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Palace of HolyroodhouseEdit profile
Holyrood Palace is built beside the earlier Holyrood Abbey where Kings of Scotland were crowned. The abbey, the remains of which can still be seen (to the left of the Palace) was built by King David I in 1128. Much altered over the centuries, reroofing in 1758 with stone slab caused the vaulting to collapse ten years later. The abbey has been a ruin ever since.
In the 15th century, the Abbot’s guest house became used by the Kings of Scotland as their Edinburgh residence in prefernce to Edinburgh castle which was deemed uncomfortable. In the 16th century it became the main Royal residence with the abbey becoming the Chapel Royal.
The Palace as we see it today, is a product of the late 17th century. It was rebuilt as a Viceregal Residence. The Palace has two eleborate gateways, one to the bottom of the Royal Mile and another leading towards Arthur’s Seat. Still in use today, the Palace is open to the public and is the official residence in Scotland of Her Majesty The Queen. During The Queen's Holyrood week, which usually runs from the end of June to the beginning of July, Her Majesty carries out a wide range of official engagements in Scotland. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35319000 |
This Post has been first published on Access-Info: Open Government Data and is actually circulating various E-mailing lists. I think it is a really important initiative and worth reblogging it.
Open Government Data Project: Research project by Access Info and the Open Knowledge Foundation, in collaboration with the Open Society Information Program, to map out and evaluate the current state of initiatives to promote access to government data in formats that can be freely used, reused, and distributed by anyone. The project will also identify the obstacles to accessing and reusing public data and recommendations for future initiatives to address these.
On this page you can read more about the issue and find out how you can get involved in the project.
What is open government data?
The release of databases and other collections of information by government departments in formats that can be freely used, reused and distributed. Release is generally proactive, without the need for access to information requests.
- An example: In 2007, the UK government released a database with locations of bicycle accidents around the country. This information was linked by members of the public to maps, making it possible for cyclists to plan safer journeys avoiding the black spots.
- Another example: In Australia, in January 2010, government released the National Public Toilet Map which shows the location of more than 14,000 public and private public toilet facilities with data such as opening hours, availability of baby changing rooms, and accessibility for people with disabilities. Sounds funny? Think of the possibilities: associations of disabled persons can provide a database for their members to plan journeys; mothers could access a service by mobile phone to locate the nearest baby changing room.
Read more in a good article from the Economist (4 February 2010) Data and transparency: Of governments and geeks
What are governments doing to promote this?
There are currently a number of exciting initiatives to release government data in bulk, these include:
- United States: On 21 May 2009 the US Government launched Data.gov whose purpose is to give direct public access to machine-readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the US Federal Government. An initial 47 datasets are on line, of the thousands planned for release.
- United Kingdom: Working with Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the World Wide Web, the UK government has created Data.gov.uk, a single online access point for government data, launched on 21 January 2010.
- Australia: the data.australia.gov.au website encourages users to “make government information even more useful by mashing-up the data to create something new and exciting!”
- New Zealand: a portal for accessing government databases is located at data.govt.nz. Recent release include a database from the food safety authority with a breakdown of the major causes of food recalls, and total number of recalls 2001 – 2009, and hospital performance data from the Ministry of Health.
- Denmark: Danish National IT and Telecom Agency has created a meta-portal to link,Digitaliser.dk to guide users to available public data.
What about civil society initiatives?
• At the EU level the Public Geodata Campaign which formed in response to the EU’s INSPIRE Directive establishing a framework for spatial data infrastructure in Europe – activists criticise the Directive for its failure to guarantee access to geodata for European citizens and businesses;
• In the UK the Free Our Data campaign which argues that data created with taxpayers money, such as ordinance survey data (mapping), should not be sold to the public. In a victory for the campaign, UK Ordinance Survey (mapping) data will be available free of charge from April 2010;
• In New Zealand, an independent website, the Open Data Catalogue, provides a portal to local government datasets in NZ;.
• In Slovenia the speleological association won access to a database of caving information without having to pay for it; the Information Commissioner ruled that when the use of public data was for not for profit purposes, it should be free of charge.
• In the United States in December 2007 a group of 30 experts and activists in the US produced the “Open Government Data Principles”. The principles were adopted in order “to develop a more robust understanding of why open government data is essential to democracy” and to develop principles that would enable governments of the world to become “more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives”.
It’s that easy?
Not always. There are many potential obstacles to accessing full government data. Information that is stored using software that costs money means that it’s hard to read. Information released in formats that can’t be read by computers is difficult to reuse. Information is held in proprietary formats which users have to buy. Data is subject to copyright or released under restrictive licences. These are issues which are being researched under this project and will be the subject of recommendations for future campaigns by activists from the access to information and open government data communities
What does this mean for the access to information community?
For full enjoyment of the right of access to information and the related right to freedom of expression, people need to have access to government data in formats which can be used by anyone – so preferably in open source formats – and free from copyright, licences, and other restrictions on reuse. If government data is provided to the public in formats which mean that it cannot easily be reused, processed, or have value added, then the right to information is seriously undermined.
It sounds rather technical!
Sometimes it is. As the Economist article says, this is “a geek’s dream: plenty for creative types to work on, but a bit baffling to the lay person.” This project aims to demystify open government data issues and break through the jargon, so that they can be understood by access to information activists and other human rights campaigners.
What will be done under this project?
Access Info and the Open Knowledge Foundation will identify and analyse the main initiatives related to open government data. We will analyse what this means for the right of access to information and for other developing fields such as e-government (electronic access to public services) and e-democracy (electronic participation in government decision-making and electronic voting).
Based on the research and analysis we will develop recommendations for future activities which could be carried out by the open government data, access to information, and e-government communities together.
How do I get involved?
Go to the Open Government Data Project Website and tell us about your campaigns or government initiatives in your country. The deadline for sending us information is 15 March 2010. We will then be producing a mapping report with info on the next phase of the campaign. There will be an international meeting to launch the report and discuss next steps in London on 22 April 2010.
Write to the project coordinators to tell us about your projects and to join the project:
- Helen Darbishire, Access Info, helen [at> access-info.org
- Jonathan Gray, Open Knowledge Foundation, at jonathan.gray <at ] okfn.org
Why is Open Government Data important?
1. Transparency. For a democratic society to function properly citizens need to know what their government is doing. In order to do that they must be able freely to access government data and information and to share that information with other citizens. Transparency, therefore, isn’t just about access it is also about sharing and reuse — often, to understand material it needs to be analyzed and visualized and this requires that the material be open so that it can be freely used and reused.
2. Citizen participation in governance. Opening up data means citizens don’t have to wait for an election to get involved in what their government is doing. Participation in decision-making,
3. Optimising the social and commercial value of public data. In a digital age data is a key resource for social and commercial activities. Everything from finding your local post office or recycling centre to building a search engine requires access to data much of which is created or held by Government. By opening up data for commercial and non-commercial use Government can promote business and social enterprise.
The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open knowledge in all its forms. ‘Open knowledge’ is any content, information or data that people are free to use, re-use and redistribute — without any legal, technological or social restriction. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35320000 |
- Canary Islands (1) (remove)
- The evolution of Saharan dust input on Lanzarote (Canary Islands) – influenced by human activity in the Northwest Sahara during the early Holocene? (2009)
- An overall Holocene increase of Saharan dust input to the Canary Islands and to the North Canary Basin is accompanied by a strong coarsening of Saharan dust in loess-like sediments deposited on Lanzarote from ~7–8 ka. No similar coarsening events are indicated in investigations of the sedimentological record for the last 180 ka, a period showing several dramatic climate changes. Therefore a mobilisation of Holocene dust by anthropogenic activity in the northwest Sahara east of the Canary Islands is assumed. Although scarce archaeological data from the coastal area of that region does not point to strong anthropogenic activity during the early Holocene, a high density of unexplored archaeological remains is reported from the coastal hinterlands in the Western Sahara. Thus, the hypothesis of early anthropogenic activity cannot be excluded. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35323000 |
On November 25, 1952, three months after returning from England, Pauling finally made a serious stab at a structure for DNA.
The immediate spur was a Caltech biology seminar given by Robley Williams, a Berkeley professor who had done some amazing
work with an electron microscope. Through a complicated technique he was able to get images of incredibly small biological
structures. Pauling was spellbound. One of Williams's photos showed long, tangled strands of sodium ribonucleate, the salt
of a form of nucleic acid, shaded so that three-dimensional details could be seen. To Pauling the strands appeared cylindrical.
He guessed then, looking at these black-and-white slides in the darkened seminar room, that DNA was likely to be a helix.
No other conformation would fit both Astbury's x-ray patterns of the molecule and the photos he was seeing.
Even better, Williams was able to estimate the sizes of structures on his photos, and his work showed that each strand was
about 15 angstroms across. Pauling was interested enough to ask him to repeat the figure, which Williams qualified by noting
the difficulty he had in making precise measurements.
The next day, Pauling sat at his desk with a pencil, a sheaf of paper, and a slide rule. New data that summer from Alexander
Todd's laboratory had confirmed the linkage points between the sugars and phosphates in DNA; other work showed where they
connected to the bases. Pauling was already convinced from his earlier work that the various-sized bases had to be on the
outside of the molecule; the phosphates, on the inside. Now he knew that the molecule was probably helical. These were his
starting points for a preliminary look at DNA. He still lacked critical data - he had no decent x-ray images, for instance,
and no firm structural data on the precise sizes and bonding angles of the base-sugar-phosphate building blocks of DNA - but
he went with what he had.
It was a mistake. After a few pages of theorizing, using sketchy and sometimes incorrect data, Pauling became convinced -
as Watson and Crick had been at first - that DNA was a three-stranded structure with the phosphates on the inside. Unfortunately,
he had no Rosalind Franklin to set him right. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35328000 |
The first-ever lifetime feeding study1 evaluating the health risks of genetically engineered foods was published online on September 19, and the results are troubling, to say the least. This new study joins a list of over 30 other animal studies showing toxic or allergenic problems with genetically engineered foods.Web Link
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, found that rats fed a type of genetically engineered corn that is prevalent in the US food supply for two years developed massive mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage, and other serious health problems.Web Link
The research was considered so "hot" that the work was done under strict secrecy. According to a French article in Le Nouvel Observateur,2 the researchers used encrypted emails, phone conversations were banned, and they even launched a decoy study to prevent sabotage!
A two-year long French feeding study designed to evaluate the long-term health effects of a genetically engineered corn found that rats fed Monsanto�s maize developed massive breast tumors, kidney and liver damage, and other serious health problems. The major onslaught of diseases set in during the 13th month
Female rats that ate genetically engineered corn died 2-3 times more than controls, and more rapidly, while the male GE-fed rats had tumors that occurred up to a year-and-a-half earlier than rats not fed GE corn
According to results from a 10-year long feeding study on rats, mice, pigs and salmon, genetically engineered feed causes obesity, along with significant changes in the digestive system and major organs, including the liver, kidneys, pancreas, genitals and more
The EPA admits there�s �mounting evidence� that Monsanto�s insecticide-fighting YieldGard corn is losing its effectiveness in the Midwest. Last year, rootworms resistant to the toxin in the genetically designed corn infested fields in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska
Genetically engineered foods are responsible for development of resistant weeds and pests; increased pathogenic virulence; degradation of soil quality; reduced nutrient content in food; exponential rise in infertility and birth defects; and reduced crop yields, and more
Passing Prop 37 is Key to Expanding Sustainable Agriculture in North America
Despite Johr's stated view, Nestle has donated nearly $1.17 million to the "No on 37 Coalition," which is working to prevent the labelling of GE foods in California. So much for listening to consumers...
Although many organic consumers and natural health activists already understand the importance of Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Foods Act, it cannot be overemphasized that winning the battle over Prop 37 is perhaps the most important food fight Americans � not just Californians � have faced so far. Once food manufacturers can no longer label or market GE-tainted foods as "natural" or "all-natural," and once all GE ingredients are clearly marked, millions of consumers will demand non-GE alternatives, and organic and non-GE food sales will dramatically increase.
But in order to win this fight for the right to know what's in our food, we need your help, as the biotech industry will surely outspend us by 100 to 1, if not more, for their propaganda. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35336000 |
Scientists have taken a major step forward in the understanding of ovarian cancer, which could improve treatment for patients with the condition.
Researchers have found that patients with hereditary ovarian cancer - whose tumours are caused by faulty genes - are more likely to experience secondary tumours in their liver and spleen. This is despite the fact that their overall prognosis is better than other patients.
In non-hereditary cancer, ovarian tumours tend to remain within the lining of the abdomen and pelvis.
A University of Edinburgh study suggests that ovarian cancer patients whose tumours spread to the solid organs such as the liver and lungs should be tested for the faulty genes - BRCA1 and BRCA2 - to ensure they are given the most appropriate treatment.
Researchers say this would improve the detection of these faulty genes as current criteria for genetic testing may miss as many as two-thirds of ovarian cancer patients carrying faulty BRCA genes.
Patients with hereditary tumours, which account for 10 per cent of ovarian cancers, may also be suitable for trials of a new drug called olaparib, which has fewer side-effects than normal cancer treatments.
Improving the identification of BRCA mutations would help relatives of ovarian cancer patients, who may themselves be at increased risk of developing hereditary cancer.
The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr Charlie Gourley, who led the research at the University of Edinburgh, said: "We are beginning to understand the importance of tailoring cancer treatments according to the specifics of each patient's tumour. These findings demonstrate that tumours which arise because of defects in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes behave differently to other ovarian cancers. This information should also help us to identify the patients carrying these genetic mutations, give them the most effective treatment for their cancer and offer their relatives genetic counselling."
Explore further: New smartphone application improves colonoscopy preparation | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35358000 |
Assume you have a planet of mass $M$ and radius $R$ and have a stationary spaceship at distance $4R$ from the center of the planet.If a projectile is launched from the spaceship of mass $m$ and velocity $v$ and just grazes the planet's surface, what will be the locus of the projectile?
I guess on Earth we take projectile path to be parabolic because of no variation in acceleration due to gravity. But in this case acceleration due to gravity will change with change in distance.
So in the end, will the trajectory be parabolic, elliptical, circular? Explain why with full proof. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35359000 |
Latin Name – Silybum marianum
Milk thistle is a flowering herb that is native to the Mediterranean region. It has been used for thousands of years as an herbal remedy for a variety of ailments, especially liver problems.
Silymarin, which can be extracted from the seeds (fruit) of the milk thistle plant, is believed to be the biologically active part of the herb. The seeds are used to prepare capsules, extracts, and infusions (strong teas).
A traditional view of milk thistle is as an herbal remedy to help protect the liver and improve its function.
Milk thistle has been used as a nutritional supplement in the hope of improving liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis (liver inflammation), and gallbladder disorders.
There have been some research studies of milk thistle on liver disease in humans, but these have been small. Some promising data have been reported, but study results at this time are mixed.
Although some studies conducted outside the United States support claims of oral milk thistle to improve liver function, there have been flaws in study design and reporting. To date, there is no conclusive evidence to prove its claimed uses.
Recent NCCAM-funded research includes a phase II study to better understand the use of milk thistle for chronic hepatitis C. Additional research, cofunded by NCCAM and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, includes studies of milk thistle for chronic hepatitis C and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, a fatty, inflamed liver disease that occurs in people who drink little or no alcohol.
Side Effects and Cautions Summary
- Milk thistle side effects include a laxative effect, upset stomach, diarrhea, and bloating.
- Milk thistle can produce allergic reactions, which tend to be more common among people who are allergic to plants in the same family (for example, ragweed, chrysanthemum, marigold, and daisy).
- Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health to help ensure coordinated and safe care. Complementary or alternative therapy should not be used in place of conventional medical care or to delay seeking that care.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Milk Thistle: Effects on Liver Disease and Cirrhosis and Clinical Adverse Effects. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment no. 21. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2000. 01-E024.
- Milk thistle (Silybum marianum). In: Coates P, Blackman M, Cragg G, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of Dietary Supplements. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2005:467–482.
- Milk thistle. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. Accessed on July 3, 2007.
- Milk thistle (Silybum marianum), silymarin. Natural Standard Database Web site. Accessed on June 28, 2007.
- Milk thistle fruit. In: Blumenthal M, Goldberg A, Brinckman J, eds. Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs. Newton, MA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000:257–263.
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Hepatitis C and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: 2003 Update. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Web site. Accessed on July 5, 2007.
For More Information
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Clearinghouse
The NCCAM Clearinghouse provides information on CAM and NCCAM, including publications and searches of Federal databases of scientific and medical literature. The Clearinghouse does not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or referrals to practitioners.
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Web site: ods.od.nih.gov
Source: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Milk thistle fact sheet Created September 2005, Updated March 2008 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35360000 |
Is it “Islamophobic” to question whether or not the standard picture of Muhammad as depicted in Muslim texts is historically accurate?
Certainly many people think so, notably the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC is a fifty-six nation body (plus the Palestinian Authority) that, since the demise of the Soviet Union, comprises the largest voting bloc at the United Nations. It has been working for years to compel the UN to criminalize “Islamophobia.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a closed-door meeting with the OIC in December 2011, apparently to facilitate just that and figure out ways to circumvent the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of speech.
Journalist Claire Berlinski notes that “the neologism ‘Islamophobia’ did not simply emerge ex nihilo”:
It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia. … Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the IIIT who has renounced the group in disgust, was an eyewitness to the creation of the word. “This loathsome term,” he writes, “is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.”
Yet the mainstream media has for the most part bought into this perspective, treating all investigation of how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism as “Islamophobic,” however useful it might be to understand the motives and goals of those who have vowed to destroy the U.S. and Western civilization. Into this atmosphere comes my book Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins, which doesn’t touch directly on terror issues at all, but does demonstrate that Islam was political, supremacist, and violent before it was religious — a fact with considerable implications for today’s political scene.
In broad outline, the accepted story of Islam’s origins is well known. It begins with an Arabian merchant of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, known to the world as Muhammad, a name that means the “praised one.” He rejected the polytheism of his tribe and was given to frequent prayer in the hills and caves outside Mecca. In the year 610, when he was forty, he was praying in a cave on Mount Hira, about two miles from Mecca, when he was suddenly confronted by the angel Gabriel, who commanded him to recite.
For the next twenty-three years, until his death in 632, Muhammad did just that: He recited the messages he received from Gabriel, presenting them to his followers as the pure and unadulterated word of the supreme and only God. Many of his followers memorized portions. The Arabia in which Islam was born was an oral culture that respected poetic achievement, and thus the prodigious feats of memory required to memorize lengthy suras were not so unusual. After Muhammad’s death, the revelations he had received were collected together into the Qur’an, or “Recitation,” from the accounts of those who had memorized them or written them down. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35365000 |
With brilliant plumage and puffed out chests, the Mandarin ducks at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo are vying for the attention of the brown females swimming about the Discovery Trail marsh. This courtship activity might make you think it is spring, but it’s happening right now in the middle of winter.
Although the marsh might be partially frozen over with patches of ice large enough for the ducks to walk across, a series of underwater bubblers keep sections of the water from freezing, so there’s plenty room for swimming—and chasing female ducks.
Visitors who spend some time watching the Mandarin ducks will be amused by their courtship behaviors. The males puff up and actually bump their chests together in a show of dominance. Occasionally, one of the male Mallard ducks will try to get into the act, but the little Mandarins are too focused on their courtship to put up with any interference.
A few Mallards make the marsh their home but are not officially part of the zoo’s bird collection. These birds are free to fly in and out as they wish, visiting many of the small bodies of water in Prospect Park or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. A few other visitors like the beautiful North American wood ducks often stop by the marsh in winter. These visitors are native species and rival the Mandarin’s with the beauty of their plumage.
Many visitors ask about the large cage-like structure at the back of the marsh. Normally hidden by leaves, this structure is called an excluder and is meant to keep the local mallards from eating all the food meant for the zoo ducks.
Most of the zoo ducks are diving ducks, which refers to species that dive underwater to feed. The zoo’s diving ducks easily enter and exit the excluder from below the surface to eat. Mallards are unable to do this and are too big to squeeze through the bars of the excluder.
Other marsh residents include the red eared slider turtles. They are very popular during the spring and summer months when they spend their days basking on logs or swimming through the marsh for food pellets tossed by zoo visitors. In the winter these reptiles do not hibernate, but they do become less active in a process called brumation. Once outdoor temperatures fall, the turtles move to the bottom of the marsh. If the temperature rises, visitors might see turtles come to the surface to catch a few winter rays, but as soon as the temperature drops, so do the turtles.
So even though it’s chilly and the trees are bare, there’s plenty going on at the Prospect Park Zoo. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35381000 |
Inattentive Type of ADHD
Children diagnosed with the Predominantly Inattentive type of ADHD have trouble focusing on any one thing and may get bored with a task after only a few minutes. However, if they are doing something they really enjoy, they usually have no trouble paying attention. But focusing deliberate, conscious attention to organizing and completing a task or learning something new is difficult.
Homework is particularly hard for these children. They will forget to write down an assignment, or leave it at school. They will forget to bring a book home, or bring the wrong one. The homework, if finally finished, will be full of mistakes. It is often accompanied by frustration for the child and their parents.
Inattentive children are rarely impulsive or hyperactive, but have a significant problem paying attention. They often appear to be daydreaming, “spacey,” easily confused, slow moving, and lethargic. They may process information more slowly and less accurately than other children. This child has a hard time understanding what he or she is supposed to do when a teacher gives oral or even written instructions. Mistakes are frequent. The child may sit quietly and appear to be working, but in reality is not fully attending to or understanding the task and the instructions.
Children with this form of ADHD often get along better with other children than the more impulsive and hyperactive forms, as they may not have the same sorts of social problems common with the other forms of ADHD. Because of this, their problems with inattention are often overlooked.
Indicators of inattention:
- Not giving close attention to details or making careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other play activities.
- Becoming easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds
- Failing to pay attention to instructions and making careless mistakes, not finishing work, chores or duties
- Losing or forgetting things like toys, pencils, books, assignments and tools needed for a task
- Having trouble organizing activities, often skipping from one uncompleted activity to another
- Not appearing to listen when spoken to directly
- Avoiding or disliking things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time
Combined Type of ADHD
Children exhibiting hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention are considered to have the combined type of ADHD, which combines all of the above symptoms.
Disorders related to ADD/ADHD
Grohol, J. (2007). Symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). Psych Central. Retrieved on May 19, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/symptoms-of-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd/
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Jan 2013
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35386000 |
New research shows that daily physical activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, even in people over the age of 80.
According to researchers at Rush University Medical Center, all physical activity — whether it is exercise or household chores, such as cooking or cleaning — are associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.
“These results provide support for efforts to encourage all types of physical activity even in very old adults who might not be able to participate in formal exercise, but can still benefit from a more active lifestyle,” said Dr. Aron S. Buchman, lead author of the study and associate professor of neurological sciences at Rush.
To measure total daily physical activity, researchers from Rush asked 716 individuals who did not have dementia to wear a device called an actigraph, which monitors activity, on their non-dominant wrist continuously for 10 days.
All exercise and other physical activity was recorded. Study participants, who had an average age of 82, also were given annual cognitive tests during the study to measure memory and thinking abilities. Participants also self-reported their physical and social activities.
Those participating in the study were individuals from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing community study of common chronic conditions of old age. In followup studies, it was discovered that 71 participants developed Alzheimer’s disease.
The research found that people in the bottom 10 percent of daily physical activity were more than twice as likely (2.3 times) to develop Alzheimer’s disease as people in the top 10 percent of daily activity.
The study also showed that those in the bottom 10 percent of intensity of physical activity were almost three times (2.8 times) as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as people in the top 10 percent of the intensity of physical activity.
“Since the actigraph was attached to the wrist, activities like cooking, washing the dishes, playing cards and even moving a wheelchair with a person’s arms were beneficial,” said Buchman. “These are low-cost, easily accessible and side effect-free activities people can do at any age, including very old age, to possibly prevent Alzheimer’s.”
Source: Rush University Medical Center | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35387000 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone 1 (GNRH1 also called LHRH) is a peptide hormone responsible for the release of FSH and LH from the anterior pituitary. GNRH1 is synthesized and released by the hypothalamus.
The identity of GNRH1 was clarified by the 1977 Nobel Laureates Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally:
GNRH1 as a neurohormoneEdit
GNRH1 is considered a neurohormone, a hormone produced in a specific neural cell and released at its neural terminal. A key area for production of GNRH1 is the preoptic area of the hypothalamus, that contains most of the GNRH1-secreting neurons. GNRH1 is secreted in the portal bloodstream at the median eminence. The portal blood carries the GNRH1 to the pituitary gland, which contains the the gonadotrope cells, where GNRH1 activates its own receptor, gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GNRHR), located in the cell membrane.
GNRH1 is degradated by proteolysis within a few minutes.
Control of FSH and LHEdit
At the pituitary, GNRH1 stimulates the synthesis and secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). These processes are controlled by the size and frequency of GNRH1 pulses, as well as by feedback from androgens and estrogens.
There are differences in GNRH1 secretion between males and females. In males, GNRH1 is secreted in pulses at a constant frequency, but in females the frequency of the pulses varies during the menstrual cycle and there is a large surge of GNRH1 just before ovulation.
GNRH1 secretion is pulsatile in all vertebrates, and is necessary for correct reproductive function. Thus, a single hormone, GNRH1, controls a complex process of follicular growth, ovulation, and corpus luteum maintenance in the female, and spermatogenesis in the male.
GNRH1 activity is very low during childhood, and is activated at puberty. During the reproductive years, pulse activity is critical for successful reproductive function as controlled by feedback loops. However, once a pregnancy is established, GNRH1 activity is not required. Pulsatile activity can be disrupted by hypothalamic-pituitary disease, either dysfunction (i.e., hypothalamic suppression) or organic lesions (trauma, tumor). Elevated prolactin levels decrease GNRH1 activity. In contrast, hyperinsulinemia increases pulse activity leading to disordery LH and FSH activity, as seen in Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). GNRH1 formation is congenitally absent in Kallmann syndrome.
The GNRH1 neurons are regulated by many different afferent neurons, using several different transmitters (including norepinephrine, GABA, glutamate). For instance, dopamine appears to decrease GNRH1 activity.
GNRH1 in other organsEdit
GNRH1 is found in organs outside of the hypothalamus and pituitary and its role in other life processes is poorly understood. For instance, there is likely to be a role for GNRH1 in the placenta and in the gonads.
GNRH1 is available as gonadorelin hydrochloride (Factrel) for injectable use. Studies have described it being used via an infusion pump system to induce ovulation in patients with hypothalamic hypogonadism.
Agonists and antagonistsEdit
While GNRH1 has been synthesized and become available, its short half-life requires infusion pumps for its clinical use. Modifications of the decapeptide structure of GNRH1 have led to GNRH1 analog medications that either stimulate (GNRH1 agonists) or suppress (GNRH1 antagonists) the gonadotropins. It is important to note that, through downregulation, agonists are also able to exert a prolonged suppression effect.
|Hormones and endocrine glands - edit|
Hypothalamus: - TRH - CRH - GnRH - GHRH - somatostatin - dopamine | Posterior pituitary: vasopressin - oxytocin - lipotropin | Anterior pituitary: GH - ACTH - TSH - LH - FSH - prolactin - MSH - endorphins - lipotropin
Thyroid: T3 and T4 - calcitonin | Parathyroid: PTH | Adrenal medulla: epinephrine - norepinephrine | Adrenal cortex: aldosterone - cortisol - DHEA | Pancreas: glucagon- insulin - somatostatin | Ovary: estradiol - progesterone - inhibin - activin | Testis: testosterone - AMH - inhibin | Pineal gland: melatonin | Kidney: renin - EPO - calcitriol - prostaglandin | Heart atrium: ANP
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35388000 |
Physical environment is subject to continuous modification from natural causes, such as tectonic forces, temperature extremes, fire, wind and river erosion, vegetation processes, and animal action. No less than natural agents, human actions can result in widespread and irreversible environmental change. Many of these processes occur insidiously over prolonged periods. In such instances, the effects often are cumulative. Other human actions may be more sudden and concentrated, resulting in immediate and noticeable change.
Whether continuous or precipitous, these human actions frequently have degraded the affected environment. The nineteenth century, a time of British consolidation in Gangetic India, witnessed both types of phenomena. Traditional environmental alterations continued, while imported technologies introduced new, more threatening agents of change.
Agents of Continuous Change
The Banaras region, like most of the Gangetic plain, has been continuously populated for some twenty-five hundred years. In the process local residents established an important urban center, maintained its streets and buildings, connected it to other communities, supplied its industrial needs, and fed its population. Throughout this time human occupation affected the surroundings in a variety of ways.
Land Use and Resource Depletion . Over the centuries while Banaras city grew, its inhabitants exploited the adjoining terrain and its resources.
They cultivated the land to near capacity; hunted wildlife; raised livestock; and extracted timber, fuel, stone, sand, clay, and groundwater. Those materials and supplies which were unavailable locally were imported and brought in by road or stream.
As Banaras continued to grow and prosper, surrounding lands strained to supply the rising needs of the city and its visitors. By 1800 the region's resource base was becoming strained. The town itself was built on the site of the legendary Forest of Bliss. But by the nineteenth century, according to Diana Eck, townspeople retained only memories of the once luxuriant woods. One central neighborhood came to be known as the "Cut-Down Forest" (Eck 1982:29).
In the countryside, too, large tracts had been cleared for farming, leaving only isolated trees and planted groves. The extensive fields in place by 1800 blanketed what was once a natural habitat of dense forest. The original cover included stands of valuable trees, such as sal (Shorea robusta ) shisham (Dalbergia sissoo ), jaman (Eugenia jambolana ), mahua (Bassia latifolia ), ber (Ziziphus jujuba ), pipal (Ficus religiosa ), neem (Azadirachta indica ), pagun[*] (Bombax ceiba ), banyan (Ficus bengalensis ), tamarind (Tamarindus indica ), and babul (Acacia arabica ). Apart from isolated stands near villages, few of these trees remained in the nineteenth century. Grasses and shrubs, too were continuously grazed and harvested for manufacturing bricks (Troup 1921, 2:8; 3:4, 147, 231; Stebbing 1922–26: glossary; R. L. Singh 1971:204).
This large-scale devegetation of the countryside put an enormous strain on the soil resources. No longer compacted by broad root systems, topsoils were swept away by floods and blown off by winds. And depletion of leguminous trees and shrubs deprived the earth of the nitrogen-fixing action of roots, leaving soils deficient in bacterial content. The stresses of repeated cropping and traditional shallow tillage minimized soil rotation, accelerated nutrient depletion, and reduced fertility. Finally, with firewood growing scarcer owing to devegetation, manure was employed as fuel, reducing the input of fertilizer (Crooke 1897:322–34).
The familiar cycle of deforestation, reduction of biotic diversity, soil erosion, reduction of fertility, and decline in productivity certainly was manifest in the Banaras region. The responses to this process were equally common: extension of cultivation to terrains previously considered "wastelands" or "barren" lands; increased irrigation; or multiple cropping.
As was noted above, British observers asserted that Banarsi cultivators increasingly adopted irrigation and multiple cropping techniques. Reclamation of barren land also occurred but was severely limited by availability. Already by the end of the eighteenth century most such land had been plowed and sown. Although varying perceptions of what constitutes wasteland render that term ambiguous, figures confirm that little such terrain was available by the 1840s. It appears that the amount may have decreased somewhat between 1848 and 1872 (from 19 to 15 percent), but stabilized at the latter level through the rest of the century. There is some evidence, meanwhile, that farmers were simultaneously abandoning previously productive lands. In 1788 Jonathan Duncan had already noted the desertion of formerly productive fields. Nearly a hundred years later the provincial land-settlement report of 1872 estimated that 5 percent of cultivated land had been recently abandoned (Shakespear 1848: 169–70; Colvin 1872, Appendix:16; K. P. Mishra 1975:85).
In sum, despite an ostensibly stable population, pressure on farmland was demonstrably heightening. The measures taken to compensate for erosion and soil depletion aggravated the situation. Each of the three alternatives employed—reclamation, irrigation, and multiple cropping—was intensive, adding further stresses on finite resources.
Religious Activity and Environmental Pollution . The processes described above were principally rural and resulted from land use intensification. Their effects were to degrade a limited resource base. Such phenomena have been common to many societies and typical for much of agrarian north India.
Considerably less typical and far more controversial have been the alleged ecological consequences of religious activity in Banaras. As the principal focal point of Hindu pilgrimage and the leading center of Brahmin ritual observance, Banaras has drawn enormous numbers of visitors throughout the year and on special occasions. It is principally the Ganges that affords this distinction, and it is on its banks that most activity occurs.
Primarily as a result of the vast number of participants, the riparian environment has been affected. Crowding, sewage generation, and the influx of ill visitors have caused serious public health concern since the beginning of the colonial period. Other actions may have contributed in small ways to riverine pollution, but their effects have been consistently overstated. Throughout British rule, Hindu religious practices were termed responsible for the pollution of the river and the adjoining areas.
For centuries throngs of pilgrims have converged on Banaras. In addition to the daily arrival of Hindus seeking personal salvation, sea-
sonal fairs or eclipses drew occasional crowds of a hundred thousand or more. These congregants required food, drink, and other substantive needs, adding further pressure on overtaxed resources (Hamilton 1820:301; Nevill 1909a:66–67; 1909b:85; Oude and Rohilkund Railway 1875:1169; 1878:1057; K. P. Mishra 1975:67). Their contribution to local degradation has been notable, but environmental pollution due to their presence has been a lingering concern. This is particularly ironic given the religious function of Banaras: to purify and cleanse ritual pollution. Diana Eck notes the importance of running water in general, and of Ganges water in particular, in purification. But this notion, as she recognizes, is unrelated to microbial purity (Eck 1982:216–17).
To colonial observers, eager to introduce Western hygienic principles, Hindu practices appeared unclean. Perceiving a real threat to their own health and well-being, Europeans eagerly condemned certain ritual acts. With the advent of the germ theory, objections that had been merely moral were accorded scientific sanction. By the 1850s a burgeoning body of literature joined religious criticism with social outrage and fear (Calcutta Review 1848:404–36; 1851:156–230; 1864: 253–94).
Foreign observers repeatedly cited the infectious nature of practices they found deplorable. Of these, perhaps the most shocking to British sensibilities was the Hindu custom of cremating the deceased and casting the remains into the Ganges. In theory cremation itself was not objectionable. In practice, however, it was noted that scarcity of fuel often resulted in incomplete cremation. The consequences of partial consumption aroused an outpouring of righteous anger among British residents and administrators. They were appalled by "scorched trunks" thrown into the Ganges to float toward the sea "in a state of horrible decomposition, poisoning the water of narrow streams, or sickening the eye, whilst tumbled in the torrents of the Ganges" (Calcutta Review 1848:416; 1851:222). Additional concern was aroused by other aspects of cremation: decomposing corpses awaiting cremation, and burial of incompletely burned bones and dead animals.
On several occasions colonial officials attempted to intervene, citing public health considerations. In one such action in 1868 the Banaras Municipal Board asserted its right to close burning ghats or cemeteries deemed problematic. Within days, after reassessing the effective threat posed by the ghats and gauging popular feeling, the Magistrate repealed the proclamation (Bharat Jiwan [23 September] in SVN for 1912:898).
Disposal of human and animal bodies in the Ganges was another source of English consternation. Although these acts occurred, it is unlikely that their volume could have appreciably affected the quality of the water. Modern residents of Banaras, including the present Maharaja, insist that the above allegations are inaccurate and overstated (N. Kumar communication, March 1986).
But if the burning ghats were unlikely sources of pollution, other long-term human actions measurably affected the quality of the Ganges and its banks. The dumping of waste, sewage, and industrial effluent into the river; the bathing of persons and cattle; the washing of clothes and vessels; and emissions of noxious smoke represented real hazards. In addition, poor drainage allowed accumulation of stagnant waters in ponds (Bharat Jiwan [1 May] in SVN for 1893:191; Gopalkrishnan 1985:3–4). As early as 1864 the Calcutta Review noted that the "water is of deadly influence, and the vapour from which fills the air with fever-breeding and cholera-breeding miasma." The journal called for immediate steps to improve drainage in the vicinity of the ghats (Calcutta Review 1864:293).
Sensitized by the press, authorities and local residents feared the percolation of toxins and pollutants into the groundwater. In response, in 1886 concerned citizens formed a local pollution-prevention society, the Kashi Ganga Prasadini Sabha. The Sabha's primary objective was to eliminate river contamination, undertake a drainage scheme, and purify drinking water. Nevill reported that the project was completed in 1892. But in February 1893 the Bharat Jiwan of Banaras complained that drains had yet to be constructed and that wastewater continued to flow through city streets. And K. S. Muthiah, writing in 1911, confirmed the failure to implement its scheme (Nevill 1909a:262–63; Administration Report 1896–97: 167; Bharat Jiwan [6 February] in SVN for 1893:69; Muthiah 1911:164).
Perhaps the greatest immediate threat to public health was posed by the streams of crowds from throughout India, whose mere presence acted as a universal disseminator of infection. Since Banaras has been a magnet for persons wishing to die in the holy city, many visitors have been aged and generally in poor health. Accordingly, the city has been subjected to epidemics of cholera, typhus, and plague, and to chronic outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. The mortality rate from disease remained one of the province's highest through most of the century (Shola-i-Tur in SVN for 1871:704; Administration Report 1896–97: 6–7; Klein 1974:210).
