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There are many timely links in the Sites By Subject section of the library's webpage. Look under Quick Reference: Almanacs, Quick Reference: Calendars and Holidays, and Quick Reference: Time for several online information sources. Or take a look at A Walk Through Time: The Evolution of Time Measurement, the site maintained by the Physics Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The site includes some fascinating history on time measurement, as well as links for synchronizing your computer clocks via the Internet. Or you can go straight to their clickable map to find the precise official time anywhere in the United States. The Greenwich Mean Time site of the Royal Observatory Greenwich is another very enjoyable, informative website. Look at their compilations of time FAQs (for example, why midnight and noon are neither a.m. nor p.m.), time trivia (including quotations and poems), and links to timely sites worldwide. You can even submit your favorite "time tracks," or songs featuring time to be posted on their site. The Britannica site on clockworks presents general information on the history and science of time measurement. The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute site includes more specialized information on horology (clock- and watch-making), with more international links.
NOBODY GOES TO THE TROPICS TO SEE GORGONIANS. The sea fans, sea plumes, sea rods and sea whips that make up Order Gorgonacea are just there, incidental bystanders on the “real” reefs of beautiful, stony corals. Sometimes, they’re in the way. While none of the 500 or so species of fans, plumes, rods or whips can compare to the exquisite beauty that hard corals achieve (although some sea fans make a good effort), they’re part of the broad array of forms that makes reefs hot spots of life. Editing note: Some people often refer to gorgonians as “soft corals,” but they’re distinct from the true soft corals in Order Alcyonacea, predominantly found in the Indo-Pacific basin. DIVERSITY, SANCTUARY, FOOD CHAIN As part of the reef landscape, they add to its diversity in and of themselves. Beyond this, they provide hiding places for small and juvenile fishes, snails and other creatures. And, their polyps represent a food source for some of the animals who hang around them. While sea fans do have a presence in the Indo-Pacific, gorgonians overwhelmingly are creatures of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean. Typically, gorgonians are found in relatively shallow depths but some live in waters as deep as 1,000 feet or more. POLYPS, JUST LIKE “REAL CORALS” Although they’re eight-tentacled octocorals, in their individual selves they’re coral polyps just as much as the (six-tentacled) animals that build stony coral masses. They’ve just found alternative vehicles for earning their livings in the sea, foregoing calcium carbonate solidity for skyward reach. Like other coral polyps, gorgonian polyps hide below the surfaces of their branch-like structures and extend their tentacles outward to sieve plankton from the current. MAXIMUM CURRENT ACCESS Except that their structures generally involve stems, branches and branchlets. By colonizing in flexible tree-like forms that can sway back and forth in the current, many species of gorgonians maximize plankton-filtering opportunities along reef crests, walls and channels, for example. Often, bulkiness creates efficiency. Sea fans face the currents broadside for the greatest exposure by the greatest numbers of polyps. Sea plumes grow as bushy structures that maximize exposure to the plankton. SUBORDERS, BUT NOT TIDY ONES Gorgonians are placed in two suborders, depending on the composition of their stems and branches. The skeletons of Suborder Holaxonia are built with a complex protein called gorgonin – sometimes compared to horn (they’re sometimes referred to as horny corals). The skeletons of Suborder Scleraxonia get their strength from spicules, small, needlelike and tightly bound calcareous formations, similar to those found in soft corals and sponges. But while a tidy world would have all fans or whatever are in one suborder and all rods or whatever in the other, in fact some of each are found in each category. The core stems and branches of sea fans and rods are surrounded by a gelatinous layer called the rind. Embedded in the rind layer, each polyp extends its tentacles through an opening called an aperture that is surrounded by a rim called a calyx. On the other hand, lacking the extensive calcium carbonate production of stony corals, gorgonians don’t contribute significantly to the construction of the reef. Gorgonian structures are generally attached to the bottom by a single holdfast at the base of their stems. ZOOXANTHELLAE, YES, BUT VIVID COLORS ARE “SPICTACULAR” Like stony corals, many gorgonians are abetted by the presence of algae – zooxanthellae – embedded in their tissues. In contrast to stony corals, which often get their exotic coloration from their zoox, gorgonians don’t. Zooxanthellae-hosting gorgonians are usually a dullish light brown. The vivid blues, reds, greens and other bright colors in sea fans and sea rods are due to the presence of the spicules within them. AND HARD TO NAIL DOWN Beyond their basic structures as fans, rods or whips, etc., identifying a species of gorgonians relies on the arrangement of its polyps (neat rows, alternating rows, no discernable rows, for example) and the shape of its aperature and calyx. But accurate identification can be difficult and requires examination by an expert using a microscope. PRINCIPAL SOURCES: Coral Reef Identification, Paul Humann, edited by Ned DeLoach; ReefEd (www.reefed.edu.au) Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Australia; Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide, Gerald R. Allen and Roger Steene; Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific, Terrence M. Gosliner, David W. Behrens, Gary C. Williams; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Part of a series on the \|History of Italy\| Magna Graecia (/ , /, US / /; Latin meaning "Great Greece", Greek: Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, Megálē Hellás) is the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the present-day regions of Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily that were extensively populated by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean settlements of Croton, and Sybaris, and to the north, the settlements of Cumae and Neapolis. The settlers who began arriving in the 8th century BC brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, such as in the culture of ancient Rome, in which the Roman poet Ovid in his poem Fasti referred to the south of Italy as the land of greater Greece. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, for various reasons, including demographic crises (famine, overcrowding, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy (Cerchiai, pp. 14–18). Also during that period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille). They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia (Latin, “Great Greece”) since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks. The ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria: Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples, "New City"), Syracuse (Συράκουσαι), Acragas (Ἀκράγας) Paestum (Ποσειδωνία) and Sybaris (Σύβαρις). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum (Τάρας), Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροί Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegium (Ῥήγιον), Croton (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Elea (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Ancona (Ἀγκών), Syessa (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον) and others. During the Early Middle Ages, following the disastrous Gothic War, new waves of Byzantine Christian Greeks came to Southern Italy from Greece and Asia Minor, as Southern Italy remained loosely governed by the Eastern Roman Empire. The iconoclast emperor Leo III appropriated lands that had been granted to the Papacy in southern Italy and the Eastern Emperor loosely governed the area until the advent of the Lombards then, in the form of the Catapanate of Italy, superseded by the Normans. A remarkable example of the influence is the Griko-speaking minority that still exists today in the Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia. Griko is the name of a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, and Italian elements, spoken by few people in some villages in the Province of Reggio Calabria and Salento. There is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having become absorbed into the surrounding Italian element. Some scholars, such as Gerhard Rohlfs, argue that the origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia. \|This section does not cite any sources. (September 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)\| Although most of the Greek inhabitants of Southern Italy were entirely Italianized during the Middle Ages (for example, Paestum was by the 4th century BC), pockets of Greek culture and language remained and survived into modernity because of continuous migration between southern Italy and the Greek mainland. One example are the Griko people, who still maintain their Greek language and customs. For example, Greeks re-entered the region in the 16th and 17th century in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Ottoman Empire. Especially after the end of the Siege of Coron (1534), large numbers of Greeks took refuge in the areas of Calabria, Salento and Sicily. Greeks from Coroni, the so-called Coronians, were nobles who brought with them substantial movable property. They were granted special privileges and tax exemptions. Other Greeks who moved to Italy came from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese. The Maniots were known for their proud military traditions and for their bloody vendettas. Another group of Greeks moved to Corsica. - Ancient Greek dialects - Greeks in Italy - Griko people - Griko language - Hellenic civilization - Names of the Greeks - The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, Paul Harvey, 1927,1955, p258 - T. S. Brown, "The Church of Ravenna and the Imperial Administration in the Seventh Century," The English Historical Review (1979 pp 1-28) p.5. - Cerchiai L., Jannelli L., Longo F. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Getty Trust, 2004. ISBN 0-89236-751-2 - Dunbabin T. J. The Western Greeks. 1948. - Smith W. "Magna Graecia." In Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 1854. - Woodhead A. G. The Greeks in the West. 1962. - Map. Ancient Coins. - David Willey. Italy rediscovers Greek heritage. BBC News. 21 June, 2005, 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK. - Gaze On The Sea. Salentinian Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece. (in Italian, Greek and English) - Oriamu pisulina. Traditional Griko song performed by Ghetonia. - Kalinifta. Traditional Griko song performed by amateur local group. - Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy. Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). June 11, 2015. (Dates: Monday, May 30, 2016 to Thursday, June 2, 2016.) - Sergio Tofanelli et al. The Greeks in the West: genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily. European Journal of Human Genetics, (15 July 2015).
The first step of the ALPAGA project is to come up with a remotely controlled solution to air sampling. This includes a series of air tight containers, valves and pumps, as well all the electronics to drive them. The drone will fly to some predefined positions in the air. Then, at each point, it will stabilize and wait until an operator on the ground triggers the sampling. The pump and the right combination of valves will operate, until a single container is filled with a fixed amount of air. Once all containers are filled, the drone comes back to its home position. After landing, an operator will remove the filled containers and put new empty ones for the next sampling session. This first test was dedicated to evaluating navigation, and remote control. The drone flew to different points, at different altitudes. At each position, we have successfully validated the remote control. This involved an XBee board, that feeds an Arduino board. A servo had to be turned to a specific position, to show that the command sent from the ground was successfully received and executed.
Teaching Resources for Constitution Day September 17, 1787, was a seminal day for America. Earlier that year in May, spurred by inadequacies in the Articles of Confederation and the need for a strong centralized government, 55 delegates representing 12 states met in Philadelphia to "take in to consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union." In secret proceedings, the delegates argued and debated throughout the summer about the duties, responsibilities, form, and distribution of power in the new government. Then, on September 17, 39 of the delegates signed a four-page document— a Constitution consisting of a Preamble and seven articles proposing the infrastructure of American government. Then the ratification process began. Constitution and Citizenship Day, initiated in 2005 and observed on September 17, commemorates the event and mandates that each educational institution receiving Federal funds conduct an educational program on the Constitution on that day. Background papers, interactive lesson plans, and supporting materials abound for classroom use. We mention only a few below. At the Department of Education, the Teaching American History Team at the Office of Innovation lists several essential resources from Federal institutions, including FREE, the Department of Education's own internet library highlighting 28 diverse teaching resources on the Constitution. The Teaching American History team also annotates the varied resources of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) including high resolution scans of the original signed Constitution with transcripts and factual support. The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia describes its facilities as the only museum devoted to the U.S. Constitution and the story of We, the people. But for those too far away to visit, the museum offers extensive materials for educators, including the Interactive Constitution, enabling keyword and topical exploration of the Constitution as well as analysis of landmark Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Constitution. Have you attended iTunes University? The National Constitution Center is among the organizations presenting free audio files related to all aspects of the document and its meaning. Listen online or download We the People Stories where experts present ideas on everything from today's relevance of the Constitution, to talks about George Washington, the relationship of the Constitution to the Olympics, and presidential elections— few topical stones are left unturned. (This series is also available via podcasts.) Do you know which Article of the Constitution created Congress or what the powers of Congress actually are? In its Capitol Classroom, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society challenges visitors to take a quiz to test Constitutional knowledge. Tiered levels offer questions appropriate to 811-year-olds through the Constitutional Scholar level. Among its many resources, the Bill of Rights Institute offers a variety of educational resources free of charge. Weekly eLessons provide 20-minute discussion guides for middle and high school history and government teachers. Educating the Next Generation, a blog, highlights classroom applications and current resources. The Library of Congress provides a consolidated listing of resources for teachers, including primary sources, lesson plans, Stories for Kids from America's Library, and links to American Memory Collections. The National Endowment for the Humanities educational site, EdSITEment, consolidates comprehensive resources for teaching about the Constitution, amendments, and the people who made it happen. From lesson plans (K12) to webography, from biographies and bibliography to teaching with art in the classroom, EdSITEment's presentation of resources offers a wealth of materials to deepen our understanding and approaches to teaching about this document and its meaning. EdSITEment's inclusion of materials for elementary and middle school students is particularly valuable. A few of those resources are highlighted: The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union? helps students, grades 35, understand the purpose of the Constitution and the values and principles explicated in the Preamble. The Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said, designed for 68th graders, looks at transcriptions of debates of the Founding Fathers to learn how differences were resolved. The Constitutional Convention: Four Founding Fathers You May Never Have Met is designed for 68th graders and introduces lesser-known key players in the development of the Constitution. A roundtable discussion published in Common-place, the interactive, online journal, includes eight paired essays in which historians, political scientists, journalists, and lawyers examined the uses and abuses of the Constitution in contemporary American political affairs. Jill Lepore, Jack Rakove, and Linda Kerber are among the discussants. The Social Studies and History resources of Annenberg Media: Learner.org include the Emmy-Award-winning series The Constitution: That Delicate Balance . In this series of free, video-on-demand presentations designed for high school and above, key political, legal, and media professionals engage in spontaneous and heated debates on controversial issues such as campaign spending, the right to die, school prayer, and immigration reform. The resources emphasize the impact of the Constitution on history and current affairs. The Annenberg Newsletter highlights additional resources. Landmark Supreme Court Cases provides teachers with a full range of resources and activities to support the teaching of the impact of cases such as Marbury vs Madison, Plessy vs Ferguson, and Brown vs. Board of Education. Background summaries of individual cases and questions for three different reading levels are graded from the highest to those appropriate for ESOL students. Resources include many case-specific short activities and in-depth lessons that can be completed with students.
About the TeleTrainer The TeleTrainer is a teaching aid primarily designed for pre-school children. The TeleTrainer allows the child to learn to operate a phone using actual telephone sets. The TeleTrainer, unlike a toy, uses the same signals heard during real phone calls. To use the TeleTrainer, simply connect two push-button telephones to the jacks labeled “Student” and “Instructor”. The unit may be programmed to train the student to dial any number desired. When it is first turned on, the default number is 911. The child will hear a dial tone when the handset is removed from the cradle. If the correct number is dialed, the TeleTrainer will ring. The instructor can then talk to the student from the instructor telephone. If the student dials incorrectly, he/she will hear a busy signal. Changing the programmed telephone number is as simple as lifting the instructor handset, dialing the new number followed by the “#” key and hanging up. The TeleTrainer is also a valuable tool for teaching older students proper telephone etiquette. An optional jack allows external amplified speakers to be connected to the unit. This enables students to role play and benefit from each others’ conversations.
As interest in “open” educational resources appears to be picking up, a leading policy group has launched a resource to help state and local officials make informed decisions about choosing and using those materials. The Council of Chief State School Officers has created a Web portal that offers detailed case studies on state and district experiences with open resources. It also includes a host of other explainers, policy documents, and related materials. The site, which the CCSSO created in cooperation with the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, follows up on a report on open educational materials published by the chiefs group last year. That report included a survey that revealed a broad interest in open resources among the states, with 26 states having taken steps to promote them in some form, and 18 states taking steps to share them with districts. A spokeswoman said that the CCSSO, which represents top state education officials, is interested in supporting states that are immersing themselves in the open ed. world. Open educational resources are generally defined as academic materials released under a license that allows their sharing, free use, and modification by others. The resources typically include lessons or modules, though in theory they could include full-blown courses. Whether the resources can be used for commercial purposes depends on the type of license used to create them. Nonprofits and other entities rolling out open materials have followed very different models on that front. Skeptics of open educational materials say few schools and individual teachers have the time to sift and sort through resources, searching for the ones that meet their needs. They also say that just because money gets put into launching open materials (by a nonprofit or another organization) that doesn’t ensure that the resources will be adequately maintained, updated, and customized to meet educators’ demands. A commercial provider, they say, has a strong incentive to make sure those things happen. Education Week has reported extensively about big state efforts to create repositories of open resources, such as EngageNY. We’ve also documented the challenges local districts have faced in finding and trying to use open educational materials. One of the biggest hurdles districts have to clear is picking open materials that meet their specific curricular needs (a process that often requires heavy lifting by teachers and other staff) and introducing those resources to educators and students across an entire K-12 system. Here’s a primer we put together on open-ed resources, for readers who are just getting familiar with them: The goal of the portal is to help state and district officials—from policymakers to curriculum specialists—share ideas and best practices, Amanda M. Cadran, who worked on the project as an iNACOL fellow, said in an e-mail. She said there is a “tremendous amount of interest in OER, as the focus shifts from questions about the definition of OER to ones related to implementation, strategic planning and issues of policy.” Photo: Fourth grade teacher Kassie Hibbard leads a math lesson in her classroom at Nelson Elementary School in Bethel school district, which has replaced commercial elementary math materials with “open” resources from EngageNY.–Ian C. Bates for Education Week
Transcription factors represents one of the most high-impact therapeutic targets in biomedicine. The authors developed a new strategy for blocking transcription factor function that could have broad applications to several diseases, including cancer. More than 1,500 transcription factors exist in the human body, each responsible for binding to specific sequences in DNA and transcribing or decoding the body’s genetic blueprint to instruct a cell what to do. Different transcription factors act in different kinds of cells regulating everything from inflammation to cholesterol metabolism to wound healing to controlled cell death, which is key to inhibiting cancer. When a transcription factor is mutated, those instructions can go awry, turning a health promoting protein into a pathological protein. For instance, mutations in the p53 transcription factor, can change its function from a tumor suppressor to a tumor promoter. For years, scientists have strived to develop methods to inhibit mutated transcription factors. Because they are all molecularly similar in the regions that bind to DNA, targeting one can indirectly target others, disrupting normal cell functions. Transcription factors also contain a section, called an activation domain, that is structurally disordered, making it hard to develop a molecule that will block it. They set out to selectively inhibit p53, which is present in every kind of cell and plays a critical role in human development and in the body’s stress response. University of Colorado Boulder researchers have discovered a new way to inhibit the most commonly mutated gene underlying human tumor growth, opening the door to new therapeutic strategies for cancer and a host of other diseases. The authors sought to test whether the same outcome could be achieved by targeting Mediator instead. They chose p53 as a test case because it is well studied and biomedically important and contains a well-characterized AD. An apparent obstacle was that Mediator is large (1.4 MDa, 26 subunits) and its p53 interaction site is not precisely defined. However, we reasoned that the p53 AD (residues 13–60) evolved to selectively interact with Mediator with high affinity; supporting this concept, the p53AD alone can selectively purify Mediator from human cell extracts, and mass spectrometry analysis of p53AD-bound factors revealed Mediator as a top hit (Tables S1 and S2). Consequently, they used the native p53AD structure and sequence as a starting point, rather than screen thousands of drug-like compounds. To directly assess p53-Mediator function, the researchers used a defined in vitro transcription system that recapitulated p53- and Mediator-dependent transcription. Biochemical results were tested further in human cells, using genome-wide approaches. Collectively, the experiments conducted establish that p53 activity can be selectively controlled by targeting its interaction with Mediator. The discovery, published in the journal Cell Reports, marks an important step forward in the decades-long quest to target transcription factors (TFs), a notoriously hard-to-block class of proteins which, when mutated or dysregulated, can disrupt cell function and drive illness. To do so, instead of targeting p53 itself, they targeted a 26-subunit complex aptly named Mediator. Mediator attaches to p53 and other transcription factors, serving as a bridge between them and the enzyme that decodes sections of the body’s genetic blueprint. In essence, the transcription factor must click into Mediator, like a key in a lock, which then activates the decoding process. In laboratory studies of human cancer cells, the researchers found that when they applied a novel peptide, which they designed based upon the p53 activation domain, they could prevent p53 from working. The team showed that the peptide worked by blocking p53 from clicking in to Mediator, much like jamming up the lock before the real key (p53 itself) could be inserted. According to the authors, the unique method they used using a transcription factor activation domain as a starting point rather than screening thousands of compounds could also lead to faster, cheaper ways to develop new leads for therapeutics. Allen BL, Quach K, Jones T, Levandowski CB, Ebmeier CC, Rubin JD, Read T, Dowell RD, Schepartz A, Taatjes DJ. Suppression of p53 response by targeting p53-Mediator binding with a stapled peptide. Cell Rep. 2022;39(1):110630. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110630. PMID: 35385747; PMCID: PMC9044438.
Civil War Trust For Immediate Release: 11/01/11 "Freedom's Fortress" Becomes America's Newest National Monument Civil War Trust applauds designation of Virginia’s Fort Monroe by President Obama (Washington, D.C.) – Today, using the powers granted to him under the 1906 Antiquities Act, President Barack Obama officially designated Fort Monroe, a historic military fortification in Hampton, Va., a National Monument and the 396th unit of the National Park Service. Following a Department of the Interior ceremony to mark the official announcement, Civil War Trust president James Lighthizer issued the following statement: “It has often been said that America’s national parks are her crown jewels and, today, that legacy has grown yet richer through the inclusion of Fort Monroe. Now, future generations will be able to explore this unique site and gain an understanding of the history that unfolded here. “In the fall of 2006, the Civil War Trust became the first national organization to publicly support the establishment of a national park at Fort Monroe, following the conclusion of its use as an active U.S. Army installation. Over the ensuing years, it has been our privilege to work with an array of dedicated government officials and preservationists as we advocated for the happy conclusion celebrated today. “I am honored to offer the thanks and congratulations of the Civil War Trust to those dedicated officials in Congress, the Department of the Interior and the Commonwealth of Virginia, the tireless volunteers of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, and our partner conservation groups, whose efforts have made this victory a reality.” Fort Monroe, guarding the entrance to Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay, was completed in 1834. The fort played an important role in the Civil War, remaining the only Tidewater Virginia military fortification in Federal hands for much of the war and serving as a base of operations for several naval and infantry campaigns. In 1861, Fort Monroe was the site of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s landmark “contraband decision,” whereby escaped slaves who reached Union lines would be deemed contraband of war and not returned to their masters. By war’s end, more than 10,000 men and women in bondage had made the journey to “Freedom’s Fortress” to forge a better future for our country as well as themselves, their struggle for self-emancipation securing freedom’s place alongside preservation of the Union as a focus of the Northern war effort. Following the war, Confederate president Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in the fort’s casemate for two years. Fort Monroe was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and remained an active military post until September 15, 2011, when it was decommissioned as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. The Civil War Trust is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Its goal is to preserve our nation’s endangered Civil War sites and to promote appreciation of these hallowed grounds through education and heritage tourism. To date, the Trust has preserved more than 30,000 acres of battlefield land in 20 states, including 16,000 acres in Virginia. Please visit the Trust’s website at www.civilwar.org, the home of the Civil War sesquicentennial.
An animated film designed as a lesson in “racial discourse” for students at a Virginia high school will not be shown after it made students uncomfortable and drew criticism from parents who called it “white guilt.” The video was shown at Glen Allen High School in Henrico during two assemblies for Black History Month and depicts several runners on a track, with black runners facing insurmountable obstacles while white runners are unimpeded. Officials said in a statement Tuesday that the video, “The Unequal Opportunity Race,” was a presentation involving “American history and racial discourse.” They added, “A segment of the video was one component of a thoughtful discussion in which all viewpoints were encouraged. As always, we are welcoming of feedback from students and their families, and we address concerns directly as they come forward.” Henrico County Superintendent Patrick C. Kinlaw acknowledged Wednesday that the video may not have been the best way to deliver a lesson in “racial discourse.” "While we as educators do not object to difficult and constructive conversations about American history and racial discourse past and present, we understand why many people feel this video in particular was not the best way to deliver such an important lesson," Kinlsaw said in the statement. Don Blake, whose daughter attended the assembly where the video was shown, said Wednesday that someone should be held accountable for the way the video was presented. “They are sitting there watching a video that is dividing them up from a racial standpoint. It’s a white guilt kind of video,” Blake told WWBT. Luke Harris, co-founder of the African-American Policy Forum, which created the video, told The Washington Post that the video was produced for "elementary and secondary schools or in college studies courses." "We found that the video has a huge impact on the people that we're showing it to," said Harris, who is also an associate professor of political science at Vassar College. "Most of us know very little about the social history of the United States and its contemporary impact. It was designed as a tool to throw light on American history." Administrators across the district have been instructed not to use the video, said school board chairwoman Michelle Ogburn in a statement. She apologized to those who were offended. "In addition, steps are being taken to prevent the use of racially divisive materials in the future," Ogburn said. The video comes four months after a student mistakenly played a song over the public address system before a football game that was a racist parody of the "DuckTales" theme song. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The varying cultures collectively called Mound Builders were inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period, constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial, burial, and elite residential purposes. These included the Pre-Columbian cultures of the Archaic period; Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures); and Mississippian period; dating from roughly 3500 BCE (the construction of Watson Brake) to the 16th century CE, and living in regions of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, and the Mississippi River valley and its tributary waters. Since the 19th century, the prevailing scholarly consensus has been that the mounds were constructed by indigenous peoples of the Americas. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers made contact with natives living in a number of later Mississippian cities, described their cultures, and left artifacts. By the time of United States westward expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds. Research and study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly on archaeology and anthropology. - 1 Name and culture - 2 Archaeological surveys - 3 Reports of early European explorers - 4 Mound building cultures - 5 Alternative explanations - 6 Hoaxes - 7 See also - 8 Notes - 9 References - 10 Further reading - 11 External links Name and culture At one time, the term "mound builder" was applied to the people believed to have constructed these earthworks. In the 16th through 19th centuries, Europeans and Americans generally thought that a people other than one related to the historic Native Americans had built the mounds. The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and other earthworks. These burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds, flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes a variety of other forms. They were generally built as part of complex villages that arose from more dense populations, with a specialization of skills and knowledge. The early earthworks built in Louisiana c. 3500 BCE are the only ones known to be built by a hunter-gatherer culture. The best-known flat-topped pyramidal structure, which at over 100 feet (30 m) tall is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico, is Monks Mound at Cahokia Indian Mounds in present-day Collinsville, Illinois. At its peak about 1150 CE, Cahokia was an urban settlement with 20,000-30,000 people; this population was not exceeded by North American European settlements until after 1800. Some effigy mounds were constructed in the shapes or outlines of culturally significant animals. The most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, ranges from 1 to just over 3 feet tall (30–100 cm)., 20 feet (6 m) wide, over 1,330 feet (405 m) long, and shaped as an undulating serpent. Many different tribal groups and chiefdoms, involving an array of beliefs and unique cultures over thousands of years, built mounds as expressions of their cultures. The general term, "mound builder," covered their shared architectural practice of earthwork mound construction. This practice, believed to be associated with a cosmology that had a cross-cultural appeal, may indicate common cultural antecedents. The first mound building was an early marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period, is the oldest dated mound complex in North America. It is one of eleven mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley. We can conclude that these mound builders were very organized people. Hundreds or even thousands of workers had to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available. Then the dirt had to be moved very long distances, and finally workers had to create the shape the builder had planned. The most complete reference for these earthworks is Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, written by Ephraim G. Squier and Edwin H. Davis. It was published in 1848 by the Smithsonian. Since many of the features which the authors documented have since been destroyed or diminished by farming and development, their surveys, sketches, and descriptions are still used by modern archaeologists. All of the sites which they identified as located in Kentucky came from the manuscripts of C. S. Rafinesque. A smaller regional study in 1931 by author and archaeologist Fred Dustin charted and examined the mounds and Ogemaw Earthworks near Saginaw, Michigan. Archaeological survey and recording of mounds is an ongoing scholarly task. Reports of early European explorers Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador who in 1540-1542 traversed what became the southeast United States, encountered many different mound-builder peoples, perhaps descendants of the great Mississippian culture. The mound-building tradition was still alive in the southeast during the mid-sixteenth century. De Soto observed people living in fortified towns with lofty mounds and plazas, and surmised that many of the mounds served as foundations for priestly temples. Near present-day Augusta, Georgia, de Soto encountered a mound-building group ruled over by a queen, Cofitachequi. She told him that the mounds within her territory served as the burial places for nobles. The artist Jacques Le Moyne, who had accompanied French settlers to northeastern Florida in the 1560s, likewise noted many Native American groups using existing mounds and constructing others. He produced a series of watercolor paintings depicting scenes of native life. Although most of his paintings have been lost, some engravings were copied from the originals and published in 1591 by a Flemish company. Among these is a depiction of the burial of an aboriginal Floridian tribal chief, an occasion of great mourning and ceremony. The original caption reads: \|“\|\|Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it.\|\|”\| \|— - Jacques Le Moyne 1560's\| Maturin Le Petit, a Jesuit priest came in contact with the Natchez as did Le Page du Pratz (1758), a French explorer. Both observed them in the area that later became Mississippi. The Natchez were devout worshippers of the sun. Having a population of some 4,000, they occupied at least nine villages and were presided over by a paramount chief, known as the Great Sun, who wielded absolute power. Both observers noted the high temple mounds which the Natchez had built so that the Great Sun could commune with God, the sun. His large residence was built atop the highest mound, from \|“\|\|which, every morning, he greeted the rising sun, invoking thanks and blowing tobacco smoke to the four cardinal directions.\|\|”\| \|— - Le Page du Pratz 1758\| Later explorers to the same regions, only a few decades after mound-building settlements had been reported, found the regions largely depopulated, the residents vanished, and the mounds untended. Since there had been little violent conflict with Europeans during that period, the most plausible explanation is that new Eurasian infectious diseases, such as smallpox and influenza, had decimated most of the Native Americans who had comprised the last mound-builder civilization. Mound building cultures Radiocarbon dating has established the age of the earliest Archaic mound complex in southeastern Louisiana. One of the two Monte Sano Site mounds, excavated in 1967 before being destroyed during new construction at Baton Rouge, was dated at 6220 BP (plus or minus 140 years). Researchers at the time thought that such societies were not organizationally capable of this type construction. It has since been dated as about 6500 BP, or 4500 BCE, although not all agree. Watson Brake is located in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana. Securely dated to about 5,400 years ago (approx. 3500 BCE), in the Middle Archaic period, it consists of a formation of 11 mounds from 3 to 25 feet (1-8m) tall, connected by ridges to form an oval nearly 900 feet (270m) across. In the Americas, building of complex earthwork mounds started at an early date, well before the pyramids of Egypt were constructed. Watson Brake was under construction nearly 2,000 years before the better-known Poverty Point, and building went on for 500 years. Middle Archaic mound construction appeared to cease about 2800 BC, and scholars have not ascertained the reason, but it may have been because of changes in river patterns or other environmental factors. With the 1990s dating of Watson Brake and similar complexes, scholars established that pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic American societies could organize to accomplish complex construction over extended periods of time, overturning scholars' understanding of traditional models of Archaic society. Watson Brake was built by a hunter-gatherer society whose people occupied the area on only a seasonal basis, but where successive generations organized to build the complex mounds over a 500-year period. Their food consisted mostly of fish and deer, as well as available plants. Built about 1500 BC, Poverty Point in Louisiana is a prominent example of Late Archaic mound-builder construction (c. 2500 BCE - 1000 BCE). It is a striking complex of more than one square mile, where six earthwork crescent ridges were built in concentric arrangement, interrupted by radial aisles. Three mounds are also part of the main complex, and evidence of residences extends for about 3 miles along the bank of Bayou Macon. It is the major site among 100 associated with the Poverty Point culture and is one of the best-known early examples of earthwork monumental architecture. Unlike the localized societies during the Middle Archaic, this culture showed evidence of a wide trading network outside its area, which is one of its distinguishing characteristics. The Archaic period was followed by the Woodland period (c. 1000 BCE). Some well-understood examples are the Adena culture of Ohio, West Virginia, and nearby states. The subsequent Hopewell culture built monuments from present-day Illinois to Ohio; it is renowned for its geometric earthworks. The Adena and Hopewell were not the only mound-building peoples during this time period. There were contemporaneous mound-building cultures throughout the Eastern United States, stretching as far south as Crystal River in Western Florida. During this time period, in parts of present-day Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the Hopewellian Marksville culture declined and gave way to the Baytown culture. Reasons for decline include attacks from other tribes or the impact of severe climatic changes undermining agriculture. Coles Creek culture The Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland culture (700-1200 CE) in the Lower Mississippi Valley in the southern United States that marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population and cultural and political complexity increased, especially by the end of the Coles Creek period. Although many of the classic traits of chiefdom societies were not yet manifested, by 1000 CE the formation of simple elite polities had begun. Coles Creek sites are found in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas. The Coles Creek culture is considered ancestral to the Plaquemine culture. Around 900–1450 CE, the Mississippian culture developed and spread through the Eastern United States, primarily along the river valleys. The largest regional center where the Mississippian culture is first clearly developed is located in Illinois and is referred to today as Cahokia. Beneath East St. Louis, was the capital of a large region stretching from Louisiana to Wisconsin. It had several regional variants including the Middle Mississippian culture of Cahokia, the South Appalachian Mississippian variant at Moundville and Etowah, the Plaquemine Mississippian variant in south Louisiana and Mississippi, and the Caddoan Mississippian culture of northwestern Louisiana, eastern Texas, and southwestern Arkansas. Like the Mound Builders of the Ohio, these people built gigantic mounds as burial and ceremonial places. Fort Ancient culture Fort Ancient is the name for a Native American culture that flourished from 1000-1650 CE among a people who predominantly inhabited land along the Ohio River in areas of southern modern-day Ohio, northern Kentucky and western West Virginia. Scholars once thought this was an expansion of the Mississippian cultures, but they now believe the Fort Ancient culture was an independently developed culture descended from the Hopewell culture. This was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Good examples of this culture's constructions are found at the Medora Site in West Baton Rouge Parish, La; and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff (Lake George) sites in Mississippi. Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with the Middle Mississippian culture at the Cahokia site in Illinois. It is considered ancestral to the historic Natchez and Taensa peoples encountered by Europeans. Through the mid-nineteenth century, European Americans did not recognize that ancestors of the Native Americans had built the prehistoric mounds of the eastern U.S. They believed that the massive earthworks and large ceremonial complexes were built by a different people. A New York Times article from 1897 described a mound in Wisconsin in which a giant human skeleton measuring over nine feet in length was found. From 1886, another New York Times article described water receding from a mound in Cartersville, Georgia which uncovered acres of skulls and bones, some of which were said to be gigantic. Two thigh bones were measured with the height of their owners estimated at 14 feet. President Lincoln made reference to the giants whose bones fill the mounds of America. "But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent---when Christ suffered on the cross---when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea---nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker---then as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Co[n]temporary with the whole race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong, and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastodon---now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long---long time, never still for a single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested." A key work in increasing public knowledge of the origins of the mounds was the 1894 report by Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology (now Smithsonian Institution). He concluded that the prehistoric earthworks of the eastern United States were the work of early cultures of Native Americans. A small number of people had earlier reached similar conclusions: Thomas Jefferson, for example, excavated a mound and from the artifacts and burial practices, noted similarities between mound-builder funeral practices and those of Native Americans in his time. In addition, Theodore Lewis in 1886 had refuted Pidgeon's fraudulent claims of pre-Native American moundbuilders. Writers and scholars have put forward numerous alternative origins for the Mound Builders: - Ancient world immigrants Other people believed that Greeks, Africans, Chinese or assorted Europeans built the mounds. Some Euro-Americans who embraced a Biblical worldview thought the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel had built the mounds. - Book of Mormon inhabitants Beginning during the 19th century a common belief is that the Jews, particularly the Lost Ten Tribes, were the ancestors of Native Americans and the Mound Builders. The Book of Mormon (first published in 1830) provides a related belief, as its narrative describes two waves of immigration to the Americas from Mesopotamia: the Jaredites (ca. 3000 - 2000 BCE) and an Israelite group in 590 BCE (called Nephites, Lamanites and Mulekites). These people were not the lost tribes, but were of the known Jewish tribes. The Book of Mormon depicts these settlers building magnificent cities, which were destroyed by warfare around 385 CE. Some Mormon scholars[who?] have considered The Book of Mormon narrative a description of the mound-building cultures; other Mormon apologists argue for a Mesoamerican or South American setting. Theories about a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon did not arise until after Latter-day Saints were influenced by publicized findings about the Central American stone ruins. This occurred after the Book of Mormon was published. - Black civilizations In the 20th century, certain sects affiliated with the Black nationalist Moorish Science philosophy theorized a connection with the Mound Builders. They argue that the Mound Builders were an ancient advanced Black civilization that developed the legendary continents of Atlantis and Mu, as well as ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica. These black groups, similar to European Americans in earlier periods, propose that the American Indians were too primitive to have developed the sophisticated societies and the technology believed necessary to build the mounds. - Divine creation The Reverend Landon West claimed that Serpent Mound in Ohio was built by God, or by man inspired by him. He believed that God built the mound and placed it as a symbol of the story of the Garden of Eden. - Mythical cultures Effects of alternative explanations The mound builder explanations were often honest misinterpretations of real data from valid sources. Both scholars and laymen accepted some of these explanations. Reference to an alleged race appears in the poem "The Prairies" (1832) by William Cullen Bryant. - Assumption that construction was too complex for Indians One belief was that American Indians were too unsophisticated to have constructed such complex earthworks and artifacts. The associated stone, metal, and clay artifacts were thought to be too complex for the Indians to have made. In the American Southeast, and Midwest, numerous Indian cultures were sedentary and participated in agriculture. Numerous Indian towns had built surrounding stockades for defense. Capable of this type of construction, they and ancestors could have built mounds, but people who believed that the Indians did not build the earthworks did not analyze it in this way. They thought the Native American nomadic cultures would not organize to build such monuments, for failure to devote the time and effort to construct such time-consuming projects. When most Europeans first arrived in America, they never witnessed the American Indians building mounds, and they found that few Indians knew of their history when asked. Yet earlier Europeans, especially the Spanish, had written numerous non-English-language accounts about the Indians' construction of mounds. Garcilaso de la Vega reported how the Indians built the mounds and placed temples on top of them. A few French expeditions reported staying with Indian societies who built mounds. - Assumption construction older than Indians People also claimed that the Indians were not the Mound Builders because the mounds and related artifacts were older than Indian cultures. Caleb Atwater's misunderstanding of stratigraphy led him to believe that the Mound Builders were a much older civilization than the Indians. In his book, Antiquities Discovered in the Western States (1820), Atwater claimed that Indian remains were always found right beneath the surface of the earth. Since the artifacts associated with the Mound Builders were found fairly deep in the ground, Atwater argued that they must be from a different group of people. The discovery of metal artifacts further convinced people that the Mound Builders were not Native Americans. The Indians encountered by the Europeans and Americans were not thought to engage in metallurgy. Some artifacts that were found in relation to the mounds were inscribed with symbols. As the Europeans did not know of any Indian cultures that had a writing system, they assumed a different group had created them. Several hoaxes were associated with the Mound Builder cultures. - Newark Holy Stones In 1860, David Wyrick discovered the "Keystone tablet", containing Hebrew language inscriptions written on it in Newark, Ohio. Soon after, he found the "Newark Decalogue Stone" nearby, also claimed to be inscribed in Hebrew. The authenticity of the "Newark Holy Stones" and the circumstances of their discovery are disputed. - Davenport tablets Reverend Jacob Gass discovered what were called the Davenport tablets. These bore inscriptions that later were determined to be fake. - Walam Olum hoax The Walam Olum hoax had considerable influence on perceptions of the Mound Builders. In 1836 Constantine Samuel Rafinesque published his translation of a text he claimed had been written in pictographs on wooden tablets. This text explained that the Lenape Indians originated in Asia, told of their passage over the Bering Strait, and narrated their subsequent migration across the North American continent. This "Walam Olum" tells of battles with native peoples already in America before the Lenape arrived. People hearing of the account believed that the "original people" were the Mound Builders, and that the Lenape overthrew them and destroyed their culture. David Oestreicher later asserted that Rafinesque's account was a hoax. He argued that the Walam Olum glyphs were derived from Chinese, Egyptian, and Mayan alphabets. Meanwhile, the belief that the Native Americans destroyed the mound builder culture had gained widespread acceptance. - Kinderhook Plates The Kinderhook plates, "discovered" in 1843, were another hoax, consisting of material planted by a contemporary in Native American mounds. This hoax was intended to discredit the account of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith having translated an ancient book. - List of burial mounds in the United States - Serpent Mound - Southeastern Ceremonial Complex - Tumulus, Mounds (or barrows) of Europe and Asia - Southwestern Moundbuilders, athletic teams of Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas - See Squier p. 1 - Constance E. Richards, "Contact and Conflict", American Archaeologist, Spring 2004, accessed 26 Jun 2008 - Robert W. Preucel, Stephen A. Mrozowski, Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: The New Pragmatism, John Wiley & Sons, 2010, p. 177 - Mallory O'Connor, Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast (University Press of Florida, 1995) - Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 1. Washington DC, 1848) - Biloine Young and Melvin Fowler, Cahokia: The Great Native American Metropolis (University of Illinois Press, 2000) - Davis Brose and N'omi Greber (eds.), Hopewell Archaeology (Kent State UP, 1979) - Roger Kennedy, Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization (Free Press, 1994) - Robert Silverberg, "...And the Mound-Builders Vanished from the Earth", originally in the 1969 edition of American Heritage, collected in the anthology A Sense of History [Houghton-Mifflin, 1985]; available online here. - Gordon M. Sayre, "The Mound Builders and the Imagination of American Antiquity in Jefferson, Bartram, and Chateaubriand", Early American Literature 33 (1998): 225-249. - Rebecca Saunders, "The Case for Archaic Period Mounds in Southeastern Louisiana", Southeastern Archaeology, Vol. 13, No. 2, Winter 1994, accessed 4 November 2011 - "Important new findings in Louisiana". Archaeo News. Stone Pages. Retrieved 5 September 2011. - Joe W. Saunders, "Middle Archaic and Watson Brake", in Archaeology of Louisiana, edited by Mark A. Rees, Ian W. (FRW) Brown, LSU Press, 2010, p. 67 - Saunders, in Rees and Brown (2010), Archaeology of Louisiana, pp. 69-76 - Saunders, in Rees and Brown (2010), Archaeology of Louisiana, pp. 73-74 - Saunders, in Rees and Brown (2010), Archaeology of Louisiana, p. 63 - "Southeastern Prehistory-Late Woodland Period". Retrieved 2008-09-23. - Kidder, Tristram (1998). R. Barry Lewis, Charles Stout, eds. Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0947-0. - "Troyville-Coles Creek". Louisiana prehistory. 2010-07-01. - Adam King (2002). "Mississippian Period: Overview". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-07-01. - Nash, Gary B. Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America Los Angeles 2015. Chapter 1, p. 7 - "Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period". Retrieved 2010-07-01. - Peter N. Peregrine (1995). Archaeology of the Mississippian culture: a research guide. Garland Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8153-0336-7. - Nash, Gary B. Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America Los Angeles 2015. Chapter 1, p. 6 - "Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period". Retrieved 2008-09-08. - "The Plaquemine Culture, A.D 1000". Retrieved 2008-09-08. - "WISCONSIN MOUND OPENED.; Skeleton Found of a Man Over Nine Feet High with an Enormous Skull.". New York Times. December 20, 1897. - "MONSTER SKULLS AND BONES.". New York Times. April 5, 1886. - Lincoln, Abraham (1953). "Fragment: Niagara Falls [c. September 25–30, 1848]". In Basler, Roy P. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 2. pp. 10–11. - Pidgeon, William (1858) Traditions of Dee-Coo-Dah and Antiquarian Researches. Horace Thayer, New York. - Finney, Fred (2008) William Pidgeon and T.H. Lewis. Minnesota Archaeologist 67: 89-105 - Birmingham, Robert A. and Leslie E. Eisenberg (2000) Indian Mounds of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, pp 24-27. - Lewis, Theodore H. (1886) "The 'Monumental Tortoise' Mounds of 'Dee-Coo-Dah'" The American Journal of Archaeology 2(1):65-69. - Feder, Kenneth L. (2005). "The Myth of the Moundbuilders". Frauds, Myths, And Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology (PDF). Central Connecticut State Univ: McGraw Hill. pp. 151–155, 159–160, 164–166. ISBN 978-0-07-286948-4. Retrieved May 19, 2012. - Chapman, Jefferson. "Prehistoric American Indians in Tennessee". University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 2012-02-08. - Jon Daniels. "The Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican Archeology". Stanford University. Retrieved 2012-02-08. - See the anonymous newspaper article titled "ZARAHEMLA", Mormon Times and Seasons, October 1842, excerpts from John Lloyd Stephens, Incident of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán (1841). Stephens' conclusion that the Central American stone ruins were not of any great antiquity was overlooked by excited LDS readers. - Ohio Historical Society. Ohio history, Volume 10. Retrieved 2011-07-25. The Garden of Eden, it seems, is now definitely located. The site is in Ohio, "Adams" county, to be more precise...The Rev. Landon West of Pleasant Hill, O., a prominent and widely known minister of the Baptist church... arrives at the conclusion that this great work was created either by God himself or by man inspired by Him to make an everlasting object lesson of man's disobedience, Satan's perfidy and the results of sin and death. In support of this startling claim the Rev. Mr. West quotes Scripture and refers to Job 16:13: "By His spirit. He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent." - BROOK WILENSKY-LANFORD (May 23, 2011). "ADAM AND EVE--AND REVEREND WEST--IN OHIO". The Common. The Eden I found in a 1909 pamphlet by Reverend Landon West—the Serpent Mound earthwork that is now an Ohio state park—was still preserved for all to see, so I went...Details that fell outside of West's lifetime were hard to fit into the book: his son Dan West became the founder of the Heifer Project charity, and his accomplishments no doubt helped preserve the memory of his father's Garden of Eden. - Hearn, Lafcadio (April 24, 1876). "The Mound Builders". The Commercial. Retrieved May 17, 2012. - Bryant, William Cullen, "The Prairies" (1832) - Kimball, Stanley B. (Aug. 1981). "Kinderhook Plates Brought to Joseph Smith Appear to Be a Nineteenth-Century Hoax". Ensign (LDS Church). Retrieved May 17, 2012. - Evans, Glenn; Groat, Joel B. (2003). "Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates: Overview and Current Perspectives". Mormons in Transition (IRR). Retrieved May 17, 2012. - Abrams, Elliot M.; Freter, AnnCorinne, eds. (2005). The Emergence of the Moundbuilders: The Archaeology of Tribal Societies in Southeastern Ohio. Athens: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1609-9. - Thomas, Cyrus. Report on the mound explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Pp. 3–730. Twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1890–91, by J. W. Powell, Director. XLVIII+742 pp., 42 pls., 344 figs. 1894. - Feder, Kenneth L. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. - Squier, E.G.; Davis, E.H. (1847). Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. - Gale, George (1867). Upper Mississippi: or, Historical Sketches of the Mound-builders, the Indian tribes and the Progress of Civilization in the North-west, from A.D. 1600 to the Present Time. Chicago: Clarke. \|Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Mound-builders.\| - Lost Race Myth - LenaweeHistory.com \| Mound Builders section, The Western Historical Society 1909, reprint. - Artist Hideout, Art of the Ancients - Ancient Monuments Placemarks - The Mound Builders at Project Gutenberg - With Climate Swing, a Culture Bloomed in Americas (mound builders in Peru) - Science 19 September 1997 (A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present) - Bruce Smith video on the 1880s Smithsonian explorations to determine who built the ancient earthen mounds in eastern North America can be viewed as part of series 19th Century Explorers and Anthropologists: Developing the Earliest Smithsonian Anthropology Collections
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)(Learn how and when to remove this template message) \|Other names\|\|Swedish cattle dog \|Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris)\| The Swedish Vallhund is a breed of dog also known as "the Västgötaspets" in Sweden. In Swedish: Vallhund translates to herding dog. A rare breed, having been saved from extinction during the 1940s, it is believed to have originated over 1,000 years ago. It was developed for use as a drover and herder of cows. The Swedish Vallhund is also known as the Swedish cow dog. The average height of the Swedish Vallhund, measured to the withers, is approximately 33 cm (12.9 in) for males and 31 cm (12.2 in) for females. They are often strong, with a long body; the ratio of their height to body length is about 2:3. The head of the Vallhund is wedge-shaped, with dark brown oval eyes and pricked ears. Color and coat The coat is short and harsh, with a tight topcoat and a soft and dense undercoat. The hair on the foreparts of the legs is a little longer than that on the neck, chest and back parts of the hind legs. Fur colour varies from grey, greyish brown, greyish yellow to reddish brown with darker hairs on back, neck and sides of the body. Lighter hair in the same shade of colour as mentioned above can be seen on muzzle, throat, chest, belly, buttocks, feet and hocks. They have lighter markings on shoulders, also known as harness markings. Some dogs show white to a small extent as a narrow blaze, neckstop or slight necklace, as well as white markings on fore and hindlegs and on the chest. The maximum is 30% white. Health and Lifespan The Swedish Vallhund is generally a healthy dog. Its small stature makes it often long lived, with an average life span of 15 years. Its pointy ears mean that, unlike dog breeds with long, hanging ears, ear problems are rare in the Swedish Vallhund. This breed does well in hot climates due to its double layer coat as long as it is provided cool shade and water. This breed does not do well in very deep snow because of its short legs. The Vallhund has an inherited type of progressive retinal atrophy disease in 34.9% of the population, which appears as mild to moderate night-blindness around the age of ten. The Vallhund can compete in dog agility trials, obedience, Rally obedience, showmanship, flyball, tracking, hiking, and herding events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Vallhunds that exhibit basic herding instincts can be trained to compete in herding trials. The Swedish Vallhund is an ancient, national dog breed of Sweden and may date back to the 8th or 9th century. Swedish Vallhunds originated in the county of Västergötland, which lies just south of Vänern. Here the small dog proved to be excellent for watching, guarding and herding. The breed dates to the Viking settlement of England and is thought to have played a part in the development of the modern Welsh Corgi and the Lancashire Heeler. The Swedish Vallhund is related to larger spitz dogs and moose hunting dogs of Scandinavia. Large dogs of this spitz-type, have been found buried with their masters in stone-age settlements in Scandinavia. The skeleton of a Swedish Vallhund is remarkably similar to that of the modern Norwegian Elkhound, another breed of spitz dog. - "Hundrasguiden/Svenska-raser" (PDF). www.skk.se. - The Swedish Vallhund Society (2016). Breed Standard [Online]. Available at <http://www.swedishvallhunds.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=399181> (Accessed 16 April 2016). - American Kennel Club - Swedish Vallhund - Breed Standard - Swedish Vallhund - Article from the Dog Breed Gallery on Pedigree - Hartnagle-Taylor, Jeanne Joy; Taylor, Ty (2010). Stockdog Savvy. Alpine Publications. ISBN 978-1-57779-106-5. - Serpell J., The Domestic Dog, Its Evolution. Behaviour and Interactions with People. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 1995. - Hubbard Clifford. L B., Dogs in Britain; a Description of All Native Breeds and Most Foreign Breeds in Britain. London, MacMillan. 1948 - Swedish Kennel Clubs Magazines Special number:"Hundsport Special" 5/86 - Gascoigne.Nicky., The Swedish Vallhund. Dalsetter Designs. Wakefield. UK. 1989 - Bayliss. J., A Study of the Swedish Vallhund (Västgötaspets) A Pictorial History - Owners' Hand Book. Eng. 2007. - Darling, L., The Swedish Vallhund (Vastgotaspets): A legacy of the Vikings - Aus. 2005 \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Västgötaspets.\|
Reis’ telephone was perhaps the first loudspeaker of any kind, as it employed a magnetostriction driver mounted in a resonating box. But it would still take many years before inventors discovered the virtues of baffles and enclosures. As Hunt puts it, the baffle is probably the most frequently rediscovered feature of loudspeaker art. Stokes, in 1868, pointed out that the radiation efficiency could be improved by preventing air circulation around the edges of a vibrating surface (the acoustic short-circuit). Rayleigh, a few years later, gave the now classic analysis of the radiation from a piston in an infinite baffle. But by the time loudspeakers were being produced in great numbers, Rayleigh’s Theory of Sound had been out of print for more than two decades, and many inventors discovered the baffle before they discovered Rayleigh. The invention of the telephone set off a wave of creativity, and almost all conceivable transducer mechanisms were tried out in the 1870s and 80s. Some of them developed into usable devices, others serve mainly as illustrations of man’s creativity. In this part, some of them will be presented, ranging from useful, mainstream designs to the downright bizarre. In Part 4, we looked at various early variants of moving coil (or moving conductor) loudspeakers, including predecessors of the modern moving coil cone driver. In this part I will present two specific designs that made a lasting impact on loudspeaker technology. One is a direct radiator; the other is a horn driver. In the early part of the 1920s, many researchers were working on loudspeakers, based on various principles. E.C. Wente at the Western Electric Engineering Department (to become the Bell Telephone Laboratories) worked on a small direct radiating moving coil loudspeaker that was later patented (US patent 1812389, filed April 1, 1925 and granted the same date 1935). In England, Paul Gustavus Adolphus Helmuth Voigt at Edison Bell also worked on moving coil loudspeakers and microphones. In May 1924, he applied for a patent on a moving coil loudspeaker, but unfortunately a little to late. He was beaten at the finish line by two engineers at the General Electric Company, C.W. Rice and E.W. Kellogg. The moving coil loudspeaker is without doubt the most common electroacoustic transducer in use. It consists of a circular coil suspended to move freely in a radial magnetic field. This transducer principle was first described by Ernst W. Siemens in his 1874 patent. He describes his transducer as a means for “obtaining the mechanical movement of an electrical coil from electrical currents transmitted through it.” He also mentions that the coil could be used to move visible or audible signals, but he had obviously nothing more elaborate in mind than a bell or buzzer.
