
The story of Union Pacific is not all glorious – no more than the history of America itself – but it is pervasive in any account of the post-Civil War era. Many of the earliest national parks, including Yellowstone, Zion and Bryce, had their legendary rustic lodges built by Union Pacific to encourage a new generation of middle-class domestic travelers.
Today’s “net neutrality” debates in digital industries closely echo the controversies governing the nation’s original disruptive network – the rail system. | <urn:uuid:975115df-2118-485a-a97e-382bac8d2fbd> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.brunswickgroup.com/union-pacific-i6531/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655933254.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20200711130351-20200711160351-00013.warc.gz | en | 0.964253 | 350 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Much of the material listed on these archived web pages has been superseded, or served a particular purpose at a particular time. It may contain references to activities or policies that have no current application. Many archived documents may link to web pages that have moved or no longer exist, or may refer to other documents that are no longer available.
Minister for the Environment and Heritage
Senator the Hon. Ian Campbell
29 August 2004
The Minister for the Environment, Senator Ian Campbell, has called on the WA Government to join forces to stop the dreaded cane toad from invading the state.
He said today cane toads posed a real and imminent threat to the State's biodiversity and could spread as far south as Margaret River, according to experts.
"The obvious point of entry is the Kimberley and that's where we will concentrate our defences," he said.
"Our generation has to do its utmost to stop these pests spreading into Western Australia."
Senator Campbell said a joint taskforce, including leading scientists, would head off an invasion by:
"The Australian Government will take all measures available to stop the cane toad reaching Western Australia in order to safeguard the state from the impacts of this menace," he said.
Senator Campbell said in a letter to his state counterpart, Environment Minister Judy Edwards that the role of the Australian Government was to facilitate finding national solutions to the problem.
"I am therefore seeking your cooperation to undertake a 'Kimberley cane toad program' implemented by both governments funded on a matching dollar for dollar basis," he said.
"The rapid spread of the cane toad and their ability to colonise a wide range of habitats makes the work quite urgent."
Senator Campbell said a number of recommendations to combat cane toads had been made by a group of experts who had reviewed the CSIRO's biological control project.
"As a result of that work, I will establish a national cane toad group, however because of the need for urgent action regarding Western Australia I am not prepared to hold up establishment of the joint taskforce," he said.
Cane toads were introduced into Queensland in 1935 to control sugar cane pests, but proved ineffective. They have since moved into northern New South Wales and the Northern Territory, including Kakadu National Park, and are threatening Darwin. A toad was also reported found in Port Lincoln, South Australia, earlier this year.
Senator Campbell said the Australian Government had spent $5 million on the cane toad fight, including three research programs currently being conducted by James Cook, Charles Darwin and Sydney Universities and promising biological control studies by the CSIRO.
"The states generally have shown little enthusiasm to try to combat this menace," he said. "Cane toads are causing enormous damage. In Kakadu, the northern quoll is highly likely to be eradicated and there has been severe depletion of some lizards and goannas.
"States and territories have a clear responsibility to combat and eradicate invasive pests.
"I am confident the WA government will join the Australian Government in this urgent work to halt the march of the cane toad into the Kimberley." | <urn:uuid:bed4aab0-8597-42cf-99e2-5c579a5f6cda> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/archive/env/2004/mr29aug04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500826025.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021346-00076-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970009 | 639 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Free credit union risk assessment template pdf sample. Assessment, including multiple-choice, reasoning, memory, and focus tests, is among the most typical methods teachers assess student performance in the classroom. While teachers may use various sorts of assessments to evaluate students, the four commonly used forms are psychological test, academic evaluations, parental-order-of-asks, and instructor score. Psychological evaluation is the structured procedure for using empirical details about the person, specific expertise, abilities, beliefs, and behaviours to revise and improve student learning. Academic testing, in contrast, is mainly utilized to give comments on a student’s previous academic performance and to diagnose problems in a specific subject of research. Parental-order-of-asks (POAs) assesses just how much parents know about a pupil’s behaviour, helping teachers to construct a foundation for improved comprehension and motivation.
Teachers have to create structured assessments in their classrooms. In the USA, these evaluations are generally referred to as test prep. The formative decades of education comprise the crucial learning years that occur when pupils are in the principal school phase. At this point, parents and other mentors support the pupil’s academic efforts and provide continuous advice. By the end of the primary school period, these children have formed a feeling about themselves, their learning, and their ability to participate constructively in the classroom.
Most schools follow an assessment procedure which entails the processes of planning, organizing, delivering, evaluating, and adjusting instruction and coursework. The shipping stage of the learning evaluation is made up of education preparation, teaching jobs, and evaluations of educational strategies. During the evaluation phase, parents and teachers work along with the student, attempting to create individualized instruction plans. The development of individualized education plans depends on the specific nature of the assignment, the complexity of the endeavor, the student’s performance in the previous evaluation, comments from other pupils, and teacher tips. For some assignments, group and individual assessments might be run.
A free evaluation template is simply a tool that’s used in a method, which is called as procedure of investigation, which intends to rectify existing business conditions and to get business from various things. It’s a type of tool which helps to collect qualitative data and evaluate the existing conditions. The procedure could include data collection from many different sources such as info surveys, interviews, case studies, or from case histories. Data is usually analyzed in order to provide insights and key management on company practices that have to be changed. Free Assessment Templates can be obtained online through number of sites and you’ll be able to decide on any of them in order to improve your company.
The picture above published by admin from June, 26 2022. This awesome gallery listed under Assessment Templates category. I really hope you may like it. If you would like to download the picture to your hdd in high quality, the simplest way is by right click on the image and choose “Save As” or you can download it by clicking on the share button (Twitter, Facebook or Google+) to show the download button right below the picture. | <urn:uuid:eafe4ecc-833a-4c4f-9278-442b1d4ad003> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | http://kelitbanganwonogiri.org/post/free-credit-union-risk-assessment-template-pdf-sample/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.945492 | 635 | 2.734375 | 3 |
20. HEALTH AND SAFETY
CHEA Sophal, RADU Mares
Health and safety (H&S), in the workplace as well as in local communities affected by hazardous industries, is a highly detailed and technical area. However, companies implementing their CSR commitments have found it relatively easier to make progress in H&S compared with other areas such as living wages (chapter 17), excessive overtime (chapter 18) and freedom of association (chapter 19). The biggest disaster in the textile industry happened in Bangladesh in 2013 (Rana Plaza) and the result has been one of the most advanced multistakeholder initiatives (chapter 5) endowed with a binding arbitration system to hold participating companies accountable (chapter 7). The right to refuse dangerous work without fearing the loss of jobs is now a better accepted principle. Worker-management committees focused on H&S are probably the most accessible form of improving workplace dialogue and possibly a first step towards building more ‘mature’ industrial relations, particularly in countries where labour unions are suppressed in law or in practice. Industrial disasters affecting local communities require an emphasis on disaster preparedness and early warning systems as part of human rights due diligence (chapter 10). Local communities often need to seek justice in courts abroad to obtain remediation for widespread pollution and industrial accidents due to weaknesses in the judicial systems in their own countries (chapters 6 and 29).
In 2018, Cambodia recorded 200 deaths of people as a result of work-related accidents while 34,608 workers were injured. Cambodia has not yet ratified ILO Conventions 155 and 187 dedicated to occupational safety and health. The Cambodian Labour Law and other general ministerial regulations set the requirements for all workplaces to be safe, health and hygienic for workers. There is room for Cambodia to improve OSH aspects through developing the Safety Act and putting in place more regulations for occupational safety and health. The International Labour Organization records 2.78 million deaths and 374 million fatal work-related injuries each year as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases. The right to a safe and healthy workplace is central to efforts to ensure decent work.
- Risks to business
- International law standards
- Responsibilities to record and notify
- Designer and manufacturer responsibility
- Right to refuse unsafe work
- Safety and health culture
- Corrective measures
- Co-operation between management and workers
- Health and Safety Committees, and freedom of association
- Binding arbitration
- Business reports
- Standards for Occupational Health and Safety Management
ILO, Safety and Health at Work
Every day, people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases – more than 2.78 million deaths per year. Additionally, there are some 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries and illnesses each year, many of these resulting in extended absences from work. The human cost of this daily adversity is vast and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated at 3.94 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product each year.
