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TCF - Test de Connaissance du Français Why take the TCF? Work: A TCF certificate is a proof of your language knowledge and abilities to support job applications. Study: The TCF meets French language requirements for application to graduate studies at French universities. Personal: Each person can obtain an evaluation of his/her speaking, writing and comprehension skills in French with a TCF test. TCF assesses a person’s level of French language for general purposes. It is intended for people who are not native French speakers and who, for professional, personal or academic reasons, wish to have their competency in French assessed and certified simply, reliably and quickly. TCF is a standard graded test designed by the CIEP, a language tester and member of ALTE, based on an extremely rigorous method that makes it a valid means of assessing language skills. All candidates receive a certificate of results that grades them at one of six levels (from A1 to C2) on the competency scale defined by the Council of Europe (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). This means that it is not possible to fail the TCF. TCF Québec: The Quebec Ministry of Immigration (MICC) has required people submitting applications to immigrate to Quebec to provide proof of their level of competency in French by taking the "TCF pour le Québec", or TCF test for Quebec. This test can only be taken by people who submit an immigration application at a Quebec immigration office or at Délégations Générales du Québec, Quebec government offices abroad. TCF pour l'accès à la nationalité françaiseLe "TCF pour l'accès à la nationalité française" ANF a été spécifiquement conçu pour répondre aux nouvelles dispositions introduites par le ministère français de l'Intérieur, de l'Outre-mer, des Collectivités territoriales et de l'Immigration relatives au contrôle de la connaissance de la langue française pour les postulants à l'acquisition de la nationalité française. TCF - For the general public All TCF can be arranged upon request, tests must be ordered 18 business days before the test date. In order to register for a test, please contact Questions@crosscultural-a-i.comFull nameDate of birthGenderAddress and phone numberNationalityMother tongue or language in which you were raised Once you've registered, we will send you infomation to process your payment.. Thank you for trusting Cross Cultural Assimilation Institute, LLC Cross Cultural Assimilation Institute LLC is an authorized test center for the TCF exam. How much does it cost? TCF-Quebec, TCF-ANF, et TCF Simple $220 TCF - DAP $250 Fees must be paid in full at time of registration. Exam fees are not refundable once registered. Exam participation can only be transferred to the next session in case of sickness. Cross Cultural Assimilation Institute LLC 4031 E Harry St Wichita, KS 67203
Crosswords Printables > Themed Crossword Puzzles > Universal Crossword Puzzles > The Universal Cure for the World Puzzle The Universal Cure for the World Puzzle We hope you enjoy your crossword puzzle that you have selected! Remember to check our more of our Tuesday's Crossword Puzzles and share them with your friends. If you are a parent or teacher, print as many as you'd like and use them for extra learning practice and fun activities! Use this puzzle to learn the Universal cure for everything. Universal means many different things. It can mean the cure for everything, something done by a popular group, and a person having effect on something. Sometimes when you hear the word Universal, you might think of Universal Studios in Florida as well. When you think of this, you might think of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and maybe even Goofy and Pluto. Try this fun Universal puzzle and have fun solving it! This crossword consists of a few words Across(A) and a few words Down(D). Review the clues for each word and fill in the corresponding boxes with the letters that spell out the word! Download or Print PDF! \|See More Universal Crossword Puzzles\|
Patricia Hallen Clough, '69, College of Saint Elizabeth 2012 Mother Xavier Award Recipient, is a woman who has the unique ability to touch hearts, bring palpable hope and transform the lives of others. Pat uses her creativity and insight to lead others to the most powerful gifts any human being can experience – the gifts of self respect and individual promise. Pat's life changed dramatically when she noticed a group of women from a local prison working on a landscaping project near her home. They worked with a shared intensity and camaraderie but were dressed in the same drab prison garb. It seemed to Pat that each of these women working as a unit to bring beauty to the world would be-should be their own source of beauty. She wondered who they were as women and individuals? What story did they have to tell? Motivated, she contacted the prison's administration to see how she might help. Together, she and the warden developed a new educational program for incarcerated women based in creative writing. Almost a decade later, both men and women in several Hawaiian prisons have produced eight books called, Hulihia, Writings from Prison, and given theater performances, Prison Monologues, based on their books. "Hulihia" in Hawaiian means "transformation" – and there is little doubt that it's exactly what is happening to inmates. Writing is the tool that awakens them to who they really are and how they can make a difference in their own lives. Pat's classes have led them on a journey back to themselves with only one difference. Now they realize they are somebody and that they are worth something! Pat has also written her own book, Unlikely Heroines, which is about the courageous, talented and heartbreaking stories of those imprisoned for years who are now finding freedom behind bars through writing. She credits much of her success to her CSE education. Sister Anne Gertrude and Sister Mary Catharine instilled in her a love for literature and words. She is grateful to her husband Russell and their children for their support and encouragement. Pat graduated from the College of Saint Elizabeth with a Bachelor of Arts in English and is certified in secondary education.
Last White Rhinos in the Wild Imperiled by African Civil War JUST 31 REMAIN NAIROBI, KENYA — The northern white rhinoceros of Africa is one of the rarest mammals on earth. Hunted to the brink of extinction for its horn, it now faces a new and potentially lethal danger: civil war. Since its habitat in the north of Zaire has been occupied this winter, first by Zaire's Army and now by rebels trying to overthrow President Mobutu Sese Seko, conservationists have been unable to carry out work essential to its survival. Garamba National Park, home to the world's few remaining northern white rhinos, is now part of a vast swath of territory held by rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire. "It's not so much that the rebels themselves pose a danger to the rhinos," says Fraser Smith of the Washington-based World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). "But, because the patrolling and monitoring have been disrupted, we can't protect the animals from poachers. "I must admit I'm really concerned for the rhinos' safety now," Mr. Smith says. No more than 31 northern white rhinos exist in the wild, all of them in Garamba. There has been no effective management of the Zairean park, an area about the size of Delaware, since December. Equipment looted by soldiers According to one assessment, between two and four animals will be poached this year if the necessary support is not provided. "For a while we completely lost contact with what was going on in the park," says Smith, who got rebel approval to journey to Garamba this week to see if the region's de facto authorities will let him continue the conservation program. "It's still not clear what it will take to resume our activities there. "Quite a lot of our equipment ... was looted by government soldiers as they left. We also believe the guards' weapons may have been confiscated by the rebels. From a logistical point of view, we might be starting almost from scratch," he says. Among the conservation measures most affected will be an innovative program to implant radio transmitters in the rhinos' horns. Last year, five animals were fitted with transmitters so aerial trackers could monitor them more closely. Work halted 'at a critical moment' Plans to implant more transmitters this year will probably have to be shelved, but the aerial monitoring of the already tagged rhinos will be funded this year by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. "Our work has been interrupted at a critical moment," says Kes Hillman Smith, a rhino monitoring coordinator in Garamba. "Poaching has been getting more sophisticated in the last few years. The poachers are also becoming more daring and [are] ranging deeper into the park." Last year, two rhinos were slaughtered by poachers. Rhino horn fetches a high price in Yemen, where it is made into dagger handles; and in China, where it is used in medicine. Discovered early this century, the northern white rhino once roamed across much of central Africa. But by 1980, civil unrest and poaching had reduced the population to fewer than 400 animals. By 1984, when the WWF started the protection program at Garamba, the number was down to 15. Thanks to its efforts, the number doubled during the last decade. But the rhino is still extremely endangered. Despite its status as a United Nations World Heritage Site, Garamba has received little help from Zaire's government. Were it not for the WWF and the International Rhino Foundation in Cumberland, Ohio, the 300 park staff would not have been paid for the past four years. Despite the uncertainty of the situation, many conservationists say that Zaire's parks and animals stand a better chance in the hands of the rebels, who at least appear sympathetic to conservation issues.
Unions still battle for foothold BOSTON — on the Friday before Labor Day, John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, rang the bell opening trading on the New York Stock Exchange. It was unprecedented for the nation's top labor leader to perform that honor at this bastion of capitalism. But the floor clerks are unionized. And Mr. Sweeney was invited by Richard Grasso, the Big Board's chairman. Make no mistake, though, unions are still not welcome at most American companies. Each year about this time, the AFL-CIO updates a document entitled "The Union Difference." It shows that America's 16.2 million union members do have some economic advantages. Union workers earn 32 percent more than nonunion workers, the latest report notes. Their median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary work were $659 in 1998, compared with $499 for their nonunion counterparts. The differential was even greater for women, African-American, and Latino union members. Unionized employees are also more likely to have company pensions and medical and disability benefits. Union workers also have greater job stability. Nearly 50 percent have been with their current employers for at least 10 years. Only 32 percent of nonunion workers have similar job longevity. Academics broadly confirm such numbers. David Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, calculates that when all factors are taken into account, the average union worker makes 15 percent more than a nonunion employee in a similar job. But lower-paid union workers get 25 percent more, and higher-paid ones 5 percent more. In unionized companies, there is usually a wage compression between low-paid janitors, laborers, and the highly skilled, better-paid workers. Many American workers are aware of the union advantages. A Peter D. Hart poll finds that 43 percent of them would definitely or probably vote for a union if given an opportunity. That's up by nearly half over the past 15 years. But few get the chance. Though unions added a net 100,000 members last year, union membership as a proportion of total payrolls has shrunk from about 35 percent in the 1950s to 13.9 percent in 1998. How come? "The companies don't want unions," says Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. "The companies make the costs high for workers wanting a union. There are a zillion things companies can do to prevent unionization." Employees pushing for a union may face years of battle at work. "Companies can make life miserable for union activists," says Mr. Freeman. And if the union loses an election, the activist often has no career left in the firm. Under the law, management can't fire an activist, notes Freeman. "But you don't have to promote him ever again." When a company faces a union drive, it often hires union-busting professionals for guidance. The unions employ their own professional organizers. Management is usually tough. It often will tell supervisors they will be fired if the union wins. And the executives may not want to know what means are used in the persuasion process. Penalties for infringement of laws by companies trying to block unions are "minuscule," says Freeman. Executives sometimes warn workers that even if they get a union, management doesn't have to sign a contract. And they often don't. If there is a strike, companies are more often nowadays hiring replacement workers. The United States is about the only nation that permits this practice. Former Sen. Bill Bradley, seeking crucial union support for nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate, recently promised to push for making the hiring of replacement workers illegal. Labor still has clout in Washington. (c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society
Reversing the spread of nuclear weapons A Christian Science perspective. Iran hurtles ahead with its development of both a nuclear weapon and a delivery system for the device. When might it succeed? Pakistan aims to keep its weapons safely locked up. What if it fails? North Korea continues its nuclear grandstanding. What if it miscalculates? Al Qaeda thirsts for a nuclear device. What if it gets one? The unnerving questions spill out in fearful discussions everywhere. The good news? The spread of fear is actually overmatched by a spiritual reality – the spread of God's care. Could that also be true of the weapons themselves? Could their spread also be overmatched by a spiritual reality – by the divinely impelled spread of God's presence and power? Consider this. The one Mind and Love of all, the one God, comes with a message of safety and calm to every scene of explosiveness, in every time of uncertainty. That message, which is the Christ, comes with irresistible authority, and keeps on coming to humanity until explosiveness and uncertainty begin to give way to the safety of Mind and the calm of Love. In other words, the spread of God's care is made practical and tangible. To affirm this in prayer is not reckless idealism. It is divinely based realism. It is pragmatic spiritual action. The book of Deuteronomy states a spiritual fact with poetic simplicity. "As an eagle ... spreadeth abroad her wings ... so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him" (Deut. 32:11, 12). It is in God's nature to extend His care, to spread His protective presence across all His nestlings, all His offspring. It is in our nature to be His offspring and to be aware of that divinely protective action. It is in our interest to become more conscious of God's shielding and sheltering presence. Then the spiritual truth of God's ever-spreading care begins to counter all sorts of dangers, including those that are nuclear. Does this mean that, when it comes to reversing nuclear proliferation and the spread of fear, prayer should substitute for diplomatic endeavor? No. But prayer, infused with the awareness of divine power, can serve as an underpinning to diplomatic efforts. Then things such as patience, restraint, watchfulness, and readiness gain reinforcement. They find their place not just in our hopes for the future, but also in our policies for the present. Dangers recede. Threats get dialed down. Brinkmanship loses its appeal. Opportunities for negotiated settlements that are verifiable and enforceable open up. God's care is so certain that it's accurate to say there is a law or Science of His care. Like gravity, which operates according to law, the care of God functions with scientific consistency. Mary Baker Eddy, in a phrase that describes the Monitor but has a usefulness beyond that description, said this newspaper was designed "to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent" ("The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," p. 353). Think of that. It is Science, the law of God, that spreads. It is Science, the Word of Love, that knows no divides, accommodates no antagonisms. It is Science, the truth of being, that ultimately never gets walled off from any region but spreads to every corner of consciousness and buttresses common ground. It is Science that declares God's care as, in truth, already ever present, even though it appears to us as spreading throughout the human scene. The law operates ceaselessly. It imparts the safety of Mind and the calm of Love endlessly. They reach where they're needed most unfailingly. Evil endeavors get uncovered and thwarted more consistently. But the spread of His care is not just a defensive action. That is, God's law doesn't just defend against extremist views bent on unleashing nuclear nightmares. Nor does it just defend against catastrophic mistakes that might trigger unplanned horrors. The Science of God's care goes on the offensive and enters into the inner parts and human hearts of key players, including would-be evildoers. God's law operates powerfully, spreads limitlessly, remains unspent. Ultimately, no one can completely shut out its influence. Yet, it is not quite enough for all this to be true. It has to be known as true, realized in prayer as true. Then it is enough. Then the prayer makes a practical difference. The spread of God's presence and power, impelled by the Science of His care, overmatches and reverses the spread of any danger. A calmer and safer world begins to dawn. Adapted from an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.
Today is the deadline for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, and the two sides won't even talk to each other. A look at how things went wrong – again – and what the options are now. Khaled Asakreh was released seven months ago, after 22 years in an Israeli prison. Another batch of veteran Palestinian prisoners is awaiting release as part of John Kerry's peace efforts. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas meets with President Obama today. Israel's insistence that Abbas recognize Israel as a Jewish state is likely to be a point of contention. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organization and pushed almost completely underground. For years, boycott efforts in Europe seemed to be only symbolic gestures. But several major efforts announced in the past year, including one by the EU, are raising alarm. Swiss scientists said they found high amounts of the radioactive element in Yasser Arafat's remains, fueling speculation that the Palestinian leader was killed via polonium poisoning. Uri Avnery, a prominent early supporter of the two-state solution, is using his 90th birthday to prompt discussion about Israel's future. His 1982 handshake with Yasser Arafat infuriated Israelis. During this week’s massive Christian gathering in Jerusalem, one of the most popular tours was a solidarity visit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Khaled Asakreh, who was jailed for murder at age 18, talks about his new vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – without violence.
Alexander Martin Lippisch (1894 - 1976) Lippich 13b, 1944 Military Aircraft #023 Luftwaffe Project Aircraft, Delta Publishing Alexander M. Lippisch Alexander Martin Lippisch was born on 2 November 1894 in Munich, Germany, the son of Franz and Clara (Commichau) Lippisch. His father was an artist. Alexander was educated at schools in Berlin and Jena, Germany, and was planning to enter art school when the First World War began. He enlisted in Germany's armed forces in 1915, and served until 1918 as an aerial photographer and mapper. In 1943 he was awarded a doctoral degree at the University of Heidelberg. Lippisch worked for the Dornier Aircraft Company in Friedrichshafen, Germany, as an aerodynamicist from 1918-22. Biplane Tailless Glider, (possibly Lippisch) c.1920 Monoplane Tailless Glider by Lippisch und Espenlaub (E2), c.1923 The Lippisch-Espenlaub (Glider Experiment) E2 was the first of over 50 swept-wing, tailless designs produced by Lippisch over the next three decades. Plates at each wing tip were drooped to provide directional stability. Though this first effort was less than impressive, it at least was a starting point from which Lippisch began serious, systematic development of tailless designs. The Zögling was a simple lightweight glider for basic flight instruction. It was designed to start with rubber ropes, a common way to start a glider in the years short after WWI. It was designed by Alexander Lippisch who became famous by his design Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, a rocket drive flying wing. Stamer Lippisch Zögling Schulsegelflugzeug, 1926 From 1933-39 he was in Darmstadt as chief of the technical department of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Segelflug (DFS). DFS sent him to the Messerschmitt Company in 1939, to head a department to develop a rocket fighter for the Air Ministry. From 1943-45 he served as director of research for the Aeronautical Research Institute in Vienna, Austria. He came to the United States in January 1946 as a part of the Operation Paper Clip program administered by the United States Department of Defense. He was stationed at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where he stayed until December 1946 when his family joined him. He worked for the Naval Air Materiel Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1946-50. Lippisch and his family received United States citizenship in 1956. In 1950 Lippisch accepted employment at Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was director of the aeronautical division until 1964. One of his first projects at Collins was the design of a high-speed smoke tunnel. Lippisch's work on smoke tunnel flow visualization led to a thirteen part television series in 1955, entitled "The Secret of Flight". The series addressed the amateur viewer, demonstrating the principle of flight through the use of simple models and a smoke wind tunnel. A believer in the importance of a broad education, Lippisch gave many lectures on the significance and the history of flight. He also worked on remote powered vehicles which led to his concept of the Aerodyne. This wingless aircraft was suspended solely by the thrust of its engines and was capable of vertical takeoff and landing. The Aerodyne project was discontinued in 1960, at which time Lippisch became the director of the hydrodynamic laboratory at Collins. He designed a high speed boat which performed very well up to a certain speed, but beyond that point the aerodynamic forces lifted the bow too much. This triggered his interest, and he proposed a boat whose hull would lift out of the water by means of short airplane type wings. This idea was utilized in the aerofoil boat, which was a seaplane that flew efficiently near the ground or water surface. It was powered by a conventional aircraft propeller and was capable of flying far from the ground like a regular airplane. The first full scale aerofoil boat was the Collin X-112. It was first flown in 1965. Lippisch retired from Collins Radio Company in 1964. He underwent lung surgery and upon recovery found himself desiring to continue his work in aircraft design. He consulted for several United States and German companies on the designs of Aerodynes, Aeroskimmers, and Aerofoil boats. In the mid 1920's a friend sent Lippisch a flying seed of a tropical plant . This seed was essentially an arrow shaped wing, and as others had done before him, Lippisch based his tailless arrow shaped aircraft on this example from nature. A private sponsor saw one of these designs and thought it would be possible to build a large version of this type for use as a trans-oceanic transport. However, Lippisch felt that the wing near the body should be thicker so that it could be utilized for additional storage. Lippisch decided that this would only be possible by making the wing near the body longer, and this is how he arrived at the delta shaped wing. DFS40 Delta V Download a 750pixel image His first motorized delta wing flew in 1931. Lippisch continued his work with the delta wing during his time as director of the Aviation Research Institute in Vienna, Austria. His team worked on delta wing airplanes that were designed to accommodate a variety of new engines, such as the turbojet and ramjet engines. L_P11 Delta V Download a 500pixel image Alexander M. Lippisch died 11 February 1976 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, of a heart and lung ailment. Alexander Martin Lippisch - 1894 - 1976 Born in Munich, Germany, on 2 November 1894. Received his Engineering Doctorate degree from Heidelberg University in Physical Sciences. His aviation career plans interrupted by service in the German Army in World War I, he was finally assigned to work with the Zeppelin Company in 1918. The early post-war years, devoted to theoretical studies and experiments with advanced and unique approaches to high-speed aircraft performance, produced his first successful tailless design, a glider, in 1921. Because the designs he proposed were considered radical departures from the norms of aero design of that period, financial support for his work was difficult to acquire, but his great faith and determination finally won out. ...more As a boy of 14, Lippisch witnessed a flight by Orville Wright in September 1909. He followed the accounts of Dunne's and Etrich's experiments with inherent stability, and after military service during World War I, applied his interest to glider design. His first tailless glider was built in 1921, by Gottlob Espenlaub, the German glider enthusiast who would later collaborate with the Swiss designer Alexander Soldenhoff on his designs The Lippisch-Espenlaub E2 was the first of over 50 swept-wing, tailless designs produced by Lippisch over the next three decades. Though this first effort was less than impressive, it at least was a starting point from which Lippisch began serious, systematic development of tailless designs. In 1924, he was designated Director of the Aeronautical Department of the RhonRossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG, which later became the German Research Institute for Soaring Flight). ...more Black Powder Solid Propellants which in part says... Automobile manufacturer Fritz von Opel piloted his own rocket glider, Opel Rak.2, in tests near Frankfurt on 30 September 1928. Its 16 rockets, each producing 50 pounds of thrust, were build by Friedrich Sander a pyrotechnics specialist. The propulsion system combining high-thrust, fast-burning powder rockets for initial acceleration with lower-thrust, slower-burning rockets to sustain velocity. Opel approached Alexander M. Lippisch, a young designer working at the Rhon-Rossitten-Gesellschaft, who had already displayed a penchant for the unorthodox in airplane configuration, with the proposal that he, too, design a glider for rocket power. Max Valier and Alexander Sander also succeeded in arousing enthusiasm for rocket propulsion in a twenty- seven-year-old aircraft designer, Gottlop Espenlaub. His E 15 tail-less design was of interest as a rocketplane. On 11 June, Fritz Stamer effected the first rocket- propelled flight in Lippish's glider. The glider had been dubbed Ente, or Duck. That lead later to the Lippish's Komet - the Messerschmitt Me 163, liquid rocket manned interceptor. Rudolf "Pitz" Opitz Rudolf "Pitz" Opitz is one of Germany's most famous test pilots. Because of post-World War I aviation restrictions, he began his flying career in gliders. Born in 1910, he built his own glider in 1934 and soon was an instructor at Germany's famous Wasserkuppe flying school. Three years later he became involved in test flying and piloted many of Alexander Lippisch's glider and tailless aircraft. ...more Testors 1/48 Me-163 Komet Testors 1/48 Me-163 Komet The Komet began life as a tailless glider, the brainchild of Dr Alexander Lippisch. Lippisch took up the idea in 1920 with very little in the way of experience in tailless airplanes, making it true pioneering work. The first manned flight of a tailless glider was made in 1929 when Günther Groenhoff flew the all-wing glider, named "Storch" (Stork), immediately after Lippisch's firstborn son had been baptized "Hangwind". In 1928-29 this design had matured to become the "Storch IV", a tailless sailplane and the "Storch V", a motor glider with a 2-cylinder 8 horsepower motor. This latter design had such good flying characteristics that Lippisch presented it to government representatives and the press at Tempelhof Airfield, Berlin. The pilot was Groenhoff. He was later killed in a separate glider accident in the 1932 Rhon competition. Work continued and the predecessor of the Me 163, the DFS 39 (DFS- German Research Institute for Glider Flight), in the hands of Groenhoff's successor, Heini Dittmar proved the aircraft to be a good reliable plane for courier and overland flights. A 75-HP Pobjoy motor powered this aircraft. In 1937 Lippisch received news that shocked him when the Reich Air Ministry's research office issued a contract for a second prototype of DFS 39 with a slightly changed fuselage to allow the installation of a "special power plant". This unit was a liquid-fuel rocket being built by Hellmuth Walter at Kiel. This power plant had 750 kp of thrust and an exhaust gas temperature of 800 degrees Celsius. (The Me 163B's engine had an exhaust temperature of 2000 degrees Celsius. This aircraft was designated DFS 194 and the development was conducted at the Messerschmitt works in Augsburg. The construction of the world's first rocket powered, combat-ready, airplane had begun. On October, 1941 with Heini Dittmar at the controls of the rebuilt DFS 194, now a Me 163A (V3), crossed the 1000 kph barrier for the first time. Lippisch P.13a (DM-1)
ERHS 726 – Aerosols and Environmental HealthThe objective of the course is to discuss aerosols and their relationship to problems in industrial hygiene, engineering, air pollution control, and atmospheric science. The course requires knowledge of calculus and college-level physics. Topics cover the physical and chemical principles underlying the behavior of particles suspended in air, including: particle size, aerodynamics, motion of particles in a force field, particle size statistics, optical and electrical properties, diffusion, condensation and evaporation, deposition in the respiratory system, bioaerosols, and measurement techniques. ERHS 636 – Industrial Hygiene Control Methods The objective of the course is to discuss contaminant control in the workplace, community, and natural environment with an emphasis on industrial hygiene. The course requires college-level physics and a minimal knowledge of calculus. Topics cover the physics of air movement and the fundamentals of workplace ventilation, including: airflow measurement, dilution ventilation, local exhaust ventilation, hood design, fan selection, replacement air, aerosol and gas control, and control economics.
