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Significance and Use
A main purpose of using robots in emergency response operations is to enhance the safety and effectiveness of emergency responders operating in hazardous or inaccessible environments. The testing results of the candidate robot shall describe, in a statistically significant way, how reliably the robot is able to traverse the specified types of terrains and thus provide emergency responders sufficiently high levels of confidence to determine the applicability of the robot.
This test method addresses robot performance requirements expressed by emergency responders and representatives from other interested organizations. The performance data captured within this test method are indicative of the testing robot’s capabilities. Having available a roster of successfully tested robots with associated performance data to guide procurement and deployment decisions for emergency responders is consistent with the guideline of, “Governments at all levels have a responsibility to develop detailed, robust, all-hazards response plans,” as stated National Response Framework.
This test apparatus is scalable to constrain robot maneuverability during task performance for a range of robot sizes in confined areas associated with emergency response operations. Variants of the apparatus provide minimum lateral clearance of 2.4 m (8 ft) for robots expected to operate around environments such as cluttered city streets, parking lots, and building lobbies; minimum lateral clearance of 1.2 m (4 ft) for robots expected to operate in and around environments such as large buildings, stairwells, and urban sidewalks; minimum lateral clearance of 0.6 m (2 ft) for robots expected to operate within environments such as dwellings and work spaces, buses and airplanes, and semi-collapsed structures; minimum lateral clearance of less than 0.6 m (2 ft) with a minimum vertical clearance adjustable from 0.6 m (2 ft) to 10 cm (4 in.) for robots expected to deploy through breeches and operate within sub-human size confined spaces voids in collapsed structures.
The standard apparatus is specified to be easily fabricated to facilitate self-evaluation by robot developers and provide practice tasks for emergency responders that exercise robot actuators, sensors, and operator interfaces. The standard apparatus can also be used to support operator training and establish operator proficiency.
Although the test method was developed first for emergency response robots, it may be applicable to other operational domains.
1.1.1 The purpose of this test method, as a part of a suite of mobility test methods, is to quantitatively evaluate a teleoperated ground robot’s (see Terminology E2521) capability of traversing complex terrain composed of crossing pitch/roll ramps in confined areas.
1.1.2 Robots shall possess a certain set of mobility capabilities, including negotiating complex terrains, to suit critical operations such as emergency responses. A part of the complexity is that the environments often pose constraints to robotic mobility to various degrees. This test method specifies apparatuses to standardize a confined areas terrain that is composed of crossing pitch/roll ramps and that notionally represents types of terrains containing moderate discontinuities, existent in emergency response and other environments. This test method also specifies procedures and metrics to standardize testing using the apparatus.
1.1.3 The test apparatuses are scalable to provide a range of lateral dimensions to constrain the robotic mobility during task performance. Fig. 1 shows three apparatus sizes to test robots intended for different emergency response scenarios.
1.1.4 Emergency ground robots shall be able to handle many types of obstacles and terrains. The required mobility capabilities include traversing gaps, hurdles, stairs, slopes, various types of floor surfaces or terrains, and confined passageways. Yet additional mobility requirements include sustained speeds and towing capabilities. Standard test methods are required to evaluate whether candidate robots meet these requirements.
1.1.5 ASTM Task Group E54.08.01 on Robotics specifies a mobility test suite, which consists of a set of test methods for evaluating these mobility capability requirements. This confined area terrain with crossing pitch/roll ramps is a part of the mobility test suite. Fig. 2 shows examples of other confined area terrains, along with the traversing paths. The apparatuses associated with the test methods challenge specific robot capabilities in repeatable ways to facilitate comparison of different robot models as well as particular configurations of similar robot models.
1.1.6 The test methods quantify elemental mobility capabilities necessary for ground robots intended for emergency response applications. As such, users of this standard can use either the entire suite or a subset based on their particular performance requirements. Users are also allowed to weight particular test methods or particular metrics within a test method differently based on their specific performance requirements. The testing results should collectively represent an emergency response ground robot’s overall mobility performance as required. These performance data can be used to guide procurement specifications and acceptance testing for robots intended for emergency response applications.
Note 1—Additional test methods within the suite are anticipated to be developed to address additional or advanced robotic mobility capability requirements, including newly identified requirements and even for new application domains.
1.2 Performing Location—This test method shall be performed in a testing laboratory or the field where the specified apparatus and environmental conditions are implemented.
1.3 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values given in parentheses are not precise mathematical conversions to inch-pound units. They are close approximate equivalents for the purpose of specifying material dimensions or quantities that are readily available to avoid excessive fabrication costs of test apparatuses while maintaining repeatability and reproducibility of the test method results. These values given in parentheses are provided for information only and are not considered standard.
1.4 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.
FIG. 1 Mobility: Confined Area Terrains: Crossing Pitch/Roll Ramps Apparatuses
FIG. 2 Three Confined Area Terrain Apparatuses in the Mobility Test Suite with Increasing Complexity; The Continuous Pitch/Roll Ramps Terrain is Shown on the Left. The Crossing Pitch/Roll Ramps Terrain is Shown at the Center. The Symmetric Stepfields Terrain is Shown on the Right.
2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.
E2521 Terminology for Urban Search and Rescue Robotic Operations
E2592 Practice for Evaluating Cache Packaged Weight and Volume of Robots for Urban Search and Rescue
NISTSpecialPublicati Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems ALFUS Framework Volume 1: Terminology, Version 2.0 Available from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=824705.
abstain; emergency response; emergency responder; full ramp terrain element; half ramp terrain element; human-scale; mobility; OCU; operator control unit; operator station; oriented strand board; OSB; repetition; robot; test suite; urban search and rescue; US
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.
Citing ASTM Standards
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Last flight of shuttle Atlantis and last space shuttle flight. Delivered supplies to keep ISS running at six-crew level until commercial resupply was to come on line in 2012. Crew: Ferguson; Hurley; Walheim; Magnus. Extra contingency mission at end of shuttle program. The crew trained as STS-335, a rescue mission to return the STS-134 crew to earth if they became marooned in space. After the safe return of STS-134, the mission proceeded as STS-135, with a reduced crew that could be returned over an 18 month period aboard Soyuz capsules in case the crew could not return in Atlantis.
AKA: Atlantis; STS-335.
More... - Chronology...
First Launch: 2011.07.08.
Duration: 12.77 days.
Ferguson Ferguson, Christopher John (1961-) American test pilot astronaut. Flew on STS-115, STS-126, STS-135. More...
Walheim Walheim, Rex Joseph (1962-) American test pilot mission specialist astronaut. Flew on STS-110, STS-122, STS-135. More...
Magnus Magnus, Sandra Hall (1964-) American materials scientist mission specialist astronaut. Flew on STS-112, ISS EO-18-1. More...
Hurley Hurley, Douglas Gerald (1966-) American test pilot astronaut, 2000-on. Flew on STS-127, STS-135. US Marine Corps. More...
Atlantis American manned spaceplane. 33 launches, 1985.10.03 to 2011.07.08. The space shuttle Atlantis was the fourth orbiter to become operational at Kennedy Space Center, and the last of the original production run. More...
Associated Manufacturers and Agencies
NASA American agency overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA, USA. More...
ISS Finally completed in 2010 after a torturous 25-year development and production process, the International Space Station was originally conceived as the staging post for manned exploration of the solar systrem. Instead, it was seemed to be the death knell of manned spaceflight. More...
2011 July 8 -
15:29 GMT - .
: Cape Canaveral
. Launch Complex
: Cape Canaveral LC39A
. LV Family
. Launch Vehicle
- STS-135 - .
Payload: Atlantis F33 / Rafaello MPLM-2. Nation: USA. Program: ISS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-135; ISS EO-27; ISS EO-28. Spacecraft: Atlantis. Duration: 12.77 days. Decay Date: 2011-07-21 . USAF Sat Cat: 37736 . COSPAR: 2011-031A. Apogee: 385 km (239 mi). Perigee: 371 km (230 mi). Inclination: 51.6000 deg. Period: 92.10 min. Final Space Shuttle flight, denoting the end of the space age. Atlantis docked with the Harmony module of the ISS on 10 June at 15:07 GMT. Primary payload was the Raffaello MultiPurpose Logistics Module delivering consumables and spare parts to the station sufficient to support the six crew members through the end of 2012 should delays occur in NASA's commercial robotic resupply program. Main crew task while docked with the station was to unload Rafaello and return of the station's failed coolant Pump Module for analysis. Atlantis undocked on 19 July at 06:28 GMT. The Picosat Solar Cell Experiment satellite was released from the cargo bay on 20 July. Atlantis made the final shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center on 21 July at 09:57 GMT. Payload delivered was:
- External Airlock/ODS: 1800 kg
- EMU spacesuits 3015, 3006: 260 kg
- RMS arm 301: 410 kg
- Orbiter Boom Sensor System: 382 kg
- MPLM-2 Rafaello: 11,556 kg
- SPDU: 17 kg
- ROEU 755 umbilical for MPLM: 78 kg
- Lightweight MPESS Carrier: 1050 kg
- Robotic Refuelling Mission: 300 kg
- Picosat Launcher: 22 kg
- PSSC-2/MTV Aerospace Corporation Picosat Solar Cell Experiment satellite: 4 kg
- Total payload: 15,879 kg
2011 July 12 -
- EVA STS-135-1 - .
Crew: Fossum; Garan. EVA Type: Extravehicular activity. EVA Duration: 0.27 days. Nation: USA. Program: ISS. Flight: STS-135; ISS EO-27; ISS EO-28. Summary: Final EVA from a shuttle. The astronauts moved a failed pump module to the shuttle bay, and deployed several experiments on the outside of the ISS..
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Telescopium, Indus, and Pavo - Downloadable article
Galaxies galore populate this trio of southern constellations.
March 3, 2009
|This downloadable article is from an Astronomy magazine 45-article series called "Celestial Portraits." The collection highlights all 88 constellations in the sky and explains how to observe each constellation's deep-sky targets. The articles feature star charts, stunning pictures, and constellation mythology. We've put together 11 digital packages. Each one contains four Celestial Portraits articles for you to purchase and download.|
"Telescopium, Indus, and Pavo" is one of four articles included in Celestial Portraits Package 4.
As the cooler air of autumn descends across the Northern Hemisphere, the splendors of the summer sky sink in the west. Sagittarius and the center of the Milky Way dip below the horizon by midevening, yielding to a rather sparse region where star patterns are difficult to trace and galaxies prevail. The southernmost of the constellations east of the Milky Way rank among the most obscure in the entire heavens. From the northern United States, only the top stars in Telescopium and Indus poke above the southern horizon, while Pavo remains completely hidden. Most of this area comes into view from the southern tier of states, though the vista improves markedly from locales even farther south.
A small triangle of modest stars south of Corona Australis forms the shape of Telescopium the Telescope. Only Alpha (α) Telescopii, a yellowish star located 250 light-years from Earth, shines brighter than magnitude 4.0. To read the complete article, purchase and download Celestial Portraits Package 4.
|Deep-sky objects in Telescopium, Indus, and Pavo|
IC 4662, NGC 6684, NGC 6744, NGC 6752, NGC 6810, IC 4889, Dunlop 227, NGC 6868, NGC 6876, Abell 3716, NGC 7020, NGC 7041, NGC 7049, Theta Indi, NGC 7090, Y Pavonis, IC 5152 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35809000 |
Spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord that results in paralysis (loss of mobility, reflexes, or sensation). SCI can occur from: vehicular accidents, sporting activities, gunshot wounds, falls, etc.
Spinal cord injury is dependent on the type and level of injury. An injury can be complete or incomplete. A complete injury means that there is no function, no sensation, and no voluntary mobility below the level of injury. An incomplete injury means that there is some functioning below the primary level of the injury. A person may have partial or complete movement in limb(s) or sensation and feeling in different parts of the body.
When a spinal cord injury occurs, there is usually swelling of the spinal cord. Some people may regain some functioning if the swelling subsides after several days or weeks. Every case of SCI is different and the amount of function that is regained differs among individuals.
After an SCI patient is stabilized, the next step is usually rehabilitation. The amount of stay in a rehabilitation center or unit is dependent on insurance and financial resources. At the rehab center, physical and occupational therapists will work with the SCI patient to achieve as much independence as possible (dependent on level of inury). Also, it is important that family members make sure that the patients stay be one in which a patient learns everything that will fully prepare him when he is discharged.
Following an SCI, the Alan T Brown Foundation (ATBF) is here to answer any questions that may arise regarding a newly-injured person. Please feel free to contact ATBF at 212-944-8727 or via email at email@example.com. ATBF can show you that there is life after paralysis. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35810000 |
Immerse yourself in a rich array of Aboriginal art in the National Gallery of Australia. A total of 13 galleries now showcase more than 7,500 works, from dot and bark paintings to watercolours, textiles, prints, ceramics and sculptures. Meander through different rooms, learning about the landscapes, Dreaming legends and historic events entwined with each art tradition. This important collection is a living, evolving expression of the world’s oldest living culture.
Aboriginal art is incredibly diverse but also unified, with stories and themes that consistently draw on the land and its spirituality. Wandering through the huge collection of the National Gallery of Australia, you can truly appreciate the variety of artistic styles and mediums, as well as the common inspirations.
Each gallery space showcases Aboriginal art from a particular time period or region, such as the exhibition of Aboriginal artefacts from the 1800s. Discover spears, didgeridoos, baskets, ceremonial tools and objects that have weathered the test of time due to the skill and imagination of their creators. Another room exhibits the ancient bark paintings and sculptures of western Arnhem Land. Get up close to the distinctive X-ray designs found in Kakadu National Park and see Dreamtime ancestors depicted on crosshatching.
Learn more Early Western Desert painting, or the Papunya School, from the remote Papunya community of Central Australia between 1971 and 1974. Under the guidance of art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, the children, and later the senior men of Papunya began to paint their Dreaming stories on canvas. Their dot paintings marked the beginning of a style that spread across the Central Desert, transformed the Australian art market and became recognizable around the world.
See how the Papunya tradition has evolved in the next gallery, which displays desert paintings from 1975 onwards. These works are increasingly experimental, often using colourful and abstract styles and depicting historical or contemporary events as well as Dreamtime legends.
See the acclaimed watercolour paintings of Albert Namatjira, one of the first Aboriginal artists to adopt Western techniques. Also hanging are the works of other Aboriginal artists from the Hermannsburg Mission, who learnt watercolour painting from Namatjira. Together these paintings represent the Hermannsburg School art tradition.
Learn about the Wandjina stick figures found on rock paintings in Western Australia’s Kimberley region and see the screen-printed textiles crafted by the Anmatyerr and Alyawarr women of Central Australia. One gallery is dedicated to the vibrant art of the Torres Strait Islands, including their elaborate masks and more recent printmaking traditions. In another room you can follow an Aboriginal art trail across North Queensland and the Top End, taking in painting, sculpture and ceramics.
Contemporary Aboriginal artists, from photographers to urban painters, also have a powerful presence in the exhibition. Their works are political and often provocative, tackling present-day issues. One of the gallery’s most evocative installations is the Aboriginal Memorial. Completed in 1988, it marks two centuries of European occupation with 200 hollow log coffins.
Marvel at the diversity of Aboriginal art and appreciate it as a whole at the National Gallery of Australia. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35817000 |
Do deficits in visual motion processing underlie social difficulties in autism?
Little is known about the perceptual deficits associated with autism. This is surprising because the accurate perception of socially relevant information is a necessary first step in social behavior. People communicate vast amounts of rich social information, such as emotion and intention, through their actions. Given the importance of human action perception to social behavior, vision researchers have conducted numerous experiments to understand how the human visual system normally analyzes the bodily movements or actions of other people. This is done by simulating human movements using multiple points of light across a computer screen. This psychophysical measurement will be applied to individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) to determine how, and how well, adults with autism can differentiate patterns of individual points of light that mimic human movement. Significance: This proposal addresses the question of whether individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) are compromised in their ability to perceive human action. If individuals with HFA have difficulty perceiving the actions of other people, then this might account for aspects of their social deficits. Such a finding would indicate that significant changes are needed in our understanding, assessment, and treatment of HFA. The results of this study are complemented by the group at the University of Glasgow which will investigate neural activation during tasks which involve visual processing while observing biological stimuli. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35818000 |
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|History of Aviation|
History of Aviation
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright capped four years of research and design efforts with a 120-foot, 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina - the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine. Prior to that, people had flown only in balloons and gliders.
The first person to fly as a passenger was Leon Delagrange, who rode with French pilot Henri Farman from a meadow outside of Paris in 1908. Charles Furnas became the first American airplane passenger when he flew with Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk later that year.
The first scheduled air service began in Florida on January 1, 1914. Glenn Curtiss had designed a plane that could take off and land on water and thus could be built larger than any plane to date, because it did not need the heavy undercarriage required for landing on hard ground. Thomas Benoist, an auto parts maker, decided to build such a flying boat, or seaplane, for a service across Tampa Bay called the St. Petersburg - Tampa Air Boat Line. His first passenger was ex-St. Petersburg Mayor A.C. Pheil, who made the 18-mile trip in 23 minutes, a considerable improvement over the two-hour trip by boat. The single-plane service accommodated one passenger at a time, and the company charged a one-way fare of $5. After operating two flights a day for four months, the company folded with the end of the winter tourist season.
World War I
These and other early flights were headline events, but commercial aviation was very slow to catch on with the general public, most of whom were afraid to ride in the new flying machines. Improvements in aircraft design also were slow. However, with the advent of World War I, the military value of aircraft was quickly recognized and production increased significantly to meet the soaring demand for planes from governments on both sides of the Atlantic. Most significant was the development of more powerful motors, enabling aircraft to reach speeds of up to 130 miles per hour, more than twice the speed of pre-war aircraft. Increased power also made larger aircraft possible.
At the same time, the war was bad for commercial aviation in several respects. It focused all design and production efforts on building military aircraft. In the public's mind, flying became associated with bombing runs, surveillance and aerial dogfights. In addition, there was such a large surplus of planes at the end of the war that the demand for new production was almost nonexistent for several years - and many aircraft builders went bankrupt. Some European countries, such as Great Britain and France, nurtured commercial aviation by starting air service over the English Channel. However, nothing similar occurred in the United States, where there were no such natural obstacles isolating major cities and where railroads could transport people almost as fast as an airplane, and in considerably more comfort. The salvation of the U.S. commercial aviation industry following World War I was a government program, but one that had nothing to do with the transportation of people.
By 1917, the U.S. government felt enough progress had been made in the development of planes to warrant something totally new - the transport of mail by air. That year, Congress appropriated $100,000 for an experimental airmail service to be conducted jointly by the Army and the Post Office between Washington and New York, with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia. The first flight left Belmont Park, Long Island for Philadelphia on May 14, 1918 and the next day continued on to Washington, where it was met by President Woodrow Wilson.
With a large number of war-surplus aircraft in hand, the Post Office set its sights on a far more ambitious goal - transcontinental air service. It opened the first segment, between Chicago and Cleveland, on May 15, 1919 and completed the air route on September 8, 1920, when the most difficult part of the route, the Rocky Mountains, was spanned. Airplanes still could not fly at night when the service first began, so the mail was handed off to trains at the end of each day. Nonetheless, by using airplanes the Post Office was able to shave 22 hours off coast-to-coast mail deliveries.
In 1921, the Army deployed rotating beacons in a line between Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, a distance of about 80 miles. The beacons, visible to pilots at 10-second intervals, made it possible to fly the route at night.
The Post Office took over the operation of the guidance system the following year, and by the end of 1923, constructed similar beacons between Chicago and Cheyenne, Wyoming, a line later extended coast-to-coast at a cost of $550,000. Mail then could be delivered across the continent in as little as 29 hours eastbound and 34 hours westbound - prevailing winds from west to east accounted for the difference which was at least two days less than it took by train.
The Contract Air Mail Act of 1925
By the mid-1920s, the Post Office mail fleet was flying 2.5 million miles and delivering 14 million letters annually. However, the government had no intention of continuing airmail service on its own. Traditionally, the Post Office had used private companies for the transportation of mail. So, once the feasibility of airmail was firmly established and airline facilities were in place, the government moved to transfer airmail service to the private sector, by way of competitive bids. The legislative authority for the move was the Contract Air Mail Act of 1925, commonly referred to as the Kelly Act after its chief sponsor, Rep. Clyde Kelly of Pennsylvania. This was the first major step toward the creation of a private U.S. airline industry. Winners of the initial five contracts were National Air Transport (owned by the Curtiss Aeroplane Co.), Varney Air Lines, Western Air Express, Colonial Air Transport and Robertson Aircraft Corporation. National and Varney would later become important parts of United Air Lines (originally a joint venture of the Boeing Airplane Company and Pratt & Whitney). Western would merge with Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), another Curtiss subsidiary, to form Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA). Robertson would become part of the Universal Aviation Corporation, which in turn would merge with Colonial, Southern Air Transport and others, to form American Airways, predecessor of American Airlines. Juan Trippe, one of the original partners in Colonial, later pioneered international air travel with Pan Am - a carrier he founded in 1927 to transport mail between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. Pitcairn Aviation, yet another Curtiss subsidiary that got its start transporting mail, would become Eastern Air Transport, predecessor of Eastern Air Lines.
The Morrow Board
The same year Congress passed the Contract Air Mail Act, President Calvin Coolidge appointed a board to recommend a national aviation policy (a much-sought-after goal of then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover). Dwight Morrow, a senior partner in J.P. Morgan's bank, and later the father-in-law of Charles Lindbergh, was named chairman. The board heard testimony from 99 people, and on November 30, 1925, submitted its report to President Coolidge. The report was wide-ranging, but its key recommendation was that the government should set standards for civil aviation and that the standards should be set outside of the military.
The Air Commerce Act of 1926
Congress adopted the recommendations of the Morrow Board almost to the letter in the Air Commerce Act of 1926. The legislation authorized the Secretary of Commerce to designate air routes, to develop air navigation systems, to license pilots and aircraft, and to investigate accidents. The act brought the government into commercial aviation as regulator of the private airlines spawned by the Kelly Act of the previous year.
Congress also adopted the board's recommendation for airmail contracting, by amending the Kelly Act to change the method of compensation for airmail services. Instead of paying carriers a percentage of the postage paid, the government would pay them according to the weight of the mail. This simplified payments, and proved highly advantageous to the carriers, which collected $48 million from the government for the carriage of mail between 1926 and 1931.
Ford's Tin Goose
Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, was also among the early successful bidders for airmail contracts, winning the right, in 1925, to carry mail from Chicago to Detroit and Cleveland aboard planes his company already was using to transport spare parts for his automobile assembly plants. More importantly, he jumped into aircraft manufacturing, and in 1927, produced the Ford Trimotor, commonly referred to as the Tin Goose. It was one of the first all-metal planes, made of a new material, duralumin, which was almost as light as aluminum but twice as strong. It also was the first plane designed primarily to carry passengers rather than mail. The Ford Trimotor had 12 passenger seats; a cabin high enough for a passenger to walk down the aisle without stooping; and room for a "stewardess," or flight attendant, the first of whom were nurses, hired by United in 1930 to serve meals and assist airsick passengers. The Tin Goose's three engines made it possible to fly higher and faster (up to 130 miles per hour), and its sturdy appearance, combined with the Ford name, had a reassuring effect on the public's perception of flying. However, it was another event, in 1927, that brought unprecedented public attention to aviation and helped secure the industry's future as a major mode of transportation.
At 7:52 a.m. on May 20, 1927, a young pilot named Charles Lindbergh set out on an historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. It was the first trans-Atlantic non-stop flight in an airplane, and its effect on both Lindbergh and aviation was enormous. Lindbergh became an instant American hero. Aviation became a more established industry, attracting millions of private investment dollars almost overnight, as well as the support of millions of Americans.
The pilot who sparked all of this attention had dropped out of engineering school at the University of Wisconsin to learn how to fly. He became a barnstormer, doing aerial shows across the country, and eventually joined the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, to transport mail between St. Louis and Chicago.
In planning his trans-Atlantic voyage, Lindbergh daringly decided to fly by himself, without a navigator, so he could carry more fuel. His plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, was slightly less than 28 feet in length, with a wingspan of 46 feet. It carried 450 gallons of gasoline, which comprised half its takeoff weight. There was too little room in the cramped cockpit for navigating by the stars, so Lindbergh flew by dead reckoning. He divided maps from his local library into thirty-three 100-mile segments, noting the heading he would follow as he flew each segment. When he first sighted the coast of Ireland, he was almost exactly on the route he had plotted, and he landed several hours later, with 80 gallons of fuel to spare.
Lindbergh's greatest enemy on his journey was fatigue. The trip took an exhausting 33 hours, 29 minutes and 30 seconds, but he managed to keep awake by sticking his head out the window to inhale cold air, by holding his eyelids open, and by constantly reminding himself that if he fell asleep he would perish. In addition, he had a slight instability built into his airplane that helped keep him focused and awake.
Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Field, outside of Paris, at 10:24 p.m. Paris time on May 21. Word of his flight preceded him and a large crowd of Parisians rushed out to the airfield to see him and his little plane. There was no question about the magnitude of what he had accomplished. The Air Age had arrived.
The Watres Act and the Spoils Conference
In 1930, Postmaster General Walter Brown pushed for legislation that would have another major impact on the development of commercial aviation. Known as the Watres Act (after one of its chief sponsors, Rep. Laurence H. Watres of Pennsylvania), it authorized the Post Office to enter into longer-term contracts for airmail, with rates based on space or volume, rather than weight. In addition, the act authorized the Post Office to consolidate airmail routes, where it was in the national interest to do so. Brown believed the changes would promote larger, stronger airlines, as well as more coast-to-coast and nighttime service.
Immediately after Congress approved the act, Brown held a series of meetings in Washington to discuss the new contracts. The meetings were later dubbed the Spoils Conference because Brown gave them little publicity and directly invited only a handful of people from the larger airlines. He designated three transcontinental mail routes and made it clear that he wanted only one company operating each service rather than a number of small airlines handing the mail off to one another. His actions brought political trouble that resulted in major changes to the system two years later.
Scandal and the Air Mail Act of 1934
Following the Democratic landslide in the election of 1932, some of the smaller airlines began complaining to news reporters and politicians that they had been unfairly denied airmail contracts by Brown. One reporter discovered that a major contract had been awarded to an airline whose bid was three times higher than a rival bid from a smaller airline. Congressional hearings followed, chaired by Sen. Hugo Black of Alabama, and by 1934 the scandal had reached such proportions as to prompt President Franklin Roosevelt to cancel all mail contracts and turn mail deliveries over to the Army.
The decision was a mistake. The Army pilots were unfamiliar with the mail routes, and the weather at the time they took over the deliveries, February 1934, was terrible. There were a number of accidents as the pilots flew practice runs and began carrying the mail, leading to newspaper headlines that forced President Roosevelt to retreat from his plan only a month after he had turned the mail over to the Army
By means of the Air Mail Act of 1934, the government once again returned airmail transportation to the private sector, but it did so under a new set of rules that would have a significant impact on the industry. Bidding was structured to be more competitive, and former contract holders were not allowed to bid at all, so many companies were reorganized. The result was a more even distribution of the government's mail business and lower mail rates that forced airlines and aircraft manufacturers to pay more attention to the development of the passenger side of the business.
In another major change, the government forced the dismantling of the vertical holding companies common up to that time in the industry, sending aircraft manufacturers and airline operators (most notably Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and United Air Lines) their separate ways. The entire industry was now reorganized and refocused.
For the airlines to attract passengers away from the railroads, they needed both larger and faster airplanes. They also needed safer airplanes. Accidents, such as the one in 1931 that killed Notre Dame Football Coach Knute Rockne along with six others, kept people from flying
Aircraft manufacturers responded to the challenge. There were so many improvements to aircraft in the 1930s that many believe it was the most innovative period in aviation history. Air-cooled engines replaced water-cooled engines, reducing weight and making larger and faster planes possible. Cockpit instruments also improved, with better altimeters, airspeed indicators, rate-of-climb indicators, compasses, and the introduction of artificial horizon, which showed pilots the attitude of the aircraft relative to the ground - important for flying in reduced visibility
Another development of enormous importance to aviation was radio. Aviation and radio developed almost in lock step. Marconi sent his first message across the Atlantic on the airwaves just two years before the Wright Brothers? first flight at Kitty Hawk. By World War I, some pilots were taking radios up in the air with them so they could communicate with people on the ground. The airlines followed suit after the war, using radio to transmit weather information from the ground to their pilots, so they could avoid storms
An even more significant development, however, was the realization that radio could be used as an aid to navigation when visibility was poor and visual navigation aids, such as beacons, were useless. Once technical problems were worked out, the Department of Commerce constructed 83 radio beacons across the country. They became fully operational in 1932, automatically transmitting directional beams, or tracks, that pilots could follow to their destination. Marker beacons came next, allowing pilots to locate airports in poor visibility. The first air traffic control tower was established in 1935 at what is now Newark International Airport in New Jersey
The First Modern Airliners
Boeing built what generally is considered the first modern passenger airliner, the Boeing 247. It was unveiled in 1933, and United Air Lines promptly bought 60 of them. Based on a low-wing, twin-engine bomber with retractable landing gear built for the military, the 247 accommodated 10 passengers and cruised at 155 miles per hour. Its cabin was insulated, to reduce engine noise levels inside the plane, and it featured such amenities as upholstered seats and a hot water heater to make flying more comfortable to passengers. Eventually, Boeing also gave the 247 variable-pitch propellers, that reduced takeoff distances, increased the rate of climb, and boosted cruising speeds
Not to be outdone by United, TWA went searching for an alternative to the 247 and eventually found what it wanted from the Douglas Aircraft Company. Its DC-1 incorporated Boeing's innovations and improved upon many of them. The DC-1 had a more powerful engine and accommodations for two more passengers than did the 247. More importantly, the airframe was designed so that the skin of the aircraft bore most of the stress on the plane during flight. There was no interior skeleton of metal spars, thus giving passengers more room than they had in the 247.The DC-1 also was easier to fly. It was equipped with the first automatic pilot and the first efficient wing flaps, for added lift during takeoff. However, for all its advancements, only one DC-1 was ever built. Douglas decided almost immediately to alter its design, adding 18 inches to its length so it could accommodate two more passengers. The new, longer version was called the DC-2 and it was a big success, but the best was still to come
Called the plane that changed the world, the DC-3 was the first aircraft to enable airlines to make money carrying passengers. As a result, it quickly became the dominant aircraft in the United States, following its debut in 1936 with American Airlines (which played a key role in its design).
The DC-3 had 50 percent greater passenger capacity than the DC-2 (21 seats versus 14), yet cost only ten percent more to operate. It also was considered a safer plane, built of an aluminum alloy stronger than materials previously used in aircraft construction. It had more powerful engines (1,000 horsepower versus 710 horsepower for the DC-2), and it could travel coast to coast in only 16 hours - a fast trip for that time.
Another important improvement was the use of a hydraulic pump to lower and raise the landing gear. This freed pilots from having to crank the gear up and down during takeoffs and landings. For greater passenger comfort, the DC-3 had a noise-deadening plastic insulation, and seats set in rubber to minimize vibrations. It was a fantastically popular airplane, and it helped attract many new travelers to flying.
Although planes such as the Boeing 247 and the DC-3 represented significant advances in aircraft design, they had a major drawback. They could fly no higher than 10,000 feet, because people became dizzy and even fainted, due to the reduced levels of oxygen at higher altitudes.
The airlines wanted to fly higher, to get above the air turbulence and storms common at lower altitudes. Motion sickness was a problem for many airline passengers, and an inhibiting factor to the industry's growth.
The breakthrough came at Boeing with the Stratoliner, a derivation of the B-17 bomber introduced in 1940 and first flown by TWA. It was the first pressurized aircraft, meaning that air was pumped into the aircraft as it gained altitude to maintain an atmosphere inside the cabin similar to the atmosphere that occurs naturally at lower altitudes. With its regulated air compressor, the 33-seat Stratoliner could fly as high as 20,000 feet and reach speeds of 200 miles per hour.
The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938
Government decisions continued to prove as important to aviation's future as technological breakthroughs, and one of the most important aviation bills ever enacted by Congress was the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938. Until that time, numerous government agencies and departments had a hand in aviation policy. Airlines sometimes were pushed and pulled in several directions, and there was no central agency working for the long-term development of the industry. All the airlines had been losing money, since the postal reforms in 1934 significantly reduced the amount they were paid for carrying the mail.
The airlines wanted more rationalized government regulation, through an independent agency, and the Civil Aeronautics Act gave them what they needed. It created the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) and gave the new agency power to regulate airline fares, airmail rates, interline agreements, mergers and routes. Its mission was to preserve order in the industry, holding rates to reasonable levels while, at the same time nurturing the still financially-shaky airline industry, thereby encouraging the development of commercial air transportation.
Congress created a separate agency - the Air Safety Board - to investigate accidents. In 1940, however, President Roosevelt convinced Congress to transfer the accident investigation function to the CAA, which was then renamed the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). These moves, coupled with the tremendous progress made on the technological side, put the industry on the road to success.
World War II
Aviation had an enormous impact on the course of World War II and the war had just as significant an impact on aviation. There were fewer than 300 air transport aircraft in the United States when Hitler marched into Poland in 1939. By the end of the war, U.S. aircraft manufacturers were producing 50,000 planes a year.
Most of the planes, of course, were fighters and bombers, but the importance of air transports to the war effort quickly became apparent as well. Throughout the war, the airlines provided much needed airlift to keep troops and supplies moving, to the front and throughout the production chain back home. For the first time in their history, the airlines had far more business - for passengers as well as freight - than they could handle. Many of them also had opportunities to pioneer new routes, gaining an exposure that would give them a decidedly broader outlook at war's end.
While there were numerous advances in U.S. aircraft design during the war, that enabled planes to go faster, higher, and farther than ever before, mass production was the chief goal of the United States. The major innovations of the wartime period - radar and jet engines - occurred in Europe.
The Jet Engine
Isaac Newton was the first to theorize, in the 18th century, that a rearward-channeled explosion could propel a machine forward at a great rate of speed. However, no one found a practical application for the theory until Frank Whittle, a British pilot, designed the first jet engine in 1930. Even then, widespread skepticism about the commercial viability of a jet prevented Whittle's design from being tested for several years.
The Germans were the first to build and test a jet aircraft. Based on a design by Hans von Ohain, a student whose work was independent of Whittle's, it flew in 1939, although not as well as the Germans had hoped. It would take another five years for German scientists to perfect the design, by which time it was, fortunately, too late to affect the outcome of the war.
Whittle also improved his jet engine during the war, and in 1942 he shipped an engine prototype to General Electric in the United States. America's first jet plane - the Bell P-59 - was built the following year.
Another technological development with a much greater impact on the war's outcome (and later on commercial aviation) was radar. British scientists had been working on a device that could give them early warning of approaching enemy aircraft even before the war began, and by 1940 Britain had a line of radar transceivers along its east coast that could detect German aircraft the moment they took off from the Continent. British scientists also perfected the cathode ray oscilloscope, which produced map-type outlines of surrounding countryside and showed aircraft as a pulsing light. Americans, meanwhile, found a way to distinguish between enemy aircraft and allied aircraft by installing transponders aboard the latter that signaled their identity to radar operators.
Dawn of the Jet Age
Aviation was poised to advance rapidly following the war, in large part because of the development of jets, but there still were significant problems to overcome. In 1952, a 36-seat British-made jet, the Comet, flew from London to Johannesburg, South Africa, at speeds as high as 500 miles per hour. Two years later, the Comet's career ended abruptly following two back-to-back accidents in which the fuselage burst apart during flight - the result of metal fatigue.
The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, following World War II, helped secure the funding needed to solve such problems and advance the jet's development. Most of the breakthroughs related to military aircraft that later were applied to the commercial sector. For example, Boeing employed a swept-back wing design for its B-47 and B-52 bombers to reduce drag and increase speed. Later, the design was incorporated into commercial jets, making them faster and thus more attractive to passengers. The best example of military - civilian technology transfer was the jet tanker Boeing designed for the Air Force to refuel bombers in flight. The tanker, the KC-135, was a huge success as a military plane, but even more successful when revamped and introduced, in 1958, as the first U.S. passenger jet, the Boeing 707. With a length of 125 feet and four engines with 17,000 pounds of thrust each, the 707 could carry up to 181 passengers and travel at speeds of 550 miles per hour. Its engines proved more reliable than piston-driven engines - producing less vibration, putting less stress on the plane's airframe and reducing maintenance expenses. They also burned kerosene, which cost half as much as the high-octane gasoline used in more traditional planes. With the 707, first ordered and operated by Pan Am, all questions about the commercial feasibility of jets were answered. The Jet Age had arrived, and other airlines soon were lining up to buy the new aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Act of 1958
Following World War II, air travel soared, but with the industry's growth came new problems. In 1956 two aircraft collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people. The skies were getting too crowded for existing systems of aircraft separation, and Congress responded by passing the Federal Aviation Act of 1958.
The legislation created a new safety regulatory agency, the Federal Aviation Agency, later called the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when Congress created the Department of Transportation (DOT) in 1967. The agency was charged with establishing and running a broad air traffic control system, to maintain safe separation of all commercial aircraft through all phases of flight. In addition, it assumed jurisdiction over all other aviation safety matters, such as the certification of aircraft designs, and airline training and maintenance programs. The Civil Aeronautics Board retained jurisdiction over economic matters, such as airline routes and rates.
Wide-bodies and Supersonics
1969 marked the debut of another revolutionary aircraft, the Boeing 747, which, again, Pan Am was the first to purchase and fly in commercial service. It was the first wide-body jet, with two aisles, a distinctive upper deck over the front section of the fuselage, and four engines. With seating for as many as 450 passengers, it was twice as big as any other Boeing jet and 80 percent bigger than the largest jet up until that time, the DC-8.
Recognizing the economies of scale to be gained from larger jets, other aircraft manufacturers quickly followed suit. Douglas built its first wide-body, the DC-10, in 1970, and only a month later, Lockheed flew its contender in the wide-body market, the L-1011. Both of these jets had three engines (one under each wing and one on the tail) and were smaller than the 747, seating about 250 passengers.
During the same period of time, efforts were underway in both the United States and Europe to build a supersonic commercial aircraft. The Soviet Union was the first to succeed, testing the Tupolev 144 in December of 1968. A consortium of West European aircraft manufacturers first flew the Concorde two months later and eventually produced a number of those fast, but small, jets for commercial service. U.S. efforts to produce a supersonic passenger jet, on the other hand, stalled in 1971 due to public concern about it's expense and the sonic boom produced by such aircraft.
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The following video provides you with the correct English pronunciation of the word "knal", to help you become a better English speaker.
© This article uses material from Wikipedia® and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
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n. pop, bang, crack, sound of an explosion
v. bang, pop, explode with a loud bang
| knal in French | knal in Dutch | knal in Portuguese | knal in Croatian | knal in Indonesian
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Bikes are reliable and efficient. They can bring a better life within reach: access to safer drinking water, improved medical care, and more nutritious food.
Bikes can make jobs, markets, and schools more accessible.
And since bikes are easier to maintain than cars or buses, particularly in areas where parts and mechanical skills are scarce, the improvements they create can be counted on day after day, season after season.
While donations of food or medicine can help in extreme situations, bicycles enable villages to build their own economies and connect with resources beyond their own area. Donations to help get Bamboosero programs started will go further than most charity efforts because the model is truly sustainable. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35837000 |
Ah, the pleasures of a summer evening in the South. The warm, sultry air, a freshly brewed glass of iced tea, the scent of magnolia and jasmine - the sudden cry of pain and the smack of hand upon skin. Paradise has a price: Florida is home to 77 species of mosquitoes, all of them ornery.
So how can a small town with almost no budget tackle pest control? In Cinco Bayou, in northwest Florida, resident Jim Bratton had an inspiration. He knew that a few bats already lived under the Cinco Bayou Bridge near his home, and he knew that bats eat an enormous amount of bothersome insects. So why not recruit more bats to help fight insect pests?
Jim pitched his plan to the Town Council in July 2001. Four months later, the initially skeptical council had warmed to the idea of placing a bat house under the bridge to increase the bat population, but the $5,000 cost was prohibitive for a town of about 500 people. Councilman and educator Dan Farley suggested partnering with Liza Jackson Preparatory School to defray costs.
The goal was a Bridge Lodge bat house from BCI friends Marvin and Linda Maberry of Maberry Centre Bat Homes. The super condo is a 183-pound (83-kilogram), 16-crevice structure with room for 5,000 bats. Designed specifically for bridges, Florida already has 37 installed.
Liza Jackson's K-8 students adopted the plan as a combination community service/science project and began fund-raising - and studying bats. They quickly covered the $2,000 cost of the Bridge Lodge. Engineering fees ($1,000) were waived, and a local marina donated installation ($2,000).
The June 2002 dedication marked the culmination of a significant community effort at no taxpayer expense. Bats are already in residence, and the town is hoping to see a nursery colony next year. Bats are staying on the school's urriculum and the students will report each year to the BCI's Bat House Research Project. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35841000 |
“Brain training is most cost-effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome,” BBC News reports, while pacing therapies (learning to live within limits) “offer little value”.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a poorly understood and often controversial condition. The most common symptom of CFS is extreme tiredness (fatigue).
This news is based on research that aimed to determine how cost-effective four treatment options were for people with CFS. These were:
- specialist medical care for CFS
- cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – a type of talking therapy
- graded exercise therapy – a structured exercise programme that aims gradually to increase how long a person can exercise for
- adaptive pacing therapy (often just referred to as ‘pacing’) – pacing is where a person with CFS is encouraged to schedule in periods of rest in their day-to-day activities
To determine the cost-effectiveness, three main factors were taken into account:
- improvement in quality of life
- the cost of providing the treatment
- the potential savings to society
Based on the statistical models used by the researchers, CBT and graded exercise therapy were found to be most cost-effective, while specialist medical care and pacing were the least cost-effective.
The researchers did not consider patient preference, which could have an impact.
While patients may well benefit from CBT and exercise therapy, the researchers note that there needs to be investment to ensure properly trained staff are available to deliver them. This study supports the case for this training.
Cost-effectiveness of treatment
This study looked at the cost-effectiveness of treatments. This is not the same as judging whether a treatment is effective.
Where a treatment is judged not to be cost-effective, that does not necessarily mean that it doesn’t work at all. Instead it means that it does not provide enough effectiveness for its cost, based on a selected “value for money” threshold. While this may be a distasteful concept to some, it helps policymakers make more objective decisions about which treatments to fund from the finite amount of money available.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from King’s College London, Oxford University, London School of Economics and other institutions. It was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Scottish Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.
The coverage by the BBC News was appropriate, though it is unclear how the “millions of pounds” they say the economy could save from wide adoption of these treatments was derived. The term "brain training" used in the headline could give the misleading impression that people with CFS were given computer games consoles to play, but that was not what was looked at in this research.
What kind of research was this?
This was a cost-effectiveness study based on the results of previous research (the PACE trial) that investigated the effectiveness of four treatment options for patients with CFS.
A cost-effectiveness study models the expected total costs of different treatments or interventions (in this case interventions for chronic fatigue syndrome), and compares the effects on health outcomes, to assess which treatments or interventions can be considered to give the best “value for money”. This is usually done from the perspective of the health service. In this case societal costs such as lost employment and the cost of informal care for people affected by the illness were included. This sort of information helps decision-makers decide how best to allocate limited healthcare resources. As this approach takes into account benefits of improvements in health and the savings made from better care, the cheapest treatment option is not necessarily the most cost-effective. It allows different treatments in different diseases to be compared against each other and against society’s willingness to pay for such things.
What did the research involve?
The researchers used data from a previous study on 640 people with chronic fatigue syndrome. This study compared the effectiveness of adding adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or graded exercise therapy to specialist medical care for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. In this latest study the researchers have investigated the relative cost-effectiveness of these interventions by calculating:
- quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), which are a standard measure used to determine how much somebody’s life can be extended and improved as a result of receiving a particular intervention
- the one-year healthcare and societal costs involved with providing each intervention (societal costs were considered by the researchers as lost employment and unpaid informal care)
The researchers then compared the:
- one-year service and societal costs of providing each intervention
- one-year cost-effectiveness of each intervention in terms of gains in QALYs, and reductions in fatigue and disability
The number and duration of treatment sessions for each treatment was recorded (with time added for support activities) and the costs per hour of therapy were estimated based on nationally registered sources. Specific types of medication were also included in the analysis and unpaid and informal care from family and friends estimated at £14.60 per hour based on national mean earnings. Days lost by patients from work and reduced hours due to fatigue while at work was also recorded. QALYs were calculated from health-related quality of life questionnaires carried out at the beginning of the study (baseline) and throughout the study.
One-year healthcare, informal care and societal costs were compared using statistical modelling and adjustments were made for estimated standard costs.
Earlier findings of the PACE trial were reported by NHS Choices in February 2011.
What were the basic results?
The researchers report the healthcare and societal findings of this study separately. The findings include the following:
- patients receiving specialist medical care alone had significantly lower healthcare costs than those receiving CBT, graded exercise therapy and adaptive pacing therapy
- the healthcare costs per QALY gained for CBT and graded exercise therapy were likely to be lower than the £30,000 threshold that, in England, has become a standard for the reasonable use of NHS resources, indicating they were cost-effective
- the healthcare costs per QALY for adaptive pacing therapy were found to be unlikely to be lower than this threshold and, therefore, thought unlikely to be a good use of NHS resources
- when all three were compared to specialist medical care alone, the incremental healthcare cost per QALY was £18,374 for CBT, £23,615 for graded exercise therapy and £55,235 for adaptive pacing therapy, meaning that CBT appeared to be the best value for money
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers say that “their study has found that CBT and graded exercise therapy are cost-effective options for treating patients with CFS. However, for patients to benefit from these therapies there needs to be investment to provide the staff trained to deliver them. The findings we report suggest that such investment would be justified in terms of improved quality of life of patients and would actually be cost saving if all costs including societal costs are considered”.
In discussing the research findings, King’s College London health economist Professor Paul McCrone said “there is now a strong case for the NHS to invest in providing these therapies”.
Another of the researchers from Oxford University said “this new evidence should encourage health service commissioners to provide these treatments to all those patients who need them”.
Overall, this study provides evidence to suggest that cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy are reasonable value for people with chronic fatigue syndrome. The study does list some points made by the authors that may limit the study findings, including:
- Service use and information on employment was by self-report, which may have led to some unavoidable inaccuracies.
- The researchers estimated costs for medications from average data and this may not have reflected the actual costs in different settings.
