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“Also, Stephen J. Tonsor of Michigan State University and Mary F. Wilson of the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Juneau, Alaska, found that some flowering plants, such as pokeweeds (Phytolacca americana) and English plantains (Plantago lanceolata), grow faster when potted with full or half sib lings than when potted with nonrelatives.”
“No publications found so far for Tonsor and Phytolacca should be 1989”
“Other homeopathic remedies to consider include Phytolacca, Sanguinaria, and Hydratis—all in 6th to 30th potency.”
“Poke root Phytolacca americana has a well-deserved reputation as an herb that purifies the glands, including the breasts.”
“Specific herbs that clear up this problem are dandelion root tea taken together with a combination of three parts echinacea root tincture and one part poke root Phytolacca americana.”
“Of the twelve most frequently reported plants in poisoning incidents, only one, pokeweed Phytolacca decandra, is used medicinally.”
“Few of such plants are those which can be used as laxatives and purgatives, for example, Cassia absus, C. alata, C. obtusifolia, Tamarindus indica and Phytolacca dodecandra.”
“The poke-weed (_Phytolacca_) (Fig. 98, _K_), so conspicuous in autumn on account of its dark-purple clusters of berries and crimson stalks, is our only representative of the family _Phytolaccaceæ_.”
“It belongs to the rare Phytolacca family, and has an immense girth -- forty or fifty feet in some cases; at the same time the wood is so soft and spongy that it can be cut into with a knife, and is utterly unfit for firewood, for when cut up it refuses to dry, but simply rots away like a ripe water-melon.”
“It is believed by some in this country that the pokeweed (Phytolacca), if allowed to die in a cotton field, will produce rust.”
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs
‘Phytolacca’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Looking for tweets for Phytolacca. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28579000 |
- v. Simple past tense and past participle of cavil.
“And if they cavil at it, as MPs have cavilled and continue to cavil at the detection of their felonies, they may yet discover what the whoosh of the guillotine blade sounds like.”
“He cavilled in part like the priest Sabellius, who had cavilled like the Phrygian Praxeas, who was a great caviller.”
“The Christians sophisticated, cavilled, hated, and excommunicated one another, for some of these dogmas inaccessible to human intellect, before the time of Arius and Athanasius.”
“I'd personally throw the Schwinn over the fence of anyone who read that story and cavilled about spelling.”
“It may be a very difficult thing, perhaps, for a man of the best sense to write a love-letter that may not be cavilled at.”
“However, their replication is no worse than many similar multiproxies, which have not cavilled at opining on MWP-modern relationships.”
“Others make the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible to them; if any thing lay beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled at.”
“He had cavilled at the idea, but she mentioned the loan again, and he capitulated.”
“The great man cavilled that the day was past, for the sun was set: Nicodemus goes into his oratory again, covers himself and prays, and the clouds dispersing themselves, the sun breaks out again.”
“Now if we will consult the Glossers upon those places, they will tell us that these alterations were made, some of them, lest the sacred text should be cavilled at; others that the honour and peace of the nation might be secured.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cavilled’.
Looking for tweets for cavilled. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28580000 |
About 15 to 20 years ago, folks began to notice problems in amphibian communities around the world. At first, physical deformities were being noticed and then large population declines were being documented.
The finger was initially pointed at the coal industry, with an idea that perhaps mercury was leading to the deformities. But this didn’t pan out. Next, farm practices came under fire, as excess fertilizer running off into farm ponds became the leading suspect. But that theory didn’t hold water either. Then, attention turned to the ozone hole, with the idea that increased ultraviolet radiation was killing the frogs. No luck there either.
Then came the Eureka moment—aha, it must be global warming!
This played to widespread audiences, received beaucoup media attention and, of course, found its way into Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
But, alas, this theory, too, wilted under the harsh glare of science, as new research has now pretty definitively linked an infection of the chytrid fungus to declines, and even local extinctions, of frog and toad species around the world.
Perhaps the biggest irony in all of this, is that while researchers fell all over themselves to link anthropogenic environmental impacts to the frog declines, turns out that as they traipsed through the woods and rainforests to study the frogs, the researchers themselves quite possibly helped spread the chytrid fungus to locations and populations where it had previously been absent.
Now a bit good—although hardly unexpected—news is coming out of the frog research studies. Some frog populations in various parts of the world are not only recovering, but also showing signs of increased resistance—gained through adaptation and/or evolution—to the chytrid fungus.
The magazine New Scientist has an interesting article titled “Fungus out! The frog resistance is here” that ties together a growing number of research findings indicating that frog populations that once faced local extinction have been making a come back—even in the continued presence of the chytrid fungus.
New Scientist reports that Australian researchers are reporting that a variety of frog species from across the Land Down Under that were once devastated by chytrid infection are now re-establishing themselves in areas that they were wiped out and in some cases have even returned to numbers as large as they were prior to the chytrid outbreak.
Other researchers are finding, as reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Briggs et al., 2010), that frogs in the mountains of California that were once “driven virtually to extinction” are also making a recovery even though the chytrid fungus is still present. Some populations there have apparently developed the ability to survive in the presence of low-levels of the fungus.
Evidence of a developing resistance to the chytrid fungus has also been reported in a species of Australian frogs. A study published in the journal Diversity and Distributions (Woodhams et al., 2010) looked at populations of frogs which have recovered from a chytrid infection and found indications that natural selection may have led to more resistant populations and facilitated the recovery.
All this is not to say that amphibian populations across the world have made a full and complete recovery, but it is to say that there are encouraging signs that some populations are clawing their way back through adaptation and natural selection—precisely the way things are supposed to work.
And even though global warming is no longer considered to be the guilty party (of course, exonerated with much less fanfare than it was accused), the amphibian story does show the resiliency of nature—a resiliency that is grossly underplayed or even ignored in virtually all doom and gloom presentations of the impacts of environmental change.
Something that is worth keeping in mind.
Briggs, C. J., et al., 2010. Enzootic and epizootic dynamics of chytrid fungal pathogen of amphibians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 9695-9700.
Woodhams, D.C., et al., 2010. Adaptations of skin peptide defenses and possible response to the amphibian chytrid fungus in populations of Australian green-eyed treefrogs, Litoria genimaculata. Diversity and Distributions, 16, 703-712. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28586000 |
Location: Northern Greece, Macedonia
The vardar is a cold northwesterly wind blowing from the mountains down to the valleys of Macedonia. A type of ravine wind, enhanced by a channelling effect while blowing down through the Moravia-Vardar gap, bringing cold conditions from the north to the Thessaloniki area of Greece. Most frequent during winter, it is blowing in the rear of a depression when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the Aegean Sea. In general, the vardar is similar to the mistral wind.
A strong vardar event occured on January 12 and 13, 2003. Compare the significant drop in maximum temperature by 17°C (from 19C down to 2C) with the darstic jump in prevailing wind direction from easterly to northerly and northwesterly, and the wind speed and peak gusts during this time period recorded at Thessaloniki. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28587000 |
The Smart Grid is Coming! What’s a Smart Grid?
Several hundred utility executives, government regulators, and engineers have gathered in downtown San Diego this week for a three-day conference that is focused on what may be the utility industry’s biggest paradigm shift since the Tennessee Valley Authority electrified the Southeastern United States.
The only problem is that it’s the biggest paradigm shift that people have never heard of. A Harris Poll recently highlighted the fact that U.S. utilities have committed billions of dollars to upgrade the electric grid by installing new “smart meters” in homes and businesses. But the Harris Poll shows about two-thirds of Americans (68 percent) have never heard the term “smart grid” and 63 percent don’t know what a smart meter is.
So for at least some people, you got it here first: Instead of merely tracking how much total electricity (or gas, or water) a customer uses each month, a smart meter tracks a customer’s usage continuously throughout the day and uses wireless technology to automatically transmit the data in real time to the utility. This automated meter reading technology makes it possible for regulators to set prices that vary at different times of day—and which encourage or discourage consumption—based on the relative cost of power production and periods of peak energy demand. As the Harris Poll shows, if the price of electricity changes according to how much it actually costs to produce, three out of four people want to be able to see and control how much electricity they are using.
So why are smart meters a big deal? And why should technology innovators care? A few highlights from the “Metering America” conference are in order:
—In California, the big three investor-owned utilities are in the process of deploying 12 million smart meters, covering about 80 percent of the state’s population at an estimated cost of $4.5 billion, according to Commissioner Nancy Ryan of the California Public Utilities Commission. Ryan told the “Metering America” conference that utility rates based on time-of-day pricing related to the cost of producing electricity must be coupled with extensive customer communications and education campaigns, or the effort to align consumers and true market costs will be wasted.
—San Diego Gas & Electric is on schedule to complete installation of 1.4 million electric smart meters and 850,000 gas smart meters in its service area by the end of 2011 at an estimated cost of $600 million, says Anne Shen Smith, SDG&E’s senior vice president for customer services. While there really are benefits to the deployment, Smith says the industry is “lagging in developing the kind of software that goes with this technology. Until then, it will just be a meter.”
—SDG&E also is deploying its smart meters before technical standards have been set. “We just can’t wait for the perfect technology to happen,” SDG&E’s Smith told the audience. She says smart meters “have to have flexibility, so we can incorporate new technologies as we go.” Smith says it is imperative for the industry to continue development of smart meters as “a software-driven technology platform—so the smart meter itself can be updated remotely as we move forward over time.” Updating the smart meter’s hardware would be a costly proposition that utilities want to avoid. Meanwhile, The California utilities commission has been working to establish smart meter standards with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other agencies.
—The deployment of smart meters at the end points of the power grid also will necessitate the deployment of extensive technologies to collect and store the data—and add intelligence to grid management. Utilities will need new applications for data mining and data analytics to make use of the data being generated. New innovations are being developed and new startups are being formed to serve this emerging industry sector.
—As a case study in what not to do, Ryan pointed to the installation of smart meters in Bakersfield, CA, under a pilot program by Pacific Gas & Electric. Outraged residents who saw their utility bills quadruple following deployment filed a class-action lawsuit against the utility, meter installer Wellington Energy. “PG&E has conceded it did not do enough customer education,” says Ryan, who describes Bakersfield as “the epicenter of the revolution” against smart meters. The state utilities commission has halted the lawsuit, pending its own investigation into the PG&E’s smart meter program, including the accuracy of its meters and billing system.
—SDG&E, which has installed 600,000 smart meters of all types so far, says it has no immediate plan to change from its current flat-rate to time-of-day billing—which prudently separates the smart meter from dynamic pricing that can send customer bills soaring. The PUC’s Ryan says it’s “imperative that the installation of smart grids be seen as something done for customers and not something done to customers.” Yet Ryan says the California utility commission also is intent to follow smart meter deployment with utility rates based on “dynamic pricing that encourages customers to use electricity when it’s abundant and produced at lower cost”—and which discourages them from using electricity during periods of peak energy demand. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28602000 |
by Ben Kiernan
Genocide and Resistance in Southeast Asia: Documentation,
Denial and Justice in Cambodia and East Timor (Transaction, 2008)
The Pol Pot Regime (2008 edn.)
How Pol Pot Came to Power (2004 edition)
The Pol Pot Regime (2002)
Conflict and Change in Cambodia (2006), edited with an Introduction.
Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations, and the International Community (ed., 1993)
Other books by
Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda (2005) edited by
Susan E. Cook
Cambodia (World Bibliographical Series, 1997), by Helen Jarvis
Getting Away With Genocide: Cambodia's Long Struggle Against the Khmer Rouge, by H. Jarvis and T. Fawthrop (2004)
Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Mem[oirs by Survivors, compiled by Dith Pran, Introduction by B. Kiernan (1998)
Genocide in Cambodia: Documents from the Trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, edited by Howard J. de Nike, Kenneth J. Robinson, John Quigley, Helen Jarvis, and Nereida Cross
Pol Pot Plans the Future: Confidential Leadership Documents From Democratic Kampuchea, 1976-1977, ed. D. P. Chandler, B. Kiernan, and C. Boua.
Revolution and Its Aftermath in Kampuchea: Eight Essays, ed. D. P. Chandler and B. Kiernan
Copyright © 2010 Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University. All rights reserved. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28604000 |
This year’s national nursing week will take place May 7-13.
In 1971 the International Council of Nurses designated May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, as International Nurse’s Day. Several years later, the first national nursing week was celebrated in 1985 to highlight nurse’s contributions to the well being of Canadian public.
As many of you know, Nightingale is best known around the world as the “lady with the lamp” who nursed British soldiers during the Crimean war and turned nursing into a profession. Nightingale died on August 13, 1910 at the age of90.
Prior to the founding of modern nursing, nuns and the military usually provided nursing-like care. The religious and military roots are still evident today in many countries, for example in the United Kingdom, senior female nurses are known as Sisters.
Although the event is celebrated internationally, Canada chooses to hold theirs independently on a different date.
The 2012 Canadian theme is Nurses- The Health of our Nation. It reflects the positive impact nurses make to the lives and well-being of Canadians.
Canadian nursing dates all the way back to 1639 in Quebec with the Augustine nuns. These nuns were dedicated to opening up a Mission that cared for spiritual and physical needs of patients. This Mission later went on to create the first nursing apprenticeship training in North America.
At the end of the nineteenth century, hospital care and medical services had been improved and expanded due to Florence Nightingale who was training women in English Canada. In 1874 the first formal nursing training program was started at the General and Marine Hospital in St. Catharines in Ontario. Many programs popped up in hospitals across Canada after this and graduates and teachers from these programs began to fight for licensing legislation and for professional organizations for nurses.
More changes began to occur after World War II, the health care system expanded and Medicare was introduced.
Registered nurses are extremely important for smaller communities, as many only have one doctor. In Canada we are lucky enough to have nurses who are legally allowed to prescribe medication.
Currently there are approximately 260,000 nurses in Canada but nurses are becoming scarcer and the population of baby boomers is aging which requires more nursing care.
The only major event mentioned on the Nursing Association’s web site was that of National telehealth education which was held at the Regina General Hospital, May 9.
Take a few moments to honor your community’s nurses. Say thanks, or give them a small sentimental gift in appreciation for what they do on a daily basis. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28608000 |
Natural Gas Markets: How Federal Agencies Can Reduce Gas Utility Bills
April 20, 2004
Public attention focuses on U.S. natural gas markets in the winter, particularly the impact of projected higher gas prices and possible gas supply shortfalls on the economy. The sharp increase in wholesale prices earlier this year and record low levels of gas in storage have prompted strong statements by Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, warning that "we are not apt to return to earlier periods of relative abundance and low prices any time soon." These comments are mirrored by trends in natural gas forward contracts for the next 3 to 5 years, which are currently trading at nearly twice historical prices.
This trend has implications for consumers, both in terms of their natural gas and electricity bills. Throughout the country, natural gas has been the fuel of choice for virtually all new power plants built over the past decade. As a result, electricity prices are increasingly sensitive to the price of natural gas. While "regulatory lag" will in many cases delay the effect of rising natural gas prices on consumers' electricity bills, a sustained increase in natural gas prices will almost certainly lead to an eventual rise in electricity rates.
Because of the long lead-time needed to develop significant new natural gas supplies and infrastructure, the most promising near-term strategy for putting downward pressure on prices is to reduce natural gas demand. Federal agencies can play a decisive role in responding to this situation by undertaking targeted energy conservation efforts at their facilities. Such efforts can benefit the agencies directly by reducing their exposure to rising electricity and natural gas prices. Agencies can consider a number of general strategies:
- Natural gas efficiency and conservation: The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates the cost-effective potential for natural gas efficiency in the U.S. to be
approximately one trillion cubic feet per year, equivalent to 4 to 5 percent of current annual consumption. Among commercial and institutional customers, retrofitting HVAC systems and furnaces or boilers, recommissioning, and installing window glazing represent some of the more promising opportunities for reducing natural gas use on site. Facility managers may want to re-examine the economics of projects involving these measures, based on current and projected higher natural gas prices.
- Electric efficiency and conservation: Throughout most of the U.S., natural gas power plants operate on the margin at least half of the time—and in a number of regions (the West, Southwest, Texas, Florida, and New England), they operate on the margin 80 to 90 percent of the time. Electricity users can therefore indirectly decrease natural gas consumption—and thus help to put downward pressure on prices—by reducing their electricity use, particularly during daytime hours when natural gas is most likely to be the marginal fuel
source for electricity generation. In fact, in many cases, electric efficiency efforts provide the "biggest bang for the buck." Federal agencies can build on their reputation as leaders in promoting the efficient use of electricity by engaging in measures such as retrofitting lighting and HVAC systems, installing or recommissioning energy management systems, and establishing energy-smart operational practices.
- Demand response and load management: In a number of regions, electricity users have the opportunity to receive payment for reducing their electricity use during specific periods by participating in demand response programs offered by the regional grid operator or their electricity provider. Two types of programs are typically offered: "emergency" programs that pay customers to reduce their load during periods when the reliability of the grid is potentially jeopardized, and "economic" programs that give customers the opportunity to offer load curtailments in exchange for market-based payments. The importance of such programs is heightened by the recent run-up in natural gas prices, which is likely to put upward pressure on peak period electricity prices in many parts of the country. By participating in demand response programs, federal customers can help to dampen this effect.
Agencies can leverage their efficiency and demand response efforts with financial and/or technical resources funded through public benefits funds or demand side management programs. These programs have historically been administered by the local utility, although in a number of states (New York, Vermont, Oregon, Wisconsin) the programs are administered by a statewide agency or non-governmental organization.
Current ratepayer funding for electric energy efficiency tops $1 billion annually—providing for a range of resources to federal agencies, from rebates for energy-efficient equipment and retrofits, to facility audits and project evaluation. Funding for natural gas efficiency is also available in many gas utility service territories. Information on those programs most relevant to federal customers is available on the FEMP Web site.
For more information, please contact Charles Goldman of LBNL at 510-486-4637. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28617000 |
The student exiting the programs in the mathematical sciences must be able to:
1. Analyze and solve problems in the areas of algebra, analysis, statistics, and geometry. The student should be able to work individually and as a member of a team. Depending on the program emphasis, the student should possess the concept comprehension skills mentioned above at a sufficient level of expertise to function successfully as a teacher of mathematics, as a contributing member in business or industry, or as a graduate student pursuing an advanced degree in mathematics.
2. Use technology as an aid in the solution of problems. Specifically, the student must be able to write and effectively use programs for computers and programmable or graphing calculators.
3. Develop appropriate learning skills to foster the investigation of mathematical ideas and direct his/her own learning.
4. Communicate the mathematical ideas learned in the program. This ability must exist in both written and oral forms of communication. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28623000 |
A research internship can allow students to learn while working in the lab with their professor
Or it can offer them the chance to learn while building a new lab with their professor.
Such was the case last summer when David Negro '06 and Soo Hooi Oh '06 helped Boon Siew Ooi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, set up a new optoelectronics and photonics lab in Lehigh's Center for Optical Technologies.
The students' mission was to assemble the lab's several optical waveguide and semiconductor laser characterization stations, and interface them with a central computer so all the new equipment could be controlled from the same keyboard and mouse.
"Neither of us knew a whole lot about photonics before last summer," says Negro, an electrical engineering major, "so the learning experience was huge.
"We not only had to learn how to use new tools, we also had to manipulate the tools for unconventional purposes."
"We had to build the lab, learn the equipment, see how the different instruments work together and learn to be creative," says Oh, a triple major in electrical engineering, integrated business and engineering (IBE) and music composition.
One purpose of the new lab, says Ooi, is to develop emitters and other light sources for use in medical technology, the semiconductor industry and other applications.
Ooi has a grant from Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., a German-based international maker of eye ophthalmology systems, to develop a semiconductor light source that would increase the sensitivity and resolution of the system.
"We have developed a broadband light source for this application," says Ooi, "but we need to increase the bandwidth and the strength of its signal."
Negro and Oh were chosen for their internship after successfully completing Fundamentals of Semiconductor Devices, a sophomore-level electrical engineering course that Ooi taught last spring. Their internships were funded by the COT.
The students assembled the lab's state-of-the-art equipment the old-fashioned way, says Negro. "We read the manuals, we got stuck and then we called the company hotline."
The students spent much of the summer measuring the performance of the new equipment, characterizing the properties of photonic devices and semiconductor chips, and generating and guiding laser signals.
They also helped determine the properties of quantum dot materials. Quantum dots, which emit the light that creates lasers, are nanometer-size semiconductor structures in which the presence or absence of a quantum electron can be used to store information.
"We tried to modify the bandgap and lasing wavelength in order to control the optical properties of the quantum-dot structures," says Soo, who hopes to continue her work in the area by setting up the photoluminescent system that can characterize this nano-material structure.
Using Labview software, Negro and Oh integrated the new equipment to a central computer, then merged data from two or more machines so that the experimental results could be plotted in one graph on the computer screen.
"Without the computer, it would have taken an entire day to generate a graph," says Negro. "With the computer, we generated the same graph in two seconds."
In addition to gaining valuable experience in the lab, the students realized other benefits from their summer internship.
"This opened a wide variety of options for me," says Negro, who hopes to take advantage of the university's Presidential Scholarship program, which offers a tuition-free fifth year of study to students with a 3.75 undergraduate GPA.
"Working in a lab requires a lot of patience and dedication," says Oh. "It has enabled me to see what it would be like to be a graduate student. It has also shown me what I'm lacking, and that will help me know what electives to choose the next two years."
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28628000 |
At this point, WENDELL PHILLIPS, of Boston, entered the hall, which fact the President (MR. GARRISON) announced, remarking that "his appearance was as cheering as the unveiled face of the sun after a long storm." (Loud applause.) |
JOSEPH BARKER said that he perfectly agreed with Mr. Quincy, that Slavery is the lowest condition of Humanity, and that slaveholding is the greatest crime in the catalogue of sins; but what he had contended for was this that in substance and in tendency the two systems were one, and that their effects were much more alike, than one who had not felt the weight of the European system would be disposed to believe; and that, indeed, under certain circumstances, the effect of the Aristocratic system in Great Britain and Ireland was more deplorable, in some respects, than the effect of the slaveholding system in this country. In illustration of this position, Mr. Barker cited the starvation which had been produced, not only in Ireland, but also in England, to a fearful extent, by the efforts of the landlords to maintain a monopoly of the grain market, and thus secure a higher price for their lands form the tenant farmers. By this system, within two years, the population of Ireland had been reduced, through absolute starvation, one and a half to two millions. In no case had the slaveholding system produced such a deplorable and frightful result.
He (Mr. B.) acknowledged the force of Mr. Quincy's remark, that the people of Great Britain could run away, that they were at liberty, if they chose, to leave that country, and come to this. It was also true, that there was no law expressly passed to prevent the people from learning to read; but, by a tax of eight cents on every newspaper, so that one could not be bought for less than thirteen or fifteen cents, by levying a tax of thirty-six cents on every advertisement, though it were but a line, and by a burdensome tax on paper, the number of books and newspapers was kept down, and the ability to obtain them limited to the higher and middle classes of the people. Let his audience imagine books kept at a high price, the people prevented from having more than one half the needful amount of employment, and then obliged to pay two thirds of all their earnings in taxes, (the Aristocracy did not pay one fiftieth part of the their income in taxes,) and they would have as cunningly a devised scheme as the world had ever beheld, for extracting the very last drop of life-blood and energy from the working classes, and leaving them as low, as abject, as poor, as hopeless, as they could well be.
It was true, Mr. Barker said, that the people had the right to run away; but, in many cases, they had not the requisite means to avail themselves of this mode of escape from the tyranny that oppressed them. There were millions in Great Britain and Ireland, at this time, who could not run away; and many of them waited until their friends in this country sent them the means to pay their passage here. Millions were sent over from the United States to Great Britain every year for this purpose. He was aware, as Mr. Quincy had said, that the conduct of the Irish and English Aristocracy is sometimes thrown in the way of the Abolitionist, as an objection to the Anti-Slavery movement; and when he presented his views on this subject, he know what abuse might be made of them by pro-slavery parties in this country. He knew it was possible that some pro-slavery man might, by mistake, say to him, "That's' right, Barker! You do right to denounce the Aristocracy across the ocean." It was possible that such a man might do this once-not twice! (Laughter and cheers.) But, on the other hand, if they refused to allow that the English and Irish Aristocracy are the company of unbearable creatures they really arehow did that operate on the Irish emigrants? They would say"If these men don't know any more about Slavery than they know about England and Ireland, we shan't believe them when they tell us of the condition of the slaves. We have suffered from the Aristocracy and land monopolists in England; we know how they operate; we know it is not possible for the slaves physically to be in a worse condition than he laws of the Aristocracy and land monopolists of Great Britain and Ireland have brought upon the laboring population of those countries; and if they will not concede the truth when speaking on this subject, we are not prepared to acknowledge what they have to say on the question of Slavery."
Mr. Barker concludedMy own impression is, that the course I have taken in venturing to express my feelings and judgment on this subject, will do far more good, by its influence upon English emigrants, than it could possible do harm by appearing, for a time, to strengthen a certain objection employed by slaveholders and their sycophantic adherents. (Applause.) But, whatever be the effect of this course of procedure, for a time, one thing is certain, I can only vindicate liberal principles in my own way, and use such illustrations as my reading and experience supply; and I will trust the effect of a free, honest, benevolent utterance of my own thoughts, and my own feelings, further than I can see. And when we do utter our feelings and sympathies, and convictions of truth, and our wishes for improvement, and when we do contribute our labors for the good of mankind, I am thoroughly persuaded, as I am that I exist, that the effect must be good, though some individuals may seek to make a bad use of it. However, we are all agreed, that while we live in America, it is with American institutions and American abuses that we have especially to deal. Our work is to create and extend the sentiment in favor of impartial Freedom, and against that most accursed of all institutions, American Slavery. I say, here we are agreed, and here we speak our minds, and contribute our efforts to this one great object,to wipe away the stain from the American character, to abolish that institution which rests like an incubus upon American enterprise and improvement; and, surely, we can bear to hold differences of opinion in minor matters, so long as we are perfectly agreed in hating American Slavery, in opposition to the American slaveholder, and in our efforts elevate every human being to a position of equality of rights and a fair chance of doing well for himself, both in body and soul, in his own person and in his posterity, through the length and breadth of this great county, and through he countless ages which are to witness its growing destiny. (Loud cheers.) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28631000 |
The Hoiho – New Zealand’s Yellow-eyed Penguin written by Adele Vernon, photographs by Dean Schneider
Catalogue number 200101
Suitable for children and adults alike. A very informative softcover book. This engrossing account of the hoiho’s secretive lifestyle and unusual characteristics is amply illustrated with striking colour photographs. 44 pages with detailed index.
5 Little Hoiho by Jake Lewis
Catalogue number 200211
New release February 2002
Jake Lewis wrote this book when he was 10 years old as part of a home school project which grew out of his interest in conservation and the plight of the hoiho (the yellow-eyed penguin). The story is aimed at the younger child, beautifully illustrated by Jake with 16 pages of colourful illustrations. Fact flashes of important information about the yellow-eyed penguin are useful for older children. Jake has kindly donated all proceeds from the sale of this book to the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust to help save this unique bird. It’s a gem!
Mustelid Trapping Field Guide by David Blair
Catalogue number 200212
RRP $7.50 (Discounts for bulk orders. For details please contact the Trust office).
2nd edition (2005) available. To order, please send your payment to the Trust office
The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust hosted a practical workshop on mustelid control techniques in August 2000. At the request of attendees, a follow-on field guide was published by the Trust in 2002 and revised in 2005. This A5-sized booklet outlines the biology of the mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels), including reproduction, diet and range, and signals the implications of predator guild relationships. Placement of traps (when, where, how many), technical aspects of trapping and types of traps are all discussed. Included are sample data recording sheets, and explanations to the importance of accuracy of records, including recognising nil returns. The legal obligations under the Animal Welfare Act are also included in this booklet.
Aimed at both amateur and experienced trappers, the Trust hopes it may assist in the practical eradication of one of the threats to the rare yellow-eyed penguin and other endemic species.
Penguin Partnership – A Guide for Landowners
Catalogue number 200105
This is a great guide for those landowners who may have penguins on their land, and want to know the best way to ensure that the penguins will be safe from stock and predators.
Saving the Yellow Eye by John Darby
Catalogue number 200102
Suitable for younger readers. Excellent bright colourful photos and graphics with interesting statistics brings together this informative softcover book.
Nature Kids – the Penguin by Barbara Todd
Catalogue number 200104
This book includes facts about where penguins live, what they eat, the differences between them and how they look after their babies. 24 pages.
New Zealand Wild The Penguin by Barbara Todd
Catalogue number 200105
This book is aimed at 8-14 year-olds. The author looks at penguins, both past and present, what they look like, how they live together and parenthood. This information is followed by extensive text about penguins that live in New Zealand, followed by shorter entries about other penguin species around the world. Excellent for home or school use. 32 pages with colour photographs throughout.
Step by Step Snacks, Light Meals & Treats by Alison Holst
Catalogue number 200108 (currently out of stock)
A cooking book for beginners of all ages. Alison’s reliable, trustworthy and delicious recipes for tasty and interesting family food. This book, supported by Mainland Products, our sponsor, includes a penguin icon on each page. All recipes were test-cooked by a 12 year old.
Coasting – the Sea Lion and the Lark by Neville Peat
Catalogue number 200110
Neville Peat, one of our finest observers of the natural world, takes us on a journey from Otago to the subantarctic and follows the life and migration of a sea lion. With the taut and accurate prose of a scientist, and the lyrical sense of an artist, Peat’s compelling style lures us into gaining an immense amount of information.
In a work that is deeply intimate and wonderfully expansive, Peat takes us well beyond the physical. He delves into the emotional origins of myth, and reveals an impassioned respect and understanding of the close relationship between humans and animals.
While exploring changing coastal habitat – blending ancient beliefs, local history, legend and the natural sciences – Peat encounters a number of remarkable individuals along the way; sea dogs, old salts, and a mysterious drifter who follows the winds and tides. Here we gain the naturalist’s sense of wonder, and the philosopher’s contemplation of the mysterious presence we call nature.
From Field to Forest: A guide to revegetating southern coastlines
Catalogue number 201111. RRP $7.50
Compiled by staff and trustees of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, this booklet summarizes their experiences in habitat restoration since 1987. It is a non-technical guide for anyone protecting native plant habitats, particularly those in southern New Zealand. It is as equally suitable for small scale planting in a coastal garden as for the recovery of an entire penguin nesting habitat.
Going, Going Gone? by Malcom Tait
Animals and plants around the world on the brink of extinction, the orgnanistations that help, and how you can help. A page is dedicated to New Zealand’s yellow-eyed penguin. RRP $35.00 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28633000 |
Twelve Step programs are well known for their use in treating addictive and dysfunctional behaviors. The first 12 step program began with Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in the 1930s and has since grown to be the most widely used approach in dealing not only with recovery from alcoholism, but also from drug abuse and various other addictive and dysfunctional behaviors.
The first book written to cover the 12 step program was titled "Alcoholics Anonymous", affectionately known as the Big Book by program members. Following the subsequent extensive growth of twelve step programs for other addictive and dysfunctional behaviors, many additional books were written and recordings and videos were produced. These cover the steps in greater detail and how people have specifically applied the steps in their lives. An extensive chronology and background about the history of A.A. has been put together at
Dick B.'s website.
The twelve steps of the program are listed above and on the steps page in generic form. Other groups who have adopted the 12 steps to address their own particular addictive or dysfunctional behavior have similar ideas, usually with only minor variations. These steps are meant to be worked sequentially as a process of getting rid of addictive behaviors and should result in a growth in freedom and happiness, as outlined in the Promises. The general governing approach for A.A. groups was originally laid out in the Twelve Traditions, and they remain the guiding principles for most 12 step groups today.
There is a wealth of further information about 12 Step programs in Wikipedia, including a list of 12 step groups, and also from the numerous links in our directory of recovery related websites. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28642000 |
High blood pressure, stress, and diabetes are all familiar warning signs that someone's at risk for cardiovascular disease. But there are other red flags that most of us are not aware of, such as hair loss, or problems in the bedroom. By paying attention to risk factors, and using them as cues to make healthy changes in your life, there's a lot that can be done to prevent cardiovascular damage early on, says Dr. Rene Alvarez, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute. Here are six unusual signs of heart disease -- and what you can do to protect yourself.
1. Sexual dysfunction
Heart disease may be the last thing on your mind when you're cuddling close to your significant other, but trouble performing may be a concern for heart health as well as sexual health. Dr. Alvarez says that although sexual dysfunction in men and women is different, the issue linking it to heart disease is the same: When blood vessels don't work well, sexual problems can occur. "If you have dysfunction in one circulatory area you have it in others," he says.
Do this. Treat both issues. With good medical therapy and healthy lifestyle changes, both sexual dysfunction and heart disease can be avoided. Dr. Alvarez recommends regular exercise, and talking with your physician about daily aspirin use and your vascular health, to resolve both problems.
2. Male pattern baldness
Loss of hair is more than an issue of appearance -- it may mean loss of circulation, according to a correlation between top rear head balding and cardiovascular disease described in a recent t issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Dr. Alvarez says lack of circulation to the hair follicles may be related to heart circulation, although other factors may play a role in the connection. "Some patients who have male pattern baldness may smoke, have hypertension, or a genetic predisposition relating to heart disease," he notes.
Do this. Watch and be aware. Knowing your family history -- both of baldness and heart disease—can help you asses your own risk. If either runs in the family, it's extra reason to take steps to prevent hypertension and high cholesterol levels, and to avoid or quit smoking.
3. Snoring and sleep apnea
Sawing logs may cause your heart to struggle. A study from Emory University in Atlanta found that the obstructed airways in people who have sleep apnea or snore were linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Disturbed sleep may be a predisposition of high blood pressure and diabetes, both contributing to heart disease, says Dr. Alvarez.
Do this. Prevent future problems now. The good news is that this warning sign gives you lots of time to take action. "Sleep-disordered breathing typically occurs decades before it's diagnosed, and decades before signs of cardiovascular disease events," says Dr. Alvarez. If you have these nighttime symptoms, take a sleep test and get advice from a specialist to improve your quality of sleep and quality of life, he suggests.
More from Rodale.com: | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28648000 |
A BRITISH ambassador to Venice in the 17th century observed that “a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country.” But for centuries, diplomats did more than lie. They bribed, they stole, they intercepted dispatches. Perhaps this will come as some consolation to the many American diplomats whose faces have been reddened by the trove of diplomatic cables released this week by WikiLeaks: whatever they’ve done cannot compare in underhandedness with what ambassadors did in the past.
In 16th-century London, for instance, a French ambassador paid another diplomat’s secretary 60 crowns a month to read the dispatches to which the secretary had access. By the 1700s, a large part of the British Foreign Office’s annual expenses of £67,000 was allocated for bribery.
But as a scene of diplomatic misbehavior, London could hardly measure up to Vienna. Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, an 18th-century Austrian foreign minister, took no monetary bribes, but he accepted expensive presents like horses, paintings and fine wines from people who wanted to influence him. Viennese prostitutes also enjoyed unusual access to the diplomatic corps; one such woman, during the Congress of Vienna in 1815, received a salary from an adjutant of Czar Alexander I, and provided him with information she learned during her visits with other envoys.
These practices had begun in the Middle Ages, when negotiators of treaties would gather information about the host nation. They continued in the Renaissance with the advent of permanent embassies. And the belief that the ambassador was a legalized spy never left the hosts’ minds.
Accordingly, governments intercepted the correspondence of diplomats accredited to them. Specialists in curtained, candle-lighted “black chambers” slid hot wires under wax seals to open letters. Those in foreign languages were translated; those in code, decrypted. Their contents were then passed along to kings and ministers.
The black chamber of Vienna was the most efficient. It received the bags of mail going to and from the embassies at 7 a.m.; letters were opened, copied and returned to the post office by 9:30. When the British ambassador complained that he had gotten British letters sealed not with his seal but with that of another country — clear evidence that they had been opened — Kaunitz calmly replied, “How clumsy these people are.”
When the French ambassador to Russia, the Marquis de La Chétardie, in 1744 protested an order for him to leave, an official began reading him his intercepted letters, showing his meddling in Russian affairs. “That’s enough!” the marquis said — and began packing.
The mores of diplomacy began to change in the 19th century, pushed first by the spread of democracy and republican government. Public opinion came to regard it as wrong and unbecoming to a democracy to do anything illegal — in particular when representing itself abroad. Other factors in that change, according to the British diplomat and writer Harold Nicolson, lay in the emerging sense of the community of nations and of the importance of public opinion. As Lord Palmerston, the mid-19th-century British prime minister, maintained, opinions are stronger than armies.
This shift was exemplified by a growing belief that mail shouldn’t be tampered with. In Britain in the 1840s, there was a huge public outcry over the post office’s opening of the mail of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; at the time, the English historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay declared that it was as wrong to take his letter from the mail as to take it from his desk. And when the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was passed in 1961, among its prescriptions was that “the official correspondence of the mission shall be inviolable.”
Ambassadors now regard themselves as ladies and gentlemen. They do not lie. They do not steal. But in some ways, diplomacy has not advanced beyond the old ways. And diplomatic cables can always be intercepted or revealed — as WikiLeaks has demonstrated. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28650000 |
|Module 3: Interpreting Data|
2. Using data to support an argument
To test a theory or answer a question a study is designed, sampling is conducted and the data is collected. The process of descriptive statistics then involves presenting the data in tables and graphs. The data may seem to indicate a clear conclusion about the population which has been sampled. But how strongly do the data support that conclusion? Is there strong evidence for the link between data and conclusion? How can you be sure that the effect observed is due to the experimental treatment and is not just an accidental result?
Deciding on the strength of the link between data - and making conclusions about the population - involves interpretation. The basis of how to make interpretation lies in another statistical process called inferential statistics. Inferential statistics involves the use of statistical methods and models to make measurable claims about populations (and population parameters) on the basis of samples (and sample statistics).
Usually researchers do not know the value of population parameters - they have to estimate them. But they do have measurements made on a sample -these are sample statistics. Researchers also realise that if they used a different sample from the same population to produce more data, the new sample statistics would be different to the first ones.
Inference uses probability to account for this sample variability. However, to make inferences you need to have designed a reliable, unbiased study so that the data that are produced are accurate and valid. Therefore, in order to make useful interpretations about data, or to assess the appropriateness of other interpretations, you need to first ask about how the data were produced and presented.
This page last updated 31 August 2009 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28651000 |
Description - Surrounded by the rugged foothills of the Appalachian Plateau, Tar Hollow State Park and surrounding state forest are characteristic of the wilderness that blanketed Ohio in the days of early settlers. It is a stronghold for many exciting species of wildlife. Numerous reptiles and amphibians, colorful game birds, songbirds and secretive mammals can be found here.
Copyright: Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Tar Hollow State Park
In the 1930s, the Tar Hollow region was purchased for conservation purposes under a New Deal program, the Ross-Hocking Land Utilization Project. People were given a new financial start in life and were encouraged to move to the cities. Most, however, bought more poor ground outside the park and continued to live as they always had.
During the Depression years, the WPA and NYA programs built recreation facilities including the 15-acre Pine Lake and group camp. In 1939, the Ohio Division of Forestry accepted operational control of the land that was then known as Tar Hollow Forest-Park.
When the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was created in 1949, the Division of Parks and Recreation accepted land of several state agencies including the old Division of Forestry. Tar Hollow State Park was developed from the earlier forest. The park, today, is bordered by Tar Hollow State Forest -- Ohio's third largest state forest.
- Tar Hollow State Park offers a campground set amid a wooded hollow near Pine Lake. There are 28 electric sites and 60 non-electric. Both sunny and shaded site are available. The campground is equipped with showers, pit latrines, dump station, and pet sites. A group camp is also available to organized groups. Additionally, five shelters permit camping.
Ross Hollow Hiking Trail, located near the camp, provides foot access to the hills of Tar Hollow. The 21-mile Logan Boy Scout Trail (red blazes) traverses the park and forest. A section of Ohio's Buckeye Trail (blue blazes) also passes through the area. Bridle trails and a horse camp are located on the forest land. A backpack camp is located at the fire tower.
Picnicking is a popular pastime at Tar Hollow. The picnic areas offer excellent scenery and a peaceful setting. Six shelters can be reserved through the park office, while the others are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Pine Lake is a small body of water affording electric motors only. The 15 acres of water surface are perfect for canoeing. Anglers are limited to only two species of fish, bluegill and pan fish. A small launch ramp is located near the 500-foot swimming beach.
Excellent hunting opportunities exist for squirrel, deer, grouse and turkey in the adjacent state forest. A valid Ohio hunting and fishing license is required.
Recreation - Recreations abound at Tar Hollow State Park including activities such as fishing, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, backpacking, miniature golf, picnicking, group and family camping, lake swimming, nature study, and limited boating.
Climate - This state has four distinct seasons and a brilliant fall foliage display in it southern woods during mid October. Winter lasts from December through February with average temperatures near 25 degrees F. Low temperatures dip to single digits, but do not often drop below zero. Northern regions of the state receive average snowfall amounts of 55 inches, while the central and southern regions of the state receive lesser amounts with averages near 30 inches. This difference is caused by lake-affect moisture patterns.
Spring temperatures begin to warm the landscapes of Ohio by mid March and are in full swing by April. Temperatures range from 40 through 70 degrees F through the spring months. This season often brings the most rainfall, before the drying heat of summer. Summer can be extremely hot and humid in the interior of Ohio. Temperatures reach above 90 degrees F frequently through July and August. Cooler fall temperatures don't reach the region until mid to late September. This is a pleasant time to visit as the air is crisp with low humidity levels. Ohio's annual precipitation usually reaches slightly above 50 inches.
The park is located in southeastern Ohio several miles east of Chillicothe off State Route 327. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28653000 |
(the very short version)
In September 1891, Pasadena philanthropist Amos Throop rented the Wooster Block building in Pasadena for the purpose of establishing Throop University, the forerunner of Caltech. In November of that year, Throop University opened its doors to 31 students and a six-member faculty. Throop might have remained just a good local school had it not been for the arrival in Pasadena of astronomer George Ellery Hale. The first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory, Hale became a member of Throop’s board of trustees in 1907, and envisioned molding it into a first-class institution for engineering and scientific research and education. Under his leadership Throop’s transformation began.
By 1921, Hale had been joined by chemist Arthur A. Noyes and physicist Robert A. Millikan. These three men set the school, which by then had been renamed the California Institute of Technology, firmly on its new course.
For the next 85 years, Millikan and his successors—Lee DuBridge, Harold Brown, Marvin Goldberger, Thomas Everhart, and David Baltimore—led the Institute as it achieved preeminence in the scientific community. During this time programs were added in geology, biology, aeronautics, astronomy, astrophysics, the social sciences, computer science, and computation and neural systems.
Now serving as president is Jean-Lou Chameau, who took office in September 2006. Dr. Chameau came to Caltech from Georgia Tech, where he was provost and vice president for academic affairs, Hightower Professor, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. He previously served as dean of Georgia Tech's college of engineering, the largest in the nation. Dr. Chameau places strong emphasis on improving the educational experience of students, increasing diversity, and fostering research, entrepreneurial, and international opportunities for faculty and students. His research interests include sustainable technology; environmental geotechnology; soil dynamics; earthquake engineering; liquefaction of soils; and soil-structure interaction problems.
You may have run into the work of past Caltech scientists without even knowing it.
If your mom ever told you to take Vitamin C to fend off a cold, you can thank Linus Pauling, the Caltech chemist who discovered the nature of the chemical bond in 1930 (his ideas about vitamins came later). His chemical-bond research won him the 1954 Nobel Prize for chemistry. (Pauling also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.)
After an earthquake, news anchors can tell us how relatively shaken up we were, courtesy of the formula that geophysicist Charles Richter devised in the 1920s for measuring the size of Southern California earthquakes. (Later, Richter and fellow Caltech geophysicist Beno Gutenberg would apply the formula to earthquakes throughout the world.)
And if anyone's ever told you to stop acting so "left brain," it's because of the pioneering brain-hemisphere research done by Caltech psychobiologist Roger Sperry (another Nobelist).
Other luminaries in our past include Carl Anderson (discoverer of the positron); Clair Patterson (whose work on lead pollution spurred the federal government to impose pollution controls on the auto industry); Henry Borsook (who formulated the Recommended Daily Requirements for Human Nutrition); Theodore von Kármán (father of modern aviation, jet flight, and, indirectly, JPL); and Richard Feynman (the theoretical physicist/Renaissance man whose name was for years practically synonymous with Caltech's).
You can read about these and other scientists in more detail in Scientific Milestones. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28655000 |
Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Religious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ from the convert's previous beliefs; in some cultures (e.g. Judaism) conversion also signifies joining an ethnic group as well as adopting that group's religious beliefs. Conversion requires internalization of the new belief system.
A person who has undergone conversion is called a convert or proselyte. A proselyte (from the Latin word proselytus which in turn comes from the Greek word πϱοσήλυτος, proselytos meaning "someone who has found his/her place") is in general a title given to a person who has fully embraced a certain religion, world view, ideology, metaphysics, ontology et cetera. In the traditional sense like in Proselytism this word signified people who have converted to Judaism, but is nowadays used in a wider meaning.
Conversion to Judaism
See also the main article ger tzedek
Jewish law has strict guidelines for accepting new converts to Judaism (a process called "giur"). According to Jewish law, which is still followed as normative by Orthodox Judaism and most of Conservative Judaism, potential converts must want to convert to Judaism for its own sake, and for no ulterior motives. A male convert needs to undergo a ritual circumcision, and there has to be a commitment to observe the 613 commandments and Jewish law. A convert must accept Jewish principles of faith, and reject the previous theology that he or she had prior to the conversion. Ritual immersion in a small pool of water known as a mikvah is required, and the convert takes a new Jewish name and is considered to be a son or daughter (in spirit) of the biblical patriarch Abraham, and a male is called up in that way to the Torah.
The Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism movements are lenient in their acceptance of converts. Many of their members are married to non-Jews, and these movements make an effort to welcome the spouses of Jews who seek to convert. This issue is a lightning rod in modern day Israel as many immigrants from the former Soviet Union are technically not Jewish.
Conversion to Judaism in history
- See the main article: List of converts to Judaism
The most famous Jewish King, King David, was descended from the convert Ruth (who, according to the Talmud and Midrash, was a Moabite princess). No formal conversion procedure is given in the text; modern critical historians generally hold giur, in its modern sense, to be an innovation of a later period. Joseph, the father of the most famous sage of the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva, was a convert.
Christians were forbidden to convert to Judaism on pain of death during most of the Middle Ages. In the 1700s a famous convert by the name of Count Valentin Potoski in Poland was burned at the stake. He was a contemporary and a disciple of Rabbi Elijah, known as the Vilna Gaon.
In Hellenistic and Roman times, some Pharisees were eager proselytizers, and had at least some success throughout the empire. Some Jews are also descended from converts to Judaism outside the Mediterranean world. It is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen before, converted to Judaism in the past; today in the United States, Israel and Europe some people still convert to Judaism. In fact, there is a greater tradition of conversion to Judaism than many people realize. The word "proselyte" originally meant a Greek who had converted to Judaism. As late as the 6th century the Eastern Roman empire (i.e., the Byzantine empire) was issuing decrees against conversion to Judaism, implying that conversion to Judaism was still occurring.
Relationship with converts
The Hebrew Bible states that converts deserve special attention (Deuteronomy 10:19). The Hebrew word for "convert", ger, is the same as that for a stranger. It is also related to the root gar - "to dwell'. Hence since the Children of Israel were "strangers" - geirim in Egypt, they are therefore instructed to be welcoming to those who seek to convert and dwell amongst them.
Since around 300 CE, Judaism has stopped encouraging people to join its faith. In fact, in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, converts are often discouraged from becoming Jews and warned that being a Jew entails special obligations, as well as, at least in certain places, the risk of anti-semitism. A Rabbinic tradition holds that a prospective convert should be refused three times.
Differences between Jewish and Christian views
Judaism does not characterize itself as a religion (although one can speak of the Jewish religion and religious Jews). The subject of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) is the history of the Children of Israel (also called Hebrews), especially in terms of their relationship with God. Thus, Judaism has also been characterized as a culture or as a civilization. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan defines Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. One crucial sign of this is that one need not believe, or even do, anything to be Jewish; the Rabbinic definition of 'Jewishness' requires only that one be born of a Jewish mother, or that one convert to Judaism in accord with Jewish law. (Today, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews also include those born of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers if they are raised as Jews.)
To Jews, Jewish peoplehood is closely tied to their relationship with God, and thus has a strong theological component. This relationship is encapsulated in the notion that Jews are a chosen people. Although some have taken this as a sign of arrogance or exclusivity, there are Jewish scholars and theologians who have emphasized that a special relationship between Jews and God does not in any way preclude other nations having their own relationship with God. For Jews, being "chosen" fundamentally means that Jews have chosen to obey a certain set of laws (see Torah and halakha) as an expression of their covenant with God. Jews hold that other nations and peoples are not required or expected to obey these laws, and face no penalty for not obeying them. Thus, as a national religion, Judaism has no problem with the notion that others have their own paths to God (or "salvation"), though it still makes claim as to the truth or falsehood of other beliefs, and as to whether Gentiles are allowed to hold them. Thus, for example, Maimonides believed that the truth claims of Islam were largely false, but he also believed that Gentiles were not sinning by following Islam; on the other hand, he regarded idolatry not just as false, but also as a serious sin, for Jew or non-Jew. In this respect, Rabbinical sources have usually classed Christianity with Islam, rather than with idolatry, though the use of icons in many denominations has raised questions as to whether they are, in fact, idolatrous.