From The Big Picture: It’s been one year since the earth shook so violently below Port-au-Prince, Haiti, destroying and damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings and lives in mere moments. Twelve months of struggle and heartache have followed, with very little progress to show so far. Only five percent of the rubble has been cleared as crippling “indecision” has stalled reconstruction efforts, a recent report by humanitarian group Oxfam said. It’s not clear when Haiti will be fully rebuilt, with five years needed just to rehouse the government, a top minister recently told an AFP reporter. On this somber anniversary, here are some photos of (and by) Haitians as they continue to cope with the aftermath of such a massive disaster.
Licenses and Permits Presently, Dade County does not require a general business license and has no zoning regulations as that term is defined by state law. Accordingly, Dade County requires no zoning approval for new or on-going construction. There may be specific local, state, or federal statutes and regulations that do apply to your particular project, which include, but are not limited to, the following: For new construction, you will be required to obtain an electrical permit from the Dade County Commission Office (706-657-4625) and, in most cases, a septic system permit from the Dade County Health Department (706-657-6181). State permits concerning environmental issues may be obtained from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (770-387-4912). For all other State license questions, contact the Georgia Secretary of State’s Administrative Offices of the Professional Licensing Boards by phone at 478-207-1300 or by fax at 877-588-0446 or via internet at http://sos.georgia.gov/. This notice is intended to give general information only concerning permits currently required in Dade County and should not be relied upon for legal advice as to the applicability of any county, state, or federal statute or regulation to your project. Additionally, nothing in this notice is intended to restrict the County from adopting new or different ordinances or regulations in the future. Thank you for your interest in Dade County. We hope that you will find our County to be a great place to live and work. Please let us know if we can be of assistance.
All of the other journalists there focused on the right to be forgotten (boring), but I asked the encyclopedia’s founding father, Jimmy Wales, and other Wiki enthusiasts about the lack of emojis in all pages except the “Emoji” page, and about the longer pages for people with shorter achievements in life (it’s not fair). Over the course of three days, I addressed the Syrian Civil War, Gaza, and Ebola pages, all of which are being abused daily. Whenever there is injustice in the world, mankind will rise up and edit a Wikipedia page. See you next year, Jimmy. Screengrab via RT/YouTube
Submitted by McHenry County Conservation District Are you looking for something the whole family can do for free on a Saturday afternoon? Contact information ( * required ) Join the McHenry County Conservation District for a "Lost Valley Venture" from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Feb. 2, 9, 16 or 23 at Lost Valley Visitor Center in Glacial Park, Route 31 and Harts Road, Ringwood. This family exploration program includes a nature lesson, game, and activity based around this month's topic: Animal Tracks. If the weather allows, guests will also go for a short outdoor exploratory hike with staff, so dress for the weather and walking. No registration required. All ages are welcome. Topics change monthly: March -- Squirrels, April -- Signs of spring, May -- Nesting time. This program is intended for families and cannot accommodate organized groups. Youth groups should contact Prairieview Education Center at (815) 479-5779 to schedule a program for their group.
Perhaps someone can post them...? Imagine if the great historic photographs of the Civil War had been taken using modern cameras which could have captured the detail and the depth of the historic occasion in vivid color rather than black and white. Now you can after modern day photographer John C. Guntzelman employed Photoshop to accurately colorize a series of classic images by the most celebrated photographers of the civil war era including Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. In The Civil War in Color: A Photographic Reenactment of the War Between the States, Guntzelman takes images covering different aspects of one of the defining moments in American history and painstakingly brings them to life by adding color. The photographs of Brady and Gardner have done much to shape the public’s perception of the Civil War and their original images has incredible detail to them. But now with added color these new images reveal more about those times and what it would have been like to have lived through such an historic event. ‘The purpose of this is to show that people 150 years ago were not very different from us today,’ Guntzelman told Smithsonian.com. The task has proved a massive undertaking including huge amounts of research to track down the correct colors of uniforms and even to try to be as accurate as possible with people’s hair and eye colors.
An 8-year-old South Carolina girl's dream of having the woolly mammoth become the official state fossil has been put on hold while lawmakers debate an amendment that gives God credit for creation of the prehistoric animal.You can see how designating a state fossil could quickly lead to these kinds of problems. That's why South Carolina has never had a state fossil, unless you count Strom Thurmond. A bill that recently passed the state House to designate the Columbian Mammoth as the state fossil stalled in the Senate after Republican Senator Kevin Bryant added two verses from the book of Genesis.Which is totally in keeping with the separation of church and state because all religions everywhere, including non-religions, can't possibly argue with the woolly mammoth being created on the sixth day along with the other beasts of the field. It's just common sense. That amendment was ruled out of order but senators this week will debate a new amendment that says the mammoth was "created on the sixth day along with the beasts of the field," Bryant said on Monday. Yeah, anyway: If we could get started on that Mars colony, that would be grand...
While there is no cure for acne, this chronic skin condition can be managed very effectively. Dermatologists have a wide range of treatment options, including medications, chemical peels and laser light applications. That’s important to adolescents and their parents because severe acne can be painful, emotionally upsetting and may cause permanent scarring. Acne is an inflammatory skin condition characterized by clogged pores, blackheads and pimples. It occurs when the sebaceous glands produce too much of an oily substance called sebum that combines with dead skin cells and blocks the tiny hair follicles. If untreated, these whiteheads and blackheads can turn into unsightly and uncomfortable pimples, cysts and nodules deep in the skin. In teens, rising hormone levels are thought to be a factor in problematic acne conditions. If acne is a chronic problem or if acute breakouts occur, it’s important to see your child’s dermatologist. You can help your doctor by jotting down notes about your child’s skin condition. Do acne flare-ups occur at certain times of the month? Are they linked with medications or certain foods? Or are pimples just a stubborn condition that persists no matter what your child does? Your doctor may prescribe topical medications. The most common are retinoids (such as Retin-A) that work by unclogging pores and reducing inflammation. Other medications include antibiotics that kill bacteria and reducing inflammation and benzoyl peroxide. Some medications are available over the counter, while others require a prescription. Your doctor may also prescribe oral antibiotics for severe acne that does not improve with other medications. One of the newer treatment options is photodynamic therapy, where topical medications are used to enhance the effect of laser light. Another approach is using vacuum suction to remove oil and dead skin cells from the sebaceous glands, a process called photopneumatic therapy. Steroid injections may be helpful in treating painful cysts and nodules that are well below the surface of the skin. To improve the appearance of skin scarred by acne, a dermatologist may recommend chemical peeling (applying a solution to the skin) or dermabrasion (using a rapidly rotating brush to remove the top layers of skin). Lasers are also used to remove the top layer of skin and reduce scarring. It’s important to remember that most treatments take six to eight weeks to produce results. Be patient and follow your doctor’s recommendations. Managing acne usually involves removing dead cells and oily secretions from the skin and preventing bacteria build-ups. Encourage your child to do the following: — Wash skin once or twice a day with a mild cleanser. Washing more often, scrubbing skin or using facial masks can make acne worse. — Use oil-free skin care products and cosmetics. Look for water-based products. — Try over-the-counter lotions containing benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. — Reduce sweating and friction on your skin from headbands, backpacks, bicycle helmets or tight collars — Don’t squeeze or pick whiteheads, blackheads or pimples, as that may cause scarring. — Talk with your doctor about whether eating foods high in vitamin A or certain herbs may also be helpful in controlling acne. Ana M. Duarte, MD, is director of the division of pediatric dermatology at Miami Children's Hospital.
The possible development and production of oil and gas in Lebanon could be an important historic event that brings with it great hopes for the recovery of the economy and the well-being of the Lebanese people. However, it could also have perverse effects similar to what is known in economics as “Dutch disease” – namely inflation, corruption, a decline in traditional economic activities and so on. That’s why it is urgent to avoid the lapses and correct the dangerous anomalies that are already apparent. These can be summarized in the following points. First, a hybrid exploitation regime has been introduced, with the Lebanese state’s participating interest equal to zero. Among the main hydrocarbon exploitation regimes in use around the world, Lebanese officials have decided to opt for an unprecedented cross between the concession regime and production-sharing agreements. However, instead of combining the best of both systems referred to in very general terms in the 132/2010 oil law, the authors of the first two implementation decrees, which have yet to be approved, largely undermined the advantages of each, emptying them of their substance in two primary ways. Regarding royalties, which are specific to the concession system, rates have been fixed at abnormally low levels compared with international norms. And regarding the state’s effective and active participation in industrial operations, which is peculiar to the production-sharing system, the implementation decrees have simply ruled out any such participation for the moment. Although one of the most important and positive provisions of the 2010 law is that it underlines the principle of a state participating interest in the oil and gas sector, the authors of the implementation decree concerning the exploration and production agreement model contract indicated very surprisingly in Article 5 that “there is no state participating interest in first licensing round.” There is no clear reason for this wonderful gift to the interested companies, which means the state will arrive at the negotiation table with a letter of resignation in its pocket! Second, there is a $14 billion revenue shortfall due to discounted royalty rates. If there is one norm that is generally known and applied in the oil and gas industry, it is that the operator is required to pay the host country a royalty rate equivalent to at least 12.5 percent of production. Surprising as that may seem, the authors of the Lebanese implementation decrees have curiously fixed the rate of oil royalties at 5-12 percent depending on the level of production. What is even more astonishing is that the royalties rate for natural gas is simply the lowest in the world, having been set at a fixed rate of only 4 percent. A simulation contained in a report I prepared on the Lebanese oil and gas sector shows that this totally unjustified discount relative to international standards will result in annual losses for Lebanon of $238 million in the case of gas and $325 million in the case of oil. This would mean a total shortfall of more than $14 billion over the period of the 25-year exploitation agreements. These are minimum estimates of the likely losses generated solely by the low royalties tax rates. Other, very probably greater, losses would result from a new draft fiscal law imposing a 15 percent corporate tax (compared to 20-38 percent in other oil- and gas-producing countries) as well as various duty exemptions granted to the oil-right holders, including dividends, real estate, imports and reexports, stamp duty and so on. Third, the prerogatives of Lebanon’s legislative power have been hijacked. The 2010 law, whose 27-page outline provided very general principles and no figures or percentages, cut a very pale figure alongside the tens of pages of text that comprise the first two implementation decrees. The latter set out in great detail the legal, financial and other provisions of the planned oil and gas exploitation regime. All this happened as though the 128 members of Parliament had authorized the six civil servants making up the Petroleum Administration, which comes under the control of the Energy and Water Ministry, to legislate on their behalf in an area of such vital importance for the country. This reality represents a serious blow to the basic principle of the separation between legislative and executive powers. And yet no institution is better placed than Parliament to launch a healthy national public debate on this subject. Fourth, there is a paramount need for a national oil and gas company. The implementation decrees ignores a major provision of the 2010 law regarding the establishment of a national oil and gas company. This firm would act as the eye and arm of the state in Lebanon’s energy policy, and its tasks would include having a direct and active involvement in the upstream and downstream activities of the operating companies. If this does not happen, Lebanon will find itself in the position of some developing countries more than 40 years ago: as a sleeping partner and tax collector and inspector looking on powerlessly at what foreign companies are doing in their country. In this regard, the state may find itself unable to adequately gauge what determines the taxable profits of a multinational company: industrial and commercial operations, spending, depreciation, selling prices and so on. Fifth, the movements involving the sector have been opaque and shaped by political interests. Another large anomaly is the fact that the spotlight has been trained on the billions in oil wealth that would flood into our economy, whereas there is an astonishing silence surrounding the measures that have to be taken immediately and at all costs to maximize our revenues. An impressive media campaign has induced a section of the Lebanese population to believe that it would be enough for the two implementation decrees to be approved for the promised billions to gush from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. But, surprising as it may seem, only a few civil servants or influential figures have been able to see the texts of these two decrees that the Lebanese have been talking about for months. It is not surprising that this situation has raised a number of question marks and rightly or wrongly prompted serious suspicions – suspicions that only a frank and transparent debate in Parliament can allay. In the absence of such a debate and such transparency, the dreams aroused by the oil and gas sector could finally end in nightmares involving corruption, the squandering of an important national asset, the exacerbation of social and political tensions and more. Nicolas Sarkis, a petroleum economist, is founder and former chairman of the Arab Petroleum Research Center. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota recently completed a study comparing the outcomes of feeding young calves milk replacer (both conventional and accelerated diets) four times a day versus two. Dr. Noah Litherland, leader of the research team, said they hypothesized that feeding the same amount of milk replacer – but in smaller meals offered more frequently – would stimulate starter grain intake and improve efficiency of growth and actual growth compared to twice-a-day feeding. The trial included 48 Holstein and Holstein-cross heifer and bull calves assigned to one of four treatment groups: - Standard, 20:20 milk replacer fed 2X at 1.5 percent of bodyweight - Standard, 20:20 milk replacer fed 4X at 1.5 percent of bodyweight - Modified 26:18 milk replacer fed 2X at 2.0 percent of bodyweight - Modified 26:18 milk replacer fed 2X at 4.0 percent of bodyweight This schematic was followed from two to 42 days of life for all calves in the trial. Milk-replacer feeding rates were adjusted weekly to maintain 1.5 and 2.0 percent of bodyweight throughout the trial. All milk replacer was reconstituted to 15 percent solids. All animals were offered fresh water and an 18-percent crude protein starter free choice throughout the study period. Calf body weight and body structure were measured weekly, and fecal scores and starter intake were measured daily. All calves were housed in individual hutches and bedded with straw. The researchers found that increasing feeding frequency in the calves on the 20:20 milk replacer increased starter intake, but had no effect on starter intake for the calves fed an accelerated ration. However, because dry-matter intake via milk replacer solids was greater in the accelerated group, total DMI did not vary significantly between groups. Furthermore, they found that, ultimately, increasing feeding frequency did not affect the growth or gain:feed ratio between the groups of calves. Read the abstract from the February 2013 Journal of Dairy Science.
Dalhousie's Halifax campuses have two types of transit passes: Student U-Pass and Employee Transit Pass (Epass) What is a U-Pass? The student U-Pass allows students to use the HALIFAX Transit system every day, all year long. The program is convenient, reliable, and flexible. Even if you don't use your U-Pass regularly, it comes in handy for short trips to and from downtown or around HRM. If the weather turns and you don't feel like driving, why not catch a bus or ferry to your destination? The U-Pass costs $151.40 for the eight-month academic year and is part of student fees paid in September. A regular student Pass costs, $70 a month / or $560.00 for eight months – Dal students see a savings of $408.60. All Dalhousie students studying full time in the summer months (May - September) will pay for their U-Pass in student fees. The U-pass is $75.70 for the four-month period (compared to $280.00 for a regular Pass). For more information visit the U-Pass website. Who is eligible? For eligibility see the Dalhousie U-Pass website. Employee Transit Pass What is an Epass? Dalhousie has partnered with HALIFAX SmartTrip to launch a reduced-cost HALIFAX Transit bus pass program available to all permanent full-time and part-time employees, as well as associate employees. The program was piloted in 2013 and was renewed in 2014 and 2015. A primary goal of the SmartTrip EPass program is to reduce rush hour traffic in HALIFAX by encouraging employees to use transit whenever possible. The program complements the SmartTrip initiatives to reduce the number of vehicles being driven to the workplace. The EPass is for riders who use the conventional bus routes determined by Metro Transit. The LinkPass is for those riders who use the MetroLink Service, including the portion of the bus service provided by HALIFAX known as routes, 159 Portland Hills Link; 165 Woodside Link; and 185 Sackville Link. The MetroXPass if for riders who use the MetroX service, which is a limited-stop, commuter-based service linking the Airport/Aerotech Park and Fall River community, as well as the Tantallon/Sheldrake Lake area, to the downtown. Who is eligible? The epass program is offered to all permanent employees (full-time and part-time), associated employees, post-docs, and contract employees. All employees must be paid directly through Dalhousie payroll and be employed until the end of December 2015. If you are unsure of your employment status please contact your direct supervisor or Dalhousie Human Resources: Phone: (902) 494-3700 Fax: (902) 494-1480 When/how do I sign-up for an Epass? Epass registration for 2015 is now closed. Thank you to the 300+ employees who are participating this year. Registration for the 2016 program will be held in November 2015. Terms and conditions In their Terms of reference, HALIFAX requires participating employees to remain enrolled in the SmartTrip EPass program for the duration of the calendar year in which they enroll in the program. That means there will be no additional registration or cancellation until December 31st, 2015. However, opt outs can be accomodated if an employee has a change in shift, workplace location, or change in residence where new location is not within 1 kilometre of conventional transit service, MetroLink service, or conventional ferry. The SmartTrip Epass must be returned to the Office of Sustainability before payroll deducations can be stopped. An employee requesting to leave the SmartTrip Epass program prior to the end of the pilot period, for reasons other than those listed above, is required to repay SmartTrip the difference between the cost of the regular monthly pass and the cost of the SmartTrip EPass for each month in the program. For more detail, see the SmartTrip EPass Brochure [PDF - 2.4MB] The cost of the EPass is deducted from an employee's monthly payroll. The discounted rates represent a 25% savings. Dalhousie supplements part of the cost of each bus pass, in partnership with HALIFAX. The pass rates are as follows: EPass - Senior (65+) Based on current Federal legislation, the SmartTrip Epass qualifies for the transit tax credit of 15%. The Tax Credit for Public Transit Passes is a non-refundable tax credit for the cost of buying a monthly (or longer duration) pass for commuting on buses, streetcars, subways, commuter trains and local ferries. The credit applies to all passes purchased for travel after July 1, 2006 (CRA, 2006). *** The portion of the discount provided by the employer is a taxable benefit. The matching discount from SmartTrip is not taxable. For more information about taxable benefits, please visit transitpass.ca or Canada Revenue Agency. Dalhousie will be reporting the deductions for the Transit Passes directly on T4 slips. Commitment until the end of 2015 is required to register for the SmartTrip EPass/LinkPass/MetroXPass. Cancellation is not permitted, except for the following reasons: - A change in employment status where the employee is no longer an eligible employee (termination of position and retirement). - The commencement of maternity leave or paternity leave. - The commencement of leave due to illness where the participating employee is receiving benefits under a long-term disability plan or benefits from the Worker’s Compensation Board. - Any other reason acceptable to HALIFAX in its sole discretion. Cancellation or suspension of payments for holidays or seasonal use is not permitted. The SmartTrip program offers a minimum of three months of free transit, to cover holidays and other periods where you may not ride frequently. How to cancel: Dalhousie is responsible for collecting and returning any SmartTrip passes of departing employees. Prior to terminating payroll deductions for a pass, an employee must physically return their pass to the Office of Sustainability (e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org to coordinate) for purposes of cancellation and reporting. Frequently asked questions Q. Why can’t I use my Dal ID card for the employee bus pass program? A. The epass cards are unique in that they are designed to be easily identifiable to HALIFAX Transit drivers. The passes are also personalized and cannot be transferable. Q. Is the employee bus pass program offered to all Dalhousie employees? A. The program is offered to all permanent employees (full-time and part-time) and associated employees. Q. What is the difference between an EPass, a LinkPass and a MetroXPass ? A. The EPass is for riders who use the conventional bus routes determined by HALIFAX Transit. The LinkPass is for those riders who use the MetroLink Service, including the portion of the bus service provided by HALIFAX known as routes, 159 Portland Hills Link; 165 Woodside Link; and 185 Sackville Link. The MetroXPass if for riders who use the MetroX service, which is a limited-stop, commuter-based service linking the Airport/Aerotech Park and Fall River community, as well as the Tantallon/Sheldrake Lake area, to the downtown. Q. What is the cost for the transit passes for employees? A. Eligible employees will pay $58.50 (monthly) for an Epass, $70.88 (monthly) for a Linkpass and $83.26 (monthly) for a MetroXPass. This employee discount represents a 25% savings. Dalhousie is supplementing part of the cost of each bus pass, in partnership with HALIFAX. Q. Is there a discount for seniors? A. Yes, the EPass is offered to seniors for $50.75. Q. Do the EPass, LinkPass, and MetroXPass include access to Metro Transit’s Park and Ride program? A. Yes, the Epass/LinkPass/MetroXPass entitles pass holders can participate in Metro Transit’s Park and Ride program. Parking at most HALIFAX lots is free except Dartmouth Sportsplex, Woodside Ferry Terminal and Alderney Gate, which have low monthly parking rates. Q. What if I lose my EPass/LinkPass/MetroXPass? A. Any lost, stolen or damaged SmartTrip EPass is subject to a replacement fee of $25, which will be deducted from payroll. If your card is lost or stolen, please contact email@example.com and we will work with HRM to replace your card. Q. Why can't I register or opt-out of the program mid-year? A. Dalhousie University does not set the terms and conditions of the epass program. Due to the number of registered participants enrolled in the city-wide program, Halifax requires that employees remain enrolled in the SmartTrip EPass program for the duration of the calendar year in which they enroll in the program. For more transit information, visit Halifax.ca/metrotransit, call the HALIFAX Call Centre at (902) 490-4000, pick up a Riders Guide or map at any one of the 50 transit retail outlets throughout Halifax, or follow HALIFAX Transit on Twitter at @hfxtransit.
From the author of First In His Class, the definitive biography of Bill Clinton, When Pride Still Mattered, the bestselling biography of Vince Lombardi, and They Marched Into Sunlight, the classic saga of the Vietnam era—a stunning new multigenerational biography of Barack Obama. In a groundbreaking work based on hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama, and a trove of letters, journals, and other documents, one of our pre-eminent journalists presents a richly textured account of Barack Obama and the forces that shaped him. This book begins in Kansas and Kenya, decades before Obama was born, and ends as he prepares for a political life. The reader gains a deeper insight into the first black president of the United States, revealing as never before the arc of his history, character, contradictions, and ambition. As with First In His Class, Maraniss's seminal book will redefine a president. This seamless narrative moves through generations and around the world, evoking time and place so vividly that readers feel they are there. Maraniss explodes the myths as he explores the difficult and colorful lives of the president’s forebears and then follows young Barack from Hawaii to Indonesia to Los Angeles to New York to Chicago as he struggles with self-identity and searches for home.
Definitions for lindley, john This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word lindley, john The Nuttall Encyclopedia distinguished botanist, born near Norwich; wrote extensively on botany according to the natural system of classification, and did much to popularise the study; was professor of the science in London University (1799-1865). Find a translation for the lindley, john definition in other languages: Select another language: Discuss these lindley, john definitions with the community: Word of the Day Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily? Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography: "lindley, john." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2015. Web. 25 May 2015. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/lindley, john>.