- Data were only analysed where baselines and one-year follow-up data were available and the results apply to all costs and benefits over one year only. This is a relatively short time span for an illness that can last a long time and so the researchers call for longer-term studies.
Overall, this is important research into a disabling illness. CFS can last for years. It affects between 0.2 and 2.6% of people worldwide and can be highly disruptive to employment and family life. Any treatments that can be proven to help will most likely be welcomed by those affected by the condition.
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The initial discovery and recognition of the importance of Chocolate is often attributed to Hernan Cortez. Yet in 1502 Christopher Columbus, or Colon, on his fourth and final voyage to the Caribbean, reached the island of Guanaja off the coast of Honduras. History says that he was greeted by Aztecs who offered him sacks full of almond shaped pods in exchange for items they desired. When he did not immediately understand the offering they were giving in exchange, the Aztecan explained to him that a very special drink could be prepared from the beans called tchocolatl or xocolatl. Columbus and his crew found the drink to be bitter and repellent concoction. Little realizing the value of the beans they still took some of the beans back to Spain out of curiosity of the value of them never to realize the economic value of the beans.
When Hernan Cortez arrived seventeen years later to the New World, the then Aztecan leader of the time, Montezuma II, believed Cortez to be the reincarnated Quetzalcoatl, the exiled Toltec god-king whose return was predicted in Aztecan and Toltec mythology. It was according to that myth that that year would be the appointed year of return of the great king who would bring freedom to his people. This confusion made access to the Aztec Capital, Tenochtitlan, where he received the god-kings royal welcome. Cortez was offered many gifts from Montezuma II, including a cocao plantation and a lavish banquet prepared in their honor.
Montezuma realized eventually that he had made a mistake by identifying Cortez as the returned god-king. Cortez enlisted the help of many sympathetic natives and took Montezuma prisoner upon realizing his venerability. It was only a matter of two to three years later that history would see the complete downfall of the Aztec empire.
Not to be compared to his predecessor Colon, Cortez realized rapidly the value of the cocao beans and the impact it would have economically for Spain both as a food and a currency. The value as reported by a contemporary or Cortez was a slave could be purchased for 100 cocao beans, the services of a prostitute for 10, and a rabbit for 4. Pedro Martyre de Angleria, a well known Jesuit, called the cocao beans "pecuniary almonds" thus describing them as "blessed money". He proclaimed that it could exempt it's possessor's from avarice since it can not be hidden or horded underground. The common understanding is that he was referring to the fact that you could not store them for very long without them rotting.
An English friar, Thomas Gage wrote a great collection and extensively on the value of the cocao beans. He is recorded as stating that the natives there bought what they desired or needed for two cocao beans. The exchange he noted also was based on the exchange and value of currency of the time. At the time (1625) the Spanish real was valued at a sixpence or four cents for our understanding. He went on to explain that the natives did in fact make their purchases at the rate of two cocaos, the cost or value placed on the cocaos by the foreigners was 200 cocao beans for a Spanish real or a sixpence being four cents in our day. This is all to say that among the natives the cocao beans were significant and highly valued and was the preferred currency of the day.
Cortez set out to find El Dorado the lost fabled city of Aztec Gold. Not too long after his arrival and after realizing the value of the cocao beans to the natives, he realized that due to the importance placed on the cocao beans by the natives that truly money did grow on trees. The next few years he would set up to exploit the commercial potential of the cocao beans by setting up plantations through out the Caribbean and there by producing "liquid gold". Dur to the nature of the ease and profitability of cultivating the cocao beans, it drew many Spaniards to the New World and the prospect of the easy riches caused many settlers to come and start colonies. Soon Spain established plantations in Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and the Jamaican and Hispaniola Islands. Though the production of cocao beans has since spread through out the world, to date the most highly prized variety of beans still hails from the original areas.
This "liquid gold" was kept a secret for as long as was possible by the Spaniards due to the ease and huge profits they gained by processing the cocao beans in the New World and then transporting it through out the Old World. But the secret of true Aztec Gold would not last. In 1580 the first ever chocolate plant outside of the New World was set up in Spain. From that point on the popularity of Chocolate began to spread through out Spain at large and into the European countries with great popularity. The Dutch transplanted some trees to their settlements in East Indian States in the early seventeenth century. From there the popularity and cultivation spread to the Philippines, New Guinea, Samoa and Indonesia. The financial success it should be noted was due to the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of African slaves. Plantations were spreading throughout the world and many Europeans countries came and settled the New World in the pursuit of Aztecan Gold, what we all enjoy today as Chocolate.
In reflection it is amazing that something found so commonly today in store through out the world was once the catalyst to expedite the colonization and to activate the "settling" of the New World. That is why to this day we refer to Chocolate as the food of hods and it has rightfully been seen in the venue that it deserves. Not many items have moved a world to action as Chocolate did. Not even the greed for gold moved the world into action as did the first taste of cocao.
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Lamentations of the Caves By Rebecca Cuevas De Caissie | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35851000 |
Basalt is used for a wide variety of purposes. It is most commonly crushed for use as an aggregate in construction projects. Crushed basalt is used for road base, concrete aggregate, asphalt pavement aggregate, railroad ballast, filter stone in drain fields and may other purposes. Basalt is also cut into dimension stone. Thin slabs of basalt are cut and sometimes polished for use as floor tiles, building veneer, monuments and other stone objects.
Jaw crusher used in basalt mining processes various kinds of material with crushing compression strength not more than 320mp. It features firm structure, stable performance, and large capacity, even producing granularity, convenient maintenance and economical running expense. It has been widely applied in area of mining, construction material, smelting, railway, high grade road surface, water conservancy, etc.
Cone crusher in basalt crushing has a feature of reliable construction, high productivity, easy adjustment and low operating cost. It is widely used both domestic and abroad in metallurgy, architecture, road making, chemistry and silicate industry for crushing various mid-hard and hard ores and rocks.
Basalt grinding machine is widely used in metallurgy, building materials, chemicals, mining minerals in areas which had better pulverize basalt. According to the fine grinding of basalt and discharging basalt fineness, basalt grinder can be divided into Raymond Mill powder machine, high pressure hanging roller mill grinding machines, high pressure Powder Mill, through centrifugal Mill overpressure trapezoid Mill, tricycle in the six-speed milling machine types.
Basalt Mining Equipment
Basalt Mining equipment like mining crusher and mining mill is an important mining tool which is widely used in stone quarrying, mining, ore dressing plant, aggregate production plant, powder making industry, recycling industry and so on. Usually, the crushing plant flow chart goes as follows: crushing, grinding, screening, washing, drying etc. Benco Machinery can supply the contractors, end users with whole unit crushing plant from primary, secondary, tertiary crushing to powder making machine, sieving, screening equipment. Complete stationary, mobile, portable systems in open-circuit or closed-circuit type are available for the customer. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35856000 |
Increment 5 Digits Number
Hello, I need help here. What I'm trying to do:
1) to has a function that will generate a unique 5 digits number that will increase everytime I call the function. I want to use it as slip number. It start from 00000 to 99999. If it more than 99999 then it will be reset to 00000.
2)this function will search in the table whether the number generated already existed or not, if yes it will increment the number if no then it will assign the number to the txtfields(1).
Below is my code but it doesn't work well.
Private Function tranNo()
Static code1 As Double
txtFields(1).Text = Format(code1, "00000")
If code1 < 99999 Then
If Adodc1.Recordset.RecordCount > 0 Then
Do Until Adodc1.Recordset.EOF
If Adodc1.Recordset("tranNo") = code1 Then
code1 = code1 + 1
code1 = 0
In summary, this number like an autonumber. Can anyone help me to correct the code, or suggest another way to do it? Help me please!
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Number Gen With Different Digits
I am working on a program where the user can pick how many digits and it will generate txtNumber.text amout of a certain digit. Here is the code:
'Int((upperbound - lowerbound + 1) * Rnd + lowerbound)Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)Private Sub cmdClear_Click()List1.ClearEnd Sub Private Sub cmdExit_Click()Unload MeEnd Sub Private Sub cmdGenerate_Click()Combo1.Enabled = FalsetxtNumber.Enabled = FalseProgressBar1.Max = txtNumber.TextProgressBar1.Value = 0lblStatus.Caption = "0/" + txtNumber.Text If Combo1.Text = 5 ThenFor x = 1 To txtNumber.Text'blahtempnumber = Int((99999 - 10000 + 1) * Rnd + 10000)List1.AddItem (tempnumber)Me.RefreshProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1tempr = ProgressBar1.ValuelblStatus.Caption = ProgressBar1.Value + "/" + txtNumber.TextSleep (50)NextEnd If If Combo1.Text = 6 ThenFor x = 1 To txtNumber.Text'blahtempnumber = Int((999999 - 100000 + 1) * Rnd + 100000)List1.AddItem (tempnumber)Me.RefreshProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1lblStatus.Caption = ProgressBar1.Value + "/" + txtNumber.TextProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1Sleep (50)NextEnd If If Combo1.Text = 7 ThenFor x = 1 To txtNumber.Text'blahtempnumber = Int((9999999 - 1000000 + 1) * Rnd + 1000000)List1.AddItem (tempnumber)Me.RefreshProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1lblStatus.Caption = ProgressBar1.Value + "/" + txtNumber.TextProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1Sleep (50)NextEnd If If Combo1.Text = 8 ThenFor x = 1 To txtNumber.Text'blahtempnumber = Int((99999999 - 10000000 + 1) * Rnd + 10000000)List1.AddItem (tempnumber)Me.RefreshProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1lblStatus.Caption = ProgressBar1.Value + "/" + txtNumber.TextProgressBar1.Value = ProgressBar1.Value + 1Sleep (50)NextEnd If Combo1.Enabled = TruetxtNumber.Enabled = TrueEnd SubPrivate Sub Form_Load()Combo1.AddItem ("5")Combo1.AddItem ("6")Combo1.AddItem ("7")Combo1.AddItem ("8")End Sub
I cant do the line that says :
lblStatus.Caption = ProgressBar1.Value + "/" + txtNumber.Text
and I dont know a way around that. All help is appreciated.
Adding Digits In A Number
Hey everyone! I searched for something like this buit could not find anthing. What I need to do is take a number like 123456789 and add each digit together. So it would be: 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9=Whatever. I have tried a lot of different methods, but I can't seem to get it to work. Could some of you guys help me out? Thanx!
Forcing A Set Number Of Digits
This is probably a really simple question but how do I force my program to insert zeros infront of a number if it's not large enough? For example, I want all my numbers to have exactly 3 digits, so if the number is 19, I want it to store it as 019. I know you can use formatcurrency function to force 0's after the decimal, but how do you do it in my case? Thanks in advance.
Counting Number Of Digits
is there any method to check how many digits a number contains that is entered in the text box or if it is assigned to an integer variable??
Number Of Decimals Digits
Hello to all.
I am new with VB, so please forgive me if I sound ignorant. I am doing some calculations that involve double numbers, the results are ok, but I need to show only 2 decimal digits... and I have not been able to figure this out.
Could any body help me with this. ?
Increment For A Number With The Alphabet...
Can anyone teach me how to increase the number with the alphabet as well?
For Example, "A00001", everytime, when i click the command button, it will automatically + 1, "A00001" -> "A00002-> "A00003 -> "A00004 -> ... until "A99999"
Increment The Invoice Number
i am working a Simple invoice but i need it to auto increment the invoice number.
want when Comand Button that once clicked increases the number in Range 1 by one already save number.
please if some one have any simple project please send it to me.
i am really thankful to you .
Inputbox - Limit Number Of Digits?
Is there any way to limit the number of digits the user can put into a inputbox? its because my "game" gets overflowed very easily and i figured my problem would be easily overcame if i could limit the user to only being able to put a max of 3 digits in the box.
Calculating A Number That Has (approx) 238 Digits :O
How would I go about calculating this, without it giving an "Error(3) Overflow!" error :P
Dim iCounter as Integer
Dim lngTotal As Long
Dim lngPrevAnswer As Long
For iCounter = 1 To 500
If lngPrevAnswer < 1 Then
lngPrevAnswer = 1
lngPrevAnswer = (lngPrevAnswer * 3) + 3 'I know the brackets aren't needed.... Just clearifies the equation...
lngTotal = lngTotal + lngPrevAnswer
This gives an overflow error around... 15 :$
CAn someone please help me?
Limit Number Of Digits Entered
hi..is there a way of showing users a messagebox when they have exceeded the limit of numbers that can be entered into a text box? i created a database using visual datamanager where only 10 digits can be entered..i cant seem to be able to change that so is there a way of letting users know? thanks.
How Do You Separate 1 Big Number Into All The Individual Digits?
say you've got a number like 2749386 and rather than doing something with that number you want to split it into the individual numbers and do something with all those numbers.
So you'd have 2, 7, 4, 9, 3, 8 and 6 and can do different things to each.
it's reaaly annoying
if u can help i'd be pleased
Number Of Digits After Decimal Point
Google search gave me nothing, so here it goes:
Is there a better way to find out how many digits there are after decimal point in the given number?
123 => 0
12.56 => 2
3.4 => 1 etc.
Right now I have a little Function that accepts a number and returns another number (of digits after decimal point + 1, this 1 is the decimal point itself)
Private Function MoveNumberBy(sngValue As Single) As Double
If InStr(1, CStr(sngValue), ".") > 0 Then
MoveNumberBy = (Len(CStr(sngValue)) - InStr(1, CStr(sngValue), ".")) + 1
I hope there is a better way than dealing with converting the number to string and messing with it like that.
Removing Digits Form A Number
This may be a really biginners question, but If I had a variable say
Dim random =134830809584545445
and I want to remove the first 5 digits at the right (so removing (13483) in this case, is there a good function that can do this?
Unique Digits In A Number- You Might Find This Useful.
Since there's no codebank for VBA, here's something I'd like to share with you all. I just finished working on a project which I needed to count how many unique digits are in a number. In fact, I've modified it so that it works on strings too!
Function CheckDuplicates(valRng As String, Output As Byte) As String
Dim Count As Byte, oLen As Byte, nLen As Byte
Dim totLen As Byte, i As Byte
totLen = Len(valRng)
ReDim Num(totLen) As Variant
' Populate the array one digit each.
Call Pad(Num(), valRng)
' Cycle thru each digit, replacing each one in the string.
' For each replacement, increment Count.
For i = 1 To totLen
' Pre-replace string length.
oLen = Len(valRng)
valRng = Replace(valRng, Num(i), "")
' Post-replace string length.
nLen = Len(valRng)
If oLen <> nLen Then Count = Count + 1
' If there were upto two digits replaced,
' the orignal number was made up of 0, 1
' or 2 unique digits.
Select Case Output
' Record one more for a replacement.
If Count <= 2 Then CheckDuplicates = "*"
CheckDuplicates = Count
Sub Pad(ByRef myArray() As Variant, str As String)
Dim i As Byte
For i = 1 To Len(str)
myArray(i) = Mid(str, i, 1)
I use a trick I learnt many years ago where you use Replace to count how many times a specific character or digit appears in a string. Let me know what you think of it.
+--VB Dot Net
+-- Navman GPS Forums @ http://forum.jdmils.com
How Do I Increment An Hex Number Inside A String?
I have this string:
and I want to add a number to the last section, I splited this string:
LSec(4) = "8dc429826254"
Now I want to add 15 to this number (Lsec(4)), and then change it back to a string so I can get something like this:
Any ideas?? :S
btw ... I'm using VB 2005
Auto Increment Of A Number According To Year....
I have a problem here,I want to increase the number like this ....
2002/1 ; 2002/2 ; 2002/3 ; 2002/4 .......
2003/1 ; 2003/2 ; 2003/3 ; 2003/4 .......
If I select the year from combobox then according to the year the number should increse and that should be concatinated to the year and the whole should be pasted in text box.....Using Ms-Access as a database and VB as frontend......
Storing Digits For Large Number Calc
I'm planning a module for arithmetic on large numbers and I need to store an arbitrary amount of numerical digits (0-9) in the quickest variable type possible and without wasting horrendous amounts of memory.
Longs and Integers, while the fastest of variable types, simply cannot store that amount of data.
Strings are virtually free of length boundaries, but they're 38 times slower than bytes and given that they're Unicode, they would require 2 bytes per digit. Also, string operations are notoriously slow.
I was thinking byte arrays would work well, although they are still much too large (256 possible values as compared only needing 10). This would waste half the byte. 4 bits would work well (16 possible values), but the problem would be storing and retrieving two numerical digits for individual operations. I could mathematically determine two separate digits from a value 00-99. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the first and second character of a byte in Hex would return the values of the first and second group of 4 bits independently.
I'm just tossing some ideas around. Thanks for any feedback!
Taking A Number In A Textbox, And Finding The Mean Of The Digits.
How do you write in a number in a text, and seperate the digits of that number? I need to find the mean of a number from 1 to 99999, then find the digit in the number that is closest to the mean, but isnt larger. Please help me.
I'm going to have a text box, label, and command button.
Basically how do I seperate digits in a number that is a string.
Choosing Number Of Digits After Decimal To Display
To display numbers according to the regional setting I used this code:
nNumber = 123456.789
and the result is 123,456.79
I want that I can choose how many number of digits after decimal to display, but the thousand and decimal separator symbol remain to follow the regional setting.
Is it possible?
Edited by - zuohui on 8/26/2004 12:39:59 AM
Solved: Increment About Form Version Number
Can someone explain how to increment the About form version number? It just stays at 1.1.0. Other than not incrementing the form looks just fine. The code in the About form includes...
Private Sub Form_Load()
Me.Caption = "About " & App.Title
lblVersion.Caption = "Version " & App.Major & "." & App.Minor & _
"." & App.Revision
lblTitle.Caption = App.Title
lblDescription.Caption = "This program was written by ...blah blah"
lblDisclaimer.Caption = "Warning: ...This program is protected ....blah"
..but there is also under - project properties - make, the version number Major, Minor, Revision.
I have them each set to 1. And, the Auto increment is checked. But, I'm not sure about under Application the Title and Icon part. The drop down for the Icon just lists all the different forms I have in this project. I don't think of a form as an icon what am I missing here?
Under Version Information Type there are entries like comments, company name, file description and so on. What are these for?
Forgive my ignorance I realize this ain't rocket science. Maybe it's the triptophan kicking in.
thanks for any help
Edited by - Hal on 11/29/2003 7:57:44 PM
(RESOLVED)(VB6)Auto Increment Number In Access
I use Access2002 and VB6. My project is a school project. I have 2 comboboxes and one textbox. In my Access database I've already entered data. In combo1 I show the classes like LKG,UKG,STD I,STD II,STD III etc. In combo2, I show the names of students found in that particular class which is selected in Combo1.Let's assume that the maximum strength in each class is 100. Now I want to allot Roll no to students of different classes in a particular way. For example: Students of LKG should have Roll no starting from 101. Students of UKG should have Roll no from 201. Students of STD I should have Roll no from 301 like this. In the textbox if I write the first roll no of a class, can I allot roll no to all students of that class in auto increment way? Hope, you got me.Right? I mean, if I choose UKG and in the textbox I write 501 then roll no should be added in database against all students of that class like 501,502,503,504 and each name. The roll no should be incremented till the no of students are found in the class. Is it possible throught VB6 coding? Thanks.
Edited by - pkb_pkb on 6/28/2007 3:58:50 AM
Reversing The Digits Of A Number/display The Day Of The Week For Any Date
1.)How do I write a VB function/procedure that reverses the digits of a given number? I don't want to assume the length (no. of digits) of the number. That is, the user may input a 2-digit, 3-digit or number of any length (less than 6 digits).
2.) How do I write an event procedure to display the day of the week for any given date. What functions should I use?
This is not my homework. My exams are knocking on the door and so I was solving earlier year's question papers. I am stuck, so please help!
How Do I Get The ID (AutoNumber) To Automatically Increment A Number Sqlserver??URGE
I am having a problem using the INSERT statement in ASP.NET
I have a table "Information" with the following :
ID (Auto Number)
I have the following insert statement
Insert into Information VALUES (MyName,Email@My.com,MyComments);
How do I get the ID ( Auto Number ) to automatically increment a number.??
i am using SQL SERVER 2000
How Do I Get The ID (AutoNumber) To Automatically Increment A Number Sqlserver??URGE
no..sql server is not handling it..
Actualyy i am doing this in ASP.NET
In my table design i have ID in the first coloumn.
Actually in my form design there are only 3 feilds like Name,Email,Comments. and a submit button.
so in my coding part i have written my sql statement like this:
sqlInsert=INSERT INTO TblTran (TRFP_Name,TTRFP_EMail,TTRFP_Comments)
so how do i get my ID in the first coloumn of the datatable??
in query analyzer when initially the value of the ID is showing NULL
so how to increment this NULL value?
Generate Auto-Number Increment In A MS Access Report
I would like to insert a automatic number field in a report that is not bound to any table. I.E. if I wanted to insert the date or time, I would simply type" =Date() ". However I would like to have every report that I generate include a auto number/random number. Any Suggstions?
PS This is for a MS Access 2000 report page.
Is There A Way To Remove Digits And Digits Only?
Is there a way to remove digits and digits only?
Hello, I feel a little embarrassed. An acquaitance
asked me a question. Namely, he works for a REIT
company and he has to put together a project where
they must retrieve various documents from the
archives. By convention, the documents are stored
according to the name of the street the property is
on, not by the street address number, and prefixes
such as "North" or "South" are ignored in ordering the
He has an excel file with a list of all the
properties, but sadly, the properties are input with
the street number and directional prefixes (e.g.
"East" for "East Clinton" street) in the cell. So
sorting them in the Excel file would not at all
correspond with the order they would appear while
searching in the archives for them.
Is there a way to remove digits and digits only? I am
aware of Len and
http://office. microsoft. com/en-us/ excel/HA01154901 1033.aspx? pid=CL1005705510 33
I'm not sure if this is the right area or not, but how do I make it so that only numbers can be entered into a textbox, or If It dedects that non-digit charachters are entered, It changes the text.
i have an exercise on school which involve time (digital clock) recording i have made my vb and un the program but when i enter the hour, minute and second in the textbox the time in the label stop i don't know how to make it continue working... you help will be vey much apreciated, thanks!
How Many Digits
Is there a way you can tell how many digits are to the left of the deciaml point in a variable dimmed as single? And how can you tell if there are numbers to the left of the decimal point in a variable dimmed as a single?
Hello. i am Running VB 6.0. i am making a countdown clock for school and every time it gets one digit in seconds, like 19:09, it cuts off the 0 and says 19:9. How can i insure that the variable stays two digits?
Hey people do you know how i can get 4 digits to be displayed in a text box?
Sum Of Digits
From memory, so no warranty of any kind
Function SumOfDigits (ByVal Number As Integer) As Integer Dim r As Integer Do While Number > 0 r = r + Number Mod 10 Number = Number / 10 Loop SumOfDigits = rEnd Function
What's the easiest way to find the # of digits (or letters) in a string or in a int? Is there a built in function or do you have to do it manually?
Since I am new with vb i have a little question.
I'm calculating in a ppc program some numbers and i want that the result
only have 2 digits after the comma. Can anyone helpme ?
SQL AND ADO SIG DIGITS
I am retrieving a value from the database that resides as "10.0" (a float value) When using Query Analyzer I am retrieving "10.0".
When I run a stored procedure and utilize the ADO object to display the value it shows a "10". "10" is not the same as "10.0" for my application.
Please let me know if there are any settings to ensure that the value is returned as inputted. The alternative I have is to store the values a varchar data.
Note: Implied decimal values will not work for this application. The significance of the data is not known prior to receiving it.
Getting Three Digits Off The Website
The use of my program requires it being added to the startup group. I may be a throwback for even considering these types of things, but because it's going to be permanently running in the background, I want to minimize the footprint in every way possible.
I do, however, want the program to be able to check what the latest version is on the website. All it needs is to pull down is three digits from the website, be it checking the filename of the latest version posted or reading a three character text file.
My question then is can I do this without adding a control? Is there some sort of API that could do this?
If the control is the only way to go, would INet be the best way (smallest footprint) to go about it?
Ok, i know the solution is probably really simple but i don't really know what to search for when looking for a solution.
I am renaming files using a number ordering system but i need the files to be numbered as follows:
If the length of digits is only 2 then:
01, 02, 03, 04, 05...10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
If the length of digits is only 3 then:
001, 002, 003...010, 011, 012, 013...100, 101, 102, 103
Obviously i can get the length of digits as Len($String) so that's fine. I just need to know how to insert the preceding zero's (this is so that Windows lists them in the correct order).
Thank you for any help.
Long To Digits?
is there a way that i can divide a long into its seperate digits and put them in an array? ie- | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35863000 |
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Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (June 3, 1723 - May 8, 1788) was an Italian-Austrian physician and naturalist.
Scopoli was born at Cavalese in the Val di Fiemme , the son of a lawyer. He obtained a degree in medicine at University of Innsbruck, and practiced as a doctor in Cavalese and Venice. Much of his time was spent collecting plants and insects in the Alps. He spent two years as private secretary to the Count of Seckan, and then was appointed as physician of the mines in Idrija, a small village in Slovenia, remaining there for sixteen years. In 1761 he published De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina on the symptoms of mercury poisoning among miners.
Scopoli spent time studying the local natural history, publishing Flora Carniolica (1760) as well as a major work on entomology. He also published Anni Historico-Naturales (1769-72), which included descriptions of new birds from various collections.
In 1769 Scopoli was appointed a senior lecturer at Mining Academy at Chemnitz, and in 1777 transferred to the University of Pavia. His last work was Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae (1786-88), which included scientific names for birds and mammals described by Pierre Sonnerat in the accounts of his voyages.
The drug Scopolamine is named after him. The standard botanical author abbreviation Scop. is applied to species he described. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35871000 |
Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.
Bent Life History for the Pine Siskin - the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.
SPINUS PINUS (Wilson)
Contributed by RALPH S. PALMER
The pine siskin is a social bird the year round. Breeding individuals join in social flocks away from the nesting territory, and they sometimes feed in the tree where the nest is situated. These social groups are small, up to a half dozen birds, not the large flocks commonly seen outside the breeding season. From late summer to late winter the pine siskin associates, roughly in descending order of frequency, with the redpolls, the goldfinches, the two crossbills, the purple finch, the cedar waxwing, and very occasionally, the juncos. Except for the first two mentioned, the association usually is brief and may break off whenever a mixed flock takes flight. A common situation is to find the few siskins in the flocks of the other species, especially when goldfinches or redpolls are plentiful and the siskins few.
The siskin is a relatively high and swift flier, often crossing from ridge to ridge or peak to peak in direct flight far above the trees in *The following subspecics are discussed in this section: ,Spinus pinus pinus (Wilson) and S. p. macreplerus (Bonaparte) the intervening area. The flocks are compact, and all members execute long undulating sweeps in unison. Usually the birds fly silently, but now and again one or many may utter a sharp lisping call-note that carries well.
The decision to alight seems to come abruptly, and the flock drops down into the trees to rest or feed. It is common for the birds to be more vocal on alighting, and again as they depart. Often when feeding, there are no birds in flight; at other times part of the flock may take wing and pass over those still feeding to other food trees. As the birds thus go "leapfrogging," the entire mass of the flock of busy, lisping birds appears to flow through the forest. Then all of a sudden the lisping ceases and the flock is silent; it takes flight with a very audible whirring of wings and flies rapidly away.
By observing alders in Strawberry Canyon at Berkeley, Calif., in February, T. L. Rodgers (1937) provides a description of siskin habits that applies generally:
It began to appear as if the regular procedure of the birds was to alight in the top of a tree, forage down to the lower limbs, never spreading over an area more than 12 or 15 feet across, and then by means of a circular flight move to the top of another tree and forage down ii. Although this was the commonest method, they were also seen to forage in a nearly horizontal line through a group of trees without foraging through any of them completely; they foraged up through a tree, and then moved by a direct route, at times even "flowing" from one tree to the next after the manner of a flock of Bush-tits. The direct flights of the flocks were either to trees far away or to those ten or fifteen feet off. This seems to bear out the idea that "circle flights" are survey flights.
The siskin's gait seems much better adapted to climbing about tree tops than to ground feeding. On the ground it walks with very short steps interspersed with occasional little hops, and its body almost seems to cling to the ground.
Many authors have commented on the siskin's tameness and boldness in its relations with human beings. Brooding females usually can be approached within inches before they leave the nest. Exceptional, however, was the experience of F. H. Allen (1888) at Newton, Mass., in late April. He observed two siskins near a heap of hops by the roadside. One flew away on his approach; the other, though able-bodied and in good condition, allowed itself to be approached closely, stroked, and caught in the hand. Allen queried: "Was this bird affected by the hops * * *?~7 E. R. Davis (1926) reported siskins at Leominster, Mass., to be remarkably tame in late fall. He says:
In a short time the birds came to regard me as their friend, and in the days that followed grew to be exceedingly sociable and to lose every vestige of fear. Whenever I would appear at the window, or step outside the door, down they would come and, settling upon my head, shoulders, and arms, would peer anxiously about for the food that they had learned to know I held concealed from them in a box, dish, or other receptacle. The moment I removed the cover or exposed the food, they would make a dash for it and the usual scrapping program would be on. Nor was it at all necessary for me to go outside the door ** ". In a short time the siskins discovered this opening [in a window pane], and it was only necessary for me to draw the slide when one after another would come right into my kitchen, and soon one or more of them would be perched on my head or shoulder, or hopping around on the desk where I was writing, looking for the handful of seeds that they all knew was forthcoming. * * * Now and then some members of the flock would elect to spend the night in the warm room, sleeping on the clothes-line, stretched across the room a little below the ceiling. On such occasions they seemed to be without fear and totally oblivious to people moving ahout the room, often within a few inches of them, turning on or snapping of! electric lights.
The interested reader may want to read all of the above-quoted article by E. U. Davis. He carried out a series of conditioned reflex experiments. Only a paragraph about one of these (p. 386) is quoted here; it concerns a button rigged to release a small batch of seeds when pushed:
For quite a while the thing remained a puzzle to them. Finally, one of them happened to notice that push-button, which was a different colored wood from the rest of the contraption. He sidled up to it, looked it over for a moment, then gave it a "bit!." This released the catch on the other side and down at his feet came a little handful of seeds. This frightened him, of course, and he flew away, only to return a minute later, eat the seeds that had fallen down the chute, and then tried to "press the button" arrangement again. It was not long before several of the flock had learned the secret, but it was quite a while before they became used to the seeds failing down at their feet, so that they were not afraid, and would proceed to eat them without first flying away a few inches.
A siskin's life is not always easy. During severe weather in March and April, 1939, many siskins died on Mount Desert Island, Maine (R. S. Paimer, 1949). Winter deaths, presumably from eating a poisonous chloride, are discussed under food. Various authors have reported destruction of nests, eggs, or young by wind, sleet, and rain. Heavy rains have killed young after they departed from the nest. Several observers, on finding nests empty and sometimes damaged, have suspected predation by the red squirrel and the blue jay. The domestic cat is a known predator. The cowbird, too, is a hazard, since its egg or chick in a siskin nest is detrimental to the siskin's nesting success. Both parent siskins treat the young cowbird as one of their own. At Wenatchee, Wash., U. T. Congdon '(MS.) found a young siskin that had died after a foot became entangled in the nest lining.
E. R. Davis (1926) described siskin actions at the sight of a northern shrike at Leominster, Mass., in winter:
It was wonderful how quickly they would detect one of these birds in the vicinity, or even at a great distance. Instantly, if one of them appeared in the sky or on a distant tree, all activity ceased among the Siskins, and each bird, intently watching the enemy, would literally "freeze" to the spot where he was sitting, hardly moving a feather until the enemy had disappeared. On more than one ~ I have had them 'freeze" on my hand, where they had been sitting when the danger threatened.
Aggressiveness is a marked siskin trait at feeding stations. Davis (1926) placed food on a shelf 3 feet square and found that "the bird that first reached the place seemed to consider himself the sole owner of the entire stand, and woe to the individual that dared dispute his claim." When feeding with purple finches the siskins are bold and usually hold their own. Generally they feed together peaceably, but now and again a siskin takes the offensive and darts at a purple finch, scaring it away. Perhaps the siskin's sharp bill gives it authority. In feeding with evening grosbeaks, the siskins keep their distance and show pugnaciousness only among themselves.
Territory: Siskins go in flocks containing a few to well over a thousand individuals. Flocks of 50 to 200 are common.
At the close of the breeding season: usually early summer: the birds generally leave the breeding localities, although the extent and often direction of this movement is unknown. Then the birds may occur in or pass through the nesting area again in autumn. Largescale incursions in the postbreeding period have not been noted as frequently as autumn and winter invasions. However, in Alberta beginning in mid-June and lasting into August, 1921, large numbers of siskins moved into the park country of the prairie where no evergreens occur except for small patches along river bottoms. F. L. Farley (1921) reports that at almost any hour of day one could see large flocks, "whiiling here and there" in redpoll fashion. They would feed, then take flight suddenly.
In parts of the siskin's range near and along the Pacific coast, the species occurs in many localities all year, but a goodly share of the population moves altitudinally to the lowlands in autumn and to higher elevations to breed in spring. The highest altitudinal record is for a siskin that Taylor and Shaw (1927) found dead at approximately 11,000 feet on Mount Ranier, Wash.
The siskin's center of abundance is from the Rocky Mountains westward. Part of the population in the interior of the continent shows a more or less northwest: southeast movement in autumn and the reverse in spring. Thus it seems likely that the species may have spread eastward, as the evening grosbeak did at a later period, but before the event could be chronicled. M. H. Swenk (1929) wrote:
Judging from the fact that in various falls that they have occurred in Nebraska the Pine Siskins usually have been seen first in the more westerly and northerly parts of the state, and later in the more southeastern localities, and also from the further fact that they may reach western or central Nebraska commonly in seasons when they are uncommon or absent in extreme southeastern Nebraska, it is probable our Pine Siskin winter visitors are birds that summer in the Black Hills and those parts of the Rocky Mountains at a corresponding latitude, or northward.
The fall and winter wanderings, especially in the East, are so irregular in occurrence and so variable in extent that it is difficult to define the species' usual range as compared to its total range. At any rate there is usually some movement: vertical migration in mountains, horizontal elsewhere, both unpredictable regarding the amount or direction. In some years these movements become southward incursions of vast extent. Dorothy Mierow (1946) summarized as follows:
Some years are marked by exceptional flights of these birds southward. In 1896, enormous flocks were found in Louisiana, South Carolina, Missouri, and flhinois. Again in the year 1907, notable for its cold spring, flocks were observed in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. This year they nested in Nebraska. The season of 1922: 23 was characterized by an abundant crop of beech nuts and wild fruits, and again the siskins appeared in large numbers in Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Nebraska. They were conspicuous by their absence from Yosemite National Park, California, in the fall of 1923. In 1925, they were seen in Kentucky and Michigan, and they nested in North Dakota and aiso at Ithaca, New York. There were abundant spruce, fir, and hemlock seeds in the Great Smokies of Tennessee in 1937. Siskins, usually rare in Tennessee, appeared in thousands during November. In other years, too, there were great flights at one place or another, but in these particular years the movement was most marked.
During an incursion into the southeast in the winter of 1946: 47, R. L. Weaver (1948) saw five birds in Orange Park, Clay County, Fla., probably the southeasternmost record.
The pine siskin is commonly stated to wander continually throughout the nonbreeding season, especially during fall and winter. But when food is plentiful, many observers have noted that siskins will remain in one particular area over a long span of time. At Northampton, Mass., B. M. Shaub (1951a) analyzed his banding data for early 1947 as follows:
An examination of this record will show at once that the birds with which we were working were not, in all probability, wandering winter visitors or transients as they generally have been described. On the other band they had moreor-less settled down in Northampton and vicinity for the winter and spring ** [Seven banded individualsi were with us rather regularly over a period of 2~ months, although it is possible that they could have made visits to other localities nearby and as often returned.
Courtship: The pine siskin probably begins breeding when a year old, but data from banded birds to prove this are scant.
Richard Harlow (1951) states that there is abundant evidence that the croasbills and siskin have no definite breeding ranges. He writes: ***** I do not know of any locality in our northeastern and northern forests where one can say, 'We will find the pine siskin here this year.' " M. H. Swenk (1929), in his study of this species in Nebraska, correlated breeding records with temperatures of the months March, April, and May. If the mean temperatures for April were subnormal, the siskins might remain and breed; the same might happen if supernormal April temperatures were followed by subnormal May temperatures. Nebraska is, of course, outside the area where the siskin ordinarily may be expected to breed.
Usually the birds are numerous: often abundant: in areas where food is plentiful. The flocks contain both sexes. Scattered flocks tend to join, forming larger ones. By late January of most years, in localities all across the continent, the thin lispy calls of the siskin are augmented by a warbled song. At this time the flocks break up into smaller ones, then into groups of three to five birds, then into pairs.
There is considerable fighting and chasing when the flocks start to disintegrate. At Rutherglen, Ontario, Mrs. Lawrence notes: "In the midst of all this sweet singing, two birds swing into the air in an extensive 'cloud chase', their movements tightly synchronized as they alternate in the roles of pursuer and pursued."
Perhaps anticipatory to courtship- and nest-feeding is a performance observed in late April in Everett, Wash., by~M. R. Thayer (1911): "Our attention was called to three birds on a [trellisi cross-bar about seven feet from where we stood. Two were close together and the third a little apart, and all three were opening and closing their bills, stretching them wide as if yawning and closing them with a snap. Before we had time to consider what it might mean, the two turned toward each other and touched their bills in a most lover-like manner. They were quiet a moment, then one opened his bill wide again and they both flew away followed by the third * * *" Courtship feeding begins while the birds are still in flocks or small groups. On Feb. 5, 1948, at Rutherglen, Ontario, Mrs. Lawrence (MS.) noted: "The female sat on a twig. Presently the male alighted on the same twig, hopped up to her and offered her a small particle, of what I could not see. She crouched and, with trembling wings, accepted the offering."
The birds are still in flocks or groups when courtship flight with song reaches its fullest development. Two paragraphs from Mrs. Lawrence's notes describe it well: "With a beam of sun-shine illuminating his golden flashes, the male rose into the air with tail spread wide and wings in a blur of rapid motion. To the accompamment of a flight song which seemed to express far more musical adoration than could be contained in so small a body, be described circle after circle around his chosen mate. That the female reflected none of her partner's emotion in no way seemed to dampen his ardor and, after he dropped on to a twig from pure exhaustion to catch his breath, a few moments later he rose again in a repeat performance no less ecstatic than the first.
"None of the flight song performances I saw ended in copulation. When that took place in my presence, it was an anticlimax to what 1 had previously seen. Two birds came to the salt lick and one of them perched in a bush. That very instant the male alighted directly upon the first bird by the pouncing technique without any sort of preliminaries. Copulation took place with both birds trembling violently. When it was over, the female begged and the male, with nothing in the bill, performed a token feeding. The female shook herself and both birds hopped down on the ground where the male strutted a little with raised head feathers."
Formation of the pair bond involves symbolic feeding, sexual flight, and song, and it occurs while the birds are in social groups. Single brood monogamy is certain, but how much longer the pair bond lasts is not known.
Nesting: At times Siskins nest as isolated pairs. More usually, nesting is somewhat a colonial affair, with the nests rods apart. Adults join in social flocks away from the nests.
Typically, the nest is at middie height in a conifer, well out, and concealed on a densely foliaged horizontal limb. The most frequent departure from this pattern is for the nest to be located lower down, but when this happens it is still usually above 8 feet from the ground. Commonest choices for nesting are hemlock, pines, spruces, firs, cedars, redwood, cypress, and wild lilac. Introduced conifers, also transplantings of native trees, are occupied in addition to natural stands. Deciduous trees are used for nesting occasionally. For example, the siskin has nested in box elder in New Mexico (F. M. Bailey, 1928) and North Dakota (R. Reid, 1929), in maples and oaks in Oregon (C. Keller, 1891), in maple in Washington (R. T. Congdon, MS.), in the very top of a 50-foot eucalyptus in California (Carriger and Pemberton, 1907), among cottonwoods in Montana (A. A. Saunders, 1912, 1921), and two nests in lilacs in Colorado (F. M. Dille, 1900). The highest nests are at about 45 to 50 feet. In manuscript notes, S. F. Rathbun recorded a nest in Washington only 4~/~ feet above ground in a stunted cedar. The lowest record at hand is of a nest in Iowa, recorded by Dales and Bennett (1929) as only 3 feet up in a 4k-foot cedar on a lawn. During resting periods the birds go to tree tops.
The female chooses the nest site and is accompanied by the male as she brings nesting material. At times the birds return to social life in flocks; also, other siskins occasionally accompany the nesters on flights to the nest tree. As C. W. Bowles (1903) puts it, several pairs may be "superintending" when one is building. The small nesting territory is used for copulating: although this occurs elsewhere, too: and nesting; in addition, the male feeds his mate there during incubation and the period until the young attain flight. The defense of territory is developed slowly, being weak until after the nest is built. Weaver and West (1943) write:
During nest building the male had been quite attentive to the female and never left the nesting area for very long periods, and he did not seem to be very closely associated with any of the other siskins or flocks which fed near the nest tree. After the eggs were laid, he would leave the area for short periods, which became longer as incubation progressed. He frequently returned in company with one of several other siskins. The female would chase these birds, as would the male, if they came too close to the nest. On several occasions, he flew off with these birds after feeding her on the nest. Other birds would enter the general nesting area and feed with one or both of the mated birds, unmolested.
As is common with a number of early nesters, the structure that the siskin builds is rather large in proportion to the size of the builder and usually well concealed in foliage. It is fairly well put together, generally somewhat flat, and often not very securely fastened to the branch. The foundation and sides consist of such materials as twigs, rootlets, and grass; the lining consists of fine rootlets, hair, fur, feathers, and other fine-textured material. The finer material, at least, is often gathered on the ground. Dales and Bennett (1929) saw a siskin dismantling an old goldfinch nest and using the materials in new construction.
Numerous photographs and descriptions of nests have been published. A good example of the latter is C. II. Morrell's (1899) of one found in March in Nova Scotia:
It was saddled on the limb and radiating twigs but not attached to them. Considering the size of the bird, it is quite large, rather flat, and bears no resemblance to * * * [Goldfinch nests], measuring as follows: height, 1.63 inches; depth, .75; outside top diameter, 4 inches; inside top diameter, 2 inches. It is constructed mainly of dark pendulous tree-moss, with some fulvous bark from weed-stalks, plant-down, usnea, and other mosses. About the bottom of the nest is [sic] woven a few spruce twigs. The lining is entirely the pendulous moss.
From Eureka, Calif., R. R. Talmadge (MS.) writes of two nests that he considered distinct from all others he had found. The first was composed of fine grayish rootlets with a minimum of plant fiber and lined with black horsehair. The other was similar, but was lined with red hair from cattle that were in the immediate area.
Most of the nests discovered were similar in composition, but the lining was mixed, not distinct as in these two.
According to Weaver and West (1943), at Hanover, N.H.:
Three days were required to complete the outer layers and bottom of the nest. On the fourth day, lining materials were added. Several attempts to break off small twigs from the nest branch were observed. After the fifth day, materials were added to the nest sporadically until the eggs were laid. On the seventh day the female began making trips to the neBt without materials and sitting on it for short periods. This procedure continued with the trips to the nest becoming more frequent and the time spent on the nest increasing to as much as fifty minutes before the tenth day, April 18, when the first of the two eggs was laid. The second egg was laid on the following day.
Eggs: The data summarized from Mierow (1946) plus other available published and unpublished information through 1954, indicate that three-egg clutches predominate, about two-thirds as many have four eggs, a third as many have two, that clutches of five are rare but occur more often than those presumed complete with a single egg. C. W. Bowles (1903), for example, mentions sets of one (complete?), three, and four in Washington, and stated that three seemed most common. Carriger and Pemberton (1907), writing of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties, Calif., states that the "average set seems to be three eggs, but four is also a common number. Several sets of two eggs were taken in advanced stages of incubation, and also two sets of five, but these are rare." There seems to be no geographic variation in clutch size, but it is difficult to assess the data since most sets observed were from Pacific coastal states.
Carriger and Pemberton (1907) write: "The eggs are a pale greenish blue several shades lighter than the eggs of Astragalir&ws [goldfinches], and are marked with chocolate spots and irregular blotches, with a number of pale lavender blotches which appear to be beneath the surface of the shell. Eggs vary from very nearly unmarked, to well marked about the larger end and sparingly over the whole surface. The average size of all eggs at hand is .63 X .48 inches."
In a manuscript note, Robert R. Talmadge of Eureka, Calif., states: "Several sets which I have found had one or two unmarked eggs. The markings vary from small blackish spots to semi-elaborate scrolling of dark sepia and lavender."
All egg data at hand indicate that complete sets of fresh eggs usually are to be found in the United States and Canada from early April to early May. Eggs in March, or indications of their probable occurrence then, are as follows: young nearly ready to leave the nest March 19 at Woodstock, Vt. (E. H. Forbush, 1929); nest nearly completed March 15 (had three eggs on the 3 1st) and another started March 18, at Lincoln, Nebr. (M. H. Swenk, 1929); Siskin gathering nesting material March 16 in San Francisco County, Calif. (M. S. IRay, 1916); nest completed March 11 had three eggs on March 18, also nest with two nearly fledged young on April 13, in Lewis County, N.Y. (C. H. Merriam, 1878); nest with two eggs and two newly hatched young March 28 or 29, at Tacoma, Wash. (J. H. Bowles, 1924); clutch of four on March 29 in Nova Scotia (C. H. Morrell, 1899); nest with two eggs taken on unstated March day in Ontario (Baillie and Harrington, 1937); and unstated number of eggs the last of the month in Vermont (Tracy in Mierow, 1946). Fresh eggs in May and early June are common but why many fresh clutches have been found in California in early June is a matter for speculation.
The set of eggs of the pine siskin varies from three to six; sets of four and five are most frequent. They are ovate with some tendency toward short-ovate and have very little lustre. The ground color is greenish-white or bluish-white, delicately speckled and spotted with "light cinnamon drab," "cinnamon drab," "warm sepia," or "Verona brown," with a few thin scrawls of black. In general, the markings are concentrated somewhat toward the large end where they often form a loose wreath; rarely an egg is found that is almost immaculate.
The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.6 by 12.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.0 by 13.1, and 14.3 by 11.3 millimeters.
Eggs are laid on successive days. Weaver and West (1943) say that at Hanover, N.H., both eggs of a two-egg clutch "were laid before nine o'clock in the morning. Incubation began upon the laying of the first egg and the young batched thirteen days later, one day apart. * * * The danger from freezing of the eggs would appear to be lessened with incubation beginning upon the laying of the eggs."