One supposed factor contributing to epidemics was cited in an 1848 issue of the Calcutta Review . According to the author, sick and infirm individuals, "anxious for their rewards in the next life," were being en-
couraged to set up residence in crowded, damp, unsanitary huts by the river. The article decried this practice, which it termed "ghat murders." Certain that the custom hastened death, the author warned against the "unsalutary" effects of the vicinity (Calcutta Review 1848:404–36).
While similar issues surfaced in other cities, the status of Banaras as the country's leading pilgrimage center heightened British sensitivity to the polluting aspects of religious activity. Sentiments shared by Europeans elsewhere in India found clear expression in Banaras. Certainly, fears of contamination and deadly disease were not baseless. But many observers were unable to distinguish between the real dangers to public health resulting from unsanitary practices and assumed threats posed by certain ritual acts. The resulting mix of missionary righteousness and scientific theory directed unexpected attention to the environment, but the attendant rhetoric often obscured the nature of the problem.
Modern Agents of Change
The processes described in the preceding section resulted from ongoing practices, not from any sudden changes. Ninteenth-century improvements in transportation facilitated travel and thus increased pilgrimage to Banaras. The greater traffic placed additional stress on local resources and accelerated riverfront pollution. The modern transportation network and other newly established public works also had a more direct impact on regional environment. Roads and railways were superimposed on the rural landscape. First their construction, then their operation and maintenance, resulted in pronounced and usually permanent modifications of the terrain (Varady 1981, 1985a, 1985b).
Public Works Construction . From the 1830s to the end of the century northern India underwent a period of intense public-works construction. Cognizant of the benefits of improved communications, the ruling East India Company initiated a vigorous program for road improvement. Even earlier, in the first years of British administration, Collector Jonathan Duncan had authorized road improvements near the city. The first major project was a complete renovation of the old imperial highway connecting Bengal to the Punjab. Renamed the Grand Trunk Road, this throughfare was graded, then metaled (paved) with crushed limestone. Other provincial roads to Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Allahabad, Mirzapur, and Sasaram soon received similar attention. During the decade 1840–1850 alone the British constructed some fifty thousand kilometers of roads throughout their Indian territories (Abbott 1846:56–74; Sanyal 1930:3).
Even before the provincial road network was completed, the government turned its attention to railways. By the mid-1840s entrepreneurs
and administrators had discussed the idea in England, and soon they took the first steps to actuate their decisions. By 1854 the first train of the East Indian Railway Company (EIR) left Howrah to initiate the line that would parallel the Grand Trunk Road to Delhi and the Punjab.
For the next eight years the tracks crept toward Banaras. Construction continued northward through Bengal up to the Ganges, and then via Bhagalpur and Patna along the southern bank to Mughal Sarai, across the river from Banaras. After the completion in 1862 of the 860-kilometer route from Calcutta, construction continued on to Mirzapur, eventually to join the branch descending from Kanpur (East Indian Railways 1853–63; Bengal Past and Present 1908:55–61; Varady 1981:51).
Building roads and railway lines was both labor intensive and resource intensive. In each case, after rights of ways were secured the surface needed preparation. Gangs of thousands of beldar s[*] (laborers) from the nearby countryside were hired. Housed in meager shacks, underfed, and overworked, these laborers commonly were ill. Epidemics among road and rail gangs were frequent and destructive. There are records of camps of ten thousand losing up to a third of the workers to cholera and other diseases. Worse, the contagion often spread to nearby towns (Varady 1981:188–89; United Provinces Public Health Dept. 1903).
The work teams were employed to clear jungles of vegetation, excavate tree roots, flatten roadbeds, lay gravel or limestone, dig drainage ditches, construct embankments and berms, and bridge streams and nalla s. Additionally, railways required placement of creosoted sleepers (ties) every seventy-five centimeters (Bingham 1858:3–21; Muir 1858: 277–79).
The quantities of materials required were prodigious. To complete eighty kilometers of railway tracks in Banaras district, the contractor executed 1.2 million cubic meters of earthwork and 6,000 cubic meters of brickwork; in addition, 210,000 cubic meters of ballast were used. Limestone, gravel, and sand were obtained from neighboring floodplains and carted to the sites. The effects of such large-scale removal have not been studied, but elsewhere quarrying of stream beds has seriously affected flow and drainage patterns (Purser 1859:563; Davis 1985:1–5).
In the case of rail lines, vast amounts of timber were used for sleepers. Based on figures used by Tucker for the Rajputana Railway, tracks in Banaras district alone would have required a hundred thousand sleepers. Although some hardwood sal remained available in the region, stands were too depleted to furnish the railways's needs. Instead, the wood was imported, either from England or from the upper
Gangetic tracts northeast of Delhi, forested with deodar (Cedrus deodara ). The demand on Himalayan timber resources was thus considerable, especially since sleepers needed replacement every five years (Tucker 1983:160–61; East Indian Railways 1856:505; 1859a:531).
Although timber was not available in Banaras, local firewood and charcoal supplies were employed to make burnt-clay ballast and to bake the bricks used for bridges, stations, and culverts. In any case, as a Calcutta correspondent wrote to the Times in 1862, "the want of India is daily becoming more and more a want of wood." In the Banaras region, as in the rest of northern India, the railways clearly were agents of deforestation (East Indian Railways 1859a:531; 1862:555).
Road and Railway Operation and Maintenance . Devegetation and resource depletion were two important results of road and rail construction. Once in place, the networks continued to affect the surrounding environment. First, roads and railways, by their very presence, interrupted natural landscape. In the interest of efficiency and directness, they both sought linearity. Rather than skirting streams, it was cheaper to cross them. In nearby Son district the EIR alone constructed 240 bridges and culverts in 1860. Primary and secondary roadways also crossed rivers and streams whenever they were encountered. These interruptions interfered with drainage and flow patterns. Runoff characteristics, already altered by devegetation, were further disturbed. Instead of being stored in soils, water was lost to agriculture. Puddles and ponds were formed alongside thoroughfares, providing breeding habitats for disease vectors. Similarly, culverts silted up with lost topsoil. After heavy monsoon rains rushing waters created gullies and arroyos, further hastening soil erosion (East Indian Railways 1859b:1189–90; Colvin Gazette [15 April] in SVN for 1890:251; Hindostan [15 August] in SVN for 1902:527; Varady 1985b:2–3: Whitcombe 1972:12).
Partly from weather extremes, and partly from the relentless action of hoofed, wheeled, or rail traffic, surfaces needed constant repair and maintenance. Like the original construction, this activity required extensive labor and supplies. Metaled roads were paved smooth with ten centimeters of pounded limestone. Before long the road rutted and became impassable, demanding full resurfacing. Railbeds were similarly affected by rain, flooding, and heavy wear. Patrolling work crews added ballast and replaced broken and rotten sleepers. Upkeep of the nineteenth-century transportation network placed a continual drain on stone, sand, and timber resources.
Locomotives, moreover, required fuel. For much of the century engines burned wood, procured wherever it was sold, preferably in the vicinity of the route. So serious was the problem of supply that in the early 1860s, the Calcutta Review reported, "a great cry arose that
the Railway must soon stop for want of fuel." Though perhaps exaggerated, the concern was valid, as Indian railway operation consumed enormous amounts of firewood (50,000 kilograms per kilometer per year, according to one estimate). In some areas roots were burned as fuel. And by the mid-1860s some railway firms were calling for private fuel-wood plantations to meet growing demand. Only the advent of cheap coal enabled the EIR and other lines to continue operating (Calcutta Review 1867:262–327). | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35394000 |
The Bereghinya Planitia quadrangle (V-8) of Venus is bounded by 25º and 50º N. latitude, 0º and 30º E. longitude. It is one of 62 quadrangles covering the entire planet at a scale of 1:5,000,000. The quadrangle derives its name from the plains region Bereghinya Planitia, most of which falls within the boundaries of the quadrangle. Bereghinya are benevolent protective female spirits in East Slavic mythology. These spirits were considered as guardians of the home, and traditional homes commonly had carvings of Bereghinya around their windows. In addition, these spirits were associated with riverbanks, so some of them were envisioned as being women with fish tails, similar to mermaids.
The Bereghinya Planitia quadrangle comprises mostly plains materials that have been highly modified by younger structures, mostly related to coronae. The map area contains all or part of 22 named coronae, 4 named deformation belts, and 2 major lava channel systems having extensive associated volcanic flows. In addition, other valles, a deformation belt, and coronae occur within the quadrangle but are unnamed. The quadrangle hosts 24 impact craters and 6 bright splotches believed due to explosive destruction of bolides in the atmosphere. Many of the impact craters have associated dark halos or parabolas, and four are accompanied by fields of secondary craters. Also present is a complex array of faults, fractures, and wrinkle ridges.The quadrangle is geologically
The quadrangle is geologically interesting primarily because of the large population of coronae, many of which are connected to each other by belts of closely spaced, complex wrinkle ridges producing a spiderlike pattern in which the "bodies" are coronae and the "legs" are the connecting belts. These coronae were named "arachnoids" by members of the Soviet Venera team. The problems of more than local interest include the kinematics and dynamics of the arachnoids, the structural and volcanic evolution of the coronae, and the age of the widespread background plains relative to structures and other material units.
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- Manual Testing
- Test Management
- Test Automation
- Test Templates
- Testing Resources
Types of Testing - Page 3 Contd..
Adhoc testing is a commonly used term for software testing performed without planning and documentation.
The tests are intended to be run only once, unless a defect is discovered.
Exploratory testing is a method of manual testing that is described as simultaneous learning, design and execution.
Testing which covers all combination's of input values and preconditions for an element of the software under test.
A sanity test is a narrow regression test that focuses on one or a few areas of functionality. Sanity testing is usually narrow and deep. Testing few functions/parameters and checking all their main features.
In which one can perform testing on an overall application (all features) initially to check whether the application is proper in terms of availability and Usability.
Sanity testing is done by Test engineer.
In software industry, smoke testing is a wide and shallow approach whereby all areas of the application are tested, without getting into too deep.
Smoke testing originated in the hardware testing practice of turning on a new piece of hardware for the first time and considering it a success if it does not catch fire and smoke.
When a build is received, a smoke test is run to ascertain if the build is stable and it can be considered for further testing. Smoke testing is done by Developer or White box engineers.
Soak testing involves testing a system with a significant load extended over a significant period of time, to discover how the system behaves under sustained use.
For example, in software testing, a system may behave exactly as expected when tested for 1 hour. However, when it is tested for 3 hours, problems such as memory leaks cause the system to fail or behave randomly. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35396000 |
History professor Lauren Robin Derby has returned from the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where rural villages are feeling the trauma of the Jan. 12 earthquake. "None of the medical aid is getting to them," she says.
By Letisia Marquez for the UCLA Newsroom
THE DEVASTATING HAITIAN earthquake that has killed more than 150,000 people has impacted even the most remote areas of the Caribbean island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, according to Lauren Robin Derby, a UCLA history professor who recently returned from the border between the two countries.
Even the smallest rural clinics in the Dominican Republic are treating dozens of Haitian earthquake victims, often without the equipment and medications necessary to treat such serious injuries as broken limbs, she said.
"None of the medical aid is getting to them," said Derby, who spoke this week to a UCLA Latin American studies class about her recent trip to the border area. "I interviewed one man, Carlos Jeune, who pleaded with me to get him out of one of the clinics so he could receive the surgery he needed."
Jeune had a crushed leg.
"They don't have morphine or trauma specialists or any of the medical personnel and medications that we take for granted in the U.S.," she said. "These are small rural clinics that are set up to treat diarrhea and provide maternal care, but they are not prepared for the injuries that are coming out of Haiti."
One makeshift hospital in the Dominican border city of Jimani was performing 60 amputations daily last week, Derby said.
For the past year and a half, Derby has traveled to Bánica in the Dominican Republic, a rural town of 8,000 people, to conduct research on shape-shifter legends, which involve human beings who transform into animals. When she returned last week to continue her research, she didn't expect to find that the earthquake had affected the mountainous area, which is more than five hours from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
"I was really struck by how everyone had lost someone in this tragedy — and even in an area that is so isolated from Port-au-Prince," she said.
Many of the Haitians Derby interviewed in several small hospitals were educated, middle-class refugees who had lost family members, homes and livelihoods and were worried about how they would rebuild their lives.
One Haitian college student she interviewed was just a semester shy of completing his agronomy degree; he was at a Dominican hospital seeking treatment for his uncle, a psychology professor at the Ecole Normal Superior in Port-au-Prince who was giving a lecture when the building collapsed in the earthquake.
"Middle-class families in Port-au-Prince were widely affected because they lived in multistory buildings that were made out of concrete prepared with dirt instead of sand, and they just buckled," Derby said. "I just worry about how these families will rebuild their lives when there is nothing left for them to go back to."
Immediately after the earthquake, the Dominican government sent vehicles to Port-au-Prince to transport victims to various Dominican hospitals; some Haitians also made their own way to the border to stay with relatives.
The spirit of cooperation between the two countries is a bright spot in Dominican–Haitian relations, Derby said. When the Dominican economy crashed in 2003, many Dominicans blamed an estimated 1 million Haitian immigrants for their economic woes; Haitians were beaten and, in some cases, killed.
But Dominican hospitals and families have opened their doors to Haitian earthquake victims, she said, and solidarity organizations have raised hundreds of thousands of pesos for relief supplies.
"Right now, the Dominican government is being amazingly good about allowing Haitians into the country," Derby said.
Still, she worries that the Dominicans, like Americans, might forget about the plight of Haitian earthquake survivors several months from now.
Students have asked Derby what they can do now for Haiti and she's suggested they wait until the critical emergency has passed and reconstruction has commenced.
"It's going to take years to rebuild," she said. "There will be plenty of opportunities to help Haitian refugees, particularly orphaned children and amputees."
There will be a need to help rebuild schools and the university, which were razed in the earthquake, and to provide educational materials and training until institutions are functional again, Derby said.
"Education is a priority, especially since the country has lost much of its most educated citizenry and there will be a huge brain drain resulting from the capital's devastation," she added.
Published: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
© 2013. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35406000 |
Name Variations Edit
About Pineapple Edit
Wikipedia Article About Pineapple on Wikipedia
The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant and its fruit, native to Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The plant is a bromeliad (family Bromeliaceae), a short, herbaceous perennial with 30 or more trough-shaped and pointed leaves 30–100 cm long, surrounding a thick stem. The leaves of the Smooth Cayenne cultivar mostly lack spines except at the leaf tip, but the Spanish and Queen cultivars have large spines along the leaf margins. The fruit was named "pineapple" because of its resemblance to a pine cone. The native Tupi word for the fruit was anana, meaning "excellent fruit". This word became the source of the word ananas, which is the word for pineapple in many languages. Its natural pollinators are Hummingbirds.
The word "Pineapple," is derived from the word pina, which was used to describe a pine cone by the Spanish. Later, it was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands which are now the leading producers of this fruit. Today, in the United States the pineapple can be marketed as fresh or canned and it is most widely used as tropical canned fruit in recipes. (Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, 1992)
There are four types of pineapples mainly found in the marketplace. These include the Gold, smooth Cayenne, Red Spanish and Sugar Loaf. They are sold fresh and canned and all have a sweet flavor. The Gold variety features an extra sweet flavor, golden color, and higher vitamin C content.
Select pineapples with a nice fragrant smell. If possible choose pineapples that have been jet shipped from Hawaii or Central America because they will be the freshest. Avoid those pineapples with sour or fermented odors. It is really ripe if you can easily pull one of the leaves out of the top.
Store at room temperature for 1 or 2 days before serving to allow the pineapple to become softer and sweeter. Store in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days or cut pineapple into chunks and store for up to 7 days. Cut up pineapple also freezes well.
- Fruit & Vegetable of the Month: Pineapple by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, public domain government resource—original source of recipe | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35410000 |
The term parasitic battery draw refers to the electrical devices that continue to draw
current from the battery when the ignition key is in the OFF position. As a rule of thumb
normal parasitic draws are below 50 milliamps, however it is always best to refer to the
original vehicle manufacturers specifications for recommended limits. Before a parasitic
draw test can be performed the batteries state of charge must be greater than 75%.
Before testing a battery it is very important to follow some simple safety rules.
Always wear eye protection and keep open flames away from the battery. If using a
battery charger, always confirm that the charger is off before connecting or
disconnecting the charger. Batteries produce hydrogen gas which is extremely
flammable; do not smoke while servicing a battery. Batteries should only be charged
in well ventilated areas. The electrolyte in the battery contains sulfuric acid, latex
gloves are highly recommended.
Testing For Parasitic Draw
To perform the parasitic draw test you will need a digital amp meter capable of
reading milliamps and a minimum of 10 amps. Be certain that your meter has a fuse
intended to protect the meter for the rare occurrence of an abnormally high amp
1. Insure that all accessories are off and the ignition switch is in the OFF position.
2. Remove the negative battery cable from the battery.
3. Set amp meter switch to the highest rating (10 amps or higher).
4. Connect amp meter as illustrated in figure 1.
5. The reading may start as high as 6 amps, this is normal. When the battery cable was
disconnected the vehicles electronics lost power, these devices will draw a higher
current when they are reconnected. The current will drop as the numerous electronic
devises “awaken”. On some late model vehicles this may take 20 minutes or longer.
6. As the reading decreases and stabilizes adjust the amp meter down to read in the
milliamp range. This reading will be the vehic les parasitic draw.
High Parasitic Reading
Should you determine that the parasitic draw exceeds the vehicles limit it will be
necessary to determine the circuit that is creating the draw. This is best accomplished
by using the process of elimination. Check lamp circuits (glove box, courtesy, trunk etc.)
for bulbs that are illuminated when they should be off. To check the trunk lamp it may
be necessary to get in the trunk. Make certain that you have a helper. And more
importantly make certain that your helper is your friend!
If a visual inspection fails, isolate circuits by removing fuses one at a time while noting
amp reading. Once you have identified the circuit, refer to the service manual or wiring
diagram to determine which devises are on the circuit. Disconnect the devices to
determine which is faulty. It may also be necessary to disconnect relays or non fused
circuits. It is simply a process of elimination at this point. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35411000 |
Transgenderism, transsexualism, & gender identity
Studies of employment discrimination
against transgender persons
In 2009, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund prepared a document titled: "Passing the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act: A toolkit."
The Task Force has
formed a coalition with many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups
in order to promote the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (2009). The groups
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, National Center for Transgender
Equality (NCTE), Pride at Work, the National Center for Lesbian Rights
(NCLR), Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and a
number of other colleague organizations. 1
The toolkit contains the following data from
studies of employment discrimination against -- and financial hardship of -- transgender persons.
Statistics on Employment Discrimination Against Transgender
Discrimination against transgender people is widespread:
|Nationally: A study conducted between 1996 and 1997 found that 37 percent
transgender individuals surveyed had experienced employment discrimination.
||Illinois: A study conducted between 1995 and 2001 found that 37-42 percent of gender-variant individuals surveyed experienced some type of|
employment discrimination. 3
|San Francisco, CA: A 2006 survey of 194 members of the San Francisco
transgender community found:
||40 percent of respondents believed they were discriminated against when applying for work.|
||Over 24 percent of people reported that they were sexually harassed at work.|
||19 percent experienced trouble in advancing in their company or department.|
|18 percent were fired from a job due to gender identity
||Virginia: A study conducted between 2005 and 2006 reported that 20 percent of transgender individuals were denied employment and 13 percent
based on their gender identity. 5|
||Washington state: A study conducted between 2006 and 2007 found that 41.5 percent of transgender people surveyed had been denied employment,
or otherwise discriminated against on the job because of their gender
and/or expression. 6|
Economic hardship of many Transgender
Employment discrimination contributes to low incomes for
||Minnesota: A study conducted between 1997 and 2002 found that 22 percent of transgender people live below the poverty line.
||San Francisco, CA: A study conducted in 2006 of 194 transgender
individuals found a 35 percent unemployment rate, with 59 percent earning less than
$15,300 annually. 8|
||Philadelphia, PA: A study conducted in 1997 found that of 81 transgender people, 59 percent were unemployed and 56 percent made less than $15,000 annually. 9|
||Chicago, IL: A study conducted between 2000 and 2001 found that of 111 transgender individuals, 34 percent were unemployed and an additional 40|
percent made less than $20,000 annually, with a median income of just
year -- less than half the national median income.
||Los Angeles, CA: A 1998?1999 study of transgender women found that 50 percent reported incomes of less than $12,000 per year, and 23 percent
on government assistance. 11|
|Washington, D.C.: In 1999, only 58 percent of transgender respondents
were employed, 29 percent reported no annual source of income, 31 percent|
reported that their annual income was under $10,000, and 15 percent reported
that they lost a job due to employment discrimination.
||Virginia: A 2005?2006 study of 250 transgender people found between
percent were unemployed and 39 percent made $17,000 or less annually. 13|
||Washington state: A 2006-2007 study of 258 transgender people found that 39 percent of those surveyed made less that $20,000 annually.
- "Passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act: A toolkit," National Gay and
Lesbian Task force Action Fund, 2009, at:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/ This is a PDF file.
- Lombardi, E.L., Wilkins, R.A., Priesing, D, Malouf, D. (2001). Gender
Violence: Trans-gender Experiences with Violence and Discrimination. Journal of Homosexuality.
- Plotner, B., Stevens-Miller, M., Wood-Sievers, T. (Spring 2002).
Discrimination 2002: 6th Report on Discrimination and Hate Crimes Against Gender Variant People. Chicago: It's Time Illinois!.
- (2006). Good Jobs NOW! A Snap Shot of the Economic Health of San Francisco?s Transgender Communities. A survey from: San Francisco Bay and
Guardian and Transgender Law Center.
- Xavier, J.M., Hannold, J.A., Bradford, J., Simmons, R. (2007). The
Health-related Needs, and Lifecourse Experiences of Transgender Virginians. Richmond: Division of Disease Prevention through the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Virginia Department of Health.
- (2008). Perspectives Northwest Survey Report: Transgender and Gender
Variant Community Needs Assessment Survey. Ingersoll Gender Center.
- Bockting, W., Huang, c., Ding, H., Robinson, B., Rosser, S. (2005). Are Transgender Persons at Higher Risk for HIV Than Other Sexual Minorities? A
Comparison of HIV Prevalence and Risks. International Journal of Transgenderism
- Op. Cit.: (2006) Good Jobs NOW!
- Kenagy, G.P. (2005). The Health and Social Service Needs of
Transgender People in Philadelphia. International Journal of Transgenderism.
- Kenagy, G. P., Bostwick, W.B. (2005) . Health and Social Service Needs
Trans-gender People in Chicago. International Journal of Transgenderism.
- Op. Cit.: Reback, C.J. [sic]
- Xavier, J.M. (2000). The Washington, DC. Transgender Needs Assessment Survey Final Report for Phase Two. Washington, DC: Administration for
of the District of Columbia. at:
(accessed April 2007).
- Ibid: Xavier, J.M., Hannold, J.A.
- Op. Cit. (2008) Perspectives.
The toolkit is copyright © 2009 by The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force Action Fund. The Fund "... encourages, and grants
permission to, reproduce and distribute their guide
1 in whole or in part, provided that
it is done so with attribution."
Originally posted: 2009-AUG-08
Latest update: 2009-AUG-22 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35417000 |
Notes on collections and events at the RIHS
War brings a new perspective to most things, including maps. The surveying for this map of the Narragansett Bay was originally undertaken in the 1760s by Charles Blaskowitz. At that time, the British government was contemplating the placement of a naval yard in Newport.* With the onset of war in the following decade, the map came to serve other purposes. Here are a few interesting details:
The map’s text includes a description of the colony of Rhode Island at the time as viewed by a British functionary (a transcription and more discussion of the map are available at the Gaspee Virtual Archives):
Idyllic descriptions of New World fecundity (“Fish of all kinds are in the greatest plenty and perfection. The horses are boney and strong, the Meat Cattle and Sheep are much the largest in America, the Butter and Cheese excellent, and every necessary of Life in Attendance”) are balanced against cultural condescension (“It has a Town House, Market House, Library and a spacious Parade, but there is few private Buildings in it worth notice”). The colony’s notable religious tolerance is also pointed out.
The map also includes details of military importance:
Not exactly Here Be Dragons, but similar in its way. The map also lists gun batteries (with the number of guns and size of cannon balls—18 or 24 pounds—they fired), principal farms and farm owners in the colony and soundings throughout the Bay. (Someone with the time might compare the soundings in 1764 with more recent numbers.)
A copy of the map in the David Rumsey Collection is, like this one, divided into 16 sections and mounted. The Rumsey copy includes images of the slipcase in which the sections were originally housed. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35426000 |
We highly recommend this series of five videos, The Seventh Day: Revelations from the Lost Pages of History, by Frank Holbrook, now available on the web. (Click on the image.) Each video is just over 50 minutes long, just as in the original video series still available at TheSeventhDay website. Please visit the site for extra resources, including an overview of each video, a History Timeline and complete transcripts of each episode.
There’s a reason for “the lost pages of history” in the title. This is history as you’ve not likely read or heard it before in school or through the media. However, Hal Holbrook takes viewers back across the centuries to trace the history of the Sabbath through the evidence of ancient records as found in the archives and libraries throughout the world.
Fifty historians and theologians from around the world provide a careful exposé of the epic battle over the biblical Sabbath. We see how faithful Christians throughout the long centuries of the inquisition and other repression engaged in a heroic struggle for religious liberty. You will be guided through the evidence from the cool green hills of St. Patrick’s Ireland to the steaming South American jungle, from the massacre of a thousand Jews in the Palestinian desert to the bloody Taiping Revolution in 19th-century China, and from the divisive heresies of the early Christian era to the fiery executions of “heretics” in Red Square.
“I will die today because I have observed the seventh day of the week as the holy Sabbath of God.” So wrote Ivan Kuritsin before he was burned to death in the Red Square of Moscow more than 500 years ago. The Council accused him of honoring the seventh day, the Sabbath, more than the first day, Sunday.
Is it possible that this same seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath for which so many faithful Christians gave their lives now coincides with Sunday in the South Pacific island nations of Tonga, Wallis, Futuna, Kiribati, Samoa and Tokelau? Where is the sign of distinction (Ezekiel 20:20) for those who claim that the seventh day now conveniently falls on Sunday so that that they can worship on the same day as their neighbors who celebrate the resurrection on the first day of the week?
The ages-long controversy over the biblical day of worship—the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments—continues today in some of the most unlikely places, such as the South Pacific islands. Will the controversy gain more prominence in the rest of the world as well? Time will tell.
We welcome your comments after you have watched one or more of the videos. You can also watch the series at SabbathTruth.com in MP4 format. Let us know which works best for you. (Tell us where you are and how you are accessing the videos.) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35439000 |
Vernon Smith, 240-638-6447
NOAA, Partners, Meet to Explore Climate Change
and Coastal Tribes
How climate change affects U.S. indigenous coastal cultures is the focus of the First Stewards symposium starting today at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The coastal treaty tribes of Washington state - the Hoh, Makah, Quileute tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation - are hosting the event and collaborating with NOAA and other partners.
Native leaders, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders, will join climate scientists, policy-makers, and representatives of non-government organizations to discuss ways indigenous peoples and cultures may be able to increase their ability to adapt to predicted climate change. Participants also will discuss how to include indigenous traditional knowledge in U.S. climate change science, education, and governance.
"Coastal indigenous people have thousands of years of rich, place-based knowledge of climate change and its effects on humans, and how to adjust to these changes," said Daniel J. Basta, director, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. "Their experience is extremely valuable today and can help all of us as the world looks for ways to adapt."
The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries manages a national system of marine protected areas where local indigenous communities participate in management of marine resources.
"We need everyone engaged in working on adaptations, mitigation, strategies, and solutions to climate change," said Micah McCarty, chairman of the Makah and of the First Stewards organizing committee. "Even the polar bears and people of the Arctic Circle cannot escape the second-hand smoke of the vehicle tailpipe and the smokestack that leave such a large carbon footprint."
"Coastal Indian people are already dealing with the effects of climate change," said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. "The glaciers that feed our life-giving rivers are melting. Reservations are flooding more often, forcing some tribes to have to move their homes to higher ground. Tribes are the natural choice to lead the nation in the response to climate change."
The symposium, which runs from July 17 through the 20th, is being held in partnership with scientific, tribal, governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, The Nature Conservancy, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.
Other partners include Salmon Defense, National Congress of American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, Uncas Consulting Services, and EA Engineering, Science, and Technology.
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.
On the Web:
NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35445000 |
Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer
Launch Date: November 20, 1996
Mission Project Home Page - http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1996-065B
The ORFEUS-SPAS II mission followed the ORFEUS-SPAS I mission flown in 1993, motivated by improvements in instrument performance and the critical need for additional observation time. The purpose of the ORFEUS-SPAS II mission was to conduct investigations of celestial sources in the far and extreme ultraviolet spectral range, and to increase understanding of the evolution of stars, the structure of galaxies, and the nature of the interstellar medium. ORFEUS-SPAS II was one of a series of planned joint DARA (German Space Agency) /NASA missions. The name arises from the reusable Astro-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (Astro-SPAS), and the Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometers (ORFEUS) Telescope carried on Astro-SPAS.
ORFEUS-SPAS was a free-flying platform designed to be deployed and retrieved from the space shuttle. The Astro-SPAS carrier was powered by batteries, and data from the instruments were stored on tape. Absolute pointing was accurate to within a few arc seconds. ORFEUS-SPAS is 4.5m in length and has a 2.5m width base. Operation of ORFEUS-SPAS was approximately 40km from the shuttle.
ORFEUS-SPAS II carried the same three spectrometers, operating over the wavelength range 400 - 1250 Angstroms, as was carried on ORFEUS-SPAS I. The Tubingen Ultraviolet Echelle Spectrometer (TUES) and the Berkeley Extreme and Far-UV Spectrometer (BEFS) were housed on the primary instrument - the ORFEUS 1-m telescope. The Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph (IMAPS) was operated independently from ORFEUS.
The ORFEUS-SPAS II mission was flown in November-December 1996. The mission acquired spectra of numerous celestial objects during 14 days of observations. Efficiency of 62.5% for all instruments was achieved.
Last updated: April 16, 2012
- STS-80 info - http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-80/mission-sts-80.html | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35453000 |
Some of our favourite and most useful garden plants are grown from tubers.
If a tuber produces several growing points, then it can be divided for propagation. Just cut through the tuber, ensuring each piece has an eye, or growing shoot. This method works well with dahlias. The only danger is that the cut surface may rot and destroy the plant. To reduce this risk, either allow the cut section to dry before planting or seal it with fine sand or ash, possibly adding a fungicidal powder too. If several tubers are formed in a season, these may be separated and used to grow new plants. In both cases the new plant will be identical to the parent.
Another propagation method is to start the tuber into growth on a windowsill or under glass. Once new shoots appear, they can be used as cuttings. This is a good way to increase your stock of begonias.
Tubers bought whilst dormant will usually grow easily, the main exception to this is cyclamen. They will often die during storage or take a long time to recover and become established. For this reason, the more expensive growing plants will often prove better value than stored corms even though the initial cost seems lower.
Many popular garden tubers are tender plants and are lifted each year, however if planted deeply in a well drained spot, they often do survive winters outside.
A tuber is a food storage organ which allows the plant to survive from one year to another (much like a bulb or corm). The tuber is actually a swollen root or stem base. Buds or eyes form on the upper surface of the tuber and become the growing shoots. This can easily be seen on a potato which has been stored too long, particularly if it’s been kept in a warm and light place.
With some tubers, such as the potato, the tuber will die away during the growing season, to be replaced with another – or sometimes several new tubers. In others, such as cyclamen, the tuber just grows larger each year. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35455000 |
Genome-sequencing data indicates that sponges were preceded by ctenophores, complex marine predators also called comb jellies.
The scientists presented their findings at the annual meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, in San Francisco, California.
Although they are gelatinous like jellyfish, comb jellies form their own phylum (ctenophores.) The tree of life roots the comb jellies’ lineage between the group containing jellyfish and sea anemones and the one containing animals with heads and rears, which includes slugs, flies, and humans. Ctenophores swim through the sea with iridescent cilia, and snare prey with sticky tentacles. They have nerves, muscles, tissue layers and light sensors, all of which sponges lack.
Developmental biologists from the University of Washington in Seattle sequenced the genome of the comb jelly Pleurobrachia bachei and they discovered that DNA sequences place them at the base of the animal tree of life. Another team presented results from the genome sequencing of the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi and found that the phylum lands below or as close to the base as sponges on the tree of life.
It’s been thought that predator-prey interactions as well as sensory adaptations evolved long after the origin of sponges, states Billie Swalla, part of the University Washington team. The ancestor of all animals might look different from modern comb jellies and sponges.
Gene families, cell-signaling networks, and patterns of gene expression in comb jellies support the ancient origin. Ctenophores grow their nerves with unique sets of genes. It’s possible that they are descendants of Ediacaran organisms, which appeared in the fossil record before animals.
Comb jellies are the only animals that lack certain genes crucial to producing microRNA, states Andy Baxevanis, a comparative biologist at the US National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and leader of the M. leidyi project. These short RNA chains help regulate gene expression. Sponges and comb jellies lack other gene families that all other animals possess.
If ctenophores evolved before sponges, the sponges probably lost some of their ancestors’ complexity. It’s also possible that sponges have a complexity that has yet to be defined. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35456000 |
At Oracle OpenWorld 2007, Oracle announced new virtualization software, causing a firestorm of interest and a decline in competitor vmware's stock. Oracle VM, which can be downloaded free, is based on the Xen open-source hypervisor product. With
It's back to the future for the Oracle database world. The inefficient one server/one database approach of 1990s client-server technology is long gone and Oracle shops are now re-consolidating their data resources, moving back to the mainframe-like centralization of the 1980s. While Oracle touts VM as a latest-and-greatest solution, we need to remember that server virtualization has been around for decades.
Virtualization is simply the partitioning of a server in order to host multiple OS environments. Whether it's running virtual Windows on your Macintosh laptop or partitioning a 128 CPU mainframe, IT managers are leveraging virtualization solutions to consolidate multiple OS environments. At a high level, virtualization is the process of segregating server resources in a homogeneous environment, but it's most commonly used to host different operating systems within a single monolithic server -- and this is a step toward OS independence.
A brief history of Oracle virtualization
Oracle rose to dominate the database market primarily because of its ability to run on more than 60 platforms, everything from a mainframe to a Macintosh. However, Oracle soon faced the challenge of running multiple OS environments within the same server. In early 2005, Oracle announced that their version of VMWare would come pre-loaded with both Linux and Oracle, making it easier than ever to run Linux on a MS Windows server. Oracle then embraced the idea of server consolidation via the 11g Grid Initiative. At Openworld 2007, Oracle claimed that 99% of their customers run multiple instances within a single host machine and so began pushing the new VM product.
Although VM is free for download, support will cost $499/year for 1 or 2 CPU systems and $999/year for others. Thus far, VM is limited to Intel platforms, and will support only Linux and Windows servers. Oracle VM also offers a GUI management console (HTML-based) to allow easy management of both the overall OS and the virtual machines running under the master OS. Oracle is incorporating virtualization along several areas:
- SOA - Oracle plans to incorporate Oracle VM into their Fusion stack, allowing a method for unifying diverse applications onto a single server using SOAP. Oracle President Charles Phillips notes that Oracle VM will help SAP shops migrate from their foreign ERP's to Oracle Applications. "We want to help customers integrate their software with third-party applications made in Germany," he said at OpenWorld.
- Consolidating heterogeneous environments - Oracle VM is useful for shops that wish to consolidate different applications onto a single hardware platform. A common example is running Windows side-by-side with UNIX (HP/UX, Solaris, AIX, Linux) on a large monolithic server. For example, instead of buying six 2 CPU servers, you can buy one 4 CPU 64-bit server with 16 GB RAM, and save a bundle of cash. For details, see my notes on the trend towards Oracle server consolidation.
- Oracle OLAP consolidation - Mark Rittman notes the benefits of running Oracle 10g R2 with virtualization with the Oracle Business Intelligence Suite (OLAP).
- Oracle application server - Oracle Application Server can be run with Oracle on a single server using VM. John Garmany has some good notes on Oracle App Server and virtualization.
- Students - Using virtualization is popular among people who want to learn RAC on a personal computer, whereby VM can allow a single server to mimic several RAC nodes.
The second age of mainframe computing
The early 21st century is seeing the second age of mainframe computing, a change away from the minicomputer hardware architectures of past decades. Instead of small, independent servers, the major hardware vendors are pushing large servers with transparent sharing of hardware resources, coining the term "partitionable servers."
But how does Oracle VM fit into these existing virtualization techniques? There are some shortcomings of Oracle VM:
- Unshared resources - Server resources cannot be easily shared, and it counteracts the goal of server consolidation to leverage on a massive shared computing resource.
- Measurable overhead - We must remember that Oracle VM imposes some overhead, and a savvy DBA will always perform a workload benchmark using other alternatives (containers, para-virtualization) before choosing virtualization.
- Bad for the DBA job market - Server consolidation is bad for the DBA job market because one of the main reasons for consolidating hardware resources is the savings from reducing DBA staff. A typical shop can save a million dollars a year by removing a dozen DBAs. The one-server/one-application paradigm has proven too expensive, so many enterprises are now moving back to the centralized architectures of old.