Here you’ll find the answers to frequently asked questions about Dencover’s products, plans and jargon busting terms. Here we’ll help you to understand some of the commonly used jargon within dental insurance. Chat with us to suggest more jargon for us to bust! your legally married husband or wife, or your registered civil partner, or a person who is permanently living with you in the same household as if they were your husband or wife or registered civil partner. a diagnosis of a malignant tumour the insured person who purchases the policy. This person must be 18 years or older and be permanently living in the UK. treatment recommended by a dentist or specialist to ensure the maintenance of good oral health. a dentist who is registered with the General Dental Council as a specialist. For any treatment for oral cancer, specialist means a medical or dental practitioner. the 12-month period immediately following the start date and each period of 12 months after that.
Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb: Face it, there was no golden age of clean campaigns Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were in Utah last week for a business conference but used the occasion to lament the lack of civility in American politics. Their sentiments are shared by most Americans disheartened by the intense hostility and partisan antagonism in government and elections. This raises several questions: Overall, is civility decreasing in American political debate, or is this a perception due to technology and more pervasive media outlets? Pignanelli: "President John Adams is a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." — Advertisement in the Richmond Examiner authorized by the 1800 Thomas Jefferson presidential campaign. I applaud the noble efforts of organizations beseeching mutual respect in political deliberations and proud to be associated with a newspaper that is committed to this ideal. Unfortunately, American politics is a history of nasty wrestling matches. Other than George Washington, all our founding fathers excelled at character assassination. There never was a "Golden Age" when candidates refrained from vicious personal attacks. For a large chunk of the 20th century, our news was controlled by a handful of newspaper and electronic organizations — that tolerated subtle slander (i.e., Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad against Barry Goldwater). But with the arrival of cable television, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc., Americans are now receiving their news and opinions from a multitude of sources. Thus, the level of hostility in 2012 seems ubiquitous — as it was 200 years ago. We must seek to do better, but shrill politicking is our heritage. Webb: At least our politicians are not killing each other in pistol duels, as has happened in this country's political history. Otherwise, not much has changed except that we are subjected to the barrage 24/7 thanks to our nonstop media consumption. In their days, Clinton and Bush were both victims and purveyors of a great deal of negative campaigning. We tend to agree with the negative stuff our side does while decrying what the other side does as unfair. Will the 2012 presidential election be the most negative and hostile in modern history? Pignanelli: The immediate discussion on negative tactics is focused on a television advertisement prepared by a pro-Obama super PAC that i mplies Mitt Romney's business decisions killed an employee's wife. The commercial is clearly over the top. Yet, the ad was never authorized for paid broadcast. The video was placed on the web and was immediately referenced by hundreds of news and political websites. The viral success of this never-aired commercial will spawn a plague of outrageous films to be watched by millions of Americans, but never as actual television commercials. The irrelevant but vitriolic matters raised will include the religious affiliations of the candidates (President Barrack Obama and his controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright, Romney and Mormon history). Webb: Usually, an incumbent president runs at least partly on his record, while the challenger points out the flaws and how he would do better. Because Obama can't run at all on his record, both campaigns this year are focused mostly on tearing the other guy down. The candidates will say they want to discuss "big issues" and "important policy," but it all gets drowned out in the attack ads. The news media decry the lack of substance, but speaking about the intricacies of Medicare won't land you on the evening news or the front page of the Washington Post. Making a harsh attack on your opponent will. In Utah, we also sometimes practice negative politics, and the 2010 Utah election cycle — especially the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate and the gubernatorial general election — was an example of that. Will the closing months of the 2012 election be even worse? - In Our Opinion: More than a holiday, Memorial... - Your future Utah needs your input now —... - Drew Clark: Congress should modernize highway... - Robert J. Samuelson: Economic turmoil in... - Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb: Mediocre... - Letter: Special treatment - Stuart Reid: Despite study results, religion... - Letter: Chamber's misleading ad - My view: Reducing benefits gradually... 36 - Letter: A constant example 17 - National debt not just financial issue... 14 - Letter: The good ones 14 - Letter: Put people in control 13 - Letter: Today's young people care about... 11 - In our opinion: Clinton Foundation's... 8 - Jay Evensen: Why would anyone fill out... 7
"Sesame Street," the children’s show that began running in 1969, has often addressed challenges children face in today’s world. Last week the show aired an episode titled “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration,” which introduced the first muppet to have a parent in jail. “Incarcerated is when someone breaks the law — a grown up rule — and then they have to go to jail or prison,” Sofia, a human character on Sesame Street, explained to two other muppet characters in the episode. The show is targeted toward young children, many of whom face the hardships of incarceration firsthand. According to a study done by Pew Charitable Trusts, one in every 28 American children (or 3.6 percent) have a parent incarcerated, which is higher than children with a deployed parent. The report says that number is up from one in 125 from 25 years ago. Some believe that children feel more comfortable hearing tough news from Sesame Street’s muppets. “Coming from a muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to children,” said Jeanette Betancourt, V.P. of Outreach and Educational Practices, Sesame Workshop, in an interview with TODAY. Others saw the introduction of incarceration on the children’s show a sad reflection of the state of the country, not Sesame Street itself. "Congratulations, America, on making it almost normal to have a parent in prison or jail,” said Mike Riggs, a blogger for Reason Magazine. Sesame Street’s incarceration episode aims to teach children how to cope with their range of emotions when a parent is in jail. The show’s website includes “Tool Kits” for parents, which are multimedia platforms with video clips, apps, tips and resources for how to talk to a child about difficult topics. The Tool Kit website reads, “Have you ever wished that your child came with an instruction manual? Sesame Street Tool Kits are the next best things. They provide opportunities to build closeness and confidence, make learning fun, and keep your child's world safe and secure.” - 2015 summer festivals and celebrations around... - Disney's 'Tomorrowland' is a surprisingly... - Photos: Thrill seekers take on stunt-filled 5K - It's 'trauma season' in Utah for children - Boy Scouts' leader says ban on gay adults not... - U.S. marriage rate hits new low and may... - 21 things to look forward to at Disneyland's... - Why exposing your children to another... - Boy Scouts' leader says ban on gay... 168 - Erin Stewart: Why do men want 'strong'... 14 - Clinton says childcare needs to be a... 10 - U.S. marriage rate hits new low and may... 8 - Disney's 'Tomorrowland' is a... 5 - Report: Millennials in Utah mirror... 5 - 100 deadly days of summer: What you... 4 - Why exposing your children to another... 3
Rochester Hills, MI--The scene at Detroit's Metro Airport was pure Hollywood: Thirty executives, cramped in an airport conference room waiting for the unveiling of a revolutionary new product. The executives, mostly from the giant global motion-control firm of Vickers, had flown in from around the world. They watched expectantly as two men laid a hydraulic valve on a table at the center of the room. The men, who came from a tiny, nine- person firm called Microhydraulics Inc., launched into an explanation of the valve's characteristics: It was smaller, sleeker, faster, more accurate, and more repeatable than any proportional valve that Vickers had ever built. In short, it represented a revolution in hydraulic valve technology. For such an innovative product to come from outside the boundaries of the mainstream industry, however, was rare. But on this chilly day in March 1995, the two outsiders made believers out of the high-powered corporate crowd. Vickers management saw the technology and immediately began planning to introduce it into their product line. Vickers' Executive Vice President John Weber declared his intention to rally the technical forces behind the new valve--and introduce it in a scant 90 days. His message: "Do what-ever you have to do to bring this product to market," recalls Nick Matten, director of valve engineering at Vickers' Havant, England, facility. The fruits of Vickers' subsequent labors, known as the Discovery Series KV Proportional Directional Valve, reached the market late in 1995. But not before the company had virtually remade itself and its engineering culture. In the process, its engineers questioned almost everything they'd learned about valve design in the last two decades. They adopted new product-development techniques. And they introduced a valve that could change the face of hydraulic motion control. Says Charles Wall, marketing manager for Vickers in the Americas, "This proportional valve will take all but the very high-end servo-valve applications off the market." 'Out-of-the-box' thinking. The odyssey of the KV Valve began years earlier, when Canadian inventor George Kadlicko began to assemble new concepts for hydraulic valve technology. Kadlicko, a machine designer, believed that hydraulic valve technology often was woefully inefficient. Over a period of years, he worked at developing new hydraulic techniques to improve on those inefficiencies. During occasional meetings with Vickers sales representatives, from whom he bought components, Kadlicko expressed some of his ideas. After several years of hearing about these ideas, Vickers management travelled to Mississauga, Ontario, in July 1994 to meet with the machine designer. There, Vickers managers looked at a cartridge-style valve that Kadlicko had designed. They also expressed some of their own desires for future products, particularly in the area of valve performance and packaging. Based on that meeting and others, Vickers management began to formulate a plan to dramatically advance the state-of-the-art in hydraulic valve technology. As a result of extensive surveys, they knew there was a market for a valve that offered servo-type performance, without all the disadvantages of servo technology. In particular, they wanted to eliminate the high cost and maintenance problems associated with the intricate mechanisms of conventional servo valves. Vickers wasn't the first company to conjure up such ideas. Engineers have long toyed with the idea of improving on servo technology, but their efforts typically come up short in the area of performance. Proportional valves were invented as an alternative to servos. They traditionally traded lower manufacturing costs for lower performance in terms of bandwidth, deadband, and hysteresis. Kadlicko's concepts offered hope, but they hadn't yet reached the product stage. So Vickers executives hit on the idea of giving Kadlicko 30 days to package his concepts in a valve that would offer all the features they sought: high bandwidth, low hysteresis, no deadband, ruggedness, serviceability, and low cost. In short, they asked Kadlicko to do what the industry had failed to do for nearly two decades. For Vickers, the entire process was a step removed from the normal hum of day-to-day operations. The company's executives referred to it as "out-of-the-box" thinking--a whole new way of approaching not only the product, but the process. "They were trying to find a way to nurture our ideas, and bring them into their organization, without killing the golden goose," Kadlicko says. "They were very careful not to 'Vicker-ize' us." Design competition. At the same time, Vickers managers called on the company's engineers to build--in the same 30-day time span--a product that addressed the same issues. They expressed it to the engineers as a winner-take-all design competition, with the Vickers engineers going head-to-head against Kadlicko's team from Microhydraulics. For Vickers engineers, the design competition proved to be a form of culture shock. Working in a large corporation, most had grown accustomed to designing evolutionary products. Now, however, they were forced to design a revolutionary project--and to finish it in just 30 days. "The first thing they did was ask for more time," says Fred Phillips, director of advanced technology for Vickers. "Next, they argued about who should be on the team. Ultimately, almost four weeks were spent just getting organized." Phillips insists that their performance was not the fault of the engineers. Rather, he says, corporate culture was the culprit. Product design had slowly grown into a committee-based process, where engineers hesitated to make decisions. The company's engineering ranks hesitated to take risks. "This is a large company," he explains. "And large companies tend to be asset managers. There's a tendency to breed an environment where you make modifications to existing technology." At Microhydraulics, meanwhile, engineers had finished the prototype in the assigned four weeks. Kadlicko, along with the company's vice president, Greville Hampson, flew to Detroit, where they unveiled it to critical acclaim in the airport conference room. Best of both worlds. The key to Kadlicko's concept then, as now, involved the use of a "hydraulic position follower." The follower consists of a small pilot spool contained within a main spool. When a small amount of electrical current is applied to the pilot spool, it moves. Specially designed porting within the assembly then induces a pressure imbalance, causing the main spool to move to the same position as the pilot spool. "It has to move to the same spot to reestablish its pressure balance," explains Phillips. This technique enables the valve's main spool to move to its desired position, without the need for large electrical currents. As a result, the Discovery KV Valve falls in a category somewhere between conventional proportional valves and servos. Unlike conventional proportional valves, which use electrical currents of 1.5A to 3.2A for force amplification, the KV employs only about 0.4A of current. "You don't need a lot of current to make this valve work," Phillips says. "It takes advantage of the power density of hydraulics." But the KV valve accomplishes that hydraulic amplification without using the intricate passageways that servo valves typically employ. The hydraulic follower concept enables it to attain servo-like performance with orifices about 40 times the size of those in servo valves. That makes the KV less susceptible to the effects of lightly contaminated oil. This eliminates the need for "clean and calibrate" procedures, which often plague servo valves. What's more, the low inertia of the pilot spool contributes to higher bandwidth. Frequency response exceeds 100 Hz for small signals. And the design of the main spool, which fits within a fixed sleeve, eliminates many manufacturing problems. Therefore, the KV solves problems that typically plague proportional valves. Ninety-day goal. For Vickers engineers, however, the acceptance of Kadlicko's design concepts were just the beginning. The KV product team now had 90 days in which to produce drawings, build prototypes, test parts, develop the product for manufacturing, and write the technical information, sales support literature, and catalogs. Product team members, uncomfortable with the new approach, complained that time would be too short and the process too expensive. Management refused to accept excuses. They encouraged team members to make decisions on their own, buy whatever equipment was necessary, and "don't ask permission, just do it." Engineers started the development process in CAD, doing all of the design drawings in Pro/ENGINEER from Parametric Technology Corp., Waltham, MA. Geometric models were then transferred to ANSYS Pro/FEA from ANSYS, Pittsburgh, for structural finite element analysis. Later, engineers also transferred the software models to Rampant, a computational fluid dynamics program, from Fluent Inc., Lebanon, NH, which checked pressure drops and flow dynamics within the valve. Finally, software models were fed to a local company that used stereolithography techniques to create physical models of the parts. Vickers engineers relied heavily on software modeling as an early warning system for impending problems. Physical lab tests were used only for confirmation, rather than discovery of potential problems. By operating this way, engineers accomplished more work in parallel. Soon after the first prototypes were built, the team began to run into problems. With only two weeks left before the 90-day deadline, castings for the valve failed endurance tests. The problems baffled the engineers, who had been using an aluminum casting for the valve body since the outset of the design. Kadlicko, a strong-willed and opinionated entrepreneur, had insisted that aluminum would be sufficiently strong and offer weight advantages. And, indeed, all of the finite element models and burst tests proved him right. But, in the endurance tests, the valve lasted only 700,000 cycles, instead of the required 10 million. So, with the deadline drawing near, the team tried a different grade of aluminum. It, too, failed. They altered the geometry. Again, it failed. Each time, the failure involved deformation of the aluminum body. Finally, with the deadline already past, they switched to a cast-iron body, which easily passed the endurance tests. For the valve team, it was a critical learning experience. "Experience should have told us much earlier that deformation in aluminum would have been a problem at 5,000 psi," Phillips says. "But we were specifically involved with Microhydraulics so as not to have our paradigms. As a result, we didn't follow our own gut instincts." The endurance problems set the project back several weeks, temporarily causing the team to lose sight of its goal, slipping back into a more traditional mode and forgetting to work in parallel. It wasn't until mid-1995, when the company set a special date for a "Discovery Show" to introduce its new line of products, that the sense of urgency returned. Still, the team ran into another problem days before the rollout. Management even considered scrapping the introduction of the entire product line. Vickers engineers at Havant frantically exchanged drawings and prototypes with Microhydraulics engineers in Mississauga before resolving the problem with minor alterations to the valve's passages only two days before the show convened. December rollout. Unveiling of the valve at Vickers' Discovery Show in Orlando last December marked the introduction of a revolutionary technology, say Vickers executives. "All of this was done by re-thinking the hydromechanical and electromechanical aspects of amplification," notes Wall. "Servo valves use a lot of hydromechanical gain; proportional valves use a lot of electromechanical gain. The combination designed into this valve gives us the best of both worlds." For Vickers, the unveiling of the valve also marks the beginning of a new culture. Since launching the KV valve program, the company staged a similar competition for the design of a mobile proportional valve, which its engineers won. The message trickling down to the staff, Wall says, is that the firm is not risk averse. What's more, team members now feel confident that they can develop new products in 90 days. "We truly believe this is the right way to develop a product," Wall says.
Across the U.S., the shale rush has unleashed a frenzy of excitement about domestic energy supplies. But the oil and gas produced from fracking comes along with billions of gallons of wastewater and tons of mud and rock that carry radioactive materials and heavy metals. As problems with disposal mount, the industry has offered mostly vague promises of “recycling” to describe how the waste will be handled over the long run. As the nation gears up to produce vast amounts of shale oil and gas — and the toxic waste that comes along with it — it’s worth taking a look back at the failures of another industry to handle its toxic waste responsibly — the coal industry. Communities across America are still struggling to resolve problems left behind decades ago from coal mining and related industrial pollution. These aren’t merely yesterday’s problems – the ash from burning coal at coal-fired power plants remains the single largest wastestream in the U.S. In Pennsylvania, state officials have begun to quietly fast-track plans to allow barges to haul 3.5 million tons a year of hazardous coal ash from one disposal site to a new one, despite objections from the state's environmental regulators describing the disposal plans as seriously deficient. The hazards of shipping the coal ash in rivers are similar to those associated with fracking waste. A spill could directly pollute the rivers that serve as drinking water supplies to millions with an entire barge full of the heavy-metal laden waste. And with coal ash, there are unique hazards – there are no rules that would require the ash to be hauled in covered barges to prevent the arsenic- and mercury-laced dust from blowing into rivers and onto neighboring communities, according to Coast Guard officials. And, the state still lacks a long-term plan for how to safely handle the coal waste without polluting air or water once the barges arrive at their desination. For decades, entranced by economic benefits of mining and burning coal, state and federal regulators allowed coal giants to put off dealing with their toxic waste– with the result that these waste piles and pits have grown to enormous proportions. Since 1974, coal company FirstEnergy has mixed ash and scrubber waste from its Bruce Mansfield power plant in Shippingport, PA with water and pumped it via pipeline to an enormous lagoon called Little Blue Run. Little Blue Run is now the nation's largest unlined wastewater pit, spanning two states and bordering a third. Under orders to close the pit down and clean up Little Blue Run, FirstEnergy must now tackle the enormous challenge of clean up. Early indicators suggest that state regulators may once again kick the can down the road. Currently FirstEnergy plans to ship its waste from Little Blue Run to another unlined disposal site, the La Belle coal mine waste dump in Luzerne Township, PA. This is a site where residents have long complained of a litany of health problems they say are tied to the coal waste. FirstEnergy’s plan has drawn fire from a broad array of community groups. Even the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has voiced concerns. In October, the DEP sent a 29-page letter to FirstEnergy, detailing over 100 problems with the company’s plan to empty Little Blue Run, cap the site with a foot of soil and leave much of the ash buried with no liner below to keep water from washing heavy metals downwards towards the water table. The rest will be shipped to Luzerne. Nonetheless, the state has moved behind the scenes to grease the wheels for FirstEnergy. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, First Energy’s barging plan “could be approved by the state before the public gets a chance to fully comment on important parts of the proposal, according to four environmental organizations.” The barging permit is being pushed through in what lawyers for the groups say is a break with precedent. “For some reason FirstEnergy doesn't want to say in the general permit what it's going to do with the waste, and DEP seems to be taking the position that the permit doesn't require that,” Alayne Gobeille, an Environmental Integrity Project attorney told the paper. “But that's different from my understanding of the general permit provisions and different than what DEP required in the past.” The contractor that FirstEnergy plans to use to barge the waste from Little Blue Run to La Belle has a long history of environmental violations. In March, the Environmental Integrity Project and Public Justice announced a lawsuit against the contractor, Matt Canestrale Contracting Inc., over improper disposal of tons of coal-ash waste at the La Belle coal mine dump. That contractor has even previously sunk a barge carrying coal waste at that very same La Belle site. On May 16, 2006 at approximately 1:30 am, a 24-inch gash from a submerged mooring ring caused a Matt Canestrale barge carrying over a thousand tons of coal waste to sink in the Monongahela River. This sent a plume of over 35 tons of the coal waste into the river, which serves as a drinking water source for Pittsburgh and other towns. The company’s slow response to the spill prompted the DEP to send a Jan. 2, 2007 letter to the company complaining. Their employees, “seemed unaware that a spill to the Monongahela River needed to be properly remediated and reported to the Department,” the letter said, adding that that the company’s clean-up methods used after the spill were “inadequate.” FirstEnergy’s plan calls for Matt Canestrale to haul 45 barge loads a day from Little Blue Run to the La Belle site starting as soon as next year. The health hazards from coal ash are increasingly drawing attention from federal regulators, as evidence of its toxicity slowly mounts, but locals say the problems in their community are already clear. “We’ve had problems with cancer and everything else,” Luzerne Township Supervisor Ted Kollar told CBS News, describing how the coal ash already stored in La Belle has affected his town. The EPA is currently considering a move to label coal ash hazardous waste, which would bring it under federal oversight through the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Pennsylvania regulators have opposed that plan, saying it would complicate efforts like FirstEnergy's plan to empty Little Blue Run. In October, then-head of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Michael Krancer, sent a letter to the EPA in opposition. “Jumping the gun to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste would actually be environmentally detrimental,” Krancer wrote. “We have particular concern on that front here in Pennsylvania, since it would block the use of coal ash for beneficial reuse for such uses as, among other things, abandoned mine reclamation and acid mine drainage remediation.” But lawyers say using coal ash to reclaim unlined mines is just mixing two wastes together and calling it clean. “Dumping coal ash onto unlined gob piles is not a solution to mine drainage pollution and isn’t fair to communities living near these sites,” said Ms. Gobeille. “It doesn’t make sense to ship the same toxic waste Pennsylvania acknowledges is a threat to health and the environment at the Little Blue Run impoundment to an unlined mine dump and call it beneficial.” Despite the state’s struggle to handle the billions of gallons of waste produced by coal plants, state officials are doubling down on fossil fuels and demonizing anyone who parts company with them. In June, Governor Corbett issued a statement in response to Pres. Obama’s climate change proposal, calling it “not only a war on coal, as suggested by a White House climate adviser, but also a war on jobs.” The governor also recently spoke at a shale gas industry conference in Pittsburgh, where he similarly focused on fracking jobs rather than public health impacts. “The opponents of drilling have really become what I would call economic change deniers,” he told the crowd. Of course, the question remains whether, decades from now when the jobs are largely gone, the accumulated waste from both fracking and coal ash will still be plaguing the state and its residents. In the meantime, the wastewater from both industries continues to flow. Photo Credit: Land of Ash. Ash waste produced by burned coal in a power plant, via Shutterstock.
If you're the kind of person into real-life adventuring, chances are you know exactly what Geocaching is. In fact, just that name may have made you shout out, "You found a cache, where the hell is it?" But for those who haven't got a clue, Geocaching is basically a real-life treasure hunting game where you need to find things called "geocaches" which are quite literally scattered across the entire damn planet. Anyone can participate, and once you've found one you can sign a logbook and take a gander at what other adventurers participating have left. Right now there are about 1.5 million of these caches to find. I'm not kidding. The team behind the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, Crystal Dynamics, has announced that it will be collaborating with Geocaching.com to create Tomb Raider-themed adventures using both the Geocaching format and the new "Geocaching Challenges" which focuses more on pictures. Nothing more was really announced, such as exact dates or what participants will be getting out of this, but Square Enix did say that these adventures will be "embodying the spirit of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft's drive to become and explorer." It all actually sounds quite fun. [*].disqus.comto your security software's whitelist.