Only the female has an incubation patch and she alone incubates. Weaver and West (1943) write: "During incubation, the female stayed very close to the nest. The longest observed period that the female was off the nest for the entire period of incubation was eight minutes. She was fed by the male during incubation, and this permitted long uninterrupted periods on the nest; in fact, he began feeding her on the nest the day before the first egg was laid and in one instance was observed to feed her while she was off the nest before the eggs were laid.
Hatching is described by the same authors (1943) as follows: "Just prior to hatching, the female stood up on the edge of the nest and looked at the eggs a great many times. Hatching occurred early in the morning, before 7:30 a.m., or possibly during the night. There was no sign of the egg shell in the nest, but later a small piece was found under the tree.
Young: In t.he above-mentioned nest, "feeding of the young began very soon after hatching, possibly within the hour." Weaver and West reported that, during the first few days after hatching, the female fed the young about every 10 to 15 minutes, but near the end of the nestling period feedings were about an hour apart. For the first 7 or 8 days the male fed the female on the nest and she fed the young; he increased his trips with food to twice an hour, and made even three or four trips per hour toward evening. On the 7th or 8th day he began to feed the young directly. After the 10th day, the male was not seen to feed the female and she began to forage for herself and the young.
The usual method of male feeding female when the young are small has been reported from Berkeley, Calif., by T. L. Rodgers. The bird on the nest hears ti-er, ti-er from the mate in another tree, and replies ti-er. They call back and forth three or four to a dozen times, and the food hearer ifies to a position a few feet from the nest and utters one or more plaintive pseee notes. Then, while both are silent, it hops quietly toward the brooding bird. She flutters her wings and begs and the feeder regurgitates. Rodgers (1937) states: "The feeding process continued by the clasping of the bills of the two birds, the upper and lower mandibles of one just closing the complete gape of the other. Three or four such contacts were made, and, between each, the bird doing the feeding gulped as if bringing more food into its mouth. The bird then flew away, and the brooding bird sat quietly for eight or ten seconds before proceeding to feed the young."
This regurgitative feeding of the brooding female by the male was observed at close range at Sioux City, Iowa, by Dales and Bennett (1929), who pointed out that the process is a comparatively long one. Their description of a feeding ends thus: "Toward the end of the feeding as the male withdrew his beak from the female's mouth a string of saliva-like substance stretched between the two bills; this was immediately sucked in by the female. There must have been considerable of it, for there seemed to be a flow of it for nearly fifteen seconds. Then the male flew away."
The food-bearing male sometimes is accompanied by other siskins who do not trespass in the small defended area around the nest. They perch in the nest tree, or in nearby trees; they also accompany the male when he departs, as several observers have noted. The female also joins social groups.
Weaver and West state that the young never were left unprotected more than 11 minutes, that during the first week the female's usual duration of absence was 3 minutes. She kept the nest clean by eating all excreta for the first 7 or 8 days; later it became fouled because neither parent removed the droppings. T. L. Rodgers (1937) observed the eating of the droppings. He states that the nest was kept clean during the first 8 days and, from the 9th day on, no droppings were taken from the nest and they accumulated there.
Data on the growth and development of young siskins have not been published in detail. In New Hampshire, Weaver and West (1943) report that the brood of two young they studied showed their first fear reactions about in their 6th day. The young became very active during the last 4 days of nest life and the female then spent little time brooding them. They took turns exercising and stretching their wings, also walking on the nest rim. In their haste to be fed, they sometimes fell over the side and grasped the outer structure and pulled themselves back again. They say that "The adults seemed to approach the nest rather deliberately during the last 2 days, seemingly coaxing the young to such daring feats."
Both young left the nest 15 days after the first hatched; thus one was a nestling 14 days (it probably departed prematurely) and the other 15, which may be the usual initial flight age.
One young was seen being fed in the nest tree an hour or so after both had left the nest. Other observers have indicated that the young are with the parents and fed several days, or longer, but the span of time from nest-leaving to independence remains unknown.
Whether our bird, like the Old World siskin, Spinu.s spinu~, is double-brooded is strn a moot point. There is a strong probability that it is: at least in some years: and that the birds may change localities between nestings. E. H. Forbush (1929), without direct support, says: "One brood yearly, probably two in many cases." Suggestive is a single sentence by William Brewster (1938) relative to the siskin on Aug. 9,1873, at Lake Umbagog on the Maine: New Hampshire boundary: "A male shot this morning was unmistakably breeding and yet full-grown young are about in considerable numbers." As already shown, the siskin is an early nester; also, fresh eggs are fairly common as late as early June in some localities and seasons, especially Pacific coastal states, and eggs or nestlings in July have been recorded for a number of localities widely spaced geographically. Here are some late breeding records: set of five eggs July 22 in Ontario (Baillie and Harrington, 1937); pair of siskins seen copulating July 30 on Forrester Island, Alaska .(Willett, in Mierow, 1946); nest with young August 4 in Faith Valley, Calif. (Bassett, in Mierow, 1946); birds in breeding condition carrying nesting material, July 15: August 14, in the Porcupine Mountains, Mich. (W. B. Barrows, 1912); four young left the nest August 19 at Bozeman, Mont. (A. A. Saunders, 1921); clutch of three fresh eggs August 14 at Tacoma, Wash. (C. W. Bowles, 1903); and nests "containing young in early September," also at Tacoma (J. H. Bowles, 1924). Omitted are various late dates for adults reported as seen "feeding young"; it is assumed they are for young that have been flying, and for an unknown length of time.
It seems that the very long span of breeding dates can hardly be explained in terms of replacement layings after a loss of an earlier clutch or brood. More likely, either some birds breed twice in some years or different parts of the population breed at different times.
Plumages: There is little sexual dimorphism although, after the juvenal stage, and presumably among birds of equal age and state of plumage wear, males are usually more brilliantly colored. This applies especially to the yellow portions of wing and tail.
Breeding adults are grayish brown above, heavily streaked with dusky; the paler rump is often tinged with yellow. Wings and tail are mainly dusky. The basal portions of the flight feathers are yellow, and are conspicuous in ffight but almost entirely concealed when the birds are at rest. There are two narrow whitish wing bars. Underparts are whitish, heavily streaked with dusky except from the abdomen posteriorly when it is often plain. The bill is brownish or dusky at the tip, becoming paler (flesh colored or bluish) toward the base, especially the lower mandible. The iris is brown. Legs and feet vary greatly in color, but usually are medium light to a darker shade of brown. This breeding condition is a result of wear and fading of the plumage acqulred months beforehand by a partial post-juvenal molt in the case of young birds and a complete postnuptial molt in the case of adults.
At Rutherglen, Ontario, in 1948, siskins were plentiful and nested. Mrs. Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (MS.) saw the first flying young on May 10. On May 22 females with incubation patches were noted going into molt and, in general, acquiring fat: first on the abdomen, then on the axilla, and last on the fulcrum. The birds then left the area, the last seen on June 3.
After the postnuptial molt: details of it have been described by T. and E. McCabe (1928): the new fresh plumage has these characteristics: orange-buff wing bars; strong dusky markings and yellowish edges on back feathers; buffy or yellowish tint on abdomen (which may be either heavily or lightly streaked or plain); and buffy chest and flanks.
Although the natal down has been observed quite often, apparently no description of it has been published. The photographs in the article by T. L. Rodgers (1937) indicate that a well developed nestling down exists.
The development of the juvenal plumage has not been described; it is developed to the point that initial flight occurs at 15 days of age. This plumage is more huffy and warmer in general tone than the worn breeding plumage of the adults it associates with, so the two age groups then can be distinguished afield. After wear and fading, it is very similar in general aspect to that of worn adult plumage.
The juvenal plumage is worn a long time, probably two months according to Dwight (1900), but the exact time is hard to determine because of the irregular breeding season. Rockwell and Wetmore (1914) state that immature birds were still in molt in Colorado the first week in October. They mention young out of the nest July 18, but since the duration of molt is not known, one cannot estimate the time lapse before it began. Winter flocks of incursion visitants usually are preponderantly birds of the year, but this is hardly a clue in interpreting A. T. Wayne's (1906) comment for the period Dec. 12, 1896, to the following mid-March in South Carolina: "Between these dates many of the birds taken seemed to be in a state of perpetual molt."
According to Dwight (1900), there is a partial post-juvenal molt in August in eastern Canada involving body plumage but not wings and tail. The first nuptial stage, therefore, is this combination in worn condition.
Food: The pine siskin is a tree- and groundLforaging finch. Like the crossbill, it often hangs upside down when feeding in vegetation, but it is a more generalized feeder, not tied closely to cone feeding and hence independent of the varying extent of the cone crop.
The results of food habits analyses were summarized by W. L. McAtee (1926): "The food of the siskin is principally the seeds of coniferous trees, alder, birch, ragweed, and other weeds. About one-sixth of the total food is animal, consisting chiefly of caterpillars, plant lice, scale insects, and grasshoppers. No doubt the siskin pays, in the destruction of these pests, for the forest seeds it consumes."
Two decades later Dorothy Mierow (1946), having more published information to summarize, wrote:
They feed their young mainly on aphids and seem quite content with alder, birch, and willow seeds. As they wander farther south and over the plains, their main items of diet may become weed seeds. Farther east, seeds of sweet gum,. maple, and elm, as well as buds and insects, form part of their diet. In California, where they seem to he most numerous, they often feed almost entirely on the seeds of eucalyptus, extracting them from the pods either on the trees or an the ground. They also seek after the sweet liquid in the eucalyptus flowers.
The following information elaborates on the taking of some of the items already mentioned. Also, in some measure, it indicates seasonal and geographical variation in food habits, plus mentioning some items taken that might not be readily identified in analysis of contents of digestive tracts.
In early April in Ohio, examination of a siskin revealed it had been feeding on flower buds of the slippery elm (Kemsies, 1948). In June in West Virginia, Maurice Brooks (1943) saw siskins avidly eating the coated carpels of young spruces. Mr. B. E. Mumford writes of seeing birds feeding on Jack Pine cones (Pinus ban,ksiana) during an invasion of Indiana during the winter of 1952: 1953.
After Oct. 4, 1889, at Lake Umbagog, Maine, they were feeding exclusively on the seeds of birches (Brewster, 1938).
John F. Ferry (1907) writes that, in winter in northeastern Illinois, "they were observed to feed industriously on coneless branches of pines and spruces. The object sought was probably the dry resinous aments of these conifers. They frequent patches of thistle and seedbearing weeds and work very actively and in perfect silence."
In South Carolina in the winter of 1896: 97, a time of siskin abundance there, Arthur Wayne (1906) observed them "feeding on the seeds of sweet gum (Liquidam6er styraciftua), and shortleaf pine
During a winter and spring when siskins were common at San Diego, Calif., F. F. Gander (1929b) noted that their food was almost entirely seeds of various species of eucalyptus, which they obtained from pods on the trees and also among fallen leaves.
In Flathead County, Mont., on Aug. 7,1915, A. D. DuBois (MS.) recorded pine siskins eating thistle seeds along the railway. "I watched one for some time. He would fly to a thistle head and, clinging to it, sometimes nearly upside down, would pull out the cottony tufts one or two at a time, very dexterously and rather rapidly, working his bill along to the seed which he removed and then threw the fluff to the breeze, immediately working out another tuft. lie pulled them part way out, a bunch at a time, afterward slipping them along until they came out one at a time or sometimes two." In North Dakota, 0. A. Stevens (MS.) wondered how the siskins got dandelion seeds. On investigation he found that they did not wait for the heads to open, but pulled off some of the bracts and took the seeds before they were fully ripe.
In two areas, on opposite sides of the continent, the siskin has reportedly done extensive damage to vegetable and flower gardens. From Independence Lake, British Columbia, T. and E. McCabe (1929) write regarding areas recently opened to farming:
None of us who have vegetable gardens has been spared by the siskins. Our own case is the most extreme, as we have attracted the species by means of amazingly effective salt and clay baits for banding purposes. It is now impossible to raise most vegetables except under wire. In rather long experience of gardens and their pests we have seen nothing to rival the instantaneous devastation which an unobtrusive flock of siskins can inflict, often before their presence in a garden has been noticed. Not once, but season after season, and time after time within the same season, we have seen long rows of seedling beets, chard, lettuce, radishes, and onions, cut neatly to the ground. * * * Peas and cole crops, as far as we know, are not taken, but we hear of the destruction of turnips. * *
The farmers nearer the Fraser [River] suffer as much as we do, and in spite of being further from the mountains, more than most of our nearer neighbors. We know of one ranch where for years a barn door has been used as a deadfall, and the birds fed to hogs by bucketfuls. In another case great numbers are shot, and as many as thirty-five have been picked up as the result of enfilading a row of vegetables with a single charge of shot. As the typical associations of the Canadian Zone are left behind, and the greater drouth and Bummer heat of the river fiats approached, the nuisance decreases. From the immediate vicinity of Quesnel we hear a few scattered complaints of moderate loss~, but a short distance southward, within touch of the long arm of Transition Zone conditions, which stretches so far up the valley, all knowledge of the trouble seems to disappear, though we do not know where it may recur.
In Maine, siskins occurred in thousands in the spring and summer of 1925. Forbush (1929) states that they "invaded gardens, stripped beets, beans and other plants of their leaves, and ate the blossoms of many flowering plants." A correspondent in Fatten, Maine, wrote Forbush that he had seen "as many as a thousand birds on a half acre."
Both the insect foods and ways of obtaining these are varied. In Ohio during a "most unseasonable and heavy snow in early October, these little birds surrounded our houses and literally skimmed the outer walls of all insect life. From foundation to eaves they hunted in every nook and corner, capturing spiders, flies, cocoons, * * * " (J. L. Parsons, 1906.)
In February at Alameda, Calif., an oak (Quercus agrifolia) was swarming with siskins. F. N. Bassett (1923) noted that the birds were procuring their foodï from the lower surfaces of the leaves. Many leaves were afflicted with the gall of a saw-fly, Callirliytis bicornis. Bassett reports: "The galls were attached to the midrib or a lateral vein on the lower surfaces of the leaves. They were composed of leaf material, light green in color (lighter than the leaf), from two to four millimeters long and shaped somewhat like a miniature saddle, being depressed in the middle and rising to an apex at both ends. Each contained a minute milky-white grub and many close views revealed the birds 'shelling' the galls and devouring the contents exactly as a domestic canary shells its seeds."
In February at Berkeley, Calif., T. L. Rodgers (1937) writes about siskins feeding in Monterey cypress:
I was unable at first to determine, by observation, exactly what the birds were eating, so I collected one hundred cypress tips, averaging three inches long and representative of places all over the side of a tree on which I watched many siskins foraging. Examination of the cypress tips showed many psocid-like insects, many scale insects, a few small green caterpillars, and many yellow larvae that were inside thin-walled cavities in enlarged green vegetative tips. There were few indications of broken-off vegetative tips, but some were damaged, which probably indicated that some of the yellow larvae had been torn from their chambers. The indication was quite definite that the siskins were taking only insect food.
Rodgers also saw a siskin picking aphids which it fed to a young bird just out of the nest. In April at Seattle, Wash., S. F. Rathbun (MS.) recorded this observation: "I noticed that, when alighting on any older limb, the siskins would examine it closely until its extremity was reached, and this was particularly the case when any had the appearance of being dead. Then the bird would clip or break off the twig's end. I examined one of the twigs that fell and, in breaking it, I found deeply embedded within a fat grayish-green grub, evidently the larva of a twig-boring insect. This explained the siskins' actions."
The McCabes (1929) mention the attraction that salt and clay have for siskins. In an earlier article (1928) they state: "The attraction has always been some mineral food, relish, or medicament, natural or artificial. Ashes, deep blue clay from a cellar hole, salt, and newly-set Portland cement have all had their periods of favor." The habit has been noted in different seasons and at widely separated points. Mierow (1946) made the general statement that a "necessary item in the siskin's diet, as well as in that of other boreal finches, is some kind of mineral salt." D. S. Farner (1952) reported this habit in Crater Lake National Park as follows: "Although to a much lesser extent, siskins display 'salt-feeding habits' similar to those of the Red Crossbills. Especially during the summer of 1951 it was possible to observesiskins pecking at the powdery crusts on the andesite rocks."
In the first half of March 1941, between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake, N.Y., the road had been treated with a mixture of sand and calcium chloride: the latter apparently added as a binder for the former. G. M. Meade (1942) quotes an observer as follows:
For several day8 great numbers of White-winged Crossbills and small numbers of Red Crossbills and Pine Siskins settled on the road to eat the salt. The roadbed was covered with them and it was almost impossible to scare them away even by using the horn. They appeared to be too sick to rise and even though motorists drove slowly they were killed in great numbers. The surface of the snow-covered road was actually reddened by the blood and feathers of the birds. My estimate is that there were at least a thousand birds killed.
From Rutherglen, Ontario, it is clear from the following observations for the winter of 1947: 48 by Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (MS.) that salt in some form is a real desideratum of siskins. She writes: "At this time, the birds were encountered chiefly on the highway where they assembled in dense flocks, eating gravel mixed with chloride. Soon after sun-up they began to appear in these places with their numbers reaching a peak around midday, followed by a slow decline until, just before sunset, the last flock flew away to roost. Many of these birds apparently travelled considerable distances to these cherished feeding-places; I saw birds winging their way to and from the highway from the woods at least a mile away. When disturbed, the birds swung off the road as of one accord, amid exicted twitter, to alight in the trees alongside and there continue their feeding on the seeds of the evergreens, or on the buds of the white birches and aspen trees, with the siskins showing particular liking for the seeds of the alder-bushes. The siskins were a gregarious lot, associating freely with all the other finches, especially with the Goldfinches and the Red Crossbills.
"The pine siskins were first attracted to my feeding place under the pines, a little off the highway, by the coal ash pile. One day they dropped down from the surrounding trees by the dozens. I counted 92 before I got too mixed up by their numbers, all clustered into a little space 10 inches by 10 inches in front of my window. They ate the ash-dusted snow mixed with slopwater. On an old cedar stump I kept a block of salt. From rain and snow and the humidity of the air, the salt had saturated the stump and this saltlick became hereafter the number one attraction. The birds crawled over the stump and picked the salt crystals from the block itself as well as from the top and the undrrparts of the stump, where the deposition of crystals was richest, and from the gravel around it, where the snow had been melted away by the salt. I put baited traps near the saltlick, hoping for some good banding, but not until I changed the bait to dried cedar seeds did my banding luck turn. These seeds proved irresistible to the siskins and when my supply ran out I put small dishes of water in the traps with the same excellent result. Thus, from January 7 to May 29, I banded 337 pine siskins."
Siskins can be attracted to feeding stations by millet seed and by chaff, and Forbush (1929) states that they are "extremely fond of cracked butternuts." They eat many of the vegetable foods commonly used at feeding or banding stations, and eat suet occasionally. In winter at Leominster, Mass., E. R. Davis (1926) notes that whenever "an Evening Grosbeak came to the feeding-shelf and began cracking the seeds, he would be surrounded by several of the siskins. As he cracked the seeds, some particles of the kernel would scatter from his beak, and immediately the siskins would rush in and gobble them up. This act was not much relished by the Grosbeaks and they would often show their displeasure by a vicious peck at the intruder * * ~" Dishes of water, for drinking and bathing, have been used to bait siskins into traps for banding. At Sioux City, Iowa, a basin of water was placed under a nesting tres and both parent siskins came to drink and bathe (Hayward and Stephens, 1914). In March at Berkeley, Calif., T. L. Rodgers (1937) observed:
Several times, I saw siskins approach [eucalyptus] blossoms from above, lean over and reach into them. I had supposed that they were after insects attracted by the flowers, but twice I noticed that after reaching Into the blossoms, they raised their heads after the manner of a chicken drinking. I gathered a large bunch of the blossoms and in every one examined found several drops of clear sweet liquid, with only a slight eucalyptus flavor. Later, I saw more siskins drinking from flowers, also a junco.
At Macon, Ga., in late December, a siskin was observed at borings made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker in the trunk of a sweet gum. The sapsucker chased it away (H. L. Batts, 1953).
Field marks: It is somewhat difficult to distinguish at a distance between the pine siskin, the goldfinches, and the redpolls. Not only do these various birds mingle in flocks, but their size, manner of flight, call notes, and general habits, are all quite similar. The siskin, however, is characterized in all seasons by its dusky-streaked plumage (on grayish brown base above, more or less whitish or buffy below) two light wing bars, and, usually, considerable yellow on the basal portions of its wing and tail flight feathers. It has no red on its crown or black on its throat as the redpolls do. Siskins in juvenal plumage have the adult pattern but, for some time after they first fly, they are readily distinguished from their elders at close range by the worn plumage of the latter, the young being much bufYier, their underparts often tinged with pale yellow, and their overall appearance lighter. Our siskin at any age is fairly similar in color and pattern to the female and juvenal of Spirtus spinus, the siskin of the Old World: a species in which the adult male is redpoll-like in having a crown patch (which is black in the siskin) and a blackish chin.
Voice: Various utterances frequently are compared with those of the goldfinch, redpolls, and canary. Call notes are given in chorus, especially when the birds alight or rest. Descriptive words commonly used by describers of siskin call notes are: weak, thin, lispy, buzzy, wheezy, and churning. In general their calls are more husky than those of the American goldfinch.
Ralph Hoffmann (1904) describes the common call note as "chee-es given in a husky tone; when flying it utters a note like the syllables tit-i-til. Another very sweet call, often given by a single bird to call back the flock, is identical with a note of the American Goldfinch." In winter at Anniston, Ala., R. H. Dean (1923) observes that, when siskins took flight, their utterances were til-i-te, tit-i-te, several times in succession; sometimes notes were a smoother see-a-wee. On March 22 a new note was recorded, z-z-z-z-z (a prolonged z), weak, as are all the notes, but rather harsh. The z notes seem to be part of the song, "a weak prolonged chittering performance interspersed with the louder z-z-z-z notes." A. A. Saunders (1935) points out that the siskin has an "undulatory flight, calling tit-a-til with each undulation." He also mentions a "husky but sweet swi-sisee, slurring upward at the end, much like the Goldfinch's similar note, except for the huskiness." He says that the siskin's song is uttered in choruses and that mixed choruses are heard when goldflnches and siskins flock together. The latter's song much resembles the former's, being a "long-continued series of notes, groups of two-note phrases, or single notes and long trills." The quality is "husky, and the trills fricative and like a loud long whisper."
From Rutherglen, Ontario, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence sends this observation: "From this day [January 291, the Pine Siskin's singing became common all over the woods. It was particularly intensive during the morning and early forenoon. The birds sang from perches, sometimes from the top of a bush along the road, at other times from the highest twig of the tallest tree. Their song included some of their common notes which seemed to serve as punctuations between the more elaborate sentences and a 'vireo' song, very like that of the Purple Finch, only with the performance in keeping with the Siskin's smaller size. A 'churry' (not 'burry') note also was interpolated often in the singing, so like that of the Evening Grosbeak that I several times mistakenly thought the Grosbeaks were present unseen amongst the trees. The weather had no effect whatever on the Siskins' vocal ardor, be the day dull and mild, or cold and clear with the temperature far below zero."
From Camrose, Alberta, F. L. Farley writes me as follows of a siskin found injured on November 29 and kept in a cage: "It is now more than two months since we have had him and we are all surprised with his musical ability. Between daylight and noon every day he sings just as continuously as most of the tame canaries, and the most interesting thing we have learned is that he combines the well known notes of Goldfinch and Redpoll and the rich ones of the tame Canary. Then, in between these songs come the nasal s~jueez or issch so diagnostic of the Siskin in its wild state. As I write now, he is singing quite steadily, and in between the songs he gives the Canary e-r-e. His songs are on a low scale and cannot be heard more than a third of the distance that a tame Canary's voice carries.
Enemies: Friedmann (1963) writes: "Generally, the pine siskin is ecologically allopatric with the brown-headed cowbird, a fact which effectively protects it from the attentions of the parasite. However, there are places where the two species overlap and here the siskin is occasionally imposed upon. Eleven such instances have come to my notice, distributed among the following states: Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota; and in Canada: Ontario and British Columbia." To these may be added N. J. Ilnicky's (1963) observations of a pair of siskins feeding a newly fledged cowbird in Marquette, Michigan, on July 11, 1962.
Spinus pinus pinus is the wide-ranging subspecies occurring in North America north of Mexico. J. Grinnell (1928a) described it and its intergradation with the Mexican subspecies thus:
The birds from the northeastern United States and Canada are, in massed series, dark colored, that is, with sharpest and blackest streaking; also they include individuals showing least length of wing. The birds from Arizona, and most of those from California, are of relatively pale coloration, and some of them have longer wing than in any northeastern birds I have examined. Furthermore, there are many individuals, chiefly from southern California, which I cannot distinguish in any respect from Mexican and Lower [= Baja] Californian specimens. * * * * * * In other words, the range of variation in southwestern siskins is so great, and the possible average is so elusive, that, despite the macopterus-like individuals among them, I have come to the conclusion * * * [that] all north of Mexico * * * [should be called] Spinus pinus pinus** *
Spinue pinus macopterus (Du Bus) is the Mexican subspecies, about which relatively little is known. Grinnell (1928a) wrote that, compared to the northern one, it "is stated to possess longer wings and tail, and paler, less sharply streaked style of coloration."
Sutton and Burleigh (1940a) found it common and noisy in pine woods at 8,000: 10,000 feet, in early April, at Las Vigas, Veracruz. They took specimens in breeding condition. For the period July 26: 28, 1942, at 10,500 feet at Cofre de Perote in the same state, W. B. Davis (1945) reported that siskins "were just entering the breeding season in late July; females contained ova as large as 5 mm. in diameter and the testes of males were considerably enlarged."
Northern Pine Siskin (S. p. pimis)
Range: Alaska, Mackenzie, Ontario, and Labrador to northern Mexico and Gulf Coast states.
Breeding range: The northern pine siskin breeds from central southern Alaska (Iliamna, Chitina Moraine), central western and southern Yukon (Fortymile River, Carcross), central southern Mackenzie (Moose Island), central Saskatchewan (Flotten Lake, Emma Lake), southern Manitoba (Lake St. Martin), northern Ontario (Favourable Lake), central western and southeastern Quebec (Mistassini Post, Anticosti Island), southern Labrador (Hamilton Inlet), and Newfoundland south to southern California (San Jacinto Mountains), southeastern Arizona (Mount Wrightson, Graham Mountains), southern New Mexico (Cloudcroft), southwestern Texas, western Oklahoma (Cinaarron County), central southern and northeastern Kansas (casual Wichita, Onaga), northwestern Iowa (Sioux City), central Minnesota (Walker, Pine County), northern Wisconsin (Mercer), central Michigan (Kalkaska County), southern Ontario (Guelph), northern Pennsylvania (Hartstown, Monroe County), New York (Tompkins County, Ossining), Connecticut (Hadlyme), and Massachusetts (Needham). Recorded in summer from northeastern Sonora (Oposura), eastern Tennessee (Cosby), and western North Carolina (Black Mountains).
Winter range: Winters at lower elevations, probably throughout the breeding range, north at least to southeastern Alaska (Gastineau Channel), central and western British Columbia (Lac la Hache), Montana (Missoula), southern IVianitoba (Brandon, Hillside Beach), western and central Ontario (Fort William, New Liskeard), southwestern Quebec (Aylmer, ~'iontreal), central New Brunswick (Fredericton), Prince Edward Island, and central Newfoundland, south to northern Baja California (Nachogilero Valley, Rio Alamo), Sonora (Nacozari), Durango (Ci~naga de las Vacas), Coahuila (Sierra de Guadalupe), Neuvo Le6n (Mesa del Chipinque), Tamaulipas (Galindo), southeastern Texas (San Antonio, Houston), southern Louisiana (Cameron, Mandeville), Mississippi (Rosedale), ~nd Florida (rarely south to Miami).
Casual records: Casual in the Pribilof Islands (St. Paul Island), southern Baja California (La Paz), Labrador (Cape Mugford), and Bermuda.
Migration: Early dates of spring arrival are: Maryland: Laurel, March 5 (median of 5 years, April 11). Quebec: Seven Islands, May 24. Tennessee: Knox County, March 20. Ohio: Buckeye Lake, March 3 (median, April 20). Minnesota: Minneapolis, March 3 (average of 8 years for southern Minnesota, March 25); Duluth, March 14. North Dakota: Jamestown, March 26. Manitoba: Treesbank, May 2 (average of 15 years, May 16). New Mexico: Glenrio, April 4; Los Alamos (median of 7 years, April13). Wyoming: Casper, March 8. Montana: Libby (median of 10 years, March 22). Washington: Pullman, March 10.
Late dates of spring departure are: Florida: Anna Maria, May 1. Alabama: Dauphin Island, April 26. Georgia: Statesboro, May 23. South Carolina: Charleston, April 21. North Carolina: Cullowhee, June 3; Roan Mountain, June 1. Virginia: Arlington, May 11. West Virginia: Cheat Mountains, May 31. District of Columbia: May 22. Maryland: Garrett County, May 29. Pennsylvania: State College, June 6. New Jersey: Bernardsville, May 22. New York: Cayuga and Oneida Lake basins, May 29 (median of 18 years, May 19); Central Park, Manhattan, May 24. Connecticut: New Hartford, May 29. Rhode Island: South Auburn, May 25. Massachusetts: Northampton, May 29. New Hampshire: Concord, May 19. Mississippi: Rosedale, INlay 18 (median of 16 years, May 5). Arkansas: Little Rock, April 30. Tennessee: Knox County, May 10. Ohio: Buckeye Lake, May 22 (median, May 14). Michigan: Detroit area, May 29. lowa: Keokuk, May 15. Minnesota: Red Wing, June 1 (average of 7 years for southern Minnesota, May 24). Texas: San Antonio, May 21. Kansas: northeastern Kansas, May 29. New Mexico: Glenrio, June 6; Hachita Grande Mountains, May 22. Wyoming: Casper, May 17.
Early dates of fall arrival are: North Dakota: Jamestown, September 5. Kansas: northeastern Kansas, October 19 (median of 7 years, November 7). Minnesota: Fillmore County, September 14 (average of 6 years for southern Minnesota, September 29). Iowa: Sioux City, September 26. Michigan: Detroit, September 5. Ohio: Buckeye Lake, October 15. Indiana: Wayne County, October 8. Missouri: St. Louis, October 5 (median of 12 years, October 30). Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, October 15. New Hampshire: New Hampton, August 25 (median of 19 years, October 19). Massachusetts: Martha's Vineyard, September 1 (median of 5 years, October 22).. Connecticut: New Haven, October 8. New York-Fire Island, Long Island, September 5; Cayuga and Oneida Lake basins, September 7 (median of 16 years, October 14). New Jersey: Cape May, October 7. Pennsylvania: State College, October 1. Maryland: Laurel, October 3. District of Columbia: October 15. Virginia: Arlington, October 24. North Carolina: Rocky Mount, October 31. South Carolina: Charleston, October 31. Georgia-Athens, October 20. Alabama: Sand Mountain, October 26. Florida: Tallahassee, November 8.
Late dates of fall departure are: Washington: Starbuck, Novem.. ber 15. Manitoba: Trees Bank, November 10 (average of 14 years, October 26). Minnesota: Minneapolis, November 27 (average of 7 years for southern Minnesota, November 2). Ohio: Buckeye Lake, November 29. Mississippi: Saucier, November 27. New Hampshire: New Hampton, November 30 (median of 19 years, November 18). New York: Cayuga and Oneida Lake basins, December 8 (median of 8 years, November 24). Maryland: Laurel, December 23. South Carolina: Charleston, December 12.
Egg dates: British Columbia: 5 records, May 1 to June 20.
California: 48 records, April 9 to July 12; 24 records, May 21 to June 25.
Colorado: 12 records, May 2 to July 5; 8 records, May 9 to May 14.
New Brunswick: 2 records, June 27 and July 16.
New Hampshire: 2 records, April 17 and April 18.
New York: 5 records, April 4 to May 25. Ontario: 2 records, April 7 and April 14.
Washington: 11 records, April 4 to May 22; 6 records, April 25 to May 10.
Mexican Pine Siskin (S. p. macropterus)
Range: The Mexican pine siskin is resident in northern Baja California (Sierra Ju~rez, Sierra San Pedro MArtir) and in highlands of western and southern Mexico from western Chihuahua (Pacheco) south to Michoac~ln (Cerro de Tancitaro, Cerro Moluca), Mexico (Mount Popocatepeti), and central western Veracruz (Las Vigas). Wanders locally in vicinity of breeding range.
The Birdzilla.comGreen Guide to watching and feeding birds
Which bird is the fastest flyer?The professor has the answer! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35874000 |
Children's Residential Care
Birmingham City Council has 20 Children's Homes that work with children and young people.In addition, there are six Children's Homes for children with disabilities and one home known that is a Community Home with Education (CH(E)).
A Children's Home is a large house where children and young people live together as a group, with professional staff to look after them.
Children's Homes aim to ensure that the needs of children are met when they cannot live with their own family. They are a place for children to develop and grow, as well as providing food, shelter, and space for play and leisure in a caring environment. Children's Homes look after children with many different needs.
When children and young people come to live in a Children's Home they will have a Care Plan. Their Care Plan says why a child is living in residential care, what is supposed to happen while they are living there and what is supposed to happen at the end of their stay. Most children return home, but a few go to live with other families and a few go to live in other homes. Older children who are not planning to return home are given help to prepare them for living on their own - this is called the Careleavers Service.
Education is important. Children go to their own school if they have a school place, or we help to get them back into school. The exception to this is the CH(E) and in the two specialist Children's Homes where education is available on site. Some young people may still attend resources in the community, for example school, college, etc.
It is very important that children and young people stay in touch with their family and friends. It is only when they might be hurt, or a Court Order says that contact is forbidden, that some children are unable to have visits from their family or are unable to visit them.
Children and young people are respected as individuals. By providing for their religious and cultural needs children are encouraged to keep their sense of personal identity and community.
Eligibility for the serviceChildren and young people have to live away from their own families for all sorts of reasons. These may include:
- their parents are unwell;
- they have problems with their family and need to spend some time away from home; eg: behaviour problems or educational difficulties;
- they may have a disability and need a break from living with their families;
- they are in the care of local authority, subject to a Court Order or an Interim Care Order.
Generally, when children and young people need to live away from their families, they will stay with foster carers. It is only when Foster Care is either not possible or not desirable accommodation or may not be what the young person would choose that children will live in a children's home.
In all cases, we make sure that all the alternatives are fully considered before recommending residential care. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35876000 |
and SALISBURY PRISONS
by Kathy Dhalle
Before Elmira, New York was noted for its prison camp, it was a Military
Depot...designated as such on July 30, 1861 by then Governor Edwin B. Morgan.
By 1863, the town was known as the "Elmira Military Draft
Rendezvous," chosen because of its superb transportation network.
Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry units came from as far away as Michigan
to train on her grounds.
There were three barracks at the original camp along with two military
hospitals, a military police barracks, military warehouses, artillery ranges and
drill fields...all the necessities to run a proper training camp.
Approximately 34 Civil War regiments (over 20,796 officers and men) were
enrolled, equipped and trained at Elmira. But,
with the war winding down, by early 1864, many of the barracks stood empty.
Prisoner exchanges at this time had more or less come to a standstill,
and the U.S. Government was looking for places to put Rebel prisoners to
alleviate the overcrowding in other prisons.
Lt. Colonel Frederick Eastman was put in charge of turning the Depot into
a prison camp. Once his initial work was completed, he turned over the
command to Major H. V. Colt. Colonel
William Hoffman was Commissary-General of prisoners in Washington.
Locally, it was Captain G. C. Wilton.
Barracks #3 consisted of 35 wooden buildings, each about 100 feet long
and 16 feet high...being wide enough for two rows of bunks.
They were parallel to Water Street and were on the high ground between
Foster's Pond and Water Street. For
security, a 12 foot fence was built around the prison.
It consisted of a catwalk for sentinels on the outside, about 3 feet from
the top with guard boxes at various intervals all the way around.
This fence was illuminated at night.
Besides outside perimeter patrol, there was an inside guard, who patrolled
the camp. There was no deadline as
some prisons had.
Prior to the camp's opening, a medical inspector toured the prison and
declared it unfit as it lacked facilities to care for the sick as well as having
inadequate drainage. But, these
concerns went unnoticed and the camp was opened on July 6, 1864.
On that day, the first 400 prisoners were sent from Point Lookout
(enlisted men only). The second
group came on July 11th. By the
12th , the number was up to 1,151 prisoners and by the end of July, the camp had
On July 15th, a trainload of prisoners (844 Confederates and 125 Union
soldiers) left Point Lookout, Maryland and were headed for Elmira.
Just outside Shohola, Pennsylvania, the 18-car train ran head-on into a
50-car coal train. 40 prisoners
were killed outright...another 8 died later of their injuries. 93 more prisoners
were wounded in the accident...5 prisoners escaped.
The Union Guards suffered 17 casualties as a result of the
wreck...another 16 were wounded. Townspeople
came and assisted with the removal of the bodies from the scene.
The injured were conveyed to Shohola on the wagons and carriages of
farmers and villagers and the ladies of the village bestowed tender care to both
Southerner and Northerner.
A panel was organized and it was decided that because of the warm
weather, the bodies should be buried as soon as possible.
Railroad men, assisted by Rebels, dug a trench measuring 76 feet long, 8
feet wide and 6 feet deep between the track and the river.
Rough coffins for the Rebel soldiers were thrown together...made from the
wood of the smashed train cars. Four
Confederate prisoners were placed in each coffin. The Union casualties were given single pine boxes that had
been brought in specifically for the burial.
A record of each corpse and the position of each coffin was made.
In some cases, identification was totally impossible, due to the mangled
condition of some of the bodies. Once
this was completed, the hole was filled in and the graves marked with wooden
For forty-seven years, Union and Confederate soldier laid side by side
along that stretch of track. Over
the years, the wooden markers crumbled away and all signs of a burial
disappeared. Finally, in 1900, a
local resident named John Vogt pushed for the proper care of the site.
It wasn't until 1911 however, that the U.S. Government issued an order to
have the bodies of the Guards and Rebels moved from the accident site and
re-interred at the National Cemetery (Woodlawn) at Elmira.
Because of the passage of time, it was impossible to identify individual
bodies, so the Government ordered that a single stone be erected to mark the
spot. One side of the stone would
list the Confederates while the other side would carry the names of the Union
soldiers. The monument is located
on the North side of the older section of the Cemetery and the burial site of
the victims is to the South and directly in front of the stone.
Despite the accident, the Government continued the influx of prisoners to
Elmira. At August's end, there were
9,619 prisoners. All of the camp's 35 buildings were full and many more were
living in tents. More barracks were
erected in the early fall and the camp purchased 150 coal stoves to ward off the
On September 20th, Colonel Benjamin F. Tracy of the 127th Colored
Infantry was named commandant of the prison.
Tracy was white, his colored troops helped the white militia guard the
October 7th was the date of the infamous tunnel escape.
For weeks prior to the actual escape, approximately 10 Rebel soldiers
worked diligently, tunneling their way through the floor of one of their tents. On the night of the 7th, they finally broke through the
topsoil of Water Street, just outside the fence.
Eight of the men traveled south, the other two made their way to Auburn
where they worked and saved their earnings until such time as they could afford
to head back home.
A total of 17 prisoners made their way out of Elmira during the period of
its existance. The earliest escape was in late July when a Confederate
Sergeant bribed his way into the dead house and into a coffin. He was shipped aboard the dead wagon for Woodlawn Cemetery.
Because the coffin lid had been lightly nailed, he was able to make his
way out of the coffin and make good his escape.
Another escape was made when one of the prisoners forged a printed pass,
and by stealing an officer's coat, got through the gate and headed home.
The winter of 1864-65 was one of the most severe and it definitely took
its toll on the Southern prisoners. A
secret agent, M. M. Conklin, who lived in the camp, reported that the stronger
prisoners preyed on the weaker ones, stealing their clothes.
Although some items of clothing were distributed to the prisoners, it
appears that it was too little, too late. Exposure to the elements was to blame
for many winter deaths.
Some reports would show that the prisoners were provided with the same
rations as Union soldiers. The accounts of the Confederate prisoners on the
other hand, stated that there was a definite lack of food.
According to one source, "rations were meager."
Although prisoners were allowed to purchase fresh vegetables from a local
townsman, the privilege was soon stopped and the rations reduced in August.
This was allegedly done in retaliation for the treatment of Union
prisoners in Southern camps. Bread
and water would be the menu of the day and meat and vegetables would not be
added to the diet again until December. This
could possibly account for the overwhelming number of prisoners suffering from
scurvy. By mid September 1864,
there were 1,870 cases of scurvy reported.
Some prisoners "found an acceptable substitute in rats with which
the place abounded. These Chinese
delicacies commanded an average price of four cents apiece--in greenbacks."
Another complaint was the unsanitary conditions of Foster's Pond.
Although there were continual complaints to Colonel Hoffman regarding the
unsanitary condition of the pond, nothing was done about it until October when
drainage ditches were dug.
Finally, they complained over the lack of medicine and medical facilities
for the sick. The camp Surgeon was a Major Eugene L. Sanger.
According to A. W. Keiley, who wrote "In Vinculis" (a book about
his experience at Elmira), Sanger "was a club-footed little gentleman, with
an abnormal head and a snaky look in his eyes...He was simply a brute, as we
found when we learned the whole truth about him from his own people."
The "whole truth" was allegations that necessary medicine was
not getting to the sick patients that needed it.
There were rumors that medicines
were being sold. For example,
quinine was sold for 8 cents an ounce. As well, there was a lack of proper
facilities to take care of the large number of sick prisoners. Many of the sick were housed in tents. Some of the worse cases were placed back into the barracks.
This might have been good for the patient, but they in turn would end up
contaminating others in the barracks. Dr.
Sanger finally resigned in December of 1864 to avoid a court-martial for his
criminal treatment of the sick. He
was replaced by Dr. Anthony Stocker and hospital conditions improved remarkably.
In the Spring, Commandant Tracy was also replaced, this time by Colonel
With the war's end in April of 1865, the prisoners began to be paroled
and sent home in large numbers. The
only ones left at the camp through the summer were the invalids...but they were
gone by the end of September.
Elmira or "Hellmira" as the Rebel soldiers called it has been
compared to Andersonville in its treatment of prisoners of war and the number of
deaths it experienced. Although it
was open for a shorter period of time than Andersonville, the mortality
percentage for Elmira Prison Camp was 25, while at Andersonville, with a total
of 13,705 deaths, the percentage of mortality was 27.
Not much difference if you come right down to it.
Woodlawn National Cemetery is a constant reminder to the Chemung County
community that nearly 3,000 Confederate soldiers lie buried there.
The present headstones were placed on the graves in 1907, replacing the
wooden ones. Shortly after the war,
three of the Confederacy's beloved sons were removed and taken South for
reburial. Around 1925, The
Daughters of the Confederacy placed a memorial in Woodlawn in remembrance of the
men who had died in Elmira Prison Camp. Nothing
exists of the prison camp today. There
are markers however that tell a brief story of the history of the camp.
I have the cemetery listing for Woodlawn National Cemetery. If anyone
would like copies of it, please feel free to e-mail me.
The next prison camp I would like to discuss is Salisbury Prison Camp, in
Salisbury, North Carolina. It would
be the only Civil War prison camp
established in that state.
North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861.
Shortly thereafter, the Confederate Government contacted the Governor of
North Carolina and asked him if he thought the state could house prisoners of
war. The town of Salisbury was chosen for this purpose, as it had
an old textile mill that had been vacant for over 20 years.
The first 120 prisoners were moved into the building on December 9th,
1861. By the end of May, the number
was up to about 1,400. These early
prisoners lived a fairly comfortable life, passing the time by making trinkets,
playing baseball and even engaging in theatrical performances.
According to Sergeant John L. Ham of the 32nd and 31st Maine, the prison
was described as follows: "The
large brick building had formerly been a cotton factory.
It was flanked on the northeast and north sides by six small brick
boarding houses; these were about 30 by 60 feet, and one and a half story.
In this square thus formed was a fine natural grove of white-oak
trees...The grove comprised about one acre in extent...Immediately east and
about 30 feet distant was a large wooden building, used for a prison for
political prisoners of the vicinity. Between
these buildings was a very deep well, used formerly to supply water for steam
for the factory engine. The water
in this well was very nasty, and wholly unfit for use.
It was bricked up--that is, its sides were laid in brick.
The cook house was at the south end of the factory and adjoining the
same. The stockade ran along beside this building, and only about
30 or 50 feet distant.."
Like Elmira, overcrowding wasn't an issue until the Union government
outlawed the exchange of prisoners. The numbers at Salisbury gradually increased
through 1863 and in October of 1864, 10,000 prisoners came to Salisbury, a
prison built to hold only 2,500 inmates. The
harshest period of incarceration for these men was from October 1864 to the end
of the war. During that time, every
need, especially food, was in short supply.
John G. Weaver was with the 2nd Ohio Cavalry and wrote the following:
"I remembered Wiggins happened to get a piece of tripe, which
Lauderman said was not fit to eat, and declared he would not touch
piece of it for anything, but Wiggins and I had been saving up odd bits
of onion peel, meal, salt and flour, declaring we would have a feast when we got
a sufficient quantity together to make what Wiggins called a boullion.
And when he got the tripe he said he was going to prepare his famous
French conglomeration, for which he was noted.
We borrowed a mess pan that would hold about two gallons, and we filled
this with water, and after blowing the smokey green-pine fire until our eyes
were almost smoked out, got it burning enough to place our precious pan on to
boil. We stirred in the meal and
flour, and seasoned with salt, while swimming around, as we stirred, could be
seen the solitary and diminutive piece of tripe, on which all eyes were
centered. Finally the boiling water
caused small globules of fat to float around the edge of the pan, which Wiggins
in ecstasy declared was just sufficient to give it flavor. Well, we enjoyed that French boullion and divided up the
tripe so that each one got a small piece." Another reference to the food is
by T.J. Libby of the 12th Maine:
"Our rations were generally one pint of cob-meal, raw, and one pint of
soup. The soup was about three
pounds of rice boiled in one-half barrel of water, without meat or salt.
The cob-meal we were obliged to eat raw more than half the time.
When we could obtain fire we burned the hulls out on an old piece of tin
plate. We received meat thirteen
times in six months. We only got
the refuse pieces that the rebels would not eat, the amount given at one time
being about one-quarter pound."
Diarrhea was the most common disease and the most deadly because of
overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Comrade
Libby wrote that he had weighed 187 pounds when he entered Salisbury and at
parole, weighed only 102 pounds and could "just crawl around."
