text
stringlengths 166
589k
| __index_level_0__
int64 1
312k
|
|---|---|
Sound Blends Beautiful With Slapstick in Busy Bodies (1933)
How to look with fresh eyes upon something
you've watched a hundred times --- is it better to just let go? Sentiment, and
memory they evoke of 8mm collecting, assures my fidelity to Laurel and Hardy, renewed of late by Apple streaming
thelot in HD. Busy Bodies is carpentry and mayhem extreme even by this team's
reckoning, Hardy slung by machinery that would be death of a cartooned figure,
let alone a portly clown passing middle age. What I noted this round with Busy
Bodies was creative use of sound to punctuate slams and falls. It's the wham
what am funny as it accompanies Babe's repeated meet with a passing board.
Talkies were a boon to L&H not only in terms of ideal voicing, but sounds
they'd employ to punctuate slapstick. Did Stan supervise as closely effects we'd
hear as well as see? Roach creators built a library of noise as glue for gags
that might not register at all done silent. You could argue that sound opened
up whole new arenas for sight comedy, and yet visual humor took a slow sled
downward once screens began to talk. Busy Bodies demonstrates what comedy could
be when it addressed both senses.
| 213,249
|
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) While Mumbai police has been battling cybercrimes for years, the latest incident of hacking has come as a shock for the force, as the salary accounts of 14 police officials were hacked by criminals in Greece, who had cloned their ATM cards.
Hackers with cloned ATM cards of the 14 officials withdrew euros the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of rupees from ATMs in Greece. Mumbai police has now formed a special team to crack the latest hacking that has affected its own officials.
According to police sources, the salary accounts of 14 officials in Axis Bank, an Indian lender, were hacked as the criminal withdrew the money from ATMs in Greece. Security experts and even police officers from the cyber squad frequently caution people to be careful with their credit and debit cards, as criminals manage to scan the data and clone them on to blank cards, which they later use to withdraw funds.
Hackers usually copy the magnetic code on the cards, which are then transferred to blank cards and used to withdraw cash.
Last month, seven persons were arrested in the US for being involved in a global ATM racket.
The gang managed to siphon off 45 million in a matter of hours from ATMs in 27 countries around the globe. However, these hackers had managed to siphon data from bank databases and individual accounts were not hacked into. Many banks in India have started issuing cards with built-in chips and doing away with magnetic strips, which can be easily copied. But most merchants in the country still do not have readers for the chips and have to scan the magnetic codes.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, cyber crimes increased by a whopping nearly 60 per cent last year in India. Maharashtra topped the list with more than 560 cyber crimes reported in 2012 (as against less than 400 in 2011). Security experts here often advise consumers to keep an eye on their cards when they make payments, especially at restaurants and retail outlets. Some criminals, who take up jobs at these outlets as waiters or shop assistants, are known to wear scanners hidden inside their belts and quickly swipe the card when no one is watching to copy the data from the magnetic strip.
| 166,525
|
Searching for metals, caps, bottles, jewelry and similar items can be very interesting if you like this hobby. Collectors spend years following the valuable items that are still out there, waiting for someone to find them. Practicing this hobby on a daily basis can be exhausting as the lack of motivation may appear after few failed missions. To be successful in this field, you might spend months or even years until finding something that you will be proud of. This fact should not discourage you. Instead, you should be determined to find what others could not. History is a very important part of the humankind and every piece of it adds up the image of specific time we have in our minds. Bottles and bottle caps may not count as too old but they are getting older every day and the past centuries stay behind, we need something to remind us of them and how the things used to be. Taking into account that you are interested in antique items, you must love history and ancient times. That statement implies that you look deeper into our history and lives, which makes you special.
If you are considering this as your future hobby and are making the first steps, you might want to get informed at the beginning.
To start off, think of the kind of bottles or caps you want to collect and the reason for it. Is it a personal reason? Some brand that you like especially? Trying to collect old items? There could be many factors that will motivate you so take them into account when starting your research. Here are some of the tips of the things you should think about:
What Tools Do You Need?
Finding goods, especially old ones mostly requires digging and looking deeper than the others can see. For this reason, you should take all the necessary items and tools to help you do your research. You can take a small or large shovel, leather gloves and basic things with you or take a good metal detector that will help you detect the bottle caps easily. This way, you may find other items apart from the ones you were looking for. Getting dirty and sweaty are essential parts of this hobby so you have to be prepared. Apart from that, considering you are looking for sharp items, you should take the first aid with you in the case of cuts or injuries. Make sure you have everything you need because leaving out some of these items can make your research go to the wrong way or fail completely.
Where Can You Start?
When starting your research, you should think of the places you should visit first. Populated areas and down towns are less likely to give you any opportunity of finding old bottles and bottle caps, which is why you should search for less populated places. Along the river and the countryside seem like places where people would go to have some fun and spend some time drinking and forgetting about the bottles. Places that were used before could also be a good target. Digging under the surface and looking around carefully may surprise you and bring you some nice parts for your collection.
Search For Caps With The Name Printed On The Top
Bottle caps with prints on the side are not worth a lot because it eventually fades away so all you have left is a metal without a brand. They are not really useful so try looking for the ones with famous or rare names on them. Afterward, you can make a collection of the same brand that might be worth a lot for collectors, especially passionate ones. If the caps are old and are not being produced anymore, their value will probably be even higher.
Decide What You Want To Collect
Some collectors are looking for a specific brand and if you are not planning to do this research to keep the bottles and caps for yourself, you might try getting informed which bottles and caps are wanted by them and do your best to find them before anyone else. Some people want to revive the memories of someone or some specific time so they are looking for old items, no matter the cost. If you are lucky and consistent enough to find these exact pieces, you could benefit from it a lot.
Choose A Specific Style Of Bottle To Focus On Your Collection
You can focus on finding bottles and bottle caps of alcohol drinks or limit your collection to the bottles and caps of fizzy drinks. Another idea is to use a specific bottler, such as Anheuser-Busch or a particular brewery. Buy bottle caps that collectors refer to as stronger. This means that printing at the top of the bottle is clear and free of blemishes or damage. You should also be able to see all the images in the lid of the bottle and the colors should be clear, that increases the value of the bottle cap.
There are few things that define the worth of a bottle, some of them are:
- Historic significance
- Esthetic appeal
Collectors often get surprised by finding a very old bottle but without a huge value. The reason for this is the number of produced bottles that count in millions, which makes them less rare. However, there are some of the bottles with higher value than the others, some of them are:
- Rare Hutchinson Bottles
These bottles are the hardest to find out of Coca Cola collection. They were used through the middle 1890s to the early years of the 20th Century. It was a limited edition and that is why they are rare and hard to find. On the Petretti’s guide, these bottles in a good condition are worth from $2,500 to $4,000.
- Flavor Bottles
A long time ago, Coca-Cola company used to produce flavored drinks but they were not allowed to sell them with ‘’Coca-cola’’ mark so they were sold as ‘’flavored drinks’’. There were root beer, orange, strawberry and grape versions. These bottles are also rare and valuable.
- T Sumida & Hoffschlaeger Co Honolulu
These bottles come from Honolulu, place in Hawaii. Their special feature is the glass and the mark, making it clear that they come from Hawaii.
- Purple Amethyst Cheerwine Bottle
As the name implies, these bottles are purple and that is one of their main features. Cheerwine was produced long ago and is between the oldest fizzy drinks coming from North Carolina, USA. It is believed that purple amethyst has only 2 examples in the world and that makes it very rare and wanted by the collectors.
- Fawn Beverage
This brand was very popular in the category of fizzy drinks during the 1950s in the USA. Today, the company does not exist anymore but the collectors still appreciate the bottles and caps from it.
- Frosty Pepsi Cola
The special feature of this bottle was the frozen look it gave to the drinks. It was very popular throughout the 1920s-1930s and was especially attractive to the buyers wanting a refreshing drink during the hot and tiring day. Coca-Cola still has these frosty designed bottles but Pepsi ones are very rare or very expensive.
As previously said, collecting bottles and bottle caps can be very exciting, especially if you know exactly what to look for and how to do that. Finding valuable items is not always easy but the happiness after doing it is worth all the effort. If the profit is your only motivation then you can be sure that there will be many ways of selling or exchanging these bottles and bottle caps, once you find them and make a decent collection. E-bay and other online stores have many of these on sales and in case you need few items to complete your collection, you could also buy that last bottle from these websites and then sell them all together.
Apart from that, there may be antique shops or museums that could be intrigued by your finds; you just have to be patient. Patience is the crucial factor if you are planning to take this as your hobby. Getting annoyed or frustrated after days of not finding something worth mentioning is what you will face more than once. You have to be ready and not give up after first few obstacles. In the meantime, get more information about the places nearby that you could serve for your research and know more about valuable metals, bottles and bottle caps. Good luck!
| 31,603
|
A few weeks ago we were shopping at Michaels and they had these awesome plastic dinosaur feet stilts for kids. They were so cute! Caitlin immediately was drawn to them and wanted them. They weren’t expensive, but we try to make sure that our kids don’t get a toy every time we go somewhere. We don’t want them to learn to expect small payouts just because we went somewhere and they were well behaved. Sure we do that sometimes, but we don’t want it to be a regular practice. Anyway, Hubs said no when she asked for the stilts. (Probably also because she saw them and asked for them after we had already checked out.) I told her I could make her some kind of stilts to try out.
Sometimes I need to so a craft without all the pomp and circumstance. I have the need to keep it simple. This was just that craft. I saved a couple of tin cans from dinners and peeled the labels and washed them out. (Whoop whoop for recycle, reduce, reuse!) Hubs used a big spike-like nail to punch a couple of holes on either side of the cans. Then I used some twine that was sitting around and made handles. Stilts.
Sure I could have spray painted the cans some cutesy color, or found some other way to dress these old cans up. But not every thing has to be complicated does it??
Caitlin was so happy with her stilts. She thanked Mommy and Daddy without being prompted. So sweet! She was really excited to try them out.
They are a little difficult for her because the base isn’t really wide and she’s still learning balance. But what a better way to learn! I walked behind her and spotted her just in case she fell, but she did a good job of catching herself if/when she fell off.
And when she did get tired of trying to walk with them, she found a new way to use them. She took off running dragging those cans making music as she went. I mean really… sometimes it is all about the simplest things!
Linking up to these link parties.
© 2008 – 2012 Gingerly Made. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
| 31,617
|
The next morning we head into Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
As you can see, it's a unique kind of building, lots of glass with a kind of multiple pyramid thing going for it. It's a very cool building.
You may ask the question, as I did, why Cleveland? Shouldn't rock and roll be immortalized in a cool, vibrant, urban setting, like New York or Los Angeles, or even San Francisco? I think that's why they felt the need to put up this plaque explaining it all.
You see, the term Rock and roll was first used by Ohio disc jockey, Alan Freed in 1951. He created the first rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, on March 21st, 1951 at the Cleveland Arena. So the people of Ohio felt that since this is where it was all started, this is where they should build the Hall. And of course, this plaque.
Of couse, nothing is truly immortalized until we get a picture of Paul in front of it!
We went inside and The Drifters were playing. The actual Difters! Okay, they are a wee bit old at this point, but it was very cool.
This is where we got the bad news. Photography is strictly forbidden in the Hall. There are signs everywhere saying "Some contributors have donated to the museum with the restriction that their items cannot be filmed. Therefore, no photography is allowed."
Isn't it ironic that rock and roll, the music form of rebellion, of freedom and defiance, is represented in a hall that didn't say "You're a rock star for God's sake! What's wrong with letting people take pictures of your sequined glove?"
So even though the place is full of really cool stuff, I didn't get a lot of pictures.
We did see some pretty amazing things. Exhibits dedicated to everyone from Chuck Berry to Elvis. From James Brown to The Sex Pistols. About the early influences of rhythm and blues, and how the music evolved and its capital moved from place to place.
As a geek, I found it amusing that Steve Jobs is the only CEO who's immortalized in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Why? The iPod! Just like the Sony transistor radio did in the 50's, the iPod made music accessible to kids around the world. You could now take your entire music collection around with you everywhere!
My favorite part was the multimedia presentation of all the inductees. It was a huge theatre with three huge screens, showing all the artists by the year they were inducted. They really need to make this into a DVD, or have a CD boxed set that includes all this amazing music.
This brings up an interesting point. The rock and roll hall of fame is kind of a misnomer at this point. For instance, Grand Master Flash, one of the early innovators in rap, was recently inducted. It's become more of a pop music hall of fame, which is much more inclusive. It now seems to cover all popular music other than country. Good thing they have their own hall down in Tennessee!
Anyway, the presentation reintroduced me to lots of music I had long since forgotten about, like Earth, Wind and Fire. And the ones that I've always loved like The Beatles.
After a full afternoon, we headed out of Cleveland to Toledo. Toledo turned out to be everything I expected it to be. As evidenced by this sign on our hotel.
Of course, it has its positives as well. Across the street is someone I haven't seen in a long time...
Yes, that is a Big Boy! As you may know, Bob's Big Boy used to be ubiquitous throughout California. With the growth of drive through fast food, the Bob's Big Boy became virtually extinct. It seems like he just escaped to Ohio and the Midwest, because Big Boy is alive and well, and on virtually every street corner.
Tomorrow, we're off to Michigan to pick up Larry!
| 142,576
|
RN - Emergency Department 9/1/2016
Pen Bay Medical Center
JOB DESCRIPTIONAPPLY Job Details:
* The scope of emergency nursing involves the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of perceived, actual, or potential, sudden or urgent, physical of psychological problems of individuals/families ranging in age from neonate to geriatric. These may require minimal care of life-support measures, patient and significant other education, appropriate referral, and knowledge of legal implications. Emergency Department patients are people of all ages with problems of varying complexity. Characteristics unique to emergency nursing include unanticipated situations requiring intervention, allocation of limited resources, need for immediate care as perceived by the patient/others, unpredictable numbers of patients, and unknown variables which include severity, urgency, and diagnosis.
Minimum Qualifications: Graduate of an accredited school of nursing and current licensure on the State of Maine Board of Nursing. Current BLS Certification. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification within six months of hire.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
RN Emergency Department
| 6,741
|
I remember a conversation I once had with a teammate as we were getting dressed for basketball practice in elementary school. He said, “I’m going to make sure I keep my tongue straight this year.” I thought that he was going to try to stop cussing. He did have a tendency to say a bad word every now and then. Then it occurred to me that he was talking about the tongue on his basketball shoes! We both had a laugh when I told him about my initial confusion.
The tongues on those sneakers did have a mind of their own. They would really get out of shape if you didn’t keep a close watch on them.
The same can be said for the human tongue. We have the capability to say some unholy things from time to time. Better keep an eye on that!
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”—Ephesians 4:29.
| 31,021
|
The major rivers in Argentina are the Paraná River, the Uruguay River, the Iguazu River, the Bermejo River, the Pilcomayo River, the Colorado River, the Black River and the Salado River. The longest river in Argentina is the Paraná River, which is 3,030 miles long.Continue Reading
The shortest major river is the Black River, and it is 342 miles long. The Paraná River, the Black River and the Colorado River flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Argentina is the second largest country in South America; only Brazil is larger. Over 95 percent of its population is of European descent. The country's primary exports are oils, fuels and energy, cereals and motor vehicles.Learn more about Bodies of Water
| 39,584
|
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This column was previously published in the Flashlight, the Mansfield University student newspaper.)
First of all, I recognize this may be a bit of a controversial topic, but rest assured, I've looked at this topic with an open mind and I do NOT side with the majority of Americans' narrow-minded views on Islam.
But I've been delving into the core of the Islamic religion in these past few days and I've noticed something quite peculiar (and not just about Islam and Judaism, but also about religion in general).
Here are my views: it's an Arabian Judaism.
Let me explain: It's well-known the Qu'ran was written by Muhammad, or dictated to him by the angel Gabriel, well after the death of Jesus of Nazareth and the founding of the Christian religion.
The Jewish religion, obviously, was around for a longer period of time before the death of Jesus. The thing about Islam though is that it's arguably just as close to Judaism as Christianity is, as the two religions (Islam and Judaism that is) share a huge amount of stories, rules, laws and commandments.
I was flipping through the Qu'ran earlier today, as I own a copy for religious studies such as this, and noticed the story of Joseph. With a few minor details different, which can be explained by slight errors in oral translation, the stories from the Torah and the Qu'ran are an exact duplicate of each other.
This begs the question: isn't Islam a later version of Judaism, so to speak?
What I mean is that the Torah and the Qu'ran are eerily similar to each other in a huge amount of ways, save for a few differences. Still, the two holy books agree with each other on quite a few important or similar tenants including the notion that Jesus of Nazareth was merely a prophet of God-Allah and not the Messiah. That is the most important divergence between Islam-Judaism and Christianity: the idea of exactly who Jesus of Nazareth was and if he was merely a man or if he was indeed both divine and the Son of God.
Delving further into both the Torah and the Qu'ran the similarities are stark and extremely obvious, from the wording to the rules Allah gives Mohammad in the desert for the Muslims to follow.
Tales such as Joseph and Pharaoh or Noah and the Ark proves that both holy books stem from common ancestry. Indeed, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are often called the Abrahamic religions, as Islam traces its roots back to Abraham's illegitimate son Ishmael, as Christianity and Judaism stem from his legitimate son Isaac.
So what does this mean? It means that, at the end of all the in-fighting and hatred, the three religions are almost entirely at their core the same ideas, beliefs and values.
Many religious scholars even hypothesize that Islam and Judaism refer to the same deity in their holy books, if one believes in the idea that there is a central deity, such as the Jewish YHWH, the Christian God and the Islamic Allah.
To push the hypothesis further, one could say that all three religions refers to the same deity, with the central difference being, of course, each one claims to be the only true faith.
This may all be pure conjecture, and to be honest I'm no great religious scholar, but seeing the numerous similarities between the three great Middle Eastern religions, it begs the question: why can't they get along? They even share a basic moral-ethical code of conduct and behavior.
So if they all share the same foundation, why can't they recognize this? That's the real question I ask.
Every prophet from every religion preached to the masses to give up their animosity, to serve their god well and to treat others well - for the most part, that is. There are exceptions.
Every religion seems to observe some version of the Golden Rule.
Yet the followers of these religions fight so fiercely to defend their faith in religions they don't even fully accept or understand. Do to others what you would have done to you. A simple yet profound statement.
And surprisingly enough, one that all three Abrahamic religions adhere to.
Long is a student in Dan Mason's Crisis News Analysis class at Mansfield University. He is news editor of the Flashlight and a political science major.
| 157,525
|
As the spring-flowering bulbs bloom and grow, feed them with either a complete water-soluble fertilizer, such as 20-20-20, or use cottonseed meal applied at the rate of 5 pounds per 100 square feet of bed area. Once the flowers have faded, the foliage is producing the food for next year's flowers that are developing. Feeding bulbs now will ensure lots of flowers in the future. Leave the foliage until it turns yellow, then cut it off.
Get a Head Start on Weeds in the Lawn
If the ground is dry enough, do an early mowing to improve its looks, as well as to remove fallen leaves. After mowing, inspect the lawn for weeds or other damage. Decide if weed control is necessary. If so, purchase a pre-emergent herbicide, such as the non-toxic corn gluten types. These also supply nitrogen to the soil.
Pansies and their smaller cousins, violas, are widely available now. Plant them in an area where they'll be easily seen and enjoyed. They also grow well in containers. To keep them blooming for the longest period, remove withered and cold-damaged blooms regularly. When night temperatures remain above 40 degrees F, feed pansies and violas with a water-soluble fertilizer, such as 20-20-20, every two weeks to keep plants growing and blooming.
Raspberries are expensive to buy because they're so fragile, but they're easy to grow. Prepare a bed 3 feet wide, working in 1 cup of 10-10-10 per 10 feet of row, and set plants about 2 feet apart in a row down the center of the bed. Mulch after planting. A simple way to support the plants is by setting 1x2 stakes at the edge of the bed about 8 feet apart and stringing several rows of twine between each stake. With everbearing raspberries, you'll get a small fall crop the first year.
Use Antidessicant Spray
Although antidessicant sprays are usually thought of for protecting broad-leaved evergreens in winter, they also are useful when transplanting. If you're planting evergreen or leafed-out trees and shrubs this spring, especially if the weather is warm and dry, spray the foliage with an antidessicant spray. This will help keep the foliage from drying out while the roots are getting established.
| 294,907
|
Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World is promising, but many sections are too wrapped up in media business rituals for it to be great. That said, if you’ve not read about the mindsets that cognitively demanding enterprises demand, the book provides a good introduction to them. Despite that, it likely underemphasizes and underplays the extreme meritocracy of the tech world, where code works—or doesn’t, and products work—or don’t. The large amount of signaling cruft that has accumulated in many other worlds is (mostly) absent. Coders are arguably the end result of a centuries-long process away from being who you are because of you or your family’s place in the social order and towards being who you are because of what you can do. Maybe that will change over time, but it hasn’t yet, and tech is attractive to outsiders in general because you can’t fake your way in, and, if you do, you’ll likely be found out relatively quickly.
Thompson disagrees, it seems. He writes, “the software industry has long cherished its self-image of a pure meritocracy.” I don’t think many people think a “pure” meritocracy is possible, so this notion has a whiff of the strawman about it because of the word “pure.” A better question might be, is the software business meritocratic compared to many other industries? Sure seems like it, given the way the Internet opens the field to talented but uncredentialed outsiders. Thompson goes on to assert it’s not true, without providing real evidence (though he has some typical media stories). For example, the chapter “10x, rock stars, and the myth of meritocracy” has lots of stories but very little, if any, data, and none that supports the central point. Chapter 7 is worse.
Despite that, there are useful threads; for example, people complained vociferously about Facebook’s News Feed when it was introduced. But “the day after News Feed emerged, Sanghvi and the team found that people were spending twice as much time on Facebook as before.” Revealed preferences, in other words: we could call our era the “revealed preferences” era, because so much of our online lives shows things that we don’t want to say. The aggregate of our desires is often quite different from what we say we want. Still, it might be inhumane to live in a world where shading the truth is a lot harder, and we’re in a world where online denunciations are becoming more common yet our cultural immune system hasn’t adjusted to them yet.
After I read Coders, I read “Robert A. Caro on the Means and Ends of Power,” and it makes me think: Who is going to be the Caro of the coding generation? The writer who is so deep into the technical mind, the mind that has shaped the digital tools almost all of use, that he says it all? Thompson has the potential to get there, but Coders doesn’t arrange the material right. He gets that, to Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook as a company “was different, it was vibrant, it was alive,” as she says. That’s a powerful force and, as someone who’s worked in and around government and universities for years, I see the appeal of being in a startup where urgency is everywhere. But Thompson also writes things like, “Facebook looked at our lives as a problem of inefficient transmission of information.” Did it? Or was it just an experiment? Maybe an experiment in self-presentation? arguably those two questions are variants on “transmission of information,” but, equally arguably, “transmission of information” is too abstract for what Facebook was, or is. That’s the sort of thing someone like Caro is likely to get right, while many others are likely to get it wrong.
But, despite that, I think this is correct, or, if not correct, interesting:
Back during the Revolutionary America of the late eighteenth century, the key profession was law. The American style of government is composed of nothing but laws, of course.
I wonder if “writer” has ever been the key profession, or if it’s always been the profession of the carpers instead of the doers. Nonetheless, the theme of coding’s rise reappears elsewhere: “Sure, politics, law, and business are powerful, but if you want to really remold the contours of society? Write code.” That, at least, his view of the ’90s and the Internet.
For one coder,
It was like constantly solving puzzles: trying to make an algorithm run faster, trying to debug a gnarly piece of code that wasn’t working right. The mental chess colonized her mind, and she found herself pondering coding problems all day long.
Sounds like many writers on writing, who also find that the top-of-mind project colonizes their minds—if they’re to do it at the highest levels. Both fields are also prone to generating the question, “Where do good ideas come from?”, which has no answer at this stage of technological and human knowledge.
Yet solving puzzles also means managing frustration, because another section declares it writing it well to need “a boundless, nigh masochistic ability to endure brutal, grinding frustration.” Why do some people find some things, like running or coding, as fun, while many if not most others hate them? We are again running into unanswerable psychological questions with large-scale social implications. Yet the work also engenders “a sense of clarity, of proof that his work actually was valid.”
You can no doubt sense my ambivalence about Coders. Thompson needs to give up his media rituals and relentless political correctness henpecking; they’re likely to mark Coders as being too much of its time, rather than for all time. There is a classic in this book, but the book is too of its media moment to be the classic. And that’s a pity, to see someone with a lot of material who misuses the material.
| 15,392
|
Multiphysics with Electromagnetics
ADINA-EM is now released. For an introduction to the capabilities and various applications of ADINA-EM, refer to our previous News:
In addition to the applications shown in these News, we have, of course, constructed hundreds of verification problems for ADINA-EM. Some of these are used in our verification manual. Below we give three of these problems as a further illustration of the kind of problems ADINA-EM can be used for to solve.
Of course, these are small verification problems where we can compare with analytical solutions. More details on these problems are given in the verification manual.
1. Static 3D EM-fields in a conducting block
In this first example, we demonstrate the use of ADINA-EM to solve static 3D electromagnetic fields with the potential based A—φ formulation. As shown in Figure 1, an electric field and hence a current density are excited by imposing an electric potential difference between the top and bottom sides of the solid block. This current density in the block will excite a static magnetic field, and hence a magnetic potential across the block from the left side to the right side.
The plots in Figure 2 show the electric potential (left) and the magnetic vector potential (right).
We also compare the results obtained using ADINA-EM with analytical results in Figure 3. The ADINA-EM results agree perfectly with the theoretical values.
2. High-frequency harmonic electromagnetic field analysis of an annular block
The solution of the harmonic electric and magnetic fields in an annular block is calculated using ADINA-EM with the E—H formulation, see Figure 4. The annular conducting block is immersed in a harmonic magnetic field, and an impedance boundary is imposed on the inner side of the block to simulate the electromagnetic effect of the inside material. The imposed harmonic magnetic field induces a harmonic electric field, which in turn induces a magnetic field.
Figure 5 shows the real and imaginary parts of the electric field in vector plots. Figure 6 shows the real and imaginary parts of the magnetic field.
The ADINA-EM results are also compared with analytical solutions, see Figure 7 and Figure 8. The ADINA-EM results agree closely with the analytical solutions, and this even with the coarse mesh used.
3. Lorentz force in a conducting fluid; high-frequency 3D harmonic electric and magnetic fields
This multiphysics example has the same model geometry as used in the first example. However, the block contains a conducting fluid flowing upwards, as shown in Figure 9. The harmonic analysis is performed using ADINA-EM with the potential based A—φ formulation. The time-averaged Lorentz force is coupled to the CFD model to solve for the fluid flow.
The plots in Figures 10 to 12 compare the ADINA-EM results with theoretical results. Figure 10 gives the solution of the electric potential. Figure 11 shows the real and imaginary parts of the magnetic vector potential in the domain. Figure 12 shows plots to compare the ADINA-EM results with theoretical results for the real and imaginary parts of the magnetic potential.
The plots in Figure 13 show the pressure distribution along the flow direction (left); the calculated pressure in the fluid is compared with theoretical results (right). All these electromagnetic and fluid flow results show a very good match with the theoretical solutions.
We are very pleased that ADINA-EM is now available in the suite of ADINA programs and look forward to many interesting applications by our users!
| 221,127
|
Game for OK.RU social network was dedicated to 1st of September, International Knowledge Day. User needed to collect all objects in the room for game play. Game story: alchemy teacher stole different objects from every class room for magic trick to transform all A+ into F . There were 4 rooms: biology, geography, chemistry and alchemy for hardest level. Player needed to find all objects and return them to their places to prevent cheating.
| 245,658
|
"You gotta remember, establishment, it's just a name for evil. The monster doesn't care whether it kills all the students or whether there's a revolution. It's not thinking logically, it's out of control."--John Lennon (1969)
John Lennon & Yoko Ono leave Amsterdam
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Eric Koch / Anefo) Details Source DMCA
John Lennon, born 75 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon.
He was also a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority.
Long before Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government's war crimes and the National Security Agency's abuse of its surveillance powers, it was Lennon who was being singled out for daring to speak truth to power about the government's warmongering, his phone calls monitored and data files collected on his activities and associations.
For a little while, at least, Lennon became enemy number one in the eyes of the U.S. government.
Years after Lennon's assassination it would be revealed that the FBI had collected 281 pages of files on him, including song lyrics, a letter from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover directing the agency to spy on the musician, and various written orders calling on government agents to set the stage to set Lennon up for a drug bust.
As the New York Times notes, "Critics of today's domestic surveillance object largely on privacy grounds. They have focused far less on how easily government surveillance can become an instrument for the people in power to try to hold on to power. 'The U.S. vs. John Lennon' " is the story not only of one man being harassed, but of a democracy being undermined."
Indeed, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, all of the many complaints we have about government today--surveillance, militarism, corruption, harassment, SWAT team raids, political persecution, spying, overcriminalization, etc.--were present in Lennon's day and formed the basis of his call for social justice, peace and a populist revolution.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
| 94,676
|
In recent years, America's blood shortage has propelled the biotechnology of blood substitutes. Artificial blood does not contain the plasma, red and white cells, or platelets of human blood, but functions to transport and deliver oxygen to the body's tissues until the recipient's bone marrow has regenerated the missing red blood cells. Current blood substitutes are either hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) or perfluorocarbons (PFCs). While HBOCs utilize hemoglobin, an actual component of red blood cells, PFCs rely solely on synthetic chemical processes. Like most technological advances, there are still a number of advantages and disadvantages to consider. In the short term, the prospective benefits of a blood substitute overshadow the shortcomings. In addition to carrying oxygen, such compounds can be sterilized against infectious diseases and used in patients whose religious beliefs prevent them from accepting blood transfusions.
The Crisis Emerges
The word "blood" evokes vivid images of pain and fear. Despite its associations with injury and suffering, blood is inextricably linked with human life. A baby is born with only a cup of blood, yet the average adult body contains ten pints, or twenty cups, of the life-preserving liquid.
Unfortunately, one out of every three individuals will at one point in life not have enough blood to sustain his or her life. For this reason, blood is needed every three seconds, but only five percent of the American population donates blood . These statistics evoke a chilling and frightening reality. What happens when the blood supply, the river of life, runs dry? After the attacks on September 11, 2001, over 500,000 Americans responded to the need for blood donations . Scientists and engineers are replying to the same need, developing a blood substitute to combat the threat of catastrophic blood shortage.
The Search Begins
In response to impending blood shortages, scientists and engineers have begun a quest to discover an ideal blood substitute. Within the human body, blood's two primary functions are the transportation of oxygen to various tissues and the removal of carbon dioxide from the body . Therefore, a blood substitute need not be a direct, identical replacement for blood. It is instead designed to imitate the oxygen-carrying capacity of the red blood cells. Artificial blood will only serve as a temporary substitute until the recipient's own body has enough time to reproduce the necessary blood cells to compensate for lost blood . The two principle categories of blood substitutes are known as hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
Before one can completely understand the underlying scientific and engineering principles of blood substitutes, he or she must have a basic knowledge of the interaction between oxygen and the blood. In all red blood cells, a molecule known as hemoglobin binds oxygen from the lungs and carries it to the tissues of the body. Structurally, hemoglobin consists of two alpha and two beta chains.
Hemoglobin, shown in Fig. 1, is often referred to as a tetramer, since it is a molecule composed of four units . Each of the alpha and beta chains binds to a heme group, which contains iron. The heme group is responsible for attaching oxygen to the red blood cell . A cofactor called 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) is located in all red blood cells, and without it, the hemoglobin could not readily release oxygen to the body's tissues . However, the outward simplicity of hemoglobin belies its true complexity, for the molecule plays a complicated role in maintaining human life.
Hemoglobin retains its capacity to bind to oxygen even when it is outside of a red blood cell . Therefore, the tetrameric molecule has served as a focal point in the search for a blood substitute. Unfortunately, the answer is neither simple nor apparent, for hemoglobin must be modified before it can be introduced into the body's circulatory system. This is the consequence of several factors. Hemoglobin is extracted by removing the red blood cell membrane, forming stroma-free hemoglobin . However, the removed hemoglobin lacks 2,3-DPG, which limits the hemoglobin's ability to deliver oxygen to tissues . In essence, the hemoglobin will bind to oxygen and transport it throughout the body, but without the help of 2,3-DPG, it holds onto the oxygen molecule. An additional problem develops when pure hemoglobin enters the blood stream. The tetramer of four units is rapidly degraded into dimers of two units. The smaller subunits contribute to renal (kidney) toxicity as they are rapidly excreted by the kidneys . While pure hemoglobin intuitively appears to be the ideal blood substitute because of its affinity for oxygen, it must be modified before that concept can become a medical and scientific reality.
From Ingenuity to Reality: the Arrival of a Promising Blood Substitute
Although much of their work remains unnoticed by society, the research of biomedical engineers laid the foundation for blood substitutes. They have designed several promising avenues for blood substitutes, including the use of HBOCs (Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carriers). Encapsulated hemoglobin consists of hemoglobin trapped inside artificial red blood cells, where it remains in its tetrameric form. Because the artificial blood cells are synthesized in a laboratory, the surface properties of the cell can be modified to make the blood substitute even more efficient and compatible with the human body (see Fig. 2). In fact, because all blood substitutes lack a red blood cell membrane, they do not contain blood group antigens (which are responsible for determining whether an individual's blood type is A, B, AB, or O). Thus, cross-matching of blood types before a transfusion is unnecessary. A recent experiment demonstrated that ninety percent of the red blood cells in rats could be replaced with artificial red blood cells . Despite such current discoveries, the process of creating microencapsulated hemoglobin is complicated and requires additional research before it can be introduced into the medical community.
Cross-linked polyhemoglobin is a further example of the advances in the arena of blood substitutes. It entails the use of reagents such as o-raffinose or glutaraldehyde to form cross-links between amino groups (NH2) located on the surface of hemoglobin. Essentially, the process of cross-linking can be defined as the formation of a chemical bond attaching hemoglobin molecules to one another. By the end of the process, four or five hemoglobin molecules are usually joined together .
Cross-linking has proven to be highly advantageous in designing artificial blood for the following reasons: the hemoglobin tetramer does not degrade into dimers once it is cross-linked, a 2,3-DPG analog (a molecule that mimics the properties of true 2,3-DPG) can be introduced into the cross-linked molecule, and they are likely to remain in the circulatory system longer than individual molecules of hemoglobin . In essence, the formation of cross-links allows molecules to connect together by holding hands, so the bond is strong enough to prevent the molecules from separating and sturdy enough to allow the addition of 2,3-DPG. The traditional cross-linking reaction paved the way for the development of conjugated hemoglobin. This substance utilizes a cross-linking agent to couple a polymer (a long chain molecule consisting of repeating subunits) to the hemoglobin in order to extend the period of time the blood substitute remains in the body. Through cross-linking, the hemoglobin is able to attach to a polymer instead of another hemoglobin molecule.
Ideas with Flaws: Shortcomings in the Development of HBOCs
In addition to the successful blood substitutes that are becoming viable alternatives to human blood, scientists have pursued flawed methods of creating artificial blood. Their innovative work entails some degree of trial and error, for they cannot determine the success of their work until it has undergone rigorous testing and experimentation. Often, a difference arises between formulations and laboratory results. For example, biomedical engineers attempted to intramolecularly cross-link hemoglobin with chemical reagents. Instead of connecting separate molecules of hemoglobin, the cross-linking occurred between either the two alpha chains or the two beta peptide chains, so the bond was actually formed inside one unit of hemoglobin.
Unfortunately, recent unsuccessful clinical trials (where human patients receive the treatment in order to evaluate its effectiveness, dosage, and side effects) led to the cancellation of several studies of intramolecularly cross-linked hemoglobin . Another method of creating an HBOC introduced the use of recombinant DNA, which arose from the genetic engineering of the bacteria E. coli to produce hemoglobin. As happened with intra-molecularly cross-linked hemoglobin, researchers have abandoned recombinant hemoglobin as a blood substitute. They discovered that it caused severe vasoconstriction, or a narrowing and tightening, of the blood vessel walls . Such failed blood substitutes were viewed as setbacks in the pursuit for the perfect artificial blood, yet engineers continued their research efforts. They realized that, in addition to carrying oxygen, modified hemoglobin could be sterilized against infectious pathogens such as HIV and all forms of hepatitis . This provided them with further motivation to overcome the disappointments and obstacles encountered in research.
The other forms of modified hemoglobin also manifest inherent disadvantages, yet intramolecularly cross-linked hemoglobin and recombinant hemoglobin are the only HBOCs that are no longer topics of current research. For example, even in advanced trials of blood substitutes, all HBOCs exhibit a degree of vasoconstriction like intramolecularly cross-linked hemoglobin. This is caused by hemoglobin's innate affinity for nitric oxide (NO). In the human body, NO acts as a smooth muscle relaxer and is present in the walls of blood vessels. As the hemoglobin travels through the circulatory system, it picks up NO, thus causing the blood vessels to constrict. This leads to a rapid, dangerous increase in blood pressure . Furthermore, HBOCs are limited to short term usage because they are quickly removed from the circulatory system . Ironically, while HBOCs do not remain in the body for extended periods of time, the storage requirements for artificial blood are much more flexible than the storage requirements of human blood. Human blood must be refrigerated and can be stored for no more than six weeks . Thus, another potential advantage of employing blood substitutes addresses the donor blood shortage crisis.
From an Idea to Production: the Emergence of a Revolutionary Blood Substitute
In today's society, heart surgery directly or indirectly affects nearly all individuals, yet most are unaware that a blood substitute is often responsible for delivering oxygen to the patient's body during the procedure. Specifically, a blood substitute known as Fluosol DA has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use during coronary angioplasty . It is representative of perfluorocarbons (PFCs), the second class of blood substitutes. Fluorocarbons are straight chain molecules that consist of carbon and fluorine . They are known for their capacity to carry both oxygen and carbon dioxide without actually binding to the gas molecules. Thus, their application extends from solely delivering oxygen to also carrying waste to the lungs for removal from the body . Fluosol DA serves as one of the original PFCs, and it is comprised of 20 percent fluorocarbon . A group of PFCs referred to as the "new perflourochemicals" has recently been developed. They include compounds such as perfluorooctyl bromide (C8F17Br) and perfluorodichorotane (C8F16C12). Such molecular structures of the "new" perfluorocarbons allow the blood substitute to contain a higher concentration of PFCs, which subsequently increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the artificial blood . Through the development and implementation of PFCs, biomedical engineers successfully display their ability to integrate the disciplines of medicine, the sciences, and engineering (see Fig. 3).
Falling Short of Perfection: the Weaknesses of PFCs
Just like HBOCs, however, PFCs do not provide a flawless substitute for blood. For example, in order for recipients to benefit from the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood substitute, they must be breathing concentrated oxygen. Patients receiving Fluosol DA must be breathing between 70% and 90% oxygen, while individuals given C8F16C12 (a new perfluorochemical) must inhale 100% oxygen. However, normal air only contains 21% oxygen. Additionally, the administration of PFCs can suppress the patient's immune system. This is attributed to the fact that the reticuloendothelial system (RES) is involved with the removal of PFCs from the circulatory system . By definition, the RES system is composed of cells "responsible for engulfing (phagocytosis) and removing cellular debris, old cells, pathogens, and foreign substances from the bloodstream" . When the cells of the RES are concerned with removing PFCs, they are neither available nor free to attack invading particles such as bacteria and viruses. Therefore, the individual's body is unable to readily fight off disease.
A Glance into the Future
Although the ideal blood substitute has not yet been developed or marketed, it will serve an integral role in biotechnology's future. Currently, artificial red blood cells offer an exciting glimpse into forthcoming developments, yet cross-linked hemoglobin will most likely be the first blood substitute with large-scale medical applications . The arena of artificial blood offers a powerful forum where the fields of science and engineering combine to illuminate the ingenuity of mankind. In the quest to find the perfect blood substitute, human innovation and collaboration will address the impending blood shortage.
- "How to Give Blood- 56 Facts." American Blood Centers. Internet: http://www.americasblood.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=display.show Page&pageID=12, 2002. [Oct. 23, 2002].
- N. Campbell, J. Reese, and L. Mitchell. Biology. 5th ed. Menlo Park: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.
- R. Yen. Personal Interview. [Oct. 16, 2002].
- T. Chang. "Red Blood Cell Substitutes," in Principles of Tissue Engineering, 2nd ed. R. Langer and J. Vacanti, Ed. San Diego: Academic Press, 2000, pp. 602-605.
- J. Squires. "Artificial Blood." Science, vol. 295., pp. 1002, 1004-1005, 2002.
- T. Chang. "Blood Substitutes." Internet: http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/artcell/bloodsub.htm, 2002. [Oct. 22, 2002].
- E. Stokad. "Not Blood Simple." Science, vol. 295, pp.1003, 2002.
- Solomons, T.Graham, and C. Fryhle. Organic Chemistry. 7th ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000.
- "MyMedAdvice Glossary." MyMedAdvice. Internet: http://www.mymedadvice.com/default.asp?U=/html/8/gls_4014.htm, 2002. [Oct. 24, 2002].
| 41,445
|
by Rob Williams on December 1, 2008 in Motherboards
ASUS has long supported overclockers with their motherboards, but the Rampage II Extreme takes things to the next level. In addition to an even more robust BIOS than what we’re used to, we’re given the ability to put our multi-meters to good use with the help of easy-access board contacts. When all said and done though, is the RIIE really worth the $400 asking price?
Synthetic benchmarks have typically been favored for performance testing, but the results they provide can be fairly abstract, and the methods they use to assign their scores can be dubious at times. By contrast, real-world application benchmarks provide performance metrics that apply directly to real-world usage, and we endeavor to apply both in our performance comparisons.
SYSmark 2007 Preview from BAPCo is a special case, because its synthetic scores are derived from tests in real-world applications. However, we still believe that synthetic benchmarking scores are best used to directly compare the performance of one piece of hardware to another, and not for developing an impression of real-world performance expectations. SYSmark is more useful than most synthetic benchmarking programs in our opinion, because its tests emulate tasks that people actually perform, in actual software programs that they are likely to use.
The benchmark is hands-free, using scripts to execute all of the real-world scenarios identically, such as video editing in Sony Vegas and image manipulation in Adobe Photoshop. At the conclusion of the suite of tests, five scores are delivered: an E-learning score, a Video Creation score, a Productivity score, and a 3D Performance score, as well as an aggregated ‘Overall’ score. These scores can still be fairly abstract, and are most useful for direct comparisons between test systems.
A quick note on methodology: SYSmark 2007 requires a clean install of Windows Vista 32-bit to run optimally. Before any testing is conducted, the hard drive is first wiped clean, and then a fresh Windows installation is conducted, then lastly, the necessary hardware drivers are installed. The ‘Three Iterations’ test suite is run, with the ‘Conditioning Run’ setting enabled. Then the results from the three runs are averaged and rounded up or down to the next whole number.
The results here so far are great, although I think the benchmark was a little generous to the Rampage II Extreme for some reason. This is one benchmark that fluctuates more than we’d like (given the workloads, it’s understandable), so overall, the main interest we have is to see if one board underperforms compared to the rest. That’s definitely not the case here.
| 244,224
|
When I stare into a fireplace, I’m powerfully moved to say something profound. The gentle rhapsody of the flames — the flickering orange glow, the crackling wood, the rising sparks — seems to provide the perfect backdrop for a statement that expresses a central truth about the human condition. Perhaps I could say, “Every book is a quotation.” As my companions look up in approval, I could go on: “Every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries.” Nodding my head sagaciously, I could continue: “And every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said that first, but it remains as profound as anything, and it’s one of the world’s great fireplace quotations. Which is probably why it’s printed on one of the world’s great fireplaces. I’m talking about the enormous fireplaces inside the vast Great Hall at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville. It’s here that I’ve found the soothing crackle and hiss that I’ve been searching for my whole life.
Guests first gathered in silence around the Grove Park Inn’s enormous fireplaces in 1913. Photography courtesy of THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LC-USZ62-105973
The inn’s two fireplaces are gigantic: 36 feet wide — 12 long strides from end to end — and built entirely of granite stones wrested from the living rock of the surrounding mountains. Their openings, only 12 feet wide and 6 feet tall, are comparatively small, but what really dwarfs them are the boulders from which the surrounds are built. Together, the two structures comprise about 120 tons of granite. A single boulder — said to weigh upward of 5,000 pounds — serves as a mantel above each grate. Even the andirons weigh 500 pounds each.
But measurements cannot really express the magnificence of these things. They squat at either end of the Great Hall, the inn’s main lobby, like great jungle animals staring one another down. Wooden rockers line the flagstone hearths, and you can sit, and rock, and swirl bourbon from the lobby bar; you can feel as profound as you care to as you read the nuggets of wisdom etched into the sides of many of the boulders: “Be not simply good — be good for something,” from Henry David Thoreau, or “The sun will shine after every storm,” again attributed to Emerson.
• • •
I’m spending the evening just sitting by these fireplaces. I came down to the lobby with a journal, books, a smartphone — all of the entertainments with which we arm ourselves against our lack of profundity. But I never crack book nor turn on phone. Instead, I ponder — silently — those quotations on the rocks. “How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!” Thomas Jefferson reflects. Or, according to a Dutch proverb, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
The quotes were chosen by Fred Seely, a pharmacist. Let me back up and explain: When the Grove Park Inn opened in 1913, the brainchild of Tennessee pharmacist Edwin Wiley Grove, Southerners were beset with malaria. Quinine fought the disease but tasted awful. Grove mixed quinine with lemon flavoring, sugar, and iron, and by the late 1890s, Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic was earning him a million dollars a year, outselling even another new Southern beverage, Coca-Cola.
Grove would visit Asheville, and then, when his health began to suffer, made a summer home there. He soon joined up with fellow pharmacist Seely, who’d married Grove’s daughter. After the nearby Biltmore House was completed in 1895, Grove began buying mountaintop property for development, eventually deciding to build what he hoped would be a fine inn. Seely suggested something similar to Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful Inn, though made of rock rather than wood.
Now regarded as one of the great inns of the world, Grove Park is a massive pile of stone built by many of the same imported workers who had worked on Vanderbilt’s little cottage down the road.
From the start, Grove wanted his inn to offer a retreat from the hurly-burly of life in the rapidly mechanizing 20th century. Everything about the inn was designed for rest. The enormous Great Hall has a 24-foot ceiling supported by gigantic columns. Now clad in glowing wood, the columns were at first made of stone, and the inn’s water pipes ran inside them — to preserve the quiet.
Stonemasons, some of whom also worked on the Biltmore House, used chains and pulleys to move boulders into the Great Hall in 1913. Photography courtesy of GROVE PARK INN COLLECTION, D. H. RAMSEY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE 28804
Guests were expected to be silent after 10 p.m. They were even asked to quietly remove their shoes and avoid running water. The elevators, their mechanisms built into those vast stone fireplaces — again, for silence — have window shades that once reminded guests to be quiet. And if those who gathered in the Great Hall became too noisy, hotel staff would glide up and silently present a card: “Please be more subdued.”
During my visit, the guests are not subdued. Even as midnight nears, jokes elicit hearty laughs and squeals of tipsy glee that echo around the Great Hall. I don’t mind. I’m here for the fireplaces, and all of these other people are part of the experience.
• • •
And those fireplaces. At the south end of the room, where I sit in a low, comfortable Arts and Crafts-style armchair, it is hot. I mean hot-hot. Several four-foot logs gently crackle atop a heap of ashes that stands a good two feet tall. The orange glow from within looks hot enough to melt Frodo’s ring. My chair is separated from the flames by a hearth, a row of rockers, a flagstone walkway, and a 36-inch table — and it’s still warm enough that I have to remove my sweater.
I sit peacefully, gazing at the fire from a safe distance, in the dim light emanating from the square chandeliers. And if you think the lights are dim now, shining through translucent panels, imagine the early days of the inn, when, to encourage peace and quiet, the chandeliers had opaque bottoms. The stone floor and walls make the room feel like the mountain house of my dreams, and I watch a changing cast of characters line up at the fireplace, stand for only a moment, take a photo, and then move on to escape the heat.
Guests are asked not to remove the logs from carts next to the fireplaces, but that doesn’t stop them. photograph by Tim Robison
People take pictures of the fireplaces all day long, my waitress tells me. And they’ll complain if logs aren’t burning — though, even with exhaust fans now installed in the chimneys, you can’t light a wood fire if it’s warmer than 55 degrees outside. A big fireplace has needs that you just have to respect. People also try to drag logs into the fire from a nearby wood cart, ignoring the signs that tell them not to — the desire to add wood to a fire evidently being equal to the desire to say something profound.
I did neither, instead occupying myself with those quotations. Like the one on the enormous rock that functions as the mantel of the south fireplace. It reads, “Take from this hearth its warmth/From this room its charm/From this Inn its amity/Return them not — but return.”
| 233,289
|
Posted by Amy
on June 13, 2000 at 08:01:47:
We started giving our son (23 months old) the recommended RDA of vit. A in the form of cod liver oil about 3 weeks ago. About 2 weeks ago, we started noticing that when our son tries to look at us (and focus?), he inevitably ends up rubbing his eyes, holding his hands over his eyes, and squinting his eyes very tightly. Sometimes he'll even end up crying a bit after trying to look at us. All of his attempts to look at us are unprompted (haven't started therapy of any kind yet -- he was diagnosed just 2 months ago) and it seems that he wants to look at us, but it also seems painful for him to do so. Has anyone else experienced anything along these lines with their kids?
I will run this by our doc, but I figured the parental wealth of knowledge here might give us some insight based on experience. Any help, ideas, suggestions much appreciated!
| 109,200
|
Training for Fitness
This site has heaps of information and interesting articles about fitness for sport. And the best thing ... it's all for free! If you have searched around the net for fitness information you will know that there is a lot of information out there, and not all of it I would agree with. You will also notice that usually they are trying to sell you something.
This site is about freely sharing knowledge. Some of the articles have been sourced from other authors, so you may still occasionally find some conflicting advice. The stuff here is good advice, but as you will see, in the fitness game there is more than one way to skin a cat. I suggest that you read as much as you can and make up your own mind.
Over 70 training exercise descriptions ...
- Some for the gym: Bicep curls, Deadlifts, Squats, Leg curls, Leg press , Lat pull-downs, Lunge, and much more.
- Dumbbell Exercise List
- Training at Home Exercise List
- Pregnancy Exercises List
- At the Beach Exercises List
- Body weight Exercise List
Some fitness facts and figures to improve you fitness and training knowledge.
Health and Nutrition
Eating the right food, particularly when training and placing extra stress on the body, is also vitally important for gaining and maintaining a healthy body
A collection of resources for the athlete or health and fitness professionals.
- personal trainer courses [Mar '15]
- individualized workout plan [Aug '14]
- fitbit pedometer [Oct '11]
- fitness and weight loss free ebook [Sept '11]
- all about the components of fitness: strength, balance, endurance, flexibility, power, agility, muscle endurance, speed, body composition [Apr '11]
- ranking of sport athleticism components [Mar '11]
- features of heart rate monitors [Feb '11]
- Doorway Pull-Up Bars [Jan '11]
- p90x workout product [Jan '11]
- sports coaching
- read the fitness entries on the sporting blog.
- monitor your fitness levels with fitness testing.
| 192,274
|
Accessibility: Why It’s So Important: SXSW
This was my first SXSW event thanks to the good folks at Capital One. Moderated by C1’s, Mark Penicook, our panel, Larry Goldberg, Kevin Kalahiki, Sarah Goelitz and I discussed the theme, “Accessibility: Why It’s So Important“. Audience participation was fantastic!
