text stringlengths 222 548k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 95 values | url stringlengths 14 1.08k | file_path stringlengths 110 155 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 53 113k | score float64 2.52 5.03 | int_score int64 3 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Light pillar – Sun pillar – Optical phenomenon in atmosphere
Light pillar is an optical phenomenon. That arises in very cold weather when there are ice crystals in the shape of tiles in the air. They are also visible in clearly illuminated parts of cities. They are typical of the clouds of the high floor, but in the big cold they form at earth. They reflect then light from strong sources such as lanterns or fireworks on new year’s eve. As a result of such a source of light, the observer can see high light. Most often you can see them just before sunrise, or soon after his west. Another name of the whole phenomenon is a solar pillar. | <urn:uuid:57073fb5-3e78-4c4e-9d46-871e4224ccf7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://eng-version.2dox.pl/light-pillar/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525500.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718042531-20190718064531-00552.warc.gz | en | 0.958964 | 135 | 3.375 | 3 |
This screen shot is from Proteins, Designing Beta Peptides, where a necklace represents different amino acid molecules that make up the primary structure of a protein.
Today's Science for Tomorrow's Scientists (TSTS) was initiated in 2006 with the support of the UW–Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). It is an interactive website that introduces students to current chemistry and engineering research topics through fun and interactive tutorials. It was developed by Caroline Pharr, a former UW–Madison graduate student, who included development and evaluation of TSTS as part of her Ph.D. research.
In TSTS the research topics are presented at two levels: one for students in grades 5–8 and one for students in grades 9–12. The information presented conforms to the National Science Education Standards, which aids teachers in incorporating the material into their curricula.
The goal of TSTS is to educate students about cutting-edge research, to show the social implications of research, and to give students a more positive attitude about science and engineering. TSTS is housed on the ChemEd Digital Library (a Pathway project of NSF's National Science Digital Library); access it at http://www.chemeddl.org/resources/TSTS/. You will find these TSTS topics:
- Astrochemistry (Organic Chemistry): work done by the McMahon research group
- Catalysis (Inorganic Chemistry): work done by the Stahl research group
- Proteins, Designing Beta Peptides (Biochemistry): work done by the Gellman research group
Support for the initial construction of TSTS was provided by the UW-Madison NSEC | <urn:uuid:e6d8c002-2892-4d26-ab11-55b126668ef1> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://ice.chem.wisc.edu/outreach/TSTS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999000.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20190619143832-20190619165832-00096.warc.gz | en | 0.941177 | 351 | 3.375 | 3 |
Are you someone who feels like eating a chocolate or feasting yourself to dessert after every meal? Well, you are definitely not alone. There are many like you in the world who has cravings to eat something sweet. Such cravings are also commonly known as sugar cravings.
While it is good to have a sweet tooth every once in a while, having too much of sugar can be bad for your health and also your teeth. Having sweets everyday or many times each day can cause tooth decay and may also add too many calories, thus leading to weight gain. Thus it is important to learn ways to curb and control your sugar cravings. Th following are 8 most effective ways to do so:
- The first way to curb your sugar cravings is to know what harms it can do to you. You must research why eating too much sugar or sweet foods can be harmful for your body and how it can also lead to weight gain and even obesity.
- Another way to curb your sweet cravings is to opt for natural sweet foods rather than ones with artificial sweeteners. For example rather than having energy drinks or diet sodas etc., opt for coconut water, fresh fruit juices with low sugar etc.
- Another way to control the sweet tooth is to avoid having energy drinks and diet sodas as much as possible. Diet sodas tend to raise the sugar cravings in us which in turn leads to us opting for other sweet foods.
- It is important to control yourself by distracting your mind away from sweet food thoughts. For this, keep yourself busy or engaged all the time and think of other healthy foods etc. Even then if you can’t control your cravings, you can opt to eat something else like a fruit to subside the craving.
- It is a good idea to take help from a friend who can be strict and can keep you away from foods laden with sugar. Your friend can be a motivating presence who can keep you fixed on your goals and help you give up the cravings.
- Reward yourself whenever you accomplish a short term goal of keep the cravings under bay. You can set weekly goals and whenever you successfully achieve them, treat yourself to your favorite sweet or anything elsethat you might like.
- Try to join the gym or a sport. This is a good way to be more aware of your nutritional needs and the things you need to avoid to prevent gaining weight. As you do so, you will automatically cut down on the sugar content that you have.
- Another good way to put a stop on your sugar cravings is to give in sometimes. Don’t completely eliminate sugar cravings but do it slowly and gradually for the results to show the best way. Also, don’t be too harsh on yourself as that can make it difficult for you to work your way towards curbing cravings. | <urn:uuid:c06a466b-ea81-490a-b4b2-cd6d722586ff> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://www.healthwatchcenter.in/diet-fitness/ways-to-curb-and-control-your-sugar-cravings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038072175.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20210413062409-20210413092409-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.964273 | 584 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This post addresses the topic of Electric car and Pollution, Carbon Footprint of Electric Cars v’s Gasoline, Low Emission Development Strategies, as well as the Electric Vehicles are good for the environment. Electric motor vehicles are admired, due to no harmed emissions on the path, as an economically sustainable option to fuel driven cars.
Electric Car and Pollution
The transport sector is the principal source, since almost one fourth of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emitted in European cities. Emissions have been lowered since 2007, but are nevertheless higher than in 1990. Road transport, in fact, was deemed responsible for more than 70% of the transport GHG pollution in 2014 (where civil aircraft account for 13.1%, ship traffic is 13%, railway traffic is 0.6%, road traffic is 72.8% and the other means of services are 0.5%).
Carbon Footprint of Electric Cars vs Gasoline
The initiatives to be undertaken for the purification of air are:
Employ modern technology, introduce competitive rates and promote a push to reduce transport pollution to improve transport network efficiency;
Conversion to reduced- to zero-emission cars will be encouraged.
Low Emission Development Strategies
Continuous funding from local governments is a crucial determinant to the effectiveness of such policies. Such jurisdictions will offer incentives to citizens to use low-emission cars focused on the usage of renewable sources of electricity. We could also encourage the use of other transport methods, such as biking and walking, public transportation and arrangements to share / pool cars, that reduce pollutants effectively.
Are Electric Vehicles Good for the Environment?
Over the last ten years, electric vehicles (EVs), largely as a consequence of their small emissions of flue gas and a reduced dependence on gasoline, have been common. In 2022, EVs are expected to reach about 35 million worldwide. A big issue with EVs, though, is that their strong usage raises the power system division and transformer shortage and competition for heavy energy. The incorporation of local energy generation including RESs in an EV charging system is an successful solution to the effects.
Fossil fuels produce 60% of the worldwide electricity
The vehicle emissions are classified broadly in two types:
- direct and
- life cycles.
Direct emissions are released through the car’s exhaust, via the fuel system’s evaporation during the fueling process. Direct emissions include smog-forming emissions (such as nitrogen oxides, other human health-destroying contaminants) and greenhouse gases, predominantly CO2. The generation of zero direct emissions in electric vehicles is especially helpful in improving quality of the air. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles which also have an electric motor and a gasoline engine, emit fuel-system evaporation emissions.
Life cycle Emissions:
The emissions from the life cycle included all emissions related to the manufacture, refining, distribution, use and recovery / deposition of fuel. For example, emissions are produced by the mining of petroleum, refining to gasoline and distributing to stations and burning in vehicle, for a traditional gasoline vehicle. As direct emissions, a number of harmful contaminants and Green House Gases are part of the life-cycle emissions.
All vehicles generate large emissions from the life cycle and are difficult to quantify. However, the generation of energy is usually less than traditional vehicles since the bulk of energy emissions are lower than combustion of petrol or diesel. | <urn:uuid:62ed06c3-0f52-4938-81f6-208d480db10e> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://blogmech.com/electric-car-and-pollution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506623.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924055210-20230924085210-00239.warc.gz | en | 0.940862 | 706 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships into which Poland is divided. Historically the area had strong ties to both German and Polish culture, with additional Czech influence in the southern mountainous region.
Silesia was once divided into many small duchies reigned by dukes and princes of the Piast dynasty. During this time, cultural and ethnic Germanic influence prospered due to immigrants from the German-speaking areas of the mighty Holy Roman Empire. This also impacted on the local architecture as well as traditions and cuisine. Throughout the upcoming centuries, Lower Silesia experienced several key events such as the Protestant Reformation, the Silesian Wars, Industrialisation and eventually both World Wars.
Lower Silesia is one of the richest provinces in Poland as it has valuable natural resources such as copper, brown coal and rock materials, which are exploited by the biggest enterprises. Its well developed and varied industries attract both domestic and foreign investors.
Its capital and largest city is Wrocław, situated on the Odra River. It is one of Polands largest and most dynamic cities with a rapidly growing international profile, and is regarded as one of the most important commercial, educational and tourist sites in the whole country. Furthermore, the voivodeship is famous for its many castles and palaces and is one of Polands most visited regions by tourists.
This uses material from Wikipedia which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | <urn:uuid:305a953b-8aa2-4aa1-b57f-d4bd44abffdb> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://escort-europe.com/escort-Dolnoslaskie/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738864.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20200812024530-20200812054530-00413.warc.gz | en | 0.971677 | 320 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The Danish subsurface contains very large amounts of “green energy” in the form of geothermal resources that can be used as hot water for heating purposes. Today, only a small part of these resources are utilized in the three existing geothermal plants at Thisted, Margretheholm and Sønderborg.
The research project has been designed to characterize and implement a nationwide, regional mapping of geological and geophysical parameters that are essential for assessing the potential for geothermal energy utilization.
The temperature rises approx. 25-30 degrees per Kilometers down through the Danish subsurface. Deep geothermal energy is best utilized by producing warm water from sandstone beds with good reservoir properties located at 800 to 3000 meters depth. In this depth zone, the temperature in the starting point is high enough to be part of a district heating production and the reservoir properties of sandstones are not necessarily destroyed by diagenetic processes. Good reservoir properties mean that the sandstones have good water-conducting properties, which is the case if they have a large pore volume (good porosity) and if the hot water can flow freely between the pores (good permeability).
An assessment of the geothermal potential in a given area requires, in addition to an assessment of porosity and permeability, an assessment of the thickness of the sandstone reservoirs, temperature distribution, original deposition environment, continuity, and burial history. Continuity is an expression of how coherent a given reservoir is, both as a result of the initial deposition distribution of sand in time and space, but also as a consequence of subsequent fracture zones (i.e., faults) that may have cracked the reservoir into smaller units, which each for itself does not have sufficient water volume for geothermal use. The burial history of the reservoir determines the impacts of the sandstone layers, especially in the form of mechanical and chemical transformations (diagenesis), from being deposited millions of years ago and to today.
The research project has generated extensive new knowledge about the regional distribution of geothermal reservoirs, their physical recovery, temperature and energy content. This has been done on the basis of new seismic mapping and interpretation, the construction of a three-dimensional structural geological model and a three-dimensional thermal model for the underground, analysis of reservoir rocks and geophysical wellbore data as well as numerical model calculations. The many data are summarized and illustrated in the Geotermi WebGIS portal, which provides the basis for a new overall assessment of the potential for exploiting deep geothermal energy in the subsurface. From the geothermal potential map in the portal it appears that in the majority of the country there are geothermal reservoirs in the subsurface, including under Greater Copenhagen, which are suitable for geothermal recovery.
Although the research project has brought significant new knowledge, the results also point to academic fields where new research is needed in specific issues to ensure long-term stable and sustainable geothermal energy production.
In the future, the interest in the mapped sandstone reservoirs that are suitable for geothermal production could be further increased. This could happen, for example, if the power power plants supplying heat to drive the heat pumps at the geothermal plants can integrate the utilization of geothermal energy with the possibility of seasonal energy storage from other energy forms in the subsurface.
A more detailed review of the most important results is found under DSF-Geotermi: Results.
A number of the most important contributions can be found under DSF-Geotermi: Publications. | <urn:uuid:b7e6a68d-9afb-49ea-a208-65626dc1caf0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://dybgeotermi.geus.dk/en/research-projects/dsf-geotermi-background/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334802.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926051040-20220926081040-00260.warc.gz | en | 0.925326 | 719 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The flashcards below were created by user
on FreezingBlue Flashcards.
- Kc = Products/Reactants
- write the coeeficient of each reactant as an exponant.
Effect of Adding Reactant
Increase in the number of collisions.
- The effect of adding reactant shifts the equilibrium
- toward the products
- The rate of the forward reaction increases to form
- more HF product such that equilibrium concentrations are equal to Kc again.
Effect of Adding Product
- RAte of reverse reaction increases.
- Shifts Equilibium towrards the reactants.
Effect of removing reactant?
- Decreases rate of forward reaction.
- Shifts equilibrium towards reactants.
Effect of removing Product
- Decreases the rate of reverse reaction.
- Pushes equilibrium towards products.
Decrease in volume
equlibrium shifts towards the fewer number of moles.
Shifts reaction equilibrium towards the greater number of moles.
Exothermic reaction heat added
shift towards the reactants
Exothermic heat taken away
shifts towards products
Endothermic HEat added
Shifts to products
Endothermic heat loss
Shifts towards the reactant
Isotopes with numbers over 84 are radioactive because?
Too many protons in one place make it unstable.
- a helium nucleus,2 protons and 2 neutrons, a
- mass number of 4 and a charge of 2+
- a low energy compared to other radiation particles
- travels through air 2-4 cm
- .05 tissue penetration depth
- Shielding paper or clothing.
- Radium 226
- particle is a high-energy electron
- has a mass number of 0 and a charge of 1-
- 200-300 cm through air.
- 4-5 mm tissue depth
- Shielding heavy clothing gloves lab coat
- Carbon 14
- Has a mass number of 0 and a charge of 0.
- Is emitted from an unstable nucleus to give a more stable, lower energy nucleus.
- 500m through the air
- 50 cm or more penetration
- shielding lead or thick concrete
- Thechnetium 99m
- is not detected under 25 rem
- involves a decrease in white blood cells at 100 rem
- includes nausea and fatigue over 100 rem
- reduces white-cell count to zero over 300 rem and leads to death in 50% of people at 500 rem
- 2 atoms form 1
- Very high Heat
- Sun and Stars
- Splitting of atom
- Very High Energy
- Nuclear power plants | <urn:uuid:92ce7cab-d20e-487d-acb9-44f2b72c507c> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.freezingblue.com/flashcards/print_preview.cgi?cardsetID=94731 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267155413.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20180918130631-20180918150631-00403.warc.gz | en | 0.835019 | 548 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Updated on June 23, 2020.
1. For the kid who is destined to take comedy to another level
All kidding aside, knowing how to tell a joke is a great icebreaker for kids. And having a sense of humor is great for their social, emotional, and intellectual development. So when International Joke Day rolls around on Wednesday, July 1, this year, launch your family’s first-ever summer of intentional laughter.
How to start? First, model good humor. Giggle out loud, seek out the funny, tell silly jokes, and regale your kids with preposterous stories. Then haul out your favorite book of knock-knock jokes (or something similar) and give your child time to practice being funny. Encourage him to perfect telling this one: Knock, knock. Who’s there? Cows say. Cows say who? No silly, cows say moo! Or this one: Why do cows wear bells? Because their horns don’t work. You just might find yourself ROTFL.
2. For the Revolutionary War buff who knows every word to Hamilton
Add meaning to your Independence Day activities on Saturday, July 4. In addition to your cookout, go deep with details.
Hit the library for great books on the topic for kids of all ages. Share them with your American history expert-in-training before the big day, and on the Fourth, host a whole-family trivia contest. Hand out prizes but remember to keep the Q’s easy for little ones, who will be thrilled just to be able to identify the colors of the American flag or reveal the name of our country’s first president.
3. For the kid who sees a particle accelerator in his future
Wednesday, July 8, is Math 2.0 Day this year, and for grade-school kids who gravitate to math and science—and for those who take a bit longer to get it—now’s the time to talk math and make numbers fun for youngsters.
Get silly and use phrases like: 4 example, or I heart (sum)mer, or You hungry? How about a piece of pi? Seek out and use other punny expressions in your family conversations. Look up the origin of the word mathematics (hint: it’s Greek). Count windows on houses, petals on flowers, cars on the street, or trees in your yard. Your kid might even love this math fiend’s riddle: Why should you wear glasses during math class? Because it improves di-vison. Or maybe she’ll relate to this one: Why did the math book look so sad? Because it had so many problems.
4. For the kid who wants to study abroad one day and take notes in a foreign language
OK, we get it: Mastering another tongue isn’t everyone’s cup of tea—and plenty of kids will do well without ever taking foreign-language classes.
But research does suggest that by age seven or eight many kids can learn to speak, for example, French or Spanish, and once they learn one foreign language, learning others is easier. So why not take advantage of Bastille Day on Tuesday, July 14, and make the storming of the famed fortress in Paris, and the turning point of the French Revolution in 1789, your jumping-off point as you treat your future translator to a few quick lessons.
To commemorate the day, share some uber-useful French expressions: oui (for “yes”), non (for “no”), je m’appelle (for “my name is”), and pas maintenant plus tard (for “not now, maybe later”). Eat crepes, baguettes, éclairs, and other French yummies. Sing cute kids’ songs like “Frère Jacques,” in French and English. Read The Little Prince to your kids and watch the awesome 2015 movie, which you can stream on Netflix or buy on DVD. End the day with a sweet bonne nuit (“good night” in French). Then add a quick je t’aime (I love you) followed by je vais vous voir dans la matinée (I will see you in the morning).
5. For the kid who worships Mother Nature
Gather anything and everything you can safely get your hands on this month and inspire your outdoors-loving kid with her very own I Love Nature Rock and Leaf Collection.
Find large stones in your yard, different types of leaves, plus bark, shells, grass, soil, sand (if you’re near a beach), and even bugs and insects to observe and release later. Then, decorate the objects. Grab paint and turn rocks into cute ladybugs. Place them on a desk, or in your garden to customize the landscape and floral design. For fun, dig up info on three of the country’s best-known naturalists: John Muir, considered “father of our national parks”; John James Audubon, (check out his book Birds of America); and Rachel Carson, a marine biologist, author, and National Book Award winner.
6. For your future sommelier, aromatherapist, or food-and-flavor chemist
Host a guess-this-scent party one afternoon or early evening and let your child test his ability to identify sweet aromas and stinky odors. Call this get-together the Sensory Olympics and invite your kids to cover their eyes with blackout masks while they ID scents in a basket full of items.
In round one, include the sweet smell of oatmeal cookies, mint leaves, lemon iced-tea packets, vanilla extract, watermelon, strawberries, roses, and lavender. Players earn one point for each correct answer, but really everyone’s a winner. Serve strawberry, kiwi, banana, or tutti-frutti ice cream afterward. Want to boost the challenge for the bravest smellers? Slather fresh crackers with a couple of stinky cheeses. Urge players to sniff the samples and rate them either as not that terrible or ugh, get it out of here. | <urn:uuid:baad0ad4-568b-426c-93c2-19872edc38ef> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.highlights.com/parents/family-activities/what-to-do-in-july | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046152168.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20210727010203-20210727040203-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.913486 | 1,309 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Perfect for building number sense in the Early Years, these number word mats for number between zero and ten utilise real life photos of hands displaying the number.
Children are then invited to read the correct word to match the number, draw the amount in the blank ten frame along with make it using playdough or wix stix and then write the number word.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE -
Say It Make It Write It Mats
CVC Say It Read It Make It Write It Word Mats | <urn:uuid:86ecb85e-dd08-4865-abe9-140f330d5c56> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Word-Mats-0-10-With-Real-Life-Photos-3185335 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320582.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625203122-20170625223122-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.809179 | 102 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Brodmann area 25
|Brodmann area 25|
Brodmann area 25 is shown in orange.
Medial surface of the brain with Brodmann's areas numbered.
|Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy|
Brodmann area 25 (BA25) is an area in the cerebral cortex of the brain and delineated based on its cytoarchitectonic characteristics. It is also called the subgenual area, area subgenualis or subgenual cingulate. It is the 25th "Brodmann area" defined by Korbinian Brodmann (thus its name). BA25 is located in the cingulate region as a narrow band in the caudal portion of the subcallosal area adjacent to the paraterminal gyrus. The posterior parolfactory sulcus separates the paraterminal gyrus from BA25. Rostrally it is bound by the prefrontal area 11 of Brodmann.
Brodmann described this area as it is labeled now in 1909. Originally in 1905, Brodmann labeled the area as part of area 24. In 1909, he divided the area into area 24 and 25.
This region is extremely rich in serotonin transporters and is considered as a governor for a vast network involving areas like hypothalamus and brain stem, which influences changes in appetite and sleep; the amygdala and insula, which affect the mood and anxiety; the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory formation; and some parts of the frontal cortex responsible for self-esteem. This region is particularly implicated in the normal processing of sadness.
Involvement in depression
The subcallosal cingulate gyrus CG25 which consists of BA25 as well as parts of BA24 and BA32 has been implicated as playing an important role in major depression and has been the target of deep brain stimulation to treat the disorder.
One study found that BA25 is metabolically overactive in treatment-resistant depression. A different study found that metabolic hyperactivity in this area is associated with poor therapeutic response of persons with Major Depressive Disorder to cognitive-behavioral therapy and venlafaxine.
In 2005 Helen S. Mayberg and collaborators described how they successfully treated a number of depressed people — individuals virtually catatonic with depression despite years of talk therapy, drugs, and electroconvulsive therapy — with pacemaker-like electrodes (deep brain stimulation) in area 25.
A recent study found that Transcranial magnetic stimulation is more clinically effective treating depression when targeted specifically to Brodmann area 46, because this area has intrinsic functional connectivity (negative correlation) with area 25.
Another recent study has found that the responses of area 25 to viewing sad stimuli are affected by cortisol. This suggests that depression related changes in the activity in area 25 could be due to Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis dysregulation.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brodmann area 25.|
Notes and references
- subgenual area 25. braininfo.rprc.washington.edu, retrieved November 18, 2006.
- area 25 of Brodmann-1909. braininfo.rprc.washington.edu, retrieved November 19, 2006.
- "Faulty Circuits", Scientific American, April 2010
- Mayberg, HS; Liotti M; Brannan SK; McGinnis S; Mahurin RK; Jerabek PA; et al. (May 1999). "Reciprocal limbic-cortical function and negative mood: converging PET findings in depression and normal sadness.". Am J Psychiatry 156 (5): 675–82.
- Phan, KL; Wager T; Taylor SF; Liberzon I (June 2002). "Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in PET and fMRI.". NeuroImage 16 (2): 331–48. doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1087. PMID 12030820.
- Hamani C, Mayberg H, Stone S, Laxton A, Haber S, Lozano AM (15 February 2011). "The subcallosal cingulate gyrus in the context of major depression". Biological Psychiatry 69 (4): 301–309. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.09.034. PMID 21145043.
- Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Depression neuron.org, March 3, 2005. Retrieved November 18, 2006.
- Predictors of nonresponse to cognitive behavioural therapy or venlafaxine using glucose metabolism in major depressive disorder cma.ca, May 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
- Lozano, Andres M; Peter Giacobbe; Clement Hamani; Sakina J Rizvi; Sidney H Kennedy; Theodore T Kolivakis; Guy Debonnel; Abbas F Sadikot; Raymond W Lam; Andrew K Howard; Magda Ilcewicz-Klimek; Christopher R Honey; Helen S Mayberg (2011-11-18). "A multicenter pilot study of subcallosal cingulate area deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression". Journal of Neurosurgery 116 (2): 315–22. doi:10.3171/2011.10.JNS102122. PMID 22098195.
- Fox, MD; Buckner, RL; White, MP; Greicius, MD; Pascual-Leone, A (2012). "Efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation targets for depression is related to intrinsic functional connectivity with the subgenual cingulate". Biological Psychiatry 72 (7): 595–603. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.04.028. PMID 22658708.
- Sudheimer, KD; Abelson JL; Taylor SF; Martis B; Welsh RC; Warner C; et al. (April 2013). "Exogenous glucocorticoids decrease subgenual cingulate activity evoked by sadness". Neuropsychopharmacology 38 (5): 826–45. doi:10.1038/npp.2012.249. PMC 3599059. PMID 23303057. | <urn:uuid:04e2c78b-a23f-4fe0-9dda-7c5ee2b077ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodmann_area_25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257831769.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071031-00248-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.782275 | 1,319 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Challenging Nine Myths about Education and LearningLee Bob Black | Senior Writer and Editor, SkilledUp
There are many assumptions about education and learning that are held to be true without any evidence. Some of these assumptions are so unhelpful and troublesome—or even dead wrong—that I’ve decided to call them myths. The problem is that they seem like common sense and that’s why they’re often unquestioned.
In this article, however, I’m going to question them. I’m even going to attempt to debunk a few.
Many of the assumptions explored here relate to simple sayings that are sometimes mechanically repeated by politicians and even educators. They’ve been bandied about so much that they’ve become empty catchphrases.
My hope is that by challenging some of society’s assumptions about education and learning, you might be encouraged to do the same with your assumptions (if, indeed, they’re holding you back).
MYTH #1: An education guarantees a job.
REALITY: An education is just one factor that might help you get you a job. It might get your foot in an employer’s door. It might even land you your dream job. But there’s no assurance that it will even prepare you for a job. Without a doubt, there are numerous factors that are within your control and that will help get you a job, including (but not limited to):
- Your experience.
- Your attitude and personality.
- The right mentor.
- The right connections.
- Your online identity.
MYTH #2: Education should give you the skills and knowledge needed to compete in the global economy and to be productive members of society.
REALITY: Competing in the global economy and being a “productive member” of society should be the furthest thing from your mind when you’re studying. These abstract ideas just muddy the waters. They’re so misguided that, from an individual’s perspective, they border on being pointless. A healthier approach to looking at the purpose of education is that it should give you the skills and knowledge that help you get a job that you enjoy and that pays the bills.
MYTH #3: Teachers and instructors should have numerous education qualifications.
REALITY: Teachers and instructors without education qualifications can still be excellent teachers and instructors. In short, being a qualified teacher or instructor won’t necessarily make you better at your job. Degrees, certificates, graduate-level credentials; these are all great. Yet while acknowledging that teaching is a skillset and can be taught (you’re not born with or without the ability to teach), there are many valid ways to start a career as a teacher or instructor. That’s perhaps why several US states no longer require school teachers to have advanced education qualifications. With this in mind, someone with a math or science degree could still be an excellent math or science teacher even if they have no education qualifications. For online education, this approach is even more self-evident. For example, a self-taught software programmer could be an excellent coding boot camp instructor even if they don’t have an education degree or even a computer science degree.
MYTH #4: Online education is not participatory or interactive.
REALITY: Some online courses consist of just reading online content and watching videos. Such courses don’t provide opportunities for students to collaborate with other students or interact in challenging ways with the course material.
However, it’s a mistake to think that just because a course is delivered virtually that it will be, by default, lacking in collaboration and student engagement. Indeed, there are many online courses that promote active participation with the instructor and other students, and provide umpteen ways to creatively interact with the material.
MYTH #5: Brick-and-mortar classrooms are more conducive to learning than virtual classrooms.
REALITY: There are pros and cons for different learning environments and delivery mechanisms. You might prefer to having a teacher or instructor in the same room as you, lecturing, encouraging and being available for in-person (non-digital) feedback. Or you might learn better when left alone with just your computer and headphones. In short, different strokes for different folks. Instead of engaging in a fruitless analog-versus-digital debate, perhaps it’s more beneficial to acknowledge that we have moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach to education and there’s no turning back.
MYTH #6: Education is broken. Technology-based learning will save it.
REALITY: Doomsayers like to declare that education is broken. And dreamers like to predict that technology will be education’s savior. Such claims aren’t particularly useful.
Certainly, the US no longer leads the world in postsecondary education. And, sure, there are numerous problems with the learning industry in this country. That said, to counter the view that our education system needs fixing, it’s perhaps more accurate to say that it works for some people, yet not for others. A deeper more nuanced view, one that prioritizes self-responsibility, would sounds more like this: some people make the education system work for themselves, and others don’t. In this context, technology can help improve education, though thinking of technology as education’s savior is too much of a leap.
MYTH #7: If you have the opportunity to go to college, you should go to college.
REALITY: There are numerous viable alternatives to college. There’s nothing wrong with getting a job straight out of high school. Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with foregoing a traditional college degree and holding off starting a job for as long as you can. Be that as it may, there are countless positive outcomes that could result from attending college, either a brick-and-mortar one or an Internet-based one. Consider keeping in mind that just because 40 percent of working-aged Americans hold a college degree, it doesn’t mean that college is a good fit for everyone.
MYTH #8: Education is a public good.
REALITY: Education is increasingly being viewed as a private good.
MYTH #9: The best way to judge whether you’ve learned something is by taking a test or quiz.
REALITY: Tests and quizzes—and indeed many grading systems used by schools, colleges, and institutions—provide an indication of what you have possibly learned. They shouldn’t be considered confirmation that you’ve intellectually nailed a subject. A related topic is standardized testing. Many people and organizations dispute that standardized test scores are the best way to judge educational success or failure. You could get an astronomical score on one of these tests, but that doesn’t mean you’ve learned the material.
Education is Life Itself
It’s an understatement to say that education is the foundation of many people’s lives. Indeed, John Dewey once wrote that education isn’t preparation for life, that it is life itself.
That’s just one reason why inaccurate and oversimplified assumptions about education and learning need to be nipped in the bud. There’s just too much at stake. And the cost of making a mistake—when it comes to choosing a career path, paying for education, and so forth—is too high. My hope is that this article has presented you with some new views on this vital topic.
– – – –
Footnotes and Resources
(A) Excerpts: “The aims, content, and organization of schools are so embedded in our culture that the assumptions on which they rest are seldom examined.”
“And the nature of schools is rooted in the historical traditions, values, and assumptions into which we have been socialized. Although we act on these values and assumptions, we seldom examine them, even as we try to influence schools.”
(B) Edward P. Clapp, “Envisioning the Future of Arts Education: Challenging Core Assumptions, Addressing Adaptive Challenges, and Fostering the Next Generation of Arts Education Leaders” (PDF), Towards a New Concept of Arts Education: Second World Conference on Arts Education; Seoul, Korea; Harvard University, USA; archive.
According to research by Hart Research Associates in 2013, 56% of employers thought that half or fewer of college graduates had the knowledge and skills to advance in their companies. Source: “It Takes More than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success” (PDF), Hart Research Associates, www.aacu.org, April 10, 2013; archive.
Ronnie Ann, “Why Interviewers See Attitude and Personality as Job Skills,” Work Coach Cafe (WorkCoachCafe.com), June 14, 2011; archive.
Jessica Taylor, “4 Factors That Advance Your Career (That Have Nothing To Do With You),” The Muse (TheMuse.com), September 11, 2012; archive.
Matthew O’Donnell, “Why You Didn’t Get the Job: 7 Factors in Your Control,” HEALTHeCAREERS.com, July 11, 2012; archive.
(A) Excerpt: “The Kansas State Board of Education is making it easier to become a teacher […] On Tuesday, the State Board of Education unanimously approved regulations to allow schools to hire teachers without education degrees.”
Source: “Kansas Considers Hiring Teachers Without Education Degrees,” Kansas City Business Journal, June 4, 2014; archive.
(B) Excerpt: “[Teach for North Carolina is] the experienced teacher, the beginning teacher, the recent graduate of a college/university teaching program. But we’re also looking beyond ‘traditional’ teaching professionals to individuals without education degrees, teacher training, and experience.”
Excerpt: “The State Board of Education [of Indiana] approved new rules Wednesday for teacher licensing that make it easier for college graduates without education degrees to get jobs in Indiana classrooms. […] Supporters of the new rules say they will make it easier to attract people with expertise in areas such as math and science to classrooms.”
Source: “State OKs Rules to License Teachers Without Education Degrees,” Associated Press, Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ.com), September 3, 2014; archive.
(A) There are several online courses, including coding bootcamps, that provide mentorships.
(B) A course provider named Tuts+ (pronounced “tuts plus”) has many courses where learners make projects in order to learn skills, including their Designing for Social Media Class in which students use Photoshop and Illustrator to create social media branding.
Excerpt: “We also learn in our garage, on the playground, or on the internet. The notion that learning should take place in a school setting, from 8am to 3pm, is counterproductive. Most learning can take place anywhere and at any time of the day.”
Source: “Rethinking Education, Part II : 15 Misconceptions About Education,” The Big Picture (GeoPolitics.us), December 2, 2010; archive.
Robert Talbert, “Two Big Mistakes in Thinking About Technology in Education,” The Chronicle (chronicle.com), June 27, 2012, archive.
(A) Excerpt: “Nearly 40 percent of working-aged Americans now hold a college degree, according to a report from the Lumina Foundation.”
Source: Kyla Calvert, “Percentage of Americans with College Degrees Rises, Paying for Degrees Tops Financial Challenges,” PBS News Hour, April 22, 2014; archive.
(B) Excerpt: “[In 2012], 33.5 percent of Americans ages 25 to 29 had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24.7 percent in 1995, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”
Source: Catherine Rampell, “Data Reveal a Rise in College Degrees Among Americans,” New York Times, June 12, 2013; archive.
(A) Joseph Rauch, “Ivory Tower Movie Review: How Higher Education is Failing,” SkilledUp.com; archive.
(B) Excerpt: “[Assumption:] Higher education is a public good that is financed principally by public monies.
New reality: Higher education is viewed as a private good, increasingly financed by and for an individuals’ benefit.”
Source: Darryl G Greer, “New Assumptions and New Solutions for Higher Education Reform” (PDF), Center for Higher Education Strategic Information and Governance (HESIG),The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, HESIG Working Paper #1, January 2013; archive.
(A) Lynn Olson, “Study Questions Reliability of Single-Year Test-Score Gains,” Education Week (EdWeek.org), May 23, 2001; archive.
(C) Valerie Strauss, “Five Bad Education Assumptions the Media Keeps Recycling,” Washington Post, August 29, 2013; archive.
(D) Valerie Strauss, “Five Absurdities About High-Stakes Standardized Tests,” Washington Post, August 6, 2013; archive.
John Dewey: “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
Author Perspective: Business | <urn:uuid:68abde82-1136-4a9d-afc3-c94df17af48f> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://evolllution.com/opinions/challenging-myths-education-learning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891815951.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20180224211727-20180224231727-00600.warc.gz | en | 0.941209 | 2,894 | 2.8125 | 3 |
One of Russell's key assertions is that science education – something that leaves much to be desired nearly a century later – is key to attaining a future of happiness and democracy:
For the first time in history, it is now possible, owing to the industrial revolution and its byproducts, to create a world where everybody shall have a reasonable chance of happiness. Physical evil can, if we choose, be reduced to very small proportions. It would be possible, by organization and science, to feed and house the whole population of the world, not luxuriously, but sufficiently to prevent great suffering. It would be possible to combat disease, and to make chronic ill-health very rare. … All this is of such immeasurable value to human life that we dare not oppress the sort of education which will tend to bring it about. in such an education, applied science will have to be the chief ingredient. Without physics and physiology and psychology, we cannot build the new world.
Still, Russell is sure to offer a disclaimer, advocating for the equal importance of the humanities, and asks:
What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?
Passionate beliefs produce either progress or disaster, not stability. Science, even when it attacks traditional beliefs, has beliefs of its own, and can scarcely flourish in an atmosphere of literary skepticism. … And without science, democracy is impossible.
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when wide-spread, produce social disaster.
In a later chapter, he considers another double-edged sword of dogmatic thinking:
It is a dangerous error to confound truth with matter-of-fact. Our life is governed not only by facts, but by hopes; the kind of truthfulness which sees nothing but facts is a prison for the human spirit.
In the immense majority of children, there is the raw material of a good citizen and also the raw material of a criminal.
The raw material of instinct is ethically neutral, and can be shaped either to good or evil by the influence of the environment.
Artwork: "Choosing Sides" by Owen Mortensen, courtesy my living room wall
In a related meditation, Russell articulates beautifully something ineffable yet essential, something we too frequently forget, of which a dear friend recently reminded me, and writes:
Construction and destruction alike satisfy the will to power, but construction is more difficult as a rule, and therefore gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it. … We construct when we increase the potential energy of the system in which we are interested, and we destroy when we diminish the potential energy. ... Whatever may be thought of these definitions, we all know in practice whether an activity is to be regarded as constructive or destructive, except in a few cases where a man professes to be destroying with a view to rebuilding and are not sure whether he is sincere.
The first beginnings of many virtues arise out of experiencing the joys of construction.
Those whose intelligence is adequate should be encouraged in using their imaginations to think out more productive ways of utilizing existing social forces or creating new ones.
I need to tell a story. It's an obsession. Each story is a seed inside of me that starts to grow and grow, like a tumor, and I have to deal with it sooner or later. Why a particular story? I don't know when I begin. That I learn much later. Over the years I've discovered that all the stories I've told, all the stories I will ever tell, are connected to me in some way. If I'm talking about a woman in Victorian times who leaves the safety of her home and comes to the Gold Rush in California, I'm really talking about feminism, about liberation, about the process I've gone through in my own life, escaping from a Chilean, Catholic, patriarchal, conservative, Victorian family and going out into the world.
It's so important for me, finding the precise word that will create a feeling or describe a situation. I'm very picky about that because it's the only material we have: words. But they are free. No matter how many syllables they have: free! You can use as many as you want, forever.
In fact, her style is deeply reminiscent of beloved French-Cuban writer Anaïs Nin's – and Allende herself offers a beautiful hypothesis about a common thread:
I try to write beautifully, but accessibly. In the romance languages, Spanish, French, Italian, there's a flowery way of saying things that does not exist in English. My husband says he can always tell when he gets a letter in Spanish: the envelope is heavy. In English a letter is a paragraph. You go straight to the point. In Spanish that's impolite. Reading in English, living in English, has taught me to make language as beautiful as possible, but precise. Excessive adjectives, excessive description – skip it, it's unnecessary. Speaking English has made my writing less cluttered. I try to read House of the Spirits now, and I can't. Oh my God, so many adjectives! Why? Just use one good noun instead of three adjectives.
I start all my books on January eighth. Can you imagine January seventh? It's hell. Every year on January seventh, I prepare my physical space. I clean up everything from my other books. I just leave my dictionaries, and my first editions, and the research materials for the new one. And then on January eighth I walk seventeen steps from the kitchen to the little pool house that is my office. It's like a journey to another world. It's winter, it's raining usually. I go with my umbrella and the dog following me. From those seventeen steps on, I am in another world and I am another person. I go there scared. And excited. And disappointed – because I have a sort of idea that isn't really an idea. The first two, three, four weeks are wasted. I just show up in front of the computer. Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn't show up invited, eventually she just shows up.
Like Neil Gaiman, who famously advised to "keep moving" because "perfection is like chasing the horizon," Allende shares a cautionary observation:
I correct to the point of exhaustion, and then finally I say I give up. It's never quite finished, and I suppose it could always be better, but I do the best I can. In time, I've learned to avoid overcorrecting. When I got my first computer and I realized how easy it was to change things ad infinitum, my style became very stiff.
But her most profound test of creative resilience came from deeply untethering personal tragedy:
My daughter, Paula, died on December 6, 1992. On January 7, 1993, my mother said, 'Tomorrow is January eighth. If you don't write, you're going to die.' She gave me the 180 letters I'd written to her while Paula was in a coma, and then she went to Macy's. When my mother came back six hours later, I was in a pool of tears, but I'd written the first pages of Paula. Writing is always giving some sort of order to the chaos of life. It organizes life and memory. To this day, the responses of the readers help me to feel my daughter alive.
Turning an eye towards the future of storytelling, Allende advocates for medium-agnosticism, reminding us that a great story will always be a great story, wherever it lives – so long as it lives in the heart:
Storytelling and literature will exist always, but what shape will it take? Will we write novels to be performed? The story will exist, but how, I don't know. The way my stories are told today is by being published in the form of a book. In the future, if that's not the way to tell a story, I'll adapt.
She ends with three pieces of advice for aspiring writers:
It's worth the work to find the precise word that will create a feeling or describe a situation. Use a thesaurus, use your imagination, scratch your head until it comes to you, but find the right word.
When you feel the story is beginning to pick up rhythm—the characters are shaping up, you can see them, you can hear their voices, and they do things that you haven't planned, things you couldn't have imagined—then you know the book is somewhere, and you just have to find it, and bring it, word by word, into this world.
When you tell a story in the kitchen to a friend, it's full of mistakes and repetitions. It's good to avoid that in literature, but still, a story should feel like a conversation. It's not a lecture.
Allende's moving 2007 TED talk will give you an even deeper appreciation for her singular approach to storytelling.
In a recent episode of her fantastic Design Matters show, Debbie Millman talks to Blackall about the difference between an artist and an illustrator, what makes children's storytelling particularly exciting, the origin and afterlife of the missed connections project, and more. The interview is excellent in its entirety, but here are some favorite excerpts:
SB: I think children are pretty subversive creatures.
DM: It's interesting: It's subversive in the way that The Wizard of Oz is subversive – there's a subtext. And that subtext has to do with love, and longing, and loss, and pain. But I guess, for me, there seems to be an innate optimism that doesn't feel dark – yes, there's darkness in the work, but I always get the sense that the light overcomes that darkness. … You can create a brush stroke that somehow defines wistfulness. But in that ability to see that wistfulness, I can't help but feel understood – which … then gives me a great sense of joy.
The [missed connections] listings were intriguing because they mixed the natural desire to make a first impression and the very human need to get a second chance.
But the most tender, moving, and poetic of the stories will stop your breath:
The Whale at Coney Island
– M4M – 69
A young friend of mine recently acquainted me with the intricacies of Missed Connections, and I have decided to try to find you one final time.
Many years ago, we were friends and teachers together in New York City. Perhaps we could have been lovers too, but we were not. We used to take trips to Coney Island, especially during the spring, when we would stroll hand in hand, until our palms got too sweaty, along the boardwalk, and take refuge in the cool darkness of the aquarium. We liked to visit the whale best. One spring, it arrived from its winter home (in Florida? I can't remember) pregnant. Everyone at the aquarium was very excited – a baby beluga whale was going to be born in New York City! You insisted that we not miss the birth, so every day after class, and on both Saturday and Sunday, we would take the D train all the way from Harlem to Coney Island.
We got there one Saturday as the aquarium opened and there was a sign posted to the glass tank. The baby beluga had been born dead. The mother, the sign read, was recovering but would be fine. We read the sign in shock and watched the single beluga whale in her tank. She was circling slowly. Neither of us could speak. Suddenly, without warning, the beluga started to throw herself against the wall of the tank. Trainers came and ushered us out. We sat on a bench outside, and suddenly I felt tears running down my face. You saw, turned my face towards yours, and kissed me. We had never kissed before, and I let my lips linger on yours for a second before I stood up and walked towards the ocean.
It was too much – the whale, the death, the kiss – and I wasn't ready.
Forgive me – I don't think I ever understood what an emptiness you would create when you left and I realized that that kiss on Coney Island was the first and the last.
Are you out there, dear friend?
If so, please respond. I think of you, and have thought of you often, all of these years.
What's so cute about an animal that loves absolutely nothing, makes your house smell terrible, and has a brain the size of an under-developed kidney bean? At last, a book that dares to answer these and other feline questions with the sane and sensible answer:
Ailurophobia is, dictionarily speaking, a fear of cats. But words have a way of gradually sliding their meanings into something else, and ailurophobia is now accepted as meaning a strong dislike of the animals. Ailurophobes abound. Quiet cat-haters are everywhere. Often, a casual remark that I was doing anti-cat research would bring sparkle to the eyes of strangers. Firm bonds of friendship were immediately established. Mute lips were unsealed, and a delightful flow of long-repressed invective transpired. It was heart warming to find that what I thought would be a lonely crusade is truly a great popular cause.
What you'll find, of course, is that underpinning Ungerer's delightfully irreverent illustrations and Cole's subversive writing is self-derision rather than cat-derision as this cat-hater's handbook reveals itself as a cat-lover's self-conscious and defiant love letter to the messy, unruly, all-consuming, but ultimately deeply fulfilling relationship with one's loyal feline friend.
Bringing you Brain Pickings takes lots of time, thought, and resources each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Member and supporting with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner:You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount: | <urn:uuid:122f701e-54bb-4a59-b866-6f38bbc78c19> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://intelart.blogspot.com/2013/02/bertrand-russell-on-education-and-good.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814105.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20180222120939-20180222140939-00091.warc.gz | en | 0.969153 | 3,106 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Concrete structures may need regular maintenance procedures, such as resurfacing or patching, especially when they have superficial cracks or erosion problems. However, when the surface of the concrete is too damaged, you will probably need to replace the entire piece of concrete immediately. You need to hire a professional expert, like Apex, for any concrete replacement on your property.
Some conditions that require you to have a complete concrete replacement include sunken concrete slabs, frost damages on the concrete surface, deep cracks, construction additions, severely damaged concrete surface, faulty concrete, etc. Some of these concrete issues require you to replace the whole concrete slab immediately. The concrete needs to be demolished when it is completely damaged.
Some Methods of Concrete Demolition
This bursting method can be done chemically or mechanically. Holes are going to be drilled into the concrete. Then, the lateral forces are applied to the concrete.
In the mechanical bursting method, the concrete is split with a powerful hydraulic pressure machine. In the chemical bursting, the concrete will be split with an expansive slurry. Once the concrete is spit, it can be removed by hand manually or with a crane.
Pneumatic and Hydraulic Breaker
This method is usually used in any demolition projects for destroying any pavement, bridge decks, or other properties. The complexity of this method will strongly depend on the concrete strength, the steel reinforcement, the hammer, and also the working conditions.
Machine-mounted breakers will perform demolitions in the range of 100 – 20,000 foot-pounds with 300 – 800 blows every minute. Some breakers are also designed for underwater demolition.
Ball and Crane Method
This is one of the oldest concrete demolition methods. In this method, a crane will use a 13,500 + pound wrecking ball to start demolishing the concrete structure. The ball will be dropped or swung to the concrete structure. Only professional and high-skilled operators can perform this ball and crane concrete demolition.
Concrete can be demolished easily with this method. However, this method will produce a lot of noises, vibrations, and dust. There are many factors that will determine the success rate of this demolition process, such as the crane size, the working area, and the proximity to the nearest power lines.
Explosives can also be used to destroy large volumes of concrete. They are usually inserted in some predefined boreholes on the concrete structure. They will cause the whole structure to break into several small pieces. This method is flexible and versatile, but it will result in damage around the building.
Before you can perform this method, you need to have permits from the local governments or authorities for performing this concrete demolition process. There are some requirements that you need to follow, so you can perform this method safely.
This is another common method that can be used to demolish concrete structures. The concrete structure can be cut with a saw, thermal lance, or high-speed water jets. The concrete pieces will be removed by the crane. Therefore, the complete demolition process will result in less noise and dust.
This method doesn’t put a lot of impact on the surroundings. This method is very beneficial, especially when the building structures are being removed completely. Some building portions, such as walls or slabs, need to be removed before this concrete dismantling process can be done.
Those are some concrete demolition methods that are popular among many contractors today. Concrete demolition can be necessary in some situations, for example, major renovation projects or heavily damaged concrete. Each method has its own benefits and disadvantages for all people. Therefore, you have to take a look at all available methods before you decide to choose the best demolishing service for your needs.
For any concrete services in North Carolina, contact Apex Concrete & Hauling today! | <urn:uuid:c81bddc8-41bf-4ee2-9970-70b744e39c41> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://apexconcreteservice.com/the-process-of-concrete-demolition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711552.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20221209213503-20221210003503-00369.warc.gz | en | 0.931052 | 790 | 2.578125 | 3 |
A New York Times Bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.
In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. According to historian Joseph Ellis, Alexander Hamilton is “a robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.”
Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.
Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.
Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.
“Nobody has captured Hamilton better than Chernow” —The New York Times Book Review
Building on biographies by Richard Brookhiser and Willard Sterne Randall, Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton provides what may be the most comprehensive modern examination of the often overlooked Founding Father. From the start, Chernow argues that Hamilton’s premature death at age 49 left his record to be reinterpreted and even re-written by his more long-lived enemies, among them: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe. Hamilton’s achievements as first Secretary of the Treasury, co-author of The Federalist Papers, and member of the Constitutional Convention were clouded after his death by strident claims that he was an arrogant, self-serving monarchist. Chernow delves into the almost 22,000 pages of letters, manuscripts, and articles that make up Hamilton’s legacy to reveal a man with a sophisticated intellect, a romantic spirit, and a late-blooming religiosity.
One fault of the book, is that Chernow is so convinced of Hamilton’s excellence that his narrative sometimes becomes hagiographic. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chernow’s account of the infamous duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. He describes Hamilton’s final hours as pious, while Burr, Jefferson, and Adams achieve an almost cartoonish villainy at the news of Hamilton’s passing.