Christianity is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a break with Jewish identity. As a religion claiming universality, Christianity has had to define itself in relation with religions that make radically different claims about Gods. Christians believe that Christianity represents the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and the nation of Israel, that Israel would be a blessing to all nations.
This crucial difference between the two religions has other implications. For example, conversion to Judaism is more like a form of adoption (i.e. becoming a member of the nation, in part by metaphorically becoming a child of Abraham), whereas conversion to Christianity is explicitly a declaration of faith. Of course, conversion to Judaism also entails a declaration of faith, and, in Christian churches, conversion also has a social component, as the individual is in many ways adopted into the Church, with a strong family model.
Conversion to Christianity
In the times of Jesus, all of his disciples were Jews. On occasion, he performed miracles for Gentiles without requiring their conversion; in one conversation with a Samaritan woman, he downplayed the differences between Jews and Samaritans (John 4). Gentiles who sought to join the early Church were often required to undergo conversion to Judaism first including circumcision for men. This requirement was later dropped entirely after Paul forced the issue.
The origin of Christian Baptism in water is derived from the Jewish law requiring a convert to submerge themselves in pure water (of a mikvah) in order to receive a new pure soul from God. It was only many years after Jesus, that there was split in the movement and those seeking to convert to Christianity were not faced with the major obstacles that Judaism presented.
Christianity and Islam are two religions that encourage preaching their faith in order to convert non-believers. In both cases, this missionary property has been used as an excuse for religious wars (crusades) on other countries. This property encourages evangelists to convert people of other faiths, though unfortunately on some occasions by questionable means.
In the year 1000, the Viking age parliament of Iceland decided that the entire country should convert to Christianity, and that sacrifice to the old gods, while still allowed, should no longer be made in the open. Similar mass conversions in other Scandinavian countries were not as democratic.
The Christian denomination of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) accepts new members into its monthly meetings. After a person becomes familiar with the beliefs and practices of Friends, he may embrace these things for himself. This embracing of the beliefs and practices of Friends is called convincement. He then applies for membership, and, if accepted is officially a Friend.
Conversion to Islam
One becomes a Muslim by believing that Allah (Arabic for God) is the only god and that Muhammad was His messenger. A person is considered a Muslim from the moment he sincerely makes this witness, the shahada. Of course a new Muslim has to familiarize himself/herself with the religion, the belief, and the practices of Islam, but there is no formal requirement for that. It is a personal process; acceptance of all of that is taken to follow from the original statement, since all of Islam is considered to derive from either divine inspiration, in the form of the Qur'an, or prophetic example, in the form of the hadith and sunna of Muhammad.
Conversion to religions of Indic origin
Religions of Indic origin such as Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism do not believe in conversion as a form of religious expansion, even though they welcome anybody to join their faiths. The reason for this is the strongly held belief in these religions that "all religions are true and are only different paths to the same truth". The followers also believe that the religion you follow is to be chosen based on an individual's temprement, birth etc. Also, what would be very strange and foreign to non-indic origin faiths is that people can claim to be follower of multiple religions. For example in Japan which was influenced by the indic faith of Buddhism, it is easy to find people who follow both Buddhism and Shinto. It is also common to find people in India claming to be both Hindu and Buddhist or Hindu and Sikh etc. This inclusivism is in direct contrast to the belief that the ordained path in the book is the only true paths, found in exclusivistic belief systems. This inclusivism also makes any conversion unnecessary. It should be noted that the above does not apply for some sects of Indic faiths, like Soka Gakkai and Hare Krishna/ISKCON.
Conversion to new religious movements and cults
Conversion to new religious movements (NRM's) is riddled with controversies. The anti-cult movement sometimes uses the term thought reform or even brainwashing, though the latter term has now become discredited, for this process. Often they will call certain NRM's cults. However, the definition of a cult has become so broad that in many instances it is almost meaningless and is used to define anything outside of Orthodoxy. NRMs are very diverse and it is not clear whether conversion to NRMs differs from conversion to mainstream religions. See also Brainwashing controversy in new religious movements
Research, both in the USA and in the Netherlands has shown that there is a positive correlation between the lack of involvement in main stream churches in certain areas and provinces and the percentage of people who are a member of a new religious movement. This applies also for the presence of New Age centers. , The Dutch research included Jehovah's Witnesses and the Latter Day Saint movement/Mormonism to the NRM's.
Professor Eileen Barker believes that the psychological changes as described in converts of the Divine Light Mission can be generalized for other NRMs, however she has supplied no proof of such claims.
Conversion of Catholics to Protestantism
Prohibition of conversion
Several ethnic religions don't accept converts, like the Yazidis and the Druze. The only way to become a Yazidi is to be born in a Yazidi family. Conversely, the Shakers and some Indian eunuch brotherhoods don't allow procreation, so every member is a convert.
The English language word proselytism is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix 'pros' (towards) and the verb 'erchomai' (to come). It generally describes attempts to convert a person from one point of view to another, usually in a religious context.
In the Bible, the word proselyte denotes a person who has converted to Judaism, without overtly negative overtones. In our day, however, the connotations of the word proselytism are almost exclusively negative. Nonetheless, many people use the words interchangeably. An Orthodox writer, Stephen Methodius Hayes has written: "If people talk about the need for evangelism, they meet with the response, "The Orthodox church does not 'proselytize' as if evangelizing and proselytism were the same thing."
Many Christians consider it their obligation to follow what is often termed the "Great Commission" of Jesus, recorded in the final verses of the Gospel of Matthew: "Go to all the nations and make disciples. Baptize them and teach them my commands." The early Christians were noted for their evangelizing work.
The difference between the two terms is not easily defined. What one person considers legitimate evangelizing, or witness bearing, another may consider intrusive and improper.
Illustrating the problems that can arise from such subjective viewpoints is this extract from an article by Dr. C. Davis, published in Cleveland State University's 'Journal of Law and Health': "According to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Jews for Jesus and Hebrew Christians constitute two of the most dangerous cults, and its members are appropriate candidates for deprogramming. Anti-cult evangelicals ... protest that 'aggressiveness and proselytizing . . . are basic to authentic Christianity,' and that Jews for Jesus and Campus Crusade for Christ are not to be labeled as cults. Furthermore, certain Hassidic groups who physically attacked a meeting of the Hebrew Christian 'cult' have themselves been labeled a 'cult' and equated with the followers of Reverend Moon, by none other than the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis".
Views on the propriety of proselytism, or even evangelism, differ radically. Some feel that freedom of speech should have no limits and that virtually anyone, anywhere should have the right to talk about anything they see fit. Others see all sorts of evangelism as a nuisance and an intrusion and would like to see them proscribed. Thus, Natan Lerner observes that the issue is one of a clash of rights - the right of a person to express his views versus the right of a person not to be exposed to views that he does not wish to hear.
From a legal standpoint, there do appear to be certain criteria in distinguishing legitimate evangelization from illicit proselytism:
- All humans have the right to have religious beliefs, and to change these beliefs, even repeatedly, if they so wish. (Freedom of Religion)
- They have the right to form religious organizations for the purpose of worship, as well as for promoting their cause (Freedom of Association)
- They have the right to speak to others about their convictions, with the purpose of influencing the others. (Freedom of Speech).
By the same token, these very rights exercise a limiting influence on the freedoms of others. For instance, the right to have one's religious beliefs presumably includes the right not to be coerced into changing these beliefs by threats, discrimination, or similar inducements.
Hence a category of improper proselytizing can be discerned.
- It would not be proper to use coercion, threats, the weight of authority of the educational system, access to health care or similar facilities in order to induce people to change their religion.
- It would be improper to try to impose one's beliefs on a 'captive audience,' where the listeners have no choice but to be present. This would presumably require restraint in the exercise of their right to free speech, by teachers in the classroom, army officers to their inferiors, prison officers in prison, medical staff in hospitals, so as to avoid impinging on the rights of others.
- It would not be proper to offer money, work, housing or other material inducements as a means of persuading people to adopt another religion.
Issues involving proselytism
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the rise of democracy in the Eastern Bloc, the Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed a revival. However, it takes exception to what it considers illegitimate proselytizing by the Roman Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious movements in what it refers to as its canonical territory.
Greece has a long history of conflict, mostly with Jehovah's Witnesses but also with some Pentecostals over its laws on proselytism. This situation stems from a law passed in the 1930s by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas. A Jehovah's Witness, Minos Kokkinakis, won the equivalent of US $14,400 in damages from the Greek state after being arrested repeatedly for the 'offence' of preaching his faith from door to door. In another case, Larissis vs. Greece, a member of the Pentecostal church also won a case in the European Court of Human Rights.
- 1. Schepens, T. (Dutch) Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland volume 29, Sekten Ontkerkelijking en religieuze vitaliteit: nieuwe religieuze bewegingen en New Age-centra in Nederland (1994) VU uitgeverij ISBN 90-5383-341-2
- 2. Starks, R & W.S. Bainbridge The future of religion: secularization, revival and cult formation (1985) Berkely/Los Angeles/London: University of California press
- 3. Barrett, D. V. The New Believers - A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions (2001) UK, Cassell & Co
- "Proselytism, Change of Religion, and International Human Rights", by Natan Lerner, PhD (legal aspects of defining illicit proselytism)
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28661000 |
The Billhead evolved from what was known as a "Trade Card," and in the twentieth Century, became known as letterhead. It was created by printing a heading at the top of a sheet of paper, usually from an engraved copper plate. The lower part of the sheet was used for writing a list, a note, or a bill. The standard billhead measured seven to eight inches wide, and four inches or more in length, depending on the need for space for writing the bill. The printed heading usually included an illustration, and sometimes a street address or location of the business. They also included space to write the date and town where the business transaction took place. They were printed on durable rag paper up until the 1860's and 1870's, after which they were printed on thinner woodpulp paper. In general, billheads of this style were in use and remained relatively the same for approximately a 150 year time frame, over three centuries. As historical artifacts, billheads are useful for providing information about tradesmen's products and prices. They help document the types of goods and services that consumers were purchasing.
The American Antiquarian Society has a collection of over 500 billheads representative of what was printed between the 1780's and 1900. They are housed in two boxes. The first box is devoted entirely to billheads from Boston merchants. The other box includes billheads from traders and hotels located in several states, including Massachusetts. They are organized alphabetically by city and state.
-Terri Tremblay, Assistant Curator of Graphic Arts
Source: Rickards, Maurice, The Encyclopedia of Ephemera. New York: Routledge, 2000. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28668000 |
I recently made my first visit to the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA). This is one in a series of articles inspired by that visit to help you make your first visit to the National Archives.
National Archives staff have prepared over 160 pages of finding guides to assist researchers with their most common records. These guides are printed on various hues of colored paper. They can be found on a rack in the lobby once you arrive at the Archives.
While the National Archives has decided not to put these guides online, fortunately, the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society has decided to fill this void. The Mount Vernon Genealogical Society is located in the Washington, DC suburbs where society members are lucky enough to make frequent visits to the National Archives. Some members work there.
Harold McClendon, publicity chair for the society, says,
To make these sheets available to everyone, the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society is placing all of the guides on its web site in PDF format. The guides are organized into the following categories: African Americans, Asian Americans, Census, Citizenship, Civilian Federal Employees, District of Columbia, Early Congressional Private Claims, Immigration, lands, Military, Native American and 1885 State and Territorial Censuses. As new sheets are issued by the National Archives, copies are being added to the web site.
To access these finding aids, go to http://mvgenealogy.org/NARA_Guides.html. McClendon recommends printing the guides related to your research.
As you review the guide, you will then be better able to determine the specific publication to review in search of the desired records. You might even find that the National Archives has publications that you never knew existed.
Thank you, Harold McClendon and the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society for extending this service to the genealogical community. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28673000 |
The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament. The Septuagint served as the basis for the ancient Latin translations, that is, the Old Latin Vulgate. This edition corrects over 1,000 minor errors in of the Rahlf edition, yet still leaves the old edition intact. The text is based on Codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus, with variants noted in the critical apparatus. This edition includes English, German, Latin and Modern Greek introductions, History of the Septuagint Text and Explanation of Symbols. The text is fully in Greek.
Customer Questions & Answers: | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28682000 |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2011 December 29
Explanation: While Comet Lovejoy entertained early morning risers in the southern hemisphere, a lovely conjunction of a young crescent Moon and Venus graced western skies at sunset. Captured on December 26th the conjunction, with beautiful sunset colors above and below, is seen here over Viverone Lake near Turin, Italy. But if you've been outdoors at all lately enjoying sunsets on planet Earth, then you've probably noticed Venus low in the west as the season's brilliant evening star. Sometimes mistaken for a terrestrial light near the horizon, Venus is the third brightest celestial beacon, after the Sun and Moon. That distinction is particularly easy to appreciate in this peaceful scene.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28686000 |
This advice is suitable for open-grown ornamental trees. Although pruning does make trees slightly smaller than they would be without pruning, attempting to keep a big tree small by pruning is usually unsuccessful. This advice does not apply to restricted tree forms such as fans and espaliers.
When to prune trees
Deciduous trees (ones that lose their leaves in winter) are usually pruned in autumn and winter. In some cases, for example with magnolias and walnuts, pruning is best done in late summer, as healing is quicker.
Trees such as Prunus sp, which are prone to silver leaf disease are best pruned from April to July when the disease spores are not on the wind, and the tree sap is rising rather than falling (which pushes out infection rather than drawing it in).
Some trees can bleed sap if pruned in late winter and early spring. Although seldom fatal, this is unsightly and can weaken the tree. Birches and walnuts often bleed if pruned at the wrong time.
Evergreens seldom need pruning, although dead and diseased branches can be removed in late summer.
How to prune trees
Prior to undertaking any work, it is essential to ascertain if a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) is in place or if the tree is in a Conservation Area. If either is the case, seek permission from your local council before beginning work. Potentially dangerous limbs can, in theory, be removed without permission but the penalties for breaching the legislations, inadvertently or not, can be severe.
Safety is of prime importance when working with trees, so make an honest appraisal of your capabilities, assess the area in which any branches may fall and erect warning signs or barricades if necessary before beginning. If in any doubt engage a professionally qualified tree surgeon or aboriculturist.
Take a step back and decide what needs to be done to produce a balanced, attractive tree. Work with the natural habit of the tree to shorten or remove branches. Going against the tree’s natural habit produces ungainly trees that lack grace.
Always start by removing damaged, dead, diseased shoots, followed by weak, lax or rubbing growth.
How to remove tree branches and limbs
- Wear protective gloves and, if necessary, eye and head protection
- When cutting a stem, cut just above a healthy bud, pair of buds or side shoot. Where possible, cut to an outward facing bud or branch to avoid congestion and rubbing of branches
- Make your cut 0.5cm (¼in) above the bud. Beware cutting too close, as this can induce death of the bud Beware cutting too far from the bud, as this can result in dieback of the stub and entry of rots and other infections
- When removing larger limbs, make an undercut first about 20-30cm (8in-1ft) from the trunk, and follow this with an overcut. This will prevent the bark tearing, leaving a clean stub when the branch is severed
- Then remove the stub, first making a small undercut just outside the branch collar (the slight swelling where the branch joins the trunk), followed by an overcut to meet the undercut, angling the cut away from the trunk to produce a slope that sheds rain
- Avoid cutting flush to the trunk as the collar is the tree’s natural protective zone where healing takes place
- There is no need to use wound paints, as they are not thought to contribute to healing or prevent disease. The exception is plums and cherries (Prunus sp), where wound paint may be used to exclude silver leaf disease spores
If pruning cuts bleed sap, don’t bandage or bind the cut, as attempts to stem the bleeding are likely to be unsuccessful and may impede rather than aid healing.
Remove branches of more than 2cm (½in) in diameter with a sharp pruning saw. Don't make a flush cut - come out just slightly so that it heals naturally.
Small branches can easily be removed with secateurs. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28689000 |
Facts in Focus:
- States considering legislation this year to expand opportunities for young voters: 15 (at least)
- States considering advance voter registration for young people: 7
- Number of votes in favor of final passage of state legislation establishing age 16 as a uniform voter registration age, 2006-2009: 979
- Number of votes opposing such legislation: 158
- Votes in both houses of the Connecticut legislature opposing a bill allowing primary voting for 17-year-olds: 0
In a nutshell
As a key element in what is welcome progress toward universal voter registration, a movement is growing within the states to swing the doors of our democracy wide open, encouraging and facilitating the active participation of young people in the electoral process. From education, to access, to advance registration, more and more legislators and public officials are doing their part to invite young people into the process and kick start habits that can last a lifetime.
When it comes to the political participation of young people, we have come to assume a certain ceiling of enthusiasm; a kind of minimum threshold of apathy that is factored into our expectations. Though last year's presidential campaigns directed significant attention to young voters, and despite having a candidate on both major party tickets imbued with youthfulness and pop culture savvy, actual youth turnout saw only a modest bump from 2004; about 1.5 percentage points according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE). Though voters between 18 and 24 were 12.6% of the voting age population, they made up only 9.5% of those who actually voted.
The importance of encouraging youth participation in our democracy is difficult to overstate, and it is in our interest to avoid becoming apathetic about apathy. According to a 2003 study by Alan S. Gerber, Donald P. Green and Ron Shachar in the American Journal of Political Science and Mark Franklin's seminal 2004 book on turnout, Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945, there is a great deal of evidence indicating that participation in one's youth is highly predictive of future participation; in other words, voting is best made into an unkickable habit early in life. We are a country that values the long-term health of our democracy. In hoping that as many people as possible for generations to come will keep themselves informed and reliably take part in elections, we need to take active steps to get young people civically educated, registered, and voting.
And while you're reading this, those steps are beginning to take root in all corners of the country, as legislatures in several states have taken up FairVote's package of youth engagement initiatives. 2009 is shaping up to be the best year yet for "pre-registration" or "advance registration" legislation. At least fifteen states have introduced measures that would set a uniform voter registration age of 16 years old, allow certain 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections and/or encourage civic education in schools.
More than a half-dozen states, including Arizona, California, Washington, Rhode Island and Maryland, have introduced advance voter registration bills, with one chamber each in Michigan, Rhode Island and North Carolina recently passing such bills with bipartisan majorities. California has moved the bills out of a key committee. Meanwhile, Members of Congress are drafting federal legislation to boost the idea. National organizations joining our advocacy now include Project Vote, Progressive States, Common Cause, Rock the Vote and the New America Foundation.
In just one example of the broad support state pre-registration legislation is receiving, Michigan's pre-registration bill was supported by such entities and associations as the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, the Michigan Association of County Clerks, the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks and the Council of Election Officials, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Nonprofit Association, the Michigan Townships Association, and Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (a leading prospective candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination).
Broadening and deepening opportunities for civic participation - both in elections, and in governance overall - is a core part of FairVote's mission. That's why FairVote has advocated for a package of legislation that would encourage young people to become more civically minded, register to vote and participate in the political process.
Here's a look at some of the measures that we believe will help achieve those goals:
1) "Pre-registration" or "Advance Registration" of 16 and 17-year-olds:
Triggered by our advocacy for universal voter registration starting after the 2000 elections, FairVote supports the establishment of a uniform voter registration age of 16, with registrations becoming active when pre-registered youth reach normal voting age. This is in line with the previously mentioned studies showing that people who begin voting when they are young tend to become lifetime voters. Youth voting is rife with obstacles, including transience and a presumption of apathy by the political establishment. But at 16, most young people are in school and therefore relatively easy to target en masse. Additionally, at 16 most young people apply for driver's licenses and learner's permits, allowing for pre-registration to be incorporated into existing motor-voter procedures. Pre-registration would make the registration process simpler and more systematic for students and administrators and catch more young voters. Pre-registration is already on the books in Florida, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Quite literally, we can 'get 'em while they're young' - and in institutional settings like school and the DMV.
The pre-registration effort is an important step on the path towards universal or automatic voter registration, whereby all citizens of voting age would be eligible to vote without having to specifically register to do so. It brings us a step closer to an environment that favors an "opt-out" approach versus "opt-in,", as laid out in FairVote director Rob Richie's National Civic Review article in 2007, "Leave No Voter Behind" (PDF).
2) Primary voting for certain 17-year-olds:
FairVote supports allowing 17-year-olds who will be 18 on or before the general election to vote in the corresponding primary election. Allowing young people in this "gap" to vote will jumpstart the process of civic engagement, and encourage them to learn about the issues that will inform their choices in the general election. Some states already allow for such voting, while others are ambiguous in their relevant regulations. Regardless, parties always have the right to do this in their nomination process if handled privately, as in caucuses. In fact, Connecticut voters supported this reform in a 2008 state constitutional amendment by about a 2 to 1 margin. (For more on this, check out FairVote's fact page on 17-year-old primary voting and our report [PDF] on how parties can make their nominating contests more democratic in general.)
3) Mandatory comprehensive civic education in high school:
Too many students leave high school with a limited understanding of what civic engagement and participation in our democracy entail. We encourage the use of curricula like our Learning Democracy resources that teach about the workings of democracy and the history of voting rights. Such civic education should ideally entail things like mock voting to demystify the voting process and make it less intimidating for democratic newbies. A civic education curriculum also provides an opportune moment to encourage pre-registration. Learning Democracy, FairVote's comprehensive civic education curriculum, is available at http://www.fairvote.org/learningdemocracy. (Our prototype state-based edition is available at http://www.rhodeislandsuffrage.org.)
An Encouraging Electoral Prognosis
Might we be on the verge of a kind of youth voting legislation renaissance within the states? Fifteen or more states have seen pieces of the above legislative package introduced this year alone, with action ensuing on many of these bills. Below is a listing of some of the activities in various statehouses (which might not be exhaustive - itself a tantalizing fact). Many or most of these bills were introduced, at least in part, per information received from FairVote, and we are very excited to see those efforts begin to blossom. Because the better informed our young people, the simpler it is for them to register as voters, and the more enthusiastic they are to participate, the more likely it is that our democracy will be healthy and robust for decades to come.
Progress this legislative session:
Arizona: Representative Ed Ableser introduced HB 2384 and HB 2026, respectively allowing for pre-registration of 16-year-olds, and for 17-year-old primary voting.
California: Assemblyman Curren Price introduced AB 30, to allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote. It has passed the House Elections Committee and the House Appropriations Committee. It may see a floor vote as soon as the first week of June..
Connecticut: House Bill 6439 implements a recently passed amendment to the State Constitution to allow for 17-year-old primary voting. It has unanimously passed both the House and Senate.
Illinois: House Bill 2629 by Representative Kathy Ryg would allow for 17-year-old primary voting.
Kansas: House Bill 2256 by Representative Milack Talia would create a uniform pre-registration age of 14-years-old. (FairVote is supportive of the philosophy that underpins this legislation, but would suggest that a 16-year-old pre-registration age would be sufficient.)
Kentucky: Provisions for pre-registration for 16-year-olds and mandatory public education about elections were introduced by Senator Jerry Rhoads, in the form of an amendment to Senate Bill 109.
Maryland: Senate Bill 671, allowing for pre-registration of 16-year-olds, was introduced by Senator Jamin Raskin. The bill did not get out of committee, although testimony from the Maryland Board of Elections indicated that it would have no fiscal impact.
Massachusetts: Representative Ellen Story has introduced House Bill 3895, allowing for pre-registration of 16-year-olds. House Bill 1592 by Representative Steve D'Amico would allow for 17-year-old primary voting.
Michigan: House Bill 4261, by Representatives Lesia Liss and Matt Lori, would allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote. It passed the House on May 14th by a 92-18 margin, with majority support from both Republicans and Democrats and a broad coalition from across the spectrum. Senator Cameron Brown has introduced a companion bill, as SB 61. (The bill has some limitations on where registration can take place, and what sort of identification is necessary to register.)
Minnesota: HF 873 by Representative Paul Marquart and SF 606 by Senator Ann Rest would allow for 17-year-old primary voting.
New York: A 5110 by Assemblyman Michael Cusick would amend the state constitution to permit 17-year-old primary voting.
North Carolina: HB 1260, by Representative Angela Bryant and others, is known as the "Teen Pre-registration and High School Civic Education Act." Passed by the House with a 102-14 vote, it. allows for 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote and requires local boards of education to develop plans to educate high school students in voter registration and voting. A majority of both Republicans and Democrats supported the legislation, while it was backed by civic groups that included Democracy North Carolina, FairVote North Carolina. League of Women Voters of North Carolina, NC Center for Voter Education, NC Civic Education Consortium, Common Cause North Carolina, El Pueblo Inc. and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Rhode Island: House Bill 5005 by Representative Edwin Pacheco passed the House on March 10th by a margin of 56-10, while Senate Bill 85 by Senator Rhoda Perry passed the Senate on March 19th by a margin of 32-2. Both bills would allow for the pre-registration of 16-year-olds and saw support from half of the Republican caucuses, in addition to a majority of Democrats.
Washington: House Joint Resolution 4204 by Representative Zack Hudgins would propose a constitutional amendment to allow 17 year-olds to vote in primaries, while House Bill 1193 By Representative Marko Liias would allow 13-year-olds to pre-register to vote. (As in the case of the Kansas legislation, we believe that a 16-year-old pre-registration age is sufficient.)
Wisconsin: The introduction of FairVote's youth-engagement package is expected, upon passage of the state's budget in June.
Wyoming: House Bill 76 allows for the pre-registration of all voters who will be 18 as of the next general election. This is an advance, and will sometimes allow 16-year-olds to register, depending on the point in the electoral cycle. (A uniform 16-year-old voter registration age would be less confusing, and more practicable.)
* * * *
Previous editions of Innovative Analysis can be found here.
Contact: Paul Fidalgo, communications director: paul(at)fairvote.org, (301) 270-4616
* * * *
Project Vote's Erin Ferns blogs at TPM on Pre-registration
Progressive States Network: Expand Youth Voting
Brennan Center's resources on modernizing voter registration
New America Foundation on Pre-Registration
Rock the Vote Supports CA and RI Pre-registration Bills
Common Cause on Voter Registration Reforms
Michigan House Legislative Analysis of Pre-registration
FairVote North Carolina Voter Pre-registration and Education Project
Youth Voter Pre-registration in Rhode Island
FairVote.blog: Pawlenty Vetoes Automatic Registration Bill
Katrina vanden Heuvel advocates for universal voter registration in the Nation | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28692000 |
Brookhaven National Laboratory has what is currently one of the highest energy particle accelerators on the planet. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) hosts collisions between the nuclei of gold atoms that are moving at roughly 99 percent of the speed of light, creating a quark soup similar to the one that existed immediately after the big bang. But the scientists running the experiments started noticing something funny about the data: instead of expanding evenly outward, the collision debris were ellipsoidal (think a 3-D ellipse). What was even stranger was that this sort of behavior had already been described, for a gas of lithium atoms at the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, at a fraction of a microkelvin. As these groups were talking about a collaboration, things got stranger still when string theorists started citing this work, since the behavior had already been predicted through their work—a fact that the physicists weren't aware of until a science reporter called to ask what they thought about it.
The tale of this unlikely collaboration unfolded at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, where the introductory remarks described just how far apart these systems are. In terms of temperature, the RHIC and chilled lithium differ by 19 orders of magnitude (that's a factor of 1019). When it comes to density, the difference is an astonishing 25 orders of magnitude. Meanwhile, the bit of string theory that describes the normal, four-dimensional (3-D + time) behavior of these systems can be predicted by modeling a four-dimensional sphere wrapped around a five dimensional black hole.
Quantum viscosity runs hot and cold
The cold atomic cloud is probably easiest to understand, although John Thomas of Duke, who does the work, claimed that, when dragged to wine tastings with his wife's friends, "I wait until everyone's sufficiently drunk before explaining what we do." His short description is that he makes bowls of light; in principle, the first steps in his system involve the sort of laser cooling that our Chris Lee has described in the past. This can only get things down to a bit under a kelvin above absolute zero, but Thomas then loosens the laser trap, and a few atoms evaporate off, taking most of the remaining heat with them. The end result is an atomic cloud at one-tenth of a microkelvin.
The 6Li atoms that he uses have up and down spins that form an analog of the cooper pairs of electrons that cause high-temperature superconductivity, so his system allows theorists to test some of their ideas in an accessible experimental system. But it also has interesting properties when in a magnetic field. At a specific magnetic field strength, the interactions between the paired atoms start to go asymptotic and, when at a very precise point, the interactions vanish and quantum effects dominate. When the laser trap is released again, the atoms expand elliptically, displaying essentially the smallest amount of quantum viscosity possible. Because the system is experimentally possible, they were able (on the advice of string theorists—more on that below) to measure both the viscosity and entropy, and found that they were related directly to one divided by four ?.
Out at the other end of the temperature spectrum, the collisions in the RHIC were producing what Brookhaven's Barbara Jacack termed "quark soup." In normal matter, quarks interact by exchanging gluons with a limited number of partners. But, at the densities that exist immediately after these collisions, quarks can exchange multiple gluons with multiple partners, leading to longer-range interactions that are more similar to those in a liquid. Two aspects of the behavior seen by RHIC's detectors, however, were a bit surprising. The first is the ellipsoidal expansion that marks the behavior of perfect quantum liquids that we mentioned above. The second is that, although radiation can pass across the small cluster of quark soup, the actual quarks, it appeared, could not. Jacack likened the fact that even the heavy charm quark didn't make it across the collision to a set of bowling pins stopping an incoming ball.
Like Thomas, talking to string theorists allowed Jacack and her team to look for some specific properties—in this case, shock waves of a particular type—of the quark soup. So far, it's looking like they're there. RHIC is about to undergo a retrofit that should make it easier to study this, and the stimulus package may have some money for the DOE that could accelerate the work.
The theory needs a five-dimensional black hole, but reality may not
Clifford Johnson of USC then spoke about how a specific application of string theory helped tie everything together. As he described it, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) works very well at describing the interactions of a limited number of particles, and its successes in the early 1970s caused researchers to abandon an earlier version of string theory. But QCD doesn't work that well at the densities seen in the RHIC, where ensembles of particles have emergent behavior—as Johnson noted, a single water molecule isn't wet; that's a property that emerges from a population of water molecules. And this, along with a few other vexing problems, has allowed string theory back in the game.
"String theory," Johnson said, "having failed to explain something, got resurrected a few years on and was used to explain everything," or at least provide a quantum description of gravity. He got interested in the problem of describing quantum black holes, which are far smaller than the macroscopic ones we've observed in space. Based on their emission of quantum radiation, they have to have an internal structure, one that our lack of a quantum gravity is preventing us from probing. (During the questions, it became clear that Johnson is one of the few people hoping that the LHC does spawn a small black hole.) It turns out, using the math of string theory, it's easy to examine a five-dimensional black hole simply by wrapping a four-dimensional sheet around it. When you do that, however, a lot of three-dimensional QCD behavior pops out of the equations—"the bugs of string theory become features," as Johnson put it.
In the extra dimensions, gravitons get pulled towards, and then bounce off, the black hole, undergoing interference as they do. That interference apparently describes the behavior seen in both of these real-world systems. Johnson was emphatic that this doesn't mean that the experiments that have used these string theory models are a test of the theory; rather, it means that the predictions of string theory are being used to guide experiments, which is a measure of its utility.
As for whether there's really an extradimensional black hole tucked away in these conditions, Johnson described himself as "agnostic." It may be possible, he said, to find a way to describe this behavior without resorting to anything beyond our familiar dimensions, but, at the moment, string theory's models are simple and functional, so there's no reason not to use them. In the meantime, everyone seems excited about the prospect of further collaboration. As Jacack said when showing a slide with a certain image of a kitten playing with yarn, "you know your field has hit the big time when you make it into lolcats." | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28696000 |
Last week I talked a bit about parisitoid fly larvae. Now, the genomes have has been published for three species of parisitoid wasps in Science. These guys are every bit as brutal as the flies, and then some. They forcibly inject their eggs into their insect hosts, often caterpillars. Some species inject multiple eggs while other inject a single egg that later divides into many cloned larvae that form a colonial social hierarchy within their host. Once they mature, the larvae burst out the side of their host. However, even this insult isn’t the end of the torture for the unfortunate caterpillar. The larvae employ mind controlling chemicals to force the caterpillar to use its silk to build them a cocoon, and then watch over its pupating murderers until it keels over dead.
Parisitoid wasp larvae from National Geographic’s, “In the Womb.” Watch in high quality for maximum revulsion.
Nature, you are one psychotic bitch.
Read this review for a wider overview of parasitoid wasps and their contributions to pest control and biological sciences, including discoveries made in the recent genomics work.
One interesting point jumped out at me. The parisitoid wasps are insanely diverse, with species estimates exceeding 600,000. Entomologist Michael Strand even posits that,
There’s a really compelling argument that these parasitoid wasps may be more diverse than beetles[.] Virtually every arthropod on Earth is attacked by one or more of these parasitoid wasps.
This extreme diversity seems to be tied to rapid evolvability (a concept that I have noted before in regards to arthropods) and rigid host specificity. While some wasps are generalists, laying eggs in a variety of arthropods, the vast majority parisitize a specific host species. This specificity is the result of evolutionarily optimized venoms and mind-controlling toxins, tailor made for their host species, and leading to rapid divergence of parisitoid wasp populations as they discover new host animals. This is not unlike the algal specificity of the sea slug I discussed last week. Its biology is ideally suited for maintaining chloroplasts taken up from a single species of algae.
Researchers hope to develop parisitoid wasps as a research model and exploit their prey specificity for pest control that will benefit agriculture. With bio-engineered parisitoid wasp terminators coming soon to a pasture near you, aphids and caterpillars should just cut their losses and run for their lives. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28699000 |
- published: 24 Feb 2007
- views: 235816
- author: coderedreel
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The modern-day confusion in the English language around the word "biscuit" is created by its etymology.
The Middle French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere, coctus (to cook, cooked), and, hence, means "twice-cooked". This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven.
However, the Dutch language from around 1703 had adopted the word koekje, a language diminutive of cake, to have a similar meaning for a similar hard, baked product. This may be related to the Russian or Ukrainian translation, where "biscuit" has come to mean "sponge cake".
The difference between the secondary Dutch word and that of Latin origin is that, whereas the koekje is a cake that rises during baking, the biscuit, which has no raising agent, in general does not (see gingerbread/ginger biscuit), except for the expansion of heated air during baking.
When peoples from Europe began to emigrate to the United States, the two words and their "same but different" meanings began to clash. After the American War of Independence against the British, the word cookie became the word of choice to mean a hard, twice-baked product.
Further confusion has been added by the adoption of the word biscuit for a small leavened bread popular in the United States.
Today, throughout most of the world, the term biscuit still means a hard, crisp, brittle bread, except in North America, where it now denotes a softer bread product baked only once. In modern Italian usage, the term biscotto is used to refer to any type of hard twice-baked biscuit, and not only to the cantuccini as in the past.
The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, was initially solved by taking live food along with a butcher/cook. However, this took up additional space on what were either horse-powered treks or small ships, reducing the time of travel before additional food was required. This resulted in early armies' adopting the style of hunter-foraging.
The introduction of the baking of processed cereals including the creation of flour provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake, while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellum. Roman cookbook Apicius describes:
|“||a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper.||”|
Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.
Hard biscuits soften as they age. To solve this problem early bakers attempted to create the hardest biscuit possible. Because it is so hard and dry, if properly stored and transported, navies' hardtack will survive rough handling and high temperature. Baked hard, it can be kept without spoiling for years as long as it is kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal.
The more refined captain's biscuit was made with finer flour.
At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor’s diet until the introduction of canned foods. Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847.
Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers' oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor.
By the seventh century AD, cooks of the Persian empire had learnt from their forebears the secrets of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, in French pain d'épices, meaning "spice bread", brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Grégoire de Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, in Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years, and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally a dense, treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix.
With the combination of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, and then the Crusades developing the spice trade, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from a sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England, (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin", which was a mixed corn compound of barley, rye, and bean flour.
As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit making through the Craft Guilds. As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely foodstuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The British biscuit firms of Carrs, Huntley & Palmer, and Crawfords were all established by 1850.
Hence, it is of no surprise that, often together with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit, so old is this form of food.
|This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.|
Most modern biscuits can trace their origins back to either the hardtack ship's biscuit, or the creative art of the baker:
Biscuits today can be savoury or sweet, but most are small at around 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter, and flat. The term biscuit also applies to sandwich-type biscuits, wherein a layer of cream or icing is sandwiched between two biscuits, such as the custard cream, or a layer of jam (as in biscuits which, in the United Kingdom, are known as "Jammy Dodgers")
Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as a snack food, and are, in general, made with wheat flour or oats, and sweetened with sugar or honey. Varieties may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts, or even be used to sandwich other fillings. There is usually a dedicated section for sweet biscuits in most European supermarkets.
In Britain, the digestive biscuit and rich tea have a strong cultural identity as the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea, and are regularly eaten as such. Many tea drinkers "dunk" their biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption.
Savoury biscuits or crackers (such as cream crackers, water biscuits, oatcakes, or crisp breads) are usually plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal. Also among the savoury biscuit we may include the Jewish biscuits known as Matzos. A large variety of savoury biscuits also contain additional ingredients for flavour or texture, such as poppy seeds, onion or onion seeds, cheese (such as cheese melts), and olives. Savoury biscuits also usually have a dedicated section in most European supermarkets, often in the same aisle as sweet biscuits. The exception to savoury biscuits is the sweetmeal digestive known as the "Hovis biscuit", which, although slightly sweet, is still classified as a cheese biscuit. Savoury biscuits sold in supermarkets are sometimes associated with a certain geographical area, such as Scottish oatcakes or Cornish wafer biscuits.
In general, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Kenyans, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans, and the Irish use the British meaning of "biscuit" for the sweet biscuit. In both Canada and Australasia, the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably, depending on the region and the speaker, with biscuits usually referring to hard, sweet biscuits (such as digestives, Nice, Bourbon creams, etc.) and cookies for soft baked goods (i.e. chocolate chip cookies). Two famous Australasian biscuit varieties are the ANZAC biscuit and the Tim Tam. This sense is at the root of the name of the United States' most prominent maker of cookies and crackers, the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco.
It consists of soft unsweetened dough biscuits covered in thick "country" or "white" gravy, made from the drippings of cooked pork sausage, white flour, milk, and often (but not always) bits of sausage, bacon, ground beef, or other meat. The gravy is often flavored with black pepper. In some parts of the southern United States this is also called sawmill gravy.
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The first graduating class of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. (Chicago Tribune)
TUSKEGEE, Ala. -- This is not a glamorous city. Its glory days are long gone, though a handful of once-fine mansions built before the Civil War are evidence that "money" had been here.
The drive 40 miles east of Montgomery, the capital, on U.S. Highway 80, also known as the old Dixie Overland Highway, winds through piney woods, passing an occasional gray-weathered shack tucked back in the trees.
In Tuskegee itself, it's clear that the town is down on its luck, with many houses in need of a face-lift and few stores or businesses open. Years ago racial problems prompted prosperous white-owned businesses to close and nearly all white residents to move away.
But half a century ago, during the civil rights movement, noble history was made here. And decades before that, the town was important because of the Tuskegee Institute, which under the determined leadership of Booker T. Washington offered an education to the children of former slaves, though Washington realized that education alone was not enough. Tuskegee graduates also were well versed in any of many trades to guarantee them a livelihood.
For the school, Washington also had managed to lure George Washington Carver, a man Henry Ford once described as "having the mind of a scientist and the soul of a saint." Carver had given up a far more prestigious position at Iowa State College to come here to teach. And through his research, he was able to change the lives of area farmers.
He wrote that while he "initially wanted to help the poor black farmers of Alabama, eventually he was able to help all farmers, black and white" as they attempted to scratch a living out of destitute soil.
Carver discovered that peanuts could grow in abundance in such soil, actually enriching it, and then he figured out hundreds of ways to use the lowly legume.
Showcasing these efforts and others is a Black History Trail that celebrates Tuskegee's storied past. To follow the trail, I recommend starting at the Tuskegee Heritage Museum, 109 Westside St. (800-462-6006) on the old Town Square.
Here in a historic 3,000-square-foot former store, Charles Kirk, 72, who runs a flower shop next door, has created a world of 19th and early 20th century farm life, mostly with hundreds of artifacts from his own family, which came here in the 1840s.
Kerosene lanterns, cast-iron pots, glass scrub boards, iron-frame beds, iceboxes, cross-cut saws, axes, horse and mule harnesses and more occupy nearly every inch of floor space or hang from the walls and the ceiling. Dozens of early photos show men and women, blacks and whites, plowing with mules; planting corn, velvet beans or cotton; chopping and picking cotton.
The museum also displays numerous Native American artifacts, including bead jewelry, early class photos of students at nearby Tuskegee Institute, and rare silver dollars and stamps featuring Carver and Washington.
Kirk noted that years ago, "everyone here was alike, blacks and whites, all farmers, all barely surviving."
There was no middle class, he continued, "just poor farmers working shoulder to shoulder. A few families owned land, but most sharecropped."
And until about 50 years ago, the town prospered, he said, "with three or four banks, stores, cotton gins, factories that made cottonseed oil." But, he added, racial problems arose under a New Deal "‘resettlement program,' a land-utilization project supposedly intended to help impoverished blacks acquire land, moving them west of town" and away from depleted soil that would become the 1,700-acre Tuskegee National Forest, but leaving whites on their land.
Further fueling strife was an effort to block the black vote. The next stop on the trail tells that story. It was at the Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church, 1002 N. Church St. (334-727-6619), where in the mid-1950s the Rev. Kenneth Buford, responding to a state effort to prevent registered blacks from voting in local elections, began urging parishioners and others in the African-American community to boycott Tuskegee's white-owned businesses, most of which eventually closed, Kirk said.
Thousands gathered at the red brick church in 1957 for the first meeting of Tuskegee's Civic Association's "crusade for citizenship." Redrawn boundaries challenged in court were changed, and by 1964 Macon County, where Tuskegee is located, had a predominantly black electorate, and several blacks had been elected to office, including Buford, who served on the city council.
Today most of Tuskegee's remaining businesses are run by African-Americans, Kirk said. (Tours of the church are available by appointment.)
Other stops on the trail
•Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, 104 S. Elm St. (334-724-0800, tuskegeecenter.org ), an interactive history museum established by attorney Fred Gray, among whose clients were the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28702000 |
Barrow, Alaska, after an icy summer, has no hint of Arctic ice on the horizon.… (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles…)
BARROW, Alaska — Here at the top of the world, the news that Arctic sea ice has reached a new low — the smallest footprint since satellites began measuring it three decades ago — is not much of a surprise.
The Arctic seas off the Alaska coast have been increasingly ice-free in recent years. On Monday, the gray, wind-driven surf churned vigorously along the northern coast, with no sign of ice anywhere under the low, fog-shrouded skies.
But it has been a strange summer here. Until a few weeks ago, there was more ice spread across the near-shore waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas than anyone can remember for the last several years — a curse for the engineers waiting to begin plumbing oil wells into the sea floor, but a blessing for Inupiat hunters, who have had an unusually easy time catching seals from ice floes close to home.
“It really seemed kind of like it was back in the days when the ice was like it used to be,” said Nayuk Leavitt, a Barrow resident who works on one of Shell Alaska’s oil spill response crews.
But the late-lingering near-shore ice in Alaska, now in full retreat, was not representative of what is going on most everywhere else in a gradually melting Arctic, scientists say. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado announced that Arctic sea ice had shrunk to 1.58 million square miles, the lowest expanse recorded since satellites began taking measurements in 1979.
That breaks a record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, and the shrinkage appears to be continuing: Ice is expected to keep melting through September.
Scientists said previous warm years had started a pattern of a melting of the multi-year ice that historically has clung to the poles. The newly thinner ice that remained from last year melted even easier this year — although temperatures weren’t necessarily warmer. The phenomenon is probably feeding on itself, scientists say.
“In the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing,” Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a conference call.
The unusually high accumulation of ice into the summer months off the coast of Alaska, probably caused by a combination of wind patterns and the cyclical rotation of ice around the North Pole, meant uncommonly good hunting for many families in Barrow, the highest populated point in the U.S., and nearby communities. Residents here say the marine mammals they depend on for food and fur were in many cases perched throughout the early summer unusually close to home, on the near-shore sea ice.
“All my family are hard-core hunters, so they’re just happy it was staying in, so they could get all their hunting done,” said Tim McCoy, a Barrow resident.
In Wainwright, on the northwest coast of the Chukchi Sea, ice lingered close to shore until late July, said Ian Wiley, who works at one of Shell’s camps on the coast. “Up until our last hitch here four weeks ago, you could see the sea ice right outside the camp,” he said.
Although the late-lingering ice was a factor in delaying the start of the first offshore drilling here in more than two decades, Shell officials say the ice now has retreated to more than 20 miles north of the company’s primary drilling target, on the Berger prospect in the Chukchi Sea — which itself is about 70 miles offshore.
The first of Shell’s drilling rigs, the Discoverer, is scheduled to arrive in the Chukchi Sea later this week. The other, the Kulluk, is halfway on its journey to the Beaufort Sea.
Permanent anchors have already been installed at both drilling locations to allow for the reduced target of drilling two complete wells this season, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in an interview here.
Shell has asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to consider extending by 18 days the Sept. 24 deadline under which the company was supposed to have completed drilling in the Chukchi Sea, where the relatively remote location requires an early wind-up to ensure there is time to address any problems that occur before the onset of winter ice.
But Shell’s own ocean ice experts say their latest modeling makes them fairly confident that ice is not likely to close in around the Chukchi drilling site until mid-November.
The company has been spending $4.5 million a year on ice studies, assembling a team of scientists whose expertise rivals or exceeds that of the National Weather Service.
They have documented a pattern of ice movements over the last 10 years that show predictable open ocean conditions in the Chukchi Sea until November every year, Shell’s chief scientist, Michael Macrander, told the Los Angeles Times. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28706000 |
While the Right to Education Act (RTE) mandates that every child has the fundamental right to free and compulsory elementary education in India, how do you ensure education for children in difficult circumstances? Malini Sen finds out
From West Bengal and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh to Orissa, the Maoist-dominated regions are making the headlines. But, in the sidelines of the news is another story - education for children in difficult circumstances, which requires special attention. Apart from political strife, difficult circumstances indicate internal displacement, natural disasters, communal and other forms of violence.
While the Right to Education Act (RTE) mandates that every child has the fundamental right to free and compulsory elementary education in India, how do you set up formal schools in these vulnerable regions? How do you convey the importance of education, when life itself is uncertain?
During a visit to Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) and Khammam ( Andhra Pradesh) a few years ago, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had strongly urged that schools be identified as 'zones of peace.' This would include nonuse of schools for any other than educational purposes, separation of schools from the camps, and introduction of programmes addressing the psycho-social needs of the children delivered within the school environment with appropriate training of teachers.
Shantha Sinha, chairperson, NCPCR, asserts that education should not be compromised at any cost. "In regions of conflict, children are more prone to trafficking, joining the labour force or even the armed conflict. The only way to make sure that they are safe is to keep them in school. And now, with RTE, it is their fundamental right," she adds. The NCPCR is working towards reviving schools in districts facing civil unrest, where there has been a total breakdown of the education system.
According to Unicef sources, at present, there are around 33 districts that are affected by naxal violence. Access to education has been significantly affected, staff enjoy little mobility, teacher attendance is low, civil work has come to a standstill, several school buildings have been destroyed and a number of schools are being used by the forces.
In Chhattisgarh, Unicef has been working with the local administration in South Bastar to bring children back to residential school facilities in Porta Cabins (prefabricated bamboo structures) and provide them with a child-friendly environment.
At the initial phase, the methodology should be more about direct delivery, says Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director, Plan India. "For example, setting up of child-care centres for children aged 0-6 years, special training centres for children in the age group of 10-18, supplying teaching-learning materials such as text books, etc."
Secondly, trained facilitators should be engaged to provide psycho-social support to the children affected by emergencies. The primary aim is to provide care and support to the children at regular intervals. "Our role should be of a facilitator, building the right linkages with schools so that children can go back to school safely," adds Dengle.
Reiterating the importance of psycho-social support, Venkatesh Malur, education specialist, Unicef, says sports for development and arts-based therapy has been undertaken to engage children in various participatory activities and divert their attention from what is happening around them in Chhattisgarh.
"Avenues for expression and articulation of their thoughts and ideas have been created using which children have been able to exhibit their skills," he adds. Innovative measures such as activity-based learning methodologies are being used in the classroom. Teachers have been trained on the methodology and age-appropriate learning materials have been designed.
Education also has a vital role to play in social reconstruction in the aftermath of a disaster. In Gujarat, after the earthquake (2001), the concept of building as a learning aid (BaLA) was developed in some schools. "The rebuilding of schools and resuming classes is a positive step towards recovery and the future. It is essential to review the development of new curricula and training of teachers in these areas, this could begin to symbolise a departure from the violent past and the advance towards a peaceful future," says Geeta Menon, who is working as a consultant with Unicef on education in emergencies.