We stimulated focus about user experience for people with disabilities or, Accessible User Experience (AUX). We advocated for AUX and accessibility throughout the software / web development lifecycle; we promoted the “Think Accessibility” mindset; we emphasized the importance of supporting key accessibility initiatives, particularly the Teach Accessibility initiative. And we strongly reminded devs and designers to include people with disabilities in their design, development and testing environments.
My session slides are below:
Here are some photos from the session.
| 102,672
|
|Dora, my father's mother|
Formal portrait circa late 1940's
A couple of years ago, I was seeing a counselor to help me cope with the stress of being a full-time caregiver for my Dad. He has dementia and I spend most of my time with him. I told the counselor about many of the things that I do for my Dad: cooking, driving, home haircuts, laundry, pedicures, keeping files, managing medications, providing activities, and going to doctor's visits. She listened intently and then said, "Pam, you have a baby. It's the same as caring for a baby."
Well, I am here to tell you - Dad is not a baby and I am not his new Mommy.
Baby CultureMany people who want to have a family plan on having a baby. They hope for the best, and prepare for the arrival of their new child. Young parents can ask their peers and parents for advice, and in many situations, they can expect support from their family and community. Their friends probably throw a party and shower them with gifts to help set up the little one in good style. Young mothers will freely give advice and swap stories about everything from pregnancy to birth to first diaper change to cutting the first tooth. When baby comes home, the parents are congratulated, and they begin the task of caring for and nurturing their child. They look forward to the many things their child will learn, and will be able to do. Perhaps they dream of what college or university the kiddo will attend. They might speculate on their child's future marriage and possibly, grandchildren!
In short, they expect the child to grow, flourish, learn new things, eventually take care of itself, and start the cycle of life anew.
Dementia CultureMy generation wasn't sure what they were expected to do when their parents became elderly. Many folks my age remember grandparents who lived in nursing homes or some type of senior apartment, set apart from the mainstream of life. I know there was exceptions, but there was a host of long-term nursing homes in the 1960's and 70's that were home to many seniors. My mother told me that she never wanted to be put in a place like that and she got her wish.
When Dad developed dementia, Mom was his caregiver at their home until she got lymphoma and passed away. He was heartbroken. He spent a year trying to live alone, with lots of help from my sister. But eventually his memory problem progressed to the point that he needed to live with somebody. Seven years ago, he and his dog moved in with my husband and I.
Caring for Dad is not like taking care of a baby. I can't hope for him to learn new things. He won't ever become independent. We were not congratulated when Dad moved in, although some folks have said kind things about our situation. There was no "Daddy Shower" of presents and advice when we were preparing for his arrival. Our culture does not yet fully support home caregiving, even though the Alzheimer's Association reports that in 2013, 15.5 million caregivers provided 17.7 billion hours of unpaid care for family members with memory loss. That number will increase as our population ages.
Limited Similarities, But No ComparisonLike a new mother, I never leave Dad alone. I provide a lot of assistance, but I provide it with respect and compassion. He still feels that he has authority over me, and I frequently fall into old father-daughter patterns because of that. Many times a day, I feel that I am about 8 years old. That's what hanging out with an 88-year old will do for you! I never feel like I am Dad's new Mommy. Even if the day comes when he can't dress himself or feed himself, he will never be my baby. He will always be my father - the agreeable, easy-going, provider who towered over my childhood days.
So please don't wish me a Happy Mother's Day because I am a caregiver. I don't have a baby here. Perhaps I can be as strong and productive as my grandmother. Perhaps I can learn how to love unconditionally. Those are good goals.
If you know a family caregiver, no matter what their situation, please be supportive. Refrain from making assumptions about their situation, withhold judgement. Respect their role. It's a hard job, but well worth it, and it's a job that more of us will be taking on soon. And perhaps someday, somebody will be your caregiver. Then you won't be their baby, either. You will still be who you are, even if your life and your role in it changes.
| 66,645
|
Kazoo is a Python library designed to make working with Zookeeper a more hassle-free experience that is less prone to errors.
- A wide range of recipe implementations, like Lock, Election or Queue
- Data and Children Watchers
- Simplified Zookeeper connection state tracking
- Unified asynchronous API for use with greenlets or threads
- Support for gevent 0.13 and gevent 1.0
- Support for Zookeeper 3.3 and 3.4 servers
- Integrated testing helpers for Zookeeper clusters
- Pure-Python based implementation of the wire protocol, avoiding all the memory leaks, lacking features, and debugging madness of the C library
Kazoo is heavily inspired by Netflix Curator simplifications and helpers.
You should be familiar with Zookeeper and have read the Zookeeper Programmers Guide before using kazoo.
Using Zookeeper in a safe manner can be difficult due to the variety of edge-cases in Zookeeper and other bugs that have been present in the Python C binding. Due to how the C library utilizes a separate C thread for Zookeeper communication some libraries like gevent also don’t work properly by default.
By utilizing a pure Python implementation, Kazoo handles all of these cases and provides a new asynchronous API which is consistent when using threads or gevent greenlets.
Bugs should be reported on the kazoo github issue tracker.
The developers of kazoo can frequently be found on the Freenode IRC network in the #zookeeper channel.
For general discussions and support questions, please use the python-zk mailing list hosted on Google Groups.
kazoo is offered under the Apache License 2.0.
| 29,067
|
One O’Clock Jump by Paul Zimmer
Still tingling with Basie’s hard cooking,
between sets I stood at the bar
when the man next to me ordered
scotch and milk. I looked to see who had
this stray taste and almost swooned
when I saw it was the master.
Basie knocked his shot back,
then, when he saw me gaping,
raised his milk to my peachy face
and rolled out his complete smile
before going off with friends
to leave me in that state of grace.
A year later I was renting rooms
from a woman named Tillie who wanted
no jazz in her dank, unhallowed house.
Objecting even to lowest volume of solo piano,
she’d puff upstairs to bang on my door.
I grew opaque, unwell,
slouched to other apartments,
begging to play records.
Duked, dePrezed, and unBased,
longing for Billy, Monk, Brute, or Zoot,
I lived in silence through
that whole lost summer.
Still, aware of divine favor, I bided time
and waited for the day of reckoning.
My last night in Tillie’s godless house,
late - when I knew she was hard asleep -
I gave her the full One O’Clock Jump,
having Basie ride his horse of perfect time
like an avenging angel over top volume,
hoisting his scotch and milk as he galloped
into Tillie’s ear, headlong down her throat
to roar all night in her sulphurous organs.
--From Crossing to Sunlight Revisited (University of Georgia Press, 2007)
Note: American poet and editor Paul Zimmer was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1934. Admirably, he flunked out of college and worked in a steel mill instead. In the mid-1950s, he was a journalist in the U.S. Army. It was the boredom and loneliness of Army life that led him to discover his love of reading and eventually writing. Zimmer published his first book, the darkly titled The Ribs of Death, in 1967, and the following year he finally received his Bachelor’s degree at Kent State. Other notable books include The Great Bird of Love (1989) and After the Fire: A Writer Finds His Place (2002). As an editor, he has directed the university presses at Georgia, Iowa, and Pittsburgh.
| 277,050
|
If you’ve seen any Batman movie—and I mean, any of them, including those awful George Clooney films—then you know that he has no real powers. Bruce Wayne’s only special assets are his knowledge, determination, and (most importantly) his utility belt.
He’d be nothing without his batarangs, kryptonite smoke bombs, regular smoke bombs, grappling hook, and so on. Honestly, he’d probably get 100% destroyed if he went into battle without all his tools.
Being a designer is no different. You might be brilliant; you might be the smartest designer in town. You might even be the hardest working designer in town. But if you have a lackluster utility belt, then you’re basically going in with one hand and one leg tied behind your back.
What are the tools that should be in your belt?
Pen and paper. (To jot down those genius ideas of yours)
Programs. (To take your ideas to completion, or at least mock them up.)
Graphics. (Otherwise you just have… not much.)
Fonts. (Well, if your design has words, then it needs type. And your type decisions affect the whole design.)
After going through that list, you might think “well, looks like my utility belt is full.” But what use is a smoke bomb if you don’t know how to use it?
Learning how to use your tools is more important than actually having them. While there are plenty of tutorials out there for Adobe Illustrator and InDesign (and there are even a number on typography generally) there are far fewer on fonts themselves.
Which should you use? Which are good? What makes them good?
These are tough questions that every designer needs to answer one way or another. The problem, though, is that you probably feel like you need a really fancy, “premium” font. If you want something good, you have to pay for it, right?
Well, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
Are you ready?
Your computer comes with a few really good fonts.
Now, it doesn’t necessarily come with the right font for every job, but it certainly has a handful. So before you go out and spend $500 on fonts, get to know the ones you already have.
I’ve gotten very familiar with my system’s built-in fonts, and I thought I could put some of them down into a short download so you can familiarize yourself, too.
(If you’re thinking “I’m already a great designer, don’t try to tell me about fonts!” then it’s extra important that you read the ebook. Please give me feedback! I’d love to hear what you think and if I’ve missed anything.)
After exploring what makes a font a good font, we deep dive into 9 that you already have. I’ll tell you a bit about the type design, describe some of its anatomy, and suggest where you can use it.
| 120,785
|
Shell and AirFlow Truck Company demonstrate a 248% improvement in freight tonne efficiency with the Starship truck
Jun 6, 2018
Rolling lab on wheels tests impact of technologies on efficiency and emissions in freight transport
[London, United Kingdom] – Shell and AirFlow Truck Company today announce the successful completion and the results from the U.S. coast-to-coast run, attaining 178.4 tonne-miles per gallon [68.9 tonne-kilometres per litre] in freight tonne efficiency (FTE) 1 – a 2.5 times improvement on the North American average of 72 tonne-miles per gallon2 [27.8 tonne-kilometres per litre]. Freight ton efficiency is considered a more relevant statistic for judging the energy intensity associated with moving cargo from point A to point B since it combines the weight of cargo being moved with the amount of fuel consumed. The U.S benchmark figures are in the middle ground when compared to the average figures for Asia and Europe3.
This journey marks the first time that a prototype Class 8 truck 4 has driven coast-to-coast across the U.S, travelling over 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) in real-world trucking operations and in real-world conditions, including unplanned stops and torrential rains.
In addition, the Starship’s total average fuel economy stood at 8.94 US miles per gallon [3.8 kilometres per litre], beating the U.S. average of 6.4 US miles per gallon5 [2.7 kilometres per litre. The best fuel economy attained during the drive was 10.2 US miles per gallon [4.2 kilometres per litre].
It was also estimated that if all two million trucks in the U.S.6, reached the overall fuel economy and freight tonne efficiency performance of Starship, there would be 229 million less tonnes of CO2 emissions each year7.
These measurements were verified by an independent third party, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, using an onboard telematics system. The results are timely, as the global trucking sector seeks to “go further with less”; to reduce fuel consumption while maximising load to lower costs and to meet fuel economy regulations.
The final total truck and cargo weight was about 33,112 kilogrammes (73,000 pounds8) with a payload weight of 18,098 kilogrammes (39,900 pounds9). This was comprised of clean reef material destined for new offshore reef installation in Florida.
“We are proud that the Starship Truck was able to complete the coast-to-coast run in real-world trucking operations and conditions, including torrential rains. Our goal with this initiative is to challenge how the trucking industry defines trucking efficiency and further discussions with AirFlow Truck Company and other manufacturers,” said Robert Mainwaring, Technology Manager for Innovation, Shell Lubricants.
“Through this road trip, we tested the Starship truck, using technologies available today, to provide insight into how trucking fleets and owner/operators could reduce fuel use and emissions as they haul heavy loads. This includes optimised aerodynamics, drivetrain and operational efficiencies, and low viscosity lubricants,” he added.
“The Shell team didn’t take the easy road to trying to achieve the best results they could with their first drive with the truck,” commented Mike Roeth, Executive Director, North American Council for Freight Efficiency. “They knew they wanted to make the truck run, but they went further. They carried a much heavier load than many average truckers on the road carry, travelled a longer route in an uncontrolled environment with a variety of technologies not tested in these real-world conditions. For us, it was a rewarding opportunity to see the truck move from an idea on paper, and to have travelled with the team on the road to help verify the run results.”
“These and other learnings are far from the final results, it is simply the start of our ongoing learning,” added Mainwaring. “We’ll move forward to apply learnings from this test run and implement additional technologies on the truck for future testing. While it would be easy to say the Starship Initiative has been very successful, we know there is more we can do to continue to drive industry dialogue in the future.”
The strong freight tonne efficiency result is attributed to a combination of Shell lubricants technology, enhanced aerodynamics – including customised carbon fibre cab and full side skirts along the length of the trailer – Cummins X-15 efficiency engine, low rolling resistance tyres and a smart driving strategy. The vehicle was lubricated by a Shell low viscosity, fully synthetic heavy-duty engine oil which provides protection against wear, deposits and oil breakdown as well as Shell transmission oils, differential oils and wheel hub oils. The engine oil technology shares the same viscosity as Shell Rimula Ultra E+ and is being tested by OEMs around the world.
The Starship initiative is just one step in the journey required to meet the world’s global energy challenge – a journey that will benefit the transport sector directly whilst being of value to the wider environment. To stay up-to-date on the latest Starship activities, visit Starship - Hyper-Fuel Efficient Truck
1 Freight tonne efficiency is calculated by dividing the distance travelled by amount of fuel consumed and multiplying the resulting figure by the weight of the cargo.
2 NACFE Run on Less Report page 34
3 Based on data and research by International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT):
4 A Class 8 truck is a heavy-duty truck as classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration
5 NACFE Run on Less Report page 34
6 Trucking Statistics from TruckInfo.net
7 Reductions in CO2 emissions per year calculated if all trucks in the U.S. operated at the same FTE as Starship, with the scale of the fleet reduced to balance the increased loading. CO2 emissions refer to those emitted from the combustion of diesel fuel alone with a standard emission rate of 22.4lbs of CO2 per US gallon of diesel fuel.
8 Total truck and cargo weight is 18 per cent heavier than the than the average total gross vehicle weight of 57,000 pounds (25,855 kgs) for a U.S. on-highway Class 8 truck (EPA NHTSA GHG Rule)
9 This is 60 per cent more mass than the U.S. average payload of 22,500 lbs (10,206 kgs), Source: North American Council For Freight Efficiency data and reports)
Find out more about Freight Tonne Efficiency here
Shell International Media Relations:
International +44 207 934 5550
Notes to Editors
- The Coast to Coast Demonstration Drive of the Starship Truck began in San Diego, California and end in Jacksonville, Florida and ran from 18 May 2018 to 24 May 2018. The drive covered 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles). The route is known as the known as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway and is the fourth-longest Interstate Highway in the United States. It is the southernmost cross-country interstate highway in the American Interstate Highway System. The drive stopped along the way to discuss with local American truckers and others on what’s possible in reducing costs, emissions and increasing efficiency.
- The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (https://nacfe.org) is an unbiased and fuel agnostic organisation that works to drive the development and adoption of efficiency-enhancing, environmentally beneficial, and cost-effective technologies, services and methodologies in the North American freight industry. The parameters measured by NACFE included 1) Distance 2) Fuel consumption 3) Weight 4) Elevation change 5) Ambient Temperature and 6) Wind speed and direction.
• The truck served a worthy cause with its cargo as it was loaded with clean reef material that the Coastal Conservation Association. This material will use to build an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. The Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) is an American non-profit organisation, its purpose is to advise and educate the public on conversations about marine resources. Shell is a corporate partner with the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).
About Shell Lubricants
Shell Lubricants produces and sells a wide range of lubricants catered to a wide range of customers in 120 countries – from consumers to business customers. We produce lubricants used in sectors such as consumer motoring, heavy duty transport, mining, power generation, general manufacturing, etc. Our brands include Pennzoil, Quaker State, Shell Helix, Shell Advance, Shell Rotella and Shell Rimula, Shell Tellus and Shell Gadus. Our robust supply chain allows us to bring our products to customers globally. This includes five base oil plants, 40 lubricants blending (and packaging) plants and 10 grease production plant across the globe, in 32 countries around the world.
Shell’s strong heritage in technology for lubricants traces back to more than 70 years. We have over 200 scientists and engineers that work in specialised technical centres for lubricants in China, Japan, Germany and the US. We hold over 150 patents for base oils, lubricants and greases and carry out millions of trials every year. Our partnerships with OEMs helps us to continue to work on producing high quality lubricants. We also work with top motorsports teams like Scuderia Ferrari, BMW Motorsport, Hyundai Motorsport and Ducati Corse to use racing as a test bed to bring race quality lubricants to customers on the road. We also offer a wide range of technical services to our customers, namely Shell LubeMatch, Shell LubeAdvisor and Shell LubeChat.
For more information, logon to www.shell.com.
About Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com.
AirFlow Truck Company
AirFlow Truck Company has built two previous aerodynamic and fuel-efficient Class 8 tractor trailers, the first in 1983 and the most recent in 2012.
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this announcement “Shell”, “Shell group” and “Royal Dutch Shell” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ‘‘Subsidiaries’’, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this announcement refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as “joint ventures” and “joint operations” respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as “associates”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘goals’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘objectives’’, ‘‘outlook’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘probably’’, ‘‘project’’, ‘‘risks’’, “schedule”, ‘‘seek’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘target’’, ‘‘will’’ and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. There can be no assurance that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this announcement. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell’s 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this announcement and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement, 6 June 2018. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.
We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.
| 305,959
|
6164 Views 3 Replies Latest reply: Aug 6, 2008 10:58 AM by J D McIninch
You didn't specify what "access" entails, or remote computer links... Presumably, the person that set this up for you can do it again.
Generally speaking, if it's as simple as viewing a web site, simply type the location in the browser's location bar. If it's something like a VPN, you will require that someone provide you with the appropriate credentials to access it.
I was getting at "remote access" is a very general term.
Microsoft loosely uses the the term "Windows Remote Access" and it variously applied to any one of these 3: Remote Dialup, VPN, or Remote Desktop. Third-party Windows partners also use the term for some products, for example: Citrix, BackToMyPC, etc.
Assuming that you mean one or more of the basic three Windows Remote Access methods...
If you were using Windows RAS dialup, you need to purchase a USB modem for your Mac. Once you've installed the software for it, got to the System Preferences and click on Network. Under the list of network interfaces, click on the lock symbol, if locked, and provide the admin password. Next, click the "+" button and select your modem from the popup list. Next, provide the information on the right (phone number, username, password). Click on the "Advanced..." button for options related to the modem/dialing mode/volume/DNS/WINS/Proxies/PPP. Once provided, click "Connect" and the modem will dial and connect you.
If you aren't using RAS dialup, but are using the basic Windows VPN, the procedure is similar. At the network setup page, click the "+" symbol and select "VPN" from the popup list. Select the VPN type (whichever is being used by your office, L2TP or PPTP) and provide a thoughtful name for it (e.g., "Work VPN"). Once you click "OK", on the right you can specify the server address, account name, encryption type, and authentication settings. Clicking on the "Advanced..." button will bring up additional options, such as setting up VPN on-demand (connects whenever you attempt to access the specified domain). Your office may use certificates to authenticate, make sure that you have a copy of yours (provided by your IT group) ready.
If you are using Windows Remote Desktop, you may need to setup a VPN connection first (it depends on how your office is setup), as above. After that, you need to download an install [Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2|http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/c/0/6c01c76e-fef9-4a59-9fe1-84b1a307 ad26/RDC200_ALL.dmg] from microsoft.com. After that's installed, simply start your VPN connection (if required) then double-click on the Remote Desktop Connection icon in the Applications folder. Provide your login information.
If you are using VPN software other than the basic Windows one at your office, you need to follow directions provided by the vendor.
If you are using something like Citrix, you'll need to download the Citrix client and follow the vendor's instructions on setting up the client.
If you are using a different remote access technology, refer to the documentation provided by the vendor or publicly available (such as SSH tunnel to a DMZ server).
| 291,797
|
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
Lao Tzu (c.604 - 531 B.C.)
Source: Tao Te Ching [Text Only], Pages: 78
Contributed by: Jessica
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington (1732 - 1799)
Contributed by: 1Vector3
Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?
Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982)
Contributed by: peter
Force is followed by loss of strength.This is not the way of the Tao.That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end.
Source: Tao Te Ching [Text Only], Pages: 33
"There is a celestial mind-force, a great sympathetic force which is life itself, of which everything is composed."
Contributed by: esaruoho
It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.
Knowing others is wisdom;Knowing the self in enlightenment.Mastering others requires force;Mastering the self needs strength.
Source: Tao Te Ching, trans. Gia-Fu Feng
Life is not the body; it is not the mind; it is not the soul. It is a force.
Don Miguel Ruiz
Source: The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship (Toltec Wisdom Book)
Contributed by: Gaia Team
Between the laws of attraction and repulsion is the force that moves everything...I must be able to speak for you ...and you must be able to speak for me, if we are to understand love.
Source: Testament of Will, Green 14
Contributed by: Rasa
In our life as a civilized person in the industrial age, we are invaded by objects; how could an object have a "force" when it no longer has individuality?
Gaston Bachelard (1884 - 1962)
Source: The Poetics of Reverie, Pages: 36
Contributed by: Chris
Copyright © 2016 Gaiam, Inc.
| 280,319
|
Varnishing is the most popular form of parquet protection. Proper application of varnish makes parquet beautiful and resistant. Varnished parquet floors are perfect for private houses, apartments, as well for spaces with high and low traffic. Varnish provides a variety of visual options, as they are available in matte, semi-gloss and glossy. In recent years, ultra-matte varnishes that do not change the color of the wood have become popular, and the wood looks untreated, but with high abrasion resistance.
There are a lot and varied of varnishes- in composition, hardiness and color. For private houses and apartments water-based varnishes are most often chosen, which are without smell, environmentally friendly and harmless to human health. Water-based varnishes will minimally change the color of wood; it will be able to retain its natural color without yellowing.
Berg-Seidle solvent- based varnishes will make the wood yellow. When choosing a solvent based varnish, you must pay attention the unpleasant smell, which will disappear until the varnish is completely dry, the room is ventilated and varnish is crystallized.
Varnishes are divided into resistance, from the varnish for the bedroom to the varnish for the parquet floor with a very high traffic- public spaces, gyms, as well as steps.
A very popular treatment in recent years is the coloring of wooden floors with Berger-Seidle Classic BaseOil oil, available in more than 40 colors, and varnishing with Berger-Seidle water-based varnish. The end result is a colored and varnished surface. In our store you can see samples of colored oils on different types of trees, as well also samples of different varnishes.
| 218,384
|
By Miriam Mondlin
Note: My article, written and published in 2003, tells of millions of children that were not getting enough to eat—and it is a fact that now, in 2015, the number of malnourished children is staggeringly higher! Statistics on Food Insecurity are not kept up to date. In 2003, “The working poor,” written of in this article, had not yet come to the Fight for $15 and a Union–that has happened in 2015! And it’s a beautiful thing that is growing. In what I wrote of some years ago, there is the answer to what’s happening now.
In this, the richest country in the world, increasing numbers of children do not have enough to eat. Every one of the more than 13 million children that the USDA figures tell of—and we can be sure there are many more who don’t get counted—is as real as you or I am.
This is told of in many newspaper articles. In the New York Daily News, for example, under the title, “Hunger Has Younger Face,” we are told that “Children are now swelling the ranks of the city’s hungry…” A social worker tells this chilling fact: “Mothers tell me, ‘Two days a week, I have to give my son sugar with water to quench his hunger.’”
And hunger also afflicts children supposedly above the poverty line. In The Christian Science Monitor, Lisa Suhay has an article titled “Being one of them’—the working poor.” In it, she writes: “Last fall, I was given that name by a helper lady at a charity program, ‘Don’t feel so bad dear. You’re one of that new group they call the working poor. [Families] who have education, a home, two working parents, but still can’t make ends meet.’”
Ms. Suhay represents many distraught parents who once saw themselves as “middle class”, suddenly forced to go to food banks to feed their children. The government calls this situation, now so widespread, “food insecurity.” It is criminal that any child in America should be insecure about having enough to eat and it should not be tolerated!
Eli Siegel, the great historian who founded the education Aesthetic Realism, has explained the cause of injustice, including why hunger has persisted even as there is enough food for everyone: it is contempt, which he defined as “the addition to self through the lessening of something else.”
Contempt is the basis of our economy because the bottom line is: how much profit can be made for a few owners and stockholders and how little can be paid to the people who do the work. I saw first hand Mr. Siegel’s passion about justice. He stated in 1970,
“While any child needs something he hasn’t got, the profit system is a failure.” That failure is more apparent now.
We live in a blessed land where wheat, barley, beans, vegetables and so much more grow abundantly. There has always been a glaring disparity between the amount of food our country can produce and the number of children who get it. I never went hungry, but like millions of Americans during the Great Depression, my family could barely scrape together enough money to buy one meal at a time. My widowed mother found it too painful to ask our neighbor if she could borrow some money for food until the Relief check came, and she would send me, a young child, to ask for it. Shamefully, half a century later, millions of children are suffering from lack of food.
In an issue of the international periodical, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, Chairman of Education, Ellen Reiss explains, with tenderness and the simple truth, what is coming to all children:
“A baby now in Milwaukee wants milk, and there are cows in America that can supply milk, and people and trucks that can have the milk reach her, and therefore the baby should get the milk, just because she is alive. Only when production in America is based on good will, usefulness to people—instead of profits for a few individuals—will “supply and demand” become decent and sane.”
I’ve come to see that good will begins with the honest asking and answering of this question by Eli Siegel, central to how a child or any person needs to be seen: “What does a person deserve by being alive?”
This article was published in 2003, and was also published in The Southwest Digest (Lubbock, TX), The Palladium Times (Oswego, NY) San Antonio Register (San Antonio, TX) and others.
| 73,676
|
Rian Johnson’s Looper was one of the more interesting films of 2012, but it had been kicking around in the filmmaker’s brain for nearly a decade before it hit theaters. The time-travel tale, which finds Joseph Gordon-Levitt tasked with killing his future self (played by Bruce Willis), first came into existence way back in 2002.
Johnson has now given fans something of an early holiday gift by releasing the original four-page treatment for the film that he wrote way back in the early days of George W. Bush’s first presidency. He explains a bit about how it came to be and what he intended in a short preface.
“At the time I intended to film it, just with a video camera and a few friends, but we never did and it sat in a drawer for seven years. It’s presented here for the curious, exactly as I wrote it 10 years ago.”
The filmmaker explains that he started writing short ideas down (that could be made for almost nothing) while he was trying – and failing – to get Brick financed. He says “it’s both very different and very similar to what we ended up with on-screen,” which is an accurate assessment. Had Looper never made it as a feature film, it’s easy to see it as a great novel based on the strength of this sketch. Luckily, Johnson did get to make the movie.
Check it out at Johnson’s Looper movie Tumblr.
More: Watch the Freaky Short Rian Johnson Made While He Was Writing 'Looper'
| 174,635
|
During the 2014 fall term, six MS in Professional Studies students from the United States, India, and the Dominican Republic completed capstone projects and graduated from RIT. The range of project topics was far-reaching and addressed subjects that cut across the public, private and non-profit sectors. The quality of all six projects was exceptionally high; however, the project submitted by Ms. Rohita Kotagiri stood out as an example of what a multidisciplinary educated person can accomplish.
Rohita, who is currently employed by Apple Inc. and working on projects related to the digital supply chain aspects of the Apple iTunes online store, entered the Professional Studies program in spring 2014. What attracted Rohita to the program was the flexibility it offered to combine her studies in Industrial Engineering, focusing on logistics and supply chain management, with her research into inefficiencies in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccines for Children program.
Rohita’s capstone project, Vendor Managed Inventory for Pediatric Vaccines, was a comparative study of the current CDC vaccine distribution model, one that determines demand through a periodic review of inventory levels process, and an alternative model. Her goal was to offer a model that could reduce costs and waste by lowering vaccine inventory levels across the program. In her project, Rohita used discrete event-based simulation models to evaluate the impact of an alternative centralized “pull” vaccine distribution model, one that triggers orders from healthcare providers in the program, by taking into account US birth rates and related demographic information.
In her conclusion Rohita was able to show that the CDC’s distribution model for the program could be dramatically improved by implementing a vendor managed pull-distribution system and that using early vaccine demand data to replenish vaccines increases reaction time for distributors and manufacturers, thus adding flexibility to the system.
| 207,008
|
The emergence of blockchain technology has piqued the interest of a number of different sectors across global society. From finance, politics, economics, automotive and technology, blockchain is starting to take root. It is now being seen that communications could be the latest sector to benefit from this technological revolution.
There has been a predictive report that came out on July 11 from Marketwatch that is suggesting that blockchain technology will contribute as much as $1 billion to the telecommunications sector in the next five years.
When delving deeper into the growth that is already being seen by the telecommunications sector thanks to blockchain — as well as the move toward things like blockchain-powered phones — it is actually an unsurprising number.
If something like the automotive industry is already experimenting and discovering new use cases for blockchain technology — from blockchain DApps for Porsche, cobalt ledgers for BMW and safe-driving reward programs for Mercedes — then it should be expected that phones would soon follow suit.
Enter the blockchain-powered phone
Phone manufacturers are constantly on the cutting edge of innovation and technology. This is evident in the yearly releases of bigger and better iPhones and Samsung phones — for example, as these two giants of the space always look to one up each other.
But, there are now phone manufacturers that are trying to leave the competitive battle behind and start a new blockchain-based battle, which will see companies creating phones that are purposefully built for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
However, it is not only the hardware — i.e., the phones — that will have a touch of cryptocurrency about them, the manner in which business is being conducted by these new blockchain communications industry leaders will also be familiar.
Sirin Labs’ November offering
Sirin labs is a Swiss-based smartphone developer which has a project in the works that will see a blockchain-based phone come to market in November of this year. The funding for such a project has come from an ICO.
Sirin managed to raise $157.8 million in their ICO, with the majority of that — $110 million — coming in the first 24 hours. This shows there is quite a keen interest in this project and the potential it holds going forward for phone manufacturers.
Finney, as the phone will be known, will be on the shelves with a price tag of $1,000.
What makes this blockchain phone different from regular phones is that, although it will be Android, it will run on the Sirin OS and include a cold storage cryptocurrency wallet, a token conversion service and a DApp store for blockchain-based apps.
However, the phone can only be purchased using Sirin’s crypto token (based on the ERC-20 token), and 40 percent of the 573 million total tokens it created during the recent ICO have already been sold.
HTC offering the first native blockchain option
Sirin is not the only company forging the way for a blockchain-based phone. HTC, the well-known Taiwanese consumer electronics company, is also looking at putting out a blockchain-powered phone.
HTC call their offering the HTC Exodus, according to Phil Chen, who is responsible for all blockchain and cryptocurrency-related initiatives at HTC, including Exodus.
“We are excited to be supporting underlying protocols such as Bitcoin, Lightning Networks, Ethereum, Dfinity, and more,” said Chen on the integration of blockchain applications with the phone’s hardware.
Like the Sirin Labs phone, the Exodus will reportedly feature universal cryptocurrency wallets as well as a secure hardware enclave.
Huawei to enter the scene also
With HTC building their phone, and Sirin just a few months from releasing theirs, even Huawei is making their first steps toward a blockchain-based phone.
Again, looking to build a phone that will be able to support DApps, Huawei is allegedly seeking the license for the open-source operating system Sirin OS. This report comes from an unconfirmed source, but is not outside the realm of imagination when looking at the way in which the space is building momentum.
Not just phones
It is not just phone companies directly who are looking to make the move into blockchain, but rather the entire telecommunications industry. While HTC and Sirin work on delivering their blockchain phones, the Opera web browser recently launched a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.
Image source: Opera YouTube
But even before the launch of a native blockchain product, the web browser was aware of the blockchain space and its challenges and promises when it included anti-crypto jacking software back in January.
IBM, another leader in technology — as well as an emerging force in blockchain technology — is also starting to develop the potential for blockchain in the telecommunications space.
In January, IBM wrote a blog post about how blockchain can help the telecommunications business, identifying its ability to streamline internal processes, build blockchain-based digital services, and provide trust, security and transparency in business ecosystems, including the IoT:
“Blockchain is currently one of the most talked-about technologies. Across industries, organizations are exploring blockchain’s potential impact in their space and how they can benefit from this emerging technology. The communications service provider (CSP) industry is no exception.”
IBM even went so far as to conduct a survey of 174 C-suite executives from the telecommunications industry and found that 36 percent of communications service-providing organizations are already considering or actively engaged with blockchains.
Other findings from the survey, which show where the executives have identified the potential for blockchain in their sectors, demonstrates a strong affiliation with transparency, trust and accuracy.
Image source: IBM
41 percent of the executives believed that blockchain could support their enterprise strategy by ensuring data control and accuracy, while 38 percent believed it would be good for increased trust in transaction reliability.
Furthermore, 34 percent identified its potential to improve security against fraud and cybercrime, while 28 percent of them said it would reduce transaction cost and increase transaction speed.
The time to enter the market
If the MarketWatch report is correct, and blockchain technology in telecoms will explode from a $46.6 million industry in 2018 to one worth $993.8 million by 2023, then it would appear this is a good starting point for many companies.
The space is changing for telecommunications. Security concerns are rising — says the 132-page report — as well as the increasing support for OSS/BSS (operations support systems/ business support systems) processes.
There is a clear shift in the telecommunications sector that can be addressed with this burgeoning technology. But, as it is still a young technology, there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out. However, being at the forefront with blockchain phones and implementing blockchains to help with security behind the scenes, a number of companies can become leaders in the space. as it moves beyond the likes of Apple and Samsung.
| 157,059
|
MILWAUKEE (TheBlaze/AP) — The federal government has launched a mandatory livestock identification program that officials say will help them quickly track livestock in cases of disease.
The federal government has been trying for nearly a decade to establish an animal identification system. It introduced a voluntary program in 2006 but scrapped it several years later amid widespread complaints from farmers about the expense and red tape. Some also worried about possible privacy violations with the collection of information about their properties. The program ultimately failed because relatively few participated.
The new program is mandatory but supposedly limited in scope. It applies only to animals being shipped across state lines, and it gives states flexibility in deciding how animals will be identified.
The rules that went into effect March 11 require dairy cows and sexually intact beef cattle over 18 months of age to be registered when they are shipped over state lines and outline acceptable forms of identification. In most cases, farmers and ranchers are likely to use ear tags that assign a number to each animal.
There has been talk for years among consumer advocates about establishing a program that would trace food from farm to plate. The livestock identification system doesn’t go that far. Its stated goal is to track animals’ movements so agriculture and health officials can quickly establish quarantines and take other steps to prevent the spread of disease.
While the program covers a range of livestock, much of the focus has been on cattle. That’s partly because aggressive programs to fight diseases such as sheep scabies have already resulted in widespread identification of those animals, said Neil Hammerschmidt, APHIS’ animal disease traceability program manager.
Tracking cows has been less of a concern over the past decade because earlier programs targeting diseases that affect them have been successful.
Still, tracebacks — in which a sick animal’s movements are reviewed as part of the effort to control the spread of a disease — aren’t unusual.
In Wisconsin, many of the larger dairy farms have already switched to ear tags that can be scanned electronically, said Mark Diederichs, president of the Board of Directors of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. The tags meet federal standards but aren’t required because of the cost.
Diederichs and his partners, who have about 5,400 cows split between farms in Malone and Poy Sippi, began using them eight years ago in part because they save time. Workers with hand-held devices can scan the tags and immediately pull up animals’ birth, medical and other records.
The tags also are important as companies like McDonald’s want to know where their food came from and be able to trace it back, Diederichs said, adding, “I think that’s going to be the bigger push” for others to switch.
The federal rules allow two states to agree on alternative forms of identification, such as brands, for use with animals shipped between them.
Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter
Featured image AP photo.
| 159,261
|
Our country’s politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to debate how we get out of this recession. The very fact that this is what they are debating shows that they either do not recognize or do not want to deal with reality.
It may surprise Americans to know that America is not in a cyclical recession at all. Cyclical recessions are caused by temporary conditions like excessive inventories, or perhaps a technology induced increase in productivity that temporarily displaces a portion of the workforce, or a loss of economic activity caused by a loss of exports to a competitor country.
The end of a cyclical recession occurs when the inventories get back to normal levels, or technology displaced manufacturing jobs are replaced by new job opportunities perhaps in other industries.
Unlike what the U.S. government is doing, you can’t permanently end a recession by increasing debt. You can delay there being a recession but you can’t end it. The government can print and borrow money and give that money to millions in many forms – food stamps, free tuition, low cost loans, subsidized housing, etc., but these are only temporary as sooner or later the government runs out of money.
Our country is not in a recession but it has one coming. What we are currently in is a fundamental transition from an economy supported by private industry which has been based on years of individual hard work, productivity and creativity to an economy supported by government. It is a system that has failed throughout the world and throughout history. It is failing in the U.S. now and will continue to fail.
The debate in this country needs to be about how do we save our country, not about ending a recession. There are several things that are critical to even having a chance to save the United States. We first have to quit proclaiming ourselves to be the greatest country ever in the world. We have to face the new reality that we are no longer the super power of the world. If we keep making these proclamations of our greatness, we will be no different than boxers who proclaim what a terrible whipping they will put on their upcoming opponent only to get knocked cold. In other words, we have to accept that we are done if we don’t learn that success depends on individual creativity and hard work and not on political rhetoric and “government enterprise.”
We live in a country today where politicians don’t even comment on “retiring our debt.” They only talk about reducing our annual deficit. Some even talk about reducing the rate at which the deficit is increasing. This is like being in a leaking boat out in the middle of an ocean and being content to discuss slowing the leak even when you know the boat is going to sink anyway and there is no one that is going to save you. You have to stop the leak and bail out the boat if you intend to survive.
Worse, if our country were spending billions on capital expenditures like shipping ports, or bullet trains, or new interstate highways, or bridges, or a new electric grid, it would make some sense. But we’re not. Unlike China, which is doing exactly those things, we are giving billions to other countries, wasting billions on green energy and throwing billions or more away trying to hide the reality of our faltering economy. We are even giving everyone that can’t afford it a cell phone. Little good it will do them to have a cell phone because the 911 call they place to the police department or ambulance service in the future won’t get answered. Why? The city will be bankrupt.
As scary as it is, our country will fail absent an acceptance that it will fail. Historians can name many empires that failed. Many of these countries proclaimed themselves the greatest country on earth; the Roman Empire being one of the most notables and the Soviet Union being one of the most recent.
Clearly, the federal budget must be balanced now. We cannot wait for another day, another year, another election or another generation. Balancing a budget is not greatly difficult. The difficult part is dealing with the impact of balancing it. But the hardships on Americans caused by a balanced budget will pale in comparison to the hardship of a bankrupt America.
| 150,889
|
Planning to use this as a place to share builds, but also cool shop related stuff. I like looking for/thinking of tricks to help the process improve and have already learned a bunch from this forum group, so will try to give back some.
Today I made this little adapter that allows using the wiggler or tube center finder in the same size collet as the hole saw arbor. It was a simple little project, but will save lots of hassle swapping collets to get tubes centered and cutters on target.
genius! I have never used a tube center finder like that. Do you find it useful? Any pitfalls of that design?
I haven’t had it very long. Saw it on another builder’s instagram and thought it looked like the ultimate solution. It needs a little tuning out of the box, but seems to do a decent job. It’s nice to have another option for setting things up.
The wiggler is awesome! I use it all the time for quick jobs. The round point (not shown) is a perfect fit for the centering hole on my Anvil miter fixture.
I have one of those tube center finders, honestly it’s a little faster and more accurate to just use and edge finder and center or offset from there.
Ever spent a bunch of time and effort getting a yoke/chainstay combo just right so it will do all the magic things only to realize you built it with the rockers in the forward position and it’s now 20mm too long? Yeah, good times
Similar to the “measure chain, add two links” only to realize you subtracted two links and now your chain is 4 links too short.
| 224,597
|
Someone that is wounded because of the negligence of some other person or even a business is frequently entitled to compensation for their particular injuries. The compensation will often be paid for by an insurance company, yet that doesn't imply it is simple for a person to obtain the compensation they really need. In most cases, someone will desire to employ a lawyer to be able to obtain the aid they require to be able to make certain they get an acceptable settlement. In this way, all of the expenses originating from the incident shall be covered by the liable party.
An individual will probably wish to pick a legal professional who's experienced with scenarios just like theirs. In the event somebody is hurt when working, by way of example, they will want to employ a workers compensation definition
. These types of attorneys comprehend the process a person must go through to make a workers compensation claim and therefore will be able to help the person file the initial claim or even appeal a decision that's recently been made for their particular situation. If the person is in a car crash, they are going to wish to hire a car accident attorney who is aware of just how to supply the required facts to be able to show the individual was a victim in the motor vehicle accident and thus is eligible
for compensation for their particular injuries.
The insurer for the individual or even business who's liable will probably offer the littlest claim amount feasible. As opposed to taking a settlement that is going to be way too small to be able to handle all the expenditures from the mishap, an individual may make contact with a legal professional. Their lawyer can work hard to determine the right amount for a settlement as well as show the person should receive a settlement for their injuries. In this way, they are able to be certain all of the expenditures are handled by the person that's liable.
| 30,687
|
Zoe Williams (check out her less-than-flattering Wikipedia entry before it's edited) climbs on her soapbox today at The Guardian to trash genealogy.
I called this a branch of history, but in fact scraping round for ye olde DNA is the very opposite of history. Historical inquiry would always direct you to the heart of events, whether in the traditional sense (royals) or the revisionist one (radicals, grassroots movements, that sort of thing). From neither perspective can the criterion "they've got to be related to me before I'm at all interested" be anything but an impediment.See A Defense of Genealogical Obsession for my response to the equally specious arguments of Cary Tennis. I would add that my ancestors were always at the "heart of events," though perhaps not events that Williams would deem sufficiently historic to study. She denies by implication that the life of any given 17th-century peasant is worth researching, making her guilty of the very snobbishness she pretends to abhor in her final paragraph.
A genealogist speaking to the Times at the weekend commented: "It is not just about collecting names. It is about understanding who you are, and how you came to be who you are today. It is about knowing yourself." Superficially that doesn't mean much - in the furthest reaches of the nature/nurture debate, nobody has ever suggested one's distant second cousin could be anything more than a curiosity. And yet that tells you all you need to know about the kind of person who family-trees for a hobby - who thinks that's time well spent, getting to "know yourself, understand who you are". If therapy is for people with more money than sense, genealogy is for those with more time than either. [Link]
The best family historian possesses all the skills of a "real" historian—including that personal connection to his subject which is always the mark of good historical writing. That the connection is familial makes no difference. In fact, I've found that the sense of familial connection gets weaker as the generations recede, replaced by a more general connection of the sort shared by any two human beings. It's harder then to make the connection personal, but with enough research and empathy it can be done.
I'm not greatly offended by this article, because—like Tennis—Williams is attacking a caricature of a genealogist. Let's leave her alone on her soapbox to hurl insults at the straw man she's created. We have important work to do.
| 47,569
|
'The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds' At Palm Beach Dramaworks
(Artwork By Fraver)
Palm Beach Dramaworks continues its 12th Anniversary season with Paul Zindel’s play “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” on Friday, January 6th (8PM) at their brand new Don & Ann Brown Theatre (201 Clematis Street). Special priced preview performances are slated for January 4th & 5th with regularly scheduled curtain times through January 29th.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds tells the story of Tillie, a hopeful and focused dreamer who struggles to keep her aspirations alive amidst the chaos of her home-life, controlled by a desperate mother wonting of love and a rebellious sister. Tensions are elevated on the night of the school science fair where Tillie is hoping to be acknowledged for her project on the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds. First published in 1970, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Obie Award for Best American Play.
Dramaworks’ Producing Artistic Director, William Hayes will direct the production featuring Laura Turnbull, Arielle Hoffman, Skye Coyne, Harriet Oser, and Gracie Connell. The play will feature scenery designed by Michael Amico, costumes designed by Brian O’Keefe, and lights designed by Sean Dolan.
Paul Zindel is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, playwright and screenwriter. He began his career as a high school chemistry teacher before changing paths in 1969 to write novels. Zindel wrote from his own point of view; coming from a difficult upbringing, he stated that he felt he could do more for teenagers by writing for them. His first novel, “The Pigman,” was followed by several other influential books for teen readers. His screenplays include “Marigolds,” the film adaptation of his award-winning play as well as “Up The Sandbox” starring Barbra Streisand, and “Mame” starring Lucille Ball.
The season will continue with a distinguished roster of plays including “The Pitmen Painters” by Lee Hall (February 17 – March 11), “’Master Harold’…and the boys” by Athol Fugard (April 6 – April 29) and “Proof” by David Auburn (May 25 – June 17).
Palm Beach Dramaworks is a non-profit, professional theatre and is a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the South Florida Theatre League, Southeastern Theatre Conference, Florida Professional Theatres Association, Florida Theatre Conference, and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.
The performance schedule is as follows: Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM; Sunday at 7PM; Matinee performances are on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2PM.
Individual tickets are $55 for all performances. Student tickets are available for $10. Group rates for 20 or more, and discounted season subscriptions are also available.
The Dramaworks’ new Don & Ann Brown theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, open Tuesday through Saturday from 10AM to 8PM, and Sundays from 11AM to 8PM, or visit their website at www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.
FALL IN LOVE TODAY! ADOPT A PET FROM YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER
| 238,565
|
Sketches of Omega centauri, Pinwheel galaxy and Messier 3
1/5/2014 - After I've finished working on an update to the galleries structure - it's time to post some new sketches. Obviously the most interesting entry is Omega Centauri (NGC 5139). Messier 3 is also worth noting - it was my first attempt to make a sketch on black paper.
Deep-Sky Hunter - new printable star atlas
1/4/2013 - I've finished making a new printable deep sky atlas, designed for serious DSO observers. It features 101 charts which cover entire sky, 21 "zoom in" maps, indicators of "best deep sky objects", nebulae outlines, common names and naviation marks.
Photos of Saturn and Jupiter's dual red spot
Jupiter's GRS is an ever changing feature, and lately it has aquired a neighbour - small red spot right nearby. At the right - a photo of Saturn taken with a new planetary camera (DFK21).
Sketches of galaxies and globulars
17/9/2012 - Drawings of some globular clusters and galaxies. Three clusters on top image are: M2, M79, M75. At the bottom left there is a ring-shaped open cluster Cr21 with two neighbouring galaixes; At the bottom right - the WLM (Wulf Lundmark Melotte) irregular galaxy, which proved to be a real challenge to spot with it's surface brightness nearing 15m. Click on images to see the full sized sketches.
Timelapse videos of milky way and a moonrise - 2012
At left there is a timelapse video of milky way, which I've made during this year's perseids meteor shower. At right there is a timelapse video of moon rising over Cyprus coastline, during a distant thunderstorm.
Transit of Venus and Jupiter occultation - 2012
6/6/2012 - Second (and last) transit of Venus I had a chance to observe. Visually this is a spectacular phenomenon, and I've yet to see a photo which compares to the visual expirience I had - seeing the dark disk of Venus hovering above large, bright Sun, filled with numerous sunspots.
15/6/2012 - There was yet another spectacular event - Jupiter occultation by moon. Again - no photos come even close to a sight which was observable through an eyepice: Blueish background, the Moon with it's bright earth-shine hovering over a rich starfield, while occulting the "tiny" Jupiter with it's 4 moons.
Sketches of the Markarian's Chain and the Coma cluster
21/4/2012 - During this night the sky was particulary dark and transparent, and since the galaxy hunting season is at it's end - I spent some time observing galaxy clusters with my new Skywatcher 250mm Newtonian. These are drawings of the Coma Cluster, and Markarian's Chain along with Messier 87.
|Markarian's Chain||Coma Cluster|
Home-made dew control system
28/04/2011 - I've finished making my dew control system, which includes 4 heaters and a simple dew controller. Click on the image see an article about it.
Sketches of "Rosette" and "Pac Man" nebulae
21/11/2011 - Sketches of some star forming H-II nebulae regions - the Rosette and the Pacman. Observating session with 8" Newtonian was held at Negev desert, Israel.
|Rosette Nebula||Pac Man nebula|
Jupiter and io's shadow transit - timelapse animation:
22/10/2011 - Timelapse video of Jupiter's rotation, over a period of 2 hours.
A transit of Io and it's shadow is followed by GRS. Also the Callisto moon is visible. Video was taken from Rehovot city in Israel. Instruments: Canon 500D DSLR and 8" F/5 equatorial Newtonian. Seeing varied between fair to good (4..7/10). Click on image to watch the animation, or see it in Youtube:
More sketches and photos:
5/8/2011 - Results from last weekend's observations in Borot Lutz.
Sketches of North America nebula region, The Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 6781, etc
|North America Nebula||The Sculptor galaxy||NGC 6781|
Sketches: M13, M17 and B86:
06/5/2011 - Drawings of the Great Glubular Cluster in Hercules and the Swan nebula, made during observing session in Negev desert. The Inkspot nebula was sketched at july 1th, from the same location.
|Hercules Globular cluster||Swan Nebula||The Ink Spot nebula|
Light Pollution map of Israel (3rd update):
Map of an artificial night-sky brightness over Israel, updated with 2009 data from DMSP satellite.
This map is a rough estimate of naked eye stellar visibility. Another addition is demonstration of light pollution growth in Israel. (Links to page in Hebrew)
Sketches of Andromeda Galaxy, M35, and others:
2/12/2012 - These are results of my last observing session in Negev desert.
I've finally managed to sketch the Andromeda Galaxy (obvious target at this season),
as well as some other favorites of mine: M35 with it's partner, and maybe a little bit less familiar "Hickson 90" group of four faint galaxies in Pisces Austrinus.
|Great Andromeda Galaxy||open clusters||Hickson 90 group|
Articles on upgrades of a Newtonian telescope:
These articles might be helpful in making some easy, yet effective upgrades to their Newtonians. They describe various tweaks I made to my Orion Skyview pro 8" telescope: Flocking the tube interior, attaching secondary mirror heater, rear cooling fan, making a simple Bahtinov focusing mask. Also a review of Skywatcher BKP250 Newtonian has been added.
Sketches of double stars in Cassiopeia region:
18/09/2010 - These sketches were made while observing through Orion 8" newtonian telescope from Rehovot city in Israel. It was a long time since I last sketched double stars. They are a good reminder that there is color in the universe hiding within the stars, and not everything is gray.
|Eta Cassiopeiae||Iota Cassiopeiae||Sigma Cassiopeiae|
|Struve 163 (Cas)||Eta Persei||Iota Trianguli|
Telescope calculator spreadsheet:
Some update and fixes to my telescope calculator, which can be used to calculate various parameters for telescope, eyepieces, and help in picking the right eyepiece. Also an eyepiece collection calculator separate file has been added.
Veil nebula sketch:
10/09/2010 - I've finally managed to sketch the eastern part of the great Veil nebula (NGC 6995 and NGC 6995 - one of my favorite deep sky objects). Sketch was made using Orion 8" Newtonian, at relatively dark observing site in Negev desert in Israel -
| 170,272
|
The translation initiation factor eIF2 is a heterotrimeric complex that is responsible for binding the initiator methionyl tRNA (Met-tRNAiMet) to the small ribosomal subunit. The γ subunit of eIF2 contains a classic GTP-binding domain, and GTP-binding is essential for binding Met-tRNAiMet to form the ternary complex of eIF2, GTP and Met-tRNAiMet. During the course of translation initiation the GTP bound by eIF2 is hydrolyzed to GDP and eIF2 is released from the ribosome in a binary complex with GDP. As eIF2 has a much higher affinity for binding GDP than GTP, a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) termed eIF2B is required to recycle eIF2•GDP to eIF2•GTP [Figure 1].
