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- Software is developed and engineered.
- Software doesn't "wear-out".
- Most software continues to be custom built.
Types of software
A layer structure showing where Operating System is located on generally used software systems on desktops
Practical computer systems divide software systems into three major classes: system software, programming software and application software, although the distinction is arbitrary, and often blurred.
System software helps run the computer hardware and computer system. It includes a combination of the following:
- device drivers
- operating systems
- windowing systems
The purpose of systems software is to unburden the applications programmer from the often complex details of the particular computer being used, including such accessories as communications devices, printers, device readers, displays and keyboards, and also to partition the computer's resources such as memory and processor time in a safe and stable manner. Examples are- Windows XP, Linux, and Mac OS X.
source : wikipedia | <urn:uuid:5b3a333c-2fd7-4175-b50c-aa1763e10268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unlimitedforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=280 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920633 |
Contact: Catherine Brawn Fortier, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Terence M. Keane, Ph.D.
VA Boston Healthcare System & Harvard Medical School
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Researchers already know that chronic misuse of alcohol can cause widespread damage to the brain. While previous studies examined cortical atrophy in individuals with alcoholism, none examined alcohol-associated atrophy using cortical thickness measurements to obtain a regional mapping of tissue loss across the full cortical surface. This study does so, finding that alcohol damage occurs in gradations: the more alcohol consumed, the greater the damage.
Results will be published in the December 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
"Before advances in neuroimaging technology, the degree to which alcohol affects the brain across different levels of alcohol use, and how it may interact with other health factors, was unclear," said Catherine Brawn Fortier, a neuropsychologist and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School as well as corresponding author for the study. "We now know that alcohol has wide ranging effects across the entire cortex and in structures of the brain that contribute to a wide range of psychological abilities and intellectual functions. This is the first study to precisely measure the variation in the thickness of the cerebral cortex, which is the thin layer of neurons that one sees on the surface of the brain and supports all higher-level human cognition."
Fortier explained that the brain is usually divided up into two broad kinds of tissues: gray matter, consisting of neurons which are the critical cells that support brain function; and white matter, consisting of the connections among large groups of those cells. Alcohol has an impact on both gray and white matter, with the greatest impact affecting parts of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes. "These brain areas are critical to learning new information and, even more importantly, in self-regulation, impulse control, and the modification of all complicated human behaviors," she said. "In other words, the very parts of the brain that may be most important for controlling problem drinking are damaged by alcohol, and the more alcohol consumed, the greater the damage."
Fortier and her colleagues compared high-resolution structural magnetic resonance scans from 65 participants in two demographic groups: 31 abstinent alcoholic participants (20 men, 11 women) and 34 nonalcoholic control participants (20 men, 14 women). Images were used to create cortical-surface models, and cortical thickness was then estimated as the distance between the gray matter/white matter boundary and the outer cortical surface.
"Previous studies were only able to compare large brain regions," said Fortier, "whereas this method allowed us to look at areas as small as a tenth of a millimeter and compare them across the entire brain. This approach allowed us to identify very subtle but significant alcohol-related damage across the entire brain revealing two primary findings. First, the outermost layer of cortex across the entire brain was reduced in our sample of recovered alcoholics. Second, alcohol's effect on the brain is continuous across a wide range of drinking behavior and appears to be dose specific. Pathology is often thought of as occurring as an all-or-none phenomenon—you either have brain damage or you don't. This study shows that the damage occurs in gradations, and the more you drink, the greater the damage."
"This study documents, for the first time, the dynamic nature of the neuropathology associated with chronic heavy alcohol use," added Terence M. Keane, associate chief of staff for research & development at the VA Boston Healthcare System and assistant dean for research at Boston University School of Medicine, "and is a major concern among the veterans that both of us serve. The results may explain why alcoholism may be so difficult to treat: alcohol damages the very neural systems that are critical to achieving and maintaining abstinence."
"A widespread reduction in cortical tissue in recovered alcoholics indicates that even with abstinence, cognitive abilities are compromised in former drinkers," said Fortier. "Severe reductions in frontal brain regions can result in a dramatic change to personality and behavior, taking the form of impulsivity, difficulty with self-monitoring, planning, reasoning, poor attention span, inability to alter behavior, a lack of awareness of inappropriate behavior, mood changes, even aggression. Severe reductions in temporal brain regions most often result in impairments in memory and language function."
"This study represents a technological and methodological tour de force," said Keane, "documenting with great precision how widespread the effects of alcohol use are on the cerebral cortex and how those effects may change with abstinence. These results will ultimately be important for clinicians, patients and their families because they show that the brain is very sensitive to all levels of alcohol use and that abstinence may result in some reversal of damage and presumably mental abilities. The results also provide the intriguing observation that the brain damage of alcohol is part of what makes abstinence and recovery so difficult."
"I think what is most important for other medical professionals to know and pass on to their patients is that alcohol misuse is not without consequences," said Fortier. Not only is the brain impacted, but the very brain structures that are the most impacted are the ones that you need to change problematic behavior. However, it is also important to note that although brain tissue is compromised by alcohol, it can recover to some degree with maintained abstinence. This could be a motivational factor in maintaining sobriety."
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Reduced Cortical Thickness in Abstinent Alcoholics and Association with Alcoholic Behavior," were: E.C. Leritz, D.H. Salat, J.R. Venne, A.L. Maksimovskiy, V. Williams, W.P. Milberg, and R.E. McGlinchey. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the National Institute on Aging. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | <urn:uuid:e45d3d0e-ac81-417a-a8b1-8c9bc8ee210e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/ace-cdl090811.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945165 |
Thursday, June 20, 2013
A 1970s law based on 1960s science is all we have to protect us from toxic substances in our environment.
Regulations that envisioned smokestacks and drainpipes as the prime sources of dangerous chemicals should be updated to look out for toys, baby shampoo and a variety of consumer products as the vehicles for dangerous chemicals to enter our bodies and harm us.
This is not a new issue for Maine. In 2008, we passed the Kids Safe Product Act, and despite some push back from the governor last year, it remains a popular law with broad bipartisan support.
Maine set up a comprehensive system to identify, evaluate and in some cases require the use of alternatives to toxic products. Last year, the ban on bisphenol-A (or BPA) received nearly unanimous support in the Legislature.
Maine is one of four states to take this approach -- which is part of the problem. Businesses that use chemicals in their products have to juggle different standards in a regulatory patchwork depending on where they sell their products. Maine businesses may face competitors in other states who don't have the same regulations.
Protecting state businesses would be one good reason for Snowe and Collins to sign on to the bill. Protecting Maine people, especially children, is an even better reason.
Unlike food products, manufacturers of toys, cosmetics and cleaning aids don't have to list ingredients. Children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to damage from chemicals contained in a variety of products and have no way of knowing how to protect themselves.
BPA is found in baby bottles and sippy cups. Phtalates are in soft rubber toys and some personal care products. The flame retardant Deca is in furniture stuffing and other toys.
All can cause lifelong problems for children who are exposed. Studies indicate that as much as 25 percent of learning difficulties are related to environmental causes.
A federal law that cleans up our household products the way earlier environmental laws cleaned up the air and water is a much-needed next step. Snowe and Collins should assist in this effort. | <urn:uuid:7e2a29a0-3e9f-44e6-9bd6-7f0328eb0489> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/outdated-science-cant-protect-us-from-new-toxins_2012-03-29.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962146 |
Chapter 2: The appeal to history
Foot's safe good causes
Foot invokes the saints of British radicalism (even the suffragettes - who were, technically, small-scale terrorists and mostly not at all radical except on votes for women). He justifies their extraparliamentary actions and claims their tradition for himself.
But today it is different, he says - because then, either parliament was not available to the people at all, or the radicals were fighting for a sectional interest shut out from parliament's all-transforming portals.
Wat Tyler (who led the Peasants' Revolt 600 years ago) "had no representative to whom he could put his case". Did Oliver Cromwell knock parliament about a bit? By Cromwell parliament was "first saved...and then shut down when it proved obstreperous". Foot considers that there were good democratic grounds for Cromwell's action because "the men of Cromwell's armies... did represent a much larger total of the British people of their century than the parliament" which Cromwell shut down.
So Foot can set it all to democratic rights in his head by an arithmetical computation three and a quarter centuries later; and Cromwell was a good democrat even against parliament!
As to the first mass workers' party, the Chartists of the 1830s and '40s: "Their declared aim was to establish a parliament which they could trust, not one they wished to bypass. Extra-parliamentary action was important since they had no voice inside; actually to win the voice inside was the aim.', So Foot approves of their extra-parliamentary activities too.
In fact, the Chartists wanted a lot more than a voice. They wanted power to subordinate society to their own interests. Then the vote was power, parliament really did have the power; that is why the ruling class would have had civil war rather than working class suffrage. If the Chartists' formal demands now seem moderate, it is because something seemingly like some of them has been realised - without the radical purpose the Chartists pursued by way of these demands being realised. But in their time the Chartists were like the "moderates" in James Connolly's song - "We only want the earth".
Foot is wrong - factually and politically - to imply that the Chartists won even the formal goals for which "they were right" to fight outside parliament. They demanded annual parliaments. Where would Mrs Thatcher be now if that elementary precondition of a healthy democracy had been won then? Logically, if he thinks the Chartists were right to fight for annual parliaments, Foot should favour struggle now to bring down the Tory government!
The suffragettes wrecked property, attacked parliament, raised fires and planted small bombs. But Foot argues that they were justified "precisely because they too were denied the right to speak and act inside parliament. "
"It is an irony," says Foot, "that they should now be paraded as the opponents of parliamentary methods."
But surely not as big an irony as that they should be presented - because their aim was to get the parliamentary vote - as exponents of parliamentary methods!
In fact they were characterised above all by rejection of parliamentary methods: they hive off from the numerous mere suffragists who favoured parliamentary methods, and from a large lobby of MPs which fought for women's suffrage year in and year out around Private Members' Bills (like the almost perennial anti-abortion lobby private members' bills now).
Far from "lacking a voice" in parliament, in fact they got a majority in the House of Commons at least once, only to be frustrated by the House of Lords veto. But that veto had been curbed by the time of the wildest suffragette activities. Still, Foot says, it was permissible to the suffragettes to act as they did from impatience with parliament, and, before 1911, because of frustration with the House of Lords' entrenched power.
Then what about the working class now? Thatcher's Tories are destroying jobs and communities; they will not be restored quickly, if ever. The trade unions are being put in a legal straitjacket. Why do we not have the same right of impatience with parliament and the parliamentary processes? Why, in addition, do we not have the right of extra-parliamentary activity for self-defence?
After the ruling against London Transport, do we not have as good grounds for impatience with the House of Lords as the suffragettes did? If and when the undemocratic legal reserve powers of the British state are used, why should we not treat legality as the suffragettes (with Foot's approval) did?
There is no reason why we should not. Foot's invocation of the now safe (because past) causes celebres of his radical tradition implies, justifies and recommends not his politics, but ours!
Of all his historical examples, Foot says, in effect: "Of course, to achieve such results [a voice in parliament] it was necessary to take action outside parliament, and with every justice". The message is necessarily that those were bad days, and now we have a perfect democratic machine (even if not quite what the Chartists fought for).
But this is simply not true: the depredations of the minority Thatcher government are the glaring, painful proof of it!
When Michael Foot talked last year of raising a storm of protest against the government, and led a great march through Liverpool, he was rather feebly carrying on the real traditions of those struggles; when he cants against extra-parliamentary action he is betraying them. He invokes limited, ancient, and now respectable radical causes, all the better to attack those who actually stand now in the living continuity of those causes. Foot invokes all these old radical causes, but in fact his attitude to parliament now resembles nothing so strongly as the attitude of the Anglican Tories in the reign of James 11! Committed to the idea of the divine right of kings and the sinfulness of resistance to a legitimate king, they confronted the Catholic king's machinations to destroy their church and restore Catholicism. They found it impossible to agree with James, naturally, but also impossible to resist him; to resist would have been a very great sin. Their policy, too, might have been shouted across the House of Lords by some purple-clad ancestor of Foot's: "I disagree bitterly with what you are doing, but I'll defend to the death your right to do it!" When others kicked James off the throne and made the 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688, these people still stood by King James and his divine Stuart right to rule! Passively, it is true: they would not do anything for James. But they never did anything against him. Consistent in their boneheaded dogmatism, they retained their sterile loyalty to James even when he was gone, and faced persecution, in the fashion of those days, at the hands of James' conquerors.
They, Michael Foot - useless alike to James and his enemies - are your political ancestors; Cromwell and the others you claim as your own are really ours! They believed in the people's right of resistance to tyrants, social or political; they were fighters, not canting priests paralysed by superstition and a doctrine that the entrenched powers had a divine right even to be tyrannical.
For Foot now it is not the divine right of kings but the divine right of parliament and the compelling legitimacy it confers even on a naked class war government like Thatcher's.
Foot claims Marx and Trotsky
Foot is ambitious: he wants to decorate the right-wing Labour float in the democratic carnival with the heads of Marx, Engels and Trotsky.
Marx and Engels envisaged, says Foot, that in England there might be a peaceful transition to socialism. He quotes Engels (selectively) to this effect. This is less than serious. Marx and Engels did talk about the possibility of peaceful socialist transformation in Britain, the USA and perhaps (Marx said he didn't know enough about its institutions to be sure) Holland. Why? Because in those states the bureaucratic/military system was not a major force. And is that still true in Britain today? Read Tony Benn's account of the realities of rule in Britain today!
Trotsky and Lenin, says Foot, only "thought perhaps that other parliaments might be as futile or obstructive for their purposes as the Russian Dumb". They made the mistake of thinking the British parliament was "fashioned in the same mould" as the Dumb! This assertion means only that Foot has not read, for example, Trotsky's detailed analysis of British politics, Where is Britain Going?.
Trotsky, says Foot, "would never have been guilty of the infantile, querulous condemnations of parliament and parliamentary action which some of his self-styled followers adopt...Trotsky, the foremost literary genius brought forth by the Soviet Revolution, would surely have disowned with one sweep of his pen the whole breed of modern Trotskyists" (because of our sins of literary style?).
It is quite true that some of those calling themselves Trotskyists have many of the traits of anarchism, and sometimes come close to rejecting parliamentary action. The attitude of the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) to the Labour Party, for example, is a necessary by-product of its attitude to parliamentary action - one of dismissal, and the pretence that it is irrelevant. (But they do believe in democracy - workers' democracy, through workers' councils).
Effectively the SWP rejects political action - except for general socialist propaganda, work to "build the party", and promises of what they may do sometime in the future, counterposed to the realities of the labour movement now. Marx polemicised against the sort of "political indifferentism" the SWP represents when he encountered it in its brave and open early anarchist form. So did Trotsky. But there aren't any SWP-ers in the Labour Party!
Foot is trying to tar Labour Party activists with this brush, not because they share the SWP's anti-political traits, but on the contrary because, unlike the SWP, they are politically active within the broad labour movement, and have shaken up the political structures of the labour movement.
He drags this in to cover his own tracks, and as a means to separate himself from the present-day radicals and revolutionaries whose traditions he invokes, tries to appropriate, and seems to genuinely respect.
He concedes that "it is not possible or desirable that the socialist acceptance of parliamentary institutions should be automatic or uncritical or unqualified". But Foot himself does accept these institutions without other than historical qualification, and accepts confinement to them not just automatically but by deep reflex and ingrained dogmatic conviction.
Here Foot's radical conscience pays historical tribute to his current vices: "the Labour Party needs to use parliament more ambitiously and more deliberately than ever before". Yes! Even the quasi-syndicalists of the SWP would agree with that. So why does Labour Party leader Foot continue to collaborate with Thatcher? Why not take up Tony Benn's call for "disengagement", i.e. boycott of the Tory structures? That would not be enough, but it would be something.
But in fact Foot raised this idea because he needs to have an apparent alternative to offer to the indicated use of trade union power now to stop Thatcher: "the dominant need is to turn the nation's mind to parliamentary action". He insists that "trade union power cannot save us, particularly since at such a perilous time the trade unions are compelled to conduct defensive, rearguard battles."
Trade unions as trade unions cannot offer an overall framework for socialist transformation, unless they become a great deal more than trade unions. But they can resist, fight back, make it impossible for the government to govern. They could even bring down the government.
What does Foot think of the events in 1972 - one of the great, historic victories of the labour movement - when a wave of spontaneous political strikes forced the TUC to call a one-day general strike for a political purpose and, before the strike date set, forced the government to release the five dockers who had quite legally been jailed according to an Act of Parliament democratically passed, stamped and signed in accordance with the best of all possible parliamentary democratic constitutions?
A petition to parliament should have been organised? Good democrats, socialists as well as others, should have denounced the workers whose actions forced open the gates of Pentonville jail for the five dockers? Direct action against the democratically elected government's democratically decided law released those dockers: the lack of direct action (partly because people relied on the Labour government) was probably decisive in keeping the three Shrewsbury building pickets in jail (in Des Warren's case, for three years).
Foot's fear of the stormtroopers
Why does the once socialist Michael Foot need this rigmarole? Because he is afraid of the alternative - all-out struggle against Thatcher. He knows that Britain's democracy is skin deep. He knows what might have happened in Britain in the mid-'70s, when army officers plotted a military coup.
Jack Jones, Michael Foot's trade union alter ego during the last Labour government, has publicly explained the right turn of the trade union leaders and the government in July 1975 in terms of the terrible dangers facing Britain - including the danger of a military coup.
Michael Foot knows that the danger of the ruling class using its reserve powers or the armed forces, or both, against a properly elected democratic government is a very real one when they feel threatened. His solution to this problem is to say: don't threaten them!
Rhetorically, he offers the following advice to "those self-styled revolutionaries who speak today too readily of the resort to illegal methods or to street battles"; "those who think socialism is to be won there should at least train to become soldiers or policemen - to face the stormtroopers". And what if the coming of the storm-troopers does not flow from working class direct action on the streets, but from a left wing victory in a general election? What if the storm-troopers are likely to be sent as the result of a radical electoral victory like that of Salvador Allende in Chile, who was overthrown and murdered by the army in September 1973? Perhaps the same conclusion would follow, and not only rhetorically.
Serious socialists who try to function as the memory of the working class, learning from history, have long known that these conclusions do follow. A serious working class leader, faced with the facts of history and with the personal experience of the British armed forces' reaction to labour militancy and the election of a Labour government in 1974, would reach Foot's conclusion above not rhetorically but in deadly earnest. He or she would campaign for the disbandment of the armed forces and the creation of a workers' militia.
But, like all the right and the soft left, Foot prefers to lie to himself and to the labour movement about the present condition of British democracy. Why? Because Foot is mesmerised by the democratic forms and facades of parliamentary democracy. He forgets that democracy is democracy only if it allows the people to actually govern themselves in their own interests. So mesmerised that he does not notice that we do not have such a democratic system. So mesmerised that, even though he knows that if the working class were to try to use parliament against the interests of the ruling class then the "storm-troopers" would be unleashed, all he can do with that knowledge is turn it into rhetoric against working class action now, trying to convince us of his own belief that democracy is most secure when the ruling class and its storm-troopers are armed to the teeth, and the labour movement disarmed.
The right to rule
This is the crux of it: for Foot, radical direct action is now superseded by parliament. The labour movement must bow down to parliament. A government which can command a parliamentary majority may do anything it likes to the labour movement - and Foot will be the first to shout his denunciations at those who resist and tell the labour movement it should rebel; and that in reality it will be acting when it rebels according to the great traditions of British radicalism, which created our now half-moribund democratic parliamentary system.
With this attitude Foot betrays even the pre-socialist radical tradition which he does - as far as I can judge - sincerely revere.
The great bourgeois revolutions, born of struggle against oppressive systems and tyrants, wrote into their constitutions the right of revolt. The American Declaration of Independence of 1776, for example, states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organising its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness...
"...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security".
According to this, it could be argued that it is such sustained tyranny and oppression for Thatcher to do what is being done now - and cannot be undone easily - that it justifies even an armed revolt against the Tory government!
The labour movement has every right to struggle outside of parliament against this government - according to the idea of democracy in which in the last analysis parliament has power and authority. If the constitution does not oblige Thatcher to let the electorate throw her out, why should the electorate be bound by such a manifestly inadequate constitution? Why should the labour movement listen to Foot telling us that we must submit and that it is a crime against democracy to resist7
The classic bourgeois theory of parliamentary democracy not only recognised this right of resistance, but proclaimed it as itself one of the basic principles of democratic government. The truth is that the Labour right and Foot do not stand for either the spirit or letter of parliamentary democracy as understood by those like the American revolutionaries; for them it was a real, practical, living set of principles to govern the behaviour of their class in its time of vigour and progress.
By parliamentary democracy Foot and his friends mean the shell and the forms. Theirs is the conservative and timid constitutionalism that would have sustained the status quo of Charles 1, the unreformed parliament before 1832, or the exclusively middle class House of Commons before 1867, which excluded the mass of men and women from the suffrage.
It happens that theirs is the constitutionalism of a formally advanced bourgeois democracy. Their political ancestors did not win it: ours did!
They do not stand in the true line of those who cranked that parliamentary democracy forward by way of revolution (the 1640s, 1688-9) and successive reforms. They counterpose the partly ossified, reshaped and neutralised, and now inadequate, results of past revolutions and mass struggles to the present living labour movement with its needs and struggles - the struggles to deepen democracy, to defend the labour movement: the struggle for a different, socialist system.
Michael Foot and all his political brothers and sisters worship not the once-radiant face of bourgeois democracy, but its historic backside. Its face belongs to us. | <urn:uuid:14d49513-4eca-485d-8e08-e48841a56ff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.workersliberty.org/node/2973 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970522 |
Women's Legal Rights
in West Virginia, 1863-1984
By Donna J. Spindel
The absence of a body of solid scholarship on the history of West Virginia women makes it difficult to unravel the traditional and conflicting interpretations of West Virginia's past. Sociological studies, spawned by the interest in Appalachia in the 1960s, portray the mountain state as an underdeveloped rural region with its own unique subculture. More recent interpretive studies view the past through the narrow lens of politics and personalities, a focus which tends to exclude women. In fact, the best analyses of West Virginia history emphasize the evolution of state government, thereby omitting any kind of meaningful study of the female population of the state.1 Within the last decade, two excellent monographs specifically on the subject of West Virginia women have been published, but these works are biographical rather than interpretive.2
This study attempts to fill in some of the gaps by focusing on the law as it related to women. A relatively new area of inquiry, women's legal history examines the links between law and the society which creates it. Based on the premise that male-made and male-interpreted laws have a powerful influence on women's lives, this study looks at West Virginia statutes concerning women's property and marital rights and examines how the state's high court applied them. What legal and social status did lawmakers prescribe for West Virginia women? Did such rules operate in theory or practice? To what extent did the evolution of property law continue to subordinate women? How did the West Virginia experience compare to that of other states? The answers to these questions provide insight into West Virginia law, prevailing views of family life, and the status of married women.
As was true across the South, the law which governed the property rights of nineteenth-century Virginia women stemmed from English precedents. According to the doctrine of marital unity, once married, a woman lost most of her property rights. American law regarded husband and wife as one person; in this case, one plus one equalled one, the husband. So long as a woman was married, the law virtually ignored her existence. While a femme covert (married woman) could retain any real property she held before marriage, her husband could manage it and keep the rents and profits. He also controlled her earnings and those of her children. Although the law granted her dower (a widow's share in the real property held by her husband during marriage) she had to survive her husband to claim it. She could not contract, sue or be sued. Common law combined marital assets and placed them under the husband's control, a practice which, in theory, stemmed from the assumed obligation of husbands to support their wives.
In the 1830s a number of state legislatures put into statute law for the first time the principle of separate estates for women.3 Although courts of equity had shielded a small number of women from some of the harsh impact of common law, these Married Women's Property acts marked the beginning of the end of common-law doctrines by which a husband automatically controlled the assets of his wife.4 Long considered a response to the efforts of women's rights' supporters, these laws did, in fact, result from a combination of developments. Recent scholarship suggests that a fluctuating economy heightened the need to protect women's property from profligate husbands.5 A codification movement led to a reexamination of common law and its blatant inequities with regard to women.6 And finally, shifting domestic roles for women and the efforts of reformers help explain the emergence of the Married Women's Property acts.7
West Virginia Unionist leaders launched their own legislative revision of femme covert disabilities in 1863. The state's first constitution empowered legislators to pass laws protecting the property of married women from the debts of their husbands. This provision of the constitution, however, was not enacted without debate. In fact, a motion to remove it, defeated by a vote of 23-14, generated discussion about property reform which reflected opposing views of West Virginia leaders. Those who challenged the provision argued that it would threaten women's traditional role. Those who supported it argued that it would, in fact, sustain that role. The purpose of the provision, one delegate noted, was to protect "the weaker class, the female portion of our country . . . who are not so well guarded against the acts and frauds of the stronger."8 Here he echoed the views of his counterparts elsewhere in the South who believed that the greatest danger to married women was evil men.9 Another lawmaker also pointed out at great length that by enacting property reform, West Virginia would only be doing what many states had already done. "The old doctrine on this subject," he noted, "at the present day -- in many states of this Union . . . has gone out of use, and this new proposition for the protection of private property of a married woman has taken its place and has proved very beneficial."10 It appears, then, that the authors of West Virginia's first constitution recognized economic realities which demanded some alleviation of married women's legal restraints, but they also had no intention of launching any kind of social revolution.
In 1868, as Republican lawmakers prepared to deal with women's property reform, they turned for guidance to the much revised statute of New York.11 Republicans would not have looked for a Virginia model in 1868 and would have failed to find one if they had. Virginia did not act to protect the property of married women until 1877. West Virginia's early effort at property reform actually fit solidly into the much larger Radical Reconstruction movement that resulted in the expansion of women's rights in nine southern states.12 As was true across the South, the West Virginia law of 1868 had nothing to do with feminism. It was written to protect women and their families, and in the process relieve the state of a potential financial burden. West Virginia's first Married Women's Property Act provided that property conveyed to a married woman be "her sole and separate property." She still could not convey her real estate unless her husband joined "in the deed or other writing by which the same is sold or conveyed."13 *A married woman was also, by law, now responsible for her debts before marriage, and she could sue and be sued under certain circumstances. If living separate from her husband, thereby needing some financial autonomy, she could "in her own name, carry on any trade or business," and keep her earnings. Four years after the passage of the 1868 legislation, the second West Virginia Constitution was ratified, this time when Republicans were no longer in control. Like the constitution which preceded it, this new plan of government also enabled legislators to "pass such laws as may be necessary to protect the property of married women from the debts, liabilities, and control of their husbands."14 Given the sequence of married women's laws which followed, West Virginia's new Democratic leadership showed the same desire as Republicans before them to protect rather than reform.
West Virginia judges also confirmed that the purpose of the Married Women's Property Act was to protect women from unworthy husbands, not to ensure their equality. In so doing, they applied the same narrow construction of the law as did their counterparts in such states as New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts.15 Consider the West Virginia Supreme Court's position in an 1883 appeal by attorney Daniel Peck, who had sued the husband of the deceased Mary Marling for debts Mrs. Marling incurred in securing a bed and board divorce (a legal separation with prohibition against either spouse remarrying). The court declared that the 1868 law removed a married woman's common-law "incapacity" to contract in business only when she was living apart from her husband. There is "no doubt," the judges observed, that "our statute was passed because the Legislature saw that a married woman, abandoned by her husband or for any reason living separate and apart from him would necessarily be compelled to support herself. . . ."16
In 1891, the Married Women's Property Act underwent some fine-tuning. The revised section protected the earnings of a married woman from "the control or disposal of her husband. . . ."17 Perhaps by oversight, lawmakers omitted the requirement that a woman live apart from her husband to engage in business legally, but in 1893 they added it.18 West Virginia's earnings statute, which remained intact until 1931, actually followed similar laws passed by other states, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Arkansas, beginning in the 1870s.19 A few states, as did West Virginia, only protected women who were not living with their husbands. It should come as no surprise that West Virginia was late to recognize women's independent earnings. The male-centered culture which had long resisted change dictated that "women are taught to serve men and to consider themselves inferior."20 West Virginia women's employment outside the home has failed "to radically alter" this view.21
Over the years, the crucial principle of a separate estate for married women, described in the 1868 Code of West Virginia, was modified by a series of statutory changes and court rulings. Although the original statute was to ensure wives some financial protection, property reform in West Virginia, mirroring developments in many other states, failed to produce a radical change in traditional common-law views of property.22 The 1868 code failed to break completely from common-law doctrine because it allowed a married woman to own real property but, like the New York statute of 1860, prohibited her from conveying it without her husband's consent.23 In 1875, the legislature further directed that after the husband and wife both signed a deed conveying her real estate, the wife had to be "examined privily and apart from her husband" by a county clerk to protect against coercion.24 A paternalistic holdover from the colonial period, the privy examination of a wife lived on.25 In 1891, lawmakers permitted a woman to acknowledge her conveyance separately or with her husband, but he still had to sign the deed.26 As the high court noted in 1898, when a wife conveys property, "it is prudent, in the eye of the law, that she have his [the husband's] advice and concurrence. . . .27
No significant property reform for married women occurred in West Virginia until 1931. This year culminated a decade-long, first-time effort to codify the laws of the state. The codification process by its nature compelled a careful scrutiny of existing law and encouraged the elimination of inequities, ambiguities, and complicated, lengthy procedures.28 Just as codification helped to liberalize property law in nineteenth-century America, the new 1931 Code of West Virginia, approved under Republican leadership, provided for a host of liberal changes in the law regarding women, one of which abolished the consent requirement for property conveyances. There is also no question that in the midst of hard economic times, legislators responded to the urgent need for greater female financial independence. They also reacted to the passage of the suffrage amendment, the entrance of many more married women into the work force, and to the "liberating" climate of the decade of the 1920s.29 A married woman could now convey real estate without her husband's consent, putting "the wife on an equality with her husband in the ownership, control and disposition of her own property."30 As the high court pointed out in a 1935 ruling, this statute "removed all the restraints upon alienation theretofore imposed by law on a married woman."31 Such restraints, however, were not simply vestiges of common law, but also of a society "clearly patriarchal regardless of economic level."32
The 1931 code removed other impediments to a married woman's ability to engage in business. Common-law principle had always required a married woman to be joined by her husband to sue or be sued by a third person. The 1868 code partially erased this disability by permitting a married woman to sue or be sued when living apart from her husband, when the action concerned her separate estate, or when it was between herself and her husband.33 In 1893, the legislature expanded a wife's right to sue by enabling her to do so "the same in all cases as if she were a femme sole."34 Annie Normile's experience in 1905 led to the first high court application of this statute.35 Although she alone was injured in a railroad accident, Normile and her husband together sued the railroad. Citing common-law principle which required a woman to recover damages for personal injury by suing with her husband, the court noted that, "this common law rule has, in a large measure, been abrogated by the various Married Women's Acts." In West Virginia, a "wife may or may not, at her election," sue with her husband. Finally, the 1931 code declared that a married woman could sue as if she were a "single woman," rather than, as the law had previously stated, a "femme sole."36 Her husband could not "be joined with her in any case unless for reasons other than the marital relation." The 1931 code also removed the common-law prohibition against contracts between husband wife.37
Until the early twentieth century, inheritance law in West Virginia prescribed a dependent status for widows. Their future was tied to the right of dower, a woman's life estate in one-third of her husband's real property. As a widow, she could not convey the property by sale or through her will, but could enjoy its rents and profits. At her death, her estate in dower reverted to her husband's heirs. While dower was supposed to protect a widow, it offered no foolproof guarantee. Dower rights only benefitted women when their husband's wealth was in land. A husband could sell his real estate without his wife's consent, although the sale of property did not erase a wife's one-third interest and she could try to claim it years after the sale had occurred.38 But there is no mistaking the rhetorical importance of dower in West Virginia. In an 1869 case, the high court likened dower to "the widow's last plank in her shipwreck . . . given by the common law . . . for the sustenance of herself and the education of her children."39 The code of 1868 put the dower right into statute law as well as the husband's parallel common-law right of curtesy.40 By definition, curtesy was a husband's right to all or part of his dead wife's real property.41 A widower became a "tenant by the curtesy" in his wife's estate. At his death, the children inherited the property, or in their absence, his wife's heirs. While the 1868 statute set the husband's curtesy at one-third of his wife's estate, a law of 1872, enacted by a more conservative legislature, brought West Virginia back to an earlier time when a husband was entitled to be a tenant by the curtesy in all of his wife's estate.42 Potentially, a widower could maintain his standard of living while a widow could not. This statute remained in force essentially until 1931, when the relatively liberal 1931 code abolished curtesy and decreed that, "a surviving spouse shall be endowed of one-third of all the real estate" of the deceased spouse.43
Given the conservative, fundamentalist quality of Appalachian culture and the strength of family relationships, divorce has been less common in West Virginia than elsewhere. According to one recent study, "mountain people do not look kindly on divorce," a legal area that has traditionally provoked much debate.44 Domestic relations scholar Joel P. Bishop noted in 1852 that, "there is no question upon which a greater diversity of sentiment has prevailed in different ages . . . than whether and for what causes, a marriage originally valid, may property be dissolved."45 Throughout the colonial period, divorces were rare, in part because of the prevailing view that marriage, except in extreme circumstances, should be preserved, and partly because the death of one spouse often ended marriages early. In England, ecclesiastical courts granted partial divorces and, much less often, Parliament granted absolute divorces only on the grounds of adultery.46 Without a common-law tradition by which civil courts granted divorces, state legislatures did so in the nineteenth century until they gave the civil courts statutory authority. For women, the most important change in nineteenth-century divorce law was that it afforded them greater legal control of their lives.47
There is a clear legislative and judicial history of divorce in the mountain state which is consistent with traditional attitudes resistant to change. This history also sheds some light on how state leaders viewed women's property rights. West Virginia enacted its first divorce statute in 1867, modeled in part on a Virginia law of 1849 as revised in 1853.48 The West Virginia statute was brief, addressing exclusively grounds for an absolute divorce. These included two very common grounds for divorce in other states -- adultery and willful desertion for more than three years -- plus impotency, confinement to prison, and sexual conduct having the potential to undermine family life.49 Until 1935, the West Virginia statute on absolute divorce omitted a basis that appeared in the laws of other states from an early time, cruelty.50 This particular basis for divorce had become available to West Virginia couples in 1868, but only for those seeking a mensa et thoro divorce (separation from bed and board with a prohibition against remarriage by either spouse).51 The statute of 1868 made it possible to secure a divorce from bed and board on the grounds of "cruel and inhuman treatment, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, abandonment, or desertion." Before 1931, the legislature revised the divorce statute, but made few substantial changes.52 The 1931 code, perhaps in an effort to simplify divorce law, restricted absolute divorce to adultery, conviction of either spouse of a felony, or desertion for three years.53 This marked the first significant change in absolute divorce law since 1867. More radical revision came in 1935, apparently in response to pressure from the legal profession and to the liberal changes in the Married Women's Property Act placed in the 1931 code. The new female electorate, the post-World War I marriage crisis, and the fact that it was far more difficult to obtain an absolute divorce in West Virginia than in many other states may have also influenced the legislature. Support for the 1935 bill was overwhelming. Lawmakers repealed the statute providing for bed and board divorces, allowing West Virginia to join most other states which had already abolished them, and made the grounds for absolute divorce significantly more liberal.54
Efforts to bring about divorce reform in the state were again undertaken in the 1960s, in the wake of national divorce reform. The new statute of 1969, which reflected laws already in place in other states, established a reasonable apprehension of bodily harm as grounds for divorce as well as the "false accusation of adultery or homosexuality by either party." For the first time also, voluntarily living apart for two years was an acceptable basis for divorce.55 The mountain state's final, dramatic revision of West Virginia divorce law came in 1977, influenced by California's no-fault divorce law of 1970.56 With the 1977 statute, West Virginia finally joined most other states in breaking away from the traditional attitude that fault must be established to end a marriage.
The social and cultural change which led to much earlier divorce reform in other states clearly came late to West Virginia. This explains, in part, why absolute divorce was relatively difficult to obtain in the mountain state. Given their continuing legal disabilities and financial dependence on men, married women in particular suffered from this policy. Until 1935, a limited divorce was a much more likely alternative than actually ending a marriage for those seeking a separation. As the theory went, divorces a mensa et thoro, by preventing remarriage, at least preserved the family. Since cruelty, a basis for absolute divorce in many states, was grounds for only a limited divorce in West Virginia until 1935, the legal definition of cruelty became especially important in divorce proceedings.57 For some married women, proof of cruelty might have been the only route to a legal separation. Because the 1868 statute offered no precise definition of cruelty, except that it included a false charge of prostitution by a husband against a wife, the courts were left with the task of defining the term themselves.
Traditionally, cruelty meant physical violence. As Joel Bishop noted in 1852, cruelty was conduct "attended with bodily harm."58 If a woman's life or limb was threatened by her husband, then the courts would recognize the need for separation.59 West Virginia justices at a relatively early time, as judges in many other states, shaped a flexible definition of cruelty which encompassed not just physical but also mental abuse.60 Yet the outcome of every appeal hinged on a traditional, conservative view of women's place in society and within the marital relationship. In Goff v. Goff (1906), Louise Goff had secured a bed and board divorce from her husband Charles because of cruelty and inhuman treatment. In Charles Goff's appeal, testimony showed there had been no physical abuse. Rather, after the marriage occurred, Charles began sharing a bedroom with a male guest in their house and generally behaved rudely towards his wife. In upholding the lower court ruling, the West Virginia high court posed the question, "what is cruelty?" and in its response established an early definition: "The conduct of one of the parties must at least be such as to render cohabitation intolerable to the other . . . there must have been such treatment as to destroy the peace of mind and happiness of the injured party as to endanger the health or utterly to defeat the legitimate objects of marriage." Here the court devised for the first time the principle of "mental cruelty" as grounds for a limited divorce. "What woman's nerves," the court asked, "could stand" the abuse suffered by Louise Goff? "The test" was whether or not "the mental suffering of the wife, [was] impairing her health, and threatening her life."61
In 1911, Supreme Court justices refined the Goff ruling. Maxwell v. Maxwell marked the first time the court considered whether or not it was cruelty for one spouse to accuse falsely the other of immorality or a crime. Emma Maxwell was appealing a lower court's denial of a bed and board divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. The marriage had been a second one for both partners and disagreements surfaced almost from the start. How the court regarded A. O. Maxwell's behavior in this case hinged largely on what the court called "acts unbecoming a wife." While he had accused her without evidence of having a criminal abortion, court testimony also showed that Emma did not subscribe to the general social mores of her day. Maxwell lost her appeal in part because, in a court of equity for divorce, the plaintiff must "come with clean hands." But she had also failed to show that her husband's false charges damaged her mental condition or health. "The test," said the court, "is the mental suffering of the wife," and Emma Maxwell had shown none. At no time did the high court express more clearly the traditional view that "a woman had to show her own essential virtue in the face of provocation."62
Judicial recognition of a double standard in the marital relationship was reflected once again in a 1922 appeal. Court records show that Homer Roush had been granted a divorce from bed and board because his wife Rosa had falsely accused him of adultery. In responding favorably to Rosa's appeal, the high court asserted that "a charge of adultery against the wife ordinarily is much graver than the same charge against the husband. . . ." A false charge of adultery by a wife against a husband "would affect different men differently." In this case, Homer Roush failed to show that his wife's false accusation harmed him.63
In 1929, the West Virginia high court again overturned a lower court ruling on the basis of orthodox views that mandated special treatment for women. When a circuit court dismissed her divorce suit, Sadie White, who had testified to a long history of marital abuse, appealed. After her first child was born, she said her husband accused her of committing adultery with her physician. At other times, White threatened her with a razor, said he would "finish her with a butcher knife . . . and threw hot water on her. . . ."64 What caught the judges' attention in this case was not the physical abuse, but the attack on the female guardian "of traditional moral rules."65 To their minds, challenging the morality of a moral woman was the real crime. "It is difficult to conceive of greater cruelty," the court observed, "that could be inflicted upon the mind of a virtuous woman than" the false charge of adultery. "The mental anguish" would produce more pain than would result from personal injuries or physical blows. Cruelty once again touched substantially on the appropriate feminine character of the victim. Said Judge Haymond Maxwell in the divorce appeal of Arnold v. Arnold (1932), "observation teaches us that a fixed and constant attitude and course of conduct sapping and undermining the mental and physical organisms of a sensitive and refined woman may be more cruel than intermittent blows." No statement better links the views of twentieth-century judges to the antebellum judicial concern for the "ladies."66
Although the West Virginia high court modified the definition of cruelty, until 1935, cruelty and inhuman treatment were a basis solely for a bed and board divorce. In the nineteenth century, the more restrictive definition made it more difficult to secure a divorce on these grounds.67 Moreover, when in 1935 it became possible to secure absolute divorces on the basis of cruelty, the data suggest that the courts were not quick to grant them. In 1948, more than one-half of all divorces nationally were granted for cruelty, while the proportion in West Virginia was a little over one-third.68 In recent years, lawmakers have continued to mold a definition of cruelty, giving justices more flexibility in divorce rulings. These contemporary statutes have diminished the presence of a double standard in divorce proceedings and have established clear grounds for mental and physical cruelty.69
As late as 1968, West Virginia was still one of five states lacking a central divorce file and since national divorce statistics were not collected on a regular basis until the 1920s, statistical comparisons of state divorce records are difficult.70 Certainly the West Virginia story of an increase in the number of divorces granted in the last part of the nineteenth century parallels a national trend. The growth of cities, where divorce rates tend to be higher, and the increasing opportunities for female financial independence help explain the change.71 Without distinguishing between limited and absolute divorces, a national survey showed that West Virginia granted 72 divorces in 1867, a number which steadily increased each year until the final year of the survey, 1886, when the courts granted 217 divorces.72 During the 1920s, a period of severe labor unrest in the state, the number of divorces grew dramatically. Desertion was grounds in a majority of these cases, perhaps because the courts saw clearly that absent husbands were failing their family obligations.73 A 1948 survey still placed West Virginia ten points above the national percentage of divorces granted for desertion. More significantly at this time, West Virginia had the second highest percentage of divorces in the nation granted for drunkenness.74 This fact may reflect the religious underpinning of Appalachian culture and its aversion to alcohol.75
If West Virginia judges and lawmakers responded slowly to national changes in the application of cruelty to divorce suits, they also delayed in addressing a crucial economic issue of divorce, alimony. The Married Women's Property Act of 1868 gave the courts authority to "make such further decree [following divorce] . . . concerning the estate and maintenance of the parties. . . ."76 Until 1933, West Virginia courts had no other guidance as to how alimony should be determined. Court rulings consistently followed tradition in defining alimony as the "allowance which a husband pays, by order of court, to his wife who is living separate from him, for her maintenance."77 As recently as 1959, the high court affirmed that "the duty of the husband to support his wife is basic in the law of this State."78
Although given the statutory authority to make alimony awards, West Virginia courts, much like many other jurisdictions, narrowly interpreted the law.79 Over the years they have held tenaciously to the inviolability of titled property. As a result, they did not figure into marital assets any property titled to either spouse, a practice which invariably benefitted men. Time and again, the high court put itself in the contradictory position of stressing the legal obligation of a husband to support his wife, while at the same time making it relatively easy for him to avoid that obligation.80 The Supreme Court noted in a 1904 appeal, "the law presumes that the husband supports the family since he is under legal duty to do so."81 Emma Reynold's circumstances in 1910, however, underscored the disparity between judicial statements and the application of the law. In that year the high court reversed a circuit court ruling that part of her husband's interest in a city lot be included in her alimony award. Alimony, declared the court, "had its origins in the legal obligation of the husband . . . to maintain his wife in a manner suited to his means and social position." At the same time, the court record went on, West Virginia differed from other states around the country in that its courts had no statutory authority to assign a husband's titled property to his wife as part of alimony. Rather, alimony had to be based on the husband's income.82
Before the 1930s, lawmakers appeared to accept a narrow construction of the state's alimony statute as demonstrated by Margaret Burdette's 1930 appeal of an alimony award decreed by a Cabell County court in 1928.83 After nearly fifteen years of marriage, she had asked for "an undivided interest" in her husband's property, "on the theory that by performing her duties as a wife and housekeeper she contributed to accumulation of money which went into the property, the legal title to which is held by the husband." Mrs. Burdette's lawyer had argued unsuccessfully, "that marriage should be considered as a partnership, the spouses being equal partners. . . ." Once again the high court held firmly to the precise wording of the original statute, finding that the law did not "authorize the transfer of legal title to the land by way of alimony." Lawmakers responded to Burdette's case in 1931. The 1931 code, among its host of positive legal changes affecting married women, empowered courts to disregard title when distributing marital assets at divorce.84 Yet this statute, with its enormous potential for improving the lives of divorced women, escaped the notice of the high court. Year after year, the justices ignored it, despite the fact that the reviser's notes in the 1931 code explained that the purpose of the law was to clarify the authority of the court to distribute "the estate of the parties" at divorce.85
Judicial conservatism in the face of legislative attempts to secure some financial independence for divorced women continued to keep them in a dependent status. The 1943 appeal of Hazel Wood, married to Newton for twenty years, exemplifies this condition.86 The high court rejected Hazel's claim to a larger share of the marital property. Her situation, the judges declared, was an "ordinary case of property accumulated during matrimony by the concurring labor, management and savings of both husband and wife," which does not amount to any form of joint ownership. When such property is held in the name of one spouse, "the law presumes, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, that the contribution of the other thereto was a gift." As recently as 1958, a celebrated divorce appeal also underscored one of the long-standing fallacies in an alimony law that was ostensibly designed to ensure the equitable distribution of assets at divorce.87 Woodrow Wilson Cecil had divorced Bessie Cecil on the grounds of her cruel and inhuman treatment of him. He now appealed Bessie's alimony award, arguing that alimony was a right that could be forfeited by a wife's misbehavior. The high court agreed, declaring that "permanent alimony is to provide support for the wife and . . . is based upon the common-law right of the wife to support by the husband which continues until forfeited by the misconduct of the wife. . . ." If a wife's misconduct was the grounds for a divorce, she could be denied alimony. Such was the case in West Virginia until 1984.88
In 1969, West Virginia lawmakers enacted a major change in alimony law, but one that failed to touch directly on the inequitable distribution of marital property. Alimony was now redefined as "support or maintenance to be paid by a spouse," rather than by a husband to his wife.89 The revision suggests that West Virginia was responding to the women's reform movement, the new climate for women's rights, and to divorce reform in other states. The 1974 case Corbin v. Corbin strongly supports this contention. This appeal of a lower court alimony decree was based on constant litigation between Laetitia and Howard Corbin, who were divorced in 1963. Justice Richard Neely affirmed the original decree, an annual payment of twenty-one thousand dollars, based on the wife's previous earning potential, the presence of a child, and the husband's discretionary income. The high court's finding, which secured a better financial status for the divorced wife, ironically was grounded in traditional views, but also in the recognition that many West Virginia women still filled a conventional domestic role. Neely wrote "although the norms of society are rapidly changing with regard to the role of women in the labor force . . . the fact remains that a majority of women in West Virginia . . . elect to pursue careers as wives and mothers. . . ." The trial court "is entitled to take into consideration, in awarding alimony . . . the degree to which she [the wife] has relied to her detriment in choosing to be a housewife and mother rather than to pursue her own independent course."90
A similarly paternalistic view underlay the 1983 case LaRue v. LaRue, a real benchmark in West Virginia alimony law.91 So crucial was this appeal that appellant Betty LaRue was joined by the New York branch of the National Organization for Women Legal and Education Fund and the National Center on Women and Family Law. In 1980, a circuit court in the LaRue divorce proceeding ending thirty years of marriage had denied LaRue's petition that she receive one-half of all real estate titled in her husband's name. She was now asking the high court "to recognize the doctrine of equitable distribution of marital property." Testimony showed that Betty LaRue had been a housewife and homemaker, had raised two sons, "and entertained her husband's business associates." Justice Thomas Miller pointed out that by this time, "the concept of equitable distribution of marital property has achieved an almost universal acceptance in the divorce laws of the various states." The time had now come for the court to interpret existing statute law more precisely and to permit "a spouse, who has made material economic contribution toward acquisition of property which is titled in the name . . . of the other spouse, to claim an equitable interest in such property. . . ." In his concurring opinion, Justice Neely looked at Betty LaRue's finances at divorce and reached the simple conclusion that "women are poorer than men." He tied Betty's "financial ruin" to the placement of family assets in Walter LaRue's name. It was this uniquely female tragedy the high court finally addressed in LaRue v. LaRue, and by doing so closed "this ghastly chasm in our legal landscape." The importance of this decision can be measured best by the speed with which lawmakers reacted to it. In 1984 they put the LaRue decision into statute law, making West Virginia the last of the common-law states to provide for some form of equitable distribution of property at divorce.92 Without question, the LaRue decision potentially offered divorced women a degree of financial stability unavailable to them in the past. Ironically, it was born of the recognition that many West Virginia women held a dependent status and thereby needed marital protection.
The development of West Virginia law as it related to women reflects both the conservative and ambiguous views of lawmakers and judges. Keeping in mind that the issue of women's legal rights was never a high priority among West Virginia leaders, as it was not among leaders in any other state, the mountain state responded slowly to change. The age-old adage that laws may change but cannot by themselves reverse traditional domestic customs surely applies to the West Virginia experience. Scarcely a state in 1868, West Virginia passed a Married Women's Property Act which enabled a married woman for the first time to have a separate estate and to engage in business if living separate from her husband. Yet as was true elsewhere, this measure was meant to protect women from dissolute men, not grant them equal rights. Moreover, the high court time and again conservatively ruled to undermine that protection. Placed on a pedestal by the law and the courts, women were left to flounder there. Women's dower rights became law in 1868, for example, but widows could only benefit if their husband's estate was in real property. Judges on the one hand highly valued a "virtuous" woman, but until 1984, attached no financial value at all to a wife's homemaking contributions. This particular practice hit West Virginia women hard since a relatively large proportion of them traditionally worked inside the home.