The Druk White Lotus School in Leh, which became famous after it featured in the Bollywood film 3 Idiots, was devastated in a cloudburst in 2010. Several rooms including the computer lab and elementary classes block was damaged in the disaster. Thanks to the concerted efforts of both the local and school authorities, the school got a new lease of life.
Education is essential both as a human right and as a component of the peace-building process. "Displacement is a crucial time of transition and vulnerability not just for children, but for youth and adults as well. Failure to incorporate youth and adult education and vocational training as a standard component during displacement is a detrimental omission in the quest to secure peace and initiate long-term development," says Malur. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28710000 |
After shoveling another 8 inches of snow after a winter of white, the banks along my walkway are now nearly at eye level. If there’s a lawn under there, I’m gonna need a team of archaeologists to find it. No matter, that won’t stop spring.
Tomorrow morning at 6:02 a.m. (Central time) the sun quietly slips over the line into the northern half of the sky. We call this the vernal equinox or start of spring. For me it will be a matter of faith in the cyclical movement of the sun. For you, the zephyrs of the new season may already be blowing through your hair.
On the first day of spring, Earth’s axis is oriented neither toward nor away from the sun. If the southern hemisphere represents the planet’s feet and northern hemisphere its head, tomorrow we’ll be showing the sun our belly or profile if you like. In winter, the northern hemisphere is tipped away from the sun with short days and a low, chilly sun. In summer, we’re tipped toward the sun with long days, a high sun and more heat than most of us need. But during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, neither hemisphere has the solar advantage (or disadvantage) and equality rules. Days are 12 hours long, nights are 12 hours long.
The sun also also rises due east and sets due west. If you’ve ever been puzzled by which direction is which in your neighborhood, face the sunset sun around the time of the equinoxes and stick out both your arms at your sides. Your right arm points due north, the left due south. Pretty handy, eh?
Spring and fall are the in-between times when temperatures moderate and the sun rests for a brief moment between extremes. For folks living on the equator, tomorrow the sun will rise in the east and pass directly overhead at noon before declining in the west. Equatorial skywatchers will stand in their own shadows at local noon.
Take an imaginary flight to Earth’s south pole and tomorrow means something quite different. There the sun will hover along the horizon 24 hours straight, neither rising nor setting. Starting March 21, it won’t breach the horizon for another 6 months. What marks the start of spring for northerners means the beginning of fall for Australians and a temporary end of sunshine for itinerant Antarcticans.
As you’d expect, the situation is just the opposite at the north pole, where 6 months of daylight begins with tomorrow’s sunrise.
Our planet’s tilted axis combined with its yearly orbit makes such strange things happen here on the ground. Just think how monotonous the weather and daylight-length would be if our axis were straight up and down with no tilt. Our skewed planet is like an artist looking at the world from varied and surprising perspectives.
Spring also coincides with a series of fine morning passes of the International Space Station (ISS) for at least the U.S. and Canada. Less than an hour before spring’s start, the station will pass over northern Minnesota tomorrow morning. To find times when it’s visible from your location, log on to Heavens Above (which also provides excellent maps of its path in the sky) or key in your zip code at Spaceweather Satellite Flybys page. The ISS first appears in the western sky and moves eastward, appearing like a very bright, moving star.
Space Station times for Duluth, Minn. region:
* Tues. March 20 starting at 5:14 a.m. “Magically” appears out of Earth’s shadow high in the southern sky and moves east. Brilliant pass!
* Weds. March 21 at 5:58 p.m. across the northern sky
* Thurs. March 22 at 5:09 a.m. Exits Earth’s shadow at 5:09 a.m. above the North Star and moves eastward
* Fri. March 23 at 5:52 a.m. across the northern sky
* Sat. March 24 at 5:03 a.m. Exits Earth’s shadow just below the North Star and moves east
* Sun. March 25 at 5:46 a.m. across the northern sky | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28719000 |
Atmosphere & Energy
First Nations in northeast B.C. and some prominent environmental organizations are critical of the province's announcement Monday that it's going ahead with the Site C dam.
The Council of Treaty 8 Chiefs, representing First Nations in the Peace region, said that when combined with forestry, oil and gas and mining projects, the dam would cause irrevocable damage to fish, wildlife and local agriculture.
The Sierra Club of B.C. said the Site C dam would destroy forest and farmland, hurt wildlife and increase carbon emissions, while the David Suzuki Foundation said too many questions about the project remain unanswered for it to proceed.
[snip]... Read more »
Canadian Zoë Caron literally cowrote the book on climate change—that is, the book for those who are a tad unclear about the greenhouse effect, renewable energy, and the Kyoto Protocol. Caron got the idea for Global Warming for Dummies in January 2006 while she was studying for the exams she’d missed; she’d instead been attending the United Nations climate change negotiations in Montreal.
Now as the youngest-ever president of the Sierra Club Canada and the climate policy and advocacy specialist for the World Wildlife Fund Canada, Caron is focusing on the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario later this year.
EDMONTON - The Sierra Club Prairie has obtained a leaked copy of the most recent Alberta Wetlands Policy that shows the extent of industry influence over environmental decisions for the province. The confidential document reveals an undermining of the work of the Alberta Water council, a multi stakeholder group that has been developing the tenets of the wetlands policy. The policy, already a compromised position to get the buy-in of 25 multi-sectoral groups, was radically changed after backdoor industry pressure. Language changes in the document gut and water down the policy, changing wording from ‘will’ to ‘may’ in addition to providing companies with ‘non-replacement’ options for wetlands destruction. ... Read more »
HUDSONS HOPE, B.C. - The B.C. government says it will move forward on a massive hydroelectric project on the Peace River that would provide for British Columbia's energy needs well into the future, producing enough energy to provide power to 460,000 homes for a century.... Read more »
Trade & Environment Fact Sheet By Janet Eaton, Sierra Club Canada for the Trade Justice Network, April 19, 2010 (http://www.tradejustice.ca)
The Canada-E.U. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations are based on commitments to place corporate profit and power before social and economic justice, democratic control, and ecological sustainability. Negotiations are progressing quickly and with little public scrutiny until now.
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Full Text: Sixty Years Since Peaceful Liberation of Tibet The Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, on Monday published a white paper on the sixty years since peaceful liberation of Tibet. Following is the full text:
Sixty Years Since Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
On May 23, 1951 the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet ("17-Article Agreement" for short) was signed in Beijing, marking the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
The peaceful liberation of Tibet was an important part of the cause of the Chinese people's liberation, a great event in the Chinese nation's struggle against imperialist invasion to safeguard national unity and sovereignty, an epoch-making turning point in the social development history of Tibet, and a milestone marking the commencement of Tibet's progress from a dark and backward society to a bright and advanced future.
Over the 60 years since its peaceful liberation, Tibet, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Central People's Government, has undergone a great historic process starting with democratic reform, and proceeding to the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region, socialist construction, and to the reform and opening-up era, made unprecedented achievements in the modernization drive, and witnessed great changes in its social outlook and profound changes in its people's life. These achievements were attained by all the ethnic groups in Tibet through concerted efforts, and vividly manifest how China implements the ethnic minority policy of promoting unity and achieving common prosperity and development.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet. We review and summarize the spectacular historic process over the 60 years and demonstrate the great achievements in the development of New Tibet, so as to help Tibet achieve leapfrogging development and maintain lasting stability, while laying bare the lies of the Dalai clique, giving a better understanding of the true history of the 60 years since the peaceful liberation of Tibet to the outside world and enabling people around the world to get to know that socialist New Tibet is full of vigor and vitality.
I. Realizing the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
1. Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times.
China is a unified, multi-ethnic country, and the Tibetan people are important members of the family of the Chinese nation. China's territory and history were created by the Chinese nation; the Tibetan group, as one of the centuries-old ethnic groups in China, has made important contributions to the creation and development of this unified, multi-ethnic country and to the formation and evolvement of the Chinese nation. Archaeological and academic research findings show that since ancient times the Tibetan people have been closely connected with the Han and other ethnic groups in blood relationship, language, culture and other aspects, and economic, political and cultural exchanges between Tibet and inland China have never been broken off. In the 13th century the central government of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) formally incorporated Tibet into the central administration by setting up the Supreme Control Commission and Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs to directly administer the military and political affairs of the Tibet region. Following this, the Yuan central government gradually standardized and institutionalized the administration of Tibet, including directly controlling the local administrative organs of Tibet and exercising the power of appointing local officials in Tibet, stationing troops there and conducting censuses. Following the Yuan system, the Ming (1368-1644) government implemented such policies as multiple enfeoffment, tributary trade and establishment of subordinated administrative divisions. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) strengthened the central government's administration of Tibet. In 1653 and 1713 the Qing emperors granted honorific titles to the 5th Dalai Lama and the 5th Panchen Lama, officially establishing the titles of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni, and their political and religious status in Tibet. From 1727 the Qing court established the post of grand minister resident in Tibet to supervise local administration on behalf of the central authorities. In 1751 the Qing government abolished the system under which the various commandery princes held power, and formally appointed the 7th Dalai Lama to administer the local government of Tibet, and set up the Kashag (cabinet) composed of four Kalons (ministers). In 1793, after dispelling Gurkha invaders, the Qing government promulgated the Ordinance by the Imperial House Concerning Better Governance in Tibet (29 Articles), improving several systems by which the central government administered Tibet. The Ordinance stipulated that the reincarnation of Dalai Lama and other Living Buddhas had to follow the procedure of "drawing lots from the golden urn," and the selected candidate would be subject to the approval by the central authorities of China. In the Qing Dynasty five Dalai Lamas were selected in this way, but two did not go through the lot-drawing procedure as approved by the Qing emperors. The Qing emperors deposed the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, in 1706 and the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, in 1904, and again in 1910.
The Revolution of 1911 toppled the Qing Empire, and the Republic of China (1912-1949) was founded. On March 11, 1912 the Republic of China issued its first constitution - the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, which clarified the central government's sovereignty over Tibet. It clearly stipulated that Tibet was a part of the territory of the Republic of China, and stated that "the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui and Tibetan peoples are of one, and the five ethnic groups will be of one republic." On July 17 the government set up the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs under the State Council. After the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was set up in Nanjing, a Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs was established in 1929 to exercise administrative jurisdiction over Tibet. In 1940 the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs opened an office in Lhasa as the permanent mission of the central government in Tibet. The central government of the Republic of China safeguarded the nation's sovereignty over Tibet in spite of frequent civil wars among warlords in the interior. The 14th Dalai Lama, Dainzin Gyatso, succeeded to the title with the approval of the national government, which waived the lot-drawing convention. No country or government in the world has ever acknowledged the independence of Tibet.
2. So-called "Tibet independence" was part of imperialist aggressors' attempt to carve up China.
Since the Opium War Britain started in 1840, China had been gradually reduced to a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country. At the end of the 19th century imperialist forces set off mad spree to carve up China, and the British aggressors took the opportunity to invade Tibet. British troops intruded into Tibet twice - in 1888 and 1903 - but failed due to the resistance of the Tibetan army and civilians. After their failure to turn Tibet into a colony through armed aggression, the imperialists started to foster pro-imperialist separatists in Tibet, plotted activities to separate Tibet from China and trumpeted "Tibet's independence." On August 31, 1907 Britain and Russia signed the Convention between Great Britain and Russia on Tibet, changing, for the first time, China's sovereignty over Tibet into "suzerainty" in an international document. In 1913 the British government engineered the Simla Conference to instigate the Tibetan representative to raise the slogan of "Tibet's independence" for the first time, which was immediately rejected by the representative of the Chinese government. The British representative then introduced the so-called "compromise" scheme, attempting to change China's sovereignty over Tibet into "suzerainty" and separate Tibet from the authority of the Chinese government under the pretext of "autonomy." These ill-intentioned attempts met with resolute opposition from the Chinese people and government. In July 1914, upon instruction, the representative of the Chinese government refused to sign the Simla Convention, and made a statement saying that the government of China refused to recognize any such agreement or document. The Chinese government also sent a note to the British government, reiterating its position. Thereupon, the conference collapsed. In 1942 the local government of Tibet, with the support of the British representative, suddenly announced the establishment of a "foreign affairs bureau," and openly carried out "Tibetan independence" activities. With opposition from the Chinese people and the national government, the local government of Tibet had no choice but to withdraw its decision.
In 1947 the British imperialists plotted behind the scenes to invite Tibetan representatives to attend the "Asian Relations Conference," and even identified Tibet as an independent country on the map of Asia hung in the conference hall and in the array of national flags. The organizers were forced to rectify this after the Chinese delegation made a stern protest. On July 8, 1949 the local government of Tibet issued an order to expel officials of the Tibet Office of the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs on the excuse of "prohibiting Communists from staying in Tibet." In November 1949 the local government of Tibet decided to dispatch a so-called "goodwill mission" to the United States, Britain, India, Nepal and some other countries to seek political and military support for "Tibet's independence," making it obvious that it was intensifying separatist activities. Around the end of 1949 the American Lowell Thomas roamed Tibet in the guise of a "radio commentator" to explore the "possibility of aid that Washington could give Tibet." He wrote in a US newspaper: "The United States is ready to recognize Tibet as an independent and free country." In the first half of 1950 American weaponry was shipped into Tibet through Calcutta in order to help resist the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in its entry into Tibet.
Historical facts clearly demonstrate that the so-called "Tibetan independence" was in fact cooked up by old and new imperialists, and was part of Western aggressors' scheme to carve up the territory of China.
3. The Liberation of Tibet was an important part of the cause of the Chinese people's liberation.
In face of aggression and oppression from imperialists, all ethnic groups of China, including the Tibetans, had waved unyielding struggles for more than a century and at the cost of many lives to safeguard the independence, unity and territorial integrity of China, and to realize the liberation of the Chinese nation. It was under the leadership of the CPC that the Chinese people achieved final victory in the Liberation War after extremely hard struggle. In 1949 the Chinese people won decisive victory in the people's Liberation War, and the People's Republic of China was founded. Then, it came on the agenda that the PLA would march into Tibet, liberate it and expel imperialists from it.
In response to "Tibetan independence" activities plotted by imperialists and reactionary forces from the upper strata of Tibet, on September 2, 1949 Xinhua News Agency, with authorization from the CPC, published an editorial under the headline, "Foreign Aggressors Are Resolutely Not Allowed to Annex China's Territory - Tibet." The editorial summarized how some big powers had invaded Tibet over the previous century, and then pointed out, "Tibet is part of Chinese territory; all foreign aggression is not allowed. The Tibetan people are an inseparable part of the Chinese nation, and any attempt to divide them from China will be doomed. This is a consistent policy of the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army." All sectors of society of Tibet quickly responded and expressed support for the editorial and the hope that the PLA would enter Tibet as soon as possible. On October 1, 1949 the 10th Panchen Lama sent a telegram to the Central People's Government: Dispatching troops to liberate Tibet and expelling the imperialists as soon as possible." On November 23 Mao Zedong and Zhu De telegraphed the 10th Panchen Lama: "The Central People's Government and the Chinese People's Liberation Army will certainly comply with this wish of the Tibetan people." On December 2 Reting Yeshe Tsultrim, an aide of the 5th Regent Reting Rinpoche, arrived in Xining, Qinghai Province, to make complaints to the PLA about the imperialists' atrocities of destroying the internal unity of Tibet, urging the PLA to liberate Tibet as soon as possible. In early 1950 over 100 Tibetan people, including farmers and herdsmen, young people, women and democratic representatives, assembled in Lanzhou, which had been liberated not long before, and urged the PLA to liberate Tibet. The 5th Gedar Tulku of Beri Monastery in Garze, Xikang (Kham) Province, headman Shaka Tobden of Yilung in northern Xikang, and the business tycoon Pangda Dorje in southern Xikang sent representatives to Beijing to pay tribute to Chairman Mao Zedong of the Central People's Government and they expressed the Tibetan people's urgent and earnest wish for the liberation of Tibet.
To address the complicated changes in the international situation and the grave situation in Tibet, and to satisfy the Tibetan people's wish for liberation as soon as possible, in December 1949 Mao Zedong wrote a letter to the CPC Central Committee in Manzhouli on his way to the Soviet Union for a visit. In the letter, Mao made the strategic decision that "it is better for the PLA to enter Tibet sooner rather than later."
When planning the liberation of Tibet and exploring the way of liberation, the CPC decided on the way of peaceful liberation in view of the fact that Tibet was a special region inhabited by the ethnic minorities, in order to enable the PLA to enter Tibet smoothly, safeguard the interests of the Tibetan people and strengthen national unity. In March 1949 when the people's Liberation War was about to end with people's victory, Chairman Mao pointed out that the possibilities of peaceful liberation, like that of Beiping, for other areas were growing. Then Hunan and Ningxia, as well as Xinjiang, Yunnan and Xikang, which all bordered Tibet, were liberated peacefully in succession, affording useful experience for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. On January 20, 1950, in response to the local government of Tibet's dispatching of a so-called "goodwill mission," a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a speech with authorization from Chairman Mao, saying that the Tibetan people demanded the exercise of appropriate regional autonomy under the unified leadership of the Central People's Government, and that "if the Lhasa authorities send delegates to Beijing to negotiate the peaceful liberation of Tibet, they will be well received."
To achieve the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Central People's Government organized and did a lot of work in political persuasion. In 1950 the Southwest and Northwest bureaux of the CPC Central Committee sent delegates or delegations to Tibet for mediation four times, in order to persuade the 14th Dalai Lama and the local government of Tibet to send representatives to negotiate with the Central People's Government on the peaceful liberation of Tibet. On February 1 the Northwest Bureau sent a Tibetan cadre, Zhang Jingcheng, to Tibet with a letter for the 14th Dalai Lama and Regent Taktra Ngawang Sungrab from Liao Hansheng, then vice chairman of the Qinghai Provincial People's Government. At the end of March an eminent Han monk, Master Zhiqing, who had good relations with the political and religious circles of Tibet, started for Tibet from Chengdu, with approval from the CPC Central Committee and the support of the Southwest Bureau. In July a delegation composed of members from Qinghai temples and monasteries, led by Taktser Rinpoche of Kumbum Monastery, set out from Xining. Sherab Gyatso, vice chairman of the Qinghai Provincial People's Government and a leading Tibetan scholar, delivered a radio talk, calling on the local government of Tibet to "quickly dispatch plenipotentiary representatives to Beijing for peace talks." On July 10 a delegation of ten, including the 5th Gedar Tulku of Beri Monastery in Garze, Xikang, also went to Tibet. However, these mediation activities suffered obstruction from imperialist aggressors and pro-imperialist separatists in Tibet. They were driven away or detained, some delegations were split up, and Gedar Tulku was even poisoned to death in Qamdo.
Meanwhile, the local government of Tibet, incited by imperialist aggressors and dominated by the pro-imperialist separatists in the upper strata of Tibet, expanded the Tibetan army and deployed seven regiments in areas around Qamdo along the western bank of the Jinsha River, in an attempt to halt the PLA's advance into Tibet. Qamdo was the only way into Tibet from the southwest. On August 23, 1950 Mao Zedong pointed out that the capture of Qamdo "will help us to change the political situation in Tibet and advance into Tibet next year," and "may spur the Tibetan delegation to come to Beijing for negotiations for a peaceful settlement." On October 6 the PLA troops started to cross the Jinsha River to carry out the task of liberating Qamdo. On October 19 Qamdo was liberated. On this basis, the First People's Congress of Qamdo was held, at which the Qamdo People's Liberation Committee was elected and a working committee was founded, composing of representatives from both the ecclesiastical and secular, in Qamdo to strive for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. The Qamdo Battle opened the door to peace negotiations and created the necessary conditions for the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
4. The 17-Article Agreement was signed, and Tibet was liberated peacefully.
The Central People's Government and Chairman Mao Zedong had never given up their efforts for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Even during the Qamdo Battle, Mao Zedong urged that the Tibetan "delegation should come to Beijing as soon as possible." The Qamdo Battle led to a division within the local government of Tibet, when patriotic and advanced forces got the upper hand, while the pro-imperialist separatist Regent Taktra Ngawang Sungrab was forced to resign. On November 17 the 14th Dalai Lama assumed power, and the political situation in Tibet started to develop in the direction of peaceful liberation.
On January 2, 1951 the 14th Dalai Lama moved to the Tibetan city of Yadong, on the one hand taking a wait-and-see attitude, and on the other seeking support from Britain, the US, India and Nepal while awaiting an opportunity to flee abroad. But no country wished to publicly support "Tibet's independence." Correspondently, the local government of Tibet was divided into a Kashag who remained in Lhasa and a temporary Kashag in Yadong. Following this, an "officials' meeting" of the local government of Tibet decided to formally send delegates to Beijing for peace negotiations with the Central People's Government. In his letter to the Central People's Government to express his wish for peace talks, the 14th Dalai Lama said, "In the past when I was young and had not taken power, the Tibetan-Han relationship was repeatedly disrupted. Recently I have notified Ngapoi (Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme) and his entourage to set out for Beijing as soon as possible. Racing against time, we will add another two assistants to Ngapoi, who will go to Beijing via India." Inspired by the Central People's Government's policy of equality of all ethnic groups and peaceful liberation of Tibet, the local government of Tibet sent a delegation for peace talks with the Central People's Government. The plenipotentiary representatives included the Chief Representative Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, and Representatives Kemai Soinam Wangdui, Tubdain Daindar, Tubdain Legmoin and Sampo Dainzin Toinzhub. The representatives set out in two groups, and assembled in Beijing on April 27, 1951. They received a warm welcome from the Central People's Government, which also organized a delegation, including Chief Representative Li Weihan and representatives Zhang Jingwu, Zhang Guohua and Sun Zhiyuan. After friendly talks, the Central People's Government and the local government of Tibet signed the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet in Beijing on May 23, 1951.
Regarding the peace talks and the signing of the 17-Article Agreement, we need to stress some basic historical facts as follows:
First, the peace talks were held on the premise that the local government of Tibet admitted that Tibet is an inseparable part of China. When the 14th Dalai Lama and the local government of Tibet dispatched the delegation, every representative got a sealed plenipotentiary certificate, which stated the name and identity of the holder on the envelope, and inside the statement that Tibet is a part of China and some other sentences. The essential problem to be solved during the talks was to enhance ethnic solidarity and safeguard national unity. As Ngapoi recalled, on this problem, "the basic standpoints of the representatives of the two sides were the same."
Second, the Central People's Government's "ten policies" for the peaceful liberation of Tibet were the basis for the talks. The main contents were: British and US imperialist aggressive forces shall be driven out of Tibet; regional ethnic autonomy shall be exercised in Tibet; the present political system in Tibet shall remain unchanged; freedom of religious belief shall be guaranteed; economy, culture and education in Tibet shall be developed; matters of reform in Tibet shall be settled by the Tibetan people and Tibetan leaders through consultation; and the PLA troops shall enter Tibet. At first, the Tibetan representatives stressed that they could not accept the PLA's entry into Tibet. At that time, the Central People's Government representatives did not force them to accept this term; instead, they suggested a two-day adjournment, during which they arranged Tibetan representatives to visit some places, while patiently persuaded them, saying that now that the local government of Tibet admitted Tibet as an inseparable part of China, it had no reason to obstruct the PLA from entering Tibet. In the meantime, the central government took into full consideration the problem raised by the Tibetan representatives that it would be difficult for economically backward and resource-poor Tibet to supply the PLA, and promised that the PLA troops would "be supplied by the central government after entering Tibet, all their expenses will be borne by the central government." After negotiations, the two sides finally agreed that the local government of Tibet would make positive efforts to assist the PLA's entry into Tibet for national defence.
Third, the conflict between the Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni was an important problem that had to be resolved in the talks. Due to instigation by imperialist aggressors, the 9th Panchen Lama did not get along with the 13th Dalai Lama in the early 1920s, and thus was forced to leave Tibet for inland China. He died in Yushu, Qinghai Province, in December 1937 on his way back to Tibet. On August 10, 1949, the 10th Panchen Lama was enthroned at the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai, with the approval of the national government. At first, the Tibetan delegation did not acknowledge the legal status of the 10th Panchen Lama. The central government delegation showed to the Tibetan delegation all the official documents by which the Kuomintang's national government had approved and confirmed the 10th Panchen Lama as the reincarnated soul boy of the 9th Panchen Lama, and the photos of the enthronement ceremony at the Kumbum Monastery, which representatives of the Dalai Lama attended. Faced with this irrefutable evidence, the Tibetan delegation finally acknowledged the legal status of the 10th Panchen Lama. The May Day holiday arrived during the peace talks, and the Central People's Government invited all the representatives of the local government of Tibet and the 10th Panchen Lama to attend the celebration on the Tian'anmen Rostrum, during which Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme and the 10th Panchen Lama had a friendly meeting and were received by Mao Zedong.
Fourth, the Agreement was reached on the basis of mutual respect and friendly negotiations. Most terms of the Agreement were about how to handle internal relations and affairs of Tibet. For these issues, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Central People's Government took initials to offer some proposals in line with the ethnic policy of the central government and the reality in Tibet. The Tibetan representatives also raised their suggestions. The Central People's Government studied and adopted some, while patiently explaining the reasons for not accepting others. Representative Tubdain Daindar talked about his experience of the talks: "As an ecclesiastic official from the Yitsang (Secretariat), I offered many suggestions about religious beliefs, monastery income and some other related issues, most of which were adopted by the central government." A Han-language version and a Tibetan-language one of the Agreement were prepared from the very beginning of the talks. And every revision made in both versions was only with consent from the Tibetan delegation. After the talks, both versions were signed and issued together.
As plenipotentiary representatives from the local government of Tibet, they discussed and established the following principles before formal talks: "Plenipotentiary representatives shall quickly decide on terms that they can decide on, and report to the Kashag in Yadong those that they cannot settle;" and when there was not enough time, "the plenipotentiary representatives can decide first and then report to the Dalai Lama." The channel for the Tibetan delegation to ask for instructions from the Dalai Lama and the Kashag was always unimpeded, and the representatives discussed among themselves for which items they would request instructions. Soon after the talks started, the issue of the PLA's entry into Tibet arose. The Tibetan representatives telegraphed the Dalai Lama and the Kashag in Yadong via cryptograph brought by Kemai Soinam Wangdui and Tubdain Daindar, saying that there would not be a big problem regarding most of the items, but if the local government of Tibet did not permit the PLA to enter Tibet, the talks could fail. During the talks, they contacted the Kashag in Yadong twice regarding its relationship with the Panchen Lama. During the 20-odd-day talks, although representatives from the two sides disagreed on some items, the talks went on in a friendly and sincere atmosphere and with full consultation. At the signing ceremony, the representatives of the two sides signed and sealed both versions of the Agreement.
To ensure that the Agreement was earnestly implemented, the Central People's Government and the local government of Tibet signed two appendices to the Agreement, and one was the Regulations on Matters Concerning the Entry and Stationing of the People's Liberation Army in Tibet. Regarding the PLA's entry into and stationing in Tibet, the plenipotentiary representatives of the local government of Tibet questioned the number and deployment of and supplies for the troops. Since these details were military secrets, they could not be written in the Agreement, which was to be announced. Thus it was necessary to put them in Appendix I. Appendix II was the Declaration on the Local Government of Tibet Being Responsible for Carrying out the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. If the Dalai Lama acknowledged the Agreement and returned to Lhasa, then the peaceful liberation of Tibet would be a natural result. But if he did not return to Lhasa for some time for whatever reason, the Tibetan delegation hoped that the Central People's Government would allow the Dalai Lama to choose his own place of residence during the first year of the implementation of the Agreement, and to retain his status and power unchanged if he returned to his original post during this year. The Central People's Government consented. But if this clause was written into the Agreement, it would provoke controversy. So the two sides agreed on preventive stipulations for future possibilities and wrote them into this appendix. These two appendices were detailed rules for the implementation of the Agreement and complements to the Agreement on matters that had not been covered in the Agreement.
Fifth, the Agreement gained support from the Dalai Lama and both ecclesiastical and secular people in Tibet. After Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme returned to Lhasa from Beijing, the local government of Tibet held between September 26 and 29, 1951 an "officials' meeting" attended by more than 300 people, including all ecclesiastical and secular officials, Khenpo (abbot) representatives of the three most prominent monasteries, and Tibetan army officers above the regimental-commander rank. At the conference, a report to the Dalai Lama was approved. It stated, "The 17-Article Agreement that has been signed is of incomparable benefit to the grand cause of the Dalai Lama and to Buddhism as a whole, and to the politics, economy and other aspects of life in Tibet. Naturally it should be carried out." The Dalai Lama sent a telegram to Chairman Mao Zedong on October 24 to express his support for the Agreement. The telegram read, "This year the local government of Tibet sent five delegates with full authority, headed by Kalon Ngapoi, to Beijing in late April 1951 to conduct peace talks with delegates with full authority appointed by the Central People's Government. On the basis of friendship, the delegates of the two sides signed on May 23, 1951 the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. The local government of Tibet as well as the ecclesiastical and secular people unanimously support this Agreement, and, under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Central People's Government, will actively assist the PLA troops entering Tibet to consolidate national defense, ousting imperialist influences from Tibet and safeguarding the unification of the territory and the sovereignty of the motherland. I hereby send this cable to inform you of this." On October 26, Chairman Mao Zedong telegraphed the Dalai Lama in reply, expressing thanks for his efforts in carrying out the Agreement.
The signing of the 17-Article Agreement symbolized the peaceful liberation of Tibet, thus opening a new page in the history of social progress in Tibet. The peaceful liberation enabled Tibet to shake off imperialist aggression and imperialist political and economic fetters, safeguarded the national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of China, enhanced the solidarity among all ethnic groups of China and within Tibet, and created the basic preconditions for Tibet to advance and develop together with other parts of the country.
II. Sixty-years' Development since Peaceful Liberation
Peaceful liberation was an important turning point in the historical development of Tibet. Over the 60 years since then Tibet has gone through several phases of development, such as the Democratic Reform, establishment of the autonomous region, building of socialism, and reform and opening up, scoring spectacular achievements.
1. Implementing the 17-Article Agreement, maintaining national unity and ethnic solidarity, and launching Tibet's drive towards modernization
- Sending troops to Tibet and consolidating border defense. As stipulated in the 17-Article Agreement and its Appendix I, the PLA troops with the 18th army as the major force marched into Tibet from September 1951 to June 1952, and were stationed in strongholds such as Gyamda, Gyangtse, Shigatse, Lhuntse Dzong, Dromo, Zayul and Gerze, bringing to an end the history of Tibet's 4,000-km border being undefended.
- Handling Tibet's foreign-related affairs on a centralized basis. On September 6, 1952 the foreign affairs office of the central government representative stationed in Tibet was set up, responsible for all the foreign-related affairs of Tibet under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central People's Government. On April 29, 1954 the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India signed in Beijing the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet Region of China and India, abolishing the privileges India had inherited from the British invaders. In 1955 China established official diplomatic ties with Nepal, and signed the Agreement on Maintaining Friendly Relations between the People's Republic of China and the Kingdom of Nepal and on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet Region of China and Nepalin 1956, which cancelled Nepal's privileges in Tibet, advancing and consolidating the Sino-Nepalese relationship to a new level. To this day, all the foreign-related affairs of Tibet are dealt with by the Central People's Government on a centralized basis.
- Attaining self-sufficiency and satisfying both military and civilian needs. The central government issued such instructions as "sending troops to Tibet but not depending on local people for grain supply" and "tightening the budget and attaining self-sufficiency," and put forward a series of financial policies such as "guaranteeing food supplies for the army and taking into consideration of civilian needs" and "unified procurement and economical practice." Soon after the PLA entered Tibet, it funded itself by selling local wool to the central government at prices higher than those of India. This move foiled the scheme of illegal hoarding and profiteering plotted by reactionaries of the Tibetan upper class with an aim to sow discord between Tibetans and Han people and greatly benefited many of the upper class, enabling them to acknowledge the central government's goal of safeguarding the interests of the Tibetan people. They thus gradually reduced their dependence on and connection with the imperialist forces and drew closer to the central government.
- Carrying out united front work, and promoting national unity and progress. Encouraged by the central government, the 10th Panchen Lama and his entourage returned to Lhasa from Qinghai Province to have a friendly meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama in April 1952. The CPC Working Committee of Tibet then made great efforts to help settle both the current practical problems and those left over from history between the Dalai and Panchen lamas, who in 1953 were elected as honorary presidents of the Buddhist Association of China, with Living Buddha Kundeling as vice president. In September 1956 the Tibetan branch of the Buddhist Association of China was set up. In September 1954 the 14th Dalai and 10th Panchen lamas went together to Beijing to attend the First Session of the First National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, which demonstrated that the Tibetan people enjoyed equal rights with other ethnic groups in participating in the administration of China's state affairs. Concurrently, a total of 1,000 people in 13 groups were organized from 1952 to 1957 to visit the hinterland, including upper-class monks and lay officials to lamas and common people including women and youngsters, which strengthened connections between Tibet and the hinterland and promoted national unity.
- Actively undertaking the modernization program to promote Tibet's economic, social and cultural development. After the peaceful liberation, the PLA and people from other parts of China working in Tibet persisted in carrying out the 17-Article Agreement and the policies of the Central Authorities, built the Xikang-Tibet and Qinghai-Tibet highways, Damxung Airport, water conservancy projects, modern factories, banks, trading companies, post offices, farms and schools. They adopted a series of measures to help the farmers and herdsmen expand production, started social relief and disaster relief programs, and provided free medical service for the prevention and treatment of epidemic and other diseases. All this promoted the region's economic, social and cultural development, created a new social atmosphere of modern civilization and progress, produced a far-reaching influence among people of all walks of life in Tibet, ended the long-term isolation and stagnation of Tibetan society, paved the way for Tibet's march toward a modern society, opened up wide prospects for Tibet's further development and provided necessary conditions for the common progress of Tibet and the nation as a whole.
2. Implementing the Democratic Reform, abolishing feudal serfdom, and emancipating millions of serfs and the social productive forces, achieving the most profound social reform in the history of Tibet
Prior to the Democratic Reform, Tibet practiced a system of feudal serfdom under theocracy, which was darker and more backward than in Europe in the Middle Ages. The three major estate-holders - officials, nobles and upper-ranking monks in monasteries - accounted for less than five percent of Tibet's total population but owned all the farmland, pastures, forests, mountains and rivers, and the majority of the livestock. The serfs and slaves, accounting for more than 95 percent of the population, had no means of production or freedom of their own. They were not only subjected to the three-fold exploitation of corvee labor, taxes and high-interest loans, but also suffered cruel political oppression and punishment rarely seen in world history. Their lives were no more than struggles for existence. Thus, reforming the social system of Tibet was an inevitable requirement of social development and the fundamental aspiration of the Tibetan people. In consideration of the special conditions of Tibet, the 17-Article Agreement stipulated that "the Central Authorities will not alter the existing political system in Tibet;" "in matters related to various reforms in Tibet, there will be no compulsion on the part of the Central Authorities. The local government of Tibet shall carry out reforms of its own accord, and when the people raise demands for reform, they shall be settled by means of consultation with the leading personnel of Tibet." After Tibet was liberated peacefully, the Central People's Government adopted a very prudent and tolerant attitude toward the reform of its social system, hoping to persuade the people of the local ruling class of the need for reform and waiting patiently for them to take initiative to start the social reform. But the serf owners were totally opposed to any reform which would mean giving up their privileges, and sabotaged the 17-Article Agreement and plotted a series of activities to split Tibet from China, which ended in a full-scale insurrection in 1959.
In order to safeguard the unity of the nation and the fundamental interests of the Tibetan people, the Central People's Government, together with the Tibetan people, took decisive measures to suppress the rebellion, dissolved the local government and carried out the Democratic Reform in Tibet, which fundamentally uprooted the feudal serfdom. Through this reform, the theocratic system was annulled to separate religion from government; the feudal serf owners' right to own means of production was abolished and private ownership by farmers and herdsmen was established; the serfs and slaves' personal bondage to the officials, nobles and upper-ranking monks was cancelled, and they won their freedom of the person. The Democratic Reform constituted an epoch-making change in the social progress of Tibet and its development of human rights. It emancipated a million of serfs and slaves politically, economically and in other aspects of social life, effectively promoted the development of social productive forces in Tibet and opened up the road towards modernization. The former serfs and slaves got over 186,000 hectares of land in the Democratic Reform and, in 1960, when the Democratic Reform was basically completed, the total grain yield of Tibet was 12.6 percent higher than in 1959 and 17.7 percent higher than in 1958 prior to the Reform. In addition, the total number of livestock was 9.9 percent higher than in 1959.
3. Implementing regional ethnic autonomy, making Tibet embark on the road of socialism.
The Democratic Reform in Tibet coincided with its construction of democratic politics. After the rebellion broke out in March 1959 the State Council issued an order to dissolve the Kashag and decided to make the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region exercise the local government's duties and power. Later, the Qamdo People's Liberation Committee and the Panchen Kampus Assembly were abolished, and a centralized people's democratic government was set up, thus ending the co-existence of several political powers of different nature. In 1961 a general election was held across Tibet. For the first time, the former serfs and slaves were able to enjoy democratic rights as their own masters, as they elected power organs and governments at all levels. Many emancipated serfs and slaves took up leading posts at various levels in the region. In September 1965 the First Session of the First People's Congress of Tibet was convened in Lhasa, at which the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Regional People's Government were officially proclaimed. Then, through the socialist transformation of agriculture and animal husbandry, Tibet embarked on the road of socialism. The founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region and adoption of the socialist system provided an institutional guarantee for the realization of ethnic equality, unity, mutual help and common prosperity. It also provided a guarantee for all ethnic groups in Tibet to enjoy equal rights to participate in the administration of state affairs and that of ethnic affairs. In this way, an institutional guarantee was put in place for Tibet to develop along with other parts of China, with special support and assistance by the state and according to its local conditions.
4. Implementing reform and opening up, promoting Tibetan economy to change from a closed one into an open one and from a planned one to a market one.
The 1980s witnessed a great upsurge of the reform, opening-up and modernization drive in Tibet, as in all the other parts of China. In 1980 and 1984, respectively, the Central Authorities held the First and Second Tibet Work Forums, setting the guiding principles for work in the region - focusing on economic development, changing from a closed economy to an open one and from a planned economy to a market one. The central government also formulated a series of special policies for economic development in Tibet, such as "long-term right to use and independently operate land by individual households" and "long-term right to have, raise and manage livestock by individual households," to promote the reform of the region's economic system and its opening-up program. Since 1984, 43 projects have been launched in Tibet with state funds and aid from nine provinces and municipalities. The implementation of the policy of reform and opening up and the state aid have invigorated the Tibetan economy, raised the overall level of industries and the level of commercialization of economic activities in Tibet, and helped Tibet take another step forward in its economic and social development.
5. Exploring and formulating the basic policies for the work in Tibet in the new period as required by the new situation, constantly speeding up the development of Tibet and maintaining its stability.
Ever since the Dalai Lama and his clique fled abroad, they have stuck to their claims and efforts for "Tibet independence" and secessionist activities. With the support of the CIA of US, they proclaimed the setting up of an "independent Tibet" in India, and established bases for armed forces in India and Nepal, launching armed attacks on China's borders intermittently. In 1964, at the 151st Conference of the State Council, the Decision on the Removal of the Dalai Lama from His Official Positions was adopted, which stated, "After the Dalai Lama staged the treasonous armed rebellion in 1959, he fled abroad and organized a 'government-in-exile,' issued a bogus constitution, supported Indian reactionaries who invaded our country, and engaged in the organization and training of remnants of Tibet's armed forces who had fled abroad with the object of attacking our borders. All this proves that he has alienated himself from the country and the people, and been reduced to a traitor working for imperialists and reactionaries abroad." After the policies of reform and opening up were implemented in Tibet, the Dalai Lama clique pressed on with their infiltration and sabotage activities, and plotted the Lhasa riots in the late 1980s, which were quickly quelled by resolute actions adopted by the central government. In 1989 the Chinese government put forward ten propositions to guide the development of Tibet, which served to unify the people's thinking and promote stability, thus constituting a turning point for the work in Tibet in the new period. In 1994 the central government held the Third Tibet Work Forum, and set the guiding principles for work in the region in the new era as follows: Focusing efforts on economic development, firmly grasping the two major tasks of developing the economy and stabilizing the situation, securing a high-speed development of the economy, overall social progress and lasting political stability in Tibet, and ensuring the continuous improvement of the Tibetan people's living standards. At the Forum, the Central Authorities also adopted the important decisions to devote special attention to Tibet and ask all other parts of China to aid Tibet, and formulated a series of special favorable policies and measures for speeding up the development of the autonomous region. The Forum led to the birth of a mechanism for all-round aid for the modernization of Tibet, in which the state would take the lead to directly invest in construction projects in the region, the central government would provide financial subsidies, and the other parts of the country would provide paired-up aid. In 2001 the Central Authorities held the Fourth Tibet Work Forum, at which it was decided that more effective measures would be adopted and efforts would be further strengthened to support Tibet and push forward in an all-around way the region's development and stability. Since 1994 the central government has organized 60 state organs, 18 provinces and municipalities and 17 state-owned enterprises to provide aid to Tibet in the fields of human resources, finance and materials, technology and management in a paired-up way to cover all the cities at the prefectural level and 73 counties (including cities and districts at the county level) in Tibet. The completion of 62 aid projects identified in 1994 and 117 aid projects identified in 2001, respectively, in Tibet gave a strong impetus to its economic and social development. In the meantime, the central government overcame interference and sabotage from the Dalai Lama clique, identified the reincarnated the soul boy of the 10th Panchen Lama, approving Gyaltsen Zangpo's position as the 11th Panchen Lama, and resolutely struggled against the Dalai Lama's secessionist group, all of which helped to maintain stability in Tibet.
6. Upholding the Scientific Outlook on Development, vigorously accelerating Tibet' s development to realize leapfrog development, and achieving lasting peace based on stability.
After the 16th National Congress of the CPC, in light of the new historical conditions, the Central Authorities explicitly stated that its priorities for Tibet's economic and social development would be to ensure and improve the production and living conditions of farmers and herdsmen, and to increase their incomes as required by the Scientific Outlook on Development. By doing this, it helped to promote the region's economy and society to develop in a better and faster way, and make all ethnic groups in Tibet enjoy the fruit of the reform and development. In 2006 the central government formulated 40 preferential policies aiming to accelerate Tibet's development and maintain its stability, and identified 180 (the actually completed number is 188) construction projects for its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), which helped Tibet to score remarkable achievements in development and stability. Tibet's economy developed at a high rate, infrastructure construction in transportation and energy improved markedly, a large number of major projects including the Qinghai-Tibet Railway were completed and have produced satisfactory economic benefits, social undertakings showed all-around progress, the living standards of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet were greatly improved and Tibet's self-development capacity was further enhanced. In the meantime, the government put down the March 14th Lhasa Incident according to law, resolutely prevented and cracked down on splittist activities instigated by the Dalai Lama clique, further conducted education in patriotism and law in the monasteries, scored a great victory in the anti-secession struggle and strengthened ethnic unity constantly. In January 2010 the Central Authorities held the Fifth Tibet Work Forum, at which it further enriched and perfected the guiding principles for the work in Tibet, and drew up comprehensive plans for every aspect of its development and stability, which were: focusing efforts on economic development, safeguarding ethnic unity, taking improvement of people's livelihood as both the starting point and final aim of all work, holding fast to development and stability, ensuring a leapfrog development of economy and society, national security and prolonged peace in Tibet, and working for the constant improvement of the standard of people's material and cultural life, and a sound ecological environment. At a new starting point in its history, Tibet is showing great momentum for prosperity again.
III. Historic Achievements that Capture World Attention
In the 60 years since its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet, under the leadership of the Central People's Government and with the support of people of all ethnic groups in China, and with the hard work of all ethnic groups in the autonomous region, has fulfilled two historic leaps from a society of feudal serfdom to one of socialism, and from a state of isolation, poverty and backwardness to one of opening, prosperity and civilization, scoring historic achievements in various undertakings that caught world attention.
1. Tibet has scored brilliant political achievements and made historic changes in its social system.
Since its peaceful liberation Tibet has abolished feudal serfdom, implemented regional ethnic autonomy and established socialism featuring people's democracy. The former serfs and slaves have since become masters of their own country and society. They enjoy both the right to equally participate in the administration of state affairs and the right to handle local and ethnic affairs on their own. In the elections of people's congresses at the autonomous regional, prefectural (municipal), county and township (town) levels in 2007, 96.4 percent of the eligible residents participated in the electoral process. Of the more than 34,000 deputies directly or indirectly elected to the people's congresses at the aforementioned four levels, more than 94 percent were members of the Tibetan or other ethnic minorities. Of the deputies to the current National People's Congress, 20 are from Tibet, including 12 Tibetans, one Monba and one Lhoba. People from all walks of life in Tibet also attend the people's political consultative conferences at various levels to participate in the deliberation and administration of state affairs, and to exercise their democratic rights. Among the deputies to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, quite a number of them are Tibetans and a few are from the Tibetan religious circle. Since the founding of the Tibet People's Political Consultative Conference in 1959, an overwhelming part of the members have been Tibetans or members of other ethic minorities.
Regional ethnic autonomy has constantly been institutionalized. Statistics show that since 1965 the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region has enacted 279 local regulations, resolutions and decisions with legal effect, which cover political power buildup, economic development, culture and education, spoken and written languages, justice, medical care and public health, relics protection, protection of wild animals and plants, protection of natural resources, and environmental protection. Now Tibet has established a legal regime of local autonomy, with autonomy-related regulations and separate regulations as the mainstay, protecting the special rights and interests of the people in Tibet in the areas of politics, economy and social life, and promoting the development of various local undertakings. These regulations have distinctive local features. They include the Regulations on Legislation of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Implementing Rules for Election of Deputies to the People's Congresses at Various Levels in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Resolutions on the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Resolutions on Maintaining National Unification, Enhancing Ethnic Solidarity and Opposing Secessionist Activities, Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Protection and Management of Cultural Relics, and Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Environmental Protection.
Cadres of the Tibetan and other ethnic minorities constitute the main body of cadres in Tibet and the backbone of the construction and development of the region. Since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965, all chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress and all governors of the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have been Tibetan citizens. Cadres of the Tibetan and other ethnic minorities account for 70.3 percent of the total at the autonomous regional level and 81.6 percent at the county and township levels. At present, Tibet has 54,000 specialized technical personnel, among whom 76.8 percent are from ethnic minorities.
2. The local people's living standards have been greatly improved along with leapfrog economic development.
Before the peaceful liberation, the economy in Tibet was in a state of stagnation, and the masses lived in dire poverty. Since the peaceful liberation however, the economy has leaped forward with each passing day. To boost local economic and social growth, the central government has adopted a series of preferential policies for Tibet in such areas as banking, finance and taxation, investment, infrastructure construction, industrial development, farming and animal husbandry, environmental protection, education, public health, science and technology, culture and physical education, and has rendered Tibet strong support in terms of finance, materials and manpower. The central government has never taken a cent from Tibet, but constantly increased the allotment in the central budget for Tibet. In the period from 1952 to 2010, the central government sent a total of 300 billion yuan to Tibet as financial subsidies, with an annual growth rate of 22.4 percent. Over the past 60 years the central government has allocated more than 160 billion yuan in direct investment to Tibet and approved at different periods 43, 62, 117 and 188 major projects respectively concerning Tibet's long-term development and its people's livelihood. Highways, railways, airports, telecommunications facilities, energy and other key infrastructural projects have been completed one after the other, thus greatly improving Tibet's infrastructure and its people's living and production conditions. Statistics show that from 1994 to 2010 state departments, provincial and municipal governments, and state-owned enterprises involved in the paired-up support program launched 4,393 aid projects in six batches, with a total of 13.3 billion yuan in aid funds and 4,742 cadres from across the country dispatched to work in Tibet.
Thanks to the care of the Central Authorities and the support of the whole nation, Tibet has witnessed a historic leap in its economic and social development. From 1959 to 2010 fixed assets investment in the region totaled 275.1 billion yuan, registering an average annual growth of over 15 percent. The figure was 264.3 billion yuan from 1994 to 2010, and the annual growth rate in that period was more than 20 percent. The local GDP soared from 129 million yuan in 1951 to 50.746 billion yuan in 2010, a 111.8-fold increase or an average annual growth of 8.3 percent at comparable prices. Since 1994 the local GDP has grown at an annual rate of 12 percent, registering double-digit growth for 18 years in a run. During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) Tibet's GDP exceeded 30, 40 and 50 billion yuan successively. In 2010 the per-capita GDP was 17,319 yuan, and the local budgetary receipts reached 3.665 billion yuan, showing an average annual growth of over 20 percent for eight consecutive years.