War of Canudos \|War of Canudos\| Map of northern Bahia, showing the location of Canudos \|Commanders and leaders\| \| Gen. Arthur Oscar de Andrade Guimarães Col. Antônio Moreira César † Mjr. Febrônio de Brito Cpt. Virgílio Pereira de Almeida Lt. Pires Ferreira \| Antonio Conselheiro † João Abade † \|12,000 military personnel\|\|25,000\| \|Casualties and losses\| \|less than 5,000 dead\|\|almost 25,000 dead; only some 150 survivors\| The War of Canudos (Guerra dos Canudos, Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɡɛʁɐ duʃ kɐ̃ˈnuduʃ], 1896–1897) was a conflict between the state of Brazil and a group of some 30,000 settlers who had founded their own community in the Northeastern state of Bahia, named Canudos. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at military suppression, it came to a brutal end in October 1897, when a large Brazilian army force overran the village and killed nearly all the inhabitants. This was the deadliest civil war in Brazilian history. The conflict had its origins in the settlement of Canudos (named by its inhabitants Belo Monte meaning "Beautiful Hill", in the semi-arid backlands ("sertão" or "caatinga", in Portuguese) in the northeast tip of the state (then province) of Bahia. Bahia at this time was a desperately poor zone, with a depressed economy based on subsistence agriculture and cattle raising, no large cities, and a disenfranchised population composed largely of white Brazilians and mestizos. It was a likely background for dissatisfaction with the recently installed Republican regime. (The republic was declared on November 15, 1889 after a military coup against the ruling Emperor, Dom Pedro II, who was still loved by the common people.) Into this scenario appeared one of the many mystic spiritual preachers of the time, Antônio Conselheiro ("the Counselor"), who went from village to village with his followers, doing small jobs and demanding support from small farmers. He claimed to be a prophet and predicted the return of the legendary Portuguese king Sebastian of Portugal. After wandering through the provinces of Ceará, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Bahia, he decided in 1893 to settle permanently with his followers, of which there were now a great number, in the farm of Canudos, near the city of Monte Santo, Bahia, by the Vaza-Barris River. Soon his preaching and the promises of a better world attracted almost 8,000 new residents. Fearing an invasion of the city of Juazeiro by the "Conselhistas", who had a dispute with a lumber merchant, its mayor appealed hysterically to the provincial government. A visit by two Capuchin friars to Canudos was not enough to calm the population; one of them mistakenly accused Antônio Conselheiro of trying to raise a monarchist sedition. Initial military campaigns The provincial government dispatched Captain Virgílio Pereira de Almeida to crush the settlement with a column of 30 men, resulting in the soldiers' prompt massacre by a band of “jagunços” (as hired armed hands were called) sympathetic to Antônio Conselheiro. This caused great alarm among the provincial government, which then asked for help from the federal government. The United States of Brazil was only recently founded, and it was felt at the time that the rebels were monarchists and separatists, a bad example and a threat to the new regime. President Prudente de Morais called for a punitive military expedition and the Brazilian Army began preparations in November 1896. With scant information about terrain and the size and defensive resources of Canudo’s population, a small, 104-man force commanded by Lieutenant Pires Ferreira attacked the settlement on November 21, 1896. It was fiercely counter-attacked, however, by a band of 500 armed men, shouting praises to Antonio Conselheiro and the monarchy; the Brazilian force retreated, after incurring severe losses and slaying 150 of the attackers, many of whom were armed only with machetes, primitive lances and axes. The defeat of the Pires Ferreira campaign and the sensationalist reports about the ferocity and fanaticism of Canudos’ inhabitants provoked a great national outcry, and the Army was urged to rout the village, which was now growing by leaps and bounds (it eventually reached 30,000 residents). A second expeditionary force was mounted under the orders of the Minister of War, General Francisco de Paula Argolo. It consisted of 557 soldiers and officers, under the command of Major Febrônio de Brito, who attacked the now well defended village of Canudos on January 6, 1897. After a successful direct attack of infantry and artillery against the enemy’s trenches, however, the troops were surrounded by waves of more than 4,000 insurrectionists, fighting in the open. Lacking in ammunition, food and water, and unable to resist the attacking waves, which continued despite the rebels' heavy losses, the military force had to retreat, once again conceding the field to the rebels. The Army responded with a still larger expeditionary force. The prestige of the armed forces and the new government were now at stake. An experienced colonel, Antônio Moreira César, mounted a powerful force with three infantry battalions, one cavalry and one artillery battalion, all newly armed and trained. Despite the new knowledge gained about the size and resolve of the rebels, it was thought impossible that they could resist such a strong regular army force. However, on March 6, 1897, the insurrectionists defeated Colonel Moreira César’s column after only two days of fighting, resulting in another great loss of life and military material among the Brazilian forces, as well as the death of Colonel Moreira César. The final destruction of Canudos Pressured, the Federal government prepared a new expedition. This time, it was more professionally planned, with the aid of a war cabinet. Under the command of General Arthur Oscar de Andrade Guimarães, and with the direct involvement of the Minister of War, who personally visited Monte Santo, a city near Canudos which served as the concentration point for the large army formation being assembled, consisting of three brigades, eight infantry battalions and two artillery battalions. Machine guns and large artillery pieces, such as mortars and howitzers, including a powerful Whitworth 32 (nicknamed “Matadeira”, or Killer, by the population) were added to the 3,000-man force and had to be hauled with enormous effort through the unforgiving landscape, lacking in roads. This time, the attackers were aided by rampant hunger and malnutrition among the inhabitants of Canudos, the rebels' lack of weapons and ammunition, and the heavy losses they had suffered in the previous attacks. Furthermore, their spiritual leader and towering figure, Antonio Conselheiro, had died on September 22, probably of dysentery and malnutrition provoked by fasting for penance. After Canudos was encircled and unmercifully bombarded day after day the rebels were unable to resist further, the end came on October 2, 1897. Atrocities were carried out against the civilian population, such as slicing the throats of all the men, and the rape of many women, leading to further massacres until peace was restored, with only 150 survivors left. The best-looking surviving women were made captive and sent out to brothels in Salvador. Antônio Conselheiro's body was disinterred, and his head was cut off and taken triumphantly to the province's capital and according to Peter Robb (A Death in Brazil) "was taken to the Medical Faculty of Bahia to be studied for abnormalities (Robb, 2004:208). Some authors, such as Euclides da Cunha (1902) estimated the number of deaths in the War of Canudos as being of ca. 30,000 (25,000 residents and 5,000 attackers) , but the real number was probably lower (around 15,000, according to Levine, 1995). According to Peter Robb: "The foreign correspondents who covered what was soon being called the War of Canudos, as if it were a conflict between nations rather than the extermination of a tiny community within a single country, were nearly all embedded with the army of the Brazilian republic."(Robb, 2004:215). Euclides da Cunha did not see the fighting but did bear witness afterward. Robb says that his "obsession with progress and modernity, the scientific racism that told him the people of the northeastern interior were doomed to backwardness by their mixed race" led him to tell a story filled with preconceptions. However, it is all we have. - Calasans, José. No Tempo de Antônio Conselheiro. Salvador, Livraria Progresso Editora, 1959. - ARINOS, Afonso. Os Jagunços. - Macedo Soares, Henrique Duque-Estrada de. A Guerra de Canudos.Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Altiva, 1902 - Benício, Manoel. O Rei dos Jagunços. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fundação Getúlio Vargas. 2a. edição, 1997 - Levine, R.M. Vale of Tears: Revisiting the Canudos Massacre in Northeastern Brazil, 1893–1897. University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-20343-7. Review. - Vargas Llosa, Mario. The War of the End of the World. Translated from Spanish La Guerra del Fin del Mundo. Penguin, 1997, ISBN 0-14-026260-1. - Cunha, Euclides da. Rebellion in the Backlands. Translated from Portuguese Os Sertões. University Of Chicago Press, 1957. ISBN 0-226-12444-4. - Peter Robb, A Death in Brazil, 2004, Picador, NY, ISBN 978-0-312-42487-9 - Guerra de Canudos (The Battle of Canudos). Motion picture directed by Sérgio Rezende, with José Wilker, Cláudia Abreu, Paulo Betti, and Marieta Severo. Brazil, 1997. IMDB record - Sobreviventes – Os Filhos da Guerra de Canudos (Survivors, the Children of the War of Canudos). Documentary film by Paulo Fontenelle, Brazil, 2007. - Canudos. Documentary film by Ipojuca Pontes, with Walmor Chagas, Brazil, 1978. IMDB record. - War of Canudos in Brazil. Documentary radio broadcast, BBC World Service. Mon 9 Jun 2014 07:50 GMT. BBC iPlayer \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guerra de Canudos.\|
(b. 1560, Bologna, d. 1609, Roma) The Carracci was a family of Bolognese painters, the brothers Agostino (1557-1602) and Annibale (1560-1609) and their cousin Lodovico (1555-1619), who were prominent figures at the end of the 16th century in the movement against the prevailing Mannerist artificiality of Italian painting. They worked together early in their careers, and it is not easy to distinguish their shares in, for example, the cycle of frescos in the Palazzo Fava in Bologna (c.1583-84). In the early 1580s they opened a private teaching academy, which soon became a center for progressive art. It was originally called the Accademia dei Desiderosi ('Desiderosi' meaning 'desirous of fame and learning'), but later changed its name to Academia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives). In their teaching they laid special emphasis on drawing from the life (all three were outstanding graphic artists) and clear draughtsmanship became a quality particularly associated with artists of the Bolognese School, notably Domenichino and Reni, two of the leading members of the following generation who trained with the Carracci. They continued working in close relationship until 1595, when Annibale, who was by far the greatest artist of the family, was called to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to carry out his masterpiece, the decoration of the Farnese Gallery in the cardinal's family palace. He first decorated a small room called the Camerino with stories of Hercules, and in 1597 undertook the ceiling of the larger gallery, where the theme was The Loves of the Gods, or, as Bellori described it, "human love governed by Celestial love". Although the ceiling is rich in the interplay of various illusionistic elements, it retains fundamentally the self-contained and unambiguous character of High Renaissance decoration, drawing inspiration from Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling and Raphael's frescos in the Vatican Loggie and the Farnesina. The full untrammelled stream of Baroque illusionism was still to come in the work of Cortona and Lanfranco, but Annibale's decoration was one of the foundations of their style. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Farnese Ceiling was ranked alongside the Sistine Ceiling and Raphael's frescos in the Vatican Stanze as one of the supreme masterpieces of painting. It was enormously influential, not only as a pattern book of heroic figure design, but also as a model of technical procedure; Annibale made hundreds of drawings for the ceiling, and until the age of Romanticism such elaborate preparatory work became accepted as a fundamental part of composing any ambitious history painting. In this sense, Annibale exercised a more profound influence than his great contemporary Caravaggio, for the latter never worked in fresco, which was still regarded as the greatest test of a painter's ability and the most suitable vehicle for painting in the Grand Manner. Annibale's other works in Rome also had great significance in the history of painting. Pictures such as Domine, Quo Vadis? (National Gallery, London, c.1602) reveal a striking economy in figure composition and a force and precision of gesture that had a profound influence on Poussin and through him on the whole language of gesture in painting. He developed landscape painting along similar lines, and is regarded as the father of ideal landscape, in which he was followed by Domenichino (his favorite pupil), Claude, and Poussin. The Flight into Egypt (Doria Gallery, Rome, c.1604) is Annibale's masterpiece in this genre. In his last years Annibale was overcome by melancholia and gave up painting almost entirely after 1606. When he died he was buried accordingly to his wished near Raphael in the Pantheon. It is a measure of his achievement that artists as great and diverse as Bernini, Poussin and Rubens found so much to admire and praise in his work. Annibale's art also had a less formal side that comes out in his caricatures (he is generally credited with inventing the form) and in his early genre paintings, which are remarkable for their lively observation and free handling (The Butcher's Shop, Christ Church, Oxford). Agostino assisted Annibale in the Farnese Gallery from 1597 to 1600, but he was important mainly as a teacher and engraver. His systematic anatomical studies were engraved after his death and were used for nearly two centuries as teaching aids. He spent the last two years in Parma, where he did his own "Farnese Ceiling", decorating a ceiling in the Palazzo del Giardino with mythological scenes for Duke Ranuccio Farnese. It shows a meticulous but somewhat spiritless version of his brother's lively Classicism. Ludovico left Bologna only for brief periods and directed the Carracci academy by himself after his cousins had gone to Rome. His work is uneven and highly personal. Painterly and expressive considerations always outweigh those of stability and calm Classicism in his work, and at its best there is a passionate and poetic quality indicative of his preference for Tintoretto and Jacopo Bassano. His most fruitful period was 1585-95, but near the end of his career he still produced remarkable paintings of an almost Expressionist force, such as the Christ Crucified above Figures in Limbo (Sta Francesco Romana, Ferrara, 1614). The Caracci fell from grace in the 19th century along with all the other Bolognese painters, who were one of Ruskin's pet hates and whom he considered (1847) had "no single virtue, no color, no drawing, no character, no history, no thought". They were saddled with the label "eclectic" and thought to be ponderous and lacking in originality. Their full rehabilitation had to wait until the second half of the 20th century (the great Carracci exhibition held in Bologna in 1956 was a notable event), but Annibale has now regained his place as one of the giants of Italian painting. Agostino's illegitimate son Antonio (1589?-1618) was the only offspring of the three Carracci. He had a considerable reputation as an artist in his day, but after his early death was virtually forgotten, and it is only recently that his work has been reconsidered.
The Battle of Pavia and Acquisition of Milan In the Battle of Pavia, fought on February 24, 1525, Habsburg troops vanquished the French. King Francis I had laid siege to Pavia, which was held by imperial soldiers. An army of German lansquenets and Spanish infantry arrived in time to relieve the city. The central event of the Battle of Pavia was the capture of King Francis I by Charles de Lannoy, Viceroy of Naples, and Niclas von Salm. Once King Francis had been taken prisoner, a decision was reached concerning the Duchy of Milan and the indirect domination of Italy. On January 14, 1526 King Francis I signed the Treaty of Madrid and renounced all claims to Milan.. The Oath of Fealty (Huldigungseid) of the Duke of Prussia The Second Peace of Thorn, signed in 1466, had turned the diminished state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia (with its capital Konigsberg) into a feudal territory of the King of Polish. However, the Teutonic Order had never fully accepted either the conditions of the peace treaty or the nature of its relationship with the Polish ruler. In 1498, the newly-elected Master of the Order, Frederick of Saxony, refused to swear fealty to his overlord. His successor, Albrecht Hohenzollern, followed his exampl. Emperor Maximilian I supported the Teutonic Order’s decision to challenge their relationship with Poland. The war lasted 1519-21) between the Order of the Teutonic Knights and Poland. The conflict was finally ended in April 1525 with the Treaty of Krakow, which paved the way for the process of secularization in Prussia. Albrecht Hohenzollern became the secular ruler of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish king. On the April 10 he swore a solemn oath of fealty on Krakow’s central square
March 20, 2014 What's Happening to the Internet? It sounds like something you don't want to know too much about. When you type an address into your computer's browser, you go to that address. How your computer knows where to find the Google image of kittens and puppies isn't your problem, is it? Well, it might be. Not kittens, perhaps, but what if you want to find the Israeli Ministry of Tourism or the American Constitution? DNS and ICANN are acronyms you should know. DNS is the Internet domain name system -- a single list that gets you to the server that runs the program you're looking for. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages DNS under a contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce. If it sounds like an American monopoly, it is -- for now, but not much longer. Although the Internet is an American invention -- by the Pentagon -- ICANN has an international board of “stakeholders,” including foreign governments, civil society activists and...(Read Full Article)
— the side of an escalator extending above the steps. It includes skirt panels, interior panels, decks and handrails. Brake — an electro-mechanical device used to prevent the elevator from moving when the car is at rest and no power is applied to the hoist motor. On some types of control, it also stops the elevator when power is removed from the hoist motor. — moving member(s) of a brake, lined with friction material which, when in contact with the brake drum, holds the elevator at floor level. On some types of control, it will stop the elevator when power is removed from the hoist motor. — a device, usually of carbon or graphite composition, used to connect a circuit with the rotating or moving portion of a DC motor, generator or other electrical device. It carries current to and from the non-moving parts of connections. — in contract service, a customer request which requires a check of an elevator other than the regularly scheduled — the load-carrying unit, including its platform, frame, enclosure, and car door or gate. — a set of weights roped directly to the elevator car of a winding-drum type installation. In practice, this weight is equal to approximately 70 percent of the car — a panel mounted in the car containing the car operating controls, such as call register buttons, door open and close, alarm emergency stop and whatever other buttons or key switches are required for operation. top inspection station — a control panel on top of an elevator car which, when activated, removes the car from normal service and allows the car to run at inspection speed from the car top — a system of regulations pertaining to the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of elevators, dumbwaiters, escalators and moving walks. The most widely recognized and used is ANSI A-17.1, sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards, the American Institute of Architects, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and published by ASME. It has been adopted by many states. Some states and cities have written their own codes, most of which are based on the — a device, or group of devices, which serves to control, in a predetermined manner, the apparatus to which it — a weight which counterbalances the weight of an elevator car plus approximately 40 percent of the capacity — the outermost lining of a — an electric current flowing in one direction only and substantially constant in value. — any type of mechanical lock designed to prevent the opening of a hoistway door from the landing side. — a motor-driven device mounted on the car which opens and closes the — the power unit which applies the energy necessary to raise and lower an elevator, material lift, or dumb waiter car or to drive an escalator, an inclined lift or a — the grooved wheel of a traction-type hoisting machine over which the hoist ropes pass, and by which motion is imparted to the car and counterweight by the — a power-driven, inclined, continuous stairway used for raising or lowering — a device or group of devices which provide: (1) a signal for immediate recall to a designated landing in order to remove cars from normal use, and (2) to permit special operation for firefighters or other authorized emergency personnel. — a traction machine in which the power from the motor is transmitted to the drive sheave through reduction gears. — a type of elevator hoisting machine on which the hoist ropes pass over a traction drive sheave which is an integral part of the armature. Called gearless because no geared reduction unit is utilized. — an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy (usually direct current). — (1) a mechanical speed control mechanism. For elevator, it is a wire-rope driven centrifugal device used to stop and hold the movement of its driving rope. This initiates the activation of the car safety device. It opens a switch which cuts off power to the drive motor and brake if the car travels at a preset overspeed in the down direction. Some types of governors will also open the governor switch and cut off power to the drive motor and brake if the car overspeeds in the up direction. (2) on escalators, a direct-driven centrifugal device which, when activated by overspeed, cuts off power to the drive motor and — a wire rope attached to an elevator car frame that drives the governor and, when stopped by the governor, initiates setting of the car safety. — steel T-section with machined guiding surfaces installed vertically in a hoistway to guide and direct the course of travel of an elevator car and elevator — a corridor mounted signal light indicating than an elevator car is approaching that landing and the direction in which the car is to travel. — (1) the moving handhold provided for escalator passengers which moves over the top of the balustrade and newels; (2) a railing serving as a support. — a guard, usually made of rubber, that fits over the outside of the handrail at a point where the handrail enters or leaves the balustrade; it is designed to keep a person's fingers out of the handrail opening. — a shaftway for the travel of one or more elevators, dumbwaiters or material lifts. It includes the pit and terminates at the underside of the overhead machinery space floor or grating, or at the underside of the roof where the hoistway does not penetrate the roof. — a power elevator where the energy is applied, by means of a liquid under pressure, in a cylinder equipped with a plunger — a scaled mechanical drawing showing dimensioned plan views and elevations of an elevator hoistway and machine room to indicate space conditions, pertinent dimensions, sizes and location of components of — the movement of an elevator toward the landing sill when it is within the leveling zone. When the word leveling is used, the inference is that the process of attaining a level or stop position (the platform level with the landing sill) is performed — the space in which the driving machine for an elevator or group of elevators, dumbwaiter, escalator or group of escalators is located. (car) guide rails — steel T-sections with machined guarding surfaces installed vertically in a hoistway to guide and direct the course of travel of an elevator car. — a part of an escalator machine. It is actuated by centrifugal force and trips a switch when the motor speed has increased 20 percent over its rated name plate — inspections, tests, adjustments, cleaning and similar activities carried out on elevator and escalator equipment with the intention of preventing malfunctions from occurring during operation. It is designed to keep equipment in proper operating order and is done on a schedule basis. It is also referred to as schedule maintenance. — an electric device that is designed to interpret input conditions in a prescribed manner and after specified conditions are met, to respond and cause contact operation or create change in associated electric control — guide shoes which use rollers that rotate on guide rails rather than sliding on the rails. — a wheel mounted in bearings and having one or more grooves over which a rope or ropes may pass. — a detailed itemized description of the plans, materials, dimensions and all other requirements proposed for the installation of the equipment. — the moving platform on which an escalator passenger rides. — controls on the top of the car used by an elevator constructor to operate the car at inspection speed. It provides a means of operating an elevator from on top of the car at slow speed during adjustment, inspection, maintenance and repair. — an electric machine in which the friction between the hoist ropes and the machine sheave is used to move the elevator — a cable made up of electric conductors which provides electrical connection between an elevator or dumbwaiter car, or material lift, and a fixed outlet in the hoistway or machine room.
The city of Guilin is located in the north-east of Guangxi Province, covering an area of 27,800 square km. It's a relatively small, thriving city famous for its lush green mountains, lakes and the Li river as well as its many limestone caves. Famous tourist attractions include 7 Star Park, Elephant Trunk Hill and Reed Flute cave. It has been an important cultural centre for over 2000 years. There are a broad range of hotels in the city as it is a developed tourist area with many restaurants and convenient transportation. There are also many ways to travel to the region. Guilin is said to be the most scenic and picturesque city in all of China. Two crystal-clear rivers go through the city, which are lined by beautiful and unusually shaped karst mountain formations. From 180 to 200 million years ago, movements from the earth’s crust thrust the limestone sediments from the bottom of the ocean going upwards of more than 200 meters to the surface. The karst formations were in a sense sculpted by the wind and rain with many years of erosion shaping their distinct appearance. Both Scientists and tourists have since become fascinated with these karst limestone mountains. The city was named after the fragrance of the Osmanthus tree. It was first inhabited in the Qin Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. It flourished during the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, often benefiting from special interest from the emperors. The city has a population of just over 1.2 million people including the surrounding area. 12 Ethnic minorities can also be found in this area. Elephant Flag Hill. Pictures of this famous hill in the south of the city have become iconic images representing Guilin. It is a must see attraction for visitors to the city. Many inscriptions and carvings can be seen here too. Reed Flute Cave. Coloured lights illuminate the strangely shaped rock formations along the path. The stalactites and stalagmites are also very impressive. This famous cave is vast and quite a sight to behold. It is also a very popular attraction. Seven Star Park. There are many things to do and see in the park. It's a perfect place to take a stroll and take in the many hills, bridges and caves. It lies to the east of the Li River and covers a large area. Situated in the northern area of the city, Fubo Hill is famous for its many carvings and inscriptions. Perhaps the most notable of these are the many images of Buddha. The top of the hill also provides a good viewpoint. The Li River. Take the 4 and a half hour Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo and pass by a stunning array of Karst mountains. If you stay in Yangshuo, you can also take the two hour Li River boat trip from Xingping to Yangdi. The 4 Lakes. You can take a relaxing boat trip on the four lakes that lets you view a blend of eastern and western architecture and appreciate the natural splendours of the city. The Night Show. This performance celebrates the beauty of the local area and the importance of savouring nature. The ballet part of the performance is particularly impressive. Longsheng is famous for the Longji(Dragon's Backbone) Rice Terraces and its range of Ethnic minorities. There is a rich blend of cultural diversity to be found here as well as a spectacular mountain landscape. More Guilin Attractions: The city is located in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The downtown area covers an area of 565 square kilometers. It is in a basin surrounded by the Yuecheng Mountain Range, Ocean Hill, Jiaqiao Mountain Range and Tianping Hill. The city is almost directly west of Hong. There are many flights to and from Hong Kong which take about an hour. The region is in a subtropical zone with a warm and humid climate most of the year round. The altitude is 140-160 meters. The Li River goes through the main part of the city from north to south. Most of the city lies on the western bank of the Li River. The beautiful combination of rivers, parkland and mountains means Guilin makes an unforgettable impression. Guilin City Map and County Click here for PDF enlargements of the maps below plus more maps of the area. (Opens another window). Mulan's Minority Tours Back to the Homepage
WASHINGTON — Our galaxy is looking far more crowded and hospitable. NASA on Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system. Scientists using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope pushed the number of planets found in the galaxy to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets circling stars other than the ones revolving around our sun. “We almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity,” NASA planetary scientist Jack Lissauer said Wednesday, calling it “the big mother lode.” Astronomers used a new confirmation technique to come up with the largest single announcement of a batch of exoplanets — what planets outside our solar system are called. While Wednesday’s announcements were about big numbers, they also were about implications for life behind those big numbers. All the new planets are in systems like ours where multiple planets circle a star. The 715 planets came from looking at just 305 stars. They were nearly all in size closer to Earth than gigantic Jupiter. And four of those new exoplanets orbit their stars in “habitable zones” where it is not too hot or not too cold for liquid water which is crucial for life to exist. Douglas Hudgins, NASA’s exoplanet exploration program scientist, called Wednesday’s announcement a major step toward Kepler’s ultimate goal: “finding Earth 2.0.” It’s a big step in not just finding other Earths, but “the possibility of life elsewhere,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, a Harvard and Max Planck Institute astronomer who wasn’t part of the discovery team. The four new habitable zone planets are all at least twice as big as Earth so that makes them more likely to be gas planets instead of rocky ones like Earth — and less likely to harbor life. So far Kepler has found nine exoplanets in the habitable zone, NASA said. Astronomers expect to find more when they look at all four years of data collected by the now-crippled Kepler; so far they have looked at two years. Planets in the habitable zone are likely to be farther out from their stars because it is hot close in. And planets farther out take more time orbiting, so Kepler has to wait longer to see it again. Another of Kepler’s latest discoveries indicates that “small planets are extremely common in our galaxy,” said MIT astronomer Sara Seagar, who wasn’t part of the discovery team. “Nature wants to make small planets.” And, in general, smaller planets are more likely to be able to harbor life than big ones, Kaltenegger said.
Kalamazoo State Hospital \|Kalamazoo State Hospital\| \|Building Style\|\|Kirkbride Plan (Demolished)\| The choice of Kalamazoo as the location for the Michigan Asylum at Kalamazoo was helped by the fact that the governor was Epaphroditus Ransom, who once resided in Kalamazoo. Although the asylum was originally planned for a site in what is now the Stuart neighborhood, it was decided that this location was too close to downtown. So planners instead chose to place the hospital far out in the country, where they would never be bothered by these people. That location was on what is now Oakland Drive, where the hospital is still located. The asylum was on the cutting edge of many forms of treatment. Through its close proximity to town, it was able to establish an innovative outpatient clinic in 1916 as well as a unique "family-care" program that placed patients in certified homes. The hospital also made use of colony farms, adjunct properties on which patients with milder illnesses — and those who today might be considered developmentally delayed — lived in familial farm settings. (One of these was near Kalamazoo's Asylum Lake.) They often raised livestock and produce for use at the hospital. The farms are examples of the limited treatment options for the mentally ill that were available before the 1950s. Electroshock therapy, insulin-induced comas and some barbiturate drugs resulted in limited reversals in thoughts and behavior of patients, he said. Narcoleptic or anti psychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, that would revolutionize psychiatric treatment and the role of psychiatric hospitals in society. Patients who had been in the hospital for decades were suddenly responsive, able to care for themselves, and moving back to live with their families. By 1987, the number of patients had dropped to 550.By 1959 the State Hospital had a patient load of 3,500 and 900 staff that included doctors, nurses, attendants and service personnel. It became almost a city in its own right with a power plant, water system, bakery, laundry, library, canteen, garage, cannery, general kitchen and greenhouse. For many years the hospital was one of the largest employers in Kalamazoo. Increased budget cuts by the state and improved treatment methods and medication for patients led to an inevitable decline in patient population. The hospital began to shrink, dropping steadily from a high of 3,500 patients in 1954-1955. Then in 1973, new treatment measures, such as rapid screening and intensive treatment, and early release into the community for other local agencies to take over, shrank the patient population even more. In 1980, the facility started laying off 88 employees and releasing 160 patients in response to the bare bones budget provided by the state. Finally, in 2000, then-Governor John Engler's administration decimated the state-run psychiatric hospitals in favor of community-based care at private agencies and hospitals. Just a ghost of its former self, the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital now has turned over most of its holdings on Oakland Drive to Western Michigan University, which has developed it as a health care corridor and research facilities, as well as the home of its current School of Nursing. Today (2008) there are only 2 original buildings still standing on the campus. The water tower was constructed in 1895 and quickly became a local landmark. It played prominently in the history of the city. The other is the "gate cottage" situated near Oakland Drive at the entrance to the hospital grounds. The gatehouse is "carpenter gothic" in style, featuring board and batten siding, a steep roof and "gingerbread" ornamentation. The house has been furnished with Victorian furniture and serves as a museum. When first built, it was used as the porter's residence and later housed a dozen women patients for a time. 1854 — Construction of the Michigan Asylum at Kalamazoo begins. 1859 — The Michigan Asylum formally opens on Aug. 29. 1888 — The Colony Farm System for the mentally ill is established, with Brook Farm on Douglas Avenue the first farm colony in America. 1910 — Mechanical restraints are abolished, and occupational therapy is recognized as a treatment program. 1911 — The name is changed to Kalamazoo State Hospital. 1916 — An outpatient clinic is established at Vine Street School. 1931 — Public Act 281 of 1929 directs the sterilization of patients as a measure for preventing mental illness. Sterilizations are performed that year. 1939 — The Male Department Kirkbride is demolished 1958 — Farming operations are discontinued, and patients are transferred to the main hospital buildings. 1960 — The number of patients begins a rapid decline because of the introduction of narcoleptic drugs and the move toward community care and treatment. 1969 — The Female Department Kirkbride is demolished 1974 — Michigan Mental Health Code is enacted. 1976 — Name of hospital is changed to Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital. 1995 — Name of hospital is changed to Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital. 2007 — All but about 100 acres of the nearly 1,500 acres of land once owned by the hospital's main campus and Brook Colony Farm are transferred to Western Michigan University Images of Kalamazoo State Hospital Main Image Gallery: Kalamazoo State Hospital "Asylum for the Insane: A History of the Kalamazoo State Hospital" William A Decker "The Architecture of Madness-Insane Asylums in the United States" Carla Yanni Kalamazoo Historic Preservation coordinator Sharon Ferraro reveals the secrets of this historic landmark and talks about its future. This program is part of the "This Old Building" series. www.kpl.gov
Young, green and undamaged coconuts contain a clear liquid substance in the interiors of the drupe. This liquid is called coconut water. Coconut water is one of the most useful, refreshing and popular drinks all over the world. It is consumed by millions of people since there is a great number of health benefits of coconut water. There is less water in mature coconuts than it is in the young green ones. One coconut usually gives 300 g (11 oz) of water. Coconut water is widely known for its powerful health benefits and healing properties. It is enriched with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, natural sugars and other nutritious substances. It contains low levels of fat and calories, which is good for those, who are trying to lose weight. If you are struggling with weight problems, coconut water is a perfect drink that can keep you from getting fat. It is also rich in the lauric acid, chloride and iron, as well as in potassium, magnesium, calcium and zinc. The potassium level is even higher than it is in four bananas. Including coconut water into your diet can be helpful in decreasing the sodium level. A large amount of electrolytes contributes to our immune, cardiovascular and nervous systems. It also aids to keep our internal fluids of the body in balance and is instrumental in normal assimilation of the fluids and replacing the fluid and salts lost from the body during strenuous physical activity. Coconut water has shown to have strong antiviral, antibacterial and antioxidant effects, which may be helpful fighting off various infections and diseases. Coconut water favors the stabilization of blood pressure, the level blood sugar, along with the cholesterol level. It revives our virility and vitality of the body, replenishes it with energy and boosts up metabolic processes in the organism. Coconut water has also shown to be efficacious in treating a wide range of ailments, which include digestive and bowel issues like constipation, indigestion, dysentery, diarrhea; problems of urinary tract such as kidneys` malfunctioning, urethal stone; colds, sore throats, rhinitis. Coconut water is also instrumental in skin treatment, reducing age spots, smoothing out wrinkles, moistening the skin. Various research have shown the abundance of citokinins (hormones that promote cell division and slow down ageing in plants) in coconut water. Along with the lauric acid they retard the ageing of skin cells, keep hydrogen ion exponent in balance. The tissues in the body stay hydrated for a long period of time. Regularly making an application of coconut water right on to an affected area of the skin may contribute to reducing spots, acne, wrinkles and even eczema. Coconut water is a perfect drink for those who go in for sports. It contains less sugar than it is in sports drinks, and even more less sugar than it is in various soda and juices. Many sportsmen and athletes around the world claim that coconut water is one of the best energy drinks. They say they would rather prefer coconut water than any other sports drink. According to them, coconut water rapidly restores their energy levels, despite the low levels of calories, and rehydrates their body. Consuming one cup of coconut water two times a day during digestive issues, high temperatures and after physical activity can help keep the body hydrated. People with cardiovascular issues should definitely include coconut water in the diet, as it contains high concentrations of potassium and lauric acid, which stabilizes blood pressure. Coconut water has also proved to increase the levels of good cholesterol, which is a key factor for containing cardiovascular problems. The content of this site is for general information purposes only and does not constitute advice. Do not act upon any information without first seeking appropriate professional advice and consultation.
Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure [EPUB] 07 February 2017, 16:12 2001 \| EPUB \| 1.68MB In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown—until now. Wine and War tells the alternately thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. By rooting the narrative in the stories of five prominent winemaking families from France's key wine-producing regions of Burgundy, Alsace, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, and Champagne, journalists Don and Petie Kladstrup vividly illustrate how men and women risked their lives for a cause that meant saving the heart and soul of France as much as protecting its economy. It was a extraordinary partnership involving everyone from the owners of Paris's famed restaurant La Tour d'Argent who rushed to build a wall to conceal their most precious twenty thousand bottles, to French soldiers who triumphantly reclaimed Hitler's enormous cache of stolen wines at the conclusion of the war. Wine and War portrays the central role wine has long played in France’s military campaigns—how Napoleon ordered wagon loads of champagne to sustain the morale of his armies and how, during World War I, huge quantites of wine were shipped to soldiers in the trenches of Northern France. By the beginning of World War II, wine represented a living for nearly 20 percent of France's population and the authors chronicle the Nazis' determination to seize control of the French wine industry and its profits. At the same time, Wine and War brings to light the resourcefulness of wine producers who employed spiderwebs to "age" false walls hiding their best wines, who foisted off their worst bottles on the Germans or gleefully misdirected shipments, sending champagne to Homburg instead of Hamburg, and who sabotaged trains transporting wine to Germany. It also recounts the heroics of winemakers who hid Jewish refugees and smuggled members of the Resistance across the Demarcation Line in wine barrels, as well as the villainy of collaborators who worked with Nazi occupiers for their own benefit. Finally, Wine and War reveals that the French were not alone in trying to save their wine. They received help from unexpected quarters: the German weinfuhrers, the very men the Nazis sent to requisition wine, whose close ties to the French wine industry mitigated their actions, and even the collaborationist Vichy regime, which recognized the importance of keeping France's vineyards French, and prevented the Nazis from seizing the Jewish-owned Chateaux Mouton-Rothschild and Lafite-Rothschild. Based on three years of research and interviews with the survivors who engaged in this epic enterprise, Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France. All posts of category «History»
When the city of Toledo, Ohio, made news in 2014 for their water advisory—400,000 residents unable to use water due to a toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie—the idea that farmers’ environmental stewardship affects the whole population was driven home. It’s not just farms, of course, that caused the lake’s crisis, but they did play a big role. Thriving streams on the farm mean healthy, thriving waterways elsewhere in the community. Follow these tips on how to improve stream health on your property from Nikki Dictson, extension program specialist with the Texas Water Resources Institute/Institute of Renewable Resources and president of the Texas Riparian Association. Create Riparian Buffers “Riparian areas are the [areas of] green, specialized vegetation that extend from both sides of a stream or river that serves as important habitat for many plants and animals,” Dictson says. “Properly functioning riparian areas are excellent buffer zones that provide many benefits and functions, including dissipating stream energy, stabilizing banks, trapping sediment, building and enlarging floodplains, storing floodwater, recharging groundwater and sustaining base flows.” These areas help to filter potentially harmful runoff from manure and soil amendments as water moves from the land to the waterways. “Proper grazing management includes stocking rate, timing, duration and frequency,” Dictson says. She suggests using rotational grazing, where pastures are allowed to rest and recover. Ideally, livestock won’t have access to waterways, but if they do, “implement measures to protect the creek, including [having an] alternate water source; stabilizing the access point to reduce compaction and erosion of banks; and placing feed, minerals and shade away from the creek to reduce time spent along the creek,” she says. Conservation tillage, contour farming and terraces, cover crops, and vegetative water-movement areas help to build and maintain soils in place on your farm, rather than letting them erode into the waterways. Read The Labels Overapplication, overspray and drift can happen when you don’t follow amendment-application instructions on the label—organic included! Evaluate your farm’s stream health with the free USDA National Resource Conservation Service’s Stream Visual Assessment Protocol guide. “Local NRCS staff should be able to help landowners complete the assessment technique, as they will also be able to add their local knowledge and conservation practices that would benefit,” Dictson explains. Remove Invasive Species Invasive species are found in the water and on land as animals and plants. Dictson points out that in Texas alone, the state’s department of agriculture lists 32 noxious weeds and states that feral hogs cause an estimated $52 million in damage to farms each year. Use Your Resources Your local cooperative extension agent, soil and water conservation district, and NRCS office can help design a stream-management protocol for your property and connect you with financial and educational resources. Also, look for ways to educate yourself. For example, in Texas, the Stream and Riparian Ecosystem Program is a free, one-day training program for landowners. (Learn more at www.texasriparian.org.) “Management of the land, streams and riparian zones affects not only individual landowners, but also livestock, wildlife, aquatic life and everyone downstream,” Dictson says. “As the water resource moves down the stream system, all of the natural and man-induced disturbances in the drainage area/watershed are cumulative.” Don’t wait until a water emergency such as Toledo’s presents itself in your community. Put forth your best effort to promote healthy waterways on your property this year. This article ran in the July/August 2015 issue of Hobby Farms.
William Walker (diver) In 1887, he began diver training at Portsmouth Dockyard. He worked through the roles of diver's attendant and diver's signal man, passing his medical exam and deep-water test to qualify as a deep-water diver in 1892. In his time, William Walker was the most experienced diver of Siebe Gorman Ltd. In 1906–1911, working in water up to a depth of six metres (20 feet), he shored up Winchester Cathedral, using more than 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks, and 900,000 bricks. Before his work, the cathedral had been in imminent danger of collapse as it sank slowly into the ground, which consisted of peat. To enable bricklayers to build supporting walls, the groundwater level had to be lowered. Normally, the removal of the groundwater would have caused the collapse of the building. So, to give temporary support to the foundation walls, some 235 pits were dug along the southern and eastern sides of the building, each about six metres deep. Walker went down and shored up the walls by putting concrete underneath them. He worked six hours a day—in complete darkness, because the sediment suspended in the water was impenetrable to light. After Walker finished his work, the groundwater was pumped out and the concrete he had placed bore the foundation walls. Conventional bricklayers then were able to do their work in the usual way and restore the damaged walls. To celebrate the completion of the work, a thanksgiving service, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was held on July 15, 1912. At this, Walker was presented with a silver rose bowl by King George V. Newspaper reports at the time remarked that this was the second time Walker had met George V, the first being when the king was a naval cadet and Walker was his diving instructor. Later, Walker was honoured by being appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). An interview that Walker gave to the Hampshire Observer in 1911 gives insight into his work. In it, Walker reveals that, unlike some other divers, he had never worked on any treasure dives. Other aspects of his work: - Rescue work, December 1896, at the River Level Colliery at Abernant, near Aberdare Wales, when the pit was flooded and six men and boys drowned. - Work on the building of the Blackwall Tunnel, 1891–1897. - Being foreman in charge of works on the construction of the new naval docks in Gibraltar. - Work on the construction of the jetty for the Royal Victoria Dock Granary, 1905. - Emergency work, which called him away from Winchester, on the wreck of the SS Dordone in Newport. - Work with Sir Leonard Hill developing linear decompression tables. Part of the interview article: "In cold water diving he [William] explained what a man has to contend with is the pressure". At Gibraltar he says: "Two of my men died through pressure of water". In response to questions about his work on Winchester, William says "It was not difficult. It was straightforward work, but had to be carefully done". He went on to say that Mr. Jackson had told him that he was very pleased with the work and that he had done what no other man had done—that he had laid the foundation of a whole cathedral. Walker said "I am proud of the honour". Family and death Walker married twice. His first wife died before he began work at Winchester. He married his second wife, sister of his first, in 1907, and had several children during his years working at Winchester. - "Hampshire Observer". Hampshire Observer. 1911-09-02. - Frederick Bussby (1974). William Walker. - Duggan, Margaret (2006-10-03). "Diver who saved a cathedral". Church Times. Church House Publishing.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a premature baby is a baby born before 37 weeks completion of pregnancy. In the world, we have approximately 15 million babies who are born prematurely every year. Based on the gestational age there are sub-categories of prematurity: A late premature baby is one who is born between 34-36 weeks of pregnancy. Most of the times, these babies do not require any intensive care. But there are three other groups of premature babies who need a lot of special care. - Moderate premature babies (32 – 34 weeks) - Very premature babies (28 – 32 weeks) - Extremely premature babies (less than 28 weeks) You may feel anxious for the first few days after your baby is born prematurely. But you don’t need to worry as your little one will be receiving specialized care and attention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Your little one will be monitored closely to make sure s/he is getting the right balance of fluids and nutrition in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Weight gain is one of the most important factors that need to be ensured in your little one by addressing proper nourishment. How much weight do premature babies gain? A full-term baby weighs approximately 3 kgs and this weight gain is achieved due to a continuous supply of nutrients from the mother to her baby through the placenta in the womb. In your premature baby, weight gain will be dependent on when your baby was born. The earlier your baby is born, the lesser your baby will weigh and also postnatal sickness will play a role. Premature babies usually start gaining weight after a few days of being born. Does your baby require special care? Yes, your baby may have special needs. Younger and smaller babies are frail and are cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Round-the-clock specialized care offered Warmth and temperature regulation Your baby will be placed in an incubator to maintain adequate temperature. As your baby grows you will be advised to provide Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), with skin-to-skin contact to provide warmth and comfort to your baby. In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) your baby is weighed every day. It is normal for your baby to lose weight in the first few days, but most of it is due to loss of water from the body. If your baby is very sick, s/he may be given more calories in order to grow at the desired rate. Nourishment of your baby Breastfeeding is one of the most essential things that you need to do to promote healthy weight gain of your little one. Colostrum is the perfect first milk for your baby. It is the best way to build your premature baby’s strength and health. It can help your baby’s gut to grow and prevent infections. Your premature baby is fed following a schedule and not on demand. You need to keep a track of when you are feeding your baby and try to feed him/her at regular intervals. This helps your baby get nutrients at the right time. Your paediatrician/neonatologist will help you better on how to feed your baby. If your baby is not mature enough to take oral feeds s/he might be kept on intravenous feeds. Once your baby gains weight and is mature enough, intravenous feeds are reduced and your baby is allowed to breastfeed or fed with special paladai. Special fortifiers/formulas can be advised by your paediatrician/neonatologist as they have added calcium and protein to meet the special growth needs of your little one. Your baby will be under continuous observation and undergo several tests like: - Oxygen levels - Electrolyte levels - Blood grouping - Tests for anaemia - Any infection Developmental care has many benefits for your premature baby including better feeding, improved weight gain, fewer complications, and better parent-infant bonding. The process of developmental care creates an environment for your baby that minimizes the stress, includes comfortable lighting conditions and kangaroo mother care. Will your baby grow normally? Yes, the only reason your baby looks small is that s/he is born before 40 weeks of gestation. Your baby will grow normally if managed well from the first day. Premature babies are more fragile and may need special care in a controlled environment. Adequate nutrition is needed to reach weight gain goals of your baby. Best practices to improve growth will be individualized as per the nutritional requirements of your baby and will also be modified continuously to achieve the target growth parameters.