A defender of the union against New England secession and an opponent of slavery, Hamilton has a special appeal to modern sensibilities. Chernow argues that in contrast to Jefferson and Washington’s now outmoded agrarian idealism, Hamilton was "the prophet of the capitalist revolution" and the true forebear of modern America. In his Prologue, he writes: "In all probability, Alexander Hamilton is the foremost figure in American history who never attained the presidency, yet he probably had a much deeper and more lasting impact than many who did." With Alexander Hamilton, this impact can now be more widely appreciated. --Patrick O'Kelley | <urn:uuid:1da415fa-7c95-4b3b-bce0-b119a254b4db> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://allbestbook.com/product/alexander-hamilton/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125947033.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424174351-20180424194351-00013.warc.gz | en | 0.948012 | 986 | 2.5625 | 3 |
In California and throughout western North America, signs of a changing climate are evident. During the last 50 years, winter and spring temperatures have been warmer, spring snow levels in lower- and mid-elevation mountains have dropped, snowpack has been melting one to four weeks earlier, and flowers are blooming one to two weeks earlier.
These regional changes are consistent with global trends. During the past 100 years, average temperatures have risen more than one degree Farenheit worldwide. California's climate is expected to become considerably warmer during this century—how much warmer depends on the rate at which human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, continue.
This new summary report highlights the latest scientific projections for how a global warming-induced warmer climate may impact California. These projections, based on state-of-the-art climate models, indicate that if global warming emissions proceed at a medium to high rate, temperatures are expected to rise 4.7 to 10.5 degrees F by the end of the century. In contrast, a lower emissions rate would keep the projected warming to 3 to 5.6 degrees F.
These temperature increases would have widespread consequences including substantial loss of snowpack, increased risk of large wildfires, and reductions in the quality and quantity of certain agricultural products. The growing severity of the consequences as temerpature rises underscores the importance of reducing emissions to minimize further warming. | <urn:uuid:12ef8193-1181-4441-b0db-2580a20c1e89> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/our-changing-climate-assessing-risks-california | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347399830.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200528170840-20200528200840-00585.warc.gz | en | 0.945847 | 282 | 4.3125 | 4 |
Hubungan antara Asupan Karbohidrat dan Lemak dengan Kadar Trigliserida pada Pesenam Aerobik Wanita
Background: A long-standing association exists between elevated triglyceride levels and coronary heart disease (CHD). High consumption of fat and carbohydrate influences enhancement of triglycerides level. Sport can reduce cholesterol and triglycerides level.
Objective: This research aims to analyze relationship between carbohydrates and fat intakes with triglycerides level on female aerobic gymnasts.
Method: This is an observational research using cross sectional research design which was held in Miracle Gymnasium on February17- 18th 2017. 30 subjects were selected as subject because fulfill the requirement (older than 20 years and have willingness to be a
subjects). Research variable areintakes of carbohydrate, fat, and triglyceride levels.
Result: Result shows 53.3% subjects have high level of carbohydrate and fat intakes followed by 20% subjects with high level of triglycerides. Subjects with high level of carbohydrate, fat intakes and high triglyceride level are 28%. Subjects withsufficient carbohydrate, fat intakes and high triglyceride level are 12.5%.Fisher’s exact test was done to prove hypothesis with results there is no significant relationship between carbohydrate and fat intake with triglyceride level.
Conclusions: Subjects with high carbohydrate and fat intake is 53.3% and 20% subjects have high triglyceride level. Relationship
between carbohydrate and fat intake with triglyceride level on female aerobic gymnasts is not significant (p>0.05).
Keywords: Intake, Carbohydrate, Fat, Aerobic Gymnasts, Triglyceride | <urn:uuid:bcfa995e-ec61-4ecc-8940-ca4bb3dd3ce4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.nutrisiajournal.com/index.php/JNUTRI/article/view/15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337360.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002212623-20221003002623-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.833685 | 341 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Born in Australia to English parents who owned an export and packing business, at the age of two Bateman’s family returned to England. Bateman studied at the Westminster School of Art, Goldsmith’s College at New Cross, and with Charles van Havenmaet. His first cartoons appeared in The Royal Magazine and The Tatler. He began contributing to Punch Magazine in 1906, and in 1912 did a weekly series of sketches for the theatre page of the Sketch. Prior to the First World War, Bateman belonged to the London Sketch Club, who would meet to sketch and discuss sketches. Advertiser’s Weekly noted that Bateman’s work was ideally suited for double-crown posters as the work was dependent upon detail, ‘the exact expression on a face, the objects on a dressing-table’, etc. At the age of 21 he had to decide between comic art work or full-time painting. Advertiser’s Weekly considered Bateman’s decision to continue with cartoons as important, although his work would have not been as familiar to advertising students as David Langdon or Bert Thomas, despite previous work for Guinness and Lloyd’s Bondman Tobacco.Invalided out of the First World War in 1915, having spent time with the London Regiment, Bateman became known for his cartoons for Punch. In the twenties and thirties Bateman made his name through The Tatler, The Sketch and The Bystander, specialising in the depiction of angry outrage caused by anti-social or unthinking behaviour: ‘His cartoons, typified in The Man Who… series, depict with frenzied exaggeration the uproar caused by social bloomers.’ Between the wars he worked on film and poster advertisements for firms such as Lucky Strike, Guinness, and Moss Bros. Bateman is described as one of the first graphic artists to adopt a cinematic approach. One critic argued that the Bateman episodic format was “closely parallelled in the silent movie, such as the slow build up to a climax or denouement, and a new emphasis on gesture and facial expression”. In the Second World War, Bateman designed posters for the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Air Production, and the Ministry of Health, including his most famous posters: ‘Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases’. Bateman published several books including A Book of Drawings (1921), More Drawings (1922), Bateman(1931) The Art of Caricature (1936) and On the Move in England (1940). Henry Mayo Bateman died in 1970.
Information taken from: ‘Henry M. Bateman’, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTbateman.htm; Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981, p.20; ‘Herbert Mayo Bateman’, Poster Database, London Transport Museum; ‘Artist Who Got A Poster Idea While Running for a Bus’, Advertiser’s Weekly, April 13 1944, p.44; Farman, J.,http://www.galleryonthegreen.co.uk/mainfiles/sketch/history.htm; Caption on exhibit E.158-1973, displayed at the Power of the Poster exhibition, held at the V&A, 1997.
Bateman’s most famous drawing “The Man Who…” series of social gaffes and faux pas first appeared in “Tatler” in 1912. Working in pencil, pen, ink and water-colour, he was a master of the cartoon story without words. “The Prion Cartoon Classics” are an on-going series show-casing the finest and funniest comic cartoonists of the 20th century from Britain, Europe and the United States. (Taken from Amazon)Jensen, J. (ed.), The Man Who…and Other Drawings, 1975/1991; The Best of H.M. Bateman, 1987; The Man Who Was H. M. Bateman, 1982; Bateman, H.M., H.M. Bateman by Himself, 1937; Bateman, M., The Man Who Drew the Twentieth Century, 1969.
Related Links:H.M. Bateman, Cartoonist | <urn:uuid:226bc681-6875-4577-8c87-aa08254353f8> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://ww2poster.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400379520.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123259-00114-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934755 | 912 | 2.640625 | 3 |
As friends, partners, and parents we tend to be empathetic, supportive, and encouraging towards loved ones, especially in times of need. However, we tend to neglect ourselves of that same consideration. On the contrary, we often speak to ourselves worse than we would speak to someone we didn’t like.
What is self-compassion?
Increased attention is being paid by psychologists to the concept of ‘self-compassion’; how kindly we relate to ourselves. Having compassion for others involves being aware of the suffering, feeling moved by it, and offering understanding and kindness, as opposed to harsh judgement or criticism. Having compassion for ourselves is really no different. Dr. Kristin Neff, a pioneer in the field, describes the act of self-compassion as relating to oneself as though you are your own ideal mother; with love, care, kindness, and empathy. When you are distressed, ask yourself how you would respond to a loved one going through the same pain, and then try to respond to yourself in a similar manner.
Self-compassion differs in a number of ways to self-esteem but most importantly, self-compassion regards the way we relate to ourselves as opposed to the way we judge ourselves. But what if you don’t feel compassionate towards yourself? Just as you can go to work despite not feeling like it, or act lovingly towards a family member despite not feeling lovingly, you can act compassionately towards yourself regardless of how you feel. Due to the fact that self-compassion involves responding to yourself with kindness regardless of your performance, Dr Neff states that self-compassion “steps in at the very time that self-esteem lets you down”.
Dr. Neff reports that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. However, criticism has been shown to undermine motivation, leading to decreased performance. We know that criticising someone who has made a mistake is unlikely to be helpful and yet, this is the very way we tend to respond to ourselves. Self-compassion on the other hand, has been demonstrated to be highly conducive to motivation. When we act caringly towards ourselves, we are more likely to do what’s healthy rather than what’s harmful, for ourselves. Consequently, people who score more highly on measures of self-compassion have lower levels of depression and anxiety. Preliminary data is also starting to demonstrate the same link between self-compassion and weight loss.
While Neff herself admits that it is “..hard to unlearn habits of a lifetime,” she reports that people can learn to be more compassionate towards themselves through practise. Next time you experience distress, ask yourself how you would respond to a loved one experiencing the same pain and then try to apply that same treatment to yourself. For other exercises to develop your ability to respond compassionately towards yourself, visit www.self-compassion.org | <urn:uuid:6f69f885-fd03-405b-bac6-a04c501da532> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.lilleyplace.com.au/self-compassion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989874.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20210518222121-20210519012121-00423.warc.gz | en | 0.976208 | 620 | 2.96875 | 3 |
June 5, 2015
Plantago major L. Plantaginaceae (Plantain family)
Rosette-forming simple perennial.
All leaves originate from a basal rosette. Cotyledons are long and spatula-shaped. Leaves are generally smooth and broadly to narrowly oval, with parallel veins and smooth to slightly wavy leaf margins. Leaf base tapers to a distinct petiole. Petioles are usually green but occasionally pale pink.
Broadleaf plantain rosette.
No visible aboveground stem. Short taproot present.
Flowers and fruit
Leafless stalks bear long, dense, cylindershaped flowering spikes and fruit resembling a rat tail. Single flowers are inconspicuous. Fruiting capsules yield many narrowly oval, usually glossy brown seeds.
Broadleaf plantain flowering spikes.
Broadleaf plantain seedling.
Blackseed plantain (P. rugelii Dcne.)
Differs by often having dark red to purple petioles, usually wavy leaf margins and dull dark brown to black seeds.
Print a PDF of this page: Broadleaf plantain | <urn:uuid:7f8e7647-19ca-4042-bccd-4e3ae1408455> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/broadleaf_plantain2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590348492295.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20200604223445-20200605013445-00569.warc.gz | en | 0.832552 | 235 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The new “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” initiative by NASA and various American institutions along with the Zooniverse platform was announced to allow anyone connected to the Internet to participate in the search for the ninth planet of the solar system. You can connect to the project’s website, examine images captured by the WISE space telescope and report any moving objects.
NASA launched the “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” initiative together with UC Berkeley, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Arizona State University in Tempe, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and Zooniverse, a collaboration that includes scientists, software developers and educators who run scientific projects involving citizen scientists.
In the case of “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” it’s a research that has recently received much publicity. The possibility that a hitherto unknown planet beyond Neptune exists has been so far only a hypothesis, based on deductions connected to the orbits of some Kuiper Belt objects, which is precisely the area of the solar system beyond Neptune. Just over a year ago the publication of an article on the subject in the journal “The Astronomical Journal” spurred new hopes about the ninth planet and the searches intensified.
According to the authors of that article, the ninth planet has a mass that is about 10 times that of Earth, meaning a planet similar to Uranus or Neptune. It should be about 20 times further from the Sun than Neptune and this is the reason why it’s never been seen so far.
However, all this is the result of mathematical models and computer simulations, not observations. In fact, its existence with its gravitational influence is a possible explanation to the orbits of some Kuiper belt objects but our information about them might still be insufficient to explain them properly.
In this situation of doubt, one of the most solid possibilities to gather new information consists in examining images of the sky. NASA’s WISE space telescope was an exoplanet hunter but after the end of its original mission it was repurposed for a new one in pursuit of closer objects, even within the solar system.
The exam that can be carried out by the collaborators is carried out on flipbooks, short animations consisting of a image sequences of a portion of sky taken at different times. The examiners, whether they’re professional astronomers or a simple fans, might notice a moving object and report it for more detailed studies. On the “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” project website anyone can try to locate an object that could be a brown dwarf or planet 9.
In recent years many scientific projects of very different types relied on crowdsourcing by inviting web surfers to collaborate in various ways. Even the latest machine learning algorithms require training periods that can be long to be used in a specific type of research where a human being can start working on it in a useful way after a few minutes of reading instruction and attempts.
In short, you too can participate in this research and hope to be the lucky discoverer of the mysterious ninth planet. Its existence is controversial and there are various hypotheses around it such as the possibility that it’s a planet that was born in another solar system and captured later. In any case, it’s an interesting research that may involve many people. | <urn:uuid:c4ebc990-7903-493f-a0fe-f9a710d58de6> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://english.netmassimo.com/2017/02/21/a-website-where-anyone-can-search-for-planet-9/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039745522.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20181119084944-20181119110944-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.941483 | 678 | 3.671875 | 4 |
I have been playing around with a program called Sim-On-A-Stick which allows you to create virtual worlds on a flash drive. These can then be shared with a class, to give students a virtual space to learn in. You have to download OpenSimulator as well, and a viewer which will allow you to connect to your sim-on-a-stick! All of this is not for the faint-hearted, but there are step-by-step guides to help you navigate all of this geekiness!
Once installed properly you can begin building a virtual world. This also has quite a steep learning curve, but I had my teenage son on hand to give me a few pointers. Again there are plenty of how to videos to help out if you don’t have a teenage son spare! A few years ago I explored Second Life to see what value it might have for me as a teacher. I was impressed by the obvious benefits for language teachers in particular, but underwhelmed by the experience. For language teachers surely Skype offers more chance to get together with students or distance lessons.
The cost also put me off as did the proscription against under 18 year olds! Using Sim-On-A-Stick, however, age concerns go away. Although one use of a virtual environment is to display material via links to websites, or create physical worlds to explore as a virtual museum, if you like, to my mind the most exciting option is to use the virtual world as a space to allow students to construct representations of, say, the Colosseum in Ancient Rome, or a typical Medieval town! It thus has similar properties to Minecraft. You could even get students to build a large walk inside computer!
I have to say that at the moment the technology is such that I think the benefits for education are limited, but it does make for an interesting idea for a project, and gives students something different to do, which is always a plus!
It is great fun using Sim-On-A-Stick, and I would certainly recommend playing around with it. | <urn:uuid:f2a0f5c0-4f01-4607-86a0-5b6642c3ce64> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://digiteacher.wordpress.com/category/virtual-reality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886103891.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817170613-20170817190613-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.970837 | 427 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Dr. David Clarke shares the story of the popular astronomer who orchestrated some flying saucer hoaxes in his career and believed that mysterious sightings had normal explanations.
The death of Sir Patrick Moore, at the age of 89, is a sad loss to astronomy and for all those who grew up with his iconic BBC programme The Sky at Night.
In his autobiography 80 Not Out, Moore credited his appearance on an obscure BBC television programme ‘Flying Saucers – do they exist?’ in 1956 as the launch pad for his career as Britain’s favourite TV astronomer…
Clark goes on to explain Moore’s interest in UFOlogy could be traced back to a 1950s interview involving famous alien contactee George Adamski (Flying Saucers Have Landed) for the BBC program Panorama. Adamski claimed he met with a beautiful alien from Venus.
To demonstrate how easy it was to write fairytales about visitors from other worlds, Patrick produced his own spoof novel, Flying Saucer from Mars. Written under the pseudonym Cedric Allingham, it claimed the author had witnessed the landing of a UFO in Scotland in 1954 and that he was taken on board and whisked around the solar system.
The book made quite a splash. He also admitted to concocting a hoax sighting reported to a newspaper.
Many astronomers, as did Moore, with their eyes to the skies, would dearly like to see actual alien craft. If anyone would know about them, they certainly would. And even though there are unidentified aerial phenomena still reported, that in no way equates to being visited from extraterrestrials or entities from other dimensions. The evidence is just not there.
More on Moore from BBC. | <urn:uuid:b3de9a3d-fa28-4c7f-a4b8-12c16b25e991> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/12/a-career-launched-by-ufos-astronomer-sir-patrick-moore-had-died/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246654687.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045734-00055-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975947 | 347 | 2.65625 | 3 |
“Get your dirty pets all clean!”
iWash My Cats and iWash My Dogs follow the same format; young children are presented with some messy animals that need cleaning. First the domesticated beast is soaped, then rinsed, then dried, and then brushed. The apps are not incredibly educational, besides teaching the youngest of users that cleaning has steps and is important, even for Fido and Fifi.
“Virtual pet care for dog-loving tots”
A dirty dog must be soaped, rinsed, blown-dry, and brushed. Pre-school animal lovers will enjoy helping the puppy get cleaned up. The game is repetitive: tap on the soap, then "rub" the animated dog; tap the bucket of water, and rub the animated dog; tap the hairdryer, etc. When one dog is cleaned, there is an option to clean another dog. But preschoolers thrive on repetition, and this game will keep them occupied and entertained for longer than most!
Kids can get cartoon dogs sudsy, wet, fluffy, and groomed with this app's touch and swipe screens of various dogs and animated background types with voice and screen effect cues so learners can enjoy doggy time and develop hand/eye co-ordination.
This app is designed for very young children and directions are given verbally. A parent need only point out if a spot of fur is still dirty or wet. The app, with a child's help, will do the rest.
If your child enjoys this game, they might enjoy spending time with a real dog. They can also pretend to wash, dry and brush one of their stuffed animals (provide a hairdryer and brush to make it more fun), while you explain why domesticated animals need humans to care for them, while animals in the wild prefer their independence.
Parents and learners can discuss dog types, environments, and usefulness of care. | <urn:uuid:ab69e906-e2ca-4401-a640-752ee27ce779> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smartots.com/app/review/name/iWash-my-Dogs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709000375/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125640-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944483 | 402 | 2.921875 | 3 |
We were standing amidst the sounds and sights of the sea: the wind was in our hair, the waves boomed distantly, and the birds chirped incessantly. In front of us loomed the Shore Temple, a somber grey structure that immediately transported us to a different era in South Indian history. Behind the temple, the Bay of Bengal stretched in front of our eyes like a vast piece of blue green velvet draped across the horizon, dancing to the wind. Like all ancient monuments, but even more so because of the violent sea, the temple retained in its ruinous beauty, a sense of decaying grandeur, as if time, like termites, was eating away at its existential foundations. It had lost the original intent behind its construction and become that ubiquitous national commodity, a heritage site.
“The 1300-year old Shore Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has a glorious history”, said my companion, local tourist guide P.Natarajan. The antiquity of this temple can be judged by the fact that to a European sailor floundering in the choppy waters of the Bay of Bengal in the 9th century AD, the shimmering vision of the Seven Pagodas of Mammalapuram – of which one, The Shore Temple, survives today – would have been a reassuring sight indeed. For this sight has been familiar to Western seafarers for centuries – who mistook the principal vimanas for Buddhist pagodas – as an Oriental navigational landmark that assured a profitable trade in cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and other spices. Though the exact reason for the submergence and eventual disappearance of the temples is still shrouded in mystery, archaeologists consider a 13th century tsunami that lashed India’s eastern coast to be partly responsible. Tamil texts written in the 8th century AD by Thirumangai Alvar describe the Pallava port town of Mammalapuram in glowing terms as Sea Mountain “where the ships rode at anchor bent to point of breaking laden as they were with wealth, big trunked elephants and gems of nine varieties in heaps”.
As this reporter de-boarded the bus, it was clear that things were different now. The ancient port of Mammalapuram is now Mahabalipuram, a quaint tourist town by the sea. The only ships departing from the shore are fishermen boats. A mere 5 kms away lies the nuclear reactor of Kalpakkam. The grey silhouettes of the giant reactor make for an alien image in this temple town. Only the central stepped village tank located outside the Shore Temple complex – abandoned and covered by a film of dense algae – conjures images of Mammalapuram of yore when temple chants must have reverberated through the halls of the Pallava kings and townspeople must have congregated around the tank to exchange pleasantries.
The sole seaside witness to this magnificent past, the majestic Shore Temple is composed of three temples, two large and one small, constructed by Narsimhavarman II of the Pallava dynasty, who ruled from Kanchipuram sixty kilometers away in the 8th century AD. It is a five-storied structural temple – and one of the earliest structural temples built in South India – which means that the temple is composed of several sculpted granite blocks stacked on top of each other. This is in contrast to the tradition of rock-cut temples – the art of carving structures out of solid natural rock – that dominated South Indian temple architecture. Natarajan said, “In contrast to its present grey hue, originally, a gleaming white coating of lime, calcium and jaggery was applied on the granite blocks. The white flakes can still be seen in some places but in most places the violent sea and the salt-laden winds have eroded it.”
The temple houses shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma indicating the various sects within Hinduism that the rulers had to appease. The shrines are encircled by a perambulation passage (pradakshinapatha) lined with bass-relief sculptures and rock-cut idols of Durga and Ganesha. The sanctum sanctorum facing the east has Shiva represented as Somaskanda – idols of Shiva, Parvati, infant Kartikeya resting on the lap of Parvati and a smaller idol of Vishnu in the background. The entrance to the shrine has two idols of Ganesha – the younger son of Shiva – and the customary figures of the doorkeepers or dwarapalas. The shrine dedicated to Vishnu has him in the Seshasayi position – reclining on his serpent Seshanag with the elbow supporting the head. Encircling the temple are monolithic Nandi figures – flattened, blurry figurines that still retain a vague resemblance to bull-like figures – originally numbering three-hundred but now reduced to sixty due to continual battering by the sea. Another shrine contains a massive 4.5 ft tall lingam made of polished black granite that the Pallavas imported from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Natarajan told this reporter, “This was originally 9 ft. tall but was vandalized by successive generations of Muslim rulers to its present size.”
The 2004 tsunami that struck the Tamil Nadu coast is a traumatic memory for everybody in Mammalapuram. “The water came in right until the market area. All shops were destroyed. Five people were killed. Eventually the government had to construct a new market to rehabilitate the displaced shopkeepers”, said flower-vendor Subhashini whose family has stayed in Mammalapuram for generations.
However, the tsunami also dug out some secrets about the Shore Temple right from under the sea. For a few moments before the massive wave struck and the water receded, the tops of the temples buried inside the sea emerged. Also, a statue of varaha Vishnu was found beside the temple after the tsunami. “The tsunami also led to the discovery of an underground tunnel from Mammalapuram to Kanchipuram, the Pallava capital fifty five kilometers away”, said Natarajan. Another offering by the volatile sea was a bass-relief Vishnu idol, dubbed ‘tsunami temple’ by the locals, that now sits pretty on the beach adjoining the Shore Temple complex after spending centuries underwater. These discoveries led to a fresh ‘wave’ of archaeological speculation and boosted the intensity of excavation efforts in Mammalapuram.
There have been some efforts by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conserve this precariously located heritage monument. In the 1970s when the ASI first took charge of the Shore Temple, the continual beating of the waves and the salt-laden winds had led to the temple being virtually saturated with sea-salts. The granite blocks were being powdered by the impact of the waves and there was no end to this perennial degradation. Natarajan told this reporter, “In 1982, Indira Gandhi led government ordered ASI to install the protective rock structure around the temple to prevent degradation by the sea.” ASI installed a groyne-wall made up of huge blocks of stone surrounding the temple. It also grew casuarinas trees on the fault lines of the groyne-wall to break the wind speed. After these efforts, the waves of the sea do not wash the base of the temple anymore. It also undertakes periodical paper-pulp treatment for the removal of soluble salts in the temple rock.
The Pallava rulers of Mammalapuram undoubtedly meant the Shore Temple to be an audacious challenge to the authority of the Gods and as a barometer to measure the immortality of their feats. It remains to be seen how long the Gods choose to be kind in return. | <urn:uuid:b6dcb2ca-415c-4ae5-8bca-5dc6f4ad7d09> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://rajatu.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/the-shore-temple-a-faded-memory-in-stone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806543.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122084446-20171122104446-00681.warc.gz | en | 0.958555 | 1,623 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Designing a next generation free-flying autonomous robot [see Figure 1], scheduled to be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017, is no trivial task. The NASA Astrobee will serve as a robotic assistant to offload routine, repetitive, but long-duration and CPU-intensive tasks and replace a legacy and older free-flying robot.
Challenges in building the Astrobee avionics
The Astrobee has subsystems for structure, propulsion, power, guidance, navigation and control (GN&C), command and data handling (C&DH), thermal control, communications, docking mechanism, and a perching arm . As seen in the block diagram in Figure-2 , the avionics provides computation and communication resources for the Astrobee. The three compute platforms are the low- [LLP], mid- [MLP], and high-level-processor [HLP], which are configured to perform specific functions.
The bake-off to pick the right compute platform Continue reading Inforce 6501 Micro SOM Beats Five Other Vendor Products in a Bake-off | <urn:uuid:c55e5a7d-708e-4dc3-99b1-19b14b9c943a> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | http://www.inforcecomputing.com/blog/tag/nasa-astrobee-free-flying-robot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735906.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20200805010001-20200805040001-00036.warc.gz | en | 0.870923 | 219 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Dr. Manuel Díaz-Apiroz from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Dr. Carlos Fernandez from Universidad de Huelva, Dr. Dyanna Czeck from UWM, and UWM Geosciences graduate student Sheryl Stephenson smile before embarking on a journey to gather rock samples at an ancient tectonic boundary in southern Spain. Photo courtesy of Dyanna Czeck.
In southern Spain, in a region more famous for its delicious iberico ham than its rocks, sits a tectonic boundary nearly 400 million years old. It was formed when two tectonic plates collided, breaking rocks at the earth’s surface and squishing them together beneath it.
UWM Geosciences professor Dyanna Czeck thinks this boundary might be the key to understanding how fluids move through rock during this type of collision.
“What we’re looking at in particular is how the rocks deformed and particularly how any kind of fluid moved along that zone and caused them to form differently,” Czeck said. “We’re looking at the chemistry of the samples that will give us some clues about what the fluid was like at the time that they were part of this boundary.”
Fluid movement through deforming rock is a relatively unexplored field. While Czeck and her assistants, graduate student Sheryl Stephenson and undergraduates Dulce Hernandez-Blanchard and Nancy Duque, are looking at ancient rocks, their study could have some modern-day implications.
“When we’re trying to understand where rocks are strong and where rocks are weak, a big component of that is fluid. We as scientists actually know very little about fluid dynamics through sheer zones,” Czeck said. “Fluids can make the rocks squishier, weaker, but they can also increase the local stress in the rock and cause fractures to occur, leading to earthquakes. Understanding why earthquakes happen, where they happen in the crust, and how fluids affect the strength of the rocks is a really big deal.”
To study the movement of fluid, Czeck and Stephenson journeyed to southern Spain in January to gather rock samples along the tectonic boundary. Traveling primarily along roadways where construction crews had blasted through the rock surface, they hiked up to five miles a day, carting all kinds of samples back and forth.
Today in Czeck’s lab, the group has formed a kind of model fault line: The rock samples are spread over two tables. The gap between the table tops represents the fault and the rocks, lined up in neat rows, correspond to the location they were gathered from – some close to the tectonic boundary, others from farther away.
The samples range from hard, chunky stones to rocks that practically crumble to powder when touched, and everything in between.
Unfortunately, the Geosciences Department’s rock-crusher was only recently repaired, so Duque and Hernandez-Blanchard ground many of the rock samples down to powder by hand. The powder is turned into small discs that can be examined using x-ray fluorescence to determine which elements are present in the rock.
By examining those elements in rocks closer to and farther away from the tectonic boundary, Czeck will gain a better understanding of how hot water moved through the rock at the time of the collision. Fluid changes the rock as it passes through, leeching out some elements from some rocks and depositing elements in others.
“We’re essentially seeing at the surface what occurred and formed at depth – all of the textures that formed way down below,” Stephenson said.
And with that, Czeck and her students may gain a better understanding of how the earth itself is formed and constantly changes.
“Pumping fluids through deformation zones can drive the rocks toward, on one hand, getting earthquakes, and on the other hand, squishing more and not getting earthquakes, and nobody understands exactly why sometimes it goes one way and sometimes it goes the other,” Czeck said. “The first step of understanding that is to trying to document, from some of these ancient zones where we have these deeper rocks exposed, where the fluid was.”
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science | <urn:uuid:4057b21c-fdb1-4761-9505-fb88720351b0> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://uwm.edu/letters-science/news/featured-stories/geosciences-study-fluid-movement-off-great-rocky-start/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499801.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130034805-20230130064805-00712.warc.gz | en | 0.952178 | 905 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Soon after the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, images and data from its instruments revealed that its main mirror was optically flawed. It suffered from spherical aberration—not all portions of the mirror focused to the same point. The mirror’s shape was off by less than 1/50th the thickness of a human hair, but this tiny flaw proved devastating to the quality of the Hubble’s images and to the efficiency of all of its instruments.
This was a serious, but not fatal flaw. If the Hubble was like all other astronomical instruments lofted into orbit on rockets, it would have had to live out its operational life with that flaw, working at a fraction of peak efficiency. But Hubble was not like any other space telescope. It was designed to be serviced by astronauts visiting it on the space shuttle. That’s one reason why it was placed in a low earth orbit accessible by the shuttle.
The question now became, how could corrections be made? One option involved bringing it back to Earth and replacing the mirror with a backup (now on view in our Museum, in the Explore the Universe gallery). But NASA, encouraged by the expertise at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and the Ball Aerospace Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, chose a different approach.
One instrument, the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC), already had an upgraded replacement available. Its engineering and science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew how to adjust the optics within WFPC2 to compensate for the aberration in the primary mirror. For the other instruments, engineers created an optical box called COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement). It contained a set of five pairs of small mirrors on deployable arms that corrected the light beams entering the Hubble’s Faint Object Camera, Faint Object Spectrograph, and Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph. Fitted within a standard axial instrument enclosure, the small mirrors would deploy after launch and checkout, enter the reflected optical beam from the main mirror, and counteract its flaw, sending the corrected light to the other instruments.
COSTAR contained 10 optical elements, 12 motors, and over 5,000 individual parts. After being installed in the Hubble, each of its five optical channels had to be precisely aligned. In the end, COSTAR’s performance exceeded the original specifications. Given its complexity, the real challenge was to make it strong enough to withstand launch, and yet delicate enough to insert tiny mirrors into the Hubble’s optical field without disturbing any of the other components. A Ball Aerospace engineer came up with the solution while taking a shower in a German hotel, which was equipped with ingenious articulated shower heads.
After several more servicing missions through the 1990s, all the new instruments onboard Hubble had their own corrections for the flaw in the main mirror. Therefore COSTAR was no longer needed, and, given the rapid advance of solid state detector technologies through the decade, WFPC2 was no longer state of the art. NASA therefore planned another servicing mission to replace them with new more powerful cameras and detectors. But the shock of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in February 2003 was deeply felt worldwide, making NASA cautious about flights that did not go to the International Space Station. Therefore, in 2004 NASA cancelled Hubble’s fourth servicing mission. Without it, the telescope’s life was projected to end by 2007. The decision incited uproar from scientists, the public, and Congress. Twenty-six former astronauts signed a petition in favor of keeping the Hubble alive.
The fifth and final Hubble servicing mission took place in May 2009 and was the most complex and demanding yet. During five spacewalks, Atlantis astronauts installed two new instruments, repaired two others, and performed extensive maintenance. They removed COSTAR and WFPC2 and installed the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which included greatly upgraded CCDs and some important reusable hardware from the original WF/PC.
Astronauts brought the two old instruments back to Earth and they were soon shipped to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Technicians at Goddard and then at the Johnson Space Center examined WFPC2 for effects from prolonged exposure to space. Its radiator, the curved white section that formed part of the Hubble’s outer skin, absorbed more than 15 years’ worth of impacts by micrometeoroids and orbital space debris. Scientists measured the chemical composition of these small impactors to help shed light on the nature of space debris, a danger that affects all space missions. In order to make the analysis, NASA had to core out all the impacts, cutting holes far larger than the debris itself. That’s why there are so many large holes in the image of the radiator above.
David DeVorkin is a curator in the Space History Department of the National Air and Space Museum. He compiled this blog post from the label script for the “Repairing Hubble” display, created and edited by the Museum’s exhibit team. | <urn:uuid:a51bbfc9-9051-464b-b0d9-d8358a909ee0> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://blog.nasm.si.edu/on-view-at-the-museum/repairing-hubble/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398450659.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205410-00231-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94964 | 1,038 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Hello Forest County Residents!
This week I discovered a charge plate among the collection in the Local History Room at the library. A charge plate also referred to as a “charga-plate” was popular during the 1930’s-40’s and was used to make purchases when the buyer did not have enough money. The plates were embossed with the person’s name and address. The charge plate functioned by putting the metal plate in a machine with inked ribbon stuck between the sales slip and that plate that would transfer the plate’s image onto the piece of paper when it was pressed together. The earliest known record of the plate’s use was by airplane and gasoline corporations in the 1920’s.
The charge plate in the collection was issued to James Wegter by the Chicago Credit Plate Service, Inc. | <urn:uuid:f6cbfab9-7f7e-4961-aaf8-956f423aa0e3> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://www.crandonareahistory.org/2014/02/07/amandas-weekly-archival-discovery-22/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703529179.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20210122082356-20210122112356-00087.warc.gz | en | 0.979912 | 177 | 2.625 | 3 |
French Edition of the First Printed Map of the Holy Land -- The Burchard of Mt. Sion Map of circa 1280
Fine example of an early-sixteenth century print of Burchard of Mt. Sion's medieval map of Palestine, which was first printed in Lucas Brandis's Rudimentum Novitiorum sive Chronicarum Historiarum Epitome (Lübeck, 1475) . The 1475 example was the first printed map of the Holy Land and one of the first maps ever printed.
Like other medieval maps, the geographic representation is intended to be relative, rather than geographically accurate. The map is east-oriented, with Jerusalem in the middle, as it was the spiritual epicenter of Judeo-Christian life. Radiating outward in all directions are hills with the names of cities, towns, and geographical features of biblical and medieval significance. Buildings are white with red roofs, and pathways that pass between the hills are crowded with small figures walking or riding. Ships are sailing in the Mediterranean, to the west (bottom of map), and eight wind-heads blow their gales across Palestine and the wider region.
The map is full of biblical imagery. In the upper right is Mt. Sinai, where Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments. The Red Sea snakes down to Egypt, in the bottom right corner, and is filled with armor and a drowning king. This is perhaps a reference to the Pharaoh's army, lost after the waters swept in after the Israelites had passed. The Dead Sea, to the east, has spires peeking from its depths, the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus is being baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Near to Jerusalem, at Calvary, Jesus is hanging on the cross.
The Burchard of Mt. Sion Map
Burchard of Mt. Sion was a Dominican friar, who most likely hailed from Magdeburg in what is now northern Germany. From ca. 1274 to 1284, he travelled the Middle East, visiting the main Christian pilgrimage sites. He was one of the last pilgrims to do so before the fall of the Latin Kingdom in 1291.
Burchard wrote of his travels and the work circulated in manuscript under the name Descriptio Terrae Sanctae. It was also translated into French and German and today the manuscript copies are treasures of several institutions including the Bodleian Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale, and the Royal Library of Belgium. As Baumgertner explains, it is "a key document that influenced the perception of Palestine in both text and image, in travel accounts and maps until far into the sixteenth century" (p. 8).
Roughly 100 copies of the manuscript survive today, in a short and long from. The latter is known as the Prologus. In the description, Burchard described the geography of the region and gave distances, in leagues, between the principal cities. According to Nebenzahl, this makes Burchard the first to share a survey of the distance and directions of the Holy Land. However, the map upon which this printed version is based that was supposedly circulated with the description has not survived.
Although the lost map cannot be examined by today's scholars, vestiges of its influences are known. Medieval geographers like Sanuto and Vesconte, Wey, Capodilista and others mention the map and give its main features. They also repeat Burchard's erroneous hypotheses, particularly the interconnected riverine system he championed, which had the Jordan River flowing south, beyond the Dead Sea, into the desert, as seen on this example. Additionally, they replicate the incorrect location of Corazim on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. Burchard mentions the false location in his description and it was likely also in his map.
Lucas Brandis and the Rudimentum Novitiorum
Lucas Brandis included a copy of the map is his famous Rudimentum Novitiorum, an encyclopedia of Christian theology and history. The work was intended as a concise library of information for those men too poor to buy many books. The two maps included, one of which is this map, are the first printed maps. While Isidore of Seville had included a T-O projection in his encyclopedia of 1472, it lacks the detail and rich content of these examples. The first edition of Ptolemy's work to include maps would not be printed until 1477, in Bologna. Interestingly, it is also one of the only printed maps to show a medieval worldview, as opposed to an early modern conception of the world based on Ptolemy's grid.
In the Rudimentum Novitiorum, Brandis included an abridged version of the Bible, a history of the popes and rulers who fought for Christianity, and Burchard's Prologus. It is likely that Brandis himself prepared the wood cut block with the two maps, which included this one of the Holy Land and another of the world as it was then known.
Brandis only arrived in Lübeck with his press in autumn of 1474, and the Rudimentum Novitiorum was published as a two-volume folio by August 5, 1475-an extraordinarily rapid production time for the period. After its original publication in Latin, the work was translated into French as Mer des Hystoires in 1488 (Pierre Le Rouge, Paris). Re-issues of the first French edition continued to be printed from 1517-1555. This is therefore a fine, decorative example of the re-issue of the first map of the Holy Land ever printed.
Ingrid Baumgartner, “Burchard of Mount Sion and the Holy Land” Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Arts and Architecture 4 (2013): 5-41. | <urn:uuid:a201772d-5e6b-46b6-b438-2a42a8b6b5c2> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/53727/medieval-map-of-the-holy-land-anonymous | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657140337.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20200712211314-20200713001314-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.961791 | 1,221 | 3.546875 | 4 |
We are Arizona State University's first iGEM team, working over the summer for the 2011 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition.
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) are a genomic feature of many prokaryotic and archaeal species. CRISPR functions as an adaptive immune system, targeting exogenous sequences that match spacers integrated into the genome. Our project focuses on developing a set of tools for synthetic control over the CRISPR pathway. This includes a method for creating polymers of repeat-spacer-repeat units, the development of CRISPR biobricks (CAS genes, leader sequences) for several CRISPR subtypes (E. coli, B. halodurans, and L. innocua), testing these components on plasmids containing GFP, and a software tool to collect and display CRISPR information, as well as select spacers from a particular sequence. Given the relatively recent progress in the scientific understanding of this system, we see the potential for a wide range of biotechnological applications of CRISPR in the future.
What is CRISPR?
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) are a genomic feature of many prokaryotic and archeal species. CRISPR functions as an adaptive immune system. A CRISPR locus consists of a set of CAS (CRISPR associated) genes, a leader, or promoter, sequence, and an array. This array consists of repeating elements along with "spacers". These spacer regions direct the CRISPR machinery to degrade or otherwise inactivate a complementary sequence in the cell. | <urn:uuid:50be473a-e0b7-4713-8c9d-152b2e6aa7f0> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://2011.igem.org/Team:Arizona_State | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645315227.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031515-00231-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875531 | 355 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Fish and Wildlife officials are asking the public to be on the lookout for yet another invasive species of carp that appears to be headed for Indiana. The black carp is taking the same route that other invasive species have out of the ponds of the southern United States up the Mississippi, the Ohio and into the smaller rivers of the Midwest.
“We have had grass carp, silver carp and big head carp for quite awhile,” said Eric Fisher, Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator for the Indiana Fish and Wildlife Service. “The black carp is the last coming up the Mississippi, and it is the one with the most unknowns.”
All of the Asian carp species have threatened the native fish in Indiana. Where the first ones to come into Indiana fed mostly on plankton the black carp appears to have a different favorite meal — mussels. “They appear to feed heavily on mussels and snails,” said Fisher. “We don’t know if that is their only preference. What we do know is that the native mussels have had enough problems with dams and pollution, and they don’t need another thing working against them.”
At one time Indiana’s rivers teemed with mussels. At one time there was a pearl rush to the Vincennes area because of the fresh water pearls there. Mussel harvesting continued for years before it was finally outlawed. Now the mussel population is way down.
“Mussels have been in decline for years,” said Fisher. “A fish that could eat large numbers of them are a concern.”
Officials say the black carp are similar to the other types of Asian carp in the way they spread to other areas and that they tend to reproduce rapidly.
The black carp have been tracked into Illinois and along the Ohio to within 10 miles of Indiana. “We expect the first one to show up near the Ohio and Wabash sometime soon,” said Fisher.
Illinois is already dealing with the new invaders. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Southern Illinois University and the U.S. Geological Survey have landed a federal grant. With it they are offering an incentive for fishermen who catch the fish to bring them in for study.
“This will give us a better analysis,” said Fisher. “We really don’t know where in the United States these fish originate from. We do not have enough specifics to determine where they are coming from.”
If they do make it into Indiana the fish are expected to impact mussel populations along the White, Eel and Little Blue Rivers. “We need to try and stop them, and it is really hard to control their spread when they get into open water like the Ohio,” said Fisher.
While mussels may be their favorite food, there may be other foods for the black carp that could put them into direct competition with native fish species. What travel officials in Indiana have learned is that anything that impacts fishing is bad for the area economy.
“Fishing has a big impact on our area,” said Jameson Hibbs, executive director for the West Boggs Lake Park. “When our lake went down three years ago for renovation it really hurt, not just our camping but businesses in the area. Our camping revenue has jumped in the last three years and a large percentage of that is fishing.”
Officials point out that it isn’t just local people looking to hook a big one. “Most of the people who camp at Boggs and at Glendale are from out of the area,” said Hibbs. “They are bringing a lot of dollars into the area. In the last two years we have issued a record number of boating passes. Our camping revenue at Boggs has jumped the last two years. Glendale, which is open exclusively for hunting and fishing, has a full campground in the spring and the fall.”
Fishing in Daviess County is not relegated to the lakes. “There is a lot of fishing being done along the White River too,” said Hibbs.
All of those lines in the water are something officials hope can provide some warnings and clues if and when the black carp do come to the area. “People need to be aware of these invasive species,” said Fisher. “By keeping a close track on what they catch they can be extra eyes and ears as we try and deal with this new threat.” | <urn:uuid:fe078cd8-9600-42d2-91d7-fa3ef4da9808> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.washtimesherald.com/news/local_news/new-invasive-fish-threatening-southern-indiana/article_a2b8e634-c3a3-5d72-8377-0d5b6f97c0eb.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986673538.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20191017095726-20191017123226-00495.warc.gz | en | 0.970182 | 939 | 2.953125 | 3 |
bolewicz at netzero dot net
Excavations at a cave in western Asia suggest that, as early as 32,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers made wild flax fibers into cords, probably for sewing clothes, weaving baskets, and attaching stone tools to handles.
Gentler winters shrink sheep.
Weights for wild female Soay sheep on an Atlantic island dropped about 5% during the past 2 decades. Normally, bigger body size is a plus; sheep draw on fat reserves during winter, and larger lambs are more likely to survive.
However, milder winters have swamped that trend, as more small weak youngsters survive.
7/24/09 The East Oregonian
A farm's size has nothing to do with its profitability or its longevity.
OSU Economist Bruce Sorte reached that conclusion after his four-month study of Umatilla County.
His 24-page report says it's due to the scalability of inputs and dramatic changes in communications, marketing, and distribution systems.
How much Greenhouse Gas does livestock really produce?
from the Center for Consumer Freedom.
The 2006 UN Food and Agriculture reported that 18% of global greenhouse gases are caused by animal agriculture.
Sounds a little high.
Buried in the report is that deforestation - mainly in the Amazon - is included in that figure. Without it, livestock's contribution falls to less than 12%.
Still a little high.
The EPA released a report: 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions is from all of agriculture, not just meat production.
Separate the emissions into two categories, livestock and non-animal, and you find that livestock production in the U.S. accounts for 2.58% to the total.
Which doesn't mean that we can't improve - buy local meat, eggs, and produce from low-input producers, for instance. Visit localharvest.org to find farms near you.
On the other hand:
Eating Veggies Shrinks the Brain
Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain - with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of Vitamin B12 are meat, milk, and fish. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods that provide good levels of the vitamin.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists, who tested 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87. Five years later, those with the lowest levels of B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage.
It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.
For Sale: One Red Ferrari.
The classified ad might read, "Sports car seeks permanent home, very good condition, one lady owner."
Oh, and another important point,
"Made of wool."
After traveling the world for the past five years, British artist Lauren Porter is seeking a permanent home for her knitted red Ferrari sports car. The arty auto sculpture is named "12 Miles of Yarn" because, well, it took that much wool to knit.
"The sculpture is more or less to scale and took about 10 months to build," said Porter, who shuns more traditional knitting projects such as scarves and socks.
"I involved family and friends knitting squares," she explained. "I made a frame out of metal poles which are welded together in sections. The whole piece is flat packable. Being a sculptor, this was the interesting part for me, designing and building the piece."
"12 Miles of Yarn" has been exhibited in London, Paris and Amsterdam and at both car shows and fine-art galleries. The time has probably come, however, for this particular Ferrari to go up on the blocks.
"I would ideally like it to be on display and enjoyed by the public but am open to any ideas," commented Porter.
Reprinted in part from adnews.com
BBC online news reports that sheep in Yorkshire, England, have taught themselves to roll over metal cattle guards in order to raid village gardens.
They lie down on their sides, or sometimes their backs, and just roll over and over the grids until they are clear.
Personally, I find this hard to believe - I can't picture a sheep who, in most circumstances, could roll completely over.
From Discover magazine:
Fourteen years after the discovery of the pencil-shaped molecules called carbon nanotubes, scientists are finally learning to exploit their remarkable properties. Nanotubes are nine times as strong as steel...but they are difficult to manipulate because each tube is just 1/350,000 as wide as the period at the end of this sentence.
In August Ray Baughman at the University of Texas in Dallas and his colleagues reported a way to weave nanotubes into usefully large
material. With the help of Australian wool spinners, researchers had already developed a method to twist the tubes into long fibers...the Texas group created sheets of nanotubes so thin that an acre of the material weighs just a quarter of a pound.
A sheep living in the median strip between two interstate highways in Massachusetts for up to a year and a half has been safely captured.
Wandering Woolie was caught in a six-foot enclosure baited with food. Earlier attempts at capture by the Animal League of Boston were unsuccessful, and officials were concerned that the sheep could cause an accident if he wandered into traffic.
From the Portland Monthly, September 2008:
"Since 1989, the beaver has reigned as Oregon's state animal...But as we near our state's 150th birthday, we want a change.
Specifically: Out with the beaver, in with the alpaca....consider that Oregon has more alpacas than almost any other state..."
The article mentions cruelty-free shearing (beavers are trapped), valuable fleece (who wears beaver hats nowadays?), no pasture trampling (beavers make mud pits), dispositions as sweet as their looks.
"Lucrative, green, and cute: We rest our case."
Also from Discover:
Scientists are asking Australian farmers to report any ugly sheep in their flocks.
The "Xtreme Sheep" campaign is part of an effort to improve the quality of the country's wool.
"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile, the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to find genes critical to wool formation and synthesis."
The project asks farmers with unsightly lambs that have uneven wool, bald patches, wrinkled skin, and other irregularities to send them to the institute for examination.
ODD NEWS from the fiber world
HAIKU from Woodland Woolworks
Fabric like cardboard.
Too many washing cycles?
You know how I felt.
Do NOT talk to me.
Counting again for the third time.
Four hundred eight needed.
Who could read the mind?
Knitting silence demanded!
When she is counting.
I have peace of yarn.
Whirr. Rhythmic pumping
Wheel turns, yarn flied, I'm spinning.
Bobbin fills - magic.
Fuzzy wool fluff
Water, soap and elbow grease.
Fabric like iron.
Creative urge gone awry
Yarn mountains quiver.
Pasture turns to wool,
Earth to linen and cotton
Miracle of life.
Baa! goes the white sheep
and with a spin of the wheel
Wool gets spun to thread.
Portland, Oregon, glass sculptor Andy
Paiko has completed a functional glass spinning wheel.
The wheel is made of over a hundred
separate hot-sculpted glass components.
Paiko spent 3 months working full-time to construct the wheel.
While not a spinner himself, he is
inspired by the mechanics of spinning
wheels and "the metaphors that may
be inferred by such a well-respected
craft in relation to glass.
The glass wheel, including the distaff, is 60 inches tall with an 18-inch drive
wheel, and can be dismantled for
transport. It's for sale at
Icebreaker, a small outdoor-apparel business in New Zealand, uses merino wool for all its clothes.
Icebreaker clothes will be tagged with a unique Baacode that matches it with the batch of wool from which it was produced. The customers will be able to enter their Baacode on the website and trace the fiber back to the sheep stations where it originated.
Customers can see the farmers and the living conditions of the sheep, follow the fiber to the factories that knit, dye, finish, cut, manufacture and ship the garments.
Icebreaker let me know that they have a store in Portland at 11th and Burnside; their U.S. offices are in the Pearl District.