Hofmann, 100 Years of Occupational Safety Research
The focus on occupational safety over the last 100 years has contributed significantly to saving thousands of lives. In the early 1900s, workplace deaths and injuries were quite common. (…) Clearly, the workplace has become safer. Technological improvements, work design changes, the use of personal protective equipment, and improvements in the broader safety culture of organizations have led to significant advances. That said, however, there are still too many incidents in the workplace. (…) At the outset, one must acknowledge that the field of occupational safety and health is quite broad spanning multiple disciplines and fields of study including, but not limited to, law, engineering, medicine, public health, business, and psychology.
Legislation on worker health and safety in the United Kingdom originated as a political response to social problems resulting from the Industrial Revolution and the associated poor working conditions in factories. The Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844 addressed specific working conditions for children (1833) and for women (1844). These acts established several basic protections such as limits on the number of hours worked, the securement of some class of machinery, and basic record keeping and inspections. Additional improvements were included in the Factory Acts of 1867, 1891, and 1895 along with advances in inspections of workplaces, requirements for accident reporting, and provisions for fire escape. (…)
Starting with initiatives dating back to the mid-1800s, we provide a high-level review of the key trends and developments in the application of applied psychology to the field of occupational safety. Factory laws, basic worker compensation, and research on accident proneness comprised much of the early work. Thus, early research and practice very much focused on the individual worker, the design of their work, and their basic protection. Gradually and over time, the focus began to navigate further into the organizational context. One of the early efforts to broaden beyond the individual worker was a significant focus on safety-related training during the middle of the 20th century. Toward the latter years of the 20th century and continuing the move from the individual worker to the broader organizational context, there was a significant increase in leadership and organizational climate (safety climate) research. Ultimately, this resulted in the development of a multilevel model of safety culture/climate.
ILO, Occupational Safety and Health Convention
(…) the term health, in relation to work, indicates not merely the absence of disease or infirmity; it also includes the physical and mental elements affecting health which are directly related to safety and hygiene at work.
Part III. Action at the national level
Measures shall be taken, in accordance with national law and practice, with a view to ensuring that those who design, manufacture, import, provide or transfer machinery, equipment or substances for occupational use
(a) Satisfy themselves that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the machinery, equipment or substance does not entail dangers for the safety and health of those using it correctly;
(b) Make available information concerning the correct installation and use of machinery and equipment and the correct use of substances, and information on hazards of machinery and equipment and dangerous properties of chemical substances and physical and biological agents or products, as well as instructions on how known hazards are to be avoided;
(c) Undertake studies and research or otherwise keep abreast of the scientific and technical knowledge necessary to comply with subparagraphs (a) and (b) of this Article.
A worker who has removed himself from a work situation which he has reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or health shall be protected from undue consequences in accordance with national conditions and practice.
Part IV. Action at the level of the undertaking
1. Employers shall be required to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the workplaces, machinery, equipment and processes under their control are safe and without risk to health.
2. Employers shall be required to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the chemical, physical and biological substances and agents under their control are without risk to health when the appropriate measures of protection are taken.
3. Employers shall be required to provide, where necessary, adequate protective clothing and protective equipment to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, risk of accidents or of adverse effects on health.
Employers shall be required to provide, where necessary, for measures to deal with emergencies and accidents, including adequate first-aid arrangements.
There shall be arrangements at the level of the undertaking under which
(a) Workers, in the course of performing their work, co-operate in the fulfilment by their employer of the obligations placed upon him;
(b) Representatives of workers in the undertaking co-operate with the employer in the field of occupational safety and health;
(c) Representatives of workers in an undertaking are given adequate information on measures taken by the employer to secure occupational safety and health and may consult their representative organisations about such information provided they do not disclose commercial secrets;
(d) Workers and their representatives in the undertaking are given appropriate training in occupational safety and health;
(e) Workers or their representatives and, as the case may be, their representative organisations in an undertaking, in accordance with national law and practice, are enabled to enquire into, and are consulted by the employer on, all aspects of occupational safety and health associated with their work; for this purpose technical advisers may, by mutual agreement, be brought in from outside the undertaking;
(f) A worker reports forthwith to his immediate supervisor any situation which he has reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or health; until the employer has taken remedial action, if necessary, the employer cannot require workers to return to a work situation where there is continuing imminent and serious danger to life or health.
Co-operation between management and workers and/or their representatives within the undertaking shall be an essential element of organisational and other measures taken in pursuance of Articles 16 to 19 of this Convention.
Occupational safety and health measures shall not involve any expenditure for the workers.
ILO, Protocol to the Occupational Safety and Health Convention
Systems for recording and notification
The competent authority shall, by laws or regulations or any other method consistent with national conditions and practice, and in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers, establish and periodically review requirements and procedures for:
(a) The recording of occupational accidents, occupational diseases and, as appropriate, dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases; and
(b) The notification of occupational accidents, occupational diseases and, as appropriate, dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases.
The requirements and procedures for recording shall determine:
(a) The responsibility of employers:
(i) To record occupational accidents, occupational diseases and, as appropriate, dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases;
(ii) To provide appropriate information to workers and their representatives concerning the recording system;
(iii) To ensure appropriate maintenance of these records and their use for the establishment of preventive measures; and
(iv) to refrain from instituting retaliatory or disciplinary measures against a worker for reporting an occupational accident, occupational disease, dangerous occurrence, commuting accident or suspected case of occupational disease;
(b) The information to be recorded;
(c) The duration for maintaining these records; and
(d) Measures to ensure the confidentiality of personal and medical data in the employer’s possession, in accordance with national laws and regulations, conditions and practice.
The requirements and procedures for the notification shall determine:
(a) The responsibility of employers:
(i) to notify the competent authorities or other designated bodies of occupational accidents, occupational diseases and, as appropriate, dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases; and
(ii) To provide appropriate information to workers and their representatives concerning the notified cases;
(b) Where appropriate, arrangements for notification of occupational accidents and occupational diseases by insurance institutions, occupational health services, medical practitioners and other bodies directly concerned;
(c) the criteria according to which occupational accidents, occupational diseases and, as appropriate, dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases are to be notified; and
(d) The time limits for notification.
ILO, Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention
1. Each Member which ratifies this Convention shall promote continuous improvement of occupational safety and health to prevent occupational injuries, diseases and deaths, by the development, in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers, of a national policy, national system and national programme.
2. Each Member shall take active steps towards achieving progressively a safe and healthy working environment through a national system and national programmes on occupational safety and health by taking into account the principles set out in instruments of the International Labour Organization (ILO) relevant to the promotional framework for occupational safety and health.
1. Each Member shall formulate, implement, monitor, evaluate and periodically review a national programme on occupational safety and health in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers.
2. The national programme shall:
(a) Promote the development of a national preventative safety and health culture;
(b) Contribute to the protection of workers by eliminating or minimizing, so far as is reasonably practicable, work-related hazards and risks, in accordance with national law and practice, in order to prevent occupational injuries, diseases and deaths and promote safety and health in the workplace;
(c) Be formulated and reviewed on the basis of analysis of the national situation regarding occupational safety and health, including analysis of the national system for occupational safety and health;
(d) Include objectives, targets and indicators of progress; and
(e) Be supported, where possible, by other complementary national programmes and plans which will assist in achieving progressively a safe and healthy working environment.
3. The national programme shall be widely publicized and, to the extent possible, endorsed and launched by the highest national authorities.
(…) the term a national preventative safety and health culture refers to a culture in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where government, employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment through a system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties, and where the principle of prevention is accorded the highest priority.
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
About The Accord
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Accord) was signed on May 15th 2013. It is a five year independent [prolonged until May 2021], legally binding agreement between global brands and retailers and trade unions designed to build a safe and healthy Bangladeshi Ready Made Garment (RMG) Industry. The agreement was created in the immediate aftermath of the Rana Plaza building collapse that led to the death of more than 1100 people and injured more than 2000. In June 2013, an implementation plan was agreed leading to the incorporation of the Bangladesh Accord Foundation in the Netherlands in October 2013.