There was no modern industry in old Tibet. But the region now has a modern industrial system covering over 20 sectors with distinctive local features, including energy, light industry, textiles, machinery, mining, building materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food processing, folk handicrafts and Tibetan medicine. The total industrial output value increased from 1.4 million yuan in 1956 to 7.561 billion yuan in 2010, registering an annual growth rate of 14.1 percent. Competitive industries with local features keep expanding. The Gyama copper-polymetallic deposit in Tibet has been put into operation and gone public in Hong Kong. Some specialty products, such as Lhasa barley beer, "5100 Tibet Glacier Spring Water" and Ganlu traditional Tibetan medicine have entered the market in other parts of the country as well as the international market. Tourism in Tibet has also maintained a sustained and rapid growth. Some 6.8514 million people visited Tibet in 2010, and the tourism revenue reached 7.14 billion yuan. Tibet is set to be one of the most popular destinations for visitors from all over the world.
Tibet's energy, transportation and other basic industries are also flourishing. On the eve of Tibet's peaceful liberation, there was only one 125-kw hydropower station in the region, which supplied electricity only to a handful of senior officials and aristocrats. Now, an extensive energy system has been formed, with hydropower as the mainstay, backed up by geothermal, wind and solar energy sources. In 2010 the installed power-generating capacity in Tibet reached 974,000 kw, and more than 82 percent of the population had access to electricity. The Qinghai-Tibet DC Power Transmission Line is under construction, which will link the Tibetan grid to those of the rest of the country. In the old days there was not a single highway in Tibet. Today, a comprehensive transportation network has taken shape, with highway, rail, air and pipeline transportation as the backbone. All townships and more than 80 percent of the administrative villages in Tibet have gained access to highways, which now total 58,200 km. China's last "isolated" county is soon to be connected to the country's highway network with the completion and operation of the Galung La tunnel on the Medog Highway. The operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway ended Tibet's history of being without railways. The navigation lighting project at the Lhasa Gongkar Airport, and the Nyingchi Menling Airport, Ngari Gunsa Airport, Xigaze Peace Airport have been completed and put into use, allowing night flights into and out of Tibet and greatly increasing the number of air routes. An airport layout has taken shape in Tibet, with the Lhasa Gongkar Airport as the main hub, and the Chamdo Bangda, Nyingchi Menling, Ngari Gunsa and Xigaze Peace airports as the branches, catering to 22 domestic and international air services. In old Tibet, letters were carried by people or beasts of burden and relayed via posthouses. Nowadays, Tibet has entered the information age, having established a modern telecommunications network with cables, satellites and the Internet as the backbone. It has also realized broadband coverage in all townships and telephone communication in all villages. In the old days Tibet's agriculture and animal husbandry were completely at the mercy of the weather. Nowadays, modern facilities have been widely introduced. The added value of primary industry (agriculture) in Tibet increased from 128 million yuan in 1959 to 6.813 billion yuan in 2010, registering an average annual growth of 4.8 percent. Grain output rose from 182,900 tonnes in 1959 to 920,000 tonnes in 2010. Meanwhile the grain output per mu (15 mu equal one ha.) rose from 91 kg in 1959 to 357.4 kg in 2008, with the number of livestock rising from 9.56 million head in 1959 to 23.21 million head at the end of 2010.
Before the peaceful liberation, more than 90 percent of the people in Tibet had no private housing, nor had they enough food and clothing. But over the past 60 years the Tibetan people's living conditions have constantly improved. In 1951 the per-capita housing of urban dwellers was less than three sq m, but the figure reached 34.72 at the end of 2010. Since 2006, with the construction of a new socialist countryside and comfortable housing project underway, 274,800 households, comprising 1.4021 million farmers and herdsmen, have moved into modern houses, and the per-capita housing space has increased to 24 sq m in rural areas. The aim of providing farmers and herdsmen living in poor conditions with comfortable houses has been realized. Tibet has also improved its facilities in the areas of water, electricity, highways, telecommunications, gas, radio and television, postal services and the environment in farming and pastoral areas, giving rise to historic changes in these areas. The coverage rate of postal services in townships, that of highways in townships, and that of highways in administrative villages have reached 85.7 percent, 99.7 percent and 81.2 percent, respectively. The region has provided safe drinking water for 1.532 million farmers and herdsmen, and iodized salt for 91.2 percent of the residents in farming and pastoral areas. In 2010 the per-capita net income of farmers and herdsmen was 4,138.7 yuan, registering a double-digit growth for eight consecutive years. The per-capita disposable income of urban dwellers stood at 14,980 yuan.
Meanwhile, the consumption pattern of Tibetan residents is becoming more diversified with improvement in their livelihood, and such consumer goods as refrigerators, color TVs, computers, washing machines, motorcycles and mobile phones have got access to ordinary homes. A survey shows that for every 100 rural households there are 73.45 color TVs, 52.64 mobile phones and 3.98 private cars, and for every 100 urban households in Lhasa, there are 63 PCs, 182 mobile phones and 32 private cars. Radio, television, the Internet and other modern means of information keep growing with progress in other parts of China and the rest of the world. They have become an integral part of people's daily life in Tibet as well.
3. Tibetan society has progressed in an all-round way, with all social undertakings flourishing.
In old Tibet there was not a single school in the modern sense. Education was monopolized by monasteries, and there were only a limited number of schools run by monks and officials. Almost all students in such schools were children of the nobility. The masses of serfs and slaves had been robbed off the right of receiving education. The enrollment rate for school-age children was less than 2 percent, while the illiteracy rate was as high as 95 percent among the young and the middle-aged, to say nothing of ignorance of modern science and technology. From 1951 to 2010 the central government invested 40.73 billion yuan to give a boost to Tibet's education. Now, Tibet has basically established an educational system with special local flavor and minority ethnic characteristics, which includes pre-school, primary and middle schools, secondary vocational and technical schools, institutions of higher learning, and adult and special education institutions. In 2010 Tibet had six institutions of higher learning, 122 junior and senior high schools, and 872 primary schools. The total enrollment was over 500,000. More than 20,000 Tibetan students are studying in Tibetan classes in schools of the hinterland. In 12 hinterland provinces and municipalities of China, 42 secondary vocational schools have classes for Tibetan students. Now the enrollment rate for primary school-age children of the Tibetan ethnic group has reached 99.2 percent; that for junior high school, 98.2 percent; that for senior high school, 60.1 percent; and that for institutions of higher learning, 23.4 percent. The illiteracy rate among the young and the middle-aged has fallen to 1.2 percent. The average educational period of people above 15 years old in Tibet has reached 7.3 years. The children enjoy "three guarantees" for compulsory education, i.e., the state guarantees all tuition as well as food and lodging expenses for students from Tibet's farming, pastoral or impoverished urban families from the pre-school period all the way to the senior high school period. Subsidies for each student in this regard have reached 2,000 yuan per year.
Science and technology in Tibet started from scratch and is growing rapidly. In 2010 Tibet had 34 independent scientific research institutes at various levels, nine private research centers, 140 organizations at various levels for popularizing science and technology in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry, and 52,107 professional technical personnel who have completed 3,253 key scientific and technological programs at the autonomous region and state levels. The scientific and technological content of economic development has increased markedly. The rate of contribution made by science and technology to overall economic growth has reached 33 percent, and that to the growth of agriculture and animal husbandry, 40 percent.
Tibet's medical services are also constantly improving. Before the peaceful liberation, there were only three small, shabby government-run institutions of Tibetan medicine and a small number of private clinics, with less than 100 medical workers altogether. By the end of 2010 there were 1,352 medical institutions of all types and at all levels in Tibet, with 8,838 hospital beds and 9,983 medical workers. A healthcare system in farming and pastoral areas has been established, with funds from the government comprising the major part, backed up by family accounts, and comprehensive arrangements for serious diseases and medical relief. A medical and healthcare network covering all counties and townships, with Lhasa as the center, has taken shape. Now, all townships in Tibet have health centers and all villages have clinics. Thanks to improvement in medical services, the Tibetan people's health level has been raised. The death rate of women in childbirth has dropped from 5,000 per 100,000 to 174.78 per 100,000, and the infant mortality rate from 430 per thousand before the peaceful liberation to 20.69 per thousand. The average life expectancy has increased from 35.5 to 67 years. According to the sixth national census, the total population of Tibet increased from one million before the peaceful liberation to more than three million, of whom 2.7164 million or 90.48 percent were Tibetans.
Tibet has established a social security system mainly covering basic pension insurance, basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance for urban workers, industrial accident insurance and maternity insurance, which cover all urban and rural residents. From November 2009, with the initiation of the New Rural Pension Social Insurance, to the end of 2010, 73 counties (cities and districts) were made pilot areas to try out the policy, granting accumulatively 76.3155 million yuan of basic pension insurance payments to residents over 60 years old in farming and pastoral areas. Pensions received by enterprise retirees reached 2,439 yuan per month per person, higher than the national average. The inpatient reimbursement rate for urban residents covered by the medical insurance policy reached 75.1 percent. The highest reimbursement of medical expenses in 2010 was 130,000 yuan, 8.7 times the per-capita disposable income of 14,980 yuan of urban dwellers in Tibet. The number of Tibetan people underwriting policies of social insurance stood at 1.6623 million, and 1.732 billion yuan of various social insurances have been collected. Meanwhile, there were 527,100 employees in the urban areas, and the registered urban unemployment rate was 3.81%.
4. Ethnic culture in Tibet is enjoying unprecedented prosperity, and freedom of religious belief is respected and protected.
The central and regional governments always attach great importance to carrying on, protecting and developing the excellent traditional culture of the Tibetan ethnic group. The study, use and development of the Tibetan language are protected by law, and the Tibetan script has become the first ethnic-minority script in China that has international text coding standards for information exchange. The state has altogether apportioned 1.45 billion yuan to maintain and repair the Potala Palace, the Norbulingka and Sakya Monastery, and other cultural relics and historical sites. Tibet's 76 distinctive cultural items such as folk handicrafts, folk art and Tibetan opera have been listed among items of state-level intangible cultural heritage, and 53 people have been recognized as representatives of the state-level intangible cultural heritage. The Potala Palace, Jokhang Monastery and Norbulingka have been listed as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites. Tibetan opera and the famous Legend of King Gesar have been put upon the World Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Tibetan medicine, with unique local features, has entered the world market, and Tibetology research is flourishing as never before.
Tibet's radio, TV, press and publications are also growing rapidly. In 2010 the region had four radio stations, five TV stations, 27 medium-wave transmitting and relay stations, 68 radio and TV transmitting and relay stations at the county level, and 9,371 radio and TV receiving and transmitting stations at the township level. Tibet has built China's first ethnic-minority-language radio and TV program dubbing center - Tibetan Radio and TV Program Dubbing Center. More than 380,000 households can receive 55 digital radio and TV programs though the Direct Broadcasting Satellite. The radio and TV coverage rate has reached 90.28 percent and 91.4 percent, respectively. Tibet publishes 58 kinds of newspapers and periodicals, and has accumulatively published 12,000 titles of books in Chinese and Tibetan, totaling 250 million printed copies.
Tibet now has 10 professional art performing troupes, 500-odd amateur art performing and Tibetan opera teams, and 19 folk art performing groups at the county level. A large number of traditional festivals have been inherited and revived, such as the annual Shoton Festival in Lhasa, Qomolangma Cultural and Tourist Festival in Xigaze and Summer Horse Races in Nagqu. Tibet endeavors to extend radio and TV coverage to every village and household, share cultural information and resources and establish cultural centers at the county and township levels to enrich the cultural life of farmers and herdsmen. It also endeavors to realize the complete coverage of comprehensive cultural centers and county-level sharing of cultural information and resources. A number of literary and artistic works and programs have been created which have a strong local flavor and display the features of our times, and there have been great improvement in both their quantity and quality.
Freedom of religious belief of all ethnic groups is respected and protected in Tibet. All religions, all religious sects are equal in Tibet. The Living Buddha reincarnation system, unique to Tibetan Buddhism, is fully respected. People are free to learn and debate Buddhist doctrines, get ordained as monks and practice Buddhist rites. Academic degrees in Buddhism are also promoted. The central government has listed some famous sites for religious activities as cultural relics units subject to state or autonomous regional protection, including the Potala Palace, Jokhang Monastery, and Tashilhunpo, Drepung, Sera and Sakya monasteries. Tibet now has more than 1,700 venues for religious activities, and about 46,000 monks and nuns. Monks and laymen organize and take part in the Sakadawa Festival and other religious and traditional activities every year. More than one million worshipers make pilgrimage to Lhasa each year.
5. Ecological conservation has been progressing rapidly, and environmental protection is being strengthened in an all-round way.
Tibet serves as an important ecology safety barrier in China. In old Tibet macro-ecological conservation or comprehensive environmental protection was out of the question. But since the peaceful liberation, and especially since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policies, the central and regional governments have attached great importance to ecological conservation and environmental protection, and plowed in large amounts of funds, manpower and materials in these endeavors. In 2002 the central government decided to launch 160 key projects in this regard. During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), the state granted 3.243 billion yuan for ecological and environmental protection in Tibet, and during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) the figure tripled to 10.162 billion yuan. The people's congress and people's government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have published more than 30 local regulations, regulatory documents and administrative rules covering ecological conservation and environmental protection. A relatively comprehensive system of environmental protection has taken shape. Meanwhile, Tibet actively carries out projects to protect its natural forests, and convert farmland into forest and pastures into grassland. It also makes efforts to control desertification and soil erosion, manage small watersheds and prevent geological disasters. Tibet led the whole country to initiate the ecological compensation mechanism for the protection of grassland. It has launched a project to replace firewood with clean energy, and 150,000 households have begun to use methane gas. Tibet is home to 21 ecological function conservation areas, seven national forest parks, three geological parks, one state-class scenic area and 47 nature reserves at various levels, accounting for 34.5 percent of the total land area of the region, topping any other part in China. The forest coverage rate has risen from less than 1 percent before the peaceful liberation to 11.91 percent at present, and more than six million hectares of wetland have been protected. According to the latest report on the state of the environment of China, generally speaking, there is no pollution of the atmosphere or water in Tibet. The region has basically maintained its original natural state, being one of the areas with the best environmental quality in the world. Tibet has embarked on a path of sustainable development, with economic growth and ecological protection advancing side by side. On March 2, 2009 the central government approved the Plan for Ecology Safety Barrier Protection and Construction in Tibet (2008-2030), with the projected investment amounting to 15.5 billion yuan.
Sixty years are just a fleeting moment in the history of mankind. However, within six decades Tibet has achieved development that would normally call for a millennium. Under the leadership of the CPC and the Chinese government, the people of Tibet have created a miracle.
The 60 years following Tibet's peaceful liberation have proved that Tibet, as an inseparable part of China, shares its destiny with the motherland, and its development is also impossible without that of China. In modern times, when China was reduced to semi-colonial and semi-feudal society beset with poverty and weakness under corrupt and incompetent regimes, Tibet was also invaded and bullied by Western powers. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Tibet was peacefully liberated. Under the leadership of and with special care from the Central People's Government, and through democratic reform, the founding of the autonomous region, socialist construction and the reform and opening-up, Tibet abolished serfdom and theocracy, become a modern, democratic socialist society, achieved rapid and comprehensive economic and social development, and embarked on the road to modernity. Tibet's 60 years of development would have been impossible without the care of the Central Authorities and the support of the entire nation. Moreover, Tibet's rebirth and development would have been impossible without national unification, independence and prosperity. Only by adhering to the leadership of the CPC, the path of socialism, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and the development mode with Chinese characteristics and Tibet's regional features, can Tibet enjoy lasting prosperity and a bright future.
Today, China is in a historical period of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, speeding up reform and opening up and realizing modernization. The Fifth Tibet Work Forum, held by the Central Authorities, formulated the strategic goal to realize leapfrog development on the basis of the rapid development achieved so far and achieve lasting stability on basis of basic stability by proceeding from the reality of Tibet and the development of the country. Tibet is advancing smoothly in the course of reform and in all of its undertakings, and we have every reason to believe that the Tibet Autonomous Region will have a better future with the combined efforts of all ethnic groups in Tibet and the help of the entire nation. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28724000 |
Having mentored young people in sporting associations, including the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) when those young athletes are on respite and from his pastoral experiences over a life time, he's aware that teenagers do not always listen to their parents. In fact, new research shows that their brains are not 'adult' until they are about 24! (www.smh.com.au)
However, for parents today, help might be at hand. Perhaps the kids will listen to recent scientific studies that support parents' common sense.
Protecting children's precious ears
Mark Tronson is concerned that kids are protected from the heartbreak of deafness. His own father damaged his ears as a result of fireworks (a 'penny bunger') going off close to him when he was only ten; and his wife has had hearing problems from birth.
But today's teenagers are more likely to suffer loss of hearing from loud music at live venues or from their earphones, Danish researchers reported at a conference recently. (www.sciencedaily.com)
Without ear protection, “heavy metal” fans have 15 mins at a concert before they risk permanent hearing damage, report Australian scientists at the National Acoustics Laboratories who have been trialling some new filtered ear plugs which don't affect the quality of the music.
The teenagers quickly got used to using them, and relished waking up the morning after a gig without ringing in their ears. The earplugs are useful for professional musicians in classical orchestras, too. (smh.com.au)
Sugary drinks may damage teeth and hearts
Being involved in sports all his life, and now co-ordinating respite centres for athletes and coaches, Mark Tronson points to several scientific studies indicating that food and drink 'sports' supplements for kids are not necessary, will not improve performance, and may be downright harmful for growing bodies.
It is already known that a daily consumption of sugary soft-drinks is correlated with increased heart disease in adults, but Australian scientists now report that the beginnings of diseased arteries can be seen in children who drink sugary drinks every day. (www.smh.com.au)
Mark Tronson warns that some 'energy' drinks contain sugar; and should only be used in conjunction with supervised training and not as everyday refreshments.
Another study warns that some sports drinks can irreversibly damage teenagers' permanent teeth. (www.sciencedaily.com)
Sports supplements unnecessary for kids – and could do harm
In a recent Sydney Morning Herald article, Australian sports dieticians warned that long-term damage can be done to children who take proprietary supplements in an attempt to increase their body mass, muscle tone or stamina. These supplements are sometimes requested by parents who are over-anxious to see their kids succeed. (www.smh.com.au)
Mark Tronson marvels at the wonderful human body that The Lord has given us, which will adapt and change its energy requirements if trained for a particular sport in a particular way. He is reminded of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
During training, endurance athletes can 'teach' their bodies to slowly use the fat stores already put down by correct nutrition in the weeks leading up to the sporting event. (www.marathonguide.com)
Other athletes are more proficient at fast-movement aerobic sports, and they need completely different diets and training regimes so their bodies learn to use short-term energy from glucose in the blood and glycogen in the muscles.
Sports Scientists and Nutritionists
Sports scientists and nutritionists understand more now about how an appropriate diet of healthy foods will be sufficient to help young athletes' muscles grow strong, and 'learn' to naturally use the resources so miraculously laid down for stressful situations such as we impose when we train for competitive sports. (www.ncga.coolrunning.com.au sections 9 and 10).
Mark Tronson advises young athletes to seek the advice of reputable dieticians and coaches about correct diet, training and sleep regimes to build optimal muscle and improve performance; and only take medication recommended by a trusted doctor if necessary for a medical condition.
This way, all children can reach their potential and enjoy their chosen sport. Supplements cannot help them do any better than this. As a minister of 35 years he is aware, that with the pressures upon his life and ministry, he needs to take time out to recharge and refresh and this is part of his medical advice.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28725000 |
It’s pretty easy to highlight every other row in Excel using a condition. In the matters of highlighting a row based on a value of single cell is another story. Not entirely complex but nonetheless requires some knowledge of writing formulas and knowledge of the INDIRECT function. Bastien blogged about Conditional row color based on a cell value which illustrates the process quite nicely. The steps I am about to cover mimic Bastien’s procedures with the exception of targeting Excel 2007 instead of Excel 2003.
Sample data set
Step 1: Highlight the rows
You will need to highlight the rows that are targeted in which you wish to apply the conditional formatting.
Step 2: Click on Conditional Formatting
Conditional Formatting is found under the Home tab of the Ribbon.
Step 3: Select Manage Rules
Step 4: Click New Rule
Step 5: Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format
Step 6: Enter the following formula which uses the INDIRECT function
Then click the Format button to specify the formatting options
Step 7: Click the Fill tab
Step 8: Select the background color
Once you have selected a color click the OK button to proceed
Step 9: Click OK
Step 10: Click OK to apply formatting
To highlight the rows that have a Gender value of F in column C simply repeat steps 4 – 10 and switch the conditional value to F as in (Step 6) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28732000 |
History of Initiative & Referendum in Arizona
|Laws • History|
|List of measures|
The History of Initiative & Referendum in Arizona began when acquired statewide initiative, referendum, and recall rights at the time of statehood in 1912. The first initiative in the state was for women's suffrage. It was a landslide victory, passing by a margin of greater than two to one on Nov. 5, 1912.
Then, in 1914, Arizona saw of 15 qualified initiatives, which held the record until 2006 when 19 initiatives were passed. Four of the 1914 initiatives passed because of the efforts of organized labor. One prohibited blacklisting of union members; a second established an "old age and mothers' pension"; another established a state government contract system, and a fourth limited businesses employment of non-citizens. Lastly, the voters in 1914 passed an initiative that barred the governor and legislature from amending or repealing initiatives.
In response, the legislature tried to pass a constitutional amendment that would make it more difficult to pass initiatives. Because this amendment needed the approval of voters, the Arizona Federation of Labor waged a campaign against the measure. The amendment was narrowly defeated in 1916.
- This chart includes all ballot measures to appear on the Arizona ballot in the year indicated, not just initiated measures. See also Arizona ballot measures.
|Year||Propositions on ballot||How many were approved?||How many were defeated?|
Arizonans owe many of their reforms to John Kromko. Kromko, like most Arizonans, is not a native; he was born near Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1940 and moved to Tucson in the mid-1960s. He was active in protests against the Vietnam War, and in the 1970s and 1980s he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature several times. By night, he was a computer-programming instructor; by day, he was Arizona’s "Mr. Initiative."
Kromko’s first petition was a referendum drive to stop a Tucson city council ordinance banning topless dancing, arguing for free speech. In 1976 Kromko was among the handful of Arizonans who, in cooperation with the People’s Lobby Western Bloc campaign, succeeded in putting on the state ballot an initiative to phase out nuclear power. The initiative lost at the polls, but Kromko’s leadership on the issue got him elected to his first term in the legislature.
Repealing the sales tax on food
Once elected, Kromko set his sights on abolishing the sales tax on food, a "regressive" tax that hits the poor hardest. Unsuccessful in the legislature, Kromko launched a statewide initiative petition and got enough signatures to put food tax repeal on the ballot. The legislature, faced with the initiative, acted to repeal the tax.
After the food tax victory, Kromko turned to voter registration reform. Again the legislature was unresponsive, so he launched an initiative petition. He narrowly missed getting enough signatures in 1980, and he failed to win re-election that year.
Undaunted, he revived the voter registration campaign and turned to yet another cause: Medicaid funding. Arizona in 1981 was the only state without Medicaid, since the legislature had refused to appropriate money for the state's share of this federal program.
In 1982, with an initiative petition drive under way and headed for success, the legislature got the message and established a Medicaid program. Kromko and his allies on this issue, the state’s churches, were satisfied and dropped their petition drive.
Motor Voter initiative
The voter registration initiative, now under the leadership of Les Miller, a Phoenix attorney, and the state Democratic Party, gained ballot placement and voter approval. In the ensuing four years, this "Motor Voter" initiative increased by over 10 percent the proportion of Arizona’s eligible population who were registered to vote.
Late legislative career
Kromko, re-elected to the legislature in 1982, took up his petitions again in 1983 to prevent construction of a freeway in Tucson that would have smashed through several residential neighborhoods. The initiative was merely to make freeway plans subject to voter approval, but Tucson officials, seeing the campaign as the death knell for their freeway plans, blocked its placement on the ballot through various legal technicalities. Kromko and neighborhood activists fighting to save their homes refused to admit defeat. They began a new petition drive in 1984, qualified their measure for the ballot, and won voter approval for it in November 1985.
Arizona’s moneyed interests poured funds into a campaign to unseat Kromko in 1986. Kromko not only survived but also fought back by supporting a statewide initiative to limit campaign contributions, sponsored by his colleague in the legislature, Democratic State Representative Reid Ewing of Tucson. Voters passed the measure by a two to one margin.
Kromko’s initiative exploits have made him the most effective Democratic political figure, besides former governor Bruce Babbitt, in this perennially Republican-dominated state. And Babbitt owes partial credit for one of his biggest successes - enactment of restrictions on the toxic chemical pollution of drinking water - to Kromko. Early in 1986 Kromko helped organize an environmentalist petition drive for an anti-toxic initiative, while Babbitt negotiated with the legislature for passage of a similar bill. When initiative backers had enough signatures to put their measure on the ballot, the legislature bowed to the pressure and passed Babbitt's bill. Even today, Kromko is still active in politics, writing letters to the editor about immigration policies.
Petition drive problems in 2008
2008 was a tough year for ballot initiatives in Arizona. Nine citizen initiatives filed signatures to qualify for the November 2008 Arizona ballot by the state's July 3 petition drive deadline. In the end, only six of the initiatives were certified, with three initiatives disqualified as a result of an historically high number of problems with flawed petition signatures. When the November vote was held, of the six that qualified for the ballot, only one was approved.,
Criticisms of process
After 19 were proposed in 2006, legislators were worried about "ballot fatigue" or overuse of the initiative system. This led to legislators considering steps to limit or otherwise exert more control over the initiative process. Ironically, any attempt to alter the initiative and referendum process would require an amendment to the state constitution, and thus in itself be put forth as a referendum.
This article is significantly based on an article published by the Initiative & Referendum Institute, and is used with their permission. Their article, in turn, relies on research in David Schmidt's book, Citizen Lawmakers: The Ballot Initiative Revolution.
Also portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under the GNU license.
- ↑ Arizona Daily Star, "'Clown' takes some serious initiative", July 20, 2007
- ↑ Arizona Republic, "'Flawed' election petitions face review", September 13, 2008
- ↑ Phoenix New Times, "Citizen initiatives have been kicked off the ballot this year in record numbers, and the problems could go much deeper than invalid signatures", August 21, 2008
- ↑ Legislators seeking more control over initiatives, Arizona Republic, Feb. 13, 2007
- ↑ History of Arizona's initiative
- ↑ Citizen Lawmakers: The Ballot Initiative Revolution Temple University Press, 352 pp., ISBN-10: 0877229031, October 1991
History of I&R
Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Florida · Idaho · Illinois · Kentucky · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Mexico · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · South Dakota · Utah · Washington · Wyoming
Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum · Citizen Lawmakers: The Ballot Initiative Revolution · Direct Legislation: Voting on Ballot Propositions in the United States | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28736000 |
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Biology by design – how synthetic biology could revolutionise everything from medicines to energy
13 July 2012
In a series of articles we will be highlighting the work of some of the leading synthetic biology researchers in the UK. Here we profile Professor Dek Woolfson of the University of Bristol, Professor Jamie Davies of the University of Edinburgh and Professor Richard Cogdell of the University of Glasgow.
Flat pack proteins – Professor Dek Woolfson, University of Bristol
Professor Dek Woolfson is hoping to use synthetic biology to create new structures out of proteins with uses ranging from wound repair to water purification.
- Proteins play many important roles in nature.
- Proteins can assemble into complicated structures like tiny pumps and motors.
- Scientists are hoping to combine proteins in new ways using synthetic biology to create useful new tools for uses as diverse as water filtration and medicine.
Proteins are like nature's robots working tirelessly in the cells of every plant, animal and microbe to do virtually all of the important functions that make life tick. Each individual protein can twist and fold into an incredibly complex 3D shape, with holes, cracks and protrudances giving it its function. Groups of proteins then combine with one another and other types of molecules to create bigger and more complicated structures still. Understanding how proteins assemble and combine is at the heart of Professor Dek Woolfson's research at the University of Bristol.
Professor Dek Woolfson
This work is important for our understanding of biology because by figuring out how to make parts these molecular machines from scratch scientists can get a much better understanding of how they work in nature. It could also have a range of possible applications.
Professor Woolfson and his team are working on a toolkit of newly designed proteins that could be used as building blocks to produce biological machines. This is a key pillar of a synthetic biology approach. Scientists like Professor Woolfson hope to create catalogues of modular parts so that biological structures can be built from flat pack rather than being crafted from scratch each time.
One such structure that Professor Woolfson's team are working on is a synthetic version of the extracellular matrix, the scaffold that surrounds our cells.
A synthetic extracellular matrix could be used in regenerative medicine to help generate tissues like skin, nerves or bone in the test tube that could then be transplanted into patients. Professor Woolfson is currently working with clinical scientists exploring applications for the technology in wound repair.
Another project in their lab is attempting to use rational protein design to produce new technologies for water purification and desalination. The team have discovered a new cylindrical protein structure which they call CC-Hex which they think could be engineered into biological membranes to filter water. These devices would be particularly valuable for producing small scale products that could be used easily by people who do not have access to clean water in the developing world.
This research is being developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford and with an Australian water consortium that brings together a team of engineers, biochemists, chemists, materials scientist and microbiologists.
Prof Woolfson explains "When we discovered CC-Hex we thought we might use it to make enzymes. It was a visiting colleague from Australia who recognised the similarity of the structure to aquaporins (a natural protein that rescues water in kidneys, the brain and even the roots of plants). He suggested that we explore that direction too and it is now the basis of our latest BBSRC grant. We are far from achieving a working prototype but are collaborating with Australian scientists with this goal in mind."
Designer tissues – Professor Jamie Davies, University of Edinburgh
Stem cells offer incredible medical promise because they can turn into virtually any tissue in our bodies; but what about tissues that do not exist in our bodies or even in nature?
- During development, a simple group of cells multiplies and rearranges to form complicated tissues and organs and eventually a whole plant or animal.
- Currently, scientists are working to coax stem cells to produce human tissues in the lab to repair damaged organs.
- Using synthetic biology, scientists could put new programming in to cells so that they develop into never-before seen types of tissues with a range of medical uses.
Professor Jamie Davies of the University of Edinburgh is working to use synthetic biology to control cell and tissue shape, research which he calls 'synthetic morphology'. His work could lead to a future where cells can be programmed to self assemble into new structures and tissues which have never existed before in nature.
Professor Jamie Davies
This science is in its infancy and there are a number of technical hurdles still to be overcome. However it promises to give us a far greater understanding of how organisms develop which might give scientists insights that could help prevent developmental abnormalities like conjoined twinning.
As well as increasing our understanding of development this work could allow the production of useful new tissues that would not be possible with stem cells. You could imagine, for example, that tissues grown in this way could provide an interface to allow a person to control movement in an artificial hand or even to see through an artificial eye.
These developments are still some way off. However in the nearer term Professor Davies hopes to be able to improve medical technologies like dialysis machines by developing tissues that can live happily inside medical machinery. Dialysis machines are very good at replicating the mechanical functions of a kidney but they cannot perform the biochemical functions that are important in properly filtering blood. By designing tissues that could grow along the tubes of a dialysis machine researchers could produce a more effective artificial kidney.
Professor Davies explains "The development of even really complex tissues can be broken down into a series of simple events like the multiplication, clumping together or movement of cells. There are about ten of these simple behaviours and we think that by programming cell circuitry to carry them out in different orders we can coax cells into new types of tissues in ways that we can predict."
The immediate value of this work to scientists is that it will give them a much deeper understanding of the process of development. How relatively unorganised populations of cells assemble precisely into something as complex as a person is one of the big outstanding questions in biology. By developing synthetic systems that cause cells to organise and assemble themselves, the researchers can begin to understand how it happens in nature.
One of the immediate challenges that Professor Davies and their team faced when starting this work was that they wanted to work with animal cells. Most synthetic biology to date has been in simple organisms that are easy to work with like bacteria or yeast. Mammalian cells are much bigger and more complex than those of bacteria which make them considerably harder to work with.
However this work is not just limited to human or animal cells. It should be possible to programme bacteria, yeast or plant cells to form new multicellular structures which could have an enormous range of uses in medicine and industry.
The artificial 'leaf' – Professor Richard Cogdell, University of Glasgow
Professor Richard Cogdell is hoping to use synthetic biology to create an artificial "leaf" capable of converting the sun's energy into sustainable liquid fuels.
- Plants use photosynthetisis to capture energy of the sun to create fuel to power the plant's growth.
- We use this fuel ourselves in the form of wood, coal, oil and gas.
- By using the tools of synthetics biology, scientists hope to create an artificial system that can do photosynthesis,
- This could capture the sun's energy like a solar panel but would produce liquid fuel rather than electricity.
We have always relied on plants to provide us with energy. For millennia, burning wood was humanity's main, sometimes only, source of power. Later, more energy dense fuels – coal, oil and gas, drove the development of modern society.
Professor Richard Cogdell
By burning these fuels we are tapping into the stored energy of the sun. In the case of wood this might have been captured months or years before. When we burn fossil fuels we are releasing energy that fell as sunlight on the world of the dinosaurs hundreds of millions of years ago.
Only plants, algae and some bacteria have the amazing ability to capture and store the sun's rays as sugars using photosynthesis. While amazing, photosynthesis is actually quite an inefficient process. A plant is not a machine for producing fuel, rather a machine for producing plants, and as such scientists think that they might be able to tweak photosynthesis to produce fuel more efficiently. The researchers, based at the University of Glasgow, hope to deliver the next stage in our long relationship with photosynthesis by taking it out of the leaf and into the lab.
Professor Cogdell, who is leading the research project, explains: "More energy hits the surface of the Earth in the form of sunlight in the space of one hour than the entire human race uses in a whole year. This abundant energy is given away for free but making use of it is tricky. We can use solar panels to make electricity but it's intermittent and difficult to store. You can't fly an aeroplane or send a ship round the world using batteries, you need a fuel. What we are trying to do is to take the energy from the sun and trap it so that it can be used when it is needed most."
The researchers hope to use a chemical reaction similar to photosynthesis but in an artificial system. Plants take solar energy, concentrate it and use it to split apart water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released and the energy from the hydrogen used to lock carbon into a fuel. The latest research aims to use synthetic biology to replicate the process outside of the cell.
Professor Cogdell added: "We are working to devise a chemical system that could replicate photosynthesis artificially on a grand scale. This artificial leaf would use solar collectors and produce a fuel, as opposed to electricity."
Professor Cogdell hopes that his team's artificial system could also improve on natural photosynthesis to make better use of the sun's energy. By stripping back photosynthesis to a level of basic reactions, much higher levels of energy conversion could be possible.
Ultimately, success in this research could allow the development of a sustainable carbon neutral economy arresting the increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning. In fact, if successful, this research could allow for carbon to be harvested from the atmosphere and returned to the ground, reversing the accumulation of carbon caused by burning fossil fuels.
The research is funded through a joint EU funding scheme "EuroSolarFuels" which aims to produce fuels from light. The BBSRC funds the UK part of this research.
What is synthetic biology?
Synthetic biology is the science of designing, engineering and building useful new biological systems which have not existed before in nature.
Using our ever-increasing understanding of genetics and cell biology synthetic biologists are able to design complicated biological parts, systems and devices to act as sensors, tissues or to produce useful chemicals. These technologies could deliver advances in a wide range of fields including medicine, biofuels and renewable materials.
A synthetic biology approach offers incredible promise but also poses many ethical, legal and even existential questions for the scientific community, policymakers and for all of us to think about. Some of these questions were explored in a public dialogue carried out by BBSRC and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in 2010. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28739000 |
A Chinese farmer dries corn outside of Qingdao, 14 Oct. 2009. China has approved its 1st strain of GM rice, which is locally-developed, for commercial production. China has also approved its first GM corn.
"Africa—From Basket Case to Breadbasket"
Op-Ed, New Agriculturalist
Author: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Agricultural Innovation Project at Harvard Kennedy School, is optimistic about economic prospects in his native continent of Africa. In his new book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, launched in January 2011, he states very clearly that Africa is a continent that can feed itself within a generation. For readers of New Agriculturist he outlines why, despite the challenges of ever increasing population and climate change, he thinks Africa will change its image of being a basket case to becoming a breadbasket.
The basis for my optimism is the reality on the ground and knowledge of the rapid rate at which Africa is changing. One concrete example is the investment that Africa is making in economic transformation. Take infrastructure for example: a significant effort is being made by African countries to extend road networks, the lack of which has been the biggest barrier to agricultural production, especially connecting markets to farms. Similar investments are being made in energy and irrigation. Only seven per cent of African agriculture is irrigated — 3.6 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa — compared to about 47 per cent in south Asia; this is changing. The impact of telecommunications has served as an important source of inspiration and evidence of the role of infrastructure in development. Mobile phones are helping farmers to know when to plant, where to sell and where to bank. Mobile technology is also becoming a substitute for traditional extension services. The next wave of broadband technology will be even more transformative and will affect all sectors of the economy. Agriculture will be a key beneficiary of the terrestrial cables that are being laid across the continent. Innovation in agriculture now includes the use of genetically-modified crops that have been adopted in South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt. Other countries such as Kenya and Tanzania are planning to follow suit. But Africa will go further in using all methods, including organic farming, as well as alternative crops such as breadfruit that help meet food needs while providing vegetation cover. Sustainable agriculture can take root in Africa.
The second fact that reinforces my optimism is the creation of regional markets. In the past each African country has struggled by itself. And, if it did not have sufficient lands and sufficient investment, it would rely on foreign food aid. Now countries and regional bodies like COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) are starting to trade among themselves and a large part of this trade is in food. The East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) has committed itself to a regional approach to agriculture.
The third reason for my confidence in Africa is the increase in examples of countries that have turned their agriculture around in very few years. Rwanda's recovery after the genocide focused remarkably on agricultural restoration. Malawi is a more well-known example of rapid agricultural recovery. In both cases presidential leadership was critical to rapid recovery. More African presidents are starting to pay attention to the fact that in Africa agriculture and the economy are one and the same.
As highlighted in The New Harvest, Africa is also actively learning from the experiences of other agricultural giants such as China, Brazil and India. But more importantly, it is also learning from itself. African presidents meet more regularly than in any other region of the world. They learn a great deal from each other and are starting to draw on their own experts openly.
In looking ahead, attention will need to focus on building technical capacity in agriculture, especially for women. There is no alternative to decentralizing institutions of higher learning and linking them directly to farming communities. The African Rural University for Women (ARU) project in western Uganda is an example of what needs to be done. ARU started off as a project of a non-governmental organization training young women: it is now seeking to become a full university. When African women farmers raise their productivity and become technology-oriented, their children will also have a better appreciation for the role of innovation to create a new generation of young people that are interested in using innovation to improve their living conditions.
Universities are just one option to build technical competence. Another is adding a vocational component to high schools located in agricultural areas. This will make education more relevant to young people. Today, the creativity of young people is not fully tapped: such a youthful continent needs a different type of education. In large parts of Africa the majority of the population are of school age. Vocational schools can help to build competence in areas such as food processing. Up to 40 per cent of the food produced in Africa is wasted through post-harvest loss. Improvements are needed in processing, storage and transportation. International aid agencies could play a key role in funding the purchase of equipment needed to turn high schools into vocational centres.
Some sceptics argue that any gains that are made in agricultural production will be eroded by climate change. To the contrary, much of the interest among African leaders to focus on agriculture is inspired by their concern over climate. They reason that making agriculture more resilient is the best way to adapt to climate change. It is for this reason that President Jakawa Kikwete of Tanzania convened a retreat of East African presidents last December to discuss 'Food Security and Climate Change'. It was at this event that The New Harvest was launched. It was clear from the discussions at the retreat that African leaders are not interested in predicting the future; they are determined to define it.
For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.
Full text of this publication is available at:
For Academic Citation: | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28741000 |
The French painter Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) was a major painter of the School of Paris. His work is characterized by a simplification of forms and the application of paint in thick slabs.
Nicolas de Staël was born on Jan. 5, 1914, in St. Petersburg, the son of a wealthy baron. Nicolas's mother encouraged him to draw and paint at a very early age. In 1919 the Russian Revolution forced the family into exile in Poland. Within 2 years his parents were dead, and Nicolas was sent to Brussels to study humanities. In 1932 he entered the Royal Academy of Art there.
During the 1930s Staël embarked on a series of travels to see as many kinds of art as possible. In the Netherlands he was particularly impressed by the works of Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer, and in Paris he was very moved by the paintings of Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque. He traveled in Spain, Italy, Morocco, and Algeria and then settled in Paris in 1938. When World War II broke out, Staël joined the French Foreign Legion and fought in Tunisia for a year.
In 1942 Staël's individual style began to emerge. He gave up direct representation for a highly sensuous, nonfigurative approach, as in his Composition 45 (1945). He became friends with Braque and André Lanskoy, whose work he greatly admired and who encouraged and advised him. Staël's life had been one of extreme poverty, but by 1948, when he became a French citizen, he was beginning to be successful. Although he was painting nonfigurative pictures, he did not consider himself an abstract painter. "One does not start from nothing, and a painting is always bad if it has not been preceded by contact with nature."
In 1951 Staël made a trip to London, where he became familiar with the work of J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, an interest that presaged his return to nature in 1952. That year he executed a series of paintings of football players. He began to paint directly from nature and, greatly influenced by Gustave Courbet, developed a highly personal style of landscape painting. Staël applied brilliant flat colors with a minimum of detail to suggest the essence of a vista; this suggestive simplification of a recognizable scene was one of his contributions to the development of modern painting. It is exemplified in Landscape, Sky, Blue and Gray (1953).
A dedicated artist who lived for painting, Staël had achieved wealth and fame when, on March 16, 1955, he committed suicide in Antibes.
The best book on Staël, a thoughtful analysis of his life and work, is Douglas Cooper, Nicholas de Staël (1961). Roger van Gindertael, Nicolas de Staël (1960; trans. 1961), is a brief but perceptive appreciation and critique by one of Staël's friends. □ | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28753000 |
Endearingly dubbed the 'Garden of England' by natives, Kent's claim to fame can be summarised in two words: organic produce. This verdant South East county provides an estimated forty per cent of the UK's 'homegrown' organic fruit and veg, coupled with a significant contribution of hops to microbreweries throughout England. With a temperate climate and very little precipitation during key 'growing' months, Kent was the ideal location for the introduction of Mediterranean and South American fruits during the 1600's. Both the Morello Cherry and Kentish Red made rich pairings with white meats such as duck and turkey, subsequently fueling a surge in fruity jams supplied exclusively to the court of King Henry VIII. Cider making continues to thrive in the region and many of our homegrown apples and pears continue to be sourced by major supermarket chains. Lesser discussed are Kentish desserts, which, given the diversity of its fruit and grain industries, have survived over eons to become firm staples in modern family homes. From flat griddled cakes and fruity pies, to the old delicacy of Lamb's Tail Pie, Kentish cuisine is as variegated and homely as that of any of its Northerly counterparts. For scrumptious cottages in Kent.
Best described as a cross between a classic English teacake and donut-shaped modern bagels, Huffkins are a Kentish staple rumoured to date back to the 16th Century. Huffkins are predominantly flat, oval shaped cakes with a hole at the centre for hot, sweet fillings, such as stewed cherries or pear. Although eaten year round, Huffkins are particularly popular during the harvest months of September and October, traditionally flavoured with hops and eaten hot, with a serving of steaming cherry preserve to sweeten.
Lamb's Tail Pie
Thought to originate from the Romney Marsh area of Kent, Lamb's Tail Pie dates back to the 1700's when breeding cattle were first introduced onto the Romney Marshes. Such was the ratio of salt in the grasses, farmers discovered their lamb meat to be far more tender than of cattle grazing elsewhere, promptly starting a demand for this finer texture and the evolution of everyday lamb stew into Lamb's Tail Pie. Traditionally, lamb's tails were docked at birth, therefore the pie was an annual delicacy, only made during lambing season. After boiling, the tails would be skinned and slow-cooked with root vegetables, such as onion, potato and carrots for up to three hours. Encased within a shortcrust pastry, the mixture was topped with peas and sliced hard-boiled eggs, with a pinch of parsley or mint to season, then baked until a delicious golden brown. Lamb's Tail Pie is fairly uncommon on the menus of Kent today, however, may still be found on occasion at old Kentish pubs, paired with local ales.
Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast
A classic English seaside town with sweeping promenades and a rickety old peer, it's difficult to believe Whitstable was once an industrious fishing port. In the 19th Century, oysters were netted in droves to satisfy London markets and later, the archaic Wheelers Oyster Market also set up shop here. In need of a hearty warm up prior to embarking out on the high seas, fishermen would congregate within seafront cafes for their daily fill: Whitstable Dredgerman's Breakfast. It's essentially a toasted sandwich laden with freshly caught oysters and streaked bacon, dripping through with fat to soak the bread. A simple, yet filling starter prior to braving the winds off the South East Coast, it was washed down with strong black tea to aid digestion.
Kent Lent Pie
Lent, a time of acknowledged abstinence for many was also a grueling hardship for churchgoing natives with a sweet tooth. According to foodies, Kent Lent Pie was borne from the desire of two Folkestone cooks, to create a dish that would not breach the church's rules on foods that could not be eaten. Made from shortcrust pastry, double cream, milk and eggs, Kent Pudding Pie is essentially a cheesecake, seasoned with nutmeg and occasionally filled with raisins or currants. Its simplicity was key to its acceptance among churchgoers and many still consume it today during the abstinence period.
What yummy local Kent meals stand out for you? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28763000 |
Michaela Binder, Durham University
Sudan has perhaps one of the richest and most fascinating archaeological records in the world. Construction projects such as roads and dams are an increasing threat to its cultural heritage which prompts a large number of salvage excavations by Sudanese and international teams. Accordingly, as a large number of archaeological sites are cemeteries, the amount of human remains housed in museums and universities for use in research is steadily growing.
Despite the fact Sudan has many excellent archaeologists, the scientific potential of human remains – which can increase our knowledge about many aspects of past human cultures – is not fully harnessed. This is mainly due to the fact that there is relatively little training in the study of human remains within the country itself.
Recognising this problem, the British Museum’s Amara West project has instigated a Bioarchaeology Field School, generously funded by the Institute of Bioarchaeology. I am currently in Khartoum running a one-week workshop at the National Council of Antiquities and Museums (NCAM). Over the course of the workshop, nine participants, including senior members of NCAM and archaeologists from the universities of Khartoum, Shendi, Bahri (Juba) and Wadi al-Nil, will gain a basic understanding of the study of human remains, the methods involved and the potential information that can be obtained.
During the first few days, we have been busy learning about the anatomy of the human skeleton. Following practice on a plastic skeleton, the participants get hands-on experience with skeletons excavated at the Meroitic cemetery at Berber, by workshop participant Mahmoud Suleiman Bashir, an inspector at NCAM.
We have also visited excavations at al-Khiday near Khartoum, a multi-period site with cemeteries of the Pre-Mesolithic, Neolithic and Meroitic periods, where Tina Jakob of Durham University, who works on the human remains of Al-Khiday, gave a talk about her research.
You can read more about our discoveries at Amara West on the British Museum website where we have uploaded new pages about the excavation of a Ramesside house at the town, and post-New Kingdom burials in cemetery C. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28764000 |
An Efficient Solar Harvest
Solar power could be harvested more efficiently and transported over longer distances using tiny molecular circuits based on quantum mechanics, according to research inspired by new insights into natural photosynthesis. Incorporating the latest research into how plants, algae and some bacteria use quantum mechanics to optimize energy production via photosynthesis, UCL scientists have set out how to design molecular circuitry that is 10 times smaller than the thinnest electrical wire in computer processors. Published in Nature Chemistry, the report discusses how tiny molecular energy grids could capture, direct, regulate and amplify raw solar energy.
Solar fuel production is all about energy from light being absorbed by an assembly of molecules; this electronic excitation is subsequently transferred to a suitable acceptor. For example, in photosynthesis, antenna complexes capture sunlight and direct the energy to reaction centers that then carry out the associated chemistry.
In photosynthesis chlorophyll captures sunlight and directs the energy to special proteins that help make oxygen and sugars. This is no different in principle than a solar cell.
In natural systems energy from sunlight is captured by colored molecules called dyes or pigments, but it is only stored for a billionth of a second. This leaves little time to route the energy from pigments to the molecular machinery that produces fuel or electricity.
The key to transferring and storing energy very quickly is to harness the collective quantum properties of antennae, which are made up of just a few tens of pigments.
Recent studies have identified quantum coherence and entanglement between the excited states of different pigments in the light-harvesting stage of photosynthesis. Although this stage of photosynthesis is highly efficient, it remains unclear exactly how or if these quantum effects are relevant.
Dr Alexandra Olaya-Castro, co-author of the paper from UCL’s department of Physics and Astronomy said: “On a bright sunny day, more than 100 million billion red and blue colored photons strike a leaf each second.”
“Under these conditions plants need to be able to both use the energy that is required for growth but also to get rid of excess energy that can be harmful. Transferring energy quickly and in a regulated manner are the two key features of natural light harvesting systems.
“By assuring that all relevant energy scales involved in the process of energy transfer are more or less similar, natural antennae manage to combine quantum and classical phenomena to guarantee efficient and regulated capture, distribution and storage of the sun’s energy.”
Summary of lessons from nature about concentrating and distributing solar power with nanoscopic antennae:
The basic components of the antenna are efficient light absorbing molecules.
Take advantage of the collective properties of light-absorbing molecules by grouping them close together. This will make them exploit quantum mechanical principles so that the antenna can: i) absorb different colors ii) create energy gradients to favour unidirectional transfer and iii) possibly exploit quantum coherence for energy distribution.