In sum, Oracle VM fits nicely into the strategic plans for server consolidation but the savvy Oracle professional must recognize that virtualization has both benefits and limitations. It remains to be seen whether VM will become a permanent part of the data center, of if it will be only used as a stopgap tool for shops that want to run Windows in a Linux environment.
About the author
Donald K. Burleson has been a database administrator since the 1980s and manages the USA's
largest remote DBA support service. He is also a popular
author and serves as series editor for Rampant TechPress, a leading provider of Oracle technical books.
This was first published in December 2007 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35461000 |
It must be noted that a file does not have an inherent "content-type" per se. A file is a bunch of bytes, and has a name. When you download a file from a Web server, the server infers a content-type (such as "application/pdf") from whatever clues it can find, mostly the so-called "extension" (the few letters at the end of the file name; e.g. "
.pdf" is assumed to indicate a PDF file), and sometimes the file contents themselves: for instance, when a Web server distributes an HTML file, it also looks within the file header for a "meta" tag which would override the default choice for Content-type, like this:
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
So you have two operations on your server: upload, and download. Upload is mostly safe: the file comes, and is stored. Download can be a worry: when an administrator will download a file, he will do so by clicking on some link within a Web browser, and the Web server will infer a content-type, as described above. The Web browser will then use the content-type to decide what to do with the downloaded file, and this might not necessarily be "suggest to the user to save it somewhere". For instance, if someone uploads a
So you should filter the content-types under which you will serve the files when downloaded; and mind the file name, too, because even if the file is just saved on the administrator system, it may still be a
.exe file which the administrator will execute when clicking on it.
Moreover, allowing any kind of file to appear on your server may be an indirect tool to leverage an attack. There are some security holes in which the attacker can somehow force the execution of an arbitrary file on the server; an unfiltered upload mechanism allows the attacker to first push exactly the kind of executable file he would like to see executed on the server. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35464000 |
What You Can Do About Elder Abuse
Alaina Williams | Jul 3, 2012, 2:48 p.m.
In a recent study cited by the Agency on Aging, approximately 11 percent of US seniors surveyed had experienced some type of abuse or potential neglect during the previous year. Additionally, writes the National Center for Victims of Crime, older adults suffer greater physical, psychological, and financial loss when victimized compared with younger victims. For example, a study done by the MetLife Mature Market Institute found that older Americans lose an estimated minimum of $2.9 billion annually due to elder abuse. However, it is suspected that the abuse is underreported. The National Center on Elder Abuse at American Public Human Services Association suggests that elder abuse is both under-identified and under-reported- it is possible that as few as 1 in 14 cases of elder abuse are reported.
What is Elder Abuse?
Elder Abuse refers to intentional or neglectful acts by caregiver or trusted individual that leads to, or may lead to, harm of a vulnerable elder, explains the National Center on Elder Abuse. Some types of elder abuse can be categorized as physical (use of force to threaten or physically injure), emotional (verbal attacks, threats, rejection, isolation, or other acts that cause mental anguish or distress), sexual abuse (coerced sexual contact), exploitation (theft, fraud, misuse of authority), neglect (failure or refusal to provide for safety, physical, or emotional needs), and abandonment (deserting an older adult in need of care).
When an older adult is being abused in one of these ways, they may exhibit certain markers. Physical and sexual abuse cause more apparent indicators: unexplained sexually transmitted diseases, slap marks, unexplained welts, bruises, cuts, or burns. Emotional or abuse by neglect, as well as financial exploitation, have indicators as well.
Those suffering emotional abuse may exhibit unusual changes in behavior, like withdrawal from normal activities or decreased alertness. When neglected, a person may lack basic hygiene, sufficient food, or clean and appropriate clothing. They may also have been denied medical aids such as glasses, teeth, or a walker by their caregiver.
Financial exploitation may be indicated by altered wills and trusts, unusual bank withdrawals, loss of property, or any sudden change in finances. This type of abuse may mean a caregiver with primary control over a senior’s finances deny them amenities they can easily afford, or when an older adult has been made to sign legal documents they are unable to understand. Financial abuse results when a person is somehow coerced into giving up decision-making in regards to their own money and estate.
How to Get Support
If you or someone you know is a victim of elder abuse, it is important to remember that there are resources that exist to offer you support. Visit the Illinois State Department on Aging site at www.state.il.us/aging to learn more about your rights, and the Elder Abuse Protection Act. Since abuse may cause both physical and emotional wounds, seek emotional supports as well. Speaking about your experience with friends or family, for example, may be helpful, or joining a local support group. You can call the Eldercare Location (800-677-1116) to learn about local programs and services, including support and legal assistance. You can also contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-7233) to be connected to social services, support resources, and legal advocacy programs. And, although it may be scary, reporting is the best way to notify the proper authorities and end the abuse. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35486000 |
Theme: David the songwriter.
Scripture: 2 Samuel 22
Main Point: Sing! Our God is worthy of praise!
Supplies: Bible, play dough, blank paper, pencils/crayons, visuals from the song and a recording or video of a storm for them to listen to (see Auditory/Visual Center below), cd player, red streamers, bolts of lightning made from poster board, any other props for role play. You will also need at least three teachers who are comfortable leading the three centers.
Teachers: Take this lesson, study it, and make it your own. Allow the truths of the Scripture to sink into your own heart. Know what you are saying and say it with confidence. Passion and voice inflection are essential with preschoolers. Repeat the main point over and over again.
Coloring Sheet (10 minutes)
Have the coloring sheets ready when the children first enter the classroom from the assembly. Ask the following questions while the children are coloring:
- What are the children in the picture doing? Playing the drums, raising hands, and singing.
- Do you like to sing? What do you like to sing about?
- Why do we sing to God? Because He is worthy of praise.
Story Circle (15 minutes)
Main Point: Sing! Our God is worthy of praise!
Repeat this over and over again. Get the kids to say it with you every time you see it written in bold. This should be the one thing that the kids remember from the day.
I. Hook – Introduce the lesson. This is short and simple since there will be so much going on in the Book section.
II. Book – Read the passage. Divide the children into groups to experience the story in the three sensory centers. Time permitting, you can allow the children to switch centers, but it may best for them to choose what they would like to do the best.
III. Look – God is our ultimate rescuer through Christ. He is worthy of all of our praise!
**Please Note: The day before, organize your room into three centers, as described below.
- Option One: Have the children make with play-doh what they hear as you read David’s song to them. Have several examples ready for them (e.g., David stuck in the waves of death, a fortress that represents our God, clouds, lightning, the rescue from the deep water, arrows, lamp, shield, or even a battle scene where God rescues David from his enemies, the giants). Read the verses over again to the children and let them use their creativity.
- Option Two: Let the children draw what they hear as you read the song to them with pencils or crayons.
- Act out the descriptions in the song (verses 5-18 would work best for this. Several children can play the part of David, who is in deep distress and needs to be rescued. Others can act out the part of our Rescuer. Have props available like red streamers for fire and bolts of lightning made from poster board.
- Listen to the sounds of a storm. Play a recording of a storm or show a video of a storm or hurricane. Have a rain stick for children to play with.
- Look at pictures of visuals from the song: fortresses and mountains (vv. 3-4), oceans/hurricane (vv. 5-7, 16-20), earthquake and burning coals (vv. 8-9), storms (10-15), lamp and shield (vv. 29-31)
- As children are looking at the visuals, describe them by reading the verses from the song. Discuss how amazing and great our God is, how helpless we would be in the midst of a hurricane, and how awesome it would to see our God coming down to rescue us like David describes.
Hook (Grab Their Attention!)
Have music playing softly in the background.
ASK: Who have we been learning about this week? (David!) David was a shepherd, a soldier, a warrior, and a king. David was also human and sinned like you and me. But did you know that he was also a song writer? David wrote many of the Psalms found in the middle of our Bible (show them). But today we are going to learn about a certain song he wrote after God saved him from his enemies! This is a special and beautiful song that praises our God.
The main point for today is Sing! Our God is worthy of praise! Repeat this until all the kids are able to say it together.)
Book (This is Where You School Them!)
SAY: Today’s lesson is found in 2 Samuel, chapter 22 (show them in your Bible). David had been in a great war with the Philistines, with giants from Gath like the champion Goliath. He had grown weary!
On the day when the Lord saved him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, David spoke to the Lord the words of a beautiful song. This song is all about our great God! In this song, we see how great and mighty He is! Listen closely because you will need to know all about this song in order to do our fun activities! You know that means? You need to turn up your ears and turn down your mouths so you won’t miss a thing! (Demonstrate.)
3 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. 4 I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 5 For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; 6 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 7 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. 8 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry. 9 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. 10 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. 15 And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them. 17 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. 18 He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 29 For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. 30 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. 31 This God— his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. 50 “For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. 51 Great salvation he brings to his king,and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”
SAY: We have three centers that will help you learn more about who God is in this song. In one center, you can make or draw things from the song about David and God. In the second center, you can act out the neat things God does in the song as He rescues David. In the last center, you will have something special to listen to and pictures to look at from the song!
DO: Divide the children into three groups. Encourage them to pick which center they are most likely to enjoy. If time permits, you can allow them to switch centers.
Look (Look At Your Heart. What Should You Do?)
DO: Gather the children you once more, in one group.
ASK: Why did David write this song? (To praise God after He rescued Him.)
SAY: David loved God. He praised Him because of who He is and what He had done. God had rescued David many, many times from bad situations! He knew God was great and mighty! He knew God was worthy of all of His praise!
ASK: Have you ever been in a hard situation that you wanted to be rescued from? (If they need help, give an example from your own life that was hard.) We may not get into situations like David did with giants! But hard things will come to us in life. Know that God will always be there. He is our Rescuer! Call out to Him! And when He rescues you, praise Him!
Sing! Our God is worthy of praise!
SAY: God has already rescued all of us through sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Because Jesus died and rose from the grave, we can now be forgiven from our sins, know God deeply, and one day spend the rest of forever with Him! He rescued us from our sins, and for this reason, we can always have the strength to sing!
Sing! Our God is worthy of praise!
DO: Praise God together through prayer
Snack & Memory (15 minutes)
At the appointed point in the schedule, a team will bring snacks to your classroom. While they are passing out the snack, take time to review today’s memory verse, show the kids the visual illustration of the story, and review the story using the following questions:
Psalm 96:2– “Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.”
- What did David write? A song
- What was the song about? How God saved David from all of his enemies.
- How is God described in the song? He is like a mighty fortress. He is a hero who rescues David from the waves. He is described as David’s shield and protector.
- Why do we sing? Because God is worthy of praise!
Bible Learning Activities (20 minutes)
SAY: Today we have been learning about how David was a songwriter. He wrote songs to tell others about God’s goodness and greatness. We sing about God to tell others about the wonderful things he has done. Sing! Our God is worthy of praise!
Teachers: If you are teaching toddlers, it will be important to pre-cut as many of the microphones as possible before class time
SAY: Now, we’re going to decorate microphones and practice singing praises to God. Have the children color the microphone, cut it out, and sing!
Big Games (15 minutes)
**Three and Four Year-Olds will not have an organized Big Games time, but some games have been provided below for use during Playground time. Kindergarten leaders will not be responsible for leading these games. The leaders at the Big Games area will lead Big Games for Kindergartners.
Fruit basket turnover –
Everyone in the group should sit in a circle. They should each be given the name of a fruit. APPLE, ORANGE, BANANA. When their fruit name is called they should run to change places with someone else that has the same fruit name. So all APPLES should Switch with all APPLES. During the game the leader should shout “FRUIT BASKET TURNOVER!!!” and all of the kids should change seats with someone.
Written by: Kara Jenkins
Coloring sheets and Activities by: Mandy Groce | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35488000 |
Mission Type: Flyby
Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. T103-16)
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1
Spacecraft Mass: 893.5 kg
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) imaging system and 2) magnetometer
Spacecraft Dimensions: 3.3 m long and 1.0 m in diameter (4 m across with the solar panels and radiators deployed)
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi
National Space Science Data Center, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The second of three Soviet spacecraft intended for the 1962 Mars launch window, Mars 1 was the first spacecraft sent by any nation to fly past Mars.
Its primary mission was to photograph the surface. This time the upper stage successfully fired the probe toward Mars, but immediately after engine cutoff, controllers discovered that pressure in one of the nitrogen gas bottles for the spacecraft's attitude-control system had dropped to zero (due to incomplete closure of a valve).
On 6 and 7 November 1962, controllers used a backup gyroscope system to keep the solar panels constantly exposed to the Sun during the coast phase, although further midcourse corrections became impossible. Controllers maintained contact with the vehicle until 21 March 1963, when the probe was 106 million kilometers from Earth.
Mars 1 eventually silently flew by Mars at a distance of 197,000 kilometers on 19 June 1963. Prior to loss of contact, scientists were able to collect data on interplanetary space (on cosmic-ray intensity, Earth's magnetic fields, ionized gases from the Sun, and meteoroid impact densities) up to a distance of 1.24 AU. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35489000 |
Seen at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida — it’s a model of the
Dinosaur Dynasoar space plane:
Likely the most poorly-named program ever conceived, the Dynasoar (for dynamic soaring) was an early attempt at making a reusable manned space plane — essentially a mini-shuttle, and in some sense a follow-on to the X-15 experimental aircraft. First proposed in 1957, the U. S. Air Force saw this single-seat craft as their way into space — and assigned it a dizzying future array of tasks. Variants were discussed for reconnaissance, long-range weapons delivery, and even in-orbit warfare (the Soviets were planning similar vehicles at the time, so this was hardly unilateral thinking).
Ultimately, the program wound down in 1963, victim of an unclear mission, escalating costs, and a hostile political environment — just months away from completion of the first flight-worthy vehicle. In its early days, Dynasoar was hobbled by the Eisenhower administration’s desire to avoid military competition with NASA’s mission of manned orbital flight. Once the Kennedy administration was in place, Defense Secretary McNamara ultimately cancelled Dynasoar in favor of military use of the Gemini spacecraft that NASA was then developing (although it too would soon be cancelled). | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35491000 |
Monday, March 24, 2008
Kolomoki Mounds - Ancient Civilization of South Georgia
Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Early County, Georgia (near Blakely), preserves one of the most impressive archaeological sites in North America.
Mound A (the main "Temple Mound," seen here) is one of the tallest and largest Native American earthworks in North America. The park also preserves a number of other prehistoric mounds, one of which has been excavated and enclosed in a museum to give visitors a chance to learn more about the unique Kolomoki culture.
At the time the mound group was occupied (before 1,000 A.D.), Kolomoki may have been the largest Native American civilization north of Mexico. The mounds were constructed to form a giant astronomical observatory for use in determining the longest and shortest days of the year.
If you would like to learn more about Kolomoki, please visit our section on the mounds at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/kolomoki1. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35492000 |
I am confused with the uses of "ahí", "allí" and "allá".
It seems they are used according to different situations.
Could you please tell me what are the differences and provide some examples?
As far as I know, there are no strong differences between those words, at least in spoken language. There might be tiny differences according to the dictionary, but here are a few examples of their use, at least uses I can think of:
This can be explained with the three grades of demonstratives and of verbal persons:
The acá and allá versions are less precise. You might in English say over here or around there. Por acá is around here, por allá is over there somewhere. There is no *ahá version for euphonious reasons; people use por ahí to mean out there somewhere, as though it were the -á version of the middle (2ª persona) degree. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35494000 |
There are multiple variations of IF statements:
The simple IF construct is used to evaluate a Boolean condition and execute an appropriate set of commands. For instance the following example determines whether the current day of the week is Friday:
IF DATEPART(dw, GETDATE()) = 6 BEGIN PRINT 'TGI Friday' END
We can easily extend the same construct by adding an ELSE clause to take the alternative course of action and calculate the number of days before Friday:
IF DATEPART(dw, GETDATE()) = 6 BEGIN PRINT 'TGI Friday' END ELSE BEGIN SELECT 'Sorry, Friday is ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(1), (6-DATEPART(dw, GETDATE())) )+ ' days away' END
Alternatively we can determine the Boolean value of a condition based on the outcome of a SELECT statement:
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM authors) > 20 PRINT 'authors table contains more than 20 records'
Note: If you wish to execute multiple statements depending on the value of a condition, be sure to enclose those statements within a BEGIN END block
ometimes you have to check for multiple conditions and control your program accordingly. You can do so by combining these conditions with AND and OR within the simple IF construct. The following example demonstrates two conditions combined with AND operator:
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM authors) > 20 AND (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM authors WHERE state = 'ca')>0 PRINT 'authors table contains more than 20 records' SELECT CAST((SELECT COUNT(*) FROM authors WHERE state = 'ca') AS VARCHAR(2)) + ' of them are from california'
The previous query will return the number of authors in CA only if the authors table contains any authors from that state and only if the total number of authors is greater than 20. Therefore the AND operator returns true only if both parts of the condition are true.You can also combine conditions with the OR operator, which checks both conditions and returns TRUE if one of them is TRUE or if both of them are true. The OR operator returns FALSE if both parts of the condition are FALSE. Although you can use the OR operator within a simple IF construct it is not recommended to do so. If you have to check for multiple conditions combined with OR logic, it is recommended to use either nested IF statements or CASE operator.
IF EXISTS construct checks for the existence of a record fitting a specified criterion or any records in the specified table and takes action accordingly. This is a great approach to take if you don't have to retrieve any values from a table. Since you cannot do any data retrieval with EXISTS, the SELECT statement within the EXISTS clause does not have to specify any column names - the "*" operator will suffice. In fact IF EXISTS will be more efficient than IF SELECT. The following example checks whether there are any authors from KS in the authors table:
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM authors WHERE state = 'ks') PRINT 'found author(s) from KS'
As we noted earlier, if you have to check multiple conditions you can use nested IF ELSE statements. These should be handled with care and appropriately indented to make the code readable. If you've used any other programming language you'll find T-SQL nested IFs very easy to get used to. The following example executes appropriate user stored procedures depending on the price of "abc" stocks:
DECLARE @stock_price SMALLMONEY SELECT @stock_price = stock_price FROM high_yield_stock WHERE stock_symbol = 'abc' IF @stock_price > 10.01 BEGIN EXEC usp_alert_for_high_prices END ELSE IF @stock_price BETWEEN 5.01 and 10.00 BEGIN EXEC usp_notify_managers END ELSE EXEC usp_alert_for_price_drop
If the outer condition evaluates to TRUE, the inner conditions will not be checked. This is especially useful if the evaluation criteria require multi-table joins or searches which are resource intensive.
IF NOT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sales WHERE ord_date BETWEEN '1/1/95' AND '12/31/95') > 0 BEGIN PRINT 'no sales have been recorded in 1995' END | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35496000 |
Rabbi Dovid Stein, Star-K Israel Representative
When a tourist comes to Israel from the Diaspora one of the things he has to get used to is the mitzvos hatluot b'aretz, the mitzvos that are unique to Israel. After he gets through taking trumah and maaser, tithing, and makes sure he doesn't come during shmitta (beware next year!) he is suddenly hit with orla. And when he asks how to cope with this unfamiliar problem he is sometimes given a chart with a list of fruits and orla percentages which, if he isn't totally confused, the charts will certainly finish off the job. "What do all these percentages mean? And why," he asks, "can't someone give me a yes or no answer instead of these percentages?" So what do the percentages on these fruit charts mean?
In order to understand what the charts mean it is necessary to understand the halachic problems of orla in Eretz Yisroel today. Fruits produced during the first three years of a trees growth are prohibited. With new agricultural advances, especially in Israel, which in many ways has the most advanced agriculture in the world, trees now give good fruit in their second year of growth. Furthermore, the older and taller the tree the more time and money it takes to pick. It makes economic sense, in trees like peaches, to uproot some trees every few years and plant again. Other fruits that are commonly replanted are seedless grapes, where shoots are being continuously put into the ground1, and pomegranates, that have new branches coming up directly from the ground.
The charts indicate the percentage of orla found in the field of each type of fruit picked. Those varieties that have no orla or negligable amounts of orla, i.e, less than .5%, would not present a problem. Those with higher percentages require halachic scrutiny. In reading the charts it is important to realize that not all types of the same fruit have the same percentages of orla. So you may have some types of peaches with 7% and others with 1%. The newer charts have pictures to make it easier to identify the different types of fruit. The charts come out twice a year; one for summer fruit and one for winter. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35498000 |
SSI recipients with disabilities who work and participation in 1619b
Data Note #12
Data Set: SSA
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federally funded program that provides cash assistance for basic needs. Individuals with a low-income who are over the age of 65, blind, or have a disability are eligible for assistance. SSI beneficiaries typically also receive health insurance coverage through Medicaid. Losing Medicaid benefits can be of concern for SSI recipients with disabilities who desire to work, or are currently working. Section 1619b of the Social Security Act allows individuals to work and continue to receive Medicaid assistance when their earnings are too high to qualify for SSI cash payments as long as they meet other eligibility requirements for the SSI program and continue to need Medicaid in order to work.
Researchers explored how many SSI recipients with disabilities work and how many participate in 1619b. Results are displayed in the table found on page 2. In the U.S. as a whole, 25.7% of working SSI recipients participated in 1619bin 2006. The percentage of working SSI recipients who participate in 1619b varied from state to state. Nebraska (20.4%), South Carolina (20.4%), and Ohio (20.7%) had the lowest, and Hawaii (36.5%), the District of Columbia (33.5%), and Florida (33.7%) had the highest percentage of employed SSI recipients participating in 1619b. Additionally, researchers found a moderate, negative relationship between the number of SSI recipients with disabilities who work within a state, and the percentage that are enrolled in the 1619b program (r = - .363, p < .01). In other words, states that have more working SSI recipients with disabilities tend to have fewer participants in the 1619b program. This could be due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to the ability of individuals to access medical insurance through employers, or the capacity of states with large SSI recipient populations to communicate information about 1619b to eligible individuals.
|State||Number of SSI Recipients who work||Number of 1619b participants who work||Percent of SSI Recipients who work participating in 1619b|
a. The Social Security Administration identifies persons as potential participants; the state makes final Medicaid determinations.
b. Data are not shown to avoid disclosure of information for particular individuals.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of Policy, SSI Disabled Recipients Who Work, 2006 (www.ssa.gov).
Dennee-Sommers, B., & Smith, F. 2007. SSI recipients with disabilities who work and participation in 1619b. DataNote Series, Data Note XII. Boston, MA: Institute for Community Inclusion.
This is a publication of StateData.info, funded in part by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (#90DN0204). This Data Note was written by Brooke Dennee-Sommers and Frank A. Smith.
State Data is a project of the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston.blog comments powered by Disqus | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35501000 |
I often see new homes built on construction sites that have turned soil. Some of the soil making up these new yards are soil that was once, in many cases, over five feet deep, brought up to the surface for grading purposes. This soil is not the greatest for plant growth, it wasn't designed to be, and may not be appropriate for plant growth with out a lot of care and maintenance.
So what do we need to do to fix our soil problems? Lucky for you and I, we don't have to have the answers. There is no book that can tell you your soil conditions as they are drastically different from site to site, and often neighbors will have completely different soil profiles, even thought they are in such close proximity! Soil tests are the best and most effective way to ensure you are getting a full and accurate profile of your planting area. These tests used to be troublesome and expensive, but now you can get a professional lab to test a soil sample for mere dollars. One great resource is the University of Missouri Extension right here in Saint Peters. They offer soil testing at reasonable prices and have very clear results.
A basic soil sample will usually include nutrient levels and pH, which is very important. For instance, a soil sample may show a large amount of Iron in the soil, but a high pH. This high pH causes bounding of the iron to soil particles where it is not accessible to plants, so though you have plenty of it, the plant can't use it!
So these soil samples are not always night and day. To supplement a soil sample from a reputable laboratory will often explain these things in an attached letter, and even make recommendations on how to correct your soil issues. Plants, Trees, and turf in general, are using reserves in their root systems from the past fall, so supplemental fertilizer is a waste in the spring! Get a soil sample now to start preparing the soil for when our plants start to utilize the nutrients around them in middle to late spring, and remember, a good healthy organic soil will help sustain itself! Happy Spring! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35502000 |
"The concept that guerrilla warfare is an end in itself and that guerrilla activities
can be divorced from those of the regular forces is incorrect."
- The Maji Maji War, in southwestern Tanganyika (1905-1907), sparked by German efforts to confiscate tribal lands and institute forced labor on cotton plantations, left 15 Europeans and 389 of their African mercenaries dead, as well as some 300,000 tribesmen, the latter mostly from starvation and disease due to a systematic campaign to destroy their crops and carry off their cattle.
- By the end of June of 1940, in the aftermath of the Fall of France and the evacuation of over 330,000 British and French troops from Dunquerque, a further 150,000 Allied troops from other ports, and the surrender of France to the Germans, the U.S. had initiated the shipment to Britain of 500,000 Enfield rifles and 80,000 machine guns, with 130 million rounds of ammunitions, as well as nearly 1,000 pieces of artillery with a million rounds, along with other materiél.
- During World War I approximately 14,000 Swiss citizens served in the French Foreign Legion, of whom half died in combat.
- The last notable occasion on which elephants played a role on a “Western” battlefield seems to have been at Thapsus (Feb 5, 46 BC) in what is now Tunisia, when about thirty were employed by Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito and King Juba of Numidia, though they did not prevent Caesar from achieving a crushing victory.
- On June 5, 1916, the second day of Russia’s “Brusilov Offensive,” the Austro-Hungarian 1st (Vienna) Reserve Rifle Regiment lost 77 percent of its personnel killed in action and most of the rest wounded, captured, or both.
- During the South African War (1899-1902), Morning Post correspondent Winston Churchill, officially on leave from the army, was being paid £250 month, plus expenses, arguably equal to £20,000 today.
- Roman Catholics, who numbered about a fifth of the U.S. population during World War I, comprised 35 percent of American servicemen.
- At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Army had over one million troops in China, where ongoing combat operations since 1937 had already cost about 180,000 dead and 425,000 wounded, and another 700,000 in Manchuria, watching the Soviets.
of "Al Nofi's CIC" have appeared previously in Military Chronicles,
© 2005-2010 Military Chronicles (www.militarychronicles.com), used with permission, all rights reserved. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35512000 |
Let us now turn our attention to the theological teachings of the Jahmiyya, [who trace their name and origin to Jahm ibn Safwan Abu Muhriz].
Peculiar to Jahm ibn Safwan is the assertion that, although certain effects may appear to be produced by human causation, it is only in a metaphorical sense ['ala'l-majaz] that the origin of such effects can be attributed to the human being, not as a matter of reality [la 'ala'l-haqiqa]. [In other words, to attribute any action to a human being is merely a figure of speech], just as it is when one says: "The date palm grew tall, and the fruit ripened."
He always refused to profess the doctrine that Allah is Cognizant of things prior to their coming into existence ['Alim bi'l-ashya'i qabla kawniha]. He maintained that the Garden of Paradise and the Fire of Hell will eventually cease to exist. He also denied the reality of the [Divine] attributes [sifat].
The theological school [madhhab] founded by Jahm was located in a town called Tirmidh, or, according to some authorities, in Marw. He is the author of a literary work on the negation of the [Divine] attributes. He was put to death by Muslim ibn Ahwad al-Marwani. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35518000 |
Footage from the following three short newsreels were selected in order to show the prevailing anti-nuclear sentiment in parts of the Japanese public during the 1950s and 1960s. At the height of the protests against the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan (anpo jōyaku) in 1960, hundreds of thousands of Japanese took their anger to the streets in front of the National Diet. Considering such background, it may be hard to grasp at first why relatively few protesters have rallied against nuclear energy during the height of the Fukushima nuclear crisis so far. To put things into perspective, in the period of time immediately preceding Fukushima, fewer than 50 people would have typically demonstrated at any given time; the demonstrations of 10 April 2011, in which approximately 17,500 people marched in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan, thus marks a dramatic increase. However, comparing contemporary demonstrations with those seen in the newsreel footage shown here, or with concurrent demonstrations in Germany this spring that have attracted 250,000 protesters, Japan’s protest movement remains comparatively small. How did what seems a largely uncritical acceptance of nuclear energy in Japan come to the fore? –Christian Dimmer
British Pathé. 1957. Atom Fear Stirs Japan. Video, from British Pathé video film archive, http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=66625
Opening with the remarkable line, “radioactive rain brings new fears to atom-conscious Japan,” this snippet shows the strong public concern over British and Russian nuclear tests that have caused radioactive rain in Japan. Over 15,000 protest in front of the British embassy and umbrellas become a sales hit.
British Pathé. 1957. Jap Protest. Video, from British Pathé video film archive, http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=32824
“Stop the tests,” demonstrators in Tokyo demand in the aftermath of American and Russian nuclear tests. The strong anti-nuclear sentiment is further heightened by Britain’s announcement to also begin with hydrogen bomb tests. Subsequently, protests by “Japs,” as the announcer describes (a term that gained a derogatory connotation during World War II, now considered an ethnic slur), are staged in front of the American, Russian and British embassies in Tokyo.
British Pathé. 1962. Ban The Bomb Demonstration in Tokyo. Video, from British Pathé video film archive, http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=62269
Various scenes show a small group of students who protest the United State’s plan to resume nuclear tests in the atmosphere. The political bias of this Cold War newsreel is noted by the caricature of the demonstrators in which “leftists protest atom tests,” resisting the police with ”fanatical left-wing zeal.” | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35527000 |
Origin: Asia and the Mediterranean
Impact: Similar in appearance to wild onion but lacking the onion scent and taste. Found in pastures and rangeland, onionweed develops populations that exclude grasses and desirable forage species. This federally regulated weed poses a serious environmental and agricultural threat. It seeds prolifically and can establish large populations quickly.
Learn More: Species Profile.
If you have spotted Asphodelus fistulosis (Onionweed), use this report form to send an email to the appropriate authorities. All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35532000 |
On this day in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa was founded.
On December 5, 1776, while fellow Patriots were held captive in British occupied New York, five students at the College of William and Mary gathered to start a new fraternity - Phi Beta Kappa. They intended to follow what they considered to be definitively American principles, such as “freedom of inquiry” and “liberty of thought and expression.” The Greek initials, ΦBK, actually stand for a motto that translates to “Love of learning is the guide of life.”
Now PBK is the nation’s oldest and most widely known academic honor society, with 280 chapters amongst the elite academic institutions in the nation. Their mission is to celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. They have been publishing The American Scholar since 1932.
Check out the History channel’s timely reflection here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35535000 |
« January 2012 |
| March 2012 »
In the 440s, the Huns began to direclty attack the Roman Empire.
170- Atilla Cometh
Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink
In the 430s the Romans dealt with increasingly agressive and confident barbarian tribes living both inside and outside the traditional borders of the Empire.
169- Huns and Vandals and Goths, Oh My
Posted at 11:56 AM | Permalink
In the late 420s AD, the Roman General Flavius Aetius connived and backstabbed his way up the chain of command.
168- The Rise of Aetius
Posted at 12:03 PM | Permalink | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35545000 |
This product is a student study guide for the book The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The book is split into six units, and those are split into the five-day school week. Each unit is designed to take exactly one week. The curriculum exposes the child to reading, writing, analyzing the book, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar.
In the reading section, the student reads the assigned portion of the book, usually 40-50 pages. The same day he/she answers questions about the events in the book and analyzes the book in the enrichment/writing section. This includes questions about the author's style, and writing your own essay or paragraph on a certain topic in the assigned passage. In the vocabulary section, the student is first given a word in a sentence and is asked to derive the meaning of the word from context. The rest of the week, the student works on exercises to aid in remembering the meaning of the word. The spelling words and the vocabulary word are the same; so while working on the spelling flash cards, the child can also see the vocabulary meaning on the back. The spelling section also includes the Latin counterparts for the words. In the grammar section of the book, the student has passages from Scripture dictated him the first two days. The third day, there is a dictation from the book itself, relating to the passages of scripture. The fourth day, the student must correct errors in a given sentence. On the fifth and final day, the student is told to write a paragraph explaining the relevance of the Scripture dictations to the book dictation.
This curriculum is tailored to a child between the ages of 12 and 15. This program is exclusively for a homeschooling environment, considering how it allows the student to work independently without the help of a teacher.
This product is very effective for teaching spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and writing. I was very impressed by how the vocabulary, spelling and grammar sections were centered on the same set of words. Instead of having three different programs to teach these things, you can have one program that uses the same words.
On the other hand, the analysis part of the curriculum is slightly inadequate. Instead of using the Bible as the plumb line, the student is just asked to explain why certain characters did what they did.
This is one of the best products for teaching the art of language. Without a doubt, I would buy this product if it were not already in my possession. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35546000 |
NOTE: The following is a brief six-page excerpt from a 60 page chapter on the origins of the American Empire at the end of World War II. The chapter, nearly complete, is one of several chapters in a book being funded and facilitated through The People’s Book Project, which is aimed at producing a multi-volume book on a modern history of institutions and ideas of power and resistance. Included within the volumes are: the emergence of nation-states, capitalism, and central banking; the rise of the European empires and colonization; the emergence of new dynastic powers, namely the banking and industrial families of the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Morgans, et. al.; the development of the mass education system as a means of social control; the emergence and evolution of university education, the social sciences, and the formation of new concepts of social control and methods of social engineering; the development, purpose, and effects of philanthropic foundations on society; the emergence and evolution of the consumer culture, advertising, public relations, and advanced systems of propaganda; the development of the ‘modern institutional society’, with an examination of the different brands in Communist, Fascist, and Liberal Democratic states; the development and intent of the Welfare State, social services, and management of the poor; the effect of two world wars, and the formation of the American Empire with its political, military, intelligence, economic, financial, and cultural apparatus and institutions of expansion, including the American foundations, think tanks, World Bank, IMF, UN, NATO, CIA, Pentagon, etc.; the role of international think tanks like the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission in shaping and re-shaping world order and expanding dominance and control of the world; the formation of an apparatus of global governance and the ideology of globalism; population control and the environmental movement; and finally the emergence, evolution, and role of science, technology, psychology, and psychiatry on the development of a global scientific dictatorship… and what we can do to change all of this!
The above is not even an exhaustive list of the scope of this multi-volume book. Over 500 pages has been written thus far, and there is a great deal more to go, at which point the end result will be broken up into relevant sections as a complete volume on the modern history of ideas and institutions of power in our world, asking and answering the questions: What is the nature of our global society? How did we get here? Who brought us here? When did this begin? Where are we going? Why? … and what can we do to change it.
The People’s Book Project is currently in need of support, as it has run out of funds. Please donate to help ensure that this project can move forward and help support an effort to provide a new examination of our world, and a new understanding in how we can go about changing it! Thank you.
Chapter Excerpt: The Making of the American Empire
The process of establishing an American Empire during and after World War II was not – as has been postulated (by those who even admit there is such a thing as an ‘American Empire’) – an ‘accident’ of history, something America seemingly stumbled into as a result of its unhindered economic growth and military-political position as arbiter of world peace and prosperity. A vast literature has developed in the academic realm and policy circles – particularly within Political Science and the think tank community, respectively – which postulates a notion of ‘American empire’ or ‘American hegemony’ as accidental, incidental, benevolent, reluctant, and desirable.
Robert Kagan is a prominent American neoconservative historian. He is a Senior Fellow at the prestigious think tank, the Brookings Institution, was a founder of the neoconservative think tank, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), formerly worked at the State Department in the Reagan administration under Secretary of State, George Shultz, and served for over a decade as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and is, of course, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Kagan has written a great deal on the notion of American hegemony. As he wrote in the journal, Foreign Policy, in 1998, “the truth about America’s dominant role in the world is known to most clear-eyed international observers.” This truth, according to Kagan, “is that the benevolent hegemony exercised by the United States is good for a vast portion of the world’s population.” Samuel Huntington, another Council member and prominent American strategist, wrote that, “A world without U.S. primacy will be a world with more violence and disorder and less democracy and economic growth than a world where the United States continues to have more influence than any other country shaping global affairs.” This “Benevolent Empire” – as Kagan titles his article – rests on such fundamental ideas as the notion “that American freedom depends on the survival and spread of freedom elsewhere,” and that, “American prosperity cannot occur in the absence of global prosperity.” For half a century, Kagan wrote, Americans “have been guided by the kind of enlightened self-interest that, in practice, comes dangerously close to resembling generosity.”
Sebastian Mallaby, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Editorial Board Member and columnist at the Washington Post as well as correspondent and bureau chief for The Economist, wrote in the journal Foreign Affairs, that “empire’s are not always planned,” referring to America as “The Reluctant Imperialist.” Lawrence Summers, another prominent economist, politician, and policy-maker for the Clinton and Obama administrations, referred to America as “history’s only nonimperialist superpower.” Niall Ferguson, a prominent British liberal economic historian, has written extensively on the open acknowledgement of “American Empire,” but stipulates, as he did in his book Colossus, “that the United States is an empire and that this might not be wholly bad.” Referring to America as an “Unconscious Colossus,” Ferguson stressed that, “a self-conscious American imperialism might well be preferable to the available alternatives.” Ferguson in fact stresses the need for Americans to “recognize the imperial characteristics of their own power today [writing in 2005] and, if possible, to learn from the achievements and failures of past empires.” This, Ferguson felt, would reduce the so-called “perils” of being an “empire in denial.”