The agreement consists of six key components:
- A five year legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to ensure a safe working environment in the Bangladeshi RMG industry
- An independent inspection program supported by brands in which workers and trade unions are involved
- Public disclosure of all factories, inspection reports and corrective action plans (CAP)
- A commitment by signatory brands to ensure sufficient funds are available for remediation and to maintain sourcing relationships
- Democratically elected health and safety committees in all factories to identify and act on health and safety risks
- Worker empowerment through an extensive training program, complaints mechanism and right to refuse unsafe work.
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
1. (…) The agreement shall be governed by a Steering Committee (SC), which shall have equal representation chosen by the trade union signatories and company signatories (maximum 3 seats each) and a representative chosen by the International Labor Organization (ILO) acting as a neutral chair and independent advisory member. (…)
2. Administration and management of the program will build on the existing structures, policies and programs developed under the preceding Accord, and shall be implemented in such a way as to not contravene Bangladesh law, and shall be oriented toward the aim of handing the work over to a credible national regulatory body at the end of this Agreement.
3. Any dispute between the parties to, and arising under, the terms of this Agreement shall be presented to and decided by the SC. The Steering Committee shall adopt a revised Dispute Resolution Process (DRP) to specify the timelines and procedures involved when disputes are presented to the SC, with the aim to establish a fair and efficient process. The decision making process of the SC shall be supported by a member of Accord secretariat who will perform an initial investigation for the parties and present facts and their recommendations.
The DRP will also incorporate the opportunity for parties to participate in a mediation process in order to make arbitration unnecessary where there is no resolution of the dispute by the SC. Upon request of either party, the decision of the SC may be appealed to a final and binding arbitration process. (…)
7. Where corrective actions are identified by the CSI as necessary to bring a factory into compliance with building, fire and electrical safety standards, the signatory company or companies that have designated that factory as their supplier shall require the factory to implement these corrective actions according to a defined schedule that is mandatory and time-bound, with sufficient time allotted for all major renovations.
9. Signatory companies shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that any workers whose employment is terminated as a result of a factory termination or relocating triggered by Accord activities, are offered employment with safe suppliers.
10. Signatory companies shall require their supplier factories to respect the right of a worker to refuse work that he or she has reasonable justification to believe is unsafe, without suffering discrimination or loss of pay, including the right to refuse to enter or to remain inside a building that he or she has reasonable justification to believe is unsafe for occupation.
Transparency and reporting:
14. The SC shall make publicly available and regularly update information on key aspects of the program, including:
a. A single aggregated list of all suppliers in Bangladesh (including sub-contractors) used by signatory companies, based on data which shall be provided to the SC and regularly updated by each of the signatory companies. Information linking specific companies to specific factories will be kept confidential.
b. Written Inspection Reports, which shall be developed by the CSI for all factories inspected under this program, shall be disclosed to interested parties and the public as set forth in paragraph 6 of this Agreement.
c. Public statements by the CSI identifying any factory that is not acting expeditiously to implement remedial recommendations shall be issued as per an escalation procedure determined by the SC.
d. Quarterly Aggregate Reports that summarize both aggregated industry compliance data as well as a detailed review of findings, remedial recommendations, and progress on remediation and training to date for all factories at which inspections and training have been completed.
16. Each signatory company shall require that its suppliers in Bangladesh participate fully in the inspection, remediation, health and safety and training activities, as described in the
Agreement. If a supplier fails to do so, the signatory will promptly implement a notice and warning process in accordance with the Escalation Protocol established by the SC leading to termination of the business relationship.
17. In order to induce factories to comply with upgrade and remediation requirements of the program, participating brands and retailers will negotiate commercial terms with their suppliers which ensure that it is financially feasible for the factories to maintain safe workplaces and comply with upgrade and remediation requirements instituted by the CSI. Each signatory company may, at its option, use alternative means to ensure factories have the financial capacity to comply with remediation requirements, including but not limited to joint investments, providing loans, accessing donor or government support, through offering business incentives or through paying for renovations directly.
18. Signatory companies to this agreement are committed to maintaining a long-term sourcing relationship with Bangladesh, as is demonstrated by their commitment to this three-year program.
Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety
The Members commit to:
- Support the implementation of the National Tripartite Plan of Action on Fire Safety for the Ready-Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh (NAP);
- Empower workers to take an active role in their own safety, and to be able to speak out about unsafe conditions without any risk of retaliation;
- Work with factories that ensure a safe working environment, with each Member committing not to source from any Factory that the Member has deemed to be unsafe;
- Rapid implementation that is results-focused and non-bureaucratic;
- Providing safety inspection, and safety and empowerment training for 100% of Factories in the Members respective supply chains;
- A common standard for safety inspections and safety and worker empowerment training;
- Use of transparency to create accountability for all stakeholders involved;
- Sharing of information on training, current and future fire and building safety inspections and remediation actions;
- Strive to end unauthorized subcontracting within their supply chains, and review their internal policies to ensure application of best practices for addressing unauthorized subcontracting; • Independent monitoring and verification of their work;
- Inclusion of diverse stakeholders in decision making and collaboration in implementation;
- A Bangladeshi focus, with a framework that engages and builds capacity of key stakeholders, including the Government of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi industry; and • Commitment of substantial financial resources to accomplish these tasks, as well as encouraging and assisting in the establishment of sustainable mechanisms to meet these objectives.
In seeking to achieve these objectives, the Alliance recognizes the importance of building partnerships with the Bangladeshi government, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (“BGMEA”), the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (“BKMEA”), workers’ rights organizations, other RMG buyers’ groups (including the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (“the Accord”)), and others who support safer work conditions in Bangladesh RMG Factories.
To this end, the Members agree to the financial commitments and the components of the worker safety program described below. The Alliance Members are fully committed to creating conditions for the benefit of workers in the Bangladesh RMG industry that are not only safe but sustainable, with appropriate and careful oversight and regulation by the Bangladeshi government. The Members of the Alliance recognize that their role is to provide meaningful material assistance to reach these goals and to assist in the creation of a self-reliant Bangladesh RMG industry, while recognizing that ultimately the responsibility for and control over the industry and the safety of its workers rests with the sovereign nation of Bangladesh, its government and its people.
IFC, Performance Standards 4 on Community Health, Safety and Security
1. Performance Standard 4 recognizes that project activities, equipment, and infrastructure can increase community exposure to risks and impacts. In addition, communities that are already subjected to impacts from climate change may also experience an acceleration and/or intensification of impacts due to project activities. While acknowledging the public authorities’ role in promoting the health, safety, and security of the public, this Performance Standard addresses the client’s responsibility to avoid or minimize the risks and impacts to community health, safety, and security that may arise from project related-activities, with particular attention to vulnerable groups. (…)
Community health and safety
5. The client will evaluate the risks and impacts to the health and safety of the Affected Communities during the project life-cycle and will establish preventive and control measures consistent with good international industry practice (GIIP), such as in the World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines (EHS Guidelines) or other internationally recognized sources. The client will identify risks and impacts and propose mitigation measures that are commensurate with their nature and magnitude. These measures will favor the avoidance of risks and impacts over minimization. (…)
Community exposure to disease
9. The client will avoid or minimize the potential for community exposure to water-borne, water-based, water-related, and vector-borne diseases, and communicable diseases that could result from project activities, taking into consideration differentiated exposure to and higher sensitivity of vulnerable groups. (…)
10. The client will avoid or minimize transmission of communicable diseases that may be associated with the influx of temporary or permanent project labor.
Emergency preparedness and response
11. (…) the client will also assist and collaborate with the Affected Communities, local government agencies, and other relevant parties, in their preparations to respond effectively to emergency situations, especially when their participation and collaboration are necessary to respond to such emergency situations. If local government agencies have little or no capacity to respond effectively, the client will play an active role in preparing for and responding to emergencies associated with the project. The client will document its emergency preparedness and response activities, resources, and responsibilities, and will disclose appropriate information to Affected Communities, relevant government agencies, or other relevant parties.
12. When the client retains direct or contracted workers to provide security to safeguard its personnel and property, it will assess risks posed by its security arrangements to those within and outside the project site.
International Organization for Standardization, ISO 45001
This document specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, and gives guidance for its use, to enable organizations to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health, as well as by proactively improving its OH&S performance.