In the eighteen-thirties we find Mickiewicz in Paris, which happened to be filled just then with a crowd of brilliant Slavic exiles. Here he became the friend of Chopin, and one of Chopin's most talented pupils—a young Polish girl—made the first translation of the Sonnets into French. It was a wonderful and brilliant Paris which Mickiewicz entered. This was the time when the city was first called "the stepmother of Genius." Heine was here in exile, and Börne. It knew the personal fascination and the denunciative writings of Ferdinand la Salle. It was the day, too, of Eugene Sue, Berlioz, George Sand, de Musset, Dumas, Gautier, the Goncourt Brothers, Gavarni, Sainte Beuve, Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Ary Scheffer, Delacroiz, Horace Vernet—to mention only a few great names at random. Julius Slowacki, Count Krasinski and Adam Mickiewicz were all here editing their poetry in the midst of this brilliant life in the inspiring city by the Seine. This period in Paris signs perhaps the high-water mark of the creative genius of Mickiewicz. He had already written the Ballads and Romances, the third part of Dziady, Pan Tadeuz. The Crimean Sequence belongs to the period of Mickiewicz's youth, the Vilna period. He joined a society at this
Homelessness is an extremely pressing problem nowadays, actually, it was always a burning issue. It was first documented in America in 1640 already. Since that time it has only been growing. According to various estimates, there are almost 650,000 homeless in the USA, while the NLCHP – the National Law Center of Homelessness and Poverty declares as many as 3.5 million. The reasons why such a great amount of people has once found themselves in the streets are variable. Natural disasters, like tornado and hurricanes and some other related catastrophes, have contributed much to that. Some people became homeless after being laid off from the job, losing their family or surviving a house fire. So, nowadays hundreds of thousands of people have no other option but to stay out in the streets, shelters, parks, etc. You may be surprised with the fact, but the great US nation is losing the fight against homelessness, even though it possesses abundant wealth and overwhelming authority. Being a critical issue, homelessness has drawn the educators’ attention, that’s why students often write essays about homelessness and its various aspects. It’s essential to know how to write a research paper on homelessness if you are a modern student, so we will do our best to help you with it. Let’s, first of all, find out what the notion “homelessness” stands for. Generally, a homeless is called somebody, deprived of the basic needs like a place to live, immediate family, food to eat and community bonds. As a rule, such personalities lack the supplies of vital necessity and are exposed to numerous threats. However, from the legal viewpoint, the term “homeless” is defined differently from one country to another; the definitions may be at variance in different areas of the same state. You can go deeper into this terminology in your what is homelessness essay, paying attention to every meaningful aspect of the definition in each and every country, state or region. The Housing and Urban Development Department outlines 4 main categories of the individuals who live in places not intended for human habitation. So, the term homeless includes those, who spend nights in the shelters for people without homes, long-term residences, motels, vehicles, tents, and shantytowns. In the United Kingdom home is defined as not only a physical space but something, which provides identity and roots, security, safety and a sense of belonging and emotional welfare. Nobody is insured against homelessness, one can meet women, kids, and men, living in the street. Due to the fact that they mostly have undergone much emotional and physical trouble, they are frequently hurt either physically or mentally, very often socially and emotionally. Homelessness is a significant moral and ethical concern of the contemporary world. To write a homelessness ethics research paper is, in fact, a good idea for the students, who are allowed to choose the topic of their written work. Homelessness enters every person’s life in this or that way: through personal experience, personal contact or mass media. No matter how it comes into our life, it raises a number of ethical concerns, which should be faced by the homeless themselves, their family members, relatives, those professionally involved, general public and governmental bodies. Most states provide assistance and services to the individuals, having lost their homes. The services are – food provision, clothes, and shelter, such help is realized by the community groups, volunteers or governmental bodies. Individuals, charities, churches also make their contribution to this. There are newspapers in some cities, which help to find employment. Unfortunately, homelessness in America demonstrates the tendency to a constant growth, and consequently, it’s widely discussed in public, in mass media, and by scholars, while students are also concerned about the problem. One of the main research questions about homelessness is its reasons and causes. Actually, any society is subject to it, suffers from it and fights it. Lots of things can lead human beings out into the street – unemployment, problems in relations, evicting from home by family members, a landlord or a friend, some kind of abuse. However, homelessness is very often a consequence of a number of factors, not just a single reason. If you made up your mind to create a causes of homelessness essay, it will be reasonable to touch upon the following factor types – individual, social, structural and system failures. The first group of factors is applied to personal situations of the individuals. They may be associated with certain stressful events, here belong job loss, house fires, a crisis in personal life– like divorce or cases of domestic violence, problems with addictions or mental health, something like brain injury or fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol, by the way, may be a cause and a consequence of destitution. The reasons why people become homeless may also be extreme poverty, mental health or substance abuse problems of somebody in the family. Violence at home has a direct and undeniable connection to homelessness; young generation and women, in particular, the ones with kids are subject to it most, they frequently leave their homes without any proper support. Women who live below the poverty line and experience domestic violence in many cases prefer leaving their home to the abusive relationship. Youngsters, who become victims of neglect and exploitation, leave their homes as well. Structural factors are the social and fiscal issues, which influence the social environment and opportunities of the individuals. Lack of earnings, no access to the accommodation within one’s means and medical care, discrimination are among them. Unfortunately, economic shifts countrywide and local generate challenges for citizens; they are forced to look for the opportunities to earn more as they spend more on foodstuff and housing. The poor individuals, often fail to cover their vital necessities: childcare, education, housing, and healthcare are the main of them, so poverty and homelessness essay is a usual educational assignment. These 2 phenomena are closely connected, the impoverished are often just one step from losing their home. However, discrimination is generally the most decisive factor in this cluster, it can actually restrict the realization of the right to justice, assistance, and employment, thus putting ethnic and sexual minorities under a greater risk. Finally, systems failures are the ones, which occur when the care and support systems fail, making individuals look for their new way around, but in the streets. The examples of such may become the difficulties with moving of the individuals from child welfare, release from health facilities, hospitals, and correctional establishments in a wrong way, lack of backing for immigrants and refugees also belong here. When working on research papers on homelessness in America you may go into more details on the following reasons, of homelessness. Unemployment – is the main issue leading to homelessness, lack of income whether from losing a job or being unable to find it results in shifting the individuals down into the streets. About 16% of the US citizens live under the poverty line, meaning they fail to cover their everyday life expenditures. Personal or family crisis. Individuals having steady income may be kicked into the street due to an emergency of some kind, which arises in the family, with health or because of some other unexpectedness. Each unforeseen situation threatens with housing loss for those people who live already in scarcity. It may actually be something like simple car towing, poor health condition or death of a family member. Divorce, being an expensive matter also influences the earnings of each participant and may quickly spin a person into living rough, though such experience may be only short-term, just some kind of a transitional stage of life. Affordable housing, though in such metropolitan cities as New York, San Francisco, and some others inexpensive accommodation is almost unavailable, the citizens are also crunched with the costs of living out of these areas. In the USA you are unlikely to be able to cover the expense of an average 2-bedroom flat anywhere around the country if only 1 family member is employed and paid a minimum wage. Demographics. There is little statistics for the young generation homelessness, so the term “invisible homeless” – is often applied in this case. Young people can easily hang out with friends and do not need any services, that’s why it's difficult to make accurate estimations in this age group. Approximately 8% of the homeless American population is constituted by unaccompanied young people and children 380,000 individuals are still under 18 years old. You can mention it in your written work or write a separate essay on homeless youth. The absence of the supporting network. Having a support network, you often take it for granted. The backing may take various forms – family, relatives, friends, colleagues or even some kinds of greater communities. When a person has somebody believing in him or her, one can move things around, but people, who are unfortunate to lack support are often sharply aware of this fact and suffer from this. Substances abuse and problems with mental health. In 2013 every fifth homeless in the US suffered from the chronic substance abuse. Altogether such people made more than 130,000 US citizens. For this category of people, permanent supportive housing is vital, they need to have a stable place where they can stay combined with proper assistance and essential services to benefit from. According to an estimation made in the USA, about 20% of the homeless American population suffer from mental illnesses, veterans are a part of this category, struggling not only with a mental disorder but with PST - posttraumatic syndrome. Such people have a lot of challenges every day and often stay homeless for a longer period. They usually have problems with self-care and lots of obstacles to finding a job. A comprehensive analytical research paper on causes of homelessness will not still be enough to understand it in full as every person has a story, his own story. However, we can initiate the understanding of why it happens and start by taking simple actions in our own neighborhood. No cause comes without the consequences and the learners are often asked to provide an essay about homelessness cause and effect. Certain consequences of facing homelessness are quite obvious – it is the change in the overall lifestyle and worsening of the health conditions, some problems with health may even lead to death. Individuals often face financial difficulties when divorcing; it may be difficult to cover everyday costs having a single income. After becoming homeless one has to change many aspects of life, here belong type and quality of clothing and mode of transportation in the first turn. Though mental illnesses are often viewed as the reason for homelessness, they may also be its consequence. When a person loses everything he has worked and lived for, he may have deep emotional impact resulting into mental problems. Malnutrition, a nutritional insufficiency, is another usual problem of the homeless. People living rough can’t afford eating out or having homemade meals, the homeless often eat spoiled or even rotten food, which is definitely unhealthy, but at least it is. However, the mentioned above health problems are not the only ones people face while living in the street, from time to time their health fails because they lack the doctors’, family members, relatives, and friends attention. They often suffer from heart diseases, colds, tuberculosis, sleep deprivation, skin infections, drug abuse, AIDS. Unfortunately, people living in the street often become the victims of physical and sexual exploitation, the risk of sexual assault is 20 times higher for women having no home than for those who have it. Besides, lots of the accidents of such kind remain unreported. The US National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has reported more than six hundred attacks with baseball bats, chains and other kinds of weapons in the past decade, women were raped. Such happenings lead to multiple personal problems and you should mention it in your research paper on the effects of homelessness. For a person, who has found him- or herself out in the street it’s often difficult to believe that there will never be a roof to live under, this insight influences people’s state of mind and they often suffer from the following consequences – substance dependence increase, loss of will and ability to look after oneself, loss of self-esteem, greater danger of violence and exploitation, growing deviations in behavior and increased risk of being involved in criminal affairs. Any homelessness paper always can’t but mention that homelessness tears families apart, there are shelters not accepting children or just boys, sometimes, and mothers often have to go through the separation with their children taken to relatives or foster care. It’s essential to mention in a homelessness essay that having no permanent place of residence influences children greatly. In addition to the higher rates of common diseases like asthma and stomach troubles, ear infections, they are more subject to depression, anxiety, and withdrawal. Such children also experience more difficulties in their studies and getting along with their same-age peers. In case you have to prepare a report on the topic, you may mention in your homelessness speech outline that the effect of this problem can be viewed from 3 angles: the influence on individuals, on communities, and on the tax-payers. By the way, it can also become your main homelessness thesis statement, which you can reveal in more detail further in your speech. If the influence on an individual is more or less clear from the written above, the moral and social aspects of influencing the local community can be mentioned. Actually, it challenges the community life on the whole as it tests it in a number of ways. From the moral point of view general public is affected by sharing space with their fellow citizens living in the streets and they have to justify their inaction somehow often assigning fault to the homeless and being reluctant to understand the issues which have resulted into the current crisis. Social structure suffers as the societies, where large inequity exists in the income and resource distribution are proved to be unhealthy for all citizens. Inequality provokes fear and the feeling of insecurity among all the members of society. The increase of homelessness creates division between the community members, where “we” is opposed to “them”. While the victims of some immediate tragedy are often supported and proposed aid, the other individuals having no home of their own often experience shame, stigma, and isolation as their tragedies are not so obvious. However, such tragedies may be no less and even sometimes more severe. Social harmony is shaken by the necessity to use the same public spaces and when people don’t have access to their own “private” space, the conflicts become severe and bring to the surface the deeply rooted issues connected with the negative perception of those living in poverty. No homelessness in America essay should leave the influence of it on taxpayers without attention. The research conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has shown that it’s cheaper to solve homelessness problem than to ignore it. Actually, a single person living in the street costs the state on average 40,000 USD per year. The expenses include public services at very high rates -- emergency rooms, police, and courts. Besides, lots of individuals suffering from mental illnesses use the health-care services, when a supporting housing was provided to some of them; it was found out that the reduction of cost servicing was more than 16,000 USD per housing per year. A decade ago a housing-first programs were introduced around the USA. The information compiled from 65 cities about all the services affected by homelessness revealed that the annual cost of keeping a person in the street varies from 35,000 USD to 150,000 USD. After the programs were established, the same expenses dropped to the figures ranging from 13,000 to 25,000 USD per person per year. Housing the homeless reduces certain risk factors, like exposure to harsh temperatures or unhealthy habits. Besides bringing a person living in the street into a neat apartment, helps to restore his or her dignity, makes him or her more receptive to interventions and social services support. The level of stress reduces as well as the symptoms related to mental health or substance abuse disorders and consequently the behavior of such people often changes. Research paper ideas about homelessness are variable and you may choose to create helping homeless people essay as your written assignment. All around the world experts on homelessness have solutions they think will work best. Lately the idea of “managing homelessness” has shifted to “ending homelessness” in the US. The state has focused on certain subgroups - veterans, “chronic homeless,” families and young generation. Such efforts may help to develop new partners and shape public information awareness of what is needed to end homelessness. If you’ve made up your mind to create a what to do about the homeless essay, you should focus on the following aspects, which are essential in the fight against this problem: housing, services, prevention, social connectedness. It’s obvious that housing is the most important base for solving the problem of homelessness. Actually, housing equals security, safety, and care. It is a firm Launchpad, which allows a person to be employed and keep the job, as well as to find a proper place in the society. The right for housing is a basic right of every human being, a stable connected life is impossible without it. Overall national commitment is required to guarantee affordable housing for everyone. Your homelessness essay thesis may sound like this - housing is a fundamental starting and strategic point, which may help to conquer homelessness. Multiple studies have unfailingly proved that long-term housing aid decreases homelessness. Besides, it is cheaper than shelters and other official services. Among all the housing-based policies, the most important are the following: The following important aspect in the struggle against homelessness is the right for shelter, which should be guaranteed as an essential legal protection for those having no home, whether it’s a family a child or an individual. In your persuasive essay about providing shelter for homeless, you should underline that sometimes a place to stay may become a decisive factor between life and death. It’s important to prevent homeless from sleeping in the streets and city parks, subway and other public places, which can lead to various cold-related injuries, like hypothermia or some others. The right to shelter protects daily thousands of homeless people. When individuals or families in a rough life situation have access to someplace to stay in they may regain their life stability and start seeking permanent residence. In your helping the homeless essay you should also pay attention to the services as a kind of way out of the problem. Definitely, housing is important, but it alone is not enough. All people need services: child care, transportation, health care, treatment, case management, education and supported employment. Without all these people will return to the streets due to instability. The society must do its best to ensure accessible, available, affordable, and comprehensive support to those individuals, who have faced penury. No solutions to homelessness essay can do without mentioning the importance of social ties. A key to your own apartment may be a dream, which came true, but people may still suffer from deterioration, loneliness, and depression in their new housing. Lots of people come back to their friends on the streets, due to the fact that housing and services cannot create community, while community and human relations should be in priority as a part of the strategy of social inclusion. People should not divide the community into us and them but look at each other as equal personalities, worth happiness and full lives. Crafting a strategy for social inclusion may become a good idea for a homeless problem solution essay. At present, most measures against homelessness are focused on providing solutions for the individuals, who have already slipped down. We often try to kick them back in, but to end homelessness by doing it to one person at a time is impossible. Any homelessness research paper will tell you that it’s not less important to focus full attention on problem prevention. Prevention here does not simply stand for providing a subsidy for housing for a short time to help a family which is threatened to be thrown out of their apartment but to make a comprehensive research aiming to find out those at the most threat of becoming homeless. Then it’s reasonable to go as far upstream as possible and offer appropriate support for such individuals, it may be financial, emotional or other measures, which will help people not to slip into homelessness. As such actions require immense creativity you can devote to it your solutions to homelessness essay. Several programs were already introduced and even proved to be effective several programs for the people with low income. Grants were offered to the renters at risk of losing their place of residence to cover rent expenses and stay in it. Unfortunately, the rent payments continue to grow, while the earnings remain low. That’s why an overwhelming number of people fell behind in their rent payments after certain unexpected expenses they face. It may be unanticipated medical costs, a job loss or death of a family member. Financial aid helps people stay in their place of living. Legal services, which provided the lawful representation of the tenants in court have also proved to be not only successful but also cost-effective. Most of those who used the service managed to avoid the shelter system remaining in their houses. Analyze possible policies and measures which can help overcome governmental bureaucracies, make a proper homelessness research paper outline and develop your idea. Housing assistance, for instance, can help escape homelessness to young people who have grown out of foster care, or low-income people with mental illness who leave hospitals, or those individuals, who exit correction institutions. Such people can benefit from such services as job training or counseling. Without any doubt, prevention is a hard work as it requires overall analyses of multiple systems. Pathways into homelessness should be identified first and then solutions designed to prevent people from falling down. The spheres of housing, healthcare, child welfare, education, employment, criminal justice and many others should be studied and then we can begin going upstream to stop the flow of people down into the homelessness. You can also choose an essay about helping feed the homeless as a separate assignment or mention this measure in your paper with a wider topic. Here you can mention that an everyday effort is important, one may simply keep a food kit in his car so that it can be given to anyone in the street who needs it. Prepare several gift cards to have on hand. Even 5 USD can be a remarkable gesture, besides the cards are easy to carry around. Donate your recyclables to the homeless collecting cans and bottles. It’s a win-win, by the way. Donate to local shelters, food drive, churches, or coalitions. Help the helpers - contribute to nonprofits or other alike organizations which assist the homeless. They know how to spend your dollar with maximum efficiency. You can also help in shelters or soup kitchens in various ways and fundraise as well at your school or workplace! You can even organize a food drive yourself and more than that get involved in local policymaking, start where you can and go as far as you feel in power. The facts below may be used as a hook for essay about homeless or will be helpful in the process of paper creation. In case you’ve got your assignment and feel a bit unsettled, just follow the simple steps and your assignment guidelines and you are guaranteed to get a perfect written work. Actually, you do a research every time and through the academic study is a bit different, it’s not much more difficult, it’s mostly approaches and sources which differ. First of all, you should make up your mind as to the topic you’ll work on. No matter if your tutor proposes a topic or you chose it yourself, try to select the one, which arises your interest. Carefully study the sources available, find some example research paper on homelessness and approach your work with a critical spirit. Frame your question in such a way that you can reveal –the who, what, where, why and how aspects of your topic, though don’t choose the topic too broad. Study also some examples of statement of hypothesis for a homelessness research paper on the internet or other available sources and form your own vision. Mind please, that your homelessness research paper thesis should be easily answered it will help you write a laconic, but thorough and comprehensive work. To arise the interest of the readers you should make the question challenging and create your homelessness essay introduction in such a way that the audience is eager to study your work up to the end. In the course of your work, you should turn to primary sources as well as to the secondary ones. Primary research is the one you perform in the field or during the work with the original documents, while the secondary research stands for the process of working with the founding made by the other people, who have worked on the topic already. Secondary research material can be obtained in various ways –libraries’ databases, mass media, websites (it’s important to turn to the reputable sources, like “.org”, “.gov”, or “.edu”.) In the process of your research pay attention to the useful information and interesting methods or approaches the other people use. Find a good homelessness research paper outline sample and modify it for the purposes of your study. There are different techniques of creating a homelessness essay outline as well of the notes for your work. Put down the important information, facts and sources, mind map your ideas or use note cards to keep in mind the essential paraphrases and quotations. To avoid problems with citation –write down the title, author and page number of the source used. Make up your mind as to the points you want to address, their order and the homeless essay conclusion you intend to have. Work on your first draft after that and set it aside for at least 24 hours. Revise it in a day and give it someone to read before you write your final revision. Revise your paper and proofread it carefully for spelling and punctuation, double-check your Works Cited and make sure your work meets all the formatting guidelines. 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German Shepherd Dog \|\|Alsatian, Deutscher Schaferhund, GSD \|\|Germen Shepard, German Sheapherd, German Shephard, German Sheeperd, German Shepperd, Germanshepard, German Sheperd Living with a German Shepherd Dog Temperament: The German Shepherd is a direct, fearless and self-confident dog tending not to form immediate and indiscriminate friendships. They must be approachable and never hostile. A German Shepherd should stand its ground quietly and confidently, poised, eager and alert. They should never show signs of shyness or nervousness. Family Dog: German Shepherds are generally good with children and other pets. Shedding: The German Shepherd is a constant shedder with periods of heavy shedding during the change of seasons. Grooming: The German Shepherd should be given a quick daily brushing to keep shedding to a minimal. They should be bathed only once or twice a year unless otherwise necessary. Over bathing can deplete the oils in the skin. Training: The German Shepherd has a high learning ability and is eager to learn. German Shepherds have a very strong protective instinct and need firm obedience training and socialization from an early age. Barking: German Shepherds only bark when necessary. Exercise: German Shepherd needs plenty of exercise. These dogs love physical activity, and training. They need long daily walks, jogs or runs. Living Conditions: The German Shepherd can live in an apartment provided he is given ample time for exercise. German Shepherds are normally inactive inside and should have access to a large yard in which to run. German Shepherd Dog Appearance Appearance: The German Shepherd Dog is a strong, agile, muscular dog who is alert and full of life. The German Shepherd has a balanced appearance with the length of the body greater than its height. The outline of the body is shaped with smooth curves rather than sharp angles giving it a fit, nimble and noble appearance. Size: The German Shepherd weighs around 77 to 85 pounds. The male German Shepherd is between 24 to 26 inches tall while the female is between 22 to 24 inches. Companionship: German Shepherds love to be around people and should not be left alone for long periods of time. They are very wary of strangers. Head: The head of a German Shepherd is strong and cleanly chiseled with an overall noble appearance. Its size should be proportionate to the body having a keen and intelligent expression. The forehead should be only moderately arched with the skull sloping into the muzzle without an abrupt stop. The head is typically carried forward just slightly higher than the top of the shoulders except When the dog is excited or at attention where the head is carried high. The head of male German Shepherd should be distinctly masculine, while the female's head is distinctly feminine. Nose: The German Shepherd's nose should be black in color. Eyes: The eyes of a German Shepherd should be medium-sized, almond-shaped and dark in color. They should be set obliquely in the skull and never protruding. Ears: The German Shepherd's ears should be moderately pointed and proportionate to the size of the head. They should be set on the head in such a way that the center line of each ear appears parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground. Muzzle: The muzzle of the German Shepherd is long and strong forming a wedge-shape with firmly fitted lips. Its topline should be parallel to the topline of the skull. Teeth/Bite: The German Shepherd's jaws are very strong, containing 42 very strong teeth that meet in a scissors bite. Neck: The neck of a German Shepherd is long, clean-cut, strong and muscular free from any loose folds of skin. Body: The body of the German Shepherd Dog is longer than it is tall, with the most desirable length to height ratio being 10 to 8½. The overall appearance of the body should give an impression of depth and solidity free from any bulkiness. The shoulders slope gently down into the level back which is straight, strong and short without sag or roach. The chest is full and extends down between the legs. The ribs are long and well-sprung. They should be neither barrel-shaped nor flat and extend down between the elbows but never impair the mobility of the dog. The abdomen should be firmly held and not paunchy. The bottom line has moderate tuck-up. The loin when Viewed from above should appear broad and strong. Forequarters: The forequarters of the German Shepherd are muscular with long, angled shoulder blades meeting the upper arm at a right angle. The legs are straight and with oval rather than round bone. The pasterns are springy and strong forming approximately a 25-degree angle from the vertical. Hindquarters: The German Shepherd's hindquarters are broad and muscular with the upper thigh forming almost a right angle with the lower thigh. The metatarsus is strong, short and tightly articulated. Gait: The German Shepherd is a trotting dog with a long outreach and effortless stride allowing the dog to cover maximum ground with minimal effort. The gait of a German Shepherd should appear smooth and rhythmic with the hindquarters providing a powerful forward drive which slightly lifts the dog and drives the body forward. Feet: The feet of the German Shepherd are short with well-arched, compact toes, thick pads and short, dark nails. The front dewclaws of the German Shepherd are typically not removed but can be. The rear dewclaws, if the dog has any, should be removed. Tail: The bushy tail of a German Shepherd is set smoothly into the croup with the last vertebra extended past hock joint. When the dog is at rest, the tail should hang with a slight curve like a saber. When the dog is in motion, the tail is raised with a more pronounced curve. The tail should never curl forward beyond a vertical line. Color: The coat of the German Shepherd Dog can vary in color the most common colors are Black & Tan, Sable or all Black. Strong, rich colors are preferred but most colors are permissible. The German Shepherd's coat should never be pale, blue or white. Note: There are some Breeds Clubs that recognize German Shepherd's with white coats as a separate breed known as the American White Shepherd. Coat: A German Shepherd's coat should be a medium length double coat consisting of a straight, harsh, dense outer coat that lies close to the body and an undercoat. The outer coat may be slightly wavy with a wiry texture. The coat on the head, inner ear, foreface, legs and paws are covered with a short coat. The coat on the German Shepherd's neck is longer and thicker than that on the head. The back of the front legs and hind legs are covered in a slightly longer coat. German Shepherd Dog Facts Category: Herding, AKC Herding Life Expectancy: The average life expectancy of a German Shepherd is around 13 years of age. Characteristics: The German Shepherd is a wonderful companion. They are eager, alert, bold, cheerful and obedient dogs known for their courage and loyalty. They are working dogs and need a task to do in life; as such they make great herding dogs, watchdogs, guard dogs, police dogs, search and rescue dogs, and guide dogs. The German Shepherd also excels in many other activities such as tracking, obedience, schutzhund, agility, flyball and ring sports. German Shepherd Dog Health Health: The German Shepherd is prone to hereditary diseases such as hip and elbow dysplasia, blood disorders, digestive problems, epilepsy, chronic eczema, keratitis, dwarfism and flea allergies. German Shepherd Dog History History: The German Shepherd was originally bred by Capt. Max Von Stephanitz and other breeders using long-haired, short-haired and wire-haired local shepherd dogs from Wurtemberg, Thurginia and Bavaria. In April 1899, Von Stephanitz registered the first Deutsche Schäferhunde (English for German Shepherd). German Shepherds were exhibited in both the long and wire haired varieties until 1915. Today, only the short coat is recognized.
The study suggests that people with ample moral self-worth in one aspect of their lives can slip into immorality or opposite behavior in other areas -- their abundant self-esteem somehow pushing them to balance out all that goodness. Think, for example, of that sugar- and fat-laden concoction that you wolf down after an especially vigorous run, said Douglas Medin, professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. "That pretty much eliminates the benefits of running an extra 20 minutes," he said. Northwestern's Sonya Sachdeva, Rumen Iliev and Medin are co-authors of "Sinning Saints and Saintly Sinners: The Paradox of Moral Self-Regulation," published by the journal Psychological Science. Conversely, the study shows, people who engage in immoral behavior cleanse themselves with good work. Other studies have shown the moral-cleansing effect, but this new Northwestern model shows that the cleansing also has to do with restoring an ideal level of moral self-worth. In other words, when people operate above or below a certain level of moral self-worth, they instinctively push back in the opposite direction to reach an internally regulated set point of goodness. "If people feel too moral," Sachdeva said, "they might not have sufficient incentive to engage in moral action because of the costliness of being good." An abundance of research shows that people are motivated both by the warm glow that results from good behavior and recognition of costly, long-term consequences of immoral behavior on kin and society at large. But the Northwestern study for the first time shows that perhaps people whose glow is much warmer than average are more likely to regulate behavior by acting in an opposite manner or passing up opportunities to behave morally. "Imagine a line on a plane," Sachdeva said. "If you go above the line, you feel pressure to come back down. The only way you can come back down is either by refraining from good social behavior or by actively engaging in immoral behavior." "If you do extra good deeds, you're motivated to come back down on that internal barometer," Iliev added. Based on three experiments, the study of how moral behavior is affected by internal self-regulation included 46 participants. For each experiment, participants were told that they were engaging in a handwriting test at Northwestern's Center for Handwriting Analysis. They also were asked if they would like to donate up to $10 to a charity of their choice. All experiments included a positive-traits and a negative-traits condition. In the positive-traits condition, participants copied words such as kind, caring, generous and honest. In the negative condition, they wrote down words such as selfish, dishonest and cruel. They were asked to think carefully about what each word meant to them before writing a self-relevant story involving the words. To provide a control condition, experiment one also included a neutral condition, providing words such as book, car and house. In experiment one, participants who wrote a story referring to positive traits donated one-fifth as much money to a charity as those in the negative condition. Conversely, those whose stories encompassed negative traits acted more altruistically. In summary, they gave about $5 in the negative-traits condition, about $3 in the control condition and about $1 in the positive-traits condition. In the only change in experiment two, participants were randomly assigned to use the words to write specifically about either themselves or someone close to them. (A fourth wrote positive stories about themselves; a fourth positive stories about others; a fourth negative stories about themselves; and a fourth negative stories about others.) The researchers assumed correctly that changes in self-concept would occur when study subjects took a first-person, rather than a third-person, perspective. The moral-cleansing and moral-licensing effects occurred only when people were talking about themselves. In the positive condition, those who wrote about themselves donated the least, while those who wrote about others showed opposite behavior. In contrast, those in the negative condition who wrote about themselves gave more than those who told an unflattering story about others. The third experiment looked at environmental-related behaviors and included neutral, positive-traits and negative-traits conditions. Participants assumed roles of managers of manufacturing plants and had to make a decision about putting costly filters on their smokestacks. All the managers in their field, they were told, had gotten together and decided to run the filters 60 percent of the time. So costs were higher for anyone who decided to run the filters more than 60 percent of the time. People in the neutral condition ran their filters 60 to 65 percent of the time; those in the negative condition ran them 73 percent of the time; and those in the positive condition ran them 55 percent of the time. The research draws on previous research on moral regulation. People who selected themselves as nonsexist in one study, for example, tended to choose a man for a job over a woman who was a little less qualified. "In that case, when they affirmed to themselves that they were nonsexist, they were more likely to attribute their decisions to external causes rather than to sexism." The Northwestern researchers stress cross-cultural differences in their model, suspecting, for example, if they ran tests in India, where people's actions are more interdependent, the results would be different. "Sonya and Rumen may have even more intriguing results in the future," said Medin, the study's senior researcher, "because they are examining whether the results generalize to different cultures." Meanwhile the Northwestern study provokes thinking about how the image of Spitzer, once a hard-hitting prosecutor who routinely brought down the high and mighty for their crooked ways, will be forever linked with a high-end prostitute. Europe’s Demographic Future. Where the Regions Are Heading after a Decade of Crises 10.08.2017 \| Berlin-Institut für Bevölkerung und Entwicklung Scientists reveal source of human heartbeat in 3-D 07.08.2017 \| University of Manchester Physicists at the University of Bonn have managed to create optical hollows and more complex patterns into which the light of a Bose-Einstein condensate flows. The creation of such highly low-loss structures for light is a prerequisite for complex light circuits, such as for quantum information processing for a new generation of computers. The researchers are now presenting their results in the journal Nature Photonics. Light particles (photons) occur as tiny, indivisible portions. Many thousands of these light portions can be merged to form a single super-photon if they are... For the first time, scientists have shown that circular RNA is linked to brain function. When a RNA molecule called Cdr1as was deleted from the genome of mice, the animals had problems filtering out unnecessary information – like patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders. While hundreds of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in mammalian brains, one big question has remained unanswered: What are they actually good for? In the... An experimental small satellite has successfully collected and delivered data on a key measurement for predicting changes in Earth's climate. The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) CubeSat was launched into low-Earth orbit on Nov. 11, 2016, in order to test new... A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg presents evidence of the coexistence of superconductivity and “charge-density-waves” in compounds of the poorly-studied family of bismuthates. This observation opens up new perspectives for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, a topic which is at the core of condensed matter research since more than 30 years. The paper by Nicoletti et al has been published in the PNAS. Since the beginning of the 20th century, superconductivity had been observed in some metals at temperatures only a few degrees above the absolute zero (minus... Researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Instituto Geofisico--Escuela Politecnica Nacional (IGEPN) of Ecuador, showed an increasing volcanic danger on Cotopaxi in Ecuador using a powerful technique known as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The Andes region in which Cotopaxi volcano is located is known to contain some of the world's most serious volcanic hazard. A mid- to large-size eruption has... 16.08.2017 \| Event News 04.08.2017 \| Event News 26.07.2017 \| Event News 16.08.2017 \| Physics and Astronomy 16.08.2017 \| Materials Sciences 16.08.2017 \| Interdisciplinary Research
In 2015, Youyou Tu jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of a new therapy (Artemisinin) to treat Malaria, a disease which has been on the rise since the 1960s. Significantly, the antimalarial component was successfully extracted from the plant Artemisia annua only after consulting the instructions found in the ‘ancient literature’ of traditional herbal medicine. As the drugs (chloroquine or quinine) used to combat the malarial parasite have experienced decreased efficacy, such is the case with a wide range of conventional antimicrobials. In fact, major pharmaceutical companies and government agencies have identified antimicrobial resistance as one of the most pressing concerns for global health. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated in September 2016 that antimicrobial resistance is ‘an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society.’ In response to this threat to global health, the Ancientbiotics team was formed. Originally based at the University of Nottingham, the team is an interdisciplinary group from the Arts and Sciences comprised of microbiologists, medievalists, parasitologists, wound specialists, and pharmacists, who are united by the belief that novel avenues of antibiotic discovery are crucial, along with the shared conviction that the past can inform the future. At the same time that Youyou Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize for her work with malaria, the Ancientbiotics team was investigating a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon remedy for eye infection, known as Bald’s eyesalve. The full paper is available here. The 1,000-year old recipe has been shown to effectively kill a range of microbes, including, but not limited to, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli (E. coli), and leishmania. All of these species are causes of chronic, opportunistic, drug-resistant, or difficult to treat infections. While each ingredient in the eyesalve demonstrates some antimicrobial activity on its own, what is remarkable is that only in the combination of ingredients, exactly as specified by the medieval instructions, do we see the synergistic, potent antimicrobial effect in clinically realistic infection models. An interview on Radiolab with Freya Harrison and Christina Lee is available to explain the full story of Bald’s eyesalve. The Ancientbiotics project also extends to medical texts of the later medieval period. The Lylye of Medicynes (Lylye) is one such text that offers a diverse range of recipes, including many promising treatments for infectious disease. The Lylye is the only extant Middle English translation of Bernard of Gordon’s Lilium medicinae; it exists in one fifteenth-century manuscript (Oxford Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1505). The Lylye is most notable for its pharmaceutical content. There are nearly 6000 individual ingredients in the text; 3500 of those ingredients are contained in 360 specific recipes, which represent over 110 disease states (many of which include symptoms of infection). One of the eye recipes is currently being tested at the University of Nottingham and research is ongoing to identify those ingredients which interact with the same antimicrobial synergy found in Bald’s eyesalve. I am also working on the first published edition of the whole text of the Lylye in order to allow accessibility for increased scholarship. A forthcoming paper (2017) in the proceedings from the 8th Annual Disease, Disability, and Medicine in Medieval Europe conference (‘Treating Infected Wounds in the Middle English Translation of Bernard of Gordon’s Lilium medicinae’) conveys in greater detail the potential of this text to be mined for antimicrobial recipes. You may read a little bit more about the Lylye of Medicynes in these short blog posts from 2014: ‘ȝif it be a pore man . . .’: Healthcare for the Rich and Poor in the Lylye of Medicynes and ‘þe best mylke is womman milke’: Does Breastmilk Heal? As a truly interdisciplinary effort between the Arts and Sciences, the Ancientbiotics project has opened new and significant pathways to antimicrobial drug discovery, but it has also challenged the popular categorization of the medieval period as a ‘Dark Age,’ and the centuries-long pattern of dismissing medieval medical texts as ‘unenlightened’ by reason and scientific discovery. In a paradigm-shifting manner, the efficacy of medieval medicines against modern infections instead shows that medieval practitioners were operating within a lengthy tradition of observation and experimentation with recipes that may inspire present day research.
Pipetting is a forceful and repetitive activity, and there is a strong association between pipetting and the occurrence of repetitive motion injuries. In fact, pipetting for just over an hour a day over the course of a year is enough to put researchers at risk, and the chances increase exponentially with workload and age. A new white paper about “The Ergonomics of Pipetting” has now been published by Mettler Toledo. It draws on recently published papers by ergonomic scientists and discusses various aspects of pipetting; the ergonomic risks involved and best practice for either avoiding or mitigating them. By ensuring researchers are using the safest pipetting methods, labs are not only protecting staff but also avoiding costly delays and downtime that may be a result of injury or less efficient working practices. The white paper investigates the sources of repetitive motion injuries. Tip loading and ejection, as well as plunger forces and the force required to change the aspiration volume, are found to contribute to repetitive strain injuries (RSI). The white paper gives advice on how to reduce the risk of RSI, and what to look for when buying a pipette by ergonomic standards. Mettler Toledo was the first manufacturer to focus on user safety and repetitive stress injury, incorporating an ergonomic design into all of its pipettes. The white paper can be downloaded at: http://glo.mt.com/global/en/home/supportive_content/White_Papers/Pipe_Ergo_WhitePaper.html
\|Window in the southern transept of Cologne cathedral by Gerhard Richter. Image courtesy of Derix Glasstudios GmbH & Co.KG, Taunusstein. That [Chamber] at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue -and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange -the fifth with white -the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet -a deep blood color.Poe, The Masque of the Red Death The 19th century Romanticism with it’s enthusiasm for the middle ages brought also the Stained Glass Window back into sight. \|House of Sir John Soane in London, built 1808-24. The copyright on this image is owned by Peter Barr and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. There are spectacular examples, full of fashionable nationalism like the Bavarian Windows, given to the Cologne Cathedral by King Ludwig I. These Windows were obviously intended to orientate the citizens of Cologne towards the east, away from France with which Colgone shares more than just the same side of the Rhine. Irony of fate that the very Ludwig I became the only German monarch who had to resign in 1848’s revolution – just in the year when the Bavarian Windows had been opened. Stained Glass in art history has rarely managed to get regarded anything other than just craftwork. Too dreadful are the vestiges – crown glass windows painted with horse and carriage at bawdy beer halls of the 1930s, or Gothic-nationalistic kitsch like the windows described earlier. After the end of the middle ages, architecture concentrated on natural sunlight. Windows served no longer as independent creations of art but became mere installations to the building. The set-up mystical atmosphere of the old cathedrals opposites the grandiose theatre of the baroque edifices and finally the artificially coloured light would not fit the increasingly longing for immediate experience of a supreme meaning in nature, which was formed since the 17th century not only by Claude Lorrains’ landscapes: I know that others find you in the light, That sifted down through tinted window panes. And yet I seem to feel you near tonight, In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains. (Lomax, Lomax, Spencer, Rogers) The metaphorical denotation of light had changed. Thereby we get to an important aspect of designed glass windows: They had been not (just) part of the architecture but rather media, created for reading. The earliest preserved stained glass windows can be found in the cathedral of Augsburg: three prophets, likely from a larger series, approx. 1060 A.D. with already completely distinct material and type of representation that we know from the successive four centuries. Small, dyed pieces of glass put together with bands of lead, partly covered with drawings in brown enamel paint or silver pigment. The medieval windows communicate in different layers of meaning: In the first instance they serve as Biblia Pauperum, i. e. as pictorial illustration of theological content for the church’s visitors who at that time usually where not able to read. The second layer is an image of “Heavenly Jerusalem”. Of course the medieval man was at first overwhelmed – not getting any colours in sight outside the church apart from brown, green and the blue sky. But the stained glass is not just staging, there is also a theological aspect deducted from Ezekiel’s vision and from the Revelation: * Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire (Eze 1,26) * Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. (Rev 6,6) * It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Rev 21,11) * The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. (Rev 21,18) The stained glass of the cathedrals was as precious and expensive as real gemstones. Deep read, so called Gold Ruby for example was obtained by blending nanoscopic gold particles. Thus during the Gothic times glass was not just seen as mere substitute for genuine gems. Like with the glass, the gemstones had been assigned their meaning because of their coloured translucency. The diaphanousness opens the third and spiritual layer of meaning: the light itself is inscribed by colour and content of the pictorial windows, it is transcorporated like the Holy Water. This idea of a “light baptism” is truly the most original aspect of medieval glass art. The most spectacular example in my opinion gives the Sainte Chapelle at Paris. As mentioned in the beginning, the renaissance of tinted Glass windows in the 19th century has been completely eclectic and shows hardly any discretion – not to speak about subtle, spiritual layers of meaning like in the middle ages. It took not until the 20th century to generate creations of glass that could rightly be seen as works of art again. Obviously many of these works are used in church buildings: Le Corbusiers Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamp has many little coloured windows, but these lack the medial character – the panes remain architectural decoration. A different thing is the wonderful glass collage by Rupprecht Geiger – sacral like the Baptistery Window in the Evangelische Apostelkirche at Stockdorf – or profane like at the stair case at Munich’s Technische Universität (at cross section Theresienstreet, Luisenstreet). Geiger manages without any eclecticism to find an abstract form of expression in his glass windows. The window of the southern transept in Cologne’s cathedral by Gerhard Richter also has all the distinct layers of meaning. The hue is taken right away from the production of the Gothic glasses. A Poor-man’s-bible, this is made clear by Richter, is no longer needed in our world of technically reproduced and seemingly objective images; and so he distinguishes his work from the usual wood-cut sacred kitsch that reminds to Ernst Barlach. Human words and images step completely back; nothing is abstracted, nothing transferred from reality into image. The coloured panes are arranged by mere random within each field; but the very fields are mirror symmetric one to the other. In this global symmetry the local contingency is dissolved. Thus the aspect of Gothic light mystics gets fully visible again. One glass picture marks properly a turning point between epochs: the Large Glass by Marcel Duchamp, 1923. It is the pivotal point for Duchamp himself and represents like rarely another work of art the whole 20th century. The original title of this most important work of glass art of the modern times is: “The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even” “La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même” Art, the Machine Célibataire, the Bachelor Machine.
Make Puffy Paint & Use to Paint Snowy Scenes In this science activity, kids will use a glue and shaving cream solution to paint snowy scenes. Simple Explanation: Mixing the glue and shaving cream makes a "solution" that you can use for art projects. This is chemistry! Detailed Explanation: While puffy paint is a totally different substance than snow, this is a great time to explain to kids the science behind snow and ice. Try these "Ever wonder?" questions: EVER WONDER WHAT SNOW IS? Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). If a cloud gets cold enough, water droplets freeze around specs of dust in the air and form chains of ice crystals. These chains then grow into lacy, six-pointed stars. By the way, if it seems like it’s quieter outside after a fresh snowfall – it is. Soft, fluffy snow actually absorbs sound waves. But when snow crusts over, the opposite happens – it bounces back sound waves, making sounds louder and clearer. Snow also makes it look lighter outside because it reflects so much light. EVER WONDER IF SNOWFLAKES LOOK ALIKE? Snowflakes usually have six points, and are always symmetrical (which means they look the same on both sides when divided down the middle). But while they may look alike from afar, up close snowflakes are almost always different. The size of a snowflake depends largely on how cold it is outside. If it is well below the freezing point (32 degrees Fahrenheit), “dry snow” occurs. This kind of snow is hard to clump together because it has very little liquid in it (it is mostly ice crystals). These snowflakes tend to be very small. The closer the air temperature is to the freezing point, the wetter the snow. Wet snow makes great snowballs! EVER WONDER WHAT IS ICE MADE OF? Ice is water (a liquid) frozen into a solid. Ice is hard, cold and slippery. Freezing happens when the molecules in a liquid get cold and move closer together. Most liquids will eventually freeze into a solid. EVER WONDER WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN ICE AND SNOW? Snowflakes are small clusters of ice crystals that fall and lay on the ground like feathers, with air trapped between them. Ice is a frozen solid mound of ice crystals with little or no trapped air. Sometimes snowflakes melt before they reach the ground. This can cause freezing rain, sleet or hail. Freezing rain is snow that hits a layer of warm air on the way down and becomes rain, then passes through a layer of cold air again. When the cooled raindrops strike frozen ground, they freeze too, causing ice. Sleet is raindrops or partially melted snow flakes that freeze into solid, clear, tiny ice pellets. Unlike freezing rain, sleet is a solid that bounces when it hits the ground. Sleet, like snow, is common in the winter. Hail is formed when ice pellets bounce around in the atmosphere, going in and out of warm and cold air, causing layers of ice to form. Sometimes so many layers form that the hail stone becomes the size of golf ball – or bigger! Hail is more common in the unstable air of spring thunderstorms than during the winter. Ice can also form on the ground when snow melts then refreezes. EVER WONDER WHY SALT MELTS ICE? Salt makes water freeze at a lower temperature. So, at 32 degrees, water without salt is frozen, but water with salt is still a liquid. - Washable school glue - 1/2 cup per student - Disposable cup or beaker - 1 of this item per student - Shaving cream - enough to fill a small cup - Disposable spoon - 1 of this item per student - Dark blue construction paper - 1 of this item per student - Paint brush - 1 of this item per student Pour 1/2 cup of washable school glue into the disposable cup or beaker. Add shaving cream until the cup is almost full. Stir the glue and shaving cream mixture until well mixed. Paint a snowy scene on the construction paper.
written by Tom Henderson supported by the National Science Foundation This is an interactive tutorial for introductory physics on the topic of Coulomb's Law. It explains the concepts underlying Coulomb's Law equation, provides example calculations, and allows students to self-test their understanding. This page is part of The Physics Classroom tutorials for students of introductory physics. SEE RELATED ITEMS on this page for a link to a closely related tutorial on inverse square relationships by the same author. ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles! Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications. Citation Source Information The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References. The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation. The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ. The Physics Classroom: Electric Force - Coulomb's Law: Is Supplemented By The Physics Classroom: Electric Force - Inverse Square Law This tutorial by the same author explores the Inverse Square Law as it applies to electrostatic force.relation by Caroline Hall Has Student Extra Flickr Physics Visit The Physics Classroom's Flickr Galleries and enjoy a photo overview of the topic of static electricity.relation by Tom Henderson Has Student Extra The Calculator Pad Improve your problem-solving skills with problems, answers and solutions from The Calculator Pad.relation by Tom Henderson Has Teaching Guide The Laboratory Looking for a lab that coordinates with this page? Try the Coulomb's Law Lab from The Laboratory.relation by Tom Henderson Has Teaching Guide Curriculum Corner Practice makes perfect with this computational activity from The Curriculum Corner.relation by Tom Henderson Know of another related resource? Login to relate this resource to it. Is Supplemented By
X-23 with X-24 X-23 with Orbital X-24 Credit: Lockheed Martin American manned combat spacecraft. Cancelled 1961. At the beginning of the 1960's, the USAF examined a number of approaches to a manned spacecraft designed to rendezvous with, inspect, and then, if necessary, destroy enemy satellites. The preferred design was a lifting body, a development line that led eventually to the X-24C spaceplane. The project was quickly squelched by USAF X-20 Dyna-Soar advocates (or possibly it went deep black). Alternatives publicly mentioned as replacements for the mission were the Dynasoar with special payload provisions, or Gemini variants with combat provisions. On 19 May 1961 the USAF Space Systems Division (SSD) announced its SAINT-II manned space interceptor concept. This was to be a two-man lifting body spacecraft, using subsystems developed for the SAINT-I unmanned satellite inspector. SAINT-II would be capable of orbital rendezvous and limited space logistics missions. Launch vehicle would be a Titan II equipped with a Chariot LF2/Hydrazine high-performance third stage. Following an unmanned test flight in early 1964, 12 manned orbital missions would be conducted, including both near- and far-earth flights. DynaSoar I was seen as not being capable of the mission, due to its limited payload, and restriction to low earth orbits. SSD estimated the total cost for SAINT-II to be $413.8 million, to be spent in the period FY1962 - FY1965. Naturally this program was seen by USAF DynaSoar advocates as a threat to their project. In October 1961 a USAF management group criticized the proposed SAINT II program as unrealistic in schedule and budget. Not only was it eventually cancelled, but also the USAF later prohibited further use of the SAINT designation in proposals. More... - Chronology... Pesavento, Peter, "Russian Space Shuttle Projects 1957-1994", Spaceflight, 1995, Volume 37, page 226. Godwin, Robert, editor, Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System, Collector's Guide Publishing, Ontario, Canada, 2003.. SAINT II Chronology 1958 June 19 - - USAF issues requirement for an anti-satellite system - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: USAF GOR-170 is issued for a system to inspect and destroy enemy satellites.. December 1959 - - Public furor as the USAF fails to properly identify unidentified object in space. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: This humilitation led the Air Force to pursue its SAINT ASAT project.. 1959 December 21 - - STL completes study on an anti-satellite systems - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: Space Technologies Laboratory completed a USAF-funded feasibility study on the topic.. 1960 January 31 - - RCA completes study on an anti-satellite system - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: Radio Corporation of America completes an ARPA-funded feasibility study on the topic.. 1960 February 5 - - US National Security Council briefed on USAF plans for an anti-satellite system. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: Assistant Air Force Secretary Joseph Charyk presented the plan.. 1960 April 5 - - Conditional approval for SAINT development. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. As usual, Herbert York, McNamara's Director of Defense, Research, and Engineering, was hostile to the concept. It was approved only on the condition that Gerneral Schriever, Commander of the Air Research and Development Command, fund it from the existing budget by cutting back other programmes. 1960 April 21 - - SAINT System Development Requirement issued. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: It also allowed follow-on manned systems to be pursued.. 1960 July 15 - - USAF Air Staff approval for SAINT development - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. 1960 August 23 - - Final Department of Defense approval for SAINT development. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. 1960 November 1 - - Chelomei R winged manned spacecraft project starts - . Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Chelomei; Myasishchev; Tsybin. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Spacecraft: Raketoplan; SAINT; SAINT II. Immediately after cancellation of similar projects at Myasishchev and Tsybin bureaus, Chelomei's new bureau is assigned to build equivalent of US Dynasoar / Saint II. Winged manned spacecraft for interception, inspection, and destruction of US satellites up to 290 km altitude. Two man crew, 24 hour mission duration, large aft drag brakes. 1961 March 16 - - Project SAINT Phase I contract signed by RCA. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Project SAINT (SAtellite INTerceptor) was a large and still deeply classified US Air Force program begun in the late 1950's covering a wide range of technologies for interception, inspection, and destruction of enemy spacecraft. After studies in the 1950ís. The Phase I development contract was let to Radio Corporation of America. Saint Phase I would have weighted 1,100 kg and been launched by Atlas D/Agena B. 1961 May 29 - - Advanced Re-entry Technology program and SAINT II program. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: Dynasoar; Asset; SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: The Space Systems Division completed two development plans for an Advanced Re-entry Technology program and a SAINT II program.. 1962 October - - Project SAINT cut back. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: Project SAINT satellite interceptor project was cut back, leading to its eventually cancellation. The spacecraft would have rendezvoused with hostile satellites, inspected them with television cameras, and then disabled them.. December 1962 - - SAINT is cancelled. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: SAINT; SAINT II. Summary: The unmanned SAINT-I and manned SAINT-II anti-satellite systems are cancelled.. 1963 November 18 - - Dyna-Soar use for satellite inspection missions (SAINT II) studied. - . Nation: USA. Spacecraft: Dynasoar; SAINT II. Summary: With the assistance of the Boeing Company; the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company, and the Air Force Aerospace Medical Division, the X-20 office completed a report for SSD on the use of Dyna-Soar for satellite inspection missions.. Home - Browse - Contact © / Conditions for Use
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that DNA "linker" strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement-with the rods forming "rungs" on ladder-like ribbons linked by multiple DNA strands-results from the collective interactions of the flexible DNA tethers and may be unique to the nanoscale. Brookhaven National Laboratory DNA-tethered nanorods link up like rungs on a ribbonlike ladder—a new mechanism for linear self-assembly that may be unique to the nanoscale. The research, described in a paper published online in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society, could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties. "This is a completely new mechanism of self-assembly that does not have direct analogs in the realm of molecular or microscale systems," said Brookhaven physicist Oleg Gang, lead author on the paper, who conducted the bulk of the research at the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN, http://www.bnl.gov/cfn/). Broad classes of rod-like objects, ranging from molecules to viruses, often exhibit typical liquid-crystal-like behavior, where the rods align with a directional dependence, sometimes with the aligned crystals forming two-dimensional planes over a given area. Rod shaped objects with strong directionality and attractive forces between their ends-resulting, for example, from polarized charge distribution-may also sometimes line up end-to-end forming linear one-dimensional chains. Neither typical arrangement is found in the DNA-tethered nanorods. "Our discovery shows that a qualitatively new regime emerges for nanoscale objects decorated with flexible molecular tethers of comparable sizes-a one-dimensional ladder-like linear arrangement that appears in the absence of end-to-end affinity among the rods," Gang said. Alexei Tkachenko, the CFN scientist who developed the theory to explain the exceptional arrangement, elaborated: "Remarkably, the system has all three dimensions to live in, yet it chooses to form the linear, almost one-dimensional ribbons. It can be compared to how extra dimensions that are hypothesized by high-energy physicists become 'hidden,' so that we find ourselves in a 3-D world." Tkachenko explains how the ladder-like alignment results from a fundamental symmetry breaking: "Once a nanorod connects to another one side-by-side, it loses the cylindrical symmetry it had when it had free tethers all around. Then, the next nanorod will preferentially bind to another side of the first, where there are still DNA linkers available." DNA as glue Using synthetic DNA as a form of molecular glue to guide nanoparticle assembly has been a central approach of Gang's research at the CFN. His previous work has shown that strands of this molecule-better known for carrying the genetic code of living things-can pull nanoparticles together when strands bearing complementary sequences of nucleotide bases (known by the letters A, T, G, and C) are used as tethers, or inhibit binding when unmatched strands are used. Carefully controlling those attractive and inhibitory forces can lead to fine-tuned nanoscale engineering. In the current study, the scientists used gold nanorods and single strands of DNA to explore arrangements made with complementary tethers attached to adjacent rods. They also examined the effects of using linker strands of varying lengths to serve as the tethering glue. After mixing the various combinations, they studied the resulting arrangements using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy at the CFN, and also with small-angle x-ray scattering at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS, http://www.bnl.gov/ps/nsls/about-NSLS.asp). They also used techniques to "freeze" the action at various points during assembly and observed those static phases using scanning electron microscopy to get a better understanding of how the process progressed over time. The various analysis methods confirmed the side-by-side arrangement of the nanorods arrayed like rungs on a ladder-like ribbon during the early stages of assembly, followed later by stacking of the ribbons and finally larger-scale three-dimensional aggregation due to the formation of DNA bridges between the ribbons. This staged assembly process, called hierarchical, is reminiscent of self-assembly in many biological systems (for example, the linking of amino acids into chains followed by the subsequent folding of these chains to form functional proteins). The stepwise nature of the assembly suggested to the team that the process could be stopped at the intermediate stages. Using "blocker" strands of DNA to bind up the remaining free tethers on the linear ribbon-like structures, they demonstrated their ability to prevent the later-stage interactions that form aggregate structures. "Stopping the assembly process at the ladder-like ribbon stage could potentially be applied for the fabrication of linear structures with engineered properties," Gang said. "For example by controlling plasmonic or fluorescent properties-the materials' responses to light-we might be able to make nanoscale light concentrators or light guides, and be able to switch them on demand." Additional authors on this study include: Stephanie Vial of CFN and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal, and Dmytro Nykypanchuk, and Kevin Yager, all of CFN. This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science (BES), which also provides operations support for the CFN and NSLS at Brookhaven Lab. The Center for Functional Nanomaterials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE's Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. More information about the DOE NSRCs: http://science.energy.gov/bes/suf/user-facilities/nanoscale-science-research-centers. One of the world's most widely used scientific research facilities, the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) is host each year to 2,400 researchers from more than 400 universities, laboratories, and companies. Research conducted at the NSLS has yielded advances in biology, physics, chemistry, geophysics, medicine, and materials science. More information about NSLS: http://www.bnl.gov/ps/nsls/About-NSLS.asp. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov. Related LinksScientific paper: Switchable Nanostructures Made with DNA [http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11042] DNA-Based Assembly Line for Precision Nano-Cluster Construction [http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=1921] Media contacts: Karen McNulty Walsh, (631) 344-8350, email@example.com, or Peter Genzer, (631) 344-3174, firstname.lastname@example.org One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization. Karen McNulty Walsh \| Newswise Transporting spin: A graphene and boron nitride heterostructure creates large spin signals 16.08.2017 \| Graphene Flagship From hot to cold: How to move objects at the nanoscale 10.08.2017 \| Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati Physicists at the University of Bonn have managed to create optical hollows and more complex patterns into which the light of a Bose-Einstein condensate flows. The creation of such highly low-loss structures for light is a prerequisite for complex light circuits, such as for quantum information processing for a new generation of computers. The researchers are now presenting their results in the journal Nature Photonics. Light particles (photons) occur as tiny, indivisible portions. Many thousands of these light portions can be merged to form a single super-photon if they are... For the first time, scientists have shown that circular RNA is linked to brain function. When a RNA molecule called Cdr1as was deleted from the genome of mice, the animals had problems filtering out unnecessary information – like patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders. While hundreds of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in mammalian brains, one big question has remained unanswered: What are they actually good for? In the... An experimental small satellite has successfully collected and delivered data on a key measurement for predicting changes in Earth's climate. The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) CubeSat was launched into low-Earth orbit on Nov. 11, 2016, in order to test new... A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg presents evidence of the coexistence of superconductivity and “charge-density-waves” in compounds of the poorly-studied family of bismuthates. This observation opens up new perspectives for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, a topic which is at the core of condensed matter research since more than 30 years. The paper by Nicoletti et al has been published in the PNAS. Since the beginning of the 20th century, superconductivity had been observed in some metals at temperatures only a few degrees above the absolute zero (minus... Researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Instituto Geofisico--Escuela Politecnica Nacional (IGEPN) of Ecuador, showed an increasing volcanic danger on Cotopaxi in Ecuador using a powerful technique known as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The Andes region in which Cotopaxi volcano is located is known to contain some of the world's most serious volcanic hazard. A mid- to large-size eruption has... 16.08.2017 \| Event News 04.08.2017 \| Event News 26.07.2017 \| Event News 16.08.2017 \| Physics and Astronomy 16.08.2017 \| Materials Sciences 16.08.2017 \| Interdisciplinary Research
The Milesians and the Book of Invasions, the Leabhar Gabala, are associated with this area in Kerry. The book became one of the most popular and influential works of early Irish literature. It is usually known in English as "The Book of Invasions", or "The Book of Conquests". The Book is a collection of poems & prose narratives that claims to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages. There are a number of versions, the earliest of which was written in the 11th century. The book tells of Ireland being settled six times by six groups of people: the first four groups are killed, or forced to abandon the island, the fifth group represent Ireland's pagan gods, while the final group represent the Irish people (the Gaels). Scholars believe the goal of its writers was to provide an epic history for Ireland that could compare to that of the Israelites, or the Romans and which incorporated native myth with the christian view of history. Daniel O Connell boasted that he alone could get a message to every house in Ireland within 24 Hours. You must remember that this is in the days before phones and texts! Railways were only just being built at this time. He asked the fastest boy in the Parish to get 3 straws and take them to each of 3 neighbours, who would in turn take 3 straws and take them to 3 of their neighbours and the process was to be repeated. Within 24 hours every house in Ireland had received a straw. The Chough is the only European member of the crow family with a glossy black plumage and red bill and legs. The Iveragh Peninsiula and the adjacent dingle Peninsula have most of Ireland’s population of Chough (in excess of 1000 breading pairs) and a significant percentage of the world’s population of these birds. Dingle has the highest concentration of these birds in Europe. Traditionally they were known as Preachán Cosdeárg, or red legged crow and were thought to have red legs and beaks from eating bloody flesh – tales were told of these birds attacking new born lambs and indeed children. They are actually ground feeding preferring short grazed grassy areas, where they can easily access insects and other invertebrates. Maurice O Connell (1770-1825) was Daniel O Connell’s wealthy uncle. Daniel spent much of his early childhood with Maurice in Derrynane. The O’Connells’ great house of Derrynane was accessible only by sea or horseback. The sea access was barely visible at sea within a half mile of the difficult bay entrance. Maurice ‘Hunting Cap’ O’Connell, became wealthy through smuggling butter, salt, hides out of the Kerry coast and tea & brandy in. Maurice was always called ‘Hunting Cap’. He hated paying taxes, and new taxes were always being introduced. A new tax had been introduced on Beaver Hats, worn by Irish gentry. Beaver fur was the raw material for a high quality felt suitable for hat making. Felted Beaver fur could be processed into a hat that held its shape well even after successive wettings, making it perfect for Ireland. Maurice was so incensed about this tax that he gave up wearing Beaver Hats and instead wore a ‘chaipín’, or hunting cap. Ever after he was known as ‘Muiris an Chaipín’, or in English ‘Hunting Cap’. Lord Dunkerron a local landlord and estate owner, was a good swimmer and was in the habit of swimming almost daily. He however on one of his daily swims was captured by a mermaid at 3pm. Every day at this time he pops his head out of the water and says ‘hello hello’ ! On hearing this a passer-by shouted in response ‘may the devil choke you’ and not a word was heard from Lord Dunkerron since. Ross Castle story from the Schools' Collection (EN) Ross Castle was built in the 14th century by O Donoghue Ross who it is said had knowledge of magic. He had the power of transformation. His wife demanded that he turn into a demon. He refused at first but gave in on the condition that she did not show fear. If she was afraid they would be separated forever. He assumed an horrific shape, his wife screamed, the demon spring through a window and into the lake below. The boatmen say that O' Donoghue lives beneath Lough Leane. On a May morning every 7th year he rides a white horse over his lands. There is luck for all who witness this. Those who believe and follow him can walk on the waters of the lake and stay dry and he will lead you to his treasures buried in the mountains. Killarney, or Cill Airne, means church of sloes- bitter black fruit from the blackthorn tree a form of wild plum. The earliest recorded Archaeological feature within the current town of Killarney is a Barrow. These features usually date to the Bronze age 2000BC-1800BC as does the copper mine on Ross Island. There are several holy wells of unknown date within the town. Killarney featured in early Irish history with religious settlements playing an important part of its history. The monastery on nearby Innisfallen Island founded in 640 by St. Finian the Leper, which was occupied for approximately 850 years. After the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, the Normans built Parkavonear Castle, at Aghadoe. The castle was perhaps intended as an early warning outpost due to its views of the entire Killarney valley and lakes region. Killarney was heavily involved in the Irish War of Independence. The town, had strong republican ties, skirmishes with the British forces happened on a regular basis. The Great Southern Hotel, (currently the Malton Hotel) was taken over by the British, as an office and barracks, and to protect the neighbouring railway station. Killarney's tourism history goes back at least to the mid-18th century, when Thomas, fourth Viscount Kenmare (Lord Kenmare), began to attract visitors and new residents to the town. A visit by Queen Victoria in 1861 gave the town some international appeal. Killarney benefited from the coming of the railway in July 1853. The British trade directory noted that there were three hotels in the town in 1846 but by 1854, one year after the coming of the railway seven hotels were seen.
The lottery is a popular form of gambling, with a history stretching back to the Old Testament and even earlier. The casting of lots was often used to settle disputes, distribute land and property, and even determine the fate of Jesus’ garments after his crucifixion. In modern times, lotteries are a popular way for states to raise money, and critics complain that they promote gambling addictions and have a regressive effect on low-income people. Yet many state governments have embraced the lottery, as a way to fund public projects without enraging an anti-tax electorate. The first state-run lottery was created in New Hampshire in 1964, and thirty-six others followed suit in the next decade. By the late-twentieth century, the country was in a period of fiscal crisis. Tax revenue was declining, and state budgets were under intense pressure. Lotteries were one way to ease the pain, and they were particularly attractive for states with large populations of retirees and other people who might be reluctant to pay higher taxes. The popularity of lotteries also reflects the political climate of their time. Cohen argues that early America was “defined politically by an aversion to taxation,” which made the lottery an appealing alternative. In addition, the lottery offered a way for universities, churches, and other institutions to raise money. In some cases, the lottery was used to pay for things like wars or civil defense. In other cases, the money went to religious or charitable purposes. Early lotteries were often tangled up with the slave trade. For example, George Washington once managed a Virginia-based lottery whose prizes included human beings. Denmark Vesey, who won a prize in a South Carolina lottery, would later help foment a slave rebellion. In some instances, lotteries were used to distribute property among family members and heirs. This practice was common in Europe during the Middle Ages. However, it was not very popular in the United States, where it was banned from 1844 to 1859. Today, the lottery remains a popular choice for raising money for state projects. Although some critics argue that the lottery promotes gambling addiction and has a regressive impact on lower-income households, many people enjoy playing it. Some people even believe that it is part of human nature to want to win. Despite these arguments, there are serious problems with the lottery, such as the high costs of running it and its tendency to generate corruption. In addition, some people use the lottery to justify their behavior by saying that they are simply taking a risk for the chance of getting rich. However, it is important to note that this argument ignores the fact that many people do not consider the lottery a risky activity and spend a significant amount of their income on tickets each year. The lottery is a complex issue, and it is important to understand how and why it has become so popular in the United States.
Tomato a Day? Lycopene Intake is Related to Heart Health Lycopene is a carotenoid and antioxidant that is present in red and pink colored fruits and vegetables. Previous research has indicated that lycopene likely has benefits for heart health, however not all research has been consistent. Studies measuring circulating lycopene generally show an inverse relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and lycopene levels, but studies based solely on dietary or supplemental lycopene intake have not been as conclusive. In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers analyzed lycopene intake from 584 participants in the Framingham Offspring Study. To characterize the relationship between lycopene intake and the incidence of CVD, CHD (coronary heart disease, which includes myocardial infarction, coronary insufficiency, and angina pectoris) and stroke, repeated measures of lycopene were taken over 10 years. The average lycopene intake for the study group was 7.9 mg per day. After analyzing the data, the highest average intakes of lycopene were associated with a 17% reduction in CVD incidence, and a 26% reduction in the incidence of CHD. There was no association observed between lycopene intake and the incidence of stroke. The results of this study provide increasing evidence of a link between lycopene intake and a reduction in CVD risk, although it is still unclear whether other components of tomatoes and tomato products may also be partly responsible for some of the observed benefit.
