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Geometrical construction of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da
The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by
Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487 It is accompanied by notes
based on the work of Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and
ink on paper, depicts a nude male figure in two superimposed
positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously
inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are
sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often,
Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in
Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only
The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human
proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect
Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius
described the human figure as being the principal source of
proportion among the Classical orders of architecture. Other
artists had attempted to depict the concept, with less success.
The drawing is traditionally named in honour of the architect.
This image exemplifies the blend of art and science during the
Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen
interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a
cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature.
Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the
great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his
anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor
mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of
the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe."
It is also believed by some that Leonardo symbolized the material
existence by the square and spiritual existence by the circle. [
Source: Wikipedia.org ]
It is assumed that proportions of the circle and square reflect
Here we present analysis that shows that this assumption is
Fig. 1 Comparison of true Golden Rectangle
with Vitruvian Man drawing
Fig. 2 Circle and square based on Golden Section
If a circle has radius = 1 unit, square side is equal to:
1.656 for Vitruvian Man
1.618 for Golden section construction
1.571 for the condition: circumference of the circle = perimeter
of the square
1.772 for the condition: area of the circle = area of the square
Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It
is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as a
given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass
Fig. 2b Squaring the circle.
Image on the right: Squaring the circle: the areas of this square
and this circle are equal.
Image on the left: Circumference of the circle equals the
perimeter of the square.
Fig. 2b Left shows a circle with Radius = 1 and a
square with side = 1.571.
The Circumference of the Circle = 6.28... [ 2 x Pi = 6.28 ]
The square with side 1.571 has perimeter equal 6.28 [ 4 x 1.571 =
Fig. 2b Right shows a circle with Radius = 1 and a
square with side = 1.772.
The Area of the circle is 3.14 [ as determined by pi multiplied by
the radius squared ].
The area of the square is also 3.14... [1.772 x 1.772 ].
Vitruvian Man - methods of geometrical construction
of the circle and the square
The simplest composition is based on a square, which is
duplicated and rotated 45º to form an octagram. The distance
between the base line of the first square and the apex of the
rotated one simply represents the diameter of the circle.
Fig. 3 The simplest way to describe
geometrical construction of the Vitruvian Man.
* * *
Another method of geometrical construction of
the Vitruvian Man:
Step 1: Draw a square and circle (radius R1) as
shown on the Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Click to enlarge
Step 2: Move circle so point A overlaps with
point B (see Fig. 5):
Fig. 5 Click to enlarge
Step 3: Locate center of the final circle (point
O) by Dividing distance AB in a half.
Draw new circle with radius R2=OA (see Fig.6)
Fig. 6 Click to enlarge
The result matches perfectly Leonardo's drawing:
Fig. 7 Superimposed image of Fig.6 and
Return to the main article:
Fibonacci Numbers in Nature & the Golden | <urn:uuid:5f5a33de-29bc-48ac-ba95-481cabc161f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17_vm.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894464 |
English form of the name of the Christian evangelist, author of the first gospel in the New Testament. His name is a form of the Hebrew name Mattathia, meaning ‘gift of God’, which is fairly common in the Old Testament, being rendered in the Authorized Version in a number of different forms: Mattan(i)ah, Mattatha(h), Mattithiah, Mattathias, and so on. In the Authorized Version, the evangelist is regularly referred to as Matthew, while the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot is distinguished as Matthias. A related name from the same Hebrew roots, but reversed, is Jonathan. Throughout the English-speaking world Matthew has been particularly popular since the 1970s. | <urn:uuid:eb071300-b835-4475-b8a4-e6558fd33390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://names.whitepages.com/Matthew/Natsis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931161 |
2. Name of school/organisation:
3. Event / activity title:
5. Event or activity description (max 300 words):
Linking with our local industrial museum children will be taking part in workshops linked to the invention of the 'Makey Makey'. With some of the funding from National Science & Engingeering Week fund we are purchasing some for the school and our local museum is also purchasing some. Linked to the workshops the year 6 in class will be doing a project linked to Makey Makey's that will be showcased at the museum. Alongside this workshop/projects will be mini-projects across the whole school linked to innovation and invention where children will take part in some fun experiments.
8. Event start and end date and time:
Monday, 18 March, 2013 - 09:00 to Friday, 22 March, 2013 - 15:15
11. Venue of the event/activity: | <urn:uuid:1a152209-a72b-4952-89c2-da65999f6057> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/print/11336 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892973 |
France and Afghanistan
Diplomatic relations between France and Afghanistan were established in 1922, with the creation, the same year, of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA). The foundations of Franco-Afghan cooperation lie, in addition to archeology, in the field of education: creation of the French Secondary School for Boys in 1923 (named Esteqlal in 1929) and the French Secondary School for Girls (Malalaï) in 1942. The University of Lyon 1 and the University of Paris’ School of Law began their cooperation with the University of Kabul in the 1960s. Cooperation agreements have been signed in the fields of health (1963), cultural and technical cooperation (1966), and agriculture (1969). A French cultural center was founded in Kabul in 1970. On January 1st, 2011, after being completely renovated, it became the French Institute of Afghanistan.
After the Soviet invasion in 1979, France’s efforts were concentrated in the humanitarian field. The action of French NGOs present in Afghanistan, even in the darkest hours, has contributed to the capital of sympathy which France continues to enjoy in this country. The end of the Taliban regime provided for reopening France’s Embassy in Kabul in February 2002. Official visits in both directions have resumed at a brisk pace, reflecting the special character of Franco-Afghan relations.
On January 27th, 2012, presidents Sarkozy and Karzai signed a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty between France and Afghanistan. Signed for 20 years, the treaty places the French commitment on the long-term and marks its evolution from predominantly military to predominantly civilian. It is supplemented by a cooperation program presenting the projects to be carried out under the Treaty in more detail for the first five years (2012-2016) in the fields of security (military training, police training, and creating an Afghan gendarmerie), science, technology, and culture (agriculture, research, education, health, archeology, governance), infrastructure (irrigation, railways, mines), economy, and trade. The treaty will be accompanied by a significant increase in our bilateral aid.
Updated on 01.02.12
- Diplomatic Photo Gallery
- France / Afghanistan (in French) | <urn:uuid:83e11b1d-818e-4db7-8a36-eb3f6bb5bd85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/afghanistan-498/france-and-afghanistan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948231 |
Although it sounds so complicated, flatulence
is nothing but gas -- Something that all of us is familiar with. People usually produce about 1 to 3 pints of gas in a day and this gas is released around fourteen times a day. It's not really serious enough to be a threat to life but we all know that it's only threat involves dying from embarrassment.
FLATULENCE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
People who experience flatulence have too much gas in their stomach
or intestine. This is, of course, accompanied by a lot of belching and passing of gas through the rectum
. Sometimes, people who are suffering from flatulence also feel bloated and have cramps in the stomach area. It is the pressure exerted by this gas that causes the discomfort and the bloated feeling that we go through when we are suffering from flatulence.
The gas that we release is primarily made up of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. Although all five are odorless, they are sometimes accompanied by traces of indole, skatole and sulfur-containing compounds that smell like rotten eggs.
The amount of gas in your gastrointestinal tract may be increased by aerophagia or swallowed air. This can be caused by chewing
gum or tobacco, drinking carbonated beverages and sucking on hard candy. People who are anxious tend to hyperventilate and end up with a lot of gas in their stomach.
The gas that builds up in the stomach usually moves to the small intestine
and is usually absorbed by it. Unfortunately, some of the excess gas tends to go to the large intestine
, causing the passing of gas to occur.
If you want to know if aerophagia is the cause of your flatulence, you can go to a doctor in order to have the gas tested. By analyzing the components of the gas that you released, a physician can assess the cause of your flatulence. If the gas contains a lot of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide then he can deduce that the excess air was caused by aerophagia. If your gas has a lot of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane, then it originated from GI production.
Flatulence can also be caused by the type of food that you eat. Some carbohydrates cannot be digested and absorbed by the small intestine because it lacks certain enzymes that can facilitate this process. The undigested food is then sent to the large intestine in order to be decomposed by bacteria, producing carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane in the process.
Fats and proteins rarely cause flatulence. This is commonly caused by foods that contain carbohydrates. One of the well-known causes of flatulence are beans which contain a high amount of raffinose, a complex sugar that can be difficult to digest. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and asparagus also contain this substance. Starches from potatoes, corn and wheat can also cause flatulence because these are broken down in the large intestine. Fructose, a type of sugar that is found in onions, pears and wheat can also gases to build up in the gastrointestinal tract. Sorbitol, which is found in fruits and is used in sugar-free gum, can also have the same effect on the body.
Foods that are rich in fiber can also cause flatulence. There are two types of fiber: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Examples of soluble fiber are those fount in oat bran, beans, peas and fruits. Although this type of fiber can easily dissolve in water, they tend to form a gel-like substance that can only be broken down in the large intestine, leading to the passing of gas. Dark beer and red wine have also been known to cause flatulence in some people. When insoluble fiber which is found in wheat bran and some vegetables is taken in, lesser gas is produced because this type of fiber passes through the intestines without being broken down.
Of course, not everyone is susceptible to flatulence. When the undigested food is sent to the large intestine, two types of bacteria are responsible for breaking down. Although the production of gases is inevitable, one of these species consumes the gases. So, it really depends on which type of bacteria you have more of.
In order to prevent flatulence, you can start by taking note of the foods that you eat. Maybe you can start by listing them down in a food diary and marking the types of food that cause flatulence. Upon pinpointing the offenders, try to avoid these foods as much as possible. If you feel that your lactose intolerance is the culprit, stay away from dairy products for fourteen days in order to assess the effects of your abstinence on your body.
Since flatulence can also be caused by the swallowing
of air when chewing a piece of gum or sucking on hard candy, you should consider giving up that habit. Another habit that you should give up is overeating. Piling up too much food in your stomach can cause digestion problems which can lead to the breaking down of the food in the large intestine, causing the production of excess gas. On this note, you should also lessen your intake of fatty foods in order to help your stomach empty faster.
There are many non-prescription drugs that can be used to treat flatulence. One of them is Beano, a supplement that contains the enzyme your stomach needs to digest raffinose, the sugar from beans and other vegetables. Unfortunately, this drug cannot do anything about lactose and fiber.
You can also take some antacids like Di-Gel or Maalox II, so that you can just belch the gas instead of releasing them through your rectum. Another medicine that can be used for relieving flatulence are charcoal tablets which can help reduce the gas in your gastrointestinal tract when taken before meals.
You can also try some home remedies like drinking a concoction made of ½ teaspoon of dry ginger powder, a pinch of rock salt and asafetida and a cup of warm water or taking in two teaspoons of brandy with a cup of water before you go to bed. | <urn:uuid:844fd073-a6b7-41aa-a5ed-f529d1993363> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medicalook.com/Digestive_system/Flatulence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957672 |
Voice Encryption for Radios
In this fact sheet find:
- Key Points About Voice Encryption for Radios
- Overview of Voice Encryption
- The Encryption Process
- Effective Encryption Management
Key Points About Voice Encryption for Radios
- Unencrypted public safety voice transmissions can be intercepted, abetting criminal activity, thwarting public safety efforts, and endangering the public and public safety personnel.
- Voice encryption helps ensure that voice transmissions can be accessed only by authorized personnel, thereby increasing the safety and efficiency of public safety personnel.
- Voice encryption adds complexity and cost to public safety voice networks.
- Effective management is essential to implementing an encrypted voice network successfully.
Public safety Land Mobile Radio systems are vulnerable to eavesdropping and can easily be exploited by criminals. Readily available scanners and other devices can be used to receive voice signals from analog and digital public safety radio systems, including trunked radio systems. Lists of frequencies and channel assignments used in public safety jurisdictions are easily obtained from numerous print and online sources.
To ensure that sensitive information is shared only among authorized individuals or organizations, public safety operators need to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive radio traffic. This is typically accomplished through voice encryption.
The Encryption Process
Securing the message. A voice message is first digitized and then encrypted (or locked). The process requires the use of an algorithm and a unique cryptographic key, which are analogous to a door lock and its key—although many houses may use the same brand of lock, how the lock is keyed makes it unique. The Data Encryption Standard (DES) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) are two well-known algorithms. Cryptographic keys are usually expressed in terms of number of bits. Typical key sizes are 56 bits for the DES, and 128 to 256 bits for the AES.
Transmitting the message. Once the voice message has been encrypted and transmitted, the receiver can only decrypt (or unlock) the message using the same algorithm and unique key as the transmitter. For security purposes, only the sender and the intended recipient(s) of the encrypted message should know the key. If members of a group need to communicate securely with each other, all radios belonging to the group must share the same key. When several radios share the same key, the group is known as a cryptonet. If a radio is used to participate in more than one cryptonet, it must hold a unique key for each cryptonet.
When it is necessary to communicate with persons who do not have access to the cryptonet, a gateway device is often employed.
Such devices can compromise communication security because the voice message has to be unlocked to pass through the gateway.
Also, there is no assurance of the level of security of the system through which the voice message is passed.
See Advantages and Disadvantages of Voice Encryption.
Effective Encryption Management
Management of cryptographic keys is an important consideration in implementing a cryptographically secure voice network. Because patterns can be identified and keys decoded, keys should be changed regularly.
For smaller systems, keys can be manually changed in all radios on a policy-defined schedule. In some cases, as when a radio is lost or stolen, keys must be changed immediately. For larger systems, however, this is impractical and requires automated key management functions. The Project 25 (P25) standards suite addresses this issue with a standard for Over the Air Rekeying (OTAR). With OTAR, keys only have to be manually loaded the first time they are installed; subsequent changes are loaded remotely.
Adding encryption to a radio system involves much more than the purchase of radios with encryption capability. Users must be fully aware of the additional and sometimes significant burden of key management, which is vital to encryption. Poor key management practices negate any benefits of voice encryption and may result in a compromised system.
Sidebar: Advantages and Disadvantages of Voice EncryptionAdvantages of Voice Encryption
- Provides confidentiality for sensitive radio traffic.
- Prevents unauthorized parties from successfully monitoring radio traffic.
- Enhances personnel security.
- Provides some user authentication on radio traffic.
Disadvantages of Voice Encryption
- Requires cryptographic key management and distribution to each radio.
- Requires keys to be changed at defined intervals.
- Inhibits secure interoperability among agencies that do not have the same keys.
- Adds expenses related to the subscribers’ radios, system infrastructure, and personnel required to support encryption.
Notes and Works Cited
P25 is a user-driven process to define an open interface standards suite for public safety communications products. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) provides a forum, via its TR–8 Private Wireless Committee, to develop P25 interface standards, specifically within its TIA–102 series of standards documents (www.tiaonline.org) Exit Notice | <urn:uuid:99b6d3eb-792e-4b0e-9097-947dedef0391> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nij.gov/nij/topics/technology/communication/radios/voice-encryption.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898011 |
One of the most interesting evolutionary hypotheses about brain size is The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis. Back in the early 1990s, scientists were looking to explain how brain size evolves. Brains are exceedingly useful organs; more brain cells allows for more behavioral flexibility, better control of larger bodies, and, of course, intelligence. But if bigger brains were always better, every animal would have them. Thus, scientists reasoned, there must be a downside. The hypothesis suggests that while brains are great and all, their extreme energetic cost limits their size and tempers their growth. When it comes to humans, for example, though our brains are only 2% of our bodies, they take up a whopping 20% of our energy requirements. And you have to wonder: with all that energy being used by our brains, what body parts have paid the price? The hypothesis suggested our guts took the hit, but that intelligence made for more efficient foraging and hunting, thus overcoming the obstacle. This makes sense, but despite over a century of research on the evolution of brain size, there is still controversy, largely stemming from the fact that evidence for the expensive tissue hypothesis is based entirely on between species comparisons and correlations, with no empirical tests.
A unique study published this month in Current Biology has taken a new approach to examining this age old question. Rather than comparing species with bigger brain-to-body ratios to smaller-brained relatives, they exploited the natural variation of brain size in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Guppies, as it turns out, aren’t as dumb as they look. They’re able to learn, and show rudimentary ability to count. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden were able to use their numerical abilities to test whether brain size affects intelligence in these simple fish.
First, the team selected for larger and smaller brains from the natural variation in guppies. They successfully created smarty-pants guppies that had brains about 9% larger than their counterparts through artificial selection. Then, they put them to the test. While the males seemed to gain no benefits from possessing larger noggins, the females with bigger brains were significantly better at the task. | <urn:uuid:dcdc3dc9-6983-4853-a812-527ba476f57f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.richarddawkins.net/news_articles/next_article?article=2184&category=&videos= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968767 |
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is an irregular dwarf galaxy and a companion to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Unlike spiral and elliptical galaxies, irregular galaxies lack any appearance of organized structure. Like its neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC appears as a huge and diffuse cloud in the southern nighttime sky. Both of these galaxies are named in honor of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who noted their presence in becoming the first to sail around the world nearly 500 years ago.
Note that the field of view of the images in this gallery is 4.4 degrees on a side, or about nine times the diameter of a full Moon. While considered dwarf galaxies, their close proximity means that the Magellanic Clouds subtend a large angle on the sky. The Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way are members of the Local Group, a collection of about 30 galaxies loosely bound by their mutual gravitation.
Visible: DSS and Visible: AAO/Malin
The black-and-white visible-light photograph (above left) is about 3 degrees on a side, and has been padded with blank space to match the size of the other images in this gallery. The diffuse and fuzzy nature of the SMC makes it impossible to define a clear center to the galaxy. The brightest object, towards the northeast (upper left) of the photo, is an emission nebula. This is merely one of many pinkish nebulae seen in the color image (above right), which is a composite of three images (using B, V and R filters) taken with long exposures of 40-60 minutes. The red (or R) filter easily identifies the nebulae as supergiant H II regions, where hydrogen is ionized by the ultraviolet and visible light from newborn stars. The bright circular feature at the northern (top) edge of the field is NGC 362, a foreground globular star cluster located in our own Milky Way.
Mid-Infrared: MSX and Mid-Infrared: IRAS
This pair of pictures was obtained at longer IR wavelengths. The mid-infrared photo (above left) was obtained at 6-11 microns, or about ten times the wavelengths of visible light. The image was taken with a small infrared telescope aboard the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), a military satellite that orbited the Earth in 1996-1997. The satellite spent most of time its time studying infrared backgrounds near the limb of the Earth, but also devoted roughly ten percent of its observing time to mapping the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and other selected regions of astronomical interest. Because the exposure time was rather short, only the brightest individual stars and nebulae in the SMC can be seen.
The 100-micron far-infrared image was obtained by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in 1983. This false-color photograph adopts an unusual color-coding scheme, with white and blue denoting the brightest areas; red and violet correspond to regions of faint emission. White contours have been superimposed on the photograph, much like on a topographical map, and connect areas with the same far-infrared intensity. At these long wavelengths, there are a handful of distinct peaks in the infrared emission. Two of them are located in the western (right-side) portion of the galaxy and are due to dust being heated by young stars in the SMC. Note that the position of the largest peak (to the southwest) is in the same location as the densest concentration of stars seen in the MSX mid-infrared image.
Far-Infrared: IRAS, Visible: AAO/Malin and Ultraviolet: ASTRO-1 UIT
Now compare the far-infrared image (above left) with the previously examined visible-light photograph (above center). You will see that the peaks in the infrared (white and blue) are matched by the distribution of pink emission nebula in the visible-light photo! The visible and ultraviolet light being emitted by newborn stars in these regions not only ionizes the hydrogen gas (creating the pink nebula), but also heats up the embedded dust grains and causes them to glow in the infrared. Young and massive stars emit large amounts of ultraviolet light, a fact that is confirmed in the UV image (above right), where the peaks once again correspond to the dusty and gaseous nebulae.
Radio: Parkes and Far-Infrared: IRAS
This pair of images contrasts the radio emission from the SMC (above left) with the previously studied far-infrared. The radio data were obtained at a wavelength of 21.4 cm using the 64-m diameter Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia. The distribution of radio and far-infrared emission in galaxies is often similar, since they portray different evolutionary phases of the same stellar population: massive stars. The infrared light results from heating of dust grains by young stars, while the radio luminosity results from synchrotron emission resulting from supernova explosions. Despite the vastly different color schemes, you should be able to see a general similarity between the pattern of red knots in the radio image and the brightest regions of far-IR emission.
X-Ray: ROSAT and Ultraviolet: ASTRO-1 UIT
The mosaic of x-ray photographs, with circular fields of view, reveals only a small handful of sources. Some of the sources are x-ray binaries, a special type of binary star system, in which one of the members is a neutron star. The intense gravity of the neutron star sucks gaseous material off of the companion star and heats it to millions of degrees, thereby creating x-rays. [For additional information about x-ray binaries, please visit this site Other sources of x-ray emission in the SMC include supernova remnants. In addition, distant background quasars could account for some of the x-ray sources that appear in the field of view. | <urn:uuid:67041587-e6d4-4eaa-bcc6-b41ac60c871d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/multiwavelength_astronomy/multiwavelength_museum/smc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93425 |
For our first milestone in in our cure (integrated math and science) class, we made 3D models of medicine. I made zolpidem. It is used to treat insomina and is used in drugs like Ambien, Stilnox, and Sublinox. We did this to get a better understanding of how our medicine works by making a 3D version of it. We built our medicines out of Styrofoam balls and sticks, then we spray painted them. The white balls represent hydrogen, blue balls are nitrogen, black balls are carbon, and the red ball represents oxygen (Pub Med Health, 2011). | <urn:uuid:c0b8c1be-fcef-44f3-93ee-427dae1d84a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcevoices.com/jh/2012/04/17/zolpidem/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923067 |
Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd. It's a time to remember deceased loved ones and honor them. Day of the Dead is a festive occasion, a time to celebrate, much like a family reunion. Making an altar can be a way for you to honor the life of someone who was important to you, or remember your ancestors. There are no hard and fast rules about how the altar should be made. Be creative and make something that looks attractive and is meaningful to you.
Once you've finished making your altar, please share a photo and tell us about your experience.
- The arch
If you have long sugar cane stalks, tie one to each of the back legs of the table and join them at the top (tie them together with string or use tape). Then, if you want, you can decorate the arch, attaching flowers to it. The arch represents the passage between life and death. If you can't get sugar cane stalks, get creative and make your arch out of other materials.
- The base
Place boxes or crates on the table where you will build your altar in such a way that they create tiers so that the elements of the altar can be displayed attractively. Put a tablecloth over the table and boxes so that the boxes are hidden. Then place papel picado (buy direct) around the edge of the table and each layer.
Place a photo of the person to whom the altar is dedicated on the top level of the altar, in the center. If the altar is dedicated to more than one person, you can have several photos, or if your altar is not dedicated to anyone in particular, the photo can be omitted and it will be understood that your altar is in honor of all your ancestors.
Place a glass of water on the altar. Water is a source of life and represents purity. It quenches the thirst of the spirits.
Candles represent light, faith and hope. The flame guides the spirits on their journey. Sometimes four or more candles are placed together to form a cross which represents the cardinal directions, so that the spirits can find their way.
You can place flowers in vases or pull the petals out and scatter them over all the surfaces of the altar. If you use cempasuchil (marigolds), the scent will be even stronger if you pull out the petals. The bright colors of the marigolds and their fragrance are synonymous with Day of the Dead. Fresh flowers remind us of the impermanence of life.
- Fruit, bread and food
Seasonal fruits and special bread called pan de muertos are usually placed on the altar, along with other foods that the person enjoyed in life. Mexicans usually place tamales, mole and hot chocolate on the altar, but you can use whatever fruit and other food are available to you. See a list of the foods of Day of the Dead. The food is a feast that is laid out for the spirits to enjoy. It is believed that they consume the scents and the essence of the food.
Purchase Day of the Dead Bread online: Buy Direct
It is customary to burn copal incense, which clears the space of any negative energy or bad spirits, and helps the dead find their way.
- If you don't have time or the materials to make an elaborate altar, you can make a simple one with just a photo, two candles, some flowers and fruit. The important thing is that it's meaningful to you.
- Sugar skulls are a great addition to a Day of the Dead altar. Making them can be a fun project. Learn how to make sugar skulls, or purchase some online: buy direct.
- Get ideas by looking at photos of Day of the Dead Altars.
What You Need
- A table, shelf or flat surface on which to build your altar
- Two long sugar cane stalks (or other material) to make an arch
- Boxes or crates to create levels
- A tablecloth and papel picado
- A photo of the person to whom the altar is dedicated
- A glass of water
- Flowers, preferably marigolds
- Fruit, bread, and other foods
- Candles and incense
- Things that the person enjoyed in life | <urn:uuid:7982f89f-03f5-4560-b805-362b9c51577d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gomexico.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/ht/make_altar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937107 |
Download This Lesson
Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4
Science Education Standards:
Earth and Space Science -- Content Standard D:
Changes in the Earth and Sky
- The surface of the Earth changes. Some changes are due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Short Description: Summit Up is a 20 minute activity in which children make paper models to scale of the tallest volcanic mountains on Earth and Mars and discover a big difference between volcanoes on these two planets.
Source: Lunar and Planetary Institute | <urn:uuid:3ceda444-02d5-48f2-a65c-24992054cf70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/educ/lesson-view.cfm?LS_ID=951 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902067 |
Scripture Song of I Samuel 2:2-3
“There Is None Holy As The Lord”
Commentary on I Samuel 2:2-3
Our personal perspective
First Samuel relates the story of a woman named Hannah. She was married to a loving husband, but had no children – a fact with which her husband's other wife ceaselessly tormented her. Rather than lashing out or fighting back at her adversary, Hannah brought the matter before God, and received from Him a son. Though vindicated, she did not gloat or take glory to herself; instead she glorified and praised the God who "raiseth the poor out of the dust" in a beautiful prayer from which these verses are drawn.
The Bible tells us that God delights to exalt those who sincerely humble themselves (1 Pet. 5:6; Jas. 4:6). Surely the humble and trusting heart of Hannah made her a fit vessel to bring forth the child who was to become the prophet Samuel, a mighty instrument of God, judging Israel for many years and anointing its first king. Whatever we face in life, our own attitude should be like Hannah's, approaching our Father in true humility and trust, and giving all glory to Him who alone is worthy.
Commentary ©2011 Hitchcock Family Ministry. Unaltered text may be reproduced freely without financial gain.
I Samuel 2:2-3
Verbatim KJV. Words or verses not included in song replaced with "..."
- There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
- Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. | <urn:uuid:23865544-8fd9-4c64-8ca8-804834830e34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freescripturesongs.org/scripture-songs/there-is-none-holy-as-the-Lord | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957164 |
You can connect to any database for which you have connection details, or install the sample schema used in the cue card examples and then establish a connection to it. If you installed the sample schema, you will be able to follow the steps in the cue cards exactly as written. If you work with your own database, you can supply your own values as needed.
To begin creating a database connection, you will open the Create Database Connection dialog. To open the dialog, choose File New . In the New Gallery, select Connections in the Categories tree and Database Connection in the Items list. Then click OK.
When you create a database connection, you specify a username and password to authenticate the connection. You may use any valid username and password and connect to any schema.
However, to follow along with the example in the cue cards, connect to the FOD schema by entering
fod as the username.
|Connection Type||Oracle (JDBC)|
|Username||fod (for example)|
|Password||manager (for example)|
|Host Name||localhost (or the name of the host)|
|JDBC Port||1521 (or the port for your database)|
|SID||XE (or the SID for your database)|
Copyright © 1997, 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:edc1ab48-8bd4-440f-badf-f636d3fc0c5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/ccset21-tellme2-1-098184.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.848033 |
Thyroid nodules is the name for those lumps that appear on the thyroid gland. Not all thyroid nodules are cancer, so do not panic in case you see you have this problem. There are multiple for thyroid nodules and it is important to go to the doctor to see what health problem you have. Usually, thyroid nodules are located at the edge of the gland or in the case of thin persons, they look a little bit strange, just as some lumps in your throat.
This is the first thyroid nodules symptoms, but there is also possible to be a combination between solid and liquid. The specialist who will examine you is called endocrinologist and the first thing that he will do, will be a psychical examination, followed by the blood tests, as well as an ultrasound. Also, there is possible to use very fine needles or histopathology. Other specialists who can also examine you are an otolaryngologist or a thyroidologist. Thyroid nodules are very common at adults and at children also.
To determine if the thyroid nodules are malign, it will be used fine needle biopsy. Thyroid nodules symptoms may consist of the breathing or swallowing problems and in these cases there can be increased chances that the nodules are malign, but only a test will tell you for sure. Another problems that appear when someone has thyroid nodules are the voice problems and you will put on weight. It is important to see which is the level of the hormones that are released by the thyroid gland. However, generally speaking, the percent of malign thyroid nodules is not high, but this does not mean that you do not have to go to the doctor. As you already know, it is better to prevent than to treat. It is good that if you go in time, there are great treatments that will have great results for your health and the issues have very increased chances to be solved in a short period of time. | <urn:uuid:c972c35b-e694-4249-bd17-fa944760a81c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thyroidnodules.net/thyroid-nodules-does-not-always-mean-cancer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971273 |
With all the problems humans have caused whales and dolphins – capture, killing, ship noise, sonar, pollution – the latest idea of how to use them is perhaps the most chilling: a medical doctor theorizes that dolphin tissue may provide miraculous antibiotic and pain killing properties. Since he ‘doesn’t have access to dolphins’ (nor is he a marine mammal biologist), he cobbled together information from various sources and published his idea without doing the laborious research to substantiate it. Whether his idea is correct or not, it certainly will inspire research – likely financed by pharmaceutical companies – to the detriment of whales and dolphins.
From BreakThrough Digest Medical News : “A dolphin’s ability to heal quickly from a shark bite with apparent indifference to pain, resistance to infection, hemorrhage protection, and near-restoration of normal body contour might provide insights for the care of human injuries, says Michael Zasloff, M.D., Ph.D., a Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) scientist.”
Following the publication of the idea presented by Zasloff, National Public Radio interviewed him and asked:
Q: Why are dolphins so good at healing?
Dolphin blubber makes compounds like organohalogens that act as natural antibiotics and keep the tissue from getting infected.
The next mystery is the recovery of contour [of the body]. When the animal restores its wound, it regenerates the complex structure of blubber. It doesn’t create a scar; it produces a sort of patch that ultimately is woven back into the surrounding tissue.
What is exciting is that there must be great numbers of stem cells [involved], and by looking at these stem cells, we would probably be able to identify what they are and possibly even the hormones or proteins that are involved in their expansion. And if we looked for comparable cells in man, these might be the very cells that we would want to use to promote healing of complex wounds in us.
Q: So what are the next steps for research?
Identification of the antimicrobial agents, which have to be in those tissues. All you’d have to do is take some dolphin blubber, extract it, and start looking for stuff that would kill bacteria.
And with the pain issue, it’s the same thing. You would take the blubber or the regenerating tissue, you’d isolate stuff—purified components or crude—and you’d administer it to mice. And lo and behold, you may find, in the regenerating tissue or the decomposing blubber, the long-sought natural morphine that we’ve been looking for.
How long before we see dolphin-inspired therapies?
I wish I could work on this, but I don’t have access to dolphins. So I’m just putting this out there for other researchers to see. Once you appreciate that this is kind of a miracle, it isn’t terribly hard to come up with ideas [for how to do the research].
The hardest part is to realize that there’s a miracle in your midst.
Actually, the hardest part is to realize that there’s a miracle in your midst, and to leave it alone. I only hope that scientists are able to extract the answers from non-living tissue, and to replicate what they find in the laboratory. | <urn:uuid:7ff10df7-7368-42d3-8189-8802cafc851a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/candacewhiting/2011/07/26/a-whole-new-way-to-use-dolphins-their-blubber-may-contain-natural-morphine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955522 |
|a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.|
|a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.|
|1.||See also genetic code a system of letters or symbols, and rules for their association by means of which information can be represented or communicated for reasons of secrecy, brevity, etc: binary code; Morse code|
|2.||a message in code|
|3.||a symbol used in a code|
|4.||a conventionalized set of principles, rules, or expectations: a code of behaviour|
|5.||a system of letters or digits used for identification or selection purposes|
|6.||to translate, transmit, or arrange into a code|
|[C14: from French, from Latin cōdex book, |
|code (kōd) Pronunciation Key
A series of instructions designed to be fed into a computer.
coden. The stuff that software writers write, either in source form or after translation by a compiler or assembler. Often used in opposition to "data", which is the stuff that code operates on. This is a mass noun, as in "How much code does it take to do a bubble sort?", or "The code is loaded at the high end of RAM." Anyone referring to software as "the software codes" is probably a newbie or a suit.
coherent digital exciter
Confederation of Dental Employers | <urn:uuid:bdfa9f14-49df-4eb2-b6c8-effe14a58e9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879112 |
Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the three-day Easter celebration, and you may also hear it referred to as Holy Thursday, Sheer Thursday, or, intriguingly, Thursday of Mysteries.
The meaning is less of a mystery — it’s the Christian holy day that falls before the commemoration of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection that occurs from Good Friday through Easter Sunday. The liturgy is held in the evening, and initiates this Easter period as a tribute to the day of the Last Supper.
Why “Maundy”? It comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means “commandment.” This specifically refers to the commandment Jesus gave to his disciples at the Last Supper, once Judas had scuttled off, which was “That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Jesus also washed his disciples’ feet on this occasion, and the symbolism of this act as a ruler serving their subjects was taken literally in Britain up until the death of King James II, when the monarch would wash the feet of a selected few poor people every Maundy Thursday in Westminster Abbey.
We won’t see Queen Elizabeth busting out a loofah at any point today, but the ancient tradition continues of the monarch giving out Maundy money at the Royal Maundy service. These “alms” are offered in red and white purses to retirees in a practice that rotates every year around different dioceses.
However, today’s ceremony in Britain is special as it’s the Jubilee year. The Queen is handing out Maundy money to 86 women and 86 men – one for each of her 86 years – in recognition of their special services to the community. | <urn:uuid:fd60c5cd-074e-4ba9-8db3-33c0fbe30f01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/05/a-beginners-guide-to-maundy-thursday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974884 |
|4th of July 1917, Station Square costume dance|
Patriotism and tradition echo in Forest Hills. In recent times, on the weekend following Memorial Day, Forest Hills Gardens organizes a celebration known as Children’s Day at Flagpole Green, which features decorations, face painting, cotton candy, hot dogs, raffles, and games.
Historically, music has played a significant role in Forest Hills Gardens celebrations, so attendees can expect to rejoice to the sounds of John Philip Sousa, a late American composer, who is noted for his patriotic and military marches.
Stepping back in time, Forest Hills Gardens witnessed the light of very elaborate 4th of July commemorations on the actual date. The teens are nearly a century ago, so let’s place our modern minds into the shoes our ancestors walked, and stand in the footsteps of triumph in our country’s earliest planned garden community. Station Square, Village Green, and Olivia Park were classic sites of rich tradition, and exist in a pristine state to this very day.
July 4, 1914 marked the Gardens’ first annual Independence Day celebration. Since the population of the community was minimal, and Forest Hills at large was a small town, the first celebration was noted for its camaraderie.
Greenway Terrace became an al fresco dancing pavilion, which signified the first step of solidarity. A highlight of the second celebration in 1915 was the Pageant of Colonial Times in Station Square, the dedication of the Piping Pan bird fountain (cherub blowing a flute) in Olivia Park with Baroness von Rottenthall’s interpretative dancing, and the Fourth of July Committee’s acquisition of a silver cup for annual tennis matches, which began that year.
The Forest Hills Gardens Bulletin defined the success of teamwork through organizations and residents in 1916, which read, “The Fourth of July Celebration at the Gardens is primarily, yes wholly, a community affair. It is the people’s day – a memorial of the first great test of unity in this country, and it is interpreted here in the Gardens as an expression of organized community effort.”
That same year, attendees participated in the dedication of a 108-foot flagpole on Village Green, with an inscribed bronze collar at the base. The official flag of the Forest Hills Gardens was first to be raised on the 4th of July.
An allegory called The Happy Stranger was presented in the natural amphitheater-style Olivia Park. The Red Cross Society generated proceeds by selling ice cream, Cracker Jacks, lemonade, peanuts, popcorn, and lollipops under the Square’s archways.
In great anticipation, Gardens residents decorated their homes, and the Committee on Decorations and Illuminations applied their touch to Station Square and Village Green. The iconic Forest Hills Inn offered special menus and decorations. The Inn’s Tea Garden was boasted as a particular attraction, since children of the entire community were treated as guests to a party of their own.
One of Forest Hills’ most notable 4th of July moments took place atop the steps of Station Square’s Long Island Railroad Station in 1917, where onlookers heard Colonel Theodore Roosevelt’s One-Hundred Percent American Speech. He pleaded for allegiance to the America of Washington and Lincoln, and thousands cheered in response.
A miniature Greek temple was erected in Olivia Park, which functioned as a stage setting for attendees witnessing the light of Ralph Renaud’s The Masque of Liberty.
A 1918 highlight was U.S. Senator Calder’s speech in Station Square. That year had a more sacred feel, since wounded soldiers and sailors of WWI were honored over dinner at the Church-In-The-Gardens. Students of Louis Chalif’s famed dance school performed in Olivia Park.
The success of the U.S. and her allies played a pivotal role in the 1919 commemoration. An excerpt from the Forest Hills Gardens Bulletin captured the spirit.
“Nothing was more impressive than the raising of the Flag by a member of the old Rifle Corps while the people assembled sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and nothing was more skillfully done than the reading of the Independence Day Proclamation of the Citizens by the Town Crier, Harvey Warren, in old New England costume. Captain Horace F. Pomeroy, chairman of the celebration committee, spoke of the history of the old Rifle Club – the first military organization of Forest Hills – and then introduced the Rev. Rowland S. Nichols, Chaplain of the Rifle Club who spoke briefly and offered prayer.”
The Forest Hills Rifle Club was the first case of loyalty locally, and its revival for the celebration was integral.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., Village Green hosted flag-raising exercises, the Community Chorus sang patriotic airs, and the Rifle Club reunion took place. Station Square hosted political addresses at 11 a.m. Tennis matches took place at the Forest Hills Inn Courts at 12:30 p.m., which featured the Inns vs. the Outs. The Inns lived in the Forest Hills Inn, and the Outs lived throughout the Forest Hills Gardens.
At 1 p.m., attendees enjoyed children’s games, as well as the French Doll Dance, where female dancers were assisted by the Boy Scouts. Games included yard dashes for children, grand tilting matches for parents, a kiddie car race, a paper fight, a sack race, a baby carriage race for fathers, a pillow fight, an optic contest for adults, a half-mile relay, and dressing and obstacle races.
At 4:30 p.m., The Golden Day allegory by Ralph Renaud took stage at Olivia Park, where locals and talented students of the Chalif Normal School of Dancing performed in a sylvan setting. The play featured the harmonious Butterfly Dance, The Dances of The Summer Nocturne, and The Song of The Birds. The setting was complemented by an orchestra of strings and a vocal interlude.
At 7:30 p.m., under incandescent lights and electric streamers with flags and pennants, nearly 3,000 attendees would enjoy the 9th Coast Artillery Band Concert in Station Square, followed by the flamboyant Costume Dance at 8:30 p.m. Popular costumes were the Pierrot, Pierrette and Yama Yama.
Artists designed highly stylized 4th of July posters annually. Herman Rountree’s 1916 poster depicted a clown and a mule with astonished children in period clothing in the backdrop. It read, “Yes Mule – It’s The Greatest Show on Earth.”
B. Hooper’s “Coming July 4th” poster from 1916 depicted a clown-like child rejoicing on a circus elephant bearing a humanly expression of wisdom and holding high a 4th of July flag.
Rountree’s 1917 poster depicted the Forest Hills Inn and Station Square as the backdrop of Village Green, where bystanders witnessed the raising of the flag. That same year, another one of Rountree’s posters captured the masquerade feel of Station Square with the train station in the backdrop. On various levels of creativity, beauty was indeed in the detail!
A typical celebration called for glorious expression, as in the case of Gertrude Knevels’ Station Square – A Fourth Of July Impression, which read:
Old Glory from the Tower looks down.
To bless the folly of the town,
Lights, laughter, color everywhere –
Wise folks like happy children there,
At play in Station Square.
Far over all the clear night sky
Spreads tender hands – What hurries by? –
It is the train that grumbling goes,
Bearing the world and all its woes
Away from Station Square! | <urn:uuid:6af5d054-f827-483c-a073-95abb725a93e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://regoforestpreservation.blogspot.com/2012/07/4th-of-july-forest-hills-edition.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956389 |
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Biology
In cell biology, a mitochondrion (plural mitochondria) is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 1–10 micrometers ( μm) in size. Mitochondria are sometimes described as "cellular power plants" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in a range of other processes, such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. Mitochondria have been implicated in several human diseases, including mental disorders, cardiac dysfunction, and may play a role in the aging process. The word mitochondrion comes from the Greek μίτος or mitos, thread + χονδρίον or khondrion, granule. Their ancestry is not fully understood, but, according to the endosymbiotic theory, mitochondria are descended from ancient bacteria, which were engulfed by the ancestors of eukaryotic cells more than a billion years ago.
Several characteristics make mitochondria unique. The number of mitochondria in a cell varies widely by organism and tissue type. Many cells have only a single mitochondrion, whereas others can contain several thousand mitochondria. The organelle is composed of compartments that carry out specialized functions. These compartments or regions include the outer membrane, the intermembrane space, the inner membrane, and the cristae and matrix. Mitochondrial proteins vary depending on the tissues and species. In human, 615 distinct types of proteins were identified from cardiac mitochondria; whereas in murine, 940 proteins encoded by distinct genes were reported. Mitochondrial proteome is thought to be dynamically regulated. Although most of a cell's DNA is contained in the cell nucleus, the mitochondrion has its own independent genome. Further, its DNA shows substantial similarity to bacterial genomes.
A mitochondrion contains inner and outer membranes composed of phospholipid bilayers and proteins. The two membranes, however, have different properties. Because of this double-membraned organization, there are five distinct compartments within the mitochondrion. There is the outer mitochondrial membrane, the intermembrane space (the space between the outer and inner membranes), the inner mitochondrial membrane, the cristae space (formed by infoldings of the inner membrane), and the matrix (space within the inner membrane).
The outer mitochondrial membrane, which encloses the entire organelle, has a protein-to- phospholipid ratio similar to that of the eukaryotic plasma membrane (about 1:1 by weight). It contains large numbers of integral proteins called porins. These porins form channels that allow molecules 5000 Daltons or less in molecular weight to freely diffuse from one side of the membrane to the other. Larger proteins can also enter the mitochondrion if a signaling sequence at their N-terminus binds to a large multisubunit protein called translocase of the outer membrane, which then actively moves them across the membrane. Disruption of the outer membrane permits proteins in the intermembrane space to leak into the cytosol, leading to certain cell death.
The intermembrane space is the space between the outer membrane and the inner membrane. Because the outer membrane is freely permeable to small molecules, the concentrations of small molecules such as ions and sugars in the intermembrane space is the same as the cytosol. However, as large proteins must have a specific signaling sequence to be transported across the outer membrane, the protein composition of this space is different than the protein composition of the cytosol. One protein that is localized to the intermembrane space in this way is cytochrome c.
The inner mitochondrial membrane contains proteins with four types of functions:
- Those that perform the redox reactions of oxidative phosphorylation
- ATP synthase, which generates ATP in the matrix
- Specific transport proteins that regulate metabolite passage into and out of the matrix
- Protein import machinery.
It contains more than 100 different polypeptides, and has a very high protein-to-phospholipid ratio (more than 3:1 by weight, which is about 1 protein for 15 phospholipids). The inner membrane is home to around 1/5 of the total protein in a mitochondrion. In addition, the inner membrane is rich in an unusual phospholipid, cardiolipin. This phospholipid was originally discovered in beef hearts in 1942, and is usually characteristic of mitochondrial and bacterial plasma membranes. Cardiolipin contains four fatty acids rather than two and may help to make the inner membrane impermeable. Unlike the outer membrane, the inner membrane does not contain porins and is highly impermeable to all molecules. Almost all ions and molecules require special membrane transporters to enter or exit the matrix. Proteins are ferried into the matrix via the translocase of the inner membrane (TIM) complex or via Oxa1. In addition, there is a membrane potential across the inner membrane formed by the action of the enzymes of the electron transport chain.
The inner mitochondrial membrane is compartmentalized into numerous cristae, which expand the surface area of the inner mitochondrial membrane, enhancing its ability to produce ATP. These are not simple random folds but rather invaginations of the inner membrane, which can affect overall chemiosmotic function. In typical liver mitochondria, for example, the surface area, including cristae, is about five times that of the outer membrane. Mitochondria of cells that have greater demand for ATP, such as muscle cells, contain more cristae than typical liver mitochondria.
The matrix is the space enclosed by the inner membrane. It contains about 2/3 of the total protein in a mitochondrion. The matrix is important in the production of ATP with the aid of the ATP synthase contained in the inner membrane. The matrix contains a highly-concentrated mixture of hundreds of enzymes, special mitochondrial ribosomes, tRNA, and several copies of the mitochondrial DNA genome. Of the enzymes, the major functions include oxidation of pyruvate and fatty acids, and the citric acid cycle.
Mitochondria have their own genetic material, and the machinery to manufacture their own RNAs and proteins (see: protein biosynthesis). A published human mitochondrial DNA sequence revealed 16,569 base pairs encoding 37 total genes, 24 tRNA and rRNA genes and 13 peptide genes. The 13 mitochondrial peptides in humans are integrated into the inner mitochondrial membrane, along with proteins encoded by genes that reside in the host cell's nucleus.
Organization and distribution
Mitochondria are found in nearly all eukaryotes. They vary in number and location according to cell type. Substantial numbers of mitochondria are in the liver, with about 1000–2000 mitochondria per cell making up 1/5th of the cell volume. The mitochondria can be found nestled between myofibrils of muscle or wrapped around the sperm flagellum. Often they form a complex 3D branching network inside the cell with the cytoskeleton. The association with the cytoskeleton determines mitochondrial shape, which can affect the function as well. Recent evidence suggests vimentin, one of the components of the cytoskeleton, is critical to the association with the cytoskeleton.
The most prominent roles of the mitochondrion are its production of ATP and regulation of cellular metabolism. The central set of reactions involved in ATP production are collectively known as the citric acid cycle. However, the mitochondrion has many other functions in addition to the production of ATP.
A dominant role for the mitochondria is the production of ATP, as reflected by the large number of proteins in the inner membrane for this task. This is done by oxidizing the major products of glucose, pyruvate, and NADH, which are produced in the cytosol. This process of cellular respiration, also known as aerobic respiration, is dependent on the presence of oxygen. When oxygen is limited, the glycolytic products will be metabolized by anaerobic respiration, a process that is independent of the mitochondria. The production of ATP from glucose has an approximately 13-fold higher yield during aerobic respiration compared to anaerobic respiration.
Pyruvate: the citric acid cycle
Each pyruvate molecule produced by glycolysis is actively transported across the inner mitochondrial membrane, and into the matrix where it is oxidized and combined with coenzyme A to form CO2, acetyl-CoA, and NADH.
The acetyl-CoA is the primary substrate to enter the citric acid cycle, also known as the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle or Krebs cycle. The enzymes of the citric acid cycle are located in the mitochondrial matrix, with the exception of succinate dehydrogenase, which is bound to the inner mitochondrial membrane as part of Complex II. The citric acid cycle oxidizes the acetyl-CoA to carbon dioxide, and, in the process, produces reduced cofactors (three molecules of NADH and one molecule of FADH2) that are a source of electrons for the electron transport chain, and a molecule of GTP (that is readily converted to an ATP).
NADH and FADH2: the electron transport chain
The redox energy from NADH and FADH2 is transferred to oxygen (O2) in several steps via the electron transport chain. These energy-rich molecules are produced within the matrix via the citric acid cycle but are also produced in the cytoplasm by glycolysis. Reducing equivalents from the cytoplasm can be imported via the malate-aspartate shuttle system of antiporter proteins or feed into the electron transport chain using a glycerol phosphate shuttle. Protein complexes in the inner membrane ( NADH dehydrogenase, cytochrome c reductase, and cytochrome c oxidase) perform the transfer and the incremental release of energy is used to pump protons (H+) into the intermembrane space. This process is efficient, but a small percentage of electrons may prematurely reduce oxygen, forming reactive oxygen species such as superoxide. This can cause oxidative stress in the mitochondria and may contribute to the decline in mitochondrial function associated with the aging process.
As the proton concentration increases in the intermembrane space, a strong electrochemical gradient is established across the inner membrane. The protons can return to the matrix through the ATP synthase complex, and their potential energy is used to synthesize ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate (Pi). This process is called chemiosmosis, and was first described by Peter Mitchell who was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work. Later, part of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker for their clarification of the working mechanism of ATP synthase.