Media Queries and the Thoughts Behind It Smartphones and tablets have over taken the market. With high speed internet available, fast processors and sharp screens, everyone is using their portable device to browse the web. While about seven years ago we’d be discussing for which monitor resolution to design, now we have to design for everything, no ifs or buts. From personal experience I know I want and use my iPhone for all my web browsing needs when away from my desktop. I expect that websites are coded for mobile devices. To achieve that you have to use media queries to serve your website in each resolution flavor, e.g. iPhone, iPad, Galaxy Tab, landscape and portrait. Media queries is an extension of print and screen used in CSS2. <link rel="stylesheet" href="smartphone.css" media="only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px)"> Code by Andy Clarke Unfortunately or not, depending on your point of view, media queries has become the new “fixed vs fluid” argument. There are people who approach media queries as responsive web design, while others approach it as adaptive web design. I was never one to mull over these thing, as long as the code I use gets the job done. But web designers and coders are passionate people, so difference of opinion is inevitable. I collected a couple of code examples, tutorials, weblog posts on the matter of adaptive or responsive and two books about each one. Whether you are on the adaptive or responsive side, we all need to know how to implement media queries. It’s so year 2004 to only serve your website for large screens only. Tutorials and Examples Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries * Hat Tip! Opinions on Responsive or Adaptive I much prefer the name adaptive web design. A website should not respond to changing surroundings, it should adapt to them once they’ve changed. Likewise, a gas or liquid doesn’t exactly “respond” to being put in a jar by taking up the free space, it “adapts” to the space it has been placed in. Fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries are the three technical ingredients for responsive web design, but it also requires a different way of thinking. Rather than quarantining our content into disparate, device-specific experiences, we can use media queries to progressively enhance our work within different viewing contexts. Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte From mobile browsers to netbooks and tablets, users are visiting your sites from an increasing array of devices and browsers. Are your designs ready? Learn how to think beyond the desktop and craft beautiful designs that anticipate and respond to your users’ needs. Ethan Marcotte will explore CSS techniques and design principles, including fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries, demonstrating how you can deliver a quality experience to your users no matter how large (or small) their display. — A Book Apart Adaptive Web Design by Aaron Gustafson The web is an ever-changing medium whose scope, application, audience and platform continue to grow on a daily basis. If you’ve worked on the web for any amount of time, you’ve likely heard or even used the term “progressive enhancement.” Since the term’s inception, it has been considered a best practice for approaching web design. But what is it really?
Difference Between Egypt and China Egypt vs China Egypt and China are two of the world’s oldest civilizations and also two of the most populated. They are both rich in natural and archeological treasures and, as great empires, have left big impacts in history. Ancient Egypt was known as Kemet which literally means black land. Its present name, Egypt, refers to the two straits or the separation of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ancient China was known as Cathay. Its current name, China, which means ‘porcelain,’ was popularized by Marco Polo. Both civilizations invented writing, have distinct languages, and are famous for the burial grounds or chambers for their rulers. Egypt has become popular with its pyramids which were built as burial places for Pharaohs. China is famous for its Great Wall which was constructed as defense against attacks from its enemies. Both ancient civilizations practiced religion with Egypt practicing a religion that was centered around the divinity of their ruler while China had a religion that practiced ancestor worship. Today, both countries are home to different religious beliefs. In the practice of medicine, both Egypt and China have developed remedies for all kinds of ailments. Ancient Egyptians believed that ailments were caused by curses and spells and provided amulets and potions to fight them. Ancient Chinese, on the other hand, believed that ailments were caused by the imbalance of negative and positive energies, yin and yang. They treated them with herbs, acupuncture, and certain exercises which are still very popular today. Trade is one of the common reasons for early civilizations to expand and conquer other countries, and Egypt and China both possessed military and economic powers during the height of their imperial reigns. China is one of the first civilizations to use paper money. In fact, the oldest known paper money was found in China while the use of money was not known in Egypt until 1000 BC. Barter, the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services, was the norm. Today, both Egypt and China are active members and participants of world trade. Both countries have experienced conflict and unrest in their transition from ancient dynasties into modern democratic and socialist states. They are members of the United Nations and are involved in trade with several other nations. There can be no doubt that they have differences in economic, cultural, natural, and historical aspects. These differences have helped shape what these countries and their people have become in their long history and existence. 1. Egypt is a country located in the continent of Africa while China is a country located in the continent of Asia. 2. Both are ancient civilizations which are famous for their dynasties with Egypt having Pharaohs and kings while China had emperors and queens. 3. They both practiced medicine with the Egyptians believing that ailments are caused by curses while the Chinese believed that they are caused by the imbalance of positive and negative forces in nature. 4. They have ancient religions with Egypt’s being centered around the divinity of its ruler while China practiced ancestor worship. 5. Both practiced trade with China being the first to use paper money while Egypt used barter. Search DifferenceBetween.net : Email This Post : If you like this article or our site. Please spread the word. Share it with your friends/family. Leave a Response
Technology trends and their impacts on the provision of government services. The Data Center of the Future? September 15, 2008 By Carl Drescher An interesting article in the Times Online about a solution proposed by Google for their new data centers. According to the article, Google is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate their Internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore. The floating data centers could use wave energy to power and cool their computers. And if they had an "offshore status," the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data center properties around the world, an additional saving. I have heard about the generation of electrical power from the motion generated from ocean waves, but this certainly solves issues associated with current data centers: power costs and cooling. While there are a whole hosts of issues associated with a scenario such as this that must be addressed, (and yes I know that Google is looking to address legal issues as well) but from a technical perspective I am interested to know what your thoughts are regarding the use of data barges as future data centers.
NEF's Adopt- A-School Grant Offered for Michigan Public Schools: 100 STEM Grant initiative (PRWEB) September 22, 2013 Michigan public school’s face a setback in the implementation of Common Core as the state removes budgetary dollars. The decision made by the state legislature this summer left school Administrators facing the possibility of not meeting their AYP. The National Education Foundation, a non-profit focused on bridging the academic divide, is offering a solution, STEM grants that provide academic opportunities for students that will enable schools to meet their AYP. NEF has created an innovative program, CyberLearning web-based platform that addresses AYP and Core Curriculum requirements of school districts. NEF’s Cyberlearning grants provide a world class STEM education for K-12 students. The grant includes a STEM+ student academy, Parent Academy (IT, Business, and Management), Teacher Professional Development Academy, and a Workforce Development Academy. The vision of NEF is to implement at least one district in each state. The program goal is to train a million employees in job skills below the market fee, and use the funds to provide world-class STEM education to a million students of schools adopted or chosen by the businesses/employers. NEF’s ADOPT-A-SCHOOL PROGRAM is a great way to bridge the gap between businesses and non-profits. This private-public partnership creates a working relationship that can bring about a social change, specifically provide STEM education resources to disadvantaged schools. The need for STEM skills is elevated in today’s global economy. Innovations in technology has heightened the demand for a STEM capable workforce; despite this high demand the US is following short in producing an ample supply of workers to meet demand. "According to the U.S. Labor Department, US alone has 13 million people looking for jobs. At the same time, US has 3 million jobs looking for qualified skilled people,” states Dr. Kuttan. In addition to the courses, the grant provides schools funds for teacher stipends, student motivational rewards and teacher training. The Cyberlearning total system solution enables a student to advance a grade level in 20-30 learning hours in a subject such as math or reading, as documented by SUNY. In addition to a world-class STEM+ academy for the students, the grant provides a Parent Academy in IT and Business, and a Teacher Professional Development Academy, and a tuition-free Workforce Development Academy for the community. This national initiative creates effective STEM partnerships among schools, universities and businesses just as President Obama exhorted in the State of the Union address in January, 2013. NEF Chairman, Dr. Appu Kuttan states, “America is ranked 25th out of 35 countries in math and science. To compete in the global economy, our students need better STEM+ skills. Our initiative is aimed at preparing our students better for college and STEM-related jobs, while helping to improve worker productivity in our businesses.” President Bill Clinton has commended NEF for “your ongoing commitment for creating a better and stronger America.” This initiative is a win-win-win partnership—schools and students are the biggest winners; businesses save on annual training costs, and receive enormous CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and PR credits; universities get an opportunity to help schools and communities. The National Education Foundation (NEF) is the national non-profit leader in bridging the academic and job skills divides by providing world-class education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), English, test prep, digital literacy, IT, business and management to millions of disadvantaged students and adults. See http://www.cyberlearning.org
In 1989, a group of volunteers including local politicians, state employees, geologists and paleontologists banded together to form the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge. Organized originally to stop the looting of the unique resources along Dinosaur Ridge, this group also had a vision of sharing their collective knowledge about the area with their neighbors. Since its inception, the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge has grown to host close to 100,000 visitors each year. Help us continue the legacy of education and preservation by donating your time and talents. If education and interpretation interest you, a great volunteer opportunity is right around the corner! School/Group Interpretive Tour Guide Brings fossils and geology alive by being a volunteer tour guide at Dinosaur Ridge. Throughout the year, over 10,000 school children take fully guided tours of Dinosaur Ridge or Triceratops Trail with a trained guide. Most of these tours are given free of charge to schools who have 50% or more students receiving free and reduced lunch. These groups range from schools to senior centers, and have between 10-250 participants. Tour Guides lead these groups on a tour of Dinosaur Ridge and interpret the geology and paleontology located here. Guides may work alone with smaller groups or with up to five other Guides for large groups. Training provided. Great experience for interpretation and education! This opportunity is usually Monday-Friday, outdoors, mainly March-October, and flexible. The Backyard Bones: Cretaceous Crime Scene Dinosaur Dig Program requires a facilitator that leads small groups of 20 or fewer on a hands-on program using the Dinosaur Dig pit at the Visitor Center. This program is targeted toward younger students and other chaperoned groups of 2nd grade or younger. Training provided. Exhibit Hall Docent Interpretive Specialists will get a chance to work in the Trek Through Time, the exhibit hall located at the Dinosaur Ridge Visitor Center. Specialists will greet visitors, collect fees, and give short presentations in different areas around the Exhibit Hall. Training provided. This opportunity is available 7 days a week, year-round. Shifts are divided into a morning shift (10-1) and an afternoon shift (1-4), work once a week, once a month, or as needed. Discovery Day Specialist From May through October, on the 2nd Saturday, the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge host monthly special events called Dinosaur Discovery Days. During DDDays, Discovery Day Specialists answer questions and give short interpretive demonstrations at different sites along the Dinosaur Ridge trail. There are also hands-on opportunities at the Dinosaur Ridge Visitor Center where Specialists assist visitors with track painting, gold panning, fossil sifting, metal detecting, orienting visitors, parking and crowd control (as needed), and set-up and tear-down. Training is provided the day of. Fossil Casting Technicians Cast dinosaur footprints, claws, teeth, and other small fossils that are sold in the gift shop or used for giveaways at special events. Fossil Casting Techs create these replicas as well as those used in educational programs. Training provided. Flexible opportunity, the casting area is open 7 days a week, year-round. Community Outreach Provider Represent the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge at various festivals and events throughout the Denver Metro Area. Duties include setting up an informational booth, facilitating hands-on educational activities (fossil sifting, etc.), distributing flyers and brochures, and answering general questions about Dinosaur Ridge. This is a great way to get free admission to many area events. Training provided. This opportunity is usually on weekends. Something we haven’t mentioned? Interested in something not on this list? Let us know and we’ll develop the position that’s right for you. We will train you for each of these positions or provide the opportunity to work with a mentor. Contact Amber Cain to volunteer. 303-697-3466 x 107
The first weeks of a new school year is an exciting time because it's a fresh start. It's also an opportunity to make a good first impression. Of course, you hear a lot about making a good impression with your looks—your clothes, hair, etc. But did you know there are many other factors that contribute to first impressions? Here are a few tips for putting your best foot forward the first week of school. Something as simple as a smile can let new students know you'd like to be friends. It can also let friends you haven't seen in a while know you're still the nice, friendly girl they remember from last year. Hold Your Head High and Shoulders Back. If you look confident even when you don't feel confident, others will pick up on it and feel more comfortable around you. Eventually, you might even start to feel more confident, too! Be Friendly to Everyone! You can never have too many friends. So even if you already have a good group of friends, challenge yourself to make more. Walk up to someone you don't know well, look her in the eye and say. "It's good to see you again! How was your summer?" Do you have any back-to-school tips to share?
The Convent Gardens &, The Tree Of Life Garden Díseart Institute of Irish Spirituality and Culture was founded in 1996 in the heart of Corca Dhuibhne - the Dingle Peninsula Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) and strives to promote research, courses and cultural activities in all areas of Irish Spirituality and Celtic Culture including theology, language, literature, art, laws, folklore, values, spirituality, history, music, archaeology and customs. Garden Concept - The Tree Of Life - The Design The garden is inspired by the tree of life. The garden will be a meditative journey in which we can root ourselves by being surrounded by a wild, alive place. Wild plants plants allow us to connect with the earth and feel that silent space within ourselves where we have unlimited potential to be powerful. We can contribute to the positive changes in the world by using our thoughts as powerful tools to dream up a new world. It is clear from most of us that the lives we are living are not working and once we atep past the fear of change , we can imagine a gentler reality,which is sustainable and meaningful. Many of the early cultures in the world (Myan, pre-Celtic etc) had similar stands of belief. One of these beliefs was represented with an iconic image called the tree of life. Our ancestors believed that we existed in three different realms of being at the same time. The tree of life was divided into three realms. The roots of the tree, the trunk of the tree emerging from the earth and the crown of the tree. The concept of time was different to ours and they used the image of the tree and its roots to explain this. The belief was that everything that happened in the past, all of our possible paths in our future and our present reality co-exist and each realm constantly affects the others. We are going through a massive shift of consciousness in the world and these ancient beliefs are once again rising to the surface. New Garden Designs - By Mary Renolds
become an editor the entire kids and teens directory only in Artists/Pippin,_Horace Kids and Teens People and Society : Pippin, Horace Kids and Teens: People and Society: Biography: African-American Explore PA History: Horace Pippin Historical Marker [ Kids/Teens ] - Presents details of the life of this African-American self-taught painter from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Includes marker text and images. [ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Biography of the African American folk painter written by Jean Ershler Schatz. [ Kids/Teens ] - Presents a brief biography of this self-taught African-American painter. From The Phillips Collection. " search on: to edit this category. Copyright © 1998-2015 AOL Inc. Visit our sister sites Last update: June 10, 2013 at 13:02:26 UTC -
become an editor the entire directory only in Croquet/Associations World Croquet Federation - World governing body for croquet. Past and future world croquet championships, news and directory of member associations. The Croquet Association - The governing body for England, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Provides introduction to the games, laws and handicap systems, history, equipment, tournaments and results, plus technical papers and a club directory. Croquet Association of Ireland - Information about tournaments and results, fixtures, history and news plus a club directory. Based in Dublin. - Includes how to play, where to play, laws of the game, international results and rankings, tournaments, croquet for kids, referees, and coaches. Directory of associations. - News and information on clubs, members, tournaments and rules. Includes photos, learning how and equipment. Based in Toronto. Croquet Federation of Belgium - Features events calendar, information on the country's history with the sport and contact information. Based in Brussels. Croquet New Zealand - All about the council and its associations and clubs, tournaments, player profiles and rankings, news and junior croquet, plus details about the game and its versions. - Australian organization promoting, developing and encouraging the sport. Includes origin and games, club directory, events calendar, tournament results, referee and coaching notes. - Niddrie, Victoria; Australia - clubs, tournaments, links, and news. Scottish Croquet Association - Organises competitions and coaching for its individual members and nine affiliated clubs. Directory for clubs, contacts and competitions. South Australia Croquet Association - Contains past results, news, contacts, club list, rules, events, coach and referee information, and a newsletter. Based in Adelaide, Australia. South West Federation of Croquet Clubs - Club directory, event calendar, tournament results, news, and links. England. United States Croquet Association (USCA) - National governing body introduces the sport, player rules and conduct guide, tournament schedule, club information, and details the American Rules. Welsh Croquet Association - Includes competitions and results, croquet records, photos and roster of officers. Dyffryn Gardens. West Australian Croquet Association (WACA) - Governing body in Western Australia. Features news, results, links, handicaps and rankings, and calendar. " search on: to edit this category. Copyright © 1998-2015 AOL Inc. Visit our sister sites Last update: December 14, 2012 at 13:35:06 UTC -
Professor Eric Kandel discusses the attributes that make Aplysia, a type of sea slug, an ideal model for studying learning and memory. I went to Aplysia because I thought it would be a very good model for learning for three reasons. One is, it has a nervous system made up of relatively few cells. Your brain has a million, million nerve cells, Aplysia has twenty thousand nerve cells, number one. Number two, these cells are collected in clusters called ganglia; there are ten of them. Each one has about two hundred nerve cells. Three, the cells are the largest nerve cells in the animal kingdom. You can see them with your naked eye. And they are not only large, they are distinctive, so you can recognize each cell as an individual and return to different cells in every animal of the species, and those prove to be extremely good advantages for studying any behavior and seeing how behavior is modified by learning and memory. Cognitive information is encoded in patterns of nervous activity and decoded by molecular listening devices at the synapse. Professor Seth Grant explains how different patterns of neural firing are critical to cognition.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 26, 2010 State DNR works with local fire districts to protect communities Federal grant program helps refurbish surplus equipment OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Firefighter Property Program (FFP) provides small fire districts across Washington with grants to refurbish surplus federal equipment for firefighting. The grant program is administered by DNR and uses funds provided by the United Stated Forest Service (USFS) to improve the state’s ability to fight wildfires by better equipping local fire districts. This program also reduces equipment costs to taxpayers. DNR and USFS sponsor the FFP grants each year. There is $300,000 available this year, and the deadline for applying is October 29. Refurbishing surplus engines and chassis into useable firefighting equipment is the highest priority for funding. Grant applicants may contact Bob Bannon for more information at 360-902-1315 or firstname.lastname@example.org . All fire districts have the opportunity to receive surplus federal equipment. Upon receipt of engine and tender chassis, the title to the property is turned over to the fire district. Then grant funds are used to rebuild those chassis and put them in vehicles and into service within a year. The local fire district must also agree to assist DNR in fighting wildfires in Washington. Here are two of last year’s successful grant recipients: - Klickitat County Fire Protection District #4 in Lyle announced they received their second vehicle and put it into service just in time to fight a wildfire in August of this year. They received their first chassis in 2009. They also received a second Volunteer Fire Assistance grant through DNR to fund a portion of the costs for converting the truck into firefighting status. - Jefferson County Fire Protection District #5 in Sequim went through the grant process with the Firefighter Property Program in 2009. The fire district made modifications to a tender in order to bring it up-to-date. It was then put into service at the beginning of October of this year. To view photos of the equipment, visit the DNR flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wastatednr/5118270055/in/photostream/ DNR’s wildfire mission Administered by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, DNR is responsible for preventing and fighting wildfires on 12.7 million acres of private, state, and tribal-owned forestlands in Washington. DNR is the state’s largest on-call fire department. During fire season, this includes more than 700 DNR employees who have other permanent jobs with the agency and about 375 seasonal workers. DNR also participates in Washington’s coordinated interagency approach to firefighting. Media Contact: Janet Pearce, Community Outreach and Environmental Education, 360-902-1122, email@example.com # # #
- London, British Library, ms. Add. 22912: page range 369 leaves - Acquired: unknown - Film: 35mm Black-and-white Negative NotesOn pp. 16-17 (fols. 15v [12v] – 16r [13r], as far as numeration is possible), writing in the gutter is obscured. Otherwise, a generally clean and readable film. There is some small redox (tiny red-orange dots), and scratches down the length of most of the film, but neither affects legibility. There is only one exception to the film’s legibility: after several folios of diagrams, not paginated, are perhaps four pages, given new page-numbers but also variously foliated (the first is given as 108, 139 [or poss. 129] and 127). These include inscriptions from Corinth (Θεοῖς πατρίοις καὶ τῇ πατρίδι – Dijs patrijs et patria; Ἁγία Μαρία Θεοτόκε φύλαξον, &c.;), with discussion; these pages are mostly legible, but less than satisfactory, and the photographers seem to have been aware of this, as there are multiple shots taken.
The reasons for women's poor representation on boards of directors continue to be mostly the same. Increasing the presence of women on corporate boards is a business imperative: adding women on boards can have an important signaling effect to employees, shareholders, and the external business community. A 2007 study by Stephen Brammer, Andrew Millington, and Stephen Pavelin found more women on the boards of retail establishments, utilities, media organizations, and banking firms and suggested that close proximity to final consumers can explain the role of women in shaping board diversity. In their immediate past study, researchers found only modest improvement in board diversity in Tennessee publicly traded corporations compared to the results of their original study in 1995. Perhaps if the business community of Tennessee became aware of recent profitability studies, CEOs would acknowledge that gender diversity brings value and profitability to a corporation. CEOs are focused on profitability and the bottom line. Gender diversity offers value and profitability to the bottom line. Pages to are hidden for "Still Chilly After All These Years: A Longitudinal Study of Corporate Board Composition in Tennessee"Please download to view full document
I have been meaning to write a post on this subject for some time now, and with each passing month the subject becomes more apt, read on to see why. When designing websites, one of the first questions that gets considered is what resolution should the website be optimized for. Ask this same question across the web and you will almost certainly get the same answer: “Design it for a 1024px width resolution”. The reason for this is that it meets the requirements of most users. Designing for a size bigger than this would have meant a horizontal scrollbar appearing on the majority of users monitors (as little as ten years ago only 4% of users were using screens with a resolution bigger than 1024px) However, times are changing. Since January 2000, the market share of larger screen resolutions has been rapidly increasing. So much so that at the time of writing this post (according to these figures published monthly by the World Wide Web Consortium) over 85% of users are using a screen resolution higher than 1024px, with only 1% of users using a resolution less than 1024px. That leaves us with a total of just over 14% of users still using a resolution of 1024px or less. So what resolution should we be designing for? Although the numbers are declining, and will continue to do so as people upgrade their machines, 14% is still a rather hefty chunk of the market to ignore. If you must design a fixed width website, 1024px is still the choice for now in my opinion. However, with the ever-increasing popularity of flexible and fluid width websites caused by the sheer amount of differing resolutions brought to the market by smartphones and tablets alike, will we even ask this question in the years to come? The fluid approach is a growing trend in many of the new websites I see published today, and with Apple bringing out their retina display Macbook Pro with a resolution of no less than 2880px late last year, it seems it could be the way forward. We can expect screen resolutions to get bigger and bigger as technology advances and thus is it realistic to be designing for a 2880px resolution? Fluid width design gives us an unlimited canvas size to work with, within reason, and can only help us in giving each user a unique experience and actually help our job as designers. For the moment though, 1024px is still the way to go.