This document is applicable to any organization that wishes to establish, implement and maintain an OH&S management system to improve occupational health and safety, eliminate hazards and minimize OH&S risks (including system deficiencies), take advantage of OH&S opportunities, and address OH&S management system nonconformities associated with its activities.
This document helps an organization to achieve the intended outcomes of its OH&S management system. Consistent with the organization’s OH&S policy, the intended outcomes of an OH&S management system include:
- continual improvement of OH&S performance;
- fulfilment of legal requirements and other requirements;
- achievement of OH&S objectives.
The implementation of an OH&S management system is a strategic and operational decision for an organization. The success of the OH&S management system depends on leadership, commitment and participation from all levels and functions of the organization.
The implementation and maintenance of an OH&S management system, its effectiveness and its ability to achieve its intended outcomes are dependent on a number of key factors, which can include:
- top management leadership, commitment, responsibilities and accountability;
- top management developing, leading and promoting a culture in the organization that supports the intended outcomes of the OH&S management system;
- consultation and participation of workers, and, where they exist, workers’ representatives;
- allocation of the necessary resources to maintain it;
- OH&S policies, which are compatible with the overall strategic objectives and direction of the organization;
- effective process(es) for identifying hazards, controlling OH&S risks and taking advantage of OH&S opportunities;
- continual performance evaluation and monitoring of the OH&S management system to improve OH&S performance;
- integration of the OH&S management system into the organization’s business processes;
- OH&S objectives that align with the OH&S policy and take into account the organization’s hazards, OH&S risks and OH&S opportunities;
- compliance with its legal requirements and other requirements.
AngloAmerican, Code of Conduct
We believe that robust processes for the management of safety, health and the environment are a fundamental element of good management practice, and essential for creating a safe and productive place to work and for maintaining our licence to operate.
We believe that all injuries are preventable – our aim is that ‘zero harm’ comes to those who work within and around our operations. We take personal responsibility to maintain a safe and secure place of work – our operations should have fundamentally safe, well-designed and well-maintained plants, equipment and infrastructure, with effective safety management systems.
We comply with all applicable safety laws in addition to our own policies and requirements. We ensure that all our staff are appropriately trained to manage their own safety and that safety standards are consistently applied across our operations. We are rigorous in learning from incidents and in preventing recurrences. We expect our consultants, agents, contractors and suppliers to follow our policies and requirements on safety.
- Know the safety requirements and emergency procedures that apply to your work, including the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) you must wear.
- Identify, assess and manage critical risks.
- Look out for your fellow workers and raise any potential safety issues with your line manager.
- Deal with safety issues honestly and openly.
- Report any accident, injury or illness.
- Close out and act on any learning from safety incidents.
- Stop work if you think it is unsafe.
- Start work you are not qualified to perform.
- Ignore a safety issue, however small it may seem.
- Turn a blind eye if safety controls are not in place, not being followed or don’t work.
- Assume someone else will report a risk or concern; safety is everyone’s personal responsibility.
Providing healthy work environments is a legal and moral imperative for us and constitutes an investment in the productivity of our business.
All employees and contractors should be able to return home fit and well at the end of each shift and remain so during the course of their working lives. Our most important focus is on eliminating health hazards at their source. We believe that investing in wellness programmes that support healthy lifestyles and emotional resilience promotes employee engagement and productivity. We also endeavour to support employees who are managing long-term physical or psychological conditions.
We believe that long-term contractors should benefit from the same health standards as employees. We comply with all applicable health laws in addition to our own policies and requirements.
- Take personal responsibility for your own health by wearing the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and adhering to mandated work processes.
- Take appropriate preventative measures for any infectious diseases prevalent in the area(s) where you are working.
- Proactively identify health risks and report these to your manager.
- Ensure that the correct controls are in place when undertaking daily tasks.
- Fail to adhere to mandatory PPE requirements.
- Ignore a failure in controls – take responsibility for reporting these and preventing harm.
Bangladesh Accord, Quarterly Aggregate Report
Bangladesh Accord, The Accord Handbook for Safety Committees
This handbook aims to support joint worker-management Safety Committees to effectively contribute to workplace safety at garment factories in Bangladesh. The handbook is distributed to Safety Committees being supported and trained by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the ‘Accord’), but can be of use for any factory Safety Committee in the Ready-Made-Garment and related industries in Bangladesh. The book is based on the Safety Committee training curriculum that the Accord offers to Safety Committees.
Factory-level Safety Committees are an essential part of any factory’s health and safety program. In order for a Safety Committee to be effective, both the worker and management representatives on the Safety Committees must be aware of their roles and responsibilities to identify, prevent and address safety concerns at the factory on an ongoing basis. (…)
The Accord protects workers’ rights to:
- Refuse work they believe to be unsafe
- Participate in the work of their factory Safety Committee
- File a complaint with the Accord when they see a safety problem in their factory
- Protection against reprisal for reporting safety-related matters
- Not be subjected to reprisal for Freedom of Association in relation to protecting their own safety. This means that workers have the right to be involved in making their workplace safe and healthy, individually as well as collectively through a trade union, and can do so without retaliation or discrimination.
The inspection and remediation program focuses on fire, electrical and structural inspections at factories and working with factories and brands to remediate the identified safety hazards.
The Accord workplace program focuses on making workers aware of safety hazards and how to respond to them, their rights to a safe workplace and involving workers in the efforts to make factories safe. The key elements of the workplace program include
- training joint worker-management Safety Committees in all Accordcovered factories;
- holding informational sessions for all workers in the factory on health and safety rights and
- providing workers with an independent complaints mechanism for raising health and safety issues without fear of reprisal.
Knowing the hazards that exist in your factory is only the first step in reducing the hazards at work. Some hazards can be totally eliminated, and that is obviously the best approach to take with hazards. But many hazards cannot be totally eliminated, so we need to reduce or control those hazards. There are four levels of hazard control, as shown in this illustration, called the Hazard Control Pyramid:
Global Report Initiative, Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
Occupational Health and Safety
G4-LA5 Percentage of total workforce represented in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees that help monitor and advise on occupational health and safety programs
a. Report the level at which each formal joint management-worker health and safety committee typically operates within the organization.
b. Report the percentage of the total workforce represented in formal joint management-worker health and safety committees.
G4-LA6 Type of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and total number of work-related fatalities, by region and by gender
a. Report types of injury, injury rate (IR), occupational diseases rate (ODR), lost day rate (LDR), absentee rate (AR) and work-related fatalities, for the total workforce (that is, total employees plus supervised workers), by:
b. Report types of injury, injury rate (IR), occupational diseases rate (ODR), lost day rate (LDR), absentee rate (AR) and work-related fatalities for independent contractors working on-site to whom the organization is liable for the general safety of the working environment, by:
c. Report the system of rules applied in recording and reporting accident statistics.
G4-LA7 Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation
a. Report whether there are workers who are involved in occupational activities who have a high incidence or high risk of specific diseases.
G4-LA8 Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions
a. Report whether formal agreements (either local or global) with trade unions cover health and safety.
b. If yes, report the extent, as a percentage, to which various health and safety topics are covered by these agreements.