Repeatedly the records show a gulf between legal rhetoric and reality. To the extent that rhetoric actually reflects social reality, that rhetoric rather than the law best reflected women's place. In many instances the law held out the possibility for greater female equality, but judges took it away. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the distribution of titled property at divorce. Since 1931 the law gave the courts authority to disregard title when dividing property at divorce, but the high court consistently ignored the statute. Lacking control over property, women had little power in their lives. There is no question that West Virginia justices, on the whole, held tenaciously to traditional values. Despite the positive changes afforded the female population by the 1931 code, women continued to be plagued by legal disabilities. Lawmakers proved equally conservative to their judicial counterparts. In such crucial areas to women as divorce and alimony, the West Virginia legislature followed in delayed reaction the efforts of legislatures in other states to make the laws more equitable. Given the history of the state, this comes as no surprise. Isolated by geography in its early years, and hindered in its development by a rural culture, West Virginia has been slow to follow paths taken by other states. In the twentieth century, traditional beliefs and behavior have resisted a world of drastic change. A culture which has taught women "to serve men and to consider themselves somewhat inferior," and which put great emphasis on family, prescribed a role for women that reinforced dependence.93 The tenacity of Protestant fundamentalism, with its emphasis on female subservience, helped sustain the legal disabilities of women. These powerful cultural norms clearly influenced and were reflected in the actions of judges and lawmakers. Only in the last twenty years have West Virginia women begun to gain full equality under the law.
1. For a similar argument see Barbara Melosh, "Recovery and Revision: Women's History and West Virginia," West Virginia History 49(1990): 3- 6. Recent studies which have little to say about West Virginia women include Otis K. Rice, West Virginia: A History (Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1985), and John Alexander Williams, West Virginia: A Bicentennial History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976).
2. See West Virginia Women's Commission, ed., Missing Chapters: West Virginia Women in History (Charleston: West Virginia Women's Commission, 1983); Frances Hensley, ed., Missing Chapters II: West Virginia Women in History (Charleston: West Virginia Women's Commission, 1986).
3. For some of the reasons behind the marital property law reform see Norma Basch, In the Eyes of the Law: Women, Marriage, and Property in Nineteenth-Century New York (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982), 114, and Richard A. Chused, "Married Women's Property Law: 1800-1850," Georgetown Law Journal 71(1983): 1425.
4. See Mary R. Beard, Women as a Force in History (New York: Collier Books, 1946), 70.
5. Basch, In the Eyes of the Law, 114.
6. Elizabeth Bowless Warbasse, "The Changing Legal Rights of Married Women 1800-1861' (Ph.D. diss., Radcliffe College, 1960), 63-72.
7. Chused, "Married Women's Property Law," 1461.
8. Charles H. Ambler, ed., Debates and Proceedings on the First Constitutional Convention of West Virginia, 1861-1863 (Huntington: Gentry Brothers, 1939), 2:55.
9. See Suzanne D. Lebsock, "Radical Reconstruction and the Property Rights of Southern Women," Journal of Southern History 43(May 1977): 198.
10. Ambler, ed., Debates, 2:52. By 1861, nearly all states had moved in some way to protect the property of married women. See Warbasse, "Changing Legal Rights of Married Women," 278-79.
11. Code of West Virginia, 1868, c. 66, s. 1-13. The original New York statute was passed in 1848. See Warbasse, "Changing Legal Rights of Married Women," 167, 205-29, 279, 283, 306.
12. Lebsock, "Radical Reconstruction," 195-216.
13. This was also true in many other states. For example, see Kathleen E. Lazarou, "Concealed Under Petticoats: Married Women's Property and the Law of Texas 1840-1913" (Ph.D. diss., Rice University, 1980), 35.
14. West Virginia Constitution, art. 6, s. 49.
15. See Basch, In the Eyes of the Law, 200-02; Chused, "Married Women's Property Law," 1425; Albie Sachs and Joan Hoff Wilson, Sexism and the Law: A Study of Male Beliefs and Legal Bias in Britain and the United States (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1978), 78.
16. Peck v. Marling, 22 W. Va. 708 (1883).
17. Code of West Virginia, 1891, c. 109, s. 14.
18. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1893, c. 13, s. 14.
19. Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-3-17), current code. On earnings acts in other states see Chused, "Married Women's Property Law," 1424.
20. Harvey L. Gochros, "Sex and Marriage in Rural Appalachia," in Appalachia: Its People, Heritage, and Problems, ed. by Frank S. Riddel (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 1974), 77.
21. George L. Hicks, "Kinship and Sex Roles," in Appalachia: Social Context Past and Present, ed. by Bruce Ergood and Bruce E. Kuhre (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 1976), 218.
22. Gerald Allen Kinchy, "LaRue v. LaRue: Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets Finally Available in West Virginia," West Virginia University Law Review 86(Fall 1983): 251, hereinafter cited as WVLR. See also Basch, In the Eyes of the Law, 9.
23. Basch, In the Eyes of the Law, 234.
24. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1875, c. 67, s. 4.
25. Marylynn Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1986), 7, and Richard B. Morris, Studies in the History of American Law (1958; reprint, New York: Octagon, 1964), 149.
26. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1891, c. 23, s. 4.
27. Cecil v. Clark, 44 W. Va. 659, 30 S. E. 216 (1898).
28. See Lawrence Friedman, A History of American Law, 2nd ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 407; Basch, In the Eyes of the Law, 127.
29. William H. Chafe, The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920-1970 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972), ch. 2.
30. Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-3-2), current code.
31. Hanley v. Richards, 116 W. Va. 127, 178 S. E. 805 (1935).
32. Gochros, "Sex and Marriage in Rural Appalachia," 77. See also John C. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (1921; reprint, Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1969), 124, and Ronald D Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1800-1930 (Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1982), 31.
33. Code of West Virginia, 1868, c. 66, s. 12.
34. Acts, 1893, c. 13.
35. Normile v. Wheeling Traction Co., 57 W. Va. 132, 49 S. E. 1030 (1905).
36. Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-3-19), current code. By using the term "single woman" rather than "femme sole," the legislature signaled its intention to erase old common-law principles as well as terminology.
37. Ibid., (48-3-8).
38. Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 16.
39. Engle v. Engle, 3 W. Va. 246 (1869).
40. Code of West Virginia, 1868, c. 65, s. 1 and 15.
41. Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 144-45.
42. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1872, c. 207, s. 15.
43. In 1921, lawmakers limited the husband's right to a life estate in his wife's property to the same one-third interest as the wife had in his, West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1921, c. 207, s. 15.
44. Gochros, "Sex and Marriage in Rural Appalachia," 80.
45. Joel Prentiss Bishop, Commentaries on the Laws of Marriage and Divorce (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1852), 207.
46. Warbasse, "Changing Legal Rights of Married Women," 24.
47. See Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1984), 86.
48. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1867, c. 17, s. 6.
49. See Carrol D. Wright, A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 1867 to 1886, Including an Appendix Relating to Marriage and Divorce in Certain Countries in Europe (Washington, DC: GPO, 1889).
50. See Friedman, A History of American Law, 499-501. In the 1880s, West Virginia was already one of only a very few states for which cruelty was not grounds for absolute divorce. See Mary Somerville Jones, "An Historical Geography of Changing Divorce Law in the United States" (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, 1978), 219.
51. Code of West Virginia, 1931, c. 48.
52. In 1882, for example, lawmakers added drunkenness as grounds for a limited divorce, also a basis in eight other states and most likely a response to West Virginia's religious climate. In 1923, the state code left the grounds for an absolute divorce untouched, but extended once again the legal basis for a divorce from bed and board by adding the same grounds as for an absolute divorce plus habitual use of narcotics. See Wright, A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 116; West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1882, c. 60, s. 6; Barnes' West Virginia Code, 1923, c. 64.
53. Code of West Virginia, 1931, c. 48.
54. In 1934, the West Virginia Bar Association recommended abolishing bed and board divorces. See Houston A. Smith, "The Revised Divorce Law of West Virginia," WVLR 41(June 1935): 406. Only three other states had fewer grounds for absolute divorce. See Chester O. Vernier, American Family Laws: A Comparative Study of the Family Law of the Forty-eight American States, Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii (to Jan. 1, 1931), 5 vols. (1932; reprint, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971), 2: 3-4. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1935, c. 35. West Virginia and the District of Columbia were the only two jurisdictions before 1935 which still did not allow cruelty as grounds for an absolute divorce. See Jones, "Historical Geography of Changing Divorce Law," 105. The new statute of 1935 reduced the period of desertion as grounds from three years to two, preserved adultery and felony conviction as grounds, and added a few of the former bases for limited divorces: cruel treatment (including a false charge of prostitution by a husband against a wife), habitual drunkenness, and drug addiction.
55. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1969, c. 49. See also Jones, "Historical Geography of Changing Divorce Law," 143-51. Earlier in 1957, the legislature had moved toward a more liberal law. See Acts of the Legislature, 1957, c. 56, s. 4 and William O. Morris, The Law of Domestic Relations in West Virginia (Charlottesville: Michie Co., 1973), 112-13.
56. West Virginia, Acts of the Legislature, 1977, c. 84, s. 10; Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-4), current code. The fixed period for living apart and for desertion was reduced to one year. The abuse or neglect of a child, supported by "clear and convincing evidence," now became grounds for divorce. So did irreconcilable differences, signalling the most significant change in divorce law since the original statute of 1867.
57. In 1935, West Virginia was one of six or seven states which did not recognize cruelty as grounds for absolute divorce. See Vernier, American Family Laws, 2:24.
58. Bishop, Commentaries, 362.
59. Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 77.
60. See Clyde S. Colson, "West Virginia Divorce Law," WVLR 43(June 1937): 299. On liberal judicial interpretations of cruelty in other states see Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (New York: Free Press, 1988), 127.
61. Goff v. Goff, 60 W. Va. 9, 53 S. E. 769 (1906).
62. Maxwell v. Maxwell, 69 W. Va. 414, 71 S. E. 571 (1911). Jane Turner Censer, "`Smiling Through Her Tears': Ante-Bellum Southern Women and Divorce," American Journal of Legal History 25(January 1981): 40.
63. Roush v. Roush, 90 W. Va. 491, 111 S. E. 334 (1922).
64. White v. White, 106 W. Va. 680, 146 S. E. 720 (1929).
65. Hicks, "Kinship and Sex Roles," 215.
66. Arnold v. Arnold, 112 W. Va. 481, 164 S. E. 850 (1932). The same distinction between mental and physical abuse also appears in an Alabama case. See Censer, "`Smiling Through Her Tears'," 33-36.
67. Between 1867 and 1886, 2.6 percent of divorces were granted for cruelty. See Wright, A Report on Marriage and Divorce, 169-70.
68. Paul B. Jacobson, American Marriage and Divorce (New York: Rinehart, 1959), 123.
69. A 1957 statute defined cruel and inhuman treatment as behavior that can "destroy or tend to destroy the mental or physical well-being, happiness and welfare of the other and render continued cohabitation unsafe or unendurable. . . ." West Virginia, Acts, 1957, c. 56, s. 4.Twelve years later lawmakers put to rest all questions about the necessity for violence to constitute cruelty. Now, "under no circumstances whatever shall it be necessary to allege or prove acts of physical violence in order to establish cruel and inhuman treatment." Acts, 1969, c. 49; Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-4), current code.
70. Hugh Carter and Paul C. Glick, Marriage and Divorce: A Social and Economic Study (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1970), 4, 387.
71. Ibid., 55; Carl N. Degler, At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980), 172-73; Wright, A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 157.
72. Jones, "Historical Geography of Changing Divorce Law," 37-38.
73. Ibid., 73, 92-93.
74. Jacobson, American Marriage and Divorce, 123. The national proportion of divorces granted for desertion was 17.8 and for West Virginia, 27.9. The national proportion of divorces granted for drunkenness was 2.9 and for West Virginia, 18.1.
75.Gochros, "Sex and Marriage in Rural Appalachia," 79.
76. Code of West Virginia, 1868, c. 64, s. 11.
77. Bishop, Commentaries, 437-38.
78. Re: Estate of Nicholas, 144 W. Va. 116 ,107 S. E. 2nd 53 (1959).
79. Mintz and Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions, 127-28.
80. See Kinchy, "LaRue v. LaRue," 251. Over the years, beginning in 1910, the Supreme Court did not distribute titled property at divorce except in rare cases of unusual circumstances. See for example, Tuning v. Tuning, 90 W. Va. 457 (1922); Philips v. Philips, 106 W. Va. 105 (1928); Selvy v. Selvy, 115 W. Va. 338 (1934); State ex rel. Hammond v. Worrell, 144 W. Va. 83 (1958); Collins v. Muntzing, 121 W. Va. 843 (1967).
81. Anderson v. Davis and Ould, 55 W. Va. 429, 47 S. E. 157 (1904).
82. Reynolds v. Reynolds, 68 W. Va. 15, 69 S. E. 381 (1910).
83. Burdette v. Burdette, 109 W. Va. 95, 153 S. E. 150 (1930).
84. The new statute provided that "the court shall have power to award to either of the parties whatever of his or her property, real or personal, may be in the possession or under control, conveyance thereof as in other cases of chancery." Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-20), current code.
85. Kinchy, "LaRue v. LaRue," 258, and Code of West Virginia, 1931, 48-2-20 (Reviser's Note).
86. Wood v. Wood, 126 W. Va. 189, 28 S. E. 2nd 423 (1943).
87. Cecil v. Knapp, 143 W. Va. 896, 105 S. E. 2nd 569 (1958).
88. Acts of the Legislature, 1984, c. 60; Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-15), current code.
89. Acts, 1969, c. 49; Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-16), current code.
90. Corbin v. Corbin, 157 W. Va. 967, 206 S. E. 2nd 898 (1974).
91. LaRue v. LaRue, 304 S. E. 2nd 312 (1983). See Kinchy, "LaRue v. LaRue," 254.
92. Code of West Virginia, 1931 (48-2-1), current code.
93. Gochros, "Sex and Marriage in Rural Appalachia," 77. See also Campbell, The Southern Highlander, 124, and Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, 31.
West Virginia History Journal
West Virginia History Center | <urn:uuid:6972bbd0-da20-4324-bf80-2b3aef18a901> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/journal_wvh/wvh51-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959272 |
What are the MDGs?The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. Find out how UNICEF is contributing to achieving the MDGs by clicking on the links below.
Post 2015: What NextThe Millennium Development Goals are set to expire in 2015. Never before has a group of global goals so galvanized the world to fight poverty, disease and hunger. But What Next?
The latest edition of Research Watch - UNICEF's Office of Research - brings together experts from almost all continents to examine the big issues. We asked more than 15 global experts their thoughts on what the next global development agenda should look like.
Watch this studio debate to hear three of the world's top names on this issue debating what's next.
the 8 goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target by 2015: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on under $1 a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day.
Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation, usually a child under the age of 5.
2. Achieve universal primary education
Target by 2015: Ensure all boys and girls complete their primary schooling.
As of 2001 estimates around 115 million children of primary school age, the majority of them girls, do not attend school.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
Target by 2015: Eliminate gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015 and empower women.
Two-thirds of the world’s 799 million illiterate adults ages 15 and over are women.
4. Reduce child mortality
Target by 2015: Reduce child mortality by 2/3s, from 93 children of every 1,000 dying before age five in 1990 to 31 of every 1,000 in 2015.
About 29,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes.
5. Improve maternal health
Target by 2015: Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters.
A woman dies from complications in childbirth every minute, about 529,000 each year, the vast majority of them in developing countries.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Targets by 2015: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidences of malaria and other major diseases.
Malaria kills a child somewhere in the world every 30 seconds.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
Targets by 2015: Reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
A child dies every 15 seconds from disease attributable to unsafe drinking water, deplorable sanitation and poor hygiene.
8. Develop a global partnership for development
Why are they so important?Many of the Millennium Development Goals talk about the need for each and every child to have access to basic human rights including health, education and protection. UNICEF believes that achieving the Millennium Development Goals is a critical step towards achieving a world fit for children.
The MDG Summit 2010
With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the MDGs, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to boost progress towards the MDGs. 90 Heads of State and 49 Heads of Government will be attending, with an outcome document to be negotiated.
UNICEF is contributing to this summit by organizing a series of events, including roundtables and side events, focusing on each of the MDGs.
UNICEF has also released a landmark study which shows that the MDGs for children can be reached faster with focus on the most disadvantaged. This equity approach would also address the widening disparities that are accompanying progress toward the MDGs. View report.
The MDGs and the economic crisisThe impact of the economic crisis on poor countries makes it essential for New Zealand to sustain support for the MDGs.
“The global economic crisis makes tackling world poverty and building prosperity more urgent than ever; and a crisis of this magnitude can only be addressed through international cooperation”, agree Dennis McKinlay and Barry Coates, Executive Directors of UNICEF and Oxfam NZ.
Urgent action is needed
The world is behind schedule for meeting almost all of the MDGs. The consequences of not meeting the Goals will be suffered most by children. For example, if universal primary education is not achieved (MDG 2), millions of children will not be able to go to school and if changes aren't made to make clean water more accessible (MDG 7), children will continue to die from preventable diseases.
There is a lot of work to do, but experts agree, that meeting the Millennium Goals by 2015 is still achievable. Reaching them will require a stronger commitment and focus from all countries in order to bring about global development and peace.
UNICEF is working with partners around the globe to make sure that achieving the MDGs becomes a reality.
Email email@example.com to join UNICEF's Campaigners for Change and make the MDGs a reality. | <urn:uuid:5061978c-79a7-492b-8907-ad70e39c55c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicef.org.nz/MDGs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930253 |
Arterial BP from a Central lineRegister Today!
This is a discussion on Arterial BP from a Central line in CCU Nursing / Coronary / Cardiac, part of Critical Care Nursing ... Why is it that arterial lines can be ran from a femoral central line? Isnt the femoral line venous...by BandaidBunny Mar 7, '12Why is it that arterial lines can be ran from a femoral central line?
Isnt the femoral line venous blood and a different pressure?
Also, can a CVP be running off a femoral central line??
(as you can tell im not an ICU nurse)
My memory of this is seeing arterial lines in the radial artery, and CVP from a Swan.
A relatively length google serach did not answer my questions, so any help is appreciated.
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- Mar 7, '12 by ukstudentThe femoral area has both an artery and a central vein. A practioner can place either a femoral central line (going into the vein) or femoral arterial line (going into the artery). Sometime both are placed next to each other.
CVP's can be obtained from central lines placed in the internal jugular or subclavian vein.
- Mar 7, '12 by BiffbradfordYup, as stated above, sometimes the patient comes from the cath lab with venous and arterial sheaths right next to each other. Art lines go in the radial artery. No, you can't do a CVP from the groin ... it's too far from the right atrium of the heart. If you Google some more, there are some posts here on AN about getting a CVP off a groin line, but they are looking at trends in the reading, rather than a true central venous pressure. I did a CVP off a PICC line last night. Not sure how accurate it was, but again, we were looking at trends.
- Mar 7, '12 by BelgianRNPICC line CVP should be relatively accurate since their tip is close to the right atrium only the length of the catheter is a bit longer.
I've attended a lecture on measuring the vena cava inferior pressure via a central femoral line as an alternative for and equivalent to intra abdominal pressure. We have yet to utilize it in practice though. And I think it's much more invasive and cumbersome as is measuring via the foley. Mostly because we have really nifty attachment tubing for our foleys so they can measure IAP. | <urn:uuid:ce304b35-ff67-442b-85c5-1886ff7186f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allnurses.com/ccu-nursing-coronary/arterial-bp-central-683146.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935465 |
Gerontology: The Study of Aging and Older Adults
As the elderly population in the United States continues to grow, there is a corresponding increase in the need to prepare a workforce with the appropriate knowledge, skills and values. Some students are preparing for careers that will bring them in direct contact with older adults in health and human services, government, business, or education. Others may have less direct contact but, because older adults represent a large and growing segment of the population, students in every major will benefit from an understanding of the interests, abilities and needs of older adults.
The gerontology program will not only introduce students to the study of aging and the aged, it will provide opportunities for experiential learning, including research training, internships and community service placements working with the elderly. | <urn:uuid:0d9d21c4-f771-4686-a034-b450139756fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://niagara.edu/gerontology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94392 |
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in Europe and Australia, Touhoku Daigaku Mirai Kagaku Gijutsu Kyoudou Kenkyuu Center: Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training in Japan, and Meail Meail DS Dunoe Training in South Korea (based on the book "Train Your Brain" by the Japanese professor Ryuta Kawashima), is an educational program for the Nintendo DS. It is part of the Touch Generations series by Nintendo. It is made to attract non-gamers into the gaming world. It has met major success in Japan, becoming one of the best-selling games this year, and it also did well in the US.
Brain Age Check - Try three different puzzles given at random and afterwards be given a brain age. Twenty is the best brain age and 80 is the worst.
Sudoku - Over four hundred different Sudoku puzzles with four different difficulties including easy, normal, and hard. To write in the numbers, you must write in the number on the touch screen. It is also possible to download Sudoku puzzles from a DS download center
Calculations times 20 - Solve twenty simple math problems as fast as you can.
Calculations times 100 - Solve one hundred simple math problems as fast as you can.
Word Memory - For two minutes, you will be able to look a graph with thirty four letter words. Once the two minutes are up, you must write down as many of the words as you can remember.
Stroop Test - This game uses the built in microphone in the DS or DS Lite. In this game, one of four words will come up (either Blue, Black, Yellow, or Red), each word will be in a font color other than the word (such as if the word is blue, the font won't be blue, but another color.), you must then say the color that the word is, other than the word.
Head Count - People will enter and exit a house for a short while. Afterwards you have to say how many people are in the house.
Reading Aloud - You must read a short paragraph of a famous book out loud as fast as you can.
Calculations Aloud - Say the answer to twenty different maths problems through the DS microphone.
Syllable count - You must count the syllables in different sentences and write them down as fast as you can.
Calculations Battle - Play against up to fifteen different people by connecting DS's and whoever finishes all the calculations first is the winner.
120 count - Try and count to one hundred two as fast as you can. | <urn:uuid:39b5dba6-3c4d-4b0a-9ffd-46fa877eef74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Brain_Age | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94152 |
St. Lalibela was an Ethiopian monarch and church builder. The second to last king of the Zagwe dynasty, he was the most renowned, especially for the 11 rock-hewn churches built in his capital. These edifices are among the major medieval monuments of Africa. Lalibela provides a striking example of the union of church and state in Ethiopia and is revered as a saint in the Ethiopian Church.
Lalibela, meaning "bees obey him," was a birth-name noting that at his birth a swarm of bees alighted on him without harming him. As a youth, Lalibela claimed to have visions and spent some time as a hermit. In 1180 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On return, Lalibela only reluctantly took the throne from his half-brother Harba with support from the clergy, who opposed Harba's contacts with the papacy. He took the name Gabra Masqal, Servant of the Cross, and began his reign with a long fast.
Lalibela attempted a Christian policy of charity and peace, which was largely successful. He secured his borders with new monasteries and developed good relations with the Sultan Saladin, thus easing pressures on the Christians of Egypt and protecting the Ethiopians in Jerusalem. His greatest feat, however, was creating the amazing network of churches, courtyards, and water systems in his capital. Since the entire complex is carved from natural rock below ground level, it has survived intact. Lalibela's tomb is also located there.
Norbert C. Brockman
Dictionary of African Biography. Algonac, MI, and New York: Reference Publications, vol. 1, 1977; vol. 2, 1979.
Lipschutz, Mark, and R. Kent Rasmussen. Dictionary of African Historical Biography. 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. | <urn:uuid:7d5f1874-eaba-4b36-bef7-51422ba30896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/lalibela.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977104 |
Authors born between 1700 and 1800 CE
Click Up For A Summary Of Each Author
Women and Reason
Independence for Women
Mistaken Notions of Beauty
The Vices of Civilization
Women’s Power over Themselves
Friendship with Men
Origins of Virtue
Women in the World
Preparation for Parenthood
Education of Women
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), also known by her married name of Godwin Wollstonecraft, was born in Hoxton, England. Her father was an unsuccessful businessman and farmer who dissipated the money he inherited. She and her three sisters had little opportunity for education or for work to support themselves when they became of age. Mary Wollstonecraft initially lived with a friend and helped pay for her keep by taking in needlework. She and her sisters subsequently opened a school, which operated for about two years. By about this time, Wollstonecraft had begun to read widely and had became largely self-educated.
After the school closed, Wollstonecraft became governess to the children of Lord Kingsborough, only to be dismissed by his wife after a year, on the grounds that the children grew fonder of their governess than of their mother. She then decided to earn her living as a writer, publishing the novel Mary, A Fiction in 1788. Her London publisher, Joseph Johnson, also provided her with proofreading and reviewing work. In 1790 he published her Vindication of the Rights of Men, a robust answer to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (he was against it). In 1791 her name as author appeared on the second edition. She met Dr. Johnson, who "treated her with particular kindness and attention". She became recognized in London literary circles, being the subject of poems by Robert Southey and William Blake.
In 1792 Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was published. In this she argued for equality of women and men in opportunities for education, work, and government. This was a time when English law discriminated against women; it ruled, for example, that on marriage her property automatically transferred to her husband. Her book drew harsh criticism from male authors, often citing Biblical precedents. One Thomas Taylor published a parody of her work in A vindication of the Rights of Brutes.
In fact, the case for improving women’s rights had been put increasingly in prior years: by Mrs Makin in 1673, by Mary Astell in 1694, by Daniel Defoe in 1697. Steele, Addison, and Swift urged that women should be given a better education. A woman under the pseudonym of Sophia published Woman Not Inferior to Man in 1739. Catherine Macauly, in her book Letters on Education, maintained that women and men should get the same education. (This was reviewed approvingly by Wollstonecraft.) A Declaration of the Rights of Woman was published in France in 1791. Thus, Wollstonecraft’s work was one of several that ultimately led to the enfranchisement of women in the Twentieth Century. The vigor with which she put her case probably sharpened the debate and drew greater attention to the situation of women.
Wollstonecraft had a child by Gilbert Imlay in 1794. After he left her, she continued to support herself and her child by working for Joseph Johnson. He introduced her to William Godwin. This couple, which had separately inveighed against marriage, found themselves in love and married in 1791. The birth of her daughter Mary, resulted in Wollstonecraft’s death. Mary afterwards became the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, publishing Frankenstein in 1818.
1 Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate unless she knows why she ought to be virtuous? unless freedom strengthens her reason till she comprehends her duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good?
2 Consider—I address you as a legislator [Talleyrand-Perigord, Late Bishop of Autun]—whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness?
Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him of the gift of reason? In this style argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason, yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? For surely, sir, you will not assert that a duty can be binding which is not founded on reason?
3 The conclusion which I wish to draw, is obvious; make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives, and mothers; that is—if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.
4 My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
5 To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many ingenious arguments have been brought forward to prove that the two sexes, in the acquirement of virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different character; or, to speak explicitly, women are not allowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves the name of virtue. . . .Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives. . . How grossly they do insult us who thus advise us only to render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes!
6 In what does man’s pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole, in Reason.
What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue, we spontaneously reply.
For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes, whispers Experience.
Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society: and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.
7 Consequently, the most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau’s opinion respecting men; I extend it to women, and confidently assert that they have been drawn out of their sphere by false refinement, and not by an endeavor to acquire masculine qualities.
8 Let us examine this question. Rousseau declares that a woman should never for a moment feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself. He carries the arguments, which he pretends to draw from the indications of nature, still further, and insinuates that truth and fortitude, the corner-stones of all human virtue, should be cultivated with certain restrictions, because, with respect to the female character, obedience is the grand lesson which ought to be impressed with unrelenting rigor.
What nonsense! When will a great man arise with sufficient strength of mind to puff away the fumes which pride and sensuality have thus spread over the subject? If women are by nature inferior to men, their virtues must be the same in quality, if not in degree, or virtue is a relative idea; consequently their conduct should be founded on the same principles, and have the same aim.
9 It appears to me necessary to dwell on these obvious truths, because females have been insulated, as it were; and while they have been stripped of the virtues that should clothe humanity, they have been decked with artificial graces that enable them to exercise a short-lived tyranny. Love, in their bosoms, taking place of every nobler passion, their sole ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion instead of inspiring respect; and this ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute monarchies, destroys all strength of character. Liberty is the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very constitution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigorating air of freedom, they must ever languish like exotics, and be reckoned beautiful flaws in nature.
10 So ductile is the understanding, and yet so stubborn, that the associations which depend on adventitious circumstances, during the period that the body takes to arrive at maturity, can seldom be disentangled by reason. One idea calls up another, its old associate, and memory, faithful to the first impressions, particularly when the intellectual powers are not employed to cool our sensations, retraces them with mechanical exactness.
This habitual slavery, to first impressions, has a more baneful effect on the female than the male character, because business and other dry employments of the understanding, tend to deaden the feelings and break associations that do violence to reason. But females, who are made women of when they are mere children, and brought back to childhood when they ought to leave the go-cart forever, have not sufficient strength of mind to efface the superinductions of art that have smothered nature.
Every thing that they see or hear serves to fix impressions, call forth emotions, and associate ideas that give a sexual character to the mind. False notions of beauty and delicacy stop the growth of their limbs and produce a sickly soreness, rather than delicacy of organs; and thus weakened by being employed in unfolding instead of examining the first associations forced on them by every surrounding object, how can they attain the vigor necessary to enable them to throw off their factitious character?—where find strength to recur to reason and rise superior to a system of oppression, that blasts the fair promises of spring? . . . Besides, the books professedly written for their instruction, which make the first impression on their minds, all inculcate the same opinions. Educated then in worse than Egyptian bondage, it is unreasonable, as well as cruel, to upbraid them with faults that can scarcely be avoided, unless a degree of native vigor be supposed, that falls to the lot of very few amongst mankind?
11 As to the argument respecting the subjection in which the sex has ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have always been enthralled by the few; and monsters who scarcely have shown any discernment of human excellence have tyrannized over thousands of their fellow-creatures. Why have men of superior endowments submitted to such degradation? For, is it not universally acknowledged that kings, viewed collectively, have ever been inferior, in abilities and virtue, to the same number of men taken from the common mass of mankind—yet have they not, and are they not still treated with a degree of reverence that is an insult to reason? . . . Men have submitted to superior strength to enjoy with impunity the pleasure of the moment; women have only done the same, and therefore till it is proved that the courtier, who servilely resigns the birthright of a man, is not a moral agent, it cannot be demonstrated that woman is essentially inferior to man because she has always been subjugated.
Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and that the science of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philosophers scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man that determinate distinction.
I shall not pursue this argument any further than to establish an obvious inference, that as sound politics diffuse liberty, mankind, including woman, will become more wise and virtuous.
12 I am aware that this argument would carry me further than it may be supposed I wish to go; but I follow truth, and still adhering to my first position, I will allow that bodily strength seems to give man a natural superiority over woman; and this is the only solid basis on which the superiority of the sex can be built. But I still insist that not only the virtue but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that women, considered not only as moral but rational creatures, ought to endeavor to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half being—one of Rousseau’s wild chimeras.
13 And if it be granted that woman was not created merely to gratify the appetite of man, or to be the upper servant who provides his meals and takes care of his linen, it must follow that the first care of those mothers or fathers who really attend to the education of females should be, if not to strengthen the body, at least not to destroy the constitution by mistaken notions of beauty and female excellence; nor should girls ever be allowed to imbibe the pernicious notion that a defect can, by any chemical process of reasoning, become an excellence.
14 Men have superior strength of body; but were it not for mistaken notions of beauty, women would acquire sufficient to enable them to earn their own subsistence, the true definition of independence; and to bear those bodily inconveniencies and exertions that are requisite to strengthen the mind.
Let us then, by being allowed to take the same exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but youth, arrive at perfection of body, that we may know how far the natural superiority of man extends. For what reason or virtue can be expected from a creature when the seed-time of life is neglected? None—did not the winds of heaven casually scatter many useful seeds in the fallow ground.
15 Women are everywhere in this deplorable state; for, in order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength. Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adore its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour. But were their understanding once emancipated from the slavery to which the pride and sensuality of man and their short-sighted desire, like that of dominion in tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them, we should probably read of their weaknesses with surprise.
16 I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words, for I here throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues, not excepting modesty. For man and woman, truth, if I understand the meaning of the word, must be the same; yet the fanciful female character, so prettily drawn by poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other foundation than utility, and of that utility men pretend arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience.
Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfill; but they are human duties, and the principles that should regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same.
To become respectable, the exercise of their of their understanding is necessary, there is no other foundation for independence of character; I mean explicitly to say that they must only bow to the authority of reason, instead of being the modest slaves of opinion.
17 That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. But this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in favor of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind cannot be anything, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow themselves to be driven forward, would feel their own consequence, and spurn their chains. Men, they further observe, submit everywhere to oppression, when they have only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke; yet, instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly lick the dust, and say, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same propensity to enjoy the present moment, and at last despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.
18 The grand source of female folly and vice has ever appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind; and the very constitution of civil governments has put almost insuperable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of the female understanding; yet virtue can be built on no other foundation. The same obstacles are thrown in the way of the rich, and the same consequences ensue.
19 When do we hear of women who, starting out of obscurity, boldly claim respect on account of their great abilities or daring virtues? Where are they to be found? "To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which they seek." True! my male readers will probably exclaim; but let them, before they draw any conclusion, recollect that this was not written originally as descriptive of women, but of the rich. In Dr. Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments I have found a general character of people of rank and fortune, that, in my opinion, might with the greatest propriety be applied to the female sex.
20 In the middle rank of life, to continue the comparison, men, in their youth, are prepared for professions, and marriage is not considered as the grand feature in their lives; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties. It is not business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights of ambition, that engross their attention; no, their thoughts are not employed in rearing such noble structures. To rise in the world, and have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure, they must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is sacrificed, and their persons often legally prostituted. A man when he enters any profession has his eye steadily fixed on some future advantage (and the mind gains great strength by having all its efforts directed to one point), and, full of his business, pleasure is considered as mere relaxation; whilst women seek for pleasure as the main purpose of existence.
21 In short, women, in general, as well as the rich of both sexes, have acquired all the follies and vices of civilization, and missed the useful fruit. It is not necessary for me always to premise that I speak of the condition of the whole sex, leaving exceptions out of the question. Their senses are inflamed, and their understandings neglected, consequently they become the prey of their senses, delicately termed sensibility, and are blown about by every momentary gust of feeling. Civilized women are, therefore, so weakened by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature. Ever restless and anxious, their over-exercised sensibility not only renders them uncomfortable themselves, but troublesome, to use a soft phrase, to others.
22 And will moralists pretend to assert that this is the condition in which one-half of the human race should be encouraged to remain with listless inactivity and stupid acquiescence? Kind instructors!
What were we created for? To remain, it may be said, innocent; they mean in a state of childhood We might as well never have been born, unless it were necessary that we should be created to enable man to acquire the noble privilege of reason, the power of discerning good from evil, whilst we lie down in the dust from whence we were taken, never to rise again.
23 "Educate women like men," says Rousseau, "and the more they resemble our sex the less power will they have over us." This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
In the same strain have I heard men argue against instructing the poor; for many are the forms that aristocracy assumes. " Teach them to read and write," say they, " and you take them out of the station assigned them by nature." An eloquent Frenchman has answered them, I will borrow his sentiments. " But they know not, when they make man a brute, that they may expect every instant to see him transformed into a ferocious beast. Without knowledge there can be no morality."
24 Why must the female mind be tainted by coquettish arts to gratify the sensualist, and prevent love from subsiding into friendship, or compassionate tenderness, when there are not qualities on which friendship can be built? Let the honest heart show itself, and reason teach passion to submit to necessity; or, let the dignified pursuit of virtue and knowledge raise the mind above those emotions which rather embitter than sweeten the cup of life, when they are not restrained within due bounds.
25 Were women more rationally educated, could they take a more comprehensive view of things, they would be contented to love but once in their lives; and after marriage calmly let passion subside into friendship—into that tender intimacy, which is the best refuge from care; yet is built on such pure, still affections, that idle jealousies would not be allowed to disturb the discharge of the sober duties of life, or to engross the thoughts that ought to be otherwise employed. This is a state in which many men live; but few, very few women.
26 The man who can be contented to live with a pretty, useful companion, without a mind, has lost in voluptuous gratifications a taste for more refined enjoyments; he has never felt the calm satisfaction, that refreshes the parched heart, like the silent dew of heaven—of being beloved by one who could understand him. In the society of his wife he is still alone, unless when the man is sunk in the brute. "The charm of life," says a grave philosophical reasoner [Adam Smith], is "sympathy; nothing pleases us more than to observe in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own breast."
But, according to the tenor of reasoning by which women are kept from the tree of knowledge, the important years of youth, the usefulness of age, and the rational hopes of futurity, are all to be sacrificed to render women an object of desire for a short time. Besides, how could Rousseau expect them to be virtuous and constant when reason is neither allowed to be the foundation of their virtue, nor truth the object of their inquiries? . . .
Why was Rousseau’s life divided between ecstasy and misery? Can any other answer be given than this, that the effervescence of his imagination produced both; but, had his fancy been allowed to cool, it is possible that he might have acquired more strength of mind.
27 Educated in the enervating style recommended by the writers on whom I have been animadverting; and not having a chance, from their subordinate state in society, to recover their lost ground, is it surprising that women everywhere appear a defect in nature? Is it surprising, when we consider what a determinate effect an early association of ideas has on the character, that they neglect their understandings, and turn all their attention to their persons?
28 And thus have I argued. To render chastity the virtue from which unsophisticated modesty will naturally flow, the attention should be called away from employments which only exercise the sensibility; and the heart made to beat time to humanity, rather than to throb with love. The woman who has dedicated a considerable portion of her time to pursuits purely intellectual, and whose affections have been exercised by humane plans of usefulness, must have more purity of mind, as a natural consequence, than the ignorant beings whose time and thoughts have been occupied by gay pleasures or schemes to conquer hearts. The regulation of the behavior is not modesty, though those who study rules of decorum are, in general, termed modest women. Make the heart clean, let it expand and feel for all that is human, instead of being narrowed by selfish passions; and let the mind frequently contemplate subjects that exercise the understanding, without heating the imagination, and artless modesty will give the finishing touches to the picture.
29 Women as well as men ought to have the common appetites and passions of their nature, they are only brutal when unchecked by reason: but the obligation to check them is the duty of mankind, not a sexual duty. Nature, in these respects, may safely be left to herself; let women only acquire knowledge and humanity, and love will teach them modesty. There is no need of falsehoods, disgusting as futile, for studied rules of behavior only impose on shallow observers; a man of sense soon sees through, and despises the affectation.
30 It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are, in some degree, independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection, which would make them good wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely dependent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and selfish, and the men who can be gratified by the fawning fondness of spaniel-like affection have not much delicacy, for love is not to be bought, in any sense of the words, its silken wings are instantly shriveled up when any thing beside a return in kind is sought.
31 A truly benevolent legislator always endeavors to make it the interest of each individual to be virtuous; and thus private virtue becoming the cement of public happiness, an orderly whole is consolidated by the tendency of all the parts towards a common center. But, the private or public virtue of woman is very problematical; for Rousseau, and a numerous list of male writers, insist that she should all her life be subjected to a severe restraint, that of propriety. Why subject her to propriety—blind propriety, if she be capable of acting from a nobler spring, if she be an heir of immortality? . . . Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalize them only to sweeten the cup of man, when principles would be a surer guard? Is not this indirectly to deny woman reason, for a gift is a mockery, if it be unfit for use?
32 I know that, as a proof of the inferiority of the sex, Rousseau has exultingly exclaimed, How can they leave the nursery for the [military] camp! And the camp has by some moralists been termed the school of the most heroic virtues; though, I think, it would puzzle a keen casuist to prove the reasonableness of the greater number of wars that have dubbed heroes. I do not mean to consider this question critically; because, having frequently viewed these freaks of ambition as the first natural mode of civilization, when the ground must be torn up, and the woods cleared by fire and sword, I do not choose to call them pests; but surely the present system of war has little connection with virtue of any denomination, being rather the school of finesse and effeminacy, than of fortitude.
33 Still to avoid misconstruction, though I consider that women in the common walks of life are called to fulfill the duties of wives and mothers, by religion and reason, I cannot help lamenting that women of a superior cast have not a road open by which they can pursue more extensive plans of usefulness and independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping an hint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, for I really think that women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without having any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.
But, as the whole system of representation is now, in this country, only a convenient handle for despotism, they need not complain, for they are as well represented as a numerous class of hard working mechanics who pay for the support of royalty when they can scarcely stop their children’s mouths with bread. How are they represented whose very sweat supports the splendid stud of an heir apparent, or varnishes the chariot of some female favorite who looks down on shame? Taxes on the very necessaries of life enable an endless tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with stupid pomp before a gaping crowd, who almost worship the very parade which costs them so dear.
34 Business of various kinds they might likewise pursue, if they were educated in a more orderly manner, which might save many from common and legal prostitution. Women would not then marry for a support, as men accept of places under government, and neglect the implied duties; nor would an attempt to earn their own subsistence, a most laudable one, sink them almost to the level of those poor abandoned creatures who live by prostitution. For are not milliners and mantua-makers reckoned the next class? The few employments open to women, so far from being liberal, are menial; and when a superior education enables them to take charge of the education of children as governesses, they are not treated like the tutors of sons, though even clerical tutors are not always treated in a manner calculated to render them respectable in the eyes of their pupils, to say nothing of the private comfort of the individual.
35 Some of these women might be restrained from marrying by a proper spirit or delicacy, and others may not have had it in their power to escape in this pitiful way from servitude; is not that government then very defective, and very unmindful of the happiness of one half of its members, that does not provide for honest, independent women, by encouraging them to fill respectable stations? But in order to render their private virtue a public benefit, they must have a civil existence in the state, married or single; else we shall continually see some worthy woman, whose sensibility has been rendered painfully acute by undeserved contempt, droop like ‘the lily broken down by a plow-share.’
It is a melancholy truth—yet such is the blessed effect of civilization!—the most respectable women are the most oppressed; and, unless they have understandings far superior to the common run of understandings, taking in both sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings, become contemptible. How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practiced as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry . . .
36 How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty!—beauty did I say?—so sensible am I of the beauty of moral loveliness, or the harmonious propriety that attunes the passions of a well-regulated mind, that I blush at making the comparison; yet I sigh to think how few women aim at attaining this respectability by withdrawing from the giddy whirl of pleasure, or the indolent calm that stupifies the good sort of women it sucks in.
37 In the regulation of a family, in the education of children, understanding, in an unsophisticated sense, is particularly required—strength both of body and mind; yet the men who, by their writings, have most earnestly labored to domesticate women, have endeavored, by arguments dictated by a gross appetite, which satiety had rendered fastidious, to weaken their bodies and cramp their minds. But, if even by these sinister methods they really persuaded women, by working on their feelings, to stay at home, and fulfill the duties of a mother and mistress of a family, I should cautiously oppose opinions that led women to right conduct, by prevailing on them to make the discharge of such important duties the main business of life, though reason were insulted. Yet, and I appeal to experience, if by neglecting the understanding they be as much, no, more detached from these domestic employments, than they could be by the most serious intellectual pursuit, though it may be observed, that the mass of mankind will never vigorously pursue an intellectual object, I may be allowed to infer that reason is absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly, and I must again repeat, that sensibility is not reason.
38 The formation of the mind must be begun very early, and the temper, in particular, requires the most judicious attention—an attention which women cannot pay who only love their children because they are their children, and seek no further for the foundation of their duty, than in the feelings of the moment. It is this want of reason in their affections which makes women so often run into extremes, and either be the most fond or most careless and unnatural mothers.
To be a good mothera woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow. When chastisement is necessary, though they have offended the mother, the father must inflict the punishment; he must be the judge in all disputes: but I shall more fully discuss this subject when I treat of private education, I now only mean to insist, that unless the understanding of woman be enlarged, and her character rendered more firm, by being allowed to govern her own conduct, she will never have sufficient sense or command of temper to manage her children properly.
39 Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers—in a word, better citizens. We should then love them with true affection, because we should learn to respect ourselves; and the peace of mind of a worthy man would not be interrupted by the idle vanity of his wife, nor the babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never found a home in their mother’s.
40 A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind; and Mr. Locke very judiciously observes, that ‘if the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken much by too strict an hand over them; they lose all their vigor and industry'. This strict hand may in some degree account for the weakness of women; for girls, from various causes, are more kept down by their parents, in every sense of the word, than boys. The duty expected from them is, like all the duties arbitrarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety, more out of respect for decorum, than reason; and thus taught slavishly to submit to their parents, they are prepared for the slavery of marriage. I may be told that a number of women are not slaves in the marriage state.
41 My observations on national education are obviously hints; but I principally wish to enforce the necessity of educating the sexes together to perfect both, and of making children sleep at home that they may learn to love home; yet to make private support, instead of smothering, public affections, they should be sent to school to mix with a number of equals, for only by the jostlings of equality can we form a just opinion of ourselves.
42 To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes must act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when only one is allowed to see the reasonableness of it? To render also the social compact truly equitable, and in order to spread those enlightening principles, which alone can meliorate the fate of man, women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men. For they are now made so inferior by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of knowledge, and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.
43 It is plain from the history of all nations, that women cannot be confined to merely domestic pursuits, for they will not fulfill family duties, unless their minds take a wider range; and whilst they are kept in ignorance they become in the same proportion the slaves of pleasure as they are the slaves of man. Nor can they be shut out if great enterprises, though the narrowness of their minds often make them mar, what they are unable to comprehend.
44 In public schools women, to guard against the errors of ignorance, should be taught the elements of anatomy and medicine, not only to enable them to take proper care of their own health, but to make them rational nurses of their infants, parents, and husbands; for the bills of mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed old women, who give nostrums of their own without knowing any thing of the human frame. It is likewise proper only in a domestic view, to make women acquainted with the anatomy of the mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together in every pursuit; and by leading them to observe the progress of the human understanding in the improvement of the sciences and arts; never forgetting the science of morality, or the study of the political history of mankind.
45 Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that chains such a weak being to her duty.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. Everyman’s Library Edition, 1929. This is found in digital form at the site of Oregon State University.
A version based on the second edition of Wollstoncraft’s work has been published as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft. Edited by Carol H. Poston, Second Edition. A Norton Critical Edition, 1988.
A discussion of the background to Wollstonecraft’s work is contained in Mary Wollstonecraft, by Ralph Wardle, University of Kansas Press, 1951.
Information on Mary Wollstonecraft’s life is contained in Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London, 1798. (Reprinted by Garland Publishing Company, New York, 1974).
Authors born between 1700 and 1800 CE
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The Crab Nebula (M1): Facts, Discovery & Images
When a star dies in a violent, fiery death, it spews its innards out across the sky, creating an expanding wave of gas and dust known as a supernova nebula. Arguably, the most famous of these supernova remnants is M1, also called the Crab Nebula, a blob-like patch visible in low-powered binoculars. Let's take a look at this viewing treasure.
Chinese astronomers watching the sky on July 4, 1054, noted the appearance of a new or "guest" star just above the southern horn of Taurus. But knowledge of star-fields was not necessary to spot this surprising visitor — according to records, the bright source was visible during the daytime for 23 days, shining six times as brightly as Venus. Those well-versed with the night sky would have been able to see it for 653 days — almost two years — with the naked eye. Other observations of the explosion were recorded by Japanese, Arabic, and Native American stargazers.
In 1731, British astronomer John Bevis observed a cloudy blob in the sky and added it to his star atlas. But it wasn't until French astronomer Charles Messier independently observed it 27 years later that things began to pick up for this stellar remnant.
Messier was a voracious comet hunter, but he found that the quality of telescopes at the time made it easy to confuse the fuzzy, blazing balls of ice with the hazy nebulae that dot the night sky. While searching for a comet that Edmond Halley had predicted would return in 1758, Messier discovered a hazy patch in the sky, which he would later add to his catalog as Messier 1, or M1. Studying the nebula over time revealed that, unlike a comet, it didn't move across the night sky, and thus was a completely different feature.
After a few other misidentifications, Messier was determined to put together a catalog of these objects in order to prevent other astronomers from making the same mistake. M1 became his first entry. Although he credited himself with its discovery in his first publication of the Messier catalog, he acknowledged Bevis' original finding in subsequent versions after receiving a letter from the astronomer. Messier went on to expand his list to include 110 objects, most of them supernova remnants. [50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos]
Around 1844, British astronomer William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, sketched the nebula. The resemblance of the image to a crustacean led to M1's other name, the Crab Nebula.
In the early 20th century, astronomers were able to take more detailed measurements of M1 and determined that it is expanding. Working backwards, they determined its origination date, and matched the explosion up with observations from Chinese and Native American records.
The guts of the nebula
A supernova remnant forms when the pressure inside of a star is stronger than the gravity that holds it together, and the star explodes. As the gas rushes outward, it fills the space around it. The material ejected from the Crab Nebula is moving at more than 3 million mph (4.8 million kph). [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
The nebula stretches 10 light-years across, though it continues to expand. It lies approximately 6,300 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Taurus. M1 can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky, but only barely. A pair of binoculars will turn up a dim patch, while more of the identifying features of the nebula become visible with a low-magnification telescope. A higher-grade, 16-inch telescope will begin to refine more of the nebula.
A bright source within
In the summer of 1967, U.S. Air Force officer Charles Schisler was on radar duty at Clear Air Force Base in Alaska when he noticed a fluctuating radio source. The source appeared over the course of several days, and Schisler noticed that its position coincided with the Crab Nebula. However, the findings weren't published by the Air Force at the time, and the discovery went unrealized until 2007.
A year later, astronomers in Puerto Rico discovered the same pulsing radio source. Determined to be a pulsar, the object is a rapidly-rotating, town-sized star that flashes about 30 times a second. Known as NP0532, or the Crab Pulsar, the neutron star is 100,000 times more energetic than the sun. Though only a few tens of miles across, it shines about as brightly as our nearest sun.
— Nola Taylor Redd
- Charles Messier Biography
- The Messier Catalog Site (M1)
- The Eagle Nebula (M16)
- Andromeda Galaxy (M31) | <urn:uuid:126baf8f-8a58-4e20-b534-b94c1159cc07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.space.com/16989-crab-nebula-m1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955024 |
On the afternoon of August 1, 1936, some 100,000 spectators filled the new Olympic Stadium in Berlin to watch the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games. The next day, Deutsche Reichspost (the German federal postal system) began broadcasting television coverage of events to 18 receivers set up in halls around the city including at the Olympic Village. By the time the games ended, some 70 hours of track & field competitions had been televised.
At about the same time and on a more regular basis, the Reichspost was offering "video phone" services to customers at some post offices in Berlin and other major cities like Leipzig.
The outbreak of the war in 1939 terminated both of these projects.