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., famed American liberal historian and adviser to President Kennedy, wrote that the United States enjoys “an informal empire – military bases, status-of-forces agreements, trade concessions, multinational corporations, cultural penetrations, and other favors,” yet, contends Schlesinger, “these are marginal to the subject of direct control,” and instead, “far from ruling an empire in the old sense,” America “has become the virtual prisoner of its client states.” Some other commentators referred to America as a “virtual” or even “inadvertent” imperial power.
The notion of America as a “reluctant imperialist” or a “benevolent empire” is not a new one. This has been the mainstay within the academic literature and policy-planning circles to both advocate for and justify the existence of American domination of the world. The concept of the reluctant, yet benevolent great power presents an image of a dutiful personage coming to the aid of those in need, following the responsibility which is derived from great power; that America’s rise to economic prominence – also seen as the product of free and democratic initiative and ideals (thus negating America’s long history of being a slave state and subsequently a brutal industrial society) – was the precursor to America being thrown the title of ‘global power,’ and with that title bestowed upon it – like a child-king still unsure of his own abilities to rule – took up the activities of a global power with a desire to bring the rest of the world the same altruistic truths and enlightened ideals which made America flourish so; that America’s gift to the world was to spread freedom and democracy, in the economic, political, and social spheres. This myth has been a constant foundation for the advocacy and justification of empire. Its importance rests most especially on the ideals and global public opinion which prevailed as the great European empires waned and ultimately collapsed through two World Wars.
The colonized peoples of the world had had enough of empire, had suffered so immeasurably and consistently under its tutelage, that the concept of empire was so discredited in the eyes of the world’s majority as to be incapable of justifying in the formal imperial-colonial sense. At home, America’s domestic political situation and public opinion had been largely isolationist, seeking to refrain from an expansive foreign policy, leading many American presidents and strategists to bemoan the struggle for empire beyond the continent on the reluctance of the American people and Congress to pursue aggressive expansionism (save for the expansion across the continent, wiping out Native American populations for American Lebensraum and the slow, increasing expression of trans-sovereign rights in Latin America, long considered “America’s backyard”).
World War II, then, presented a new opportunity, and a new challenge for America in the world. The opportunity was to become the worlds most powerful empire history had ever witnessed; the challenge, then, was to justify it in explicitly anti-imperial rhetoric. America, thus, was not a reluctant or accidental empire, nor, for that matter, a benevolent one. America was chosen to be an empire; it was strategised, discussed, debated, planned and implemented. The key architects of this empire were the bankers and corporations which arose out of America’s Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, the philanthropic foundations they established in the early 20th century, the prominent think tanks created throughout the first half of the 20th century, and the major academics, strategists and policy-makers who emerged from the foundation-funded universities, institutes, think tanks, and the business community, and who dominated the corridors of power in the planning circles that made policy.
No sooner had World War II begun than American strategists began calling for a new global American empire. Henry R. Luce, a Yale graduate and founder of Time Magazine, Life, and Fortune, was among America’s most influential publishers in the first half of the 20th century. A strong supporter of the Republican Party and virulent anti-Communist, Luce was also a staunch advocate of fascism in Europe – notably Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany – as a means of preventing the spread of Communism. In 1941, Luce wrote a famous article in Life entitled, “The American Century,” in which he stated that, “the 20th Century must be to a significant degree an American Century.” Luce wrote that America has “that indefinable, unmistakable sign of leadership: prestige.” As such, unlike past empires like Rome, Genghis Khan, or Imperial Britain, “American prestige throughout the world is faith in the good intentions as well as the ultimate intelligence and ultimate strength of the whole American people.” Luce felt that the “abundant life” of America should be made available “for all mankind,” as soon as mankind embraces “America’s vision.” Luce wrote:
It must be a sharing with all peoples of our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our magnificent industrial products, our technical skills. It must be an internationalism of the people, by the people and for the people… We must undertake now to be the Good Samaritan of the entire world.
While Luce was perhaps the first theorist to posit the specific concept of “the American Century,” the actual work done to create this century (or at least the latter half of it) for America was chiefly initiated by the Council on Foreign Relations, and the prominent strategist Dean Acheson, among others. As Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Dean Acheson delivered a speech at Yale entitled, “An American Attitude Toward Foreign Affairs,” in which he articulated a vision of America in the near future, and as he later recalled, it was at the time of delivering this speech that Acheson began “work on a new postwar world system.” Acheson declared in his speech that, “Our vital interests… do not permit us to be indifferent to the outcome” of the wars erupting in Europe and Asia. The causes of the war, according to Acheson, were in “the failure of some mechanisms of the Nineteenth Century world economy,” which resulted in “this break-up of the world into exclusive areas for armed exploitation administered along oriental lines.” Recreating a world peace, posited Acheson, would require “a broader market for goods made under decent standards,” as well as “a stable international monetary system” and the removal of “exclusive preferential trade agreements.” Essentially, it was an advocacy for a global liberal economic order as the means to world peace, and without a hint of irony, Acheson then called for the immediate establishment of “a navy and air force adequate to secure us in both oceans simultaneously and with striking power sufficient to reach to the other side of each of them.” Dean Acheson was also closely involved in the Council on Foreign Relations’ plans for the shaping of the post-War world order.
The Council on Foreign Relations and the ‘Grand Area’
Before America had even entered the war in late 1941, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) was planning for America’s assumed entry into the war. The CFR effectively undertook a policy coup d’état over American foreign policy with the Second World War. When war broke out, the Council began a “strictly confidential” project called the War and Peace Studies, in which top CFR members collaborated with the US State Department in determining US policy, and the project was entirely financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. The War and Peace Studies project had come up with a number of initiatives for the post-War world. One of the most important objectives it laid out was the identification of what areas of the world America would need to control in order to facilitate strong economic growth. This came to be known as the “Grand Area,” and it included:
Latin America, Europe, the colonies of the British Empire, and all of Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia was necessary as a source of raw materials for Great Britain and Japan and as a consumer of Japanese products. The American national interest was then defined in terms of the integration and defense of the Grand Area, which led to plans for the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank and eventually to the decision to defend Vietnam from a Communist takeover at all costs.
In 1940, the Council on Foreign Relations also began a wide-ranging study of the war-time economic needs of the United States (prior to U.S. entry into the war), called the Financial and Economic Experts, which divided the world into four main blocs: continental Europe (which was dominated by Germany at the time), the U.S. –Western hemisphere, the United Kingdom and its colonial and commonwealth nations, and the Far-East-Pacific Area, including Japan, China, and the Dutch East Indies. The study compiled a list of each region’s main imports and exports. Upon completion of the study in the fall of 1940, the Council sent its conclusions and policy recommendations to President Roosevelt and the State Department. The conclusions stated that the United States needed larger export markets for its products, and specifically that the U.S. needed “living space” (or as the Nazi German state referred to it, Lebensraum) throughout the Western hemisphere and beyond, as well as trade and “economic integration” with the Far East and the British Empire/Commonwealth blocs. The report stated bluntly, “as a minimum, the American ‘national interests’ involved the free access to markets and raw materials in the British Empire, the Far East, and the entire Western hemisphere.”
This was the foundation for the Grand Area designs of the Council in the post-War world. The Grand Area project emphasized that for America to manage the “Grand Areas” of the world, multilateral organizations would be needed to help facilitate “appropriate measures in the fields of trade, investment, and monetary arrangements.” The study further emphasized the need to maintain “military supremacy” in order to help facilitate control of these areas. As the Council’s 1940 report to the U.S. State Department stated: “The foremost requirement of the United States in a world in which it proposes to hold unquestioned power is the rapid fulfillment of a program of complete re-armament,” which would “involve increased military expenditures and other risks.”
While the Grand Area project was made and designed for the United States during World War II, it included plans for the post-War world, and included continental Europe in its designs following the assumed defeat of Germany. Thus, as economist Ismael Hossein-Zadeh wrote, “making the Grand Area global.” The idea behind the “Grand Area” was “even more grandiose – one world economy dominated by the United States,” and the study itself suggested that the Grand Area “would then be an organized nucleus for building an integrated world economy after the war.” As Shoup and Minter wrote in their study of the Council, Imperial Brain Trust, “the United States had to enter the war and organize a new world order satisfactory to the United States.” Benevolent, indeed.
Following Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into the War, the Council concluded as early as 1941 that the defeat of the Axis powers was simply a matter of time. As such, they were advancing their plans for the post-War world, expanding the Grand Area to:
include the entire globe. A new world order with international political and economic institutions was projected, which would join and integrate all of the earth’s nations under the leadership of the United States. The Unification of the whole world was now the aim of the Council [on Foreign Relations] and government planners.
As a part of this planning process, the U.S. Department of State formed the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy in late December of 1941, of which the first document that was produced, “stressed the danger of another world depression and the need to provide confidence in world economic stability.” Thus, “the United States had to be involved with the internal affairs of the key industrial and raw materials-producing countries.” A key question in this was, as one postwar planner articulated, “how to create purchasing power outside of our country which would be converted into domestic purchasing power through exportation.” The idea was about “devising appropriate institutions” which would fulfill this role, ultimately resting with the formation of the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later known as the World Bank). The postwar planners had to continually construct an idea of an international order, directed by the United States, which would not so easily resemble the formal colonial period or its methods of exerting hegemony.
Recommendations of the Council suggested that such new international financial institutions were necessary in terms of “stabilizing currencies and facilitating programs of capital investment for constructive undertakings in backward and underdeveloped regions.” These plans included for the establishment of an International Reconstruction Finance Corporations and an “international investment agency which would stimulate world trade and prosperity by facilitating investment in development programs the world over.” These plans were drafted in recommendations and given to President Roosevelt and the Department of State.
One Council member suggested that, “It might be wise to set up two financial institutions: one an international exchange stabilization board and one an international bank to handle short-term transactions not directly concerned with stabilization.” Thus, the Council drafted in 1941 and 1942 plans that would result in the formation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which formally emerged from the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, an event that is commonly acknowledged as the “birthplace” of the World Bank and IMF, thus ignoring their ideological origins at the Council on Foreign Relations two-to-three years prior. The internal department committees established in the Department of State and Treasury were well represented by Council members who drew up the final plans for the creation of these two major institutions.
Whereas the League of Nations had been a major objective of the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corporation-funded Council on Foreign Relations following World War I, so too was the United Nations near the end of World War II. A steering committee consisting of U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and five Council on Foreign Relations members was formed in 1943. One of the Council members, Isaiah Bowman,
suggested a way to solve the problem of maintaining effective control over weaker territories while avoiding overt imperial conquest. At a Council [on Foreign Relations] meeting in May 1942, he stated that the United States had to exercise the strength needed to assure “security,” and at the same time “avoid conventional forms of imperialism.” The way to do this, he argued, was to make the exercise of that power international in character through a United Nations body.
The “secret steering committee,” later called the Informal Agenda Group, undertook a series of consultations and meetings with foreign governments which would be essential in creating the new institution, including the Soviet Union, Canada, and Britain, and the Charter of the United Nations was subsequently decided upon with the consent of President Roosevelt in June 1944. The Informal Agenda Group was made up of six individuals, including Secretary of State Cordell Hull. All of them, with the exception of Hull, were Council members. President Roosevelt had referred to them as “my postwar advisers,” and aside from formal policy recommendations, they “served as advisers to the Secretary of State and the President on the final decisions.” By December 1943, a new member was added to the Group, Under Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., who was not only a Council member, but was also a former top executive at United States Steel and was the son of a partner in the J.P. Morgan Bank. After the Group had drafted the recommendations for a United Nations body, Secretary Hull had asked three lawyers to rule on its constitutionality. The three lawyers he chose were Charles Evan Hughes, John W. Davis, and Nathan L. Miller. Both Hughes and Davis were Council members, and John Davis was even a former President of the Council and remained as a Director. John D. Rockefeller Jr. subsequently gifted the United Nations with $8.5 million in order to buy the land for its headquarters in New York City.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The People’s Book Project.
NOTE: This was but a small sample from the chapter on the origins of the American Empire in the post-World War II world. The very same chapter includes the internal policy discussions relating to the formation of the Cold War, the establishment of the National Security State, and the advancement of policy programs aimed at securing the “Grand Areas” for American dominance around the world. The chapter also studies the emergence of the Marshall Plan, NATO, European integration, the Bilderberg Group, and a number of other institutions and ideas related to establishing and expanding a ‘New World Order.’
Robert Kagan, “The Benevolent Empire,” Foreign Policy (No. 111, Summer 1998), page 26.
Ibid, page 28.
Sebastian Mallaby, “The Reluctant Imperialist: Terrorism, Failed States, and the Case for American Empire,” Foreign Affairs (Vol. 81, No. 2, March-April 2002), page 6.
Ibid, page 2.
Niall Ferguson, “The Unconscious Colossus: Limits of (& Alternatives to) American Empire,” Daedalus (Vol. 134, No. 2, On Imperialism, Spring 2005), page 21.
Ibid, pages 21-22.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “The American Empire? Not so Fast,” World Policy Journal (Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring 2005), page 45.
Michael Cox, “Empire by Denial: The Strange Case of the United States,” International Affairs (Vol. 81, No. 1, January 2005), page 18.
Geir Lundestad, “‘Empire by Invitation’ in the American Century,” Diplomatic History (Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring 1999), page 189.
Bruce Cumings, “The American Century and the Third World,” Diplomatic History (Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring 1999), page 356.
Ibid, pages 358-359.
CFR, War and Peace. CFR History: http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/war_peace.html
Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (New York: State University of New York Press, 2003), page 74.
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pages 43-45.
Ibid, page 45.
Ibid, page 46.
Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (Authors Choice Press, New York: 2004), page 118.
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), page 48.
Ibid, pages 49-51.
Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (Authors Choice Press, New York: 2004), pages 166-167.
Ibid, pages 168-169.
Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (New York: State University of New York Press, 2003), page 159.
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), page 51.
Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (Authors Choice Press, New York: 2004), pages 169-171.
Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (New York: State University of New York Press, 2003), page 160. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35554000 |
I talk a lot about the Aims of Scouting. Here are the Aims and how they are broken down straight from the proverbial “Horses mouth”.
As referenced in the BSA Fast Start Training:
Encompasses a boy’s personal qualities, values, and outlook.
A Scout learns confidence, honesty, and self-respect.
A Scout respects other people, regardless of differences.
A Scout practices his religious beliefs.
A Scout works among others in a troop with rules based on the common good.
A Scout learns about and takes pride in his own national heritage.
A Scout understands social, economic, and governmental systems.
A Scout learns service, tolerance, and community involvement.
Mental and Physical Fitness
A Scout improves his physical condition through exercise and outdoor activities.
A Scout encourages good health habits.
A Scout discourages drug, alcohol, and tobacco use.
A Scout learns sound judgment, resourcefulness, and decision-making skills.
Simple enough for me. If we are not working to this end… we are doing it wrong.
Remember what BP said.. “Scouting is a game with a purpose”. This is our purpose, we just need to play game.
Have a Great Scouting Day! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35559000 |
Visualizing How Our Brains Make Visual Meaning of Our World
Posted by The Situationist Staff on December 26, 2012
Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas?
Related Situationist posts:
- The Situation of Human Vision
- Beau Lotto on the Situation of Sight,
- The Situation of Sight,
- Brain Magic,
- Magic is in the Mind, and
- The Situation of Illusion
Click here for a collection of posts on illusion. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35562000 |
We’ve been reporting on statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that illustrate a dire global problem: We squander nearly one third of our food through food waste (on the consumption side) and food losses (on the production side). In developed countries, over 40% of losses come from companies and consumers throwing out perfectly good food. And on the production side, we lose enough food to feed at least 48 million people due to inefficiencies in harvesting, storage and delivery, according to the FAO. The WorldWatch Institute is addressing the problem through its Nourishing the Planet project, a two-year effort to make the food system more equitable and efficient. It couldn’t come soon enough. — Stephen Lacey
From the WorldWatch Institute:
At a time when the land, water, and energy resources necessary to feed a global population of 6.9 billion are increasingly limited —and when at least 1 billion people remain chronically hungry-food losses mean a waste of those resources and a failure of our food system to meet the needs of the poor. The Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project, a two-year evaluation of environmentally sustainable agricultural innovations to alleviate hunger, is highlighting ways to make the most of the food that is produced and to make more food available to those who need it most.
According to Tristram Stuart, a contributing author of Worldwatch’s State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet report, some 150 million tons of grains are lost annually in low-income countries, six times the amount needed to meet the needs of all the hungry people in the developing world. Meanwhile, industrialized countries waste some 222 million tons of perfectly good food annually, a quantity nearly equivalent to the 230 million tons that sub-Saharan Africa produces in a year. Unlike farmers in many developing countries, however, agribusinesses in industrial countries have numerous tools at their disposal to prevent food from spoiling-including pasteurization and preservation facilities, drying equipment, climate-controlled storage units, transport infrastructure, and chemicals designed to expand shelf-life.
“All this may ironically have contributed to the cornucopian abundance that has fostered a culture in which staggering levels of ‘deliberate’ food waste are now accepted or even institutionalized,” writes Stuart in his chapter, “Post-Harvest Losses: A Neglected Field.” “Throwing away cosmetically ‘imperfect’ produce on farms, discarding edible fish at sea, over-ordering stock for supermarkets, and purchasing or cooking too much food in the home, are all examples of profligate negligence toward food.”
Nourishing the Planet researchers traveled to 25 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, meeting with 350 farmers’ groups, NGOs, government agencies, and scientists. “This amount of loss is shocking considering that many experts estimate that the world will need to double food production in the next half-century as people eat more meat and generally eat better,” says Danielle Nierenberg, Nourishing the Planet project director. “It would make good sense to invest in making better use of what is already produced.”
“Humanity is approaching — and in some places exceeding — the limits of potential farmland and water supplies that can be used for farming,” notes Worldwatch Institute Executive Director Robert Engelman. “We’re already facing food price spikes and the early impacts of human-caused climate change on food production. We can’t afford to overlook simple, low-cost fixes to reduce food waste.”
Nourishing the Planet offers the following three low-cost approaches that can go a long way toward making the most of the abundance that our food system already produces. Innovations in both the developing and industrialized worlds include:
- Getting surpluses to those who need it. As mountains of food are thrown out every day in the cities of rich countries, some of the poorest citizens still struggle to figure out their next meal. Feeding America coordinates a nationwide network of food banks that receive donations from grocery chains. Florida’s Harry Chapin Food Bank, one of Feeding America’s partners, distributed 5.2 million kilograms of food in 2010. In New York City, City Harvest collects some 12.7 million kilograms of excess food each year from restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms and delivers it to nearly 600 New York City food programs. Similarly, London Street FoodBank utilizes volunteers to collect unused food items from London businesses and get them to food banks around the city.
- Raising consumer awareness and reducing waste to landfills. Those who can easily afford to buy food-and throw it away-rarely consider how much they discard or find alternatives to sending unwanted food to the landfill. In 2010, however, San Francisco became the first city to pass legislation requiring all households to separate both recycling and compost from garbage. By asking residents to separate their food waste, a new era of awareness is being fostered by the initiative. Nutrient-rich compost created by the municipal program is made available to area organic farmers and wine producers, helping to reduce resource consumption in agriculture. The Love Food Hate Waste website-an awareness campaign of the U.K.-based organization Wrap-provides online recipes for using leftovers as well as tips and advice for reducing personal food waste.
- Improving storage and processing for small-scale farmers in developing countries. In the absence of expensive, Western-style grain stores and processing facilities, smallholders can undertake a variety of measures to prevent damage to their harvests. In Pakistan, the United Nations helped 9 percent of farmers cut their storage losses up to 70 percent by simply replacing jute bags and mud constructions with metal grain storage containers. And Purdue University is helping communities in rural Niger maintain year-round cow pea supplies by making low-cost, hermetically sealed plastic bags available through the Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) program. Another innovative project uses solar energy to dry mangoes after harvest; each year, more than 100,000 tons of the fruit go bad before reaching the market in western Africa.
You can check out the campaign and the latest State of the World Report here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35569000 |
Those of us with even a passing interest in science are used to the idea that computers play a central role in understanding physics and chemistry, especially high-powered computation used in areas such as weather prediction and molecular visualization. However, over the past few years, a new target for that computation has emerged and begun to attract media attention. It's called computational biology (or more catchy, bioinformatics) and it refers to the digital storage, categorization, and analysis of biological data.
If your most recent encounter with biology took place in high school, you may be surprised by any such crossover with computing. Although I always found it fascinating, I remember biology never quite having the rigor of its counterparts in the science curriculum. Some cells did this, other cells had that, and different organisms did all sorts of strange things, especially when dissected by over-enthusiastic schoolchildren. But there seemed to be few universal principles equivalent in scope to Newton's equations or the periodic table of elements.
Digitizing Life -- Thanks to the wonders of molecular biology, many such fundamentals are now known to exist. An overview of some of the basics should give an impression of what is involved - bear in mind that we're dealing with the natural world in all its complexity, so everything that follows has been vastly simplified.
Life as we know it is encoded in a set of long molecules called DNA, identical copies of which are found in every cell in a living organism such as a human being. Everything that happens within an organism can be traced back to its DNA - just like the hard disk in a computer. In humans, each cell contains 46 separate DNA molecules called chromosomes, analogous perhaps to hard disk partitions. Your chromosomes contain a mixture of information duplicated from those of your parents, which is one reason why you inherited so many of their characteristics.
Any one DNA molecule consists of a series of connected nucleotides forming a chain that can run to lengths of many millions. There are only four possible nucleotides, so any DNA molecule can be represented as a sequence using only four letters. This is where the digitization begins - the entire set of chromosomes for a human being can be stored in a few gigabytes of space (even less after compression) and you can even download a recent draft to your own computer.
According to present-day understanding, only a fraction of your DNA has a purpose - the other 98 percent or so is affectionately named "junk." The meaningful bits, known as genes, are short stretches scattered unevenly throughout the chromosomes (think of them as fragmented program files, if you like). They can be pretty hard to find - we currently have confirmed the existence of about 15,000 human genes, but scientists are still bickering over the total number - most estimates lie around 30,000. There's even a sweepstakes where you can add your own guess.
Genes are interesting because machinery in the cell translates them into another type of molecule called proteins. These proteins perform the organism's real metabolic work and can be thought of as currently running programs. A protein molecule contains a series of connected amino acids forming a chain, similar to how nucleotides make up DNA. However, in contrast to DNA, proteins are made from 20 different amino acids and are rarely more than a few thousand such elements in length. Sequences of proteins are another type of digital data that bioinformatics regularly deals with.
How are these proteins able to do all the work set out for them: building cells, transporting materials, sending signals and carefully managing each cell's energy factory? When released into a cell's watery innards, proteins fold up upon themselves, forming a huge variety of shapes that make them connect to other proteins and molecules in specific ways, catalyzing any number of chemical reactions. Trying to work out which shape a particular protein sequence will fold into is an extremely difficult problem. A biannual contest called CASP (a shortened acronym for Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction) is held between different research groups around the world, and IBM is building its fastest ever supercomputer to work on it, at a hoped-for rate of no more than one protein per year.
Again, this is just a basic overview. If you're thirsting for more information on molecular genetics, the U.S. Human Genome Project has published a good online primer.
Open-Sourcing the Human Being -- With the basic biology lesson out of the way, let's talk about how bioinformatics applies to the real world. One bioinformatics application you've probably heard of is the Human Genome Project. Its seemingly simple goal is to read the roughly three billion nucleotides that make up the human set of chromosomes. This is made possible by the fact that, even though there are millions of points at which healthy human DNA sequences can differ from one another, every one of us is identical in the other 99.9 percent of points. If you find that scary (or perhaps inspiring), remember that your DNA is also about 99 percent identical to the chimp at your local zoo.
Discussions on the genome project began in 1984, but it was not until 1995 that the work began in earnest via an international collaboration of publicly funded laboratories in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, and China. The public project moved along slowly until 1999 when Celera Genomics, a private venture, joined the fray. Armed with an improved experimental method and gobs of computing power, Celera promised to complete a first draft of the genome within a year. After much politicized mud slinging, a deal was made and the two groups' results were published simultaneously in February 2001.
What does all this have to do with bioinformatics? For a start, computers were required to store and index the resulting sequences and make them available to researchers around the world over the Internet. But the real algorithmic problem stemmed from the way in which DNA molecules have to be read. In the biological world, there is no such thing as a debugger which lets you freeze a cell and poke around inside, observing and manipulating at will. Instead, a series of steps must be cleverly combined for a scientist to gain access to a desired item of information.
For any DNA molecule, only about the first 1,000 nucleotides can be ascertained using available laboratory techniques. Longer sequences are scanned by making several copies of the molecule and breaking these up randomly into short fragments, each of which is read separately. The original order of these fragments is lost, so, after reading them, there remains the task of reconstructing the original sequence. It's not unlike trying to rebuild an encyclopedia using a few photocopies which have been run through an office shredder - the number of possibilities to be tried is vast. Forget about trying to do it by hand - Celera's draft build required about a week of running time on a 56-processor array with over 100 GB of memory.
The Human Genome Project is a classic example of a bioinformatics problem, and scientists are hopeful that the results will have many practical effects. An immediate consequence is increased speed in the development of new medicines by enabling scientists to hone in quickly on potential drug target genes. It can also be expected to lead the way to personalized health care, as relationships are discovered between the genetic variations that exist between human beings and our susceptibility to certain diseases or treatment responses.
In the distant future, it opens up the possibility of curing disease and even tweaking ourselves through direct manipulation of our DNA. Naturally, the ethical issues raised are daunting and could wreak havoc with our basic notion of what it is to be a human being. However, this is also an area where the field of bioinformatics will shine: the storage, categorization, and analysis of the data promises to better inform the people who will be dealing with these ethical issues.
Apples are Growing -- As interesting as all the above may be, you may be wondering what bioinformatics has to do with the Macintosh. Macs are already playing a large role in the bioinformatics domain and will probably continue to do so. Firstly, as with any other sector filled with independently thinking individuals, the scientific community has a high proportion of Mac users. This has been particularly true in biology, where until recently versatile graphics capabilities have been more important than raw computing power.
Nonetheless, until recently the Macintosh had one critical limitation regarding its long-term suitability in the field: the natural preference of bioinformaticians for Unix-based platforms. This is firstly a result of the availability of free, reliable Unix tools such as perl and grep, which make it highly suitable for processing large quantities of text-oriented data. Furthermore, since the explosion of activity in computational biology began around 1995, exactly when the Internet was establishing itself as a mainstream platform for scientific collaboration, the vast majority of bioinformatics applications run over the Internet. Unix's stable and efficient implementation of TCP/IP, in conjunction with the free Apache Web server, make it ideal for providing these Web-based services. For some idea of what's available, take a look at the site of the American National Center for Biotechnology Information.
It should be fairly obvious where this takes us: Mac OS X, soon to be the mainstream Macintosh operating system, is not only based on Unix but provides full support for all of its tools - perl, grep, and Apache included. On its own, this does not necessarily place it ahead of other Unix platforms. But if we add the fact that it contains a modern user interface and runs desktop applications such as Microsoft Office and modern Web browsers, it's not hard to see why Mac OS X is a natural choice for bioinformatics servers and desktops. This has been noted in several places, including an O'Reilly Network article and an Apple viewpoint article. It's also proven to be more than wishful thinking: Genentech, the company that ordered 1,000 new iMacs (and whose Chairman and CEO is one of Apple's board members), is one of the founders of the biotechnology industry.
A further bonus for Macs is that the PowerPC G4 processor, with its Velocity Engine processing unit, is ideal for many types of biological computations. BLAST (short for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is probably the most popular bioinformatics tool available today. It takes the sequence of a DNA or protein molecule as input and searches for other known molecules which are likely to be connected in evolutionary origin or biological function. Apple's Advanced Computation Group, in collaboration with others, developed a high-throughput version of BLAST, which they claim makes a dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 up to five times faster than a PC with a 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor. Fast BLAST searches are crucial to today's biologists.
Try This at Home -- There is at least one way in which all Mac users can get involved in computational biology. A project named Folding@Home, developed in the same style as U.C. Berkeley's alien-searching SETI@home, lets you contribute to a distributed effort to calculate the physical structure of protein sequences. Folding@Home's Mac OS X client, a screensaver and application, is now available and provides a real-time graphical view of the structures being tested.
That aside, unless you happen to be involved in the academic or commercial computational biology world, the bioinformatics revolution will remain, for now, a distant blip on your daily horizon. But don't expect it to stay there forever - if the promise of the field is even partially fulfilled, you will start seeing its effects seeping into your daily life.
[In one life, Gideon Greenspan is the persona behind Sig Software, a Macintosh shareware company which develops products such as Drop Drawers, Classic Menu, Email Effects, and NameCleaner. In the other, he is a Ph.D. student of bioinformatics in the Computer Science department of Israel's Technion. He hopes one day to overcome this dichotomy!] | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35571000 |
We made sugar cube sculptures. What a fun and surprising lesson in building, painting, and dissolving!
- Box of sugar cubes
- Glue bottle
- Sturdy base to glue onto
- Paint in squeezy bottles
Boxes of sugar cubers were harder to find than I thought, but I ultimately found them at our big supermarket (and bought 2!). We used scrap wood for the base, basic Elmer’s school glue, and Nancy Bottles for the paint.
I suggested that we could build a sculpture with the sugar cubes, and presented N with the materials. That’s all she needed to hear before she began to glue the cubes onto the panel.
And stack them up tall.
You can see that this isn’t the strongest structure in the world!! I filled some Nancy Bottles with watered down BioColor paint, which my daughter then squeezed all over the sculpture. Because the water acted as a dissolving agent, if I were to do this again I’d use straight-up paint without the additional water.
It’s looking a little patriotic, no?
And it end up in this beautiful heap of swirly, melting color. Not exactly what I imagined when we started, but it did lead to some wonderful conversations about dissolving. We only used about 1/10 of the sugar cubes to make the sculpture, so why not set up a dissolving experiment with the rest of the cubes?!
The next day N turned the remaining cubes into sugar water in under five minutes. It was quick, but what a great lesson and experience! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35576000 |
A Kentucky crop used to feed a worldwide addiction may soon help prevent a worldwide epidemic. A protein from the tobacco leaf could be the key ingredient in an HIV prevention drug for women, and the technology is only found in Owensboro, Kentucky. To the average person, a few lab stations, plants in a greenhouse, and an unknown chemical in a jar may not mean much, but to scientists like those at Kentucky Bioprocessing, inside this small jar could be a half a million doses of an HIV preventative solution using the protein Griffithsin found in tobacco leaves. The Owensboro Cancer Research Programs Dr. Kenneth Palmer says this technology could save womens lives around the globe, "In many developing countries women dont have the power to negotiate whether their partner wears a condom or abstains...they need female-controlled intervention methods to protect themselves." The drug is a gel, to be used like a spermicide. Palmer says besides condoms, this may be the only other way to prevent sexually transmitted HIV, and they hope to find a way to produce a lot of it - as cheaply as possible. He says thats the glory of plant-based pharmaceutical, "We can plant acres and acres of greenhouses and farm fields, such as we know how to do in Kentucky." KBPs Hugh Hayden also says this breakthrough gives validation to Owensboros scientific community, "Its groundbreaking because it publicises the development of an important product, its also groundbreaking to have peer reviewed validation of a system we developed here. Palmer and his colleagues are also exploring turning the drug into a film -- dissolving quickly and being less obvious to the womans partner. Scientists say, in preliminary tests the drug has not caused any inflammation in animal subjects nor in human cervical tissue grown in the lab. Researchers say its likely the drug will be into phase one clinical trials within the next few months. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35589000 |
Developed in partnership with The Bank Street College of Education for grades 6-12.
THE COURSE OF THE WAR, 2003-PRESENT
Reflecting on Five Years of War in Iraq(3/19/2008)
The Voice of a New Generation
Examining Iraqi Youth Perspectives (3/5/2008)
A Fresh Start?
Discussing the Implications of a Resignation at the Department of Defense (11/9/2006)
Exploring the Ups and Downs During Three Years of War in Iraq (4/20/2006)
Same News, Different Stories
Evaluating Breaking News of Al-Zarqawi's Death (6/9/2006)
Examining New Developments in the Iraq War (11/10/2004)
Examining Controversies of International Humanitarian Law (10/22/2004)
Justice for Whom?
Assessing the Reasons to Bring Saddam Hussein to Trial (7/5/2004)
Taking Stock of Iraq
Learning About and Teaching Important Information on Iraq’s Transition (6/28/2004)
Abuse of Power
Examining and Reacting to the Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners in American Custody (5/6/2004)
The Captive's Audience
Analyzing the Capture of Deposed Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein (12/15/2003)
Examining How Close (or Far) Coalition Forces Are from Achieving Their Goals (4/11/2003)
Weathering the War
Exploring How Weather and Topography Have Shaped Military Operations (3/26/2003)
DEBATE ABOUT THE WAR, 2002-PRESENT
Instability in Iraq
Analyzing the Debate on the Future of United States Involvement in Iraq (12/6/2006)
Exit to the Left
Exploring Community Reactions to the Iraq War (9/18/2006)
Weighing the War
Debating For and Against the War in Iraq (9/22/2004)
The Aftermath of War
Debating the Pros and Cons of U.S. Policy in Iraq (10/29/2003)
For Whom Does the Bell Toll?
Gauging Public Opinion about Death During War (4/9/2003)
Exploring Feelings About Invading Iraq Through Creative Writing (3/21/2003)
Acts of Defiance?
Contemplating War in Iraq (3/19/2003)
Europe's Last Resort
Understanding the European Union’s Position on the Use of Force in Iraq (2/19/2003)
Enacting a Meeting of the United Nations Security Council (1/29/2003)
And Then What Happened, Inspector?
Developing Interactive Scenarios about the United Nations Inspections in Iraq (12/4/2002)
To Inspect or Not to Inspect, That Is the Question
Exploring the Points of View of Those Involved in the Decision Whether to Allow U.N. Inspectors into Iraq (11/13/2002)
Exploring the Potential of United States Military Action Against Iraq (8/28/2002)
IRAQ AND DEMOCRACY
Exploring United States Interventions in the Middle East (4/29/2002)
A Good Government Is Hard to Build
Understanding Issues in Iraq's Government-Building Through a Student Simulation (3/30/2005)
And Now, the News from Iraq
Researching the Iraqi Election to Create a Television News Hour (1/31/2005)
Intimidation of a Nation
Analyzing Threats to the Scheduled Elections in Iraq (12/22/2004)
Operation Iraqi Democracy
Exploring International Models of Government (6/29/2004)
Assessing the Iraqi Interim Constitution's Purpose and Viability (3/10/2004)
By the People, For the People
Examining Key Elements of Democracy as the System Is Introduced in Iraq (6/23/2003)
A Tale of Two Wars
Comparing and Contrasting Vietnam and Iraq (10/30/2006)
Exploring the Endings and Consequences of Major Conflicts in Modern World History (12/16/2005)
Dictating the Future
Learning from the History of Overthrown Governments to Assess the Future of Iraq (5/26/2004)
Intervene or Interfere?
Exploring Forty Years of United States Intervention in Foreign Affairs (4/7/2003)
Changing of the Guard
Examining the Role of the United States in Democratic Transitions Around the World (4/28/2003)
Examining the Development of American Foreign Policy (3/17/2003)
Exploring the Evolution of Weapons Technology (11/14/2002)
Drums of War
Exploring How Historical Events Repeat Themselves (10/14/2002)
Exploring How Politics Shapes American War Policy (9/23/2002)
The Tug of War
Exploring the Rationale Behind Potential Future Military Strikes in the War Against Terrorism (1/9/2002)
IRAQ AND THE MEDIA
All the News That's Fit to Blog
Gathering First-Hand News Accounts through Web Logs
Imagining the Life of a War Correspondent in Iraq
That's News to Me
Examining the Escalating Violence in Iraq through Reporting (4/14/2004)
Learning to Write Persuasive Editorials about Current News (7/24/2003)
Exploring Marketing Strategies During Wartime (3/27/2003)
Interviewing Veterans to Help Create Need-Based Programs (5/25/2007)
Commemorating American Soldiers Who Have Lost Their Lives in Iraq (1/3/2007)
Reflecting on the Lives of Soldiers and Their Families (10/27/2005)
Gathering First-Hand Reports of a Soldier's Experience Far from Home (3/5/2003)
Test what you know about the war in Iraq by playing this interactive News Quiz. Each question relates to an article published in The New York Times from 2003-2007.
Explore recent New York Times graphics, videos and photographs about the war in Iraq.
Interactive Feature: Faces of the Dead (Ongoing)
Interactive Timeline: Iraq 5 Years In (3/19/2008)
Slideshow: A Tale of Three Cities (6/20/2008)
Interactive Graphic: Baghdad Neighborhoods (9/9/2007)
Video: Bush Addresses U.S. Troops in Iraq (9/2007)
Op-Chart: Benchmarks for Iraq (9/3/2007)
Photographs: 82nd Airborne Division (5/22/2007)
Video: A Search for Missing Soldiers (5/22/2007)
BAGHDAD BUREAU BLOG
"Iraq From the Inside" by reading a blog written by Times reporters in Baghdad.
Each News Snapshot features a Times photo and related article along with a 6-question student worksheet and a teacher answer key. The Snapshots below, about the war in Iraq, were published from March 2003 on.