Woolly Coffins on Display in Prince's Garden
People should be buried in woolen coffins because it is a more environmentally friendly way of being laid to rest, the Prince of Wales has suggested as part of a new campaign to promote green living. The Prince asked for the woolen caskets to be put on display in his garden at the opening of a week-long festival to promote sustainable lifestyle choices.
He is said to support the idea not only because wool is a natural, sustainable and biodegradable material that will rot away in the earth, but also because it supports British farming.
The Campaign for Wool exhibit includes a number of more unusual uses for wool such as insulation for the loft, office furnishings and fashion wear.
The woolen coffins were launched by Hainsworth Woolen Mills last summer and already more than 500 have sold. The patented line is now being sold in Europe and the United States and will soon be available in Australia and New Zealand.
Hyperbolic space is an unimaginable concept, unless you're a Latvian mathematicia who's handy with needle and yarn.
Hyperbolic geometry describes a world that is curving away from itself at every point - the opposite of
a sphere, whatever that might make it look like.
But shapes that cannot be imagined can be crocheted by Daina Taimina from Cornell University.
An Australian sheep continues to set records as the oldest of her species in the world - or as one
reporter put it "the toughest mutton on the planet.
"Lucky was born April 25, 1986. She was still going strong as of late 2007.
Toothless and arthritic, she lives on a farm in Australia and is fed crushed grain, grass, and milk thistles.
Her owner says, "Lucky could see me out, mate. I'm going on 78. Everyone reckons she's going
like a bomb."
Lucky died in 2009 at age 23 years, 6 months, and 28 days, the victim of a week-long heat wave.
She was a bummer lamb, abandoned by her mother, and hand-raised. She was buried under her favorite nectarine tree.
(The first alpaca born on our farm, Autumn Sun, died at
25 years, 7 months.)
Rotten eggs my dog finds from the neighbors chickens
Poop on my boot from the resident pigeons
Paca spit in my eye and boy that really stings!
These are a few of my least favorite things
Giving shots to an alpaca with fiber like a poodle
Slipping on ice and hitting my noodle
Mud everywhere and all the dirt that that brings
These are a few of my least favorite things
Trying to tube a sick cria and he wiggles and thrashes
Alpacas with mites who then develop rashes
Winter is coming when will it be spring?
These are a few of my least favorite things
Oh no what's wrong with this cria?
Oh not again! He has bad diarrhea!
Ah well When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my least favorite things
And then I feel even more bad!
Angora bunnies and eyelashes on cria
Bright colored fleece and a new project idea!
Products and alpaca prices on the upswing!
These are a few of my favorite things
Cream colored alpacas with more crimp than poodles
That crimp goes all the way from their toes to their noodles
I can't wait for cria season in full swing!
These are a few of my favorite things!
Girls in knit dresses with hand crocheted sashes
Cria that pronk and race in mad dashes
Living on a farm and the fun that that brings
These are a few of my favorite things
When the alpaca spits!
And then the tractor quits!
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
Stolen from Ann Meriwether, Nyala Farm, to the tune of "My Favorite Things."
Sheep Cleared for Grazing at Some Airports
It's a different kind of job interview. Some major airports are interviewing sheep to help them maintain thousands of acres of raw land.
As part of a pilot project, 100 grazing sheep (plus a few goats) are hard at work this week eating invasive plants such as kudzu on property belonging to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
An airport spokesperson says they like the results so far, but need to compare the costs to other weed control measures. It will take several months to crunch the numbers and make a final decision.
Chicago is also taking bids to hire a sheep crew at O'Hare Airport.
Goats have been munching weeds at San Francisco International Airport for at least eight
"They are hired help and used seasonally in an area that is home to two threatened species: the San Francisco garter snake and the red-legged frog," said Michael McCarron, airport spokesman. "The goats are easier to use than heavy equipment and we expect them to be back next year."
In 2008, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hired a herd of goats (and three sheep) to spend 12 days eating wild blackberry bushes, Scotch broom and other weeds around the airport. They said too many cages had to be build to protect the plants they wanted to keep so this option didn't work for them.
Sheep production is man's oldest organized industry with wool being the first commodity of sufficient value to warrant international trade. In the 1400s, Queen Isabella of Spain used money derived from the wool industry to finance voyages by Christopher Columbus and other conquistadors.
In 1519, Cortez began his exploration of Mexico and the Western United States taking with him sheep that were offspring of Christopher
Sheep were brought into Virginia in 1609. Dutch sheep were brought to New York from Holland in 1625. England tried to discourage the wool industry in the American colonies, but by the 1660s there were so many sheep in the colonies that the General Court of Massachusetts passed a law requiring youth to learn to spin and weave.
Please don't reproduce these images without permission. | <urn:uuid:11886a2c-2a90-41ab-b455-2c72dd2ad89e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.easygofarm.net/odds-and-ends | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573744.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819161440-20220819191440-00222.warc.gz | en | 0.961347 | 3,267 | 2.765625 | 3 |
- Offering access to anyone in the world with an iPhone, Apple’s ResearchKit is becoming a popular platform for population health studies.
The latest to jump on the bandwagon is Boston Children’s Hospital, where researchers are now using ResearchKit to better understand the difference between a fever and a “normal” temperature.
Through the Feverprints app, researchers from BGH’s Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator and Autoinflammatory Diseases Clinic are gathering data from iPhone users on body temperature, lifestyle and health. Their goal is to create a definition of a normal or febrile temperature and a framework of unique temperature patterns – or feverprints – that would help in diagnosing infections and other health issues.
"Many factors come together to set an individual's 'normal' temperature, such as age, size, time of day and maybe even ancestry," Jared Hawkins, MMSc, PhD, the IDHA’s director of informatics and a member of the hospital’s Computational Health Informatics Program, said in a press release. "We want to help create a better understanding of the normal temperature variations throughout the day, to learn to use fever as a tool to improve medical diagnosis and to evaluate the effect of fever medications on symptoms and disease course. By using ResearchKit to bring this study to iPhone, we're able to gather more data about body temperature patterns than ever before possible."
The study – Boston Children’s second using ResearchKit, following a C-Tracker app launched last year to help patients with hepatitis C – continues a recent trend of using the platform to study health issues among large, diverse populations. The University of California at San Francisco got the ball rolling last summer when it launched a study targeting health issues among the Bay Area’s LGBT community.
“The LGBTQ community has been understudied and underserved in healthcare settings,” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, said in a July 2015 press release. “This timely study helps fill the gap in our understanding of health and disease risk in this population, and importantly involves and engages members of these communities in this health-related research in important and novel ways.”
Two unique population health studies were launched on the ResearchKit platform just last month. At the HIMSS16 conference and exhibition on March 2, IBM’s Watson Health and the American Sleep Apnea Association unveiled SleepHealth, an app designed to gather a wide range of metrics on sleep, restlessness and snoring. Two weeks later, Harvard University launched TeamStudy, designed to track brain function, heart health and mobility among former NFL players.
Just last week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched The Mood Challenge for ResearchKit, a $500,000 competition that challenges researchers to develop an app platform to measure moods.
The pending release of Research Stack, an Android alternative to iOS, is expected to open the population health field beyond the iPhone universe to anyone with an enabled mobile device. That should open the door to more studies involving underserved and lower-income populations and those in developing nations, where the iPhone isn’t as widely used. | <urn:uuid:be1555c0-02c4-4339-bf36-f586682ea4ce> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://mhealthintelligence.com/news/researchkit-the-perfect-platform-for-population-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281492.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00105-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924672 | 680 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Certainly not one of the Big 5 and not on many viewing bucket lists, baboons are often seen as a pest. Yet their social structures hold a mirror up to modern human society. Our quirks, traits and behaviours’ are often seen to be similar within their social structures.
They are social creatures that live in large troops, which have a definite hierarchy. Family orientated, they participate in mutual grooming sessions and food sharing. Much like humans, they have a set daily routine, which involves waking up at a set time, going about their daily business and then settling down again at night.
Baboons are omnivores, eating a wide array of meats and plants. Typical foods in a baboon’s diet include grasses, fruits, seeds, roots, bark, rodents, birds and small or young mammals when the opportunity arises.
If you are a regular visitor to the bush, you will be familiar with the loud barking sound that they make. What people don’t know is that they are capable of making around 30 different vocalizations. These include some most un-baboon like grunts and screams. They also have a series of non-vocal communication gestures.
The Chacma baboon is the largest of the species. In 2010, the fossil skull of a two million years old individual was discovered near Johannesburg in South Africa.
Similar to hamsters, baboons have cheek pouches in which they can store food. This helps while they are foraging as it can be brought back to a safe area to be eaten.
Mothers and babies have a special bond and the baby will remain close to its mother for at least the first four months before it is allowed to interact with other youngsters. After birth they are carried under the belly of the mother, graduating to riding on her back when they are older.
The dominant males will often interact with the youngsters and will be seen to be grooming as well as disciplining them should the need arise.
Despite what local farmers think of this primate, it was revered in Ancient Egypt for its intelligence. It is still seen as the guardian of the dead in the Underworld.
Perhaps we do not give them enough credit for their contribution to the wildlife tapestry of Africa. Or perhaps it is just the fact that they are seen as too representative of us, but baboons are here to stay and should be embraced rather than reviled and rejected.
Want to know more about baboons, watch our video on EcoTraining TV on YouTube to find out more. | <urn:uuid:ac527db4-b0dc-4294-9f2d-69540f80800a> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.ecotraining.co.za/baboons-and-their-behavior-all-you-need-to-know/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657151761.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20200714212401-20200715002401-00106.warc.gz | en | 0.975269 | 522 | 2.984375 | 3 |
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level : Earthquakes, Tectonic Plates
Mains level : Read the attached story
More than 4000 people died and several hundred were injured after a major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit south-central Turkey and Northwest Syria.
What is an Earthquake?
- An earthquake is an intense shaking of the ground caused by movement under the earth’s surface.
- It happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.
- This releases stored-up ‘elastic strain’ energy in the form of seismic waves, which spreads through the earth and cause the shaking of the ground.
What exactly causes Earthquakes?
- As we know, the earth’s outermost surface, crust, is fragmented into tectonic plates.
- The edges of the plates are called plate boundaries, which are made up of faults.
- The tectonic plates constantly move at a slow pace, sliding past one another and bumping into each other.
- As the edges of the plates are quite rough, they get stuck with one another while the rest of the plate keeps moving.
- Earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges unstick on one of the faults.
- The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicentre.
How prone is Turkey to Earthquakes?
- Turkey and Syria lie in a seismically active region
- The region where the earthquake has struck lies along a well-known seismic fault line called the Anatolia tectonic block that runs through northern, central, and eastern Turkey.
- It is a seismically active zone — though not as active as, say, the Himalayan region which is one of the most dangerous regions in the world from the perspective of earthquakes.
What makes Turkey a hotbed of seismic activity?
- Turkey is frequently shaken by earthquakes. In 2020 itself, it recorded almost 33,000 earthquakes in the region.
- Turkey is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which is wedged between the Eurasian and African plates.
- On the north side, the minor Arabian plate further restricts movement.
- One fault line — the North Anatolian fault (NAF) line, the meeting point of the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates — is known to be “particularly devastating”.
- Then there is the East Anatolian fault line, the tectonic boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the northward-moving Arabian Plate.
- It runs 650 kilometers from eastern Turkey and into the Mediterranean.
- In addition to this, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region.
Where was the earthquake epicentered?
- The centre of the earthquake was centred about 33 km from Gaziantep, around 18 km deep.
- Its effect was felt across West Asia, Northern Africa and South Eastern Europe with residents of Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Egypt also reporting tremors.
Aftermath: Many Aftershocks hits the region
- Aftershocks are a sequence of earthquakes that happen after a larger mainshock on a fault.
- Aftershocks occur near the fault zone where the mainshock rupture occurred and are part of the “readjustment process” after the main slip on the fault.
- While they become less frequent with time, although they can continue for days, weeks, months, or even years for a very large mainshock.
Can earthquakes be predicted?
- An accurate prediction of an earthquake requires some sort of a precursory signal from within the earth that indicates a big quake is on the way.
- Moreover, the signal must occur only before large earthquakes so that it doesn’t indicate every small movement within the earth’s surface.
- Currently, there is no equipment to find such precursors, even if they exist.
India offers assistance
- India is among the 45 countries, which have so far offered assistance to Turkey.
- It’s sending search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and medical teams along with relief material to the West Asian nation.
Crack Prelims 2023! Talk to our Rankers
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more | <urn:uuid:2d82956d-3123-43af-b285-49453826ba18> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/turkey-hit-by-series-of-earthquakes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224643784.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20230528114832-20230528144832-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.940279 | 975 | 4.1875 | 4 |
It was circular, of solid construction, about forty feet in diameter and the same in height. In 1796, with a garrison of 38 men and three not very large guns, it had withstood attack from two warships of the British Navy, one with 74 guns, and one with 32. The Board of Ordnance were so impressed by the tower's resistance to fire-power, that they adopted the design for their own towers. These too were round, or oval, and in their construction used up to a million bricks, most of which came from near London. The Aldeburgh Martello Tower is the exception, because instead of being round, it is quatrefoil in shape: in effect four towers fused into one. The reason for this is not recorded. It might have been a piece of lateral thinking resulting from the quatrefoil arrangement of a platform for four guns; or, as has been suggested by Sheila Sutcliffe in her book Martello Towers (1972), it might have been an earlier design proposed for the Dymchurch Wall in Kent in 1804 but never built.
The tower was designed for four guns, although in 1815 it was noted that there were only two 24-pounders there. These were fired over the parapet, off timber gun carriages shackled to ring mounts which still hang from their stone blocks. In the late nineteenth century, new guns were provided, with rifled barrels for more effective fire. The old guns, of which there were by then four, were sunk into the roof to act as pivots. The tower would have been garrisoned by the local Volunteer Artillery. On the main barrack room floor, there were double berths for eight soldiers, and single berths for five NCOs. The northern bay was partitioned off with a canvas screen, to provide a private room for the officer in charge. There were two fireplaces for cooking. The lower floor was used for storage - coal, water, food and ordnance. The powder magazine was reached by a separate stair, but lit by a window from the main store. It was placed on the landward side, for safety.
The tower did not originally stand on its own as it does today. It was once part of the village of Slaughden, of which the last houses survived into this century, but finally vanished due to erosion before the last War. The sea has also swept away part of the moat surrounding the tower itself, until stopped by the building of coastal defences of a different kind in the 1950s. In 1931 the tower, by then abandoned and derelict, was sold by the Ministry of Defence to a Mr Walter Wenham. Over the next few years it was occasionally used by the Mitford family for camping holidays. Then in 1936, it was sold to Miss Debenham, who commissioned the architect Justin Vulliamy to convert it into a studio. This was done very carefully by adding to its top an elegant penthouse, hardly affecting the interior or original structure of the tower at all.
By 1971, the Thirties penthouse had in turn become derelict, and the tower itself was badly in decay. This time it was acquired by the Landmark Trust. Extensive repairs were carried out, and the tower itself converted to provide holiday accommodation. | <urn:uuid:7061d7f3-64f8-4ee1-b97c-b067a252a310> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/martello-tower-9317/?ZJjYEWg8T5Uilneb2kJmmS/wLBbpScPD6wVT3E9uSMD3RIo3l3PHlBdKH9XqzTfytjFPJIm9wEV+QZ5t9OajyPgEHW4jb2YC8+gR7y+Uwbbxl/8jBo1MPGKBH/tbUelaw63PuJYvhC77Y3q3lkgrE11NUrtovyf5QyK9kYCe7VM=&ZJjYEWg8T5Uilneb2kJmmS/wLBbpScPD6wVT3E9uSMD3RIo3l3PHlBdKH9XqzTfytjFPJIm9wEV+QZ5t9OajyPgEHW4jb2YC8+gR7y+Uwbbxl/8jBo1MPGKBH/tbUelaw63PuJYvhC77Y3q3lkgrE11NUrtovyf5QyK9kYCe7VM= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703531702.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123001629-20210123031629-00604.warc.gz | en | 0.992781 | 676 | 3.59375 | 4 |
According to the World Wellness Organization, a few years back diabetes had been an uncommon illness, in both developed as well as developing countries. These days, the story is different. It really is currently estimated which over 143million individuals worldwide are affected by the condition. This figure is actually ever increasing, by 2020 over 220million individuals are expected to be coping with diabetes, if the present trend continues.
In the usa alone, there are eighteen. 2 million folks (6. 3% from the population) living with diabetic. While another 13million people have been identified as having diabetes. Unfortunately, five. 2milion (or almost one third) tend to be unaware that they have the illness.
The figure with regard to Nigeria is not easily accessible, but it is approximated that over one 5million people have diabetic in Nigeria.
Within developed countries, the majority of patients of diabetic are over 60, but in developing nations, diabetes is found in order to affect people within their prime.
WHAT IS DIABETIC?
Diabetes Mellitus (or simply diabetes) comes from the Greek term ‘Diabeinein’, meaning ‘To pass through’ explaining copious urination, and also Mellitus from the Latina word meaning ‘Sweetened with honey’. Both of these words signify sweetened urine or sugars in urine.
Diabetic is a disease where the body does not generate or properly utilize Insulin. Insulin is really a hormone that is required, in the body, to control the pace at which sugar, starch and other food are usually converted into glucose needed as energy regarding daily life. The junk is produced along with released
into the bloodstream by an body organ called ‘Pancreas’. This particular insulin help to conserve the blood glucose level inside a normal range. The entire world Health Organization (WHO) puts this regular range between
sixty – 100mg/dl (Before taking any meals for the day, hence this particular value is called As well as Blood Glucose). Inside health, despite a number of demands for sugar in different situations, blood glucose rarely surpasses this value.
Following a meal the liver organ stores the blood sugar from the meal because glycogen and produces it into the our blood in between meals. The actual role of insulin is the control of this specific storage and launch of glucose. This ensures that the amount of carbs and glucose in the blood each and every particular time will not go beyond or under the normal range.
KINDS OF DIABETES.
According to the Globe Health Organization (WHO), five classes associated with diabetes are acknowledged, these are; Insulin Reliant Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) or Type We Diabetes, Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) or Kind II Diabetes, Gestational Diabetes, Diabetes Insipidus and Bronze Diabetic.
INSULIN DEPENDENT/TYPE I actually DIABETES: This type of diabetic was initially called Teen onset diabetes since it affects adolescents in addition to young adults. It is the result of a sudden failure in the pancreas to produce Insulin. It is, therefore , a good acute disease, showcasing with thirst, polyuria (passing large amount of urine), diuresis and weight reduction. Type I diabetic is not common, this accounts for less than 10% of all diabetes instances.
NON-INSULIN DEPENDENT/ KIND II DIABETES: This is actually the most prevalent kind of diabetes, accounting over 80% of all diabetic cases. It is present in adults and the seniors. This type of diabetes evolves gradually over a any period of time of time (unnoticed) and it is characterized by insufficient insulin, deficient insulin within the blood or the failure of the body to make use of the insulin latest (Insulin resistance). Due to its slow and progressive occurrence, it is mainly undetected until a number of of its extensive complications appear.
In contrast to in Type My spouse and i Diabetes, the Insulin in the blood of the Type II diabetic may be normal and even high, but does not have the desired effect, because of insulin resistance, which is prevalent amongst obese people.
GESTATIONAL DIABETES: This type of diabetic occurs during pregnancy plus disappears after shipping, within 3weeks. Approximately 3% of all pregnancy are accompanied by gestational diabetes and almost half these patients are susceptible to developing permanent diabetic later in life.
WHAT CAUSES DIABETIC. | <urn:uuid:3f30c1f2-35ca-4561-b2d8-5590a9ce1150> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.healthcontrol.us/diabetes/the-biggest-launch-of-the-century-about-diabetes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711475.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20221209181231-20221209211231-00428.warc.gz | en | 0.935636 | 941 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Pain down the leg is often triggered by a pinched nerve in the lumbar region of the back. Nerves run throughout the entire body, so when a nerve is pinched, compressed, or damaged in one area of the body, uncomfortable sensations may arise elsewhere. As physiatrists, we often treat pinched nerves associated with:
- athletic activities
- injuries on the job
- motor vehicle accidents
- degenerative disease
By identifying the location of your pain, our specialists can apply a highly specific treatment to help you progress toward a speedy recovery.
Tingling in Feet and Potential Lumbar Radiculopathy
Pain down the leg, tingling in the feet, and/or toe numbness is often connected with chronic back pain. Lumbar radiculopathy, also known as Sciatica, is a common diagnosis for this pain down the leg. Other possible disorders include a herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, and spinal stenosis. All of these symptoms arise when a lumbar nerve root is pinched or pushed. Damage at each lumbar level of the spine targets specific areas of the lower body. By seeing a specialist, you will given options to help treat your individual condition with special care.
Numbing of Toes and Potential Lumbar Radiculopathy
If a person begins to complain of pain down the leg and/ or numbing toes, this may be caused by compression of one of the spinal nerves. Although the toes are very far from the spinal area, nerves stretch the length of the body, directly connecting to the toes. It is important to address these sensations quickly. If left untreated, a person could potentially have long-term loss of sensation in the legs and toes. Causes of numbing in the toes can be similar to the causes of pain down the leg. Bulging or herniated discs, as well as degenerative bone spurs around the vertebral bones create direct pressure on the nerve roots and such nerve irritation is known as lumbar radiculopathy. If you are experiencing these conditions it is important to seek specialized care. | <urn:uuid:00b15284-0ef8-443b-94b4-86f26dbdc39b> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.peachtreespine.com/learn-more/symptoms/pain-down-leg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250607407.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122191620-20200122220620-00426.warc.gz | en | 0.932209 | 436 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Snake Cults Dominated Early Arabia
This photo shows a closeup of a 3rd century A.D. relief from Iran. The "hostile spirit" Ahriman is depicted as having a crown in the shape of a snake.
Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month's Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal.
From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal.
The first paper, by archaeologist Dan Potts of the University of Sydney, describes architecture and relics dating to 500 B.C. from Qalat al-Bahrain in Bahrain.
Two rooms in what is now known as the Late Dilmun Palace each contain 39 pits, some of which surround what appears to have been an altar. At least 32 of the pits housed ceramic vessels containing bones from rat snakes and sea snakes.
The remains showed no signs of mutilation.
"They were in cloth bags, now badly decomposed, and that might suggest that they had been buried alive, i.e. put into a bag, placed in a bowl, and then buried in the ground," Potts told Discovery News.
Some bowls found at the site have been identified as "wine-drinking" cups. Potts, however, does not necessarily think that wine consumption accompanied the snake rituals, which he speculates were meant to confer protection and good luck.
He described pottery decorated with snakes, snake artwork and even ancient oral traditions, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated at early Arabic sites and paid homage to snakes.
In the second paper, archaeologist Anne Benoist of the Eastern Archaeology Laboratory at the National Center for Scientific Research in France describes yet another Iron Age temple complex linked to snake cults.
Excavation of the site, at Al Bithnah in the United Arab Emirates, revealed both indoor and open-air altars, chapel-like structures, incense burners, man-made pools of water and numerous vessels and objects decorated with snakes.
Most of the snakes were depicted with triangular heads and scales, which Benoist said suggests "a viper species, which is striking, as they are venomous and therefore dangerous."
Benoist said early Middle Eastern traditions held that snake venom was viewed as "a source of power over life." Snakes are prevalent in Persian Gulf regions.
She pointed out that the association of snakes with power over life even carried over into the Old Testament. One passage describes Moses placing a bronze snake on a pole so that anyone who had been bitten by a snake would be healed upon seeing it.
The seasonal shedding of skin linked the reptile to cycles of death and rebirth, so snakes were probably also connected to fertility.
Potts thinks snake worship originated in India and spread throughout the Middle East. There is evidence for extensive trade and travel between the two areas.
As for the fate of snake cults, Benoist said later religions likely deemed them "superstitious," causing followers to practice snake veneration in secret. Eventually, she said, the cults were "overtaken by the official monotheist religion."
Article from: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/17/
Deciphering of earliest Semitic text reveals talk of snakes and spells
World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago
The Serpent and the Real Origins of Freemasonry
Snakemen Stone Reliefs Discovered in Jiroft, Iran
Origins of the devil...
House of Vere & the Merovingians
Ossified Dragon Theories
Dragons came down to Earth from Sirius to share their wisdom with humans, myths say
Lost Land of the Lizard People
Serpents reveal links between myths in Australia, China
The Luciferian Legacy
Philip Gardiner - Secrets of the Serpent, Symbology and Myth (Subscription)
The Dragon and the Pearl
Here be dragons
Latest News from our Front Page
Congratulations Pussy Porters!
Mural paid for by the government, decorates a Swedish school.
On International Women’s day Julia Caesar published this chronicle in Swedish on Snaphanen which I’ve translated but prior to reading it I’d like to provide you with some background information on certain terms which are incomprehensible to non-Swedes.
First and foremost “pussy porter” and “penis porter” are terms that third-wave feminists in ...
Germanwings co-pilot appears to have crashed plane deliberately – prosecutor
The Germanwings co-pilot seemed to have crashed the plane deliberately, killing 150 people on board. The co-pilot wouldn’t let the captain inside the cabin, with the “intension to destroy” the jet, the French prosecutor said at a press conference.
Follow RT’s live updates on investigation into Germanwings plane crash
The Germanwings co-pilot was identified as Andreas Lubitz.
The captain was between 30 ...
Sweden adds gender-neutral pronoun to dictionary
The official dictionary of the Swedish language will introduce a gender-neutral pronoun in April, editors at the Swedish Academy have announced.
“Hen” will be added to “han” (he) and “hon” (she) as one of 13,000 new words in the latest edition of the Swedish Academy’s SAOL.
The pronoun is used to refer to a person without revealing their gender – either because ...
Unchecked government drones? Not over my backyard
On last Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration gave Amazon the green light to begin testing drones.
While you aren’t likely to be getting your Amazon order delivered by drone anytime soon, as the approval is limited to research and testing, the fact remains that this technology is already part of our lives. Drones are already helping the federal government observe and ...
Finland schools: Subjects scrapped and replaced with 'topics' as country reforms its education system
For years, Finland has been the by-word for a successful education system, perched at the top of international league tables for literacy and numeracy.
Only far eastern countries such as Singapore and China outperform the Nordic nation in the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings. Politicians and education experts from around the world – including the UK – have ...
|More News » | | <urn:uuid:ff3c0d11-f53c-4858-a21c-5fee2bbe7b74> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=1058 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131293283.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172133-00039-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948747 | 1,430 | 3.296875 | 3 |
The applications of satellite data for the use of navigation has become an integral part of life, whether that be for use for SatNav systems in cars or for tracking shipping.
There is a huge variety of applications of satellite technology including both military and civilian applications.
In the military the use of GPS has become the core navigational system and has changed the way that the military operates in many areas including command and control and the guidance of autonomous systems. Satellite navigation has also been increasingly used for civilian purposes such as for SatNav systems in cars.
Future developments in satellite applications has the potential to revolutionise navigation, allowing for automated transport and the modernisation of air traffic control. The expanding field of satellite technology allows for many opportunities to work within its application to navigation.
Routes into Navigational Science
There is no set path to take into navigational science, with it being an ever expanding field with many different applications there are so many ways you could apply your knowledge to this field whether it be developing an app to use satellite data to help commuters avoid traffic or developing the use of satellites for autonomous vehicles. A background in science, engineering or maths would be an advantage and skills in programming and modelling would be an asset.
To learn more about navigational science, timing and positional systems, watch this free video course by the Royal Institute of Navigation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK_DB9Z73w4 | <urn:uuid:d5972cb6-097a-4f4a-ae24-33001775ffbd> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://spacecareers.uk/?p=article_public&id=253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347413097.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20200531085047-20200531115047-00248.warc.gz | en | 0.937163 | 295 | 3.375 | 3 |
|Home | About | Journals | Submit | Contact Us | Français|
P2X receptors are trimeric ATP-activated ion channels permeable to Na+, K+ and Ca+2. The seven P2X receptor subtypes are implicated in physiological processes that include modulation of synaptic transmission, contraction of smooth muscle, secretion of chemical transmitters and regulation of immune responses. Despite the importance of P2X receptors in cellular physiology, the three-dimensional composition of the ATP binding site, the structural mechanism of ATP-dependent ion channel gating and the architecture of the open ion channel pore are unknown. Here we report the crystal structure of the zebrafish P2X4 receptor in complex with ATP and a new structure of the apo receptor. The agonist-bound structure reveals a previously unseen ATP binding motif and an open ion channel pore. ATP binding induces cleft closure of the nucleotide binding pocket, flexing of the lower body β-sheet and a radial expansion of the extracellular vestibule. The structural widening of the extracellular vestibule is directly coupled to the opening of the ion channel pore by way of an iris-like expansion of the transmembrane helices. The structural delineation of the ATP binding site and the ion channel pore, together with the conformational changes associated with ion channel gating, will stimulate development of new pharmacological agents.
Adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP), best known for its roles in energy metabolism, intracellular signaling, biosynthetic reactions and active transport, is a crucial extracellular signaling molecule 1 that binds to two different classes of ATP receptors: ionotropic P2X receptors2 and G-protein-coupled P2Y receptors3. P2X receptors are found exclusively in eukaryotes, expressed throughout the human body including the nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems, and are implicated in a wide range of physiological processes that include synaptic transmission, smooth muscle contraction, taste, nociception and inflammation4,5. Accordingly, P2X receptors hold great interest as new therapeutic targets for inflammatory, cardiovascular and neuronal disease6.
P2X receptors are trimeric assemblies composed of seven distinct subunit subtypes (P2X1-7)7 that associate to form homomeric and heteromeric complexes8,9. All subunits share a common topology, with intracellular termini, two transmembrane domains and a large, glycosylated and disulfide-rich extracellular domain2,10. The extracellular domain harbors binding sites for ATP, competitive antagonists and modulatory metal ions, whereas the transmembrane domains form a non-selective cation channel11. Gating properties of the ion channel by agonist varies dramatically with receptor subtype, with P2X2, P2X4 and P2X7 homomeric channels showing slow desensitization and P2X1 and P2X3 channels exhibiting rapid desensitization7. While the P2X receptors are ostensibly non-selective cation permeable ion channels, multiple studies suggest that P2X receptors, especially upon prolonged ATP application, are permeable to large organic cations such as N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG) 12,13. The pharmacology of P2X receptor subtypes is also divergent, with the sole common feature being activation by ATP and variable yet striking allosteric modulation by metal ions, protons and lipophilic small molecules14. At present, we know little about the location and composition of the ATP binding site, the conformational changes that ensue upon ATP binding, and the nature of the open, ion conducting pore of P2X receptors.
The zebrafish P2X4 receptor15 was recently crystallized in an apo, closed state, and the resulting structure revealed the chalice-shaped trimeric architecture of P2X receptors 16, defined the protein fold of the extracellular domains and illuminated the structure of the closed ion channel pore. The closed state structure, in combination with previous mutational studies 17–22, suggested a location for three non-canonical and intersubunit ATP binding sites. However, the absence of an experimental crystal structure in complex with ATP meant that the binding site for ATP, the mechanism of ATP-dependent gating and the nature of the open ion channel pore remained speculative. Here we report the crystal structures of the slowly desensitizing P2X4 receptor in the presence and absence of ATP at 2.8 and 2.9 Å resolution, respectively. The ATP-bound structure reveals a previously unseen ATP binding motif and an open pore conformation. Most importantly, a comparison of the two structures suggests how ATP binding is coupled to ion channel gating, thus providing the first structural insights into the agonist-induced activation mechanism of P2X receptors based on atomic resolution crystal structures.
Initial crystals of the ΔP2X4-B - ATP complex, utilizing the construct employed in the x-ray structure determination of the apo state14, diffracted to only 7 Å resolution. We therefore screened new constructs of the P2X4 receptor, in combination with additional P2X receptor orthologs, by fluorescence-detection size-exclusion chromatography (FSEC)23. Deletion of several additional residues from the C-terminus and return of residue 51 to the native Phe yielded ΔP2X4-C, a construct that starts at Ser28, ends at Lys365 (ΔN27/ΔC24/N78K/N187R) and possesses a sharp and symmetric FSEC elution profile (Supplementary Fig. 1a). The ΔP2X4-C construct exhibits ATP binding and gating activities similar to the wild-type receptor 16, as judged by filter binding and two-electrode voltage clamp experiments, respectively (Supplementary Figs. 1b, c, d, e, f). Importantly, ΔP2X4-C yields crystals in the presence of ATP that diffract x-rays to 2.8 Å resolution. The resulting structure was solved by molecular replacement by utilizing the previously solved ΔP2X4-B structure as a search probe and refined to good crystallographic statistics and stereochemistry (Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Figs. 2, 3 and 4).
We also measured x-ray diffraction data from apo state crystals of the ΔP2X4-B construct at a higher resolution (2.9 Å) than that obtained from crystals used in the initial structure determination at 3.1 Å resolution16. Analysis of electron density maps derived from the higher resolution apo and ATP-bound data sets allowed us to correct an incorrect registration of residues 88–97, by one residue, present in the initial apo state structure (Supplementary Fig. 5; Supplementary Table 1). Because the new ΔP2X4-B structure (termed ΔP2X4-B2) is more accurate than the original structure (termed ΔP2X4-B1), we use the former in comparisons with the ATP-bound state.
The ATP-bound ΔP2X4-C receptor adopts a chalice-shaped, homotrimetric architecture consisting of a large hydrophilic and glycosylated extracellular domain, a transmembrane (TM) domain composed of 6 α-helices, and short intracellular amino and carboxy termini (Fig. 1). Each subunit resembles the shape of a dolphin, with the TM helices and the extracellular region akin to the flukes and the body, respectively (Fig. 2a). The protein fold and overall structure of an ATP-complexed ΔP2X4-C subunit is similar to that of an apo ΔP2X4-B2 subunit (Figs. 1 and and2a),2a), as illustrated by a root mean squared deviation (r.m.s.d.) of 1.8 Å for the Cα atom position following superposition16. Superposition of the ATP-bound and apo trimers, however, yields r.m.s.d. values of 3.2 Å for Cα atoms, thus demonstrating that substantial conformational changes are associated with the binding of ATP, with some of the largest differences found at and adjacent to the ATP binding sites in the extracellular domain and within the ion conducting TM domain (Fig. 2b). In the context of the trimeric receptor, superposition of the apo, closed state with the ATP-bound state demonstrates that the upper body domain does not undergo substantial conformational changes upon ATP binding, thus suggesting that the upper body domain is a relatively rigid ‘scaffold’ or ‘brace’ (Figs. 2c, d). The lower body domain, by contrast, does not superimpose well upon comparison of the apo and ATP bound states because of an outward ‘flexing’ of the body domain (Figs. 2c, d). This conformational difference between the two states expands the lower region of the extracellular vestibule, increasing the separation between Cα atoms of Asp59 residues on adjacent subunits from 15.0 Å in the apo state to 25.5 Å in the ATP-bound form. The dramatic movement of the lower body domains, in turn, directly expands the TM helices (Figs. 2c, d). Overall, analysis of the ATP-bound structure, in combination with comparison to the apo structure, allows us to define the agonist binding site and to propose a mechanism by which agonist binding leads to ion channel gating in P2X receptors.
Inspection of electron density maps derived from ΔP2X4-C - ATP cocrystals immediately revealed a prominent feature consistent with the molecular composition of an ATP molecule (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Figs. 6 and 7). Application of the crystallographic symmetry inherent in the R32 space group of this crystal form yields three equivalent ATP binding sites at each of the three pairs of subunit interfaces in the trimeric receptor, sites located ~40 Å from the extracellular boundary of the TM domain. The intersubunit ATP-binding pocket19,24, lined with multiple positively charged residues (Figs. 1b, and 3a, b), is cradled by the head domain (chain A), upper body (chain A), lower body (chain B), left flipper (chain A) and the dorsal fin (chain B) (Fig. 3c). ATP is recognized by the upper (chain A) and lower (chain B) body domains through extensive hydrophilic interactions (Fig. 3d) derived from an underlying protein fold that is, to the best of our knowledge, different from any other known ATP binding motif. The head domain, left flipper and dorsal fin participate in several additional direct contacts with ATP (Fig. 3d and Supplementary Fig 7), consistent with their essential participation in the ATP binding site (Fig. 2).
The bound ATP molecule adopts a U-shaped structure with the β- and γ-phosphates folded toward the adenine ring and the base-sugar constellation in an ‘anti’ conformation (Fig. 3d) -- a conformation previously observed in class II aminoacyl tRNA synthetases25. In the ΔP2X4-C complex with ATP the U-shaped conformation of negatively charged phosphate groups participate in salt bridge and hydrogen bonding interactions, with a cluster of highly conserved basic and polar residues emanating from the two subunits that together form the agonist binding pocket (Fig. 3d). Using the ATP molecule bound at the agonist site between the A and B subunit as a paradigm, Lys70 (chain B) occupies a crucial site because its ammonium group resides at the center of the triphosphate ‘U’, forming interactions with oxygen atoms on the α, β and γ phosphate groups. Asn296 and Lys316 from chain A mediate additional contacts with β-phosphate groups, while Lys 72 (chain B), Arg298 (chain A) and Lys316 (chain A) participate in interactions with the γ-phosphate (Fig. 3d).
The extensive intersubunit interactions with the β- or γ-phosphate groups provide a plausible explanation for why adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and adenosine monophosphate (AMP) have very weak or no effect on the activation of P2X receptors26. Yet the triphosphate moiety is not entirely buried in the agonist binding pocket and the β and γ groups are partially exposed to solvent, consistent with the observation that diadenosine polyphosphates are full or partial agonists at rat P2X receptors27,28. Interactions between the receptor and ATP are also mediated by solvent molecules, and in the crystal structure a glycerol molecule bridges interactions between Lys193 and the α phosphate (GLC1) (Fig. 3d and Supplementary Fig. 8a) and a second glycerol molecule participates in interactions with the β and γ phosphates (Supplementary Fig. 8b). Under physiological conditions we suggest that multiple water molecules, instead of the glycerol molecules, occupy these sites.
The adenine base of ATP is deeply buried in the ATP binding pocket (Fig. 3b) and is recognized by three hydrogen bonds with the side chain of Thr189 and the main chain carbonyl oxygen atoms of Lys70 and Thr189 in the lower body (Fig. 3c, d and Supplementary Fig. 7a). All these residues are strictly conserved16 and have been implicated in the ATP-dependent gating of P2X receptors 17,18–22 and in the adenine base recognition 29. There are also hydrophobic interactions between the adenine base and Leu191 in the lower body and Ile232 in the dorsal fin (Supplementary Fig. 7b). The hydrophobicity of these residues is conserved16, and Leu186 in rat P2X2, corresponding to Leu191 in zebrafish P2X4, is suggested to be involved in the recognition of the adenine base30.
The ribose ring of ATP is recognized only by Leu217 in the dorsal fin through hydrophobic interactions (Supplementary Fig. 7b) and the O2 and O3 atoms of the ribose ring are solvent-accessible (Figs. 3b). Consistent with the solvent exposure of the ribose O2 and O3 atoms, ribose-modified ATP analogues can activate or inhibit P2X receptors31,32.
P2X receptors preferentially recognize ATP whereas cytidine-5′-triphosphate (CTP) has at most a weak effect on receptor activity33,34 and guanosine-5′-triphosphate (GTP) and uridine-5′-triphosphate (UTP) do not activate P2X receptors 26. To understand the mechanism by which P2X receptors achieve this specificity, we superimposed GTP, CTP and UTP onto the ATP molecule bound to the ΔP2X4-C structure and we measured the binding of the nucleotide triphosphate molecules by way of a competition assay using 3H-ATP (Supplementary Fig. 9).
CTP and ATP harbor similar ‘amidine’ functional groups within their base ring structures and on the basis of our superposition, CTP can form hydrogen bonds between the base N4 atom and the carbonyl oxygen atoms of Lys70 and possibly Thr189 (Supplementary Fig. 9b). Because the base of CTP is smaller than that of ATP, however, the N3 atom is too far from the side chain of Thr189 to form a hydrogen bond. In addition, the smaller cytidine base does not fill the agonist binding pocket and the resulting cavity likely further diminishes the extent by which CTP can bind to and activate P2X receptors. GTP and UTP, by contrast with ATP and CTP, possess nearly reciprocal hydrogen bonding groups on their base rings (Supplementary Figs. 9a, b, c, d) and are therefore unable to form favorable hydrogen bonding interactions with carbonyl oxygen atoms of Lys70 and Thr189, thus providing a chemical explanation for why GTP and UTP bind with low affinity to P2X receptors.
The ΔP2X4-C structure reveals an uninterrupted, continuous transmembrane pore (Fig. 4). The pore is lined primarily by TM2 with residues Leu340, Ala344, Ala347, Leu351 and Ile355 exposed to the putative ion permeation pathway (Fig. 4d), an observation consistent with cysteine-accessibility studies 35–39. In comparison to the ΔP2X4-B2 apo state structure, where Leu340 and Ala347 define the extracellular and intracellular boundaries of the closed ion channel gate, respectively, the most narrow diameters of the ion conductive pathway in the ΔP2X4-C structure are at Ala347 and Leu351 (~7 Å), observations in accord with experiments on the permeability of P2X receptors to organic cations 40,41 (Figs. 4d, e and Supplementary Fig. 10). Thus, we propose that this ATP bound structure represents an activated, open channel conformation.
P2X4 receptors are well known for undergoing so-called ‘pore dilation’ upon prolonged application of ATP, a process defined by increased permeability to large organic cations such as NMDG, with a mean diameter of 7.3 Å12,13,42. To probe the functional properties of the ΔP2X4-C ion channel pore, we carried out two-electrode voltage clamp studies, examining whether prolonged application of ATP leads to pore dilation. Upon a 5-minute application of saturating ATP, we find that the evoked current remains constant, suggesting that the ΔP2X4-C construct represents a non pore-dilated open state (Supplementary Figs. 1g, h).
Interestingly, there are no hydrophilic residues lining the middle of the pore (Fig. 4d). Therefore, water molecules coordinated to permeating cations likely interact with main chain carbonyl oxygen and nitrogen atoms. For the rat P2X2 receptor, however, a threonine implicated in ion selectivity is at the position equivalent to Ala347 in zebrafish P2X4 (Figs. 4d, e)16, near the constriction region in the pore, thus suggesting that this protein side chain interacts directly with permeant hydrated cations 43,44.
The previous ΔP2X4-B1 structure suggested two possible pathways by which cations might access the ion channel: a central pathway, along the three-fold axis of symmetry, and a lateral pathway through the fenestrations ‘above’ the ion channel pore (Figs. 4a–c)16. In the open-state, ATP-bound ΔP2X4-C structure, the pathway along the three-fold axis of symmetry is too small to allow for ion permeation, whereas the lateral fenestrations in the extracellular vestibule of ΔP2X4-C are wide open (Figs. 4a–c)16. Therefore, the lateral fenestrations are the pathways by which hydrated ions enter and exit the receptor, in agreement with recent cysteine-accessibility, cysteine-based cross-linking and computational studies45,46. Once ions pass through the fenestrations, the highly acidic central vestibule attracts cations and repels anions, thus concentrating cations close to the entrance of the ion channel pore46.
A structural comparison of the TM regions of the closed and open states shows that the TM helices rearrange in an iris-like movement in going from the closed to the open state (Fig. 5). Relative to the closed state structure, TM1 and TM2 rotate by ~10° and ~55° counterclockwise about a pore-center axis perpendicular to the membrane plane, and increase their tilt angle by ~8° and ~2° about an axis parallel to the membrane plane, respectively (Figs. 5a, b and Supplementary Movie S1). The consequence of the iris-like movement of TM1 and TM2 helices is that the helices move away from the central axis by ~3 Å to expand an ion conductive pore (Supplementary Fig. 10 and Supplementary Movie S1).
The transition from closed to open pore greatly alters intra- and intersubunit interactions between the TM helices (Supplementary Fig. 11). In the apo state of the receptor, multiple interactions between TM2 helices that include contacts between Leu340, Leu346 and Ala347 stabilize the closed conformation of the pore (Supplementary Fig. 11c). In the ATP-bound open state, these interactions are ruptured as the TM helices move away from the three-fold axis. Accompanying the radial movement of the TM helices from the three-fold axis is a kinking of the TM2 helix that allows for new contacts to form between subunits involving Leu346 and Ile355, stabilizing the wide-opening pore conformation (Supplementary Fig. 11d). The kink in TM2 is localized to Gly350 (Fig. 5c, Supplementary Fig. 11 and Supplementary Movie S1), a conserved residue previously suggested to function as a gating hinge12,47. Gly350 is associated with weak electron density (Supplementary Fig. 4b), an observation consistent with its role as a flexible hinge.
The movement of the TM helices away from the three-fold axis creates striking ‘gaps’ between the TM helices of adjacent subunits, voids that must be occupied by lipid molecules when the channel resides in its native membrane environment (Fig. 5d and Supplementary Figs. 11c, d). Interestingly, residues lining the ‘gaps’ between subunits and near the kink in TM2 include amino acids implicated in interaction with ivermectin48,49, a positive allosteric modulator of P2X4 receptors (Supplementary Fig. 12) 50. We therefore suggest that ivermectin, and perhaps endogenous lipids, may occupy the ‘gap’ between TM helices in the open state and by so doing allosterically modulate the activity of the channel.
A structural comparison of the extracellular regions of the apo, closed and agonist-bound open states shows how ATP binding leads to channel activation. First, at the ATP binding site, within the intrasubunit cleft, ATP promotes cleft closure between the head and dorsal fin domains, causing the movement of the dorsal fin domain ‘up’ toward the head domain to accommodate ATP via hydrophobic interactions, whereas ATP pushes out the left flipper from the ATP binding pocket (Fig. 6, Supplementary Figs. 13, 14 and Supplementary Movie S2). Because the dorsal fin and left flipper are structurally coupled to the lower body domain (Supplementary Figs. 13, 14 and Supplementary Movie S2), there is a concomitant outward flexing of the lower body domain in the ATP bound state that substantially expands the extracellular vestibule, increasing the separation by ~10 Å (Figs. 2c, d and 6c, d). In the flexing or ‘lever arm’ motion of the lower body domains, the upper body domains of each subunit largely behave as a rigid body, or brace (Supplementary Figs. 15), and subunits rotate by ~8° around a rotation axis located in the upper body (Fig 6a). Finally, the lower body domains are directly coupled to TM1 and TM2 and thus their outward flexing directly promotes the opening of the ion channel pore by causing the TM helices to ‘expand’ in an iris-like motion (Figs. 2c, d, and 6c, d and Supplementary Movie S2).
In the context of this structure-based mechanism we speculate that competitive antagonists, such as 2′,3′-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)-adenosine-5′-triphosphate (TNP-ATP)32, antagonize the receptor by binding to the ATP site while blocking dorsal fin closure and subsequent ion channel gating because of the steric bulk of the trinitrophenyl moieties (Supplementary Fig. 16).
The crystal structure of the P2X4-C receptor in complex with ATP shows, to the best of our knowledge, that P2X receptors harbor an ATP binding motif not previously seen before. Agonist binding promotes cleft closure in an intersubunit binding site, resulting in the flexing of the lower body domain which in turn directly expands the region of the receptor proximal to the ion channel pore, causing an iris-like opening of an ion conductive pathway. Upon transition to the open state, potential ion pathways in the extracellular domain along the three-fold axis remain occluded by protein, and cations instead gain access to the ion channel by way of three lateral fenestrations. The open state of the receptor is characterized by few subunit-subunit contacts within the transmembrane domains and these relatively large gaps are likely occupied by lipids and allosteric modulators such as ivermectin. Sparse contacts between transmembrane domains suggest that the ion channel domain may adopt multiple conformations, a structural observation consistent with a multiplicity of pore selectivity states deduced from electrophysiological studies of P2X receptors. Taken together, this work illustrates how the binding of ATP activates P2X receptors and initiates ionotropic purinergic signaling.
The zebrafish ΔP2X4-C and ΔP2X4-B proteins were expressed as N-terminal octa-histidine-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) fusions in baculovirus-infected Sf9 cells and were purified as described previously16. For samples used in crystallization, 1 mM ATP and 1 mM GdCl3 were added to purified ΔP2X4-C and ΔP2X4-B, respectively. Apo state ΔP2X4-B2 crystals were grown at 4 °C by vapour diffusion using a reservoir solution containing 18–22% PEG 3350, 100 mM MgCl2, 2M NaCl and 0.1M imidazole pH 6.5. For ATP-bound ΔP2X4-C crystals, growth occurred at 4 °C by vapour diffusion with a reservoir solution containing 20–26% PEG 2000, 300mM Mg(NO3)2 and 100mM Tris, pH8.0. Diffraction data were processed and the structures were solved by molecular replacement. The resulting models were then subjected to iterative cycles of manual adjustment and crystallographic refinement. The functional properties of the ΔP2X4-C construct were examined by two-electrode voltage clamp experiments and by [3H]-ATP saturation binding assays.