An advantageous alignment of a planet and its parent star in the system HD 189733, which is 63 light-years from Earth, enabled NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM Newton Observatory to observe a dip in X-ray intensity as the planet transited the star. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Poppenhaeger et al; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss "Thousands of planet candidates have been seen to transit in only optical light," said Katja Poppenhaeger of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., who led a new study to be published in the Aug. 10 edition of The Astrophysical Journal. "Finally being able to study one in X-rays is important because it reveals new information about the properties of an exoplanet." The team used Chandra to observe six transits and data from XMM Newton observations of one. The planet, known as HD 189733b, is a hot Jupiter, meaning it is similar in size to Jupiter in our solar system but in very close orbit around its star. HD 189733b is more than 30 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. It orbits the star once every 2.2 days. HD 189733b is the closest hot Jupiter to Earth, which makes it a prime target for astronomers who want to learn more about this type of exoplanet and the atmosphere around it. They have used NASA's Kepler space telescope to study it at optical wavelengths, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to confirm it is blue in color as a result of the preferential scattering of blue light by silicate particles in its atmosphere. The study with Chandra and XMM Newton has revealed clues to the size of the planet's atmosphere. The spacecraft saw light decreasing during the transits. The decrease in X-ray light was three times greater than the corresponding decrease in optical light. "The X-ray data suggest there are extended layers of the planet's atmosphere that are transparent to optical light but opaque to X-rays," said co-author Jurgen Schmitt of Hamburger Sternwarte in Hamburg, Germany. "However, we need more data to confirm this idea." The researchers also are learning about how the planet and the star can affect one another. Astronomers have known for about a decade ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the main star in HD 189733 are evaporating the atmosphere of HD 189733b over time. The authors estimate it is losing 100 million to 600 million kilograms of mass per second. HD 189733b's atmosphere appears to be thinning 25 percent to 65 percent faster than it would be if the planet's atmosphere were smaller. "The extended atmosphere of this planet makes it a bigger target for high-energy radiation from its star, so more evaporation occurs," said co-author Scott Wolk, also of CfA. The main star in HD 189733 also has a faint red companion, detected for the first time in X-rays with Chandra. The stars likely formed at the same time, but the main star appears to be 3 billion to 3 1/2 billion years younger than its companion star because it rotates faster, displays higher levels of magnetic activity and is about 30 times brighter in X-rays than its companion. "This star is not acting its age, and having a big planet as a companion may be the explanation," said Poppenhaeger. "It's possible this hot Jupiter is keeping the star's rotation and magnetic activity high because of tidal forces, making it behave in some ways like a much younger star."The paper is available online at: New thruster design increases efficiency for future spaceflight 16.08.2017 \| American Institute of Physics Tracking a solar eruption through the solar system 16.08.2017 \| American Geophysical Union 16.08.2017 \| Event News 04.08.2017 \| Event News 26.07.2017 \| Event News 16.08.2017 \| Physics and Astronomy 16.08.2017 \| Materials Sciences 16.08.2017 \| Interdisciplinary Research
WILLASTON cub scouts have learned how to make their homes a safer place after a day-long lesson organised by experts from National Grid. The 36 member strong pack were shown how to identify potential gas, electricity, water and fire safety risks in their homes and the steps to take to deal with them. Their hard work on the day was recognised with the award of the National Grid Home Safety Activity badge. Andrew Cartlidge, of National Grid metering , said: “We put together a ‘hands-on’ experience to help the cub scouts learn how to be safe at home. “Together with an activity pack, this will help them spot dangers, keep safe and know what action to take in an emergency.” Simon Carter, assistant director of the Scout Association, added: “Through the efforts of National Grid over the last 6 years, over 115,000 Cubs have learnt how to stay safe in their home. “They can now identifying the potential hazards in a home and how to overcome them safely. I would like to thank the cub scouts of Willaston for their work on the day. Together we have made the world a better place.”
\|English for Beginners Practical English Travel English Telephone English Banking English Accounting English Dictionary\| \|Audio English.org » Dictionary » T » Toll Collector ... Tomistoma Schlegeli\| Dictionary entry overview: What does tomboy mean? • TOMBOY (noun) The noun TOMBOY has 1 sense: 1. a girl who behaves in a boyish manner Familiarity information: TOMBOY used as a noun is very rare. Dictionary entry details \|Sense 1\|\|tomboy [BACK TO TOP]\| A girl who behaves in a boyish manner Nouns denoting people Hypernyms ("tomboy" is a kind of...): \|Learn English with... Proverbs of the week\| \|TOMBOY: related words searches\|
EDITOR'S CHOICE IN GENETICS/GENOMICS Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) look like messenger RNA, with a 5’ cap and poly-adenylated tail, though it’s a mystery why they go untranslated. LncRNAs inhabit what Bernhard Dichtl, an RNA researcher at Deakin University in Australia, calls a “shadow world of gene expression.” Although their function is still not fully understood, they often appear to be involved in repressing gene transcription. Many lncRNA codes are situated in the same location as the genes they repress, but on the opposite strand, such that their codes run in the reverse direction. Transcription of lncRNA code is thought to repress gene expression by blocking transcription factors or recruiting chromatin remodeling proteins. This would suggest that the lncRNA message itself is superfluous to its function as a repressor. But that idea didn’t quite make sense to Sarah Geisler, who studies RNA turnover in Jeff Coller’s lab at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Why then would these transcripts have a 5’ cap and polyadenylated tail, which help keep mRNA from being degraded? Geisler looked at a strain of yeast that could not remove its guanosine cap, and noticed it had high levels of lncRNA. This suggested that lncRNA stability is regulated by its cap, and therefore that the lncRNA transcript itself might have a regulatory function. Many of the lncRNA sequences were located near inducible genes, including those in the GAL family, which are turned on, turned off, or ignored when yeast responds to changes in the sugar environment. The DNA for one such lncRNA was coded on the matching strand of the DNA encoding GAL10 and the neighboring GAL1 gene. Then Geisler and colleagues shifted the yeast that retained their lncRNA transcripts to a galactose-rich environment, which would normally induce GAL10 and GAL1 transcription. However, the researchers observed a drop in the number of GAL1 mRNA transcripts, suggesting that the lncRNA message—not simply the gene—repressed GAL1 mRNA transcription. In wild-type cells, galactose prompted histone acetylation—and thus release of histone bundling—at the GAL1 locus, but not in cells where the lncRNA remained stable. This implies that lncRNA may regulate how easily these inducible genes respond to environmental changes, Geisler says. The finding revealed a surprising new layer of GAL regulation. “After 50 years, we didn’t think there was anything else to learn” about GAL, says Coller. In addition, decapping machinery turns off during development, suggesting that regulation via lncRNA may play an important role in early gene regulation. S. Geisler et al., “Decapping of long noncoding RNAs regulates inducible genes,” Molecular Cell, 45:279-91, 2012.
What is the purpose of peer review? As stated in the foreword by R. Menges in N. Chism’s book Peer Review of Teaching: A Sourcebook, peer review “helps to reinvigorate teaching, whether the purpose if formative or summative. For formative purposes, peer review provides detailed information for appraising one’s own work. When reviews are reciprocal, colleagues come to be seen as constructive consultants rather than as potential judges. For summative purposes, peer review enriches the evidence on which decisions about compensation and advancement are made.”
Societies can help, whether or not your ancestor joined a society. Genealogical, historical, lineage, veterans, fraternal, family name, and ethnic societies often collect, transcribe, and publish records useful to family historians. Local genealogical societies often help family history researchers contact local record searchers, or they copy records that mention ancestors. Societies may guide you to useful sources, suggest avenues of research, put you in touch with other genealogists who are interested in the same families, or perform research for you. The resources of the society may help in determining immigrant origins. Current lists of societies, archives, and libraries are on several Internet sites listed under the “Computer Networks and Bulletin Boards” in Tennessee Archives and Libraries. Some of these organizations have their own Internet sites. You can also find Tennessee society addresses by using directories cited in the United States Societies wiki article. Tennessee societies include: - Lineage societies (the DAR, Colonial Dames, and the Sons of the American Revolution, for example) require members to prove they are descended from a certain group of people, such as colonists or soldiers. The applications for membership in these societies are usually preserved and occasionally published. National lineage societies such as the DAR and Sons of the American Revolution have a large Tennessee membership. These are described in the United States Societies wiki article. - Genealogical and historical societies often maintain a genealogical file for historical families of the area or for ancestors of society members. Most genealogical societies focus on local and regional records, while others concentrate on the records and migrations of ethnic groups or minorities. Some genealogical and historical societies publish transcripts of original records. Most publish quarterly periodicals, a few of which are listed in the Tennessee Periodicals wiki article. Some genealogical and historical societies hold conferences with lectures on genealogical research methods, available sources, and other local, regional, or national topics of interest to the genealogist. Transcripts, audio tapes, syllabuses, or class outlines of these conferences are often made available to the public through the sponsoring society. - Family associations and surname societies have been organized to gather descendants of specific individuals or families and to conduct further ancestor research. Some seek out information on persons with a specific surname. See United States Societies for a directory and more information about these societies. - Clubs, or occupational or fraternal organizations may have existed where your ancestor lived. Those societies may have kept records of members or applications which may be of genealogical or biographical value. Though many of the old records have been lost, some have been donated to local, regional, or state archives and libraries. Major societies in Tennessee include: The Tennessee Society, NSDAR (National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution). The Tennessee DAR has 106 chapters divided into five districts: Appalachian, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Cumberland, and Sequoyah. (Note that the following two lineage societies have similar names but are separate organizations.) Tennessee Society, Sons of the American Revolution 48 Redthorn Cove Cordova, TN 38018-7244 Tennessee State Society Sons of the Revolution P.O. Box 2401 Knoxville, Tennessee 37901-2401 Tennessee Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans P.O. Box 782 Lebanon, TN 37088 Tennessee Historical Society Ground Floor. War Memorial Building Nashville, TN 37243-0084 Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society P.O. Box 330948 Nashville, TN 37203-7507 Mid-west Tennessee Genealogical Society P.O. Box 3343 Jackson, TN 38303-3343 Tennessee Genealogical Society 7779 Poplar Pike Germantown, TN 38138 West Tennessee Historical Society P.O. Box 111046 Memphis, TN 38111 For Tennessee genealogical and historical societies that have records and services to help you with your research, see the Tennessee Archives and Libraries and Tennessee Periodicals. Many counties also have local historical and genealogical societies. You can find local society addresses by using directories cited in United States Societies. For society records, see the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under: TENNESSEE - SOCIETIES TENNESSEE, [COUNTY] - SOCIETIES
Student Learning Outcomes At the completion of this unit of instruction students will be able to: Descriptive and Predictive Research You will remember from earlier readings that there are many types of research that can be categorized as "descriptive." These included the following: Surveys (questionnaires, Delphi method, interviews, normative) The commonality that each of these share is that they are a measure of status - rather than prediction. Of course we might choose to predict future events based on our findings but that is not the intent of the techniques described in this chapter. Imagine yourself the athletic director at Central Washington University. In addition to creating successful program you would clearly want a program that attracts the support of the student population at the university. While you might suppose that students would flock to support winning programs, this assumption may not be true. There have been many instances elsewhere of winning programs failing to attract support. Rather than let this important component of your program rest with fate, you might wonder what you could do to generate student interest for your athletic program. Although you could initiate a variety of non-scientific methods to "research" the problem, as an individual knowledgeable about descriptive research methods you could design a more logical and systematic approach to investigating this challenge. Distributing carefully designed questionnaires to all or a sample of your student population would be one possible approach. As noted in your text there are some key steps to follow when constructing questionnaires. By following these steps you enhance the quality of the information you are able to obtain and also ensure that this information is in a form that can be objectively analyzed. Do remember however, that an important limitation to questionnaires is that they report what people say and not necessarily what they DO. Below the key steps involved in constructing a questionnaire are listed: 1. Determine the Objectives: From the example described earlier, it would appear that one of our principal objectives might be to determine why students either choose to attend or avoid athletic events. We might also want to know what could be done to make attendance more enjoyable. A recommended step is to list objectives, then think about the kind of responses you might anticipate, and plan how you might analyze these data. Planning the questionnaire is obviously a vital first step, and failure to plan well will likely undermine the value of the entire study. 2. Delimiting the Sample: Hopefully, you remember our earlier discussions about sampling. Some of the considerations in our example might be whether or not to distribute questionnaires to the entire student population or to select a representative sample. What would a representative sample look like? How will we sample? Do we need equal number of males and females? Do we want equal representation from freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors? Do we need to consider racial composition? How many students do we need? Answers to some of these questions will depend on time and money. Certainly however, you can see that we need to think carefully about the sample we use in the study. 3. Constructing the Questionnaire: When people first attempt to build questionnaires they quickly discover that questions that appear clear to them are often open to many different interpretations. (Professors face the same challenge when constructing multiple choice exams.) It is a time consuming task and once again you would need to consider how you plan to analyze the possible responses. As you formulate your questions you must consider the most appropriate format Open-Ended Questions allow the responder a variety of response options. The good part is that responders are free to say what they like. The bad part is that they take more time to answer and are tougher to analyze. In our example, we could ask "In what ways could the Athletic Department make your attendance at an athletic event more enjoyable?" Closed Questions direct responders to certain choices among provided options. We can ask responders to rank order choices, select a score on a scale, or respond to provided categories. A closed version of the question posed above might be, "Should the Athletic Department sell concessions at athletic events?" (yes/no). Alternatively, "Which would be your preferred choice of days to attend basketball games? (Thursday/Friday/Saturday). Whichever format you choose the wording of the questions, and the length and appearance of the questionnaire requires careful consideration if you are to maximize your returns. 4. Conducting a Pilot Study A pilot study is an essential first step. Some time ago I wanted to know what motivate children to participate in ski school trips. I constructed a questionnaire with the reasons I believed would explain the childrens motivation. Fortunately, before I distributed the questionnaire I shared it with a colleague who pointed out that I did not include the option of "Was signed up by parents." As it turned out several children did not actually choose to learn to ski but were simply signed up by their parents. If I had not asked this question I would have missed a significant reason. As it turned out I made a second error by not piloting the questionnaire with kids. On the questionnaire students were asked to rank order their reasons for taking ski classes. We discovered that the younger students did not understand what was meant by "rank order" and other students were not sure what to do if they wanted to score two choices at the same rank. 5. Cover Letters Many questionnaires will not be returned. Some people will discard them immediately upon receipt because they feel they dont have time. Others will look at the length or the type of information requested and then ignore or discard. The cover letter you include with the questionnaire creates a first impression and may sway whether or not you get a return. A brief, grammatically well written letter outlining clearly why you are requesting assistance may keep the questionnaire out of the discard pile (at least for the time being!). Usually, the cover letter will include a requested date to receive the response. 6. Sending the Questionnaire As you can imagine your response rate from university students would probably not be high if they received the questionnaire during finals week. A person sending a questionnaire to coaches would be well advised to avoid the height of the coaching season. To increase the response rate a stamped, self-addressed envelope is advised. Some people will feel guilty not using the stamp and may be more inclined to respond to your questionnaire. 7. Follow up Response rates are typically much lower than expected. Some types of questionnaires with certain samples might elicit much higher than average responses. A 50% response rate is often as good as it gets. To increase responses many researchers develop a system of follow-ups. These might begin with a postcard reminder, then be followed up with another questionnaire, and finally - if the response is vital - with a phone call. The authors of your text note that when response rates are extremely low (10-20%), the value of the findings is highly questionable. 8. Analyzing the Results and Preparing the Report Once the questionnaires have been returned with a satisfactory response rate, the data must be analyzed and reported. Most often descriptive statistics (means, medians, modes, %, demographic data etc) will be used. Remember however, that methods of analysis will of course have been decided in the planning phase of the study. To a great extent, the nature of the discussion section in your study will depend on the results you obtain. The Delphi Method As explained in your text the Delphi method is a survey technique that involves the use of questionnaires in an attempt to get consensus on a topic. Subjects respond to a first questionnaire, then based on these responses a second questionnaire is developed and administered. Each time the questionnaire is administered is called a "round." Suppose for example, you were interested in investigating the impact of the 1980 Soviet boycott of the Olympic Games. Using the Delphi method you could survey knowledgeable Russians and Americans, each time sharing the different perspectives obtained, in an attempt to identify critical issues and perspectives. Personal interviews are similar to questionnaires except in the manner in which they are administered. Some of the advantages and disadvantages (or challenges) to this method are indicated below: \|Greater confidentiality possible because of personal contact\|\|Fewer subjects can be sampled\| \|Flexibility to give follow-up questions\|\|More expensive because of travel or phone\| \|Opportunity to clarify questions\|\|Need to be able to take notes quickly or get permission to tape\| \|Can judge adequacy (honesty?) of replies\|\|Need to be able to listen to one reply and be ready to follow-up immediately with the next question\| \|Higher return rate\|\|Requires skilled interviewer\| As noted in the text, conducting an interview effectively requires practice. You will notice from watching TV interviews how the interviewer usually tries to control the pace of the interview. Some people will talk for a long time but say very little if permitted to do so. Another problem is that some people tend to give an opinion when they really are not very knowledgeable about the topic. With practice the researcher quickly identifies whether a subject truly is qualified to respond to a particular question. Although it is highly unlikely that you as graduate students would be involved in normative types of surveys, you should be aware that they have been widely used in physical education and health. Two sets of norms often used in public school physical education are the Presidents Physical Fitness Challenge and AAHPERDs Physical Best. Both consist of fitness data collected through nationwide normative surveys that teachers use to compare the fitness levels of children in their schools. In these types of surveys, the intent of the researchers is typically to establish performance norms to which the performance of others can be compared. As you can imagine this endeavor is often the subject of criticism by those who claim that scores taken in one environment lack validity when applied to a different environment. If you are considering research involving questionnaires or interviews be sure to carefully examine the many aspects involved in the successful application of these types of research methods. An excellent resource for further reading is a book entitled Research Processes in Physical Education, by Clark and Clark. Some years ago a researcher at the University of Oregon named H. Harrison Clarke initiated a growth study in the Oregon town of Medford. This project spurned many research papers, professional presentations, and graduate theses and dissertations. For several years researchers would visit Medford and track the growth and development of children in the public schools. This project provides an example of a longitudinal study - in other words a study of the same subjects over a period of several years. Were these same researchers to conduct a cross-sectional study we might anticipate that they would have visited Medford on one occasion and taken growth measurements of different subjects at several grade levels. Developmental studies (despite the limitations noted in the text) can provide some fascinating insights and although only descriptive in nature can spark the researchers curiosity for more controlled experimental studies. Some years ago a graduate student at our university was interested in examining the topic of teenage pregnancy. Although she could have researched the topic with a questionnaire she decided to use a case-study approach. The advantage of this method was that the topic could be examined in-depth, albeit gathering information from a much more limited sample of subjects than would have been possible with a questionnaire. In contrast to the questionnaire approach - which requires the researcher to have excellent knowledge of the topic when designing questions - case study researchers often approach their subjects with an inquisitive mind and an openness that permits subjects to respond in an unlimited number of directions. As you can imagine, this less structured approach may take researchers down avenues they did not anticipate traveling and open doors to new kinds of understanding. In terms of the types of case study identified in your text, in the example given above the graduate student was probably conducting an interpretive study. Certainly, however she included a great deal of description. Were she to have approached the topic with the intent of identifying better ways of preventing teenage pregnancies then she would probably have conducted more of an evaluative study. In summary, case studies tend to provide in-depth information about a limited number of subjects, and may produce new insights that generate additional studies. A topic of great interest to those of us in teacher education has been in identifying those factors that contribute to effective teaching. Research on effective teaching has been through several stages. Initially, it was believed that the most effective teachers had special personality characteristics. Later it was suggested that the key to effective teaching might lie in the methods used. Research in this area has often involved the observation of teachers and the categorization of behaviors. In observing the behaviors of teachers in classrooms in which learning is apparently occurring, certain commonalties have been identified. The researchers who have investigated this area have engaged themselves in a type of observational research. Instead of approaching the question of effective teaching by asking questions, they chose to observe the behaviors of teachers. As noted in your text observational research necessitates adherence to certain guidelines in order to be considered as valid and reliable. As some of you know, here at CWU we use several of these observational methods (e.g. videotaped lesson analysis) in our undergraduate preparation of PE majors. Although we discussed the techniques of correlational research in our discussion about statistics, it is important to appreciate that correlational research is descriptive. Because there is no manipulation of variables or controls, in correlational research is impossible to conclude that something "caused" something to occur. Remember that correlations are indicators of a relationship and not an effect.
Emotional regulation is an essential ingredient of addiction recovery. Emotional regulation means learning to manage and put up with emotional distress. In addiction recovery, addicts have to manage their negative feelings without taking drugs. On the other hand in active addiction, they are used to managing their emotional problems with the help of drugs. Poor emotional regulation is often a major contribution to the development of addiction. To cope with difficult feelings they may fall back on substance abuse. Emotional regulation is one of the cornerstones of addiction recovery. Basically, early recovery is challenging for recovering addicts. In fact, this is a kind of bumpy ride where people can experience unusual high and low tides of mood. This leads them towards or tough practice of emotional control. It is inevitable to learn the management of emotions because relapse might be followed in case of failure in learning emotional management. Emotional Regulation is a Multi-Faceted Term That Has The Following Dimensions Dos of Emotional Regulation in Recovery - Attending the follow-ups. It provides opportunities to learn better-coping skills to manage recovery challenges. These strategies can be used to deal with the emotional upheavals of early recovery. - Regularly attend the A and N.A. It is a great way of support. Newly Sober individuals can advise those who have faced the same challenges. - Honest sharing with the therapist and family can help to talk about the problems quite openly. It can also help to learn effective ways of dealing with strong emotions. - In recovery, guilt can be very destructive. It is one of the major relapse triggers. So, it should be dealt with skillfully. To avoid guilt the most important thing is to just focus on the present, not on the past and future. - Complaint behavior regarding medicines. Addicts may show resistance to prescribed medication, due to assumed side effects referring to the internet. The good news is that by following the treatment protocols and principles one doesn’t need drugs and alcohol in order to cope with his/her difficult and unpleasant feelings.
The word proctor, which is a result of the shortening of the term procurator, has three definitions. Initially a proctor was involved in the legal field with specialization in church law, and maritime law. Proctors also proofed wills. Sometimes the proctor was specifically a specialist in church law and would represents minister from the Anglican Church. In England today, the proctor is someone appointed by a university to ensure the good behavior of students who have not yet obtained their master’s degrees. They investigate any accusations of cheating, keep young students’ behaving in a manner fitting with the dignity of the university, may administer tests, and are empowered to confine misbehaving students to their dorms, called gating. In the US, we mostly see the term proctor associated with people administering tests, especially standardized ones. If you take a GRE, SAT, CBEST, MCAT, or any other standardized test, a proctor administers the test. In some cases, testing companies employ many proctors for a single standardized testing. The proctor’s job is to hand out test booklets, watch students for signs of cheating, tell students when to start or stop sections of the test and thus ensure the integrity of the test. The proctor is charged with safe delivery of tests to a supervising proctor or testing agency. Actually, many people apply to be proctors, because the work tends to occur on weekends, and the pay is usually fairly good, between 20-50 US dollars (USD) per hour. Each testing agency may have different requirements. Some require that you have taken the test you will be administering, while others merely make sure you have the ability to clearly convey instructions to students. A rise in online colleges or distance learning sites has led to more job availability for the proctor. Many tests and exams are administered solely by proctors in the employ of the distance learning facility, since there is no faculty on hand to give regular finals. Even in online classes from a college physically located near students some teachers employ proctors for any test taking. If you would like to be a proctor, consider contacting some of the standardized testing agencies in your area. Each will have its own requirements, but many people find this mostly weekend work simple to do. It can be a nice way of making a little money on the side. If you are taking a test administered by a proctor, remember that he or she is not there to solve your problems with the test. The principle role of the proctor may be to answer simple questions about the test overall. You can ask a proctor, “What pages are we on now?” or “Where do I put my name again,” but you cannot ask the proctor for advice on individual test questions.
Home » Computer Language Category Archives: Computer Language Masking is one of the most important utility . PPC is one of the best way to earn money online .Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. It allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering. For example, if we bid on the keyword “PPC software,” our ad might show up in the very top spot on the Google results page.In that case advertiser pays us certain agreed amount of money to the owner of the website . Every time the ad is clicked, sending a visitor to our website, we have to pay the search engine a small fee. When Pay Per Click is working correctly, the fee is trivial, because the visit is worth more than what you pay for it. In other words, if we pay $5 for a click, but the click results in a $500 sale, than we’ve made a hefty profit. A lot goes into building a winning PPC campaign: from researching and selecting the right keywords, to organizing those keywords into well-organized campaigns and advertisement groups, to setting up PPC landing pages that are optimized for conversions. Search engines reward advertisers who can create relevant, intelligently targeted pay-per-click campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks. If your ads and landing pages are useful and satisfying to users, Google charges you less per click, leading to higher profits for your business. So if you want to start using PPC, it’s important to learn how to do it right. Java is one of the most powerful language ever. It has been developed by Sun Microsystem . The beauty of this language is that it can work on multiple platforms . The program written in java will easily work in Even the apps of java will work in Mobile devices as well which supports java.
Basic Books • 1996 • 272 pages • $26.00 Rita Simon teaches in the department of justice, law and society, School of Public Affairs at American University, Washington, D.C. Author Peter Salins says up front that he had two major reasons for writing Assimilation, American Style. First, to tell about the wonderful contributions immigrants have made to American society and to explain how successful their assimilation into the mainstream has been, without the loss of their identities. Second, to take on both the political left and the old-line nativists on the right for their attacks on assimilation and on an immigration policy that allows more than 700,000 immigrants a year to enter the United States. More than any of the other major receiving nations (Canada, Australia, and Argentina), the United States has had a successful experience assimilating immigrants of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Salins states very clearly that assimilation does not mean the abandonment of the immigrants’ culture and conformity to the behavior and customs of the native-born population. He points to the rich, colorful mosaic that immigrants have created in American society with their religion, music, fashion, food, and other cultural contributions. Salins emphasizes that assimilation is about national unity. He gives credit for achieving this sense of national unity to American law, policies, and public attitudes. The United States encourages and allows immigrants to become citizens after five years. They then can vote and run for political office (save for the presidency). Speaking the same language, living in the same neighborhoods, and sending their children to the same schools have all contributed to the successful assimilation process that has produced a unified country. But today, Salins warns, the public schools are the site of strong anti-assimilationist movements that are part of a larger ethnocentrist, multiculturalist movement led by the American left. In the public schools, the three-pronged movement consists of the development of multicultural curricula, bilingual education, and the disparagement of American traditions. Of the three, Salins views bilingualism as the most insidious, not only because of its anti-assimilationist ideology, but because studies have shown that it has been a failure on its own pedagogical terms—immigrant children enrolled in bilingual programs fall far behind their counterparts who are taught all subjects in English. How do multicultural curricula threaten assimilation? Salins argues that behind its bland facade of emphasizing diversity and inclusiveness, multiculturalism promotes an agenda of ethnic grievances, and a delegitimation of the prevailing national culture. Multiculturalism in the public schools and at the university level focuses on non-Western, non-European influences and contributions. The works of dead white males are either stripped from the curriculum or strongly devalued. Salins argues that “Multiculturalism is explicitly and self-consciously directed toward nurturing an acute sense of ethnic grievance and victimization among the children of ethnic minorities, with ethnic minorities narrowly defined as encompassing only blacks, Latinos, and American Indians.” The third prong of the anti-assimilationist movement is the disparagement of the U.S. Constitution and American heroes and traditions. George Washington was just a rich slave owner, Andrew Jackson caused the Cherokee Trail of Tears, and U.S. foreign policy is always imperialist and evil. Salins warns that these movements are part of a general emphasis on ethnocentrism that the American left is leading. He argues it is exactly the type of emphasis that threatens national unity and could lead to the balkanization of American society. But Salins does not only see danger to the successful American style of assimilation and national unity from the left, he also recognizes that the traditional nativist movement that has historically had its base on the right has also joined the attack. The nativists are making their usual argument: these new immigrants—i.e., immigrants who are entering the country now—will never assimilate because their backgrounds and cultures are too different. The leading exponent of this view today is Peter Brimelow, who, in his book Alien Nation argues that the current crop of immigrants will change the culture, values, and lifestyle of American society. But of course what Brimelow is saying today is what other nativists have said of immigrants who have come to American shores for more than 100 years, including the Irish, the Jews, the southern and eastern European Catholics, the Chinese, and the Japanese. We were warned about how each of those groups would destroy American culture and society. But all of these immigrants have made extraordinary contributions to the economic growth, public life, and the cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual well-being of this country. The nativists were wrong in the 1880s and the 1920s; they are wrong today. Salins acknowledges what he calls “the great exception” to the assimilation paradigm: black Americans. Reviewing the history of America’s treatment of blacks, which he labels “the greatest betrayal of the American idea,” he nevertheless urges blacks not to join the ethnocentric, multicultural movement of the left with its goal of dividing American society. Salins concludes with a hope and a plea that the United States will continue to welcome immigrants from all over the world, that native-born and naturalized Americans will join in helping recent immigrants to assimilate, and that ethnocentrism and multiculturalism will crumble in defeat.
\|April 12, 2013 Source: Audi Media · LED headlights recognized as energy-efficient technology · Audi is already equipping five model series with LED technology Ingolstadt – LED headlights from Audi verifiably improve fuel economy. That is why the European Commission is now certifying this technology. Lighting systems have a tremendous effect on an automobiles fuel economy. Conventional halogen units, for example, consume over 135 watts of power in their low-beam headlight mode. By comparison, LED headlights from Audi operate with significantly better energy efficiency the low-beam lights only consume around 80 watts. The EU Commission has measured the fuel savings achieved by LED headlights from Audi testing the low-beam headlights, high-beam headlights and license plate light in dynamometer testing. In the ten NEDC cycles that the Audi A6 ran through, CO2 savings were found to be over one gram per km (1.61 g/mile). As a result, the EU Commission has officially identified the LED headlights as an innovative technology for reducing CO2 emissions. Audi is the first car manufacturer to be certified for this technology. LED daytime running lights made their debut in the Audi A8 W12 back in 2004. Then, in 2008, the R8 sports car became the worlds first car to feature full-LED headlights. Today, this high-end lighting system is available in five model series: the R8, A8, A6, A7 Sportback and A3. Audi designs the LED headlights very differently for different models. On the A8, for example, 76 light-emitting diodes are used per unit. On the Audi A3, 19 LEDs operate in each headlight to generate the low-beam and high-beam lights; they are supplemented by a module for the all-weather and cornering lights as well as a light guide for the daytime running lights, side lights and turn signals. Besides improving energy efficiency, LED headlights also offer safety and comfort benefits. With a color temperature of around 5,500 Kelvin, their light resembles daylight and hardly causes any eye fatigue. The LEDs are maintenance-free and designed to last the life of the car.
\|« Women still using HRT despite risks\|\|Green Tea Consumption May Protect Against MI »\| STUDY: Study supports belief that diet is to blame for adolescent acne. JOURNAL: Cordain, L. et al. Acne vulgaris: a disease of western civilization. Archives of Dermatology, 138, 123 - 321, (2002). ABSTRACT: US scientists are throwing a lifeline to acne-ridden adolescents. A controversial new study suggests that avoiding a sugary Western diet could help to treat the teenage scourge. COMMENTARY: Anecdotal evidence has long linked chocolate and chips to pubescent spots, but scientists have never proved the connection. Then anthropologist Kim Hill at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque stumbled on a remote community in Paraguay, who eat manioc (cassava), peanuts and meat. "I've travelled to remote tribes all over South America and I've never seen acne," Hill says. Teenagers in a second community of remote islanders, in Papua New Guinea, are also spotless, it turns out. Genetics cannot explain the perfect skin of the two unrelated groups, maintains team leader Loren Cordain of Colorado State University. He blames today's refined foods, such as bread, rice and cakes, for the pimples suffered by 95% of westernized teenagers."The theory makes sense," comments acne expert Alan Shalita of State University of New York. Yet it flies in the face of 1970s and 1980s studies that failed to find a link between diet and spots. Based on these, most dermatologists have "pooh-poohed" the idea, says Shalita.Skin researcher Richard Bojar of the University of Leeds, UK remains unconvinced. The non-westernised groups might also get more beneficial sun or exercise, he points out. "There's not much data and a lot of hypothesis," he says. "They need to go on and test it."
Introduction: Night Light Do you need a colorful night light, or just a simple weekend project to pass the time? Then this instructable is for you. This project is fun to build for all ages. It's a simple but very cool design in the end. All you need to build your own night light is: RGB LED (1) Three resistors (220 ohm) One resistor (10K ohm) AC adapter (should convert to 5V DC) USB cable (A to B connector) breadboard or PCB Step 1: Build the Circuit First, we'll add the rgb led and the resistor. Then connect the button and the resistor. You can follow this link to view how to wire up the circuit. Once everything is wired up you can add extension wires to the button so it's not connected to the breadboard. Glue the button in place on the project box. Step 2: Adding the Project Box If you don't have a project box, a small cardboard box will do just fine. First, take your usb cable and glue it to the box (USB end glued, not the other end). Drill a small hole into the box. add your arduino in the box then position the breadboard so the RGB led fits into that hole we drilled out. After that, connect the AC adapter to the usb cable and tape the box so none of the electronic components fall out. Now, plug in the nightlight and you should see a color. Watch this video to see how to operate the night light.
Good memory comes with a lot of practice and not just any practice, but effective practice. Dive deep into this article to gain access to information on popular memorization techniques. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could remember everything you come across and just not forget what you don’t want to forget? From faces to numbers and everything else in between, wouldn’t it be simply extraordinary to not forget all of these and more? Well, in an ideal world, remembering everything that you just don’t want to forget shouldn’t be a problem. Sadly, however, we don’t live in an ideal world and good memory always is an issue. Nevertheless, every black cloud has a silver lining and here the silver lining comes in the form of different memorization techniques. While memorization techniques can help you remember a lot more than you could have without them, it doesn’t mean that they will help you to never forget. To get the best out of memorization techniques, it is essential to put them to the test and see how much of what they have to offer! Go ahead and read on to know more about the most popular memorization techniques. Techniques For Memorization Chunks And Chunks Chunking, arguably, is one of the oldest and most popular methods of memorizing information. When you use the technique of chunking to memorize information or material for study, you approach the same in a very unique manner. To easily remember things using this method, you will have to group and sub-group information. This method or technique also works best when the order of the items you are asked to memorize is not important. For example, if you have to remember the number 6719092378, you can try remembering it by breaking it into separate bits which can look like this 671, 909, 23 and 78. By doing something like this, remembering the number becomes so much easier. You can apply this same logic to larger pieces of information and study material! Rhymes And Chimes You may not be aware of this fact, but did you know that you have a natural tendency to remember rhymes? However, coming across rhymes when you are trying to remember boring information from a boring looking text book can be pretty difficult. To make it work for you, you can try figuring out a way to add rhymes to what you are trying to remember. At first, this may seem like quite an ordeal, but with practice and in time, you are bound to get better at using the advantages of using rhymes! Under this technique of memorizing information, you will learn to use the advantages of sleep. You can begin by first relaxing and not really worrying about anything. Once you have done this, you can go ahead and write down things that are to be remembered on a piece of paper. Read what you’ve written down on the piece of paper at least twice and if possible aloud. Now, without really worrying about remembering what you have read, hit the sack. The chances of remembering what you read the next morning are really as high as the skies. This is because when you sleep, your mind plays an effective role by arranging the information in an organized and systematic manner, which makes it easy for you to recall what is to be recalled! Try Not To Try When you consciously make efforts to remember something, it gets pretty tough to remember whatever it is that you are trying to remember. However, when you try not to try to remember any particular thing, suddenly memorizing becomes a lot easier. If you are not willing to believe this fact of life, you can feel free to put it to the test. You can do this by very effortlessly going through random information; you will find it easier to remember it this way. It becomes easier for you to remember information this way because you are less stressed and feel lot less the pressure to consciously remember information! More from iloveindia.com
What is the meaning of noel ? Every year at Christmas, people sing songs like “The First Noel,” and many of them are unsure of what a “noel” actually is. Joyeux noel is French for “Merry Christmas.” The Middle English term nowel, which Webster’s 1828 Dictionary characterized as “a cry of delight or Christmas song,” is where our current English word originates. The Old French term nael, which means “Christmas season,” may have been the source of the word’s French noel origins. This in turn comes from the Latin word Natalis, which means “birth.” It was only natural for people to refer to Christmas as the “nativity” or the “birth” as it is the celebration of the birth of Christ. Noel Name meaning The word “Noel” is frequently used to refer to Christmas. It is easily incorporated into Christmas vocabulary, appearing on everything from greeting cards to carols, but what exactly does Noel mean? Dialects and contributions from around the globe have become possibly the most important factor with regards to what this well-known word truly implies in hymns, for example, “The First Noel” producing a hello from Bethlehem a long time back to our cutting-edge age. English speakers borrowed the word noel from French. It can be traced further back to the Latin word Natalis, which can mean “birthday” as a noun or “of or relating to birth” as an adjective. (The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of Natalis.) Noel is a word that is frequently used to refer to Christmas. What does Noel actually mean? It fits neatly into Christmas terminology and is used in both carols and greeting cards. What this well-known phrase actually signifies in carols has been influenced by languages and ideas from all across the world, with songs like “The First Noel” serving as a greeting from Bethlehem two thousand years ago to the present. Old French for “of or born on Christmas,” Noel is a name. Noel is a common girl’s name choice as well as a name for boys. The name Noel is not particularly well known. Its popularity peaked in 1938 when it ranked as the 267th most popular boy’s name in the United States. The name currently ranks 337th with the Social Security Administration, indicating that it is not very common (3). 17 thg 9, 2022 Meaning and Etymology of Noel There are numerous root meanings for the word “Noel.” News is what the French word Nouvelles signifies. The term “novel,” which means “shout of gladness,” is the word’s English etymology. The well-known phrase “the first noel the angels did speak, Was to certain lowly shepherds…”, which means good “news,” illustrates this. The word Natalis, which means “birth,” also derives from Latin, the mother tongue of the Romance languages. The early 4th century records of Christus Natus, which was celebrated on December 25th and known as the day of “Today Christ is born,” are connected to the more correct meaning of the holiday. These dialects would serve as a strong foundation for the setting in which Noel is so often employed today. The word’s first widespread usage emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages. The term was first used in the context of songs celebrating the birth of Christ in French and English carols. The classic Christmas song’s music is believed to have originated in France in the 1200s, but it wasn’t until the 1800s that the song’s lyrics would become so well-known. “The First Noel” The Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern book by William B. Sandys first made “The First Noel” carol available in 1823. It is reported that during the holiday season, residents of the town would assemble to pray and sing these carols in remembrance of the birth of Christ. By recounting the story over and again, many legends, songs, and traditions from this time were passed down from one generation to the next. The printing press, which was created in the 1400s, made it possible to produce the Bible in more languages, which facilitated the spread of these principles. Over time, more lyrics were added, creating the timeless melody that is still sung today. The song’s lyrics, which serve as its foundation, are based on the narrative found in Luke 2:8–14, where the Angels came to the shepherds to announce the birth of Christ: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Glory to God in the highest sky, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor falls, said “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:8-14). The reflected root meanings of the variants of Noel all come into context of lyrics. “The first Noel the angels did sing was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay.” The roots of Noel combine to declare the noises of praise to the Lord by reflecting the Latin root of birth, the English root of joyful noise of the arrival, and embracing the French meaning of news. The chorus “Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel” is repeated throughout the song as a plea to share and reiterate the blessed Good News of the coming of the promised Messiah on earth. The epilogue serves as a reminder of Christ’s suffering: “Then let us all with one accord Sing praises to our heavenly Lord, That hath made heaven and earth of naught, And with his blood mankind has bought.” We are inspired to sing together about both His birth and resurrection because we know that the birth of Christ is significant because of His death and resurrection. “And to the earth it gave great light And so it continued both day and night.” Noel should not just be used during the holiday season; it should be a way of life. In Matthew 28:19–20, Jesus exhorts, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Such a request is reflected in singing the joy of Noel over and over again during the Christmas season. The joyful reality of what Noel stands for must be generously worn on our hearts and spoken on our lips all year round, not just during the Christmas season when we sing and share. The Good News of Christ’s Second Coming to Save Us All is symbolized by Noel.
- Development & Aid - Economy & Trade - Human Rights - Global Governance - Civil Society Wednesday, August 16, 2017 ALTAMIRA, Brazil, Jun 29 2010 (IPS) - At dawn, the “captain” fired on the village leader and the shooting began. “The forest trembled,” says one survivor: the local indigenous people fled, leaving their dead behind. Only one young girl remained. But she sank her teeth into the chest of one of the assailants with such force that they slit her throat to pull her off him. In the late 19th century, rubber tappers began encroaching on the forests of the Xingú River Basin in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, either clashing with local indigenous groups, or living and intermarrying with them. “Bião,” as Santos is known, is now 67. He had 26 children with 14 women. Currently he works as a boatman in a family-run company that has eight boats and a dock in Altamira, the largest city on the banks of the Xingú, home to 100,000 people. He has lived through the ups and downs of the river basin’s extractive economy since he arrived when he was nearly five, with his widowed mother and three younger siblings. They came from the Mojú River, 350 km to the east. When asked about the transformations that will result from the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, which will dam the Xingú River in two places, flooding islands, forests and farmland, Bião says he is “neutral.” He just hopes it will generate income for the local people who are unemployed, and says the role of the forest has changed, and is no longer what people rely on to survive. “I was raised on tree milk,” he jokes, pointing out that he was very young when he learned to extract latex from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), known here as “seringueira”, in addition to helping his mother and stepfather with farming, and collecting Brazil nuts. He became a seringueiro at 14, plunging into the jungles of the Middle Xingú with three different rubber-tapping groups. His girlfriend was already expecting his first child. The attack on the village was in reprisal for the murders of a number of seringueiros committed by indigenous people to obtain firearms, said Bião. “In Isaac’s group alone they killed more than 40,” he said. Killings happened on both sides. But the non-indigenous outsiders added a macabre twist: they stuffed rocks in the bodies of the victims so they would sink to the river’s depths and avoid detection by the government’s Indigenous Protection Service. Bião grew increasingly fearful, worried also about internal conflicts. One afternoon, a shoot-out erupted amongst the seringueiros in the camp, and several were killed. He avoided the disputes and enjoyed the protection of his bosses because of his ability to bring in bush meat and fish. The day of the attack in question, seringueiros surrounded the indigenous village after a nine-day hike. Ten of the 35 men deserted the group during the trek. The “captain” put Bião “behind an embaúba tree, so skinny that it wasn’t going to stop any bullets,” he recalls. Frightened, he spent the entire night digging a trench “using my fingernails like hoes.” Many indigenous people were killed, but only two seringueiros were injured, and the village was burned down, Bião says. After nine years in the rubber tree forest, he returned to the “good life” of Altamira, already a father of four. There was little future in the dangerous rubber tapping trade. The Brazilian Amazon, where some made their fortunes in the rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lost its global market dominance in natural latex to Malaysia starting in 1920, where rubber tree plantations achieved higher yields. Bião and his fellow rubber tappers benefited from strong post-World War II prices, but Brazil had already fallen to the status of secondary exporter, relying on subsidies and awaiting jumps in demand for natural latex, as occurred during WWII, when Japan blocked exports from Southeast Asia. Hunting jaguars and other animals with prized pelts went from being occasional work to Bião’s main source of income. “That was when I earned the most money,” enough to buy two lots in the city, he says. “One night I killed 30 jacaré caiman (a member of the crocodile family), but two friends and I couldn’t remove all their skins; it’s hard work,” he said. Today there are few caimans left near Altamira because “people kill them for food,” but they do remain abundant in the Upper Xingú, according to Bião. Although a 1967 law was passed to ban the hunt, there is little enforcement in the rainforest. He also participated in the haphazard construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, begun in 1970. He spent a year tearing down forests to open the way for the 3,000-km project, intended to unite the Brazilian Northeast and the Amazon. The road, left unpaved, has long been nearly impassable along the stretches that serve Altamira. But the project attracted a new wave of migration to the Amazon region, fuelled by promises of jobs and the distribution of land to farm. Aparecida Moraes is a child of that process. She was born in 1971, a year after her family migrated from the southern state of Paraná in search of land, and ultimately settled on the banks of the Xingú. Now she is married to another migrant from Paraná and sells the bananas, papayas and grains they grow at the farmers market in downtown Altamira. The Belo Monte dam will not flood her land. Sebastião de Castro Silva has no such luck. The 60-year-old father of eight grows cacao and grains on the 100 hectares he bought when he arrived in Altamira in 1977, coming from the central state of Goiás. “I’ll leave the Amazon if they build the dam,” he said, because it would flood 40 percent of his farm and he would be unable to keep his 32 family members together. While the invasion of the Middle and Lower Xingú by colonists was occurring in the 1970s, Bião joined the “garimpo” boom, the informal mining of gold and precious stones. He went to Venezuela to look for diamonds, but was quickly arrested and deported with many other Brazilian “garimpeiros”. He found gold in Ressaca, near Altamira, in a mine that some of his descendants continue to work today. He then tried several other mining sites and settled on one 1,000 km south of Altamira in the state of Mato Grosso, located in the watershed of the Tapajós River, which runs parallel to the Xingú. “In the garimpo you can earn a lot, but you can also lose a lot, even your sense of shame, between drinking and prostitutes,” he said. For 18 years, up to 2002, Bião mined several prospecting sites and ran a brothel, while also working for the Marajoara lumber company. Illegal logging still thrived, especially for mahogany, though the extraction of this precious wood has been restricted in Brazil since 1996. The disputes turned violent. A mahogany forest at the top of a hill where Bião had arrived with his team and tractors awakened the greed of a rival group, whose imminent armed attack was frustrated in an ambush in which more than 20 people died. Bião had to flee. “My head was worth five kilos of gold,” he said. He then returned to Altamira, wanting the safety of being surrounded by family. But the life of a boatman on a Xingú River scattered with submerged islets and hidden drop-offs in the swollen river also has its risks. Just two months ago, Bião felt the world “go dark too quickly,” when a whirlpool swallowed him and his “voadeira”, his small motorboat. He survived by swimming more than an hour and clinging to a tree for another 11 hours. He is a survivor of a way of life that — like the Xingú itself — will be transformed by the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam over the next five years. The megaproject will employ 18,700 people and generate another 80,000 indirect jobs, and is expected to attract some 100,000 migrants to towns that currently total fewer than 150,000 inhabitants. In addition, the Trans-Amazonian will finally be paved, ending the relative isolation of the Middle Xingú. A businessman from Goiania, capital of Goiás, 2,300 km to the south, recently began buying fish in Altamira, transporting shipments of 600 to 800 kilos by truck, said Gilvan de Almeida, who has been selling fish at the local farmers market for 12 years. With the paved highway, Altamira will be integrated with the rest of the country, and it is likely that industrial fishing will establish itself in the Xingú, affecting supplies to the local markets and the fish populations in this major river and its tributaries. This story includes downloadable print-quality images -- Copyright IPS, to be used exclusively with this story. IPS is an international communication institution with a global news agency at its core, raising the voices of the South and civil society on issues of development, globalisation, human rights and the environment Copyright © 2017 IPS-Inter Press Service. 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There were several different types of Indians who occupied what is now Ohio. These people ranged from the Paleo-Indians who date back to 13,000 B.C., to the Shawnee and Algonquin Indians who occupied the area during the Colonial and Early Republic times. were the first humans to occupy present-day Ohio. These people date back to 13,000 B.C. and survived by hunting large vertebrates such as the wooly mammoth and the mastodon. The next group of people to occupy the area were the Archaic people, a hunting and gathering group that disappeared by 1000 B.C. The Adena came after the Archaic. These inhabitants appeared in Ohio sometime between 1000 and 800 B.C. The Adena were semi-permanent, cultivators and traders. They left behind burial mounds that still exist today. This group disappeared sometime between A.D. 100 and 300 . The Hopewell began to occupy the southern Ohio river valleys around 100 BC. Like the Adena, the Hopewell were hunters and gatherers as well as traders and cultivators. These people left behind artwork in the form of large geometric shapes in the ground that can still be seen today in Marietta, Newark, Portsmouth and Hamilton County. These shapes are interesting not only for their artistic value but because they indicate that the Hopewell possessed some surveying skills. But, by A.D. 600 these people After A.D. 1000 two distinct groups would follow the Hopewell, the Fort Ancient People and the Whittlesey Focus People. The Fort Ancient people lived in southern Ohio and were part of a larger Mississippi people who demonstrated similarities to native cultures of central Mexico. These people grew new strains of maize, beans and squash which allowed them to sustain a larger settlement. By the mid 17th century, however, they too would disappear, with the remains possibly being absorbed by the Shawnee. The Whittlesey Focus People inhabited northern Ohio, building villages that overlooked the river valleys. Many of these people fell victim to European diseases or guns in the hands of Iroquois. With the coming of the Iroquois, Ohio's pre-historic Indian period comes to an end, and the Historic Indian period begins. For fifty years after the demise of the pre-historic people no one inhabited Ohio. The Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, later known as the Six Nations, were based in New York and destroyed tribes ranging from the Northern Great Lakes region to the Ohio River. Small villages would begin to appear in Ohio in the early 18th century becoming more permanent by the 1730s. From the north came the Hurons, also known as the Wyandots. They were of the Iroquoian linguistic group who settled in the Sandusky Bay area of Ohio after being driven from Ontario by the Iroquois. In the 1740s, the Miamis came to Ohio from the west. These people were also known as the Mingos, and were of the Algonquin linguistic group. This group was a combination of people from other tribes, mostly Senecas, but Cayugas, Mohawks, Onandagas, Oniedas, Tuscaroras and Mohicans were among them as well. The Ottowa, an Algonquin linguistic group, moved into Ohio from the north in 1740, and the Shawnee, another Algonquin group, came from Pennsylvania to occupy Ohio's Scioto Valley. Between 1750 and 1815 other tribes moved into Ohio for short periods of time; some of these tribes include the Pottawatomies, Chippewas, Kickapoos The Native Americans of Ohio enjoyed a long history before the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, and played a big role in the settlement of Ohio by way of resistance. Many Native Americans took part in Indian wars, as well as the French and Indian War and the American The French Presence While the English were settling Jamestown, the French were gaining a foothold on the St. Lawrence, a river explored by Jacques Cartier in the 1530s and 1540s who claimed it for France. Samuel de Champlain established a post in Quebec in 1608 and continued to establish a French presence in North America over the next The area that includes present day Ohio became the subject of a three way tug of war. The British, wanting control of the Great Lakes region, claimed that their charters from the King gave them the right to it. However, the French discovered the region first, and claimed it for themselves while the Native American presence was laying claim to the entire Great Lakes and Northwestern The French continued to build forts in the region and maintained trade with the Indians. Meanwhile, traders from Pennsylvania and Virginia began to encroach on French and Indian trade relations by undercutting French prices. Virginia traders and settlement companies continued pushing into the area, and the French continued building fortifications. Soon, these French forts would be interpreted as an invasion, and the war between the colonists and the French would begin. The French and Indian War The French controlled the Ohio area for three years during the war, but by 1759 all of the key French forts had fallen. In 1760 Montreal was seized, proving to be the final blow to the French. After the British had won, they held claim of the Great Lakes region, and had to control it, which was hard to do because of constant Indian attacks. England was forced to deplore 100,000 men to the Colonies to control the borders, which Parliament didn't want to pay for. This led to the Sugar Act, a tax on the Colonists which kindled separatist fervor, one of several factors leading up to the American Revolution. Ohio and the American Revolution Although not yet a state, Ohio Played a significant role in the Revolution. The issues between the French, English and the Indians in the Ohio area were a precursor to the war and added to the desire for the colonists to rule themselves. There was also a lot of fighting that took place in what is now Ohio, and when the war ended in the east, it was brought to a climax in the Northwest in 1782 when a group of Christian Indians were massacred University of California, Santa Barbara of Historical Reviews © 2005 Rickie Lazzerini, All Rights Reserved This page may be freely linked to but may not in any form without prior written consent from
Chandrayaan-1′s Hyper-Spectral Imager (HySI) has sent moon imagery, lunar craterlet BarrowH HySI image (64 Bands), and a strip (20 km across x 40 km along track) from the moon’s equatorial region in 64 bands. The moon imagery has been captured by the HySI and the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on November 16, 2008. The length of the strip is 39 kilometres. The function of Chandrayaan-1′s HySi is to conduct mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface. The HySI operates in the 400-900 nm band with a spectral resolution of 15 nm and a spatial resolution of 80 m. The HySI can see visible as well as ultraviolet to infrared light. Because of this, Chandrayaan-1′s HySI is able to capture color images of the Moon’s surface, which will help detect differences between the minerals found on the Moon’s surface. The images of the lunar surface will be taken in 64 colors. Chandrayaan-1′s HySi has a wedge filter that will split the light into 64 colors. The HySI will be in orbit for only 20 minutes, and will cover an area of 1,680 km by 20 km. ISRO has said that the HySI will add to the currently available information about the mineralogical content of the Moon. It will also provide valuable information about the deeper regions like South Pole- Aitken basin, which represents lower crust or upper mantle of the Moon. The HySI will help scientists study the composition and mineralogy of the moon’s interior, and the Moon’s formation and evolution.
This text comprises chapter 1 of Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics. It specifies a non-equilibrium (temporal) interpretation of Marx’s theory of value which demonstrates a fully consistent transformation of values into prices and reproduces Marx’s tendential law of the falling profit rate. It seeks to explain why this approach to value is inaccessible to consciousness under present social relations, and why resistance to its acceptance has been particularly strong among Marxists. This is the first full exposition of my own exposition of what was to become the Temporal Single System Interpretation (TSSI) of Marx’s theory of value. The opening paragraphs read, somewhat prophetically: There are persons naïve enough to read Marx as a source of knowledge. To such a reader – perhaps idealistic, discontent with oppression or injustice, wanting to change the world and desiring for this reason to understand how it works – Marx says, in summary: there are people who own property for its own sake, and people who do not. The latter create wealth, without which the former would not exist. The wealthy maintain this injustice with oppression, deceit, corruption and force. They fight over the spoils, visiting on the world its ills and suffering. And the object of their desire periodically escapes control, wreaking havoc on guilty and innocent with tragic or comic indifference. However, the process gives those who create wealth, if they consciously organise to do so, the opportunity to overturn this order and found a better one. The otherwise lifeless equations which summarize Marx’s analysis of a capitalist economy encompass all these statements, except perhaps the last. This illustrates McLellan’s (1980:77) statement that ‘The reading of Marx as an economist among economists is bound to falsify to some extent his thought. For Marx, as he himself proclaimed as early as 1844, economics and ethics were inextricably linked’. Marx’s economics offers an integrated social, political, and ethical understanding. ‘Economic’ categories, appearing as inhuman things with a mind of their own – prices, money, interest rates – are for Marx the disguised form of relations between people. He explains not just why they rise or fall but their social meaning: who gains, who loses and who rules. It is the key to how people act and are acted on; why workers are pitted against employers, poor against rich countries, and why there is inequality, oppression, war, pollution, in short the most vital issues of life on this planet. This is the source of his enormous impact on the world.