Under certain conditions, protons can re-enter the mitochondrial matrix without contributing to ATP synthesis. This process is known as proton leak or mitochondrial uncoupling and is due to the facilitated diffusion of protons into the matrix. The process results in the unharnessed potential energy of the proton electrochemical gradient being released as heat. The process is mediated by a proton channel called thermogenin, or UCP1. Thermogenin is a 33k Da protein first discovered in 1973. Thermogenin is primarily found in brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, and is responsible for non-shivering thermogenesis. Brown adipose tissue is found in mammals, and is at its highest levels in early life and in hibernating animals. In humans, brown adipose tissue is present at birth and decreases with age.
Storage of calcium ions
The concentrations of free calcium in the cell can regulate an array of reactions and is important for signal transduction in the cell. Mitochondria can transiently store calcium, a contributing process for the cell's homeostasis of calcium. In fact, their ability to rapidly take in calcium for later release makes them very good "cytosolic buffers" for calcium. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the most significant storage site of calcium, and there is a significant interplay between the mitochondrion and ER with regard to calcium. The calcium is taken up into the matrix by a calcium uniporter on the inner mitochondrial membrane. It is primarily driven by the mitochondrial membrane potential. Release of this calcium back into the cell's interior can occur via a sodium-calcium exchange protein or via "calcium-induced-calcium-release" pathways. This can initiate calcium spikes or calcium waves with large changes in the membrane potential. These can activate a series of second messenger system proteins that can coordinate processes such as neurotransmitter release in nerve cells and release of hormones in endocrine cells.
Mitochondria play a central role in many other metabolic tasks, such as:
- Regulation of the membrane potential
- Apoptosis-programmed cell death
- Glutamate-mediated excitotoxic neuronal injury
- Cellular proliferation regulation
- Regulation of cellular metabolism
- Certain heme synthesis reactions (see also: porphyrin)
- Steroid synthesis.
Some mitochondrial functions are performed only in specific types of cells. For example, mitochondria in liver cells contain enzymes that allow them to detoxify ammonia, a waste product of protein metabolism. A mutation in the genes regulating any of these functions can result in mitochondrial diseases.
Mitochondria have many features in common with prokaryotes. As a result, they are believed to be originally derived from endosymbiotic prokaryotes.
A mitochondrion contains DNA, which is organized as several copies of a single, circular chromosome. This mitochondrial chromosome contains genes for ribosomes, and the twenty-one tRNA's necessary for the translation of messenger RNAs into protein. The circular structure is also found in prokaryotes, and the similarity is extended by the fact that mitochondrial DNA is organized with a variant genetic code similar to that of Proteobacteria. This suggests that their ancestor, the so-called proto-mitochondrion, was a member of the Proteobacteria. In particular, the proto-mitochondrion was probably related to the rickettsia. However, the exact relationship of the ancestor of mitochondria to the alpha-proteobacteria and whether the mitochondria was formed at the same time or after the nucleus, remains controversial.
The ribosomes coded for by the mitochondrial DNA are similar to those from bacteria in size and structure. They closely resemble the bacterial 70S ribosome and not the 80S cytoplasmic ribosomes which are coded for by nuclear DNA.
The endosymbiotic relationship of mitochondria with their host cells was popularized by Lynn Margulis. The endosymbiotic hypothesis suggests that mitochondria descended from bacteria that somehow survived endocytosis by another cell, and became incorporated into the cytoplasm. The ability of these bacteria to conduct respiration in host cells that had relied on glycolysis and fermentation would have provided a considerable evolutionary advantage. In a similar manner, host cells with symbiotic bacteria capable of photosynthesis would also have had an advantage. The incorporation of symbiotes would have increased the number of environments in which the cells could survive. This symbiotic relationship probably developed 1.7-2 billion years ago.
A few groups of unicellular eukaryotes lack mitochondria: the microsporidians, metamonads, and archamoebae. These groups appear as the most primitive eukaryotes on phylogenetic trees constructed using rRNA information, suggesting that they appeared before the origin of mitochondria. However, this is now known to be an artifact of long-branch attraction – they are derived groups and retain genes or organelles derived from mitochondria (e.g., mitosomes and hydrogenosomes).
The human mitochondrial genome is a circular DNA molecule of about 16 kilobases. It encodes 37 genes: 13 for subunits of respiratory complexes I, III, IV, and V, 22 for mitochondrial tRNA, and 2 for rRNA. One mitochondrion can contain two to ten copies of its DNA.
As in prokaryotes, there is a very high proportion of coding DNA and an absence of repeats. Mitochondrial genes are transcribed as multigenic transcripts, which are cleaved and polyadenylated to yield mature mRNAs. Not all proteins necessary for mitochondrial function are encoded by the mitochondrial genome; most are coded by genes in the cell nucleus and the corresponding proteins imported into the mitochondrion. The exact number of genes encoded by the nucleus and the mitochondrial genome differs between species. In general, mitochondrial genomes are circular, although exceptions have been reported. Also, in general, mitochondrial DNA lacks introns, as is the case in the human mitochondrial genome; however, introns have been observed in some eukaryotic mitochondrial DNA, such as that of yeast and protists, including Dictyostelium discoideum.
While slight variations on the standard code had been predicted earlier, none was discovered until 1979, when researchers studying human mitochondrial genes determined that they used an alternative code. Many slight variants have been discovered since, including various alternative mitochondrial codes. Further, the AUA, AUC, and AUU codons are all allowable start codons.
|Mammalian||AGA, AGG||Arginine||Stop codon|
Some of these differences should be regarded as pseudo-changes in the genetic code due to the phenomenon of RNA editing, which is common in mitochondria. In higher plants, it was thought that CGG encoded for tryptophan and not arginine; however, the codon in the processed RNA was discovered to be the UGG codon, consistent with the universal genetic code for tryptophan. Of note, the arthropod mitochondrial genetic code has undergone parallel evolution within a phylum, with some organisms uniquely translating AGG to lysine.
Mitochondrial genomes have far fewer genes than the eubacteria from which they are thought to be descended. Although some have been lost altogether, many have been transferred to the nucleus, such as the respiratory complex II protein subunits. This is thought to be relatively common over evolutionary time. A few organisms, such as the Cryptosporidium, actually have mitochondria that lack any DNA, presumably because all their genes have been lost or transferred. In Cryptosporidium, the mitochondria have an altered ATP generation system that renders the parasite resistant to many classical mitochondrial inhibitors such as cyanide, azide, and atovaquone.
Replication and inheritance
Mitochondria divide by binary fission similar to bacterial cell division; unlike bacteria, however, mitochondria can also fuse with other mitochondria.. The regulation of this division differs between eukaryotes. In many single-celled eukaryotes, their growth and division is linked to the cell cycle. For example, a single mitochondrion may divide synchronously with the nucleus. This division and segregation process must be tightly controlled so that each daughter cell receives at least one mitochondrion. In other eukaryotes (in humans for example), mitochondria may replicate their DNA and divide mainly in response to the energy needs of the cell, rather than in phase with the cell cycle. When the energy needs of a cell are high, mitochondria grow and divide. When the energy use is low, mitochondria are destroyed or become inactive. In such examples, and in contrast to the situation in many single celled eukaryotes, mitochondria are apparently randomly distributed to the daughter cells during the division of the cytoplasm.
An individual's mitochondrial genes are not inherited by the same mechanism as nuclear genes. At fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm, the egg nucleus and sperm nucleus each contribute equally to the genetic makeup of the zygote nucleus. In contrast, the mitochondria, and therefore the mitochondrial DNA, usually comes from the egg only. The sperm's mitochondria enter the egg but does not contribute genetic information to the embryo. Instead, paternal mitochondria are marked with ubiquitin to select them for later destruction inside the embryo. The egg cell contains relatively few mitochondria, but it is these mitochondria that survive and divide to populate the cells of the adult organism. Mitochondria are, therefore, in most cases inherited down the female line, known as maternal inheritance. This mode is seen in most organisms including all animals. However, mitochondria in some species can sometimes be inherited paternally. This is the norm among certain coniferous plants, although not in pine trees and yew trees. It has also been suggested that it occurs at a very low level in humans.
Uniparental inheritance leads to little opportunity for genetic recombination between different lineages of mitochondria, although a single mitochondrion can contain 2–10 copies of its DNA. For this reason, mitochondrial DNA usually is thought to reproduce by binary fission. What recombination does take place maintains genetic integrity rather than maintaining diversity. However, there are studies showing evidence of recombination in mitochondrial DNA. It is clear that the enzymes necessary for recombination are present in mammalian cells. Further, evidence suggests that animal mitochondria can undergo recombination. The data are a bit more controversial in humans, although indirect evidence of recombination exists. If recombination does not occur, the whole mitochondrial DNA sequence represents a single haplotype, which makes it useful for studying the evolutionary history of populations.
Population genetic studies
The near-absence of genetic recombination in mitochondrial DNA makes it a useful source of information for scientists involved in population genetics and evolutionary biology. Because all the mitochondrial DNA is inherited as a single unit, or haplotype, the relationships between mitochondrial DNA from different individuals can be represented as a gene tree. Patterns in these gene trees can be used to infer the evolutionary history of populations. The classic example of this is in human evolutionary genetics, where the molecular clock can be used to provide a recent date for mitochondrial Eve. This is often interpreted as strong support for a recent modern human expansion out of Africa. Another human example is the sequencing of mitochondrial DNA from Neanderthal bones. The relatively-large evolutionary distance between the mitochondrial DNA sequences of Neanderthals and living humans has been interpreted as evidence for lack of interbreeding between Neanderthals and anatomically-modern humans.
However, mitochondrial DNA reflects the history of only females in a population and so may not represent the history of the population as a whole. This can be partially overcome by the use of paternal genetic sequences, such as the non-recombining region of the Y-chromosome. In a broader sense, only studies that also include nuclear DNA can provide a comprehensive evolutionary history of a population.
Dysfunction and disease
With their central place in cell metabolism, damage - and subsequent dysfunction - in mitochondria is an important factor in a wide range of human diseases. Mitochondrial disorders often present as neurological disorders, but can manifest as myopathy, diabetes, multiple endocrinopathy, or a variety of other systemic manifestations. Diseases caused by mutation in the mtDNA include Kearns-Sayre syndrome, MELAS syndrome and Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. In the vast majority of cases, these diseases are transmitted by a female to her children, as the zygote derives its mitochondria and hence its mtDNA from the ovum. Diseases such as Kearns-Sayre syndrome, Pearson's syndrome, and progressive external ophthalmoplegia are thought to be due to large-scale mtDNA rearrangements, whereas other diseases such as MELAS syndrome, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers (MERRF), and others are due to point mutations in mtDNA.
In other diseases, defects in nuclear genes lead to dysfunction of mitochondrial proteins. This is the case in Friedreich's ataxia, hereditary spastic paraplegia, and Wilson's disease. These diseases are inherited in a dominance relationship, as applies to most other genetic diseases. A variety of disorders can be caused by nuclear mutations of oxidative phosphorylation enzymes, such as coenzyme Q10 deficiency and Barth syndrome. Environmental influences may also interact with hereditary predispositions and cause mitochondrial disease. For example, there may be a link between pesticide exposure and the later onset of Parkinson's disease.
Other diseases not directly linked to mitochondrial enzymes may feature dysfunction of mitochondria. These include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, stroke, cardiovascular disease, retinitis pigmentosa, and diabetes mellitus. The common thread linking these seemingly-unrelated conditions is cellular damage causing oxidative stress and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. These oxidants then damage the mitochondrial DNA, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death.
Possible relationships to aging
Given the role of mitochondria as the cell's powerhouse, there may be some leakage of the high-energy electrons in the respiratory chain to form reactive oxygen species. This can result in significant oxidative stress in the mitochondria with high mutation rates of mitochondrial DNA. A vicious cycle is thought to occur, as oxidative stress leads to mitochondrial DNA mutations, which can lead to enzymatic abnormalities and further oxidative stress. A number of changes occur to mitochondria during the aging process. Tissues from elderly patients show a decrease in enzymatic activity of the proteins of the respiratory chain. Large deletions in the mitochondrial genome can lead to high levels of oxidative stress and neuronal death in Parkinson's disease. Hypothesized links between aging and oxidative stress are not new and were proposed over 50 years ago; however, there is much debate over whether mitochondrial changes are causes of aging or merely characteristics of aging. One notable study in mice demonstrated no increase in reactive oxygen species despite increasing mitochondrial DNA mutations, suggesting that the aging process is not due to oxidative stress. As a result, the exact relationships between mitochondria, oxidative stress, and aging have not yet been settled. | <urn:uuid:21ed2bfb-24ea-4df9-b550-2427e64521fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/m/Mitochondrion.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923881 |
Survivors remember 1918 global flu pandemic
Plague could teach lessons about how to prepare for future flu outbreak
Dec 17, 2006
CHEVY CHASE, Md. - At the height of the flu pandemic in 1918, William H. Sardo Jr. remembers the pine caskets stacked in the living room of his family’s house, a funeral home in Washington, D.C.
The city had slowed to a near halt. Schools were closed. Church services were banned. The federal government limited its hours of operation. People were dying — some who took ill in the morning were dead by night.
“That’s how quickly it happened,” said Sardo, 94, who lives in an assisted living facility just outside the nation’s capital. “They disappeared from the face of the earth.”
Sardo is among the last survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic. Their stories offer a glimpse at the forgotten history of one of the world’s worst plagues, when the virus killed at least 50 million people and perhaps as many as 100 million.
More than 600,000 people in the United States died of what was then called “Spanish Influenza.” The flu seemed to be particularly lethal for otherwise healthy young adults, many of whom suffocated from the buildup of liquids in their lungs.
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Buick's China Connection
How an unlikely pact with capitalism brought luxury cars to the People’s Republic and pumped life into a General Motors division on the brink of extinction
Paul A. Eisenstein
From the Print Edition:
Joe Mantegna, July/August 2011
(continued from page 1)
Detroit was the Silicon Valley of its day, but instead of software companies it had hundreds of hard-metal manufacturers, all vying for a piece of the action as Americans began to embrace the horseless carriage. Few would survive the shakeout. Even Henry Ford foundered in his first two tries. Buick’s founder knew he couldn’t pull it off on his own. Within months of renaming the company, Buick was deeply in debt and snapped up at a bargain by James H. Whiting, another automotive pioneer, who moved the maker to his hometown of Flint, barely 100 miles north of the Motor City. In turn, Whiting brought in William Crapo Durant to manage the acquisition.
Born in Boston, Billy Durant was the grandson of a Michigan governor and soon moved to the Midwest, where he tried his hand at a variety of jobs, selling cigars, working in a lumberyard, even selling carriages. Durant founded the Flint Road Cart Company in 1886—the same year Carl Benz built the first true motor car and a decade before the Duryea brothers launched the first U.S. auto company—turning a $2,000 investment into $2 million in sales. Renamed the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, it eventually became the largest producer of horse-drawn vehicles in the world. It was also a pioneer of the concept of setting up franchised dealers, a model that exists largely unchanged more than a century later.
Initially, Durant was skeptical of the horseless carriage, refusing to let his daughter ride in one of the noisy, smelly and dangerous contraptions. But he began to recognize the revolution at hand and signed on with Whiting, first as general manager. Durant soon became the president and then chief executive of the company, which was reincorporated in 1908 as General Motors. A natural born huckster, he quickly turned Buick into the best-selling automotive brand in America. But Durant had bigger things in mind. GM would become a holding company for an assortment of promising auto companies and parts suppliers. He snapped up Oldsmobile—founded by another auto pioneer, Ransom E. Olds—Oakland and Henry Leland’s Cadillac.
It was a turbulent era and Durant lost control of GM. He went on to set up Durant Motors and then raised enough cash, with the help of Pierre S. du Pont, to buy back a controlling stake in General Motors. Durant was pushed out for the last time by du Pont, in 1920, to be replaced by Alfred P. Sloan, the steely-eyed executive who would revolutionize manufacturing and business practices in general, creating the management system that would define GM for most of the rest of the twentieth century.
Sloan has often been credited with—blamed for, if you prefer— conceiving the idea of planned obsolescence, a practice now utilized in the computer trade. He also invented a pricing structure dubbed the “ladder of success.” Each of GM’s brands targeted a particular buyer and a specific price niche to avoid competing with one another. At the base was Chevrolet, followed by Pontiac, then Oldsmobile, then Buick then Cadillac. Buick had more prestige than Olds because, among other things, it used only eight-cylinder engines, notes automotive historian Mike Davis. But it was intentionally more subdued than Cadillac, explains Davis. “Buick became the doctor’s car,” while Caddy targeted the more flamboyant entrepreneur and those who could flash their money. “The doctor was your neighbor, and people didn’t want to see him driving a Cadillac because it would have meant he was getting rich off you.”
The Emperor’s New Car
In its early years, Buick had a surprisingly loyal following around the world. The Bulgaris, known for their lavish jewelry and other luxury products, have been loyal fans over the decades. Nicola Bulgari, a grandson of the founder, owns a collection of some of the best Buicks from the past century. He spent years tracking down one of the rare 41 Model 96S Buicks built during the Depression year 1935. It took him another two years and a “significant” amount of money, he recalls, to repair the “disaster” he found. But, in the end, it landed a commendable second-place trophy at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance—no mean feat considering that this Academy Awards of automotive car collecting is typically dominated by such exotics as Delahayes, Duesenbergs and Bugattis.
But perhaps the most influential Buick customer of all time—even if he didn’t recognize it—was the last emperor of China. Emperor P’u-i bought two of the cars in 1924. They were, in fact, the first motor vehicles ever allowed to pass through the gates of the Forbidden City. His endorsement was so critical that by 1930 one in every six cars in China was a Buick, the company boasted in an advertisement from that era. “Buick owners are mostly the leading men in China,” it declared.
Somehow one of P’u-i’s Buicks survived the devastation of the Second World War and when the communists eventually took over it landed in the hands of Zhou Enlai, Mao’s top lieutenant, who had a decidedly decadent taste for fine automobiles. Years later, long after Mao and Zhou were gone, the emperor’s Buick would still wield its influence.
As the twentieth century drew to a close, former General Motors Chairman Jack Smith decided to take a bold gamble on China. With the Chinese cautiously embracing a hybrid form of capitalism, GM saw an opportunity to cash in on potentially booming demand for automobiles. The deal was lucrative, but the Chinese were reluctant to sign. They had no interest in Chevrolet, the U.S. maker’s biggest brand, nor Cadillac, its most prestigious, nor Opel, then GM’s preferred global marque. “They only wanted the best,” recalls Larry Gustin, then a General Motors PR man in on the negotiations. “They wanted Buick.” Reluctantly, Smith and his team agreed.
The move garnered virtually comparable sales in China as in the U.S. over the last decade. By 2007, for the biennial Shanghai Motor Show, Buick took the then-unheard-of step of developing a concept vehicle specifically for China. Dubbed the Park Avenue—a nod to a once-familiar nameplate—it was “designed especially for business leaders and other elites,” explains Shanghai GM President Ding Lei, adding “it is a component of our effort to maintain our leadership position in China by addressing the needs of all of our customers.”
Building on the brand’s success, GM has expanded its presence in China, adding Chevrolet, Cadillac and Opel, as well as the homegrown Wuling and the Baojun marque, which will target second and third-tier cities in mid and western China where consumers are just getting wheels.
A Grand Transition
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Spinoza and philosophers today
Kritika & Kontext: To what extent is Spinoza's interpretation of scriptures and revealed religion relevant today?
Steven B. Smith: Spinoza's critique of Scripture is exceptionally relevant today. Not only have we seen the rise of religious fundamentalisms, but we have also witnessed the publication of several books by, for example, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, arguing against traditional religion and sometimes even citing Spinoza in defence of atheism. The thing I cannot help but notice is how generally impoverished the whole debate is today in comparison with the immense learning and erudition that Spinoza brought to the topic. He was a philosopher and a philologist and this combination is certainly lacking in today's polemicists.
Herman De Dijn: Spinoza was one of the very first people to see the Bible as a text with human origins, i.e. to be studied as to its meaning in the same way as any other text: with the help of knowledge of the language (grammar, semantics), context of origin, intentions of the writers and so on. Yet the result of his interpretation, what Spinoza calls the determination of the kernel message of the Bible, is not decided only by exegesis and hermeneutics, but also by some philosophical presuppositions, for example his conception of the difference between reason and imagination, and his conviction that the moral message of the prophets and of Christ was for some reason (which he thinks he knows with moral certainty) in agreement with the moral teaching of his philosophy.
Moira Gatens: Spinoza's reflections on scripture and religion in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP) remain relevant today because they offer an account of the constitution of society. The study of biblical narratives and language, Spinoza says, "can be very profitable in the matter of social relations" insofar as they reveal "the ways and manners of men" (TTP, chap. 5). What the study of historical narratives shows is that the prophets and scripture appeal to the imagination in order to convey simple ideas and to encourage obedience to the authority that serves to bind together the collective body. Scripture is not concerned with philosophy (or an adequate knowledge of Nature), but rather "teaches only what men can imitate by a definite code of conduct" (TTP, chap. 12). Some read the TTP as a condemnation of the Bible, theology and faith, on the grounds that these promote false beliefs (God is a judge) and sad passions (fear and hope). But on Spinoza's own account, imagination is a power, not a defect, of the human being and the knowledge to which it gives rise – though partial or inadequate – is of enormous social utility. Spinoza's tirade against theologians who wish to legislate over speculative matters, and so turn disagreements into crimes (TTP, pref. 3), should not be allowed to overshadow his conviction that much good has come from religion. Even though religious beliefs, when judged from a philosophical perspective, are false, they can nevertheless promote the attainment of important human goods. Religion aims for obedience and piety that, in turn, promote the peace and security of the state. It should not aim for axiomatic knowledge of nature in general; rather, the variable rules, customs and knowledge that constitute a given religion will be tailored to fit particular peoples at particular times and places. In my view, the TTP contains two important insights: first, the central role that is played by the imagination in religion, sociability and politics; and second, the idea that the "imaginary" dimension of human sociability, although permanent, is open to reformation over time.
Gábor Boros: There are different layers to be distinguished in Spinoza's interpretation of (Holy) Scriptures and revealed religion(s). (1) Basically, he urges us to part with the tradition of interpreting Scripture in a purely internal-religious way: the Bible cannot be seen as an unmediated exchange between God and human beings, nor as an exchange mediated solely by the institution(s) of the church(es). (2) He turns our attention to a certain alliance of the "spiritual" and the worldly powers whose aim is to develop a theory that is able to make people obey both powers without any reflection. At the same time he offers an interpretation of the weakness of man's mind – its being imaginative in character rather than purely rational or intellectual – that refuses to treat it as a consequence of the original sin of the first human creatures. Finally, Spinoza offers a special hermeneutics of Scripture, one that is based on descriptive-scientific investigations of its main tenets. This method, he claims, differs both from the internal-religious way of looking at it, and from a method that uses secular philosophy as an external criterion of its interpretation. Fourthly, he thinks there are considerable differences among religions that claim to be based on revelation; he treats separately the Hebrew, the Christian and the Muslim religions. He maintains that the Hebrew prophetic religion was based on the lively imagination of the prophets – even if there were several wise men among the Hebrews: for example, Solomon; at the same time this religion proved to be successful as a means of strengthening the coherence among the members of the community. He does not seem to be very interested in a detailed analysis of the Muslim religion; he only observes that this was by far the most successful in making people ready to surrender themselves totally to a power the worldly and religious aspects of which could hardly be separated. Concerning Christianity, its main merit seemed for him to stem from his own peculiar way of interpreting Jesus as the unique person who exchanged with God in an absolutely unmediated way independent of the senses (de mente ad mentem).
Drawing our attention to the political aspects of all religious thinking is certainly one of the main merits of Spinoza's thought that will have a lasting effect. On the other hand, if one mentions the expression "political theology" today, one will hardly think of Spinoza in the first place; for it was the highly influential German political thinker Carl Schmitt who gave a decisive, non-Spinozistic, turn to this concept in the twentieth century.
Considering the strength and weakness of human beings as something to be understood without referring to the revelations of a transcendent Creator of the world, is a basic assumption of today's natural, human and social sciences.
Concerning hermeneutics of the Bible, Spinoza's own hermeneutics is a highly interesting one; his suggestion is that the meaning of Scripture must be collected from its own history. Freeing Scripture from philosophy is for him nothing else than attaching it to sciences such as ethnology, archaeology, linguistics, and so on – a tenet that is hardly contested nowadays even among the scholars of religious studies.
The differentiated picture Spinoza makes of the different revealed religions does not seem to be a matter of much interest today except for secularized Jewish intellectuals who try to save Spinoza from the consequences of the ban in order to be able to draw some lessons from his works on modern Jewish identity.
Teodor Münz: Yes, they are still relevant today, for several reasons: Spinoza's was the first critical, scientific, study of the scriptures and of revealed religions. The novelty of his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus was that it combined historical, linguistic, psychological and, mainly, philosophical insights in its approach to sacred texts – primarily those of the Old Testament. His own conception of God as impersonal infinite nature coloured his views of Biblical authors whom – especially the Hebrew prophets – he found to rely more on their imagination than on reason; thereby giving rise to fantastic, and even contradictory views of God. His views on the New Testament were more favourable because he felt that the way Christ communicated with God (mind-to-mind) was closer to his own conception. Today, Bible critique is an independent scientific discipline that owes much to Spinoza, who could be considered as one of its founders.
Warren Montag: I would say that there is perhaps nothing in Spinoza's work more relevant today than his critical examination of scripture. In saying this I do not refer simply or even primarily to the emergence in the last thirty years of the phenomena whose diversity and complexity is often reduced to the single term "fundamentalism", phenomena whose existence cannot be confined to a realm of "faith" or "belief" but which have taken on a practical, institutional and thus political existence. It should be absolutely clear that by invoking the term, "fundamentalism" I am not speaking only about "Islamic fundamentalism", a phrase that more often than not incites the suspension of rational thought, at least in the West, but about Jewish and above all Christian fundamentalisms. Spinoza's critique of "superstition" (transcendence, teleology/providence, the systematic devaluation of body and pleasure) would appear more relevant than anytime since the Middle Ages. According to a certain reading of his work, Spinoza belongs to the tradition of the Enlightenment, as if he were the complex original of which Voltaire and Diderot represented popular versions. Spinoza would thus represent an Enlightenment that not only remains unfinished, but which faces new and unprecedented challenges from the formidable armies of Faith. To further establish his contemporaneity, could we not say that as the first "secular Jew", to use Strauss's problematic and perhaps oxymoronic phrase, the singular case of a man who, expelled from the Jewish community into which he had been born, neither sought to return to it (as had so many others before him, including Uriel da Costa), nor accepted Christianity in any of the myriad forms extant in the Amsterdam of his time, Spinoza was the first great thinker of secularism?
I am afraid, and this is the point at which the excellence and difficulty of his work most nearly coincide, that Spinoza is far more insidious and subversive than this. Althusser was right to assert that he is a heretic in our time, as well as his own, which means not only that he remains relevant, but that his work retains its capacity to disturb and offend, even the most enlightened and secular among us, those who, unable to bury it once again, attempt to annex it to their own projects, just as those thinkers Althusser describes who, unable to defeat Marxism, ended up taking it over to empty it of its content.
Why would Spinoza spend so much time on a detailed examination not of the Bible (he excused himself from the task of interpreting the "New Testament", citing his lack of expertise in Greek), but the Hebrew Scriptures? Further, why would Spinoza, who read, in addition to Hebrew, both Aramaic and Syriac, devote significant effort to the composition of a manual of Hebrew grammar, going so far as to develop a new theory of the Hebrew verb? Certainly not merely to negate it, to declare it a "fake", as one says of a painting, written by imposters, in order to diminish its authority and appeal. All men, Spinoza says in the preface to the TTP, "are liable to superstition." It is perhaps the most effective content of the universal existence of humanity: in no way is it localized in Jews, Muslims or Christians or any of their writings. In fact, Spinoza goes out of his way to denounce the intrusion of philosophy in religion, in that philosophy in its dominant forms is every bit as much the bearer of superstition as "religion" itself.
To translate this into contemporary terms would be to question the opposition of the religious and the secular, of faith and enlightenment. As Althusser has shown, Spinoza's critique of Biblical interpretation applies with equal force to the most militantly secular practices of reading as well as the secular texts to which they are directed, in the same way that his critique of providence calls into question the notion of "the economy," and reveals it to be the secularization of ideas often associated with Christianity, but which also have their Jewish equivalents, up to and including the moral values of acquiescence and sacrifice. Spinoza seeks to deconstruct the interpretive practices that dematerialize the Hebrew Scriptures and distort them into an allegorical anticipation of the truth that will succeed them and render their statements in their literal existence null and void.
Thus, it is not the "resurgence" of religion that confers such importance on Spinoza's project, for such a notion implies that "religion" disappeared or was largely diminished in the face of the secular culture that issued from the European Enlightenment. In my view nothing could be more naive than to think we have finished with Christianity or even religion simply because our discourse does not contain references to the Bible as divine authority, God or Christ the King. On the contrary, it is clear that the most malignant characteristics of two millennia of Christian missions and the holy wars, crusades and inquisitions they necessitate, persist in various perfectly secular, even "scientific" forms. The modern form of universalism, which seeks to convert the other into itself and regards the other who remains other as enemy, is strikingly Christian even without a single reference to God: how do we begin to free ourselves from superstition in both its religious and secular forms. It is this that makes it imperative to study scripture.
Kritika & Kontext: Could Spinoza be called a reductive naturalist?
Steven B. Smith: Is there any other kind?
Herman De Dijn: No, not in the usual sense(s), for several reasons. Nature for him is not just matter, but its essence consists of infinite attributes, each perfect in their own kind; mind is not reducible to body or brain; a human being, although not the centre of the universe, but only a part of Nature, yet with a much more complex nature than that of animals, is capable even of Amor intellectualis Dei, and is in a (special) sense immortal.
Moira Gatens: It follows from Spinoza's substance monism that the human mind is not an individual substance. Rather, mind and body are conceived as modifications of the attributes thought and extension – of the unique Substance (God or Nature). Far from taking the attributes to be creations of an omnipotent God, they are better understood as "aspects" or "essences" of God. In some sense, God is Nature. Some have seen this part of Spinoza's philosophy as the "divinising" of Nature (or pantheism) but it may just as well be interpreted as the "naturalising" of God. This interpretation is consistent with Spinoza's assertion that we "acquire a greater and more perfect knowledge of God as we gain more knowledge of natural phenomena" (TTP, chap. 4). Is this reductive naturalism? I don't think so. Thought cannot be reduced to extension. It expresses an aspect of reality that is irreducible to passive nature, or matter.
Gábor Boros: I don't think so. First of all, his concept of nature itself is not reductionist. As is well known, he distinguishes between natura naturans and natura naturata, and the later can in no sense be reduced to the former. The place of human beings within nature, their relations to the productive and the produced aspect of nature is, of course a delicate issue that cannot be answered without detailed analyses of the relevant texts. My idea is that however strongly Spinoza might have emphasized that humans are rooted in, and are not above, the order of nature, the self-consciousness he conceptualizes as the idea ideae does mean a sort of gap between human beings and other finite modes.
Teodor Münz: It is not entirely clear to me in what sense Spinoza could be thought of as a "reductive naturalist". According to his philosophy God is all of nature, which also included human nature - not as an exception, but as its equal and integral part. While he believed that no special laws were required to explain human nature, he was not a "reductive materialist". On the contrary, he held that mind and body were parallel expressions (modes) of two (among infinitely many) equal attributes of one God. And, neither of these attributes (or of their modes) could be reduced to the other. Still, human beings, who are themselves equally minds and bodies, are different from the rest of nature in that they are also aware – mostly in a confused way – of this union.
Kritika & Kontext: What do you think about the attention Spinoza's theory of emotions is receiving today from psychologists and cognitive scientists?
Steven B. Smith: To my mind, Spinoza's greatest contribution has always been, not as a metaphysician, but as a moral psychologist. His account of the affects or emotions plays a central part in his understanding of human psychology. I am not so well-versed in contemporary cognitive science, but there is much new work being done on the "history of the passions" and the way in which philosophers have understood the power of the emotions and the relation of reason to the passions. Spinoza always writes as an ethical physician, viewing the passions as a sort of doctor to the soul. His great equals are probably only Plato and Freud.
Moira Gatens: Authors such as Antonio Damasio and Heidi Ravven applaud Spinoza's prescience in proposing an integrated, network model of the mind, cognition and emotion, rather than a modular model that tends to compartmentalize judgments, beliefs and desires. His theory of the affects challenges triumphalist accounts of free will that praise those who enjoy privilege and good fortune while blaming the unfortunate for their circumstances. Spinoza's theory of the emotions presages some aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis insofar as it associates freedom (but not free will) with the ability to understand the causal links that determine behaviour. Placed in a socio-political context (human life is always embodied in particular places and times, and embedded in specific historical practices, as the TTP shows), this account of the emotions draws attention away from praising or blaming individuals and onto systemic causes of the features of human societies that cause misery (e.g., poverty, poor health, lack of education).
Syliane Malinowski-Charles: Contemporary psychologists and cognitive scientists such as Antonio Damasio have credited Spinoza with being "right" about the emotions. Spinoza's unitary view of human beings enables him to explain the emotions, called "affects" in his terminology, as manifestations of one's power of being both in the mental and in the physical realm. Traditionally, the emotions were seen as the effects of the body on the mind. Spinoza breaks with this view by saying that there is only one reality expressed in two ways, and that it is wrong to believe that the body causes the mind's emotion. This is, I think, one of the main reasons why Spinoza's analysis of emotional life is so appealing to contemporary – mostly materialistic – psychologists. There is, in sum, no need for two different entities acting one on the other; everything that takes place in the attribute of extension is sufficient in order to explain emotional life. Spinoza's theory offers an ontological support to the study of the role played by the different physiological factors, such as endocrinal glands, hormones and cerebral zones, in the determination of emotions. In addition, Spinoza's powerful understanding of the way elaborate emotions are constructed out of simple (he calls them "primitive") emotions, namely, desire, joy and sadness, provides an important contribution to understanding them. Spinoza analyses with subtlety and depth the diverse mechanisms (such as the desire of imitation, or the love of whatever resembles us) that explain the birth of complex attitudes towards objects and beings in a totally mechanical – hence both universal and objective – way. I personally regret that contemporary specialists, who study emotions, largely in ignorance of the history of ideas, cut Spinoza's theory of the emotions off from the rest of his ethics, seeing it only as it fits into their own purposes. All too often, they study only those intuitions of Spinoza that are forerunners to contemporary theories, without understanding the specific role that they play in Spinoza's system as a whole. However, it can only be good for the study of this author to show that in many respects he was, indeed, "right".
Kritika & Kontext: What do you take to be the advantages and disadvantages of Spinoza's separation of political and religious authorities?
Herman De Dijn: No democratic state is possible without this separation, so it seems Spinoza is right. Yet his view on religion as basically an inner attitude is one-sided: religion is probably intrinsically related to ritual and ceremony (i.e. external actions). This may mean that it will be not so easy to have a peaceful coexistence of good-willing believers and the state.
Moira Gatens: Does he advocate the complete separation of political and religious authorities? One might rather say that he denies the legitimacy of the theologians' claim to political authority and describes the limits the religious authority of the sovereign. The seven dogmas of universal faith presented in Chapter 14 of the TTP represent a basic creed that persons of all persuasions should be able to endorse. These dogmas are: God exists; he is one; he is omnipresent; he has supreme right; worship of God consists only in love towards one's neighbour; only those who worship God are saved; and, finally, god forgives the repentant. These dogmas encourage people to act charitably towards each other. The most important thing to note about the dogmas is that they should be acceptable to all because each individual should be free to interpret them according to his or her own understanding. This is crucial, because in Spinoza's view the power to think is the inalienable natural right of every individual. We are determined by nature to think, that is, to imagine, to judge, and to try to understand ourselves, others and Nature. Just as fish are determined to swim – and do so by sovereign natural right – human beings are determined to think and this we do by a sovereign natural right that cannot be transferred or surrendered (TTP, chaps 19 and 20). Each interpretation of the dogmas will then reflect the type of power and the kind of knowledge possessed by an individual: does he have a simple, an imaginative, or a philosophical mind? Of course, it is preferable that as many as possible will come to understand God or Nature philosophically. However, this understanding cannot be compelled (TTP, chap. 7) and, as the Ethics indicates, philosophical understanding is a rare achievement that requires both ability and time to study and reflect, privileges that few enjoy. Meanwhile, the security and peace of the state must be protected from internal conflict – such as religious wars – and morality must be able to harness self-interest to the common good. The multiplicity of ways in which the seven dogmas may be "adapted" or "interpreted" acknowledges the power of the sovereign to dogmatically determine what shall count as "right and wrong" action at the same time that they accommodate the different kinds of powers and the different types of knowledge possessed by citizens. Without a stable state and an effective moral community, the development of human powers and knowledge is impossible.
Kritika & Kontext: Do you think that Spinoza's denial of free choice makes morality impossible?
Steven B. Smith: I don't believe this. For reasons that I have discussed in my Spinoza's Book of Life, Spinoza does not deny choice. What he denies is that our choices are somehow freestanding or uncaused, the result of some mysterious quality called the "will". Our choices are just like any other happening, that is, an event with its antecedent causes and conditions. To say that our choices have been caused is not for Spinoza to deny morality, because once we understand the causes of our decisions, we are in a position to alter them. Our reason becomes a force in the causal chain of events that can allow us to choose more wisely, more self-consciously, and ultimately more freely. Far from being at odds with morality, Spinoza wants to show how morality is possible.
Herman De Dijn: Many philosophers think that determinism and morality can go together (see also Hume). Spinoza clearly thinks so, and probably with good reason in view of his conception of morality. Furthermore even if one has a more Human understanding of morality, compatibilism seems perfectly defensible, as is clear from Strawson's famous paper "Freedom and Resentment".
Moira Gatens: Spinoza's notion of freedom is not opposed to power, nor is freedom opposed to necessity. Rather, necessity is the condition of the possibility of becoming conscious of our power, or put differently: "Freedom does not remove the necessity of action, but imposes it" (TP, chap. 2). There is no place in Spinoza's deterministic philosophy to pose the problem of free will; this is one of the fictions produced by the imagination because of its partial grasp on reality: the imagination experiences affects without understanding their causes. Perhaps surprisingly, the rejection of free will does not entail the denial of freedom. Spinoza defines freedom as self-caused activity. Strictly speaking, only Substance (God or Nature) is truly free because nothing external to it exists. Hence, no external cause exists that could affect it. The distinct freedom, or power, of human being lies in our capacity to form adequate ideas and enhance our understanding of nature: "I call him free who is led by reason alone" (Ethics, IV, Prop. 68, Dem.). Freedom, put differently, is not the capacity to will whatever I desire but rather the ability to understand the causes that determine all things, including my desires. Spinoza's account of how we come to be reasonable is both developmental and dynamic.
Spinoza dissolves a number of dichotomies that have dominated western philosophy: he does not oppose mind to body, reason to emotion, or freedom to necessity. Rather, his fundamental contrast is between passivity and activity, and it is our position on the passivity-activity spectrum that will determine the shape of our ethical lives. Far from freedom being opposed to necessity, it is the very condition of our liberty. The more we understand necessity, the more active we become, and the more active we become the more we express our freedom, or power, or essence. Our power, our freedom, our virtue and our conatus all begin to converge, and by Part V of the Ethics, these terms are all but indistinguishable. The more complex a body is then the more complex will be its mind. Spinoza's account of the human mind-body yields a non-judgemental ethical stance. Virtue, for Spinoza, cannot be about mind disciplining the body and passion. Rather, virtue concerns the power of the individual to act, to understand, and to flourish. However, human flourishing is never simply a matter of individual striving. Human flourishing necessarily assumes a social and political context that does not thwart the reasonable striving of each to increase her or his powers of action. Different forms of sociability and different kinds of body politic may act to constrain or enable the development of the capacities of their constituent members. Spinoza's theologico-political theory makes clear that the qualities, attributes and capacities of subjects or citizens are determined, in large part, by the laws and customs of the social body in which these capacities develop.
Gábor Boros: To be sure, Spinoza is not the first and only philosopher who has denied free choice, while maintaining that morality is possible. On the other hand, morality is, in my view, a descriptive term that refers to the prevailing persuasions within a given community concerning how to live virtuously, and this has not much to do with what a given philosopher thinks about free choice. Real people's communities seldom care about the proposals made by philosophers. I think if there lurks any problem here, it is the problem of consistency: how to harmonize metaphysics based on a God without personality with an ethics that gives suggestions concerning how to live, for highly personal human beings. But theoretically this problem does not seem to me more difficult to solve than the problems that pop up when we set out the other way round: Do you think that the Christian philosophers' unsuccessful attempts to harmonize free choice with divine foreknowledge makes morality impossible?
Teodor Münz: I do not think that the denial of free choice makes morality impossible. While human beings are an integral part of God-nature, and are determined to act in a certain way (being subject to God's eternal laws) they do have a certain degree of freedom. I will try to explain this more fully because it is an important point, one that Spinoza has not explained sufficiently clearly. We could use the analogy of a state and one of its components – say, a municipality. Such a municipality could legislate within the limited area of its competence, provided it respected the laws and constitutions of the state. In the same way, a human being is a finite modification of the infinite power of God and also enjoys a certain amount of autonomy within the limits of God's necessary and universal laws.
Kritika & Kontext: What do you make of Spinoza's favourable comments on democratic regimes? What do you think Spinoza thought of the multitude? Why do you think so many Marxist philosophers have found inspiration in Spinoza?
Steven B. Smith: Spinoza's views on democracy are far more problematic than is often suggested, in part because his view of the multitude is not a flattering one. He believed the multitude was prone to superstition and this was the core of intolerance and bigotry. It also made the multitude susceptible to manipulation by ambitious political leaders whether these be secular or religious. On the whole Marxist readers have been reluctant to address this problem. Although I am great admirer of Althusser and Balibar as Marxist readers of Spinoza, neither has convinced me as to why we should think of Spinoza as a democrat.
Moira Gatens: Even in the early "Emendation of the Intellect", Spinoza linked the achievement of our "highest good" with the collective human endeavour to form the kind of society that would allow "as many as possible" to perfect the intellect and to attain this good. In the TTP, as well as in the Ethics, this "highest good" consists in the increase in our knowledge of God or Nature. The best and most powerful kind of state then is one that recognises the human power of thought and that constitutes itself in a way that facilitates the fullest expression and development of this power by the greatest possible number. Democracy "comes closest to the natural state" (TTP, chap. 20) because it recognises and promotes "that freedom which nature grants to every man" (TTP, chap. 16). While it is true that Nature does not forbid "strife, or hatred, or anger, or deceit" (TTP, chap. 16), parts IV and V of the Ethics present an argument for why a philosophical understanding of God or Nature, and the nested place of human nature within it, necessarily entails the desire for mutual aid, friendship and justice.
Spinoza's low opinion of the vulgus, (the multitude, or the common people, or the uneducated), derives from their imaginative and superstitious disposition. This disposition is not peculiar to the vulgus: on Spinoza's account, it is the natural condition of all human beings. "All men are by nature liable to superstition", he writes, and it is the passion of fear that "engenders, preserves, and fosters superstition" (TTP, preface). Superstition is fertile ground for the development of religion and tyrants will try to take advantage of the gullibility of the multitude. In a scathing attack on despotism, Spinoza wrote that the tyrant aims "to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation" (TTP, preface).
Reasonable states, no more or less than reasonable persons, can emerge only through time and experimentation. Spinoza does not propose a radical rupture between the "state of nature" and theologico-political life. Rather, organised forms of political collective life, based on (more or less) reasonable principles, can emerge only gradually and will retain elements of the earlier historical, theological forms that always lie at their origin. Spinoza's philosophy is attractive to Marxists for at least three reasons: his account of human society is both historical and naturalistic, he offers a critique of religion and the role of the imagination which became the models for Marxist theories of ideology, and he saw that homo homini Deus est (man is God to man, Ethics, IV, Prop 35, Schol.).
Gábor Boros: These are actually three different questions. As for the first, not much comment is needed. Spinoza argues for an – ideal – democratic regime, even if he acknowledges that as yet no existing government could be seen as an example of such a democratic regime. So he is eager to create rules for choosing the representative leaders of all sort of government. In this way he thinks he is able to prevent the deterioration of any existing government. As for the second question, one has to be aware of the distinction between two levels of consideration: the one is a strictly philosophical way of considering things; the other is a practical-political one. On the philosophical level Spinoza stresses relentlessly the importance of guiding as many people as is possible to the state of ideal happiness – which, he thinks, consists in our acknowledging the unity of the mind with the whole of nature. On the practical-political level, however, he is far from any utopian idealism. He knows most people will always be led mostly by their inadequate ideas and passive affects. That is the reason why he quotes Tacitus' saying: terret vulgus nisi metuat ("The mob is terrifying, if unafraid" [Curley's rendering]). The predilection of Marxists philosophers for Spinoza has at least two sources. Firstly, there are several statements in the Ethics that can be read as advocating a sort of hidden materialist view. And secondly, the community of free people led by reason alone, described by Spinoza in the propositions 67-73 of Book 4 of the Ethics, can be seen as a pre-figuration of a self-conscious working class. But I myself am far from being convinced that either of the two interpretations is correct.
Teodor Münz: I agree with them. Spinoza advocated democracy. He considered it to be superior to monarchy and to aristocracy. He was one of the harbingers of democracy in Europe. Holland of his time was the first European state with a modern democratic system of government. When it comes to the multitude (the masses), Spinoza was able to differentiate: on the one hand, the multitude was quite uneducated, enslaved in its interests, passions, superstitions and prejudices, devoted to a personal God, yet knowing nothing about the true God-nature. On the other hand, the multitude lived more or less according to the Decalogue which had contributed to social harmony within the state. In this sense the multitude actually supported the state, and that was praiseworthy according to Spinoza. He saw the multitude as the sovereign power in a democratic state, where "society wields its power as a whole" (TPT, 205).
In my opinion, the prominence of Spinoza as an inspiration for many Marxist authors rested on their view of him as a materialist. If Spinoza divinized nature (and nature is material according to materialism), then Spinoza was a materialist according to their view. (It was also helpful that Marx and Engels had a high regard for Spinoza, even though they did not take him to be a materialist.) It was Plekhanov who first made Spinoza a champion of Marxist materialism. He even thought of Marx and Engels as Spinozist materialists. But, although Engels perceived Spinoza as one of the "brilliant representatives of dialectics", he did not see him as a materialist. A number of Soviet authors also talked about Spinoza's nature only in the material sense. However, several others held a correct view on Spinoza's nature.
Syliane Malinowski-Charles: Spinoza was the first advocate of democracy in the early modern period, and probably in philosophy since the Ancient democracy of Athens was born. However, his defence of this regime is more grounded in a contempt for, and distrust in, the multitude, than in a faith in it. Contrary to what one may expect, it is Spinoza's very pessimistic conception of the multitude (multitudo) that leads him to ask for a democratic regime. Before anything else, the people are an unstable, ignorant and passion-oriented mass. It is precisely because people's passions are in conflict that a middle-ground will be found when they decide on their own laws. For it is one of Spinoza's most important intuitions that what is truly common to all is precisely what is rational. In order to satisfy the greatest possible number of people, the law will have to take into account what is common to all, i.e., that which is truly in everyone's interest as a human being. Thus, in politics just as in any other field of his thought, the norm of rationality arises in an immanent way. Were his conception of reason, or of the common good, different, Spinoza would surely not have been a democrat, for he has the same negative view of the people as do defenders of monarchy or aristocracy such as Plato and Aristotle. Spinoza's appeal to Marxists has, I think, a different source. In my view, what materialists such as Marxists like above all in Spinoza is his capacity to offer an internal understanding of social mechanisms as being the result of the interaction of human passions. Their anthropologies are different, though.
Kritika & Kontext: What do you make of Spinoza's claim that the right of individuals is limited only by the extent of their power to be, to think and to act? In particular, how do you reconcile his equating power and right with his conception of political sovereignty?
Herman De Dijn: The right of individuals is limited only by their power: outside the state this means they are completely powerless (so again, human rights mean nothing on their own, outside the state). Only within the state do individuals get real rights, i.e. guaranteed by the sovereign. The same for the sovereign: his right is only real insofar as he has power over the citizens; the best kind of power is the one which can rely on the loyalty of the citizens, for whatever reason.