Anyone able to give us more information and details about the televising of the 1936 Olympics? | <urn:uuid:8d276b88-4eef-4659-99f0-068b273b00ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2011/08/75_years_since_first_televised.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95729 |
-> Click here to learn how to get live help <-
NAMEglShadeModel - select flat or smooth shading
C SPECIFICATIONvoid f3glShadeModelfP( GLenum fImodefP )
DESCRIPTIONGL primitives can have either flat or smooth shading. Smooth shading, the default, causes the computed colors of vertices to be interpolated as the primitive is rasterized, typically assigning different colors to each resulting pixel fragment. Flat shading selects the computed color of just one vertex and assigns it to all the pixel fragments generated by rasterizing a single primitive. In either case, the computed color of a vertex is the result of lighting if lighting is enabled, or it is the current color at the time the vertex was specified if lighting is disabled. Flat and smooth shading are indistinguishable for points. Starting when %f3glBeginfP is issued and counting vertices and primitives from 1, the GL gives each flat-shaded line segment $i$ the computed color of vertex $i ~+~ 1$, its second vertex. Counting similarly from 1, the GL gives each flat-shaded polygon the computed color of the vertex listed in the following table. This is the last vertex to specify the polygon in all cases except single polygons, where the first vertex specifies the flat-shaded color.
ERRORS%f3GL_INVALID_ENUMfP is generated if f2modefP is any value other than %f3GL_FLATfP or %f3GL_SMOOTHfP. %f3GL_INVALID_OPERATIONfP is generated if %f3glShadeModelfP is executed between the execution of %f3glBeginfP and the corresponding execution of %f3glEndfP.
ASSOCIATED GETS%f3glGetfP with argument %f3GL_SHADE_MODELfP
SEE ALSO%f3glBegin(3G)fP, %f3glColor(3G)fP, %f3glLight(3G)fP, %f3glLightModel(3G)fP | <urn:uuid:699fbfc0-fa28-41e3-9dc8-8033536dca5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glprogramming.com/funcref.php?func=glShadeModel&q=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.783229 |
GettyBy Sasha At Parenting.com
Kids, back away from the snack packs. The World Health Organization is recommending that parents of children between the ages of two and 15 keep an eye on their child's sodium intake each day. These new guidelines, the first ever issued by the organization for children, are a response to the growing epidemic of high blood pressure in the United States. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, the top cause of death worldwide.
Although the official report didn't mention specific sodium level for children, the recommended maximum level of less than 2,000 mg daily for adults, also new, "should be adjusted downward based on the energy requirements of children relative to those of adults," according to the report. The average American child consumes 3,400 mg of sodium each day, according to 2012 study in Pediatrics.
"Diet-related NCDs [non-communicable diseases] are chronic, and take years and decades to manifest; thus, delaying the onset of these diseases could improve lives and result in substantial cost savings," the report said. "Thus, addressing, during childhood, the problem of elevated blood pressure and other risk factors for NCDs that could manifest later in life is crucial to combat NCDs," it said.
The good news is you can retrain your family's palate over time to crave less salt. "If you gradually reduce the amount of salt in your diet, within a few weeks the foods you used to eat will actually taste too salty," says Stephen Daniels, M.D., chief pediatrician at the Children's Hospital in Denver.
Do you kids crave salt? Do you try to watch how much sodium they consume? Leave a comment below.
More from Parenting.com:Healthy Recipes for Kids | <urn:uuid:ca0aa889-482b-4086-8966-6bbee8107581> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/team-mom/much-salt-kids-eating-204700765.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963546 |
|This galaxy is having a bad millennium.
In fact, the past 100 million years haven't been so good,
and probably the next billion or so will be quite tumultuous.
Visible on the upper left, NGC 4038 used to be a normal spiral galaxy, minding its own business, until NGC 4039, toward its right,
crashed into it.
The evolving wreckage, known famously as
the Antennae, is pictured above.
restructures each galaxy, clouds of gas slam into each other,
bright blue knots of stars form, massive stars form and
and brown filaments of dust are strewn about.
will converge into one larger spiral galaxy.
Such collisions are not unusual, and even our own
Milky Way Galaxy
has undergone several in the past and is
predicted to collide
with our neighboring
Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years.
compose this image
were taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope by professional astronomers to
better understand galaxy collisions.
These frames -- and many other deep space images from
Hubble -- have since been
allowing an interested amateur to download and
them into this visually stunning composite.
Hubble Legacy Archive;
Danny Lee Russell | <urn:uuid:8c8a0922-3603-4bb8-bf7f-61bfdeb6f282> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_galleryimg&task=imageofday&imageId=1218&pageNo=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884067 |
In general terms, naturalism is a philosophy that recognizes no other reality aside from nature and the world perceived by the five senses. Naturalism, one of the most significant products of the 19th century atheistic atmosphere, influenced Darwin and drove him to offer an atheistic explanation for life. According to this way of thinking, nature itself was regarded as its own creator and arbiter. Concepts such as Mother Nature or clichés such as "Nature gave some people superior abilities; nature made humans what they are," are still widely employed today, but are the result of preconceptions imposed by naturalism.
Naturalists were great admirers of the perfection in the physical world, yet found it difficult to give a satisfactory answer to how this came into being. Since they adopted positivist dogma, and believed only in concepts whose existence could be established by means of experiment and observation, they fiercely rejected the fact that nature was created by Allah. In their view, nature created itself.
Darwin's theory served naturalist/materialist philosophy, or to be more accurate, the atheism that underlay it. It therefore received support and was imposed on society as if it were a major scientific truth. Otherwise, it would have been regarded as the speculation of an amateur biologist and quickly forgotten.2009-08-15 18:00:10 | <urn:uuid:8a1ba7ae-0847-45f4-83e7-5e06b25d1ffd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harunyahya.com/en/Evolution-Dictionary/16487/Naturalism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982646 |
April 28, 2001
This message is from a fish researcher who has done research on the Klamath
In this morning's Oregonian, there was another article on the
Klamath drought/irrigation/salmon situation. It was on page B4 of the paper
we get (supposedly the State edition).
In any event, near the end of the article was a strange statement that the irrigation water is needed for endangered suckers (don't know much about them) and "... would
jeopardize coho salmon which need sufficient water to spawn downstream".
Coho Salmon are tributary spawners not mainstem spawners.
Upper Klamath irrigation water can not give one inch of spawning water in lower Klamath river tributaries (Scott, Shasta, Salmon, etc.). It is a physical
Chinook Salmon are mainstem spawners in the Klamath and they
are once again in fine shape now that the ocean has reverted to a cool,
By the way, the ocean is the reason for the decline in Coho Salmon that precipitated the ESA situation although this is not what NMFS or the press or the environmentalists want you to believe. This is well
documented now including my own 1999 publication on the coastal Coho situation. | <urn:uuid:a37ea8e2-b006-4cfa-8c67-c83512f64a37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/cohospawners.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947005 |
Paul Drueke, Richard Drueke, Laura Gould, Marilyn Hamill, and Lynne Wilson contributed to this family history.
Index Germany Map Grand Rapids Map Kassel to Tiffin, 1834 Passport Notebook Two Regimental Bandleaders Census Descendants Home Page
John Adam Born in 1795
Kassel, 1795-1820. John Adam Schickell was born in July 1795 in Kassel, which is 32 miles east northeast of Frankfurt. At that time, Kassel was in the Main-Kreis region in the far northwest corner of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1866, as a result of the Treaty of Prague, Kassel became part of what is now the Kinzig-Main-Kreis region in the far south of Hesse. Kassel is small village and is now part of the town of Biebergemund.
In 1795, Karl Theodor reigned as Prince-Elector and Duke of Bavaria. Upon his death in 1799, Maximilian IV became Prince-Elector of Bavaria. In 1805, Bavaria became a kingdom, and Elector Maximilian IV became King Maximilian I. Upon Maximilian's death in 1825, his son became King Ludwig I.
John Adam was a music teacher.
Maria Eva Born in 1800
Kassel, 1800-1820. Maria Eva Schumm was born in 1800 in Kassel, which is 32 miles east northeast of Frankfurt. At that time, Kassel was in the Main-Kreis region in the far northwest corner of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1866, as a result of the Treaty of Prague, Kassel became part of what is now the Kinzig-Main-Kreis region in the far south of Hesse. Kassel is small village and is now part of the town of Biebergemund.
In 1800, Maximilian IV was Prince-Elector of Bavaria. In 1805, Bavaria became a kingdom, and Elector Maximilian IV became King Maximilian I. Upon Maximilian's death in 1825, his son became King Ludwig I.
John Adam and Maria Eva Marry in 1820, Have 10 Children
Kassel, 1820-1834. John Adam and Maria Eva made their home in Kassel. John Adam worked as a music teacher.
On December 14, 1820, John Adam and Maria Eva's first child, Veronica, was born.
On September 14, 1822, John Adam and Maria Eva's second child, Anna Appolonia was born, she but died after six months.
In 1824, John Adam and Maria Eva's third child, John Andonius was born, but he died after 14 months.
On May 15, 1826, John Adam and Maria Eva's fourth child, John Nepomuk, was born in 1826, but died sometime before 1834. Saint John Nepomuk is the patron saint of the church in Kassel.
On May 3, 1828, John Adam and Maria Eva's fifth child, Mary Augusta, was born.
On October 6, 1830, John Adam and Maria Eva's sixth child, Amalia, was born.
On January 17, 1833, John Adam and Maria Eva's seventh child, Peter Crescenz, was born.
John Adam obtained a passport dated August 8, 1834, that gave him and his family permission to emigrate from Bavaria to North America. It was issued by the Police of the Kingdom at the Royal Bavarian State Court at Orb, which is five miles northeast of Kassel. The pass describes John Adam as 5 foot 7, black hair, black beard, high forehead, pointed nose, rounded chin, long face. On the back was a visa issued August 13, 1834, by the Royal Bavarian Government of the County of the Lower Main at Wurzburg, which is 55 miles southeast of Kassel. The King of Bavaria was Ludwig I, who reigned from 1825 to 1848.
Tiffin, 1834-1853. In 1834, John Adam and Eva Maria and their family immigrated to America and settled in Tiffin, Ohio. The U.S. flag had 24 stars, the most recent one being for Missouri. The President was Andrew Jackson.
The Schickell family came to America on the sailing ship Johannes. There were six of them: John Adam, 39, and Mary Eva, 34, and their four children Veronica, 13, Maria Augusta 6, Amalia, 4, and Peter, 1. The family took their horse and wagon to Bremen, where the horse was sold. The wagon, with all their belongings, including musical instruments, was taken aboard ship. The voyage from Bremen to Baltimore lasted 62 days. They arrived in Baltimore on November 29, 1834
The German Maritime Museum has provided information about the ship as well as the picture shown here. The picture is a water color painted by Jacob Boettger in 1835, the year after the Schickell's voyage. The ship was a fully-rigged deep water sailing ship built in the Bosse ship yard No. 41 in Burg, Germany. The ship carried 135 tons. It was 90 feet long and 28 feet wide. It drew 16 feet. It was owned by Huhlenkampff Brothers, Bremen, and launched May 29, 1828. Its captain from 1831 to 1839 was Hermann Senkstake.
A fully-rigged ship has fore, main, and mizzen masts, each with four square sails. The lowest sails are called foresail, mainsail, and crossjack (the Johannes has a spanker instead of the square crossjack on its mizzenmast). The next row are called topsails. The next are called topgallant sails. The next are called royal sails. There are three jibs: staysail, inner jib, and outer jib.
The ship Johannes arrived in Baltimore on November 29, 1834, with 142 passengers. The Schickells stayed with a Jewish family in Baltimore that had emigrated a year earlier from Gelnhausen, about five miles west of Kassel. After 80 days in Baltimore, the Schickells set off for Tiffin in Seneca County, Ohio, via Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Canton, Ohio. They stayed in Pittsburgh 14 days.
They bought 40 acres of land about six miles outside Tiffin and leased another 40 acres. After a year and a half, they traded the land for a house in town belonging to a Doctor Kressbach. John Adam Schickell opened a music school here. Eventually, he was making $100 a month from the school.
St. Mary's Catholic Church had been founded in Tiffin in 1831. The church building was completed in 1833.
On April 13, 1835, John Adam and Maria Eva's eighth child, Maria Appolonia, was born.
In 1837, John Adam and Maria Eva's ninth child, Francis Xavier, was born in Tiffin but died shortly thereafter.
On September 23, 1839, John Adam and Maria Eva's tenth child, Joseph, was born.
According to an 1886 history of Seneca County (page 507),
a music school was opened at Tiffin by J. A. Schickell November 6, 1840. Since that year the teaching of music has become a part and parcel of a firstclass education, and the citizens leave nothing undone to foster the music teachers' enterprise.
In 1841, a spur of The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad reached Tiffin from Sandusky, a city in northern Ohio on Lake Erie.
From January to June in 1842, Charles Dickens took a tour of the United States as far west as St. Louis, including a two-hour stopover in Tiffin on the way back. He was only 30 years old but already a highly successful author. He brought his wife Kate, her maid, and his Bostonian secretary George W. Putnam. On April 23, on their way back from St. Louis, the party stopped for lunch in Tiffin. That day they were headed north from Upper Sandusky to Sandusky on Lake Erie, a distance of about 60 miles. Before lunch, they traveled the 22 miles from Upper Sandudky to Tiffin by private stage coach. They arrrived in Tiffin at noon for lunch at a hotel. After they dined, they were driven triumphantly all about town on the way to the railroad station. At 2:00 p.m., they boarded a train on the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad and traveled the 37 miles from Tiffin to Sandusky. They arrived in Sandusky that evening and the next morning left on a steamboat for Buffalo. They arrived at Buffalo the following morning and took a train to Niagara Falls.
Our stage-coach ride across Ohio ended at Tiffin, a small town which we reached about noon, from whence was a railroad to Sandusky City on Lake Erie. The good landlord at Tiffin, finding who were his guests, did his best to please, and also to let the entire town know that "Dickens was at his hotel." And when we left the house for the depot he had a large kind of open wagon on springs, with seats very high, on which Mr. and Mrs. Dickens were perched. I think the driver was instructed to pass through all the principal streets of the place before he reached the railroad station, for we went at a slow pace and were a long time going; and the people awaited us in groups, as if by appointment, at the street-corners and at the windows and doors of the houses; and if the inhabitants of Tiffin, Ohio, did not on that occasion see “Boz” and his wife, it certainly was not the fault of that good landlord or of his carriage-driver.
The Seneca Sentinal of Wednesday, December 10, 1975, claims that Dickens had lunch at the Holt House on the southeast corner of Adams and Sandusky.
In September 1842, John Adam opened a German Inn at the Washington Hotel in Tiffin "to provide for the pleasure of the public by means of prompt and courteous service with the most select foods and drinks."
The 1880 History of Seneca County by William Lang mentions on page 419 John Adam Schickell's role in orgainizing a German society in Tiffin:
The "Deutsche Leseverein," that used to meet at Adam Schickel's, on East Market Street, was the pioneer German association in Tiffin, and continued for several years until religious discussions broke it up.
On May 5, 1846, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Augusta Maria Veronica, 25, married Lewis Martin in Tiffin. They were married by Rev. Joseph McNamee, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Tiffin from 1839 to 1847. Father M. Howard replaced Father McNamee late in the fall of 1847.
On September 11, 1847, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Mary Augusta, 19, married John Schmitt, 27, in Tiffin. Their first child, Mary Appolonia Schmitt, was born in Tiffin on August 10, 1849. She eventually went by the name Abbie Smith.
In 1851, the Schmitts moved from Tiffin to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their second child, Creszens Joseph Schmitt, was born in Grand Rapids on March 21, 1852. He eventually went by the name Cris J. Smith. Their third child, Rosa Wilhelmina Schmitt, was born in Grand Rapids on October 6, 1854.
On March 29, 1853, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Mary Amalia (Emily), 22, married Charles F. Boos, 23, a musician. According to the 1897 Souvenir Book for the 75th anniversary of Tiffin, Prof. C. F. Boos emigrated from Theningen, Germany, in 1849, where he had been a musician in an infantry regiment for five years. In the United States, he traveled for a year with Paul's theatrical troupe and then settled in Tiffin. He was a regimental band leader with the 55th Ohio Infantry in the Civil war. After the war, he returned to Tiffin and organized the Boos Silver Cornet Band, the name of which later was changed to the Boos Reed band. In 1887, the band was merged with the Harmonia Band and became known as the Will Boos Sixth Regiment band, being the Regimental Band of the Uniformed Knights of Pythias. Will Boos, son of Charles and Mary Amalia Schickell Boos, was the director of this band for three years. The K, of P. began during the Civil War, in the hope that it might do much to heal the wounds and allay the hatred of civil conflict. In 1897, Prof. C. F. Boos operated a musical instrument store which had been at 34 Market Street in Tiffin for the past 15 years.
Sometime between 1855 and 1857, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Veronica Martin and her family moved from Tiffin, Ohio, to Grand Rapids. Veronica's husband Lewis was a grocer and then a dry goods merchant in Grand Rapids.
On August 3, 1858, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Mary Appolonia, 21, married Francis Boxheimer, 29, at St. Mary's Church. In 1865, Francis became the owner of the Bridge Street House, a hotel on the east side of the Grand River at 131-33 East Bridge Street. It was on the north side of what is now Michigan Street, between what was then Kent (Bond) Avenue and Monroe Avenue.
John Adam and Maria Eva's sons, Peter and Joseph both served as a regimental band leaders in the Civil War.
On June 10, 1861, Joseph, 21, enlisted for three years in the U. S. Army at Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a 2nd Class Musician in the Michigan 3rd Infantry Regiment. Joseph was promoted to 1st Class Musician on September 1, 1961.
On July 17, 1862, Congress passed a law that ordered the mustering out of regimental bands. The bill was approved by the President and announced in the War Department's General Order 91 of July 29, 1862. Joseph was discharged at Harrison's Landing, on the James River, south of Richmond, Virginia, on August 13, 1862, having completed 14 months of service.
On September 7, 1861, Peter, 27, enlisted for three years in the U. S. Army at Cincinnati, Ohio, as a Musician in the Ohio 10th Infantry Regiment.
When Congress passed a law that ordered the mustering out of regimental bands, Peter was discharged as a 1st Class Musician at Nashville, Tennessee, on September 10, 1862, having completed 12 months of service.
On December 30, 1863, Joseph, 24, again enlisted in the U. S. Army as a Private in Company B of the 1st Michigan Regiment, Engineers and Mechanics. His occupation was given as carpenter. His physical description was grey eyes, brown hair, light complexion, and 5'5" tall.
On March 1, 1864, Joseph was placed on detail to regimental headquarters to play in the Band. On May 1, he was made leader of the Regimental Band. He was promoted to Artificer on November 1, 1964, and Sergeant on April 5, 1865.
Joseph was discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, on September 22, 1865, having completed 20 months of service.
In 1866, Bavaria, Hesse, and other German states sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia won the war. In the Treaty of Prague on August 23, 1866, Prussia acquired Hesse, and Hesse acquired three small border districts from Bavaria. One district was Orb, which included Kassel, the Schickells' home town.
In 1869, John Adam and Maria Eva's granddaughter Abbie (Mary Appolonia Schmitt, daughter of John and Mary Augusta Schickell Smith and sister of Cris J. Smith) died at home at age 20. Funeral services were held at at St. Mary’s Church.
In the 1870 census, Mary Augusta's son Cris Smith, 18, was listed as a photographer. In the 1872 Grand Rapids directory, at 20, he was listed a musician. In the 1873 and 1874 directories, he was listed as a clerk at the grocery store of his uncle Peter Schickell on Front Street. His uncle Peter also was a musician. In the 1875 directory, Cris again was listed as a musician. He continued to work as a musician for the rest of his career.
In 1872, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter, Mary Augusta Schickell Schmitt, married Frederick W. Cordes, and he moved into the house at 44 Gold. He was born in 1834, the son of Anton Cordes and Maria Platte. He had been a grocer, but was listed as a laborer in the 1873-75 directories. He was the brother of John and William Cordes, who were with Mary Augusta's husband John at the Mathenias Creek gold mine in El Dorado County in 1850. His wife Adelaide had died in 1869 at age 26. Mary Augusta and Frederick were divorced in 1876. Frederick died in 1891 and was buried with his first wife Adelaide at St. Andrew's Cemetery.
On August 11, 1875, John Adam and Maria Eva's daughter Veronica Schickell Martin died at age 54.
John Adam Widowed at age 83
John Adam was widowed upon the death of his wife Maria Eva in 1878. They had been married for 58 years.
Grandson Louis F. Boos won the first prize at the Michigan State Band Tournaments of 1878 and 1879.
The Schickells were living with their son Peter at 29 West Broadway Street ( 429 Broadway Avenue NW after 1912). This is where Peter and his family were living in the 1879 and 1880 directories and the 1880 census.
Maria Eva Dies in 1878 at Age 78
Maria Eva Schumm Schickell died September 23, 1878. She was survived by her husband John Adam, her son Peter Schickell and her daughters Mary Augusta Schickell Schmitt and Mary Appolonia Schickell Boxheimer. She was buried at St. Andrew's Cemetery.
John Adam Dies in 1879 at Age 83
John Adam Schickel died on May 10, 1879. He was 83. He was survived by his son Peter Schickell and his daughters Mary Augusta Schickell Schmitt and Mary Appolonia Schickell Boxheimer. He was buried next to his wife Eva in St. Andrew's Cemetery.
Daily Democrat, May 11, 1879
Daily Eagle, May 12, 1879
John Adam and Maria Eva: 10 children, 26 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren
Index Germany Map Grand Rapids Map Kassel to Tiffin, 1834 Passport Notebook Two Regimental Bandleaders Census Top Home Page | <urn:uuid:679a8c89-d211-4dd1-91f8-9cc46773b0be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peterspioneers.com/JAMESS.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981627 |
It was and still is difficult to do fine stitching in poor light. Before modern lighting was available most quilting was done in the daylight, outside if possible. A good deal of quilting was done in the summer due to longer daylight hours. Farm women may have been too busy to quilt during planting and harvest time but they quilted when they could find the time in the lighter months. Sometimes the quilting frame was brought outdoors in good weather so the quilters could enjoy the good light.
More likely women worked on things like mending and knitting when the light was too poor to do careful hand stitching. Yet the quilting by the fireside myth persists along with the myth of Colonial quilting.
Hand Quilting History: Gathering Around the Frame
Learn more about the kinds of quilting frames used in the past. | <urn:uuid:d36fa9cd-aa62-4a7c-993d-8eccf51f3212> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womenfolk.com/historyofquilts/myth7.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983473 |
Scientists have devised a stealthy and low-cost way to track the internet protocol addresses of tens of thousands of Skype users, and link the information to their online activities such as the sharing of specific files over BitTorrent. The method, which is laid out in a recently published academic paper, works even when Skype …
What's the betting that
a few spooks read that paper and thought: oh bother, looks like we'll have to start using technique B soon if they've spotted that one...
Bye bye Skype
Just removed Skype from all machines in the house until they can prove its safe to use again
Why not just remove all software from all machines until it's proven safe to use, it's the only way to be sure...
> By examining the headers of the data that was returned, they had no trouble determining the person's IP address. Because the scientists prevented a TCP, or transmission control protocol, connection from being fully established
Unless the skype application uses raw socket operations and its own TCP stack (highly unlikely) then the header information they are getting back is from the underlying OS and not from the skype application.
Until a TCP connection is fully established, the only information an application can pass on is whether or not it is LISTENING to a socket. All the negotiation in setting up the socket is handled by the OS.
You can learn some information about the OS by sending malformed TCP packets (eg. have the SYN and RST flags set at the same time). It's response to malformed packets can indicate the underlying OS and perhaps even its patch level.
In a peer to peer network each peer knows the other peers IP address.
In other news water is wet.
The government are going to *love* this...
making funny jokes about MS and security.
It is interesting to see if (when) various services (skype, gmail, facebook, twitter, ...) able to map an IP to the real-identity of a user start to sell this info to each other and 3rd parties.
Just how many more "this would never have happened if we had had the Source Code" moments is it going to take to convince people how bad an idea it is to run software unless its Source Code is available for inspection?
If the vendors had nothing to hide in their code, they would have nothing to fear from showing us all.
There should be a law obliging vendors to release source code if they want to do business in the UK, and tough titty if it harms their business model.
Continues to leave home WIFI access open for the good of the community
...home WIFI access open for the good of the community...
...and also for plausible deniability?
What if you add encryption into the mix?
I sincerely doubt you're going to be able to track what I or someone else is downloading off BitTorrent from a packet sample.
In fact, I'd say it's impossible. You might be able to say "Well, this person (who doesn't use their real name in Skype - who'd be that dumb?) is downloading an encrypted file via BitTorrent, and the file is unknown."
Congratulations, you now know half as much as an ISP.
I guess the real 'problem' here then, is that Skype tries to use direct connection for its communicatoin instead of routing all calls through a CDN (and that would have to be one hell of a CDN to handle that data.)
So the attack goes:
Attacker: "Skype server, where can I contact x for a call?"
Server: "Here: IP"
Attacker: "HAHAHAHAHA I PWNED YOU WITH TCP/IP!"
The whole point of an IP address is that people know what it is, it would kinda break the Internet Tubes if no one knew each others IP.
PS Dear El Reg, I know you track the IP of my comments - can you please stop invading my personal spaces with your Interweb Servers. Kthxbai.
PPS: Actual 'attack' I've used once.
Someone is pingflooding me through MSN (it was a while ago).
One blank, large, jpeg named 'britneyspears.jpg' was created and sent to them.
Stupid kid accepted the file.
One quick netstat later to find his host name (which was someone's name at AOL) and a message "If I call this lady here: [Name] and tell her what you are doing with her internet connection.....what will she say?" and stupid kid vanishes into the air, assumedly to cry.
This is not new news.
OMG SKYPE LEEKS MAH NAME
"In the case of Skype, even if the targeted user is behind a NAT, the attacker can determine the user's public IP address."
I'm stunned? Yes Stunned. that one can determine a PUBLIC ip address.
"Even when one of the IP addresses was shared among many users on a single network, the method was able to single link a unique Skype user to a specific download by, among other things, collecting identifiers known as infohashes from BitTorrent networks"
rhhhm TCP sequence number issues again anyone?
Done daily in some security departments folks
«... Through research and development,
we will continue to make advances in this area and improvements to our software.» There, ducky ; don't you feel ever sooo much better now ?...
- Geek's Guide to Britain INSIDE GCHQ: Welcome to Cheltenham's cottage industry
- 'Catastrophic failure' of 3D-printed gun in Oz Police test
- Game Theory Is the next-gen console war already One?
- BBC suspends CTO after it wastes £100m on doomed IT system
- Peak Facebook: British users lose their Liking for Zuck's ad empire | <urn:uuid:ea7d75bd-c7b2-49c6-9559-501690c8b0ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/10/21/skype_bittorrent_stalking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947717 |
Birth control, also known as contraception, is the use of physical barriers, timing, chemicals, or a combination of the three to prevent pregnancy. The vast majority of contraceptive methods are designed for use by women. No method except abstinence (not engaging in sexual intercourse) is guaranteed to be completely effective. Used according to directions, however, most modern birth control methods are safe and effective.
Pregnancy prevention methods have existed in some form through-out history. The methods employed have varied widely, with the religion, culture, and scientific sophistication of each society helping to determine the types of birth control used. In the twentieth century, birth control advocates such as Dr. Marie Stopes (1880-1958) in the United Kingdom and Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) in the United States fought prevailing religious and cultural taboos in order to provide information and supplies to anyone who wanted them.
Surgical Birth Control Procedures
Female tubal ligation ("tying the tubes") involves cutting the fallopian tubes (either one of two slender tubes that carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus), and burning, clipping, or banding the severed ends. Since fertilization of the egg takes place in the fallopian tubes, a tubal ligation prevents pregnancy from occurring. Tubal ligation can usually be performed as outpatient (short-term recovery) surgery and is sometimes performed as an immediate postpartum tubal ligation (in the period of time just after a woman has given birth).
Male vasectomy involves severing the vas deferens, the two tubes that transport sperm from the testes to the ejaculatory duct. Since semen thereafter contains no sperm, impregnation cannot occur. A vasectomy is also an outpatient procedure. Some questions have been raised about the procedure's long-term health effects, but the prevailing medical opinion is that vasectomy is unlikely to cause any health problems. Both tubal ligation and vasectomy can be reversed in some cases but generally are considered permanent.
Oral Contraceptives ("The Pill")
Birth control pills contain various amounts of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone that mimic the natural condition of pregnancy, when a woman normally cannot become pregnant. The first contraceptive pill was developed in Massachusetts by endocrinologist Gregory Pincus (1903-1967), biologist Min-Chueh Chang (1908-), and physician John Rock (1890-1984). The pill contained progestin, a synthetic progesterone developed in Mexico by American chemist Carl Djerassi (1923-). In 1960 it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and first became available by prescription under the name Enovid (produced by G.D. Searle & Company.)
Though questions have arisen about their long-term safety and possible links to certain forms of cancer, oral contraceptives are considered appropriate for many women when used under medical supervision. They are the most popular form of contraception and are used by 28 percent of women of childbearing age. Also contributing to their popularity is their high rate of effectiveness.
Long-Lasting Hormonal Contraceptives
Norplant, produced by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, is a device containing a form of progesterone in six tubes the size of matchsticks. These tubes are surgically implanted under the skin. The tubes prevent pregnancy by gradually releasing progesterone over five years. Norplant was approved by the FDA in 1990, though questions have been raised about possible links to cancer, as well as concern about certain side effects, including weight gain, depression, and headaches.
Depo-Provera, produced by the Upjohn Company, is a synthetic form of progesterone that is used in almost 100 countries. One injection works for three months. FDA approval was withheld in the 1970s because of possible links to cancer and osteoporosis. In 1992 the FDA once again began the process of approving Depo-Provera.
Intrauterine Device (IUD)
An intrauterine device (IUD) is placed within the uterus for long-term prevention of pregnancy. It is not known precisely how an IUD prevents conception, but it is believed to produce uterine irritation, causing an inflammatory (fiery, severe) tissue reaction that is toxic (poisonous) to sperm and blastocyst (embryonic tissue).
Modern IUDs date back approximately 100 years. Today's devices, made of plastic, copper, or steel, are formed into loops, coils, and T-shapes. An IUD must be inserted and removed by a physician. Some IUDs have been associated with conditions like perforation (puncture) of the uterus, pelvic inflammatory disease, and even death. A. H. Robins' Dalkon Shield, an IUD design no longer manufactured, is notorious for its high complication rate. At least 20 deaths and thousands of internal injuries have been blamed on its use.
The most successful IUD is the plastic Lippes loop, developed in the 1960s by Dr. Jack Lippes (1924-). The device is straightened and placed in a tube for vaginal insertion into the uterus, where it resumes its loop shape when the tube is removed. Threads attached to the IUD extend into the vagina, so the user can check that the IUD is still in place and has not been expelled. Most contemporary IUDs are variations of the Lippes loop, containing either copper or progesterone.
A condom is a latex rubber or lambskin sheath (covering) placed over the erect penis to trap the semen (the fluid containing the sperm) ejaculated (discharged) during sexual intercourse. The condom also helps prevent the spread of venereal disease (sexually transmitted disease, or STD). The condom is the only method of birth control that also decreases the transmission of such diseases as hepatitis, AIDS, and papilloma virus, which is responsible for cervical cancer (cancer of the cervix, the narrow end of the uterus). The practice of using condoms during intercourse dates back to at least the sixteenth century. A condom can be used with or without spermicidal foams or gels.
Developed in Germany in the late nineteenth century, the diaphragm is a flexible rubber barrier that a woman inserts into the vagina before inter-course. The diaphragm covers the cervix (the narrow end of the uterus that leads into the vagina) to prevent sperm from entering the uterus. The diaphragm is an effective means of birth control when used in combination with a spermicide. Diaphragms come in different sizes, and a woman must be fitted by a birth control expert to get a prescription for the correct size.
Beginning in the 1970s spermicides, chemicals such as nonoxynol-9 that kill sperm, became available in suppositories, foams, creams, jellies, and sponges. Inserted into the vagina before sexual intercourse takes place, spermicides may be used alone or may be combined with condoms and diaphragms for greater effectiveness.
For the first time in over 100 years, there is news to report in the field of male contraceptives. Two studies have been using the hormone testosterone to suppress (lower) sperm production. An injectable form of the hormone is featured in World Health Organization (WHO) research, and an oral form is being used by the University of Washington (Seattle) in association with researchers in Bologna, Italy.
Both groups succeeded in lowering sperm production enough to qualify for the WHO's definition of infertility. The WHO study, conducted over two years with men in four continents around the world, showed the injections to be 98.6 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, which is similar to the effectiveness of birth control pills. Sperm counts for the men in both studies returned to normal after the hormones were stopped, proving that the treatment is reversible (the men could later father children).
These studies are exciting because they prove that it is possible to create an effective male contraceptive. The University of Washington study also proves that oral hormones can suppress sperm counts, which was not thought to be possible (researchers believed a concentrated pill form would be toxic). But researchers still predict a long wait—maybe even 50 years—before the male pill will be available.
Preventing pregnancy using the rhythm method requires a woman to carefully track her monthly cycle, so she can avoid engaging in intercourse near the time of ovulation. The rhythm method is the only method of birth control accepted by the Roman Catholic church. The temperature method (developed in 1947) involves monitoring body temperature variations during the monthly cycle. Temperature falls below normal in the weeks before ovulation, drops further during ovulation, and then rises above normal until menstruation. Monitoring variations in the quality and quantity of vaginal secretions can also help pinpoint the ovulation time. The calendar method assumes that ovulation consistently occurs on the fifteenth day of the monthly cycle, and is subsequently highly ineffective. | <urn:uuid:11053c2b-7caf-4a2f-9316-afe6e112b2cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/Bar-Cod/Birth-Control.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944096 |
After the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was passed that protected vaccine manufacturers against lawsuits, the number of vaccines for infants has been dramatically expanded:
In contrast, many of the vaccines on the USA schedule are not included on the vaccine schedules for other developed countries. A 2009 Special Report “Autism and Vaccines Around the World: Vaccine Schedules, Autism Rates, and Under 5 Mortality” demonstrates that most developed countries do not include the varicella (chicken pox), rotavirus, pneumococcal, influenza, or hepatitis A vaccines on their schedules. A slight majority of countries administer the hepatitis B vaccine to infants, but many of those countries (such as the UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, and Japan ) and several Canadian provinces routinely screen pregnant women for hepatitis B and only administer the hepatitis B vaccine to the infant if the mother tests positive for hepatitis B. The report points out that the USA has a higher vaccination rate and a higher mortality rate for children under the age of 5, and raises this important question:
The United States has the highest number of mandated vaccines for children under 5 in the world (36, double the Western world average of 18), the highest autism rate in the world (1 in 150 children, 10 times or more the rate of some other Western countries), but only places 34th in the world for its children under 5 mortality rate. What’s going on?
WHO (2009). Progress towards global immunization goals. Geneva: WHO.
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Global progress toward universal childhood hepatitis B vaccination, 2003. MMWR 2003;52:868-70. | <urn:uuid:41c8a1e7-aba1-4ce3-8208-26e29d6884d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smartvax.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896643 |
Pub. date: 2004 | Online Pub. Date: September 15, 2007 | DOI: 10.4135/9781412952576 | Print ISBN: 9780761923602 | Online ISBN: 9781412952576| Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.About this encyclopedia
Ecosocial theory is an emerging multilevel theory of disease distribution that seeks to integrate social and biologic reasoning, along with a dynamic, historical, and ecological perspective, to address population distributions of disease and social inequalities in health. Guided by the question, Who and what drives current and changing patterns of social inequalities in health?, its central focus is on how people literally embody—biologically—social conditions, thereby generating inequitable population distributions of health. Distinguishing features of ecosocial theory include its emphasis on (a) the importance of explicit theoretical frameworks for epidemiological and other public health research and (b) the accountability of public health scientists and practitioners for the frameworks, questions, and data they do—or do not—employ in their daily work. From an ecosocial perspective, theory is essential to epidemiological and other public research and practice for three reasons (Krieger, 2001a). First, as in any science, theory is what helps us structure our ... | <urn:uuid:0ac304d5-faf2-413a-8b86-3ae5b6ad1f53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knowledge.sagepub.com/abstract/behavior/n87.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892798 |
Water: Water Quality Trading
Water Quality Trading - Water Quality Trading Toolkit for Permit Writers
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What is water quality trading?
Water quality trading is a voluntary option that regulated point sources can use to meet their NPDES permit limits. Trading can accelerate water quality improvement and reduce compliance costs. Through water quality trading, facilities that face higher pollutant control costs to meet their regulatory obligations can purchase pollutant reduction credits from other sources that can generate these reductions at lower cost, thus achieving the same or better overall water quality improvement. In most cases, trading takes place on a watershed level under a pollutant cap (the total pollutant load that can be assimilated by a waterbody without exceeding water quality standards) developed through the Total Maximum Daily Load process or a similar type of water quality analysis that produces information on pollutant loadings and resulting water quality conditions. Water quality trading is focused on nitrogen and phosphorus though other pollutants may be considered for trading on a case-by-case basis.
2. What is the purpose of the Water Quality Trading Toolkit for Permit Writers?
The Water Quality Trading Toolkit for Permit Writers provides National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting authorities with the tools they need to incorporate trading provisions into permits. The Toolkit also serves as the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first “how-to” manual on designing and implementing trading programs consistent with EPA’s 2003 National Water Quality Trading Policy and will be valuable to all stakeholders. The Toolkit will aid in improving the quality of and providing national consistency among trading programs.
3. What is covered by the Toolkit?
The Toolkit discusses in detail the fundamental concepts of designing and implementing trading programs, which include the relevant geographic scope, effluent limitations, and other factors involved in defining a credit. The Toolkit also includes five basic trading scenarios that walk the permit writers through the components of a permit where trading provisions can be incorporated. The scenarios feature hypothetical examples and sample permit language. Real-world examples are presented throughout the Toolkit and detailed case studies of existing trading programs are featured in the appendices.
4. Why is EPA issuing the Toolkit?
EPA is issuing this Toolkit to support implementation of water quality trading. In January 2003, EPA released its National Water Quality Trading Policy, which laid out a framework for trading under the Clean Water Act. EPA followed the Trading Policy with the 2004 Water Quality Trading Assessment Handbook, which provides guidance on how to determine whether trading is environmentally viable and financially attractive in a watershed. The Water Quality Trading Toolkit for Permit Writers builds upon these two documents and provides more detail regarding design and implementation issues.
5. Who is affected by the Toolkit?
Trading is a voluntary program and therefore only those entities interested in designing and implementing trading programs are affected. These entities may include NPDES permit writers and permitting authorities, regulated point sources, the agricultural community and other nonpoint sources, and other watershed stakeholders.
6. How can I obtain more information?
The Toolkit is a web-based document and is accessible through the following link: http://www.epa.gov/waterqualitytrading/WQTToolkit.html
For general information about water quality trading visit EPA’s water quality trading website at: http://www.epa.gov/waterqualitytrading. For more on trading in your region, contact your EPA regional trading coordinator. Contact information is available on the web at: http://www.epa.gov/waterqualitytrading/contacts.html. | <urn:uuid:650a8aab-add3-412b-8979-645266c5bffe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/trading/WQT_qna.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894134 |
HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer and provides a quick and simple way to change pinouts in software and perform basic (and not so basic) "glue logic" functions in RealTime. HAL was designed for the engineer performing basic machine calibration and the system integrator connecting various inputs and outputs such as switches, encoders, servos, and safety checks.
Begin by reading the "Hal for Integrators" document at http://www.linuxcnc.org/docs/HAL_User_Manual.pdf
There is also a configuration assistant that you can start with. It's name is halconfig.tcl and it can be run by issuing the command
tcl/bin/halconfig.tclfrom your emc2 directory, or by selecting "halconfig" from the menu in your graphical interface, for example AXIS.
Read more about halconfig if you like.
Then proceed to more advanced topics such as: | <urn:uuid:734229e4-7cf8-4165-b50c-490877c161c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?HAL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90805 |
Dear B.Y.: Its really critical for African Americans to be involved in clinical trials if were going to solve problems that affect us disproportionately. But its also critical that those clinical trials involve people from our communities, that we have a measure of control over those trials as opposed to depending upon other people. We live in a country where you cant always trust the people in charge. Its unfortunate, but its true. In the past such studies were rarely open to minority participation.
There are certain diseases or cultural implications that make it important for us to be involved in trials. Take something like hypertension, which disproportionately affects us. The same drugs that may be effective in one group may not be effective in another. We have differences, in terms of how we break down a drug, how long the drug stays in the system and things like that.
If you dont have a representative number of African Americans in a clinical trial, you actually dont know how the results apply to African Americans. Drug manufacturers are coming out with new drugs -- better drugs with fewer side effects -- and its important that those drugs be appropriately tested in a representative population. That means a representative number of African Americans, as well as Whites, Hispanics, Asians and others. And yes, people are actually paid when they volunteer for studies on everything from diabetes to skin cancer.
According to the National Medical Association, there are certain questions you should consider about participating in research. Does the study have an intervention? Do you receive a drug or treatment or surgery? If so, the informed consent form they give you will tell you what the odds are. Will you be given the new treatment versus the placebo or older treatment; how will you be assigned to the treatment or non-treatment group.
What is the compensation? If you elect to participate, select an agency known for producing certifiable culturally sensitive results. Disclose any herbal or nutritional supplements you are taking. Notify your personal doctor so he or she can know what treatment you are getting. For more information on clinical trials visit http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/.
|< Prev||Next >| | <urn:uuid:ac4e6b92-aaed-4da9-8ec6-a4c0831b3acf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blackvoicenews.com/columnists/health-with-dr-levister/35602-clinical-trials-should-i-participate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955803 |
Definition of Medical school
Medical school: A school with a curriculum leading to a medical degree. The mission of every medical school includes medical teaching, research, and patient care. All medical schools share the goal of preparing students in the art and science of medicine, and providing them with the background necessary to enter the period of graduate medical education. The years of medical school preceding graduate medical education are typically divided into a preclinical phase and a clinical phase.
Although medical students have clinical experiences throughout medical school, the first two years are often called the "preclinical" phase. The preclinical phase typically occupies the first two years after matriculation. The normal structure and function of human systems are taught through gross and microscopic anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, behavioral science, and neuroscience. The educational focus then shifts to abnormalities of the body's structure and function, disease, and general therapeutic principles through courses in microbiology, immunology, pharmacology, and pathology.
Throughout the first two years, the clinical significance of basic science material is stressed. The preclinical phase always includes a course introducing students to the concepts of physical examination and interviewing. Students often interview "standardized patients" (people with actual physical findings or people trained to simulate particular cases or findings) in their introduction to clinical medicine courses.
Lectures now account for less than half of the scheduled contact time at the majority of medical schools. Small-group discussion, self-instruction, laboratories, case studies and other educational experiences make up the remainder of the scheduled time. The use of computer technology and computer-assisted instruction in the preclinical phase of medical student education have also introduced new approaches to the delivery and acquisition of the sciences basic to medicine.
Most schools include small-group tutorial/discussion sessions organized around patient cases that emphasize problem solving. This approach requires students to take responsibility for obtaining information themselves and encourages students to become active learners. It also prepares them for continuous learning throughout their professional lives.
The clinical phase of the curriculum usually occurs during the last two years of medical school and is devoted to education in the clinical setting. The periods of instruction are called clerkships, and may range in length from approximately 4 to 12 weeks. During clerkships, students work with patients and their families in inpatient and outpatient settings.
Required "core" clerkships in all schools include internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, and family medicine. Depending on the school, required clerkships can also include family medicine, primary care, neurology, and community or rural medicine.
While in a hospital setting or a hospital clinic, students work under the supervision of physician faculty members (known as "attending physicians") and residents, and work with other members of the health care team. Students frequently do "preceptorships" --that is, they are assigned to community physicians' offices to gain first hand knowledge about how a practice of medicine functions.
Whether in a hospital or community setting, students are responsible for "working-up" a number of patient cases during the clerkship, by collecting relevant data and information from patients, and presenting the data to fellow students, attending physicians, faculty members and residents. Students are assigned to a medical team, and participate in the ongoing clinical care of patients, and they gain skills in clinical decision-making and patient management.
Ideally, students follow their patients over time, either during hospitalizations, in their preceptorships, or through the course of outpatient treatment. Standardized patients (SPs) are used during the clinical years to supplement the kinds of diseases and conditions the students observe. SPs are also used for assessment of student knowledge, attitudes and skills. Other teaching methods in the clinical phase include "rounds" (discussion of inpatient cases), bedside teaching, case-based lectures and small group discussions.
All accredited medical schools in the US and Canada are represented by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). Further information about medical school in the US and Canada may be obtained from the AAMC.
Last Editorial Review: 6/14/2012
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Do you know what the proper serving size is for a bowl of cereal? Or a baked potato? Or a piece of steak? How about a cup of juice?
Many people tend to overestimate proper serving sizes when consuming food and beverages. Restaurant menus can also be misleading when it comes to serving sizes. For example, a “small” order of French fries at a restaurant may actually equal two or more serving sizes, in accordance with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines. As a result, people tend to consume more calories, carbs, fat, and other nutrients than they realize, or then they need.
There is much confusion over the terms serving sizes and portion sizes. What is the difference?
- Serving – the amount of food recommended by the USDA
- Portion – the amount of a food you choose to eat at any one time, which may be more or less than a serving
To determine how good you are at determining proper portion sizes, try this experiment at home: without using a measuring cup, pour what you think is one cup of dry cereal into a bowl, or one cup of milk into a glass. Now check the actual amounts with a measuring cup. How accurate were you?
Following are some tips for determining proper portion sizes:
- 1 cup = your fist or cupped hand
- 1 ounce of cheese = your thumb or a pair of dice
- 1 teaspoon = your thumb tip
- 3 ounces of meat or poultry = deck of cards or a cassette
- 3 ounces of fish = a checkbook
- ½ cup cooked rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes = ½ baseball or an ice cream scooper
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter = a ping pong ball
- 1 ounce peanuts = 1½ golf balls
Don’t forget that the amount of food you eat is just as important as what you eat! | <urn:uuid:387ec89c-b2ac-4b91-8844-fb04d9eebdf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefoodcop.com/do-you-misjudge-serving-sizes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937777 |
The Noyce Foundation has developed Inside Mathematics, a multimedia website to assist teachers, principals, and school district leadership who struggle to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students. Too often, teachers who excel at reaching students have few ways of sharing these strong practices with others – and teachers who struggle, struggle alone. Our classroom doors have remained closed too often and for too long.
Inside Mathematics opens those doors:
- to tested demonstration lessons presented to children and groups of observing teachers;
- to provide guided tours of reflective mathematics practice, identifying what makes teaching, learning, and improving instruction in mathematics a difficult enterprise and providing resources for teachers to improve their practice;
- to mathematics teaching and learning tools and resources to support classroom teachers', math coaches', and administrators' daily practices.
- and to a professional learning community in which you are invited to open your own classroom door and engage in conversation about your own mathematics teaching and learning.
This initiative grew out of the Noyce Foundation's Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative (SVMI) and the First in Mathematics Consortium (FiMC). SVMI and FiMC are based on high performance expectations, ongoing professional development, examining student work, and improved math instruction. The initiatives include a formative and summative performance assessment system, pedagogical content coaching, and leadership training and networks. Coaches learn strategies of re-engagement with students around mathematics assessments, and demonstration lessons on re-engagement are featured here. | <urn:uuid:b8461228-898e-4c21-a046-1281209b9a2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noycefdn.org/insideMathematics.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948537 |
Last year on World Pneumonia Day (12 November), the Egyptian Medical Students Association NGO launched the "Protect Your Child" campaign against pneumonia, aiming to expand awareness of the illness and vaccinate high-risk children.
Pneumonia is currently the biggest killer of children under five, taking more lives annually than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, according to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. In Egypt, this equates to around 4,000 infancy deaths to pneumonia every year.
Currently, pneumonia is not part of Egypt’s National Immunization Program, meaning infants do not require vaccination.
These statistics, combined with the fact that pneumonia is a relatively inexpensive disease to cure, led to the launch of the campaign, which seeks to raise awareness around Egypt, particularly in less affluent areas, and raise funds to provide free vaccinations to high-risk infants.
Initially the goal was to vaccinate 1,000 high-risk infants, but the initiative was such a success that within the first couple of months, it received donations of nearly LE11.5 million and a grant from Canada in recognition of its innovative agenda. The additional funds have allowed it to provide up to 30,000 vaccinations.
After initially campaigning in Cairo at Demerdash hospital to provide 10,000 vaccinations and give parents and young doctors information on how to diagnose symptoms, a team comprised of professors and doctors set out on their first national trip to Wadi al-Gedid Governorate in southwest Egypt, an area where infants are at high risk of catching the disease, yet lack the means to seek treatment.
Other areas to be visited in the future include the Hala’ib Triangle, Shalateen, Sinai and Siwa.
Due to Wadi al-Gedid governorate’s large size, several days were spent campaigning and promoting awareness in hospitals and villages. According to the group’s report, over 800 patients were treated, and 500 families were approached and made aware of the disease and its symptoms during the trip. However, when attempting to complete paperwork to provide hospitals with pneumonia vaccines, Protect Your Child was told that direct authorization from the Health Ministry was required first.
Upon returning to Cairo, a delegate was sent to the Health Ministry to seek approval for the initiative, and was reportedly denied by Dr. Amr Qandeel, head of the Preventative Health Department.
According to the record of the meeting, Qandeel stated that without national statistics on pneumonia, the ministry could not authorize Protect Your Child to distribute vaccines to hospitals. There are no official statistics on pneumonia-caused deaths in Egypt, and it is the ministry’s responsibility to collect them. Qandeel said it would take up to five years to complete this research.
Without official statistics on pneumonia deaths in Egypt, Qandeel said pneumonia vaccinations cannot be included in the National Immunization Program, regardless of WHO and UNICEF statistics. Qandeel stated that vaccinations could only be distributed for free at university hospitals.
This is a massive blow to the campaign, because infants who need to be vaccinated the most generally do not live near a university hospital. However, the remaining vaccinations purchased by Protect Your Child — approximately 20,000 — will go to waste unless provided to university hospitals, where they are less likely to be utilized.
According to Mohamed Zaazoue, project coordinator for Protect Your Child, Egyptian law allows the same families who cannot receive the pneumonia vaccination for free under the National Immunization Program to purchase it from their respective hospitals and clinics. However, they often don’t know they need it or have the funds to purchase it.
The Health Ministry was unwilling to provide Egypt Independent with a statement on the issue.
Zaazoue told Egypt Independent: “The Health Ministry is trying to cover its incompetence with regard to researching and producing local statistics for child pneumonia by denying the people the right to receive this vaccine for free, so that demand for the vaccine doesn’t increase, causing them to be embarrassed by their shortcomings.”