The biochemically well-behaved and functionally active construct of zebrafish P2X4.1 (ΔP2X4-C) was discovered by examining C terminal deletion constructs of the zebrafish receptor as well as multiple additional P2X receptors from other organisms. These receptor candidates were screened by expression in Sf9 insect or human embryonic kidney cells and analyzed by fluorescence detection size-exclusion chromatography (FSEC)23. The ΔP2X4-C and ΔP2X4-B proteins were expressed as N-terminal EGFP fusions with an octa-histidine affinity tag in baculovirus-infected Sf9 cells and were purified as described16. For crystallization, 1 mM ATP and 1 mM GdCl3 were added to purified ΔP2X4-C and ΔP2X4-B from 100 mM stock solutions, respectively.
The ΔP2X4-B2 crystals were obtained at 4 °C in two weeks by vapour diffusion by mixing 1:1 or 2:1 (v/v) ratios of protein and a reservoir solution containing 18–22% PEG 3350, 100 mM MgCl2, 2M NaCl and 0.1M imidazole (pH 6.5). Crystals were collected in a harvest solution containing 20% PEG 3350, 100 mM MgCl2, 1.3M NaCl, 0.1M imidazole pH 6.5, 16% glycerol, 0.5 mM 1mM n-dodecyl β-D-maltoside (DDM) and 1 mM TNP-ATP, and incubated at 4 °C overnight, and cryoprotected by adding additional glycerol in 4% steps (final 24%). To minimize occupancy of Gd in the receptor structure, GdCl3 was excluded from harvest and cryoprotection solutions. The ΔP2X4-C crystals were grown at 4 °C in three days by vapour diffusion by mixing 1:1 or 2:1 ratios of protein and a reservoir solution containing 20–26% PEG 2000, 300 mM Mg(NO3)2 and 100 mM Tris (pH8.0). Crystals were collected in a harvest solution containing 25% PEG 2000, 300 mM Mg(NO3)2, 100 mM Tris (pH8.0), 15% glycerol, 0.5 mM DDM and 1 mM ATP, and cryoprotected by adding glycerol in 5% steps (final 25%). Crystals were flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen for x-ray diffraction experiments.
X-ray diffraction data sets were collected at the Advanced Photon Source (beamline 24-ID-C), and were processed using the HKL2000 suite of computer programs51. The structure of ΔP2X4-C was initially obtained by molecular replacement with the earlier ΔP2X4-B1 coordinates (PDB code 3H9V) using the program Phaser52. There is one subunit in the asymmetric unit and the entire trimeric receptor is built-up by subunits related by crystallographic symmetry. The initial model of the extracellular domain was rebuilt and refined using programs in the CCP453, COOT54 and PHENIX55 packages. The higher resolution data set of ΔP2X4-C confirmed a register shift around the residues 88–97 in the ΔP2X4-B1 structure (Supplementary Fig. 5). After iterative cycles of model building and refinement, the electron density map was recalculated using the extracellular domain of the refined ΔP2X4-C structure. The resulting electron density maps demonstrated that the TM domains associated with the ΔP2X4-C maps adopted a significantly different conformation from that of the TM domains of the ΔP2X4-B1 structure. The ΔP2X4-C TM domains were rebuilt, and further cycles of model building and refinement were performed. The final model contains residues 36–359.
The new apo structure of the zebrafish ΔP2X4-B2 construct was obtained by molecular replacement using the previous ΔP2X4-B1 crystal structure16. The new model corrected the register shift of residues 88–97 and was iteratively refined to good crystallographic residuals as described above. Although crystals were ‘back-soaked’ with a Gd3+ - free solution and soaked with TNP-ATP, we found no electron density for TNP-ATP in the ATP-binding site. Thus this structure is that of the apo conformation. The correction of the register shift was also applied to the ΔP2X4-B1 coordinates, and after refinement with the same sets of reflections as in the original article16 the Rwork and Rfree values improved with the Rfree value decreasing from 27.8% to 27.4%. All structures were validated by the computer program PROCHECK56 and MolProbity57. Pore-lining surfaces were calculated using HOLE58. The rotation axis in Fig. 6 and its angle were calculated by the Dyndom analysis59.
RNA encoding the full-length of zebrafish P2X4, ΔP2X4-C and the N-terminal EGFP fusion of the ΔP2X4-C construct was transcribed from pCDNA3.1x plasmids using the mMessage mMachine T7 Ultra kit (Ambion). 2.5–5 ng of RNA was injected into Xenopus oocytes. The recording solution was composed of 100 mM NaCl, 5 mM HEPES, 1 mM MgCl2, and 0.3 mM CaCl2 (pH 7.6)49. Test solutions containing ATP were freshly prepared each day. Recording electrode pipettes (0.5–2M Ω) were filled with 3M KCl. The holding potential was at −80mV. Currents under two-electrode voltage clamp were recorded using a Axoclamp 2B and 900A, GeneClamp 500 amplifiers (Axon Instruments) and digitized using a Digidata 1440A and pClamp 10 (Molecular Devices). No significant currents to test solutions were observed from uninjected oocytes.
The dose-response relationship for ATP activation was obtained by measuring peak current amplitudes in response to ATP application. The peak current from the test solution at the reference concentration of ATP (6.5 μM) was measured first and the peak current for each ATP test solution was measured 4 minutes later and normalized to the peak current evoked by the reference solution. Each ATP concentration was tested on four oocytes. The data were fit to the Hill equation using the Graphpad Prism4 program.
The N-terminal, GFP-fusion ΔP2X4-C construct was expressed and purified as described above, concentrated and dialysed overnight at 4 °C against three changes of a dialysis buffer containing 20 mM HEPES, pH7.0, 80 mM NaCl, 20 mM KCl, 15% glycerol and 0.5 mM DDM, and stored at −80 °C before use. Measurements of total ATP binding were obtained by adding GFP-fusion ΔP2X4-C to a final concentration of 15 nM in 250 μl dialysis buffer containing 0 to 293 nM 3H-ATP (Perkin Elmer) where the hot ATP was diluted with cold ATP in a ratio of 1:4, yielding a final specific activity of 7.5 Ci/mmol. Samples were incubated at 4 °C overnight and then binding was terminated by filtering through GSWP 02500 nitrocellulose membranes (Millipore) pre-equilibrated with dialysis buffer containing 100 μM cold ATP. The membranes were subsequently washed three times with 2 ml buffer I, transferred to scintillation vials containing 6 ml of Ultima Gold scintillation cocktail (Perkin Elmer), and counted. Estimates of nonspecific binding were obtained by reactions carried out in the presence of 100 μM cold ATP. The determination of specific binding was derived by subtraction of the nonspecific binding from total binding. The entire experiment was performed in triplicate. The data were fit to a rectangular hyperbola using the Graphpad Prism4 program. For [3H]-ATP competition assay, measurements of total ATP binding were obtained by adding 10 nM of GFP-fusion ΔP2X4-C, 10 nM of 3H-ATP (7.5 Ci/mmol) at the final concentration in 250 μl dialysis buffer containing cold nucleotides. Estimates of nonspecific binding were obtained by reactions carried out in the presence of 100 μM cold ATP. Reactions were terminated by filtering, as described above. The entire experiment was performed in triplicate. Data were fit to a sigmoidal dose response equation using the Graphpad Prism4 program.
We thank C. Alexander and D. C. Dawson for providing Xenopus oocytes, K. L. Dürr and T. Friedrich for providing the pCNA3.1x vector, L. Vaskalis for assistance with figure illustrations, K. J. Swartz and M. P. Kavanaugh for advice related to the oocyte experiments, and Gouaux lab members for helpful discussions. We are also grateful to the staff at the Advanced Photon Source beamline 24-ID-C for help with X-ray data collection. This work was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad (M.H.) and by the American Asthma Foundation (E.G.). E.G. is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Author ContributionsM.H. and E.G. contributed to all aspects of the project.
The coordinates and structure factors for the zebrafish apo ΔP2X4-B2 and ATP-bound ΔP2X4-C have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank under the accession codes 4DW0 and 4DW1, respectively. Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints
The authors declare no competing financial interests
Readers are welcome to comment on the online version of this article at www.nature.com/nature | <urn:uuid:00d17254-c175-4f6c-856e-ce36167e0356> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC3391165/?lang=en-ca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207927592.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113207-00255-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915574 | 7,987 | 2.71875 | 3 |
October 1, 2014 – Segment 1
Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the 1964 launch of the Free Speech Movement on the campus of University of California, Berkeley, the 1975 “Thrilla in Manila,” when Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines, and the birth of John Brown Russwurm, abolitionist, Pan-Africanist and newspaper editor.
On this day,
1795 – Belgium is conquered by France
1800 – Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso
1811 – The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans
1843 – The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London
1880 – First electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison
1890 – Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress
1908 – Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of US$825
1910 – The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles, CA by brothers and iron union members John J. and James B. McNamara. 21 people perished and 100 more were injured in the resulting fire.
1928 – The Soviet union introduces its First Five-year plan. The plan was centered around rapid industrialization and initiated the collectivization of agriculture. Stalin is quoted as saying “We are 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us!”
1931 – The George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York opens
1936 – Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain
1939 – Nazi forces enter the city of Warsaw after a month long siege
1946- Mensa International is founded in the United Kingdom
1949 – The Peoples Republic of China is established and declared by Mao Zedong.
1957 – First appearance o In God We trust on U.S paper currency.
1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley
1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time
1971 – The first CT or CAT scan is performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
1975 – Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines
1979 – The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama
1982 – Sony launches the fist consumer compact disc player
1985 – The Israeli Air Force bombs Palestine Liberation Organizations Headquarters in Tunis
1989 – Denmark introduces the world’s first legal modern same-sex civil union called “registered partnership”
1993 – Polly Klaas, 12, was abducted from her Petaluma, California home and was mrdered. Her murder inspired California three strikes law.
1685 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
1799 – John Brown Russwurm, abolitionist, Pan-Africanist and newspaper editor was born, enslaved in Port Antonio Jamaica. Co-founded and co-editor of Freedoms’ Journal an abolitionist newspaper and the first newspaper owned and operated by African Americans.
1808 – Mary Anna Custis Lee, born on this day in Annefield in Clarke County, Virginia She was an American educator; third cousin and wife of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
1893 – Yip Man, Chinese martial artist
1910 – Bonnie Parker, legendary bank robber, born on this day in Rowena, Texas
1912 – Kathleen Ollerenshaw, English mathematician, astronomer, and politician.
1939 – Robert Carruthers, hall of fame physicist and inventor was born on this day in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, hall of fame baseball player, was born in Gatun, Panama Canal Zone.
1864 – Rose O’Neal Greenhow, American Spy
1919 – Princess Charlotte of Prussia (b. 1860)
1972 – Louise Leaky, English, archaeologist and paleontologist (b.1903)
1985 – E.B.White, American journalist and author, (b.1899)
2000 – Reginald Kray, English Gangster (b. 1933)
2013 – Tom Clancy, American author (b.1947)
Sources: The People History; This Day in Labor History; Wikipedia List of Historical Anniversaries; This Day in Women’s History; This Day in African History;History.com; History Orb; Yenoba; Selected Black Facts; Phil Konstantin’s North American Indian History; and This Day in Music | <urn:uuid:d4d628bc-465c-4c63-a92d-a1d45200a12f> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://www.steinershow.org/podcasts/october-1-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221211167.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20180816191550-20180816211550-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.927431 | 963 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Thermoelectrics using nanostructures offers the potential of getting very close to the carnot limit of efficiency using very light weight systems for convert heat to electricity. Early versions of thermoelectrics have been sold for many years but are being rapidly improved. About 90 percent of the world’s power (approximately 10 TW) is generated by heat engines that convert heat to mechanical motion, which can then be converted to electricity when necessary. Such heat engines typically operate at 30-40 percent efficiency, such that ~ 15 TW of heat is lost to the environment To be competitive compared to current engines and refrigerators (efficiency 30-40 percent of Carnot limit), one must develop materials with ZT > 3. For the last 50 years, the ZT of materials has increased only marginally, from about 0.6 to 1, resulting in performance less than 10 percent of Carnot limit. There is no fundamental upper limit to ZT.
Some experts doubt that high ZT materials can reach the levels needed to displace the best current systems. The systems shown here represent an estimate of ‘best practice,’ meaning these values are based on the actual performance of up-to-date systems. The comments for each of the ZT levels seems pessimistic. ZT 2.0 is happening now, so each of the level descriptions should be adjusted.
ZT 2 (happening now, commercial by 2011)
ZT 4 (in lab work, commercial 2012-2015)
ZT 20 (ambitious plausible eventually)
ZT infinity (unknown)
These are not ‘best possible’ values as each of these technologies can be expected to improve going forward. The smallest mechanical engine represented is the ‘Solar/Stirling’ machine at 25 kWe. The others are at least 9 times larger and range up to 1600 MWe for the Nuclear/Brayton+Rankine study.
Typical conversion systems become less efficient as they are scaled down to small size. This means there is a crossover point: below some power level thermoelectric technology will tend to be more efficient. Increasing ZT will move the crossover point to higher power levels, increasing the range of applications where thermoelectrics compete. Thus the ZT of 3 to compete with current best car size and refridgerator mechanical systems.
Higher ZT scores are a way to rank materials. The higher the score then the closer the material is getting to Carnots limit (ultimate efficiency for heat engines)
Many people are aware of the importance of getting material that is stronger and lighter like carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel by weight. Carbon nanotubes will enable the creation of a space elevator for a new age of cheap access to space. Carbon nanotubes are part of the long progress of human material technology that has defined the times. Stone age, bronze age and iron age.
The dominant Power technology has similarly been important in defining human civilizations. The Age of steam and the age of the internal combustion engine. The overall timeline of heat engine technology. The steam engine has not gone away as 50% of electrical power in the USA is still coal power that is heat water to make steam via modern turbines. Most nuclear power plants use steam turbines.
Technology has been advancing by trying to achieve the theoretical efficiency that is possible with the Rankine Cycle
The heat efficiency of engines are limited by carnot efficiency (theoretical maximum) and endoreversible limits (identical to the Carnot cycle except in that the two processes of heat transfer are not reversible)
Some of the ways of getting to higher thermal efficiency are more expensive and less practical. They involve using gases or liquids that are difficult to handle. The internal combustion engine uses the Otto cycle, diesel uses the diesel cycle, jet engines use the Brayton cycle and supersonic ramjets may use the humprey cycle.
Thermoelectrics offer an alternative conversion of heat to electricity which has simplified handling of liquids or gases and which appear to theoretically and experimentally offer a practical path to higher thermal efficiency. They can also be applied to all aspects of heating and cooling. Power from heat as well as more efficient air conditioners and refridgerators. They also can be systems that are cheaper and lighter than current engines for converting heat. Thermoelectrics have been light enough to already have been chosen for energy conversion in space ships where weight was a critical factor. They can also have fewer moving parts, which means that they can breakdown less frequently and be cheaper to maintain. The actual parts where heat is converted to electricity does not move it is solid state. There are no pistons or gears only a tube that brings hot gas or liquid past the thermoelectrics and tubes for cooling the other side.
Very high efficiency thermoelectrics would be a fundamental upgrade to the power technology of civilization which would effect everything related to heat power and cooling.
The first generation of thermoelectrics are already in beer coolers and car seats with a ZT of 0.7 or less.
The second generation of thermoelectrics will be air conditioners and co-generators in cars with most in power ranges of 100watts to 5kw with ZT 1 to 3. They will be commercial from 2009-2015. (Others had targeted a 2011-2012 start, but progress appears to be going better)
The third generation of thermoelectrics will be replacements for combustion engines or will be significant boosters of efficiency for cars and powerplants and industrial processes. ZT of 4-20. They will be commercial and having wide impact from 2015 onwards. (Others had targeted a 2020 start, but progress appears to be going better.)
Fourth generation thermoelectrics if possible would be able to replace large powerplant thermal converters. ZT 20+.
Second, third and fourth generation thermoelectrics would help to increase the energy of higher temperature RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) for space vehicles. Most RTGs have been 10% efficient. Advanced thermoelectrics would boost higher temperature RTGs to 40-50% efficiency. RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmanned or unmaintained situations needing a few hundred watts or less of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries and generators to provide economically, and in places where solar cells are not viable. The advanced thermoelectrics would expand that superior power range to tens or hundreds of kilowatts.
There was the recent announcement from Ohio state University of a material for converting heat to electricity which could enable a 10% increase in car fuel efficiency and that they could soon increase it to achieve 15% improved fuel efficiency. This is 3-4 years from commercialization. Almost all the recent improvements (which have been many significant ones) to thermoelectric materials have come with a decrease in their thermal conductivity. Heremans and his colleagues increased the voltage that the materials create.
There is a lot of existing thermoelectric successes and many promising research projects. Ultrananocrystalline dispersed doped diamond (now available in kg quantities) could achieve a ZT of 4 at 1200C-2000C. This would enable conversion of over 40% of heat to electricity. Getting over 30% heat to electricity would make it practical to replace combustion engines with thermoelectrics.
BMW has found that re-purposing the otherwise wasted exhaust heat to power a thermoelectric generator generating up to 1kW could be used to reduce real-world fuel consumption by as much as 5%. The benefit comes from storing the electricity and using it to pre-heat the engine or power the air-conditioning systems.
Honda’s similar work on the Rankine Cycle [non-thermoelectric form of waste heat capture], which uses exhaust gas to heat water, creating steam that spins a turbine to generate electricity, has found as much as 32kW can be generated by the method, though the weight penalty for the device reduces fuel efficiency benefits to 3.8% at a 100km/h (62mph) cruise in a 2.0L direct-injection petrol four-cylinder.
The Freedom car project which has a portion for researching thermoelectrics is funded for $1.7 billion over 5 years. Cummins (big diesel engine company), GM, Argonne national labs working with the DOE developing and commercializing thermoelectrics.
Thermoelectrics can be used to make zonal air conditioning which would use 700Watts per person instead of 3500-4000Watts for the whole car. 3000 watts for five people will come out 2012 (early target range of 2012-2015). Thermoelectric (TE) HVAC enables the use of distributed cooling/heating units. This approach would cool/heat the specific number of occupants rather than the whole cabin and its components. In addition to decreasing engine load and thus increasing vehicle efficiency, TE HVAC will reduce or eliminate the need for conventional air conditioning working fluids, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Michigan State University has been working with materials with a ZT 1.6-1.8 at 650-700K since late 2007. This is better than what was announced at Ohio university. Michigan State is targeting materials with a ZT 2.6 @ 800K.
Argonne labs working boron doped diamond in Kg quantities. Think they can get ZT over 4 working at 1200-2000C. Temp differentials that high would be like 40+% heat to electricity.
John LaGrandeur, BSST Waste Heat Recovery Program Development of a 100-Watt High-Temperature Thermoelectric Generator John LaGrandeur, BSST LLC
Development of Thermoelectric Technology for Automotive Waste Heat Recovery at General Motors.
GM has 350Watt avg systems on a truck 3% fuel savings can get to 4% with better integration.The near term target is 10% fuel savings
Efficiency Improvement in an Over-the-Road Diesel-Powered Engine System by the Application of Advanced Thermoelectric Systems Implemented in a Hybrid Configuration Harold Schock, Michigan State University
From Feb 2008. Had ZT 1.6-1.8 at 650-700K. Targeting ZT 2.6 at 800K
Research has been funded for the development of ultrananocrystalline dispersed doped diamond (now
available in kg quantities).
Stable to > 1200°C, mechanically robust
Electrical conductivity increased by heat treatment and boron additions
Seebeck and thermal conductivity measurements in progress
Potential of ZT>4 Bulk TE produced by surface catalyzed reaction with
hydrocarbon molecules binds UNCD particles together covalently in an
sp2 bonded nanocarbon network
Inexpensive, non-toxic, environmentally benign
Future Directions – Long-range program
– Powder consolidation
– Atmospheres (argon initially, then methane, and hydrogen)
– Temperature (might be as high as 2000°C)
– Doping (p and n type)
Advanced aerodynamic solutions are also being developed and should be capable of being economically mass-produced, safe, and amenable to the broad commercial truck market. Factory installed aerodynamic solutions expected to achieve a 20% reduction in trailer aerodynamic drag or 15% improvement in overall fuel economy of the tractor/trailer combination shall be available for purchase by truck fleets within 2 1/2 years from project start date, according to the DOE. | <urn:uuid:fcaeef5b-0a1d-478e-8d93-79b0f9928279> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/07/commericalization-of-large.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609537308.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005217-00441-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931927 | 2,393 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Burkina Faso, formerly Upper Volta, lies north of Ghana in western Africa. This landlocked former French colony, which has a population of about 17 million as of 2013, lacks a modern infrastructure, but it packs plenty of interesting culture. Burkina Faso finds its identity in cultural diversity – the name of the country itself derives from no less than three different languages, a striking symbol of cultural unity.
Extreme diversity defines the cultural landscape in Burkina Faso, as more than 60 distinct ethnic groups share the country. Half of the country's population identify with the Mossi, a Moore-speaking culture with states in Burkina Faso dating back to the early 1300s. Roughly 8 percent of people in Burkina Faso are Fulani, the second-largest segment of the population. This tribal, nomadic culture traces its roots back thousands of years and was partially responsible for the spread of the Islam throughout western Africa. Other major cultural and ethnic groups include the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo and Mande. Because of this diversity, intermixing and cultural tolerance are the norm in Burkina Faso.
Most Fulani, and about half of the Burkinabe population in general, follow Islam to some degree of orthodoxy. In Fulani culture, the wealthy tend to follow religion more closely than the poorer and more secular members of the population. About 10 to 15 percent of Burkinabes are Christians, mostly Catholic, while about 40 percent of the country believes in traditional spirituality. Traditional Mossi and west African religion revolves around a “High God,” who serves as the creator of the universe but does not intervene in day-to-day life. These beliefs focus more on lesser supernatural powers that have a hand in daily life, chiefly in the areas of rainfall and soil fertility. Mossi religion also focuses on ancestry, as family members who have passed on are thought to influence the success of their living descendants. Other native Burkinabe cultures hold traditional spiritual beliefs such as animism.
Traditionally, the sociopolitical beliefs of the Mossi and Fulani revolved around patriarchal clans, with ruling positions awarded based on lineage or competition. A secular, parliamentary republic governs modern Burkina Faso. This young democracy's constitution established a semi-presidential government in 1991. The Burkinabe government is a strong patron of the arts, and continues to develop its educational efforts.
The Arts in Burkina Faso
The Burkinabe culture has a strong passion for the arts, specifically film. The country's filmmaking industry dates back to the 1960s, and its capital, Ouagadougou, is a central location for African filmmaking. Each year, the city hosts the major media event, Festival Panafrican du Cinema et de la Television de Ouagadougou, or FESPACO. Burkinabe people are also passionate equestrians – some local myths attribute the creation of the country to the arrival of a princess on horseback – and musicians, with common instruments including the stringed kora, djembe drums, baorgo horns and the xylophone-like balafon.
- U.S. Department of State: Travel.State.gov: Burkina Faso: Country Specific Information
- Our Africa: Burkina Faso: People and Culture
- University of California Los Angeles College of Letters and Sciences, Division of Social Sciences: Mossi
- The University of Iowa: Fulani Information
- World Missionary Atlas Project: Burkina Faso: Snapshots Section
- WPA Pool/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:2caa8172-5f8d-47a7-b2af-a6b89ae69565> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://classroom.synonym.com/cultural-beliefs-burkina-faso-6521.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948512054.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20171211014442-20171211034442-00635.warc.gz | en | 0.921382 | 744 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The pygmy angelfish, Centropyge argi, also called the cherub fish, is one of the few relatively reef safe angelfish from the Caribbean. Just how reef safe they are might be debated, but because of their small size they dont pose much of a threat to corals or other non mobile invertebrates. There is a strain of these fish that can get up three inches long, but this strain rarely gets 2 long. These are a beautiful dark purple fish with a splash of yellow or orange around their mouth and operculum. The dorsal and ventral fins are usually lined with a light blue color, but not always.
In an aquarium these fish are very easy to care for and will eat most prepared foods. They will be eating small pellets when they leave our shop, so they should start feeding right away for you.
In the wild they often live in colonies with one dominant male and a bunch of females, but I would not recommend more than one fish per tank . They have been successfully bred in captivity, but only the most sophisticated aquarists have had any luck raising the babies.
Please Note: Any new fish purchased from us or from a local pet store should to be quarantined. All fish from anywhere in the wild can be possible carriers of bacteria and protozoa that can lead to an infection in your system, so we always recommend that you use some sort of quarantine system prior to adding them to your system. If you have a fish only system and can medicate the whole system, you may not need a separate quarantine tank. If you have a reef system that cannot be medicated, a good ultraviolet sterilization system should prevent any kind of disease outbreak. We medicate our system for bacterial infections and protozoans, but because we dont always hold our fish for long periods of time, there is no way to be sure all the protozoan cysts have been killed. A little bit of prevention will save you lots of trouble down the line. | <urn:uuid:30002ba2-d51a-4bbd-af39-b9c60b7818ca> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://www.kpaquatics.com/product/pigmy-angel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320763.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626133830-20170626153830-00512.warc.gz | en | 0.952386 | 410 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Optimizing the boiler start time based on the outside temperatures can help you drive down energy bills
Saving energy and money by optimizing the way in which a central heating system works should be very high on the priority list for all home or business owners, considering the fact that energy prices have started to go up again.
If your current heating is controlled by a time clock, it turns on your boiler so that rooms are warm at a specific time. It does this irrespective of the outside temperature – because it doesn’t know it. A number of traditional BMS systems do this too, while some have something called “adaptive start” which goes someway towards taking into account the outside temperature.
Why is the outside temperature important? Well, in winter, the outside temperature 1st thing in the morning can be -5°C on one day and +12°C the next, so HeatingSave calculates the “heat loss profile” of your specific building using the current outside and inside temperature to work out the absolute latest time to switch on the boiler for the rooms to be warm for when you want them. Equally, HeatingSave switches off the boiler early on warm days at the end of the heating period.
Normal central heating time clocks turn on the central heating the same time every day irrespective of
• the outside weather conditions
• the residual heat within the heating zone or building
• the heat loss profile of the heating zone or building
Within HeatingSave each heating zone is managed independently; a heating zone defined as area within a building, a hot water cylinder(s) or even the whole building itself. The reason why time clocks cannot manage heating to this level is because they are dumb with no intelligence and many BMS systems can’t reach this level of control either.
Heating Save is different. It has a mathematical algorithm (a series of quadratic equations) which have been designed to calculate and “learn” the heat loss profile of any heating zone. So long as the plumbing allows the control of the flow of heat into the zone, HeatingSave can calculate the heat loss profile of the zone. Armed with this information, the HeatingSave controller works out the latest time to switch on the heating for the given conditions, so as to reach the temperature you have set for a given time.
In practice, HeatingSave will start the boiler later on warm days and/or if the zone has a large amount of residual heat, and starts the boiler earlier if the building is cold or its cold outside. The reverse happens at the end of a heating period. Here, heating to a zone is switched off early if the residual heat within the zone can be maintained at the required temperature until the end of the heating period.
As can be seen from the picture top right, the HeatingSave algorithm is learning and refining its decision making process every day it’s in operation, all the time keeping at the right comfort conditions whilst saving the maximum amount of heating fuel. | <urn:uuid:f31ca8dd-cbf9-4bee-b310-518863fca57d> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.heatingsave.co.uk/news/optimizing-boiler-start-time-based-temperatures-drive-energy-bills/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948529738.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20171213162804-20171213182804-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.940429 | 620 | 2.78125 | 3 |
At a Techonomy conference in San Fransisco, Bill Gates was asked by an audience member whether he thinks that online schools may become more prominent than traditional schools. In his response, he outlined the following points:
- An important reality of K-12 education is that part of its function is to care for the students so that parents can go about their workdays. For this reason online education will never supercede traditional schooling for the K-12 segment.
- In K-12 districts which struggle to meet academic goals, highly immersive education practices (boarding schools) could be successful.
- In contrast, for college students there are already very effective online courses. “The self-motivated learner will be on the web.”
- Especially given the increasing costs of higher education, only technology will provide the answer for our goal of providing every student with the level of education that they want to pursue.
Will online education ever supercede classroom education?
You have to look at different phases, where K-12 is partly about babysitting the kids so the parents can do other things. So, having the kids go to a common place for K-12 – I don’t predict some radical change in that.
You know, homeschooling is about 3 or 4 percent and it keeps getting better. In fact, they are in the cutting edge of using some of these tools and getting feedback for those. But actually some of the best charter schools are these boarding schools, where you completely immerse the kid in the learning ethic.
In KIPP [Knowledge Is Power Program] – all high performance charter schools which have come at it in different ways – they are all long school days. KIPP, which is kind of an exemplar – very long school day, you come in on every Saturday, you come in three weeks in the summer – you create a whole immersion environment.
So if you want to take inner city 5th grade kids and get them to think “learning is what I’m about, it’s fun, I do it with other kids,” you need to have at least 80% of their waking hours devoted to your thing or else you loose. So these charter schools do that.
That is very different from college courses. If all of you want to learn about global warming, go to Teach12, there’s a 6-hour course that they have. It really goes through the basic science and how it works and what the kids should know in a very effective way.
The self-motivated learner will be on the web and there will be far less place-based lessons. In fact, you can get feedback after the discussion; then you have video, you have bulletin boards, and you have all sorts of things that a college (except for the parties) needs to be less place-based.
After all, what we are trying to do? We’re trying to take the education that today, the tuition is say, $50,000 a year, so over four years, that’s a $200,000 education. That is increasingly hard to get because there’s less money for it; the capacity is not there. We are trying to provide it to every kid who wants it, and only technology can bring that down not just to $20,000 but to $2,000.
So yes, place-based activity in that college thing will be five times less important than it is today. When you take K-9 I don’t see a change, the way we do the hybrid of bringing technology into the learning environment so half the class is doing Khan Academy and half the class is doing the discussion groups. We’re funding a lot of people to try that. The room for innovation – thank God for charters, there’s no room for innovation in the standard system – we’re getting some experimentation, but there should be about 20 times as much as there is.
Written by Valerie Schirmer | <urn:uuid:5719d9ed-ce3f-458d-9904-1409f219acaa> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | http://accredited-online-colleges.org/bill-gates-on-online-versus-traditional-schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867140.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20180525160652-20180525180652-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.969193 | 835 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Posthumous portrait painted by Michael Pacher in cirka 1490.
A wealthy heiress, Mary of Burgundy was one of the most eligible bachelorettes of her time, so wealthy that she was even called “Mary the Rich”, and desired by the French king as a wife to his son, the dauphin. However, a life as queen did not appeal to the young duchess, especially not when the future king was thirteen years her senior! So she defied the king himself, and allied herself with the Netherlands who forced her to sign what is known as “The Great Privilege”.
Mary was born on the 13th of February 1457 to Charles the Bold and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, in Brussels. She proved to be the only child her father ever would beget, in spite of him having three wives throughout his life. This made Mary the heiress to the vast Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries, and a sought-after bride. When she was only five years old, her father received a marriage proposal from Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine was also a suitor as he wished for the two domains to become one. Later also the French King Louis XI’s brother Charles made an offer, which infuriated the French king who actually attempted to prevent the necessary Papal dispensation for consanguinity. However, when Louis XI himself finally had a son, Charles who would later be Charles VIII of France, he wanted him to be the one to marry Mary, who was thirteen years older than the dauphin.
In 1577, Mary’s father died, making her Duchess of Burgundy in her own right (her mother had died in 1465). She was nineteen then, and would turn twenty within a month. At the death of her father, the French king tried to force her into a marriage with the dauphin, but her stepmother, Margaret of York (sister of Edward VII of England) advised her to turn to the Netherlands for help against Louis XI. The Netherlands were willing to help, but only if she signed what was to be known as “The Great Privilege”, which returned significant control and rights to localities in the Netherlands. This agreement required the approval of the States to raise taxes, declare war or make peace. Such was the hatred of the people for the old regime that two of her father's influential councilors, the Chancellor Hugonet and the Sire d'Humbercourt, having been discovered in correspondence with the French king, were executed at Ghent despite the tears and entreaties of the young duchess.
Probably feeling somewhat lost and alone, Mary decided to find a husband among her suitors, and her choice fell on the Archduke Maximilian of Austria who would later become Holy Roman Emperor, though this after Mary’s death. They were married on the 18th of August 1577 at Ghent. As a result, her lands became part of the Habsburg empire. In the Netherlands, affairs now went more smoothly, the French aggression was temporarily checked, and internal peace was in a large measure restored.
The marriage proved fruitful – Mary gave birth to their first child Philip (who would be known as Philip the Handsome and marry Juana of Castile, the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand and older sister to Katherine of Aragon) eleven months after their marriage. A daughter, Margaret, followed in 1480, and another son Franz who unfortunately died as an infant.
Only five years into their marriage, Mary died after an accident when she was out falconing with her husband and her horse tripped and fell, landing on the Archduchess, and breaking her back. She died on the 27th of March 1482, having made a detailed will. She was only twenty-five years old. Mary of Burgundy is buried in The Church of Our Lady in Bruges. | <urn:uuid:5efefb20-d40c-4b29-b852-df759e247835> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | http://royalwomen.blogspot.com/2011/04/mary-of-burgundy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964359037.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20211130141247-20211130171247-00435.warc.gz | en | 0.989794 | 829 | 2.96875 | 3 |
A bit of history...
The history of diamond cuts can be traced to the late Middle Ages in Europe, and before that in Asia and what would become India and the Middle east.
At first in Europe the octahedral rough crystals were popular as they had a shape that could be easily set into jewelry. Many times, they would have colored foils glued to the back to give them color.
About the middle of the 14th century in Europe, gem cutters were discovering how to simply shape diamonds. As technology improved, you could also see improvements in the shapes of diamonds. By the 18th century, diamonds were being cut that would take advantage of the particular properties of the gem to better reflect light back out of the gems.
It was shortly after the budding science of optics was beginning that a young diamond cutter by the name of Marcel Tolkowsky sat down and using math figured out the optimal proportions and symmetry to best cut a diamond. This was in 1919. It was another couple of decades before technology could catch up and the equipment existed to cut diamonds to these exact dimensions.
This is what for many decades was called the "Ideal Cut". At that time, fashion and people who could afford diamonds preferred more color and less brightness than we do today. The original "Ideal Cut" had a table that was only about 53% or the width of the diamond. Today, most ideal cut diamonds are in the 58% range for the table.
GIA in the late 1990's started a project to Mathematically model a diamond with a computer. The goal was to determine what is the best way to cut a gem. They discovers that with only slight changes in symmetry, there is no one "perfect" cut.
A diamondís cut is crucial to the stoneís final beauty and value
Diamonds are renowned for their ability to transmit light and sparkle so intensely. We often think of a diamondís cut as shape (round, heart, oval, marquise, pear), but a diamondís cut grade is really about how well a diamondís facets interact with light.
Precise artistry and workmanship are required to fashion a stone so its proportions, symmetry and polish deliver the magnificent return of light only possible in a diamond.
The Cut is what Makes Your Stone Dance
A diamond's cut is crucial to the stone's final beauty and value. Of all the 4Cs, Cut is the most complex and technically difficult to analyze.
GIA's Interactive Tool
Understanding Cut, Polish and Symmetry
To determine the cut grade of the standard round brilliant diamond Ė the shape that dominates the majority of diamond jewelry Ė GIA calculates the proportions of those facets that influence the diamondís face-up appearance. These proportions allow GIA to evaluate how successfully a diamond interacts with light to create desirable visual effects such as:
- Light that is reflected back to your eye through the table of your diamond. This is what you see as the brightness of the diamond.
- The spectral colors of the rainbow. this comes from the light being reflected back and forth from the facets that surround the table. it is this light that you see as all the colors of the rainbow.
- This is the sparkle. In a well cut diamond, this is what causes that "POP" that people see from across the room. Remember that diamonds reflect light better than most gems, and the Scintillation you see is from changes in the position of the light source, the diamond, and your eye change.
- GIA also takes into account the design and craftsmanship of the diamond, including its weight relative to its diameter, its girdle thickness (which affects its durability), the symmetry of its facet arrangement, and the quality of polish on those facets.
The GIA Diamond Cut Scale for standard round brilliant diamonds in the D-to-Z diamond color range contains 5 grades ranging from Excellent to Poor. | <urn:uuid:1d29ebcd-078c-4837-aceb-0defe98c23ec> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://livingstonjewelers.com/cut.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541288287.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20191214174719-20191214202719-00231.warc.gz | en | 0.964299 | 801 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Monday, April 1, 2013
Critical Thinking: Non-Verbal Elements of Argument: Argument and Demonstrations, Symbols and Metaphors
In the previous section we talked about the 3 principles of communication and how we should use them to interpret speech acts. Referring to the 3 principles of communication help us to identify hidden arguments, premises, and conclusions. In this next section we will look specific ways that arguments, premises, and conclusions are hidden in non-verbal speech acts (e.g. photographs, video, sculpture, advertising, etc...).
Non-Verbal Elements in Argument
Often non-verbal arguments use "flags" to get us to notice the argument. An argument flag can be powerful music, an evocative image, or even a smell that is not part of the argument but it is something that pulls our attention to the non-verbal argument. Lets consider the following political ad from 1988 to illustrate:
video of political ad
The music is grandiose. But is this part of the argument? No. But the music grabs our attention and gets us to watch the content (i.e., the argument).
We can find argument flags easily in advertising. Maybe a beer commercial has a picture of horses. Is this part of the argument for why we should drink the beer? Probably not. But the image of horses is compelling and so it pull our eye to the ad.
Sometimes the best arguments are presented without words: we call these demonstrations. Suppose my argument is that the butler killed Mr. Green in the kitchen with a candlestick. Instead of using words, I might point to the bloody candlestick, the butler's blood splattered shirt, and his maniacal grin. My argument may be verbalized as, "there is blood on the shirt and candlestick that the butler is holding and he's got that crazy look in his eye, therefore he killed Mr. Green."
Symbols and (Non-Verbal) Metaphors
Symbols are images that represent words, ideas, or arguments. For our purposes we are interested in symbols that represent arguments.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that asserts that one thing is the same in some respects as another unrelated object. You are probably familiar with metaphors in written or spoken language but they can also be found in images. In written language you might say about a close friend "Bob's my dog." Of course you don't literally mean that your friend Bob (a human) is also a dog. You are making a metaphor. Your friend Bob is a loyal friend.
Consider the following example of non-verbal metaphor
This is a metaphor for how certain political interests in South Africa are violating the justice system. Of course they aren't literally raping the justice system, because the justice system isn't a person...
We can interpret this as an argument:
HP1. The ANC Youth League, the ANC, the SACP, and the Labour Federation are all restricting the legal system in a way such that it allows the president Zuma (not to be confused with his latin cousin "Zumba") to violate the justice system.
HC1 Therefore, president Zuma and his co-conspirators are corrupt and
HMC should be opposed.
Lets look at one more example of non-verbal metaphor. Hold on to your hats cuz we're about to get meta up in here. This example is from my favourite 90s TV ad poking fun at how advertisers use metaphor. Jump in my time machine and lets take a look! Wheeeee!
The metaphor that's being made fun of is that drinking soft drinks like Jooky are fun! The argument would look like this:
P1. Some advertisers claim that drinking soft drinks like Jooky is fun.
P2. But you shouldn't chose your drink based on what advertisers claim.
P3. You should chose your drink based on what tastes good.
P4. Spite tastes good.
MC. Therefore, you should drink Sprite.
In advertising and art symbols and metaphors abound as arguments. As critical thinkers we should ask whether they are accurate (especially with metaphors) and if they are comparing relevant qualities.
There are 4 kinds of non-verbal elements of argument: (1) An argument flag draws our attention to the argument; (2) non-verbal demonstrations provide direct evidence for a conclusion; (3) a symbolic reference is a premise or an argument represented as a symbol; (4) a metaphor figuratively ascribes some characteristic to the subject of the metaphor. (Good Reasoning Matters, p. 158) | <urn:uuid:6e124db0-5fd8-4dad-9fd1-b85b02266d23> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2013/04/critical-thinking-non-verbal-elements.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549425339.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725162520-20170725182520-00703.warc.gz | en | 0.908021 | 951 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Candidiasis is a fungal infection due to any type of Candida (a type of yeast). When it affects the mouth, it is commonly called thrush. Signs and symptoms include white patches on the tongue or other areas of the mouth and throat. Other symptoms may include soreness and problems swallowing. When it affects the vagina, it is commonly called a yeast infection. More than 20 types of Candida can cause infection with Candida albicans being the most common.
Related Journals: Microbes and Infection, Emerging Microbes & Infections, Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology, Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology, Archives of Clinical Microbiology, Virology & Mycology | <urn:uuid:79be92fc-bf77-4893-85f9-891cd3451e17> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://www.hilarispublisher.com/scholarly/candidiases-journals-articles-ppts-list-1340.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107893011.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20201027023251-20201027053251-00125.warc.gz | en | 0.84249 | 152 | 3.453125 | 3 |
In his 1997 proclamation of a state "Tartan Day," Governor James Hunt stated that North Carolina had more people of Scottish heritage than any other state or country in the world (including Scotland). While Americans of Scottish descent do outnumber Scots in Scotland, which has a population of just over five million, California now claims the greatest number of residents of Scottish descent (partly by having attracted the most Scottish expatriates). Nonetheless, North Carolina does remain one of the states with the highest percentage of its population claiming trans-generational awareness of Scottish ancestry and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, is the state with the highest percentage of inhabitants self-identifying as Scots Irish. The greatest concentration of Scots Irish is in the west of the state, from Charlotte through the mountains.
Three Scottish ethnic groups settled in North Carolina with different cultural backgrounds and different reasons for immigrating. Lowland Scots tended to settle along the eastern seaboard with the English and to make their way into Appalachia for mercantile interests, particularly from Wilmington and Charleston. More Highlanders came to North Carolina than any other state and settled predominantly in the flat sandhills of the Cape Fear River Valley. The Scots Irish came to the mountains via the "Great Wagon Road" from Pennsylvania. Estimates vary, but at least a third of North Carolina’s mountain population was of Scots-Irish origin prior to the Civil War. They brought with them the folktales, ballads, farming strategies and some of the vernacular architectural traditions that would come to characterize the Southern Appalachian region. The ethnonym "Scotch-Irish" (Scots Irish) was first employed to distinguish Patriot Ulster Scots from Highland Scots (mostly Loyalists) and later to distinguish between Protestant Scots from Ulster and the Catholic "Famine Irish." The distinctiveness of these three ethnic groups is often elided today in contemporary heritage celebrations, as Scottish Americans commemorate ancestral Scots with the colorful material culture and expressive arts of Highland Scots. When North Carolina’s Scottish heritage revival developed in the 1950s, Hugh Morton had his camera poised and his photos chart the growth of a cultural movement across almost five decades.
The style of heritage events are largely creations of "Highlandism" a type of romanticism peculiar to Scotland that developed long after the ancestors of many of today’s Scottish Americans had emigrated. Sentimentalizing the Jacobite Lost Cause and the final defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s predominantly Highland army in 1746 at Culloden Moor, Highlandism led non-Gaelic-speaking Lowlanders who were not part of the clan system to forsake the ancient Highland/Lowland cultural divide and embrace bagpipes as a national symbol, don tartans and experiment with highly accessorized new versions of the kilt. Likewise, the landscapes of the Highlands, once considered "wild" and "ungodly," became the stereotypical image of Scotland. Today, even Scottish Americans of Lowland or Scots-Irish ancestry may happily compete in Highland Games, join societies modeled on the Highland clan system, and sport "clan tartans" (though the association of clan name and tartan pattern was largely devised in the nineteenth century).
Since the Scots Irish formed the largest Scottish presence in the mountains, the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain in Linville might at first seem more "in" Appalachia than "of" it. Yet the conceiver of the event, Agnes MacRae Morton (mother of Hugh Morton), was a descendant of Highland Scots who immigrated to Wilmington in 1770. She co-founded the event with journalist Donald F. MacDonald in 1956, never expecting it to achieve the significance it has for Scottish Americans nationwide. MacDonald had recently attended Scotland’s most prestigious event, the Braemar Highland Gathering, which served as his model, and the Grandfather Games have since become known as "America’s Braemar." The first year’s Highland dancing competition drew only as many dancers as there were prizes and took place only because MacDonald himself performed a "Highland Fling," which Hugh Morton captured. The first event took place on August 19th, being a significant Jacobite anniversary (the 1745 raising of Prince Charlie’s standard at Glenfinnan), but eventually moved to the weekend following the Fourth of July. The Games now annually attract more than twenty thousand visitors to "MacRae Meadows" for four days of events, during which many North American Scottish clan associations hold their annual general meetings.
Citing the Robert Burns line "from scenes like these old Scotia’s grandeur springs," organizers attribute the event’s success to the Scotland-like setting and have adopted a tartan specifically created for the event with a green, grey, and blue sett (pattern) symbolic of the Grandfather Mountain landscape. Participants universally comment on the perceived resemblance of Grandfather Mountain to a Scotland romanticized in the nineteenth century as "the land of mountain and stream." In lieu of the ultimate pilgrimage to physically experience ancestral lands in Scotland, Scottish Americans claim to visit the Grandfather Highland Games to see "a wee bit of the Scottish Highlands" in America. Perching bagpipers on its highest peaks and photographing the mountain from the most spectacular vantage points with the event field and surrounding clan society tents nestled at its base, Morton capitalized on this appeal.
Enshrining this sense of clan lands at Linville, the Games field has accumulated its own toponyms: "pulpit rock" is the scene of the annual Sunday "kirkin of the tartan" (a church service); military re-enactors claim a portion of the camp grounds known as "Jacobite Glen" and musicians play day and night in wooded areas called the "Celtic Groves." Geopious descendants of the eighteenth-century Highland Scots who settled in the Cape Fear Valley erected memorial cairns at local churches to honor their immigrant ancestors and, in 1994, the tradition came to MacRae Meadows. The memorial cairn on Grandfather Mountain has inset panels with seventy-four polished stones contributed by as many clan societies, most brought from the clans’ homelands in Scotland.
In the mid-1960s, efforts to instill a "sense of Scottish place" in the North Carolina mountains had included plans by Agnes MacRae Morton and her son Julian Morton to build a two thousand acre Scottish village at Linville. Never completed, "Invershiel" took its name from Clan MacRae territory in the Scottish Highlands, a place by Loch Duich and near the site of the decisive 1719 Jacobite battle in Glen Shiel. With the success of the Highland Games, Hugh Morton’s brother Julian spent ten years planning the development, and traveled to Scotland to design a delightful pastiche of architectural traditions from across the country. Buildings alternately combined sod and thatched roofs common across the Highlands and Aberdeenshire with chimney pots of the Lowlands and leaded glass windows copied from Stirling Castle, or employed crowstepped gables and pantiled roofs with "riggin" (ridge tiles) and walls constructed with local stone to imitate Scottish "rubble build."
The photo included here is of Agnes MacRae Morton’s "Croft House" (a farm house, if somewhat deluxe) and was one of several of Hugh Morton’s photos appearing in a 1967 Palm Beach Life feature on the Invershiel project. Most eastern Scottish burghs had "tolbooths" which were usually near a cross designating the local market area (the "mercat cross"). Tolls on market good were conveniently collected at these sites which also served as home to the burgh council, the sheriff court and the jail. At Linville today, the "tolbooth" from the Invershiel development is the centerpiece of the local shopping complex.
For an almost a half-century from the beginning of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games into the twenty-first century, Hugh Morton documented the Scottish scene in and around Linville. Described as "a workaholic’s workaholic," Mr. Morton nevertheless always spared time to talk with researchers interested in the various subjects he had photographed and generously gave them permission to use his photos in too many books to mention. His archives will continue to be a rich resource for scholars. With particular regard to the Scottish-American community, his photography records both continuity and change in visions of "heritage" and also documents the creation of the Scottish place at MacRae Meadows — now considered a cultural omphalos for Scottish Americans from across the country. | <urn:uuid:1edfb674-8e83-47f6-b492-d8294feafe7f> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://ncpedia.org/anchor/scottish-heritage-linville | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178369420.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20210304143817-20210304173817-00036.warc.gz | en | 0.960816 | 1,787 | 3.765625 | 4 |
During World War II, the Jefferson Nickel series underwent a significant change. Since nickel was identified as a strategic metal for the war effort, the composition of the five cent piece was changed to a composition of 35% silver, 9% manganese, and 56% copper. The Silver War Nickels minted from 1942 to 1945 create an interesting short set within the broader series.
Production of the first “Wartime Nickels” began at the Philadelphia Mint on October 8, 1942. Earlier in the year nickels had been produced with their standard compositions. To identify the coins struck with the new composition, a large sized mint mark was placed on the reverse of the coins, above Monticello. The mintmarks “P”, “D”, or “S” were used for the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints. Notably, this was the first time that a mint mark had been used for coins produced in Philadelphia.