Moira Gatens: Spinoza's political and ethical writings present multiple possible forms of sociability: associations built on superstition, tyrannies grounded in fear and hope, communities of rational individuals, and societies bound by the ties of friendship. None of these forms of sociability contradict his deceptively simple claim that the right "of every individual is coextensive with its power" (TTP, chap. 2). The coextension of right and power applies to bodies politic as well as to individuals. From a contemporary perspective this may seem to be an unlikely starting point for a philosopher whose major work is titled Ethics because if "right" and "power" are coextensive what, if anything, can justify the normative claim that a community of rational beings is superior to a tyrannical state?
In Chapter 16 of the TTP we find the thesis that the right of an individual extends as far as its power does. It follows from this – since the state counts as a kind of individual that each state, or sovereign, has the right to do as it pleases provided it has the power to do as it pleases. The thesis that right extends as far as power can be understood in both descriptive and normative terms. Although it is not always easy to distinguish the descriptive from the normative in Spinoza's philosophy, for present purposes I take the descriptive to be that which relates to the laws of Nature, whereas the normative always relates to human interests and preservation, to which broader Nature is completely indifferent. Evil things are not evil when judged from nature's laws alone "but only in respect of the laws of our own nature" (TTP, chap. 16). If we are to understand how a specific kind of state emerges in history, then in addition to knowledge about the actual peoples, and the times and places in which they dwell, we require knowledge of the universally valid axioms by which every state is determined. Historical records about the kinds of states that actually have existed (Spinoza mentions Rome, the Hebrew state, "the Turks", and so on) are valuable because they provide empirical materials about past experiences that reveal the interactions between Nature and the struggles of particular human collectives. History, in this sense, is the experimental laboratory in which are tested the various forms that human societies may take. As such, history is a valuable source of knowledge about human capacities and limits.
Gábor Boros: In this respect those people are to be blamed, who refer to Spinoza in order to get their might-is-right-concept legitimized by Spinoza's authority. Spinoza himself thinks there is a basic limit to one's power, namely the very nature of that species to which the individual belongs. The essence of any individual is its striving to keep and operate on the basis of its proper being. A horse would be destroyed if it continued its life as a person, and a person gets destroyed – at least in a metaphorical sense – if she ignores her reflective-rational being, of which the ethics of the Ethics is the most important evidence.
- See: Herman De Dijn:, "Over de interpretatie van de Schrift volgens Spinoza", Tijdschrift voor Filosofi e 29 (1967), 667-704; and Herman De Dijn, "Spinoza and Revealed Religion", Studia Spinozana 11 (1995), 39-52.
- See: Herman De Dijn, "The Possibility of an Ethic in a Deterministic System like Spinoza's" in Jon Wetlesen (ed.), Spinoza's Philosophy of Man. Proceedings of the Scandinavian Spinoza Symposium 1977. Oslo-Bergen-Tromso, Universitetsforlaget, 1978, 27-35.
- See Herman De Dijn, "The Compatibility of Determinism and Moral Attitudes" in E. Giancotti (ed.), Spinoza nel 350 Anniversario della Nascita. Atti del Congresso (Urbino 4-8 ottobre 1982) – Proceedings of the First Italian International Congress on Spinoza. Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1985, 205-219.
Original in English
First published in Kritika & Kontext 38-39 (2009)
Contributed by Kritika & Kontext
© Kritika & Kontext | <urn:uuid:92c65256-401d-4f94-a4a9-60a812ef4d53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-11-30-spinoza-en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961436 |
During his war service in the munitions factory in 1918, Head counteracted the tedium of his labours by working on settings of four poems by the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge (1887–1917). The first, The ships of Arcady
, was published in 1919, with the complete group following as a cycle the next year under the title Over the rim of the moon
derived from the opening line of the last song. Dedicated to his teacher Jean Adair, it was first performed by Astra Desmond at the Royal Albert Hall in 1919. The piano sets the scene in The ships of Arcady
, its sequence of serene chords suggesting the gathering dusk and still sea as the Arcadian ships glide out of harbour to the voice’s wistful melody. By contrast Beloved
is a love-song with a passionate vocal line and ardent accompaniment. A blackbird singing
is set to a rhythm of rocking regret and a melody tinged with sorrow in the face of loss. The final song, Nocturne
, is a dramatic scena in miniature, marked by a recitative-like opening, menacing chords and urgent syncopated accompaniment in the second verse underpinning the anguish embodied in the poem.
from notes by Andrew Burn © 2012 | <urn:uuid:4bc8358e-688a-4ad0-ac54-acab96c93a74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/tw.asp?w=W13892&t=GBAJY1189908&al=CDA67899 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958443 |
Did Noah Recognize Different Frog Species?
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
"What if Noah got it wrong?" is a question recently posed in a ScienceDaily article. "What if he paired a male and a female animal thinking they were the same species, and then discovered they were not the same and could not produce offspring?"1
These were probably not intended to be serious questions. But if Genesis provides real history, maybe they should be.
The article highlighted a report by scientists who successfully used a technique called DNA barcoding, which identifies subtle species differences, on frogs. Some different frog species look very similar. Like "ring species" of birds, some frogs can interbreed across a continuum of varieties, but those at one end cannot breed with those at the other end of the continuum. This implies that all the members share ancestry and natural processes over many generations lessened their reproductive potential.2
A professor at Universidad de los Andes, Andrew Crawford, studied the subtle DNA differences in 10 species of frogs in Panama. His team's results were published in the journal Molecular Ecology Resources.3 Take note of the differences between the researchers' objectives and those of Noah. God clearly instructed Noah in Genesis 6:19-20,
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Noah took two of every "sort," or "kind." Does the Bible indicate that Noah took two of every one of today's named species? Certainly not. Many, if not most, species interbreed with at least one other named species. For example camels (Camelus dromedarius) breed with llamas (Lama glama) to form a "cama."
Noah did not need two camels and two llamas. He may not have even seen these descendant forms. He only needed two representatives of the camel "sort," likely corresponding to the modern family level classification of "camelidae."
In contrast to Noah, Crawford and his team were not interested in preserving representatives of each familial "sort," but in identifying each specialized variety that descended from that more generalized "sort's" stock. He told the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, "If we accidentally choose frogs to breed that are not the same species, we may be unsuccessful or unknowingly create hybrid animals that are maladapted to their parents' native environment."1
But like llamas and camels, these frogs probably no longer correspond to those available during Noah's time. Of course, frogs could have survived the Flood on board the ark. But because they spend part of their lives in water, it is possible that they survived outside it.
Questioning how Noah would have discerned between species overlooks three factors. First, Noah might not have taken all amphibians on board. Second, today's species are not exactly what he saw. Third, Noah was unconcerned with modern biologists' fixation on naming and preserving every possible sub-variety within a reproducing group.
Identifying dwindling species using DNA banding as part of an effort to preserve biodiversity is valuable because each creature reflects its Creator in a unique way.4 But Noah did not need to use DNA banding. His concern was not to tag varieties within each kind, but to preserve two representatives of each kind.
- Genetic Matchmaking Saves Endangered Frogs. ScienceDaily. Posted on sciencedaily.com January 8, 2013, accessed January 17, 2013.
- Sherwin, F. and B. Thomas. 2009. Do "New Species" Demonstrate Darwinism? Acts & Facts. 38 (2): 36.
- Crawford, A. J., et al. DNA barcoding applied to ex situ tropical amphibian conservation programme reveals cryptic diversity in captive populations. Molecular Ecology Resources. Published online before print, December 27, 2012.
- Thomas, B. 2005. Conservation ethics based on evolution? Journal of Creation. 19 (2): 58-61.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on January 21, 2013. | <urn:uuid:ad93123e-6257-402f-af8e-704e5499fa99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icr.org/article/7247/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954084 |
We're taught to believe that some people are simply born lucky, when in reality, that's just a convenient excuse to lean back and take it easy, rather than try to exert some control over our destiny. After all, if you aren't one of the “chosen” fortunate ones, what can you possibly do about it? Well, actually, quite a bit. The fact is, more and more psychologists are finding out that it isn't the hand you're dealt that's important in life but how you play your cards. To put it another way: We're all capable of making our own luck. "What we think of as chance and luck are not at all the same thing," explains Richard Wiseman, Ph.D., a psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire and author of The Luck Factor, who has done a decade of research on the topic—enough to convince him that no more than 10 percent of life is actually random or pure chance. "The rest is luck," he says. "And luck is determined by your attitude toward life, by what you put out into the universe and how you respond to the results." Carol Sansone, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, agrees: "What appears to be luck is really the result of perceptions, personality traits, choices, and actions. And all of that is within your control." Read on and discover how to put good luck firmly in your grasp.
Consider Yourself Lucky
Want to improve your luck? It could be as easy as adjusting your attitude. Studies show that people who consider themselves lucky actually tend to be—it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's because positive thinkers are always keeping their eyes peeled for fortuitous situations, and they're more likely to pounce on them when they arise.
In a study conducted by Wiseman, researchers placed some money on the sidewalk in the paths of different people—some who claimed to be lucky, and others who considered themselves unlucky. The "lucky" people noticed the money and picked it up; the "unlucky" people walked past the cash.
"Serendipitous types are upbeat and optimistic," says Sansone. "They look for luck in all kinds of events, and they expect good outcomes." It's a numbers game: If you believe you have a good shot at winning, you're more likely to participate in the football pool at work or the guess-how-many-jelly-beans-are-in-the-massive-freakin-jar contest at the mall. The more you take advantage of these chance opportunities, the more you improve your odds.
Lucky You: "As they say about the lottery, 'You have to play in order to win,'" says Daniel "Chip" Denman, a statistician at the University of Maryland. If you don't take chances and put yourself in a position to have something positive happen, it won't. And pay close attention to what you're putting out there: "The reactions you draw from others are a huge factor in determining your own luck," says Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of California at Riverside. "If you exude positive energy, people will respond to you positively."
Shift Your Focus
Hey, there's certainly nothing wrong with being a conscientious worker and pouring your heart and soul into a worthwhile project. But by tuning out the rest of the world, you may be missing out on another way to reach your goal. People who are less flexible tend to overlook opportunities by staying too focused on only one path, according to Elizabeth Nutt Williams, Ph.D., a psychology professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland. "That type of tunnel vision may lead to faster results," she says, "but being willing to explore unforeseen opportunities can lead to different and unexpected outcomes, and sometimes better results in the long run."
Lucky You: Give it a rest, OK? Every once in a while, take a time-out from whatever project you've been slaving over. Not only will taking a breather clear your head and refresh your mind, but it may bring you in contact with something (or someone) that can help with whatever it is you're working on. Inspiration can come from pretty much anywhere: After-work margaritas with coworkers can lead to some helpful piece of office gossip or help you get a better understanding of what makes your boss tick. A few minutes of Web surfing might uncover a recent news story or study that supports a thesis you're writing.
Take More Risks
People who consider themselves lucky tend to take more chances, strike up more conversations with strangers, and follow more job leads. Instead of telling themselves,There's not a snowball's chance in hell that's going to happen, they tell themselves, That looks kind of cool. Maybe I should check it out. And they get stuff—good stuff, like a bump up to first class (simply because they asked for it), a cute boyfriend (who says you shouldn't make the first move?), or a cool job (they had the moxie to ask for a sit-down with the boss). And it gets better: Good outcomes increase the belief that you can accomplish whatever you set out to do, which fuels an appetite for future risk.
Lucky You: You know the annoying little voice playing inside your head that's telling you not to do something? The one that sounds suspiciously like your hypercritical mother, your best frenemy, or your downer of a 10th-grade guidance counselor? Well, risk-taker types learn to tune out all the negativity. Follow their lead by listening to your gut and refusing to retreat (even if you have a few doubts). Instead, ask yourself this: What's the worse that can happen if I try this and fail? Chances are, it isn't all that bad. Then ask yourself, What will I regret more months or even years down the road: taking the risk or playing it safe?You already know the answer to that.
Brush Off Failure
Yes, failing sucks. But if you're going to let a critic's harsh words, a few (OK, numerous) impersonal rejection letters, or a job promotion that never materialized knock you out of the game—or make you reconsider your goal—you're making a serious mistake. An important trait among lucky people, according to Lyubomirsky, is that they don't get terribly fazed when something doesn't go according to plan, and they tend to move quickly to the next step. "They have an adaptive way of dealing with failure," she explains. "They don't dwell on the negative or let obstacles get in the way of taking another chance later." Serendipitous types know that there are a lot of different paths for getting wherever it is they want to go. And even if their dream doesn't pan out, there's always another (usually better) opportunity just around the corner.
Lucky You: Instead of sulking over a few nasty setbacks, use them to your advantage. Ask yourself, What have I learned from these experiences? What do I need to do next?Remember: Life's little roadblocks aren't the end, they're merely part of the journey as you make your way toward your ultimate goal. They're opportunities to tweak your talents and iron out the kinks so you can try again. And kick butt.
Break Familiar Patterns
Turns out, change really is good. Easygoing people who have more of a go-with-the-flow approach to life—and who are more willing to alter their daily or weekly routines—open themselves up to more opportunities and fortuitous encounters.
Lucky You: Promise yourself that every couple of days, you'll break away from your usual patterns or, as Denman puts it, "shuffle the deck of your daily activities." Even a small adjustment—going out to lunch instead of brown-bagging it, taking an alternate route to work, trying a different fitness class—will double the number of people you come in contact with and increase the chances of something good happening. "Taking a step out of the ordinary can be a great way to find good fortune," says Denman. But, he warns, you have to be mentally prepared to look for the good in any given situation. So keep your eyes peeled. You won't see potential opportunities if you're lost in your own little world.
Source: WOMEN'S HEALTH Magazine
By Alexandra Hall | <urn:uuid:33be495a-8d44-4bc0-b942-9c695235007c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mybodyrestoration.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103:be-happy-how-to-make-your-own-luck&catid=55:finding-the-balance&Itemid=58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964043 |
Blue-eared Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
The blue-eared pheasant is not named for blue ears. It has a bluish body and is a member of a group of pheasants called eared pheasants, named for the prominent feather tufts on their head. This species is adapted to living in the high altitudes of the mountainous regions of the Kokonor and Kansu provinces of China. These birds were only found in China until 1929 when they were sent to an avicultural garden in Clères, France. The Zoo houses these Pheasants in our New England Farmyard area.
Both sexes have a bluish–gray body with velvety black feathers covering the head, a white streak of feathers starting under the chin and extending back past ears, and scarlet red facial skin. Males have a large, round spur while females have a smaller oblong-shaped spur.
Central China at elevations up to 11,500 feet.
Feeds on grains, seeds, grasses, leaves, roots, wild fruits, nuts and insects.
Lives up to 27 years in captivity.
Breeds between April and June. Females lay 6 – 12 eggs that hatch in 26 to 28 days.
11am - 3pm
10am - 4pm
We are open...
9am to 4pm every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day
Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo
1875 Noble Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06610
Main Number: (203) 394-6565 | <urn:uuid:a3e53d50-3076-44a2-ac43-f054a0ae3a7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beardsleyzoo.org/blueearnedpheasant-fk1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934763 |
WebMD Medical News
Laura J. Martin, MD
Oct. 3, 2011 -- Smoking is considered one of the major risk factors for strokes. Now research shows that smokers tend to have strokes close to one full decade earlier than nonsmokers.
Smokers were age 58, on average, when they had a stroke, while nonsmokers were 67, on average, according to a study presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Ottawa.
A stroke or brain attack occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a blood clot (ischemic stroke) or when a blood vessel ruptures (hemorrhagic stroke).
Smokers in the study were two times more likely to have an ischemic stroke and two to four times more likely to have a hemorrhagic stroke compared to nonsmokers.
"We have always known that the more you smoke, the more you stroke, and now we know that the more you smoke, the younger you stroke," says study researcher Andrew Pipe, MD. He's chief of the division of prevention and rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Researchers examined the differences between 264 smokers who had a stroke and 718 nonsmokers who had a stroke between January 2009 and March 2011. Smokers were found to have strokes earlier. They were also more likely to experience complications after their stroke, including a second stroke.
The good news is that quitting smoking can help offset these risks, Pipe says.
"We have neglected smoking and have not been as resolute or resourceful in helping patients who are smokers as we have in addressing other risk factors like high blood pressure and cholesterol," he says. "Most of them know they shouldn't smoke and know that they should quit and are prepared to make a quitting attempt.
"The benefits of quitting smoking accrue so rapidly," Pipe says.
"We have always known smoking is bad for you, but we didn't know how bad," says Antoine M. Hakim, MD, PhD. Hakim is CEO and scientific director of the Canadian Stroke Network in Ottawa.
"Smokers are younger when they get their strokes and when they do have strokes, they are much more complicated," says Hakim. "Please quit, and when you do, your risk level is back down as if you have never smoked within two years."
Smokers tend to have strokes close to 10 years before nonsmokers. "That's pretty significant," says M. Shaman Hussain, MD, a neurologist at Cleveland Clinic's Cerebrovascular Center in Ohio.
"Strokes are hitting smokers much earlier in life when they are still the breadwinners and having a devastating stroke is a burden on them and the family who they support," he says.
Besides quitting smoking, smokers need to focus on reducing other risk factors for stroke. These include:
"Smokers especially need to be paying very close attention to the health of their blood vessels," Hussain says.
Quitting smoking is not easy, but there are more tools available to help a person do so today than ever before, he says. "Smoking takes a hold on people and quitting is a very difficult thing do."
If you are reading this article and you smoke, "contact your primary care doctor and see what is out there to help you quit tobacco," he says.
This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.
SOURCES:Antoine M. Hakim, MD, PhD, CEO and scientific director, Canadian Stroke Network, Ottawa.M. Shazam Hussain, MD, neurologist, Cerebrovascular Center, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio.Andrew Pipe, MD, chief, division of prevention and rehabilitation, University of Ottawa Heart Institute; professor, faculty of medicine, University of Ottawa.Canadian Stroke Congress, Ottawa, Oct. 2-4, 2011.
The Health News section does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information. | <urn:uuid:73682026-ada4-4c32-b42c-e12652556707> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.9wsyr.com/webmd/smoking/story/Smokers-May-Get-Strokes-10-Years-Before-Nonsmokers/Qizgxc2JYkCwK1_OUocv5Q.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97744 |
A diamond larger than Earth?
Diamonds are forever ... an artist's rendition shows the interior of 55 Cancri e. Photo: Haven Giguere/Yale University
Orbiting a star that is visible to the naked eye, astronomers have discovered a planet twice the size of our own made largely out of diamond.
The rocky planet, called '55 Cancri e', orbits a sun-like star in the constellation of Cancer and is moving so fast that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours.
This 'diamond-rich super-Earth' is likely just one example of the rich sets of discoveries that await us.David Spergel, Princeton University
Discovered by a US-Franco research team, its radius is twice that of Earth's with a mass eight times greater. That would give it the same density as Earth, although previously observed diamond planets are thought to be a lot denser. It is also incredibly hot, with temperatures on its surface reaching 1,648 degrees Celsius.
An artist's rendition of the planet 55 Cancri e orbiting its sun in the constellation of Cancer. Photo: NASA
"The surface of this planet is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite," said Nikku Madhusudhan, the Yale researcher whose findings are due to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The study - with Olivier Mousis at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in Toulouse, France - estimates that at least a third of the planet's mass, the equivalent of about three Earth masses, could be diamond.
Diamond planets have been spotted before but this is the first time one has been seen orbiting a sun-like star and studied in such detail.
"This is our first glimpse of a rocky world with a fundamentally different chemistry from Earth," Madhusudhan said, adding that the discovery of the carbon-rich planet meant distant rocky planets could no longer be assumed to have chemical constituents, interiors, atmospheres, or biologies similar to Earth.
David Spergel, an astronomer at Princeton University, said it was relatively simple to work out the basic structure and history of a star once you know its mass and age.
"Planets are much more complex. This 'diamond-rich super-Earth' is likely just one example of the rich sets of discoveries that await us as we begin to explore planets around nearby stars."
"Nearby" is a relative concept in astronomy. Any fortune-hunter not dissuaded by The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age morality tale of thwarted greed, will find Cancri e about 40 light years, or 230 trillion miles, from Park Avenue. | <urn:uuid:505ba512-e077-47af-b563-6bf8010bc4fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/a-diamond-larger-than-earth-20121012-27gmg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928767 |
The Daily Beast reports,
Most of my favorite factoids about obesity are historical ones, and they don’t make it into the new, four-part HBO documentary on the subject, The Weight of the Nation. Absent, for instance, is the fact that the very first childhood-obesity clinic in the United States was founded in the late 1930s at Columbia University by a young German physician, Hilde Bruch. As Bruch later told it, her inspiration was simple: she arrived in New York in 1934 and was “startled” by the number of fat kids she saw—“really fat ones, not only in clinics, but on the streets and subways, and in schools.”
What makes Bruch’s story relevant to the obesity problem today is that this was New York in the worst year of the Great Depression, an era of bread lines and soup kitchens, when 6 in 10 Americans were living in poverty. The conventional wisdom these days—promoted by government, obesity researchers, physicians, and probably your personal trainer as well—is that we get fat because we have too much to eat and not enough reasons to be physically active. But then why were the PC- and Big Mac–-deprived Depression-era kids fat? How can we blame the obesity epidemic on gluttony and sloth if we easily find epidemics of obesity throughout the past century in populations that barely had food to survive and had to work hard to earn it? . . .
There is an alternative theory, one that has also been around for decades but that the establishment has largely ignored. This theory implicates specific foods—refined sugars and grains—because of their effect on the hormone insulin, which regulates fat accumulation. If this hormonal-defect hypothesis is true, not all calories are created equal, as the conventional wisdom holds. And if it is true, the problem is not only controlling our impulses, but also changing the entire American food economy and rewriting our beliefs about what constitutes a healthy diet. . . .
If the latest research is any indication, sugar may have been the primary problem all along. Back in the 1980s, the FDA gave sugar a free pass based on the idea that the evidence wasn’t conclusive. While the government spent hundreds of millions trying to prove that salt and saturated fat are bad for our health, it spent virtually nothing on sugar. | <urn:uuid:96cc4050-763c-4927-a6df-c4fc596b950a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americanvisionnews.com/3294/why-the-war-on-obesity-has-failed-for-over-80-years/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972552 |
Truvada, the HIV prevention drug approved by US health regulators. The opinion of the Food and Drug Administration is that Truvada can be used by persons at high risk of disease and anyone who may hold in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners. There have been concerns the circulation of such a drug could engender a false sense of security. Present have also been worries that a drug-resistant strain of HIV could expand.
Studies since 2010 showed that Truvada reduced the risk of HIV in healthy gay men and among HIV-negative heterosexual partners of HIV-positive people by between 44% and 73%. A number of health workers and groups active in the HIV society opposed a green light for the once-daily pill. Truvada, made by California-based Gilead Sciences, is previously backed by the FDA to be in use with existing anti-retroviral drugs for people who contain HIV. | <urn:uuid:e967f3dc-c046-4dee-b4aa-2008fcf365cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news-updations.blogspot.com/2012/07/us-approves-truvada-hiv-prevention.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966068 |
(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0)
strptime — Parse a time/date generated with strftime()
strptime() returns an array with the
date parsed, or
FALSE on error.
Month and weekday names and other language dependent strings respect the
current locale set with setlocale() (
The string to parse (e.g. returned from strftime()).
The format used in
date(e.g. the same as used in strftime()). Note that some of the format options available to strftime() may not have any effect within strptime(); the exact subset that are supported will vary based on the operating system and C library in use.
For more information about the format options, read the strftime() page.
Returns an array or
FALSE on failure.
|"tm_sec"||Seconds after the minute (0-61)|
|"tm_min"||Minutes after the hour (0-59)|
|"tm_hour"||Hour since midnight (0-23)|
|"tm_mday"||Day of the month (1-31)|
|"tm_mon"||Months since January (0-11)|
|"tm_year"||Years since 1900|
|"tm_wday"||Days since Sunday (0-6)|
|"tm_yday"||Days since January 1 (0-365)|
Example #1 strptime() example
$format = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S';
$strf = strftime($format);
The above example will output something similar to:
03/10/2004 15:54:19 Array ( [tm_sec] => 19 [tm_min] => 54 [tm_hour] => 15 [tm_mday] => 3 [tm_mon] => 9 [tm_year] => 104 [tm_wday] => 0 [tm_yday] => 276 [unparsed] => )
Note: This function is not implemented on Windows platforms.
Internally, this function calls the strptime() function provided by the system's C library. This function can exhibit noticeably different behaviour across different operating systems. The use of date_parse_from_format(), which does not suffer from these issues, is recommended on PHP 5.3.0 and later.
"tm_sec" includes any leap seconds (currently upto 2 a year). For more information on leap seconds, see the » Wikipedia article on leap seconds.
Prior to PHP 5.2.0, this function could return undefined behaviour. Notably, the "tm_sec", "tm_min" and "tm_hour" entries would return undefined values.
- checkdate() - Validate a Gregorian date
- strftime() - Format a local time/date according to locale settings
- date_parse_from_format() - Get info about given date formatted according to the specified format
- DateTime::createFromFormat() - Returns new DateTime object formatted according to the specified format | <urn:uuid:4fb0d0aa-4458-4eb8-8ce3-062d508d935a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://php.mirrors.ilisys.com.au/manual/en/function.strptime.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.670717 |
One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the New-York Historical Society committed its resources to a new initiative called, History Responds, with exhibitions, public events and educational initiatives. Since then, the Society has presented 17 special exhibitions relating to the attacks, 20 public programs, five community meetings, numerous school and teacher programs and, when the Society’s newly-renovated headquarters reopens on November 11, 2011, a permanent installation of photographs and other materials donated by survivors, witnesses, and rescuers.
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of September 11, the New-York Historical Society will present a special exhibition, Remembering 9/11, which will be free to the public. The exhibition opens on September 8, 2011 and will remain on view through April 1, 2012. The exhibition presents a selection of several hundred photographs taken by professional and amateur photographers in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center (originally collected in the independent exhibition “here is new york: a democracy of photographs”), as well as letters written to policemen and firemen; objects that were placed in makeshift shrines around New York; images and texts from the New York Times “Portraits of Grief” series; photographs of the Tribute in Light; and drawings of the National September 11 Memorial, designed by architect Michael Arad with the assistance of landscape architect Peter Walker.
As a special presentation for families, the Historical Society will also host a free reading by Vin Panaro, Bugler for the Fire Department of New York, and Katie Fuller, Museum Educator, of Maira Kalman’s book Fireboat, to be held in the Rotunda from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, 2011.
“In the months immediately following September 11, 2001, the New-York Historical Society began a vigorous collecting initiative and exhibition program regarding the terrorist attacks,” Kenneth T. Jackson stated. “This was our responsibility, as the institution founded to gather, preserve and interpret materials related to the history of New York City and State and the nation. “On the tenth anniversary of the attacks, it is important that the Historical Society is continuing this effort with Remembering 9/11.”
Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society, stated, “It takes a great historian to recognize the importance of his or her own historical moment, and to collect and preserve its effects. My predecessor, Kenneth T. Jackson is that great historian. On September 11th Ken recognized the tragedy of the day keenly, but saw also the need to collect and preserve so that future generations would understand what September 11th meant, for our city, our nation, our history. It is because of Ken’s work that our tenth anniversary exhibition Remembering 9/11 is able to document New York’s, and the nation’s, resilience along with the selfless acts of heroism, not only at the World Trade Center but also at the Pentagon and Shanksville.”
Remembering 9/11 is organized for the New-York Historical Society by Marilyn Satin Kushner, Curator and Head, Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections. “I wanted to create a space where people could come to quietly remember those days in 2001 and honor the memories of the people who were lost in the attacks. The solemnity of this occasion calls for a mood of respect and introspection,” stated Dr. Kushner.
When the renovated and transformed New-York Historical Society opens fully to the public on November 11, 2011, Remembering 9/11 will be joined by a permanent installation of photographs from “here is new york” in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History. Approximately 1,500 photographs by 790 contributors will be on display, along with a large fragment of a fire truck destroyed during the 9/11 attack.
Since the inception of the Historical Society’s History Responds, more than 150,000 visitors have taken part in its interpretive programs. Today, the History Responds collection includes numerous artifacts associated with September 11, ranging from architectural relics of the Twin Towers to artworks inspired by the catastrophe.
Remembering 9/11 is generously supported by Bernard and Irene Schwartz.
Founded in 1804, the Historical Society has a mission to explore the richly layered political, cultural, and social history of New York City and State and the nation and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.
The New-York Historical Society is located at 2 West 77th Street (across the street from the American Museum of Natural History), 212-873-3400, www.nyhistory.org.
See more travel features at: | <urn:uuid:8ea741aa-a891-4520-8b61-e275067f3640> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/new-york-historical-society-to-commemorate-10th-anniversary-of-septemer-11-attacks-with-free-exhibit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948617 |
Dr. Balentine received his undergraduate degree from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He attended medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine graduating in1983. He completed his internship at St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia and his Emergency Medicine residency at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, where he served as chief resident.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
Lymphoma (Hodgkin's Disease and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma) Overview
Lymphoma is a type of cancer involving cells of the immune system, called lymphocytes. Just as cancer represents many different diseases, lymphoma represents many different cancers of lymphocytes
-- about 35 different subtypes, in fact.
Lymphoma is a group of cancers that affect the cells that play a role in the immune system and primarily represents cells involved in the lymphatic system of the body.
The lymphatic system is part of the immune system. It
consists of a network of vessels that carry a fluid called lymph, similar to the way that the network of blood vessels carry blood throughout the body. Lymph contains white blood cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes attack a variety of infectious agents as well as many cells in the precancerous stages of development.
Lymph nodes are small collections of lymph tissue that occur throughout the body. The lymphatic system involves lymphatic channels that connect thousands of lymph nodes scattered throughout the body. Lymph flows through the lymph nodes, as well as through other lymphatic tissues including the spleen, the tonsils, the bone marrow, and the thymus gland.
These lymph nodes filter the lymph, which may carry bacteria, viruses, or other microbes. At infection sites, large numbers of these microbial organisms collect in the regional lymph nodes and produce the swelling and tenderness typical of a localized infection. These enlarged and occasionally confluent collections of lymph nodes (so-called lymphadenopathy) are often referred to as "swollen glands." In some areas of the body (such as the anterior part of the neck), they are often visible when swollen.
Lymphocytes recognize infectious organisms and abnormal cells and destroy them. There are
two major subtypes of lymphocytes: B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes, also referred to as B cells and T cells.
B lymphocytes produce antibodies (proteins that circulate through the blood and lymph and attach to infectious organisms and abnormal cells). Antibodies essentially alert other cells of the immune system to recognize and destroy these intruders, also known as pathogens (the process is known as humoral immunity).
T cells, when activated, can kill pathogens directly.
T cells also play a part in the mechanisms of immune system control, to
prevent the system from inappropriate overactivity or underactivity (in the process of cell mediated immunity).
After fighting off an invader, some of the B and T lymphocytes "remember" the invader and are prepared to fight it off if it returns.
Cancer occurs when normal cells undergo a transformation whereby they grow and multiply uncontrollably. Lymphoma is a malignant transformation of either B or T cells or their subtypes.
As the abnormal cells multiply, they may collect in one
or more lymph nodes or in other lymph tissues such as the spleen.
As the cells continue to multiply, they form a mass often referred to as a tumor.
Tumors often overwhelm surrounding tissues by invading their space, thereby depriving them of the necessary oxygen and nutrients
needed to survive and function normally.
In lymphoma, abnormal lymphocytes travel from one lymph node to the next, and sometimes to remote organs, via the lymphatic system.
While lymphomas are often confined to lymph nodes and other lymphatic tissue, they can spread to other types of tissue almost anywhere in the body. Lymphoma development outside of lymphatic tissue is called extranodal disease.
Symptoms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) depend on the area of the body affected by the disease. The most common symptom is a painless swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, underarm, or groin. Other symptoms may include: | <urn:uuid:24aa8e6f-4067-42b2-a744-90b11f21be9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/lymphoma/article_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950398 |
What can you do with just one mitten? Use your imagination! This bright, playful book celebrates a child's joyful discoveries of the many things she can do with a single mitten.
Once again, the creators of Book! show that even the simplest things can be a springboard to creativity and reveal the fun that's hidden in ordinary things.
The idea for One Mitten arrived one New Year’s Day while I was shivering on a street corner, watching the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Even though this was “sunny California,” it was really cold, and we were bundled up in coats and hats.
While I was ooohing and aaahing over the floats, I noticed a toddler holding a mitten someone had dropped. To this Southern California kid, the mitten was clearly a puzzling novelty: What was it? What did it do? That's when I started thinking of all the things one could do with a single mitten. When I got home, I wrote the first (of many!) drafts for ONE MITTEN.
Maggie Smith and I hope you enjoy ONE MITTEN. We invite readers of all ages to think of their own unique uses for a single mitten!
One Mitten in the Classroom
Download The One Mitten Imagination Challenge Students from across the country read ONE MITTEN, then shared what they would do with only ONE mitten.
Reproducible mitten template.
Mitten-y Web Resources
I was delighted to discover these amazing and creative resources on the web for mitten-themed curriculum. Check out these sites for ideas for math, science, art activities and more!
Magical Mittens at the The Virtual Vine
Mitten Theme at Step by Step Childcare
The Teaching Heart by Colleen Gallagher
Marvelous Mittens from Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos
In ONE MITTEN, the little girl makes "shadow shapes" of a "mitten whale / and a slow, slow mitten snail." Here are links to creating hand shadows:
Shadow Animals from PBS Zoom
Mitten songs, fingerplays, etc.
"Kittens and Mittens" web game
"Who knew a mitten could be so much fun? ... Good for story hours, this shows how much enjoyment can be derived from a very simple item." Booklist
"Using playful and engaging rhymes, a girl shows readers the many different things that she can do with one mitten...Done in acrylic gouache, Smith's distinctive illustrations are filled with warm colors and eye-catching patterns. Pair this tale with Jan Brett's The Mitten (Putnam, 1989), Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day (Viking, 1962), and Janet Stoeke's A Hat for Minerva Louise (Dutton, 1994) for storytime or laptime winter fun. School Library Journal
"A charming ode to imagination." Newsday
Sesame Street "Big Bird" Bookmark
"George's award-winning genius with poetry underlines this spare text that explores the creative possibilities of what can be done with just one mitten." The Yellow Brick Road
"[A] bright book that is sure to spark imaginations." Boston Herald
""One Mitten" [explores] the sunny side of coming up one mitten short...a thoroughly enjoyable read." The Capital Times | <urn:uuid:e00a1a70-28ce-4775-ba84-8037e6e105d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kristinegeorge.com/one_mitten.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914962 |
Joseph Conrad, christened Josef Teodor Konrad, Nalecz Korzeniowski, was born on December 3, 1857, in a part of Russia that had once belonged to Poland. His parents were members of the landed gentry, but as ardent Polish patriots, the suffered considerably...read more
Joseph Conrad, christened Josef Teodor Konrad, Nalecz Korzeniowski, was born on December 3, 1857, in a part of Russia that had once belonged to Poland. His parents were members of the landed gentry, but as ardent Polish patriots, the suffered considerably for their political views. Orphaned at eleven, Conrad attended school for a few years in Cracow, He soon concluded, however, that there was no future for a Pole in occupied Poland, and at sixteen he left his ancestral home forever.
The sea was Conrad's love and career for the next twenty years. In the French merchant marine, he sailed to the West. Indies, smuggled guns to Spanish rebels, ran into debt, and bungled a suicide attempt Then in the British merchant navy, he rose to first mate and finally to captain, sailing to Australia and Borneo and surviving at least one shipwreck. In 1890 he contracted to become captain of a Congo River steamer, but the six months he spent in Africa led only to disillusionment and ill health; this episode would become the basis for Conrad's masterpiece, Heart of Darkness. Reluctantly leaving the merchant service, he settled in England and completed his first novel, Almayer's Folly, already begun at sea.
Hi subsequent works, many of which drew upon his sea experiences, include The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897), Lord Jim (1900), Heart of Darkness (1902), Youth (1902) Typhoon (1903), Nastromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), The Secret Sharer (1910), Under the Western Eyes (1911), and Chance (1913). The man who was twenty-one years old before he spoke a word of English is now regarded as one of the superb English stylists of all time. Conrad died almost literally on his desk in 1924, at the age of sixty-six. | <urn:uuid:a72f31f9-920a-4837-965d-8e6919fe8cfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randomhouse.com/author/5551/joseph-conrad?sort=best_13wk_3month&quantity=30 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983443 |
Scharf, Thomas J., History of Delaware, 1609-1888. Volume One- pp. 68-81.
WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.
AFTER the Restoration of the Stuarts the attention of the court as well as the people of England was directed in a much larger measure than formerly to the American colonies. Men who were weary of strife, discontented with the present aspect of affairs or apprehensive of the future, sought relief and peace in emigration. The hardship of the wilderness, the perils of Indian warfare, the depressing diseases of a new climate and unbroken soil were as nothing to those in comparison with the blessings of political and religious liberty secured by emigration. As far as the court was concerned, Charles wanted provinces to give way to his favorites, while his cabinets, both under Clarendon, the Cabal, and Danby, had strong political reasons for putting the colonies more immediately under the control of the crown in order to check their manifest yearning for self-government and comparative independence. Thus the representatives of prerogative were compelled likewise to give an enlarged attention to colonial affairs. The Council for Foreign Plantations was given new powers and a greater and more exalted membership in 1671, and in 1674 this separate commission was dissolved and the conduct of colonial affairs intrusted to a committee of the Privy Council itself, which was directed to sit once a week and report its proceedings to the council. This committee comprised some of the ablest of the king's councilors, and among the members were the Duke of York and the Marquis of Halifax.
William Penn, who was a great favorite with the Duke of York, and the founder of Pennsylvania and Delaware, was born in London, in St. Catharine's Parish, hard by the Tower, October 14, 1644. His father was Vice Admiral Sir William Penn; his mother Margaret Jasper, daughter of a well-to-do Rotterdam merchant. They were united June 6, 1643, when the elder Penn, though only twenty years old, had already received his commission as post-captain in the royal navy, and William was their first child. It is probable that the stories of Admiral Penn about the conquest of Jamaica and the tropical splendors of that beautiful island first turned the attention of the younger Penn to our continent.
William Penn received his first education at the free grammar-school of Chigwell, Essex, where he experienced strong religious impressions and had visions of the "Inner Light," though he as yet had never heard Fox's name mentioned. He was not a puny child, though he must have been a studious one. He delighted and excelled in field-sports, boating, running, hunting and athletic exercises. At the age of twelve he was removed from Chigwell to receive private instruction at home, and three years later entered Christ Church College, Oxford. Penn studied assiduously, he joined the "serious set," he went to hear Thomas Loe preach the new gospel of the Society of Friends, he resented the discipline which the college attempted to put upon him and his intimates in consequence, and he was expelled from the university for rejecting the surplice and rioting in the quadrangle. His father beat him, relented, and sent him to France, where he came home with the manners and dress of a courtier, but saturated with Genevan theology. He had shown in Paris that he could use his rapier gallantly, and his father took him to sea to prove to the court, when he returned as bearer of dispatches, that he was capable of beginning the career of office. The plague of London set him again upon a train of serious thinking, and his father, to counteract this, sent him to the Duke of Ormond, at the same time giving him charge of his Irish estates. Penn danced in Dublin and fought at Carrickfergus equally well, and he even applied for a troop of horse. He was a very handsome young fellow, and armor and lace became him mightily. But at Cork he met Thomas Loe again and heard a sermon upon the text "There is a faith which overcomes the world, and there is a faith which is overcome by the world." Penn came out of this meeting a confirmed Quaker. His father recalled him, but could not break his conviction; and then again he was driven from home, but his mother still found means to supply his needs. He now joined the Quakers regularly, and became the most prominent of the followers of that singularly eccentric but singularly gifted leader of men, George Fox. Penn's affection for Fox was deep and strong. He repeatedly got "the man in the leather breeches" released from jail, and he gave him a thousand acres of land out of the first surveys made in Pennsylvania. Penn preached in public as Fox was doing, and so well that he soon found himself a prisoner in the Tower of London, where, when brought up for trial, he defended himself so ably as to prove that he could have become a great lawyer had he so chosen.
Penn married in 1672, his wife being Gulielma Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, a lady of lovely person and sweet temper. He did not spend many weeks to his honeymoon. He was soon at his work again wrestling for the truth, and, it must be said, wrestling still more lustily as one who wrestles for victory with the oppressors of the faithful. In this cause he went to court again, resumed his relations with the Duke of York and secured that prince's influence in behalf of his persecuted sect. This semi-alliance of Penn with the duke led up directly to the settlement of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn realized the fact that the Friends could not escape persecution nor enjoy without taint their peculiar religious seclusion, nor could his ideal commonwealth be planted in such a society as that of Europe. It must seek new and virgin soil, where it could form its own manners and ripen its own code. Then, in 1672, came home George Fox,* fresh from his journey through the wilderness and his visits to the Quaker settlements in New Jersey and Maryland, in which latter province the ancient meetings of Anne Arundel and Talbot Counties were already important gatherings of a happy people entirely free from persecutions. We may imagine how eagerly and closely Penn read Fox's journals and the letters of Edmondston, Wenlock Christison, and others about their settlements.
In 1675, when his disgust with European society and his consciousness of the impossibility to effect radical reform there had been confirmed and deepened, Penn became permanently identified with American colonial affairs, and was put in the best possible position for acquiring a full and accurate knowledge of the resources and possibilities of the country between the Susquehanna and the Hudson. As has already been stated, on March 12, 1664, King Charles II. granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, a patent for all the lands in New England from the St. Croix River to the Delaware. This patent, meant to lead directly up to the overthrow of the Dutch power in New Netherland, was probably also intended no less as a hostile demonstration against the New England Puritan colonies, which both the brothers hated cordially and which latterly had grown so independent and had so nearly established their own authority as to provoke more than one charge that they sought presently to abandon all allegiance due from them to the mother-country. At any rate, the New England colonies at once attempted to organize themselves into a confederacy for purposes of mutual defense against the Indians and Canadian French, as was alleged, but for divers other and weighty reasons, as many colonists did not hesitate to proclaim.** The Duke of York secured New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware to himself as his own private possessions. That part of New Netherland lying between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers was forthwith (in 1664, before Nicolls sailed from Portsmouth to take New York) conveyed by the duke, by deeds of lease and release, to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The latter being governor of the Channel Islands at the time, the new colony was called New Jersey, or rather Nova Coesarea, in the original grant. In 1675 Lord Berkeley sold, for one thousand pounds, his undivided half-share in New Jersey to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Billinge and his assigns. Fenwick and Billinge were both Quakers, and Billinge was bankrupt. Not long after this conveyance Fenwick and Billinge fell out about the property, and, after the custom of the Friends, the dispute was submitted to arbitration. The disputants fixed upon William Penn as arbitrator. When he made his award Fenwick was not satisfied and refused to abide by Penn's decision, which, indeed, gave Fenwick only a tenth of Lord Berkeley's share in the joint tenancy, reserving the remaining nine-tenths to Billinge, but giving Fenwick a money payment besides. Penn was offended at Fenwick's recalcitrancy, and wrote him some sharp letters. "Thy days spend on," he said, "and make the best of what thou hast. Thy grandchildren may be in the other world before the land thou hast allotted will be employed." Penn stuck to his decision, and, for that matter, Fenwick likewise maintained his grievance. He sailed for the Delaware at the head of a colony, landed at Salem, N.J., and commenced a settlement. Here he carried matters with such a high hand, patenting land, distributing office, etc., that he made great trouble for himself and others also. His authority was not recognized, and for several years the name of Major John Fenwick fills a large place in the court records of New Castle, Upland, and New York, where he was frequently imprisoned and sued for damages by many injured persons.
Billinge's business embarrassments increasing he made over his interest in the territory to his creditors, appointing Penn, with Gawen Lawrie, of London, and Nicholas Lucas, of Hertford, two of the creditors, as trustees in the matter. The plan was not to sell, but to improve the property for the benefit of the creditors. To this end a partition of the province was made, a line being drawn through Little Egg Harbor to a point near where Port Jervis now is. The part of the province on the right of this line, called East New Jersey, the most settled portion of the territory, was assigned to Carteret. That on the left, West New Jersey, was deeded to Billinge's trustees. A form of government was at once established for West Jersey, in which Penn's hand is distinctly seen. The basis was liberty of person and conscience, "the power in the people," local self-government and amelioration of the criminal code. The territory was next divided into one hundred parts, ten being assigned to Fenwick and ninety to Billinge's trustees, and the land was opened for sale and occupancy, being extensively advertised and particularly recommended to Friends. In 1677 and 1678 five vessels sailed for West New Jersey, with eight hundred emigrants, nearly all Quakers. Two companies of these, one from Yorkshire, the other from London, bought large tracts of land, and sent out commissioners to quiet Indian titles and lay off the properties. At Chygoes Island they located a town, first called Beverly, then Birdlington, then Burlington.*** There was a regular treaty with the Indians, and the Friends not only secured peace for themselves but paved the way for the pacific relations so firmly sealed by Penn's subsequent negotiations with the savages. The Burlington colony prospered, and was reinforced by new colonists continually arriving in considerable numbers. In 1680, Penn, as counsel for the trustees of West New Jersey, succeeded, by means of a vigorous and able remonstrance, in getting the Duke of York, then proprietary of New York, to remove an onerous tax on imports and exports imposed by the Governor of New York and collected at the Horekill. The next year Penn became part proprietor of East New Jersey, which was sold under the will of Sir George Carteret, then deceased, to pay his debts. A board of twenty-four proprietaries was organized, Penn being one, and to them the Duke of York made a fresh grant of East New Jersey, dated March 14, 1682, Robert Barclay becoming Governor, while Penn's friend, Billinge, was made Governor of West New Jersey. Both these governments were surrendered to the crown in Queen Anne's reign, April 15, 1702.
While Penn was thus acquiring knowledge of and strong property interests in America, two other circumstances occurred to intensify his impatience with the state of affairs in England. One was the insensate so-called "Popish plot" of Titus Oates, the other the defeat of his friend, Algernon Sidney, for Parliament. From the date of these events Penn began to look steadily westward, and prepared himself for his "Holy" or "Divine Experiment."
Admiral Penn at his death had left his son a property of '1500 a year in English and Irish estates. There was in addition a claim against King Charles' government for money lent, which, with interest, amounted to '15,000. The king had no money and no credit. What he got from Louis XIV., through the compliant Barillon, hardly sufficed for his own menus plaisirs.(4*) Penn being now resolved to establish a colony in America alongside his New Jersey plantations, and to remove there himself with his family so as to be at the head of a new Quaker community and commonwealth, petitioned the king to grant him, in lieu of the claim of '15,000, a tract of country in America north of Maryland, with the Delaware on its east, its western limits the same as those of Maryland, and its northern as far as plantable country extended. Before the Privy Council Committee Penn explained that he wanted five degrees of latitude measured from Lord Baltimore's line, and that line, at his suggestion, was drawn from the circumference of a circle, the radius of which was twelve miles from New Castle as its centre. The petition of Penn's was received June 14, 1680. The object sought by the petitioner, it was stated, was not only to provide a peaceful home for the persecuted members of the Society of Friends, but to afford an asylum for the good and oppressed of every nation on the basis of a practical application of the pure and peaceable principles of Christianity. The petition encountered much and various opposition. Sir John Werden, agent of the Duke of York, opposed it because the territory sought was an appendage to the government of New York, and as such belonged to the duke. Mr. Burke, the active and untiring agent of Lord Baltimore, opposed it because the grant asked by Penn would infringe upon the territory covered by Baltimore's charter. At any rate, said Mr. Burke, in a letter to the Privy Council Committee, if the grant be made to Penn, let the deed expressly state lands to the north of Susquehanna Fort, "which is the boundary of Maryland to the northward." There was also strong opposition in the Privy Council to the idea of a man such as Penn being permitted to establish plantations after his own peculiar model. His theories of government were held to be Utopian and dangerous alike to Church and State. He was looked upon as a Republican like Sidney. However, he had strong friends in the Earl of Sunderland, Lord Hyde, Chief Justice North, and the Earl of Halifax. He had an interview with the Duke of York, and contrived to win him over to look upon his project with favor, and Sir J. Werden wrote to the secretary, saying, "His royal Highness commands me to let you know, in order to your informing their lordships of it, that he is very willing Mr. Penn's request may meet with success." The attorney-general, Sir William Jones, examined the petition in view of proposed boundaries, and reported that with some alterations it did not appear to touch upon any territory of previous grants, "except the imaginary lines of New England patents, which are bounded westwardly by the main ocean, should give them a real though impracticable right to all those vast territories." The draught of the patent, when finally it had reached that stage of development, was submitted to the Lords of Trade to see if English commercial interests were subserved, and to the Bishop of London to look after the rights of the church. The king signed the patent on March 4, 1681, and the venerable document may now be seen by the curious, framed and hung up in the office of the Secretary of State, at Harrisburg. The name to be given to the new territory was left blank for the king to fill up, and Charles called it Pennsylvania. Penn, who seems to have been needlessly squeamish on the subject, wrote to his friends to say that he wanted the territory called New Wales, and offered the Under Secretary twenty guineas to change the name, "for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me." However, he consoled himself with the reflection that "it is a just and clear thing, and my God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government that it be well laid at first."