The initiative has yet to determine how they will proceed, though awareness campaigns, without vaccinations, are expected to continue. | <urn:uuid:434f9860-98f7-4785-ba43-5cb1a194bd0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.egyptindependent.com/print/654866 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962249 |
NTFS for Linux
Theres a fundamental barrier between fans of open-source software and the world of Microsoft Windows, and no, its not the $299 list price of Windows XP Professional. Its actually a very real communication problem based on differences between Windows and Linuxs file systemsthe structures that operating systems use to file away data on a computer. Think of the file system as a simple spreadsheet: It associates a filename with an index in a file allocation table. When you ask your computer to open a document, the OS checks this table to determine where on the hard drive it stored the file, down to the precise sector on your disk. Windows uses a file system called NTFS, todays Linux distributions primarily use ext3, and like two warring tribes, the two barely speak. Fortunately, theres a handy tool from Paragon Software Group called NTFS for Linux, which acts like an interpreter for these battling nations.
A Brief History of FAT Time
Since Windows 95, Microsoft systems have used the FAT32 file systemunsurprisingly, a roundabout acronym for 32-bit File Allocation Table. FAT evolved over the years from its origins in MS-DOS, and has been kept around mainly for its simplicity and elegance: The FAT system stores very little information about the contents of a file, and virtually all existing OSs can read it. But it has its limitations: Files cant grow past 4GB, and you cant format volumes greater than 32GB during Windows installation, though you can mount them and possibly even create them later. And because of limitations in the 16-bit ScanDisk utility from Windows 95 and 98, partitions over 128GB or so cant be read by the earlier OSsclearly, a nagging issue in todays computing world.
To address these issues, first with Windows NT and later with Win XP, Microsoft introduced NTFS, short for New Technology File System. (Pretty clever with those acronyms, eh?) NTFS is a richer system than FAT 32. It stores information about individual files, read/write permissions, creation dates, and more as metadata. This solved a number of problems, including the file-size issues, and created one big one: NTFS is a proprietary system, and Microsoft has never released any information about how it works. In other words, Windows XP takes FATs killer compatibility and throws it out the window.
Read the full story on PCMagazine.com: | <urn:uuid:bd52c174-53fd-4ba0-b226-a6701008e500> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/NTFS-for-Linux/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917742 |
|Scientific Name:||Botia rostrata|
|Species Authority:||Günther, 1868|
|Taxonomic Notes:||Botia rostrata which was earlier considered a junior synonym of B. almorhae has been treated valid by Ng (2007) thereby replacing the so far known B. almorhae from the Brahmaputra basin.|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Vulnerable A2cd ver 3.1|
|Reviewer/s:||Rema Devi, K.R., Arunachalam, M., Dahanukar, N., Vishwanath, W., Daniel, B.A. & Molur, S.|
Botia rostrata is widespread in the hillstreams across its range but faces threats such from destructive fishing practices and from the ornamental trade and habitat destruction due to sand and boulder mining. Population estimates in Arunachal Pradesh records a decline of more than 60% in five years (Tamang et al. 2007). Extrapolating this information for rest of the range areas where the threats are similar, it is inferred that the species may have undergone more than 30% decline in its entire population. It is therefore assessed as Vulnerable. If records from the Irrawaddy and Salween basins in southern China are confirmed (and found in Myanmar) , the species should most likley be assessed as Least Concern, unless there is supporting evidence of population declines in these areas as well.
|Range Description:||The species is recorded from the Brahmaputra basin in India (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, northern West Bengal, Nagaland, Tripura, and is likely to be present in other northeastern Indian states) and Bangladesh.
The species also recorded from the Salween and Irrawaddy basins in China (Ximeng and Yunnan; Froaese and Pauly 2010; Kottelat 1989; http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-rostrata), though these records require confirmation. If the Chinese records are confirmed it should be looked for in Bhutan, and in parts of the Salween and Irrawaddy in Myanmar.
Native:Bangladesh; China (Yunnan); India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Darjiling, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura)
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
|Population:||Population estimates of this species were carried out in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Catch frequency of Botia rostrata was 60% during 2004 (Tamang et al. 2007) but during 2009 it came down to 20% probably because it is a much sought after species firstly due to its good taste and secondly due to its ornamental value (S. Chaudhry pers. obs., 2010).|
|Habitat and Ecology:||
This species is reported to live in medium to fast current waters.
|Major Threat(s):||The main threats facing this species is sand and boulder mining which destroys its habitat. Other major threat is destructive fishing practices of electrocution and poisoning (Tamang et al. 2007)|
|Conservation Actions:||Impact of threats on the species distribution and population requires detailed studies.|
|Citation:||Chaudhry, S. 2010. Botia rostrata. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 May 2013.|
|Feedback:||If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please fill in the feedback form so that we can correct or extend the information provided| | <urn:uuid:8e4eaed8-46ee-4d04-874f-817cb5afc60b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/summary/166399/0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.850855 |
The US Army Corps of Engineers started the project by building a 2.7 mile long canal just to the south of the Illinois River to bypass the rapids. A dam was built across the river at the upstream end of the canal. The locks were were built here at the downstream end of the canal. This allowed the dam to keep the water high in the canal, and the canal to bypass the rapids.
The lock at this location is the same size as the other four locks on the Illinois River, the 110 foot wide by 600 foot long Panama Canal standard size lock. While the Panama Canal locks were big when built, today, they are small compared with the size of barge tow that often uses the river. In fact, many tows have to be broken up into two pieces to lock through, and then are reassembled after the second piece exists the lock. This takes time and dramatically reduces the traffic level that the lock can maintain.
The Marseilles Lock can be accessed from the Illini State Park on the south side of the river, and then following the park service road to the west. There is a parking area and observation plaza for the public to watch the lock in operation. A large iron fence has been erected, but the bars are far enough apart to slide your camera between the bars and take photos. | <urn:uuid:dc2036a7-127b-45b1-8294-fe9be5a21a19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.johnweeks.com/river_illinois/pages/illLL4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971943 |
Digital Archaeology Amphitheatre at Portus, by the Portus Project, U of Southampton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/portusproject/6146823202/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Archaeology with, through, and by, computation
- a very brief & non-exhaustive introduction!
Shawn Graham, Carleton University @electricarchaeo Great Temple, Petra, Brown University Digital Archaeology is Public Archaeology Digital Archaeology is about representation Digital Archaeology creates new ways of knowing Digital Archaeology
is about communication,
tools, and new abilities to
ask the previously impossible
questions. dig·i·tal (dj-tl)
a. Relating to, or resembling a digit, especially a finger.
b. Operated or done with the fingers: a digital switch.
c. Having digits.
2. Expressed in discrete numerical form, especially for use by a computer or other electronic device: digital information.
a. Relating to or being a device that can generate, record, process, receive, transmit, or display information that is represented in discrete numerical form.
b. Relating to or being a service that provides information expressed in discrete numerical form: We subscribe to digital cable.
4. Relating to or being a profession or activity that is performed using digital devices: a digital librarian; digital photography.
5. Using or giving a reading in digits: a digital clock.
6. Characterized by widespread use of computers: living in the digital age.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/digital Archaeology explores the material
conditions of humanity and humanistic
endeavors. 'Digital' implies the ability
to manipulate with one's hands,
to count, to measure and to represent.
Image of haptic interface for archaeology: http://graphics.cs.brown.edu/research/sciviz/archaeology/archave/archave.html Roman Baths on the North Slope of Vesuvius - the 3d model, by Apolline Project Day of Archaeology, Richardson et al.
http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/ http://electricarchaeologist.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/signal-versus-noise-why-academic-blogging-matters-a-structural-argument-saa-2011/ http://heritage.crowdmap.com LIghthouse at
Portus, U of Southampton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/portusproject/6146274383/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Adam Rabinovitz
on digitizing an
Virtual Excavation on
the Carleton Virtual Campus http://screencast.com/t/92Xv9KAcXeZ Janssen, Understanding Artificial Anasazi
Graham & Steiner
New forms of sharing & discovery:
Data as publication and new publishing models
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1r6137tb# Digital media represent more and more of our world as bits. We offload our cognition to our devices. Soon, we will need an archaeology of the devices, software, and programs themselves.
....but that's a topic for another day. Kay, S. & Witcher, R.E. 2005. The Tiber Valley Project: The Role of GIS and Databases in Field Survey Data Integration and Analysis. Archeologia e Calcolatori 16: 113-127
http://j.mp/AjG7V1See the full transcript | <urn:uuid:488c39c1-f1d8-4104-946c-45fb9474c60f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prezi.com/aedzh6hua7ka/an-introduction-to-digital-archaeology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.746954 |
Garrett James Hardin (Dallas 1915—Santa Barbara 2003)
In the world fond of simple associations, Garrett Hardin will be remembered above all as the man who made millions familiar with a concept known as "the tragedy of the commons." He wrote an article with that title for Science in 1968, when the first wave of environmental consciousness was swelling. That short essay became one of the most famous (and among the most cited and reprinted) pieces of ecological or, as Hardin would have preferred, "bioethical" writing.
Contrary to the usual perception, this concept was not Hardin's invention. Such grand generalizations almost always have important precedents. Hence it is doubtful that even Aristotle, who pointed out long ago that "what is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it," was the first to reach this conclusion. Hardin does, however, deserve credit for recognizing the magnitude and the inevitability of this tragedy: It's not a deviancy or madness but rather perfectly rational behavior that leads to the long-term ruin of the commons, a word that evokes communal agricultural lands but also applies to ecosystems, rivers, oceans, organisms or mineral resources. That is, actions that benefit the individual (meaning single persons, households, villages, companies or nations) in the short term often end up hurting the collective.
Hardin's greatest service was presenting this notion in the form of a captivating parable about an overgrazed pasture and expressing it in precise, resonant language that left no room for appealing the initial verdict. He wrote: "Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons." (Today's editors would, of course, have tried to force Hardin to change "men" to "people" or some other politically correct choice—probably to no avail.) He realized that this ruinous dynamic operates in any number of cases involving environmental pollution and the degradation of ecosystems. These instances include three of the leading concerns of our generation: extensive and drastic commercial overfishing of the oceans, continuing deforestation of the humid tropics and rising emissions of greenhouse gases, which may cause serious global warming during the latter half of this century.
» Post Comment | <urn:uuid:2fae8f27-8afd-46c9-95e8-1cba29011b21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/garrett-james-hardin-dallas-1915-santa-barbara-2003/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951309 |
The Saarland possessed little unity before the 20th cent. Until the late 18th cent. it was divided among France (which held the city Saarlouis and the adjacent territory), the county of Saarbrücken (a dependency of Nassau), and the palatine duchy of Zweibrücken. In 1797 it was ceded to France by the Treaty of Campo Formio. The Treaty of Paris of 1815 divided the territory between Bavaria (i.e., the Bavarian or Rhenish Palatinate) and Prussia. Industrial development in the area occurred after 1871, when Alsace-Lorraine became a part of the German empire. With Lorraine's iron ore deposits, the Saarland was able to take advantage of its extensive coal fields.
The Saar Territory came into existence as a political unit when the Treaty of Versailles (1919) made it an autonomous territory, administered by France under League of Nations supervision, pending a plebiscite to be held in 1935 to determine its final status. France also received the right to exploit its coal fields until that time. When more than 90% of the votes cast in the plebiscite favored its reunion with Germany, the Saar was restored (Mar., 1935) to German control and constituted the Saarland prov.
During World War II, Hitler incorporated it (1940) with Lorraine (annexed from France) into the province of Westmark. The scene of heavy fighting at the close of the war (1944–45), the Saarland was placed under French military occupation in 1945 and in 1947 was given an autonomous government. In a referendum (1947) the population voted for economic union with France, and in 1948 a customs union went into effect. Strong West German claims to the Saar, however, were a serious cause of friction in postwar Franco-German relations.
An agreement between France and West Germany in 1954 (see Paris Pacts) provided for an autonomous Saar under a neutral commissioner to be named by the Western European Union; the economic union with France was to be maintained for 50 years. However, the agreement was rejected (Oct., 1955) by the Saarlanders in a popular referendum, and, in accordance with subsequent Franco-German agreements (1956), the Saar Territory became (Jan. 1, 1957) a state (as Saarland) of the Federal Republic of Germany. The agreements permitted France to extract coal from the Warndt deposit until 1981, but the customs union with France was dissolved in July, 1959, whereupon the Saarland became economically integrated with West Germany (now Germany). | <urn:uuid:a4883027-7ac5-4655-8d9a-971367fe7d11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/world/saarland-history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967864 |
Aims and Objectives
The department supports the aims of the school, in particular:
- to pursue academic excellence
- to create an excitement and curiosity about the past, and an interest in learning about it for its own sake.
- to develop a sense of chronology
- to use and develop understanding of different types of evidence as part of historical enquiry.
- to develop opinions, argue a case and make informed judgements based on evidence, always bearing in mind that historical verdicts are provisional and challengeable.
- to use imagination, especially in writing about history and interpreting it.
- to encourage openness and responsiveness, and specifically to develop a healthily critical attitude towards historical documents and other evidence.
- to encourage tolerance (religious, cultural and political), and diversity by learning of the history of other social groups, societies and cultures.
To ensure that students taking CE or Scholarship exams are sufficiently prepared.
By the age of 7 (end Key Stage 1) students should be able to :
1) Understand ideas of 'past', 'present' and 'future'
2) Understand that there are many types of historical evidence
3) Distinguish between legend and myth, and between real events and people
4) Talk and write about the past factually and empathetically.
5) Use evidence to ask and answer questions.
By the age of 11 (end Key Stage 2) students should be able to :
1) Understand that evidence about the past may be interpreted in different ways
2) Write imaginatively about the past without obvious anachronism
3) Explain the reasons for actions and events in the past
4) Compare and contrast features of past and present society
5) Distinguish between a primary and secondary source.
By the age of 13 students should be able to :
1) Be aware of, and be able to evaluate differing judgements about the past
2) Be aware of multi-causation eg local, national, long term and short term
3) Understand the main reasons for and results of major events
4) Use a variety of historical sources to produce a detailed, structured narrative. | <urn:uuid:c55b6c4d-65bf-49b5-ab0d-45f6cf336c74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcs.cambs.sch.uk/Groups/16883/Kings_College_School/Academic/History/Aims_and_Objectives/Aims_and_Objectives.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914563 |
What causes palm pain?
Disease or injury of any of the structures in the hand or palm can result in palm pain. Symptoms may arise from neuromuscular conditions, inflammatory conditions, infections, or diseases that affect the blood flow to the palms.
In addition, palm pain can be caused by underlying conditions that involve the body as a whole, such as diabetes. Peripheral neuropathy, a disorder that causes dysfunction of nerves that lie outside your brain and spinal cord, when it is associated with diabetes can lead to damage of one or more of the nerves in the palm resulting in pain, numbness, and a tingling or burning sensation.
Traumatic causes of palm pain
A number of common injuries, either to the palms or to the nerves that provide feeling and movement to the palms, can cause palm pain. Examples include:
- Bites or sting injuries
- Broken bones
- Dislocation of bones
- Herniated disc
- Nerve entrapment or compression, such as of the ulnar nerve
- Overuse injury
- Sprains and strains
- Tendon rupture
Inflammatory causes of palm pain
Inflammation, including inflammation due to infection or arthritis, can cause symptoms that may be present in both palms, one palm, or just a small part of a palm. Examples include:
- Gout (type of arthritis caused by a buildup of uric acid in the joints)
- Osteomyelitis (bone infection)
- Rheumatoid arthritis (chronic autoimmune disease characterized by joint inflammation)
Neuromuscular causes of palm pain
A number of conditions that affect the muscles or nerves in the body can produce palm pain. These conditions include:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Cerebral palsy
- Dermatomyositis (a condition characterized by muscle inflammation and skin rash)
- Hand-foot syndrome (HFS), also known as palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia (PPE), a side effect of chemotherapy
- Raynaud’s disease (spasms of small blood vessels of the fingers and toes, reducing blood circulation; Raynaud’s phenomenon is secondary to many autoimmune disorders such as lupus)
Other causes of palm pain
Other types of chronic diseases and conditions can lead to palm pain. These disorders include:
- Benign and malignant tumors
- Blood clots
- Diabetes (chronic disease that affects your body’s ability to use sugar for energy)
- Peripheral artery disease (PAD, also called peripheral vascular disease, or PVD, which is a narrowing or blockage of arteries due to a buildup of fat and cholesterol on the artery walls, which limits blood flow to the extremities)
- Transient ischemic attack (temporary stroke-like symptoms that may be a warning sign of an impending stroke)
- Vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels, which can lead to atherosclerosis, stroke, heart attack, and other cardiac conditions)
Serious or life-threatening causes of palm pain
In some cases, hand tingling or numbness (including the palm), or weakness may be a symptom of a stroke, which is a life-threatening condition that should be evaluated immediately in an emergency setting.
Questions for diagnosing the cause of palm pain
To diagnose your condition, your doctor or licensed health care practitioner will ask you several questions related to your palm pain including:
- How long have you had the pain in your palm?
- What other symptoms are you experiencing?
- When do your symptoms occur?
- Are your symptoms worsened or relieved by movement or specific activities?
What are the potential complications of palm pain?
The potential complications of palm pain depend on their cause. Getting prompt treatment of fractured bones, injuries, or infections can help you avoid serious complications, such as deformity or widespread infection. Palm pain associated with serious medical conditions, such as stroke, may have long-term and even potentially life-threatening complications. Left untreated, conditions that cause palm pain may lead to the following complications:
- Joint deformity and destruction
- Muscle weakness
- Necrosis (death) of tissues and gangrene, which may require removal of the dead tissues or amputation
- Sepsis (life-threatening bacterial blood infection)
- Spread of cancer
- Spread of infection
Hand injuries and disorders. Medline Plus, a service of the National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/handinjuriesanddisorders.html. Accessed May 12, 2011.
Mononeuropathy. PubMed Health. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001784/. Accessed May 12, 2011.
What is palm pain?
Palm pain can result from damage or injury to any of the structures in your palm, including bones, joints, tendons, nerves, muscles, blood vessels, connective tissue, or skin. The symptoms may be constant or they may vary, and they may improve or worsen with movement. You might describe your palm pain as sharp, dull, stabbing, burning or throbbing, and ranging in intensity from mild to sev... Read more about palm pain introduction | <urn:uuid:5c3dee71-e02f-4c4a-8db6-87c4b00823e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.localhealth.com/article/palm-pain/causes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914391 |
Two secondary ASTs demonstrate the planning behind maths lessons for Year 9 and 10 classes, looking at thinking skills and quadratic equations.
At The Greycoat Hospital School in London, AST Seema Solani plans a complex, five-part lesson to challenge the thinking skills of her Year 9 top set, who have already sat GCSE maths.
She first challenges her KS3 pupils to find different forms of maths involved in the simple triangle, but then discovers one of her pupils is confused by what exactly a segment is. She departs from her plan and sort out an area of confusion before returning to the teaching of higher maths thinking skills.
At Warden Park School in Sussex, AST Chrissie Hamilton has planned a quadratics race for Year 10, involving solving six quadratic equations before plotting the values on a graph.
All maths planning at the school is done electronically and teachers are expected to deliver lessons devised and planned by a colleague. To help them, the plans have teachers' prompts and even the answers to ensure the smooth delivery of a lesson. | <urn:uuid:672cb2cf-7c81-4afb-b482-4040ee6a286c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/thinking-skills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935967 |
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home care, community pharmacies, or any other setting in which health care is delivered.
This chapter uses a case study to illustrate a series of definitions and concepts in patient safety. After presentation of the case study, the chapter will define what comprises a system, how accidents occur, how human error contributes to accidents and how these elements fit into a broader concept of safety. The case study will be referenced to illustrate several of the concepts. The next section will examine whether certain types of systems are more prone to accidents than others. Finally, after a short discussion of the study of human factors, the chapter summarizes what health care can learn from other industries about safety.
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Learn Computer Basics
Beginners may want to go through these self-paced learning sites in order.
New User Tutorial – learn to use your mouse and more
Computer Basics Tutorial
Everything you need to learn about being online, from computer basics to how a computer works, to understanding what the cloud means.
Interactive tutorials from Learning Express Library - on computers and the Internet - available in the library or at home to Township residents
Learn the Basics - Digital Literacy
Links to basic information on getting started, the Internet, computer safety, social networking - all from the federal government.
Colorado Virtual Library Tech Help
Start with "The Very Basics" and go from there – answers to all your questions, from how to turn on your computer, to saving and storing photos.
Software Tutorials (for residents only)
Interactive tutorials on popular software, including Photoshop, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. | <urn:uuid:862601a6-f18b-493e-aa81-f9ec78866a4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://btpl.org/node/5899 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.864948 |
Advanced Social Psychology
Social psychology is the study of the way people think and behave and how their thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the social context--other people and objects in the environment. In this graduate-level course we will first survey the theory and research in the major areas of social psychology. We will then focus on some new ways of thinking about social psychology with a focus on the topic of gender. I hope to accomplish the following objectives:
Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. (1991). The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill.
Packet of reprints available from Warren Hall Copy Center.
Other readings may be assigned during the semester.
Traditional Social Psychology
9/2-4 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 1
9/7-9 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 2
9/11-14 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 3
9/16-18 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 4
9/21-23 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 5
9/25-28 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 6
9/30-10/2Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 7
10/5-7 Ross & Nisbett, Chapter 8
10/9 Discussion of Ross & Nisbett
10/14 Exam over Ross & Nisbett
Social Construction, Postmodern Psychology, and Critical Social Psychology
Sampson, E. E. (1979). Scientific paradigms and social values: Wanted-a scientific revolution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1332-1343.
Unger, R. K. (1983). Through the looking glass: No wonderland yet! Psychology of Women Quarterly, 8, 9-32.
Hare-Mustin, R. T. & Marecek, J. (1988). The meaning of difference: Gender theory, postmodernism, and psychology. American Psychologist, 43, 455-464.
Kahn, A. S. & Yoder, J. D. (1989). The psychology of women and conservatism: Rediscovering social change. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 417-432.
Riger, S. (1992). Epistemological debates, feminist voices: Science, social values, and the study of women. American Psychologist, 47, 730-740.
Smith, M. B. (1994). Selfhood at risk: Postmodern perils and the perils of postmodernism. American Psychologist, 49, 405-411.
Gergen, K. J. (1994). Exploring the postmodern: Perils or potentials? American Psychologist, 49, 412-416.
Bevan, W. & Kessel, F. (1994). Plain truths and home cooking: Thoughts on the making and remaking of psychology. American Psychologist, 49, 505-509.
Prilleltensky, I., & Fox, D. (1997). Introducing critical psychology: Values, assumptions and the status quo. In D. Fox & I Prilleltensky (Eds.), Critical Psychology: An Introduction (3-15). London: Sage.
Richardson, F. C., & Fowers, B. L. (1997). Critical theory, postmodernism, and hermeneutics: Insights for critical psychology. In D. Fox & I Prilleltensky (Eds.), Critical Psychology: An Introduction (pp. 265-283). London: Sage.
Parker, I. (1997). Discursive psychology. In D. Fox & I Prilleltensky (Eds.), Critical Psychology: An Introduction (pp. 284-298). London: Sage.
Hare-Mustin, R. T. (1991). Sex, lies, and headaches: The problem is power. In T. J. Goodrich (Ed.), Women and power: Perspectives for therapy (pp. 63-85). New York: W. W. Norton.
The Social Construction of Gender and Androgyny
Crawford, M., & Marecek, J. (1989). Psychology reconstructs the female: 1968-1988. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 147-165.
Deaux, K. & Major, B. (1987). Putting gender into context: An interactive model of gender-related behavior. Psychological Review, 94, 369-389.
Morawski, J. G. (1987). The troubled quest for masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. In P. Shaver & C. Hendrick (Eds.), Sex and gender. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Doing Gender (and Differences)
West, C. & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1, 125-151.
West, C. & Fenstermaker, S. (1995). Doing difference. Gender and Society, 9, 8-37.
Mason-Schrock, D. (1996). Transsexuals' narrative construction of the "True Self." Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 176-192.
Gender Differences - The Debate Continues
Eagly, A. H. (1995). The science and politics of comparing women and men. American Psychologist, 50, 145-158.
Hyde, J. S., & Plant, E. A. (1995). Magnitude of psychological gender differences: Another side of the story. American Psychologist, 50, 159-161.
Marecek, J. (1995). Gender, politics, and psychologys ways of knowing. American Psychologist, 50, 161-163
Buss, D. M. 1995). Psychological sex differences: Origins through sexual selection. American Psychologist, 50, 164-168.
Lott, B. (1994, October). The question of gender sameness/difference serves status suo politics more than it serves scientific psychology. In A. Eagly (Chair), Women and men: Sameness or Difference? Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, Lake Tahoe, NV.
Eagly, A. H. (1995). Reflections on the commentors views. American Psychologist, 50, 169-171.
Rape Acknowledgment - Different Approaches to the Topic
Koss, M. P. (1985). The hidden rape victim: Personality, attitudinal, and situational characteristics. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9, 193-212
Kahn, A. S., Mathie, V. A., & Torgler, C. (1994). Rape scripts and rape acknowledgment. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 53-66.
Phillips, L. M. (1996, August). Constructing meaning in hetero-relations: Young women's experiences of power and desire. In R. Unger & A. Kahn (Chairs), The social construction of gender. Symposium presented at the XXVI International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Kahn, A. S., & Andreoli Mathie, V. (in press). Understanding the unacknowledged rape victim. In C. B. Travis & J. W. White (Eds.), Sexuality, Society, and Feminism: Psychological Perspectives on Women. American Psychological Association: Washington, D.C.
Back to Traditional Social Psychology - Recent Advances
Weiner, B. (1995). Inferences of responsibility and social motivation. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 1-47.
Roberts, T., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1995). Gender differencesin perceiving internal state: Toward a his-and-hers model of perceptual cue use. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 143-175.
Prentice, D. A. & Miller, D. T. (1996). Pluralistic ignorance and the perpetuation of social norms by unwitting actors. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 28 161-209.
Jussim, L., Eccles, J., & Madon, S. (1996). Social perception, social stereotypes, and teacher expectations: Accuracy and the quest for the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 28 281-388.
Ross, L., & Ward, A. (1995). Psychological barriers to dispute resolution. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 255-304. | <urn:uuid:341c833b-e496-44fd-b147-e0aea40a1f01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://educ.jmu.edu/~kahnas/syllab.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.709772 |
Use these rubrics when assessing your students:
Fill out and return one or more GE instructor forms (due with your grades):
Per University policy all GE courses are assessed on a 5-year schedule.
University-Wide Holistic Exam
To monitor and assess the effectiveness of Freshman Composition the Committee establishes topics for a standardized final departmental essay. This final essay is graded holistically by a reading committee comprised of all the current Composition instructors.
Some courses are part of an on-going study for options to this final exam, such as using portfolios.
The Department of English reaffirms its commitment to the differential grading scale as defined in the SJSU Catalog (“The Grading System”). Grades issued must represent a full range of student performance: A = excellent; B = above average; C = average; D = below average; F = failure.
Academic Standards for Assessment
The “A” essay will be well organized and well developed, demonstrating a clear understanding and fulfillment of the assignment. It will show the student's ability to use language effectively and to construct sentences distinguished by syntactic complexity and variety. Such essays will be essentially free of grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors.
The “B” essay will demonstrate competence in the same categories as the “A” essay. The chief difference is that the “B” essay will show some slight weakness in one of those categories. It may slight one of the assigned tasks, show less facility of expression, or contain some minor grammatical, mechanical, or usage flaws.
The “C” essay will complete all tasks set by the assignment, but show weaknesses in fundamentals, usually development, with barely enough specific information to illustrate the experience or support generalizations. The sentence construction may be less mature, and the use of language less effective and correct than the “B” essay.
The “D” essay will neglect one of the assigned tasks and be noticeably superficial in its treatment of the assignment that is, too simplistic or too short. The essay may reveal some problems in development, with insufficient specific information to illustrate the experience or support generalizations. It will contain grammatical, mechanical, and/or usage errors that are serious and/or frequent enough to interfere substantially with the writer's ability to communicate.
The “F” essay will demonstrate a striking underdevelopment of ideas and insufficient or unfocused organization. It will contain serious grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors that render some sentences incomprehensible. | <urn:uuid:9e1ea353-f852-4d30-8999-4716d6b31241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sjsu.edu/english/comp/assessment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909702 |
Dangers of the filibuster
In the past 50 years, the filibuster has become institutionalized in the Senate and has had a powerful impact on policy and legislation. In “Filibustering: A Political History of Obstruction in the House and Senate,” recently released by The University of Chicago Press, Gregory Koger explores the slippery rules that guide the process of obstruction. Koger is assistant professor of political science at the University of Miami and has worked as a legislative assistant in the House.
By Gregory Koger
The past two years have tested the ability of the U.S. Congress, led by sizable Democratic majorities, to respond to severe crises. The results have led to severe criticism of the Senate, particularly due to the effects of filibusters on major legislation like health care reform and energy legislation.
The primary barrier to the Democratic agenda has been the 60-vote threshold to end debate in the Senate. More subtly, experts have noted a [broader pattern of Congressional ineffectiveness] (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/filibuster_report.html) at basic tasks like reauthorizing legislation, considering nominations, and passing appropriations bills.
It is worth stressing three points about the nature of Senate obstruction. First, unlike a presidential veto, filibustering is not provided for in the U.S. Constitution; it is an informal practice that persists with the tacit acceptance of the Senate majority.
Second, this country has already observed a complete meltdown of the legislative process due to filibustering, leading to historic reforms. For the first century of Congressional history, there was ample obstruction in the U.S. House of Representatives, culminating in drastic reforms of the 1890s that centralized power in the leadership of the majority party.
Third, in the Senate, filibustering was relatively rare until the 1960s. Due to a number of factors—growing workload, opportunities to travel, fundraising pressures—senators were no longer willing to engage in traditional “attrition” filibusters and, instead, began relying on the cloture rule as their primary response to the threat of a filibuster. This brings us to our current state.
Senate obstruction can promote the public interest. It promotes moderation in legislating, limiting the progress of ambitious majorities but also ensuring that their successes will stick.
Legislators obstruct to ensure an adequate opportunity to debate and offer amendments, which promotes some degree of dialogue -- or at least a public record of the objections to a bill. The House, for all its efficiency, tends to muzzle minority party members who are powerless to object.
Filibustering also limits the ability of party leaders and interest groups to force through legislation by coercion or donations.
Finally, senators can use the power to obstruct—including holds—to have special influence on issues that are important to them. While this power can be used for simply parochial ends (e.g. Sen. Shelby’s blanket hold on nominations to extract more spending in Alabama), it can also be used to ensure cooperation by federal agencies or legislative action on neglected problems.
However, the events of the 111th Congress have highlighted two dangers of filibustering. First, the rules and practice of the Senate presuppose some degree of bipartisanship and public-spiritedness. Yet, on a variety of issues, Senate Republicans have apparently made a strategic choice to avoid negotiations and compromise on major issues (even skipping committee markup sessions en masse) while slowing the Senate’s progress on routine matters.
This is somewhat understandable for a party seeking to regain its credentials as a conservative party, and it seems to reflect the restlessness of the conservative base of the Republican party.
Still, the Republican strategy (combined with some aggressive behavior by the Democratic leaders) creates a mismatch between the rules of the Senate and behavior of its members; there is a deep, unstable tension between the bipartisan rules of the Senate and the partisan gamesmanship of its members.
Despite this challenge, senators have managed to make slow progress on major measures: a stimulus bill, health care, a Supreme Court nomination, and now financial reform.
But filibustering has wider consequences. There are dozens of minor bills and executive nominations that have been blocked or slowed by a quiet threat that, if the bill or nomination were to come to the floor, the majority will have to overcome a filibuster to pass it. For many such measures, senators cannot spare the time and effort to squelch a filibuster, so they languish in Senate purgatory.
Even middle-tier legislation like appropriations bills or reauthorization of major laws may be put off for months or years. This creates a vacuum of Congressional inaction that is filled by executive assertion—recess appointments, executive orders—or by bureaucratic drift. Senate obstruction is not the only cause of Congressional abdication, but it is definitely a contributing factor.
The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:da5b5caf-8119-4355-b141-b24509ea8470> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-bookworm/2010/07/dangers_of_the_filibuster.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949395 |
From ecomagination engines burning landfill gas to “treasure hunts” inside our factories that seek out energy waste, we’ve been presenting a steady drumbeat of GE fuel efficiency stories. This time, we’re turning to our colleagues at Beluga Shipping — a GE preferred shipper — and their amazing use of “kite sails” to reduce fuel costs and help the environment. Who knew that in the 21st century, GE’s advanced engines would literally be sailing to their ports of call?
Chartered by GE’s Project Logistics team, the Beluga SkySails cargo vessel — which has the world’s first practical towing kite propulsion system for commercial shipping — set sail in early February from Albany, New York. It was loaded with 250 to 300 tons of power generating equipment that was manufactured at GE’s plant in Schenectady, NY and was was destined for Samsun, Turkey.
In open water, the cargo ship releases a large towing kite attached to its bow. The kite resembles a parasail and floats high above the ship to help pull it through the water. At present, SkySails can be attached to cargo vessels with an effective load of between eight and 16 tons — SkySails with an effective load of 32 tons are planned for 2012.
Lower costs can be realized through less fuel consumption — and the fuel savings depend on the prevailing wind conditions. A ship’s average fuel costs can be reduced by 10 to 35 percent annually, but under optimal wind conditions up to 50 percent can be cut. On average, using the SkySails system leads to a 39 percent savings in freight costs.
Reduced fuel consumption leads to less emissions — and implementing wide-scale use of kite propulsion systems could potentially reduce millions of tons of CO2, NOX, and SO2 from the atmosphere. Noted GE’s Randy Charboneau: “This is one way we (GE) are leveraging the technology of our suppliers worldwide to help with (environmental) efforts.”
Does this mean commercial shipping is going back to the days of huge rigs and oversized galleons? Not quite. The technology is still in its exploratory phase, so use of SkySails on a large scale is still a few years away. Even so, increased operating costs and the rising price of oil are pushing the shipping industry to further utilize this new technology — with future projects planning to use kites with a larger sail surface, leading to better efficiencies.
* Visit the SkySails website
* Read background materials about the SkySails system
* Learn about the European Union’s wind propulsion project
* Learn more about Beluga Group in their online magazine
* Learn more about GE Energy in these GE Reports stories
* Read about our energy “treasure hunts”
To watch a video about the Beluga system in use, visit Beluga’s press page and click on “Multimedia.” | <urn:uuid:4c2494b5-4f2f-492a-baf9-2a84c9e4c05f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gereports.com/go-fly-a-kite-ge-teams-with-shipper-to-cut-fuel-costs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946192 |
The electric iron has been around since the 1880s, but as is the case with many modern inventions, it has its roots in ancient history. Circa 400 B.C., Greeks would heat a round bar – known as a goffering iron – and use it to produce pleats on robes. The ancient Romans used devices more similar to the irons of today. One was a level metal paddle in which the user would beat the clothes in the hope the pounding would remove the wrinkles. The ancient Chinese used a scoop that was heated with hot coal or sand and would rub it over clothing to smooth wrinkles.
What modern customers would identify as an iron first appeared in Europe in the 1300s. The flatiron, as it was called, was simply a smooth piece of metal affixed to a handle. The iron would be heated over flames until sufficiently hot, at which time it would be picked up with an insulated glove. A layer of cloth would cover the article of clothing to prevent soot from the iron from staining the finished garment. Once the flatiron cooled, it would be reheated and the process repeated. Besides smoothing wrinkles, ironing served another important function, killing germs in clothing and reducing mildew.
It took about two centuries for the next significant improvement to the flatiron. The "box iron" was composed of a flat-bottom box and a handle. Hot coals, bricks or other heating elements were placed inside. Such a design removed the need for a protective layer of clothing between the garment and iron because the iron retained a clean surface. The box iron remained the standard for several hundred years.
Metal technology began developing in the 1800s, hastening the evolution of the smoothing iron. Flatirons could be heated atop cast iron stoves, making the job much easier and cleaner than fire. By 1870, wooden handles were used, preventing users from receiving burns, as wood does not retain heat in the manner of iron.
Gas irons were patented in the 1870s, making the devices even easier to use. A gas line would carry fuel to the appliance, which contained a burner to provide the heat. These irons were much lighter than their predecessors, which often weighed up to 15 pounds.
The invention of the electric iron coincided with the widespread electrification of American homes in the 1880s. In 1882, Henry W. Seeley of New York City received a patent for the electric flatiron. His model had built-in coils and was heated on a rack. The problem was that it took a long time to heat and cooled rapidly once in use.
Perhaps the biggest breakthrough in smoothing-iron technology occurred early in the 20th century, when irons were made with electric cords. The development helped solve the centuries-old necessity of constantly reheating the iron. Improvements also were made to the sole plate (bottom) of the iron and by the 1920s, many irons came equipped with thermostats to control the level of heat.
In the mid-1920s, the Eldec Company unveiled the steam iron, which facilitated the pressing of dry material. Up to that point, users had to sprinkle water on the fabric. The steam irons funneled water vapor from a receptacle to small holes on the sole plate.
Other improvements in the following decades included the development of an aluminum sole plate that would not rust. In the 1950s, irons capable of both wet and dry operation were introduced, and in 1995, most sole plates had nonstick coating. By this time, about 14 million irons were sold annually in the U.S.
Irons will have a place in department stores for as long as consumers take pride in the smooth appearance of their clothing. As for their future, there is still room for improvement on the sole plate. Improved coatings will make it less susceptible to scratches from zippers or buttons on garments. Devices that allow for better regulation of temperature and steam are also expected to evolve. | <urn:uuid:2f335a6b-387b-43a3-8698-c3348de5cd2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/tutorials/museum/smoothingiron.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98254 |
By Henry Workman Research from New Zealand’s Massey University and Te Papa has produced footage revealing the hagfish’s one-of-a-kind defense mechanism. When threatened the creature will expel a mucus-like substance which interferes with the gill functioning of predators, causing them to gag and swim away. The study also yielded insight into the hagfish’s own predatory [...]
Tag: "new research"
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Species of jellyfish provide greater competition for more complex organisms than previously thought. Recent research published in Science reveals that in areas where plankton-feeding fish populations have dropped off, mostly due to overfishing, jellyfish that occupy a similar ecological niche have taken their places. The jellyfish populations have [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer A virus-fighting substance known as squalamine is the subject of new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The compound was originally discovered in the liver of dogfish, where it plays an important role in protecting it, as well as some other species, from [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Authentic Maine lobster is considered by many to be an unparalleled seafood dining experience. Despite estimations that a large percentage of “Maine lobster” sold worldwide doesn’t actually originate from the Maine coast, these crustaceans have been the enduring cornerstone of the state’s seafood industry. Lobstering here has [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Today, the body of evidence that points towards the climate change driven melting of the polar ice caps is substantial, and continues to grow. The environmental implications of this process have been consistently shown to be severe, and the problems associated with the subsequent rise in sea levels [...] | <urn:uuid:e2020e93-5ccd-420c-a571-88e9d4f8f94c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marinesciencetoday.com/tag/new-research/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948446 |
Cyanide Treatment with Hydrogen Peroxide
Cyanides are used in a number of chemical synthesis and metallurgical processes (as simple salts or cyanide complexes). As a class, cyanides are highly toxic and must be destroyed or removed from wastewaters prior to discharge. The most common method for treating free or simple cyanide is alkaline chlorination. However, chlorination of cyanide results in highly toxic intermediates (e.g., cyanogen chloride) and, if organic material is present, chlorinated VOC’s. These compounds, together with the residual chlorine, create additional environmental problems. Consequently, there is a growing need for alternative, non-chlorine methods for destroying cyanides.
Peroxygen compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, peroxymonosulfuric acid (1), and persulfates (1) are effective alternatives to alkaline chlorination for destroying free and complexed cyanides. The choice of peroxygen system depends on the reaction time available, the desired products (cyanate, or CO2 and NH3), the types of cyanides being treated (free, weak acid dissociable, or inert), and the system economics.
Treatment with Hydrogen Peroxide
While hydrogen peroxide will oxidize free cyanide, it is common to catalyze the reaction with a transition metal such as soluble copper, vanadium, tungsten or silver in concentrations of 5 to 50 mg/L (2). The oxidation requires 1.26 lbs H2O2 per lb cyanide and is described as follows:
|CN- + H2O2 → CNO- + H2O |
(pH 9-10 / catalyst)
This simple system is adequate for treating both free cyanide and some weak acid dissociable cyanides such those complexed with zinc, copper, or cadmium. Less reactive cyanides such as those complexed with nickel or silver may require addition of a chelating agent to encourage dissociation. Inert cyanides such as ferricyanide can only be destroyed by photoactivation (using UV - H2O2).
With any peroxygen system, a pH of 9-10 should be maintained if cyanide is present to avoid release of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas. Reaction rates can be increased by several means: raising the temperature, increasing catalyst dose, and/or using excess H2O2. For example, at 25 deg-C and without catalysis, the conversion of free cyanide to cyanate takes two to three hours; and at 50 deg-C, one hour or less. The inclusion of 10 mg/L Cu will increase the rate 2-3 fold, while a 20% excess of hydrogen peroxide will increase the rate by about 30%.
As with alkaline chlorination, the product of the H2O2 reaction is cyanate (CNO-) which is 1,000 times less toxic than cyanide, and is often acceptable for discharge. Alternatively, cyanate can be destroyed through acid hydrolysis, forming carbon dioxide and ammonia. The equation is:
|CNO- + 2H2O → CO2 + NH3 + OH- |
The lower the pH, the faster the hydrolysis. At pH 2, CNO- is hydrolized in 5 minutes; at pH 5, 60 minutes; and at pH 7, 22 hours.
Recently, The Bureau of Mines developed a process using H2O2 to remove all forms of cyanides and heavy metals (3). In the first step, H2O2 and sodium thiosulfate are reacted with free and weakly complexed cyanides to yield thiocyanate. Next, steryldimethylbenzyl ammonium chloride is added to precipitate ferrocyanide. Finally, ferric sulfate is added as a sweep floc to precipitate other heavy metals. The solids are removed by filtering.
Treatment with Peroxymonosulfuric Acid
If the rate of cyanide oxidation is important, peroxymonosulfuric acid (Caro’s acid) is recommended. Caro’s acid is an equilibrium product formed from hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, and is typically produced onsite using a compact, modular generator (4):
|H2O2 + H2SO4 ⇔ H2SO5 + H2O|
This process is used at some of the world’s largest gold refining operations. For smaller scale operations, Caro’s acid can be prepared through hydrolysis of e.g., ammonium persulfate (5):
|(NH4)2S2O2 + H2O → NH2HSO2 + NH2HSO2 |
(H2SO2 / steam)
With Caro’s acid, the conversion of cyanide to cyanate is complete in a few minutes, according to the following equation:
|CN- + H2SO2 → CNO- + H2SO4 |
The addition of excess Caro’s acid will hydrolize the cyanate to carbonate and nitrogen in the same step:
|2OH- + 2CNO- + 3SO52- → 2CO32- + N2 + 3SO42- + H2O|
Under acidic conditions, a smaller amount of Caro’s acid will be needed since cyanate hydrolysis (second reaction below) is greatly accelerated. The equations are as follow:
|2H+ + 2CNO- + 3H2SO5 → 2CO2 + N2 + 3H2SO4 + H2O|
|CNO- + 2H2O → CO2 + NH2 + OH-|
Treatment with Persulfates
Ammonium, potassium, and sodium persulfates have the advantage of oxidizing cyanide beyond the cyanate (CNO-) stage without pH adjustment, provided the pH is maintained above 9. A mole ratio of 1.2 (persulfate to cyanide) is recommended. The reaction with persulfate is relatively slow but doesn't require metal catalysts. The simplicity and convenience of the process make it well suited to small scale batch operations.
- U.S. Patent No. 3,510,424
- U.S. Patent No. 3,617,567
- Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, RI 8836. Schiller J.E., "Removal of Cyanide and Metals from Mineral Processing Wastewater"
- Details of these preparations can be found in FMC Technical Bulletin No. 082-1, "The Preparation and Analysis of Caro’s Acid."
- U.S. Patent No. 4,049,786
---FMC Technical Data, Pollution Control Release No. 130
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High blood pressure: A repeatedly elevated blood pressure exceeding 140 over 90 mmHg. Chronic high blood pressure can stealthily cause blood vessel changes in the back of the eye (retina), abnormal thickening of the heart muscle, kidney failure, and brain damage. No specific cause for high blood pressure is found in 95 percent of patients. Treatment for high blood pressure involves dietary changes, regular aerobic exercise, and medication. There are many types of medications used to treat high blood pressure including diuretics, beta-blockers, blood vessel dilators, and others. Also known as hypertension.
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We are full steam ahead in our study of Abigail. As we go through the book we are gleaning principles and learning about colonial life and character. The principle we are highlighting is America’s Heritage of Christian Character. And she’s not short on godly character. What a wonderful example of godly womanhood!
What I like about this book is that it starts with her childhood (in the first person) and Princess G can really relate to her. She has enjoyed learning about life as a colonial child (see the hornbook picture below). And of course we enjoy hearing about her family’s faith.
Abigail had a dilemma that we can all relate to–keeping a promise that she should not have made. It created a teachable moment to discuss what Princess G would do and what God’s Word says about that. And G really enjoys predicting what will happen next. As we go through the book we make notes on character, setting, plot, theme and style. We also color pages and other things to add to our notebook.
In arithmetic I introduced Roman numerals with the principle that math reveals the nature of God. It is universal and unchangeable. And all people everywhere have mathematics. It is a dependable link to our past. The principles that govern math have been the same since time began. So it doesn’t matter what character you use to represent the concept of five; it is always the same. We played with numbers and had fun discovering the answers.
This week we will continue Abigail and continue our review of multiplication tables. We have a cassette tape with the facts 1×1 to 10×10 set to music. The repetitive raps are driving me CRAZY in the car but she’s learning them, so we listen (and listen, and listen…). | <urn:uuid:3b322cd1-134e-4042-9186-19f20757b14f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.principledmom.com/2005/03/abigail-and-arithmetic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955158 |
LOVE FOR GOD, FEAR OF SIN AND MORALITY IN SOCIETY
By Sathya Sai Baba
Gurur-Brahma Gurur-Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheswara;
Guru Sakshat Param Brahma Thasmai Sri Gurave Namaha.
(Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Maheswara. Guru is verily the supreme Brahman. So, salutations to the Guru.)
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are the three different names and forms of the same divinity “All are one, be alike to everyone.” Though the names and forms of the physical body are different, Divinity in all beings is one only. Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the Protector, and Shiva is the Destroyer. Yet, all three aspects represent the one Divinity. The one God when engaged in the creative aspect is referred to as Brahma, while protecting and sustaining the living beings as Vishnu, and, finally, in the act of Laya (dissolution) as Shiva.
In order to avoid the confusion created by ascribing different names and forms to Divinity, God is referred to as Atma or the Absolute Brahman (the nameless, formless, attributeless Divinity). The one Atma permeates all living beings.
Religions are different, path is the same;
Clothes are different, cotton is one;
Beings are different, Atma is one;
Nationality and lifestyle are different, human birth is the same.
Every human being has to develop three qualities: love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society. It is only lack of fear of sin that is responsible for the present state of lack of morality in society. Love is the cementing factor that unites people. Where there is love, there society will be united. Devoid of morality, one does not deserve to be called a human being. Hence, morality is important for everything.
Though God showers His love on one and all, it is the human being who has lost the precious quality of fear of sin. Man today is committing several sins with the belief that God is kind and will ultimately forgive his sins. With this belief, he is indulging in more and more sinful acts. He has developed a sort of complacency in this regard and thinks that he can escape punishment.
But the fact is otherwise. Though God is compassionate and may forgive all sinful acts, a human being has to necessarily pay for their sins. Hence, every human has to develop these three qualities of love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society. Where there is no fear of sin, there will be no morality in society.
People are behaving most irresponsibly and are undertaking several undesirable activities with unbridled ego. They have no fear of sin. They don’t even think for a moment of the consequences of their acts. One has therefore to restrain oneself from seeing evil, speaking evil, and doing evil. If not, the consequences of these evil deeds will boomerang on that person later, if not today. It is also possible that the results of all these sinful acts will come back to that person all at one time with a bang.
If one is really interested in the welfare of the society, one must work for the development of morality in society. One who lacks morality is not a human being at all but is an animal, verily. Speaking untruth, doing injustice to others, and indulging in unrighteous acts and bad practices is very bad. One has to lead one’s life by following the three principles of love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society. It is said that one who has no morality in themself is worse than a monkey. In fact, a monkey is better than such an individual.
No one will respect an individual who indulges in immoral acts in this world. Only a person who follows moral principles will command respect from one and all. Even those who try to harm such a person will be restrained by others with a warning. “That person is a good person. Do not try to meddle with that person.” Those who lack morality are looked down upon in society as worse than dogs. Hence, one has to develop morality and lead a life of moral principles at all times.
There are three sadhanas (spiritual practices) by which love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society can be developed. They are bhakti (devotion to God), jnana (the path of wisdom), and vairagya (detachment). Karma (activity) is a natural and essential attribute of the physical body. It is only when the body undertakes good karmas that the mind will function well. When the mind is sound, love for God can be developed. Thus bhakti, jnana, and vairagya are interlinked with love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society. They are like the three blades of a fan. It is only when the three blades rotate that we can have refreshing air; otherwise we feel uncomfortable.
People today question why we have to develop love for God. Love for God enables one to develop fear of sin, which in turn will develop morality in society. Everyone has to discriminate between good and bad, sin and virtue. Having analysed, one must try to do good only. Be good, do good, see good, this is the way to God. Devoid of these three, any number of rituals, worship, japa (chanting the divine name) and tapa (penance) will be of no use.
The nine forms of devotion are: sravanam (listening), kirtanam (singing), Vishnusmaranam (contemplating on Vishnu), Padasevanam (serving His Lotus Feet), vandanam (salutation), archanam (worship), dasyam (servitude), sneham (friendship), and Atmanivedanam (self-surrender).
The first step is sravanam (listening). Then one has to analyse whether what has been listened to is good or bad. If you think that it is a bad suggestion and therefore not to your liking, how can you implement it?
It is possible today that one can get one’s work done by speaking untruth and scoring victory over others by false and unjust means. Hence, one has to enquire into the sanctity or otherwise of every act that one undertakes. One should not be complacent about the consequences that would follow; sooner or later, the result of a sinful act would accrue. It may happen now or a little later, at any moment. Hence, be prepared to undertake only good and noble acts with a pure mind.
More than anything else, purity of conscience is of utmost importance. That is Atma Thatthwa. Nobody can understand what Atma is. Since the bodies and forms are many, some names have to be given in order to distinguish between them. However, Atma or Brahma has neither birth nor death, unlike the physical bodies. Hence, no one can identify it as such and such.