Make sure that the relevant energy scales involved in the energy transfer process are more or less resonant. This will guarantee that both classical and quantum transfer mechanisms are combined to create regulated and efficient distribution of energy.
Article by Andy Soos, appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.
|Tags: energy distribution energy production photosynthesis quantum mechanics solar cell solar energy||[ Permalink ]| | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28765000 |
The President, in his Inaugural address, told America and the world that if God "truly" created us "equal," biblically condemned homosexual relations are morally equivalent to biblically affirmed heterosexual relations.
Twisting Scripture. Twisting Truth.
Some thoughts about what he said:
The President's carefully crafted words created pictures of pilgrims on a journey. Pilgrims making progress. A picture of secular progressivism and relative truth, wrapped in the original intent of our Founding Fathers and God's plan for mankind as revealed in His Word.
He spoke of a people and a country "without boundaries."
While it is true our pursuit of excellence and achievement is nearly limitless---the sky is the limit, it is equally true that morality has boundaries.
Freedom, as the Founders understood it, was freedom to do the morally right thing, not license to do anything and everything. And they made it abundantly clear their understanding of freedom and morality was based on biblical teaching.
Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values and principles, not evolving moral "truth."
The President said, "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like everyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely their love and commitment to one another must be equal as well."
There is no question all people must be treated with equal dignity and respect. But should the most fundamental component of human culture, marriage and family, be redefined to conform to a sexual behavior in order to prove respect or tolerance?
In the context of his speech, his recent statements and his actions to move the homosexual agenda forward, this is the message:
If homosexual behavior is not elevated, affirmed and treated as normal, moral and equal to heterosexual relationships, then God didn't create us equal. Or. Those who oppose normalizing homosexual behavior and redefining marriage are taking a stand against God.
If you oppose redefining marriage, or "marriage equality" on the journey as the President's sees it, you oppose both God and the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
This is a deceptive message which twists the Truth. And it twists Scripture.
God's Word is abundantly clear on homosexual behavior. He loves the person and extends forgiveness and restoration to them, as He does to all of us, but not license to behave as we may be inclined to behave.
The President's narrative reminds me of an ancient conversation that also involved removing boundaries and relative, evolving truth. A journey without moral boundaries. Right and wrong.
"Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" he said.
She replied, "We can eat it all, except this one. If we eat of this fruit, we will die."
"Surely you won't die," he replied. Both of them knew God is love.
"No," he said, "God's Word doesn't mean that, you misunderstand. If you eat that fruit, you will actually 'be like God'---equal to God. And you will know good and evil" (Gen. 3).
When we reach equality with God, why would we need His Word to teach us the difference between good and evil? We then define it for our own journey.
Evolving truth. No moral restraint or boundaries.
A journey without boundaries.
America is on the wrong path. We need spiritual restoration, so political restoration can begin.
May God help us to seek spiritual restoration and renewal through repentance and recommitment to His Truth.
That is the journey our Founding Fathers envisioned and God intended for every human being.
Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful. Be Discerning. Be Active. Be Blessed. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28767000 |
The last week has been a banner one for finding additional images of long-lost vehicles. First, we found the color images of the Brooks Stevens FC-150 Commuter, and now, thanks to Bob Stinnette, we have three more images of the mysterious Mars Express.
Bob wrote on his My Hemmings page that his father, Robert B. Stinnette, took the photos sometime in the late 1930s on U.S. Route 1 just north of Richmond, Virginia.
We know from automotive historian Bob Cunningham that the Mars Express first appeared on American roads in 1934, promoting the Pan American Petroleum Corporation. As an account in the Tuscaloosa News from June 14, 1934, reported, Pan American advertised the Mars Express as a 1,000 MPH car that “follows scientific forecasts of 50 years in the future.”
There will be decorated automobiles of the newest type accompanying the Rocket Car. And a special auto will carry the “Man from Mars,” who depicts the characters that we will see journeying to earth perhaps from our neighboring planets.
The car’s complete streamline effect will help to make possible the unbelievable speeds of the future – speeds of 1,000 and more miles an hour.
To eliminate useless weight, while retaining essential strength, the car has an aluminum body, painted copper. Its overall length is 20 feet, width 7 feet, height 6 feet.
The rocket car has powerful radio, two loudspeakers and microphone. On the dashboard, ahead of the driver’s seat is a planetary map… a well-known artist’s fanciful idea of the heavens.
The cabin is beautifully finished in fine tan leather. Here you see the control board, with strange instruments predicted for rocket car tours – switches for humidimeter, velocimeter, disintegrator ray and oxygen tanks.
Pan Am is the first to build an actual practical car following rocket car lines.
That last claim appears to be just as fanciful as the rest of the claims made about the car. Either way, the Mars Express next shows up in 1938, just a few days after Orson Welles’s radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, with the somewhat more plausible claim of being able to run 115 MPH with a supercharged Ford V-8 engine powering it. However, Pan-American no longer associated itself with the car; instead, Peter Vacca (sometimes referred to as Peter Vacco) of Buffalo, New York, claimed to have spent $16,000 building the car. The man in Stinnette’s third photo may just be Vacca, posing with the Mars Express for an impromptu portrait.
Cunningham said that the Mars Express later went on to tour with the Cole Russell Brothers circus from 1939 through 1942 before disappearing altogether; with that much aluminum in its construction, it’s very probable that it was scrapped for the war effort. The major differences we see here are the spotlamp mounted to the front and the 1937 New York license plate (5x-xx-90); previously published photos of the Mars Express show it sans spotlamp and wearing a 1938 South Carolina license plate (102-624).
So what was Vacca doing with the Mars Express in Richmond, Virginia, at that time? And does anybody know its ultimate fate?
17 Comments - Leave a Reply | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28769000 |
Machines that “Destroy” the Earth (Nov, 1946)
Machines that “Destroy” the Earth
Intricate mechanisms at New York Planetarium show how celestial forces could burn, blast or freeze the world.
By HARRY SAMUELS
THREE times a day in five spectacular ways the earth “dies” in the Hayden Planetarium in New York.
First performed in 1939, the Planetarium’s sky drama was shut down by the war in 1941 and was not resumed until recently. The new “End of the World” show is considerably more vivid than its prewar predecessor because of added startling effects and more authentic background material worked out by the Planetarium technical and scientific staffs. The pictures and captions on the accompanying pages explain how these effects are obtained.
Scientists and others—mostly others-have predicted a possible end to the world in the near future as a result of chain reactions set off by the use of atomic energy.
The varieties of cosmic destruction depicted in the Planetarium show are, however, many millions of years distant by estimates of most astronomers.
The Planetarium audience, seated under a huge dome, is transported through time and space to the center of Central Park in New York on a day billions of years in the future.
The earth comes to its end the first time as the result of the misbehavior of the sun. The sun bursts into a nova, or new star, something that more than 10 other self-illuminated, gigantic heavenly bodies do each year (PSM, July ’46, p. 108). The sudden, cataclysmic flood of heat and energy generated by the blast shrivels the earth to death.
Next, the Planetarium onlookers watch the other, but equally final, extreme—the eventual cooling of the sun to a degree where our globe becomes bleak and frozen and can no longer sustain life.
Gordon A. Atwater, Planetarium chairman, says this cooling of the sun is an almost certain eventuality unless it has some unknown and inexhaustible means of renew-ing its energy.
In the third preview of doom, the earth and all the other planets of our solar system are innocent victims of a celestial hit-and-run accident. The sun explodes as the result of a collision with a star from far out in space.
The fourth possible end of the world occurs when a mysterious wanderer from space, a comet with a flaming tail, appears on the celestial stage. It approaches the earth at bewildering speed. Closer and closer it comes until it strikes with a terrible impact. Where the earth was a fraction of a second before there is now only space. Though not probable, a collision between the earth and a comet is possible.
Astronomers know that some remote day the earth will pull the moon within the so-called “Roche’s limit,” a distance from the earth roughly twice the earth’s diameter. What will happen then is shown in the awesome finale at the Planetarium.
Moving slowly at first, but gaining momentum as it approaches the New York skyline, a huge and terrifying moon soon fills half of the sky. There is a shattering crash as the moon explodes in the southeast horizon, breaking up into thousands of flaming meteors that bombard the mother planet. The skyline that rims the Planetarium becomes a circle of blazing buildings. As the flames die down, pieces of the shattered moon circle the earth similar to the moons of Saturn—a halo for a dead world! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28773000 |
The Rainforest Pyramid, which opened in 1993, is a ten-story glass pyramid that recently underwent a massive enhancement project to make it better for both visitors and its animal and plant residents. The Rainforest Pyramid has shared the wonders of the Asian, African, and American rainforests with millions of visitors. It has also brought attention to the dangers rainforests are facing and the endangered species that inhabit them.
The popular Moody Gardens attraction is a great entertainment destination, but it is also the center point of Moody Gardens rainforest conservation efforts. Over the years, Moody Gardens has shown its dedication to saving the rainforest in a variety of ways.
In the last decade, Moody Gardens purchased 2,215 acres of rainforest in Panama for protected reserves. We have also collected over $69,000 for research and conservation in Central and South America to help preserve the diminishing rainforests in those regions.
Moody Gardens contributed to purchasing land in Peru to help complete the ReNuPeru Ethno Botanical Garden at the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research.
Other funds from Moody Gardens have been donated to support the Belizean Ministry of Natural Resources as they try to save the Mountain Pine Ridge Forests area from the devastation caused by a massive Pine Beatle infestation. We also contributed to the Rainforest Foundation to help indigenous people preserve their land from being taken over.
Moody Gardens contributes to helping save the rainforest through our animal programs and our research efforts. We stand by our mission: “Moody Gardens is a public, non-profit educational destination utilizing nature in the advancement of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation, and research.”
To learn more about our rainforest conservation efforts, come visit our Rainforest Pyramid. You can make a trip out of your visit by staying with us at the Moody Gardens Hotel, one of the best places to stay in Galveston. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28774000 |
FDA’s approval of Truvada, a once-a-day oral combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine, for pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP, a method for preventing HIV infection) arrived during a chorus of optimism surrounding major developments in the fight against AIDS.
At conferences in the UK and the US last month, the possibility and even likelihood of an AIDs-free generation in our lifetime graced the lips of innumerable activists, academics and government officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NIH director Francis Collins. “I honestly believe,” rock star Sir Elton John told an audience at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, “that before I die, I will more or less be seeing the remains, the last remaining people infected with AIDS.”
Much of this optimism is a result of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) – an international collaborative clinical trials network – and the findings from its key study, HPTN-052. That study was halted last April after demonstrating that HIV-infected individuals, when treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), experienced an astonishing 96% reduction in transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner.
Prior to that discovery, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gilead Sciences, sponsored the iPrEx study, which looked at uninfected men who have sex with men, and transgendered women who have sex with men, with an eye toward prevention. That study, which served as the basis for Truvada’s PrEP indication approval, found that study participants who took a daily dose of Truvada experienced an average of 43.8% fewer HIV infections than those receiving placebo. Study participants who said they took the drug 90% of the time – 100% representing perfect, daily adherence – had 72.8% fewer HIV infections, a finding that points to the necessity of adherence for full benefit.
Combine these studies with viral load testing capabilities and comprehensive educational measures, and the picture starts to look almost rosy, despite a continuing need for access to education, testing and ART in many parts of the world. The case for treating HIV-positive patients with ART as a preventative measure – known as Treatment as Prevention, or TasP – is easily justified in environments where healthcare coverage is accessible and affordable, particularly for patients who want to begin treatment earlier. As for prescribing Truvada in “high-risk individuals” as a protective measure, many questions remain, not least of which is cost-effectiveness.
Of the 48,000 to 56,000 new HIV infections in the US each year, 56% to 61% occur among men having sex with men (MSM), according to original research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last April. Within the MSM population, researchers designated 20% as “high-risk;” in the high-risk population, Truvada provided considerable savings, with a caveat. “Because PrEP provides the most value in reducing HIV transmission when used in high-risk MSM, efficient clinical PrEP will depend on a clinician’s ability to identify high-risk MSM,” according to the authors. Indeed, it will be critical for physicians to determine who’s high risk and who isn’t, by asking questions about frequency of condom use and the number of sexual partners a man has had in the last year; the research points to diminishing returns cost-wise when PrEP is used in larger MSM populations, beyond the highest-risk populations.
At the joint International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC) and British HIV Association (BHIVA) conference in London, Michael Horberg, director of HIV/AIDS at Kaiser Permanente, estimated that PrEP treatment – including lab work and appointments, would cost private payers approximately $17,450 for the first year of treatment. These costs are estimated for MSM populations only. At the same conference, Jim Rooney, Gilead’s VP, medical affairs, said stakeholder meetings were underway in the US to get feedback on PrEP use in MSM populations, but “subsequent meetings have included discussion of PrEP in heterosexuals as well.” Gilead will provide education via third parties, and will not promote the drug directly, said Rooney.
Will payers get behind an expensive preventative treatment that only makes sense for patients carefully selected by physicians educated on high-risk MSM lifestyles, and willing to ask the necessary questions? Will payers pony up for a treatment that only works half of the time if patients don’t strictly adhere to the daily dose? Truvada looks to be a solid test case in the ongoing value discussion. Pay for an expensive new drug now, or a potentially more expensive condition later? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28779000 |
While typically thought of as three sisters, according to mythology, the real number of them are unknown. Virgil, the classical Roman poet, was first to recognize the three known Furies. Their names are Alecto (which means "unceasing"), Megaera ("grudging"), and Tisiphone ("avenging murder"). They tend to appear as women with serpent wreathes on their heads, blood running from their eyes and the wings of a bat or bird. And occasionally even the body of a dog.
When they're not pursuing wrongdoers on Earth, the Furies are thought to spend most of their time in Tartarus, which is in the underworld below Hades, torturing damned souls.
|'Orestes Pursued by the Furies' (1921) by John Singer Sargent|
- On a rare few occasions, they would be called to punish a god, but mostly, they sought justice on mortals who broke laws such as murdering kin or breaking oaths.
- A common Greek story featuring the Furies is "Eumenides" by Aeschylus. The Furies torment Orestes until he begs the goddess Athena to convince the Furies to leave him alone.
- The Furies are known to be just, so if one repents, they will stop tormenting the person and sometimes bestow upon them blessings.
Good links to check out for more information: | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28780000 |
The study of motion is often called kinematics. We will begin our study with one dimensional kinematics. We will later expand to 2 and 3 dimensional kinematics after we have studied vectors.
We can give the position of an object in relation to a reference point. There are a number of variables we can use for position, such as x, d, or s. The official metric unit for position is the meter (abbreviated m). The meter was first defined in terms of the circumference of the Earth on a meridian passing through Paris. It is now defined in terms of the speed of light. When working with other scales, it might be convenient to use other metric units such as the nanometer (nm), the centimeter (cm), and the kilometer (km).
We will often use exponential notation. Exponential notation is convenient for expressing very large and small numbers.
For instance, 12,300 would be expressed as 1.23 x 10,000 or 1.23 x 104
So 3.14 km = 3140 m = 3.14 x 103 m
For small numbers, 0.000345 = 3.45 x 10-4
A micrometer, 1 μm = 10-6 m The width of a human hair on average is 10 μm. This would be 10 x 10-6 m.
The wavelength of a helium-neon laser is 633 nm = 633 X 10-9 m = 6.33 x 10-7 m
The common metric units are given in powers or 3.
The kilometer is 1000 m.
Although the 100 centimeters = 1 meter it is not actually a common unit.
1 Millimeter = 1mm = 10-3 m
1 Micrometer = 1um = 10-6 m
1 Nanometer = 1nm = 10-9 m
1 Picometer = 1pm = 10-12 m
1 Femotometer = 1fm = 10-15 m also known as a Fermi
Except for kilometer, we often do not use the larger metric prefixes for distance. But they are used for frequencies and other units in physics.
1 Kilometer = 1 km = 1000 m = 103 m
Megameter = 1Mm = 106 m
Gigameter = 1Gm = 109 m
Terrameter = 1 Tm = 1012 m
Common British Imperial units for measuring distance include the inch, the foot, the yard, and the mile. An easy way to remember the conversion from meters to miles can be remembered in terms of Track and Field. The loop in a track is ¼ mile long. It is also known as the 400 m race, so 1 mile is approximately = 1600 m. Engineers in America commonly use Imperial units. Very small measurements for the purposes of manufacturing are given in 1/1000ths of an inch.
When dealing with astronomical distances there are other units we might use such as the light-year, the parsec, or the Astronomical Unit. The light-year is the distance light will travel in one year. An object which is one parsec away has one arc-second of parallax from Earth. An astronomical unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
Distance vs Displacement
In physics we often study the change in position of an object. If we are only examining the change in position from the start of our observation to the end, we are talking about displacement. We ignore how we get from point A to point B. We are only concerned with how the crow flies. If we are concerned with our path, we are working with distance (see figure A).
For example, let us suppose I were to talk around the perimeter of a square classroom (see figure B). The classroom is 10 meters on a side. At the end of my trip I return to my original starting position. The distance traveled would be 40 m. The displacement would be zero meters because displacement only depends on the starting and ending positions.
The other important distinction between distance and displacement is that distances do not have a direction. If you were wearing a pedometer is would record distance. The odometer on a car records distance. Displacement has a direction and a magnitude. Magnitude is a fancy physics term for size or amount.
For instance, suppose I walked 10 m North, 10 m East, 10 South, and then 5 m West (see figure C). My distance traveled would be 35 m. There is a magnitude but no net direction. Since we can describe distance with just a magnitude (but no direction) we call it a scalar. But my displacement would be 5 m due East. As displacement has both a magnitude and a direction, we call it a vector.
We measure time in seconds. We will use the variable t for time. The elapsed time for a certain action would be ΔT. The Greek letter delta, Δ, is used to represent a change in a quantity. If we are talking about a reoccurring event (such as the orbit of the Earth around the sun) we talk about the Period of time T, with a capitol T.
For longer periods of time we will often use the conventional minutes, hours, days, or years. For shorter periods of time will often use exponential notation or may use milliseconds, microseconds, picoseconds, or femtoseconds.
For instance, chemical reactions may often take place on the picosecond timescale. Just as when you dance under a strobe like at a cool school dance you can see your movements in stop action. Scientists use pulsed lasers with picosecond and femtosecond pulses to examine dynamics at the molecular level.
Speed and Velocity
Building on changes in position and changes in time, we can examine the rate at which these changes in position take place. How fast are we moving? You probably use the terms speed and velocity interchangeably in your everyday vernacular, but in physics they have distinct meanings. Speed is a scalar and has no direction. Speed can be defined as
speed = distance/elapsed time
Velocity is a vector. We could consider velocity to be speed in a given direction. To calculate the average velocity over a period of time, we use displacement and elapsed time.
Where v is velocity, x is position, t is time. The Greek letter delta, Δ, means a change in a quantity, such as the change in position or the change in time. The bar over the velocity v means the terms in averaged. For instance, Δx = xf – xo , or the change is position equals the difference of the final position and the original positions.
Our first set of problems will involve the above kinematic equation.
Problem Solving Method
When solving physics problems, it is useful to follow a simple problem solving strategy. Although at first, it may be easy to solve some problems in your head, by following this strategy you will develop good problem solving habits. Just as you must develop good habits by brushing your teeth every day, you should attempt to follow the following methodology for solving physics problems. The first step is Step 0 because it does not always apply.
Step 0: Draw a picture of the problem if appropriate.
Step 1: Write down the given information
Step 2: Write down the unknown quantity you are trying to find out
Step 3: Write down the physics equations or relationships that will connect your given information to the unknown variables.
Step 4: Perform algebraic calculations necessary to isolate the unknown variable.
Step 5: Plug in the given information to the new equation. Cancel appropriate units and do the arithmetic.
Example 1: A robot travels across a countertop a distance of 88.0 cm, in 30 seconds. What is the speed of the robot?
In this case, we do not need to do any algebra.
Significant figures: At this point we should not how many significant figures our answer has. Your final answer cannot have more information that your original data. We were presented with a distance and a time with only 3 significant figures, therefore our final answer cannot have more precision than this.
Now let us look at a problem which does require some algebra.
Example 2: The SR-71 Blackbird could fly at a speed of Mach 3, or 1,020 m/s. How much time would it take the SR-71 to take off from Los Angeles and fly to New York City via a path which is a distance of 5500 miles.
You should note that you need to convert miles to meters, remembering that 1 mile = 1600 m
First we need to algebraically isolate the variable t .First we multiply both sides by t, and t cancels on the right hand side of the equation.
Then dividing both sides by v gives us
Now, plugging in for distance and speed gives us
Note the units and the number of significant digits. Because one piece of our original data (distance) only had two significant digits, we have to round off our final answer to 2 significant digits. Also, look at the cancelation of units. The meters in the units cancel. Our units have the reciprocal of a reciprocal, thus the final units are in seconds, which you might have guessed since we are working with time. For ease of perspective we converted these units into minutes.
Average velocity vs instantaneous velocity
Another important distinction is finding an average value or the velocity versus the velocity at a given instant in time. To find an average velocity we only the measure the change in position and the total elapsed time.
However, finding the velocity at a given instant can be tricky. The elapsed time for an instant has no finite length. Similarly, a physical position in space has no finite size. To calculate this using equations we would have to reduce the elapsed time to a near infinitesimally small amount of time. Mathematically, this is the basic for calculus which was developed separately by both Newton and Leibniz. In standard calculus notation we would say the instantaneous velocity can be expressed as
In our next lesson we will learn how to determine the instantaneous velocity using graphical techniques. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28792000 |
When a person has a heart attack, the heart repairs its damaged muscle by forming scar tissue. As a result, the heart never truly goes back to the way it was. But when a zebrafish has a heart injury, like having a large chunk of it chopped off, it grows a brand new piece to replace it.
Two independent reports published in the journal Nature show that within days of an injury to its heart, the zebrafish has the remarkable ability to regenerate most of the missing cardiac tissue using mature heart cells–not stem cells, as some researchers had suspected.
The findings help explain why human beings can’t regenerate a heart or missing limbs. The reports contradict a previous study (pdf) done by one of the research teams in 2006 that suggested that stem cells, the general all-purpose cells that develop into all the mature and functional cells of the body, were responsible for self-repair.
The finding suggest that doctors have been on the wrong track with recent stem cell-based therapies for heart attack patients. Many heart patients have received injections of stem cells, often ones taken from their own bone marrow. But the beneficial effects have generally been unremarkable [The New York Times].
In one study, a team led by Chris Jopling and Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte genetically engineered the fish’s heart muscle cells so that when they proliferated they would synthesize a fluorescent green protein [The New York Times].Then they chopped off part of the fish’s heart and watched to see if the fish would employ stem cells to regrow the heart or use mature heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes.
In just a few days, scientists found the zebrafish had regrown the missing piece of heart. On further observation, scientists found that all the cells in the new part of the heart glowed green, proving that existing heart muscle cells were the principal or only source of the new tissue [The New York Times]. Further experiments showed that the cardiomyocytes near the injury site seem to take a step backward in development, detaching from one another and losing their typical shape—presumably to make it possible for them to start dividing again as they replenish the lost tissue [ScienceNOW]. Experiments conducted by Kenneth Poss, the researcher behind the 2006 study, showed similar results. Both teams say the next step is to identify the cellular signals that trigger the regeneration process.
The scientists say that prior to heart failure, mammalian heart cells go into a state called hibernation, where the muscle cells stops contracting in an effort to save themselves. Hibernating cardiomyocytes are also seen in zebrafish, but unlike the mammal cells, the fish cells then take another step and begin proliferating. Scientists are trying to understand what gives the fish cells the ability to start multiplying, and hope to conduct further studies on mice to see whether mammalian cells can be induced to follow suit. “Maybe all they need is a bit of push in the right direction,” Jopling said [HealthDay News].
80beats:Injecting Special Protein Could Make Hearts Heal Themselves
80beats: Could Stem Cells Patch Up a Broken Heart?
80beats: Researchers Could Grow Replacement Tissue to Patch Broken Hearts
80beats: Harvesting Infant Hearts for Transplants Raises Ethical Questions
80beats: The Upside of Nuclear Testing: Traceable Radioactivity in Our Heart Cells
Image: Chris Jopling. The green-glowing heart cells are shown at 7, 14, and 30 days after injury. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28793000 |
As a native Marylander, I’ve had many discussions with friends about whether we can call it a Southern state. You could say it’s in “Dixie,” which (according to one historical interpretation from this Civil War fact book) means south of the Mason-Dixon Line. One could also argue that because it fought for the North in the Civil War, Maryland should be considered a Northern state. However, we can’t forget that Maryland was a slave state that was chock full of Southern sympathizers during the war.
For evidence, just look up the official state song that remains on the books. You might be surprised (or perhaps offended) at the lyrics. According to this NPR story, a group of active fourth-graders were certainly offended when Linda Tuck, a school library “media specialist,” led their study and discussion of the song. Here are some of the lines seen as offensive:
“The despot’s heel is on thy shore, Maryland!”
“Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum!”
By the way, that “despot” refers to the revered Abraham Lincoln. James Ryder Randall wrote the poem in 1861, after riots in Baltimore led to the deaths of a few civilians, according to Dissonance by David Detzer.
Tuck took a vote and found that the school children wanted to see the lyrics changed. They then wrote letters to state delegates, and now a bill is in the works. Delegate Pamela Beidle, who introduced the bill, wants to use a different poem written in 1894 for the lyrics of the song.
According to a local news article, the bill does have its critics, who say that the song’s a reminder of a part of Maryland’s history that is too often forgotten. Others would simply rather leave it up to voters. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28803000 |
Snapper, New Zealand (Tai)
Snapper are found in subtropical regions of the western Pacific Ocean including New Zealand, Australia, China and Japan.
In New Zealand, Snapper are a commercially important fishery. Due to prudent fisheries management, most Snapper populations in New Zealand are stable or recovering from their previously overfished status.
Juvenile Snapper inhabit muddy estuaries, while adults mostly inhabit rocky reefs, but are also found in mud and sea grass habitats.
Most New Zealand Snapper are caught using longlines, which can result in the incidental catch of seabirds.
This fish may have high levels of mercury that could pose a health risk to adults and children. More mercury info here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28817000 |
For more trusted health
news and information,
visit CBS Boston's
CHICAGO (AP) — Exposure to the chemical bisphenol-A before birth could affect girls’ behavior at age 3, according to the latest study on potential health effects of the compound used in the manufacturing of some plastic drink bottles and food can linings.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Diane Stern reports
Preschool-aged girls whose mothers had relatively high urine levels of BPA during pregnancy scored worse but still within a normal range on behavior measures including anxiety and hyperactivity than other young girls.
Read: BPA Info For Parents
The results are not conclusive and experts not involved in the study said factors other than BPA might explain the results.
The researchers acknowledge that “considerable debate” remains about whether BPA is harmful, but say their findings should prompt additional research.
The researchers measured BPA in 244 Cincinnati-area mothers’ urine twice during pregnancy and at childbirth.
The women evaluated their children at age 3 using standard behavior questionnaires.
Nearly all women had measurable BPA levels, like most Americans.
But increasingly high urine levels during pregnancy were linked with increasingly worse behavior in their daughters.
Boys’ behavior did not seem to be affected.
The researchers said if BPA can cause behavior changes that could pose academic and social problems for girls already at risk for those difficulties.
“These subtle shifts can actually have very dramatic implications at the population level,” said Joe Braun, the lead author and a research fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
For every 10-fold increase in mothers’ BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires.
The study was released online Monday in Pediatrics.
Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, said the study contributes important new evidence to “a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health.”
Grants from that federal agency helped pay for the study.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that low-level BPA exposure appears to be safe.
But the agency also says that because of recent scientific evidence, it has some concern about potential effects of BPA on the brain and behavior in fetuses, infants and small children.
The FDA is continuing to study BPA exposure and supports efforts to minimize use in food containers.
BPA has many uses, and is found in some plastic bottles and coatings in metal food cans.
It was widely used in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups but the industry phased out that use.
Braun said it’s possible that exposure to BPA during pregnancy interferes with fetal brain development, a theory suggested in other studies, and that could explain the behavior differences in his study.
Why boys’ behavior wasn’t affected isn’t clear.
But BPA is thought to mimic the effects of estrogen, a female hormone.
The researchers evaluated other possible influences on children’s behavior, including family income, education level and whether mothers were married, and still found an apparent link to BPA.
But Dr. Charles McKay, a BPA researcher and toxicologist with the Connecticut Poison Control Center, said the researchers failed to adequately measure factors other than BPA that could explain the results.
For example, there’s no information on mothers’ eating habits.
That matters because mothers’ higher BPA levels could have come from eating lots of canned foods instead of healthier less processed foods, which might have affected fetal brain development.
The American Chemistry Council, a trade group whose members include companies that use BPA, said the research “has significant shortcomings … and the conclusions are of unknown relevance to public health.”
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28825000 |
Partnership is the most common form of business organisation in India. Partnership firms are governed by the provisions of the Indian Partnership Act,1932. The Act lays down the rules relating to formation of partnership, the rights and duties of partners and dissolution of partnership. It defines partnership as a "relationship between persons who have agreed to share the profits of business carried on by all or any of them acting for all". This definition gives three minimum requirements to constitute a partnership :-
- There must be an agreement entered into orally or in writing by the persons who desire to form a partnership.
- The object of the agreement must be to share the profits of business intended to be carried on by the partnership.
- The business must be carried on by all the partners or by any of them acting for all of them.
Under the Act, persons who have entered into partnership with one another are individually called as 'partners' and collectively as 'firm' and the name under which they run their business is called the 'firm name'.
Provisions relating to taxation of Partnership Firms
Partnership firm is subjected to taxation under the Income Tax Act,1961 . It is the umbrella Act for all the matters relating to income tax and empowers the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to formulate rules ( The Income Tax Rules,1962 ) for implementing the provisions of the Act. The CBDT is a part of Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance . It has been charged with all the matters relating to various direct taxes in India and is responsible for administration of direct tax laws through the Income Tax Department . The Income Tax Act is subjected to annual amendments by the Finance Act , which mentions the 'rates' of income tax and other taxes for the corresponding year.
Under the Income Tax Act, the Partnership firm is taxed as a separate entity, distinct from the partners. In the Act, there is no distinction between assessment of a registered and unregistered firms. However, the partnership must be evidenced by a partnership deed. The partnership deed is a blue print of the rights and liabilities of partners as to their capital, profit sharing ratio, drawings, interest on capital, commission, salary, etc, terms and conditions as to working, functioning and dissolution of the partnership business.
Under the Act, a partnership firm may be assessed either as a partnership firm or as an association of persons(AOP). If the firm satisfies the following conditions, it will be assessed as a partnership firm, otherwise it will be assessed as an AOP:-
- The firm is evidenced by an instrument i.e. there is a written partnership deed.
- The individual shares of the partners are very clearly specified in the deed.
- A certified copy of partnership deed must accompany the return of income of the firm of the previous year in which the partnership was formed.
- If during a previous year, a change takes place in the constitution of the firm or in the profit sharing ratio of the partners, a certified copy of the revised partnership deed shall be submitted along with the return of income of the previous years in question.
- There should not be any failure on the part of the firm while attending to notices given by the Income Tax Officer for completion of the assessment of the firm.
It is more beneficial to be assessed as a partnership firm than as an AOP, since a partnership firm can claim the following additional deductions which the AOP cannot claim :-
- Interest paid to partners, provided such interest is authorised by the partnership deed.
- Any salary, bonus, commission, or remuneration (by whatever name called) to a partner will be allowed as a deduction if it is paid to a working partner who is an individual. The remuneration paid to such a partner must be authorised by the partnership deed and the amount of remuneration must not exceed the given limits. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28834000 |
Between the two world wars, the dominant trend in Hungarian history writing was Geistesgeschichte, as represented by the works of Gyula Szekfû, Bálint Hóman, Gyula Kornis, Tibor Joó, József Deér, and Péter Váczy. Fully versed in the works of Ranke, Meinecke, Dilthey and Lamprecht, Gyula Szekfû, the most outstanding of these historians, was also the one to conclude that Hungarian history would lend itself admirably to a consistent synthesis.
In his A magyar állam életrajza (1918), and in his Bethlen Gábor (1929), Szekfû expressly models his approach on Meinecke's, and tells the entire story from the vantage point of raison d'état and the national point of view. This meant that for him, the central issue of Hungarian history was the territorial integrity of historic Hungary, the Hungary of St. Stephen. This particular outlook is even more evident in Szekfû's Három nemzedék (1920), the veritable Bible of the period. Here, he depicts the nineteenth-century Hungarian liberals responsible for the disintegration effected by Trianon. Blinded by the political tradition of the nobility's struggle for Hungarian independence throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-ran Szekfû's indictment of the liberals-they construed the word "freedom" to mean "independence from the Habsburgs", and failed to realize that the territorial integrity of historic Hungary (i.e., Hungarian rule over the nationalities) could be maintained only with the support of an outside great power, namely, the Habsburg Empire. (This correlation was something that Széchenyi had recognized, and Szekfû, accordingly, esteemed him as by far the greatest Hungarian.)
One finds the same train of thought in all the sections that Szekfû wrote of Magyar Történet (Hungarian History, 1929--1933), a seven-volume synthesis he published together with Bálint Hóman. (Szekfû authored the period stretching from King Matthias Corvinus and the Renaissance to the date of publication). In the final analysis, at every stage of Hungary's history, we find him dividing the leading politicians into two groups: those who believed in "Small Hungary" and those who believed in "Greater Hungary". The "small Hungarians" were those whose primary goal was national independence from the Habsburgs. But this aspiration of theirs, he maintained, was motivated not by some lofty ideal, the love of freedom, for example, but by selfish "class interest" (the nobility's determination to protect its privileges), coupled with a passion for dissension and upheaval inherited from their Eastern ancestors. Another name for this "passion" was Protestantism, which, as Szekfû saw it, was ab ovo inspired by the resolve to spark denominational conflict and create disorder.
The "great Hungarians", on the other hand, had always appreciated that the great power status of the Habsburg Empire was a historical necessity. They recognized the need for political compromise, and strove to promote social reform, and the nation's material improvement and intellectual progress (naturally, with Habsburg support). Szekfû's synthesis presents the Baroque culture of the eighteenth century as the zenith of Hungarian history, a time when the country's territorial integrity had been more or less restored, when religious (Protestant vs. Catholic) and political (Estates vs. absolutism) in-fighting no longer undermined the unity of the nation, when the country's economic and cultural development picked up momentum, and its resettlement began.
Even in the late '30s, Szekfû was very much preoccupied by matters of external politics and national sovereignty. In his Állam és nemzet (State and Nation, 1942), he rejected both the French notion of a political nation and the German "ethnic nation" concept, and presented a uniquely Hungarian notion, one rooted in St. Stephen's tolerance toward the "foreigners". It was a nation concept which guaranteed the country's minorities a high degree of autonomy, while its raison d'etre was to safeguard, and/or to restore Hungary's territorial integrity.
"A népiség története" (Ethnohistory) written in 1931, was the most comprehensive formulation Mályusz would ever give of his program. The study starts with a definition of the notion of "the ethnic". As opposed to "the national", the conscious expression of a people's cultural and political aspirations, "the ethnic" was shorthand for the spontaneous ways and cultural preferences of a particular people. The best way to get started in ethnohistorical research, he went on to say, was to write "synthetic" local and/or county histories. By "synthetic" he meant just the opposite of the village by village approach of the prewar county histories: the historian was to focus on the small, organically-related historico-geographical units-estates, valleys, plains, and so on-units he would later call "cultural regions", and whose study he expected to reveal an entire network of Southern, Eastern and Northern cultural contacts.
Mályusz honed his theory by clashing swords with proponents of the most powerful historical ideology of his time. Taking a direct stab at Geistesgeschichte, its preoccupation with Western cultural influences and its exclusive reliance on the evidence of the written word, he set ethnohistory the task of concentrating on "spontaneous" cultural elements such as roads, means of transportation, architecture, systems of local political and administrative organization, and "anthropological" data of every kind that might serve to give an accurate picture of the day-to-day life of the people.
Mályusz's views on the nature and techniques of ethnohistory, were thus fully developed by the time he came to give his "Introduction to Ethnohistory" course (i.e., the series of lectures that form the core of the volume under review) in the 1936--37 academic year. (As the editor makes clear, only the lectures delivered in the second semester have been found among Mályusz's extant papers.) One of the issues addressed in the lectures was the matter of the "auxiliary disciplines" which Mályusz proposed to "modify" with a view to making them integral parts of the science of ethnohistory. He was particularly enthusiastic about the potential of ethnography and of linguistics, attaching great importance to the study of dialects (and their exact geographic mapping), and to tracing the origins of place names and personal names. He was also keen to have his students learn to use questionnaires, and to set up the institutional framework of ethnohistorical research.
Mályusz's ethnohistory was the revival of the positivist traditions of the nineteenth century. The legacy of positivism, as his contemporaries were quick to point out, was evident in his preoccupation with the collective, and with the law-like regularities of development, and in his concentration on cultural history. But ethnohistory proposed to give an account of cultural development with full regard to its grounding in economic history and historical geography. Instead of political and administrative units, it took organically related historical and/or geographic regions for its units of analysis, and investigated them at all levels and with all the tools that we have come to associate with microhistory and microgeography.
So far, so good. The picture is tainted, however, by the fact that the contemporary inspiration of Mályusz's ethnohistory was the Volkstumskunde associated with Aubin, Kötzschke, Keyser, and Spamer in the inter-war years. Volkstumskunde itself harked back to the nation concept espoused by Herder, Arndt, Fichte and the brothers Grimm, which posited race and ethnicity as the basis of nationhood, and defined national affiliation in terms of a community of descent, language and culture. It was an approach humanist in inspiration, but wide open to racist exploitation. Thus it was that by the turn of the century, the pan-German movement had made it into an ideology of world domination, oneserving to substantiate their doctrine of the Germans' racial superiority over the Slavs. Allied with Ostforschung, another fin-de-siecle intellectual trend, Volkstumskunde came to present German history as essentially a crusade to spread German culture (the German "cultural ground"), principally toward the east. Empire building and "civilizing"-founding cities, introducing the German legal system, organizing churches-was, on this view, at the very heart of German history, as was the struggle for pan-German unification. (Paradoxically, for all its chauvinism, Volkstumskunde proved to be a highly fruitful trend in German historiography. As opposed to the tradition represented by Troeltsch, Meinecke, and Below - concentrating on the state, the history of ideas and "great personalities" - Volkstumskunde explored collective phenomena and material culture for sources of historical evidence, and encouraged a basically interdisciplinary approach.)
Considered purely as a methodology, Volkstumskunde, like Mályusz's ethnohistory, would have had the potential for providing relatively impartial, in-depth depictions of particular segments of the past. There is, however, no way to disregard their political and ideological thrust. Mályusz's introductory lecture to the second semester of his course on ethnohistory (pp. 19--46) leaves absolutely no doubt as to his explicitly political agenda. His studies of the early 1930s on the new German nationalism bear this out. Post-war Europe, he noted (and would continue to reiterate for another decade), had given rise to a new kind of nationalism, one predicated not on state formations, but on ethnicity.
Perhaps the most problematic aspect of Mályusz's concept of an "ethnic nation" was that it necessitated his precluding the country's Jews from the body politic. "Let us exclude the Jewry from our nation", he wrote; "let us dismiss, in amicable accord, all those who do not, in their heart of hearts, feel that they are thoroughly Hungarian". Admittedly, Mályusz was not a racist: he did not believe that history was, in essence, the struggle of the various races for Lebensraum, with the superior races winning. In fact, in his "A népiség története" of 1931, he criticized German historians for identifying "culture" with German culture. The task facing Hungarian historians, he insisted, was to preserve for posterity what the Magyars had achieved jointly with the Slavs in the way of culture.
Mályusz's cultural nationalism was anti-German in several respects. For one thing, his very emphasis on the autonomy of Hungarian culture implied resistance to Hitler's attempts at expansionism. But there was also another side to it. Mályusz's cultural nationalism-as he himself admitted-was meant to lay the groundwork for revisionism. His resolute underscoring of the strength and autonomy of Hungarian culture was meant to provide an alternative to Szekfû's vision of a Hungary whose fortunes were irrevocably tied to that of the Habsburgs. Given the opportunity, Mályusz was suggesting, Hungary would be capable of carrying through a territorial revision on its own.
All in all, however, Mályusz might most equitably be judged as having posited-as opposed to Szekfû's concept of nation as state - the concept of nation as culture. For all its manifest ideological and political bias, in respect of methodology, ethnohistory anticipated our current approach to social history. In publishing Mályusz's lectures for the first time ever in book form, the editor of the volume under review has enabled non-historians, too, to draw their own conclusions about the more universal lessons of ethnohistory. The lesson might prove as timely as the German revisitation of Volkstumskunde has proved to be. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28837000 |
Some time in the past, before the ice age, most of western North America (and probably the whole world) was accurately mapped by a technologically advanced people. Who these people were and what technology they used is lost to us, but their maps remain as evidence that they did indeed accomplish the task. These ancient source maps were used by mapmakers in the 1600 to 1700s to fill in the vast unknown areas on the western side of North America. The recent mapmakers had no idea what was there, nor did anyone else, but they had source maps that showed the area as an island and they used them to fill in the gaps.
When were these source map made? They had to be made before the end of the ice age, because at the end of the ice age, the great ice dam holding back water in a huge lake finally gave way and the Grand Canyon was carved in just a few weeks. The Grand Canyon does not appear on any maps of California as an island that I have found, and is certainly not on the map used for this study, the Vingboons map of 1651. In fact, on the Vingboons map, two rivers cross the location of the Grand Canyon. This creates a problem, because the ice age supposedly reached a maximum 18,000 years ago (see Wikipedia article), putting the date for modern man well before that. This pushes the date back into the realm of the Neanderthals, or even into the Paleolithic period, when we were supposed to be only capable of using stone tools.
An even greater problem is that the map also had to predate the uplift of the Nevada-Utah-Wyoming area that followed the end of the latest continental drift event in North America. (see Wikipedia, Farallon plate) According to continental drift theory, when the continents spread apart, the North America continental plate was pushed over an oceanic plate, which was forced down into the mantle of the earth. The lighter minerals floated up against the bottom of North America, under the Nevada-Utah-Wyoming area. This area was lifted up from sea level (at least in Nevada, where the map shows where the sea encroached) to over 7,000 feet elevation in central Nevada, and similarly across all three states. The routes of rivers changed. The Rio Grande, shown on the Vingboons map as the Rio de Norte, which used to flow into the Gulf of California, was forced to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. The map places a geologically recent date on continental uplift, the uplift having happened after the map was made, putting it within the historical presence of humans on earth. Unfortunately, geology dates the North American continental drift events to the Jurassic period, 200,000,000 to 150,000,000 years ago. How will Science deal with the loss of 150,000,000 years? Since it requires abandoning a well entrenched worldview, it is most likely that the vast majority of academia will simply ignore this study and its implications.
In the following series of articles, I analyze the Johannes Vingboons “California as an Island” map area by area. We will see that the makers of the original map possessed a detailed knowledge of the geography of western North America. Correlation of features on the map to actual locations demonstrates that the map is very accurate. After the analysis of the map I have included some information on the historical mapmaking and exploration of this area by the Spanish after the arrival of Columbus. The Spanish were extremely slow to explore this area, and the information they had was not allowed to be made public because they needed to protect information on their trade routes from their competitors. Vingboons was not using Spanish information to present California as an island.
These articles are my work and the result of my research. I have referenced all the sources I have used. None of these sources presents “California as an Island” as anything more than a myth.
I graduated from UCLA in 1976 from the School of Engineering. I followed the course of study in chemical engineering. I was introduced to the whole topic of California as an island in about 2008 by Cliff Paiva, who was also researching the locations of features on the map. We have taken different paths in our efforts to decipher the map, but I much appreciate Cliff’s getting me started.
If you have any questions regarding these articles, you can email me at email@example.com | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28838000 |
Leonard, called "the great missionary of the 18th century"
by St. Alphonsus Liguori, was another Franciscan who tried to go to the foreign missions (China),
failed at that and succeeded tremendously in some other work.
Leonard’s father was a ship captain whose family lived in Port Maurice on the northwestern
coast of Italy. At 13, Leonard went to Rome to live with his uncle Agostino and study at the Roman
College. Leonard was a good student and was destined for a career in medicine. In 1697, however, he
joined the Friars Minor, a decision that his uncle opposed bitterly.
After ordination Leonard contracted tuberculosis and was sent to his hometown to rest or
perhaps to die. He made a vow that if he recovered he would dedicate his life to the missions and to
the conversion of sinners. He soon was able to begin his 40-year career of preaching retreats,
Lenten sermons and parish missions throughout Italy. His missions lasted 15 to 18 days, and he often
stayed an additional week to hear confessions. He said: "I believe that in those days the real and
greatest fruit of the mission is gathered. As much good is done in these days as during the
As a means of keeping alive the religious fervor
awakened in a mission, Leonard promoted the Stations of the Cross, a devotion which had made little
progress in Italy up to this time. He also preached regularly on the Holy Name of
Since he realized that he needed time simply to pray
alone, Leonard regularly made use of the ritiros (houses of recollection) that he helped establish
Leonard was canonized in 1867; in 1923 he
was named patron of those who preach parish missions. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28843000 |
Character Counts! in Jacksonville is working to bring character and
and awareness to our community. We create a shared language by educating on the
Six Pillars of character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring & Citizenship.
Trustworthiness. Respect. Responsibility. Fairness. Caring. Citizenship. The Six Pillars of Character are ethical values to guide our choices. The standards of conduct that arise out of those values constitute the ground rules of ethics, and therefore of ethical decision-making.
There is nothing sacrosanct about the number six. We might reasonably have eight or 10, or more. But most universal virtues fold easily into these six. The number is not unwieldy and the Six Pillars of Character can provide a common lexicon. Why is a common lexicon necessary? So that people can see what unites our diverse and fractured society. So we can communicate more easily about core values. So we can understand ethical decisions better, our own and those of others.
The Six Pillars act as a multi-level filter through which to process decisions. So, being trustworthy is not enough — we must also be caring. Adhering to the letter of the law is not enough — we must accept responsibility for our action or inaction.
The Pillars can help us detect situations where we focus so hard on upholding one moral principle that we sacrifice another — where, intent on holding others accountable, we ignore the duty to be compassionate; where, intent on getting a job done, we ignore how. In short, the Six Pillars can dramatically improve the ethical quality of our decisions, and thus our character and lives.
People are not things, and everyone has a right to be treated with dignity. We certainly have no ethical duty to hold all people in high esteem, but we should treat everyone with respect, regardless of who they are and what they have done. We have a responsibility to be the best we can be in all situations, even when dealing with unpleasant people.
The Golden Rule — do unto others as you would have them do unto you — nicely illustrates the Pillar of respect. Respect prohibits violence, humiliation, manipulation and exploitation. It reflects notions such as civility, courtesy, decency, dignity, autonomy, tolerance and acceptance.
Civility, Courtesy and Decency
A respectful person is an attentive listener, although his patience with the boorish need not be endless (respect works both ways). Nevertheless, the respectful person treats others with consideration, and doesn’t resort to intimidation, coercion or violence except in extraordinary and limited situations to defend others, teach discipline, maintain order or achieve social justice. Punishment is used in moderation and only to advance important social goals and purposes.
Dignity and Autonomy
People need to make informed decisions about their own lives. Don’t withhold the information they need to do so. Allow all individuals, including maturing children, to have a say in the decisions that affect them.
Tolerance and Acceptance
Accept individual differences and beliefs without prejudice. Judge others only on their character, abilities and conduct.
What are your thoughts on respect? How do you grow it? how do you know it when ya see it? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28845000 |
Transformations in the Coordinate Plane
Transformations in the coordinate plane are often represented by "coordinate rules" of the form (x, y) --> (x', y'). This means a point whose coordinates are (x, y) gets mapped to another point whose coordinates are (x', y').
When possible, simple formulas are given for x' and y' in terms of x and y. For example, (x, y) --> (x + y, x – y) is a coordinate rule for some transformation and maps the points (0, 0), (2, 0), (2, 5), and (0, 5) as follows:
(0, 0) --> (0, 0)
(2, 0) --> (2, 2)
(2, 5) --> (7, –3)
(0, 5) --> (5, –5)
This transformation is not an isometry (it changes the size of any figure) and the image of the blue rectangle with those vertices is the red rectangle:
Translations of geometric figures in the coordinate plane can be determined by translating the x- and y-coordinates of points. Horizontal and vertical translations are the easiest. All other translations can be thought of as a composition of horizontal and vertical translations. The following examples illustrate this.
Example 1: Give a coordinate rule for translating a figure horizontally by 3 units.
Solution: A horizontal translation just changes the x-coordinates of all points, so the rule is (x, y) à (x + 3, y). To illustrate, the blue rectangle with vertices (0, 0), (2, 0), (2, 5), and (0, 5) is translated to the red rectangle with coordinates (3, 0), (5, 0), (5, 5), and (3, 5):
Example 2: Give a coordinate rule for a translation by a distance of 4 units at 30o.