He suffered an attack of typhoid fever, recovered and then took sick with
rheumatic fever. According to
Libby, he never fully recuperated from these illnesses, and could not get a
pension because he could not "show any bullet holes."
One prisoner visited the prison hospital in November of 1864 and said
what he saw would "beggar description."
Most deplorable were those so sick they could not keep the lice out of
their mouths, ears and eyes. H.T.
Talbott, regiment unknown, writes of the hospital as follows:
"This place was the most complete slough of despondency that ever
existed on this side of the infernal regions.
The suffering and dying patients lay with their heads to the wall in a
row around the room, and with no covering save their clothes.
A little straw and abundance of vermin served for a bed.
There was no fire for nearly two months, and when fire was finally
obtained there was about sufficient to warm one-twentieth of the interior. During the month of December , there was a continual
amputating of feet, toes, legs, etc., the victims in a few days going off in the
dead wagon. Some were crawling
around with their flesh almost dropping from the bone.
Others were afflicted with the dry rot, and led a fearful existence until
death relieved them. Some were insane, crying, and cursing, and nearly all were
dying. It was one continual scene
of human woe, heartrending agony, groans, curses, dismay and death."
About 100, or 2 percent died through September 1864, but from October
1864 to February 1865, the death rate increased to a rate of 28 percent.
An estimated 4,000 or 26 percent died during the prison's entire
existence. The dead bodies were
daily collected at the "dead house" and hauled in a one-horse wagon to
trenches in a nearby "old cornfield."
Early on, the Rebels would place the dead in pine coffins and take them
out via the horse cart. But the
dead became so numerous, that the prisoners began to suspect there was something
wrong. To satisfy themselves the
men put marks on these coffins. It
soon became apprent to everybody in the prison that these same coffins were
being used every day. The rebels
tried to make it appear that they were furnishing new coffins for all the dead,
but the marks soon showed that the coffins did duty for all the Salisbury dead.
After a while, even this ritual was stopped and the dead would be piled
onto the cart and taken to the "dead house."
In the fall of 1864, all of the prison buildings were converted to
hospital use. This forced all of
the well prisoners and new arrivals to dig holes in the yard for shelter. Some
tents were provided, but the number was so few that it hardly made a dent.
Prisoners often bought dead bodies to get clothing.
LIke Andersonville, Salisbury had its own group of "Rangers,"
who had banded together to prey on other prisoners. It has been alleged that they even committed murder in order
to get what they wanted. Some of
the prisoners made complaints to Major Gee, Commandant of the prison, who
promised that if they could arrest and prove any of the crimes against the
offenders, that he would allow punishment to be doled out to them.
Supposedly, a vigilance committee was formed, and they captured, tried
and condemned one of the "Rangers."
However, his execution was delayed until such time as the others could be
captured and tried. I have never heard of any actual executions
being conducted at Salisbury.
An unsuccessful mass effort to escape took place on November 25, 1864.
The guards at Salisbury normally
consisted of two separate regiments...one comprised of old men, too old for
active service and the other of young boys from 14-16 years of age.
On the morning of the 25th, the young boys were ordered to the front and
were to leave by train that day. Knowing
that there was only a small number of old men guarding the prison, a group of
prisoners broke loose and attacked the guards.
It seemed for a while that the prisoners were going to succeed in their
attempt, but they had failed to realize that the train had not yet left with its
passengers for the front, and the young guards were double-quicked back to the
prison pen. Shots were fired by the
guards upon the scaffolding around the prison.
As well, artillery commenced to throw missiles in every direction.
The shooting lasted for approximately half an hour and it is surmised
that 200 men were killed. No one escaped from this attempt.
Tunneling was the most popular means to escape.
The most famous tunnel escape took place in mid January 1865, when an
estimated 100 escaped. One prisoner
said the easiest way to get "our of this cursed place" was to defect
to the Confederacy. About 2,100 are
listed as having done so.
Besides Union soldiers as prisoners, Salisbury boasted some famous
civilians as well. A. D. Richardson and Junius H. Browne, correspondents of the
New York Tribune had been captured at Vicksburg and were sent to Salisbury in
early 1864. Much to the
embarrassment of the Confederacy, they made a spectacular escape on December
18, 1864, and wrote extensively about their imprisonment at Salisbury when they
got back home. A large number of
prisoners were released on February 22, 1865.
A total of 5,154 left that day. The
string of soldiers walking to Greensboro to get a train was 2 1/2 miles, or so
the records say. After that exodus,
a few more prisoners were placed in the pen until April, when Union General
George Stoneman came through Salisbury and burned the prison to the ground.
The fire consumed any records that had existed of the Salisbury Prison
Camp. In 1865, the National
Cemetery was established as a memorial to the Union soldiers who died in the
Official records indicate that the prison had 3,802 prisoners from the
time it opened until June 23, 1864, and 10,321 came from October 5, 1864 to
February 1, 1865, for a total of 14,123. Records
kept at the prison have been lost, but Confederate prisoners and other offenders
probably brought the total up to 15,000. The
U.S. Government has surmised that 11,700 Union soldiers died at Salisbury and
claim that that many men lie buried in the National Cemetery at Salisbury. However, evidence
would indicate that nearly 9,000 prisoners were paroled, escaped, deserted, or
left the prison during its existence. If
this is true, then the actual number of burials would be less than 4,000
soldiers. Whatever the final count,
it is still the largest number of unknown soldiers in any American cemetery.
In December of 1994, the North Carolina Division of the Daughters of the
Confederacy dedicated a bronze marker that shows exactly where the 18 trenches
holding those Union soldiers are and where is was in relation to the actual
The information on Elmira was taken from various articles that have appeared over the years in Civil War Times Illustrated. Another book published on Elmira was entitled Elmira Prison Camp by Clay Holmes. Although a bit partial to the Union, it still contains some good historical information. The bulk of the information on Salisbury Prison was taken from articles that I discovered in "The National Tribune." This newspaper was published in Washington, D.C. as a paper for Civil War Veterans. It was begun about 1877 and eventually evolved into the present-day "Stars and Stripes."
concludes the stories on these two famous prisons during the Civil War.
Return to the Archive
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David Maraniss discusses Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.
What is especially compelling about the 1960 Summer
What attracted me to Rome, what made it special in my mind, was the uncommon
combination of legendary athletes, the tension of the cold war, the beauty of
the setting, and the issues that arose during the 18 days of competition. With
the entire world on the same stage at the same time, I saw the opportunity to
weave the drama on the playing fields with the political and cultural issues
that were emerging then.
You say in the book that the 1960 Summer Olympics marked the passing of one
era and the dawning of another. What do you mean by that?
In so many ways, the 1960 Olympics marked a passing of one era and the birth
of another. Television, money and doping were bursting onto the scene, changing
everything they touched. Old-school notions of amateurism, created by and for
upper-class sportsmen, were being challenged as never before. New countries were
being born in Africa and Asia, blacks and women were pushing for equal rights.
For better and worse, one could see the modern world as we know it today coming
The Berlin, Munich or Mexico City Summer Olympics were arguably more
controversial or meaningful than Rome. Why should people care about Rome?
Berlin was the Nazi Olympics. Mexico City was the black power salute of
Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Munich was the terrorist tragedy of the slain
Israelis. All important events that transcended sports. But all defined by that
one event. What was so powerful about Rome was the totality of it. It was a
richer canvas, with more stories, more changes, more ways of looking at the
modern world, than any of those others. It had not only more issues, but more
How did you get the idea to write this book?
The idea came to me as I was researching my last book, on the baseball
player Roberto Clemente. An important stretch in Clemente's career was the late
summer and early fall of 1960, when his Pittsburgh Pirates were on their way to
winning the National League pennant and the World Series. As I was scouring old
newspaper sports sections from that time, looking for stories on Clemente, I
kept seeing these amazing names Cassius Clay, Wilma Rudolph, Rafer Johnson
all athletes who were competing at the Rome Olympics. My first thought was that
I did not want to write another sports book, at least not then. But I could not
shake the magic of those names, and that forced me to take a closer look at the
Rome Olympics, and the more I looked, the more I realized that along with the
athletic drama there was a much deeper story there.
Do you need to be a big sports fan to enjoy this book?
As I'm finishing a manuscript, I make a point of giving it to a)
experts who can check facts and catch errors, b) sports fans who have a keen
interest in the subject, and c) someone who knows nothing about the subject and
has little or no interest in sports. If I have done my job right, the book can
appeal to all three. I want to write it so that people who love the sport think
I got it right, but also in a way that draws people to the characters and the
The book focuses on some well-known athletes like Wilma Rudolph, Cassius
Clay and Rafer Johnson, but also on some lesser-known Olympians. Who are some of
your favorite characters in the book?
Along with the legendary figures who competed in Rome, the book teems
with other characters. One of my favorites is Ed Temple, who was the coach of
Wilma Rudolph and her Tigerbelles. Temple still lives in Nashville not far from
the campus, and is a great storyteller with a lively sense of humor, so his
memories of Rome help bring it alive. He worked without scholarships, without
his own office, and from the threadbare facilities at little Tennessee State
built a powerhouse women's track team that changed history. I also love the
story of Dave Sime, a medical student at Duke who lost a photo-finish in the
100-meter dash and had been recruited by the CIA to try to get a Soviet athlete
to defect in Rome. And then there is Joe Faust, who finished 16th in the high
jump, whom I used as a typical athlete most don't come close to winning but
an uncommon human being. When I tracked him down at his little adobe house on
the edge of L.A., he still had an old mattress in his backyard that was part of
his makeshift high-jump pit.
Of the major characters, who did you come to admire the most and why?
Hard to choose. I admired Wilma Rudolph for the courage she showed upon
returning from Rome and insisting that her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee,
not hold a banquet for her unless it was integrated, the first of its kind in
that city. I admired Abebe Bikila for the sheer courage of running the marathon
through the streets of Rome barefooted, and for doing it in the capital city of
a country, Italy, that had invaded his Ethiopian homeland a few decades earlier.
I admired Rafer Johnson perhaps most of all, just for his integrity as a human
being. Cassius Clay was the same then, in 1960, at age 18, as he would later be
as the world-renowned Muhammad Ali, the same personality at least; his larger
meaning was not there yet.
Rafer Johnson is on the cover of the book and gets more attention in the
book than Cassius Clay. Do you think Johnson is underappreciated?
Rafer Johnson is one of the most underappreciated athletes in American
sports history. He was the best of his era, the most revered athlete in Rome,
and a human being of intelligence and integrity. I am delighted to have the
chance to try to give him his due.
As a writer, you're known more for your work in the political realm than
in sports. Why have you written books about Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente and
now the Olympics?
I love sports, just as I love politics; but I am no more interested in
writing a one-dimensional sports book than I am in writing a one-dimensional
book about a political campaign. In each of my three sports books, in different
ways, I saw a chance to write not just about sports, but about deeper subjects.
With Lombardi it was the mythology of success and the role of competition in
American life. With Clemente it was not just a dramatic story but a way to write
about the rise of Latinos and the roles of race and language in our culture. In
some sense, Rome 1960 represents the culmination of my work, combining all the
themes of sports, politics, culture and sociology that interest me. In this
book, too, there is a dramatic story on the playing fields, but so much more
surrounding the Games.
Tell us a little about how you went about researching this book. How
many people did you interview? How much travel was involved? Where did you find
the best material?
My first rule in writing books is: Go there. Wherever there is. This
meant going to Rome and revisiting the sites of the Games, including a memorable
day tracing the route of the marathon through the ancient streets of the Eternal
City. It was much easier to ask my wife to go to Rome than to persuade her to
move to Green Bay for the winter to start the research on the Lombardi book. My
second focus is on primary research documents and interviews. My search for
primary documents took me not only to Rome, but also to the National Archives at
College Park, the IOC archive in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Avery Brundage
archive at the University of Illinois (Brundage was IOC president in 1960), and
the LA84 Foundation archive in Los Angeles, among others. I also interviewed
scores of athletes, journalists and others who were in Rome for the Olympics,
most from the U.S. but some from Italy, Germany and the USSR.
Do you have any writing superstitions? What's your daily routine like
when you're writing a book?
No superstitions. I'm lucky that I've never suffered from writer's
block. I tend to write in the morning, take a break to read, maybe exercise,
then write some more until lunch break. I don't have a daily goal, but a weekly
one. Some days I can write only a few paragraphs. One day and night I wrote the
entire ice bowl chapter for When Pride Still Mattered. I often stop in the
middle of a sentence or paragraph where I know exactly what comes next, so I
don't have to worry about where I will pick it up.
Have you always been interested in the Olympics? What are your first
memories of the Olympics?
I loved the Olympics as a kid, and it is fitting that my first memories
are of the 1960 Rome Games, since those were the first ones televised. I
remember the decathlon contest between Rafer Johnson and C.K. Yang, and I
remember the wonder of Wilma Rudolph; but my strongest memory, for some odd
reason you can never fully explain what strikes your fancy as a kid is of
the field hockey match between India and Pakistan. I was rooting for Pakistan,
why I cannot say, and when they won, 1-0, I remember dancing around my living
room shouting Ya-hoo! Ya-hoo! Pak-i-stan! Pak-i-stan! mimicking the
celebration I saw on TV.
Were you surprised that issues we think of as modern
(performance-enhancing drugs, television, celebrity, sponsorships, racial and
gender equality, etc.) were so central to the story of the 1960 Summer Olympics?
Yes, at first. But the more I looked, the more I saw how much of the
present you could trace back to those days in Rome. That connection is what
compelled me to do the book.
Your biographies inherently focus on one character. This book deals with
many characters. What challenges does that pose?
The comfort of writing a biography is that a life provides you with a
natural chronology, a skeleton around which the flesh of the book can form. This
story was more challenging in that sense. But I used the place, Rome, and the
time, 18 days, to give the story a chronological coherence. The challenge was to
bring so many characters onto the stage and not make it too much, too
complicated. But I look forward to challenges in writing my books, and I had
dealt with that same challenge once before in They Marched Into Sunlight, my
book on Vietnam and the 60s.
Do the Olympics actually represent any sort of ideal (then or now) for
mankind, or is it just another sporting event?
I'm of mixed minds about that question. Any event that brings the
entire world together in a peaceful way hints at the ideal of world peace and
cooperation. And in 1960 as today, athletes can build personal friendships from
sports competitions that transcend the tensions between the nations they
represent. But the notion that the Olympics is free from politics was untrue in
1960 and is equally unattainable today.
Is the city of Rome a central character in this book, or could this
story have taken place anywhere?
Rome adds a certain poignancy to the story, I think. The Olympic
organizers made good use of the ancient city wrestling and gymnastics were
held outdoors amid the ruins; the marathon began at the Capitoline steps and
ended at the Arch of Constantine. But beyond that, the sensibility of the Rome
Games' representing a turning point in history was enhanced by the literal
golden glow of those days.
What's your favorite piece of trivia you picked up while researching
That the only athlete representing Surinam either overslept or was told
the wrong time and missed his only race, an 800-meter heat. Poor guy.
Both of your parents were writers and editors. What influence did they
have on your writing style?
My parents, Elliott and Mary Maraniss, were enormous influences in my
writing. Both were professionals, my father as a newspaperman, my mother as a
book editor. Though my mother was skilled in grammar, and was my best
copyeditor, both she and my father emphasized that the most important rule in
writing was to follow your ear. What sounded best was usually the right way to
go, even if that meant breaking some picky grammatical rules. My father had an
easy, natural style that was both intelligent and accessible.
You dedicated this book to your wife and mentioned that she travels with
you when you research your books. What's it like to have her by your side?
Linda is invaluable. She is my nose, since I lost most of my sense of
smell. She is my eyes, taking pictures and videos on all our trips. She helps
find documents and photocopies materials with me. Wherever we go on our research
trips, she makes more friends than I do and keeps up with people from around the
world that we've met. I couldn't do any of it without her. Writing books can be
a lonely process, but having her as a partner makes it much less so.
What do you enjoy most about the process of touring the country talking about
I consider it an honor to explain a book to which I've devoted so much
of my life. I love the stories I hear from people who have some personal
connection to the events of the book. I also enjoy getting the time to talk
about the book in depth. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35896000 |
Quiz: pp. 1-16 to pp. 187-204
|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Directions: Circle the correct answer.
1. What did Mike say first interested him in writing?
a) He wanted a teacher to like him.
b) He wanted to give others a look into his life.
c) He wanted a way to record things that happened.
d) He wanted to express himself.
2. Who said, "It was an exercise that was all analysis and no synthesis"?
a) L.M. Marrou.
b) G.T. Marrou.
c) J.I. Marrou.
d) H.I. Marrou.
3. What color was Mrs. Morton's hair?
a) Brown and gray.
4. What did Rosalie suggest Mike do with the students he tutored in October?
a) Math exercises.
b) Work with them individually.
c) Writing exercises.
This section contains 240 words|
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35899000 |
Oral Reading Evaluation Sheet
|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
|5 = Above Average||3 = Average||1 = Below Average|
Audibility - Projecting your voice so your audience can hear and understand you.
Pronunciation - Ability to recognize words before you say them and pronounce all the sounds correctly.
Articulation - Using your tongue, mouth and lips to pronounce all the sounds correctly.
Vocal Variety/Expression - Using appropriate pitch, volume and flow.
Rate - Reading a speed, or pace that is easy to follow.
This section contains 73 words|
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35900000 |
The text begins with an introduction to alpine ecosystems. Alpine environments are here described as those that exist above timberline, a rather rich concept in itself as five different kinds of timberline are listed: forest limit (physiognomic forest line), economic forest line (above which trees cannot be economically harvested), tree limit (the elevation above which some species reach tree size), tree species limit (the elevation above which tree species are stunted but present, i.e. krummholz, elfinwood or krupelkiefer), and historic tree line (indicating earlier climatic regimes). The Alpine Flora of the Rocky Mountains is limited to those species growing above the elevation where more or less continuous trees are found (tree limit), trees being defined as arborescent species 3 m or more in height. A few geomorphic processes such as nivation, solifluction, and frost action are then briefly outlined. Next follows a compact but informative discussion of alpine environments. The general introductory material ends with a presentation of the adaptations required of plants living in the often harsh alpine milieu.
Following the general introduction, the Middle Rocky Mountains themselves are examined. The area containing the Middle Rock Mountains includes southwestern Montana, Wyoming, and northeastern Utah. In this section of the book individual mountain ranges and drainage basins are discussed, and included are brief synopses of glacial events, tectonic activity, and mineralology. The author has chosen to include the Medicine Bow Mountains, with the alpine-containing Snowy Range, as part of the Middle Rocky Mountains. Although this stance is controversial - the Medicine Bows are often placed in the Southern Rocky Mountains - the author in large part includes them in the Middle Rocky Mountains so that the book covers all of the alpine areas found in the state of Wyoming (Scott, pers. comm.). Thus possibly the book covers an area defined both vegetationally/physiographically and politically. I would have liked to see a stronger biological or physiographic justification for the inclusion of the Medicine Bow Mountains in the Middle Rocky Mountains. In all, the material that introduces the reader to the alpine zone and to the study area in particular is quite informative and is consistent with the usual material found in large regional floras.
Most of the text, of course, is devoted to the flora. Except for a few personal observations made by the author, this flora was assembled from voucher specimens. The bulk of the specimens examined are housed at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) at the University of Wyoming. Also consulted, but not so stated in the text, were specimens at Central Wyoming College (CWC), Montana State University (MONT), Teton National Park, and several small U.S. Forest Service herbaria (Scott, pers. comm.). While RM is an excellent and quite complete herbarium, the flora would have been more authoritative and perhaps more complete had the author consulted at least Utah State University (UTC), Brigham Young University (BRY), the University of Montana (MONTU), and the University of Idaho (ID). Because of this limited herbarium consultation, the dot maps in the text are fine for general distributions only.
The author has approached the text as an admitted "lumper" and seems to be rather taxonomically conservative as well. Therefore, the keys and descriptions should easily lead to an acceptable identification, although perhaps a taxonomically conservative one. This is especially true as Scott defines a species as a "good" species if it is "separated from other species by a gap in the variation of observable traits and a [presumably] corresponding barrier to interbreeding." We are not told, however, what "observable" means. Is it by the unaided eye, at 10X magnification, or at some other level of magnification? The flora is user-friendly in its strictly alphabetical arrangement by family, genus, and species, and the keys are clear and easy to follow if the reader already has a grasp of botanical terminology.
Each species is provided with an "accepted" scientific name and author, a reference to the original publication of the specific epithet, a list of synonyms users of western U.S. floras and monographs are likely to encounter, a mostly non-technical description, a brief overall range and habitat description, a dot map, and a line drawing. Unfortunately, the careful observer and collector will occasionally encounter specimens that do not exactly fit the species' description as it is based on what the author deemed to be "typical" of the species, especially as it occurs in alpine zones. The scientific user would much prefer a description that encompasses the known morphological variation in the species, at least in alpine zones. Accompanying line drawings, however, will aid both the professional and amateur botanist. These drawings range from excellent and informative (especially those originally published by the University of Washington and Stanford University presses) to rather oversimplified (e.g., Erigeron melanocephalus), but are mostly quite good or excellent. Common names have been provided for each species. Mostly these names come from "standardized" government sources especially Beetle (1970) but in some cases they are invented de novo by anglicizing the Latin binomial. My personal bias is reflected in wondering why, for example, Payson Bladderpod is "better" for the general public than is Lesquerella paysonii or why Sticky Geranium is better than Geranium viscosissimum? Yarrow for Achillea millefolium doesn't bother me, however, because it is an old name that really was, and is, a common name. If it is a legitimate common name fine, if not why invent one?
Has the author met his objective
of supplying a useful flora for both the professional and amateur
botanist? As a botanist who spends a fair amount of time in alpine
regions of the American West, the answer to the first part of
the question is yes. The book, however, is definitely one that
will not accompany me to the field. At 901 pages and an 8.5 x
11 inch format, it is too large and heavy to be stowed in a backpack.
The descriptions are perhaps a little watered down but are still
very useful as long as I don't collect something not "typical"
- and the synomy is fairly complete. The author has missed the
mark as far as the amateur is concerned. Because the amateur
audience has at their disposal a host of excellent picture books
and smaller format floras (e.g. Arnow et al. 1980; Dorn 1984,
1992; Nelson 1984; Shaw 1989) that would suit their purposes much
better, few amateurs are likely to pay $110 for a book they too
cannot carry in a backpack. Furthermore, amateurs may find the
descriptions and keys too technical and are likely to ignore the
synonymy. Given its cost and bulk (and this is just the first
of a projected three volumes covering the length of the Rocky
Mountains), the author would have done well to focus the text
on a scientific audience. I would, in spite of its shortcomings,
recommend this text to field and herbarium taxonomists and to
dedicated amateur botanists. I'm certain that the text is destined
to become dog-eared in my hands. - Steve L. O'Kane, Jr., Department of Biology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0421
Native Orchids of Belize McLeish, I., N.R. Pearce, B.R. Adams, and J. Briggs, 1995. ISBN 90-5410 6093 xvii + 278 pp. A. A. Balkema Publishers, P.O. Box 1875, Rotterdam, Netherlands- More years ago than it is wise to remember I visited the El Cayo (simply Cayo in this book) and Stann Creek Districts in what was then British Honduras. I was just starting to develop an interest in orchids and found it amazing that so many of them could be seen on trees. My guide, a British agricultural officer, kept drawing my attention to birds and iguanas which according to him made tasty pies, but I kept looking at the orchids without being able to recognize a single one. Should the fates take me back to these districts they will be part of an independent country, Belize. I will probably still be unable to recognize most orchids, but this time my guide will be dedicated to orchids. It will be this book which was written by four people (McLeish, a veterinary officer; Pearce, a medical practitioner; Adams, a tree crop agronomist; and Brings, an agriculturist; I will refer to them as MPAB) who can be best described as Victorian amateurs interested in orchids.
The word amateur has been debased in our time because it has been equated to hobbyist, and/or a person who dabbles superficially in something or other. On the other hand "Victorian amateurs" were/are anything but dabblers. They were/are usually accomplished experts in an area from which they did/do not derive an income. For example many have argued that Darwin falls into this category. MPAB certainly do as is clearly evident form this book. Their preface is in fact a short historical account of orchid collections in Belize and pertinent publications. In addition to providing interesting information the preface sets a serious tone for the book and also makes it clear that the authors are serious scholars and dedicated botanists, not just orchid lovers.
To appreciate the orchid flora of any area one must have an understanding of the geography and climate of the region. MPAB provide that in the introduction. I learned more from this chapter than during my visit long ago. My only quibble is a bad case of "theitis" because I I of 19 paragraphs, some in long sentences, start with "the". The "the...... the," "the..."gets old fast.
Chapter 2, classification and key to genera, is what would have made my visit more informative. It would have allowed me to classify an orchid or two while wondering what iguana pie tastes like. The key uses both vegetative and flora characteristics which should make it easy to use. Most of the book (pp. 13-261) is occupied by species descriptions. The book follows Dressler's classification system and taxa are listed in that order. Each genus is described in enough detail to make recognition possible. An interesting and informative feature is the etymology of generic names. A key is provided for genera which contain more than one species.
The format used to describe species is uniform. A clear and concise description which is easy to read and inclusive is followed by the following headings: general distribution; distribution in Belize; habitat; flowering season; etymology; and, when necessary, notes. Species are illustrated with color photographs (most are good) and/or excellent line drawings. As a result it is very easy to get a "feet" for each orchid.
A checklist of Belize orchids constitutes chapter 4. It lists herbaria which contain orchids collected in Belize (both under its current and colonial names). This check list is also a convenient source of names and correct spellings. A good glossary and an extensive index complete the book.
Geographically this book completes
coverage of a major part of Central America since there are already
books on the orchids of Mexico and Guatemala. It also adds to
the literature on the orchid flora of the Caribbean. For me this
is a useful book which brings back memories of early travel and
first time impressions of the tropics. Of course I refuse to
become involved in the perennial squabbles among taxonomists regarding
the validity of names and accuracy of descriptions. If this was
not the case there is no doubt in my mind that I could find something
to quibble about. As it is i have nothing to argue about and
only offer my compliments to the authors for a first rate book.
With all that I still have a question: what does iguana pie taste
- Joseph Arditti, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35905000 |
data: Once you’ve decided how to fill your column, carefully
observe what you put inside. In a notebook, describe the color,
texture, smell and shape of everything you put in the bottle. Weigh
everything before it goes into the column.
Schedule column checks for at least once a week to record changes.
Note changes in the column contents' height, color, shape, texture
and odor. Hold a ruler next to the column to record changes in the
height of the contents. Insert a thermometer from the top of the
column to determine temperature changes. Can you figure out the
rate of change? You can also test the pH of the leachate (the solution
that drips through the column) or use it in a bioassay
for more on pH.
anything moving?: Look for the appearance of any "critters,"
such as flies, beetles, slugs, millipedes, or snails. Decomposition
Columns offer good opportunities for observation and description.
Try using photographs or drawings to record changes. Write a story
about what is going on in your column. What do you predict will
happen during decomposition? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35906000 |
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Brief interruptions can lead to crucial errors
People are more prone to making mistakes when their attention is caught by even the shortest of interruptions. This is the suggestion of new research from Michigan State University (MSU), which found a person's ability to accurately complete a task is significantly impacted by small disturbances, such as taking the time to silence a ringing phone.
Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, the findings, which were gathered from more than 300 participants, revealed error rates doubled when individuals performing a sequence-based task on a computer were disrupted for just three seconds.
Erik Altmann, Associate Professor of Psychology at MSU, said: "What this means is that our health and safety is, on some level, contingent on whether the people looking after it have been interrupted."
The authors explained the findings show interruptions - of which there are often many in people's daily lives - can have serious consequences, especially for professionals such as emergency room doctors.
Professor John Davies from the University of Strathclyde, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, comments:
"The research from MSU confirms similar findings from a number of previous studies. Distraction is a major cause of the 'attentional lapse', which increases the probability of subsequent error. Although there are several reasons as to why this happens, one of the simplest to understand is that sometimes people forget where they left off the task at hand, prior to the interruption. This can lead to missing out a crucial step (such as leaving something in a wound for example) or alternatively duplicating something they have already done."
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- Raising awareness of adult autism | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35908000 |
Healthy Living with Glaucoma
For people with glaucoma or at risk of developing it, a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a nutritious diet is especially important. In addition to benefiting overall physical and mental well-being, it promotes eye health. Maintaining mental and emotional health is also important.
Recommendations for physical well-being:
- Eat a varied and healthy diet. There is no scientific evidence suggesting that certain vitamins and minerals prevent glaucoma or delay its progress. However, carotenoids (especially lutein and zeaxanthin), antioxidants (such vitamins C and E), vitamins A and D, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids may all contribute to better vision.
- Carotenoids, especially lutein and zeaxanthin, are found in dark green, yellow, and orange fruits and vegetables, including: spinach, collard greens, kale, broccoli, okra, brussels sprouts, egg yolks, mango, green beans, lima beans, squash, sweet potatoes, orange peppers, green peppers, yellow corn.
- Vitamin C is found in: green peppers, citrus fruits, tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, white potatoes, and leafy greens.
- Vitamin E is found in: whole grains, fortified cereals, fruit, wheat germ, leafy greens, nuts/nut oils, eggs, and vegetable oils.
- Vitamin A is found in: liver, sweet potatoes, carrots, mangoes, milk, and egg yolks.
- The main dietary sources of Vitamin D are: cod liver oil “oily” fish, cereal, egg yolks, and fortified milk.
- Foods with zinc include: oysters, red meat, poultry, certain seafoods, nuts, dairy, beans, and fortified cereals.
- Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids are: wild salmon, sardines, walnuts, and flaxseed oil.
- Limit caffeine intake to moderate levels. Some evidence suggests that high amounts of caffeine may increase eye pressure.
- Try to exercise daily. Some studies indicate that exercise can lower eye pressure. Aerobic activities such as walking, swimming, or even working in the yard are recommended. (However, some aerobic activity may increase pressure, so always consult a doctor before beginning any exercise program.)
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Keep blood pressure at a normal level and control other medical conditions.
- Do not smoke.
- Prevent overexposure to sunlight by wearing wide-brimmed hats and high quality sunglasses that have 99- to 100-percent UVA and UVB protection.
- Regularly visit an eye doctor for comprehensive eye exams, and if you have glaucoma, make follow-up visits as recommended.
- Take any prescribed medication consistently, especially if you have glaucoma, and exactly as directed by your eye doctor.
“Living with Glaucoma” and other useful publications can be found on our website at www.brightfocus.org/glaucomapubs.
Last Review: 04/28/13 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35916000 |
Moses MaimonidesArticle Free Pass
Essay on the Calendar” (Hebrew title: Maʾamar haʿibur).
The first of Maimonides’ major works, begun at the age of 23, was his commentary on the Mishna, Kitāb al-Sirāj, also written in Arabic. The Mishna is a compendium of decisions in Jewish law that dates from earliest times to the 3rd century. Maimonides’ commentary clarified individual words and phrases, frequently citing relevant information in archaeology, theology, or science. Possibly the work’s most striking feature is a series of introductory essays dealing with general philosophic issues touched on in the Mishna. One of these essays summarizes the teachings of Judaism in a creed of Thirteen Articles of Faith.
He completed the commentary on the Mishna at the age of 33, after which he began his magnum opus, the code of Jewish law, on which he also laboured for 10 years. Bearing the name of Mishne Torah (“The Torah Reviewed”) and written in a lucid Hebrew style, the code offers a brilliant systematization of all Jewish law and doctrine. He wrote two other works in Jewish law of lesser scope: the Sefer ha-mitzwot (Book of Precepts), a digest of law for the less sophisticated reader, written in Arabic; and the Hilkhot ha-Yerushalmi (“Laws of Jerusalem”), a digest of the laws in the Palestinian Talmud, written in Hebrew.
His next major work, which he began in 1176 and on which he laboured for 15 years, was his classic in religious philosophy, the Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn (The Guide for the Perplexed), later known under its Hebrew title as the Moreh nevukhim. A plea for what he called a more rational philosophy of Judaism, it constituted a major contribution to the accommodation between science, philosophy, and religion. It was written in Arabic and sent as a private communication to his favourite disciple, Joseph ibn Aknin. The work was translated into Hebrew in Maimonides’ lifetime and later into Latin and most European languages. It has exerted a marked influence on the history of religious thought.
Maimonides also wrote a number of minor works, occasional essays dealing with current problems that faced the Jewish community, and he maintained an extensive correspondence with scholars, students, and community leaders. Among his minor works those considered to be most important are Iggert Teman (Epistle to Yemen), Iggeret ha-shemad or Maʾamar Qiddush ha-Shem (“Letter on Apostasy”), and Iggeret le-qahal Marsilia (“Letter on Astrology,” or, literally, “Letter to the Community of Marseille”). He also wrote a number of works dealing with medicine, including a popular miscellany of health rules, which he dedicated to the sultan, al-Afḍal. A mid-20th-century historian, Waldemar Schweisheimer, has said of Maimonides’ medical writings: “Maimonides’ medical teachings are not antiquated at all. His writings, in fact, are in some respects astonishingly modern in tone and contents.”
Maimonides complained often that the pressures of his many duties robbed him of peace and undermined his health. He died in 1204 and was buried in Tiberias, in the Holy Land, where his grave continues to be a shrine drawing a constant stream of pious pilgrims.
Maimonides’ advanced views aroused opposition during his lifetime and after his death. In 1233 one zealot, Rabbi Solomon of Montpellier, in southern France, instigated the church authorities to burn The Guide for the Perplexed as a dangerously heretical book. But the controversy abated after some time, and Maimonides came to be recognized as a pillar of the traditional faith—his creed became part of the orthodox liturgy—as well as the greatest of the Jewish philosophers.
Maimonides’ epoch-making influence on Judaism extended also to the larger world. His philosophic work, translated into Latin, influenced the great medieval Scholastic writers, and even later thinkers, such as Benedict de Spinoza and G.W. Leibniz, found in his work a source for some of their ideas. His medical writings constitute a significant chapter in the history of medical science.
What made you want to look up "Moses Maimonides"? Please share what surprised you most... | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35918000 |
A column about history, culture, policy, and things in between.
St. Augustine was not just a theologian; the 5th Century Bishop was one of the great philosophers of Western antiquity. In his epic work The City of God, he wrote of how the human capacity of memory, the power to first recall and then reflect upon things past, was one of the singular capabilities things that set man apart form the beasts.
The origin of Memorial Day lies in the war torn Confederacy when in May of 1862, a group of Confederate widows spent a day decorating the graves of their fallen husbands. The tradition took hold and became known throughout the South as Decoration Day. By the 1880’s this practice evolved into Memorial Day, and ever since, May 30 has been the day established to recognize and remember our Nation’s fallen Veterans.
I take the name of this article from the ancient lines of the Greek Poet Simonides:
“Go tell the Spartans, those that passeth by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie”.
These lines refer to King Leonidas and his heroic group of three hundred Spartans who blocked the Pass of Thermopylae, protecting their homeland from the advance of Xerxes’ Persian Army. They knew they would die and yet chose to stay. They did so because they were raised to believe some things were worth more than their lives.
On Memorial Day of 2008 I think of many people. I think first of my father, father-in-law, and two uncles, World War Two Veterans all. And I think of Brookfield Central Lancer and US Army Sergeant Scott Brown, and remember his young family.
I think of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who penned their names to a document ending with the words “and to this Declaration we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor”. For their audacity in signing, many would dangle at the end of a British rope. Today, as we watch the pathetic saga of John Edward's trial unfold, we remember an age in which the political leaders of our yet unformed Nation actually believed that.
I think of Winston Churchill, alone and magnificent, defying Hitler as he proclaimed to the imperiled Free World, “We shall never surrender”.
I think of Douglas MacArthur, America’s greatest soldier and a distant relative of Churchill's. I envision him in his eighties on the plain of West Point where Brookfield East graduate Jon Lehman now marches, jaw still firm and shoulders square as he gave his last public address to the graduating Cadets, proclaiming as the theme of his address: “Duty, Honor, Country”.
I think of the opening scenes of Spielberg’s masterpiece Saving Private Ryan, filmed at the American Cemetery at Normandy. I hear the rustle of the enormous, overarching American flags lofting in the Channel-fed breezes as they kept their watchful, silent vigil over the fallen.
I think of another cemetery - Arlington National - a place of such reverential beauty that it beggars description. The Cemetery rests upon land that once belonged to the family of Robert E. Lee; it was confiscated by the Federal Government after the Civil War. I suspect that Lee would approve of how his land is being used. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35924000 |
Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae)
by Doug Johnson, Extension Entomologist
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture
Indianmeal moth larvae are secondary pests, which means that they prefer to feed on fines or damaged kernels. Infestations are most common in the upper four to six inches of grain in a bin. They become active in early spring because surface grain is usually the first to warm. The larvae produce silken threads which result in "caking" or "crusting" of the surface grain. Their frass (waste), cast exoskeletons (exterior skin-like covering) and silk contaminate the grain.
Indianmeal moths (pictured left) rest with their wings folded over their backs. They are about 0.4 inch long with a wingspan of about 0.6 inch. The outer portion of the front pair of wings is coppery; however, this color may be lost as the moth loses its scales. The inner half of the wing near the body is light gray. The hind wings are gray with no distinctive markings. The larval or feeding stage is a caterpillar (shown below right) that may range from yellow-white to pink to light green with a light brown head. Full grown larvae are about 0.7 inch long.
Female moths deposit from 60 to 300 eggs, singly or in groups on or within the upper surface of the grain mass. The larvae move about in the upper grain mass, feeding on fines and cracked kernels and producing a silken webbing. Full grown caterpillars may leave their food source and climb up walls to pupate. The life cycle from egg to adult takes about six to eight weeks during warm weather. There are usually four to six generations per year depending on food supply and temperature conditions.
Prevention is always the most economical and efficient method of controlling these pests. However, because infestations are usually limited to the top few inches of grain, control can be obtained without fumigation. Producers need to remove the surface crust and spoiled grain. The exposed grain surface then can be treated with an approved insecticide. If available, " No Pest" strips containing dichlorvos can be hung in the head space to aid in preventing an infestation. However, registration of this product may soon end and the strips are very difficult to find.
For specific insecticide recommendations for individual crops see:
- Corn, Field - Insecticides for Corn, ENT-16
- Popcorn - Insecticide Recommendations for Popcorn - ENT-62
- Sorghum - Insecticide Recommendations for Sorghum (Milo) - ENT-24
- Soybeans - Insecticide Recommendations for Soybeans - ENT-13
- Wheat - Insecticide Recommendations for Small Grains - ENT-47
These publications are available at local county extension offices in Kentucky.
CAUTION! Pesticide recommendations in this publication are registered for use in Kentucky, USA ONLY! The use of some products may not be legal in your state or country. Please check with your local county agent or regulatory official before using any pesticide mentioned in this publication.
Of course, ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS FOR SAFE USE OF ANY PESTICIDE! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35938000 |
Carbohydrates are the body’s primary energy source. Overall, it is recommended that calories from carbohydrates, specifically complex carbohydrates, make up about half of the calories you consume daily.
Types of Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are classified as simple or complex based upon their chemical structure, which affects how quickly the sugar is digested and absorbed.
Simple carbohydrates such as fructose in fruit juice or sucrose in table sugar consist of one sugar molecule or two sugar molecules bonded together. Because they are so small, simple sugars require little digestion and are rapidly absorbed. Although this can be beneficial for a quick burst of energy, food and beverages containing simple carbohydrates are often lacking in nutrients and frequent consumption of these foods can contribute to insulin resistance.
Complex carbohydrates such as the carbohydrate chains in fiber have three or more sugar molecules and must be broken down into simple carbohydrates before the body can absorb and metabolize the energy. Foods high in complex carbohydrates are recommended because they provide sustained energy and are often higher in nutrients and fiber, which provide additional health benefits.
Refined Carbohydrates such as white flour have been milled to remove bran and germ. Although they contain complex carbohydrates, many of the benefits have been removed through processing, and most contain added simple carbohydrates, such as sugar.
- Table sugar (sucrose)
- High fructose corn syrup
- Fruit sugar (fructose)*
- Milk sugar (lactose)
*While fruit does contain simple sugar, it is also a rich source of other nutrients and should be included in your diet.
- Whole grains such as brown rice, oat, whole wheat, quinoa, whole corn, whole grain pastas, and cereals, bulgur, and bran
- Beans and Legumes
- Starchy vegetables such as potatoes and corn
- Other vegetables also contain complex carbohydrate, just in smaller amounts, when compared to more starchy vegetables
- White bread
- Baked goods with white flour
- White rice
Glucose is critical for all body cells and needs to be in constant supply in the blood stream.
Carbohydrates break down into glucose, are absorbed into the bloodstream and then are transported throughout the body. Blood glucose levels rise after a meal and then fall back after the glucose is delivered to the cells.
Once the immediate needs of the body have been met, excess glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen. This serves as an "emergency reserve in case blood glucose levels drop too low, but it can only sustain the body for less than one day." When the body is unable to maintain steady glucose levels, diabetes develops. Maintaining diabetics' glucose levels usually requires various hormones, such as insulin and glucagon. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35939000 |
Reference and Practice for Students of North American English
The Grammar in Use series is well known for its simple, clear explanations and unique format. Every unit is a two-page spread, with presentation of grammar points on the left-hand page and practice exercises on the right.
Basic Grammar in Use, Second Edition
Basic Grammar in Use, Second Edition, focuses on the fundamental grammar structures normally taught in basic or introductory courses. Teachers using a main course book in lower-level classes may wish to assign Basic Grammar in Use as a reference guide so that students can look up grammar points that cause them difficulty.
High Beginning to Low Intermediate | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35942000 |
© 2005-2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). All rights reserved worldwide.
Fatigue is a common symptom in people with cancer that causes a lack of energy for many usual activities. Most people receiving cancer treatment experience fatigue, and some cancer survivors have fatigue for months and even years after finishing their treatment. Cancer-related fatigue is different than other types of fatigue, like what happens when you don’t get enough sleep, because this feeling of exhaustion does not improve with rest.
Fatigue's effect on quality of life
Fatigue can have negative effects on the overall physical, psychological, social, and economic well-being of people with cancer. For some it can be slightly bothersome, while for others the experience can be devastating. Fatigue can influence a person's:
- Daily activities
- Hobbies and other enjoyable activities
- Social relationships
- Mood and emotions
- Job performance
- Feeling of well-being and sense of joy
- Attitude toward the future
- Ability to undergo treatment
Identifying the causes of fatigue
There are multiple causes of cancer fatigue, but not all of them are well understood. In situations where many different reasons contribute to a sense of exhaustion, it is still important to develop effective strategies to help deal with this symptom. Some of the common causes of fatigue include:
- The cancer itself
- Appetite loss
- Cancer-related treatment
- Anemia (low red blood cell count)
- Uncontrolled pain
- Lack of sleep
- Lack of regular exercise
- Inadequate nutrition
- Co-existing medical conditions
Strategies to help cope with fatigue
Exercising and eating healthy. Researchers now think that a regular exercise program is the best strategy to help relieve cancer-related fatigue. Athletes and physically fit individuals may continue a program of modified regular exercise while undergoing some cancer treatments. However, most people with cancer will experience some degree of deconditioning, making their regular exercise routine more difficult and, in some cases, even dangerous. Exercise helps prevent muscle loss and once lost, resistance training can help to rebuild it. Talk with your doctor about modifying your exercise program to meet your needs. A gradual program will increase muscle tone and lead to a sense of well-being. Even people who are weak benefit from getting out of bed and walking around the house. Read more about physical activity and cancer.
Eating well and drinking enough fluids are important to maintaining an adequate weight and meeting your body’s nutritional requirements. Read more about the importance of hydration. If available, consider talking with a nutrition counselor or registered dietitian (RD) at your treatment center. He or she can provide helpful hints on eating a well-balanced diet, as well as tips on eating when there is a lack of taste and during times of nausea and vomiting. Find nutrition recommendations for during and after treatment.
Conserving your energy. Many people who complete treatment expect an immediate return to normal functioning. However, fatigue may take some time to resolve, so it is important to prioritize tasks and schedule periods of rest whenever possible. Plan your days so you are able to use the time when you have the most energy for the most important tasks. This includes exercise. Some people may be able to maintain the same lifestyle by scheduling activities when they feel their best. It is important to get the rest you need, which may mean altering the times you sleep and the amount of sleep you need.
Some people also experience mental fatigue, making it difficult to concentrate. It may also contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed and frustrated because your lifestyle has been disrupted. Talk with your doctor, nurse, or social worker about these concerns.
Sharing responsibilities with family and friends. It may be helpful to seek assistance with everyday activities and delegate some of these tasks to others. Maintaining certain household and family responsibilities, such as childcare, meal preparation, and food shopping, may become difficult. Some online communities offer tools to help coordinate caregiving tasks among family members and friends. Health care professionals, such as social workers, will often counsel patients to ask for help from friends and family members. Read about how an oncology social worker can help.
Treating fatigue related to anemia. Many patients with cancer have anemia, which is a decrease in the amount of circulating red blood cells. Anemia may be caused by the cancer or cancer-related treatments. Patients who have anemia also report a feeling of extreme and overwhelming fatigue. The treatment for anemia may include nutritional supplements, drugs, and/or blood transfusions.
Managing other causes of fatigue (such as pain, depression, and lack of sleep). Living with constant pain will almost always make a person feel exhausted. Many of the medications usually prescribed for the treatment of pain also cause drowsiness, sleepiness, and fatigue. Your doctor can help you understand the options available and give you information about common side effects of pain medications. Learn more about managing and treating cancer pain.
In addition to physical reasons that contribute to fatigue, the situation itself can lead to feelings of distress and depression. This can elevate the feeling of exhaustion and complicate treatment. If a person feels exhausted all the time, he or she may be unable to perform at work or at home. The first step in treating depression is to recognize it as a condition and then talk about ways to resolve it with your doctor. Treatment for depression can make a huge difference and is regularly offered to patients who experience extreme sadness or hopelessness. Learn more about depression.
Sleep is necessary for normal function and performance. Stress, pain, and worry can interfere with a person's ability to sleep through the night. In some cases, medications can also disturb normal sleep patterns. For those who are chronically tired, sleep may come in spurts at different times of the day or evening. What is important to remember is that if you are not refreshed by sleep or simply unable to sleep more than one to two hours, it will contribute to feelings of exhaustion and will likely affect your mood and performance. Talk with your doctor and nurse about any sleep problems, and read these strategies for a better night’s sleep.