Human Rights Dilemmas, Health and Safety as Work
Risks to businesses
Most countries have legislation providing for OHS protections. If a company is found to have breached any legislation surrounding limitations on health and safety then it could face penalties. Penalties could include fines, remediation, and restitution for employees or compensation. (…)
Operational risks and risks to business continuity
Poor health and safety practices and unsafe workplaces increase the risk of accidents in workplaces, resulting in interruptions at work, work stoppages or employee shortages. There are direct and indirect risks for companies:
Direct risks include:
- The loss of essential staff
- Business disruption due to accidents
- Damage to products or machinery and equipment
- Increased insurance premiums
- The costs of improving workplace systems
Indirect risks include:
- Decrease in job satisfaction and morale
- An increase in absenteeism
- The need, at times, to train a replacement employee while a worker is sick or injured
- Loss of reputation within a supply chain
Suggestions for Responsible Business
Adopting a forward-looking human rights compliance policy with procedures to match
- Compliance with national laws concerning health and safety, such as the provision of protective clothing and equipment, ensuring machinery is in good working condition and regulating temperature and ventilation. Where local laws differ from company policy, the higher standard should prevail. Company policy on health and safety should be guided by ILO Conventions on health and safety
- If there are no national health and safety laws or if laws are weak or poorly enforced, the company policy should commit to international standards, ILO Convention No. 155, on Occupational Safety and Health, ILO Recommendation No. 164, on Occupational Safety and Health and ILO Convention No. 174, on the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents
- Committing to voluntary international health and safety guidelines including OHSAS18001 and complementary standards including the International Organization for Standardization’s 14000 and 14001. The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series assist organizations in managing health and safety risks in their operations. Companies that have adopted the OHSAS standard include Coca-Cola, Lexmark and IBM
- Ensuring that company health and safety policies are tailored to the particular risks in the industry or sector
- A grievance mechanism, in line with the Ruggie Framework, which allows employees to raise issues in relation to health and safety
- Supplier contracts with the MNC must require compliance with the MNC’s social policy, as well as to maintain a grievance process to address claims in relation to health and safety. For example, Rio Tinto’s Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) management system standard requires that “principal contractors, suppliers and others with whom it has a substantial involvement” must comply with this standard
- Implement a health and safety programme to ensure the realisation of the policy by having a comprehensive management system in place. GE, for example, has a comprehensive Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) management system that focuses on four key building blocks. These building blocks include (1) operational responsibility and accountability relating to EHS performance, (2) programmes that are applicable to the company’s global operations, (3) effective training and the tools and (4) metrics. (…)
- Monitor the prevalence of accidents and ill-health within an industry and the social and economic context in order to gauge underlying risks of the workplace and how health and safety issues apply to particular industries and workplaces
- Effectively communicate any health and safety policy, associated guidance and procedures to personnel and, if relevant, to suppliers, subcontractors and business partners
- Provide employees with regular training and awareness building to sensitise them to the risk of accidents and the related dangers of working long hours without breaks. This should also foster awareness and shared responsibility and accountability in relation to health and safety practices
- Continually review and improve health and safety policies and procedures to ensure that they are in-line with best practice and to train managers accordingly. Dow monitors health and safety policies through its Environment, Health and Safety Committee. The committee’s functions include the review of health and safety policies and the management of health and safety practices. The committee reports back to the company’s board of directors so it is able to fulfil its responsibilities in respect to the environmental health and safety policy
- Implementation of grievance procedures for both employees and for suppliers. They can be internal or they could be at the industry-level (e.g. ombudsperson)
ILO, Guide on Investigation of Occupational Accidents and Diseases
Accident investigation checklist
1. Action to be taken upon notification of the accident (…)
2. Gather information
A. Upon arrival at the site identify the employer and worker representatives and explain the purpose of the visit.
B. For each injured worker, collect the following information (this list is not exhaustive):
- The precise details and severity of the injuries and how they were caused, as well as the worker’s job title, employment history at the site, date of birth and contact information
- Where and when the accident happened
- Details of the work activity in which the injured worker was engaged and the system of work in use at the time of the accident
- Details of the equipment that was in use, including make, model and serial number, as well as other equipment, such as ladders, scaffolding, electric cables and personal protective equipment
- Information on the exact condition of the equipment in use, including location, guarding arrangements and position of control switches, before and after the accident
- The names, contact information and position of other workers at the scene and information on the activities and systems of work in which they were engaged
- The system of work that would normally have been used to carry out the activity in which the injured person was engaged, and any differences from the system of work that was being followed at the time of the accident
- The environmental conditions at the time of the accident, e.g. day or night, weather conditions
- The general conditions at the workplace, including housekeeping, lighting and noise levels, vehicle movement, ventilation equipment, welfare facilities.
C. Obtain the following documents (this list is not exhaustive):
D. Interview the witnesses:
- Identify all witnesses and, once the planning has been completed, begin the interviews.
- Use the PEACE model (Plan, Engage, Account/Challenge, Closure, Evaluate).
- Use “TED” (open) questions to obtain information.
- Use closed questions to clarify facts or obtain specific information.
3. Analyse the information obtained
Complete the timeline to establish the sequence of what happened and conduct a fault tree analysis to identify why it happened. Keep asking “why” questions until no more meaningful information is obtained.
4. Identify risk control measures
Identify all of the preventive control measures that would have broken the chain of causation and determine which of them are to be implemented in the future, following, if possible, the hierarchy of controls: Elimination, Substitution, Engineering controls, Administrative controls, Personal Protective Equipment.
5. Monitor implementation of the action plan
Ensure that the agreed actions designed to improve working conditions have been completed, including, among other things, by conducting follow-up visits.
6. Complete report(s)/document information
ILO, Evaluation of the ILO’s Strategy on Occupational H&S
Occupational Safety and Health in Cambodia
The right to a safe and healthy working environment is at the heart of efforts to ensure full and productive employment, in conditions of security and human dignity. Attention is drawn to this right in the ILO Constitution, and has been reaffirmed both in the 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia and the more recent Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008). Although Cambodia is yet to ratify key ILO Conventions on the subject, protection of individual rights to occupational safety and health (OSH) are covered in the 1997 Labour Law (LL), which together with the general requirement for all workplaces to be safe, healthy and hygienic for workers, also sets out a number of special provisions relating to inter alia, workplace medical care, access to safe drinking water, noise levels, lighting, heat and ventilation. Many of these are supported by accompanying ministerial regulations, or prakas, which elaborate further on the responsibilities of the firm and the entitlements of the worker.
The LL also seeks to define workplace accidents, as well as the responsibilities of the employer with regard to accident response and injury-related compensation. Responsibility for OSH labour inspection lies with the Department of Occupational Health in the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MoLVT).
Cambodia is currently implementing its first OSH Master Plan, which came into force in April 2009 and covers the four-year period to 2013.36 This plan sets out a vision for the labour market in the country under which it will seek to institutionalize a preventative health and safety culture in the workplace, as well as support enterprise level initiatives and programmes both to raise awareness on OSH issues and develop practical systems for accident and injury prevention (in compliance with the labour law and OSH inspection requirements).
The Master Plan defines six areas for priority action: (1) Strengthen national OSH systems; (2) improve safety and health inspection and compliance with Labour Law; (3) promote OSH activities by employers’ and workers’ organizations; (4) implement special programmes for hazardous occupations; (5) extend OSH protection to small enterprises, and rural and informal economy workplaces; and (6) promote collaborative actions with hazardous child labour and HIV/AIDS projects for stronger compliance.
In addition to this master plan, the Cambodian Royal Government has many other laws and regulations regarding the protection of workers as regards healthy and safety at work. However, the implementation of these laws and regulations is still limited, and workers face many problems related to OSH.
All establishments and work places must always be kept clean and must maintain standards of hygiene and sanitation or generally must maintain the working conditions necessary for the health of the workers.
The Ministry in Charge of Labor and other relevant ministries shall prepare a Prakas (ministerial order) to monitor the measures for enforcing this article in all establishments subject to the provisions of this Chapter, particularly regarding:
- the quality of the premises;
- hygienic arrangements for the needs of personnel;
- beverages and meals;
- lodging of the personnel, if applicable;
- work stations and the seating arrangements;
- ventilation and sanitation;
- individual protective instruments and work clothes;
- lighting and noise levels in the workplace.
All establishments and work places must be set up to guarantee the safety of workers. Machinery, mechanisms, transmission apparatus, tools, equipment and machines must be installed and maintained in the best possible safety conditions. Management of technical work utilizing tools, equipment, machines, or products used must be organized properly for guaranteeing the safety of workers.
The Prakas covered in Article 229, shall also determine the measures for enforcing this article, particularly regarding:
- risks of falling;
- moving heavy objects;
- protection from dangerous machines and apparatus;
- preventive measures to be taken for work in confined areas or for work done in an isolated environment;
- risks of liquids spilling;
- fire prevention.