The charter, which is given complete in "Hazard's Annals," consists of twenty-three articles, with a preamble reciting the king's desire to extend his dominions and trade, convert the savages, etc., and his sense of obligation to Sir William Penn:
I. The grant comprises all that part of America, islands included, which is bounded on the east by the Delaware River from a point on a circle twelve miles northward of New Castle town to the 43' north latitude if the Delaware extends so far; if not, as far as it does extend, and thence to the 43' by a meridian line. From this point westward five degrees of longitude on the 43' parallel; the western boundary to the 40th parallel, and thence by a straight line to the place of beginning.
II. Grants Penn rights to and use of rivers, harbors, fisheries, etc.
III. Creates and constitutes him Lord Proprietary of the Province, saving only his allegiance to the King, Penn to hold directly of the kings of England, "as of our castle of Windsor in the county of Berks, in free and common socage, by fealty only, for all services, and not in capite, or by Knight's service, yielding and paying therefore to us, our heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be delivered at our castle of Windsor on the 1st day of January every year," also one-fifth of precious metals taken out. On these terms Pennsylvania was erected into "a province and seigniory."
IV. Grants Penn and his successors, his deputies and lieutenants "free, full, and absolute power" to make laws for raising money for the public uses of the Province and for other public purposes at their discretion, by and with the advice and consent of the people or their representatives in assembly.
V. Grants power to appoint officers, judges, magistrates, etc., to pardon offenders, before judgment or after, except in cases of treason, and to have charge of the entire establishment of justice, with the single proviso that the laws adopted shall be consonant to reason and not contrary nor repugnant to the laws and statutes of England, and that all persons should have the right of appeal to the King.
VI. Prescribes that the laws of England are to be in force in the Province until others have been substituted for them.
VII. Laws adopted for the government of the Province to be sent to England for royal approval within five years after their adoption, under penalty of becoming void.
VIII. Licenses emigration to the new colony.
IX. Licenses trade between the colony and England, subject to the restrictions of the Navigation Acts.
X. Grants permission to Penn to divide the colony into the various minor political divisions, to constitute fairs, grant immunities and exemptions, etc.
XI. Similar to IX., but applies to exports from colony.
XII. Grants leave to create seaports and harbors, etc., in aid of trade and commerce, subject to English customs regulations.
XIII. Penn and the Province to have liberty to levy customs duties.
XIV. The Proprietary to have a resident agent in London, to answer in case of charges, etc., and continued misfeasance to void the charter and restore the government of the Province to the King.
XV. Proprietary forbidden intercourse or correspondence with the enemies of England.
XVI. Grants leave to Proprietary to pursue and make war on the savages or robbers, pirates, etc., and to levy forces for that end, and to kill and slay according to the laws of war.
XVII. Grants full power to Penn to sell or otherwise convey lands in the Province.
XVIII. Gives title to persons holding under Penn.
XIX. Penn may erect manors, and each manor to have privilege of court-baron and frank-pledge, holders under manor-title to be protected in their tenure.
XX. The King not to lay taxes in the Province "unless the same be with the consent of the Proprietary or chief Governor, or Assembly, or by act of Parliament of England."
XXI. The charter to be valid in English courts against all assumptions or presumptions of ministers or royal officers.
XXII. Bishop of London may send out clergymen if asked to do so by twenty inhabitants of the Province.
XXIII. In cases of doubt the charter is to be interpreted and construed liberally in Penn's favor, provided such constructions do not interfere with or lessen the royal prerogative.
On the 2nd of April, after the signing of the charter, King Charles made a public proclamation of the fact of the patent, addressed chiefly to the inhabitants of the territory, enjoining upon them to yield ready obedience to Penn and his deputies and lieutenants. At the same time Penn also addressed a letter to the inhabitants of the province, declaring that he wished them all happiness here and hereafter, that the Providence of God had cast them within his lot and care, and, though it was a new business to him, he understood his duty and meant to do it uprightly. He told the people that they were not now at the mercy of a Governor who came to make his fortune out of them, but "you shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it." He hoped to see them in a few months, and any reasonable provision they wanted made for their security and happiness would receive his approbation. Until he came he hoped they would obey and pay their customary dues to his deputy.
That deputy was Penn's cousin, William Markham, a captain in the British army, who was on April 20, 1681, commissioned to go out to Pennsylvania, and act in that capacity until Penn's arrival. He was given power to call a Council of nine, of which he was to be president; to secure a recognition of Penn's authority on the part of the people; to settle bounds between Penn and his neighbors; to survey, lay out, rent, or lease lands according to his instructions; to erect courts, make sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other inferior requisite officers, so as to keep the peace and enforce the laws; to suppress disturbance or riot by the posse comitatus, and to make or ordain any ordinary ordinances or do whatever he lawfully might for the peace and security of the province. Markham was particularly instructed to settle, if he could, boundaries with Lord Baltimore, and Penn gave him a letter to that neighbor of his. The deputy soon after sailed for Pennsylvania, on what day is not definitely known, but he was in New York on June 21st, when he obtained from the Governor, Anthony Brockholls, a proclamation enjoining upon the inhabitants of Pennsylvania that they should obey the king's charter and yield a ready obedience to the new proprietary and his deputy. When Markham arrived at Upland he found Lord Baltimore there; the boundary question at once came up, and was as quickly let drop when Markham found that the lines could not be run according to the two charters respectively without giving to Baltimore some lands which Penn was resolved to keep as his own.
It is not supposed that Markham took out any emigrants with him. His business was to get possession of the province as speedily as possible, so as to insure the allegiance of the people, secure the revenue, and prepare the way for Penn. It is probable, therefore, that he sailed in the first ship offering for New York or Boston, without waiting for company. Meanwhile, even before Markham's departure, Penn began to advertise his new province and popularize what information he had concerning it. This was the business part of "the Divine Experiment," and Penn was very competent to discharge it. He published a pamphlet (through Benjamin Clark, bookseller, in George Yard, Lombard Street), entitled "Some account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America, lately granted under the Great Seal of England to William Penn, etc. Together with privileges and powers necessary to the well-governing thereof. Made public for the information of such as are or may be disposed to transport themselves or servants into those parts." This prospectus shows the extent of the knowledge Penn had already gleaned concerning his province, and how closely he had studied the methods by which he proposed to secure its prompt and effective planting and settlement. It is not necessary to incorporate the whole of such a pamphlet in this narrative, but some of its salient points must be noted. It was written, we must remember, in April, 1681, a month after the signing of the patent. Penn begins with an excursus upon the benefit of plantations or colonies in general, to "obviate a common objection." "Colonies," he says, "are the seeds of nations, begun and nourished by the care of wise and populous countries, as conceiving them best for the increase of human stock and beneficial for commerce." Antiquity is then searched through for examples needless to repeat, but all brought in to prove that colonies do not weaken or impoverish the mother-country. Indeed, this part of his argument reads as if it were Penn's brief while his petition was before the Privy Council, and as if he drew it up in reply to objections there urged against conceding him the patent. He shows how colonies and foreign plantations have contributed to the benefit of England's commerce and industry, and might be expected to continue to do so. He denies that emigration has depopulated the country, but says that the increase of luxury has drawn an undue proportion of the rural communities into cities and towns, and that the increased cost of living thus brought about tends to prevent marriage and so promotes the decay of population. For this and the many attendant evils emigration, he suggests, is the only effective remedy. He then proceeds to speak of his province, the inducements it offers to colonists, and the terms on which he is prepared to receive them.
"The place," he says, "lies six hundred miles nearer the sun than England," so far as difference of latitude goes, adding, "I shall say little in its praise to excite desires in any, whatever I could truly write as to the soil, air and water; this shall satisfy me, that by the blessing of God and the honesty and industry of man it may be a good and fruitful land." He then enumerates the facilities for navigation by way of the Delaware Bay and River, and by way of Chesapeake Bay also; the variety and abundance of timber; the quantity of game, wild fowl, and fish; the variety of products and commodities, native or introduced, including "silk, flax, hemp, wine, sider, wood, madder, liquorish, tobacco, pot-ashes, and iron, . . . . hides, tallow, pipe-staves, beef, pork, sheep, wool, corn or wheat, barley, rye, and also furs, as your peltree, mincks, racoons, martins, and such like store of furs which is to be found among the Indians that are profitable commodities in England." Next, after explaining the channels of trade,' country produce to Virginia, tobacco to England, English commodities to the colonies,' he gives assurance that under his liberal charter, paying due allegiance to the mother-country, the people will be able to enjoy the very largest proportion of liberty and make their own laws to suit themselves, and that he intends to prepare a satisfactory constitution.
Penn states explicitly in this pamphlet the conditions of immigration into his province. He looks to see three sorts of people come,' those who will buy, those who will rent, and servants. "To the first, the shares I sell shall be certain as to number of acres; that is to say, every one shall contain five thousand acres, free from any incumbrance, the price a hundred pounds, and for the quit-rent but one English shilling, or the value of it, yearly, for a hundred acres; and the said quit-rent not to begin to be paid till 1684. To the second sort, that take up land upon rent, they shall have liberty so to do, paying yearly one penny per acre, not exceeding two hundred acres. To the third sort, to wit, servants that are carried over,(5*) fifty acres shall be allowed to the master for every head, and fifty acres to every servant when their time is expired. And because some engage with me that may not be disposed to go, it were very advisable for every three adventures to send over an overseer with their servants, which would well pay the cost."(6*)
Penn next speaks of his plan for allotments or dividends, but as his scheme was not then, as he confesses, fully developed, and as he later furnished all the details of this scheme as he finally matured it, we will pass that by for the present. It is enough to say that the plan is very closely followed to-day in Eastern Europe to promote the sale of government bonds.
The persons, Penn says, that "Providence seems to have most fitted for plantations" are "1st, industrious husbandmen and day laborers that are hardly able (with extreme labor) to maintain their families and portion their children; 2, laborious handicrafts, especially carpenters, masons, smiths, weavers, taylors, tanners, shoemakers, shipwrights, etc., where they may be spared or low in the world, and as they shall want no encouragement, so their labor is worth more there than here, and there provisions cheaper." 3, Penn invites ingenious spirits who are low in the world, younger brothers with small inheritances and (often) large families; "lastly," he says, "there are another sort of persons, not only fit for but necessary in plantations, and that is men of universal spirits, that have an eye to the good of posterity, and that both understand and delight to promote good discipline and just government among a plain and well-intending people; such persons may find room in colonies for their good counsel and contrivance, who are shut out from being of much use or service to great nations under settled customs; these men deserve much esteem and would be hearken'd to."
Very considerately Penn next tells all he knows about the cost and equipments for the journey and subsistence during the first few months, "that such as incline to go may not be to seek here, or brought under any disappointments there." He mentions among goods fit to take for use or for sale at a profit "all sorts of apparel and utensils for husbandry and building and household stuff." People must not delude themselves, he says, with the idea of instant profits. They will have a winter to encounter before the summer comes, "and they must be willing to be two or three years without some of the conveniences they enjoy at home, and yet I must needs say that America is another thing than it was at the first plantation of Virginia and New England, for there is better accommodation and English provisions are to be had at easier rates." The passage across the ocean will be at the outside six pounds per head for masters and mistresses, and five pounds for servants, children under seven years old fifty shillings, "except they suck, then nothing." Arriving out in September or October, "two men may clear as much ground by spring (when they set the corn of that country) as will bring in that time, twelve months, forty barrels, which makes twenty-five quarters of corn. So that the first year they must buy corn, which is usually very plentiful. They must, so soon as they come, buy cows, more or less, as they want or are able, which are to be had at easy rates. For swine, they are plentiful and cheap, these will quickly increase to a stock. So that after the first year, what with the poorer sort sometimes laboring to others, and the more able fishing, fowling, and sometimes buying, they may do very well till their own stocks are sufficient to supply them and their families, which will quickly be, and to spare, if they follow the English husbandry, as they do in New England and New York, and get winter fodder for their stock." Finally, the candid Penn recommends that none should make up their minds hastily, all get the consent of their friends or relatives, and all pray God for his blessing on their honest endeavors.
During all the rest of this year and of 1682 and up to the moment of his embarkation for Europe, William Penn was most busily and absorbingly engaged in the multifarious preparations for his new plantations. He drew up a great variety of papers, concessions, conditions, charters, statutes, constitutions, etc., equal to the average work of half a dozen congressional committees. In addition to work of this sort, requiring concentrated and abstracted thought and study, his correspondence was of the most voluminous character, and he was further most actively employed in disposing of lands and superintending the sailing of ship-loads of his colonists. The first of these papers on concessions and conditions was prepared indeed on the eve of the sailing of the first vessels containing his "adventurers." This was in July, and the vessels arrived out in October. Every paper he published called forth numerous letters from his friends, who wanted him to explain this or that obscure point to them, and he always seems to have responded cheerfully to these exhaustive taxes upon his time. His work seems to have attracted great attention and commanded admiration. James Claypoole writes (July 22d), "I have begun my letter on too little a piece of paper to give thee my judgment of Pennsylvania, but, in short, I, and many others wiser than I am, do very much approve of it and do judge William Penn as fit a man as any one in Europe to plant a country." Penn had also been busily negotiating with the Duke of York for the lands now constituting the State of Delaware, which were the duke's property, and which Penn wanted to possess in order to insure his own province the free navigation of the Delaware, and perhaps, also, to keep this province from falling into the hands of his neighbor, Lord Baltimore, who claimed it under his charter. But Sir John Werden, the duke's agent, still held off and gave Penn much trouble and uneasiness. The latter had received a tempting offer from a company of Marylanders of six thousand pounds cash, and a two-and-a-half per cent. royalty for the monopoly of the Indian (fur) trade between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, but he refused it upon noble grounds.
So also Penn refused to abate the quit-rents even to his most intimate friends, "intending," as Claypoole wrote, "to do equal by all," but he did reduce them from a penny to a half-penny in favor of servants settling on their fifty-acre lots, after having served their time. Subsequently, as we shall see, Penn was less rigidly moral in his land contracts. In lieu of the proposed monopoly Penn made many liberal concessions of land and privileges to another company, "The Free Society of Traders," whose plans he favored, and whose constitution and charter he helped to draw.
The charter to the Pennsylvania Company, the Free Society of Traders, bears date March 24, 1682. The incorporators named in Penn's deed to them were "Nicholas Moore of London, medical doctor; James Claypoole, merchant; Philip Ford (Penn's unworthy steward): William Sherloe, of London, merchant; Edward Pierce, of London, leather-seller; John Symcock and Thomas Brassey, of Cheshire, yeoman; Thomas Baker, of London, wine-cooper; and Edward Brookes, of London, grocer." The deed cites Penn's authority under his patent, mentions the conveyance to the company of twenty thousand acres, erects this tract into the manor of Frank, "in free and common soccage, by such rents, customs and services as to them and their successors shall seem meet, so as to be consistent with said tenure," allows them two justices' courts a year, privilege of court-baron and court-leet and view of frank-pledge, with all the authority requisite in the premises. The society is authorized to appoint and remove its officers and servants, is given privilege of free transportation of its goods and products, and exempted from any but state and local taxes, while at the same time it can levy all needful taxes for its own support within its own limits. Its chief officers are commissioned as magistrates and charged to keep the peace, with jurisdiction in case of felony, riot, or disorder of any kind. It is given three representatives in the Provincial Council, title to three-fifths of the products of all mines and minerals found, free privilege to fish in all the waters of the province, and to establish fairs, markets, etc., and the books of the society are exempt from all inspection. The society immediately prepared and published an address, with its constitution and by-laws, in which a very extensive field of operation is mapped out.(7*)
In the regulations for colonists set forth in his statement of "certain conditions or concessions agreed upon by William Penn, proprietary and Governor of Pennsylvania, and those who are the adventurers and purchasers in that province the 11th of July, 1681," the system of plantation is plainly described. First, a large city is to be laid off on navigable water, divided into lots, and purchasers of large tracts of lands (five thousand acres) are to have one of these city lots assigned them, the location determined by chance. It was Penn's original plan to have his great city consist of ten thousand acres, divided into one hundred lots of one hundred acres each, one of these lots to be awarded (by lot) to each purchaser of a tract of manorial proportions, who was to build in the centre of his lot and surround his house with gardens and orchards, "that it may be a green country town," he said, "which will never be burnt and always be wholesome." Of course no great city could be built on any such plan, and Penn himself abandoned it or greatly modified it even before he sailed, the commissioner and surveyor finding it impossible to observe the conditions, especially when vessels began to be numerous along the water-front and business sprang up. This system of great farms, with a central township divided into minor lots, Penn proposed to extend all over the province. His road system was excellent. Roads were to be built not less than forty feet wide from city to city, on air-lines as nearly as possible; all streets were to be laid off at right angles and of liberal width, and no buildings were to be allowed to encroach on these, nor was there any irregular building to be permitted. This rule of symmetry, amounting almost to formality, could not be carried out any more than the great city plan. It was not Penn's notion, probably, for he was not a precisian in anything, and it looks much more like a contrivance borrowed by him for the nonce from Sir William Petty, Sir Thomas Browne, or some other hare-brain among his contemporaries. Penn's system of quit-rents and of manors also, the foundations of a great fortune, resembled closely that of Lord Baltimore in Maryland. It is likely that Penn got the idea where Lord Baltimore derived his, from Ireland, that form of irredeemable ground-rent being an old and familiar Irish tenure.(8*) The quit-rent system caused almost immediate discontent in Pennsylvania, and undoubtedly injured the proprietary's popularity and interfered with his income. His large reservations of choice lots in every section that was laid out, contributed to this also.
Every person was to enjoy access to and use of water-courses, mines, quarries, etc., and any one could dig for metals anywhere, bound only to pay for damages done. Settlers were required to plant land surveyed for them within three years. Goods for export could only be bought or sold, in any case, in public market, and fraud and deception were to be punished by forfeiture of the goods. All trading with Indians was to be done in open market, and fraud upon them prevented by inspection of goods. Offenses against Indians were to be punished just as those against the whites, and disputes between the two races to be settled by a mixed jury. Indians to have the same privileges as the whites in improving their lands and raising crops. Stock not marked within three months after coming into possession of planters to be forfeited to the Governor. In clearing land, one-fifth to be left in wood, and oak and mulberry trees to be preserved for ship-building. To prevent debtors from furtively absconding, no one was to leave the province until after three weeks' publication of the fact.
On April 25th he published his "frame of government," or, as James Claypoole called it in his letters, "the fundamentals for government," ' in fact, the first constitution of Pennsylvania.
The document is entitled "The frame of the government of the province of Pennsylvania, in America, together with certain laws agreed upon in England by the governor and divers freemen of the aforesaid province, to be further explained and continued there by the first provincial council that shall be held, if they see meet."
The "preface" or preamble to this constitution is curious, for it is written as if Penn felt that the eyes of the court were upon him. The first two paragraphs form a simple excursus upon the doctrine of the law and the transgressor as expounded in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin," etc. From this Penn derives, not very perspicuously, however, "the divine right of government," the object of government being two-fold, to terrify evil-doers and to cherish those that do well, "which gives government a life beyond corruption (i.e., divine right), and makes it as durable in the world as good men shall be." Hence Penn thinks that government seems like a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end.
In the Constitution, which follows the preamble, Penn begins by confirming to the freemen of the province all the liberties, franchises, and properties secured to them by the patent of King Charles II. The government of the province is to consist of "the Governor and freemen of the said province, in form of a Provincial Council and General Assembly, by whom all laws shall be made, officers chosen, and public affairs transacted." The Council, of seventy-two members, is to be elected at once, one-third of the members to go out, and their successors elected each year, and after the first seven years those going out each year shall not be returned within a year. Two-thirds of the Council are required to constitute a quorum, except in minor matters, when twenty-four will suffice. The Governor is always to preside over the session of Council, and is to have three votes "The Governor and Provincial Council shall prepare and propose to the General Assembly hereafter mentioned all bills which they shall at any time think fit to be passed into laws within the said province, . . . and on the ninth day from their so meeting, the said General Assembly, after reading over the proposed bills by the clerk of the Provincial Council, and the occasion and motives for them being opened by the Governor or his deputies, shall give their affirmative or negative, which to them seemeth best, . . . and the laws so prepared and proposed as aforesaid that are assented to by the General Assembly shall be enrolled as laws of the province, with this style: 'By the Governor, with the assent and approbation of the freemen in the Provincial Council and General Assembly.'" Here is the fatal defect of Penn's Constitution, a defect which robs it of even any pretence of being republican or democratic in form or substance. The Assembly, the popular body, the representatives of the people, are restricted simply to a veto power. They cannot originate bills; they cannot even debate them; they are not allowed to think or act for themselves or those they represent, but have nothing to do except vote "yes" or "no." To be sure, the Council is an elective body too. But it is meant to consist of the Governor's friends. It is the aristocratic body. It does not come fresh from the people. The tenure of its members is three years. Besides, for ordinary business, twenty-four of the Council make a quorum, of whom twelve, with the Governor's casting vote, comprise a majority. The Governor has three votes; the Society of Free Traders has six votes; if the Governor have three or four friends in Council, with the support of this society he can control all legislation. It seems incredible that William Penn should have of his own free will permitted this blemish upon his Constitution, which he claimed gave all the power of government and law-making into the hands of the people.
Aside from this fatal piece of subservience there is much to praise in Penn's Constitution and something to wonder at, as being so far in advance of his age. The executive functions of Governor and Council are carefully defined and limited. A wholesome and liberal provision is made for education, public schools, inventions, and useful scientific discoveries.(9*)
The Provincial Council, for the more prompt dispatch of business, was to be divided into four committees,' one to have charge of plantations, "to situate and settle cities, posts, and market-towns and highways, and to have and decide all suits and controversies relating to plantations," one to be a committee of justice and safety, one of trade and treasury, and the fourth of manners, education, and arts, "that all wicked and scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may be successfully trained up in virtue and useful knowledge and arts."
The General Assembly was to be elected yearly, not to exceed two hundred members, representing all the freemen of the province. They were to meet in the capital on "the 20th day of the second month," and during eight days were expected to freely confer with one another and the Council, and, if they chose, to make suggestions to the Council committees about the amendment or alteration of bills (all such as the Council proposed to offer for the adoption being published three weeks beforehand), and on the ninth day were to vote, "not less than two-thirds making a quorum in the passing of laws and choice of such officers as are by them to be chosen." The General Assembly was to nominate a list of judges, treasurers, sheriffs, justices, coroners, etc., two for each office, from which list the Governor and Council were to select the officers to serve. The body was to adjourn upon being served with notice that the Governor and Council had no further business to lay before them, and to assemble again upon the summons of the Governor and Council. Elections were to be by ballot, and so were questions of impeachment in the Assembly and judgment of criminals in the Council. In case the proprietary be a minor, and no guardian has been appointed in writing by his father, the Council was to appoint a commission of three guardians to act as Governor during such minority. No business was to be done by the Governor, Council, or Assembly on Sunday, except in cases of emergency. The Constitution could not be altered without the consent of the Governor and six-sevenths of the Council and the General Assembly. (Such a rule, if enforced, would have perpetuated any Constitution, however bad). Finally Penn solemnly declared "that neither I, my heirs nor assigns, shall procure or do anything or things whereby the liberties in this charter contained and expressed shall be infringed or broken; and if anything be procured by any person or persons contrary to these premises it shall be held of no force or effect."
On May 15th Penn's code of laws, passed in England, to be altered or amended in Pennsylvania, was promulgated. It consists of forty statutes, the first of which declares the charter or Constitution which has just been analyzed to be "fundamental in the government itself." The second establishes the qualifications of a freeman (or voter or elector). These include every purchaser of one hundred acres of land, every tenant of one hundred acres, at a penny an acre quitrent, who has paid his own passage across the ocean and cultivated ten acres of his holding, every freeman who has taken up fifty acres and cultivated twenty, "and every inhabitant, artificer, or other resident in the said province that pays scot and lot to the government." All these electors are also eligible to election both to Council and Assembly.
Elections must be free and voluntary, and electors who take bribes shall forfeit their votes, while those offering bribes forfeit their election, the Council and Assembly to be sole judges of the regularity of the election of their members.
"No money or goods shall be raised upon or paid by any of the people of this province, by way of public tax, custom, or contribution, but by a law for that purpose made." Those violating this statute are to be treated as public enemies and betrayers of the liberties of the province.
All courts shall be open, and justice shall neither be sold, denied, or delayed. In all courts all persons of all (religious) persuasions may freely appear in their own way and according to their own manner, pleading personally or by friend; complaint to be exhibited fourteen days before trial, and summons issued not less than ten days before trial, a copy of complaint to be delivered to the party complained of at his dwelling. No complaint to be received but upon the oath or affirmation of complainant that he believes in his conscience his cause to be just. Pleadings, processes, and records in court are required to be brief, in English, and written plainly so as to be understood by all.
All trials shall be by twelve men, peers, of good character, and of the neighborhood. When the penalty for the offense to be tried is death, the sheriff is to summon a grand inquest of twenty-four men, twelve at least of whom shall pronounce the complaint to be true, and then twelve men or peers are to be further returned by the sheriff to try the issue and have the final judgment. This trial jury shall always be subject to reasonable challenge.
Fees are required to be moderate, their amounts settled by the Legislature, and a table of them hung up in every court-room. Any person convicted of charging more than the lawful fee shall pay twofold, one-half to go to the wronged party, while the offender shall be dismissed. All persons wrongly imprisoned or prosecuted at law shall have double damages against the informer or prosecutor.
All prisons, of which each county is to have one, shall be work-houses for felons, vagrants, and loose and idle persons. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient security, save in capital offenses "where the proof is evident or the presumption great." Prisons are to be free as to fees, food, and lodging.
All lands and goods shall be liable to pay debts, except where there is legal issue, and then all goods and one-third of the land only. (This is meant in case a man should die insolvent.) All wills in writing, attested by two witnesses, shall be of the same force as to lands or other conveyances, being legally proved within forty days within or without the province.
Seven years' quiet possession gives title, except in cases of infants, lunatics, married women, or persons beyond the seas.
Bribery and extortion are to be severely punished, but fines should be moderate and not exhaustive of men's property.(10*)
Marriage (not forbidden by the degrees of consanguinity or affinity) shall be encouraged, but parents or guardians must first be consulted, and publication made before solemnization; the ceremony to be by taking one another as husband and wife in the presence of witnesses, to be followed by a certificate signed by parties and witnesses, and recorded in the office of the county register. All deeds, charters, grants, conveyances, long notes, bonds, etc., are required to be registered also in the county enrollment office within two months after they are executed, otherwise to be void. Similar deeds made out of the province were allowed six months in which to be registered before becoming valid.
All defacers or corrupters of legal instruments or registries shall make double satisfaction, half to the party wronged, be dismissed from place, and disgraced as false men.
A separate registry of births, marriages, deaths, burials, wills, and letters of administration is required to be kept.
All property of felons is liable for double satisfaction, half to the party wronged; when there is no land the satisfaction must be worked out in prison; while estates of capital offenders are escheated, one-third to go to the next of kin of the sufferer and the remainder to next of kin of criminal.
Witnesses must promise to speak the truth, the whole truth, etc., and if convicted of willful falsehood shall suffer the penalty which would have been inflicted upon the person accused, shall make satisfaction to the party wronged, and be publicly exposed as false witnesses, never to be credited in any court or before any magistrate in the province.
Public officers shall hold but one office at a time; all children more than twelve years old shall be taught some useful trade; servants shall not be kept longer than their time, must be well treated if deserving, and at the end of their term be "put in fitting equipage, according to custom."
Scandal-mongers, back-biters, defamers and spreaders of false news, whether against public or private persons, are to be severely punished as enemies to peace and concord. Factors and others guilty of breach of trust must make satisfaction, and one-third over, to their employers, and in case of the factor's death the Council Committee of Trade is to see that satisfaction is made out of his estates.
All public officers, legislators, etc., must be professors of faith in Jesus Christ, of good fame, sober and honest convictions, and twenty-one years old. "All persons living in this province who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God to be the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in noways be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever." The people are required to respect Sunday by abstaining from daily labor. All "offenses against God," swearing, cursing, lying, profane talking, drunkenness, drinking of healths, obscenity, whoredom and other uncleanness, treasons, misprisions, murders, duels, felony, sedition, maimings, forcible entries and other violence, all prizes, stage-plays, cards, dice, May-games, gamesters, masks, revels, bull-baitings, cock-fightings, and the like, "which excite the people to rudeness, cruelty, looseness, and irreligion, shall be respectfully discouraged and severely punished, according to the appointment of the Governor and freemen in Council and General Assembly."
All other matters not provided for in this code are referred to "the order, prudence, and determination" of the Governor and Legislature.
The most admirable parts of this code, putting it far ahead of the contemporary jurisprudence of England or any other civilized country at the time,(11*) are the regulations for liberty of worship and the administration of justice. Penn's code on this latter point is more than a hundred years in advance of England. In the matter of fees, charges, plain and simple forms, processes, records, and pleadings, it still remains in advance of court proceedings and regulations nearly everywhere. The clauses about work-houses and about bailable offenses are also far in advance of even the best modern jurisprudence.
Notwithstanding all these and many other heavy and pressing engagements, Penn seems to have found time to attend to his work as a preacher and a writer of religous tracts and pamphlets. He went on a mission tour into the West of England, he wrote on "Spiritual Commission," he mediated between dissenting Friends, and healed a breach in his church; his benevolent endeavors were given to aid and encourage the Bristol Quakers, then severely persecuted, and he barely escaped being sent to jail himself for preaching in London at the Grace Church Street meeting.
Penn had expected to go out to Pennsylvania himself late in the fall of 1681, but the pressure of all these concerns and the rush of emigrants and colonists delayed him. He found he would have settlers from France, Holland, and Scotland, as well as from England, and few besides servants would be ready to go before the spring of 1682. "When they go, I go," he wrote to his friend James Harrison, "but my going with servants will not settle a government, the great end of my going." He also said in this letter that in sell ng or renting land he cleared the king's and the Indian title, the purchaser or lessee paid the scrivener and surveyor. In October Penn sent out three commissioners, William Crispin, John Bezar, and Nathaniel Allen, to co-operate with Markham in selecting a site for Penn's proposed great city, and to lay it out. They also were given very full, careful, and explicit instructions by Penn, particularly as to dealing with the Indians, some Indian titles needing to be extinguished by them. He wrote a letter to the Indians themselves by these commissioners, which shows he had studied the savage character very carefully. It touched the Indian's faith in the one universal Great Spirit, and finely appealed to his strong innate sense of justice. He did not wish to enjoy the great province his king had given him, he said, without the Indian's consent. The red man had suffered much injustice from his countrymen, but this was the work of self seekers; "but I am not such a man, as is well known in my own country, I have a great love and regard for you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life, and the people I send are all of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly, and if in anything any shall offend you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of just men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them." This was the initiatory step in that "traditional policy" of Penn and the Quakers towards the Indians which has been so consistently maintained ever since, to the imperishable honor of that sect.
As the year 1682 entered we find Penn reported to be "extraordinarily busy" about his province and its affairs. He is selling or leasing a great deal of land, and sending out many servants. A thousand persons are going to emigrate along with him. He gets Claypoole to write to his correspondent in Bordeaux for grape-vines, fifteen hundred or two thousand plants, to carry out with him, desiring vines that bear the best grapes, not the most. Claypoole has himself bought five thousand acres, wants to go out and settle, but doubts and fears. He don't feel sure about the climate, the savages, the water the vermin, reptiles, etc.
By June 1st Penn had made the extraordinary sale of five hundred and sixty-five thousand five hundred acres of land in the new province, in parcels of from two hundred and fifty to twenty thousand acres. Penn's mother died about this time, causing him much affliction. The Free Traders' Society is organized, Claypoole makes up his mind at last to emigrate, the site for Philadelphia is determined, and Markham buys up Indian titles and settlers' land upon it, so as to have all clear for the coming great city. August 31st the Duke of York gives Penn a protective deed for Pennsylvania, and on the 24th the Duke finally concedes New Castle, and twelve miles about it, and Horekill (Delaware), between New Castle and Cape Henlopen, to him by deed of feoffment.(12*) This concludes the major part of Penn's business in England, and he is ready to sail Sept. 1st, 1682, in the ship "Welcome," three hundred tons, Captain Robert Greenway, master. It is then that he writes the touching letter to his wife and children, in which he says, "remember thou wast the love of my youth and much the joy of my life; the most beloved as well as the most worthy of all my earthly comforts; and the reason of that love was more thy inward than thy outward excellences, which yet were many." He embarked at Deal with a large company of Quakers, and from the Downs sent a letter of "salutation to all faithful friends in England."
* Hazard says, "This year (1672) the celebrated Friend, George Fox, visited this part of the country. He arrived from Jamaica, in Maryland, and, accompanied by John Burnyeat, Robert Withers and George Pattison, on their way to New England, by land, they touched at New Castle, and from thence, with much difficulty, crossed the Delaware. On their return, they again visit New Castle, swimming their horses by the sides of canoes, and underwent many difficulties. At New Castle, they met with a handsome reception from Governor Carr, and had a pretty large meeting there, it being the first ever held in that place; thence they returned to Maryland." ' Annals of Pennsylvania.
** This was a revival of the old New England confederacy of 1643, of late crippled and made ineffective by inter-colonial dissensions. It finally fell to pieces through the destruction of local self-government and the substitution of royal governors in the New England colonies between 1664 and 1684. See Richard Frothingham's "Rise of the Republic," chap. ii.
*** The value of Indian lands at that time to the savages may be gathered from the price paid in 1677 for twenty miles square on the Delaware between Timber and Oldman's Creeks, to wit: 30 match-coats (made of hairy wool with the rough side out), 20 guns, 30 kettles, 1 great kettle, 30 pair of hose, 20 fathoms of duffels (Duffield blanket cloth, of which match coats were made), 30 petticoats, 30 narrow hoes, 30 bars of lead, 15 small barrels of powder, 70 knives, 30 Indian axes, 70 combs, 60 pair of tobacco tongs, 60 pair of scissors, 60 tinshaw looking-glasses, 120 awl-blades, 120 fish-hooks, 2 grasps of red paint, 120 needles, 60 tobacco-boxes, 120 pipes, 200 bells, 100 jews-harps, and 6 anchors of rum." The value of these articles probably did not exceed three hundred pounds sterling. But, on the other hand, the Indian titles were really worth nothing, except so far as they served as a security against Indian hostility. It has been said that there is not an acre of land in the eastern part of Pennsylvania the deeds of which cannot be traced up to an Indian title, but that in effect would be no title at all. Mr. Lawrence Lewis, in his learned and luminous "Essay on Original Land Titles in Philadelphia," denies this absolutely, and says that it is "impossible to trace with any accuracy" the titles to land in Philadelphia derived from the Indians. Nor is it necessary to trace a title which is of no value. The Indians could not sell land to individuals and give valid title for it in any of the colonies; they could sell, if they chose, but only to the government. Upon this subject the lawyers are explicit. All good titles in the thirteen original colonies are derived from land-grants, made or accepted not by the Indians, but by the British crown. Thus Chalmers (Political Annals, 677) says, "The law of nations sternly disregarded the possession of the aborigines, because they had not been admitted into the society of nations." At the Declaration of Independence (see Dallas' Reports, ii. 470) every acre of land in this country was held, mediately or immediately, by grants from the crown. All our institutions (Wheaton, viii. 588) recognize the absolute title of the crown, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy, and recognize the absolute title of the crown to extinguish that right. An Indian conveyance alone could give no title to an individual. (The references here given are quoted from the accurate Frothingham's "Rise of the Republic.")
(4*) Not to be wondered at when we find in Charles' book of secret service money such entries as the following: "March 28th. Paid to Duchess of Portsmouth (king's mistress) '13,341 10s. 4 1/2d. in various sums June 14th. Paid to Richard Yates, son of Francis Yates, who conducted Prince Charles from the field of Worcester to Whyte Ladies after the battle, and suffered death for it under Cromwell, '10 10s."
(5*) Called "redemptioners," because they sold their services for a term of years to pay or redeem the money advanced to "carry them over."
(6*) On this basis, if we suppose the servant allotments to pay the same quit-rent as other tenants, Penn's colonists would be assessed about thus:
(7*) In this society votes were to be on basis of amount of stock held, up to three votes, which was the limit. No one in England was allowed more than one vote, and proxies could be voted. The officers were president, deputy, treasurer, secretary, and twelve committee-men. Five, with president or deputy, a quorum. Committee-men to have but one vote each in meetings, with the casting vote to the president. Officers to hold during seven years on good behaviour; general election and reopening of subscription books every seventh year; general statement at the end of each business year. The officers to live on society's property. All the society's servants were bound to secrecy, and the books were kept in society's house, under three locks, the keys in charge of president, treasurer, and oldest committee-man, and not to be intrusted to any person longer than to transcribe any part in daytime and in the house, before seven persons, appointed by committee. The society was to send two hundred servants to Pennsylvania the first year to build two or more general factories in Pennsylvania, one on Chesapeake Bay, one on Delaware or elsewhere; to aid Indians in building houses, etc., and to hold negroes for fourteen years' service, when they were to go free, "on giving the society two-thirds of what they can produce on land allotted to them by the society, with a stock and tools; if they agree not to this, to be servants till they do." The leading object of the society at the outset seems to have been an extensive free trade with the Indians.
(8*) Instructions to commissioners for settling the colony, Oct. 19, 1681.
This has been conclusively shown in some opinions (published in the Maryland Reports) of the judges of the Maryland Court of Appeals. These opinions were given in interpretation of leases "for ninety-nine years, renewable forever." It was decided that these leases were perpetual, and their historical relation to the Irish leases was demonstrated in order to establish the fact of their irredeemable character.
(9*) In the preamble Penn lays down a doctrine now universally recognized, and the general acceptance of which, it is believed, affords the surest guarantee for the perpetuity of American institutions: that virtue and wisdom, "because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which after-ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders and the successive magistracy than to their parents for their private patrimonies." No great truth could be more fully and nobly expressed than this.
(10*) "Contenements, merchandise, and wainage," says the text,' the land by which a man keeps his house, his goods, and his means of transportation
(11*) But we must except the Catholic colony in Maryland, founded by Sir George Calvert, whose charter of 1632, and the act of toleration passed by the Assembly of Maryland, in 1649, under the inspiration of Sir George's son. Caecilius, must be placed alongside of Penn's work. Two brighter lights in an age of darkness never shone. Calvert's charter was written during the heat of the Thirty Years' religious war, Penn's Constitution at the moment when all Dissenters were persecuted in England and when Louis XIV. was about to revoke the Edict of Nantes. The Virginians were expelling the Quakers and other sectaries. In New England the Puritan separatists, themselves refugees for opinion's sake, martyrs to the cause of religious freedom, were making laws which were the embodiment of doubly-distilled intolerance and persecution. Roger Williams was banished in 1635, in 1650 the Baptists were sent to the whipping-post, in 1634 there was a law passed for the expulsion of Anabaptists, in 1647 for the exclusion of Jesuits, and if they returned they were to be put to death. In 1656 it was decreed against "the cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers," that captains of ships bringing them in were to be fined or imprisoned, Quaker books, or "writings containing their devilish opinions," were not to be imported, Quakers themselves were to be sent to the house of correction, kept at work, made to remain silent, and severely whipped. This was what the contemporaries of Calvert and Penn did. We have seen Penn's law of liberty of conscience. Calvert's was equally liberal. The charter of Calvert was not to be interpreted so as to work any diminution of God's sacred Christian religion, open to all sects, Protestant and Catholic, and the act of toleration and all preceding legislation, official oaths, etc., breathed the same spirit of toleration and determination, in the words of the oath of 1637, that none in the colony, by himself or other directly or indirectly, will "trouble, molest, or discountenance any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ for or on account of his religion."
(12*) It would appear from the following, that very soon after receiving the charter for Pennsylvania, William Penn was negotiating for New Castle, and probably for the remaining portion of the territory below. "Sir John Werden wrote to Mr. Penn, that the duke was not yet disposed to grant the lands about New Castle. He, at the same time, informed him that he thought his claims to the islands in the Delaware ill-founded, because they were not included by the words of the patent, and were not intended to be granted. He immediately warned Dongan, Governor of New York, to prevent Penn's encroachments on his province, or its dependencies, giving a reason, which shows the opinions of men who had done so much business with him, that he was very intent on his own interests in those parts, as you observe." ' Chalmers, p. 660. | <urn:uuid:cf3fbbea-87dd-4df9-a898-1da3d71f8dca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ushistory.org/penn/scharf.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978886 |
Reflecting on our experiential learning from Santiago
What a difference it makes when a country has the consistency of purpose (post Pinochet) over sustained periods of time across multiple presidents and political parties. While enormous challenges remain ahead, Chile, and in particular Santiago, has become a modern and efficiently functioning world capital. Its economy is wide open, and more recently it has positioned itself as the innovation capital and the entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.
When president Piñera took charge as the new president in 2010, an earthquake level 8 shook up southern coast and the tsunami that followed inflicted additional losses, 33 miners were trapped 700 meters under the ground in a copper-gold mine, etc…. the country recovered from these disasters with confidence and joined that same year the OECD – a selected group of developed nations – and launched one of the most talked public policy programs to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the world: Start-up Chile.
This was not always the case. In the colonial days, Chile was “the poor cousin of the south-west” due to the lack of gold and silver sought by the conquistadores and its geographical isolation. The country is sandwiched between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, giving the country its unique shape of approx. 3000 miles long and 100 miles wide. After the construction of the Panama Canal, its isolation grew even greater as ships could avoid the southern route by taking instead the new passage across Central America. The experimentation with communism and its military coup that followed (Pinochet — 1973) added more pain to a society already near breakdown. This is to show that a country can turn itself around in a relative short time (a few decades) if there is a consistent effort to increase transparency, enable the market to play by its rule, ease regulation to reduce economic friction and empower all sectors of the society, in particular the marginalized: women and the lower income of society. Much yet remains to be done, but nonetheless and impressive accomplishment!
As I reflect with my students who developed the Santiago agenda, the key take away of our visits are:
- Development of human capital is high in the Chilean agenda. We learned in Fundación Chile about the human capital needs over the next 5 to 10 years to meet the expansion of all the key sectors of the economy: mining, farm fishing, high-end agribusiness, and global services are dependent on human capital. While Start-up Chile is a step in the right direction, attracting from across the world innovators and entrepreneurs, its spill-over effects will no be enough. Hence an education policy, at all levels, and in particular one targeting the tertiary level has become a pressing need to enable the continued economic growth. The student movement over the last two years was a conversational theme in most of our visits, which highlights the need of wide access to a world-class price/performing education. This challenge remains, staring in the eyes to continue its development.
- As we studied the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Santiago, we observed that key organizations are focusing on the creation of social as well as economic value. In other words, stressing the importance of Planet and People as well as Profits (the famous 3 P’s). We were in particularly challenged to think differently as we visited Social Labs the innovation spin-off of Techo. But there was more, we had the opportunity to meet with women entrepreneurs working hard to empower women and close de gap in a society (as most of Latin America), which since colony days has been male dominated. We also met with environmental activists, which offered different perspectives as they presented views to preserve Patagonian wilderness.
- Chile–California Connection: this partnership dates back from the gold rush and hence linking historically Chile to Northern California since its very early days. As the news of the new wealth found (circa 1848) reached Valparaiso (one of the most important ports of the Pacific Coast at the time) first than most other places, thousands of Chilean miners arrived to the Bay Area. Since then both regions have been connected in multiple ways: business, education, social and cultural. More recently (2004) Chile signed the free trade agreement (the second in the Western Hemisphere following NAFTA) with the USA and in 2008, The Chile-California Strategic Partnership for the XXI Century. Today young Chilean entrepreneurs have embraced this connection to the Bay Area being a destination to grow their start-ups as they seek technology partners, funding or to scale globally their markets.
Our visit to Start-up Chile co-working space in Santiago was an amazing experience. I have experienced many times interdisciplinary global teams working together. What truly impressed us was its size. We spent time meeting dozens of entrepreneurs from all over the globe working, living, studying and playing in Santiago. It was an infectious and contagious experience. Their energy level, entrepreneurial attitude and commitment to make history to be part of one of the most revolutionary experiments in transforming a society was insane. Not to be forgotten is that this transformation requires cash and Chile is hard at work developing a venture capital industry, today already well advanced, as we met partners of Austral Capital and InverSur Capital.
Santiago was an amazing experience and proved that these fast transformations are possible!
Until my next posting from Buenos Aires – Carlos B. | <urn:uuid:2025bf7e-4aa2-4bbf-bbc4-59ba713001c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carlosbaradello.com/2013/01/17/academic-global-immersions-our-latin-american-journey-with-my-mba-students-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961559 |
Choosing a Topic
This handout provides detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources.
Contributors:Jack Raymond Baker, Allen Brizee
Last Edited: 2013-01-04 12:25:56
The first step of any research paper is for the student to understand the assignment. If this is not done, the student will often travel down many dead-end roads, wasting a great deal of time along the way. Do not hesitate to approach the instructor with questions if there is any confusion. A clear understanding of the assignment will allow you to focus on other aspects of the process, such as choosing a topic and identifying your audience.
A student will often encounter one of two situations when it comes to choosing a topic for a research paper. The first situation occurs when the instructor provides a list of topics from which the student may choose. These topics have been deemed worthy by the instructor; therefore, the student should be confident in the topic he chooses from the list. Many first-time researchers appreciate such an arrangement by the instructor because it eliminates the stress of having to decide upon a topic on their own.
However, the student may also find the topics that have been provided to be limiting; moreover, it is not uncommon for the student to have a topic in mind that does not fit with any of those provided. If this is the case, it is always beneficial to approach the instructor with one's ideas. Be respectful, and ask the instructor if the topic you have in mind would be a possible research option for the assignment. Remember, as a first-time researcher, your knowledge of the process is quite limited; the instructor is experienced, and may have very precise reasons for choosing the topics she has offered to the class. Trust that she has the best interests of the class in mind. If she likes the topic, great! If not, do not take it personally and choose the topic from the list that seems most interesting to you.
The second situation occurs when the instructor simply hands out an assignment sheet that covers the logistics of the research paper, but leaves the choice of topic up to the student. Typically, assignments in which students are given the opportunity to choose the topic require the topic to be relevant to some aspect of the course; so, keep this in mind as you begin a course in which you know there will be a research paper near the end. That way, you can be on the lookout for a topic that may interest you. Do not be anxious on account of a perceived lack of authority or knowledge about the topic chosen. Instead, realize that it takes practice to become an experienced researcher in any field.
Methods for choosing a topic
Thinking early leads to starting early. If the student begins thinking about possible topics when the assignment is given, she has already begun the arduous, yet rewarding, task of planning and organization. Once she has made the assignment a priority in her mind, she may begin to have ideas throughout the day. Brainstorming is often a successful way for students to get some of these ideas down on paper. Seeing one's ideas in writing is often an impetus for the writing process. Though brainstorming is particularly effective when a topic has been chosen, it can also benefit the student who is unable to narrow a topic. It consists of a timed writing session during which the student jots down—often in list or bulleted form—any ideas that come to his mind. At the end of the timed period, the student will peruse his list for patterns of consistency. If it appears that something seems to be standing out in his mind more than others, it may be wise to pursue this as a topic possibility.
It is important for the student to keep in mind that an initial topic that you come up with may not be the exact topic about which you end up writing. Research topics are often fluid, and dictated more by the student's ongoing research than by the original chosen topic. Such fluidity is common in research, and should be embraced as one of its many characteristics.
The Purdue OWL also offers a number of other resources on choosing and developing a topic: | <urn:uuid:45669ac6-609b-4a6b-ba7f-14d76c01849b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96805 |
If you’re reading this, my guess is that you like words. You like to think–to analyze. Western society urges prioritizing the musings of the mind over the feelings of the body. Indeed, thinking is incredibly useful to survive in a capitalist society. What happens though when a feeling comes up, like stress, hurt, sadness, or loneliness? Do you try to think your way out of it?
A thought may come up, “why can’t I make this feeling go away!?!?” An answer could be that you haven’t felt it. You’re trying to think your way out of it.
“The best way out is always through.” –Robert Frost
We try to go around the feelings by avoidance, escape, and resistance. Frost distills the idea that if you really want “out,” avoidance, escape, and resistance won’t work–at least not long term. You have to move “through”–you have to feel it.
Often we’ll say to ourselves, “I can’t feel ____. I must stop feeling it.” It’s like if you continually tell yourself to stop thinking about the color blue… you’re going to think about the color blue.