Atma, though beyond one’s comprehension, has been described as nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta, nirmala swarupinam (eternal, pure, enlightened, free and embodiment of sacredness). It is niranjanam, sanathana niketanam (unsullied, final abode). There is only one Atma, and it is immanent in all beings. That is the essential nature of the Atma.
A small example; when you place one hundred pots filled with water under the sky on a moonlit night, you will find one moon reflecting in each of those pots. The body is like a pot. It is bound to perish at any time. Then where does the moon (Atma) go? It does not go anywhere. It is there. However, since there is no water (body), it is not reflecting in the water. In the same manner, the Atma is present in every human being.
A person that does not have good character has no morality. A person with no morality does not deserve to be called a human being. We have to earn honour and respect for ourselves in the society. However, we don’t find anyone concerned about good name in the society these days.
But people are very particular about who is rich and who is poor. Money comes and goes, but morality comes and grows is the adage. It is, therefore, not correct to aspire for wealth, power, and such other worldly things. All these possessions are transitory. You may try to hold on tightly to them, but they just slip away even without your noticing them.
The Atma, however, is eternal. There is no coming and going for Atma. It always remains an eternal witness to everything that goes on in the world. We have to develop faith in such eternal Atma. Those who develop faith in the Atma Thatthwa will not be disturbed by injustice, wrong, and bad practices.
People say “My body, my senses, my mind, my intellect”, etc., but “you” are none of these. For example, you say, “This is my book.” This book is in your hands at this moment. The next moment somebody wishes to have a look at it. It goes into his hands. Similarly, you hold some currency in your hands. After some time it will go into someone else’s hands. It just comes and goes. But, morality comes and grows. Morality has no form.
If someone wishes to improve society and the world, morality has to be developed in the individual first. Several political parties come forward these days saying that they will improve society. They propose to transform society. But they invariably fail because what they try to do is to garner the votes of people for their selfish ends. They do not at all bother about society.
If you want to transform society, there must be purity in your heart. First, the individual and then society. In order that the individual is transformed, there must be love for God and fear of sin. Then comes morality in society. Individuals make a society. Hence, if unity among people is developed there will be purity and Divinity. Unity, purity, and divinity cannot be attained by mere education.
Supposing you sit for meditation, closing your eyes. However, the mind goes on wandering everywhere. You try to bring it back to the starting point. It is all a practice. Only when the wavering mind is stilled is meditation possible. This process of making the mind steady is called concentration. Meditation is possible only after concentration. The proper order is concentration, contemplation, and meditation.
Do not believe someone who claims to be meditating the moment they sit. That is an artificial exercise, not meditation. Real meditation is forgetting oneself totally. It is forgetting dehatma bhava (the feeling of identification with the body) completely. One has to totally give up attachment to the senses. Then only will the mind be steady.
Once, there was a father who had four sons. Each one wanted to follow a different vocation to earn money. One son wanted to take up business. Another wanted to open a small grocery shop. The third son wanted to take up employment, and the fourth another vocation. Though money earning was the common objective, each one wanted to go in a different path. Finally, it is the means that are adopted for earning money that result in accumulation of virtue or sin. People commit a sin even without their knowing that they are doing so. The sins committed by people will continue to haunt them.
Sometime ago, there were heavy floods in the State of Orissa. They ravaged several villages in four districts. The houses, trees, standing crops, even animals, and some people were swept away by the surging flood water. Hundreds of villages were inundated, and people were marooned. They were fear-struck at the fury of nature.
Then I sent a telegram: “Don’t worry. Be happy. I will build your houses.” The people of Orissa came to see Me, by arranging a special train. The government was there, MPs and MLAs were there, who were expected to come to their rescue in that hour of need and provide succour to them. But none came forward. Immediately I sent ten crores and arranged for distribution of relief material and building of pucca houses for the affected people.
I am not interested in accumulation of money. I want only your love. Be happy. Develop your morality and love for God. If you develop love, that love itself will drive away the demonic qualities in you.
Before the Rama-Ravana war commenced, Hanuman entered Lanka, as part of his mission to search the whereabouts of Sita. After he found Sita, he was on his way back to pass on the information to Sri Rama. He was caught by the demons and brought to the court of Ravana. Ravana was infuriated on seeing Hanuman, who destroyed the beautiful Asokavana while he was returning. Ravana questioned Hanuman, “Who are you? How dare you enter this impregnable city of Lanka?” He underestimated the power of Hanuman and derided him addressing him as an ordinary monkey. Hanuman replied in the same tone as an equal and told Ravana, “The Lord who cut off the ears and nose of your sister has sent me.”
Ravana was very angry, since no one dared to talk to him in such an undignified manner. In fact, Hanuman used the same language as Ravana did. Ravana felt insulted. Hanuman was not bothered in the least, for he was always chanting Ramanama, which gave him the courage and strength to face any situation.
Ravana could not tolerate the impertinence and arrogance of Hanuman and therefore ordered that Hanuman’s tail be wrapped with clothes dipped in oil and set on fire. Immediately, clothes soaked in oil were wrapped round the tail of Hanuman and set on fire. Hanuman did not keep quiet. With that burning tail, he jumped from one building to the other and thus set the entire city on fire. Beautiful and palatial buildings studded with precious stones went up in flames within no time. Even Mandodari’s palace was engulfed by flames. She came out. People ran helter-skelter here and there. Not a single building was spared from the raging flames.
Hanuman then advised Mandodari, “Mother, it is the sin committed by your husband that is responsible for this devastating fire and consequent loss of so many lives and property. Please tell your husband not to commit such heinous sins hereafter. If you can thus save your husband, it amounts to saving yourself and the Rakshasa clan.”
People have to suffer the consequences of their actions. God is only a witness. Good or bad, one gets the fruit of one’s actions. Hence, first and foremost, one has to develop morality, which is based on developing human qualities first. If human qualities are to be developed in a person, one should have love for God. Thus, love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society are interdependent. When there is morality in society, all people will be safe.
One important point has to be remembered in this context. You may hide your actions from society, but the omnipresent God knows everything. You will have to suffer the consequences of your actions. It is an immutable law. Hence, if you can do help to others, it is alright. Otherwise just keep silent. Do not harm others. Do not commit a mistake by thought, word and deed. Sometimes, you may not get the result of your actions immediately. It will take some time. But surely the result will follow.
People study spiritual texts like the Bhagavad Gita but fail to realise their own innate nature. The Upanishads exhort one, “Dear son, try to realise your own nature first. Know thyself! If you can do that, it amounts to knowing everything.” The knowledge of the Self (Atma Bodha) entails realisation, “I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect,” etc.
The mind is like a cloth consisting of threads woven together. How long will this cloth last? As long as the threads are intact. Once you remove the threads, the cloth loses its shape. Or, if you put the cloth in fire, it will be reduced to ashes.
People say, “So and so is my wife, so and so my child, so and so is my son-in-law, so and so is my son,” etc. These relationships are only illusion. Who are all these people? All are God’s property. Everything in this world is God’s property; nobody has any right, whatsoever. People fight between themselves claiming rights, thus wasting their time. “Time waste is life waste.” In fact, it is not time we are wasting; we are wasting our precious life.
In conclusion, I would like to stress once again that you should cultivate love for God, fear of sin, and morality in society. These are valuable assets, which you must always safeguard. If you safeguard these values, they will in turn protect you.
You think you have to realise Brahma Thatthwa (the Brahma Principle) today. In fact, Brahman has no name and form. It is nirgunam, niranjanam, sanathana niketanam, nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta, nirmala swarupinam (God is attributeless, unsullied, final abode, eternal, pure, enlightened, free, and embodiment of sacredness) The Balvikas children from Tamil Nadu are waiting to present a cultural programme. Witness that programme. I will continue My Discourse tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:ec303ca9-577d-48ac-824b-0ad4ece14f5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vishvarupa.com/om-sathya-sai-baba/2009/07/love-for-god-fear-of-sin-and-morality-in-society/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966306 |
Head Start Children, Families, and Programs: Present and Past Data from FACES
- Head Start
- Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), 1997-2013 | Learn more about this project
This report provides a portrait of children entering Head Start for the first time in fall 2009, as well as of their family backgrounds and the classrooms and programs that serve them. The report also offers comparisons across the past decade of the Head Start program to delineate trends and changes in the population served and the services provided. Data are drawn from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), which was first launched in 1997 as a periodic, longitudinal study of program performance. Successive nationally representative samples of Head Start children, their families, classrooms, and programs provide descriptive information on the population served; staff qualifications, credentials, and opinions; Head Start classroom practices and quality measures; and child and family outcomes. FACES includes a battery of child assessments across many developmental domains; interviews with children’s parents, teachers, and program managers; and observations of classroom quality. In 2008, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funded Mathematica Policy Research and its partners—Educational Testing Service and Juárez and Associates—to design and conduct FACES 2009.
FACES 2009 is the fifth in a series of national cohort studies—previous cohorts were initiated in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006. The FACES 2009 child sample was selected to represent 3- and 4-year-old children as they entered their first year of the program, drawing on participants from 60 selected programs from across the country. Successive samples of Head Start children, their families, and programs provide a rich source of ongoing information on the children and families served by Head Start and on the programs and staff providing these services. Interviews, observations, and assessments carried out on a recurring basis provide the means for assessing how the program is performing, currently and over time, in response to changing demographics and policy mandates. | <urn:uuid:9bc89d18-f993-406e-8ebc-a6f9426de0c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/resource/head-start-children-families-and-programs-present-and-past-data-from-faces | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948444 |
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 - 11:33
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 - 10:29
President Obama created a new oversight board in June 2011 as part of his new Campaign to Cut Government Waste. He directed it to report to him in December on ways to improve accountability, based on lessons from the implementation of the Recovery Act. That report is now out.
President Obama created the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GAT Board), headed by Earl Devaney, the chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Recovery Board), to recommend ways to apply the successful lessons of how Recovery Act monies were overseen to all government spending.
The GAT Board report outlined several significant lessons from the experience of the Recovery Board, such as its method for collecting recipient data on spending and posting it rapidly on a centralized website; and how the lack of common data standards overly-complicated the collection of that information.
The GAT Board observed that the Recovery Act demonstrated that a vision of comprehensive transparency and accountability in federal spending is possible: “We can make data more reliable and present it in real time. We can connect the data more closely to the investment and its intended purpose. We can provide better tools to analyze and scrutinize it. Moreover, we can do all of this in a more cost-effective way,” states its final report to the President.
The GAT Board made three recommendations to President Obama:
- Adopt a cohesive, centralized accountability framework to track and oversee spending. “A universal framework . . .will permit collaboration and rapid innovation, as well as increased user adoption. . . .Every agency of Government should have centralized access to . . . the type of forensic tool and tactics successfully deployed by the Recovery Board.”
- The Recovery Board has created a pilot web portal for agencies to access a central repository of forensic and analytic tools to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse – federalaccountability.gov. Initial tests will conclude by February 2012 and at that point a determination will be made as to its usefulness to a broad range of users, and whether OMB should require all agencies to use this system.
- Rationalize the way that the government collects and displays spending data. “Information about Government spending today at all steps in the lifecycle is trapped in a complex web of systems and processes that are both overlapping and fragmented. . . . The Government must begin to consolidate and streamline these technology platforms that are serving common purposes. .
- The GAT Board has convened an expert group, the Interagency Technical Advisory Panel, which has concluded that it is technically feasible to create “a single automated electronic collection system that uses a limited but well-defined set of data elements [to] promote consistent reporting and data standardization, while reducing current recipients’ burden of reporting to multiple Government systems.”
- The GAT Board recommends that the Panel next “examine issues related to governance, performance metrics, costs, personnel requirements, alternative technological approaches, business processes, and other relevant areas necessary for the phased integration effort. The group should also consider the feasibility of linking the collected and displayed data to program information, including performance metrics.”
- Migrate to a universal, standardized identification system for all Federal awards. There are countless award identification systems and naming conventions in place today, agency-by-agency, that “make the task of reviewing and tracking spending data challenging even for the most expert investigator, much less the everyday taxpayer. Introducing consistency into the award process will . . . allow for more effective analysis and oversight.”
- The Recovery Board has engaged a non-profit Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) to “conduct a feasibility study.” To date, the FFRDC has “offered three solutions for implementation of a universal award ID, as well as three primary options for the format of the ID itself.”
- The next step is to engage Treasury and OMB to develop a specific solution, including “establishing a web-based centralized repository” that would “likn Treasury payments to specific awards. . .”
The GAT Board concludes that “there will still be much more work to be done” including “taking steps to link its spending to performance outcomes. Without the ability to link contract and grant expenditures to outcomes from programs, products, and services, Federal decision makers cannot ensure the public funds are being spent optimally.” It also promised to provide another progress report to the President by June 1, 2012.
Congress has agreed to appropriate $28.350,000 to the Recovery Board for FY 2012 and beyond, and given it authority “to develop and test information technology resources and oversight mechanisms to enhance transparency of and detect and remediate waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal spending, . . . to remain available until September 30, 2013 (p. 86).
Legislation Related to Spending and Performance Transparency:
Proposed Data Accountability and Transparency Act. Congressman Darrell Issa introduced legislation in June 2011 that would transform the role of the Accountability Board to cover the spending of the entire government, not just Recovery Act monies. Here’s the full text of H.R. 2146, and here’s the section-by-section summary. Senator Mark Warner has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Here's the full text of S. 1222.
Proposed Government Results Transparency Act. According to Government Executive’s Charles Clark, in “Expanded Data Transparency Bill Passed House Panel,” The Government Results Transparency Act (H.R. 3262) "would build a bridge between performance data and spending data," said Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., who introduced the bill this month. "Under GRTA, the government will finally be able to publish all of its performance data and spending data for each program on a public website in a format that makes it easy for anyone to search, download and analyze."
Earlier IBM Center Blogs on Recovery Act Implementation
Recovering from the Recovery Act, Part 1 (September 6, 2011)
Recovering from the Recovery Act, Part 2 (October 26, 2011)
Barrett & Greene: Blog on Recovery Act Implementation (2010) | <urn:uuid:ef8ff021-8dd9-496c-98e3-16177261fa0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessofgovernment.org/blog/business-government/recovering-recovery-act-part-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947306 |
How contagious is it?
During childhood, kids can be struck with a variety of illnesses and viruses. Some have slightly scary names like ‘slap face’ and others can be highly contagious.
But knowing how long to keep littlies away from others when they’re sick can be a bit confusing. Here’s a guide to the most common childhood illnesses, a brief list of their symptoms plus incubation and contagious periods.
Chickenpox is a red and itchy skin rash that usually begins on the torso as small red bumps which look like pimples. These become fluid filled, like blisters, and eventually erupt before scabbing over.
- Incubation: Between 10-20 days after exposure before the rash appears.
- How it’s spread: Through coughing and sneezing, or direct contact with an infected person.
- Infectious: It is highly contagious from a few days before the disease breaks out to, generally speaking, after all the spots scab over – usually about six days.
- Complications: While rare, some children can develop complications like pneumonia, encephalitis or a bacterial infection of the skin.
- Vaccine: Yes.
- Find out more about chickenpox
Whooping cough (pertussis)
Symptoms of whooping cough include long fits of coughing and wheezy breathing.
- Incubation: About 7 days after exposure.
- Infectious: The disease is especially contagious during the first week, however, the infectiousness lessens the following five to seven weeks. Children should be excluded from school for five days after the commencement of antibiotic treatment, and especially kept away from infants who may not have full immunity.
- Complications: Whooping cough is most serious in babies under 12 months of age and often requires admission to hospital. It can lead to complications such as haemorrhage, convulsions, pneumonia, coma, inflammation of the brain, permanent brain damage and long-term lung damage. Around one in every 200 children under six months of age who catches whooping cough will die.
- Vaccine: Yes
- Find out more about whooping cough
Slap face (Fifth disease/parvovirus)
A child with Slap face has red specks on the cheeks, nose, arms, thighs and buttocks which can blur, making it look like your child has been slapped.
- Incubation: About 14 days
- Infectious: Only before the rash appears.
- Complications: While a mild disease for children, there is a small risk to unborn babies if their mother is not immune. Infection during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy can rarely cause a form of anaemia in the baby – but in many cases these resolve before birth.
- Vaccine: No
- Get more information about slap face
Hand, foot and mouth (Coxsackievirus)
A child with hand, foot and mouth has a large number of small spots and blisters, particularly in the mouth and on the feet and hands. The disease can cause a slight fever for a few days.
- Incubation: 2-3 days
- Infectious: The disease is contagious as long as blisters or spots are still present.
- Complications: These are uncommon but can include dehydration because the sores in the mouth and throat make it difficult to drink, or infection of the sores.
- Vaccine: No
- Learn more about hand, foot and mouth
- Mumps create a general unwellness including fever and loss of appetite, along with swelling in the salivary glands on one or both sides of the face.
- Incubation: An average of 16 -18 days
- Infectious: 1-2 days before symptoms until about 5 days after.
- Complications: While potentially serious, complications are rare but can include meningitis, encephalitis and, in boys, orchitis in which the testicles can swell.
- Vaccine: Yes, as part of the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) combined vaccine.
- Find out more about mumps
Impetigo (school sores)
Impetigo is a skin infection caused by the Staphylococcus or Streptococcus bacteria, impetigo is characterised by small, crusting blisters that usually form on the face or limbs.
- Incubation: 1-3 days after exposure to Streptococcus and 4-10 days after Staphylococcus.
- Infectious: Impetigo is highly contagious – anything that touches the sores has a possibility of transferring the infection to either another person or another part of the body. Oozing sores remain infectious until they are treated.
- Complications: If left untreated, impetigo can lead to skin abscesses.
- Vaccination: No
- Find out more about impetigo
Seasonal flu is a respiratory illness with symptoms such as fevers, sore throat, a cough, general achiness, headaches and fatigue.
- Incubation: Usually 1-2 days but can be up to 5.
- Infectious: 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5-7 days after.
- Complications: Some complications caused by flu include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes. Children may get sinus problems and ear infections as complications from the flu.
- Vaccine: Yes
- Get more information about seasonal flu
Gastroenteritis often includes feelings of nausea, vomiting, cramping and diarrhoea.
- Incubation: 2-4 days after exposure in ingesting.
- Infectious: After symptoms appear, children are usually contagious for about 72 hours. The virus may discharged from the body through vomit or stools for 2 weeks or more after recovery, although it’s unclear whether the virus shed during this time is infectious.
- Complications: There is a risk of severe dehydration – particularly among young children – which can be very serious and will require medical attention, even hospitalisation.
- Vaccine: No
- Learn more about gastro
Symptoms of the common cold are characterised by nasal congestion, and can also include a sort throat, cough, irritability and a low-grade fever.
- Incubation: 2-5 days
- Infectious: People are most contagious for the first 2-4 days.
- Complications : Are unlikely but can include ear infections, sinusitis, chest infections and pneumonia.
- Get more information about the common cold
Tonsillitis symptoms include a very sore throat, fever, red or pus-covered tonsils and swollen glands in the neck.
- Incubation: 2-4 days
- Infectious: Until 48 hours after starting antibiotics; can be up to 2 weeks without treatment.
- Complications: Not common but tonsillitis can lead to secondary infections in the sinuses or middle ear.
- Vaccine: No
- Find out more about tonsillitis
Related childhood infections articles
- Learn more about bacterial and viral diseases
- Find out more about common childhood infections
- Get information about lung and respiratory infections
- Ear infections in kids
This article was written by Fiona Baker for Kidspot, Australia’s best family health resource.
Last revised: Tuesday, 14 December 2010
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.
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- What's the fuss about parabens? | <urn:uuid:f6bfd9e4-7050-4b16-9268-4c40ea4d4666> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidspot.com.au/familyhealth/schoolzone/Infections-and-Diseases-Bacterial-and-Viral-How-contagious-is-it+4178+196+article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917511 |
Shelter, animal control agencies focus on alleviating feral cat problems
|Feral cats run wild in many places in Carbon County. The animal shelter in combination with an animal hospital in the area have set up a program where people who are feeding the hard to catch animals can work out a program to trap them and have them neutered for a minimal cost.|
Cats possess an air of independence that tends to make people think the felines can survive in natural or non-domesticated setting.
Therefore, many individuals who end up with unwanted cats or kittens dump the felines off to get rid of the animals.
The problem of feral cats has existed for generations. But during the last few years, the matter has come to the attention of the general public because the problem has reached an almost epidemic level.
Wild cats are, in most cases, the result of ignorance on the part of people who fail to have the animals spayed or neutered.
The failure to spay or neuter cats virtually guarantees a number of offspring.
People may fear that taking the kittens to an animal shelter may lead to the felines being put to death.
Or perhaps people may be embarrassed because they did not have the parent cat fixed.
But the result is frequently the same - people send the unwanted cats out the door, either down the street or across town.
"It's a real problem in our area," emphasizes Patti Pierce, manager of the Carbon County Animal Shelter. "Many people just don't take care of their animals and then, suddenly, they have kittens and want to get rid of them."
The problem is severe in many parts of the country, causing dissention and anger among many people who love animals.
In December 1996, animal rights groups were enraged when the East Bay district board hired a contractor from the federal animal damage control agency to shoot and kill feral cats that were part of a human-fed colony in Garin Regional Park near Hayward, Calif.
Members of Community Concern for Cats and feline lovers, who had been feeding the feral animals as part of a trap-neuter-release program, raised an outcry of rage at the killings.
Often, people decide to take things into their own hands and, sometimes, act to satisfy other needs.
Last year, Carbon animal control personnel discovered numerous crude cat traps in the area that an unidentified resident had built.
Apparently, the individual had been trapping cats and using the animals for hunting practice.
But constructing the devices and following similar techniques to trap cats are unlawful practices.
The problem of feral cats is difficult to resolve, particularly as long as people do not care about what happens.
During the recent winter season, the Carbon Animal Shelter housed as many as 50 cats at one time. As of Monday, the facility had 31 cats. However, the situation will probably change in the near future. | <urn:uuid:cbd5ed91-d974-46a6-98f5-f0b27f59fe50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunadvocate.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=2894 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964272 |
During a briefing on the recent increase in the swine flu pandemic alert level to a full pandemic, World Health Organization Director General Dr. Margaret Chan highlighted the significant threat as the virus emerges in developing nations that have less infrastructure and health services available.
Dr. Margaret Chan - Director General of World Health Organization (F): Finally, and perhaps of greatest concern, we do not know how this virus will behave under conditions typically found in the developing world. Although the pandemic appears to have moderate severity in comparatively well-off countries, it is prudent to anticipate a bleaker picture as the virus spreads to areas with limited resources, poor health care, and a high prevalence of underlying medical problems. Countries should prepare to see cases, or the further spread of cases, in the near future. Countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a second wave of infection.
VOICE: Along with the pandemic having been escalated to its highest level, the number of confirmed cases and fatalities continue to rise. Throughout at least 74 countries, some 29,700 cases have been confirmed, with 145 people who have succumbed to the swine flu. Canada and some other afflicted countries said they began vaccine development and other measures before level 6 was reached and are already treating swine flu as an epidemic.
Dr. Margaret Chan (F): Influenza pandemics, whether moderate or severe, are remarkable events because of the almost universal susceptibility of the world’s population to infection. We are all in this together, and we will all get through this, together.
VOICE: Dr. Chan and the World Health Organization, many thanks for your concerted efforts to inform and protect the lives of the world’s people. We convey our sorrow and prayers for those who have suffered loss and for the recovery of people who have been stricken ill. May humanity turn more and more to the benefit of the vegan lifestyle to be free of unwanted occurrences such as these. | <urn:uuid:7dc95814-0c70-4900-bc3f-3415eadaf114> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.suprememastertv.com/it/bbs/board.php?bo_table=sos_it&wr_id=863&goto_url=veg&sca=sos_10&url=link1_0&eps_no=&show=&flag=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942542 |
Polar bears are just one of many unique species that live in the Arctic region (Image: Bjorn Alfthan/UNEP - www.grida.no)
Arctic special Why Arctic Ocean oil drilling is a risky choice
19th October, 2011
It's not a question of ‘if' a major spill will occur in the Arctic, but ‘when and where', says conservation biologist and oil industry expert Rick Steiner
As we enter the end of the age of oil, it is clear that most of the world's easily accessible oil has already been produced. Oil companies are now moving offshore into the last hydrocarbon frontiers - deepwater and the Arctic Ocean.
The dangers of deepwater drilling came into sharp focus in 2010 with the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, where 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over a 3-month period. Another high-risk environment is the Arctic Ocean, which geologists suggest may be the last significant oil and gas frontier left. As decisions are made on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, we need to understand and acknowledge the risks.
First, even if nothing goes wrong, there would be unavoidable impacts from each phase of oil development in the Arctic Ocean - seismic exploration, exploratory drilling, production platforms, pipelines, offshore and onshore terminals, and tankers.
Offshore oil development will include airplanes, helicopters, support ships, drill ships, platforms, artificial islands, icebreakers, waste streams from ships and rigs, lights and noise, extensive coastal infrastructure construction (ports, roads, causeways, staging areas), subsea pipelines, geotechnical coring, and noise from underwater seismic surveys. These industrial activities will add significant disturbance in an Arctic ecosystems already suffering terribly from warming.
The acoustic disturbance to marine mammals from offshore oil development is of particular concern, as underwater noise can affect communication, migration, feeding, mating, and other important functions in whales, seals, and walrus. As well, noise can affect bird and fish migration, feeding and reproduction, and can displace populations from essential habitat areas. Some of these impacts can be reduced or mitigated with lease stipulations, but most cannot.
And of course, beyond these unavoidable operational impacts, there is the very real risk of a large oil spill from exploration drilling, production, pipelines, terminals, and tankers. While government and industry ritually understate the risk of oil spills and overstate their preparedness, for high-risk environments such as the Arctic Ocean, we should assume that a large marine oil spill will occur.
In fact, for development off Alaska's Arctic coast, U.S. government authorities project the risk of a major spill at about 30 - 50 per cent, and that a worst-case blowout could release some 1.3 million barrels (58 million gallons) of oil.
So if drilling proceeds in the Arctic Ocean, then everything possible to reduce risk should be required. The risk reduction standard for the Arctic should go well beyond industry's preferred standard of ‘As Low As Reasonably Practicable' (ALARP), to ‘As Low As Possible' (ALAP), regardless of cost.
This highest safety standard would include best available and safest technology for all components of an offshore drilling program - blowout preventers with redundant shear rams, well design and integrity verification, proven seabed well capping equipment, independent well control experts on rigs, rigorous cementing and pressure testing procedures, dual well control barriers, immediate relief well capability on stand-by, state-of-the-art seabed pipeline design and monitoring, tanker traffic monitoring, strict seasonal drilling windows allowing sufficient time for response to late-season spills, robust spill response plans, rigorous government permitting and inspection, and Citizens Advisory Councils to provide effective citizen oversight. As well, financial liability for offshore oil spills in the Arctic should be unlimited, thereby motivating companies to incorporate the highest safety standards possible.
Not "if" but "when" a spill will occur
But regardless how safe we make offshore drilling in the Arctic, there will still be a significant risk of a major oil spill, and policy makers and industry need to be honest about this. People will make mistakes, and equipment will fail. It's not a question of ‘if' a major spill will occur, but ‘when and where.'
A major spill will travel with currents, in and under sea ice during ice season, and it would be virtually impossible to contain or recover. Even with robust oil spill response capability, in most scenarios far less than 10 per cent will be recovered, and a major spill could easily become a transnational event.
A large spill would undoubtedly cause extensive acute mortality in plankton, fish, birds, and marine mammals. As well, there would be significant chronic, sub-lethal injury to organisms - physiological damage, altered feeding behavior and reproduction, genetic injury, etc. - that would reduce the overall viability of populations.
There could be a permanent reduction in certain populations, and for threatened or endangered species, a major spill could tip them into extinction. With low temperatures and slow degradation rates, oil spilled in the Arctic would persist for decades. And a major oil spill in the Arctic Ocean could severely damage subsistence harvest opportunities, and forever change the lives of coastal peoples.
Put simply, oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean cannot be done without risk and serious impact. There will be chronic degradation, and there will be spills. So the policy question is whether we wish to expose the Arctic Ocean and its people to such risk.
Short-term profit motives
To many, offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean represents the classic fallacy of ‘suboptimisation': maximizing one component of a complex system to the overall detriment of the system as a whole.
For a few decades, there may be billions of dollars in profits earned, and billions of barrels of oil and gas equivalent in energy supplied. But the overall long-term cost to the region and global biosphere as a whole could be exorbitant, far outweighing the short-term benefit. Regardless of how safe we conduct offshore drilling in the Arctic, we would simply be doing in the best possible way something that we shouldn't be doing at all.
And therein lies society's fundamental choice with the Arctic. Do we continue our industrial expansion into one of the last wild and extreme areas of the world, extract and use the billions of tons of fossil carbon energy here, further degrading the environment of the region and world, and further delaying our necessary transition to a sustainable energy economy? Or, do we choose another, kinder and sustainable future for this magnificent place? Our choice here will tell us a lot about who we are, our selfless vs. selfish nature, and what our long-term future will be. Let's hope we choose wisely.
Rick Steiner is a Professor and Conservation Biologist at Oasis Earth
in Anchorage, Alaska
|HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Bruce Parry: the Arctic's climate is 'changing faster than anywhere else'
In his latest adventure the star of 'Tribe' and 'Amazon' journeyed to the Arctic to discover how climate change is affecting the native people there
Arctic special Putin’s Russia will lead a ‘new era of Arctic industrialisation’
The isolation of the white wilderness is coming to an end. Scientists and activists are urging caution but Russia is leading an urgent rush to exploit the Arctic’s oil and gas reserves. Tom Levitt reports
Arctic special How oil and corruption have become so closely linked
As a new oil-fever gathers pace in Arctic countries such as Greenland the lesson from history is that where there is oil, corruption will quickly follow. Eifion Rees reports
Arctic oil spill could take 'year or more' to clean up
Russia and the US are leading the scramble for oil and gas in the Arctic, but Gulf of Mexico pollution highlights danger of oil spills say campaigners
|HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Camille Seaman: photographing the disappearing Arctic
The Native American photographer Camille Seaman documents climate change effects on the Arctic and Antarctic. Her iceberg images are aesthetically pleasing, but the key message is that they may not be here for much longer
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Battles & Leaders of the Civil War
THE UNION LEFT AT STONE"S RIVER.
ADVANCE OF COLONEL M. B. WALKER'S UNION BRIGADE AT STONE'S RIVER.
" Common prudence and the safety of my army, upon which even the safety of our cause depended, left no doubt on my mind as to the necessity of my withdrawal from so unequal a contest,"
Bragg acknowledged a loss of over 10,000 men, over 9000 of whom were killed or wounded,-nearly 25 per cent. of the total force engaged. The loss in the Union army was, in killed, 1533 ; wounded, 7245 = 8778 ; and in prisoners, McCook, 2092 ; Thomas, 576 ; Crittenden, 821,-total, 3489. Apprehending the possible success of a flank movement against his left, General Bragg had caused all the tents and baggage to be loaded on wagons and sent to the r ear. On the night of the 3d he began his retreat and continued it south of Elk River whence he was ordered back to Tullahoma by General , Johnston.
THE UNION LEFT AT STONE'S RIVER.BY THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.THE battle of Stone's River, Tennessee, on the 31st of December, 1862, and the 2d of January, 1863, was one of the most fiercely contested and bloody conflicts of the war. The two armies that met in this conflict were made up of soldiers who, for the most part, had been disciplined by capable instructors and hardened by service in the field, both having made many long marches, and neither having been strangers to the perils of the battle-field. Moreover, these armies were ably commanded by graduates of the Military Academy at West Point - a military school, I think, not surpassed, if equaled, anywhere else. The duration of the battle, and the long list of the killed and wounded, show the stuff of which the two armies were composed. I do not think that two better armies, as numerous and so nearly matched in strength, ever met in battle.
I had the. good fortune to command the left wing of our army, and, thanks to the skill and bravery of the officers and men of my command, the enemy were not able to drive them from our first line of battle. On the 31st of December my extreme left was strongly posted, but my right was in an open field back from the stream. Still it was a fairly strong position by reason of the railroad and the railroad cut and the woods. Thomas's position in the center was not so strong as mine ; of McCook's, on our right, I knew nothing ; that it was less strong than ours, I presume from the fact that in spite of the most stubborn resistance McCook w as driven back two miles. or more, the whole right of the | <urn:uuid:b10af209-a389-49a6-a1f7-690c5214b7a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/books/battles/vol3/pageview.cfm?page=632 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973372 |
FAKE Christmas Tree Facts
- Most FAKE Christmas Trees (85%) in the U.S. are imported from China. Almost 10 Million FAKE Christmas Trees were sold worldwide in 2003. The U.S. Commerce Dept. tracks the Import of FAKE Christmas Trees.
- Have you ever wondered what the factories are like where FAKE Christmas Trees are made? As noted in the Washington Post, "On the concrete floors of Zhang's Shuitou Company factory, migrant workers, most earning about $100 a month, squat in front of hissing machinery as they melt chips into moldable plastic..."
- Most FAKE Christmas Trees are made of metals and plastics. The plastic material, typically PVC, can be a potential source of hazardous lead. Read a warning about them from the Children's Health Environmental Coalition.
- The potential for lead poisoning is great enough that FAKE Christmas Trees made in China are required by California Prop 65 to have a warning label.
- Some FAKE Christmas Trees have a wooden center pole. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture placed a quarantine on FAKE Christmas Trees from China, which had a potentially harmful beetle in the center pole.
- Overloaded electrical outlets and faulty wires are the most common causes of holiday fires in residences - these are just as likely to affect FAKE Christmas Trees as REAL Christmas Trees.
- As mentioned before, most FAKE Christmas Trees are manufactured in China and contain PVC (polyvinyl chloride). In fact, FAKE Christmas Trees were recently added to the Center for Health, Environment & Justice's list of household products containing PVC.
- According to the Children's Health Environmental Coalition, the manufacture of PVC creates and disperses dioxins, which include the most toxic man-made chemical known. Released into air or water, dioxins enter the food chain, where they accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and humans, a potential risk for causing cancer, damaging immune functions and impairing children's development. This issue is especially concerning due to China's weak enforcement of environmental regulations.
- FAKE Christmas Trees are a petroleum-based product manufactured primarily in Chinese factories. The average family uses a FAKE Christmas Tree for only six to nine years before throwing it away, where it will remain in a landfill for centuries after disposal.
It's time to stop supporting China's economy and start helping ours! Buy a REAL Christmas Tree from Brown's Tree Farm and know that the money you spend will go back into OUR economy!
Note: The information above was provided by the National Christmas Tree Association. We would like to thank the NCTA for all of their research and support. | <urn:uuid:2f03d1e0-6442-4fe4-aa33-55d5dd3fdb59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atreetoyourdoor.com/fake-tree-facts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93995 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pagophagia is the compulsive consumption of ice.It has been shown to respond to iron supplementation, leading some investigators to postulate that pica is the result, not the cause, of nutritional deficiency (specifically, deficiencies of iron, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorus). Folk wisdom (and some early investigators) maintained that pica reflected an appetite to compensate for some problems such as relieving some of the symptoms of low iron, including inflammation of the tongue and stomach.Later research, however, has demonstrated no evidence that the substances ingested provide any nutrient or mineral in which patients are deficient.
This article is based on an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and is available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
In the Wikipedia there is a list with all authors of this article available. | <urn:uuid:a75e1953-cd96-40ee-919a-ee6553904340> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lumrix.net/health/Pagophagia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900669 |
The invertebrate morphogenesis
The second section of Fleury’s paper is about The invertebrate morphogenesis and the example chosen is Drosophila the fly, which is the most studied of the invertebrates but far from describing the “invertabrates” morphogenesis in general, just take a look at a sponge. Two subsections, The fly bauplan and The homeobox genes.
2.1 The fly bauplan
The use of the term “bauplan” is dangerous and Fleury is aware of it, but he consider its use safe if global animal patterns (such as bilateral, radiate, etc.) are determined by general principles of symmetry [p5, footnote 8].
By deciding to use it (safely) he put himself in charge to prove that global animal patterns are determined by general principles of symmetry. Not described, determined.
That’s one of the main objects of the paper (if not the main) hidden in a footnote! Genetic specification/determinism of biological constituents seems beyond Fleury’s understanding and this lead him to some quite interesting assertions.
Is it true that “The initial “formless” animal is either round, as in vertebrates, or oblate (cigar-like), as in the fruit fly (and also in C. Elegans1).”. No, unless you consider formless (or “formless”) this, which is a Drosophila egg, from a dorsal point of view, with its respiratory appendages positioned anteriorly.
I’ve being a cigar amateur for over 20 years and never came across a cigar looking like a Drosophila egg.
Is it true that “[...] the fly ovocyte (syncitium), is roughly a one dimensional tube?” No, certainly not a tube (not hollow you see).
Concerning the definition of the antero-posterior axis Fleury got it almost right. Except that the gradient is not really the one of bicoid which is concentrated anterio-dorsaly (see fig. 3, upper panel), around the oocyte’s nucleus, but of bicoid, the protein, which diffuse in an anterio-posterior direction, probably not freely but transported along the microtubules, and producing a gradient. And bicoid is far from being the only gradient along the AP axis (just a flavor):
He seems unaware of the dorso-ventral polarization of the oocyte, or that both axes are defined during oogenesis.
He rightly indicates that bicoid is missing in other insects, but wrongly states that “some other gene has to take over this role in other species .“, the innovation being bicoid in Diptera.2
Let’s give a closer look at the cigar3:
Fig. 24. A diagram of a stage 10a Drosophila egg chamber showing localized signals that polarize the AP and DV axes of the embryo. bicoid mRNA (blue), oskar mRNA (red), gurken mRNA (green); pipe expression (dark green); and torsolike expression (magenta).
OK, that’s just a diagram, let’s go for the real thing, always much better:
This image is from the website of the Institute Jacques Monod, Antoine Guichet’s lab website; click on the thumbnail to visit. From Fleury’ lab to the IJM the distance is short. Maybe he will find somebody available to show him some Drosophila eggs.
So, Fleury’s description is at least partial if not simply wrong and I hope nobody else then Fleury will use it. It is dangerous to present to a naive reader such a nasty description of an object, as it may lead him to wrong conclusions. We have a case of SISO and one may wonder what will come out of Fleury’s description.
I will not repeat here the problems of figure 3, you can check that here.
Even the description of the bicoid protein gradient along the embryo is simplistic; it corresponds at the time where the steady-state is achieved, but lacks an interesting part of the developmental process, between the start of translation of bicoid and the reach of the steady stady-state of the gradient (if we assume that such a steady-stae is achieved).
Why is bicoid considered as a morphogenic gene? The author don’t mention it but it’s an important part of the story. That bicoid specify head’s morphogenesis.
Let’s see three of the assertions of the author and comment on them:
- In the same spirit, inside each stripe, cells are seen to align by local rearrangements.
- The stripes of expression correspond to actual cellular lines, which are congruent with concentration level lines.
- Current genetic networks do not take into account this cellular reorganization, likely linked to compression forces.
- So, “cells are seen to align by local rearrangements“, now that would be news. In fact stripes are produced by cells already in place by differential genes’ expression.
- The second phrase is correct (however a little bit fuzzy) but contradicts the first one.
- “likely linked to compression forces“. I wonder where this “likely” comes from. No reference and above all no explanation of where the “compression forces” come from and what specifies them.
We have here one more example of the rhetoric approach of Fleury, not willing to accept genetic determinism, and trying to cover his stance.
2.2 The homeobox genes
How many homeobox genes for the Drosophila melanogaster? Thirty. Check that, don’t believe me and certainly not Fleury, who presents just eight of them, belonging to “a single cluster of 8 genes“, which was probably the case in some ancestral animal but was divided in Drosophila in two complexes, Antp-C, controling specification of anterior regions (head and first thoracic segment) (labial, proboscipedia, deformed, sex combs reduced and antennapedia) and BX-C, controling specificationn of posterior regions (second and third thoracic, and abdominal segments) (ultrabithorax, abdominal-A and abdominal-B).
Domains of expression may overlap, or not, depending initially on the activity of selector genes, during the first hours of embryonic development, then on the activity of homeobox genes themselves.
The author have another way to present it:
This means physically that there is a spatial arrow at the scale of an organ or body part, which is somehow converted into a spatial arrow at the scale of the DNA, and/or vice-versa.
This is probably the weirdest phrase of the paper.
I do see clearly how gene’s expression can specify identity of body parts along the antero-posterior axis ; I suppose that’s what Fleury calls “spacial arrow at the scale of an organ or body part“.
“somehow converted into a spatial arrow at the scale of the DNA“?! Well… If you do have an explanation for this part the comments are open.
It is not just assumed that chemical gradients are chemical cues driving differential gene expression, it is proven that this is so.
It was also proven that mechanical cues participates to differential gene expression. And this is not the only physical factor influencing developmental stages,e.g. temperature is another one.
What seems to be of particular interest for Fleury are the genetically controlled endogenous morphogenetic movements described by Emmanuel Farge , which set’s unambiguously the information flow from the genome to the endogenous morphogenetic movements.
The specification of body segments by the expression of the Antp-C and Bx-C genes is presented in a rather weird way and certainly containing a huge mistake which is presented extensively here. The author not only fails to make his point that topological differences impairs homeotic transformations but demonstrates both a lack of knowledge of the subject he is dealing with and inability to use the scientific literature for a reality-check of his “points of view” before submitting the for publication. By the same, we have a glimpse of the papers reviewers inability to judge the quality of the author’s work.
Following his idea of mechanical forces as morphogenetic factors, without considering the genetic determinism of processes specifying these mechanical forces, the author attacks paired appendages morphogenesis. One can certainly define a basic appendage and trace it back to the first bilaterian which possessed it, and may even call this last common ancestor an archetype (in Darwin’s sense of the term, certainly not as a platonic archetype).
There are errors also in this part of the text but I hope some referee will see to correct them.
The last paragraph of this section is probably the most interesting and I’ll focus on it.
As the author explains, considerable efforts are dedicated to understand the specification of appendages growth and morphology in terms of genetic information required for. This will certainly lead to understand the specification of genetically controlled endogenous morphogenetic movements and their role in development as positional information cues driving cellular differentiation.
One expect from physicists interested by the subject to closely collaborate with evo-devo specialists and geneticists to help understand what mechanical elements are important and what are the genetic elements specifying them through the development of particular “physical phenotypes” and mechanosensitivity, at the molecular level.
Reminders of possibilities unconnected to the subject via experimental evidence may be used to built hypothetical theoretical models but at some point they should be connected with specific experimental data to be useful.
1. species names in italics, please; and eventually the full name of the species for the first occurrence in a text, especially if the public isn’t accustomed with biology (e.g. usual readers of a physical journal)
2. Patterns of conservation and change in honey bee developmental genes, Dearden PK, Wilson MJ, Sablan L, Osborne PW, Havler M, McNaughton E, Kimura K, Milshina NV, Hasselmann M, Gempe T, Schioett M, Brown SJ, Elsik CG, Holland PW, Kadowaki T, Beye M., Genome Res. 2006 Nov;16(11):1376-84
bcd is missing from the honey bee genome, a not unexpected finding given previous studies indicating that this gene evolved its anterior role in Diptera (Stauber et al. 2000, 2002). Its absence in the honey bee implies that other genes must carry out its function, possibly orthodenticle and Hunchback as has been shown in Tribolium (Schroder 2003) and Nasonia (Pultz et al. 2005).
3. So you have the complete solution for my quizz
4. Daniel St Johnston, The beginning of the end, The EMBO Journal Vol. 20 No. 22 pp. 6169±6179, 2001
Next time I meet someone who seems to have an arse where their head should be I’m gonna call them a son-of-a-bicoid!
Maybe I’ll add a son-of-a-bicoid category at coffeandsci. | <urn:uuid:f242f2cd-885e-47ff-aec4-82f31e4bd2e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cteappv.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/the-invertebrate-morphogenesis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913879 |
Translate fracture | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of fracture
1the cracking or breaking of a hard object or material:bone density testing can predict the risk for fracture a crack or break in a hard object or material, typically a bone or a body of rock:a fracture of the left leg the physical appearance of a freshly broken rock or mineral, especially as regards the shape of the surface formed. 2 Phonetics the replacement of a simple vowel by a diphthong owing to the influence of a following sound, typically a consonant. a diphthong substituted by a fracture.
break or cause to break: [no object]:the stone has fractured [with object]:ancient magmas fractured by the forces of wind and ice [with object] sustain a fracture of (a bone): (as adjective fractured)she suffered a fractured skull (with reference to an organization or other abstract thing) split or fragment so as to no longer function or exist: [no object]:the movement had fractured without his leadership
(as adjective fractured
) (of speech or a language) broken. | <urn:uuid:569c76fe-ecb4-40e6-a21e-6631ca41a326> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/fracture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898537 |
Gateways to Art
Understanding the Visual Arts
A Thames & Hudson book
A flexible format, inclusive approach, and comprehensive illustration program fit the many ways instructors teach Introduction to the Visual Arts.
From Thames and Hudson—the world’s leading art publisher—Gateways to Art facilitates instructor choice and offers unprecedented pedagogical support for students. Short chapters can be read in any order, with new vocabulary defined on the page as it occurs. Eight “Gateways to Art” images (from around the world and all eras) support the common course goal of learning to interpret art in multiple ways and help students build on what they already know. The text is balanced and global, with over 1,000 illustrations—from around the world, and from everyday life.
- October 2011
- 8.6 × 10.9 in
/ 630 pages
- Territory Rights: USA and Dependencies, Philippines and Canada.
Buy Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts and get Gateways to Art Journal for Museum and Gallery Projects for just $.00 more. Buy the package for $122.50
Loose leaf, three-hole punch
Ebook, Downloadable Version
Ebook, Online Version
Navigating the wealth of artworks in any museum or gallery can prove to be a challenge for first-time visitors. Indeed, students frequently do not get the most from their first visit to a museum or gallery because they are intimidated by an environment that is unfamiliar to them. In light of this challenge, the authors of Gateways to Art, First Edition have used their many years of teaching experience to produce an accompanying Journal carefully designed to help students learn as much as they can during their visit.More | <urn:uuid:6a978cc1-9dd0-492c-815c-62080b84f1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=23281 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911205 |
A yacht // is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt".[note 1] It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries. After its selection by Charles II of England as the vessel to carry him to Britain from Holland for his restoration, it came to be used to mean a vessel used to convey important persons.
In modern use the term designates two rather different classes of watercraft, sailing and power boats. Yachts are different from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose, and it was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels. Later the term came to encompass motor boats for primarily private pleasure purposes as well.
Yacht lengths generally range from 10 metres (33 ft) up to dozens of metres (hundreds of feet). A luxury craft smaller than 12 metres (39 ft) is more commonly called a cabin cruiser or simply a cruiser. A super yacht generally refers to any yacht (sail or power) above 24 m (79 ft) and a mega yacht generally refers to any yacht over 50 metres (164 ft). This size is small in relation to typical cruise liners and oil tankers.
Yacht (pron.: //, from Dutch/Low German jacht meaning hunting or hunt, compare Standard German/High German Jagd) was originally defined as a light, fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries. They were also used for non-military governmental roles such as customs duties and delivering pilots to waiting ships. The latter use attracted the attention of wealthy Dutch merchants who began to build private yachts so they could be taken out to greet their returning ships. Soon wealthy individuals began to use their "jachts" for pleasure trips. By the start of the 17th century "jachts" came in two broad categories—speel-jachts for sport and oorlog-jachts for naval duties. By the middle of the century large "jacht" fleets were found around the Dutch coast and the Dutch states organised large 'reviews' of private and war yachts for special occasions, thus putting in place the groundwork for the modern sport of yachting. Jachts of this period varied greatly in size, from around 12 m (39 ft) in length to being equal to the lower classes of the ship of the line. All had a form of fore/aft gaff rig with a flat bottom and lee boards to allow operations in shallow waters. The gaff rig remained the principal rig found on small European yachts for centuries until giving way to the "Bermudan sloop" rig in the 1960s.
Charles II of England spent part of his time in exile during the period of the Commonwealth of England in the Netherlands and became keen on sailing. He returned to England in 1660 aboard a Dutch yacht. During his reign Charles commissioned 24 Royal Yachts on top of the two presented to him by Dutch states on his restoration. As the fashion for yachting spread throughout the English aristocracy, yacht races began to become common. Other rich individuals in Europe built yachts as the sport spread. Yachting therefore became a purely recreational form of sailing with no commercial or military function (see, for example, the Cox & King yachts at the beginning of the 20th Century), which still serves a broad definition of both the sport and of the vessel.
Yacht ensign
Some countries have a special flag worn by recreational boats or ships that indicates the nationality of the vessel. Although inspired in the National flag, the yacht ensign is not always corresponding with the civil or merchant ensign of the state in question. The US yacht ensign for example, has a circle of 13 stars and a fouled anchor in the canton instead of the 50 stars, being quite different from the Ensign of the US, which is the flag of the United States.
Yacht ensigns differ from merchant ensigns in order to signal that the yacht is not carrying cargo that requires a customs declaration. Carrying commercial cargo on a boat with a yacht ensign is deemed to be smuggling in many jurisdictions.
Construction materials and techniques
Until the 1950s, almost all yachts were made of wood or steel, but a much wider range of materials is used today. Although wood hulls are still in production, the most common construction material is fibreglass, followed by aluminium, steel, carbon fibre, and ferrocement (rarer because of insurance difficulties). The use of wood has changed and is no longer limited to traditional board-based methods, but also include modern products such as plywood, veneers, skinned balsa and epoxy resins. Wood is mostly used by hobbyists or wooden boat purists when building an individual boat. Apart from 'space-age' materials like carbon fibre and aramid fibre, spruce veneers laminated with epoxy resins have the best weight-to-strength ratio of all boatbuilding materials. Many classes of small racing dinghies can only be built in wood to conform to class rules.
Sailing yachts
Sailing yachts can range in overall length (Length Over All—LOA) from about 6 metres (20 ft) to well over 30 metres (98 ft), where the distinction between a yacht and a ship becomes blurred. Most privately owned yachts fall in the range of about 7 metres (23 ft)-14 metres (46 ft); the cost of building and keeping a yacht rises quickly as length increases. In the United States, sailors tend to refer to smaller yachts as sailboats, while referring to the general sport of sailing as yachting. Within the limited context of sailboat racing, a yacht is any sailing vessel taking part in a race, regardless of size.