The missions of the shop steward are as follows:
- to make sure the provisions relating to the health and safety of work are enforced;
- to suggest measures that would be beneficial to contribution towards protecting and improving the health, safety and working conditions of the workers in the establishment, particularly in case of work-related accidents or illnesses (…)
Prakas on Occupational Hygiene and Safety in Garment and Shoe Factories
Article 4: Use of Chemicals
(…) For the sake of worker and public safety, the employers shall:
- Train their staff properly on how to use chemicals before assigning them to work [with the chemicals];
- Ensure that all chemicals are only used in an isolated area where there is no emission to other places;
- Set up an air pump-out system which ensures that the outgoing air does not impact on public environment;
- Ensure that people working with chemicals are equipped with sufficient and effective protective equipment;
- Ensure that emergency exits are in place;
- Health and safety signs and warehouse regulations shall be written in a simple way, posted properly in a prominent place, and always be kept in a good state.
Article 5: Workplace Safety Training for Workers
The employers of all garment and shoe enterprises/factories/handicraft workshops shall have the obligation to necessarily train their workers and worker representatives on hygiene, workplace safety and health issues relevant to the work in each position.
- The training shall explain to the workers:
- Risks caused by physical factors (heat, noise, light, rays, vibration, etc.);
- Risks of chemicals, biological and mechanical substances, electricity, fire;
- Possible risks caused by night work;
- Effective preventive measures;
- Behavior in an emergency, when it comes to a rescue of victim
- The training shall be provided:
- At the start of work;
- When there is a job transfer;
- When production techniques or machines are changed, or when new raw materials are allocated;
- After workers take long time off (more than one month).
- The training shall be conducted by a genuine technician during working hours, and the workers attending the training shall be entitled to normal wages.
Law on Construction
Every construction shall comply with the fire safety regulations, as determined in the building technical regulations and provisions of fire prevention and extinguishment.
The classifications, types, and sizes of construction that requires fire safety certification shall be determined by an inter-ministerial Prakas by the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and the Minister of Interior.
If it is necessary to ensure public security, safety, and order, the competent authority can assign a construction controller to check building or demolition works.
The construction owner, construction users, persons involved in building works, including a real estate developer, a builder and a construction certifier shall give cooperation to the construction controller.
The competent authority may decide to suspend, modify, halt, or require the demolition of a construction, or take other necessary measures if the building or demolition work has been found not to comply with the building technical regulations and other existing regulations.
A construction which is used for non-residential purposes requires a quality and safety control within a maximum period of 5 (five) years from the day when the certificate of occupancy is issued. Quality and safety control shall be further conducted regularly once every 5 (five) years, at the latest.
A construction which is used for residential purposes requires a quality and safety control within a maximum period of 10 (ten) years from the day when the certificate of occupancy is issued. Quality and safety control shall be further conducted regularly once every 10 (ten) years, at the latest.
Quality control and certification of the quality and effectiveness of the construction’s fire prevention and extinguishment system shall be conducted once every 2 (two) years.
Hazardous construction equipment requires a control once a year. The types of hazardous construction equipment shall be determined by a Prakas of the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.
A construction owner or a building manager has an obligation to hand over the result of the construction’s safety and quality control to the competent authority within a period of 1 (one) month, after the deadline for the conduct of the construction’s quality and safety control.
The competent authority may require a quality and safety control if there exists a risk to human life, property or effect on public security or order.
Construction safety and quality control shall be conducted by construction controllers or certifiers who hold a license granted by the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.
Every expense for construction safety and quality control shall be borne by a construction owner.
For a co-owned building, the owners of all private units shall be jointly responsible for every expense for construction safety and quality control, in proportion to the sizes of private units.
FLA, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment of Huey Chuen
The investigation was carried out through individual and group interviews with a large number of stakeholders, direct observation and testing, citing and reviewing of appropriate documentation, job task analysis and risk assessment. A thorough review of the PUMA and FLA Codes of Conduct was undertaken. A review of all Cambodian Labor Laws and Prakas1 was undertaken and relevant internationally recognized standards are referenced where the local standards were inadequate or none existed. (…)
- The possibility that such fainting and subsequent illness might be attributable to the use of raw materials or chemicals at the workplace without proper ventilation
There is a strong possibility that the fainting and illnesses reported are due to the chemicals used in the factory. There are a large number of fans attempting to dilute the organic solvents but this does not appear to be sufficient in some areas. Associated with this is the high ambient temperature which would add to the vapours though evaporation. This should be formally tested. The workers are being exposed to the chemicals through inhalation, absorption through their skin and ingestion. There are multiple pots of organic solvents open. Smell is not a good indicator of ppm (concentration in the air – parts per million) of a solvent but there was a strong smell of solvents near to where the workers were applying this. It was particularly noticeable where the temperature was above 400 C. The personal protective equipment is inadequate and inappropriate. (…)
- The extent to which use, handling and storage of raw materials and chemicals at the plant are consistent with national and international law and practice, the FLA Workplace Code of Conduct and benchmarks, and the PUMA Code of Conduct and other standards
The storage and handling of chemicals does not comply with international standards. Chemicals are incorrectly stored. Chemicals are poorly labelled. Not all Material Safety Data Sheets are available in Khmer or English. Workers have not been trained in the use of the chemicals. They are not using appropriate PPE and are unaware of the hazards. Despite repeated requests and searching the specific company’s web sites not all MSDS were available. Toluene is being used in the factory.
Better Factories Cambodia, An Industry and Compliance Review
Occupational Safety and Health
The cluster covering Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) requirements is the largest cluster with eight different compliance points covering a total number of 60 compliance questions. Consistent with last year’s findings, many areas related to OSH continue to be a challenge for garment factories and are often the result of a lack of proper policies, procedures and division of roles and responsibilities on OSH. This suggestion is supported by the analysis in this report that links factories’ performance on legal OSH matters to the quality of their OSH management systems. This analysis suggest that the better factories do on their OSH management systems, the lower their non-compliance on legal OSH issues. This is not an issue that is typical just for Cambodia, but a general situation in the global supply chain for garment production. Non-compliance levels in the OSH cluster remain high and in general have gone up slightly in most of the compliance points. (…)
In total, BFC covers 68 questions that are related to OSH:
- 13 questions that relate to Emergency Preparedness;
- 7 questions that relate to Health Services and First Aid,
- 9 questions that relate to general Occupational Safety and Health,
- 6 questions that relate to OSH Management Systems,
- 7 questions on Welfare Facilities;
- 3 questions on Work Accommodation,
- 19 questions on for Worker Protection,
- 4 questions on Working Environment.
Management Systems and OSH Compliance
Better Work has in-depth experience in assessing occupational safety and health in hundreds of garment factories in different countries. This experience has taught us that factories struggle to sustainably improve their performance on occupational safety and health since often improvements made are ‘quick fixes’ that are not necessarily supported with proper management systems and training of those involved in ensuring safe and healthy workplaces. As a result, Better Work has started to look at the quality of management systems relating to OSH in factories. All Better Work programmes, including BFC, have introduced factories performance on management systems in 2015 as a way to link compliance with the quality of their systems. For factories to do well on occupational safety and health, they should have proper policies and procedures in place that are known and understood to all management and workers so that they can be applied every moment, every day. Although management systems are not legal requirements, there is a strong correlation between performance on OSH management systems and performance on legal OSH related issues. This confirms that proper OSH management systems uphold compliance. This section provides an analysis that underpins those findings. There are six OSH management system questions that BFC looks at during its assessment as an information question:
- Does the employer adequately assign accountability to management for carrying out health and safety responsibilities?
- Does the employer adequately communicate and implement OSH policies and procedures?
- Does the employer adequately investigate, monitor and measure OSH issues to identify root causes and make necessary adjustments to prevent recurrence?
- Is there an adequate emergency preparedness procedure?
- Is there an adequate hazard/risk management and control procedure?
- Is there an adequate accident investigation procedure?
CCHR, Health and Safety Policy
This is the Health and Safety Policy (the “Policy”) of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”). CCHR will implement this policy to ensure and maintain safe and health working conditions for CCHR employees.
Day to day responsibility for ensuring this policy is put into practice is delegated to the CCHR Finance and Administration Director.
All CCHR employees must:
- Cooperate on health and safety matters;
- Not interfere with anything provided to safeguard their health and safety;
- Take reasonable care of their own health and safety; and
- Report health and safety concerns to the CCHR Finance and Administration Director.