Dr. Redwine made a pelvic map for each woman and carefully marked on it where he had taken the biopsy and which biopsies turned out to be endo. He found that the most common site of endo was the peritoneum, especially behind the uterus in the "cul de sac" or the bottom most part of the pelvis. The ovaries and the fallopian tube were found to be uncommon sites for endo. When he biopsied all suspicious lesions (abnormalities) in the pelvis, things that didn't look like endo (clear, white, red and yellow in colour called atypical implants) turned out to be endo when examined under the microscope by a pathologist. Only 36 percent of women had the typical blue or black implants that doctors are always looking for but more 43 percent had atypical implants only. These 43 percent of women would have their endo completely missed by a doctor looking only for the blue or black implants. This was the case with a 26-year-old surgical nurse with severe pelvic pain that was interfering with her work. After a laparoscopic examination of her pelvis, her gynecologist told her she had a normal pelvis and perhaps the pain was in her head. Another one and a half years of pain later and she finally saw Dr. Redwine. He found that the back of her pelvis was riddled with endo that had predominantly a white colour. Reoccurrences after surgery, he believes, are most often "simply disease the surgeon missed." And the surgeon is likely to miss quite a lot if he or she only removes the classic blue-black abnormalities. In fact, Dr. Redwine's rule is that "any suspicious area of the pelvic peritoneum is endo until proven otherwise by biopsy." The final diagnosis of endo, he stresses, should by made by the pathologist and not by the gynecologist. Dr. Redwine also found that endo was hidden in two thirds of peritoneal pockets that he found. These are folds or defects in the peritoneum that must be turned inside out and examined. In the microscopic study of biopsied tissue, Dr. Redwine found few or no blood or blood vessels. From this he concluded that misplaced endometrial tissue does not bleed in the way he had been taught. Instead, he believes that the endo tissue secretes a chemical that causes nearby blood vessels to bleed. The blood becomes trapped under the peritoneum and as it ages, turns from clear, white and yellow to red and blue and finally black. He found that women under 30 were more likely to have clear, yellow, or red lesions and women over 30, the characteristic black powder burn lesions. Endo Does Not Progress Dr. Redwine found no evidence that the disease is highly recurrent or progressively spreading. From all these observations, Dr. Redwine concluded that endo is a static disease, persistent but not recurrent, in women of all ages, with pain as the most common problem. It also occurs independent of periods and most of the growths are atypical in appearance. Dr. Redwine has come up with a theory that explains all of his findings which he calls Mulleriosis. The Mullerian duct system of the fetus gives rise to the cells of the uterus, tubes, ovaries and peritoneum of the adult. Dr. Redwine believes as these Mullerian cells migrate along the back of the pelvic wall, some cells get left behind. If these cells are endometrial cells, endometriosis may result. Other types of cells can be left behind as well. This may explain why ovarian, cervical and tubal cells are found in odd places in the pelvises of some women have endo. Dr. Redwine believes that drug therapy of endo with danazol or newer drugs like synarel and lupron is expensive, has serious side effects, does not destroy endo and has a high rate of pain reoccurrence as soon as treatment is stopped. Lose weight – diet and exercise plans
What I'm Reading: Diane Sicotte The Office of University Communications January 22, 2013 — Dr. Diane Sicotte Drexel’s Dr. Diane Sicotte, an associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is researching environmental inequality in the Philadelphia region, and is working on a book regarding her research. She’s extremely busy, but that doesn’t stop her from making time to read—especially when it helps in her research. Sicotte is currently reading Nature’s Entrepôt: Philadelphia's Urban Sphere and Its Environmental Thresholds, edited by Brian C. Black and Michael J. Chiarappa. The book focuses on the planning, expansion and sustainability of Philadelphia and contains chapters contributed to by various academics including Sicotte herself. Why did you choose this book and what is it about? Well, this book is kind of central to the work I am doing now, because I am reading a lot of environmental history. I was excited about it because it was the first book chapter that I had written. But what I really wanted was to read everyone else’s chapters —there are chapters from really interesting historians. There is a chapter by Carolyn Adams, who is a professor at Temple and researches all of the old industrial towns around Philadelphia. And there is another really fascinating chapter by a historian named Thomas Apel who wrote about the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia and what caused it. What is it about this book/topic that you find important or enjoyable? I love Philadelphia’s history. But one of the things that I think is neglected about this city is its industrial and environmental history. I think environmental history is new to historians just like environmental sociology is fairly new to sociologists. Philadelphia, in particular, is a town that neglects its industrial history because it’s sort of hidden —you have to dig further for it. And to me that makes it all the more fascinating because it is connected with so many other really interesting things about Philadelphia. If you go to the library and you look in Philadelphia’s history you’ll see 50 different books about the colonial days and Benjamin Franklin but you won’t find any books about pollution or the industrial revolution or even the environmental history of the city. I’m finding that’s because it’s so huge and diverse it spans such a long period of time that it is very difficult to write about. With this book, the authors have done a good job of pulling together certain aspects of that environmental history. So far, has the book lived up to your expectations? Actually, I think it has pretty much exceeded my expectations. I would’ve been interested in just about any book on Philadelphia’s environmental history. But this one was very useful to my work as well, so, I’m not just reading it because I am interested or I have a chapter. I’m reading it because I’m actually finding some things out that I didn’t know before. Is there a passage or a quote you find particularly interesting? "The pattern on the map makes it clear how the region's two main rivers, the Delaware and the Schuylkill, shaped the locations of industrial districts in the 19th century. Even at the time of the American Revolution, the river banks of southeastern Pennsylvania were already dotted with small-scale manufacturers who operated paper mills, flour mills, textile mills, and iron works." Read more from DrexelNow »
By Linda Hsieh, managing editor, and Jesse Maldonado, associate editor A project to measure and improve land rig moves identified four key fundamentals and their integration as the path to improved efficiency: streamlined procedures, intelligent rig design, maximum equipment utilization and effective communication. In a presentation at the 2014 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Thad Dunham, Process Engineer, Rig Solutions for National Oilwell Varco (NOV), noted that the project initially began with a narrower scope but quickly expanded when the potential for improvements became obvious. “The original objective was to go out, work with the contractors and the operators doing the job, figure out how the rigs are actually being moved and see if we can come up with any design improvements based on what we’re seeing in the field.” The team began by mapping out the entire rig move process through detailed observations of actual rig moves and the use of time-lapse video technology. Using the data that was collected, the team then developed a baseline rig move using a scheduling software. The software allows for different scenarios to be input so the team can see how the entire process is impacted, Mr Dunham explained. “This is also important because you can track the utilization of the equipment that’s moving your rig. We use this as a way to determine, for example, do you need two cranes? Do you need one crane? If you’re using two, are you maximizing the use of your second crane? It’s fairly simple stuff, but in order to quantify it and see it on paper, this system was very important.” Once the initial baseline rig move, which identified a total 208 steps, was established, NOV partnered with a drilling contractor to use a test rig to track its moves and implement changes. Rig release-to-spud time at the beginning of the project averaged 4.42 days. After changes were implemented, that number consistently went down to less than four days, Mr Dunham said. Improvements made to streamline procedures included creating simple timelines, interactive procedures and checklists. “It is important to have timelines and simple documents that people in the field can easily read,” Mr Dunham said. “Your rig design is also very important. The mast and sub obviously are the most critical, and then there are cable management, the size of the loads, the number of the loads it takes to move the rig. A lot of little things add up to a move taking five days versus taking four days.” In order to maximize the use of equipment, detailed and accurate load plans must be in place, as well as driver checklists. “This is a real basic example, but as far as the number of trucks that you are using to move a rig, does everybody know how many trucks that takes? How long is the move? How many miles is it? If it’s 60 miles, you might need more trucks than if it’s just 20 miles. Do you have all that lined up from the beginning?” The ultimate goal is to set up a move plan where the equipment that can do the most work is actually working the most. Effective communication is the fourth fundamental component of an efficient rig move, Mr Dunham said. The study suggested planning meetings should be held days prior to the rig move. Transportation routes and potential road hazards should be coordinated with the trucking company. Further, the rig manager should be in constant contact with all parties and be prepared to monitor the move. Finally, when the rig move is done, capturing lessons learned is also paramount. “Talking about what we’ve learned and what we can do better – I can honestly say this is the most important thing, as far as moving the rig goes,” Mr Dunham said. Looking to the future, he noted the significant potential this type of approach can have for pad-to-pad rig moves on an industrywide basis. “And, lastly, simulation is something that we are currently working on at the moment to incorporate into the process improvement,” he said. For more information about this project, please see IADC/SPE 167986, “Measuring and Improving Land Rig Moves Using Hard Data.”
What is testicular cancer? Most testicular cancer starts in the sperm-making cells of the testicles. Testicular cancer occurs most commonly in men aged 15 to 39 years. What increases my risk for testicular cancer? - One or both testicles did not descend (drop) into your scrotum - A genetic disorder, such as Klinefelter syndrome - A family history of testicular cancer - Smoking cigarettes What are the signs and symptoms of testicular cancer? - A painless lump or change in how your testicle feels - Your testicle becomes larger or smaller - Swelling of your scrotum - A feeling of heaviness in the scrotum - A dull ache in the lower abdomen or in the groin - Pain or discomfort in your testicle or scrotum - Breast swelling or tenderness How is testicular cancer diagnosed? Your healthcare provider may shine a small flashlight on your scrotum. This may show a lump in or on your testicle. You may need one or more of the following tests: - Blood tests may be used to check for cancer markers. - An ultrasound or CT may show if the cancer has spread. You may be given contrast liquid to help healthcare providers see the cancer better. Tell the healthcare provider if you have ever had an allergic reaction to contrast liquid. - A biopsy may be used to take tissue from the testicle to be tested for the type of testicular cancer. - Lymphangiography is a procedure that uses dye to see if the cancer has spread to your lymph nodes. Will testicular cancer affect my ability to have sex? A man with one normal healthy testicle can still have sex and make sperm. Before treatment, ask your healthcare provider how your ability to have sex may change. Treatment can affect these abilities. Some men have their sperm removed and frozen so that they can father a child at a later time. How is testicular cancer treated? - Surgery may be needed to remove your testicle. Lymph nodes that contain cancer may also be removed. - Radiation therapy kills cancer cells and may stop the cancer from spreading with x-rays or gamma rays. - Chemotherapy medicine is used to treat cancer by killing cancer cells. Chemotherapy may also be used to shrink lymph nodes that have cancer in them. What can I do to manage my testicular cancer? - Do not smoke. Smoking increases your risk for new or returning cancer. Smoking can also delay healing after treatment. Ask your healthcare provider for information if you currently smoke and need help quitting. - Drink liquids as directed. Drink extra liquids to prevent dehydration. You will also need to replace fluid if you are vomiting or have diarrhea from cancer treatments. Ask your healthcare provider which liquids to drink and how much you need each day. - Limit or do not drink alcohol as directed. Limit alcohol to 2 drinks per day. A drink of alcohol is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1½ ounces of liquor. - Eat healthy foods. Healthy foods include fruits, vegetables, whole-grain breads, low-fat dairy products, beans, lean meats, and fish. Ask if you need to be on a special diet. - Exercise as directed. Exercise can help increase your energy level. Ask your healthcare provider about the best exercise plan for you. How should I do a testicular self-exam? A testicular self-exam (TSE) can help you learn how your testicles normally look and feel. Ask your healthcare provider or oncologist for more information about a TSE and how often to do one. - Stand in front of a mirror and look at your scrotum. Look for changes in its shape, size, and color. It may be normal for one side of your scrotum to be larger or to hang lower than the other. - Examine one testicle at a time. Put the thumbs of both hands in front of the testicle. Put the second (pointer) fingers behind the testicle. Gently roll each testicle between the thumbs and fingers of both hands. Feel for any lumps or changes in the testicle. It may be normal for one of your testicles to feel slightly larger than the other. Find a long, cord-like tube on top and in back of each testicle. This is the epididymis. Feel for any changes in the epididymis. Call 911 for any of the following: - Your leg feels warm, tender, and painful. It may look swollen and red. - You suddenly feel lightheaded and short of breath. - You have chest pain when you take a deep breath or cough. - You cough up blood. When should I contact my healthcare provider? - You have a fever. - You are confused or cannot think clearly. - You are vomiting and cannot keep any food or liquids down. - You feel lumps or other changes in your testicle. - You are depressed and feel you cannot cope with your illness. - You have pain that does not decrease or go away after you take your pain medicine. - You have questions or concerns about your condition or care. Care AgreementYou have the right to help plan your care. Learn about your health condition and how it may be treated. Discuss treatment options with your caregivers to decide what care you want to receive. You always have the right to refuse treatment. The above information is an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatments. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before following any medical regimen to see if it is safe and effective for you. © 2015 Truven Health Analytics Inc. Information is for End User's use only and may not be sold, redistributed or otherwise used for commercial purposes. All illustrations and images included in CareNotes® are the copyrighted property of A.D.A.M., Inc. or Truven Health Analytics. Learn more about Testicular Cancer Drugs associated with: Micromedex® Care Notes: Related encyclopedia articles: - 17-Ketosteroids urine test - Abdominal CT scan - Aging changes in the male reproductive system - Alpha fetoprotein - Cushing syndrome - HCG blood test - qualitative - HCG blood test - quantitative - Leydig cell tumor - Malignant teratoma - Pelvis MRI scan - PET scan - Scrotal ultrasound - Testicle pain - Testicular biopsy - Testicular cancer Symptoms and treatment for: Mayo Clinic Reference:
Compiled by Ducks Unlimited Canada Production will likely vary in the BC/Boreal Region, where most waterfowl species have arrived or passed through. Recent rains have improved conditions in much of the Prairie Region, particularly in Alberta. Birds are well into nesting in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and early broods are already being reported. The nesting season also started early in Eastern Canada, where habitat conditions remain good overall.
Wigeon are among the first waterfowl to migrate south each year, with some particularly early migrants departing in late August. Wigeon use every flyway during migration, but are most abundant in the Pacific Flyway . They gather in large numbers on fall staging areas for varying durations before finally settling on their wintering grounds. For example, when wigeon first arrive in the Pacific Northwest in September and October, the birds often congregate on bays and estuaries along the coast, where aquatic plants are a reliable food source. As tidal fluctuations increase and heavy rains fill interior floodplain wetlands later in the fall, many wigeon migrate inland. Here the birds find an abundance of food in seasonal wetlands and on adjacent uplands. BIRDS OF THE BOREAL American wigeon are among several species of waterfowl that breed largely in North America's boreal forest. This immense region's countless glacial lakes, bogs, beaver ponds and other wetlands produce almost as many waterfowl as the prairies, earning the boreal forest the well-deserved nickname "the other Duck Factory." In addition to wigeon, this region raises the majority of North America's lesser scaup, green-winged teal, ring-necked ducks, and scoters, as well as significant proportions of this continent's mallards, pintails, and canvasbacks. Boreal wetlands also provide essential migration and molting habitat for ducks and geese that breed on the prairies and in the Arctic. Ducks Unlimited has long recognized the boreal forest's importance to waterfowl and was among the first conservation organizations to work to conserve key wetland habitats in the region. In 1989, DU began mapping extensive wetland systems in central Alaska to assist efforts to conserve them. DU subsequently expanded its conservation work in the boreal forest of Canada, launching its Western Boreal Program in 1997. Through this initiative, DU works with a broad coalition of partners dedicated to conserving boreal wetlands and wildlife, including The Pew Charitable Trusts, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Canadian Wildlife Service, and many other groups. In 2010, the Forest Products Association of Canada signed an agreement ensuring that more than 170 million acres of boreal forest will be managed according to high environmental standards, which will help protect many of the region's most important wetlands for waterfowl and other wildlife. Unlike many other dabbling ducks that mainly consume seeds and grain during fall and winter, wigeon prefer to forage on the stems and leaves of aquatic and upland vegetation. In fact, large flocks of wigeon can often be observed in uplands grazing on grasses and forbs. Wigeon have a short, thick bill that is well designed for grazing. Their legs and feet are also positioned farther forward on their body than in many other ducks. This adaptation is good for walking—and even running—on dry land, but makes diving difficult. Perhaps this is why wigeon regularly congregate with rafts of feeding coots and diving ducks in deeper waters. They are even known to steal strands of vegetation from the bills of these diving birds, giving rise to the wigeon nicknames "robber duck" and "poacher duck." Nearly half of the continental wigeon population can be found in the Pacific Flyway during winter. Major wintering areas in the West include Washington's Puget Sound, Oregon's Willamette Valley, and the Central Valley of California. Continentally significant numbers of wigeon also winter on the southern high plains of Texas and New Mexico, in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, and along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Harvest statistics reflect their migration and wintering distribution. The largest wigeon harvest occurs in the Pacific Flyway, with an average annual harvest of 370,000 birds since 2000; followed by the Central (190,000), the Mississippi (150,000), and the Atlantic (30,000).
What Is a SmartTV? As an adjective the word smart is used to describe a new device capable of more advanced functions. For example, a smart phone supports not only basic Internet access, but also PC-level information processing and high-definition multimedia playback, transcending from a traditional cellular phone into a new device that can substitute most of the PC functions. As the information processing power transmuted a cellular phone into a smart phone, a SmartTV was also created by adding computing power to a TV. A user can use various additional contents such as movies, video games, searches, and other fused or smart services, with a highly accessible UI/UX environment, provided by a digital TV’s operating system. As a smart phone has an operating system such as Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS, a SmartTV comes with its own operating system. You will see that a Samsung SmartTV uses the WebKit browser on Linux as its base operating system, which harmonizes multi-tiered elements to provide vital functions to operate a SmartTV. Another characteristic of a SmartTV is a standard application hub. Just as a smart phone platform has an app store, a SmartTV platform has an app store with a developer ecosystem. SmartTV app stores are already servicing thousands of applications categorized into movies, games, sports, lifestyle, information, education, etc. Note that a SmartTV app’s special UI/UX, which utilizes TV’s unique properties such as a large screen, is capturing consumers with a new appeal. Evolving into a smart device does not change a device’s basic purpose, and a TV’s basic purpose is consuming broadcasted contents. New functions of a SmartTV must not get in the way of watching TV broadcasting. Samsung SmartTV provides various VOD applications to support the basic purpose. Applications that help obtain related information during a broadcasted program are also well received. The Samsung SmartTV, as the leader in the TV industry, has introduced new smart functions such as Smart Evolution, Smart Interaction, and Smart Recommendation to redefine the standard of a SmartTV year after year, in addition to advancements for the basic TV function of watching broadcasted programs, such as high screen quality. Many manufacturers have also joined the SmartTV market. Competition among them has been rapidly expanding the SmartTV market, just as competition has expanded the smart phone market. As the SmartTV evolves, the application ecosystem grows as well. Developers are facing an era of new opportunities that the SmartTV brings.
Early and baroque music workshop. Courses for all levels and Master classes : workshop and individual courses - Consorts - Chamber music - Theory courses. Instruction for early music enthusiasts and modern instrumentalists with an interest in Baroque and Renaissance music. All baroque instruments welcome! * Viola da gamba, baroque Violin & Violoncello * Baroque flute * Harpsichord, basso continuo and improvisation * All other baroque instruments welcome Visit website for more information. (ed.) Category: Festival/Workshops/Summer Schools/Conferences / Europe Added on: Apr 14, 2011 \| Hits: 697
Everyone Has a Story Everyone’s got a story Sharon Negri will never forget the first time she saw a mountain lion. As Sharon and her family floated peacefully down the Flathead River in Montana, their rubber raft approached a solitary mountain lion lounging on the riverbed. The mountain lion sat there for about half a minute, looking at the boat full of visitors. Then it bounced off into a brush. It was an exhilarating moment, she explains to me, to see the magnificent animal sitting in the bright green grass. It gave me the energy to keep going. The experience on Flathead River reaffirmed her conviction that carnivores can co-exist peacefully with humans. As the founder and director of WildFutures, Sharon works to bring biologists and conservationists together in a groundbreaking coalition that attempts to overcome the notion that carnivores are mere threats to human safety. In the PBS-aired film On Natures Terms (2001), WildFutures worked with award-winning producer John de Graaf to illustrate the various ways in which ordinary Americans have learned to co-exist with carnivores. Beyond showing breathtaking footage of predators in their natural habitat, the film reassures us that many people are willing to risk living with wolves, cougars, and bears. More people die per year at the mercy of domesticated animals than from wild predator attacks. Sharon has always had a fascination with wild places and wild things. Theres something innate, something wild in us that wants to have our feet on the earth, Sharon tells me. Her voice is soft, her tone passionate. Here is a woman who personifies the oxymoronic wildness and peacefulness inherent in the carnivores to which she dedicates her life. Action creates change. The daughter of a legislator, Sharon has understood this well since childhood. When she traveled around the world after college, she was appalled by the myriad ways in which animals are being unnecessarily exploited, like the slaughter of elephants in Africa. Returning home with a staunch determination to help wildlife, she realized that the same types of problems happened in her own backyard. WildFutures was formally adopted as a project of Earth Island Institute in 2000, but the relationship goes back a decade. EIIs ability to open doors for beginning projects was instrumental to WildFutures growth. WildFutures is at once matchmaker, facilitator, and consultant to biologists and conservationists whose efforts often overlap but are rarely combined. The project is founded on the belief that the best and most cost-efficient solutions can be found through expanding networks and sharing research and information among professionals with common interests. For WildFutures current project, the collaboration centers on improving the way mountain lions in North America are studied and managed. Using people skills, networks and 25 years of experience, Sharon successfully brought together scientists and wildlife managers with over 200 years of collective experience in cougar research at a conference in Idaho. The innovative resulting Cougar Management Guidelines, to be made public in 2005, clarify the link between applied science and species conservation. Population monitoring, habitat mapping, hunting strategies and attacks on humans and pets are carefully considered and addressed. The only time Sharon ever questioned her work was after September 11, 2001. The tragedies that struck New York City and Washington, DC made her wonder whether her devotion to carnivores and nature might be insignificant. Three weeks later, still wondering, Sharon headed to Yellowstone National Park. It was here that she recalled, perhaps then more than ever, how nature provides solace when the world needs it most. We live in a cement world, she says. Being in nature helps me remember why were here.
By Richard Baxter (CCP) 2004 I have throughout the years had many people ask “When are the best times to hunt”? Usually I answer in the mornings one to one and a half hours after daylight. The reason we hunt these hours is because it gives the predator’s time to return to their bedding areas. We are not pushing them out while we are entering the areas to hunt. Predator’s are still active at daylight and alert to their surroundings. Predators are active in the late evenings also but we find too many times they will hold up till dark to come in. How many times have you heard a story where someone says “when it got dark they howled all around us”. You see these coyotes waited until dark and were able to identify the sound as coming from them. We try everything we can to avoid educating our coyotes so late evening hunts or out of the equation for us. In winter time we hunt all through the day at times, because the coyotes are more active needing more protein to survive. So how can a person narrow down even more on the best times? Years ago as a coyote hunter starting out I would notice coyotes sometimes out in the field at odd hours. Sometimes I would find coyotes not where I thought they should be at certain times of the day? I quickly realize one day it was coinciding with the moon and feed times in my almanac. I started paying closer attention to it and found a direct link to it and the coyote’s movements. I used the almanac with some success while deer hunting years ago but never to the extent it works with predators. Except for the occasional weird weather change it is usually right on the money. Next time you see a coyote out mousing in a field during the day get out your almanac you might just find yourself scheduling your hunts by it.
By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D. , September 27, 2010 - 12:21pm In the past couple of years I’ve really scaled back how much red meat I eat. Partly because I truly enjoy meatless meals (and it helps that I’m getting much better at cooking delicious ones!). Partly for the environmental benefits . And also for my health, which is what spurred my interest in finding an answer to this question: Does eating red meat increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer? Related: What to eat to beat the odds of breast cancer Here’s what I found: A few studies do suggest that too much red meat or processed meats (e.g., bacon, cold cuts) could increase risk of breast cancer. In a study of 35,372 British women, eating as little as 2 ounces of red meat or 1 ounce of processed meats per day was associated with increased risk of breast cancer, though the effect was greater for postmenopausal women. In another study of just premenopausal women, eating 3 ounces or more of red meat daily raised the risk of hormone receptor–positive breast cancer (a specific type of breast cancer that needs estrogen to grow). Related: When it comes to breast cancer, is soy safe? One explanation for the link: heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which form when meat is cooked at high heat. HCAs can act like estrogen, which may spur the growth of tumors. HCAs are produced when poultry is cooked, too, but research has yet to link poultry with breast cancer. Red meat is also high in easily absorbable heme iron, which some scientists think interacts with estrogen to promote tumor development. Bottom line: The association between red meat and breast cancer is still tentative. Research linking red meat and processed meats with colorectal cancer is much more established, however. To reduce risk for cancers overall, the American Institute of Cancer Research recommends avoiding processed meat and eating no more than 18 ounces of red meat per week. Related: Vegetarian Dinners Ready in 30 Minutes or Less How much red meat do you eat each week? Tell us what you think below.