The Marine’s and other law enforcement at a counter-terrorism summit last week jumped on the zombie apocalypse bandwagon as a theme for emergency preparedness. But, honestly, according to science, would a zombie apocalypse ever really be possible? The short answer, as told by Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown in their latest ASAP Science YouTube video, is “hypothetically, yes.” We’re not talking the back from the dead type of zombie, but a virus affecting the brain and causing the victim to lash out in zombie-like fashion, which at least has stronger possibilities. The slightly more than two minute video explains how neurons could be used by the virus. “This zombie virus would have to use specific neurons that affect particular parts of the brain to induce a zombie state,” the narrator said. The crux is that the virus can’t damage the entire brain. So, if this sounds unlikely, the narrator goes on to explain that your own nasal passages contain olfactory nerves linking to parts of the brain that if infected with the currently fictional virus could lead to “zombified effects.” “Essentially, transmission of a virus through the olfactory nerve could create super hungry, agressive, brain dead beings that can’t recognize family and friends or control their own actions.” See for yourself how this virus would work in the video:
Southern Educators Perpetuate Myths When They Should Know Better! The nature of the stealth campaign being waged today against the Constitution and traditional republican values is much like others we have seen in other places and in other times. When the South was attacked in 1861, Americans witnessed the beginning of what has become a flurry of anti-constitutional views propped up by our educational elites. Though I am not a trained historian (my doctorate is in theology), for many years I have researched the Civil War—or, more accurately, the War for Southern Independence (“Civil War” wrongly implies that the South was fighting to gain control of a central government). I have seen with my own eyes the vast amount of original documents that back up the illegality of the Northern invasion of the South. Yet even many Southerners who have a Confederate heritage hang their heads in shame because the government schools teach them to. In the documentary, “Africans in America,” an African-American woman put it best when she said, “Slavery was not a Southern problem; it was an American problem.” The South did not create slavery—Northern ship merchants did that. I recently spent a day examining several widely-used high school history textbooks and discovered that in dealing with the South before 1865 they include numerous false assumptions. Liberals who spread emotional lies about the war and about the South often go so far as to equate the Confederate flag with the Nazi swastika. Historical revisionists who attack the legitimacy of the Confederacy and its cause—and thus the right of Southerners to exist as a people with a unique culture and heritage—usually base their attacks upon falsehoods. The premier myths are the following: But the most insidious myth is that of the “great and good” North marching into the “cruel and evil” South for the sole purpose of freeing the slaves. There are many quotes from Northern leaders (Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and others) that show clearly that the main purpose of the North was not the eradication of slavery but the subjugation of the Southern people. If you will take the time to study these commonly accepted myths, you will easily find them to be false and spread either accidentally, through ignorance, or else deliberately, with contempt towards Southerners. Contrary to what most Americans are taught in school, Lincoln did not launch the war in order to make blacks equal with whites. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates he said, “I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races, and I have never said anything on the contrary.” In a speech in Illinois in 1858 he said that he was not in favor of making voters or jurors of blacks, or qualifying them to hold office or to intermarry with white people. In his own words: I will say, then, that I am not now, nor never have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social or political equality of the white and black races. I am not now, nor never have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarriage with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living together in terms of social and political equality. Inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white man. Lincoln supported the Illinois law that prohibited the immigration of blacks into that state and advocated sending blacks to Haiti, Central America, or Africa. In his eulogy to Henry Clay in 1852, he said, “There is a moral fitness to the idea of returning to Africa her children….” In a message to Congress in 1862 he said: “I cannot make it any better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization.” In a famous letter to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, on August 22, 1862, he wrote, “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” That was Lincoln’s position. Another common misconception is that Southern blacks were all slaves and could own no property. However, blacks themselves held slaves throughout the war. According to Roger D. McGrath, in “Slavery’s Inconvenient Facts,” Chronicles Magazine, November 2001, in 1860 some 3,000 blacks owned nearly 20,000 black slaves. In South Carolina alone, black slaveholders owned more than 10,000 blacks. Born a slave in 1790, William Ellison owned 63 slaves by 1860, making him one of Charleston’s leading slaveholders. In the 1850 census for Charleston City, the port of Charleston, there were 68 black men and 123 black women who owned slaves. In Louisiana’s St. Landry Parish, according to the 1860 census, black planter Auguste Donatto owned 70 slaves and farmed 500 acres of cotton fields. Of course, black slaveholders were the exception to the rule, but so were white ones. According to McGrath, only a small minority of Southern whites owned slaves—little more than five percent of the white population if calculated by individual owner, or twenty to twenty-five percent if all the members of the slave owners’ families are included. This means that seventy-five percent or more of Southerners neither owned slaves themselves nor were members of families who did. Those who claimed that the war was not about slavery stretched from the Virginia farmer defending his humble home, to the first Southern commissioners seeking Britain’s recognition of the Confederacy, and even to Union generals. During the summer of 1861, the federal Congress passed resolutions saying that war would be fought only to “preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired.” And General Ulysses S. Grant, who accepted Lee’s surrender on behalf of the Union at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in April, 1865, once said that if he “thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission, and offer my sword to the other side.” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued well into the war with the purpose of preventing foreign intervention. The Proclamation freed slaves only in parts of the Confederacy where Lincoln had no legal authority. Slaves in the North where the federal government had legitimate authority were freed only after the war. Robert E. Lee did not own slaves, but many Union generals did. When Lee’s father-in-law died, he took over the management of the plantation his wife had inherited and immediately began freeing the slaves. By the time Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, every slave in Lee’s charge had been freed. Yet some Union generals didn’t free their slaves until the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868. When the schools of the South were reopened after the war, the great majority of the youth of the land were fed with a literature created by Northerners. Publishers whose sole purpose was to secure the great market now opening in every school district in the South issued books that were found to be full of error and misrepresentation. The aims of the people of the South and of their state governments were falsified, and the characters of the great men who had led the South were belittled and defamed. Hence a generation grew up with conceptions of the motives of their fathers that were not only mistaken but altogether dishonorable. The result was that the youth of the South were robbed of a glorious and proud heritage. Little has changed today. That slavery was the cause of the war; that prisoners of war held in the South were treated barbarously; that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors to their country; that the young men who died willingly on a hundred battlefields were rebels against a righteous government—all these falsehoods continue to be taught and perpetuated. Even schoolteachers in the South, ignorant of their own history, accept the Northern view that slavery was the cause of the war. They take this position despite the fact that the quarrel between the North and the South began when slavery existed in all the States. In 1898, 34 years after Sherman’s army burned Atlanta to the ground, a Union veteran visited the city. The veteran addressed the Georgia legislature, praising the valor of the Confederate dead and offering federal aid in the care of their graves. Georgia rose up to welcome him and with Georgia the whole South. It was a magnificent gesture by President William McKinley, who had been a teenager at Antietam. The scene has been recreated by biographer Margaret Leech in her book In the Days of McKinley: My friends, if this veteran of four years of fighting could stand out of respect for the flag of his foes, what’s our problem 105 years later? September 23, 2003 David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. He is currently finishing his latest book, Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.
To battle cancer and other diseases of the gut, we could one day use genetically altered bacteria that release medicines to tumors or the gut. A new study performed using mice demonstrates how doctors might one day better regulate those therapeutic microbes by engineering them to respond to temperature. For instance, if engineered bacteria were administered to a patient with a disease, doctors could, in theory, instruct the bacteria to release medicine to just the site of interest, and nowhere else in the body, by using ultrasound to gently heat up the tissue. Mikhail Shapiro‘s research goal is to create new ways to both visualize and control cells, bacterial cells and human cells, for medicinal purposes. The assistant professor of chemical engineering at Caltech says: “Bacteria can be designed to act like special agents fighting disease in our bodies. We’re building walkie-talkies for the cells so we can both listen and talk to them.” Engineered Bacteria Applications The research, led by principal investigator Shapiro also shows how these engineered bacteria, once in a patient, could be programmed to stop administering a therapeutic or to self-destruct if the patient’s temperature rises from a fever. A fever might signal that the therapy is not working, and thus it would be in the patient’s best interest for the bacteria to terminate its activity. In another application of the technology, the researchers demonstrated how the bacteria could be designed to destroy themselves once they leave a patient’s body through defecation. The lower temperature outside of a host’s body would signal the engineered bacteria to activate a genetic kill switch, thereby alleviating concerns about the genetically altered microbes spreading to the environment. “We can use these thermal switches in bacteria to control a variety of behaviors,” says Shapiro. The strategy of using engineered bacteria to fight disease, part of a growing field called microbial therapeutics, has shown some promise in animal models and humans. Previous research has demonstrated that some bacteria naturally make their way to tumor sites because they prefer the tumors’ low-oxygen environments. Studies have shown that these bacteria can be directed to release a medicine onto tumors, such as the tumor-destroying drug hemolysin. Other studies have shown that bacteria administered to the gut can release molecules to reduce inflammation. But these bacteria might end up in other portions of the body, and not just at the sites of interest. The method developed by Shapiro’s lab solves this problem by providing a mechanism through which bacteria can be instructed to direct drugs only to a specific anatomical site. The idea is that the genetically engineered bacteria would activate their therapeutic program at a certain temperature induced via ultrasound tools, which gently heat tissues with millimeter precision. A doctor, theoretically, could administer genetically altered bacteria to a cancer patient and then, by focusing ultrasound at the tumor site, trigger the bacteria to fight the tumor. Creating Thermally Controllable Bacteria Co-lead author Mohamad Abedi, graduate student in Shapiro’s lab, said: “We can spatially and temporally control the activity of the bacteria. We can communicate with them and tell them when and where something needs to be done.” To create thermally controllable bacteria, the team first needed to find candidate genetic switches whose activity depends on temperature changes. They ultimately identified two candidates. The first is a protein in Salmonella bacteria, and the second originates from a bacterial virus called a bacteriophage. Both proteins bind to DNA to turn a genetic circuit on or off in response to temperature. Next, the scientists used a protein engineering technique known as ”directed evolution,” pioneered by Caltech’s Frances Arnold, to evolve the proteins in the lab and tune their switching temperatures. For instance, the Salmonella protein was originally activated by temperatures ranging between 42 and 44 degrees Celsius. Using directed evolution, the scientists generated versions with activation temperatures between 36 and 39 degrees Celsius. When these genetic switches are used to control the expression of therapeutic proteins, they can act like thermal controls to turn the therapy on or off at a given temperature. “When we were thinking about how to get bacteria to sense temperature, we looked at nature and found a few systems where bacteria can do this,” says Piraner. “We tested the performance, found the ones that had the best switching performance. From there, we went on to find that they could be tuned and amplified. It all started with what nature gave us, and engineering took us the rest of the way.” The study was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Weston Havens Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Career Awards at the Scientific Interface, and the Heritage Medical Research Institute, as well as through graduate fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Dan I Piraner, Mohamad H Abedi, Brittany A Moser, Audrey Lee-Gosselin & Mikhail G Shapiro Tunable thermal bioswitches for in vivo control of microbial therapeutics Nature Chemical Biology (2016) doi:10.1038/nchembio.2233 Top Image: Barth van Rossum for Caltech
July 5, 2018 Remembering Space Architect and “Design Outlaw” Constance Adams Adams’s work, including her projects for space habitats, broke the law of gravity. “You take gravity out of the equation and everything goes kablooey.” This quote pretty much sums up my friend and classmate, space architect Constance Adams, who died of cancer on June 24. For over two decades, Constance worked on human habitats for NASA, Lockheed-Martin, and other organizations and agencies in the aerospace industry, developing designs for the International Space Station and the Virgin Galactic spaceport, among other projects. She was a pioneer in the field of sociokinetics, which explores the ways people interact with the built environment and with each other. For example, in her work for TransHab (“transit habitat”), she developed furnishings that accommodate or adapt to any size and shape of body. That egalitarian approach was the foundation for all of Constance’s work: every environment everywhere must be welcoming for anyone and everyone. In this sense, she redefined the concept of “universal design” to apply to both terrestrial and extraterrestrial places, architectural and outer space both. Constance was possibly the most brilliant among my brilliant classmates at the Yale School of Architecture (M.Arch, 1990). But she also was unsatisfied with the limitations of design education, which often prizes craft and production over intellectual curiosity, as if answers outweigh questions. The child of academics, Constance thrived on big, bold questions. She was hungry and tenacious enough not to let the confines of the profession stop her from forging her own path, and she had one of the most inspired careers of any architect. After graduation, she worked in Japan for Kenzō Tange, who had recently won the Pritzker Prize, then in Germany for Josef Paul Kleihues, who had been a visiting professor while we were at Yale. For someone who grew up in Dallas, these were in themselves otherworldly experiences, in more ways than one. Among the hundred-or-so people in Tange’s office at the time, Constance was one of only two women—the other was a secretary. In Germany, there were more women, but they were “drafting, not designing,” as she put it. By the time she got to NASA, she was accustomed to being the only woman in a room full of men, and now the stakes were higher. “This is not a field where it’s a question of taste,” she told Kira Gould and me for our book, Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (2007). “It’s not about being pretty—it’s about solving a problem. If you don’t, people will die. So, I have very stringent standards. I’m pretty sure that if I were male, I’d get a lot of respect for that. Instead, I’m seen as too tough.” I didn’t see her as “too” anything. She was full of joy, with a quick laugh that filled the room, and her sense of humor was delightfully strange. Among my favorite memories of her from grad school was at the end of our first semester, just before the holiday, when she assembled a handful of us to entertain our classmates by singing Christmas carols in the studio. It was about two in the morning on the last of three consecutive all-nighters, and her idea was to relieve the tension by delivering what I can only describe as a hip-hop/doo-wop/beatnik version of “White Christmas.” I don’t remember the project we lost sleep over, but I do remember that song. For years, Constance and I stayed in touch but didn’t see much of each other. Then, in 2005, we were invited to give a talk together in a special session for the AIA national convention in Las Vegas. I’m not sure our hosts knew we were old friends, so it struck us as a funny coincidence. National Geographic had just named Constance among its Emerging Explorers—“uniquely gifted and inspiring adventurers, scientists, photographers and storytellers who are making a significant contribution to world knowledge through exploration.” That same year, I was a runner-up in Metropolis’ Next Generation Design Prize program, so I assume our sponsors thought we’d give a joint talk about research and technology. Instead, we spoke about social equity in design. We called the session “Other Worlds.” I talked about the so-called “Third World,” drawing from an essay I had just published for Metropolis (“The Ethics of Brick,” June 2005) arguing that “sustainability” could never be realized until extreme poverty was eradicated. Constance gave a riveting presentation about global interdependence and “sustaining the mother(ship).” The two topics meshed surprisingly well, and we realized we should have been collaborating all along. Soon after, I asked her to consult on the design of an education center. The team and I had been struggling to fit a closed-loop water system in the limited space we had, and Constance immediately fixed the problem by bringing in a compact bioregeneration system developed for the ISS and tested at the EU’s Antarctic station. She called it “a salt marsh in a milk crate.” Had the project been built, it would have been revolutionary. That was Constance in a nutshell. While “green” architects think about using limited resources, a space architect has to survive without any resources. “If you don’t recycle your water and air, you’re screwed,” she told us for Women in Green. One of the defining aspects of architecture is that it sits on the earth; put it in space, everything about goes “kablooey.” By necessity, Constance’s work broke the law of gravity, which made her a bit of a design outlaw. She was a badass. Dwelling in off-world architecture made Constance more sensitive to our own world. “The whole planet is an integrated system for supporting life,” she told Kira and me. “Earth is the mother(ship), and we are her offspring.” But she also was certain that humanity will colonize other planets. “This will happen. It’s not a matter of if, just when—and how. We already have the ability to go to other planets and terraform them—remake them literally in the earth’s image—but will we do it responsibly? We are the means by which this planet will reproduce. We are the instruments of the next biological phase of the earth. Mother Earth is an empty nester.” Now Constance herself has quit the earth. It’s the earth’s loss. Andrés Jaque On Mud Architecture
Teaching a Shih Tzu puppy or a Shih Tzu dog proper socialization skills is vital to the safety of both your dog and other dogs and people with whom he comes into contact. A properly socialized Shih Tzu dog is a happy dog, and a joy to be around for both humans and animals. A poorly socialized Shih Tzu dog, or one with no socialization at all, is a danger to other animals, other people and even his own family. Socialization is best done when the Shih Tzu puppy is as young as possible The socialization lessons a young Shih Tzu puppy learns are difficult to undo, and it is important to remember that the socialization skills the Shih Tzu puppy learns will affect his behavior for the rest of his life. A Shih Tzu dog that is properly socialized will be neither frightened of nor aggressive towards either animals or humans. A properly socialized Shih Tzu dog will take each new experience and stimulus in stride, and not become fearful or aggressive. Shih Tzu dogs that are not properly socialized often bite because of fear, and such a Shih Tzu dog can become a hazard and a liability to the family who owns it. Improperly socialized Shih Tzu dogs are also unable to adapt to new situations. A routine matter like a trip to the vets or to a friends house can quickly stress the Shih Tzu dog out and lead to all sorts of problems. Socialization is best done when the Shih Tzu puppy is very young, perhaps around 12 weeks of age. Even after 12 weeks, however, it is important that the Shih Tzu puppy continues its socialization in order to refine the all important social skills. It is possible to socialize an older Shih Tzu puppy, but it is very difficult to achieve after the all important 12 week period has passed. There are some definite do's and don't when it comes to properly socializing any Shih Tzu puppy. Let's start with what to do. Later in this article we will explore what to avoid. Make each of the socialization events as pleasant and non-threatening for the Shih Tzu puppy as possible. If a Shih Tzu puppy's first experience with any new experience is an unpleasant one, it will be very difficult to undo that in the Shih Tzu puppy's mind. In some cases, an early trauma can morph into a phobia that can last for a lifetime. It is better to take things slow and avoid having the Shih Tzu puppy become frightened or injured. Try inviting your friends over to meet the new Shih Tzu puppy. It is important to include as many different people as possible in the Shih Tzu puppy's circle of acquaintances, including men, women, children, adults, as well as people of many diverse ethnic backgrounds and ages. Also invite friendly and healthy dogs and puppies over to meet your puppy. It is important for the Shih Tzu puppy to meet a wide variety of other animals, including cats, hamsters, rabbits and other animals he is likely to meet. It is of course important to make sure that all animals the Shih Tzu puppy comes into contact with have received all necessary vaccinations. Take the Shih Tzu puppy to many different places, including shopping centers, pet stores, parks, school playgrounds and on walks around the neighborhood. Try to expose the Shih Tzu puppy to places where they will be crowds of people and lots of diverse activity going on. Take the Shih Tzu puppy for frequent short rides in the car. During these rides, be sure to stop the car once in a while and let the puppy look out the window at the world outside. Introduce your Shih Tzu puppy to a variety of items that may be unfamiliar. The Shih Tzu puppy should be exposed to common items like bags, boxes, vacuum cleaners, umbrellas, hats, etc. that may be frightening to him. Allow and encourage the Shih Tzu puppy to explore these items and see that he has nothing to fear from them. Get the Shih Tzu puppy used to a variety of objects by rearranging familiar ones. Simply placing a chair upside down, or placing a table on its side, creates an object that your Shih Tzu puppy will perceive as totally new. Get the Shih Tzu puppy used to common procedures like being brushed, bathed, having the nails clipped, teeth cleaned, ears cleaned, etc. Your groomer and your veterinarian with thank you for this. Introduce the Shih Tzu puppy to common things around the house, such as stairs. Also introduce the Shih Tzu puppy to the collar and leash, so he will be comfortable with these items. There are of course some things to avoid when socializing a Shih Tzu puppy. These socialization don'ts include: Do not place the Shih Tzu puppy on the ground when strange animals are present. An attack, or even a surprise inspection, by an unknown animal could traumatize the Shih Tzu puppy and hurt his socialization. Do not inadvertently reward fear based behavior. When the Shih Tzu puppy shows fear, it is normal to try to sooth it, but this could reinforce the fear based behavior and make it worse. Since biting is often a fear based behavior, reinforcing fear can create problems with biting. Do not force or rush the socialization process. It is important to allow the Shih Tzu puppy to socialize at his own pace. Do not try to do too much too soon. Young Shih Tzu puppies have short attention spans, and continuing lessons after that attention span has passed will be a waste of your time and your puppy's. Do not wait too long to begin. There is a short window in which to begin the socialization process. A young Shih Tzu puppy is a blank slate, and it is important to fill that slate with positive socialization skills as early as possible. Early Socialization Is Essential For Your Shih Tzu Puppy by Connie Limon Connie Limon, breeder of the Shih Tzu Austin, Indiana Stain Glass Shih Tzus www.stainglassshihtzus.com.
written by: Wikipedia The 1969 Gujarat riots refers to the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims during September–October 1969, in , . The violence was Gujarat's first major riot that involved massacre, arson and looting on a large scale. It was the most deadly Hindu-Muslim violence since the 1947 , and remained such until the . According to the official figures, 660 people were killed, 1074 people were injured and over 48,000 lost their property. Unofficial reports claim as high as 2000 deaths. The Muslim community suffered the majority of the losses. Out of the 512 deaths reported in the police complaints, 430 were Muslims. Property worth 42 million rupees was destroyed during the riots, with Muslims losing 32 million worth of property. A distinctive feature of the violence was the attack on Muslim chawls by their DalitHindu neighbours who had maintained peaceful relations with them until this point. The riots happened during the chief ministership of the leader Hitendra Desai. The Justice Reddy Commission set up by his government blamed the organizations for the violence. Various writers trace the causes of the riots to a mix of socioeconomic and political factors (see below). The violence started on 18 September 1969 after Muslims attacked some Hindu and a temple, after the cows herded by the sadhus caused injury to them. The Hindus later attacked a Muslim dargah, and Muslim protesters also attacked the temple again, leading to a mass breakout of violence. The riots started in , and then spread to other areas, notably , Mehsana, Nadiad, Anand and Gondal. By 26 September, the violence had been brought under control, however some more violent incidents happened during 18–28 October 1969. The Hindu-Muslim tension increased considerably in Gujarat during the 1960s. Between 1961 and 1971, there were 685 incidents of communal violence in the urban areas of Gujarat (plus, another 114 in the rural areas). Out of the 685 incidents, 578 incidents happened in 1969 alone. Although Ahmedabad had been divided along the caste and religious lines, it was not a communally sensitive area until the 1960s. In the 1960s, the city's attracted a large number of migrants from other parts of the state. During 1961-71, the city's population grew by nearly 38%, resulting in rapid growth of in the eastern part of the city. However, mid-1960s onwards, a number of under-qualified mill workers in Ahmedabad became unemployed, as the jobs went to the small units of . During the 1960s, seven large mills in Ahmedabad shut down, and around 17,000 workers lost their jobs. The Hindus were over-represented among these workers, compared to the Muslims. The Hindu workers faced a greater sense of insecurity, as the local Muslim workers were said to be more skilled in the weaving. Several violent clashes involving the textile workers took place in the slums of the city, mainly between the Hindu Dalits and the Muslims. The changing socioeconomic factors also impacted the political situation in the city. The had been fragmenting, leading to tensions between its factions: the Congress eventually split into and in 1969. At the same time, the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had established local strongholds in the eastern parts of the city. Several incidents led to increase in tensions between the two communities in Ahmedabad. During a three-day rally held in Maninagarduring 27–28 December 1968, the RSS supremo pleaded for a ("Hindu nation"). On the Muslim side, provocative speeches were made at the conference of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in June 1969. On the evening of 3 March 1969, a Hindu police officer moved a that was obstructing traffic near the Kalupur Tower. A copy of placed on the handcart fell on the ground, resulting in a demand for an apology by a small Muslim crowd standing nearby. The crowd soon grew bigger, and twelve policemen were injured in the subsequent violent protests. On 31 August, the Muslims of the city held a massive demonstration to protest the of the in Jerusalem. On 4 September, a Muslim sub-inspector, while dispersing a Ramlila festive crowd, hit a table. As a result, the Hindu text and an Aarti thali (plate) fell down. The Hindus alleged that the police officer also kicked the sacred book. This incident led to protests by Hindus, and the formation of the Hindu Dharma Raksha Samiti by the RSS leaders. The Hindu Dharma Raksha Samiti ("Hindu Religion Protection Committee") organized protests in which anti-Muslim slogans were raised. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Balraj Madhokvisited the city and made fiery speeches on 14 and 15 September. Another incident included an alleged assault on some Muslim maulvis, who were trying to construct a mosque in the Odhav village near Ahmedabad. On 18 September 1969, a Muslim crowd had gathered in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad to celebrate the local Urs festival at the tomb of a saint (Bukhari Saheb's Chilla). When the (Hindu holy men) of the nearby Jagannath temple tried to bring their cows back to the temple compound through the crowded streets, some Muslim women were injured. The cows also allegedly damaged some carts on which the Muslims were selling goods. This led to violence in which some Muslim youths attacked and injured the sadhus, and damaged the temple windows. Sevadasji, the mahant (priest) of the Hindu temple, went on a , which he gave up after a 15-member Muslim delegation led by A.M. Peerzada met him and apologized. However, subsequently, a dargah (tomb shrine) near the temple was damaged by some Hindus. A large number of Muslims protestors gathered in the area. On the afternoon of 19 September, a crowd of 2500-3000 Muslims attacked the temple again. Following this, the rumors spread and the violence escalated, resulting in several incidents of arson, murders and attacks on the places of worship around the area. The Muslims in the eastern areas of the city and its suburbs started fleeing their homes for safer areas. Several trains carrying them were stopped and attacked. A was imposed on the evening of 19 September, and on the next day, the army was called in to control the violence. During 19–24 September, 514 people were killed. This period also saw damage to 6,123 houses and shops, mainly by Hindus. In the afternoon of 20 September 1969, a young Muslim man, angry at the destruction of his property by Hindus, announced that he would take revenge. An angry Hindu mob beat him up and asked him to shout Jai Jagannath("Hail Jagannath"). The Muslim man said that he would rather die. The crowd then sprinkled petrol on him and burnt him to death. The municipal corporation by-election scheduled for 22 September was postponed. The first curfew relaxation on the next day resulted in 30 deaths within the first 3 hours. According to the Justice Reddy Commission set up by the Congress Government to investigate the riots, the organizations like , and were involved in the riots. The Commission of Enquiry was set up by the Government of Gujarat's Home Department. It published a report in 1971, questioning the police's role in the riots. It found around six instances of Muslim religious places adjoining or being attacked or damaged. The police defended themselves claiming these police stations did not have adequate strength since the forces were busy quelling the riots at other places. However, the Commission refused to entertain this argument, since there was no report of damage to a Hindu place of worship near any police station. Overall, 37 mosques, 50 dargahs, 6 kabristans (Muslim graveyards) and 3 temples were destroyed. The journalist Ajit Bhattacharjea accused the police of not taking any "firm action for the first three days", and stated that "this was not a matter of slackness but policy". An unnamed senior Congress leader told him that their government was reluctant to use force because it was afraid of losing power to Jan Sangh in the next elections in case it did so. The members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh called the violence a revenge for the of Hindus by the in 1946. On 26 September, a Hindu organisation called Sangram Samiti claimed that the Congress-led government had been appeasing the Muslims, and had been encouraging the "abolition of Hindu religion under the name of ". The Hindu organizations claimed that after the alleged desecration of the Koran in March, the Hindu police officer had to apologize twice, while "it took days for taking any steps when the Hindus were similarly insulted" after the alleged desecration of the Ramayana in September. According to the author and social activist Achyut Yagnik, the 1969 riots were a turning point in the Hindu-Muslim relations in Gujarat, and led to a drop in the tolerance levels, which was visible in the later riots of 1992-93 and . After the 1969 riots, the state saw increasing Muslim ghettoisation. According to a conspiracy theory, the violence was "deliberately engineered" to discredit the chief minister Hitendra Desai, who had been supporting the Congress (O) leader Morarji Desai instead of the Congress (I) leader . Casualties based on the police complaints
Paul Younghusband reviews The Art and Science of Digital Compositing which delves into the artistic and scientific techniques used to blend multiple 2D elements seamlessly. Very rarely does one get a book on visual effects that focuses on 2D techniques, and most that do tend to cover a specific software package, such as Photoshop or After Effects. Books that steer away from software-specific material tend to be very basic and give the reader a fundamental grounding in how visual effects work (take for example the Industrial Light & Magic book, Into the Digital Realm). The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, however, is different; it takes an area of visual effects which is rarely recognised and analyses it piece by piece, going deep into the artistic and scientific techniques used to blend together multiple 2D elements seamlessly to create a believable -- yet fictional -- image. The first thing to note is that this is not a book of tools, nor is it a book of tutorials -- it is a comprehensive 'manual' on the techniques used in digital compositing today; techniques that can be applied in most compositing packages and systems on the market. The depth in which these techniques are explored is unrivalled by any book released in recent years. As the title of the book suggests, digital compositing is a science as well as an art. The book tends to cover a lot more science than art (although art is covered sufficiently, the science 'chunk' of the book is more substantial), and does get quite technical at times. However, the layout of the book is such that the reader is eased in, starting off with simple things such as file formats, channels, resolution and input devices, and then moved on to explore more complex areas such as matte creation and manipulation, tracking issues, and integration techniques. Art is covered in what at first appears to be a strange approach -- one chapter is titled "Learning to See." The book gives one a new way of looking at images; colour, contrast, perspective, depth, focus and blur are all areas of image and image manipulation that may seem familiar. However Brinkmann looks at these components that make up an image and discusses how to apply them to digital compositing; how to use them to make composites believable. The book also contains an extensive glossary, useful if one finds oneself lost in tech-talk. But what is especially useful, is a section of the book that looks at real world examples of digital compositing in film. This is one thing that sets it aside from all other software specific books -- one can actually learn how the techniques explored in the book are being used in the industry today. Also extremely useful, is the guide to file formats, and film formats at the back of the book -- a guide anyone new to digital compositing or visual effects should study meticulously. An accompanying CD-ROM contains all of the images in the book, and more (for closer examination), however, the 45 or so colour pages in the book are more than adequate to gain understanding of the techniques discussed. Some sample movies would have been a welcome addition to the CD. Generally speaking, this book is a godsend. Written by Ron Brinkmann, a gentleman with an admirable career history whose film credits include Speed, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Last Action Hero and many more, this book will turn out to be an invaluable insight into the compositing process for aspiring compositors and experienced artists. The Art and Science of Digital Compositing is one of those incredible books that you come away from buzzing with new ideas, and most importantly ways to improve your work. A must-read for anyone serious about getting involved with visual effects and post-production. The Art and Science of Digital Compositing by Ron Brinkmann. Book & CD-ROM Edition. San Diego, California: Academic Press/Morgan Kaufmann, 1999. 320 pages. ISBN: 0-12-133960-2. (US$54.95) Paul Younghusband is editor-in-chief of Visual Magic Magazine, a publication focusing on the 3-D graphics and digital effects industries.
First and Foremost: What is the definition of supply chain? The Supply Chain is the process through which a company creates and distributes its products and services to the end user. This process includes a number of specific elements such as: production planning, transportation management, material sourcing, warehouse management and demand management. When these functions are tightly integrated they provide products and services to the end user in an timely, efficient and profitable manner. As experts in this topic, Millennium Logistics Management believes that the following 3 keys are instrumental to a successful chain process: Key#1: Demand triggers must be identified as quickly as possible. Speed is oftentimes the primary concern of anyone who manages a supply chain. The faster stock moves, the better the chain is perceived to be. Getting the right part to the right place at the right time (as quickly as possible) is the number one priority of a supply chain. This requires you’re business to always have the right parts (and the right amount) in your supply chain. To understand why, we must look at how stock arrives in a supply chain in the first place. Stock exists in a supply chain for any or all of these three reasons: 1.) It is the most economical way to move materials from point A to point B (and points C and D and E…) 2.) The variable nature of supply, in terms of late delivery, quality failure rates, etc. 3.) The variable nature of demand, both in timing and quantities The variable nature of demand is what many people believe is the primary culprit to having too many or too little of any given part in a supply chain. This belief has driven many system providers to focus on improving their forecast models. An improvement in the response time of the supply chain is as valuable as an improved forecast. The quicker you can transfer information about actual usage back to the supply chain, the more quickly you can adjust to increases and decreases in demand. Having more time to react also provides you with the ability to ship and store parts more efficiently (further decreasing your overall costs). This requires visibility of the entire materials flow, not just within your own plants and warehouses, but also on the actual assembly floors. Key #2: Mechanisms for clarification are critical. Let us assume we have seen an extraordinary trigger (for the sake of this example) fifteen days earlier than expected. Specifically, fifteen days earlier than both the forecast and the historical data have led us to believe is ‘normal.’ The supplier sees this, sends their recognition of the trigger, and knows that this is abnormally early. On its own, this early demand is manageable, but we must make sure to ask the following question: Is it an early indication of something more major? This question leads us to another key basic need of a supply chain: a mechanism for clarification. For this purpose, there needs to exist a way for the supplier to ask the direct line customer and their customer(s) to explain (as in the above case) the unusually early trigger. This can be as simple as an e-mail from the supplier or as robust as a shared portal. Without the opportunity for clarification, most suppliers will miscalculate on the side of “just in case” which means that they will select the possibility that results in extra stock ‘just in case’, which puts us back where we started. Therefore, maintaining good and constant communication is the most effective mechanism for effective clarification. Simply put, effective clarification equals a successful supply chain! Key #3: Motivation should be a foundation, not an afterthought. Before implementing any change (whether it’s an upgrade, a new technology, or even the elimination of a step in the process) it is important to keep in mind that people, unlike technology or spreadsheets, make up the backbone of every supply chain. People, contrary to machines and materials, require motivation to function at their best. So, how can you help make sure that the “human wheels” are always well primed? There is no such thing as one method and that is because motivation is a moving target. Additionally, morale rises and falls in unpredictable ways for unpredictable reasons beyond anyone’s control. For instance, just as an example: On an assembly line, The logistics provider notices that operators are hoarding parts, which is costing the company money, hurting their ability to predict usage, and slowing production. he logistics provider collects all the hoarded parts and implements a more controlled and traceable flow to each station. While the plant had a record number of orders (due to the adjustments), the line workers could only judge the amount of future work by the parts they had near their station. The more parts they had, the less they were afraid of losing their jobs. But the fewer the parts, the higher they perceived risk to their job securities. The more they were afraid of job losses, the slower they worked to help stave off the day when they would have nothing to do. What did the logistics provider do in this situation? The logistics provider called a meeting and outlined the entire situation. The operations manager explained that the increased efficiency leads to a more controlled number of parts to each station were due to the higher levels of orders. The operations manager showed the stocks of open orders to make the point. After the meeting, the company saw the expected increase in productivity. There are two lessons to be learned here. The first is that the more transparent you make the process to every member of the team, the more they can see how their part in the process is critical. And secondly, we learned that people are the most important part of any supply chain and we should never take their efforts for granted. Millennium Logistics Management can look at single aspects of your supply chain or the entire supplier network and help you manage the new processes, or we can manage it for you. We analyze existing processes, from initiation of an order through fulfillment, and evaluate modal selection, carrier utilization, and existing cost structures. We formulate a customized solution for your unique needs. Contact us to find out how we can assist you and your business. Collisions are impossible to predict, and when they happen, they can cost your company millions. To combat this, you’ll […] When materials and components routinely cross thousands of miles in their supply chain, it seems implausible that the last tiny […] Supply chain disruptions are not a problem isolated to a few unlucky companies – every business that uses a supply chain […] Implementing a 4PL freight management system can bring clients many benefits including access to a uniform process via a transportation […]
A recent study published in Nature Climate Change claims that earthworms may be contributing to global warming. The invertebrates join the ranks of humans, cows and dinosaurs as creatures said to have contributed to the planet’s destruction. The U.K. Guardian has more on the study conducted by researchers from the Netherlands, the United States, and Colombia: The presence of worms affects how much carbon dioxide is produced in the soil and how much escapes to the atmosphere. Scientists are concerned that earthworms increase greenhouse gas emissions – and that earthworm numbers are on the rise. Nitrous oxide is another powerful greenhouse gas. Bacteria in the earthworms’ gut produce nitrous oxide and emissions from worm-infested soil can be three times as high as from soil without any worms, the paper says. For a while, scientists have faced a problem. They know earthworms can increase emissions from soil. But worms can also help the soil store carbon more efficiently, permanently locking it away. For a while it was unclear whether worms increase or decrease the total carbon emissions from soil – what scientists rather affectionately called the earthworm dilemma. The scientists in the new study combined all the results they could find to study this question. Overall, they found that the presence of earthworms in soil increased nitrous oxide emissions by 42 per cent and carbon dioxide emissions by 33 per cent. [Emphasis added] “Over the next few decades, earthworm presence is likely to increase in ecosystems worldwide,” the researchers inform. “For example, large parts of North American forest soils are now being invaded by earthworms for the first time since the last glaciation.” The worm population is apparently flourishing for a number of reasons, one of which is the switch to more organic fertilizers. But Ingrid Lubbers from Wageningen University said they still need more time to determine “to what extent global worming leads to global warming.” The paper concludes with the acknowledgement that earthworms are “largely beneficial to soil fertility,” but “increase net soil greenhouse-gas emissions.”
So. Where might one begin, if it is not our own frame of reference? Without our perspective we have no matter to analyse, no space to start in and not even a beginning as there is no time. We start out with nothing. How about we do? Literally start with nothing. Out of the ideas I wish to explain, this one might be the hardest to put into words. To some, this would seem like twisting definition. A play of words. But allow yourself to be open to what nothing really would mean. Don’t try to understand it so much, as to feel it. Nothing. While the definition is simple, the concept is often interpreted as the absence of something. We imagine the absence of matter. Is this nothing? We imagine the absence of radiation. Is this nothing? We imagine the absence of dimensions. Is this nothing? When we ask ourselves why anything exists, we are not asking why there is not just empty space, or some quantum soup. We are asking ourselves why anything, anything at all exists. Why is there not just nothing? Pure, unconditional nothing? Only when we leave our own perspective behind can “nothing” take its true form, its true meaning. Nothing as nothing. A definition not open for debate. This is the point where our way of thinking abandons us. For nothing is a concept that cannot even be conceived by our imagination. The reason for this, I believe, is that nothing in reality is as true as its definition on paper: nothing is not a thing. Nothing. A concept to represent the opposite of something. For in our world, up must have a down and full must have an empty. Something… must have nothing. Only in the absence of anything, there would be nothing. But in a pure and naked existence, why would there be a preference for one or the other? Consider the following. If there is nothing, there is nothing to prevent something to be. If there is something, this is everything to prevent nothing to be. Of course, the concept of nothing can never fully be grasped, and this is just my take on it. But to me, nothing, when taken in the truest meaning of the word, is not a thing. Therefore, there is something.
Infection with hepatitis E virus (HEV) is uncommon but apparently emerging in the high-income regions of North America, Western Europe and Australia. However, HEV is relatively common in parts of Asia, Africa and Central America. In these regions, HEV is commonly spread to people when sewage contaminates drinking water supplies. HEV can be associated with symptom-free infection or more severe symptoms associated with viral hepatitis, such as the following: In high-income countries, cases of HEV have been linked to eating undercooked products made from certain animals such as these: (Ken Sherman, M.D., University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, personal communication) Another source of exposure to HEV is recent travel to a region where HEV infection is relatively common. Most cases of HEV resolve without intervention. In rare cases treatment has been necessary and there are reports of successful recovery when the broad-spectrum antiviral agent ribavirin has been used, with or without interferon-alpha. In most cases of HEV infection in people in high-income countries, this virus does not appear to cause chronic disease that leads to liver damage. However, in the past decade, research teams in Western Europe have been reporting clusters of HEV infection in people with weakened immune systems due to cancer and organ transplantation. In these particular cases, liver damage has occurred. Due to these reports, other research teams have been concerned that people whose immune systems are weakened from HIV infection may also be at risk for becoming infected with HEV and developing liver damage. Here are findings from several studies by those other research teams. A team in the southern UK at hospitals in Truro and Bristol tested blood samples from 138 HIV-positive people and 463 HIV-negative people for antibodies to HEV -- suggesting exposure to this virus. They were also tested for HEV's genetic material using PCR (polymerase chain reaction); this is suggestive of active HEV infection. The team found no differences in rates of exposure to HEV between the two populations studied. Moreover, no HIV-positive people had chronic HEV infection. A large team of researchers in both northern and southern France -- in towns and cities such as Hyères, Maison-Alfort, Marseille, Pau, Paris and Toulon -- conducted a study with 245 HIV-positive people. Using antibody and PCR testing, technicians found that about 3% of people from northern France had been exposed to HEV in the past, compared to about 9% in southern France. No cases of chronic HEV infection were found among HIV-positive people. Researchers in this country tested 735 HIV-positive people who had unexplained elevations in ALT for exposure to HEV. They found that about 3% of people had been exposed to this virus. None of the people in this study had infection with hepatitis B or C viruses. Only one patient had chronic HEV infection, lasting for 24 months while he had a low CD4+ count (less than 100 cells). Once he began ART and his CD4+ count rose, he recovered from HEV infection. One study to investigate HEV infection among HIV-positive people was done by a consortium of military medical researchers in the U.S. Researchers analysed stored blood samples that had been collected between 1985 and 2009 because people had been having elevated levels of the liver enzyme ALT (alanine aminotransferease) in the blood by at least five times above the upper limit of normal. Elevations of such magnitude are suggestive of liver injury, such as that caused by viral infection of the liver. The research team scoured the medical records of 4,410 HIV-positive people and found blood samples from 194 that were available for HEV testing. In total, testing revealed that 13 people had been exposed to HEV. There were no increases in HEV infections between 1985 and 2009. In general, there were no differences in the characteristics of people exposed to HEV and those who were not. The exception was that HEV-positive people tended to have higher HIV viral loads than HEV-negative people. None of the 13 HEV-positive people developed chronic HEV infection. Taken together, the results from these studies suggest that HEV does not seem to be more common among HIV-positive people. Several of the research teams mentioned above, including the American one, have proposed that a diagnosis of HEV infection be considered for people with symptoms or lab tests suggestive of "viral-like hepatitis." Antibody testing for HEV may return with a negative result despite ongoing HEV infection. Therefore, the U.S. team suggests that among HIV-positive people, particularly those with low CD4+ cell counts, PCR testing should be used to assess HEV infection status. Furthermore, they add that HIV-positive people who take ART may be better able to recover from HEV, but this needs to be proven in a study. Further general research on HEV is being done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as by scientists in Western Europe. No comments have been made.
Last week, the UN officially named 2013 the year of quinoa, and while the health benefits of the whole grain are laudable, the Guardian points out that quinoa's popularity does have some downsides. Noting the price increase in quinoa, Joanna Blythman writes that an ethical dilemma enters the picture when discussing quinoa. As prices increase, and as growers export their product, locals in quinoa-producing areas are no longer able to afford their once-staple grain. The price of the "miracle grain of the Andes" has tripled since 2006, meaning poorer communities at risk of starvation in Peru and Bolivia must find their nutrition elsewhere. In Lima, for example, the price of quinoa is higher than chicken. "It's beginning to look like a cautionary tale of how a focus on exporting premium foods can damage the producer country's food security," Blythman writes. In another example, the increase in Peruvian asparagus production has also taken up much of the water resources locals depended on. Luckily, the UN is looking to increase quinoa production elsewhere, increasing supply and potentially lowering costs. How a price decrease will hit the farmers, however, has yet to be shown.
Originating from West African countries like Ghana and Nigeria, Prekese has a long history of traditional use in healing practices. The fruit is usually dried and ground into a powder before being used in cooking or as a medicinal supplement. This article delves into the various Prekese health benefits, facts, and essential information surrounding this fruit to teach your kids. It is also shedding light on its growing popularity in alternative medicine worldwide. What Is A Prekese? Prekese is a type of plant known scientifically as Tetrapleura Tetraptera, is commonly used in traditional medicine and as a spice in cooking. The fruit is used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments, including diabetes and hypertension. The plant’s leaves, fruit, and seeds are used to make various remedies and dishes, and are believed to have medicinal properties. Other Names of Prekese Fruit: Prekese is also known as African Tejpat, African Medlar, Afromomum melegueta and Tetrapleura tetraptera. Nigerians call it as Oshosho and Ubukirihu. In some countries it is also called “Apapa”, “Etima”, “Ighirehimi” or “Etinkon” . Nutritional Facts of Prekese Prekese is a rich source of various nutrients, including: - Vitamin C: Prekese is a good source of vitamin C, which is important for maintaining a healthy immune system and collagen production. - Calcium: Prekese is also a rich source of calcium, which is important for building and maintaining strong bones and teeth. - Iron: Prekese contains iron, which is important for the production of red blood cells and the transportation of oxygen throughout the body. - Potassium: Prekese contains potassium, which is important for maintaining a healthy heart and normal blood pressure. - Protein: Prekese also contains protein, which is important for building and repairing tissues in the body. - Fiber: It’s also high in fiber, which is important for maintaining healthy digestion. Also Read: Fun Earth Facts For Kids Health Benefits of Prekese: Prekese (also known as tetrapleura tetraptera) is a West African plant that has a variety of potential health benefits. Some of these benefits include: - Anti-inflammatory properties: - Rich in antioxidants: - Blood sugar control: - Bone health: - Digestive health: - Weight Loss: - Fever and Enema: - Postpartum Care: - Mosquito Repellent: - Prekese For Skin: - Cardiovascular health: - May have cancer-fighting properties: Prekese is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help to reduce pain and swelling in the body. Prekese is a good source of antioxidants, which can help to protect the body’s cells from damage caused by free radicals. Prekese is believed to have a beneficial effect on blood sugar levels, making it potentially useful for people with diabetes. Prekese is rich in minerals such as calcium, which is essential for maintaining strong bones. Prekese is believed to have a beneficial effect on the digestive system, helping to relieve constipation and other digestive issues. Prekese is commonly used in traditional medicine for a variety of purposes, including weight loss. Some studies have shown that Prekese may have anti-obesity properties, as it has been found to reduce body weight and body fat in animal models. However, more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of Prekese for weight loss in humans. It is always recommended to consult a health professional before taking any supplement for weight loss. Prekese plant that has traditionally been used to treat fever. The plant’s leaves and fruits are typically crushed and made into a tea or decoction that is consumed to reduce fever symptoms. Prekese is a type of fruit that is commonly used in traditional medicine to treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. Studies have shown that compounds found in Prekese, such as triterpenoids and flavonoids, may have anti-hypertensive effects. However, more research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of Prekese as a treatment for hypertension and to understand its potential side effects. Prekese plant that is used in traditional medicine for postpartum recovery. It is believed to help with cramping, bleeding, and overall healing after childbirth. The Preekse fruit or its extracts can be used to make a paste or oil that can be applied to the skin to help repel mosquitoes. It is said to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and may be used to treat a variety of skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne. It is also used as a beauty aid to improve the appearance of the skin, and is said to help with skin discoloration and aging. However, there is limited scientific research to support these uses and more study is needed to determine the effectiveness and safety of using prekese for skin. Prekese has been found to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. May help boost the immune system: Prekese is rich in Vitamin C, which is important for the normal function of the immune system. Some research suggests that Prekese may have anticancer properties, which may help prevent the growth and spread of cancer cells. Note: It is important to note that more research is needed to confirm these benefits and to determine the appropriate dosage and method of use. It’s important to consult with a healthcare professional before using any herbal supplement for a medical condition. Also Read: Fun Science Facts For Kids Side Effects of Prekese There is limited scientific research available on the side effects of Prekese, but some potential side effects that have been reported include stomach upset, nausea, and vomiting. It is also not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women as it may be harmful. Prekese can cause allergic reactions in some individuals. Allergies to Prekese may manifest as itching, skin rash, hives, or difficulty breathing. If you have known allergies or experience any of these symptoms after consuming Prekese, it is advisable to discontinue its use and seek immediate medical attention. Prekese may interact with certain medications, potentially affecting their effectiveness or causing adverse effects. It is particularly important to exercise caution if you are taking medications for conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Consultation with a healthcare professional before consuming Prekese is recommended to determine if there are any potential interactions. Excessive consumption of Prekese may lead to gastrointestinal discomfort in some individuals. This can manifest as stomach upset, bloating, or diarrhea. To avoid these symptoms, it is advisable to consume Prekese in moderation and follow recommended guidelines. Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: Limited research is available on the safety of Prekese consumption during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Therefore, it is generally recommended to avoid Prekese if you are pregnant or breastfeeding to minimize potential risks to both the mother and the baby. Consultation with a healthcare professional is crucial in these situations. Specific Medical Conditions: Individuals with certain medical conditions should exercise caution and seek medical advice before consuming Prekese. For example, individuals with liver or kidney diseases, bleeding disorders, or hormonal imbalances should consult their healthcare provider to determine if Prekese is suitable for them. It is always a good idea to consult with a healthcare professional before taking any new herb to ensure that it is safe for you and does not interact with any medications you are currently taking. Also Read: Fun Animal Facts For Kids Here are a few recipes that use prekese: - Prekese Drink: Blend prekese pods with water and strain. Add sugar and ginger to taste. - Prekese Stew: Cook chicken or beef with onions, tomatoes, and prekese pods. Serve over rice. - Prekese Porridge: Cook millet or cornmeal with water and prekese pods. Add sugar and milk to taste. - Prekese Tea: Boil prekese pods in water and let steep for several minutes. Sweeten with honey or sugar. - Prekese Sauce: Blend prekese pods with onions, tomatoes, and pepper. Cook until thickened and serve as a side dish or condiment. How To Make Prekese Herbal Tea? Prekese tea is a traditional African herbal tea made from the dried fruit of the West African prunus africana tree. The tea is made by steeping the dried fruit in hot water, and it has a unique and slightly bitter taste. Some people sweeten it with honey or sugar to make it more palatable. To make Prekese tea recipe, you will need: - 2 cups of water - 2-3 Prekese pods (also known as West African locust beans) - sweetener of your choice (optional) - Bring the water to a boil in a pot. - Add the Prekese pods to the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. - Allow the tea to simmer for about 10 minutes. - Remove the pot from heat and let the tea steep for an additional 5 minutes. - Strain the tea into a cup and sweeten to taste, if desired. Enjoy your Prekese tea! Note: This tea is known to be bitter, adding some sweetener like honey, sugar or cinnamon will help to balance the taste. Also Read: Fun Geography Facts For Kids How To Prepare Prekese Drinks? Prekese drink is a traditional Ghanaian beverage made from the fruit of the prekese tree (Tamarindus indica). Here is a recipe for making prekese drink: - 10 prekese pods - 2 cups of water - 1 cup of sugar (or to taste) - 1 tsp of ginger powder (optional) - 1 tsp of nutmeg powder (optional) - Soak the prekese pods in water for about 30 minutes to soften them. - Remove the seeds from the pods and crush the pods in a mortar and pestle or blend them. - Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the crushed prekese pods. - Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. - Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove the solids. - Add sugar and ginger and nutmeg powder (if using) to the prekese liquid and stir until the sugar is dissolved. - Allow the mixture to cool, then serve over ice. Enjoy your delicious and refreshing prekese drink! FAQs on Prekese: Can I drink Prekese water? Yes, you can drink Prekese water. It is believed to provide various health benefits and can be enjoyed as a refreshing beverage. What are the benefits of drinking boiled Prekese? Boiled Prekese aids in digestion, promotes cardiovascular health, and supports blood sugar regulation. Is Prekese good for the heart? Yes, Prekese is believed to be good for the heart due to its potential to regulate blood pressure, manage cholesterol levels, and provide antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. What are the benefits of combining Prekese and ginger? Combining Prekese and ginger offers a range of health benefits, including improved digestion, reduced inflammation, enhanced immune function, and antioxidant support.
This month, Pickering and Chatto Publishers will publish Church-State Relations in the Early American Republic, 1787-1846 by James S. Kabala (Rhode Island College). The renowned historian Gordon Wood has this to say about Kabala’s superb looking book: “This superb account of church-state relations during the most tumultuous years of American Christendom reveals that our present disputes over the separation of church and state are nothing new. Kabala’s deeply researched book contains the fullest and clearest summary that we have of the bitter struggles during the six decades following 1780 that led to the Protestant non-sectarian consensus of the 1840s.” The publisher’s description follows. Americans of the Early Republic devoted close attention to the question of what should be the proper relationship between church and state. This issue engaged participants from all religions, denominations and party affiliations. Kabala examines this debate across six decades and shows that an understanding of this period is not possible without appreciating the key role religion played in the formation of the nation.
Fact or Fiction? In today's information age where everybody's got a venue and is pedaling something, it's hard to know when you're dealing with facts, someone's spin, or just plain fiction. With some very powerful and monied interests lined up against U.S. farmers and ranchers, understanding the facts about exactly who produces all of our food and fiber in this country is made all the more difficult. In fact, the Illinois Farm Bureau recently conducted a survey that uncovered some of the public confusion over who is responsible for feeding and clothing America. The Hand That Feeds U.S. has tried to meet head on the many misunderstandings about farming over the past year. But, as the Illinois Farm Bureau survey revealed, there is still a whole lot of work to be done. Here are a few examples of the myths that are perpetuated and the facts that dispel them. Fiction: Our country's food and fiber is grown by multi-billion-dollar agribusinesses like ADM, Cargill, and Kraft. Fact: A whopping 98 percent of U.S. farms are family-owned. The number of non-family corporate farms—and percentage of sales from those farms—has remained virtually unchanged since 1978. Opponents of providing America's farm and ranch families with a safety net in the event of natural disaster and unfair global markets have found it is much easier to attack large corporations and agribusinesses than it is to attack families making their living on the farm or ranch. Fiction: American farmers are heavily subsidized and protected. Fact: The United States ranks near the very bottom among nations in both direct assistance and tariff protections. Farm safety net benefits to U.S. producers have dwindled to an all time low, now accounting for less than one quarter of one percent of the total federal budget. Fiction: Farms bring in a lot of money, so that must mean that farmers are rich. Fact: Farms have the potential to earn a lot of money, but gross sales should not be confused with net profit. It takes a lot of earnings to cover the huge labor, equipment, and input costs of running a farm. For example, according to USDA figures, a 650-acre Texas cotton farm will need to sell more than $500,000 in a year just to cover production costs. Fiction: Farmers are to blame for the higher food prices seen in recent past years. Fact: Farmers only see about 19 cents out of every dollar Americans spend to buy the food they grow. Even when crop prices drop, food manufacturers are not likely to pass along the savings to their customers, instead electing to boost their own profits. Fiction: The corn that farmers grow for ethanol is used to fuel cars at the expense of feeding hungry people. Fact: The corn used in ethanol is not generally the kind people eat. And ethanol production hasn't negatively affected livestock feed supplies, either: domestic red meat and poultry production has not changed since 2007, debunking any claim that expanding ethanol production is shorting meat and meat product supplies. Plus, corn ethanol uses only the carbohydrate portion of the kernel. All the protein, fiber, and net energy goes back into animal feed, creating a meal that has three times the amount of protein and energy as corn-all at a price that is 60 to 80 percent lower than corn. We think that's a great deal. Fiction: It is farmers' fault that so many Americans are overweight and unhealthy. Fact: Our farmers and ranchers produce wholesome, natural products that are staples of a healthy diet. The problems arise when food processors choose to turn the blessings of a bountiful harvest into unhealthy products that may taste good but have little nutritional value. Fiction: Organic farming is the way of the future and will take over production agriculture. Fact: People who prefer organics and can afford to buy them should certainly be able to do so, but the idea that we can feed the world with organics alone is unrealistic. In 2003, the National Center for Food and Policy calculated that in order to continue to produce current crop yields without herbicides—which are a no-no in an organic, locally grown world—an additional 70 million farmhands would be needed. In other words, one in four Americans would be pulling weeds on farms for a month out of the year. Plus, according to the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug, organic agriculture can only feed a world of 4 billion people, meaning 2.5 billion would need to check out early. And, all-organics all the time would be an environmental disaster: According to Jay Lehr, Ph.D., science director of The Heartland Institute, "Direct, field-to-field comparisons show organic farms produce up to 50 percent less than conventional farms," meaning that we'd need to put up to twice as much land under the plow to produce the same amount of food. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, it is inevitable that misinformation about farming will continue to swirl, with the opposition to agriculture being a rich and powerful bunch willing to put their money where their mouths are. But, if there is one message that we hope we can spread to even the most vehement critics of agriculture it is this: Fact: Thanks to America's farmers and ranchers, our nation produces the safest, most abundant, most affordable food supply the world has ever known.