The Reach of War
The Solace of Soccer
Serving the Country
War, What Is It Good For?
A Vote for Freedom
A Grand New Flag
Rehearsing for the Real Thing
American Friends, American Foes
A Message of Hope
A Nation at War
MORE FROM NYTIMES.COM
Visit NYTimes.com's The Reach of War special for the latest news and editorials from The New York Times.
FROM THE LEARNING NETWORK ARCHIVE
In response to Operation Desert Fox in 1998, The Learning Network created the special feature
Timeline: U.S. Intervention in Iraq - 1991 to 1998. In it, you'll find historical New York Times articles from that time period, lesson plans and a brief Web guide.
MORE ISSUES IN DEPTH TOPICS
Learning Network classroom resources on a wide range of topics. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35591000 |
Guitar | Bass | Keyboard | Microphones | Mixers | Audio Interfaces | Monitors | Sequencers | Soft Synths | Live Sound | Drums | Club | Accessories | Blowouts
Setting up Word Clock
in simple and advanced digital audio recording systems
by TweakHeadz Lab
As your digital audio rig gets larger you will inevitably have to deal with word clock distribution. At first, synchronizing word clocks of different digital audio devices is easy. In most cases, you can generate and transmit the word clock signal along with the digital audio signals passing from master to slave through s/pdif coax, Toslink and (sometimes) ADAT optical cables and AES/EBU cables. But soon enough you will run into a situation where syncing through audio cables will stop working.
That is where you need to set up a way to distribute the word clock master to all the slaves that need it. This is very simple stuff, so don't let it freak you. But don't confuse word clock with MIDI clock synchronization, Midi time code, SMPTE, or anything that regulates tempo. We'll talk about those in the next article.
Sample Words and the clock that regulates them
First, without getting too technical lets get into why we need a word clock. Digital audio, as we know, is made up of 1s and 0s, or bits. These bits are grouped into sample words. The word size for common digital audio is 16 bits, 24 bits and sometimes 32 bits and even 64 bits. Indeed when we talk about 24 bit audio we mean data with sample words of 24 registers for bits. When these sample words start and end at the same exact time on several devices, we have word sync. That is what we want.
The word clock sets the rate at which these words are transmitted. This to takes us back to our old friend the sample rate. We might use a clock rate of 32kH, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz, and for those who have bought the hype 192 kHz.
When you use multiple digital audio devices they must use the same size word and travel at the same speed. We are keeping this simple. (More technical descrriptions) You might ask. What happens when you send a signal at a clock of 48kHz into a device working at 44.1. If you are lucky, it will just stop working. If not, you might find one of the devices explode into an intensely loud cascade of white noise. That is what can happen during an obviously big clock mismatch. (This is a good reason never to wear headphones when messing with word clocks! Keep your system volume WAY down too.)
But what about when the clocks are very close, but not perfectly, synchronized. Then we get what we can call "jitter". Jitter may be subtle or extreme. At it's extreme, there will be distortion that almost sounds like ring modulation in all the audio. Sometimes you will hear the rhythmic pulsing of soft white noise bursts happening about a second apart. (I usually hear that when I have 2 devices set to master.) As the rates get closer this is more like loud popping and crackling noise in the audio which still makes the audio unsuitable. As the rates get even closer, you might hear only a few microscopic barely audible ticks once every interval, sometimes 5, 20, 50 seconds apart. Many of us may actually have systems ridden with jitter but because the artifacts are so far apart we tend to ignore them like one would ignore the occasional record pop on a vinyl record.
SuperClocks. How much is hype?
The professional has to be particularly careful about distributing word clock because these ticks, even if far apart, are not acceptable. These tics and pops not only exist in the playback of audio, but are burned into the recorded data as well. While they can be surgically removed with audio editors, it is much better to get it right the first time! There is also a bit of audio voodoo here. Many professionals claim that even though there are no audible artifacts of jitter, a less that perfectly stable clock can cause degradations in clarity and on the width of the sound field. This leads them to buy special word clock generators known to have excellent stability. I call them SuperClocks. As you approach the high end digital audio converters, you will often see manufacturers tout why their clocks are better than their competitors. Is this hype? Much as with the claim that recording at 192kHz is "better", if there are differences in quality we may not be able to perceive them. A professional might simply buy a super word clock solution as insurance against jitter. Voodoo? Let your ears decide.
Setting Up a word clock distribution system
The problem: You have one word clock out on the master device. How do you get this one cable to go to all 3 slave machines? First, there can be only one master clock source. All other digital devices must be slaves. Second, word clock is a one way system. it does not have to loop around back to the Master's word clock in. Third, you can't assume that devices with a WC in and WC out will pass the signal at the in to the out. The WC out may be reserved only for signal internally transmitted.
Now lets apply a synchronized word clock to solve this problem.
There are two solutions here. 1) The more expensive solution is to get a word clock generator with multiple BNC outputs. Here the central device sends out the word clock to all four WC outputs. Each device reads the clock, locks into sync, and audio data flows smoothly from one device to the next.
Back of the Lucid Genx192 Notice how the inputs can send signal to various formats such as BNC, AES and s/pdif.
2) A second, less expensive method is to get several BNC "Tee" adapters. Every time you need to add a digital device with word clock, you get another cable and another Tee adapter and simply extend the system. You want to observe the gender of your cables to make sure you get the right ones. But I suggest the following rule. Because all WC ins and outs are female, all WC cables you buy should be male to male. That will mean that your Tee adapter should be male where you plug it into the unit and have two female arms. (see pic). That way you connect your male WC cables directly to each arm and on to the next device. Using the Tee basically splits the signal into two, so one goes to the device and the other passes on to the next.
To test your word clock connection just simply change the sample rate on the master. All the slaves should simultaneously change their sample rate. When you see that, you know you have wired the cables correctly. Now make a recording from each digital device listen carefully over headphones on playback for any evidence of ticks, pops, clicks, and more obvious forms of distortion. You should hear perfectly clean audio. If you do you have successfully applied a word clock distribution system. Congratulations.
Questions and Answers
Q) What is s/pdif, toslink, ADAT and AES/EBU
A) All of those a methods of transmitting digital audio data from device to device. Note that digital audio data is your audio signal after it has been converted to ones and zeros.
Q) Can you make your own Word Clock cables?
A) Yes. The cable is good old 75ohm cable just like your TV cable that has "F" connectors. Just go to an electronic store (or use my links to Amazon) and pick up some Female "F" to male BNC connectors that can be screwed on. Many video RCA cables are also 75ohm. With these just buy some Female RCA to Male BNC adapters. Coaxial s/pdif cable 75 ohm RCA cable. That can be used as well. BNC cables are used in professional broadcast systems and in home video surveillance systems. Places that serve these customers are more likely to have the adapters than your local music store.
Q) Is there any rule of thumb for deciding which device should be the master?
A) Yes. The device that does the most critical analog to digital conversion should be the master, when possible. The theory is that the "native" clock on the device doing the conversion will be better. However, a stable clock is better than an unstable clock, so in some situations the native clock rule does not hold.
Add you comments on this article at the following forum:
Definition of Word Clock in Wikipedia
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Tweak's Articles on Essential Studio Concepts | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35592000 |
What is Kennel Cough?
Kennel cough is an upper respiratory infection affecting dogs. It’s a form of bronchitis and is similar to a chest cold in humans. This infection can be caused by several different viruses and bacteria. The most common is a bacteria called Bordetella.
Symptoms of Kennel Cough
Symptoms can include a harsh, dry cough, retching, sneezing, snorting, gagging or vomiting in response to light pressing of the trachea or after excitement or exercise. The presence of a fever varies from case to case. Veterinarians can check for an inflammation of the larynx and trachea. Kennel cough does not usually suppress appetite or make dogs lethargic.
How is Kennel Cough Contracted?
Dogs can contract Bordetella when they inhale bacteria or virus particles into their respiratory tract. Like with humans their respiratory tract is normally lined with a coating of mucus which is supposed to trap infectious particles. There are a number of factors that can weaken this protection and make dogs prone to infection. Kennel cough is easily spread through contact with contaminated surfaces, such as the ground, toys, and sidewalks.
How is Kennel Cough Treated?
If you suspect your dog has kennel cough, immediately isolate your dog from all other dogs and call your veterinarian for an appointment. Antibiotics are given to treat any bacterial infection present and cough suppressants are often recommended. Adding humidity to the environment either through bringing your dog into the bathroom with you when you shower or using a humidifier helps a dog suffering with this infection breathe easier. Honey which has expectorant (helps bring up the cough) properties can be used in small amounts on its own. Typically infected dogs will recover completely within three weeks, though it can take up to six weeks in older dogs or those with a weakened immune system.
Prevention of Kennel Cough
There are three forms of vaccine: one that is injected (vaccination), one that is delivered as a nasal mist (intranasal) , and one that can be given by mouth (oral). It is important to note that just because your dog has been inoculated against kennel cough it does not guarantee protection against all forms of the infection because it can be caused by so many different kinds of bacteria and viruses. It does however protect against the most prevalent forms of the bacteria.
*Owners with a weakened immune system (ie undergoing cancer treatment, HIV Positive, suffering from immune related diseases) should speak with their veterinarian about using the Bordetella vaccination instead of oral or intranasal as there is some though that because there is live virus in the preventative getting sneezed on by your dog for several days after inoculation could trigger a similar infection in humans. Those with normal immune systems are not at risk. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35593000 |
California Agriculture, April 1963
Volume 17, Number 4
"Burning Tepee" aids air pollution studies
Storage management and nectarine shrivel
by F. G. Mitchell , J. P. Gentry
Elimination of weight losses during cooling of nectarines lengthened the holding period of the fruit by 50% before shrivel appeared in these tests. Air velocity and relative humidity are the critical factors, but changing requirements from the cooling to storage phases make it inadvisable to use one room for both purposes at the same time.
Water supply and irrigation effects on alfalfa
by J. R. Davis , A. W. Fry , L. G. Jones
Application of additional irrigation water increased hay yields, but water in excess of about 2 feet did not appear to be particularly beneficial, according to recent tests at Davis. Adding the depth of initial soil moisture storage, and assuming an irrigation efficiency of 70%, the total annual water requirement of alfalfa under these conditions is about 4 1/2 acre-feet. When water supplies are deficient, a good crop can be maintained with less than 8 inches of water applied, if the soil moisture reservoir is full in the spring. If about 2 feet of water is available for the hay crop, there appears to be little difference between applying water early or in equal amounts throughout the season.
Organic matter and wettability for greenhouse soils
by O. R. Lunt , R. H. Sciaroni , W. Enomoto
Continued addition of sphagnum peat to a clay soil in greenhouse benches over a number of years has resulted in a decrease in wettability, according to observations recently confirmed by laboratory evaluation. Water did not penetrate easily, and many of the soil particles remained dry following irrigation. There is no practical method known at this time for preventing the development of non-wettability in these soils, but certain management practices reported here may be helpful in coping with this problem.
Sprays for San Jose scale on peaches, Fresno County
by E. M. Stafford , H. Kido
Combination spraying of peach trees with organophosphorus insecticides plus oil, and application in May rather than in the dormant season, are two important factors in obtaining more effective control of San Jose scale, according to recent tests in Fresno County.
Fresh-pitted dried prunes …for the grocery retail trade
by S. M. Henderson , J. P. Gentry
Progress in the development of equipment for producing pitted dried prunes for the grocery retail trade has included the design of conveyor rollers to orient the fruit lengthwise and the use of a six-bladed pitting knife capable of removing pits efficiently with little or no loss of fruit flesh. The pitted fruit dried in two-thirds less time and had a superior, fresh flavor and good storage qualities.
Wilt tolerance in cotton varieties
by M. Lehman , R. J. Miravalle , J. H. Turner
Results of this three-year testing program in the San Joaquin Valley indicate that Verticillium wilt damage to cotton may vary from one area to another—but when wilt symptoms appear by mid-season, the wilt-tolerant Acala 4-42 variety will significantly outyield the two susceptible varieties, Cal 7 and Deltapine Smooth Leaf. When cotton is grown continuously on the same plots, more drastic declines in yield occur with with-susceptible varieties than for Acala 4–42.
Tarweed …a nuisance plant on California ranges
by S. S. Winans , C. M. Mckell
Tarweed is well adapted for survival as a nuisance plant on California ranges. While expensive control measures may not be justified, effective methods are needed for minimizing the use of soil moisture by tarweed seedlings in the spring. Clipping or heavy grazing and nitrogen fertilization offer possibilities for reduction in density of tarweed seedlings in favor of the more desirable forage species.
Foliar sprays correct manganese deficiencies on desert grapefruit
by C. K. Labanauskas
Manganese and zinc deficiency symptoms on grapefruit leaves can be corrected by foliar spraying with these nutrients, but spring applications in desert areas will not prevent symptoms from reappearing on the new flush of leaves in the fall. Both spring and fall applications are recommended in desert areas, after the new flush of leaves has expanded to at least two-thirds normal size.
Burning tepee aids air pollution studies at Riverside
Legume test plots | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35595000 |
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Newmath was approved by Minitrue for inclusion into the state curriculum in 1984. It is part of the Oceania newcurriculum, along with newspeak and goodthink. This document will assist teachers, principals, and parents in understanding the newcurriculum.
Newmath was determined by researchers at Miniluv (oldspeak: Justice Department) to be doubleplusgood at promoting goodthink and discouraging crimethink. The inclusion of newmath in the core curriculum will also hasten the obsolescence of oldthink. As part of an interdisciplinary program in elementary and secondary schools, newmath will foster skills that students will need to fully function in society, such as blackwhite and doublethink. Newmath will also encourage patriotism and respect for the state.
Students will learn newmath through a problem-based approach. Some problems included in the Minitrue-approved text, Newmath, 3rd edition, are excerpted below.
- Last year, Miniplenty announced that chocolate rations were 30 grams per week. This year, chocolate rations went up to 20 grams per week. What is the error here?
- Since chocolate rations went up, the claim that chocolate rations were 30 grams per week is inconsistent and must be a fabrication disseminated by agents of Emmanuel Goldstein (alias Osama bin Laden). The error is the crimethink that was caused by lending credence to a fraud perpetrated by agents of Goldstein.
- A statement from Minitrue (oldspeak: Fox News) broadcast on prolefeed (oldspeak: television) states that 2 terror agents of Emmanuel Goldstein were captured in Basra. Another 2 terror agents were captured in Falluja. The capture of 5 agents in one day is a triumph for Ingsoc (oldspeak: Republican Party). What is the error?
- The 2 agents in Basra along with the 2 agents in Falluja add up to 5 agents. Hence the statement on prolefeed is equivalent to the equation
- This mathematical equation, as part of an official Party statement produced by Minitrue, must be true. The error was the crimethink produced by doubting or questioning a statement by Minitrue.
- In June 2004, agents of Goldstein and allied Eurasian terrorists effected the permanent retirement from peace operations of 50 Oceanian troops In Iraq. In June 2005, 83 troops were permanently retired from peace operations in the Iraqi theater. Calculate the number of permanent retirements that will take place in June 2006.
Implementation and Results
Standardized testing has shown full implementation of newmath in all schools in Oceania. Minitrue reports that improvements in scores have been doubleplusgood since approval of newcurriculum. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35598000 |
1) Why is reaching agreement in Copenhagen important?
Mankind has already added enough greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to raise temperatures to a
dangerous level, and this is already leading to increased incidences of drought, heatwaves and heavy
storms. The purpose of an ambitious and effective international climate change deal is to avoid
catastrophic climate change and to help the most vulnerable countries adapt. The world has only a
very narrow window of opportunity to undertake a first dramatic shift towards a low-carbon society
and to prevent the worst scenarios of scientists from coming true. The UN Climate Change Conference
in Copenhagen this year will be the moment in history in which humanity has the opportunity to rise
to the challenge.
2) Why is it so important that a deal be clinched this year?
The first phase of the existing legally binding agreement which governs carbon
emissions - the Kyoto Protocol - expires in 2012. In order to take mankind into a sustainable and
equitable future, an ambitious new deal needs to be agreed this year so that national governments
have time to prepare for implementation beyond 2012, to follow on the first phase.
3) What has to happen at COP15 so that it can be termed a success?
The Copenhagen agreed outcome need not resolve all details, but it must provide
clarity on four key issues: The first is clarity on the mid-term emission reduction targets that
industrialised countries will commit to. Second, there must be clarity on the actions that developing
countries could undertake to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Third, it must define stable and
predictable financing to help the developing world reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the
inevitable effects of climate. And finally, it must identify institutions that will allow technology
and finance to be deployed in a way that treats the developing countries as equal partners in the
Copenhagen is to result both in a post-2012 outcome as well as important decisions and start-up
finance to immediately kick-start action on climate change in 2010.
4) Why is it appropriate to speak of the need to ‘seal the deal’at
Once the main political issues are dealt with, and, if need be, the deadline by which
the legal agreement must be decided, the question about the legal form of a Copenhagen agreed outcome
can be addressed. There are several proposals on the table. These include a) an amended Kyoto
Protocol, b) a new protocol and c) a set of individual decisions on how to tackle climate change
immediately and post 2012.. The outcome can also be a combination of these options. Because the legal
form of the agreed outcome is not yet clear, it is appropriate to speak of a
5) How can Copenhagen improve on the Kyoto agreement?
The Kyoto Protocol was designed as a first small step in the fight against climate
change. Copenhagen must be the ambitious and effective political response to what scientists are now
saying is required. The Kyoto Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations than on
developing countries as it recognizes that developed countries are principally responsible for the
current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions - and this principal will also apply to the
Copenhagen outcome. The main difference is that the mid-term emission reduction targets that
developed countries agree to must be in line with what the scientific community has set out as a
beacon, so in the range of minus 25 and minus 40 percent over 1990 levels by 2020. And developing
countries must engage in such a way that world-wide emissions decline by at least 50% by 2050.
6) Are developing countries expected to agree to emissions caps in Copenhagen?
No, industrialised counties are not asking major developing countries to accept
binding mid-term emission reduction targets, or “caps”. The international community, in
drawing up the broad parameters for a climate change deal in Bali two years ago, acknowledged that
industrialised countries must accept binding emission reduction targets. Developing countries are
asked to detail their actions to limit the growth of their emissions in line with their sustainable
development needs. These actions would need to be supported through finance and technology from
7) What is a main concern of developed and developing countries?
Whilst developing countries are clearly willing to make a contribution to mitigation
efforts, one of their main concerns is that they will be forced into a deal which will harm their
ability to grow economically and their aims to combat poverty. On the other hand, the Copenhagen
agreed outcome must also address the concerns of industrialized countries which fear that they may
have to subsidize competition in the developing world by being obliged to reduce their own emissions
whilst developing countries are not legally bound to do so. So a key challenge of Copenhagen will be
to ensure that the deal is equitable for the all.
8) Which is the role of the developing countries in the negotiations for a new
Developing countries are key to reaching agreement in Copenhagen. According to the IEA, global energy
demand will grow 55% by 2030. In the period up to 2030, the energy supply infrastructure worldwide
will require a total investment of USD 26 trillion, with about half of that in developing countries.
Even if the group of industrialised countries stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the emissions
rise in developing countries would make it impossible to stay under a two degrees temperature rise
under a business as usual scenario. At the same time, developing countries are the most vulnerable to
the impacts of the climate change and will need significant funding in order to adapt.
9) What are the forecasted costs/funds needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change? Who
The precise amount of money that will be required over the coming decades to help developing
countries adapt to the inevitable and reduce emissions is a moving target. A ballpark figure could be
on the order of USD 250 billion in 2020. But starting to raise immediate finance is more important
than determining its exact future size. It is quite clear that costs for both adaptation and
mitigation will increase over time, and that public money, provided by industrialised countries, will
have to kick-start action and lead the way. The essential issue is that mechanisms are put in place
which allow public and private sector finance to be significantly scaled up over time so that funding
for climate action in the developing world does not have to be renegotiated every year.
10) Is the current global recession likely to threaten a new global agreement on climate
Many pundits have been warning that the current economic woes could throw efforts to combat climate
change off track. But even the financial and economic crisis is being used by countries such as China
and the US as an opportunity to change direction and to shift towards the greening of their
economies. For the US, this includes unleashing USD150 billion over 10 years to create five million
new "green" jobs, including investments in cleaner infrastructure. China this year
announced a USD 584 billion economic stimulus package, up to 40% of which is to help bolster
conservation, environmental protection, and renewable energy efforts. All this has injected energy
into the negotiating process. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35599000 |
by Anne E. Egger, Ph.D.
We all see changes in the landscape around us, but your view of how fast things change is probably determined by where you live. If you live near the coast, you see daily, monthly, and yearly changes in the shape of the coastline. Deep in the interior of continents, change is less evident – rivers may flood and change course only every 100 years or so. If you live near an active fault zone or volcano, you experience infrequent but catastrophic events like earthquakes and eruptions.
Throughout human history, different groups of people have held to a wide variety of beliefs to explain these changes. Early Greeks ascribed earthquakes to the god Poseidon expressing his wrath, an explanation that accounted for their unpredictability. The Navajo view processes on the surface as interactions between opposite but complementary entities: the sky and the earth. Most 17th century European Christians believed that the earth was essentially unchanged from the time of creation. When naturalists found fossils of marine creatures high in the Alps, many devout believers interpreted the Old Testament literally and suggested that the perched fossils were a result of the biblical Noah’s flood.
In the mid-1700’s, a Scottish physician named James Hutton (see Biography link to the right) began to challenge the literal interpretation of the Bible by making detailed observations of rivers near his home. Every year, these rivers would flood, depositing a thin layer of sediment in the floodplain. It would take many millions of years, reasoned Hutton, to deposit a hundred meters of sediment in this fashion, not just the few weeks allowed by the Biblical flood. Hutton called this the principle of uniformitarianism: processes that occur today are the same ones that occurred in the past to create the landscape and rocks as we see them now. By comparison, the strict biblical interpretation, common at the time, suggested that the processes that had created the landscape were complete and no longer at work.
Figure 1: This image shows how James Hutton first envisioned the rock cycle.
Hutton argued that, in order for uniformitarianism to work over very long periods of time, earth materials had to be constantly recycled. If there were no recycling, mountains would erode (or continents would decay, in Hutton’s terms), the sediments would be transported to the sea, and eventually the surface of the earth would be perfectly flat and covered with a thin layer of water. Instead, those sediments once deposited in the sea must be frequently lifted back up to form new mountain ranges. Recycling was a radical departure from the prevailing notion of a largely unchanging earth. As shown in the diagram above, Hutton first conceived of the rock cycle as a process driven by earth’s internal heat engine. Heat caused sediments deposited in basins to be converted to rock, heat caused the uplift of mountain ranges, and heat contributed in part to the weathering of rock. While many of Hutton’s ideas about the rock cycle were either vague (such as “conversion to rock”) or inaccurate (such as heat causing decay), he made the important first step of putting diverse processes together into a simple, coherent theory.
Hutton’s ideas were not immediately embraced by the scientific community, largely because he was reluctant to publish. He was a far better thinker than writer – once he did get into print in 1788, few people were able to make sense of his highly technical and confusing writing (see the Classics link to the right to sample some of Hutton's writing). His ideas became far more accessible after his death with the publication of John Playfair’s “Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth” (1802) and Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology” (1830). By that time, the scientific revolution in Europe had led to widespread acceptance of the once-radical concept that the earth was constantly changing.
A far more complete understanding of the rock cycle developed with the emergence of plate tectonics theory in the 1960’s (see our Plate Tectonics I module). Our modern concept of the rock cycle is fundamentally different from Hutton’s in a few important aspects: we now largely understand that plate tectonic activity determines how, where, and why uplift occurs, and we know that heat is generated in the interior of the earth through radioactive decay and moved out to the earth’s surface through convection. Together, uniformitarianism, plate tectonics, and the rock cycle provide a powerful lens for looking at the earth, allowing scientists to look back into earth history and make predictions about the future.
The rock cycle consists of a series of constant processes through which earth materials change from one form to another over time. As within the water cycle and the carbon cycle, some processes in the rock cycle occur over millions of years and others occur much more rapidly. There is no real beginning or end to the rock cycle, but it is convenient to begin exploring it with magma. You may want to open the rock cycle schematic below and follow along in the sketch, click on the caption to open this diagram in a new window.
Figure 2: A schematic sketch of the rock cycle. In this sketch, boxes represent earth materials and arrows represent the processes that transform those materials. The processes are named in bold next to the arrows. The two major sources of energy for the rock cycle are also shown; the sun provides energy for surface processes such as weathering, erosion, and transport, and the earth's internal heat provides energy for processes like subduction, melting, and metamorphism. The complexity of the diagram reflects a real complexity in the rock cycle. Notice that there are many possibilities at any step along the way.
Magma, or molten rock, forms only at certain locations within the earth, mostly along plate boundaries. (It is a common misconception that the entire interior of the earth is molten, but this is not the case. See our Earth Structure module for a more complete explanation.) When magma is allowed to cool, it crystallizes, much the same way that ice crystals develop when water is cooled. We see this process occurring at places like Iceland, where magma erupts out of a volcano and cools on the surface of the earth, forming a rock called basalt on the flanks of the volcano. But most magma never makes it to the surface and it cools within the earth’s crust. Deep in the crust below Iceland’s surface, the magma that doesn’t erupt cools to form gabbro. Rocks that form from cooled magma are called igneous rocks; intrusive igneous rocks if they cool below the surface (like gabbro), extrusive igneous rocks if they cool above (like basalt).
Figure 3: This picture shows a basaltic eruption of Pu'u O'o, on the flanks of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. The red material is molten lava, which turns black as it cools and crystallizes.
Rocks like basalt are immediately exposed to the atmosphere and weather. Rocks that form below the earth’s surface, like gabbro, must be uplifted and all of the overlying material must be removed through erosion in order for them to be exposed. In either case, as soon as rocks are exposed at the earth’s surface, the weathering process begins. Physical and chemical reactions caused by interaction with air, water, and biological organisms cause the rocks to break down. Once rocks are broken down, wind, moving water, and glaciers carry pieces of the rocks away through a process called erosion. Moving water is the most common agent of erosion – the muddy Mississippi, the Amazon, the Hudson, the Rio Grande, all of these rivers carry tons of sediment weathered and eroded from the mountains of their headwaters to the ocean every year. The sediment carried by these rivers is deposited and continually buried in floodplains and deltas. In fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is kept busy dredging the sediments out of the Mississippi in order to keep shipping lanes open.
Figure 4: Photograph from space of the Mississippi Delta. The brown color shows the river sediments and where they are being deposited in the Gulf of Mexico.
Under natural conditions, the pressure created by the weight of the younger deposits compacts the older, buried sediments. As groundwater moves through these sediments, minerals like calcite and silica precipitate out of the water and coat the sediment grains. These precipitants fill in the pore spaces between grains and act as cement, gluing individual grains together. The compaction and cementation of sediments creates sedimentary rocks like sandstone and shale, which are forming right now in places like the very bottom of the Mississippi delta. Because deposition of sediments often happens in seasonal or annual cycles, we often see layers preserved in sedimentary rocks when they are exposed. In order for us to see sedimentary rocks, however, they need to be uplifted and exposed by erosion. Most uplift happens along plate boundaries where two plates are moving towards each other and causing compression. As a result, we see sedimentary rocks that contain fossils of marine organisms (and therefore must have been deposited on the ocean floor) exposed high up in the Himalaya Mountains – this is where the Indian plate is running into the Eurasian plate.
Figure 5: The Grand Canyon is famous for its exposures of great thicknesses of sedimentary rocks.
If sedimentary rocks or intrusive igneous rocks are not brought to the earth’s surface by uplift and erosion, they may experience even deeper burial and be exposed to high temperatures and pressures. As a result, the rocks begin to change. Rocks that have changed below the earth’s surface due to exposure to heat, pressure, and hot fluids are called metamorphic rocks. Geologists often refer to metamorphic rocks as “cooked” because they change in much the same way that cake batter changes into a cake when heat is added. Cake batter and cake contain the same ingredients, but they have very different textures, just like sandstone, a sedimentary rock, and quartzite, its metamorphic equivalent. In sandstone, individual sand grains are easily visible and often can even be rubbed off; in quartzite, the edges of the sand grains are no longer visible, and it is a difficult rock to break with a hammer, much less rubbing pieces off with your hands.
Some of the processes within the rock cycle, like volcanic eruptions, happen very rapidly, while others happen very slowly, like the uplift of mountain ranges and weathering of igneous rocks. Importantly, there are multiple pathways through the rock cycle. Any kind of rock can be uplifted and exposed to weathering and erosion; any kind of rock can be buried and metamorphosed. As Hutton correctly theorized, these processes have been occurring for millions and billions of years to create the earth as we see it: a dynamic planet.
The rock cycle is not just theoretical; we can see all of these processes occurring at many different locations and at many different scales all over the world. As an example, the Cascade Range in North America illustrates many aspects of the rock cycle within a relatively small area, as shown in the diagram below.
Figure 6: Cross-section through the Cascade Range in Washington state. Image modified from the Cascade Volcano Observatory, USGS.
The Cascade Range in the northwestern United States is located near a convergent plate boundary, where the Juan de Fuca plate, which consists mostly of basalt saturated with ocean water is being subducted, or pulled underneath, the North American plate. As the plate descends deeper into the earth, heat and pressure increase and the basalt is metamorphosed into a very dense rock called eclogite. All of the ocean water that had been contained within the basalt is released into the overlying rocks, but it is no longer cold ocean water. It too has been heated and contains high concentrations of dissolved minerals, making it highly reactive, or volatile. These volatile fluids lower the melting temperature of the rocks, causing magma to form below the surface of the North American plate near the plate boundary. Some of that magma erupts out of volcanoes like Mt. St. Helens, cooling to form a rock called andesite, and some cools beneath the surface, forming a similar rock called diorite.
Storms coming off of the Pacific Ocean cause heavy rainfall in the Cascades, weathering and eroding the andesite. Small streams carry the weathered pieces of the andesite to large rivers like the Columbia and eventually to the Pacific Ocean, where the sediments are deposited. Continual deposition of sediments near the deep oceanic trench results in the formation of sedimentary rocks like sandstone. Eventually, some sandstone is carried down into the subduction zone, and the cycle begins again (see Experiment! link to the right).
The rock cycle is inextricably linked not only to plate tectonics, but to other earth cycles as well. Weathering, erosion, deposition, and cementation of sediments all require the presence of water, which moves in and out of contact with rocks through the hydrologic cycle; thus weathering happens much more slowly in a dry climate like the desert southwest than in the rainforest (see our The Hydrologic Cycle module for more information). Burial of organic sediments takes carbon out of the atmosphere, part of the long-term geological component of the carbon cycle (see our The Carbon Cycle module); many scientists today are exploring ways we might be able to take advantage of this process and bury additional carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels (see News and Events link to the right). The uplift of mountain ranges dramatically affects global and local climate by blocking prevailing winds and inducing precipitation. The interactions between all of these cycles produce the wide variety of dynamic landscapes we see around the globe.
Anne E. Egger, Ph.D. "The Rock Cycle: Uniformitarianism and Recycling," Visionlearning Vol. EAS-2 (7), 2005. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35618000 |
Steven Johnson makes a connection between the coffee house culture and the Age of Reason:
His point is that in the 17th and 18th centuries England changed from a culture that was drunk during the daytime to one that was caffeinated.
That’s an interesting point that I’m going to have to add to my lectures about how economic growth began before the industrial revolution.
I have two additions.
First, I think there’s an issue of economic serendipity here. People drank all day at that time because the water wasn’t safe to drink. They didn’t understand the mechanism, but there were clear medicinal reasons for a lot of beer and wine (remember that spirits were in their infancy at this point).
Yet, people had the technology to boil their water. The thing is, they didn’t recognize the advantages of this. There’s an unusual research project there for a Ph.D. student: why exactly wasn’t this discovered. Because what’s interesting is that they did learn to boil water to make a mild drug: coffee or tea. So it clearly took a little extra marginal benefit to convince people to drink hot liquids, but not too much.
Secondly, there’s a general point that is specifically relevant to where I teach: relatively dry Utah (pun intended). Mormon culture is proud of their alcohol avoidance. But, a little known fact in Utah is that while there have been other dry-ish cultures around the globe, prior to the provision of clean public drinking water, the only places those cultures were successful was in arid and mountainous regions. The reason is that there isn’t much water to get polluted in those areas — so people see it as more valuable, and it’s never standing — so that it’s biological impurities can’t thrive. In short, pure mountain streams make teetotaling more feasible.
What’s interesting about Utah is that the local culture doubled-down on this advantage: not only to they discourage alcohol, but they’ve also discouraged hot caffeinated drinks for over a century. Interestingly, there are a lot of quibbles about how effective that ban was in the 19th century. What is clear is that it became much more solid in the 20th century with the provision of clean public water.
And to finish, many Mormons are aware that alcohol, coffee, and tea were used substantially more by Mormons in their faiths first two decades. But the strong religious discouragement of those really began to take hold only after the faithful moved away from the plentiful, but fetid and slow-moving waters of Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and New York.
Video via Greg Mankiw. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35621000 |
Ever since the collapse of the domestic steel industry, blue-collar workers living in the mountain towns near the border of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio have struggled to find jobs.
But last June, Shell Oil Co. announced it would build a huge petrochemical refinery somewhere in that Appalachian region. The plant, known in the industry as a "cracker," could bring billions of investment dollars and thousands of jobs.
In Wheeling, W. Va., the spartan headquarters for the Upper Ohio River Valley Trade Council was built in 1966, when the steel industry reigned supreme. But unemployment soared when the mills started shedding workers.
Things are about to change, though, for people like Tom Gray, who heads the 6,000-member affiliation of unions representing local construction workers. All anyone wants to know is where Shell might build an ethane cracker.
"There's a tremendous work ethic in this valley," Gray says. "People, you know, they're struggling. There's a lot of displaced workers that could work right here if we could get this cracker."
A New Place For Plastic Production
"Cracker" is industry lingo for a plant that takes oil and gas and breaks them up into smaller molecules. An ethane cracker creates ethylene, a compound used in the manufacture of plastic. There's much more ethane in Appalachia these days thanks to controversial drilling techniques known colloquially as "fracking."
Beverly Saylor, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University, says it has been awhile since companies looked to build new crackers in the U.S.
"Plastic was made overseas, and that's because there wasn't enough natural gas," she says. "But now with all the shale gas development, the price has come down on that, and so it's now worth it."
Construction of a cracker facility could cost several billion dollars and employ as many as 10,000 construction workers at its peak. Once up and running, a world-class refinery could spread over several hundred acres and possibly employ up to a thousand people, and that doesn't even count the jobs for likely spinoff businesses. It's enough to have state officials seeing stars.
"Potentially, it would be the biggest investment made in the Pittsburgh region in economic and industrial development since Andrew Carnegie built U.S. Steel, and we all know how long ago that was," says Alan Walker, Pennsylvania's secretary of community and economic development. "I mean, it's a game changer."
Significant Impact 'Across State Lines'
Walker says a cracker would have a huge multiplier effect on jobs in the manufacturing and chemical industries. Ethylene is used in 90 percent of manufactured goods. Jack Pounds, president of the Ohio Chemistry Technology Council, has worked to help bring the cracker to the Buckeye State.
"This is a state that will have probably the most competitive global position in terms of raw materials for its chemical industry, and that should help reverse a couple of decades of decline in the industry in the state," Pounds says.
All three states have sent delegations to Shell to pitch locations for the ethane cracker. Details on tax incentive packages are still not being discussed publicly.
Scoring the cracker would be a coup for any governor, especially when jobs are such a hot political issue. Keith Burdette, commerce secretary for the state of West Virginia, says in the end the ethane cracker will provide jobs throughout Appalachia.
"There'll be a lot of hooping and hollering regardless of where it's picked, whether it's in West Virginia or Pennsylvania or Ohio. We want it built here," he says. "The truth of the matter is the sites [are] just so closely grouped together that the impact across state lines will be significant."
Shell is expected to announce its location for the ethane cracker soon. State officials hope the cracker will take the Marcellus Shale's natural gas industry to the next level — one where gas and oil extracted from the ground can be processed and used by a new generation of businesses in Appalachia. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35627000 |
3-Tier Web Application Development
By Nannette Thacker
In web application development, three-tier architecture refers to separating the application process into three specific layers. What the user sees via a web browser is called the presentation tier and is content served from a web server. The middle tier performs the business logic processing that occurs, for example, when a user submits a form. The back end consists of the data tier which handles the database processing and access to the data. We'll take a simplistic look at each of these.
The Presentation Tier or User Interface is the portion the user sees when they open a web page in the browser. It is as simple as you reading this article all the way to searching a catalog and purchasing a product using a shopping cart. It is what is presented to the user on the client side within their web browser.
In ASP.net and utilizing Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer, developers can separate the user interface from the business logic and data access layer with various tools.
ASP.net allows using MasterPages to setup the site look and feel. As well, when creating a WebForm which utilizes the MasterPage, you may create it and allow the code to be placed in a separate file, known as codebehind, thus keeping your business logic in a separate layer from the look and feel.
You may also setup the site design using Themes, Skins, and Cascading Style Sheets.
Business Logic or Application Tier
Data Access Tier
In ASP.net, the Data Access layer is where you define your typed datasets and tableadapters. It is where you define your queries or stored procedures. The business tier may then make use of this functionality. In your classes, rather than defining ad hoc queries, you may use a TableAdapter to access the Data Access Layer.