I believe that much of the Western world is turning to yoga for this very reason: to feel. We tend to be so disconnected from our bodies that we think the mind can get us out of the discomfort. Yoga asks you to dissolve the mind/body dichotomy–to go inward–to see that feelings cannot be resolved by the mind.
In fact, when you avoid, escape, or resist, you’re likely missing a very important lesson that your body is trying to teach you. This is often called “intuition” or your “gut.” Your gut feelings, your intuition, does not function in words. It requires you to feel.
So today, I challenge you to feel.
Easier said than done, right? Not necessarily. Feeling is simply breathing and welcoming the body’s reactions. Suffering and long term discomfort occur when we RESIST the feelings. We create stories (words and thoughts) around the pain, instead of allowing the feeling to arise and process.
For the expert thinkers out there, I will break it into steps:
- A feeling arises.
- Pause and notice it.
- Welcome it. Actually say to yourself, “I allow this feeling to come up.”
- Watch the feeling, bringing breath into it.
- Notice the story that you try to create around it.
- Imagine the sensations dissolving with breath.
- Sit and watch the feeling as long as you can.
As you move through you day, try this. Start small. Feel your clothes on your skin, feel your feet on the ground, feel water going down your throat.
Then notice the bigger feelings come up. Stress, for example, has the ability to make you work harder and escape. What if you just took a moment (just a moment) to be with it? Acknowledge that you’re completely capable of handling your work and if you’re not, then change it. Stress is merely a feeling.
In this thinking society, this is the cure for uncomfortable feelings: go inward, not outward. Feel, don’t think. Reawaken your intuition. Be your own teacher. | <urn:uuid:dbeab075-951a-471b-88d4-8511f24805a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thisdynamiclifeblog.com/tag/inward/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948208 |
Weird Creatures From the Deep
A massive census of the oceans has turned up a trove of strange marine wildlife, from jellyfish to octopuses to anemones
- By Jess Righthand
- Smithsonian.com, August 06, 2010
The giant Caribbean anemone (Condylactis gigantean) is commonly found in the inner reefs and lagoons of the West Indies and the western Atlantic. It can grow up to 16 inches in diameter and is identifiable by the brightly colored tips of its tentacles. But beware: these eye-catching anemones have venom in their tentacles, which they use to stun and capture their prey. | <urn:uuid:fb6efb54-c9f6-4ebf-b7c7-46a259946182> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Weird-Creatures-From-the-Deep.html?c=y&page=3&navigation=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924187 |
- abandon (v.)
- late 14c., "to give up, surrender (oneself or something), give over utterly; to yield (oneself) utterly (to religion, fornication, etc.)," from Old French abandoner (12c.), from adverbial phrase à bandon "at will, at discretion," from à "at, to" (see ad-) + bandon "power, jurisdiction," from Latin bannum, "proclamation," from a Frankish word related to ban (v.).
Mettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal law phrase in the 13th cent. = mettre sa forêt à permission, i.e. to open it freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in; hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
Etymologically, the word carries a sense of "put someone under someone else's control." Meaning "to give up absolutely" is from late 14c. Related: Abandoned; abandoning.
- abandon (n.)
- "a letting loose, surrender to natural impulses," 1822, from a sense in French abandon (see abandon (v.). Borrowed earlier (c.1400) from French in a sense "(someone's) control;" and cf. Middle English adverbial phrase at abandon, i.e. "recklessly," attested from late 14c. | <urn:uuid:7d11dca8-34e7-4992-bf9a-00a7ad9f654c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=abandon&allowed_in_frame=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903751 |
A new publishing model is emerging that might strike fear in the hearts of librarians and booksellers everywhere. With barely any time to breathe after Wikipedia inspired insecurities took a seat at the table, I now hold before you the networked book. Possibly some of you are wondering, what exactly is a networked book? Alright, here goes….
A networked book is a text offered to the web community to read, edit, contribute to and discuss over time. Essentially a networked book is another type of social Web 2.0 application, very similar in theory to wikis and Wikipedia, but with an eventual definitive text in mind. But that doesn’t even need to be the case, really, since they are so new and people are hashing out the limits as you read this. In fact, with a little poking around you will find several ongoing texts in the works, some utilizing a blogging framework, others wiki models, and some are like online magazines with hosted editing capabilities.
The amazing thing about these social forums is how creative the web community is today, how open to public ridicule, revision and deconstruction. But then, people who were paying attention from the beginning intuitively understood this idea of open source vs. proprietary networking.
Many programming languages and servers used in producing content for the Internet are developed through networks of programmers using open source coding. For example, Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP and Python are all collaboratively edited. An early example of this is Linux, a programming code which was developed as a counterpoint to UNIX, which was owned by and developed by Bell Labs. Initially a free operating system distributed among universities, UNIX by the early 90s was a fairly expensive commercial platform for individuals to purchase. Linus Torvalds in 1991, then a student at the University of Helsinki, and frustrated with the cost of UNIX, decided to begin programming what was to become the Linux operating system.
Linux is a success story of what James Surowiecki calls the wisdom of crowds. After Torvalds developed the initial core of the Linux operating system, it was made available to numerous interested programmers without restriction. Soon Free Software Foundation’s GNU Project became involved, and by 1994 numerous user groups as well as Linux Journal magazine spontaneously began work on refining the user environment. Linux 1.0 was launched in March of that year. The term open source originated soon afterward, with the launch of the web browser Netscape Navigator, which was offered for free to the public in 1998
So, to risk redundancy and quote Tim O’Reilly again, here’s a bit of an interview from 2003: “There’s so much now that if you start looking at the computer industry through the lens of how the Internet is changing everything, it makes you tell a very different story. So, for example, Open Source. I talk a lot about open source, but I don’t talk all that much about licenses; I talk about network-enabled collaboration because that fact is, I believe, an even deeper story than the software licensing story. Open source really grew up along with the Internet because it was about the way that developers could free-associate over the network. And so Linus could start something in Finland that could spread to the rest of the world. He could move to California and he could still work with this guy he had hooked up with in Wales, Allan Cox. You look at the Apache group, the core developers are from all over the world, or the Perl community. It’s really a very different model than the days in which if you wanted to start a company, you had to get a bunch of people into the same physical location.”
(quoted from IT Conversations, a talk between Tim O’Reilly and Doug Kaye from 18 September 2003)
If you want to get technical about it, we’ve always had networked books; just go back in history to the scriptoria of the middle ages. Every time a text was queued up for copying, it was subject to revision, deletions and creative annotations. It is very, very rare for any early text to be exactly the same edition to edition, no matter how hard a particular scriptoria might work toward that goal. (I am thinking of Saint Columbanus’ work in France, and his later monastery in Italy, Bobbio) Something has to be sui generis to achieve that kind of purity, like the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Voynich Manuscript. One blog even suggested that the Talmud and the Bible are examples of networked, collaboratively edited books.
All of this takes me back to my undergrad years, when a good friend of mine spent a summer reading and annotating her copy of Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce. It was a masterpiece of work which she subsequently lost, and I regret not being able to refer back to it today. It’s too bad she wasn’t using FinnegansWiki to post her comments…
Part of me feels that these networked books will be much hyped, but that the commitment will be too large for them to catch on with ongoing communities. A book here and there will catch fire, so to speak…but who knows? Imagine networked poetry, or networked science…oh wait, some of that is already happening. Code poetry has been around for over ten years, and Science Commons is hoping to encourage integrated global science and medicine collaborations.
I feel swallowed by the dust kicked up on the net, the collective sigh of relief people are sharing on the web in finding or founding their own networked communities. Whether or not the networked book heralds a thunderclap or is a buzz word the meaning is clear. Our intellectual environment is changing more rapidly than it was possible to prophesy, and as soon as the Japanese perfect those brain reading remote controls, or just a USB port to the brain… | <urn:uuid:dfa3b061-19ec-446d-b41e-074201a224f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mechanicrobotic.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/post-5-the-networked-book/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968645 |
- Rhode Island is the ___ state in the United States. North to
south it measures 77km [48 miles], and east to west it measures 60km [37
- Rhode Island ___ an island. It has land borders with Connecticut
a. would never
b. is not actually
c. can't been
- The Rhode Island state flower is the violet. The Rhode Island
state bird is the Rhode Island Red Hen. Rhode Island is the ___ state to
have a chicken as its state bird.
- Rhode Island was created by a ___ of exiles from Boston. They
were banned for protesting the religious intolerance of the Puritans in
Boston. Rhode Island was the first colony to welcome both Jews and
- Rhode Island was the first American colony to declare
independence from Great Britain in May 4, 1776. Rhode Island ___ to
approve the American Constitution and take part in the new government
until Congress agreed to add a bill of rights. RI was the last colony to
sign the Constitution on May 29, 1790.
- Many people enjoy ___ in department stores. In 1953, the first
discount department store in the United States opened in Cumberland,
Rhode Island, named "Ann and Hope." The name was from a famous sailing
ship, which was named for the wives of important early Rhode Islanders.
- Golf is a very ___ sport. Rhode Island was home to the first open
golf tournament (1895).
c. hand some
- Knives, forks and spoons ___ are called silverware. The largest
manufacturer of silverware in the world is in Providence, Rhode Island.
The plant started in the early 1800's.
- There is a notable toy company in Providence, RI. Two brothers,
Henry and Helal Hassenfeld, founded Hassenfeld Brothers in 1923. The
name was too long, so they ___ it to Hasbro. A. shorted
- The Hasbro company makes many distinguished toys and games. A
famous toy is Mr. Potato Head. A popular game is "Monopoly". Another
word that means "famous" is ___. | <urn:uuid:18333e78-84a7-4d84-859a-4ea41878d730> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://a4esl.org/q/h/0101/sg-rhode_island.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928493 |
Responsibilities of Participants
In study abroad, as in other settings, participants can have a major impact on their own health and safety through the decisions they make before and during their program and by their day-to-day choices and behaviors.
- Assume responsibility for all the elements necessary for their personal preparation for the program and participate fully in orientations.
- Read and carefully consider all materials issued by the sponsor that relate to safety, health, legal, environmental, political, cultural, and religious conditions in the host country(ies).
- Conduct their own research on the country(ies) they plan to visit with particular emphasis on health and safety concerns, as well as the social, cultural, and political situations.
- Consider their physical and mental health, and other personal circumstances when applying for or accepting a place in a program, and make available to the sponsor accurate and complete physical and mental health information and any other personal data that is necessary in planning for a safe and healthy study abroad experience.
- Obtain and maintain appropriate insurance coverage and abide by any conditions imposed by the carriers.
- Inform parents/guardians/families and any others who may need to know about their participation in the study abroad program, provide them with emergency contact information, and keep them informed of their whereabouts and activities.
- Understand and comply with the terms of participation, codes of conduct, and emergency procedures of the program.
- Be aware of local conditions and customs that may present health or safety risks when making daily choices and decisions. Promptly express any health or safety concerns to the program staff or other appropriate individuals before and/or during the program.
- Accept responsibility for their own decisions and actions.
- Obey host-country laws.
- Behave in a manner that is respectful of the rights and well being of others, and encourage others to behave in a similar manner.
- Avoid illegal drugs and excessive or irresponsible consumption of alcohol.
- Follow the program policies for keeping program staff informed of their whereabouts and well being.
- Become familiar with the procedures for obtaining emergency health and legal system services in the host country. | <urn:uuid:6efdd122-c63e-47f6-94b7-1cbbcbaed20b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arcadia.edu/abroad/default.aspx?id=5968 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948648 |
The RMS Titanic - Rescue
AFTER THE SINKING OF THE Titanic, those lucky enough to get into a lifeboat were forced to listen to the wailing cries of those in the water. Eventually, the cries died down as, one by one, they perished. An unearthly silence prevailed, broken only by women looking for their husbands and fathers in other boats. Invariably, the answer was, "no."
A fleet of ships within a 200-mile area had recieved the Titanic's distress signals, and began heading towards the doomed ship's last coordinates at full speed. The nearest ship, the Carpathia, although steaming ahead with all boilers lit, would not reach the lifeboats for several hours. Other ships would take even longer; the Baltic and the Olympic, both also racing towards the scene at top speed, would not reach until the late morning. The Carpathia, Titanic's survivors' best hope of rescue, was steaming full ahead through the same ice field that sunk the giant, risking its own passengers and crew to save Titanic's.
The feat of staying alive during the night was not easy for some. The 30 some men aboard overturned Collapsable lifeboat B remained motionless in the hours waiting for help to arrive. Because of the position of the men laying on top of the turtled lifeboat, any movement at all would immediately run the risk of taking the title of survivor away from the men on board. After a quick poll of religion, it was decided that the Lord's Prayer was appropriate, and the men engaged in several hours of prayer and silence. Among the passengers of Collapsable B included wireless operator Harold Bride, who recieved the six ice messages from other ships and sent distress signals to all nearby ships, and Second Officer Lightroller, who took command of the lifeboat and organized the group prayer.
Other lifeboats, although not at as much danger as Collapsable B, still had to endure several hours of freezing cold and waiting for destiny to arrive. One of the most famous stories of the Titanic survivors involved Molly Brown, who sat onboard Lifeboat 6 along with several other first-class women and Quartermaster Hitchens. Hitchens inititally rowed towards a light on the horizon, but, as it became apparent that they would never reach it, he stopped, and ordered the lifeboat to drift. Molly Brown argued with Hitchens that they should row and look for survivors, and Hitchens vehemently argued against Ms. Brown, until she finally threatened to throw him overboard. He quitely conceded to the womens' orders, and manned the tiller as they slowly looked for survivors.
The ragtag fleet of lifeboats, surrounded by ice, some icebergs towering 70 feet over their heads, watched the sun rise. With dawn also came rougher seas. However, the survivors rowed gratefully to the ship they had spotted on the horizon. The ship, the Carpathia, had heard Titanic's distress call. After three and a half hours, the Carpathia reached the last recorded position of the Titanic. By 8:30 a.m. of April 15th, the survivors had been brought aboard. Under the care of the Carpathia's passengers and crew, the freezing, wet, and miserable survivors received warm food, drink, blankets, and dry clothes. Out of the 2,228 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic, only 705 were rescued.
Finally, on April 18, the remaining passengers and crew of the Titanic disembarked in New York City, where they were besieged by the press and onlookers gathered there. While the media circus was going on, the Mackay-Bennett quietly left from Nova Scotia to recover the bodies of the deceased. The German liner Bremen passed the site of the sinking on the 20th. All the passengers agreed that the sun glinting off the icebergs was a lovely sight... until they were close enough to see the wreckage and the bodies clinging, singly and in groups, to the wreckage. "The scene," said one passenger, "moved everyone on board to the point of tears." | <urn:uuid:83eb3f86-9155-43ff-96c0-b27f6705ea07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/21583/to/rescue.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979139 |
National Park Service via EPA
Boaters travel down the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park.
When voters in Arizona go to the polls next month, they will be asked to decide a landownership tug of war: Should the Grand Canyon belong to all Americans, or just the residents of Arizona?
A controversial ballot measure backed by Republicans in the state legislature is seeking sovereign control over millions of acres of federal land in the state, including the Grand Canyon.
Proposition 120 would amend the state's constitution to declare Arizona's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the "air, water, public lands, minerals, wildlife and other natural resources within the state's boundaries."
The measure is the latest salvo in the so-called "sagebrush revolt" by Republicans in the West aiming to take back control of major swaths of land owned by various federal agencies, much of it by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management.
State Sen. Sylvia Allen, one of the Republican backers of the measure, argues that federal retention of the land hurts the economy of the Western states and leaves them struggling to fund public education, nurture their economies, and manage their forests and natural resources.
"We do not have the ability in rural Arizona to provide jobs for our citizens due to the fact that the federal government controls all the land," Allen told Reuters. "It leaves us at a great disadvantage. We're not able to bring in industry and provide for the jobs that we need," she added.
The exact area of public land targeted by the measure -- which excludes American Indian reservations and federal installations such as arsenals - was not immediately clear on the Arizona Secretary of State's website.
The Sierra Club pegged the area at between 39,000 and 46,700 square miles -- or 34 percent to 41 percent of the entire state.
The ballot measure is just the latest move in a decades-old federal-state skirmish over control of a wide range of natural resources in Western states, often pitting mining, drilling and logging companies against those seeking to protect the environment.
The efforts have had mixed success. In May, Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a state bill calling on Washington to relinquish the title to 48,000 square miles, arguing that it created uncertainty for existing leaseholders on federal lands in difficult economic times.
But similar legislation was signed into law by Governor Gary Herbert in neighboring Utah in March, despite warnings from state attorneys that it was likely unconstitutional and would trigger a costly and ultimately futile legal battle.
Opponents of the latest drive to assert Arizona's ownership say that, if successful, the initiative could undermine protections provided by federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water Act, and would saddle Arizona with lands for which it would be unable to care.
"They can't even fund and ensure that their (state) parks are protected, so how they would take on an additional 25 to 30 million acres of land is a big question mark," Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, told Reuters.
No polls have given a sense of whether Prop 120 will prosper during the November 6 election. But Bahr cautioned that, should it pass, it would inevitably trigger fresh litigation for Arizona, which recently fought a legal battle over its tough 2010 crackdown on illegal immigrants all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This one is just blatantly unconstitutional," Bahr said of Prop 120. "Does Arizona really need another lawsuit?"
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- Russell Means, Indian activist and actor, dies at 72
- Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Anaheim police
- Police search for missing 12-year-old girl in New Jersey
- Chunk of meteorite falls onto San Francisco home
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions. | <urn:uuid:25e3ae6d-4add-429c-aea4-d4c82efb34a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/23/14643160-arizonans-to-vote-on-taking-grand-canyon-other-lands-from-federal-control | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955866 |
Grades 7-9: Due Process Freedoms
Voir Dire Simulation
by Julie Van Camp
Voir dire is one of the most important aspects of any trial. Many attorneys feel that jury selection is the single most significant procedure in the entire trial process. The purpose of voir dire questioning is to obtain a fair and impartial jury. The selection process in which prospective jurors are questioned and challenged for bias can turn out to be a battle of wits and maneuvering more dramatic than the trial itself.
The ultimate objective of voir dire is to ferret out the prejudice and bias that lurks in some areas of the thinking of every juror. Jury selection" is a misnomer. With a few peremptory challenges allotted, we do not "select" juries. We merely spend our few challenges to eliminate the jurors most likely to be prejudiced.
Also, jury selection is a matter of personal judgment and the use of the wits of the trial lawyer, whose judgment and instincts in the voir dire will be colored of necessity by her or his own experiences and knowledge of human nature, and personal prejudices and biases.
"Why should anyone think that 12 persons brought in from the street, selected in various ways for their lack of general ability, should have any special capacity to decide controversies between persons," asked formed United States Solicitor General Erwin Griswold. Yet, More often than not, most observers agree that when jurors are left to apply their experiences and common sense to the evidence presented to them, they render as impartial a brand of justice as is humanly possible.
Sometimes in the United States, many potential jurors are called to the jury box before twelve are chosen. In England the judge calls the first twelve potential jurors and simply asks one question: "Can you give a fair hearing to both the crown and the defense?" If they can, they are impaneled as part of the jury.
In this country, the questioning process, called voir dire from the French term which means "to tell the truth," is far more elaborate and involves judges and attorneys. The purpose of the voir dire is to determine disqualifications and ensure an impartial jury which represents a cross section of the community. It is not to afford anyone an in-depth analysis so he or she can choose a jury that fits some particular mold or pattern that the person desires.
Prospective jurors may be challenged for cause if they exhibit a bias for or against one of the parties. For example, jurors may be disqualified if they are related to one of the parties or the attorneys, or if they stand to benefit directly or indirectly by a decision for one side or the other, or if they have formed an opinion in the case. A certain number of challenges without cause, which are called peremptory challenges, are also allowed each side. In North Carolina, for example , the state and the defendant each have fourteen peremptory challenges in capital offenses and eight in noncapital offenses. In civil cases each side is allowed eight peremptory challenges. Jury selection in some very complicated cases can take almost as long as the trial itself. In one California murder trial of three defendants, it took five months to question more than 250 potential jurors. The actual trial took seven months.
In North Carolina the first twelve persons called are examined by the prosecutor, or the plaintiff's attorney in a civil case, for both cause and peremptory challenges.
If challenges are exercised, the person challenged is replaced in the jury box by another potential juror. When the prosecutor or plaintiff's attorney is satisfied, the same process is repeated by the defendant's attorney. If juror replacements are made at this point, the other side gets to pass or reject the replacement(s). This process continues until each side is satisfied or they have run out of challenges.
North Carolina law states that challenges for cause must focus on competence, prejudice, or fairness. The scope of examination of jurors is subject to the sound discretion of the court.
Some companies now specialize in assisting trial attorneys in applying psychological techniques to determine the type of juror an individual will be. In fact, sometimes "shadow" juries are chosen that reflect similar characteristics to the actual jury. This jury observes the trial and provides feedback to the lawyers trying the case. Critics of these practices feel that it represents an unconstitutional manipulation of the justice system and is a costly process that favors the rich over the poor.
There are numerous social and psychological factors that enter into the selection of a jury. Studies have shown that women are thought to be more sympathetic to the defense, men to the prosecution. The wealthy are thought to be more sympathetic to the prosecution, the poor to the defense. Ethnicity and race are thought to be important, also.
Julie Van Camp is an educator now living in Lopez Island, Washington.
>>7-9 Due Process Home
>>Voir Dire Simulation
Law Day For Schools Home | Law Day Lessons Home | 7-9 Lessons Home | <urn:uuid:5de91ca5-43ef-4633-a0da-862d2d932f28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/resources_for_judges_lawyers/79_dueprocess_voir.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942073 |
A Cricket Magazine Group magazine
Science for grades 5-9
Have a young reader who's interested in everything? MUSE® is for them, because it's about everything: past, present, and future; history, science, and the arts. Not just a collection of facts, MUSE is a guidebook for exploration with intelligent writing and amazing photographs. Each issue is enlivened with the nine New Muses, smart alecks who inhabit the margins and offer their own unique brand of humor and pointed commentary.
- Wide range of topics covered in every issue
- Unique, zany sense of humor
- Wisecracking characters offer quirky observations and jokes
"MUSE® is an essential aid in helping to prepare students for the complicated world out there." - Leon L. Lederman, Nobel Laureate in Physics
Interactive Sample | MUSE's Web Site for Kids | <urn:uuid:cde9cf2f-ff6f-4eb4-8b98-19fd1af3bca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/MUS.html?z=17.338053846359 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905187 |
The problem with waste
The household waste that Devon's Councils have to deal with every year can fill up a football pitch 1000 metres high. Much of what we purchase ends up as waste and it's increasing - a growth of around 1.25% every year. Each person would probably produce 25 tonnes of waste in their lifetime, left for the next generation to deal with.
Traditionally, most of our household waste has been collected by District Councils and disposed of by the County Council in holes in the ground (called landfill sites). Most bulky household waste has also ended up in landfill sites. This has generally been the cheapest option. However, the capacity of landfill sites is diminishing and European legislation, in particular the Landfill Directive, means that other options need to be considered to manage the volume of waste we generate. The cost of disposing of waste will escalate and, if nothing is done now and no new facilities are provided for the future, this cost will be even greater as it would need to be transported out of the county. Burying our rubbish in the ground is also a waste of natural resources and creates pollution. The government has recognised the problem and has set tough targets for all local authorities to meet. Devon's targets include -
- Recovering 45% of municipal solid waste (MSW) by 2010/11
- Recovering 67% of municipal solid waste (MSW) by 2015/16
Reducing the amount of biodegradable waste that is buried in landfill sites.'Biodegradable' means anything that rots, for example food scraps and garden waste. As biodegradable waste rots down it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and creates a liquid that can pollute the surrounding area if not managed correctly. Devon has to divert at least 25% of 1995 levels of biodegradable waste produced away from landfill sites by 2010, 50% by 2013 and 65% by 2020.
The National Waste Management Hierarchy lists the different methods of dealing with waste, starting with the most environmentally friendly and finishing with the least.
REDUCE - this means creating less waste in the first place. For example, buying products with less packaging, or composting your garden waste and vegetable peelings at home
RE-USE - using things again instead of throwing them away after you have finished with them. For example, unwanted goods can be donated to charity shops, and rechargeable batteries can be used hundreds of times before they need to be replaced.
RECOVERY - this includes recycling, composting and energy recovery. Recycling means taking scrap material for example and manufacturing it into a new product. Green waste taken to County Council Recycling Centres and that collected separately by your District Council is composted. In 2008/09, 51.69% of Devon's houshold waste is recycled or composted. There are currently no energy recovery facilities for Devon's household waste although landfill gas is collected at three of the operational landfill sites to create electricity which is then fed into the National Grid.
DISPOSAL - via landfill or landraise
As a householder, you can help protect Devon's environment by reducing and reusing your waste wherever possible, and using your local recycling schemes wherever possible. Visit www.recycledevon.org to find out more. | <urn:uuid:e3762e1a-174e-4971-b9c3-2cf33f9999de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.devon.gov.uk/the_problem_with_waste?menuOpen=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948356 |
This week we’re up to Week 51 in my Beyond the Internet series in which I explore the sources of information beyond our computer screens. This week’s topic is Oral History.
Oral History can be an invaluable asset in our suite of offline research resources. Again and again we read others say that they wish they’d listened to their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents. I too wonder how I could know so little about my grandparents when they lived next door for up to 21 years of my life. However I think we also need to “forgive” ourselves: it’s far more common than not, for us to be self-preoccupied in our teenaged years, caught up with study, work and later our own families.
ORAL FAMILY HISTORY
It’s only as time goes along that we start reflecting on missed opportunities, almost always too late. It also assumes that each and all of our immediate ancestors would have willingly bared their souls to us, yet we also know we reserve secrets and private moments in our own hearts. So respect and acceptance are required on this journey into oral history. It was only as I started to write my Kunkel family history that I was able to tease some information from my father before his death, contrary to his decades as a human information-clam.
If we’re lucky some of our parents may be alive and we can start to ask them questions with interest and respect. Even if our parents are not alive there are other opportunities to capture some of their stories: what about close family friends who sometimes know more than we assume, or perhaps there’s an aunt or great aunt to tell the stories?
As you interview your family’s friends and relatives, there are many guidelines to follow so that you tease out answers without prejudicing what you’re told. You also need to weigh up past slights, family feuds etc to get a feel for whether you’re being told the “truth” which of course varies with almost every individual.
If you’re planning to do a series of oral history interviews you might be able to find out if your local library, archive or family history centre offers seminars of how best to go about them.
In Australia, a good starting point is the Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA). They also have useful publications for sale. Your local archive may even have recording equipment that you can borrow: the OHAA would probably be able to advise you. I know that our reference library here in Darwin offered a training session a couple of years ago which was excellent, and there is now a wonderful resource on the NT Library webpage of Territory Stories.
A book I’ve found really helpful is Family Memories, A Guide to Reminiscing by Bob Price, available through the State Library of NSW Shop. It provides a helpful framework in which to consider the questions you want to ask your family. Quick readers can pick up a copy on eBay at present for a very good price (assuming it’s still available when this post goes up). Or you can get it on inter-library loan through the National Library of Australia.
ORAL LOCAL HISTORY
So far it’s been implicit that we’ve been focusing on our family’s specific history, but if that’s not possible, there is a way around this apparent “brick wall”. Don’t forget there are other families who’ve lived in the area for many years and experienced many of the same crop failures, weather problems, wars, socials and weddings. You may find that you can learn a great deal about your family’s life indirectly in this way to add richness and texture to your story.
One of the most valuable contacts I made was with the man who was the Murphy’s Creek (Qld) local history experts. Not only did he share a great deal of information with me but also provided me with copies of a recording of my grandfather’s younger cousin, Ann. I had met her a couple of years before her death and we had several discussions about the Kunkel family and as documentary facts proved her stories, it was apparent she was a “reliable witness”. I’ve mentioned this experience previously, and its importance to my own research here.
.However, what was especially interesting was the difference in content between Cameron’s recording and mine. In the local history version the stories were of playing tennis socially and competitively, social outings and people she knew including some relating to the Dorfprozelten descendants though it’s obvious she had no idea of this prior link. My tape of our conversations is about family connections and stories. Both are valuable and offer quite different dimensions to family and life in rural Queensland in the early years of the 1900s.
ORAL PERSONAL HISTORY
I think it’s important that we don’t leave our own life stories as a blank page for our families. We know how much we’d love to have heard or seen our ancestors or to have something they’d written. It’s up to us to ensure that we leave a suitable legacy for our own descendants.
Have you had any successes in recording and documenting your family’s history orally? Do you find it easy to do or challenging? I know I find it quite difficult and don’t think it’s one of my strengths. | <urn:uuid:34e85a31-aa7d-4ac7-adf5-d14a1586b215> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cassmob.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/beyond-the-internet-week-51-oral-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968323 |
Imagine a high-speed rail line that could get you from San Francisco to LA in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
That dream appears to be coming true, thanks to work by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. After getting a green light by State environmental impact assessors, they’ve begun implementation of an 800-mile bullet-train system that will connect Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego. Trains traveling at 220 mph on the systems are forecast to carry up to 100 million passengers per year by 2030.
While 2030 is a long way off, at least things are moving in the right direction. Having a high-speed rail system connecting (eventually) the length of the West coast is a good idea for a number of reasons, including greenhouse-gas emissions reductions, improving public transportation and reducing congestion, and creating half a million new jobs. While our aging standby Amtrak is still around (believe it or not) and bearable for short distances, it’s more expensive and takes twice as much time to travel the same distance when compared to driving (non-California example: 15 hours from Portland, OR to San Francisco).
The State will have a bond measure of $9.95 billion on the November 2008 ballot, which requires a simple majority vote for approval. The measure allocates $9 billion for the high-speed rail system and $950 million for improvements to other rail services that connect to the high-speed service.
For more information, see the website of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. | <urn:uuid:4e041091-740d-4634-af3e-de233b8334d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pocketburgers.com/2008/05/california-building-220-mph-high-speed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928212 |
Lewis Bowman was a New York based architect prominent in the first quarter of the 20th Century. He worked across the country, and in a variety of historic European styles, but is most notable for his use of Jacobean and Tudor styles in Bronxville, NY. He spent a few years briefly after college in McKim, Mead, and White’s firm before moving just north of New York City to Westchester County. In 1918 he started his own firm. I tell you this because I came across these drawings recently.
I surmise that the father of my neighbor (the late John “Jack” Colgan Sr.) worked in Bowman’s firm on account of his name (appearing with the suffix “del” after it) and Bowman’s on these drawings. Does anyone know what that means in this context?
Let’s say this is the first of a few posts on this cache. The large blueprints I’ll have to photograph with some better equipment at work.
There’s one drawing here “A residence for L Boyde Hatch Esq, Logan Utah” that’s absolutely enormous.
Though Bowman’s houses are often large, they are not commonly this palatial; usually they are less than 5000 square feet.
Bowman’s work was full of high quality and historically accurate fine detail. For 5 years before starting his own firm, he worked for a builder of fancy homes and developed long standing connections with the best craftsmen in the area. The interiors look warm and solid, but perhaps a bit dark. One needed only enough of an opening in the wall through which to shoot arrows at invading Visigoths. Besides, who wants a view of a moor or a fen?
I live in a Tudor of a slightly earlier era, with slightly less fine construction, but I am happy to say the unknown architect didn’t follow historic precedence on the sizing of the windows… | <urn:uuid:93414bdc-8d2e-4a1a-a4e7-671bae0d39fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.remains.com/blog/2012/03/more-treasures-from-the-neighbors-cache/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976095 |
The golden symbol of Laos
What we say:
No town in Laos is complete without a stupa or two and, as the capital city, it seems fitting that Vientiane has the biggest. Located about 2 km east of the Patuxai monument, golden That Luang is the national symbol of Laos.
The stupa was first built in 1566 and was said to contain a hair from the Buddha, but repeated attacks over the following centuries mean the stupa has been rebuilt and remodelled many times. The gleaming structure you see today was reconstructed in the 1930s under the guidance of the French, and its tapering golden spire rises 45 metres into the sky. That Luang's size is best appreciated from a distance, especially around sunset, or you can pay to enter the inner courtyard for a closer look.
The statue near the front gate is of King Setthathilath who is reputed to have commissioned the original stupa when he relocated the capital to Vientiane from Luang Prabang. That Luang was once flanked by temples at all four sides, but only Wat Luang Nua and Wat Luang Tai remain. That Luang and its grounds are the epicentre of the annual That Luang Festival.
More detailsLane Xang Ave
Opening Hours: Daily: 08:00-12:00, 13:00-16:00
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Click here to see a recent newsletter. | <urn:uuid:2fa66a25-d9bc-466e-8b7e-b5e8a040040e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelfish.org/sight_profile/laos/vientiane_and_surrounds/vientiane/vientiane/547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948931 |
|Assessment & Evaluation in Elementary Education|
|ASSESS & EVAL|
|CLASS CODE:||ELED 401||CREDITS: 3|
|DIVISION:||EDUCATION & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT|
|GENERAL EDUCATION:||This course does not fulfill a General Education requirement.|
|CATALOG DESCRIPTION:||Assists the prospective Elementary Educator in developing skills in the use of assessment, the construction of assessment devises, the statistical analysis of test results, and the appraisal of educational research.|
|DESCRIPTION:||This course is designed to expand the prospective teacher's understanding of assessment principles and develop use of assessment strategies before, during, and after teaching to enable the instructor to make more knowledgeable choices in preparing future lessons and evaluating student progress.|
|REQUIREMENTS:||Texts - "Effective Teaching Methods"(4th ed.), G. Borich
"Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Instruction (2nd ed.), J. H. McMillan
1. Read assigned chapters in required texts weekly.
2. Prepare selected response items for each chapter of the McMillan text for review of content and practice in writing selected response test items as directed weekly.
3. Keep anecodotal notes about students in your class.
4. Create two test blueprints (table of specifications) for each of the teacher work sample assessments.
5. Lesson plans
6. Carefully plan objectives and assessments for all lesson plans.
7. Create a sociogram.
8. Write a description of general information usually found in a cum folder.
9. Locate, copy and put district or state standards in a folder.
10. Write a letter to your home elementary school requesting sample copies of the districts forms for reporting student progress to parents.
11. Create a questionnaire assessing student attitudes about your unit topic for your second teacher work sample and administer it to your students.
12. Create a "grade book" to track progress of objectives for the two teacher work samples.
13. Present a topic from a list of choices on portfolio assessment.
|PREREQUISITES:||Must be taken concurrently with ELED 420 and ELED 430.|
|OTHER:||Hand in assignments clearly labeled with your name to a tray on the front table.
Pick up graded assignments from your methods folder on Thursdays.
Late assignments will drop a full grade each day they are late.
Attendance is critical. Missing a seminar may have an adverse effect on your final grade.
|EFFECTIVE DATE:||August 2001| | <urn:uuid:cc3368c0-8818-402c-a315-427d3866054d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.byui.edu/catalog-archive/2003-2004/class.asp837.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.872471 |
Tin Pan Alley musicians of the 1940s who sang of their longing for an Indiana home were not necessarily Hoosiers.
Hanley had reason to long for his Indiana home: after college, he joined the army, fighting in World War I. After getting out of the service, he wrote “Back Home” while working as a vaudeville accompanist in New York.
Hanley also composed such influential standards as “Second Hand Rose” for Ziegfeld Follies and “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart,” popularized by Judy Garland.
In 1917, “Back Home” became an immediate hit because of its inclusion on the second recording made by the Original Dixieland Band, the New Orleans combo credited with the creation of jazz.
This record sold astronomically well, catapulting the band and the tune to fame.
Hanley’s tune has endeared itself to each generation of jazz artists. In the 1920s, Louis Armstrong opened every All-Star Band performance with “Back Home”. In the 1930s, Benny Goodman made a swing recording of the number.
Performed at every Indy 500 since 1946, “Back Home” is perhaps the most beloved and celebrated musical homage to Indiana. | <urn:uuid:49a248ba-6eec-4314-a005-50179f38ca70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/home-indiana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97137 |
compared to 10% for those who are housed.
FYSB's Runaway and Homeless Youth Program works to get young women off the streets and into shelter.
are rejected by their family and put out of their homes after coming out.
Services provided through the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program are required to be safe and inclusive for all youth.
are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
FYSB's Runaway and Homeless Youth Program requires its grantees to train staff in how to best serve the unique needs of the LGBT population.
said they became homeless after leaving foster care.
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program provides services to eligible youth who have exited the foster care system.
AIDD is Now a Part of the Administration for Community Living (ACL)
On April 16, 2012, AIDD, the Administration on Aging, and the Office on Disability joined the newly created ACL.
Poverty rate when single mothers are fully employed
A decrease from 40.7% for all single-mother families, which are nearly five times as likely to be poor than married-couple families, says the Center for American Progress in a new report.
Children 17 and under exposed to violence
Either directly or indirectly during the past year according to a national survey. More than 20% had been bullied during their lifetime.
States with anti-bullying laws
South Dakota was the 49th state to implement. Find more on cyber-bullying, prevention techniques, who’s at risk, and how to get help at www.stopbullying.gov. | <urn:uuid:c7cc896f-6c66-4d47-8e1a-cf4b07ae6da3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acf.hhs.gov/quick-fact?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955013 |
Citrus aurantifolia is a shrubby tree, to 5 m (16 ft), with many thorns. Dwarf varieties are popular with home growers and can be grown indoors during winter months and in colder climates. The trunk rarely grows straight, with many branches that often originate quite far down on the trunk. The leaves are ovate 2.5–9 cm (1–3.5 in) long, resembling orange leaves. The flowers are 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter, are yellowish white with a light purple tinge on the margins. Flowers and fruit appear throughout the year but are most abundant from May to September.
Citrus aurantifolia are used to flavour many foods. High in vitamin C, they were formerly used in the British navy to prevent scurvy—hence the nickname “limey” for British sailors. | <urn:uuid:73e21151-488c-4d31-b585-7b4fbb33572d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bitterrootrestoration.com/perennials-plants/citrus-aurantifolia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938973 |
English | 简体中文
Resistor Color Code Calculator
A resistor is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in an electronic circuit. A resistor is perhaps the most common building block used in circuits. This tool is used to decode information for color banded axial lead resistors. Select the number of bands, then their colors to determine the value and tolerance of the resistors or view all resistors Digi-Key has to offer.
Number of Bands:
IEC Resistor Color Code Standards available here. By clicking this link you will be exiting the Digi-Key site. | <urn:uuid:e585d636-23bf-43f7-9fc6-bf0782fa47e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digikey.com/sg/en/mkt/4-band-resistors.html?WT.z_ref_page_id=sitemap_resistorcalculator | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894865 |
Human embryonic stem cells hold great promise for studying and treating disease and for the practice of regenerative medicine. However, more must be learned to ensure the cells that may one day be transplanted into humans are safe.
In one of many safety-related studies going on worldwide, scientists at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center have uncovered that variations in X chromosome inactivation take place in very early passages of female human embryonic stem cells lines, information that will play an important role in ensuring the safety of cells grown for therapeutic use and a discovery that also may have implications in the development of cancer.
Chromosomal and genetic variations found in human embryonic stem cells lines have been attributed, in large part, to the various culture conditions in which they're grown, said Tamar Dvash, first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA.
However, the work by the Broad Stem Cell Research Center scientists reveals that very early in their growth, female human embryonic stem cells already show variation in the inactivation of the X chromosome.
"It suggests that culture conditions and methods in the derivation of human embryonic stem cells could be further improved to achieve a uniform pattern of X chromosome inactivation," said Guoping Fan, an associate professor of human genetics and senior author of the study.
The study is published June 25, 2010 in the early online edition of the journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science.
All female cells have two X chromosomes and in early development, one X chromosome is permanently inactivated. The X chromosome inactivation ensures that females, like males, have one functional copy of the X chromosome in each body cell and that the cells develop normally. If the second X chromosome is not inactivated, the result could be disease development, including some cancers in which two active X chromosomes can be found in the malignant cells, Dvash said.
Previously, what scientists knew about human embryonic development was gleaned from studying mouse embryos. However, the advent of human embryonic stem cell research has allowed researchers to closely study early human development. Dvash, Fan and other scientists, including collaborator Neta Lavon of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, were examining the process of inactivation of the X chromosome when they made their observation.
The creation of a stem cell line includes many steps. The donated, frozen blastocysts are thawed and the inner cell mass – the 20 to 50 cells that are fully pluripotent in the blastocyst - is placed in culture with cells that support its growth. After a time, a small piece of the developing stem cell colony, or group of cells, is cut away and placed into a culture dish to further expand, a process called passaging.
The cells studied by Dvash and Fan were passaged only five to ten times instead of the usual more than 20 times, meaning the culture in which they were grown should have had less influence on any variation found in the cells. However, even at the first five passages, the resulting cells showed variations in X chromosome inactivation, meaning some cells had inactivated one X chromosome and some had not.
"People are looking at these cells as having great potential for transplantation and possible cures for diseases," Dvash said. "What this study proves is that we need to monitor X chromosome inactivation closely in cells being considered for therapeutic use. We need to make sure they're undergoing normal inactivation to ensure they will be stable when they begin to differentiate."
Going forward, the scientists will also examine induced pluripotent stem cells, adult stem cells that have been reprogrammed to have all the qualities of embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell in the body. They will study skin cells taken from females, which would already have undergone inactivation of one X chromosome because they are already differentiated. The cells will be programmed into embryonic-like cells with two active X chromosomes so they can more closely study the process of inactivation.
"We want to know how does it happen and when," Dvash said.
This study was funded by two grants from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell research agency.
The stem cell center was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. A $20 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in 2007 resulted in the renaming of the center. With more than 200 members, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research is committed to a multi-disciplinary, integrated collaboration of scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding adult and human embryonic stem cells. The center supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The center is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UCLA College of Letters and Science. To learn more about the center, visit our web site at http://www.stemcell.ucla.edu. To learn more about the center, visit our web site at http://www.stemcell.ucla.edu.
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:f4ce6624-18d6-4ddc-ba23-42b019dd3574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/uoc--cvf062410.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957822 |
Protein Balance Key in Preventing Cancer
Fox Chase researchers find that two antagonistic proteins help keep leukemia at bay, pointing to new potential treatments
David L. Wiest, PhD
PHILADELPHIA, PA (February 27, 2013)—Two proteins that scientists once thought carried out the same functions are actually antagonists of each other, and keeping them in balance is key to preventing diseases such as cancer, according to new findings published in the February 25 issue of Developmental Cell by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center. The results suggest that new compounds could fight cancer by targeting the pathways responsible for maintaining the proper balance between the proteins.
"It's our job now to understand how we can intervene therapeutically in this system, so we can restore balance when it's thrown off," says study author David L. Wiest, PhD, professor and deputy chief scientific officer at Fox Chase.
The two proteins—"Rpl22" and "Rpl22-like1", which contribute to the process by which additional cellular proteins are made—are created from two similar genes, leading researchers to previously believe they were performing identical functions in the body. "What we're finding is that is absolutely not true," says Wiest. "Not only are they performing different functions, they are antagonizing each other."
During the study, Wiest and his team knocked out Rpl22 in zebrafish—a common model of human disease. Without Rpl22, the zebrafish don't develop a type of T cells (a blood cell) that helps fight infections. The same developmental defect was observed when they knocked out Rpl22-like1, indicating that both proteins are independently required to enable stem cells to give rise to T cells.
But when the researchers tried to restore T cells in zebrafish that lacked Rpl22 by adding back Rpl22-like1, it didn't work. The reverse was also true—Rpl22 was not enough to restore function after the researchers eliminated Rpl22-like1. These results led Wiest and his team to believe that, although the proteins are both involved in producing stem cells, they do not perform the same function.
To learn more about the proteins' individual functions, the researchers looked at the levels of different proteins involved in stem cell production when either Rpl22 or Rpl22-like1 was absent. Without Rpl22-like1, cells had lower levels of a protein known as Smad1—a critical driver of stem cell development. And when Rpl22 disappeared, levels of Smad1 increased dramatically.
Both proteins can bind directly to the cellular RNA from which Smad1 is produced, suggesting that they maintain balance in stem cell production via their antagonistic effects on Smad1 expression, explains Wiest.
"I like to think of Rpl22 as a brake, and Rpl22-like1 as a gas pedal – in order to drive stem cell production, both have to be employed properly. If one or the other is too high, this upsets the balance of forces that regulate stem cell production, with potentially deadly effects," says Wiest.
Specifically, too much Rpl22 (the "brake"), and stem cell production shuts off, decreasing the number of blood cells and leading to problems such as anemia. Too much Rpl22-like1 (the "gas pedal"), on the other hand, can create an over-production of stem cells, leading to leukemia.
Previous research has found that Rpl22-like1 is often elevated in cancer, including 80% of cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Conversely, researchers have found that in other cancers, the gene that encodes Rpl22 is deleted. "Either one of these events is sufficient to alter the balance in stem cell production in a way that pushes towards cancer," says Wiest.
Co-authors on the study include Yong Zhang, Anne-Cécile E. Duc, Shuyun Rao, Xiao-Li Sun, Alison N. Bilbee, Michele Rhodes, Qin Li, Dietmar J. Kappes, and Jennifer Rhodes of Fox Chase.
Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation’s first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase also was among the first institutions to receive the National Cancer Institute’s prestigious comprehensive cancer center designation in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center’s nursing program has achieved Magnet status for excellence three consecutive times. Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research and oversees programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX-CHASE (1-888-369-2427). | <urn:uuid:f95d21d4-1a9b-46a8-b11d-74b8d16a1e2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fccc.edu/information/news/press-releases/2013/2013-02-27-Protein-Balance-Key-In-Preventing-Cancer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957991 |
This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but it’s also the land of roughly two million dams including diversions, irrigation conduits, flood control and water storage projects, both private and federally-owned hydropower dams, and a growing number of uneconomic, unclaimed and unmaintained dams affecting at least 600,000 miles of river. Check out a map from American Rivers with dams that have been removed, dams that need to come down and dams that should not be built.
Dam Nation: A Snapshot of River Restoration Efforts in the U.S.
Dams: Frequently Asked Questions (Courtesy of American Rivers)
1) What is a dam?
There are a number of technical and legal definitions of a dam but generally it is any structure that impounds or diverts water.
2) How many dams are there in the United States?
There are over 80,000 dams in the US Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps) National Inventory of Dams (NID), which is the most comprehensive inventory of dams nationwide. However, this inventory only covers dams that meet minimum height and impoundment requirements, so an unknown number of small dams are not included in the inventory. According to the National Research Council, there are more than two million dams in the United States. Of the 80,000 dams in the database, approximately 66,000 are located on rivers (the remainder impound water off-river).
3) Which state has the most dams?
According to the NID, Texas has the most dams of any state at 6,798.
4) Who regulates dam operations?
A number of state and federal agencies are responsible for regulating dams. Dams owned by federal agencies are self-regulated. Non-federal dams that produce hydropower are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Non-federal dams that do not produce hydropower are regulated by the state in which they reside. Often this state regulation is focused on dam safety.
5) How many dams actually produce power?
FERC regulates approximately 2,300 hydroelectric producing dams. In addition, there are approximately 240 federal dams that produce hydroelectric power. Thus, there are a total of approximately 2,540 hydropower dams.
6) What is the largest dam in the country?
The size of a dam can be measured in a number of different ways. According to the NID, Oroville Dam, on the Feather River in California, is the tallest dam in the United States, measuring in at 770 ft. The dam with the largest impoundment is Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River in Nevada, which stores approximately 30 million acre-feet of water. The dam that provides the most hydroelectric power in the United States is Grand Coulee Dam, on the Columbia River in Washington, which generates 6180 megawatts (MW) of power.
7) Why are some dams being removed?
There has been a growing movement to remove dams where the costs - including environmental, safety, and socio-cultural impacts - outweigh the benefits - including hydropower, flood control, irrigation, or recreation - or where the dam no longer serves any useful purpose. The goal of removal can be multi-faceted, including restoring flows for fish and wildlife, reinstating the natural sediment and nutrient flow, eliminating safety risks, restoring opportunities for whitewater recreation, and saving taxpayer money.
8) How are dams removed?
Because dams and rivers vary greatly, physical removal strategies and techniques may also vary on a case by case basis. Generally, the process involves drawing down the reservoir, potentially removing the sediment built up behind the dam, removing the structure, and mitigating for downstream effects of increased flow and sediment re-suspension. Techniques may include the use of controlled explosions and heavy demolition equipment.
9) How many dams have been removed to date?
Currently, American Rivers is aware of more than 925 dams that have been removed over the past 50 years in this country. American Rivers is still in the process of gathering this data, so that figure is likely to increase as more information becomes available.
10) How much does it cost to remove a dam?