Merk, Country Study Cambodia: Labour Standards in the Garment Supply Chain
g. Safe and healthy working conditions
A safe and hygienic working environment shall be provided, and best occupational health and safety practice shall be promoted, bearing in mind the prevailing knowledge of the industry and of any specific hazards. Appropriate attention shall be paid to occupational hazards specific to this branch of the industry and assure that a safe and hygienic work environment is provided for. Effective regulations shall be implemented to prevent accidents and minimize health risks as much as possible (following ILO Convention 155). Physical abuse, threats of physical abuse, unusual punishments or discipline, sexual and other harassment, and intimidation by the employer are strictly prohibited. Occupational health and safety are major issues in the Cambodian garment industry, including unsafe conditions, mass fainting incidents and collapsing factories
Laws and regulations
- All establishments and workplaces must maintain standards of hygiene and sanitation necessary for the health of workers and must guarantee the safety of workers (Art. 230 Labour Law).
- Art. 248 of the Labour Law defines work related to accidents (accident or illness which happens on the job, during work hours or while travelling to or from work).
- All employers are responsible for work-related injuries (Labour Law: Art. 249). Workers who usually work alone are not responsible for work-related injuries incurred by fellow workers who occasionally work with them (Labour Law: Art. 251).
- The Labour Law provides for a compulsory insurance system for work-related accidents to be managed under the NSSF (Labour Law: Art. 256).
- Labour Law-issued health and safety regulations do not apply to workplaces run by family members if the work does not involve the use of a boiler, mechanical or electric motors, or an industry that is not classified as dangerous or unsanitary (Labour Law: Art. 228).
Stakeholders’ opinions and analyses of implementation
There are many occupational health and safety concerns in Cambodia’s garment industry. It is a topic that requires more attention from employers and employees alike. Many workplaces are hot, noisy, and poorly lit. There is often little ventilation, the uncontrolled and undeclared use of chemicals, excessive dust, as well as a lack of preventive education and little access to personal protective equipment.
A report commissioned by Better Work and IFC on fire safety, building and worker safety risks, identified a number of significant dangers, including: Unprotected fire hazard materials and equipment, fire hazard activities, inadequate automatic fire suppression systems, inappropriate means of escape, improperly maintained electrical installations, lack of emergency awareness and training, ineffective firefighting equipment, substandard building construction and design, and poor building maintenance.
Three safety hazards have been highlighted over the past few years:
- Factory collapses: In 2013, the Wing Star factory, a supplier of Asics, partly collapsed and killed two workers and injured several others. The incident raised concerns about building standards in the sector, especially since a similar accident had happened 17 months earlier, where two workers were killed and seven were seriously injured.
- Mass fainting: Malnutrition has been regarded as one of the possible causes behind mass fainting, together with poor working conditions (for instance, excessive overtime, stress, heat, inadequate ventilation). The mass fainting of workers has become a regular occurrence in garment and shoe factories in Cambodia. Incidences range from dozens to several hundred workers at a time. The incidents have taken place at numerous suppliers, including those supplying Puma, Adidas, H&M and Polo Ralph Lauren. Research suggests there is no single cause for these incidents, but that a number of potential factors play a role, including overheated workplaces, under-nutrition, and the lack of access to quality food. A report by the CLEC and LBL states that fainting can be attributed to the insufficient diets of many Cambodians; in many cases factory workers consume only some 1600 calories per day (at least 500 less than the daily recommendation). The study found that roughly one-third of all workers, who spend, on average, US$1.50 on food per day, were medically malnourished. Body Mass Index figures indicated that 33% of Cambodian workers are medically underweight and at risk, and 25% seriously so (these kinds of figures have used to diagnose anorexia in the UK).71 Another research report noted that 67% of the factories have linked poor nutrition to lower productivity. The study also found that many manufacturers are willing to provide meals as long as the associated expenses do not exceed 2,000 riel (€0.36).72
- Safe transport: Another concern is the often-unsafe forms of transport that workers are forced to depend on when commuting to and from work, which includes flatbed trucks and minivans, which are annually involved in a high number of traffic accidents. In 2014, for instance, 73 garment workers died in crashes during their commutes, an almost 10% increase over the 67 fatalities recorded in 2013.73 In 2015, the number of casualties rose dramatically to 130 fatalities and 7,000 injuries.74 Cambodian law considers these accidents to be work-related.
US Department of State, Cambodia Human Rights Report
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
An April 2017 survey conducted by the BWTUC [The Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Confederation (BWTUC)] estimated there were 200,000 citizens working in the construction industry; 89 percent of 1,010 respondents did not have contracts, most never received bonuses or severance pay, and only 9 percent were enrolled with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Work-related injuries and health problems were common. Most large garment factories producing for markets in developed countries met relatively high health and safety standards as conditions of their contracts with buyers. Working conditions in small-scale factories and cottage industries were poor and often failed to meet international standards. The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) reported 2,533 work-related injuries in the first six months of the year, up slightly from 2017; of these injuries, 444 were the result of road accidents, since employers often transported garment workers to and from work in the back of unsafe open-bed trucks.
Mass fainting remained a problem. The NSSF reported 1,350 workers fainted in 13 factories in the first six months of the year, up from 415 workers fainting in eight factories in the same period in 2017. There were no reports of serious injuries due to fainting. Observers reported excessive overtime, poor health, insufficient sleep, poor ventilation, lack of nutrition, pesticide in nearby rice paddies, and toxic fumes from the production process all contributed to mass fainting.
The BFC reported that complying with OSH standards was a growing challenge in the garment export sector largely due to improper company policies, procedures, and poorly defined supervisory roles and responsibilities. The BFC reported increased noncompliance in every OSH variable measured, including exposure to chemicals and hazardous substances, emergency preparedness, OSH management systems, welfare facilities, worker environment, worker protection, and worker accommodations.
Hsu et al, Occupational Safety and Health for Cambodian Entertainment Sector
Cambodia has developed booming textile, garment, tourism, and entertainment service industries since the mid-1990s. The 2007 global financial crisis pushed many garment workers, who lost their jobs, into the entertainment sector. Entertainment workers are typically engaged informally by their employers and are subjected to long working hours, sexual harassment, and violence. Many who sell beverages are forced into excessive alcohol consumption as part of their work. Many are also expected by their employers and clients to provide sexual services. To address unsafe and unhealthy working conditions for these workers, an innovative occupational safety and health regulation was adopted in 2014. (…)
In Cambodia, these sector workers also include those engaged by the producers and sellers of beverages, such as hostesses, singers, waitresses, bartenders, and others. This category of workers, however, also includes workers who exchange sex for money.3 This officially accepted term in Cambodia was coined partly in order to develop HIV programs for sex workers, given that the sex trade is illegal in the country. The term has enabled the health ministry, as well as a range of international and national civil society organizations, to conduct on-site HIV prevention, care, support, and treatment services mostly for those who engaged in commercial sex prior to 2007. (…)
The Cambodian Food Service Workers Federation (CFSWF) is a trade union established in December 2007 and registered with the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training. It is a member of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, one of the largest Cambodian labor union confederations with a membership of more than 60,000. With the facilitation of the ILO, based on findings of the ILO study, the CFSWF developed workplace programs and began working with the beer promotion workers, on protecting their rights and improving their work conditions with the beer companies. CFSWF has accepted many women entertainment workers in restaurants, pubs, karaoke clubs, and other entertainment venues as members. CFSWF empowered them by organizing them into workers unions and encouraged them to participate in social work and promoted them to be women union leaders. CFSWF trained them on issues relating to gender, sexual harassment, workplace violence, OSH, and workers’ rights, and provided them with legal assistance when they faced sexual harassment or violations of workers’ rights at work.