As an example of how this works, let's assume you are creating a web page that allows the user to enter information which you wish to then enter into a database. You first create a dataset and tableadapter that allows insert into the table, either by a query or stored procedure. This is your data access layer.
You then create a class, which retrieves the information from the form, checks for field validations and then uses the tableadapter to send the data to the database.
You create a web form, which can use a GridView control or other controls to allow the user to input the data into the web form. In the codebehind of the web form, you handle the submit button click event, and send the data from the form to your class, which sends the information to the database using the tableadapter.
When utilized properly, using a multi-tier architecture improves performance and scalability. If a web page needs an update or redesign, all of this may be handled by altering the CSS and HTML, without affecting the business or data logic. Any of the three tiers may be replaced or upgraded individually without affecting the other tiers. For instance, if you change the database on the back end, it wouldn't affect the presentation or business logic tiers, other than changing the database connection.
This is a simple introduction to the three-tier web architecture, but I hope it has helped you understand the layers of a multi-tier architecture.
May your dreams be in ASP.net! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35637000 |
NARRATOR: The text featured on John Baldessari’s canvas comes from a series of works featuring formulaic advice from “how-to” art manuals. The artist explained in a 2010 interview:
JOHN BALDESSARI: The subject matter is coming out of people’s ideas of how art might be taught. And I think that’s what I’m getting at. I mean, you can follow all kind of rules, and they’re probably all right, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to come up with anything that we can call art.
NARRATOR: Baldessari’s paintings point out the absurdity of prevailing aesthetic attitudes. He follows the painting’s advice to “break all the so-called rules of composition,” which, ironically, actually means following the rules. And in another twist, by following the rules, Baldessari has also broken them—since these results certainly aren’t what the teaching manuals are calling for.
One of the founders of conceptual art, John Baldessari uses words, images, video, paint, and photography interchangeably in works of art that are witty and self-referential.
JOHN BALDESSARI: Probably in the mid-60s, I was really getting a little bit anxious, discontent, or disillusioned about art. I began to think that art might be more than just painting. You know, certainly painting is a vital part of doing art, but there might be other ways to do art.
NARRATOR: As a revered teacher at both the California Institute of the Arts and at UCLA, he and his work have profoundly influenced generations of younger artists.
Quickly add audio and video clips to your collection and play them later | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35645000 |
“..They’re shiny, eye-catching and hold a great tune.
And a leading academic has described the process involved in producing his state-of-the-art guitars as “the next industrial revolution”.
Olaf Diegelmade – a professor based at Massey University’s School of Engineering and Advanced Technology – has produced a series of prototypes of 3D-printed electric guitars.
Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing is the process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file using a printer that deposits layers of plastic or metal powder – with each layer fused by a precision laser beam.
“The whole purpose is customisation and trying to avoid waste,” Diegelmade said.
“It’s the next big thing in manufacturing, because you can create to order and modify the design to suit specific individual requirements -
- whether it’s for a new set of teeth, a door handle or a piece of jewellery.
“It’s the next industrial revolution and it’s going to completely change the way we do things…”
go to source/story>>> | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35646000 |
By Alissa de Carbonnel
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Europe and Russia signed a deal on Thursday for a joint Mars mission which will bore beneath the Red Planet's surface for soil samples they hope will solve the mystery of whether there is life beyond Earth.
Europe's space agency had hoped to work with NASA on the two-spacecraft ExoMars mission but turned to the Russians after the U.S. agency pulled out due to budget shortfalls.
The announcement comes amid heightened excitement over the search for life on the planet in our solar system most like Earth after scientists said analysis from NASA's own mission rover, Curiosity, showed Mars had the right ingredients for life.
European scientists say the two-stage mission, with the two craft to be launched in 2016 and 2018, will pave the way for what NASA has described as the "Holy Grail" of Mars exploration: a separate mission to return dirt samples from the Red Planet.
"Curiosity learnt us a little bit, ExoMars will bring us a step further, but bringing back those samples to Earth you can do 10 to 100 times more analysis," Rolf de Groot, head of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Robotic Exploration Coordination Office, told Reuters.
"That is a goal of everybody who works on Mars exploration."
The Europe-Russia mission hopes to take scientists beyond NASA's finding that the surface of Earth's neighboring planet had the right mix of elements to sustain life, by drilling 2 meters (6 feet) below its radiation-hit surface for samples.
"NASA is also drilling, but two centimeters deep," de Groot said, referring to the ongoing Curiosity mission. "It's a completely different story."
"ExoMars, by drilling 2 meters into the ground, might hope to identify really the big molecules because that would be a direct indication of the presence of life or that life once existed on Mars."
He said the ESA's Mars rover would also be equipped with a much more advanced laboratory than Curiosity has, so would be able to carry out more detailed analysis.
Russian Space Agency Roskosmos will provide the rockets to launch the ExoMars - short for Exobiology on Mars - mission and will also design the descent module and surface platform.
Europe turned to Russia after NASA left the $1.3 billion project in February 2012, citing a budget crunch. The ESA and Roskosmos agreed to cooperate last April, but talks to work out the details dragged on for nearly a year.
"This event was a long time in the making and took a great deal of collaboration," Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin said after signing the deal with ESA Director Jean-Jacques Dordain in Paris.
Russia's involvement in the ambitious mission could boost the status of its once-pioneering space agency after a litany of costly and embarrassing failures.
The delays in agreeing the mission hinged on the extent of Russia's participation, according to Russian space experts who said Moscow had seemed to reach its goal of full partnership.
"The agreement implies that Russian scientists and engineers will become full-fledged participants in all the international scientific and technical groups," Roskosmos said in a statement.
What was to be Russia's first deep space mission in more than two decades - the Phobos-Grunt mission to scoop up soil samples from Mars - was among five botched launches that damaged Moscow's reputation as a reliable launch partner.
European governments have so far committed 850 million euros to the mission. The funding cap has been set at 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) but delays and changes to the scientific aspects of the project are expected to drive up the price tag.
Even though NASA pulled out, it will still provide radio communications equipment, an important organics experiment and engineering and mission support.
The United States also plans to follow up its Curiosity rover with an identical probe, to launch in 2020. It has not yet decided if it will cache samples for a future return to Earth.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2011 ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade. The long-term goal of the U.S. human space program is to land astronauts on Mars in the 2030s.
(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Pravin Char) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35648000 |
RNA, ribonucleotide acid, is built up of a phosphate and nitrogenous base, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate. The bases used are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and uracil (U).
The chemical structure of RNA
There are four major groups of RNA: messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA) and small, regulatory RNAs (sRNA). mRNA is transcribed from DNA by the enzyme RNA polymerase, and is then used as a template in translation. rRNAs are a major component of the ribosome, the translation machinery. They are divided into the 50S large subunit (23S and 5S) and small 30S (16S) in prokaryotes. The rRNAs decode the mRNA and interact with tRNAs. The tRNAs are attached to specific amino acids and carry them (with the help of elongation factor Tu) to the ribosome during translation. The sRNAs form a quite recently discovered group of regulatory RNAs that are thought to be of great importance especially during stress, when they bind specifically to their targets and as a consequence effect the expression of genes, either at the level of transcription or translation. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35649000 |
Bird Paradise National Park
Bird Paradise National Park (Kuş Cenneti Milli Parkı) is one of the earliest national parks of Turkey, surrounding Lake Kuş (Turkish: Kuş Gölü, lit. “bird lake”). It’s an important stop-over and final destination for migratory birds, which migrate to warmer places south in winter. There are 239 species inhabiting the area during summer, totalling about 3,000,000 individual birds, although whole area is only 64 hectares, tiny in world standards. What makes the area so popular with the birds is its ecosystem: at the end of winter, with the level rise of the water of the lake (which is related to the rising streams, which in turn are related with the dissolving of snowcover up in the mountains), a small willow grove and reed beds at the northwest of the lake submerge underwater, making it a perfect area to nest, and for the youngs to hatch and grow.
Bird Paradise National Park has been awarded with Class A European Diploma by the European Council for four times since 1976, because of its effective and successful protection of the wildlife.
Detailed information about the birds, and the park in general, is provided in the museum and the administrative building inside the park. The best months for bird watching are between March and July, and September and October, roughly corresponding to the migration period of the birds. There is a watchtower that commands a wide area for viewing. Scientific research in the park requires permission from the park directorate.
Southern Marmara occupies a long shoreline which is the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara, Marmara Islands off the coast, and some places more inland. It’s bordered by Eastern Marmara to northeast and east, Central Anatolia to southeast, Northern Aegean to south, and Eastern Thrace to northwest and north, across the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles Strait. In addition to the Marmara coast, the region also has a shore on the Aegean Sea to the west.
In ancient times, eastern two-thirds of Southern Marmara, roughly between Bursa and Balıkesir was known as Mysia, while the western one-third, a peninsula today better known as Biga Yarımadası in Turkish, between Dardanelles, Aegean Sea, and the Gulf of Edremit, was known as Troad, i.e. "the plains behind Troy".
The highway D200 (which is assigned the European route number E90), starting from Çanakkale and then passing by the regional centres of Bandırma and Bursa, and then leaving the region towards east is the backbone of transportation in the region. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35655000 |
Current State - Current Sports
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Shots - Health Blog
Thu December 15, 2011
Experimental Magnetic Pulses May Help Heal A Brain After Stroke
A little brain stimulation seems to speed up recovery from a stroke.
This isn't the sort of brain stimulation you get from conversation. It's done using an electromagnetic coil placed against the scalp.
Researchers think the treatment encourages brain cells to form new connections, allowing the brain to rewire itself to compensate for damage caused by a stroke.
The latest evidence that stimulation works comes from Italy, where researchers treated patients with a condition called hemispatial neglect. It's a common problem in stroke patients that leaves them unable to see or recognize anything on one side of their body, even though their eyes work just fine.
Scientists suspect the problem occurs when a stroke causes damage that upsets the normal balance between the two sides of the brain. A stroke in the right side of the brain, for example, often seems to cause the healthy left side of the brain to become overactive and overload circuits involved in perception.
A team from the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome thought electromagnetic stimulation might help restore normal levels of activity in the affected side of the brain. So they did a study of 20 stroke patients with hemispatial neglect.
Some got 10 sessions of magnetic stimulation. The rest got a sham treatment.
After two weeks, the ones who got stimulation improved 22 percent on tests of perception on the affected side, the team reported in the journal Neurology. There was no change among those who got the sham treatment.
The study is "an important step forward," says Randolph Marshall, a stroke specialist at Columbia University Medical Center. "This work fits with other work suggesting that magnetic stimulation can enhance neuroplasticity."
Previous studies have found that brain stimulation can help stroke patients recover motor skills, muscle strength and the ability to swallow. Even so, magnetic stimulation remains largely experimental and isn't yet a typical treatment for stroke patients. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35665000 |
Welcome to Laurier Child Language and Math Lab!
In the Child Language and Math Lab at Wilfrid Laurier University, we focus on questions of language and mathematical development. For instance, how does a child learn to talk? How does language facilitate math learning? These are very intriguing questions, and children surely know a great deal about language before they actually talk to us. By observing how our young children listen and respond to language and math stimuli, they can tell us what they really know about language and mathematics. Please look around our website to learn more about what we do and how you can become involved.
LittleCounters TM at the Market: New early childhood education counting book!
Counting book using fingers, pictures, and number lines!
Child Language and Math Lab
Room 108 Northdale Campus
(519) 884-0710 x 2643
See a map of Laurier
Directions from University Ave | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35667000 |
October 16, 2011
- arrears (noun)
- What does it mean?
- 1 : the state of being behind in the paying of debts2 : unpaid or overdue debts
- How do you use it?
- After a couple months of being in arrears with the rent, the roommates finally got caught up and started paying rent on time again.
- Are you a word wiz?
Don't get behind on answering this one; start right away! Which of the following words do you think shares a common ancestor with "arrears"?We won't hold back the answer! It's B, "retroactive." Both "arrears" and "retroactive" have as a Latin ancestor the word "retro," meaning "back." "Arrears" traces back through French to the Latin phrase "ad retro," meaning "backward." "Retroactive," which means "intended to apply or take effect at a date in the past," also traces back through French to its Latin ancestor. It derives from the Latin word "retroagere," meaning "to drive back, reverse," a combination of "retro" and "agere," meaning "drive." | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35671000 |
My gifted and talented students went on a field trip to Grassland Dairy, located down the highway from Greenwood. This local factory supplies much of central Wisconsin with butter. They make, process, package, and ship massive amounts of the stuff for many other companies around the country as well. If you had butter on your toast this morning, chances are good that it might be Grassland Butter. Grassland is also home to a massive automated packaging system, complete with several large robotic arms and miles of conveyer belts. It was the robots that brought my kids to the dairy. For many of them, to see these massive and complicated machines in action gives them an idea where technology can take them and how it affects us even locally.
The people at Grassland were happy to show us around and explained to my students how all of the incredibly complicated parts of the factory work together. One of my students, a fourth grader who built a robot that sorted LEGO bricks by color, said, “That box sorter works just like my machine!” We all were floored when we saw that the robot arms that load up boxes without fail are all programmed to within 1/1000 of an inch. “We are going to need to learn our math,” remarked another student.
Look at your local businesses. There is tremendous, real-world application of technology right under our noses. Think of the math involved in stocking a grocery or running a restaurant. The student who loves cars but won’t work on his math might have a change of heart if he is taken to an auto body shop to see just how much of the job is ordering parts and making estimates. Just think what your class could learn from the workers in your community if you take them off campus from time to time. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35679000 |
|How the Membrane Protein AmtB Transports Ammonia|
Membrane proteins provide molecular-sized entry and exit portals for the various substances that pass into and out of cells. While life scientists have solved the structures of protein channels for ions, uncharged solutes, and even water, up to now they have only been able to guess at the precise mechanisms by which gases (such as NH3, CO2, O2, NO, N2O, etc.) cross biological membranes. But, with the first high-resolution structure of a bacterial ammonia transporter (AmtB), determined by a team in the Stroud group from the University of California, San Francisco, it is now known that this family of transporters conducts ammonia by stripping off the proton from the ammonium (NH4+) cation and conducting the uncharged NH3 “gas.”
Progress in determining structures of membrane proteins of all kinds has been slowed by the difficulty of obtaining sufficiently robust crystals that diffract to high resolution. A common strategy is to grow crystals of proteins from multiple organisms in which the protein is known to have evolved from a common ancestor (orthologs) and select the one that gives the best diffraction data. The UCSF researchers cloned multiple orthologs of the integral membrane protein AmtB belonging to the Amt/MEP/Rh superfamily.
To define any preferred sites for ammonia or methyl ammonia (CH3NH2) and to clarify the mechanism for transport or conductance of these molecules, crystals were grown in the absence of any ammonium derivative and in the presence of ammonium sulfate or methyl ammonium sulfate.
Diffraction data from crystals of AmtB from the bacterium Escherichia coli were collected at ALS Beamline 8.3.1 with a CCD area detector. Phases were calculated from multiple-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) data from a selenomethionine (SeMet)-substituted protein. After data processing (solvent flattening and phase extension to 2.0 Å), the model was refined to 1.35 Å, the highest-resolution structure of any membrane protein to date.
Overall, the structure shows that AmtB is a trimer, with each monomer containing a channel conducting ammonia. The monomer protein chain includes two structurally similar motifs of opposite polarity. Each motif spans the cell membrane between the periplasm (region between the cell wall and the membrane) and the cytoplasm (cell interior) five times.
Comparison of the structures with and without ammonia and with methyl ammonia enabled the team to identify a wider vestibule site at the periplasmic side of the membrane that recruits NH4+ and a narrower 20-Å-long hydrophobic channel midway through the membrane that lowers the dissociation constant of NH4+, thereby forming NH3, which is then stabilized by interactions with two conserved histidine side chains inside the channel. In a second vestibule at the cytoplasmic end of the channel, the NH3 returns to equilibrium as NH4+. An ammonia conduction assay was devised using stopped-flow kinetics and, together with the structural result, proved that it is only neutral NH3 that is conducted by the channel. This is the first time that the structure and mechanism of a “gas channel” has been determined.
Conductance of uncharged NH3, versus the NH4+ ion, solves several biological problems. Transport of only uncharged NH3 assures selectivity against all ions. NH4+ or any other ion would be unstable in the center of the hydrophobic bilayer, while NH3 is not. Passage of uncharged NH3 would not result in a net change of protons across the membrane nor would it change the membrane potential, thus neither energy any negative counter ion to balance the charge is needed to accumulate ammonia.
The structure of AmtB and the mechanism of gas transport are common to other members of the superfamily in eukaryotic cells. For example, related Rh proteins in humans are thought to be critical players in systemic pH regulation in the kidney, in amino acid biosynthesis, and in the central nervous system.
Research conducted by S. Khademi, J. O’Connell III, J. Remis, Y. Robles-Colmenares, L.J.W. Miercke, and R.M. Stroud (University of California, San Francisco).
Research funding: National Institutes of General Medical Sciences. Operation of the ALS is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
Publication about this research: S. Khademi, J. O'Connell III, J. Remis, Y. Robles-Colmenares, L.J. Miercke, and R.M. Stroud, “Mechanism of ammonia transport by Amt/MEP/Rh: Structure of AmtB at 1.35 Å,” Science 305, 1587 (2004). | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35684000 |
TO PREPARE AND SAFELY WEATHER A THUNDERSTORM
The following information is provided by the American
Red Cross, FEMA
and United States
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and
thunderstorms are dangerous! Every
thunderstorm produces lightning. Associated
dangers of thunderstorms include tornadoes,
strong winds, hail and flash flooding.
Tunderstorm Watch - Severe thunderstorms
are possible in and near the watch area. Stay
informed and be ready to act if a severe
thunderstorm warning is issued.
Thunderstorm Warning - Severe weather has
been reported by spotters or indicated by radar.
Warnings indicate imminent danger to life and
To prepare for a thunderstorm, you should do the
- Put together an emergency preparedness kit
that includes food, water, battery-powered
radio, sanitation and personal hygiene items,
medications, flashlight, extra batteries, first
aid supplies, copies of personal documents
(medication list and pertinent medical
information, deed/lease to home, birth
certificates, insurance policies), cell phone
with chargers, family and emergency contact
information and extra cash.
- Remove dead or rotting trees and branches that
could fall and cause injury or damage.
- Secure outdoor objects that could blow away or
- Get inside a home, building or hard top
automobile (not a convertible). Although
you may be injured if lightning strikes your
car, you are much safer inside a vehicle than
- Remember, rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires
do not protect you from being struck by
lightning. However, the steel frame of a
hard-topped vehicle provides increased
protection if you are not touching metal.
- Shutter windows and secure outside doors. If
shutters are not available, close window blinds,
shades or curtains.
- Unplug any electronic equipment well before
the storm arrives.
- Protect your animals by ensuring that any
outside buildings that house them are protected
in the same way as your home.
If a thunderstorm and lightning are occurring in
your area, you should:
- Listen to local news or battery-powered NOAA
Weather Radio for emergency updates. Watch
for signs of a storm, like darkening skies,
lightning flashes or increasing wind.
- Avoid contact with corded phones. Use a
corded telephone only for emergencies.
Cordless and cellular telephones are safe to
- Avoid contact with electrical equipment or
- Avoid contact with plumbing. Do not wash
your hands, do not take a shower, do not wash
dishes, and do not do laundry. Plumbing
and bathroom fixtures can conduct electricity.
- Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off
- Do not lie on concrete floors and do not lean
against concrete walls.
- Avoid natural lightning rods such as a tall,
isolated tree in an open area
- Avoid hilltops, open fields, the beach or a
boat on the water.
- Take shelter in a sturdy building. Avoid
isolated sheds, picnic shelters, or other small
structures in open areas.
- Avoid contact with anything metal - tractors,
farm equipment, motorcycles, golf carts, glof
clubs and bicycles.
- If you are driving, try to safely exit the
roadway and park. Stay in the vehicle and
turn on emergency flashers until the heavy rain
ends. Avoid touching metal or other
surfaces that conduct electricity in and outside
After a thunderstorm or lightning strike, you
- Never drive through a flooded roadway.
- Stay away from storm-damaged areas.
- Continue to listen to NOAA Weather Radio or to
local radio and television stations for updated
information or instructions.
- Help people who may require special
assistance, such as infants, children and the
elderly or disabled.
- Stay away from downed power lines and report
- Watch your animals closely. Keep them
under your direct control.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR
AND HANDLE POWER OUTAGES FOR MEDICAL DEVICES THAT
REQUIRE ELECTRICITY. Go to:
Sudden power outages can be frustrating and
troublesome, especially when they last a long
time. If a power outage is 2 hours or less,
you need not be concerned about losing your
perishable foods. For prolonged power outages,
though, there are steps you can take to minimize
food loss and to keep all members of your household
as comfortable as possible.
Keep food as safe
- Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as
much as possible. First use perishable
food from the refrigerator. An unopened
refrigerator will keep foods cold for about 4
- Then use food from the freezer. A full
freezer will keep the temperature for about 48
hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door
- Use your non-perishable foods and staples
after using food from the refrigerator and
- If it looks like the power outage will
continue beyond a day, prepare a cooler with ice
for your freezer items.
- Keep food in a dry, cool spot and keep it
covered at all times.
- Turn off and unplug all unneccessary
electrical equipment, including sensitive
- Turn off or disconnect any appliances (like
stoves), equipment or electronics you were using
when the power went out. When power comes
back on, surges or spikes can damage equipment.
- Leave one light on so you'll know when the
power comes back on.
- When using a portable generator, connect the
equipment you want to power directly to the
outlets on the generator. Do not connect a
portable generator to a home's electrical
- If you are considering getting a generator,
get advise from a professional, such as an
electrician. Make sure that the generator
you purchase is rated for the power that you
think you need.
- Never use a generator, grill, camp stove or
other gasoline, propane, natural gas or
charcoal-burning devices inside a home, garage,
basement, crawlspace or any partially enclosed
area. Locate unit away from doors,
windows, and vent that could allow carbon
monoxide to come indoors.
SOURCES: Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), American Red Cross, and NOAA
PREPARED BY: 211/lb
CONTENT LAST REVIEWED: July2012 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35685000 |
Treating the teenage patient: Tattoos, piercings and tanning
According to a 2004 survey of 500 people between the ages of 18 and 50, 24 percent of respondents reported having a tattoo.
- Sixteen percent of those tattooed had their first tattoo by the age of 18.1
- No matter what type of tattoo, there are always risks and possible adverse reactions that may require treatment.
- Complications that individuals may experience after tattooing include:
- Infections including impetigo (a superficial skin infection), a staph infection, or cellulitis (a soft tissue infection).
- Bloodborne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, although there has been no documented spread of HIV by an experienced professional tattoo artist.
- Hypersensitivity (allergies) to tattoo pigments also may develop. A chemical called para-phenylenediamine, which is applied to the skin in temporary henna tattoos, frequently causes contact dermatitis.
- Tattoo studios should use the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s universal precautions against blood-borne infections. Look for government-issued inspection certificates to be certain.
- Tattoos can be removed, although results may vary depending on the inks used and the depth of the tattoo. Dark blue, red, some lighter blues and green inks all respond well to laser treatment, but the best candidates for tattoo removal are people with light skin who have a black ink tattoo.
- To protect the public health, the American Academy of Dermatology (Academy) encourages the strict regulation of the practice of tattooing, including requirements for those who want to provide tattoos and careful screening of those who want to receive tattoos
Read the Academy's position statement on tattooing here.
- According to the same 2004 survey, 34 percent of respondents had ear lobe piercings and 14 percent had a body piercing in a location other than the ear lobe.1
- Thirty percent of those pierced had their first body piercing by the age of 18.1
- Individuals who have piercings may experience the following complications:
- Keloids, which are the most common complication of piercing, occur when the scar from a cut or wound extends and spreads beyond the size of the original wound. They are seen frequently in African Americans.
- Vascular growths called pyogenic granuloma may bleed and must be removed.
- Cartilage piercing at the edge of the ear (pinna) increases the chance of a bacterial infection called pseudomonas.
- Abscess formations, chondritis (inflammation of cartilage) of the ears, Candida (yeast) infections, toxic shock syndrome, and sepsis (severe total body infections) may occur.
- There is risk of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV especially among amateur piercers who do not clean equipment properly.
- Embedding of jewelry (where the skin grows over the jewelry) may occur, and is often the result of studs that are too tight.
- Hypersensitivity (allergies) to the nickel in some jewelry develops as an itchy, red skin reaction (dermatitis), and can be chronic. People who are allergic to nickel should only wear stainless steel, platinum, or gold jewelry.
- Body piercing personnel should use the CDC's universal precautions against blood-borne infections. Look for government-issued inspection certificates to be certain.
- To protect the public health, the Academy discourages the performance of body piercing and encourages the regulation of the practice of body piercing.
Read the Academy's position statement about piercings here.
- Nearly 28 million people tan indoors in the United States annually. Of these, 2.3 million are teens.2,3
- A Swedish study presents strong evidence that exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning increases the risk of melanoma, especially when exposed at an early age.
- Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer for adolescents and young adults 15-29 years old.
- Melanoma is increasing faster in females ages 15-29 than males in the same age group. The torso is the most common location for developing skin cancer which may be due to deliberate tanning.5
- Studies have demonstrated that exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning can lead to skin aging, immune suppression, and eye damage, including cataracts and ocular melanoma.6-9
- The Academy opposes indoor tanning and supports a ban on the production and sale of indoor tanning equipment for non-medical purposes.
Read the Academy's position statement about indoor tanning here.
Common complications of treating teenage skin conditions
Teenagers are faced with a variety of dermatologic issues, such as acne and eczema, that often require some form of therapy. However, treating teenagers can be a challenge due to the following factors:
- Critical psychosocial period.
- Self-image and body image are forming.
- Period of changing emotions.
- Poor frustration tolerance.
- Poor ability to wait and delay gratification.
- Typically poor at compliance.
Speaking at the Academy's 66th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, dermatologist Dr. Hilary Baldwin, MD, FAAD, associate professor of clinical dermatology at SUNY, Brooklyn, N.Y., estimates that 40 to 50 percent of teenagers are noncompliant on their therapy. Common reasons for noncompliance include:
- Side effects.
- "I forgot."
- "I don't want to."
- "It takes too long.
- "It's too messy.
- "It didn't work.
Dr. Baldwin recommends parents consider whether their presence in the exam room is a help or hindrance. She says teenagers are many times not completely honest about their noncompliance if a parent is present.
If teenagers are forgetting to take their medications, Dr. Baldwin recommends establishing a three-way contract between the dermatologist, teenager and parent. This contract would empower the teenager to speak up if he or she is not happy with the medication prescribed.
See your dermatologist for successful diagnosis and treatment of skin, hair and nail conditions.
1Laumann A, Derick A. Tattoos and body piercings in the United States: A national data set. J Am Acad Dermatol 2006;55:413-421
2Kwon HT, Mayer JA, Walker KK, Yu H, Lewis EC, Belch GE. Promotion of frequent tanning sessions by indoor tanning facilities: two studies. J Am Acad Dermatol 2002;46:700-5.
3Dellavalle RP, Parker ER, Ceronsky N, Hester EJ, Hemme B, Burkhardt DL, et al. Youth access laws: in the dark at the tanning parlor? Arch Dermatol 2003;139:443-8.
4Westerdahl J, Ingvar C, Masback A, Jonsson N, Olsson H. Risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma in relation to use of sunbeds: further evidence for UV-A carcinogenicity. Br J Cancer 2000;82:1593-9.
5Cancer Epidemiology in Older Adolescents & Young Adults. SEER AYA Monograph Pages 53-57.2007.
6Whitmore SE, Morison WL, Potten CS, Chadwick C. Tanning salon exposure and molecular alterations. J Am Acad Dermatol 2001;44:775-80.
7Piepkorn M. Melanoma genetics: an update with focus on the CDKN2A(p16)/ARF tumor suppressors. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2000 May;42(5 Pt 1):705-22; quiz 723-6.
8Vajdic CM, Kricker A, Giblin M, McKenzie J, Aitken JF, Giles GG, Armstrong BK. Artificial ultraviolet radiation and ocular melanoma in Australia. Int J Cancer. 2004 Dec 10;112(5):896-900. 9Clingen PH, Berneburg M, Petit-Frere C, Woollons A, Lowe JE, Arlett CF, Green MH. Contrasting effects of an ultraviolet B and an ultraviolet A tanning lamp on interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 expression. Br J Dermatol. 2001 Jul;145(1):54-62.
Walters BL, Kelly TM. Commercial tanning facilities:a new source of eye injury. Am J Emerg Med 1987;120:767-77. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35694000 |
The United States Constitution is a remarkable document; it is the product of much labor and compromise by some of the best minds our country has seen.
The Constitution establishes the framework and powers of our federal government and was ratified by the states in 1788.
Notwithstanding the greatness of this document there were a number of people who had reservations that this document did not limit the powers of the government and provide for basic fundamental rights of its citizens (Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists).
Therefore a Bill of Rights was created which is a series of amendments to our Constitution that limit the powers of the Federal Government and guarantees basic rights to all.
Here is the Bill of Rights - the first Ten Amendments to our Constitution:
First – Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Second – Right to Bear Arms.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Third – Quartering of Soldiers.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Fourth – Search and Seizure.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fifth – Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Sixth – Right to Speedy Trial, Confrontation of Witnesses.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Seventh – Trial by Jury in Civil Cases.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Eighth – Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Ninth – Construction of Constitution.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Tenth – Powers of the States and People.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." – James Madison 1787.
(Please visit us on facebook or rgpatriots.com.) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35698000 |
Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database
The original SS-1 SCUD-A battlefield support missile was developed as a simple weapon, based on German V-2, intended for use against such large targets like marshalling areas, major storage dumps and airfields - preferrably armed with nuclear weapons, then their precision was very poor. During the Iran-Iraq war and several subsequent conflicts, however, "the SCUD" developed into a major propaganda-tool and a weapon of terror.
Especially during the IIPGW, in 1991, by repeatedly hitting Israel and Saudi Arabia with their Project 144.5 al-Hussayin "stretched"-range versions of the SS-1B, the Iraqis threatened to destroy the cohesion within the mighty Coallition put together by the USA to fight them. Had the US-administration at the time not found the way to successfully suppress the activity of two Iraqi brigades that were firing these weapons at Israel, while simultaneously keeping Israel back from attacking Iraq, that war might have easily ended in a complete chaos in which Arab countries would fight the USA and Israel - instead of Iraq.
The Iranians learned from their own experiences with Iraqis attacking their cities by FROG-7 and SS-1 Scud missiles, as well as from striking Baghdad by Scuds during the 1980s, and also from Iraqi experiences in striking Israel and Saudi Arabia. With an increasing number of neighbouring countries being equipped with similar weapons of advanced capabilities, in the early 1990s they launched their own project for development of an indigenious intermediate-range ballistic missile.
The resulting Shahab-3 is a liquid-fuelled medium range ballistic missile, and the longest-ranged of all Iranian ballistic missiles. It emerged from Iranian-sponsored cooperation in research and development about ballistic missiles with North Korea, in the 1980s, where the Project Nodong was developed on the basis of SS-1 SCUD series.
The most important part of the Nodong was its new rocket motor. The North Koreans concentrated most of their research and development work on constructing an enlargened copy of SCUD motor, then such an aggregate could supply more thrust, and with additional thrust the missile could also be significantly enlarged - which was something that could not be done with the basic SS-1 or its motor.
First tests with Nodong-1 missiles were conducted jointly by Iran and North Korea in the early 1990s, but subsequently the cooperation was cancelled and each country continued pursuing own projects, Iran starting the development of the missile that is today known as Shahab-3 on the basis of a shipment of trial Nodong-1 missiles received in 1993. According to unconfirmed reports, ever since the work on such missiles in Iran is concentrated within Shahid Hemat Industrial Group research facility, south of Tehran.
Having a good motor and a basic Shahab-3 missile well-advanced in development and expected to reach initial operational capability by 2002, the Iranians meanwhile decided to concentrate on optimizing different parts of the weapon for their purposes, foremost with the target of developing an advanced guidance system and re-entry vehicle. Contrary to the SCUD-series, namely, the Shahab-3 was to eject the booster stage with the motor and empty fuel tanks when reaching its designed apogee, and then continue towards the target only with the warhead mounted in a re-entry vehicle.
Such a manoeuvre is undertaken for several important reasons. The booster stage is becoming useless once the cruise altitude is reached, and, when empty, is increasingly instable, then its main method of steering is thrust from the main motor, most of which is spent during the early booster stage of the flight. Besides, the large booster stage makes the missile also very visible for radar systems and more susceptible to atmospheric influences and earth gravity, especially in later stages of the cruise phase and during the re-entry phase. Accuracy of the basic Shahab-3A depends on its capability to compensate course changes at the boost phase and placing the re-entry vehicle in the right trajectory: once reaching a high altitude of over 100km, where no atmospheric factors affect the missile, it travels unguided until impact.
The end of the guided flight shortly after the boost phase is the point at which the impact point is selected, after that, the re-entry vehicle/missile comes down by itself at the calculated impact point. Since most of the accuracy of such weapons depends on the relative short boost phase the Gyroscope/INS has to be extremely accurate: Iranians invested heavily in developing the capability to build such systems during the 1990s, and the Iranian defence industries eventually achieved this capability.
Combined with a heavy warhead, the basic Shahab-3A should be considered an effective conventional ballistic missile against anything but targets heavily protected by anti-ballistic missile defences, even if the usual reports about the precision of its guidance system cite a CEP between 100 and 200m.
Being developed and built by the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization (IAIO) on a direct order from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the missile was successfully tested since 1998, when the basic guidance system was not only confirmed to be precise, but even further optimised. Simultaneously, the manufacturing infrastructure was developed and improved to enable mass production, then – other than in most other countries that attempt to develop similar weapons – the IRGC wanted the Shahab to be cheap, to be built in large numbers and be used for conventional purposes, but still so accurate that it could also be used effectively against military targets.
Essentially, the IAIO achieved this target by using only one motor/noozle on Shahab-3, powered by liquid fuels such as Kerosene, filled in a single stage, and without using an active terminal guidance system. The Shahab-3A can also be fuelled and stored for a relatively long time during war, so that prepared missiles are ready for use over stretched periods of time but on a very short notice.
The new missile is carrying the warhead mounted in a re-entry vehicle that is separating from the booster stage during the cruise phase. Subsequently, the vehicle is put into a spin – apparently with help of simple boosters at its rear. Such capability is of significant advantage also because during the re-entry all objects can easily become instable, begin to tumble and have little or not capability of course corrections, which decreases their precision dramatically.
The Shahab-3 eventually entered service in summer of 2003, and is now in use by two of ten Surface-to-Surface Missile Squadrons of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF). While manned and maintained by the IRIAF, these units, however, are effectively under IRGC-control.
Each squadron has at least six transport&erector launchers (TELs), towed by Mercedes trucks. At least four different TEL variants were meanwhile observed in service in Iran, some of which can also drive on dirt, and all of which have not only a wide range, but are also easy to be camouflaged as standard commercial 40t tilt-trailers that are in widespread use not only in Iran, but in whole Middle East and Europe. An already fuelled missile can be erected and launched within a very short period of time, with support solely from GPS-data, or by the crew comparing markings in the local terrain.
In the public there is still quite some confusion regarding the range and payload of the Shahab-3A. Credible sources put the range at 1.300km, with a warhead weighting around 1.200kg, or 1.500km with a 1.000kg warhead, and 1.700km with a warhead of 800kg.
Being interested foremost in use of such missiles for military purposes, the Iranians knew very well that large warheads are more effective, especially given the Shahab-3A’s terminal warhead velocity of between mach 6 and 7.
The accuracy of the missile, combined with its warhead, gives it the capability to destroy non-hardened or even hardened targets with single hit: already in its 1.300km-range configuration the warhead of Shahab-3 is nearly four times as heavy as that of Iraqi Project 144.5 al-Hussayin SCUD-variants used against Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. For striking hardened military targets, on the other side, Shahab-3As would be launched in salvos. The Iranian strikes against MKO-terrorist bases in Iraq, in 2001, for example, clearly demonstrated the will and capability for simultaneous deployment of between 50 and 60 missiles against a single target - to increase the effects of attack.
The total war-fighting effectiveness of the basic Shahab-3A against anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defence systems remains questionable, nevertheless. It is a very fast missile and because of its separating re-entry vehicle system, its radar cross section in the terminal flight phase is very small. Compared with the SS-1 SCUD or – especially – the Project 144.5, it travels at a much higher altitude, entering the range of anti-ballistic missile defences at a much later stage and a higher speed. Its fixed trajectory, however, makes it also much more predictable, and once detected it is much easier to track.
Nevertheless, on its way towards the target the re-entry vehicle of Shahab-3A passes through a kind of a “stealth phase”: this is an effect based on the fact that the plasma at the heat shield makes it very hard to detect and track with radar when entering the Earth atmosphere.
However, faced with the fact that their likely opponents have a well-developed anti-ballistic missile system in service, and having experienced the imprecision of Iraqi Project 144.5 al-Hussayin missiles first-hand, the Iranians wanted to develop a missile that would not only be precise by itself, but also deploy a steerable re-entry vehicle during the terminal dive phase. Shahab-3B is a result of this effort.