Because the size and location of dams vary so greatly, the cost to remove an individual dam can range from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.
11) Who owns the dams that are being removed?
Private businesses, federal agencies, state agencies, local governments, or public utilities may own dams. Most of the dams removed to date have been owned privately, by local government, or by public utilities.
12) Who pays for dam removal?
Who pays for the removal of a dam is often a complex issue. In past cases, removal has been financed by the dam owner, local, state and federal governments, and in some cases agreements whereby multiple stakeholders contribute to cover the costs.
13) Who decides that dams should be removed?
The decision to remove a dam is made by varying entities, depending on the regulatory oversight of the dam. In most cases, the dam owner itself is the decision-maker, often deciding that the costs of continuing to operate and maintain the dam are more than removing the dam. State dam safety offices can often order a dam to be removed if there are major safety concerns. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can order a hydropower dam under their jurisdiction to be removed for both environmental and safety reasons.
14) Can rivers be restored through dam removal?
Although most rivers cannot be completely restored to historic conditions - simply because of the amount of development that has occurred on and along them - dam removal can often recreate conditions that move the river towards those historic conditions. For example, fish are returning to historic stretches of river that had been previously obstructed on Butte Creek in California, the Souadabscook River in Maine, and the Clearwater River in Idaho, as a result of dam removals.
15) What benefits do dams provide?
Dams may provide a variety of benefits, including water supply, power generation, flood control, recreation, and irrigation.
16) How can the benefits of a dam be replaced when it is removed?
While dams serve a number of human needs, society has developed ways to address many of these needs without dams. For instance, flood control can often be accomplished more effectively and for less money by restoring wetlands, maintaining riparian buffers, or moving people out of the floodplain. Updating antiquated irrigation systems and replacing inappropriate crops can dramatically reduce the need for dams and reservoirs in the arid West. Rather than plugging rivers with multiple hydropower dams, a cheaper and less environmentally harmful solution is to use existing energy efficiency technologies. For example, the 3MW of power lost in the removal of the Edwards Dam, on the Kennebec River in Maine, can be replaced simply by replacing 75,000 light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs. Many dams that have been removed no longer had any beneficial use or that use was very limited.
17) Is it cost effective to remove a dam?
Dam removal can be expensive in the short term, but in most cases where dams have been removed or are being considered for removal, money is actually saved over the long term. Removal eliminates the expenses associated with maintenance and safety as well as direct and indirect expenses associated with fish and wildlife protection (e.g. fish ladders and mitigation for fish mortality). In addition, removal often generates income from newly available recreation opportunities - including fishing, kayaking, and rafting - which may actually result in a net economic benefit. In some areas, dam removal may allow resumption of commercial fishing activities.
18) Will the removal of a dam matter if other dams in the system are not removed?
Some rivers are so heavily developed and dammed that removal of one dam on that river will only return flows to a small portion of the river. Generally, dams that have been targeted for removal are strategically located - removal will open up a section of the river critical to fish and wildlife and/or recreation. In some cases, this additional section of river is enough to sustain crucial populations of endangered or threatened species of fish, mollusks, and other wildlife.
19) Are we going to decide in twenty years that we need to start building dams again?
We have learned a lot in the past twenty years about the many impacts dams have on rivers, and we have learned many alternatives to damming rivers. The combination of these two lessons is leading to dam removal. In the next twenty years we are likely to learn even more about alternatives to dams and the impacts of dams on rivers. Thus, it is unlikely that we will reverse ourselves and decide to build more dams.
20) How does dam removal affect fish?
Dam removal benefits riverine fish in many ways, including: (1) removing obstructions to upstream and downstream migration; (2) restoring natural riverine habitat; (3) restoring natural seasonal flow variations; (4) eliminating siltation of spawning and feeding habitat above the dam; (5) allowing debris, small rocks and nutrients to pass below the dam, creating healthy habitat; (6) eliminating unnatural temperature variations below the dam; and (7) removing turbines that kill fish.
21) What are the potential downsides to dam removal?
Dam removal does result in fundamental changes to the local environment. The reservoir will be eliminated, and with it the flat-water habitat that had been created. Wetlands surrounding the reservoir will also be drained, although new wetlands are often created both in the newly restored river reach above the former dam site and in the river below. Sediment that collects behind a dam, sometimes over hundreds of years, may contain toxics such as PCBs, dioxide, and heavy metals. Re-suspension of these toxic-laden sediments in the process of dam removal has the potential to damage downstream water quality and threaten the health of fish and wildlife and water users. Short term impacts of the dam removal itself can include increased water turbidity and sediment buildup downstream from releasing large amounts of sediment from the reservoir, and water quality impacts from sudden releases of water and changes in temperature. These impacts, however, can be prevented through proper removal techniques.
22) How quickly do rivers recover after dam removal?
Rivers are very dynamic and resilient systems. Experience has shown that natural river systems can be restored relatively rapidly after dam removal. For example, spawning fish returned to the Souadabscook River in Maine only months after a dam was removed, and the flushing of the sediment from the Milwaukee River in Wisconsin following the Woolen Mills Dam removal took only six months. | <urn:uuid:7dd58ac8-9629-4d30-bb60-ad34e64e7e58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patagonia.com/eu/enGB/patagonia.go?assetid=67051 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957599 |
Formula written for math success
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Mastery of fractions and early division is a predictor of students' later success with algebra and other higher-level mathematics, based on a study done by a team of researchers led by a Carnegie Mellon University professor.
That means more effective teaching of the concepts is needed to improve math scores among U.S. high school students, which have remained stagnant for more than 30 years.
The study, called "Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement," was published recently in Psychological Science, and the lead researcher was Robert Siegler, a professor of cognitive psychology at CMU whose work focuses on children's mathematical and scientific thinking.
"This has really important policy implications. Everyone is aware that overall U.S. math achievement isn't very good in relative terms or compared to other parts of the world. But there has been disagreement on what we need to focus on in math education," Mr. Siegler said. "This shows we really need to focus on whole number division and fractions and teaching them better than we are currently doing."
Mr. Siegler said the changes in math education need to take place at the universities that train teachers, in professional development programs for current math teachers and in the elementary classrooms where students are learning fractions and early division concepts.
The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation, noted that math scores on national standardized tests among U.S. high school students have not improved in three decades and are significantly behind those in countries such as China, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada at a time when math proficiency is a requirement for many jobs.
It also noted that students who "start ahead in math generally stay ahead" and that those who "start behind generally stay behind" and it looked to find the reason.
Mr. Siegler's team of eight researchers hypothesized that 10-year-olds' knowledge of fractions would predict their algebra knowledge and overall mathematics achievement at age 16, even after statistically controlling for other factors such as general intellectual ability and family income and education.
The hypothesis came from earlier work that Mr. Siegler did in 2006-08 as a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which suspected a link between fractions mastery and success in algebra and other higher level math courses.
The research team set out to examine mathematical knowledge in students from fifth grade through high school. It used two previous studies, one from the United Kingdom that provided a sample of 3,677 children born in the U.K. in a single week in 1970 and one from the United States that provided a sample of 599 children.
The children in the U.K. study were tested in 1980 when they were 10 and again in 1986 when they were 16. The U.S. children were tested in 1997, when they were 10 to 12 years old and again in 2002, when they were 15-17.
In the U.K. data, fractions knowledge at age 10 was the strongest math predictor of algebra knowledge at age 16 and overall math achievement. Results were similar in the U.S. data.
The study said a likely reason for U.S. students' weakness in fractions and division could be linked to their teachers' "lack of a firm conceptual understanding" of the concepts, citing several other studies in which many American teachers were unable to explain the reasons behind mathematical solutions, while most teachers in Japan and China were able to offer two or three explanations.
"Any effort to improve the children's understanding without improving the teacher's understanding is doomed to fail," Mr. Siegler said.
He said one change that could be made at the university level would be to have elementary math teachers focus more on courses that will help them to understand elementary math rather than requiring them to take high-level math courses that don't apply to elementary school.
Mr. Siegler said he expects the study's funders to promote the changes.
Rob Ochsendorf, program officer for special education research at the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Special Education Research, said of the study: "The results provide important cues to educators and researchers regarding the skills that are ripe for intervention in order to improve overall mathematics in the U.S."
First Published June 19, 2012 12:00 am | <urn:uuid:b1e6cb42-ad49-4b08-83f9-716b86db7971> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/formula-written-for-math-success-640962/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978008 |
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Presidential Proclamation--National African American History Month
The great abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass once told us, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Progress in America has not come easily, but has resulted from the collective efforts of generations. For centuries, African American men and women have persevered to enrich our national life and bend the arc of history toward justice. From resolute Revolutionary War soldiers fighting for liberty to the hardworking students of today reaching for horizons their ancestors could only have imagined, African Americans have strengthened our Nation by leading reforms, overcoming obstacles, and breaking down barriers. During National African American History Month, we celebrate the vast contributions of African Americans to our Nation's history and identity.
This year's theme, "African Americans and the Civil War," invites us to reflect on 150 years since the start of the Civil War and on the patriots of a young country who fought for the promises of justice and equality laid out by our forbearers. In the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln not only extended freedom to those still enslaved within rebellious areas, he also opened the door for African Americans to join the Union effort.
Tens of thousands of African Americans enlisted in the United States Army and Navy, making extraordinary sacrifices to help unite a fractured country and free millions from slavery. These gallant soldiers, like those in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, served with distinction, braving both intolerance and the perils of war to inspire a Nation and expand the domain of freedom. Beyond the battlefield, black men and women also supported the war effort by serving as surgeons, nurses, chaplains, spies, and in other essential roles. These brave Americans gave their energy, their spirit, and sometimes their lives for the noble cause of liberty.
Over the course of the next century, the United States struggled to deliver fundamental civil and human rights to African Americans, but African Americans would not let their dreams be denied. Though Jim Crow segregation slowed the onward march of history and expansion of the American dream, African Americans braved bigotry and violence to organize schools, churches, and neighborhood organizations. Bolstered by strong values of faith and community, black men and women have launched businesses, fueled scientific advances, served our Nation in the Armed Forces, sought public office, taught our children, and created groundbreaking works of art and entertainment. To perfect our Union and provide a better life for their children, tenacious civil rights pioneers have long demanded that America live up to its founding principles, and their efforts continue to inspire us.
Though we inherit the extraordinary progress won by the tears and toil of our predecessors, we know barriers still remain on the road to equal opportunity. Knowledge is our strongest tool against injustice, and it is our responsibility to empower every child in America with a world-class education from cradle to career. We must continue to build on our Nation's foundation of freedom and ensure equal opportunity, economic security, and civil rights for all Americans. After a historic recession has devastated many American families, and particularly African Americans, we must continue to create jobs, support our middle class, and strengthen pathways for families to climb out of poverty.
During National African American History Month, we recognize the extraordinary achievements of African Americans and their essential role in shaping the story of America. In honor of their courage and contributions, let us resolve to carry forward together the promise of America for our children.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2011 as National African American History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth. | <urn:uuid:bda478ec-d512-4261-bc9f-9edefa18a44a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/01/presidential-proclamation-national-african-american-history-month | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933977 |
Annotating Proteins in the Uncanny Valley
The Uncanny Valley
Every day, software appears to do more things that we thought were exclusively in the human realm. Like beating a grandmaster in chess, or carrying out a conversation. I say “appears” because there is obviously no self-aware intelligence involved, as this rather bizarre conversation between Cleverbots demonstrates. For humans, playing chess and carrying out a conversation are products of a self-aware intelligence, which gives rise to symbolic representation of information that can be conveyed in speech or in writing, lead to enjoying an abstract game, and many many other good things.
Whereas in machines, playing chess and conversing is a an imitation, playacting if you will, of human activity. When Cleverbot talks, it is not fueled by sentience, but rather by many prior examples of scenarios fed into a learning algorithm. Chess and conversation are not produced by a real intelligence, anymore than the actor playing Hamlet really dies at the end of the play (sorry for the spoiler).
So we can relax, as we are still not HAL9000 or Skynet ready, nor is the human/machine merger singularity any nearer than it was. Still, certain upshots of human intelligence seemed to be emulated, with some success, by computers. The Cleverbot conversation is a a good example: it is a mostly comical but occasionally eerie caricature of human conversation, the eeriness stems from it being uncomfortably close to what we perceived to be a human-only activity, yet not that close. There is a name for the phenomenon of getting weirded-out by computer and robotic activities that are too similar to humans’: the Uncanny Valley. In a certain place on the graph between the dimensions of familiarity and human likeness, familiarity drops precipitously, and we freak out. In the Uncanny Valley, certain things become like humans (zombies, bunraku puppets, actroids, and the post-multi-surgical Michael Jackson) the likeness makes us feel uncomfortable.
The concept of uncanny valley relates not only to physical likeness of humans, but to activities that are typically human. When I “converse” with Cleverbot, I sometimes get that uncanny feeling that I am getting uncomfortably close to speaking with a mock-up of a real person. (Come to think of it, I also get that with some supposedly real people, but let’s just leave it at that.) Fortunately, Cleverbot mostly still provides responses that are pretty much to the left on the human-likeness axis, (i.e. pretty stupid / funny), and stay well-away from the uncanny valley. (Although this converation I had with Cleverbot was interesting.)
Protein Function Annotation and Evidence
One thing at which software seems to be really getting better, is classifying stuff. Just look at your email spam filter. My Gmail filter is pretty good in sorting the wheat from the Canadian Viagra. Spam filtering is a two-way classification problem: the software has to “decide” whether any email needs to go to the Inbox, or to Spam. Other problems are multi-way classification problems, for example, that of protein function annotation. What is the function of a given protein? There are millions of different things proteins do in life. Also, there are millions of protein sequences in databases, and most of them are unannotated: we have no idea what they do. The overwhelming majority (98%) are annotated by computational methods, with no human oversight. Since genomes starting coming out in droves, a new class of biologists — biocurators — are working to properly assign functions to sequences, mostly protein sequences. Biocurators look at sequences, and assign function using whatever evidence they can find. The best evidence would be if a protein was subject to an experiment that has been published. The curator reads the article, and assigns a function or functions to the protein (annotates the protein). The commonly accepted vocabulary for protein function annotation is the Gene Ontology. The Gene Ontology, or GO, is used to describe what we know about protein function in a standard fashion. Proteins are assigned standard terms such as “protein tyrosine kinase activity“, or “hydrogen:potassium-exchanging ATPase complex“. GO not only lets us record function in a universally accepted standard, it provides a mechanism for us to record how we know what we know through the use of evidence codes. Evidence codes are used by curators to record how they inferred the gene function. The first class of evidence codes describes different types of experimental evidence: “inferred by protein interaction” or “inferred by genetic assay”. A second class of evidence codes is comprised of GO terms provided by curators but where no experimental evidence exists for the protein’s function. From the GO site: “Use of the computational analysis evidence codes indicates that the annotation is based on an in silico analysis of the gene sequence and/or other data as described in the cited reference. The evidence codes in this category also indicate a varying degree of curatorial input.” The computational analysis evidence codes include inferred from key residues (IKR) or inferred from sequence or structure similarity (ISS). It’s important to remember here that function assignment is not done by producing experimental evidence, but by bioinformatic means, supervised by the human curator.
A third class of evidence codes is given when the GO term was not assigned by a human curator, but by electronic means only. Those are the automatically assigned evidence codes. This is “IEA” or Inferred by Electronic Annotation. 98% of the annotations out there are, in fact, IEAs, and were not viewed by a human.
Among these three classes of evidence, the ranking for quality seems intuitively obvious. At the top, there is the experimental evidence. Then, the curated but non-experimental evidence: non-experimental, yet viewed by a curator. This evidence includes the computational analysis evidence, as well as statements by the authors from which the curator inferred the function. Finally, the automatically assigned evidence codes, the IEA, would be the lowest. I mean, would you really trust Cleverbot to annotate your protein as well as a seasoned curator?
Actually, you might trust Cleverbot…
Nives Škunca and her colleagues at ETH Zurich have decided to see how well do the curated, non-experimental annotations compare with the non-curated ones. Surprise: the non-curated annotations are of a comparable or better quality. Uncanny.
How did they determine that? Figure 2 in the paper illustrates their method (see below). They looked at old and new releases of a GO-annotated database, Uniprot-GOA. The idea is that some proteins that were annotated electronically in the old version will have experimental annotations in the new version that confirms the electronic annotation. (A1, below). On the other hand, the annotation may be wrong, cases A2 and A3. A3 is an implicit rejection: the annotation was removed in a later version. Finally, the electronic annotation may just remain the same (case A4). The reliability of the electronic annotation is the fraction of the electronic annotations that were confirmed out of all confirmed and rejected annotations. So reliability “measures the proportion of electronic annotations confirmed by future experimental annotations”. (From the paper.)
But having different database versions means we can also look backwards in time, as in B. This is the coverage which “measures the extent to which electronic annotations can predict future experimental annotations: an experimental annotation in the newer release is either B1) correctly predicted by an electronic annotation in the older release, or B2) not correctly predicted.” (Quote from the article.)
Having two quality measures for every annotation, they can now be plotted in two dimensions. Intuitively, we would consider a better performance as that in which both reliability and coverage are high. So on a standard x-y plot, the closer the score is to the upper-right corner, the better the quality of the annotation. The next figure shows the qualities of the 1/2008 Uniprot-GOA release as measured through the lens of the 1/2011 release, three years later. The circle size corresponds to the frequency of the GO term in Uniprot-GOA, the center of the circle being the frequency of the GO term. The different aspects of function are shown in the three panels: molecular function, biological process and cellular component are shown. If you would like to see what each circle is, and view results in other time-frames, the authors have prepared a really cool interactive version of this plot.
Unsurprisingly, the large circles correspond to GO terms that are general, like “Protein Binding” (for the molecular function ontology) , “Cytoplasm” (cellular location) or “Metabolic Process” (in the biological process ontology). The colored lines are drawn along the mean values of the axes.
Humans or machines?
The authors then went on to compare the reliability and coverage of annotations curated using non-experimental evidence to those of annotations curated electronically (IEA). The predictive power of purely automated methods (IEA) is shown on the left, and results from inference by curation of non-experimental evidence is on the right. Surprise: the mean reliability and coverage are actually higher for IEA annotations than for curated annotations. Especially coverage, and especially in the Cellular Component ontology.
So what is going on here? Are algorithms really better at annotating function that humans? After all, seems like they are beating humans hands-down, both in reliability and in coverage. To follow, are a few critical thoughts. I have no idea if what i am saying below is true or not. These are thoughts based on reading this paper. Perhaps these questions can be answered with some more research.
1. Why is the reliability (or specificity) for electronic annotations higher? The authors compared electronic annotations with no human supervision to (mostly) electronic annotations supervised by humans (ISS: inferred by sequence or structure similarity). The other type of human-supervised annotations were of author statements found in the papers (TAS and NAS evidence codes), and the “inferred by curator” (IC) evidence code. I could not find how many were annotated with TAS+NAS+IC evidence codes and how many by the ISS and RCA (which are the human-curated electronic ones). Therefore, part of the reason humans are not performing better than electronic, is that it is basically humans that are doing electronic annotations, as opposed to machines that are doing electronic annotations. The former may have better judgement, but the latter are covering a much larger volume of proteins to annotate. As a result, the specificity (“reliability”) of non-human annotations is slightly higher, if many of the experimental GO terms that are being compared to are general enough. The coverage (sensitivity) is higher (see below), but as a result of higher coverage in large numbers on low-information GO terms, the reliability (specificity) is higher.
(Also, the RCA-based annotations turned out not to be that reliable, and the authors dropped them in an alternate figure in the supplement. This actually made human and electronic reliability closer, but non-human still beats human).
2. Why is the coverage for electronic annotations higher? Perhaps because humans tend to be more specific and function prediction methods may produce more general GO terms? If you are saying that a protein has a “binding” function, you are saying very little, but you increase your chances on being right covering all different types of binding. If you are saying that a protein is “transcription factor binding”, you are being much more specific, but you have a better chance of being wrong. I did not see a comparison of specificity of GO terms with non-IEA evidence codes to the IEA evidence codes. But if IEA based evidence codes are attached to more general GO terms, this would explain, to some extent, why electronic annotations have a better coverage. Another explanation, of course, is the sheer mass of proteins that are annotated electronically-only. This would give non-human electronic annotations better coverage than humans by sheer numbers only.
In any case, this is quite uncanny, and very important. Seems like “da machines” are better at the game of annotation than us. Or too close for comfort. This tells us that we are either relying too much on fully electronic annotations, or not enough. Not sure which is right, and what we should be doing about it now.
Škunca, N., Altenhoff, A., & Dessimoz, C. (2012). Quality of Computationally Inferred Gene Ontology Annotations PLoS Computational Biology, 8 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002533 | <urn:uuid:41507cd3-ce42-426c-98f2-4e601d4030ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2012/06/14/annotating-proteins-in-the-uncanny-valley/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954064 |
It's Bottoms Up For Antarctic Ice Sheets
You can think of Antarctica as an amazing layer cake, made from millions of layers of snow that gradually turns to ice. But a new study finds that's not always the case. Some of the ice in Antarctica is actually forming from underneath the glaciers, instead of being piled on from the top, according to a report published online by Science magazine.
This surprising discovery stems from a research blitz to Antarctica a few years back. Robin Bell from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was part of the scientific gold rush, called the International Polar Year.
"We went to the middle of East Antarctica because this was the last unexplored mountain range on our planet," Bell says.
This is actually a mountain range of rock, buried under up to 2 miles of solid ice. They flew over this area with airplanes equipped with lasers, radars and other sensors that allowed them to peer through the ice to the rock that lay far below.
"First we were just surprised at how rough the mountains were underneath," she says.
Lots of the bedrock in Antarctica is flat and boring, but certainly not here, and as Bell took a close look at her radar images of the ice piled high atop the mountains, she noticed some extraordinary, strange features — blobs that she describes as beehives, or maybe jelly doughnuts.
"It turns out these big blobs underneath the ice sheet were ice that had frozen on from the bottom of the ice sheet," she says. "There was water moving around underneath the ice sheet and it had frozen back onto the bottom of the ice sheet."
Ice in Antarctica isn't supposed to form that way — it's supposed to fall from the sky as snow, and form from the top down. But here Bell saw unusual ice structures, thousands of feet thick in places.
Heat from the Earth had melted the bottom of the glaciers, and then that water refroze, and it created what you could think of as gigantic frost heaves, so powerful that they actually altered the shape of the surface, half a mile to 2 miles above.
Bell says scientists have known for over a decade that liquid water forms under Antarctica, and that it flows from one place to another, "but now this is showing that the water can actually change the overlying ice sheet."
Erasing The Ice History Books
That discovery changes the way scientists think about the processes that shape Antarctica. It could also complicate plans to study the Earth's past climate. Scientists drill down through the layers of ice to study the air bubbles, from ancient air, that's trapped inside the ice.
"You think of each layer in the ice sheet being a history book and telling us what was going on on the planet at that time," Bell says.
But that record is destroyed when the ice melts and refreezes, so "unfortunately, these books have been erased."
That's not necessarily a disaster.
"We currently have records of greenhouse gases that go back to about 800,000 years," says Kendrick Taylor from the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada.
But scientists want to extend that record back even further, Taylor says. "So we can see how changes in greenhouse gases influenced climate for, say, the last 1.5 million years."
But as fate would have it, that superlong record is most likely to be found in the exact mountain range where Bell has now discovered ice melting and re-forming from below.
Taylor says several research teams, including one from China and another from the U.S., have been interested in drilling there, despite the considerable challenges.
"It's almost like working on another planet out there," he says, referring to temperatures that are often minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and air so thin it feels like you're at an elevation of 14,000 feet.
Even so, Chinese scientists are giving it a go. They've staked out a camp along the flank of the mountain, Taylor says. But whether they'll succeed in extracting that 1.5 million-year-old ice is an open question.
"If they drill at the logistically convenient spot, which is their camp, they won't be drilling at the optimal spot for the ice core," Taylor says. They might hit that refrozen ice, where the climate record has been erased.
They're more likely to succeed if they drill at the top of the ridge, but that's a tough place to work.
"So how they're going to address that challenge, we really don't know," Taylor says. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. | <urn:uuid:74f5eb40-4ccf-492e-ab1d-b25946817bcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kunc.org/post/its-bottoms-antarctic-ice-sheets | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973512 |
cnSTM Jan 10, 2012
St John's Innovation centre
The CNSTM is a simple to use and highly affordable yet powerful ambient STM capable of obtaining atomic resolution yet able to image areas as large as 10 microns across.
The CNSTM is an ambient Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) capable of obtaining atomic resolution imaging, point spectroscopy, nanomanipulation and large-scale imaging up to areas as large as 10 microns. This system was designed to be both affordable and easy enough to use to be used in the classroom yet precise enough to be used as a research tool for even the most demanding of samples.
The microscope comes complete with passive vibration isolation. | <urn:uuid:e4faf05d-65ca-4c07-954b-60c3d1e44aaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nanotechweb.org/cws/product/P000026444 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926941 |
Excerpt from: Autism Speaks (click for full article)
This is an important question. Mood disorders – including depression – do appear to be more common in those with developmental disabilities than in the general population.
However, diagnosing depression in those with autism represents a challenge that dates back to Leo Kanner’s original description of “infantile autism,” in 1943.
Kanner described a disturbance of “affective contact” in those with autism. Clinicians use the term “affect” to describe how someone’s emotional state appears to others. In other words, does the person look depressed or anxious? This can be different from “mood.” Mood refers to how someone actually feels inside.
Affect and mood are not always aligned. For example, someone’s expression may appear flat and register little reaction. However, that person may say that he or she feels fine. Clinicians refer to this as an “incongruence of affect and mood.” | <urn:uuid:26cf9c82-7791-4437-af5a-e667d1a3324d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pattidudek.typepad.com/pattis_blog/autism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961861 |
The Dreyfus Affair
While anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe was open and well-defined, far less appreciated and understood was the anti-Semitism in Western Europe. At first its special blend of cultural, economic and social anti-Semitism was hard to identify.
Nevertheless, it proved to be every bit as, if not more dangerous and insidious – so much that it would eventually bring Hitler and the Holocaust.
The New Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism in Europe was long part of Christian culture. However, throughout the Middle Ages it was religious anti-Semitism. As bad as that was, the Jews had adapted and held no illusions about it. They even gathered strength from the fact that they were a minority religion in a culture that had no tolerance for minority religions.
Religious anti-Semitism was part and parcel of Jewish life in Europe from its inception. Jews were not happy with it, but they were able to adjust and deal with it because it was a given in life.
The new, post-Emancipation anti-Semitism – anti-Semitism based on race, not religion — signaled a radical change. Even though Emancipation had given Jews rights guaranteed by the government it was window dressing. In the arena of everyday life Western European culture was unable to deal with the phenomenon of the socially-rising assimilated Jew – the one who spoke his language perfectly, dressed like him, moved into his neighborhood, went to university with him and competed in business.
Ironically, the more assimilated the Jew became the more this type of anti-Semitism reared its head. To a great degree, the dominant culture was willing to tolerate Jews with long beards, fur hats, a strange language (Yiddish) and who were easily identifiable as Jews. But they were not willing to accept Jews who were clean-shaven, wore no special garb and spoke perfect German or French.
Lord Rothschild, from the House of Lords in England, was never able to take his seat in the British Parliament because he had to take a Christian oath, which he refused to take. He made a very telling comment summing up the matter: “It is not my particular religion they object to, but my particular nose.”
That was the new type of anti-Semitism. It was divorced from religion – even though religion was the root and antecedent of it.
In 1870, France suffered an overwhelming defeat to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War. It was over a mere six months after it began. Two entire French armies surrendered en masse. Napoleon III was dethroned. It was the greatest debacle experienced by the French army.
In the decade following the shocking defeat, a disbelieving French public began asking how they could have lost. In their view they naturally had the best army and soldiers. Someone must have sabotaged our efforts. There must have been a spy who gave plans about the deployment of the French army to Germany.
In reality, the Germans did have such plans. That is how they were able to surround the French army in Sedan, and then encircle Paris. They had inside information. They had gotten the information from two spies on the General Staff of the French military. One was Lieutenant-Colonel Hubert-Joseph Henry. The other was a French Army major named Ferdinand Esterhazy. He was actually a Hungarian-born professional mercenary hired by the French, but secretly paid by the Germans. It was he who was most responsible for getting to the Germans all the key war plans of the French.
As the French reviewed and analyzed their loss, it became clear to a number of investigative journalists that somehow the Germans were informed in advance. Henry and Esterhazy realized they had to create a diversionary scapegoat to save themselves.
They looked over the names of people on the French General Staff for a man they could pin it on. Finally, they identified a 36-year old nondescript military professional in the French Army; a cold, officious officer with no friends. It was no coincidence that this very inconsequential person was also the only Jew on that staff. His name was Alfred Dreyfus.
Henry and Esterhazy leaked the information to certain papers, especially the far right-wing and anti-Semitic ones. This put the reporters on the trail of Dreyfus. Whatever evidence the reporters could not find, Henry and Esterhazy forged, including alleged secret memos to Dreyfus from the German General Staff.
Finally, in 1894, the matter came to the attention of General Auguste Mercier, who was the Minister of War. He originally felt that all the evidence was concocted. He knew Dreyfus could not have masterminded such a deception. However, he was under a lot of pressure from the press and the army, which now stood to redeem the honor it lost in the miserable defeat by convicting the spy responsible for it.
Before the trial began, Mercier changed direction and declared that the evidence against Dreyfus was beyond doubt; his guilt was absolutely certain. A wave of anti-Semitism swept France. It became a question of us versus them; of the army and French honor vs. the outsiders, anarchists, traitors and Jews. Pamphlets and articles were published saying things like, “Down with traitors!” and “Death to the Jews.”
This was before the trial began. In such a climate, Dreyfus had no chance.
The day before Mercier was to decide if the evidence against Dreyfus warranted a trial, he re-examined the evidence and once more had his doubts. However, the next day there appeared in one of the leading papers in Paris that Mercier was in the pay of the Jews and therefore would not order the trial. In order exonerate himself from that accusation he ordered the trial. And not only did he order it, but he said he had proofs that cried aloud the treason of Dreyfus.
Trial of the Century
It was the trial of the century. Foreign correspondents came from all over the world.
The evidence against Dreyfus was extremely weak. There really was no evidence, and Dreyfus maintained his innocence throughout.
Meanwhile, Esterhazy and Henry had prepared what they called a “secret file,” which was a collection of total forgeries. When it looked like Dreyfus might be acquitted they submitted this file to the judges. Most significantly, it was never made available to Dreyfus, his attorneys or the press! It was only leaked in bits and pieces in order to sensationalize it.
On the basis of that “secret file” Dreyfus was convicted.
That set up another problem. Mercier was the one who had approved submission of the secret file. In other words, the army approved it. If there would be a retrial and Dreyfus would be found innocent it meant that the army was guilty and French pride would take an unbearable hit.
Indeed, Dreyfus would be tried a second time; and there would be other trials against Dreyfus supporters even until as last as 1906. In none of these trials was the “secret file” allowed to be seen by the defendants and their attorneys. The authorities claimed that the honor of France was at stake.
In a terribly humiliating ceremony, Dreyfus was found guilty and led through the streets of Paris where the mob shouted for his head amidst a stream of anti-Semitic epithets. His epaulets were torn off of his shoulders and in early January 1895 he was sent to Devil’s Island, which was a notorious penal colony off the coast of French Guiana (South America).
They expected him to die very quickly. Had he died within a year or two, as they expected, the truth may never have come out. However, Dreyfus lived through a bout with yellow fever, terrible malnutrition, heat and humidity, snakes and wild animals, etc.
As he sat out his sentence, a French journalist named Emile Zola (1840–1902) felt an injustice had been done and began researching the matter. Three years later he published what became a famous article entitled, J’Accuse, meaning “I Accuse.”
Zola’s research uncovered the whole plot. He realized that Esterhazy and Henry were behind it all and that Mercier and the French military were part of the cover-up. It caused a tremendous sensation.
Now, there arose a group of people who came to support Dreyfus for various reasons –Dreyfusards, meaning “On the side of Dreyfus.” In reaction there also arose a group of anti-Dreyfusards.
Zola was accused of libel and brought to trial by Henry. It too was a national sensation. In the end, the jury was split 7-5 against Zola. In the atmosphere of the time it was a miracle that five people would vote for him. Although a hero in the eyes of many, Zola fled to England in fear of his life.
Political cartoons from the time show that his fears were justified. One of them, called “Allegory – the Dreyfus Affair,” depicted a mask of Zola, behind which stands a grinning, satanic caricature of a Jew with a big nose. Another cartoon showed Emile Zola coming up from a toilet, holding in his right arm a doll, which was Dreyfus. The caption said, “Truth rising from its source.”
The Long Road to Vindication
After Zola, attacks against the verdict continued from many sources. The evidence presented in the court of public opinion was becoming so overwhelming that it was obvious the trail led to the two schemers, Henry and Esterhazy. Their terrible plot exposed, Henry committed suicide and Esterhazy felt compelled to flee France.
Even this, however, did not yet acquit Dreyfus.
He was brought back from Devil’s Island to be retried by the French military court. However, he once more proved to be a terribly ineffective witness, and with the secret file of forgeries still not open to legal scrutiny, the second trial found him guilty again! The verdict came after it was publicly exposed that the case against him was a hoax and a sham from the outset. It caused such a furor that even the Queen of England, an ally, was compelled to send a telegram to the President of France asking how he could allow such a miscarriage of justice.
The court decided that it would sentence Dreyfus to the amount of years he had already served, in effect freeing him. They found him guilty, which saved French pride and the honor of the military, but by commuting his sentence to time already served they hoped to relieve the pressure being brought upon them.
However, there was a French politician by the name of Georges Clemenceau (184–1929), who later would rise to prominence as the French premier at the end of the First World War and one of the architects of the Versailles Treaty. He was a bitter, tenacious, feisty personality who took up the cause of Dreyfus. Finally, in 1906 – 12 years after the initial trial, and many years after Henry and Esterhazy had been exposed as the guilty parties – there was a commission of French army officers who exonerated Dreyfus.
They also restored him to the rank he would have had had he not be cashiered from the army, and he became a colonel. They further gave him all his back pay, a medal and reinstated him in the army, where he served without distinction in the First World War. He died in 1922, not understanding what happened to him or his place in history. He is certainly one of the most unlikely heroes. He didn’t see the forces that he unleashed – of which one of them was Zionism.
As for the French, they felt that their national soul had finally been cleansed. But it was illusory – at least from the standpoint of the Jews. The French did not understand the deep roots of the problem of anti-Semitism in their country; indeed, in all Europe. Dreyfus was only the tip of the iceberg. What happened to him would happen again and again – until it happened to all European Jewry. No one could imagine how powerful the whirlwind would be when it would come. | <urn:uuid:fe7a5a08-869c-4e08-98e4-645b57360cce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-dreyfus-affair/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989878 |
|fountain Creek Railroad
The History of a Railroad
In 1856, a caravan of covered wagons from Kansas City made up of 100 or more trail worn settlers made their way to the foothills of the Rainbow Ridge Mountains, below what is now a small railroad town 100 miles west of Denver, Colorado that they called Fountain Creek.
Pioneer Wagon Train, 1856
Fountain Creek, Colorado 1860
During the late 1880's, The Fountain Creek Railroad was built to haul lumber from the logging mills to the nearby towns out of the Rainbow Ridge Mountains every year. It was not long after that a Utah company bought out the Rocky Mountain Lumber Company that was operating in an area next to Cactus Springs, Colorado.
A few years after the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific joined rails at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869 the Fountain Creek & Western began to haul logs from the mill to other states. 2 more locomotives were added engine 42 and engine 101.
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MemphisArticle Free Pass
Memphis, city, seat (1819) of Shelby county, extreme southwestern Tennessee, U.S. It lies on the Chickasaw bluffs above the Mississippi River where the borders of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee meet. Memphis is Tennessee’s most populous city and is at the centre of the state’s second largest metropolitan area. Aside from West Memphis, Arkansas, Memphis’s main suburbs include Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, and Millington in Tennessee and Horn Lake, Olive Branch, and Southaven in Mississippi. Area 295 square miles (764 square km). Pop. (2000) city, 690,743; Memphis MSA, 1,205,204; (2010) city 646,889; Memphis MSA 1,316,100.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the area in 1541. French (1739) and Spanish (1795) forts briefly existed on the site, and in 1797 the United States built Fort Adams there. Memphis was founded in 1819 on land previously inhabited by Chickasaw Indians. Andrew Jackson, later U.S. president, was one of its founders. Memphis was named for the ancient Egyptian city (meaning “Place of Good Abode”).
Memphis grew rapidly with the expansion of cotton growing in the South and because of its transportation facilities by railroad and river. It was incorporated in 1826. A Confederate military centre early in the American Civil War, it was captured by a Union gunboat force on June 6, 1862, and remained occupied until the end of the war. One of the country’s worst race riots took place there in May 1866.
Memphis subsequently became a centre of trade for the South’s cotton. In the 1870s yellow fever devastated the city, killing more than 5,000 residents. The city went bankrupt, declined in population, and in 1879 surrendered its charter. Drastic sanitary reforms, continued cotton trading, and the growth of a market in hardwood contributed to its economic recovery, and a new city charter was granted in 1893. Economic development was accelerated after World War II. During the 1960s the civil rights movement greatly affected the city. On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., visiting the city in support of a sanitation workers’ strike, was killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel by a sniper’s bullet. The motel became the National Civil Rights Museum in 1991; exhibits trace the history of the civil rights struggle, and King’s room is preserved.
The contemporary city
Memphis’s central location has helped make it one of the largest distribution centres in the United States. Its international airport is the world’s busiest cargo airport, and the city is among the nation’s largest inland river ports. Extensive rail and highway facilities and the headquarters of major freight corporations contribute to the importance of the industry. Memphis is a major world cotton market and a world leader in hardwood trading and processing and soybean processing. The city serves an agricultural area noted for livestock, cotton, soybeans, corn (maize), feed grains, and forest products and has agricultural research and food processing industries. It is an important wholesale centre. Manufactures include electronics, medical products and equipment, and paper products. Services (including health care, banking and finance, government, and education), tourism and convention business, and high-technology industries also contribute to the economy. Educational institutions in Memphis include Rhodes College (1848; Presbyterian), LeMoyne-Owen College (1871), Christian Brothers University (1871; Roman Catholic), University of Memphis (1912), Southwest Tennessee Community College (established in 2000 by the merger of the State Technical Institute at Memphis and Shelby State Community College), Memphis College of Art (1936), and the health science centre of the University of Tennessee.
Memphis is one of the birthplaces of blues music and is associated particularly with composer W.C. Handy, who immortalized the city’s Beale Street in one of his songs. Handy’s home is preserved as a museum, and modern Beale Street is a popular entertainment district with nightclubs, restaurants, shops, live music, and other attractions. A blues festival is held annually in August, and other events throughout the year celebrate the city’s musical heritage. Memphis is also known as the birthplace of rock and roll. Elvis Presley was one of many musicians who launched careers from Memphis’s Sun Studio. After Presley’s death in 1977, his city mansion and burial site, Graceland, became a shrine (opened to the public for tours in 1982).
Memphis has a symphony orchestra, ballet troupe, and opera company, as well as several theatre organizations. The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (1916) is the state’s oldest; the Memphis Pink Palace Museum includes a planetarium and cultural and historical exhibits. Historic sites include the Hunt-Phelan Home (1828) and the Burkle Estate/Slavehaven (1849), a station on the Underground Railroad. The Center for Southern Folklore is devoted to the people and culture of the South. Sun Studio offers tours, and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (opened 2003) is located on the site of the Stax recording studio and operates an adjacent music school. A park on Mud Island, in the Mississippi, includes a five-block-long scale model of the river. The 32-story stainless-steel Pyramid Arena hosts sports events, concerts, and shows. FedExForum (opened 2004) houses the Grizzlies, the city’s professional basketball team. The Memphis in May International Festival is an annual month-long event devoted to a different country each year. Africa in April is an annual festival celebrating African American culture.
A U.S. Navy facility is located in Millington to the north. Chucalissa, a prehistoric Native American village and archaeological museum, is in T.O. Fuller State Park in southwestern Memphis, and Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is north of the city.
What made you want to look up "Memphis"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:236902c0-4e71-4a9f-b028-806847bee4ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/374543/Memphis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952013 |
A bladder infection is also called a urinary tract infection (UTI) by most medical people, so if you hear both names, don't get scared or confused. It is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Although urine contains a variety of fluids. salts, and waste products, it normally does not have bacteria in it. When bacteria get into the bladder and multiply in the urine, it causes a UTI. The most common type of UTI is a bladder infection, which is also often called cystitis. Cystitis means an inflammation of the bladder. The other kind of UTI is a kidney infection, which is also known as pyelonephritis. This kind of infection can be serious.
Although they cause discomfort, urinary tract infections are usually quickly and easily treated - but it's important that they are treated promptly. You can not get a urinary tract infection from someone else, although females who are just becoming sexually active often get UTIs.
UTIs are caused by bacteria. Usually by the bacteria that are found in the intestines and sometimes on the skin around the rectal and vaginal areas. Yes, that means from fecal contamination. Nearly 85% of UTIs are caused by the bacteria Escherichia coli, or E. coli --for short. When the bacteria pass through the urethra (the narrow urine canal that connects the bladder to the outside), they can get inside the bladder and cause an infection. Some females get urinary tract infections more frequently, this may be because of the differences in the shape and length of the urethra in different people. A female with a shorter urethra may get more UTIs. Males generally get fewer UTIs than females because they have longer urethras.
There are several ways bacteria can get into the urethra. During sexual intercourse, the bacteria in the vaginal area can be pushed into the urethra, which causes irritation in the bladder. In fact, any time the vaginal area is rubbed, bacteria can be pushed into the urethra. You can get a bladder infection from oral sex too. Infections are also common in women who wear tight jeans.
There are a number of symptoms associated with UTIs. Bladder infections are characterized by an urgent desire to empty the bladder. Symptoms include frequent urination, burning or pain during urination, bladder spasms and the feeling of having to urinate even though little or no urine actually comes out. In some cases, you may have bloody or foul-smelling urine, and maybe a mild fever.
A kidney infection may involve more serious symptoms, including fever, chills, and nausea. There may also be cloudy or bloody urine, abdominal pain and burning, and frequent urination. Most people with kidney infections also experience back pain just above the waist.
Most people will turn to anti-biotics. Antibiotics begin fighting the infection right away, but they can't stop all the symptoms .
Here is the biggest difference between using a anti-biotic and a probiotic. Anti-biotics only treat the symtons. Probiotics , namely Probiotics by Dr. Ohirra Probiotics treats the source and will work if taken in proper dosage and length of time.
It's important to drink lots of water during and after treatment because each time you urinate, the bladder cleanses itself a little bit more..
Vitamin C may also be recommended for you to take. If you get help right away, a UTI should completely clear up within 10 days to 2 weeks. Many customers report excellent results in just a few days, using Dr. Ohhira's Probiotics. It would be advised to avoid sexual intercourse until the symptoms have been gone for 2 weeks, which allows the inflammation to disappear completely.
You Can Prevent UTIs
There are several ways you may be able to prevent UTIs. After urination, females should wipe from front to back with toilet paper. After bowel movements, be sure to wipe from front to back to avoid spreading bacteria from the rectal area to the urethra. Another thing you can do to prevent bladder infections, whether you're a male or female, is to go to the bathroom to empty your bladder frequently. Avoid holding your urine for long periods of time.
Males and females should also keep the genital area clean and dry. Frequent bubble baths can cause irritation of the vaginal area, so girls should take showers or take baths without adding bubble bath to the water. Avoid prolonged exposure to moisture in the genital area by not wearing nylon underwear or wet swimsuits. Remember that wearing underwear with cotton crotches is also helpful.
If you are sexually active, urinate within 15 minutes after intercourse (or right after) and gently wash the genital area to remove any bacteria. Avoid sexual positions that irritate or hurt your urethra or bladder, and if you need lubrication during sex, use a water-soluble lubricant, such as K-Y Jelly. Finally, drinking lots of water - six to eight glasses a day - keeps your bladder active and bacteria-free. The sooner you start taking Probiotics, the sooner you'll be able to clear up the infection.
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Choose to Be Healthy | <urn:uuid:6522a0c9-c40d-41e2-81fa-d13e36d2d673> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.choosetobehealthy.com/bladder-infection-t-63.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947491 |
the American Association of Physics Teachers
This article, from The Physics Teacher, explains how water puts out fires. It also contains a description of how firefighters determine the water pressure for their hoses--and this physics is taught in fire academies.
%A Robert Egler %T The Physics of Firefighting %J Phys. Teach. %V 28 %N 9 %D December 1, 1990 %P 599 %I American Association of Physics Teachers %C College Park %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2343173 %O application/pdf
%0 Journal Article %A Egler, Robert %D December 1, 1990 %T The Physics of Firefighting %J Phys. Teach. %I American Association of Physics Teachers %V 28 %N 9 %P 599 %8 December 1, 1990 %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2343173
Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications. | <urn:uuid:8ab4a53e-9d4e-4da9-a0c9-fd5770032008> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.compadre.org/informal/items/detail.cfm?ID=6024&Attached=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.813705 |
Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society. By contrast, folklore refers to the cultural mainstream of more local or pre-industrial societies.
Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumbed-down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted.
The term "popular culture" itself is of 19th century coinage, in original usage referring to the education and "culturedness" of the lower classes. The term began to assume the meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from and opposed to "true education" towards the end of the century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period. The current meaning of the term, culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end of World War II. The abbreviated form "pop culture" dates to the 1960s.
It's trendy- as each generation finds its niche, and the last group to "Control" the pop culture feels the "sting" that COUNTLESS older kids felt upon becoming adults.
Heck I'm 30 and to a degree still feel as 17 in mind/ spirit, but that's only cause right now- what I grew up with G.I.-Joe, TMNT, Transformers, are all hits Star Wars is big, it's a great time to be Geek. the other hand, I hate that Poke mon Yugioh Natato Digimon BS
But the other thing is that the internet has made way for YOUNGER KIDS to have a say!! 4- and 5 year old opinions are starting to effect things. A parent plays something for their kid, their kids love it the end up playing it over and over and over.
But Gaga- her sound is very late 80s mid 90s to a degree. In those cases you see a lot of "Recycled style" but she's got a very sophomoric humor to her lyrics.
-Bring on your thousands, one at a time or all in a rush. I don't give a damn. None shall pass.
-To become a Jedi, it is not the Force one must learn to control but oneself.
-Podcasts: Star Wars Beyond the Films, The Star Wars Report, & EUCast | <urn:uuid:03bfc04e-f086-43bf-8225-8bd76034362f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eucantina.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956738 |
Back to Home Page or Contents or Hindu Mythology or Article Index
Dharma, justice, is the Hindu god of law and one of the sons of Brahma, but almost certainly derives from the dharmas or archetypal social patterns identified in the Rg Veda. According to tradition he is the consort of thirteen daughters of Daksa and the father of Yudhisthra. He is also regarded as a minor avatar of Vishnu, and appears as a bull standing for the redemption of souls.
In Bengali tradition Dharme (probably of the same derivation) has been annually engaged in a sacred marriage to the earth at the time of the year when a tree known as the sal is blossoming. Birds are sacrificed in a sacred grove after which the cult returns to the homr of the village shaman where the marriage is enacted between the priest and his wife, followed by sex among cult members. A.G.H.
Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods, New York, Facts On File, Inc. 1993, p. 64 | <urn:uuid:913e69d5-c610-4871-9ec4-b3d13f31abbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themystica.com/mythical-folk/articles/dharma.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955693 |
Saturn is the only planet visible to the naked eye in the evening skies of July, 2011. Face south-southwest at dusk, and you’ll see Saturn near a star of similar brightness—Spica in Virgo. Saturn is a bit to the right of Spica as you face southwest. The ringed planet remains well placed for evening viewing, and remains in the evening sky until late September 2011.
|photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video|
Mars and Jupiter are now higher in the pre-dawn sky. Jupiter, set against a background of very dim stars, dominates the eastern sky at dawn. Mars is dimmer and much lower in the east northeast. It has fully emerged from the sun’s glare, and will brighten slightly each morning. Venus is now out of sight, as it is passing around the far side of the sun from our perspective.
The Big Dipper is above the North Star, with its handle pointing up. From that handle, you can ‘arc to Arcturus’ and then ‘speed on to Spica’; those stars are in the southwest at dusk. Leo, the Lion, sets in the west at dusk.
Antares, brightest star of Scorpius, the Scorpion, is in the south, with the ‘teapot’ of Sagittarius rising behind it. The Summer Triangle has fully risen in the northeast. The stars of summer now dominate the evening sky.
Moon Phases in July 2011:
New Moon July 1, 4:02 p.m.