Silver Jefferson Nickels were produced through 1945, after which point the composition would revert to the previous standard. During the four years of production, the US Mint had struck more than 870 million of the 35% silver nickels. A complete set will include 11 coins, 1942 P-S, 1943 P-D-S, 1944-P-D-S, and 1945 P-D-S. The 1942-P Silver Jefferson Nickel was also struck in proof format with a mintage of 27,600 coins. All coins remain readily available even in uncirculated grades, although some issues are more difficult to find with full steps. | <urn:uuid:279f5c8f-77db-4698-923b-ef5bd25b8f77> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://jeffersonnickel.org/1942-1945-silver-war-nickels/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170600.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00508-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970707 | 334 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Climate scientists and environmentalists have claimed for years droughts and heatwaves were getting worse because of man-made global warming, but those predictions have not come true, according to a new study.
“Evidence that droughts have become more prevalent on a global scale is equally hard to come by,” Andrew Montford, a British author and global warming skeptic, wrote in a new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Montford’s report debunks many claims advanced by activists that droughts and heatwaves were getting worse, citing examples of alarmism playing out across the world and costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Ultimately, droughts and heatwaves have not gotten worse globally, according to Montford, and even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ climate bureaucracy, has backed off alarmist claims of worsening weather.
The IPCC, which is regarded by many scientists and activists as the world’s foremost authority on global warming, reported in 2007 that droughts were more common due to human-driven warming. But in 2013, the IPCC changed its tone when it said “[c]onfidence is low for a global-scale observed trend in drought or dryness (lack of rainfall) since the middle of the 20th century, owing to lack of direct observations, methodological uncertainties and geographical inconsistencies in the trends.”
The IPCC was only able to show increases in drought in a few regions, while other regions showed a marked decrease in droughts.
“Based on updated studies, [the IPCC’s 2007] conclusions regarding global increasing trends in drought since the 1970s were probably overstated,” the IPCC admitted in 2013. “However, this masks important regional changes: the frequency and intensity of drought have likely increased in the Mediterranean and West Africa and likely decreased in central North America and north-west Australia since 1950.”
Interestingly enough, Australian politicians were motivated by alarmist claims from the IPCC and environmentalists to invest billions of dollars in desalination plants when the country was struck by a particularly harsh drought a few years ago. The country is now stuck with paying for nearly $4 billion in mothballed water infrastructure.
Those massive desalination projects will cost Queensland, Australia taxpayers $150 million in interest payments and $33 million in maintenance costs.
“Drought makes for powerful images, with dusty landscapes and parched earth a staple of the fundraising efforts of both environmentalists, the public relations efforts of academics and the posturing of politicians,” Montford wrote. “But as the rains wash the drought away and cool days replace hot ones, and as the desalination plants are quietly mothballed, life goes on much as it always has, with farmers and the general public quietly adapting to whatever the weather throws at them.”
Without the backing of the IPCC, global warming activists have taken to claiming global warming-induced droughts caused war to break out in Syria in 2011. That line of argument has even been taken up by the Obama administration to justify new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Military experts, however, have heavily criticized such claims, and even climate scientists have argued global warming played little to no role in sparking Syria’s civil war. The real culprit, according to experts, was politics, not drought.
“The tendency of climate scientists to make apocalyptic claims based on the output of computer simulations is thoroughly to be regretted, as indeed are the tendencies of environmentalists to use these wild statements to promote their own fundraising efforts and of politicians to act upon them,” Montford wrote.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:81f6f010-22d4-469d-8cf5-7e9130eb9e97> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/25/paper-droughts-heat-waves-are-not-getting-worse-like-alarmists-predicted/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818690211.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170924205308-20170924225308-00711.warc.gz | en | 0.957119 | 794 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The first full-length study of the impact of the discovery of the Americas on Italian Renaissance art and culture, Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence demonstrates that the Medici grand dukes of Florence were not only great patrons of artists but also early conservators of American culture.
In collecting New World objects such as featherwork, codices, turquoise, and live plants and animals, the Medici grand dukes undertook a “vicarious conquest” of the Americas. As a result of their efforts, Renaissance Florence boasted one of the largest collections of objects from the New World as well as representations of the Americas in a variety of media. Through a close examination of archival sources, including inventories and Medici letters, Lia Markey uncovers the provenance, history, and meaning of goods from and images of the Americas in Medici collections, and she shows how these novelties were incorporated into the culture of the Florentine court.
More than just a study of the discoveries themselves, this volume is a vivid exploration of the New World as it existed in the minds of the Medici and their contemporaries. Scholars of Italian and American art history will especially welcome and benefit from Markey’s insight.
Penn State University Press | <urn:uuid:8b479351-815a-450d-98a8-404f7a6d0ded> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://bookslibland.net/imagining-the-americas-in-medici-florence-pdf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141197593.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129093434-20201129123434-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.93532 | 256 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Why are so many people drawn to conspiracy theories in times of crisis?
Verified by Psychology Today
Literature, neuroscience, and the constructive brain.
Hal McDonald Ph.D.
Research suggests that nostalgia can help us cope with the emotional stresses that troubled times can inflict on us.
New research suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, failure may actually undermine rather than promote learning.
The simple act of saying “thank you” may make us prey for the powerful by robbing us of our will to protest injustice, recent research finds.
Looking back on our childhood can help us live more fully in the present moment.
A new study reveals that a coin toss can speed up our decision-making process by reducing our need for information.
Memories of meaningful experiences from our past can help us deal with anxiety over troubled times ahead.
New research suggests that reading and writing about coffee may affect how we think.
Research indicates that as we age, retrieving past memories becomes less voluntary. Instead, we become more dependent on external cues such as smells and sounds.
Attempts to resurrect old TV shows and movies often flop because they appeal to the wrong kind of nostalgia.
A new study suggests that creativity means soaring while we're still attached to the ground.
New research suggests that backward motion, whether real, virtual, or imaginary, can improve our recall of the recent past.
While multitasking is a demonstrably inefficient way of getting things done, the illusion that we are multitasking can actually improve rather than impede our efficiency.
New research suggests that the brain’s hippocampus acts like a movie director to transform the minutes that we live through into the moments we remember.
A recent study suggests that social media “likes” are just as rewarding to give as to receive.
Acting out figurative expressions of creativity can literally make us more creative.
A recent study shows that consuming caffeine increases entropy, or disorder, in your brain, and that's not a bad thing.
A recent study demonstrates that listening to melodies can modulate the way our brains process visual information.
New research shows that a positive outlook on the future creates positive memories to look back on when the future becomes the past.
Savoring a present experience may support emotion regulation by creating nostalgic memories for us to enjoy in the future.
Even before they can talk, infants are capable of using logical reasoning to form and test hypotheses about uncertain future events.
A recent study suggests that commitment to long-term romantic relationships is more about the brain than the heart.
Recent brain imaging studies have revealed that distinguishing between truth, deceit, and irony requires the activation of distinct neural networks.
A recent study suggests that a strong emotional response to sad music is associated with high empathy.
Imagining multiple versions of our future can prepare us to cope with it when it arrives—and improve our mood while we're waiting.
A chance encounter with a forgotten song from one’s forgotten past contains three key ingredients for a positively potent—and potently positive—memory experience.
Nostalgia is an aesthetic form of memory, and our relation to our nostalgic memories is much like that of a painter to a work of art.
A recent neuroimaging study demonstrates that the different types of voice information contained in the sentences we speak and hear are processed through different neural pathways.
It's a well-known, unfortunate fact of life that some of our memory functions decline as we age, but recent studies suggest there may be a silver lining to that gray cloud.
How negative emotions can improve your memory.
What Waffle House hash browns can teach us about the origins of human consciousness.
Hal McDonald, Ph.D., a professor of literature and linguistics at Mars Hill University, is the author of the medical mystery The Anatomists. | <urn:uuid:be2ad767-045e-41f6-ac57-7a50e2127ab9> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/time-travelling-apollo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176922.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124170142-20201124200142-00403.warc.gz | en | 0.934572 | 786 | 2.875 | 3 |
You hear the term "double dip recession" bandied about in the media a lot these days. But there is no strict definition for what a double dip recession is or what it actually means to an economy. Have no fear; At the weekend, Robert Shiller of Irrational Exuberance fame came up with a working definition of double dips, which I will highlight and expand upon here.
Shiller’s definition of a double dip recession
Here’s what Dr. Shiller said:
I use a definition of a double-dip recession that doesn’t emphasize the short term. Instead, I see it as beginning with a recession in which unemployment rises to a high level and then falls at a disappointingly slow rate. Before employment returns to normal, there is a second recession. As long as economic recovery isn’t complete, that’s a double-dip recession, even if there are years between the declines.
Under that definition, there has been only one serious double-dip recession in the last century — and it was serious indeed. It started with the 1929-33 recession, which was followed by a recession in 1937-38. Between those declines, the unemployment rate never moved below 12.2 percent. Those two recessions, four years apart, are now typically lumped together as one event, the Great Depression.
Many negative factors persisted between those dips. High among them was a widespread sense then that something was amiss with the economy. There was a feeling of uncertainty that discouraged entrepreneurship, lending and spending, and most important, hiring.
We have to deal with a similar — though less extreme — problem today.
Most people look at the time between recessions as the only variable that distinguishes a normal recession from a double dip – and therefore concentrate on the 1980-82 period in the US as the most relevant example. However, Shiller’s definition differs from most in that it is not predicated on timing. He says a double dip recession is a period in which employment, production, income, consumption and growth dip, resume growth, and then dip again without necessarily re-attaining previous levels before the first dip began.
Shiller is pointing to a double dip in which the recession-like period I have been calling a technical recovery as a sort of interregnum between twin downturns, that never blossoms into the full-blown recovery that you and I would understand as recovery.
My definition of a double dip recession
I think it is fair to say that Shiller’s description of a double dip recession is rooted in a sense that the underlying causes of the first and second dip are the same – that the recession, technical recovery, renewed recession really feel almost like one big long recession.
This is what I have been saying for months now. In fact, I believe the recession dating committee has stalled in dating the end of recession for exactly this reason. Witness my comments in this regard from last January:
There has been a lot of conflicting evidenceregarding this fake, stimulus-induced recovery we are now witnessing. NBER committee member Robert Gordon of Northwestern University made statements this past Spring suggesting he sees an early recovery dating (see Jobless claims may signal the end is near from April 2009). But Martin Feldstein, another NBER dating committee member, is holding out…
But, without wading into the debate on multipliers (you can see my piece on multipliers here), I think we are likely to see long enough a period of stimulus-induced growth to force the dating committee into a late summer 2009 demarcation for the end of the recession. Read my piece on recovery in my recent post Readers of this blog expect the recession to last redux when I said the technical recovery’s start would probably end up being dated Summer 2009. If I had to pick a month, I would go with August which is a month before I had been predicting the recession would end early last year.
But, more than that, I think Shiller’s comments about the Great Depression point to structural issues. We are in the midst of significant secular developments regarding employment, credit and debt right now – much as we were in the 1929-1938 time period and in the 1970-1976 time frame. I have said that I consider the twin recessions during those episodes to be double dip recessions. They represent two long depressions, one deflationary and the other inflationary.
Near the end of the recession dating committee post, I wrote:
Question: are the 1970 and 1973-75 recessions or the 1929-33 and 1937-38 recessions double dips as well? I think so. That’s why I spoke of a depression as a “decade is one of sub-par global growth with short business cycles punctuated by fits of recession” in a March 2008 post. In my view, the discussion about multipliers is less relevant. It is the D-process of deleveraging and debt deflation leading to depression which dominates the secular trend. Any credit guy like me will tell you the balance sheet always trumps the income statement.
So, I think that’s where we are: in the technical recovery phase of a double dip recession that is a once in a generation period of balance sheet repair. If you want to use the Great Depression as a guide, we are closer to 1931 in terms of events and timing (see Thinking about Creditanstalt today). But the policy response has been much more aggressive this time around. Ultimately, I think that means a technical recovery has taken form, even if the underlying fundamentals are suspect.
My hope is for a multi-year recovery – which was my prior baseline before the chances of a double dip increased. A multi-year recovery really should be the baseline outcome in any technical recovery scenario. However, this does not rule out a double dip per Shiller’s definition. In my view, this journey is far from over – as the continued low savings rate in the US and the policy errors on both sides of the Atlantic demonstrate. The shift, like those two previous periods, will take at least a decade to complete. | <urn:uuid:1f98cc90-6d94-4dcf-a707-a5a30c728ee1> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://www.creditwritedowns.com/2010/05/what-is-a-double-dip-recession.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218188550.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212948-00535-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964193 | 1,268 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Early human's ability to survive through prolonged arid areas in southern Africa
The flexibility and ability to adapt to changing climates by employing various cultural innovations allowed communities of early humans to survive through a prolonged period of pronounced aridification.
The early human techno-tradition, known as Howiesons Poort (HP), associated with Homo sapiens who lived in southern Africa about 66 000 to 59 000 years ago indicates that during this period of pronounced aridification they developed cultural innovations that allowed them to significantly enlarge the range of environments they occupied.
This cultural flexibility may have been the key to success for modern humans, says a team of international researchers, made up of archaeologists, paleo climatologists, and climate modellers from the French CNRS1 and the EPHE PSL Research University, Bergen University as well as Wits University. Their research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The most distinct of the many cultural innovations in the HP culture were the invention of the bow and arrow, different methods of heating raw materials (stone) before knapping to produce arrow heads, engraving ostrich eggshells with elaborate patterns, intensive use of hearths and relatively intense hunting and gathering practices," says Professor Christopher Henshilwood, one of the team members from Wits and Bergen Universities.
Howiesons Poort is a techno-tradition in the Middle Stone Age in Africa named after the Howieson's Poort Shelter archaeological site near Grahamstown in South Africa. It lasted around 5 000 years between roughly 65 800 and 59 500 years ago.
Using paleo climatic data and paleo climatic simulations, the researchers of the current study found that the HP tradition developed during a period of pronounced aridity.
This paleo climatic data and the distribution of archaeological sites associated with the HP, as well of that of the Still Bay tradition, which existed in the same environments about 5 000 years before (76 000 to 71 000 years ago), enabled the researchers to model the emergence of these traditions with two predictive algorithms that permitted them to reconstruct the ecological niche associated with each tradition and determine whether these niches differed significantly through time.
The results clearly indicate that HP populations were capable, despite the pronounced aridity that characterised the period in which they lived, to exploit territories and ecosystems that the preceding Still Bay people did not occupy.
While the Still Bay era is also characterised by highly innovative technologies – including engraving of ochre, use of personal ornaments, manufacture of highly stylised bone tools, heating silcrete (red rock) to produce better material for knapping bifacial points (spear points) using hard hammer and finally pressure flaking technology – the research team points out that HP's ecological niche expansion coincides with the development of technological innovations that were both efficient and more flexible than those of the Still Bay.
"It seems from the little evidence that we have that the population of Homo sapiens in southern Africa was considerably larger during the Howiesons Poort period," says Henshilwood.
"There are many more HP sites than Still Bay sites in southern Africa and their location is widespread across southern Africa. Note that neither the Still Bay or HP is found outside of southern Africa."
Henshilwood says the Still Bay people did not disappear. There just seems to be a gap between 72 000 years ago to 66 000 years ago, where there is almost no evidence of any people in southern Africa.
This study, which documents the oldest known case of an eco-cultural niche expansion, demonstrates that the processes that allowed our species to develop modern behaviours must be examined at regional scales and in conjunction with past climatic data.
About early human development
The emergence of our species (Homo sapiens) in Africa, at least 260 000 years ago, was not immediately accompanied by the development of behavioural characteristics of more recent prehistoric and historically documented populations. For tens of thousands of years after their emergence (anatomically), modern human populations in Africa continued to use technologies that differed little from those of the non-modern populations that preceded them or that inhabited other regions both inside and outside the African continent.
A number of archaeological discoveries during the past twenty years have shown that from at least 100 000 years ago some populations in Africa, especially those in southern Africa, made pigmented compounds, wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and manufactured bone tools. It is within this period, and those that follow, that archaeologists are able to recognize distinct techno- traditions, to determine with a certain degree of precision their age, and place these time periods within their proper climatic contexts.
More information: Francesco d'Errico et al. Identifying early modern human ecological niche expansions and associated cultural dynamics in the South African Middle Stone Age, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1620752114
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by Wits University | <urn:uuid:3389f3ba-f170-42a4-ba24-355dad3c8dcf> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://m.phys.org/news/2017-07-early-human-ability-survive-prolonged.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514572896.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20190924083200-20190924105200-00396.warc.gz | en | 0.947689 | 1,035 | 3.953125 | 4 |
|시간 제한||메모리 제한||제출||정답||맞은 사람||정답 비율|
|1 초||128 MB||0||0||0||0.000%|
There were n cities in an ancient kingdom. In the beginning of the kingdom, all cities were isolated. Kings ordered their subjects to construct roads connecting cities. A lot of roads were built with time. Every road was always constructed along the line segment between two cities. All cities are partitioned into disjoint components of cities by road-connectivity. A connected component of cities was called a state. A state consists of cities and roads connecting them.
A historical record tells a time sequence of road constructions in order. A road connecting two cities A and B doesn’t intersect with other roads at a point except for A and B. Before construction, A and B may have belonged to the same state or different states. After construction, A and B would belong to a same state, i.e., two states would merge into a state if needed.
Prof. Kim, a historian, is concerned about the following question: How many states does a horizontal line (corresponding to the latitude of a specific place) pass by at a moment of the past? The figure below shows an example of a configuration of roads at some moment. A circle represents a city and a line segment represents a road between two cities. There are 3 states. A line with y = 4.5 passes by two states with total 8 cities and a line with y = 6.5 passes by one state with 5 cities.
You are to write a program which handles the following two types of commands:
Your program is to read from standard input. The input consists of T test cases. The number of test cases T is given in the first line of the input. The first line of each test case contains an integer n, the number of cities, where 1 ≤ n ≤ 100,000. Each of the following n lines contains two integers x and y (0 ≤ x, y ≤ 1,000,000), where (x, y) represents the coordinate of a city. There is a single space between the integers. The cities are numbered from 0 to n-1 in order. The next line contains an integer m, the number of commands, where 1 ≤ m ≤ 200,000. Each of the following m lines contains a command, either “road A B” or “line C”, where 0 ≤ A ≠B < n and C (0 < C < 1,000,000) is a real number of which the fractional part is always 0.5. There exists at most one road construction connecting a pair of cities and there exists at least one query per a test case.
Your program is to write to standard output. Print exactly one line for a query through all test cases. The line should contain two integers which represent the number of states and the total number of cities of them respectively.
The following shows sample input and output for three test cases.
3 10 1 7 5 7 8 6 3 5 5 5 2 3 10 3 7 2 4 1 11 1 11 road 0 1 road 3 5 line 6.5 road 4 2 road 3 8 road 4 7 road 6 9 road 4 1 road 2 7 line 4.5 line 6.5 1 100 100 1 line 100.5 2 10 10 20 20 2 road 0 1 line 15.5
0 0 2 8 1 5 0 0 1 2 | <urn:uuid:7b7c314f-efca-4835-99cb-a9ed1995e53f> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://www.acmicpc.net/problem/8929 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812306.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20180219012716-20180219032716-00743.warc.gz | en | 0.948784 | 768 | 3.4375 | 3 |
First edition of this scarce regional map of South Africa and neighboring regions, published during the "Crisis in South Africa."
On December 30, 1880, a Boer republic was proclaimed and fighting broke out until the treaty of Pretoria (April 5, 1881) was signed that gave the South Africa Republic independence, though under the suzerainty of Great Britain. This treaty did not really solve the problems of the area, for Kruger, the president of the Republic, felt that the British were planning to annex the rich Transvaal, while the British felt that Kruger ultimately wished to drive them out of South Africa.
The mistrust led to the October 12, 1899 declaration of war between Britain and the South African Republic and their ally the Orange Free State. This map was issued shortly after the war started. It shows the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, with the main African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Detail is impressive, with the roads, towns, rivers, and railroads clearly depicted.
A revised edition was issued in 1900.
Edward Stanford (1827-1904) was a prominent British mapmaker and publisher. A native of Holborn in the heart of London, Edward was apprenticed to a printer and stationer at the age of 14. After his first master died, he worked with several others, including Trelawny W. Saunders of Charing Cross. Saunders oversaw young Edward’s early career, ensuring that he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Associations with the Society eventually brought Sanders much business and gave him a reputation as a publisher of explorers. As testament to this reputation, the Stanford Range in British Columbia was named for him by John Palliser.
Stanford briefly partnered with Saunders in 1852 before striking out on his own in 1853. He was an agent for the Ordnance Survey, the Admiralty, the Geological Survey, the Trigonometrical Survey of India, and the India Office. He also controlled the maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, another lucrative source of income. In 1857, Stanford founded his namesake Geographical Establishment, with Saunders and A. K. Johnston as engravers. Thereafter, Stanford was known for his “library maps”, particularly those of Africa and Asia.
Although he had authored many maps, the Harrow Atlas of Modern Geography and a similar volume on classical geography, Stanford is better remembered today as the leader of a successful map business. Ever in search of more inventory, he acquired the plates and stock of John Arrowsmith, heir of the Arrowmsith family firm, in 1874. By 1881 he employed 87 people at his premises at 6 Charing Cross Road, Saunders’ old address. As he aged, he phased in his son Edward Jr. to run the business. He died in 1904. The business survived him, and the Stanford’s shop is still a prominent London landmark today. | <urn:uuid:dd4d758a-9a19-4a92-acd6-2e0a591a8061> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/57340/the-crisis-in-south-africa-stanfords-new-map-of-the-oran-stanford | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703505861.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20210116074510-20210116104510-00135.warc.gz | en | 0.977411 | 609 | 3.5 | 4 |
Q. 1. Identify three techniques used in social engineering. (Choose three.)
• by phone
• in person
• through another person
Q.3. While surfing the Internet, a user notices a box claiming a prize has been won. The user opens the box unaware that a program is being installed. An intruder now accesses the computer and retrieves personal information. What type of attack occurred?
• Trojan horse
• denial of service
Q.4. What is a major characteristic of a Worm?
• malicious software that copies itself into other executable programs
• tricks users into running the infected software
• a set of computer instructions that lies dormant until triggered by a specific event
• exploits vulnerabilities with the intent of propagating itself across a network
• Trojan horse
• brute force
• ping of death
• SYN flooding
Q.6. What type of advertising is typically annoying and associated with a specific website that is being visited?
• tracking cookies
Q.7. What is a widely distributed approach to marketing on the Internet that advertises to as many individual users as possible via IM or e-mail?
• brute force
• tracking cookies
Q.8. What part of the security policy states what applications and usages are permitted or denied?
• identification and authentication
• remote access
• acceptable use
• incident handling
Q.9. Which statement is true regarding anti-virus software?
• Only e-mail programs need to be protected.
• Only hard drives can be protected.
• Only after a virus is known can an anti-virus update be created for it.
• Only computers with a direct Internet connection need it.
Q.10. Which two statements are true concerning anti-spam software? (Choose two.)
• Anti-spam software can be loaded on either the end-user PC or the ISP server, but not both.
• When anti-spam software is loaded, legitimate e-mail may be classified as spam by mistake.
• Installing anti-spam software should be a low priority on the network.
• Even with anti-spam software installed, users should be careful when opening e-mail attachments.
• Virus warning e-mails that are not identified as spam via anti-spam software should be forwarded to other users immediately.
Q.12. Which acronym refers to an area of the network that is accessible by both internal, or trusted, as well as external, or untrusted, host devices?
Q.13. Which statement is true about port forwarding within a Linksys integrated router?
• Only external traffic that is destined for specific internal ports is permitted. All other traffic is denied.
• Only external traffic that is destined for specific internal ports is denied. All other traffic is permitted.
• Only internal traffic that is destined for specific external ports is permitted. All other traffic is denied.
• Only internal traffic that is destined for specific external ports is denied. All other traffic is permitted.
Q.14. To which part of the network does the wireless access point part of a Linksys integrated router connect?
• a network other than the wired network
Q.15. Refer to the graphic. What is the purpose of the Internet Filter option of Filter IDENT (Port 113. on the Linksys integrated router?
• to require a user ID and password to access the router
• to prevent outside intruders from attacking the router through the Internet
• to require a pre-programmed MAC address or IP address to access the router
• to disable tracking of internal IP addresses so they cannot be spoofed by outside devices
Q.16. What statement is true about security configuration on a Linksys integrated router?
• A DMZ is not supported.
• The router is an example of a server-based firewall.
• The router is an example of an application-based firewall.
• Internet access can be denied for specific days and times.
Q.17. What environment would be best suited for a two-firewall network design?
• a large corporate environment
• a home environment with 10 or fewer hosts
• a home environment that needs VPN access
• a smaller, less congested business environment
Q.18. What is one function that is provided by a vulnerability analysis tool?
• It provides various views of possible attack paths.
• It identifies missing security updates on a computer.
• It identifies wireless weak points such as rogue access points.
• It identifies all network devices on the network that do not have a firewall installed.
• It identifies MAC and IP addresses that have not been authenticated on the network.
Q.19. Many best practices exist for wired and wireless network security. The list below has one item that is not a best practice. Identify the recommendation that is not a best practice for wired and wireless security.
• Periodically update anti-virus software.
• Be aware of normal network traffic patterns.
• Periodically update the host operating system.
• Activate the firewall on a Linksys integrated router.
• Configure login permissions on the integrated router.
• Disable the wireless network when a vulnerability analysis is being performed.
Q.20. What best practice relates to wireless access point security?
• activation of a popup stopper
• a change of the default IP address
• an update in the antivirus software definitions
• physically securing the cable between the access point and client
Q.21. Refer to the graphic. In the Linksys Security menu, what does the SPI Firewall Protection option Enabled provide?
• It prevents packets based on the application that makes the request.
• It allows packets based on approved internal MAC or IP addresses.
• It requires that packets coming into the router be responses to internal host requests.
• It translates an internal address or group of addresses into an outside, public address | <urn:uuid:4cd890ef-8006-4bd4-8f3e-a31cf4764260> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | http://cisco-ccna-test-losungen.blogspot.com/2012/09/ccna-discovery-1-losungen-kapitel-8.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267158205.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20180922064457-20180922084857-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.889049 | 1,228 | 2.875 | 3 |
Definitions for silver
Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word silver.
silver, Ag, atomic number 47noun
a soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal; occurs in argentite and in free form; used in coins and jewelry and tableware and photography
coins made of silver
ash grey, ash gray, silver, silver grey, silver graynoun
a light shade of grey
silverware eating utensils
silver medal, silveradjective
a trophy made of silver (or having the appearance of silver) that is usually awarded for winning second place in a competition
made from or largely consisting of silver
silver, silvern, silveryadjective
having the white lustrous sheen of silver
"a land of silver (or silvern) rivers where the salmon leap"; "repeated scrubbings have given the wood a silvery sheen"
argent, silver, silvery, silverishadjective
of lustrous grey; covered with or tinged with the color of silver
eloquent, facile, fluent, silver, silver-tongued, smooth-spokenverb
expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively
"able to dazzle with his facile tongue"; "silver speech"
coat with a layer of silver or a silver amalgam
"silver the necklace"
make silver in color
"Her worries had silvered her hair"
"The man's hair silvered very attractively"
A lustrous, white, metallic element, atomic number 47, atomic weight 107.87, symbol Ag.
Coins made from silver or any similar white metal.
Cutlery and other eating utensils, whether silver or made from some other white metal.
Any items made from silver or any other white metal.
Made from silver.
Made from another white metal.
Having a color like silver: a shiny gray.
Denoting the twenty-fifth anniversary, especially of a wedding.
for a silversmith or a rich man, or for someone having silvery gray hair or living by a silvery brook.
anglicised from the Jewish ornamental surname Silber.
from the metal, or transferred from the surname.
from the metal.
Etymology: from siolfor, seolfor, from a Common Germanic *silubran.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Put my silver cup in the sack’s mouth. Gen. xliv.2.
Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste. John Milton.
The silver-shafted goddess of the place. Alexander Pope, Odyssey.
Of all the race of silver-winged flies
Was none more favourable, nor more fair,
Than Clarion. Edmund Spenser.
Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,
Thou mad misleader of thy brain-sick son. William Shakespeare.
The great in honour are not always wise,
Nor judgment under silver tresses lies. George Sandys.
Others on silver-lakes and rivers bath’d
Their downy breast. John Milton.
So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not
To those fresh morning drops upon the rose,
As thy eye beams, when their fresh rays have smote
The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows;
Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright,
Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light. William Shakespeare.
From all their groves, which with the heavenly noises,
Of their sweet instruments were wont to sound
And th’ hollow hills, from which their silver voices
Were wont redoubled ecchoes to rebound,
Did now rebound with nought but rueful cries,
And yelling shrieks thrown up into the skies. Edmund Spenser.
It is my love that calls upon my name,
How silver sweet sound lovers tongues by night,
Like softest musick to attending ears. William Shakespeare.
1.Silver is a white and hard metal, next in weight to gold. Isaac Watts Logick.
Etymology: seolfer , Saxon; silver, Dutch.
Pallas, piteous of her plaintive cries,
In slumber clos’d her silver-streaming eyes. Alexander Pope.
Etymology: from the noun.
There be fools alive, I wis,
Silver’d o’er, and so was this. William Shakespeare.
The splendour of silver is more pleasing to some eyes, than that of gold; as in cloth of silver, and silver’d rapiers. Francis Bacon.
Silvering will fully and canker more than gilding. Francis Bacon.
A gilder shewed me a ring silver’d over with mercurial fumes, which he was then to restore to its native yellow. Boyle.
Here retir’d the sinking billows sleep,
And smiling calmness silver’d o’er the deep. Alexander Pope.
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin argentum, derived from the Proto-Indo-European h₂erǵ: "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form ("native silver"), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining. Silver has long been valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many bullion coins, sometimes alongside gold: while it is more abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is typically measured on a per-mille basis; a 94%-pure alloy is described as "0.940 fine". As one of the seven metals of antiquity, silver has had an enduring role in most human cultures. Other than in currency and as an investment medium (coins and bullion), silver is used in solar panels, water filtration, jewellery, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the term silverware), in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, in catalysis of chemical reactions, as a colorant in stained glass and in specialised confectionery. Its compounds are used in photographic and X-ray film. Dilute solutions of silver nitrate and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides (oligodynamic effect), added to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters, and other medical instruments.
a soft white metallic element, sonorous, ductile, very malleable, and capable of a high degree of polish. It is found native, and also combined with sulphur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, etc., in the minerals argentite, proustite, pyrargyrite, ceragyrite, etc. Silver is one of the "noble" metals, so-called, not being easily oxidized, and is used for coin, jewelry, plate, and a great variety of articles. Symbol Ag (Argentum). Atomic weight 107.7. Specific gravity 10.5
coin made of silver; silver money
anything having the luster or appearance of silver
the color of silver
of or pertaining to silver; made of silver; as, silver leaf; a silver cup
bright; resplendent; white
giving a clear, ringing sound soft and clear
sweet; gentle; peaceful
to cover with silver; to give a silvery appearance to by applying a metal of a silvery color; as, to silver a pin; to silver a glass mirror plate with an amalgam of tin and mercury
to polish like silver; to impart a brightness to, like that of silver
to make hoary, or white, like silver
to acquire a silvery color
Etymology: [OE. silver, selver, seolver, AS. seolfor, siolfur, siolufr, silofr, sylofr; akin to OS. silubar, OFries. selover, D. zilver, LG. sulver, OHG. silabar, silbar, G. silber, Icel. silfr, Sw. silfver, Dan. slv, Goth. silubr, Russ. serebro, Lith. sidabras; of unknown origin.]
Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it possesses the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. The metal occurs naturally in its pure, free form, as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining. Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, used in currency coins, to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware and utensils and as an investment in the forms of coins and bullion. Silver metal is used industrially in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
sil′vėr, n. a soft white metal, capable of a high polish: money made of silver: anything having the appearance of silver.—adj. made of silver: resembling silver: white: bright: precious: gentle: having a soft and clear tone: of high rank, but still second to the highest.—v.t. to cover with silver: to make like silver: to make smooth and bright: to make silvery.—v.i. to become silvery.—ns. Sil′ver-bath (phot.), a solution of silver-nitrate for sensitising collodion-plates for printing; Sil′ver-beat′er, one who beats out silver into thin foil.—adjs. Sil′ver-black, black silvered over with white; Sil′ver-bright (Shak.), as bright as silver; Sil′ver-bus′kined, having buskins adorned with silver.—ns. Sil′ver-fir, a coniferous tree of the genus Abies, whose leaves show two silvery lines on the under side; Sil′ver-fish, a name given to the atherine, to artificially bred gold-fish, the sand-smelt, the tarpon: any species of Lepisma, a thysanurous insect—also Bristletail, Walking-fish, Silver-moth, Shiner, &c.; Sil′ver-fox, a species of fox found in northern regions, having a rich and valuable fur; Sil′ver-glance, native silver sulphide; Sil′ver-grain, the medullary rays in timber.—adjs. Sil′ver-gray, having a gray or bluish-gray colour; Sil′ver-haired, having white or lustrous gray hair; Sil′ver-head′ed, having a silver head: with white hair.—ns. Sil′veriness, the state of being silvery; Sil′vering, the operation of covering with silver: the silver so used.—v.t. Sil′verise, to coat or cover with silver:—pr.p. sil′verīsing; pa.p. sil′verīsed.—ns. Sil′verite, one who opposes the demonetisation of silver; Sil′ver-leaf, silver beaten into thin leaves; Sil′verling (B.), a small silver coin.—adv. Sil′verly (Shak.), with the appearance of silver.—adjs. Sil′vern, made of silver; Sil′ver-plā′ted, plated with silver.—n. Sil′ver-print′ing, the production of photographic prints by the use of a sensitising salt of silver.—adj. Sil′ver-shaft′ed, carrying silver arrows, as Diana.—ns. Sil′versmith, a smith who works in silver; Sil′ver-stick, an officer of the royal palace—from his silvered wand.—adjs. Sil′ver-tongued, plausible, eloquent; Sil′ver-voiced (Shak.), having a clear, sweet voice like the sound of a silver musical instrument; Sil′ver-white (Shak.), white like silver; Sil′very, covered with silver: resembling silver: white: clear, soft, mellow. [A.S. silfer, seolfor; Ice. silfr, Ger. silber.]
U.S. National Library of Medicine
Silver. An element with the atomic symbol Ag, atomic number 47, and atomic weight 107.87. It is a soft metal that is used medically in surgical instruments, dental prostheses, and alloys. Long-continued use of silver salts can lead to a form of poisoning known as ARGYRIA.
The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz
A metallic form of opium, smoked by Presidential impossibilities.
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'silver' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2647
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'silver' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3580
Rank popularity for the word 'silver' in Nouns Frequency: #1150
The numerical value of silver in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
The numerical value of silver in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4
My goal today was to be my best self ever and I succeeded. I mean, we can whine about the miscommunication for a long time, but I could have won gold here in this form. I did very well, yeah, I ’m really proud of it. I mean, it’s a silver medal, but it does have a bit of a shine to it. And it’s also my first medal, is n’t it ? I do have an Olympic medal. A lot of people would kill for that.
We survived, but every December there are 23 silver angels on my church's Christmas tree, representing our neighbors who didn't make it.
I don't think you can say mobile is a single silver bullet for emergency preparedness or response, but it's critical that it's prioritised.
I don't think carbon capture is a silver bullet, because there is no silver bullet, it's not that we are going to fix everything by using renewables, or that we're going to use carbon capture and storage and we're going to fix everything with that. We're going to need everything, especially because we're already behind on our goals.
Today, Sheldon Silver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translations for silver
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for silver »
Find a translation for the silver definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Discuss these silver definitions with the community:
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"silver." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 6 Feb. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/silver>. | <urn:uuid:3ec21466-a71b-4516-a695-de1193e90cc5> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.definitions.net/definition/silver | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500356.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20230206145603-20230206175603-00754.warc.gz | en | 0.858563 | 4,529 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Gifted and talented young children experience wellbeing and positive development when provided with supportive and challenging learning environments that are responsive to their individual strengths and interests.
At Box Hill North Primary School we have a two programs available for gifted children: Wise Ones and Gateways. Both programs are user pays and are held during school hours.
WiseOnes helps fast learners to develop their real potential. WiseOnes aims to use academic, intellectual, moral and social development for children so that cleverness moves towards wisdom. Student are involved in abstract learning experiences. This year topics included Draw Like A Naturalist
All students in the program are assessed (this is free) to prove their high potential.
G.A.T.E.WAYS provides opportunities for highly able and gifted children with special educational needs. The students are nominated by their teachers.
Like-minded students participate in programs that challenge them intellectually and help develop their individual talents.
Programs are inquiry based, with hands-on activities, problem solving and higher order thinking skills.
The School has been really successful in the G.A.T.E.ways Challenges. Since 2011 each year the 3/4 and 5/6 teams have been placed from 1st to 3rd. | <urn:uuid:35d09492-4fb8-445c-a40c-8c2a3e48777f> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://bhnps.vic.edu.au/co-curricular/wiseones-and-gateways/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948592972.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20171217035328-20171217061328-00793.warc.gz | en | 0.961135 | 253 | 2.6875 | 3 |
by: Andrew Krause
Relays are one of the oldest, simplest, and yet, easiest and most useful devices. Before the advent of the mass produced transistor, computers were made from either relays or vacuum tubes, or both.
A relay, quite simply, is a small machine consisting of an electromagnet (coil), a switch, and a spring. The spring holds the switch in one position, until a current is passed through the coil. The coil generates a magnetic field which moves the switch. It's that simple. You can use a very small amount of current to activate a relay, and the switch can often handle a lot of current.
The relay we are going to look at is the Bosch 5 pin relay. Bosch is a German manufacturing conglomerate (who also happen to own Bosch Telekom and Blaupunkt), but they are not the only manufacturer of this relay. There are several other companies such as Siemens (stop laughing) and Potter & Brumfield. I don't know why they call it the Bosch type relay, but dammit, I don't give a shit either. The Bosch 5 pin relay is the most widely used and versatile relay, and it can handle up to 30 amps, which is more than suitable for most applications.
Looking at the diagram to the right, we see the pinout of the relay. Note that each pin is numbered, 85, 86, 87, 87a, and 30. The 30 pin is set perpendicular to the other pins to let you know where each pin is at (although, most relays are labeled at the bottom).
85 and 86 are the coil pins. Normally, it doesn't matter which way you pass the current, because if you hook it up backwards, the coil will still activate the relay. However, relays sometimes have an odd tendency to turn themselves back on briefly. To counter this, a diode (a one way switch) is placed between 85 and 86. This is referred to as a tamping diode. A diode wall have a very high resistance in one direction, and a very low resistance in the opposite direction. When a tamping diode is used, it is important that you hook the coil up according to polarity. If a tamping diode is used, and you hook it up backwards, you will essentially be shorting a wire out, which sucks, because you can and will burn something up.
30, 87, and 87a are the other three pins. 87 and 87a are the two contacts to which 30 will connect. If the coil is not activated, 30 will always be connected to 87a. Think of that pin as "87, always connected". When current is applied to the coil, 30 is connected to 87. 87 and 87a are never connected to each other. Here, polarity does not ever matter. You can connect 30 up to positive or negative, and that is what you will get out of 87 or 87a. Refer to the picture at left, and perhaps it will make the relay a tad simpler.
As you can see, the coil is in no way connected to the switch part of the relay. This can allow you to completely isolate one circuit from another. You can even use a separate power supply to control the relay.
Now let's talk about applications. One common use of a relay is for multiple amplifiers. Normally, if you run any more than three audio components off your decks remote output, it is recommended that you use a relay to provide higher currents. Also, if you wanted to power something like a fan, or neon lighting, you need a relay to keep up with the higher demands these devices place on your remote. Take a minute and guess if you can see how it is done. All you have to do is connect 85 to your decks remote output wire, and 86 to ground. Then, connect 30 to a fused 12 volts source, and 87 to your outgoing remote line. Remember that the relay can carry up to 30 amps, but if your wire can only handle 10 amps, you should use a 10 amp fuse. 87a is not used, but I recommend taping up that pin, or pulling the wire out of the base, so that it does not short out.
That is one of many applications for this one type of relay, and it demonstrates really well the use of a relay as a switch. One other use of this relay is to select. Remember that when the relay is not energized, 87a and 30 are connected. Say for instance, that you wanted to be able to run your subs in bridged mode, but then switch them the two channel mode when the amp starts to run hot. This will take two relays. The amp we use in this example is a two channel which will combine the right channel negative with the left channel positive for bridged mode, and we are using two single voice coil subwoofers. In either configuration (bridged or two channel), the left channel positive will always connect to the left woofers + terminal, and the right channels - terminal will always connect to the right woofer -. The other terminals we have to play with. Connect the left woofer relay's 30 pin to the - terminal on the woofer, and connect the right woofer relay's 30 pin to the + terminal on the woofer. Then, connect the left woofer relay's 87a pin to the - terminal on the amp, and the right woofer relay's 87a pin to the + terminal on the amp. Now, connect the left woofer relay's 87 pin to the - terminal on the right woofer, and connect the right woofer relay's 87 pin to the left woofers + terminal. Finally, connect the 86 pins of each relay together and ground it, and connect both 85 pins of each relay together, then to a switch, which is connected to a fused 12 volt source. Sound complicated? I hope the diagram helps make it seem simple. With the relays at rest, the amp is running in two channel mode. However, flipping the switch places the woofers in parallel, and safely breaks the connection with the two terminals that are unused. This is not seamless: When you flick the switch, you will hear a pop much like you hear when you plug a woofer in while it's getting juice. Some amps only produce a small pop, but cheap amps tend to make a big deal out of this. On a side note, you can use a thermistor to automatically switch the relays.
Relays really are not a big deal. They are relatively easy to use, and are very forgiving of stupidity. For many applications, a relay is the only way to go. | <urn:uuid:e7794a0d-0882-446c-8f92-962d85bfc51c> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.teamrocs.com/technical/pages/relay_basics.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990123.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00311-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950596 | 1,385 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Hello, everyone! In my last article, I discussed how Artificial Intelligence can either be a boon or a bane. This totally depends on how you use the model, how you train it and what output you wish to generate. The role of AI as a boon or a bane depends much on how you train the model initially before testing the same. (To have a look at the previous article and know more about the same, click here). Today, I’ll be talking about how open data has opened opportunistic doors for businesses and researchers in order to perform data analysis. Data Analysis deals with analyzing and organizing the data in such a manner that will give you some productive results.
Data analysis comes under the big umbrella of artificial intelligence and being a subset of AI, data analysis has huge potential currently in the industry. What does data analysis actually do? The word itself is self-explanatory, that is “Data and Analysis”. It analyses the data present in the dataset (dataset is a collection of a number of records consisting of different rows and columns, based on the type of data and content present in it). Analyse here means, understanding data and generating a fruitful or a productive output to the user, which will help him/her gain some useful information which can be used further for other different purposes. Data analysis is usually a part of artificial intelligence because as data is increasing day by day, it is very important first to understand the data and then use it in a good manner.
As you know data is continuously on the rise. Everywhere around you that you encounter, you encounter some amount of data which is increasing day by day and to organize this data, analyze it and manage it, requires great tools and information. Also, if you have more data, more accuracy you tend to generate in your outputs and results. Why is it so? Having a large set of data means that there is more data with which you can train your model and you can gain more information as well in the results, but consider the case where you have fewer data. In this case, as you have less data, there are issues regarding the accuracy of the output and also the reliability of the output/result is at stake. More the data, more different variations you can get and based on that more accuracy you tend to generate.
You may also like:
The question lies, how do we get more data? Don’t worry, the answer lies in OPEN DATA. Open Data means that there is a different type of data, based on different type of industry or sources which are openly available for use. Such kind of open data is either provided by government organizations, research-oriented companies, private organizations & businesses, educational institutes and universities and many other. The concept of open data means that you can use the data free of cost for your own purpose, which can be of the following:
- To build a tool which makes use of a large set of data.
- Research oriented work.
- A commercial product, which requires integration of different data from different sources.
- Gaining graphical information and analytics from the open data that is available free of cost.
- Open data can be used for training or testing an existing model. The model can be either an artificial intelligence based model or it can also simply be a data model.
- It can also serve in creating useful AI models and systems.
- And based on your thinking and ideas the list continue further with many more purposes as well.
Open Data is available on the World Wide Web in different formats (will list down the formats below) and for different uses (depending on the industry). There are huge chunks of data from the US regarding credit reports, educational student reports, from India there is data provided by the Government of India which includes data related to agro-industry, literacy rate, population and much more. All over the world, there is a number of different sources (will list down the sources below as well, where you can get open data freely) through which the data can be downloaded and made to use in an efficient manner in order to generate a productive output.
Talking about different formats of data from such open sources, they are:
- Open API format (if the API is available for the associated data)
- And other formats which require different tools to load the data and perform data analysis
Regarding different sources for the open data, they are:
- Google Public Datasets
- AWS Public Datasets
- UCI Machine Learning Repository
- gov (US)
- gov.in (India)
- And much more.
The above-listed sources are the major sources that are used in order to get the data for free. Depending on your use, the data can be downloaded from different sources.
With such huge open data sources and repositories, it opens a wide gateway and brings tons of opportunities for businesses, researchers and individuals wanting to use the data for their purposes and generating high quality productive and efficient output and results for themselves.
Are you looking for handling your data and do you wish someone to analyze it? If you do, contact and get in touch with Techno Code LLP now. They help you in getting all kind of IT services and will also help you in maintaining and managing your business data and generating useful results for you. Click here to get in touch with them now.
If you like the article, do like, comment, and share the same and help others find the article in a much easier way.
Happy Reading! 🙂
Article written and submitted by: Akshay Rakesh Toshniwal | <urn:uuid:885f09d6-44a5-46e8-9577-fb77e57c7c4e> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://technoitworld.com/open-data-increasing-use-data-analysis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887414.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20180118131245-20180118151245-00071.warc.gz | en | 0.939279 | 1,156 | 3.0625 | 3 |
DIGITAL LITERACY – 1. E-Safety
Using the Internet
The Internet is an amazing place. When online, we can learn new things, get help with homework, express ourselves creatively, and connect with friends and family.
We might spend a lot of time online – it can be a great way for us to socialise, explore and have fun. We might go online to connect with friends, or to make new ones. Or to browse the internet for information, or to chat with others and play games.
However, it is also important to remember that by going online, we also face risks.
Online abuse is the name given to any type of abuse that happens on the web, whether through social networks, playing online games or using mobile phones.
Online abuse includes risks such as:
- sexual abuse
- sexual exploitation
- emotional abuse
You can be at risk of online abuse from people you know, as well as from strangers. And it can feel like there is no escape from the abuse because abusers can contact you at any time of the day or night.
You need to be just as protective of your personal information online, as you are in the real world. Watch the video below, it gives advice on where to go and what to do if you are worried about any of the issues covered.
Keep safe by being careful not to give out personal information when you’re chatting or posting online. Personal information includes your email address, phone number and password.
Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. Only do so with your parents’ or carers’ permission and even then only when they can be present. Remember online friends are still strangers even if you have been talking to them for a long time.
Accepting emails, IM messages, or opening files, images or texts from people you don’t know or trust can lead to problems – they may contain viruses or nasty messages!
Someone online might lie about who they are and information on the internet may not be true. Always check information by looking at other websites, in books, or with someone who knows. If you like chatting online it’s best to only chat to your real world friends and family.
Tell a parent, carer or a trusted adult if someone, or something, makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, or if you or someone you know is being bullied online.
Follow these hyperlinks to learn more:- | <urn:uuid:cb351e49-b4f2-4dbd-962b-22c6e1f091da> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.schoolsofkingedwardvi.co.uk/ks2-computing-digital-literacy-1-e-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347417746.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20200601113849-20200601143849-00313.warc.gz | en | 0.919792 | 508 | 3.984375 | 4 |
In 2035, Philadelphia preserves and renews its environmental and historic resources. The city showcases centuries of growth and change, treasured parks and rivers, valued culture and architecture, and clean air and water.
The RENEW theme presents strategies about Open Space, Environmental Resources, Historic Preservation, and the Public Realm. These planning elements make up the final component of the built environment: THRIVE deals with mostly with buildings, both public and private; CONNECT deals with the streets, rails, and utilities that connect and serve these buildings; and RENEW focuses mostly on the other systems that fill in the rest of the space in the city: waterfronts, parks, squares, and how those impact our environment and our experience out and about in the public realm.
At the citywide level, recommendations within RENEW include:
- Expanding public access to both rivers through a trail system and new parks
- Investing in the existing park inventory (greening schoolyards, rec center yards, and other potential neighborhood gathering spaces), while seeking funding for signature new parks including the Reading Viaduct and Penn’s Landing Park.
- Supporting the Water Department’s ambitious green stormwater infrastructure projects in all corners of the city
- focusing available resources on | <urn:uuid:2957b75a-6c11-491a-9e7d-fda31ac47466> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://phila2035.org/home-page/city/future/renew/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398450715.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205410-00074-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924396 | 260 | 2.609375 | 3 |
While there is the potential for a horse to be infected by more than 150 different species of internal parasites, there are four main types: bloodworms, small strongyles, roundworms and tapeworms.