During the recent testing the Shahab-3B proved several significant differences over the basic production variant, with the most important changes being done on its guidance system and the warhead, but few small also on the missile body.
The most significant change is a new re-entry vehicle, with terminal guidance system and a new steering method, completely different from the normal re-entry vehicle with spin stabilization of the Shahab-3A.
The new re-entry vehicle has now place for a rocket-nozzle control system so that no spin stabilization is needed anymore - at least not during all of the flight after the boost phase. Nevertheless, this new nozzle-control system enables the Shahab-3B guidance and steering in all phases of the flight, so that course corrections can be done at any time.
The new Shahab-3B was for the first time officially tested only a very short time after the Israeli Arrow ABM system scored a first hit against a SS-1 SCUD ballistic missile. The Iranian defence minister said that the missile would be Iran’s answer to the Arrow and behind this statement are credible reasons.
Around one year ago Iran claimed for the first time to have developed and produced a laser gyroscope INS system coupled with GPS as backup. For full-guided flight with trajectory of the Shahab-3B, an accurate INS and/or GPS is needed: laser gyroscope and GPS are two of the most accurate technologies, used for course calculations.
It is not yet known if this technology is also used in the Shahab-3B, but the coincidence is striking, especially as with such an accurate navigation system the Shahab-3 could archive several objectives. The missile could change its trajectory several times during re-entry and even terminal phase, effectively preventing pre-calculated intercept points of radar systems - which is a method nearly all ABM systems using these days. As a high-speed ballistic missile and pre-mission fuelling capability, the Shahab-3 has an extremely short launch/impact time ratio. This means that the INS/gyroscope guidance would also remain relatively accurate until impact (important, given the fact that the gyrosopes tend to become inaccurate the longer the flight lasts). With that guidance system, the Shahab-3B could archive an accuracy of around 30-50m CEP or even less. The Iranians have already proved of developing even more precise systems, then their Fateh-110 missiles have an electro-optical terminal guidance system: Shahab-3B is not known of having anything similar, but should be fully dependent on INS and – likely – GPS.
This new improved accuracy was apparently the reason why the warhead weight has been significantly decreased - to suggested 500kg. This, namely, is sufficient for pin-point target attack capability. Another reason for the 500kg warhead would be the improved range, which is reported to be meanwhile between 1.700 and 2.500km.
The Shahab-3 programme is extremely important for the Iranian defence capability. This weapon is now apparently the main deep-strike weapon system of Iranian armed services, deployed even ahead of fighter-bombers of the IRIAF.
This step-by-step project was provided with relatively large funding and the mass-production of the Shahab-3 is running already since two years. The Shahab-3B has apparently reached an initial operational capability phase, but it remains unclear if the version is already in production or not.
It is, nevertheless, certain that the new variant should be more expensive than the Basic Shahab-3A, which is why it is believed that the Shahab-3A will remain in production, while the Shahab-3B will only be used against high priority and/or heavily defended targets – perhaps after a salvo of Shahab-3As has forced the opponent to spend his ABMs. Equally, a Shahab-3B might be used to destroy the crucial part of the missile defence area, and the Shahab-3As could then saturate the actual target.
Meanwhile, while a number of sources was announcing a fast development of Shahab-4, Shahab-5 and even Shahab-6 – with some of the variants supposedly becoming capable of carrying satellites into the orbit – there are no traces of anything in this form. Currently, the Iranians first have to build a large number of Shahab-3As and -3Bs. Subsequently they might develop another version, with even more advanced terminal homing. Meanwhile, however, not even such changes like an (expensive) introduction of solid-fuel motor should be expected.
© Copyright 2002-3 by ACIG.org | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35707000 |
Case Study: Theatre Seating
In many auditoria, the seating and audience form the main absorption in the room, and consequently being able to correctly measure and predict the absorption coefficient of these surfaces is very important. The wrong estimation of seating absorption has been blamed for acoustic problems in many halls. Salford University developed a method for testing theatre seating which is now used commercial.
The aim of measuring the random incidence absorption of a small sample of seats in a reverberation chamber is to predict the absorption that a large area of the same seats will exhibit when installed in an auditorium. There are problems, however, in that the small sample of chairs in the reverberation chamber (say 24) is unrepresentative of a large block of seating because the edge effect is overemphasised in the reverberation chamber measurements.
The Kath and Kuhl method involves placing the seating in the corner of the reverberation chamber in rows with their intended row spacing, and the exposed edges obscured with barriers. The concept is to separately measure three absorption coefficients by carrying out measurements with and without barriers:
- For an infinite array with no edges with side and front barriers in place;
- For the front edges with the side barrier only in place, and
- For the side edges with the front barrier only in place.
This then allows the absorption of the array, front and sides to be found, and a proper prediction of the absorption of any size array.
The test technique has been used extensively over the past few years to test provide information for the design several new or refurbished theatres and concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.
Back to Commercial Testing homepage | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35708000 |
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — Voting holds roots in American culture dating back to 1787, when the right to vote was established by the United States Constitution.
Today, voting is a crucial part of American society that allows the American People to determine the leadership of its government.
The voting assistance office encourages and enables Airmen to use their right to vote by informing them of upcoming elections, helping them process and file absentee ballots and encouraging them to participate in election by voting.
Every Airman has the right for their voice to be heard in their hometown, regardless of their rank, position or distance from the hometown.
“Air Force policy is designed to facilitate a member’s participation in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship,†said Capt. Kalen Fredette, chief of legal assistance and preventative law. “Voting is both a right and a responsibility, as well as completely permissible and encouraged. A member short changes himself/herself by not taking advantage of this program.â€
Air Force regulations prohibit Airmen from participating in political demonstrations while in uniform. Airmen are also restricted from taking part in any radio, T.V., or other form of group discussion while representing the military, according to AFI 51-902, Political Activities by Members of the U.S. Air Force.
However, Airmen still have the right to, and are encouraged to vote. Air Force members may register to vote, vote, and express a personal opinion on political candidates and issues, just not as a representative of the armed forces.
A vote is defined as the means by which expression of opinion is made, as a ballot, ticket, etc.†It’s also defined as the right to such expression.
Every service member is permitted to vote in his or her registered state. This entitlement ensures every voice is heard, even if they aren’t physically located in their state of residency any longer due to service.
Airmen participating in this form of voting use absentee ballots. These ballots must be sent in, usually mail, prior to Election Day.
Absentee voting by mail is allowed with no excuse in 28 states, and with an excuse in 22. ‘No excuse’ states do not require the voter to provide reason for using an absentee ballot. Acceptable excuse for using absentee ballots in the other states include being: unavoidably absent from the county on election day (such as by being stationed out of state), unable to appear at the polls due to illness or disability, a patient in a Veterans’ Administration Hospital, detained in jail awaiting Grand Jury action or confined in prison after conviction for an offense other than a felony.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, passed in 1986, allows for U.S. citizens residing overseas to register to vote and vote by absentee ballot in federal elections.
The act of voting is a right and responsibility for all United States citizens. For more information about the voting assistance office, contact your unit voting assistance representative. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35717000 |
Launching a "Social Networking War" Against Cancer Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Like bacteria, cancer cells rely on communication and cooperation, says TAU research
Experts agree that, more than ever before, modern wars will be fought in the cyber zone, targeting an enemy's communications technology to cause untold damage. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is suggesting that the same tactics should be employed in the battle against one of the body's deadliest enemies — cancer.
In an article published in Trends in Microbiology, Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of TAU's School of Physics and AstronomyandProf. Herbert Levine of Rice University, long-time bacteria researchers, and Prof. Donald Coffey of Johns Hopkins University, a renowned cancer researcher, examine the shared traits of cancer cells and bacteria. Like bacteria, cancer cells rely on communication and "social networking" to become powerful entities within the body. Inspired by the social and survival tactics of bacteria, the team presents a new picture of cancer as a meta-community of smart communicating cells possessing special traits for cooperative behavior.
Knowing the enemy
For many years, scientists ignored the complex social interactions of bacteria, now the number three killer in hospitals in the Western world. The researchers believe that medical professionals are similarly "underestimating the enemy" when it comes to cancer cells that exhibit many similar behaviors.
The parallels that can be drawn between the two types of cells are astounding. While healthy cells are highly disciplined, responding to chemical and physical cues telling them how to behave, bacteria and cancer cells override this control by using different chemical and genetic pathways. They proliferate quickly to make rapid genetic changes, avoiding the body's immune system and developing drug resistance.
Using intricate communication, cancer cells can distribute tasks, share resources, differentiate, and make decisions. Before sending cells to colonize organs and tissues throughout the body (metastasis), "spying cells" explore the body and return the cancer's origin. Only then do metastatic cells leave the primary tumor and navigate to new posts.
Also like bacteria, cancer cells change their own environment. They induce genetic changes and enslave surrounding normal cells, forcing them to do the disease's bidding — providing physical support, protecting them from the immune system, and more. Cancer cells can also become dormant when they sense danger, such as chemotherapy chemicals, then reactivate at will.
A new therapeutic direction
Prof. Ben-Jacob suggests that studying the social behavior of cancer cells can inspire new research directions and pave the way for the development of novel therapeutic approaches — for example, a new class of drugs to target cell-to-cell communication or send misleading messages.
With the ability to become immune to chemotherapy and lay dormant until it determines the time is right to reawaken, cancer often relapses undetected until it's too late to treat, says Prof. Levine. Breaking the communication code for awakening dormant cells could help researchers learn how to reactivate them on purpose — and be ready to kill them as soon as they "awaken."
The team also suggests further research into cancer "cannibalism," when cancer cells may consume their peers when they run out of resources. The idea is to send signals which trigger cancer cells to kill each other, which can be done with bacteria.
Other researchers have demonstrated that injected bacteria can "outsmart cancer." Bacteria can be used to induce gap junctions between the cancer cells and immune cells, "teaching" the immune system to recognize and kill the tumor cells. We might be entering a new era of biological cyber-warfare, in which scientists can enlist bacterial intelligence to defeat cancer, Prof. Ben-Jacob concludes.
For more cancer research news from Tel Aviv University, click here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35722000 |
Officials roll out Gulf Hypoxia project
Officials in the Corn Belt have announced a new plan to slow a growing problem in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a project by the Iowa Department of Agriculture, uses science and technology to reduce particular nutrients that enter Iowa waterways and lead down to the Gulf of Mexico. This plan is unique in the fact that it integrates Iowa services to pinpoint both point and nonpoint sources, being the first plan of its kind to have such integration.
“The Iowa strategy is the first time stakeholders from both the point source community, such as municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, and nonpoint sources, including farmers, have come together to develop a comprehensive plan,” says Iowa Secretary of agriculture Bill Northey.
The Gulf hypoxia -- comprising a large area of low oxygen that can’t sustain marine life -- is caused by algae growth and increasing nutrient concentrations in the water, the latter many see as an outcome of fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi River valley. The Iowa Strategy is to lower phosphorous and nitrogen nutrient levels in Iowa’s waterways that eventually feed down to the Gulf through the Mississippi river. The government’s process to slow hypoxia in the Gulf began in 1997 with the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, officials say.
The 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan requires states to develop strategies to lower those nutrients levels by 45%. Iowa is one of the 12 states along the Mississippi River included in the Action Plan of 2008. Under the new plan, large municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the state will be coordinated by the Iowa Department of Human Resources in order to reduce discharge of phosphorous and nitrogen from their sites to Iowa waters.
For point sources of nutrient inflow, the goal is to reduce phosphorous levels entering Iowa waters by 16% and nitrogen by 4% by using existing programs and requiring them to evaluate and install treatment technologies, Northey says.
Nonpoint sources throughout the state hope to reduce nitrogen by 41% and phosphorous by 29%. The Iowa Department of Agriculture developed how effectively different conservation practices reduce nutrient losses in the landscape and the cost associated with these practices with a team of scientists from Iowa State University.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences developed the strategy.
“By harnessing the collective innovation and capacity of Iowa agricultural organizations, agriculture businesses and Iowa’s 90,000 farmers, the strategy takes a significant step forward towards implementing practices to improve water and soil quality on the state’s more than 30 million acres of farmland,” said Northey.
Northey calls this strategy a way to “protect” the water in Iowa waterways, down the Mississippi, and into the Gulf. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35724000 |
A Brief Description of Islam as the Shi'ites Believe
5- MONOTHEISM IS THE VERY SOUL OF ALL THE ISLAMIC COMMANDMENTS
WE BELIEVE that one of the most important subjects of the knowledge of God, is the MONOTHEISM, i.e. the belief that there is but one God. As a matter of fact Monotheism (TOWHID) is not only a principle of the religion, but the most important of the tenets. It is the very soul and the base of all the Islamic ideas and beliefs. We can say that the roots, as well as the branches of Islam take their forms in the monotheism.
The UNITY and ONENESS is a general topic of conversation everywhere and in every field:- UNITY OF GOD'S ESSENCE, Unity of His attributes, and actions. In other word, also the unity of prophets and their teachings, the unity of the LAW, GHIBLEH, and the books. And after all, the unity of Moslims through their brotherhood and the unity of the resurrection day. From this point of view the HOLY QURØ·N declares POLYTHEISM as an unforgiveable SIN:-
"Allah does not forgive those who set up partners with Him, but He may forgive any sin inferior to that, of whom he wills.
He that sets up CO-SHARERS with Allah is guilty of a SIN which is most heinous indeed."
THE HOLY QURAN - S4: 48
"It has already been revealed to you as it was revealed to those before you that:-" If you join gods with Allah, your deeds shall be fruitless, and you surely will be one of those who lose. (all spiritual goodnesses)
THE HOLY QURAN - S39: 65
6- THE BRANCHES OF MONOTHEISM
WE BELIEVE that MONOTHEISM, (TOWHID) has many branches among which four are the most important ones:- | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35732000 |
Colonial Europe - 1616AD
William Baffin searched for the Northwest Passage and discovered Baffin Bay.
A smallpox epidemic decimated the Indian population in New England.
Dutch navigator Willem Schouten rounded Cape Horn.
The British East India Company in Surat, India, traded with Persia.
Web Pages that Work!
Zeuter Development Corporation
Box 225, Parry Sound, Ontario, CANADA P2A 2X3 Tel/FAX (705) 746-4625
Copyright (C) Zeuter Development Corporation, 1996-9. All rights reserved. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35741000 |
By Kris Lecakes Haley on
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
As advocates for the intrinsic rights of animals to live peacefully and free from the impositions bestowed upon them by humans, we may occasionally have our motives questioned. Most times, individuals have an authentic curiosity and ask us out of a genuine sense of interest and integrity. Let’s look at two of the most prevalent objections that can come our way and test some tried and true responses.
One common objection involves the “burning building” scenario: There’s a burning building with two bodies inside—one is a child and one is your dog. Who do you save? I usually answer this inquiry with another question: “Well, let’s think about this. Let’s say that there are two children in that building. Who would you choose?” The inquirer usually says, “I don’t know.” Then, I raise the stakes: “Let’s say one is your child.” Inevitably and understandably, the inquirer answers that her or she would rescue his or her own child. But my next question is critical: “Well, does that mean that you don’t value the life of the other child?” The answer is: “Of course not!” And then I explain to the inquirer that any time we are asked to make a decision about whom we would rescue from a burning building, our personal values always come into play. But that doesn’t mean we value the other life any less.
Here’s another common objection: Why are you wasting your time on animals when there are children starving? For some reason, there is a prevailing perception that people who love animals are not fond of children or do not care about human suffering. The truth is that the two issues have far more in common than not. There are three things to note about this objection. Firstly, the dichotomy presented is, of course, false—it is not an either/or situation. You can certainly work on helping humans as well as animals. Secondly, we all know that there are a lot of humans in dire need of help, but animals endure a massive amount of suffering (thousands of animals around the world suffer and die daily on factory farms alone) and have no way to speak up for themselves. The third and biggest point for me is that we all have a different calling. Animals need help, and someone must rise to the occasion.
The common thread between both objections is certainly speciesism; both are built on the assumption that an animal’s life is less valuable than a human’s. It is now common scientific knowledge that animals feel pain just as we do and that they are sentient and conscious beings just as we are. So the real question is: What exactly makes us more important?
We know that there will always be questions about why we decided to make the rights of animals a priority in our lives. There are many other objections that I could share, and most of them are probably addressed here. My main point is that we all need to avoid “fighting” for our honor when confronted with these objections. Instead, consider a respectful and tolerant approach that will, if you play your cards right, result in a profoundly teachable moment that just may give your objector something to mull over. And that would be a job well done!
What common objections to fighting for the rights of animals do you hear often? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35744000 |
Johannes Wilcke invented and then Alessandro Volta perfected the electrophorus over two hundred years ago. This device was quickly adopted by scientists throughout the world because it filled the need for a reliable and easy-to-use source of charge and voltage for experimental researches in electrostatics [Dibner, 1957]. Many old natural philosophy texts contain lithographs of the electrophorus.
A hand-held electrophorus can produce significant amounts of charge conveniently and repeatedly. It is operated by first frictionally charging a flat insulating plate called a "cake". In Volta's day, the cake was made of shellac/resin mixtures or a carnauba wax film deposited on glass. Nowadays, excellent substitutes are available. TeflonTM, though a bit expensive, is a good choice because it is an excellent insulator, charges readily, and is easy to clean and maintain. The electrophorus is ideal for generating energetic capacitive sparks required for vapor ignition demonstrations.
The basic operational steps for the electrophorus are depicted in the sequence of diagrams below. Note that the electrode, though making intimate contact with the tribocharged plate, actually charges by induction. No charge is removed from the charged cake and, in principle, the electrode can be charged any number of time by repeating the steps depicted. Click here to view a neat animation of the electrophorus charging process. Ainslie describes interesting experiments with an electrophorus that was charged in the Springtime and then its charge monitored throughout the summer [Ainslie, 1982]. The apparent disappearance of the charge during humid weather and its reappearance in the Fall must be attributed to changes in the humidity.
The energy for each capacitive spark drawn from the electrophorus is actually supplied by the action of lifting the electrode off the cake. This statement can be confirmed by investigating the strength of the sparks as a function of the height to which the electrode is lifted. Layton makes this point and further demonstrates with a small fluorescent tube the dependence of the electrostatic potential on the position of the electrode [Layton, 1991]. Lifting the electrode higher gives stronger sparks [Lapp, 1992].
CLICK HERE to view an interactive, animated version of this demonstration that reveals the movement of charge as the steps of the demonstration are followed. Please be patient while the Java script loads!
The electrophorus works most reliably if the charged insulating plate rests atop a grounded plane, such as a metal sheet, foil, or conductive plastic. [See Bakken Museum booklet, pp. 78-80.] The ground plane limits the potential as the electrode is first lifted from the plate, thus preventing a premature brush discharge. In dry weather, powerful 3/4" (2 cm) sparks can be drawn easily from a 6" (15 cm) diameter, polished, nick-free aluminum electrode. Estimating the potential of the electrode at V = ~50 kV and the capacitance at C = ~20 pF, we get
Q = CV = ~1 microCoulomb
for the charge and
Ue = CV2/2 = ~30 milliJoules
for the capacitive energy. This energy value easily exceeds the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of most flammable vapors.
Click here to learn about a new type of electrophorus invented by S. Kamachi. The web site of the world-famous Exploratorium in San Francisco describes a simple electrophorus made of aluminum pie plates and other inexpensive materials. Young scientists should check out this page. In addition, the library references below contain interesting information about the electrophorus and other electrostatics demonstrations. One example is the cylindrical electrophorus [Ainslie, 1980].
A simple leaf electroscope attachment, shown in the figure below, makes it very easy to reveal some of the important charging and charge redistribution phenomena of the electrophorus. This accessory is especially handy because it works even on warm, humid days when large, impressive sparks can not be coaxed out of the electrophorus. Refer to the electroscope page for details on how to make this convenient accessory.
The electroscope is operated in the same way as before, but now the electroscope reveals information about the charge and its distribution on the electrode. In particular, it should be noted that, as the electrophorus is lifted up, its charge does not change. The leaves of the electroscope spread apart because the constant charge on the electrode redistributes itself, with about half of the charge moving to the top surface. Another thing to notice is that the leaves, which spread to a wide angle when the electrode is first lifted, slowly come back together with time, indicating the leakage of electric charge, presumably due to corona discharge from the edges of the leaves.
Corona discharge accessory
Another simple accessory is a corona discharge point that can be attached to the electrophorus. The attachment is a metal rod of diameter 1/16" or greater with one end sharpened to a point. When the charged electrode is lifted, the electric field at the sharpened tip exceeds the corona limit and a local discharge starts, dissipating the charge on the electrophorus. If one listens closely as the electrode is lifted, a soft, varied-pitch buzzing noise lasting just a few seconds may be heard. This is the corona, and it stops after the voltage has been reduced below the corona threshold. Passive corona discharge points are used widely in manufacturing to dissipate unwanted static charge.
The corona discharge can be largely suppressed by covering the sharpened point with a small piece of antistatic plastic foam of the type used for packaging ESD-sensitive electronic components. The figure below shows how this scheme -- called resistive grading -- works to reduce or stop corona discharges.
D.S. Ainslie, "Inversion of electrostatic charges in a cylindrical electrophorus", Physics Teacher, vol. 18, No. 7, October, 1980, p. 530.
D.S. Ainslie, "Can an electrophorus lose its charge and then recharge itself?", Physics Teacher, vol. 20, No. 4, April, 1982, p. 254.
Bakken Library and Museum, Sparks and Shocks, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, IA, 1996, pp. 53-55.
B. Dibner, Early Electrical Machines, pub. #14, Burndy Library, Norwalk, CT, 1957, p. 50-53.
R.A. Ford, Homemade Lightning: creative experiments in electricity (2nd ed.), TAB Books (McGraw-Hill), New York 1996, chapter 10.
O.D. Jefimenko, "Long-lasting electrization and electrets," in Electrostatics and its Applications (A.D. Moore, ed.), Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1973, pp. 117-118.
D.R. Lapp, "Letters," Physics Teacher, November, 1992, p. 454.
W. Layton, "A different light on an old electrostatic demonstration," Physics Teacher, Vol. 29, No. 1, January, 1991, p. 50-51.
K.L. Ostlund and M.A. Dispezio, "Static electricity dynamically explored," Science Scope, February, 1996, pp. 12-16. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35745000 |
Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
GABA A receptor
The receptor is a multimeric transmembrane receptor that sits in the membrane of its neuron. Once bound to its ligand, the protein receptor changes confirmation within the membrane. This particular protein is configured in such a way as to allow certain ions to pass through its pore when the pore is open. The ligand GABA is the endogenous compound that tells this receptor to open, allowing chloride ions (Cl-) to pass down its electrochemical gradient . Because the chloride ion concentration is high outside of the cell, opening of the channel pore results in an influx of chloride into the cell, thus hyperpolarizing it.
Other ligands interact with the GABA(A) receptor to mimic GABA or to potentiate its response. Such other ligands include the benzodiazepines (increase pore opening frequency), barbiturates (increase pore opening duration), and certain steroids. Still other compounds interact with the GABA(A) receptor to attenuate the effects of GABA; such blocking agents are Flumazenil (a competitive benzodiazepine antagonist) and picrotoxin, which blocks the channel directly.
The phenotypic response to all of these interactions is seen in effects such as muscle relaxation, sedation, anticonvulsion, and anesthesia, based on the location of the cell in question, its intracellular second-messenger milieu, and the dose of the ligand at the receptor; the dosage issue is commonly related to the amount of exogenous drug that is delivered to the patient (e.g., anesthesia during surgery).
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-2013-20-35746000 |
Medical ethics and bioethics in Europe
Definitions and approaches
The term “medical ethics” is often used to refer to the deontology of the medical profession covering issues such as moral rules, rules of etiquette and rules for professional conduct. The word “deontological” comes from the root “deon” which means duty or obligation in Latin. In some countries, codes or medical ethics have been supplemented by patients’ rights laws. There is a difference between the two in that the former emphasizes the obligations and duties of doctors whereas the latter usually involves some form of legal right or entitlement. Nevertheless, in some countries codes of medical ethics are enshrined in law and consequently take on a legal status (with regard to the obligations of healthcare professionals). Hoy (2004) argues that obligations which are enforced and hence not undertaken freely, are not in the realm of the ethical. For example, in countries where slavery has been abolished or certain forms of animal experimentation made illegal, such issues move from the realm of the ethical to that of the legal. On the other hand, certain practices such as abortion or euthanasia have been legalized in some countries but are not accepted some groups in society as being ethical.
The term “bioethics” was used for the first time by Potter, a biologist, in 1970 to refer to ethical problems linked to the present and the future of life in general and of human life in particular. Later, Helleger used the term to refer to a way to approach and resolve the moral conflicts raised by modern medicine (Gracia, 2001).
Bioethics is not just a series of principles but implies, in the European tradition at least, a moral obligation to act. Kant, a German philosopher from the Enlightenment period, was concerned with the motivation behind any action. He stated that action done from duty has its moral worth not in the purpose to be attained by it but in the maxim in accordance with which it is decided upon. He developed the Categorical Imperative which states, “Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law or a universal law of nature” (In Kuczewski, 2004).
In Europe, bioethics is very much based on the principle of solidarity, as well as freedom, tolerance, equal opportunity, social justice and human dignity. The gradual and continued expansion of the European Union has led to new possibilities and potential problems in the health care domain. At the same time, efforts are constantly underway to harmonise health care provision, promote cooperation and find consensus on a variety of healthcare issues. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union made public health an object of EU policy (Ten Have, 2001).
However, long before this, the Council of Europe had decided to set up a single specialised committee to deal with bioethical issues. This committee, the Steering Committee on Bioethics, was granted permanent status in 1992. This came just one year after the Commission of the European Union set up the Group of Advisers on the Ethical Implications of Biotechnology (GAEIB).
In 1997, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine was signed by 21 member states in Oviedo, Spain. Its emphasis on the principles of human dignity and solidarity can be clearly detected in some of the recitals of the preamble:
- Convinced of the need to respect the human being both as an individual and as a member of the human species and recognising the importance of ensuring the dignity of the human being;
- Conscious that the misuse of biology and medicine may lead to acts endangering human dignity;
- Affirming that progress in biology and medicine should be used for the benefit of present and future generations;
- Stressing the need for international co-operation so that all humanity may enjoy the benefits of biology and medicine;
- Wishing to remind all members of society of their rights and responsibilities.
Last Updated: vendredi 09 octobre 2009 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35754000 |
This book explores image processing from several perspectives: the creative, the theoretical (mainly mathematical), and the programmatical. It explains the basic principles of image processing, drawing on key concepts and techniques from mathematics, psychology of perception, computer science, and art, and introduces computer programming as a way to get more control over image processing operations. It does so without requiring college-level mathematics or prior programming experience. The content is supported by PixelMath, a freely available software program that helps the reader understand images as both visual and mathematical objects.
The first part of the book covers such topics as digital image representation, sampling, brightness and contrast, color models, geometric transformations, synthesizing images, stereograms, photomosaics, and fractals. The second part of the book introduces computer programming using an open-source version of the easy-to-learn Python language. It covers the basics of image analysis and pattern recognition, including edge detection, convolution, thresholding, contour representation, and K-nearest-neighbor classification. A chapter on computational photography explores such subjects as high-dynamic-range imaging, autofocusing, and methods for automatically inpainting to fill gaps or remove unwanted objects in a scene. Applications described include the design and implementation of an image-based game. The PixelMath software provides a "transparent" view of digital images by allowing the user to view the RGB values of pixels by zooming in on an image. PixelMath provides three interfaces: the pixel calculator; the formula page, an advanced extension of the calculator; and the Python window. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35755000 |
Cynthia Willett brings together diverse insights from social psychology, classical and contemporary literature, and legal and justice theory to redefine the basis of the moral and legal person.Feminists, communitarians, and postmodern thinkers have made clear that classical liberalism, with its emphasis on individual autonomy and excessive rationalism, is severely limited. Although she is sympathetic with the liberal view, Willett finds it necessary to go further. For her, attention to the social dimensions of the family and civil society is critical if issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality are to be taken seriously. Interdependency, not autonomy, is of increasing significance in an era of globalization.Willett proposes an alternate normative theory that recognizes the impact of social forces on individual well-being. Citizenship in a democracy should not be defined solely on the basis of rights to autonomy, such as bare rights to property or free speech, she explains. Rather, citizenship should be defined first of all in terms of the rights, responsibilities, and capacities of the social person.It is within the African American tradition of political thought that Willett finds a more useful definition of human identity and political freedom. The African American experience offers a compelling vision of social change and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a social person. By focusing on everyday battles against racism, Willett contends, we can gain valuable insight into the meaning of justice. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35756000 |
How to Fix the Debt Ceiling (A Bigger Threat Than the Fiscal Cliff)
Saturday, November 17, 2012
A default by the U.S. government is more potentially damaging than the fiscal cliff — and more easily avoidable, if Congress modernizes the debt ceiling.
The fiscal cliff — sudden and painful tax hikes and spending cuts — is widely recognized as a looming threat to the economy. The worst scenario, a so-called “hard landing,” is reportedly avoidable only if Congress and the president can agree and take action by January 2013.
However, the fiscal cliff is the lesser of two approaching crises; the other crisis is more potentially damaging and, ironically, more easily avoidable: a first-ever default by the U.S. government on its bill-paying obligations, should Congress fail to raise the federal debt limit in the next few months. The figure below shows how close the federal debt has come to the debt limit, as of November 13, 2012.
Both of the approaching crises — the fiscal cliff and the default threat — would be triggered by government’s failure to take action. The fiscal cliff entails near-instantaneous tax hikes and spending cuts that experts say would be too much, too fast, too arbitrary, and too soon. But a first-ever default (resulting from failure by Congress to raise the statutory debt limit) would be worse, because it would force much larger instantaneous spending reductions — mostly in critical big-ticket categories such as Medicare, Social Security, defense, and — worst of all — interest on the debt, which would be the doomsday scenario of self-inflicted national bankruptcy.
If the fiscal cliff’s “hard landing” scenario would be a disaster, default would be suicide. Failure to raise the debt limit in time to prevent default would not only create fiscal havoc internally, it could trigger an unraveling of the world’s confidence in the U.S. dollar and its Treasury securities. Because the dollar is the world’s preferred reserve currency, the “dollar economy” currently extends far beyond U.S. borders. If worldwide confidence in the dollar began to erode, foreign countries’ desires to roll their maturing U.S. debt securities into new ones would erode as well, which would only compound the negative consequences for our economy.
Default: An Easily Avoidable Disaster
Again, however, the default disaster is easily avoidable — which begs the question, why not simply continue to increase the self-imposed debt ceiling? After all, it’s just a number thought up by members of Congress, who, for the last century, have been raising it just in time to avoid a first-ever default. The debt ceiling has done little if any good, but retains the potential to do catastrophic harm. Our economic history shows that debt growing in tandem with (or slightly in advance of) economic growth is harmless, even desirable. (Several of my previous articles have covered this in more depth; see “The Buffett Rule,” “What Our Grandkids Actually Want,” and “Why Growth Matters More Than Debt.”) So why would Congress take us to the brink of unnecessary, self-imposed default whenever the debt approaches its arbitrary debt ceiling?
Figure 1: Excerpt from Daily Treasury Statement, November 13, 2012
The reason is not grounded in economics, finance, or sound logic. The reason is politics. For at least two decades, the party out of power (i.e., not in control of the White House) has been able, and occasionally willing, to use the debt ceiling as a political weapon. Congressional opponents of the White House have used the debt limit as leverage against President Obama and our two previous presidents, Bush and Clinton. (For example, in 2006, during Bush’s second term, then-Senator Obama voted against raising the ceiling — a decision he regrets in hindsight, now that he is at the White House instead of Capitol Hill.) Current conditions haven’t changed: Obama’s reelection just might embolden Congress’s so-called Tea Party faction to wield the debt-ceiling weapon again, as it did in 2011. Will the outcome be different this time? Is self-inflicted default no longer unthinkable? The prospects are frightening.
Congress Should Modernize the Debt Ceiling
As it is currently defined, the debt ceiling is a nuke in a suicide vest. Congress invented it, Congress is wearing it, and Congress has learned how to use it to threaten opposing-party presidents. The good news is that Congress has the power to disarm it, throw it away, and replace it with something better. It’s time for Congress to do just that.
The current, obsolete debt ceiling is set at a specific dollar level: “X trillion dollars” of debt — similar to setting a mileage limit for a car, which forces a hard stop when the odometer reaches some arbitrary number. A new, better way to limit the debt would be to switch our focus from the odometer to the speedometer, i.e., to set a target ratio for debt relative to the size of our economy — “X percent debt-to-GDP.” A car’s speedometer helps us keep miles-per-hour under control; a new measure for the debt limit would help us keep debt-to-GDP in bounds. It would create new incentives for lawmakers: all of a sudden, a “new” way to stay under the debt limit would be to implement growth-friendly laws and policies that help the economy grow faster than the debt grows.
In short, the dollar-level debt ceiling is obsolete, because it continues to invite politicians to flex their political muscles by threatening default. What we need now is a percent-GDP ceiling — perhaps dubbed the “debt guardrail” — that invites our politicians to foster private sector growth by showing us they can also flex their brain power, instead of just their political muscle.
Steve Conover retired recently from a 35-year career in corporate America. He has a BS in engineering, an MBA in finance, and a PhD in political economy. His website is www.optimist123.com.
FURTHER READING: Conover also writes “It’s Past Time to Stop Blaming Bush,” “The Only Practical Way Out of Our Economic Doldrums,” “Missing in Action: Growth,” and “‘Top-Down’ vs. ‘Bottom-Up.’” Veronique de Rugy says “Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt…” Norman Ornstein discusses “Optimism about the 113th Congress” and “What Would It Take for Action on Fiscal Cliff?”
Image by Darren Wamboldt / Bergman Group | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35760000 |
Women's Clothing from 1900
After the Civil War, grooming and tailoring improved. More variety could be seen in men and women's clothing. Women's skirts became narrower and appeared to be more cone-shaped than bell-shaped. Tiny waists were still in style and bustles began to be worn to extend the backs of gowns. Corsets pushed women's chests forward making them appear somewhat like the front of a pigeon. "Shirtwaists" became stylish. They were patterned after men's shirts. Clothing was often heavily starched.
Go to interactive Flash version
There were different styles of underwear for women. Shown here is an all-in-one. It is a combination of a "chemise" and "drawers". A chemise is similar to an undershirt with a slip attached, and drawers are similar to underpants, but with legs. This all-in-one has split drawers with a slip panel across the back. Split drawers made the trip to the outhouse or bathroom quicker and easier.
Socks, pantyhose and tights had not been invented yet. A woman wore stockings of wool, cotton, or silk, depending upon the weather and the occasion. Stockings came up above the knee and were held in place with garters made of ribbon or elastic.
Women's shoes had thick heels and pointed toes. They might slip on, button or lace and come above or below the ankle.
A corset provided support and forced a woman's torso into the fashionable shape for the time period, forcing the chest up and swaying the back to force the chest and backside out. It would be stiffened inside with "boning" made of strips of whalebone or metal. It hooked up the front and laced up the back and would feel uncomfortably tight.
Women wore their hair up on top of their heads in various fashions. This model has her hair in a "Gibson Girl", a popular fashion of the early 20th century. Her hair is puffed out with the help of "rats", which are made of her own hair that she saved from her hair- brush and rolled between her hands to create the shapes seen here.
A corset cover was worn over a corset and it buttoned up the front. It would be made of lightweight cotton and would hide the corset seams that might otherwise be visible through a blouse or dress.
In the 18th century a petticoat referred to a skirt. In the 20th century a petticoat referred to a slip. This woman has on 2 petticoats to help give her skirt more fullness.
Women's skirts and dresses came down to the floor or sometimes as high as the ankle. This woman wears a walking skirt made of linen. A walking skirt was a simple everyday style of skirt that was wide enough at the bottom for walking or riding a bicycle.
This type of blouse is known as a "shirtwaist". It is tailored to include some details similar to men's shirts. A shirtwaist can refer to a dress as well. This shirtwaist is made of linen and is decorated with machine-stitched embroidery. This style of stand-up collar was popular.
A belt with a buckle was usually worn with a shirtwaist. A belt might be made of cloth or leather. This woman wears one made of cloth.
Pin & Earrings
This woman wears a pin and earrings that are made of human hair. Usually hair jewelry was worn to remember a loved one who had died and to remind the wearer that death might strike any one at any time, including the wearer! For those with leisure time, hair weaving was a popular hobby. This style of jewelry took the form of earrings, pins, bracelets and necklaces.
This woman wears a locket attached to her belt. It might also have been pinned to her shirtwaist. A locket could hold 2 small photos or a strand of hair belonging to a loved one.
Bonnets in this time period were now out of fashion and large hats were becoming popular. All hats had very small crowns, not meant to fit on the head, but rather to perch on the hair. This woman wears a straw hat.
A parasol would not do in a rain shower, but was designed to keep the sun off of a woman's face, as having a tan was deemed very unfashionable.
Ladies often kept handkerchiefs close at hand, not only for blowing noses but also for dabbing their faces, as sweat was considered most unfashionable.
This woman holds an everyday purse. She would have a fancier one for when she calls upon (visits) her friends.
Gloves were not only considered stylish but also kept the hands clean, especially when a woman was in public places. She would, for example, wear gloves when dancing with a man. This woman wears net gloves.