\|\| JOBS \| DRUGS \| ANATOMY \| DIAMONDS \| HEALTH TOPICS \| DISEASES \| ENERGY \| GEOLOGY \| AIRPORTS \| COUNTRIES \| FLAGS \|\| WILHELM WATTENBACH (1819-1897), German historian, was born at Ranzau in Holstein on the 22nd of September 1819. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, and in 1843 he began to work upon the Monumenta Germaniae historica. In 1855 he was appointed archivist at Breslau; in 1862 he became professor of history at Heidelberg, and ten years later professor at Berlin, where he was a member of the directing body of the Monumenta and a member of the Academy. He died at Frankfort on the 21st of September 1897. Wattenbach was distinguished by his thorough knowledge of the chronicles and other original documents of the middle ages, and his most valuable work was done in this field. His principal book, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts, is unrivalled as a guide to the sources of the history of Germany in the middle ages; this was first published in 1858, and has passed through several editions. Cognate works are his Anleitung zur lateinischen Palaographie (Leipzig, 1869, and again 1886); and Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1871, and again 1896). Wattenbach also wrote Beitrage zur Geschichte der christlichen Kirche in Beihmen and Meihren (Vienna, 1849); Geschichte des rOmischen Papsttums (Berlin, 1876); and Anleitung zur griechischen Palaographie (Leipzig, 1867, and again 1895). - Please bookmark this page (add it to your favorites). - If you wish to link to this page, you can do so by referring to the URL address below this line. Copyright © 1995-2011 ITA all rights reserved. A * B * C * D * E * F * G H I * J * K * L * M * N * O * P * Q * R * S * T * U * V * W * X * Y * Z
In the dynamic world of finance, equity investment stands as one of the most popular and potentially rewarding avenues for investors. However, the allure of significant returns is accompanied by inherent risks that require careful consideration and strategic management. Equity investors adopt a range of approaches to navigating these risks, ensuring that their investment portfolios remain resilient and capable of generating long-term gains. We delve into the strategies and techniques that equity investors employ to manage their potential risks effectively Equity investment offers the opportunity to own a stake in companies and participate in their growth and profitability. However, this potential for rewards comes with a fair share of risks that investors need to be aware of and manage effectively. Understanding Equity Investment Risks 1. Market Volatility The stock market is known for its inherent volatility. Prices can fluctuate wildly in response to various factors such as economic indicators, geopolitical events, and market sentiment. To manage this risk, investors often diversify their portfolios. 2. Industry-Specific Risks Different industries face unique challenges. Economic shifts, technological disruptions, or changes in consumer preferences can significantly impact specific sectors. To mitigate this risk, investors spread their investments across various industries. 3. Company-Specific Risks Even within a stable industry, individual companies can face distinct risks. Poor management decisions, competitive pressures, or declining sales can lead to a drop in stock prices. Thorough research helps investors identify companies with strong fundamentals. 4. Regulatory and Legislative Changes Changes in laws and regulations can affect companies’ operations and profitability. Equity investors need to stay informed about potential shifts in regulations that could impact their investments. Diversification: Spreading Your Eggs 1. Benefits of Diversification Diversifying investments across different asset classes and industries can help reduce risk. If one investment performs poorly, others may offset the losses. 2. Allocating Across Industries Investors distribute funds across sectors such as technology, healthcare, finance, and more. This approach reduces the impact of poor performance in any single industry. 3. Geographical Diversification Investing in international markets provides exposure to different economies, currencies, and political environments. It helps mitigate the risk of economic downturns in a single country. 4. Balancing Risk and Reward While diversification reduces risk, it’s essential to strike a balance. Over-diversification can lead to diluted returns. Investors aim to find the right mix for their risk tolerance and goals. Thorough Research and Due Diligence 1. Analyzing Company Fundamentals An in-depth analysis of a company’s financial health, earnings potential, and competitive position helps investors make informed decisions. 2. Assessing Management Quality Competent and visionary management is crucial for a company’s success. Investors evaluate leadership’s track record and strategic vision. 3. Studying Industry Trends Understanding industry trends and technological advancements helps investors anticipate shifts that could impact a company’s performance. 4. Monitoring Financial Health Regularly reviewing financial statements, debt levels, and cash flow ensures that companies in the portfolio remain financially stable. Hedging Strategies: Mitigating Downside 1. Options and Put Contracts Investors can use options and put contracts to protect their portfolio from a decline in stock prices. 2. Futures Contracts Futures contracts allow investors to lock in prices for buying or selling assets, reducing exposure to market fluctuations. 3. Short Selling Investors borrow shares and sell them with the expectation of buying them back at a lower price, profiting from price declines. 4. Using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) ETFs provide diversification by tracking a basket of stocks or other assets. They can act as a hedge against specific stocks’ poor performance. Risk Tolerance and Investment Horizon 1. Defining Risk Tolerance Investors have varying levels of comfort with risk. Understanding personal risk tolerance helps shape investment decisions. 2. Aligning with Investment Goals Risk management aligns with investment goals. Long-term investors may tolerate more risk, while those nearing retirement might prioritize capital preservation. 3. Considering Time Horizon Investors with longer time horizons can recover from market downturns, while those with shorter horizons may adjust their portfolios to reduce risk. 4. Adjusting Strategies Over Time As life circumstances change, investors adapt their risk management strategies to ensure alignment with their evolving goals. Monitoring and Adaptation 1. Regular Portfolio Review Investors periodically review their portfolios to ensure that they remain in line with their risk tolerance and objectives. 2. Reassessing Risk Factors Market conditions and economic landscapes change. Regular reassessment helps investors stay ahead of potential risks. 3. Staying Informed Continuous learning about financial markets, economic trends, and investment strategies enhances an investor’s ability to manage risks effectively. 4. Being Open to Changes Flexibility is key. Successful equity investors are open to adjusting their strategies based on new information and changing market dynamics. Equity investors understand that potential rewards come with inherent risks. By diversifying, conducting thorough research, employing hedging strategies, and aligning with risk tolerance and investment horizons, investors can navigate the complex landscape of equity investment with confidence. Q: How can I manage the risk of investing in volatile markets? A: Diversification, careful research, and using options or futures contracts can help manage risk in volatile markets. Q: Is it necessary to invest in international markets for diversification? A: While international markets offer diversification benefits, domestic diversification across industries is also crucial. Q: What is the role of a financial advisor in managing investment risks? A: A financial advisor can provide expertise in assessing risk tolerance, developing strategies, and adapting to market changes. Q: Can risk management strategies change over time? A: Yes, risk management strategies should evolve with changes in personal circumstances, market conditions, and investment goals. 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Definitions for Sacramentˈsæk rə mənt This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word Sacrament Random House Webster's College Dictionary sac•ra•mentˈsæk rə mənt(n.) a rite considered to have been established by Christ as a means of grace: the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox sacraments are baptism, the Eucharist, the anointing of the sick, confirmation, holy orders, penance, and matrimony; the Protestant sacraments are baptism and the Lord's Supper. (often cap.) the Eucharist. the consecrated elements of the Eucharist, esp. the bread. something regarded as possessing a sacred character or mysterious significance. Origin of sacrament: 1150–1200; ME < ML sacrāmentum obligation, oath, LL: mystery, rite < L sacrā(re) (see sacred ) a formal religious ceremony conferring a specific grace on those who receive it; the two Protestant ceremonies are baptism and the Lord's Supper; in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church there are seven traditional rites accepted as instituted by Jesus: baptism and confirmation and Holy Eucharist and penance and holy orders and matrimony and extreme unction A sacred act or ceremony in Christianity. In Roman Catholic theology, a sacrament is defined as "an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace." Origin: From sacramentum, from sacro, from sacer, originally sum deposited by parties to a suit. the oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath the pledge or token of an oath or solemn covenant; a sacred thing; a mystery one of the solemn religious ordinances enjoined by Christ, the head of the Christian church, to be observed by his followers; hence, specifically, the eucharist; the Lord's Supper to bind by an oath A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. The Nuttall Encyclopedia a ceremonial observance in the Christian Church divinely instituted as either really or symbolically a means, and in any case a pledge, of grace. Translations for Sacrament Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary in the Christian church, a ceremony regarded as especially sacred, eg marriage, or baptism. - سِر مِن أسْرار الكَنيسَهArabic - sacramentoPortuguese (BR) - das SakramentGerman - sakramente; helligt ritualDanish - θρησκευτικό μυστήριοGreek - آيين مقدس؛هر يك از هفت آيين مورد اعتقاد مسيحيانFarsi - טֶקֶס נוֹצרִיHebrew - संस्कार, परम संस्कार, परम प्रसादHindi - upacara suciMalay - آيين مقدس؛هر يك از هفت آيين مورد اعتقاد مسيحيانPersian - دينى دود، مذهبى مراسم، دعيسوى دين ار كان: مقدساتPashto - svečana zakletvaSerbian - vaftiz töreni, Asâi Ruhbanî AyiniTurkish - (基督教的)聖禮，如婚禮、洗禮Chinese (Trad.) - کلیسا میں ایک خاص مقدس تقریبUrdu - lễ ban phướcVietnamese - （基督教的）圣礼，圣事Chinese (Simp.) Get even more translations for Sacrament » Find a translation for the Sacrament definition in other languages: Select another language:
Observing the successful experience of Taiwan Center for Disease Control which applied SuperGIS software to the study of disease distribution and medical resources management, the Department of Virology in National Institute of Infectious Diseases consulted with Information & Science Techno-System Co., Ltd, SuperGeo’s reseller in Japan, to install SuperGIS Desktop 3, which supports the researchers to learn more from the distribution of infectious viruses and diseases by GIS technologies. SuperGIS Desktop 3 classifies and visualizes complex disease data on map layers, assisting the researchers in the surveillance and management of diverse virus information. The attribute data can also be displayed clearly in dissimilar locations in unique colors, so that the officials can watch the prevention result and cure rate easily. Further medical measures and policies can therefore be designed in a systematic way. National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan, is also discussing advanced analysis and application by SuperGIS technologies with Information & Science Techno-System Co., Ltd. The next step would be WebGIS solutions for the public to query medical information in real time. See the success story if Taiwan CDC at http://www.supergeotek.com/
At some point in our lives we have all thought about (or perhaps actively denied) the traumas of middle school—those three years when so little actually happened, but we felt like we’d been through a civil war with our peers, our health teachers and ourselves. Many claim middle school is a crucial academic period, but all we seem to be able to remember about it is the lunchroom stressors and two-week-long relationships. There was a time when junior high didn’t exist, when we transitioned directly from the simple, elegant days of playgrounds and lunch-crusted lips to those of football games and the back seats of cars. Not surprisingly, this system came to an end around the same time people believed Prohibition and excessive consumer spending on credit seemed like good ideas. Junior high began in the molten core of the United States, where the values of democracy, freedom and intellectual thought were melded together—Columbus, Ohio. The first junior high school, founded in 1909, was seen as a potential solution to the 93 percent drop out rate that plagued the tenth grade. Academic administrators figured all they had to do was set aside three years to get students interested in learning. Little did they know that when you put 400 tigers in a small cage together, they rarely study harder. It quickly became obvious that middle school was possibly one of the worst ideas of all time. As early as 1916, R.M. Trynon wrote in The Elementary School Journal that serious reforms needed to be made to the junior high system. Before the concept of junior high had gotten significant public recognition, it was being heavily criticized by the experts. However, in the spirit of American democracy, nothing was really done about the problem until 1963, when William Alexander gave a speech at Cornell University suggesting that students needed school years allotted to personal development and “exploratory experiences.” His message struck a chord with the parents of the 60’s, who were concerned with their children’s psychological health and well-being above all else. It was at this point that middle schools (as separate schools and not two year prep-schools) became dominant in American education. Yet the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that 4th graders’ achievement in math and reading increased twice as much from 1978 to 2008 as 8th graders’ did in the same time period. So why did middle schools prevail? How could they continue to quarantine tweens and children riddled with puberty? How can the Association for Middle Level Education call the middle grades “the pride of the American education system?” Are we really that far up shit’s creek? It’s because they aren’t exactly unsuccessful either. Middle schools occupy a peculiar space where exceptions to the rule dominate. The teachers, students and administrators each fuck it up, but the system is somehow still functional. This theory could carry some merit if all the middle school success stories didn’t take place in charter schools and alternative settings. According to Peter Meyer for Educationnext usually these schools seem to “eschew the tenets of middle schoolism,” by promoting greater academic focus instead of the deep, life-altering introspection middle schoolers are prone to. Yet for all this grand f*ck-uppery in the middle school system, isn’t it possible that we need those three torturous years? Isn’t it necessary to get all of those cringe-worthy moments, the “dates” wracked with silence, and the questionable fashion choices out of our systems? Isn’t it sort of nice to do it all at once, together, in the same poorly lit setting of our pre-teen years? It’s entirely possible that we need middle school to tell us what not to do, regardless of its academic shortcomings. Middle school is the strange uncle that hugs for far too long on Thanksgiving and eats the food off our plates without asking, but then gives us 500 bucks as a graduation present. As much as we want to hate it, middle school allows us to enter high school not just with better clothes, but the ability to effectively navigate our precarious social lives.
Setting the Scene (allowing for the children to contribute) Do you remember the Story about how once there was nothingness, just a really huge, dark, empty space and how into that space there came a fiery cloud, a bright spark of energy and how all of the universe was in it? Do you remember how it settled down, very slowly over lots of time? Do you remember what the laws were which were given to the particles? (gas, liquids, solids). How the Earth was formed? How it got a crust and how it cooled down? Do you remember that there was a problem, what was it? …yes, the poison. and what was the solution? …Yes, the blob of jelly, the amoeba. And then what happened to the amoeba? (the trilobites, the plants that came on the earth, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals). And what creature came last?..Yes, humans, men, women and children, just like you and me!. And what special gifts did they have …Yes, a brain to think and imagine, hands to work and a heart that could love even people they had never met Today I’m going to tell you a Story about the humans and their special gifts The humans had brains that could imagine, they could think about many different things, they could feel the rain, the wind, the warming of the sun, the cold of the night, see a beautiful rainbow and feel scared when it thundered. They began to wonder about all of these things, because human intelligence always want s to know why things happen. So they made stories to explain what happened to them and told them to each other. The humans had a heart that could love, they loved the people in their families and took good care of them, they missed their family and friends when they were away and were pleased to spend time with each other. But they could also love people who they hadn’t met, they could love animals and plants and care for them. We can use our hearts to wish that everyone is happy, cared for, safe, that they have enough to eat and people to look after them. Humans had hands that they could use to hold each others hands, to make houses and pick fruit, to rock the babies to sleep. Imagine how difficult it would be if we had to use our hands to walk on, how would we get our work done? Just like these early humans we have a mind that can think and imagine, hands to do our work and a heart to love all the people, animals, plants and places. Plants and animals were given rules about how they should live, where they could go, what they should eat and when to sleep. Humans must do all of these things but they can do them in so many different ways. We can eat so many types of things, today, for breakfast I had …toast with raspberry jam, but tomorrow I think I’ll have some…cereal. What did you have for your breakfast? (ask a few children so they can see the variety of choices we have about food). Animals of the same type live in the same place, birds live in nests, foxes live in holes in the ground but people can live in so many different types of hoses and decorate them in lots of ways. I live in an apartment on the third floor. Where do you live? What colour is your bedroom? Our story began a long time ago, it is a long story and human’s had to work very hard and use their imagination, be courageous and think things through so that they could survive and make homes and care for one another. The Story of the Coming of Human Beings – Notes This third Great Story covers the History of Human Beings, both the Pre-history (before written records) and recorded History. This Story is told as an impressionistic story without aids, to introduce human’s explorations, inventions and achievements sequentially through time. It is begun with a link to the previous stories, giving an opportunity for children to contribute and see the links between the stories, NOT as a test of what they can recall. To introduce Cultural History as the, ‘customs, ideas, values, inventions of a particular civilisation, society or social group’. Knowing about the special place of Human Beings, their special gifts and the efforts made by other humans is important for the development of children’s dignity, helps confidence in their intelligence to grow and makes children aware of the universal needs of humans and some of the strategies they have used to meet them. When to give the lesson: After the first two Great Stories and the Black Strip, these put the story of the Coming of Human Beings into the context of the Natural History. After the lesson: The children are left to reflect, they can ask questions, much of this story will be referred to later with the Hand Timeline. Follow up work: No specific work
It has now been several months since President Donald Trump promulgated his new strategy for the US war in Afghanistan. So far, his approach has failed to roll back the Taliban and bring the 16-year conflict closer to a resolution. After the 9/11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan and quickly dislodged the Taliban regime. However, the Taliban regrouped and launched an insurgency against Hamid Karzai’s new government in Kabul. The US gradually increased its military presence in the country to combat the growing Taliban threat. In 2009 President Obama authorized a surge of tens of thousands of troops, bringing total US force strength to around 100,000. But Obama’s surge was followed soon after by a scheduled troop withdrawal, with the aim of departing completely by 2014. That goal was not met, and by the end of his presidency a force of several thousand still remained. President Trump, Obama’s successor, had criticized military interventionism on the campaign trail and came to office very sceptical of the Afghan war. But, as security deteriorated, he was persuaded by his advisors to stay the course. In August 2017, Trump unveiled a “new strategy” for the war that would finally achieve “victory”. This involved deploying a few thousand more troops, continuing to train local forces, and pressuring Pakistan to stop its alleged support for the Taliban. Trump said that a political settlement with the Taliban might eventually be possible. But his plan appears to be military-focused: the insurgency must be weakened on the battlefield before successful peace talks can occur. This policy – using force to enable negotiation – is not ‘new’, but similar to the Obama administration’s approach. Trump might have abandoned his predecessor’s imposition of artificial deadlines for troop withdrawal but the basic strategy is largely unchanged. Obama’s plan failed. And many analysts, including this author, expressed scepticism that Trump’s much smaller surge would achieve what Obama’s had not. There are now about 14,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan, compared with around 100,000 in 2010. The coalition’s aim is to secure control over 80% of the Afghan population. It is nowhere near meeting that objective, with government control actually declining from 69% in August 2016 to 65% in January 2018. Meanwhile, Taliban control rose from 9% to 12%. The US has intensified airstrikes in Afghanistan significantly – the first few months of 2018 saw the most intensive bombardment for that period on record. These have stopped the Taliban from capturing major towns or cities, while also killing Islamic State fighters. But the insurgents have readjusted their tactics to focus on terrorist activity in urban centres. Kabul has been hit with a string of appalling attacks this year, including a double Islamic State suicide bombing in April that killed 10 journalists. The US insists that it needs fewer troops now, compared with 2009, because the Afghan security forces are more able to shoulder the burden. And, indeed, the past decade has seen notable improvements in Afghanistan’s capabilities, especially its special forces. But there is still a long way to go. The size of the army and police fell sharply last year, according to SIGAR, while insider attacks went up. The Pentagon insists on keeping Afghan casualty and desertion rates secret: hardly an encouraging sign. Recent clashes in Farah province saw Afghan forces almost lose the capital to Taliban insurgents, and there has been heavy fighting in Ghazni, too. Press reports indicate that hundreds of Afghan soldiers died in May. Civilian casualties are also high. Although the situation is bad, Washington appears to be in denial, issuing grotesquely rose-tinted assessments of the war. A Pentagon spokesman recently described the Taliban as “desperate” and “losing ground”, even though the group has expanded its control. Meanwhile, the Afghan government is still one of the most corrupt in the world and continues to suffer from internal division. Vice-President Dostum remains in exile in Turkey, while relations between President Ghani and his chief executive, Dr Abdullah, are tense. Parliamentary elections have been delayed repeatedly since 2015. A date is now set for October, with the presidential poll following soon after in 2019. But there are already suspicions of government interference in the election process. Expectations of fraud are widespread, risking a repeat of the disputed election in 2014. Back then the Obama administration managed to broker a deal between the candidates. But, with ethnic tensions on the rise, things could easily spiral out of control. To make matters worse, Afghanistan’s economy is struggling. Growth has seen a marked slowdown since 2012, while poverty rates have escalated dramatically from 38% in 2011-12 to 55% in 2016-17 according to a recent Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey. While the country’s licit economy stalls, the heroin trade is booming. Opium production expanded by an eyewatering 87% in 2017, good news for the Taliban which derives funding from drugs. The coalition started bombing drug labs last year, but with questionable results. Afghanistan is so poor that foreign aid makes up 66% of its budget. To boost trade, President Ghani has pursued a number of bold regional connectivity initiatives. One such project linked Afghanistan with India via the Iranian port of Chabahar. But President Trump has violated the nuclear deal with Iran, reimposing sanctions previously removed under the agreement. This could undermine the Chabahar project and attenuate Afghanistan’s trade, while also inviting retaliation from Iran. Tehran may increase the support it has reportedly been giving to the Taliban in response to Trump’s provocation. Indeed, Iran helped the Taliban’s May offensive in Farah with arms, funding, and training, according to Afghan officials. Another core pillar of Trump’s strategy, cracking down on Pakistan, has also failed. In January he suspended all security assistance to Islamabad and threatened further measures if it continued to provide support and safe-haven to the Taliban. US officials claim they have not yet seen enough cooperation from Pakistan. But Washington has limited leverage over Islamabad: aid levels have declined since 2011 and Pakistan has found alternative sources of support in China, Russia and others. Moreover, Pakistan controls US supply routes into landlocked Afghanistan. If Trump turns up the heat and applies further penalties – designating Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, for example, or launching drone strikes – Islamabad could shut off those routes. Washington wants Islamabad to help bring the insurgents to the negotiating table. But the Taliban are “no pushovers”, noted veteran journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai in a 2017 lecture, especially given that Pakistan has arrested dozens of its fighters over the years. The group has also cultivated ties with Iran and Russia, expanding to become a “huge organisation” of more than 200,000 people, according to expert Antonio Giustozzi in a recent paper. It is not a pawn in Islamabad’s hands. Indeed, according to Yousafzai, a number of Taliban fighters have left Pakistan and dispersed, some moving to Afghanistan, others to Iran and the Gulf. The US focus on Pakistan is therefore simplistic. Diplomatic efforts to end the war have had little success. President Ghani convened the Kabul Process last year to pursue peace. And this February he reached out to the Taliban with a bold offer, promising various concessions including its recognition as a political party. The Taliban has not yet responded, and announced the start of its spring fighting season in April. The group has long refused to negotiate with Kabul, which it views an American puppet regime. Instead, the Taliban wants to talk directly to the US, reiterating this aim in a February letter to the American people. Washington, however, will not acknowledge it is even a party to the conflict and insists the peace process be ‘Afghan-led’. To break the deadlock, as Borhan Osman of the International Crisis Group has written, both sides need to be flexible. The US should acknowledge its role in the war and talk to the Taliban. The Taliban, for its part, must be prepared to engage with Kabul. Any peace settlement would need to be a broad, multilateral process involving other regional players with interests in Afghanistan, such as China and Iran. Ghani’s Kabul Process, to its credit, reflects this reality by including more than twenty countries. But Washington’s relations with Beijing, Tehran and Moscow are tense. On the plus side, India has recently agreed to cooperate economically with China and Russia in Afghanistan. Islamabad and Kabul are also improving ties. Despite these positives, the outlook remains bleak. Trump promised “victory” in Afghanistan. He has delivered nothing of the sort. Rupert Stone is an independent journalist based in Germany.
Configuration management is a buzzword that gets tossed around quite a lot these days. Defined as the process of identifying, controlling, tracking, and auditing changes made to a baseline, configuration management is a critical part of a strong security program. Change and configuration management within an organization has strong connections to audit requirements in nearly all security frameworks and regulations. For example, the AICPA SOC 2 requirements for Service Organizations requires: The entity authorizes, designs, develops or acquires, configures, documents, tests, approves, and implements changes to infrastructure, data, software, and procedures to meet its objectives. Meanwhile, ISO 27001 section 12.1.2 states the following: Changes to the organization, business processes, information processing facilities and systems that affect information security shall be controlled. Finally, the Center for Internet Security Top 20 Critical Security Control Number 5 states the following: Establish, implement, and actively manage (track, report on, correct) the security configuration of mobile devices, laptops, servers, and workstations using a rigorous configuration management and change control process in order to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerable services and settings. Configuration management relies on the control and release of various product versions. Default configurations for operating systems and applications are often geared towards ease-of-deployment and ease-of-use and not cybersecurity best practices. Today, configuration management is an in-demand discipline with significant impacts related to cybersecurity, especially as organizations move from out of the box default configurations to more secure configurations of applications and hardware. Today, configuration management means different things to different people. In some applications, it refers to the way network devices are configured. In others, it relates to the version of an application a team is running. Sometimes, people within the industry confuse IT asset management with change and configuration management. Though similar and equally important to the business, they are not the same. IT management solutions track, optimize, and manage assets across the entire asset lifestyle. CM, meanwhile, collects, stores, manages, updates, and analyzes all configuration items. Despite many organizations having immature CM programs, it’s critical to the modern cybersecurity environment, and will only increase in importance as the threat landscape continues to evolve. The Facts About Configuration Management According to (ISC) 2, configuration management is “A process of identifying and documenting hardware components and software and the associated settings.” While it can be difficult for people who are not in the cybersecurity world to make sense of this, the goal of configuration management is to ensure you know what changes are made to complex systems and their impact. If something gets changed, does that break something else, or expose a new risk? Having a mature security program that incorporates change and configuration management will identify these issues. Configuration management seeks to do a few things. First, it makes and documents changes to new technology components, which are then integrated into the overall cybersecurity environment. It also seeks to control changes and test documentation. At the end of the day, CM documents change to ensure systems work and are not at risk. Configuration Management and Disaster Recovery When it comes to modern disaster recovery, configuration management is essential. In the event of a cybersecurity disaster, (61% of organizations have experienced an IoT cybersecurity incident, after all) it can be impossible to recover to the most recent configuration if there is no documentation of said configuration. The same goes for cybersecurity: it’s impossible for teams to know if something is amiss if there’s not a standardized way of configuring, changing, and documenting the digital environment. Change management runs parallel with configuration management, although the two things are not the same. People confuse them all the time. While configuration management is the process of identifying and documenting hardware components and software and the associated settings, change management is an underlying function of the larger configuration management process. Change management relates to the associated processes and seeks to create stability within a system and prevent uncontrolled or random changes or to document change processes when you have turnover within the organization. In other words, it allows companies to plan for change, rather than just reacting to it. Here are some of the functions of modern change management: - To implement administrative controls that weave themselves into organizational policies - To create a formal review process for all proposed changes - To ensure only approved changes are implemented - To create a periodic re-assessment of the environment to discern the need for upgrades or changes to the foundational configuration. The Change Management Process Not all change management processes are created equal. Today, a well-structured change management process will include the following: - Change request submittals - Risk and impact assessments - Approve/reject change functions - Scheduling/user notification/training functions One of the places change management thrives is in the event of emergency decisions, when changes must be made. Once the change has been implemented, it should be fed back into the change management process, where it will then benefit from the validation and documentation protocols that were already established. The Future of Configuration Management It’s easy for IT managers, engineers, and other team members to get so bogged down in the details that it’s difficult to step back and answer the essential questions. In the midst of this, many teams struggle to define why a business needs configuration management tools and automation. A form of IT automation, configuration, and change management both seek to enable easy access to accurate records, safeguard companies against cybersecurity threats, and perform essential functions like reducing outages and breaches and reducing costs. As such, change and configuration management are two of the most critical areas companies should focus on today and are a key component of a sound cybersecurity program. Apptega provides software to help organizations build, manage and report on cybersecurity programs. Apptega helps to document and report on an a company’s cybersecurity plans, including an organization’s change and configuration management, endpoint management and other components. We’d love to show you more on how we could help. *** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Apptega Blog authored by Apptega. Read the original post at: https://blog.apptega.com/change-configuration-management-cybersecurity
Definitions for mafikengˈmæf ɪˌkɪŋ This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word mafikeng Random House Webster's College Dictionary a town in N Republic of South Africa: besieged by Boers for 217 days in 1899–1900. 6500. Category: Geography (places) Mahikeng – formerly, and still commonly, known as Mafikeng and historically Mafeking in English – is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa. It is best known internationally for the Siege of Mafeking, the most famous engagement of the Second Boer War. Located close to South Africa's border with Botswana, Mahikeng is 1,400 km northeast of Cape Town and 260 km west of Johannesburg. In 2001, it had a population of 49,300. In 2007, Mafikeng was reported to have a population of 250,000 of which the CBD constitutes between 69,000 and 75,000. It is built on the open veld at an elevation of 1,500 m, by the banks of the Upper Molopo River. The Madibi goldfields are some 15 km south of the town. Find a translation for the mafikeng definition in other languages: Select another language:
How Low-Poverty Countries Do It Earlier this week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its newest slate of poverty and inequality data for its member countries. The OECD data is the best out there for seeing how social indicators in the United States stack up against a few dozen other countries, most of which are similarly rich and industrialized. It also gives good insight into how low-poverty countries actually get that way. This release confirms what many other releases before have shown: low-poverty countries primarily tackle poverty through tax and transfer programs. Because poverty measurements vary across countries, the OECD uses a relative poverty measurement. In the OECD figures that follow, someone is counted in poverty if their income is less than 50% of the median income in their country. So if the median income is $40,000, the poverty line is $20,000. This does not match the poverty measurement the United States government uses, and some view it more as a measurement of low-end inequality than poverty. Regardless of which way you prefer to think about it, poverty and low-end inequality are both significant problems. For 2010, the OECD has pre-tax, pre-transfer (pre-T&T) poverty data for 26 countries. These figures are arrived at by looking at the incomes people bring down before taxes and before they have received government transfer payments, i.e. their “market incomes.” Of the 26 countries, the United States ties for the 13th highest pre-T&T poverty rate, which stands at 28.4%. The countries with the lowest pre-T&T poverty rates are Korea, Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway, with pre-T&T poverty rates spanning from 17.3% to 25.7%. At 35%, Spain has the highest pre-T&T poverty rate. Of course, excluding taxes and transfers from your poverty measurement does not ultimately tell you how people actually live. You need to look at the post-tax, post-transfer (post-T&T) poverty rate for that. When we look at this rate, we find that, at 17.4%, the United States has the 2nd highest post-T&T poverty rate among the 26 countries, trailing only Israel. The countries with the lowest post-T&T poverty rates are the Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Finland, with post-T&T poverty rates ranging from 5.8% to 7.3%. There are two conceivable paths to having a low post-T&T poverty rate, this again being the rate of most significance to people’s lived lives. A country can put a lot of effort into bringing up the market incomes of low-income people. Or it can compensate for those low market incomes on the back end through taxes and transfers. While there is some of both going on, the overall trend is to do the latter. The 13 countries with the lowest post-T&T poverty rates reduced their poverty by 20.7 percentage points through taxes and transfers. Meanwhile, the 13 countries with the highest post-T&T poverty rates only reduced their poverty by 15.7 percentage points through taxes and transfers. An animation showing the amount of poverty each country reduces via tax and transfer programs can be found here. If the US wants to follow the general example of low-poverty countries in the OECD, it will need to up its transfer payments. That will mean expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, or creating new transfer programs like the universal basic income I discussed earlier in the week. Sign up for our emails to stay updated on what we're doing and how you can help.
The Sylhet valley is formed by a beautiful, winding pair of rivers named the Surma and the Kushiara both of which are fed by innumerable hill streams from the north and the south. The valley has good number of haors, which are big natural depressions. During winter these haors are vast stretches of green land, but in the rainy season they turn into turbulent seas. Sylhet division occupies the north east part of Bangladesh , has an area of 12596 sq. km and a population of 7.899 million. There are 4 districts and 14 municipalities under Barisal . It is a natural hilly, forest area with ox bow lakes and famous shrines.
A Vertebrate Looks at Arthropods At close range even a familiar arthropod like a grasshopper may seem appallingly strange. The creature’s expressionless eyes give no indication that it can think or feel. Its colored armor plating seems more suited to a machine than to an animal. There are too many legs jointed in too many places. The abdomen pulses, the antennae twitch, and tiny oral appendages shift food to the mouth. Lean a little closer and the thing leaps, almost into one’s face, to veer off on crackling wings. Such an experience may strengthen the conclusion that arthropods are so different from us that they are essentially alien life forms. But such an extreme first impression is not really justified. Arthropods are classified as animals, exactly as we are, and so they must have characteristics in common with us and with other members of the animal kingdom. Certainly they do. Arthropods share numerous physical, biochemical, and developmental characteristics with the other creatures classified into the 30-odd phyla composing the Kingdom Animalia. We can concede that arthropods qualify as animals, but how does the grasshopper in the garden fare in comparison to vertebrate animals like ourselves? In fact, arthropods provide an interesting counterpoint to vertebrates. Curious parallels and strong contrasts exist between the two groups. Similarities in skeletal function are associated with historical parallels in the colonization of land and the evolution of flight. The giant size of vertebrates contrasts strongly with the much smaller size of arthropods, while the extraordinary diversity of arthropods eclipses the modest radiation of vertebrates. Animals with jointed external skeletons, such as lobsters, spiders, centipedes, and insects Animals with dorsal nerve cords (vertebrates and others). The vertebrates—fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—have bone or cartilage skeletons. Non-vertebrate members of this phylum lack skeletons. Both arthropods and vertebrates have articulated skeletons. Components of the skeleton meet (articulate) at joints, which allows one part of the body to move in relation to another. Muscles spanning joints and anchored to different parts of the skeleton provide the power for movement. Articulated skeletons serve two functions. First, they allow their owners to retain a characteristic physical form. Second, they support an organism’s weight and resist the stresses of locomotion. Other kinds of animals, like snails, have hard shells into which they may retreat for protection, but these structures do not define the animal’s form or support its weight. Arthropod and vertebrate skeletons are quite distinct from each other. Basically, the vertebrate skeleton is internal (an endoskeleton) while the arthropod skeleton is external (an exoskeleton). Here, both kinds will be referred to as skeletons. The vertebrate skeleton is buried under skin and muscle. Within the body, skull, and vertebral bones encase the brain and spinal cord, while ribs protect the heart and other organs. Long bones form the internal core of the legs. With arthropods, virtually all external structures as well as a few internal ones are covered by exoskeletal material, including eyes, mouthparts, antennae, body, legs, the fore and hind sections of the digestive tract, and some respiratory surfaces. Regions of flexible, unhardened exoskeleton serve as joints between neighboring segments. That articulated skeletons arose only in arthropods and vertebrates is simply an evolutionary coincidence. The two groups are not closely related to each other. But functional advantages common to skeletons are related to two novel parallels in arthropod and vertebrate evolution: first, vertebrates and arthropods are perhaps the most successful of all terrestrial animals; and second, they are the only organisms ever to evolve genuine powers of flight. A way to appreciate the advantages of having a skeleton in a terrestrial environment is by comparing animals with skeletons to “soft-bodied” animals. The latter category includes snails, slugs, and a great variety of worms. Some of these animals are ancient residents of land environments. But compared to animals with skeletons, soft-bodied terrestrial animals display a limited variety of form and diversity of locomotion. The external forms of soft-bodied terrestrial animals resemble each other despite substantial differences in each species’ internal anatomy. Nearly all have fleshy, cylindrical bodies without legs, and most lie full length upon the ground. These creatures are limited to slug-like forms because they depend on muscle to retain form and support their weight. Their aquatic relatives (octopus, squid, and various worms) can evolve complex forms because they live in water, which is denser than air and provides more support for attenuated appendages like arms. Even among vertebrates, purely muscular “limbs,” such as an elephant’s trunk or a chameleon’s tongue, are not employed to support their owner’s weight. Animals with skeletons can use the passive strength of bone or hardened exoskeleton to support their bodies in air. Consequently, terrestrial vertebrates and arthropods have more diverse forms, unlike soft-bodied land animals. Turtles, flamingos, ballet dancers, and rhinos look nothing like slugs. Praying mantids, stalk-eyed flies, and scorpions cannot be said to resemble worms. Toes, legs, necks, antennae, tails, and wings are great departures from a basic cylindrical form. And all of these departures are of functional value to their owners. Long, jointed limbs would hardly seem to be an evolutionary innovation, but they and other jointed appendages account for the great freedom of movement enjoyed by terrestrial arthropods and vertebrates. Without skeletons, most soft-bodied animals creep or writhe over surfaces by contracting muscles of the body wall. Terrestrial animals with skeletons use their limbs to walk, trot, run, leap, brachiate, and fly. They can do so because they are constructed differently from soft-bodied animals. Typically, arthropods and vertebrates stand with their bellies clear of the ground. This means that as one of these animals moves, its body passes through air, instead of over the ground, where friction has a greater effect. The foot of a running arthropod or vertebrate touches the ground just long enough to propel the animal forward with each stride. This enables it to run swiftly, compared to ground-bound, soft-bodied animals. Some arthropods and vertebrates are swifter yet, because they have evolved the ability to fly. Flight is exclusive to animals with skeletons. Birds, bats, and a few species of dinosaurs have evolved flight. Among arthropods, only insects can fly, but since insects amount to 70 percent of all animal species, arthropods account for the vast majority of flying animals. All flying animals must be able to satisfy stringent flight requirements. They must have extensive respiratory systems to supply quantities of oxygen to flight muscles, sophisticated nervous systems to coordinate rapid flight responses, and of course, they must have functional pairs of wings. Wings have arisen by different pathways in arthropods and vertebrates. In vertebrates the foreleg is modified into a wing; as a consequence the limb becomes useless or compromised for quadrupedal locomotion. Birds walk only on their hind legs. Bats use their wings as legs, while keeping their extraordinarily long fingers and extensive wing membranes folded out of the way. Arthropods have sacrificed nothing for flight; their wings evolved as completely new structures rather than as modifications of existing limbs. If one counts, insects retain three pairs of walking legs and two pairs of wings. All three pairs of legs may be used for locomotion or adapted for specialized tasks such as prey capture. Sometimes one pair of wings is modified into yet another arthropod tool while the remaining pair is used for flying. For example, beetle forewings have changed into sturdy protective coverings for the membranous hind wings. The hind wings of flies have become balancing devices necessary for their dizzying aerial maneuvers. Interestingly enough, there appear to be limits to the sizes flying animals can attain. The largest flying birds weigh about 30 pounds (13.5 kg). For tiny arthropods, the very density of air becomes an important factor. Insects weighing less than 3/10,000 of an ounce (a milligram) can drift wingless through air just as plankton does through water. Size is an important matter to a flying animal. It is also an important distinction between vertebrates and arthropods. Vertebrates are the biggest animals ever to evolve on Earth. We know of giant dinosaurs, huge amphibians, massive sloths, enormous moas, and the colossal blue whale. In comparison, the very biggest terrestrial arthropods can be held in the palm of the hand. Pterygotus, a long-extinct aquatic arthropod, did qualify as a giant—it approached 10 feet (three meters) in length. Ancient exceptions aside, there is little overlap in the size ranges for species belonging to each of the two groups. Small vertebrates are still larger than the great majority of arthropods, the tiniest of which are best viewed under a microscope. So why does gigantism arise frequently in vertebrates but not in arthropods? An increase in size has physical consequences for any creature. As an animal doubles in size, its weight increases eight-fold, but the weight bearing capacity of its skeleton is only quadrupled and the strength of its muscles is merely doubled. Because of their great weight, large vertebrates have skeletons which are disproportionately heavy and robust compared to those of small vertebrates. Presumably, terrestrial arthropods could reach horror-movie size simply by developing big, sturdy skeletons. But they have not done so during hundreds of millions of years on Earth. It seems that the costs associated with large size affect arthropods more strongly than vertebrates. A heavy, cumbersome skeleton, risk of injury, and complications during molting all become more serious problems at large size. The arthropod skeleton accounts for a greater proportion of its owner’s total weight than does the skeleton of a vertebrate. As an arthropod gets larger, the proportion of weight attributed to the skeleton will increase faster than it does for a vertebrate. At some point, the advantages of increased size will not compensate for the difficulties associated with a heavy skeleton. When that happens, natural selection will favor the smaller individuals in a population. One important difficulty for large arthropods is the risk of injury. As the outermost part of an arthropod’s body, it is the rigid skeleton that comes in contact with the environment. Without the cushioning effect of soft tissues, it is more vulnerable to abrasion and impact damage than the internal skeleton of vertebrates. Running becomes hazardous because all of the weight of a heavy arthropod would come down on the relatively small area of the foot. Without the shock absorption provided by the hooves, paw pads, cartilage, and ligaments found in vertebrate extrem-ities, an external skeleton might be expected to fracture under the force of impact. A simple fall might be even more damaging. Finally, molting, necessary for growth, causes other problems at large sizes. Just after molting an arthropod is essentially a soft-bodied invertebrate. The skeleton is still soft, and does not provide good support. Worse, an arthropod cannot rely on muscles to define form the way soft-bodied animals do, because arthropod muscles are designed to exert force against a rigid skeleton, and until the skeleton hardens, many muscles are useless. Instead, an arthropod gulps air or water in order to hold its form until the skeleton hardens. The larger an arthropod’s size, the more difficult this process becomes. Each time an arthropod molts it must undergo this risk. Vertebrates do not molt their skeletons as part of growth so they escape these risks completely. Arthropods may be unable to attain the impressive sizes of vertebrates, but their small size is related to a big distinction—their extraordinary diversification. Arthropods are the most diverse of all animals, comprising over 85 percent of all living animal species. Estimates for the number of species in one class of arthropods, the insects, range from 1 to 10 million. In contrast, the entire Phylum Chordata—vertebrates and their close relatives—amounts to fewer than 5 percent of all living animals. The remaining 10 percent are accounted for by other invertebrate phyla, such as molluscs. Why is there such an overwhelming number of arthropod species compared to all other kinds of animals? Why are there relatively few vertebrate species, despite their sophisticated internal skeletons and access to terrestrial environments? The answers have to do with arthropods’ relatively small size, their capacity for rapid change, and their long tenure on Earth. Small animals can exploit habitats more fully than large ones. A single plant may be a meal to a vertebrate, but to arthropods it can be a universe. One species might complete larval development in a flower bud, while another species spends its entire life feeding on the woody stems. A large plant like the saguaro can support an entire community of arthropods throughout its life and after its death. Other habitats, such as the surface of water and the bodies of other animals, are used by arthropods, but are inaccessible even to the smallest vertebrates. Winged insects or ballooning spiders can travel great distances, colonizing new habitats quickly. As they invade new habitats arthropods undergo selection which favors individuals best equipped to survive in the new conditions. Over time, the better-equipped individuals may come to differ so much from their ancestors that they become distinct species. Arthropod populations can undergo rapid change. Agricultural pests are well-known for swiftly evolving tolerance to previously devastating pesticides. Short generations, multiple generations per year, and large populations are conducive to the prompt emergence of new forms, and under the right conditions, new species. Vertebrates are also capable of change and speciation, but because of their longer generation intervals these processes tend to require more time. While some arthropod species—fruit flies for instance—change and diversify rapidly, others, such as scorpions and horeshoe crabs, settled into a useful design early on and have remained unchanged for millions of years. Finally, arthropods have been around for a long time. Trilobites, an early and now extinct group of marine arthropods, lived 500 million years ago. Early terrestrial forms, like scorpions, are known from 400-million- year-old fossils. Reptiles, the first entirely terrestrial vertebrates, did not arise until the Carboniferous period, approximately 100 million years later. Insects evolved flight 150 million years before birds, dinosaurs, and mammals. There has been plenty of time for diversification and evolution of many exquisite, bizarre, and intriguing arthropod species. Remarkable parallels and contrasts can be developed when arthropods and vertebrates are compared. But there are reasons to focus on arthropods alone, without considering them in relation to other animals. In the name of survival, arthropods have evolved forms ranging from familiar to outrageous to beautiful. They evade enemies, feed, and reproduce by methods that are sometimes ruthless, sometimes subtle, and frequently ingenious. As is their habit, arthropods in the Sonoran Desert have diversified, giving this region a rich inventory of fascinating species. You are invited to form a closer acquaintance with native Sonoran Desert arthropods by reading about them in the following chapters. The chapters are organized on the basis of arthropod phylogeny, which reflects the evolutionary relationships between species. As you proceed through this section, you can use the phylogenetic listing following this introduction to keep track of arthropod groups. These intriguing and largely harmless creatures are among the most visible and approachable of all Sonoran Desert animals. Keep an eye out on your next desert walk, and you may see an arthropod or two that you have previously encountered in the pages of this book. Alcock, John. In a Desert Garden: Love and Death Among the Insects. NY: W.W. Norton, 1997. Conniff, Richard. Spineless Wonders: Strange Tales from the Invertebrate World. NY: Henry Holt, 1997. Evans, Arthur V. An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1996. Friederici, Peter. Strangers in Our Midst: The Startling World of Sonoran Desert Arthropods. Tucson: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, 1997. Imes, Rick. The Practical Entomologist. New York: Fireside, 1992. Smith, Robert L. Venomous Animals of Arizona. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1982. Werner, Floyd G. and Carl Olson. Learning about & Living with Insects of the Southwest: How to Identify Helpful, Harmful and Venomous Insects. Tucson: Fisher Books, 1994. In essence, phylogenies are family trees. Researchers group living things into increasingly specific categories based on reconstructions of the organisms’ evolutionary histories. Since most of the branching in the arthropod family tree took place before humans came into existence, the tree structure is deduced from the study of fossils, and the examination of molecular, developmental, anatomical, and behavioral characteristics of contemporary species. Many characters important in determining relationships between species are not observable in the field. The informal notes in this phylogeny are intended to help readers develop a feel for arthropod classification by using visual characteristics alone.Kingdom Animalia Animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed legs. The earliest arthropods probably had one pair of appendages per body segment, but there have been many divergences from the ancestral arrangement. Segments may be fused or grouped into body regions and appendages may be exaggerated, modified, or lost. Members of this subphylum have two major body divisions, the cephalothorax (the head and mid section combined) and the abdomen. The first pair of appendages on the cephalothorax is modified into jaw-like structures. Chelicerates have simple eyes resembling unfaceted beads. All species in this category lack antennae and wings. The arachnid cephalothorax appears to be unsegmented. In some orders, the abdomen is clearly segmented (scorpions); in others (most spiders) no segments are apparent. Arachnids have four pairs of legs; however, some arachnid mouthparts (such as scorpion claws) have evolved into structures that could be mistaken for limbs. Almost all arachnids are terrestrial. Order Scorpiones (scorpions) Order Uropygi (vinegaroons) Order Araneae (spiders) Order Amblypygi (tailless whipscorpions) Order Pseudoscorpiones (pseudoscorpions) Order Solifugae (sun spiders) Order Opiliones (daddy-long-legs) Members of this group have two pairs of antennae and branched (biramous) appendages. Five pairs of appendages are associated with the head, including a pair of jointed mandibles. Many species have compound eyes, which are made up of simple eyes grouped together to form faceted spheres. Most species are marine. This class contains some of the most familiar crustaceans. Members have eight trunk segments and six abdominal segments. All abdominal segments bear appendages. Only a few species belonging to this group are found in the Southwest. Order Decapoda (crayfish) Species in this subphylum are distinguished from ones in subphylum Crustacea by having a single pair of antennae, unbranched (uniramous) appendages, and mandibles that are usually unjointed. These animals have a long, flattened body with numerous segments. One pair of legs arises per trunk segment and 15 or more pairs of legs are present. Order Scolopendromorpha (centipedes) Members of this class have long, cylindrical bodies. Every other body segment is fused to the one ahead of it, so the animals appear to have two pairs of legs per body segment. They have many pairs of small legs, hence the name millipede or “thousand feet.” Order Spirostreptida (millipedes) Insects have three distinct body regions: the head, thorax, and abdomen. Three pairs of legs, and often two pairs of wings, arise from the thorax. Many insects have well developed compound eyes. Order Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Order Odonata (dragonflies, damselflies) Order Isoptera (termites) Order Plecoptera (stoneflies) Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids) Order Phasmatodea (walkingsticks) Order Hemiptera (true bugs) Order Homoptera (cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids) Order Megaloptera (dobsonflies) Order Coleoptera (beetles) Order Diptera (flies and mosquitoes) Order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) Order Trichoptera (caddisflies) Order Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants)
THE WASHINGTON POSTEASTVILLE, Va. A fireball two miles across and traveling at 30,000 mph crashes into the ocean off the Virginia coast. The impact vaporizes billions of tons of water, rips a hole in the sea floor six miles deep and fractures the bedrock far into the Earth. The splash is 30 miles high. Debris is lofted over the horizon and rains down on an area of 3 million square miles, as distant as the Antarctic. Towering tsunamis surge toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. A calamity of unimaginable scale, it is probably the most stupendous geological occurrence on the East Coast. For more than 10 years, geologists have believed that an asteroid or a comet struck the Earth north of Norfolk about 35 million years ago, leaving behind behind a 53-mile-wide, long-buried crater. An international team of scientists, looking for clues into the origins of the planets, has assembled in a windblown bean field near the crater's center to try to determine, among other things, what happened when the object struck. Since early last month, the team has been working with a large drilling rig to bore through eons of sediment toward the floor of the crater, perhaps 7,000 feet below the surface. "This is so big that we can't really picture it," said David Powars, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who said he first suspected the presence of an impact crater in the 1980s. "You could take the whole nuclear arsenal in its heyday: Russia, China, U.S.... That's a firecracker compared to what this explosion would be." Their work is the culmination of a five-year project in which the USGS has drilled six holes to examine the crater's shape. This hole will be the program's deepest, and the last, officials say. Since the formal announcement in 1995 of what is now called the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater, studies have detailed its dimensions and outline, experts say. Last year scientists for the first time found rock that had been melted by the impact and fossils of microorganisms that were smashed in the collision. There are many known impact sites around the world and millions more on planets and moons across the solar system. The one near Norfolk is Earth's seventh-largest and the biggest in the United States. The Earth's biggest, 186 miles across, is at Vredefort, South Africa. The third-largest, the 100-mile-wide Chicxulub crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is believed to be the result of an impact 65 million years ago that blew so much debris into the atmosphere that it darkened the Earth for months and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Geologists say they do not believe that kind of thing happened after the Chesapeake impact. It "would have killed off the local population" for hundreds of miles up and down the coast, said Jean Self-Trail, a Geological Survey micropaleontologist. "But we don't really have any evidence that there was a massive die-off." More . . .
In most respects, the Quebec Act (Acte de Québec) was a consolidation of reforms and tolerances pushed by Guy Carleton during his time as Governor of Quebec. The Act would declare religious freedom for the French Canadians, that is, the ability to freely practice Catholicism. It would also endorse the continuation of civil law for civil matters and English common law for criminal matters (sound familiar?). Finally, the Act permitted the continuation of the seigneurial system, a system whose effects would, surprisingly, only die out in the 1970s. The Act also increased the Province of Quebec’s size, extending it down past the Ohio Valley, effectively cutting off the Thirteen Colonies from any hopes of westward expansion. Most importantly, the Quebec Act introduced one notable reform on the structure of the Province of Quebec’s government: within the Act lay an ability for the French Canadians to enter public service. However, in order to do so, they would have to take an oath of allegiance towards Britain and her King. Absent within this oath was any of the dubious Protestant faith clauses that were present in previous oaths, such as the dubious “serment du test” that effectively prohibited Catholics from taking public office due to its negation of the main tenants of Catholicism. However, the Quebec Act did not include any form of legislative assembly, which would allow the Governor and his Council to continue to deal with the affairs with little to no consultation of the public; a legislative assembly would only come in the 1790s. With the French Canadians’ rights recognised came, of course, dissatisfaction for parties who were not favoured by the Quebec Act, namely “not-Quebec”, otherwise known as the Thirteen Colonies. For the Americans, the Quebec Act is commonly regarded by most elementary history books as the last straw towards Revolution, though it was hardly the penultimate act on Britain’s part. Tensions had been brewing in the Thirteen Colonies for a while, mostly due to duties and taxes waged upon the colonists due to the heavy debt that Britain had incurred during the Seven Years’ War (thanks to William Pitt, no less). The Boston Tea Party, as erudite American historians know, occurred about a year prior to the Quebec Act, in 1773. The Quebec Act would be another annoyance to the soon-to-be American colonists, though hardly something to sneeze at: revolutionary colonists would have by then stopped listening to Britain altogether. Less than a year later, these colonists would engage in the first military operation that would start off the American Revolution, and the Province of Quebec would also have its part to play. Celebrate the English language’s wonderfully archaic use of Capital Letters for Important Words and read epic run-on sentences by reading the Quebec Act here.
Here is what we’ve been doing this week. Let us know what you think. We hope by providing these materials to you free of charge, it will make your life easier! Lesson Plan: The lesson plan includes all the lessons for the week, as well as optional ideas. Items following the lesson plan are just the printables or links to websites we used to teach these plans. (Please note: On top of our lesson plan we are reading books daily that relate to our theme.) Memory Verse: This memory card is for daily use during our calendar time. You can learn more about calendar time at 1+1+1=1 or Homeschool Creations. Our weekly devotional is an object lesson that will help your child apply the meaning of the verse to them. Turkey Spelling Puzzle- This activity will help your child begin to recognize that when letters are combined they form words. Turkey Feather Patterns- This activity will help your child begin to recognize, describe and extend patterns. (This week we included 2 different patterns AABB and ABAB.) You can also download our printable and build a one dimensional turkey. Turkey Beginning Sound Sort- Print this activity off from Making Learning Fun and work on the T beginning sound, if you have time (and printer ink) work on other letters. Turkey Number Match– This activity will help your child begin to read, count and model whole numbers 1-10. T for Turkey Magnet- Teaches your child how letters are linked to sounds to form letter-sound correspondence. \|Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not the 4shared file page. Thanks! (See TOU)\|
In another life, I must’ve been a dog. Whenever I’m out walking and see a squirrel, I have an almost uncontrollable urge to see how close I can get to it before the scrappy rodent scrabbles up a tree. Inevitably, a staring contest ensues, which the squirrel usually ends up winning. My suppressed animal urges aside, I do notice something kind of educational about squirrels. They tend to be alone. When they’re not, they are usually chasing each other like crazed maniacs in a not too friendly manner without regard to life or other happenings. That’s why it might come as a surprise that they practice a typically human behavior – they adopt. And they adopt outside their social group. A new study by researchers at the University of Alberta determined that red squirrels will take in abandoned or otherwise parent-less young and raise them as their own, a seemingly altruistic act. The behavior turns out not to be as charitable as it sounds – the squirrels do get a survival perk. But the discovery is nonetheless an unusual one in the animal kingdom, with its own squirrely flare to boot. Jamieson Gorrell, a Ph.D. student in evolutionary biology at the University of Alberta and lead of the study, was observing a population of Yukon red squirrels and noticed a lone female had taken a baby from an abandoned nest to raise as her own. When Gorrell sifted through 20 years of red squirrel research from the area, he found four other instances of the same behavior. Not only that, but in each account, the baby adopted was a relative. Gorrell found that despite their antisocial tendencies, red squirrels are still able to recognize, and decide to care for, relatives. Right now the predominant notion is that the chitter-chatter squirrels screech out to mark territory or ward off others contains vocal clues about relativity. So an encroaching squirrel could hear the calls of another adult, and recognize kinship. If that other mother disappears, the encroaching squirrel may recognize the kinship of the abandoned nest and take action. In addition to the novelty factor of the behavior, the study authors also state that this finding proves a long-standing evolutionary theory true. It is a concept known as Hamilton’s Rule, which suggests that despite “the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest,” animals can be altruistic. Though for red squirrels, it’s a tempered altruism. The red squirrel is still helping out a member of its bloodline, and will only help one baby out of a litter. Adopting more than one is “out of the question,” according to the study, as the strain of adding more than one baby to a single mother’s already full house would outweigh any benefits. You can read more about the study in the online journal Nature Communications, or visit this link http://www.redsquirrel.ca/KRSP/Media.html to get more info, cute pics, and free copy of the study.