This recycling reaction is a key control point to regulate translation initiation and it is the target of the eIF2α protein kinases. Four protein kinases have been identified that specifically phosphorylate the α subunit of eIF2 on the residue Ser51 [Figure 1] [Figure 2]. These kinases are activated under various cellular stress conditions included heme-deprivation (HRI), virus infection (PKR), ER stress (PERK), and amino acid starvation (GCN2). Interestingly, phosphorylation of eIF2α on Ser51 inhibits eIF2B and thus impairs general translation, but it can also lead to translational activation of specific mRNAs including the yeast GCN4 mRNA and the mammalian ATF4 mRNA.
Figure 1: Recycling of eIF2 by elF2B and Regulation of eIF2a Kinases
Figure 2: Four eIF2a Kinases Regulate Translation in Response to Cellular Stress Conditions
In collaboration with Frank Sicheri at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, Canada we obtained the x-ray structure of eIF2α bound to the catalytic domain of PKR (Dar et al., 2005). The PKR kinase domain resembles typical eukaryotic protein kinases with the active site located between a smaller N-terminal lobe and larger C-terminal lobe. In the crystal structure the PKR kinase domain dimerizes in a back-to-back orientation mediated by conserved residues in the N-terminal lobe (PDB 2A19) [Figure 3]. One molecule of eIF2α is bound to each PKR kinase domain protomer with the eIF2α OB-fold domain interacting with helix αG in the kinase domain C-terminal lobe and the Ser51 phosphorylation site positioned near the PKR active site (Asp414) [Figure 4]. As the PKR residues mediating kinase domain dimerization and eIF2α recognition are shared among all four eIF2α kinases we propose that all four kinases dimerize and recognize eIF2α in similar manners.
Figure 3: In the crystal structure the PKR kinase domain dimerizes in a back-to-back orientation mediated by conserved residues in the N-terminal lobe (PDB 2A19)
Figure 4: One molecule of eIF2α is bound to each PKR kinase domain protomer with the eIF2α OB-fold domain interacting with helix αG in the kinase domain C-terminal lobe and the Ser51 phosphorylation site positioned near the PKR active site (Asp414)
The structure of the Ser51 region of eIF2α was not well resolved in the PKR–eIF2α structure. When the structure of free eIF2α (PDB 1Q46), in which Ser51 is resolved, was positioned on the PKR–eIF2α (PDB 2A1A) structure [Figure 4], Ser51 in eIF2α was ~20 Å from the kinase active site (Asp414). Current efforts are directed at identifying how Ser51 gains access to the kinase active site.
Figure 5: Regulators of PKR
The PKR is a component in the mammalian anti-viral defense mechanism. Viral replication and gene expression is thought to generate dsRNA molecules that can serve to activate PKR. The PKR-dependent phosphorylation of eIF2α inhibits translation initiation, and thus blocks viral protein synthesis leading to impaired viral replication. In order for a virus to replicate effectively it must prevent the PKR-mediated inhibition of protein synthesis. Many viruses have developed mechanisms to inhibit PKR [Figure 5]. In addition to inhibiting PKR, it is likely that viruses will seek to inhibit PERK to prevent any potential translation inhibition resulting from ER stress associated with massive influx of viral capsid and envelop proteins. Viral inhibitors of particular interest to us include the vaccinia virus K3L and E3L proteins and the baculovirus PK2 protein.
The vaccinia virus K3L protein and related proteins from other poxviruses (including the smallpox C3L protein and the swine pox virus C8L protein) resemble a truncated form of eIF2α. The ~90 amino acid poxviral proteins show striking similarity to the N-terminal third of eIF2α; however, the viral proteins lack a phosphorylatable residue in the position analogous to Ser51 in eIF2α. We, and others, have demonstrated that the poxviral proteins are pseudosubstrate inhibitors of PKR. Expression of either the K3L or C8L protein reduced eIF2α phosphorylation and blocked the toxic effects associated with expression of PKR in yeast. We have used this system to identify the K3L and PKR determinants required for their physical and functional interaction (Seo et al. PNAS 2008).
Related phylogenetic analyses of the eIF2α kinases plus four unrelated protein kinases revealed fast evolution of the PKR kinase domain in vertebrates. These evolutionary studies also revealed evidence of positive diversifying selection at specific sites in the PKR kinase domain. Substitution of positively selected residues in human PKR with residues found in other species altered the sensitivity to PKR inhibitors from different poxviruses. Comparing the sensitivity of human and mouse PKR to poxviral pseudosubstrate inhibitors revealed differences that were traced to positively selected residues near the eIF2α-binding site. Interestingly, 10 of the 12 mutations identified in the genetic screen for PKR mutations conferring resistance to K3L inhibition occurred at sites that were under positive selection during evolution. Taken together, our results indicate how an antiviral protein (PKR) evolved to evade viral inhibition while maintaining its primary function (phosphorylation of eIF2α). Moreover, our identification of species-specific differences in PKR susceptibility to viral inhibitors has important implications for studying human infections in nonhuman model systems (Rothenburg et al. NSMB 2009).
The vaccinia and variola (smallpox) virus E3L protein is a PKR inhibitor consisting of an N-terminal Z-DNA binding domain linked to a C-terminal dsRNA-binding domain. We are currently using yeast based assays to dissect the mechanism of action of the E3L protein.
The baculovirus PK2 protein resembles the C-terminal half of the eIF2α kinase domain present in PKR and the other kinases. This protein lacks the signature motifs associated with ATP binding by protein kinases and thus is not expected to be a functional protein kinase. Based on the common identification of eIF2α kinase inhibitors in viruses, we proposed that the PK2 protein might be an eIF2α kinase inhibitor. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that the PK2 protein inhibited the activity of PKR and GCN2 in yeast cells, that PK2 was required for maximal viral yields in infected insect host cells, and that PK2 was necessary for the inhibition of eIF2α phosphorylation in baculovirus-infected insect cells. Finally, we demonstrated that PK2 directly interacts with PKR, and we propose that PK2 prevents kinase activation by forming inactive heterodimers with the eIF2α kinases (see Dever et al, 1998).
<< Back to Scientific Resources
All related news
| 16,118
|
Love: it’s so much more than just a romantic notion. Each and every person is made from love, to love, and for love by a God who is Love. We are all called to holiness and this call to holiness manifests itself as a call to love as God loves. It requires us to serve, to look beyond ourselves, and to care for others.
Written on our very beings is this call to love and desire to be loved. However, we tend to be quite self-centered and go about things all wrong. We ask of each decision: what’s in it for me? We ignore an all-loving God who loves us infinitely and unconditionally. We try to force love to happen on our terms, when it’s convenient and serves our purposes. We hoard love as if it’s a finite resource that’s being rapidly depleted without realizing that it’s this miserliness itself that is keeping us from love. We keep score and worry about whether everything is 50/50, seeing love as paying a debt or accruing credit. Entitled, we view love as a right rather than a gift. We confuse infatuation, lust, control, enabling, and any other number of unloving things for love out of desperately wanting to feel loved. Yet none of this is love and we end up feeling empty and purposeless.
God calls us out of our selfishness to love and gives us free will to accept or reject Him and this calling. Real love makes demands of us. It’s oftentimes messy and inconvenient. Love is a gift of self, freely given and freely chosen. Love is the continual choice to desire to put someone else before oneself, to wish ardently the absolute best for another. Love is selfless, giving, and sacrificial. It is the greatest virtue and the core of Christian life. When we choose love, we become vulnerable. We look beyond ourselves to the interest of another and answer a need or a want in service. We respect others as fellow human persons of infinite value and worth. We strive to love as God loves, expecting nothing in return and yet desiring a reciprocation of love. God’s love is infinite, perfect, and unconditional. He loves us despite everything, for He knows everything. We are fueled by God’s love for us, transformed and impassioned to do His work.
Clearly this mission of love takes various forms. Many of us are called (or will be called sometime in the future) to love in a very specific and tremendous way through the vocation of marriage and parenthood. All of us are called to love as children and most as siblings, grandchildren, cousins, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews, and other family relationships. Beyond our family, we love our friends, coworkers, neighbors, and acquaintances. Yet this is not all, we love those we encounter in our daily lives: the bank teller, the supermarket clerk, the restaurant server, the garbage worker, the homeless person, all those with whom we cross paths.
Even still, there is more. We love those we will never meet: the refugee, the orphan, the starving, the poor, the ill, the imprisoned, the persecuted, the people in need throughout the world. Beyond this, God calls us to love even our enemies. We are called to carry God’s love with us to every person. This love takes different forms depending on our relationship with a given person, but it is always about looking to another’s best interest, to fulfill their temporal needs as well as their spiritual ones. Ask God how He is calling you to love in each moment and for His grace to rise to the occasion and answer His personal call to holiness. Only Love Himself can fulfill our longing for love. Seek the Lord and He will fill your heart with His love to be shared through you with the world.
| 155,733
|
THE peace process has left some communities behind and young people are again being drawn into violence and the politics of protest. In his continuing series on the legacy of the past, The Detail’s Steven McCaffery reports on two men who have already been down that road.
THE riot started during an Orange Order parade, and soon large parts of the city were up in smoke.
Politicians at Stormont had originally supported a ban on the contentious march, but then suddenly did a u-turn and insisted it go ahead.
But these events didn’t take place in 2012 or 2013.
The violence escalated until hundreds were injured and eight people were dead. Rioters destroyed 2,000 homes, mostly those of Catholic families.
But this eruption of sectarian strife did not take place in 1969.
The year was 1935 and Belfast was suffering one of the worst outbreaks of its age-old problem: sectarian violence.
Maggie Kelly was pregnant with her third child when she was chased from her home by a mob.
It was her unborn son’s first experience of violence, but not the last.
In extensive interviews carried out before his death in 2007, John Kelly recounted his involvement in the IRA throughout the 1950s and ’60s.
The Detail also interviewed Roy Garland, a unionist political activist in the 1960s, on how the mood hardened in unionism ahead of the flashpoint year of 1969.
‘OLD IRELAND WILL BE FREE, FROM THE CENTRE TO THE SEA…’
John Kelly was born into a family with a strong republican lineage – his parents’ generation was linked to the War of Independence, while he literally learned the romanticised songs of the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion on his grandmother’s knee.
The Kellys were prominent in the north Belfast community where they lived, but as he grew-up he became aware that their politics set them apart.
John Kelly said: "The Special Branch were watching, of course. They wanted to discourage other families from associating with you.
“I remember growing up, and you were knocking about with fellas, and their families’ homes would be raided.”
He said politics was discussed by his parents, but he never felt encouraged to take an active interest.
“In fact, when I joined the IRA my parents didn’t know.”
He joined in 1952, aged 16. His induction involved history lectures in the backroom of a safe house – a process that continued each week for three months.
“They wanted to be sure that people would last the course and weren’t just trying to get their hands on a gun.”
But the guns soon followed.
THE BORDER CAMPAIGN
The IRA had launched headline grabbing raids on military bases, and Sinn Féin was to score symbolically significant political victories on both sides of the border.
But as the IRA pondered the launch of a new campaign in the mid ‘50s, some of its own members, including Kelly, warned that while the North’s Catholic minority was unhappy with its position in the unionist-dominated State, there was no support for violence.
He began attending IRA training camps in the Wicklow mountains.
He was trained in weapons and explosives with IRA members such as Feargal O’Hanlon and Seán South, who were later killed in what the IRA called Operation Harvest, but which became known as the Border Campaign.
It began in mid-December 1956 with a flurry of attacks, focused mainly on targets close to the border, but it was met with a strong security response by the authorities in the north and in the south.
More than a dozen people were killed in the years that followed, and by the end of the erratic campaign in February 1962 the IRA was defeated. Its violence was seen by many to be pointless, though members claimed to have carried their ‘cause’ into a new generation.
But this was a barren period for armed republicanism. It had no popular support and no prospect of securing its political aims which appeared to belong to a bygone era and seemed to ignore modern realities.
GUESTS OF THE NATION
John Kelly’s armed involvement ended shortly after the beginning of the campaign when he was captured with other IRA members hiding out at an isolated farm building at Dunnamore, near Cookstown, amid freezing winter weather.
“I remember being dragged out into the field and stripped to our underpants, our hands behind our head, being made to kneel down, not knowing whether they were going to shoot you and being totally frozen.”
Belfast’s infamous Crumlin Road Gaol awaited him.
The prison, built in the 1840s, was a dark and forbidding place.
Inside its walls was a world where grim days were lived out between metal and stone.
John Kelly, then aged 20, was sentenced to eight years.
IMAGES OF CRUMLIN ROAD GAOL
“I was given a grey uniform. The cell was eight-by-six, with a curved roof. The window at the back had iron bars. There was a locker and a table and a bible. It was sparse. Grim.
“The smell was the outstanding thing – the constant stench of urine and faeces.”
He heard people “cracking up at night”. But he turned his mind to the outside: “When you are in prison you are always looking for opportunities to escape.”
He formed a plan with another IRA prisoner, Danny Donnelly from Co Tyrone.
Kelly had hacksaw blades smuggled in to the jail. The pair hoped to cut through the bars in his cell window, escape across the grounds and scale the perimeter wall, despite the presence of armed guards.
They planned to escape under the cover of the Christmas festivities.
‘O HOLY NIGHT…’
On the evening of December 26, 1960, with their plan already delayed, they decided to act.
They forced their way out of the cell window – emerging into a storm of sleet and snow – and headed for the perimeter, carrying a rope fashioned from strips of cloth and electrical flex.
Inside the jail, another IRA inmate Eamonn Boyce had defied strict prison rules to keep a secret diary, which he wrote in Irish and kept hidden during his seven years in custody.
The diary, that surfaced decades later, recorded the escape: “John Kelly and Danny Donnelly escaped from the cells tonight at 4.30. At about 5.45 everyone was locked up and after that the siren began to scream. Most people don’t know what’s wrong. Apparently they went over the wall, but the whole wall is visible from the tower.”
The diary, published in the book The Insider, also revealed what happened next: “Danny Donnelly is free, but the rope broke on Kelly. Rumours all around.”
When the rope broke, Kelly landed on the inside of the prison wall. He was later hauled to a punishment cell where he lay, soaking wet and in agony. He was held in solitary confinement for a month and had six months added to his jail term.
Danny Donnelly suffered serious injuries in the drop to the outside, but he made it to the Kelly family home near the prison, and despite a massive manhunt, he escaped across the border. His book, Prisoner 1082, is dedicated to John Kelly.
Recalling the Crumlin Road break-out, Kelly said: “It was a failed escape attempt for me, but I was happy that one of us got away."
LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE
John Kelly said prison took its toll on everyone who experienced it. He was not afraid to spell out how the return to normal life in 1963 proved difficult.
He found he washed more frequently: "You were trying to wash the whole stink of the place off you.
“Also, I hated confinement, and used to walk the streets for hours at night to get out of the house.
“It took a long time to fit back into society. It was hard engaging with people.”
In time, this faded. He married, started a new life, and secured a good job.
But in 1969 he found himself again playing a high profile and controversial role in political events.
He was a defendant in the 1970 Arms Trial in Dublin, following allegations of an Irish government plot to import guns for nationalists in Northern Ireland.
He helped form the Provisional IRA at the opening of yet another violent phase of history.
When the Troubles effectively ended in 1998, with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, he became an elected member of the power-sharing Assembly at Stormont.
He visited the Crumlin Road Gaol before his death in 2007 and stood again in his old cell.
He maintained his republican views, but refused to indulge in nostalgia about prison life.
“There is nothing nostalgic about it. Just bad memories.
“It was a prison. And prison is prison. It’s not a nice place to be.”
UNIONISM AT THE CROSSROADS – AGAIN
ROY Garland is known today as a liberal unionist commentator who argues for compromise and understanding between unionists and nationalists.
But in the 1960s he was a leading voice in the Young Unionists, and figured among those who opposed reforms being demanded by nationalists through vehicles like the Civil Rights movement.
“I remember one of the first meetings I had in the standing committee of the Unionist Party, as a Young Unionist delegate.
“I went right up to the front and (NI Prime Minister) Terence O’Neill was right in front of me….and I said `You are the destroyer of Ulster!’
“Cheers went up from hardliners at the back of the room.”
He came to unionism through membership of the Orange Order and said he and fellow protestors had a very “religiously orientated perspective”.
“The IRA – they were the foot soldiers of the Catholic Church – believe it or not. This is incredible now.
“Moscow was involved and Rome was involved and they were out to destroy everything we believed in – we were going to be destroyed.”
Sections of unionism feared a `doomsday’ and saw the need to “keep the pot boiling” so as to be ready for the supposed catastrophe to come.
When street demonstrations led to violence he felt that “loyalists or unionists had helped stimulate the riots, but blamed them on the IRA”.
It became a self-fulfilling prophesy: “Those riots confirmed what we were told ’There’s trouble coming…’.”
He wrote the biography of loyalist Gusty Spence, who re-formed the paramilitary UVF in the mid-’60s on the back of similar dire warnings.
Spence’s gang killed three people in 1966 in attacks that hinted at the sectarian bloodshed to come, but he later came to question violence and helped inspire loyalism’s role in the peace talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
Looking back at the ’60s, Roy Garland, recalled two infamous protests led by Ian Paisley over the flying of the Irish Tricolour in a republican office in west Belfast, and over a decision to lower the Union flag at Belfast City Hall due to the death of the Pope.
“People were taken with this thing that we are being sold out…..and flags were again central to it.”
When the violence of 1969 erupted, nationalists from Northern Ireland demanded help from Dublin.
The Taoiseach Jack Lynch gave what became a famous TV address, declaring his government could no longer “stand by”, and he spoke of Irish reunification as the longterm solution to the island’s political woes.
Lynch was said to be paying lip service to unity, which was not a political priority, to placate hardliners in his own party.
In the heat of ’69 such nuances were lost on northern nationalists, and on unionists.
Roy Garland said of Lynch’s famous speech: "This confirmed what we were being told: the Irish government, not just the IRA, were involved in a plot to destabilise Northern Ireland, to destroy Northern Ireland.
“And people became absolutely determined to fight this in anyway they could.”
But the ‘angry Young Unionist’ began to question what he was being told. He came to see the calls for Civil Rights reform as reasonable, and viewed the growing opposition to change as being too extreme.
“That’s knowing what I know now – but at the time I didn’t, I was accepting the propaganda."
He added: "Of course, it just escalated and once it started, my understanding from many people on the republican and loyalist side, is it was tit for tat.
“And it was really a bitter sort of sectarian struggle going on, that most people don’t want to recognise.
“People want to say, ‘they’re responsible, republicans, they caused it’. Others want to say, ‘no it was unionists, they caused it’.
“Both of us caused it, in my view."
Today, young nationalists and unionists are being arrested in demonstrations for, and against, controversial parades.
Some are being drawn into street protests over the flying of the Union flag.
Others are taking part in the paramilitary activity of dissident republican and loyalist groups – despite there being no support for such violence.
But we have been here before.
This society has a habit of allowing history to repeat itself.
See also: The Irish government and the Troubles
| 139,791
|
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. external link Learn more
Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
killed them in revenge, not
Guy Coombs, New York moving-
picture actor, sued for divorce
by. wife here, who calls him flirt.
Postmaster General Hitchcock
will introduce bill in -congress
that newspapers carry no. more
than 50 per cent advertising.
Why not a law that they carry
legal and bona fide ads?
Young woman who- commit
ted suicide in Humbolt Park-yesterday
identified as Miss Slciina
Zbrodzka, 1433 N. Paulina. .
. Frank Nichols, 14, 2818XS.
Canal, and shooting gallery in
basement of home. His brother
discovered his body.
Mrs. Matty Bertlepp 2537 S.'
Avers ave., suicide. Carbolic
Emil Kayser, 11437 Harvard,
suicide. Hanging. Despondent.
Illinois Daily Newspaper asso
ciation yesterday put ban on yel
low novels. Is this a slap at the
Willie Ranoften Hearst papers?
Frank R. Beefier shot and kill
ed his wife yesterday at 165 W.
Ontario street. Arrested. Claim
ed she had deserted him, and he
had followed her to Pacific coast
and back to effect reconciliation.
Senator Cullom was 82 years
old yesterday. He should be giv
en a permanent vacation from the
senate as a present.
Miss Virginia Brooks says she
his asked State's Attorney Way
man to aid her in purging West
Hammond of vice and been
turned down. Brolaski, before
civil service commission: "In
spector Hunt told me: "Wayman
and T are like two peas in a pod,
and you can't go to hini like y63
could under the old regime." Is
there any significance in the two
statements, taken together.
Emanuel Fink, 1317 N. Arte
sian ave., medical student, at
tempted suicide yesterday in
Snell HalL Will recover.
"In 'Japan William Ranr
dolph Hearst and his newspapers,
are considered the most powerful
of the American press." Sabuno
Shimada, Japanese editor. Sort
of affinity of yellowness. -
WHAT DAD SAYS ABOUT IT
Dad Says: I'm glad this po
lice investigation has gone as fat
as it has, for ther's no stopping
now and Chicago's in for a real
I thought at first it was one o"?
those old-fashioned fake crusades
against vice intended to fool the
people without putting a real
crimp in the politicians who get
rich protecting vice.
When you begin to srel to the
inspectors and the 'big politician;
then you're getting to the seat of
the trouble. For that's where the
big money goes, when it goes
The copper on the corner sel
dom is in with it. He's out in the
rain, snow, blizzarji and wind-4
He knows the men higher-up are
getting the coin. He knows
what's going on. And he either
turns petty larceny grafter df
gets mighty discouraged. ""
The life of a square copper isn't
avpleasant one. It's tough." If he
interferes with the protected;
| 146,954
|
Title: AOL Directory Permission Weakness Local Privilege Escalation
Aug 18, 2006
Feb 09, 2006
AOL contains a flaw that may allow a malicious user to gain access to unauthorized privileges. The issue is triggered due to default permissions that grants 'Everyone' group 'Full Control' to the 'America Online 9.0' directory. This flaw may lead to a loss of integrity.
Local Access Required
Loss of Integrity
Currently, there are no known workarounds or upgrades to correct this issue. However, AOL has released a patch to address this vulnerability.
| 1,322
|
How Much Higher A Man Stands Than A Sheep
How Much Higher A Man Stands Than A Sheep
“Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
We ought to thank the Hebrew Pharisees that they provoked Christ to say such a great truth - otherwise He would not say it. People who are extreme formalists, who filtrate the mosquito but devour the camel; who are specialists and virtuosos in finding and pointing out other people’s mistakes – the Pharisees could not explain to themselves how come that Sabbath may be infringed. According to their comprehension, after the law of Moses, the Sabbath had to be spent in rest and inactivity. The Hebrews understood the rest peculiarly, namely, in the same way that Bulgarians understand the Sunday. A Bulgarian would drive his oxen into the cattle-shed, leave the plough under the garner, dress himself well, put his fur cap on, and go to the tavern where still with his entering he would shout out: “Bring here half a kilo of wine, it is Sunday today – we should work six days, and on the seventh we shall eat and make merry”. The Hebrews held similar views of the Sabbath, too. And Christ lays them bare, making a comparison: “If your sheep”, he says to them, “falls into a pit on the Sabbath, you will lift it out, won’t you; and certainly not out of love for the sheep, but so that your interest does not be impaired. But when you have to do good to a person who needs help, then you raise a big question that his hand should not be recovered on the Sabbath.” Christ adds something more: “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep”, that is, how much higher a reasonable being stands than an unreasonable one. If you cook for your stomach four or five hours a day in order to feast it, because it constantly bleats, and you say: “Let me not torment it, let me feed it a little” – then, when it concerns the reasonable being, the human being – that his very thought and heart be elevated, why do you say: “This cannot be done on Saturday, there is time for this, let it wait”? Christ stipulates two conditions, saying: “I must take care of the reasonable just as you take care of your sheep; I have come to Earth to liberate these reasonable beings and lift them out of the pit just as you lift your sheep out of the pit.”
The hand of that person was numb. Do you know what it means, the hand being numb? His will was paralysed, and Christ says: “I want to restore his will, so that he can act freely and apply his thought and his feeling; because he is sent to Earth in order to work. Whether this will be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday, whenever, I will accomplish My mission.” And such work, which does not break the Divine law, can be done by anyone, because rest is meant only for the body and not for the Spirit. Only the lazy ones rest on Earth, and they rest every day, while the industrious ones say: “When Christ comes back to us, we will then take a rest.” A real Christian should comprehend work in this way.
There is one basic principle which we must have in mind; there are certain laws which we have to understand; and not only understand them but also apply them in our life. Without this application, every teaching, every religion, whatever it may be, is fruitless. It is not enough for a plant only to sprout and grow up, develop, blossom, set fruit, but this fruit must also ripen – the purpose of this plant is achieved only when the fruit becomes ripe. Therefore, according to the same law, one may be born, may grow up and develop, set fruit; but if the fruit in him does not ripen, his life is sterile. Christ untied the hand of the man – He restored his will.
If you go further reading this chapter, you will notice that to Jesus were brought a demon-possessed person, a blind one and a mute one, and He healed them as well. These things are connected. Who are the demon-possessed, the blind and the mute one? You might say that these things used to happen only at the time of Christ, but they happen nowadays, too. I will stop for a while and give an example through which I will explain the meaning that Christ has put into these words. There is a story about King Solomon, in which it is said that Solomon summoned a proficient prince of the spirits to help him in building the temple. However, after helping him build the temple, this prince wished to get hold of his throne as well. When Solomon learned about this, he caught this spirit, shut him in a pitcher, closed it with his own seal and cast it in the sea. After this prince stayed some ten years in the sea, he promised to give the most beautiful woman in the world to the one who opens the pitcher and lets him out – but no one opened it. A hundred years passed, and he made a promise again: to give not only the prettiest woman, but also the best children to the one who opens the pitcher – again no one appeared. Another hundred, two hundred, three hundred years passed – again a promise: he would give not only the most beautiful women and the best kids to the one who gets him out, but he would make him the most educated person – no one showed up for this luck, either. He made another promise: he would not only give all things promised earlier to the person who delivers him, but he would also make him a king of the Earth – again no one appeared. After five hundred years, he said: “Whoever frees me from now on, I will kill him.” Some time passed, and a fisherman went fishing, cast his net, caught the pitcher and pulled it out. He thought that a rich treasure must be in it, and began to unseal it, and when he unstopped it, a black smoke started to come out of it, and after some time, the figure of the prince appeared, and he said:
“I have promised to kill the one who gets me out of the pitcher; I had promised this and that earlier, but no one came up; you have no one to blame but yourself now, such is your destiny.”
The fisherman thought: “Why did I have to unseal this pitcher!” but after some time he said to the prince:
“I don’t believe that you have come out of the pitcher – you must first prove to me that you have come out of the pitcher, and then kill me.”
“I was in the pitcher.”
“You were not in the pitcher.”
“I was in the pitcher.”
“You were not.”
The spirit began to go back into the pitcher, and when he entirely got into it, then the fisherman immediately stopped up the pitcher and said:
“If you promise the first things to me, I will let you out.”
Such is life: you come to this world – it is a sea; you cast your net, catch some fish and you win. When you have these favourable conditions to catch fish, you are not there; when there come conditions of suffering, disasters, then you cast your net, and you pull out the pitcher with the evil spirit. You will notice a contrast in this tale – although being a tale, it shows that every life has favourable and unfavourable conditions. We ought to understand the laws in order to make use of the favourable conditions. If we, like the fisherman, fall into unfavourable conditions, we will reap death.
Let me revert to the words of Christ, which He said when they brought to Him a demon-possessed one, another one - blind, and a mute one. The demon-possessed, the blind and the mute one are inside us. Here all of you look like Angels – how beautiful and pious you are; but once a demon gets into you, and there begins wailing and gnashing of teeth day after day. The man and children flee – the mother has run amuck; you, the reasonable ones, should stretch your hands to heal the demon-possessed by saying: “Peace to you”. You can say these words and heal the sick one just as the demon left the man at a Christ’s word. When you start feeding your horses in the stables, they begin to kick without thinking that there are children around. What should you do? You should say “Psh!” like a Bulgarian, and draw the horse by the rein. The rein – this is a law; each unreasonable being must have a rein. The reasonable being is given speech to talk. Therefore, you must heal this feeble-minded person inside yourself. This sheep is affected with staggers, it is rabid – you have to cure it. It is blind; people say: “But we are not blind”; I believe that probably you are not blind, but there are many who are. People asked a woman who could not read, and she said: “Son, I am blind, blind!” Can’t you open the eyes of this woman – open them. Teachers are people who open the eyes of the blind; they are wonder workers – send your son to them, and in ten or fifteen years they will send him back with his eyes open. You also have to punch the ears of the deaf one, so that he can hear and comprehend. It is easy and possible for a human being, because he has reason. Therefore Christ says: “How much higher a man stands than a sheep!”
What does the life of a sheep lie in? It has to graze in order to cover its back with some wool and give milk; and sometimes, to bleat at you. You would say - what is the reasonable thing in this bleating. Some present-day people are like sheep, they are constantly bleating: a brother complains of his brother, servants complain of their masters, and masters complain of their servants – three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, they sing one and the same song. Is not such a life constant bleating? Christ says: “How much higher a man stands than a sheep, because a man can think.” His hand must be untied, the demon-possessed inside him must be healed, his blindness must be removed, and his hearing must be recovered – this is what Christ wants to say with these words. He says to the Pharisees: “You do not understand the fundamental Divine law, and I know why you want people with tied hands – your interests dictate you to have invalid people; you say of the blind one: “He’d better be blind, so that he cannot see our crimes”; of the deaf one you say: “It is in our interest that he is ignorant”. And if there are people who do not like enlightenment, it happens because of certain practical considerations. However, Christ maintains the opposite – He says that the hands of the crippled ones must be untied, and that the demon-possessed, blind and deaf-and-dumb ones must be healed. He wants intelligent people who understand and do God’s Will.
The Bulgarian word “muzh”1 has a deep content; it derives from the Sanskrit word “manas” which means “a being that thinks”; therefore people say “Be a man2!”, that is, a being that thinks, reasons, that has the will to do what is Good – this is what “to be a man3” means. And be sure in this law that one cannot have will unless he does Good. Some people say: “I have will”. If I let a wheel from top of Vitosha4, it will roll down, but it cannot roll up towards the peak; a river runs with a rush down from a mountain peak, but it cannot run up – in the same way, most people roll and go down. And only the one, who can climb up the mountain, only such a person has will – he can remove and overcome certain obstacles and contradictions. And Christ addresses Himself to the Hebrews saying: “You should not be sheep; you should not be like creatures, who roll only downwards, like rivers and stones do; but you must be humans who ascend up towards God; that is, to implement His will” – this is what He wanted to tell them. They understood Him. In present life people also constantly descend, roll down from Vitosha, and ask themselves, why they are unhappy. Everyone, who rolls downwards, is unhappy; one is happy when he begins to ascend. One is unhappy until he begins to think and reason; once he begins to think and reason, he becomes happy, and the things which earlier used to be impossible in life, start being possible.
The concealed thought which Christ implies in these words, has a great meaning to us. When God said in the first chapter of the “Genesis”, that He made the man in His image and according to His likeness, He wanted the man to think and act as God thinks and creates, to have will; and likeness means to liken things, that is, to distinguish between Good and evil, to generate harmony. To think and act is a Divine principle which God has implanted in us. And everyone, who does not think and act as God orders him, does not have God’s image – he is a sheep. We do not say that sheep is bad, but we say that the purpose of a sheep is to pasture and to give milk and wool; while the purpose of a human is completely different – he is created to rule over all beings, to regulate the atmosphere, to regulate all other elements, to arrange the Earth. He has to become a good master, and he can become such a master only when he understands the things that God has implanted in him.
Now, people often ask:
“Are you a Christian?”
“What do you comprehend by this word?”
“Do you believe in Christ?”
“I believe that Christ has come. I believe in this just as I believe that the Russian king had once been to Bulgaria.”
“And what of that? Do you believe that your student has been to school today?”
“I believe it.”
But this faith should go a little further; I will ask the student:
“Have you been listening to what the teacher spoke today?”
“I did not.”
I will say to him:
“I have been listening to his lecture and I know more things than you do.”
And then you will say: “You have grasped the thought.”
People say: “We believe that Christ came to save the world.” All right, you keep preaching this again and again for two thousand years, but how will He save it? “He shed His blood to redeem people.” Well then, when a Bulgarian agricultural worker byes a pair of oxen from the market, what does he do with them? He puts a halter on each of the oxen, puts the yoke on their necks, takes the plough and the goad, and goes to the cornfield. You believe in Christ, but if you are in the position of a sheep and you do not settle down to work, do you serve Christ then? You believe that He has come – this is very good, but are you listening to Him? No. I advise you to go and listen to Christ speaking in His school – to understand His teaching and apply it in your life. I do not want people to throw away what they have, even in the least. What you have now is that you are still in the first forms of the school; but you have been studying nothing but the primer for thirty or forty years now, and this primer is already worn to rags. Put down your primers, take the readers! I understand if one keeps the primer one, two, or three years; but I do not understand if he reads haltingly nothing but the primer for a hundred years. Christ says: “Now take the readers”. And to those who have finished the readers, He says: “Put down your readers and take the Grammar books, Arithmetic, Physics, Chemistry, Bible classes, and go forward; this bleating has been quite enough!” – “Do you believe that Christ has come?” Something more is required from you – listen to what Christ speaks, and learn what He has brought. Only then you will come to know the profound meaning of this Life.
And when you have the ability to think, act and create, you have advantage hidden in you; you have riches, you have a mine that you ought to work out – these are your mind and your will. Now I am asking you – have you been working over your mind and your will, or you have only been bleating over your primer until now? If Christ, who is coming, makes an inspection in your houses, He will make a complete check-up of whether you have been occupied. I do not have in mind those ordinary houses you have made, but I mean the houses you are living in now, the houses with which now you have come here. Christ will see whether in these little cells, in these rooms, there is reasonable human thought and action, or there are sheep excrements. This dung is also good, but it is a sin for a person whose father has sent him to school and has given all the conditions for him to become a reasonable being, to remain outside, bleating. And when the Angels descend and then go back again to Heaven to report about people, what will they say up there? “They are still bleating down there.” This bleating will turn into speech, whenever.
And now Christ, wishing to make this sheep be reasonable (because it has the conditions to be so), places these two principles, one next to the other, and says that this wool of the sheep ought to be spun, and fabric must be made out of it. Everyone can shear sheep, but wool has to be produced. And if this wool is not sheared on time, it will fall out, like the leaves of a tree. The wool must be stowed, processed, and fabric ought to be woven out of it – our thoughts and desires must turn into actions, and then the naked people will be able to get dressed. When, exactly, did man get naked in Eden? When he became stupid, when he became a sheep and began to bleat, when his hand became crippled, when his wife succumbed and left the chaste life for the veneer of things; and when he himself followed this lead, so they both indulged in loose-living. Then they became stupid, lost their eyesight and their right reasoning. Now Christ says: “I came to Earth precisely for this human, who is made in the image of God and according to His likeness – in order to untie the hands of this human, so that he can implement God’s law”. You, who have shepherded the swine of this world until now, and who have been forbidden even the carobs; what else do you expect, may be the song of singers: “Lord, rest the soul of Thy servant”? Among the swine or the carobs of this world should the Lord rest your soul? No, take your stick, take your bag and set out – towards your Father’s home, towards your Father’s school, which the Lord has prepared for you. Christ advises to you to lay aside the primer and the reader, and take the grammar-book – it is a useful science, it teaches us how to speak and read correctly, where to put the different letters.5
Right thought, right reasoning, right way of feeling, right acting is required from all. May our life be beautiful and good – both in form and content (as it is said two thousand years ago: “Be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect”) – here is the slogan for the New life to which we should aspire. It is a Divine law, but a slightly bigger effort is demanded from us in this respect. And I commend worldly people in one aspect: look at a lady who is getting prepared for going to a dancing-party or a ball, or to the theatre; see how much she exerts herself in the room in which she dresses – she keeps turning hither and thither a full hour; she surveys her face, nose, hands – everything must be in good shape. I commend her; but you, the Christians – how many times have you ever sat before your mirror to examine and correct your character? You say: “I can do without a mirror”. You need a mirror; follow the example of this worldly lady. I stand up for the mirror, only the mirror of the heart and mind – when you look at yourself in it, everything ought to be in good condition; only then you should appear before the Lord. Do you think that the Lord will accept you in Heaven as you are now? No. Worldly people understand this much better, and therefore Christ says: “The sons of this century are cleverer”. We should not condemn then, and besides this we should learn a very good lesson from them – I recommend worldly people in every aspect, because they give excellent examples in comprehension and energy, and in preparation. If we could follow their example by applying it in the Spiritual world, we would be standing higher than we are now. You say: “Their matters are foolish; we do not need this; we do not need that.” Well then, what do you need – the Heaven? But Heaven wants no foolish people. If you cannot construct a stone house, then how could you construct a character that requires very big efforts? You do not have a thousand levs6 to build a house, but you want to construct a magnificent character! And when the Lord tells you to take no heed of worldly affairs, He implies this: when you have built one, two, three houses, He says: “This is enough, you are a specialist; now I want from you to construct the house of your heart; and when you learn how to construct the house of your heart, then construct the house of your mind.” The same law must go by analogy from below upwards. Hence, Christ says: “How much higher a man stands than a sheep – a man who thinks and is able to develop his character, than a sheep that constantly bleats and pastures.”
Contemporary world demands: “Bread, bread!” – this call is heard from all sides. – “We need also sheep, because they give us wool.” But if the whole Earth was filled only with sheep, there would be no harmony at all. I have in mind that the reasonable element in us has to prevail over the unreasonable one – the human must be substituted for the animal. Altercation is heard everywhere: “He is an animal.” It is not bad for a human to be an animal, but there is something higher than animals. It is a matter of course for a sheep to be an animal, but not for a human. In the Scripture it is also said: living soul and life-giving Spirit. The one who wishes to teach, ennoble, save humanity and its disciples, who are summoned to this field, let him assist Christ – for He wants intelligent people to help Him – people who now well how to construct according to all rules of Divine science; people in whose minds the welfare of the Kingdom of God stands on the first place. Such people are needed now, who cannot be tempted, nor deluded by external ostensible look of things. I admit that some priests do not perform their duties properly, but I do not condemn them – this is their conception, while I have to take to what my duty is. If we constantly stay at one place and condemn them, but we are negligent of our own duties, what could be the use of this? There would be no use at all; it would be as the case of that teacher who has not taught his students the lesson, and therefore he wants to punish them.
Let us pass into the stage of reasonable living, which aims at improving of all nations and the entire humanity. We should consider the human soul, the home, the society, the nation, the humanity – Christ comprises all these categories; all of this composes one whole. The home is a bigger individual; the society is bigger than the home; the nation is still bigger then society, and humanity – still bigger than the nation. Therefore, from little things we aspire to the bigger ones; that is, from animal manifestation we aspire to reasonable manifestation. By laying this thought before you: “How much higher a man stands than a sheep”, Christ regards man as more capable of constructing and building up his own Life.
The first thing for you to do after going back home, is to start with healing the demon-possessed; the second thing to do is to open the eyes of your blind one; the third thing is to unstop the ears of your deaf one; the fourth is to untie the hand of the one with a tied hand – to set your mind into operation. This is a serious task – you have rules, so you will make the resolution. Of course, a day, two or three days might pass, but if you persist, you will resolve it. And when solving it, the results will point out how you should work. If a teacher always solved the problems of a student, the latter would never learn to calculate. The teacher gives one, two, three, four, five problems, and says: “Next time you shall bring me these problems solved.” And the whole world around us is all problems which the Lord has submitted to us for solution.
In the chapter I have read, Christ has laid many tasks. I dwelt upon one of them, and the others are much heavier – according to the complex rule of three. Now I am giving you the problem only with the four simple operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Once you get into the complex rule of three, the matters there are slightly more difficult, but you can solve this problem very well with the four simple operations. Some of you say: “We cannot add”. You will learn – two apples and two more apples make four. You do not know what kind of people to add to yourself – a man does not know what kind of a woman he should add to himself. Then, subtraction comes: a man marries a woman but does not like her and wants to abandon her – he does not know how to subtract. It is not the time to subtract now. His children multiply and he wants to turn them out, because they were not clever – but he has to teach them. What a great law is concealed in these four rules – to know how to add, how to subtract and so on! It is a deep science which has been standing before people for thousands of years. We have learnt only the mechanical aspect of calculation. When we come to be added to the saints, to the Angels, when we are added to God, then we will learn genuine addition. A grosh7 and one more grosh make two groshes; but what if in the addition there are plus and minus? Someone says:
“I can add.”
“But how can you add – with plus or with minus?”
“I have”, this person says, ”minus two thousand leva.”
“How long do you have to wok to pay them off?”
“I have plus two thousand leva.”
“Ah, you are a rich person, you have enough and you can do good to other people.”
This is the fundamental law of Christ. You will add and subtract this sheep; this sheep will give you the elements. If you visit a shepherd, he will teach you the basic law of addition and subtraction – when he curdles the milk in order to make cheese, he will add a part of it, while he will subtract out another part8. If he knows how to subtract the useless part, he will gain; if he does not know how to do this, he will lose. And you, if you know how to curdle your milk, how to add a part of it and subtract another part, then when it comes to making the balance of your account, you will say: “Now we have a profit”. If you have a loss, it shows that you have not made use of that reasonable principle of Christ, but you have been a sheep which all the time has only been pasturing and bleating.
When a sheep sees a wolf, it stamps its foot, wishing to tell the wolf: “You ought to get off from here; don’t you know that I am pasturing?” But the wolf pounces and eats the sheep – so the sheep is that much clever. And you, when seeing the devil, do not stamp your foot against him, for he does not get scared; he gets scared only by people who have mind and will - whose hands are untied. Therefore Christ came to untie the hands of humans and give them strength to struggle with the wolf – with the devil. Wolfs, too, have the right to walk around the world and exercise their teeth, but we also have the right to use our mind and our will against them. They have the right to eat, but we also have the right to pull out their teeth; they have the right to exercise their claws, but we also have the right to cut their claws off. Eradicate the teeth of this devil and extract his claws. And when you make the devil a sheep – to give you wool and milk, do not be afraid; may be in the next step you will make him an ox, may be you will halter him and get him to plough.
And Christ says in another task, that the spirit, which went out of the man, was very restless, and if it happens to come back, he will be seven times wickeder than he used to be. All those foolish people become seven times wickeder as well. Hence, Christ says: “I came to save the reasonable human” – He came not for the sake of animals, but for the sake of humans. So, exactly this salvation of the profound Christian teaching, we have to apply in our life; we should be a model with our hearts and minds; our home should be a perfect garden – this is the task of our life. Therefore, you set to work, and let everyone work inside himself.
When a friend comes to visit a Bulgarian, the host takes him and shows him what he has in his farm, how his matters are arranged; and his friend praises him and is delighted. Some day, the Lord from Heaven will come, where will you take Him round? Your loft and your barn are demolished; the church and the school, too. If He finds everything here well arranged and in good order, He will say: “Here is one who has worked reasonably”. This is the thought which Christ represents before you this morning: “How much higher a man stands than a sheep”.
11 October 1914, Sofia
1 „muzh” [mәζ] – meaning “man”, “male person”
2 Here “man” is used in the meaning of “male person”, as a part of a common Bulgarian expression
3 Here “man” is used in the meaning of “human being”
4 Vitosha – a mountain to the South of Sofia
5 Here, instead of “different letters” in the Bulgarian text there is a short list of special letters of the Bulgarian alphabet
6 “lev” is the Bulgarian currency
7 A “grosh” is an old Bulgarian coin which was equal to 20 % of the lev. Groshes were used in the period after the Liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke (1878)
8 This is a pun: in Bulgarian we have the same word for “subtract” and “take out”=”extract”, and another identical word for “add” and “gather”. Thus, the sentence may sound also: “…– when he curdles the milk in order to make cheese, he will gather a part of it, while he will take out another part”
|All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:13 PM.|
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.12
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
| 161,099
|
Grunthaner, P. J. and Grunthaner, F. J. and Mayer, J. W. (1980) XPS study of the chemical structure of the nickel/silicon interface. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, 17 (5). pp. 924-929. ISSN 0022-5355 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20120719-132031989
- Published Version
See Usage Policy.
Use this Persistent URL to link to this item: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20120719-132031989
The chemical nature of the Ni/Si, Ni/Ni_(2)Si and Si/Ni_(2)Si interfaces have been investigated using x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Peak position, line shapes, and envelope intensities are used to probe the compositional structure of these systems. Two approaches have been employed: one approach examines the advancing planar silicide front by dynamically monitoring the in situ formation of Ni_(2)Si. This has the advantage of allowing examination of a realistic interface which is bounded on either side by an extended solid. The second approach follows the development of the Si/Ni interface using UHV depositions of thin layers of Ni on Si <100>. ^(4)He^+ backscattering is used to follow the progression of the thin film reaction and to provide quantitative information on atomic composition. These experiments demonstrate that the Ni/Ni_(2)Si interface consists of a Ni‐rich silicide transitional phase while the Si/Ni_(2)Si interface shows a transitional structure which is correspondingly Si‐rich. Intensity analysis indicates that these interfacial regions are at least 22 Å wide for α‐Si substrates and 9–14 Å wide for crystalline Si. The as‐deposited Ni/Si interface cannot be described as a unique single‐phase, but rather as a chemically graded transitional region showing a composition which varies from Si‐rich to Ni‐rich silicides.
|Additional Information:||© 1980 American Vacuum Society. Received 20 February 1980; accepted 15 May 1980. The authors wish to thank A. Madhukar for stimulating discussions. This paper presents the results of one phase of research performed at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NAS7-100 and the Office of Naval Research (L. R. Cooper).|
|Subject Keywords:||Nickel; silicon; interfaces; chemical analysis; photoelectron spectroscopy; x radiation; ultrahigh vacuum; vapor deposited coatings; helium ions; backscattering; nickel oxides; etching|
|Classification Code:||PACS: 73.40.Ns; 79.60.Jv; 82.80.Dx; 82.80.Ej|
|Official Citation:||XPS study of the chemical structure of the nickel/silicon interface P. J. Grunthaner, F. J. Grunthaner, and J. W. Mayer, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 17, 924 (1980), DOI:10.1116/1.570618|
|Usage Policy:||No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.|
|Deposited By:||Jason Perez|
|Deposited On:||19 Jul 2012 21:16|
|Last Modified:||26 Dec 2012 15:38|
Repository Staff Only: item control page
| 67,122
|
Changing the resolution allows you to enlarge or reduce the entire picture on the canvas.
It is also possible to change only the dpi value without changing the size of the picture at all.
To change the resolution, use “Edit” -> “Image Size” in the menu.
You can directly specify the size of the image. By pressing the “(px)” “(cm)” “(inch)” button at the top, you can switch the unit to be edited.
When “Constrain Proportions” in (E) is checked, the ratio of width and height is fixed. If you want to change the width and height separately, please uncheck “Constrain Proportions”.
Press the “Apply” button to apply the pull down value to the numerical value of (A) area. When “Apply” is pressed in the state of this figure, the value of area (A) becomes 200% (doubled).
If “Comic guide” is displayed, set the image size to “Comic guide”.
You can change the value of dpi.
To “Fixed print size”
If checked here, you can change the size of the image keeping the aspect ratio of the canvas.
The image may be stretched unless you keep the aspect ratio of the canvas.
(A): Original picture / (B): Picture with width set to 50% by retaining proportion / (C): Picture with width set to 50% without retaining ratio
When you press the “Reset” button, the numeric value of the window returns to the state when the window was opened. Let’s press this button if you do not understand the original size.
| 141,323
|
Students Around The World
In any function, utilizing several imaginative writing exercises is a significant choice. This secondclass of exercise involves writing with the thought. Whether you’re a beginner, recognized or veteran writer, there exists a writing activity for you. Writing workouts offer you a new construction, a innovative aim, including a brand new direction of writing you WOn’t have attempted before. Creative writing workouts offer you an abstract to test by means of your authorship in means where you likely wouldn’t have thought of by yourself Overlook about my weight along with bodily t One. Workouts in creative thinking can enhance your skills for a writer and encourage suggestions for new writing endeavors. Having trouble through your homework. So begin composing and begin sharing what you have written. You can find just two strategies to write an article in your constitutional phrases.
Figurative language often characterizes a writeris writing style.
Searching to purchase essays from a recognized online trial composing pany. Reliable and favorable article writing service reviews. Have the Post choice to whole suggestion that’s Composing. Authorship isn’t enhanced by another procedure but writing and more writing. It is sometimes a lonely task. Composing an essay may be demanding for you. Application article writing is no easy task, therefore you might keep in contact in the shape of your author through the complete creating process.
Ad method 2 of 3: making easy egg fried rice cook the rice.
Please tell us if many of us could do anything supply aid composing a dissertation to assist. Developing a graphic is crucial in writing. That’s among the activities I Have personally implemented to boost my writing skills. In the conclusion the just means to increase your writing skills will be to compose. This may lead to vast improvements in a person’s writing skills. Keeping a high degree of uniformity is a enormous challenge for all of us as writers. If maybe not, you might be missing from one of several leading signifies of getting the top author it’s potential to be. The just means to be a much better writer is actually to write more.
Stepbystep processes to eliminate questions that are such in films, work good.
It does not mean you’re not previously a superb writer, or does this suggest you’re not effective at being an unbelievable writer. Get appreciable assistance of the petent and specialist author. Secondly, this exercise is just a training of utilizing diverse adjectives. That goes for each and every word in every phrase, naturally. Utilize powerful adjectives within your outline. Your article combines three top parts, the intro, the human anatomy as well as the ending. Our authors create high large quality documents and so are Historry.
They utilize the most widely used shades.
It must be stated the judgment is believed to function as the most straightforward part to write. Picture composing a booming chapter, or creating a character, or what you may want to execute. Visit a place you haven’t previously used for writing. For instance maximum quality documents in moment. Your tutor may undoubtedly be pleased and won’t return it for revision. You’ll never get rid of eesl facing your instructor reading this sort of composition. Where to purchase school documents, definitely, provides. This custom writing essay easy duty will empower you to A speedy article is really not an investigation essay and shouldn’t be medicated therefore. If this ‘s the situation, then you’ll need an on line essay assist.
Ad process 2 of 3: acquiring specials and contests focus on nearby papers.
Our trial article writers are prepared to plete any modification you may possibly have. It might remain of use presenting your outline to professors in order that they can make certain to are in the most appropriate track and may suggest you modifications which can be your essays outstanding.
Filed under Students Around The World
| 122,425
|
The Black Sea is a body of water and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Western Asia. It is supplied by a number of major rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Don, and the Rioni. About a third of Europe drains into the Black Sea, including the countries of Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.
|Primary inflows||Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Don, Kuban, Rioni, Kızılırmak|
|Basin countries||Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine|
|Max. length||1,175 km (730 mi)|
|Surface area||436,402 km2 (168,500 sq mi)|
|Average depth||1,253 m (4,111 ft)|
|Max. depth||2,212 m (7,257 ft)|
|Water volume||547,000 km3 (131,200 cu mi)|
The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2 (168,500 sq mi) (not including the Sea of Azov), a maximum depth of 2,212 m (7,257 ft), and a volume of 547,000 km3 (131,000 cu mi). It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south, Caucasus Mountains to the east, Crimean Mountains to the north, Strandzha to the southwest, Dobrogea Plateau to the northwest, and features a wide shelf to the northwest. The longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km (730 mi).
Important cities along the coast include Batumi, Burgas, Constanța, Giresun, Istanbul, Kerch, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Ordu, Poti, Rize, Samsun, Sevastopol, Sochi, Sukhumi, Trabzon, Varna, Yalta, and Zonguldak.
The Black Sea has a positive water balance; that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 (72 cu mi) per year through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange. The Black Sea outflow is cooler and less saline, and floats over the warm, more saline Mediterranean inflow – as a result of differences in density caused by differences in salinity – leading to a significant anoxic layer well below the surface waters. The Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea, via the Aegean Sea and various straits, and is navigable to the Atlantic Ocean. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the Strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters separate Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch.