1st Quarter July 8, 9:09 p.m.
Full Moon July 15, 3:12 p.m.
Last Quarter July 23, 6:48 a.m.
|photo credit: Bruce McKay~YSP|
The new moon of July 1 partially blocks the sun, but only as seen from the Antarctic. No one will get to see a total eclipse because the moon’s full shadow, or umbra, passes just below the Earth.
As we celebrate our independence this July 4, Earth will be at aphelion (at its greatest distance from the sun). The precise time is 10 a.m. Perihelion, the Earth’s closest approach to the sun, occurs in January. Earth has perihelion and aphelion because its orbit is not a circle but an ellipse with an eccentricity (out-of-roundness) of about 1.6%. Such a small variation, however, exerts no significant influence on our seasons, as you can determine for yourself by stepping outside. The 23.5 degree tilt of Earth’s axis, on the other hand, is a much more dominant effect. The very high midday sun of July ensures long days and baking heat in Houston and across much of the Northern Hemisphere.
By popular demand, our George Observatory will open to the public Fridays and Saturdays this summer (except July 8, due to a prior booking). The Discovery Dome, our traveling planetarium, will be set up each of these Fridays to show films throughout the evening. | <urn:uuid:18a1ab31-8b8d-4730-8675-01cb410a9787> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.hmns.org/2011/07/go-stargazing-july-edition-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955088 |
In this map, created using NASA satellite data, you can see in lurid detail where lightning struck Earth the most between 1995-2002. This historical information can give scientists clues about where it's likely to strike again. And with tornado, monsoon, and hurricane seasons getting underway, you too might want to know where these ultra-hot bolts of electricity will slam out of the clouds. Here are some of the most up-to-date lightning maps.
NASA also has a map of lightning strikes that's regularly updated, showing lightning strikes from 1998 to the present. The more up-to-date map is very similar to what you see above, except that it shows more intense activity in Argentina and South Africa.
S Also, according to NASA, the greatest amount of lightning strikes are near the Catatumbo River in Venezuela (where there are 40,000 strikes every night, for most of the year), and a mountain town called Kifuka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You can see the dark regions signaling thousands of lightning strikes over these areas in the map above.
Over at the University of Washington in Seattle, Earth scientist Robert Holzworth is running an ongoing project to collect lighting strike data all over the globe. Using sensors all over the world, Holzworth and his colleagues analyze very low frequency (VLF) waves in the radio spectrum emitted by lightning. He creates maps and animated gifs showing the distribution of lightning in various areas, revealing where lightning is striking the most over time.
The upshot? Warmer areas over land tend to attract the most lightning. And the patterns seem to be quite predictable, so it's fairly easy to plan trips to avoid areas where you might incur the wrath of Zeus. Of course, as the climate warms up over the next century, these maps may reveal a very different set of patterns. | <urn:uuid:0af1ee61-a98c-44af-a7db-1c46137c6e53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://io9.com/5902218/maps-reveal-where-lightning-will-strike-next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92587 |
The internet is changing the way Americans engage with information, whether they are choosing a president or making health care decisions. Two major drivers for this change are broadband adoption and personal motivation.
First, an update: The Pew Internet Project estimates that between 75% and 80% of internet users have looked online for health information. We get slightly different results for the size of the e-patient population depending on our survey strategy, but these results are close enough to make us confident we have the right contours of this group. Our estimate is also in line with Harris Interactive's latest data on health information seekers (81% of internet users; 66% of all adults).
We got the 75% reading in our October-December 2007 national phone survey, which included 2,054 adults ages 18 and older, including 500 cell phone users. In this survey we asked: "Do you ever use the internet to look for health or medical information?"
In surveys we conducted between 2003-2007 (and plan to repeat in coming months), respondents were prompted with questions about specific health topics, such as diet, drugs or alternative treatments, yielding a consistently higher estimate (80%) for the percentage of internet users who seek health information online in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Information Gathering Now a Habit for Many
This latest Pew Internet Project survey confirms that information gathering has become a habit for many Americans, particularly those in the 55% of households with broadband connections. Home broadband has now joined educational attainment, household income and age as the strongest predictors of internet activity. For example, 78% of home broadband users look online for health information, compared with 70% of home dial-up users. Home broadband users are twice as likely as home dial-up users to do health research on a typical day -- 12% vs. 6%.
High-speed, always-on connections enable frequent and in-depth information searches, which is particularly attractive if something important is at stake.
And the searches aren't confined to medical issues. In politics, for example, more people are paying attention to this presidential campaign than they did to any other recent election. Seven in 10 registered voters say they have given "quite a lot of thought" to the coming presidential election, and many are going online to spread news and information about their candidate of choice or the race in general.
Some 63% of internet users (46% of all adults) are using the internet, e-mail or text messaging for political purposes. About 39% of internet users (29% of all adults) are digging into "unfiltered" campaign material, such as candidate debates, position papers and speech transcripts.
Supporters of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are more likely than supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to be using the internet for political purposes. Obama supporters are also more likely than McCain supporters to say it really matters who wins the 2008 presidential election.
Disability, Disease Tend To Increase Internet Usage
Similarly, in health care, people who feel they have a lot at stake are more likely to engage intensely with online resources. Internet users living with a disability or chronic disease are more likely than other internet users to be wide-ranging online health researchers and to report significant impacts from those searches. For example, 75% of e-patients with a chronic condition say their last health search affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition, compared with 55% of other e-patients.
Newly diagnosed e-patients and those who have experienced a health crisis in the past year are also particularly tuned in: 59% say the information they found online led them to ask a doctor new questions or get a second opinion, compared with 48% of those who had not had a recent diagnosis or health crisis. Some 57% of recently challenged or diagnosed e-patients say they felt eager to share their new health or medical knowledge with others, compared with 45% of other e-patients.
Experienced e-patients are posting technical advice online about managing a certain disease as well as advising people about how to communicate with health care providers. Other e-patients are gaining national attention by documenting significant problems with a generic drug, problems that FDA had failed to catch. Some people are uploading their "Observations of Daily Living" in order to track their symptoms or reactions to various stimuli.
Along with all this engagement, however, is an understanding that the internet is not a cure-all. Some 60% of internet users agree with the following statement: "The internet is full of misinformation and propaganda that too many voters believe is accurate."
On the health front, there is a generalized fear of misinformation, but the Pew Internet Project has evidence that people are being smart about the internet's place in their lives. A December 2007 study found that medical professionals were the dominant source for people with urgent health questions, which is not what we see in any of the other topics included in the survey: education, taxes, Medicare/Medicaid, changing job status or Social Security. For those issues, the internet or a government agency played much more important roles than did professionals.
The same study provided another data point about the place of the internet in Americans' lives: people who had encountered significant problems in the previous year were likely to report using not just one, but two to three different sources of information to help them solve their problems. Not surprisingly, 77% of those with home broadband access turned to the internet as one of their sources, compared with 57% of those with the slower dial-up access at home.
More than Convenience
It is not just the convenience that draws internet users, but the positive experiences that most people have with online research.
In health, the impact of an online information search is more likely to be helpful, not harmful. Thirty-one percent of e-patients say they or someone they know has been significantly helped by following medical advice or health information found on the internet. Only 3% of health seekers say they or someone they know has been seriously harmed by following the advice or information they found online.
In conclusion, the population of e-patients may have stabilized at 75% to 80% of internet users, but it is clear that broadband allows people to engage more deeply with information sources and with each other. And circumstances, such as a serious diagnosis or an important election, can kick that engagement into high gear.
(This column originally appeared on iHealthBeat: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/)
More on the Web: | <urn:uuid:a755c357-c237-493f-8c71-589f0b084951> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/The-Engaged-Epatient-Population/The-Engaged-E-patient-Population/People-turn-to-the-internet-for-health-information-when-the-stakes-are-high-and-the-connection-fast.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955842 |
One of the methods often proposed to save endangered species is to breed the threatened animals in captivity and then release their offspring back into the wild at a later time. The theory is that by giving the animals a safe place to breed and rear their young, you're making it more likely that the species will be able to successfully survive in their natural habitats.
It seems simple enough. Of course, in nature things are never quite that simple. And recent research has found that breeding wild animals in captivity actually has consequences at a genetic level that make them less likely to be able to survive in the wild.
The problem is natural selection. As Charles Darwin described way back in his 1859 treatise On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection, heritable genetic traits that are favourable to a species in a given environment become more common over successive generations. Unfavourable traits become less common. That's natural selection.
If you take an animal (or any living organism, for that matter) out of its natural habitat and introduce it to someplace new, natural selection takes over and traits that are favourable to the new location - in this case captivity - become more and more common in subsequent generations.
This poses a problem for animals in captivity because, try as we might, it's virtually impossible to replicate natural conditions in a zoo or recovery centre. Space is one factor. Many animals require large amounts of space in which to roam, swim or fly. Zoos can't be that large. In captive spaces the animals are also always safe, well fed and made comfortable. Such "easy" living may make for physically healthy animals that are able to reproduce more often, but it doesn't necessarily make them genetically fitter.
In fact, quite the opposite. In a recent edition of the journal Molecular Ecology, Dr. Richard Frankham of Australia's Macquarie University explains how rare, and often detrimental, genetic variations that are suppressed in the wild can become common in captive creatures. These genetic adaptations to captivity have been documented in mammals, fish, plants, insects and even bacteria. And while reproductive fitness often improves a great deal, Dr. Frankham points out that, "Characteristics selected for under-captive conditions are overwhelmingly disadvantageous in the natural environment."
From turkeys, to amphibians, fish, plants and insects, it seems that the longer an organism stays in captivity, the less fit it becomes for the great outdoors. Fish from salmon hatcheries, for example, evolve smaller eggs that are less likely to survive in the wild. This helps to explain why re-introducing captive-bred species to the wild often has such a low success rate.
It doesn't help that, while captive breeding is being conducted, the natural habitat of the captive species continues to be destroyed, or otherwise made less hospitable to its former resident. Recently, the B.C. government announced that it is going to start a captive breeding program for the province's critically endangered spotted owl. Yet logging will be allowed to continue in the owl's habitat.
As I recently discussed in an earlier essay on bush meat, the loss of species from an ecosystem can also trigger changes that makes the ecosystem itself less hospitable to the very species you are trying to recover. For example, certain large-seeded fruit trees rely on large primate to disperse their seeds, while the primates rely on the fruit for food. When primates are hunted to near extinction, the forest itself suffers and the fruit trees die off, so there's less food - making the re-introduction of large primates to the area even more difficult.
Saving a species from extinction may well require captive breeding. But it's really a Hail Mary pass to the future. Without habitat, a species is a mere caricature of what it is in the wild. The longer creatures are in captivity, the less likely they will be to ever survive on their own, even if we manage to stop destroying their homes. And that makes saving their homes all that more important in the first place.
Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org | <urn:uuid:39e81b01-c793-4c62-98c1-c79d2c4b8b9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/Suzuki/2007/09/26/4527858-ca.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960653 |
Water Savings Tips
Reduce your shower time. If you shorten your shower time from 10 minutes to 5 minutes or less while using a 9.5 litre per minute (lpm) showerhead, you can save up to 40 litres of water each time you shower. You can also save water by turning off the water while lathering in the shower.
Replace your showerhead. Older models use 18 to 30 lpm while water-efficient models use 9.5 lpm or less. Ultra-high efficiency showerheads use as low as 5.6 lpm. A family of four could save up to 160,000 litres of water in one year with a 9.5 lpm showerhead, and even more with a 5.6 lpm showerhead. Reducing your water in the shower will also save you money on your water and energy bills.
Recycle unused water. While waiting for hot water to flow when preparing for a shower, catch the cool water in a bucket or water can. Later it could be used for your plants, pets or cleaning.
Take a 5 minute shower instead of a bath. If a shower is not available, reduce the amount of water used in the bath by 5 centimetres (2 inches).
Reduce the number of times you flush your toilet with multiple uses before flushing.
Replace your old toilet with a high efficiency 4.8 lpf model (HET), or a dual 3/6 lpf model. Older models can use as much as 13 to 26 litres of water per flush. A family of four can save up to 30,000 litres of water a year with a HET toilet. That's a 20% reduction in household consumption.
If you are unable to replace your water guzzling toilet, retrofit your toilet with toilet displacement devices.
Do not place plastic bottles or bricks in a toilet tank. This can interrupt the flushing mechanisms or flow of the water in the toilet, possibly causing it to leak. Also, older toilets were not designed to function with lower volumes of water.
Do not use the toilet as a garbage can. Tissues and other items are often flushed away instead of going into appropriate disposal containers. Unnecessary flushing of the toilet even once a day can waste up to 1,000 litres of water per year.
Do not let the water run while brushing your teeth, washing your face or shaving. Instead, turn off the faucet when not directly using water flow.
Retrofit all household faucets with water saving aerators or consider replacing with water efficient models. Aerators are inexpensive items that can be found at most hardware stores. Look for ultra low flow 1.9 lpm or 0.5 gallon per minute devices.
Insulate water pipes to reduce hot water delivery delay (and wasted water) experienced while waiting for water to run hot from the faucets.
On-Demand Hot Water Systems
Consider installing a point of use water heater or on-demand hot water system. A point of use heater or recirculation system may significantly reduce hot water use where a frequently used sink or shower is located a long distance from the central water heater. Some systems use a valve and a pump to divert the cold water sitting in the hot water line to a heater that quickly warms it and sends hot water to fixtures in seconds without wasting water. Compact water heaters can fit under a sink, or a small hot water tank may be placed in a nearby storage area. For more information, view the CRD Research Brief – On-Demand Hot Water Systems (PDF )
Scrape dishes instead of rinsing them under running water before loading your dishwasher. For heavy cleaning of grills or oven parts pre-soak them overnight.
Compost kitchen wastes (organic matter) instead of using a sink garbage disposal system. Sink garbage disposal systems consume hundreds of litres of water each week to send matter down the drain, and increases the load for the water treatment facilities.
When washing dishes by hand, do not wash or rinse with running water. Use tubs or plug the sink.
Capture excess water in a container while running the tap. This water can be used for your plants or pets.
Dishwashers use large volumes of water, about 60 litres of water per load. Operate automatic dishwashers at full capacity and/or set the water level for the size of your load.
If you are considering the purchase of a new dishwasher, look for one that is water and energy efficient.
Rinse fruit and vegetables in a pan instead of running water continuously and use the water for indoor and outdoor plant watering.
Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap for cold water.
Plan ahead so that frozen food doesn't need to be thawed under running water or fill a bowl with cold water to thaw the food.
Use a small amount of water and a lid on a pot when cooking. This method uses less water. Save the water from cooking vegetables for soups gravies, sauces or outdoor plants.
Laundry & Household Cleaning
Washing machines use anywhere between 100 – 200 litres of water per load. Operate washing machines at full capacity and/or if your machine has a "suds-saver" feature, be sure to use it as this feature reuses the clean rinse water for washing the next load.
Buying a new washing machine? Consider purchasing a high-effiiciency washing machine; they use up to 40% less water and 50% less energy than top-loading machines. They also use less detergent.
For regular household cleaning use a pail or bucket rather than running water.
Partially fill the sink or a container when cleaning the kitchen or rinsing cloths. | <urn:uuid:11257eef-e745-44e1-acab-54f8a04cb5c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crd.bc.ca/water/conservation/household/indoorsavingtips.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894391 |
Impact of future land use and land cover changes on atmospheric chemistry‐climate interactions
To demonstrate potential future consequences of land cover and land use changes beyond those for physical climate and the carbon cycle, we present an analysis of large-scale impacts of land cover and land use changes on atmospheric chemistry using the chemistry-climate model EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry) constrained with present-day and 2050 land cover, land use, and anthropogenic emissions scenarios.
Future land use and land cover changes are expected to result in an increase in global annual soil NO emissions by ∼1.2 TgN yr−1 (9%), whereas isoprene emissions decrease by ∼50 TgC yr−1 (−12%). The analysis shows increases in simulated boundary layer ozone mixing ratios up to ∼9 ppbv and more than a doubling in hydroxyl radical concentrations over deforested areas in Africa. Small changes in global atmosphere-biosphere fluxes of NOx and ozone point to compensating effects. Decreases in soil NO emissions in deforested regions are counteracted by a larger canopy release of NOx caused by reduced foliage uptake. Despite this decrease in foliage uptake, the ozone deposition flux does not decrease since surface layer mixing ratios increase because of a reduced oxidation of isoprene by ozone.
Our study indicates that the simulated impact of land cover and land use changes on atmospheric chemistry depends on a consistent representation of emissions, deposition, and canopy interactions and their dependence on meteorological, hydrological, and biological drivers to account for these compensating effects. It results in negligible changes in the atmospheric oxidizing capacity and, consequently, in the lifetime of methane. Conversely, we expect a pronounced increase in oxidizing capacity as a consequence of anthropogenic emission increases.
|Author(s)||Ganzeveld, L., L. Bouwman, E. Stehfest, D. P. van Vuuren, B. Eickhout, and J. Lelieveld|
|Publication||JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 115, D23301| | <urn:uuid:2bfe4eef-5479-43a9-abf8-257b373cdf18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planbureauvoordeleefomgeving.nl/en/publications/2010/Impact-of-future-land-use-and-land-cover-changes-on-atmospheric-chemistry-climate-interactions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.859033 |
- What's new
- Who we are
- What we do
- 4-H & Climate Change
- Science in Everyday Living
- Scientist in YOU
- Engineering, Robotics & 4-H
The 4-H program is improving science technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in New Jersey. By combining non-formal education with hands-on inquiry-based learning in a youth development context, 4-H is responding to our nation's concern for improving human capacity and workforce abilities in STEM areas. Read more about the national perspective on 4-H Science
4-H is providing quality in- and out-of-school programs focused on positive youth development.
We concentrate on:
- Making Science fun – 4-H programs are focused on learning by observation and experience, through activities youth enjoy.
- Seeing science in everyday life – we will help youth understand and apply science skills in everyday activities and events.
- Asking questions – 4-H SET is a resource for becoming an engaged citizen in a democratic society resolving critical issues.
- Getting excited about science– we engage youth in the science happening in universities, government, and industry and open their minds to potential careers in science.
Climate change with its forecasts of melting ice caps and the extinction of our planets species can be emotionally overwhelming. NJ 4-H equips youth with both scientific knowledge and the life skills required to improve their understanding of the science of climate change and the skills to apply this knowledge wisely in their personal life and in their role as active citizens. See the resources page for more information and links.
Science in Everyday Living
In everyday life, we take a lot of everyday things for granted. Driving our cars, running the dishwasher, watching television, using computers, baking a cake, playing our favorite sport, and flipping light switches on and off. We do these as routinely and seldom take time to think about the everyday science that make these things happen.
In 4-H, we are working on a suite of programs designed to help you encourage youth to wonder and reflect on the science in everyday life.
Rutgerscience Saturdays: Find the Scientist in YOU!
Join us for our 4-H Rutgerscience Saturday program s focused on introducing middle and high school students to perspective science careers by university faculty and staff on the Rutgers University campuses.
4-H leaders, interested volunteers and parents are invited to bring students to meet and interact with scientists. Students are provided experiments to take home and are invited to attend follow up sessions on the internet.
Engineering, Robotics & 4-H
Design It!, is an engaging, inquiry based, and fun STEM program designed specifically for afterschool. 4-H hosts robotics clubs around the state that are involved in competitions and events to share knowledge and have fun. | <urn:uuid:1eb5bdad-6e24-4ba1-a3c8-f0378b6250e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://4hset.rutgers.edu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925505 |
In the admixture of wilderness and elegant society that was 1826 Kentucky, Jeremiah Beaumont, a brilliant, imaginative lawyer, stood trial for murdering his benefactor and father figure, the politician Colonel Cassius Fort. Now all the documents are in hand to reconstruct Beaumont’s life story—his crime, his trial, his ultimate sin and punishment—and the historian-narrator of World Enough and Time sets about doing just that. Based on the famous murder case known as the Kentucky Tragedy, World Enough and Time is, like its precursor All the King’s Men, a fictional wonder that personifies history, philosophy, politics, and passion.
Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, and attended Vanderbilt University, where he became a member of the Fugitive movement. An acclaimed novelist, poet, critic, and teacher, the author of dozens of books, he was a man of letters in the truest sense. He was the only writer ever to receive Pulitzer Prizes in both fiction and poetry.
Found an Error? Tell us about it. | <urn:uuid:2412d860-8c2b-4f3b-a616-e7fbade65759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lsupress.org/books/detail/world-enough-and-time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975137 |
(Phys.org) —University of Manchester historians have identified the first modern dog: a Pointer called 'Major'. A description of the animal, found by the team in a now obscure 1865 edition of a Victorian journal called "The Field", was the first attempt to define a dog breed standard based on physical form.
John Henry Walsh, who wrote under the pseudonym of 'Stonehenge', took the system of giving scores for different parts of the body from pigeon fanciers, paving the way for the pedigree dog breeds we know today.
The discovery will strike a chord with the dog owners taking part in this year's Cruft's dog show, starting this week (Thursday 7 March).
Stonehenge's method was developed to solve the bitter disputes over the seemingly arbitrary decisions of judges at dog shows, which were fast gaining in popularity.
A dog might win a class at Birmingham one week and come last at a show in London a month later.
The owners of champion animals were increasingly able to command lucrative stud fees, ever since the first show of 1859, as well as cups and prize money of around 5 guineas.
In September 1865, Stonehenge published a classification for the Pointer which gave its head and neck 30 points, frame and general symmetry 25, legs and feet 20, quality and stern 15, and colour and coat 10.
A Mr H Gilbert, from Kensington, had sold the dog to a 'Mr Smith', of Tettenhall in Wolverhampton.
An article on a 'Gordon Setter' soon followed along with others on Clumber Spaniels, Norfolk Spaniels, Truffle Dogs and Fox Terriers. Walsh's edited collection was published in 1867.
The team are based at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures – both at the University.
Professor Michael Worboys, who heads the University's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, said: "The standard set by 'Mr Smith's Major' must surely be one of the most important milestones in the six-thousand-year-old relationship between canines and man.
"As dogs came to be defined as 'breeds', they were bred for greater conformity to breed standards, which meant more inbreeding, and more health problems as dogs were bred from a smaller gene pool.
"Stonehenge's classifications set in chain a process where dogs were re-imagined, redesigned and remade."
Dr Julie-Marie Strange said: "Stonehenge was so impressed by 'Major' when he saw drawings of the dog – and heard it had won a prize at a Birmingham show – he devised the classification.
"There's a historical theme in the way many of these breeds were created: for example, though bull baiting had been banned in 1830, the Bulldog was bred to form considered to be ideal for grappling with a bull, for example, a protruding lower jaw to grab the soft nose of bull."
Dr Neil Pemberton said: "Before the 1860s, types of dogs were defined by what they did, not how they looked. Pointers were gun dogs, valued and bred for their ability to find game and, though a recognisable type, came in a variety of sizes and colours. But in the show ring they were expected to have a defined shape that aspired to the ideal set out in the breed standard.
"Major' signalled a new age where dogs were increasingly bred for their form and from their pedigree. The emphasis on conformation to breed types spread rapidly to other countries, where British dog shows were emulated and British dogs imported as foundational breed stock.
"Though Stonehenge's classification isn't used today, it's principle of defining a breed and judging by conformation will be the main criterion in the show ring at Cruft's this week."
Explore further: See spot see | <urn:uuid:57647f7a-621d-4424-baea-07feb7cae0f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news/2013-03-modern-dog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974749 |
Hormone produced by D-cells of the gastric antrum; acts to inhibit release of growth hormone - balances somatoliberin and has widespread actions in consequence.
peptide hormone secreted by many tissues that tends to suppress secretion of other hormones.
Hormone which helps to control the secretion of insulin by the pancreas and gastrin by the stomach.
a native hormone that inhibits several endocrine functions
A hormone produced by the delta cells of the islets; helps regulate blood sugar levels by controlling release of insulin and glucagon between meals.
A hormone believed to play a role in regulating growth hormone and also playing a role in the regulation of glucagon and insulin.
A hormone secreted from the pancreas. Somatostatin tells the body when to make hormone such as insulin, glucagon, and secretin. Also provides important "breaking" of the chyme (partially digested food) as it passes through the ileum. This is the so-called ileal break.
A hormone widely distributed throughout the body, especially in the hypothalamus and pancreas, that acts as an important regulator of endocrine and nervous system function by inhibiting the secretion of several other hormones such as growth hormone, insulin , and gastrin. It exerts its biologic actions by binding to specific high-affinity receptors on the cell surface. The gene encoding somatostatin is termed SST and is on chromosome 3 in region 3q28. See the entire definition of Somatostatin
hormone in the pancreas that helps tell the body when to make the hormones insulin, glucagon, gastrin, secretin, and renin.
Pancreatic hormone that controls the rate of nutrient absorption into the bloodstream.
a pituitary hormone that inhibits the production of growth hormone and is use to treat diarrhea.
A hormone made by the delta cells of the pancreas (in areas called the islets of Langerhans). Scientists think it may control how the body secretes two other hormones, insulin and glucagon.
A hormone which inhibits the release of somatotropin. It also inhibits the secretion of insulin and gastrin. Somatostatin also inhibits the target tissues of the hormones it inhibits and has been used experimentally to inhibit hormone production by tumors.
a hormone produced in the nervous system, intestine, and various endocrine glands. Somatostatin helps control many body functions, including nerve transmission, intestinal function, and cell growth.
Gastrointestinal and hypothalmic peptide hormone (two forms: 14 and 28 residues), found in gastric mucosa, pancreatic islets, nerves of the gastrointestinal tract, in posterior pituitary and in the central nervous system. Inhibits gastric secretion and motility: in hypothalamus/pituitary inhibits somatotropin release.
A human growth hormone.
Somatostatin is a peptide hormone that regulates the endocrine system and affects neurotransmission and cell proliferation via interaction with G-protein-coupled somatostatin receptors and inhibition of the release of numerous secondary hormones. Somatostatin has two active forms produced by alternative cleavage of a single preproprotein: one of 14 amino acids, the other of 28 amino acids. | <urn:uuid:2088eb92-7ade-4002-9b3b-bfdd792cac32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metaglossary.com/meanings/786910/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911018 |
Fluorescent Bulbs Are Hazardous Waste
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules have been amended to include fluorescent bulbs as hazardous waste due to high levels of mercury. Therefore, used fluorescent bulbs must be managed in accordance with DEC's hazardous waste rules.
The DEC Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste web site contains detailed information, guidance, as well as a question and answer section on fluorescent bulb issues. (www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dshm/hzwstman/bulbs2.htm).
For further information and assistance on fluorescent bulb issues, contact:
Technical Determination Section
Bureau of Hazardous Waste Management
Division of Solid and Hazardous Materials
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
50 Wolf Road
Albany, New York 12233-7251 | <urn:uuid:fac33dd8-6fc2-465d-93c5-f9d1af6bc8de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/articles/FluorescentLampsAreHazardousWaste.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.86552 |
Jan. 12, 2012 As an embryo develops, different genes are turned on in different cells, to form muscles, neurons and other bodily parts. Inside each cell's nucleus, genetic sequences known as enhancers act like remote controls, switching genes on and off. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, can now see -- and predict -- exactly when each remote control is itself activated, in a real embryo.
Their work was recently published in Nature Genetics.
Stefan Bonn, Robert Zinzen and Charles Girardot, all in Eileen Furlong's lab at EMBL, found that specific combinations of chromatin modifications -- chemical tags that promote or hinder gene expression -- are placed at and removed from enhancers at precise times during development, switching those remote controls on or off.
"Our new method provides cell-type specific information on the activity status of an enhancer and of a gene, within a developing multicellular embryo," says Furlong.
The scientists looked at known enhancers, and compared those that were active to those that were inactive in a type of cells called mesoderm at a particular time in fruit fly development. They noted what chromatin modifications each of those enhancers had, and trained a computer model to accurately predict if an enhancer is active or inactive, based solely on what chromatin marks it bears.
In future, the scientists plan to use this method to study the interplay between the activity status of an enhancer and the presence of key switches, termed transcription factors, at different stages of embryonic development, and in different tissue types, generating an ever more complete picture of how a single cell grows into a complex organism.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Stefan Bonn, Robert P Zinzen, Charles Girardot, E Hilary Gustafson, Alexis Perez-Gonzalez, Nicolas Delhomme, Yad Ghavi-Helm, Bartek Wilczyński, Andrew Riddell, Eileen E M Furlong. Tissue-specific analysis of chromatin state identifies temporal signatures of enhancer activity during embryonic development. Nature Genetics, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ng.1064
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:5e451651-4329-4643-aed2-e5cc2d19ae57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120109132602.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913574 |
- Prayer and Worship
- Beliefs and Teachings
- Issues and Action
- Catholic Giving
- About USCCB
The Crisis of Mixed Marriages. 1a When these matters had been concluded, the leaders approached me with this report: “Neither the Israelite laymen nor the priests nor the Levites have kept themselves separate from the peoples of the lands and their abominations—Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites— 2for they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, thus intermingling the holy seed with the peoples of the lands. Furthermore, the leaders and rulers have taken a prominent part in this apostasy!”
Ezra’s Reaction. 3b When I had heard this, I tore my cloak and my mantle, plucked hair from my head and beard, and sat there devastated. 4c Around me gathered all who were in dread of the sentence of the God of Israel* on the apostasy of the exiles, while I remained devastated until the evening sacrifice. 5Then, at the time of the evening sacrifice, I rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.
A Penitential Prayer. 6* d I said: “My God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to raise my face to you, my God, for our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven. 7From the time of our ancestors even to this day our guilt has been great, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered, we and our kings and our priests, into the hands of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today.
8e “And now, only a short time ago, mercy came to us from the LORD, our God, who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place; thus our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our slavery. 9f For slaves we are, but in our slavery our God has not abandoned us; rather, he has turned the good will of the kings of Persia toward us. Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins, and has granted us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10But now, our God, what can we say after all this? For we have abandoned your commandments, 11g which you gave through your servants the prophets: The land which you are entering to take as your possession is a land unclean with the filth of the peoples of the lands, with the abominations with which they have filled it from one end to the other by their uncleanness. 12h Do not, then, give your daughters to their sons in marriage, and do not take their daughters for your sons. Never promote their welfare and prosperity; thus you will grow strong, enjoy the produce of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.
13“After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt—though you, our God, have made less of our sinfulness than it deserved and have allowed us to survive as we do— 14shall we again violate your commandments by intermarrying with these abominable peoples? Would you not become so angered with us as to destroy us without remnant or survivor? 15LORD, God of Israel, you are just; yet we have been spared, the remnant we are today. Here we are before you in our sins. Because of all this, we can no longer stand in your presence.”
* [9:4] All who were in dread…God of Israel: lit., “all who trembled”; these people are also mentioned at 10:3, and a similar designation occurs at Is 66:2, 5, a text more or less contemporary with this passage. The allusion may be to a distinct social group of rigorist tendencies who supported Ezra’s marriage reform.
* [9:6–15] The prayer attributed to Ezra is a communal confession of sin, of a kind characteristic of the Second Temple period (cf. Neh 9:6–37; Dn 9:4–19; 1QS 1:4–2:1), but adapted to the present situation.
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In Pursuit of a Happiness Gene Tuesday, June 23, 2009
TAU researches twins to find a biological door to the bright side
The pursuit of happiness characterizes the human condition. But for those suffering from stress, money trouble or chronic illness, a positive outlook on life can be difficult to find. Now, a Tel Aviv University researcher says we should look to our genes.
Prof. Yoram Barak of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine is engaged in the "attempt to find the happiness gene, the genetic component of happiness," which may be 50% responsible for an optimistic outlook. The research is a collaboration between Tel Aviv University and its affiliated research hospital, the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre at Tel Hashomer, which is the largest hospital in Israel.
Initial research findings have made Prof. Barak optimistic about their ability to succeed. "If something is genetic, it should have a large concordance among twins," he says. "And the twin studies we are looking at show that 50% of happiness is genetically determined." Prof. Barak is now working with Prof. Anat Achiron of the Sheba Medical Center to identify the specific genes that are associated with happiness.
Dr. Barak's current findings in the hunt for the happiness gene were presented at The World Congress on Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis in Montreal, Canada in 2008, and most recently detailed in the journal Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, April 2009.
Prof. Yoram Barak
We may be a long way off from being able to genetically engineer happiness, Prof. Barak says, but we can start by thinking positively. Much of his work is based on positive psychology, which is the "fastest and largest growing area of psychology in the United States — and in the world," he says.
For the 50% of happiness that is not genetic, Prof. Barak is working on a program of positive psychology workshops, with exercises he recently tested in a one-day workshop for 120 participants at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Israel. Early results indicate that the workshops improved the happiness level of participants by as much as 30%.
This work is dedicated to finding "practical and intervention oriented research and the application of psychology into medicine," says Prof. Barak. His research into the physical affects of mental state on patients with neurological diseases is an attempt to bridge the gap between psychology and clinical medicine.
Feeling good in mind and body
Prof. Barak says that the psychological benefits of the program were accompanied by physical benefits as well. "We were able to raise levels of happiness in these patients so they were just about equal to those of healthy subjects," he says. "If we can apply positive psychology, we can better their adherence to their treatment regime. And we have been able to show that there is a stabilization of the neurological disability as well."
For healthy individuals, Prof. Barak says that his happiness exercises can enrich their lives, too. Meanwhile, his search for the happiness gene goes on. | <urn:uuid:3c57825a-ba4a-4cad-a950-89b8f656fdb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=9893 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970356 |
A global phenomenon will open up new areas for oil exploration, enable ships to take shortcuts, and provide easier access to world markets for iron ore and other minerals.
The phenomenon? Global warming.
Because of global warming, the polar ice sheet is shrinking. With this summer having been one of the warmest on record, ships are traveling from Murmansk, near Finland, across the top of the world to Asia in record time. Scientists predict that by 2050, this Northeast Passage will be ice-free during the summer.
A navigable Northeast Passage means shorter travel time from Europe to Asia and competition for the Suez Canal. It means previously inaccessible resources can now be drilled and mined and transported.
That takes us to the Arctic Ocean doughnut hole. A huge fishing area that is beyond any nation’s jurisdiction, as it melts, the doughnut hole will attract fishing vessels from around the world.
Our bottom line? Global warming could have environmental positives that would include huge energy and mineral discoveries, and emissions reduction and cheaper transport from shorter routes.
The Economic Lesson
Perhaps one of the first environmentalists, Reverend Thomas Malthus told us in 1798 that population grows geometrically while resource production expands arithmetically. Consequently, resource prices will rise and supply will become increasingly inadequate.
You can see though, that environmental predictions are tough to make. This NY Times Magazine article describes the bet between the boomsters who said we would not exhaust our resource supply and the doomsters who said we would.
An Economic Question: Whenever a transaction between two parties affects a third, uninvolved individual or group, economists see an externality. How does global warming relate to positive and negative externalities? | <urn:uuid:87a968d1-ecca-4b29-907a-44b8933665fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.econlife.com/tag/northeast-passage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922483 |
Scientists have mapped part of the genome of the woolly mammoth, a huge mammal that's been extinct for about 10,000 years.
The breakthrough could lead to re-creating the creatures.
A team led by Hendrik Poinar at McMaster University unlocked secrets of the creature's nuclear DNA by working with a well-preserved 27,000-year-old specimen from Siberia. Colleagues at Penn State sequenced 1 percent of the genome in a few hours and say they expect to finish the whole genome in about a year if funding is provided.
"We were stunned," Poinar said Monday. “Once you successfully sequence a genome, there are a million interesting questions one can begin to address."
The researcher can now begin to determine what separates mammoths from their closest living relatives, the Indian elephant.
To make a mammoth?
“More importantly our discovery means that re-creating extinct hybrid animals is theoretically possible," Poinar said.
The scientists are already pondering the ethics involved.
"McMaster is already planning the first conference devoted to the ethics of bringing extinct organisms back to life," said Mamdouh Shoukri, the university's vice president for research and international affairs. "We have an obligation as scientists to explore and maintain the responsible use of research."
Researchers admit, however, that creating an extinct beast from scratch is not something they know how to do yet.
"While we can now retrieve the entire genome of the woolly mammoth, that does not mean we can put together the genome into organized chromosomes in a nuclear membrane with all the functional apparatus needed for life," said Ross MacPhee, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History who worked on the project. "We can't even do that with modern DNA."
The study will be detailed later this week in the journal Science.
The decoding was announced earlier than planned because a second study was reported in the media Sunday. In the other work, researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA from a mammoth, but that reveals only the maternal side of evolution. Poinar said his project decodes both sides by looking at the nuclear DNA, where the majority of life's software resides.
Hunted by humans
Mammoths roamed Siberia and America during the Pleistocene era, which ended 10,000 years ago as the last Ice Age retreated. Studies have shown that their demise was due largely to hunting by humans — not from climate change, as one theory held.
The breakthrough has been anticipated recently, as other work has made similar progress. Scientists in June said they had unraveled snippets of the genetic code of an extinct bear species.
Other researchers have expressed a desire to revive the mammoth by injecting frozen sperm DNA — if they can find some — into elephants. Over several generations, they'd create a creature that's 88 percent mammoth.
The DNA revealed by Poinar's group is "very similar to the African elephant genome," the group writes in their journal paper.
In August, an American research team proposed restoring elephants, cheetahs and other African animals to the American plains. And a Russian team has created a Pleistocene Park to investigate mysteries of the mammoth.
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Discussion of all aspects of cellular structure, physiology and communication.
5 posts • Page 1 of 1
I have tried to understand this sentence but I just don't get it :
"Lipids and proteins are capable of lateral movement , but movement of either from one face of the bilayer to the other is prohibited. In the fluid mosaic model the proteins can float within the lipid bilayer while traversing the plane of the membrane."
so first it says proteins can't move from one face to another then it says they traverse the plane of the membrane which means go through the membrane, so I don't get it how can they go through and be prohibited from going through at the same time
any1 please explain to me, if you have a picture or something it would make things clearer, thanks alot
Yep: A protein can float on either face, or depending on the size, can cross the whole membrane (think channels for example) but they cannot invert the side that is facing out with the one facing in and reciprocally. Basically because the extremity popinting out are hydrophilic and cannot cross the hydrophobic membrane.
Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without
any proof. (Ashley Montague)
The author's phrase "traverse the plane of the membrane" refers to the ability of transmembrane proteins to move about side-to-side in the membrane without leaving the membrane. One reason that this is a confusing statement is that the membrane is not a plane but is a bag, with a more-or-less spherical shape (though for a cell with extensive long parts extending from the central cell, such as a neuron, the cell can be far from spherical). However, when "viewed" on a small enough scale the membrane approximates a plane and then the statement that a transmembrane protein can "traverse the plane of the membrane" makes some sense. If you picture the cell membrane as a horizontal plane, the transmembrane protein can move forward or back, left or right, but cannot move up and down or rotate on most axes (though the protein can rotate on an axis at right angles to the plane of the membrane).
One way of picturing this might be to think of corks floating on calm water. They can't push underwater and they can's fly off the water into the air, but they can move in any direction as long as they are floating on the water's surface.
I think the use of the term "traversing" in the passage is somewhat confusing. It does sound, as written, as though the protein can pass through the membrane, whereas I think the author really means to say that the protein can move laterally within the plane of the membrane. (Assuming, as soneone has already pointed out, that you flatten the curved membrane into a 2-D sheet.)
5 posts • Page 1 of 1
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This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (MUP), 1983
Henry Alexis (Harry) Kauper (1888-1942), aviation and radio engineer and inventor, was born on 12 March 1888 at Hawthorn, Melbourne, son of Charles Henry Kauper, carpenter and later orchardist, and his wife Rosa Victoria, née Francis. Harry's father, an Estonian seaman, landed at Port Melbourne in 1877.
After education in state schools Kauper entered the motor engineering trade, specializing in electrical and ignition systems. In 1910 he was a chauffeur at Willaura but in May 1911, with his mechanic friends H. G. Hawker and Harry Busteed (they were known as 'The Three Harrys'), Kauper went to England to study aviation. After working in the Sunbeam and other engineering works he became a mechanic in June 1912 with T. O. M. Sopwith who was building his first aeroplane at Brooklands, Surrey. Through Kauper's influence Hawker was also employed and when the Sopwith Aviation Co. was formed in 1913 at Kingston-upon-Thames, Kauper became foreman of works and Hawker chief test pilot.
On 25 August Kauper, as engineer-mechanic, accompanied Hawker, the only entrant in the £5000 Daily Mail seaplane flight around the British coast. Hawker brought Kauper, as chief mechanic, to Melbourne in January 1914 to demonstrate to the Defence Department the new Sopwith Tabloid biplane. Both men had contributed significantly to the design of this plane, the prototype of the Sopwith war-plane, the 'Pup'. They returned to England in June and, with the outbreak of war, Kauper became works manager for Sopwiths, in charge of 3800 employees turning out 45 planes a week. An inventive genius, he is best known for the patented Sopwith-Kauper interrupter gear which synchronized the firing of a machine-gun through a rotating aeroplane propeller. First used in April 1916, 3950 were fitted to Sopwith planes during the war.
Kauper joined the Royal Air Force on 25 October 1918 as a second lieutenant (administration) engaged in experimental research. On 12 May 1919, at All Saints Anglican Church, Kingston-upon-Thames, he married Beatrice Minnie Hooper who had also worked at Sopwiths. With the two planes of Captain H. J. Butler Kauper reached Adelaide next July and in August they flew to Minlaton, carrying the first air mail over water in South Australia. In October they formed the Harry J. Butler & Kauper Aviation Co. Ltd which pioneered commercial aviation in South Australia but went into voluntary liquidation in 1921.
Kauper had turned to radio. Under experimental licence S643 (1919) he established station 5BG at Dulwich in 1920. In 1922 he participated in the first radio telephony tests in South Australia, gave helpful advice to crystal set enthusiasts on his popular 'Dulwich Calling' broadcasts, and addressed radio clubs and the Wireless Institute of Australia. As an experimenter he was important in developing radio for broadcasting. He was a partner in the Adelaide Radio Co., manufacturing radio equipment, and was a part-time operator from 12 June 1924 when the company, under contract, loaned its call sign 5DN and equipment to Edward James Hume's experimental station at Parkside.
Kauper's station was one of the earliest low-powered, crystal-controlled transmitters in Australia; in November 1925 his signals were picked up in New York and California—a world record. In June Kauper and George Towns, an invalid soldier, built the first compact radio for Rev. John Flynn. Operated by a generator off the rear wheel of Flynn's truck, it proved an outstanding success but Flynn wanted a set workable under all outback conditions. In 1926 Kauper introduced Flynn to Alfred Traeger who ultimately developed the pedal wireless used by the Flying Doctor Service of Australia.
On 7 June 1926 Kauper was appointed chief engineer of 5CL, Adelaide (Central Broadcasters Ltd). When in January 1930 5CL was taken over by the National Broadcasting Service, he did not transfer but became chief engineer for 5AD (The Advertiser Broadcasting Network Pty Ltd), designing the transmitter and establishing the station. In 1931, after a world tour, he became consulting engineer to 3DB, Melbourne.
At the invitation of the director, Group Captain Eric Harrison, Kauper accepted appointment, as a civilian, to the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate in 1940, in charge of the radio electrical and instrument section. Responsible for inspection of equipment being manufactured or repaired for the Royal Australian Air Force by civilian contractors, although in ill health he contributed greatly in those formative years of the directorate, particularly in his specialist field of radio. He died suddenly at his Richmond home on 22 April 1942 of coronary vascular disease and was cremated. He had no children and his wife later returned to England.
Kauper was a modest man with deep-set, thoughtful blue eyes, rugged features and sandy hair. 'He went out as quietly as he had lived', but his death lost to radio and aviation 'another of the pioneering spirits' whose constructive work so advanced rapid development in these fields. 'Nothing mechanical held any problems for him and, in all things pertaining to radio, he stood alone'.