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Science Museum's Hands-on Exhibits Let Visitors See Dinos, Reach for the Stars by Kelly Melhart From the Editor: The following article appeared in the June 22, 1997, edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It gives families one more idea about things to do in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before or after the convention this summer. The article is reprinted by courtesy of the Fort Worth Star Telegram At the edge of the Cultural District a dinosaur has taken up residence at 1501 Montgomery Street, an Acrocanthosaurus to be exact, a meat-eating dinosaur cousin to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The fourteen-foot-tall, 40-foot-long dinosaur is part of the DinoDig exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, one of eight permanent exhibits. The outdoor discovery area allows children and adults to get their hands dirty while they dig for imitation dinosaur bones. Missy Matthews, marketing coordinator for the museum, said all the exhibits are interactive and aid the learning process. "Studies have shown that that's the way people learn," she said. "When they can discover things for themselves, it is a much more meaningful experience than reading a label." Other hands-on exhibits include KIDSPACE; Hands on Science; History of Medicine; Your Body; IBM Calculators and Computers; Rocks and Fossils; and People and Their Possessions, which includes the demonstration and discovery area, Hands on History. The museum combines the mysteries of the past with the technologies of the future to create a learning environment for children and adults, Matthews said. "We are science and history," she said. "We are an educational institution, and so our overall criterion that the films and exhibits have to meet is to educate. " The museum is also home to a 390-seat Omni Theater, the Museum School, the Noble Planetarium, the Museum Store, and the Courtyard Cafe. The Omni shows educational films in a state-of-the-art theater that houses an eighty-foot domed screen and a seventy-two-speaker sound system. The science and nature films are shown for a limited time, but the short footage that gives a stomach-dropping helicopter's-eye view of Fort Worth precedes every show. The Museum School on the lower level of the museum offers instruction for children from preschool through the sixth grade. Kit Goolsby, the museum's director of education, said the fifty-six-year-old school has such a reputation that parents stand in line every fall and spring to register their children in the unusual program. "It is truly unique because it is based on the collections in the museum," she said. "The hands-on introduction to natural science, physical science, and history isn't possible anywhere else where you don't have the collections to support the curriculum." The museum is open seven days a week. Admission to the exhibits is $5 for adults and $4 for children ages three to twelve and seniors. An exhibit pass is good throughout the month in which it is purchased. The exhibit pass does not include admission to the Omni or the planetarium, but discounts are offered for admission to all three. The Omni Theater is also open seven days a week, and admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children and seniors. The Noble Planetarium offers shows Wednesday through Sunday. Cost is $3. Museum parking is free and is located in the Cultural District parking area on the west side of the Will Rogers Memorial Center.
Thin-Film Device Eyed as Power Source for Wearable Tech A thin-film energy storage device, seen attached to a polymer backing, retains its battery-like and supercapacitor-like qualities even after being flexed 1,000 times, according to tests at Rice University. Rice chemist James Tour led the team that developed the supercapacitor, which can be used to power wearable electronics and flexible devices. (Source: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) Yes, I think that could be a good application, too, Cadman-LT. A lot of these new power sources are aimed at both wearables, which often demand flexibility themselves, and the next generation of flexible mobile devices that are the evolution of the hard, inflexible ones we have now. I've written a lot about some of these alternative power sources. Thanks, mrdon. Your observation is interesting and correct. It's funny how something that's been around for a long time and is, as you point out, simple, could become the default future power source for some of the most innovative new electronics. The capacitor is an innovative way of creating an alternative power source because of its ability to store charges and to release them when an electrical load is connected to them. What a simple yet powerful solution. I'll definitely be sharing this article with my students to illustrate how small electronic components can solve today's tech challenges. This was a nice article to read. This is another advancement in power sources for wearable tech, which range from small devices like this to energy harvesters. It will be interesting to see going forward if certain types of devices are adopted more than others, or if a combination of devices is used depending on the application. The Beam Store from Suitable Technologies is managed by remote workers from places as diverse as New York and Sydney, Australia. Employees attend to store visitors through Beam Smart Presence Systems (SPSs) from the company. The systems combine mobility and video conferencing and allow people to communicate directly from a remote location via a screen as well as move around as if they are actually in the room. Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.
We all know that the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round, but have you ever given much thought to what's on those bus wheels -- or what's on the wheels of your own car? That's right, you car's tires. They connect your car to the road. They give you stability and traction, no matter what the weather is. And, though you may not often think about them this way, your car's tires are key safety features. The right tire can often prevent the loss of control that usually leads to an accident. The wrong tire (or a tire that hasn't been well-cared-for) can increase the risk of a crash and decrease the safety of your car. While tires are key parts of your car's safety and performance, from a user standpoint, they're actually pretty simple. First, you find the right tires for your car, based on the size and weight of your vehicle, plus how you intend use them and the weather you expect to encounter (or you opt for all-weather tires just to keep all of your bases covered). After the tires are installed, you keep them filled with air and remember to check the air pressure once a week. You regularly use the penny test to check for wear and tear by inserting a penny with Lincoln's head pointed down into a tire's tread. If you can see the top of Lincoln's head, your tires are worn out. Once your tires have worn down to the point where they're no longer safe you purchase a new set, and the cycle of a tire's life rolls on. For something that's fairly simple in its use, however, how tires are made is actually a fairly complex process. Though tires started out as simply air incased in rubber, today they're more sophisticated than ever. That's good news for drivers: Today's tires last longer and are less prone to dangerous blowouts than older tires. They're also better at maintaining contact with the road and can even help a car's performance (some tires can help improve a car's fuel economy). Tires are no longer just rubber and air. Instead, they're made up of several layers of materials, each playing its own role in how the tire functions. Keep reading and we'll explain each step in the process of how tires are made.
In 1868, a committee on fisheries and navigation submitted a list of questions to fishermen, shipmasters and collectors of customs in various parts of Canada. Included in the questions was a request for them to state where additional lighthouses, guns, fog bells, or whistles were required. A. Riverin, who fished for herring, cod, salmon, and trout along the North Shore, informed the committee that the coast between Trinity Bay and Seven Islands was dangerous, especially in an east or southwest wind, and recommended that a revolving light and a gun should be established on Egg Island to enable vessels to approach the coast without danger. Work on a lighthouse for Egg Island began during the summer of 1871, and its light was first exhibited on October 23rd, though the lighthouse would not be completed until the following year. The lighthouse, which stood 600 feet from the southern end of the island, consisted of an octagonal tower surmounting a keeper’s dwelling and measured thirty-five feet from base to vane. A revolving light, whose two faces each had two lamps set in twenty-inch reflectors, was displayed from the lantern room at a height of seventy feet above the water. The light attained its greatest brilliancy every ninety seconds and could be seen up to fifteen miles off. J. B. Spence built the lighthouse under a contract for $2,000, while the total cost for the structure, including the lantern and lighting apparatus, through June 30, 1872 was $3,830.21. Paul Côté received an annual salary of $500 to serve as first keeper of the light, which consumed about 300 gallons of oil per season. The heroic action of Keeper Côté’s family, as described in the following account carried in Harper’s Weekly, was brought to the attention of the Minister of the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Ottawa by the Marine Agent in Quebec City. All sailors know how important it is that a flash light should revolve with mathematical accuracy; otherwise one light might be taken for another, and a wreck might be the fatal consequence of such an error. One night, toward the close of the autumn of 1872, a pivot broke in the clock-work regulating these revolutions. The season was too far advanced to get help from the Ministry of Marine at Quebec; the only thing to be done was to replace the machine by human energy, and the keeper and his family devoted themselves to the task. During five weeks of that autumn and five other weeks of the next spring, man, wife, girls, and boys turned the machine by hand. Cold and fatigue stiffened the hands, sleep weighed on their eyelids, but nevertheless they must turn, turn, without haste and without rest, all through those long watches, in which the order was to become an automaton and keep turning the machine. Not one, from the child to the master, either complained or shirked his duty, and the light at Egg Island continued each minute and a half to flash its protecting light over the tempestuous Gulf. A stout, first-class, octagonal tower was delivered to Egg Island in the fall of 1877 and placed adjacent to the existing keeper’s dwelling. This new tower, which cost $2,428.93, stood fifty feet, base to vane, and was topped by an iron lantern with a diameter of ten feet. The remnant of the original tower likely accounts for the unique shape of the lighthouse seen in the historic images on this page. Sometime before 1904, a single, vertical red stripe was painted on the white tower as a daymark. Being a religious man, Keeper Côté established a chapel in the lighthouse so that missionaries and priests passing along the North Shore could stop and celebrate mass or provide religious services for his family. Archbishop F.X. Bossé, Prefect Apostolic of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, dedicated the chapel in 1874. Keeper Côté served until 1901, when Tancrèd Pelletier, his son, succeeded him. Elzéar Chouinard, a native of the Caribou Islets, took charge of the lighthouse in 1911 as its third keeper. Six of Elzéar’s daughters were married in the lighthouse chapel before he retired in 1937 at the age of seventy. M. Émile Chouinard took the place of his father and kept the light on Egg Island until 1958, when he transferred to the lighthouse at Metis-sur-Mer. It was during Emile’s service that Arthur Lafontaine and Ovide Fortin built a concrete tower on the island in 1955. M. Ange-Henri Dugas, a grandson of Elzéar Chouinard, held the office of keeper from 1958 to 1965, when the fifty-four-year-long lightkeeping legacy of the Chouinard family came to an end. The final keeper at Egg Island was M. Francis Poulin, who served from 1965 until the station was de-staffed in 1969. The keeper’s dwelling was demolished during the early 1970s. The only inhabitants of the island now are numerous birds for whose byproduct the island was named. Keepers: Paul Cote (1871 - 1901), Tancrède Pelletier (1901 - 1911), Elzéar Chouinard (1911 - 1937), Émile Chouinard (1937 - 1958), Ange-Henri Dugas (1958 - 1965), Francis Poulin (1965 - 1969) .
"In recent decades, tropical forests have suffered extensive clearing, fragmentation, degradation, and depletion of biodiversity. Once blanketing 12 percent of the world’s landmass, they now cover just 5 percent. While destruction continues in many places, tropical forest restoration is growing and may sequester as much as six gigatons of carbon dioxide per year." Project Drawdown ranks this solution as the fifth most powerful in slowing and eventually reversing climate change. Restoring degraded tropical forests around the world would significantly reduce CO2 emissions, and the stories in this collection demonstrate how this can be done. In Malawi, the causes of its severe deforestation were addressed and now the forests are returning against all odds. Hoping to follow this example, other promising solutions are being put into practice: introducing fast-growing bamboo as a substitute for firewood, partnering with indigenous communities, using drones to re-plant forests, and building an ecotourism industry to incentivize leaving forests in-tact. Tropical forests offer habitat, food, fiber and medicine to humans and animals alike. Apart from carbon sequestration, as crucial as it is, a restoration of these complex ecosystems has many benefits to offer. Our issue area taxonomy was adapted from the PCS Taxonomy with definitions by the Foundation Center, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License. Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers: Fondriest Environmental, David De Wit / Community Eye Health, Linda Steil / Herald Post, John Amis / UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences – OCCS, Andy B, Peter Garnhum, Thomas Hawk, 7ty9, Isriya Paireepairit, David Berger, UnLtd The Foundation For Social Entrepreneurs, Michael Dunne, Burak Kebapci, and Forrest Berkshire / U.S. Army Cadet Command public affairs Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license, and are credited to the following photographers: Photos are licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers: Conference attendee listening to speaker, Jenifer Daniels / Colorstock getcolorstock.com. Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images Photo Credit: Sonia Narang
Theory of operation In 3 dimensional area, an item would possibly both rotate approximately, or translate alongside any of 3 axes. Therefore the item is claimed to have six levels of freedom (three rotational and three translational). A rotary level shows just one level of freedom (rotation approximately one axis). In different phrases, rotary levels function via bodily proscribing three axes of translation and a couple of axes of rotation. Rotary ranges include a platform that movements relative to a base. The platform and base are joined by way of a few type of bearing which restricts movement of the platform to rotation a few unmarried axis. A number of other types of bearings are used, each and every with advantages and disadvantages making them extra suitable for a few programs than for others. A undeniable bearing is just surfaces sliding towards each and every different. Usually a round step at the platform pals snugly with a round melancholy within the base permitting loose rotation at the same time as minimizing aspect to aspect movement. A rotary level constructed with this kind of bearing is frequently best used for coarse positioning and is adjusted manually just by turning the platform. Index marks on both the bottom or the platform are frequently supplied, making an allowance for moderately repeatable positioning of the platform relative to the bottom. This kind of rotary level comprises ball bearing degrees, crossed curler bearing levels, and most likely others. Any of numerous other rolling-component bearings could also be hired. Generally a couple of bearings is used, and they’re preloaded to absorb any slack which might outcome within the level platform lifting relative to the bottom. Place regulate strategies A few rotary degrees are operated just by turning the platform by way of hand. The platform will have index marks for surroundings other angular positions relative to the bottom. A locking mechanism could also be supplied to mend the platform to the bottom on the preferred place. Guide malicious program pressure For extra exact place regulate, a malicious program pressure can be used. A malicious program wheel is fastened to the rotating platform and meshes with a computer virus within the base. Rotation of the malicious program by the use of a guide regulate knob reasons the platform to rotate with recognize to the bottom. Index marks on each the regulate knob and the platform can be utilized to find the platform very exactly and repeatably with appreciate to the bottom. A rotary level synthetic by way of Zaber Applied sciences Inc. This level is in accordance with a ball bearing layout with angular place managed by the use of a computer virus pressure hooked up to a stepper motor. Stepper motor with bug pressure Changing the guide keep an eye on knob within the above guide bug force situation a stepper motor lets in positioning of the rotary level to be automatic. A stepper motor rotates in fastened increments or steps. The choice of steps moved is managed by way of the stepper motor controller. On this feel the stepper motor behaves similar to an listed regulate knob. DC motor and encoder with bug pressure A DC motor can also be used instead of a guide regulate knob. A DC motor does now not transfer in fastened increments. Subsequently an alternative way is needed to decide level place. An encoder could also be hooked up to the DC motor and used to document the angular place of the motor to the motor controller, permitting a movement controller to reliably and repeatably transfer the level to set positions. While exact angular positioning over just a small overall attitude is needed, a linear actuator (both guide, or motorized) can be used. Usually the variety of movement imaginable is best 10 to twenty of rotation. The linear actuator presses towards a touch floor fastened to the level platform such that extension or retraction of the actuator reasons the platform to rotate. The level platform is sprung towards the actuator tip in order that the touch floor remains in touch with the actuator tip while the actuator retracts. Classes: Positioning tools \| Clinical apparatus I’m China Producers author, stories a few details about x2 capacitors , electret condenser microphones.
Spring Grove History Spring Grove Hospital Center was founded in 1797 and is the second oldest psychiatric hospital in the United States. The oldest psychiatric hospital in the country is the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, which was founded in 1773 and remains in operation today as a psychiatric hospital. Other than Eastern State Hospital of Virginia, no psychiatric hospital is older than Spring Grove. Click here for a list of the12 oldest psychiatric hospitals in the United States. The oldest general hospital in America is the Pennsylvania Hospital, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1751. However, while the Pennsylvania Hospital does provide psychiatric services, it was never a psychiatric hospital -- and for that reason is usually not included in lists of the oldest psychiatric institutions. (The Pennsylvania Hospital did operate a free-standing affiliated psychiatric institute, the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, which was opened in 1841 and which closed in 1997.) Although Spring Grove was formally founded as a hospital in 1797, it actually can trace its roots back to a predecessor institution that began three years earlier, in 1794, during the second presidential term of George Washington. In that year a small group of men, headed a sea captain named Jeremiah Yellott, established what they called "a Retreat" for the ailing mariners in Baltimore. (The term "retreat" had been used in England and America to describe what today might be called sanitariums or infirmaries.) In 1794 Baltimore, which would not be incorporated as a city for another three years, was growing rapidly and had a bustling seaport. Accordingly, there was an increasing demand for respite care for infirm seafarers that were regularly arriving at the harbor. Not much information exists today about Captain Yellott's Retreat. In fact, there is even some debate about its actual name. A number of documents refer to it simply as the "Retreat." It has also been called the "Hospital for Strangers and Mariners," the "Hospital for Seamen and Strangers," and as the "Retreat for Strangers and Mariners." We do know that it was located on a now defunct byway that was known as the "Old Road to Philadelphia" (later referred to as the "Old Joppa Road"), just south of today's Monument Street in Baltimore. Market Street (now called Broadway) was to its west. This is the approximate location of today's Johns Hopkins Hospital Although the general location of the Retreat is known, the exact location of the structure that housed the facility has not been established. We do know that the land upon which the Retreat was built was owned by Captain Yellott, himself. Some sources indicate that a dedicated building was erected specifically for the purpose by Captain Yellott in 1794. There is also an implication that the original, i.e.1794, structure may have been incorporated into a larger hospital building later on (see below). However, while the Retreat evidently did stand on the same parcel of land as the hospital that replaced it a few years later -- and although it must have been in close proximity to the 1798 hospital building (given the fact that the parcel of land in question wasn't particularly large) -- most historic evidence suggests that the building occupied by the Retreat was probably not the same building that housed the "new" hospital that was founded by the Maryland Legislature in 1797. Instead, it appears that that structure was built specifically for the purpose in 1798 (see "Founding of the Hospital," below). Nevertheless, there is implied evidence that the Retreat's building temporarily became the new hospital immediately after the property was purchased for that purpose from Captain Yellott by the City of Baltimore in May of 1798 (see below). It is also reasonable to assume that the Retreat building remained in use by the hospital after 1798, at least temporarily, until the new building could be built and fully readied later in 1798 (see below). It is not clear if the above picture of the hospital, as shown on a map of Baltimore in 1801, is the same building that housed Captain Yellott's Retreat (c. 1794) or if it is the c.1798 structure that followed the founding of the hospital in 1797. However, it is most probably a newly-built building that was constructed in 1798 and opened that same year to house what would eventually become "Spring Grove Hospital Center.". According to aHistory of Baltimore, Maryland, published in 1898, the 1794 Retreat was considered to have been "the first hospital established in Baltimore." It seems to have been funded entirely by Captain Yellott and his associates, and while at the time the term "Retreat" often referred to a psychiatric facility, and while Captain Yellott's Retreat undoubtedly accepted mariners who were suffering from mental illnesses, available historic information suggests that it was primarily a facility intended for the treatment of general medical conditions -- such as infectious and nutritional diseases -- that occurred among seafarers. Few additional details about the Retreat are known. A history of the Hospital, published in 1943, reads: "The hospital started in a building known as The Retreat, located on the ground now occupied by the Administration Building of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The building and grounds became the property of the City of Baltimore in May, 1798, when Captain Yellott consummated the purchase. At the time the inmates consisted of a few insane, a few physically sick indigents, and a few mariners who [had fallen] sick while their boats were in the thriving port of Baltimore." (The Beacon, 1943) The accuracy of this report can not be confirmed. Another report, written in 1947 and entitled,TheHistory of Spring Grove State Hospital, says very little about the Retreat, but seems to condemn it through an unexplained passage (presumably taken from an unidentified earlier publication) that reads: "[The Retreat] suffered various vicissitudes during its career, and its success was far from flattering." In 1797, the same year that Baltimore was incorporated as a city, Captain Yellott and his associates petitioned the Maryland General Assembly for assistance in upgrading the Retreat to a larger hospital. Their efforts were rewarded when, on November 2, 1797 (Spring Grove's official "birthday"), the Legislature passed an act to authorize the erection of the facility. At the time, most of Maryland's seriously mentally ill, as well as those persons who were referred to as "inebriates" (alcoholics) or as being "feeble-minded" (mentally retarded), were kept in local jails and almshouses -- if they were poor or indigent, or were not able to be cared for at home. Within this context, the original mission of the new hospital, as established by the General Assembly in 1797, was to provide "for the relief of indigent sick persons, and for the reception and care of lunatics" (Acts of 1797). A very significant public health concern in Maryland in the year 1797 was Yellow Fever. The presence of an abundance of mosquito-breeding wetlands in the environs and a generally warm climate led to a number of Yellow Fever Epidemics at the turn of the nineteenth century - and the decision to construct a public hospital was clearly partially related to this circumstance. The newly conceived hospital represented the first organized public effort in Maryland to address the mental health (as well as the general medical) needs of the poor and indigent through the establishment of a hospital. Not only was the hospital that was eventually to become Spring Grove the third such institution in the country, it was also the very first public hospital of any kind in Maryland. In 1794, Spring Grove's predecessor facility, the Retreat, seems to have been the very first freestanding health facility in Baltimore. However, it probably would not have been considered to have been a hospital. Furthermore, it was not specifically designated to treat psychiatric patients and it was not publicly funded or operated (although it seems that it did accept indigent patients). The College of Medicine of Maryland was established in December, 1807. The Maryland Infirmary [later known as the University of Maryland Hospital], founded by the College of Medicine's faculty, was not established until 1823. Baltimore's Almshouse, the predecessor of the present-day Hopkins Bay View Hospital, was established in 1773. However, although some medical services to the infirm were provided there, the Almshouse was not a hospital and offered only limited medical care and few vocational, recreational or rehabilitative services and therapies in what was primarily a shelter for the homeless. As noted above, in May of 1798, the property that was occupied by Captain Yellott's Retreat was selected as the site for the new hospital. At that point the Retreat was either abandoned or restyled as The Public Hospital (of Baltimore). It is perhaps interesting to note that Captain Yellott was, himself, a member of the committee, appointed by the City Council, under the authority of the State, that selected the property that he personally owned. It seems clear that it must have always been Captain Yellott's intent to convince the State and local governments to aid him in his efforts to build a larger hospital to replace his Retreat. And although several histories make reference to a committee of men who were designated to select the site for the new hospital, the decision to purchase Captain Yellott's property was almost certainly a fait accompli when the Maryland General Assembly authorized the establishment of the Hospital in 1797. The initial "seed" money for the Hospital's construction, $8,000, was appropriated by the General Assembly on January 20, 1798. Although the funds were appropriated by the State, and although ownership of the property rested with the State, the funds were placed in the hands of the Mayor of Baltimore, who, along with Captain Yellott and his associates, had served as member of the committee that selected the site. An additional $18,000 was appropriated for construction and/or operating costs in February 1799. $3,000 of the total came from the City of Baltimore; $3,000 by the State; and the balance, approximately $12,000, came from donations given by several benevolent citizens. An early history of the hospital notes that the property occupied by the Retreat was purchased from Captain Yellott on May 18, 1798 for �800. (By one account, Captain Yellott may have donated part of the property.) The source of the funds for the purchase price are not known, although they may have been charged against the $8,000 that was appropriated by the General Assembly in January 1798. The reason that the price paid for the property was recorded in British pounds, rather than in U.S.dollars is also not known, but it may have been a function of the fact that in 1798, only 11-years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the dollar was not yet a stable currency. While construction of a new hospital building on the site reportedly began shortly following the purchase, there is also evidence that the same building that served as the Retreat temporarily became the Public Hospital of Baltimore immediately upon it's purchase by the City. For that reason, May 18, 1798 (the date that the property was purchased) is sometimes considered to be the anniversary of the founding of the hospital, since that seems to be the date that "the Retreat" officially became a hospital and public psychiatric facility. However, Spring Grove has traditionally used November 2, 1797, that date of the legislation that its establishment specifically as a facility for the treatment of the mentally ill. By all accounts, construction of the expanded facility started shortly after funds were appropriated and the site was officially selected in 1798. One historic source suggests that that early references to the erection of the "new hospital" in 1798 actually refer to the expansion of the original, circa 1794, building -- through the addition of an annex to, or other upgrade of, the original structure. However, all other sources of information about the hospital's early history make what seem to be specific references to the construction of an entirely new building (albeit at the same site) in 1798. It should be noted that later references to the "original building" (later, a part of the west wing) do not suggest that it was comprised of more than one original section, a circumstance that, in turn, would argue against any assertion that the earlier Retreat building was somehow incorporated into the "original" 1798 structure. Furthermore, a drawing of the hospital, as seen on a map of 1801, indicates that, as of that time, the hospital consisted of a single, unified structure. On the other hand, the limited information that is known about the founding of the hospital indicates that construction was started shortly after the site was selected and purchased in May of 1798 -- and that the building was occupied later that same year -- a set of circumstances that would indicate that either a entirely new building was built very quickly or the "new construction" actually involved an expansion of the existing structure; i.e., the Retreat. Unfortunately, the fate of the building used by the Retreat between 1794 and 1798 is not know. However, it does seem reasonable to assume that, if it survived, it may have eventually become one of the hospital's outbuildings. This, however, is pure conjecture. While most sources indicate that patients were able to occupy at least part of the new building by the end of 1798. Other sources suggest that the new building may not have been completed until two years later, in 1800. In view of the fact that a substantial sum of money ($18,000) was appropriated to the hospital in 1799, it seems unlikely that the whole of the new building was completed by the end of 1798. As noted above, while the name, mission and ownership of the "Retreat" changed in 1798, it would seem that the "new" hospital continued to operate, without interruption, in the same building that it had occupied since its inception in 1794 -- at least until patients were able to occupy the new (c.1798) building. As noted above, an interesting part of the hospital's history is the fact that, despite its designation as a hospital for the care and treatment of "lunatics," a primary impetus to the State's decision to fund the facility in 1798 seems to have been a yellow fever epidemic that led to the death of 1,200 people in Baltimore that same year. Similarly, a yellow fever epidemic in 1794 had apparently been one of the factors that had mitigated in Captain Yellott's decision to open his Retreat. No medical or financial records from the Public Hospital at Baltimore (Spring Grove's original name) are known to exist. However, according to a then contemporary newspaper account, at least one patient of the hospital was treated for a fever by phlebotomy. More specifically, according to the report, 130 ounces of blood were drawn, over an unspecified period of time. The doctor also gave the patient 35 grains of mercury and applied 12 ounces of mercurial ointment. (It is not known if the patient survived.) In 1800, Dr. J.J. Gireaud published a formula that he believed both prevented and cured yellow fever. The formula included ipecac, rhubarb, magnesia, kermes mineral, camphor and "columba." While it was Dr. Gireaud's intention was to treat yellow fever with this preparation, it is interesting to note that what was then known as "columba" is better known today as "Saint John's wort," a herb that has been used as a modern treatment for mild depression. The property purchased from Captain Yellott in 1798 included a tract of six and three-quarters acres of land at the crown of what was then called Loudenschlager's Hill. The property was located east of Market Street (later, Broadway), on a road known at various times as the "Old Road to Philadelphia" and "the (Old) Joppa Road." (Note: The old "Joppa" or "Philadelphia Road" in this part of the City was abandoned in the 1840s. Its roadbed was subsequently annexed by the hospital and there is no modern counterpart to it. However, it was roughly where McElderry Street is located today, were it to extend through the Hopkins Hospital campus.) There is some evidence that the original (1798) building may have been oriented towards Market St. (Broadway), but it was situated on open land, far back from road -- and the closest street was the Old Road to Philadelphia, to its north. It is believed that the original hospital building (circa 1798) was situated almost exactly where the well-known domed Administration Building of Johns Hopkins Hospital stands today, although this belief may not be precisely accurate. Over the years, the hospital's land holdings were expanded considerably, so that, eventually, its grounds covered an area that today is roughly bordered by the present Monument St. to the north; Broadway (formerly Market St.) to the west; Jefferson St. to the south; and Wolfe St. to the east. Other than Market St. (Broadway), none of these streets existed when the hospital was built. Although chartered and owned by the State, and at least partially supported by State funds from the beginning, the facility was originally overseen primarily by the mayor and city council of Baltimore. However, the State of Maryland did continue to exert some control over the hospital -- for example by making certain appointments to its board of directors. The State also maintained ownership. Between 1798 and 1807, according to at least one source, Captain Yellott and his associates may have continued to manage the hospital, under an agreement with the City of Baltimore. In the following year, 1808, the Public Hospital of Baltimore was renamed "the City Hospital" after a pair of local physicians, Drs. Colin Mackenzie and James Smythe, persuaded the Baltimore City Council to lease the hospital to them for a period of 15-years. (The lease was later extended.) One of the conditions of the lease was that "the building be exclusively appropriated as a Hospital for the insane, and diseased persons of every description." Furthermore, any renewal of the lease was subject to the execution of a commitment by Drs. Mackenzie and Smythe to construct a major addition to the hospital, in the form of an "east wing" (see below). Under the agreement, the two men took over the daily operation of the facility and continued to provide hospital services to indigent ("pauper") mentally and physically individuals, as well as to mariners and private (paying) patients. On December 24, 1808 Maryland's legislative body, the General Assembly, passed an act which authorized a lottery to raise sums of up to $40,000 for improvement and expansion of the existing hospital building. By all accounts, the lottery was very successful, and at least one historian has noted that a number of the lottery winners donated their winnings back to the State so that they could be applied to the expansion of the hospital. The sum of five-hundred dollars was appropriated by the Baltimore City Council in 1809 for repairs of the original building, and, in 1811, an allocation of $18,000 was granted by the Maryland General Assembly -- specifically for the purpose of the ongoing expansion. In early 1812 the "Treasurer of the Western Shore" (of Maryland) was directed to pay $5,000 annually, for three years, for the completion of several additional (interconnected) buildings that were already in progress. To read an article about the original Spring Grove Hospital (by then known as the "Baltimore Hospital") that was published in The Baltimore Whig in 1813 Click Here (Note additional reference to a petition for compensation for damages caused by U.S. troops during the War of 1812) To view a copy of the 1817 equivalent of a modern patient discharge summary (signed by Drs. Smyth and Mackenzie) Click Here Two years later, in 1814 a second lease of an additional 10 years was granted by the City of Baltimore to Drs. Smythe and Mackenzie -- on the condition that they complete the addition of the "Centre Building," which, it should be noted, was not a separate building, but, instead, a new component of a single larger structure. According to the terms of the new lease, the "Centre Building" was to serve exclusively as a "lunatic asylum." In addition, the terms of the lease required the lessees to build a section that would connect the original building to the Centre Building (thereby forming a West Wing), as well as an "east wing" that was to extend off the Centre Building in the opposite direction (ref: 1852 report of the Board of Visitors). As noted above, records indicate that the original building, c.1798, stood at the far western end of the structure - closest to Market Street (Broadway). As part of an effort to help Drs. Smythe and Mackenzie complete the Centre Building, the balance of the West Wing, and the East Wing, a further appropriation of $30,000 was made by the Legislature in 1816. Additional sums of money were raised by a second lottery, and an additional $60,000 were directly invested by the lessees, although it is not clear if Mackenzie and Smythe invested the money personally or if it came from other private sources. (A brief history of the hospital, published in the 1843 "Report of the President and Board of Visitors [of the Maryland Hospital]" includes a passage that reads: "-- and to the honour of these gentlemen [Mackenzie and Smythe] it should be known that a large sum, amounting to $60,000, was furnished from their profits and other private resources to carry out fully their benevolent plans, making an entire expenditure of $154,000, up to this period of the history of the Institution.") There is evidence that the Centre Building and the East Wing, which had already been under construction (possibly since 1808), were completed later in, or shortly after, 1816. The additions were probably completed in stages, but the order of completion is not known. A 1819 drawing of the hospital clearly shows that the hospital building -- including the Centre Building, and both the east and west wings -- had been completed by that date. There also seems to have been some uncertainty as to the cost of the hospital's construction. As noted above, a report of 1843 says that the cost had been $154,000. However, a Report of the Board of Visitors in 1856 says that hospital's construction, up to 1819, was estimated to have been in excess of $200,000. This evidently inflated estimate may have been made in the face of the fact that in 1856 consideration was being given to the possibility of selling the property -- and the Board of Visitors may have been attempting to make it appear that the site was more valuable than it actually was. (One other source places the cost at, or around, $140,000.) According to the brief history written in 1843, after completion of the expansions that were overseen by Drs. Mackenzie and Smythe, the hospital was usually able to accommodate "about 40 lunatics [i.e., patients with mental illnesses] and 150 [other] patients, with general diseases." Spring Grove During the War of 1812 In addition to treating indigent Maryland citizens and "strangers" (i.e., those without local family or friends) the hospital also continued to treat sick and disabled U.S. seamen for a number of years. In 1814, during the War of 1812, some 234 sick and wounded soldiers were taken to the hospital from the battles that occurred around Baltimore, including the Battle of North Point. In addition, yellow fever patients were treated at the hospital during the several epidemics that occurred between 1798 and 1819. For example, records indicate that during the yellow fever epidemic of 1819, 145 yellow fever "victims" were admitted to the City Hospital of Baltimore (the then contemporary name for Spring Grove), 85 of whom died. In 1813 admission to the City Hospital could be ordered or authorized by the chancellor of an entity known as the "Chancery Court." As head of the Chancery Court, the chancellor had the authority to commit to the facility those individuals who were referred to in the law as "any lunatic, idiot or person insane." (Acts of 1813). By 1815 the hospital was sometimes referred to as "The Hospital in the Vicinity of Baltimore" -- the use of the phrase "in the vicinity" possibly referenced the fact that part or all of the hospital's property may have extended beyond the 1815 Baltimore city limits. With the approval of local trustees of the poor, county levy courts were authorized in 1817 to commit persons referred to as "lunatic paupers" to the hospital, upon agreement by the county to provide an annual payment to the hospital (Acts of 1817). While no direct evidence exists today that slaves were ever used to staff the hospital, it should be noted that, during this period, similar institutions did use slave labor for certain tasks. However, there is clear evidence that African-American slaves were admitted as patients. Although leased to Drs Mackenzie and Smythe, who controlled the day-to-day operations of the hospital, both the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland maintained at least titular oversight powers during this period -- and both entities continued to provide some of the hospital's funding. Dr. James Smythe died in 1819, and Dr. Colin Mackenzie in 1827. With the approval of the City Council, Dr. John Mackenzie, the son of Dr. Colin Mackenzie, took control of the hospital in 1827, following his father's death. In 1828, following the death of the second original lessee, Dr. Colin Mackenzie, and in response to growing concerns about conditions at the hospital, the State of Maryland asserted its authority and resumed full Governance of the institution. The State's authority was vested in a corporation that was styled "The President and Visitors of the Maryland Hospital" [Acts of 1827, passed 1828]. However, the powers of the corporation were temporarily suspended under an agreement with Colin Mackenzie's son, Dr. John Mackenzie. The agreement allowed Dr. Mackenzie, the younger, to maintain control of the daily operations of the hospital and to be in receipt of any profits until his lease expired in 1834. The State of Maryland (and its governing corporation, The President and Visitors of the Maryland Hospital) officially took control of the hospital from Dr. Mackenzie on January 1, 1834. On that date, there were at total of 36 patients at the hospital -- 26 of whom were termed "lunatics" and 10 of whom were referred to as "ordinary patients." These numbers represent a substantial reduction in the patient population, as compared to the above figures from around 1817. This may have been a function of the fact that by 1834 the hospital buildings were in such a state of disrepair (see below) that the hospital was no longer able to accommodate the number of patients for which it had been designed. For example, a report made to the House of Delegates by "The Committee on the Part of the House of Delegates Appointed to Visit and Inspect the Maryland Hospital" (1834) indicates that the west wing of the building was in such bad repair that it was not being used. (Note: Dr. John Mackenzie continued to serve as one of the hospital's treating physicians after 1834, and so, presumably, he did not stop admitting his private patients to the facility. However, it may have been that by 1834 conditions at the hospital were such that it was unable to attract many private patients.) In addition, records indicate that the hospital was badly in dept, in part because of low reimbursement rates and bad debt by the various Maryland counties, many of which had often simply failed to pay for indigent patients from their jurisdictions, despite a legislative requirement that they do so. While some counties simply reneged completely on their commitment to pay for those of their indigent citizens who were confined to the Maryland Hospital, other counties only paid a portion of the agreed upon rate of $100 per year, per patient at the time. By one report from the period, the actual cost of caring for the average patient at the hospital was $150 per year, $50 more per patient than was typically charged, and far more than was being collected. Private patients typically paid between three and five dollars a week ($150 and $260 per year) and this helped defray the costs of caring for the public patients. The indebtedness of the hospital may also have limited the size of the indigent patient population that could be accepted. An estimated 30 mentally ill Maryland citizens were hospitalized in other states in 1836, a circumstance that was attributed to the limited capacity and poor condition of the Maryland Hospital. The Maryland Hospital In 1834 the institution was officially renamed "The Maryland Hospital," a name that, evidently, had been in use since 1826. In the two years between 1834 and 1836, the patient population grew to 54 individuals -- 42 psychiatric patients, and 12 general patients. Perhaps in an anticipation that the hospital would need to continue to grow, a lot to the north of the hospital was purchased for $4,000 in 1834. Early reports indicate that by that time the abandoned roadbed of the "The (Old) Joppa Road" (also known as the Old Road to Philadelphia) -- directly to the north of the original hospital building -- had already been purchased by the Hospital. The annexation of the Old Joppa Road, plus the additional land purchased in 1834, extended the hospital property's northern boundary to Monument St. (A report from the 1850s cites as one of the reasons for the hospital's debt the fact that the hospital was assessed for part of the cost of originally paving Monument St.) As noted above, contemporary reports indicate that when the State resumed full operating control of the hospital in 1834 it found that the building that housed it had been permitted to fall into serious disrepair. From the outside the building was still quite impressive in its appearance and, in fact, it received some national attention as a monumental building and was considered a Baltimore landmark for many years. However, upon closer inspection both the basic structure and the interior were found to have been in "ruinous" condition by the middle 1830's. For example, a passage from a report made in 1836, pursuant to an inspection that had been ordered by the Maryland House of Delegates, reads: "...one portion, (the west wing of the building) [is] in such a state of decay, that a few years more will scarce leave a stone of its structure remaining. [The inspectors] found a large, nay almost the whole of the East building useless for the great purposes of a lunatic asylum, for want of properly warmed and secured cells for confinement." Of note is the fact that the referenced portion of the west wing was the structure that had been the original, c. 1798 building. The report went on to say that, it was noted that at that time (1836) there were 22 patients that required "close" (i.e. private) confinement, while there were only 18 "cells properly warmed and fitted up for such lunatics as require close confinement." The 1836 report does indicate that the facility was clean, and that the patients were generally well cared for. Based upon its committee's findings in 1836, the House of Delegates appropriated $30,000 to make major repairs to the hospital.. These repairs evidently included the purchase of about three additional acres of land; the subdivision of two large, open wards on upper floors of the east wing into private rooms; the replacement of the (tin) roof of the "centre" portion of the building; improvements in the wall that surrounded the hospital (to prevent escapes and to enhance privacy); and the demolition and complete rebuilding of the section of the west wing that had at one time been the original hospital building; i.e., the c. 1798 hospital structure that, through a series of modifications and additions over a period of more than 30-years had become the western-most section of the west wing of the hospital. The annual report of 1843 notes that, in 1839, that section of the hospital, i.e. the western most section of the hospital's west wing, was demolished and rebuilt. Drawings and other reports indicate that the replacement structure (1839) almost identically resembled the original structure (1798), at least on the outside. The 1843 report specifically mentions the fact that the new structure was erected in the same location as the original building. Similarly, maps from 1819, 1836 and 1853 show identical locations and approximately identical "footprints" for the primary hospital building in each of these years, and drawings of the hospital from 1816, 1822, and 1847 appear to be almost identical. Contemporary references to the demolition of the "original hospital" in the late 1830s are confusing in that the 1839 demolition of the "orignal hospital" referred only to the demolition and replacement of just that portion of the west wing that had been the original hospital building in 1798. The balance of the west wing, as well as the "Centre Building," and the east wing were repaired, remodeled and improved in later years -- but these remaining portions of the building survived until they were demolished, along with the rest of the structure in the 1870s (see below). Some early records indicate that certain patients were permitted "to go partially at large." For example, by one report the hospital maintained horses and carriages so that patients could go out for rides and other activities. However, other reports indicate that many, or even most, patients were kept in "strict confinement" -- either in individual "cells" or behind the hospital's high walls. A number of local newspapers, including the [Baltimore] Sun, were known to have contributed subscriptions to the hospital's patients. The primary treatment modality used during the period was called "Moral Management" (see below). In a manner perhaps consistent with modern industry practices, the annual reports from the early 1840s seemed to have painted a somewhat misleadingly rosy picture of life at the institution. Nevertheless, these reports do indicate that the providers placed great emphasis on the importance of cleanliness, good hygiene, patient activities, nourishing foods, personal dignity, and freedom of movement. Between 1836 and 1840, the patient population expanded rapidly. For about a period of time after the State resumed full control in 1834, physician services at the hospital were provided by a number of Baltimore physicians, including John Mackinzie -- each of whom were to have served gratuitously for one year. However, this proved to be an unsatisfactory arrangement, primarily because the volunteer physicians found that their private practices were growing, and, at the same time, the demands of the Maryland Hospital were too great. Furthermore, as noted above, its buildings seem to have been in such poor condition that the hospital was probably unable to attract many private, paying, patients. In any case, the arrangement for gratuitous physician coverage lasted only about one year. In 1835 Dr. William Stokes, a graduate of the University of Maryland College of Medicine, was appointed as the hospital's first full-time State-employed physician. A second physician was hired shortly thereafter. According to a report published in 1836 by The Committee to Visit and Inspect the Maryland Hospital, Dr. Stokes' and his assistant each had annual salaries of $500. During this same period, nursing services were provided primarily by an order of Catholic nuns; the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The above referenced report of 1836 indicates that, for its 54 patients, the hospital's staff consisted of two Physicians (Dr. Stokes, as the "President Physician," and another physician, the "Executive Officer"), twelve nuns, three additional male staff members, and three additional female staff members. The Sisters of Charity and the other female staff members were each paid five dollars a month. The male staff members were paid ten dollars a month. A list of the supposed causes of Insanity, in order of prevalence among the 143 patients at the Maryland Hospital in the year 1844, is as follows: - Intemperance (27) - Ill Health (12) - Masturbation (9) - Constitutional (9) - Domestic Trouble (6) - Religious Excitement (4) - Pecuniary Loss (4) - Love Affair (3) - Puerperal [related to childbirth] (3) - Loss of Friends (2) - Disappointed Ambition (1) - Mortified Pride (1) - Remorse (1) - Political Excitement (1) - Want of Employment (1) - Unknown (59) A List of the forms of Insanity that presented at the Maryland Hospital in 1844 included: - Dementia (44) Roughly synonymous with what today might be a diagnosis of Schizophrenia or Manic Episode. Obsession with a single, often paranoid idea. (Delusional Disorder, Psychotic Depressions, and Paranoid Schizophrenia.) The term "idiocy," not unlike terms such as moron, imbecile and lunatic, did not have the pejorative meaning in 1844 that it does today. In 1838 the hospital was again renamed, this time to "The Maryland Hospital for the Insane," one year before the General Assembly passed legislation that specified that the Maryland Hospital was only to accept psychiatric patients. Two years later, in 1840, the connection between the hospital and the Sisters of Charity was severed, following what evidently was a power struggle between the Sisters of Charity and the hospital's resident physicians. According to a number of sources, the disagreement was over the fact that the Sisters refused to recognize that the decisions of the hospital's physicians were "supreme" in all clinical and administrative matters. Following the departure of the Sisters of Charity, the Hospital engaged a matron and a number of nurses to replace them. The Sisters of Charity went on to establish another psychiatric facility, known as the "Mount Hope Retreat," which later became the Seton Institute. An interesting footnote is the fact that the Sisters of Charity were later accused of using the Mount Hope Retreat to "unlawfully imprison" and torture patients. This accusation was made in the literary work, The Cornets: or the Hypocrisy of the Sisters of Charity Unveiled, a book that supposedly described the author's personal experiences while confined as a patient to the Mount Hope Retreat. Such claims must be considered within the context of the growing anti-Catholic sentiment of the era, and must also be balanced against historic evidence of the many selfless acts of the order. Despite the new construction and other improvements, by 1839 the facility had become badly overcrowded. On April third of that year, the General Assembly passed an act that required the Maryland Hospital to be "devoted exclusively to the treatment of lunatics." (The 1852 annual report of the Hospital's board suggests that this change had actually been in progress since 1834). This same act required that "one-half of [the Maryland Hospital]...be appropriated to the accommodation of pauper lunatics of [the State of Maryland], who shall there be accommodated and treated at the expense of the county so sending such lunatic paupers; provided, the same shall not exceed one hundred dollars for each pauper lunatic so sent." As noted above, additional land was acquired at around this time, and the hospital was again expanded. However, the expansions and other changes did not allow the facility to keep up with demand, and overcrowded conditions continued. In 1852, the hospital's name changed again, at least informally, this time to The Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Baltimore. According to hospital records, during an 11 month period in 1857 some 43 patients were admitted to the Maryland Hospital; 39 patients were discharged from the hospital; and six patients died. On November 30, 1857 there were 153 patients (80 males and 73 females) at the Maryland Hospital; of these, 88 were private (paying) patients, and 65 were public patients. An annual report of 1857 notes that of those patients who were discharged in that year, the large majority were private patients. By way of explanation, the report points out that the illnesses of the "public" patients tended to be significantly more chronic than those of the "private" patients. Although certainly not suggested in the 1857 report, an alternative explanation for the much higher "cure rate" for the private patients could have been , of course, that they may very well have received better care and treatment than the public patients -- and, just like today, the private patients were probably more likely to have had housing available to them in the community. Records from the period indicate that a number of children were admitted to the Maryland Hospital, although most patients were adults. Enoch Pratt was among the distinguished local citizens who were affiliated with the Maryland Hospital in its early days. Records indicate that the well-known philanthropist and founder of Sheppard Pratt Hospital served as a member of the Maryland Hospital's Board of Visitors from 1857 - 1868. It has also been noted that Mr. Pratt donated, in addition to his time, several gifts to the Maryland Hospital over the years. For example, he reportedly donated billiards tables in the years 1863 and 1879. Among his other gifts was a piano. Various improvements were made to the Maryland Hospital during the 1850s and 1860s. For example, the Hospital had installed gas lighting fixtures by 1858. The Hospital's annual report of 1861 notes that running water in the bathrooms and water closets (flush toilets) were added to the West Wing of the building, and the hospital was connected to the Baltimore City public water system. The old heating system that had included 13 separate hot air furnaces and five coal stoves, was replaced in or around 1864 with a single hot water heating system -- an improvement which was cited as resulting in significant improvement in both comfort and safety. A gatehouse ("Sleeping Room at the Gateway for the accommodation of the Gatekeeper") was built at the Monument St. Entrance in 1863. Dorothea Dix, the outspoken advocate and crusader for the mentally ill, pointed to the inadequacy of the bed capacity of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane in her 1852 impassioned address before the Maryland General Assembly. She also cited a need to relocate the hospital to a more pastoral setting, outside the City of Baltimore. Subsequently, the General Assembly passed a law which created a commission to "select and purchase" a tract of land for the purpose of "erecting a 200- to 250-bed hospital for the insane" (Acts of 1852). Although Ms. Dix is deservedly given much of the credit for the General Assembly's decision to authorize and fund the construction of a new facility, it should be noted that her lobbying efforts were made after she learned that there was already a formal proposal for a new hospital in Maryland. Records indicate that as early as 1848 the Governor of Maryland had asked for a proposal to substantially expand the existing hospital. A proposal to build two large additions, one at the southern end of each of the existing wings, was briefly considered. However, the proposal was abandoned after it was realized that the it would be impractical to try to expand at the current site -- primarily because there wasn't enough land to support a larger hospital (and farm). By the 1850s, Baltimore had expanded and the Maryland Hospital, which originally had been in a rural setting, found itself surrounded by the growing city. Because the land values in the Hospital's now-urban neighborhood were fairly high, it would have been prohibitively expensive to have acquired significant additional amounts of additional land there. Furthermore, many individuals, including Ms. Dix, had emphasized for a number of years that efforts to treat psychiatric patients in accordance with the principles of Moral Management (see below) were generally not practicable in the middle of a crowded, noisy, urban area. Accordingly, the fact appears to be that by 1852 it had all but been decided that a new hospital would be built and that this new facility would need to be constructed at a location outside of the City of Baltimore. It would seem that the lobbying efforts of Dorothea Dix in this regard provided the extra "push" necessary to get the General Assembly to act. A group of commissioners was appointed by the Maryland General Assembly. Known collectively as the Commissioners for Erecting a Hospital for the Insane, the group was n headed by Dr. Richard Sprigg-Steuart. The commissioners acted quickly. On October 27, 1852 the commission purchased 136 acres of land, near the town of Catonsville, Maryland (five miles southwest of Baltimore City). The purchase price for the original 136 acres was $14,000; of this sum, $12,340 came from contributions by private citizens. Dr. Sprigg-Steuart, who at the time held the title of President and Medical Superintendent of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane , contributed $1000 of his private funds towards the purchase price. He has been called "the true founder of [the] Spring Grove Asylum" because he was highly instrumental, not only in the selection and purchase of the Spring Grove site, but he also was central to the efforts to secure funds for the construction of the new hospital building. The parcel of land selected was known in the early 1800s as "Owings Adventure." Some sources suggest that the property, which, as is the case today, was partly wooded and contained a number of springs and small lakes or ponds, was renamed "Spring Grove" by the purchasers. Other sources indicate that it was already called Spring Grove at the time that it was acquired in 1852. (Note: The name "Spring Grove" does not seem to appear on maps from the period.) With the active encouragement of Dr. Sprigg-Steuart and Ms. Dix, an additional $10,000 was appropriated by the General Assembly in 1852 to begin construction of the new hospital building. Note: Despite his "founder" status, despite Dr. Steuart's many other contributions, and despite the fact that he held the title of "President of the Maryland Hospital" for many years (almost to the time of his death), there has never been a "Sprigg-Steuart Building" at Spring Grove. This is possibly because Dr. Sprigg-Steuart has remained a somewhat controversial figure -- primarily due to the fact that his loyalty to the United States was called into question during the U.S. Civil War because he may have been a southern sympathizer. He and several other members of the Hospital's Board of Visitors were replaced during the Civil War after they refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the Union. However, in 1868, following a change in Maryland's politics after the War, Dr. Sprigg-Steuart was reinstated as the President of the Hospital's Board of Visitor's. He remained in that post until 1876. By the end of November 1852 the commission had hired an architect, J. Crawford Neilson(J. Crawford Neilson (1816 - 1900) was a noted Baltimore architect and was one of the founders of the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In addition to the Main Building at Spring Grove, Mr. Neilson designed a number of notable buildings in Maryland and in neighboring states. For example, he served as one of a series of principal architects who were responsible for the design of the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, SC. He also designed the Hilltop Chapel at Green Mount Cemetery, and the Grace and St. Peter's Church (Park Avenue at Monument St.), both in Baltimore.), as well as an excavation contractor. Not only did Mr. Neilson design the Main Building, he oversaw the entire project, from start to finish. The Main Building's design was based upon the work of Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, who served the Pennsylvania Hospital as superintendent from 1841-1883. The "Kirkbride Plan" included Dr. Kirkbride's theories regarding therapies, psychiatric hospital design, and the management of institutions. His recommended plan for hospital design called for a monumental "centre building" (in accordance with the classical tastes of the time). A series of wings that were arrangeden �chelons emanated from the centre building. This basic design scheme became the predominate style of psychiatric hospital construction throughout the United States in the second half of the 19th-century. Among other advantages, the progressive setback arrangement of the components of the building allowed air to flow into each ward of the building through windows on all four sides. The arrangement also tended to shield each individual ward of the building from the view of persons on the other wards, thus affording greater privacy. J. Crawford Neilson is perhaps best known as the architect of the South Carolina State capitol building. Actual construction of the Main Building began in 1853. Despite further appropriations of $15,000 in 1856; $25,000 in 1858; another $25,000 in 1859; and $100,000 in 1860 (Acts of 1858, and Acts of 1860), construction progressed slowly -- and had stopped completely by the onset of the Civil War. Not only were there insufficient funds to allow for the completion of the Hospital, there was not enough money to repay debts incurred to pay for some of the work that had already been completed. In an apparent response to wartime politics, the group of men who had originally been appointed to oversee the project (some of whom were reportedly Confederate sympathizers) was replaced in 1862 (Acts of 1862). However, despite the change in the membership of the commission, the war continued to delay construction. Of note is the fact that by the start of the Civil War the North Wing of the new hospital at Spring Grove was almost completed and, according to several histories of the hospital it was used during the during the war as a military hospital for (presumably Union) soldiers. It should be noted that this assertion has not been confirmed through primary sources. However, if these reports are accurate, the first use of the new facility at Spring Grove was as a Civil War (1861-1865) army hospital for wounded and sick servicemen. Records from the period indicate that by 1861 the "centre building" (the central section of the new hospital building) was raised to the second floor, and the foundation of the South Wing (the section to the left in the above drawing) had already been laid. It appears that the commission did not meet again until November 1867. As noted above, politics came to the fore again when the original commissioners were reappointed (Acts of 1868). While no record of its proceedings are known to exist, the commission presumably continued to oversee the construction of the Spring Grove facility after construction was resumed in 1868, but progress was reportedly very slow. In 1870, the legislature ordered the sale of the hospital's holdings in Baltimore City (Acts of 1870). The property was sold to Johns Hopkins, after whom the hospital and university have been named, and proceeds of the sale were then applied to the construction costs of the new hospital at Spring Grove. (See below.) It is perhaps interesting to note that the current "Spring Grove Hospital" may technically be the third hospital located at the Catonsville site. As noted above, the north wing of the "Old Main" building at Spring Grove may have first been used as an army hospital during the Civil War. In addition, a second hospital may have operated there for a brief period in the early 1870s, before the first psychiatric patients were transferred to the Catonsville site from Baltimore in 1872. According to an 1870 report entitled, "The Inebriate Asylum: Report of the Committee on the Temporary Organization of the Asylum," permission had been granted in the previous year to allow an institution known as "The Inebriate Asylum at Spring Grove," a facility for the care and treatment of alcoholics, to temporarily occupy the completed north wing of the new hospital at Spring Grove (Main Building) for a period of two years. Evidently, the agreement was that the Inebriate Asylum could operate in the completed north wing of the Spring Grove site until the rest of the building could be completed and the psychiatric patients from the Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Baltimore could be transferred to into it. The report indicates that the use of the building had been offered at no cost to the "Inebriate Asylum" by the State. A somewhat ironic, and perhaps stigmatizing, passage from report reads: "...Spring Grove is not, and never has been, and may never be, an Asylum for the Insane. When our [alcoholic] patients go into it, they will be its first occupants. No ghostly traditions or associations can