Solution: Consider a point with coordinates (x, y) and its image with coordinates (p, q)
Draw a right triangle with the point and its image as the endpoints of the hypotenuse. This is a 30-60-90 triangle, so the side opposite the 30o angle is half the hypotenuse and the other side is that times the square root of 3. Therefore we have the following picture:
From this picture we see that
and q = x + 2
Therefore the coordinate rule is: (x, y) -->
When a point is reflected in a line, the line is the perpendicular bisector of the segment joining the point and its image. We will only consider coordinate rules for reflections in horizontal and vertical lines, and in the lines y = x and y = –x since the rules for lines in general involve messy details beyond the scope of this course.
Example 3: Give a coordinate rule for reflecting in the line vertical line x = 3.
Solution: Consider a point (x, y) and its image (p, q):
The y-coordinate of the image is the same as the y-coordinate of the preimage, so q = y. Since the line x = 3 bisects the segment from the point to its image, the horizontal distances from the point to the line and its image to the line are equal, so
3 – x = p – 3
Adding 3 to both sides tells us that p = 6 – x. Therefore the coordinate rule is:
(x, y) --> (6 – x, y)
Example 4: Give a coordinate rule for reflecting in the line y = x.
Solution: Again let the point and its image have coordinates (x, y) and (p, q), respectively. The line y = x is a 45o line through the origin, and the relation between the point and its image looks like this:
If we draw horizontal and vertical segments from the axes through the points and to the line y = x, we have the following:
Since the green line is at 45o, we can focus on two squares to see that q = x and p = y:
Thus, the coordinate rule is: (x, y) --> (y, x)
That is, when reflected in the line y = x, the coordinates of any point are transposed.
Coordinate Rules for Reflections
In general, the following coordinate rules for reflections can easily be established:
Reflection in x-axis: (x, y) --> (x, –y)
Reflection in y-axis: (x, y) --> (–x, y)
Reflection in y = x: (x, y) --> (y, x)
Reflection in y = –x: (x, y) --> (–y, –x)
We will only consider rotations about the origin of multiples of 90o.
Example 5: Give a coordinate rule for a rotation about the origin of 90o (counterclockwise).
Solution: Such a rotation is equivalent to reflections in two lines that intersect at the origin and are 45o apart. We could use the x-axis as the first line and the line y = x as the second. The composite of these reflections is:
(x, y) --> (x, –y) --> (–y, x)
That is, a rotation about the origin of 90o has the coordinate rule: (x, y) --> (–y, x)
Coordinate Rules for Rotations
In general, we can state the following coordinate rules for (counterclockwise) rotations about the origin:
For a rotation of 90o: (x, y) --> (–y, x)
For a rotation of 180o: (x, y) --> (–x, –y)
For a rotation of 270o: (x, y) --> (y, –x)
Dilations in the Coordinate Plane
First consider dilations with the origin as center. Then the coordinate rule for a dilation with scale factor k is simply this:
(x, y) --> (kx, ky).
Example 6: Triangle ABC has coordinates A(–1, –3), B(1, 1) and C(2, –3). Triangle DEF has coordinates D(2, 6), E(–4, 6) and F(–2, –2). Show that triangle DFE is the image of triangle ABC under a dilation with center at the origin, and find the scale factor.
Solution: The image of A is given by (–1, –3) --> (–1k, –3k). If D is that image, then –1k = 2 and –3k = 6. Both give k = –2. If we apply this dilation to B and C, we find that F is the image of B and E is the image of C.
Dilations with Center other than the Origin
A dilation with any point other than the origin as the center of dilation can be accomplished by first translating the center of dilation and figure so the origin becomes the center, and then translating back:
Example 7: Find a coordinate rule for the dilation with center (5, –3) and scale factor 2.
Solution: If (x, y) is a point on a figure to be dilated, we first translate left 5 and up 3. This gives us the point (x – 5, y + 3), and the origin becomes the center of the dilation. The dilation now gives us (2x – 10, 2y + 6). Then we translate back--that is, right 5 and down 3, which gives us (2x – 10 + 5, 2y + 6 – 3). So the coordinate rule is:
(x, y) --> (2x – 5, 2y + 3)
Return to Lesson 5 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28847000 |
The next day they went to Antwerp. As they proceeded they crossed a very large river which comes from Ghent. It was covered with an enormous sheet of ice. They led their horses by the reins over the ice to the middle of the river. They then put them in boats from a quay of ice, and landed them on a similar one on the other side. They reached a fort in front of the city. of Antwerp called 'The Head of Flanders'. They left their horses there, and came themselves in boats to the city. When they had taken a hostel, they went to view the castle of Antwerp. All admit that that castle is one of the greatest fortresses in Christendom. The river surrounds it, and there are a thousand Spaniards continually guarding it by night and by day, with much regular cannon and large ordnance provided with every convenience and necessity that is required. They have a very pretty church inside. There are two large guns of brass in a
p.69high position, each gun thirty-six feet long. They carry almost three leagues in shooting their bullets, as the garrison say. They allow no nation at all to see or examine the work, except Spaniards or Irishmen. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28848000 |
Celebrate being an American on the Fourth of July, Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and other special days, but don't stop there. Celebrate year-round with children's books for younger kids to kids in middle school. These recommended children's books include books about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, a children's cookbook, a poetry book, book of tall tales, stories about the White House and its occupants, an illustrated version of the poem "America the Beautiful," and children's books about some of our important national symbols, like the Statue of Liberty. Keep scrolling down to see all 10 of the books I recommend.
1. Lady Liberty: A Biography
Doreen Rappaport’s Lady Liberty: A Biography is the story of the Statue of Liberty, from the idea to the planning, fundraising and building to the celebration when it was completed. The book, in picture book format, features large and dramatic watercolor, ink and pencil illustrations by Matt Tavares. I recommend Lady Liberty for children eight and older, younger if they have visited the Statue of Liberty. Because of the dramatically told story and the large amount of fascinating information in the book, I would also highly recommend Lady Liberty for teens and adults. Compare prices. (Candlewick Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780763625306) Read my review of Lady Liberty: A Biography.
2. Our White House: Looking In Looking Out
Our White House: Looking In Looking Out is a large book, with a great many entries by a variety of authors and illustrators, and including both historical fiction and nonfiction. While the book is sometimes confusing, it is filled with fascinating stories and facts, presented in a variety of ways. The book should be of interest to 9-14 year olds and to families looking for a book related to American history to enjoy together. Compare prices. (Candlewick Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780763620677) Read my review of Our White House: Looking In Looking Out.
3. America the Beautiful
Chris Gall's powerful artwork is the perfect complement to the words of the poem "America the Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates. The illustrations are reminiscent of WPA murals. Even children who are used to singing "America the Beautiful," the song based on Bates' poem, may not have really thought about the meaning of the words until seeing this book. Compare prices. (Little, Brown and Co., 2004. ISBN: 0316737437) Read my review of America the Beautiful.
4. Celebrate Independence Day
If you are looking for a nonfiction children's books about Independence Day for kids in elementary school, I recommend Celebrate Independence Day by Deborah Heiligman. The book is illustrated with high quality color photographs, accompanied by brief paragraphs that stress the history of Independence Day in the U.S. and Fourth of July traditions and festivities. Compare prices. (National Geographic Society, 2007. ISBN: 9781426300752) Read my review of Celebrate Independence Day.
5. Shh! We're Writing the Constitution
I recommend this book for 8-12 year olds, particularly on Constitution Day. Jean Fritz, who is known for her children’s books about American history, wrote the book. Award-winning artist Tomie dePaola provided the entertaining illustrations. While the subject is serious and the content rich with information, the author and illustrator tackle the serious subject matter with enough humor to keep the readers’ interest. Compare prices. (Putnam Publishing Group. 1987. ISBN: 0399214038)
6. The United States Cookbook
As the subtitle states, this children’s cookbook contains recipes for “Fabulous Food and Fascinating Facts from All 50 States.” For each state, there’s a map, illustrations of several state symbols, information about the state, fun food facts about the state, plus a recipe related to the state. Recipes include key lime pie from Florida and Swedish meatballs from Minnesota. The cookbook also contains sections on cooking skills and safety rules. Compare prices. (John Wiley & Sons, 2000. ISBN: 9780471358398)
7. The Declaration of Independence
This nonfiction book contains the full text of the Declaration of Independence inscribed by Sam Fink and accompanied by his witty illustrations. The book also contains a four-page 1748-1776 events chronology, a four-page glossary, and a page of recommended online and print resources. I recommend it for children 10-14 and would include it on your Constitution Day and Citizenship Day booklist. Compare prices. (Scholastic Inc., 2000. ISBN: 9780439407007)
8. American Tall Tales
The nine stories in Mary Pope Osborne’s 115-page collection of American tall tales feature, among others, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Sally Ann Thunder. A U.S. map shows the location of each tale. Each story includes historical notes and contains a number of colorful wood engravings by Michael McCurdy. Compare prices. (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. ISBN: 0679800891)
9. Uncle Sam and Old Glory
Delno C. West and Jean M. West provide a brief look at 15 different American symbols, each illustrated with a handsome woodcut by Christopher Manson. The symbols include the American flag, Smoky the Bear, the Liberty Bell, and Uncle Sam. While I would not have selected all of the symbols chosen, I’d recommend the book. Compare prices. (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000. ISBN: 0689820437)
10. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States
This book of poetry selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins is divided into sections representing different regions of the U.S., each with a map and information about the states. The illustrations, paintings by Stephen Alcorn, and the poetry, such as Nikki Giovanni’s “Knoxville, Tennessee,” create a sense of place for the reader. Compare prices. (Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN: 0689812477) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28854000 |
This story also appeared on America Public Media's Marketplace.
Kai Ryssdal: There are now, the United Nations tells us, seven billion people on the planet. Sooner rather than later -- another 30, 35 years or so -- there's going to be more than nine billion. That's a whole lot of mouths to feed.
So today we're starting a year-long series about the global food system, and how we're going to feed those nine billion people -- if we're going to be able to feed 'em at all.
We start at dinner.
You can think of the world's food system as a giant potluck dinner.
Woman: Hello, come in!
Ryssdal: The first thing that strikes you is the abundance. There's a huge table, it's piled with food. And the smells --
Ryssdal: Wow, what is that?
Woman: It's goat stew. Try some!
Ryssdal: Fifty years ago, people were eating a lot less on average, especially meat.
Man: Have a hamburger. It's delicious.
Ryssdal: Back in the '60s and '70s, about a billion people -- one in every three human beings -- were hungry. Millions of people were dying in famines in China, Africa, Bangladesh. People worried there was no way to keep up with an exploding population.
But then came the Green Revolution. And over the course of just a couple of decades, global food production skyrocketed. Famines are now actually pretty rare. We're producing more food, and we're better at dealing with emergencies.
But even with that, things aren't exactly working. Down at this end of the room, there's a family sitting on the floor with a few grains of something, looks like millet. The number of chronically hungry people in the world is still around a billion. Granted that's one in seven of us -- not one in three -- but still, it's a lot.
And clearly something's out of whack, because there are also about a billion obese people worldwide. Actually, a lot of things are out of whack.
Back here in the kitchen, the water system's all messed up -- there's too much in some places, not enough in others. There's a big pile of rotting -- something -- over there, and man, it's getting hot. And crowded, too. There's hardly any room to move.
Here comes another busload of people -- and they look hungry, too.
Ryssdal: A question you might draw from such a scene setter is: Now what the heck do we do? More than nine billion people. So over the course of the next year, in collaboration with Homelands Productions and PBS NewsHour, we'll be looking at what we have do now to be able feed ourselves in the future.
Maybe one place to start is science. Can't we just research and develop our way out of this? It's worked before. Here's Jon Miller.
Reporter Jon Miller: I figured Mexico was a good place to go to take a look into the scientific pipeline. This is where farmers thousands of years ago transformed a grass called teosinte into what we now know as corn. It's also where scientists in the 1950s and'60s developed the semi-dwarf wheat varieties that launched the Green Revolution.
My first stop is where a lot of that work was done, at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center outside Mexico City. I'm here watching technicians clean and sort experimental corn seeds to go out around the world. I ask research director Marianne Bänziger if there's some big game-changer on the horizon. She says, basically, forget about it.
Marianne Bänziger: It is not just one solution. I mean, our action plans are 10 approaches. And the 10 approaches are not just breeding, they're about really looking at the whole livelihood of a farm family.
Reporter: So the idea isn't just to increase the total amount of food the world produces. It's also to make life better for the two billion or so people who depend on farming for their food and livelihood. Because ironically, most of the world's poorest and hungriest people are in the food production business. If they can produce more, the thinking goes, everybody benefits.
Bänziger says for most crops, a good place to start is by closing what's known as the "yield gap." That's the difference between what farmers could be producing, using existing technology, and what they actually do produce.
Bänziger: In Africa, under the best conditions, you can get 10 times more yield than what farmers get today. On average, I would say in Africa we can increase production four or five times.
Reporter: In Asia and Latin America, she figures output could double. Actually realizing those gains -- well, that's the challenge.
People speaking Spanish: Buenos días, hola, hola. Porfirio Bastida para servirles.
Reporter: I go on a little field trip to see Porfirio Bastida, who farms just over an acre of corn near the Mexico City airport. The city's been creeping closer and closer, sucking up water and land.
People speaking Spanish: Esta bien. Buenos días. Pasenle!
Reporter: For the last three years, Bastida has been practicing what's known as "conservation agriculture" -- he doesn't plow and he doesn't hoe and he lets the stalks and leaves of the corn plants stay in the field after harvest. American farmers have been doing this for decades to control erosion, but here it's a pretty radical departure from the way people normally farm.
Porfirio Bastida: Mire, en primer lugar, hemos visto que, pues, ya no tenemos suficiente agua.
Interpreter: Yeah, so basically Porfirio is saying that they decided to use conservation agriculture because they don't have much water available for their crops. When they keep all the organic material on the soil, that helps the field to retain humidity.
Reporter: Bastida says he's using much less water now, and he's harvesting twice as much corn. Plus it's less work. Still, of all the farmers in this area, so far only he and his wife have adopted the method. Take-home message: It takes time for new things to catch on.
I spend the next day tromping around cornfields with Fernando Castillo, a Mexican geneticist who teaches at a nearby university.
Fernando Castillo: Que es lo que más le interesería?
Farmer: Primero las plagas.
Reporter: Working with a tiny budget, he helps local farmers improve the way they select the corn they'll save for planting the next season. These are traditional varieties, not hybrids or GMOs, and since Mexico is where corn comes from, there's lots of genetic diversity in any given field. Castillo says with a little tutoring, Mexico's 2.8 million corn farmers can accomplish much more than a few plant breeders with Ph.Ds.
Castillo: Farmers have worked for years, and they have learned from their parents and grandparents the local conditions and the management. So most of it is based on local knowledge and local resources.
Reporter: Castillo says the process could raise Mexican corn yields by 2 percent per year, which is just about what's needed to keep up with the demand. But he's been at this for 15 years, and he's still just working with a handful of farmers.
Around the world, thousands of scientists are hacking away at thousands of problems. Some are experimenting with "agro-ecological" methods -- mixing different crops and trees and animals to diversify diets and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers. Others are trying to breed crops that resist insects or diseases, or that tolerate flooding or drought. Some of this stuff is pretty ambitious.
Matthew Reynolds: This field contains the first experiment of the wheat yield consortium in Mexico.
Reporter: Matthew Reynolds is a wheat specialist at the maize and wheat center. He's heading a global push to make wheat plants much more efficient at converting sunlight into grain. There's a parallel effort going on in rice.
Reynolds: This is actually a very interesting area, the spike photosynthesis, because no one has ever systematically tried to improve this photosynthesis of the spikes.
Reporter: It's not just about the spikes -- those are the parts of the plants with the seeds on them -- it's about fundamentally changing the way the plant works. Reynolds says the research will take 20 or 30 years to bear fruit -- if it bears fruit at all. But it could increase wheat yields by 50 percent.
Reynolds: So what are the odds? The answer to that question is more: What are the consequences if we fail?
Reporter: But no one is really counting on the project succeeding -- there are just too many scientific uncertainties. So the strategy for now is to keep working on as many fronts as possible.
With climate change, and another two or three billion people coming, I ask Marianne Bänziger if it'll be enough.
Bänziger: We can feed the world in 2050. Maize is the livelihood for 900 million poor people. Wheat feeds more than 1.2 billion poor people. So it is a little bit absurd to think that the resources are not there. They are there.
Reporter: Still, everyone I talk to here says no matter how generous the funding, no matter how good the science, it won't make a difference if government policies aren't right. That means fair prices for farmers and help when crops fail. It means access to land and roads and warehouses and markets. It means education and nutrition programs and family planning.
But you can't just wait for all those things and then call in the scientists. Because if there's one resource scientists need more than anything, it's time.
In Texcoco, Mexico, I'm Jon Miller for Marketplace.
Ryssdal: Food for 9 Billion is a collaboration between Marketplace, Homelands Productions, PBS NewsHour and the Center for Investigative Reporting. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28861000 |
Investigation of Neurofeedback With Real-Time fMRI in Healthy Volunteers and Patients With Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders
- Many people can learn to use feedback about brain activity to modify that activity, but is it not known if people with Tourette syndrome can modify their brain activity.
- Researchers have evidence that certain areas of the brain are involved in causing tics in people with Tourette syndrome. If people with Tourette syndrome can use feedback about brain activity to modify activity in those parts of the brain, they may be able to modify their brain activity to help control the tics.
- To determine if people with and without Tourette syndrome can learn to use thought to control brain activity.
- To test whether people who have Tourette syndrome can learn to control brain activities, possibly helping to control tics.
- Healthy volunteers ages 18 and older who are right-handed and are willing to not consume caffeine or alcohol for 24 hours before the study visit.
- Patients with Tourette syndrome who have tics that can be observed and studied.
- All participants must be able to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
- Healthy volunteers (two visits to the NIH Clinical Center over a 2- to 4-week period; visit may last up to 3 hours):
- Screening visit, including physical examination and medical history, and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan if the individual has not had one performed at the National Institutes of Health in the past year.
- Study visit: Functional MRI (fMRI) scan to allow researchers to see if volunteers can learn to control their brain activity during a scan. Volunteers will be asked to complete tasks as directed during the fMRI scan.
- Patients with Tourette syndrome (three or four outpatient visits over a 4- to 6-week period; each visit may last up to 4 hours):
- Screening visit, including physical examination and medical history, and an MRI scan if the individual has not had one performed at the National Institutes of Health in the past year.
- Evaluation visit to ask questions about Tourette symptoms and to have patients complete questionnaires about their tics and their mental health.
- Study visit: fMRI scan to allow researchers to see if patients can learn to control their brain activity during a scan. Patients will be asked to complete tasks as directed during the fMRI scan.
- Final visit: Researchers will ask questions about tic symptoms, have patients complete questionnaires, and perform a brief exam. Afterward, patients will have an fMRI scan similar to the previous one.
- All participants will be paid a small amount of money in compensation for their participation in the study.
|Study Design:||Time Perspective: Prospective|
|Official Title:||Investigation of Neurofeedback With Real-Time fMRI in Healthy Volunteers and Patients With Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders|
|Study Start Date:||April 2009|
The objective of this study is to see if healthy volunteers and patients with hyperkinetic movement disorders such as Tourette Syndrome (TS) are able to learn how to alter their brain activity using feedback during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and whether such feedback training can lead to improvement in symptoms in TS patients.
This study is to be carried out in three phases. In Phase 1 we will study the feedback technique using fMRI with right-handed adult healthy volunteers, in Phase 2 we intend to study if right-handed adult patients with TS are also able to learn the feedback technique, and in Phase 3 we intend to study whether feedback training with fMRI leads to improvement in symptoms in TS patients and whether patients were able to retain the ability to alter their brain activity.
Phase 1: Healthy volunteers will be shown an image that corresponds to their brain activity being measured continuously during fMRI scanning and asked to attempt to alter this activity first with a simple finger-tapping task and then with their thoughts. Phase 1 will require two visits (one screening and one scanning) (completed).
Phase 1a: A pilot study evaluating the ability of healthy volunteers to learn to modulate their own brain connectivity using feedback of connectivity patterns between two motor regions during a real-time fMRI paradigm. Phase 1a will require three visits (one screening and two scanning with evaluation).
Phase 2: TS patients will be studied to see if they can learn to alter their brain activity in a similar way as the healthy volunteers. Patients will have their symptoms videotaped and a brief interview after scanning. Phase 2 will require three visits (one screening, one evaluation, and one scanning).
Phase 3: The effect of altering brain activity in a specific brain area on symptoms in TS patients will be studied. Patients will be asked to continue to focus their thoughts as they did during feedback scanning any time that they feel an urge prior to a tic or every hour while awake, whichever is more frequent, until a follow-up visit and fMRI scan two or three days later. Phase 3 will require four visits (one screening, one evaluation, one scanning, and one follow-up). No visit will last more than 4 hours.
The primary outcome for Phases 1 and 2 is the difference in brain activation within a specific area after feedback training compared to a baseline, and for Phase 3 it is the difference in symptoms measured by a TS rating scale before fMRI scanning compared to two or three days after learning the feedback technique. Secondary outcomes for all three phases include the changes in activation in a specific brain area compared to a baseline after repeated scanning trials and when no feedback image is displayed.
|Contact: Elaine P Considine, R.N.||(301) firstname.lastname@example.org|
|Contact: Mark Hallett, M.D.||(301) email@example.com|
|United States, Maryland|
|National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike||Recruiting|
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892|
|Contact: For more information at the NIH Clinical Center contact Patient Recruitment and Public Liaison Office (PRPL) 800-411-1222 ext TTY8664111010 firstname.lastname@example.org|
|Principal Investigator:||Mark Hallett, M.D.||National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)| | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28867000 |
T-Reg Cell Kinetics, Stem Cell Transplant, REGALE
Patients have a type of blood cell disorder that is very hard to cure. We are now suggesting a treatment that might help patients live longer without disease than other treatment plans would. This treatment is known as a stem cell transplant. We believe this may help patients as it allows us to give much stronger doses of drugs and radiation to kill the diseased cells than we could give without the transplant. We also think that the healthy cells may help fight any diseased cells left after the transplant.
Stem Cells are special "mother" cells that are found in the bone marrow (the spongy tissue inside bones), although some are also found in the bloodstream (peripheral blood). As they grow, they become either white blood cells which fight infection, red blood cells which carry oxygen and remove waste products from the organs and tissues or platelets, which enable the blood to clot. For the transplant to take place, we will collect these stem cells from a "donor" (a person who agrees to donate these cells) and give them to recipient. Patients do not have a sibling that is a perfect match, so the stem cells will come from a donor who is the best match available. This person may be a close relative or an unrelated person whose stem cells best "matches" the patients, and who agrees to donate stem cells. Before the transplant, two very strong drugs plus total body irradiation will be given to the patient (pre-conditioning). This treatment will kill most of the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. We will then give the patient the healthy stem cells. Once these healthy stem cells are in the bloodstream they will move to the bone marrow (graft) and begin producing blood cells that will eventually mature into healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
This research study will also use CAMPATH-1H as a pre-treatment. CAMPATH-1H is an antibody against certain types of blood cells. CAMPATH-1H is important because it stays active in the body for a long time after infusion, which means it may work longer at preventing GvHD symptoms.
The stem cell transplant described above is considered to be "standard" treatment. We would like to collect additional blood as described below in order to evaluate how the immune system is recovering.
We are asking permission to draw blood from the patient so that we can measure the number of certain blood cells called T regulatory cells. T regulatory cells are special immune cells that can control or regulate the body's immune response. We want to determine whether T regulatory cells are important participants in graft versus host disease (GVHD), infection and relapse. In GVHD, certain cells from the donated marrow or blood (the graft) attack the body of the transplant patient (the host). GVHD can affect many different parts of the body. The skin, eyes, stomach and intestines are affected most often. GVHD can range from mild to life-threatening. We do not know whether T regulatory cells can modify these conditions. We want to measure these T regulatory cells and learn if these cells do influence these conditions. If we learn that T regulatory cells do affect these conditions, then it may be possible to modify these cells for the benefit of transplant patients.
Non Hodgkin Lymphoma
Drug: ARA C
Radiation: Total Body Irradiation (TBI)
Procedure: Stem Cell Infusion
|Study Design:||Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: Open Label
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||T-Regulatory Cell Kinetics for Patients Receiving Alemtuzamb and Undergoing Stem Cell Transplantation From HLA Mismatched-Related, or HLA Matched, or One Antigen Mismatched-Unrelated Donors|
- To define the biologic recovery and behavior of T reg cells for pts undergoing stem cell transplant [ Time Frame: 3 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
- To determine that the administration of Campath 1H as part of conditioning therapy to patients undergoing stem cell transplantation from mismatched related donors or from matched unrelated donors permits T regulatory cell recovery. [ Time Frame: 3 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
|Study Start Date:||October 2007|
|Estimated Study Completion Date:||May 2013|
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:||May 2013 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)|
Experimental: Stem Cell Transplant
All patients will receive Ara C IV every 12 hours for 6 doses starting at 1400 hours on day -8. Cyclophosphamide IV once daily on day -7 and day -6 starting at 1400 hours. MESNA will be administered 15 minutes prior to each dose of Cyclophosphamide and 3, 6, 9, and 12 hours after each dose of Cyclophosphamide. Campath 1h will be given on day -4, day -3, day -2 and day-1. TBI (Total Body Irradiation) will be delivered in 8 fractions of 1.75 Gy in two fractions on day -4, day -3, day -2, and day -1. Stem cell Infusion are infused on day 0.
Drug: ARA C
Ara C (3000 mg/m2) IV every 12 hours for 6 doses (days -8 to -5)
Other Name: CytarabineDrug: Cyclophosphamide
Cyclophosphamide (45mg/kg) IV once daily on day -7 and day -6
Other Name: CytoxanDrug: MESNA
MESNA (45mg/kg; divided into 5 doses) will be administered 15 minutes prior to each dose of Cyclophosphamide and 3, 6, 9, and 12 hours after each dose of Cyclophosphamide.
Other Name: MesnexRadiation: Total Body Irradiation (TBI)
TBI: total dose 14.0 Gy, will be delivered in 8 fractions of 1.75 Gy in two fractions on day -4, day -3, day -2, and day -1
Other Name: RadiationBiological: Campath-1h
CAMPATH (3 mg IV for patients between 5 and 15 kg; 5 mg for patients between 16 and 30 kg; and 10 mg for patients greater than 30 kg) will be given on day -4, day -3, day -2 and day-1.
Other Name: AlemtuzumabProcedure: Stem Cell Infusion
Stem cells are infused on day 0
To participate in this transplant, the patient will need to have a central line.
Before the transplant we will test the blood for viruses which can cause problems after the transplant. These viruses include Hepatitis B, cytomegalovirus and HIV. If the patient is positive for the AIDS virus, they will not be able to undertake the transplant.
Standard therapy: The patient will be given 6 doses of chemotherapy with a drug called Ara C in high doses (every 12 hours) which will begin 8 days before the stem cell transplant. Then, another chemotherapy drug called cyclophosphamide will be given in high doses by vein for two days on the 7th and 6th days before the transplant. A drug called MESNA will be given with cyclophosphamide. MESNA is used to decrease the side effects caused by cyclophosphamide. The patient will also receive an antibody called Campath (each day for 4 days before the transplant) to help destroy the immune system so that there is less host resistance to the growth of the donor cells. Radiation treatment will be given to the entire body on each day for 4 days before transplant. This will be given 2 times a day for 4 days. The chemotherapy and radiation treatment will last 8 days. If the patient has a diagnosis of T-cell Lymphoma, they will not be given the Ara-C.
Extra bone marrow tests may be recommended by the physician to check on the patients condition, especially if the marrow is slow to grow.
The day after the radiation treatment is completed; the patient will receive the healthy stem cells by vein. Once in the bloodstream, these stem cells will go to the bone marrow and should begin to grow.
In prevention of GvHD, the patient will also receive medicine called FK506 as well as low dose methotrexate. The FK506 will be given intravenously initially starting 2 days before the transplant and later by mouth (when they are able to take oral medications). This drug will be given each day for several weeks. Four doses of low dose methotrexate will be given intravenously. The methotrexate will be given on the day after the transplant, 3, 6 and 11 days after the transplant. If the GVHD cannot be controlled with FK506, other medicines may need to be given. The doctor will describe these medicines at that time.
Blood samples for research: To study how these cells are working in the patients system, blood samples will be taken each month for six months, at nine months, at one year, 2 years and 3 years following transplant. Approximately 6-8 teaspoons of blood will be collected each time. The total blood drawn for this study over three years should not exceed 1 and 3/4 cups. This amount is considered safe in adults. The amount of blood collected will be decreased in children and/or in patients where this amount of blood collection would not be appropriate.
|United States, Texas|
|Texas Children's Hospital|
|Houston, Texas, United States, 77030|
|Principal Investigator:||Robert Krance, MD||Baylor College of Medicine| | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28869000 |
Small cetacean species may not survive another decade warns new landmark publication
IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland, 14.05.03. A new publication on the status of the world's cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises, offers a stark warning that the smaller, lesser-known species such as the baiji (or Yangtze River dolphin) may not survive the next decade.
Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans, is an authoritative, benchmark publication providing the latest information on the status of cetaceans worldwide while recommending actions that could help save the most threatened species. As a guiding document for all those involved in cetacean conservation, it will be used by scientists in the field and academic institutions, as well as those making critical decisions about the future of these species and their habitats.
This new publication is the most recent of three Action Plans compiled by the Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG) of IUCN's Species Survival Commission during the past 15 years. The Group has over 75 members worldwide contributing significant experience and expertise to the growing pool of knowledge about cetaceans. This Action Plan provides scientific information about the current status of cetaceans worldwide; identifies threats to their survival and ways to further understand and assess these threats; and recommends specific conservation actions.
With ongoing revision and debate about how they should be classified, there are currently 86 recognised cetacean species. These animals live in a variety of habitats, from the high seas far beyond the national jurisdiction of any country, to the shallow freshwater rivers, lakes and coastal waters of southern Asia and South America. Some species are highly migratory, requiring vast areas of ocean to move between feeding and calving waters, whilst others reside in particular sections of rivers and coastal waters.
"Some of the great whales such as the blue, humpback, sperm and right whales often receive a lot of attention. They are magnificent animals, and certainly important to the CSG's mission. The Group focuses, however, on smaller species, often lesser-known and in developing countries, that are particularly threatened with extinction," says Dr Randall Reeves, Chair of the CSG.
Swimming against extinction
To date, humans have not caused the extinction of any cetacean species. This claim may not hold true for much longer though. According to former CSG Chair, William F. Perrin, "it seems unlikely that the baiji [or Yangtze dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer] will still be around when the next new Action Plan is formulated eight or ten years from now". The baiji, a freshwater dolphin with its distribution now limited to the main channel of the Yangtze River in China, is considered the most endangered cetacean. From surveys conducted in 1985 and 1986, the total baiji population was guessed to number around 300 animals. Between 1997 and 1999, extensive surveys sighted only 21-23 dolphins. The new Action Plan states that there may be no more than a few tens of Yangtze dolphins in existence.
Of the species/populations that have been assessed against the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species criteria, the baiji, vaquita (Gulf of California porpoise, Phocoena sinus), and several geographical populations of whales and dolphins are categorised as Critically Endangered. Northern Hemisphere right whales (Eubalaena glacialis and E. japonica), the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), Hector's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) and Ganges/Indus river dolphins (Platanista gangetica) are listed as Endangered. There are others yet to be formally assessed, some of which are known to be in serious danger of extinction.
Threats facing cetaceans
The first Cetacean Action Plan, published in 1988, expanded awareness of not only the great whales (the 14 recognised baleen species and the toothed sperm whale), but also the approximately 70 species of smaller and medium-sized species. In 1994, the second Action Plan emphasised the vulnerability of freshwater and coastal cetacean populations, highlighting their geographically restricted ranges and dependence on resources also used by humans.
Perrin sees a glimmer of conservation success, but notes that urgent action is warranted to deal with the extinction crisis facing particular species and populations. "Some progress has been made, but as the present plan testifies, grave threats to the continued existence of many cetaceans still exist, and some threats are worsening," says Perrin. "Cetacean diversity, like all biodiversity worldwide, is crumbling so we must redouble our efforts," he concludes.
Traditional threats to cetaceans such as the deliberate killing of some species for food and predator control continue. These are increasingly accompanied by additional threats: animals die from entanglement in fishing gear; collisions with powered vessels injure and kill cetaceans; some species are targeted to supply the demand from oceanaria for live animals; changing ecosystem dynamics resulting from either industrial or intensive artisanal fishing may be depleting food sources for some species; activities such as the construction of dams, irrigation infrastructure, and aquaculture facilities degrade habitat; in addition to longstanding concerns about acoustic disturbance, new types of military sonar apparently can cause lethal trauma to deep-diving cetaceans.
Cautious optimism for some populations
Whilst recognising that the status of many cetaceans is worsening and threats to their survival are in many cases increasing, cautious optimism is now being expressed about the effectiveness of past and ongoing conservation actions for some populations of great whales. Right and bowhead whales have been protected from commercial whaling under international law since 1935, gray whales since 1946, and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and blue whales since the mid-1960s. Add to this the continuing worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling which took effect in 1986, and it appears that a lot of work has been done by many individuals over the years to achieve effective conservation measures for cetaceans across the globe.
Despite the fact that many thousands of right, blue, and humpback whales were taken illegally in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific during the 1950s and 1960s (in some cases putting populations of these species in jeopardy), several populations of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), humpbacks in many areas, gray whales in the eastern North Pacific, and blue whales in both the eastern North Pacific and central North Atlantic have begun to show signs of recovery.
Recommendations for action
"Over the past 15 years, it has become clear that, in certain cases, existing scientific evidence is sufficient to justify, or indeed require, immediate action. The CSG therefore decided to include a number of recommendations in this Action Plan that go beyond research; these address specific actions that need to be taken to promote the recovery of species or populations immediately threatened with extinction," says Dr Reeves. Amongst others in the publication, recommendations include actions to prevent injury to the baiji from snag-line and electric fishing; eliminate fishing methods that take vaquitas as bycatch throughout their range; and for the Hector's dolphin, endemic to New Zealand, increase the size of existing protected areas to include the harbours and bays in the North Island sanctuary, and also extend the offshore boundaries for both sanctuaries.
Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans is available electronically on this site in .PDF and can be purchased in hard copy from the IUCN World Conservation Bookstore
http://www.iucn.org/bookstore/; Email: firstname.lastname@example.org; tel: +44 1223 277894; fax +44 1223 277175.
Read more on the website of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a key partner in production of the Action Plan.
For more information contact:
Dr Randall Reeves, Chair, IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group and Action Plan co-author
Tel: +1 450 458 6685 (Canada)
Fax: +1 450 458 7383
Brian Smith - CSG Asia Coordinator and Action Plan co-author
Tel: +66 (76) 383 144 (Thailand)
Email: email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org
Andrew McMullin- Communications Officer - Species Programme
IUCN -The World Conservation Union
Tel: +41 (0)22 9990153
Fax: +41 (0)22 9990015 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28872000 |
In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli’, also spelled ‘ (Classical Nahuatl: Huitzilopōchtli [hwitsiloˈpoːtʃtɬi] ”Hummingbird on the Left”, or “Left-Handed Hummingbird”, huitzilin being Nahuatl for hummingbird), was a god of war, a sun god, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan. He was a god of tremendous power who commanded terrible fear that had to be assuaged by human sacrifice. Today, he is not believed to be actively worshiped.
(also this is my cousin’s name. our family likes to use Aztec god names… a lot!) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28877000 |
This archived Web page remains online for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. This page will not be altered or updated. Web pages that are archived on the Internet are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats of this page on the Contact Us page.
The Canada we know today comprises ten provinces and three territories. The process leading to the entry of each of these provinces and territories into Canadian confederation is a story worth telling. The following texts present the social, economic and political conditions that existed when these provinces and territories joined Canada. Emphasis is placed on the specific experiences of each province or territory, and on the similarities between the various provinces and territories. You will become acquainted with the principal characters and you will be plunged into the main discussions. You will get an idea of what Canada was like during these various moments in its history.
|Province or Territory||Joined Confederation|
|Prince Edward Island||1873| | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28878000 |
The introduction to this series of posts can be found here.
Articulation, or speech sound production, is the part of a speech-language pathologist’s job that the public is most aware of. When we tell the majority of lay people what we do for a living, they assume we spend our days working with kids on their /l/, /r/ and /s/ sounds, and when children are referred to us due to concerns about language development, we often have a lot to explain about the breadth of our expertise. No matter what our areas of expertise, most of us spend at least some of our time working with children on articulation.
There are some terrific iPad apps dedicated to assisting children in their articulation development. While there are many apps that families can use at home to improve their children’s communication, these dedicated apps are more appropriate for use under supervision of a trained clinician in a therapy session.
Why would a speech-language pathologist work on articulation using an iPad? For one thing the device makes the clinician’s job substantially easier in that it holds a great many pictures, replacing the boxes of (typically) outdated picture cards that often sit on our shelves, and it makes it very simple to collect and share data. Further, kids are highly motivated by the interactive, hands-on nature of the device. However, there is absolutely no reason to purchase more than one dedicated articulation app for your clients – choose carefully to make sure that the app you invest in will work for the majority of the kids you see.
The articulation app I have been using the most in my work this past year is ArtikPix. ArticPix allows you to customize the flashcards you use in practice and then in a matching game. The graphics are simple drawings, similar to Mayer-Johnson symbols. After selecting target phoneme(s), the clinician can select which word position will be practiced (e.g., you can create an activity that includes /s/ in initial word position and medial /l/). When the child taps the screen, the word is clearly pronounced. The child can tap a microphone icon to record him or herself repeating the word, and then listen to it. This immediate feedback is wonderful. The clinician then taps the smiley face or frown face to collect data on accuracy. There are “yay!” and “awww…” sounds that correspond with these, but you can also turn those sounds off in Settings. However, the child can see how you judged their production and with older children, I’ll ask them to rate their own productions that way. The latest update of ArtikPix allows the clinician to collect data easily for up to four students in a group. The app saves your data for each child (and any notes you have added on that session). You can share results by email.
For $29.99 you can purchase the “Full” version which comes with 21 card decks of 40 cards for each phoneme – there are close to 1,000 total articulation cards. Click here for a complete description. We did not purchase the full version at our office. We downloaded the free ArtikPix app and we purchase individual phoneme decks for $1.99 each as needed. It is possible to download extra decks of cards from within the app so it’s very quick and easy. Since we see a small number of children for speech sound production, this worked well for us, but if you are working with many kids who have a variety of error sounds, it would be more cost effective to purchase the Full version.
This app does not target phonological processes, but the developer created an additional app to address this. PhonoPix-Full can be purchased separately for $24.99.
Here is a video of a client working with one of my graduate student clinicians on his /l/ sound using ArtikPix:
I recently purchased Articulate It! for my iPad. Articulate It! was developed by Smarty Ears, whose wide variety of apps are created by a speech-language pathologist. This app includes all English phonemes and over 1,200 photo cards. Similar to ArtikPix, the clinician can collect data and share it (but more easily, in a clear graph form, and you can opt to include the client’s recordings in your email). Additionally, the clinician can choose targets based on phoneme, phonological processes (e.g., fronting, stopping, initial consonant deletion, to name a few), or manner of articulation (e.g., fricatives, glides, nasals). Again, it is possible to set up this app for group therapy. The clinician has the option to write a note for each production of the target sound rather than a general note at the end of the activity. Another helpful feature of Articulate It! is that there are randomized transition sounds (which can be turned off if desired) so that the child isn’t made overly aware of his or her mistakes when data is collected. For some of the sensitive kids I work with, games that have a “wrong answer” sound are very anxiety-provoking. To take a look at this app, click here. It’s easy to use and quite intuitive.
This Articulate It! app is costlier, at $49.99, but it does provide targets for both articulation and phonological work in one app. The cost is only slightly higher than buying both ArtikPix and PhonoPix, and there are more features. We have begun to switch our clients over to Articulate It! and feel that it is worth the price.
While not designed to be a therapeutic tool, Toontastic is an app we find many, many uses for in speech and language intervention. It is one of our most beloved apps because we can work on such a wide range of goals with it – and it’s only $.99! In the area of speech sound production, I have found it to be a very fun and motivating way for kids to work on their sounds in a structured conversation or story-telling format. This link, for example, will take you to a story we created with a 4-year old client who was working hard on her “sh” sound. She asked to make a cartoon on the iPad and so we adapted the activity by helping steer her toward a theme that might have more “sh” sounds in it, and then working with her on filling in the story with the words we’d decided upon.
I will review this app further in my post on ways to work on language with the iPad, but the general idea is that the child chooses a background theme and characters (or draws their own!), and then uses the structured narrative arc to create and narrate his or her own story. After creating each scene, the child has an opportunity to choose appropriate background music that fits the mood of the scene (e.g., scary, happy, excited). For our older clients we usually incorporate all pieces of the story arc, but with younger children like this one we stick to a beginning, middle, and ending by deleting some steps within the app. Kids love it and it’s been a really fun way to move into less structured articulation practice! If the clinician and child want to share the story, it can be uploaded to the Toontastic website. Before doing so, I make sure that the child’s identification is protected.
In any therapy, the iPad is only as creative as you are.
Toontastic illustrates an important point about use of the iPad in speech therapy, which is that you can go light years beyond dedicated speech apps in therapy if you use your natural creativity as a clinician. If you are able to think outside the box without the iPad, you’ll be able to do the same with it. It is simply another tool in your toolbox. You can have as much success with apps that were never intended for therapy as with dedicated ones like ArtikPix or Articulate It! In addition to activities like Toontastic, you might engage a child in drawing a series of nice, long /s/ sounds while producing the “sssssss”, using a free app like Draw, or you could work with a young child on a puzzle in an app like Puzzld!, targeting all the /s/ words in it. The sky’s the limit!
Please feel free to share your experiences with these apps – and any others you’ve tried – when remediating articulation and phonology difficulties in a pediatric population!
Stay tuned for a summary of our favorite iPad apps for language remediation!
Jordan Sadler, MS, CCC/SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and has been the Director of Communication Therapy, P.C. since 2004. She loves finding new ways to bring the iPad into therapy sessions and helping families find useful apps for home and community settings. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28882000 |
Join hundreds of early years practitioners in the TES Early Years group. Find lesson ideas and inspiration, share best practice and get your questions answered by your peers.
What age group?
What's wrong with paper and pencils? Give them a variety of paper and writing implements to choose in your writing area, include different colours and sizes, post-it notes, envelopes, rolls of paper etc. and access to glue sticks, sellotape, paper clips. Have clipboards and pens or pencils, post its, notebooks, exercise books, etc. placed in all your other areas so they can writie while they are there.
At the moment I've got scrolls made from paper discoloured with tea bags and rolled up in my castle role play along with a quill pen made from a feather taped to a biro. I've got a clipboard next to some castle and knights small world play and they use it for noting down the score between two sets of knights, I haven't been able to fathom their rules yet but never mind! I've got small world superhero characters made from laminated photos of some of the boys dressed up and mounted on wooden blocks placed on my Author's table with appropriate vocabulary and small blank books for them to write in, these are well used. Laminated photos of other children are mixed with the wooden fairytale characters in a fairytale small world setting along with a clipboard, I haven't had much writing in that area yet but a lot of verbal story telling. Don't forget paper on clipboards, long rolls of wallpaper as well as whiteboards and pens, chalkboards and large chalks for writing on the ground outside.
In the past I've had paper and a plastic bottle near pirate small world play and they used it for writing messages. It was hard getting the scrunched up paper out of the bottle but certain reluctant boys improved rapidly.
Most important - celebrate any writing that they do. Share it with the class - praise the letter formation, the quantity, the firm positive pencil strokes, the attempt at using letter sounds, anything positive at all - the other children will take their cue from this and want to get in on it.
I agree with InkyP mashed potato is fun and so is paint and sand and mud and ... but in reception they need to use pen/pencil and paper and sometimes reluctant boys have to do things they don't automatically choose. It's not what they use to mark make with it's giving it a purpose that is important and why any child chooses to write.
Our nursery boys were very taken with paper sellotaped to the underside of tables. They lay on cushions and had a lot of fun - good for hand strength too.
Letter formation is of prime importance [sorry to state the obvious] in reception and you need something a lot more structured and, yes, monitor-able than vague squishy activities if you want to make sure it's developing well.
InkyPWhat's wrong with paper and pencils?
Mszbut in reception they need to use pen/pencil and paper and sometimes reluctant boys have to do things they don't automatically choose.
I think you need to be clear whether you want exciting mark making activities or you want to encourage reluctant boys to engage in writing (emergent or more structured) because however exciting the mark making is it is not going to make boys want to write only to make marks, which is fine in itself as it develops lots of skills.
Hi some ideas I use in my room are;
Taping down wall paper and giving a selection of mark making tools- they love this as they feel there writing on the table.
Clip boards everywhere especially in the construction area as they make plans for their models.
Coloured sand in shallow trays to use paint brushes/fingers etc.
Magnifying glasses outside to hunt for words and write them.
Home corner- shopping lists, copying out of catalogues, telephone numbers from the phone book etc.
We put crates tyers and police fancy dress costumes outside and they loved writing the names of who they caught and writing a sign for their police station.
and lots of other random bits and pieces that work with our daily routines in Rec.
Msz I think you need to be clear whether you want exciting mark making activities or you want to encourage reluctant boys to engage in writing (emergent or more structured) because however exciting the mark making is it is not going to make boys want to write only to make marks, which is fine in itself as it develops lots of skills.
Had you said that was what you wanted I would have posted ideas for mark making unfortunately they won't encourage relucatant boys to want to write!
korunot interested in a debate
Come on, Koru - the debate is needed and one day you'll join in with alacrity.
Why are you not interested in debate? Should we not be quetioning our practice?
I'm so pleased we aren't alone in having enthusiastic boys when it comes to reading and writing.
"Driving" the toy cars through paint then driving them around the paper. ~or wheeled vehicles outdoors
Sponge pan scourers in paint. or large sponge floor mops
Bubble wrap is good - get them to paint the bubbly side then lay a sheet of paper on top.
Painting with decorators brushes
Shaving brushes are good in paint, easier than paint brushes for little hands,
feathers in paint
roll tyres/balls through paint
sticks and mud
washing up liquid bottles with water or watery paint
plant sprays and paint
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The classic free-speech axiom is that the cure for bad speech is more speech. This Article considers the possible social costs of speech, focusing on speech strategies that impede and degrade change, even if the speech itself is socially acceptable. This Article introduces the Clucking Theorem, which states that human nature unnecessarily inflates the costs of processes related to proposed legal changes. Clucking is a form of externality—it is an action that inflates the social costs associated with discourse over a new or revised norm. It also alters transitions, degrades the quality of reforms, impedes certain changes, and facilitates undesirable transitions. This Article’s inquiry into the characteristics of clucking is supported by a qualitative study of debates and disputes over changes to backyard chicken laws in more than one hundred localities between 2007 and 2010. This study emphasizes that certain clucking characteristics are unrelated to the substance of the issue at stake, the size of the population, or the innovation in the proposed change. In synthesizing the study, this Article identifies five categories of individuals who engage in clucking: losers, winners, status quo enforcers, political opportunists, and human roosters. Finally, this Article stresses that civility norms and procedural rules are viable means to reduce the social costs of clucking.
A supplement to this article is available here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28889000 |
History of Border Walls in the U.S. and Around the World
Much of the 3,000-mile (4,828kilometer) Great Wall of China was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) [see timeline of Chinese history] to prevent attacks from rival forces, although officials as early as the fifth century BCE also built sections of this and other walls.
The Roman Empire was protected by natural barriers, including rivers in Europe and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. However, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138CE) visited Britain in 122 CE, he ordered a stone wall built to protect this more vulnerable northern boundary. Hadrian's Wall stretched across England for over 73 miles (117 kilometers) and was as thick as 10 feet (3 meters). [See list of Roman emperors]
During World War II, the Nazis forced hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews into a small area of Warsaw and contained them with a wall. Within the walled territory, which was known as the Warsaw Ghetto, disease, starvation, and other pitiful conditions spread. The Warsaw Ghetto became a symbol of severe repression throughout the world during the mid-twentieth century.
The 96-mile (154-kilometer), nearly 12-foot (3.6-meter) high Berlin Wall built in 1961 by the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) divided East Berlin from West Berlin. The wall effectively prevented most citizens in the East from defecting to the West until 1989, when the Cold War ended and the wall was demolished.
In 1986, Congress passed, and President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), granting lawful permanent residence to 2.7 million people. Instead of ending the flow of illegal immigration, it actually caused a brief spike, as family members of the newly legal residents entered the country illegally. Within a decade, the number of illegal immigrants was back to more than five million.
In 1990, the United States constructed a 66-mile (106-kilometer) fence along the California coast from San Diego to the Pacific Ocean to deter illegal immigration. Arrests of illegal immigrants in the San Diego region declined sharply as a result of the fence, but increased nearly 600 percent in Arizona, where the number of accidental deaths also climbed as Mexicans attempted to traverse the harsh desert environment.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The act increased fines for illegal aliens, provided additional funding for border patrol and surveillance, and also approved the installation of an additional 14-mile (22-kilometer) fence near San Diego. Some landowners in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas erected their own fences, often with the help of militia, but no permanent barrier had been constructed by the government in these areas until recently.