New Home Sewing Machine Company Birds-Eye View
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December 1987 | Volume 38, Issue 8
In the summer the stretch of the Delaware River north of Trenton, New Jersey, is as alluring as any place in the country. It is green and happy and eloquent of generations of peace and prosperity: prosperity from the river traffic and from the canal; prosperity from the steady little farming communities nearby and, in more recent years, from tourism. It is only in the winter that the countryside suggests with any conviction that this was once fought-over land.
In the waning months of 1776, two armies—one well fed, well armed, well clad, eminently professional; the other half-naked, hungry, new to soldiering—struggled for control of this country; and for something far greater. It is hard to exaggerate the importance of the campaigning that took place here. You can go see where it happened in the summer, and you may have a prettier trip. But if you want to get the feeling of that extraordinary season of despair and triumph, go when the days are short and gray and the snow is on the ground.
As you drive south from Manhattan toward Trenton on the New Jersey Turnpike, the city falls away behind, and then the great silver coils of the cracking plants, and then you are in country that would be all too familiar to George Washington’s Grand Army in the late fall of 1776. These were the men who had to back up the brave phrases in the Declaration that had been issued a few months earlier, and fortune had not been with them. They had been beaten on Long Island, beaten in Manhattan, beaten in Westchester, beaten wherever they made a stand. Now they were running for their lives from Lord Cornwallis’s hardy British regulars a half-day’s march behind them, their ranks dwindling daily. On these disconsolate flatlands the American Revolution was dying.
They came at last to the Delaware, seized all the boats they could lay their hands on for miles up and down the river, and took up defensive positions on the Pennsylvania shore. There they huddled miserably, a few thousand of them, waiting for their enlistments to expire with the year; after December 31 Washington would have fourteen hundred men left. Across the river ten thousand of the enemy settled in for the winter. Not many of them thought the American army would be there in the spring. Even Washington wasn’t sure: in a most uncharacteristic statement he said, “I think the game is pretty near up.”
Nevertheless, Christmas Day found Continental officers shepherding their coughing men down to the frozen riverbank, setting off on a foray spurred by the purest desperation: an attack on the twelve hundred Hessian mercenaries encamped in Trenton.
They set out from what is now the Washington Crossing State Park in Pennsylvania: you can visit the big stone Thompson-Neely house in whose kitchen Washington planned out his great gamble with his officers; but never mind the movie playing at the visitors’ center. Made in the 1950s, it incorporates many of the elements that made sensible students shrink from history in high school: self-conscious people in wigs saying things like “Gentlemen, we must do or die,” and so forth.
Instead, walk down to the riverbank and see what the Continentals saw: the dark, swiftly running Delaware—ice moving fast on its surface that Christmas Day —and beyond, the hostile shore with its stands of naked trees looking smoky in the waning light. The river was thick with traffic, as Marblehead fishermen poled the soldiers across in Durham boats. You can see reconstructions of these here, and they are sturdy, sharpnosed cargo vessels, forty to sixty feet long, and nothing like the shallop Washington is riding in Emanuel Leutze’s wonderful painting of the crossing.
Drive over the narrow bridge to the Jersey shore, and stop at the blue and gray house where Washington watched his command disembark. It took nine hours to get the men across—of course, everything was running behind schedule—but he determined to push on to Trenton. He had no choice. As you drive into the town, the very change in the surroundings from that day to this imparts an odd sense of the scope of the march. It’s nine miles—block after city block through good neighborhoods and bad—and it’s a long way. The men who struggled over that route all night long, many of them barefoot and leaving their blood pink in the snow behind them, were advancing on a community of a hundred clapboard houses and a stone barracks put up for the French and Indian Wars that was the biggest building in town. It’s still there, very nicely kept up, and a guide will take you through and show you the amazing amount of maneuvering required to get an eighteenth-century musket charged and fired. It—and most of the houses in the town—disgorged startled, hung-over German soldiers when the boom of Continental artillery came through the stormy morning. Washington set his guns on the high ground where Broad meets Warren Street—King and Queen Street then. The site is marked with a hundred-foot column with his statue atop it; on the base Thomas Eakins’s bronze reliefs depict the action. As grapeshot clawed through their ranks, the Hessians tried to form, and then the Americans were in among them, fighting with clubbed muskets and bayonets and shouting in a mixture of triumph and amazement at their success. Nobody knows how long the battle lasted—reports range from a half hour to nearly two—but at the end of it a thousand Germans surrendered.
Washington marched his prisoners into Newtown, Pennsylvania, and you may want to go there too. It’s a goodlooking old town, with some ancient liver-colored stone buildings past which it is not hard to imagine the Americans parading their prisoners, the Germans warm in their winter uniforms, and their captors, as one witness wrote later, “mostly in light, summer dress and some without shoes, but stepping light and cheerful.” The two-century-old Temperance House in Newtown has recently been redone and its guest rooms colonialed-up to a faretheewell. If you can get the one with a working fireplace, you’ll be able to enjoy a considerable pleasure unavailable to summer visitors.
News of the victory astonished and appalled the British, and Cornwallis moved fast. In a week he believed he had Washington trapped on the New Jersey side of the Delaware. But the American stole a march on him, and one freezing, crystalline January morning found Washington moving his little army toward Princeton. Some 350 of his men under Gen. Hugh Mercer came up against British regulars under Col. Charles Mawhood. The two forces swung into line, and a short, ugly fight ended with Mercer down and his Continentals in panicked retreat.
For a moment it looked like the old story: The Americans were running away from battle again; the coup at Trenton had been a mere fluke. But then Washington came galloping onto the field and took his big white horse to within thirty paces of the British line. There he reined in and yelled for his troops to rally around him. After a moment’s pause, the British fired at this astonishing target. One of Washington’s aides hid his face in his cloak so as not to see his commander die, but when the smoke cleared, there was Washington, still in the saddle, still calling for his troops. And now they were coming. Men from Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and Massachusetts stead- led their ranks, stood, exchanged volley fire—and the British fled.
Princeton Battlefield is oddly affecting; it’s so small. A tile map placed there in the 1960s at first seems an incoherent amalgam of peppy colors but on examination resolves itself into an admirable explication of the action that points out, among other things, the oak tree where Mercer took his mortal wound. Across the way is a monument—four Ionic columns that look as if they were part of a grand house that has disappeared. And that is just what they are. When a mansion built on the site years afterward was pulled down, it was decided that the portico made a nice memorial to the men who died there. I like the fortuitous quality of that monument; it somehow reflects the way we fought the Revolution, learning as we went, making do with what we had. A plaque in one of the columns expresses the significance of the battle in a lucid sentence that strikes me as being about as good as English prose gets: “Across these fields in the early light of the third of January 1777, Washington’s Continentals defeated British regulars for the first time in the long struggle for American independence.”
Washington moved on into winter quarters in Morristown, while the news went forth—across the country, across the Atlantic—that the American army was still in business and in very capable hands. Nevertheless, it was a hard winter of fear and doubt. There was smallpox in the camp. There was frostbite. Soldiers figured they’d done enough and went home. But now and forever after there would be in the ranks a leavening of men who had seen Hessians throw down their muskets and British regulars break their ranks and run and who would not forget the sight. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35763000 |
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What Is The Jain Culture?
What is the influence of Jain culture.
The Indus valley civilisation of Mohenjodaro and Harappa highlights the relic of Jain culture. Certainly, we cannot refute that there has been a fine deal of communal effects on both the currents of Indian culture. Actually, Indian culture is an amalgamated culture. The two chief currents in the stream of Indian culture are Brahmanism and Shamanism. They have significantly influenced each other, and thus, added to the amalgamated Indian culture. It is true that they have some correspondence and particular common principles, but it is evenly true that they have their own individuality, and marked distinctions. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35771000 |
Friday 17 May
Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
Pronghorn fact file
- Find out more
- Print factsheet
Despite being similar in appearance and behaviour to antelopes, the pronghorn actually belongs to its own unique family (2) (4). The horns are particularly remarkable in that like bovids, they consist of a keratin sheath on a bony core, but like deer (cervids), they are forked, and the outer sheath sheds annually from the unforked bony core (2) (4) (5). Both sexes have black horns, but the male’s are enlarged and have forward-facing prongs below backward-pointing hooks, while the female’s are comparatively small (2) (4). The pronghorn’s stocky body is supported on long, slim legs, which enable it to take massive eight metre strides at full speed (2). The upperparts are largely red-brown to tan, while the underparts, the rump and two bands across the neck are contrastingly white. The male also has conspicuous black patches on the face and on the sides of the neck, beneath the ears (2) (4) (6). Five subspecies, which differ slightly in appearance, are commonly recognised, with larger, darker forms living in the north, and smaller, lighter forms in the south (1) (2).
- Also known as
- Mexican pronghorn, Sonoran pronghorn.
- Antilocapre, Antilope Américaine.
- Berrendo. Top
The US Fish and Wildlife Service – Endangered Species Program:
- A member of the family Bovidae, which includes hooved, herbivorous ruminants such as cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, gazelles and buffalo.
- A group of fibrous proteins that form the basis of hair, nails, wool etc in animals.
- A population usually restricted to a geographical area that differs from other populations of the same species, but not to the extent of being classified as a separate species.
IUCN Red List (August, 2009)
- Macdonald, D.W. (2006) The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (September, 2009)
- Nowak, R.M. (1999) Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Taylor, M.F.J., Suckling, K.F. and Rachlinski, J.J. (2005) The effectiveness of the endangered species act: a quantitative analysis. Bioscience, 55(4): 360 - 367.
- Clark, J.A., Hoekstra, J.M., Boersma, P.D. and Kareiva, P. (2002) Improving U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plans: key findings and recommendations of the SCB Recovery Plan Project. Conservation Biology, 16: 1510 - 1519.
CITES (August, 2009)
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Renowned for its speed, the pronghorn is the fastest terrestrial mammal in the Americas, capable of reaching top speeds of up to 86 kilometres per hour, and maintaining cruising speeds of 70 kilometres per hour for several kilometres at a time (2) (6). It is active both day and night, with slight peaks just before sunrise and after sunset (6). Many plants feature in the pronghorn’s diet, including a variety of forbs, shrubs, grasses and cacti (1) (2) (4) (6). Although it will drink freely if water is available, sufficient hydration can be derived from succulent plants if necessary (6). Daily movements vary depending on the seasons, with distances travelled during the winter typically being four times as far as during the summer (2).
During autumn and winter, the pronghorn often forms large, loose groups comprising as many as 1,000 individuals of all ages and both sexes (4) (6). However, in spring and summer, these large herds segregate into much smaller groups segregated by sex. In wetter areas, where food is abundant, the mature males are territorial and, beginning in early March, will compete amongst each other for territories. To define a territory, males will scent mark with urine, faeces and secretion from glands behind the ears. Usually fights between territorial males will be resolved with a staring match and possibly some angry vocalisations and chasing, but when all else fails, rivals will resort to head to head fighting. During this time, the female groups, which may contain as many as 23 members, move freely between the territories of different males, whilst being pursued by bachelor herds of young males that move about on the edges of the areas controlled by the territorial males. However, when it comes to mating, which takes place during a period of about three weeks between July and early October, it is only the dominant males defending the most food-rich territories that sire offspring. In less productive, arid areas, the males dispense with forming territories, but instead attempt to defend groups of females in order to mate (2) (6).
During the first pregnancy, females usually give birth to a single young after a gestation period of around 252 days, but subsequently, will often give birth to twins (2) (6). Young at just two days old can already run faster than a horse, but do not have the stamina to keep up with the herd. As a result, for the first three to four weeks, the young remain hidden in vegetation, where they are safer from predators such as coyotes and golden eagles. Females continue to nurse and groom the young for four to five months, with both sexes reaching maturity at around 16 months old. Given that only dominant male’s breed, most will have to wait until they are three to five years of age before siring their first offspring (2).Top
Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1) and listed on Appendix I of CITES (2). Subspecies: Antilocapra americana mexicana, Antilocapra americana peninsularis and Antilocapra americana sonoriensis are listed on Appendix I of CITES (2).Top
Prior to the arrival of European explorers, there were an estimated 35 million pronghorns roaming the plains of North America (1) (6). However, the subsequent wave of hunting and habitat loss that followed colonisation of the continent saw the pronghorn population crash to less than 20,000 by the early 1920s (1) (2) (6). Owing to substantial conservation efforts since then, numbers have fortunately recovered to an estimated 700,000 today (1) (6). While there are no longer any significant range-wide threats to the pronghorn, certain populations and subspecies are more vulnerable than others. In particular, there are estimated to be less than 300 Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis) remaining in the United States and only 200 to 500 in Mexico. The perilous decline of this subspecies is thought to be attributable to a range of factors, including fragmentation of habitat, fencing, livestock grazing and illegal hunting (1).Top
The pronghorn occurs in vast numbers in several large and well managed protected areas including the Yellowstone National Park. The Sonoran pronghorn is protected under the US Endangered Species Act (1), which requires the implementation of a recovery plan for listed species, as well as further scientific research, public education and the protection and restoration of critical habitat (7) (8). All the Mexican subspecies are also listed on Appendix I of CITES which prohibits international trade (1) (3).Top
Find out more
To find out more about the US Endangered Species Act, visit:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
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From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Art and culture
- 1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
- 1962 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.).
- 1824 - Wilkie Collins, British novelist (d. 1889)
- 1836 - Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch artist (d. 1912)
- 1863 - Paul Scheerbart, German author and artist (d. 1915)
- 1897 - Dennis Wheatley, British author (d. 1977)
- 1922 - José Bénazéraf, Moroccan-born French filmmaker
- 1931 - Bill Graham, German-born American music promoter (d. 1991)
- 1933 - Jean-Marie Straub, French film director
- 1935 - Elvis Presley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
- 1937 - Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
- 1941 - Boris Vallejo, Peruvian illustrator
- 1942 - George Passmore, British artist (Gilbert & George)
- 1947 - David Bowie, English musician
- 1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and scientist (b. 1564)
- 1896 - Paul Verlaine, French poet (b. 1844)
- 1948 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter (b. 1887)
- 1972 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet (b. 1911)
- 1992 - Nicolas Schöffer, Hungarian-born French artist (b. 1912)
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "January 8" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35794000 |
NEW YORK, NY.-
A landmark exhibition on the extraordinary philosopher, statesman and teacher known as Confucius (551- 479 BCE ) will be on view at China Institute Gallery
from February 11 though June 13, 2010. "Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art" will focus on the teachings and continuing influence of Confucius, who has become increasingly synonymous with Chinese culture. Nearly 100 objects from the world of Confucius and his ennobled descendants will be on exhibition, including hanging scrolls, album leaves, bronze vessels, stone carvings, jade ceremonial implements, wood-block prints and textiles. The works are on loan for the first time in the U.S. from the Shandong Provincial Museum in Jinan and the Confucius Museum in his hometown of Qufu. "Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art" is the first exhibition in the U.S. to explore the culture of Confucius. The show incorporates images and artifacts that were created to venerate the man himself, as well as the ideas associated with him, loosely called Confucianism. A fully illustrated scholarly catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
Probably no one has influenced more people over the centuries than Confucius. His family name was Kong, and the suffix zi, an ancient term of respect, was added to it so that in Chinese, he is called Kongzi (Master Kong) or simply Fuzi (The Master). The Latinized name Confucius was created when Jesuit missionaries translated Chinese texts for European audiences. Notes Willow Hai Chang, Director, China Institute Gallery, Although he has come to symbolize Chinese civilization throughout the world, little is known about the man Confucius, who was a thinker, teacher and statesman more than 2,500 years ago. This exhibition seeks to create a greater understanding of his role in Chinese culture and to examine why his extraordinary influence continues even today.
In order to address the many facets of his life, teachings and belief system, "Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art" is organized in three parts "The Life and Images of Confucius"; "Confucius as Teacher and Ritual Expert"; and "Venerating Confucius: The Official Cult and the Kong Family Ancestral Cult".
The first section of the exhibition, "The Life and Images of Confucius", includes portraits and illustrations of significant events from his life. Created mostly during the Ming (1368- 1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, long after his lifetime, the images reveal multiple, and sometimes surprising, conceptions of Confucius. Traces of the Sage (Pictorial Biography of Confucius), a Ming dynasty album, illustrates events in Confuciuss life; it attributes supernatural qualities to him, including an ability to communicate with cosmic forces. Bust Portrait of Confucius as a Minister of Justice, a hanging scroll from the Ming dynasty, is one of the best-known representations of him as an official. A wood-block print from a Qing dynasty book depicts a large sculptural icon from the great temple at Qufu, portraying Confucius as emperor. The exhibition includes a pair of charming Song dynasty (960-1279) votive statues of Confucius and his wife; such statues were worshipped by his descendants.
The second section, "Confucius as Teacher and Ritual Expert", gives an overview of Confucius as a teacher who stressed the importance of proper rituals and music, as well as the moral cultivation of the individual. As Julia K. Murray, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, writes in the catalogue essay, He believed that ancient sages had created a system of harmonious governance through proper ritual
However, rulers of more recent times had lost their moral authority and abandoned these sagely institutions. Instead of leading by example and governing with benevolence, unprincipled local strongmen of his own day sought control through force
To restore order and harmony, Confucius believed, the ancient rituals had to be revived, and he devoted much effort to studying and codifying them. To give context to this system of ancient rites, the exhibition includes a number of bronze vessels, jade ceremonial implements and musical instruments.
Among the other highlights of the second section is a funerary slab from the Eastern Han dynasty (25 BCE -220 CE) bearing the earliest known images of Confucius and his disciples. A limestone carving from the second century depicts Confucius meeting Laozi, a ritual expert and Daoist master, together with the child-sage Xiang Tuo. Also surviving from the Eastern Han period are fragments of the Xiping Stone Classics, the first official edition of Confucian texts to be carved on stone tablets under imperial auspices.
The Five Classics and the Four Books became the core curriculum in the education of Chinese literati throughout the imperial period. Among the many examples of these widely published Confucian texts is a sumptuous woodblock-printed edition of the Four Books, a text known as The Analects (or Sayings) of Confucius, which offers the most revealing glimpses of the man himself. Twenty sections provide accounts of his activities; document his dialogues with rulers, disciples and acquaintances; and record his remarks and appraisals, along with the comments of men who knew him.
For hundreds of years after Confuciuss death, emperors of many dynasties came to his hometown of Qufu to offer sacrifices and show their commitment to Confucian ideals of governance and learning. In 1771, on one of several visits, the Qianlong emperor (r.1735-1796) bestowed on the Qufu temple a set of ten ancient bronze ritual vessels, which will be on view in the exhibition. Dating to the Shang (c.1500-1050 BCE ) and Zhou dynasties (c.1027-256 BCE ), they were precious objects to be displayed in Confuciuss honor, representing an idealized antiquity. One vessel is in the shape of a four-legged animal with an opening on its back suggesting its use as a wine container.
The final section of the exhibition, "Venerating Confucius: The Official Cult and the Kong Family Ancestral Cult", illuminates the important role of Confuciuss descendants in maintaining ceremonial sacrifices and preserving images, biographies, genealogical records, ritual utensils and other important objects. Ming and Qing portraits of ennobled male descendants who held the title Duke for Perpetuating the Sage are included in the exhibition, along with their clothing and other elegant accessories. Many emperors conferred gifts on the honored lineage. A seal probably bestowed by an emperor of the Ming dynasty is inscribed: Poetry, Documents [or Books], Ritual [and] Music, referring to four of the Classics that Confucius edited, which an educated person would know by heart. The Yongzheng emperor (r.1723-1735) presented a set of five altar vessels exceptional examples of painted enamelware from the imperial Qing workshop to use in celebrating Confuciuss birthday (now observed on September 28).
Confucius was born into humble circumstances in 551 BCE in Qufu, capital of the feudal state of Lu, which now forms part of the province of Shandong. Although he held a series of minor offices in his home state and for a brief period served as minister of justice (with the responsibilities of a prime minister), he eventually became frustrated with conditions in Lu. In middle age, Confucius left home to travel among the contending feudal states of North China, searching for an ideal ruler who would govern with benevolence and according to proper ritual. After 14 years, he returned to Lu and from the age of 65, devoted himself to teaching and scholarship. After his death at age 73, his most devoted disciples observed three years of mourning for him, as if for a father. Confuciuss own house became a memorial shrine, the precursor to the great Confucius Temple in Qufu today.
Pithy remarks attributed to Confucius have been transmitted from one generation to the next, and his advice still resonates today. Study as if you will never learn, as if you were afraid of losing what you wish to learn, the great teacher once said. He believed in the moral purpose of humanity and in the individuals duty to strive to improve: The only ones who do not change are sages and idiots. Confuciuss practical approach to moral cultivation and his reflections on the personal and social basis of ethics and politics are exemplified in such sayings as Do not inflict on others what you yourself would not wish done to you, Anyone who does not know the value of words will never understand men, and The full life seeks what is in itself; the empty life seeks what appears in others. The humanity of his ideas and their ability to adapt to a great variety of needs and contexts have made Confucianism an enduring force in the cultural heritage of China and the world.
The exhibition is curated by Lu Wensheng, Director, Shandong Provincial Museum, and Julia K. Murray, Professor of Art History and East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, under the directorship of Willow Hai Chang, Director, China Institute Gallery. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35795000 |
PARIS.- This exhibition explores a time of unprecedented artistic contact and creative effervescence in France, which many people know little about.
It is the first major exhibition devoted to a turning point in French history, in the reigns of Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-1515), which was dominated by the personality of Anne de Bretagne, successively the wife of both kings. A period of economic recovery, demographic growth, and territorial ambitions with the famous Italian wars, as well as cultural development in the humanist spirit. It was also a time of exceptional flowering and sharp contrasts in art. Nonetheless, these movements are often skimmed over to the extent that most books on Europe European art in the period barely mention France at all.
The exhibition draws on recent research and presents 200 masterly works which give a clearer view of France at a crucial intersection in history, while questioning the ideas of tradition and movement, continuity and breaks. It brings together exceptional ensembles by great artists, for example, paintings by the Master of Moulins, alias Jean Hey, the most famous French painter of the period, on loan from Chicago, Munich, Brussels, Autun or Paris. Remarkable collections of sculptures and stained glass from all over France, tapestries owned by public or private collections in Europe and the United States, and rare pieces of gold work complete this panorama. The decoration of manuscripts or printed books was a significant aspect of art at the time, and is represented by a number of masterpieces, some generously lent by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which has a particularly rich collection of books from this period.
The exhibition is divided into three main sections, taking a closer look at various facets of the art of the time:
The Stimulus: Patrons and Artists
The first section explores the stimulating effect of direct contact between patrons and artists. The political capital of France in 1483-1515 did not have a monopoly of cultural activity. On the contrary, there was creative ferment throughout the country. Without seeking to give an exhaustive tour of France, the exhibition focuses on several significant art centres in which individual and group commissions triggered creative endeavour: the Val de Loire, a favourite haunt of the French kings, the Bourbonnais, under the influence of great princes, Normandy, Champagne, Languedoc
Images of All Kinds
The recent invention of the printing press made the circulation of pictures and designs possible on an unprecedented scale and artists used recent or new media such as books and printed images as well as medals or enamel work. Versatile artists illustrated manuscripts and printed books and adapted the same models for cartoons for stained glass and tapestries. Innovation was not always where one might expect: modern Gothic ornament and ancient Roman models were both successful and sometimes surprisingly found side-by-side.
Northern and Southern Influences
The last part of the exhibition, rising to a crescendo, looks at the interaction between men, works and forms, some local and others coming from the north or south. Artists settled permanently or briefly in France; imported works provide evidence of the vitality of some sites (altar pieces from Antwerp, for example) and the interest shown by French collectors. The exhibition offers spectacular groupings and comparisons, such as the four panels by the Master of St Giles, brought from London and Washington. Exceptional loans from the Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago remind us that the French king and his entourage had bought works by artists such as Andrea Solario, Baccio della Porta (Fra Bartolommeo) and Leonardo da Vinci before 1515. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35796000 |
- Drawing from imagination
- Recognizing the unique characteristics which define an animal.
- Working with details and patterns.
realistic, pattern, unique characteristics
YOU WILL NEED
- 12 x 18-inch white drawing paper
- Non-toxic black permanent markers
- Watercolor markers
- Pencils (optional)
- Set out the pencils, markers, and drawing paper.
- Have the watercolor markers ready, but put aside until the drawings are completed.
Creating the animals
- Explain to the children that, by combining the parts of three or more animals, they will be creating one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen animals. Ask them to imagine an animal with an alligator's head, a tiger's body, and an elephant's ears.
- Discuss the unique characteristics which identify an animal, such as a squirrel's tail, a giraffe's neck, and a camel's hump. Emphasize the importance of including patterns and details. For example, leopards and tigers have similar body shapes, but are immediately recognized by their spots or stripes.
- Have the children each draw one large animal combining the parts of three or more animals. Older children appreciate drawing with pencils first and then going over their lines with the black markers. Younger children work best drawing directly with the black markers.
- When the drawings are completed, have the children color their animals with watercolor markers. Since this project is most effective when the parts of the animals are quickly recognizable, encourage the children to use realistic colors as seen in nature.
- Have the children name their new species of animals by combining several sounds or syllables from the names of the animals used in the drawings, such as a "chelegator" (ch-ĕlĕ-gātor), which includes parts of a chicken, an elephant, and an alligator. The older children can work individually to name their animals, but plan this as a group activity with the younger children.
- Tongue twisters are fun, as long as the children are able to pronounce the names.
- Prepare a list of the unique characteristics which define some animals to offer when ideas run short. For a greater variety of even zanier animals, include insect and/or fish parts.
- Encourage the children to draw one large animal that fills their paper instead of several smaller ones.
- For the most impact, the animals need to be quickly recognizable. Encourage the children to include lots of details and use realistic colors.
- Young children tend to fill in their work with the black markers, so be sure they understand that colored markers will be available when their drawings are completed.
- The lighter shades of watercolor markers work best because they won't cover up the black lines of the drawings.
- Ask the children to identify the different animal parts in the drawings.
- Discuss what information helps them to recognize these parts.
- Do I have to use three animals?
- Can I use ten animals?
- My animal has four legs and they are all different.
- Do I have to use gray for my elephant's legs? I wanted to stripe them like a tiger's legs.
- I've never seen animals like these before!
- The never-before-seen animals are more fun if you use at least three different animal parts.
- You can decide the number of different animal part to use as long as you have included at least three.
- Be sure to draw and color the parts carefully, so we can have the fun of recognizing each one.
- It will be easier to recognize the different animal parts if you color them as they are in nature. However, you as the artist can decide how to color your animal.
- If all these animals were in a zoo, it would surely be a Zany Zoo! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35798000 |
Research Questions and Answers
Commonly asked questions about nonhuman primate research
Why are nonhuman primates studied, and what kinds of research are conducted?
For the most part, nonhuman primates are research subjects because they are so similar to humans, and the principal reason for this similarity is simple: humans *are* primates. Current ideas are that the first primates appeared more than 60 million years ago. In contrast, the common ancestor of humans and African apes lived only about 5-8 million years ago; so, for more than 50 million years, humans and the African apes have shared primate ancestry. Shared ancestry is a major reason why human and nonhuman primates have many characteristics in common -- tool use, long-lasting social relationships, and complex communication systems. By learning about nonhuman primates we may come to learn more about ourselves. For example, humans walk upright, on two limbs -- we are bipedal. Why might humans have evolved to be bipedal, when the vast majority of nonhuman primates are quadrupedal? Individuals of certain nonhuman primate species, however, are bipedal for some activities. By studying those species of nonhuman primates that are occasionally bipedal, and discovering the circumstances in which they display bipedality, we may gain some understanding of the factors that promoted the evolution of bipedality in humans.
Human and nonhuman primates also share physiological characteristics. For example, the way in which the brains of rhesus monkeys and humans are organized is similar. One brain area that has been studied extensively is the visual system. Neuroanatomical studies of the nonhuman primate brain have been extremely useful in helping us to understand how the human brain functions and how we see. In this way, nonhuman primates serve as models of particular processes that would be extremely difficult or impossible to study in humans. Study of nonhuman primates has also contributed to our understanding of basic biological phenomena such as reproduction; to better understanding of diseases such as AIDS; and to the development of drugs, treatments, and vaccines for the promotion of better health for human and nonhuman primate alike. In fact, research conducted with nonhuman primates has contributed to Nobel-prize-winning research: development of yellow fever vaccine (1951); culturing of poliovirus that ultimately led to a polio vaccine (1954); and the significant discoveries in visual processing in the brain (1981) (reference: R.W. Leader & D. Stark, 1987, The importance of animals in biomedical research. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 470-485; see also The Foundation for Biomedical Research, The payoff from animal research).
Of course, nonhuman primates are also studied because they are fascinating animals. They live in a wide range of habitats, and show many interesting differences in behavior and life styles. For example, in some species like squirrel monkeys, many adult males and many adult females live together the year round in a troop that also contains infants and juvenile animals. In other species, like titi monkeys that live in the same area as squirrel monkeys, a single adult male and a single adult female live together with their offspring. What might account for the differences between these two types of social systems? Are there differences in psychological characteristics between squirrel and titi monkeys that might be related to their different social systems? Male titi monkeys appear to exhibit behavior that looks very much like jealousy, but male squirrel monkeys do not. Why is that?
As you can see, there are many kinds of 'primate research', including field observations of undisturbed wild primates, behavioral observations of animals in captive colonies, experimental behavioral and physiological research, biomedical research, and more. For further information on many types of research involving nonhuman primates, see F. King, C. Yarbrough, D. Anderson, T. Gordon, and K. Gould, 1988. Primates. Science, 1988, vol. 240, pages 1475-1482.
How many primates are research subjects per year?
According to the Fiscal Year 2006 Animal Welfare Enforcement report, 1,012,713 warm-blooded animals were used in research, testing, teaching, or experimentation. This figure does not cover laboratory rats and mice, and farm animals used exclusively in agricultural research. Of these, 62,315 primates (6.15% of the total) were used. Two points should be made. First, the vast majority of animals used in research are laboratory rats and mice. In 1995, researchers at Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy estimated that 14-21 million animals were used in American laboratories in 1992. In 1986, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment reported that that its best estimate was 17-22 million. The difference between the 1.01 million and the estimated 14-22 million numbers mostly reflects rats and mice (and birds). Second, individual animals are 'used' more than once, in most cases. That is, many, if not most, of the 62,315 primates studied in 2006 were probably also studied in 2005, and again in 2007. These numbers refer just to captive animals; unfortunately, there is no estimate available for the number studied in their natural habitat. (Reference: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/publications_and_reports.shtml).
What kinds of primates are used for research purposes?
In laboratories, the most common species studied are Old World monkeys like rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), and cynomolgus (also known as crab-eating or long-tailed) monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Of course, in field and zoo settings, a variety of different species are studied.
Where do primates used for research purposes come from?
The majority of primates used for laboratory research in the United States come from the United States. That is, they are bred domestically at several facilities around the country. This minimizes the need for importing animals from the wild. Also, domestic breeding insures that animals do not possess pathogens (viruses, bacteria) that could adversely influence the outcome of research projects. Some species are still imported: rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys. It has been estimated that perhaps 12,000 to 15,000 monkeys are imported per year. Monkeys are imported from the Phillippines, China, and Peru. Every effort is made to ensure that imported monkeys are not captured from the wild. Primatologists work with governments and conservation organizations to see that all international trade in nonhuman primates follows regulations set forth in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Currently, more than 120 countries have signed this agreement.
How are the primates that are used for research kept in captivity?
In some cases, captive primates live in groups that are very similar in composition to the kinds of groups in which they might live in the wild. In other cases, animals are housed in smaller cages either individually or with a partner. (There is a legal minimum cage size for nonhuman primate housing in the United States.) There has been a great deal of interest in determining the conditions under which captive nonhuman primates display 'psychological well-being', and how their well-being can be enhanced. One good source of information about providing captive laboratory primates with a more enriched life is available through the Laboratory Primate Newsletter .
Who determines the conditions under which primates are kept in captivity?
There are four federal agencies that regulate the use of animals in research.
Finally, one independent, non-Federal organization that is involved in animal welfare in captivity is the American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC). Institutions voluntarily join AAALAC, which inspects facilities on a regular basis every three years. They then accredit those institutions that meet the highest standards for animal care. Institutions proudly display their accreditation by AAALAC. Click here to see AAALAC's Rules for Accreditation.
Can a scientist just go ahead and do any sort of primate research he or she wants with monkeys?
No. Because nonhuman primates are highly regulated in the United States, any experiment that a scientist proposes to conduct with monkeys must be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at the Institution where the scientist works. The scientist must describe in detail the specific procedures that he or she plans to use on the animals, such as any behavioral testing, surgical procedures, or experimental substances like drugs or vaccines that the animals might receive. There must be an explanation of whether any of the procedures are likely to cause the animals pain or distress, and if so, details must be presented describing all steps the scientist will take to minimize or eliminate pain or distress. The scientist must also provide a justification for why the proposed research must be conducted with monkeys rather than some other animal; whether there are any alternative ways that the scientist can find the answer to his or her question (for example, by studying cells rather than whole monkeys); and why the scientist needs to study the specific number of animals that he or she is proposing to study in the research. In addition, the scientist must indicate that the proposed research does not unnecessarily duplicate research that has already been conducted, and must describe the sources he or she used to determine that the study has not already been done. Finally, the scientist must list all personnel who will be involved in the project, and must be able to document the training that those individuals have had with respect to the procedures to be employed and the animals to be used. The IACUC must approve this proposal before the research can be begun.
The same principles apply to research on wild nonhuman primates in their natural habitat. The precise regulations governing research on wild primates vary from country to country, and it is the responsibility of the researcher to make sure all application procedures have been followed. Generally, such applications include a detailed description of the research, its possible consequences for the subjects, and likely benefits for the country involved. Through such fieldwork, primatologists help to educate people around the world about biology, wildlife conservation, and the importance of natural resources.
Where can I find out more about the places that do primate research?
One good source of information is The International Directory of Primatology which lists many Web sites where primate research is conducted.
This page was written by John P. Capitanio, Ph.D., with assistance and updates from the Publications Committee of ASP. Special thanks to Jim Moore, Ph.D., and Phil Tillman, D.V.M.
Modified: 20 July 2008 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35802000 |
- Scientific Name:
- Astragalus and Oxytropis species
- Where Found:
- 300 different species in North America; those of toxic concern typically found from the Rocky Mountains westward and Western Texas into New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.
- Toxic to Horses
- Toxic Principles:
- Clinical Signs:
- The plant is not very palatable, but will be eaten by animals with no other forage; once eaten, animals become "addicted" to the plant and will not consume other forage. The toxic principle has the most profound effect on the brain, and toxicity (known as "locoism") occurs after ingestion of more than 30% of the animal's body weight over a period of 6 weeks or longer. Clinical signs include a loss of sensory and motor nerve function, central nervous system depression, progressive loss of coordination, inability to eat and drink, as well as fetal death and birth defects. Affected animals may become excessively excitable and wild when stimulated, and may also become unaware of their surroundings.
If your pet ingested this plant, contact your local veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435.*
* A $65 consultation fee may apply.
Credit: Image Courtesy of Gary Coffman, PBase.com Gallery 2006. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35803000 |
1.1 This test method covers a test that can be used to compare the cavitation erosion resistance of solid materials. A submerged cavitating jet, issuing from a nozzle, impinges on a test specimen placed in its path so that cavities collapse on it, thereby causing erosion. The test is carried out under specified conditions in a specified liquid, usually water. This test method can also be used to compare the cavitation erosion capability of various liquids.
1.2 This test method specifies the nozzle and nozzle holder shape and size, the specimen size and its method of mounting, and the minimum test chamber size. Procedures are described for selecting the standoff distance and one of several standard test conditions. Deviation from some of these conditions is permitted where appropriate and if properly documented. Guidance is given on setting up a suitable apparatus, test and reporting procedures, and the precautions to be taken. Standard reference materials are specified; these must be used to verify the operation of the facility and to define the normalized erosion resistance of other materials.
1.3 Two types of tests are encompassed, one using test liquids which can be run to waste, for example, tap water, and the other using liquids which must be recirculated, for example, reagent water or various oils. Slightly different test circuits are required for each type.
1.4 This test method provides an alternative to Test Method G 32. In that method, cavitation is induced by vibrating a submerged specimen at high frequency (20 kHz) with a specified amplitude. In the present method, cavitation is generated in a flowing system so that both the jet velocity and the downstream pressure (which causes the bubble collapse) can be varied independently.
1.5 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values given in parentheses are for information only.
This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.
A276 Specification for Stainless Steel Bars and Shapes
B160 Specification for Nickel Rod and Bar
B211 Specification for Aluminum and Aluminum-Alloy Rolled or Cold Finished Bar, Rod, and Wire
D1193 Specification for Reagent Water
E691 Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the Precision of a Test Method
G32 Test Method for Cavitation Erosion Using Vibratory Apparatus
G40 Terminology Relating to Wear and Erosion
G73 Test Method for Liquid Impingement Erosion Using Rotating Apparatus
cavitating jet; cavitation; cavitation erosion; erosion by liquids; erosion of solids; erosion test; flow cavitation;
ICS Number Code 19.060 (Mechanical testing)
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.
Citing ASTM Standards
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