Day sailing yachts
Day sailing yachts are usually small, at under 6 metres (20 ft) in length. Sometimes called sailing dinghies, they often have a retractable keel, centreboard, or daggerboard. Most day sailing yachts do not have a cabin, as they are designed for hourly or daily use and not for overnight journeys. they may have a 'cuddy' cabin, where the front part of the hull has a raised solid roof to provide a place to store equipment or to offer shelter from wind or spray.
Weekender yachts
Weekender yachts are slightly larger, at under 9.5 metres (31 ft) in length. They may have twin keels or lifting keels such as in trailer sailers. This allows them to operate in shallow waters, and if needed "dry out"—become beached as the tide falls.This is important in the UK waters where many moorings are in tidal creeks. The hull shape (or twin-keel layout) allows the boat to sit upright when there is no water. Such boats are designed to undertake short journeys, rarely lasting more than 2 or 3 days . In coastal areas, long trips may be undertaken in a series of short hops. Weekenders usually have only a simple cabin, often consisting of a single "saloon" with bedspace for two to four people. Clever use of ergonomics allows space in the saloon for a galley (kitchen), seating, and navigation equipment. There is limited space for stores of water and food. Most are single-masted "Bermuda sloops", with a single foresail of the jib or genoa type and a single mainsail . Some are gaff rigged. The smallest of this type, generally called pocket yachts or pocket cruisers, and trailer sailers can be transported on special trailers.
Cruising yachts
Cruising yachts are by the far the most common yacht in private use, making up most of the 7 metres (23 ft)-14 metres (46 ft) range. These vessels can be quite complex in design, as they need a balance between docile handling qualities, interior space, good light-wind performance and on-board comfort. The huge range of such craft, from dozens of builders worldwide, makes it hard to give a single illustrative description. However, most favour a teardrop-planform hull, with a fine bow,a wide, flat bottom and deep single-fin keel with ample beam to give good stability. Most are single-masted Bermuda rigged sloops, with a single fore-sail of the jib or Genoa type and a single mainsail. Spinnaker sails, are often supplied for down-wind use. These types are often chosen as family vessels, especially those in the 26 to 40-feet (8 to 12 m) range. Such a vessel will usually have several cabins below deck. Typically there will be three double-berth cabins; a single large saloon with galley, seating and navigation equipment; and a "head" consisting of a toilet and shower-room. The interior is often finished in wood panelling, with plenty of storage space. Cruisers are quite capable of taking on long-range passages of many thousands of miles. Such boats have a cruising speed upwards of 6 knots. This basic design is typical of the standard types produced by the major yacht-builders.
Aside from this fairly standard design, built in numbers and using methods approaching mass production by the large yacht-building firms of Europe and North America, there are some common variations to suit a yacht for a more particular role or to emphasise one aspect of performance rather than the wide range of abilities needed in a standard design. The classic "long keel" yacht, where the keel is integrated into the lower portion of the hull and extends for all or most of the hull's length, rather than being a single fin attached to the hull at the centre, is still being built in small numbers. The long keel generally provides better directional stability, especially in rough weather, at the cost of greater weight, a narrower hull which decreases interior space, and poorer handling when under engine power or in tight conditions such as a marina.
Whilst the cutter rig with twin foresails was once the standard rig for most cruising yachts until the 1960s (when it began to be replaced by the two-sail sloop rig) it is now only commonly found on larger cruising yachts (usually around 15 m (49 ft) and over). Other rig variations are found on many different sizes of yacht such as the yawl, ketch, schooner and even unusual sail plans such as the junk rig.
A yacht may also be a "cruiser-racer", which as the name implies is a blend between the cruiser and racing variants. This is often a builder's existing design with changes to the rigging, sails, keel and controls to provide better performance. Some of the interior appointments may be reduced or removed to save weight.
The fixed fin keel is most commonly found on modern cruising yachts world wide but some are still built with twin 'bilge' keels or with lifting fin keels which retract into the yacht's hull. In both cases these allow the yacht to sit upright on the seabed in shallow water or on areas that dry at low tide.
Most large yachts, 16 m (52 ft) and up, are also cruisers, but their design varies greatly as they are often "one off" designs tailored to the specific needs of the buyer.
Luxury sailing yachts
These yachts are generally 25 metres (82 ft) or longer. In recent years, these yachts have evolved from fairly simple vessels with basic accommodation into sophisticated and luxurious boats. This is largely due to reduced hull-building costs brought about by the introduction of fibreglass hulls, and increased automation and "production line" techniques for yacht building, especially in Europe.
On the biggest, 130-feet-plus (40 m) luxury yachts, every modern convenience, from air conditioning to television, is found. Sailing yachts of this size are often highly automated with, for example, computer-controlled electric winches controlling the sails. Such complexity requires dedicated power-generation systems. In recent years the amount of electric equipment used on yachts has increased greatly. Even 20 years ago, it was not common for a 25-feet (7 m) yacht to have electric lighting. Now all but the smallest, most basic yachts have electric lighting, radio, and navigation aids such as Global Positioning Systems. Yachts around 10 metres (33 ft) bring in comforts such as hot water, pressurised water systems, and refrigerators. Aids such as radar, echo-sounding and autopilot are common. This means that the auxiliary engine now also performs the vital function of powering an alternator to provide electrical power and to recharge the yacht's batteries. For yachts engaged on long-range cruising, wind-, water- and solar-powered generators can perform the same function.
Racing yachts
Racing yachts try to reduce the wetted surface area, which creates drag, by keeping the hull light whilst having a deep and heavy bulb keel, allowing them to support a tall mast with a great sail area. Modern designs tend to have a very wide beam and a flat bottom aft, to provide buoyancy preventing an excessive heel angle and to promote surfing and planning. Speeds of up to 35 knots can be attained in extreme conditions. Dedicated offshore racing yachts sacrifice crew comfort for speed, having basic accommodation to reduce weight. Modern racing yachts may have twin rudders because of the wide stern. Since about 2000 water ballast transfer pumps have become more common as have transversely swinging keels. Both these stiffen the yacht and allow more sail to be carried in stronger winds. Depending on the type of race, such a yacht may have a crew of 15 or more. Very large inshore racing yachts may have a crew of 30. At the other extreme are "single handed" races, where one person alone must control the yacht.
Yacht races may be over a simple course of only a few miles, as in the harbour racing of the International One Design; long-distance, open-ocean races, like the Bermuda Race; or epic trans-global contests such as the Global Challenge, Volvo Ocean Race, Clipper Round the World Race and Mini Transat 6.50.
The motive force being the wind, sailing is more economical and environmentally friendly than any other means of propulsion. A hybrid type of vessel is a motor sailing yacht that can use either sail or propulsion (or both) as conditions dictate.
Many "pure" sailing yachts are also equipped with a low-power internal-combustion engine for use in conditions of calm and when entering or leaving difficult anchorages. Vessels less than 7 metres (23 ft) in length generally carry a petrol outboard-motor of between 3.5 kilowatts (5 hp) and 30 kilowatts (40 hp). Larger vessels have in-board diesel engines of between 15 kilowatts (20 hp) and 75 kilowatts (101 hp) depending on size. In the common 7 metres (23 ft)-14 metres (46 ft) class, engines of 20 to 40 horsepower are the most common. Modern sailing yachts can be equipped with electric inboard motors in order to reduce consumption of fossil fuel. The latest technology are outboard electric pod drives that can also regenerate electricity (motogens). These motogens can be made retractable to increase the efficiency of the yacht. Some of these yachts are extremely efficient and do not need additional diesel generators. This technology is called Green Motion. Tests can be seen and read in the following magazines: Yachting Monthly, November 2010; the German magazine Yacht, January 2011;the Water kampioen from the Netherlands, May 2011 and in Voile magazine in December 2011 in France. The Mansura Trophy was awarded for this new propulsion system in May 2011.
Hull types
Monohull yachts are typically fitted with a fixed keel or a centreboard (adjustable keel) below the waterline to counterbalance the overturning force of wind on the vessel's sails. Multihull yachts use two (catamarans) or three (trimarans) hulls widely separated from each other to provide a stable base that resists overturning.
Motor yachts
Motor yachts generally fit into the following categories:
- Day cruiser yacht (no cabin, sparse amenities)
- Weekender yacht (one or two basic cabins, basic galley appliances and plumbing)
- Cruising yacht (sufficient amenities to allow for living aboard for extended periods)
- Sport fishing yacht (yacht with living amenities and sporting fishing equipment)
- Luxury yacht (similar to the last three types of yachts, with more luxurious finishings/amenities)
Motor yachts typically have one or two internal combustion engines that burn diesel fuel or gasoline. Depending on engine size, fuel costs may make motor yachts more expensive to operate than sailing yachts.
Hull types
The shape of a motor yacht's hull may be based on displacement, planing, or in between. Although monohulls have long been the standard in motor yachts, multihulls are gaining in popularity.
See also
- Same Proto-Germanic root as German Jäger, as in Jägermeister
- Gardiner & Lavery, 1992, p. 68
- Gardiner & Lavery, 1992, p. 70
- Flags and Signals – A Guide to Etiquette and Usage
- Origin of the yacht
- Fraser, Antonia, Royal Charles. A number of editions exist.
- Gardiner, R & Lavery, B, The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship 1650–1840, 1992 (2004 edition), Conway, ISBN 0-85177-954-9
- Partridge, Eric, Origins, A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, Greenwich House, 1983, ISBN 0-517-41425-2
|Look up yacht in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
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Major River Systems in the Arctic
The Arctic has several of the world’s largest rivers.This graphic shows the major river systems of the Arctic and their annual discharges in cubic kilometres, and the catchment area of the Arctic Ocean. The major river systems shown are the Mackenzie, Yukon, Nelson, Kolyma, Indigirka, Lena, Kotya, Yenisey, Ob, Pechora, Severnyy and Dvina.
28 Sep 2005 - by CAFF (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna); see source field
Glacier shrinkage in hypothetical river basins
Downstream variation in the impact of glacier recession is
illustrated in Figure 5, which shows modelled river fows for
idealized catchments under climates representative of the
western and eastern Himalaya and a 0.06º C per year warming scenario. In the upper parts of the river basins, where
glaciers occupy 95% of the catchment area, the impact of glacier shrinkage is large. River discharges increase until mid-century, after which they de...
06 Dec 2010 - by Riccardo Pravettoni | <urn:uuid:1ad764a0-538a-4798-8ae5-e73df6095f06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/tag/catchment-area | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878957 |
FAQs for New Computer Users
Below, you will find a listing of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) of new computer users. Click on the question that you have and you will be taken to the answer. Click on the Back to Top link after the question to come back to the Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- What types of processors are there?
- What is RAM?
- What is a hard disk?
- How does a computer write information to the hard disk?
- What kinds of keyboards are there?
- What is a mouse?
- What kinds of "mice" are there?
- Do I have to use a mouse?
- How can I protect my computer from power surges?
- What is a COM Port?
- What is a Parallel Port?
- What is a USB Port?
- What is the difference between internal and external components?
- What is a Motherboard?
- What is a Sound Card?
- How do I start up my PC?
- How do I shut down my PC?
- What is a Warm Boot? What is a Cold Boot?
- What is Windows?
- What are Directories and Folders?
- Why can’t I use my software straight out of the box?
- Why do I need to backup my computer?
- What is a computer virus?
- How do I keep from getting a computer virus?
- What is the "Blue Screen of Death"?
- How do I download files?
- How do I install software?
- What is a computer "Bug"?
- Where can I find further information?
The processor is used to power the computer. The speed of the processor is measured in GigaHertz (GHz). Manufacturers of processors for Windows computers include Intel and AMD.
RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is the primary area where the computer stores information as it is processed.
The hard disk is an internal storage device which holds programs and data used by your computer. It consists of magnetic platters with read/write heads that float above the platters to record and play back data.
Solid-state drives are starting to become more affordable. They have no moving parts making them extremely reliable. SSDs will eventually replace hard disks.
Unlike a cassette tape, a computer writes information to the hard disk in a sequential manner. One file’s data may be scattered around the disk. As files are deleted or edited, blank spaces may appear around the disk.
The standard microcomputer keyboard consists of 104 keys arranged in the standard typewriter or QWERTY layout. A separate numeric keypad is at the right side of the keyboard and can be toggled on or off by pressing the "Num Lock" key. When on, the keys act like the keys of an adding machine or calculator; when off, the keys act like the arrow keys for moving the cursor around the screen. Special ergonomic keyboards are available (sometimes referred to as "Natural" keyboards) where the keyboard is split in the middle and the keys are rotated outward to reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury caused by prolonged keyboarding. Some keyboards include touchpads to remove the need of a separate mouse. If you do not like wires, try purchasing a wireless keyboard.
A mouse is a handheld device for moving the pointer around the screen. If you do not like wires, try purchasing a wireless mouse.
The standard PC mouse consists of two buttons, each of which functions differently in Windows. A single click of the left button on an icon selects the item, a double click (clicking twice in rapid succession) will open the file or program, and a single click of the right button will open a pop-up menu offering choices relative to the item clicked. Some mice include a roller between the two buttons for easy scrolling of windows. Instead of having to move the pointer to the down scroll arrow on the screen, one can roll the roller on the mouse. This is especially helpful when looking at web sites. In addition to the traditional mouse, there are touchpads, large and small trackballs, and graphics tablets. Touchpads are most often found on notebook computers and are a good replacement for desktop computer users with small hands who do a lot of mouse work.
Not always. Almost all functions that you can do with a mouse can be replaced with keyboard commands. If you have problems using a mouse or tend to type on the keyboard a lot, keyboard commands will save you time. To learn the keyboard equivalents, observe the menus when you click on them (they can also be opened by pressing "alt" with the underlined letter of the menu name at the same time). If there is a keyboard equivalent, it will be notated to the right of the menu item. For example, the copy command is usually ctrl-c and paste is usually ctrl-v.
One of the best things that you can do for your computer is to purchase a surge protector. This is different than a power strip. While both may offer a single on-off switch and multiple electrical outlets, only the surge protector will help protect your computer from lightning or fluctuations in the electrical current in your home. A power strip will only shut off if the circuit is overloaded. For a little extra money, you can purchase a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which will keep your computer running long enough in case of a power outage so that you can save data and properly shut down the computer.
A COM Port stands for communications port and is also referred to as a Serial Port. Most computers have at least four COM ports internally which modems or other internal peripherals use. Every computer has at least one and usually two external COM ports for physically attaching external peripheral devices, such as external modems, scanners, and digital cameras. The COM port has nine pins.
(See letter "G" in the diagram above.)
A parallel port is also referred to as the printer port since that is usually the device that plugs into it. While plugging these devices into the parallel port makes them extremely easy to set up, the speed is not as fast as when used with an USB port. The parallel port is easily identified by its 25 holes. Parallel ports are being replaced by USB ports.
(See letter "C" in the diagram above.)
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and is a common component on new computers. The port looks like a flat slot. Up to 127 devices can be chained together and attached to the computer. Many new computer peripherals (printers, digital cameras, scanners, speakers) come with USB adapters that allow the user to plug the unit into the computer and use it immediately without having to install expansion cards inside the computer and make manual adjustments to the computer settings.
(See letters "B" & "F" in the diagram above.)
Internal components are devices that are either built-in to the motherboard of the computer, added in on an expansion card, or a device attached to the motherboard by way of ribbon cables. External devices are added to the computer system by plugging them into one of the ports on the back of the computer.
The motherboard is the main circuit board of the computer and as such acts as the "circulation system" of the computer. All signals used by the computer are processed by the motherboard. Memory chips, the central processor, expansion boards and cables to disk drives all attach to the motherboard.
A sound card is an expansion card that is required in order to hear sounds from a CD-ROM or any audio file. Sound cards offer outlets for plugging in headphones or microphones.
First, press the power button. The computer will make some beeps while it goes through a self-check of the system components.
To properly shut down your computer, click on the Start button and select "Shut Down." This will give you the option to restart or shut down your computer. The computer will close any open programs that you are using and ask you to save any unsaved data before it shuts down. If you computer stops responding and a warm boot does not work, you may have to press and hold the power button for several seconds until it shuts down.
You perform a cold boot every time you press the power button on your computer. To "boot" the computer means to start it up and reset the memory and BIOS. Pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys simultaneously while the computer is running performs a warm boot. You may need to do this if the computer stops responding. If the warm boot fails to restart the computer, you will need to resort to a cold boot by pressing the power button for five seconds, waiting ten seconds and then turning it back on.
Windows is a Microsoft operating system that uses a graphical user interface (GUI) so the user can interact with their computer.
Directories or folders work like a filing cabinet in your computer. They help keep your hard disk organized by keeping system files together or program files together and separate from data files. Some types of files include executable or program files (file names end in .exe), dynamic link libraries (.dll) which are called upon by programs to do routines, and initialization files (.ini) which are used by certain programs to store startup settings.
Most software programs are complex and large in size. The programs are compacted when packaged for sale or downloading and therefore need to be installed onto the computer's hard drive before they can be used. Some CD-ROM programs do work directly off the disc and do not need to be installed. Software installation extracts the executable portion of the program (.exe files) and places these and other necessary files in various directories on the computer so they can be used directly from the hard drive.
As mentioned previously, program files and data are stored on the computer’s hard disk. The hard disk is a mechanical device that is susceptible to physical damage from jarring or strong magnetic forces. Viruses may infect your computer and wipe out important data. Your computer should have backup software that allows you yo make copies of important data.
A computer virus is a malicious computer program that infects the computer memory or hard disk. Some are comical and will simply change the display on your monitor while most are designed to do damage to the data on the computer. Boot sector viruses are especially damaging since they rewrite the information needed to start up and access your computer’s hard disk. Trojan horses are destructive programs disguised as something harmless like a game. Worms are programs written to replicate themselves until the computer’s memory or hard drive is completely used up at which time the computer crashes and becomes inoperable. A good place to learn more about computer viruses is CERT’s web site (http://www.cert.org/)
Make sure you computer has current anti-virus software. Scan files before sharing. There are plenty of good paid and or free anti-virus products.
The Blue Screen of Death signals a major problem with the computer. Make a note of the message that you see on the screen. This is often useful when trying to solve the problem. Save your data frequently. Rebooting your computer will usually solve the problem temporarily. If it happens often, investigate the problem.
Downloading files from the Internet is similar to copying files from your hard disk. Clicking on the file link for a program will start the process. When you are prompted, you will select the folder where the file will be saved after it is downloaded.
Some programs need to be installed to the hard disk before they can be used. From My Computer or Windows Explorer locate the file named "install.exe" or "setup.exe." Double click on the file and follow the prompts to complete the installation of the software.
A computer bug is a problem in the programming that is unknown at the time of release of the program. As users use various aspects of the program and put it through its paces, problems in the program come to the fore and are referred to as bugs. These bugs are then solved and program patches or upgrades are released to registered users to repair the problem.
Web Site for Further Information:
- Tech Support Guy – http://www.techguy.org/
Books and Videos at RPL:
Search the catalog using a WORD search for: | <urn:uuid:37c04c1e-83bc-47c6-8655-1742833d91c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rodmanlibrary.com/node/751 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936502 |
University Of Phoenix
Gen/480-Interdisciplinary Capstone Course
Dr. Arlene A. O'Leary
December 11, 2007
The role of learning is very important to your personal growth and development. Education does not necessarily ensure honesty. Theodore Roosevelt once declared, "A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad" (ctd. in Allen, n.d, Great Quotes--Education). Let us not judge. Intelligence can be defined as the capacity for understanding, thinking, and reasoning. An education, specifically a college education, can help me to gain the skills to understand, think, and reason on a more intellectual level. The formal education process for a college degree was formed to develop such skills.
I have always believed that general education courses, which are a mandatory part of the acquisition of a bachelor's degree, are useless and unnecessary. These courses help to shape me into a professional person that I want to be by giving me a foundation in several subject areas and assisting me in determining an appropriate intellectual path throughout my long pursuit of a college degree. Courses in arts, social sciences, science and technology, English, and humanities allow me to learn about the world in which I live from different perspectives. Courses in the arts can help me to build a creative skill. The social sciences contain courses in psychology and sociology which deal with the study of the human mind and people, respectively. Science and technology courses can teach me about the world from a mathematical, scientific, and technological perspective. The one subject that I have had the hardest time with since 8th grade; English has helped me to develop the abilities in writing and reading comprehension. The humanities course I have not took as of yet I think they touch upon history and the people who lived in... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2007, 12). Gen480 Past Present and Future. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 12, 2007, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Gen480-Past-Present-Future-129105.html
"Gen480 Past Present and Future" StudyMode.com. 12 2007. 12 2007 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Gen480-Past-Present-Future-129105.html>.
"Gen480 Past Present and Future." StudyMode.com. 12, 2007. Accessed 12, 2007. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Gen480-Past-Present-Future-129105.html. | <urn:uuid:8c79ef14-c329-437a-9a05-d5c0d79ebd3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Gen480-Past-Present-Future-129105.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92387 |
The Windows Runtime (WinRT) is the underlying runtime for Windows 8 Store Apps (“Metro”), but some of it can be actually used outside the Metro environment, in regular desktop apps, such as pure Win32, MFC, etc.
There are several ways to go about it; most of the time we’ll use the Windows Runtime Library (WRL) to help out with some of the low level details. Or, for a true high level abstraction, we can use the C++/CX extensions to the C++ language (making our code non-standard). But, just for kicks, let’s see how we can access WinRT types with no help at all – just the raw APIs.
We’ll start by opening Visual Studio 2012 and creating a simple Win32 Console application and give it some name (TestWinRT in the screenshot):
WinRT can be viewed as a better COM, and that’s the approach we’ll take. What I want is to be able to access the Windows::Globalization::Calendar class and use it to get the current time.
The first thing we need to do is add some #includes. First, for general C++ thingies:
Next, we need to add the header for the Ro* API functions (the replacement for the classic COM Co* family of functions):
The last #include we’ll need is the one the defines what a Calendar is. Luckily, the required header has the same name as the namespace where Calendar is defined, namely Windows::Globalization:
We’ll need to link with the library that implements all the global functions we’ll use in a minute. This library turns out to be runtimeobject.lib, although this is not specified in any of the function documentations, as far as I could tell. This is probably due to the incomplete nature of the docs at this time.
#pragma comment(lib, "runtimeobject.lib")
Next, we’ll add some using namespace statements to make our life a little easier:
using namespace std;
using namespace ABI::Windows::Globalization;
The namespaces starting with ABI provide the public surface of WinRT. After that, the “regular” WinRT namespaces appear.
It’s time to start coding the main function. First, we need to initialize WinRT, which is done using the RoInitialize function:
In classic COM, this was done with CoIntialize(Ex), and surprisingly enough, replacing the call with CoInitialize(Ex) works as well with WinRT (but I wouldn’t actually do that in a real app). For those who know about COM apartments, the same applies there – the thread must enter an apartment before any WinRT calls can be made – in this case it’s the multithreaded apartment (more on apartments in a future post…); the apartment type is unimportant for our simple example.
Next, we need to create an instance of the Calendar class. For that we need to call RoActivateInstance, the WinRT replacement for the classic COM CoCreateInstance. Contrary to CoCreareInstance, RoActivateInstance uses a string as the class name and not a GUID. That string is represented by an HSTRING – the WinRT string. Here’s how to create one and get the calendar instance:
HRESULT hr = ::WindowsCreateString(className.c_str(), className.size(), &hClassName);
hr = ::RoActivateInstance(hClassName, &pInst);
WindowsCreateString is the WinRT API to create an HSTRING, which is an immutable character array. In C++/CX, it’s wrapped by the Platform::String class, but here we’re using the raw API. RoActivateInstance returns a pointer to IInspectable*, which is the new base interface in WinRT (still inherits from IUnknown). We’ll take a look at how the class is located in a few moments.
Next, we need the actual ICalendar interface – this requires a QueryInterface call (I’m omitting error handling for brevity):
hr = pInst->QueryInterface(__uuidof(ICalendar), (void**)&pCalendar);
That’s it. We’re ready to use the calendar. Here’s an example:
INT32 hour, minute, second;
cout << "Time: " << setfill('0') << setw(2) << hour << ":" << setw(2) << minute << ":" << setw(2) << second << endl;
We should clean up properly:
Running the application produces the following:
Where does the class come from?
In classic COM, CoCreateInstance accesses the registry at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, looking for the class ID and then loads the DLL (assuming it’s a DLL), calls some global function (DllGetClassObject), etc. What about WinRT?
Let’s set a breakpoint before the call to RoActivateInstance and fire up Process Monitor, looking for registry, process and file activity. Here’s the filter configuration of ProcMon, focusing on our TestWinRT.exe process:
Stepping over the RoActivateInstance line and stopping ProcMon’s event gathering shows where the registry is searched:
It’s similar to the classic COM case, but the search is based on the full class name and not the GUID. That one points to the GUID. Here’s a snapshot from the registry:
After all these registry lookups, the correct DLL is finally loaded:
As with classic COM, a class factory is required and obtained from the DLL by looking for a particular export, DllGetActivationFactory (as opposed to the classic COM DllGetClassFactory). We want show this in this post.
So, there you have it. We created a WinRT-based Calendar object and used it in a desktop app.
In the second part, we’ll take a look a some shortcuts for working with WinRT from desktop apps. | <urn:uuid:5a841c52-48ae-4ae4-84d1-9746b059deb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/pavely/archive/2012/09/13/accessing-winrt-from-desktop-apps-part-1.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.816131 |
American born author, Jack Kerouac was born to French-Canadian parents. His known baptism name was Jean Louis Kirouac but referred to as Ti Jean or little John. Kerouac spoke the French-Canadian dialect called Joual until he learned English at age six, not speaking it confidently until his late teens.
In an article in Le Devoir by Gabriel Ancil, Kerouac’s articles in the Montreal newspaper revealed the existence of two unpublished novellas Kerouac wrote in French in the early 1950s. One of them, Sur le chemin, was composed at high speed in William Burroughs’ apartment in Mexico City. In the other, La nuit est ma femme, Kerouac identified French as the language in which he often swears, often dreams, and always cries.
In the same article it was also revealed on the 50th anniversary of his novel masterpiece On The Road that Kerouac’s first version was in French. The first ten pages were laid down on January 19, 1951, several months before writing the first version of the English novel. | <urn:uuid:facabbb4-ac2e-4276-a7ba-d3386281ab31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hollywoodpolyglot.tumblr.com/post/6480945320/american-born-author-jack-kerouac-was-born-to | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987116 |
OSIRIS THE GOD OF THE RESURRECTION.
The Egyptians of every period in which they are known to us believed that Osiris was of divine origin, that he suffered death and mutilation at the hands of the powers of evil, that after a great struggle with these powers he rose again, that he became henceforth the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, and that because he had conquered death the righteous also might conquer death; and they raised Osiris to such an exalted position in heaven that he became the equal and, in certain cases, the superior of R[=a], the Sun-god, and ascribed to him the attributes which belong unto God. However far back we go, we find that these views about Osiris are assumed to be known to the reader of religious texts and accepted by him, and in the earliest funeral book the position of Osiris in respect of the other gods is identical with that which he is made to hold in the latest copies of the Book of the Dead. The first writers of the ancient hieroglyphic funeral texts and their later editors have assumed so completely that the history of Osiris was known unto all men, that none of them, as far as we know, thought it necessary to write down a connected narrative of the life and sufferings upon earth of this god, or if they did, it has not come down to us. Even in the Vth dynasty we find Osiris and the gods of his cycle, or company, occupying a peculiar and special place in the compositions written for the benefit of the dead, and the stone and other monuments which belong to still earlier periods mention ceremonies the performance of which assumed the substantial accuracy of the history of Osiris as made known to us by later writers. But we have a connected history of Osiris which, though not written in Egyptian, contains so much that is of Egyptian origin that we may be sure that its author drew his information from Egyptian | <urn:uuid:9ad32735-06dc-4bcb-a629-7111644646d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/11277/19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980974 |
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...prince of all Russia.” The title tsar was derived from the Latin title “caesar” and was translated by Ivan’s contemporaries as “emperor.” In February 1547 Ivan married Anastasiya Romanovna, a great-aunt of the future first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.
...boyar who lived during the reign of the grand prince of Moscow Ivan I Kalita (reigned 1328–41), the Romanovs acquired their name from Roman Yurev (d. 1543), whose daughter Anastasiya Romanovna Zakharina-Yureva was the first wife of Ivan IV the Terrible (reigned as tsar 1547–84). Her brother Nikita’s children took the surname Romanov in honour of their grandfather, father of a...
What made you want to look up "Anastasiya Zakharina-Yureva"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:323c52e9-8252-4c7f-b767-4097dd7b722c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/655455/Anastasiya-Zakharina-Yureva | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946255 |
Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen.
And they could eventually be used to make more advanced prosthetic limbs, say researchers at University of Texas.
Writing in Science, they say these artificial muscles are 100 times more powerful than the body's own.
They said they could even be used in "exoskeletons" to give superhuman strength to certain professions such as firefighters, soldiers and astronauts.
Two types of muscle are being investigated by US researchers at the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas, working with colleagues from South Korea.
Both release the chemical energy of fuels, such as hydrogen and alcohol, while consuming oxygen.
In effect they are replicating the first stage in "breathing" - by taking in oxygen. The existing form of artificial muscles are driven by batteries.
However, neither of the types developed by the Texan researchers resembles a normal muscle - being made up of wires, cantilevers and glass bottles.
The most powerful type, "shorted fuel cell muscles" convert chemical energy into heat, causing a special shape-memory metal alloy to contract.
Turning down the heat allows the muscle to relax.
Lab tests showed that these devices had a lifting strength more than 100 times that of normal skeletal muscle.
Another kind of muscle being developed by the team converted chemical energy into electrical energy which caused a material made from carbon nanotube electrodes to bend.
Dr John Madden, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, writing in Science, said "the approach could transform the way complex mechanical systems were built".
He said the artificial muscles mimicked nature in a number of ways.
"The muscle consumes oxygen and fuel that can be transported via a circulation system; the muscle itself supports the chemical reaction that leads to mechanical work; electrochemical circuits can act as nerves, controlling actuation; some energy is stored locally in the muscle itself; and, like natural muscle, the materials studied contract linearly."
But he said the challenge now was to create a circulation system like that of humans that replaces the wires in the artificial muscles.
Dr Madden said pressures needed to be generated so that waste gases could be produced, and the artificial muscles could truly be described as "breathing". | <urn:uuid:7fde72a5-8291-4232-8337-f694540ccb5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4817848.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949024 |
A cell phone mockup with conventional antenna.
The nation's 5.6 million hearing aid users sometimes get too much buzz from interference by nearby cellular phones. Some parts in the hearing aid act as unintended antennas and couple the energy from phones to the hearing devices. The coupled energy is demodulated in the phone's amplifier circuits, producing the irritating buzz hearing aid wearers know so well.
ECE graduate student Taeyoung Yang says the solution could be a new antenna. He proposes solving this problem with a UWB antenna that minimizes near-field radiation from the phone as well as interference to hearing aids, pacemakers, and other medical devices. Yang, with advisors William Davis and Warren Stutzman, designed an antenna and installed it on a cellular phone mockup. The low-Q (ratio of total non-radiating energy to average radiated power per radian) antenna has low non-radiating stored energy in the near field, reducing interference with hearing aids and potential power absorption by the human head, while not reducing far field performance.
A cell phone mockup with proposed UWB antenna.
His project, entitled ‘Cellular Phone and Hearing Aid Interaction: An Antenna Solution,’ won a national honorable mention in the 2007 FEKO student competition for simulation techniques used to solve electromagnetic problems. He also received Virginia Tech's Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Award for scientific originality and contribution. | <urn:uuid:63b7d2c1-e951-4115-ab2a-03357c0ab7d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ece.vt.edu/news/ar08/hearingaids.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934981 |
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Make a three-dimensional model of the periodic table.
Start with the enjoyable task of making this ingenious and colourful tower model which shows all the elements which have so far been discovered. They spiral downwards according to their electronic structures, hence, the name chemical helix.
The tower has eight sides and so, those elements which come above and below each other on the tower share chemical properties, just as they do in the conventional periodic table.
Included is an extensive minibook packed with ideas and explanations about the elements.
Having been a chemistry buff with a somewhat inventive mind (as the repair bills on my highschool chem lab can attest) I have always been an advocate of a better way to illustrate the relationships between chemical elements, than the good ol' Periodic Table.
Finally, these two authors have created possibly one of the most brilliant models accessible to children, and interested adults.
The Helix Tower has all the elements, from Hydrogen right through to Ununnilium (yup, that's it's real name) in an elegant helix-and-tanble combination that makes it very easy to understand the relationship between the elements, see the electron valence shell and how it determines chemical properties, atomic weight, neutron count, the lot.
The book even has enough room to include a cute mobile that illustrates the electron shell theory and family-groups, giving yet another 'handle' on atomic structure and it's connection to chemical properties.
With the wonderful minibook common to this series, containing all the theory, information, diagrams and explainations, this would have to be classed as a truely comprehensive guide to atomic theory. With the models giving great a learning for those with a kinethetic and visual-cue leaning style, it is simply a brilliant addition to any highschool chemistry lab... along with comprehensive accident insurance.
Overall, I am impressed that such learning resources are now available, and slightly miffed that I had to learn it all the hard way because no-one was able to develop it back when I was blowing holes in benchtops with sodium and water.
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In 1955, at seventeen years of age, Judith Graham entered the Dominican Order and began her life as Sister Stephen. In this compassionate yet frank account she recalls her years as a Dominican nun during the repressive pre-Vatican II era.
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Previously, we discussed the issue of what a research paper really is and have come to conclusion that ideally
a research paper is your own thoughts based on your thorough analysis of what you previously knew and what you managed to research about your topic
So what, right? Theoretically, this is the most important thing you should know about academic writing. Practically, this doesn't make our lives easier. But here is one thing that WILL facilitate your writing, guaranteed. Read this carefully:
KNOW WHAT YOU WRITE.
One of the most important elements of an A+ Grade paper is the understanding you the student have of these different research papers types and your ability to write each type of paper according to the expected paper format. While the type of research paper is usually stated in the paper requirement information provided by your tutor, there are times when the paper type will be implied rather than directly stated and this is where an accurate interpretation of the paper requirements is so important to a good passing grade. In the paragraphs below are some hints on what may be expected in seven different research paper types, which are:
ARGUMENTATIVE PAPERS present two sides of a controversial issue in the one paper. A good argumentative paper will include in-text citations from researchers that present logical facts from both sides of an issue, and will conclude with the author analyzing the pros and cons of each argument. The confusing element of an argumentative paper is that the author is expected to favor one side more than the other on an issue, but the research and analysis must be un-emotive and factual and include both sides of the argument. For example a student may be asked to complete a paper on "The importance of nature and nurture on a child's predicted teenage behavior." The author may believe that either nature or nurture may be more important from their own research on the issue but a good paper on this topic will include information from researchers on both sides of the problem, and even in this case information from researchers that believe both sides are equally important.
ANALYTICAL PAPERS also include information from a range of sources but the focus on this type of research paper is in analyzing the different viewpoints represented from a factual rather than opinionated standpoint. The author of an analytical paper may focus on the findings, methodology or conclusions of other researchers and will conclude such a paper with a summation of the findings and a suggested framework for further study on the issue.
DEFINITION PAPERS are relatively self-explanatory. They describe a topic from a factual standpoint that is usually devoid of emotion or the opinion of the author. Although the definition research paper will include facts from a variety of sources, this information is left unanalyzed and contains only actual facts found in another's research paper findings. While a definition paper might be considered difficult to write especially by those students who enjoy discussing issues from their own perspective a good definition paper can provide a valuable information framework for other argumentative or analytical reports on the same topic.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPERS are often used in literature courses to compare two different authors, or stories from a particular genre. However they can also be required in social sciences to compare two different theoretical viewpoints; in philosophy to compare the thoughts of two philosophical frameworks and even in business studies where different leadership styles could be compared for example. The important part of a compare and contrast paper is that while both elements in the paper need to be described succinctly, the main part of the paper will be the comparison and contrasting examples provided by the author to support a thesis.
CAUSE AND EFFECT PAPERS trace the probable or expected results from a particular action or policy in a logical progression that is easily followed by the reader. Used in business and education fields in particular a good cause and effect paper will not only outline the predicted results from the action/situation specified, but also where applicable show the range of results that could arise from this one situation through to its logical conclusion.
REPORTS often follow a memorandum or similar business format and they are often written to outline a case study situation. For example a report could be commissioned by your tutor to describe the key issues in a workplace scenario - perhaps from a human resources standpoint. The report would include a summary of the situation to date; an identification of the main issue or concern; a breakdown of the elements of this main issue and then recommendations on how to address the issue based on research on the topic. While a comparison essay for example will use "If…but" or similar statements, the report will c
ontain short factual sentences devoid of emotion. Reports usually include an executive summary that takes the place of an abstract in this type of research paper, as well as supporting evidence in the form of appendix, graphs and tables.
INTERPRETIVE PAPERS are often required by tutors in literature, humanities and social sciences and they require the student to use the theoretical knowledge gained in a course of study to a particular case study example such as a piece of art or a poem in literary fields; a business situation in a management course; or a psychological case profile in either sociology or psychology fields. The key element of an interpretive paper is evidence that the student has written the paper based on an established theoretical framework and has used supporting data to back up the thesis statement and findings of the paper.
The variety of formats and genres for research papers can appear a bit daunting at first glance but as you work through this course you will come to understand the fundamental differences in these paper types, and how you can structure your research papers to best showcase the expert information you have acquired through your course of learning. As most university grade courses include up to 80% of their marking component on comprehensive answer (read 'correct usage of a research paper type'), it is really important that you correctly define what type of paper you are to write and what you need to include in it. In my next lesson, I will give you specific templates for ALL types of papers you will need. With these templates, you will be able to write research papers of any type without an effort. I hope your participation in this course can realistically help you achieve the A+ grade you want to graduate with.
Apart from the above-mentioned 7 types of papers you are to write while in college, there are 30+ more types of academic papers you should know about. I'll talk about them in later posts. | <urn:uuid:208ff359-2910-466b-a333-c3137222b74d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.personal-writer.com/blog/7-most-popular-types-of-research-papers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95242 |
A government budget is a legal document that is often passed by the legislature, and approved by the chief executive-or president. Budget (from French bougette, purse generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator For health care, only certain types of revenue may be imposed and eaten. Property tax is frequently the basis for municipal and county revenues, while sales tax and/or income tax are the basis for state revenues, and income tax and corporate tax are the basis for national revenues. Property tax, or millage tax, is an Ad valorem tax that an owner pays on the value of the property being taxed A township (or Municipality) is a settlement which has the status and powers of a unit of local government A county is a Land area of Regional Government within a larger State. A sales tax is a Consumption tax charged at the Point of purchase for certain goods and services Corporate tax refers to a Tax levied by various jurisdictions on the Profits made by companies or associations.
The two basic elements of any budget are the revenues and expenses. In business revenue or revenues is Income that a company receives from its normal business activities usually from the sale of goods and services In common usage an expense or expenditure is an outflow of Money to another person or group to pay for an item or service or for a category of costs In the case of the government, revenues are derived primarily from taxes. Government expenses include spending on current goods and services, which economists call government consumption; government investment expenditures such as infrastructure investment or research expenditure; and transfer payments like unemployment or retirement benefits. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA use Double-entry accounting to report the monetary value and sources of output produced in a country and the distribution of incomes National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA use Double-entry accounting to report the monetary value and sources of output produced in a country and the distribution of incomes In Political science and Economics, a transfer payment is a payment of money from a government to an individual for which no good or service is required in return
Budgets have an economic, political and technical basis. Unlike a pure economic budget, they are not entirely designed to allocate scarce resources for the best economic use. They also have a political basis wherein different interests push and pull in an attempt to obtain benefits and avoid burdens. The technical element is the forecast of the likely levels of revenues and expenses. | <urn:uuid:7c0e1229-3995-4de8-9f49-718c27169bcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.citizendia.org/Government_budget | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96404 |
Adelaide Boot: A side-laced cloth ankle boot with a small heel, named after the Queen Consort of William IV.
Albert Slipper: Slipper with the vamp extending upwards to form a tongue which rests on the instep.
Alpargata: A Spanish shoe with a rope sole and canvas upper. Laces are threaded through the top edge of the shoe, crossed, and tied around the ankle.
Ankle Strap Shoe: A shoe fastened by a strap buckled around the ankle. The strap can be either of the bracelet type, passing through a loop at the back of the shoe, or two straps, one on either side, crossing in front or back of the foot, and buckling around the ankle.
Apron Front: A boot or shoe with an oval-ended apron on the top front. Derived from the moccasin.
Arctic Boots: 1) waterproof rubber boots worn over regular shoes. Usually with zipper closing. Popular in 1940’s, and revived in 1970’s. 2) Over the shoe boots introduced in the late 19th century. Made of fabric and lined with rubber, this boot had moulded rubber soles and fastened at the front with a series of metal hooks and slotted fasteners. Also known as galoshes.
Babydoll Shoes: Low-heeled shoes with wide rounded toes, sometimes with straps around the ankles. Similar to the Mary Jane shoe. Popular for women in the late 1940’s and revived in the 1960’s.
Ballerina Shoe: A soft, low shoe with a thin sole and flat heel, sometimes with a drawstring throat. Inspired by shoe worn by ballet dancers and popular in the 1940’s for schoolgirls.
Balmoral boot: A closed front ankle boot with a galosh.
Bar shoe: A shoe with straps to button or buckle over the instep.
Bellows Tongue: A pleated tongue stitched in on each side under the lace holes.
Birkenstocks: A brand name that came to describe one of their products - the Arizona, an open sandal with two wide leather straps across the top of the foot. Birkenstock now has hundreds of colours and styles available.
Blucher: Open tab front lace boot with a straight side seam. Originally made with the quarters in one piece with no back seam.
Boating Shoe: Canvas shoe similar to a tennis shoe, but made with a non-skid rubber sole for walking on slippery decks. Also called the deck shoe.
Body Boot: A woman’s long, tight fitting boot, reaching to the thigh. Introduced in late 1960’s.
Bottom: The under part of the shoe.
Brogue: A laced shoe with many sections, which are punched and serrated around the edges.
Buskins: Calf length boots which laced up the front, resembling a laced half boot.
Carriage Boot: Women’s fur-trimmed boot for winter. Made of fabric or leather, and worn over other shoes to keep feet warm in unheated carriages or automobiles in early 20th century.
Chain Loafer: A moccasin type slip-on shoe with a low heel, trimmed with metal links over the instep. Popular in mid and late 1960’s.
Chelsea Boot: An ankle boot with a triangular elastic insert on both sides. Popularized by the Beatles in the early 1960s, causing this boot to be eventually known as the Beatle boot.
Chopine: A shoe with a raised sole, worn first by the courtesans of Venice during the Renaissance and quickly spreading to the rest of Europe. They were worn over a slipper shoe, giving height to the wearer. Chopines were made of wood, and reached heights of up to 30 inches.
Coburg Boot: A half boot with side slits that soon developed into the side-lacing boot. Also known as the Oxonian.
Colonial Shoe: Medium heeled slip-on shoe with a stiffened tongue over the instep. Frequently decorated with a large ornamental buckle. Worn in 17th and 18th centuries, and revived often.
Chukka Boots: An ankle high boot for men and boys, laced with two sets of eyelets and made of unlined sueded cowhide with thick crepe-rubber soles. Originally worn by polo players, but adopted for general wear in the 1950’s.
Clogs: Footwear made either completely of wood, or having a wooden sole to which a leather, rubber, or cloth covering may be attached. Until the end of the 18th century, clogs were what the majority of people wore on their feet, as they were inexpensive and protective.
Colonial Shoe: medium heeled slip-on shoe with a stiffened tongue over the instep. Frequently decorated with a large ornamental buckle. Worn in 17th and 18th centuries, and revived often.
Combat Boots: Ankle-high laced boots worn by the United States armed forces and adopted by other countries and for street wear. Made of waterproof leather.
Construction Boot: A laced boot of heavy leather with a heavy rubber sole, reaching to the ankle or just above.
Co-respondent: Two-toned oxfords made of coloured leather. Also known as spectator shoes.
Counter: A piece of stiffening material between the upper’s outside and the lining at the back of the shoe.
Cowboy Boot: High-heeled, mid calf-high boot, usually for men. Can be highly ornate, often in two tones.
Creedmore Boot: Calf high laced work boot with two buckled straps at the top. Popular during late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Creole Shoe: Heavy work shoe with elastic side gores. Worn by men in early 20th century.
Cromwell Shoe: A shoe inspired by the fashions of the 17th century Puritans. These had a high tabbed front and a buckle and enjoyed popularity from 1885-1900.
Cuban heel: A fairly straight sided heel.
D’Orsay Shoe: A pump with a closed heel and toe, cut down to the sole at the sides leaving the shank bare.
Derby: A boot or shoe with the eyelet tabs stitched on top of the vamp. Similar to the blucher or gibson.
Desert Boot: A type of chukka boot introduced in the 1960’s. Made primarily of suede cowhide or calfskin, usually lined. Laced through eyelets, with a rubber sole and heel.
Doc Martens: A brand name for boots and shoes that became popular street wear for sub-culture groups in the late 70s. By the end of the century, they were available in hundreds of colours and styles.
Domed Sole: A sole that is rounded up at the sides.
Elevators: Man’s shoe with extra wedges inside the heels to give the wearer added height. Popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Engineer Boot: Man’s straight-sided boot with a low heel and strap across the instep. Some have a leather or elastic gusset at the top on the outer sides.
Escaffignons: Flat, light shoes which were slashed at the top. Also known as eschapins.
Espadrille: French canvas shoe with a rope sole. The toe and vamp are cut in one piece and seamed to the quarter at the sides. May have laces around the throat which are wrapped around ankle. Similar to the Spanish alpargata.
Evening Slipper: Delicate shoe worn with evening clothes. Women’s styles include pumps or sandals. Men usually wear a patent leather pump.
Flat: Any shoe with broad low heels. Worn by women and children for school or general wear.
Floats: Similar to chukka boot, but having a thick crepe sole and thick pile lining. Worn mainly by men and boys in early 1960’s.
Galosh: 1) an overshoe 2) an extension of the vamp wings seamed at the back. (see Balmoral)
Gambado: A rigid waterproof casing worn over riding boots to protect the expensive leather.
Ganymede Sandal: An open toed sandal derived from an ancient Greek style, with vertical straps coming from the sole up the legs, crossed at intervals.
Geta: A high platform shoes worn by Japanese women. The styles varied from the very ornate geta worn by the highest class of geisha, to simple undecorated wooden geta worn by the lower-class.
Gibson Shoe: A boot similar to the Derby, but with wide laces.
Ghillies: A shoe of Scottish origin with the lacings through loops instead of eyelets.
Gladiator Sandal: Flat sandal with several wide cross straps holding the sole to the foot, with one wide strap around the ankle.
Go-go Boots: Boots of ankle or calf-height with a space-age look and a comfortable heel, making them ideal for dancing for long periods of time. Adopted by teen dancers and seen on dance television shows, the boots were named after the go-go dancers who wore them. It is said that Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots were made for Walking" also aided in popularizing the boots.
Granny Boots: A women’s boot laced up the front in imitation of the high-topped shoes of 19th century.
Grecian Sandal: Low cut flat sandals with ribbons that crossed and tied around the ankle.
Half Boot: A low boot, extending just above the ankle.
Heel Breast: The front edge of the heel of a shoe.
Heel: The raised part of the shoe under the heel of the foot.
Hessian Boot: A man's knee high boot cut with a "V" in the front introduced into England from the German state of Hesse in the 19th century. Also called Souvaroffs.
Huarache: Mexican sandal consisting of closely woven leather thong forming vamp, with a sling back and flat heel.
Hush Puppies: Trade name for casual oxford or slip-on shoes with suede leather uppers and crepe soles.
Italian Heel: A heel formed by the arch of the shoe angling down, making the heel wide at the top and narrow at the ground.
Jockey Boots: A high leather riding boot.
Jodhpur Boot: An ankle high boot fastened with one buckle at the side, worn for horseback riding and later adopted for popular wear.
Jungle Boot: A type of combat boot used by the United States Army in the Vietnam War. Made with a heavy steel shank and tiny drainage holes in sides and heel.
Kiltie Shoe: A shoe with a fringed tongue folded over front of the shoe, covering the laces. Adapted from a Scottish golf shoe.
Latchet: The top fronts of the quarters extended into straps.
Loafers: Slip on shoes with a moccasin toe construction and slotted straps stitched across vamps. Can be decorated with metal chains or tassels.
Louis Heel: A heel with the breast covered with a downward extension of the sole.
Mary-Jane: Child’s low heeled slipper made of patent leather with a blunt toe and one strap over the instep, buckled or buttoned at the centre or side.
Moccasin: A shoe made of one piece of material drawn up and around the foot. Served as a basic foot covering for people in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Today describes the popular shoe that retains the one-piece wraparound leather construction but may have added a separate hard sole.
Monk Shoe: A shoe with the quarters extending over the tongue, usually fastened with a strap and buckle.
Mousers: Women’s leather stocking-pants reaching to waist with attached chunky shoes made of shiny wet-look leather. Introduced in late 1960’s.
Mule: A backless shoe for indoors or out.
Open-shank sandal: A sandal shaped like a D'Orsay Pump with a strap around the ankle or over the instep.
Open-shank Shoe: Women’s shoe with closed toe and heel, but open on sides down to sole.
Open-toed Shoe: Women’s shoe with the toe section cut out.
Opera Pump: A plain, undecorated women’s pump with a medium to high heel. Cut from a single piece of leather or fabric.
Oxford: A closed tab lace shoe, with eyelet tabs stitched under the vamp.
Pantofle: A soft shoe or slipper.
Patten: An overshoe with a raised sole to elevate the wearer off of the dirty streets. The sole was wooden, with a leather vamp that tied over the foot with latchets. For the wealthy, it was fashionable to have a matching shoe and patten. They were fashionable during the gothic period, but continued to be worn during later periods as a necessity.
Penny Loafers: Loafers with a slash in the strap across each vamp, into which a coin may be inserted.
Platform Shoe: Shoes with a thick mid-sole, made of cork, wood, or leather and covered with the same material as the upper. Popular for women in the 1940’s, revived in the 1960’s and 70’s, and again in the 1990’s for both men and women.
Poulaine: Men's shoes with ridiculously long toes, which were stuffed to hold their shape. Worn prior to the Renaissance period.
Pumps: 1) Since mid 16th century, a soft, flat shoe with thin soles for men and women. 2) Closed slip on shoe with low cut rounded throat and medium to high heels.
Quarter Lining: A lining for the rear part of a shoe upper.
Quarter: The area of a shoe covering the sides and back of the foot.