The water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the water level in the basin, the surrounding shelf and associated aprons have sometimes been land. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established. It is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is an endorheic basin, operating independently of the global ocean system, like the Caspian Sea for example. Currently the Black Sea water level is relatively high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.
|Most populous urban areas along the Black Sea coastline|
|5||Sevastopol||Ukraine||national-level municipality on the Crimean Peninsula||379,200|
Current names of the sea are usually equivalents of the English name "Black Sea", including these given in the countries bordering the sea:
- Abkhaz language Амшын Еиқәа, IPA: [ɑmʂɨn ɛjkʷʰɑ]
- Adyghe language Хы шӏуцӏэ, IPA: [xə ʃʼəw.t͡sʼa]
- Bulgarian language Черно море, IPA: [ˈtʃɛrno moˈrɛ]
- Crimean Tatar language Къара денъиз, IPA: [qɑrɑ deŋiz]
- Georgian language შავი ზღვა, IPA: [ʃɑvi zɣvɑ]
- Laz and Mingrelian languages - უჩა ზუღა, IPA: [utʃɑ zuɣɑ], or simply ზუღა, IPA: [zuɣɑ], "Sea"
- Romanian language Marea Neagră, (pronounced [ˈmare̯a ˈne̯aɡrə] ( listen)
- Russian language Чёрное мо́рe, IPA: [ˈtɕornəjə ˈmorʲə]
- Turkish language Karadeniz, IPA: [kaˈɾadeniz]
- Ukrainian language Чорне море, IPA: [ˈtʃɔrnɛ ˈmɔrɛ]
In Greece, the historical name "Euxine Sea", which holds a different meaning (see below), is still widely used:
- Greek language Éfxeinos Póntos (Eύξεινος Πόντος); the literal Mavri Thalassa (Μαύρη Θάλασσα) is less common
Historical names and etymologyEdit
The principal Greek name "Póntos Áxeinos" itself is generally accepted to be a rendering of Iranian *axšaina- (“dark colored”), cf. Avestan axšaēna- (“dark colored”), Old Persian axšaina- (color of turquoise), Middle Persian axšēn/xašēn ("blue"), and New Persian xašīn ("blue"), as well as Ossetic œxsīn (“dark gray"). The ancient Greeks subsequently adopted the name, reportedly in all likelihood those who lived to the north of the Black Sea, and altered it into á-xe(i)nos. Thereafter, Greek tradition refers to the Black Sea as the "Inhospitable Sea", Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, first attested in Pindar (c. 475 BC). The name, considered to be "ominous", was then later changed into the euphemism "Hospitable sea", Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos, which was also for the first time attested in Pindar. This became the commonly used designation in Greek for the sea. In contexts related to mythology, the older form "Póntos Áxeinos" remained favored.
Previously, it was erroneously suggested that the name had to be derived from the color of the water, or at least were to be related to climatic particulars. Black (or dark), in this context however, referred to a system in which colors represented the various "cardinal points" of the known world. Black, or dark represented the north, red the south, white for the west, and green or light blue for the east. This symbolism based on cardinal points was used in a plethora of different occasions, and is therefore widely attested. For example, the "Red Sea", a body of water reported since the time of Herodotus (c. 484–c. 425 BC) in fact designated the Indian Ocean, together with bodies of water known as the Persian Gulf and the "actual" Red Sea. According to the same explanation and reasoning, it is therefore considered to be impossible for the Scythians (who principally roamed in what is present-day Ukraine and Russia) to have given the designation as they lived to the north of the sea, and it would be therefore a southern antipodal body of water for them. As the name could have only been given by a people that were well aware of both the northern "black/dark" and southern "red" seas, it is therefore considered probable that it was given its name by the Achaemenids (550–330 BC).
Strabo's Geographica (1.2.10) reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called "the Sea" (ὁ πόντος ho pontos). He also thought that the Black Sea was called "inhospitable" before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes.(7.3.6) The name was changed to "hospitable" after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline, the Pontus, making it part of Greek civilization.
English-language writers of the 18th century often used the name "Euxine Sea" (// or //) to refer to the Black Sea. Edward Gibbon, for instance, calls the sea by this name throughout The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. During the Ottoman Empire period, the Black Sea was called either Bahr-e Siyah or Karadeniz, both meaning "the Black Sea" in the Ottoman Turkish.
It is worthy to note, that in the tenth-century geography book Hudud al-'Alam, written in the Persian language by an unknown author, the Black Sea is called "Georgian Sea", "Sea of Georgians" ("daryä-yi Gurziyan").
Old Georgian sources of 9th–14th centuries ("The Georgian Chronicles") were using the name "Speris Zğua" (სპერის ზღუა), which means "The Sea of Speri", after the name of Kartvelian tribe Speris or Saspers, now in Turkey.
The modern names of the Black Sea (Chyornoye more, Karadeniz, etc.), stretch only back to the 13th century.
Geology and bathymetryEdit
The geological origins of the basin can be traced back to two distinct relict back-arc basins which were initiated by the splitting of an Albian volcanic arc and the subduction of both the Paleo- and Neo-Tethys Oceans, but the timings of these events remain controversial. Since its initiation, compressional tectonic environments led to subsidence in the basin, interspersed with extensional phases resulting in large-scale volcanism and numerous orogenies, causing the uplift of the Greater Caucasus, Pontides, Southern Crimean Peninsula and Balkanides mountain ranges.
The ongoing collision between the Eurasian and African plates and westward escape of the Anatolian block along the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Faults dictates the current tectonic regime, which features enhanced subsidence in the Black Sea basin and significant volcanic activity in the Anatolian region. It is these geological mechanisms which, in the long term, have caused the periodic isolations of the Black Sea from the rest of the global ocean system.
The modern basin is divided into two sub-basins by a convexity extending south from the Crimean Peninsula. The large shelf to the north of the basin is up to 190 km (120 mi) wide, and features a shallow apron with gradients between 1:40 and 1:1000. The southern edge around Turkey and the eastern edge around Georgia, however, are typified by a narrow shelf that rarely exceeds 20 km (12 mi) in width and a steep apron that is typically 1:40 gradient with numerous submarine canyons and channel extensions. The Euxine abyssal plain in the centre of the Black Sea reaches a maximum depth of 2,212 metres (7,257.22 feet) just south of Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula.
The area surrounding the Black Sea is commonly referred to as the Black Sea Region. Its northern part lies within the Chernozem belt (black soil belt) which goes from eastern Croatia (Slavonia), along the Danube (northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria (Danubian Plain) and southern Romania (Wallachian Plain)) to northeast Ukraine and further across the Central Black Earth Region and southern Russia into Siberia.
The Black Sea is a marginal sea and is the world's largest body of water with a meromictic basin. The deep waters do not mix with the upper layers of water that receive oxygen from the atmosphere. As a result, over 90% of the deeper Black Sea volume is anoxic water. The Black Sea's circulation patterns are primarily controlled by basin topography and fluvial inputs, which result in a strongly stratified vertical structure. Because of the extreme stratification, it is classified as a salt wedge estuary.
The Black Sea only experiences water transfer with the Mediterranean Sea, so all inflow and outflow occurs in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. Inflow from the Mediterranean has a higher salinity and density than the outflow, creating the classical estuarine circulation. This means that inflow of dense water from the Mediterranean occurs at the bottom of the basin while outflow of fresher Black Sea surface-water into the Marmara Sea occurs near the surface. Fresher surface water is the product of the fluvial inputs, and this makes the Black Sea a positive sea. The net input of freshwater creates an outflow volume about twice that of the inflow. Evaporation and precipitation are roughly equal at about 300 cubic kilometres per year (72 cu mi/a).
Because of the narrowness and shallowness of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles (their respective depths are only 33 and 70 meters), inflow and outflow current speeds are high and there is significant vertical shear. This allows for turbulent mixing of the two layers. Surface water leaves the Black Sea with a salinity of 17 psu and reaches the Mediterranean with a salinity of 34 psu. Likewise, inflow of the Mediterranean with salinity 38.5 psu experiences a decrease to about 34 psu.
Mean surface circulation is cyclonic and waters around the perimeter of the Black Sea circulate in a basin-wide shelfbreak gyre known as the Rim Current. The Rim Current has a maximum velocity of about 50–100 cm/s. Within this feature, two smaller cyclonic gyres operate, occupying the eastern and western sectors of the basin. The Eastern and Western Gyres are well-organized systems in the winter but dissipate into a series of interconnected eddies in the summer and autumn. Mesoscale activity in the peripheral flow becomes more pronounced during these warmer seasons and is subject to interannual variability.
Outside of the Rim Current, numerous quasi-permanent coastal eddies are formed as a result of upwelling around the coastal apron and "wind curl" mechanisms. The intra-annual strength of these features is controlled by seasonal atmospheric and fluvial variations. During the spring, the Batumi eddy forms in the southeastern corner of the sea.
Beneath the surface waters—from about 50–100 meters—there exists a halocline that stops at the Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL). This layer is composed of cool, salty surface waters, which are the result of localized atmospheric cooling and decreased fluvial input during the winter months. It is the remnant of the winter surface mixed layer. The base of the CIL is marked by a major pycnocline at about 100–200 metres (330–660 ft) and this density disparity is the major mechanism for isolation of the deep water.
Below the pycnocline is the Deep Water mass, where salinity increases to 22.3 psu and temperatures rise to around 8.9 °C. The hydrochemical environment shifts from oxygenated to anoxic, as bacterial decomposition of sunken biomass utilizes all of the free oxygen. Weak geothermal heating and long residence time create a very thick convective bottom layer.
Because of the anoxic water at depth, organic matter, including anthropogenic artifacts such as boat hulls, are well preserved. During periods of high surface productivity, short-lived algal blooms form organic rich layers known as sapropels. Scientists have reported an annual phytoplankton bloom that can be seen in many NASA images of the region. As a result of these characteristics the Black Sea has gained interest from the field of marine archaeology as ancient shipwrecks in excellent states of preservation have been discovered, such as the Byzantine wreck Sinop D, located in the anoxic layer off the coast of Sinop, Turkey.
Modelling shows the release of the hydrogen sulfide clouds in the event of an asteroid impact into the Black Sea would pose a threat to health—or even life—for people living on the Black Sea coast.
There have been isolated reports of flares on the Black Sea occurring during thunderstorms, possibly caused by lightning igniting combustible gas seeping up from the sea depths.
The Black Sea supports an active and dynamic marine ecosystem, dominated by species suited to the brackish, nutrient-rich, conditions. As with all marine food webs, the Black Sea features a range of trophic groups, with autotrophic algae, including diatoms and dinoflagellates, acting as primary producers. The fluvial systems draining Eurasia and central Europe introduce large volumes of sediment and dissolved nutrients into the Black Sea, but distribution of these nutrients is controlled by the degree of physiochemical stratification, which is, in turn, dictated by seasonal physiographic development.
During winter, strong wind promotes convective overturning and upwelling of nutrients, while high summer temperatures result in a marked vertical stratification and a warm, shallow mixed layer. Day length and insolation intensity also controls the extent of the photic zone. Subsurface productivity is limited by nutrient availability, as the anoxic bottom waters act as a sink for reduced nitrate, in the form of ammonia. The benthic zone also plays an important role in Black Sea nutrient cycling, as chemosynthetic organisms and anoxic geochemical pathways recycle nutrients which can be upwelled to the photic zone, enhancing productivity.
The main phytoplankton groups present in the Black Sea are dinoflagellates, diatoms, coccolithophores and cyanobacteria. Generally, the annual cycle of phytoplankton development comprises significant diatom and dinoflagellate-dominated spring production, followed by a weaker mixed assemblage of community development below the seasonal thermocline during summer months and a surface-intensified autumn production. This pattern of productivity is also augmented by an Emiliania huxleyi bloom during the late spring and summer months.
- Annual dinoflagellate distribution is defined by an extended bloom period in subsurface waters during the late spring and summer. In November, subsurface plankton production is combined with surface production, due to vertical mixing of water masses and nutrients such as nitrite. The major bloom-forming dinoflagellate species in the Black Sea is Gymnodinium sp. Estimates of dinoflagellate diversity in the Black Sea range from 193 to 267 species. This level of species richness is relatively low in comparison to the Mediterranean Sea, which is attributable to the brackish conditions, low water transparency and presence of anoxic bottom waters. It is also possible that the low winter temperatures below 4 °C (39 °F) of the Black Sea prevent thermophilous species from becoming established. The relatively high organic matter content of Black Sea surface water favour the development of heterotrophic (an organism which uses organic carbon for growth) and mixotrophic dinoflagellates species (able to exploit different trophic pathways), relative to autotrophs. Despite its unique hydrographic setting, there are no confirmed endemic dinoflagellate species in the Black Sea.
- The Black Sea is populated by many species of marine diatom, which commonly exist as colonies of unicellular, non-motile auto- and heterotrophic algae. The life-cycle of most diatoms can be described as 'boom and bust' and the Black Sea is no exception, with diatom blooms occurring in surface waters throughout the year, most reliably during March. In simple terms, the phase of rapid population growth in diatoms is caused by the in-wash of silicon-bearing terrestrial sediments, and when the supply of silicon is exhausted, the diatoms begin to sink out of the photic zone and produce resting cysts. Additional factors such as predation by zooplankton and ammonium-based regenerated production also have a role to play in the annual diatom cycle. Typically, Proboscia alata blooms during spring and Pseudosolenia calcar-avis blooms during the autumn.
- Coccolithophores are a type of motile, autotrophic phytoplankton that produce CaCO3 plates, known as coccoliths, as part of their life cycle. In the Black Sea, the main period of coccolithophore growth occurs after the bulk of the dinoflagellate growth has taken place. In May, the dinoflagellates move below the seasonal thermocline, into deeper waters, where more nutrients are available. This permits coccolithophores to utilise the nutrients in the upper waters, and by the end of May, with favourable light and temperature conditions, growth rates reach their highest. The major bloom forming species is Emiliania huxleyi, which is also responsible for the release of dimethyl sulfide into the atmosphere. Overall, coccolithophore diversity is low in the Black Sea, and although recent sediments are dominated by E. huxleyi, Braarudosphaera bigelowii, Holocene sediments have also been shown to contain Helicopondosphaera and Discolithina species.
- Cyanobacteria are a phylum of picoplanktonic (plankton ranging in size from 0.2 to 2.0 µm) bacteria that obtain their energy via photosynthesis, and are present throughout the world's oceans. They exhibit a range of morphologiies, including filamentous colonies and biofilms. In the Black Sea, several species are present, and as an example, Synechococcus spp. can be found throughout the photic zone, although concentration decreases with increasing depth. Other factors which exert an influence on distribution include nutrient availability, predation and salinity.
- The Black Sea along with the Caspian Sea is part of the Zebra mussel's native range. The mussel has been accidentally introduced around the world and become an invasive species where it has been introduced.
- The Common Carp's native range extends to The Black Sea along with the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea. Like the Zebra mussel the Common Carp is an invasive species when introduced to other habitats.
- Is another native fish that is also found in the Caspian Sea. It preys upon Zebra mussels. Like the mussels and common carp it has become invasive when introduced to other environments, like the Great Lakes.
- Marine Mammals and marine megafaunas
- Marine mammals present within the basin include two species of dolphins (common and bottlenose) and harbour porpoise inhabit the sea although all of these are endangered due to pressures and impacts by human activities. All the three species have been classified as a distinct subspecies from those in the Mediterranean and in Atlantic Seas and endemic to Black and Azov Seas, and are more active during nights in Turkish Straits. However, construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge caused increases in nutrients and planktons in the waters, attracting large numbers of fish and more than 1,000 of bottlenose dolphins. On the other hand, however, others claim that construction may cause devastating damages on ecosystem including dolphins.
- Critically endangered Mediterranean monk seals were historically abundant in Black Sea, and are regarded to have become extinct from the basin since in 1997. Monk seals were present at the Snake Island until 1950s, and several locations such as the Danube Plavni Nature Reserve and Doğankent were last of hauling-out sites in post-1990. Very few animals still thrive in the Sea of Marmara.
- Ongoing Mediterranizations may or may not boost in increases of cetacean diversity in Turkish Straits hence in Black and Azov basins.
- Various species of pinnipeds, sea otter, and beluga whales were introduced into the Black Sea by mankind and later escaped either by accidental or purported causes. Of these, grey seal and beluga whales have been recorded with successful, long-term occurrences.
- Great white sharks are known to reach into the Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus Strait and basking shark into Dardanelles although it is unclear whether or not these sharks may reach into the Black and Azov basins.
Ecological effects of pollutionEdit
Since the 1960s, rapid industrial expansion along the Black Sea coast line and the construction of a major dam has significantly increased annual variability in the N:P:Si ratio in the basin. In coastal areas, the biological effect of these changes has been an increase in the frequency of monospecific phytoplankton blooms, with diatom bloom frequency increasing by a factor of 2.5 and non-diatom bloom frequency increasing by a factor of 6. The non-diatoms, such as the prymnesiophytes Emiliania huxleyi (coccolithophore), Chromulina sp., and the Euglenophyte Eutreptia lanowii are able to out-compete diatom species because of the limited availability of Si, a necessary constituent of diatom frustules. As a consequence of these blooms, benthic macrophyte populations were deprived of light, while anoxia caused mass mortality in marine animals.
The decline in macrophytes was further compounded by overfishing during the 1970s, while the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis reduced the biomass of copepods and other zooplankton in the late 1980s. Additionally, an alien species—the warty comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi)—was able to establish itself in the basin, exploding from a few individuals to an estimated biomass of one billion metric tons. The change in species composition in Black Sea waters also has consequences for hydrochemistry, as Ca-producing coccolithophores influence salinity and pH, although these ramifications have yet to be fully quantified. In central Black Sea waters, Si levels were also significantly reduced, due to a decrease in the flux of Si associated with advection across isopycnal surfaces. This phenomenon demonstrates the potential for localised alterations in Black Sea nutrient input to have basin-wide effects.
Pollution reduction and regulation efforts have led to a partial recovery of the Black Sea ecosystem during the 1990s, and an EU monitoring exercise, 'EROS21', revealed decreased N and P values, relative to the 1989 peak. Recently, scientists have noted signs of ecological recovery, in part due to the construction of new sewage treatment plants in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria in connection with membership in the European Union. Mnemiopsis leidyi populations have been checked with the arrival of another alien species which feeds on them.
In the past, the range of the Asiatic lion extended from South Asia to the Balkans, possibly up to the Danube. Places like Turkey and the Trans-Caucasus were in this range. The Caspian tiger occurred in eastern Turkey and the Caucasus, at least. The lyuti zver (Old Russian for "fierce animal") that was encountered by Vladimir II Monomakh, Velikiy Kniaz of Kievan Rus' (which ranged to the Black Sea in the south), may have been a tiger or leopard, rather than a wolf or lynx, due to the way it behaved towards him and his horse.
Short-term climatic variation in the Black Sea region is significantly influenced by the operation of the North Atlantic oscillation, the climatic mechanisms resulting from the interaction between the north Atlantic and mid-latitude air masses. While the exact mechanisms causing the North Atlantic Oscillation remain unclear, it is thought the climate conditions established in western Europe mediate the heat and precipitation fluxes reaching Central Europe and Eurasia, regulating the formation of winter cyclones, which are largely responsible for regional precipitation inputs and influence Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperatures (SST's).
The relative strength of these systems also limits the amount of cold air arriving from northern regions during winter. Other influencing factors include the regional topography, as depressions and storms systems arriving from the Mediterranean are funneled through the low land around the Bosphorus, Pontic and Caucasus mountain ranges acting as wave guides, limiting the speed and paths of cyclones passing through the region.
This section does not cite any sources. (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
There are some islands in the Black sea that belong to Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine:
- St.Thomas Island - Bulgaria
- St.Anastasia Island - Bulgaria
- St.Cyricus Island - Bulgaria
- St.Ivan Island - Bulgaria
- St.Peter Island - Bulgaria
- Sacalinu Mare Island - Romania
- Sacalinu Mic Island - Romania
- Novaya Zemliya - Romania
- Utrish Island
- Krupinin Island
- Sudiuk Island
- Kefken Island
- Oreke Island
- Giresun Island
- Dzharylgach Island - Ukraine
- Zmiinyi (Snake) Island - Ukraine
Mediterranean connection during the HoloceneEdit
The Black Sea is connected to the World Ocean by a chain of two shallow straits, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. The Dardanelles is 55 m (180 ft) deep and the Bosphorus is as shallow as 36 m (118 ft). By comparison, at the height of the last ice age, sea levels were more than 100 m (330 ft) lower than they are now.
There is also evidence that water levels in the Black Sea were considerably lower at some point during the post-glacial period. Some researchers theorize that the Black Sea had been a landlocked freshwater lake (at least in upper layers) during the last glaciation and for some time after.
In the aftermath of the last glacial period, water levels in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea rose independently until they were high enough to exchange water. The exact timeline of this development is still subject to debate. One possibility is that the Black Sea filled first, with excess fresh water flowing over the Bosphorus sill and eventually into the Mediterranean Sea. There are also catastrophic scenarios, such as the "Black Sea deluge theory" put forward by William Ryan, Walter Pitman and Petko Dimitrov.
The Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. The hypothesis was headlined when The New York Times published it in December 1996, shortly before it was published in an academic journal. While it is agreed that the sequence of events described did occur, there is debate over the suddenness, dating and magnitude of the events. Relevant to the hypothesis is that its description has led some to connect this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.
The Black Sea was a busy waterway on the crossroads of the ancient world: the Balkans to the west, the Eurasian steppes to the north, Caucasus and Central Asia to the east, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the south, and Greece to the south-west.
The oldest processed gold in the world was found in Varna, and the Black Sea was supposedly sailed by the Argonauts. The land at the eastern end of the Black Sea, Colchis, (now Georgia), marked for the Greeks the edge of the known world.
The steppes to the north of the Black Sea have been suggested as the original homeland (Urheimat) of the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, (PIE) the progenitor of the Indo-European language family, by some scholars such as Marija Gimbutas; others move the heartland further east towards the Caspian Sea, yet others to Anatolia.
The Black Sea became an Ottoman Navy lake within five years of Genoa losing the Crimea in 1479, after which the only Western merchant vessels to sail its waters were those of Venice's old rival Ragusa. This restriction was gradually changed by the Russian Navy from 1783 until the relaxation of export controls in 1789 because of the French Revolution.
Ancient trade routes in the region are currently[when?] being extensively studied by scientists, as the Black Sea was sailed by Hittites, Carians, Colchians, Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Slavs, Varangians, Crusaders, Venetians, Genoese, Lithuanians, Georgians, Poles, Tatars, Ottomans, and Russians.
Perhaps the most promising areas in deepwater archaeology are the quest for submerged prehistoric settlements in the continental shelf and for ancient shipwrecks in the anoxic zone, which are expected to be exceptionally well preserved due to the absence of oxygen. This concentration of historical powers, combined with the preservative qualities of the deep anoxic waters of the Black Sea, has attracted increased interest from marine archaeologists who have begun to discover a large number of ancient ships and organic remains in a high state of preservation.
Commercial and civic useEdit
According to NATO, the Black sea is a strategic corridor that provides smuggling channels for moving legal and illegal goods including drugs, radioactive materials, and counterfeit goods that can be used to finance terrorism.
Ports and ferry terminalsEdit
Merchant fleet and trafficEdit
According to the International Transport Workers' Federation 2013 study, there were around 2,400 commercial vessels operating in the Black Sea.
Anchovy: the Turkish commercial fishing fleet catches around 300,000 tons per year on average, and fishery carried out mainly in winter and the highest portion of the stock is caught between November and December.
Since the 1980s, the Soviet Union started offshore drilling for petroleum in the sea's western portion (adjoining Ukraine's coast). The independent Ukraine continued and intensified that effort within its exclusive economic zone, inviting major international oil companies for exploration. Discovery of the new, massive oilfields in the area stimulated an influx of foreign investments. It also provoked a short-term peaceful territorial dispute with Romania which was resolved in 2011 by an international court redefining the exclusive economic zones between the two countries.
Holiday resorts and spasEdit
In the years following the end of the Cold War, the popularity of the Black Sea as a tourist destination steadily increased. Tourism at Black Sea resorts became one of the region's growth industries. The following is a list of notable Black Sea resort towns:
- 2 Mai (Romania)
- Agigea (Romania)
- Ahtopol (Bulgaria)
- Amasra (Turkey)
- Anaklia (Georgia)
- Anapa (Russia)
- Albena (Bulgaria)
- Alupka (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Alushta (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Balchik (Bulgaria)
- Batumi (Georgia)
- Burgas (Bulgaria)
- Byala (Bulgaria)
- Cap Aurora (Romania)
- Chakvi (Georgia)
- Constantine and Helena (Bulgaria)
- Constanța (Romania)
- Corbu (Romania)
- Costineşti (Romania)
- Eforie (Romania)
- Emona (Bulgaria)
- Eupatoria (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Foros (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Feodosiya (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Giresun (Turkey)
- Gagra (Abkhazia, Georgia[a])
- Gelendzhik (Russia)
- Golden Sands (Bulgaria)
- Gonio (Georgia)
- Gurzuf (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Hopa (Artvin, Turkey)
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Jupiter (Romania)
- Kamchia (Bulgaria)
- Kavarna (Bulgaria)
- Kiten (Bulgaria)
- Kobuleti (Georgia)
- Koktebel (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Lozenetz (Bulgaria)
- Mamaia (Romania)
- Mangalia (Romania)
- Năvodari (Romania)
- Neptun (Romania)
- Nesebar (Bulgaria)
- Novorossiysk (Russia)
- Ordu (Turkey)
- Obzor (Bulgaria)
- Odessa (Ukraine)
- Olimp (Romania)
- Pitsunda (Abkhazia, Georgia[a])
- Pomorie (Bulgaria)
- Primorsko (Bulgaria)
- Rize (Turkey)
- Rusalka (Bulgaria)
- Samsun (Turkey)
- Saturn (Romania)
- Sinop (Turkey)
- Sochi (Russia)
- Sozopol (Bulgaria)
- Sudak (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Skadovsk (Ukraine)
- Sulina (Romania)
- Sunny Beach (Bulgaria)
- Şile (Turkey)
- Sveti Vlas (Bulgaria)
- Trabzon (Turkey)
- Tsikhisdziri (Georgia)
- Tuapse (Russia)
- Ureki (Georgia)
- Vama Veche (Romania)
- Varna (Bulgaria)
- Venus (Romania)
- Yalta (Crimea, Russia/Ukraine (disputed))
- Zonguldak (Turkey)
Modern military useEdit
International and military use of the StraitsEdit
The 1936 Montreux Convention provides for a free passage of civilian ships between the international waters of the Black and the Mediterranean Seas. However, a single country (Turkey) has a complete control over the straits connecting the two seas. The 1982 amendments to the Montreux Convention allow Turkey to close the Straits at its discretion in both wartime and peacetime.
The 1936 Montreux Convention governs the passage of vessels between the Black and the Mediterranean Seas and the presence of military vessels belonging to non-littoral states in the Black Sea waters.
- UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library (2001). "Socio-economic indicators for the countries of the Black Sea basin". Archived from the original on February 10, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
- "Black Sea Geography, Oceanography, Ecology, History" Living Black Sea
- Surface Area—"Black Sea Geography". University of Delaware College of Marine Studies. 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
- Maximum Depth—"Europa – Gateway of the European Union Website". Environment and Enlargement – The Black Sea: Facts and Figures. Archived from the original on November 14, 2008.
- "Unexpected changes in the oxic/anoxic interface in the Black Sea". Nature Publishing Group. 338: 411–413. March 30, 1989. doi:10.1038/338411a0. Retrieved December 2, 2006.
- "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition" (PDF). International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
- "Turkish Statistical Institute". Rapor.tuik.gov.tr. Archived from the original on August 25, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- "Turkish Statistical Institute". Rapor.tuik.gov.tr. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- "Turkish Statistical Institute". Rapor.tuik.gov.tr. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- Stiati.ca. "Cele mai mari orase din Romania". Stiati.ca. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- "Turkish Statistical Institute". Rapor.tuik.gov.tr. Retrieved January 14, 2014.[dead link]
- "Batumi City Hall website". Retrieved August 10, 2017.
- Özhan Öztürk (2005). Karadeniz Ansiklopedik Sözlük. İstanbul: Heyamola Yayınları. pp. 617–620. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012.
- Schmitt 1989, pp. 310–313.
- Peterson, Joseph H. "Greater Bundahishn [text]". www.avesta.org. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
- Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Everyman's Library, 1910; reprinted 1993. ISBN 0-679-42308-7. Passim.
- McKenzie, DP (1970). "Plate tectonics of the Mediterranean region". Nature. 226 (5242): 239–43. Bibcode:1970Natur.226..239M. doi:10.1038/226239a0. PMID 16057188.
- McClusky, S.; S. Balassanian; et al. (2000). "Global Positioning System constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 105 (B3): 5695–5719. Bibcode:2000JGR...105.5695M. doi:10.1029/1999JB900351.
- Shillington, Donna J.; White, Nicky; Minshull, Timothy A.; Edwards, Glyn R.H.; Jones, Stephen M.; Edwards, Rosemary A.; Scott, Caroline L. (2008). "Cenozoic evolution of the eastern Black Sea: A test of depth-dependent stretching models" (PDF). Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 265 (3–4): 360–378. Bibcode:2008E&PSL.265..360S. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2007.10.033.
- Nikishin, A (2003). "The Black Sea basin: tectonic history and Neogene–Quaternary rapid subsidence modelling". Sedimentary Geology. 156: 149–168. Bibcode:2003SedG..156..149N. doi:10.1016/S0037-0738(02)00286-5.
- Remote Sensing of the European Seas. 2008. p. 17. ISBN 1-4020-6771-2.
- Prothero, G.W. (1920). Anatolia. London: H.M. Stationery Office.
- "Agriculture in the Black Sea Region". Bs-agro.com. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- Descriptive Physical Oceanography. Talley, Pickard, Emery, Swift.
- "Meromictic". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- "Exploring Ancient Mysteries: A Black Sea Journey". Ceoe.udel.edu. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- Korotaev, G. (2003). "Seasonal, interannual, and mesoscale variability of the Black Sea upper layer circulation derived from altimeter data". Journal of Geophysical Research. 108. Bibcode:2003JGRC..108.3122K. doi:10.1029/2002JC001508.
- Black Sea Becomes Turquoise Archived October 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. earthobservatory.nasa.gov. Retrieved December 2, 2006.
- Schuiling, Roelof Dirk; Cathcart, Richard B.; Badescu, Viorel; Isvoranu, Dragos; Pelinovsky, Efim (2006). "Asteroid impact in the Black Sea. Death by drowning or asphyxiation?". Natural Hazards. 40 (2): 327–338. doi:10.1007/s11069-006-0017-7.
- "Asteroid impact in the Black Sea: tsunami and toxic gas emission" (PDF). www.cosis.net.
- Oguz, T.; H. W. Ducklow; et al. (1999). "A physical-biochemical model of plankton productivity and nitrogen cycling in the Black Sea" (PDF). Deep-Sea Research Part I. 46 (4): 597–636. Bibcode:1999DSRI...46..597O. doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(98)00074-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012.
- Oguz, T. & A. Merico (2006). "Factors controlling the summer Emiliania huxleyi bloom in the Black Sea: A modeling study" (PDF). Journal of Marine Systems. 59 (3–4): 173–188. Bibcode:2006JMS....59..173O. doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2005.08.002. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012.
- Friedrich, J.; C. Dinkel; et al. (2002). "Benthic Nutrient Cycling and Diagenetic Pathways in the North-western Black Sea" (PDF). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 54 (3): 369–383. Bibcode:2002ECSS...54..369F. doi:10.1006/ecss.2000.0653. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2011.
- Mechanisms impeding natural Mediterranization process of Black Sea fauna (pdf). Retrieved on September 06, 2017
- Selifonova P.J.. 2011. Ships’ ballast as a Primary Factor for‘Mediterranization’of Pelagic Copepod Fauna (Copepoda) in the Northeastern Black Sea (pdf). Retrieved on September 06, 2017
- Eker, E.; L. Georgieva; et al. (1999). "Phytoplankton distribution in the western and eastern Black Sea in spring and autumn 1995" (PDF). ICES Journal of Marine Science. 56: 15–22. doi:10.1006/jmsc.1999.0604. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012.
- Eker-Develi, E (2003). "Distribution of phytoplankton in the southern Black Sea in summer 1996, spring and autumn 1998". Journal of Marine Systems. 39 (3–4): 203–211. Bibcode:2003JMS....39..203E. doi:10.1016/S0924-7963(03)00031-9.
- Krakhmalny, A. F. (1994). "Dinophyta of the Black Sea (Brief history of investigations and species diversity)." Algologiya 4: 99–107.
- Gomez, F. & L. Boicenco (2004). "An annotated checklist of dinoflagellates in the Black Sea" (PDF). Hydrobiologia. 517 (1): 43–59. doi:10.1023/B:HYDR.0000027336.05452.07.
- Uysal, Z (2006). "Vertical distribution of marine cyanobacteria Synechococcus spp. in the Black, Marmara, Aegean, and eastern Mediterranean seas". Deep-Sea Research Part II. 53 (17–19): 1976–1987. Bibcode:2006DSR....53.1976U. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2006.03.016.
- Delphinus delphis ssp. ponticus
- Tursiops truncatus ssp. ponticus
- Phocoena phocoena ssp. relicta
- First stranding record of a Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus) in the Marmara Sea, Turkey (pdf). Retrieved on September 06, 2017
- Goldman E.. 2017. Crimean bridge construction boosts dolphin population in Kerch Strait. The Russia Beyond the Headlines. Retrieved on March 10, 2017
- Reznikova E.. 2017. Крымские стройки убивают все живое на дне моря. Примечания. Новости Севастополя и Крыма. Retrieved on September 29, 2017
- Karamanlidis, A.; Dendrinos, P. (2015). "Monachus monachus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2015: e.T13653A45227543. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- Sergei R. Grinevetsky, Igor S. Zonn, Sergei S. Zhiltsov, Aleksey N. Kosarev, Andrey G. Kostianoy, 2014, The Black Sea Encyclopedia
- "A new sighting of the Mediterranean Monk Seal,Monachus monachus(Hermann, 1779), in the Marmara Sea (Turkey)". Zoology in the Middle East. 60: 278–280. doi:10.1080/09397140.2014.944438.
- Frantzis A., Alexiadou P., Paximadis G., Politi E., Gannier A., Corsini-Foka M. (2003). "Current knowledge of the cetacean fauna of the Greek Seas" (pdf). Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. International Whaling Commission. 5 (3): 219–232. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
- Anderson R.. 1992. Black Sea Whale Aided By Activists. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on April 21. 2016
- Grey seal Halichoerus grypus in the Black Sea: The first case of long-term survival of an exotic pinniped
- Kabasakal H.. 2014. The status of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) in Turkey’s waters (pdf). Marine Biodiversity Records. Vol. 7. pp.1-8. doi:10.1017/S1755267214000980; Vol. 7; e109; 2014. Retrieved on September 04, 2017
- Cuma. 2009. Çanakkale’de 10 metrelik köpekbalığı!. Retrieved on September 04, 2017
- Humborg, Christoph; Ittekkot, Venugopalan; Cociasu, Adriana; Bodungen, Bodo v. (1997). "Effect of Danube River dam on Black Sea biogeochemistry and ecosystem structure". Nature. 386 (6623): 385–388. Bibcode:1997Natur.386..385H. doi:10.1038/386385a0.
- Sburlea, A.; L. Boicenco; et al. (2006). "Aspects of eutrophication as a chemical pollution with implications on marine biota at the Romanian Black Sea shore". Chemicals as Intentional and Accidental Global Environmental Threats. NATO Security through Science Series: 357–360. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-5098-5_28. ISBN 978-1-4020-5096-1.
- Gregoire, M.; C. Raick; et al. (2008). "Numerical modeling of the central Black Sea ecosystem functioning during the eutrophication phase". Progress in Oceanography. 76 (3): 286–333. Bibcode:2008PrOce..76..286G. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2008.01.002.
- Colin Woodard (February 11, 2001). Ocean's end: travels through endangered seas. Basic Books. pp. 1–28. ISBN 978-0-465-01571-9. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
- Lancelot, C (2002). "Modelling the Danube-influenced North-western Continental Shelf of the Black Sea. II: Ecosystem Response to Changes in Nutrient Delivery by the Danube River after its Damming in 1972" (PDF). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 54 (3): 473–499. Bibcode:2002ECSS...54..473L. doi:10.1006/ecss.2000.0659.
- Woodard, Colin, "The Black Sea's Cautionary Tale," Congressional Quarterly Global Researcher, October 2007, pp. 244–245
- Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (1988). "Kyivan Rus'". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- Geptner, V. G., Sludskij, A. A. (1972). Mlekopitajuščie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Vysšaia Škola, Moskva. (In Russian; English translation: Heptner, V.G., Sludskii, A. A., Komarov, A., Komorov, N.; Hoffmann, R. S. (1992). Mammals of the Soviet Union. Vol III: Carnivores (Feloidea). Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation, Washington DC).
- Hurrell, J. W. (1995). "Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: Regional Temperatures and Precipitation". Science. 269 (5224): 676–679. Bibcode:1995Sci...269..676H. doi:10.1126/science.269.5224.676. PMID 17758812.
- Lamy, F., Arz, H. W., Bond, G. C., Barh, A. and Pätzold, J. (2006). "Multicentennial-scale hydrological changes in the Black Sea and northern Red Sea during the Holocene and the Arctic/North Atlantic Oscillation" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 21. Bibcode:2006PalOc..21.1008L. doi:10.1029/2005PA001184. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2012.
- "Spatial and temporal analysis of annual rainfall variations in Turkey". International Journal of Climatology. 16: 1057–1076. Bibcode:1996IJCli..16.1057T. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0088(199609)16:9<1057::AID-JOC75>3.3.CO;2-4.
- Cullen, H. M.; A. Kaplan; et al. (2002). "Impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on Middle Eastern climate and streamflow" (PDF). Climatic Change. 55 (3): 315–338. doi:10.1023/A:1020518305517.
- Ozsoy, E. & U. Unluata (1997). "Oceanography of the Black Sea: A review of some recent results". Earth-Science Reviews. 42 (4): 231–272. Bibcode:1997ESRv...42..231O. doi:10.1016/S0012-8252(97)81859-4.
- Brody, L. R., Nestor, M.J.R. (1980). Regional Forecasting Aids for the Mediterranean Basin. Handbook for Forecasters in the Mediterranean, Naval Research Laboratory. Part 2.
- Wilford, John Noble (17 December 1996). "Geologists Link Black Sea Deluge To Farming's Rise". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- William Ryan & Walter Pitman (1998). Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. ISBN 0-684-85920-3.
- David Nicolle (1989). The Venetian Empire 1200–1670. Osprey Publishing. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-85045-899-2.
- Bruce McGowan. Economic Life in Ottoman Europe: Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land, 1600–1800, Studies in Modern Capitalism. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-521-13536-8.
- "Black Sea Security". NATO Advanced Research Workshop. NATO. 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- "Черное море признано одним из самых неблагоприятных мест для моряков". International Transport Workers' Federation. BlackSeaNews. May 27, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- Turkish Black Sea Acoustic Surveys: Winter distribution of anchovy along the Turkish coast Serdar SAKINAN. Middle East Technical University – Institute of Marine Sciences
- "Bulgarian Sea Resorts". Retrieved February 2, 2007.
- "Montreaux and The Bosphorus Problem" (in Turkish).
- "Montreaux Convention and Turkey (pdf)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 19, 2013.
- Stella Ghervas, "The Black Sea", in D. Armitage, A. Bashford and S. Sivasundaram, eds., Oceanic Histories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 234-266. ISBN 978-1-1083-9972-2
- Stella Ghervas, "Odessa et les confins de l'Europe: un éclairage historique", in Stella Ghervas et François Rosset (ed), Lieux d'Europe. Mythes et limites (Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008), pp. 107-124. ISBN 978-2-7351-1182-4
- Charles King, The Black Sea: A History, 2004, ISBN 0-19-924161-9
- William Ryan and Walter Pitman, Noah's Flood, 1999, ISBN 0-684-85920-3
- Neal Ascherson, Black Sea (Vintage 1996), ISBN 0-09-959371-8
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (1989). "BLACK SEA". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 3. pp. 310–313.
- Rüdiger Schmitt, "Considerations on the Name of the Black Sea", in: Hellas und der griechische Osten (Saarbrücken 1996), pp. 219–224
- West, Stephanie (2003). ‘The Most Marvellous of All Seas’: the Greek Encounter with the Euxine. 50. Greece & Rome. pp. 151–167.
- Petko Dimitrov; Dimitar Dimitrov (2004). THE BLACK SEA, THE FLOOD AND THE ANCIENT MYTHS. Varna. p. 91. ISBN 954-579-335-X.
- Dimitrov, D. 2010. Geology and Non-traditional resources of the Black Sea. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-3-8383-8639-3. 244p.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Black Sea.|
|Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Black Sea.|
| 115,962
|
Dr Fiona McAndrew of Bupa Cromwell Hospital
Insomnia is one of the most common conditions seen by GPs.
In this article, Dr Fiona McAndrew discusses the different types of insomnia
and what can be done about the problem..
Difficulty in sleeping is a common problem
If you’ve ever had trouble sleeping, you know the
frustration it can cause – tiredness, irritability, difficulty concentrating –
and you’re hardly alone.
Insomnia is one of the most common conditions seen by GPs,
affecting about one-third of the population at some point in their lifetime.
Most people sleep between seven to nine hours a night, but many people
experience difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, frequent waking,
early morning waking and difficulty getting back to sleep.
Primary and secondary causes of insomnia
There are two main types of insomnia: primary and secondary.
Primary insomnia has no obvious cause. Secondary insomnia is caused by an
underlying problem, such as a medical condition or psychological problem, such
as grief or depression. In fact, approximately half of all cases of insomnia
are caused by psychological problems. Some other common secondary causes
include obstructive sleep apnoea, excess alcohol, illicit drug use, delayed
sleep phase disorders, and parasomnias (conditions such as restless leg
syndrome, sleep talking/walking, teeth grinding, etc).
Obstructive sleep apnoea is often associated with obesity
and is caused by upper airway obstruction. This obstruction reduces oxygen
intake, causing you to wake. Symptoms include snoring, waking up gasping for
breath, episodes of breathing pauses and excessive daytime sleepiness. You will
often find your partner is the one who sends you to the doctor for this.
Luckily, obstructive sleep apnoea responds well to a machine called a CPAP
(continuous positive airway pressure). Your GP will need to refer you to a
sleep specialist to confirm a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea.
| 3,774
|
Cycling is a sport Ghanaians hardly get international champions from, but Samuel Anim who led Ghana to the Commonwealth Games in 2014 as the captain of the cycling team, nursed the dream to break that jinx one day.
Unfortunately, the young man who won the Cowbell national cycling competition last year, died tragically three weeks ago, before he could accomplish that lofty ambition.
When death of such nature occurs to our heroes, one begins to figure out if that could have been avoided
or is it because we do not cherish the gallant men and women who fly the flag of Ghana high?
Many are the cases of sudden deaths across the globe as in the case of Anim. But the question is, was it negligence on the part of the sportsman or the motor driver who hit him at dawn time on the hills of Aburi while training ahead of the Congo-Brazzaville All Africa Games (AAG) to be held in September? Many are of the view that lesser-known sports here in Ghana are least attended to – and it is high time the nation’s sportsmen and women are well taken care off.
How can a national champion be training in the foggy hills of Aburi all alone without any form of security in view of the implications. There was an issue with poor visibility and speeding vehicles and one would have thought that the National Cycling Association (NCA) could provide some sort of protection for Anim and his colleagues preparing for the AAG.
Interestingly enough, he collided with the motor resulting his bicycle falling from his hands and thereforebanging his head on the on the street. According to a source, he did not die instantly and if a swift medical attention had been provided, our hero might have survived.
Athletes of such pedigree must be treated as such for the development and the sustainability of our sports. He is gone but one personally believes the state must give him a befitting burial and make sure the family he left behind is well taken care of.
Indeed, the 26-year-old Anim died in the line of duty and so must be celebrated.
One familiar quote from William Shakespeare said: “If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.” This a food for thought!
By Nyanfeiku Andor
| 164,378
|
« הקודםהמשך »
Albeit, ne flatt'ry did corrupt her truth ;
title did debauch her ear ; Goody, good-woman, goslip, n'aunt, for footh,
Or dame, the sole additions she did hear;
Ne would esteem him act as mought behove,
One ancient hen she took delight to feed,
The plodding pattern of the busy dame, Which ever and anon, impell’d by need,
Into her school, begirt with chickens, came; Such favour did her paft deportment claim :
And if neglect had lavish'd on the ground Fragment of bread, she would collect the same;
For well she knew, and quaintly could expound, What fin it were to waste the smallest crumb the found.
Herbs, too, she knew, and well of each could speak,
That in her garden fipp'd the filv'ry dew, Where no vain flow'r disclos'd a gaudy streak,
But herbs for use, and physick, not a few, Of
grey renown, within those borders grew; The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme, Fresh baum, and marygold of chearful hue,
The lowly gill, that never dares to climb,
Yet euphrafy may not be left unsung,
That gives dim eyes to wander leagues around, And pungent radish, biting infant's tongue,
And plantain ribb'd, that heals the reaper's wound;
BEAUTIES OF POETRY.
And marj'ram sweet, in shepherd's pofie found;
And lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom Shall be, crewhile, in arid bundles bound,
To lurk amidst the labours of her loom, And crown her kerchiefs clean with inickle rare perfume.
And here trim rosemarine, that whilom crown'd
The daintiest garden of the proudest peer,
A sacred shelter for it's branches here,
Oh, wassel days! O customs meet and well!
Simplicity then fought this humble cell, Nor ever would she more with thane and lordling dwell.
Here oft the dame, on Sabbath's decent eve,
Hymned such psalms as Sternhold forth did mete ; If winter 'twere, she to her hearth did cleave,
But in her garden found a summer-feat: Sweet melody! to hear her then repeat
How Israel's sons, beneath a foreign king, While taunting foe-men did a song entreat,
All for the nonce untuning ev'ry ftring, Up-hung their useless lyres—small heart had they to fing.
For she was just, and friend to virtuous lore,
And pass’d much time in truly virtuous deed ; And in those elfin's ears would oft deplore
The times when Truth by Popish rage did bleed, And tortious death was true Devotion's mued ;
And simple Faith in iron chains did mourn, That nould on wooden image place her creed;
And lawny faints in smould'ring flames did burn: Ah, deareft Lord! forefend thilk days should e'er return.
In elbow-chair, like that of Scottish ftem,
By the sharp tooth of cank’ring Eld defac'd, In which, when he receives his diadem,
Our sov'reign prince and liefest liege is plac'd, The matron sate : and some with rank she grac’d;
(The source of children's and of courtier's pride!) Redrefs'd affronts, (for vile affronts there pass'd ;)
And warn’d them not the fretful to deride, But love each other dear, whatever them betide.
Right well she knew each temper to descry,
To thwart the proud, and the submiss to raise ; Some with vile copper prize exalt on high,
And fome entice with pittance small of praise ; And other some with baleful sprig she 'frays :
E’en absent, she the reins of pow'r doth hold, While with quaint arts the giddy crowd she sways ;
Forewarn’d, if little bird their pranks behold, "Twill whisper in her ear, and all the scene unfold.
Lo, now, with state the utters the command !
Eftfoons the urchins to their tasks repair ;
Which with pellucid horn secured are,
The work so gay, that on their back is feen, St. George's high atchievements does declare,
On which thilk wight that has y-gazing been, Kens the forth-coming rod, unpleasing fight, I ween!
Ah ! luckless he, and born beneath the beam
Of evil ftar! it irks me whilft I write ! As erst the bard *, by Mulla's silver stream,
Oft as he told of deadly dolorous plight,
Sigh'd as he sung, and did in tears indite;
For, brandishing the rod, the doth begin
And down they drop; appears his dainty skin,
O ruthful scene! when from a nook obscure
His little sister doth his peril see ;
She finds full soon her wonted spirits flee;
Nor gentle pardon could this dame deny, (If gentle pardon could with dames agree)
To her sad grief that swells in either eye, And wrings her so that all for pity she could die.
No longer can she now her shrieks comma
And hardly she forbears, thro' awful fear,
To stay harsh justice in it's mid career.
(Ah! too remote to ward the Mameful blow!) She sees no kind domestick visage near,
And soon a flood of tears begins to flow, And gives a loose at last to unavailing woe.
Bui, ah! what pen his piteous plight may trace ?
Or what device his loud laments explain ?
The pallid hue that dyes his looks amain ?
When he in abject wife implores the dame,
Or when from high she levels well her aim,
The other tribe, aghaft, with fore dismay
Attend, and conn their talks with mickle care ; By turns, aftony'd, ev'ry twig furvey,
And from their fellows hateful wounds beware, Knowing; I wilt, how each the fame may share ;
Till fear has taught them a performance meet, And to the well-known chest the dame repair,
Whence oft with fugar'd cates the doth 'em greet; And gingerbready-rare, now, certes, doubly sweet!
See, to their seats they hye with merry glee,
And in beseemly order fitten there, All but the wight of bum y-galled; he
Abhorreth bench, and stool, and fourm, and chair, (This hand in mouth y-fix'd, that rend's his hair)
And eke with snubs profound, and heaving breast, Convulsions intermitting! does declare,
His grievous wrong, his dame's unjust behest, And scorns her offer'd love, and shuns to be caress’d.
His face besprent; with liquid chryftal shines ;
His blooming face, that feems a purple flow'r, Which low to earth it's drooping head declines,
All smear'd and fully'd by a vernal show'r. O the hard bofoms of despotick pow'r !
All, all, but she, the author of his shame; All, all, but she, regret this mournful hour :
Yet hence the youth, and hence the flow'r shall claimt, If so I deem aright, transcending worth and famé.
Behind some door, in melancholy thought,
Mindless of food, he, dreary caitiff! pines ; Ne for his fellows joyaunce careth aught,
But to the wind all merriment resigns,
| 153,049
|
Saturday, May 6, 2006
Calvin H. Johnson (Texas)
- B.A. 1966, Columbia
- J.D. 1971, Stanford
My new book, Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
In the Constitutional law area, my recent articles include:
- Fixing the Constitutional Absurdity of the Apportionment of Direct Tax, 21 Const. Comm. 2 (2004)
- Homage to Clio: the Historical Continuity from the Articles of Confederation into the Constitution, 20 Const. Comm. 463 (2004)
- The Panda's Thumb: The Modest and Mercantilist Orginal Meaning of the Commerce Clause, 13 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rights J. 1 (2004)
The Dubious Enumerated Power Doctrine should be out in Constitutional Commentary soon; it argues that the section 8 powers of Congress were written to be illustrative not exhaustive.
I will give a lecture in May, in the Supreme Court's chambers, praising the dissenters in Pollock v. Farmers Trust (1896). The lecture will say that the Pollock Court would not have declared the income tax unconstitutional if they had been conservatives who respected doctrinal continuity or who based law on a sound understanding of the original history. Looking at the requirement that direct tax be apportioned among the states counting slaves at three-fifths is the tax problem that got me into the digital archives and the whole of the constitutional stuff.
I became a tax lawyer because of Professor Wayne Barnett at Stanford Law School and because of the Paul, Weiss tax department. I was a Philosophy major at Columbia, and I am sure I looked down my nose at anything I knew of accounting or tax. Wayne Barnett, however, in the first tax course was a great rationalist who built wonderful, elaborate systems to show why Duberstein and Clay Brown needed to be decided for the government. The course was known as "great cases I have lost" in the halls of the law school. If tax could provoke that much fury it must be worth something.