Jean P. Fielding, 'Kauper, Henry Alexis (Harry) (1888–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kauper-henry-alexis-harry-6898/text11965, accessed 19 May 2013.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (MUP), 1983 | <urn:uuid:3a69d6a7-65b9-4f10-ad9d-87dc547544ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kauper-henry-alexis-harry-6898 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973004 |
By Rabbi Max Reichler
Who knows the cause of Israel’s survival? Why did the Jew survive the onslaughts of Time, when others, numerically and politically stronger, succumbed? Obedience to the Law of Life, declares the modern student of eugenics, was the saving quality which rendered the Jewish race immune from disease and destruction. “The Jews, ancient and modern,” says Dr. Stanton Coit, “have always understood the science of eugenics, and have governed themselves in accordance with it; hence the preservation of the Jewish race.”1
I. Jewish Attitude
To be sure eugenics as a science could hardly have existed among the ancient Jews; but many eugenic rules were certainly incorporated in the large collection of Biblical and Rabbinical laws. Indeed there are clear indications of a conscious effort to utilize all influences that might improve the inborn qualities of the Jewish race, and to guard against any practice that might vitiate the purity of the race, or “impair the racial qualities of future generations” either physically, mentally, or morally.2 The Jew approached the matter of sex relationship neither with the horror of the prude, nor with the passionate eagerness of the pagan, but with the sane and sound attitude of the far-seeing prophet. His goal was the creation of the ideal home, which to him meant the abode of purity and happiness, the source of strength and vigor for body and mind.4
II. Home of the Pure Bloods
The very founder of the Jewish race, the patriarch Abraham, recognized the importance of certain inherited qualities, and insisted that the wife of his “only beloved son” should not come from “the daughters of the Canaanites,” but from the seed of a superior stock.4 In justifying this seemingly narrow view of our patriarch, one of the Rabbis significantly suggests: “Even if the wheat of your own clime does not appear to be of the best, its seeds will prove more productive than others not suitable to that particular soil.”5 This contention is eugenically correct. Davenport tells of a settlement worker of this city who made special inquiry concerning a certain unruly and criminally inclined section of his territory, and found that the offenders came from one village in Calabria, known as “the home of the brigands.”6 Just as there is a home of the brigands, so there may be “a home of the pure bloods.” Eugenicists also claim that though consanguineous marriages are in most cases injurious to the progeny, yet where relatives possess “valuable characters, whether apparent or not, marriages between them might be encouraged, as a means of rendering permanent a rare and valuable family trait, which might otherwise be much less likely to become an established characteristic.”7 Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, so the Midrash states, desired to offer his own daughter to Isaac, but his master sternly rebuked him, saying: “Thou art cursed, and my son is blessed, and it does not behoove the cursed to mate with the blessed, and thus deteriorate the quality of the race.”8
III. Early Marriages
The aim of eugenics is to encourage the reproduction of the good and “blessed” human protoplasm and the elimination of the impure and “cursed” human protoplasm. According to Francis Galton, it is “to check the birthrate of the unfit, and to further the productivity of the fit by early marriages and the rearing of healthful children.” The Rabbis may or may not have had such a definite purpose in mind, but their Halachic legislation and Haggadic observations naturally tended to bring about the same results. Early marriages were praised as most desirable. Rabbi Ishmael claimed that God was greatly displeased with the man who did not marry before the age of twenty.9 Rav Hunah refused to see Rav Hammuna, a man of great repute (adam gadol), after the former discovered that his visitor was a bachelor.10 “He who is not married,” runs a Talmudic saying, “is destitute of all joy, blessing, and happiness.”11 “He has no conception of the sweetness of life”;12 indeed “he cannot be regarded as a man at all.”13
Among the seven types not acceptable before God are included both the unmarried man and the married man without children.14 A man without children experiences death in life,15 and surely deserves our pity when he departs from this earth.16 For only he is dead who leaves no son behind to continue his work, while he who leaves even one worthy son is not really dead but merely sleeps.17 He who does not contribute his share to the reproduction of the race, reduces the divine type,18 causes the Shechinah to depart from Israel,19 and is guilty of murder.20 The duty of reproduction is incumbent on all, both young and old..21 The Rabbis, like the eugenists of to-day, measured the success of a marriage by the number and quality of the offspring. In their judgments the main objects of marriage were the reproduction of the human race (leshem piryah veribyah), and the augmentation of the favored stock (lethikun havlad).22 Hence they advised that an extremely tall man should not marry an extremely tall woman, lest the children be awkwardly tall; nor should one of short stature marry a woman of the same size, lest their offspring be dwarfed. For the same reason, the intermarriage between blonds or between dark-complexioned people was not countenanced.23 A number of precautions in sexual relations were prescribed in order to prevent the birth of defectives, such as lepers,24 epileptics,25 the deaf and the dumb, the lame and the blind.26
V. Intelligent Love
Raba advised every young man not to marry a girl before he knew all about her immediate family, especially about her brothers, for “children usually inherit the traits of their mother’s brothers.”27 “Take your time,” counsels a Talmudic proverb, “before you ask a woman to be your wife”;28 in other words, “fall in love intelligently.” Other well-known Rabbinic maxims are: “a man drinketh not out of a cup which he hath not inspected,”29 and “a bride whose eyes are defective, ought to undergo a general physical examination.”29 In the opinion of Rabbi Jonathan both Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, and Saul, king of Israel, acted most indiscreetly by treating marriage in a rather frivolous manner. Eliezer said: “Behold the virgin which will say drink, and I will also draw for the camels, that is the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master’s son.” Suppose that woman had some physical defects, would she have been a suitable mate for Isaac? Similarly Saul proclaimed: “The man who killeth Goliath, the king will give him his daughter.” If that man had been a slave or possessed other hereditary defects, would Saul have sanctioned the marriage?31
VI. Non-Eugenic Marriages
The attempt to limit the multiplication of the undesirable elements in the jewish race, resulted in three kinds of prohibitions. First, prohibition against the marriage of defectives by reason of heredity (pesul yocyesin); secondly, the prohibition against the marriage of personal defectives (debar shebagufon); thirdly, the prohibition against consanguineous marriages (ervah).32 Besides the prohibition against defective marriages mentioned in the Mosaic code,33 the Talmud forbade on to marry into a confirmed leprous or epileptic family,34 or to marry a woman who had buried three husbands.35 The union between an old man and a young girl was condemned in unequivocal terms.36 Persons or families manifesting continuous antagonism to each other were advised not to intermarry.37 Great, in the eyes of the Rabbis, was the offense of him who married a woman from an element classed among the unfit. His act was as reprehensible as if he had dug up every fertile field in existence and sown it with salt.38 A quintuple transgression was his,39 for which he will be bound hand and foot by Elijah, the great purifier,40 and flogged by God himself. “Woe unto him who deteriorates the quality of his children and defiles the purity of his family,” is the verdict of Elijah endorsed by God.41 On the other hand, the mating of two persons possessing unique and noble traits cannot but result in the establishment of superior and influential families.42 When God will cause his Shechinah to dwell in Israel, only such which scrupulously preserved the purity of their families, will be privileged to witness the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.43
VII. Psychical Eugenics
The distinctive feature, however, of Jewish eugenics lies in the greater emphasis laid on the psychical well-being of posterity, in contradistinction to the merely physical well-being which is the chief concern of modern eugenists. At the Congress of Eugenics recently held at London, one of our modern eugenists, Professor Samuel C. Smith of the University of Minnesota, exclaimed: “if I were to choose my own father, I would rather have a robust burglar than a consumptive bishop.” The Rabbis, on the other hand, tell us that when the question came up whether or not the Gibeonites should be permitted to intermarry with the children of Israel, David tested them, in order to ascertain not so much their physical fitness but rather their psychical fitness, and found them wanting. He discovered that they did not possess the three “unit characters” peculiar to Israel, namely: sympathy, modesty and philanthropy. He there fore thought it eugenically inadvisable to allow their mating with a spiritually better-developed stock.44 Rabbi Levi enumerates nine undesirable psychical qualities which ought to be eliminated from amongst the Jewish race.45
VIII. Eugenics and Religion
The Jew took his spiritual mission as representing a “kingdom of priests and a holy kingdom” quite seriously, and used all possible eugenic means to preserve those rare emotional and spiritual qualities developed during centuries of slow progress and unfolding. Intuitively he felt the truth, so well express by a modern student of eugenics, that “Religion would be a more effective thing, if everybody had a healthy emotional nature; but it can do nothing with natures that have not the elements of love, loyalty and devotion.”46 The Rabbis would say: Religion can do nothing with natures that have not the elsments of wympathy, modesty and philanthropy. Hence they urged that a man should be willing to offer all his possessions for the opportunity of marrying a member of a psychically well-developed family.47 The marriage between the offspring of inferior stock and that of superior stock, such as the marriage between a scholar and the daughter of an am- haarez, or between an am-haarez and the daughter of a scholar, was considered extremely undesirable, and was condemned very strongly.48 Moreover, no Rabbi or Talmid Chacham was allowed to take part in the celebration of such a non-eugenic union.49 An historical case is cited by Rabbi Eliezer to prove that one should always select his soul-mate from amongst the spiritually better- developed families. Moses married a daughter of Jethro, a heathen priest, and the result was that one of his grandsons, Jonathan, became an idolatrous priest. Aaron, on the other hand, married the daughter of Abinadab, and history records the name of his grandson Phinehas as the hero who defended the honor and purity of Israel.50 Parents living normal and righteous lives are not only a blessing to themselves, but also to their children and children’s children, until the end of all generations; while parents living abnormal and immoral lives bring ruin and calamity not only on themselves, but also on their children and children’s children, to the end of all generations.51
A parallel to the “rough eugenic ideal” of marrying “health, wealth and wisdom”52 is found in the words of Rabbi Akiba, who claims that “a father bequeaths to his child beauty, health, wealth, wisdom and longevity.”53 Similarly, ugliness, sickness, poverty, stupidity and the tendency to premature death, are transmitted from father to offspring.54 Hence we are told that when Moses desired to know why some of the righteous suffer in health and material prosperity, while others prosper and reap success; and again, why some of the wicked suffer, while others enjoy success and material wee-being; God explained that the righteous and wicked who thrive and flourish, are usually the descendants of righteous parents, while those who suffer and fail materially are the descendants of wicked parents.55
X. Priceless Heritage
Thus the Rabbis recognized the fact that both physical and psychical qualities were inherited, and endeavored by direct precept and law, as well as by indirect advice and admonition, to preserve and improve the inborn, wholesome qualities of the Jewish race. It is true that they were willing to concede that “a pure-bred individual may be produced by a hybrid mated with a pure bred,” for they found examples of that nature in Ruth the Moabitess, Naamah the Ammonitess,56 Hezekiah and Mordecai.57 As a general eugenic rule, however, they maintained that one cannot produce “a clean thing out of an unclean,” and discouraged any kind of intermarriage even with proselytes.58 Their ideal was a race healthy in body and in spirit, pure and undefiled, devoid of any admixture of inferior human protoplasm.59 Such an ideal, though apparently narrow and chauvinistic, has its eugenic value, as the following suggestive quotation from a well-known eugenist clearly indicates. “Families in which good and noble qualities of mind and body have become hereditary, form a natural aristocracy; and if such families take pride in recording their pedigrees, marry among themselves, and establish a predominant fertility, they can assure success and position to the majority of their descendants in any political future. They can become the guardians and trustees of a sound inborn heritage, which, incorruptible and undefiled, they can preserve in purity and vigor throughout whatever period of ignorance and decay may be in store for the nation at large. Neglect to hand on undimmed the priceless germinal qualities which such families possess, can be regarded only as betrayal of a sacred trust.”60
1. Cf. also _Social Direction of Human Evolution, by Prof. William E. Kellicott, 1911, p. 231.
2. Sir Francis Galton defines eugenics as “the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of the race.”
3. Cf. Ps. Cxxviii, 3-4. The National Conference on Race Betterment which met recently at Battle Creek declared that “the core of race betterment consists in promoting more and better homes.”
4. Gen. Xxiv, 3-4.
5. Ber. Rabbah 59, 11.
6. _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_, by Charles B. Davenport, New York, 1911, p. 183.
7. _Social Direction of Human Evolution_, p. 154; _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_, p. 185. The Biblical expression “a bone of my bones” (Gen. Ii, 23), refers, according to the Rabbis, to a man who marries one of his relatives. (Bere****h Rabbah 18,5). The marriage between uncle and niece is also recommended. (Yebamoth 63b).
8. Ber. Rabbah 59, 12; cf. Gen. ix, 25-26.
9. Kiddushin 29b.
11. Midrash Lekach Tob, Gen. 2, ed. Buber p. 21.
12. Ber. Rabbah ch. 17.
13. Yalkut Gen. ii, 23.
14. Pesachim 113b.
15. Nedarim 64b.
16. M. K. 27b.
17. B. B. 110b.
18. Yebamoth 63b.
19. Ibid. 64a.
20. Ibid 63b, 64a.
21. Ibid 62b. Cf. Koheleth Rabbah 7, 8, also _Social Direction of Human
Evolution_, p. 124, concerning pathological defects of first born and
earlier members of the family.
22. Cf. Tur Eben Haezer ch.25.
23. Bechoroth 45b.
24. Sifra, Mezora ch. 3.
25. Pesachim 112b.
26. Nedarim 20a.
27. B. B. 110a.
28. Yebamoth 63a.
29. Kethuboth 75b.
30. Shir Hashirim Rabbah 4, 1-3; cf. Taanith 24a.
31. Taanith 4a.
32. Tur Eben Haezer, Piryah Veribyah, ch. 4.
33. Deuteronomy xxiii, 2.
34. Yebamoth 64a.
35. Niddah 64a. It is interesting to note that a late authority insists that the same rule should apply to a man who buried three wives. Cf. Beer Heteb to Eben Haezer, Ishoth 9, 2.
36. Sanhedrin 76a; cf. also Yebamoth 106b and Ruth Rabbah 3, 10.
37. Kiddushin 71b. Cf. _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_, p.8, where the suggestion is made that the curious antipathy of red-hairled persons of the opposite sexes for each other, may be an eugenic antipathy.
38. Kiddushin 70a.
39. Aboth Derabbi Nathan, ch. 26.
40. Cf. Kiddushin 71a.
41. Kiddushin 70a.
42. Bamidbar Rabbah 3,4.
43. Kiddushin 70b.
44. Yebamoth 79a.
45. Nedarim 20b.
46. _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_, p. 225
47. Pesachim 49b.
48. Kiddushin 49b; cf. also Pesachim 49b.
49 Pesachim 49b.
50. B. B. 109b.
51. Yoma 87a>
52. _Heredity in Relation to Eugenics_, p.8.
53. Eduyoth 2, 9.
54. Yer. Kiddushin 1,7.
55. Berachoth 7a.
56. Yebamoth 63a.
57. Bamidbar Rabbah, Chukath ch. 19.
58. Pesachim 112b, Kiddushin 70b.
59. Yer. Kilayim ch. 1.
60. See _Social Direction of Human Evolution_, p. 238. | <urn:uuid:f86792cd-ac6a-4552-9df2-cae6ae13de94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-mindcontrol-eugenics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954375 |
Nanoscribe, a spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, has developed a tabletop 3-D microprinter that can create complicated microstructures 100 times faster than is possible today. “If something took one hour to make, it now takes less than one minute,” says Michael Thiel, chief scientific officer at Nanoscribe.
While 3-D printing of toys, iPhone covers, and jewelry continues to grab headlines (see “The Difference Between Makers and Manufacturers”), much of 3-D printing’s impact could be at a much smaller scale. Micrometer-scale printing has shown promise for making medical and electronic devices.
Thiel says it should be possible to speed up his company’s microprinting technique even more in the future. Nanoscribe plans to start selling its machine in the second half of this year.
Printing microstructures with features a few hundred nanometers in size could be useful for making heart stents, microneedles for painless shots, gecko adhesives, parts for microfluidics chips, and scaffolds for growing cells and tissue. Another important application could be in the electronics industry, where patterning nanoscale features on chips currently involves slow, expensive techniques. 3-D printing would quickly and cheaply yield polymer templates that could be used to make metallic structures.
So far, 3-D microprinting has been used only in research laboratories because it’s pretty slow. In fact, many research labs around the world use Nanoscribe’s first-generation printer. The new, faster machine will also find commercial use. Thiel says numerous medical, life sciences, and nanotechnology companies are interested in the new machine. “I’m positive that with the faster throughput we get with this new tool, it might have an industrial breakthrough very soon,” he says.
The technology behind most 3-D microprinters is called two-photon polymerization. It involves focusing tiny, ultrashort pulses from a near-infrared laser on a light-sensitive material. The material polymerizes and solidifies at the focused spots. As the laser beam moves in three dimensions, it creates a 3-D object.
Today’s printers, including Nanoscribe’s present system, keep the laser beam fixed and move the light-sensitive material along three axes using mechanical stages, which slows down printing. To speed up the process, Nanoscribe’s new tool uses a tiny moving mirror to reflect the laser beam at different angles. Thiel says generating multiple light beams with a microlens array could make the process even faster.
“This is very challenging to do, and the Nanoscribe tool excels at it,” Greer says. “I don’t think there is another company out there that is capable of such precision.” Greer’s research team uses the first-generation Nanoscribe printer to create and study materials that could be used for catalysts and to make strong, lightweight structures, but she acknowledges that its slowness is a drawback. | <urn:uuid:c2ffd8ad-20f7-442d-ace3-39229a80da94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technologyreview.com/news/511856/micro-3-d-printer-creates-tiny-structures-in-seconds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940403 |
A goal of Health Services is to provide all patients with high quality health care in a manner that clearly recognizes individual needs and rights. To effectively accomplish this goal, it is necessary for patients and health care providers to work together. To that end, the following rights and responsibilities must be recognized and safeguarded.
As a patient you have the following RIGHTS:
- To receive care and treatment with courtesy, respect and consideration.
- To be afforded privacy and confidentiality.
- To receive information in terms that you can understand and to have any questions answered concerning your diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and any associated risks.
- To refuse to be examined or treated by health practitioners and to be informed of the consequences of such decisions.
- To be referred to an alternative health care source when appropriate or upon request.
- To participate actively in decisions regarding one’s health care and treatment.
- To know the identity of your health care provider.
- To know the contents of your medical record through interpretation by your health care provider.
As a patient you have the following RESPONSIBILITIES:
- To show courtesy and consideration for Health Services staff.
- To provide complete information about Immunizations, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and allergies to enable proper evaluation and treatment.
- To ask questions or for clarification if needed to ensure that there is an adequate understanding of the health problem or treatment.
- To follow instructions concerning medications, follow-up visits, and other essential steps in your treatment plan, and to notify provider if plan cannot be followed, condition worsens or an unexpected reaction occurs.
- To keep scheduled appointments or cancel within a reasonable time ahead so that another person may be given that time slot.
- To be respectful of other patients’ privacy and confidentiality.
- To carry adequate health insurance.
- To pay any charges billed to you.
You may direct any concerns about Rights and Responsibilities to the Director of Health Services. | <urn:uuid:e17cf489-fb7b-4f15-895e-e2f23e8caead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnr.edu/StudentLife/PatientRightsandResponsibilities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919694 |
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Re: "Dinosaurs Died Within Hours After Asteroid Hit Earth..."
> And - they had FEATHERS, which turned out to be
> remarkably good insulation against cold - think of
> birds huddling together in a burrow, and you get an
> idea why they survived while the dinosaurs did not.
- most birds did die out;
- likewise, lots of mammals died out;
- while lizards were heavily culled and turtles didn't exactly sail through
unscathed, many of them survived, and crocodiles fared even better, so that
alone can't be it;
- most if not all small theropods of the time, not just birds, had feathers. | <urn:uuid:bc36b7e7-ac69-4358-8634-2c54a6253274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dml.cmnh.org/2004May/msg00489.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962094 |
Biotechnology, sometimes called simply biotech, is used in a variety of spheres like production of food and medicines. It develops products by using living organisms and living systems and nowadays the term has expanded to include scientific spheres such as applied immunology, diagnostic tests, pharmaceutical therapies, etc.
As to the application of biotechnology in medicine, it includes different areas like genetic testing, gene therapy, drug production. Nowadays genetic testing is used for prenatal diagnostic screening, for determining sex, for presymptomatic testing of certain diseases. Gene therapy is used in the treatment of acquired diseases and genetic diseases. As to drug production, in the 21st century more and more medicines for different illnesses are being produced. This has had a positive effect on people’s health, but at the same time the question of the relation between biotechnology and finance becomes crucial.
The biotechnology industry, especially in the United States, requires a lot of research and development and at the same time is important both for the healthcare system and for the economy. Drug industry covers production, testing, packaging, and promotion. Very often it is difficult to start producing a new medicine, because this is very expensive and because one needs to have knowledge of finance in order to be able to run a company in the appropriate way.
It is one thing to be a scientist and to create medicines, but quite another thing to be in the biotechnology industry, where other types of skills are required. This is the reason why some universities have created special programmes that prepare qualified specialists in the above-mentioned area.
So, it becomes clear that in a biotechnology company, there are scientists who develop the medicines and people who have profound knowledge in finance. The latter are responsible for the financial stability of the company. Sometimes it is possible for one person to have BA in biotechnology and MA in finance or vice versa. Cases of people who have education and experience in two spheres as different as finance and medicine are rare, but do exist. One such example is Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald, who studied finance and economics and later became a Doctor of Medicine. The combination of those two areas is extremely useful and makes possible the achievements in biotechnology industry.
Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald is a leading figure in management and investment of different companies. As part of his work he searched for medical developments that can be produced and marketed. He established Paramount BioCapital, which provides financing for biotechnology companies. The company has taken part in the development of a huge number of drug candidates, some of which, for example leukemia drug, have been released onto the market. | <urn:uuid:ecd37e62-da58-4a81-b14e-757f417a4259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sackvillechamber.ca/member/15/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964767 |
The V-flash cartridge is completely self-contained and is recyclable via 3D Systems’ recycling center. Image courtesy of 3D Systems.
Many years ago, Kermit the Frog made a profound statement: “It’s not easy being green.” Little did he know that being green would become a catchphrase in the 20th and 21st centuries, a goal for every business wanting to demonstrate its commitment to saving the ailing planet.
Traditional manufacturing processes have come under scrutiny by green watchers because of the large carbon footprint they leave when moving large manufactured parts, such as those belonging to aircraft or automobiles. In addition to the manufacturing impact, they incur greater fuel consumption and add time to the design-to-manufacture process. They also can produce a great deal of waste products.
On the other hand, additive manufacturing (AM) processes and material types are thought to generate less waste and less weight, in general, which reduces the amount of material that goes into the finished product. They also have been known to reduce the time it takes to design and manufacture products.
Issues to consider when comparing AM to traditional manufacturing processes include:
• Recycling materials, waste products and disposal.
• Weight of materials and finished products, leading to fuel consumption in transport.
• Reducing design and manufacture time.
According to Drs. Christopher Tuck and Richard Hague of the Additive Manufacturing Research Group, Loughborough University, UK, AM can reduce the carbon footprint in some ways, even while they add to it in other ways. The real environmental benefits of AM come from reducing material and reducing the weight of components that are transported.
Stratasys’ WaveWash cleaning system dissolves the brittle plastic support material from models made with Dimension 3D printers. Image courtesy of Dimension 3D.
Tuck and Hague spearhead the Atkins Project, a $4.6 million collaborative research and development project funded by the UK government and a consortium of leading industrial partners. The aim of Atkins is to migrate the design, manufacturing and distribution of products and parts away from the high energy-intensive processes used in many organizations to a more sustainable method of production, service and distribution to the consumer.
Because there are several different AM systems, it is hard to quantify the amount of waste for AM in general. Tuck says that some of the systems produce considerable waste products, noting that “where the design uses a similar amount of material or doesn’t improve on the performance of the product, the use of AM may actually increase the carbon footprint.
“For polymers, laser sintering is only around 20% material efficient at best, with only a certain portion of the remaining material able to be recycled,” he adds. “Again, for complex or lightweight products, this may be better than for competing manufacturing technologies, but it is not correct to say there are little waste materials. For other polymer systems, there are support structures that are either land-filled or dissolved into waste water again.”
Depending on the product in question, this can be a large amount of material. For metal products, the waste streams are significantly less, where unused powder can be almost 100% recycled (agglomerates require removal) in powder bed systems (i.e. service lifecycle management [SLM] or e-beam). In each of these aforementioned systems, however, support structures must be removed and recycled. “In addition, there are filter systems within these metal machines that require disposal,” Hague says.
Most of the results from Atkins stem from energy monitoring and component redesign. “We are typically seeing 50% weight reductions on our ‘optimized’ components; however, we still need to validate these designs and the production methods,” says Tuck. “We also have a beta-test version of carbon footprint mapping software that is capable of letting manufacturers know what inherent carbon content is within their products, made anywhere in the world with both traditional and AM systems.”
Materials Management and Handling
Tuck says a portion of polymer laser sintering powder (PA12) can be recycled, but it needs continual mixing with fresh powder (roughly a 60:40 ratio). This inevitably leads to a large amount of waste. By comparison, support structures in other polymer systems are generally landfilled or dissolved using water.
Some vendors have found a way around that process, however. 3D Systems’ ProJet is an inkjet 3D printer that uses photocurable resins to produce parts.
The ZPrinter is run under negative pressure to contain the small particles of powder in its powder-based process. Image courtesy of Z Corp.
“We have formulated support materials out of paraffin wax, which is an inert, friendly substance,” says Buddy Byrum, senior director of management product marketing for 3D Systems. “When our parts are built, the materials are in fully closed cartridges. They don’t require any exposure of the operator to any non-friendly materials, and the process in the machine fully cures the plastics. So when you take a part out, you’ve got a plastic part that you can handle, and the support material simply melts away into an inert wax that doesn’t have disposal hazards.”
3D Systems’ VFlash has a thin, small and non-dense support structure, enabling it to break off easily, and generates no in-process waste in the machine. Byrum says 3D printers have traditionally had a significant amount of in-process waste. “VFlash uses up all the material that is put into it,” he says.
ZP 150 is a material used for all ZCorp 3D printers except its ZBuilder, which uses polymers. The ZP 150 material is not harmful to the environment and does not involve photopolymer-based materials, according to the company.
“The ZPrinter 150 and 250 are intended for small group use and being right next to the desk, so you don’t want to be ingesting chemicals,” says Joe Titlow, vice president, product management. “The user of the machine is going to be a person without training in how to deal with chemicals. You don’t get any training for how to deal with the ink cartridges you put in your printer, and that’s the same model we try to follow.”
ZCorp subscribes to a powder-based process, which diminishes the amount of waste that would be the byproduct of some supports. The powder used for a temporary support in the build process needs to be 100% recyclable and reusable in the machine in real time, which is a feature of the most recent 150 and 250. The ZPrinter is run under negative pressure to contain the small particles of powder.
“They get put through a filtering and vacuum system that filters them out of the air and actually deposits them right back into the powdered stream, so that none of it’s wasted during the build,” says Titlow. “It keeps the air and the surfaces around the machine much cleaner.”
The RapMan Kit from Technology Education Concepts (TEC) runs with two key materials: acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). Both of these materials are supplied to the machine on spools, and 100% of the material from the spool can be used. The only waste that occurs during part build comes from the support structure.
ABS is a common plastic material that can be shredded and then recycled (yet still maintains its plastic properties); PLA is a biopolymer, and therefore biodegradable and environmentally friendly. It is capable of building large parts, but with the crucial benefit that the lifecycle of the part itself has zero carbon impact on the environment.
Solido’s 3D desktop prototype printer, the SD300 Pro 3D printer, enables users to use CAD specifications to cut, glue and layer engineered plastic sheets from a spool, a process known as laminated object manufacturing (LOM).
As the process allows nested multiple parts to be run simultaneously, there is less leftover waste product. The other green plus of this printer is that the consumable material is non-toxic and can be peeled away with forceps supplied with the machine.
Dimension 3D Printing, a brand of Stratasys Inc., launched its WaveWash cleaning system that dissolves the brittle plastic support material from models made with Dimension 3D printers. This cleaning system requires no gloves, goggles or other protective wear. The pH level of the cleaning solution generally meets drain water requirements worldwide.
According to Public Relations Manager Joe Hiemenz, the model is submerged in the tanks, and the system automatically fills with water and drains at the end of the cycle. There is a powder in a dissolvable packet inside another packet that never is released into the air, as it goes directly into the water and does not become loose until it is in the water. WaveWash weighs 36 lbs. and is 18.24x17 in. With an 8x8x6-in. part capacity, it has a 2- or 4-gal. water level and selectable cycle lengths.
SMART Supports from Stratasys generate supports that use less material during the part building process. Note the supports “before” and “after” processing in this photo.
Image courtesy of Stratasys.
Another effort from Stratasys is the part support style called SMART Supports, which generates supports that use less material during the part building process. SMART Supports is said to reduce build time up to 14%, and lowers material cost by reducing consumption up to 40%. SMART Supports are a user-selection option for Fortus 3D Production Systems and Dimension 3D printers.
EOS also addresses the disposal of powder materials. It has adopted integrated process chain management (IPCM) now also for EOSINT M systems, a process that allows for the reuse of powder materials. Powder is sieved quickly under defined conditions before its reuse. The powder is prepared outside the machine via powder homogenization, to help ensure high quality and flexibility. The IPCM-product range includes multi-purpose lifting trolleys for transporting powder containers, building platforms and clamping systems, as well as for other uses.
Manufacturers are also sensitive to recycling issues. Most note when their materials are recyclable—and some even offer their own programs.
3D Systems offers a V-Flash recycling program for the material cartridges as well for the post-processing materials that are used to wash and clean the parts. Recycling centers located in the U.S. and Europe allow customers to return them.
3D Systems also offers trade-up programs for ProJet customers to take in existing machines and re-manufacture and recycle components for use in new machines, avoiding scrapping parts from old machines, thereby reducing the energy and material consumption of building new parts.
All packaging for Stratasys 3D printers, including the spools of material and the cartridges they go into, are recyclable. The fused deposition modeling (FDM) process, used by all Stratasys machines, uses only material necessary to build a part without incurring waste.
ABS plastic models are fully recyclable through any company’s regular industrial materials recycling program, and most AM vendors will have a way to return cartridges and materials. For example, Solido has a recycling program where every SD300 Pro 3D printer shipped will include a pre-paid pouch for sending back excess material and consumables containers for recycling. Customers will receive “green points” to use toward credit on their next order of consumable products.
Objet Geometries’ material can be recycled with any plastic recycling program once cured and printed by an Objet 3D printer. In addition, Objet announced a program for its customers to send back all used plastic resin cartridges to Objet U.S. headquarters, and another program to dispose of unused waste resin from its printers.
|Research Notes |
The following are the Atkins Project areas of investigation.
• Waste minimization during production. Ensuring optimized and repeatable AM production systems can substantially reduce or eliminate waste materials.
• Process efficiency gains. Use AM processes to replace inefficient and wasteful conventional manufacturing processes.
• Reducing transportation. Using digital supply chains and AM technologies to significantly reduce logistical requirements by shortening the supply chain and minimizing the need for waste material disposal or recycling.
• Product design for whole lifecycle impact. Exploiting AM design freedoms to minimize weight for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the whole product lifecycle.
• Product design for optimized performance. Manufacturing truly optimized products that are more efficient in their application compared to traditional parts constrained by design for manufacture.
Tuck says that in terms of machinery, AM uses very little energy during processing compared to traditional manufacturing on a per-hour basis.
“However, the amount of material processed (i.e. sintered or deposited) per hour is much lower than that processed with traditional manufacturing systems,” he says. “So the overall energy consumption for a part may be higher for an identical same part conventionally produced. The benefit for AM comes when the design cannot be manufactured by other means, and/or uses less virgin material and offers a performance advantage over a traditionally designed product.”
Manufacturers can limit the environmental impact of AM processes by producing products faster.
“Speed is the key to both economics and to the environmental footprint of the machinery. If more material can be consolidated with a similar energy input, all the better,” says Tuck.
The volume of waste from support materials can be minimized by a well-designed part and part orientation on the machine.
ZCorp’s efforts to make machines more energy-efficient have resulted in an optimized process that eliminates the need for a heater in the machine. In addition, the company has changed motors.
“There’s a big blower motor inside that creates the vacuum that we’ve used,” says Titlow. “We downsized it through one engineering effort. The new one draws significantly less electricity. We’ve got an optimized sleep mode for the machine, so if you’re not using the machine for a certain amount of time, it shuts itself down and goes to sleep.”
Faster, more efficient production runs, the nesting of multiple parts to be run simultaneously, the increase of non-toxic substances for both supports and cleaning solutions, recycling, re-engineering, re-design and research all contribute to the greater good in terms of going green with additive manufacturing. But how will Atkins’ findings influence the additive manufacturing of the future?
“I think that Atkins could have serious implications for future manufacturing,” says Tuck. “Being able to use less material is of significant importance in a world where there are fewer readily available resources. Coupling this with more effective designs that are ‘optimized’ for performance and weight saving shows benefits not just for the environment, but also for business, making products more efficient—and thereby more saleable.”
Additive Manufacturing Research Group
Objet Geometries, Ltd.
Technology Education Concepts
Contributing Editor Susan Smith is DE’s expert in rapid technologies and has been immersed in the tech industry for more than 17 years. Send e-mail about this article to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:04c6a32b-3e38-45be-82bf-831c2999fade> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aaazmr.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939005 |
|Exercise Management systems typically use a key or PIN to identify each user on a piece of equipment. This helps the user in two ways; firstly, they don’t have to program the machine (or even press QuickStart), and secondly, the exercise performed is recorded on the key and/or in the database. There is an time saving of course, and the system monitors exactly what exercises are performed, along with times, and calories burnt, all without having to walk round the gym with a pen or pencil and exercise card, which when you think about it is a bit antiquated really!
The system benefits all types of user, young or old, fit or fat, new or experienced. It makes it easier to follow a program, and to tell if you are on target, underachieving, or overachieving.
Most systems are popular with cardio equipment, but many also work with resistance equipment as well. Recording free-weight activity is usually a fairly straightforward (manual) task, which adds value to the overall workout data set. | <urn:uuid:4e6f59ad-fe1b-4ada-9dd2-2dd6aab1cd0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ggfit.com/exercise-management-systems.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962627 |
Nuclear Power Is the Future
Nuclear power alone is positioned to help meet the world's burgeoning energy demand and supply electricity to power-starved areas of the world.
Read a related essay in the Autumn 2006 issue, "Nuclear Is Not the Way" by Brice Smith and Arjun Makhijani.
In the early morning hours of March 28, 1979, a pump that provided cooling water to Unit No. 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station suddenly broke down. The 880-megawatt reactor, located on an island in the Susquehanna River 10 miles from the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, was operating at close to fullcapacity.
When the cooling pump failed, the turbine and the reactor automatically shut off, as they had been programmed to do. But an entire nuclear power plant doesn’t halt operations as easily as one flips a switch. The other parts of the plant that are goingfull-bore have to ramp down, too, in a carefully managed process. The safe shutdown of a nuclear plant relies partly onautomation—an elaborate, sophisticated series of computers, pumps, valves, and mechanical checks andbalances—and partly on humanoversight.
As the turbine and reactor at Unit No. 2 turned off, the pressure in the nuclear portion of the plant began to build excessively. In such situations, a valve should pop open, releasing coolant and thereby relieving the pressure. In this case, the valve did. But it failed to close when the pressure decreased. It wasstuck.
Worse, according to the federal government’s subsequent investigation, “signals available to the operator failed to show that the valve was still open.” As a result, “cooling water poured out of thestuck-open valve.” As coolant continued to escape, unbeknownst to the engineers in the control room, the reactor began to overheat. It was melting down, and, terrifyingly, Three Mile Island’s overseers didn’t knowit.
After that accident 27 years ago, a consensus quickly emerged that nuclear energy was too inherently dangerous for the United States to pursue a future powered by splitting the atom. More than 60 nuclear reactor units at various stages in the permitting and construction pipeline were canceled in the aftermath of Three Mile Island. So complete was this rout that not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered since. The disaster at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union seven years later seemed merely to confirm that nuclear power wasdead.
The obituaries written for U.S. nuclear power in the wake of Three Mile Island were, however, premature. True, the industry suffered greatly, but it did not die entirely. In fact, under the radar, nuclear energy production has actually expanded. In 2005, the 103 U.S. commercial nuclear reactors operating in 31 states generated 782 billionkilowatt-hours (kWh), three times more power than in1979.
Not every nuclear plant in the pipeline was cancelled after Three Mile Island. In fact, there are 50 percent more commercial nuclear reactors in operation today. More important, massive gains in operating efficiency have helped boost nuclear plants’ output. At the time of the accident, nuclear facilities ran at about 60 percent of their capacity; they were offline for several months a year for refueling and maintenance. Today this work is done in weeks, not months, and plants can run at nearly 90 percent of capacity. From 1990 to 2002, these gains helped add the equivalent of 26 new,standard-sized 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants to the U.S. power supplysystem.
While the United States has been suffering its crisis of confidence about nuclear energy, much of the rest of world has shrugged off such anxieties. Today, more than 300 nuclear reactors produce electricity in nearly 30 other countries. The vast majority have come online since Three Mile Island. More than 130 new plants are under constructionworldwide.
Now, the United States seems poised to catch up. Today, we routinely hear about a “renaissance” or “revival” of nuclear energy. The recognition that nuclear power is vital to global energy security in the 21st century has been growing for some time. Public opinion on the relative dangers and benefits of atomic energy is shifting, particularly in the United States. Opinion polls routinely show that a majority of Americans support nuclear energy. That support translated into favorable provisions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which specialists claim will facilitate the construction of new nuclear plants in the United States. Within the next 10 years, we are told, we should see the first new nuclear power plant in decades get licensed and built.
But such a renaissance is not a sure thing. Legitimate questions remain about safety, about the licensing process for new reactors, and, most important, about how to handle and where to store spent nuclear fuel. Failure to answer these questions adequately could imperil the nuclear revival so many have proclaimed isnigh.
The beauty of nuclear fission is its ability to derive so much from so little. The energy density of nuclear fuel far exceeds that of any other energy source. As my Manhattan Institute colleague Peter Huber has noted, “A bundle ofenriched-uraniumfuelrods that could fit into atwo-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen would power [New York City] for a year: furnaces, espresso machines, subways, streetlights, stock tickers, Times Square,everything—even our cars and taxis, if we could conveniently plug them into the grid.”
Pound for pound, coal stores twice as much energy as wood. Oil packs the same amount of energy that coal does into half the weight and space. But a gram of uranium 235 contains as much energy as four tons of coal. This is why splitting the atom was key to inventing the new type of bomb that could win World War II. And it is why President Dwight D. Eisenhower, an early proponent of commercial nuclear power, could argue that atomic energy might transform medicine, agriculture, and, in particular, electricity generation. It succeeded on allcounts.
At times, enthusiasm for nuclear power’s potential bordered on the hyperbolic. In 1954, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission famously predicted in a speech to science writers, “Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter.” Though to this day there remains speculation about whether he was referring to nuclear fission or perhaps to something farther off in the future, such as fusion power, the“too-cheap-to-meter” promise has been attached to commercial nuclear power generation ever since. It is cited frequently by antinuclear activists as evidence that the technology’s proponents have their heads in theclouds.
Just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, there is no such thing as “too cheap to meter”—though in some respects nuclear energy isn’t all that far off the mark. The generation of electricity from nuclear power entails significant costs. By and large, however, these are capital investments having to do with construction and transmission. Because a plant requires so little uranium to generate so much power, once a nuclear plant isbuilt—and the expected life span of a conventional reactor is 40 to 60 years, perhapslonger—the price of fuel is close to irrelevant in figuring the cost of electricity. The nuclear industry boasts of providing some of the cheapest electricity on the grid, at an average production cost (after a plant is built) of less than 1.8 cents per kWh. These costs are close to 40 percent lower than they were just two decadesago.
On its merely pecuniary merits, then, nuclear power looks pretty good compared to the alternatives. Electricity generated from natural gas can cost anywhere from three cents per kWh to more than six cents, depending on the market price for gas. Electricity from renewable energies such as wind, solar, or biomass can cost anywhere from two to six times as much as electricity from nuclear power. Only coal can provide electricity at prices to rival those of nuclear energy, but coal has evident environmental drawbacks tied to pollution and climatechange.
Given the economics, it is little wonder that nuclear power has gained a strong foothold in America’s energy economy. Coal accounts for half of all electricity generated in the United States. Nuclear power’s share is aboutone-fifth, roughly as much electricity as is generated by natural gas. (Worldwide, nuclear power provides 16 percent of all electricity.) Hydropower accounts for about six percent. Fashionable but uneconomic renewable energies such as wind and solar power generate less than half of one percent of America’selectricity.
Total world energy demand is expected to double by 2050. Over the next two decades, global appetites for electricity are expected to increase 75 percent over current levels. Electricity demand is predicted to skyrocket in the United States as well, continuing a recent trend that has gone largely unnoticed by many pundits and energy industry observers. Though the news media constantly broadcast our angst about reliance on petroleum, particularly oil from the Middle East, the most significant energy development in recent times has been the increasing electrification of America’s amazing economic engine. More than 85 percent of the growth in U.S. energy demand in the last quarter-century has been met not by oil but by electricity, most notably in the information technology and telecommunications industries. Today, nearly three of every five dollars of U.S. gross domestic product come from industries and services that run on electricity. In 1950, just one in five dollars of GDP was dependent on electrical power.
This shift from oil to electricity points to the gradual fulfillment of President George W. Bush’s goal, expressed in the 2006 State of the Union address, that our nation “move beyond apetroleum-based economy.” Oil will remain critical to the energy economy for as long as anyone can foresee, since the transportation sector depends on it. But as America’s economic growth in the Internet age continues, sparked by electrons dancing along wires andfiber-optic cables, it will require ever more massive amounts of electricity. Nuclear power seems a promising solution to this need.
The questions about nuclear power, however, are not merely economic. If they were, there would be little controversy about whether to split atoms. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during the Cold War, and particularly in the wake of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, legitimate inquiries into the safety, security, and environmental effects of nuclear energy have dominated thedebate.
With regard to the incidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, these objections don’t quite seem fair. Opponents of nuclear energy seized on these episodes to argue that nuclear power is inherently unsafe, and they found a receptive audience in the United States and Europe. But a closer examination of the two events tells a differentstory.
God willing, Three Mile Island will be remembered as the worst nuclear accident in American history. But nobody died. Nobody was even injured. Despite thescary-sounding partial core meltdown that occurred, the nearby community was never really endangered. The massive concrete containment structures that are standard on almost all nuclear reactors did their job and ensured that no radiationleaked.
Chernobyl was different. The 1986 accident spiraled out of control partly because of human error by theSoviet-trained engineers, but more because of the nuclear plant’s tragically flawed design.Many reactors built in the Soviet era, as Chernobyl was, did not feature the containment buildings found at virtually every other facility around the world. A toxic plume of radioactive fallout drifted across the Soviet Union, the rest of Europe and Asia, and even as far as North America. Hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and Belarus were forced to relocate permanently. Several dozen people perished in the first few months after the accident. A recent United Nations report suggested that as many as 4,000 people will die fromradiation-induced cancers tied to the disaster. Had Chernobyl been built with the containment structures standard in nuclear reactors the world over, that tragedy could have beenavoided.
Still, the critics of nuclear power are right: Nuclear power is dangerous. Dealing with radioactive materials entails very real peril. Concerns about the proliferation of materials, technology, and nuclearknow-how are by no means unfounded. And for all of the nuclear industry’s protestations about its safety record amassed almost 3,000 years of collective reactor operating experience, that record will mean nothing if even one catastrophe occurs. As one industry trade group executive recently acknowledged, “With nuclear energy, an accident anywhere is an accident everywhere.”
In truth, every energy source has drawbacks, many related to safety. A large pile of coal, left alone, eventually will smolder and combust. Petroleum is highly flammable. Windmills kill birds and, arguably, disrupt the Navy’s sonar. Hydroelectric dams kill fish, divert rivers, and threaten ecosystems with soil erosion. The question isn’t whether the dangers associated with nuclear energy outweigh those from coal or petroleum or the Grand Coulee Dam. Of course they do. The question is whether the enormous benefits derived from nuclearpower—which pound for pound outweigh those of any other fuel or energytechnology—are worth accepting itsrisks.
Critics also cite concerns about the spread of dangerous nuclear waste that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. But the latest technology research is geared toward developing systems that resist proliferation. China and Russia are expected to join the United States, France, Canada, Japan, Britain, and other nations later this year in the Generation IV effort, an international consortium explicitly devoted to fostering technologies that limit proliferationrisks.
Meanwhile, South Africa and China are pioneering the development of smaller, “pebble-bed” reactors that operate differently from reactors typically found in the United States.Pebble-bed reactors useuranium-specked graphite balls, rather than rods, for fuel. Conventional fuel rod assemblies must be removed before they are completely used up, butpebble-bed fuel balls burn until they are depleted, lessening the chance for trafficking in dangerous nuclearwaste.
In addition, the Bush administration has proposed a new method for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Reprocessing traditionally has entailed recycling the remaining uranium from spent fuel rods after removal from a reactor and using it as additional fuel. But the procedure used to separate the uranium for reuse also produces small amounts ofweapons-grade plutonium. For that reason, President Jimmy Carter banned the reuse of spent fuel in the United States as a proliferation risk. Today, spent nuclear fuel is stored on-site at nuclear plants, awaiting final disposal upon the completion of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the Nevadadesert.
The Bush proposal, however, seeks to develop a promising new technology for recycling spent fuel in a manner that renders the material suitable for use as nuclear fuel but not for use in nuclear weapons, thereby eliminating the risk. If successful, this technology could not only help make nuclear energy safer, but could also extend its benefits to the far reaches of theglobe.
The equation skews more decidedly in favor of nuclear power with the introduction of the environment as a factor. Electricity generated by nuclear power plants gives off no emissions: no sulfur, no mercury, and, most important, none of the greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), thought to contribute to climatechange.
Roughly 700 million metric tons of CO2 emissions are avoided each year in the United States by generating electricity from nuclear power rather than some other source. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, that is nearly equivalent to the CO2 released from all U.S. passengercars.
The argument that nuclear power should be a critical component in a strategy to deal with concerns about climate change is quite new. Certainly, it was not anything that occurred to Eisenhower when he crafted his Atoms for Peace message for a postwar era. Nor was it much on the radar screen in the 1970s when concerns about global cooling were in vogue. And even those who have raised the specter of global warming most alarmingly by and large haven’t embraced the potential of nuclear energy. Former vice president Al Gore, who has stated that global warming ultimately is a greater threat than terrorism, pointedly refuses to endorse expanded use of nuclearpower.
Yet some longtime opponents are overcoming their fear of atomic energy. Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, recently declared his support for nuclear energy as “the onlylarge-scale,cost-effective energy source that can reduce [greenhouse-gas] emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power.” British prime minister Tony Blair, an enduring critic of nuclear power, this spring signaled his government’s support for expanding nuclearenergy production.
Today, it is the global climate change argument that clinches the case in favor of nuclear power. If, as Gore asserts, combating climate change is our highest priority, and if the future of civilization itself is at stake, then nuclear power must play a significant and expanded role not just in America’s energy mix but in the world’s.
For all of nuclear energy’s apparent advantages (even when weighed against its risks), its renaissance faces several challenges. The chief question is what to do with the waste. Political squabbling has pushed back the opening of Yucca Mountain, the disposal facility the Department of Energy began contemplating in 1978, to 2017 at the earliest, and even that date is in doubt. The country’s reactors have accumulated 55,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in temporary storage, and many are running out of space. Failure to open Yucca Mountain or otherwise solve the waste question could force some reactors to shut down and discourage investors from supporting new nuclearplants.
Meanwhile, the nuclear licensing process must be improved. Last year’s energy bill streamlined procedures somewhat, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must get serious about processing license applications in a timely manner. Delays caused by red tape and bureaucraticfoot-dragging could send private investmentelsewhere.
The 21st century will be marked by a near-insatiable thirst for energy around the world, particularly in the large and growing economies of the United States, China, and India, and among thelarge-scale consumers of industrial Europe. At the same time, the developing world will greatly benefit if granted access to cheap, reliable sources of energy. According to the United Nations, 2.4 billion people lack access to modern energy service for cooking and heating. Roughly 1.6billion—about a quarter of the world’s population, including most ofsub-SaharanAfrica—have no access to electricity atall.
Nuclear power alone is positioned to help meet the world’s burgeoning energy demand and supply electricity to thepower-starved areas of the world in a manner that safeguards the environment. It alone can raise standards of living on every continent while emitting no pollutants or greenhouse gases. It is the best candidate among many to help raise more than a billion people out of darkness and grinding poverty, and to do so in a way that does no harm, but onlygood.
Brice Smith and Arjun Makhijanirespond:
In his article, “Nuclear Power Is the Future,” Max Schulz claims that there would “be little controversy over splitting the atom” if cost were the only consideration. But he failed to add up all the costs. His figure of 1.8 cents per kWh ignores the most important cost element: capital cost. By the same argument, wind power would cost only half a cent per kilowatt hour. When capital cost is included, the total cost of electricity from new nuclear plants is between 6 and 7 cents per kWh. This was the conclusion of studies published by MIT in 2003 and by the University of Chicago in 2004, both of which advocate nuclear power. In fact the authors of the MIT report concluded that nuclear power would not likely be a sound choice for a merchant plant because it would be “just too expensive.” That’s the main reason the nuclear industry hasn’t ordered a plant in over a quarter of acentury—they’ve been waiting for the kind of government subsidies enacted by Congress in2005.
Schulz’s claim that electricity from renewable energy can cost from two to six times as much as nuclear power is also incorrect. Estimates from 2005 from both the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Energy Information Administration put the cost of electricity from wind power at favorable sites at between 4 to 6 cents per kWh. This already makes wind power cheaper than new nuclear power, and projections are that the cost of wind will continue to fall. In addition, as we noted in our original article, the cost of new advancedthin-film solar panels is expected to fall to a level that would make them economically competitive with new nuclearplants.
Schulz deals with reactor safety by saying: “God willing, Three Mile Island will be remembered as the worst accident in American history.”Faith-based analysis is a dangerous way to address the problem of earthly risk and engineering realities. For instance, a U.S. government analysis, carried out by Sandia National Laboratory and entitled Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences for U.S. Nuclear Power Plants, concluded that aworst-case accident could kill tens of thousands of people and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. It is this potential for accidents at nuclear plants to cause massive casualties and for the effects of radioactive contamination to impact future generations that set nuclear accident risks apart. While it is true that the probability of such aworst-case accident occurring is very small, the exact risk is not well known. As we noted in our article, risk assessments have numerous methodological weakness that contribute significantly to the uncertainty of their results. One sure thing is that a major expansion of nuclear plants around the world would increase those risks. From our calculations using historical data, the construction of 2,500 nuclear plants, even if they were 10 times safer than existing plants, would make it likely that there would be two Three Mile Island scale accidents in the next 40 to 50 years. The inclusion of terrorist threats to this analysis would only heighten the potentialrisk.
Schulz never once addresses the issue of the proliferation risk of uranium enrichment. This is a surprising omission given the current crisis over Iran’s attempted acquisition of uranium enrichment capacity and the fact that the most recent crisis with North Korea flared up over a U.S. conclusion that they had begun a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of theNon-Proliferation Treaty. Alllight-water reactors require enriched uranium as fuel. In addition, the Pebble Bed reactor, touted as more proliferation resistant by Schulz, will require uranium fuel enriched to an even higher degree than that required forlight-water reactors, making it more proliferation prone in that respect, since it would take even less work to turn Pebble Bed reactor fuel intoweapon-grade material. Overall, in order to fuel 2,500 reactors, there would have to be a nearly six fold increase in global enrichment capacity. This would be equivalent to over 300 enrichment plants the size of the proposed Iranian facility at Natanz. The expansion of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity on such a scale would pose very significant securityrisks.
Schulz mentions reprocessing in a hopeful tone; he never refers to North Korea, which used a small commercial reprocessing plant to become a nuclear weapon state. It had already credibly claimed to be one at the time he wrote his article. Perhaps the North Korean nuclear test will cause him tore-evaluate his position, since that dictatorship showed the great powers as helpless Gullivers, tied down by the threads of the atom theyunleashed.
Finally, nuclearwaste—Schulz characterizes the delays in the Yucca Mountain repository as resulting from “[p]olitical squabbling.” He ignores the very real deficiencies of the site: seismic and volcanic activity in the region and an oxidizing geochemical environment creates the risk that the waste packages will corroderapidly—in hundreds of years or perhapsthousands—leaving the waste seeping through the porous rock into the groundwater. With all the scientific, political, and legal hurdles facing Yucca Mountain, Ernest Moniz and John Deutch, the twoco-chairs of the MIT study and both former undersecretaries in the Department of Energy, concluded in January 2006 that “it is unclear whether Yucca Mountain will ever receive a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”
It has been more than 50 years since the birth of the nuclear power industry, which still needs a massive presence of government in the marketplace. Nuclear power had its chance, and created an expensive mess that will endure for many generations. It is time to move on fromfaith-based solutions to energy and global warming problems to more rapid, robust, and sustainable options: Efficiency, conservation, renewable resources, and some types of transition technologies are capable of completely meeting our future energy needs. The alternatives are available if we have the will to make them areality.
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Max Schulz is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.more from this author >> | <urn:uuid:9fa94602-4bca-4bf2-b558-d48a71e2ff61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wilsonquarterly.com/printarticle.cfm?aid=917 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952362 |
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