MIND, PSYCHE, SPIRIT The Master and His Emissary Our two brain hemispheres are opponent processors: what does that imply for us and our culture? Three-dimensional rendering of the inferior surface of the brain, derived from in vivo MRI scanning. There are obvious asymmetries in the anatomy of the two hemispheres - protrusions of the hemispheres, (anteriorly and posteriorly), differences in the widths of the frontal (F) and occipital (O) lobes, and a twisting (torque) effect. This is a story about ourselves and the world, and about how we got to be where we are now. While much of it is about the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter – ultimately it is an attempt to understand the structure of the world that the brain has in part created. Whatever the relationship between consciousness and the brain – unless the brain plays no role in bringing the world as we experience it into being, a position that must have few adherents – its structure has to be significant. It might even give us clues to understanding the structure of the world it mediates, the world we know. So, to ask a very simple question, why is the brain so clearly and profoundly divided? Why, for that matter, are the two cerebral hemispheres asymmetrical? Do they really differ in any important sense? If so, in what way? The subject of hemisphere differences has a poor track record, discouraging to those who wish to be sure that they are not going to make fools of themselves in the long run. Views on the matter have gone through a number of phases since it was first noticed in the mid-nineteenth century that the hemispheres were not identical, and that there seemed to be a clear asymmetry of function related to language, favouring the left hemisphere. At first, it was believed that, apart from each hemisphere obviously having sensory and motor responsibility for, and control of, the opposite (or ‘contra-lateral’) side of the body, language was the defining difference, the main specific task of the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere was considered to be essentially ‘silent’. Then it was discovered that, after all, the right hemisphere appeared better equipped than the left hemisphere to handle visual imagery, and this was accepted as the particular contribution it made, its equivalent to language: words in the left hemisphere, pictures in the right. But that, too, proved unsatisfactory. Both hemispheres, it is now clear, can deal with either kind of material, words or images, in different ways. This is hardly surprising, given the set of beliefs about the differences between the hemispheres which has passed into the popular consciousness. These beliefs could, without much violence to the facts, be characterised as versions of the idea that the left hemisphere is somehow gritty, rational, realistic but dull, and the right hemisphere airy-fairy and impressionistic, but creative and exciting. In reality, both hemispheres are crucially involved in reason, just as they are in language; both hemispheres play their part in creativity. Perhaps the most absurd of these popular misconceptions is that the left hemisphere, hard-nosed and logical, is somehow male, and the right hemisphere, dreamy and sensitive, is somehow female... Discouraged by this kind of popular travesty, neuroscience has returned to the necessary and unimpeachable business of amassing findings, and has largely given up the attempt to make sense of the findings, once amassed, in any larger context. Nonetheless it does not seem to me likely that the ways in which the hemispheres differ are simply random, dictated by purely contingent factors such as the need for space, or the utility of dividing labour, implying that it would work just as well if the various specific brain activities were swapped around between hemispheres as room dictates. Fortunately, I am not alone in this. Despite the recognition that the idea has been hijacked by everyone from management trainers to advertising copywriters, a number of the most knowledgeable people in the field have been unable to escape the conclusion that there is something profound here that requires explanation. Joseph Hellige, for example, arguably the world’s best informed authority on the subject, writes that while both hemispheres seem to be involved in one way or another in almost everything we do, there are some ‘very striking’ differences in the information-processing abilities and propensities of the hemispheres. V. S. Ramachandran, another highly regarded neuroscientist, accepts that the issue of hemisphere difference has been traduced, but concludes: ‘The existence of such a pop culture shouldn’t cloud the main issue – the notion that the two hemispheres may indeed be specialised for different functions.’ And recently Tim Crow, one of the subtlest and most sceptical of neuroscientists researching into mind and brain, who has often remarked on the association between the development of language, functional brain asymmetry and psychosis, has gone so far as to write that ‘except in the light of lateralisation, nothing in human psychology/psychiatry makes any sense.’ There is little doubt that the issues of brain asymmetry and hemisphere specialisation are significant. The question is only – of what? I believe there is, literally, a world of difference between the hemispheres. Understanding quite what that is has involved a journey through many apparently unrelated areas: not just neurology and psychology, but philosophy, literature and the arts, and even, to some extent, archaeology and anthropology, and I hope the specialists in these areas will forgive my trespasses. Every realm of academic endeavour is now subject to an explosion of information that renders those few who can still truly call themselves experts, experts on less and less. Partly for this very reason it nonetheless seems to me worthwhile to try to make links outside and across the boundaries of the disciplines, even though the price may be that one is always at best an interested outsider, at worst an interloper condemned to make mistakes that will be obvious to those who really know. Knowledge moves on, and even at any one time is far from certain. My hope is only that what I have to say may resonate with the ideas of others and possibly act as a stimulus to further reflection by those better qualified than myself. I have come to believe that the cerebral hemispheres differ in ways that have meaning. There is a plethora of well-substantiated findings that indicate that there are consistent differences – neuropsychological, anatomical, physiological and chemical, amongst others – between the hemispheres. But when I talk of ‘meaning’, it is not just that I believe there to be a coherent pattern to these differences. That is a necessary first step. I would go further, however, and suggest that such a coherent pattern of differences helps to explain aspects of human experience, and therefore means something in terms of our lives, and even helps explain the trajectory of our common lives in the Western world. My thesis is that for us as human beings there are two fundamentally opposed realities, two different modes of experience; that each is of ultimate importance in bringing about the recognisably human world; and that their difference is rooted in the bi-hemispheric structure of the brain. It follows that the hemispheres need to co-operate, but I believe they are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and that this explains many aspects of contemporary Western culture. ‘The universe is built on a plan, the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.’ This remark of the French poet Paul Valéry is at one and the same time a brilliant insight into the nature of reality, and about as wrong as it is possible to be. In fact the universe has no ‘profound symmetry’ – rather, a profound asymmetry. More than a century ago Louis Pasteur wrote: ‘Life as manifested to us is a function of the asymmetry of the universe . . . I can even imagine that all living species are primordially, in their structure, in their external forms, functions of cosmic asymmetry.’ Since then physicists have deduced that asymmetry must have been a condition of the origin of the universe: it was the discrepancy between the amounts of matter and antimatter that enabled the material universe to come into existence at all, and for there to be something rather than nothing. Such unidirectional processes as time and entropy are perhaps examples of that fundamental asymmetry in the world we inhabit. And, whatever Valéry may have thought, the inner structure of our intellect is without doubt asymmetrical in a sense that has enormous significance for us. As I have said, I believe that there are two fundamentally opposed realities rooted in the bi-hemispheric structure of the brain. But the relationship between them is no more symmetrical than that of the chambers of the heart – in fact, less so; more like that of the artist to the critic, or a king to his counsellor. There is a story in Nietzsche that goes something like this. There was once a wise spiritual master, who was the ruler of a small but prosperous domain, and who was known for his selfless devotion to his people. As his people flourished and grew in number, the bounds of this small domain spread; and with it the need to trust implicitly the emissaries he sent to ensure the safety of its ever more distant parts. It was not just that it was impossible for him personally to order all that needed to be dealt with: as he wisely saw, he needed to keep his distance from, and remain ignorant of, such concerns. And so he nurtured and trained carefully his emissaries, in order that they could be trusted. Eventually, however, his cleverest and most ambitious vizier, the one he most trusted to do his work, began to see himself as the master, and used his position to advance his own wealth and influence. He saw his master’s temperance and forbearance as weakness, not wisdom, and on his missions on the master’s behalf, adopted his mantle as his own – the emissary became contemptuous of his master. And so it came about that the master was usurped, the people were duped, the domain became a tyranny; and eventually it collapsed in ruins. The meaning of this story is as old as humanity, and resonates far from the sphere of political history. I believe, in fact, that it helps us understand something taking place inside ourselves, inside our very brains, and played out in the cultural history of the West, particularly over the last 500 years or so. I hold that, like the Master and his emissary in the story, though the cerebral hemispheres should co-operate, they have for some time been in a state of conflict. The subsequent battles between them are recorded in the history of philosophy, and played out in the seismic shifts that characterise the history of Western culture. At present the domain – our civilisation – finds itself in the hands of the vizier, who, however gifted, is effectively an ambitious regional bureaucrat with his own interests at heart. Meanwhile the Master, the one whose wisdom gave the people peace and security, is led away in chains. The Master is betrayed by his emissary. The above was extracted from The Master & his Emissary -The Divided Brain & the Making of the Western World. Nominating it as Observer Book of the Year, Salley Vickers called it "a monumental account of right and left brain hemispheres...both brilliant & disturbing."
Middle School is typically when a child's bookshelf starts collecting dust. It's not that your teen has necessarily lost interest in reading, but he has definitely become interested in other things that take up his time. Between homework, sports and other media there isn’t much downtime. Besides, there’s already enough reading to do for school (and the reading for school may not be of the highest interest level). Free-time reading falls by the wayside in the preteen years, as does the concept of reading for pleasure. You know how in third or fourth grade, the teacher would let you pick your own book for your book reports? Well, kids lose that when they get to middle school, and their teachers’ choices can frustrate or bore them, instead of engage them. What can parents do? Lead by example – to get children excited about reading, you have to show that you’re excited about reading, too. Then, let the kids read what they want to read, and let them feel they have a choice. There’s nothing more rewarding than taking a kid to a bookstore and letting her loose to choose what book she wants to take home. You have to make it seem like something they want to do, not something they have to do. The good news is that there are authors using techniques to draw kids into the world of their books, and hold them there cover to cover. They have characters the reader relates to. The stories use imagination – whether it’s in portraying the way things are in the world we know, or creating an entirely different world. Here's my list of the top five books to get your middle schooler out of the reading rut: From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konisburg (Simon & Schuster) This mystery has already pleased two generations of readers. It involves a brother and sister sneaking in and staying the night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – so the mystery has a fun wish-fulfillment feel to it. (A similar mix of mystery and adventure for a new generation can be found in Blue Balliett’s books, see Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3.) Main Street by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic) is a wonderful new series from the author of The Baby-sitters Club, about two sisters who are orphaned and move to their grandmother’s small town. Series always have a huge appeal for middle-schoolers, because they get to really know the characters and grow with them. Ann Martin’s a master of that, from the very first page. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman (Hyperion) is a total crowd pleaser, about a boy whose family is in the “vending machine business” . . . which gets tricky when he falls for a girl whose dad is (yes) an FBI agent. The Misfits by James Howe (Simon & Schuster) is a fantastic book about four friends who band together to stop name-calling at their school. It’s something most kids can identify with, and it’s a novel that actually presents an answer to the problem it raises. The Day My Butt Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths (Scholastic). Yes, it’s a book about butts who rebel and try to take over the world. But for reluctant readers, that’s pure gold. Making readers laugh is just as important as teaching them lessons. And if you can do both – even better.
Schools in Whittier, AK About Whittier Schools - There is 1 K-12 school in Whittier, AK. Whittier public schools belong to one district, Chugach School District. - There are 1 Whittier elementary school, 1 Whittier middle school and 1 Whittier high school. Contact Education.com with questions or feedback about SchoolFinder. Please note, if you wish to speak to someone at the school, you must contact the school directly.
- K-12 Education - Higher Education - Who We Are In 1997, the state of California labeled Markham Middle School as low-performing. Located in the Watts neighborhood of Southeastern Los Angeles, Markham is stuffed with over 1,500 students in just three grades, sixth–eighth. Roughly 70 percent of the students are Hispanic, and 30 percent are black. Eighty-two percent are poor. That year, the average Markham student scored at the 16th percentile in math and 12th percentile in reading. Over the next 11 years, the state and then the federal government under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) enacted a series of reforms designed to turn Markham and other schools like it around. Officials affixed a variety of alarming labels to these schools: “chronically low performing,” “failing,” or “troubled.” They drew up plans, disbursed funds, and hired specialists. Principals and teachers came and went, while politicians of all stripes vowed to get tough and do what it takes to reform these schools or close them down. Yet, at the end of all that, Markham Middle School was still open for business, still serving low-income and minority students, and still low-performing. In 2009 only 3 percent of the students were proficient in math and 11 percent in English. Markham Middle is not unusual—there are many hundreds of similar schools nationwide. While advocates and interest groups for the past eight years have contested the merits of NCLB—arguing about standardized testing, “Adequate Yearly Progress,” and the best way to properly identify the worst schools—schools like Markham have been mired in chronic failure. Even today as Congress considers reauthorizing NCLB, much of the debate continues to center on what measures should be used to label schools as high-performing, low-performing, or somewhere in between. Relatively little attention has gone to fixing schools that, like Markham Middle, look bad no matter what method of evaluation is used to label them. The biggest challenge in public education is no longer determining which schools need help. It’s determining how to help them, and when to decide that no amount of help will do. Unfortunately, many states appear to be taking the same approach to reforming low-performing schools that they’ve taken to identifying them in the first place—that is, exploiting their flexibility in interpreting NCLB to avoid tough choices on behalf of vulnerable students. In 2006 and 2007, Education Sector published two reports on the school identification process. The reports featured “The Pangloss Index,” a summary of education statistics reported by states under NCLB. The index revealed that many of the states reporting the best results—high test scores and graduation rates, low levels of school violence, and few schools identified as failing under NCLB—achieved those results not through actual educational excellence but through their implementation decisions, including setting unusually lax achievement standards. And when states and districts have acted, change has often come in the form of serial, ineffective reforms that leave chronically failing schools resistant to intervention. President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have made “turnaround” a major priority of the administration, vowing to fundamentally reshape the nation’s worst performing schools. Duncan has targeted the lowest 5 percent of schools, stating that “we cannot continue to tinker in terrible schools where students fall further and further behind, year after year.” The administration has put both a reauthorization proposal and money behind this goal. In March 2010, the president released a “blueprint” for the reauthorization of NCLB that would target meaningful interventions at the lowest 5 percent of schools. In addition, the stimulus package set aside $3 billion to begin this work. Some believe that President Obama and Duncan have taken a heavy-handed approach. But to move beyond tinkering to genuine reform, they’ll have to confront the sobering reality of NCLB implementation: When it comes to taking meaningful action on behalf of students trapped in schools like Markham Middle, the hard work has barely begun. Connect With Education Sector Subscribe to our Biweekly Digest, event invitations, and more.
A good first thought for making counters that can count higher is to chain Divide-by-2 counters together. We can feed the Q out of one flop into the CLK of the next stage. The result looks something like this: The ripple counter is easy to understand. Each stage acts as a Divide-by-2 counter on the previous stage's signal. The Q out of each stage acts as both an output bit, and as the clock signal for the next stage. We can chain as many ripple counters together as we like. A three bit ripple counter will count 23=8 numbers, and an n-bit ripple counter will cound 2n numbers. The problem with ripple counters is that each new stage put on the counter adds a delay. This propagation delay is seen when we look at a less idealized timing diagram: Now we can see that the propagation delay does not only slow down the counter, but it actually introduces errors into the system. These errors increase as we add additional stages to the ripple counter.
PHOENIX " When Hans Stork began his engineering career at IBM Corp. in 1982, reliability concerns were "out there on the edge," away from the real action of developing new process technologies. Now, reliability concerns "are at the very center" of the chip industry. New failure modes threaten as the industry moves to new materials, and to complex system-on-chip solutions with multiple device types on the same die, said Stork, now the chief technology officer at Texas Instruments Inc. (Dallas). Stork delivered the keynote speech here Tuesday (April 27, 2004) at the International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS). With the difficult integration of copper and low-k dielectrics still ongoing, the chip industry faces another critical test: the move to high-k dielectrics at the critical gate insulation layer. "The most difficult reliability issues facing us relate to the gate oxide," Stork said, including the move to high-k materials over the rest of this decade. The high-k oxides, based on hafnium and other metals, present multiple challenges, including electron mobility degradation, shifts in the threshold voltage and incompatibility with polysilicon gates. Also, TDDB (time-dependent dielectric breakdown) " how the materials degrade and break down over time " is another issue the industry must tackle. "In the old days the oxide would break down and the device would be kaput. Now, we look for graceful degradation," Stork said. Negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), in which defects in the oxide interface occur over time as the device operates under thermal stress, "is getting worse, with much less headroom. A massive amount of work needs to be done" to keep NBTI under control, Stork said, including better transistor models, improved processes and providing circuit designers with a level of predictability as to how NBTI will affect designs over time. Stork said more attention needs to be paid to soft error rates (SER), which grow more important as memory blocks on SoCs grow in size. Errors, caused in part by cosmic rays striking SRAM cells, are becoming an issue for logic as well. "Logic SER has been deep down in the noise range," Stork said, but that level of relative insignificance is changing as scaling proceeds and logic transistors have less charge. "Logic SER may become as significant as SRAM error rates," he predicted. About 600 engineers are attending the 2004 IRPS, up from 450 last year. The improving economy, as well as the increasing importance of reliability issues to customers, account for the improved attendance, said Bernie Pietrucha, general chair of the conference.
Santa Clara, Calif. Optimized for space-constrained applications, Vishay Intertechnology Inc.'s new ESD protection diodes are packaged in an ultra-small SOD523 (SC79) package that measures 0.8 x 1.6 x 0.6 mm. The new devices provide designers with a choice of five working voltages from 1 V to 12 V and maximum clamping voltages from 9 V to 25 V. Designed to provide ESD protection for data lines in mobile phone handsets and accessories, cordless phones, laptop computers, PDAs, digital cameras, modems, MP3 players, and other compact, handheld electronics, the new Vishay Semiconductors VESDxx-02V offers one-line transient protection of 15 kV (air) and 8 kV (contact) as per IEC 61000-4-2. The five new devices are packaged in a plastic case with a UL 94 V-0 flammability rating and are specified for an operating temperature range of -40°C to 125°C. In addition to meeting the industry standard for ESD protection required by mobile phone manufacturers, the VESDxx02V series saves space compared to multi-line arrays. This gives designers the flexibility to add protection for sensitive electronics on compact circuit boards exactly where it's needed. Available in tape and rail packaging, pricing for U.S. delivery is $7.00 per 100 pieces in quantities of 100,000. Delivery is eight to 12 weeks for large orders. Call (619) 336-0860
Over the last couple generation of smartwatch from different companies, I see it is only an extension of your smartphone. It put the screen of your smartphone to your wrist with limitation. The screen size is small. Only a few apps can be on the watch. A smartwatch is expected to be more than a dual screen of your smartphone. It should not be just a fitbit + watch either. What should it be? I guess it is a multi-billion dollars question, isn't it? ;) I predict that people will wear the watches on the opposite hand of their writing hand. For example, right handed people will wear the smartwatch on their left hand so that they can operate it with their (dominant) right hand. How did they achieve "Always on display"? This feature could be an attractive one! Did they use some kind of energy harvesting technique to power the display or is it because of low power consuming display? If the display is always on, how much power the watch would consume and how often it would need to be charged? Also, how hot it will be? I could imagine that the watch would get heated as like any other electronic devices and our body would feel the heat however small it might be. Won't it be uncomfortable? This is a very useful device, and very much handy as well as compared to cell phones, but ultimately it is adding the clutter on the desks by adding one more charging device on the table during night time. It's only a matter of time before your smartphone is encorporated into the smartwatch, at which time a good percentage of people won't continue to carry a smartphone. To do that, a smartwatch needs to work passably as both watch and phone; always on is necessary for it to function passably as a watch. Much like i didn't feel the "phablet" or huge smartphone up to my ear, I'm not feeling the smartwatch (not since it was first suggested in the late 1990s). They've got to come a long way for me to put one on my writst. Too ugly.
2. Lithocarpus jenkinsii (Bentham) C. C. Huang & Y. T. Chang, Guihaia. 8: 36. 1988. 盈江柯 ying jiang ke Quercus jenkinsii Bentham, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 14: 8. 1880; Lithocarpus parkinsonii A. Camus. Trees to 10 m tall. Branchlets of current year sturdy, lenticellate, glabrous. Petiole ca. 3 cm, base ca. 4 mm thick; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 25-30 × 8-10 cm, leathery, concolorous, abaxially covered with minute scalelike trichomes, base broadly cuneate and symmetric, margin entire, apex acute and oblique; secondary veins 12-16 on each side of midvein, adaxially slightly impressed, abruptly curving apically, obscure near margin; tertiary veins subparallel. Female inflorescences ca. 3; cupules solitary, scattered on rachis. Infructescence ca. 15 cm, rachis lenticellate, glabrescent, base 0.9-1.4 cm thick. Cupule subglobose, 3.5-4.5 cm in diam., completely enclosing nut, wall 4-6 mm thick and ± woody when dry; bracts subulate, 6-10 mm, woody and multiangular, base 4-8 mm in diam., apex shortly pointed. Nut subglobose but flat at apex, 2.5-3.5 cm in diam., wall ca. 4 mm thick; scar covering more than 3/4 of nut, convex. Fr. Jun-Aug. Moist places in broad-leaved evergreen forests; circa 1500 m. SW Yunnan [NE India, NE Myanmar] The nuts were originally described as being separate from the cupules except for the basal part, but the authors found a considerable portion of the nut to be adnate to the cupule.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses another individual's personally identifiable information, like their name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. As a tax return preparer, you must obtain and store data and information about your clients both electronically and in paper records. This personally identifiable information must be secure. See detailed information in Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, A Guide for Your Business. Additional information is also available from The Federal Trade Commission on how businesses can help Fight Back againts Identiy Theft. To help prevent identity theft, return preparers should confirm identities and taxpayer identification numbers (TINs) of taxpayers, their spouses, dependents and EITC qualifying children contained on the returns to be prepared. TINs include Social Security Numbers (SSNs), Adopted Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ATINs), and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). To confirm identities, the preparer can request a picture ID reflecting the taxpayer’s name and address and social security cards or other documents providing the TINs of all individuals to be listed on the return.
German government backs OLED lighting research project TOPAS 2012 is the second phase of the OLED 2015 initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). TOPAS stands for ‘thousand lumen organic phosphorescent devices for applications in lighting systems’. “In this project, the consortium partners will focus on developing innovative material and component architectures and well as production machines for lighting solutions with highly efficient OLEDs,” said Philips. “In doing so, the partners can build on successful joint developments from the previous project ‘OPAL 2008′, which was also sponsored by the BMBF.” Within the project group BASF focuses on efficient and stable blue emitters, OSRAM on transparent OLEDs with an area of 1 square meter, Philips on monolithic OLED systems with 1000 lumen output, and Aixtron on production equipment deposition concepts based on organic vapour-phase deposition.Tags: BASF, boost, fund, Osram, Philips, project, research
Cache Memory Book, The The Second Edition of The Cache Memory Book introduces systems designers to the concepts behind cache design. The book teaches the basic cache concepts and more exotic techniques. It leads readers through someof the most intricate protocols used in complex multiprocessor caches. Written in an accessible, informal style, this text demystifies cache memory design by translating cache concepts and jargon into practical methodologies and real-life examples. It also provides adequate detail to serve as a reference book for ongoing work in cache memory design.The Second Edition includes an updated and expanded glossary of cache memory terms and buzzwords. The book provides new real world applications of cache memory design and a new chapter on cache"tricks". Practitioners in the field of computer design, including system design engineers and memory design specialists. Also intended as a supplementary textbook for graduate level computer architecture courses.