I then went off to the Paul Weiss tax department for the summer and they were brilliant. The weekly tax meetings were like the analysis of a Bobby Fisher chess game, complicated but elegant. Largely incomprehensible to a second year law student, of course, but the fairest most fascinating arguments I had heard.
I spent two years in the Paul Weiss tax department and loved the work. I spent two years at the Treasury Department, Office of Tax Legislative Counsel, negotiating tax legislation, regulations and revenue rulings, for God and Country. I started teaching tax at Rutgers Law School in downtown Newark and moved to Texas Law School in 1981.
Words are actions and my tax writing is almost always trying to accomplish something. I do a lot of expert testimony these days against tax shelters. I testified before the U.S. Senate hearings investigating the U.S. tax shelter industry and then published Tales from the KPMG’s Skunk Works: The Basis-Shift or Defective-Redemption Shelter, 108 Tax Notes 431 (2005).
For years, tax shelters were my primary subject, including my tenure pieces and lots of Tax Notes pieces:
- Inefficiency Does Not Drive Out Inequity: Market Equilibrium & Tax Shelters, 71 Tax Notes 377 (1996)
- What’s a Tax Shelter?, 68 Tax Notes 879 (1995)
- Play Money Basis: When is Nonrecourse Liability a Valid Cost?, 11 Va. Tax Rev. 631(1992)
- The Front End of the Crane Rule, 47 Tax Notes 593 (1990)
- Why Have Anti-Tax Shelter Legislation?, 67 Tex. L. Rev. 591 (1989)
- Financial Impact of the 1986 Tax Reform Act on Real Estate: A View from the Spreadsheets, 36 Tax Notes 309 (1987)
- Silk Purses from a Sow’s Ear: Cost Free Liabilities Under the Income Tax, 3 Am. J. Tax Pol'y 231 (1984)
- A New Way to Look at the Tax Shelter Problem, 23 Tax Notes 765 (1984)
- Tax Shelter Gain: The Mismatch of Debt and Supply Side Depreciation, 61 Tex. L. Rev. 1013 (1983). (This piece, I am told, had some influence on the Treasury to call for cutting back on the 1981 version of ACRS. Ira claims that Financial Impact of the 1986 Tax Reform Act destroyed the S&L industry, but I am avoiding credit.)
I have been involved in three Supreme Court cases on briefs or briefs with a thin veneer called "article":
- Thor Power Tool Co. said that tax would not follow accounting. The clerks tell me my brief influenced that outcome. The Thor Power Tool Decision and Unrealized Inventory Losses, 26 Tax Notes 1259 (1980). GAAP Tax, 83 Tax Notes 425 (1999) still claims I did good.
- I was cited by the Supreme Court in INDOPCO for The Expenditures Incurred by the Target Corporation in an Acquisitive Reorganization are Dividends to the Shareholders: (Pssst, Don’t Tell the Supreme Court), 53 Tax Notes 463 (1991), for the proposition that capitalization was important. The Supreme Court, however, dropped the subtitle of the piece. I tried to defend the holding of INDOPCO in Capitalization After the Government’s Big Win in INDOPCO, 63 Tax Notes 1323 (1994), and Snarling for the Cameras: Hostility and Takeover Expense Deductions, 76 Tax Notes 689 (1997). I regretted the great case's passing when the Treasury destroyed INDOPCO disloyally to its mission: Destroying Tax Base: The Proposed INDOPCO Capitalization Regulations, 99 Tax Notes 1381 (2003).
- I tried very hard to prevent Congress from passing §197 by getting the Supreme Court to decide Newark Morning Star Ledger right, but I could not get through the filters, and the Court got it wrong, so Congress did too. In truth, a newspaper does not lose any invested capital as customers turn over. The Mass Asset Rule Reflects Income and Amortization Does Not, 56 Tax Notes 629 (1992). For the campaign, see:
- Component Depreciation for the Purchase of Businesses, 58 Tax Notes 983 (1993)
- Once More Into the Mass Assets, 58 Tax Notes 369 (1993)
- The Mass Asset Rule is Not the Blob that Ate Los Angeles, 57 Tax Notes 1602 (1992)
- Sowing Mass Confusion, 57 Tax Notes 1087 (1992)
- The Argument over Newark Morning Ledger, 57 Tax Notes 1090 (1992)
- Newark Morning Ledger: Intangibles are Not Amortizable, 57 Tax Notes 691 (1992)
- Effective Tax Rates on High-Goodwill Takeovers Under House and Senate Bills, 60 Tax Notes 531 (1993)
- Amortization of Intangibles: Impact of Seller Tax, 59 Tax Notes 285 (1993)
Thor Power seduced me into accounting. I now teach and and write in it, and I have testified before FASB and Congress on accounting, for the reason that I have never had a day of accounting training. I have spent a lot of time warning the world about the awfulness of stock options:
- The Disloyalty of Stock and Stock Option Compensation, 11 Conn. Ins. L.J. 1333 (2005)
- Stock and Stock-Option Compensation: A Bad Idea, 51 Canadian Tax J. 1259 (2003)
- Stealing the Company With Free Stock Options: The Furor Over Accounting Standards, 65 Tax Notes 479 (1994) (Part I)
- Stealing the Company With Free Stock Options: The Furor Over Accounting Standards, 65 Tax Notes 1149 (1994) (Part II)
- Stock Options Aren’t “Free” Compensation, L.A. Times, at B7 (April 8, 1994)
I testified before FASB trying to get the accountants to follow the deep wisdom of tax law on stock options. I testified before Congress against pooling method of accounting for mergers. The Illegitimate "Earned" Requirement in Tax and Nontax Accounting, 50 Tax L. Rev. 373 (1995), tried to get accountants to take retainers into income. In Accounting in Favor of Investors, 19 Cardozo L. Rev. 637 (1997), I corrected Warren Buffet on his bad accounting. With some accounting training, I could be dangerous.
I have had at least one notable failure. I was chairman for two years of the ABA Tax Section's Tax Structure and Simplication Committee, trying very hard to make the tax law simpler.
- Simplification: Replace the Personal Exemptions Phaseout Bubble, 77 Tax Notes 1403 (1997)
- Simplification: Replacement of the Section 68 Limitation on Itemized Deductions, 78 Tax Notes 89 (1998)
The Tax Law has not become simpler, notwithstanding the effort. Turns out simplification is always second, second to whatever else is under consideration.
I started publishing in Tax Notes, and loving it, when it was a mimeo sheet "published " out of Tom Field's narrow basement. Treasury on Fringe Benefits: To Tax or Not to Tax, 4 Tax Notes 3 (1976). Thirty years later, I still am using Tax Notes to set the world right. Tax Incentives are Always the Wrong Way to Go, 111 Tax Notes 90 (2006). Tax Notes collects the audience that needs to hear tax arguments. It is a shame indeed that tax professors kill trees in publishing in nontax journals.
I have tried to stop or shape pending legislation via Tax Notes in:
- Depreciation Policy During Carnival: The New 50 Percent Bonus Depreciation, 100 Tax Notes 712 (2003)
- The Bush 35 Percent Flat Tax on Distributions from Public Corporations, 98 Tax Notes 1881 (2003)
- The Private Advantage of Money-Losing Investments under Cut-Rate Capital Gains, 55 Tax Notes 1125 (1992)
- The Consumption of Capital Gain, 55 Tax Notes 957 (1992)
- Seventeen Culls from Capital Gains, 48 Tax Notes 1285 (1990)
Three Errors in the “Neutral Cost Recovery System” Proposal, 67 Tax Notes 1229 (1995), opposed a proposal that was in fact defeated, and 50% bonus depreciation has now expired. The Case for Taxing Fringe Benefits, 9 Tax Notes 43 (1979), is a reworking of testimony at Ways and Means hearings on fringe benefits. I tried to shape my tax law, not in connection with current legislation, in Error in the Name of Interest, 30 Tax Notes 451 (1986), and The Undertaxation of Holding Gains, 55 Tax Notes 807 (1992). The Tax Notes people funded my brief in Thor Power.
When you publish in Tax Notes you not only get a receptive tax audience but also responses. Kahn Depreciation and the Minitax Baseline in Accounting for Government Costs, 53 Tax Notes 1523 (1991), is part of a long dialog with Douglas Kahn in which I argued that accelerated depreciation is in fact a tax expenditure that needed to be justified by cost-benefit analysis. Purging out “Pollock”: The Constitutionality of Federal Wealth or Sales Taxes, 97 Tax Notes 1723 (2002), and Barbie Dolls in the Archeological Dig: Professor Johnson Responds [to Erik Jensen, The Constitution Matter in Tax], 100 Tax Notes 832 (2003), are part of a long debate on the meaning of the apportionment of direct tax. Can the IRS be Well-Liked?, 108 Tax Notes 145 (2005), is my review of Charles Rossotti’s Many Unhappy Returns.
Chris Hanna keeps convincing me to participate in the wonderful symposiums on tax policy he organizes for SMU Law Review. A Thermometer for the Tax System: The Overall Health of the Tax System as Measured by Implicit Tax, 56 SMU L. Rev. 13 (2003), talked about what awful shape the tax system is in overall. On my watch, the American tax base has gone to hell. I have just given Chris an essay called Was it Lost? Personal Deductions under Tax Reform, defending the comprehensive tax ideal. Am I the Last Believer? Stock Compensation: The Most Expensive Way to Pay Future Cash, 52 S.M.U. L. Rev. 423 (1999), attacked stock compensation.
All this leaves me with lots of unrelated articles and testimony I am still proud of many years later, and I think I will just list them, by reason of pride:
- A Full and Faithful Marriage: The Substantially-All-The-Properties Requirement in a Corporate Reorganization, 50 Tax Law. 319 (1997)
- Deferring Tax Losses with an Expanded § 1211, 48 Tax L. Rev. 719 (1993)
- The Legitimacy of Basis from a Corporation’s Own Stock, 9 Am. J. Tax Pol'y 155 (1991)
- Zarin and the Tax Benefit Rule: Tax Models for Gambling Losses and the Forgiveness of Gambling Debts, 45 Tax L. Rev. 697 (1990)
- Soft Money Investing under the Income Tax, 1989 Ill. L. Rev. 1019
- Tax Models for Nonprorata Shareholder Contributions, 3 Va. Tax Rev. 81 (1983)
- Tax Models for Nonrecourse Employee Liability, 32 Tax L. Rev. 359 (1977) (my first law review article, probably best viewed a training exercise showing off on a quite narrow topic)
My web page has links to text for most of the things I have written.
Columbia shaped me. Everyone at Columbia reads the same great books at the same time for their full freshman year. The core curriculum, called Contemporary Civilization, or just CC, meant we talked about classes all the time and that you get to critique things you dont know anything about. We talked classes talk late into the night in the dorms, over coffee or with much beer to lubricate the conversation. Ideally, tax law and teaching is just a continuation of freshman year arguments on analytic philosophy and the world.
I have a Purple Heart because I served for a tour of duty in the Mekong Delta Vietnam in an infantry reconnaisance platoon. I do think it gives me a Holmesian sense of duty. I was an Eagle Scout, I suspect still. I am a Calvinist in many ways, which means the right name got attached to the right baby.
I have been married for 30 years to a wonderful wife, Maria. We swim 4 miles a week and I try to run another 10 miles a week. Our kids are terrific, except for the vice of being too far away. My son, Calvin (28 year old) works for NYC OMB. Martha (26) is at U.Chicago Medical School. Carolynn (22) just graduated from Carleton College, Minnesota, and Mathew (19) is at Grinnell College, Iowa. Life so far is good, in the working draft.
Each Saturday, TaxProf Blog shines the spotlight on one of the 700+ tax professors in America's law schools. We hope to help bring the many individual stories of scholarly achievements, teaching innovations, public service, and career moves within the tax professorate to the attention of the broader tax community. Please email me suggestions for future Tax Prof Profiles. For prior Tax Prof Profiles, see here.
| 264,612
|
Welcome to Whistling While They Work – world leading research into the role of public interest whistleblowing in organisational, institutional and societal integrity.
Our most recent project, Whistling While They Work 2, was led by Griffith University’s Centre for Governance & Public Policy, in Brisbane, Australia. The research team was drawn from Griffith University, University of Sydney, Australian National University, Victoria University Wellington, Australia’s Commonwealth Ombudsman, New South Wales Ombudsman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), CPA Australia and the New Zealand State Services Commission.
We were supported by the Australian Research Council and 23 partner and supporter organisations across Australia and New Zealand, along with our international collaborators.
The project involved two major surveys to help organisations establish whether their whistleblowing or ‘speak up’ policies meet current best practice, test their ethical culture, climate and leadership, and to assist in improving governance and regulation standards around the world:
- our threshold Survey of Organisational Processes and Procedures
- Integrity@WERQ, our major survey of staff, managers and systems
Don’t hesitate to contact us to learn more about how our findings and research approach can assist your organisation, industry, sector or government.
| 235,629
|
LITTLE has changed in the 40 years since Bernadette Devlin McAliskey took her seat in Westminster.
There’s been progress, she says, the token gestures, the handshake.
By Patricia Devlin
In 1969 the 21 year-old was thrust onto the main political stage when she took up her role as Mid-Ulster’s Member of Parliament.
It was a revolutionary victory, not only for the young Queen’s psychology student, but for civil rights, socialism, nationalism and women, across the Province.
Never before had a female firebrand as young, passionate and sincere as Devlin taken up a seat in the Houses of Parliament.
Many say there has not been one since.
In the by-election which saw the Unity candidate take over 53 per cent of the vote against unionist Anna Forrest; 91.5 per cent of the Mid-Ulster population queued at the polls.
She remains the youngest woman ever to have been elected to parliament.
“It was like something you would see now in other parts of the world,”” she recalls.
“It had nothing to do with me as a person...well, it had something to do with me as in I was a catalyst but it was about bigger things than me.“There was a battle being enjoined here and you could see it in that election. There were core lines being drawn and fights being fought.”
“And when I look back on it, people have different reasons for doing what they do, but at the end of the day all the candidate can do is set out the election manifesto and say: ‘‘If you elect me this is what I will do’,’ and I set mine out very clearly and I stuck by it.
“And I discovered after a period of time that the people who voted for it hadn’t read it!””
Delved into detail or not, the substantive of Devlin’s manifesto was unmissable.
It called for the cancelling of the national debt, more jobs and more social housing, a challenge to sectarianism and an end to segregated education.
“It is a wee bit sad for me that those issues were all live issues for me when I stood for the Mid-Ulster election in 1969,”” she says.
“And we fast forward to 2012 and we are back to not having enough social housing to house the poor. We still have segregated housing, we are still talking about Catholic estates and Protestant estates and who is allowed to live where. We are still marking them with flags.””
““All of that was there before the Troubles and having gone the long way round, took Stormont down, put Stormont up again, we haven’t moved the argument on to addressing poverty, to challenging and dismantling the segregation that feeds sectarianism, and I am now fighting the corner for the next poorest people, which are migrant workers, as well as holding that other link.””
Today Mrs McAliskey sits, not only as the co-founder of the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (STEPs), but as its project co-ordinator.
Over 15 years the project, a first of its kind in the area, spread its wings across Mid-Ulster and now holds three offices, employs 32 staff, and caters to an ever growing list of those seeking help, from single mothers to migrant workers.
Her role today maybe a far cry from the socialist female politician that shook the Wilson government, caused unease among Tory MPs and saw her serve a jail sentence for her radical left wing approach to politics, it is clear her values and core beliefs remain the same.
She still believes that prisoners here are created and treated unfairly; she still believes sectarianism is institutionalised in our political structure and she still believes that democracy is threatened by those who hinder the right to say ‘’no’’.
“”People say ‘well you’ve made good progress’, yes, we have, and nobody would deny that.”
”We have made good relationship progress but because we haven’t made a good structural process, the relationships now begin to look a bit tatty and orchestrated because they have no substance in moving things forward.
“So on the one hand we have Martin and the Queen, arm-in-arm, and we have, I was going to say, without being disrespectful, but it is hard not to be, but if wrapping yourself up and attending someone else’s football match fixed this, we would have fixed it long ago.”” “
”That’s not to demean those things, but they have to be representations of something real, not substitutes for something real and to my mind they are substitutes for something real.”
“Because meanwhile back at the ranch, at Stormont, we have no racial equality strategy agreed, we have no cohesion, sharing and integration strategy agreed; we cannot get nationalism and unionism to move forward with the Review of Public Administration and give authority back to the councils.
“We have no real change in education because the same jockeying for position of the two big blocks is going on. On local government, on health and well being, on more democratic participation, is all not happening.”
“We have no Bill of Rights which was to underpin the human rights; we have no civic forum, two big pillars in the Good Friday Agreement structure - never to be seen, disappeared.
“The civic forum was to provide some sort of check-in-balance against that pillars of nationalism and unionism being erected.
“”So, it was the first thing the two of them got rid of. So we have no civic forum, no Bill of Rights and we have no tolerance of dissidents.””
Dissidents, the founding member of People’s Democracy states, is a word synonymous with “the “rump of the militarist republican movement””, but in the democratic sense: “”I think that makes it necessary for democrats to be dissidents, if I can say that carefully.
“There is a legitimate need, and a legitimate right of dissidents, to say this isn’t working,” she says.
“”To claim back for participative politics for democratic politics, to claim part the right of dissent from the configuration that a dissent threatens the peace, that dissent threatens democracy. The right to say ‘’no’’ is the fundamental right to democracy”.
“”The right not to be punished for disagreeing, and I think that there is less tolerance of a minority viewpoint in the new Northern Ireland than there was in the old one. Given that we know where the lack of democracy took us before. I think that’s scary.”
From 1969 to 1974 that fight for democracy, for rights, for fair governance, instilled the 21 year-old as a figure not to be messed with.
Her time in Parliament is best remembered for her 1972 crossing of the floor of the House to punch Secretary of State, Reginald Maulding, who said the security forces “shot in defence” on Bloody Sunday - a day of bloodshed she witnessed.
“My only regret is that I didn’t hit him harder,” she smiled.
She was banned from the House for six months, and refused to apologise.
“The single biggest thing for me in Westminister was nothing that happened in parliament, which is funny I am not an abstentionist,” reflects Bernadette.
“What it did do for me, I think, firstly it created that platform which was like both platform and a mega phone, that brought Northern Ireland onto that stage and partly that had to do with what people would now call the brand.
“I was 21, long haired, shirt skirted, big eyed and big mouthed, and I was a phenomenon.
“So once I was elected to Westminster that was not only amplified onto the Westminster stage, but onto the world stage, and I was a media product.”
“The one thing I did learn is you can’t take this away from me, once this was there - it’s a bit like innocence, it can’t be retrieved.
“So I think that when the media and the politicians realised ‘too late, too late, this woman is deadly serious, this is not simply a brand, this woman has independent ideas and they are not going to go away’.
“They moved very quickly to try to pull it all back, and they used the fact that I was a woman. So they would start to talk about the trivia of it - ‘green MP drinks orange’.
“They also never reported in the Guardian or anywhere else what everyone else was wearing,” recalls the one time MP.
“And then putting you in a box, redefining who you were. But even within that they created an opportunity for me to build relationships.
“They could switch off the light, they could try to reconfigure you, but actually, they couldn’t take away the learning that you got and the relationships that you built.”
Bernadette has remained on the hardline fringes of Northern Irish politics since her brief spell in Parliament from 1969 to 1974.
She lost her seat when the nationalist vote was split when SDLP stood a candidate against her, allowing John Dunlop of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party to win the 1974 general election.
Her thoughts? “Did they (the SDLP) use the fact I was a single, unmarried parent to help justify their vote?
“Yes they did. And were people open to that? Yes they were.”
In that same year Bernadette co-founded the Independent Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), set up as a break-away to Sinn Fein, only to leave a short time later.
“It didn’t work for me,” she explains, “I just looked at them and said, retreat, reverse. And that was good learning.”
By that time, and in the midst of the Troubles, Bernadette Devlin had become Bernadette Devlin McAliskey after marrying long-term love Michael. Both went onto survive a loyalist assassination attempt in 1981.
“I think for people today, giving the whole traumatic times we have lived through, it is often quite difficult for people who aren’t of my age group to have any real understanding of how it all started,” she explains.
“When you try to explain that you find yourself saying, ‘well, I’ll start to explain this, but then if you need to understand that I need to go a bit further back’. Because what has changed very interestingly that I have noticed over the time is the way people tell the story. It changes.”
“Not simply changing with who is telling it, the people who have told their own story have changed how they tell it, as they have gone along. As we have got into the worst part of the conflict, people began to think that all this trouble started with the conflict, so that before, which is a time they didn’t remember, things here were good, and then somehow it all fell apart and we started to behave badly towards each other. Then there was war and violence and that was what created fear and sectarianism and separation and isolation and a whole lot of other things.
“But, for those of us who lived before the Troubles, it was the way we lived that caused the Troubles, not the other way around.”
Her main fear today is for young people, and how they perceive the Troubles, and what the Troubles mean for our future generations.
“They only know the story that is given to them,” she tells me.
“Whether that’s from dissident loyalists, dissident republicans, from loyalists and republicans now in government, or loyalists and republicans now in positions of community power.
“But John Wayne once said, ‘sorry doesn’t make it alright’ and there is a lot of sorry around, but there is no real understanding that war doesn’t work.”
“My other biggest fear is that you look at society and you look at the people who aren’t young, I look at the government, I look at the schools, I look at the youth justice system, I look at everything and almost everybody is speaking about our young people as if they were a problem.
“How will we protect ourselves from young people? As if young people were born a problem. Once a society defines it’s future as it’s problem, there is something wrong with society.”
There is no doubting that Bernadette’s youth played at least a small part in her appeal to those that voted for her in 1969.
“I think people voted for change, I think people voted for protest and I think people voted no matter how non-sectarian my campaign was, people voted on nationalist, and although the nationalist question was not an issue in my election people voted in the national question. People voted for all.”
“I think women voted for me because women were in a very different place and it was incredible to many women that a young woman would stand there and articulate and not have the wit to be afraid of those things,” she says.
Bernadette continued: “There’s also a different discussion opened up about that explosion at the time, if that is the word to use, in the sixties of the ‘ism’s’, feminism, socialism.
“The sixties was a dramatic period of change for us and in a way if you look around the world today, along the Mediterranean and along Egypt, Syrian and Africa there have been big changes, but it has been very, very difficult.
“Because the structures don’t change for young women to have equal access to leadership that young men do, it is difficult.
“It is difficult for somebody, a young journalist like yourself, to balance a personal life and that includes children, you will have no choice but to do two jobs for the price of one.
“The one you get paid for outside the home and the one you either then do, around that. Two full-time jobs done in the space of one life. And men, don’t.
“And I know that young men will say ‘I do this and I do that’, I know what you do.
“As little as you can get away with because the reality is that the personal family, private sphere responsibility is still predominantly female and women who want to function in the public sphere still have to prepare to do both of them not only simultaneously but better than anyone who is only doing one of them, in order to justify doing the two in the first place.”
It may be over 40 years since the young Irish Socialist Republican took her seat in Westminster, but her dedication to fighting for the rights of those still on the margins of Ulster society is still as evident as ever.
“I can understand why people support their neighbour, but how people stand in the street saying that the Quinn family have been abused against, because they created jobs in some kind of feudal loyalty or exaggerated parochialism, when the evidence clearly suggests, however it happened, that business was taking risks financial risks.
“Putting people’s jobs at risk, and that, in high class gambling, not at bookies for five pound notes, that had direct impact on people’s jobs, that actually contributed in some way or another, all of those high class people, bringing down the entire Irish economy.”
“And people can stand there and say ‘poor Sean Quinn is getting a raw deal’.
“I have not seen that level of understanding for poor women who have stolen food to feed their children.
“And that astounds me, what makes the people tick?”
| 235,283
|
The Docs feature allows you to upload and manage any kind of file that you want to make available to your mobile app users in the field. This allows you to replace the manuals, specs and other paper that your workers currently carry around with digital versions that are always available to them.
Anytime you want to make changes to a Doc, our publishing process automatically takes care of distributing the changes out to app users in the field. In this way your workers always have the latest Docs at their fingertips, no matter where they are.
We originally designed Docs to handle documentation files like Standard Operating Procedures and manuals, however we quickly discovered that being able to upload other files types like video and audio was just as useful.
The name Docs has stuck but the functionality was expanded to allow pretty much any kind of file to be managed. When opening a Doc on the app, the mobile operating system will launch the file with whatever default reader is available for the file type. If none exists, the app will give an error message to the user.
So really the only requirement is that the files you upload should be supported on your mobile workers’ devices.
Formats like PDF, Word and common formats for videos and images should work on devices without any other apps required.
We store all your Doc files securely and use geo-replicated backups to ensure that your files are kept safe. Coupled with the generous storage allowances you receive, Docs provide you with a simple way to keep files always available and safely backed up.
| 193,755
|
Reading is a great way to enjoy spending quality time with the kids, but what books do children really love? The Redhouse Children’s Book Award is the only national award voted for entirely by the little nippers. Get the real recommendations of stories that will keep their imaginations growing.
Check out our rundown which shows where you can grab these top titles for less than the recommended retail price, with great discounts from The Book People.
Overall winner of the Redhouse book awards, this is a fun and interactive book with plenty for little ones to explore in the clever lift-the-flap and pop-up book. Great for a scare-tastic trick or treat for young ones aged 3+.
Eye-catching illustrations, a surprise on the last page that kids will love as you go read about the haunted house.
Winner of the Younger Readers Award, in this book Ben’s granny seems like your average kind of granny – all white hair, false teeth, likes a bit of Scrabble… but there is something a bit different… oh, she’s an international jewel thief!
This book written by comedian David Walliams will provide plenty of giggles and is sure to keep your little ones concentration.
Winner of the Older Readers Award this thrilling teen and pre-teen novel is the latest part in the exciting and gripping Medusa Project series. It follows a group of teens with psychic powers and delivers a riveting and explosive end to the action-packed series for boys and girls.
- Welcome to Alien School by Caryl Hart - £2.99
- Can You See Sassoon? By Sam Usher - £2.99
- Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates - £2.99
- Operation Eiffel Tower by Elen Caldecott - £2.99
- The World of Norm: May Contain Nuts by Jonathan Meres - £2.99
- Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur - £3.49
- The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore - £6.39
| 178,461
|
Moogsoft automates the process of making sense out of the real-time events streams generated by IT environments. But for an increasing number of larger enterprise IT and service provider environments, a truly massive amount of event data is created. Moreover, for a variety of reasons, there are often multiple applications (beyond Moogsoft) that consume all or part of these streams. How can this all scale for a large IT environment? Enter Kafka, the open source message broker.
In this post, we’ll explain the basics of Kafka, how it works and why it’s growing in popularity over other publish-subscribe messaging systems. We’ll then summarize a few of the interesting places where Kafka is getting used in monitoring architectures – both virtualized telco SDN/NFV and web scale enterprise environments – and explain how Moogsoft elegantly interfaces with Kafka.
A Basic Understanding of Kafka
While Kafka was originally developed at Linkedln, it is now an open-source technology under the Apache license. Apache Kafka is used as a general-purpose messaging system that is designed to be fast, scalable and durable. The general Kafka use cases include: stream processing, website activity tracking, metrics collection and monitoring and log aggregation.
Apache Kafka is regularly used in the instances mentioned above because it provides:
- Scalability – Distributed messaging system that scales easily without downtime
- Durability – Persists messages on disk, as well as provides intra-cluster replication
- Reliability – Replicates data, supports multiple consumers and automatically balances consumers in case of failure
- Performance – High throughput for both publishing and subscribing
Like other publish-subscribe messaging systems, Kafka maintains feeds of messages in topics. Topics are partitioned and replicated across multiple nodes. Producers (anyone who can publish a message to a topic) write data to topics and consumers (subscribers to one or more topics) read from these topics.
A topic is a user-defined category in which messages are published. Kafka producers can publish messages to multiple topics, while consumers subscribe to these topics and process the published messages. All of this works by producers sending messages over the network to the Kafka cluster, which then turns them over to consumers. A Kafka cluster consists of one or more servers known as ‘Brokers’ that manage the replication of message data.
Same, Same, But Different
What sets Kafka apart from other open-source message broker systems? Traditionally, message brokers have offered a specific set of functions: decoupling the integration complexity from applications that need to use and share data with many other applications, and buffering unprocessed messages in order to ensure that no message is lost. A lot more is possible with Kafka, however.
Sure, Kafka can be used in the traditional way – publishers send messages (topics) to a Kafka cluster (the link between publishers and subscribers), allowing subscribers to choose which topics to receive. Yet the Kafka approach is more efficient than the traditional approaches. Previously, publishers would send data to every single subscriber, resulting in subscribers receiving irrelevant or non-useful information. Kafka performs differently.
Kafka: The Reddit of Application-to-Application Sharing
Consider this comparison: on a very basic level, Kafka is similar to Reddit in that it achieves application-to-application information sharing in the same way Reddit provides human-to-human information sharing. For example, Reddit acts as a real-world message broker by allowing users to choose what topics they wish to see. In particular, Reddit allows users to subscribe to ‘subreddits,’ allowing subscribers to view content only related to the topic of that particular subreddit. Anyone can submit content to the subreddit, as long as it is relevant to the topic and follows the rules.
Reddit and Kafka are similar in that both act as a mechanism for the transportation of information, while also allowing enrichment of information and categorization across multiple topics. This extra bit of secret sauce gives Kafka significant advantages over traditional pub-sub approaches. Kafka goes further than traditional message brokers by running an application that can process data, so that it can be connected to multiple topics. Similarly, Reddit posts can be ‘cross-posted’ between multiple subreddits (topics).
Topics are then broken up into partitions, which are simply ordered sequences of messages – a record of transactions. Each message is assigned a sequential ID number called the ‘offset,’ which can be used to search for the message within a predetermined time period.
It is for these reasons that if you use Kafka to broker your telemetry message data (e.g. app logs, SNMP, syslog, alerts from monitoring tools like New Relic & AppDynamics, etc.), than you have the ability to achieve some very useful functions that are simply not available with traditional data aggregation approaches, including ELK or Splunk.
Kafka Use Cases for Monitoring-at-Scale
Due to Kafka’s unique capabilities, this technology is gaining momentum in emerging telco SDN/NFV environments as a key component for an overall intelligent monitoring architecture. Real-time telemetry – events, alerts, log entries – are generated by all the building blocks of the overall SDN/NFV system: the VIM, VNFM, NFVO, NFVI, VNF catalogs, NFV instances, EM, sub-system monitors, to name a few. Kafka’s scalability, data partitioning, low latency and the ability to handle a number of diverse consumers makes it a perfect fit for large, virtualized telco environments. Furthermore, Kafka’s ability to process millions of messages per second has “telco scale” for the producer of real-time data to write messages into the Kafka cluster, allowing real-time data consumers to read the messages.
Kafka is also ideal for web-scale enterprises. Consider this scenario: Say we are developing a multiplayer online game, where players communicate and operate within a virtual world. Players will often trade game items with each other, so trades must be flagged to ensure that players do not cheat. Real-time event flagging is necessary in this instance, and the best decisions are based on data that is cached on the game server memory (keep in mind the system has multiple game servers).
In order to effectively flag events in real-time, the game servers must accept user actions and process trade information in real-time to flag suspicious events. To process this information in real-time, however, it’s best to have the history of trade events for each user to reside in memory of a single server – this is where Kafka comes in. Kafka allows us to pass messages between multiple servers, while maintaining order within a topic.
Now, when a user logs in or makes a trade, the accepting server immediately sends the event into Kafka. Messages are then sent to consumers, each of which are part of the same topic group. All the data about a specific user arrives to the same event-processing server. Furthermore, when the event-processing server reads a user trade from Kafka, it adds the event to the user’s event history and caches it in local memory, making it easy to flag suspicious events without additional network or disk overhead. Kafka is extremely useful in this instance due to its high throughput and low latency. Kafka can also process close to a million events per second, making it valuable in virtual environments where big data must be consumed in real-time.
Kafka and Moogsoft Today
How is Moogsoft leveraging Kafka right now? To start, we have an expanding partnership with Cisco. Kafka allows Incident.MOOG to ingest and analyze data coming from Cisco’s software applications. Upon receiving these data streams, Incident.MOOG uses its machine learning algorithms to correlate alerts in real-time, determining the full narrative of service-impacting incidents. Various Cisco teams use this data to gain full 360-degree situational awareness across their entire application production stack, so they can catch and resolve service impacting incidents before customers are affected. Kafka also enables applications like Moogsoft to publish ‘enriched data’ back onto Kafka for the advantage of other application subscribers.
One use case is a Cisco virtual CPE solution across an SDN/NFV framework. Moogsoft ingests real-time event streams from the various Cisco components through its Kafka LAM, and provides the service assurance layer for this Cisco offering. Along with Moogsoft, other applications like SevOne and Ontology consume messages relevant to their specific use cases, with data published in a friendly format using the single ingress (Kafka) adapter.
In another use case, Cisco IT is aggregating messages from several of its own production applications (ESC and NSO), along with third party applications (Nagios, Logstash, etc.). Kafka enables these Cisco’s applications to be distributed across the network, while also allowing third party applications (like Moogsoft) to also consume those applications’ messages without increasing the workload on those applications, or having to provide custom integrations.
What’s Next with Moogsoft and Kafka
Kafka helps large IT environments to scale operations, whether it’s a telco SDN/NFV environment or a web-scale enterprise IT environment. The use cases described above are Cisco related, but we see expanding interest in Kafka from our larger customers as well. This is why we support Kafka now, and we expect this new and unique integration will continue to expand Moogsoft’s deployments in some of the largest enterprises and service providers worldwide.
Moogsoft AIOps helps modern IT Operations and DevOps teams become smarter, faster, and more effective by providing technological supplementation that automates mundane tasks, enables scalability, and frees up human beings to do what they do best — ideate, create, and innovate. Start your free trial today by clicking here.
| 278,128
|
Gender differences are not often studied in the field of arousal misattribution. This research examines 40 male and female participants in a neutral condition and an anger arousal condition to determine if there is an effect of gender. Participants were undergraduate students from Huron University College. Each participant was asked to look at photographs of either neutral or anger arousing stimulus and then rate the attractiveness of eight photographs of male and female faces. They were then asked to fill out a short questionnaire. Results showed no significant gender effect, F(1,36) = 1.44, p> 0.05. Possible explanations and previous research theories are discussed.
"Gender Differences and Misattribution in Anger Arousal,"
The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation: Vol. 51
, Article 10.
Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/hucjlm/vol51/iss1/10
| 311,192
|
On the PHPFreaks website, there's a new tutorial talking about sessions and cookies in PHP:
HTTP is a stateless protocol. This means that each request is handled independently of all the other requests and it means that a server or a script cannot remember if a user has been there before. However, knowing if a user has been there before is often required and therefore something known as cookies and sessions have been implemented in order to cope with that problem.
The tutorial is pretty introductory, so if you're not new to the PHP world, you won't learn much. New developers, though, will learn how to set cookies, use sessions and learn a bit about the security of both.
| 285,538
|
A U.S. journalist and two Mexican men have been killed in a shootout during protests in the Mexican city of Oaxaca.
American Brad Will, a photographer for the Web site Indymedia, died Friday after he was shot in the chest. The shootout took place near roadblocks erected by protesters demanding pay raises for striking teachers, and the resignation of Oaxaca state Governor Ulises Ruiz.
Two Mexican men, including a teacher, were also killed. Several people were injured.
Oaxaca state has been in turmoil since teachers walked off the job in May demanding better pay and school funding. The demonstrations turned violent when other activists critical of Ruiz joined the cause.
The violence has paralyzed the city of Oaxaca's vital tourism sector.
The striking teachers announced earlier in the week that they would end their strike.
The Mexican Senate voted Thursday to allow Ruiz to remain in office despite the unrest.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has vowed to resolve the crisis through negotiations before he leaves office on December 1.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
| 116,658
|
225 Queen Street E,
No one has favorited this theater yet
Open in August 25, 1916 as a vaudeville theater owned by Ambrose Small a Canadian theater magnate, who later disappeared in 1919 and was never found. The Majestic Music Hall was sold to Jack Bickell the first president of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. and his business partners. They converted the theater into a cinema and renamed it the Regent Theatre.
Mr. Bickell and his partners in 1920 sold the theater to Famous Players which would become their first cinema. Famous Players was sold to Cineplex Galaxy in 2005. Now the Scotia Plaza is standing near the site. In 2007, the Paramount Theatre was renamed the Scotiabank because of this coincidence.
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
| 167,147
|
Resistance training and weight training have proven to help individuals build muscle mass, increase bone density, and a variety of other benefits to your health that may not be visually noticeable. However, the truth is that working out literally changes your biological makeup. In today’s article on physique, we will be highlighting some of the most intriguing facts about how working out can change your gene expression, leading to a stronger, healthier state of being.
As Michigan’s top gym and fitness centers, Seung-Ni Fit club has helped individuals reach their full physical potential since 1989. With multiple locations in Bay City, Midland, Saginaw, and Traverse City, we make it easy for residents of Michigan to find our leading fitness centers near them. We offer several classes such as body sculpting, boot camp, and Zumba, and work tirelessly to provide the highest level of service possible to our members. To learn how becoming physically active can change your biological makeup, continue reading more on the subject below.
One of the most interesting facts about weight-bearing workouts is their ability to increase your bone density, giving individuals a stronger skeletal structure. When you begin putting heavy amounts of weight on your body, whether through squats, bench press, or a variety of other weight-bearing exercises, your body must adapt or suffer the consequences. This is because your body has the ability to recognize areas of your bones that are experiencing an excessive amount of stress, which causes new bone cells to travel to the affected areas, causing new bone formation. This biological function plays a vital role in increasing your bone density which directly improves your bone strength.
Muscle Fiber Growth
There are two types of muscle fibers, fast twitch and slow twitch, that are essential to your athletic performance. Oddly enough, these muscle fibers can vary based on your muscle fiber make-up and the exercises you take part in. For example, slow twitch muscle fibers are predominantly found in long-distance runners, as slow twitch muscle fibers are responsible for activities that are low intensity. Power lifters, on the other hand, are known to have more fast twitch muscle fibers, as their sport requires them to lift an incredible amount of weight using explosive movements.
However, depending on the types of exercises you take part in, you can directly affect how your muscle fibers develop. Those looking to train their slow muscle fibers will do much better lifting lower weights with more repetitions. Comparatively, if you are wanting to build your fast twitch muscle fibers, you should consider lifting heavier weights at lower repetitions.
Many studies have proven that consistently working out can significantly speed up your metabolism. The science to support this evidence is due to the fact that muscles are responsible for burning more calories than fat. Since muscles require a large amount of energy to function, taking part in aerobic workouts, such as Zumba, can help to shed fat while keeping your metabolism at its peak performance.
If you are looking for the top fitness center in Michigan, sign up for your first month at Seung-Ni Fit Club for just one dollar! Contact our team of professionals today to learn more!
| 202,254
|
Share This Image on Your Site
Copy and paste the code below to add to your website.
Thanksgiving is an interesting time around the country. Every family has its own traditions and ways of preparing food. According to the National Turkey Federation, 88% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Most of the remaining households partake in a ham instead. The average weight of a turkey purchased for Thanksgiving is about 16 pounds. It doesn’t seem like too much, but remember, the USDA classifies a portion of turkey as being just 2-3 ounces. So the average family is getting enough turkey to feed 85 people a serving of protein.
Maybe it has something to do with the two different meats. A typical turkey has about 70% white meat and 30% dark meat. Nutritionally, white meat has fewer calories and less fat than dark meat. Perhaps that’s why we buy such large birds to try to eat as many calories as we can. The average American will consume about 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving. Even stuffing in all these extra calories and sometimes putting ourselves in a “food coma,” a study conducted by the National Institute of Health and the Medical University of South Carolina found that the average person only gains just over a pound in the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year.
So be kind to yourself, you work hard, and have that extra slice of pie! Pumpkin pie is particularly popular around Thanksgiving with over 50 million pies being made every year. Sweet potato or a yam pie is also very popular. Interestingly enough, even though many people use the terms “yam” and “sweet potato” interchangeably, they aren’t even related to each other! Maybe instead of the pie, you prefer going in for a second plate of sides (arguably the best part of Thanksgiving dinner). After all, 50% of Americans put stuffing in their turkeys and after being created by the Campbell’s Soup company, green bean casserole will be on 40 million tables during the holiday as well. Cranberry sauce is a staple of many people’s Thanksgiving dinner spread. In fact, 400 million pounds of cranberries are consumed by Americans every year, and 20% of that is during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Go ahead and eat up! You are going to need your strength if you plan to go on a turkey trot! The turkey trot was first run in Buffalo, NY, when a man, Henry A. Allison, and six other runners competed in a five-mile race Thanksgiving morning. Now, there are marathons, races, and walks all over the country around Thanksgiving time. This means that local traffic patterns may change, and things may be a bit hectic during race time. Sometimes when we are confused or trying to find our way, we stop paying attention to the people around us. Occasionally, this can result in an accident. Heuser & Heuser, L.L.P. is here to help make sure you can focus on what you have to be grateful for during Thanksgiving, not dealing with insurance companies and bill collectors. If you find yourself trying to wade through the headache of a car accident this holiday season, give us a call at (719) 520-9909 to schedule your free consultation.
| 111,680
|
Creative Arts Day Speaker
I discovered the reading and writing of poetry only as an adult. Previously, I had considered the locus of poetry to be "somewhere else" -whether in Britain, Italy, or simply in another century. I thought that poetry was only written by people with more exciting lives than mine. What an incredible revelation to see that poetry is here, all around each of us every day. Yes- in the waiting line at the bank, in the rusty hinge on a gate, or in the lopsided gait of a mean horse.
In order to participate in the deep, silent message a poem transmits from the writer to the reader, you have to be willing to pause, to reflect. And, if you wish to write good poetry, you have to wrestle with the English language in order to put down on paper the intangible mystery contained in what you have experienced. If you want to read poetry, you must be willing to hear what the poem says to you. Both of these functions are furthered by a good vocabulary, an insatiable passion for words, and a willingness to pause. A good ear comes in handy also. Creating a readable and publishable poem takes time- a lot of it. Finding and reading poetry you love takes time also. Needless to say, as a poet and as a ready of poetry, I deem this time well spent.
Remember that finding poets to read whose work you like isn't necessarily easy. Just because you walk into a bookstore and don't like the first twenty books of poetry you pull down from the shelves, doesn't mean you aren't a reader of poetry. Perhaps, those were just twenty poets you happened not to like. I might do the same things with those particular twenty poets. But, be persistent. Somewhere, someday you will find a poet whose words seem to articulate the silence inside your very soul. It will feel like a homecoming. And, you will know what it feels like to love poetry.
| 47,154
|
Positive Margins and Robotic Prostatectomy
Last Modified: November 17, 2008
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
My husband was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was so sure the DaVinci prostatectomy was the way to go, but after reading more online, some doctors say that the prostate can be burnt or the capsule broken [during surgery], possibly leaving cancer behind and pathology margins not ideal. The one surgeon I was looking at does a minimum of 2 [robotic-assisted surgeries] a week. Do you have any thoughts to help our decision making?
David I. Lee, MD, Chief of the Division of Urology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, responds:
Positive margins occur with both the open (traditional retropubic) and robotic-assisted prostatectomies. The literature shows that there is a wide variation in surgical margins for surgeons performing open radical prostatectomy. Likewise, there is a wide variation for margins among surgeons who perform robotic prostatectomy. The trend seems to be, however, that surgeons who become more and more experienced at whatever technique they are performing tend to achieve better and better margin rates. Therefore, it is not the approach that matters. It is the experience of the individual surgeon. You should ask the prospective surgeon about his or her rates.
My personal margin rates continue to improve with experience. We have an overall rate of about 10-12%. This is even lower for men with organ-confined disease, where it can be as low as about 5%. These numbers are comparable to all numbers for open radical prostatectomy, and superior to many.
| 118,467
|
Faith gives Iraqis solace, not just a reason to fight
Evidence of deeper devotion can be seen in all parts of Iraq.
BAGHDAD — Nashaa Jouie Salman lies on a small bed with her arm and waist bandaged – the result of a recent mortar explosion. Her two grim-faced daughters, in black abayas, hover around the bed; the faces of her late husband and son, victims of Saddam Hussein's regime, stare from portraits above.
"We console ourselves with faith and patience," says another of Mrs. Salman's sons, Abdel-Karim Hmoud, who was wounded in the same blast. The explosion killed his 6-year-old niece, Aya. "We are believers, so whatever comes from God strengthens our resolve even if it's bad."
While religious devotion is partly driving a devastating sectarian war in Iraq, it's also keeping many average Iraqis going in the face of death, kidnapping, destruction, displacement, and lawlessness. For many, faith remains the one constant and the only way to cope with the daily agony and perils.
Even though it's difficult to quantify this country's religious devotion, evidence of deeper faith can be seen in all parts of Iraq. Mosque attendance may have fallen in recent years because of the threat of attacks and a weekly curfew in Baghdad on Friday, the Muslim holy day, but the faithful continue to risk everything for major religious events. Nearly 1 million Shiites flocked to the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Baghdad last week.
Intisar Muhammad, a Sunni, lost her husband in a roadside bombing two years ago and was then driven out of Baghdad's Amel neighborhood as Shiite militias consolidated their grip there. In addition to the five daily prayers that all faithful Muslims observe, Mrs. Muhammad now performs an extra nightly prayer known as the "prayer of need."
"I just ask God to help me raise my son," she says.
Finding fortitude in religion during wartime is "basic human nature," says Tahseen al-Shaikhli, a scholar and Baghdad native. "When everything around you is shifting and you have little trust in anyone or anything, you turn to the one constant thing: absolute faith," says Mr. Shaikhli. "It's like holding on to a stick in the middle of a raging ocean."
Large parts of Iraqi society, namely Shiites, were prohibited under Saddam Hussein's regime from openly practicing many rituals. That community has embraced public piety as never before, bringing religion to the fore of a society that once had a much more secular face.
While Mr. Hussein's Baath Party was founded as a secular nationalist movement, he shrouded his regime with religious themes in the 1990s to ingratiate himself with a populace that turned to the mosque for comfort after the first Gulf War, when international sanctions crippled the country's economy.
"[Hussein] realized the power of spirituality and religion over ideology [of his secular Baath Party]," says Mr. Shaikhli.
After the dictator's fall, Iraqi society's increased piousness was exploited by religious political parties, both Sunni and Shiite, to gain power and popularity, notes Shaikhli.
But Saleh al-Haidari, chief of the country's Shiite religious endowment, says Iraqis have always been attached to their faith. He describes how, during the previous regime, thousands used to flock to the Khulani, the Baghdad mosque where he used to preach, because they knew he would push the envelope and slip in a special Shiite prayer in defiance.
Any increased outward expression of faith may be a way for people to reaffirm their beliefs, since many "heinous crimes are being committed in the name of religion," he says. "People are defending what they believe in deep inside."
Beyond personal views, religion frames almost every struggle in Baghdad. Black and green banners, symbolic of Shiite Islam, fluttered in the summer wind at the entrance of Al-Ameen, the southeastern neighborhood where Mr. Hmoud, Salman's son, lives. His home sits on a side street where the marks of the explosion that injured his mother are still visible. On the June day of the blast, he was helping his mother get out of the car. They had brought back Aya, who died in the blast, to spend the night with them. He later discovered the mortar was fired by Shiite militiamen inside Al-Ameen and had been intended for US troops stationed at nearby Camp Rustamiyah.
Hmoud, a Shiite, did not want to delve into the motives or association of the militias. He denies that he fears retribution if he speaks out and instead says that the latest calamity to befall the family is a test of faith. To him, it's just like the deaths of his brother Satar Hmoud, a soldier in the former Iraq Army who was killed in 1988 in the chemical weapons attack on Halabja in northern Iraq, and his father, Sayed Hmoud, killed five years before that, when he was shot by security forces for getting into an argument with officials.
The notion that all is in the hands of God and that there is no escaping fate is almost universal to Arab and Muslim cultures. Indeed, it's an idea that resonates in Iraq. On July 15, Abbas Ammar was killed on his 16th birthday in Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood. A car bomber blew himself up next to his family's kabob stand, which he was manning that day. There were other close calls, his uncle Hussein Ahmed says, but "Ammar kept insisting that whatever God has fated will happen."
• Awadh al-Taiee in Baghdad contributed.
| 34,901
|
Queensland's tough new anti-bikie laws aim to restrict the movements and meetings of gang members and associates. It's a crackdown intended to break down outlaw culture - but is it trading civil liberties for perceived safety?
In the 1970s, Australian bikie club culture was in its infancy. Many of the outlaw clubs were small and trying to recruit.
It was also a time when bikie clubs weren't associated with drugs and crime but, rather, with hedonism, drunken gatherings and, most importantly, motorbikes.
In the regional city of Mount Gambier, South Australia, the Mongrels MC had just been founded by Bronte Edwards.
"The idea was to have fun. We weren't out for a greater cause beyond trying to rid ourselves of the boredom that plagues regional Australia. And you know what? We succeeded," he says.
Edwards discourages criminal activity of any kind, but he believes that subcultures outside the social norms are vital for forming the cultural landscape of Australia.
"You can take all these movements and people away and you end up with a endless, bland suburbia. If you quash social expression and discourse that's when you have an entirely new problem. I can't express how much we've become everything we hated. Over-regulated, soul-operating businessmen."
Edwards states that new bikie laws unfairly vilify a social group and believes them to be a gross attack at Australia's civil liberties. "It's ridiculous. You can't just attack a mode of transport and those who hang around with them. It's like targeting a sporting or religious group."
The Mongrels disbanded as did a lot of the smaller clubs during the 1990s, during a period when smaller clubs were either ingested into larger outlaw clubs or simply asked to disband.
But the very territorial nature of outlaw clubs meant that for a lot of motor bike enthusiasts, who weren't interested in joining new outlaw clubs, it was now time to hang up their helmets for good.
Video Music Credits
Drunk Mums Eventual Ghost
British India Black and White Radio
Ozzie Wrong Never Trust a Bikey if he Don't Drink Beer
Mr & Mrs Smith Bruises and Bones
Please check your inbox and click on the link in this email within the next 2 days to complete your subscription.
If you don't find the confirmation email in your inbox, please look in your 'junk' mail folder (also sometimes called 'spam').
| 644
|
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder. Audacity allows you to open audio files from a digital recorder or import them from CDs or USBs. If you want to make audio pieces for podcasting or radio, Audacity is a great place to start.
Tool type: Audio editor
Ease of use: Easy to install and relatively easy to configure, maintain and troubleshoot.
Open source: Yes
Benefits: It allows you to cut, copy, paste and edit audio along a timeline. You can add multiple tracks and apply a range of effects like normalising volume levels across a selection of an entire file, fading regions of the file in or out, panning sound from left to right and much more.
Cost: Free of charge
Languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian
Compatibility: Mac OSX, Windows, Linux
Developed by: Audacity team
Last version of the tool: 20 January 2016
Last updated: 2 March 2016
| 22,284
|
NASA Psychologists Offer Survival Tips To Miners Trapped In Chile
September 10, 2010 by Personal Liberty News Desk
Catastrophes like the Chile mine collapse don’t happen often, but when they do survivors may be at a loss as to how to utilize the physical and emotional resources they have in order to make it until rescues arrive.
Recently, NASA experts provided advice for the trapped miners and those who provide psychological care to maximize their survival chances during what may be a months-long ordeal. This information can also come in handy to anyone who becomes trapped underground during other types of accidents or recreational activities such as spelunking.