This marked a significant step for entertainment workers. Membership with the Food and Service Workers Federation enabled entertainment workers to negotiate a labor agreement to protect their OSH rights in accordance with the country’s labor laws. Once entertainment workers found a collective voice, through trade union membership, they were in a position to get the attention of entertainment-sector employers. This led to a process of negotiation and an agreement that a national policy on work conditions and OSH for workers in the entertainment sector was needed. (…)
The Minister of Labour supported the proposed regulation and signed it into law as “Ministerial Regulation on Working Conditions, Occupational Safety and Health Rules of Entertainment Service Enterprises, Establishment and Companies” on 20 August 2014. (…)
The Minister of Labour and Vocational Training indicated that initially, the government will encourage voluntary compliance with the regulation on the part of “all the people, especially the entertainment establishment owners.” However, if there is persistent failure to comply, then penalties will be imposed in accordance with the regulation. An action plan to train key stakeholders on the regulation and on ways to deal with challenges faced by the sector in its implementation has been developed by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training. The Ministry, with the external support of the ILO and funding from the ILO and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria, began disseminating this regulation nationally since the beginning of 2015 to inform and familiarize the industry, its customers, and labor inspectors. Meanwhile, the minister has made provisions to allocate from his own budget, although limited, to facilitate monitoring and implementation. In addition, a regulation implementation guideline has been developed jointly with the Ministry, the employers, and workers trade unions.
As expressed by the Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific of the ILO, “Cambodia’s effort to protect entertainment workers is “ground breaking,” as it dares to reach into a sector where most governments fail to provide adequate protection. Entertainment workers in Cambodia, as well as elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific region, face similar labor-related violations which are in violation of workers’ rights under the International Labour Conventions. These Conventions apply to all workers, including those in informal settings. Cambodia, in adopting this OSH regulation, has demonstrated an innovative approach and leadership from the labor sector, to protect the OSH of entertainment workers. This is a transformative approach to HIV prevention while strengthening labor rights and OSH among these workers.
- Why do you think leading companies have advanced faster in dealing with H&S issues compared with other labour rights (e.g. discrimination, freedom of association)?
- Why do industrial disasters where so many workers are killed or injured continue to happen in the garment industry?
- What type of measures does the government adopt to improve H&S protections?
- Are trade unions or civil society groups effective in promoting H&S? What roles do they play and are they collaborating?
- Why did Cambodia not ratify the ILO Conventions on H&S? How would ratification improve the situation for workers?
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Over the weekend I attended a May Day party thrown by one of my colleagues.
During the party they had a traditional maypole dance. An example of a maypole dance is shown at left. A maypole is a tall pole with colorful ribbons attached to the top that are fanned out in a cone shape. The dancers hold the ribbons and dance according to the rules called by the party’s host (like a square dance). Some walk clockwise and others walk counterclockwise. When one dancer encounters another she goes under the other’s ribbon or lets the other dancer go under hers (according to the rules of the dance). As this is happening the ribbons wind around the pole, making a decorative pattern, such as those shown below.
Having just taught the last day of my knot theory class the day before the party I couldn’t help but look at the maypole with a mathematical eye.
One of the topics in my knot theory course was the (Artin) braid group. A braid is a collection of strings hanging from a rod, wound around each other, and attached to another rod below so that each string is always going downward (as in the picture below). Note that there can be no knotting in the strands because that would require the strings to move upward temporarily.
This is a bona fide group. The group operation is concatenation—i.e, to mutiply two braids, attach the second braid to the bottom of the first. The identity element is the braid in which all string run straight downward without any twisting. It is not difficult to see that each braid has an inverse. Moreover, the braid group is generated by elementary braids of the form shown below (called if the th strand crosses over the st and if the st crosses over the th.
For example, the braid notation for the braid given at the top is .
The braid group is nonabelian (for ), but generators do commute if they are far enough apart (as illustrated below). That is, if (this would also hold if either of the generators was replace by its inverse). This is called far commutativity.
There are three other relations among the generators; all three corresponds to the third Reidemeister move and are commonly called the braid relations. One of them is shown below; we can write it symbolically as .
It turns out that these are the only relations, and thus it is possible to study the braid group purely symbolically.
Artin’s Theorem. The braid group is the group generated by subject to the following relations:
- Far commutativity: for
- Braid relations
The braiding of the maypole ribbons is an interesting twist (har har) on this classic idea. Instead of the string being attached to two line segments, they are attached to two circles and we do not allow the strings to pass through the axis running through the centers of the two circles (the maypole itself!). In particular, we now draw the projection of the braid on the surface of a cylinder. Below is an example of such a projection.
The braiding pattern that the party host coordinated went as follows. There were an even number of ribbons, so he had the dancers count off by twos. The 1’s walked counterclockwise and the 2’s walked clockwise. The 1’s went under the 2’s ribbons initially, then they went over them the next time, and they continued alternating from then onward. The resulting pattern is shown below. I’ve drawn the pattern on an annulus, which is topologically the same as a cylinder. (We can also think of this as the view of the maypole dancers from above.)
Clearly this maypole dancing generates a group, but it is not the usual braid group . What is it?
Let’s call the maypole braid group . Can we define this group using generators and relations? At first glance it looks as if we can simply generalize the ordinary braid group with the added modification that the th string is adjacent to the first string. In particular, there is a new generator in which the th string crosses over the first string. Then the same relations hold as in Artin’s theorem, but the arithmetic on the indices is performed modulo .
Using this notation the group element representing the circular braid above is . (I’m taking the inside circle to be the top of the maypole and the eastern ribbon to be ribbon #1.)
However, this does not describe all possible maypole braids. In particular, the three braids below cannot be obtained as products of the . There’s a really easy way to prove this—can you see it? I’ll post the solution tomorrow. [Now posted.]
It seems to me that we need one more generator in order to obtain the group . Let’s call the new generator ; corresponds to the motion in which for all , the th strand moves to the st place (mod ). In other words, all the dancers rotate one space counterclockwise. There is a corresponding clockwise movement . All three of the circular braids shown above can be generated by the and . The first is and the second is . I leave the third one as an exercise. I’ll post the solution tomorrow. [Now posted.]
This new generator does come with new relations. In particular (where the indices are modulo ).
Thus it seems to me that the group is generated by and the following relations. (Again, we assume that the arithmetic for the indices are all computed mod .)
- Rotation relation: .
- Far commutativity: for
- Braid relations
[Photo credits: Pete Ashton, yksin, f_heaney]
As a high school math teacher AND a homeschool parent, I am constantly reminding children that “Math is everywhere, man.” (ht: Johnny Cash). I chuckled when I read “I couldn’t help but look at the maypole with a mathematical eye.”
hello! im a musician and i was very intrigued and inspired to find your explanation of maypole using mathematics. eversince ive been introduced to hopfstadter, its been a real pleasure to delve into the life phenomenon (as a simple musician) and though im kinda rubbish in math, i thought you may enjoy a very small thoughts of mine that sprang from your post. best, c
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The United Nations is encouraging people to eat more insects but it’s not clear Canadians are ready to tuck in. Bugs are nutritious and they are much better for the environment than are animals according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
2 billion people currently eat bugs like crickets, beetles and grasshoppers. The report notes some caterpillars in southern Africa and weaver ant eggs in Southeast Asia are prized and fetch high prices.
Eating insects is not common in Canada but it’s getting more popular, says Jakub Dzamba. He is an architecture student at McGill University who is developing cricket farm systems. He’s working on one that could be used at home.
“I came up with a cricket farm that basically herds crickets from one farm to another,” said Dzamba. “…The reason for that is to get the crickets away from their own waste and that keeps them cleaner.” The transfer occurs with a system of levers and is escape-proof so the crickets stay contained. The farm systems will cost between 200 and 300 dollars.
Current cricket farms are geared for raising bugs for pets and do not operate at high enough hygienic standards. For those who don’t want to raise bugs in their own fridges they can go on line and order them from suppliers in the U.S.
The farms are however likely to be a big hit in Oaxaca, Mexico where people are experiencing food security issues. A family could buy a farm and just use their own kitchen bio waste to feed the crickets. They could either sell the crickets or use them as food. Fried crickets are a popular food item there.
Not many Canadians eat insects but Dzamba thinks more are becoming open to the idea. He works with Toronto Chef Nathan Isberg who has crickets as a regular item on the menu at his restaurant and has prepared them at other eateries as well.
Canadians also have the chance to taste insects at Future Food Salons. These are events organized by a company called Alimentary Initiatives which promotes innovative foods.
Bugs for food are good for the environment because they emit far fewer greenhouse gases than do meat animals. They also need only two kilos of feed to produce one kilo of insect mass. In comparison, cattle require 8 kilos of feed to produce one kilo of meat.
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