Channel Structure, Assembly, and Degradation:Gap Junction Structure: New Structures and New Insights, G. Sosinsky.Degradation of Gap Junctions and Connnexins, J.G. Laing and E.C. Beyer.Channel Forms, Permeability, and Conductance:Homotypic, Heterotypic, and Heteromeric Gap Junction Channels, P.R. Brink, V. Valiunas, and G.J. Christ.Heteromultimeric Gap Junction Channels and Cardiac Disease, S. Elenes and A.P. Moreno.Ion Permeation through Connexin Gap Junction Channels: Effects on Conductance and Selectivity, R.D. Veenstra.Phosphorylation of Connexins: Consequences for Permeability, Conductance, and Kinetics of Gap Junction Channels, H.J. Jongsma, H.V.M. van Rijen, B.R. Kwak, and M. Chanson.Intercellular Calcium Wave Communication via Gap Junction-Dependent and -Independent Mechanisms, E. Scemes, S.O. Suadicani, and D.C. Spray.Voltage Grating:Membrane Potential Dependence of Gap Junctions in Vertebrates, L.C. Barrio, A. Revilla, J.M. Goméz-Hernandez, M. de Miguel, and G. González.A Reexamination of Calcium Effects on Gap Junctions in Heart Myocytes, B. Delage and J. Délèze.Chemical Grating:Distinct Behaviors of Chemical- and Voltage-Sensitive Gates of Gap Junction Channel, F.F. Bukauskas and C. Peracchia.A Molecular Model for the Chemical Regulation of Connexin43 Channels: The "Ball-and-Chain" Hypothesis, M. Delmar, K. Stergiopoulos, Nobuo Homma, G. Calero, G. Morley, J.F. Ek-Vitorin, and S.M. Taffet.Mechanistic Differences between Chemical and Electrical Gating of Gap Junctions, I.M. Skerrett, J.F. Smith, and B.J. Nicholson.Behavior of Chemical- and Slow Voltage-Sensitive Gates of Connexin Channels: the "Cork" Gating Hypothesis, C. Peracchia, X.G. Wang, and L.L. Peracchia.Molecular Determinants of Voltage Gating of Gap Junctions Formed by Connexin32 and 26, T.A. Bargiello, S. Oh, Y. Ri, P.E. Purnick, and V.K. Verselis.Regulation of Connexin43 by Tyrosine Protein Kinases, A.F. Lau, B. Warn-Cramer, and R. Lin.Gating of Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels in the Lens: A Role in Cataract?, R. Eckert, P. Donaldson, J. Lin, J. Bond, C. Green, R. Merriman-Smith, M. Tunstall, and J. Kistler.Hemichannels:Biophysical Properties of Hemi-Gap-Junctional Channels Expressed in XenopusOocytes, L. Ebihara and J. Pal.Properties of Connexin50 Hemichannels Expressed in Xenopus laevisOocytes, S. Eskandari and G.A. Zampighi.Invertebrate Gap Junctions:Gap Junction Communication in Invertbrates: The Innexin Gene Family, P. Phelan.Diseases Based on Defects of Cell Communication:Hereditary Human Diseases Caused by Connexin Mutations, M.V.L. Bennett and C.K. Abrams.Trafficking and Targeting of Connexin32 Mutations to Gap Junctions in Charcot-Marie-Tooth X-Linked Disease, P.E.M. Martin and W.H. Evans.Molecular Basis of Deafness Due to Mutations in the Connexin26 Gene (GJB2), X. Estivill and R. Rabionet."Negative: Physiology: What Connexin-Deficient Mice Reveal about the Functional Roles of Individual Gap Junction Proteins, D.C. Spray, T. Kojima, E. Scemes, S.O. Suadicani, Y. Gao, S. Zhao, and A. Fort.Role of Gap Junctions in Cellular Growth Control and Neoplasia: Evidence and Mechanisms, R.J. Ruch.Gap Junctions in Inflammatory Responses: Connexins, Regulation, and Possible Functional Roles, J.C. Sáez, R. Araya, M.C. Branes, M. Concha, J.E. Contreras, E.A. Eugenín, A.D. Martínez, F. Palisson, and M.A. Sepúlveda.Cx43 (a1) Gap Junctions in Cardiac Development and Disease, R.G. Gourdie and C.W. Lo.Gap Junctional Communication in the Failing Heart, W.C. De Mello.Gap Junctions Are Specifically Disrupted by Trypanosoma cruzi Infection, R.C.S. Goldenberg, A. GonÃ§alves, and A.C. Campos de Carvalho.Index.
The NewHaven’s NHD-C12832 graphic display is a 128 x 32 pixels display with an SPI interface but what makes it interesting is the cost of it. It just cost 11$ and is currently one of the cheapest display available with the above mentioned resolution. The LCD operates from 2.6V to 3.3V. Therefore to solve the problem of the logic levels, the breakout board was provided with a 3.3V 150mA LDO regulator along with a level shifter (74VHC541) to convert the logic signals to a operating voltage so as to make it compatible with 5V logic levels. The backlit can be controlled with the help of Pulse Modulating Techniques which is used in almost all cases to generate analog voltages. The display which runs on a SPI based controller draws around 0.45mA of maximum current. Also, the backlit is also connected to a regulator via a MOSFET which is acting as a switch. GIMP was used to convert the image into a black and white which was further exported to a hex format and was then included as an header file with the arduino.
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) (cont.) IN THIS ARTICLE How does coronary disease develop? The major problem that develops with coronary arteries is the narrowing of their inner passageway (lumen), which in turn restricts, or in severe situations stops the flow of blood to the heart muscle. This restriction or stoppage of blood flow causes heart muscle damage or death because of lack of oxygen. If the occluded coronary artery is a small branch, it is possible that only a small segment of heart muscle will be injured or die, but the person will likely survive. If the occluded artery is large, death is more likely. Angina or chest pain occurs when a coronary artery becomes occluded enough to cause a reduced blood flow that does not meet the demand for oxygen required by the heart muscle. The most frequent cause of coronary artery narrowing is cholesterol deposits (plaques) that build up in the arteries. Limiting cholesterol in the diet or by slowing its synthesis by the body with medication (or both) are major ways to help limit arterial narrowing. Many other factors may play a role in coronary heart disease such as genetics, disease such as diabetes, lifestyles such as choosing to smoke, and even drug abuse such as using cocaine. Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 1/7/2015 YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Must Read Articles Related to Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)
Day 8 : Always a work in progress!May 23, 2011 “A work in progress, always” Today we went on a 3 hour tour to many historic sites including Buda Castle, Inner Pest, and city park. This was an amazing, entertaining and interactive experience. The tour guide was very personable and knowledgeable. While on the interactive walk, we met some of the most amazing people ever and really had the chance to bond with other tourists and hear their testimonies. There was a great example of servant leadership that took place during our journey of exploring today, which really amazed us all as a group. We were trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel using the tram system and a Hungarian man not only gave us very detailed directions, but he also went out of his way to take us to the tram that we needed to be on. He then mentioned to Mary that while he was in America the people were so friendly and helped him so he felt that he needed to “pay it back”. I think that this man was the perfect example of a “Fred” from the book “The Fred Factor”, as well as servant leadership. His small act of kindness meant the world to us and definitely made a huge impact on how we pay it forward in the future. We also had the opportunity to have dinner with an ESU alumni. It was great to hear his perspectives on things. Everyday has been filled with many lessons and we are so eager for more knowledge and wisdom from those around us. (Amir) When I think about today, the lyrics to my favorite song fill my head, Adele “Someone like you”. The song speaks of nostalgia and remembering a favorite moment in time. In the song she states “you know how the time flies, only yesterday was the time of our lives”. Today was such an amazing day that I wish I could relive it and remember every second and every moment. While on the tour, we met some amazing people. There was this girl from Virginia that has been traveling all over Eastern Europe named Kate Mize. During the tour, I got the chance to talk to her a great deal and it was great to hear her testimony about her traveling experiences. While talking to her and hearing her experiences, she made me even more eager to continue to travel and experience different cultures. She spoke of the challenges, great moments, and the overall lessons that she has learned and the stories were very intriguing. It was inspiring to hear such great traveling experiences from someone only a year older than me. Kate takes every single chance she has to travel and explore the world, and I hope to follow in her footsteps, share my experiences with others, and also inspire others to branch out of their comfort zones and experience a different culture. One of the many lessons I have learned while abroad has been that being out of my comfort zone has ultimately made me more comfortable as a person and has helped me understand how those foreign to our country feel. So ultimately this experience has given me understanding. I think as humans we seek to be understood and sometimes we do not venture out to understand. Another experience that really touched me was when we as a group were trying to get back to our hotels using the tram system. While trying to figure it out a Hungarian stranger who spoke English very well offered his help. Instead, of just displaying bystander behavior, he went out of his way to show us exactly where we needed to be while also engaging in conversation. We also went to dinner with an ESU alumni. It was great to hear his experiences relating to Hungary and to also hear stories about his time at ESU. Today was amazing and this trip just continues to better me as a person and open up my eyes to the beauty of the journey I call my life, never have I been more inspired. I like to think of myself as constant work in progress and I hope it always stays that way. (Laura) “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart”. This is one of my favorite quotes, and something that I like to live by, especially when traveling.. Today we were treated to a wonderful tour of Budapest. While on this tour, we were accompanied by a lovely assortment of people. Among these, there was a family of four that was particularly outstanding. For starters, the mother of the family was extremely sweet and wanted to know all about my hometown and our school and what I was studying. She showed a genuine interest in our group and had an aura of joy that radiated from her being every time she spoke. The thing that struck me the most about her was that he was so utterly content. She was of those special people that sees the opportunities in learning during life and delights in the simple fact that they are there. She was also one of the first people to introduce herself to me. Normally, I like to go into a situation (foreign or otherwise) and make myself available to everyone. This would include introducing myself and trying to make people feel at ease as soon as possible. This trip however, has required that I turn a lot of focus inward. Because of this, I had the unique (for me) experience of noticing that this time around I did not immediately approach others in the tour group. I observed them, but in an introspective manner, and therefore I was in this extremely uncomfortable situation where I did not get to speak to new people right away. I guess I never thought of stepping out my comfort zone as being the opposite of approaching people and really just kind of seeing the other side of the spectrum. I figured out that being shy for me is uncomfortable, and it does force me to look at myself. However, as much as I thought that I understood what it is like to be someone who does not necessarily seek to approach others, I got the opportunity to live it today, and it is such an intense experience to change your behavior for just one week so that you can gain something specific (even if you don’t know what that will be) and to look at things not necessarily as positive or negative, but as different versus familiar and effective versus ineffective. After a lot more reflective meditation and sight seeing, I got to interact in the best way with the rest of the group. I truly felt like I formed a connection and I had a wonderful conversation with a fellow traveler about my future. As I was talking to him, I realized that for the first time in a long time, the things that I was saying that I wanted to do in my future sounded concrete, but more than that, they sounded right for me in a way that they hadn’t for a long time. I had spent so much time trying to figure out what specific field I wanted to go in that I had managed to separate all feelings from my decision. Being around all of these well traveled people and putting my traveling skills to use was helping me round out the bigger picture that I wanted to form for myself. I guess the whole time I had been looking for answers in a smaller sense, but what I needed and was afraid to get was more information about the bigger, more international scope of things. It’s like up until then I had refused to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to take my next step until…I took my next step. I knew I wanted to travel as part of my career, so this was a huge affirmation that I need to continue to travel and learn about others traveling. -Laura
Occurence of an allele in a population or an individual with a particular allele. The allelotype of a tumour, the expression of particular microsatellite markers or isoenzymes, can indicate whether it is of polyclonal or monoclonal origin and the extent to which there is development of aneuploidy. allelotype The frequency distribution of a given set of alleles in a population.Found on http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/82/ Allelotype describes the occurrence of an allele in a population. Specifically, it describes the frequency distribution of a given set of alleles in a population. Allelotype is important for the field of population genetics, particularly when studying complex or multifactorial disorders such as cancer. Determining tumor llelotypes increases the un...Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allelotype No exact match found
As circuitry gets smaller and approaches the effective limitation of silicon's computing power, and Moore's Law begins to look like it has an expiration date, we get closer and closer to needing an alternative. Graphene is held to be the answer; sheets of carbon a single atom thick that could be stacked and composited to create processors. Two professors at the University of South Florida, Matthias Batzill and Ivan Oleynik, have found a new way to turn those sheets into circuits by creating nanoscale defects. These strips of broken atomic rings wind up having metallic properties, thus making them act like microscopic wires. IBM is already teasing us with the possibilities of graphene and now, with a more practical way to make graphene-based electronics, we'd say Moore's Law still has at least another couple decades left. [Photo credit: Y. Lin
What three people helped Malcolm into becoming a militant person in The Autobiography of Malcolm X? 1 Answer \| Add Yours We should probably clarify the use of the word "militant" in the question. Fundamentally, Malcolm X has to be seen as a leader that advocated resistance and actively defending oneself in the face of unrivaled brutality from both institutional means and social means of exclusion. In this light, one of the most important people that helped him embrace such a position was, simply put, racist White people in American society that he encountered. Malcolm's most basic position is one where he takes the form of defiance, what one might consider, militancy because he is exposed to a sense of discrimination and injustice around him. The Klansmen who killed his father would be one group of people that convinced Malcolm at the earliest of ages that violence against Black people was a reality in being. Another individual/ group of people who helped to move Malcolm towards a position of active dissent within the system was the insurance company who would not pay out the settlement to Malcolm's mother, arguing that Earl Little's death was a suicide, thereby they were not obliged to pay. The teachers and individuals on a personal level helped to form Malcolm's opinion that if he was not going to fight for himself no one else would was confirmed by Mr. Ostrowski, a teacher who told Malcolm that a lawyer was "not a realistic job for a nigger." Rather, Malcolm should be a "carpenter." In this, Malcolm understands that the need for active advocacy of one's self and needs must be driven internally, as the outward social order will not advocate for people of color unless it is to lock them in a socially stratified role. These individuals, at an early age, caused Malcolm to embrace the condition of active defiance that marks his adult life. Join to answer this question Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes
Whats the Arabs reason for taking the road to prison in "The Guest"? 2 Answers \| Add Yours The Arab may see little hope in trying to run away from what he has done. He is away from his home and family, from his normal surroundings. He may also believe that he must pay for what he has done. He has the ability to go away from the jail, but does not. He could even attempt to make his way back home, but he does not do this either. Perhaps he feels so very alone that he cannot think of anything but the destination that had been set before him. Curiously, when he thought Balducci was going to return, he asked Daru to accompany them. It may be fear of what he does not know that stops him from attempting an escape, as opposed to going on to that which he does know at the jail that makes him take that route, and perhaps this is why he wishes the teacher to accompany him. just to add the priciples of exixstentialism(Alber camus was ine and ths stoyis meant t reflect those value) are that we are eflected in the coices we make, and if we make a decision we mus follow through. the prioner choe o go to prison, and made a choice. it is possible that he was supposed to go to prison. therebels that left the message on his board knew Daru would be taking him to prison before the prisoner could have arrived. Join to answer this question Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes
I am looking for companies to license my invention. Where do I start? - First, the real value in business isn't the idea but rather the building of the company to create, market, sell and manage the idea. That's where the money is. - Second, ideas are very hard to sell as just ideas, because companies that can implement them understand that first point. It's hard even to make the right contacts, because companies in the general area you're working in might be working on something similar, and they will avoid even talking to you because if they do, they're potentially creating legal problems for themselves in the future if they ever develop something in that same general area. - Develop a plan. It should include good research on what businesses could be potential buyers, what their benefits will be and how much money they could make, given their existing business, if they had your tool. Make sure you explore their history with building new things vs. buying new things, and their history of reverse engineering new things to get around working well with others. Your plan has to include their costs and their benefits, which means a pretty good study of their market. And how to contact the potential buyers as well. - If the plan looks promising, then get going with the patent. If it's an invention, you can patent it. Expect to pay a lot of money--five figures--for the legal help to get a patent that will really work for business, because that involves exploring a lot of existing patents and writing it up in a way that will actually protect you from people getting around your patent. That's hard to do. - When your attorneys give you the go-ahead, then implement your plan in step 1. I hope you're one of the exceptions.
FTC Takes Aim at 'Fake News' Websites From snake oil to sea monkeys, selling fraudulent -- or at least disappointing -- goods can return a quick buck, but the risks are often high. The Federal Trade Commission recently asked the federal courts to put a temporary halt to the tactics of 10 companies using what appeared to be bona fide “news sites” to market acai-berry products as a weight-loss management tool. The FTC wants the courts to put an end to such deceptive practices and freeze the assets of these website owners until a court decision can be rendered. In each case, the website owner agreed to the terms of a preliminary injunction and either shuttered the site themselves or disclosed that the site in question is not an objective news organization. Although most of the sites have since been shut down, the FTC has promised to go after copycats and other fraudsters. But even if you're not selling a product that boasts fake medical claims, the federal complaint should, at the very least, warn entrepreneurs and start-ups away contemplating such deceptive measures in order to make a buck. Here are four ne'er-do-well tactics to steer clear of when selling products online: - Making false claims: The websites currently targeted by the FTC are designed to appear as legitimate news organizations — some even displaying the names and logos of ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN, USA Today and Consumer Reports. They feature bold headlines that proclaim the wonderfulness of acai berry diets, and they include first-person articles from purported “investigative journalists” who tout the double-digit poundage they’ve shed as a result of this tiny berry product. - Over embellishing: The FTC claims the testimonials, the correspondents, the inflated weight-loss figures, the bogus logos, and just everything about these websites is a fabrication aimed at creating trust where none should ever exist. In fact, the agency asserts in its complaint that the sites are simply deceptive ads aimed at luring customers into purchasing acai-berry products from other merchants. - Accepting kickbacks: In many cases, the website operators receive commissions from sales to unwitting consumers who buy berry products or sign up for free trials on the merchants’ sites. These bogus websites also neglect to disclose to potential buyers that they have financial ties to the merchants selling the berry product, a practice the FTC ruled against in October of 2009. - Flouting the law: The FTC is taking these alleged violations of its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising seriously. In addition to permanently barring such deceptive actions, the FTC is asking six different federal courts to require such 'fake news'-website operators to provide refunds to consumers who have been duped by the deceptive advertising and purchased the bogus weight-loss products. In addition to these tips, what advice would you add? Let us know in the comments section.