The Secure Fence Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006, promised 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border; however, lawsuits and protests from citizen groups halted construction. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit challenging the ability of the Bush administration to waive important environmental regulations in order to build the wall on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona. These regulations include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In October 2007, a U.S. district court sided with the organizations and stopped construction.
Many members of the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona also protest a section of the barrier being built on their reservation, especially since they claim they were not first consulted by the Bush administration. The Tohono O'odham have members who live on each side of the border and consider both countries their home. They value the ability to cross the border unimpeded, but also express frustration at the problems that illegal immigrants bring to their reservation. Bodies are found almost daily, as people die from exposure to the harsh desert climate or are killed by smugglers.
A virtual wall may offer a compromise for some residents who live along the border; such a wall was among the requests put forth by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), who introduced the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act (HR 2593) in 2007. The bill would mitigate some of problems cited by critics of the Secure Fence Act.
Virtual walls are not without controversy. Some Americans who live in areas in which high-tech surveillance is used complain of the invasion of privacy caused by cameras and other equipment, and safety issues related to using laser, radar, and biometric technology. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28892000 |
The Seasat-A scatterometer (SASS) was designed to measure the near-surface wind field over the ocean by inferring the wind from measurements of the surface radar backscatter. While backscatter measurements were also made over land, they have been primarily used for the calibration of the instrument. This has been due in part to the low resolution of the scatterometer measurements (nominally 50 km). In a separate paper the present authors introduced a new method for generating enhanced resolution radar measurements of the Earth's surface using spaceborne scatterometry. In the present paper, the method is used with SASS data to study vegetation classification over the extended Amazon basin using the resulting medium-scale radar images. The remarkable correlation between the Ku-band radar images and vegetation formations is explored, and the results of several successful experiments to classify the general vegetation classes using the image data are presented. The results demonstrate the utility of medium-scale radar imagery in the study of tropical vegetation and permit utilization of both historic and contemporary scatterometer data for studies of global change. Because the scatterometer provides frequent, wide-area coverage at a variety of incidence angles, it can supplement higher resolution instruments which often have narrow swaths with limited coverage and incidence angle diversity.
(c) 1994 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.; | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28895000 |
Philippines – the coconut country
Philippines, in Southeast Asia, is also known as the Republic of the
Philippines. The country covers an area of 299,700 square kilometers
and has a population of 82.7 million, of which 85% are Malay. Other
groups include Indonesians, Chinese and so on. Residents are
Catholic. Filipino is the language, and English is also spoken. The
currency is the peso. The capital is Manila (Manila).
A white equilateral triangle is located to the side, inside of which
there is a yellow sun, with yellow five-pointed stars at the
corners. The right side of the flag is blue and red, usually blue
over the red after the last war. As the sun represents freedom,
eight represents the initial eight provinces and the rest represents
other provinces. The three five-pointed stars symbolize the three
regions: Lu case, Samar, and Mindanao. Blue symbolizes loyalty,
honesty, and integrity, and red symbolizes courage, while the white
symbolizes peace and purity.
The Philippines was originally a number of indigenous tribes,
separatists from the Kingdom of Malay. In 1521, Magellan led a
Spanish expedition to the Philippines. Spain occupied the
Philippines in 1565 and ruled the Philippines for over 300 years. On
June 12, 1898, the Philippines declared independence, establishing
the Republic of the Philippines. In the same year, the United States
and Spain, after their war, signed a "Paris Treaty" concerning the
occupation of the Philippines. In 1942, the Philippines were
occupied by Japan. After "World War II," the Philippines once again
became a U.S. colony. On July 4, 1946, the United States was forced
to agree to the independence of the Philippines.
Economic and Cultural Customs
The economy dominated by agriculture, with 20% of the population
involved in agriculture. Coconut, sugar cane, tobacco, and Ge Ma are
the four agricultural specialties of the Philippines. One fifth or
more of the population is directly involved in the coconut industry.
Ge Ma fiber is solid and resistant to seawater corrosion, an
excellent raw material for marine cables. Northern Luzon cigars are
made of tobacco leaf produced in the Phillipines and are
world-renowned. Industry is primarily in the manufacturing, mining,
fuel, and power sectors. Philippines flowers are said to be the
"Garden Island" and "Pacific fruit plate." Lush fruit, such as
coconut, mango, pineapple, durian and other fruits are delicious.
Filipinos love to wear bright colors and a simple skirt-like sarong,
and they also love to sing and dance, especially the opening and
closing jump of the bamboo pole dance. A popular pastime is cock
fighting on Sundays and holidays; it is legal in the cock-fighting
The Coconut Palace is a large modern building constructed using
coconut. Reclamation of the new district is located in Manila. Of
hexagonal roof construction, a total of 2000 trees were used for
more than 70 years of age at the completion of the palace. The roof
was built using coconut wood, while a coconut column was constructed
of dry wall made of coconut fiber (shell hair) and cement. Bricks
and doors are inlaid with coconut shell pieces in the composition of
4000 geometric patterns. Lamps, chandeliers, floor clocks, and the
dining table are made from coconut shell. The palace has a
restaurant with a dining table inlaid with 47,000 pieces of
different shapes of coconut shell. Using a coconut tree for the raw
material for carpet, furniture, handicrafts and so on is
fascinating. The palace has 150 coconut trees planted around it, and
with forest green grass, flowers and trees, it is a unique delight.
Bana Wei Titian
In Northern Luzon in the Philippines, in Ifugao province, there is a
mountain with rice terraces that are more than 2000 years old.
Ancient working people transformed this with their hands. The
mountain is steep, and the terraces were constructed through ancient
hard work. The two to four meters high outer terrace is built of
huge stone blocks, with a the total amount of material larger than
the pyramids of Egypt. With a total height of 2,400 meters, its
majesty is crazy. According to statistics, the total length of the
irrigation canals on the terraced mountain are thousands of meters
above 1.9, almost a half circle around the Earth's equator.
On the southeastern tip of Luzon is the Philippines largest active
volcano, one of the most famous in the world. Rising 2416 meters
above sea level, the perimeter is 138 km. The top of the conical
volcano was hailed as "the world's most perfect volcanic cone." It
stands in the middle of green rice fields and plains and is covered
with coconut trees. is the mountain is majestic, tall, and straight.
During the day, the volcano is continuously emitting white smoke
which covers the hills. At night, smoke Chenganhongse, the volcano
stands like a huge triangular candle holder in the night sky. Very
Also known as North Dye Falls, Pagsanjan is located within the Lake
province, south of Manila. Water rushes down the "giant waterfall,"
which is famous. Visitors can canoe down the river; the closer they
get to the bottom, the faster the water goes. Cliffs tower over the
sides, palms sweep past the vistors, and there are many small
waterfalls. To reach Great Falls, take a bamboo raft across the
Great Falls infiltration transfer holes. Great Falls falls hundreds
of feet down the mountainside into one lake. Very spectacular. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28906000 |
What is a Cyborg?
Revision as of 00:15, 24 December 2010 by Caseorganic
Anything that is an external prosthetic device creates one into a cyborg. The idea of a cell phone being a technosocial object that enables an actor (user) to communicate with other actors (users) on a network (information exchange and connectivity) makes one into what David Hess calls low-tech cyborgs:
"I think about how almost everyone in urban societies could be seen as a low-tech cyborg, because they spend large parts of the day connected to machines such as cars, telephones, computers, and, of course, televisions. I ask the cyborg anthropologist if a system of a person watching a TV might constitute a cyborg. (When I watch TV, I feel like a homeostatic system functioning unconsciously.) I also think sometimes there is a fusion of identities between myself and the black box" (Gray, 373).
Types of Cyborgs
"According to the editors of The Cyborg Handbook, cyborg technologies take four different forms: restorative, normalizing, reconfiguring, and enhancing (Gray, 3). Cyborg translators are currently thought of almost exclusively as enhancing: improving existing translation processes by speeding them up, making them more reliable and cost-effective. And there is no reason why cyborg translation should be anything more than enhancing". Source: Cyborg Translation
Consumptive vs. Necessitative Prosthetics
I'd additionally define two additional types of cyborgs based on consumptive practices: those who attach prosthetics as a necessity, and those who attach them as an external representation of status and tribal affiliation. In the latter case, one's external prosthesis is chosen carefully and updated frequently. This is most often seen in middle classes, especially in the young offspring of these classes.
Other specialized cyborg types:
1. Cyborgs actually do exist; about 10% of the current U.S. population are estimated to be cyborgs in the technical sense, including people with electronic pacemakers, artificial joints, drug implant systems, implanted corneal lenses, and artificial skin. A much higher percentage participates in occupations that make them into metaphoric cyborgs, including the computer keyboarder joined in a cybernetic circuit with the screen, the neurosurgeon guided by fiber optic microscopy during an operation, and the teen gameplayer in the local videogame arcarde. "Terminal identity" Scott Bukatman has named this condition, calling it an "unmistakably doubled articulation" that signals the end of traditional concepts of identity even as it points toward the cybernetic loop that generates a new kind of subjectivity (Gray, 322).
2. This merging of the evolved and the developed, this integration of the constructor and the constructed, these systems of dying flesh and undead circuits, and of living and artificial cells. have been called many things: bionic systems, vital machines, cyborgs. They are a central figure of the late Twentieth Century. . . . But the story of cyborgs is not just a tale told around the glow of the televised fire. There are many actual cyborgs among us in society. Anyone with an artificial organ, limb or supplement (like a pacemaker), anyone reprogrammed to resist disease (immunized) or drugged to think/behave/feel better (psychopharmacology) is technically a cyborg. The range of these intimate human-machine relationships is mind-boggling. It's not just Robocop, it is our grandmother with a pacemaker (Gray, 322). - George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University.
In "Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic Organisms" -- the introduction to the (Gray, Introduction), four classes of cyborg are described:
The latter category seeks to construct everything from factories controlled by a handful of "worker-pilots" and infantrymen in mind-controlled exoskeletons to the dream many computer scientists have-downloading their consciousness into immortal computers (Gray, 3). | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28914000 |
Studying Hamilton's harbour invaders
A team of students in Sigal Balshine's Aquatic Behavioural Ecology Lab is working to better understand the invasive round goby fish found in Hamilton Harbour.
The students, both undergraduate and graduate, catch gobies at several locations around the bay and in Cootes Paradise. They then record the area in which the fish were caught, vital statistics such as their sex and size and water quality information.
The Aquatic Behavioural Ecology Lab researches the evolution of cooperation, parental care and breeding, sperm competition, species introductions and extinctions and the effects of contaminant exposure.
Pauline Capelle, in her third year studying biology and psychology, blogs about the lab's work as part of the School of Graduate Studies' new blog series. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28917000 |
Type 1 Diabetes Tied to Thinner Bones
Study: Women With Type 1 Diabetes May Need Early Bone Density Test
Jan. 27, 2006 -- Women with type 1 diabetes may want to consider getting their bone density checked before menopause, researchers report.
The scientists studied bone density in women with and without type 1 diabetes. Their finding: Women with type 1 diabetes tended to have thinner bone and more bone fractures.
Thinner bone is at higher risk to break and can be a sign of developing osteoporosis, in which bone density dips dangerously low. Think of the difference between a thin, brittle twig and a thick, firm tree branch -- denser is better to avoid a sudden snap.
The University of Pittsburgh's Elsa Strotmeyer, PhD, and colleagues conducted the study, which appears in Diabetes Care.
Osteoporosis usually strikes later in life. In women, it's typically seen after menopause. Men can also develop osteoporosis, but Strotmeyer's study only included women.
Participants were 67 women with type 1 diabetes and 237 women without diabetes. The women were 33-55 years old and had not gone through menopause.
The researchers checked the women's height, weight, and bone density. The women also completed surveys about health habits that can help bones (such as weight-bearing exercise) or hurt bones (such as smoking, heavy drinking, use of certain medications, and skimping on calcium and vitamin D).
Weaker Bones With Type 1 Diabetes
Even after adjusting for those factors, women with type 1 diabetes had lower bone density than those without diabetes.
In addition, a third of women with type 1 diabetes reported having a bone fracture after age 20, compared with less than a quarter of those without diabetes.
It's not known if the results apply to men or to people with type 2 diabetes, since they weren't included in the study.
Most people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which usually starts later in life than type 1 diabetes. For instance, in Strotmeyer's study, women with type 1 diabetes had been diagnosed at age 10, on average, and had had type 1 diabetes for more than 30 years.
Bone Density Tests
To measure the women's bone density, the researchers used a DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) machine. The machine checked the women's overall bone density as well as the density of their hips, neck, and spine.
Bone density peaks in the 30s. After that, bones gradually lose density over time. Bone density tests usually aren't done until after menopause, since that's when bone density starts to decline at a greater rate.
If the study's findings are correct, type 1 diabetes could join the list of other osteoporosis risk factors, which include:
- Being postmenopausal
- Having a family history of osteoporosis
- Being of European or Asian ancestry
- Having a medical condition such as hyperthyroidism that makes it hard to absorb enough calcium
- Having a small frame
- Being a smoker
Treating osteoporosis can mean taking prescription drugs, boosting intake of calcium, vitamin D, and other bone-friendly nutrients, and getting weight-bearing exercise. Walking, jogging, hiking, dancing, and lifting weights are some examples of weight-bearing exercise. Biking and swimming aren't in that group, since the bike or water carries your weight. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28932000 |
Pet Care : cats
Nutrition for the Cancer Patient
Cancer is a disease that most of us are familiar with. We are either survivors or know someone who is a survivor or someone who lost the battle with this dreadful disease. Most of the cancers that affect people can also affect our beloved furry companions. As dogs and cats live longer and longer, they are more likely to develop cancer.
Recently, investigations into dietary effects on the survival of pets battling cancer have been made. There is some interesting study about certain cancers and how they are affected by nutrition.
Pets with cancer often develop a condition called cancer cachexia. This simply means that the pet is losing body condition despite adequate calorie intake. Pets that are undergoing chemotherapy may not feel very well and may not eat as well as they should. Chemotherapy in pets is much different than it is for humans. Much lower doses are used so they don’t lose their hair and are seldom ill with vomiting. Keeping pets that are ill (no matter what is causing their illness) in good body condition helps them recover more quickly.
Composition of the diet plays a role in this equation. Cancers are most able to use carbohydrates as an energy source, so low carbohydrate diets are best for cancer patients. Diets are made up of protein, fat, moisture, ash, fiber, and carbohydrates. In traditional pet foods, carbohydrates make up the biggest percentage of the diet. If we lower the percentage of carbohydrates, we must add higher percentages of some other category or categories. We don’t want to raise the ash or fiber, so this leaves protein, fat, and moisture. Most dry pet foods are less than 10% moisture to help prevent mold from developing in the bag. So, raising the moisture is not really an option either. Protein and fat are typically the two nutrients that are present in higher quantities. This helps the patient by restricting carbohydrates that are available to the cancer. Increasing the fat content helps provide more calories to the pet to help prevent cancer cachexia. Fat is also the nutrient that cancer cells are least able to use for energy.
Omega-3 fatty acids are important for keeping many systems of the body in ideal condition. These important substances are known to inhibit the growth of tumors and enhance the body’s ability to fight the cancer by stimulating the immune system. Many pet foods contain ratios of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids of 5:1 to 10:1. Recommended for cancer patients is a ratio as low as 3:1. Therefore, a supplement of omega-3 fatty acids may be required.
Arginine is an amino acid that is essential for cats and conditionally essential for dogs. This means that cats must obtain arginine from their diets, while dogs require it in their diets only in certain situations. Cancer may just be one of those situations. Arginine enhances the immune system by stimulating T-cells (one of the types of cells that is responsible for attacking foreign invaders). The mechanism behind this is not very well understood. Arginine may also suppress tumor growth, like omega-3 fatty acids.
Vitamins may affect cancer as well, particularly the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E. The Vitamin A family may be responsible for impeding the cancer’s ability to develop new cells. Vitamin C is a water- soluble vitamin that has been studied extensively. Despite the numerous studies, there is little scientific proof that vitamin C is as effective as many people believe. Vitamin E is the most promising of the three vitamins, with scientific proof that it interferes with cancer and enhances the immune system.
Minerals have beneficial and detrimental effects on the cancer patient. Selenium and zinc have the ability to block the development of cancer in rodents. Iron is required by most cancers to grow and multiply. So, restricting iron intake may help slow the process.
It is critical to provide the patient with adequate calories and nutrition to maintain body condition. This may not be possible without other methods of feeding (besides oral). Tubes can be placed into the esophagus, stomach, or directly into the small intestine to provide nutrients directly to the gastrointestinal tract. This is especially true in cases of mouth cancer or facial cancer. Working closely with a veterinarian to develop a treatment plan is critical. Focusing on nutrition is just as important as the surgical or medical treatments that are involved.
Please note that this information does not replace professional veterinary care. It is solely for educational purposes. Your pet's medical condition should be evaluated by a veterinarian before any medical decisions are implemented. If there is a potentially life-threatening emergency involving your pet, take your pet to a veterinarian or veterinary facility immediately. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28934000 |
|a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.|
|a fool or simpleton; ninny.|
|the science or occupation of cultivating land and rearing crops and livestock; farming; husbandryRelated: geoponic|
|[C17: from Latin agricultūra, from ager field, land + cultūra|
|agriculture (āg'rĭ-kŭl'chər) Pronunciation Key
The science of cultivating land, producing crops, and raising livestock.
Tilling the ground (Gen. 2:15; 4:2, 3, 12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession of the Promised Land, their circumstances favoured in the highest degree a remarkable development of this art. Agriculture became indeed the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth. The year in Palestine was divided into six agricultural periods:- I. SOWING TIME. Tisri, latter half (beginning about the autumnal equinox.) Marchesvan. Kisleu, former half. Early rain due = first showers of autumn. II. UNRIPE TIME. Kisleu, latter half. Tebet. Sebat, former half. III. COLD SEASON. Sebat, latter half. Adar. [Veadar.] Nisan, former half. Latter rain due (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Hos. 6:3; Zech. 10:1; James 5:7; Job 29:23). IV. HARVEST TIME. Nisan, latter half. (Beginning about vernal equinox. Barley green. Passover.) Ijar. Sivan, former half., Wheat ripe. Pentecost. V. SUMMER (total absence of rain) Sivan, latter half. Tammuz. Ab, former half. VI. SULTRY SEASON Ab, latter half. Elul. Tisri, former half., Ingathering of fruits. The six months from the middle of Tisri to the middle of Nisan were occupied with the work of cultivation, and the rest of the year mainly with the gathering in of the fruits. The extensive and easily-arranged system of irrigation from the rills and streams from the mountains made the soil in every part of Palestine richly productive (Ps. 1:3; 65:10; Prov. 21:1; Isa. 30:25; 32:2, 20; Hos. 12:11), and the appliances of careful cultivation and of manure increased its fertility to such an extent that in the days of Solomon, when there was an abundant population, "20,000 measures of wheat year by year" were sent to Hiram in exchange for timber (1 Kings 5:11), and in large quantities also wheat was sent to the Tyrians for the merchandise in which they traded (Ezek. 27:17). The wheat sometimes produced an hundredfold (Gen. 26:12; Matt. 13:23). Figs and pomegranates were very plentiful (Num. 13:23), and the vine and the olive grew luxuriantly and produced abundant fruit (Deut. 33:24). Lest the productiveness of the soil should be exhausted, it was enjoined that the whole land should rest every seventh year, when all agricultural labour would entirely cease (Lev. 25:1-7; Deut. 15:1-10). It was forbidden to sow a field with divers seeds (Deut. 22:9). A passer-by was at liberty to eat any quantity of corn or grapes, but he was not permitted to carry away any (Deut. 23:24, 25; Matt. 12:1). The poor were permitted to claim the corners of the fields and the gleanings. A forgotten sheaf in the field was to be left also for the poor. (See Lev. 19:9, 10; Deut. 24:19.) Agricultural implements and operations. The sculptured monuments and painted tombs of Egypt and Assyria throw much light on this subject, and on the general operations of agriculture. Ploughs of a simple construction were known in the time of Moses (Deut. 22:10; comp. Job 1:14). They were very light, and required great attention to keep them in the ground (Luke 9:62). They were drawn by oxen (Job 1:14), cows (1 Sam. 6:7), and asses (Isa. 30:24); but an ox and an ass must not be yoked together in the same plough (Deut. 22:10). Men sometimes followed the plough with a hoe to break the clods (Isa. 28:24). The oxen were urged on by a "goad," or long staff pointed at the end, so that if occasion arose it could be used as a spear also (Judg. 3:31; 1 Sam. 13:21). When the soil was prepared, the seed was sown broadcast over the field (Matt. 13:3-8). The "harrow" mentioned in Job 39:10 was not used to cover the seeds, but to break the clods, being little more than a thick block of wood. In highly irrigated spots the seed was trampled in by cattle (Isa. 32:20); but doubtless there was some kind of harrow also for covering in the seed scattered in the furrows of the field. The reaping of the corn was performed either by pulling it up by the roots, or cutting it with a species of sickle, according to circumstances. The corn when cut was generally put up in sheaves (Gen. 37:7; Lev. 23:10-15; Ruth 2:7, 15; Job 24:10; Jer. 9:22; Micah 4:12), which were afterwards gathered to the threshing-floor or stored in barns (Matt. 6:26). The process of threshing was performed generally by spreading the sheaves on the threshing-floor and causing oxen and cattle to tread repeatedly over them (Deut. 25:4; Isa. 28:28). On occasions flails or sticks were used for this purpose (Ruth 2:17; Isa. 28:27). There was also a "threshing instrument" (Isa. 41:15; Amos 1:3) which was drawn over the corn. It was called by the Hebrews a moreg, a threshing roller or sledge (2 Sam. 24:22; 1 Chr. 21:23; Isa. 3:15). It was somewhat like the Roman tribulum, or threshing instrument. When the grain was threshed, it was winnowed by being thrown up against the wind (Jer. 4:11), and afterwards tossed with wooden scoops (Isa. 30:24). The shovel and the fan for winnowing are mentioned in Ps. 35:5, Job 21:18, Isa. 17:13. The refuse of straw and chaff was burned (Isa. 5:24). Freed from impurities, the grain was then laid up in granaries till used (Deut. 28:8; Prov. 3:10; Matt. 6:26; 13:30; Luke 12:18).
the active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture has often been conceptualized narrowly, in terms of specific combinations of activities and organisms-wet-rice production in Asia, wheat farming in Europe, cattle ranching in the Americas, and the like-but a more holistic perspective holds that humans are environmental engineers who disrupt terrestrial habitats in specific ways. Anthropogenic disruptions such as clearing vegetation or tilling the soil cause a variety of localized changes; common effects include an increase in the amount of light reaching ground level and a reduction in the competition among organisms. As a result, an area may produce more of the plants or animals that people desire for food, technology, medicine, and other uses.
Learn more about agriculture with a free trial on Britannica.com. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28935000 |
|1.||able to or serving to settle or determine; deciding|
|2.||a factor, circumstance, etc, that settles or determines|
|3.||grammar a less common word for determiner|
|4.||(in a logographic writing system) a logogram that bears a separate meaning, from which compounds and inflected forms are built up|
|a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.|
|an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.|
Dictionary.com presents 366 FAQs, incorporating some of the frequently asked questions from the past with newer queries. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28936000 |
- the Ghegs resemble Kosovar Albanians in having a higher frequency of E1b1b1.
- Tosks on the other hand have a higher frequency of I.
- The high J2 frequency resembles Greeks, with the expected 10 to 1 or so ratio between J2 and J1, and is dissimilar from northwestern Balkan populations. Past studies have shown however, that J2b is dominant in Albanian, rather than J2a which is dominant in most Greek populations tested so far (although J2b is also represented).
- Similar frequencies to Greeks are also found in R1.
- There is also a relative paucity of G compared to Greeks, and limited introgression of Gypsy chromosomes (H1) in the main Albanian groups (Gheg and Tosk).
International Journal of Legal Medicine DOI: 10.1007/s00414-010-0432-x
Y-STR variation in Albanian populations: implications on the match probabilities and the genetic legacy of the minority claiming an Egyptian descent
Gianmarco Ferri et al.
Y chromosome variation at 12 STR (the Powerplex® Y system core set) and 18 binary markers was investigated in two major (the Ghegs and the Tosks) and two minor (the Gabels and the Jevgs) populations from Albania (Southern Balkans). The large proportion of haplotypes shared within and between groups makes the Powerplex 12-locus set inadequate to ensure a suitable power of discrimination for the forensic practice. At least 85% of Y lineages in the Jevgs, the cultural minority claiming an Egyptian descent, turned out to be of either Roma or Balkan ancestry. They also showed unequivocal signs of a common genetic history with the Gabels, the other Albanian minority practising social and cultural Roma traditions. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28937000 |
Date: March 30, 1953
Creator: Zettle, Eugene V
Description: The design principle of injecting liquid fuel at more than one axial station in an annual turbojet combustor was investigated. Fuel was injected into the combustor as much as 5 inches downstream of the primary fuel injectors. Many fuel-injection configurations were examined and the performance results are presented for 11 configurations that best demonstrate the trends in performance obtained. The performance investigations were made at a constant combustor-inlet pressure of 15 inches of mercury absolute and at air flows up to 70 percent higher than values typical of current design practice. At these higher air flows, staging the fuel introduction improved the combustion efficiency considerably over that obtained in the combustor when no fuel staging was employed. At air flows currently encountered in turbojet engines, fuel staging was of minor value. Radial temperature distribution seemed relatively unaffected by the location of fuel-injection stations.
Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28946000 |
Date of Award
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Frank J. Floyd, Ph.D. - Chair
This study examined mechanisms by which sibling relationships may buffer the harmful effects of negative peer experiences on the psychological adjustment of children with mental retardation (MR) or learning disabilities (LD). The study broadened existing findings with typically developing children and examined the effects of sibling social competency training on peer experiences and the impact of sibling relationship qualities, including warmth and positivity, supportiveness, conflict, and negativity, on children’s loneliness, internalizing, and delinquent behavior problems. The participants included 100 families with children who were between 8 and 10 years old. The families had a sibling dyad in which the target child had MR (n = 36), an LD (n = 43), or was typically developing (n = 21), while siblings were typically developing. Parents, target children, and siblings completed questionnaires and interviews assessing family and peer relationships. Sibling dyads completed a video-taped interaction. Results indicated that, as predicted, children with an LD or MR experienced significantly lower rates of positive peer experiences and significantly higher rates of negative peer experiences than did typically developing children. They exhibited significantly higher rates of loneliness and internalizing, but not delinquent, behavior problems than typically developing children. There was only partial support for the hypothesized protective effects of siblings on children’s development of adverse peer experiences. In particular, there was an indirect effect of one form of social competency training: social involvement mediated the effect of learning disabilities on adverse peer experiences. As predicted by the buffering hypothesis, emotional supportiveness by siblings moderated the impact of negative peer experiences on children’s internalizing and delinquent behavior problems. In addition, negativity within the sibling relationship moderated the effect of negative peer experiences on children’s internalizing problems while sibling conflict moderated the effect of positive peer experiences on loneliness. There were no significant effects for sibling warmth and positivity. Findings that siblings of children with MR or an LD can buffer some of the harmful effects of adverse peer experiences on psychological well being in specific instances suggest that including siblings in interventions aimed at improving peer experiences and psychological functioning may be relevant under certain circumstances.
Hindes, Andrea R., "The Buffering Effect of Sibling Relationships on Problems with Peer Experiences and Psychological Functioning in Children with Cognitive Disabilities" (2006). Psychology Dissertations. Paper 20. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28947000 |
For animals like us, eating seems pretty simple: You bite the food directly, or you use arms to shovel it in. But that's far from the only way to do it. Across the animal kingdom there are numerous creative ways to ingest food and drink--some gross, some conniving, and some wonderfully weird. These are a few of our favorites.
Polychaeta are a class of worms that are commonly called bristle worms because of the many bristles that help them move around. But they also have a bizarre way of ingesting: an axial proboscis (pictured at right) that researchers liken to a retractable elephant trunk. It's actually inside the worm's body, and after the worm deploys it to catch food it flexes muscles that retract it.
If you're a snoozing bird, that is. Madagascar has more than its fair share of odd animals, and that includes this moth with a fearsome proboscis it uses to snatch the tears of birds.
There's no shortage of tear-stealers on mainland Africa, but those typically exploit animals too big to swat them or to flee. With a bird, you have to be more careful. So the moth strikes at night, using its barbed implement to peel back the bird's double eyelid.
This moth isn't a tearjerker; it's a tear-drinking jerk.
You may have heard about the extraordinary tongue of the chameleon, the longest compared to its body size for all vertebrates. But within mammals, that honor goes to Anoura fistulata, the tube-lipped nectar bat discovered in the cloud forests of Ecuador.
While some of its relatives can extend their tongues an inch and a half, this bat's tongue can reach an astonishing 3.4 inches, or more than one and a half times its body length. This gives it access to the nectar inside bell-shaped flowers that no other bat can reach, and it's possible because the tongue is anchored deep inside the bat's rib cage, between its heart and sternum. That lends it this extra leverage.
The vicious thorns of the acacia tree, insects flying around the eyes--these are no match for the tongue of the giraffe, one of the longest in the animal kingdom.
Besides its prodigious span, the giraffe tongue is also marked by its distinct bluish-black color. Some zoologists think this may be a way to keep the tongue from getting sunburned, since it spends so much time outside the animal's mouth.
Hawk moths aren't the most svelte or slender fliers. But when you can unfurl a 14-inch long proboscis, who cares? Like nectar bats, many species of hawk moths (sometimes called sphinx moths) can reach nectar inaccessible to other flying creatures. Instead of keeping their appendages tucked deep inside, though, the moths keep theirs curled up until they need them.
Famously, Charles Darwin predicted that there must have been moths with exceedingly long proboscises in Madagascar after he saw the orchids from that island with deeply recessed nectar. Those moths weren't discovered until after the great naturalist's death, so he was posthumously proven correct.
No, they're not elephants. And technically, they're not even shrews. But it's not hard to see how elephant shrews got their name. This insectivorous African animal uses that glorious and elongated nose to hunt down spiders, worms, and insects, and then suck them up like an anteater does.
Biologists in the past believed these creatures were related to true shrews, hedgehogs, or maybe even primates and rabbits. But, it seems, they are rather their own distinct order dating back millions of years, and a new species turned up in Tanzania just two years ago.
As is the case the elephant shrews, it's clear where this handsome fellow, the star nose mole, gets his moniker. That star nose is made of 22 separate tentacles covered in 160,000 sensors per square inch, according to the PBS Nature episode "The Beauty of Ugly," which featured the mole. When it burrows, those tentacles can touch 12 different objects every second, appearing to the human eye as no more than a pink blur of activity. With this ability, it takes less than a second for the star-nose mole to devour its prey, often worms or insects.
As we said about naked mole rats in our gallery of weird lab animals, you've got to be tough and talented if you're this ugly. Star nose moles certainly are.
The scientific name for barnacles is Cirripedia, and the "cirri" means those weird feathery limbs you see here on goose barnacles. When the barnacle glues itself to its home, be that a rock or a ship's hull, it goes front end-first. These odd appendages then emerge from its back end to pull in plankton to eat.
While pigeons might seem dirty, dumb, and fill you with the urge to poison them in the park, the ubiquitous urban birds are actually quite clever, as research examples have shown. Not only that, they use their beaks like straws to suck up water, while most other birds have to rely on getting a few drops in their mouths and then tilting their heads backward to let the water trickle down their throats. On second thought, perhaps I'll let the pigeons live.
Emotion researcher Jaak Panksepp
Read More »
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Fort Tilden Mortar Battery
Fort Tilden Mortar Battery: Located inside the confines of the adjacent Naval Air Station Rockaway, Fort Tilden's temporary mortar battery consisted of four 12-inch mortars. The four guns were transferred from the eight gun Battery Piper, at Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and installed in April of 1917. These four guns along with the four Model M1900 6-inch guns on pedestal mounts were the first armament to be installed at Fort Tilden during World War I.
For more information see www.geocities.com/fort_tilden/mortar.html
Back to Forts T - Z Index
New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs: Military
February 24, 2006 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28958000 |
Traditional medicine has come far. But in some ways, it has not kept pace with the times. Far too often, through today’s symptom based healthcare system, ‘illnesses’ are too quickly diagnosed. Introducing yet another foreign substance (more medication) into the system may not be the best solution. Toxins in the body frequently are the problem. Toxins can enter our bodies in many ways… from the foods and liquids we eat and drink or from our environment. Major culprits can be processed foods, junk foods, deep-fried foods, fast foods, preservatives, soft drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, and a variety of sugars. Also included are chemicals and substances such as hormones and antibiotics from meats, dairy and poultry products, even fertilizers and pesticides used in farming. Plus, other chemicals used in manufacturing, cleaning solutions, painting and building supplies may prove harmful. Sadly, in the times we live in, even personal care products and popular, handy containers should be suspect. Of course, heavy metals like mercury, lead and others are always a red flag... while the list goes on.
Surprisingly, we can also create our own toxins. Mental and emotional stress from personal loss, worry, your job, depression, divorce and finances, among others can cause the body to manufacture its own toxins.
Additionally, a lengthy illness or hospital stay with prescribed medication, although sometimes necessary, can be toxic themselves, and may actually worsen one’s biochemical imbalances long term. To our detriment, all of these toxins may become stored in the liver and other vital organs, creating inflammation and making us more susceptible to disease. In many a case, the symptoms alone can make us feel sick. For some people it may be one or two; for others, an entire rash of symptoms, which can manifest quickly or gradually, over months or years.
It is the mission of the Detoxification Network of America (DNA) to bring awareness of these challenges to the masses. DNA will also educate and inform them of viable solutions: Through the New Medicine Foundation Protocol, detoxification happens by removing these toxins and restoring health at the cellular/biochemical level. As balance is restored, the symptoms; many symptoms, sometimes misdiagnosed as illness, quite often diminish and then disappear completely. At DNA, we work with a diligence toward assuring you the highest quality in knowledge, treatment, counseling and personal care affordable. Detoxification is safe and recommended following initial medical clearance by an NMF physician. The NMF Protocol is patient centric… designed specifically for the individual rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendation. Our NMF clients start by receiving testing, analysis and one-on-one medical evaluation with guidance throughout the program. Our sole dedication is to administer the best science in ways that help every client feel and function better. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28959000 |
Maryland's Natural Communities - Shale Barrens in Maryland
Kasecamp Shale Barrens, Allegany County
Photograph by Richard H. Wiegand
Being on a shale barren feels a bit like being in an old western. Hot. Dry. Gritty. Stunted trees and copperheads, crumbling rock and open sky. All that's missing is the withered old prospector. But you won't find gold in "them thar hills." There's a different kind of treasure here.
The treasure of shale barrens is not gold or silver. The hidden treasure of the shale barrens is the collection of rare and endemic plants and animals, the unusual geology, the extreme conditions that encourage patience and determination to unlock the secrets of this rare and forbidding natural community.
Shale barrens, for the most part, occur along a band of Devonian shale in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains. Locally, that means you can find them in Allegany County; there are several good examples in Green Ridge State Forest.
Shale barrens are the result of a unique combination of geology, soil, topography and climate. At the base of it all is bedrock, shale. Shale is a highly friable rock, meaning it crumbles easily. Small fragments of rock, called "channers," cascade down the steep south- to west-facing slopes, creating a highly unstable substrate. The soil is consequently shallow. It sheds water easily so it tends toward a xeric, or dry, state. Rains hit the shale and run off, causing erosion, resulting in crumbled rocks and loose soil. Couple the lack of infiltration by water with the hot sun from a southern exposure and you have desert-like conditions, especially in the summer when temperatures on the outcrops easily exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
This environment is not for every plant or animal. These hostile conditions favor open canopies, often with rock outcrops, and usually sparse woodlands of stunted drought-tolerant trees with little herbaceous understory. Plant species composition and density can vary with the acidity of the soil, with the more acid soils supporting fewer scattered species and the neutral or basic soils hosting a more developed herbaceous layer with higher diversity.
The most commonly found trees include scrubby forms of chestnut oak, Virginia pine, eastern redcedar and pignut hickory. Other typical trees include white ash, oaks (post, black and red), pines (table-mountain and white), and shagbark hickory.
The few shrub species include shadbush, black huckleberry, deerberry and bear oak. Many of the herbaceous species that do occur on shale barrens are endemic or near-endemic, meaning they are found on no other habitat type. Their names tell the story: shale-barren pussytoes, shale-barren ragwort, shale-barren evening primrose.
Unusual habitats often support rare species and shale barrens are a perfect example of this. Kate's-mountain clover, yellow nailwort, and low false bindweed are three rare species associated with shale barrens. Common plants that occur on shale barrens can also be found on other natural communities that also tend toward dry conditions; these species include: wavy hairgrass, common dittany, rattlesnake-weed, poverty oat-grass, little bluestem, birdfoot violet and reindeer lichens. Herbaceous openings are sparsely vegetated and often scattered within a woodland matrix.
Even with these extreme conditions, there are some animals that still call shale barrens their home. Reptiles include five-lined skinks, eastern fence lizards, wood turtles, copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. Birders will find pine warblers, prairie warblers, Carolina wrens, common ravens and broadwing hawks. Turkeys have been spotted soaring from the elevated heights of the barrens to the floodplains of the Potomac below. The sunny herbaceous openings provide patrolling areas for many skippers, butterflies and moths. Several mammal species, both game and nongame, can be found on shale barrens: white-tailed deer, eastern gray squirrels, foxes, coyotes, striped skunks, bobcats, eastern red bats and many more.
Even though many shale barrens are remote, there are still threats to their existence. The greatest of this is the encroachment of invasive species. Certain non-native species, which have no natural control, are capable of moving into an area and changing the conditions, adding organic material to the soil and shade to the open canopy while crowding out the native species. Non-native grasses, spotted knapweed, Japanese honeysuckle, garlic-mustard and tree-of-heaven are all on the "Least Wanted" list for shale barrens. Unfortunately, these species utilize manmade disturbances, such as roads, logging, or agriculture as corridors into the isolation of the barrens.
For more information, please contact:
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Wildlife and Heritage Service
Tawes State Office Building, E-1
Annapolis MD 21401
Toll-free in Maryland: 1-877-620-8DNR
Plants and Wildlife
- Natural Heritage Program
- Guide to Marylandís Natural Areas
- Maryland Natural Areas News
- Maryland Wildlife Lists
- Rare, Threatened & Endangered Species
- Rare, Threatened & Endangered Plants
- Rare, Threatened & Endangered Animals
- Natural Plant Communities
- Invasive and Exotic Species
- Maryland's Wildlife Diversity Conservation Plan
- Game Mammals
- Game Birds
- Wildlife Problems?
- Digital Data & Products
- Environmental Review
- Birding in Maryland
- The Migratory Bird Treaty Act
- Maryland Naturalist Organizations
- Contact Us | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28960000 |
Certificate-based authentication over an SSL connection is the most secure type of authentication. Therefore, when authentication occurs at the connection layer, the client does not need to provide an additional name (bind DN) and password to Directory Proxy Server during the LDAP bind.
A client can only perform certificate-based authentication over an SSL connection. The basic steps in establishing an SSL connection are as follows:
The client requests that a secure connection be established.
As part of this request, Directory Proxy Server provides a server certificate to the client. A server certificate is a single certificate associated with one instance of Directory Proxy Server. When a secure connection is used, the server certificate identifies the instance of Directory Proxy Server to the client.
The establishment of the connection includes a negotiation phase. During this phase, the client and Directory Proxy Server attempt to agree on the encryption policy that is used. The server certificate contains the list of encryption policies (ciphers) that are supported by the Directory Proxy Server.
Depending on the security configuration of the proxy server, the server might require the client to provide a certificate.
The client provides a certificate to the server, either because the client is configured to do so, or because the proxy server has requested it.
The client then sends an LDAP bind request to Directory Proxy Server to establish the client's identity on that connection.
If the request is a simple bind, Directory Proxy Server uses the bind DN and password provided by the client.
If the request is a SASL external bind, Directory Proxy Server does one of two things:
Considers the subject of the certificate as the bind DN of the client.
Maps the certificate by searching the backend server for an entry that matches the received certificate. If the verify-certs property is set, Directory Proxy Server verifies that the received certificate is the one stored in the entry that is found.
The following configuration properties determine how Directory Proxy Server performs that search:
cert-data-view-routing-policy cert-data-view-routing-custom-list cert-search-bind-dn cert-search-bind-pwd-file cert-search-base-dn cert-search-attr-mappings
When the proxy server has the bind DN, it can verify the validity of the client.
For more information about SSL for Directory Proxy Server, see Secure Sockets Layer for Directory Proxy Server.
For certificate-based authentication to occur, Directory Proxy Server must be configured to accept client certificates and the client must be configured to use SASL external bind.
When you create a Directory Proxy Server instance, the certificate database is automatically populated with the CA certificates of certain trusted CAs. You can add trusted CA certificates to the certificate database if necessary, by using the Directory Service Control Center (DSCC) or by using the dpadm command. For more information, see To Install a CA-Signed Server Certificate for Directory Proxy Server in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administration Guide for Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition.
When a client provides a certificate to Directory Proxy Server, the server verifies that certificate against the list of trusted CA certificates in its certificate database. The verification is successful if the server's certificate database contains the client certificate itself, or the CA certificate with which the client certificate was generated.
The server certificate can be one of the following:
Self-signed certificate. A public and private key pair, where the public key is signed by Directory Proxy Server.
Trusted CA certificate. A single certificate that is automatically generated by the company’s internal certificate server or by a known Certificate Authority (CA).
Directory Proxy Server also supports the use of a server certificate chain. A server certificate chain is a collection of certificates that are automatically generated by the company’s internal certificate server or by a known CA. The certificates in a chain trace back to the original CA, providing proof of identity. This proof is required each time you obtain or install a new server certificate.
When an instance of Directory Proxy Server is created, a default self-signed certificate is created. By default, Directory Proxy Server manages the SSL certificate database password internally.
You can install any number of certificates on a server. When you configure SSL for an instance of Directory Proxy Server, you must install at least one server certificate and one trusted CA certificate.
For an explanation of how certificate-based authentication works, see Certificate-Based Authentication. For information about how to configure certificate-based authentication for Directory Proxy Server, see To Configure Certificate-based Authentication in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administration Guide for Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition.
When a client binds to Directory Proxy Server with the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) external bind, Directory Proxy Server obtains the credentials of the client from the certificate, rather than from the bind DN.
The server obtains the credentials in one of two ways:
Considers the subject of the certificate as the bind DN of the client
Maps the certificate subject to data within its own database, to deduce the bind DN
SASL external bind cannot be used if Directory Proxy Server is configured for BIND replay. In BIND replay, Directory Proxy Server authenticates the client to a backend LDAP server by using the client DN and password. In SASL external bind, no password is provided by the client. Furthermore, the password that is stored in the user entry cannot be read in clear text. For information about bind replay, see Directory Proxy Server Configured for BIND Replay.
SSL can be used to protect subsequent interactions between the client and Directory Proxy Server.
For information about how to configure authentication by SASL external bind, see To Configure Directory Proxy Server for SASL External Bind in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administration Guide for Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28963000 |
The Energy Information Administration has released “World Shale Gas Resources,” an important commissioned report providing an assessment of how much natural gas is locked in shale deposits in 14 regions around the world. (Here’s its overview of shale gas in the United States.) Here’s a map of the surveyed regions:
The report includes some pretty remarkable numbers from countries that currently have limited domestic gas options, including China and quite a few western European nations that have been held somewhat hostage by Russia. Its publication comes in sync with a disturbing article in The Times noting how much crop production, including tropical staples such as cassava, is being diverted to making biofuels.
I sent the following query to a batch of people immersed in assessing and/or developing the world’s energy menu but it’s a query for you, as well, of course (I’ve tweaked it to remove some e-mail shorthand):
I would greatly appreciate some reflection from you on the new shale gas assessment from EIA (global estimates for areas that have been surveyed) against the trends for food crops, including cassava, going to make fuels, as reported today by Elisabeth Rosenthal in The Times.
I’ve seen some fresh analysis saying this new shale report completely ices the case that gas is now (more than was already clear) a fundamental game changer.
The figures for China help explain why a team of Chinese gas experts, as I was told not long ago by folks at Oklahoma State University, has been there studying extraction technologies.
There are strong new hints that gas can play a much bigger role in energy for transport (for example LNG for big trucks) and that it will (and should?) outcompete nuclear, coal and renewables for electricity (at least in the US).
Can it compete with the political influence of big agriculture here, and, any time soon, with coal in China?
Jesse Ausubel long ago also noted that natural gas is a far better bet to link with carbon capture (through “zero emission power plant” technology), if you think carbon capture and sequestration is a serious prospect down the line.
So is this it?
One thing I note in that E.I.A. report is the big blank spots in assessed regions, many of which (like much of sub-Saharan Africa, of course) are also regions locked in deep energy poverty. How does this gas push relate to ending energy poverty in such places?
The first reply came from Ausubel, a Rockefeller University scholar who long ago predicted the ascendancy of gas as part of humanity’s move away from carbon and toward hydrogen. He stressed that more conventional gas deposits are already changing the energy game:
While the shale gas matters a lot for the overall outlook and industry confidence, my money remains on the “clean” deep gas, both offshore and continental, as the bigger source of supply delivered over the long run. Discoveries and technologies keep appearing. See [this link] – a rig for 3,000 meters of water and 10,000 meters of seafloor, delivered.
Google the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields off Israel.
I sent him this followup question:
Between the clean gas and the shale options, though, is it fair to say this is “The Gas Age”? Are we going to move off the “coal rung” of Loren Eiseley’s heat ladder more quickly?
Yes, we live in a world of Methane Abundance. Recognition is diffusing. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28968000 |
As we check our coding page in .net application we found that at the top after the namespaces there is a call that is partially defined in every web page. The question arrives in our mind that what is this Partial and why we use the class with partial access specifier. Why we not use the class as publicly or privately? Here we are to answer all these question. First we will get the partial class definition and its need.
The Normalisation is a data analysis technique to design a database system. The Normalisation allows the database designer to understand the current data structure within an organisation. The end result of a normalisation is a set of entity. We remove the unnecessary redudency by normalising the database table. Read the rest of this entry »
The Alias name is the name that is referred to any column name or table name that is given by user. The alias name also used to represent some column or table without using its real name. As we will proceed in this article we will see that how we can use both the alias column name and alias table name in SQL Server.
Using the Querystring is the another method to pass information between pages in your ASP.NET application. As we know that Querystring is the portion of the URL after a Question Mark(?). The information is always retrieved as a string that can be converted with any type.Here we get the code to pass multiple values at a single time in Querystring.
The Cast() Function is used to change the data type of a column. We can use the cast() function for various purpose.
Cast(Original_Expression as Desired_DataType) Read the rest of this entry »
The convert() function is used to convert an expression of one specific data type to another type. Also this function can be used to represent the value of date/time type variable in different different format. As we will discuss later in this post we will see how we accomplish this task.
Reference type are important features of the C# language. They enable us to write complex and powerful application and effectively use the run-time framework. If we define the reference type variables in C# then the Reference type variables contain a reference to the data not the value. The value is stored in a separate memory area. for example in C# we used several reference type variables such as Classes, Structures, Array, Enumeration etc. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28969000 |
The Pasterze Glacier in western Austria has been receding since 1856. A combination of higher summer temperatures and lower winter snowfall is causing the retreat. Glaciers in nearby Switzerland receded more rapidly in 2003 than in any other year since annual measurements began in 1880. Despite the record heat in Europe that summer, scientists from the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences attributed the melting to long-term climate change.
NASA scientists use satellite data to measure the advance and retreat of glaciers all around the world. This true-color image was acquired by Space Imaging’s Ikonos satellite on October 3, 2001. The full-resolution image has a resolution of 4 meters per pixel.
For more information about monitoring Glaciers, read At the Edge: Monitoring Glaciers to Watch Global Change.
Image by Robert Simmon, NASA’s Earth Observatory, based on data copyright Space Imaging | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28979000 |
Even before the recent flurry of children’s toy recalls, I questioned the effectiveness of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) when they failed to act on the presence of lead in children’s lunchboxes. The news has only gotten worse, since I wrote about it last February. Almost everyday, I receive a new email from the CPSC listing more toy recalls, mostly for lead content. How can this be? Who is protecting our youngest consumers?
In the past two months, there have been millions of toys recalled for dangerous levels of lead content, and other products that contain smaller levels of lead, such as lunchboxes, have not been recalled. In fact, doctors warn that lead levels considered safe by the CPSC still put children at risk. According to WebMD,
Lead poisoning interferes with neural development in children and developing fetuses. High levels of lead in children can cause learning and behavior problems.
The CDC considers lead levels in the blood above 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to be a concern in children. But some studies have shown harmful effects in children with lead levels measured at or near the current standard.