The agency’s psychologist Al Holland, who was part of the delegation that visited the site, said it was important for the miners’ well-being to form an underground community with a hierarchy and establish different social groups, according to CNN.
He also stressed the importance of using lighting to maintain sleep and wake cycles in order to prevent signs of mental decline and confusion.
All of the consulted experts agreed that survival was only the first step and healthcare providers as well as families and the community will have to work together to help re-introduce the men to society both mentally and physically, especially in terms of returning to a solid-food diet, the news provider further reported.
The collapse at the San Jose mine occurred on Aug. 5 leaving 33 miners working 2,300 feet below the ground missing and presumed dead. However, 17 days later the authorities discovered all were alive and launched a rescue effort that may last until the end of this year.
| 113,731
|
AGATE Agate is the stone for self-expression, creativity, health and good fortune. It makes it much easier to open up oneself. Soothes emotions and pain. Sensitizes and attunes senses. Helps to develop powers of eloquence, self-confidence and public-speaking. It is believed to be of special benefit to athletes and to those taking any kind of examination or test - mental or physical. It eases a sore throat and takes away the hoarseness. This stone also works directly with the nervous system to alleviate physical tension and is said to be a treatment of arthritis, skeletal conditions, and as an aid to digestion. General healing, reduces fever, hardens tender gums, gives courage and banishes fear. Comes in a variety of colors from brown to green, pink. blue lace, with additional properties.
AMAZONITE In beautiful shades of blue-green, Amazonite blocks stress, absorbs microwaves and protects against electromagnetic pollution. A soothing and calming stone, it assists in manifesting universal love. Heals the heart and throat chakras and opens one's intuition. Helps with calcium deficiencies, osteoporosis and relieves muscle spasms.
AMBER From golden brown to yellow, amber is actually not a stone but rather fossilized tree resin. It is a powerful grounding and healing and cleansing stone that draws disease from the body and promotes tissue renewal. Stimulates the intellect, clears depression and stress. Absorbs and transmutes negative energies into positive forces.
AMETHYST One of the most brilliant and attractive stones, Amethyst ranges in color from deep purple to lavender. It is an extremely powerful and protective stone with vast cleansing and balancing properties. Enhances spiritual awareness. It calms or stimulates the mind as appropriate. Can relieve insomnia especially when the cause is an overactive mind. Promotes emotional centering and dispels anger, rage, fear, anxiety. Alleviates sadness and grief and helps one come to terms with loss. Relieves physical, emotional or psychological pain or stress. Transmutes negative energies.
AQUAMARINE The name of this stone reflects its stunning sea-green color. And like its name, the energy from this stone is compassionate and feels fluid and flows easily. Aquamarine is good for aligning and balancing the Chakras and for connecting the physical and spiritual bodies. It is beneficial for activating the Throat Chakra, to give one the courage to speak the truth, the serenity to speak it in a balanced manner and compassion to make it a positive experience. This is why it is a popular metaphysical stone. For physical health, it is known to be useful in the treatment of glandular ailments, to improve vision and strengthen bones.
AVENTURINE Enhances creativity, imagination, independence, prosperity, career success, calmness and balance. It helps us to see alternatives and potentials. Heals emotional pain, fear and imbalance by dissolving blocks in the heart Chakra. Historically also draws out heat of fevers, inflammation, nervous system stress. Assists one in making the "right" decisions. Protects and helps heal the heart, lungs, and adrenals.
BLOODSTONE: Associated with courage, abundance, purification and good fortune. Helps one to accept change and overcome anxiety, depression and melancholy. Renews relationships and love life. Provides vitality, boosts talent, organizational abilities and charitable instincts. Cures psychosomatic illness (one with more emotional roots than physical) and pains. Purifies blood, detoxifies organs especially liver, kidneys, bladder and spleen.Gives courage and is particularly good for athletes.
CARNELIAN associated with emotional warmth, creativity, reproduction, rebirth, reincarnation and past life recall. Calms mind from fear of death and enforces belief in cycle of birth-death. Excellent motivator in matters of business and career-choices. Brings day-dreamers and absent minded professors to ground zero. Carnelian directly works on lower chakras, so it dispels arthritis, rheumatism, lower back troubles, female reproductive problems, increases fertility and cures impotence. Alleviates blood poisoning, nose bleeds, wounds, sores, spasms and all ailments related to blood; besides being a remedy for fever, neuralgia, allergies and infection. A stone of power, confidence and passion. It assists in finding and fulfilling passions and desires. It can help bring vitality and energy to any action or situation requiring action.
CHRYSOCOLLA Known as a healing stone among Native American Indian cultures where it was used for strengthening the body's resistance and bringing about calm feelings where there is upset.Chrysocolla is a stone of peace, increased wisdom, discretion.It promotes level headedness, encouraging clarity of thought and a neutral, cool attitude during turbulence. It can be used to decrease nervousness and irritability. Detoxifies the liver and lowers blood pressure. Alleviates cramps. Its main role is to soothe, calm and inspire. Chrysocolla is a good choice to wear when you have difficulty expressing your feelings or your creativity. For example, if you work on computers, wear chrysocolla to help you combine your creative ideas with your work as well as to improve the results of your work.
CITRINE Citrine is a stone of success, prosperity and regeneration. Induces confidence and optimism in family and business relationships. Attracts self-worth, activates mental powers, flushes emotional blocks and opens up a new lease of life. If lost in the path of life, trust Citrine to show you the way, rebuild your existence and lead to abundance and happiness. The stone not only helps acquire wealth but maintain it, because it vibrates to prosperity in all its forms. Physically, it aids digestion and eliminates toxins from the endocrine and digestive systems. Helps in diabetes and controlling thyroid, thus keeping your fat in check. Improves poor circulation, tissue regeneration, and fortifies immune system. Also good for those wearing glasses or contacts, as Citrine improves visual ability. Shields against harmful effects of electrical products.
FLUORITE Associated with enlightenment and healing on all the three planes - spiritual, mental and emotional. Diminishes stress and aids in spiritual awakening. Cleanses, balances and focuses energies on all levels of chakras. Grounds and protects aura from leakage of energy. On the physical body, it heals ailments of bones. Alleviates arthritis, strengthens bone tissue especially teeth enamel and relieves dental disease. Repairs DNA damage, regenerates skin and mucus membranes thus can help remove wrinkles and blemishes. Ancient cure for cancer and has been used for shingles. Also responds well to hormonal balance and hormonal changes like PMS, menopause. Arouses sexual energy. Quickens healing from pneumonia and viral inflammation.
GARNET Garnet is associated with vitality, courage, passion, love, sensuality and self-confidence. Blesses its wearer with good health, victory over enemies and wealth. It has been known to bring about as much windfall in material wealth as in emotional tranquility. Makes the person knowledgeable and improves higher education and professional prospects. Alleviates depression and improves imagination. Garnet resolves all issues pertaining to abandonment and survival and therefore is a stone for making commitments last - use it to stabilize your relationships. Physically, it is used to treat disorders of the blood, heart, lungs, spine and bones. Purifies blood and helps in anemia and circulatory problems. Also boosts sexual energy and fertility
GOLDSTONE Medium brown with slight coppery glitter. Goldstone is a man-made stone originally created when alchemists were working towards creating gold. A transmitter stone which causes light to pass through you in order to convey or receive as a medium. Aims to be a revitalizing, energizing stone, encouraging a positive attitude and individualism. Intellectually calming and refreshing. Mildly helpful to Solar plexus Chakra to reduce stomach tension, protect center of body.
HEMATITE A natural ferric oxide and iron-ore, Hematite possesses exceptional grounding abilities. Helps you be at ease and keep nervousness at bay. Calms the mind. Also a protective stone, whenever you feel the need for protection and face challenge in panicky situation, carry a Hematite stone with you. It could be crucial meetings, interviews or legal matters - a must for lawyers, as it also aids memory. On a spiritual plane, it enhances astral projections, promotes balance, focus, convergence and concentration of energy. Helps increase courage and will-power. Medically, it is good for kidneys and heart - for high BP patients it reduces rapid pulse; helps coagulation and purifies blood. It also assists in dissolving negativity as it can transform the negative to a more pure state of love.
JADE In ancient Egypt and even now in Japan & China, Jade is considered the most precious of all stones. It is credited with five qualities: clarity, courage, justice, wisdom and modesty. It is one stone that oozes tranquility. So much so, even holding a Jade in your hand may cause you to experience a feeling of serenity or wisdom. Consequently, it also helps in smooth transition to another world and aids in peaceful death. It assists in taking control of dreams, and making sense of them. Use Jade to reduce tension in your life. Protects one from enemies and during long journeys. Physically, cures kidney problems, bladder troubles, poor digestion and eye problems. Alleviates sore back or spine.
JASPER Jasper is a wonderful supporting stone. Wear it to gain a positive outlook. Attracts what one needs (not wants). Good for those needing more organizational abilities. Mood elevator, invigorating, stabilizing and helps overcome depression. Improves the sense of smell and soothes the nerves. Useful in overcoming disorders of blood, digestion, stomach, biliousness and bladder trouble.
LAPIS LAZULI One
of the most powerful and energetic stone associated with the 'Third
Eye' (6th Chakra), Lapis Lazuli must be used cautiously. People can feel
dizzy or overwhelmed by its sheer energy. It is the stone of mystery,
positive magic and psychic ability. Helps understand mind, expand your
viewpoint and change your perception of reality. Consequently, it is a
highly spiritual stone and should be used during meditation; even
assists in past lives recall and releasing karmic debts. Heals emotional
wounds, cleanses the aura, develops the powers of mind, intuition,
wisdom and memory. Medically, it prevents fits, epilepsy, strokes,
depression, and helps heart, spleen besides improving eyesight.
Brings harmony into one's life and attracts money. Malachite was
considered a valuable talisman for children and it was thought to
protect the wearer from falls and warned them of impending danger by
breaking into several pieces. This stone is a deeply cleansing emotional
body stone and is used to release negative/painful emotions, protects
against psychic attacks and others negativity. It absorbs this
negativity and should be cleansed after each session. It can bring
things out that are buried within someone. Malachite is also about
change, and it is a great stone for those who do not like change in
their lives, because it allows for an easy transition to take place. It
relieves any congestion in the body and helps with confusion and lack of
purpose and insecurity. It is helpful in the treatment of rheumatism,
immune, and also in regularizing menstruation. Used in the treatment of
asthma, toothache. Improves eyesight an immune system.
One of the most beautiful stones, it exhibits a mysterious shine of the
moonlight and is the sacred stone of the moon goddess. Stimulates
knowing, appreciation, nurturing, mothering, selflessness, sensitivity
and humanitarian love - all qualities of the feminine moon goddess. Use
it for problem solving and decision making and as a protective stone
when you sleep with it. Assists during times of change. For physical
healing, Moonstone is essential for female health. Reduces excess fluid
in body and alleviates swelling due to it; most beneficial for
pre-menstrual troubles as it balances hormonal and menstrual cycles of
women. Best to attune its energies to phases of moon.
Onyx ia a chalcedony that occurs in bands of different colors. It is
composed of relatively straight, parallel layers of different colors.
When the dark layers are brown or brownish red, it is often called
Luminous and iridescent with inclusions of many color, opal has
a rainbow-like iridescence. Stimulates originality and creativity.
Associates with love, passion, desire and eroticism. A seductive stone
that intensifies emtional states and releases inhibitions. Strengthens
the will to live. Treats Parkinson's disease, infections, strengthens
memory and purifies the blood and kidneys. Regulates insulin, eases
childbirth and alleviates PMS. Beneficial to the eyes.
Pearl is the mother stone. Fosters motherly love and is a protective
stone. Inspires purity, innocence, serenity, tranquility, focus and
helps us get in touch with the simple honest things of life. Pearls are
said to redress mental disturbance, endow maternal bliss, grant success
in education, and also give access to property and vehicles. Pearls
ensure good health and longevity and are said to attract fame and
wealth. Helps tackle the evil eye and may abridge differences between
quarrelling spouses. The stone redresses gastric disorders, asthma,
cough, eye trouble, breathing trouble as also lung disorders.
Clearly, the best all purpose stone! The symbol of elemental wholeness,
containing the four elements of creation. Assists us to amplify, focus,
direct, transmit and store energy. Its greatest attribute is known to
be its use as an aid to opening the psychic centers, enabling the
ability to meditate at a deeper level and to free one's mind from the
mundane and the trivia. It releases the higher consciousness and
develops mystical and spiritual gifts. It is also particularly useful
for meditation and when working to contact or align with one's higher
self! The Quartz Crystal attracts the powers of light and energy and is
said to be an excellent powerful general healer and dynamic working tool
which works on all levels - strengthening, cleansing and protecting.
Purifies air. Protects against harmful electrical vibrations. Assists
the wearer to think intuitively.
ROSE QUARTZ A
very loving stone. Enhances all forms of love: self-love, mother love,
caring, kindness, platonic and romantic love. A Master Healer it
transmutes emotional negativity at all levels. It enhances meditation
and healing by harmonizing and balancing energy fluctations. Gently
energizes and creates warmth. It is also said to stimulate the
imagination and the intellect and to open up the heart chakra to inner
peace, self love and self recognition. It is a very healing stone for
internal wounds, bitterness and sorrow/grief. It makes one more
receptive to beauty, hastens recovery and gladdens the heart. Lifts
depression, creates confidence and peace. Helps the heart and
circulatory system. This lovely stone is claimed to be one of the best
stones to use in the treatment of migraines and headaches of all
types. Very good for expressing and soothing emotions. It's known as
"The Love Stone". Excellent for calming the Heart and Solar Plexus
chakras after situations involving emotional upheaval, chaos, trauma, or
crisis. Rose Quartz allows love to come to the wearers who have trouble
finding love within themselves to give to either themselves or to
others. This is also a great friendship stone to give to someone you
SMOKEY QUARTZ Fosters
serenity, calmness, positive thoughts, calms fears, lifts depression.
Also associated with stability, practicality, intuition, pride, joy and a
realistic, grounded spirituality. Helps us turn our wishes, dreams and
desires into reality. Good luck talisman. Improves creativity and
enhances joy. Teaches us to simplify our lives and always to live in a
sacred manner. Stimulates and purifies energy centers. Grounds and
stabilizes energies, helps lift depression and fatigue. Smokey quartz
disperses negative patterns and vibrations, and transmits a high
quantity of light. Benefits reproductive organs, muscles, heart and
nervous system. Improves abdomen, kidneys, pancreas and the sexual
organs. Increases energy fertility. Encourages survival instincts, and
therefore protects soldiers on active service.
Sodalite protects from external negative energy and is a highly
grounding stone. If you use computers too much, wear it to shield
against damaging effects of the radiation. Sodalite's color symbolizes
wisdom and psychic activities. Fosters rational thinking, logic,
intelligence, emotional balance, intuition, higher knowledge, clarity,
truth and perception. It also soothes and heals the central nervous
system. Sodalite clears the mind for deeper and wiser thinking, aids
logic along with opening third eye intuition, stabilizes mental
processes and aids in the shift from emotional to rational thinking. Use
it if you are a person who over reacts emotionally or has panic
attacks. Helps to eliminate confusion, change habits and stimulate ones
intellect. Physically, it lowers blood pressure and balances the
metabolism. Assists in sleep.
Believed to strengthen the life force, bring luck, instill optimism and
increase strength and vitality. Sunstone, ruled by the Sun and a
gemstone of Leo, is thought to bring luck and romance to the wearer. It
is helpful to the liver and kidneys and aids digestion.
TIGER EYE Used
for courage, confidence and protection. It is also a solar plexus stone
and helps by deepening perception and clarity of self, and giving us
courage when we need it most. It is good for manifesting of ideas and to
place visualizations into reality. It helps us to obtain goals by
taking direct action and by learning when to act or wait. It is claimed
that tigereye will counteract feelings of hypochondria and the onset of
psychosomatic illness and will also give a feeling of self-confidence.
It is especially good for clear thinking and helps one to see a problem
objectively when confused or emotionally affected. Protects from
witchcraft and evil. Also associated with the correct use of power,
courage, grace and the ability to see clearly and without illusion.
Excellent for asthma patients.
Topaz is a colorless, blue, yellow, brown, or pink aluminum silicate
mineral,. Topaz stimulates endocrine system and is valuable in the
treatment of hemorrhages. It balances emotions and gives feelings of joy
and is referred to as the spiritual rejuvenation gemstone. The deposits
of topaz are found in the regions of Russia, Siberia, Brazil, Sri
Lanka, Africa and China, Japan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Australia,
Mexico, and in the United States.
in various colors and hues. Balances, protects, calms, gives self-
confidence and cheerfulness. Useful for meditation. Attracts
inspiration, goodwill and friendship. Protects wearer against misfortune
and anemia. Prevents lymphatic disease. Grounds high-frequency
energies. Black or Green Tourmaline strengthens nervous system,
regulates blood pressure. Deflects negative energy, attracts prosperity.
Blue Tourmaline cures all throat problems, thyroid and speech
impediments. Promotes clear verbal expression, dissolves mental
friction, emotional constriction. Carries a high electrical charge and
if rubbed briskly one end becomes positive and one negative, the energy
can then be directed wherever peaceful energy is required.
Watermelon/Pink Tourmaline is a heart balancer. Promotes understanding
of self and emotions. Enhances flexibility, happiness, objectivity,
compassion, serenity, balance, positive transformation, healing,
strength, tolerance, and understanding. Excellent channeling stone for
communication with higher forces.
of the most prized stones in Ancient Egypt. Its name means delight. It
is sacred to many American Indian tribes. Among the Apaches, it was a
powerful talisman and healer and was an important tool of the medicine
man or woman. Extoxifies the system of pollutantsw and relieves
migraines, sore throats, rheumatism, arthristis, bone disorders, lung
and chest infections and asthma and other allergies. Excellent for inner
ear and eye problems. Eases cramps and overacidity and gives resistance
to fight viruses. Hide near entrances to repel intruders. Attracts
prosperity and success. Turquoise - A beautiful gift from Mother Earth,
Turquoise brings the blue of Father Sky to the Earth, blending together
the energies of the heavens with the energies of the Earth. It is a
healer of the spirit, providing a soothing energy which can bring peace
and calm to the wearer. It is used by Native Americans as a protection
| 292,325
|
Homework is good because it gives students a chance to practice and internalize information presented during classroom lessons. It also encourages parents to get involved in the student's education. In addition, according to the Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations, homework gives students the chance to work at their own pace so that they learn the material better.Continue Reading
Homework is an essential supplement to class work. There are fewer time constraints, so students are free to spend as much time as they need to practice and learn the material. Students can focus on the individual parts of the homework that are the most difficult without worrying about holding the class up during the actual lesson. Students are less likely to feel rushed and therefore do better quality work.
Homework is a great way for parents to get involved. When students do not understand a concept, parents have the opportunity to help them, which helps strengthen the parent-child bond. This also gives parents an easy way to keep track of how the students are doing in class and what is being learned during school. Students who take the time to explain concepts to their parents further internalize the information.
In addition, homework teaches responsibility and time management since students are expected to finish the homework and turn it in on time. Without the teacher watching them, the responsibility to do the work falls to the students themselves.Learn more about Homework Help
| 62,504
|
In this workshop, we will be assembling electronic Simon Says games. We will discuss with the girls what engineering is and the impact they can have on the world through engineering. Then, the girls will put that into action by learning to solder and assemble the circuit boards that make up the Simon Says games. All the games will be donated to pediatric facilities in the UNC Hospital system. Girls ages 8+. This workshop is free but advance registration is required. Email firstname.lastname@example.org to register!
Home Girls Engineering Change Workshop
Add to Calendar
| 103,162
|
DEBIT MEMORANDUM can be either a) a form or document given by the bank to a depositor to notify that the depositors balance is being decreased due to some event other than the payment of depositor originated check, e.g. bank service charges; or b) a form of document used by a seller to notify a buyer that the seller is debiting (increasing) the amount of the buyers accounts payable due to errors or other factors requiring adjustments.
EXTRAORDINARY EXPENSE see EXTRAORDINARY ITEMS.
ACCOUNTING RECORDS are the records of initial accounting entries and supporting records, such as checks and records of electronic fund transfers; invoices; contracts; the general and subsidiary ledgers; journal entries and other adjustments to the financial statements that are not reflected in journal entries; and records, such as work sheets and spreadsheets, supporting cost allocations, computations, reconciliations, and disclosures.
Enter a term, then click the entry you would like to view.
| 216,380
|
We are fortunate to have two bathrooms in our house. This means that Caspar has his own bathroom which doubles as a guest bathroom. The downside to this is we need to keep it spotlessly clean. While keeping it clean and orderly we also strive to make it as child friendly as possible.
A clean, orderly, child friendly bathroom? This is what currently works for us
- Limit the number of bath toys but make them interesting. We have some Schleich sea animals, a funnel, a small colander, water wheel and some boats.
- Present the items the child uses everyday on a small tray on the bench, within easy reach. For us this includes a hair comb, toothpaste, toothbrush and nail brush.
- Provide a fresh stack of facewashers/small cloths within easy reach. This makes it easier for the child to wash their own face.
- Provide a small stool so the child can reach the basin.
- Turn down the hot water system temperature. Ours is set at 40oC which is still warm but not hot enough to burn.
- Provide a hand towel directly adjacent to the basin. We have used a suction towel ring so the towel is right near the stool at an easy height.
- Provide spare towels in a low draw. So the child can access clean towels at any time.
- Provide a dirty laundry hamper/basket.
- Provide child sized soap. We use liquid soap at the basin but small bars of soap at the bath and shower. Small soap is much easier for the child's small hands. We use sample soap that we get for free when we purchase our own soap, but you could always cut down a standard size bar.
- Provide a low soap holder and mirror in the shower. The mirror probably isn't necessary but it can make hair washing easier. This mirror is attached using a suction grip. The soap holder is by Command (from our local hardware store) and is totally removable and adjustable.
| 76,466
|
Washington: Facebook Message Warns Teen About STD Infection
August 24, 2011
A Spokane mother is upset about a Facebook message from the Spokane Health District to her daughter, who has been diagnosed with an STD. "She's very upset, she feels violated," said the teen's mom. "It was really important that she contact them about something that was going on with her own health," paraphrased the woman, who worries someone may have gotten her daughter's password, read the message and guessed it involved an STD. A growing number of health departments are using social media to reach patients when traditional contact efforts are unsuccessful. "We do not come out and say, 'You've got [an STD],'" said Tacoma-Pierce County Health Director Dr. Anthony Chen. "We're very discreet about it." "Our job is to detect it and get people treated and contact people who might not know they have the disease," Chen said. "Our job is to protect the public's health and stop the spread of these diseases."
08.18.2011; Amy Allen
This article was provided by CDC National Prevention Information Network. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)
| 307,837
|
Need advice about building a raised garden bed, double-digging or installing an irrigation system? This is the place to find the help you need!
I grew these and a couple of other varieties one year with the same results. I had mine in the garden though and tied to tall stakes. Some plants were nearly 3 meters.
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Dec 07, 2008 8:41 am
3 meters!!I don't think I've ever managed that!!It must be reassuring. Maybe our super summer has something to do with it.
- Posts: 545
- Joined: Feb 16, 2008 8:06 am
- Location: zone 5 Nova Scotia
Return to Garden Projects and Ideas
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests
| 209,008
|
I recognize that as an aviation journalist I am part of the problem. And the problem as I see it is this. We generate so many words about safety but the attention is disproportionately paid to airlines. Don’t get me wrong, as a frequent flyer, I’m all for safe airline operations. It’s just that other forms of transportation - riskier forms of transportation without the sex appeal of the big airlines, sometimes seem to get a pass.
Just last week, for example, I wrote a story for The New York Times, reporting that a motor coach operator responsible for a horrific crash that killed 15 people earlier this year, had essentially evaded a Department of Transportation cease operation order by simply transfering buses from the sanctioned company to another bus company also under his control.
|Photo courtesy NTSB|
When the complex ownership of Platinum Jet Management came to light after a runway excursion in Teterboro Airport in 2004, the FAA and the NTSB were all over the issue like white on rice. Criminal charges were filed and rules dealing with operational control in business aviation were tightened.
I’m ruminating about all this today because I watched with a horrified fascination this video taken by the U.S. Coast Guard on October 7th. This was a ditching off the coast of Hawaii when the pilot of a twin engine Cessna 310 realized he did not have enough fuel to make it to the mainland.
Bless those Coasties from the 14th District in Honolulu, they not only saved the day, they had the presence of mind to video tape the plane’s final seconds aloft and the pilot’s miraculous emergence from the cockpit out onto the wing.
Charles Brian Mellor, 65, was ferrying the plane from Monterey, California to Hilo International Airport. And though he was flying with auxiliary fuel tanks, about 500 miles from his destination he realized he would run short of gas and radioed the Federal Aviation Administration.
Angela Henderson, a press officer with the Coast Guard says when the rescue center got the call at 12:30 on Friday they immediately dispatched a C-130 and a Coast Guard cutter along a track line looking to intercept the airplane.
|U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Richard Russell)|
“There was a fifty-fifty chance that he could have made it”, Angela told me in a phone call this afternoon. “We were there in case he didn’t.” Thirteen miles offshore Mellor ditched the plane. A rescue helicopter hoisted him from the sea and delivered him to the Hilo Medical Center emergency room.
There were 11 airplane accidents in the United States last Friday. Nine on Thursday and 10 the day before that. You get my drift here, right? More than two dozen airplane crashes in less than a week but the one bouncing ’round the world is this one, courtesy of Coast Guard heroics, the internet and the extremely rare situation in which a pilot has advance notice that he is going down. Which is why poor Angela has been fielding calls right and left.
Who knows as this point why Mellor ran shy of fuel on a trans-Pacific ferry flight? His narrow escape is a reminder that beyond airliners there are other safety issues that also deserve attention. If this video helps accomplish that, the Coast Guard can claim another success.
Certainly the Japanese safety authorities know better than to tell pilots of All Nippon Airways to be more careful in the future and don’t touch the knob that can turn a 737 upside down with a full load of passengers in the back. But I’m not so sure the boss does judging from his comments the other day.
Futoshi Osada, chief of the country’s Civil Aviation Bureau was quoted as saying, “It is really deplorable that the incident occurred as it threatened to undermine public trust in the safety of the public transportation system.” Osada then told the airline’s president to “to take appropriate action and report back.”
If that wraps up the investigation into what happened on the upside down flight from Okinawa to Tokyo last month, an opportunity to learn from this near-disaster will be lost.
A recap: the Boeing 737 was put into a turn so steep the plane rolled upside down. The co-pilot who was alone in the cockpit at the time inadvertently selected the wrong knob while trying to readmit the captain to the flight deck after a potty break.
When I heard this story, I immediately thought of the DC-8. Let me explain.
Back in the 1970s when many airlines were flying the McDonnell Douglas jet, pilots on at least two occasions accidentally deployed the ground spoilers when the airplane was still in the air. Because this destroys lift (spoils it, get it?) it is a monumental no-no. On July 5, 1970 the oopsie caused an Air Canada flight to crash after an attempted go-around at Toronto International Airport, killing all 109 people on board.
Three years later, a Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines DC-8 crashed on landing at Kennedy Airport in New York. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the pilot deployed the ground spoilers while attempting to arm them.
Fortunately, no one was killed. Air travelers in general were fortunate too because the American safety officials spent some time trying to find out why the pilots erred. Their conclusion: telling pilots “don’t do that” wasn’t going to fly. Design changes in the cockpit were necessary.
Don’t get me wrong, this insight wasn’t immediate. After the Air Canada accident, the Federal Aviation Administration‘s first response was to install a placard on the DC-8 flight decks saying – and I am not making this up – DO NOT DEPLOY SPOILERS IN FLIGHT.
It is easy to be smug in the 21st century about the oversights in the 1970s when human factors in cockpit design was a relatively new field of study. I don’t mean to be that girl. Thirty-five years ago the machine was considered rigid and the pilots considered malleable. Why not bend the human to the design of the cockpit?
First of all, let’s set aside the myth that an aviation accident = everybody dead. It’s not the case though it leads some people adopt the fatalistic and passive view that if anything goes wrong there’s little they can do about it.
|Evacuating a 777 is a little frightening|
The last time I traveled by air, I sat at the over wing exit row and when the flight attendant asked me if I was willing to handle the door in an emergency, I answered confidently that I was. After all, I’d just spent a week in flight attendant training at Emirates reporting a story for The New York Times. Can I remove the door if required? Yes, indeed. (I could even sell duty free perfume if push came to shove.)
|A crazed rugby fan in Air New Zealand’s safety briefing|
Passengers deserve some of the blame for being blasé about safety, but with a few exceptions such as Air New Zealand, Southwest and Cebu Pacific (see their videos below) the airlines have done little to make the safety briefing relevant or interesting to passengers. For the most part, their flight attendants are up there droning on and on – boring us to death with information that could save our lives.
Okay, I’m just a few years late in hearing about the otherwise famous Kyla Ebbert and her equally famous little-white-skirt both of which had a Southwest flight attendant hyperventilating back in 2007. Seems the lovely Hooters waitress -turned Playboy model was considered inapproprately dressed for her flight from San Diego to Tuscon and she was asked to change outfits or get off the plane. Well that was then.
Oh wait, is it now?
Yeah, in a bit of deja vu all over again, actress Leisha Hailey is whining about being asked to step off a flight out of Baltimore for engaging in some kissy-kissy with her girlfriend that some other passengers apparently found too-too much. That in itself wouldn’t have sent the ladies packing. Leisha apparently matched the airline’s purple and orange livery by letting loose with some colorful words of her own when a flight attendant told the couple to cool their jets, or Flight 2274 would be one jet the BFFs wouldn’t be traveling on.
Change the name, change the problem, airlines telling passengers they can’t fly seems to be cropping up on a near-weekly basis. It happens often on Southwest, but Delta, US Airways and Air Canada Jazz have had their moments too. And I’m wondering if the airlines are involved in a diabolically clever plot to keep us passengers off-guard.
If we don’t know exactly what behavior or dress will get us asked to deplane prior to departure, will we all just start acting and dressing better when traveling by air?
At the risk of bringing up Pan Am the television show one more time, let me just suggest that in the not-too distant past, people didn’t board airplanes wearing tee-shirts with the F-word emblazoned on them. They didn’t reveal their underpants beneath teeny tiny skirts, or from above low-slung pants. Nor for that matter did people wear pajamas when they traveled, unless of course the traveler was pint-sized and the PJ’s had feet and a snap crotch.
No, these choices are a product of the modern-age. Airlines, struggling to manage the sensibilities of an eclectic assortment of cultures, religions and orientations have a tough job trying to make sure no one is offended and too often it seems, they fail.
But air travelers, beware: To the question, “do we have a right to fly?” the answer seems to be “no”. In spite of the threats from the recently dis-boarded and their demands for apologies, airlines have a tightly constructed contract of carriage printed on every single airline ticket, which says, and I paraphrase here, behave yourself in a manner that will not disrupt your fellow passengers because on the airplane, the ultimate authority is the flight crew.
This week, Leisha Hailey is tweeting that her removal from the plane, along with her companion Camila Grey was “an outrage” and she’s calling for a boycott of Southwest. Homosexuals may be the newest but they’re certainly not the last special interest group to ride the wave of publicity triggered by an involuntary departure from an airplane prior to push back.
The interest group I’d like to see start to agitate is the one demanding that everybody traveling by air board the plane, settle down, button up and pretend that we are in granny’s parlor for the duration of the flight.
|Sony Pictures Television / Patrick Harbron|
Fellow aviation geeks, don’t be too tempted to quibble over just how authentic the new television show, Pan Am is – already Mickey Maynard is tweeting that the blue of the stewardesses uniforms is the wrong shade. And I confess, when I saw the first episode, (I got to see it two weeks ago but you’ll have to wait until Sunday – Thanks Sony!) I did wonder if the set designers couldn’t do a better job on the B707 boarding bridge.
Still, if handsome Capt. Dean Lowrey looks too young to be in command of a plane full of 1960s-era travelers, think again. Think in fact, of Capt. Robert Evans.
|Pan Am Capt. Robert Evans (L) and actor Mike Vogel who plays Capt. Dean Lowrey|
|Capt. Evans flew a S-42 like this one when he joined Pan Am|
Through a family connection, I was privileged to spend a few days this summer reading the memoirs of Capt. Evans, who flew for Pan Am from 1940 to 1976 – a career that started when he was just twenty-four and took him from the Sikorsky S-42 to the left seat of the Boeing 747, then and now the queen of the sky.
|Photo courtesy Pan Am Historical Association|
It’s no wonder Evans took time from traveling the world to jot down his stories. In a chapter of his book called Unusual Earthly Sights, he describes the sun rising in the west over Scandinavia, a view of Victoria Falls while diverting to avoid weather, experiencing the Aurora Borealis north of Labrador and encountering static electricity known as St. Elmo’s fire, that made his airplane glow.
“The bright fiery glow enveloped props, wings and fuselage. A blue ball of static developed in the cabin – rolling down the aisle – and discharging off the tail. Flight service reported a lot of wide-eyed passengers.” I’ll bet!
So today, as I sat at the Brooklyn film studio where episodes of Pan Am are being shot, talking to the actor Mike Vogel who plays the Pan Am Sky God Dean Lowrey on the weekly program, I reminded myself that Capt. Evans probably looked a lot like him.
Vogel described a childhood growing up by Pennsylvania’s Willow Grove Naval Air Station, spending so much time watching the airplanes take off and land that he learned to distinguish a P-3 from an A-4 by the sound of their engines. Aviation was a first love that never died, he told me, which explains why Vogel flies a 707 on TV while working on his PPL in real life.
|Photo courtesy Pan Am Historical Association|
While the perfectly coiffed Vogel and his co stars did their thing under the studio lights, off to the side Sherry Zahner, was fussing over the shrimp appetizers that the four women who play Pan Am stewardesses will use in the next scene. Sherry was a Pan Am flight attendant in that era and she’s gonna make sure the service details are true-to-life.
In the sixties, heck, through the eighties, stewardesses on Pan Am didn’t just serve pretty food, they cooked it too. Sherry says her years at the airline were the best time of her life.
|Najeeb Halaby pins wings on Candice Adams Kimmel|
Sure the work was hard. If it was easy everybody would be doing it. But Pan Am didn’t hire just anybody. The airline wanted educated, multilingual flight attendants. The recruiters went to college campuses, which is how Candice Adams Kimmel, French-speaking with a degree in history ended up becoming a stewardess.
With two months experience she was flying to Rome, hanging out with other stewardesses who were “doing everything but saying ‘sombody pinch me’” she recalled when I spoke with her earlier this month. They all thought they were dreaming. It just didn’t get any better than this.
Scary? I think so. Especially in the post September 11th world. But consider this, between 1968 and 1972 there were more than seventy – that’s 70 – airplane hijackings. So if there’s an episode of Pam Am the TV show which includes that in the plot, don’t be surprised, that’s all I’m sayin’.
|Sony Pictures Television / Patrick Harbron|
Handsome men starting out with responsibility beyond their years, strong women circling the globe with all the attendant joy and danger. Dazzling airplanes flying faster and farther. Who doesn’t want to watch all this on television? There’s so much material and just plain old gratuitous shots of beautiful people, places and planes.
|Photo courtesy Leeward Air Ranch|
|Major Adam Cybanski|
|Image from presentation of Michiel Schurrman Dutch Safety Board|
|Stearman pilots, Patrick Veillette (left) and Steve Guenard|
|Steve Guenard at the controls of N7995|
|Anthony Brickhouse, Brittnee Branham Albert Moussa and Patrick Veillette at ISASI opening reception|
|My sons, Antonio, Sam and Joseph in 2001|
- Planes are crowded
- Amenities are eliminated
- Security is time-consuming and arbitrary
On a recent flight, Higgins and her husband coughed up $200 for the airline’s Five Star Service program, which entitled them and their young child to an escort from curbside at New York’s LaGuardia airport through bag check, into a lounge with snacks and finally, priority boarding. In assessing the program, Higgins wrote that she bought a “civilized airport experience.”
So have we reached a point where civility comes with price tag? Well that depends.
In Tuesday’s Business section, I report that some airlines are heavily invested in making their passengers feel special at no additional charge.
|A smiling Lufthansa flight attendant serves coach passengers|
My story focuses on Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier that’s got a number of other airlines on the run. But other airlines have the same idea; Singapore, Japan Airlines, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa are all known for adopting a strategy that treating customers right is just good business.
For a week this summer, Emirates allowed me to attend flight attendant school where, dressed in a uniform just like the adorable twenty-something students all around, I learned how to open the airplane door in an emergency, help a handicapped person into a seat, take down a disruptive passenger and deploy the evacuation slide.
And while a lot of what a flight attendant needs to know is how to save their passengers’ lives if necessary, an equal amount of attention was paid to teaching them how to put themselves in the frame of mind of a traveler and how to become the face of the airline they would want to fly.
These airlines seem to think it is important to maintain standards – the opposite of dial-up-to-VIP service – which is an outright declaration that unless travelers pay, they’re gonna get something less.
|An Emirates attendant on the A380|
When “a civilized airport experience” becomes another ala carte menu item for passengers, the incentive for airlines to make things better will disappear faster than an iPod left in the airplane seat pocket. Why fix a problem if travelers can be convinced to buy the solution?
Airlines considering this new ancillary revenue stream: Beware. The companies that still take pride in service are likely to use it against you. They’ve already learned that money spent on training polite, courteous, people-pleasing employees not only returns to the bottom line, it goes a long way towards creating a civilized experience that everyone can enjoy.
| 143,781
|
Research has shown the benefits of combining various Orthobiologics treatments with each other. This can enhance the effect of the treatment and improve the long-term outcome of the procedure. Some examples of combination therapy include:
ACP-SVF: ACP-SVF combines the known benefits of the blood product Platelet-Rich Plasma/PRP (also called autologous conditioned plasma - ACP) with the regenerative potential of adipose derived stem cells (also known as autologous stromal vascular fraction - SVF). It has been suggested that this combination is a promising approach for tissue regeneration. Adipose derived stem cells are easy to collect and can differentiate into different cell types such as bone, fat, cartilage and muscle. Adding the growth factors, cytokines and other bioactive substances from PRP/ACP to the SVF provides a synergistic effect that promotes the proliferation and differentiation of the adipose derived stem cells.
Lipogems and PRP: The benefits from combining Lipogems and platelet rich plasma/ PRP are similar to those from ACP-SVF. The Lipogems treatment provides adipose derived stem cells and stem cell precursors. Adding the growth factors, cytokines and other bioactive substances from PRP/ACP to the Lipogems provides a synergistic effect that promotes the proliferation and differentiation of the adipose derived stem cells.
PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) and HA (Hyaluronic Acid): PRP/Platelet Rich Plasma is made from the patient's own blood and is rich in platelets, cytokines, growth factors and other bioactive substances. HA/Hyaluronic Acid is a thick concentrated gel made of natural joint lubricants. Both PRP and HA have proven benefits in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis. Recent research has shown that combining PRP with HA can result in better pain and symptom relief for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
Our experts at the Orthobiologics Clinic are happy to discuss the potential benefits of combination therapy procedures with you.
| 310,095
|
Interested in obtaining your GED in Hubert NC? The General Education Development (GED) examination is for adults who have not completed their high school diploma. The certificate that you receive upon completion of the North Carolina GED examination is accepted as an equivalent credential to a high school diploma by employers and colleges across the United States.
The General Education Development examination tests basic subjects that students are taught in high school. Subjects reviewed in GED classes include math, science, writing, reading, and social studies. These are the subject areas that make up the General Education Development exam in North Carolina.
Typically GED programs in Hubert NC are offered at:
- Hubert Adult Education Sites
- Hubert Community College
- Hubert Volunteer Organizations
- Hubert High Schools
| 200,434
|
Initiation comes from the Latin words initiare "originate, initiate," from initium "a beginning." Initiations are moments that mark the beginning of a new stage of development, thus in the development of the consciousness there are initiations it must pass through in order to rise.
Throughout our history, the real initiations have not been taught publicly. In this new era, for the first time, we can learn about the initiations the consciousness must pass through.
"We need to liberate our intelligence from all types of sects, religions, schools, political parties, concepts of country and flags, theories, etc."
| 156,715
|
|Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, Social Inequality, Culture, Asian American Studies|
|URL||To learn more about Jennifer Lee's new research, click here:|
Fellow, Center for Social Cohesion (2011-Present).
Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation (2011-12).
Otis Dudley Duncan Award (2011) from the Population Section of the American Sociological Association for The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the Color Line in 21st Century America (with Frank D. Bean).
J. William Fulbright Scholar to Japan (2008).
Distinguished Lecturer, Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nagoya, Japan (2008).
Fellow, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, University of Chicago (2006-2007).
Outstanding Book Award (2006) from the Asia and Asian America Section of the American Sociological Association for Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity. (with Min Zhou).
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA (2002-2003).
Jane Addams Award (2003) from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association for "From Civil Relations to Racial Conflict: Merchant-Customer Interactions in Urban America." American Sociological Review 67 (1): 77-98, 2002.
Honorable Mention for the Thomas and Znaniecki Distinguished Book Award (2003) from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association for Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America.
University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow, 1998-2000
President’s Fellow, Columbia University, 1996-1998
Fellow, Paul F. Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences, Columbia University, 1997.
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar, 1993-1995.
University Professors’ Fellow, Columbia University, 1993-1995.
Jennifer Lee is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, who received her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. Her research projects stem from her theoretical interests in the intersection of immigration, race/ethnicity, and culture. Much of her work has focused on the ways in which contemporary immigrants affect native-born Americans, and also, how native-born Americans affect patterns of immigrant and second-generation incorporation. More than any other scholar, Lee has expanded the discussion of race/ethnicity, immigration, and culture beyond the Black/White binary to include America’s largest minority groups -- Blacks, Latinos, and Asians.
She is author of Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America for which Lee received Honorable Mention for the Thomas and Znaniecki Distinguished Book Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, and co-author of The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the Color Line in 21st Century, which earned the 2011 Otis Dudley Duncan Award from the Population Section of ASA. She is also co-editor of Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity, which was named the 2006 Outstanding Book Award from the Asia and Asian America Section of the ASA. She has also authored dozens of articles about race/ethnicity, immigration, and the second generation.
Lee has also been awarded numerous prestigious grants and Fellowships. She was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and a Fulbright Scholar to Japan.
Lee established her career with Civility in the City, published by Harvard University Press. In Civility in the City, she sheds new light on the topics of immigrant entrepreneurship and interethnic relations. By going beyond the single group study implemented by prior scholars, and instead comparing Koreans with Jewish and African American merchants, and also contrasting two different urban environments (New York and Philadelphia), Lee shows just how ethnicity and nativity matter, demonstrating also the ways in which the environment generates conflicts, but also how those conflicts are managed and negotiated to produce civility in everyday life. Her findings dispel the popular myth of the ubiquity of interethnic conflict, and show that social order, routine, and civility are alive and well in America's inner-cities.
In The Diversity Paradox, Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean take two poles of American collective identity -- the legacy of slavery and immigration -- and address the question of whether today’s immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or whether their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether America’s new racial/ethnic diversity is helping to erode the tenacious Black/White color line. For the first time in 2000, the U.S. Census enabled multiracial Americans to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race, and eight years later, African American Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. For many, these events give credibility to the claim that America is now a "post-racial" society.
In this major contribution, Lee and Bean recast our understanding of race, and in particular Blackness, by doing something that previous generations of scholars had mostly avoided: studying Blacks in relation to Latinos, Asians, and Whites. By doing so, they provide insight into the unique plight of Black Americans. Asians and Latinos are much more likely to intermarry with Whites, and their unions are understood by each partner and other observers as intercultural unions rather than interracial ones. Differences between Asians and Latinos on the one hand, and Blacks on the other are framed through an immigrant narrative -- a considerably smoother and easier path of understanding, and one that is less fraught with the tension and potential for conflict than the slavery narrative that characterizes differences between Blacks and Whites. Moreover, through captivating in-depth interviews, they deftly show how multiracial Asians and Latinos are little constrained by racialization processes that force Blacks into discrete racial categories through the legacy of the "one-drop rule. Boundary crossing at the individual level does not lead to the shifting of racial/ethnic boundaries at the group level for Blacks.
Consequently, we appear to be entering a new phase in the U.S. system of racial/ethnic relations, in which the boundaries of the dominant group appear to be expanding to encompass populations historically excluded from the ranks of the accepted, all the while maintaining the boundary that has kept Blacks as perpetual outsiders. These rich findings say much about racial inequality in the United States and the existence of a racial hierarchy, in which Blacks are far more likely to find themselves in positions of exclusion than Asians and Latinos -- pointing to a persistent pattern of "black exceptionalism."
Jennifer Lee's newest book, titled, Asian American Achievement Paradox, will be published in June 2015. In the book, she and Min Zhou tackle the vexing question: Why do second-generation Asians exhibit exceptional academic outcomes, even when controlling for socioeconomic factors like parental education, occupation, income, and residential segregation? They bring culture back into the debate about second-generation outcomes and address the "Tiger Mother" controversy head on by bridging research in immigration, race/ethnicity, and social psychology in a novel way.
Building on the cultural concept of frames, they explain how Chinese and Vietnamese immigrant parents and their children frame success, how "success frames" differ by ethnicity, and how frames are supported by institutional and ethnic resources. Greater access to resources help second-generation Chinese and Vietnamese from disadvantaged class backgrounds override their low parental human capital. Moreover, Asian American students benefit from a "stereotype promise" -- the promise of being viewed through the lens of a positive stereotype that leads one to perform in such a way that confirms the positive stereotype, thereby boosting performance. As a result, Asian American students gain an advantage over their non-Asian peers in the context of U.S. schools. No other scholar has been as vocal nor as effective as Jennifer Lee in refuting the fallacious claims about the superiority of Asian culture or the simplistic argument that Asian Americans value education more than other groups.
Lee is strongly committed public sociology. She has written opinion pieces for The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Guardian, and TIME, and has done interviews for NPR, CBS2 News, Fusion TV, and Tavis Smiley. In addition, her research has been featured in NBC News, The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, The China Daily, International Business Times, Slate, Buzzfeed, and a number of other media outlets.
Jennifer Lee has appointed to the Editorial Boards of the University of California Press, the ASA Rose Series, and the International Migration Review. She has recently served as an elected Council Member-at-Large of the American Sociological Association, and has been elected to the Councils of the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section, International Migration Section, and the Asia and Asian American Section of the ASA. She has also served on the Editorial Board of the American Sociological Review.
|Publications||2015. The Asian American Achievement Paradox. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (with Min Zhou, Forthcoming June).|
|2014. Guest Co-Editor of 50th Anniversary Issue of International Migration Review 48 (S1): Fall 2014 (with Jørgen Carling and Pia Orrenius).|
|2014. "From Unassimilable to Exceptional: The Rise of Asian Americans and ‘Stereotype Promise’." New Diversities 16 (1): 7-22 (with Min Zhou).|
|2014. "Assessing what is cultural about Asian Americans' Academic Advantage." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111 (23): 8321–8322 (with Min Zhou).|
|2014. "The Success Frame and Achievement Paradox: The Costs and Consequences for Asian Americans." Race and Social Problems 6 (1): 38-55 (with Min Zhou).|
|2014. "The International Migration Review at 50: Reflecting on Half a Century of International Migration Research and Looking Ahead." International Migration Review 48 (S1): 3-36 (with Jørgen Carling and Pia Orrenius).|
|2012. "A Postracial Society or a Diversity Paradox? Race, Immigration, and Multiraciality in the Twenty-first Century." Du Bois Review 9 (2): 419-437 (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2010. The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the Color Line in 21st Century America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2009. "The New U.S. Immigrants: How Do They Affect Our Understanding of the African-American Experience?" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621: 202-220 (with Frank D. Bean, Cynthia Feliciano, and Jennifer Van Hook).|
|2009. "Plus ça change...? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States." Journal of Social Issues 65 (1): 205-219 (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2009. "Brown Picket Fences: The Immigrant Narrative and ‘Giving Back’ among the Mexican Middle-Class." Ethnicities 9 (1): 5-31 (with Jody Agius Vallejo).|
|2008. "Success Attained, Deterred, and Denied: Divergent Pathways to Social Mobility in Los Angeles’ New Second Generation." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 620: 37-61 (with Min Zhou, Jody Agius Vallejo, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, and Yang Sao Xiong).|
|2007 "Reinventing the Color Line: Immigration and America's New Racial/Ethnic Divide." Social Forces 86 (2): 561-586 (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2007 "Becoming Ethnic or Becoming American? Reflecting on the Divergent Pathways to Social Mobility and Assimilation among the New Second Generation." Du Bois Review 4 (1): 189-205 (with Min Zhou).|
|2007 "Redrawing the Color Line?" City & Community 6 (1): 49-62 (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2006 "Constructing Race and Civility in Urban America." Urban Studies 43 (5-6): 903-917, Review Issue on (In)Civility and the City.|
|2006 "Cultural Assets or Structural Advantages in Numbers Gambling: Comment to Darrell Steffensmeier and Jeffery T. Ulmer – ‘Black and White Control of Numbers Gambling: A Cultural Assets—Social Capital View.’ " American Sociological Review 71 (1): 157-161.|
|2005 "Who We Are: America Becoming and Becoming American." Du Bois Review 2 (2): 287-302.|
|2005 "Immigration and Racial/Ethnic Relations in the United States." People and Place 13 (1): 1-13 (with Frank D. Bean and Susan K. Brown).|
|2004 "America's Changing Color Lines: Race/Ethnicity, Immigration, and Multiracial Identification." Annual Review of Sociology 30: 221-242 (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2004 "Immigration and Fading Color Lines in America." Census Bulletin (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2004 "Immigration and the Black-White Color Line in the United States." Review of Black Political Economy, Special Issue on "The Impact of Immigration on African Americans" (with Frank D. Bean).|
|2004 Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (Edited Volume with Min Zhou, New York: Routledge).|
|2002. Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.|
2002 "From Civil Relations to Racial Conflict: Merchant-Customer Interactions in Urban America." American Sociological Review 67 (1): 77-98.
|2001 "The Racial and Ethnic Meaning behind Black: Retailers’ Hiring Practices in Inner-City Neighborhoods," in Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Civil Rights Options for America, edited by John D. Skrentny (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).|
|2000 "Immigrant and African American Competition: Jewish, Korean, and African American Entrepreneurs," in Immigration Research for a New Century, edited by Nancy Foner, Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Steve J. Gold (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).|
|2000 "The Salience of Race in Everyday Life: Black Customers’ Shopping Experiences in Black and White Neighborhoods." Work and Occupations 27 (3): 353-376.|
|1999 "Segmented Assimilation and Minority Cultures of Mobility." Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (6): 945-965 (with Kathryn Neckerman and Prudence Carter).|
|1999 "Retail Niche Domination among African American, Jewish, and Korean Entrepreneurs: Competition, Coethnic Advantage, and Disadvantage." American Behavioral Scientist 42 (9): 1398-1416.|
|1998 "Cultural Brokers: Race-Based Hiring in Inner-City Neighborhoods." American Behavioral Scientist 41 (7): 927-937.|
|Grants||"Immigration, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, and Multiracial Identification." Frank D. Bean and Jennifer Lee, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $265,000.|
|"Immigrant and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles." Ruben Rumbaut, Frank D. Bean, Leo Chavez, Min Zhou, Jennifer Lee, Susan Brown, and Louis DeSipio, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $1.7 million.|
|"Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles." Ruben Rumbaut, Frank D. Bean, Leo Chavez, Min Zhou, Jennifer Lee, and Susan Brown, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $136,000.|
|"Immigration and Race/Ethnicity: America's Changing Color Lines." Frank D. Bean and Jennifer Lee, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Population Reference Bureau and the Russell Sage Foundation, $15,000.|
|"The Mexican Minority Culture of Mobility: Coethnic Ties among Mexican Middle-Class Immigrants in Suburban Los Angeles." Jennifer Lee, Principal Investigator, University of California, Irvine, Single Investigator Innovative Grant, $3,200.|
|"Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles: A Qualitative Study." Jennifer Lee, Leo Chavez, and Min Zhou, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $30,000.|
|"Becoming 'Ethnic,' Becoming 'Angeleno,' and/or Becoming 'American': The Multifaceted Experiences of Immigrant Children and the Children of Immigrants in Los Angeles." Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $210,000.|
|"Los Angeles' New Second Generation: Mobility, Identity, and the Making of a New American Metropolis." Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, Principal Investigators. Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, $108,088.|
|"Meritocracy, Racial Divisions, and the Politics of SCA 5." Jennifer Lee, Principal Investigator. Funded by the Center for the Study of Democracy, $2,500.|
American Sociological Association. Section Memberships: Asia and Asian America; Community and Urban Sociology; Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility; International Migration; Population.
|Research Center||Faculty Affiliate, Center for Research on Immigration, Population, and Public Policy; Demographic and Social Analysis Program; Asian American Studies|
|Link to this profile||http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4667|
| 130,997
|
US 4406703 A
The specification discloses a method of producing composite building materials from a mixture of plant fibers bonded with portland cement. Plant fibers, cement and soluble silicates in certain proportions are mixed and heated under pressure for a short period to get physically stable product that can be cured under atmospheric conditions to full strength. The plant fibers may initially be pretreated with an aqueous solution containing dichromate or permanganate ion prior to adding the cement to negate the adverse effects of set inhibiting water-soluble compounds in the fiber. Other chemicals may be added to modify the reaction and improve the product.