Coping with fatigue in the workplace. Cancer-related fatigue can also affect a person's ability to work. It is common for most people undergoing cancer treatment to make changes to their work schedule and/or responsibilities. Even long-term survivors of cancer who still experience some fatigue may require changes in their work routine. If you are comfortable with your employer knowing about your cancer, talk with a human resources representative about the effects fatigue has had on your ability to maintain your job responsibilities and about any adjustments or accommodations that can be made. You may need to take prolonged sick leave or disability leave in some situations. It is important that you know your company's policy on sick leave and to understand the Americans with Disabilities Act and Family Medical Leave Act so you know your rights. Read more about cancer and the workplace and going back to work after cancer. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35949000 |
Watering Bees Keeps Hives Buzzing
Monday, October 8, 2012
California imports more than half the 1.5 million bee hives it uses to pollinate almonds, avocados and other crops. The bees come from all over the country, and may spend three or four days in a truck.
That's why beekeepers and the state are coordinating to set up five watering stations at agricultural inspection stops along California's border. Jackie Park Burris is with the California State Beekeepers Association. She says water helps cool and calm the bees.
PARK BURRIS: "(It's) like being stuffed in a elevator with a
whole bunch of people, because those beehives are put on that
truck, and then they're all tight together. And a beehive
will regulate it's own temperature to 93 degrees, and if it has
water it can do that."
The watering stations are essentially hose hook-ups which beekeepers can connect to their soaking systems. They're being installed in Truckee, Blythe, Needles, Yermo, and Benton.
Funding for the project comes from the California State Beekeepers Association, Project Apis m, the Almond Board of California and the California State Apiary Board. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is assisting with the permitting and installation. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35953000 |
What to feed birds in winter
Know what to feed birds in winter to help wild birds survive the coldThe chilly evenings in autumn are signs that winter, and cold weather, are approaching. While you might not feel the need to feed the wild birds who come to visit your yard in the spring and summer, you may want to help them survive the hardships of winter by setting up a feeding program for late-fall through early spring.
Forget about your late-fall yard maintenance project and leave your withered annuals and late-blooming berries where they are. Birds and small animals will eat the dried fruits, seeds and flower heads from your summer and autumn plants, and can find shelter in the brush. You'll want to supplement this forage feed with seed mixes, fruits, suet, peanut butter and meal worms, which will give the fats, protein and energy that birds need in the harsh conditions of winter.
Seeds, Cracked Corn and Nuts
Seed mixes are the basic staples for bird-feeding in the winter. Seeds are rich in fats and protein. Black-oil sunflower seeds appeal to many bird species and should be the major ingredient in your wild bird seed mix. These seeds are easily hulled by most birds, and those birds who have trouble cracking them open will often scour the ground underneath the feeders to catch the pieces dropped by other birds. Bill Thompson, editor of "Bird Watcher's Digest" and author, calls these seeds "the hamburger of the bird world". Safflower seeds and white proso millet also appeal to a wide variety of birds. Smaller birds such as finches enjoy thistle seed.
Cracked corn and peanuts are also important feeding items. Shelled peanuts are high in fat and are a good energy and protein source. Sprinkle peanut-pieces in the brush around your yard and where branches meet the trunks of evergreen trees as well as incorporating them into your seed mix.
The Cornell Ornithology Lab recommends a winter mix of 25 pounds of black-oil sunflower seed, 10 pounds of white proso millet and 10 pounds of cracked corn. Be sure to store your mixes in a waterproof, mouse-proof container. Be wary of commercial bird mixes as they are often filled with cheap filler seeds that are not eaten by wild birds.
Birds that normally avoid feeders, such as robins and thrushes, may be tempted by berries, cherries, raisins, grapes, apples and raisins. If you leave out grapes and raisins, make sure that dogs will not have access to them as they are toxic to dogs.. Make sure to remove any spoiled or moldy fruit as it can make birds sick.
Suet and Peanut Butter
Suet is beef fat. You can find suet bags in feed and grain stores or pet stores or make your own. Get fat from the butcher and put it in an onion bag. Thompson suggests melting suet in the microwave and pouring into ice-cube trays to harden. Drop in seeds, fruit and nuts to make special suet cakes. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recommends a homemade suet formula containing cornmeal, water, brown sugar and melted suet.
Peanut butter is a favorite wintertime treat. Spread it over pine cones or make peanut butter caches in tree holes and on the bark of branches. It provides concentrated energy for birds and is useful for feeding those birds that are wary of feeders.
Meal worms make some people squeamish, but they are a good source of protein and fat. These beetle larvae are a good high-protein replacement for the worms birds enjoy in the warmer months. You can get meal worms from your local pet store Place them in a heavy flat bowl for easy feeding.
Make sure to provide fresh water for your visiting birds. Natural water sources are often frozen in the winter.
Locations for Feeders and Maintenance
Thompson recommends having extra feeders available for the winter to cut down on your refilling chores and accommodate the extra birds who may need wintertime fuel. Sprinkle seeds and nuts in out-of-the-way places on your property for winter birds who will not use a feeder. He suggests that you keep the bird food dry by using tubes and feeders that protect the seed and "dole out" the servings.
Keep the feeders clean by scrubbing them down every two weeks. Remove old shells and any moldy material as it could spread infection and illness. Manually check the feeders to make sure no sharp edges and areas develop that can injure the birds as they are feeding.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Bird Notes: Winter Feeding
Humane Society: Bird Feeding Tips
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: Winter Bird Feeding
Bird Watcher's Digest: Top 10 Foods for Winter Bird Feeding | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35956000 |
Mary Joseph Butler
First Irish Abbess of the Irish Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Grace, at Ypres, Flanders, b. at Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in Dec., 1641; d. at Ypres, 22 Dec., 1723. Sent to be educated under the care of her aunt, Lady Abbess Knatchbull of the English Benedictine Dames at Ghent, she petitioned, when twelve years old, to be received into the order, a request granted two years later. She made her religious profession 4 Nov., 1657 at the English Benedictine convent at Boulogne, at the age of sixteen. In 1665 the mother-house of Ghent made another foundation, at Ypres, with Dame Beaumont as abbess, but as the house did not thrive under her auspices, it was decided, upon her death in 1682, to convert the house at Ypres into a national foundation for the Irish Benedictine nuns of the various houses founded from Ghent. Dame Butler accordingly was sent to Ypres in 1683, and, on the death of the second abbess, in 1686, was elected Abbess of the Irish Dames of Ypres, 29 August. Soon after her election she was called upon to take a leading part in a new Benedictine foundation in Dublin, set on foot by King James II. By letters-patent or charter, which is dated in the sixth year of his reign, and still preserved in the convent of Ypres, King James confers upon this his "first and chief Royal Monastery of Gratia Dei", an annuity of one hundred pounds sterling to be paid forever out of his exchequer, and appoints his "well-beloved Dame Mary Butler " first abbess. Her brother was King James's Chief Cupbearer for Ireland, a title hereditary in the Butler family, as their name implies. Having overcome many difficulties Abbess Butler set out for Dublin in the year 1688, and in passing through London was presented with her nuns in the Benedictine habit to the Queen at Whitehall. Towards the end of the year she arrived in the Irish capital, and took up her abode in a house in Great Ship Street. Here the Divine Office and regular observance were at once begun and a school opened. About thirty young girls of the first families were entrusted to the nuns for their education and no less than eighteen of them expressed a wish to become religious. But the good work was rudely interrupted by the entry of the usurper William's forces into Dublin, after the battle of the Boyne (1 or 11 July, 1690). The convent was sacked by his soldiery, and the nuns forced to seek refuge in a neighbouring house, but the church plate and other treasures were saved by the presence of mind of a lay sister, Placida Holmes, who disguised herself in secular clothes, and mingled with the plunderers. On the closing of the Dublin convent, the Duke of Ormonde assured his cousin, Abbess Butler, of his special protection, should she consent to remain in Ireland, but she decided to return to Ypres, upon which the duke procured for her, from the Prince of Orange, a passport (still preserved at Ypres) permitting her and her nuns to leave the country without molestation.
On her arrival at Ypres she resumed conventual life in extreme poverty with only a few lay sisters to assist her. So great indeed was their destitution that the bishop strongly urged her to sell the house and retire whithersoever she pleased, but she would not abandon the work, and her faith was rewarded, for at length in the year 1700, she had the happiness of professing several new subjects (among them two Irish ladies from the French Court) who assisted her in keeping up the choir and regular observance. She continued to govern her flock with much wisdom and discretion until the year 1723, when she died in the sixty-sixth year of her religious profession, and the thirty-sixth year of her abbatial dignity. King James II, and more especially his Queen, Mary of Modena, were great benefactors and friends of Abbess Butler, and of the Irish convent of Ypres, which she saved from extinction and which has survived ever since. It enjoys the distinction of being the only religious house in all the Low Countries which remained standing during the storms of the French Revolution and of being the only Irish Abbey of the Benedictine Order.
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The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Browse the Catholic Encyclopedia by Topic
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35957000 |
(Or D OMNUS ).
Son of a Roman called Mauricius; he was consecrated Bishop of Rome 2 Nov., 676, to succeed Adeodatus II, after an interval of four months and seventeen days; d. 11 April, 678. Of his life and acts but little is known. The "Liber Pontificalis" informs us that he paved the atrium or quadrangle in front of St. Peter's with great blocks of white marble. He also restored the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way, and repaired the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, or, according to Duchesne's conjecture, the little church on the road to St. Paul's, which marks the spot where Sts. Peter and Paul are said to have parted on their way to martyrdom. During the pontificate of Donus, Reparatus, the Archbishop of Ravenna, returned to the obedience of the Holy See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus who had aimed at making Ravenna autocephalous. In the time of this pope a colony of Nestorian monks was discovered in a Syrian monastery at Rome — the Monasterium Boetianum. The pope is said to have dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city, and to have given over their monastery to Roman monks. After a brief reign of one year, five months, and ten days, Donus died and was buried in St. Peter's. His portrait in mosaic was at one time to be seen in the church of St. Martina in the Forum.
More Catholic Encyclopedia
Browse Encyclopedia by Alphabet
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Browse the Catholic Encyclopedia by Topic
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35958000 |
How do you maintain control when handling pallets?
Ensure that forks are:
- high enough to go into the pallet
- the proper width to provide even distribution of the weight
- all the way under the load
How do you maintain control when lifting, tilting, and stacking a load?
- Lift the load straight until it is clear, then tilt back.
- Watch that the load does not catch on adjacent loads or obstructions.
- Do not raise or lower the forks before you stop the lift truck and set the brakes.
- Ensure that the forks are free of the load before backing up.
How do you maintain control when traveling?
- Tilt loads backwards.
- Travel with forks as low as possible from the floor and tilted back.
- Match speed to driving, load and workplace conditions.
- Obey posted traffic signs.
- Decrease speed at all corners, sound horn and watch the swing of both the rear of the lift truck and the load.
- Watch for pedestrians.
- Avoid sudden stops.
- Travel in reverse when a load blocks your vision and always look in the direction of travel.
- Check for adequate overhead clearance when entering an area or when raising the forks.
- Watch out for the following dangers on the floor or roadway: oil spots, wet spots, loose objects, or holes, rough surfaces, people, and other vehicles.
- Approach at an angle when crossing railroad tracks.
- Maintain a safe working limit from all overhead power lines
How should you steer to maintain control?
- Has the load carried by the front wheels.
- Turn with the rear wheels.
- Do not turn a lift truck steering wheel sharply at fast speeds.
- Do not overload a lift truck. It can cause a loss of steering control.
- Do not add extra weight to a counterweight to improve steering.
How do you maintain control when driving in reverse?
- Face the rear.
- Sound horn before moving.
- Go slowly.
- Stop when vision is limited or blocked. Sound the horn and go slowly.
How do you maintain control when traveling up or downhill?
- Keep the forks pointed downhill without a load.
- Keep the forks pointed uphill with a load.
- Do not turn until on level ground.
How should you park the forklift truck?
- Secure lift truck when left unattended.
- Park in an approved location.
- Set the brakes.
- Lower the forks or load to the floor.
- Neutralize the controls.
- Turn off the motor switch.
- Disconnect battery or go through propane shut-down procedures.
Document confirmed current on October 13, 2006
Document last updated on April 13, 1999
Copyright ©1997-2013 Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35965000 |
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in America. Mile for mile, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2010 there were 4,585 15-20 year old drivers involved in fatal crashes, 30% of which were killed in drunk driving crashes. Alcohol is just one of the many factors that contribute to fatal traffic crashes. In fact, distracted driving is a major contributor to car crashes, especially among young drivers.
As part of our involvement with teen driver safety, in 2011 The Century Council partnered with the Virginia Supreme Court to develop the IKnowEverything teen driver safety resource.Virginia is the only state in the nation that requires a formal ceremony for teens, their parents and a judge before new drivers can be handed a license.
We are expanding the IKnowEverything program to other states across the nation to be used by a broad audience of teen driver safety practictioners.
IKnowEverything includes a facilitator’s guide that pulls together current facts on teen driver safety, tips for parents and teens as they embark on the freedom of driving, a dynamic video on key safe driving messages and general resources for further information. The materials included in the facilitator’s guide are comprehensive and research-driven. The program research included focus groups with Virginia teens, interviews with Virginia judges, online surveys with teens and their parents and collaboration with Virginia judicial educators.
All of the materials, including the video, can be viewed and downloaded from the IKnowEverything website. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35970000 |
Solenoids produce magnetic fields that are relatively intense for
the amount of current they carry. To make a direct comparison,
consider a solenoid with 55 turns per centimeter, a radius of 1.25
cm, and a current of 0.170 A.
(a) Find the magnetic field at the center of the solenoid.
(b) What current must a long, straight wire carry to have the same
magnetic field as that found in part (a)? Let the distance from the
wire be the same as the radius of the solenoid, 1.25 cm.
Not sure how to do this one, i maybe use the turns to find force,
then use F=ILBsin() ??? any help is appreciated | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35979000 |
Gastritis is an inflammation or irritation of the stomach lining and is associated with a variety of conditions. It develops when the stomach's powerful protective layer - the mucous-bicarbonate barrier - is overwhelmed and the stomach lining is exposed to the caustic gastric acids the body uses to break down food.
While gastritis is often caused by a bacterial infection, it can also occur as a result of too much alcohol, long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as aspirin), or even stress. It can be a painful condition that, left untreated, may lead to more serious problems such as blood loss, ulcers, or an increased risk of cancer. In most cases, however, patients will see a rapid improvement with the proper medical care.
Gastritis is most commonly associated with recurrent stomach pain and upset. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, indigestion, bloating, loss of appetite, and a feeling of fullness or burning in the upper abdomen. More serious signs such as vomiting blood and black or bloody stools indicate that your stomach lining may be bleeding and call for immediate medical attention.
Causes and Risk Factors
A number of conditions can lead to gastritis including:
- Bacterial infections such as Helicobacter pylori, E. coli, or Salmonella
- Excessive alcohol consumption or cocaine use
- Regular or prolonged use of pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs
- Major surgery
- Severe injury or burns
- Certain diseases such as pernicious anemia, bile reflux, and autoimmune disorders
Your physician will discuss your medical history and symptoms with you, which is usually enough to identify gastritis. However, additional testing may be necessary to isolate the underlying cause that is triggering gastritis, particularly to determine if an infection is the root problem. Procedures may include:
- Blood test
- Stool culture
- Upper gastrointestinal X-ray
- Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy
- Breath test for H. pylori infection
Reducing the amount of acid in your stomach will help alleviate gastritis and allow the stomach lining to heal. Medications such as over-the-counter antacids, prescription acid blockers, and proton-pump inhibitors can all be effective in lowering stomach acid levels. If an underlying infection is triggering gastritis, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics as well. Treating other illnesses that may be causing your gastritis will generally lead to a reduction in your symptoms. You may also find that avoid certain foods, beverages, or medications (such as aspirin) will ease your condition.
Peptic Ulcer Disease
A peptic ulcer is an open sore on the inner lining of the stomach (gastric ulcer) or upper small intestine/duodenum (duodenal ulcer). It is a common condition that affects one in 10 Americans at some point in their lives. Peptic ulcers develop when the protective barrier of the stomach or intestine breaks down, often due to a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). This breach allows digestive fluids, which contain strong chemicals like hydrochloric acid and an enzyme called pepsin, to damage the sensitive underlying tissues.
Peptic ulcers can lead to serious complications if left untreated, including internal bleeding, perforation (when the ulcer eats a hole through the stomach wall or intestine), and narrowing and obstruction (when the ulcer occurs where the stomach and duodenum meet and blocks food from leaving the stomach).
A burning abdominal pain, located anywhere from the breastbone to the navel, is the most common symptom of peptic ulcers. This pain may last for minutes or for hours, and is usually experienced a few hours after a meal or during the night when the stomach is empty. The pain can usually be calmed through eating or taking an antacid. You may find that the pain comes and goes over the course of several days or weeks.
Other symptoms include bloating or nausea after eating, vomiting, weight loss, and appetite loss. If you experience bloody vomit, vomit that looks like coffee grounds, or black or bloody stools, seek medical treatment immediately as these could signal a serious condition.
Causes and Risk Factors
Long thought to be caused by stress or spicy food, peptic ulcers are most commonly the result of an H. pylori infection; 80-90% of all ulcer cases can be attributed to this bacterium. Long-term use of anti-inflammatory medications also accounts for some ulcer cases. Smoking, alcohol consumption, and stress can all contribute to the development of ulcers and slow healing, although they are unlikely to cause ulcers on their own.
In addition to a medical history and symptom interview, diagnostic tests for peptic ulcer disease might include:
- Upper GI, or gastrointestinal, series (also known as a barium swallow)
- Endoscopy (which will sometimes include a biopsy)
Once an ulcer has been discovered, it is important for your physician to pinpoint its underlying cause in order to determine the best course of treatment. Testing the blood, breath, or biopsied stomach tissue can detect presence of H. pylori
If H. pylori is found to be contributing to your ulcers, your doctor will prescribe a combination of two antibiotics found to be effective in eradicating the organism. It generally takes about two weeks for the antibiotics to get rid of the infection. It is important that you follow dosing instructions precisely in order for the treatment to work.
Medications such as H2 blockers, proton pump inhibitors, and antacids, are another component of treatment. They will help lower the levels of stomach acids and promote healing of the affected area. For those patients who have ulcers without the presence of H. pylori, you doctor will advise you to stop taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and naproxen, which can sometimes cause ulcers with prolonged use. All people will ulcers should consider lifestyle changes that will promote healing, such as quitting smoking, limiting caffeine and alcohol, and avoiding stress.
While most ulcers respond to medication quickly and heal completely, some ulcers resist initial treatment. If your condition fails to heal, your physician may increase your dosage or try new medications. In extreme cases, surgery is sometimes necessary if the ulcers resist aggressive drug treatments.
Helicobacter Pylori (H. Pylori) is a spiral-shaped bacterium found in the stomach and duodenum (the upper small intestine found just under the stomach). It lives in the thick layer of protective mucus that lines the stomach and intestine, weakening this defensive barrier and exposing the sensitive lining below to harsh and corrosive digestive fluids. This damage can lead to gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. In fact, researchers believe that H. Pylori is responsible for the vast majority of peptic ulcers (80% of gastric ulcers and 90% of duodenal ulcers). Research also indicates that the presence of this bacterium leads to a significant increase in the risk of stomach cancer.
H. Pylori is common, appearing in about 50% of people over 50 years of age and 20% of people under 40 in the United States. It is thought that people contract the bacteria through food and drink, although it has been found in the saliva of infected people and may spread through mouth-to-mouth contact (such as kissing).
H. Pylori commonly diagnosed through blood tests, and can also be detected through breath tests. Other diagnostic tools include stool cultures and tissue tests using biopsy samples taken from the affected areas during an endoscopy.
The most effective current treatment for H. Pylori is a triple therapy that combines two antibiotics with either an acid suppressor or a drug that shields the lining of the stomach and intestine. This therapy does require patients to follow a precise dosing schedule with sometimes up to 20 pills per day. However, it has been found to be the most successful at eradicating the infection. Because some strains of H. Pylori are resistant to antibiotics, it is important to test for the bacterium after you have finished your course of treatment to ensure that all traces of it are gone from your system.
Stomach polyps are small growths on the lining of the stomach. They occur infrequently, showing up in less than 1% of patients who undergo an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Because they don't often generate any symptoms, they are usually only discovered during other procedures such as endoscopies. While stomach polyps are generally benign, some types can be a precursor to stomach cancer.
Stomach polyps usually do not present any symptoms, but if they grow quite large they may cause pain, bleeding, nausea, or vomiting. The polyps may also develop ulcers on their surfaces or block the opening between the stomach and small duodenum.
Causes and Risk Factors
Gastritis, and the damage it can cause to the stomach lining, may contribute to the development of some types of stomach polyps. Another factor may be an autoimmune condition that leads to vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia, which is found in many patients with stomach polyps. Age certainly plays a role, as most cases are found in people over 60 years old.
Because people with stomach polyps rarely present symptoms, they are most often discovered during other procedures, such as upper GI endoscopies or x-rays.
Polyps are usually easy to treat: they are removed and biopsied during an endoscopy with no further treatment necessary most of the time. However, if gastritis is a contributing factor to your polyps, your doctor will determine whether H. Pylori, a bacterium that commonly causes gastritis, is present. If so, you should also undergo antibiotic treatment to eradicate the infection and reduce the chance of developing more polyps in the future.
Stomach (or gastric) cancer is a disease in which malignant cells or tumors develop in the stomach. The stomach is a core component of the digestive system, the place where foods are broken down, nutrients are processed, and waste products are passed on to be eliminated from the body. The stomach wall consists of five layers; most tumors begin in the innermost layer and spread to the outer strata as they grow. Researchers also believe that stomach cancers develop slowly over the course of several years, beginning as precancerous changes to the lining of the stomach that show few initial symptoms.
Any form of cancer is a serious disease, and stomach cancer is no different. Although rates of stomach cancer have declined significantly in the United States, over 21,000 Americans will be diagnosed with this disease in 2007, according to the American Cancer Society. Recovery from stomach cancer is certainly possible, and the odds of that increase the earlier the cancer is detected. Early detection is also important to halt stomach cancer from metastasizing, or spreading to nearby organs such as the liver or to the lymph system.
Stomach cancer may cause symptoms such as indigestion, abdominal discomfort, bloating, nausea, weight loss, diminished appetite, dysphagia, and jaundice. Because it causes microscopic internal bleeding, signs might also include black or bloody stools as well as the vomiting of blood. People with stomach cancer may also feel fatigued from anemia caused by the internal bleeding.
These symptoms are also caused by other diseases, so it is important to work with your physician to determine their cause. If you have any of the risk factors listed below and your symptoms are persistent, your doctor will want to check for stomach cancer as a possibility. Any sign of internal bleeding should receive immediate medical attention.
Causes and Risk Factors
An exact cause of stomach cancer is not known. However, there are several risk factors that been linked to increased rates of gastric cancer including:
- Age (two-thirds of people diagnosed with stomach cancer are over age 65)
- Dietary choices such as eating large amounts of red meat and smoked & salted foods or not eating enough fruits, vegetables, and fiber
- Alcohol and tobacco use
- Prior stomach surgery
- Helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach (as sometimes seen with gastritis or peptic ulcers)
- A family history of stomach or related cancers
- A history of stomach polyps
- Type A blood
- Gender (men are twice as likely to develop stomach cancer)
- Pernicious anemia
After taking a complete medical history and discussing your symptoms, your physician may order the following tests:
- Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy
- Upper gastrointestinal x-ray series (sometimes known as a barium swallow)
- Blood chemistry tests and blood counts
- Fecal occult blood test (to test the stool for microscopic amounts of blood)
Once a stomach cancer diagnosis has been established, further tests may be required in order to determine the extent of the cancer including diagnostics such as endoscopy ultrasounds, computerized tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and chest x-rays.
Treatment protocols for stomach cancer will depend on the stage of the cancer and whether or not the tumors have metastasized, or spread to other parts of the body. Standard options include:
- Surgery (which may involve removing part or all of the stomach)
- Chemotherapy (cancer-fighting drugs)
- Radiation (high-energy rays that kill or shrink cancer cells)
Chemoradiation, which combines chemotherapy and radiation to increase the effectiveness of both treatments, may also be a treatment option. Drug therapy has been approved by the FDA for certain forms of stomach cancer and may be an alternative depending on the type of tumor you have.
For patients with advanced stage gastric cancer, clinical trials offer experimental treatments such as new surgical interventions, new drugs, and gene therapy. While these novel treatments are not guaranteed to be successful, they are monitored by the FDA and are based on some evidence that the new therapy may prove useful.
The Stomach. We offer treatments for patients residing in Chicago (Lincoln Park, Lake View, Bucktown, West Town, Logan Square, Hermosa, Belmont Cragin, Belmont Gardens, Avondale, North Center, Irving Park, Portage Park, Albany Park Lincoln Square, Near West Side, East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Downtown) and Chicago Suburbs (Oak Park, Cicero, Harwood Heights, Norridge, Elmwood Park, River Grove, River Forest, Berwy, Skokie, Morton Grove, Park Ridge, Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Maywood, Stone Park Schiller Park). | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35982000 |
Vascular Anomalies Surgery (Abnormalities Involving Blood Vessels)
Surgical Repair of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
Surgical Repair of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
For children born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), there are two known treatment options:
- A heart transplant.
- A series of three surgeries that takes place over the first year of the child's life.
In the three surgeries (called the Norwood, Glenn, and Fontan procedures), the heart is reconstructed to compensate for the otherwise-fatal defects.
In 1985, Children's became one of a handful of pediatric hospitals nationwide to pioneer the three-part surgical treatment for HLHS. Today, Children's has performed more of the three-stage surgeries than any other health care organization in Minnesota, with a 92% survival rate on the three-part surgeries performed between 2003-2007.
Review a study on outcomes of patients with HLHS at Children's (PDF).
For detailed information on how HLHS is diagnosed and treated, review this fact sheet.
For a consultation with a pediatric cardiologist or pediatric cardiac surgeon about a patient with HLHS, call Children's Heart Clinic at 1-800-938-0301
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Fact Sheet
What is hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS)?
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a complex and rare heart condition. Children with HLHS have a combination of related heart problems
A healthy heart is a strong, muscular pump that pushes blood through the circulatory system to carry oxygen and nutrients to the body. The heart has four chambers -- two on the right and two on the left. Blood is pumped through these chambers and regulated by valves that open and close like tiny doors, so that blood can move in only one direction.
After its trip through the body to deliver oxygen, blood is a blue color because it's no longer oxygen-rich. The blue blood returns to the heart through the right chambers and is pumped through the pulmonary artery into the lungs. In the lungs, it picks up more oxygen and becomes bright red. It then goes back through the pulmonary vein to the left chambers and is pumped through the aorta and out into the body again.
If your baby is born with HLHS, the chambers and arteries on the left side of the heart are small and underdeveloped with valves that don't work properly. Since the left side can't pump effectively, the right side of the heart must take on double the work and pump to both the lungs and the rest of the body.
A newborn baby with HLHS may appear to be well during the first hours or even days of life. However, a day or two after birth, the natural openings between the right and left sides of the heart close. That is normal, but in a baby with HLHS, it can be fatal because it leaves the overworked right side of the heart no way to pump blood to the body.
What causes HLHS?
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome occurs during the first eight weeks of fetal growth when the baby's heart is developing. The cause is unknown. However, if your family has one child with HLHS, the risk of having another with the same condition is higher than the recurrence rate for other congenital heart defects. This may mean genetics play a role. It's possible for a fetus to be diagnosed with HLHS through an ultrasound exam as early as the first trimester.
HLHS comprises 4-8% of all congenital heart defects. It occurs in up to four out of every 10,000 live births. HLHS appears slightly more often in boys than in girls. Beyond family history, there are no clear risk factors for it, and no known way to prevent it.
What are the signs and symptoms?
Usually, babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome are critically ill right away. Signs and symptoms vary, but may commonly include:
- Cyanosis: A blue (or gray) tone to the skin, lips, or nails
- Pale, cool or clammy skin
- Difficulty breathing
- Accelerated heart rate
- Fainting or loss of consciousness
- Poor feeding
- Cold hands and feet
If the natural connections between the heart's left and right sides are allowed to close naturally a day or two after birth, the child may go into shock. Symptoms of shock include:
- Dilated pupils; eyes that seem to stare blankly
- Slow and shallow (or very rapid) breathing
- A weak and accelerated pulse
- Pale, cool, and clammy skin
A baby in shock may be either conscious or unconscious. If you suspect your baby is in shock, dial 911 right away.
How is it diagnosed?
A clear diagnosis is the first step to treatment. A pediatric cardiologist (a children's heart doctor) can use several tests to confirm your child's diagnosis. These tests may include:
- Chest X-ray: A beam of electromagnetic energy creates images on film that show the inside structures of your baby's body.
- Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): This test produces a three-dimensional image of the heart so you're your child's doctors can examine blood flow and functioning of the heart as it is working.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG): This test, conducted by attaching patches with wires (electrodes) to your baby's skin, records the heart's electrical activity. It will show if there are abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias or dysrhythmias) and/or stress on the heart muscle.
- Echocardiogram (Echo): This test uses sound waves to make a moving image of the heart on a video screen. It is similar to an ultrasound, If your baby has HLHS, the echocardiogram may show a smaller than normal left ventricle and aorta, as well as a reversed blood flow. The echo can also identify any related heart defects.
- Cardiac catheterization: During this procedure, your doctor inserts a thin flexible tube (a catheter) into a blood vessel in the groin, then guides it up to the inside of the heart. A dye injected through the catheter makes the heart structures visible on x-ray pictures. The catheter also measures blood pressure and oxygen levels.
How is it treated?
Due to the advances in medical science in recent years, babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome today have a much improved outlook.
Once diagnosed, your child's specific treatment may vary, depending on his or her individual needs. Your child will probably be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) or special care nursery and may be placed on oxygen or a ventilator to help with breathing. Intravenous (IV) medications may be given to assist heart and lung function and stop the two sides of the heart from closing naturally. Your baby's doctor may also recommend an atrial septostomy, which is a procedure to create a helpful opening between the heart's upper chambers.
For babies born with HLHS, there are two treatment options: a heart transplant, or far more commonly, a series of surgeries to reconstruct the heart to compensate for the otherwise-fatal defects. The procedures, which Children's helped pioneer, are:
- A Norwood operation: Performed within two weeks of birth, this surgery reconstructs and reconnects the aorta and the lower right chamber of the heart. Your baby's skin will still have a blue tone, as oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood continue to mix in the heart.
- A bi-directional Glenn or hemi-Fontan: Performed between four to six months of age, this surgery reduces the burden on the heart's right chamber. After the surgery, blood with more healthy oxygen will be pumped to organs and tissues throughout the body.
- The Fontan procedure: Performed between 18 months and three years of age, this surgery stops oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood from mixing in the heart. After the surgery, your child's skin will no longer look blue.
The second surgical option is a complete heart transplant. Babies with HLHS may need special medications while waiting for a donor heart to become available.
After surgery or a transplant, your baby will need lifelong follow-up care with a heart doctor who specializes in congenital heart disease. Some medication may be necessary to regulate heart function. If your baby receives a heart transplant, he or she will need to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his or her life to combat rejection of the new heart.
Later in life, children who have had either treatment for hypoplastic left heart syndrome sometimes tire easily from exercise, experience heart rhythm abnormalities or blood clots, or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Your child's cardiologist may also recommend that your child limit physical activity and take antibiotics before dental procedures to prevent infections.
About treatment for hypoplastic left heart syndrome at Children's
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is treated through Children's Cardiovascular program one of the largest and oldest pediatric cardiovascular programs in the region. Team members consistently achieve treatment results that are among the best in the nation. Each year, care is provided for thousands of the region¹s sickest children with heart conditions, including fetuses, newborns, infants, children, adolescents, and adult, long-term patients with pediatric cardiovascular conditions.
For more information, please call Children's Heart Clinic at 1-800-938-0301.
(From Pritchet & Hull Assoc., Inc.)
Heart with hypoplastic left heart syndrome
(From Pritchet & Hull Assoc., Inc.) | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-35984000 |
Safety Issues for Oxygen Therapy
- Oxygen on its own will not explode, but it will feed a flame. Therefore, it is important that extra care is taken when using and storing oxygen in the home, and when using portable oxygen outside.
- No oil or grease should be applied to any part of the oxygen equipment.
- No oil–based moisturisers should be used on the skin of the nose or face, such as petroleum jelly; instead a water-based product should be used, such as aqueous cream.
- There should be no smoking around oxygen by anyone as clothing and hair can easily be ignited.
- Oxygen should be stored in a well–ventilated room, away from open or gas fires, water heaters or any other source of heat or flame.
- Oxygen cylinders should be stored upright and if possible in stands (available through your Dolby service engineer). Cylinders are under high pressure and a crack in them can be dangerous.
- When travelling with an oxygen cylinder in your car it should be safely secured in an upright position.
- If you are intending to travel on public transport (e.g. buses, taxis, aeroplanes or ferries) with your oxygen you must check their regulations before travelling as different transport methods have different regulations.
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Prepare and protect your pets
Published On: Oct 27 2011 03:19:38 PM CDT Updated On: May 26 2009 11:40:18 AM CDT
The following information was provided by the Houston SPCA and the Houston Humane Society.
- Identification: Make sure your pet wears a collar and I.D. tag with up-to-date information.
- Vaccinations: All pets should be current on their shots. Keep a copy of the vaccination records in a sealed/waterproof plastic bag.
- Sleeping Quarters: Help your animals avoid shattering glass and falling objects. Don't place a pet's bed below windows or shelving.
- Have Crate Ready: Every animal in your house should have a crate -- a molded plastic carrying kennel. Familiarize your pet with the crate before disaster strikes.
- Check The Yard Make sure all fencing is secure and all holes and potential escape routes blocked.
- Plan Ahead: Identify animal shelters (in case your pet becomes lost), local boarding facilities, veterinarians, motels, and friends or relatives that may temporarily house your pet after a disaster.
- Evacuate: If you evacuate, take your pet.
Disaster Preparedness Checklist:
(Use this as a guide for building your own disaster preparedness kit for your pets.)
- Molded plastic pet carrier
- Copy of your pet's rabies and vaccination records sealed in a plastic bag
- Pet first aid book and kit
- Two-week supply of pet food
- Three-day supply of bottled water
- One-month supply of your pet's regular medications
- Non-spill food and water bowls
- Cat litter
- Cat litter pan
- Plastic bags (for pet waste disposal)
- Sheets (one to cover each pet carrier)
- Non-electric can opener
- Paper Towels | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36017000 |
5 things about Friday's space events
NASA says objects traveling in different directions
At least 1,000 people have been injured in Russia as the result of a meteor exploding in the air. The energy of the detonation appears to be equivalent to about 300 kilotons of TNT, said Margaret Campbell-Brown of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Western Ontario.
Meanwhile, an asteroid approached Earth but did not hit it, coming closest at about 2:25 p.m. ET.
You probably have some questions about both of those events, so here's a brief overview:
1. Are these events connected?
The meteor in Russia and the asteroid that passed by on Friday afternoon are "completely unrelated," according to NASA. The trajectory of the meteor differs substantially from that of asteroid 2012 DA14, NASA said. Estimates on the meteor's size are preliminary, but it appeared to be about one-third the size of 2012 DA14.
The term "asteroid" can also be used to describe the rock that exploded over Russia, according to the European Space Agency and NASA, although it was a relatively small one.
2. What's the difference between an asteroid and a meteorite and other space rocks?
According to NASA, here's how you tell what kind of object is falling from the sky:
Asteroids are relatively small, inactive rocky bodies that orbit the sun.
Comets are also relatively small and have ice on them that can vaporize in sunlight. This process forms an atmosphere and dust and gas; you might also see a "tail' of dust or gas.
Meteoroids are small particles from comets or asteroids, orbiting the sun.
Meteors are meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere and vaporize, also known as shooting stars.
Meteorites are meteoroids that actually land on the Earth's surface. The pieces of the meteor that exploded in Russia are meteorites.
Generally meteorites are smaller than grains of sand and vaporize on passage through the atmosphere. But there are also larger meteorites.
Comets and asteroids are left over from when the solar system formed. There used to be more of them, but over time they've collided to form major planets, or they've got booted from the inner solar system to the Oort cloud or have been ejected from the solar system entirely.
3. Why didn't we see the Russian meteor coming?
Only one space rock that impacted the planet has ever been observed before it hit the Earth, Campbell-Brown said.
That's because objects that do hit the Earth tend to be smaller, and it's too hard to see them. The one sighting before impact happened in 2008, a day before a meteor exploded over Sudan.
Current estimates suggest that the Russian meteor was about 15 meters (49 feet) across, which is too small for telescopic surveys.
"Unfortunately the objects of this size have to be very close to Earth for us to be able to see them at all," Campbell-Brown said.
The asteroid that approached Earth today, which NASA has been tracking, is about 45 meters long, which is relatively small for an asteroid.
4. How does this compare to other Earth impacts?
The Earth picks up tons of meteoric debris every day, but big pieces are fairly uncommon, said David Dundee, astronomer at Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.
An object the size of the Russian meteor comes in about once every 50 years, but none has been recorded since 1908, when an asteroid exploded and leveled trees over an area of 820 square miles - about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island - in Tunguska, Russia.
"This is the largest event that we know of that's happened since Tunguska," Campbell-Brown said.
The Tunguska event did not leave a crater. If there are craters as a result of Friday's meteor, they would be very small, resulting from the debris from the midair explosion.
"It's unfortunate that this occurred over a populated area," Campbell-Brown said. Over a desert or ocean, it would have done very little damage.
This is much smaller than the event thought to have wiped out the dinosaur population, she said.
The meteor was moving through space at about 33,000 miles per hour. When it suddenly decelerated above Russia, the energy was converted into heat and sound, which resulted in a shock wave of energy and a sonic boom, Dundee said.
About three years ago, a woman in Cartersville, Georgia, discovered a baseball-sized meteorite in her home, which had flown straight through the roof. It is now at the Tellus Museum, Dundee said.
5. Why shouldn't you touch a meteorite?
As a meteor comes through the atmosphere, it gets very hot, but this thin hot layer quickly cools off. When you find it on the ground, a meteorite is generally acclimated to ambient temperature.
"We advise people not to touch things with their hands because we like to look for trace elements in the meteorites, and if you touch it in your hand, you've contaminated it," Campbell-Brown said.
Meteorites are probably not more radioactive than Earth rocks, and the minerals inside aren't toxic, she said. The biggest reason to not touch them is to preserve the scientific status.
Copyright 2013 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36018000 |
is a project to create a GPL
that was started by Richard Stallman
, the creator of EMACS
. The GNU project is now overseen by the Free Software Foundation
, which Richard Stallman
GNU is a recursive acronym, and it stands for GNU's Not Unix. This, no doubt, is because of Richard Stallman's grounding in Lisp.
The GNU Project has created a great many software packages, including gcc, gdb, sed, glibc, make, awk, find, and a good deal more besides. These packages make up a major portion of every Linux distribution.
The development of the GNU operating system, the Hurd, continues. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36020000 |
30 January 2012
Sister Cincy Joseph, MSJ, a Medical Sister of St. Joseph, visits with Daisy Choorakattu, a cancer patient in the pain and palliative care center at St. George’s Hospital. Daisy and her family have been forced to sell their home to pay for her treatment, a last resort option for Kerala’s poor. (photo: Peter Lemieux)
Countless cancer patients around the world seek solace and intercession from a special patron, the seventh-century abbess St. Aldegonde (sometimes called Aldegunais), whose feast is 30 January. Aldegonde herself reportedly died from cancer at the age of 54.
Today, those battling this disease find a more earthly kind of help from modern-day religious, like the Medical Sisters of St. Joseph working in Kerala. These sisters work to provide care and comfort, often under difficult circumstances. We told their story in the September 2011 issue of ONE:
With limited resources, the sisters do what they can. These days, the hospital mostly cares for terminally ill cancer patients.
Sister Cincy enters one such patient’s room. She walks to the bed and takes the woman’s hand, checking her vitals. The woman, Daisy John, hardly notices. She is in her final hours. Around the bed stand Mr. John, the couple’s son and extended family members. The room is itself spartan: no sophisticated medical equipment, just an assortment of basic medical supplies. Sister Cincy visits with the family briefly and then exits the room.
“After their treatment elsewhere — chemotherapy and radiation — they suffer a great deal of pain,” Sister Cincy explains. “We give them free accommodations and medication. We try to help relieve their suffering.”
You can read more at this link. And visit this page to learn some of the ways you can help support the work of the church in India.
Tags: India Sisters Poor/Poverty
Leave a comment | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36023000 |
George Barton Simpson
compiled by Columbian staff in 1989
George Barton Simpson, who opened a law office in Vancouver in 1907 and went on to become chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, was a man who never could seem to do enough for his community.
Simpson's list of achievements went far beyond the legal field. During his almost half-century of residency here, he was at various times a founder of the local Boy Scout movement, founder and president of the Clark county golf and Country Club, first chairman of the Clark County Game Commission and a leader in numerous other civic and service organizations.
Because of his long work with the Boy Scouts, Simpson was awarded the Silver Beaver, Scouting's highest honor. Another indication of his interest in youth was the fact as juvenile court judge he helped reduce the rate of juvenile appearances in court from 12 percent in 1932 percent to 3.2 percent in 1936.
Simpson also is credited with having initiated the local trout hatchery.
Born Aug. 12, 1881, in Pomeroy, Wash., Simpson came to Vancouver in 1907 right after graduation from the Willamette University School of Law. He was elected Vancouver City attorney in 1915 and in three years in that position never lost a case.
In 1920, Simpson became a judge of the Superior Court and held this position until 1937 when he was appointed to the state Supreme Court. He was elected in 1938 and again in 1944 and served two terms as chief justice.
In the election of 1950, Simpson finally was defeated for re-election. He returned to Vancouver, where he practiced law with his son Donald, until his death in June of 1954 at age 72. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36036000 |
Most children associate sand with fun with on the beach or happy times in the sandpit. But for Basanta, age 12, and his younger brother Karma, sand is part of a gruelling day’s work.
Despite his young age, Basanta is a sand miner - which means he spends his days shovelling and filtering sand so it can be used for building materials. It’s dusty, sweaty, back-breaking work – and can be extremely dangerous too. Recently, a mother and child were killed when a makeshift mine collapsed.
Basanta and his brother are just two of the estimated 215 million children around the world who have to work to make ends meet. Without the extra cash he brings in, his family simply could not afford to eat. Unfortunately, they still don’t have enough money to pay for Basanta to go to school.
But thanks to the help of the Child Welfare Scheme, which is funded by Comic Relief, things are starting to change for Basanta. The project has provided him and his brother with a dedicated social worker who makes sure they know how to keep safe at work. She’s also supporting their mother to cut down on the children’s working hours, so they can get a vital education as well as having time out just to play. Basanta is now working less and studying more, giving him the chance to turn his life around so he can look forward to a much brighter and more secure future.
“Before, I used to work all day; now I have time to rest and learn.” | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36039000 |
From Physics Research Archive - Page 4
The Physics Classroom: Total Internal Reflection - Sep 16, 2010
The optical fiber in the photo above doesn't just guide the beam--the fiber produces the beam. Instead of a tube of helium and neon gas, or a piece of ruby, the "active medium" of this laser is added to the glass in the fiber. Since the mirrors are just the polished ends of the fiber, there is nothing to go out of alignment, and maintenance is easy.
Network Theory: A Key to Unraveling How Nature Works - Sep 1, 2010
You are looking at a network diagram that shows the interconnectedness of the world economy. To learn more about this network, visit Mapping the World Economy.
Making a supersonic jet in your kitchen - Aug 16, 2010
What exactly happens when an object makes a splash in water? The disk shown above was pulled into water in a reproducible way to investigate the splash.
The Real Sea Monsters: On the Hunt for Rogue Waves - Aug 1, 2010
This "rogue wave" broke over the deck of an oil tanker, and was much taller than the other waves on the ocean at the time. See Freak Waves, Rogue Waves for graphs of rogue waves building up in the ocean, and for the measurement of one that struck an oil platform in the North Sea.
From Soap Bubbles to Technology - Jul 16, 2010
The soap film you see here, made in between two metal rings, is called a catenoid, and it uses the minimum area to enclose a given volume. Click on the image to see another example of a "minimal surface" soap film.
About Dust - Jul 1, 2010
This satellite image shows a recent dust storm in China that was so large it spread out to neighboring countries. For more on this storm, see this Time magazine article and also About Dust.
Shock Diamonds and Mach Disks - Jun 16, 2010
When the speed of the gases in a jet or rocket exhaust exceeds the speed of sound, a dazzling pattern results called "shock diamonds" or "Mach disks," as shown in this photo of the SR-71 Blackbird. The diamonds are created by crisscrossing shock waves in the exhaust.
image credit: NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI), R. Ciardullo (Penn State), and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI); image source; larger image
Stellar Evolution - Jun 1, 2010
When the Sun reaches the end of its life, its outer layers will drift into space, an intricate cloud illuminated by its hot, dense core, as in this false-color image of a planetary nebula and white dwarf. For more details, see this page on the death of solar-mass stars.
Perspectives on Plasmas - May 16, 2010
This is a ball of plasma, created by discharging electricity into a solution. See the image source for more on how the image was made.
Properties of Volcanic Ash - May 1, 2010
Why were so many European airports closed due to the volcano? The image above of one volcanic ash particle begins to tell us why: the extremely small particles, with their many voids, can travel great distances after eruption. Once inside a jet engine, they melt and then re-solidify. Read Properties of Volcanic Ash for more details. You can learn about the specific dangers of flying through volcanic ash here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36043000 |
You might guess that the carbon footprint from a carton of orange juice is largely due to packaging, transportation and disposal, but the findings from a recent PepsiCo study may surprise you. When the entire life cycle of orange juice was included, growing the oranges turned out to contribute the most to the carbon footprint—mainly due to the production and application of nitrogen based fertilizers.
It's important for designers to recognize the impact made in every phase of a product's life cycle. In this case, shifting agricultural practices may result in the most significant emission reductions, but designers are far from powerless to make improvements. The same study states that packaging and distribution represented 37% of the carbon footprint. With that in mind, how could a designer accurately test new scenarios to create an orange juice distribution strategy that has fewer impacts on the environment? How would he or she know if a plastic bottle is better than a gable-top carton or not? How do concentrated juice products size up?
These types of questions are challenging because of the complexity of real world factors; the formulation of appropriate answers requires powerful analyses, databases and tools. Fortunately, within the last year, applying life cycle thinking has come within the reach of any designer. We now have the tools to help us assess the life cycle environmental impacts of our designs before they are produced and to improve upon products that already exist. This gives us insight into the orange juice delivery problem, at least for a start.