haunt them -- no unpleasant scenes, nor the memory of any, nor bolts and bars, can disturb their peace of mind." (The assertion that the Inebriate Asylums patients would be the Main Building's "first occupants" seems to contradict the reports that the building had already been used for patient care as a military hospital during the Civil War.) The report also indicates that there was significant disagreement over funding for furnishings and operating costs. Accordingly, despite oral history that supports its existence at Spring Grove, it is not clear if the "Inebriate Asylum" ever actually operated at the site. In any event, it is clear that it did not operate at Spring Grove after the Maryland Hospital relocated to the Catonsville site in 1872. However, the hospital's annual report of 1875 does note that a ward of the hospital was set aside specifically to treat "inebriates." Johns Hopkins, the wealthy Baltimore merchant and investor after whom both the university and the hospital are named, had been involved for two decades in the oversight of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane as a member of its Board of Visitors and as part of his many philanthropic activities. Records indicate that the old hospital, which by then was situation on 13-acres, was sold to Mr. Hopkins in 1870 for the sum of $150,000, although the net proceeds of the sale were only $133,318.67, after several deductions were made. These deductions included a $2,000 withholding for a small parcel of land that had been considered part of the property but that could not convey because the Maryland Hospital did not hold clear title to it. (The hospital did hold a legally binding option to purchase the parcel in question for $2,000, and this option was transferred to Johns Hopkins at the time of the sale. Accordingly, $2,000 was deducted from the purchase price.) The balance of the deductions were for rent for the continued occupation of the property by the Maryland Hospital and its patients for several years after the sale. (See below. Although the property was sold to Johns Hopkins in 1870, and although Mr. Hopkins agreed to pay for the property before he was actually able to take possession of it so that the proceeds could be used to finish the new facilities at Spring Grove, the new hospital building was several years away from completion -- and so an agreement was reached at the time of the sale for the State to lease the property back from Mr. Hopkins.) Furthermore, the terms of the sale allowed Johns Hopkins to withhold $25,000 of the payment until such time as the General Assembly of Maryland passed a resolution that would afford him immunity from any unfriendly extensions of Baltimore City streets through the property. (Similar immunity had previously been granted to the Maryland Hospital, but could not be transferred to a new owner.) In the following year, 1871, the General Assembly did pass a law that provided Mr. Hopkins with the protection that he requested, on the condition that the property be used as a hospital and for no other purpose. There had been an earlier plan to preserve the Baltimore site as "an auxiliary institution" after the Spring Grove site was completed However, the hospital was already in debt, there was no way that the partially completed structure at Spring Grove could be completed without a major infusion of funds, and so the original proposal to maintain the hospital at two sites (Baltimore City and Spring Grove) was formally abandoned in 1870 when the property was sold. While debate as to whether to maintain two state hospitals or simply transfer the Maryland Hospital from its original site in Baltimore to the new site in Catonsville continued for most of the time that the new hospital was under construction. However, the decision seems to have been essentially made by the late 1860s. In a report dated January 12, 1870, Dr. R. S. Steuart, the hospital's chief executive officer, summarized the bases of the decision to sell and abandon the Baltimore site and to move all of the hospital's operations to the "new Hospital" as follows: - It is too small, and too defective in its construction. - It is too old and dilapidated, and will require too large a yearly outlay to keep it up. - When established, it was remote from the City, now it is surrounded by buildings on every side, subjecting the patients to the noises and excitements around them; and they, in their turn, disturbing the population by which this building is surrounded. - The property, itself, has greatly enhanced in value, and can be sold for more than the land and improvements have cost the State, (from is commencement in 1797,) by which means, the treasury may be protected from the future cost of the completion of the new Asylum, now under construction, by Commissioners, who have that work in hand, and from whom we learn, the work may be regarded as one half completed and capable of full completion in one year, if appropriations are sufficiently large, and made at an early date. (Taken from the Forty-First Report of the President and Visitors of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Baltimore, for 1868 and 1869) A more detailed report from the same period of time reads: "When the present Board, after an absence of four years, resumed the care of this Hospital (in May, 1868)it was found in a state of great dilapidation, not owing to any neglect on the part of our predecessors, but from gradual decay; they not being furnished with the means to keep it in repair, being now an old building, of over sixty years standing. The walls were sinking from water in the cellars, the floors, joists, plastering, painting, (outside as well as within) all, required renewing; the bath rooms, and water closets were few and in great decay; the furniture worn and insufficient." The report goes on to mention that the hospital was deeply in debt -- primarily to local banks, such as the National Bank of Baltimore and the Eutaw Savings Bank -- and that, at the same time, a significant amount of uncollected money was owed to the Hospital. For example, it was noted that a number of counties (Allegany, Calvert, Dorchester and Prince George's) collectively owed the hospital $1,489.05. Furthermore, the report says that, because of the war, "the South" owed the hospital a debt of "over $2,000." It's not clear if this obligation referred to a debt that had somehow been acquired by the Confederate States of America for services rendered by the Maryland Hospital during the war or if it referred to a demand, during Reconstruction, for war retributions from the southern states. However, presumably the Maryland Hospital had no official connection with the Confederacy during the war. In any event, the Hospital's Annual Report, dated January 1870, indicates that the debt hadn't been paid -- and seems to suggest that there was no expectation that it would be. *This four-year absence refers to the fact that the Board of Visitors of the Maryland Hospital had been replaced in 1864, during the third year of the Civil War, after most members refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the Union. The members, together with their President, Dr. R. S. Steuart, were reinstated when the Democratic Party returned to power in Maryland, three years after the war's end. As noted above, the release of the property to Mr. Hopkins was subject to the completion of the new facility at the Spring Grove site and the removal of the patients. One legend has it that Mr. Hopkins bought the property after his cousin, who, himself, was reportedly interested in the property, asked Hopkins to look at it for him. When later asked by the cousin what he thought of the property, Mr. Hopkins reportedly replied, "Cousin, I liked it so well that I bought it myself." The story may say more about contemporary perceptions of Mr. Hopkins than it does about an actual event. Other reports, probably more accurate (given the fact that Mr. Hopkins, a member of the Maryland Hospital's Board of Directors, had been actively involved with the institution for many years, and so, presumably, would have already been fully familiar with its buildings and location), indicate that Mr. Hopkins was approached by the State and was directly asked to make the purchase. There is also evidence that, at least initially, Hopkins was quite reluctant to do so. Reportedly, his original intent had been to build his hospital on his 330 acre country estate, Clifton, north of the 19th-century Baltimore City limits. An advantage of the Maryland Hospital site in Baltimore was that it was located on high grounds (there had recently been a flood in Baltimore that had destroyed many of the lower-lying parts of the city that bordered the Jones Falls). In addition, the property was also located in what had become a fairly densely populated and poorer section of Baltimore -- and among Mr. Hopkins' purposes in establishing a hospital was to provide for medical care to the indigent.. Construction of the new hospital at the Spring Grove site had resumed in 1868, but, apparently, on a limited scale -- due to a lack of money. However, following the acquisition of funds from the sale of the Baltimore property in 1870, full-scale construction activities were resumed. On October 7, 1872 the Maryland Hospital for the Insane officially relocated from its original site in Baltimore to its current site at Spring Grove. On that date, it transferred staff and 112 patients to the newly completed building. (The original building at Spring Grove, known in later years as the "Central Building," and then as the "Main Building" or the "Administration Building" or simply as "Old Main," was demolished in 1964. However, what had once been the Main Building's powerhouse and gas works, a building that was built at the same time and was originally adjacent to, but not part of, the Main building survives today as what is known as the Laundry Building. In addition, several buildings that were built at the site a matter of only several years after the Main Building opened are still extant. These include the original firehouse; and several other outbuildings.) According to the Maryland Hospital's Annual Report for 1872 and 1873, when the hospital sold its property in Baltimore to Johns Hopkins in 1870 it owed $120,439.73 on past-due invoices for Spring Grove-related constructions costs. Understandably, workers, trades people and materials suppliers were unwilling to resume construction activities until the past-due bills were paid -- and the Board acknowledged that it would be dishonorable to not pay their debts, especially if, as was the case in 1870 after the sale of the old hospital, the funds were available. Furthermore, the Board was aware that there was a only a limited supply of workers and trades people in the area to do the types of work that needed to be done, and that if they didn't pay these individuals what was already owed to them the Board would be unlikely to get them, or, for that matter, anyone else, to do the additional work that was necessary to finish the building. However, the Board of Visitors also recognized that if the hospital used all of the proceeds from the sale of the Baltimore property (a net of just $133,318.67) to pay the overdue bills for the construction that had been completed at Spring Grove to date (an amount that, as noted above, was over $120,000), there wouldn't be enough money left over to finish the hospital -- or to even finish enough of it so that at least a section of it could occupied as a hospital. Accordingly, the board members knew that if they paid off the existing construction dept in full, they would find themselves in possession of a debt-fee, but uninhabitable, partially completed, large "shell," with no reasonable expectation of being able to complete and occupy it in the short term. Furthermore, their agreement with Johns Hopkins was time limited and if the new hospital building at Spring Grove was not completed within the next several years, it was recognized that the Hospital would have to close and the patients would have to be sent to almshouses or simply be put out on the streets. Within this context, a deal was struck between the hospital and the workers to whom the dept was owed: The hospital would pay the workers, trades people and suppliers 90% of what was owed, on the condition that new materials would be supplied and that the workers would resume construction on a full-scale, pending additional appropriations by the State. The rate at which the patients were transferred from the old site to the new one is not know for certain. However, early histories of the hospital indicate that all remaining patients were all transferred on October 7th. Presumably, if any additional patients remained at the Baltimore location after the new hospital at Spring Grove officially opened on October 7, 1872, these patients were transferred to Spring Grove fairly quickly afterwards; most of the old hospital had been razed by the end of 1873. However, it is possible that the Hospital did operate simultaneously at both locations for at least a a brief period of time until all the patients, furniture and equipment could be transferred. The cost of "removing the patients" to the new site in Catonsville was listed as having been $872.25 (Annual Report of 1872 and 1873.) Several names were used initially to identify the new site for the Maryland Hospital. It may originally have been referred to as the "Maryland State Lunatic Asylum [at] Spring Grove." (This is the name that is used on what evidently was the original plan for the first floor the new hospital building in Catonsville, circa 1853.) A number of documents that date from the period between the end of the Civil War and 1872 refer to it simply as "The Spring Grove Asylum." In a report written about the yet-to-be completed new hospital, Dr. William Steuart, the Resident Physician, referred to it as "The new Asylum, at Spring Grove." Several early documents refer to the institution as "The Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove." However, by 1874 the facility seems to have settled on an official name: "The Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Near Catonsville, Baltimore County." This name was used continuously (at least officially) until the hospital was formally renamed: "The Spring Grove State Hospital" in 1912. However, regardless of its official name, the hospital in it's Catonsville location has always been informally referred to as "Spring Grove." According to historic information obtained from Johns Hopkins Hospital, the old buildings of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Baltimore were mostly demolished by the time that John Hopkins died, on Christmas Eve, 1873 - although reportedly Mr. Hopkins never saw formal plans for the hospital that would eventually bear his name. . As noted above, the Maryland Hospital buildings reportedly were very poor condition at the time that the institution was relocated to Spring Grove -- and there were major structural problems, including problems with the heating and plumbing systems. For example, it was noted that the water pressure on the upper floors was poor or non-existent, and, evidently, there were no "water closets" (toilets) at all in the center section of the building. Construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital buildings, including its trademark domed Administration Building, did not begin at the site until 1877 and was not completed for an additional 12-years. A $3.5 million endowment for what was to become the Johns Hopkins Hospital had been provided in Mr. Hopkins' will. However, a condition of the will was that only interest from the endowment could be used for the construction and, therefore, the Hospital's trustees had to carefully limit the rate of construction, so as not to spend more than the annual income from the endowment. Accordingly, the Johns Hopkins Hospital, often thought of as a very old institution, wasn't actually completed until 1889. (By some accounts the old Maryland Hospital buildings, or at least certain parts of them, were temporarily used to house the Johns Hopkins Hospital until the new buildings at the site could be finished. However, these accounts seem to be specious. There is photographic evidence that suggests that the entire site was completely razed before the construction of the buildings that would eventually house Johns Hopkins Hospital was begun.) For more information about the history of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, visit their web site at http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/about/history/index.html It should be noted that J. Crawford Neilson not only was the architect that designed the Main Building, he oversaw its construction during the 19 years that passed between the start of construction, in 1853, and its completion, in 1872. Many of the interior walls were constructed of multiple courses of brick, while the exterior walls were built of grey stone that was quarried onsite. (The location of the or the quarry has not been determined by this writer, but some people believe that it was located at the site of today's Weltmer Bowl, Spring Grove's athletic field.) The new building was built in the Italianate style and was originally designed to hold 250 patients. Male patients resided on the north wing of the building (known as the "Male Department) and female patient were housed in the south wing (known as the "Female Department.") There were originally 18 wards - 9 on each wing, spread out over three floors. Occupational therapy rooms and, soon after the building opened, a bowling alley were located in the basement. Staff quarters and offices were located in the front of the center section of the building. A kitchen pantry, and eventually dining refectories and an amusement hall and chapel were located in at the rear of the center section. Higher functioning or "convalescent" patients were placed on the units that were closest to the center section of building in each wing. So called "General Patients" were housed in the next echelon back, and more disturbed or "violent" patients tended were placed on the units that were the farthest back from the center section. These were the so-called "back wards." The building was heated by hot water pipes that ran to it from the nearby (and still extant) Boiler House that was located immediately to the building's west. The hot water was used to heat air that was contained in heat exchangers that were located in the basement, and then a series of air shafts were used to allow the heated air to rise to the upper floors through gravity-fed convection. As might be guessed, this heating system quickly proved to be inadequate and the upper floors in this very large four-story building were reportedly always cold in the winter. The original floor plans of the building, c.1853, indicate that indoor plumbing and "water closets" (flushing toilets) were part of the original design. Design records indicate that ground water was pumped by a steam engine to several storage tanks that were located in the Hospital's towers and on its roof -- a fairly sophisticated system for the time. However, problems with the plumbing became apparent almost immediately. To begin with, the fresh water source was one of the hospital's spring-fed streams. Demand for fresh water was much greater than had been anticipated and it quickly became apparent that it outstripped the supply. It was noted, for example, that the Hospital and it's farm used approximately 13,000 gallons of water a day in 1877 -- more, it was pointed out, than was supplied by the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Complicating the situation was the fact that the same stream was used to empty and carry off wastes from the hospital's sewers – and since as much as three-quarters of the fresh water was being diverted into the hospital's plumbing system, the remaining volume of water in the stream was insufficient to efficiently carry-off the waste water that was being piped into it. The plumbing in the bathrooms was immediately found to be of "an inferior grade," and had to be completely replaced within a few years, and early reports also note that a $4,000 upgrade in the heating system was necessary after it was found to have been grossly inadequate during the first winter the building was occupied by the hospital. But the biggest problem turned out to have been the above-noted problem with the facility's sewage disposal system. The nature of the problem is described in the following passage from the 1877 report of the Hospital's Board of Managers: "As originally constructed, each ward or hall in the hospital was supplied with water closets [flush toilets], the contents of which were conveyed, by underground pipes, into the stream which supplies the hospital with water." Lest the reader be left with the impression that the hospital's planners were totally incompetent, it should be noted that the sewage was, of course, dumped back into the downstream from where the area from which the "fresh" water for drinking and bathing was collected. Nevertheless, because the demand for fresh water by the hospital was so great, approximately three-quarters of the streams flow was diverted into the hospital's water system, and the streams remaining flow was inadequate to efficiently carry the sewage on down stream. This, in turn, caused the sewage to back up and pool in the stream's bed. Furthermore, neighbors downstream complained of the smell and the fact that the stream was now heavily contaminated with raw sewage. Accordingly, following legal actions initiated by neighbors, the hospital was forced to abandon its original, rather simplistic, sewage disposal system shortly after the Main Building opened. A temporary solution that was employed at first involved the digging of large cesspools ("earth closets") near to the hospital building. However, this also proved to be unsatisfactory because odors from the cesspools easily found their way into the interior of the building, and, understandably, the patients and attendants complained. A number of other remedies were considered, including the pumping of the raw sewage to the Patapsco River, but it wasn't until 1893 that a satisfactory solution was actually reached. In that year, the hospital installed a fairly sophisticated sewage filtration and purification system that was built largely with patient and hospital staff labor. The Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove in Its First Years Although the State Legislature had funded the construction of the new facility at Spring Grove, it evidently didn't make arrangements to provide sufficient resources to pay for furniture, equipment, staffing and other operating costs. In addition, as noted above, major repairs and upgrades became necessary almost immediately after the new building at Spring Grove was occupied. Repeated requests for additional funding by the Spring Grove management went unanswered by the General Assembly and the hospital's debt mounted. In what may have been an early example of a bureaucratic "end run," the managers mortgaged the hospital to private lenders for $150,000 in 1874 -- just two years after the hospital was finished. This action, of course, raised the specter of the State losing its entire investment through foreclosure should the General Assembly continue to refuse to appropriate additional funding. If the decision to mortgage the Hospital was, in fact, intended to force the General Assembly to provide additional funds, it may have backfired in one sense. In response to the prospect of facing foreclosure, the Maryland General Assembly did appropriate the funds needed to pay off the mortgage in 1876 -- but, at the same time, it ordered the Maryland Hospital to be reorganized. Subsequently, the hospital was formally renamed as the Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove, and it was placed under a new board of managers appointed by the governor (Acts of 1876). Dr. Richard Sprigg-Steuart, who had been President of the hospital's Board since 1828 was replaced as its President by C.W. Chancellor, M.D. Dr. Stueart was also replaced as the hospital's chief executive officer by John S. Conrad, M.D., who held the title of "Medical Superintendent and Treasurer." The following classification system was developed by Dr. R. G. B. Broome, who was one of the Spring Grove "Medico-Psychological" physicians (psychiatrists) in 1874. This is taken from the Spring Grove Bi-Annual Report for the years 1874-75. When the new board took charge, there were 281 patients in the hospital. Records indicate that the Catonsville facility was originally intended to house 200-250 patients (Acts of 1852), but, by the time of its completion, it was said to have been able to comfortably accommodate a maximum of 325. Judges of the various Maryland county circuit courts and the Baltimore City Criminal Court were empowered by law to commit indigent mentally ill individuals to the hospital. The nine members of the governor-appointed Board of Managers exercised full control over the institution. For example, the board appointed all employees, from servants to physicians. The facility was often referred to in documents from this period as "The Maryland Hospital for the Insane, at Spring Grove," "The Spring Grove Asylum," or, just as it is today, simply "Spring Grove." Conditions of Depression: - Melancholia, with Stupor - Melancholia, with Suicidal Tendency - Melancholia, with Homicidal Tendency - Melancholia, Simple. Conditions of Excitation: - Mania, Hysterical - Mania, Puerperal [i.e., Related to Childbirth] - Mania, Suicidal - Mania, Homicidal - Epileptic Mania - Monomania [i.e., Related to a single idea or obsession, usually paranoid in nature] - Amenomania [Related to menopause or "Uterine Derangements" - about 8% of the hospital's admissions.] Conditions of Mental Weakness: - General Paresis [Tertiary Syphilis] Conditions [of] Moral Insanity without Intellectual Aberration: - Homicidal Insanity - Suicidal Insanity - Dipsomania [Alcoholism - 48 of the hospital's 138 admissions that year.] - Erotomania [Masturbation was thought to be the cause of mental illness in about 8% of the admissions] Dr. Richard F. Gundry was appointed the superintendent of the hospital in 1878, whereupon a number of reforms were implemented. The hospital's annual report to the Governor in 1876 indicates that restraints were applied to about 2% of the patient population. (It is not clear if this figure represented the continuous use of physical restraints in 2% of the patient population at any given time, or if it meant that 2% of the population had been restrained at some point.) With considerable opposition, Dr. Gundry discontinued the use of all mechanical restraints, thereby making the Maryland Hospital at Spring Grove one of the first, if not the first hospital in the United States to discontinue the practice. (It should be noted that locked door seclusion was still permitted, and reports from the period indicate that, usually, one or two patients were "confined" to their rooms at any given time. Furthermore, records from the period indicate that many, if not most, patients were routinely locked in their bedrooms at night while the nurses and everyone else, other than the men and women who served night as watchmen, slept.) In addition to his abolition of the use of mechanical restraints, Dr. Gundry fenced the Hospital's grounds and opened them to regular access by the majority of the patients. Additional promenades and landscaping features were added. Three gatehouses, originally known as "lodges," were built at the three mainentrances to the groundsduring Dr. Gundry's tenure, but the gates were typically left opened during the day, and the fences were intended to remind the patients of the Hospital's boundaries, and to afford greater privacy -- and not as barriers to escape. The "lodges" themselves, two of which are still standing (see gatehouses), were originally intended primarily for recreational purposes for use by staff and patients. Patients and staff joined together to form social clubs and musical groups. Fancy dress balls and "cake walks" were organized, and records from the period speak of patients going out to shoot partridges for the Superintendent's dinner. Dr. Gundry died in 1891 following a long illness, while he was still superintendent. His heirs founded the Gundry Hospital, a nearby facility that provided inpatient psychiatric treatment to women. Over the years, the Spring Grove continued to grow in size and, in short order, exceeded its intended patient capacity. It held 362 patients by 1880, and 461 by 1893. In 1911, the hospital treated 597 patients (though not all at one time). The increased number of patients necessitated the enlargement of the facilities. Accordingly, the hospital acquired additional property in 1880 and began to expand its physical plant (Acts of 1880). New buildings provided stables and other farm buildings; a laundry; upholstery, shoe, tin, and metal shops; dormitories; and employee housing. The additional property also allowed more land to be tilled. By the middle 1890s, Spring Grove was able to boast of electric lights, the power for which was generated in the Boiler House, now part of today's Laundry Building. Also by the middle 1890's a house telephone system was in place. In an 1896 the Hospital's new superintendent, Dr. J. Percy Wade, wrote: "A local telephone, connecting the main office with all the wards, stable, carpenter shop and engine-room, has been installed and gives complete satisfaction. It is a wonder now how we have done so long without this convenience." Installation of the Hospital's "Electric Light Plant" (a steam-powered electric generator) was begun in 1896 and was completed in the following year. Also in 1896, Dr. Wade wrote: "The building proper and all the [outbuildings], with the exception of the cottages [dwellings], will be illuminated. The wiring will be in moulding (sic), instead of concealed work, which will greatly facilitate access in case of accident. The lights have been attached to the present gas fixtures, with the addition of some new fixtures. It will be necessary to retain the gas in the building to prevent being entirely without light in case of some accident to the electric apparatus." Other improvements made in the 1890s included significant upgrades in the Hospital's plumbing and heating systems. The building had originally been built with just one water closet (flush toilet) and one bathtub on each ward. In 1893 a second water closet and bathtub were installed in each of the two front units in both the Male and Female Wings. (The smaller wards at the back of the building were left with a single toilet and tub). The water supply to the tubs was turned on and off through the use of a special key, so that patients couldn't independently operate the faucets. A few years later, in 1898, the bathroom walls were tiled in white, and "blue and white vitrified tile" was installed on the floors. Nickel-plated "rain and shower baths" were installed to replace the original "antiquated" bathtubs on the male units. (An annual report from 1899 notes that female patients preferred tubs to "rainbaths," and so showers weren't installed in the women's bath rooms at the time.) Marble wash basins were fitted to replace the original cast irons sinks, and urinals, apparently also original plumbing fixtures on the male side of the building, were removed in favor of additional water closet toilets. In addition, the original "iron hoppers" that had served as the original flush toilets were replayed by porcelain "closets." The report specifically notes that these new toilets that had "hardwood seats" attached to the rim, a circumstance that would suggest that this convenience may not have previously been aforded.. An interesting detail was the fact that the new (1898) toilets were installed with flushing mechanisms that were mechanically linked to the door of the room that contained them. Accordingly, the "water closet" flushed every time the door opened. This system was found to have been both unnecessary and, no pun intended, wasteful (in terms of water usage). It was abandoned in favor of standard, manually operated chain flushing mechanisms. The original gravity-fed heating system, which as noted above was never satisfactory was replaced with a forced hot-air system in 1899. A report that followed the first winter after installation of the new heating system notes that, as promised, all units had been maintained at a temperature of at least 70 degrees throughout the entire winter. In the late 1890s improvements to the hospital's grounds included the addition of tennis and badminton courts, as well as golf links. All of these amenities were used by patients, staff and visitors alike. The primary modality used to treat mental illness at the time was called "Moral Management." A variant of the Protestant Work Ethic, the tenets of Moral Management held that seriously ill psychiatric patients will improve when provided structure, dignity, security, a pastoral living environment, social outlets, outdoor work, opportunities for regular outdoor exercise, wholesome food, spiritual guidance, and cleanly, orderly surroundings. Accordingly, hospital authorities encouraged patients to spend their time enjoying the fresh air and park-like setting of the hospital grounds. Patients were also directed into work and other structured activities. Male patients were primarily occupied with farm and workshop chores, while female patients were employed with housekeeping, laundry, sewing, and kitchen tasks such as vegetable preparation. In 1899 a separate Industrial Shop for men was built behind the Main Building. There were also separate carpentry, paint, blacksmith and upholstery shops for men. The Main Building had a sewing room for women. Consistent with popular images of psychiatric hospitals at the turn of the 20th-century, baskets were among the products manufactured. However, as seen in the hospital's annual reports, a wide variety of other articles were also produced. In 1901 there were 7,404 separate articles manufactured and 18,579 items repaired by patients. The men's industrial shop produced durable goods such as trousers, coats, vests, overalls, boots, shoes, wicker settees and other pieces of furniture, brooms, baskets and tents. Horses and mules were shod in the Blacksmith shop -- while curtains, awnings, cushions, upholstered chairs and lounges, mattresses and many other items were manufactured in the Upholstery Shop. The women's Sewing Room produced thousands of items such as dresses, petticoats, night gowns, socks and stockings, aprons, chemises and other undergarments, sheets, napkins, table cloths, blankets, shirts, curtains and even shrouds. In 1901 the women's Sewing Room made 60 Masquerade Suits for a fancy dress ball (Annual Report, 1901). Of course the hospital's main "business" was farming. At the turn of the 20th-century the hospital's farm yield thousands of bushels of produce each year. Farm products included beets, spinach, turnips, carrots, kale, parsnips, cabbage, peas, string beans, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, lima beans, sweet potatoes, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, egg plants, celery, asparagus, rhubarb, radishes, parsley, sage, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes. The hospital's orchards yielded more than 100 bushels of apples, cherries, pears and peaches every year. In 1901 19,710 gallons of milk were produced by the hospital's herd of 24 cows. Other farm animals included calves, young pigs, hogs, bulls, horses and mules. Although perhaps the concepts of Moral Management are seen today as being somewhat puritanical and outdated, modern scholarly studies have reasserted that the application certain of its basic elements can be very beneficial in promoting recovery from serious psychiatric illnesses -- and in preventing relapses. In the 1870s, the Hospital experimented with the use of colored lights and walls to treat or aid in the management of certain psychiatric conditions. For example, the color red was thought to ease melancholia (depression), and red stained glass was installed in certain windows. In the early 1890s, the Hospital's medical superintendent, Dr. George Roh�, published data that he believed pointed to a favorable effect of total hysterectomies on the psychiatric conditions of a series of female patients at Spring Grove. [Roh�, George H. "The Relation of Pelvic Disease and Psychical Disturbances in Women. "The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children 26 (1892): 694-726.] Understandably, this was a controversial thesis (even in 1892), but it should be noted that Dr. Roh� emphasized that the referenced hysterectomies were performed primarily for non-psychiatric medical reasons, and were never performed unless the organs involved were found to have been diseased. However, the somewhat improbable volume of hysterectomies performed at Spring Grove over a relatively short period during the tenure of Dr. Roh� would suggest otherwise. Also, in the early 1890s, Dr. Percy Wade experimented with the subcutaneous injection of Episom Salts as a "purgative." Other treatment interventions used in psychiatric hospitals during this period included the administration of various medications, including opioids (such as Laudanum) and other sedatives, and warm and cold baths. Pharmacological treatments, as listed in the Spring Grove Formulary of August 8, 1899 included, for example, a recipe for "Eau de Botot" -- said to have been the first commercial mouthwash and oral antiseptic. Eau de Botot was also probably used as a cough medicine and as an expectorant. The reader will agree that the formula, which follows, reads more like the directions for an exotic cocktail than it does an oral hygiene product: Eau de Botot - Cloves, macerated into a coarse powder --30parts - Cinnamon, macerated into a coarse powder --30 parts - Anise, crushed --30 parts - Cochineal (red coloring) --20 parts - Oil of Peppermint --15 parts - Alcohol --2000 parts Another medicine listed in the 1899 formulary was referred to as a "Gastro Intestinal Tonic." The recipe as listed in the formulary reads: - Two Ounces Tincture Nucis Vomicae - Two Ounces Tincture Physostigmatic - One Ounce Tincture Belladonnae - Seven Ounces Cascara Cordial The Directions for use read: "One Ounce Night and Morning." <>Notes: Both Belladonna (also known as Atropine) and Physostigmine are used today in medications to reduce intestinal spasm and give tone to relaxed muscular walls of the stomach and bowels. Cascara Cordial was a mild laxative. Nucis Vomicae, from the seeds of an East Indian tree, is said to stimulate appetite and aid digestion. However, these formulas are reproduced only because they are of historic interest. They should not be considered safe or appropriate for modern consumption. "Classification" of patients -- by illness and level of functioning -- was felt to have been an important intervention at the time. An early floor plan of the Maryland Hospital at Spring Grove indicates that the more violent patients were segregated to the back wards of the building. As noted above, "General" patients were treated in the middle sections of the building, and the wards that housed the convalescent patients were closest to the hospital building's main entrance. A heavy emphasis was placed upon the healing power of restful sleep, and, accordingly, patients were segregated by illness and level of activity so that the more disturbed patients were less likely to interrupt the rest of those patients who were recovering. As with any setting that provides for the care of vulnerable individuals, the possibility of exploitation and abuse was always present at Spring Grove. To prevent mistreatment of the mentally ill in Maryland, the Legislature created a body known as the Lunacy Commission in 1886 to inspect "all public and private places where the insane [were] kept" (Acts of 1886). This early forerunner of inspecting agencies such as the Joint Commission, CMA, and the Maryland Office of Health Care Quality, did a great deal to help assure the quality of care at Spring Grove and other institutions of the day. CLICK HERE TO TAKE A "VIRTUAL" TOUR OF THE MAIN BUILDING A second Maryland state psychiatric hospital, originally called the "Second Hospital for the Insane" (now known as Springfield Hospital Center) was established in Sykesville, Maryland in 1896. At end of the nineteenth century more than 1000 mentally ill persons in Maryland were being kept in prisons and in almshouses, and, although a number of steps had been taken over the years to increase its capacity at Spring Grove well beyond the 325 beds for which it had originally been designed, admission to Spring Grove was not possible for many of the mentally ill persons in prisons and almshouses individuals because the hospital had reached -- and often exceeded -- its capacity. The creation of this second State psychiatric hospital helped to ease the growing pressure for admissions to Spring Grove. However, records from the early 1890s indicate that the Spring Grove executive staff lobbied against the creation of a second administratively independent State psychiatric hospital. For example, in an 1893 letter to the Governor of Maryland, George H. Roh�, M.D., Superintendent of Spring Grove at the time, wrote: "The question [of] whether a new insane Hospital should be built in another part of the State, under separate management, or whether a colony should be established at some distance from this Hospital and under the management of its Board of Managers is a subject for profitable discussion. In the first place a new Hospital would require more time before it could be made useful than a colony directed from this place. A new Board of managers, new executive officers, new buildings for the lodgement [sic] of the latter and for administrative purposes would be required before the quarters for the patients themselves could be made useful. On the other hand a colony under the management and direction of an institution already established could be made available for its beneficent purposes almost as soon as the land is acquired." By the 1890s land in Catonsville had become quite expensive, and although additional land was purchased by Spring Grove in the decades that followed, it was clear that if the State wanted to substantially and rapidly increase the number of its available public psychiatric hospital beds -- while preserving the largely self-sustaining farm model -- it would need to purchase a single, large parcel of land in a setting where property values were significantly lower than they were in Catonsville. In the 1890s, that meant locating the new hospital farther away from the City of Baltimore than relatively nearby Catonsville. Despite the lobbying efforts of the Spring Grove Administration, it was decided that the new hospital would not be a "colony" of Spring Grove, but, rather, a separately administered facility. However, it should be noted that originally the administrations of the two hospitals, Spring Grove and Springfield, were linked by the fact that Dr. Roh� became the first Superintendent of "The Second Hospital for the Insane (at Springfield)" in 1896 after he resigned his position as Superintendent of Spring Grove. Springfield was built according to what was called the "cottage" plan, a scheme that called for a series of relatively small, often modest, patient "cottages" that, while separate from each other, were frequently interconnected by covered walkways or porticos. This newer system allowed for greater flexibility in terms of grouping patients by diagnosis and level of functioning, and it also tended to make expansion and future growth more easy. On the other hand, Spring Grove's Main Building (1853) had been built in accordance with the previous era's "Kirkbride" plan of institutional design -- a plan that led to the construction of hospitals that consisted essentially of a single, imposing, often immense, even monolithic building. In addition to the Main Building, buildings at Spring Grove that represented or evoked the Kirkbride plan included such buildings as the Foster-Wade Building (1914 and 1926) and the Bland-Bryant Building (1930). Later, Spring Grove transitioned to the more flexible cottage plan. Examples of cottage plan buildings at Spring Grove include The Hillcrest Building (1921), the Garrett Building (1932), the Women's Convalescent Cottages ("Stone Cottage" Group) and, more recently, the four Red Brick Cottages (1950s). For more information about Springfield Hospital Center's History, see Springfield History Although it is not known exactly when the Hospital accepted its first African-American patients, it is known that African-American patients were admitted well before the Civil War -- at a time when Maryland was still a slave state. The first identified reference to African-American patients at the Maryland Hospital is found in the Hospital's Annual Report of 1842, wherein it was noted that there were seven African-American ("colored") patients, three of whom were described as being "slaves." The annual report of 1849 mentions the fact that, as of as of the end of December of that year, there were 10 African-American patients (five males and five females) at the Hospital. The report notes that nine of these patients were "free" while one of them was "a slave." On January 1, 1853 the Hospital also had 10 African-American Patients (six men and four women). That figure represented 8% of the total number of the 130 patients at the Hospital on that date. Also in 1853, one of the just four new "public" patient admissions in that year was an African-American female. An annual report published in December 1877 (five years after the new facility opened at Spring Grove) notes that as of that time, the Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove was treating 18 African-American patients, and by1896 it was caring for 45 African-American patients (24 male and 21 female). African-American patients were identified in the records by the notation "col" or "colored." To view one of the records of an African-American patient of Spring Grove from the hospital's Centennial year, 1897, click on the image to the above right. Several documents from the period speak, predictably, to the then predominate belief that the races should be separated -- although there was also evidence that therapeutic activities, such as industrial therapy, were integrated. In 1877, the following report was made by the Hospital's Board of Managers: "There is separate care and treatment of the colored insane other than has been provisionally made in this Hospital. It is impossible to provide for this class of insane in State Hospital without associating them with the white patients. There are now fifteen colored insane in the hospital -- seven males and eight females, and three others have been received since the date of this Report. Besides these, there are a large number in the almshouses of the State whose condition demands early attention. Provision should be made for them, without delay, by building a separate accommodation for them in connection with a hospital for the insane. The cost of construction need not exceed $400 per bed." (Maryland Hospital for the Insane. Annual Report of the Board of Managers, 1877.) By one report from the late 1800s, the rate of physical illness and death was lower among the hospital's African-American population than it was among the white population. At first, the new facility at Spring Grove seems to have been racially integrated. However, several annual reports from the end of the 19th-century indicate that by that time African-American patients were segregated to certain (less desirable) sections of the Main Building. For example, it was noted that in 1896 an old bowling alley that was, evidently, located in the basement of the Main Building, was converted to serve as a ward for African-American patients. (The Annual report of that year suggests that, unlike any of the other units in the hospital, the single African-American ward served both male and females patients.) Records from the turn of the 19th-century also indicate that African-American men often lived in tents on the Hospital's grounds for as many as eight months out of the year. In the same tradition, in 1906 a separate building, constructed in back of the Main Building, was opened as a "Cottage for Colored Women" (see above). This cottage seems to have been the first public hospital building in Maryland specifically for the treatment of mentally ill African-American patients. At the same time, there was a growing awareness throughout the State of the need to provide more and better psychiatric services to Maryland's mentally ill African-American citizens. Despite the less than ideal circumstances for African-American patients at Spring Grove in the 19th and early 20th Century, conditions were far worse in the almshouses and jails -- where many mentally ill African-American Maryland citizens were confined. In response to the identified need for more and better treatment for psychiatrically ill African Americans in Maryland, and because of the racist beliefs of the time, a new state hospital, intended exclusively for African-American patients was founded in Crownsville, Maryland in 1910. Originally known as "The Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland," the facility was renamed "Crownsville State Hospital" in 1912. Crownsville's very first patients were 16 African-American men who were transferred from Spring Grove in 1911. In the following year, 1912, most of the remaining male patients of African descent were transferred from Spring Grove to Crownsville. African-American females were transferred from Spring Grove to Crownsville one year later, in 1913. (Note: Crownsville Hospital Center closed in 2004 and most of its patient were transferrred to Spring Grove. To view historic images of Crownsville see Crownsville Historic Pictures It should be noted that according to oral tradition, not all African-American patients were transferred to Crownsville in between 1911 and 1913; evidently certain patients remained at Spring Grove because they held unique or indispensable work-skills. Most people are astonished to learn that the Maryland State hospital system was not officially desegregated until 1963. Spring Grove began the process of reintegration a few years before that, in1961. State Care vs. County Care. The founding of Crownsville State Hospital and the Eastern Shore State Hospital in the early part of the 20th century -- together with major expansions of the bed capacities at Spring Grove and Springfield State Hospitals at around the same time stemmed from what may have been the first major mental health patient advocacy movement in Maryland since the days of Dorothea Dix in the mid-nineteenth century. Between 1908 and 1910 the local newspapers ran a series of stories that shed light on the often squalid conditions that existed in the county-run almshouses of the time. These newspaper expos�s were complete with "candid" photographs, and some of the photographs were taken, through the use of recently available portable flash-photography, during unannounced visits to the alms houses -- sometimes in the middle of the night. By way of contrast, the newspaper accounts also pointed to what was considered to have been the pleasant, healthful and therapeutic conditions at the two State psychiatric hospitals in Maryland (Spring Grove and Springfield). Up until that time, Maryland had depended heavily upon a system known as "County Care," i.e., the basic care and shelter that was provided in "County Homes" (alms houses) to indigent citizens (including indigent citizens with mental illnesses) by the various counties. The new movement, known as "State Care," took hold in Maryland between 1908 and 1810 and sought to substantially expand the capacities of the State hospitals so that the responsibility for the care and treatment of mentally ill citizens could be shifted from what was considered to have been the non-therapeutic, often substandard environments of the county-run homes, to the healthful and therapeutic State hospitals. It is interesting to note that only approximately 40-years later the Baltimore Sun newspaper published a similar series of expos�s - this time of the State hospitals. Collectively, these articles have been come to be known as the "Maryland's Shame" story. (See below.) Between 1909 and 1922, under the superintendence of Dr. Percy Wade, the hospital's land holdings were systematically expanded to 506 acres. Dr. Wade's successor, Dr. Robert Garrett, oversaw the purchase of an additional 108 acres. During Dr. Garrett's tenure (1927 - 1935) the patient population of Spring Grove more than doubled. The first large land acquisition subsequent to the original land purchase occurred in 1909 when Spring Grove bought a 43-acre farm that was located immediately to the southeast of the original property. The farm, which was purchased for $12,226, was known as "Sunnyside." Today, the Dayhoff Building, the White Building, and portions of the Stone Cottages are located on land that was part of the 1909 "Sunnyside" farm acquisition and not, as might be imagined, part of the hospital's original parcel of land, acquired in 1853. Originally, the hospital used the Sunnyside property as its main farmland. However, the demands of the growing hospital were such that within the next ten years it began to further expand its farmland by purchasing much larger tracks of land south of Wilkens Avenue, where the University of Maryland Baltimore County is located today. One of the structures that had been part of Sunnyside Farm when it was purchased by Spring Grove was a building that became known as "The Dairy House." The Dairy House survived on the campus of Spring Grove until the early 1990s when it burned to the ground in a fire that may have been set by an arsonist. It was located northeast of the White Building, near what is today a wooded area The Maryland Hospital for the Insane, often informally referred to as "Spring Grove," was officially renamed Spring Grove State Hospital in 1912 when funds were appropriated for additional hospital buildings (Acts of 1912). World War I affected Spring Grove in several ways. First, construction of a new major medical building that had been started in 1914 was delayed by the demands of the wartime economy. Then, in 1918, the U.S. Veterans' Bureau, in recognition of the impending need for a facility in which to treat mentally ill World War I veterans, urged the Maryland Council of Defense to appropriate $25,000 for the building's completion. The center section and the east wing of the building were completed and occupied first (July 5, 1920); the west wing wasn't added until 1926. Between 1920 and 1925 some 325 soldiers and sailors were treated in "Foster Clinic" (now center and east wings of the Foster Wade Building). In July 1925, the remaining Veteran's Bureau patients were moved to a new federal hospital (now known as the Veterans Administration Hospital at Perry Point) at Perry Point, Maryland. After the building reverted to Spring Grove, it was used primarily to provide services to acute psychiatric patients. In addition, the hospital's operating rooms and other non-psychiatric medical services were located in the Foster Wade Building, prior to the erection of the Garrett Building in 1932. Under the provisions of the State Government Reorganization Act of 1922, Spring Grove was placed administratively within the Maryland Department of Welfare and under that department's Board of Welfare (Acts of 1922, art. vii). The same law also created the Board of Mental Hygiene, which became directly responsible for the state mental hospital system. Despite the new levels of administration, however, daily operation of Spring Grove remained the responsibility of its Board of Managers. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the hospital expanded its land holdings and constructed new buildings. At its peak, the hospital had 616 acres, most of which was under cultivation. (This represented more than a four-fold increase in the size of its acreage when compared to its original size of 136 acres. During the Depression, Spring Grove began joint research programs with Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Phipps Clinic, and the University of Maryland Hospital. The research included investigations into the efficacy of shock therapy and pre-frontal lobotomy. In addition, at around this time, Spring Grove's treatment providers began to regularly use psychoanalytic techniques to treat certain patients. It should be noted that some of the patients at Spring Grove during the first half of the twentieth century did not suffer from what would necessarily be considered mental illnesses today. Instead, records suggest that certain patients were admitted and remained primarily because they were poor, homeless, elderly or physically ill. The Hospital opened a school for Practical Nursing on October 4, 1929. Most of the instructors were physician members of the Hospital's medical staff. However, it may be of some interest to note that Everett Dayhoff, the man after whom the Dayhoff Building (c. 1961) is named, served as the school's "Instructor of Bandaging." (Mr. Dayhoff's primary role with the hospital at the time was as the "Director of Amusements" -- a title that placed him in charge of what today would be called activity therapy. He learned the art of bandaging while a medic during the First World War.) In 1930 the first graduating class had ten members, all of whom were women. Although the completion of the Foster-Wade Building was the major construction project at Spring Grove in the 1920s, it should be noted that a large (100 bed) addition was added at the south end of the Main Building in 1926. The new wing can be seen at the far south (right) side of the Main Building in the 1927 aerial view, above. The Hillcrest Building (see above) was also also constructed in the 1920s. The other major "monumental" building on the campus of Spring Grove, the Bland-Bryant Building, was started in 1930. Construction of the Garrett Building, originally known as the Infirmary Building, was begun in 1932 and completed in 1934. The Stone Cottages were built in and completed in stages between 1935 and 1941, and the Rice Auditorium (officially known as the Thomas-Rice Auditorium) was opened in 1936. The Athletic Field, formally known as the Weltmer Bowl, was build (reportedly entirely by patient labor) between 1936 and 1945. In 1939, the Board of Mental Hygiene assumed the physician appointment authority formerly held by the hospital's Board of Managers (Acts of 1939). After World War II, Spring Grove, along with other state hospitals -- not only in Maryland, but across the country -- suffered from chronic overcrowding. Following a largely unfavorable report by the American Psychiatric Association and extensive "bad press" in the local media, the legislature revamped the state mental hospital system (Acts of 1949). Thereafter, a newly formed Department of Mental Hygiene took control of the Maryland state hospital system, including Spring Grove State Hospital. The Board of Managers was abolished and its authority transferred to the new superintendent appointed by the commissioner of Mental Hygiene. Although the Hospital had always provided housing for staff members (both in the patient care buildings and elsewhere, both on and off the grounds), there was a major push in the 1940s and early 1950s to increase the number of housing units available for staff. The Superintendent's House (commonly known as the "Mansion") was built in 1940. The employee cottages (in the employee village) were built in two phases between 1942 and 1947. The Employee Cafeteria was built in 1942 -- and originally sported a four-lane bowling alley for staff use in its basement. The Red Brick Apartments were constructed in 1951, and the Tuerk Building (originally known as the "Nurses' Home" prior to the addition of its east wing.) was built for nurses and nursing students in1954. To see a summary of the Hospital's 1951 Report to the Governor (includes information about treatments, staffing levels, new construction, and census) click HERE. To view a transcript of the rules that governed the use of seclusion and restraint at Spring Grove in 1951, click HERE. Expansion of the Hospital continued into the early 1960s. The White Building (originally known as the "Disturbed Women's Building") was built in 1952, the Hamilton Building (originally known as the "Admissions Building") in 1953, and the Red Brick Cottages (originally known as the "Convalescent Cottages") also were completed in 1952. As recently as the late1950s, Spring Grove had as many as 3,400 patients at any given time, and the "construction boom" at Spring Grove continued into the 1960s. The Rehabilitation Building (a portion of which is also known as the "Rush Building," and now the headquarters of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration, and other State agencies) was built in 1960 and was doubled in size through an expansion several years later. The Dayhoff Building (originally known as the "Active Treatment Building," for males) was built in 1961; the Tawes Building (originally called "the Infirmary") in 1962; and the Moylan Building (originally known as the "Children's Unit") in 1964. To a large extent, the near-explosion of new construction that occurred at Spring Grove in the 1950s and early 1960's stemmed from a series ofexpos�s that were published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper in 1949. These articles pointed to the fact that, following the Second World War, labor shortages and low funding levels for Maryland state hospitals, combined with an ever-expanding patient population in all of the state hospital, had led to grossly overcrowded conditions and dangerously low staffing levels. While the problems cited in the "Maryland's Shame" articles existed in all of the state hospitals and custodial institutions (such as facilities for the mentally retarded) the problems seems to be particularly severe at Spring Grove -- in part because approximately a third of its patient population was being cared for and treated in the aging Main Building, a structure that in 1949 was nearly 100 years old and considered by all to be a firetrap. In addition, Spring Grove's staffing levels were somewhat lower than the other Maryland state hospitals, a circumstance that may have been partially attributable to the decision of the hospital not to use conscientious objectors as staff members during the labor shortages of WWII. Following the public outcry that was generated by the Maryland's Shame articles, the Maryland General Assembly allocated substantial funding for new construction and other physical plant improvements, along with money for better pay and significant infusions of new staff positions. Labor shortages were also addressed through the construction of new housing for employees. /springgrove/phototours/PublishingImages/empcott.html From an architectural point of view, it may be of some interest to note that the Tawes Building was the most recent example of an architectural tradition seen in so many of the other buildings that have served the Hospital in its history. That tradition -- a "centre" building acting as the hub or anchor for wings that spread from it in two or three directions -- was first seen in the building occupied by the Hospital during its years on Monument Street in Baltimore City. It was later echoed at the Spring Grove site by the Main Building (1852), the Foster-Wade Building (1914 and 1926), the Bland-Bryant Building (1930), and, more recently, the Tawes Building (1962.) The various buildings in the Preston Complex (originally known as the "Men's Group," for convalescent males), starting with the Preston Building, were built between 1962 (Preston, Hill, Mitchell, Sullivan) and 1969 (Dix and Noyes). The Smith Building (also known as the "Medical/Surgical Building") was constructed in 1975, and the Jamison Building in 1981. Beginning in the late 1950s, and continuing in the decades that followed, significant reductions in the patient census became possible through advancements in psychiatric treatment and improved funding of community-based housing and outpatient services. At the same time, a number of factors, including significant improvements in staffing ratios, new construction and closer affiliations with academic institutions such as the University of Maryland resulted in substantial improvements in the quality of the services provided by the hospital. In the middle 1950's, Spring Grove became one of the first three state hospitals in the United States to become accredited by the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospitals (now the JCAHO). The Spring Grove farm continued to operated, albeit on a reduced scale, into the early 1960's. In 1965 some 400 acres, most of which had been farmland tilled by Spring Grove patients, were transferred from Spring Grove to the University of Maryland to allow for the establishment of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus (UMBC). At least one of the early Spring Grove structures, the Hillcrest Building (also known as the "Criminal Building") still stands on the campus of UMBC. (See #17 on the UMBC Campus Map.) The 110-year-old Main Building, which in it's later years was sometimes known as "The Center Building" or "The Administration Building," was razed in 1963. The first three Preston Complex buildings (Hill, Mitchell, and Sullivan) had been built a year or so earlier in anticipation of the demolition of the Main Building, and many of the remaining patients in the Main Building were moved to the Preston Complex (and other buildings on campus) during 1962 and 1963. At the time, patients who were moved from the Main Building to the Preston Complex sometimes referred to the Preston Complex as "Disneyland," apparently because of the fact that its modern, somewhat freeform appearance stood in such sharp contrast to the aged, monolithic Main Building. (Note: The Dix and Noyes Buildings, also in the Preston Complex, were built in 1969.) The original plan had been to construct the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center at the site of the razed Main Building, and speeches given at a ceremony marking the occasion of the demolition reference the symbolic nature of the plan to construct a modern psychiatric research center over the ruins of a mid-nineteenth century asylum building. However, several years later a decision was made to construct the MPRC Building on a hill at the northern end of the campus -- its current location Now officially known as Spring Grove Hospital Center (renamed in 1973) and under the governance of the Mental Hygiene Administration, the facility operates 330 beds and provides advanced inpatient psychiatric services to approximately 1000 patients every year. Spring Grove is fully accredited by the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), was recently awarded commendation status by that organization, and maintains a major teaching affiliation with the University of Maryland. The Center is also the host site of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, a world-renowned research institution that focuses on identifying the causes and cure for schizophrenia. To learn more about Spring Grove and its history, visit the Spring Grove Alumni Museum in the Garrett Building on the grounds of the hospital. Hours of operation are Thursdays, 10 am to 2 pm, and at other times by appointment. Note: Spring Grove wishes to gratefully acknowledge that much of the above information was provided through the courtesy of the Maryland State Archives. Additional information about Maryland's history (including additional information about Maryland's public mental health system) is available through their web site: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us. Other important sources included the Maryland Historical Society and the Baltimore County Historical Society. If you would like to comment on Spring Grove's History, or if you would like to suggest additions or corrections, please contact us at email@example.com.
Is it possible to have a 'figure 8' orbit around the Earth and the Moon? I'm looking for a non-decaying orbit that will not require significant rocket fuel to maintain, unlike the orbits used in the Apollo missions which (I think, not 100% sure) would decay if it was maintained for more that one orbit. I'm looking for an orbit that can be used for lunar cyclers, so that one lobe of the figure-8 is around the Earth, and the other lobe is around the moon. For such an orbit, what are the criteria required? What are the different apogees and perigees? What velocities will be involved at different points in the orbit? Where will such an orbit be specifically spaced? - Is it possible to have an orbit around the earth and moon - This question covers only the very basics and is (unnecessarily in terms of my question) broad. - synchronized orbit between Earth and the Moon - This question is specific to a stationary orbit; I'm not specifically looking for one of those. In addition to my above question(s), is it possible for such an orbit to be always facing sunlight, similar to a heliosynchronous dawn/dusk orbit?
Value At Risk Advantages: Why Use VAR in Risk Management VAR is widely used and has both advantages and disadvantages Value At Risk, known as VAR, is a common tool for measuring and managing risk in the financial industry. While there are several advantages which have led to big popularity of VAR, anybody using it should also understand the limitations of Value At Risk as a risk management tool. Value At Risk interpretation Value At Risk is a number, measured in price units or as percentage of portfolio value, which tells you that in a defined large percentage of cases (usually 95% or 99%) your portfolio is likely to not lose more than that amount of money. Or said the other way around, in a defined small percentage of cases (5% or 1%) your loss is expected to be greater than that number. Following are some of the advantages of Value At Risk as a risk management tool. Value At Risk is easy to understand VAR is just one number giving you a rough idea about the extent of risk in the portfolio. Value At Risk is measured in price units (dollars, euros) or as percentage of portfolio value. This makes VAR very easy to interpret and to further use in analyses, which is one of the biggest advantages of Value At Risk. Comparing VAR of different assets and portfolios You can measure and compare VAR of different types of assets and various portfolios. Value At Risk is applicable to stocks, bonds, currencies, derivatives, or any other assets with price. This is why banks and financial institutions like it so much – they can compare profitability and risk of different units and allocate risk based on VAR (this approach is called risk budgeting). The limitation of Value at Risk as a risk budgeting tool is the fact that VAR is not easily additive. VAR of a portfolio of two assets does not necessarily equal the sum of the single asset VARs, as the correlations must also be taken into consideration. VAR is often available in financial software Value At Risk is a frequent part of various types of financial software. For example, you can quickly calculate Value At Risk of your portfolio on Bloomberg after entering holdings and setting a few parameters. You don’t have to be a statistics wizard to do this, as the software takes historical data of securities in the portfolio and performs all calculations for you. Availability is a big advantage of VAR. Everybody else uses VAR Though there are different opinions regarding whether its popularity is justified (see limitations), Value At Risk is considered the gold standard, the part of risk management 101 in financial institutions. Of course, when your competitors use it, your clients require it, and regulators recommend it, you have big reasons for using VAR too.