Large Strongyles (Bloodworms)
Bloodworms, such as the large strongyles (Strongylus vulgaris), wreak damage as they migrate through the interior of the equine bowel and attach to the lining of the cecum or colon. They cause hemorrhage, irritation, ulcers of the intestinal lining, and/or anemia.
Invasion of the cranial mesenteric artery (the primary blood supply to the intestinal tract) by Strongylus vulgaris larvae is termed verminous arteritis. Blood flow can be reduced by 50% from inflammation at the root of the artery and thrombi can form, potentially dislodging to block smaller blood vessels supplying the intestines. Even mild interference with intestinal blood flow leads to abnormal motility problems and the potential for diarrhea, weight loss, and/or colic.
Two other forms of large strongyles exist: Strongylus edentatus migrates through the lining of the intestinal tract (peritoneum) while Strongylus equinus journeys through the liver and pancreas. Inflammation in these organs can lead to unthrifty condition or colic.
Small strongyle (cyathostomins) larvae encyst within the large intestinal lining for a period of arrested development, sometimes as long as two years. Once mature, the larvae emerge from their cystic sacs, creating physical damage to the bowel along with release of debris and byproducts that elicit focal inflammation of the bowel. Synchronous emergence of encysted larvae (thousands at a time) can seriously compromise a horse’s health from diarrhea, weight loss, poor growth, low blood protein, anemia, and/or colic.
Parasite-related problems from small strongyles are more prevalent in horses stressed by poor management, inadequate nutrition, illness, crowding, transport, training and competition or those with poor immune systems or Cushing’s disease. Subclinical issues can occur in more robust individuals, such as decreased feed efficiency and/or diminished performance quality.
Ascarids are roundworms that particularly affect young horses less than 18 months of age until the youngster can mount an effective, native immune response. A heavy infestation causes a distinctive unthrifty appearance—pot-bellied and a rough hair coat—along with weight loss, poor growth, lack of energy and colic. Ascarids can also trigger respiratory problems—fever, cough, nasal discharge, and possible pneumonia —as they migrate through the lungs on their journey to the intestinal tract.
The most concerning ascarid problem is small intestinal blockage by a tangled mass of 10-inch long adult worms, particularly following deworming treatment in a horse that has not been on a regular parasite control program.
Tapeworm infections require an intermediate host, the oribatid mite, to perpetuate their life cycle. A horse on pasture or eating contaminated hay might ingest mites infected with tapeworms. This initiates development into a mature tapeworm in 6-10 weeks. Its sucking mouthparts attach to the intestinal lining, creating localized Inflammation near the junction of the small intestine (ileum) and cecum. Potential ulceration, scar tissue and thickening of the intestinal wall can occur.
Tapeworm-infected horses are eight times more likely to develop spasmodic (gas) colic than uninfected horses. Other serious repercussions of tapeworm infection include ileal impaction, small intestinal rupture, or an intussusception (the bowel telescopes within itself). These conditions occur due to motility derangements created by inflammation and disruptions to nerve conduction in the bowel.
Botflies lay their eggs on the hairs of a horse’s legs, chest, jaw and face. Once bot eggs collect on a horse’s muzzle through scratching or direct fly deposits, they mature into larvae that crawl toward the mouth. Development occurs in stages within the horse’s tongue or between the teeth in the gums and interdental spaces. When swallowed, bot larvae colonize the lining of the stomach, residing there for nearly a year. Upon release, they quickly transit through the bowel, pass through the manure, and burrow into the ground to pupate and hatch into flies in late spring.
Damage caused by bot larvae is mostly restricted to erosions in the mouth and stomach. Most horses are relatively unaffected by their presence.
Other Worm Types
Other internal parasites that can create problems for the horse include:
- Pinworms elicit tail rubbing.
- Threadworms cause diarrhea in foals.
- Lungworms, obtained through contact with infected donkeys, cause respiratory problems.
- Migration of Oncocherca cervicalis filaria beneath the skin causes intense itching.
- Stomach worms (Habronema and Draschia) hatch into flies that cause summer sores. | <urn:uuid:c8025d16-ecb3-4941-a972-9c002b8af747> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://stablemanagement.com/articles/equine-deworming-types-of-parasites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703517559.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20210119011203-20210119041203-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.911716 | 1,057 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. They also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. (from Wikipedia)
In his Astronomia Nova 1609, Kepler pronounced (as quoted verbatim in Pair Spolter Graviational Forces of the Sun, ISBN 0-9638107-5-8)
1st Law - The orbit of a planet is elliptical and the Sun the source of motion is in one of the foci of this ellipse.
2nd Law - The apparent diurnal arcs of one eccentric are almost exactly proportional to the square of their distances from the Sun.
3rd Law - The periodic times of any two planets are to each other exactly as the cubes of the square roots of their mean distance.
Kepler's first book was entitled Mysterium Cosmographicum, or "The Secret of the Universe."
While teaching astronomy and mathematics in Graz, Kepler remained receptive to questions that would usually be ranked as philosophical. In particular, he wanted to know why there were six planets, why they were spaced as they were, and why they moved as they did. These were common questions for a natural philosopher to ask, but an astronomer was not usually reckoned responsible for these kinds of inquiries. Yet Kepler attempted not only to use Copernicus's heliocentric system, but to justify it as physically real. The theory based on the perfect solids, and published in the Mysterium, came to him, he claimed, in something approaching a revelation.
Kepler believed that his model using the five Platonic solids was perfect because it answered two of his three questions so elegantly. He proposed that the six planets moved in spaces defined by the spheres fitted around the five solids. These solids were the simplest, and therefore the most desirable, three-dimensional figures, and Kepler reasoned that God had based the solar system on them. This would account for that fact that there were exactly six planets, and also for the spaces between their orbs. The two images above are his own portrayals of this model, that on the right being a close-up view of the central planets. Kepler spent considerable time and money trying to get a real device made to these specifications, in hopes of presenting it to a courtly patron. But he never succeeded. Even so, and although he modified his theory slightly when he wrote the Harmonices Mundi, he continued to believe in its fundamental principles until he died. http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~winter/unilab/module1650/kepler/3d.html
Kepler Music of the Spheres
Kepler Music Theory
Kepler Theory of Harmony
Kepler's First Law
Kepler's Second Law
Kepler's Third Law
Propositions of Astronomy | <urn:uuid:9b519119-15cf-4561-9124-2d11742c1f0c> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.svpwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Kepler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376828697.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20181217161704-20181217183704-00219.warc.gz | en | 0.975029 | 657 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Real-time vehicle detection using python
In this article, I will guide you on how to do real-time vehicle detection in python using the OpenCV library and trained cascade classifier in just a few lines of code.
a brief about vehicle detection
Real-time vehicle detection is one of the many application of object detection, whereby focuses on detecting cars within an image together with the location coordinates.
where is being used?
vehicle detection together with road detection is heavily applied on ** self-driving cars*, for a car to navigate safely along the road, it has to know where other cars are positioned so as it can avoid a collision.
Also vehicle detection is being used in traffic surveillance systems in such a way it can detect the traffic based on number vehicle and use that data to manage and control it
what will you build?
In this tutorial, we will learn how to perform Real-time vehicle detection in a video or from camera streams using OpenCV and a pre-trained cascade model.
To able to follow through with this tutorial you’re supposed to have the following on your machine
$ pip install opencv-python
Pre-trained Cascade classifier
As I have explained earlier, we are not going to be training our model to spot cars in video frames from scratch instead we gonna use a pre-trained one.
These trained cascade classifiers are usually being stored in the XML format, therefore you should download the cascade that was trained to detect cars and have it in the project directory.
To download the trained cascade mode click-here
Demo video with cars in it
You can actually use any video you want as long it has cars in it, the cascade model will be able to detect them.
If you would like to use the same video I used for this article Download here;
Your project directory should look like this
. ├── app.py ├── cars.mp4 └── haarcascade_car.xml
Let's get hands dirty
Now let's begin by building what we have just talked about, using you have the XML Model and demo video on your project directory.
Loading our Model
use cv2.CascadeClassifier() to load the trained haarcascade model as shown in the code below.
import cv2 cars_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_car.xml')
Detecting cars in a video
we will use the detectMultiScale () method to detect and to get the coordinates of vehicles in the video frames.
The detectMultiScale () method receives 3 parameters to actually give your coordinates as shown below
- Grayscale image
Grayscale image specify the image to be processed, in our case a grayscale image is going to be image fetched from the video streams.
ScaleFactor specify how much the image size is reduced at each image scale, you can learn more about it here, a good value is mostly chosen as 1.05
minNeighbors specify how many neighbors each candidate rectangle should have to retain it, this parameter will affect the quality of the detected faces.
A higher value results in fewer detections but with higher quality usually, 3-6 is a good value for it
Syntax to detect cars + their positional coordinates
cars = cars_cascade.detectMultiScale(frame, scaleFactor, minNeighbors)
When you run the above line of code it will perform cars detection in the frame image and then return to us all coordinates of cars found (diagonal coordinates point).
Drawing rectangle around detected cars
After detecting all the coordinates of all the cars in a frame, we to draw a rectangle around it for us to able to see the detection process visually.
We will use the cv2.rectangle() method to draw a rectangle around every detected car using diagonal coordinate points returned by our cascade classifier.
Syntax to use the cv2.rectangle () method
cv2.rectangle(frame , point1, point2, color = (), thickness=value)
building a function to do all the detection process
We need to condense what we just learned and put into a single function that receives image frames and then draws rectangles around it using the detected coordinates just as shown below.
def detect_cars(frame): cars = cars_cascade.detectMultiScale(frame, 1.15, 4) for (x, y, w, h) in cars: cv2.rectangle(frame, (x, y), (x+w,y+h), color=(0, 255, 0), thickness=2) return frame
Building a function to simulate the detection process
finally let's add a single function to simulate the whole process from loading the video, to perform vehicle detection by calling the detect_cars function, and then render a frame with detected vehicles on the screen.
def Simulator(): CarVideo = cv2.VideoCapture('cars.mp4') while CarVideo.isOpened(): ret, frame = CarVideo.read() controlkey = cv2.waitKey(1) if ret: cars_frame = detect_cars(frame) cv2.imshow('frame', cars_frame) else: break if controlkey == ord('q'): break CarVideo.release() cv2.destroyAllWindows()
Add these two lines so as we make sure that we are running our python code as a script.
if __name__ == '__main__': Simulator()
Let's bundle everything together
Now we know how to do each independent piece of our detection script, it's time to put them together so as we can run it.
Once you put all the concept we learned above into one app.py, your code is going to look just as shown below
import cv2 cars_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_car.xml') def detect_cars(frame): cars = cars_cascade.detectMultiScale(frame, 1.15, 4) for (x, y, w, h) in cars: cv2.rectangle(frame, (x, y), (x+w,y+h), color=(0, 255, 0), thickness=2) return frame def Simulator(): CarVideo = cv2.VideoCapture('cars.mp4') while CarVideo.isOpened(): ret, frame = CarVideo.read() controlkey = cv2.waitKey(1) if ret: cars_frame = detect_cars(frame) cv2.imshow('frame', cars_frame) else: break if controlkey == ord('q'): break CarVideo.release() cv2.destroyAllWindows() if __name__ == '__main__': Simulator()
We have reached the end of our article, hope you learned something, now share it with your fellow friends on Twitter and other developer communities
Follow me on Twiter | <urn:uuid:82f0d974-d242-48ad-bac6-349d36df66f6> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://kalebujordan.dev/real-time-vehicle-detection-using-python/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945282.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20230324113500-20230324143500-00766.warc.gz | en | 0.849423 | 1,480 | 2.59375 | 3 |
This small but pretty little bug is a Two-Lined Spittlebug (Prosapia bicincta). They are approximately 3/8 of in inch long and somewhat thick bodied. They are black with two orangish-yellow stripes and red eyes. There is a mark right behind the thorax that is very heart-like in shape.They are very common in meadows, and other grassy areas throughout the Eastern United States. Usually you will see the signs of the nymphs much more often than you will see the adults.
Just look for the spit!
Females lay eggs in the fall that overwinter. In the spring the eggs hatch and the young nymphs begin feeding. As nymphs they hide out in this foamy, spit-like substance that is attached to various plant stems. They will feed on the juices from the plant all tucked away safe and sound inside this very unique camo. There seems to be some debate as to what purpose the spit has.....some feel it may keep the nymph from drying out or desiccating. It may also be a form of protection from enemies that may want to feed on them.
The adults feed on holly predominantly. Ornamental plants and turf grasses can be harmed by the feeding habits of the nymphs and the adults. This usually will not happen if plants or grasses are healthy. Should a large infestation occur then measures may be needed to remove them from your yard. I have hundreds of these little guys around our farm, I rarely see much damage because of them.
For me these globs of spit on the plants is a sure sign that summer is in full swing. Starting in about late May or early June they are everywhere. There is no end to the wonderful, unique and crazy ways that insects can protect themselves or hide away from predators. Spit, in my opinion , ranks right up there at the top. | <urn:uuid:fd598509-4478-4b01-9be7-a8345cf8f392> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://mobugs.blogspot.com/2010/06/two-lined-spittlebug.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042986625.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002306-00183-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969449 | 396 | 2.859375 | 3 |
In the 21st century Humanity Will Move 20,000 Years Forward
At the International Congress in Moscow, Russia“Global Future 2045″, renowned scientist and futuri...
At the International Congress in Moscow, Russia“Global Future 2045″, renowned scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil spoke about the future of mankind.
With the number of his inventions, Ray Kurzweil can be compared to the famous American physicist Thomas Edison. He has been awarded with praises such as “thinking machine” and “fountain of genius.” He became famous for his prophecies, which tend to come true.
THE WORLD IN YOUR POCKET
In the next century we will move forward at a rate not 100 years, but 20,000 years, promised Professor Kurzweil. The speed of progress constantly increases. Incredible advances that have been made in just a few years, are all around us today: nano-scaling, communications, brain research, deciphering genome.
For example, the critics of early genome project believed that research and deciphering of tens of thousands of base pairs of DNA would take 10,000 years. The project was completed in nearly 10 years.
Another example is the explosive growth of the Internet in the mid-1990s. His prediction that there will be communication networks that unite millions of people around the world, suggested in the early 1980s was called crazy. Back then, the project by the Ministry of Defense, which was the prototype of today’s internet, connected only 2,000 people. And today, thanks to the World Wide Web, we are connected to the world without leaving home.
Today we go on the internet from our smartphones and the entire collection of knowledge from previous generations is displayed in the palm of our hand.
In 1937, the principles of the first electronic digital computer were introduced. And the first fully electronic computing device appeared in 1943. Since then, the power of computers increased every three years. Nowadays, it happens every 11 months.
Smartphone that we have in our pocket is billion times more powerful than the computer that we used when studying at the university forty years ago. And in 25 years, it will be a hundred thousand times smaller and billion times more powerful. And it will be integrated into our body. This is not fantasy, but a reality.
Perhaps the most important part of guessing that came to the scientist and with which people are quick to agree, but the consequences of which are very hard to grasp, is the increasing pace of technological progress.
The pace of technological progress is not going to remain at the same level. According to Kurzweil’s calculations, it is accelerated twice every ten years. Centennial progress at thecurrent rate of development, can be achieved in twenty-five years. The next ten years will replace twenty, and the next decade up to forty years. As a result, the XXI century will be equivalent to twenty millennia with the current rate of progress. Thus, achievements of the XXI century in the field of technological progress and significant improvements will be about a thousand times greater than the pace of the twentieth century.
10 YEARS TO IMMORTALITY
Even life expectancy has increased at an accelerating rate. In the XVIII century it has grown every year by a few days, in the XIX century by a few weeks. Presently, it increases by about 120 days per year. And with revolutionary discoveries made at an early stage ofgenome experiments, including cloning for medical purposes, manufacturing of biotech drugs and other changes, Kurzweil predicts that within ten years we will be adding more tolife expectancy each year. The means to overcome the process of aging include high-tech methods, such as nano-medicine, biotechnology and genetic engineering.
For example, the genome deciphering will allow us to update the structure of the genome as frequently as we upgrade the software on our smartphone. We will be able to reprogram itself and thus protect ourselves from diseases. Also, in the first half of the XXI century it is expected to create robot doctors at molecular level, which may “live” inside human body, eliminating all existing damages or preventing them from occurring.
WORKING IN CYBERSPACE
There will also be revolution in the today’s workforce. In the XIX century, the United States had one-third of its population working in the factories, and now it is only three percent. Our future is in creation of the intellectual property.
In addition, we are witnessing a restructuring of jobs around the world. Today, there are no boundaries between countries. In the past, anyone who wanted to work in the state of New York, had to live in the state of New York. And now we can work just as productively in the cyberspace. And the situation when intellectual worker is tied to a specific geographical location, is a thing of the past. | <urn:uuid:5e7a065b-beb2-497f-bfb4-d6292b7721c7> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.thedailytrends.net/2013/06/in-21st-century-humanity-will-move.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501174159.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104614-00155-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952921 | 1,017 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Please try a simple exercise. Fix your gaze on anything – your morning cup of tea or coffee, your bookcase trinket, or whatnot. The thing you’d be looking at would not matter much. The stunt would be to look at something and think absolutely nothing.
Thinking literally nothing is more difficult than you think. Keep a wristwatch to see how long you last. Sooner than later, something will ‘pop up’. The ‘sooner than later’ will be seconds.
What is thinking? ‘Using one’s mind to produce thoughts; intellect, cogitation, cerebration’, dictionaries can tell. Greek philosophers sculpted in pensive body positions may be the picture. All live human brains continually produce processes. These processes remain ‘in the background’.
As with learning to walk, most humans have egocentric speech, when children. We speak to ourselves, not caring to have anyone listening, and we learn to talk. Older, we are able to think as if we were saying, we can “say” in our thoughts only. This is the very thing we can use to learn language. Page 21 in the Open Scroll has an exercise.
Noam Chomsky proposed his Language Acquisition Device to explain human language learning. It is true that people acquire languages most flexibly till 14 years old. It is true that people could not merely memorize language: there has to be a logical capacity. It is true that the brainwork necessary for language involves more than one brain area.
I do comprehend that a device may be something devised, as well as a faculty that devises. However, a device is often a thing that could be operated externally, from the outside. Association with such governance could not be mine or the human ideal.
Worse still, devices can be programmed. ‘Programming brains’ could be only a travesty of a good grammar course. My grammar approach emphasizes the inner feedback in learning; the feedback may go even for the opposite of a program, in the field. I am preparing my defended thesis for publication, The Role of Feedback in Language Processing.
I have always preferred the human language faculty to mean the brain areas that work for language regardless of age. I do realize it might be improbable ever to discern the actual tissue. The ‘hidden’ layers in human neural networks, for example, are visible. The connections yet are continually active and it is impossible to tell which neurons work for what task.
The impossibility does not worry me at all. My language interest never has been curiosity about sectioning brains. Maybe a little romantically, I think everyone deserves to remain a bit of a mystery.
I would answer frequently asked questions, however. :)
Feel welcome to the Open Scroll and the samples.
Please note that print quality is better than PDF.
The book and the grammar method have not been sponsored or corroborated by an American or other authority, organization, as well as any individual. The content as well as choice on appended material are the responsibility of the author, Teresa Pelka.
The book and the grammar method have not solicited and will not ever require any experimentation. The method reflects on the author’s own language acquisition and learning, along with known and legal studies. The bibliography comes with Part Four of the series.
Books by Teresa Pelka may be viewed at
Copyright notice © Teresa Pelka, 2010
All rights reserved. The author reserves the right of translation.
Library of Congress registration TX 7-648-439
The claim excludes public domain material, photographs.
Appendix 3 contains typescripts of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights: Dunlap, Carter and Wheeler prints, respectively. The book has voluntary extra practice.
Regarding the feminist controversy over Aristotle’s works, the author ― a woman herself ― does not endorse all translations, renditions, as well as misconceptions about the philosopher. Aristotle lived circa 384 BC – 322 BC. There are no autographs, that is, original manuscripts of his work preserved. The existent versions are used in this book series selectively and for thought exercise strictly.
The author may not provide for sustained validity of the website or email addresses enclosed with the work.
Open scroll has book samples.
The world has challenged even the good sense. Part the contemporary ways for grammar may be challenging, too.
How do we justify telling people there is an Unreal Past? Can we have unreal futures? How do we explain a copula irrealis, do we divide words into real and unreal? How do we rationalize the ‘Future in the Past':
He thought he would buy a TV — this is no future and no television. ;)
I do not question traditional grammars in extenso. Many people feel comfortable with them and produce quality language: the purpose to provide grammar guidance at all.
Grammar guidance should not suppress the natural human language instinct. I do not purport to have the only true method. I have learned much enough to know there may be no way to know: if a grammar book tells the truth depends on who there is to answer the question.
Try something. :)
Consensus on what inner processes exactly are correct for grammar looks redundant. Common sense, we can try natural guidance. Children have excellent language intuitions, and there are so many materials about language acquisition available.
We can talk grammar the everyday, casual manner. Life cannot be a lecture. :)
As for Mr. Clemens, I gotta tell you, there ain’t much fairness in this world. Mr. Clemens had a nick — Mark Twain — he could write his yarn a human way, and came out real neat in the end. Me, I may just forget any other names about me when Ms. Smith asks grammar, and well, I gotta do the schoolspeak when my written work gets back in — let us say — more than one color, which ain’t so neat.
Meet Bob, Jemma, and other characters with the grammar grapevine.
The point is in selecting agreeable guidance
and visualizing it.
See also Form can’t be empty.
Feel welcome to the integrative visualization and relax.
Please note that print quality is higher than PDF.
There is something you do not really have in natural languages: stative verbs. You do not get enumerations or listings of words to memorize, as from the British Council, for example.
What you have in natural languages, is the stative (verb) use, as part shows in Wikipedia. It might come as actually strange to people, if you tried to tell them to parrot the words for love, hate, or thought. It could feel … a kind of a lie, and good liars do not publicize their lying rules. ;)
Think you are talking with a young person, 10 years old, let us say. The person says he or she is hating you: you do not let them see your book, for example. Would you correct the person and say, No, you are not hating me. You hate me; it is a stative verb, here, in the list … ;)
A native speaker, you learn the stative verb use naturally. Schools may give lists, yet the use stays as learned, that is, more or less unrelated to any listing. A foreigner, you may get most awkward impressions, presented with sheets of words to use with the Simple only.
Would there be any point making a banner, writing L-O-V-E on it, and trying to get money? There might be no such appeal in the word alone. How could it, then, make human brains produce strictly Simple structures?
Let us see real American English at work.
[IN] This is a dream come true. And I’m loving every minute of it. (NBC_Today
Sun as in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, COCA).
[AT] I’ve been loving it, she says. But [ON] I want to keep doing different things.
(People magazine as in COCA.)
Please mind that print quality is higher than PDF.
There has been much talk about American English in ancestral terms: researchers have analyzed speech sounds and ‘derived’ them with particularity suggestive of the Pygmalion:
… I’ll take it down first in Bell’s visible Speech; then in broad Romic; and then we’ll get … the phonograph. ;)
I have never pondered over any possibility to become my grandfather.
Aynway, my grandfather did not speak American, or actually any English, as far as I remember.
Researchers happen to ‘derive’ American from dialectal British:
The main idea of the approach is that the origins of American English are somehow contained in the various regional dialects of British English…
American English, an Introduction, by Zoltan Kovecses.
Ben Trawick-Smith includes American with ‘a larger continuum of Southern England-derived dialects’; he admits the idea is debatable: When Did Americans Stop ‘Talking British’?
He yet makes an interesting point: we might think about the British as ‘talking American’, as well.
What American English would we be talking about? If we do not say, the American English of the 1900s, or 1800s, we say contemporary American English.
The shape of American English as it is today comes … from the USA.
American English does not consist of British dialects. Isolated speech sounds may be similar: it is inevitable, if we speak English at all; we could not want a language without speech sounds, to have a language of its own.
American English evolved naturally, along the existence of the USA. Students happen to have questions about the country. This is why I think some basic civics are simply indispensable, in an honest grammar course.
Plus … You never have to tap desperately on your pockets in search for a copy of the Declaration. The book has typescripts of the founding texts.
It is up to us what business we have with grammar. We would be unable to think or speak without grammar; it is reasonable to think about a good business with it.
Let us consider the student–teacher roles. I am a university master of arts, yet I am forever a learner: all language could never be learned. This is fortunate to me. I love language and I know there are always going to be so many interesting things for me to think about. :)
I am able to explain my matter. Then, I can be a teacher, do the job and get paid for it. The student may choose on the teaching model. Consultation rather than a strict curriculum has been the idea always to prevail.
Consultation means I do not tell the student what is what. I say what can be what. Importantly, I learn, as a teacher, from student error. A mistake is a mistake, right. The mistake yet can help think how to learn better.
For example, at some stage of language learning, if you ask a child to think about saying ‘Jill promised Jim to smile’ and drawing a smile on either Jill’s picture or Jim’s picture, the child may draw the smile on Jim’s picture.
At the very same stage of language progression, the very same children may have no problems with the Passive. Then, it could not be just a ‘peeve’. Let us think about the Infinitive and hypothetical time — Jill only promised.
We can think the Infinitive uses an auxiliary time plane.
Importantly, we only use concepts and ideas. Common sense, if a human can build a house, this does not mean he or she has a house in the head. We do not need to ponder if our brains actually produce intellectual or cognitive planes, and language has such phrases. Similarly, we can use logical planes as concepts.
The problem is that Modals cannot always give the target time reference,
standalone, or with auxiliary logic.
Feel welcome to Dynamic mapping and guidance on the visual.
I do not profess language as a system. I think language has resisted attempts of systematics many times enough. I believe we can use logical sets to manage our language scopes. There are about 26 letters of the alphabet. With this finite set, we can produce innumerable words and phrases.
Though some grammars keep the Conditional and Modal in separate chapters or even books, I take on my logical set approach and look to the structure named the Conditional, to gather observations about Modal verbs.
We can view the Modal verb will
as a PRESENT form we may use for the FUTURE.
We do not need ambiguity, when we want to communicate. We can think about a target logical time. When we speak, we make articulatory targets: we think what speech sounds we want to make. Similarly, we can think about a target time.
I do not support the idea of the Conditional. I think there can be Form Relativity in language. I only use the Conditional to show my thought. Let us focus on the Modal will and target time.
Images will show full-size, if we click on them. :)
A present form takes us to a FUTURE target. A past form can tell a PRESENT target. An antecedent PAST form can refer to a PAST.
Travelers Part Two have it all step-by-step. The long and the short, our Form Relativity can help us tell language structures.
Feelings (!) We cannot really speak a language, if we are unable to speak about our feelings in it. We can consider, if words for affection come with lists.
Back to our smiles, already kids can learn to make the logic. Then, it becomes clear that both Jim and Jill can smile, and Jill could have smiled. :)
I would not expect a professional grammarian to shout out, unless for reasons linguistic. :)
Naturally, I do not mean shouting at people. My point is that we humans work minds and hearts. There is an emotional component to jobs in which we invest our thought. Therefore, I would like to assure everyone concerned that my work is not to offend or disparage. It did not have origin in rejection of established grammar guidance. It was simply a spontaneous invention by a learner very young, indeed: I was about 5 years old, when I had my first thoughts about grammar and language mapping.
The idea became the Travelers in Grammar, a generative grammar course. A generative grammar shows how to build own language skill and produce written or spoken language independently. Obviously, having gone my way, I cannot agree with traditional grammars completely. See Common Sense.
Language mapping seeks logical regularities in language. It does not produce rules. The tenses are parameters to combine. We ‘think where we get'; we do not ‘tell where to go’.
The Present, Future, or Past combine with the Simple, Progressive, or Perfect. We merge the Perfect and the Progressive to get four spatial markers, ON, IN, TO, and AT we use with reference to the Future, Present, or Past.
The parameter ON is our primary, earthling variable. :)
We do not follow the Language Acquisition Device. We think about the Human Language Faculty. The Faculty is the brain areas that work for language regardless of age. The areas are likely to remain unspecified: the neural networks that make them and connect them are very dense and active.
Our purpose is not to specify on neurology. Our purpose is to get an effective way to learn or teach grammar.
For this, we practice flexible habits, not reflexes. We keep a mild sense of humor: people happen to get so grim about grammar that their learning and language styles suffer.
There is never going to be a stevedore or half-hitch tense. We yet can flexibly think we make nodi of time, and avoid carrying tons of books round, as we previously did. ;)
Importantly, our prepositions are function word parameters to operate integrated patterns of language. We do not hide the idea from school professors (!) :)
Please note that print quality is higher than PDF.
What is grammar? Wiktor Jassem quotes Paul Postal:
“…a language is an infinite set of sentences which are triplets of phonetic, syntactic, and semantic properties generated by a finite abstract project, or grammar, which consists of sets of partially independent elements called rules and a lexicon or dictionary. Such grammars are represented in human neural systems and provide implicit knowledge of the language they define. A grammar is thus in certain ways analogous to a computer program in that it is a formal system partially determining the behaviour of a physical system (…)”
We cannot deny that our slips of tongue are segmental. Human brains make speech in chunks, and that can compare with programs, also in our not having to focus to each and every speech sound we produce.
In the feedback framework, individual human grammar is a project by the individual mind, not a program. This formal set is not purely “mathematical” or “logical”. It is operational to the tissue of the brain, which may be a most obvious reservation to the quote above. A program is an open-loop sequence. Feedback is a closed-loop process. Both have been evidenced in human functioning. | <urn:uuid:f7fc7f72-4ad6-4503-b81f-4f4cf983416e> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://travelingrammar.com/the-travel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042982745.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002302-00144-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946061 | 3,677 | 2.625 | 3 |
While researching how to debounce a switch for digital applications, I often come around this diagram :
Or other similar diagrams, with modified resistance / capacitance values. I understand that R1 is a pull-up, and R2 is here to limit the discharge rate of C1 and to augment the value of the time constant and to avoid short circuit when discharging, but why is there a Schmitt trigger ?
When the button is open
The current is flowing through R1 and R2, and is sourcing current for whatever circuitry there is at the Schmitt trigger / output of the sub-circuit.
When the button is closed
The capacitor C1 discharges through R2 to the common ground, following the equation of the discharge of a capacitor. But, at the junction between R2 and Schmitt trigger / output, the voltage should drop instantly, given that the resistance R2 is lower than the one of a Schmitt trigger IC, or any transistor base pin for the matter. So the Shmitt trigger shouldn't be required, given that we don't need any hysteresis ?
There is obviously a flaw in my reasoning, but I don't find it. Any transistor base pin or Schmitt trigger should have an impedance high enough so almost no current would come in, and the voltage would be too low for the threshold of the transistor, so , not only the Schmitt trigger would not be required, but fail the sub-system ? It's obvious there's a mistake I'm making, but again, I don't find it. Sorry if i'm stupid. | <urn:uuid:115df03e-c17e-466d-8f94-275e508d7661> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/332074/schmitt-trigger-in-button-debouncer/375243 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999291.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620230326-20190621012326-00273.warc.gz | en | 0.94382 | 325 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Body Mass Index (BMI) provides an easy way to measure obesity, but more doctors are questioning its accuracy and usefulness.
BMI is supposed to estimate the amount of body fat a person carries based on height and weight, and categorizes people based on what is appropriate for their size. BMI readings under 18.5 mean you are underweight, and could put on a few pounds. If you fall between 18.5 and 24.9, you’re considered normal, while a BMI of 30 or higher qualifies as overweight.
But in recent years, more researchers argue that it’s not the most accurate way to measure body weight. For years, scientists have said that BMI can’t distinguish between fat and muscle, which tends to be heavier and can tip more toned individuals into overweight status, even if their fat levels are low. In the journal Science, the latest data from University of Pennsylvania shows that BMI also doesn’t tease apart different types of fat, each of which can have different metabolic effects on health. BMI cannot take into consideration, for example, where the body holds fat. Belly fat, which is known as visceral fat, is more harmful than fat that simply sitting under the skin. Visceral fat develops deep among muscles and around organs like the liver and by releasing certain hormones and other agents, it disrupts the body’s ability to balance its energy needs. Even relatively thin people can have high levels of visceral fat, which means they might be considered healthy by BMI standards, but internally they may actually be at higher risk of developing health problems related to weigh gain.
In April of last year, a study published in the journal PLoS One documented such inconsistencies and questioned the accuracy of using BMI to classify weight status of 1,400 men and women. As TIME reported:
Among the study participants, about half of women who were not classified as obese according to their BMI actually were obese when their body fat percentage was taken into account. Among the men, in contrast, about a quarter of obese men had been missed by BMI. Further, a quarter who were categorized as obese by BMI were not considered obese based on their body fat percentage. Overall, about 39% of participants who were classified as overweight by their BMI were actually obese, according to their percent body fat.
So why is BMI still the preferred way to measure weight and evaluate obesity? For one, it’s a relatively easy measurement for doctors to take during an office visit. Taking a person’s height and weight and plugging it into an equation produces a number that informs doctors about whether their patients are at high, low or no risk when it comes to weight-related health problems.
But there may be better ways to measure body fat that provide more useful readings on how likely a person’s weight will contribute to chronic health problems. CT scans and MRIs can provide a clearer glimpse at the body’s make-up by separating out fat from muscle, for example. But these are expensive and involved compared to stepping on a scale. Other types of scans, including dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) images, which are normally used to measure bone density, can also distinguish between fat from bone and muscle mass, but are also costly.
On the more practical level, some researchers have been pushing for using waist circumference or even wrist circumference to gauge potentially harmful weight gain and fat depots, but the evidence supporting this measurement and its ability to predict future health problems isn’t definitive enough yet.
So without a viable way to change how we measure body fat, for now, BMI is the best option. The study authors argue that perhaps doctors should rely on not just assessing body composition but measuring hormones and biomarkers in the blood or urine, for example, to get a better handle on abnormal processes that may contribute to obesity and chronic disease. And until such tests become available, BMI may still prove useful yet — if doctors combine BMI with a comprehensive evaluation of their patients’ medical history and lifestyle habits to get a meaningful, if not yet perfectly precise picture of their weight-related health. | <urn:uuid:7be8064b-6ed0-42d2-af8e-6ba3504e4436> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://healthland.time.com/2013/08/26/why-bmi-isnt-the-best-measure-for-weight-or-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739134.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20200814011517-20200814041517-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.966842 | 846 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Jeff Hart is a scientist who knows the history of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta better than most. He explains its emergence from the Ice Age, traces it through the arrival of the Spanish, recalls the figures of the California Gold Rush and points out the reeds that give shelter today to its wild fowl and fish. Last week, as we skimmed across the breezy waters of Steamboat Slough, a rivulet of the delta just south of Sacramento, he reflected on all that and argued for a "water ethic" that would re-envision humanity's relationship to its most basic substance.
Hart, a cheerful man with a scraggly beard, suggests that such an ethic would represent an extension of conservationist Aldo Leopold's famous "land ethic." Leopold's vision of human respect for the Earth was once a revolutionary notion, yet it has now become an accepted theme of modern politics. But what would a water ethic look like, especially in California, which has never hesitated to claim distant waters to serve human needs?
That may sound like an abstract question, given that water is there for any Californian at the turn of a tap. It irrigates farms in the Imperial Valley, where rain rarely falls. It waters lush lawns in Los Angeles and San Diego. But for residents of the delta, the relationship between water and humans is far from abstract. It is immediate and threatening.
Gov. Jerry Brown has made it undeniably clear that he intends to complete an unfinished bit of business from his first stint as governor by securing Southern California's water supply from the delta.
The last time Brown was in office, in the early 1980s, he supported a ballot initiative to authorize the building of a so-called peripheral canal, a pipe or aqueduct that would draw water from the Sacramento River and funnel it south. The measure went down to defeat, with Northern California voters overwhelmingly opposed.
Now, in his second incarnation as governor, Brown is determined to complete this work. Advocates of the canal have some strong arguments. Drawing water from the delta's southern intakes, as happens now, alters the natural flows of the region and creates problems for fish; pulling water from farther north would alleviate the problem. Also, the levees that allow the area to exist are susceptible to earthquakes and could collapse in the Big One; taking water out before it gets to them would protect the water supply. And finally, the water needs of Southern California are real and compelling.
But Doug Hemly has every right to be skeptical. His family arrived in the delta in 1850, when two brothers made their way up the Sacramento River. One headed for the gold fields; the other established a farm. The miner went bust while the farmer, despite a fire that destroyed his first hay crop, prospered. Seven generations later, the Hemly family farms pears, along with some cherries and blueberries, on the banks of the Sacramento. A peripheral canal would suck up water they rely on and sell it to someone else.
We all know the story of the Owens Valley, which was sacrificed to Los Angeles when William Mulholland and the ruling class of this city — including the onetime owners of this newspaper — swindled farmers out of their water rights. But those farmers sold an uncertain future for cash on the nail. The Hemlys and other delta farmers have an established business and heritage, and they aren't interested in cashing out.
What's especially galling to them is where the water would go. The modern peripheral canal would send more than 1 million acre-feet of water annually to urban customers in the Silicon Valley and Southern California. But the lion's share, more than two-thirds, would go to farms in the Central Valley, where farmers with outsized political influence have a big interest in the outcome.
Jeff Kightlinger, who runs the Metropolitan Water District, argues that it's not one or the other, that water can be drawn from the delta without destroying its farms. He's an honest broker and a smart one, and I hope he's right, but you can understand why delta residents are unconvinced. They see Southern California coming after their water and endangering their livelihoods for the benefit of other farmers with greater clout.
With this project, Brown has the opportunity to adjust California's historic relationship to water. As he does so, he should keep these principles in mind: Moving water is not a sin, but using it to favor big farms over family farms is unacceptable. And protecting Southern California's water future is commendable, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the delta's.
That's a sustainable water ethic. | <urn:uuid:b9896513-a67b-4983-a2c5-03e657b99280> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.chicagotribune.com/la-oe-newton-column-peripheral-canal-brown-20120625-column.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948542031.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20171214074533-20171214094533-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.966687 | 958 | 3.3125 | 3 |
3.3 Prophets and Messengers
"Mankind is a single nation. So
Allah raised prophets as bearers of good news and as warners. . ."
(The Holy Quran 2:213)
"And those who believe in Allah
and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them (in
belief), to them He will grant their rewards." (4:152)
"And certainly We raised in
every nation a messenger, saying: Serve Allah and shun the devil."
What is a 'prophet' or 'messenger' of God?
A prophet (nabi) or messenger (rasul) of God is a human
being to whom God gives His guidance and whom He charges with the task
of conveying that guidance to the people, so that they may do good and
In which countries of the world did Prophets arise?
According to Islam, God sent prophets to all nations on earth, at
various stages of their histories. The Holy Quran says:
"And for every nation there is a messenger." (10:47)
"And there is not a people but a warner has gone among
In which of these Prophets of God do Muslims have to believe?
Muslims have to believe in all the prophets and messengers of God,
equally, without distinction, wherever they may have appeared. In the
Holy Quran (2:136, 285, and 3:84 etc.) it is stated clearly: "We
make no distinction between them".
Please name some of these Prophets.
Many prophets are mentioned by name in the Holy Quran; for example,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus from the Biblical prophets, and
also nonBiblical prophets some of whose names are Luqman, Hud, and
DhulKifl. And, last of all, there is the great, universal Prophet Muhammad,
may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him.
Did any Prophets appear other than those mentioned in the Holy Quran?
Certainly. The Quran itself tells us that it has mentioned only some
of the prophets (see 4:164). Since prophets appeared in every part of
the world, and there were many in each nation, to make a full list of
names is impossible. Muslims have to believe in and respect all the
prophets, whether named in the Holy Quran or not.
It is wellknown that Muslims believe in the Israelite Prophets, including
Jesus. How do they regard the great figures of other religions, such
as Krishna, Buddha, and Confucius?
It is quite obvious from the teachings of the Holy Quran that, as
God sent Prophets to every nation, and quite a large number of them
appeared all over the world, the ancient founders of these other religions
too would have been Prophets and messengers of God. In fact, wherever
there are people following a sacred scripture older than the Quran,
their religious founders mentioned in those Books should be accepted
by Muslims as true prophets of God. It has been suggested that Buddha
is mentioned in the Holy Quran by the name DhulKifl, meaning man
of Kifl, where Kifl is the Arabic form of the name of his
But religions such as Christianity and Hinduism revere their great religious
figures as 'gods' or incarnations of God. What does Islam say?
According to Islam, all these righteous persons were mortal, human
prophets of God, like the Holy Prophet Muhammad, having the same needs
that every human being has. They all eventually died, as everyone must.
There are several reasons why they have come to be revered by their
followers as 'gods'. One is that their words were misunderstood by the
later generations, who mistook their figurative expressions in a literal
sense. Another is that the details of their lives were not preserved
accurately, and therefore a great many myths have grown up around them,
and their works and deeds have been much exaggerated.
Why were the Prophets humans, and not 'gods on earth'?
Because they were sent to guide other human beings, not only by preaching,
but also by personal example. So they had to be completely human to
show other people how to live. According to Islam, each Prophet was
himself the first and foremost follower of the guidance God revealed
through him for people to follow. This is why previous prophets are
called 'Muslims' in the Holy Quran, being not only teachers but also
followers of God's guidance. See for example 3:67. As for the Holy Prophet
Muhammad, not only does Islam teach that he was a human being, but a
study of his life shows that he regarded himself as a humble mortal,
and mixed with people as just one of them.
What did the Prophets teach?
They all gave the same basic teaching: that man should worship God,
and God alone, and do good to his fellowbeings. Of course, the details
of the teachings differed according to the nation and the time in which
a Prophet appeared. In the Holy Quran, the teachings of all Prophets
are called Islam, and the Prophets and their true followers are
labelled Muslims. See, for example, 2:131-133 and 5:111. This
refers to the fact that the fundamental teachings given by all of them
were the same - submission to God and peace with fellow human beings.
Since Muslims believe in all the Prophets equally, what is the special
position of the Holy Prophet Muhammad?
All Prophets were equally from God, and equally true, but the scope
of their missions varied. The Divine messengers before the Holy Prophet
Muhammad were each given teachings limited to their respective nations,
because in those times a nation did not have much to do with other nations.
Furthermore, the teachings of each Prophet applied for a limited period
of time only, after which God would raise another Prophet to revise
some of the teachings for the new circumstances. But at last the time
came to unite all the nations upon a single religion so that mankind
may live in peace as one nation. For this purpose was sent the Holy
Prophet Muhammad, to whom God gave teachings for the whole world for
all time to come.
Can you give any arguments to support this belief?
Yes. Firstly, while followers of previous religions believe that God's
revelation and guidance was given only to some particular nation or
land, Islam teaches that guidance from God had come to every nation
and it requires Muslims to believe in all the previous national Prophets.
So the Holy Prophet Muhammad is the one who confirmed and established
the truth of the Prophets of all the various nations, and laid the basis
for peace between them. He is thus the World-Prophet. Secondly, it is
a recognized fact that, while the original teachings of previous Prophets
are largely lost, the sources of Islam (the Holy Quran and details of
the Holy Prophet's life) are available to us fully and accurately. This
shows Islam to be the religion for all time.
Could there be any Prophet or Messenger of God after the Holy Prophet
No, after the Holy Prophet Muhammad there cannot come any Prophet
or Messenger from God. The reasons are clear from what has been stated
above. The teachings God gave to the Holy Prophet are meant for all
nations, for all times, so that the entire world be united in one, perfect
brotherhood. Those teachings are preserved perfectly. So there is simply
no need for a Prophet after the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
Does this mean that no human being can now reach the stage of a close
contact with God, and be spoken to by God?
No, it does not mean this. It simply means that no further new religious
teachings, scripture, or prophet will come into the world. There will
still be people, after the Holy Prophet Muhammad, who, by following
the teachings of Islam, shall have such close contact with God that
He will speak to them, comfort them and disclose to them events of the
future, through words of inspiration, and true dreams and visions. In
Islamic history there have been countless examples of such righteous
individuals who reached this high stage by following the teachings of
Islam perfectly. A person such as this is known as a wali or | <urn:uuid:47c6e795-c27e-4785-8af3-6f6797a4c2d7> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.muslim.org/islam/int-is33.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500812867.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021332-00302-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961336 | 1,773 | 3 | 3 |
Few modes of transport evoke such a sense of history and romanticism as rail.
The first recorded use of rail transport was around 500BC, when ancient Greeks used a rail-like system – most likely powered by humans or horses – to carry boats across where the Corinth channel currently is.
In the 1400s, German miners used wooden railways that were pushed by hand or pulled by horse.
After the first iron rails were introduced in England in 1767, it took less than 40 years before Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive, also in England. In 1830, the world’s first regular steam passenger rail service was inaugurated by the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway.
Africa’s first network of railways was started in Alexandria, Egypt in 1852. By 1860, South Africa had launched its first steam train, running from Central Durban to the Point, and by 1897 a railway line between Cape Town and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe was completed.
In the early part of the 20th century rail lines were being constructed across the continent, connecting cities and countries in North, East, West and Southern Africa.
Today, fast-growing economies across the continent are upgrading antiquated rail infrastructure to support improved regional trade and mass local transit.
However, according to the African Development Bank, the poor condition of rail infrastructure and rolling stock in many African countries is undermining the potential of rail systems to contribute to economic development.
Critical priorities for rail development in East Africa
Governments and rail operators are responding positively: ambitious rail projects are underway in many African countries, including Senegal, Morocco, Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Ghana, Algeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa.
In Tanzania, the largest port in East Africa is currently under construction at Bagamoyo, while further north the Kenyan government is planning a port to match it near Lamu.
In both cases, rail networks will be established to facilitate trade with landlocked countries in the region and to support economic development in the East African Community and beyond.
Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) investment and expansion looks set to eventually connect it to the West African coast, while Ethiopia’s rail investment is already bearing fruit, prompting similar activities from Tanzania.
The $100-billion investment into East Africa is creating opportunities for new business and revenue models that can leverage the upgraded rail infrastructure to transform how companies operate in the region.
Kenya’s regional SGR network will create a critical mass that will improve economies of scale, reduce unit costs and tariffs, and provide sufficient cash flow for debt repayments.
These developments are crucial: the UN estimates that 1.3 billion people will be added to Africa’s population by 2050, accounting for more than half of global population growth.
Trade will increase dramatically: the African Development Bank estimates that Africa’s GDP could grow from a base of $1.7-trillion in 2010 to more than $15-trillion by 2060.
Having the appropriate rail capabilities in place will be essential as the continent works toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially as it relates to Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (Goal 9).
In an in-depth study, the African Development Bank found five key drivers of the development of African railways, namely:
An increase in transport demand due to African economic growth, leading to new demand for transportation and better infrastructure;
An increase in global supply chain competitiveness, demanding better and more integrated logistics, or what we would call digitally transformed supply chains;
An increase in the number and size of large African metropolitan cities requiring new urban mass transport systems;
New mining developments producing high-volume outputs, driving a need for higher capacity infrastructure capable of handling mining bulk volumes; and
The existence of landlocked countries with poor connectivity to sea ports, which require reliable and high-capacity access to the sea.
Leveraging tech to ensure no passenger left behind
While trade and economic development is critical, attention should also be given to the importance of rail networks in transporting commuters.
In many countries, poor rail infrastructure and outdated technology contribute to extensive delays in passenger rail networks, with disastrous consequences for productivity (among passengers) and profitability (for the rail operator).
While accelerated rail investment and expansion can be noted across East Africa, the technology and digital transformation underpinning modern rail systems often come as an afterthought.
Emerging technologies hold immense promise in this regard: transportation models that are purpose-built to support the increasingly complex needs of consumers and business in a digital world have certain characteristics in common.
Technologies such as IoT supported by advanced analytical capabilities are providing improved asset utilisation by enhancing capacity management and equipment maintenance.
By matching equipment supply to demand in real-time and providing predictive capabilities to improve the effectiveness of maintenance on key rail assets, available capacity is maximised and associated operating costs are lowered.
In addition, IoT enables rail operators to utilise sensors across the rail network to better passenger movements. When integrated with a powerful analytics platform, rail operators can start uncovering trends in passenger movements and predict when and where additional capacity is needed.
By proactively meeting changing consumer needs, rail operators ensure uninterrupted service and improve customer satisfaction, both of which has positive knock-on effects on profitability.
SAP is supporting the digital transformation of Africa’s rail systems by providing the technology tools and platforms that bring industry best-practices and exponential technologies together in a single seamless framework.
By implementing a digital core built on SAP HANA and the SAP Cloud Platform, rail operators get a single access point to better manage its supplier collaboration, workforce engagement, customer experience, and assets and supply chains.
Flexible line-of-business extensions ensure rail operators have the technological support to reimagine their business models, simplify and streamline business process, and innovate at scale and speed.
Railways form the network of interconnected veins that supply the lifeblood of Africa’s economic growth and development.
By ensuring the reliable and affordable delivery of people, products and commodities across the continent, Africa’s railways will play a starring role in the creation of a connected, prosperous continent.