Life Cycle Assessment
In brief, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a way to quantify the human and environmental impacts of products from raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use, maintenance, recycling and end-of-life. Every stage in the product's life cycle has potential impacts on the environment; LCA gives designers the ability to make informed decisions to reduce those impacts. For an in-depth background on LCA, the United Nations Environment Program's Life Cycle Initiative provides a training kit.
As LCA continues to evolve, so too do its key issues. To gain a better understanding of these, I interviewed consultants in the life cycle field and asked them to share stories from their work. The resulting case studies follow; after that, I'll introduce several tools designers can use to systematically assess the environmental impacts of their products.
An example of Timberland's Green Index label. Image: The Lazy Environmentalist.
Timberland's Green Index
Tom Gloria of Industrial Ecology Consultants has worked with Timberland to determine the impacts of footwear production and track improvements for the company. They now maintain a Green Index rating system for their footwear products—a 'nutritional label' to quantify the impacts of every pair of shoes they sell.
Each shoe is rated from best to worst in three environmental areas: climate impact, chemical use and resource consumption. After setting a baseline Green Index score, Timberland set targets for reductions in energy use, waste generation and solvent use. They have goals to increase the use of organic cotton, renewable materials, recycled content and improve the environmental performance of their factories.
Gloria says that most consumers still evaluate a companies' products by performance, function and price, but a growing number of customers want to know a company is making progress in environmental areas. The Green Index labeling can help show this progress.
Well before Timberland's customers started to see the Green Index rating system and corporate-wide, quarterly key performance indicators, there were internal discussions about the most significant environmental aspects as a company. Questions were raised about the data sources in LCA tools. Was the data representative of the factories that Timberland sourced material from?
After investigating, Timberland decided to use average industry data to calculate the climate impact of raw material production and factory-specific data on energy use that accounts for the power delivered from the regional electricity grid. According to Gloria, using industry averages in LCA as a proxy definitely has its benefits due to the relatively low costs of obtaining the data. Yet, when it comes to making some large capital expenditures to change materials, processes or suppliers, the argument is much better if you've got the factory-specific data to back it up.
Seventh Generation detergent is specially formulated for equal effectiveness in both cold and hot water washing.
Tim Greiner of Pure Strategies talked about his work on detergents with Seventh Generation, specifically addressing the company's initiative to advocate greener products and behaviors.
Greiner looked closely at the life cycle impacts of Seventh Generation's detergent. He had greenhouse gas factors for nearly all of the product formula and transport stages. Data had to be calculated for the use and disposal phases, including: washing machine use, hot water heating, drying and treatment of the waste water generated by washing.
Greiner found that the consumer use phase—washing machine use, heating hot water and drying the load—used the most energy and had the highest greenhouse gas impact—roughly 95% of the greenhouse gas emissions generated for an average load of laundry in the US. With these findings and the strong communication channels Seventh Generation had with their customers, it became clear that changing customer behavior was a top priority, as the detergent is specially formulated to have the same cleaning effectiveness in both hot and cold water cycles.
Greiner also touched on his experiences with data sources in LCA tools. To help determine data quality requirements for materials, he often considers the percentage of a total product's weight. For example, a material that makes up 40% versus 1% of a product's weight may need greater attention. The company could then take this information to its suppliers to determine if the data was representative of their operations or if there were marked differences.
He pointed out that there many limitations to gathering better data, and the further a company goes up its supply chain, the less leverage it has. For commodity materials such as detergent surfactants, a purchaser generally only knows the region, and in some cases may not even know that. Regional specificity and thresholds for emissions and water use from production processes are not usually available. When a number of companies are interested in the attributes of a specific commodity material-palm oil, for instance—Greiner believes industry standards can play a role, much like we buy 'green' power. When a number of companies collaborate on industry standards, the benefits become more compelling for suppliers.
Products from Biomass-based crops
Melissa Hamilton of EarthShift, an organization focused on LCA capacity building within corporations, talked about the different methodologies used in LCA and results that often surprise clients.
According to Hamilton, companies that create products from biomass-based crops often think their products are naturally better than the petrochemical-based alternatives, but discover the impacts from intensive land use, fertilizer use and pesticide application are much higher than expected. This depends on the resources used in growing those plants, and LCA can help identify critical areas to focus on during the production of these products.
She also points out that there is variability produced by the impact methodologies within LCA. These are consensus-based approaches decided upon by life cycle practitioners and scientists that convert emissions into human and environmental impacts. There are many to choose from, but each yields different results depending on value choices and the emissions measured. It is important for companies to select one that is relevant for the product studied, and to compare results across methods. Treatment of biomass-based crops might produce either favorable or unfavorable results for a product depending on the selected methodology, for example.
The control of this variability grows with the sophistication of the LCA tool. In more advanced systems, the user may specify how emissions are translated into impacts.
Summary of the Uses of LCA
To summarize, key uses of LCA by practitioners include determining and monitoring the most significant environmental aspects; establishing a baseline for comparison, labeling impacts and setting corporate goals; and considering all life cycle impacts, including changing customer behavior in the use phase. These same practitioners are making important contributions to LCA by seeking industry standards to create more compelling benefits for suppliers to change practices; mastering the selection of appropriate data sources (industry-averages versus factory-specific); and becoming aware of the need for and developing transparent methodology.
In a design studio I taught at Pratt Institute last fall, I used one of the new LCA tools called Sustainable Minds. With no download needed, the students signed in to the web-based tool and quickly got into testing their design concepts.
Projects ranged from a vertical grow-light system for plants to a vermicomposting bin. After establishing which elements each product should be evaluated and compared by (e.g., providing light for indoor plants or the material for containment of food scraps), users also indicate how long this service will be delivered. Next, data pertaining to material selection, production methods, transport distances and end-of-life assumptions are entered. Sustainable Minds makes it easy to upload a bill of materials from AutoDesk's Inventor (as well as other 3D modeling programs), so no manual entry is necessary for the material selection stage.
Once the life cycle stages are filled in, the results are broken down in easy-to-read to charts, giving a quick idea about where the impacts are in the product life cycle. Add as many concepts as you want and compare any two of them side by side. Sustainable Minds also has an expansive section of the website dedicated to helping designers understand eco-design strategies that may help reduce the impacts revealed by the software.
Sustainable Minds screenshot
In Sustainable Minds, the impact methodology is limited to one approach, in which all the environmental impacts are rolled into a single number, or single-indicator. This simplifies the results and provides clear information to act on, which is very handy for LCA beginners or students. More detail on this impact method can be found at Sustainable Minds.
What might one learn from Sustainable Minds? In the simple case of the vermicomposting bin, for instance, my student had to make an argument for the extra materials and processes that went into her more user-friendly, visually pleasing design. Do-it-yourself worm bins simply use a plastic bin with a lid and some holes cut out. She designed her bin to be left out in the kitchen instead of tucked away in a closet. But would her worm bin last longer before being tossed out? Though her design was relatively worse for the environment, she used Sustainable Minds to show when things would tip in her favor due to a long-lasting product that people wanted to keep.
Greenfly is another web-based tool with a user-friendly interface that allows one to specify key attributes for life stages. Scenarios are viewed individually and charts are broken down into results for a product's carbon footprint, energy demand, water use and solid waste generation, but there is no way to compare two scenarios side-by-side to view relative differences.
Greenfly includes a set of design guidelines that prompt users to think about goals related to: dematerialization, low impact material selection, cleaner production, optimized distribution, design for durability, use phase impact reduction, and design for waste avoidance and resource recovery.
Next, Solidworks has taken another direction by including an add-on called SustainabilityXpress directly in the modeling environment. In this version individual parts are assessed with the environmental impacts shown right within the 'impact factor dashboard'.
A more advanced version, Solidworks Sustainability, is available for purchase. It allows users to assess entire assemblies, enter data on the use phase and transport modes, and determine components with the highest impacts from the bill of materials. Both versions allow users to set baselines for comparison and generate reports in a couple key impact areas.
The products mentioned above are relatively new when compared to SimaPro from Pré Consultants and GaBi from PE International. These sophisticated software products have been around for many years, and are widely used by life cycle assessment professionals. The user interface for both of these products is challenging and there is a steeper learning curve than Sustainable Minds and the Solidworks tools. As I learned how to use these two programs—both equally challenging—it became clear that many features are for people that want to go deeper into a product's life cycle.
GaBi requires users to build a 'process-tree' to connect materials, energy and processes to parts. After building the product system in GaBi, users can check if inputs and outputs match up for the assemblies. In SimaPro, after data for the product system is entered in, users can switch to a flow chart view to easily see the relative impacts from materials and processes. Both tools can display inputs/outputs and impacts in what appears to be every conceivable format. Training and/or tutorials are available for GaBi through PE International and SimaPro through EarthShift.
Both packages utilize data sets made up of industry averages for thousands of processes; industry-specific and custom data sets are also available. SimaPro pulls information from numerous external sources, while GaBi builds datasets from internal client sources as well—PE International is also an LCA consultancy. Pricing for both vary based on the customer's individual selection of data sets.
SimaPro and GaBi allow users to select from a number of impact methodologies. The single-indicator systems, like the one used in Sustainable Minds, can also be utilized here, along with common individual impact categories such as global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, etc.
The Bottom Line on LCA Tools
Sustainable Minds works well for students, design firms and manufacturers that need to compare a range of product systems in any design stage, and for benchmarking existing product systems. At $10 per month for students and $58 per month for professionals, plus a free 30-day trial, it's also highly accessible. Greenfly remains free, though there are plans to move to subscription-based licensing. However, its interface doesn't presently allow a comparison of two scenarios side-by-side. For schools or companies with a Solidworks license, the advanced version, which allows users to specify projections for the use phase, is more useful than the Xpress version. Contact your local reseller for a price.
Both GaBi and SimaPro are ideal for companies or graduate students requiring access to larger databases of materials and processes, different impact methodologies, and increased options to view impact results. Pricing greatly depends on the size of the databases included, so it's best to check the company's website. Temporary licenses are available and educational versions are discounted (or free in the case of GaBi).
Whatever your preference, all of these tools offer greater access to information at critical points in the design process. They empower designers to make meaningful changes that reduce the impacts of products on humans and our environment, at all scales. This helps bring LCA to the fore of the discipline, promoting its adoption as an important practice in the design process.
Lloyd Hicks is the founder of New Leaf Strategic Consulting. He teaches part-time at The New School and Pratt Institute. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36057000 |
Q A conducting rod of length l moves on two horizontal frictionless rails, as in the figure below. A constant force of magnitude 1.00 N moves the bar at a uniform speed of 2.00 m/s through a magnetic field vector B that is directed into the page. (a)What is the current in an 8 ohm resistor. (b)What is the rate of energy dissipation in the resistor? (c)What is the mechanical power delivered by the constant force? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36060000 |
Microsoft Office 2010 (5 courses)
Microsoft Office 2010 improves on Office 2007 to make your working day even more efficient and effective. New image-editing tools help you design documents that stand out from the crowd. New social networking tools help you connect with colleagues. You can post documents to the Internet, and then view or edit those documents through a Web browser or mobile phone. You can embed and edit videos within slide presentations, and turn slide presentations into videos themselves. You can track trends in spreadsheet data with new filtering and visualization tools.
Flash and audio provide animated, interactive Lesson Introductions, Activities, and Simulations.
Audio accompanies each lesson page throughout the course.
MindNotes provide printable quick-reference sheets and other files to be used as learners apply their skills on the job.
Show Me Hows allow learners to access instructional demonstrations from all courses in the series.
Simulations teach learners to perform specific tasks in applications through guided, multi-step exercises.
Activities allow learners to apply course concepts in an interactive questioning environment.
Full-page images allow learners to experience an application as if it were open on their computer.
Exercises allow learners to practice in the actual application being studied.
A Course Topics list contains active hyperlinks, permitting quick access to specific topics.
Find-A-Word allows learners to look up an unfamiliar term in the Glossary, on the Web, or in a dictionary. In addition, it lets them find other occurrences of the term in the same course.
Search text enables learners to rapidly search all text within a course to easily retrieve information required.
Courses challenge the learner with a variety of question formats, including multi-step simulations, true/false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank.
A skill assessment generates a customized learning path based on the results of a pre-test.
A glossary provides a reference for definitions of unfamiliar terms.
Bookmarking tracks the learner's progress in a course. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36061000 |
The Battle of Stones River:
The Soldiers' Story--
By looking at The Battle of Stones River: The Soldiers' Story, students recall one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles as told in eyewitness and personal accounts. Those interested in learning more will find that the Internet offers a variety of interesting materials.
Battle of Stones River Resources:
Stones River National Battlefield
Stones River National Battlefield is a unit of the National Park System.
Visit the park's Web pages for
more information about the park and Stones River National Cemetery.
The Civil War Preservation Trust
The Civil War Preservation Trust Web pages provide an account of the
of Stones River, including links to extensive biographies on both
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg and Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans.
Civil War Resources:
The American Battlefield Protection Program:
The American Battlefield Protection Program, a division of the National Park Service, provides detailed on-line publications featuring different topics in the Civil War. Included is a battle summary of the Battle of Stones River.
National Park Service Civil War Website
Visit the official National Park Service Civil War Web Site. Offering the current generation of Americans an opportunity to know, discuss, and commemorate this country's greatest national crisis, while at the same time exploring its enduring relevance in the present, the website includes a variety of helpful features and links such as the About the Civil War page that offers a timeline and stories from various perspectives. Also included are links to Civil War Parks, NPS education programs, and much more.
Historic Places Honoring Those Who Served
The National Register of Historic Places online itinerary Civil War Era National Cemeteries: Honoring Those Who Served commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This itinerary explains where the idea of national cemeteries came from and their meaning today.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System
The National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System is a recently created database containing facts about Civil War servicemen, lists of Civil War regiments, and descriptions of significant Civil War battles. Also on this site is a descriptive history of African-Americans in the Civil War.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress created a selected Civil War photographic history in their "American Memory" collection. Included on the site is a photographic timeline of the Civil War covering major events for each year of the war.
The United States Civil War Center
Louisiana State University maintains a Civil War Center that locates, indexes, and makes available all appropriate private and public data on the internet regarding the Civil War. The site features over 4,500 links that promote the study of the Civil War from all perspectives.
The Valley of the Shadow
For a valuable resource on the Civil War, visit the University of Virginia's Valley of the Shadow Project. The site offers a unique perspective of two communities, one Northern and one Southern, and their experiences during the American Civil War. Students can explore primary sources such as newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, military records, and much more. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36066000 |
Mirror Learning Activity
Mirror for each group member
Play activities are not only a time for children to laugh and interact but also a time for children to learn.
Children of all ages and abilities should have the opportunity to learn and play with colours, texture and sounds.
This activity teaches the child about reflections and how their body moves. It also builds their confidence with their own appearance and body parts.
Sit your group in front of a mirror, if you have large mirrors get two members to share and lay the mirror against a wall for support.
As they sit in front of the mirror or hold their hand mirror ask each member who he or she can see in the mirror. Explain to them that what they see is a reflection of them.
Talk to them about time when they may use a mirror, like in the bathroom for brushing their hair.
Using everyday activities, get them to imitate what they may do in the mirror, let them pretend to brush their teeth or get dressed and other everyday activities.
You can extend the activity by playing games such as Simon Says and have them touch parts of their faces.
By Shellie Wilson. Shellie is the chief creative editor for Craftbits. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36067000 |
"During the earthquake I couldn't walk, I couldn't stand. I held on to a tree as the ground swayed," says Murni, a 51-year-old woman living in a village in West Sumatra, Indonesia. "My head hurt from the shaking."
Though Murni and her family made it through the September 2009 quake alive, their house collapsed. For weeks they lived in their yard under plastic sheeting. Across the palm-dotted countryside, thousands of villagers were doing the same. All in all, the earthquake affected almost a million Indonesians, many of whom make a meager living farming rice or coconuts.
Some villagers' houses were still standing, and looked okay. But telltale diagonal cracks and falling plaster showed that the homes were unsafe. The government determined that 249,000 were damaged. Few villagers were willing to risk sleeping in the old structures.
Living next to the ruins of their houses, villagers tried to salvage materials like doors to build new homes. But they rarely had enough to make a safe, livable building. Knowing that their needs would vary based on which scrap materials they could save, Catholic Relief Services' partner WALHI designed an innovative shelter program to help villagers help themselves.
Building Safe Homes
The program gives cash grants to eligible villagers so they can create a "pondok"—a small transitional shelter that is durable and comfortable. Beneficiaries can use the money for roofing, walls, cement, carpentry work and more. The program also ensures that the pondoks can withstand future shocks.
In the island nation of Indonesia, where minor and major tremors strike every few months, constructing quakeproof homes is a straightforward matter of life and death. The first few feet of a house can be built with concrete or bricks, but the upper half of the walls should be made out of lightweight material like wooden planks or tough woven reeds. Bracing the corners of the house and creating a stable foundation are also critical.
The home of Anise, 44, is a stark reminder of why building materials matter. She was cooking when the quake struck, and immediately ran out of her kitchen, whose walls were made entirely of stone. The kitchen crumbled down, along with a brick wall that might have buried her son if he had woken up from his nap five minutes later than he did. Much of the rest of her house—the wooden parts—stayed standing, though the house is still not safe enough to live in.
Rebuilding Entire Communities
Anise didn't take advantage of the CRS shelter program just for her own family; she joined a committee that helps her neighbors apply for pondok grants and ensures the money is spent as intended. Outside her new wooden home hangs a large CRS banner, telling villagers how to get started with the program. "If it weren't for CRS, my family would still be living in a tent," she says. She wants the families around her to have better options too.
When families are identified as eligible—meaning their house is unsafe—they receive the first installment of cash, plus instructions on how to build sturdy pondoks. When they've made progress, they receive the second installment. The total amount is slightly over $250.
At one cash distribution, a crowd of more than 100 people chatters as CRS staff arrive. One by one, villagers come forward with their ID cards and vouchers, sign their names or leave a thumbprint, and receive the money and a poster about safe shelters.
Jawiya, an 80-year-old grandmother, is using the cash to pay for cement, timber and labor. Her husband is disabled—when the quake struck, he crawled out of their old house because his legs are paralyzed. Jawiya herself is frail, so help from construction workers is a necessity.
Safety and Security
Midway through the building process, CRS staff visit homes and run down a checklist of questions, including "Are the walls and frame plumb?" and "Are the corners braced?" People's attitudes have been changing about brick houses, which were once seen as a status symbol. "They know now to pick wood and not bricks," says Wahyu Widayanto, CRS' community mobilization manager.
More than 11,000 quake-affected families have roofs over their heads as a result of the CRS program. No longer forced to choose between sleeping in an unstable ruin or sleeping exposed in their yards, "they feel safer," says Widayanto.
Ramuni, a disabled woman who walks with great difficulty, managed to hobble out of her house when the quake hit. After three months in a tent and time at her in-laws' house, she now has a home she doesn't need to be afraid of. "It's a small pondok, because there's just me and my husband," she says. "But if this program didn't exist, I wouldn't have a house."
Laura Sheahen is CRS' regional information officer for Asia. She is based in Cambodia. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36070000 |
Foreign students are an economic asset to the American educational system. They also introduce a welcomed diversity to the lives of their peers. Students pursuing academic degrees are generally given F-1 visas. Those enrolled in vocational institutions receive M-1 visas. Spouses and children of these visa holders may be eligible for visas and entry for the same length of time as the student. Admission to the United States as an F-1 student will generally be for the amount of time they're pursuing a full course of study in any educational program. This time period will also include an additional 60 days to give the student time to leave the United States. An M-1 student will be admitted to the U-S for the period of time necessary to complete the course of study plus 30 days, or for a period of one year, whichever is less. Students who are part of an exchange program involving study, receive J-1 visas. Often, there's a two-year home residence requirement for anyone who's in the United States on a J-1 visa. This means that the student must return to his or her home country for at least two years before applying for a different immigration status in the United States. To obtain a student visa, you must first be accepted by an accredited institution, get an I-20-A-B form from the institution, and document your financial ability to attend the school without employment. There's a relatively complex set of rules which apply only to foreign students. These rules must be followed in order to maintain your status. Usually, your foreign student advisor at school can help you. For more information, contact an attorney qualified as a specialist, in this area of the law. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36083000 |
Heat rash is an annoying condition that occurs when a person is exposed to extremely warm temperatures. People who work outdoors or reside in humid, warm climates are more prone to getting heat rash. As the skin begins to sweat under clothing, the layers of garment may disrupt this process, causing sweat to become trapped and skin to chafe as it rubs against damp clothes. The result can be prickly, red bumps that rise up on the skin's surface. There are several ways to avoid heat rash, and ways to treat it at home, if you have to contend with this condition.
One of the best ways to avoid a rash is to avoid heat and sweating. Whenever possible, stay indoors during the summer, especially during the hottest part of the day. When it's not possible to stay indoors, dress in light layers. Sweating is the body's natural cooling mechanism, and allowing this process to occur with minimal interruption will help.
If heat rash occurs, thankfully, it will heal on its own given time. There are, however, several things you can do to relieve the discomfort and aid in faster healing in the meantime.
- Cool skin down by showering in cool water, applying ice packs, or sitting in air conditioned spaces.
- Soothe skin by taking a bath with colloidal oatmeal, which has soothing properties.
- Air dry skin rather than towel dry to minimize irritation.
- Apply a powder, such as Gold Bond, talcum, or baking soda to absorb moisture and soothe chafed skin.
- Apply a healing lotion or gel, such as calamine or aloe vera.
Once heat rash has developed, it will usually dissipate quickly, but individuals with more sensitive skin may take longer to see complete relief. During the healing process, follow the above regimen daily and avoid scratching the skin. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36092000 |
Emeka Barclay, a seventh- and eighth-grade language arts teacher, and Scott Smith, a seventh-grade civics teacher, teamed up to involve their students in a project based learning project.
Project Based Learning is a teaching tool that incorporates four skills – collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking, and requires students to work together to produce a presentation that reflects what they have learned.
“PBL takes major elements in curriculum standards and objectives and use them to answer questions about what they have learned to produce projects,” Barclay said, “and to see relevance of what they have learned and apply it in life.”
Smith’s students took part in the project by producing public service announcements and airing them on local media outlets. Students also were responsible for writing thank you notes, Smith said.
The student-led program featured students welcoming and explaining PBL.
Student Logan Lackey introduced a video capturing students involved in their project. The video showcased the skills employed to produce the project and how they were able to apply the principles they learned in their studies into what the video described as “real life experience” and results.
While responsible for planning the presentation, students also brought canned goods, clothing and toys, and encouraged others to make contributions.
Students named the canned food drive “Tiny Tim’s Kitchen” after the main character in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
“Anne’s Toy Chest” is taken from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book “Anne of Green Gables.” Anne Shirley is an orphan and is the central character.
Barclay announced to students, teachers, parents and guests gathered in the school auditorium that over 700 canned goods, over 200 toys and over 200 clothing items were donated.
“This exceeded my expectations,” Barclay said. “This will be a yearly thing. We will contribute to our community every year.”
As student Chance Butts presented the canned goods he said, “No one should have to lay their head down and be hungry.”
On behalf of SAFE, Lecia Whiteside said, “I am so happy to receive these donations. Your gracious giving will help a lot of children in Talladega County.”
Care House representative Lisa Wood thanked the students for their generosity and said, “With your hard work we will start 2013 with full shelves.”
Principal Judson Warlick said he appreciated the hard work of the seventh- and eighth-graders and thanked them for their effort.
After the presentation, Smith said the driving need of the project was to involve students in helping others.
“We wanted them to take ownership of volunteerism by making personal donations,” Smith said, “and trying to persuade others to donate. I believe we accomplished that goal.”
Contact Mark Ledbetter at firstname.lastname@example.org | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36093000 |
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) most
of the Climate Report,
released on September 8, claims that the summer of 2010 was the
summer on record for the United States.
NOAA has been conducting the State
of the Climate Report since
1895, taking factors into account such as storm patterns,
precipitation and temperature.
Results are compiled at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in
the lower 48 states, only seven had normal temperatures through the
months of June, July and August. 10 were classified as "above
normal," 29 were "much above normal," and two were
the summer of 2010, 10 states experienced their warmest summer ever.
These states were Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, North
Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
The Southeast had their warmest
summer ever while the Northeast had their fourth warmest and
the Central states had their third warmest.
above normal warmth occurred mostly on the eastern side of the
country, setting temperature records in cities like Asheville, NC,
Tallahassee, FL, Wilmington, DE, Tenton, NJ, Philadelphia and New
trends were off as well. For the first five months of the year, the
Upper Midwest received no rainfall. When the summer months hit, heavy
rainfall swarmed the area. States like Minnesota, South Dakota,
Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan had their wettest summer in the
top 10 this year, while Wisconsin experienced their wettest yet with
6.91 inches of rainfall above average. On the other hand, the
Mid-Atlantic and Southeast experienced below average levels of
precipitation due to a lack of tropical weather activity and a high
far as weather goes, Minnesota is set to break its record of 74
tornado's from 2001 while wildfires have settled down in the Western
states due to milder weather.
of the Climate Report for
August can be seen here. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36101000 |
We have run numerous articles about school districts banning chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk on lunch lines.
Against this backdrop, it is interesting to note what is happening in Los Angeles.
Last fall, the Los Angeles Unified School District eliminated flavored milk in an effort to promote better eating habits in children. Besides flavored milk, the district eliminated chicken nuggets, corn dogs, nachos and other foods perceived to be high in sodium, fat or sugar.
The initiative flopped.
According to this item by two professors at Cornell University, instead of making kids healthier by substituting in healthy items like fresh pears and vegetable curry, “there have been reports of a thriving trade in black-market junk food, of pizzas delivered to side doors and of family-sized bags of chips being brought from home.
“Garbage cans are filling up with the more nutritious food, even if kids aren’t,” say the professors, who are co-directors of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs.
Now there is word that Los Angeles officials are relenting a bit and allowing some foods back in, such as hamburgers and pizza.
Flavored milk won’t be returning, however.
Regardless of where flavored milk fits into the equation, there is a larger point: You can’t force kids to eat foods they don’t like.
“As the Los Angeles example makes clear, trying to teach students to eat more healthful foods by removing other choices can backfire,” say the Cornell professors, David Just and Brian Wansink.
“When children (or even adults) feel restricted or forced into a decision, they naturally rebel,” the professors said.
It will be interesting to watch how this plays out as the U.S. Department of Agriculture implements new standards for school meals, which were announced in late January.
The government will require schools to offer 8 ounces of milk with each school lunch or breakfast. But low-fat flavored milks are out. Any flavored milk needs to be fat-free.
“Eliminating low-fat flavored milks, which kids like, and still allowing a wide variety a la carte beverages like juice beverages, sports drinks and soda at schools will reduce milk consumption,” says Connie Tipton, CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association.
Certainly, there are unintended consequences when you start telling people what they can or cannot eat or drink. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36104000 |
Full Lab Manual
Introduction & Goals
Chemistry & Background
In Your Write-up
In this two-week experiment, you will learn how to use an ion-exchange column and how to carry out an acid-base titration using an indicator. You will then apply these skills to determine the total concentration of cations in a sample of seawater. This week you will concentrate on understanding the chemistry of ion exchange and estimate the capacity of an ion exchange column from your observations.
1. Which ions are attached to the resin at the start of a given experiment?
2. Which ions are becoming attached to the resin and which are coming off, during each experiment?
3. How many equivalents of H+ will be replaced by the charging solution?
4. What will happen when the column reaches its capacity?
Trustees of Dartmouth College, Copyright 19972003 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36109000 |
Definitions for ignatiusɪgˈneɪ ʃəs
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
Saint (Ignatius Theophorus), a .d . c40–107?, bishop of Antioch and Apostolic Father.
Ignatius, Saint Ignatius, St. Ignatius(noun)
bishop of Antioch who was martyred under the Roman Emperor Trajan (died 110)
; of mostly Roman Catholic usage in English.
Origin: A saints' name from the gens name Ignatius, Egnatius, of uncertain meaning, by folk etymology associated with Latin ignis. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36113000 |
Year end is always a time of forecasts and predictions, and technology giant IBM is wading in with its fifth annual “Next Five in Five,” its list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list, according to IBM, is based on market and societal trends as well as on emerging technologies percolating in IBM’s global Labs. Here’s what Big Blue sees in our future as part of its drive towards a “Smarter Planet”:
Hanging out in 3-D. In the next five years, IBM says 3-D interfaces, like those in the movies, will let people interact with 3-D holograms in real time. The trend, enabled by more sophisticated and miniaturized 3-D holographic cameras finding their way into cell phones as well as new video chat capabilities along the lines of 3-D telepresence, will let give people new ways of interacting with photos, browsing the Web or chatting with friends. Scientists at IBM Research are working on new ways to visualize 3-D data, including technology that would allow engineers to step inside designs of everything from buildings to software programs, running simulations of how diseases spread across interactive 3-D globes, and visualizing trends happening around the world on Twitter–all in real time and with little to no distortion.
Battery Power. IBM says scientific advances in transistors and battery technology over the next five years will allow devices to last about 10 times longer than they do today. In some cases, IBM predicts batteries may disappear altogether in smaller devices. How can that happen? The way IBM explains it, in lieu of the heavy lithium-ion batteries used today, scientists are working on batteries that use the air we breath to react with energy-dense metal, eliminating a key inhibitor to longer lasting batteries. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices.
IBM prognosticators are even going as far as to suggest the elimination of batteries all together by rethinking the basic building block of electronic devices, the transistor. IBM is aiming to reduce the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 volts, making batteries obsolete in some devices like mobile phones or e-readers. These devices could leverage a concept called energy scavenging, used today in some watches, which would let them charge by simple movements like shaking.
We’re All Data Collectors. IBM says that in five years, sensors in phones, cars, wallets and even tweets will collect data that will give scientists a real-time picture of the environment. This data will be leveraged to fight global warming, save endangered species or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world. In the next five years, IBM says a whole class of “citizen scientists” will emerge, using simple sensors that already exist to create massive data sets for research.
Personalized commutes. In the next five years, advanced analytics technologies will provide personalized recommendations that get commuters where they need to go in the fastest time. Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn traveler patterns and behavior to provide more dynamic travel safety and route information to travelers than is available today.
Specifically, IBM researchers are developing new models that will predict the outcomes of varying transportation routes to provide information that goes well beyond traditional traffic reports, which IBM researchers say only indicate where you are already located in a traffic jam, and Web-based applications that only give estimated travel time in traffic. Using new mathematical models and IBM’s predictive analytics technologies, the researchers will analyze and combine multiple possible scenarios that can affect commuters to deliver the best routes for daily travel, including many factors, such as traffic accidents, commuter’s location, current and planned road construction, most traveled days of the week, expected work start times and local events, including weather, that may impact traffic.
Computers: The New Energy Source. IBM is working innovations in computers and data centers, including its novel on-chip-water-cooling systems, which will enable the excessive heat and energy that data centers give off to be redeployed to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioning in the summer. IBM officials point to a pilot project in Switzerland involving a computer system fitted with the technology as a prime example. The project is expected to save up to 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of an 85 percent carbon footprint reduction. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36118000 |
In Isis Unveiled, H.P. Blavatsky wrote:If the Pythagorean metempsychosis should be thoroughly explained and compared with the modern theory of evolution, it would be found to supply every "missing link" in the chain of the latter. But who of our scientists would consent to lose his precious time over the vagaries of the ancients. Notwithstanding proofs to the contrary, they not only deny that the nations of the archaic periods, but even the ancient philosophers had any positive knowledge of the Heliocentric system. The "Venerable Bedes," the Augustines and Lactantii appear to have smothered, with their dogmatic ignorance, all faith in the more ancient theologists of the pre-Christian centuries. But now philology and a closer acquaintance with Sanskrit literature have partially enabled us to vindicate them from these unmerited imputations. In the Vedas, for instance, we find positive proof that so long ago as 2000 B.C., the Hindu sages and scholars must have been acquainted with the rotundity of our globe and the Heliocentric system. Hence, Pythagoras and Plato knew well this astronomical truth; for Pythagoras obtained his knowledge
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 10 THE VEIL OF ISIS.
in India, or from men who had been there, and Plato faithfully echoed his teachings. We will quote two passages from the Aitareya Brahmana:
In the "Serpent-Mantra,"* the Brahmana declares as follows: that this Mantra is that one which was seen by the Queen of the Serpents, Sarpa-rajni; because the earth (iyam) is the Queen of the Serpents, as she is the mother and queen of all that moves (sarpat). In the beginning she (the earth) was but one head (round), without hair (bald), i.e., without vegetation. She then perceived this Mantra which confers upon him who knows it, the power of assuming any form which he might desire. She "pronounced the Mantra," i.e., sacrificed to the gods; and, in consequence, immediately obtained a motley appearance; she became variegated, and able to produce any form she might like, changing one form into another. This Mantra begins with the words: "Ayam gauh pris'nir akramit" (x., 189).
The description of the earth in the shape of a round and bald head, which was soft at first, and became hard only from being breathed upon by the god Vayu, the lord of the air, forcibly suggests the idea that the authors of the sacred Vedic books knew the earth to be round or spherical; moreover, that it had been a gelatinous mass at first, which gradually cooled off under the influence of the air and time. So much for their knowledge about our globe's sphericity; and now we will present the testimony upon which we base our assertion, that the Hindus were perfectly acquainted with the Heliocentric system, at least 2000 years B.C.
In the same treatise the Hotar, (priest), is taught how the Shastras should be repeated, and how the phenomena of sunrise and sunset are to be explained. It says: "The Agnishtoma is that one (that god) who burns. The sun never sets nor rises. When people think the sun is setting, it is not so; they are mistaken. For after having arrived at the end of the day, it produces two opposite effects, making night to what is below, and day to what is on the other side. When they (the people) believe it rises in the morning, the sun only does thus: having reached the end of the night, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making day to what is below, and night to what is on the other side. In fact the sun never sets; nor does it set for him who has such a knowledge. . . ."**
This sentence is so conclusive, that even the translator of the Rig-Veda, Dr. Haug, was forced to remark it. He says this passage contains "the denial of the existence of sunrise and sunset," and that the author supposes the sun "to remain always in its high position."***
* From the Sanskrit text of the Aitareya Brahmanam. Rig-Veda, v., ch. ii., verse 23.
** Aitareya Brahmanam, book iii., c. v., 44.
*** Ait. Brahm., vol. ii., p. 242.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 11 ANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATIONS.
In one of the earliest Nivids, Rishi Kutsa, a Hindu sage of the remotest antiquity, explains the allegory of the first laws given to the celestial bodies. For doing "what she ought not to do," Anahit (Anaitis or Nana, the Persian Venus), representing the earth in the legend, is sentenced to turn round the sun. The Sattras, or sacrificial sessions* prove undoubtedly that so early as in the eighteenth or twentieth century B.C., the Hindus had made considerable progress in astronomical science. The Sattras lasted one year, and were "nothing but an imitation of the sun's yearly course. They were divided, says Haug, into two distinct parts, each consisting of six months of thirty days each; in the midst of both was the Vishuvan (equator or central day), cutting the whole Sattras into two halves, etc."** This scholar, although he ascribes the composition of the bulk of the Brahmanas to the period 1400-1200 B.C., is of opinion that the oldest of the hymns may be placed at the very commencement of Vedic literature, between the years 2400-2000, B.C. He finds no reason for considering the Vedas less ancient than the sacred books of the Chinese. As the Shu-King or Book of History, and the sacrificial songs of the Shi-King, or Book of Odes, have been proved to have an antiquity as early as 2200, B.C., our philologists may yet be compelled before long to acknowledge, that in astronomical knowledge, the antediluvian Hindus were their masters. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36121000 |
Participating elementary schools identify and work with TANF children in grades one through eight, and their families, who are not attending school regularly. The school is responsible for defining irregular school attendance. For
example, irregular school attendance may be defined as:
- a combination of school defined absences, tardies, or early dismissals within a 30-day period; or
- a pattern of absence/tardiness/early dismissal, such as absence every Friday within a 30-day period; or
- a pattern of all children in the family being absent on the same day. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36123000 |
I know I say it and I’m sure you have heard others say it, “when eating fruits and veggies, pick the colorful produce because they are the most nutrient-dense.” While this statement is very true, it unfortunately leaves out a very plainly colored, but healthy veggie, the mushroom. People enjoy mushrooms for its versatility in foods, from a pizza topping, to an ingredient in soup, pastas, meat dishes, and more.
Mushrooms offer many essential nutrients (a nutrient required for normal body functioning that cannot be synthesized by the body and thus must be obtained from a dietary source), including:
- B vitamins riboflavin and niacin
- Pantothenic acid
- Plus antioxidants selenium and ergothioneine
- A good amount of potassium
- White button mushrooms are a surprising and commonly unrecognized source of vitamin D
The mushroom provides you with all these great nutrients and only 20 calories!
As mentioned above, mushrooms provide you with selenium, but according to the American Dietetic Association, mushrooms are actually the leading source of selenium in the fruit and veggie aisle. This powerful antioxidant (selenium) helps fight off dangerous free radicals that are responsible for cellular damage, which contributes to cancer and other chronic diseases.
To incorporate this nutrient-dense veggie, try some of the following recipe ideas:
- Slice and sauté mushrooms to top a pizza, pasta dish, omelet or have a mushroom quesadilla
- Sautéed veggies go great with cooked poultry, beef, or veggie dishes
- In place of a hamburger, try a Portabella cap veggie burger
Remember there are a variety of mushrooms to pick from and add to your meals. Some include white button mushrooms, brown (crimini) mushrooms, Portabellas, enoki mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, maitakes, and shiitake mushrooms. Try them all to find your favorites.
More information on mushrooms can be found in a PDF from the American Dietetic Association website.
March 20th, 2009 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36126000 |
Zombie Fungus Rears Its Ugly Head
Photograph courtesy David Hughes
A stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani, grows out of a "zombie" ant's head in a Brazilian rain forest.
Originally thought to be a single species, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus is actually four distinct species—all of which can "mind control" ants—scientists announced Wednesday.
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
(Related pictures: ""Zombie" Ants Controlled, Decapitated by Flies.")
All four known fungi species live in Brazil's Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.
Hughes and colleagues made the discovery after noticing a wide diversity of fungal growths emerging from ant victims, according to the March 2, 2011 study in the journal PLoS ONE.
"It is tempting to speculate that each species of fungus has its own ant species that it is best adapted to attack," Hughes said.
"This potentially means thousands of zombie fungi in tropical forests across the globe await discovery," he said. "We need to ramp up sampling—especially given the perilous state of the environment." | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36131000 |
Graph the Asymptote of a Tangent Function
An asymptote is a line that helps give direction to a graph of a trigonometry function. This line isn’t part of the function’s graph; rather, it helps determine the shape of the curve by showing where the curve tends toward being a straight line — somewhere out there. Asymptotes are usually indicated with dashed lines to distinguish them from the actual function.
The asymptotes for the graph of the tangent function are vertical lines that occur regularly, each of them π, or 180 degrees, apart. They separate each piece of the tangent curve, or each complete cycle from the next.
The equations of the tangent’s asymptotes are all of the form
where n is an integer. Under that stipulation for n, the expression 2n + 1 always results in an odd number. By replacing n with various integers, you get lines such as
The reason that asymptotes always occur at these odd multiples of
is because those points are where the cosine function is equal to 0. As such, the domain of the tangent function includes all real numbers except the numbers that occur at these asymptotes.
The preceding figure shows what the asymptotes look like when graphed alone.
The first figure isn’t all that exciting, but it does show how many times the tangent function repeats its pattern. Now take a look at the second preceding figure, which shows one cycle of the tangent function on a graph. The tangent values go infinitely high as the angle measure approaches 90 degrees. The values go infinitely low as the angle measure approaches –90 degrees.
In the third figure, there is more of the tangent on a graph, asymptotes included, to give you a better idea of what’s going on.
As you can see, the tangent function repeats its values over and over. The main difference between this function and the sine and cosine functions is that the tangent has all these breaks between the cycles. As you move from left to right, the tangent appears to go up to positive infinity. It actually disappears at the top of the graph and then picks up again at the bottom, where the values come from negative infinity. Graphing calculators and other graphing utilities don’t usually show the graph disappearing at the top, so it’s up to you to know what’s actually happening, even though the picture may not look exactly that way.
One of the peculiarities of graphing calculators is that they try to connect the tangent function to make it continuous across the screen. For this reason, you’ll usually see some lines between the different parts of the curve. In a way, these lines are errors — they aren’t the asymptotes, although you may be tempted to think they are. The only way to get rid of those extra lines is to turn your calculator to the dot mode (as opposed to the connected mode). Most calculators have ways to set the settings (or mode) for things such as degrees and radians, dotted graphs and connected graphs, floating decimals and fixed decimals, and so on. The changes are usually easy to do — just see your calculator’s manual for specific instructions. The hard part is remembering what setting you’re in. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36152000 |
Banders are responsible for ensuring that they have all valid permits and licences, in addition to their federal scientific permit to capture and band birds, that may be necessary for their project. Federal banding permits will be issued without confirmation that all authorizations have been obtained, but the permits are valid only if the other necessary permits or authorizations have been obtained.
Additional permits which you may require include but are not limited to the following:
- Provincial or territorial banding permits:Some migratory birds such as owls, hawks, falcons, and eagles require provincial banding permits in addition to federal scientific permits to capture and band migratory birds.
Ptarmigan, quail, pheasants, and grouse are excluded from the North American Bird Banding Program because they are non-migratory. Contact your local provincial or territorial authority regarding these species.
- Other provincial and territorial permits: Many of Canada's provinces and territories have wildlife legislation that requires those who work with wildlife to hold appropriate permits. It is advisable to check with the provincial or territorial authorities where you will be banding to ensure that you have all necessary permits in place.
- Protected areas banding permit: Banding in a provincial/territorial park or protected area may require approval or permits from the provincial/territorial government. Authorization to band in provincial or territorial protected areas may be obtained through provincial conservation officers.
If you will be banding in a national park, please contact the local park superintendent for a research permit.
Authorization to band in federal Migratory Bird Sanctuaries or National Wildlife Areas may be requested from your CWS Regional Office.
Telemetry: Applicants wishing to use radio-telemetry must have a permit from Industry Canada. Contact your nearest regional office for more information.
Federal scientific permits: If the project involves collection of biological material such as blood samples or eggs, banders must hold a federal scientific permit specifically for these activities as well as a federal scientific permit to capture and band migratory birds. Contact your CWS Regional Permits Officer for more permit details.
Species at risk: Applicants wishing to band a threatened or endangered migratory bird listed under the Species at Risk Act must apply for a SARA permit from the Bird Banding Office.
Animal Care Committee approval: All banding projects involving fitted collars, nasal saddles, patagial/wing tags, or radio and satellite transmitters or other auxiliary markers other than colour bands must be approved by an Animal Care Committee.
Banding permits outside of North America: The Bird Banding Office issues permits to Canadians conducting banding projects on North American migratory birds outside of North America. Applicants must also have the approval of the host country.
Please contact the Bird Banding Office for more information.
- Date Modified: | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36161000 |
With 40-hour-plus work weeks the norm and no signs of that trend reversing, seeing well in the office at any time of day or night is necessary to get the job done.
Illumination in the office can mean a combination of different types of light, artificial and natural. But the big story in lighting centers on new products and control systems that bring the discipline to the forefront of commercial integration. Just as heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) has become one with building management and energy savings, lighting has stepped up to take its place as part of the integrated control environment.
It makes perfect sense. Most of a building’s energy costs come from the use of lighting. Statistics continue to show uncon-trolled lighting can raise the temperature inside the building and cause HVAC systems to operate more frequently. Lighting also has become closely tied to energy efficiency and the green building movement, epitomized in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C.
There are other drivers of widespread changes in lighting. Depending on the location and the type of facility, local or state energy codes may be mandated, and usage must be curbed inside and out—such as the case with the dark-sky initiatives, which are part of a movement to avoid the effects upward lighting has on the environment.
Up to the task
Lighting for commercial offices takes many different forms and performs multiple functions. The end application for deployed lighting is critical. Task areas require high illumination, both direct and indirect, but the amount of light, of course, depends on the nature of the business. Lighting should not interfere with computer screens by causing unwanted glare. Close work on production tables or other processing areas must illuminate clearly and evenly. Office areas with displays or showrooms need task lighting and illumination, which puts light on key areas of the facility.
Proper deployment of lighting is a science. The key performance characteristic of a light source is its output or lumen rat-ing. The intensity distribution or candle power also must be known, and many variables must be considered. Numerous re-sources are available to the electrical contractor (see box on page 92).
One study of task lighting in offices conducted by the National Research Council (NRC) Canada suggests office workers prefer to have light on all room surfaces, not just on their desks, which may be due to low levels of ambient lighting and high levels of task lighting, creating uncomfortable lighting conditions. According to NRC, it found no link between organizational productivity and vertical surface brightness. However, their studies have demonstrated that when lighting conditions differ from occupant preferences, there can be a negative impact on comfort and satisfaction.
Task or ambient light for office buildings has been a staple of design for many decades; fluorescent or metal halide use has been the primary components of these markets. They still hold their own, providing lighting integral to work spaces and buildings. But these disciplines have evolved into lamps, ballasts and controls that can save energy by being dimmable or being able to shut down quickly and return to service at a moment’s notice or within a preset time. A ballast supplies the ini-tial electricity that creates the light and then regulates the amount of electricity flowing through the appliance, so the lamp emits the right amount of light. Ballasts also are integral to the use of occupancy sensors, and instant-start types are not rec-ommended for use with these detectors.
New developments in fluorescent and high-intensity discharge (HID) ballast technology focus on improved system perform-ance, control capability for dimming, daylighting integration, energy management functions, and solutions to some long-standing problems that occur when certain lamps reach end of life, such as those containing mercury. The most energy-efficient fixtures, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, are T8 or T5 fluorescent lamps, low-wattage and ceramic metal halide lamps, white LEDs or electronic ballasts.
According to Tom Leonard, director of marketing and product management, Leviton Lighting Management Systems, Tuala-tin, Ore., fluorescent lighting is still the unsung hero of efficiency.
“Fluorescent lighting is definitely not a ‘shop light’ anymore,” he said. “Users need to know that it’s not just cool white bulbs anymore. There’s a perception on the part of many that all fluorescents look like that. Fluorescent lighting provides high performance and a reasonable cost and a wide array of different tones,” he said. Because fluorescent lamps don’t use heat to create light, they are far more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs. But how do they compare to LEDs?