The CPSC was created in 1974 to protect consumers from the expanding globalization of products. Since its creation, imports to the US have increased 338 percent, yet the CPSC’s budget is less than half of what it was in 1974! While we buy more overseas products, the US government has been cutting staffing for this agency, limiting its ability to regulate imports and protect consumers. The agency began with 800 employees in the seventies, and now the CPSC has only 420 staff members. Currently, there is a bill written to empower the agency: The Safety Assurance For Every Consumer Product Act (SAFE), yet CPSC chairperson Nancy Nord opposes this bill.
- Require children’s products to undergo independent third-party testing;
- Expand civil and criminal penalties;Ban lead in children’s products;
- Enhance CPSC recall and inspection authority;
- Expedite recall disclosure to the public; and
- Provide additional resources to the CPSC.
Why would Nancy Nord oppose these changes, especially when the CPSC has only one full-time toy tester? In an interview on PBS, Nord says,
But the change that we’ve got to have is change that is going to be constructive, workable, and is going to help the agency do its job. My concerns with the Senate bill is that it includes a number of requirements for undertaking activities that are really outside our core mission.
For example, it has us mediating employer and employee disputes in whistleblower cases. It has us implementing or enforcing intellectual property rights violations in some instances. It has us certifying laboratories.
So this is nasty stuff, and it appears that the chemical is actually converting into it in the body.” Of course, Aqua Dots was manufactured in China, where most of the recently recalled toys have originated from.
Representative Diana Degette (D-Colorado) co-introduced the SAFE Act to revamp the CPSC. According to Degette,
You’ve got more products coming in from overseas. You’ve got a huge spike in recalls, which is very concerning, because, of course, only a fraction of those people who bought the products will return them. And you have the head of the agency saying, “Oh, well, this is no big deal, and we don’t want the money.”
Over two-thirds of the recent recalls involve products from China, and the problem of dangerous toys is growing. With the holiday season approaching, many parents are very concerned. The Toy Industry Association has launched a new site to inform parents about toy safety. Of course, this site is designed to assure parents that the toy industry is using rigorous standards of toy safety, and there is a lot of useful information on the site; however, you do have to consider the source. For example, the Toy Industry Association answers the question, “Should I avoid toys made in China?” by stating:
All toys sold in America regardless of where they are made must conform to tough U.S. safety standards – standards that have served as models for other industries and countries around the world.
Since it is companies, not countries, that make toys, it is companies that are responsible for adhering to rigorous safety standards and conducting inspections throughout the process. Random on-site and off-site testing occurs in all manufacturing plants, in China and elsewhere. Toys are also randomly inspected before export to the US.
In light of the recent recalls, there has been additional testing and vigilance by toy manufacturers, retailers and importers.
Somehow, these assurances don’t make me feel better in light of recent events. I will stick to researching reputable companies, such as Plan Toys, and homemade gifts for my children. I will continue my efforts to educate my children and family on junk toys and hope that one day, we can once again shop safely for children’s toys.
CPSC chart source: Campaign for America’s Future | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28981000 |
Session E: Libraries in the Digital Age
Arja-Riitta Haarala: The Role of Libraries in Information Management in Finnish University Setting
Libraries have for some time been in a turbulent state. The information milieu is changing as a result of new technology: information media are in a state of rapid change; the need for increased computing power continues to increase; the use of information is changing; and our masters demand more effectiveness and better results. Old ways of doing things are now less effective. Even the concept of service quality has evolved. Users request new types of services, new ways of producing them, and new methods of delivery. Libraries in Finland have been active in introducing new information services and have a strong tradition of piloting computer-based services. In early 70´s online database searching were introduced among the first ones in Europe. The first experimental packet-switched Nordic telecommunication network SCANNET was implemented in Nordic technical libraries in 70´s, and it included first Nordic electronic journal Extemplo. Libraries were also among first ones in universities to accommodate microcomputers for public use in early 80´s.
According to the outlines mentioned earlier universities have been developed strategies at the local level. Most common are information technology strategies in which libraries are only shortly mentioned, and with a strong emphasis on information technologies. Libraries tend to develop their own strategies. The Helsinki University Libraries Assessment Panel writes in their report "The University already has a Strategy for Information Management. The Panel believes that this may need to be updated and revised in the light of its recommendations as they affect the goals, objectives, budgets and staff of the Libraries, in compliance with the University of Helsinki policy research and education." Furthermore they make a recommendation that the University should appoint a Director of Academic Information and Learning Resources.
There are also information strategies where all key players at the local level are taken into account. Recent strategy by the University of Kuopio is a comprehensive one integrating Computing Centre, Kuopio University Printing Office, Learning centre, Library and Photographic Laboratory under the same umbrella as a profit centre. Similar type of strategies are developed in the University of Lapland and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Libraries have also actively entered in publishing business. Quite often they are responsible for university publishing operations, especially so nowadays due to digital publishing.
Co-operation has considered as important by libraries. Therefore regular national annual meetings have been organised with directors of IT and computing centres together with directors of university libraries for some time. Furthermore at the local level IT steering committees or advisory committees for information management have been introduced at universities.
It is necessary to consider the evolutionary stage of present library, computer and information services as well as other players in the field. Are they yet at a sufficiently mature stage for new systems to be designed with confidence, or is there still a great deal of dynamism, so that different design criteria must be incorporated to deal with the continuing evolution? Consequently, most organisations have started to look at new ways of working. Co-operation and collaboration have been found productive and useful, with organisations entering into new type of alliances. Libraries and computing centres have developed closer relationships in the UK and USA, although less so in other countries. The first alliance of this type in Finland is at Tampere University of Technology, where the Computing Centre as a independent institute was terminated.
Co-operation has always been a strong feature in Finnish university libraries, and not less today. A major work has been carried out in selecting and at the moment implementing a new library system Voyager. This is a second system consecutively in university libraries, and co-operation has proven its advantages and benefits.
Another success story is FinELib, Finnish Electronic Library that acquires electronic material for university libraries. The Finnish universities form the core of the FinElib consortium, and it started already in 1997. It is financed by the Ministry of Education (18 mill. Finnish marks) and the rest comes from the licence fees of university libraries. Finnish Electronic Library works in close co-operation with other national development programmes. Common concerns include electronic publishing, long-term storage of electronic material, copyright and other topical issues. International projects in the field of electronic libraries are being followed closely.
Virtual university collaboration and the development of digital learning environments is the next extensive area to be considered. The work has already begun under the project of Finnish Virtual University.
© This publication and its compilation in form and content is copyrighted. Every realization which is not explicitly allowed by copyright law requires a written agreement. Especially, this holds for reprography and processing / storing by electronic systems. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28985000 |
A map of Marco Polo's route to and from China.
In the 13th century, a young Venetian named Marco Polo set out with his father and uncle on a great adventure. Following a series of trade routes, they traveled across the vast continent of Asia and became the first Europeans to visit the Chinese capital (modern Beijing). Marco so impressed the reigning emperor of China, Kublai Khan, that he was appointed to the imperial court. For the next 17 years, Marco was sent on missions to many parts of Kublai's sprawling empire. The Polos finally returned to Venice via the sea route. Marco later wrote a book about his experiences, which inspired new generations of explorers to travel to the exotic lands of the East.
Read through the entire lesson plan and become familiar with the content and resources. Bookmark relevant websites for later reference.
Begin this activity by telling your students that they will be learning about a young man, Marco Polo, who was one of the first Europeans to travel to China. Marco grew up in the 13th century in Venice, an important trading city in Italy.
Have the students locate Venice using the following links:
Students should note that Venice is an archipelago (a group of islands) in a fairly shallow lagoon.
During the 13th century, Venice was an international center of trade. Its strategic location on the Mediterranean enabled the city to attract ships from trading ports in other parts of Europe was well as Africa and Asia. These ships carried a wide variety of products, such as ivory, precious stones, and spices, which were bought by Venetian merchants or exchanged for such local products as woven wool cloth and colored glass.
Marco's father was a merchant. He and his brother left for an extended business trip when Marco was five. The boy lived alone with his mother while he was growing up. At one point, he worked in a spice shop overlooking the harbor. Marco was fascinated by the tales he heard from merchants and mariners, and he often dreamed of the day when he, too, could travel to distant places.
To learn more about Venice's role as a trading hub, students can visit the following links:
Have the students, working in pairs, fill out the chart and answer the questions about 13th-Century Venice available in PDF format. Once they have gathered this information, tell them to pretend that they are 13th-century travel agents. Still working in pairs, their task is to design travel brochures, advertising with words and pictures (drawings or images they have downloaded) the wonders of Venice.
1-2 class periods | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28986000 |
Teachers were working way too hard on some things that modern technology could make so much easier, says to Dan Levin. “Precisely, there are a lot of questions available on the Internet, but they tend to be in the form of PDF files,” he says. “Teachers need to get the PDFs, skim through them, find the kinds of questions they are looking for and then, after doing all that work, they still have to cut and paste and reformat.” His solution to all that, Problem-Attic, makes the process a whole lot faster, simpler and more convenient. Here, Dan discusses what the name means, takes us through the late 1980s when technology integration into the classroom began in earnest, through an era of large vertical systems—and into the present time environment of technology in education to fill us in on what he thinks is really going on with teachers and technology.
Victor: What does the name mean?
Dan: The name Problem-Attic gradually evolved from a lot of experimentation with words such as test, quiz, problem, question and exercise. We wanted to combine that part of instruction with the concept of storage, particularly long-term storage, and content curation. A lot of the documents that we thought we could make more searchable and useful to teachers have been up on websites for years. Some of them have been gathering “digital dust” because they are much harder to access than they should be. We eventually realized that Problem-Attic was a really good play on words for what we are doing.
Victor: So the attic is really coming from the attic of the house?
Dan: That’s the metaphor. There are gobs of really good questions on the Internet that organizations and states have been putting up for decades – New York Regents Exams are a good example – but they were too hard to access. But they’re great questions! To us, attic means long-term storage, so we thought Problem-Attic was appropriate. Really, what we’ve done is dusted off the questions and made them modern and accessible – made them new again.
Victor: What is it? Who created it?
Dan: Our company, EducAide, is the creator of Problem-Attic. We have a long history of providing schools with high-quality, standards-based material for assessment and instruction. What we’ve done with Problem-Attic reflects more of a startup mentality. Like a lot of young companies, we spotted a problem that could be fixed, and we thought we could make the lives of teachers, homeschoolers, tutors and parents a lot easier. It was fortunate for us that our company had experience developing question banks and teacher tools. Even though we approached this with a startup mentality, we were able to apply some unique skills because we had already been doing something similar for a long time. We’d already figured out how to handle the formatting, and we knew how to scale up and organize a lot of questions quickly. I think we brought in a good understanding of what needed to be done and how to do it.
I helped found EducAide about 20 years ago. Some people might have given up and moved on, but we’ve always approached our work as a long-term effort. A lot of things happen quickly on the Internet, but this is content curation, so we’ve had to grow our offerings almost as a museum director would. Knowing how to organize content and make searching efficient requires a particular set of skills. I think that we were uniquely positioned to develop Problem-Attic because we had been grappling with these issues for a long time.
I was a teacher before this company was founded, so the main idea behind Problem-Attic, which is coming into play now, comes from my own experience. As a teacher, I was frustrated. Computers were entering classrooms in the late 1980s, and I had a dream, even back then, of building a massive database for teachers to eliminate the problems of cutting and pasting, searching for material and sharing.
So Problem-Attic is not a new idea, but a confluence of factors was needed to make it a reality. One is the whole Web 2.0 model, which is only about 10 years old. The second is a good understanding of how websites like this should work, what the interaction should be. A lot of the technology behind the website is actually very new – probably no more than a few years old. So even though I think we were way ahead of our time 20 years ago and we tried mightily to do something like Problem-Attic back in the 1990s, we were stuck with desktop applications and databases, and we had no good distribution model.
The model became clearer around 2002 to 2003 with No Child Left Behind. We started to get some insight into what a large-scale solution might look like. Then, in recent years, the quantity of available material became even larger, states began to coalesce around certain things such as Common Core standards, and people became very comfortable with the idea of software as a service. Everything came together perfectly for us, which is to say, changes in the world around us finally made our dream of Problem-Attic achievable. I hope Problem-Attic is an overnight success, but it will have taken us 20 years to achieve that overnight success!
Victor: What does Problem-Attic do? What are the benefits?
Dan: First and foremost, Problem-Attic puts a lot of good material back in the hands of teachers – material that was excellent when it first came out and has unfortunately gotten lost or buried, become inaccessible over time or was not in a good form for teachers. Problem-Attic gives them access to great questions that have already been written and shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s a waste of time for so many educators around the world to be rewriting this stuff, reinventing the wheel.
From the technical side, Problem-Attic eliminates the drudgery of cutting and pasting, reformatting and putting questions together into a test, quiz or worksheet. Problem-Attic’s output is gorgeous and can make a teacher feel proud. It doesn’t look like you took scissors and tape and went over to the photocopy machine. It looks like there is real desktop publishing muscle behind what you created. I think that’s really neat and that a lot of teachers are going to appreciate it. The documents look very professional.
From there, Problem-Attic’s benefits flow down to students. Although it is definitely a time-saving tool for teachers, that is only a means to an end. The goal is to help students learn, to personalize learning. Giving kids quick feedback, having a convenient way to do ongoing assessment, being able to serve classes of mixed abilities, meeting students’ individual needs – all that makes for a powerful tool!
Victor: How is it unique from other similar products/services? What companies do you see as in the same market?
Dan: One of the interesting things about the web is that it is pretty easy to put up a shingle and say you’ve started a business. So there are many companies out there in the same general space. I don’t think there is anything profound in what we’re doing, but there was definitely a need for Problem-Attic, an unmet need.
I think we are way ahead of what anyone else is doing in terms of scale – just the sheer magnitude of the number of questions we’re able to put up and how much more we have coming soon. We have probably another 200,000 to 250,000 questions that we can put up onto the site. That’s pretty formidable. And again, that’s because of our 20-year history.
Victor: When was Problem-Attic developed? What is something interesting or relevant about its development history?
Dan: I would narrow it down to just the last few years. Just a few, key things needed to be in place for this actually to work. One is a really good model for serving up content through the web. So, if I can take you down Memory Lane a tiny bit, you will see what I mean. The ’90s were pretty much all-desktop applications with some networking, and then by the late ’90s, we were into the dot-com boom – which people are now calling Web 1.0. It was a different kind of model: less interactivity with users and more just plain selling. You went on the web to buy stuff. People didn’t quite understand this notion of interacting in a deep way with a website where it is, say, a software service – and then, of course, social networking was in its infancy as well. As we all know, the dot-com thing imploded and there were some survivors, some amount of e-commerce and online purchasing. Gradually, out of the ashes, came a lot of new technologies and a new understanding about how users might want to interact with websites. This is all changing really quickly now with mobile phones and iPads.
Interestingly, in our industry, I think No Child Left Behind stalled things quite a bit. Around 2001 to 2002, a lot of interest, including our own interest in what we developed, shifted toward large-scale assessment, state standards, and scoring and reporting – basically, toward data-driven instruction. The way I see it, there was a need for development in that area, but ultimately it sidetracked us a little bit from that dream we had in the ‘90s of doing more pure content and serving the needs of teachers. Like a lot of companies, we shifted our focus to assessment, and in retrospect, that’s a different industry, a different model. It doesn’t work quite as well with Web 2.0 because it is so large and integrated.
So that whole era, from about 2001 or 2002 to just a couple of years ago, was based on the concept of large, vertical systems that did everything for schools and teachers – everything from attendance and grading to curriculum management, from tracking student progress to contacting parents. And that still is somewhat of a model in education, though I think it is fading. In the last three or four years, we began to see a change, an understanding that websites could be more directed at specific needs, and that they could speak to each other. So it turns out you don’t really need big systems. Thus there has been fertile development in a lot of areas, a shift toward best-of-class solutions for specific problems. Of course the solutions should talk to one another so teachers end up with a complete solution that is best-of-class, seamlessly integrated, convenient and, of course, usable on a whole bunch of different devices and with different applications in the classroom.
That’s the change which has occurred, or rather is occurring, in K-12 education. The shift from big, vertically integrated systems is producing a fertile environment with much more adaptable software, with a better understanding that the end user, rather than the company that made it, should decide how to do the work. So that’s our philosophy: Let the end user decide the best way to make use of all of these great questions.
And I think that what I just described is how a lot of people are approaching the web these days. It is not unique to education.
Victor: Where did it originate? Where can you get it now?
Dan: As I said earlier, Problem-Attic was developed by EducAide, of which I’m one of the founders. We still make a desktop app, and we will continue to support that because it is a really good development platform. It has allowed us to build up our massive database of questions. And it is still a great tool for teachers who want an industrial-strength program for putting their own questions on the computer, for authoring, organizing and publishing.
Teachers can find Problem-Attic, with more than 45,000 questions from the New York State Regents Exams and tens of thousands more to come, at www.Problem-Attic.com.
Victor: How much does it cost? What are the options?
Dan: Access to the questions and current tools on Problem-Attic is free and will remain free. Down the road, we will consider adding some for-pay options that might include additional content, editing and document management and storage capabilities. We might do some partnerships with publishers or content developers, where they would use Problem-Attic’s platform to deliver their questions to their audience. We will almost certainly begin to look at exporting questions to various devices – everything from tablets and phones to more traditional classroom applications such as assessment systems – in the very near term.
Victor: Who is it particularly tailored for? Who is it not for?
Dan: Problem-Attic is tailored for any educator who finds the content relevant. The New York State Regents Exam questions that are available now are largely targeted at a secondary audience – not just in New York but in every state – and as we add more questions in the future, there will be content for all grade levels.
By the way, when I say any educator, I mean teachers, parents, homeschoolers, tutors, researchers, and so on. I’m not sure if “self-educator” is a common term, but certainly students can access the site also and make use of the questions to further their own learning.
Victor: What are your thoughts on education these days?
Dan: I think it is a really exciting time for education. Everything I just talked about that has happened over the last 20 years is making it an amazing time because there are so many things that can be done now to improve education and help teachers. We look at our company as helping to solve one piece of the puzzle. Problem-Attic helps fulfill the promise of a digital classroom – personalized learning and everything that goes with that. It is a great time to be in this field.
Victor: What sort of formative experiences in your own education and teaching career helped to inform your approach to creating Problem-Attic?
Dan: Like a lot of inventors going back centuries, it was frustration over something that had to be better. Of course, I don’t think Problem-Attic is a complicated type of invention or discovery compared with some. But it can help solve teachers’ frustration with not having easy access to, or not a having a good means of formatting, high-quality, proven content. I have two daughters, and I help them at home with their math homework. I was a math coach and a math club adviser when they were in middle school. There were a lot of times I would have done anything to have a product like Problem-Attic because I was spending so much time trying to pull questions together. I hope we can help teachers of all types who are in search of good questions, in and out of the classroom, to help kids understand difficult concepts.
Victor: How does Problem-Attic address some of your concerns about education?
Dan: Education needs help in many ways, but the system is also showing great promise right now. I think Problem-Attic, like a lot of other great web tools, does change the economics. I think that it shows, among other things, that this can be done affordably and that valuable resources can be made available free of charge. There is no reason that the tools that educators need should be costly. And that isn’t just our discovery. Khan Academy does free videos, and so do others. A couple of companies that could be considered our competitors have realized that they will have to make a lot of things available for free. I think that is maybe the biggest way we are changing the economics – making the solutions less expensive and more widely available, if they are done right. It took a lot of years to figure out how to do this; there were no shortcuts.
Victor: What is your outlook on the future of education?
Dan: I’m excited about where education is headed, toward more online and blended learning. I also realize there will be bumps in the road. One thing I feel strongly about is that as we enter this new age we shouldn’t throw out everything that worked before. Many things still work well. That doesn’t mean they can’t be improved, but it would be a mistake to think that every student can be put in front of a computer and learn that way. Teachers can and should and will remain an integral part of the learning process for a long, long time to come. I think that inspiration and education often come from the personal side of teaching – the human side. That is very much what we are trying to support. We are not putting our heads in the sand; we are not thinking that education is always going to follow that old, traditional model of a teacher in front of a classroom. But we also don’t think that the importance of that teacher, tutor, mentor, parent – whomever – should be overlooked. They need quality tools like everyone else! They need tools that will make their jobs easier and make them more efficient, so they can concentrate on teaching and learning.
There is no doubt that technology is bringing about great changes, but my observation is that much of what has gone into classrooms in the past 20 years has not directly aided the teacher. A lot of it helps tangentially, but most– and I’m not putting it down – has been for student use, or for communication between parents and teachers, or for administrative purposes, like grading or attendance. When you get right down to it, few things can actually be called tools for teachers. The main exceptions are probably email and word processors, and everybody has those. But you see my point: If they were doctors or journalists or electricians, they would have new tools and a new kind of tool belt to carry around! While teachers have a lot more software and hardware, interactive whiteboards for example, some of it makes teachers’ lives harder. Our focus is to support the work of teachers.
Victor: Could you share an anecdote that our readers would find interesting?
Dan: The most interesting thing is being a long-time player in the game. As I watch all of the really exciting things being done in education, many by young people, it’s kind of fun to be an “adult” in the room. It’s wonderful to see the energy of people with new inventions and their excitement about the changes that are taking place. The reverse is sort of exciting too, when I can share the lessons I’ve learned over the years with the new people coming into the industry and my view of what things might be improved. I like being in that position.
Victor: Anything else?
Dan: EducAide is in a city called Vallejo in California. It’s north of Silicon Valley and not exactly a high-tech mecca, but we’re going to try to turn it into one if we can. It’s actually a great location, and we hope our company will get some recognition and some other small startups and high-tech companies will come our way. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28987000 |
10 tips to preserve the environment
|This article is part of the|
Living together theme
Becoming more mindful of the environment is not as hard as one might think. There are plenty of little things we can do on a daily basis to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit our impact on the environment (ecological footprint). Every single thing is important and will make a difference : this is our responsibility, but it's also an honour, being a green ecocitizen is very gratifying and rewarding.
Buy less
Consumption implies pollution. Before buying anything, think twice and make sure you need this item. There are other solutions : do it yourself, repair the older one, borrow the tools you won't often need and save money.
Use cars and planes as little as possible
It can be easy to refrain from using your car or any other polluting vehicle, use alternative means of transport. As a rule, we'll do 5 trips a week back and forth to go to work. This can be a good start to do without cars. In many cases we can walk or ride to work and it often proves to be more pleasant and convenient, even compared to public transport : no need to bother about parking your car or traffic jams. Another solution is car sharing which is good for your purse as well as for the environment.
Trains and boats or ferries are also greener solutions than personal vehicles, your holiday trips will be much more pleasant than in the tiny space of a seat in a plane.
Let's eat less meat, for animal proteins, opt for meat with low ecological footprint
Contrary to what many people think, a diet excluding meat, is as good for our health as for the environment. Without necessarily opting for vegetarianism, a moderate consumption of meat (say once or twice a week) will significantly lower one's ecological footprint. As a matter of fact, breeding implies a huge waste of cereals, of water, of The end of oil|fossil energy and of arable land. In the US, more than half the cereals are cropped to feed cattle. For the same area of arable land, we get 16 kilos of soy or other cereal and 1 kilo of beef. More and more forests are destroyed to make room for fields whose only use is growing crops for cattle. A recent study from the scientific journal "Nature" explains that 40 % of the Amazon forest will be destroyed by 2050 if the trend continues. Not to mention a UN report, breeding is the first cause of greenhouse gas emissions, more than global transport.
Among the various options, selecting the right kind of meat for animal proteins is important too, as shown on this graph . Thus beef, veal and cheese are worse than chicken, eggs or milk. Pork is so and so and mutton between pork and beef.
As for fish, abstain from consuming predators such as (salmon, tuna, trout), since eating one kilo os such fish implies eating many kilos of other fish. Prefer sardines and herrings.
You can also select food with low environmental impact among vegetables. For cereals, prefer corn, quinoa, rye or barley rather than rice : rice is more polluting as paddies produce methane. Even better than cereals, potatoes are less polluting and good starchy food.
Act local
Whether it be food, clothing, furniture, we must always mind the negative aspect of transport for all these goods. Opting for local products can also mean producing locally. A few hens in the back garden will eat your dinner wastes on your compost heap. You can also easily learn to deal with hives. Easier still , replace flowers by aromatic herbs along your alleys (thyme, rosemary, mint...). In the same line of idea, you can help support local agriculture by buying your weekly basket in a nearby farm.
We can help reduce pollution very easily by sorting out our plastic bottles for instance. Always opt for the product with less packaging. Consider a building with 7000 employees who regularly recycle their paper wastes : this is equivalent to saving the pollution of 400 cars.
Composting is an efficient way of reducing household wastes (from 20 to 30%) that would otherwise be incinerated or dumped into landfills, instead they'll fertilize your garden for free... It's easy, you can make your bin yourself or you may even get incentives to buy one as in Quebec.
Save electricity and water
Turn the lights off when leaving a room, turn off your computer (and the screen) when you don't use it, same with the TV and other electric appliances, prefer Compact fluorescent lamps or even better LEDs. When a device is on stand-by, its transformator uses electricity, using a multi plug with a switch will save this useless waste. There are easy but very efficient things you can do. We can do without a tumble drier.
Little things are all important. Don't let the water run while brushing your teeth. Fix leaks that represent big volumes of water at the end of the day. Install dry toilets to save even more water (more than 10m3/per head every year) and to get compost.
Prefer tap water, quite drinkable in western countries to save the plastic and wrapping of bottle water. Use biodegradable soap for your washing and select a low temperature program.
Buy second-hand items
Is it always necessary to buy new items? Second-hand goods are often quite a good idea and are cheaper. As for quality, there can be different cases but older products will often last longer. Using second-hand things is consuming less and so polluting less. Instead of considering an item as waste, you can give it a second life! However, the energy consumption of older appliances must be taken into account.
Use biodegradable products
Try and use as little plastic as possible : is it always necessary to wrap an item you can hold in your hand? A good alternative is using cloth bags or willow baskets. Be careful with the so-called biodegradable plastic bags, some will only be fragmented, which makes a difference. Plenty of polluting and toxic products can easily be replaced by biodegradable ones for housecleaning : white vinegar, hydrogen carbonate will do wonders.
The higher the quality of a product, the longer it will last. So prefer wood to plastic for your furniture, wood is sturdier and can be repaired.
Same for building, use timber which is more environment friendly as it traps and stores carbon, also, it is a renewable resource.
Let's take action
We have the duty to pass on a healthy planet to the next generations so we must do our best to become worthy eco-citizens, we can join green groups locally and raise awareness, share our pleasure in simple living and, last but not least, we can contribute to ... Ekopedia!
See also
- ↑ The American Dietetic Association position paper at Eatright, pdf.
- ↑ Magazine State of the world.
- ↑ Mc Donald's, Greenpeace and the Amazon forest.
- ↑ pdf report : Livestock's long shadow, Environmental issues and options.
- ↑ Manicore.
- ↑ graph
- ↑ EPA study, pdf
- ↑ http://www.wrcea.org/environment-sustainability/why-use-wood/environment-benefits.htm
- 10 Commandments for Frugal Living
- 10 things to save the planet
- 10 tips for the lazy environmentalist | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28997000 |
- Rhymes: -ɜː(r)ʒən
recursion (plural recursions)
- The act of recurring.
- (mathematics) The act of defining an object (usually a function) in terms of that object itself.
- n! = n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n = 0) defines the factorial function using recursion.
- (computing) The calling of a function from within that same function.
- This function uses recursion to compute factorials.
the act of recurring
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-28999000 |
Ottoman women and daily life
For the harems women, whose daily recreational pursuits were largely confined to conversation, embroidery, drinking coffee and smoking pipes, receiving guests and holding musical gatherings were occasions that added colour to their lives. In the palace harem there were orchestras and groups of dancers consisting of female slaves, and the female musicians were taught by the most eminent teachers of the time. Singing and playing music was one of the most popular pursuits of women at the palace and the upper echelons of society.
Ottoman women had limited opportunities for activities outside the home. The upper-class women rarely went shopping, most of their needs being met by servants or peddler women. Wedding celebrations and feasts, visits to holy tombs and sufi lodges, and friends and relatives, social gatherings known as 'helva nights', Mevlit ceremonies, weekly visits to the public baths, and above all picnics and country excursions in spring and summer were events that took women out of their homes. Western men, who had to make do with second-hand accounts of Ottoman harem life, only had the opportunity to see these women for themselves when they were travelling from place to place, shopping in the company of eunuchs, or enjoying country outings.
The most popular excursion places were Kağıthane on the Golden Horn and Göksu and Küçüksu on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. Pleasing scenes of women in gauzy yashmaks and colourful outer robes promenading in their carriages, strolling in meadows, or being rowed along in graceful caiques, lacy sunshades in hand, were a favourite topic for western painters. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-29000000 |
General Chemistry/Periodicity and Electron Configurations
Blocks of the Periodic Table
The Periodic Table does more than just list the elements. The word periodic means that in each row, or period, there is a pattern of characteristics in the elements. This is because the elements are listed in part by their electron configuration. The Alkali metals and Alkaline earth metals have one and two valence electrons (electrons in the outer shell) respectively. These elements lose electrons to form bonds easily, and are thus very reactive. These elements are the s-block of the periodic table. The p-block, on the right, contains common non-metals such as chlorine and helium. The noble gases, in the column on the right, almost never react, since they have eight valence electrons, which makes it very stable. The halogens, directly to the left of the noble gases, readily gain electrons and react with metals. The s and p blocks make up the main-group elements, also known as representative elements. The d-block, which is the largest, consists of transition metals such as copper, iron, and gold. The f-block, on the bottom, contains rarer metals including uranium. Elements in the same Group or Family have the same configuration of valence electrons, making them behave in chemically similar ways.
Causes for Trends
There are certain phenomena that cause the periodic trends to occur. You must understand them before learning the trends.
Effective Nuclear Charge
The effective nuclear charge is the amount of positive charge acting on an electron. It is the number of protons in the nucleus minus the number of electrons in between the nucleus and the electron in question. Basically, the nucleus attracts an electron, but other electrons in lower shells repel it (opposites attract, likes repel).
Shielding Effect
The shielding (or screening) effect is similar to effective nuclear charge. The core electrons repel the valence electrons to some degree. The more electron shells there are (a new shell for each row in the periodic table), the greater the shielding effect is. Essentially, the core electrons shield the valence electrons from the positive charge of the nucleus.
Electron-Electron Repulsions
When two electrons are in the same shell, they will repel each other slightly. This effect is mostly canceled out due to the strong attraction to the nucleus, but it does cause electrons in the same shell to spread out a little bit. Lower shells experience this effect more because they are smaller and allow the electrons to interact more.
Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's law is an equation that determines the amount of force with which two charged particles attract or repel each other. It is , where is the amount of charge (+1e for protons, -1e for electrons), is the distance between them, and is a constant. You can see that doubling the distance would quarter the force. Also, a large number of protons would attract an electron with much more force than just a few protons would.
Trends in the Periodic table
Most of the elements occur naturally on Earth. However, all elements beyond uranium (number 92) are called trans-uranium elements and never occur outside of a laboratory. Most of the elements occur as solids or gases at STP. STP is standard temperature and pressure, which is 0° C and 1 atmosphere of pressure. There are only two elements that occur as liquids at STP: mercury (Hg) and bromine (Br).
Bismuth (Bi) is the last stable element on the chart. All elements after bismuth are radioactive and decay into more stable elements. Some elements before bismuth are radioactive, however.
Atomic Radius
Leaving out the noble gases, atomic radii are larger on the left side of the periodic chart and are progressively smaller as you move to the right across the period. Conversely, as you move down the group, radii increase.
Atomic radii decrease along a period due to greater effective nuclear charge. Atomic radii increase down a group due to the shielding effect of the additional core electrons, and the presence of another electron shell.
Ionic Radius
For nonmetals, ions are bigger than atoms, as the ions have extra electrons. For metals, it is the opposite.
Extra electrons (negative ions, called anions) cause additional electron-electron repulsions, making them spread out farther. Fewer electrons (positive ions, called cations) cause fewer repulsions, allowing them to be closer.
|Ionization energy is the energy required to strip an electron from the atom (when in the gas state).
Ionization energy is also a periodic trend within the periodic table organization. Moving left to right within a period or upward within a group, the first ionization energy generally increases. As the atomic radius decreases, it becomes harder to remove an electron that is closer to a more positively charged nucleus.
Ionization energy decreases going left across a period because there is a lower effective nuclear charge keeping the electrons attracted to the nucleus, so less energy is needed to pull one out. It decreases going down a group due to the shielding effect. Remember Coulomb's Law: as the distance between the nucleus and electrons increases, the force decreases at a quadratic rate.
It is considered a measure of the tendency of an atom or ion to surrender an electron, or the strength of the electron binding; the greater the ionization energy, the more difficult it is to remove an electron. The ionization energy may be an indicator of the reactivity of an element. Elements with a low ionization energy tend to be reducing agents and form cations, which in turn combine with anions to form salts.
Electron Affinity
|Electron affinity is the opposite of ionization energy. It is the energy released when an electron is added to an atom.
Electron affinity is highest in the upper left, lowest on the bottom right. However, electron affinity is actually negative for the noble gasses. They already have a complete valence shell, so there is no room in their orbitals for another electron. Adding an electron would require creating a whole new shell, which takes energy instead of releasing it. Several other elements have extremely low electron affinities because they are already in a stable configuration, and adding an electron would decrease stability.
Electron affinity occurs due to the same reasons as ionization energy.
Electronegativity is how much an atom attracts electrons within a bond. It is measured on a scale with fluorine at 4.0 and francium at 0.7. Electronegativity decreases from upper right to lower left.
Electronegativity decreases because of atomic radius, shielding effect, and effective nuclear charge in the same manner that ionization energy decreases.
Metallic Character
Metallic elements are shiny, usually gray or silver colored, and good conductors of heat and electricity. They are malleable (can be hammered into thin sheets), and ductile (can be stretched into wires). Some metals, like sodium, are soft and can be cut with a knife. Others, like iron, are very hard. Non-metallic atoms are dull, usually colorful or colorless, and poor conductors. They are brittle when solid, and many are gases at STP. Metals give away their valence electrons when bonding, whereas non-metals take electrons.
The metals are towards the left and center of the periodic table—in the s-block, d-block, and f-block . Poor metals and metalloids (somewhat metal, somewhat non-metal) are in the lower left of the p-block. Non-metals are on the right of the table.
Metallic character increases from right to left and top to bottom. Non-metallic character is just the opposite. This is because of the other trends: ionization energy, electron affinity, and electronegativity. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-29004000 |
Adriatic Campaign of World War II
The Adriatic Campaign of World War II was a minor naval campaign fought during World War II between the Greek, Yugoslavian and Italian navies, the Kriegsmarine, and the Mediterranean squadrons of the United Kingdom, France, and the Yugoslav Partisan naval forces. Considered a not important part of the naval warfare of World War II, it nonetheless saw interesting developments, given the specificity of the Dalmatian coastline.
Prelude — Italian invasion of Albania
On April 7, 1939, Mussolini's troops occupied Albania, overthrew Zog, and annexed the country to the Italian Empire. Naval operations in the Adriatic consisted mostly of transport organisation through the ports of Taranto.
Greco-Italian War
The Greco-Italian War lasted from 28 October 1940-30 April 1941 and was part of World War II. Italian forces invaded Greece and made limited gains. At the outbreak of hostilities, the Royal Hellenic Navy was composed of the old cruiser Georgios Averof, 10 destroyers (four old Theria class, four relatively modern Dardo class and two new Greyhound class), several torpedo boats and six old submarines. Faced with the formidable Regia Marina, its role was primarily limited to patrol and convoy escort duties in the Aegean Sea. This was essential both for the completion of the Army's mobilization, but also for the overall resupply of the country, the convoy routes being threatened by Italian aircraft and submarines operating from the Dodecanese Islands.
Nevertheless, the Greek ships also carried out limited offensive operations against Italian shipping in the Strait of Otranto. The destroyers carried out three bold but fruitless night-time raids (14–15 November 1940, 15–16 December 1940 and 4–5 January 1941). The main successes came from the submarines, which managed to sink some Italian transports. On the Italian side, although the Regia Marina suffered severe losses in capital ships from the British Royal Navy during the Taranto raid, Italian cruisers and destroyers continued to operate covering the convoys between Italy and Albania. Also, on 28 November, an Italian squadron bombarded Corfu, while on 18 December and 4 March, Italian task forces shelled Greek coastal positions in Albania.
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia (also known as Operation 25) began on 6 April 1941 and ended with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April. The invading Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Hungary) occupied and dismembered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
When Germany and Italy attacked Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, the Yugoslav Royal Navy had available three destroyers, two submarines and 10 MTBs as the most effective units of the fleet. One other destroyer, the Ljubljana was in dry-dock at the time of the invasion and she and her anti-aircraft guns were used in defence of the fleet base at Kotor. The remainder of the fleet was useful only for coastal defence and local escort and patrol work.
Kotor (Cattaro) was close to the Albanian border and the Italo-Greek front there, but Zara (Zadar), an Italian enclave, was to the north-west of the coast and to prevent a bridgehead being established, the destroyer Beograd, four of the old torpedo boats and six MTBs were despatched to Šibenik, 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m)80 km to the south of Zara, in preparation for an attack. The attack was to be co-ordinated with the 12th "Jadranska" Infantry Division and two Odred (combined regiments) of the Royal Yugoslav Army attacking from the Benkovac area, supported by air attacks by the 81st Bomber Group of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.
The Yugoslav forces launched their attack on 9 April, but by 13 April the Italian forces -under the orders of General Vittorio Ambrosio- had counter-attacked and were in Benkovac by 14 April. The naval prong to this attack faltered when Beograd was damaged by near misses from Italian aircraft off Šibenik when her starboard engine was put out of action, after which she limped to Kotor, escorted by the remainder of the force, for repair.
The maritime patrol float-planes of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force flew reconnaissance and attack missions during the campaign, as well as providing air cover for mine-laying operations off Zara. Some of their successes included an Italian tanker being damaged by a near miss off the Italian coast near Bari, attacks on the Albanian port of Durrës, as well as strikes against Italian re-supply convoys to Albania. On 9 April, one Dornier Do 22K floatplane notably took on an Italian convoy of 12 steamers with an escort of eight destroyers crossing the Adriatic during the day, attacking single-handed in the face of intense AA fire.
Italian occupation and Yugoslav resistance
After the invasion, Italy controlled the entire eastern Adriatic coast through the annexation of much of Dalmatia, the Italian occupation zone of the Independent State of Croatia, and the Italian puppet regimes of the Kingdom of Montenegro (1941–1944) and the Albanian Kingdom (1939–1943).
Naval forces of the Yugoslav Partisans were formed as early as 19 September 1942, when Partisans in Dalmatia formed their first naval unit made of fishing boats, which gradually evolved into a force able to engage the Italian Navy and Kriegsmarine and conduct complex amphibious operations. This event is considered to be the foundation of the Yugoslav Navy. At its peak during World War II, the Yugoslav Partisans' Navy commanded nine or 10 armed ships, 30 patrol boats, close to 200 support ships, six coastal batteries, and several Partisan detachments on the islands, around 3,000 men.
After the Italian capitulation of 8 September 1943, following the Allied invasion of Italy, the Partisans took most of the coast and all of the islands. On 26 October, the Yugoslav Partisans' Navy was organized first into four, and later into six Maritime Costal Sectors (Pomorsko Obalni Sektor, POS). The task of the naval forces was to secure supremacy at sea, organize defense of coast and islands, and attack enemy sea traffic and forces on the islands and along the coasts.
German occupation
As a first move (Operation Wolkenbruch) the Germans rushed to occupy the northern Adriatic ports of Trieste, Fiume and Pula, and established the Operational Zone Adriatic Coast OZAK, with its headquarters in Trieste, on 10 September. It comprised the provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pula (Pola), Rijeka (Fiume) and Ljubljana (Lubiana). Since an Allied landing in the area was anticipated, OZAK also hosted a substantial German military contingent, the Befehlshaber Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland commanded by General der Gebirgstruppe Ludwig Kübler. On 28 September 1944, these units were redesignated XCVII Armeekorps. Soon also German marine units were formed. Royal Navy engagement was also on the rise.
Vize-Admiral Joachim Lietzmann was Commanding Admiral Adriatic (Kommandierender Admiral Adria). Initially, the area of operation ranged from Fiume to Valona, and the area of the Western coast was under the jurisdiction of the German navy for Italy (Deutsches Marinekommando Italien). The line of demarcation between the two naval commands and corresponded between the Armed Group F (Balkans) and the Armed Group E (Italy) as a border between the Italian Social Republic (RSI) and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Soon on Lietzmann insistence on the area of operation was extended to include the whole of Istria to the mouth of the Tagliamento, and in correspondence to the boundary line between the Italian Social Republic and the area of the Operational Zone Adriatic Coast(OZAK).
One of the first operations was Operation Herbstgewitter. This consisted of landing German troops on the islands of Krk, Cres and Lošinj in November 1943. The Germans used some old ships such as the cruiser SMS Niobe and the auxiliary cruiser Ramb III. During the action, the islands were cleared of partisan forces and Niobe with two S-boats managed to capture a British military mission on the island of Lošinj.
Gradually the German navy was built up, mostly with former Italian ships found in an advanced phase of construction in the yards of Fiume and Trieste. The strongest naval unit was the 11th Sicherungsflotille. Formed in May 1943 in Triest as the 11. Küstenschutzflottille, in December 1943 it was designated 11. Sicherungsflottille. It was employed in protecting marine communications in the Adriatic, mostly from partisan naval attacks. On 1 March 1944, the Flotilla was extended and re-designated the 11. Sicherungsdivision.
Occupation of Dalmatia
Until the end of 1943, the German forces were advancing into Dalmatia after capitulation of Italy.
In the summer of 1944, the Allies undertook a major evacuation of civilian population from Dalmatia fleeing the German occupation, and moved them to the El Shatt refugee camp in Egypt.
Vis island
By 1944, only Vis island remained unoccupied and divisions task become its defense against later cancelled German invasion (Operation FREISCHÜTZ). The island was about 14 mi (12 nmi; 23 km) long and 8 mi (7.0 nmi; 13 km) wide, with a mainly hilly perimeter, with a plain in the centre covered with vines, part of which has been removed to make way for an airstrip about 750 yd (690 m) long, from which four Spitfires of the Balkan Air Force were operating. At the west end of the island was the Port of Komiža, while at the other end was the Port of Vis, these were connected by the only good road running across the plain.Vis was organized as a great stronghold, held until the end of World War II.
In 1944, Tito's headquarters moved there and British forces with over 1,000 troops was also included in the defence of Vis. The British forces, already on the island, were called Land Forces Adriatic, and were under the command of Brigadier George Daly, and consisted of the No. 40 (Royal Marine) Commando and No. 43 (Royal Marine) Commando of the 2nd Special Service Brigade, the Highland Light Infantry (part of the 51st Highland Infantry Division) and other support troops. Operating from the two ports were several Royal Navy craft, Marshal Tito's forces numbered about 2,000. Vis was functioning as the political and military center of the liberated territories until the liberation of Belgrade in late 1944.
A remarkable figure was the Canadian captain Thomas G. Fuller, son of the Canadian Chief Dominion Architect Thomas William Fuller, who in 1944 took command of the 61st MGB flotilla. Operating from the island of Vis he supplied the partisans by pirating German supply ships. He managed to sink or capture 13 German supply boats, was involved in 105 fire fights and another 30 operations where there was no gunfire. Characteristically for the Yugoslav operations theatre, Fuller attributed a good part of his success to the blood-curling threats uttered by the Yugoslav partisan who manned the MGB's loud hailer: a 400 ton schooner was captured with its whole cargo and whose crew gave up without a struggle because of the explanation of what would be done to them personally, with knives, if they disobeyed.
Liberation of Dalmatia
British naval forces in the Middle East operating in the Adriatic Sea were under the command of the Flag Officer Taranto and Adriatic & Liaison with the Italians (F.O.T.A.L.I). All the naval forces were controlled from Taranto and operated in close coordination with the Coastal attack operations conducted by the BAF. The Yugoslavs used the units in the British navy to transport materials and men, but especially to make landings on the islands of Dalmatia to liberate them from German occupation.
During the Vis period, Partisans carried out several seaborne landings on Dalmatian islands with help of Royal Navy and Commandos:
- Šolta - Operation DETAINED
- Hvar - Operation ENDOWMENT
- Mljet - Operation FARRIER
- Brač - Operation FLOUNCED
The French Navy was involved as well in the first half of 1944, with the 10th Division of Light Cruisers made up of three Fantansque-class destroyers (Le Fantasque, Le Terrible, Le Malin) making high speed sweeps in the Adriatic, destroying German convoys.
In the second half of 1944 the Royal Navy sent a destroyer flotilla in the Adriatic. The biggest engagement happened on 1 November, when two Hunt-class destroyers HMS Avon Vale and Wheatland were patrolling the coastal shipping routes south of Lussino in the Adriatic. That evening, two enemy corvettes were sighted; UJ-202 and UJ-208. The two destroyers opened fire at a range of 4,000 yd (3,700 m). In less than 10 minutes, the enemy ships were reduced to mere scrap, the two British ships were circling the enemy and pouring out a devastating fire of pom-pom and small calibre gunfire. When the first corvette was sunk Avon Vale closed to rescue the Germans while Wheatland continued to shoot up the second corvette which eventually blew up. Ten minutes later, the British came under fire from the German Torpedoboot Ausland destroyer TA-20 (ex-Italian destroyer Audace) which suddenly appeared on the scene. When the two British ships directed their fire at her and the enemy destroyer was sunk. But while the Adriatic campaign continued to the end of the war, the Hunts did not again engage large German warships, although the German Navy was constantly launching and commissioning light destroyer types from the yards of Trieste and Fiume. Moreover, on 14 December, HMS Aldenham struck a mine around the island of Škrda and it was the last British destroyer lost in World War II.
To prevent entrance to North Adriatic in last two years of Second World War, Germans spread thousands mines and blocked all ports and canals, Many of underwater mine fields has been situated at the open sea. Mine sweeping was executed by Britain ships equipped with special mine-sweep technology. On 5 May 1945, the Shakespeare-class trawler HMS Coriolanus hit a mine while it was sweeping the sea in front of Novigrad.
Planned allied landings
The Allies, first under French initiative of the general Maxime Weygand planned landings in the Thessaloniki area. Although discarded by the British, later the landing option became most advocated by Winston Churchill. The so-called Ljubljana gap strategy proved ultimately to be little more than a bluff owing to American refusal and skepticism upon the whole operation. nevertheless, the British command planned several landing operations in Dalmatia and Istria codenamed ARMPIT and a more ambitious plan GELIGNITE. Facing American opposition the British made last attempts were marked by sending an air force called FAIRFAX in Zadar area, and an artillery attachment called FLOYD FORCE also in Dalmatia, but due to Yugoslav obstruction such attempts ceased. Nevertheless, the bluff worked since Hitler eventually awaited an allied landing in the northern Adriatic, and diverted important resources in the area. Instead of landings the allied agreed to provide Tito land units with aerial and logistical support by setting up the Balkan Air Force.
The biggest British-led combined operation in the eastern Adriatic codenamed Operation Antagonise in December 1944 was intended to capture the island of Lošinj, where the Germans kept E-boats and (possibly) midget submarines. It was only partially executed since the partisan Navy Commander in Chief, Josip Černi, refused to give his troops for the landing operation. Instead, a group of destroyers and MTBs shelled the German gun positions and 36 South African Air Force Bristol Beaufighters attacked the naval base installations with RP-3 3 in (76 mm) Rocket Projectiles As the attacks proved ineffective in stopping German activities they were repeated also in the first months of 1945.
By the end of October 1944, the Germans still had five destroyers (TA20, TA40, TA41, TA44, and TA 45) three corvettes (UJ205, UJ206, and TA48). On 1 January 1945, there were four German destroyers operative in the northern Adriatic (TA40, TA41, TA44, and TA 45) three U-Boot Jäger corvettes (UJ205, UJ206, and TA48). even as late as 1 April TA43, TA 45 and UJ206 were in commission and available to fight. Allied aircraft sank four in port (at Fiume and Trieste) in March and April, British MTB torpedoed TA 45 in April.
The very last operations of the German navy involved the evacuation of troops and personnel from Istria and Trieste before the advancing Yugoslavs that took place in May 1945. An estimated enemy force of 4,000 was landing from 26 ships of all types at the mouth of the Tagliamento River at Lignano Sabbiadoro. The area is a huge sand spit running out into a big lagoon, and at its southern end the Tagliamento River enters the sea. The Germans had evacuated Trieste to escape the Yugoslav Army. The Germans were protected by naval craft holding off three British MTBs, which could not get in close enough to use their guns effectively. There were about 6,000 of them and their equipment included E-boats, LSTs, a small hospital ship, all types of transport, and a variety of weapons. The 21st Battalion of the New Zealand 2nd Division was outnumbered by 20 to one, but at the end the Germans surrendered on 4 May 1945. Others had already surrendered to the British troops on German ships which arrived from Istria to Ancona on 2 May. British sources wrote there were about 30 boats, but no exact record is mentioned.
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