And with the support of powerful cloud-based platforms, rail operators can provide the seamless and reliable services that Africa’s increasingly sophisticated consumer and business markets demand.
By Gilbert Saggia, Managing Director, East Africa, SAP | <urn:uuid:1fd66e8f-6eba-4f5b-947f-dd5c2b99e3ce> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.busiweek.com/how-africas-railway-system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337432.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003200326-20221003230326-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.938778 | 1,321 | 3.59375 | 4 |
canary yellow in a sentence
Example sentences for canary yellow
Large, bright canary yellow blooms stand out against lush, dark green foliage on this vigorous plant.
Many bright feather colors, such as flamingo pink and canary yellow, are related to the foods birds eat.
The muted color scheme favors cream and canary yellow.
Flesh color inheritance and gene interactions among canary yellow, pale yellow and red watermelon.
Includes three pads each of spring green, carnation, sky blue and canary yellow. | <urn:uuid:9081a7c3-bdaa-4f58-bb4e-ed34eb9bb2f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.reference.com/example-sentences/%20canary%20yellow | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1387345759258/warc/CC-MAIN-20131218054919-00051-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866102 | 110 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Students in Year 9 Computer Science recently completed their Video Games Creation unit by spending time having fun playing and giving feedback on their classmates’ games.
This lesson was a result of all of their hard work in this unit, in which they learned about video game design, logic, problem decomposition and gameplay.
To create their games, the students applied all their programming skills, such as creating variables (score increases with coins collected); iteration (loops, while the monster is attacking me, reduce life by 1); conditionals (IF monster eats me, THEN lose a life); functions (calling a pre-written program) and arrays (list of items). They used a combination of block-based programming and programming language, Python. The students have now moved on to Python scripting to solve problems. Great work Year 9! | <urn:uuid:df546c0d-4e3c-4620-8823-6fbd420137dd> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.bisphuket.ac.th/its-game-on-in-year-9-computer-science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499790.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130003215-20230130033215-00750.warc.gz | en | 0.958057 | 166 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Precipitation reconstructions are essential for predicting impacts of future climate change and preparing for potential changes in terrestrial environmental conditions, such as shifting amounts of regional rainfall, which in turn impact water resource availability and crop growth patterns. Reliable proxy records of paleoprecipitation, especially from past warm periods, are a valuable tool for assessing and modeling future soil and plant moisture and local water availability. However, current terrestrial proxies are limited in their applications, and as a result, a wide range of paleoenvironments are underrepresented in the geologic record.
In their GSA Bulletin study, published online ahead of print on 3 Feb. 2015, Ethan G. Hyland and colleagues present a new relationship between the magnetic properties of soils and precipitation, and use this new proxy to describe changes in paleoprecipitation during past periods of major climate change. This work doubles the potential range of terrestrial paleoclimate applications, and has great potential for robustly describing hydrologic conditions in the deep past. Improvements in our understanding of these conditions can lead to more accurate predictions of water availability and ecosystem stability in a warmer world.
Because soil formation occurs in most terrestrial ecosystems and is controlled strongly by climatic factors, paleosol-based proxies provide an important archive of terrestrial climate. These records are ideal because they are applicable to significantly longer time scales than records from ice cores, and they give greater spatial fidelity and temporal coverage than records from sources such as lake cores or botanical (pollen) records.
Understanding precipitation in the present and during past episodes of climate change is important for determining and preparing for impacts of changes in the hydrological cycle on global environmental systems in the future. Soil magnetic properties, specifically the ratio of pedogenic goethite to hematite in modern soils, can be related quantitatively to modern precipitation regimes worldwide via a robust linear regression model. This newly derived relationship serves as a precipitation proxy that is applicable to a wide range of soil types and climatic regimes worldwide, and the resulting climo-function has been successfully applied to paleosols in order to estimate paleoprecipitation during the early Eocene climatic optimum, an interval of rapid global climate change. | <urn:uuid:7533a11f-2b10-4c4a-aa97-01f916a01cb0> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.geologyin.com/2015/02/paleoclimate-proxies-paleosols-and.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363405.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20211207170825-20211207200825-00637.warc.gz | en | 0.924115 | 446 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The Brooklyn Bridge, viewed from Manhattan
|Carries||6 lanes of roadway (cars only)
Elevated trains (until 1944)
Streetcars (until 1950)
Pedestrians and bicycles
|Locale||New York City (Civic Center, Manhattan – Dumbo/Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn)|
|Maintained by||New York City Department of Transportation|
|Total length||5,989 ft (1,825.4 m)|
|Width||85 ft (25.9 m)|
|Height||276.5 ft (84.3 m) above mean high water|
|Longest span||1,595.5 ft (486.3 m)|
|Clearance below||135 ft (41.1 m)|
|Designer||John Augustus Roebling|
|Opened||May 24, 1883|
|Daily traffic||123,781 (2008)|
|Toll||Free both ways|
|NRHP Reference #||66000523|
|Added to NRHP||1966|
|Designated NHL||January 29, 1964|
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
Although the Brooklyn Bridge is technically a suspension bridge, it uses a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge design. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The granite blocks were quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell Granite Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.
The bridge was built with numerous passageways and compartments in its anchorages. New York City rented out the large vaults under the bridge's Manhattan anchorage in order to fund the bridge. Opened in 1876, the vaults were used to store wine, as they were always at 60 °F (16 °C). This was called the "Blue Grotto" because of a shrine to the Virgin Mary next to an opening at the entrance. When New York visited one of the cellars about 102 years later, in 1978, it discovered, on the wall, a "fading inscription" reading: "Who loveth not wine, women and song, he remaineth a fool his whole life long."
Construction of the bridge began in 1869. The bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his 32-year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.
The bridge's two towers were built by floating two caissons, giant upside-down boxes made of southern yellow pine, in the span of the East River, and then beginning to build the stone towers on top of them until they sank to the bottom of the river. Compressed air was pumped into the caissons, and workers entered the space to dig the sediment, until the caissons sank to the bedrock. The whole weight of the bridge still sits upon a 15-foot thickness of southern yellow pine wood under the sediment.
Many workers became sick with the bends in this work. This condition was unknown at the time, and was first called "caisson disease" by the project physician Andrew Smith. Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870. Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand.
Roebling conducted the entire construction from his apartment with a view of the work, designing and redesigning caissons and other equipment. He was aided by his wife Emily Warren Roebling who provided the critical written link between her husband and the engineers on site. Under her husband's guidance, Emily studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling, helping to supervise the bridge's construction. When iron probes underneath the caisson for the Manhattan tower found the bedrock to be even deeper than expected, Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness. He later deemed the aggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9 m) below it to be firm enough to support the tower base, and construction continued.
The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1972 book The Great Bridge by David McCullough and Brooklyn Bridge (1981), the first PBS documentary film ever made by Ken Burns. Burns drew heavily on McCullough's book for the film and used him as narrator. It is also described in Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a BBC docudrama series with accompanying book.
The bridge—originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge— was opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact rarely visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.
On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge cost US$15.5 million in 1883 dollars (about US$380,946,000 in today's dollars) to build and an estimated number of 27 people died during its construction.
On May 30, 1883, six days after the opening, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which was responsible for at least twelve people being crushed and killed. On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge's stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.
At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world—50% longer than any previously built—and it has become a treasured landmark. Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. The paint scheme of the bridge is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan" and "Silver", although it has been argued that the original paint was "Rawlins Red".
At the time the bridge was built, the aerodynamics of bridge building had not been worked out. Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the 1950s, well after the collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940. It is therefore fortunate that the open truss structure supporting the deck is by its nature less subject to aerodynamic problems. Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. This is also in spite of the substitution of inferior quality wire in the cabling supplied by the contractor J. Lloyd Haigh—by the time it was discovered, it was too late to replace the cabling that had already been constructed. Roebling determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge four rather than six times as strong as necessary, so it was eventually allowed to stand, with the addition of 250 cables. Diagonal cables were installed from the towers to the deck, intended to stiffen the bridge. They turned out to be unnecessary, but were kept for their distinctive beauty.
After the collapse in 2007 of the I-35W highway bridge in the city of Minneapolis, increased public attention has been brought to bear on the condition of bridges across the US, and it has been reported that the Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps received a rating of "poor" at its last inspection. According to a NYC Department of Transportation spokesman, it wasn't necessarily dangerous in the state it was then in, but a poor rating implied a renovation. A US$508 million project to renovate the approaches, costing the equivalent of US$551,257,000 today, began in 2010, with the full bridge renovation beginning in spring 2011, and was originally scheduled to run until 2014, but project completion was later delayed to April 2015.
As part of this project, two approach ramps were widened from one lane to two by re-striping a new prefabricated ramp; clearance over the eastbound Interstate 278 at York Street, on the double-deck Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, will be increased; and seismic retrofitting, replacement of rusted railings and safety barriers, and road surface replacements were to be performed. Due to the nature of the work, detours were necessitated for four years.
- In 1915, the city government officially named the structure the Brooklyn Bridge, a name first mentioned in print in a January 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
- In 1919, Giorgio Pessi piloted what was then one of the world's largest airplanes, the Caproni Ca.5, under the bridge.
- In 1964, the bridge is designated a National Historic Landmark, having become an icon of New York City since its opening. and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
- The centennial celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. A flotilla of ships visited the harbor, parades were held, and in the evening the sky over the bridge was illuminated by Grucci Fireworks. The Brooklyn Museum exhibited a selection of the original drawings made for the bridge's construction, some by Washington Roebling himself. Media coverage of the centennial was declared "the public relations triumph of 1983" by Inc.
- In June 1993, following 13 reconnoiters inside the metal structure, and with the help of a mountain guide, Thierry Devaux performed (illegally) eight acrobatic bungee jumps above the East River close to the Brooklyn-side pier, in the early morning. He used an electric winch between each acrobatic figure.
- On March 1, 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement, striking 16-year-old student Ari Halberstam and three others traveling on the bridge. Halberstam died five days later from his wounds. Baz was apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of 29 Palestinian Muslims by Baruch Goldstein that had taken place days earlier on February 25, 1994. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to a 141-year prison term. After initially classifying the murder as one committed out of road rage, the Justice Department reclassified the case in 2000 as a terrorist attack. The entrance ramp to the bridge on the Manhattan side was named the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp in memory of the victim.
- In 2003, truck driver Iyman Faris was sentenced to about 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda, after an earlier plot to destroy the bridge by cutting through its support wires with blowtorches was thwarted through information the National Security Agency uncovered through wiretapped phone conversations and interrogation of Al-Qaeda militants.
- In 2006, a Cold War-era fallout shelter was found during a structural inspection beneath the Manhattan approach. The abandoned space in one of the masonry arches still contained the emergency survival supplies for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
- Beginning on May 22, 2008, festivities were held over a five-day period to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. The events kicked off with a live performance of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Empire–Fulton Ferry State Park, followed by special lighting of the bridge's towers and a fireworks display. Other events held during the 125th anniversary celebrations, which coincided with the Memorial Day weekend, included a film series, historical walking tours, information tents, a series of lectures and readings, a bicycle tour of Brooklyn, a miniature golf course featuring Brooklyn icons, and other musical and dance performances. Just before the anniversary celebrations, the Telectroscope, which created a video link between New York and London, was installed on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. The installation lasted for a few weeks and permitted viewers in New York to see people looking into a matching telectroscope in front of London's Tower Bridge. A newly renovated pedestrian connection to the DUMBO neighborhood was also unveiled before the anniversary celebrations.
- On October 1, 2011, more than 700 protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement were arrested while attempting to march across the bridge on the roadway.
- Early in the morning on July 22, 2014, the two American flags attached to poles atop each tower were found to have been replaced by American flags that had been bleached white. It is believed that several individuals covered the lights that illuminate the flags, then climbed the cables to the top of the two bridge towers. No motivation had yet been confirmed for this incident, but it had been suggested that the white flags were meant to symbolize surrender. Evidence including surveillance footage and DNA taken from the bridge was reviewed, and by August 1, 2014, up to nine "persons of interest" had been found, with a possible motive being cannabis activism. However, on August 12, 2014, two Berlin artists claimed responsibility for hoisting the two white flags, causing the security panic and investigation by New York police. Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke said the flags were meant to celebrate "the beauty of public space" and the anniversary of the death of German-born John Roebling, who designed the famous bridge. The artists say they hand-sewed the two flags into all-white replicas of an American flag and had the original flags ready to return. "This was not an anti-American statement," Wermke said.
There have been several notable jumpers as well. The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert Emmet Odlum, brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, on May 19, 1885. He struck the water at an angle and died shortly thereafter from internal injuries. Steve Brodie was the most famous jumper, or self-proclaimed jumper (in 1886). Cartoonist Otto Eppers jumped and survived in 1910, and was then tried and acquitted for attempted suicide. A lesser known early jumper was James Duffy of County Cavan, Ireland, who on April 15, 1895 asked several men to watch him jump from the bridge. Duffy jumped and was not seen again.
Pedestrian and vehicular access
The bridge originally carried horse-drawn and rail traffic, with a separate elevated walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Since 1950, the main roadway has carried six lanes of automobile traffic. Due to the roadway's height (11 ft (3.4 m) posted) and weight (6,000 lb (2,700 kg) posted) restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using this bridge. The two inside traffic lanes once carried elevated trains of the BMT from Brooklyn points to a terminal at Park Row via Sands Street. Streetcars ran on what are now the two center lanes (shared with other traffic) until the elevated lines stopped using the bridge in 1944, when they moved to the protected center tracks. In 1950 the streetcars also stopped running, and the bridge was rebuilt to carry six lanes of automobile traffic.
The Brooklyn Bridge is accessible for motor cars from the Brooklyn entrances of Tillary/Adams Streets, Sands/Pearl Streets, and Exit 28B of the eastbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Manhattan, motor cars can enter from either direction of the FDR Drive, Park Row, Chambers/Centre Streets, and Pearl/Frankfort Streets. Pedestrian and bicycle access to the bridge from the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the vehicular entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect Street between Cadman Plaza East and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall / Chambers Street subway station complex.
The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes. In 1971, a center line was painted to separate cyclists from pedestrians, creating one of the City's first dedicated bike lanes. More than 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 cyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge each day. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.
During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005, the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the affected public.
Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 blackouts and most famously after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge was used by people leaving Manhattan after subway service was suspended. During the 2003 event, many crossing the bridge reported a swaying motion. This swaying was caused by a much higher pedestrian load than usual, coupled with the tendency of pedestrians to synchronize their footfalls with a sway, amplifying the motion. Several engineers expressed concern about how this would affect the bridge, although others noted that the bridge did withstand the event, and that the redundancies in its design—the inclusion of the three support systems: suspension system, diagonal stay system, and stiffening truss—make it "probably the best secured bridge against such movements going out of control." The bridge's designer, John Roebling, had claimed, long before, that due to such redundancies, the bridge would sag, yet not fall, even if one of these structural systems were to fail altogether.
Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the "literal and genuinely religious leap of faith" embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge — "the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology".
References to "selling the Brooklyn Bridge" abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, "If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you." George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists. The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is also a joking reference to Bugs "selling" a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.
A bronze plaque is attached to one of the bridge's anchorages, which was constructed on a piece of property occupied by a mansion, the Osgood House, at 1 Cherry Street in Manhattan. It served as the first Presidential Mansion, housing George Washington, his family, and household staff from April 23, 1789 to February 23, 1790, during the two-year period when New York City was the national capital. Its owner, Samuel Osgood, was a Massachusetts politician and lawyer, who married Maria Bowne Franklin, widow of Walter Franklin, the New York merchant who built it in 1770. Washington moved in a week before his 1789 inauguration as first President of the United States. In addition to living quarters, the Osgood House contained the President's private office and the public business office, making it the first seat of the executive branch of the federal government.
"Love locks" is a practice by which a couple inscribe a date and their initials onto a lock, attach it to the bridge and throw the key into the water as a sign of their "everlasting love". Although the origin of the practice is unknown, it is more popular in Europe where 22 countries have at least one city with a similar location. It has reportedly caused damage to certain bridges, and is officially illegal in New York City. The love locks are occasionally removed from the Brooklyn Bridge.
In popular culture
- The bridge is often featured in wide shots of the New York City skyline in television and film. It has been shown in films such as Annie Hall, Gangs of New York, Kate & Leopold, It Happened in Brooklyn, Independence Day, I Am Legend, The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and Godzilla (in which the Bridge is completely destroyed).
- Cuban poet José Martí wrote an article titled "The Bridge of Brooklyn" for the magazine La América, published in June 1883, shortly after the bridge opened to the public. The article was published in his book "Escenas norteamericanas". In the article, Martí made comparisons between certain animals (like snakes) and the structure of the bridge.
- American Modernist poet Hart Crane used the Brooklyn Bridge as a central metaphor and organizing structure for his second and most important book of poetry, The Bridge. This book takes the form of a long poem spanning eight parts, beginning with an ode ("Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge") and ending with a transfigured vision of the bridge as the unifying symbol of America ("Atlantis"). Crane briefly lived in an apartment overlooking the bridge that, he later learned, once housed Washington Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge's builder and son of its architect, John A. Roebling.
- It has also been prominently featured in various television series (especially those set in New York City), such as CSI: NY.
Painters working on the bridge, October 1914 (Eugene de Salignac)
- "NYCDOT Bridges Information". New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
- "Brooklyn Bridge". Nycroads.com. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
- Feuerstein, Gary (May 29, 1998). "Brooklyn Bridge Facts, History and Information". Endex.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- "New York City Bridge Traffic Volumes 2008" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation. March 2010. p. 63. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
- Staff (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
- "Brooklyn Bridge". National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015.
- E.P.D. (January 25, 1867). "Bridging the East River – Another Project". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 2. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2007.[verification needed]
- Armstrong, James B.; Bradford, S. Sydney (February 24, 1975). "The Brooklyn Bridge" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination. National Park Service.
- "The Brooklyn Bridge—Accompanying three photos, from 1975." (PDF). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination. National Park Service. February 24, 1975.
- "Brooklyn Bridge". ASCE Metropolitan Section. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- "Brooklyn Bridge", Encyclopedia Britannica
- McLane, Charles B.; McLane, Carol Evarts (1997). Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast I. Tilbury House & Island Institute. p. 134. ISBN 0-88448-184-0.
- "Brooklyn Bridge Champagne". ediblegeography.com.
- Van Luling, Todd (April 17, 2014). "8 Things Even New Yorkers Don't Know About New York City". The Huffington Post.
- "The Building Of The Bridge.; Its Cost And The Difficulties Met With-- Details Of The History Of A Great Engineering Triumph.". The New York Times. May 24, 1883. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
- McNamara, Robert. "The Brooklyn Bridge was a Fascinating Sight While Being Built". about education. About.com. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
- "Sandhog: Building the Brooklyn Bridge, 1871". Eyewitness to History. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
- Smith, Andrew Heermance (1886). The Physiological, Pathological and Therapeutical Effects of Compressed Air. Detroit: George S. Davis. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
- Acott, Chris (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
- Butler WP (2004). "Caisson disease during the construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges: A review". Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (4): 445–59. PMID 15686275. Retrieved June 19, 2008.
- McCullough, David (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-21213-1.
- Weigold, Marilyn (1984). Silent Builder: Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge. Associated Faculty Press.
- McCullough, David (1983). The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 421.
- "Emily Warren Roebling". American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- "GlassSteelandStone: Brooklyn Bridge-tower rests on sand". Retrieved February 20, 2007.
- Burns, Ken. "Why I Decided to Make Brooklyn Bridge". Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- "Burns, Ken – U.S. Documentary Film Maker". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-394-46095-2.
- "Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841–1902 Online". Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved November 23, 2007.
- "Dead on the New Bridge; Fatal Crush at the Western Approach". The New York Times. May 31, 1883. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- Bildner, Phil (2004). Twenty-One Elephants. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-87011-6.
- Prince, April Jones (2005). Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-44887-X.
- P.T. Barnum – MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on October 31, 2009.
- Strausbaugh, John (November 9, 2007). "When Barnum Took Manhattan". The New York Times. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
- Gary Buiso, New York Post (May 25, 2010). "A True Cover Up. Brooklyn Bridge Paint Job Glosses over History". Retrieved October 23, 2010.
- Chan, Sewell (August 2, 2007). "Brooklyn Bridge Is One of 3 With Poor Rating". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
- "Brooklyn Bridge construction starts Aug. 23, keeping Manhattan-bound lanes closed nights till 2014". New York Daily News. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- "Brooklyn Bridge Rehabilitation Spring 2014 Newsletter" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
- "Rebuilding the Bridge". New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- "Rebuilding the Bridge — brochure" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
- Leonard Benardo; Jennifer Weiss (2006). Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More ... NYU Press. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
A Board of Aldermen resolution on January 26, 1915, made it official.
- E.P.D. (January 25, 1867). "Bridging the East River – Another Project". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 2. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2007.
- Franks, Norman et al. (1997) Above the War Fronts: The British Two-seater Bomber Pilot and Observer Aces, the British Two-seater Fighter Observer Aces, and the Belgian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Fighter Aces, 1914–1918: Volume 4 of Fighting Airmen of WWI Series: Volume 4 of Air Aces of WWI. Grub Street, 1997. pp. 150-151. ISBN 1-898697-56-6, ISBN 978-1-898697-56-5.
- NYC Roads. "The Brooklyn Bridge". Retrieved October 23, 2010.
- Hartman, Curtis (November 1, 1983). "Selling the Brooklyn Bridge". Inc. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- "Brooklyn Bridge". SunnyDream. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
- Sexton, Joe (March 2, 1994). "4 Hasidic Youths Hurt in Brooklyn Bridge Shooting". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- "In Memoriam". Ari Halberstam Memorial Site. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- "Iyman Faris". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- Lovgren, Stefan (March 24, 2006). "Cold War "Time Capsule" Found in Brooklyn Bridge". National Geographic. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- Burke, Kerry; Hutchinson, Bill (May 23, 2008). "Brooklyn Bridge turns 125 with a bang". Daily News (New York). Retrieved August 1, 2009.
- "Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration". ASCE Metropolitan Section. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
- Ryzik, Melena (May 21, 2008). "Telescope Takes a Long View, to London". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
- Farmer, Ann (May 21, 2008). "This Way to Brooklyn, This Way". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
- Baker, Al; Moynihan, Colin; Nir, Sarah Maslin (October 1, 2011). "Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- American Flags Bleached White Appear Atop Brooklyn Bridge | NBC New York | Retrieved July 23, 2014
- White flags stump New York police | BBC News | Retrieved July 23, 2014
- A Brooklyn Bridge Mystery: Who Raised the White Flags? | The New York Times | Retrieved July 23, 2014
- Video in Bridge Flag Probe Studied | NBC New York | Retrieved July 26, 2014
- "Bridge Flag Probe Includes DNA". NBC New York. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
- "Cops closing in on Brooklyn Bridge white flag suspects". New York Post. August 1, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
- "Germans Put Flags on Brooklyn Bridge". Daily Beast. August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
- "Artists Claim Brooklyn Bridge Stunt". BBC News. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- "Artists Claim White Flags on Bridge". NBC New York. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- Catherine Odlum (1885). The Life and Adventures of Prof. Robert Emmet Odlum, Containing an Account of his Splendid Natatorium at the National Capital. Gray and Clarkson.
- Stanley, Autumn (2009). Raising More Hell and Fewer Dahlias: The Public Life of Charlotte Smith, 1840–1917. Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press. ISBN 978-0-934223-99-7.
- "Odlum's Leap to Death". The New York Times. May 20, 1885. p. 1. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- Abstract of "Youth Dives Off Brooklyn Bridge; Youngster Eludes the Police and Plunges Into the East River, Escaping Unhurt", The New York Times', n.d.
- Warren Sheaf April 18, 1895
- "Brooklyn Bridge Opens Special Bicycle Ramps". New York Times. April 1, 1971.
- NY DOT - Brooklyn Bridge
- Quindlen, Anna (April 2, 1980). "Koch Faces Day Ebulliently; He Looks Well Rested". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- Rutenberg, Jim (December 21, 2005). "On Foot, on Bridge and at City Hall, Bloomberg Is Irate". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- Julavits, Robert (August 26, 2003). "Point of Collapse". The Village Voice. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- Strogatz, Steven (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion. pp. 174–175, 312, 320. ISBN 0-7868-6844-9.
- Cultural Significance
- Cohen, Gabriel (November 27, 2005). "For You, Half Price". The New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- "A Historic Home Marked". The New York Times. May 2, 1899. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- Love locks appear on Brooklyn Bridge, Daily mail online, February 18, 2013, Retrieved September 11, 2013.
- Martí, José. "El puente de Brooklyn" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved March 4, 2012.
- Sampath Nelson, Emmanuel (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature: I — M. Greenwood. p. 2692. ISBN 978-0-313-33059-9.
- Cadbury, Deborah (2004). Dreams of Iron and Steel. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-716307-X.
- Haw, Richard (2005). The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3587-5.
- Haw, Richard (2008). Art of the Brooklyn Bridge: A Visual History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95386-3.
- Kingsley, William C.; Low, William Seth; Edson, Franklin (1883). Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883. Brooklyn, New York: Press of the Brooklyn eagle job printing Dept.
- McCullough, David (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-21213-1.
- Odlum, Catherine (1885). The Life and Times of Prof Robert Emmet Odlum. Washington, DC: Gray & Clarkson.
- Stern, John; Wilson, Carrie (2003). The Brooklyn Bridge: A Study in Greatness (PDF). New York: Aesthetic Realism Looks at NYC.
- Strogatz, Steven (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion Books. ISBN 978-0-7868-6844-5.
- Strogatz, S. H.; Abrams, D. M.; McRobie, A.; Eckhardt, B.; Ott, E. (2005). "Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge". Nature 438 (7064): 43–44. doi:10.1038/438043a. PMID 16267545.
- Trachtenberg, Alan (1965). Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-81115-8.
- "Brooklyn Bridge and its Railway". The Catskill Archive.
- "The Great Bridge and its Lessons" in Popular Science Monthly Volume 23, July 1883
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brooklyn Bridge.|
- Brooklyn Bridge – New York City Department of Transportation
- Brooklyn Bridge: Historic overview - NYCRoads.com
- Great Buildings entry for the Brooklyn Bridge
- Brooklyn Bridge at Structurae
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-18, "Brooklyn Bridge"
- Brooklyn Bridge at Historical Marker Database
- Brooklyn Bridge collected news and commentary at The New York Times | <urn:uuid:37f70294-ef3b-4692-91a7-df67464eab0c> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701162648.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193922-00143-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924954 | 8,010 | 2.921875 | 3 |
09 Ago Precisely what is Data Interaction?
Data communication is the transfer of information from a device to another using a approach to signals. These signals could be in digital or analogue form and will carry info such as quantities, letters, text message and even pics. These alerts are sent across a communications method such as line cable or perhaps other electricity medium. The results is then processed into a file format that can be fully understood by destination unit. The data is then stored in random access memory or a database and utilised in a variety of processes such as reporting and examination.
A common sort of data exchange occurs within a hospital where patient test results and images are shared between departments. This kind of saves on period, paper and courier costs while making sure all relevant parties have latest data. A company can also benefit from www.bigdataroom.net/virtual-data-room-for-business exchanging info by finding a more accurate picture of its customers’ purchase habits.
The term ‘data communication’ applies to every one of the methods of copying data between units and systems. It is important to comprehend the different types of data sign to be able to select the best suited method for a particular application. For instance , it is important to utilize a protocol that supports problem detection and correction and also packetisation to slip the transmitting requirements from the data. | <urn:uuid:162e241c-69a3-4412-a01b-23e235f70567> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.immobiliarefausta.it/precisely-what-is-data-interaction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100781.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20231209004202-20231209034202-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.945979 | 278 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The parliament building in the Pacific country of Tonga has been destroyed by the worst storm to hit the country in more than 60 years.
Cyclone Gita, a category four storm, battered the island overnight and caused widespread damage.
Electricity lines were downed and roofs were torn off houses by the high winds.
The government declared a state of emergency before the storm hit, and set up evacuation centres where thousands of people stayed overnight.
“The wind was terrifying. It was roaring overhead. We could hear roofs being lifted,” witness Mary Fonua told Radio New Zealand.
“I could see the people across the road, their roof was flapping around the house, it was trying to disintegrate. I think a lot of people were very desperate last night.”
The UK Met Office said the storm – which brought winds of more than 200km/h (124mph) – was the strongest to hit the main islands of Tonga since modern records began.
Tonga is made up of more than 170 islands, and is located in the Pacific Ocean east of Fiji and north of New Zealand.
Tonga’s parliament building is more than 100 years old. It is not yet clear where MPs will sit while it is being repaired.
One MP, Lord Fusitu’a, told ABC News that the damage was “a great disappointment”.
“Successive legislatures over the years have suggested building a new parliament house and I guess that’ll be a necessity now,” he said.
Gita is expected to intensify into a category five storm – the highest level – on Tuesday as it moves towards Fiji.
But experts predict it will miss the country’s most densely populated areas. | <urn:uuid:f497e54a-4d7c-4932-b889-62dea01df67e> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://citifmonline.com/2018/02/13/tonga-parliament-building-flattened-cyclone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676592150.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20180721012433-20180721032433-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.979278 | 363 | 2.9375 | 3 |
A mental health disorder characterised by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.
There is mounting evidence that clinical depression takes a serious toll on physical health. The most recent studies exploring health and major depression have looked at patients with stroke or coronary artery disease. Results have shown that people with major depression who are recovering from strokes or heart attacks have a more difficult time making health care choices. They also find it more difficult to follow their doctor's instructions and to cope with the challenges their illness presents. Another study found that patients with major depression have a higher risk of death in the first few months after a heart attack
Following are the symptons of Depression:
Our approach involves three steps:
Packaged Mental Health Interventions
Access To Support Groups.
We provide psychosocial interventions including family and marital counselling, motivation enhancement therapy, group therapy, parent training, cognitive behaviour therapy, cognitive retraining, social skills and problem-solving skills training, stress management and behavioural modification. Our interventions are brief and evidence based.
We provide access to family support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, special schools, and parent groupsof children with special needs.
We have an expert panel of mental health clinicians from Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry domains
All staff members of Possitive Vibes are licensed professionals. Our staff consists of licensed psychiatrist. | <urn:uuid:ce326193-a973-48f1-a16b-07e77afb0b05> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.possitivevibes.com/depression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154214.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20210801154943-20210801184943-00428.warc.gz | en | 0.942521 | 280 | 2.859375 | 3 |
More History of Science on “In Our Time”
Posted by Darin Hayton on 07/08 at 10:07 PM
Melvyn Bragg, host of BBC Radio 4’s “In Our Time,” consistently produces excellent programs on the history of science (along with programs on other topics). The most recent program looks at Pliny’s Natural History. His guests include Liba Taub from Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Serafina Cuomo from Birkbeck, and Aude Doody from University College, Dublin.
Pliny claims to have consulted more than 2,000 sources in compiling his massive, 36-volume (plus a first volume that is merely the table of contents for the remaining 36) Historia naturalis, which covers astronomy, geography, stones, mining, zoology, and dozens of other topics. This vast compendium survived in its entirety and became a fundamental resource for scholars throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods.
Last month, “In Our Time” had a program on the Muslim polymath al-Biruni. The focus of this program was al-Biruni’s 11th-century book India, a detailed study of Hindu religion, science, and everyday life.
A couple other programs from the archives:
Renaissance Astrology explores the question: “But why did astrological ideas flourish in the period, how did astrologers interpret and influence the course of events and what new ideas eventually brought the astrological edifice tumbling down?” Lauren Kassell from Cambridge’s HPS is one of the guests.
Renaissance Magic asks: “[W]hy did magic appeal so strongly to the Renaissance mind? And how did the scholarly Magus, who became a feature of the period, manage to escape prosecution and relate his work to science and the Church?”
The Habsburg emperor Rudolf II, known for his patronage of magicians, alchemists, and astrologers was the topic of another program.
Podcasts are available for only a short period after the original broadcast, so it is well worth signing up for them: In Our Time Podcast. If you miss the podcast, you can listen to the shows through the BBC iPlayer on the website. | <urn:uuid:04fbf5a1-d129-4f78-8248-68161abe0b15> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pachs.net/blogs/comments/more_history_of_science_on_in_our_time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932902 | 484 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This is the continuation of a series of stories about men who died in World War 1, and whose photographs appeared in a publication called “Our Nation’s Roll of Honor.” The original post and explanation can be found at this link. There will also be a complete listing of all the names researched at that same blog post.
THE LOST FACES OF WORLD WAR ONE: Our Nation’s Roll of Honor (Part 3)
Bernard Herman Bolt was born 9 Nov 1898 Germany, and died of wounds 29 May 1918 in France. He was the son of Friedrich Carl Gustav & Wilhelmine Friederike Marie Sophie (Meinke) Bolte, and he immigrated to the United States about 1903 with his family.
In March (29) of 1918, “he was one of an American patrol, officer, sergeant and 3 men who took four prisoners from a German outpost position. Quietly slipped up behind and covered six Germans. One was Bernard Bolt of South Bethlehem PA.” –Colorado Springs Gazette, April 1, 1918, page 8. He was awarded the French War Cross for aiding in this capture.
Bernard H. Bolt’s dates of service was from 21 October 1916 to his death date of 29 May 1918. Reportedly he served in Co. K. 34th Regt US Infantry, and Co. K, 28th Regt US Infantry (his tombstone shows this latter company). The official history of the 28th Infantry Regiment in WW1 shows at the time of his death, his company was involved in the first American offensive of the war, near Cantigny, France, begun on May 28,1918.
The June 13, 1918 Evening Public Ledger newspaper of Philadelphia PA noted that he was “injured in action with Pershing’s forces in France,” and that he had died of his injuries. He was buried in Fountain Hill Cemetery, Lehigh County, PA [see an additional photograph]
In 1910 he was living in East Allen, Northampton Co. PA with his family. He was single, but besides his parents, at the time of his death he left behind siblings: Ernest J. Bolt, Adolph K. Bolt, William H. Bolt, Mada, Bolt, and Erma L. Bolt.
Charles O. “Charley” Brown, was born 27 May 1896 in Missouri, son of John Thomas & Edna A. (Foss) Brown of Poplar Bluff, Butler Co., Missouri. A series of newspaper reports tell the story of tragedy.
Saturday, June 15, 1918 Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock) page 8 –IS KILLED IN ACTION
Special to the Gazette. Poplar Bluff Mo., June 14.–According to a message received today by Mrs. J.T. Brown from Adjutant General McCain, Corp. Charles O. Brown, a Poplar Bluff boy, was killed in action during the battle of the Marne on June 4. Corporal Brown was with the first detachment sent to France from Poplar Bluff. Some time ago he was gassed and was out of the hospital only a short time before he was killed.
July 16, 1918 Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock) page 2 TO HONOR DEAD HERO.
Poplar Bluff Mo. July 15–A movement is on foot here for funds to erect a monument in the public square in honor of Charles O. Brown the first Poplar Bluff boy killed in action in France. E.C. Graham is at the head of the movement. [I could not find a record of this monument, or if it was ever erected, however a monument was much later erected to honor the dead of several wars.].
Thursday, October 24, 1918 Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock AK) p. 2 — KILLED BY HUN MINE. C.O. Brown of Poplar Bluff Victim of German Treachery. Poplar Bluff Mo., Oct. 23.–Mrs. J.T. Brown today received a letter from Capt. J.B. Cook in France, giving an account of the death of her son, Corporal Charles O. Brown, who was killed during the battle of the Marne. The letter in part follows: “Your son, Corporal O. Brown, Company H., 18th Infantry, died of wounds received in action at 1:10 a.m., June 4, 1918. He was wounded at about 11:40 p.m. on June 3, in the front line trench at Chateau Grivesnes, France, by a German grenade, while he was in charge of a working party digging trenches. “The trench your son was working on recently had been taken from the Germans and the men were repairing the trench when one of them hit a trap set by the Germans with his pick, injuring four men, of whom your son was one. The trap was set by the Huns and buried, and the men working in the dark could not see it. All work in the front lines has to be done at night, or the enemy would shell all working parties. Your son was an excellent soldier and a good squad leader.”
In 1921 his body was returned to the United States for reburial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri. Wednesday, April 6, 1921, Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock AK) page 8 — TO BURY HERO. Poplar Bluff Mo., April 5.–Funeral services for Corp. Charles O. Brown, first Poplar Bluff boy killed in action during the World war, will be held tomorrow. Mayor J.W. Berryman issued a proclamation today setting two hours tomorrow afternoon as a holiday, during which time the funeral services will be held. All business in the city will stop so that all persons may pay their respects to the dead hero.
The local American Legion post was named for Brown. Post 153 Brown-Mabry [Charter Date: Sept 1 1924, American Legion 100th anniv 1919-2019].
Charles O. Brown was single, but besides his parents, he left behind siblings: Dewey Grant Brown, Effie A. Brown, Mary Lucreacie “Creacie” Brown, and Georgie O. Brown.
Samuel “Sam” Buchalter was born 1/2 January 1894 in Selets [Seltz], Belarus, Russia, son of Naftali/Nathan & Rebecca (Litchitsky) Buchalter. He immigrated with his family to the United States. His father was a blacksmith and in 1910 the family was living in Salem, New London Co., Connecticut.
Samuel Buchalter enlisted in the regular army at Ft. Slocum, NY on July 7, 1917, at the age of 23 years. He was in Co. M 55 Infantry from July 18 1917 to Aug 21, 1917; 2nd Co Training Battalion 26th Infantry to February 2 1918; Co. D 26 Infantry to death. Rank: Private. He was Killed in Action May 29, 1918 at the Battle of Cantigny. He was cited for Bravery.
His body was returned to the United States after the war ended, and is buried in plot 203-5 New Jewish Cemetery, Colchester, Conn, p 105 [aka Ahavas Achi, Cabin Road, Burial Plot G79]. Besides his parents, he left behind siblings: Jennie Buchalter, Bessie Buchalter, Nathan Buchalter, Lillie Buchalter, and Bertha Buchalter.
Harry Albert Bullock was born 8 September 1878 in Needham, Norfolk Co. MA, son of Edwin Orr & Ann “Annie” Veazie (Warren) Orr. In 1880 his family was living in Needham, Norfolk Co. MA, his father being a dry goods merchant there. His siblings included: Edwin Warren Bullock, William F. Bullock, Charles J. Bullock, Annie C. Bullock [Mrs. Emerson Kimball], and Grace F. Bullock.
He was a well known reporter for the New York Times prior to his enlistment, and so his death and burial was greatly detailed in the newspapers as follows.
NY Times, 6 June 1918
Captain Harry A. Bullock, for nearly ten years a member of the reportorial staff of the New York Times, and later Secretary of the Municipal Railway Corporation, a subsidiary of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, was killed on duty in France, May 30 . Captain Bullock, a graduate of Plattsburg assigned to the Quartermaster’s Reserve Corps was killed by an aerial bomb which struck the portable officer five miles from the front line trenches where he and his superior officer, Colonel Bertram T. Clayton , were supervising the bringing up of supplies to the troops. Colonel Clayton also is listed as killed in action. The dead Captain was one of the first Plattsburg men to go overseas and in letter which he wrote he said that for some time he had been detailed to study the transportation problem in France. His advisers indicated, however, that for the last three weeks he had been on duty in an especially active sector of the American line. The first word of his death to reach his home in Brooklyn came in a letter which Captain Bullock’s brother, Professor Charles J. Bullock of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, wrote to Timothy S. Williams. President of the B.R.T. In his letter Professor Bullock supplemented the Adjutant General’s brief notification of his brothers death with details which he had obtained by cable….. In addition to Professor Bullock, the dead soldier is survived by another brother, Edward Bullock and by two sisters, Miss Grace F. Bullock and Mrs. Emerson Kimball, both of Concord NH.
After the war, his remains were returned to the United States for reburial.
16 April 1921: MILITARY FUNERAL SUNDAY FOR CAPT. HARRY A. BULLOCK
Sunday afternoon more than 500 ex-service men In uniform will parade as an escort of honor to the body of Capt. Harry Albert Bullock, of 6 Channlng street, former division quartermaster of the First division, A. X. F., who was killed in action May 30, 1918, and whose funeral will take place at Mt. Auburn chapel, Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock. The body of Capt. Bullock, who was a brother of Prof. Charles J. Bullock, of Harvard, will be accorded full military honors. His flag-draped casket will be carried from his home to Mt. Auburn on a gun caisson at the head of the military escort. Key. Dr. William 11. Van Allen, of the Church of the Advent, Boston, will officiate at the services, and a firing squad will give the regulation military salute at the grave. Burial will be In Mt Auburn. The military escort, which will parade from Harvard square to the cemetery, will be composed of members of the Cambridge post, No. 27. American, Legion; Russell E. Hoyt post. No. 299, Veterans of Foreign Wars; George Dillboy post. Veterans of Foreign Wars, of Somerville; and the Somerville. Drum corps. Capt. Bullock was born September 8, 1878. In Wellesley Hills. He enlisted In the army in February, 1917. and first served as quartermaster at the Plattsburg camp. He sailed for France In October 1917 where he served first as quartermaster at the base hospital at Boulogne and later as divisional quartermaster of tho Flint division. He was killed at Noyers. St. Martin, by an air bomb dropped, during a German attack, following the capture of Cantigny by the First division, on the headquarters ‘of the quartermaster’s department. Capt. Bullock was cited by Maj. Gen. Summerall of the First division, in general orders issued Jan. 1. 1920, for ”gallantry in action and especially meritorious services.” Previous to entering the service. Capt. Bullock was employed by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. as assistant to the president. He was a graduate of Amherst college and for several years was In the newspaper business, first an a reporter and later at city editor of the New York Times. His only immediate survivors are two brothers and two sisters: Charles Bullock, Dr. E. W. Bullock, of Haverhill: Mrs. F. A. Kimball, of St. Paul., and Miss Grace F. Bullock, of Brookline.
The Harry A. Bullock Post VFW in Brooklyn NY named after him.
Rollin M. Cannon was born 27 January 1896 in Canada, the son of son of Fletcher Bent & Dorcas Ann Harriet (McDonald) Cannon. He died 10 June 1918 of wounds suffered at the Battle of Chateau Thierry, in France. He was a member of the 18th Co., 5th Regt. U.S.M.C.
After the war ended, his body was returned to the United States, and buried at Rutland Rural Cemetery, Rutland MA. Rollin M. Cannon had siblings Robert, Edith G., Aidan, George F., Elizabeth A. His grandfather was Mariner Cannon. Additional newspaper clippings tell his story.
Boston Post (Boston MA) 22 June 1918: DIES OF WOUNDS
Private Rollin M. Cannon, a member of the 18th Company, Fifth Regiment Marines, died on June 9 of wounds received in action. He was one of three sons of F.B. Cannon of Westminster, MA in the service. His brother Aldran C. Cannon, 29, is in France with C Company 104th Infantry, and his brother Robert H. Cannon, 26, is in an aviation camp in Texas. Private Cannon was born 22 years ago on Jan. 27, the Kaiser’s birthday, and was educated at Rutland High School and the Mt. Hermon School and was formerly employed by the Norton Grinder Company, Worcester. He enlisted April 12, 1917.
Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg MA) 27 June 1918: WESTMINSTER: Memorial to Rollin M. Cannon.
A very simple but impressive memorial service, attended by relatives and friends, was held in the Congregational church Wednesday evening as a tribute to Private Rollin M. Cannon, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher B. Cannon, Damon hill, who died from wounds in France, June 10. Rev. Charles N. Gleason, pastor of the church had charge of the service. The members of the choir sang two selections. The ushers were members of the Cyrus K. Miller camp, S of V and were Commander Edward R. Miller, Albert E. Gates, Robert O. Hurd, and Charles L. Mansur. The members of Joseph P. Rice post, G.A.R. attended in a body.
. The services consisted of prayers by Rev. Lucy Milton Giles, hymn by the choir, etc etc. Taps by soldiers form Camp Devens closed the service. | <urn:uuid:3ba5b3d3-adf6-48fb-ae97-e779e59bb141> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2016/06/06/the-lost-faces-of-world-war-one-part-three/?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986684425.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20191018181458-20191018204958-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.977848 | 3,153 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The children were able to see how life would have been in the farm house, pumping water, doing laundry in the huge tubs with a dolly and stocking the larder with all kinds of preserved fruits and vegetables.
After the lesson we explored further and found a Victorian bathroom and toilet outside in a wood and corrugated iron shed,
and then moved on to WW11 when we found an old air raid shelter. Hannah was surprised at how small it was inside for a whole family to shelter in.
We had a lovely, very informative day and on the way home we saw this beautiful rainbow! | <urn:uuid:6e4eee23-99e2-453c-b679-27213fe145ab> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://educatinghannah.blogspot.com/2012/04/history-group-visit-to-manor-farm.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257646213.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20180319023123-20180319043123-00736.warc.gz | en | 0.979423 | 124 | 2.515625 | 3 |
<back to Home
<back to dogs
<back to Articles
5,000 YEARS -- FOR A SINGLE PURPOSE
From Greyhound Club of Canada newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 1. February, 1996
Imagine a dog, a regular dog, in fact: imagine a mutt. Imagine this mutt is a very happy go lucky, average sized male who possesses instincts and traits handed down to him by ten different breeds of his family tree. He has a good temperament, our imaginary mutt: he is friend to both animal and man. His behaviour is generally good: he comes when he's called.
When out for a walk with this mutt, or a game of chase-the-ball his behaviour is predictable and safe. If you're out at the park with the mutt and you lose sight of him, there is no need for worry. One shrill whistle will bring him running back to you from behind whatever tree or bush he was investigating.
The point is this: he's safe. He's safe because we know what makes him tick, we know what he will do, and when he will do it. He shares the common behaviours and physical limitations of almost every dog you have ever seen throughout your whole life; you know exactly what to expect from him.
Now, just for fun, let's do some genetic engineering to this imaginary mutt. The first thing we'll change is his personality; alter his patterns of thought and reactions with instinctive behaviours that most dogs do not have. From now on, imagine our mutt has the uncanny ability to perform hunting tasks. Then again, almost all dogs have hunting ability, don't they? Well, let's enhance our mutt's abilities beyond those of most dogs. Let's imagine our mutt enjoys the benefit of, oh, let's say five thousand years of single purpose breeding; the purpose being pursuit and capture. Hunting.
Let's change him even further. Let's give this mutt the physical enhancements he would need to fully exploit his new instincts. First, we'll change his vision, giving him larger eyes so that he can spot his prey even if it's a kilometre away. We'll make his vision sharp and clear so that he can tirelessly scan the horizon, looking for targets.
Now, in order for our mutt to be able to catch what he spots so far away, we'll give him great speed. Imagine that we can re-create his heart and lungs to be larger and stronger, and alter his skeletal frame and musculature to be more efficient, powerful, aerodynamic. With this new body design, our newly enhanced mutt can go from a standstill to sixty kilometres-
per-hour in about three seconds. We will also add to his great speed the power of agility, giving him the ability to corner and change directions at high speed, so he can easily capture what he chases.
Let's summarize our changes. Our mutt has single mindedness now, and determination to hunt; he possesses instinct centuries old. Our mutt also has the physical ability to back up this powerful instinct; he can hold his own with the fastest land animals in the world, and he can spot prey with the proficiency of an eagle.
What else does he need? What other changes should we make to this mutt to compliment intelligence for the chase. Imagine that this mutt has the instinctive intelligence to go around fences, bushes, walls and buildings to catch what he sees. He no longer just stops and barks like a fool when something comes between him and his target.
Finally, there is one last change we should give our imaginary canine creation. He should have the power of camouflage. He will possess a calm demeanour and a tranquil, loving attitude. It will not be obvious that he has such great powers.
Wow! We've imagined quite a super dog! All he needs is a name. Maybe "Feline Terminatorus"? Or "Squirrel's Nightmarous"? Then again, in keeping with his personality, something low key would be more appropriate; let's just call him "Greyhound."
Now -- when you take this re-created animal out to run and play, will you forget his new abilities? Will you allow his powers of calm tranquillity to lull you into believing he's just a dog?
Will you let him off the lead in an area that's unfamiliar to both of you, or unsafe? An area where the sight of another dog, car, bird, squirrel or white piece of floating trash could send him streaking at sixty kilometres an hour across a traffic-filled road?
He would appear out of nowhere, instantly; a driver would have no chance to even attempt to hit the brake.
Will you expect this "Greyhound" to stop, or come to you, when he can't hear you calling out over the thunder of his own legs striking the ground in full sprint? Would you expect him to respond to your panicky shouts when the only thing he can hear is his huge heart pounding, the panting of his own breath, and the relentless howl of centuries of instinct?
animal possessing physical ability and instincts beyond normal dogs. A responsible owner must never forget that.
The "mutt" in this article is a metaphor; our final imaginary product, the Greyhound, is real. You own one, and I own one.
My adopted Greyhound is Voodoo. Voodoo is without doubt the best friend I have ever had. I love him, and I know him very well.