“LEDs will become more cost-effective once efficiency targets are reached on a production scale and economies of scale are realized,” Leonard said.
“In office lighting, LEDs are the next advancement. Their high efficiency makes them perfect for task lighting,” he said. Continued production is needed for the price to drop to lower levels, Leonard said.
GE Consumer & Industrial, Cleveland, is working on a number of next-generation products, including white LEDs, which are near the illumination strength of incandescent and provide a true white light versus blue. They are smaller-than-ever T2 com-pact fluorescents and high efficiency incandescent lighting comparable to CFLs, which GE plans to roll out in 2009, accord-ing to Michael Petras, vice president of lighting and electrical distribution. In LEDs, there are downlight and cove light appli-cations, and these products will see more application in task operations, especially as their price tumbles.
Lighting, like many other solutions, is definitely driven by the use of the computer in the office environment.
“If it’s done right, you can direct lighting properly for the application,” Petras said. “There’s a lot of indirect lighting be-ing used with task and direct. There’s even task lighting built into office furniture. A key trend is that you don’t need to put everything in the ceiling to get the right lighting.” Another trend, he said, is the development of fixtures that produce more daylight-like light, such as ceramic metal halide.
Another growing trend in the area of commercial office building lighting is the use of lighting control subpanels, according to Scott Jordan, product marketing manager-lighting controls for Square D/Schneider Electric, Nashville. These panels can be installed in an out-of-the-way place, such as a ceiling.
Best of both worlds
“Outfitting a conference room or suite with a light-level sensor, for example, allows a lighting control subpanel to automati-cally dim lights to capitalize on available natural light. Plus, using lighting control subpanels can reduce cost for wire/conduit and can make labor easier for a contractor by being able to run circuits to the subpanel and not all the way back to the panelboard.”
Jordan said another trend is load shedding. Load shedding, he said, is a concept where selected electrical loads, including lighting, in a commercial building are reduced during various times of a day because of a desire to save energy or due to a utility request.
“For example, lighting can be dimmed a certain percentage during times when traffic is lighter, thus reducing energy costs. In more extreme circumstances, the local power utility may demand that a building owner/facility manager reduce loads due to a strain on the power grid and the possibility of a brownout or blackout.
“Multiple technologies are appropriate to achieve load shedding for commercial buildings,” he said. “Whole-building, sched-ule-based lighting control system that are Web-enabled provide perhaps the best opportunity to dim or turn off selected lighting loads because a facility manager is able to access the lighting control system via a common Web browser, no matter the time of day or week. Occupancy sensors can also play a significant role in load shedding due to the ability to automatically turn off lights in non-essential areas when no one is present.”
Lighting is critical in office environments, but the real challenge is controlling it to raise energy efficiency while giving the user options in its operation. Innovation by manufacturers continues to provide the right product that performs in an effi-cient manner and meets the application end use. EC
O’MARA is the president of DLO Communications in Park Ridge, Ill., specializing in low-voltage. She can be reached at 847.384.1916 or email@example.com. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36163000 |
This lesson introduces the concept of monopoly. It calls upon students to consider how monopoly power might affect the quality and price of goods and services offered to consumers. In light of what they learn about the history of trusts and the Sherman AntiTrust Act, the students write editorials, stating and explaining their views about laws prohibiting monopolies. Finally, students consider the effect that the Internet has had on the potential of companies to become entrenched as monopolies in our national and global economies.
- Define monopoly.
- Explain the market power that monopolies can exert.
- Evaluate American laws prohibiting monopolies.
This lesson is intended to help students will develop an understanding of economic monopolies. It introduces the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which forbade the establishment and practices of economic monopolies in the United States. Working as newspaper editorialists, students explain whether or not they believe that monopolies should be prohibited in free market economic systems. The students also consider the ways in which today's technological infrastructure has influenced the capacity of companies to establish themselves as monopolies. Finally, the students create radio broadcasts explaining the nature of monopolies today.
Monopoly: This EconEdLink glossary provides a large number of definitions of economic concepts.
Monopoly Defined: This page provides a print-out for students that defines monopolies.
Monopoly Defined Handout
Standard Oil and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act: This EconEdLink worksheet provides information and questions for students to answer related to monopolies.
Student Responses to Editorials: This worksheet allows students to write if they felt that the editorial that they read was well-written or not.
Student Responses to Editorials
Edublogs: At this site, students and teachers can set up their own blogs and post their own editorials.
Technology and Monopolies: This worksheet helps students to understand how advances in technology are related to monopolies.
Technology and Monopolies
Odeo Enterprise: This site allows students to create their own podcasts.
Creating a Monopoly: This EconEdLink worksheet asks students to develop their own monopoly.
Creating a Monopoly
To begin this lesson, tell the students that you want to purchase a pen from somebody. Ask whether any of them would be pen that they would be willing to sell. After the students have completed this short exercise ask them what they wrote willing to sell you a pen. Tell them to write down on a piece of paper the price that they would charge for a pen--using the down. Also ask them to help you decide which pen to purchase: what information should you think about in making your decision about which pen to purchase? The students may suggest that you should think about which pen you want, and that you should try to purchase it for the lowest possible price. If the students do not suggest these ideas on their own, raise them for the students. Ask them to explain why these ideas make sense.
Now tell the students to imagine that one student in the class owned all of the pens in the classroom. And you have decided that you would buy a pen only from somebody in the class. Ask them how this scenario might influence the price of the pen and the quality of the pen being sold. Here you would like to thear the students state that if one person owned all of the pens, that person could charge more money for them and sell lower-quality pens. Ask the students to explain why this is true. They should recognize that since only one person was selling pens, this individual would not have to worry about either the price set by other people or the quality of the pens that other people were selling. Tell the students that this scenario is an example of a monopoly.
Now show the students the definition of monopoly and use it as a transparency. Ask the students to explain this definition in their own words. Then shift the discussion: ask the students if they think it is fair for monopolies to exist. Urge them to support their opinions. As the students share their opinions take notes on the board. Encourage the students to express ideas that both support and oppose monopolies.
Now tell students that they should learn how the U.S. government views economic monopolies. Invite them to read and complete the worksheet entitled Standard Oil and the Sherman Anti-Trust Laws , available here. After the students have completed this work, reconvene the class. Call on students to share their answers with one another. Click here to view possible answers to the Standard Oil and Sherman Anti-Trust Laws worksheet.
Ask the students why companies might to be monopolies. Help them understand that in a free-market economic system, people work to make money and companies exist to make profit: individual companies want to make as much profit as possible. Certainly companies would love to be monopolies if this meant that they could make greater profits, as it most certainly would.
Ask the students how companies might try to become monopolies. There are several possible answers. Companies might lower their prices in order to attract customers away from their competition. Companies might also try to produce the best product or service available at the lowest cost in order to attract new customers. Companies can also become monopolies by inventing new products and acquiring a patent to prevent others from copying their products. At times the government establishes monopolies when policy makers believe it is in the public's best interest. For example, municipalities typically grant monopoly status to electric companies since it would be too expensive for several electric companies to compete in the same community. When the government does establish monopolies, it typically regulates them to insure that they do not unfairly raise prices or lower quality.
Help the students understand that, without government regulation, companies that become monopolies may lower the quality of their products or services (perhaps by spending less money producing them), or they may raise the price of the goods and services that they sell. Ask the students why companies might do this. The students should recognize that companies can reduce quality or raise prices if they no longer face competition. As appropriate refer to the pen-selling example to underscore this point.
Introduce the point that the U.S. government seeks in various ways to foster competition. Help the students understand that while individual firms might want to be monopolies and enjoy the benefits of monopoly status U.S. government does not think that monopolies are good for our nation since monopolies can raise prices and lower the quality of goods and services.
Now introduce a writing assignment. Tell the students that for the next part of this assignment they should pretend they are newspaper editorialists. To clarify the task, ask the students what they know about the job of a newspaper editorialist. If anybody states that editorialists write opinion pieces for the newspaper, underscore that response. If the students do not know this, tell them. Remind the students, however, that editorialists cannot simply write their opinion and expect others to accept it. They must justify their opinions with high quality reasoning. Remind the students that editors write for the public. On this assignment, therefore, classmates will read one another's editorials, and comment on them, upon completion. Ask the students to respond to the interactive question below.
- Pretend that you are an editorialist, and write an editorial considering whether or not you believe that monopolies should be illegal.
After the students have completed this work, tell them to form groups of three. Explain that in these groups they should read one another's opinions and respond to them. They should state whether the agree or disagree with the writer's conclusion. They also should explain why they agree or disagree by commenting on how the writer uses facts and reasons to support his or her conclusion. The Student Responses to Editorials can be used as a handout. Be sure to encourage the students to read the comments that their group mates write about their opinions.
[NOTE: As an alternative to the above interactive you may choose to have the students work in a "blog" setting. Using the website Edublogs
or another "blog" site of your choice set up a "blog" and have the students create their editorials. Once each student has created an editorial have the students comment on one another's editorial piece so they can complete the group work portion of the class.]
Now remind the students that the U.S. government outlawed monopolies at the end of the nineteenth century. Suggest that much has changed in American society between the 1890s and today. Ask the students what they can think of that has changed. Among many other things, the students may mention an infusion of computer technology. They should recognize that not all of the innovations we take for granted today--the personal computer, the World Wide Web, e-mail, instant text messaging, podcasts, open-source materials, etc.--were widely available 10 years ago, let alone 110 years ago. Ask the students to complete the worksheet entitled Technology and Monopolies , working in groups of two to three. This worksheet asks the students to consider whether or not they think recent technological advances would make it easier and cheaper to start businesses. They are then asked how these advances might affect the ability of individual companies to establish themselves as monopolies. After the students have completed this work, reconvene the class and invite students to share their answers with one another. Lead a discussion in which students consider the influence that the technology available in recent years has had on firms seeking to establish themselves as monopolies. During this discussion, ask the students if they think it is important for the U.S. government to continue to still have a law prohibiting the establishment of monopolies. During this discussion, urge the students to support their opinions thoughtfully.
In this lesson, students have learned about the role that monopolies play in economies. They have learned that monopolies are outlawed by the U.S. government. They have learned why companies would want to be monopolies -- i.e., because monopoly power sometimes enables companies to charge higher rates for their products/services, generating greater profit. In addition to considering their own perspectives on monopolies, the students have thought about their classmates' perspectives. Finally, the students have examined the influence of today's technology has on the ability of companies to establish themselves as monopolies.
Tell the students that in order to demonstrate their knowledge of monopolies, they should develop a radio interview, working in groups of two or three, in which the participants explain the nature of monopolies, the ways in which today's technological infrastructure has influenced the establishment of monopolies and whether or not they think monopolies should be illegal today. The students might particularly enjoy making podcast interviews. If you choose to have them make podcasts, consider using Odeo, an excellent resource. You can link to the Odeo site from here . The Odeo website has very user-friendly directions. Students can even call into Odeo via telephone to create their podcasts. If you would prefer not to use podcasts, you can simply ask the students to develop presentations which they can perform before the class. If you choose to do the activity in this way, ask the students who are not performing to write down one idea they learn from each presentation.
Assign the students to develop a plan to create their own monopoly. Having created their palns, they should also analyze their plans to determine what effect the plans might have on the greater economy. To begin this step, ask the students, working in groups of two or three, to complete the worksheet entitled Creating a Monopoly . After the students have completed this worksheet, reconvene the class. Invite students to share their answers with one another. During this discussion encourage the students to consider how efforts to create a monopoly might negatively influence the quality of goods and services that would be available to consumers. Urge the students to support their ideas thoughtfully.
“It seems like a very good lesson. I wish I had been able to print the material to use in my classroom.”
“Great lesson. I used this for a group of middle school students. I'm glad I noticed the student's version. I also used the board game Monopoly as an extension. Students grasped the concept more fully after playing the game.” | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36165000 |
What we ship things in makes a difference.
Take the banana, for example. In 1876, at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the banana was a delicacy (and very black). Millions of bunches could only be sent to U.S. shores if they were refrigerated. By 1901, as I describe in Econ 101 1/2, United Fruit was distributing 14 million bunches of bananas in the U.S. One reason, in addition to the railroad and the steamboat, was a banana vessel that could maintain a 53 degree temperature for its cargo.
Just like refrigerated banana vessels transformed world trade, so too has the cargo container. Introduced in 1956, now one ship can carry 3,000 forty foot containers with 100,000 tons of shoes, electronics and clothing. Imagine the potential efficiency. Put everything in the container, arrive at a port, and just slip it onto a truck or a railroad car for it to move to its next stop. Journalist Marc Levinson says the result is more variety for consumers, lower freight bills, less shipping time, lower inventory costs and longer supply chains.
This takes us back to yesterday’s supership post and the expansion of the Panama Canal. Larger ships mean more containers on board. The NY Times said that the newest generation of superships could hold 15,000 containers that are 20 feet long.
The Economic Lesson
Adam Smith would have been delighted to see his ideas about mass production and regional specialization extend around the world. Describing the productivity of factory pin production in The Wealth of Nations, he told us that one worker, functioning alone, could produce 1 pin per day. However, when that worker specialized through a division of labor in a factory, 4,800 pins per worker per day were made.
Adam Smith used the term “distant sale” to explain the transport of goods from a factory to a distant market. He could have been describing a container ship moving from China to the U.S. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36166000 |
Do you have a knack for explaining complex subjects in a way that makes them easy to understand? If so, you should consider entering the well-paying field of technical writing. This course will teach you the skills you need to succeed as a technical writer. You will learn how to translate complex information into easily understood language, and how to become a wizard at marrying the art of publishing with the science of technology. You'll learn the secrets of successful technical writers, including technical writing conventions, interviewing skills, desktop publishing and formatting techniques, key tips for developing graphics and templates, documentation management, and how to publish documents both on paper and electronically. You'll also learn how to get your first job as a technical writer, plus tricks of the trade that enable you to create high-quality documentation with less work. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36169000 |
Are Dandelions as Effective as Commonly Prescribed Antibiotics Against Bacteria?
To determine whether dandelion roots, which are used in many parts of the world for therapeutic purposes, can be used as an antibiotic against the bacteria Serratia marcescens and Escherichia coli, and to determine whether they are as effective as commonly prescribed antibiotics.
- dandelion roots
- food processor
- 5 cups
- sterile distilled water
- dandelion capsules (can be obtained from a health food store)
- sterile pin
- penicillin tablets (250 mg) (can be obtained from a medical doctor)
- Erythromycin tablets (250 mg) (can be obtained from a medical doctor)
- Tetracycline tablets (250 mg) (can be obtained from a medical doctor)
- sterile applicators
- 12 petri dishes: tryptic soy agar with 5% sheep's blood
- Serratia marcescens culture
- Escherichia coli culture
- masking tape
- marking pen
- sterile filter paper disks
Tests will be carried out to determine whether dandelion roots can be used as effective antibiotics. Dandelion roots taken directly from the ground as well as dandelion root capsules will be tested on selected bacteria to see if they have any effect. Control tests will also be conducted using three common antibiotics as well as distilled water on the same bacteria. The results of both tests will be analyzed and compared.
Part I—Prepare the dandelion and the antibiotic tablet solutions.
- Thoroughly wash several dandelion roots and pulverize them in the food processor until they are liquefied.
- Filter the liquefied roots through the cheesecloth and into a sterile cup. Add enough distilled water to the liquid to form a one-to-one ratio.
- Pierce one dandelion capsule with a sterile pin and squeeze the contents into another cup holding ½ cup (0.12 liter) of distilled water.
- Dissolve one penicillin tablet in ½ cup (0.12 liter) of water. Similarly, dissolve one Erythromycin and one Tetracycline tablet separately into ½ cup (0.12 liter) of water.
Part II—Test the solutions on the bacteria strains.
- With a sterile applicator, streak six tryptic soy agar (TSA) petri dishes with the Serratia marcescens. With another sterile applicator and six TSA petri dishes, repeat this procedure with the Escherichia coli. Label the dishes and incubate them for 48 hours at 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius). Carefully note the growth of bacteria in each dish.
- Using the forceps, dip a sterile filter paper disk into the dandelion root solution and place it onto one of the petri dishes containing S. marcescens. Dip another sterile filter paper disk into the dandelion capsule solution and place it onto the second petri dish containing S. marcescens. Continue this procedure by placing sterile filter paper disks soaked in the three antibiotic solutions onto the next three petri dishes containing S. marcescens. Place a sterile filter paper disk soaked only in sterile distilled water onto the remaining dish containing S. marcescens. Label all dishes accordingly.
- Repeat step 2 with those dishes containing E. coli.
- Incubate all the petri dishes for 48 hours at 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius). Carefully note the amount of bacteria in each dish and compare those results against the amount of bacteria found in each dish before it was treated. Compare the amount of bacteria between those dishes treated with the dandelion solutions to those treated with the antibiotic solutions and the untreated dishes. Record your observations.
- Were either the dandelion root or capsule solutions effective in inhibiting bacterial growth? If so, did their effectiveness vary with the type of bacteria used? Was one dandelion solution more effective than the other?
- Were the antibiotic tablets successful in inhibiting the growth of the bacteria used in the experiment?
- How did the dandelion solutions compare to the antibiotic solutions?
Warning is hereby given that not all Project Ideas are appropriate for all individuals or in all circumstances. Implementation of any Science Project Idea should be undertaken only in appropriate settings and with appropriate parental or other supervision. Reading and following the safety precautions of all materials used in a project is the sole responsibility of each individual. For further information, consult your state’s handbook of Science Safety. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36174000 |
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Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a bacteria (germ). It is spread from person to person through the air. TB may scar the lungs and other parts of the body, such as the kidneys, bones, or the brain. TB can even be fatal. There are two forms of TB: Latent TB infection and TB disease.
Latent TB infection is also called inactive TB. If you have latent TB infection:
You’ve been exposed to TB, but you have no symptoms and are not sick. The only way to know if you have TB infection is to have a skin test or a blood test for TB.
You can’t spread TB to others.
You may develop TB disease (active TB) if your immune system is weakened. This can happen if you are elderly or have HIV, for example.
TB disease is also called active TB. If you have TB disease:
Symptoms include a lasting cough, fatigue, coughing up blood, a fever, loss of appetite, and weight loss.
You CAN spread active TB to others. Your family, friends, and people you work with closely should be tested.
Take all medication until it’s gone. TB disease can almost always be cured. But you may become sick again if you don’t take all of your medication, even if you feel better.
Anyone who has ever had contact with a person with active TB can get TB. Groups of people who are considered to be at high risk of TB include:
People from countries with high rates of TB
Residents and employees of long-term care facilities (such as nursing homes and prisons)
People who don’t get medical care (including the poor and the homeless)
People who use illegal injected drugs
People who have HIV infection or other medical risk factors (such as diabetes and end-stage renal disease)
If you think you’re at high risk of TB or have been exposed to someone with the disease, get tested! | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36180000 |
Growth and Development, Ages 6 to 10 Years (cont.)
Promoting Healthy Growth and Development
Although your child between the ages of 6 and 10 may seem very independent at times, he or she still needs your constant guidance. Being present is the most important thing you can do to help your child grow in healthy ways. Knowing that you are "around" and available provides him or her with a sense of security. Although your child's world is expanding, you remain his or her primary influence.
You can do many things to help your child grow and develop.
- Promote physical development by encouraging and modeling healthy eating habits. Also, foster a healthy body image by talking about and showing how it is important to accept people of all colors, shapes, and sizes. For more information, see the topic Healthy Habits for Kids.
- Promote cognitive development—thinking and reasoning skills—by being involved in your child's school. Volunteer if possible, cultivate good relationships with teachers and other staff members, and show your interest in what your child is learning. Also, work on skills at home, such as simple math problems, money handling, reading, and writing. Age-appropriate workbooks are widely available. But be careful not to pressure your child. Simply spending time with him or her is an important part of setting a foundation for cognitive growth.
- Promote language development by reading to your child every day. Make reading a routine, even as he or she gets older and seems to lose interest. Set aside time that you and your child can look forward to and talk about stories, words, and ideas. Visit your local library and try finding books with new subjects that you think might interest your child.
- Promote social and emotional development by being aware of sibling rivalry, which can become a problem around this age. Also help your child learn social skills, such as by showing your acceptance of others and not gossiping or saying mean things about other people.
- Promote sensory and motor skill development by encouraging exercise every day. It doesn't have to be highly structured: the main point is to move around. Practicing somersaults, playing catch, going to the park, or riding a bike are all helpful in developing muscular skill and endurance. Also, encourage your child to create art projects, such as drawing, cutting with safety scissors, gluing, and stringing beads. These and similar activities help improve eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. For more information, see the topic Physical Activity for Children and Teens.
Also, you can help your child in other general ways.
- Deal with fears. Understand that your child may become extremely interested in scary subjects or images as a way to overcome them. Help your child as much as you can by answering questions and providing reassurance as needed.
- Discourage physical violence and show your child ways to deal with anger without being violent. Protect your child from violent media as much as you can. Some TV programs, movies, video games, and websites show a lot of violent acts. Children who watch a lot of this violence may come to believe that such behavior is okay. This can make them more likely to act violently themselves. It can also lead to nightmares, aggression, or fears of being harmed.1 Music lyrics affect children's behavior and emotions, too.2 Monitor the type of music that your child is exposed to, and be aware of the music your child buys.
- Establish limits. Set limits for your children to show them that you love and care about them. Make sure your rules are reasonable and that your child understands them. It is important to follow through on any consequences you have established for failing to follow rules.
- Recognize and develop special talents. Help your child discover interests and practice skills. For example, kick a soccer ball around the yard with your child or help him or her practice printing letters.
- Recognize his or her curiosity about the body and sexuality. You can help your child gain basic knowledge and a healthy attitude toward these issues by showing a willingness to listen and discuss them.
- Before your child starts middle school, teach him or her how to resist using tobacco and other drugs.
You can also help your child through each stage of development by evaluating your relationship from time to time. In many ways, you have to "get to know" your child over and over again. Think about:
- What do I like most about my child?
- What could be triggering bad behavior? Are any of these new triggers?
- What new skills has my child developed within the past year? Six months? Three months?
- What tasks can I encourage my child to do for himself or herself? How can I encourage him or her?
- When am I happy about how I treat my child?
- What don't I like about some of our interactions? When do these episodes tend to occur?
As a parent or caregiver of children, it is also important for you to:
- Learn and use effective parenting and discipline techniques and avoid the use of corporal punishment. Parenting classes are offered in most communities. Ask your doctor or call a local hospital for more information.
- Learn healthy techniques to resolve conflicts and manage stress. For more information, see the topic Stress Management.
- Ask for help when you need it. Call a family member or friend to give you a break if you feel overwhelmed. Find out about community resources that are available to help you with child care or other necessary services. Call a doctor or local hospital to find out about a place to start. Some communities have respite care facilities for children, which provide temporary child care during times when you need a break.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36184000 |
Medicines a person can buy without a prescription are called nonprescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. They may be taken to treat minor health problems at home.
It's important to talk to the doctor about what medicines may not be safe to give children.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
Find out what women really need.
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Pill Identifier on RxList
- quick, easy,
Find a Local Pharmacy
- including 24 hour, pharmacies | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36186000 |
Selenium is a trace mineral found in water, soil, and some plants. The body requires it to get energized and to function normally.
A deficiency of this trace mineral is rare but some of its manifestations include fatigue and muscular weakness. An oversupply of selenium on the other hand, can cause nervousness, nausea, vomiting, depression, baldness and bad odor of the fingernails.
Here are some of the health benefits of selenium:
1. It helps to nourish your thyroid glands.
Selenium is an important component for the health and nourishment of your thyroid glands. It helps to regulate the secretion of thyroid hormones, and it stimulates the production of T3 hormone which is the most active form of thyroid hormone in the body.
2. It helps to reduce the risk of joint inflammation.
Selenium works to reduce oxidative stress around the joints. This will result in the reduced risk of inflammation. Selenium deficiency is one of the contributing causes of rheumatoid arthritis and the deterioration of joint tissues.
3. It helps to prevent cancer.
According to the World Health Foods website, selenium may play an active part in the preventing cancer by supporting DNA repair and synthesis in damaged cells. This can help to prevent the growth of cancer cells. The website added that selenium may play a role in inducing cancer cells to self destruct. This process is called apoptosis. The body uses it as a self-destruct mechanism to eliminate abnormal cells.
4. It helps to stimulate antibodies.
Selenium may help to stimulate antibodies after a person gets vaccinated. Antibodies are your body’s defenses against infectious organisms.
These are some of the known health benefits of selenium. You can get selenium from natural food sources which include beef, broccoli, brown rice, fish, egg, ham, lobster, mushroom, oyster, and tuna.Tags: infectious organisms, trace mineral, DNA repair, Health Medical Pharma
Filed Under: Vitamins
About the Author: The Energize Team is comprised of Sam Green, a health conscious super blogger, and his tireless staff who's main purpose is to provide useful and helpful information to the public. Leading a healthy and happy life begins with knowledge and learning. They hope to have visitors apply what they learn here in their everyday lives. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36193000 |
Hearing to Probe Climate Change and Inuit Rights
TORONTO -- The Inuit of Arctic Canada and Alaska are bearing the brunt of global warming and their way of life is in peril, an international human rights body will be told next month.
Inuit activists hope a hearing on Arctic climate change by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will lead to reduced emissions and will help to protect the culture of the northern native people.
"In the Arctic, things are happening first and fastest and it's a way of life that's being jeopardized here," said Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who submitted a petition for a hearing on how climate change infringes on Inuit human rights to the commission in 2005 on behalf of Inuit in Canada and Alaska.
The commission, which is an arm of the Organization of American States, rejected Cloutier's request to rule on the rights violations caused specifically by U.S. emissions, deciding instead to hold a general hearing on March 1 to investigate the broad relationship between climate change and human rights.
Officials at the Washington-based commission said it will be the body's first such hearing.
Climate change "very much connects to rights because no where else in the world do you see ice and snow representing life and mobility like it does for us," Watt-Cloutier, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work on the issue, said from the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
The human rights commission has scant powers and can do little more than publicize its findings and propose a resolution to the 35-member OAS.
About 10 percent of petitions to the commission receive a hearing, said Ariel Dulitzky, the assistant executive secretary. He would not comment on why Watt-Cloutier's first petition was rejected by the seven-member board.
Watt-Cloutier said her group's legal team will submit findings from studies including the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which concluded the Arctic is extremely vulnerable to global warming and is now experiencing some of the most rapid changes on Earth.
Average annual Arctic temperatures are increasing more than twice as fast as temperatures in the rest of the world, the study found, causing a decrease in snow and ice and a transfigured landscape.
"For Inuit, warming is likely to disrupt or even destroy their hunting and food-sharing culture as reduced sea ice causes the animals on which they depend to decline, become less accessible, or possibly go extinct," the study said.
Watt-Cloutier said the United States was singled out on the rejected petition because it has refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Carbon emissions from U.S. industry represent about 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Democratic Party leaders are advancing legislation that would slow U.S. emissions, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing legislation by July 4 that would halve emissions by 2050.
Canada is currently 33 percent above greenhouse gas emissions targets it is obliged to meet by 2012 under Kyoto.
"This erodes and violates the human rights of an entire people who really are not benefiting from any of the industrial world that we have become," Watt-Cloutier said.
"In fact we become the net recipients of many contaminants that end up in the Arctic sink and in our bodies." | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36199000 |
Rhenium is a rare, silvery-white metallic element. Its atomic number is 75 and its symbol is Re. Rhenium was discovered in 1925 by a team of German scientists named Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke-Noddack, and Otto Berg. They discovered rhenium as a trace element in platinum ores and the mineral columbite. It is very dense. It has a melting temperature of 3,186 degrees Celsius (5,767 degrees Fahrenheit). It is not known to have any health benefit for animals or plants. Rhenium does not form minerals of its own, but it does occur as a trace element in columbite, tantalite and molybdenite. These minerals are the principal sources of columbium (commonly called niobium), tantalum and molybdenum metals.
Rhenium is a very rare element that is produced principally as a by-product of the processing of porphry copper-molybdenum ores. Because it is scarce, very little rhenium is actually processed and isolated each year as compared to the millions of tons of copper and millions of pounds of molybdenum that are extracted from these same porphry copper deposits. As a result, the processing of rhenium poses no environmental threat. The equipment that reduces sulfur dioxide in these processing plants also removes any rhenium that may escape through the smokestacks.
|Previous Element: Tungsten|
Next Element: Osmium
|Phase at Room Temp.||solid|
|Melting Point (K)||3453.2|
|Boiling Point (K)||5923|
|Heat of Fusion (kJ/mol)||33.054|
|Heat of Vaporization (kJ/mol)||707|
|Heat of Atomization (kJ/mol)||770|
|Thermal Conductivity (J/m sec K)||48|
|Electrical Conductivity (1/mohm cm)||51.813|
|Number of Isotopes||45 (2 natural)|
|Electron Affinity (kJ/mol)||14|
|First Ionization Energy (kJ/mol)||760|
|Second Ionization Energy (kJ/mol)||---|
|Third Ionization Energy (kJ/mol)||---|
|Atomic Volume (cm3/mol)||8.9|
|Ionic Radius2- (pm)||---|
|Ionic Radius1- (pm)||---|
|Atomic Radius (pm)||137|
|Ionic Radius1+ (pm)||---|
|Ionic Radius2+ (pm)||---|
|Ionic Radius3+ (pm)||---|
|Common Oxidation Numbers||+4|
|Other Oxid. Numbers||-3, -1, +1, +2, +3 +5, +6, +7|
|In Earth's Crust (mg/kg)||7.0x10-4|
|In Earth's Ocean (mg/L)||4.0x10-6|
|In Human Body (%)||0%|
|Regulatory / Health|
|OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL)||No limits|
|OSHA PEL Vacated 1989||No limits|
|NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (REL)||No limits|
University of Wisconsin General Chemistry
Mineral Information Institute
Jefferson Accelerator Laboratory
Rhenium was named after the Greek word for the Rhine River, Rhenus.
Rhenium is obtained almost exclusively as a by-product of the processing of a special type of copper deposit known as a porphyry copper deposit. Specifically, it is obtained from the processing of the mineral molybdenite (a molybdenum ore) that is found in porphyry copper deposits. A porphyry copper deposit is a valuable copper-rich deposit in which copper minerals occur throughout the rock. The copper in these deposits occurs as primary chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) or the important secondary copper mineral chalcocite (Cu2S).
The identified rhenium resources in the United States are estimated to total 5 million kilograms. These resources are found in the southwestern United States. The identified rhenium resources in the rest of the world are estimated to total 6 million kilograms. Countries producing rhenium include Armenia, Canada, Chile, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Even though the United States has significant rhenium resources, the majority of the rhenium consumed in the U.S. is imported. Chile and Kazakhstan provide the majority of the imported rhenium. The rest is imported from Mexico and other nations.
Because of its very high melting point, rhenium is used to make high temperature alloys (an alloy is a mixture of metals) that are used in jet engine parts. It is also used to make strong alloys of nickel-based metals. Rhenium alloys are used to make a variety of equipment and equipment parts, such as temperature controls, heating elements, mass spectrographs, electrical contacts, electromagnets, and semiconductors. An alloy of rhenium and molybdenum is a superconductor of electricity at very low temperatures. These superalloys account for the majority of the rhenium use each year.
Rhenium is also used in the petroleum industry to make lead-free gasoline. In this application, rhenium compounds act as catalysts. (A catalyst is a chemical compound that takes part in a chemical reaction, and can often make the reaction proceed more quickly, but the chemical is not consumed in the chemical reaction.)
Substitutes and Alternative Sources
Substitutes for rhenium as a catalyst are being researched. Iridium and tin have been found to be a good catalyst for at least one reaction. Cobalt, tungsten, platinum and tantalum can be used in some of the other applications for rhenium.
- Common Minerals and Their Uses, Mineral Information Institute.
- More than 170 Mineral Photographs, Mineral Information Institute.
Disclaimer: This article is taken wholly from, or contains information that was originally published by, the Mineral Information Institute. Topic editors and authors for the Encyclopedia of Earth may have edited its content or added new information. The use of information from the Mineral Information Institute should not be construed as support for or endorsement by that organization for any new information added by EoE personnel, or for any editing of the original content. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36200000 |
|Table 1. Tissue Weighting Factors (WT) for Individual Tissues and Organs|
|Tissue or Organ||Tissue Weighting Factor (WT|
|Gonads (testes or ovaries)||0.20|
|Red bone marrow||0.12|
|** The remainder is composed of the following additional tissues and organs: adrenal, brain, upper large intestine, small intestine, kidney, muscle, pancreas, spleen, thymus and uterus.|
The tissue weighting factor (WT) is an important unit of radiation measurement that weights the equivalent dose in a particular tissue or organ in terms of its relative contribution to the total deleterious effects resulting from uniform irradiation of the whole body. This weighting factor takes account of the probability of fatal cancer, the probability of nonfatal cancer, weighted for severity, and the average length of life lost due to an induced cancer.
The values shown in Table 1 were developed from a reference population of equal numbers of both sexes and a wide range of ages. In the definition of effective dose they apply to workers, to the whole population, and to either sex. When an equivalent dose to an organ is multiplied by the (wT) for that organ, the result is the effective dose to that organ:
- Effective dose = sum of [organ doses x tissue weighting factor]
The unit of effective dose is the sievert (Sv).
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) "For purposes of calculation, the 'remainder' category in Table 1 is composed of the following additional tissues and organs: adrenals, brain, upper large intestine, small intestine, kidney, muscle, pancreas, spleen, thymus and uterus. The list includes organs which are likely to be selectively irradiated. Some organs in the list are known to be susceptible to cancer induction. If other tissues and organs subsequently become identified as having a significant risk of induced cancer they will then be included either with a specific WT or in this additional list constituting the remainder. The latter may also include other tissues or organs selectively irradiated."
In those exceptional cases in which a single one of the remainder tissues or organs receives an equivalent dose in excess of the highest dose in any of the twelve organs for which a weighting factor is specified, a weighting factor of 0.025 should be applied to that tissue or organ and a weighting factor of 0.025 to the average dose in the rest of the remainder as defined above.
- International Agency for Research on Cancer, Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, 2001
- 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP Publication 60, Annals of the ICRP 21(1-3), Pergamon Press, Oxford. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36201000 |
Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) Field Deployments
EOL supports the observing needs of research programs in the following categories:
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- Climate Science
- Atmospheric Chemistry
- Atmospheric Physics
- Atmospheric Dynamics
Earth science, or geoscience, is an all encompassing term used for the sciences that relate to the Earth's processes; atmospheric, geological, geophysical, glacial, and oceanic. The atmosphere is one component of many that make up Earth's intricate system. Atmospheric science is a broad discipline, within which there are several more specific areas of study (ie - climate, ocean/air interactions, atmospheric chemistry, societal impacts).
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is charged with, among other things, providing the atmospheric science community with expertise, oversight and observing systems to carry out research projects on the field.
NCAR :: Earth Observing Laboratory :: Field Projects
Field Project Categories:
Field projects are designed to develop a more complete understanding of the complex interactions between the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land, ice masses, and biosphere. The impact of human activities on the Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological processes is a major focus of our national center. The Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) is tasked primarily with developing technologically advanced instrumentation and data acquisition systems, and overseeing scientific field campaigns that enable the collection of data for innovative scientific research. EOL field projects contribute directly to NCAR’s goal of improving society's understanding of the atmosphere and Earth's systems, specifically by investigating atmospheric processes and examining interactions between the atmosphere and other environmental components.
EOL's field projects can be categorized into 5 areas of study: severe weather, climate processes, atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric cycles, and ocean systems. Many of the projects can be included in multiple categories, due to the nature of the project. For example, the main goal of a study may be to examine severe weather, which is likely a subset of a natural atmospheric cycle or climate process, and could be exacerbated by air pollution. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36202000 |
Introduction into the function of the urinary system.
Urine produced in the kidneys is transported to the bladder by peristaltic contractions of the ureters. At appropriate occasions the bladder is emptied via the urethra by contraction of the detrusor muscle in the bladder wall.
In the medical specialism urology diseases of the male and female urinary tract and of the male sexual organs are diagnosed and treated.
The sector Furore develops diagnostic methods based on
measurement of physical quantities such as pressure and flow-rate and
applies these to the urinary tract.
Currently the sector has two main lines of research :
• Non-invasive urodynamics
• Neurophysiology of voiding
The worldwide state of the art in non-invasive urodynamics has been summarized in a special issue of "Urodinamica".
Some results of the neurophysiological research results have been described in these publications.
See inaugural lecture prof.dr.ir.R.van Mastrigt for a more complete introduction into the research of the sector | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36205000 |
This modules contains the interface to the heart process. heart sends periodic heartbeats to an external port program, which is also named heart. The purpose of the heart port program is to check that the Erlang runtime system it is supervising is still running. If the port program has not received any heartbeats within HEART_BEAT_TIMEOUT seconds (default is 60 seconds), the system can be rebooted. Also, if the system is equipped with a hardware watchdog timer and is running Solaris, the watchdog can be used to supervise the entire system.
An Erlang runtime system to be monitored by a heart program, should be started with the command line flag -heart (see also erl(1). The heart process is then started automatically:
% erl -heart ...
If the system should be rebooted because of missing heart-beats, or a terminated Erlang runtime system, the environment variable HEART_COMMAND has to be set before the system is started. If this variable is not set, a warning text will be printed but the system will not reboot. However, if the hardware watchdog is used, it will trigger a reboot HEART_BEAT_BOOT_DELAY seconds later nevertheless (default is 60).
To reboot on the WINDOWS platform HEART_COMMAND can be set to heart -shutdown (included in the Erlang delivery) or of course to any other suitable program which can activate a reboot.
The hardware watchdog will not be started under Solaris if the environment variable HW_WD_DISABLE is set.
The HEART_BEAT_TIMEOUT and HEART_BEAT_BOOT_DELAY environment variables can be used to configure the heart timeouts, they can be set in the operating system shell before Erlang is started or be specified at the command line:
% erl -heart -env HEART_BEAT_TIMEOUT 30 ...
The value (in seconds) must be in the range 10 < X <= 65535.
It should be noted that if the system clock is adjusted with more than HEART_BEAT_TIMEOUT seconds, heart will timeout and try to reboot the system. This can happen, for example, if the system clock is adjusted automatically by use of NTP (Network Time Protocol).
In the following descriptions, all function fails with reason badarg if heart is not started.
Sets a temporary reboot command. This command is used if a HEART_COMMAND other than the one specified with the environment variable should be used in order to reboot the system. The new Erlang runtime system will (if it misbehaves) use the environment variable HEART_COMMAND to reboot.
Limitations: The length of the Cmd command string must be less than 2047 characters.
Clears the temporary boot command. If the system terminates, the normal HEART_COMMAND is used to reboot.
Get the temporary reboot command. If the command is cleared, the empty string will be returned. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36207000 |
Front Page DDBlock
Logic & Problem Solving Have Never Been Such Fun!
Active engagement is the name of the game in these 72 word-problem challenges for any computer or interactive whiteboard. Students drag and drop 4 kinds of beans to solve problems visually, developing both logic and number sense. One volunteer can demonstrate on an interactive whiteboard while others follow along with manipulatives at their seats and the teacher guides the discussion. Then the learning can continue at centers. As students progress through increasing levels of difficulty, the skills and the enthusiasm grow! These challenges can be used with a Singapore Math program or with any other math curriculum to make math come alive for students. (3-5)
Get ready to Spill the Beans!
Get ready to "Spill the Beans" about math with these hands-on cards. Students reinforce number sense, logic, and problem-solving skills as they work with real beans from your classroom to determine the answers to the problems on the cards. The interactive cards are numbered for easy differentiation and designed to keep students at all levels engaged, challenged, and motivated. Ideal for centers, too. (3-5) 84 cards.
Also available for Grades 4-6, Spill the Beans Challenge Level
Click here for Free stories, poems, crafts and puzzles from Highlights. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36210000 |
The word “please” is to be used when you want something: to ask rather than to demand. That “magic word,” as it is often referred to for children, changes the tone of the sentence. An ultimatum begins to resemble a request, and the demeanor between the involved parties relaxes. A person is more willing to get the job done (with far less under-the-breath muttering) should that word be included.
The results of this poll should show just how hard it is to enforce that 1 word into daily vocabulary. Although it is amazing that more than half of the pollers are diligent about regularly enforcing the use of the word please, the 16.7% were brutally honest in their “not as often as I should” answers.
From an article on Parents Connect, Nanny Stella gives great advice for teaching children to use the word please (and thank you) in 3 steps: “1) show by example, 2) praise the pleases, and 3) be a broken record.”
Children truly learn from behavior being modeled, meaning, they learn by watching those around them. Control the market by showing them the behaviors that you want them to exhibit in public. If you want a child to hand you the cup of water instead of spill it, you should say, “Please hand me the water.” When the child uses the language on his/her own, praise him/her repeatedly. Positive reinforcement, is a highly effective way to teach children behaviors that you wish for them to continue without negative repercussions. Finally, if the child doesn’t use the word please, do not provide them with what they want until the magic word is said. For children, their new language can become innate with a bit of consistent practice. They will get it.
Children love challenges, so provide them the opportunity to rise to the occasion. Count how many people said, “please” when they asked for something, whether in a restaurant, in a classroom, in a store. Let the kids listen for the magic word, and let them watch people’s reactions when it is and is not used. Children can learn from their own recognition skills: why politeness matters.
Please is the most basic of social etiquette; the politeness displayed by the courtesy will open doors with its usage. Teaching children this social skill at a young age will ensure mastery and give them the tools to succeed as grownups. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36214000 |
Cells rely on tiny molecular motors to deliver cargo, such as mRNA and organelles, within the cell. The critical nature of this transport system is evidenced by the fact that disruption of motors by genetic defects leads to fatal diseases in humans. Although investigators have isolated these motor to study their function in a controlled environment outside the cell, it has been difficult for researchers to follow these fascinating molecular transporters in their natural environment, the living cell.
Now, two articles published by Cell Press in Biophysical Journal, make use of incredibly tiny, glowing "quantum dots" to track the miniscule motions of myosin V in living cells. Interestingly, both research groups independently report that myosin V molecules carry their quantum dot cargo either in a straight line or in a manner akin to a drunken walk.
Myosin V is a motor molecule that "walks" in a fashion similar to humans by stepping along actin filament tracks that are assembled in a dense, criss-crossing network inside the cell. A critical feature of these motors is their ability to walk long distances without falling off their tracks. However, this has never been observed within cells. Through the binding of quantum dots directly to a single myosin V molecule, both investigative teams used sophisticated microscopes and sensitive cameras to witness the 72 nanometer strides (equivalent to 1 millionth of an inch) taken by these motors for the first time in cells.
In results published in the May 20th 2009 issue of Biophysical Journal, Dr. Giovanni Cappello from the Institut Curie in Paris, France tracked the movement of single myosin V molecules with inside living HeLa cells. Dr. Cappello and colleagues reported that the myosin V can transport cargo for long distances without falling off its track at velocities higher than would be expected based on earlier studies. "Our approach goes beyond conventional experiments on organelles and opens interesting perspectives for studying intracellular transport pathways and how motors behave in complex filament networks," says Dr. Cappello.
Dr. David Warshaw and colleagues from the University of Vermont College of Medicine used quantum dots to follow the activity of myosin V in COS-7 cells. Their findings, published in the July 22nd 2009 issue of the journal, suggested that myosin V's apparent drunken walk is in fact the motor taking turns at almost every intersection it encounters along the dense and randomly oriented intracellular actin highway. "Cargo delivery in cells can't totally be a random process, therefore, using the approach described here we can characterize how motors and cargo link up and understand the engineering design principles Mother Nature uses to guarantee efficient and effective delivery of cargo within cells," offers Dr. Warshaw.
Researchers include Shane R. Nelson, M. Yusuf Ali, Kathleen M. Trybus, David M. Warshaw, of the department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36217000 |
A professor with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has won a $2.1 million grant to study the best ways to modify human immune cells to fight against cancer.
Navin Varadarajan, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, won the grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its National Cancer Institute to conduct this immunotherapy study.
Immunotherapy, one of the most promising avenues of cancer research and treatment, involves a process in which human immune cells are modified and trained to fight hard-to-treat tumors.
Varadarajan's research focuses on engineered T cells, immune cells that, among other functions, recognize and attack disease cells. One immunotherapy approach involves modifying naturally occurring T cells to fight cancer cells. Known as chimeric antigen receptor T cells, or CAR T cells for short, these cells have proven effective in combating some cancers that are particularly difficult to treat.
"In response to tumor recognition, CAR T cells can proliferate within the patient. Unlike traditional drugs that are removed from the body, these cells can multiply. The better these CAR T cells proliferate and survive within the host, the better the chances of getting rid of the tumor," said Varadarajan.
Among the cancers that have been responsive to CAR T cell therapy are B-cell lymphomas such as leukemia. This therapy, in combination with other immunotherapy techniques, has achieved impressive clinical successes in fighting B-cell lymphomas that are otherwise considered untreatable outside of stem cell transplantation.
Researchers and clinicians, though, don't know exactly what properties of these CAR T cells are responsible for their clinical success.
Varadarajan will use a novel research tool of his own design to study individual CAR T cells. The tool, dubbed the nanowell array, is a polymer slide containing tens of thousands of individual chambers, each 125 picoliters. At this size, the chambers are the perfect size to isolate and study individual cells.
In this project, Varadarajan will expose CAR T cells used to fight these lymphomas to a nanowell array. The individual cells trapped in the array's chambers will then be studied to determine their individual properties relating to their ability to fight cancer, such as their ability to kill tumor cells and what molecules they produce to communicate with other immune cells.
Cells from the same batches will also be infused into patients, allowing researchers to correlate CAR T cell properties with clinical outcomes over the course of months, effectively allowing them to identify which modified T cells are most effective at fighting cancer.
The research won't stop with this identification, though. Three to six months after infusion, Varadarajan and his collaborators will take blood from their patients and isolate their CAR T cells. Once again using the nanowell array, Varadarajan will isolate and study these cells, most of which will be several generations removed from the cells the patients originally received. He will then determine how well those daughter cells maintain the properties that make them effective cancer fighters.
By singling out those CAR T cells that are most effective and most long-lived, Varadarajan said researchers should be able to design better treatment regimens.
"Immunotherapy is at the forefront of cancer treatment and research. In some cases it has actually resulted in complete remission," he said. "To help the most people, though, we've got to understand exactly what properties of engineered cells are most effective at fighting cancer. This research will help us quickly identify those properties so they can be included in the future rounds of research and clinical trials."