1. In a method of producing composite materials from plant fibers containing water-soluble compounds and portland cement the step comprising contacting the plant fibers with a material selected from the class consisting of dichromate ion and permanganate ion to substantially negate the adverse effects of the water-soluble compounds in the plant fibers on the setting of the cement.
2. A method of producing composite materials from portland cement and plant fibers containing cement set inhibiting compounds comprising:
contacting plant fibers with dichromate ion;
mixing the treated plant fibers with portland cement and water;
molding the mixture into a predetermined configuration; and
curing the molded mixture.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the plant fibers are wood fibers.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the plant fibers are contacted with an aqueous solution containing dichromate ion in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to 8% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the ratio of portland cement to plant particles is approximately 0.5:1 to approximately 4:1 according to weight.
6. The method of claim 2 wherein the water to cement ratio is approximately 0.5 to approximately 2 according to weight.
7. The method of claim 2 wherein the plant fibers are contacted in an acidified aqueous solution containing dichromate ion for a period of time sufficient to permit the dichromate ion to react effectively with the cement set inhibiting compounds at or near the surface of the plant fibers.
8. The method of claim 2 wherein the fibers are contacted with a sulfite solution prior to treating them with dichromate ion.
9. The method of claim 2 wherein the plant fibers are contacted in an aqueous solution containing the dichromate ion and also containing aluminum sulfate in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 6% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers.
10. The method of claim 2 and further comprising the step of adding calcium chloride to the mixture prior to molding in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 5% of the weight of the cement.
11. The method of claim 2 wherein triethanolamine is added to the mixture prior to molding the same.
12. The method of claim 2 wherein the mixture is molded under compression at approximately 150 psi to approximately 600 psi.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the compression is carried out at a temperature of between about 100° F. and 220° F.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the compression is carried out in a substantially saturated atmosphere.
15. The method of claim 2 wherein the fibers are western red cedar.
16. The method of claim 2 wherein the fibers are douglas fir.
17. The composite material produced by the method of claims 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16.
18. A method of producing composite material comprising the steps of:
contacting plant fibers containing cement set inhibiting compounds with an aqueous solution containing dichromate ion in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 8% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers and aluminum sulfate in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 6% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers;
holding the aqueous plant fibers/dichromate/aluminum sulfate mixture for a period of time sufficient to permit the dichromate ion to react effectively with the cement set inhibiting compounds in the plant fibers;
mixing an alkaline substance into the last mentioned mixture in an amount sufficient to substantially neutralize the mixture;
mixing portland cement into the last mentioned mixture in an amount sufficient so that the ratio of portland cement to plant fibers is approximately 1:1 to approximately 4:1 according to weight;
molding the last mentioned mixture into a predetermined configuration; and
curing the molded mixture.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the alkaline substance is sodium silicate.
20. The method of claim 18 wherein the ratio of water to cement in the mixture is from approximately 0.3 to approximately 2 according to weight.
21. The method of claim 18 and further comprising mixing calcium chloride into the mixture prior to molding in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 5% of the weight of the cement.
22. The method of claim 18 wherein triethanolamine is added to the mixture prior to molding in an amount of between 0.05 and 0.15% of the portland cement.
23. The method of claim 18 wherein the mixture is molded under compression at approximately 150 psi to approximately 600 psi.
24. The method of claim 18 wherein the plant fibers are western red cedar.
25. The method of claim 18 wherein the plant fibers are douglas fir.
26. A method of producing composite material comprising the steps:
contacting plant fibers containing cement set inhibiting compounds with an aqueous solution containing dichromate ion in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 8% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers and aluminum sulfate in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 6% of the oven dry weight of the plant fibers;
allowing the aqueous plant fibers/dichromate/aluminum sulfate mixture to stand for a period of time sufficient to permit the dichromate ion to react effectively with the cement set inhibiting compounds in the plant fibers;
mixing an alkaline substance into the last mentioned mixture in an amount sufficient to substantially neutralize the mixture;
mixing portland cement into the last mentioned mixture in an amount sufficient so that the ratio of portland cement to plant fibers is approximately 1:0.5 to approximately 4:1 according to weight and so that the water to cement ratio is approximately 0.5 to approximately 1.2 according to weight, and also mixing calcium chloride into the last mentioned mixture in an amount of approximately 2% of the weight of the cement;
forming the last mentioned mixture into a mat;
cutting the mat into discrete portions;
placing the mat portions between pre-heated upper and lower caul plates;
conveying the caul plates with the mat portions therebetween into a stack press;
compressing the mat portions in the stack press at a psi of from approximately 150 to approximately 600 in an atmosphere of live steam for a period of time sufficient to cause the cement to set sufficiently to prevent the plant fibers returning to their uncompressed position;
removing the upper and lower caul plates and the compressed mat portions from the stack press; and
removing the compressed mat portions from between the upper and lower caul plates.
27. The composite material produced by the method of claims 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 or 26.
28. In a method of producing composite materials from plant fibers and portland cement the steps of mixing together plant fiber, portland cement and a soluble silicate as 41° Be aqueous solution in amount greater than four but less than twenty-four percent by weight, based on the weight of the cement, molding the mixture into a predetermined configuration and while maintaining said molded configuration, rapidly heating the molded mixture to a temperature in excess of 140° F. for a period of time sufficient to effect setting of the mixture to a degree of set whereby said fibers are restrained from movement within said configuration.
29. The method of claim 28 wherein said molded configuration is heated to a temperature of between 175°-180° F.
30. The method of claim 28 wherein said silicate is waterglass and comprises between about eight to twenty-four percent by weight of portland cement.
31. The method of claim 30 wherein said waterglass comprises between about eight to sixteen percent by weight of the weight of the portland cement.
32. The method of claim 30 wherein said waterglass is selected from the class consisting of aqueous solutions of sodium silicate and potassium silicate.
33. The method of claim 28 wherein said fibers are contacted with acidifying agent prior to mixing with the cement and silicate.
34. The method of claim 28 wherein said fibers are contacted with dichromate ion-containing solution prior to mixing with the cement and silicate.
35. The method of claim 28 wherein said plant fibers comprise wood.
36. The method of forming a composite of plant fiber and portland cement which comprises the steps of:
contacting plant fibers with an acidifying solution,
mixing the fibers with a soluble silicate and portland cement, the silicate being present as 41° Be aqueous solution in amount in excess of four but less than twenty-four percent by weight of the weight of portland cement,
placing the resulting mixture under pressure and submitting the same to an atmosphere of steam for a period sufficient to raise the temperature of the mixture to between 140° F. and 200° F.,
thereafter removing the mixture from said atmosphere and releasing the pressure,
thereby to form a substantially dimensionally stable composite of said portland cement and fibers which can cure to full strength without deformation of the composite.
37. The method of claim 2 wherein subsequent to the step of contacting the plant fibers with dichromate ion the plant fibers are subjected to the further step of mixing the fibers with a soluble silicate present as 41° Be aqueous solution in an amount in excess of four but less than twenty-four percent by weight of the weight of the portland cement.
This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending application Ser. No. 118,503, filed Feb. 4, 1980 now abandoned.
The present invention relates generally to roofing and siding construction materials. More particularly, the present invention concerns a method of producing such construction materials from a mixture of plant fibers and portland cement.
There is an ever-increasing demand for construction materials having some or all of the following characteristics: relatively light weight, fireproof, waterproof, nailable, odorless, insulative and relatively inexpensive. In spite of the attractive properties of a dense building material consisting of plant fibers such as wood fibers bonded with portland cement, no such product has effectively been marketed. Only porous products consisting of excelsior bonded with portland cement or a magnesium oxychloride cement have seen limited use. It is difficult to bond portland cement to plant fibers because water-soluble compounds in the fibers inhibit the setting of the cement. Among these compounds are hemicelluloses, tannins, sugars and others. Heretofore, an effective agent for negating the adverse effects of these water-soluble compounds in the fibers has not been discovered.
Another problem is the effect of the motion of the fibers during the setting of the portland cement. Any springback of the fibers after being compressed or swelling and/or shrinking with absorption or desorption of water during the setting of the portland cement will fracture the tiny crystallities of cement as they slowly form. Since the strength of the cement depends on the intermeshing of these crystallites, their disruption will greatly weaken the cured product.
Heretofore efforts to control the adverse effects of these water-soluble inhibitors in a wood or other similar fiber composite material utilizing portland cement as a binder, have resulted in five different approaches:
(1) extracting the inhibitors;
(2) accelerating the rate of set of the portland cement;
(3) increasing the strength of the composite material by the addition of resins;
(4) coating the surfaces of the fiber particles with materials compatible with cement (mineralization); and
(5) changing the composition of the portland cement to obtain a material less sensitive to the inhibiting action of the water-soluble compounds.
To date, none of these approaches has been economically successful.
Among the objects and advantages of the present invention are to provide:
low cost composite building materials particularly adapted for exterior use;
composite building materials made from plant fibers bonded with portland cement having the following properties:
(1) a weight which is substantially less than that of comparable composite building materials made from a sand/cement mixture;
(2) a resistance to fire;
(3) an ability to be nailed into place;
(4) an ability to be molded into attractive shapes or sheets, and sawed with readily available tools;
(5) sufficient strength to withstand blows from hammers during construction without cracking; and
(6) resistance to the deleterious effects of sunlight, rain, freeze-thaw conditions and insects;
a process for manufacturing building materials of the aforementioned type which does not produce ecologically harmful effluents;
building materials made from a plant fiber/portland cement mixture in which the adverse cement set inhibiting effects of the water-soluble compounds in the fiber are effectively negated;
a process of manufacturing building materials from the aforementioned mixture in which the time that portions of the mixture must be held under compression is reduced to a minimum; and
a method of producing composite building materials from a mixture of plant fibers with portland cement in which a wide variety of plant fibers may be utilized.
In accordance with the present invention, composite articles of portland cement and fibrous material obtained from various plants are formed by mixing the fibers with portland cement and a water soluble silicate, the latter being present in amount by weight greater than about four percent of the weight of the portland cement and up to about twenty-four percent, and thereafter maintaining the mixture under pressure while heating the same to a temperature sufficient substantially to accelerate the setting of the mixture. This causes the mixture to set sufficiently hard to prevent springback or swelling of the fibers thus permitting the application of pressure to be terminated in a short time and the formed article or composite to be cured to final strength without further application of pressure or heat. When fibers containing large amounts of cement set inhibiting chemicals are being used the fibers preferably are treated with an aqueous solution of a dichromate or permangenate salt prior to mixing them with the portland cement and water soluble silicate. Various process modifications may be made as described in more detail hereinafter. We have discovered that dichromate or permanganate treatment of the fibrous material somehow inhibits the usual adverse effect on the setting of portland cement which has been observed with some fibrous plant material.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof and from the attached drawings.
FIG. 1 is a general schematic illustration of the overall operation of the manufacturing process; and
FIG. 2 is a graph showing the relationship between compressive strength and curing time for concrete.
FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating the effect of the addition of sodium silicate upon the strength of a portland cement-fiber mixture.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, plant fibers are mixed with a soluble silicate such as an alkali metal silicate solution (water glass) and portland cement. This mixture is placed in molds and compressed. It is then subjected to heat so as to raise the temperature of the mixture to greater than 140° F. such as by placing it in an atmosphere of live steam. This causes the mixture to set up sufficiently within a short period of time, i.e., within fifteen to sixty minutes, as to resist any tendency of the fibers to swell or springback. Thus, the pressure applied to the molded articles can be relieved and the articles permitted further to cure at ambient temperatures to final strength. The articles will have enough strength after fifteen or twenty minutes in the mold to permit trimming and sawing to be performed. Within about twenty four hours, the articles will have about eighty percent of their ultimate strength and could be shipped at that time. Longer periods in the molds will increase the out-of-mold strength.
It has been found that the alkali metal silicate should be present in concentration greater than about four percent dry weight in proportion to the amount of portland cement. Such amount, by some mechanism not understood, causes the mixture rapidly to set up when heated, thus eliminating the need to maintain a molded article under pressure a lengthy period.
When fibers containing amounts of set inhibiting compounds sufficient to interfere with the set of the cement are utilized, it has been found the deleterious effect of such compounds can be negated or diminished in large part by pretreating the plant fibers with an aqueous solution of an alkali metal or other water soluble salt of dichromate or permanganate ion. The wetted fibers are allowed to stand for a period of time sufficient to permit the dichromate or permanganate ion to react with substantially all of the cement set inhibiting compounds in or near the surface of the fibers. Thereafter, the silicate material and portland cement are added to the now treated wood fibers, with or without other useful chemicals, and the mixture is molded under pressure as described above. The residual products of the pretreatment do not harm the strength of the cement, nor does the treatment when properly controlled appear to degrade the strength of the fibers.
In the case of dichromate ion, the reaction with the fibers can be accelerated by acidifying the dichromate solution. In such a case it is necessary after fiber treatment to neutralize the remaining solution at the conclusion of the dichromate treatment period with a suitable alkaline solution or solid. It may be desirable in some instances to add a cement set accelerator along with the portland cement in order to reduce the molding time.
Prior to treating the fiber with the dichromate solution, the fiber may first be treated with a sulfite solution. This treatment enhances the strength of the composite product by a mechanism discussed subsequently.
In the case of treatment with permanganate ion, the permanganate solution is preferably on the alkaline side.
Different plant fibers have varying types and amounts of water-soluble compounds therein which can inhibit the setting of the portland cement. Some, such as hemlock, have little or none. On the other hand, western red cedar has a high percentage of such compounds, but because of the resistance of the fiber thereof to decay and insect attack, it is a useful source of fiber for the composites of the invention. Other woods such as douglas fir are less difficult to bond with portland cement but dichromate treatment does lessen the setting time of cement mixed with douglas fir fibers. The present invention may also be extended to fibers of hard woods such as oak and walnut and of other plant materials, such as, for example, straw, bagasse, sisal, and the like, which have relatively high tensile strength since it is contribution of this property of the fibrous material which is sought.
The fiber mixed with the cement can be in any of a variety of forms depending upon the nature of the fiber source, the geometry of the finished articles and the characteristics or qualities desired in such articles. The fiber can be in the form of strands or stringy material when made from grasses, bagasse, cedar bark, and like sources and a product of maximum tensile strength is desired. Wood flakes or planer shavings as used in composite resin bonded products heretofore can also be used. If a product with a smoother surface is desired, wood can be used in the form of the product produced by hammer milling wood flakes or planer shavings and passing them through screens having openings of selected maximum size which may be from 1/16 inch to 3/4 inch depending upon the qualities desired in the finished product.
We have found that the incorporation of a substantial quantity of a soluble silicate in the fiber-cement mix enables the mix to be set up rapidly, i.e. within one hour or less, by the application of heat, to the point where the set mass is dimensionally stable and has sufficient strength that it can be removed from a pressure mold and allowed to cure further under ambient atmospheric conditions. Thus the pressure mold used for the initial set is quickly available for reuse.
The soluble silicate is preferably added as water glass or potash waterglass. It can be mixed with the fibers before mixing with the portland cement or it can be added after the cement and fibers have been mixed if added as a freshly prepared gel. The silicate can also be added in the dry form if sufficient water is also added to dissolve the same.
We have found that with Douglas fir fiber, if the silicate is present as 41°Be' waterglass in amount greater than about eight percent based on the dry weight of portland cement, the fiber-portland cement mix can be set by the application of heat and pressure within fifteen to twenty minutes to a relatively dimensionally stable condition. Preferably the water glass is present in amount between eight and sixteen percent of the cement. Increase in the percentage of waterglass up to about twelve percent will further increase the dimensional stability of the product. However, still further increase in the amount of waterglass does not improve the dimensional stability of the product. Moreover, the ultimate strength of the product reaches a maximum when waterglass is present between about twelve and sixteen percent. On the other hand the out-of-the mold strength increases substantially proportionately to the amount of waterglass present. See FIG. 3.
Dichromate ion is the base agent which we have found to have the capability significantly to negate the adverse effects of the cement set inhibitors in plant fibers. However, we have found that permanganate ion also shows a capability in this respect, although to a lesser extent than dichromate ion. Because dichromate ion treatment is much to be preferred, the following detailed description will focus primarily on the use of such ion.
The dichromate ion or permanganate may be supplied in the form of alkali metal or other soluble salt. Two readily available sources of dichromate ion are potassium dichromate and sodium dichromate dihydrate. Other water-soluble metal dichromates, e.g. calcium dichromate, may also be utilized.
Dichromates are considered to be a potentially hazardous chemical. Therefore, it is desirable that water-soluble dichromate essentially be absent from the finished product. Enough dichromate ion must be present during the pretreatment of the fibrous material to ensure essentially complete reaction of the cement set inhibitors on the surface of the material with dichromate.
The manner in which the dichromate ion reacts with the water-soluble plant compounds to negate their cement set inhibiting effects is not completely understood by us. In the finished product it is possible that the chromium ends up as insoluble chromic oxide (Cr2 O3) which may be chemically bound up with the hardened cement or with the original soluble compounds in the plant fibers, or both.
It has been determined that dichromate ion must be present in the aqueous pretreating mixture in an amount ranging from approximately 0.5% to approximately 8% of the oven dry weight of the fibrous material. The precise amount of dichromate necessary will depend upon the fibrous material since they vary widely in the types and amounts of water soluble compounds which inhibit the setting of portland cement. The amount of dichromate ion added is that amount which is just sufficient to react with the inhibitors present at or near the surface of the fibrous material being treated, as determined by experimentation.
In the fiber particles, particularly of wood, absorb water during the initial stages of the set of the concrete, the subsequent swelling or other shifting or curling of the particles will disturb the growth of the cement crystallites and seriously weaken the final strength of the composite product. Therefore, it is important that this water absorption be completed by saturating the fibers before the onset of the cure of the cement. This saturation is preferably accomplished during the treatment of the fibers with the dichromate by mixing the fibers with an aqueous solution of the dichromate salt having more water present than is required to saturate the fibers.
The water required for the hydration of the cement can be computed as being about 25% of the cement present. Sources of water to meet this requirement--as in the case of the saturation of the fibers--can be water available from the solutions of the chemicals and from free water if necessary. From many experiments with various wood fibers, we have determined that the total water necessary is the amount required to saturate the wood fiber plus 25% of the weight of the portland cement present. Wood will absorb moisture to about 30% of its wet weight. Thus, the amount to saturate wood fibers is equal to ##EQU1## For composites of acceptable strengths, the weights of the composites after air drying were plus or minus about 10-15% of the empirical values calculated as described.
In practice, additional water in the amount of an excess of 20-40% of the theoretical water were added to facilitate the chemical treatments of the fibers and to improve the mixing and molding characteristics of the composite.
The length of time necessary for the appropriate action of the dichromate on the fibers depends on a number of factors such as the concentration of the solution of the dichromate being used, the reaction temperature, the structure of the fibers, the various chemical substances naturally present in the fibers and their amounts, the acidity of the aqueous phase and the possible presence of a surface active (surfactant ) material. However, the actual time of treatment can only be determined experimentally.
It will be recalled that it is an object of the invention that the time required for the composite to be held under pressure in the mold be as short as possible, to increase the production rate of composite products and lower the manufacturing costs by efficient use of press and molds. Only enough press time should be allowed that the composite product, when released from the mold, will retain its structural stability during the final set of the portland cement.
It has been found that acceptable production rates can be realized with mold retention times from 30 to 90 minutes, although using waterglass in the quantities hereinbefore mentioned enables the mold retention time to be reduced to as short as fifteen minutes. In order to accomplish this production rate, the quantity of the cement set inhibitors, if present in the fiber in substantial amount, must be reduced so that they will not escape from the fibers and act on the cement even at the elevated temperatures used during the molding cycle.
The necessary period for the dichromate ion to react with the cement-set inhibitors so as to attain such production rate will vary as indicated above. With some fibers such as hemlock, little or no reaction time is required. With douglas fir which is recently cut, a few minutes at room temperature may suffice. With more difficult fibers such as western red cedar, 10 or 15 minutes at the temperature of boiling water may be required. It is desirable that in carrying out these reactions the concentration of dichromate be limited to provide the amount needed, the acidity level be adjusted to provide sufficient speed of the reaction, and the lowest effective temperature used. The levels of these operating parameters must be determined experimentally with the fiber species to be used. Departure from the peferred conditions may cause loss of strength in the cured composite product because of degradation of the fibers as well as poor cure of the cement.
Depending on the fiber, sodium dichromate dihydrate in the amount of 0.5-8% of the fiber (dry weight) being treated is adequate to react with the cement set inhibitors.
During the dichromate treatment, surfactants should be avoided. They ct to accelerate the release of the cement set inhibitors, thus disturbing the desired chemical condition at the interface between the fibers and the portland cement. In fact, if a surfactant is present at this point, the final product strength can be seriously impaired.
It should be understood that separate treatment of the wood with dichromate prior to the addition of the portland cement is not absolutely necessary. The dichromate could be added to an already prepared moist wood fibers/portland cement mixture. However, the strength of the final product is better if the fibers are pretreated with dichromate before the addition of the cement. The last mentioned technique ensures that the set inhibitors are substantially negated before the cement contacts the fiber.
A wide variety of acidifiers may be utilized. It has been found that aluminum sulfate provides a good level of acidity, somewhat buffered by the hydrolytic capacity of the aluminum ion. On the other hand, unbuffered sulfuric acid is harmful. Aluminum chloride may also be used but it is desirable not to have the corrosive chloride ion present. Other acidic salts may also be useful but have not yet been tried.
Usually, aluminum sulfate to the extent of 0.5 to 6% of the fiber weight is adequate.
The use of sulfurous acid has been shown to be beneficial in our process for bonding wood fibers to portland cement, although the mechanism is not understood. If the wood such as fir is first treated with a dilute, weakly acid solution of sodium sulfite followed by the addition of dichromate and then waterglass and cement, a substantially increased strength of the composite is obtained. Moreover, any excess of dichromate over that normally required for the reaction with the fibers is reduced and thus removed. The weakly acid system can be achieved by mixing a solution of sodium sulfite with a solution of alum, using a solution of sodium bisulfite, or using a solution of sodium thiosulfate (hyposulfite). Strongly acidic solutions must be avoided to prevent damage to the cellulose fibers.
After the completion of the dichromate treatment, the solution remaining on the fibers is a weakly acidic solution of chromium sulfate and aluminum sulfate, or chromium chloride and aluminum chloride, etc., depending on the acidic system used. In order to provide a neutral condition more favorable to the setting of the portland cement, this acidity of the fibers should be neutralized by the controlled addition of an alkaline substance to bring the pH to 7.0 or above. Aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and the like may be used. Solids such as lime (calcium oxide) may also be used but their performances will be less satisfactory because of the necessity of their first dissolving in the moisture present. For example, slaked lime is only sparingly soluble and thus the neutralization reaction progresses slowly.
The substance preferred is sodium silicate. Even in small amounts it has the advantage of precipitating calcium, aluminum and chromium silicates which might act as cements, mineralize the fiber surfaces, and impart a degree of waterproofness to the composite product. The mineralization technique is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,828 issued to Dove. If waterglass solution is utilized instead of a solid alkaline substance, the water in the solution must be taken into account when establishing the appropriate portions to yield the desired water/cement ratio.
The solution of sodium silicate preferably used is a 2:1 dilution of 41° Be sodium silicate in water. For neutralization of a 20% aluminum sulfate acidifying solution, a ratio of at least twice the volume of sodium silicate solution for each volume of aluminum sulfate solution is preferred. Again, the proper water balance must be observed and higher or lower concentrations of the sodium silicate may be used as the case may require. In particular, higher concentrations may be utilized to obtain a rapid set at elevated temperatures as hereinbefore described.
Type III portland cement is preferred because of its high early strength characteristic. Type I-II portland cement may also be used, however. The cement is mixed with the moist fibers after the completion of the dichromate reaction, if such is carried out, and preferably after addition of the alkalizing agent and adjustment of the pH level thereof to a more or less neutral state. Other more rapidly setting cements such as REGULATED SET (trademark) may also be utilized in order to minimize the deleterious effects of the cement set inhibitors in the fibers. However, they are much more expensive than portland cement and may have other detracting properties.
The ratio of portland cement to fibers has a strong relationship to the ultimate strength characteristics of the finished product. The cement/fiber ratios may be vaired considerably, producing products having somewhat differing characteristics. In general, the more dense the finished composite material (achieved by greater compression), the better is its weather proofness and strength when the fiber to cement ratio is constant. On the other hand, for strength only, there is an optimum ratio of fiber to cement depending upon the type of fiber used. In the case of wood fiber ratios ranging from approximately 0.5:1 to approximately 4:1, of portland cement to oven dry wood fiber, according to weight, will produce composite materials of acceptable strength and weathering properties. Strength appears to peak at cement/wood fibers ratio of approximately 1.3:1 to approximately 1.7:1. Size and shape of the particles are also important. Generally, acicular particles or flat blades are superior to short, stubby particles.
At the higher end of the preferred range mentioned above, e.g. portland cement to fiber ratios of approximately 2.75 or so, higher densities above 75 pounds per cubic foot will be obtained, especially at pressures in the press over 150 psi. At ratios of 1.3 to 1.5:1 and pressures of 500 psi, products having densities of 65-75 pounds per cubic foot are readily prepared.
Depending on the fibers being used and cement setting rates desired, it may be desired to add a set accelerating agent to the mixture. One well known suitable accelerating agent is calcium chloride. It increases the speed of the initial set of the portland cement but does not materially affect the final strength thereof. Thus in a few hours, concrete containing a small amount of calcium chloride will show higher compressive strength than concrete containing no calcium chloride, but the two samples will have the same strength after twenty-eight days of curing. Other salts such as sodium sulfate or sodium chloride may also be employed.
A number of important advantages are obtained through the addition of a suitable accelerating agent. Such a substance will speed the curing of cement at the interface between the wood fibers and the cement so as to partially offset the retarding effects of the inhibitors in the wood fibers. However, depending on the fiber compositions being used, the mere addition of calcium chloride to the aqueous wood fibers/portland cement mixture, without pre-treatment with dichromate, can result in composite materials of markedly less strength than if dichromate is used.
It is important that the calcium chloride, if used, be added immediately prior to the addition of the cement. This promotes the concentration of the accelerator at the interface between the fiber and the cement.
Triethanolamine (hereinafter referred to as TEA) has been reported to be useful as an accelerator for the cure of portland cement when used in small quantities. We found it to be effective for our system but care must be taken to keep the amount small and to add it after the addition of the cement. The substance acts at least to some extent as a surfactant and if added before the cement, it apparently causes the release of additional and harmful quantities of the compounds which retard the set of portland cement.
The advantage of using TEA rather than calcium chloride as an accelerator is that TEA is far less corrosive than the calcium chloride and therefore much more useful when metals--such as nails, reinforcing rods, etc.--are to be in contact with the product.
Advantage may also be taken of the process by which the portland cement sets. FIG. 2 depicts a graph showing the relationship between compressive strength and curing time for a typical concrete mixture. Point A on the curve of FIG. 2 is arbitrarily selected for illustrative purposes as the point at which the concrete mixture must be placed in the mold. Placement before this point would waste mold time, and placement after this point would reduce final strength of the product as crystal formations would have advanced beyond the point where they could be disturbed without serious damage. Point B in FIG. 2 is arbitrarily selected for illustrative purposes as the point at which the curing of the concrete has advanced sufficiently to ensure dimensional stability upon removal of the product from the molds. Thus, the curing cycle of the concrete is divided into three phases:
Phase I: The induction of pre-curing phase between mixing and point A;
Phase II: The molding phase between point A and point B when the product is in the mold;
Phase III: The curing phase after the product has been removed from the mold.
In the actual manufacturing operation, it may be desirable to permit the final mixture to pre-cure a predetermined time before placing it in the molds. This will reduce the amount of time that the mixture must remain under compression in molds. This is important from an economic viewpoint because stack press machines (hereafter described) which are effective to form products from the present mixture are expensive. By minimizing the molding time a given stack press can be utilized more efficiently to produce a maximum amount of product.
It should be emphasized that points A and B on the curve of FIG. 2 are arbitrarily selected for illustrative purposes and must be accurately determined by experimentation for a given fibers/portland cement system depending upon its composition. When higher concentrations of silicates, i.e., greater than four percent of the cement, are used, the mixed products can be put in molds immediately after mixing and placed in the press. The accelerated curing rate permits the precure step to be bypassed. The method of the present invention is keyed or coordinated with the curing cycle of the particular concrete mixture (the fibers/portland cement mixture) in order to reduce molding time and thereby achieve a continuous production of a large quantity of product with a minimum amount of capital investment for equipment.
A composite product with superior strength and surface texture can be formed from a fibers/portland cement mixture by molding the same under compression at an elevated temperature. A molding pressure of between approximately 150 psi and approximately 600 psi at a molding temperature of between approximately 120° F. and approximately 220° F. will produce useful products. If soluble silicate is present in amounts less than equivalent to about eight percent 41° Be' waterglass, a molding time of one hour or more will be required. However, if the silicate is increased to the equivalent of twelve to sixteen percent waterglass, the molding time can be reduced to as short as fifteen minutes for a five-eights inch thick product. Satisfactory products can be obtained by molding at ambient temperatures, but the molding time must be extended substantially. The optimum molding pressure and temperature must be determined experimentally and will depend upon primarily the composition of the fibers, the type of portland cement used, and the presence of an accelerator. A molding pressure of approximately 400 psi to approximately 500 psi and a molding temperature of approximately 150°-170° F. have been found to produce good results for the wood fibers/cement mixtures experimentally tested by us. It is preferable that such a mixture be maintained at a temperature of approximately 150°-190° F. throughout the molding operation. In order to accomplish this, a live steam atmosphere may be utilized as later explained. A humidified atmosphere during molding is helpful depending on the design of the molds since it prevents undue loss of moisture which might otherwise occur at the elevated molding temperatures. Excessive moisture loss weakens the finished product.
A number of experiments were performed in order to confirm the advantageous effects of soluble silicates and dichromate ion or permanganate ion in a wood fibers/portland cement composite. Standardized procedures were used so that comparisons between many different samples were prepared from a variety of woods and cement would be meaningful. Mixing was done by hand to the extent that a reasonably homogeneous mix was obtained. Usually a mixing time of not less than two minutes was required. All samples were molded in wooden or steel molds having internal dimensions of 6" by 4" by 5/8". The time that the mixture was allowed to stand in the molds was varied depending upon the type of cement, temperature, accelerator concentration and the like. With REGULATED SET cement, the molding time was approximately 30 minutes at a temperature of approximately 180° to 212° F. With type III portland cement, the molding time was one hour unless stated otherwise.
After the samples were removed from the molds, some were tested immediately and some were allowed to stand for 14 days from the time of initial mixing before being tested for modulus of rupture (MOR). During this 14 day period, the samples were kept at 60° to 80° F. The samples were kept in a humid atmosphere after molding for a few days to prevent water loss. MOR measurements were made using a Dillon tester. The samples measured approximately 4 inches wide by 5/8 inch thick and the span used for the test was 4 inches.
The desirable effects of pre-treating western red cedar fibers with dichromate ion are shown in Table I. A sample of crushed shavings of western red cedar, generally about 3/4" by 1/4" by 0.02-04", together with water, alum and sodium dichromate, was heated for half an hour in boiling water in a closed glass container. A duplicate sample of western red cedar without dichromate was similarly heated. Calcium chloride was added to both samples to accelerate setting of the portland cement. The dichromate solution used was 10% weight/weight and the calcium chloride solution was 33% weight/weight. After the heat treatment, the material was treated with waterglass and cooled and the Type III portland cement was added in the amount indicated. After thoroughly mixing the cement with the treated fibers, the mixture was placed in molds and pressed to produce test specimens approximately 4" by 6" by 5/8" thick. The final pressure was between about 270 psi and 300psi. After a period of one hour, the molds were opened and the samples allowed to stand open to air at ambient conditions for 14 days for further curing of the cement. They were tested for their moduli of rupture using a Dillon tester as described above. The sample made with sodium dichromate had far superior strength.
Although douglas fir is far less difficult than cedar to bond with Type III portland cement, such a composite can be improved substantially in strength with the dichromate treatment especially if the fir is freshly cut. Such treatment is very important for fast, high temperature molding. Fir planer shavings less than a month old hammermilled with a 3/16" screen were used to make test samples with results shown in Table II. In all cases the samples were pressed for one hour at about 400 psi at 200°-212° F., and then tested two weeks later.
Similar improvements can be obtained with the fast setting REGULATED SET cement. The strength of these composites, however, were not quite as high in the case of cedar fiber as with Type III cement, but were very good in the case of hammermilled douglas fir fibers. These results are shown in Table III. Hammermilled planer shavings of wood, either cedar tow or douglas fir; about 1" or less in length and about 1/8" or less in width were used. The shavings were added to 10% w/w potassium dichromate solution, along with water, 20 grams of slaked lime, and 120 grams of REGULATED SET cement. The mixed portions were compressed in steel molds at approximately 500 psi. The compressed composites were then removed from the molds and allowed to cure in ambient conditions for 14 days prior to testing.
Since REGULATED SET has a very rapid rate of set, it is necessary to add a controlling chemical. Slaked lime appears to be slightly better than plaster paris for this purpose in these samples. Samples 8-10-4 and 8-10-5 were cured for 30 minutes in a steel mold in steam at atmospheric pressure. The others were cured at room temperature overnight.
In Table IV, the effect of varying the ratio of cedar tow (hammermilled with 1/4" screen) to Type III portland cement is shown. The cedar fibers, which had a moisture content of 10.8%, were first treated with 4% of their weight of sodium dichromate dihydrate in water. Calcium chloride in proportion of 5% of the cement presented was also added. Sample 10-8-1 was held under 300 psi for 12 hours, the other pressed at 600 psi for the same period. All were cured for 14 days prior to strength testing. As shown in the table, effective strengths can be obtained over a relatively wide range of cement/fiber ratios but they appear to peak around 1.6:1 in these cases.
A further example of the method of the present invention is set out hereafter:
______________________________________Sample Composition (Sample 2-159-4)Cedar tow, hammermilled with 1/4" 141 g.screen moisture content 30.5%Alum solution (20% w/w) 18 ml.Sodium dichromate dihydrate 39 ml.solution (10% w/w)Waterglass solution (1 part 39 ml.40° Be/2 parts water)Calcium chloride solution (33% w/w) 6.5 ml.Type III portland cement 108 g.Procedure1. The dichromate and alum solutions were mixed, then added to the cedar fiber, mixed thoroughly therewith and let stand for 30 minutes at 100° F.2. Next the waterglass solution was added.3. Next the calcium chloride solution was added.4. Finally the portland cement was added.5. The mixture was pressed in steel molds of in- ternal dimensions of 6" by 4" by 5/8" (pressure to close the mold was 460 psi).6. The mold was maintained in a closed container over boiling water vented to atmospheric pressure for 60 minutes.7. The sample was then removed from the mold and allowed to cure at ambient room conditions for 14 days.______________________________________
The final product had a density of 68 pounds per cubic foot and MOR of 1448 psi.
In Table V the effects of adding sulfite to various samples of hammermilled fir planer shavings are shown. In one case (7-199-1) sodium sulfate, which is the oxidation product of sodium sulfite, was added to see if this compound was the cause of the significant increase in strength resulting from sulfite addition. The tests showed the product with sodium sulfate had less strength than the same product using sodium sulfite, but either additive caused an increase in strength over the control, Sample No. 8-229-4, see Table V.
The effect of quantity of the triethanolamine (TEA) on the strength of the composite is shown in Table VI. The need for carefully maintaining a low concentration of the TEA is evident.
Still another example of the present invention is set out hereafter.
______________________________________Sample Composition (Sample 8-289-1)Fir hammermilled planer shavings, 90 g. (OD)1/4" screen, moisture content = 26.4%Sodium thiosulfate trihydrate 5 g.Alum solution 20% w/w aluminum sulfate 20 ml.Water 10 ml.Sodium dichromate dihydrate solution 15 ml.Waterglass solution, 2:1 water:41° Be' 30 ml.sodium silicateType III portland cement 135 g.Triethanolamine solution 1% w/w 14 ml.Procedure1. The alum and sodium thiosulfate solution weremixed and immediately thereafter mixed with the fir.2. Allowed to stand 5 minutes at room temperaturewith frequent stirring.3. The dichromate solution added and the mixtureheated 15 minutes in steam bath.4. Thereafter cooled waterglass mixed in, then theType III cement.5. The solution of triethanolamine quickly addedand mixed.6. Pressed into a steel mold having a cavity ofapproximately 4" by 6" by 5/8", using a pressureof 500 psi to bring the thickness just to 5/8".7. Placed in a humid atmosphere at a temperature of150 to 170° F. and held there under pressure forone hour.8. The sample was removed from the mold and lightlysprayed with about 3 ml. of water to assure amoist condition, then stored in a water vaportight container for 2 days at 90-100° F.9. Thereafter it was removed from the containerand allowed to stand under ambient room condi-tions for 14 days to complete the cement cure.______________________________________
The final product had a density of 72 pounds per cubic foot and a MOR of 1536 psi.
The beneficial effect of potassium permanganate treatment was shown in other tests set forth in Table VII. In these tests oven dried cedar shavings hammermilled with a 3/16" screen were used in the tests, all weights are in grams.
A series of tests were carried out to test the relative effect of using higher concentrations of waterglass with Douglas fir fiber treated with sodium dichromate where the initial press was carried out at high temperatures. The results are shown in Table VIII. In these samples the fiber was prepared by hammermilling with an 1/8 inch screen Douglas fir planer shavings. The waterglass where added was added after treatment of the fibers with sodium dichromate and before the addition of cement. In all instances 3 parts of cement were used for each part of fiber. Sodium dichromate and waterglass (as 41° Be') and hydrochloric acid are expressed as parts by weight. The samples were pressed at 500 p.s.i. and held in a steam atmosphere for twenty-four minutes. They were tested fifteen minutes after removal from the mold.
The effect of the order of addition of cement and waterglass was tested. As shown in Table IX no significant difference in result occurs. In one procedure (Tests 12-10-1) hydrochloric acid and waterglass were mixed. The resulting gel was mixed with Douglas fir derived fiber. Finally Portland cement was mixed in.
In other samples (Tests 11-60-6 and 11-60-6A) Douglas fir fiber was wetted with water, Portland Cement then mixed with the fiber, and finally a mix of waterglass and hydrochloric acid added.
In still other samples (Tests 11-60-5 and 11-60-5A) Douglas fir fiber was wetted with hydrochloric acid. Waterglass was then mixed with the fiber and finally Portland cement added.
In all instances 3 parts of Type III Portland cement, 0.36 parts of 41° Be' waterglass, 0.36 parts 2.5 N hydrochloric acid, and approximately 1.32 parts water were used for each part of fiber.
After mixing the samples were placed under an initial 500 p.s.i. pressure and heated in steam for 24 minutes. Samples retained for a two week test were placed in plastic bags and held at room temperature.
Another series of tests were conducted with Douglas fir fiber to determine the effect of different amounts of waterglass. The fiber was prepared by hammermilling planer shavings using an 1/8 inch screen. Parts will be given by weight. One part of fiber (oven dry basis) previously washed with boiling water was mixed with 2.5 N hydrochloric acid and then a dilute solution of 41° Be' waterglass. Thereafter 3 parts of Type III cement was mixed in, samples were placed in molds and pressed to an initial 500 p.s.i. and placed for twenty minutes in an atmosphere of live steam. Fifteen minutes after removal from the steam some samples were tested. Others were placed in plastic bags and tested after two weeks at room temperature. These tests, as shown in Table X, demonstrated increasing amounts of sodium silicate gave increasing out-of-the-mold strength, but that the two week strength peaked at about sixteen percent waterglass.
Tests were carried out to determine if calcium chloride, a known set accelerator, could give the same beneficial effects as does the addition of waterglass. In one sample (10-30-2), one part of water washed fir was mixed with three parts of Type III cement, 0.06 parts calcium chloride, and one and one-half parts of water. In another sample (10-30-3), the calcium chloride was omitted and 0.36 parts of hydrochloric acid, then 0.36 parts of sodium silicate were substituted. Both samples were pressed to an initial pressure of 500 p.s.i. and subjected to an atmosphere of steam for twenty minutes, and then removed from the mold. When tested one hour later, sample 10-30-2 with the calcium chloride had an MOR of 21. Sample 10-30-2 had an MOR of 334.
As shown in Table XI, sodium silicate when used in combination with sodium dichromate treatment of western red cedar fibers, enhances the out-of-mold strength substantially. In these tests, western red cedar hammermilled planer shavings, 1/8 inch screen, were treated with sodium dichromate. Acidified sodium dichromate solutions (by addition varying amounts of sodium dichromate to 2.5 N hydrochloric acid) were added to the cedar. Then, after reaction was essentially complete, an aqueous solution of 41° Be' waterglass was added. Finally, Type III cement was added. The samples were pressed at 500 p.s.i. initial pressure and held for 24 minutes in atmospheric steam. solution of 41° Be' waterglass was added. Finally, Type III cement was added. The samples were pressed at 500 p.s.i. initial pressure and held for 24 minutes in atmospheric steam.
In summary, in accordance with our rapid set process the cement/fiber/high ratio silicate mixture is set under high temperature (preferably 175°-180° F.) and high pressure. This temperature should be reached within twenty minutes or less. This enables the product to gain sufficient strength to be removed from the mold and processed. Moreover, the product will continue a rapid rate of cure and will attain within twenty four hours eighty percent of its ultimate strength. High strength of product can only be obtained, however, when substantial amounts of silicate are utilized. For example, twelve percent waterglass is necessary with Type III portland cement to obtain maximum fourteen day strength with untreated Douglas fir fiber.
The following discussion taken in conjunction with FIG. 1 will provide an understanding of the overall operation of a suitable manufacturing process of the present invention. This example describes the procedure for making roofing shingles approximately sixteen inches long, of various widths, and having a shape and thickness similar to shingles typically sawn from cedar wood. Modifications in the various equipment and other details described which may be necessary to produce other composite building materials such as siding will occur to persons skilled in the art.
The wood fibers (douglas fir, western red cedar, or pine, etc.) are mechanically prepared in a conventional manner. Plane shavings or flaked shavings may be utilized. These shavings can be reduced in size by running them through a hammermill or through a disk refiner. For shingles, wood particles produced by hammermilling and passing a 1/8" screen are preferably used. However, a wide variation in particle sizes may be used according to the present invention depending upon the desired characteristics of the end product.
After a pre-curing period, if such is utilized, the mixture is agitated in a suitable mixer and delivered to a dispensing hopper 10 (FIG. 1). Wood fiber/portland cement mixture delivered from the dispensing hopper is formed into a product mat 12 of proper size and weight on a horizontal conveyor 14. Generally the mat is wide enough to form several shingles thereacross. The mat is relatively thick, and uncompressed at this point. The conveyor 14 transports the uncompressed mat 12 onto a second conveyor 16 which carries the mat under a compression roll 18. The blanket is compressed to a predetermined thickness by the roll 18 to provide mat integrity for subsequent operations. For example the compression at this point may reduce the mat 12 to approximately fifty percent of its original thickness.
The conveyor 16 then moves the compressed mat 12 under a reciprocating knife 20 which cuts the mat into discrete portions 12' which are long enough so that the finished shingles will be approximately 16 inches in length when completely cured. The portions 12' of the mat are carried by the second conveyor 16 to a caul plate applicator 22 where a bottom caul plate 24 is placed underneath each portion 12' of the mat, and a top caul plate 26 is placed on top of each portion. The caul plates 24 and 26 may be of aluminum or other metal, such as iron or steel, and are large enough to enclose the portion 12'. The caul plates are embossed to give the product its desired shape and prevent the mat portions 12' from sticking to the platens of the later described stack press. In addition, the caul plates serve as carriers by which the portions of the mat are carried through the multiple stations of the equipment to be formed into shingles.
Preferably a suitable caul plate release agent, such as zinc stearate or Teflon coating, is used to prevent the mat portions 12' from sticking to the caul plates. The caul plates present a smooth base to the mat portions 12' and this insures a flat, smooth surface on the cured shingles. The caul plates are configured to form several shingles across a mat portion which is later sawed apart.
The now sandwiched mat portions 12' are deposited upon a conventional stack press loader 28. It may comprise a platform portion 30 upon which each of the sandwiched mat portions 12' is sequentially positioned. A hydraulically operated plunger 32 raises or lowers the sandwiched mat portions to the bottom of a multiple opening vertical stack press 34. The construction of the stack press will not be described since it does not comprise part of the present invention. Typical stack press designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,126,578; 3,478,137; 3,542,629; and 4,148,857.
The pairs of caul plates 24 and 26, each loaded with a mat portion 12' sandwiched therebetween are conveyed sequentially into the entrance position at the bottom of the stack press. The stack press 34 in general comprises a series of vertically spaced pairs of heated platens. The loaded pairs of caul plates are received in the openings defined between the pairs of platens. After each of the openings has received a loaded pair of caul plates, the press is then operated so as to apply heat and pressure uniformly to the just inserted mat portion 12'. Preferably the press is heated internally so that the heat from the platens will insure that the mat portions will be heated to and maintained at a temperature of approximately 200° F. while they are in position throughout the stack press. The product is preferably enveloped in an atmosphere of live steam at a temperature of approximately 200° F. while in the press.
As each mat portion 12' sandwiched between upper and lower caul plates 26 and 24 is received in the entrance opening at the bottom of the stack press 34 it is pressed to suitable stops, preferably at a pressure of about 150 to 500 psi. Preferably the volume of the mat portions is reduced during the initial compression to below that required for the final product. Thereafter the portions are allowed to expand slightly to establish their final product volume. This permits the final product volume to be maintained with considerably less pressure than required to effect the initial product volume in the first place. The pressure required after the initial compression can be supplied by the weight of the loaded caul plates stacked above a given mat portion. The portions are maintained under pressure for a predetermined time interval which is sufficient to insure that their dimensional integrity will be preserved upon release from the stack press. Again, this time interval is determined experimentally depending upon the composition of the wood fiber/portland cement/dichromate/waterglass mixture. As previously indicated, however, by coordinating the steps of the mechanical process precisely with the curing curve, the total molding time can be reduced to two hours or less.
The stack press 34 is preferably one constructed so that the loaded caul plates are released at the top of the stack press and are removed one at a time as a unit without releasing pressure on the entire stack. When removed from the top of the stack press the loaded caul plates are received by a conventional stack press unloader 36 which may have a construction similar to the stack press loader 28. The loaded caul plates are lowered by the unloader 36 to the work floor level where the compressed shingles are removed from the caul plates by suitable means such as a vacuum lift.
The shingles are then passed through suitable saws to trim their edges. Normally since the mat portions 12' are each compressed into a plurality of shingles the now compressed mat portions must be cut into individual pieces. The individual shingles may now undergo further fabrication which may include waterproofing through use of stearates and other similar materials. The caul plates pass by another conveyor (not shown) through a cleaning station and to a station where caul plate release agent is again applied. Thereafter the caul plates are recycled to form additional shingles. The shingles may be secured together in bundles so that after sufficient curing at ambient conditions (60° to 80° F.), they may be shipped.
A modification of the above arrangement is preferably utilized. In this arrangement a series of molds may be carried beneath a dispensing hopper and filled with the material to be pressed similarly to the procedure described above. After compression and trimming of the excess material from the molds, they can be passed over a scale to ascertain that each is loaded with a sufficient amount of material. Thereafter, the plurality of the molds are stacked in a group of a desired number which may be, for example, twenty-four molds. These are pressed together in a conventional hydraulic press and stress rods applied to maintain the stack in its compressed condition. This stack is then passed through a heating tunnel in which a steam atmosphere is maintained so as to heat the molds and, more particularly, the portland cement-fiber mixture to the desired setting temperature. After a proper time within the oven, the stacks are discharged and disassembled and the molded products removed from the molds which can then be recycled for further processing. The molded products are trimmed and subjected to such further fabrication as may be desired.
Having described preferred embodiments of the composition of matter, improved building materials, and method of producing the same, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention permits of modification in both arrangement and detail. However, the present invention should be limited only in accordance with the scope of the following claims.