I know that he doesn't understand that a car (his second greatest love in the world) can kill him. I know that if I let him off the lead to run (his first love) in an unsafe or unfamiliar park of meadow, he could be a kilometre away and totally lost in less than a minute, and never hear me calling. I know that even though he hasn't shown aggression toward, or a desire to chase a "Whizmo" look-alike for over 8 months-he could at any time. After all, he's from the track, his programming is to pursue and capture.
I love this breed and I love Voodoo. It's because of this love that when I am out with Voodoo, I never take my eyes off him. I never let him run free unless I have carefully scouted the park in advance and know everything in it and around it; I also learn the safest, best time to go there.
As adopters, we all know these rules, and have been warned by our adoption representatives. Did you pay close attention? Do you understand fully what this wonderful breed is physically capable of?
To all the new adopters, I would like to say: listen to the advice! Bond with your dog -- know your dog. Don't be in a rush to watch him run for the first time. I know it's tempting to just unhook them and watch them fly! Please don't throw caution to the wind.
To all the long term adopters, I would like to ask: Has your friend's power of tranquillity ever lulled you?
Love them, enjoy them; don't risk them. Please.
^back to top
<back to Articles | <urn:uuid:b3d5e29b-1187-4ffd-a584-de8e61f5fe93> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://chinookwindsgreyhounds.org/articles/5000years.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128319636.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170622161445-20170622181445-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.9741 | 1,502 | 2.609375 | 3 |
I Hope it's Pretty There by Alex Kopp
In February 1829, a ship called Parmelia left England headed for the west coast of Australia. It was packed with men, women, and children set on building a new life for themselves by the mouth of the Swan River.
Among them were young Joseph Daly, his mum, dad, and four siblings. Filled with hope, uncertainty — and cases full of pots, pans, and other household goods — the passengers were to become the first settlers to the new colony. But the promise of a new idyllic life is shattered when tragedy strikes during the voyage.
Meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated, I hope it’s pretty there recounts the drama of the historic journey through Joseph’s eyes and serves as a bittersweet tale of hope, courage, loss, and resilience.
About the Author:
Alex Kopp is a former History teacher, education consultant, and freelance writer with a keen interest in Australia’s social and cultural heritage. She spent several years working as an education officer at the Western Australian Museum, where she developed and delivered many school programs linked to the museum collections. Since leaving the museum, Alex worked as an educational writer for Seven West Media and serves as a private education consultant, primarily supporting organisations in development of programs and learning resources in the area of heritage, culture and social justice.
- Published July 2021
Ages 9 to 12 | <urn:uuid:1f019214-594a-4aa9-bc77-a24bcc438a4b> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://store.museum.wa.gov.au/products/i-hope-its-pretty-there-alex-kopp-hb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500628.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230207170138-20230207200138-00039.warc.gz | en | 0.973178 | 295 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880), known as Emperor Norton, was a citizen of San Francisco, California, who proclaimed himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States" in 1859. In 1863 he took the secondary title of "Protector of Mexico" after Napoleon III invaded the country. Norton was born in England but spent most of his early life in South Africa. He sailed west after the death of his mother in 1846 and his father in 1848, arriving in San Francisco possibly in November 1849.
Norton I, Emperor of the United States, photograph, c.1871–72
Joshua Abraham Norton
February 4, 1818
London or elsewhere in England
|Died||January 8, 1880 (aged 61)|
San Francisco, California
|Title||Self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States", "Protector of Mexico"|
Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice to sell in China due to a Chinese rice shortage. He bought rice at 12 cents per pound from Peruvian ships, but more Peruvian ships arrived in port which caused the price to drop sharply to 4 cents. He then lost a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, and his public prominence faded. He re-emerged in September 1859, laying claim to the position of Emperor of the United States. Though Norton received many favors from the city, merchants also capitalized on his notoriety by selling souvenirs bearing his name. “San Francisco lived off the Emperor Norton,” Norton's biographer William Drury wrote, “not Norton off San Francisco.”
Norton had no formal political power; nevertheless, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments that he frequented. Some considered him insane or eccentric, but citizens of San Francisco celebrated his imperial presence and his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force and his numerous decrees calling for the construction of a bridge and tunnel crossing San Francisco Bay to connect San Francisco with Oakland.
On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant) streets and died before he could be given medical treatment. Upwards of 10,000 people lined the streets of San Francisco to pay him homage at his funeral. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Morris and René Goscinny, Selma Lagerlöf, and Neil Gaiman.
Norton's parents were John Norton (d. August 1848) and Sarah Norden, who were English Jews. John was a farmer and merchant, and Sarah was a daughter of Abraham Norden and a sister of Benjamin Norden, a successful merchant. The family moved to South Africa in early 1820 as part of a government-backed colonization scheme whose participants came to be known as the 1820 Settlers. Most likely, Norton was born in the Kentish town of Deptford, today part of London.
The best available evidence points to February 4, 1818, as the date of Norton's birth. Obituaries published in 1880, following Norton's death, offered conflicting information about his birth date. The second of two obituaries in the San Francisco Chronicle – "following the best information obtainable" – cited the silver plate on his coffin which said he was "aged about 65," suggesting that 1814 could be the year of his birth. However, Norton's biographer, William Drury, points out that "about 65" was based solely on the guess that Norton's landlady offered to the coroner at the inquest following his death. In a 1923 essay published by the California Historical Society, Robert Ernest Cowan claimed that Norton was born on February 4, 1819. However, the passenger lists for the La Belle Alliance, the ship that carried Norton and his family from England to South Africa, list him as having been two years old when the ship set sail in February 1820. This information appears not to have come to light until after 1934, the year that Norton's headstone was placed at his grave in Colma, California — when Cowan's account remained prominent. This may help to explain why those who had the stone made used 1819 as the birth year.
The February 4, 1865, edition of The Daily Alta California newspaper included an item in which the Alta wished Emperor Norton a happy 47th birthday, indicating that his birth date was February 4, 1818 (not 1819, as Cowan claimed) — a date that would line up with La Belle Alliances passenger list from two years later. Moreover, when Cowan quoted the 1865 Alta item in his essay, he used an altered version in an apparent attempt to advance his claim of an 1819 birth date. Persistent claims for an 1819 birth date are of doubtful provenance, tracing to unsubstantiated assertions made online, during the early years of the Internet. The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that engages in Norton research and education, produced a 2018 bicentennial series, Emperor Norton at 200, that took as its starting point a February 4, 1818, birth date for Norton. Supporting and participating in the series were a number of institutions that long have helped to preserve the historical record of Emperor Norton: the California Historical Society, the San Francisco Public Library, the Mechanics' Institute and the Society of California Pioneers.
There are oft-repeated historical claims that Joshua Norton arrived in San Francisco on a specific vessel, the Franzeska, on November 23, 1849; that he arrived with $40,000, in whole or in part a bequest from his father's estate; and that he parlayed this into a fortune of $250,000. None of this is substantiated by contemporaneous documentation. What is known is that, after Norton arrived in San Francisco, he enjoyed a good deal of success in commodities markets and in real estate speculation, and that by late 1852, he was one of the more prosperous, respected citizens of the city.
In December 1852, Norton thought he saw a business opportunity when China, facing a severe famine, placed a ban on the export of rice, causing the price of rice in San Francisco to skyrocket from four to thirty-six cents per pound (9 to 79 cents/kg). When he heard the Glyde, which was returning from Peru, was carrying 200,000 pounds (91,000 kg) of rice, he bought the entire shipment for $25,000 (or twelve and a half cents per pound), hoping to corner the market. Shortly after he signed the contract, several other shiploads of rice arrived from Peru, causing the price of rice to plummet to three cents a pound. Norton tried to void the contract, stating the dealer had misled him as to the quality of rice to expect. From 1853 to 1856, Norton and the rice dealers were involved in a protracted litigation. Although Norton prevailed in the lower courts, the case reached the Supreme Court of California, which ruled against Norton. Later, the Lucas Turner and Company Bank foreclosed on his real estate holdings in North Beach to pay Norton's debt. He filed for bankruptcy and by 1858 was living in reduced circumstances at a working class boarding house.
Declaration as emperorEdit
By 1859, Norton had become completely discontented with what he considered the inadequacies of the legal and political structures of the United States. On September 17, 1859, he took matters into his own hands and distributed letters to the various newspapers in the city, proclaiming himself "Emperor of these United States":
At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.— NORTON I., Emperor of the United States.
The announcement was first printed for humorous effect by the editor of the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin. Norton later added "Protector of Mexico" to this title, and thus began his whimsical 21-year "reign" over America.
Norton issued numerous decrees on matters of the state, including a decree on October 12, 1859 to formally abolish the United States Congress. In it, he observed:
fraud and corruption prevent a fair and proper expression of the public voice; that open violation of the laws are constantly occurring, caused by mobs, parties, factions and undue influence of political sects; that the citizen has not that protection of person and property which he is entitled.
Norton ordered all interested parties to assemble at Platt's Music Hall in San Francisco in February 1860 to "remedy the evil complained of".
In an imperial decree the following month, Norton summoned the Army to depose the elected officials of the U.S. Congress:
WHEREAS, a body of men calling themselves the National Congress are now in session in Washington City, in violation of our Imperial edict of the 12th of October last, declaring the said Congress abolished;
WHEREAS, it is necessary for the repose of our Empire that the said decree should be strictly complied with; NOW, THEREFORE, we do hereby Order and Direct Major-General Scott, the Command-in-Chief of our Armies, immediately upon receipt of this, our Decree, to proceed with a suitable force and clear the Halls of Congress.
Norton's orders were ignored by the Army, and Congress likewise continued without any formal acknowledgement of the decree. Further decrees in 1860 ordered dissolution of the republic and forbade the assembly of any members of the former Congress. Norton's battle against the elected leaders of America persisted for the remainder of his life. He issued a mandate in 1862 ordering both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches to publicly ordain him as "Emperor", hoping to resolve the many disputes that had resulted in the Civil War.
Norton then turned his attention to other matters, both political and social. He declared the abolition of the Democratic and Republican parties on August 12, 1869, "being desirous of allaying the dissensions of party strife now existing within our realm". The failure to treat Norton's adopted home city with appropriate respect is the subject of a particularly stern edict that often is cited as having been written by Norton in 1872, although evidence is elusive for the authorship, date, or source of this decree:
Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco," which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars.
Norton was occasionally a visionary, and some of his Imperial Decrees exhibited profound foresight. He issued instructions to form a League of Nations, he explicitly forbade any form of conflict between religions or their sects, and he decreed the construction of a suspension bridge or tunnel connecting Oakland and San Francisco. His later decrees, however, became increasingly irritated at the lack of prompt obedience by the authorities:
WHEREAS, we issued our decree ordering the citizens of San Francisco and Oakland to appropriate funds for the survey of a suspension bridge from Oakland Point via Goat Island; also for a tunnel; and to ascertain which is the best project; and whereas the said citizens have hitherto neglected to notice our said decree; and whereas we are determined our authority shall be fully respected; now, therefore, we do hereby command the arrest by the army of both the Boards of City Fathers if they persist in neglecting our decrees.
Given under our royal hand and seal at San Francisco, this 17th day of September, 1872.
Long after his death, similar structures were built in the form of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube, and there have been campaigns to rename the bridge "The Emperor Norton Bridge".
Norton's Imperial actsEdit
Norton spent his days inspecting San Francisco's streets in an elaborate blue uniform with gold-plated epaulettes, given to him by officers of the United States Army post at the Presidio of San Francisco. He also wore a beaver hat decorated with a peacock feather and a rosette. He frequently enhanced this imperial posture with a cane or umbrella. During his inspections, he would examine the condition of the sidewalks and cable cars, the state of repair of public property, and the appearance of police officers. He would also frequently give lengthy philosophical expositions on a variety of topics to anyone within earshot.
During the 1860s and 1870s, there were occasional anti-Chinese demonstrations in the poorer districts of San Francisco, and riots took place, sometimes resulting in fatalities. During one incident, Norton allegedly positioned himself between the rioters and their Chinese targets; with a bowed head, he started reciting the Lord's Prayer repeatedly until the rioters dispersed without incident.
Norton caricaturist Edward Jump started a rumor claiming that Norton had two dogs named Bummer and Lazarus which were also San Francisco celebrities. Norton ate at free lunch counters where he shared his meals with the dogs, although he did not own them.
Special officer Armand Barbier was part of a local auxiliary force whose members were called "policemen" but in fact were private security guards paid by neighborhood residents and business owners, and he arrested Norton in 1867 to commit him to involuntary treatment for a mental disorder. The arrest outraged the citizens and sparked scathing editorials in the newspapers, including the Daily Alta which wrote "that he had shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line." Police Chief Patrick Crowley ordered Norton released and issued a formal apology on behalf of the police force, and Norton granted an Imperial Pardon to Barbier. Police officers of San Francisco thereafter saluted him as he passed in the street. Norton did receive some tokens of recognition for his position. The 1870 U.S. census lists Joshua Norton as 50 years old and residing at 624 Commercial Street, and his occupation is listed as "Emperor". It also notes that he was insane.
Norton issued his own money in the form of scrips which were accepted from him by restaurants in San Francisco. These notes came in denominations between fifty cents and ten dollars, and the few surviving notes are collector's items. The city of San Francisco also honored Norton. When his uniform began to look shabby, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors bought him a suitably imperial replacement. Norton sent a gracious thank you note and issued a "patent of nobility in perpetuity" for each supervisor.
Later years and deathEdit
Norton was the subject of many tales. One popular story suggested that he was the son of Emperor Napoleon III and that his claim of coming from South Africa was a ruse to prevent persecution. Suggestions that Norton should marry Queen Victoria can hardly be taken seriously, though he is reported to have met Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Rumors also circulated that Norton was supremely wealthy and was feigning poverty because he was miserly.
A number of decrees were printed in local newspapers that were probably fraudulent, and it is believed that newspaper editors themselves drafted fictitious edicts to suit their own agendas. The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society maintains a list of the decrees believed to be genuine.
On the evening of January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed on the corner of California Street and Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) in front of Old Saint Mary's Cathedral while on his way to a lecture at the California Academy of Sciences. His collapse was immediately noticed, and "the police officer on the beat hastened for a carriage to convey him to the City Receiving Hospital", according to the next day's obituary in the San Francisco Morning Call. Norton died before a carriage could arrive. The Call reported, "On the reeking pavement, in the darkness of a moonless night, under the dripping rain... Norton I, by the grace of God, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, departed this life". Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle led its article on Norton's funeral with the headline "Le Roi Est Mort."
It quickly became evident that Norton had died in complete poverty, contrary to rumors of wealth. Five or six dollars in small change was found on his person, and a search of his room at the boarding house on Commercial Street turned up a single gold sovereign, worth around $2.50. His possessions included his collection of walking sticks, his rather battered saber, a variety of headgear including a stovepipe, a derby, a red-laced Army cap, and another cap suited to a martial band-master, an 1828 French franc, and a handful of the Imperial bonds that he sold to tourists at a fictitious 7% interest. There were fake telegrams purporting to be from Emperor Alexander II of Russia congratulating Norton on his forthcoming marriage to Queen Victoria, and from the President of France predicting that such a union would be disastrous to world peace. Also found were his letters to Queen Victoria and 98 shares of stock in a defunct gold mine.
Initial funeral arrangements were for a pauper's coffin of simple redwood. However, members of a San Francisco businessmen's association called the Pacific Club established a funeral fund that provided for a handsome rosewood casket and arranged a dignified farewell. Norton's funeral on Sunday, January 10 was solemn, mournful, and large. Paying their respects were members of "all classes from capitalists to the pauper, the clergyman to the pickpocket, well-dressed ladies and those whose garb and bearing hinted of the social outcast". It was reported that as many as 10,000 people lined the streets, and that the funeral cortège was two miles (3 km) long. Norton was buried in the Masonic Cemetery at the expense of the City of San Francisco.
In popular cultureEdit
Details of Norton's life story may have been forgotten, but he was immortalized in literature. Mark Twain resided in San Francisco during part of Emperor Norton's public life, and he modeled the character of the King in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on him. Robert Louis Stevenson made Norton a character in his 1892 novel The Wrecker. Stevenson's stepdaughter Isobel Osbourne mentioned Norton in her autobiography This Life I've Loved, stating that he "was a gentle and kindly man, and fortunately found himself in the friendliest and most sentimental city in the world, the idea being 'let him be emperor if he wants to.' San Francisco played the game with him."
Since 1974, the Imperial Council of San Francisco has been conducting an annual pilgrimage to Norton's grave in Colma, just outside San Francisco. In January 1980, ceremonies were conducted in San Francisco to honor the 100th anniversary of the death of "the one and only Emperor of the United States". The Emperor's Bridge Campaign is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization launched in September 2013 which engages in research, education, and advocacy to advance the legacy of Emperor Norton. He is considered a patron saint of Discordianism, and a park in the Republic of Molossia is named "Norton Park".
The June 15, 1956 episode of the western anthology series Death Valley Days was titled, "Emperor Norton", who was played by Parker Garvie. The February 27, 1966 episode of the western television series Bonanza was titled "The Emperor Norton", who was played by Sam Jaffe. The episode also featured William Challee as Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain.
Norton appeared as a character in Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Vol 2, 31, "Three Septembers and a January".
Efforts to name the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge for Emperor NortonEdit
In 1939, the group E Clampus Vitus commissioned a plaque commemorating Emperor Norton's call for the construction of a suspension bridge between San Francisco and Oakland, via Yerba Buena Island (formerly Goat Island). The group intended to place the plaque on the recently opened San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge or, failing that, the new Transbay Terminal. This was not approved by the bridge authorities, however, and the plaque was installed at the Cliff House in 1955. It was moved to the Transbay Terminal in 1986, in connection with the 50th anniversary of the bridge. The Terminal was closed and demolished in 2010 as part of the project to construct a new Transbay Transit Center, and the plaque was placed in storage. After bring restored in late 2018, the plaque was rededicated and reinstalled at the new transit center in September 2019.
There have been two 21st-century campaigns to name all or parts of the Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton. San Francisco District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 2004, after a campaign by San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank calling for the entire bridge to be named for Norton. On December 14, 2004, the Board approved a modified version of this resolution, calling for only "new additions," i.e., the planned replacement for the bridge's eastern section, to be named "The Emperor Norton Bridge." Neither the City of Oakland nor Alameda County passed any similar resolution, so the effort went no further.
In June 2013, eight members of the California Assembly and two members of the California Senate introduced a resolution to name the western section of the bridge for former California state Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. In response, there have been public efforts seeking to revive the earlier Emperor Norton effort. An online petition launched in August 2013 calls for the entire bridge system to be named for him. The petition was the impetus for the creation of The Emperor's Bridge Campaign which is carrying forward the bridge-naming effort, citing the precedent of 30 California bridges for which the state has authorized multiple names. The Campaign calls on the legislature simply to add "Emperor Norton Bridge" as an honorary name for the Bay Bridge, leaving in place all existing names. Currently, the organization hopes to sponsor a legislative resolution that would take effect in 2022, the 150th anniversary of Emperor Norton's proclamations of 1872, setting out the original vision for the bridge.
- John Lumea, "Emperor Norton, c.1871–72," The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, June 27, 2017.
- Most sources agree that England was his birthplace, and several pinpoint the exact location to the town of Deptford, Kent, which is now in London.
- There are a number of different claims regarding Norton's date of birth. Norton's obituary by the San Francisco Chronicle put him at 65 at the time of his death, which would suggest that he was born in 1814. But William Drury notes in his 1986 biography Norton I: Emperor of the United States that the Chronicle's report was a reference to the inscription mounted on Norton's casket and was based on a guess by his landlady. Many sources follow Robert Ernest Cowan's 1923 account and Norton's 1934 tombstone in pinpointing his birth to sometime in 1819; Cowan specified February 4, 1819. But Allen Stanley Lane in his 1939 biography Emperor Norton: The Mad Monarch of America and Drury both settle on 1818. Drury cites South African immigration records in which Norton's father John said that Norton was two years old when the family arrived in South Africa on May 2, 1820. These records would put Norton's birth somewhere between mid-1817 and early 1818. In December 2014, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign reported on the rediscovery of an item in the February 4, 1865, issue of The Daily Alta California which points to a birth date of February 4, 1818. The Campaign also showed that Cowan doctored the original text of the Alta item in his 1923 account to back his claim of February 4, 1819.
- Hansen, Gladys (1995). San Francisco Almanac. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-0841-5.
- John Lumea, "How and When Did Joshua Norton Get to San Francisco?, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, February 10, 2017.
- Carr, Patricia E. (July 1975). "Emperor Norton I: The benevolent dictator beloved and honored by San Franciscans to this day". American History Illustrated. 10: 14–20.
- Whistler, Simon. "The Forgotten Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, Norton I". YouTube. Google Inc.
- Weeks, David; James, Jamie (1996). Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness. New York: Kodansha Globe. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-1-56836-156-7.
- "I, Joshua Norton, Emperor". The Attic. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
- "New Perspectives on the West: Joshua Abraham Norton". PBS. 2001. Retrieved April 24, 2007.
- Sinclair, Mick (2004). San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History. Oxford, England: Signal Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-902669-65-6.
- Moylan, Peter. "Encyclopedia of San Francisco: Emperor Norton". San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
- Dakers, Hazel (April 6, 2000). "Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy SA-SIG". Retrieved September 17, 2009.
- "Joshua Abraham Norton" at 1820Settlers.com.
- William Drury, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), pp.10–15.
- William Drury, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), p.14.
- "Le Roi Est Mort". San Francisco Chronicle. January 11, 1880. Retrieved September 19, 2006.
- William Drury, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), p.10. "The age on the coffin lid, however, was merely a guess. At the inquest, Eva Hutchinson, the landlady of Eureka Lodgings, the cheap hotel that was the Emperor's home for seventeen years, had testified that to the best of her belief he was 'a Jew of London birth.' And his age? Oh, about sixty-five. The coroner, lacking a birth certificate or any other material evidence, had simply accepted her word. And so the plate on his casket had been inscribed: JOSHUA A. NORTON DIED JANUARY 8, 1880 AGED 65 YEARS."
- Cowan, Robert (October 1923). "Norton I Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico (Joshua A. Norton, 1819–1880)". Quarterly of the California Historical Society. Retrieved September 18, 2006.
- "1820 Settler Party: Willson" at 1820Settlers.com. This page contains information about the passage of the ship La Belle Alliance that carried young Joshua and his family from London to South Africa from February to May 1820, including the London passenger list showing Joshua to have been 2 years old at the time of his boarding.
- Drury, William (1986). Norton I, Emperor of the United States. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. ISBN 978-0-396-08509-6.
- John Lumea, "Homing in on the Birth Date?" December 2, 2014. Reports on an item in the February 4, 1865, edition of The Daily Alta California, in which the Alta wrote: "HIS MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY.—His Imperial Majesty Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Mexico, commences his forty-eighth year Saturday, February 4th, 1865."
- "Norton, Joshua Abraham – newspaper cutting" at 1820Settlers.com.
- John Lumea, "Joshua Abraham Norton, b. 4 February 1818," The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, February 8, 2015.
- John Lumea, "Zpub, Emperor Norton Records & the Emperor's Birth Date: A Case Study in Good Intentions & Undue Influence," The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, February 16, 2015.
- The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, Emperor Norton at 200.
- John Lumea, "How and When Did Joshua Norton Get to San Francisco?, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, February 10, 2017.
- John Lumea, "Did Joshua Norton Really Arrive in San Francisco With a $40,000 Inheritance That He Built Into a Quarter-Million-Dollar Fortune in 3 Years?", The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, April 12, 2017.
- Ruiz v. Norton, 4 Cal. 355 (1854).
- Nolte, Carl (September 17, 2009). "Emperor Norton, zaniest S.F. street character". San Francisco Chronicle.
- Gazis-Sax, Joel (1998). "The Proclamations of Norton I". Archived from the original on January 26, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
- John Lumea, "On the Trail of the Elusive 'Frisco' Proclamation", The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, February 12, 2016.
- Norton's biographer William Drury cites the anti-"Frisco" proclamation in his book Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd Mead, 1986), but he does not provide a primary source for it. Earlier "standard texts" on Norton do not mention this proclamation at all; this includes Allen Stanley Lane's book Emperor Norton: The Mad Monarch of America (The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1939) and Robert Ernest Cowan's essay "Norton I: Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico", published in the Quarterly of the California Historical Society (October 1923).
- Lazo, Alejandro; Huang, Daniel (August 12, 2015). "Who Is Emperor Norton? Fans in San Francisco Want to Remember". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
- Herel, Suzanne (December 15, 2004). "Emperor Norton's name may yet span the bay". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
- Dannhausen, William O. (1931). Better Roads. p. 58.
- "BART — History and Facts, System Facts". San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). Archived from the original on September 22, 2006. Retrieved April 18, 2007.
- Slaughter, Justin (August 13, 2013). "Petition to name Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton gains 1,000 signatures". San Francisco Bay Guardian.
- "The Funeral of Lazarus". Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. July 24, 2004. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2006.
- "Two Bay Area Bridges — The Golden Gate and San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge". Federal Highway Administration. January 18, 2005. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
- Moran, Mark; Mark Sceurman (2005). Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide To America's Local Legends And Best Kept Secrets. New York: Sterling Publishing. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7607-5043-8.
- Barker, Malcolm, E.; Jump, Edward (January 2001). Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco's Famous Dogs : Revised With New Stories, New Photographs, and New Introduction. San Francisco: Londonborn Publications. ISBN 978-0-930235-07-9.
- "Arrest of the Emperor," Daily Alta California, January 22, 1967.
- Orzano, Michelle (June 24, 2014). "California campaign seeks to rename San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in honor of Emperor Norton". Coin World. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
- Gorman, Michael R. (1998). The Empress Is a Man: Stories from the Life of Jose Sarria. Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, Inc. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-7890-0259-4.
- To have been an illegitimate son of Louis Napoleon, he would have to be conceived when the French Emperor was only 11.
- John Lumea, "Setting the Record Straight on the Famous Emperor Norton Obit(s)," The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, December 15, 2017.
- Asbury, Herbert (2002). The Barbary Coast. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-56025-408-9.
- "Emperor Reburied". Time. July 9, 1934. Retrieved July 9, 2007.
- Vigil, Delfin (February 21, 2005). "A gay court pays homage to its queer emperor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
- Rachel Swan, "The Emperor's Bridge Campaign Is Now a Nonprofit," SF Weekly, November 11, 2014.
- Metzger, Richard (2003). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. New York: The Disinformation Company. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-9713942-7-8.
- "A Plaque in 1939," The Emperor's Bridge Campaign.
- Resolution in Support of the Emperor Norton Bridge Archived December 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine , introduced to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, 2004.
- Herel, Suzanne (December 15, 2004). "Emperor Norton's name may yet span the bay". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications. p. A–1. Archived from the original on September 20, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
- California Legislature, 2013-14 Regular Session, Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 65 — Relative to the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Bridge, June 12, 2013.
- Dalton, Andrew (August 6, 2013). "Effort To Rename Bay Bridge After Emperor Norton Revived By Online Petition". SFist. Archived from the original on January 4, 2016.
- Lynch, EDW (August 7, 2013). "Petition Calls for San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge To Be Named After Emperor Norton". Laughing Squid.
- Dolan, Eric (August 13, 2013). "Petition to name San Francisco's Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton gains support". The Raw Story.
- Name It the Emperor Norton Bridge, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign.
- Caufield, Catherine (1981). The Emperor of the United States and other magnificent British eccentrics. Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 150–152. ISBN 978-0-7100-0957-9.
- Cech, John (1997). A rush of dreamers : being the remarkable story of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. New York: Marlowe. ISBN 978-1-56924-775-4.
- Cowan, Robert Ernest. "Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico (Joshua A. Norton, 1819–1880)" in Quarterly of the California Historical Society, October, 1923. San Francisco: California Historical Society, 1923.
- Cowan, Robert E., et al. The Forgotten Characters of Old San Francisco. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1964.
- Dressler, Albert (1927). Emperor Norton, life and experiences of a notable character in San Francisco, 1849–1880. San Francisco: A. Dressler. LC CT275.N75 D7.
- Drury, William (1986). Norton I, Emperor of the United States. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-396-08509-6.
- Kramer, William M. (1974). Emperor Norton of San Francisco : a look at the life and death and strange burials of the most famous eccentric of gold rush California. Santa Monica, California: Norton B. Stern. ASIN B0006CF3KO.
- Lane, Allen Stanley (1939). Emperor Norton, Mad Monarch of America. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton printers, Ltd. ASIN B00086ATPC.
- Ryder, David Warren (1939). San Francisco's Emperor Norton. San Francisco: Alex. Dulfer Printing and Lithographing Co. LC CT275.N75 R9. | <urn:uuid:76411cf5-2c80-4580-9ed5-391334105d1c> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986703625.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020053545-20191020081045-00464.warc.gz | en | 0.952058 | 7,783 | 3.0625 | 3 |
BOOK: WILD BEES and beekeeping (danish text)
The sound of buzzing bees flying from one flower to another is the epitome of summer.
Bees are important pollinators of both wild and cultivated plants and a significant part of biodiversity. As a private person you can offer wild bees good habitats, suitable flowers and nesting places. With the right plants in the garden, on the terrace or balcony, you can make an important effort to curb the decline of wild bees.
In this little book you can read about wild bees, their favorite plants and their lives.
The book's author Susanne Harding is a biologist, agronomist and specialist in insect ecology. | <urn:uuid:112c7531-8cf5-4d44-bcfe-dce7797b3178> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://koustrupco.dk/en/nature-books-945/book-wild-bees-and-beekeeping-danish-text-p6105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487621519.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20210615180356-20210615210356-00104.warc.gz | en | 0.924135 | 141 | 2.765625 | 3 |
"Some insects, specifically most species of the Hymenoptera, do things differently, with a sex determination system called haplodiploidy.
Males are always haploid, having only one set of chromosomes, and they produce only one kind of gamete, and all of their gametes are genetically identical. Females are diploid, and produce haploid eggs.
If the eggs are fertilized by a male, they develop into females; unfertilized eggs develop into males. Fathers can only have daughters, and mothers produce sons without the contribution of a male. Males don't have fathers, literally."
Read more in "Clone war of the sexes." By PZ Myers. Pharyngula, 01 Jul 2005. | <urn:uuid:057771d5-ecdc-4040-92a4-ffbdac0446ac> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://biologyrefugia.blogspot.com/2005/07/fatherless-sons.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948550986.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20171214202730-20171214222730-00087.warc.gz | en | 0.938808 | 154 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Computer technology is supposed to get smaller and lighter, so new generations of displays that are astonishingly bright, clear and light may be a delight, but they're no surprise – except when they are.
The biggest surprise of the year in computer displays isn't a monitor that folds or rolls up (although it can do both those things); it's a high-resolution, three-dimensional display made from a soap bubble.
Actually the bubble isn't soap. It's a mix of two colloids (sub-microscopic particles evenly distributed within a fluid) that display consistent Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) characteristics.
What that means is that the material becomes opaque or reflective enough with the right stimulus to accurately display images projected on it.
The bubble display is is the brainchild of Yoichi Ochiai, a media artist, designer and graduate student at the University of Tokyo, who designed it as a demonstration of how to create a controllable BRDF-supporting display using fluids with specific characteristics. He and the other bubble designers will present their display in August at Siggraph 2012 in Los Angeles.
The "Colloidal Display" image comes from a single projector that sprays an image onto a small, round bubble in a thick frame while stabilizers bombard the bubble with ultrasonics that control the amount of transparency and reflectivity in the bubble itself.
Without the ultrasonics, variations in both would make it difficult to see a clear image in the bubble, according to the description from Oichiai and team member Alexis Oyama.
The ultrasonics also let designers change the characteristics of the display itself – something that's impossible with traditional materials.
Changing ultrasonic controls can make one layer of display more transparent than another and create a different texture on a third, allowing designers to combine layers of display like the layers of imagery in a Photoshop document.
Ultimately it creates an adaptable, inexpensive, highly customizable display that can be touched, penetrated and whose visual characteristics can be tuned to match the optimum requirements any new image and be used in ways most displays can't, according to the designers.
Using the right size and shape of frame, for example, the flexible colloids could display a lifelike image of almost anything.
They could also be used for high-impact graphical images in museums and other venues in which giant, potentially frameless displays layer new images on old ones that are still visible through the transparent surface of the new image.
"Museums could display floating planets using this technology," Oyama told New Scientist.
The Colloidal Display is still a concept, not an actual thing, but it's a concept with a lot of potential, almost unlimited capacity for tuning and customization and a much higher cool quotient than whatever flat-panel thing Apple is shipping these days.
Displays made out of solids instead of fluids are so passé.
Read more of Kevin Fogarty's CoreIT blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @KevinFogarty. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook. | <urn:uuid:f4495630-3063-419b-b8e6-ee5aaabeccae> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.itworld.com/article/2723158/consumer-tech-science/year-s-coolest-computer-display-is-made-from-a-soap-bubble.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737916324.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221836-00042-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909939 | 652 | 3.015625 | 3 |
How to Kill Acorns That Are Sprouting
Don't throw the acorns into your compost or mulch bin, as the heat of the compost won't kill the nuts and they will create new problems when redistributed throughout your garden.
Systemic herbicide will kill all vegetation, not just acorns. Spray with caution to avoid getting herbicide on plants you wish to keep.
Acorns find their way into your landscape in a variety of ways. You may have an acorn tree nearby, or squirrels and other wildlife may have brought the nuts to your property. The acorns may begin sprouting if given the right environment. This can become a nuisance, especially if you do not want little acorn trees taking over your landscape. Kill and remove the sprouting acorns immediately to prevent future problems with an overabundance of saplings.
Rake the ground to pick up any dormant or sprouting acorns lying on or near the surface. Discard these acorns.
Dig up the sprouting acorns. This method is ideal for gardeners who have a limited amount of sprouting acorns. Slip the pointed end of a shovel into the ground adjacent to the base of an acorn sprout and heave upwards. Alternatively, grasp the acorn sprout at its base with your hands and pull away from the ground.
Spray the sprouting acorns with a systemic herbicide such as glyphosate, available from nurseries and garden stores. This strategy is best for those who have a large amount of sprouting acorns for which digging would take too long. Spray the herbicide directly onto the acorn sprouts' foliage on a dry day. The sprouts will die within 14 days.
Pour boiling water onto the acorns. This method is ideal for those who want an all-natural alternative to herbicide, but works for sprouts that are a few inches tall only. Pour the water directly onto the sprout to kill it.
- "The Gardener's Guide to Planting and Growing Trees;" Mike Buffi; 2007
Joshua Duvauchelle is a certified personal trainer and health journalist, relationships expert and gardening specialist. His articles and advice have appeared in dozens of magazines, including exercise workouts in Shape, relationship guides for Alive and lifestyle tips for Lifehacker. In his spare time, he enjoys yoga and urban patio gardening. | <urn:uuid:e573a3cc-c8dd-4002-b6fa-80f265012afe> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.gardenguides.com/13428679-how-to-kill-acorns-that-are-sprouting.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300658.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220118002226-20220118032226-00714.warc.gz | en | 0.930735 | 495 | 2.625 | 3 |
Identify three to five consumer goods or services that you currently use that specifically target consumers based on gender or age. Compare these products to other products that are being sold to both genders and all ages. In your discussion post answer the following questions:
- Are the products focused on a specific demographic advertised differently?
- If so, how are they different?
- How are they similar?
For all discussion posts, back up your writing with terms and concepts from class readings. Remember, these same terms and concepts can be used in your Critical Thinking assignments and in the portfolio project, so use the discussion area as a place to practice applying terms and concepts to the situations being addressed.
Your post must be well written and formatted according to the requirements in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA. Include at least two substantive posts to classmates by Sunday. Respond to two or more of your classmates’ posts in any of the following ways:
- Build on something your classmate said
- Explain why and how you see things differently
- Ask a probing or clarifying question
- Share an insight from having read your classmates’ postings
- Offer and support an opinion
- Validate an idea with your own experience
- Expand on your classmates’ postings
- Ask for evidence that supports the post
Important Note: The products I use on a regular basis include iPhone, Keurig, Nike. I am a man so this will need to be done from a mans perspective. | <urn:uuid:68734e9b-8b67-4b4d-af49-06bdcd7cc046> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://qualitygradeprofessors.com/promotion-and-public-relations-marketing-assignment-help/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153803.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20210728220634-20210729010634-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.943687 | 305 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Is Toyota putting safety in the back seat?
Toyota, the Japanese auto manufacturer, currently seeks an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 305 to build new hydrogen fuel-cell car. This safety standard was established to help eliminate or minimize the number of deaths and/or injuries that result from the electrolyte spills associated with electric energy storage units in electric car crashes. Safety standard 305 addresses the likelihood of the electric energy storage/conversion device entering the passenger compartment of the car. Electric shock is the result of these occurrences in a crash and can be debilitating and/or fatal. Federal lawmakers via safety standard 305 require all high-voltage electric car components to be strategically placed and packaged in a way that will isolate them from vehicle passengers, drivers and emergency medical personnel who may respond to the scene of an accident. Proper placement and packaging helps ensure that people aren’t electrocuted in vehicle collisions. Toyota is lobbying that safety standard 305 is interfering with the production of its fuel cell vehicle and that the very component that stops electric shocks from occurring prevents their car from running.
Is Toyota ignoring important safety considerations?
While Toyota is asking for a two-year exemption from safety standard 305, the car-making giant does have a plan in place to protect vehicle drivers, passengers and emergency medical personnel from electrocution in the event of a collision. Instead of using the mechanism required by federal law to prevent electrical shocks during low-speed collisions, Toyota proposes to insulate dangerous high-voltage components such as:
- battery; and
- fuel-cell stack with metal barriers.
According to Toyota officials, this alternate safety measure is equally safe for:
- passengers; and
- emergency medical personnel per the requirements of safety standard 305.
As a driver, one must concern oneself with things like the evidence and information to be submitted in an insurance claim after a car accident. When driving a new type of car, like a fuel-cell car, check first with your attorney to determine what documentary evidence and/or car parts are useful for your car accident claim.
About the Fuel-Cell Car
Toyota suggests that fuel-cell car deliveries to the United States will be limited to 2,500 units annually. The vehicle is slated first to go on sale in Japan in April of 2015 for a price tag of seven million yen, or $69,000. The difference between the Toyota fuel-cell car and traditional electric cars is that the car doesn’t need to be plugged into a power outlet to charge energy. Rather, the car uses hydrogen gas, which is passed through a stack of platinum-dusted plates and plastic membranes to produce electricity. The vehicle will operate in compliance with zero-emission rules. It is still undetermined whether the NHTSA will allow this exemption for Toyota’s new fuel-cell vehicle. Further review is warranted to determine whether the world’s largest car manufacturer truly has proposed a safe alternative to safety standard 305 and is prepared to meet regulations that protect the American public from electrocution in electric car accidents.
What does this mean for me?
When considering the purchase of an electric car, be sure that you understand all safety concerns, what to look for when purchasing a new car and spend some time investigating manufacturing requirements. Do your research regarding any previous safety recalls. If you feel that you’ve been injured as a result of a car accident related to a manufacturing weakness or defect, you may be entitled to compensation. Robert Levine and Associates can help. Call 800-LAW-1222 for a free consultation. | <urn:uuid:251c809e-f523-418f-9f94-afee78fdcf99> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://roblevine.com/toyota-putting-safety-back-seat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655143.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608204017-20230608234017-00292.warc.gz | en | 0.934964 | 753 | 2.578125 | 3 |
This is just another frightening indicator of how rapidly the climate crisis is accelerating.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this January was the hottest in recorded history.
The temperature across land and ocean surfaces in January was the highest in NOAA’s 141 years of climate records, surpassing the 20th-century average of 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit. This continues a disturbing trend, as the highest temperatures in recorded history have been consistently rising since 2016.
Russia, Scandinavia and eastern Canada experienced the most dramatic warmer-than-usual conditions last month, while Alaska and western Canada reported cooler than usual temperatures.
This combines with the rapid rate that the Arctic glaciers have been shrinking and a research station in Antarctica reporting temperatures at 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
The hottest January after the second-hottest year on record “is one of those indications that things are warming dramatically,” said University of Illinois climate scientist Don Wuebbles. | <urn:uuid:7c6c8fd1-49c1-4dda-b6a5-d1f1c337564a> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://read.ilovehalloween.net/this-january-was-the-hottest-in-recorded-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145910.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20200224071540-20200224101540-00005.warc.gz | en | 0.941358 | 199 | 3.28125 | 3 |
In warming Arctic, major rivers show surprising changes in carbon chemistry
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Over the past several decades, the Arctic has begun to show signs of significant ecological upheaval. The rate of warming in the Arctic is nearly twice the global average, and those changes are triggering a cascade of destabilizing environmental effects. Ice is melting, permafrost is thawing, and experts say fires in Arctic forests are as damaging as they’ve been in 10,000 years.
But new research suggests that the same factors driving the Arctic’s changing climate are fueling a geological response that could play a small part in counteracting those changes’ malign effects.
In a study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers from Florida State University report that, in two major Arctic rivers, 40 years of climate change seem to have fortified a natural process that consumes and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The process of interest to researchers was the production of riverine alkalinity, or the ability of river water to resist changes that would make it more acidic. Alkalinity is produced when carbon dioxide dissolved in rainwater weathers rock surfaces. As the rocks are weathered, the carbon atom contained in carbon dioxide is transformed from a gas in the atmosphere into a salt that can be geologically stored for millennia.
In general, the more alkalinity detected in a given waterway, the more carbon dioxide was withdrawn from the atmosphere.
“The production of alkalinity is a natural way that the Earth recycles atmospheric carbon dioxide,” said study lead author Travis Drake, a doctoral candidate in FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.
The production of alkalinity constitutes a carbon dioxide “sink,” a system that works in opposition to natural and anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission. The researchers set out to determine how changing human activity and the dramatic shifts in Arctic climate might be affecting alkalinity production in two of the region’s largest rivers, the Ob’ and the Yenisei.
There were straightforward ways of sampling alkalinity in the modern rivers, but for historical measurements, the team relied on reams of decades-old biomonitoring data.
“Since there are many changes underway in the Arctic as a result of climate change and other anthropogenic activity, we hypothesized that the production of alkalinity may have also changed over time,” Drake said. “Through collaboration with our Russian colleagues, we were able to recover a historic alkalinity dataset dating back to the Soviet era.”
After parsing the data and comparing historical alkalinity rates with contemporary measurements, the researchers’ suspicions were confirmed. Not only had alkalinity increased for both the Yenisei and Ob’ rivers, but the rates had skyrocketed a remarkable 185 and 134 percent respectively over the 40-year interval — two figures that dwarf the rates of increase in similarly large rivers like the Mississippi (59 percent over the past 47 years).
Possible causes for the considerable alkalinity increases are manifold. Thawing permafrost, increased water flows, exposure of unweathered mineral surfaces, changes in acid deposition from human industry and carbon dioxide fertilization of Arctic plant life are all potential pieces of this unexpected puzzle.
But the upshot is simple: In these rivers that carve thousands of miles through the harsh Arctic landscape, human activity seems to be triggering a pronounced reaction.
“If climate change is causing an increase in alkalinity production in the Arctic, it could be acting as slight negative feedback to warming, which is a good thing,” Drake said.
While escalating alkalinity won’t approach the magnitude of response required to counterbalance anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, researchers said these findings illustrate the dynamic way Earth systems react to extreme climate shifts.
“We still very much have to worry about the alarming rate at which CO2 is increasing in our atmosphere, but this highlights the complexity and somewhat homeostatic dynamics of the global carbon cycle,” Drake said.
From FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
UPDATE: (this erroneously didn’t make it into the original post)
Increasing Alkalinity Export from Large Russian Arctic Rivers
Riverine carbonate alkalinity (HCO3– and CO32–) sourced from chemical weathering represents a significant sink for atmospheric CO2. Alkalinity flux from Arctic rivers is partly determined by precipitation, permafrost extent, groundwater flow paths, and surface vegetation, all of which are changing under a warming climate. Here we show that over the past three and half decades, the export of alkalinity from the Yenisei and Ob’ Rivers increased from 225 to 642 Geq yr–1 (+185%) and from 201 to 470 Geq yr–1 (+134%); an average rate of 11.90 and 7.28 Geq yr–1, respectively. These increases may have resulted from a suite of changes related to climate change and anthropogenic activity, including higher temperatures, increased precipitation, permafrost thaw, changes to hydrologic flow paths, shifts in vegetation, and decreased acid deposition. Regardless of the direct causes, these trends have broad implications for the rate of carbon sequestration on land and delivery of buffering capacity to freshwater ecosystems and the Arctic Ocean. | <urn:uuid:8c637376-4209-4ef7-9bf0-73ad1901262d> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/08/28/surprise-finding-arctic-rivers-have-a-negative-feedback-response-to-warming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703512342.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20210117112618-20210117142618-00141.warc.gz | en | 0.926258 | 1,105 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Like a flower that has no scent, there are simply some things in this world that science cannot duplicate no matter how hard they try. Water is another. But while flowers give us beauty, water gives us life, without it we die. As shortages become a larger issue, maps abound with predictions of shortages worldwide, and surpluses too. Unfortunately, the maps don’t always concur.
And while the US would appear to be a hair-trigger on the maps, some showing the US as doing just fine, others are not so amicable showing severe shortages in the US within the next 10 years. Other areas that will be hit the hardest include the entire middle east, most of Europe and northern Africa. Two countries would appear to be consistently well off; Russia and Canada.
FYI – the Brazilian guy who has made an engine that will run on water – ummm, maybe not a good idea…
The World Resource Institute is one of the organizations making predictions. An interesting anomaly is the fact that with the exception of the most northern regions of Africa, and the most southern, Africa will be quite well off, abundant with water. I imagine this corresponds with the recent land grabs that have taken Africa by storm because one of the main functions of this Institute is to determine where sustainable food sources will occur. Given Russia is off limits to ‘land grabbing’, Africa was an easy target.
In the US, drought comes and goes, moves and shifts radically. In 2012, the entire midwest was experiencing a catastrophic drought. In 2015, the catastrophe migrated to California, Oregon and Washington. But there are factors that have nothing to do with climate change or with per capita usage, shale harvesting. Fracking consumes water, and lots of it. One well can require upwards of 5 million gallons of water over its lifetime. While there is no absolute data on the number of fracking wells in the US, according to FracTracker, the number is well over 1.1 million.
Quick math – that would mean water use using an average number of 3.1 million gallons per well at 1.1 million wells would equate to 3,410,000,000,000 gallons of water used per year – for fracking. That’s 1/4th the total usage in all of California from all sources per year. Assuming the average household in the US consumes 127,400 gallons per year, fracking would be the equivalent consumption of 26,766,091 households.
Fracking is not just about water – it is about oil – and oil creates an economy based on increased exports and smaller imports – unless oil prices are low, – and then the economy begins a jittery nose dive which cuts jobs – including fracking jobs – which lowers exports.
So who owns the US water? Privatization has been a slow churn, but a churn nonetheless over the last few decades providing about 15%-18% of the US population’s water. The largest private companies include; American Water, United Water, Aqua America, California Water Services, and America States Water.
American Water: AWK – originally a subsidiary of a German company, it was divested in 2008 and is wholly US owned.
United Water: UWR – a subsidiary of Suez Environment, a French company whose majority ownership is held
by GDF Suez, who is considered one of two of the largest privatized water companies in the world.
Aqua America: WTR – a Pennsylvania company providing water to major fracking enterprises
California Water Services: CWT – is a holding company with subsidiaries in Hawaii, New Mexico and Washington.
American States Water: AWR – also based in California.
While the World Bank and the IMF are aggressively promoting privatization of water, historically it has proven to be an affront to the public with massive rate hikes, corruption and gross water contamination charges.
In an over-reach of the water rights in the US we have our favorite friend – the EPA. The EPA recently extended their Clean Water guns basically aiming them at every tributary, stream, brook, runoff, ditch, standing water, rain water, lake, river and pond across the entire US whether on public or private land. And the repercussions are being felt. A Wyoming man who was granted all the proper permits to build a self contained pond on his own property for his livestock is being sued by the EPA for failure to meet their clean water rules. He is being charged a penalty of $75,000 per day.
According to the Financial Statements for the EPA, it’s ‘non-federal’ revenue for clean water amounted to nearly 5 times its federal revenue receipts. This would be in addition to the $9billion they receive from the Feds.
A massive power grab – wouldn’t it be fun to charge the EPA the same daily rate they charge for noncompliance in Clean Water? The Colorado River sludge was caused by their own negligence, at $75,000 per day for penalties alone, they would already be liable to Colorado for 24 days – $1,800,000 and counting!! Yehah!
Of course, they won’t be liable. But it was a fun 3 seconds…and it doesn’t seem fair they shouldn’t ante up. | <urn:uuid:74f9336c-90a2-4b22-b421-f438b6083847> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://helenaglass.net/2015/08/28/water-shortages-fracking-privatization-who-wins/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247512461.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20190222013546-20190222035546-00283.warc.gz | en | 0.957155 | 1,088 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.