Varadarajan's collaborators on this project include Laurence Cooper, a physician and researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who will create the CAR T cells being studied; Badrinath Roysam, chairman of UH's electrical and computer engineering department, who will use his FARSIGHT histopathology software suite to track cell movement inside the chambers of the nanowell array; and Peng Qiu, an assistant professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at MD Anderson who will perform data analysis.
Varadarajan also emphasized the key role Cullen College graduate students in both his and Roysam's labs will play in this project. Not only will they be involved in the research itself, it was through their efforts that the investigation earned funding in the first place, he said.
"The ability of our graduate students and postdocs to work together and to address scientific and engineering challenges was essential in generating the data required to successfully apply for this grant. Their efforts demonstrate the ability of UH graduate students to lead cutting-edge research projects."
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36218000 |
A much neglected part of the obesity epidemic is that it has resulted in more overweight/obese women before and during pregnancy. Their offspring also tend to have higher birth weights and more body fat, and carry an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases later in life. However, the nutritional factors and mechanisms involved pre and during pregnancy that may influence child obesity remain uncertain. A recent publication by ILSI Europe identifies and discusses key contributing factors leading to obesity.
In an article recently published in Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, potential key contributors to obesity, including nutrition, during and after pregnancy were identified. Prenatal factors may include maternal diet, gestational weight gain and metabolic perturbations during pregnancy. Postnatal diet and feeding practices along with activity patterns and family lifestyle may also modify or determine the long-term health risks.
A majority of clinical studies have examined maternal dietary information in isolation. Combining the large number of current maternal and infant studies and including analysis of both sets of nutritional data would be a great step forward. The publication indicates that "this introduces the challenge of how to unify the findings made, as each study varies considerably in the breadth and depth of dietary data collected".
In addition, with regard to gestational weight gain, Prof Michael Symonds, University of Nottingham, UK highlighted that it "should not be used on its own but in a larger context. It should be complemented by measures of body composition, metabolic and endocrine responses in the mother and offspring". Better knowledge of these contributors and the mechanisms involved could result in more targeted nutritional advice to women, especially those that are obese, to improve nutrition and health status before, during or after pregnancy. It is vitally important to prevent (the development of) excess fat mass to both the mother's own, and their infant's future health.
The publication summarises the conclusions of a workshop organised by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe in October 2011. This work has been commissioned by the Metabolic Imprinting Task Force of ILSI Europe.
To read the publication, click here: http://www.ilsi.org/Europe/Pages/ViewItemDetails.aspx?WebId=84D7FA4A-0FD5-40CD-A49A-2DA6FCDFD654&ListId=0348EB34-DF85-49DD-9ADE-77ED136643F1&ItemID=332.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36219000 |
Salomon de Caus
Caus or Caux, Salomon de (both: sälōmôNˈ də kō) [key] 1576–1626, French engineer and physicist, educated in England. From 1614 to 1620 he was engineer to the Elector Palatine, Frederick, at Heidelberg. Because of his Les Raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines (1615), an early exposition of the principle of steam power, he has been considered the originator of the steam engine.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Technology: Biographies | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36227000 |
February 24, 2010
The Real Have-Nots In Confederation: British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario
This policy study analyzes Canada’s equalization program to compare government services in the have and have-not provinces to discover if the residents in recipient provinces end up with more-generous public services than those who pay part of the bill, i.e., those in the have provinces whose tax transfers subsidize the former.
For the purposes of a longer-term look at equalization, Ontario is treated as a have province in this analysis despite the fact that it is receiving equalization payments in 2009-2010. This study considers it a have province because these payments are small relative to population and, taken together with other transfers, Ontario still contributes substantially more money to the federation than it receives in transfers and federal services.
Similarly, while Newfoundland has technically not received any equalization payments since the 2007-2008 budget year, it receives payments akin to equalization under a 1985 accord that will total $465-million in the current fiscal year (2009-2010). In broad terms, over the last three decades, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario have been the main contributors to equalization (with a further qualification that British Columbia briefly received equalization early in this century). The other provinces have been the recipients.
How the have provinces lose out under equalization
The evidence presented in this paper strongly suggests that, in many important areas, levels of government service in the traditional and largest have provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are significantly below those that exist in most recipient provinces. Specifically, the data suggest that large transfers allow recipient provinces to spend more freely on a range of government services including health and education.
A comparison between British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario on the one hand and Quebec on the other in terms of government service levels helps to illustrate this point. Quebec is the largest recipient of equalization money; it will receive almost $8.4-billion in 2009-2010 out of a total equalization budget of $14.2-billion for the six receiving provinces, or 59 per cent of all equalization transfers. The billions of dollars in equalization transfers received by Quebec each year from taxpayers in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario (and as of late, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland) are used to provide service levels far beyond what is provided in the paying provinces.
View entire study as PDF (39 Pages)
is Assistant Research Director and Senior Policy Analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Ben holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance. Since joining Frontier in 2009, Ben has completed major research papers on a wide variety of policy issues. He has authored papers on early childhood education policy, university tuition policy and Canadian fiscal federalism, among other topics. He is the lead researcher for Frontier’s two major inter-jurisdictional comparisons of healthcare system performance. Ben has co-authored a number of policy studies about environmental policy with Dr. Kenneth Green of the American Enterprise Institute. Ben has presented the findings of his research in dozens of radio and television interviews, and his op-ed commentaries have been published in the National Post as well as in major regional newspapers including the Winnipeg Free Press, the Calgary Herald, The Gazette and the Toronto Sun.
Click for a high-res photo | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36233000 |
When it comes to stretches prior to a sporting event, many athletes choose forms of dynamic stretching to get their muscles and limbs ready for intense activity. Stretching plays a vital role in preparing the body for many sports, but athletes generally have to walk a fine line between the kinds of stretches that adequately utilize the body's response, and those that may invite injury. Dynamic stretching represents a "middle of the road" option that is usually safe for most players.
The term dynamic stretching refers to a stretch that is an extension of a normal motion. By contrast, static stretching is when the person doing the stretch is not in motion, except for the targeted, steady motion of the stretch. On the other extreme, there's ballistic stretching, where athletes force limbs and joints to try to grow a range of motion.
Although opinions differ, trainers generally know that ballistic stretching just prior to an event can be a cause of injury. Dynamic stretching is often the way to go for getting geared up for many sports. Here are some of the athletes who can benefit from dynamic stretching.
Dynamic Stretching for Soccer
Soccer players can use dynamic stretching with leg activities that will prepare them for some of their roles on the field. These can include knee raises or heel kicks, where slow, steady extension of a range of motion can help get the legs used to the flexibility they will need for driving the ball toward a goal.
Dynamic Stretching for Basketball
Basketball players often use a varied menu of dynamic stretching exercises to fit what they will be doing on the court. These can include forward or backward lunges, knee raises, a raised leg walk (where legs go up with each step to touch the extended arms, for more leg flexibility during play), and much more.
Dynamic Stretching for Tennis
High steps, arm circles and jogging in place are some of what tennis players may do with dynamic stretching before a match.
Dynamic Stretching for Boxing
Trunk rotations and arm swings are among the most popular stretching exercises for this sport. Many trainers recommend including dynamic training in boxing prep, because the targeted movements are specific to the demands placed on the body during a bout.
Dynamic Stretching for Football
Due to the rough nature of the sport, football players often subject themselves to a battery of stretches before venturing on the field. Any and all of the above might make up a football warm-up regimen, as many of the body's muscle groups are used in the sport, and many parts of the body are vulnerable.
Many other sports use dynamic stretching exercises. A lot of these are generally the same and focus on either the upper body, the lower body or a combination. Many dynamic stretches, including some of those above, focus on the hip, knee and ankle joints that carry a lot of the body's weight during athletic activities. Talk to your coach or trainer about what dynamic stretching can do for a pre-game routine or a personal fitness session. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36252000 |
Fletcher Allen, a Vermont university hospital and medical center, serves all of
Vermont and the northern New York region. Located in Burlington, Fletcher Allen is a regional, academic healthcare center and teaching hospital in alliance with the University of Vermont.
National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.
It is possible that the main title of the report Pediatric Cardiomyopathy is not the name you expected. Please check the synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and disorder subdivision(s) covered by this report.
- arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC)
- asymmetrical septal hypertrophy
- familial congestive cardiomyopathy
- familial dilated cardiomyopathy (FDC)
- hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM)
- idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
- idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis
- non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)
- dilated cardiomyopathy
- hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)
- restrictive cardiomyopathy
Pediatric cardiomyopathy is a rare heart condition that affects infants and children. Specifically, cardiomyopathy means disease of the heart muscle (myocardium). Several different types of cardiomyopathy exist and the specific symptoms vary from case to case. In some cases, no symptoms may be present (asymptomatic); in many cases, cardiomyopathy is a progressive condition that may result in an impaired ability of the heart to pump blood; fatigue; heart block; irregular heartbeats (tachycardia); and, potentially, heart failure and sudden cardiac death.
Cardiomyopathy may be termed ischemic or nonischemic. Ischemic cardiomyopathy refers to cases that occur due to a lack of blood flow and oxygen (ischemia) to the heart. Such cases often result from hardening of the arteries (coronary artery disease). Nonischemic cardiomyopathy refers to cases that occur due to structural damage or malfunction of the heart muscle. Nearly all cases of pediatric cardiomyopathy are nonischemic. This report deals with nonischemic pediatric cardiomyopathy.
Cardiomyopathy may also be termed primary or secondary. Primary cardiomyopathy refers to cases where cardiomyopathy occurs by itself or for unknown reasons (idiopathic). Secondary cardiomyopathy refers to cases where the disease occurs secondary to a known cause such as heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis) caused by viral or bacterial infections; exposure to certain toxins such as heavy metals or excessive alcohol use; or certain disorders that affect the heart and/or additional organs systems. According to the Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry, approximately 79 percent of pediatric cardiomyopathy cases occur for unknown reasons (idiopathic).
Nonischemic cardiomyopathy may be further divided into four subtypes based upon the specific changes within the heart. These subtypes are: dilated, hypertrophic, restrictive and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.
American Heart Association
8200 Brookriver Drive
Dallas, TX 75247
NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
P.O. Box 30105
Bethesda, MD 20892-0105
Montgomery Heart Foundation for Cardiomyopathy
1830 E. Monument St./Suite 7300
Baltimore, MD 21205
Chiltern Court, Unit 10
Bucks, Intl HP5 2PX
Tel: +44 (0)1494 791224
Fax: +44 (0)1494 797199
Tel: 0800 018 1024
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association
328 Green Pond Rd
P.O. Box 306
Hibernia, NJ 07842
Cardiac Arrhythmias Research and Education Foundation, Inc. (C.A.R.E)
427 Fulton Street
P.O. Box 69
Seymour, WI 54165
Kids With Heart ~ National Association for Children's Heart Disorders, Inc.
P.O Box 12504
Green Bay, WI 54307-2504
Little Hearts, Inc.
P.O. Box 171
110 Court Street, Suite 3A
Cromwell, CT 06416
Congenital Heart Information Network (C.H.I.N.)
101 N Washington Ave, Suite 1A
Margate City, NJ 08402-1195
Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation
PO Box 547
Tenafly, NJ 07670
Genetic and Rare Diseases (GARD) Information Center
PO Box 8126
Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8126
Irish Heart Foundation
4 Clyde Road
Tel: +353 1 6685001
Fax: +353 1 6685896
For a Complete Report
This is an abstract of a report from the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). A copy of the complete report can be downloaded free from the NORD website for registered users. The complete report contains additional information including symptoms, causes, affected population, related disorders, standard and investigational therapies (if available), and references from medical literature. For a full-text version of this topic, go to www.rarediseases.org and click on Rare Disease Database under "Rare Disease Information".
The information provided in this report is not intended for diagnostic purposes. It is provided for informational purposes only. NORD recommends that affected individuals seek the advice or counsel of their own personal physicians.
It is possible that the title of this topic is not the name you selected. Please check the Synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and Disorder Subdivision(s) covered by this report
This disease entry is based upon medical information available through the date at the end of the topic. Since NORD's resources are limited, it is not possible to keep every entry in the Rare Disease Database completely current and accurate. Please check with the agencies listed in the Resources section for the most current information about this disorder.
For additional information and assistance about rare disorders, please contact the National Organization for Rare Disorders at P.O. Box 1968, Danbury, CT 06813-1968; phone (203) 744-0100; web site www.rarediseases.org or email email@example.com
Last Updated: 8/26/2010
Copyright 2003, 2010 National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.
Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36255000 |
The fatal connection
between a flock of American white Pelicans and a Cessna Citation 500 business jet at 3,100ft over a lake in Oklahoma in March 2008 is the fuel behind some new safety recommendations issued by the US National Transportation Safety Board yesterday.
The collision with one or more of birds, which tend to weigh on average about 20lb according to the Smithsonian's Natural Museum of History, took out the right engine but more crucially, damaged the aircraft's wings to the point that it was uncontrollable.
The resulting spiral, simulated by the NTSB below, sent the two pilots and three passengers to their deaths.
After some rehashing of radar data, investigators determined which clutter was most likely the flock of pelicans in the vicinity at the time. Blue dots indicate pelicans while the aircraft's track after it departed the Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma is in yellow.
Here's the ultimate result of the collision...
First, an image from a surveillance video camera in the vicinity.
Then the final outcome...
What can be done?
The NTSB made 10 new recommendations, some dealing with how the aircraft was operated, but others focused on mitigating the increasing frequency with which birds and aircraft are meeting.
The simplest strategy, other than see-and-avoid, is to give pilots an understanding of the bird strike energy for which their aircraft are certified. Under Part 25 certification rules, a Cessna Citation 500 must be able to sustain a hit to the wing of a 4lb bird at cruise speed and be able to continue flying. and perform a safe landing.
The image below shows the damage caused by a 4lb bird at a cruise speed of 287kt...
The empennage must be able to handle an 8lb bird at cruise speeds.
The trick is to figure out how fast the airplane can then hit a 20lb pelican, assuming the pilot obtains information that such birds are in the area.
Based in the laws of physics (kinetic energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity-squared), the equivalent energy of the 4lb at 287kt is 14,586 ft-lb, according to the NTSB.
To stay below that energy, the aircraft would have to be traveling at 128kt or slower when it hits a 20lb pelican, according to my calculations. It's a large decrease in speed, but one that might be worth considering an aircraft's brief duration at such low altitudes, given the consequences..
What's the old saying - "An ounce of prevention is worth a lb of cure"? | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36256000 |
GREG WHITELEY, managing director of Whiteley Corporation, provides some advice on ensuring effective office washroom hygiene.
There are two key occupational health and safety (OHS) issues with maintaining washrooms. First, the transmission of infection, which results in increased sick leave and may lead to serious health issues. Second, floors that are not cleaned properly can become slippery, which can lead to slip accidents.
Germs and bacteria – including bacteria, pathogens, viruses, prions and fungi – thrive in moist areas and can be found in every public washroom. Many workplaces have shower blocks and additional care is needed to prevent staff from catching and spreading infections. Bacteria can be spread into the air every time a toilet is flushed and settle onto any surface in the washroom. In fact, recent work supports the view that the toilet should always be flushed with the lid down.
The bacteria typically encountered in washrooms include Staphylococcus, Salmonella and E. Coli. Other bacteria, including multi-resistant organism (MRO) superbugs are also prevalent in washrooms. In addition, shower blocks are a key area for the transmission of Tinea. Blood and body fluid are less likely to be found, but if present can harbour viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis B. Bacteria and fungi thrive in soiled conditions and within any soap scum, so clean surfaces are essential for good hygiene.
COMBATING THE TRANSMISSION OF INFECTION
Unfortunately, not all office employees follow the basics of hygiene, such as washing their hands after using the toilet. An infected person can transfer these bugs onto any surface they touch, including toilets, shower handles, sink faucets and doors. The ‘high touch objects’ and surfaces in bathrooms, especially doors, are extreme high risk areas for picking up germs and bugs. Even though users of the lavatory may wash their hands, they may pick up unwanted bacteria on the door when they leave the washroom.
It is very easy for germs and bacteria to be spread from bathrooms into the workplace without proper hand hygiene. Hand hygiene is recognised as the single most important factor of an effective infection prevention and control program. Effective hand hygiene practices help to reduce infections in the workplace.
Along with washing hands after using a bathroom, instant hand hygiene products that can be used anywhere without the need of water dramatically improve hand hygiene and help prevent the spread of workplace illness including colds, flu and diarrhoea.
A new generation of instant hand hygiene products has become available that improves hand hygiene and reduces infection risks. Alcohol-free, non-flammable, non-toxic, non-hazardous, instant hand sanitisers that kill 99.9 percent of germs have been developed to be used by workers where traditional alcohol-based hand rubs present a significant OHS risk. Alcohol-based hand rubs are classified as dangerous goods, as a potential fuel source, and require special storage conditions that increase risk in the workplace.
A PROPER CLEANING ROUTINE
New products also available in the marketplace for a proper cleaning routine use a mildly acidic (non-chlorinated) heavy-duty bathroom disinfectant/cleaner. These products are designed to remove soiling, kill germs and sanitise surfaces, therefore improving the overall hygiene of the bathroom and, in turn, significantly reducing the incidence of infection. Large scale application can be conducted via a foaming gun to save labour.
Facilities managers who want to improve cleaning standards need to review current methods and products being used to ensure they are obtaining the best OHS outcomes for an office facility’s staff. Product choice should be made on the basis of proven bug-killing results, which are regulated by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. The right product and method choice should leave washrooms clean and stop the transmission of infections between staff. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36259000 |
Brian Domitrovic, Contributor
I write about history, economics, and the supply-side revolution
Every nation has its “founding myth,” as we are apt to hear from post-modern quarters. But is this ever true when it comes to our economic history. In curricula from K-12 to history graduate school, it is staple fare that as a new nation in the early nineteenth century, the United States nurtured its “infant industry” into adulthood by having a protective tariff that kept out cheap mass-made European goods. After a century of trade protectionism, the story goes, U.S. industry was so strong that it was the most productive in the world.
You can find this argument everywhere in historical scholarship and commentary, from textbook to shining sea. There is no need to name names; if you’re someone in American historiography, you’ve made or otherwise acquiesced to this argument.
And yet it has never rung true in economics. Free trade is a major verity in that discipline, and for good reason. The case for it has been made nine ways to Sunday. In 1936, for example, the Adam Smith contention that tariffs make the domestic economy poorer got a powerful analytical lift in the elaboration of the “Lerner symmetry.” The point – proven geometrically by economist Abba Lerner – is that tariffs hurt exporters as much as they help home industries. When a tariff raises the price level, enabling marginal domestic producers to survive, it also raises the cost of inputs to exporters. The whole thing is a wash as goes trade, and things are more expensive.
So how did the tariff nurture infant industries back in the old days again? It didn’t, as has been the consensus in economics for decades. But given that economists can draw (as in graphs) and mark up equations better than they can write, the word never really got out. Historians, untutored in economics, and more interested in politics, society, and culture, followed the path of least resistance and associated the prodigious growth of the American economy in the 19th century with the fact that there was a tariff all the while.
Well, this holiday is about to come to an end. The dissertation recently completed by political scientist Phillip W. Magness (of the Institute for Humane Studies and American University) lays out the whole thing. Magness shows that it is nonsensical to hold that a reduction in aggregate real income – the necessary result of a tariff – could possibly cause an industrial boom. He essentially offers to introduce American history to American economic history, and bids that a new central narrative be written. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36264000 |
OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRINCE AND A TYRANT AND OF WHAT IS MEANT BY A PRINCE.
Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant. It is by virtue of the law that he makes good his claim to the foremost and chief place in the management of the affairs of the commonwealth and in the bearing of its burdens; and his elevation over others consists in this, that whereas private men are held responsible only for their private affairs, on the prince fall the burdens of the whole community. Wherefore deservedly there is conferred on him, and gathered together in his hands, the power of all his subjects, to the end that he may be sufficient unto himself in seeking and bringing about the advantage of each individually, and of all; and to the end that the state of the human commonwealth may be ordered in the best possible manner, seeing that each and all are members one of another. Wherein we indeed but follow nature, the best guide of life; for nature has gathered together all the senses of her microcosm or little world, which is man, into the head, and has subjected all the members in obedience to it in such wise that they will all function properly so long as they follow the guidance of the head, and the head remains sane. Therefore the prince stands on a pinnacle which is exalted and made splendid with all the great and high privileges which he deems necessary for himself. And rightly so, because nothing is more advantageous to the people than that the needs of the prince should be fully satisfied; since it is impossible that his will should be found opposed to justice. Therefore, according to the usual definition, the prince is the public power, and a kind of likeness on earth of the divine majesty. Beyond doubt a large share of the divine power is shown to be in princes by the fact that at their nod men bow their necks and for the most part offer up their heads to the axe to be struck off, and, as by a divine impulse, the prince is feared by each of those over whom he is set as an object of fear. And this I do not think could be, except as a result of the will of God. For all power is from the Lord God, and has been with Him always, and is from everlasting. The power which the prince has is therefore from God, for the power of God is never lost, nor severed from Him, but He merely exercises it through a subordinate hand, making all things teach His mercy or justice. "Who, therefore, resists the ruling power, resists the ordinance of God," [Romans 13:2] in whose hand is the authority of conferring that power, and when He so desires, of withdrawing it again, or diminishing it. For it is not the ruler's own act when his will is turned to cruelty against his subjects, but it is rather the dispensation of God for His good pleasure to punish or chasten them. Thus during the Hunnish persecution, Attila, on being asked by the reverend bishop of a certain city who he was, replied, "I am Attila, the scourge of God." Whereupon it is written that the bishop adored him as representing the divine majesty. "Welcome," he said, "is the minister of God," and "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," and with sighs and groans he unfastened the barred doors of the church, and admitted the persecutor through whom he attained straightway to the palm of martyrdom. For he dared not shut out the scourge of God, knowing that His beloved Son was scourged, and that the power of this scourge which had come upon himself was as nought except it came from God. If good men thus regard power as worthy of veneration even when it comes as a plague upon the elect, who should not venerate that power which is instituted by God for the punishment of evil-doers and for the reward of good men, and which is promptest in devotion and obedience to the laws? To quote the words of the Emperor, "it is indeed a saying worthy of the majesty of royalty that the prince acknowledges himself bound by the Laws." [Justinian, Codex I.14.4] For the authority of the prince depends upon the authority of justice and law; and truly it is a greater thing than imperial power for the prince to place his government under the laws, so as to deem himself entitled to do nought which is at variance with the equity of justice.
WHAT THE LAW IS; AND THAT ALTHOUGH THE PRINCE IS NOT BOUND BY THE LAW, HE IS NEVERTHELESS THE SERVANT OF THE LAW AND OF EQUITY, AND BEARS THE PUBLIC PERSON, AND SHEDS BLOOD BLAMELESSLY.
Princes should not deem that it detracts from their princely dignity to believe that the enactments of their own justice are not to be preferred to the justice of God, whose justice is an everlasting justice, and His law is equity. Now equity, as the learned jurists define it, is a certain fitness of things which compares all things rationally, and seeks to apply like rules of right and wrong to like cases, being impartially disposed toward all persons, and allotting to each that which belongs to him. Of this equity the interpreter is the law, to which the will and intention of equity and justice are known. Therefore Crisippus asserted that the power of the law extends over all things, both divine and human, and that it accordingly presides over all goods and ills, and is the ruler and guide of material things as well as of human beings. To which Papinian, a man most learned in the law, and Demosthenes, the great orator, seem to assent, subjecting all men to its obedience because all law is, as it were, a discovery, and a gift from God, a precept of wise men, the corrector of excesses of the will, the bond which knits together the fabric of the state, and the banisher of crime; [Digest I.3.1-2] and it is therefore fitting that all men should live according to it who lead their lives in a corporate political body. All are accordingly bound by the necessity of keeping the law, unless perchance there is any who can be thought to have been given the license of wrong-doing. However, it is said that the prince is absolved from the obligations of the law; but this is not true in the sense that it is lawful for him to do unjust acts, but only in the sense that his character should be such as to cause him to practice equity not through fear of the penalties of the law but through love of justice; and should also be such as to cause him from the same motive to promote the advantage of the commonwealth, and in all things to prefer the good of others before his own private will. Who, indeed, in respect of public matters can properly speak of the will of the prince at all, since therein he may not lawfully have any will of his own apart from that which the law or equity enjoins, or the calculation of the common interest requires? For in these matters his will is to have the force of a judgment; and most properly that which pleases him therein has the force of law, because his decision may not be at variance with the intention of equity. "From thy countenance," says the Lord, "let my judgment go forth, let shine eyes look upon equity"; [Psalm 17:2] for the uncorrupted judge is one whose decision, from assiduous contemplation of equity, is the very likeness thereof. The prince accordingly is the minister of the common interest and the bond-servant of equity, and he bears the public person in the sense that he punishes the wrongs and injuries of all, and all crimes, with even-handed equity. His rod and staff also, administered with wise moderation, restore irregularities and false departures to the straight path of equity, so that deservedly may the Spirit congratulate the power of the prince with the words, "Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me." [Psalm 23:4] His shield, too, is strong, but it is a shield for the protection of the weak, and one which wards off powerfully the darts of the wicked from the innocent. Those who derive the greatest advantage from his performance of the duties of his office are those who can do least for themselves, and his power is chiefly exercised against those who desire to do harm. Therefore not without reason he bears a sword, wherewith he sheds blood blamelessly, without becoming thereby a man of blood, and frequently puts men to death without incurring the name or guilt of homicide. For if we believe the great Augustine, David was called a man of blood not because of his wars, but because of Uria. And Samuel is nowhere described as a man of blood or a homicide, although he slew Agag, the fat king of Amalech. Truly the sword of princely power is as the sword of a dove, which contends without gall, smites without wrath, and when it fights, yet conceives no bitterness at all. For as the law pursues guilt without any hatred of persons, so the prince most justly punishes offenders from no motive of wrath but at the behest, and in accordance with the decision, of the passionless law. For although we see that the prince has lictors of his own, we must yet think of him as in reality himself the sole or chief lictor, to whom is granted by the law the privilege of striking by a subordinate hand. If we adopt the Opinion of the Stoics, who diligently trace down the reason for particular words, "lictor" means "legis ictor," or "hammer of the law," because the duty of his office is to strike those who the law adjudges shall be struck. Wherefore anciently, when the sword hung over the head of the convicted criminal, the command was wont to be given to the officials by whose hand the judge punishes evil-doers, "Execute the sentence of the law," or "Obey the law," to the end that the misery of the victim might be mitigated by the calm reasonableness of the words.
THAT THE PRINCE IS THE MINISTER OF THE PRIESTS AND INFERIOR TO THEM; AND OF WHAT AMOUNTS TO FAITHFUL PERFORMANCE OF THE PRINCE'S MINISTRY.
This sword, then, the prince receives from the hand of the Church, although she herself has no sword of blood at all. Nevertheless she has this sword, but she uses it by the hand of the prince, upon whom she confers the power of bodily coercion, retaining to herself authority over spiritual things in the person of the pontiffs. The prince is, then, as it were, a minister of the priestly power, and one who exercises that side of the sacred offices which seems unworthy of the hands of the priesthood. For every office existing under, and concerned with the execution of, the sacred laws is really a religious office, but that is inferior which consists in punishing crimes, and which therefore seems to be typified in the person of the hangman. Wherefore Constantine, most faithful emperor of the Romans, when he had convoked the council of priests at Nicaea, neither dared to take the chief place for himself nor even to sit among the presbyters, but chose the hindmost seat. Moreover, the decrees which he heard approved by them he reverenced as if he had seen them emanate from the judgment-seat of the divine majesty. Even the rolls of petitions containing accusations against priests which they brought to him in a steady stream he took and placed in his bosom without opening them. And after recalling them to charity and harmony, he said that it was not permissible for him, as a man, and one who was subject to the judgment of priests, to examine cases touching gods, who cannot be judged save by God alone. And the petitions which he had received he put into the fire without even looking at them, fearing to give publicity to accusations and censures against the fathers, and thereby incur the curse of Cham, the undutiful son, who did not hide his father's shame. Wherefore he said, as is narrated in the writings of Nicholas the Roman pontiff, "Verily if with mine own eyes I had seen a priest of God, or any of those who wear the monastic garb, sinning, I would spread my cloak and hide him, that he might not be seen of any." Also Theodosius, the great emperor, for a merited fault, though not so grave a one, was suspended by the priest of Milan from the exercise of his regal powers and from the insignia of his imperial office, and patiently and solemnly he performed the penance for homicide which was laid upon him. Again, according to the testimony of the teacher of the gentiles, greater is he who blesses man than he who is blessed; [Hebrews 7:7] and so he in whose hands is the authority to confer a dignity excels in honor and the privileges of honor him upon whom the dignity itself is conferred. Further, by the reasoning of the law it is his right to refuse who has the power to grant, and he who can lawfully bestow can lawfully take away. [Digest I.17.3] Did not Samuel pass sentence of deposition against Saul by reason of his disobedience, and supersede him on the pinnacle of kingly rule with the lowly son of Ysai? [Jesse] But if one who has been appointed prince has performed duly and faithfully the ministry which he has undertaken, as great honor and reverence are to be shown to him as the head excels in honor all the members of the body. Now he performs his ministry faithfully when he is mindful of his true status, and remembers that he bears the person of the universitas of those subject to him; and when he is fully conscious that he owes his life not to himself and his own private ends, but to others, and allots it to them accordingly, with duly ordered charity and affection. Therefore he owes the whole of himself to God, most of himself to his country, much to his relatives and friends, very little to foreigners, but still somewhat. He has duties to the very wise and the very foolish, to little children and to the aged. Supervision over these classes of persons is common to all in authority, both those who have care over spiritual things and those who exercise temporal jurisdiction. Wherefore Melchisedech, the earliest whom the Scripture introduces as both king and priest (to say nought at present concerning the mystery wherein he prefigures Christ, who was born in heaven without a mother and on earth without a father); of him, I say, we read that he had neither father nor mother, not because he was in fact without either, but because in the eyes of reason the kingly power and the priestly power are not born of flesh and blood, Since in bestowing either, regard for ancestry ought not to prevail over merits and virtues, but only the wholesome wishes of faithful subjects should prevail; and when anyone has ascended to the supreme exercise of either power, he ought wholly to forget the affections of flesh and blood, and do only that which is demanded by the safety and welfare of his subjects. And so let him be both father and husband to his subjects, or, if he has known some affection more tender still, let him employ that; let him desire to be loved rather than feared, and show himself to them as such a man that they will out of devotion prefer his life to their own, and regard his preservation and safety as a kind of public life; and then all things will prosper well for him, and a small bodyguard will, in case of need, prevail by their loyalty against innumerable adversaries. For love is strong as death; and the wedge [a military formation] which is held together by strands of love is not easily broken.
When the Dorians were about to fight against the Athenians they consulted the oracles regarding the outcome of the battle. The reply was that they would be victorious if they did not kill the king of the Athenians. When they went to war their soldiers were therefore enjoined above all else to care for the safety of the king. At that time the king of the Athenians was Codrus, who, learning of the response of the god and the precautions of the enemy, laid aside his royal garb and entered the camp of the enemy bearing faggots on his back. Men tried to bar his way and a disturbance arose in the course of which he was killed by a soldier whom he had struck with his pruninghook. When the king's body was recognized, the Dorians returned home without fighting a battle. Thus the Athenians were delivered from the war by the valor of their leader, who offered himself up to death for the safety of his country. Likewise Ligurgus in his reign established decrees which confirmed the people in obedience to their princes, and the princes in just principles of government; he abolished the use of gold and silver, which are the material of all wickedness, he gave to the senate guardianship over the laws and to the people the power of recruiting the senate; he decreed that virgins should be given in marriage without a dowry to the end that men might make choice of wives and not of money; he desired the greatest honor to be bestowed upon old men in proportion to their age; and verily nowhere else on earth does old age enjoy a more honored station. Then, in order to give perpetuity to his laws, he bound the city by an oath to change nothing of his laws until he should return again. He thereupon set out for Crete and lived there in perpetual exile; and when he died, he ordered his bones to be thrown into the sea for fear that if they should be taken back to Lacedaemon, they might regard themselves as absolved from the obligation of their oath in the matter of changing the laws.
These examples I employ the more willingly because I find that the Apostle Paul also used them in preaching to the Athenians. That excellent preacher sought to win entrance for Jesus Christ and Him crucified into their minds by showing from the example of many gentiles that deliverance had come through the ignominy of a cross. And he argued that this was not wont to happen save by the blood of just men and of those who bear the magistracy of a people. Carrying forward this line of thought, there could be found none sufficient to deliver all nations, to wit both Jews and gentiles, save One to whom all nations were given for His inheritance, and all the earth foreordained to be His possession. But this, he asserted, could be none other than the Son of the all-powerful Father, since none except God holds sway over all nations and all lands. While he preached in this manner the ignominy of the cross to the end that the folly of the gentiles might gradually be removed, he little by little bore upward the word of faith and the tongue of his preaching till it rose to the word of God, and God's wisdom, and finally to the very throne of the divine majesty, and then, lest the virtue of the gospel, because it has revealed itself under the infirmity of the flesh, might be held cheap by the obstinacy of the Jews and the folly of the gentiles, he explained to them the works of the Crucified One, which were further confirmed by the testimony of fame; since it was agreed among all that they could be done by none save God. But since fame frequently speaks untruth on opposite sides, fame itself was confirmed by the fact that His disciples were doing marvellous works; for at the shadow of a disciple those who were sick of any infirmity were healed. Why should I continue? The subtlety of Aristotle, the refinements of Crisippus, the snares of all the philosophers He confuted by rising from the dead.
How the Decii, Roman generals, devoted themselves to death for their armies, is a celebrated tale. Julius Caesar also said, "A general who does not labor to be dear to his soldiers' hearts does not know how to furnish them with weapons; does not know that a general's humaneness to his troops takes the place of a host against the enemy." He never said to his soldiers, "Go thither," but always "Follow me"; he said this because toil which is shared by the leader always seems to the soldier to be less hard. We have also his authority for the opinion that bodily pleasure is to be avoided; for he said that if in war men's bodies are wounded with swords, in peace they are no less wounded with pleasures. He had perceived, conqueror of nations as he was, that pleasure cannot in any way be so easily conquered as by avoiding it, since he himself who had subdued many nations had been snared in the toils of Venus by a shameless woman.
THAT IT IS ESTABLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE DIVINE LAW THAT THE PRINCE IS SUBJECT TO THE LAW AND TO JUSTICE.
But why do I thus resort to begging instances from the history of the gentiles, although they are at hand in countless numbers, seeing that men can be moved to deeds more directly by laws than by examples? That you may not, then, be of opinion that the prince is wholly absolved from the laws, hear the law which is enjoined upon princes by the Great King who is terrible over all the earth and who takes away the breath of princes: [Deuteronomy 17:14ff] "When thou art come," He says, "into the land which the Lord thy God shall give to thee, and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein and shalt say, 'I will set over me a king such as all the nations that are round about me have over them'; thou shalt appoint him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose from the number of thy brethren. Thou mayst not set over thee for thy king a man of another nation, who is not thy brother. And when he is made thy king, he shall not multiply the number of his horses, nor lead back the people into Egypt, made proud by the number of his horsemen; for the Lord hath enjoined upon thee that no more shalt thou return by that way. He shall not have many wives to turn away his heart, nor a great weight of silver and gold. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law of the Deuteronomy in a book, taken from the copy which is in the hands of the priests of the tribe of Levi, and he shall keep it with him and read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep His words and the rites of His worship which are prescribed in the law. And his heart shall not be lifted up in pride above his brethren, nor incline to the right hand nor to the left, to the end that his reign and his son's reign may be long over Israel." Need I ask whether one whom this law binds is restrained by no law? Surely this law is divine and cannot be broken with impunity. Every word thereof is a thunderclap in the ears of princes if they would be wise. I say nought concerning election, and the form thereof which is prescribed for the creation of a prince; rather attend with me for a little to the rule or formula of living which is enjoined upon him.
When there has been appointed, it is written, a man who professes himself a brother of the whole people in the practice of religion and in affection and charity, he shall not multiply unto himself horses, by the number whereof he may become a burden unto his subjects. For to multiply horses is to collect, from vainglory or some other error, more than need requires. Now "much" and "little," if we follow the prince of the Peripatetics, signify diminution or excess of the legitimate quantity of specific kinds of things. Will it then be lawful to multiply dogs, or rapacious birds, or fierce beasts, or any other monsters of nature, when even the number of horses, which are a military necessity - and serve all the useful purposes of life, is thus strictly limited in advance to a lawful quantity ? Concerning actors and mimes, buffoons and harlots, panders and other like human monsters, which the prince ought rather to exterminate entirely than to foster, there needed no mention to be made in the law; which indeed not only excludes all such abominations from the court of the prince, but totally banishes them from among the people of God. Under the name of horses is to be understood all things needful for the use of a household, and all its necessary equipment; of which a legitimate quantity is that which necessity or utility reasonably requires, understanding, however, that the useful is identified with the honorable, and that the refined comfort of living is limited to honorable things. For philosophers have long ago agreed that no opinion is more pernicious than the opinion of those who distinguish the useful from the honorable; and that the truest and most useful view is that the honorable and the useful are convertible terms. [Cicero, De Officiis iii.3.11] Plato, as is told in the histories of the gentiles, when he saw Dionisius the tyrant of Sicily surrounded by his bodyguards, asked him, "What harm have you done that you should need to have so many guards ?" This in no wise behooves a prince who by the faithful performance of his duties so wins for himself the affection of all that for his sake every subject will expose his own head to imminent dangers in the same manner that by the promptings of nature the members of the body are wont to expose themselves for the protection of the head. And skin for skin, and all that a man has, he will put forward for the protection of his life.
The next commandment is, "He shall not lead back the people into Egypt, made proud by the number of his horsemen." Truly every precaution must be taken, and great diligence used, by all who are set in high place not to corrupt their inferiors by their example, nor by their abuse of things, nor by following the way of pride and luxury to lead back the people into the darkness of confusion. For it often comes to pass that subjects imitate the vices of their superiors, because the people desire to be like their magistrates, and everyone will eagerly follow the appetites which he observes in another who occupies a distinguished station. There is a celebrated passage of the excellent versifier setting forth the opinion and words of the great Theodosius:
"If thou cost bid and decree that aught is to be commonly observed,
First obey thy decree thyself; then the people will be more observant of that which is just
And not refuse to bear it when they see the author thereof himself
Obey his own command. The world is shaped
To the model of its king, nor are edicts as effective
To influence the feelings of men as is the ruler's way of life.
The fickle people changes ever with its prince."
[Claud. IV. Consul. Hon. 296-302]
But the means of single individuals are of course never so great as the resources of the whole body. The individual draws from his own coffers, the ruling power drains the public chest or exhausts the treasury; and when this finally fails, then he has recourse to the means of private individuals. But private persons must be content with their own. And when this is exhausted, he who but now thirsted after the splendor of the rich and powerful, falls into poverty and disgrace, and blushes at the blackness of his confusion. Therefore by the decree of the Lacedemonians, a frugal use of the public funds was enjoined upon their rulers, although they were permitted to use according to the common laws their own inherited property and what they chanced to obtain by good fortune.
Source: The Statesmans Book of John of Salisbury. Translated by John Dickinson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927.
Etext file created for a class by Scott Mcletchie [firstname.lastname@example.org], and used by permission here.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
© Paul Halsall, October 1998 | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36265000 |
Time-of-use (TOU) pricing might seem like the ultimate solution to ensure electric vehicle charging loads won’t overburden the grid. But will TOU rates guide drivers’ behavior when it’s time to...
Structuring renewable agreements to survive change.
The potential for a federal renewable energy standard (RES) and carbon regulation, considered with the effect of state-imposed renewable energy standards, is fueling a strong, but challenging, market for renewable energy. Utilities are competing to sign up the best new projects, the types of renewable technologies available are increasing, and there are various government stimulus programs for energy; yet, the financial markets still are hesitant.
Against this backdrop, how should contracts for power from new renewable resources be shaped so that those deals will look as good five, 10 and 15 years after execution as on the day the ink dries? Some market trends, creative answers and best practices are emerging in the marketplace.
Legislative and regulatory changes are forcing utilities to “go green.” The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 , passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 26, 2009 (Waxman-Markey Bill), proposes a federal RES and roughly 30 states already have established their own standards—some mandatory, some advisory. The proposed federal RES would require each utility to obtain a portion of the energy that it delivers to consumers from renewable resources, starting at 6 percent in 2012 and increasing to 20 percent by 2021—with up to 25 percent of its obligation met by energy efficiency. A utility that fails to meet the requirement in any given year would be obligated to procure offsets or allowances from the market to cover the shortfall. Of course, final federal legislation might differ or include no federal standard at all. But even so, utilities must consider the possibility of adverse financial consequences under their state programs, where such programs exist. Further, the likelihood of federal carbon legislation being passed in the coming years provides another source of financial pressure.
Clean-tech investments in non-renewable resources, such as emerging carbon-sequestration technologies, may reduce the base amount against which renewable penetration is measured. For example, in the Waxman-Markey Bill, a utility’s achievement of its annual renewable target is measured by the proportion of generation met by renewable resources and energy-efficiency measures as compared to a base amount of megawatts sold at retail. But the base amount excludes clean generation, such as from a hydroelectric plant that doesn’t qualify as a renewable resource, new nuclear generation and the portion of fossil-fueled generation for which the associated greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions have been geologically sequestered. Thus, the mix of a utility’s resources, including its use of clean technologies other than renewable energy, can affect the amount of renewable power needed. Further, the decision to invest in renewable and clean-tech projects is strongly influenced by the expected market cost of carbon allowances, which in turn will be influenced by the market penetration of renewable and clean-tech projects.
The pressure on utilities to acquire renewables influences the balance of negotiating leverage between a utility | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36268000 |
Advanced Internet Searching – how to search the internet quicker and more effectively
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Web Search Engines
A web search engine is a web based service that searches for information on the web. It searches documents for key words and phrases that it has been asked to look for. When a person enters their query or key words the search engine searches through its index and displays all the results that may be matched with that query.
For example if you were looking for information on green tree frogs you would type “Green tree Frogs” into your search engine. The search engine will then display links to all the pages with information on Green Tree Frogs with ones most likely to match your search listed at the top.
There are a number of search engines you can use such as;
Multiple or meta search tools
A multiple or meta search tool is a tool that searches the internet using several search engines at the same time. You use them in the same way as a search engine by typing your request into the search box. The only difference is that instead of the search engine searching its records, the meta tool uses multiple search engines and their records and displays all the results giving you a fast and comprehensive way to cast a wide internet search.
Examples of meta search tools include:
There are also search engines that are specific to a particular field of study or work such as medical and legal search engines.
Conducting a search and refining your results
Here are some tips which will save you time and give you better results.
- To conduct a search you type key words into the Search Box.
Let’s say you want to buy books in Adelaide.
- Use more precise words—Instead of just typing ‘books’, try ‘bookshops Adelaide’.
- Use quotation marks to search for a specific phrase
If you are looking for an exact phrase you may not get good results by typing only the phrase into your search engine. A good tool for exact phrases is quotation marks. If you want to search for an exact phrase such as Pulitzer Prize winner you can enclose it in quotation marks and the search engine will only bring up pages that have that exact phrase in the exact order in which you typed it. That way you will not get hundreds of listing on Pulitzer Prizes or the nominees, you will only get Pulitzer Prize winners.
- Don’t use too many words—avoid typing in full questions, as every word will be searched for. Just use the key words.
If you are looking for a smaller or less known item such as a small bookshop it can be helpful to weed out the larger businesses. This can be done using a minus – sign in your search. Put a minus sign in front of terms you don’t want to search for. If you want to leave out shops owned by the Lola Bookshop Company, you could put ‘-Lola’ in your search terms so it reads “bookshops –Lola”.
If you’re only looking for pictures, click on the ‘Images’ link at the top or left of the search engine page and type your topic into the search field.
Remember that images you find on the Internet are usually copyright, meaning you can't use them in your own work unless you seek permission from the copyright holder.There are a number of websites where you can buy access to stock photography images such as www.bigstockphoto.com. You are able to use the stock photos in your own work.
Assessing a search—be careful what you read
- With so much information available, it’s important to think about search results and the quality of the information in them.
- Let’s say you want to find out about treatments for back pain and you search for ‘medicine back pain’. The results may contain articles by doctors, advertisements from pharmacology companies, personal opinions by sufferers and wild claims about untested miracle cures. How can you tell which information is useful to you?
An excellent approach is to think about:
- Currency—is the information up to date?
- Reliability—is the information mostly opinion? Is it balanced? Are there references and sources for any claims made?
- Authority—who wrote the information? What are their credentials? Are they reputable? Are there advertisements on the website?
- Purpose/point of view—is the information intended as opinion, fact or advertising?
Search tools and advanced search features
There are tools available to assist with more detailed and specific searches and some of these are identified below:
What is a Boolean Search?
- Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT and NEAR (known as Operators) to limit, widen, or define your search. Most Internet search engines default to a Boolean AND search, but its handy for you to know how to do a basic Boolean search.
- Boolean logic is just the term used to describe certain logical operations that are used to combine search terms in many search engine databases and directories on the Net.
Basic Boolean Search Operator - AND
Using AND narrows a search by combining terms; it will retrieve documents that use both the search terms that you specify, as in this example:
Adelaide AND South Australia
Basic Boolean Search Operator - OR
Using OR broadens a search to include results that contain either of the words you type in. OR is a good tool to use when there are several common spellings or synonyms of a word, as in this example:
computer OR pc
Basic Boolean Search Operator - NOT
- Using NOT will narrow a search by excluding certain search terms. NOT retrieves documents that contain one, but not the other, of the search terms you enter, as in this example:
Adelaide NOT travel.
Keep in mind that not all search engines and directories support Boolean terms. However, most do, and you can easily find out if the one you want to use supports this technique by consulting the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) on a search engine or directory's home page.
Further Search Operators include:
- NEAR means you want all the words in that specific order or the actual phrase.
- NAND means a combination of NOT and AND
- NOR means a combination of NOT and OR
Conduct a search with domain names to refine the search:
If you know the website you are looking for is specific type of website, for example a website for a government agency or a school can be identified by the last part of its web address.
- .com = a commercial business
- .edu = an educational institution
- .gov = a governmental institution
- .org = a non-profit organization
- .biz = a business
Example: to search for a South Australian Government website you would type “South Australia site:.sa.gov.au” into your search engine.
You can also select to search for websites from a specific country.
- .au = Australia
- .fr = France
- .co.uk = England
Example: for Holiday websites from Australia you would type “holidays site:.au” into your search engine. | fwe2-CC-MAIN-2013-20-36269000 |
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