Rain Boot: Lightweight plastic or rubber stretch galoshes that may be folded and carried in the purse.
Richelieu: A womens boot, coming to the ankle, laced or fastened with three buttons. Also known as the Oxford.
Riding Boots: A boot reaching up to the knee, made of high-quality leather. Worn with breeches for horseback riding.
Rubber Boots: A moulded rubber waterproof boot, with or without insulated lining. Worn over the shoe or in place of it for protection against rain or shoe. Popular for children.
Rubbers: Low cut rubber shoes to pull over regular shoes for protection against water.
Sabot: A heavy work shoe worn by European peasants, especially in France and the Low Countries. The sabot was shaped from a single piece of wood.
Saddle Oxford: Oxford with plain, rounded toe, usually made of white buck calf with brown or black smooth leather section across laced portion.
Sandal: Believed to be the world’s first crafted foot covering, the sandal was the basic footwear of ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Greece and Rome. A firm sole protects the soles of the feet, while minimal uppers allow air to circulate freely. In the 20th century, the sandal was reintroduced in North America and Europe for fashion footwear.
Shank: The area including the ball and instep of the foot, where the body’s weight falls when the foot is in motion.
Shells: A very low cut pump for women with shallow sides set on low or flat heels.
Side-gore Shoe: Slip on shoes with triangular insertions of elastic at the sides.
Sling Back: A shoe with a strap around the back of the ankle in place of the quarters.
Sling Pump: Pump with an open back, held on the heel by a slender strap, sometimes buckled at the side.
Sling-back Shoe: Any shoe or sandal with an open back and a strap around the heel or the foot to hold it in place.
Slip On: Shoe with no fastening which slips onto the foot easily.
Slipper: A soft and lightweight covering into which the foot is easily slipped. Worn indoors by men and women.
Sneakers: Canvas oxford with rubber soles. Used for athletics and general sportswear.
Sole: A shoe’s bottom or ground contact piece of material.
Spanish Heel: A high thin heel with a curved breast.
Spats: Short for spatterdash, a cloth or leather gaiter covering the shoe upper and the ankle and fastening under the shoe with a strap.
Squaw Boot: A boot falling just below the knee made of buckskin with a fringed turned down cuff, soft sole, and no heel. Worn by Native American women and popular with young people in the 1960’s,
Stadium Boot: A calf-high fur or pile lined boot worn over shoes. Popular for football games in the 1950’s.
Stiletto Heel: A thin heel, usually with a metal support down the centre.
Straights: Shoes made symmetrically, for either foot, with no distinction between left and right.
Tap Shoe: Any shoe with metal plates at tip of toe and back edge of heel to increase sound. Men’s style is usually patent leather pump or oxford, while women’s style is usually patent leather pump with a ribbon instep tie or buckle.
Thong: A flat, often heel-less sandal held to the foot by narrow strips of leather, plastic or fabric coming up between first and second toes and attached at either side.
Toe Cap: A reinforcing or decorative layer at the toe of the shoe.
Toe Spring: The elevation of the undersurface of the sole at the toe to give a slight rocker effect to the shoe. The amount of toe spring, which is built into the last, depends on the shoe style, sole thickness, and heel height.
Tongue: An extension of the shoe vamp beneath the lacing.
Top Boot: A high boot usually having its upper part made of a different material or with leather of a contrasting color or texture.
Top lift: The layer of a shoe heel that actually meets the ground.
T-Strap Sandal: A sandal with a strap coming up from the vamp to join a second strap across the instep, forming a T shape.
Upper: The part of the shoe covering the top of the foot.
Vamp: The forward part of a shoe upper that comes over the toe and is attached to the sole.
V-Strap Sandal: A sandal with a strap around the heel, attached to the sole by vertical straps at sides, and then meeting at the centre front of the vamp forming a V.
Waders: Rubber boots for fishing, made of rubber or lightweight flexible vinyl pressed to cotton jersey. Waders come in three heights, mid-calf, to the hip, or chest high with suspenders over the shoulders.
Wedge Heel: A heel extending under the waist of the shoe to the forepart.
Wellington Boot: A man’s boot usually made of water repellent leather with oak-tanned soles and rubber heels. The Wellington may have a bootstrap.
Welt: A narrow strip of leather stitched to the shoe between the upper and the sole.
Wing Tip: Oxford with appliquéd leather on the toe, reinforcing and decoration the tip.
Winkle Pickers: British slang for exaggeratedly pointed shoes worn in the early 1950’s. | <urn:uuid:e8c52083-2c53-41b6-8865-df849ac576bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.footwearhistory.com/resourcesglossary.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930646 |
How do the social worlds in which we live – from our closest personal relationships, to the small groups and broader communities to which we belong – define who we are, shape our beliefs and values, affect our well-being, and determine how we behave? In turn, how do our responses to the social environment shape the social environment itself? These are the broad questions that are the focus of social psychology.
Social psychology at SFU emphasizes questions of practical and theoretical importance. Faculty in the social area at SFU demonstrate that a rigorous social science can engage questions of basic human processes while also providing insights relevant to the society in which we live. Our research uses a variety of methods, including experimental, correlational, and qualitative approaches, in laboratory and field settings.
The social psychology area at Simon Fraser University conducts research on the following topics:
For more detailed information click on individual faculty members in the list above.
- Self concept, collective identity
- Intergroup relations, prejudice and discrimination, intergroup contact, collective action
- Adjustment and functioning in intimate relationships
- Altruism, prosocial behavior
- Happiness, well-being | <urn:uuid:c377e98c-cf16-41a8-8685-77f495dfec09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psyc.sfu.ca/index.php?topic=social | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894184 |
The fact that improper use of the system can easily cause a system crash necessitates some level of control. The design of the microprocessor architecture on practically all modern systems (except some embedded systems) offers a series of privilege levels -- the (low) privilege level in which normal applications execute limits the address space of the program so that it cannot access or modify other running applications nor the kernel itself. It also prevents the application from using any system devices (e.g. the frame buffer or network devices). But obviously any normal application needs these abilities; thus it can call the kernel. The OS executes at the highest level of privilege and allows the applications to request services via system calls, which are often implemented through interrupts. If allowed, the system enters a higher privilege level, executes a specific set of instructions which the interrupting program has no direct control over, then returns control to the former flow of execution. This concept also serves as a way to implement security.
With the development of separate operating modes with varying levels of privilege, a mechanism was needed for transferring control safely from lesser privileged modes to higher privileged modes. Less privileged code could not simply transfer control to more privileged code at any arbitrary point and with any arbitrary processor state. To allow it to do so would allow it to break security. For instance, the less privileged code could cause the higher privileged code to execute in the wrong order, or provide it with a bad stack.
Generally, operating systems provide a library that sits between normal programs and the kernel, usually an implementation of the C library (libc), such as glibc. This library handles the low-level details of passing information to the kernel and switching to supervisor mode, as well as any data processing and preparation which does not need to be done in privileged mode. Ideally, this reduces the coupling between the kernel and the application, and increases portability.
On exokernel based systems, the library is especially important as an intermediary. On exokernels, OSes shield user applications from the very low level kernel API, and provide abstractions and resource management.
On Unix-based and POSIX-based systems, popular system calls are open, read, write, close, wait, exec, fork, exit, and kill. Many of today's operating systems have hundreds of system calls. For example, Linux has 319 different system calls. FreeBSD has about the same amount (almost 330).
Tools such as strace and truss allow a process to execute from start and report all system calls the process invokes, or can attach to an already running process and intercept any system call made by said process if the operation does not violate the permissions of the user. This special ability of the program is usually also implemented with a system call, e.g. the GNU/Linux strace is implemented with i.a. ptrace().
Implementing system calls requires a control transfer which involves some sort of architecture specific feature. A typical way to implement this is to use a software interrupt or trap. Interrupts transfer control to the kernel so software simply needs to set up some register with the system call number they want and execute the software interrupt.
For many RISC processors this is the only feasible implementation, but CISC architectures such as x86 support additional techniques. One example is SYSCALL/SYSRET which is very similar to SYSENTER/SYSEXIT (the two mechanisms were created by Intel and AMD independently, but do basically the same thing). These are "fast" control transfer instructions that are designed to quickly transfer control to the kernel for a system call without the overhead of an interrupt. Linux 2.5 began using this on the x86, where available; formerly it used the INT instruction, where the system call number was placed in the EAX register before interrupt 0x80 was executed.
An older x86 mechanism is called a call gate and is a way for a program to literally call a kernel function directly using a safe control transfer mechanism the kernel sets up in advance. This approach has been unpopular, presumably due to the requirement of a far call which uses x86 memory segmentation and the resulting lack of portability it causes, and existence of the faster instructions mentioned above.
WIPO PUBLISHES PATENT OF CISCO SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL FOR "A SYSTEM FOR VERIFYING A VIDEO CALL NUMBER ENTRY IN A DIRECTORY SERVICE" (AMERICAN INVENTOR)
Dec 27, 2011; GENEVA, Dec. 27 -- Publication No. WO/2011/159164 was published on Dec. 22. Title of the invention: "A SYSTEM FOR VERIFYING A...
US Patent Issued to E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. on March 1 for "Call-Number Based Customer Identification Method for Personalizable Internet Portals" (German Inventors)
Mar 08, 2011; ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 8 -- United States Patent no. 7,898,989, issued on March 1, was assigned to E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG...
MISDIALING WISCONSINITES FLOOD CANADIAN LINE THEIR FINGERS ARE TRIPPING UP AS THEY DO THE WALKING ON THE WAY TO THE NO-CALL NUMBER.(LOCAL/ WISCONSIN)
Nov 30, 2004; Byline: Ed Treleven Wisconsin State Journal Dozens of Wisconsin residents eager to avoid dinnertime calls from telemarketers have... | <urn:uuid:4c6c64b3-d664-40d4-88a8-5c1f10fea927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/call+number | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925377 |
On Tuesday, June 5, UCS released a report, “High and Dry,” that analyzes the prospects of genetic engineering to reduce crop losses to drought, and to develop crops that use less water. How we deal with losses from drought—the single largest cause of crop loss—and the growing and unsustainable demand for clean fresh water, of which agriculture uses the largest share, are important questions for the coming century. In parts of China, India and the U.S., groundwater sources used to grow our crops are already disappearing or becoming more expensive to tap.
In several articles, industry spokespeople commented about the report. In particular, one spokesperson claimed that Monsanto’s new drought tolerant corn, which is evaluated in “High and Dry,” uses less water than other corn under severe drought. Another spokesperson commented that we should use all means possible to produce enough food. Do these industry claims hold water?
DroughtGard Does Not Require Less Irrigation
The notion that drought tolerant crops use less water per unit of food than non-tolerant crops is usually not true. More often, according to scientists that work in this field, drought tolerant crop varieties do not use less water. That the identification of drought tolerance with water-use efficiency is a common misconception can be seen in an otherwise solid article about engineered drought tolerant crops in the New York Times from 2008.
The article did a good job discussing the neglected power of breeding to address drought tolerance. It also cited one scientist who discussed conventional drought tolerant corn developed for Africa with 20 to 50 percent improved drought tolerance. At the time, Monsanto claimed its corn would increase yields by 10 percent under drought. We now have preliminary data from Monsanto that DroughtGard improves yields by only about 6 percent in moderate droughts. Or, put another way, DroughtGard has about 10 percent yield loss under moderate drought compared to about 15 percent yield loss for some conventional corn varieties. The article also points out the problem of unintended adverse effects from the engineered gene on other aspects of crop performance (pleiotropy, in genetics jargon). Both of these topics are addressed at length in “High and Dry”.
But the NYT article muddies the differences between drought tolerance and water use efficiency, seemingly equating them at several points. It is an understandable error. I was under the same illusion before I did the research for “High and Dry”.
Many of agriculture’s water problems arise from overuse of river or groundwater sources for irrigation. So it is important for water efficient crops to use less irrigation water and still produce normal yields.
Both high crop productivity and water use efficiency are important goals. The biotech industry often uses the threat of food shortages in coming decades—and claims that it will improve yields—as important reasons to support biotechnology.
Given that both productivity and water use efficiency are important, it would be undesirable to sacrifice one goal in order to promote the other.
But DroughtGard does not maintain normal yields if irrigation is reduced, according to Monsanto’s data in its petition for deregulation, submitted to USDA. In other words, it’s not more water efficient. The only way for DroughtGard to use less water is to sacrifice yield.
Missing the Point
An industry spokesperson also made the often heard argument that we should use all available means to address the urgent and challenging problems of producing enough food.
But in practice, the technological fixes that the companies push do not foster the use of some of the best means to produce food sustainably. Despite the known benefits of sustainable methods like cover crops and long crop rotations to suppress pests, build soil fertility, increase biodiversity and reduce pollution, these practices are not widely used. The genetic engineering industry wants us to invest in practices that allow it to sell more herbicides or fertilizers, not in improving practices like crop rotations that do not rely on buying more of their products.
Instead of sustainable agriculture, we have increasing reliance on a few crops, which has the opposite effect on the environment. For example corn acreage, driven by higher prices and ethanol mandates, is now at about 96 million acres, about 22 percent higher than a decade ago.
And public sector crop breeding, which can adapt crops to local environments to increase resilience and to better fit in sustainable farming systems, has been neglected. The large majority of competitive grants in the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) go to research on genomic methods of breeding—which, while important, should complement, not exclude, conventional breeding.
One of the main points of our report is that we need to redress the balance between private sector investment in genetic engineering—which overall is not solving our problems—and public sector investment in sustainable agriculture that industry is not interested in. These points are ignored by industry spokespeople that have commented on “High and Dry”.
What You Can Do – Support the Tester Amendment to the Farm Bill
Many groups and scientists are supporting an amendment to the Farm Bill by Senator Jon Tester of Montana—a farmer by trade—that would begin to redress the overemphasis on high-tech methods of crop improvement.
The Tester Amendment would mandate a small set-aside in the USDA research budget for proven, cost-effective classical crop breeding that would produce public-sector crop varieties adapted to local and regional environments and to sustainable farming systems. Crop varieties from the public sector are important, because the large seed companies that now dominate the industry mainly produce engineered cotton, corn and soybeans, and do little to improve other crops in ways that sustainable farming needs.
Contacting your senator in support of this amendment is a step in the right direction, and tells your senator that you support sustainable agriculture. Let’s not leave yet another Farm Bill, so important to our food choices and environment, in the hands of special interests.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, the Tester amendment was not included in the version of the Farm Bill that passed the Senate on June 21. UCS will continue to advocate for public support for classical crop breeding programs.
Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world. | <urn:uuid:854cee6c-07f1-4fe2-8290-ea71c6467fa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ucsusa.org/gmo-industry-all-wet-about-drought-tolerant-engineered-crops-but-you-can-help-turn-the-tide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942828 |
In a world that is changing rapidly, there is a need for leaders who possess a comprehensive understanding of the challenges we face in the 21st century. Committed and well-prepared leaders are essential to our ability to tackle these challenges. San Diego State University leadership programs serve as a leading resource in educating, training and motivating tomorrow's leaders to address our most critical problems and shape a better world.
The leadership programs at San Diego State University are designed to have a profound and lasting impact on our students, community and the world by delivering an innovative leadership curriculum with a multicultural approach. Using a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program to develop students' leadership skills, the leadership programs will empower students to think creatively and prepare them to change the world.
Our leadership programs are based upon the relational leadership model. We believe this is the best way for leaders of today to learn the tools necessary to make a difference tomorrow. Relational Leadership refers to a leadership model that focuses on the idea that leadership effectiveness has to do with the ability of the leader to create positive relationships within the organization. According to Susan R. Komives and Timothy R. McMahon, relational leadership consists of five main values:
Linking context to classwork and theory is an important aspect of learning at San Diego State University. To this end, the leadership images represented below were designed by students in the SDSU School of Art, Design, and Art History as part of a class project.
This image was designed to be a symbol of learning and growth. This is represented through the tree whose leaves in the center represent the themes used to promote leadership: Development, Recognition, Education, and Training.
This image was designed to represent leadership as something energetic and positive. The sun is the single-most important natural object that keeps us healthy and influences our lifestyle, especially here in San Diego. The center ray of the sun takes on a leadership position as it shines higher, reaching for a goal, much like our student leaders whom we recognize.
To be a great leader a person must know how to assemble all of the pieces of knowledge and skills together, which is much like putting together a puzzle. Once a student attends SDSU Leadership Development programs, they will begin to discover and understand the missing piece of the puzzle. | <urn:uuid:9341178c-fec8-4d1c-9452-dcb4d315d67b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sll.sdsu.edu/leadership/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959051 |
Common Questions about Child Custody
Authored By: Texas RioGrande Legal Aid - Austin
What is custody in Texas?
Custody in Texas is called "conservatorship." There are two kinds of conservatorship: joint managing conservatorship; and sole managing conservatorship. But, this isn't like "joint custody" or "sole custody," as most people think of it.
The main thing in Texas is which parent gets what rights to the children. The most important right (most parents think) is who gets to decide where the children live. This is called the right to "determine primary residence." Usually, the parent who has this right decides that the children will live with him or her.
In a joint managing conservatorship, either parent could get this right. But, they cannot share the right to decide where the kids will live. In a sole managing conservatorship, the sole managing conservator gets this right.
What am I called if I am the parent who gets to visit with my kids?
Just like custody is called "conservatorship," visitation is called "possession." The parent who gets to visit is sometimes called the "possessory conservator." Texas has tried to create a standard visitation order that comes really close to splitting the time that the kids have with the parents equally.
What rights do I have as a parent?
There are other rights and duties that parents have that the court splits up, or shares, between the parents. These include:
- the right to have physical possession, to direct the moral and religious training, and to establish the residence of the child;
- the duty of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child;
- the duty to support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food, shelter, medical and dental care, and education;
- the duty, except when a guardian of the child's estate has been appointed, to manage the estate of the child, including the right as an agent of the child to act in relation to the child's estate if the child's action is required by a state, the United States, or a foreign government;
- except as provided by Section 264.0111, the right to the services and earnings of the child;
- the right to consent to the child's marriage, enlistment in the armed forces of the United States, medical and dental care, and psychiatric, psychological, and surgical treatment;
- the right to represent the child in legal action and to make other decisions of substantial legal significance concerning the child;
- the right to receive and give receipt for payments for the support of the child and to hold or disburse funds for the benefit of the child;
- the right to inherit from and through the child;
- the right to make decisions concerning the child's education
What about child support?
When a court makes a decision about child custody, it almost always orders child support to be paid by the parent that the children don't live with (this person is called the "non-custodial parent"). Child support usually has to be paid until the child reaches 18 years old. If a child is disabled, child support can be ordered to be paid indefinitely.
There is a standard amount of child support that usually has to be paid. If there are no other children that the paying parent has to pay child support for, child support is in the following percentages:
- 1 child, 20% of net income
- 2 children, 25% of net income
- 3 children, 30% of net income
- 4 children, 35% of net income
- 5 children, 40 % of net income
- 6+ children, Not less than the amount for 5 children
These amounts are "guidelines." If there is a good reason to pay another amount (either more or less), the court will consider it. | <urn:uuid:00f9ed3a-2bce-4231-b013-6465c75da3ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://texaslawhelp.org/resource/common-questions-about-child-custody?ref=bhmr1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961696 |
Foresight Nanotech Institute Weekly News Digest: November 9, 2005
In this issue:
Foresight has articulated six critical challenges that humanity faces which can be addressed by nanotechnology. In the Weekly News Digest we identify news items, research breakthroughs, and events citing current research and applications providing the stepping stones to solutions to these challenges.
Foresight note: Researchers claim that they are closer to increasing the efficiency of organic or flexible solar cells.
Headline: Flexible solar cells make advances
Using a set of polymer coatings, researchers at Wake Forest constructed a nanophase within the polymer called a "mesostructure." The "mesostructure" changes the properties of the plastic and makes it better for collecting light. The researchers also removed the current from the polymer coating, David Carroll, director of the nanotechnology center at Wake Forest, said.
"The consumer market would be really open to having these conformal systems if you could, for instance, roll them up and put them away," said Carroll, who is also an associate professor in Wake Forest's physics department. "Imagine a group of hikers with a tent that when you unrolled the tent and put it up, it could generate its own power. Imagine if the paint on your car that is getting hot in the sun was instead converting part of that heat to recharge your battery."
Foresight note: This article was written by Peter Singer who also spoke at our Advancing Beneficial Nanotechnology Conference. He focuses on critical water problems and urges Canada to use its strength in science.
Headline: Think small
To understand the potential of nanotechnology, visualize a membrane used to filter water, with pores so small they can block bacteria (like the E. coli in the water at Kashechewan) or toxins (like the arsenic in the water in Bangladesh). Such "nanomembranes" would be inexpensive, portable and easily cleaned.
Foresight note: This article mentions research being done at Purdue University that may assist in early detection of cancer through advanced medical imaging.
Headline: Gold nanorods brighten future for medical imaging
Researchers at Purdue University have taken a step toward developing a new type of ultra-sensitive medical imaging technique that works by shining a laser through the skin to detect tiny gold nanorods injected into the bloodstream. In tests with mice, the nanorods yielded images nearly 60 times brighter than conventional fluorescent dyes, including rhodamine, commonly used for a wide range of biological imaging to study the inner workings of cells and molecules.
Foresight note: Packaging appears to be the nanotech focus of the food industry as it is increasingly pressured by regulations for safer and more environmentally friendly materials. This article discusses several options that are being considered with nanotech being one of them.
Headline: Food packaging industry faces challenges amid new regulations
Researchers at the University of Leeds Nanomanufacturing Institute in the UK have identified nanoparticles of magnesium oxide and zinc oxide to be effective in destroying microorganisms. There is huge potential for safe, effective and affordable food packaging in the near future.
Foresight note: The nanometer scale in the semiconductor industry is receiving lots of R&D funding. Deeper in this article there is mention that NEC is actually joining an already established Sony/Toshiba team.
Headline: NEC, Toshiba to share 45-nm process, mull broad alliance
NEC Electronics Corp. and Toshiba Corp. announced that the two companies would share the development of 45-nanometer CMOS logic manufacturing processes. In addition, starting with this joint development, the two companies have begun discussions on the possibility of a comprehensive alliance that would range from design and product development through to manufacturing.
Foresight note: This is a personal opinion essay that discusses an interesting idea of using the moon for research, mentioning nanotech.
Headline: Exploiting the moon and saving the earth
There has been a lot of debate in recent months regarding how to return to the Moon, and especially since the release of NASA's Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) in September. Less has been said, though, about what people and/or robots will do once they get there. Not that there's any shortage of ideas: from studying lunar geology and using it as a platform for astronomy to establishing tourist resorts and a separate home for humanity beyond the Earth. None of those ideas, though, has managed yet to resonate with the public.
So how about saving the world?....Now another innovative, out-of-the-box thinker, astronomer and retired Air Force general Pete Worden, has a very different idea for how to save the Earth using the Moon. While his idea may be no less outlandish--or feasible--than prior ideas, it does demonstrate the brainstorming going on to try and develop a rationale for lunar exploration and exploitation.
Focusing on the Cutting Edge
Foresight would like to thank our sponsors who helped make our conference a success.
Why Become A Foresight Member
Are you curious about nanotechnology and what it means for you? Do you want to know more? Or, are you already informed and believe that nanotechnology can provide solutions to key challenges facing humanity?
Consider becoming an Electronic, Student or Basic Member of Foresight Nanotech Institute, a think tank that has been leading the public debate and education on nanotechnology since 1986.
If you wish to be more involved, consider becoming a Participating Member. Participating members, formerly called Senior Associates, are a mix of technologists, philanthropists, visionaries, policy leaders, engineers, research scientists, artists, and nanotechnology experts.
Foresight Nanotech Institute offers membership levels appropriate to meet the needs and interests of individuals and companies. To find out more about membership follow this link:
If you attend or use any of our partners' events or services, please tell them you heard about it from Foresight Nanotech Institute.
NanoApex and NanoInvestorNews Merge with Nanotechnology.com
Over the past five years NanoApex and NanoInvestorNews have developed up-to-date news and comprehensive resources related to the growing fields of nanotechnology. This week NanoApex and NanoInvestorNews joined forces with Nanotechnology.com. The sites will continue to provide online resources for nanotechnology under the Nanotechnology.com web structure.
Limited offer — Most of the new nanotechnology.com site is accessible on a complimentary basis. Nanotechnology trackers can now browse the site for features and functionality. This is a 60 days limited time offer.
Nanotechnology.com, The International Small Technology Network
November 15, 2005 – Nanotech: Imagine the Possibilities
First annual symposium showcasing university graduate research. — See the frontier in Nanotechnology and help shape it.
Graduate research topics to be presented include: nanoscale optical devices on DNA scaffolds, nanotube nanofluidic transistors and circuits, anti-cancer drug delivery using viruses, and nanowire-based photonics and sensing.
December 4-9, 2005 – 19th Large Installation Systems Administration Conference
The annual LISA conference is the meeting place of choice for system, network, database, storage, security, and all other computer-related administrators. Administrators of all specialties and levels of expertise meet at LISA to exchange ideas, sharpen old skills, learn new techniques, debate current issues, and meet colleagues and friends.
January 31-February 1, 2006 – Nanotech Investing Forum
Nanotechnology continues to receive growing attention from venture capital investors. Government, universities/labs, and corporations are fueling the growth of nanotech research into profitable commercial applications.
Nanotech Events & News
Headline: China skips 'small talk' but tops nano patents in South
The vast majority of health patents filed in nanotechnology are owned by organizations in developed countries, with China a notable exception, according to research published last month.
Yet, despite being a strong leader in this emerging field, which is predicted to generate a US$1 trillion industry by 2020, China is not participating in international debates on the role of nanotechnology in sustainable development, according to this study.
Don Maclurcan, of the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, published his findings in the AzoNano Online Journal of Nanotechnology, based on a survey of health-related nanotechnology patents filed internationally between 1975 and 2004.
Call for Abstracts – Research Papers
Deadline: November 18, 2005
NSTI is calling for abstracts for their May 2006 conference. Researchers can submit abstracts in four main categories.
The first guideline for this script competition is "Submitted plays must explore scientific and/or technological stories, themes, issues and/or events. Authors are strongly encouraged to avoid the stereotypes often assigned to science, technology, and those who engage in these disciplines. This competition is not open to plays written in the genre of science fiction."
Dear readers — When reviewing news for this digest, I often read about something that I think is cool, but it doesn't fit within the usual editorial categories of the News Digest. This section highlights a nanotech advance or idea that I think is especially cool.
I know this is a little silly, and (reader beware) it is a car product advertisement. But the headline caught my attention.
Headline: Nanotechnology: The Uses are Endless
Don't forget to visit our blog Nanodot and join the discussion led by Christine Peterson.
About The Foresight Nanotech Institute Weekly News Digest
The Foresight Nanotech Institute Weekly News Digest is emailed every week to 15,000 individuals in more than 125 countries. Foresight Nanotech Institute is a member-supported organization. We offer membership levels appropriate to meet the needs and interests of individuals and companies. To find out more about membership follow this link:
Judy Conner, Director of Communications at Foresight Nanotech Institute, is the editor of the Foresight Nanotech Institute Weekly News Digest. If you would like to submit a news item or contact her with comments about the news digest, please send an email to: email@example.com.
Special thanks to Foresight Nanotechnology Challenges Research Volunteer Michelle Hubbard, MSc Candidate, Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan
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If you wish to no longer receive nanotechnology email from Foresight Nanotech Institute, please send us an email to firstname.lastname@example.org
Foresight materials on the Web are ©1986–2013 Foresight Institute. All rights reserved. Legal Notices. | <urn:uuid:ec0ab2d6-e5f9-4f32-9a4d-b72ed8f8ff33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foresight.org/publications/weekly0024.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931652 |
This plant is native to Eastern Japan, China and Korea. In the United States it is considered an invasive species as it is in most other countries. It is considered on of the worst invasive species in the world. The plant grows rapidly and displaces native species quickly with its large size and is difficult to eradicate due to the way it is able to propagate through it's root system. Luckily the plant has some redeeming qualities, which should make it very desirable to harvest. It is known as a rich source of the antioxidant Resveratrol.
In addition to the popular antioxidant Resveratrol, Japanese knotweed also contains a chemical known as emodin. Emodin has the ability to regulate bowel motility among other things. The Japanese used an alcohol extract of this plant as a natural laxative. Modern preparations from Japanese knotweed concentrated to maximize the resveratrol do not contain emodin. The phytochemical resveratrol has garnered considerable scientific attention for its potential to support healthy blood vessel function and promote heart health. A recent search for studies on Resveratrol through the national library of medicines database; PubMed, yielded over two thousand results.
Uses of Japanese Knotweed
This information in our Herbal Reference Guide is intended only as a general reference for further exploration, and is not a replacement for professional health advice. This content does not provide dosage information, format recommendations, toxicity levels, or possible interactions with prescription drugs. Accordingly, this information should be used only under the direct supervision of a qualified health practitioner such as a naturopathic physician. | <urn:uuid:0b49ac50-27da-410e-80c2-d33b065a7890> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gaiaherbs.com/products/ingredient/483/Japanese-Knotweed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941118 |
Most Active Stories
Fri February 10, 2012
Mother and Daughter Team Campaign Against Bullies
McCracken County's Susan Guess and her daughter Morgan have a message for bullies: enough is enough. Through videos and posts on social media sites Susan and Morgan are getting the word out on the dangers of bullying and how to stop it. They've even raised money to bring in speakers to talk with local civic groups about bullying. Susan says everyone can be a victim of bullying, even adults. She says she's been concerned about bullying in schools for several years, but found a renewed interest in the subject when she found out here daughter was being bullied at her elementary school.
Susan says she thinks it's time to stop blaming schools for the bullying, and start making it socially unacceptable. To view one of Susan's video posts click here. | <urn:uuid:683b4a57-6edf-4fcf-985c-03547e63ae36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkms.org/post/mother-and-daughter-team-campaign-against-bullies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976057 |
Baby had been listened to music by parents since she was still in the womb, you can continue to keep listening music to baby after she is birth. Babies who usually listens music as long as she was still in the womb tend to be easy calmed when she gets fussy. You can also get used to baby to listen music when she wants to sleep.
The recent research shows that listening music to baby is one of the best ways to learn about rhythm, movement, and voices for babies and children.
Most babies at 6 months old feel happy when are swung in your lap or you can wiggle her body by following to the beat. Baby can also imitate music by hitting her toys to the table or by producing happy sounds using her mouth. Baby likes to play with her toys that can produce sounds since it will draw her attention to more and more making sounds using the toys.
There are numerous toys that can produce sounds or music, but your baby may more like the simple objects that are also able to produce various sounds, such as frying pan, tin, or bucket that can be acted as a drum to be hit by spoon. By this way, baby will learn about causal matter; when baby hits objects, it will produce sounds.
Another way to provide home-toys for baby you can fill the bottle with beans or dried paste and close it. Baby will enjoy the sounds produced when the bottle is moved. But, you have to assure that the bottle won’t be opened, because if it is opened it can endanger baby since the small objects inside it can be swallowed by baby and it is really dangerous. You can also teach baby to hold 2 plastic bowls then slap it to each other. She must be like it, in this way you also teach baby to clap.
Listen and produce many sounds can help baby to recognize sounds and patterns of conversation. You can help baby to develop her hearing skill, that will need when she’ll learn to talk, by conducting ‘musical conversation’ with her. Give your baby a rattle, you also have a rattle in your hand, then shake your rattle and baby will respond it by following you shaking her rattle.
Songs that are using when you play a game with baby will help baby to remember when is the time to clap when you sing certain song. Also, by tapping the rhythm from words that are sung, you have helped baby to remember words and to use it in the conversation later. Baby also can enjoy the rhythm when sitting on your lap while your feet are tapped following to the beat of the rhythm. Encourage baby to make a move, to sing, or to play her rattle toy when she is listening music.
Most of babies at this period of age like to stand, and you can make this moment to do dancing with baby as a fun activity between you and her. The choice of music is up to you, but it is better if it is suited with the kind of movements. Generally, baby will imitate your behavior when dancing, and it will help her to increase her skills in coordinating her body parts. | <urn:uuid:d6038f76-a518-4cc1-ae6c-160078be5d46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://babytipz.com/activity-with-baby/ask-baby-enjoy-music | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97652 |
The planned release of vast numbers of imported dung beetles could spread nasty gut diseases, Auckland's top public health doctor has warned.
Dr Denise Barnfather made her views known in confidential advice sent last year to Landcare, a Government agency involved in a $750,000 project to release 11 exotic species of dung beetles.
Approval to import and release the insects was granted without conditions in a little-noticed decision by the Environmental Risk Management Authority in February 2011.
The group behind the project plans releases later this year, with the beetles sent to farms to eat cow dung.
Senior scientists have questioned whether enough is known about the possible risks to human and animal health. Diseases the insects could carry include E coli, salmonella, campylobacter and giardia.
Dr Barnfather, medical officer of health with the Regional Public Health Service, said the evidence was "sufficient to raise concern exotic dung beetles may provide additional vectors for human exposure to significant gastro-intestinal diseases."
Potential exposure from beetles contaminating water supplies in homes which collected rain in tanks, or among children eating dead beetles or by handling insects carrying pathogens had not been adequately researched, Dr Barnfather cautioned.
She said the insects could travel long distances, carry infective doses of disease, be attracted at night to light and be close to country towns.
Her advice concluded: "Until the significance of these potential human exposures to pathogens harboured by dung beetles are adequately researched and understood, public health recommends that a precautionary approach is taken and that exotic dung beetles are not introduced into New Zealand."
The Ministry of Health and Landcare referred inquiries to the Environmental Protection Authority, the successor to ERMA.
Its principal scientist Dr Geoff Ridley said: "The Ministry of Health was notified of the application and call for submissions, but did not make a submission.
"Rigorous science supports the expert panel's decision to allow the release of the exotic beetles.
"It is not unusual for different experts to come to different conclusions about decisions on the release of new plants and animals, however the application went through a robust process, and the EPA stands by the decision."
Auckland University's dean of science, Professor Grant Guilford, a former vet, believes not enough research has been done to justify releasing the beetles.
He says New Zealand's interests are best served by waiting until all doubts have been resolved.By Andrew Stone Email Andrew | <urn:uuid:0a5c17e8-01e9-44bd-8069-cc9d5bb887ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzherald.co.nz/animal-science/news/article.cfm?c_id=332&objectid=10870146 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960828 |
(Editor’s Note: we are pleased to bring you this article thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine.)
Changing our Minds
By imagining many possible worlds, argues novelist and psychologist Keith Oatley, fiction helps us understand ourselves and others.
–By Keith Oatley
For more than two thousand years people have insisted that reading fiction is good for
you. Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a more serious business than history. History, he argued, tells us only what has happened, whereas fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations and give us insights into ourselves and other people. This is a strong argument for schools to continue to focus on the literary arts, not just history, science, and social studies.
But is the idea of fiction being good for you merely wishful thinking? The members of a small research group in Toronto—Maja Djikic, Raymond Mar, and I—have been working on the problem. We have turned the idea into questions. In what ways might reading fiction be good for you? If it is good for you, why would this be? And what is the psychological function of art generally?
Through a series of studies, we have discovered that fiction at its best isn’t just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves.
Possible selves, possible worlds
People often think that a fiction is something untrue, but this is wrong. The word derives from the Latin fingere, to make. As something made, fiction is different from something discovered, as in physics, or from something that happened, as in the news. But this does not mean it is false. Fiction is about possible selves in possible worlds.
In terms of 21st-century psychology, we might best see fiction as a kind of simulation: one that runs not on computers, but on minds. Such mental simulation unfolds on two levels.
The first level involves simulating the minds of other people: imagining what they are thinking and feeling, which developmental psychologists call “theory of mind.” The theory-of-mind simulation is like a watch, which is a small model that simulates Read the rest of this entry » | <urn:uuid:2d607f07-443f-4a95-970c-13d2c2c1ebf6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sharpbrains.com/tags/social/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958388 |
|ETHICS IN COMMUNICATIONS|
|Pontifical Council for Social
1. Great good and great evil come from the use people make of the media of social
communication. Although it typically is said—and we often shall say here—that "media"
do this or that, these are not blind forces of nature beyond human control. For even
though acts of communicating often do have unintended consequences, nevertheless
people choose whether to use the media for good or evil ends, in a good or evil way.
These choices, central to the ethical question, are made not only by those who receive
communication—viewers, listeners, readers—but especially by those who control the
instruments of social communication and determine their structures, policies, and content.
They include public officials and corporate executives, members of governing boards,
owners, publishers and station managers, editors, news directors, producers, writers,
correspondents, and others. For them, the ethical question is particularly acute: Are the
media being used for good or evil?
2. The impact of social communication can hardly be exaggerated. Here people come
into contact with other people and with events, form their opinions and values. Not only
do they transmit and receive information and ideas through these instruments but often
they experience living itself as an experience of media (cf. Pontifical Council for Social
Communications, Aetatis novae, 2).
Technological change rapidly is making the media of communication even more pervasive
and powerful. "The advent of the information society is a real cultural revolution"
(Pontifical Council for Culture, Toward a Pastoral Approach to Culture, 9); and the
twentieth century's dazzling innovations may have been only a prologue to what this new
century will bring.
The range and diversity of media accessible to people in well-to-do countries already are
astonishing: books and periodicals, television and radio, films and videos, audio
recordings, electronic communication transmitted over the airwaves, over cable and
satellite, via the Internet. The contents of this vast outpouring range from hard news to
pure entertainment, prayer to pornography, contemplation to violence. Depending on how
they use media, people can grow in sympathy and compassion or become isolated in a
narcissistic, self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects. Not even those
who shun the media can avoid contact with others who are deeply influenced by them.
3. Along with these reasons, the Church has reasons of her own for being interested in the
means of social communication. Viewed in the light of faith, the history of human
communication can be seen as a long journey from Babel, site and symbol of
communication's collapse (cf. Gn 11:4-8), to Pentecost and the gift of tongues (cf. Acts
2:5-11)—communication restored by the power of the Spirit sent by the Son. Sent forth
into the world to announce the good news (cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15), the Church has
the mission of proclaiming the Gospel until the end of time. Today, she knows, that
requires using media (cf. Vatican Council II, Inter mirifica, 3; Pope Paul VI, Evangelii
nuntiandi, 45; Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 37; Pontifical Council for Social
Communications, Communio et progressio, 126-134, Aetatis novae, 11).
The Church also knows herself to be a communio, a communion of persons and
eucharistic communities, "rooted in and mirroring the intimate communion of the Trinity"
(Aetatis novae, 10; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Some Aspects of the
Church Understood as Communion). Indeed, all human communication is grounded in
the communication among Father, Son, and Spirit. But more than that, Trinitarian
communion reaches out to humankind: The Son is the Word, eternally "spoken" by the
Father; and in and through Jesus Christ, Son and Word made flesh, God communicates
himself and his salvation to women and men. "In many and various ways God spoke of
old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son"
(Heb 1:1-2). Communication in and by the Church finds its starting point in the
communion of love among the divine Persons and their communication with us.
4. The Church's approach to the means of social communication is fundamentally positive,
encouraging. She does not simply stand in judgment and condemn; rather, she considers
these instruments to be not only products of human genius but also great gifts of God and
true signs of the times (cf. Inter mirifica, 1; Evangelii nuntiandi, 45; Redemptoris
missio, 37). She desires to support those who are professionally involved in
communication by setting out positive principles to assist them in their work, while
fostering a dialogue in which all interested parties—today, that means nearly
everyone—can participate. These purposes underlie the present document.
We say again: The media do nothing by themselves; they are instruments, tools, used as
people choose to use them. In reflecting upon the means of social communication, we
must face honestly the "most essential" question raised by technological progress:
whether, as a result of it, the human person "is becoming truly better, that is to say more
mature spiritually, more aware of the dignity of his humanity, more responsible, more
open to others, especially the neediest and the weakest, and readier to give and to aid all"
(Pope John Paul II, Redemptor hominis, 15).
We take it for granted that the vast majority of people involved in social communication in
any capacity are conscientious individuals who want to do the right thing. Public officials,
policy-makers, and corporate executives desire to respect and promote the public
interest as they understand it. Readers and listeners and viewers want to use their time
well for personal growth and development so that they can lead happier, more productive
lives. Parents are anxious that what enters their homes through media be in their children's
interests. Most professional communicators desire to use their talents to serve the human
family, and are troubled by the growing economic and ideological pressures to lower
ethical standards present in many sectors of the media.
The contents of the countless choices made by all these people concerning the media are
different from group to group and individual to individual, but the choices all have ethical
weight and are subject to ethical evaluation. To choose rightly, those choosing need to
"know the principles of the moral order and apply them faithfully" (Inter mirifica, 4).
5. The Church brings several things to this conversation.
She brings a long tradition of moral wisdom, rooted in divine revelation and human
reflection (cf. Pope John Paul II, Fides et ratio, 36-48). Part of this is a substantial and
growing body of social teaching, whose theological orientation is an important corrective
to "the 'atheistic' solution, which deprives man of one of his basic dimensions, namely the
spiritual one, and to permissive and consumerist solutions, which under various pretexts
seek to convince man that he is free from every law and from God himself" (Pope John
Paul II, Centesimus annus, 55). More than simply passing judgment, this tradition offers
itself in service to the media. For example, "the Church's culture of wisdom can save the
media culture of information from becoming a meaningless accumulation of facts" (Pope
John Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications Day, 1999).
The Church also brings something else to the conversation. Her special contribution to
human affairs, including the world of social communication, is "precisely her vision of the
dignity of the person revealed in all its fullness in the mystery of the Incarnate Word"
(Centesimus annus, 47) In the words of the Second Vatican Council, "Christ the Lord,
Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love,
fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling" (Gaudium et Spes,
II. Social Communication that Serves the Human Person
6. Following the Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
Gaudium et Spes (cf. nos. 30-31), the Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications
Communio et progressio makes it clear that the media are called to serve human dignity
by helping people live well and function as persons in community. Media do this by
encouraging men and women to be conscious of their dignity, enter into the thoughts and
feelings of others, cultivate a sense of mutual responsibility, and grow in personal
freedom, in respect for others' freedom, and in the capacity for dialogue.
Social communication has immense power to promote human happiness and fulfillment.
Without pretending to do more than give an overview, we note here, as we have done
elsewhere (cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Advertising,
4-8), some economic, political, cultural, educational, and religious benefits.
7. Economic. The market is not a norm of morality or a source of moral value, and
market economics can be abused; but the market can serve the person (cf. Centesimus
annus, 34), and media play an indispensable role in a market economy. Social
communication supports business and commerce, helps spur economic growth,
employment, and prosperity, encourages improvements in the quality of existing goods
and services and the development of new ones, fosters responsible competition that
serves the public interest, and enables people to make informed choices by telling them
about the availability and features of products.
In short, today's complex national and international economic systems could not function
without the media. Remove them, and crucial economic structures would collapse, with
great harm to countless people and to society.
8. Political. Social communication benefits society by facilitating informed citizen
participation in the political process. The media draw people together for the pursuit of
shared purposes and goals, thus helping to form and sustain authentic political
Media are indispensable in today's democratic societies. They supply information about
issues and events, office holders and candidates for office. They enable leaders to
communicate quickly and directly with the public about urgent matters. They are
important instruments of accountability, turning the spotlight on incompetence, corruption,
and abuses of trust, while also calling attention to instances of competence,
public-spiritedness, and devotion to duty.
9. Cultural. The means of social communication offer people access to literature, drama,
music, and art otherwise unavailable to them, and so promote human development in
respect to knowledge and wisdom and beauty. We speak not only of presentations of
classic works and the fruits of scholarship, but also of wholesome popular entertainment
and useful information that draw families together, help people solve everyday problems,
raise the spirits of the sick, shut-ins, and the elderly, and relieve the tedium of life.
Media also make it possible for ethnic groups to cherish and celebrate their cultural
traditions, share them with others, and transmit them to new generations. In particular,
they introduce children and young people to their cultural heritage. Communicators, like
artists, serve the common good by preserving and enriching the cultural heritage of nations
and peoples (cf. Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 4).
10. Educational. The media are important tools of education in many contexts, from
school to workplace, and at many stages in life. Preschoolers being introduced to the
rudiments of reading and mathematics, young people seeking vocational training or
degrees, elderly persons pursuing new learning in their latter years—these and many
others have access via these means to a rich and growing panoply of educational
Media are standard instructional tools in many classrooms. And beyond the classroom
walls, the instruments of communication, including the Internet, conquer barriers of
distance and isolation, bringing learning opportunities to villagers in remote areas,
cloistered religious, the home-bound, prisoners, and many others.
11. Religious. Many people's religious lives are greatly enriched through the media. They
carry news and information about religious events, ideas, and personalities; they serve as
vehicles for evangelization and catechesis. Day in and day out, they provide inspiration,
encouragement, and opportunities for worship to persons confined to their homes or to
Sometimes, too, media contribute to people's spiritual enrichment in extraordinary ways.
For example, huge audiences around the world view and, in a sense, participate in
important events in the life of the Church regularly telecast via satellite from Rome. And,
over the years, media have brought the words and images of the Holy Father's pastoral
visits to countless millions.
12. In all these settings—economic, political, cultural, educational, religious—as well as
others, the media can be used to build and sustain human community. And indeed all
communication ought to be open to community among persons.
"In order to become brothers and sisters, it is necessary to know one another. To do this,
it is...important to communicate more extensively and more deeply" (Congregation for
Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Fraternal Life in
Community, 29). Communication that serves genuine community is "more than the
expression of ideas and the indication of emotion. At its most profound level, it is the
giving of self in love" (Communio et Progressio, 11).
Communication like this seeks the well being and fulfillment of community members in
respect to the common good of all. But consultation and dialogue are needed to discern
this common good. Therefore it is imperative for the parties to social communication to
engage in such dialogue and submit themselves to the truth about what is good. This is
how the media can meet their obligation to "witness to the truth about life, about human
dignity, about the true meaning of our freedom and mutual interdependence" (Pope John
Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications Day, 1999).
III. Social Communication that Violates the Good of the Person
13. The media also can be used to block community and injure the integral good of
persons: by alienating people or marginalizing and isolating them; drawing them into
perverse communities organized around false, destructive values; fostering hostility and
conflict, demonizing others and creating a mentality of "us" against "them"; presenting what
is base and degrading in a glamorous light, while ignoring or belittling what uplifts and
ennobles; spreading misinformation and disinformation, fostering trivialization and banality.
Stereotyping—based on race and ethnicity, sex and age and other factors, including
religion—is distressingly common in media. Often, too, social communication overlooks
what is genuinely new and important, including the good news of the Gospel, and
concentrates on the fashionable or faddish.
Abuses exist in each of the areas just mentioned.
14. Economic. The media sometimes are used to build and sustain economic systems
that serve acquisitiveness and greed. Neoliberalism is a case in point: "Based on a purely
economic conception of man", it "considers profit and the law of the market as its only
parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and
peoples" (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, 156). In such circumstances, means
of communication that ought to benefit all are exploited for the advantage of the few.
The process of globalization "can create unusual opportunities for greater prosperity"
(Centesimus annus, 58); but side by side with it, and even as part of it, some nations
and peoples suffer exploitation and marginalization, falling further and further behind in the
struggle for development. These expanding pockets of privation in the midst of plenty are
seedbeds of envy, resentment, tension, and conflict. This underlines the need for "effective
international agencies which will oversee and direct the economy to the common good"
(Centesimus annus, 58).
Faced with grave injustices, it is not enough for communicators simply to say that their job
is to report things as they are. That undoubtedly is their job. But some instances of human
suffering are largely ignored by media even as others are reported; and insofar as this
reflects a decision by communicators, it reflects indefensible selectivity. Even more
fundamentally, communication structures and policies and the allocation of technology are
factors helping to make some people "information rich" and others "information poor" at a
time when prosperity, and even survival, depend on information.
In such ways, then, media often contribute to the injustices and imbalances that give rise
to suffering they report. "It is necessary to break down the barriers and monopolies which
leave so many countries on the margins of development, and to provide all individuals and
nations with the basic conditions which will enable them to share in development"
(Centesimus annus, 35). Communications and information technology, along with
training in its use, is one such basic condition.
15. Political. Unscrupulous politicians use media for demagoguery and deception in
support of unjust policies and oppressive regimes. They misrepresent opponents and
systematically distort and suppress the truth by propaganda and "spin". Rather than
drawing people together, media then serve to drive them apart, creating tensions and
suspicions that set the stage for conflict.
Even in countries with democratic systems, it is all too common for political leaders to
manipulate public opinion through the media instead of fostering informed participation in
the political process. The conventions of democracy are observed, but techniques
borrowed from advertising and public relations are deployed on behalf of policies that
exploit particular groups and violate fundamental rights, including the right to life (cf. Pope
John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, 70).
Often, too, the media popularize the ethical relativism and utilitarianism that underlie
today's culture of death. They participate in the contemporary "conspiracy against life" by
"lending credit to that culture which presents recourse to contraception, sterilization,
abortion and even euthanasia as a mark of progress and a victory of freedom, while
depicting as enemies of freedom and progress those positions which are unreservedly
pro-life" (Evangelium vitae, 17).
16. Cultural. Critics frequently decry the superficiality and bad taste of media, and
although they are not obliged to be somber and dull, they should not be tawdry and
demeaning either. It is no excuse to say the media reflect popular standards; for they also
powerfully influence popular standards and so have a serious duty to uplift, not degrade,
The problem takes various forms. Instead of explaining complex matters carefully and
truthfully, news media avoid or oversimplify them. Entertainment media feature
presentations of a corrupting, dehumanizing kind, including exploitative treatments of
sexuality and violence. It is grossly irresponsible to ignore or dismiss the fact that
"pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit
individuals—especially women and young people, undermine marriage and family life,
foster anti-social behaviour and weaken the moral fibre of society itself" (Pontifical
Council for Social Communications, Pornography and Violence in the
Communications Media: A Pastoral Response, 10).
On the international level, cultural domination imposed through the means of social
communication also is a serious, growing problem. Traditional cultural expressions are
virtually excluded from access to popular media in some places and face extinction;
meanwhile the values of affluent, secularized societies increasingly supplant the traditional
values of societies less wealthy and powerful. In considering these matters, particular
attention should go to providing children and young people with media presentations that
put them in living contact with their cultural heritage.
Communication across cultural lines is desirable. Societies can and should learn from one
another. But transcultural communication should not be at the expense of the less
powerful. Today "even the least-widespread cultures are no longer isolated. They benefit
from an increase in contacts, but they also suffer from the pressures of a powerful trend
toward uniformity" (Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, 33). That so much
communication now flows in one direction only—from developed nations to the
developing and the poor—raises serious ethical questions. Have the rich nothing to learn
from the poor? Are the powerful deaf to the voices of the weak?