TABLE I__________________________________________________________________________ Sodium Water- Calcium Water Cement Product Wood Dichro- glass Chlor- (all Type Den- OD MC Alum mate g. ide sources) III sity MORSample g. % g. g. 41° Be' g. g. g. lb/ft3 psi__________________________________________________________________________2-169-1 97 9.6 3.6 None 12.7 5.5 107 109 55 4972-169-2 97 9.6 3.6 4.3 12.7 5.5 107 109 62 1157__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE II__________________________________________________________________________Beneficial Temperatures Hammer- Sodium Water- Calcium Water Cement Product Fir mill Dichro- glass Chlor- all Type Den- OD Screen MC Alum mate g. ide sources III sity MORSample g. Size % g. g. 41° Be' g. g. g. lb/ft3 psi__________________________________________________________________________3-189-1 95 3/16" 23.2 2.8 None 9.8 3.8 103 104 58 2683-189-2 95 3/16" 23.2 2.8 3.4 9.8 3.8 101 104 63 11064-279-2 70 3/16" 18.6 2.9 2.4 10 5.0 80 162 74 10804-279-3 70 3/16" 18.6 2.9 None 10 5.0 82 162 62 386__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE III__________________________________________________________________________ Cedar Tow Fir 10% (grams (grams Potassium Water REGULATED oven dry oven dry Dichromate (grams, all SET MORSample basis) basis) (grams) sources) (grams) (PSI)__________________________________________________________________________7-11-2 -- 75 3.6 100 120.sub.(a) 13287-11-4 -- 75 -- 100 120.sub.(a) 7867-29-3 54 -- -- 90 120.sub.(b) 1577-29-4 54 -- 3.6 100 120.sub.(b) 7448-22-1 -- 75 3.6 100 120.sub.(b) 14188-10-4 -- 73 -- 100 120.sub.(c) 8008-10-5 -- 73 3.0 100 120.sub.(c) 1018__________________________________________________________________________ .sub.(a) 20 g. lime added to control set .sub.(b) 5.4 g. plaster paris added to control set .sub.(c) mixture of 10 g. lime and 10 g. plaster paris added to control set
TABLE IV__________________________________________________________________________ Cedar Cement Tow Sodium Calcium Water Type Ratio Density (grams) Dichromate Chloride (grams, all III Cement/ (lb./ MORSample (a) (grams) (grams) sources) (grams) OD Cedar cu. ft.) (PSI)__________________________________________________________________________10-8-1 62 2.3 6.0 100 120 1.9 63 94210-8-2 68 2.6 5.7 99 114 1.7 62 124010-8-3 73 2.7 5.4 98 109 1.5 60 120910-8-4 78 2.9 5.2 94 104 1.3 55 1021__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE V__________________________________________________________________________ EFFECT OF SULFITE TREATMENT OF FIBERS ON STRENGTH OF PRODUCT 20% Sodium 20% Sodium Sodium 2:1 40° Be' Type III MoldSample Fiber Sulfite Alum Dichromate Water Sulfate Waterglass Cement PressureNo. (grams) (grams) (ml.) (ml.) (ml.) (grams) (ml.) (grams) (psi) MOR__________________________________________________________________________8-229-480.sub.(b) -- 20 20 14 -- 40 135 500 12098-229-580.sub.(b) 4.7 20 20 14 -- 40 135 500 15207-199-1 100.sub.(a) -- 20 15 30 7.5 40 130 500 13997-199-2 100.sub.(a) 4.0 20 15 30 -- 40 130 500 15898-39-4 100.sub.(c) 4.0 20 15 45 -- 40 130 500 1802__________________________________________________________________________ .sub.(b) Fir hammermilled planer shavings 3/8" screen, moisture = 26.4% .sub.(a) Fir hammermilled planer shavings 1/8" screen, moisture = 10.4% .sub.(c) Fir hammermilled planer shavings 3/8" screen, moisture = 11.6%
TABLE VI______________________________________Sample Triethanolamine(a) (% of cement present) MOR______________________________________8-309-1 0.10 15828-309-2 0.25 12878-309-3 0.40 10878-309-4 -- 1271______________________________________ (a) All samples consisted of 90 g. fir hammermilled planer shavings 1/4" screen, mixture content = 26.4%, 20 ml. of 20% w/w alum, 15 ml. of 20% w/ sodium dichromate, 10 ml. water, 20 ml. of 2:1 diln. of 41° Be', waterglass, and 135 g. Type III cement. Measured amounts of triethanolamine were added in a total of 14 ml. of water in each case.
TABLE VII__________________________________________________________________________ Cement Water- Calcium Type ClosingSample Cedar Alum KMn O4 glass Chloride Water III Pressure DensityNo. g. g. g. g. g. g. g. (psi) lb/ft2 MOR__________________________________________________________________________4-149-1 85 6.2 3 20 3 96 114 330 61 5994-149-2 85 6.2 -- 20 3 96 114 350 58 292__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE VIII__________________________________________________________________________ Water Fiber Sodium 41° Be' All Sources Cement MOR (OD) 2.5 N HCl Dichromate Waterglass Except Waterglass Type III 15 min.Sample No. g. ml. g. g. ml. g. Out of Mold__________________________________________________________________________11-250-2 50 18 0 18 67 150 12811-250-2A 50 18 0 18 67 150 12511-250-5 50 18 0 18 67 150 14011-250-3 50 18 1.6 18 67 150 15811-250-3A 50 18 1.6 18 67 150 14511-250-4 50 18 1.6 18 67 150 161__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE IX______________________________________Effect of Order of Addition of Silicate MORSample After 15 min. After 2 weeks______________________________________11-60-5 15611-60-5A 156312-10-1 17211-60-6 17811-60-6A 1404______________________________________
TABLE X______________________________________41° Be'Sodium Average sample MORSilicate-% thickness-in. 15 by wt. of Out At Min. After portland of break out of 14Sample cement mold time Change mold days______________________________________10-150-5 0 0.586 0.611 +0.025 20 53210-150-6 4 0.563 0.576 +0.013 23 87810-150-7 8 0.554 0.558 +0.004 62 126210-150-8 16 0.557 0.562 +0.005 213 149010-150-9 24 0.582 0.582 0 284 1407______________________________________Parts by weight Ingredient______________________________________0.33 Fir, hammermilled planer shavings, 1/8 in screen; washed with boiling water; OD basis0-0.18 2.5 N Hydrochloric acid0-0.18 41° Be' waterglass1.0 Portland cement0.5 Water from all sources______________________________________
TABLE XI__________________________________________________________________________Effect of sodium silicate concentration on theinitial strength of composites containing western red cedar__________________________________________________________________________ Sodium Sil-Sodium Di- icate aschromate 41° Be' Water- Thickness MOR% of OD glass % of Out of After AfterSampleCedar Cement Mold 15 min. Change 15 min.__________________________________________________________________________11-200-13 0 0.644 0.668 +0.024 2011-200-23 7.4 0.621 0.624 +0.003 17411-200-33 16 0.652 0.655 +0.003 29311-200-43 23 0.662 0.664 +0.002 24111-200-50 7.4 0.625 0.636 +0.011 30__________________________________________________________________________Initial Set Condition: 24 min. in atmospheric stem, mold pressure 500p.s.i.Sample Compositions: Parts by weight Ingredient__________________________________________________________________________ 1 Western red cedar hammermilled planer shavings, 1/8" screen 0.22-0.66 2.5 N. Hydrochloric acid 0.03 Sodium dichromate 0.22-0.70 411/4 Be' waterglass 1.7 Water all sources 3 Type III cement__________________________________________________________________________
| 204,212
|
Innovations in Oncology: Hadrontherapy, a new energy against cancer
During Intercare 2017, Italy’s first international Medical Tourism Exhibition and Conference, a seminar session was devoted to the presentation of the latest innovations in oncology treatments.
Prof. Roberto Orecchia, Scientific Director of Fondazione CNAO, presented Hadrontherapy, an innovative type of radiation therapy. Hadrons are particles made by quarks so that the therapy can also be known as heavy particles radiotherapy, particle therapy, neutrontherapy, protontherapy, CIRT (Carbon Ion RT).
The therapy is still relatively new with less than 15.000 patients treated worldwide in only few centres in the world which mainly use protons. Ion Therapy, particularly Carbon Ion is a new frontier in research.
Fondazione Cnao, in Pavia, 40 km south of Milan, is one of the only four centres in the world using both Proton and Ion Therapy, thanks to a synchrotron, designed by Cern, used to accelerate particles.
Hadron Therapy is especially valid for radio resistant or non operable tumors and its high precision maximizes the destruction of cancerous tissues while minimizing collateral effects on healthy tissues.
For example, this treatment is very important in pediatric patients where it is imperative to reduce the dose and the risk of secondary tumor induced by radiation and to avoid other problem in growing bodies.
Many tumors can be treated in a more efficient way with hadrontherapy such as Uveal melanoma, Eye melanoma, Base of skull chordomas. Tumors that can be affected by high LET particles must have specific conditions such as radioresistance for genetic alteration, Immuno Modulation, Radioresistance for proliferation status, Radioresistance for intratumoral micromilieau.
To watch the full speech of Prof. Orecchia and download the presentation, click here
| 183,738
|
Mon cerf-volant is a song written for 2 voices and piano by Karine CHOUAL.
It is intended for children aged 9 to 11 years with a good vocal range.
Even if the melody does not present great difficulties and is in a very tonal language one meets there however easy joint elements to which succeed much larger intervals requiring a vocal flexibility as well as a very great accuracy.
This song evokes the freedom personified by the kite. The kite takes us on its beautiful journey under the benevolent gaze of the moon with its many faces... She smiles, cries, shines and sings...
Song for children's choir with 2 voices (SA) and piano
This teaching sheet is sold individually as it is intended for children, and a single purchase for the teacher/choirmaster is quite feasible. We encourage you to buy the right number of sheets if you wish to involve your students.
| 232,859
|
The universal appeal of "The Green Coat" is due to Mrs. McDunn's mastery of historical events, excellent dialogue, rich characters, and her tribute to the human spirit. Young readers are captivated by the harrowing events in which Tressa and older brother Will find themselves while adults are drawn to the emphasis of such traits as perseverance and loyalty. "The Green Coat" is a wonderful family book as well as a great classroom book.
Have a question about this product? Ask us here.
Availability: Usually ships in 24-48 hours.
| 13,806
|
There has been a recent surge of scholarship from human geography, sociology, history, architecture, and cultural studies that focuses on migration as a social, political, cultural and material process. This area of research on migration examines migrants’ transnational spatial practices, social and political identities and relationships with the state. Central to this research has been a recognition that at the heart of migration lies a fundamental transformation in spaces and places that are linked to the social and cultural meanings of home and belonging.
This conference takes ‘narratives’ – broadly defined as stories, diaries, myths, photographs, music, films, media images and representations of movement – as the analytical starting point for new research on migration. Narratives have several dimensions. Firstly, migrant narratives need to be understood as inherently spatial. As is widely acknowledged, migrants’ stories of movement are often stories of different places at different moments, and thus are essentially ‘spatial stories’. Secondly, this spatiality of migration narratives is multi-scalar; it can relate to belonging on a national, political scale, represent locality dynamics, more small-scale, personal experiences of migration, or even the material narratives of migration, such as stories of significant objects and material culture. Thirdly, the performative element of migrants’ narratives is very strong; not all narratives are textual but instead are enacted through music, theatre, film, food, or dance. Finally, such narratives can also be highly visual, corporeal, and embodied, whether through media representations, artwork, or architecture. Such a broad conceptualisation of migrant narratives demands new interdisciplinary theories and methodologies to understand the interconnected landscapes of home, migration and the city.
This conference thus aims to question and compare such narratives and counter-narratives, in different contexts within Europe and beyond, through interdisciplinary perspectives from the humanities and social sciences. Methodological perspectives will therefore be central to the discussions during this conference, to encourage and disseminate interdisciplinary approaches to researching migration. The following questions will help to shape this conference:
• How are narratives of migration used, shared, remembered, materialised, performed and represented in different contexts?
• How do narratives shape belonging and attachment, inclusions and exclusions, around ideas of home(s) and the city?
• How do we examine these diverse narratives of movement through theoretical and methodological innovation?
This conference invites paper and poster presentations which investigate one more of the three conference themes; narratives of migration; materialities of home and movement; and cities, places, locations. It also invites submissions for a panel discussion with six young researchers working with new cross-cutting methodologies around these three themes.
Theme 1: Narratives of Migration
The first theme of the conference will deal with a range of methodological approaches to understanding the narratives of home – textual, aural, performative, and visual, which scrutinise, document and theorise migrants’ perspectives of migration. This may include oral histories, autobiographies, personal photographs, memorabilia, food recipes, artwork, music and films, as well as a range of other non/textual material that attempt to redefine the social, political, cultural and imaginative constructions of migration and movement.
Theme 2: Materialities of Home and Movement
This theme will consider the varying constructions of home and sites of travel, by inviting a diverse array of approaches and methodologies. The questions we ask are – where do home-spaces end – how far do they extend – and how are the spaces between home, locale, and homeland experienced? How is home narrated, and how can researchers tap into this? How can sites of travel be researched?
Theme 3: Cities, Places, Locations
Situated within broader debates around place and displacement, location and mobility, settlement and return, this theme will examine the various locations within migrant landscapes and the ways in which they reflect and influence cultures, politics, identities and narratives. The focus will be particularly on the varieties of ways that such landscapes are transformed and negotiated from the scale of the home, to neighbourhoods, to cities and homelands.
For more information, to send abstracts, and to register please see
Young researchers are particularly welcome. The conference has limited funds to fully or partially support expenses of young researchers.
Send comments and questions to H-Net
Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a
free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement
listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive
to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of
announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)
| 50,959
|
PVariable protection for 1 to 10 pairs in LSA systems of the 2/10 series LSA disconnection block function integrated in the lightning current arrester provides protection during testing, disconnecting and patching Modular system of lightning current and surge arresters can be combined to a single combined arrester
The DEHNrapid LSA arrester series is a modular system of lightning current arresters, surge arresters or combined lightning current and surge arresters that can be plugged into type 2 LSA disconnection blocks. The lightning current carrying 10-pair plug-in SPD block incorporates gas discharge tubes (optionally available with visual fault indication) and disconnection block contacts. This allows testing, disconnecting or patching of pairs with plugged-in protection or the additional attachment of single-pair surge arresters to ensure optimal protection of terminal equipment. The surge arresters snap into the earthing frame and can be removed as a block, whenever required.
Lightning current carrying SPD block with gas discharge tubes optionally available with visual fault indication and fail-safe feature.
Pluggable surge arresters in the form of protection blocks can be plugged into terminal or disconnection blocks.
Application-specific protection modules for protecting terminal equipment.
Modular design consisting of a plug-in SPD block with gas discharge tubes, earthing frame and application-specific protection modules.
|Type||DRL 10 B 180|
|Part No.||907 400|
|Nominal voltage (UN)||180 V|
|Max. continuous operating d.c. voltage (UC)||180 V|
|Max. continuous operating a.c. voltage (UC)||127 V|
|Nominal current (IL)||0.4 A|
|D1 Total lightning impulse current (10/350 µs) (Iimp)||5 kA|
|D1 Lightning impulse current (10/350 µs) per line (Iimp)||2.5 kA|
|C2 Total nominal discharge current (8/20 µs) (In)||10 kA|
|C2 Nominal discharge current (8/20 µs) per line (In)||5 kA|
|Voltage protection level line-line for Iimp D1 (Up)||≤ 500 V|
|Voltage protection level line-PG for Iimp D1 (Up)||≤ 500 V|
|Voltage protection level line-line at 1 kV/µs C3 (Up)||≤ 500 V|
|Voltage protection level line-PG at 1 kV/µs C3 (Up)||≤ 450 V|
|Series resistance per line||≤ 0.005 ohms|
|Capacitance line-line (C)||≤ 5 pF|
|Capacitance line-PG (C)||≤ 5 pF|
|Operating temperature range (TU )||-40 °C ... +80 °C|
|Degree of protection||IP 10|
|Plugs into||LSA disconnection block 2/10|
|Earthing via||mounting frame|
|Enclosure material||polyamide PA 6.6|
|Test standards||IEC 61643-21 / EN 61643-21|
|Product Specifications (PDF)|
| 143,966
|
Dhaka, Jan 18 (UNB) - Directing and producing works remain a challenge for women filmmakers in Bangladesh, much like anywhere else.
Although women have been involved in this region’s film industry from the beginning, they still face many challenges on their way to become directors, noted Samia Zaman, the founding president of International Film Initiative of Bangladesh (IFIB).
Samia’s IFIB and the Goethe-Institut have come up with an initiative – ‘Through Her Eyes’ – to showcase works of female filmmakers and give people an opportunity to enjoy them.
“At present, we have a very few female filmmakers here,” she said. “But it’s assuring that we got some new female filmmakers who are making films, documentary and short films. Thus, we felt the need to showcase their works.”
Goethe-Institut Bangladesh Director Kirsten Hackenbroch said their goal is to promote Bangladeshi women filmmakers. “It’s where young filmmakers have a chance to find a forum or space to discuss, to share their sorrows, and get guidance,” she said.
Hackenbroch said they want to create a platform where young, aspiring and talented filmmakers from Bangladesh can ask questions to those who have already gone through the international stage, can reflect on their possession, on their career perspectives and enter into discourse with the larger group of society.
“We hope this sharing between seniors and juniors, between more experienced and less experienced filmmakers will create an atmosphere of helping each other, of being available for each other, of being mentors to the younger generation,” she said.
Samia Zaman said Rubaiyat Hossain’s ‘Under Construction’ would be the first film to be screened as part of the ‘Through Her Eyes’ series on Sunday.
“The movie has received international recognition, including at the Dhaka International Film Festival. We hope film enthusiasts will join us to enjoy films at 5pm of third Sunday of every month at the Goethe-Institut,” she said.
Dhaka, Jan 17 (UNB) - Nearly everyone will experience some form of back pain in his or her lifetime. The low back is the area behind the belly from the rib cage to the pelvis and is also called the lumbar region.
Back pain is a major cause of missed work and poor physical movement. Most commonly, mechanical tissue and soft-tissue injuries are the cause of low back pain. Some lower back pain can also be the result of certain diseases.
Yoga is a naturopathy that can offer relief from pain and provide a great preventative care for the future. Here are five yoga poses to cure lower back pain and relieve that dull ache.
A twist to the spine relieves the stiffness from the entire back.
Lie on your back, bring your arms to a T-shape on the floor or mat. Bring your knees towards your chest. Slowly lower both knees to the left, keeping the neck neutral. Try to keep shoulders on the floor and palms facing downwards. Stay anywhere between 1-2 minutes and keep breathing normally. Repeat the process on the other side. Straighten your legs and rest for 30 seconds.
This gentle backbend stretches your abdomen, chest and shoulders and strengthens your spine. It also helps to relieve stress and fatigue.
Lie on your stomach with your hands under your shoulders and fingers facing forward. Draw your arms in tightly to your chest. Do not allow your elbows to go out to the side.
Inhale and push your hands to slowly lift your head, shoulder, and chest. You can lift partway, halfway or all the way up – depending on your flexibility. Hold the pose for 1-2 minutes while breathing normally. Now, exhale and release your chest, shoulders and head. Bring your arms by your side and rest for 30 seconds.
This pose strengthens the muscles of the spine and the buttocks and improves blood circulation in back area.
Lie on your stomach with chin on the floor, put your legs together and arms to the side of the hip with your palms on the floor. Now inhale. Use the back and leg muscles to lift the right leg as high as possible keeping the toes pointing backwards. Make sure that your hip stays on the ground and the pelvis remains in a neutral position.
Stay in this posture for 30 second to 1 minute and breathe normally. Try to keep the shoulders broad. Exhale and lower your right leg. Inhale and repeat the same process with your left leg. Take rest for 30 seconds.
This pose improves the strength and flexibility of the back muscle, stretches the front of the body, improves stamina and makes a strong core.
Lie on your stomach, keeping arms under the hips and chin on the floor. Lengthen your lower back by gently pressing your pubic bone into the floor.
Inhale, lift your head, chest and legs off the floor, firming your shoulders blades onto your back and opening your heart, to come up as high as possible. Only abdominal area will touch the floor at this point.
Breathe normally and stay in this posture for 1-2 minutes. Exhale, drop your chest, head and legs and rest for 30 seconds.
This pose helps to stretch the hips, thighs and lower back while reducing stress and fatigue.
Begin by sitting on your heels and then slowly bend forward. Bring down your chest to your thighs and let your forehead touch the floor. Keep your hands on the ground. Stay in this position for 1-2 minutes while breathing normally.
(Saldin Yogi is a registered Yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance, USA. To learn more about him, please visit www.saldinyoga.com)
Dhaka, Jan 17 (UNB) - The inaugural ceremony of group painting exhibition 'Preceptor-Disciple: Disciple-Preceptor' will be held at Alliance Française de Dhaka (AFD) at 5:30 pm on Friday.
Eminent artist Monirul Islam will inaugurate the exhibition as the chief guest while Dhaka University’s Fine Art faculty Dean Nisar Hossain and art connoisseurs Abdullah Al Mahmud and Mikhail I Islam will attend as special guests.
The Oriental Painting Studio Bangladesh is going to present its first group exhibition at La Galerie of AFD featuring artists Amit Nandi, Malay Bala, and Zahangir Alom, who will showcase oriental paintings ranging from classical to contemporary.
From the mythical sagas like the vignettes of Shakuntala, the eternal love between Radha-Krishna, and the political aspects from the Mahabharata to the realistic, abstract, semi-abstract, symbolic, and modern presentations of the idyllic beauty of Bengal, portraits of the towering literary and cultural personalities like Tagore and Nazrul, and the contemporary socio-political and cultural features all have manifested gracefully in their canvasses.
Based in Dhaka, the trio, following the conventional Guru-Shishya Parampara, runs various art activities like practising, exhibiting and promoting oriental art in Bangladesh.
They also run the Oriental Painting Study Group that has successfully organised eight oriental painting exhibitions with the participation of national and international artists.
The artists of the studio are committed to open up new possibilities for oriental art in Bangladesh.
There are around 50 artworks in mixed media will be on display for this exhibition. The exhibition will be open to all till Friday, February 1.
The visitors may throng the exhibition on Monday to Thursday from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm and on Friday and Saturday from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
New York, Jan 17 (AP/UNB) — A hamburger a week, but no more — that's about as much red meat people should eat to do what's best for their health and the planet, according to a report seeking to overhaul the world's diet.
Eggs should be limited to fewer than about four a week, the report says. Dairy foods should be about a serving a day, or less.
The report from a panel of nutrition, agriculture and environmental experts recommends a plant-based diet, based on previously published studies that have linked red meat to increased risk of health problems. It also comes amid recent studies of how eating habits affect the environment. Producing red meat takes up land and feed to raise cattle, which also emit the greenhouse gas methane.
John Ioannidis, chair of disease prevention at Stanford University, said he welcomed the growing attention to how diets affect the environment, but that the report's recommendations do not reflect the level of scientific uncertainties around nutrition and health.
"The evidence is not as strong as it seems to be," Ioannidis said.
The report was organized by EAT, a Stockholm-based nonprofit seeking to improve the food system, and published Wednesday by the medical journal Lancet. The panel of experts who wrote it says a "Great Food Transformation" is urgently needed by 2050, and that the optimal diet they outline is flexible enough to accommodate food cultures around the world.
Overall, the diet encourages whole grains, beans, fruits and most vegetables, and says to limit added sugars, refined grains such as white rice and starches like potatoes and cassava. It says red meat consumption on average needs to be slashed by half globally, though the necessary changes vary by region and reductions would need to be more dramatic in richer countries like the United States.
Convincing people to limit meat, cheese and eggs won't be easy, however, particularly in places where those foods are a notable part of culture.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, systems analyst Cleberson Bernardes said as he was leaving a barbecue restaurant that letting himself eat just one serving of red meat a week would be "ridiculous." In Berlin, Germany, craftsman Erik Langguth said there are better ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and dismissed the suggestion that the world needs to cut back on meat.
"If it hasn't got meat, it's not a proper meal," said Langguth, who is from a region known for its bratwurst sausages.
Before even factoring in the environmental implications, the report sought to sketch out what the healthiest diet for people would look like, said Walter Willett, one of its authors and a nutrition researcher at Harvard University. While eggs are no longer thought to increase risk of heart disease, Willett said the report recommends limiting them because studies indicate a breakfast of whole grains, nuts and fruit would be healthier.
He said everybody doesn't need to become a vegan, and that many are already limiting how much meat they eat.
"Think of it like lobster — something that I really like, but have a few times a year," Willett said.
Advice to limit red meat is not new, and is tied to its saturated fat content, which is also found in cheese, milk, nuts and packaged foods with coconut and palm kernel oils. The report notes most evidence on diet and health is from Europe and the United States. In Asian countries, a large analysis found eating poultry and red meat (mostly pork) was associated with improved lifespans. That might be in part because people might eat smaller amounts of meat in those countries, the report says.
Ioannidis of Stanford noted nutrition research is often based on observational links between diet and health, and that some past associations have not been validated. Dietary cholesterol, for example, is no longer believed to be strongly linked to blood cholesterol.
The meat and dairy industries also dispute the report's recommendations, saying their products deliver important nutrients and can be part of healthy diets.
Andrew Mente, a nutrition epidemiology researcher at McMaster University, urged caution before making widespread dietary recommendations, which he said could have unintended consequences.
Still, the EAT-Lancet report's authors say the overall body of evidence strongly supports reducing red meat for optimal health and shifting toward plant-based diets. They note the recommendations are compatible with the U.S. dietary guidelines, which say to limit saturated fat to 10 percent of calories.
While people in some poorer counties may benefit from getting more of the nutrients in meat and dairy products, the report says they shouldn't follow the path of richer countries in how much of those foods they eat in coming years.
Though estimates vary, a report by the United Nations said livestock is responsible for about 15 percent of the world's gas emissions that warm the climate.
Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at CICERO Center for International Climate Research in Norway, said farming practices that make animals grow faster and bigger may help limit emissions. But he said cows and other ruminant animals nevertheless produce a lot of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
"It's very difficult to get down these natural emissions that are part of their biology," Andrew said.
The environmental benefits of giving up red meat depend on what people eat in its place. Chicken and pork produce far fewer emissions than beef, Andrew said, adding that plants in general have among the smallest carbon footprints.
Brent Loken, an author of the EAT-Lancet report, said the report lays out the parameters of an optimal diet, but acknowledged the challenge in figuring out how to work with policy makers, food companies and others in tailoring and implementing it in different regions.
Washington, Jan 17 (AP/UNB) — How did the earliest land animals move? Scientists have used a nearly 300-million-year old fossil skeleton and preserved ancient footprints to create a moving robot model of prehistoric life.
Evolutionary biologist John Nyakatura at Humboldt University in Berlin has spent years studying a 290-million-year-old fossil dug up in central Germany's Bromacker quarry in 2000. The four-legged plant-eater lived before the dinosaurs and fascinates scientists "because of its position on the tree of life," said Nyakatura. Researchers believe the creature is a "stem amniote" — an early land-dwelling animal that later evolved into modern mammals, birds and reptiles.
Scientists believe the first amphibious animals emerged on land 350 million years ago and the first amniotes emerged around 310 million years ago.
The fossil, called Orabates pabsti, is a "beautifully preserved and articulated skeleton," said Nyakatura. What's more, scientists have previously identified fossilized footprints left by the 3-foot-long (90 cm) creature.
Nyakatura teamed up with robotics expert Kamilo Melo at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne to develop a model of how the creature moved. Their results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The researchers built a life-size replica of the prehistoric beast — "we carefully modeled each and every bone," said Nyakatura — and then tested the motion in various ways that would lead its gait to match the ancient tracks, ruling out combinations that were not anatomically possible.
They repeated the exercise with a slightly-scaled up robot version , which they called OroBOT. The robot is made of motors connected by 3D-printed plastic and steel parts. The model "helps us to test real-world dynamics, to account for gravity and friction," said Melo. The team also compared their models to living animals, including salamanders and iguanas.
Technology such as robotics, computer modeling and CT scans are transforming paleontology, "giving us ever more compelling reconstructions of the past," said Andrew Farke, curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California, who was not involved in the study.
Based on the robot model, the scientists said they think the creature had more advanced locomotion than previously thought for such an early land animal. (Think more scampering than slithering.)
"It walked with a fairly upright posture," said Melo. "It didn't drag its belly or tail."
University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz, who was not involved in the study, said the research suggests "an upright stance goes further back than we originally thought."
Stuart Sumida, a paleontologist at California State University in San Bernardino and part of the initial team that excavated Orobates fossils, called it "an exciting study." Sumida, who was not involved in the robot project, said the work provided "a much more confident window in to what happened long ago. It isn't a time machine, but Nyakatura and colleagues have given us a tantalizing peek."
| 89,198
|
Water For… Life
Water is essential for life. It surrounds us, in bodies of water, in the soil, in the air, in every living thing. Water covers approximately 71% of the earth’s surface. Despite this prevalence, the availability of water can vary significantly by climate, environment, season and technology. It can be a matter of life or death, surviving or thriving. Access to water, availability and control over water are universal human concerns.
Using objects from the Anthropology Museums permanent collection, this exhibition explores the relationship between human societies and water. Anthropologists have long studied how cultures adapt to their environments. This approach, known as cultural ecology, is employed here to demonstrate the wide cultural variability in adapting to common biological and cultural concerns relating to water. Presented in four sections, this exhibition focuses on Water for Thirst, Water for Hunger, Water for Transport and Water for Ceremony.
Curated by: Sara L. Pfannkuche based in artifacts from The Anthropology Museum
| 50,630
|
Video: Co-pilot of Ethiopian Airlines flight hijacks plane to Switzerland
posted at 8:01 am on February 17, 2014 by Ed Morrissey
Travelers on a flight from Addis Ababa to Rome got a rude awakening earlier today — as did its pilot. When the captain of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 got out of the cockpit to use the restroom, his co-pilot locked him out and took control of the plane. Instead of Rome, the co-pilot flew to Geneva, Switzerland, where he landed, climbed out of the cockpit using a rope, and asked for asylum:
An Ethiopian Airlines plane destined for Rome was forced to land early Monday in Geneva, where the hijacker was arrested, authorities said.
Police later said the hijacker was a co-pilot who surrendered and asked for asylum. They said the co-pilot locked the cockpit door and grabbed control of the plane when the pilot went to the bathroom.
According to Robert Deillon, Director of Geneva International Airport, the co-pilot left the plane by climbing out of a cockpit window and lowering himself down on a rope, where he was greeted by police.
It’s a bizarre case, but not entirely without precedent. One parallel would be to the mysterious end of Egypt Air 990 crash in 1999. In that incident, the NTSB concluded that the first officer had attempted to seize control of the aircraft. The crash resulted from the two pilots struggling over the controls, and that it was likely that the first officer was attempting to commit suicide by crashing the plane. Just a few months later, another Egypt Air pilot sought asylum in London after landing his plane there, claiming to have knowledge of the EA990 crash (which was that the co-pilot had been demoted by an executive on that particular flight).
This time, the intent was more benign. It’s not clear what the co-pilot was seeking asylum from as of yet. The CIA World Factbook gives a fairly rosy picture of Ethiopia, a multiparty parliamentary republic which has been relatively peaceful for several years and which just had its first peaceful transition of power in decades.
The Swiss took him into custody, but aren’t saying much. Neither is Ethiopian Air. Perhaps the passengers will have more to say later, but the airline is trying to get them a flight to Rome, and understandably quickly.
Breaking on Hot Air
| 137,523
|
This handy workshop accessory goes together in a jiffy, and boy, does it work hard for you. Imagine having your drill in a place where you can find it at all times, and fully charged to boot.
You'll need to customize the stand to accommodate your particular drill and charger. (We built the stand for a Hitachi DS13DV2B T-handle drill). For instance, if you have a pistol-grip style drill, you may need to shift the grip opening to the right, and modify or reposition one or both cradle brackets to hold the drill.
The charger's feet fit over short lengths of dowel to keep the charger from shifting on the stand. To position the dowels correctly, touch an inkpad lightly to the charger's feet, then set the charger on a sheet of paper to make a pattern. Transfer the pattern to the stand, and drill holes for the appropriate dowels. If your charger's feet won't accept a dowel peg, drill holes in the top of the stand into which the feet will fit snugly.
Add your comment
Please confirm your comment by answering the question below and clicking "Submit Comment."
| 297,025
|
Reading Pediatrics follows the immunization guidelines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This schedule will satisfy all school entry requirements. Because Reading Pediatrics is committed to quality health care, we believe strongly in the safety, effectiveness, and the importance of these vaccines. Parents who do not wish to protect their children from these deadly diseases will be advised to seek medical care for their children elsewhere. For descriptions of these vaccines and the diseases they protect against, please consult the following charts. Parents concerned about the safety of these vaccines are strongly encouraged to consult the following web sites: www.immmunizationinfo.org, www.vaccinesafety.edu, or www.immunize.org. All routine immunizations administered at Reading Pediatrics are thimerosal-free.
* Please note that this schedule is subject to change when the American Academy of Pediatrics updates its recommendations. We will inform you of these changes as they occur.
|Office Visit||Immunizations received||Injections|
|2 months||Pediarix, Hib, Prevnar, Rotateq||3 injections, one liquid dose|
|4 months||Pediarix, Hib, Prevnar, Rotateq||3 injections, one liquid dose|
|6 months||Pediarix, Prevnar, Rotateq||2 injections, one liquid dose|
|12 months||MMR/Varicella(combo), Hep A||2 injections|
|15 months||Hib, Prevnar||2 injections|
|18 months||DTaP, Hep A||2 injections|
|2, 3 years||none||0|
|4 years||MMR/Varicella(combo), IPV/DTaP(combo)||2 injections|
|6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years||none||0|
|11 or 12 years||TdaP, Meningococcal A(#1), HPV series||2-3 injections|
|16+||Meningococcal A (#2), Meningococcal B||2 injections|
| 211,398
|
A short flight in a short plane takes me from the mainland to Sumburgh on Shetland. I mean a short plane with room for just 12 rows of seats. It is the layout inside that must be a challenge for any pilot. On one side of the aircraft pairs of seats face the hunched figure of the sole stewardess who gives her safety briefing hunched in the narrow space between the single row of overhead lockers. The other side has rows of single seats. So one side has double the weight of the other side. Surely, this makes it hard to fly in a straight line.
Well, in a straight line it goes. The first sight of Shetland is through holes in the cloud cover. Smooth, felt-covered hills slope away from the coast where nautical mice have nibbled away at the land to leave teeth-marked cliffs standing tall, facing the rolling sea. The sun shines through to give this land a bright, openess as it catches the highlight of isolated farms and huddled villages painted in contrasts of white & maroon & grey.
To the west lies Canada and to the north lies Iceland and to the east, Norway. This place is equidistant between the UK mainland and Norway, 200 miles in each direction. 22,000 people live on the 16 inhabited islands out 100 that make up this Scottish district.
Driving along the single track roads from the airport, small sandy bays & crescents of smooth sands can be seen peeping around headland and every corner. Not a tree in sight; just a flat, green landscape with grazing sheep the only disturbance around low settlements that scream to hug the tugged coastline. The two-storey house is the exception amongst the scattered villages of traditional, low bungalows and barns of these wind-swept islands. No place on the island is further than 3 miles from the sea and this is so obvious as one travels about. The sea is always there. Why are the dwellings in these remote locations, clamped to a bay or holding on to a wedge of sand? Weaving or whaling or fishing maybe.
On one beach surfers surf; on another beach walkers walk; on a third beach seals laze in the sun. The one constant is the aquamarine ocean that crashes in rows and lines of waves and ripples on the waiting shore.
| 203,517
|
“This is one of the most famous chairs in the world, and it’s so disconnected from its original heritage,” says Cheyenne Concepcion, a Filipino American artist who examines cultural memory and migration through installation, design, and public art. She’s talking about the Peacock chair, the woven-rattan seat with a high, round back that has appeared on dozens of album covers, in the most famous portrait of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton, and in countless “boho chic” interiors. Concepcion accidentally came across the history of the chair while researching the architecture of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. While it is widely recognized, the chair’s history is less known: It originated at the Bilibid Prison in Manila, where it was made by incarcerated people in the early 1900s. “I literally just stopped in my tracks,” she says. “This was such a strong cultural symbol. How could I not know about its history?” As a graduate landscape-architecture student, she had been looking for historical references to guide her as a designer but hadn’t yet come across anything with deep personal resonance. With the Peacock chair, “I knew I had to do something with it,” she says. “It felt like something to hold onto, and I let it pull me.” Her new furniture collection Reclaim, which she launched at WantedDesign last weekend, shows the early results of that inquiry.
Basketry has long been a national symbol in the Philippines, where a rich history of Indigenous craft led to domestic items, carrying containers, and ritualistic objects made from woven rattan and bamboo. But the rise of rattan furniture was a product of American colonialism in the country, which spanned between 1899 to 1946. At that time, the colonial government framed its management of the Prison as a benevolent, civilizing mission, and those who were incarcerated there were put to work in “rehabilitation” programs. One of them was making rattan furniture — including tables, chairs, lamps, shelves, sofas, and stools — that the prison sold and marketed as “smart and serviceable.” At the exposition, the chair’s appearance captured attention from the press and store buyers. When the chair arrived in the United States, it became an exotic symbol of fictional royalty. “Like a throne chair, one imagines a chieftain sitting here in all his regal splendor of painted skin and beads under palm trees,” read a 1914 American Homes and Gardens article. An El Paso Herald image from 1914 titled “A Jail Bird In A Peacock Chair,” shows a woman in a striped dress, captioned as “a convict … seen enthroned in a majestic peacock chair,” holding a baby in one.
To Concepcion, the Peacock chair is an expressly Filipino American design, and that link to an obscured cultural history is what drives her collection. Her ambitions for her practice are greater than any single piece of furniture, though. “To me, it’s about more than designing a collection; I’m inventing a style,” she says. “Within Asian culture, there is a hierarchy of whose history gets recognized, who gets to have cultural heritage, and who gets to sponsor diplomatic engagement because of their cultural heritage. The Philippines has been left out of that. Because of colonization and assimilation, there has been a loss of a direct connection between our Indigenous past and where we are today. My dream is to bring visibility to our story.”
“The Peacock chair is characterized by this amazing archetypal hourglass shape. It’s very erect and upright. It’s more of a prop than an actual chair you sit in, and it has been used that way throughout history. I wanted to bring the design into modernity. I lowered the chair, relaxed the posture, and expanded the material palette with wood, brass, and steel. The collection is also autobiographical — I was raised by women and wanted to celebrate femininity. To me, the Peacock chair means royalty, power, and presence. I wanted to bring in this idea of a chair for a queen or a chair for a matriarch, so I added the brass balls to have a more feminine touch. After it was built, I thought, These are like cute shoes on my furniture!”
“I wanted to fit these pieces in my apartment, so I made nesting stools. The Peacock chair’s hourglass shape is also reflected in their powder-coated steel legs. Culturally, I’m American. I’m from California, which has such a strong design history. There’s a nod to California modernism, which to me is about simplified steel geometry. The Peacock chair became something else when it arrived in San Francisco. It became about a king and queen in Southeast Asia. I’m starting at this moment and making a leap of logic. There is some speculation and fantasy involved in where that history ends and where a new Filipino American design style can begin.”
“This bronze-tinted smoked mirror is inspired by my grandpa, who was an avid stargazer. He died when I was younger, and that is my memory of him. This was a real experiment for me. I made a ‘cane sandwich’ mounted between the metal piece I CNC’d and the wood backing. It’s a tropical vibe.”
“I’m calling these totemic sculptures. They’re made with bent metal wire that I powder-coated black. Then I wove caning through the frame. I love cane as a material. I was inspired by Philippine basketry presented in the 1915 Panama Pacific exhibition. I want to keep experimenting with these materials and pushing this meeting of steel and cane as a design application. I don’t think it ends with this collection.”
| 130,701
|
Last Sunday in our readings we had Jesus’ presentation at the temple and the joy that that gave the faithful Simeon and Anna who encountered him. We have there the Song of Simeon where Simeon held the baby Jesus in his arms and praised him as a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory for God’s people Israel. What Simeon says is significant. “Gentiles” means nations, and there are really two groups of people in the world. There is God’s nation, the Church Israel, and then there is everyone else who is not part of the Church, who are called the gentiles or nations.
God’s desire is that all nations come to him through the light of Christ and therefore become part of Israel, the Church which is centered around Jesus Christ. Recall that the Old Testament Church looked forward to Christ’s advent, both the incarnation and the future judgement, and the New Testament Church looks both back at his incarnation as well as forward to his return; we, in the Church, all share the same faith that God’s promises are ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
With that in mind, in today’s Epiphany readings we see the nations, or gentiles, being called to the light of Christ. In Isaiah 60:1-6 we hear the Lord’s promise that the light will come, the glory of the Lord will arise, and the nations shall see this light and come with gold and frankincense, gifts given to kings and priests. And then in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 2:1-12) we see the beginning of the fulfillment of this promise as we see the nations coming to the Lord and bringing him gifts.
Matthew says that wise men from the east came to Jerusalem to worship the newborn king of the Jews. These wise men are called Magi in the original Greek. The term Magi refers to a class of people who originally lived in the region of Media which later became part of the Persian empire, which is basically present-day Iran (this according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus). They are gentiles, part of the nations. And the Magi were also astrologers who studied the stars for signs.
So when the Magi go to King Herod to ask him where they may find the “king of the Jews” they say that they “saw his star when it rose.” They saw some heavenly event in the sky that they interpreted to be the sign that the promised Messiah or Christ, the king of the Jews, had been born. They were likely acquainted with these prophecies, because of the mingling of the Persians and Jews for centuries.
In the 6th century BC, the empire of Babylon had conquered Judah and taken most of its people into captivity in Babylon. Later, the Persian empire conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return home. However, some remained in Babylon while others moved to the Persian homeland itself. In fact, the book of Esther in the Old Testament takes place primarily in Persia and recounts the lives of the Jews living under Persian rule.
So, the Magi, as astrologers in the east (in the lands of the former Persian empire) had come into contact with the people of Judah and their Messianic hopes. And now the Magi have seen the heavenly sign, a star that has arisen, that has announced that these hopes have been fulfilled. The Christ has come to save all people, and the Magi have come to worship him.
And there’s something ironic in their discussion with Herod. They come to Herod, called “the Great,” to ask him where they may find the king of the Jews. This must have been pretty insulting to Herod, as he considered himself the king of the Jews. With Roman support, he ruled over the region of Judea – the former lands of Judah – and the city of Jerusalem. He had palaces and had rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. He had earthly authority in the area. He wasn’t Jewish, though. He was Idumaen, meaning that he was descended from the people called the Edomites.
You remember the brothers Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament? Jacob was renamed Israel and become the father of the people Israel; Judah, one of his sons, is the namesake of the region of Judaea where the tribe of Judah lived. That’s also how we get the name “Jew;” it refers to the people of Judaea. Properly speaking, the word Jew only came to describe the people of Judah/Judaea during and after the Babylonian captivity.
Esau’s descendants were called the Edomites, because Edom means “red” and Esau had red hair, which was – and still is, to some extent – a novelty. The Edomites lived south of the people of Judah.
So, Herod is not from the line of Judah, he is from the line of Esau. This also means, of course, that Herod is not from the line of King David. Thus, he is not a legitimate king of the Jews, even though he holds power in the area. Herod was very sensitive about this and had even married a Jewish woman in an effort to try to increase his legitimacy; he also killed any potential rivals for the throne.
So, when the Magi ask him where they may find the king of the Jews, the question hits Herod at a tender point. He’s supposed to be the king, so he was troubled and his people were troubled that perhaps a usurper to the throne had been born, a baby with a real, legitimate claim to be king – a baby born of the line of king David who might replace Herod.
This is why Herod asks the Magi when they first saw the star. He wants to know the approximate age of the boy who was born so that he can find him and have him killed. Immediately after the reading for today, Herod attempts just this. He has all the male children in Bethlehem two years old and under killed. Herod had done things like this before, even having family members killed when he thought they might try to take away his throne. But, he fails to kill Jesus, because both the Magi and Joseph were warned; so the Magi did not return to Herod, and Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt to wait for Herod to die.
A little historical fact is that Herod died in 4 BC, shortly after this incident. This means that Jesus was likely born around 6 or 5 BC, since Herod targeted children up to two years old based upon what the Magi had told him about when they had first seen the star. This also means that the typical nativity scenes we see at Christmas are not really historically accurate. The shepherds saw Jesus on the night of his birth, while the Magi saw Jesus later, when he was nearly two years old.
However, the typical nativity scene does have something more important correct, because in these two events – the worship of the shepherds and the worship of the Magi – we see the coming together of the nations with the people Israel. The shepherds were part of the people of Israel. They came to worship the Christ. Now, the Magi, guided by the star, have also arrived to worship the Christ, the King of Kings. God is drawing together all people into His Church Israel which is centered around the fulfilled promise of the Christ. This baby Jesus is the Lord’s Christ, the anointed one. He is anointed to bring salvation to all people, uniting all people in himself. So, in the nativity we see Jews and Gentiles being drawn to the light of Christ.
He is also the legitimate king. He is of the line of David. So, the Magi bring him gifts of gold, a present appropriate for a king. But, Jesus is more than a king, he is also a priest. In fact, he is the great High Priest, the one who intercedes for us before his Father. So, the Magi bring him gifts of frankincense, a present appropriate for a priest, because priests burned incense during worship in the temple.
However, Jesus is no mere earthly priest, he offers up his own sinless body and blood as the sacrifice which atones for our sins and reconciles us to God. So, the Magi bring him myrrh, which was an ointment used to put on the dead to prepare them for burial. Later, when Jesus was dying on the cross someone offered him a mixture of myrrh and wine. And after Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought myrrh to anoint Jesus’ body for burial.
So, Christ’s identity and future work is prefigured in the gifts given by the Magi, these gentiles from the east. Gold is for the king, frankincense is for the priest, and myrrh is for the sacrificial body. The Magi give gifts appropriate to a priestly king who would die to redeem his people from the power of sin, death, and the devil.
We also see in this event something else. We see what the true purpose of Israel was and is. God did not call together a people for Himself who would hoard and keep His blessings or to wall themselves off from the rest of the world. The purpose of Israel was not just to be God’s people and leave the nations, the gentiles, in their sin and death. Rather, the purpose of Israel was to be the beacon through which the light of God’s grace through Christ would shine out onto all nations.
Israel is God’s advance guard, in a sense. It is the steward of God’s mysteries; the people who have God’s promises and believe them and who are called to be witnesses to all nations of what God is doing in Christ to redeem this fallen world. Israel is the Church, the people of God, His nation, which shows the gentiles what God is doing for us through Christ. In the Church we have restoration and reconciliation to God and each other through Jesus Christ, and this restoration and reconciliation is meant for the whole world. So, the Church is called to bear witness to Christ to draw the nations into the Church.
We see this in the visit of the Magi, who, although they are gentiles and are not descended from Jacob, are yet drawn into the Church through faith. They come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews and the king of all creation. And, we see faithful Mary, allowing these gentiles to come into her home to worship her son. Likewise, we see in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians the continued ministry of outreach to the nations (Ephesians 3:1-12). Paul took the light of Christ out to the nations in order to reveal to them the mystery of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul is a part of the Church, making known to the gentiles, those not part of the Church, what God has done for us through Jesus Christ in order to draw them into the Church.
And the Church today continues this calling and mission, because it is a mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ himself. In Matthew 28, he commissioned his Church, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:1-20).
It is for this reason that we say we confess the Apostolic faith, because our faith in Christ has been handed down to us for generations, through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. And all these generations go back through the Apostles to Christ himself, who is the Lord incarnate, the one through whom God reveals Himself to us. He has brought us, who were once of the nations, into His nation; He has brought us out of darkness into his light.
So, in Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, God is reconciling the whole world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Christ died for the sins of all people, this priestly king who offered up his own body and blood as the sacrifice. And the Church carries on the Apostolic witness to Christ to reveal him to the nations as the one, the only one, in whom we have salvation. In this way, we are all made one body in Christ Jesus our Lord through the light of the Gospel. We are made one people of God by the grace of God given us through Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Image: The Adoration of the Magi. By Jan de Bray – Sphinx art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55913640.
| 292,550
|
Everything’s Bueno in Buenos Aires
On the hunt for an artsy city to earn credits and develop your Spanish language skills? Look no further than Buenos Aires – a city that offers everything under the sun! Explore dynamic neighborhoods like La Boca – the birthplace of tango; eat your fill of delicious empanadas and sweet alfajores; ascend the 22 floors of Palacio Barolo on a clear day for an unforgettable view all the way to Uruguay; study in the brand new CIEE Buenos Aires Global Institute – conveniently located near the city’s nicest parks, restaurants, cafés, and shops! Summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Discover Rhythm in Dakar
You’re in for a treat with a summer abroad in Senegal’s vibrant port city, Dakar. This West African gem is known as the city of rhythm, where the sounds of reggae, pop, and djembe drum will have you moving to the beat in no time. Depending on your language skills, take classes in English or French on Senegalese history, politics, and religion; get your surf on with some of Africa’s most consistent waves at any of 15 prime locations along the peninsula; head to Marché Kermel in the historical town center to shop for souvenirs and pick up accara (crispy black-eyed-bean fritters) at a food stall. Summer in Dakar, Senegal.
Blast into the Past in Historic Havana
In Havana, your study abroad experience will be equal parts historical and tropical. This 500-year-old city is known for its colonial architecture, 1950s-era American vehicles, and cobblestone streets. By day, study history, arts, politics, and public health. By night, dance in seaside clubs to the best salsa bands in the world. Attend one of Havana’s many summer festivals; explore the city’s vibrant art scene; practice conversational Spanish language skills; stroll through Old Havana to visit the city’s most important landmarks, like Plaza Vieja and Catedral de San Cristobal. Summer in Havana, Cuba.
Study Abroad in the World’s Belly Button
The 3,000-year-old city of Cusco is known as the ombligo del mundo (navel of the world) by Peruvians – mainly because it was the center of the Inca empire from 1400 to 1534. Today, this archaeological capital is an incredible city rich with culture, history, and natural beauty. Study science, social sciences, and/or Spanish language; hike through the breathtaking Sacred Valley; observe one of the seven wonders of the world - the ancient city of Machu Picchu; shop at local markets for the finest alpaca knits; take a selfie with a llama. Summer in Cusco, Peru.
Explore Gothic Grit and Glamour in Lisbon
Spend your summer navigating Portugal’s dynamic coastal capital city, Lisbon. This seaside paradise features white-domed cathedrals, cobbled alleyways, ancient ruins, and fresh seafood like octopus, tuna, shrimp, and snails. Explore Portuguese culture, history, and traditions by living with a host family; wander through the winding streets of the Alfama District; wonder at the gothic architecture of Torre de Belém; eat your way through the city with treats like pasteis de nata (puff pastries with custard) and francesinha (a meat sandwich wrapped in cheese with fries and a fried egg). Summer in Lisbon, Portugal.
| 100,765
|
Hill, Hattie Hutchcraft,
Painter, Art teacher
Paris, France; Ky.
Collection size: 1 v. (on partial microfilm reel).
Collection Summary: Scrapbook, 1857-1921 containing clippings about Hill, her paintings, her family and others; poetry; funeral notices; receipts for payment at the Academie Julian, 1889 and 1895; 2 photographs of Hill's home; and miscellany.
Biographical/Historical Note: Painter, instructor; Paris, Kentucky and Paris, France. Hill studied and lived in Paris, knew Rosa Bonheur and painted in the Barbizon. She did a series of portraits of Bourbon County, Ky. judges, and taught china painting as well. She lived in Paris, Ky. from 1900 until her death.
The lender, William Dudley, is the great-nephew of the artist.
| 1,603
|
This month in 4 to Explore, your Special Collections librarians and archivists have selected four new items with an "engineering" theme and placed them on hold in the reading room.
Here's what you can see this November in 4 to Explore:
Riverside Sewage Report, 1916
Permits, maps, and more on city waste disposal
Enrollment Projections, 1990s
Memos from the Bourns College archives
US Patent Models
3-D models from the 19th century
Lab Notebook, 1934
A professor's data on water jet pumps
Why you should try 4 to Explore:
Special Collections materials are kept in closed stacks, which means you can’t see the shelves and browse. You also can’t check things out and take them home. So, 4 to Explore is a great way to experience first-hand some of the collections that truly make the UCR Library unique.
4 to Explore will give you the chance to visit a reading room, like the ones that are used for archival research or by rare book scholars, and to get a sampling of our collections without having to submit a request ahead of time.
You’ll be asked to show photo ID and to check your bags – but don’t worry! Our UCR Library staff will explain everything to you when you arrive.
We will also have rotating exhibits of items from the collections on display.
Where to find 4 to Explore:
Department: Special Collections & University Archives
Where: Take elevators to 4th floor of Rivera Library
Hours: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, Monday - Friday
Bring: Photo ID
Don’t bring: Food or drinks
Who: Everyone is welcome. 4 to Explore is more of an individual experience, but we can usually accommodate up to two people using the same item at the same time, so feel free to bring a friend.
What to expect: Staff will help you sign in and feel comfortable in the reading room. It should take about 5-10 minutes for you to get up to the 4th floor and get settled. Then you can stay and enjoy as long as you like!
Want to receive updates each month with more details about our 4 to Explore items? Sign up here.
| 30,902
|
Editors. "Treaty between Spain and Bavaria to partition the Habsburg lands". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2011
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=17446, accessed 01 March 2015.]
Spain and Bavaria sign a treaty planning a partition of the Habsburg lands between them.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are not a subscriber, please click here to read about membership. All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors.
| 70,348
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.