17. Educational. Instead of promoting learning, media can distract people and cause
them to waste time. Children and young people are especially harmed in this way, but
adults also suffer from exposure to banal, trashy presentations. Among the causes of this
abuse of trust by communicators is greed that puts profits before persons.
Sometimes, too, media are used as tools of indoctrination, with the aim of controlling
what people know and denying them access to information the authorities do not want
them to have. This is a perversion of genuine education, which seeks to expand people's
knowledge and skills and help them pursue worthy purposes, not narrow their horizons
and harness their energies in the service of ideology.
18. Religious. In the relationship between the means of social communication and religion
there are temptations on both sides.
On the side of the media, these include ignoring or marginalizing religious ideas and
experience; treating religion with incomprehension, perhaps even contempt, as an object
of curiosity that does not merit serious attention; promoting religious fads at the expense
of traditional faith; treating legitimate religious groups with hostility; weighing religion and
religious experience by secular standards of what is appropriate, and favoring religious
views that conform to secular tastes over those that do not; trying to imprison
transcendence within the confines of rationalism and skepticism. Today's media often
mirror the post-modern state of a human spirit "locked within the confines of its own
immanence without reference of any kind to the transcendent" (Fides et Ratio, 81).
The temptations on the side of religion include taking an exclusively judgmental and
negative view of media; failing to understand that reasonable standards of good media
practice like objectivity and even-handedness may preclude special treatment for
religion's institutional interests; presenting religious messages in an emotional, manipulative
style, as if they were products competing in a glutted marketplace; using media as
instruments for control and domination; practicing unnecessary secrecy and otherwise
offending against truth; downplaying the Gospel's demand for conversion, repentance,
and amendment of life, while substituting a bland religiosity that asks little of people;
encouraging fundamentalism, fanaticism, and religious exclusivism that foment disdain and
hostility toward others.
19. In short, the media can be used for good or for evil—it is a matter of choice. "It can
never be forgotten that communication through the media is not a utilitarian exercise
intended simply to motivate, persuade or sell. Still less is it a vehicle for ideology. The
media can at times reduce human beings to units of consumption or competing interest
groups, or manipulate viewers and readers and listeners as mere ciphers from whom
some advantage is sought, whether product sales or political support; and these things
destroy community. It is the task of communication to bring people together and enrich
their lives, not isolate and exploit them. The means of social communication, properly
used, can help to create and sustain a human community based on justice and charity;
and, in so far as they do that, they will be signs of hope" (Pope John Paul II, Message for
the 32nd World Communications Day, 1998).
IV. Some Relevant Ethical Principles
20. Ethical principles and norms relevant in other fields also apply to social
communication. Principles of social ethics like solidarity, subsidiarity, justice and equity,
and accountability in the use of public resources and the performance of roles of public
trust are always applicable. Communication must always be truthful, since truth is essential
to individual liberty and to authentic community among persons.
Ethics in social communication is concerned not just with what appears on cinema and
television screens, on radio broadcasts, on the printed page and the Internet, but with a
great deal else besides. The ethical dimension relates not just to the content of
communication (the message) and the process of communication (how the communicating
is done) but to fundamental structural and systemic issues, often involving large questions
of policy bearing upon the distribution of sophisticated technology and product (who shall
be information rich and who shall be information poor?). These questions point to other
questions with economic and political implications for ownership and control. At least in
open societies with market economies, the largest ethical question of all may be how to
balance profit against service to the public interest understood according to an inclusive
conception of the common good.
Even to reasonable people of good will it is not always immediately clear how to apply
ethical principles and norms to particular cases; reflection, discussion, and dialogue are
needed. We offer what follows with the hope of encouraging such reflection and
dialogue—among communication policy makers, professional communicators, ethicists
and moralists, recipients of communication, and others concerned.
21. In all three areas—message, process, structural and systemic issues—the fundamental
ethical principle is this: The human person and the human community are the end and
measure of the use of the media of social communication; communication should be by
persons to persons for the integral development of persons.
Integral development requires a sufficiency of material goods and products, but it also
requires attention to the "inner dimension" (Sollicitudo rei socialis, 29; cf. 46).
Everyone deserves the opportunity to grow and flourish in respect to the full range of
physical, intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual goods. Individuals have irreducible
dignity and importance, and may never be sacrificed to collective interests.
22. A second principle is complementary to the first: The good of persons cannot be
realized apart from the common good of the communities to which they belong. This
common good should be understood in inclusive terms, as the sum total of worthy shared
purposes to whose pursuit community members jointly commit themselves and which the
community exists to serve.
Thus, while social communication rightly looks to the needs and interests of particular
groups, it should not do so in a way that sets one group against another—for example, in
the name of class conflict, exaggerated nationalism, racial supremacy, ethnic cleansing,
and the like. The virtue of solidarity, "a firm and persevering determination to commit
oneself to the common good" (Sollicitudo rei socialis, 38), ought to govern all areas of
social life—economic, political, cultural, religious.
Communicators and communication policy makers must serve the real needs and interests
both of individuals and of groups, at all levels and of all kinds. There is a pressing need for
equity at the international level, where the maldistribution of material goods between
North and South is exacerbated by a maldistribution of communication resources and
information technology upon which productivity and prosperity greatly depend. Similar
problems also exist within wealthy countries, "where the constant transformation of the
methods of production and consumption devalues certain acquired skills and professional
expertise" and "those who fail to keep up with the times can easily be marginalized"
(Centesimus annus, 33).
Clearly, then, there is a need for broad participation in making decisions not only about
the messages and processes of social communication but also about systemic issues and
the allocation of resources. The decision makers have a serious moral duty to recognize
the needs and interests of those who are particularly vulnerable —the poor, the elderly
and unborn, children and youth, the oppressed and marginalized, women and minorities,
the sick and disabled—as well as families and religious groups. Today especially, the
international community and international communications interests should take a generous
and inclusive approach to nations and regions where what the means of social
communication do—or fail to do—bears a share of the blame for the perpetuation of evils
like poverty, illiteracy, political repression and violations of human rights, intergroup and
interreligious conflicts, and the suppression of indigenous cultures.
23. Even so, we continue to believe that "the solution to problems arising from
unregulated commercialization and privatization does not lie in state control of media but
in more regulation according to criteria of public service and in greater public
accountability. It should be noted in this connection that, although the legal and political
frameworks within which media operate in some countries are currently changing
strikingly for the better, elsewhere government intervention remains an instrument of
oppression and exclusion" (Aetatis novae, 5).
The presumption should always be in favor of freedom of expression, for "when people follow
their natural inclination to exchange ideas and declare their opinions, they are not merely
making use of a right. They are also performing a social duty" (Communio et
progressio, 45). Still, considered from an ethical perspective, this presumption is not an
absolute, indefeasible norm. There are obvious instances—for example, libel and slander,
messages that seek to foster hatred and conflict among individuals and groups, obscenity
and pornography, the morbid depiction of violence—where no right to communicate
exists. Plainly, too, free expression should always observe principles like truth, fairness,
and respect for privacy.
Professional communicators should be actively involved in developing and enforcing
ethical codes of behavior for their profession, in cooperation with public representatives.
Religious bodies and other groups likewise deserve to be part of this continuing effort.
24. Another relevant principle, already mentioned, concerns public participation in making
decisions about communications policy. At all levels, this participation should be
organized, systematic, and genuinely representative, not skewed in favor of particular
groups. This principle applies even, and perhaps especially, where media are privately
owned and operated for profit.
In the interests of public participation, communicators "must seek to communicate with
people, and not just speak to them. This involves learning about people's needs, being
aware of their struggles and presenting all forms of communication with the sensitivity that
human dignity requires" (Pope John Paul II, Address to Communications Specialists, Los
Angeles, September 15, 1987).
Circulation, broadcast ratings, and "box office", along with market research, are
sometimes said to be the best indicators of public sentiment—in fact, the only ones
necessary for the law of the market to operate. No doubt the market's voice can be
heard in these ways. But decisions about media content and policy should not be left only
to the market and to economic factors—profits—since these cannot be counted on to
safeguard either the public interest as a whole or, especially, the legitimate interests of
To some extent, this objection may be answered by the concept of the "niche", according
to which particular periodicals, programs, stations, and channels are directed to particular
audiences. The approach is legitimate, up to a point. But diversification and
specialization—organizing media to correspond to audiences broken down into
ever-smaller units based largely on economic factors and patterns of
consumption—should not be carried too far. Media of social communication must remain
an 'Areopagus' (cf. Redemptoris missio, 37)—a forum for exchanging ideas and
information, drawing individuals and groups together, fostering solidarity and peace. The
Internet in particular raises concerns about some of the "radically new consequences it
brings: a loss of the intrinsic value of items of information, an undifferentiated uniformity in
messages that are reduced to pure information, a lack of responsible feedback and a
certain discouragement of interpersonal relationships" (Toward a Pastoral Approach To
25. Professional communicators are not the only ones with ethical duties.
Audiences—recipients—have obligations, too. Communicators attempting to meet their
responsibilities deserve audiences conscientious about theirs.
The first duty of recipients of social communication is to be discerning and selective. They
should inform themselves about media—their structures, mode of operation,
contents—and make responsible choices, according to ethically sound criteria, about
what to read or watch or listen to. Today everybody needs some form of continuing
media education, whether by personal study or participation in an organized program or
both. More than just teaching about techniques, media education helps people form
standards of good taste and truthful moral judgment, an aspect of conscience formation.
Through her schools and formation programs the Church should provide media education
of this kind (cf. Aetatis novae, 28; Communio et progressio, 107). Directed originally
to institutes of consecrated life, the following words have a broader application: "A
community, aware of the influence of the media, should learn to use them for personal and
community growth, with the evangelical clarity and inner freedom of those who have
learned to know Christ (cf. Gal 4:17-23). The media propose, and often impose, a
mentality and model of life in constant contrast with the Gospel. In this connection, in
many areas one hears of the desire for deeper formation in receiving and using the media,
both critically and fruitfully" (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life, Fraternal Life in Community, 34).
Similarly, parents have a serious duty to help their children learn how to evaluate and use
the media, by forming their consciences correctly and developing their critical faculties (cf.
Familiaris Consortio, 76). For their children's sake, as well as their own, parents must
learn and practice the skills of discerning viewers and listeners and readers, acting as
models of prudent use of media in the home. According to their age and circumstances,
children and young people should be open to formation regarding media, resisting the
easy path of uncritical passivity, peer pressure, and commercial exploitation.
Families—parents and children together—will find it helpful to come together in groups to
study and discuss the problems and opportunities created by social communication.
26. Besides promoting media education, the institutions, agencies, and programs of the
Church have other important responsibilities in regard to social communication. First and
foremost, the Church's practice of communication should be exemplary, reflecting the
highest standards of truthfulness, accountability, sensitivity to human rights, and other
relevant principles and norms. Beyond that, the Church's own media should be committed
to communicating the fullness of the truth about the meaning of human life and history,
especially as it is contained in God's revealed word and expressed by the teaching of the
Magisterium. Pastors should encourage use of media to spread the Gospel (cf. Code of
Canon Law, Canon 822.1).
Those who represent the Church must be honest and straightforward in their relations
with journalists. Even though the questions they ask are "sometimes embarrassing or
disappointing, especially when they in no way correspond to the message we have to get
across", one must bear in mind that "these disconcerting questions are often asked by
most of our contemporaries" (Towards a Pastoral Approach to Culture, 34). For the
Church to speak credibly to people today, those who speak for her have to give credible,
truthful answers to these seemingly awkward questions.
Catholics, like other citizens, have the right of free expression, including the right of access
to the media for this purpose. The right of expression includes expressing opinions about
the good of the Church, with due regard for the integrity of faith and morals, respect for
the pastors, and consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons (cf.
Canon 212.3; Canon 227). No one, however, has a right to speak for the Church, or
imply he or she does, unless properly designated; and personal opinions should not be
presented as the Church's teaching (cf. Canon 227).
The Church would be well served if more of those who hold offices and perform
functions in her name received communication training. This is true not only of
seminarians, persons in formation in religious communities, and young lay Catholics, but
Church personnel generally. Provided the media are "neutral, open and honest", they offer
well-prepared Christians "a frontline missionary role" and it is important that the latter be
"well-trained and supported". Pastors also should offer their people guidance regarding
media and their sometimes discordant and even destructive messages (cf. Canon 822.2,
Similar considerations apply to internal communication in the Church. A two-way flow of
information and views between pastors and faithful, freedom of expression sensitive to the
well being of the community and to the role of the Magisterium in fostering it, and
responsible public opinion all are important expressions of "the fundamental right of
dialogue and information within the Church" (Aetatis novae, 10; cf. Communio et
The right of expression must be exercised with deference to revealed truth and the
Church's teaching, and with respect for others' ecclesial rights (cf. Canon 212.1, .2, .3,
Canon 220). Like other communities and institutions, the Church sometimes needs—in
fact, is sometimes obliged—to practice secrecy and confidentiality. But this should not be
for the sake of manipulation and control. Within the communion of faith, "holders of
office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated to promoting the
interests of their brethren, so that all who belong to the People of God, and are
consequently endowed with true Christian dignity, may through their free and
well-ordered efforts toward a common good, attain to salvation" (Lumen gentium, 18).
Right practice in communication is one of the ways of realizing this vision.
27. As the third millennium of the Christian era begins, humankind is well along in creating
a global network for the instantaneous transmission of information, ideas, and value
judgments in science, commerce, education, entertainment, politics, the arts, religion, and
every other field.
This network already is directly accessible to many people in their homes and schools and
workplaces—indeed, wherever they may be. It is commonplace to view events, from
sports to wars, happening in real time on the other side of the planet. People can tap
directly into quantities of data beyond the reach of many scholars and students just a short
time ago. An individual can ascend to heights of human genius and virtue, or plunge to the
depths of human degradation, while sitting alone at a keyboard and screen.
Communication technology constantly achieves new breakthroughs, with enormous
potential for good and ill. As interactivity increases, the distinction between
communicators and recipients blurs. Continuing research is needed into the impact, and
especially the ethical implications, of new and emerging media.
28. But despite their immense power, the means of communication are, and will remain,
only media—that is to say: instruments, tools, available for both good and evil uses. The
choice is ours. The media do not call for a new ethic; they call for the application of
established principles to new circumstances. And this is a task in which everyone has a
role to play. Ethics in the media is not the business only of specialists, whether they be
specialists in social communication or specialists in moral philosophy; rather, the reflection
and dialogue that this document seeks to encourage and assist must be broad and
29. Social communication can join people in communities of sympathy and shared
interest. Will these communities be informed by justice, decency, and respect for human
rights; will they be committed to the common good? Or will they be selfish and
inward-looking, committed to the benefit of particular groups—economic, racial, political,
even religious—at others' expense? Will new technology serve all nations and peoples,
while respecting the cultural traditions of each; or will it be a tool to enrich the rich and
empower the powerful? We have to choose.
The means of communication also can be used to separate and isolate. More and more,
technology allows people to assemble packages of information and services uniquely
designed for them. There are real advantages in that, but it raises an inescapable question:
Will the audience of the future be a multitude of audiences of one? While the new
technology can enhance individual autonomy, it has other, less desirable implications.
Instead being a global community, might the 'web' of the future turn out to be a vast,
fragmented network of isolated individuals—human bees in their cells—interacting with
data instead of with one another? What would become of solidarity—what would
become of love—in a world like that?
In the best of circumstances, human communication has serious limitations, is more or less
imperfect and in danger of failing. It is hard for people consistently to communicate
honestly with one another, in a way that does no harm and serves the best interests of all.
In the world of media, moreover, the inherent difficulties of communicating often are
magnified by ideology, by the desire for profit and political control, by rivalries and
conflicts between groups, and by other social ills. Today's media vastly increase the
outreach of social communication—its quantity, its speed; they do not make the reaching
out of mind to mind and heart to heart any less fragile, less sensitive, less prone to fail.
30. As we have said, the special contributions which the Church brings to the discussion
of these matters are a vision of human persons and their incomparable dignity and
inviolable rights, and a vision of human community whose members are joined by the
virtue of solidarity in pursuit of the common good of all. The need for these two visions is
especially pressing "at a time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of
perspectives in which the ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of
discovering the real meaning of life is cast into doubt"; lacking them, "many people
stumble through life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going"
(Fides et ratio, 6).
In the face of this crisis, the Church stands forth as an "expert in humanity" whose
expertise "leads her necessarily to extend her religious mission to the various fields" of
human endeavor (Sollicitudo rei socialis, 41; cf. Pope Paul VI, Populorum
progressio, 13). She may not keep the truth about the human person and the human
community to herself; she must share it freely, always aware that people can say no to the
truth—and to her.
Attempting to foster and support high ethical standards in the use of the means of social
communication, the Church seeks dialogue and collaboration with others: with public
officials, who have a particular duty to protect and promote the common good of the
political community; with men and women from the world of culture and the arts; with
scholars and teachers engaged in forming the communicators and audiences of the future;
with members of other churches and religious groups, who share her desire that media be
used for the glory of God and the service of the human race (cf. Pontifical Council for
Social Communications, Criteria for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Cooperation in
Communications); and especially with professional communicators—writers, editors,
reporters, correspondents, performers, producers, technical personnel—together with
owners, administrators, and policy makers in this field.
31. Along with its limitations, human communication has in it something of God's creative
activity. "With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist"—and, we
might say, to the communicator as well—"a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling
him to share in his creative power"; in coming to understand this, artists and
communicators "come to a full understanding of themselves, their vocation and their
mission" (Letter to Artists, 1).
The Christian communicator in particular has a prophetic task, a vocation: to speak out
against the false gods and idols of the day—materialism, hedonism, consumerism, narrow
nationalism, and the rest—holding up for all to see a body of moral truth based on human
dignity and rights, the preferential option for the poor, the universal destination of goods,
love of enemies, and unconditional respect for all human life from conception to natural
death; and seeking the more perfect realization of the Kingdom in this world while
remaining aware that, at the end of time, Jesus will restore all things and return them to the
Father (cf. 1 Cor 15:24).
32. While these reflections are addressed to all persons of good will, not just Catholics, it
is appropriate, in bringing them to a close, to speak of Jesus as a model for
communicators. "In these last days" God the Father "has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb
1:2); and this Son communicates to us now and always the Father's love and the ultimate
meaning of our lives.
"While he was on earth Christ revealed himself as the perfect communicator. Through his
incarnation, he utterly identified himself with those who were to receive his
communication, and he gave his message not only in words but in the whole manner of his
life. He spoke from within, that is to say, from out of the press of his people. He preached
the divine message without fear or compromise. He adjusted to his people's way of
talking and to their patterns of thought. And he spoke out of the predicament of their
time" (Communio et progressio, 11).
Throughout Jesus' public life crowds flocked to hear him preach and teach (cf. Mt 8:1,18;
Mk 2:2,4.1; Lk 5:1, etc.), and he taught them "as one who had authority" (Mt 7:29; cf.
Mk 1:22; Lk 4:32). He told them about the Father and at the same time referred them to
himself, explaining, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6) and "he who has
seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). He did not waste time on idle speech or on
vindicating himself, not even when he was accused and condemned (cf. Mt 26:63,
27:12-14; Mk 15:5, 15:61). For his "food" was to do the will of the Father who sent him
(Jn 4:34), and all he said and did was spoken and done in reference to that.
Often Jesus' teaching took the form of parables and vivid stories expressing profound
truths in simple, everyday terms. Not only his words but his deeds, especially his miracles,
were acts of communication, pointing to his identity and manifesting the power of God (cf.
Evangelii nuntiandi, 12). In his communications he showed respect for his listeners,
sympathy for their situation and needs, compassion for their suffering (e.g., Lk 7:13), and
resolute determination to tell them what they needed to hear, in a way that would
command their attention and help them receive the message, without coercion or
compromise, deception or manipulation. He invited others to open their minds and hearts
to him, knowing this was how they would be drawn to him and his Father (e.g., Jn
Jesus taught that communication is a moral act: "For out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil man
out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render
an account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and
by your words you will be condemned" (Mt 12:34-37). He cautioned sternly against
scandalizing the "little ones", and warned that for one who did, "it would be better... if a
great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mk 9:42; cf.
Mt 18:6, Lk 17:2). He was altogether candid, a man of whom it could be said that "no
guile was found on his lips"; and further: "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return;
when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly" (1 Pt
2:22-23). He insisted on candor and truthfulness in others, while condemning hypocrisy,
dishonesty—any kind of communication that was bent and perverse: "Let what you say
be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil" (Mt 5:37).
33. Jesus is the model and the standard of our communicating. For those involved in
social communication, whether as policy makers or professional communicators or
recipients or in any other role, the conclusion is clear: "Therefore, putting away falsehood,
let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another... Let
no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the
occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear" (Eph 4:25,29). Serving the human
person, building up human community grounded in solidarity and justice and love, and
speaking the truth about human life and its final fulfillment in God were, are, and will
remain at the heart of ethics in the media.
Vatican City, June 4, 2000,
World Communications Day,
Jubilee of Journalists.
John P. Foley
Weekly Edition in English
7 June 2000, special insert
L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.
The Cathedral Foundation
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About the Zoo
The Philadelphia Zoo’s 42-acre Victorian garden is home to more than 1,300 animals, many of them rare and endangered. By connecting people with wildlife, the Philadelphia Zoo creates joyful discovery and inspires action for animals and habitats. Cheetahs, hippos, giraffes and much more make the Zoo Philadelphia's leading family attraction with over 1.2 million visitors last year.
Like many other Philadelphia landmarks and institutions, the Philadelphia Zoo is an American first. The charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia was approved and signed on March 21, 1859. Due to the Civil War, however, it was another 15 years before America's first zoo was ready to open.
The Zoo opened its gates on July 1, 1874. The Frank Furness Victorian gates and gatehouses, and the Zoo's location, are the same today as they were on the day it opened. One of its assets, then and now, is John Penn's home, The Solitude, which sat on the land chosen for the Zoo. John Penn was the grandson of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. The Solitude is considered to be Philadelphia's most precise and elegant expression of neoclassical style.
On opening day, flags flew, and a brass band welcomed more than 3,000 visitors. Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children, a rate that held for the next half century. Visitors came on foot, on streetcars, by horse and carriage, and every 15 minutes by steamboat on the Schuylkill River, landing at the Zoo's own wharf. The Girard Avenue Bridge opened three days later.
Since the early 1700's, the idea of an American zoo was inspired by English settlers with a keen interest in wildlife and by sailors and hunters who returned from faraway lands with exotic animals they'd never seen before. People would gather and pay shillings to see animals such as lions and elephants displayed at places like general stores and museums. As a hub of scientific inquiry and discovery over many years, Philadelphia's well-known leaders of the time began to formulate the idea of a zoo. In the mid-1850's, a prominent Philadelphia physician, Dr. William Camac-the Zoo's founding father-became involved and led the way to making America's first zoo a reality.
In its first year of operation, the Philadelphia Zoo had 813 animals and received well over 228,000 visitors. Today, the Zoo has more than 1,300 rare and endangered animals, and its attendance is approximately 1.2 million visitors a year. | <urn:uuid:93d77a61-9f8d-4ef1-81e9-76a9bb11e42c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/About-the-Zoo.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968795 |
For now, the thousands of potential exoplanets discovered in the past two years are little more than curvy dips on a graph. Astronomers using the Kepler Space Telescope pick them out by examining the way they blot out their own stars’ light as they move through their orbits. But if astronomers could block out the stars themselves, they may be able to see the planets directly. A new adaptive optics system on the storied Palomar Observatory just started doing that — it’s the first of its kind capable of spotting planets outside our solar system.The new system is called Project 1640, and it creates dark holes around stars that may harbor planets. It removes the blinding glare of starlight so astronomers can see the exoplanets. This is extremely hard to do, said Charles Beichman, executive director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech. “Imagine trying to see a firefly whirling around a searchlight more than a thousand miles away,” he said in a statement.
Coronagraphs are used to block out starlight so scientists can see what lurks around the stars. But even when you block the brightest light, about half of it can still fuzz up an image, creating speckles and background light that will interfere with images of potential planets. To address this speckly starlight, Project 1640 uses the world’s most advanced adaptive optics system, and four separate instruments on Palomar’s 200-inch Hale telescope that image the infrared light generated by young, warm planets orbiting stars.
The system can resolve objects 1 million to 10 million times fainter than the object at the center of the image, which is usually the star. With that level of sensitivity, astronomers may be able to see planets.
Now that it’s up and running, as of late June, astronomers have embarked on a three-year survey of hot young stars. The planets they will detect with this method will probably be large hot Jupiters, and so unlikely to contain life — but their moons potentially could. In any event, it’s likely to be yet another major player in the planet-hunting business.
The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more. | <urn:uuid:2e37dd21-b2fd-4d25-b9a0-bf9cabd5f1b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/new-telescope-optics-blot-out-distant-starlight-helping-scientists-spot-exoplanets-earth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926557 |
In most countries, the academic year begins with the start of autumn and ends during the following summer. In Southern Hemisphere countries, this means that the academic year lasts from February or March to November or December. In the Northern Hemisphere countries, it lasts from August or September to May, June or July instead. The summer may or may not be part of the term system.
An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms. The schedule adopted by institutions of learning or education systems vary widely. In general:
- Semester - Divides the academic year into two terms, roughly 16 - 18 weeks each.
- Trimester - Divides the academic year into three terms, roughly 14 - 16 weeks each.
- Quarter or Quadmester - Divides the academic year into four terms, roughly 12 weeks each, and generally counts the summer as one of the terms.
African schools have a four-term school year with terms between 10 and 11 weeks long. Holidays occur between terms.
- First Term - Begins mid-January and ends in March or April
- Second Term - Begins mid-April and ends in June
- Third Term - Begins mid-July and ends September
- Fourth Term - Begins early October and ends early December
In general, all schools (from primary to universities) have two semesters. The first semester is from September to January, and the second is from February or March to around July.
Schedules are based around the intense holiday schedules, such as Chinese New Year. Some countries and states also operate on a Friday-Saturday weekend versus a Saturday-Sunday weekend.
In most of Australia, the school year lasts from late January to early December, and is split into four terms. The exact dates vary from year to year and between states, and there are differences between public and private school, but in general:
- Term 1 starts in late January or early February and ends one or two weeks before Easter
- Term 2 starts one or two weeks after Easter and ends in late June.
- Term 3 starts in mid-July and ends mid-September.
- Term 4 starts in early October and ends mid-December.
Tasmania is an exception in that the school year is split into three terms. The first is the longest and includes an extended Easter holiday. The terms are separated by a holiday lasting two weeks with the Christmas/Summer holidays between the end of a school year and the start of another lasting six to eight weeks.
Schedules very greatly between the countries of Europe, but in general the school year runs from early September to late June. Many countries have classes later into the summer, but may have exams - effectively ending the grading period- in June.
In the UK and Ireland, there is a three-term school year, each term divided in half by a week-long break known as "half term".
- Autumn term: Early September to mid December (half term: late October)
- Spring Term: Early January to Easter (half term: mid February)
- Summer Term: Easter to mid July (half term: late May/early June)
There are usually one-week breaks between terms.
Schools may run to two semesters (Fall and Spring) or Trimester.
Semester - The first semester starts from September (or late August) to mid-December and the second runs from early January til June. The semesters are often divided into two terms.
Trimester - Schools that operate on a trimester system have the first term starting in September to January, the second from January to March, and the third from March until June. The trimester is more common in elementary and middle schools (K-8) than in high schools (9-12).
The school year usually begins during the first weeks of February and ends in December. Education is usually divided into two semesters. There is a 3-week winter break in July, and other breaks for public festivities, like Easter, etc. | <urn:uuid:2bb03d45-9bf7-44a1-8ae4-0044b903f8f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.easyexpat.com/en/faq/school/q127.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976445 |
It’s no surprise that manufacturers like to raise the price of products whenever they can, with one of the most common ways as of late being to shrink the amount of product you receive, all while keeping the price the same.
This effectively raises the price of the product by allowing them to receive more for a ‘batch of product’ than they would have otherwise.
Ice cream. Use ice cream as an example. I love ice cream so I will take any opportunity that I can to talk about it. And eat it! Anyway. A few years ago, you used to be able to get what was commonly known as a ‘half gallon’ for around $3.00. Since there are four quarts to a gallon, this meant that a half gallon container consisted of two quarts of ice cream.
While many people still refer to the most commonly sold size of ice cream as a ‘half gallon’, it’s no longer true in most cases. If you have a carton in your freezer, go look at it. Now, the most common size of a ‘large’ container of ice cream is 1.5 quarts. If you still paid $3.00, you’re still paying the same for a container of ice cream, but you’re getting less. Even a pint is no longer a pint, as most in this size range have shrunk from 16 ounces (an actual pint) to 14 ounce sizes.
To keep it in whole numbers, let’s pretend that you had a party coming up and you knew you needed six quarts of ice cream to satisfy everybody. In the old days, you would need three half-gallon containers, so your total cost would be $9.00.
Now, however, you would need to buy four of the 1.5Q containers, so your overall cost is now $12.00.
This represents a full 33% price hike in the per-unit cost of ice cream. Pretty sneaky!
Why Do They Do This? The first question that comes to mind is ‘Why not just raise the price?’ This would save the hassle of having to come up with new packaging (a ploy that they use to ‘hide’ the smaller sizes), and would also save them having to reprogram the machines. In the case of ice cream, they could have just raised the price of the two quart (real half gallon) to $4.00.
But the problem is that people don’t want to pay more. People get conditioned to paying the same price for an item, and if it goes up, they will look harder at finding a better deal, or in the case of ice cream (and other discretionary items) they may just avoid the purchase altogether. Companies obviously don’t want to risk this, so instead of size being the constant unit, they use price as the constant unit, and adjust the amount you receive to fall into where they want the ‘price per unit’ cost to be.
How Often Does This Happen? It happens more often than you probably think. I’ve been pointing out this trend for a long time, with Kirkland Baby Formula as one of the more sneaky maneuvers I’ve ever seen. The Consumerist recently pointed out that Walmart changed their packaging on instant mashed potatoes, and got rid of over 5 ounces of product at the same time. Even CNN got in the game recently, finding ten products which have recently shrunk in terms of what you get.
Will Sizes Shrink Forever? One of the more common areas where they’ve done this is with boxes of cereal. A box of cereal has always remained roughly the same price for quite a number of years, but the amount you get has been whittled down to where they *had* to shrink the size of the box to avoid being absolutely absurd. I’ve always joked that if they keep doing this, eventually the cereal aisle will be filled with small boxes, like the kind you see at hotels or on airplanes, as this will be the ‘standard’ size.
That’s funny to think about, but it really doesn’t work out that way. I’ve watched how companies handle this and they will shrink the size a couple of times, but then they’ll introduce a ‘newer’ bigger size (which is often the same size as they used to give you for the lower price point) and will charge more. They’ll offer it as the ‘Jumbo Pack’ or ‘Family Size’.
With multiple sizes, some people will choose the larger box at the higher price point, especially if they offer it at a good price point per unit, or if the stores position it at the most commonly selected area on store shelves. At a certain point, they will start to get people used to the idea of paying more at which point they can phase out the smaller size packaging, then start the whole process over again.
Seems like a lot of trouble, but look what that does. It does eventually get people to pay more for the product (which as I said is a big off-putter), but the fact is, people will pay more for products as time goes on, they just don’t want to do it that often. The reduce->reduce->repackage->repeat cycle allows for companies to raise their revenues multiple times before actually raising prices. So, to go back to my joke, cereal shelves will never be filled with mini boxes (though that is fun to think about).
What Do You Do? One of these is what I happened to notice: Kirkland Paper Towels. On a recent shopping trip to Costco, we grabbed a package of twelve rolls, which was priced, as it normally seems to be, right around $15.00. This meant it was $1.25 per roll. When I got home and started unloading the paper towel on the storage shelf, the new design of the plastic sleeves surrounding each roll caught my eye. This was an immediate flag, and sure enough, the old rolls that we hadn’t used up contained 90 sheets, and the new rolls now contained 80 sheets. That cuts out a full 11% of the product that you receive, all for the same price you were paying before.
What a deal, right?
I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing, and it instantly prompted the idea of writing an article, but I started thinking that maybe instead of just pointing out the increase, I would give a little background about how the process works (which I did up above), point out this increase, and then spend a few moments thinking about ways I could combat this particular increase, points which I believe can be used not just for paper towels at Costco, but for any product which may fall prey to these types of hidden price increases.
- Become aware – As I mentioned, I was able to spot the paper towel size decrease because I’ve trained myself to notice changes to packaging. When a company introduces a new design, or revamps a logo, puts a new picture on the box, or changes the shape of a bottle, these are all red flags that they’ve changed what’s inside the packaging. As you start becoming more aware of these changes, you’ll automatically start looking at the sizes.
- Take advantage of the transition – This is only a temporary solution, because one of the things I’ve found is that if one company does this for a product, their competitiors will take notice if they ‘get away with it’ and if so, they’ll copy the strategy. Going back to the original example of ice cream, it took a couple of years before all of the ice cream companies made the switch from two quart containers to their smaller replacements, but in the meantime you could often search out a company that hadn’t yet made the switch, and get more bang for your buck.
- Don’t be automatic – Companies brazenly undertake this strategy because they know that people are creatures of habits, and therefore will often reach for the same product on the same shelf, not paying much attention (at least in the store) as to what’s inside the package. This means that they get away with it. If you notice this, maybe it’s time to start looking around. In our case of paper towels, maybe it means that we start looking for sales that we can stack with coupons at different stores. It’s always been nice to just go to Costco, hit up the back of the store, and know that we have enough paper towel for a few months, but you can often get that better price back by shopping around.
- Reduce your consumption if possible – If you notice yourself getting less of something, see if it’s possible to use less to offset the difference in what you receive. Sometimes, like in the case of when we first noticed this with baby formula, there’s no way you can reduce the amount of formula you give to your baby to offset the cost. Other things, you can. Paper towels are probably one of the more wasteful things that we as human beings use. I’ve read stories where some people don’t even have paper towels in the house. I couldn’t imagine this, but is it possible to offset the 11% reduction in what we bring home with a reduction in what we use? When we wipe Baby Girl Beagle off after a meal, maybe we could use half a sheet instead of a full sheet. Instead of some of the cleaning we do with paper towels, grab a rag from the closet instead. If you start to focus on what you use, you’ll often see that you can easily reduce consumption just by putting a little extra effort into thinking about what you need versus what’s right there.
Overall, I was disappointed by Costco’s decision to reduce the size of the paper towel rolls. But, I wasn’t surprised. It’s a strategy that product manufacturers have used and will continue to use. The best thing you will have to combat this is awareness. Simply noticing that you’re now getting less and paying the same will often trigger action.
Readers, how often do you notice these hidden price increases? Would you rather see the product sizes shrink and prices stay the same or would you be OK with more frequent price increases than we have today but with less frequent product size changes?Copyright 2013 Original content authorized only to appear on Money Beagle. Please subscribe via RSS, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or receive e-mail updates. Thank you for reading. | <urn:uuid:1ceed602-5c19-4358-8e94-e69029ac64b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneybeagle.com/tag/more-for-less | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964401 |
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board to help transmitting the strings' vibrational energy to the air in order to produce a sound.
The initial timbre and harmonics of the sound in an acoustic guitar are produced by the plucking of the string. The frequencies produced depend on string length, mass, and tension. The soundboard will add various resonant modes due to its own mix of bracing, damping, and undamped resonance.
The acoustic guitar is a hollow body and an additional coupling and resonance effect increases the efficiency of energy transmission in lower frequencies. The air in a guitar's cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and soundboard. At low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound again depending on whether the air in the box is moving in phase or out of phase with the strings. When in phase, the sound is increased by about 3 decibels and when in opposing phase, it is decreased about 3 decibels. As a Helmholtz resonator, the air at the opening is vibrating in or out of phase with the air in the box and in or out of phase with the strings. These resonance interactions attenuate or amplify the sound at different frequencies, boosting or damping various harmonic tones. Ultimately, the cavity air vibrations couple to the outside air through the sound hole (some variants of the acoustic guitar omit this hole, or have holes, like a violin family instrument). This coupling is most efficient because here the impedance matching is perfect: it is air pushing air.
There are therefore several sound coupling modes in an acoustic guitar: string to soundboard, soundboard to cavity air, and both soundboard and cavity air, to outside air. The back of the guitar will also vibrate to a lesser extent, driven by the air in the cavity. The function of the entire acoustic system is twofold: to color the sound through the generation and amplification of harmonics, and to maximize the coupling of this energy to the surrounding air - which is ultimately what we perceive as loudness of the produced sound. Improved coupling, however, comes at the expense of decay time, since now the string's energy is more efficiently transmitted. An unamplified guitar (one with no soundboard at all) would have a low volume, but the strings would vibrate much longer, like a tuning fork.
All these complex air coupling interactions, along with the resonant properties of the panels themselves, are a key reason that different guitars will have different tonal qualities. The sound is a complex mixture of harmonics that give the guitar its distinctive sound.
This section contains all acoustic guitars including 12-string, western, electro, folk and parlour. | <urn:uuid:53127f71-a19f-4f76-b615-6859d415410a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musiccorner.co.uk/Guitar-Shop-Acoustic-Guitar-Shop/c4941_5082/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944148 |
Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Index Previous Next
THE story of the traveller who appropriates the magical properties over which the sons of a dead p. 25 magician are quarrelling is widely distributed, and frequently occurs as a mere incident in a story; as, for example, in that of Hasan of El Basrah in the Thousand and One Nights. In the Esthonian stary of the “Dwarf’s1 Quarrel,” the articles form the leading motif; but mixed up with details curiously resembling some Celtic fairy tales.
A man passing through a wood came upon a small clearing, where he found three dwarfs beating, pushing, kicking, and biting each other, and tearing each other’s hair so that it was shocking to see them. They proved to be fighting over an old hat, composed of the parings of finger-nails,2 the wearer of which could see everything taking place in the world, whether near or far; a pair of bast shoes, which would carry the wearer anywhere at a step; and a stick which would demolish everything before it. Each of the dwarfs wanted to take all these articles, to go to a great wedding which was just taking place in Courland. The referee put on the hat, saw the wedding, and told the dwarfs to stand with their backs to him, when he demolished them p. 26 with the stick, only three drops of water being left where they had been standing. Then he went to the wedding in Courland, where he found a great number of people assembled, both high and low, for the entertainer was a very rich householder.
As the wearer of the magic hat could see everything hidden as well as obvious, he saw when he lifted his eyes to the crossbeams1 that there were a vast crowd of little guests both there and on the door-posts, who seemed to be far more numerous than the invited guests. But no one else could see the little people. Presently some of them began to whisper, “Look there; our old uncle’s come to the feast too.” “No,” answered others, “it seems that this stranger has our uncle’s hat, shoes, and stick, but uncle himself isn’t here.” Meantime, covered dishes were brought in for the feast. Then the stranger saw what nobody else could perceive, that the good food was abstracted from the dishes with wonderful quickness, and worse put in its place. It went just the same with the jugs and bottles. Then the stranger asked for the master of the house, greeted him politely, and said, “Don’t be offended that I have come to the feast as an uninvited stranger.” p. 27 “You are welcome,” returned the host. “We have plenty to eat and drink, so that we are not inconvenienced by a few uninvited guests.” The stranger rejoined, “I can well believe that one or two uninvited guests would make no difference, but if the uninvited guests are far more numerous than those who are invited, the richest host may run short.” “I don’t understand you,” said the host. The stranger gave him the hat, saying, “Put my hat on, and raise your eyes to the crossbeams, and then you’ll see them.” The host did so, and when he saw the tricks that the little guests were playing with the feast, he turned as pale as death, and cried out with a trembling voice, “Ah! my friend, my heart never dreamed of such guests; and now I’ve taken off your hat, they’ve all vanished. How can I ever get rid of them?” The owner of the hat returned, “I will soon rid you of these little guests, if you will ask the invited guests to step out for a short time, closing the doors and windows carefully, and taking care that no chink or crack in the wall remains unstopped.” Although the founder of the feast did not quite understand what he meant, he consented to the stranger’s offer, and asked him to get rid of the little nuisances.
In a short time the room was cleared of all the invited guests, the doors, windows, and other openings were carefully closed, and the stranger was left alone with the little guests. Then he began to swing his cudgel towards the crossbeams and corners of the room so vigorously that it was a pleasure to behold. In a few moments the whole mob of little guests was annihilated, and as many drops of water were left on the floor as if it had been raining heavily. Only one auger-hole had been accidentally left unstopped, through which one of the dwarfs slipped out, although the cudgel might still have reached the fugitive. He fled across the enclosure, bellowing, “Oh, oh, what a calamity! Many a time have I been terrified at the arrows of old father Pikne,1 but they are nothing to this cudgel!”
When the host had convinced himself, by the aid of the magic hat, that the room was cleared of the dwarfs, he invited the guests to re-enter. During the feast the omniscient man read the secret thoughts of the wedding-guests, and learned much which the others did not suspect. The bridegroom thought more of the wealth of his father-in-law than p. 29 of his young wife; and she, who was not altogether faultless, hoped that her husband and her matron’s cap would protect her from scandal. It’s a great pity that such a hat is no longer to be met with in our times.
1 The Esthonian term is peculiar. “Ox-knee people”—i.e., people as tall as an ox’s knee.
2 Compare the Kalevipoeg, Cantos 13 and 14.
1 Compare Croker’s Irish story of “Master and Man.”
1 The Thunder-God. | <urn:uuid:7dee33de-9392-4840-9360-93419842b802> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/hoe/hoe2-10.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983905 |
Bacon’s Castle: Bacon’s Rebellion
The name "Bacon's Castle" is derived from an event in 1676. That year, Nathaniel Bacon and his men led an uprising in Virginia against the Colonial government. After burning Jamestown to the ground, Bacon's forces retreated to Gloucester. He sent William Rookings and seventy men to establish a stronghold in Surry County. Rookings took over Arthur Allen's home and occupied it for four months. Allen had previously fled the county because he supported the Governor. The men ate Allen's cattle and depleted his stock of wine as well as looting linens and other household supplies. Archaeological evidence of this occupation was discovered on site and visitors to Bacon's Castle can see some of the wine bottles and bones that may have been eaten and drunk by Bacon's men!
The Rebellion came to an end when Bacon died of an illness at his headquarters in Gloucester. His men deserted their posts at the house allowing the family to return. Allen later sued the men who had occupied the house for the damages incurred.
The name of Bacon's Castle seems to date from the 19th century. Major Allen certainly wouldn't have approved! During his lifetime the house was known as "Allen's Brick House" because it was one of only a few houses made of the expensive material in the Colony. | <urn:uuid:fe28ed4c-275d-4e71-973f-5560fe15a088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://preservationvirginia.org/visit/property-detail/bacons-castle-bacons-rebellion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990455 |
The Taurid meteors, sometimes called the "Halloween fireballs," show up each year between mid-October and mid-November, but Nov. 5 to 12 will likely be the best time to look for them this year, based on their peak of activity and the effect of moonlight on viewing conditions.
Initially, on Nov. 5 the moon will be very bright in the gibbous phase, but it will diminish in brightness with each passing night. Before the moon rises — around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, and about 55 minutes later on subsequent nights — some 10 to 15 meteors may appear per hour. They are often yellowish-orange and, as meteors go, appear to move rather slowly.
The name of this meteor shower comes from the way they seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which sits low in the east a couple of hours after sundown and is almost directly overhead by around 1:30 a.m. local time.
Meteors, popularly referred to as "shooting stars," are generated when debris enters and burns up in Earth's atmosphere. In the case of the Taurids, they are attributed to debris left behind by
Encke's Comet, or perhaps by a much larger comet, which, upon disintegrating, left Encke and a lot of other rubble in its wake.
Indeed, the Taurid debris stream contains noticeably larger fragments than those shed by other comets, which is why in certain years — and 2012 is predicted to be one — this rather elderly meteor stream occasionally delivers a few unusually bright meteors known as "fireballs." [ Amazing Perseid Meteor Shower Photos of 2012 ]
Two streams for the price of one
The Taurids are actually divided into the Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids.
This is an example of what happens to a meteor stream when it grows old. Even at the beginning, the particles could not have been moving in exactly the same orbit as their parent comet; their slight divergence accumulates with time.
Meanwhile the sun is not the only body gravitationally controlling the particles' orbits; the planets are having subtle effects on the stream as well. As the positions of the planets are constantly changing, the particles pass nearer to them on some revolutions than others, diverting parts of the stream, fanning it out and splitting it. Ultimately, what was originally one stream diffuses into a cloud of minor streams and isolated particles in individual orbits, crossing Earth's orbit at yet more widely scattered times of the year and coming from more scattered directions until they are entirely stirred into the general haze of dust in the solar system.
Dr. Victor Clube, an English astrophysicistand an expert on comets and cosmology, indicated back in 1992 that the Taurid meteor stream contains perhaps a half a dozen full-size asteroids whose orbits place them squarely in the stream.
Clube and his colleagues argue that the Taurids' range of orbits indicates they were all shed by a huge comet, originally 100 miles across or more, that entered the inner solar system some 20,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago it was parched and brittle. Encke's Comet might actually be the biggest leftover chunk of the parent comet.
Another fireball year?
Encke's has the shortest known orbital period for a comet, taking only 3.3 years to make one complete trip around the sun. Meteor expert David Asher has also discovered that Earth can periodically encounter swarms of larger particles in certain years, and 2012 is predicted to be one of those years.
Maximum rates for the southern branch occur near Nov. 5, while the northern branch peaks near Nov. 12. This year the moon is somewhat unfavorable during the first week of November, but the northern Taurids peak the day before new moon when the sky will be dark.
The meteor showers' two radiants (the points where meteors appear to originate in the sky) lie just south of the Pleiades star cluster. During the next couple of weeks, if you see a bright, slightly tinted orange meteor sliding rather lazily away from that famous little smudge of stars, you can feel sure it is a Taurid.
The year 2005 was a swarm year, with many exceptional fireballs seen, especially along the U.S. East Coast on Halloween evening (Oct. 31), when fireballs as bright as the full moon were witnessed.
Will 2012 offer a repeat performance? Only by going out and viewing this display will we know for sure!
Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the 2012 Taurid meteor shower and want to share it with SPACE.com, send photos, comments and location info to SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik at: firstname.lastname@example.org.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
- Meteor Shower Quiz: How Well Do You Know 'Shooting Stars'?
- Orionid Meteor Shower of 2012 in Photos
- 2012 Meteor Shower Skywatching Calendar
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com. | <urn:uuid:d99b9b8d-d115-4cbd-9ecb-2d314e6a08db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49610912/ns/technology_and_science-space/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947164 |
(CNN) -- Daniel Libeskind is one of the greatest architects of the modern era. Prior to his involvement in the design of New York's Freedom Tower, he was best known for designing the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Daniel Libeskind first lectured students in architecture before going to to achieve worldwide acclaim as a designer.
It opened in 2001 to widespread acclaim, and is a perfect example of how architecture can connect with the soul. The same year Libeskind was awarded the prestigious Hiroshima Art Prize -- the first time it had been awarded to an architect.
Other notable buildings designed by Libeskind include the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester (2002) and the Extension to the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, which opened in 2007.
Libeskind, who was born in Poland in 1946, and became a U.S. citizen in 1965.
His early life was dominated by music -- he was a virtuoso pianist -- and architecture only took center stage when he turned 16 years old, studying in New York then in Colchester, UK at the University of Essex.
He initially became a lecturer in architecture before swapping theory for practice with spectacular results. His buildings are some of the most recognizable and radical designs of the early 21st century.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed| | <urn:uuid:a33bf391-c180-4a61-8fc7-4eb543f8bcb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/01/daniel.libeskind/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977227 |
COVINGTON -- Just because temperatures are dropping doesn't mean residents should drop their guard when it comes to protecting themselves from mosquito bites. The Georgia Department of Community Health has issued a press release warning Georgians to be on guard against West Nile Virus.
"Protection and prevention are two important areas to focus on," said Alana Sulka, Director of Epidemiology for Rockdale, Newton and Gwinnett County Health Departments. "Protection entails wearing appropriate repellent containing DEET, and avoiding the times during the day when mosquitoes are most active. Prevention includes such activities as frequently emptying birdbaths and flowerpot trays, and removing all artificial containers that can hold water."
DCH recommends Georgians to take the following precautions to protect themselves and their families during these periods:
* Wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, especially at dawn and dusk.
* Consider using insect repellent containing DEET. Be sure to follow the instructions on the label.
"Insect repellent helps reduce your exposure to mosquito bites that may carry West Nile Virus or other diseases, and allows you to continue to play, work and enjoy the outdoors with a lower risk of disease," said Rosmarie Kelly, entomologist with DCH's Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases Team. "Mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus are more likely to bite during the evening, night and early morning."
Mosquitoes need water to breed. By removing areas of standing water, you will eliminate breeding grounds and reduce the number of mosquitoes. The following precautionary measures are recommended to reduce exposure to mosquitoes and risk of West Nile Virus:
* Dispose of old tires. Regularly empty any metal cans, ceramic flower pots, bottles, jars, buckets and other water-holding containers.
* Turn over plastic wading pools, outdoor toys and wheelbarrows when not in use.
* Keep swimming pools clean and properly chlorinated. Remove standing water from pool covers.
* Repair leaky pipes and outside faucets.
* Keep gutters cleared and sloped to the downspout.
* Drill holes in the bottom of recycling containers that are left outdoors.
* Make sure windows and screens are in good condition. Repair any holes in screens.
* Purchase and use Mosquito Dunks or Mosquito Torpedoes (larvicides used to kill mosquito larvae) to control mosquitoes in areas with standing water and in containers that cannot be dumped.
A total of nine cases of West Nile Virus have been reported since 2002 in the East Metro Health District, which includes Newton, Rockdale and Gwinnett, according to spokeswoman Suleima Salgado. The most recent was reported in Gwinnett County in April. There were no reported cases of West Nile Virus in Rockdale County in 2008 or 2009.
Symptoms to be mindful of include headache, fever, neck discomfort, muscle and joint aches, swollen lymph nodes and rash. People with compromised immune systems or other underlying conditions are at greater risk for complications from the disease. In rare cases, West Nile Virus can cause encephalitis -- inflammation of the brain -- or meningitis -- inflammation of the spinal cord and lining of the brain.
For more information on West Nile Virus and prevention methods Georgia, visit www.health.state.ga.us. | <urn:uuid:2ee758bd-8df6-40ce-a27a-e58e21ac68c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2010/aug/31/officials-offer-tips-to-avoid-west-nile-virus/?news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92919 |
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