IHG To Replace Incandescents With CFLs The Americas Operations division of IHG, the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, will replace over 250,000 incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights in guest rooms at over 200 company-managed hotels across the Americas. IHG says the program will result in an annual reduction of almost 50 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the equivalent of removing over 17,000 cars from American highways. From a cost perspective, the typical savings per CFL is at least $30 over its lifetime. Over the course of the year, an additional 15,000 CFLs will be distributed to employees of IHG’s company-managed properties for use in their homes IHG is partnering with TCP on the new environmental initiative. Energy Manager News - Clauses to Consider in Green Leases - Bahama Yacht Club to Generate Power from Solid Waste - Duke Energy, USF Launch Solar Battery Research Initiative - Energy Storage Helps Hotel Reduce Demand Charges by 10% - EU Smart Campus Pilot Achieves 30% Energy Savings - Uline to Operate 130 GenDrive Fuel Cell Units from Plug Power - Los Angeles Shopping Center Installs 504 kW Solar - SustainCo Wins $575,000 Contract for Energy Management Controls
Tara Bennett-Goleman, MA, is a psychotherapist, teacher, and author of the New York Times best-selling Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart, which has been translated into 25 languages. In her book, Bennett-Goleman suggests the blending of ancient and contemporary approaches for transforming our disturbing emotions through an innovative synthesis of neuroscience, Buddhist psychology, mindfulness meditation, and a new dimension of cognitive therapy. Bennett-Goleman has practiced Buddhist meditation since the early 1970s and has trained at the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York. She offers workshops and professional training seminars internationally. What People are Saying About Tara Bennett-Goleman “[Tara Bennett-Goleman] is a pioneer in the field of cognitive therapy and mindfulness,” —Aaron Beck, founder of cognitive therapy “Tara Bennett-Goleman has done a great service in describing in such inspiring and precise ways how meditative practices can liberate us from the patterns of emotional reactions that, unexamined, lead invariably to suffering and harm.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go There You Are “In showing us how to use our minds to heal our emotions, [Tara Bennett-Goleman] heals our minds with her heart.” —Mark Epstein, MD, author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
Pope Gregory II \|Papacy began\|\|19 May 715\| \|Papacy ended\|\|11 February 731\| \|Birth name\|\|Gregorius Sabellus\| Rome, Exarchate of Ravenna \|Died\|\|11 February 731 Rome, Exarchate of Ravenna \|Other popes named Gregory\| \|Papal styles of Pope Gregory II \|Reference style\|\|His Holiness\| \|Spoken style\|\|Your Holiness\| \|Religious style\|\|Holy Father\| Pope Gregory II (Latin: Gregorius II; 669 – 11 February 731) was Pope from 19 May 715 to his death in 731. His defiance of the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian as a result of the iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern Empire prepared the way for a long series of revolts, schisms and civil wars that eventually led to the establishment of the temporal power of the popes. Born into a noble Roman family in the year 669, Gregory was the son of Marcellus and Honesta. As a young man, he was placed into the papal court, and was made a subdeacon and sacellarius (or treasurer) of the Roman See during the pontificate of Pope Sergius I (687 – 701). Later he was made a deacon and placed in charge of the Vatican Library. During the pontificate of Pope Constantine Gregory was made a papal secretary, and accompanied him to Constantinople in 711 to deal with the issues raised by Rome’s rejection of the canons of the Quinisext Council. The actual negotiations on the contentious articles were handled by Gregory, with the result that the emperor Justinian II agreed that the Papacy could disregard whichever of the council’s decisions it wished to. First years and expanding missionary activity Almost immediately, Gregory began the task of repairing the Walls of Rome, beginning at the Porta Tiburtina. Work on this task was delayed in October 716 when the Tiber river burst its banks and flooded Rome, causing immense damage and only receding after eight days. Gregory ordered a number of litanies to be said to stem the floods, which spread over the Campus Martius and the so-called Plains of Nero, reaching the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The first year of his pontificate also saw a letter arrive from Patriarch John VI of Constantinople, who attempted to justify his support of Monothelitism, while at the same time seeking sympathy from the pope over the position he was in, with respect to the emperor. Gregory responded by sending a letter outlining the traditional Roman position against Monothelitism. Then in 716, Gregory received an official visit from Theodo, the Duke of Bavaria, to discuss the continuing conversion of his lands to Christianity. As a result of this meeting, Gregory gave specific instructions to his delegates who were to travel to Bavaria, coordinate with the duke, and establish a local church hierarchy, overseen by an archbishop. Gregory maintained an interest in Bavaria; in 726 he forced an unwilling Corbinian, after reviewing his appeal through a synod, to abandon his monastic calling, and become Bishop of Freising, in upper Bavaria. Gregory next turned his attention to Germany. In 718, he was approached by an Anglo-Saxon missionary, Winfrid, who proposed undertaking missionary work in Germany. Gregory agreed, and after changing his name to Boniface, commissioned him in May 719 to preach in Germany. After hearing of the work that had been done so far, in 722 Gregory summoned Boniface back to Rome to answer rumours concerning Boniface’s doctrinal purity. Interestingly, at this face to face meeting, Boniface complained that he found Gregory’s Latin difficult to understand, a clear indication that Vulgar Latin had already started to evolve into the Romance languages. After examining Boniface’s written profession of faith, Gregory was satisfied enough that he made Boniface a bishop in November 722, and returned him to Germany to continue his mission. Continued successes saw Gregory write to Boniface in December 724 to offer his congratulations, followed in November 726 by a response to Boniface’s questions about how to structure the newly emergent churches in Germany. Gregory also strengthened papal authority in the churches of Britain and Ireland. In 726 Gregory had a royal visit from Ine, the former King of Wessex, who had abdicated the throne in order to undertake a pilgrimage to Rome and end his life there. Local church activities Gregory also concerned himself with establishing or restoring monasteries. He turned his family mansion in Rome into a monastery, St. Agatha in Suburra, endowing it with expensive and precious vessels for use at the altar, and also established a new church, dedicated to Sant'Eustachio. In 718 he restored Monte Cassino, which had not recovered from an attack by the Lombards in 584, and he intervened in a dispute at the Monastery of St. Vincent on the Volturno over the deposition of the abbot. In 721, Gregory held a synod in Rome, for the purpose of fixing issues around illegitimate marriages. Then in 723, the longstanding dispute between the patriarchs of Aquileia and Grado flared up again. Upon the request of the Lombard king, Liutprand, Gregory had given the pallium to Bishop Serenus, granting him the patriarchate of Aquileia. Soon afterwards, however, Gregory received a letter from Donatus, Patriarch of Grado, complaining that Serenus had overstepped his authority, and was interfering within what was Grado’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction. At the same time, Gregory reprimanded Donatus for complaining about Gregory’s decision to grant the pallium to Serenus in the first place. Then in 725, upon Donatus’ death, the Grado patriarchate was usurped by Peter, the Bishop of Pola. Gregory responded by depriving Peter of both sees, and he wrote to the people of the diocese, reminding them to only elect bishops in accordance with church law, whereupon they elected Antoninus, with Gregory’s approval. Gregory also mandated a number of practices within the Church. He decreed that in Lent, on the Thursdays, people should fast, just as they were required to do during the other days of the week. Apparently the practice had been frowned upon by popes of previous centuries, as pagans had fasted on Thursday as part of their worship of Jupiter. He also prescribed the offices to be said during church services on Thursdays in Lent, as prior to this, the Mass of the preceding Sunday was said on those Thursdays. Relations with the Lombards Gregory attempted to remain on good diplomatic terms with the Lombards, and especially with their king, Liutprand. In April 716 he managed to get Liutprand to agree not to retake the Cottian Alps, which had been granted to the Roman Church in the reign of Aripert II. However, the semi-independent Lombard Duchy of Benevento, under the expansionist duke Romuald II, resumed hostilities by capturing Cumae in 717, cutting Rome off from Naples. Neither threats of divine retribution nor outright bribery made an impression on Romuald, and so Gregory appealed to Duke John I of Naples, funding his campaign to successfully retake Cumae. That same year saw the Lombard duke Faroald II of Spoleto, capture Classis, the port of Ravenna. Gregory brokered a deal with Liutprand, who forced Faroald to return it to the Exarch of Ravenna. Perceiving that the Lombard threat would continue to fester and they would take imperial territory in Italy a piece at a time, in around 721 Gregory appealed to the Franks, asking Charles Martel to intervene and drive out the Lombards. Charles however, did not respond to the request. Imperial weakness in Italy encouraged further Lombard incursions, and in 725, they captured the fortress of Narni. Then in 727, with the Exarchate of Ravenna in chaos over the Byzantine Emperor’s iconoclast decrees (see below), the Lombards captured and destroyed Classis and overran the Pentapolis. Although Classis was retaken in 728, fighting continued between Byzantine forces and the Lombards until 729, when Gregory brokered a deal between Liutprand and the Byzantine exarch, Eutychius, bringing about a temporary ceasing of hostilities that held until Gregory’s death. Gregory and Liutprand met in 729 at the ancient city of Sutri. Here, the two reached an agreement, known as the Donation of Sutri, whereby Sutri and some hill towns in Latium (see Vetralla) were given to the Papacy. They were the first extension of Papal territory beyond the confines of the Duchy of Rome, and in effect marked the beginning of the Papal States. Conflict with Emperor Leo III Tensions between Gregory and the imperial court began around 722, when emperor Leo III attempted to raise taxes on the papal patrimonies in Italy, draining the Papacy’s monetary reserves. Leo required this revenue to pay for the ongoing Arab war, while Gregory needed it to provide local foodstuffs for the city of Rome, thereby relieving Rome on its reliance upon the long-distance supply of grain. The result of which was, through refusing to pay the additional taxes, Gregory encouraged the Roman populace to drive the imperial governor of Rome from the city, and Leo was unable to impose his will upon Rome, as Lombard pressure kept the exarch of Ravenna from fielding an army to bring the pope to heel. However, in 725, possibly at the emperor’s request, Marinus, who had been sent from Constantinople to govern the Duchy of Rome, encouraged a conspiracy to murder the pope. Involving a duke named Basil, the Chartoularios Jordanes, and a subdeacon named Lurion, the departure of Marinus paused the plot, only to see it resume with the arrival of the new exarch, Paul. However, the plot was uncovered, and the conspirators put to death. Then in 726, Leo issued an iconoclast edict, condemning possession of any icon of the saints. Although Leo made no move to enforce this edict in the west beyond having it read in Rome and Ravenna, Gregory immediately rejected the edict. Upon hearing this, the Exarchate of Ravenna rose in revolt against the imperial imposition of iconoclasm. The armies of Ravenna and the Duchy of the Pentapolis mutinied, denouncing both Exarch Paul and Leo III, and overthrew those officers who remained loyal. Paul rallied the loyalist forces and attempted to restore order, but was killed. The armies discussed electing their own emperor and marching on Constantinople, but were dissuaded by Pope Gregory from acting against Leo. At the same time, the self described “duke” Exhilaratus and his son Hadrian rebelled in Naples, sided with the emperor and marched on Rome in order to kill Gregory, but were overthrown by the people and killed. In 727, Gregory summoned a synod to condemn iconoclasm. According to Greek sources, principally Theophanes, it was at this point that Gregory excommunicated Leo. However, no western source, in particular the Liber pontificalis, confirms this act by Gregory. He then dispatched two letters to Leo, denying the Imperial right to interfere in matters of doctrine, the central tenet of Caesaropapism. He wrote: ”You say: ‘We worship stones and walls and boards.’ But it is not so, O Emperor; but they serve us for remembrance and encouragement, lifting our slow spirits upwards, by those whose names the pictures bear and whose representations they are. And we worship them not as God, as you maintain, God forbid!... Even the little children mock at you. Go into one of their schools, say that you are the enemy of images, and straightway they will throw their little tablets at your head, and what you have failed to learn from the wise you may pick up from the foolish... In virtue of the power which has come down to us from St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, we might inflict a punishment upon you, but since you have invoked one on yourself, have that, you and the counsellors you have chosen... though you have so excellent a high priest, our brother Germanus, whom you ought to have taken into your counsels as father and teacher. . . . The dogmas of the Church are not a matter for the emperor, but for the bishops.” In 728, Leo sent to Italy a new exarch, Eutychius, to try to retrieve the situation. Eutychius sent an emissary to Rome, with instructions to kill Gregory and the chief nobility in the city, but the plot was uncovered and foiled. Next, he attempted to turn the Lombard king and dukes against the pope, but they retained their ambivalent stance, not committing one way or the other. That same year Gregory wrote to Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople, giving the patriarch his support, and when Germanus abdicated, Gregory refused to acknowledge the new patriarch, Anastasius, nor the iconoclast rulings of a council summoned by Leo. In 729, Eutychius finally managed to bring about an alliance with the Lombard king, Liutprand, and both agreed to help the other deal with their rebellious subjects. After they had subjugated the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento, bringing them under Liutprand’s authority, they turned to Rome with the intent of bringing Gregory to heel. However, outside Rome, Gregory managed to break up the alliance against him, with Liutprand returning to Pavia. After this, Eutychius reached an uneasy truce with Gregory, and the pope in return forged a temporary truce between the Lombards and the Byzantines. Regardless, Gregory was still a devoted and vigorous defender of the empire. This was demonstrated in 730 when there arose another usurper, Tiberius Petasius, who raised a revolt in Tuscany. He was defeated by the exarch Eutychius, who received steady support from Pope Gregory. Gregory died on 11 February 731, and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. The location of his tomb has since been lost. He was subsequently canonized and is commemorated as a saint in the Roman calendar and martyrology on 13 February. Links to later families Gregory II was an alleged collateral ancestor to the Roman Savelli family, according to a 15th-century chronicler, but this is unattested in contemporary documents and very likely unreliable. The same was said of the seventh-century Pope Benedict II, but nothing certain is known about a kinship between the two of them. Miracle at the Battle of Toulouse (721) A tale concerning Gregory II was attached to the victory over Moslem forces at the Battle of Toulouse (721). According to the Liber Pontificalis, in 720 Pope Gregory sent to Odo, Duke of Aquitaine, “three blessed sponges/baskets of bread”. The Duke kept these, and just before the battle outside of Toulouse, he distributed small portions of these to be eaten by his troops. After the battle, it was reported that no one who had eaten a part of the sponges/baskets of bread had been killed or wounded. - "Pope St. Gregory II". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. - Levillain, pg. 642 - Mann, pg. 144 - Mann, pg. 145 - Ekonomou, pg. 272; Mann, pg. 133 - Treadgold, pg. 342 - Mann, pgs. 146-147 - Mann, pgs. 147-148 - Mann, pg. 151 - Mann, pgs. 153-154 - Levillain, pg. 643 - Mann, pgs. 157-158 - Mann, pg. 158 - Mann, pgs. 161-162 - Mann, pg. 150 - Mann, pgs. 144-145 - Ekonomou, pg. 299 - Mann, pgs. 163-164 - Ekonomou, pg. 245 - Mann, pgs. 166-167 - Mann, pgs. 167-168 - Mann, pg. 168 - Mann, pgs. 201-202 - Mann, pg. 202 - Mann, pg. 169 - Mann, pgs. 169-170 - Mann, pg. 170 - Mann, pg. 171 - Mann, pgs. 171-172 - Mann, pg. 187 - Ekonomou, pg. 299; Mann, pgs. 197-198 - Bury, pg .444 - Treadgold, pg. 350; Ekonomou, pg. 275 - Treadgold, pg. 350; Bury, pgs. 440-441; Mann, pg. 185 - Levillain, pg. 642; Mann, pg. 184 - Treadgold, pg. 352 - Treadgold, pg. 352; Mann, pg. 186 - Treadgold, pg. 352; Mann, pg. 186; Bury, pg. 441 - Mann, pg. 186 - Mann, pg. 188 - Mann, pgs. 199-200 - Mann, pgs. 191-192 - Treadgold, pg. 353 - Mann, pgs. 194-195 - Treadgold, pgs. 353-354; Levillain, pg. 643 - Bury, pgs. 444-445; Mann, pgs. 197-198 - Mann, pg. 198; Bury, pg. 445 - Mann, pg. 198 - Mann, pgs. 200-202 - Williams, George L., Papal Genealogy: The Families And Descendants Of The Popes (2004), pg. 37 - Mann, pg. 165-166 - Ekonomou, Andrew J., Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752 (2007) - Levillain, Philippe, The Papacy: Gaius-Proxies, Routledge (2002) - Treadgold, Warren, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (1997) - Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, Part 2, 657-795 (1903) - Bury, John Bagnall, A History of the Later Roman Empire From Arcadius to Irene, Vol. II (1889) - "Pope St. Gregory II" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia. \|Catholic Church titles\|
The River Aire at Gargrave, North Yorkshire \|Counties\|\|North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire\| \|- left\|\|Gordale Beck, Eshton Beck, Eller Beck, Silsden Beck\| \|- right\|\|Otterburn Beck, Broughton Beck, Eastburn Beck, River Worth, Harden Beck, Bradford Beck, River Calder\| \|- location\|\|Malham Tarn, North Yorkshire\| \|- elevation\|\|377 m (1,237 ft)\| \|- location\|\|Airmyn, East Riding of Yorkshire\| \|- elevation\|\|5 m (16 ft)\| \|Length\|\|114 km (71 mi)\| \|Basin\|\|1,004 km2 (388 sq mi)\| \|Discharge\|\|for River Ouse\| \|- average\|\|35.72 m3/s (1,261 cu ft/s)\| The Aire starts its journey at Malham Tarn before disappearing into a swallow hole a few metres above Malham Cove, it then flows underground to Aire Head, just below Malham, in North Yorkshire, and then flows through Gargrave and Skipton. After Cononley, the river enters West Yorkshire where it passes through the former industrial areas of Keighley, Bingley, Saltaire and Shipley. It then passes through Leeds and on to the villages of Swillington and Woodlesford. At Castleford is the confluence of the Aire and Calder; just downstream of the confluence was the ford where the ancient British road, used by the Romans, crossed on its way north to York. The river re-enters North Yorkshire near Knottingley and in its lower reaches forms part of the boundary between North Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The River Aire empties into the River Ouse at Airmyn, 'myn' being an old English word for 'river mouth'. The name possibly derived from Common Brittonic *Isara, meaning "strong river". The Aire could have been the winwœd or winwæd written about in Old English, from the Old English elements winnan or win ("strife", "fight") and wæd ("shallow water", "ford"), however others have proposed that it is actually the Went (also called the "wynt" in Old English) or the Cock Beck (see Battle of the Winwaed). Still others have claimed that it is actually the name of the battle and not the body of water itself. - Bell Busk - Low Bradley - Apperley Bridge - Leeds city centre - Allerton Bywater - West Haddlesey - Chapel Haddlesey - Temple Hirst (Joins River Ouse) Aire Valley Power Stations There are three power stations alongside the River Aire east of Castleford; Ferrybridge C, Eggborough and Drax. Drax takes its cooling water from the Ouse, but both Ferrybridge and Eggborough draw their water from the Aire. Both of these plants are due to close in 2016. Due to the Aire flowing through the former industrial landscape of West Yorkshire, it had a reputation as being heavily polluted. In 2007, Yorkshire Water carried out improvements to Esholt Sewage Works at a cost of £110 million under the EU's Fresh Water Fish Directive. Whilst Trout are prevalent above Keighley, the river is host to others such as Chub, Dace, Barbel & Grayling, whilst Sea Trout have been noted as far upriver as Shipley. Work is also being undertaken to make the many weirs on the river easier to negotiate for fish. These improvements have also allowed Otters and Water Voles to return to the river as the water and food quality is far superior to that when the river was polluted. Castleford Wastewater Treatment Works has had £16 million of investment between 2013 and 2015. The improvements to this plant, which discharges water directly into the Aire, has also vastly improved water quality downstream of the plant. The Aire is navigable as far upstream as Leeds and downstream has a navigable section into the Aire & Calder Navigation, with navigable access to other canals and waterways. Crown Point in Leeds is listed as the furthest west that can be reached by boat, though the limit is a headroom of 3.62metres (11.88ft). - "Our River". Aire Rivers Trust. Retrieved 24 November 2015. - "A Brief History of the Fairburn Area". Web.onetel.net.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2011. - Archaeologia Aeliana, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity By Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Published by Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1857 Item notes: ns.1 Original from Oxford University Digitized 24 January 2007 - "Lubrafil" (PDF). - "Energy company SSE confirms Ferrybridge power station closure". BBC News. Retrieved 20 October 2015. - "Power station to start closure talks". BBC News. Retrieved 20 October 2015. - "A brief history of the River Aire". Aire Rivers Trust. Retrieved 24 November 2015. - "Waste Water". Yorkshire Water. Retrieved 21 October 2015. - "River Water Quality". Yorkshire Water. Retrieved 21 October 2015. - "Pollution is water under the bridge". Keighley News. Retrieved 20 October 2015. - "Canal & River Trust - Aire & Calder Canal" (PDF). \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to River Aire.\| - A Facebook page dedicated to recording images of River Aire - The website of The Aire Rivers Trust who are dedicated to improving the river and its catchment - EU Fresh Water Fish Directive - Fact File on River Aire (PDF)
\|\|This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (October 2015)\| \|Sophia Rosamund Praeger \|Born\|\|17 April 1867 Holywood, County Down, Ireland \|Died\|\|April 16, 1954 Rock Cottage, County Down, Northern Ireland \|Resting place\|\|Priory Cemetery, Holywood\| \|Alma mater\|\|Belfast School of Art and the Slade School of Art\| Early life and education Praeger was born in Holywood, County Down, Ireland on 17 April 1867. Her parents were Willem Emil Praeger and Marie Ferrar Patterson. Her father, immigrated to Belfast from Holland to work with his uncle in the family linen company, which was established in 1860. Praeger had 5 brothers, the eldest of which was the naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger. Praeger received her primary school education at the day school run by the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian minister, Rev Charles McElester. Praeger would later teach at this school. She attended Sullivan Upper School, the Belfast School of Art and the Slade School of Art in London. At the Belfast School of Art, Praeger studied under the painter George Trobridge, and became a member of the Rambler's Sketching Club in 1886. In 1888, she enrolled in the Slade School, studying under Alphonse Legros. Whilst there she became friends with fellow sculptor, Ellen Rope. From 1892 to 1893, Praeger travelled to Paris to study, having been encouraged to do so by Legros and Rope. Following her time in Paris, Praeger returned to Holywood and established a studio. Having rented a number of studios in Belfast, in 1914 she built St Brigid's Studio on Hibernia Street, which she worked from until her death. Praeger completed her first large commission in 1907, a memorial to T. Hamilton for Queen's University Belfast. Praeger wrote and illustrated children's books, as well as providing botanical illustrations for her brother's work. However she is best known for her sculptures, working primarily in plaster but also marble, terracotta and stone. Her more well known pieces depict children in what is sometimes described as a sentimental style. Her sculptures include: - "The Philosopher" (which was shown at the Royal Academy) is now in Colorado Springs, Colorado - "Johnny The Jig" is in Holywood (between the maypole and the Priory) - "Fionnuala the Daughter of Lir" is at the Causeway School, near Bushmills (1911-17) - Founders of Riddell Hall, Queen's University (1926) - Lord Edward Carson Memorial, Belfast Cathedral (1938) She also modelled figures for such diverse bodies as the Northern Bank, the Carnegie Library on the Falls Road (Belfast) and at St Anne's Church of Ireland Cathedral (Belfast). She was President of the then Ulster Academy (became the Royal Ulster Academy later). Awards and legacy She became an Honorary Academician of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1927, received an honorary MA from Queen's University in 1938, and in 1939 was awarded the MBE. She died at Rock Cottage on 16 April 1954, and was buried in the Priory Cemetery. Praeger's work in included in the collections of the Ulster Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland, and some private collections around the world. - "Praeger, Sophia Rosamond". National Irish Visual Arts Library. Retrieved 10 October 2015. - Gaynor, Catherine (2000). "An Ulster Sculptor Sophia Rosamund Praeger" (PDF). Irish Arts Review: 34–43. Retrieved 10 October 2015. - Newmann, Kate. "Sophia Rosamond Praeger (1867 - 1954): Sculptor". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Ulster History Circle. Retrieved 10 October 2015. - "Sophia Rosamond Praeger HRHA". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. Retrieved 10 October 2015. - "Rosamond Praeger". Culture Northern Ireland. Retrieved 10 October 2015. - McBrinn, Joseph (2009) ‘A Populous Solitude’: the life and art of Sophia Rosamond Praeger, 1867–1954, Women's History Review, Vol. 18, Iss. 4
Proud, Joseph (DNB00) PROUD, JOSEPH (1745–1826), minister of the ‘new church,’ was born at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on 22 March 1745. His father, John Proud (d. 1784), was a general baptist minister at Beaconsfield, and (from 1756) at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Proud began his ministry in 1767 as assistant to his father at Wisbech. About 1772 he became minister of the general baptist congregation at Knipton, Leicestershire, but removed in 1775 to the charge of the general baptist congregation at Fleet, Lincolnshire. Here he was ordained in 1780; his chapel was enlarged in 1782. He left Fleet in 1786 to preach at a chapel built for him in that year in Ber Street, Norwich, by a surgeon named Hunt. The chapel and a minister's house were settled on him for life. His views at this time, as is shown by his ‘Calvinism Exploded,’ were universalist; but in 1788 he became acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg, and a visit (June 1788) from Joseph Whittingham Salmon of Nantwich, Cheshire, originally a methodist, led to his adhesion to the ‘new church,’ or ‘new Jerusalem church,’ recently organised by Robert Hindmarsh [q. v.] On 24 Feb. 1789 he baptised, by immersion, nine persons as members of the ‘new church;’ he co-operated with its London leaders, and wrote, in three months, no less than three hundred original hymns for use in its worship. In 1790 he ceded Ber Street chapel to the general baptists, visited Birmingham (June 1790), where a ‘temple’ in Newhall Street was being built by a wealthy merchant, and agreed to become its minister. On 3 May 1791 he was ordained in London as a ‘new church’ minister by James Hindmarsh, and opened the Birmingham ‘temple’ on 19 June. Priestley, who was present at one of the opening services, immediately wrote a series of letters to its members, and made an appointment to read them, before publication, to Proud and his friends on 15 July, an intention frustrated by the riots which broke out on the previous day. Proud's relations with unitarians were friendly. He preached in their chapel at Warwick in 1792. His career at Birmingham promised well, but was suddenly cut short by the failure of his patron. The ‘temple’ was found to be heavily mortgaged, and Proud, who had placed his savings in his patron's hands, lost everything. He received much sympathy and substantial help, among others from Spencer Madan (1758–1836) [q. v.], then rector of St. Philip's, Birmingham. A ‘temple’ was in course of erection in Peter Street, Manchester, for William Cowherd [q. v.], and Proud was invited to be his colleague. He opened the Manchester 'temple' on 11 Aug. 1793, but soon falling out with Cowherd, who made a point of a vegetarian diet, he closed his Manchester ministry on 19 Jan. 1794. He was invited to Bristol and Liverpool, but returned to Birmingham, where a new 'temple,' also in Newhall Street, was opened by him on 30 March. Proud's services now attracted large crowds. His friends were anxious to transfer him to London. A 'temple' was built for him in Cross Street, Hatton Garden ; he ordained his successor at Birmingham on 7 May 1797, and opened Hatton Garden 'temple' on 30 July. Proud was now at the height of his popularity. His oratory drew overflowing congregations; his voice had much charm, in spite of a provincial accent, and his manner was singularly impressive. He is described as wearing 'a purple silk vest, a golden girdle, and a white linen gown' (White). In less than two years disputes arose between Proud's committee and the trustees of the 'temple' about the rental of the building and about a liturgy. Proud preached his last sermon at Cross Street on 29 Sept. 1799, and removed on 6 Oct. to York Street Chapel, St. James's, which was taken on lease. John Flaxman [q. v.] the sculptor, who had been a member of his committee, seceded from his congregation, owing to the dispute, which did not, however, affect Proud's general popularity. The lease of York Street chapel, renewed in 1806, came to an end on 22 Sept. 1813. Proud removed on 10 Oct. to a smaller building in Lisle Street, Leicester Square ; but his vigour was declining. In 1814 he returned to Birmingham, and again ministered in the Newhall Street 'temple' till his retirement from regular duty at midsummer 1821. In 1815-16 he undertook missionary journeys, in pursuance of the plan of a missionary ministry adopted by the 'general conference' of the 'new church.' He is said during the course of his life to have preached seven thousand times and written three thousand sermons. His personal character was high ; he seems to have lacked geniality in private life, his manner was reserved, but he showed much fortitude under many domestic trials. He died in a cottage of his own building at Handsworth, near Birmingham, on 3 Aug. 1826, and was buried in St. George's churchyard, Birmingham. His funeral sermon was preached (20 Aug.) by Edward Madeley. He was first married on 3 Feb. 1769, and by his first wife, who died in 1785, he had eleven children, two of whom survived him. On her death he married a widow, Susannah, who died on 21 Nov. 1826, aged 76. He published, besides many separate sermons: 1. 'Calvinism Exploded,' &c., Norwich, 1780, 12mo ; two editions same year (a poem). 2. 'Jehovah's Mercy,' &c., 1789, 8vo (a poem) ; several times reprinted. 3. 'Hymns and Spiritual Songs,' 1790, 12mo; enlarged 1791, 12mo; 1798, 8vo (the book reached a sixth edition ; 164 of his hymns are included in the 'new church' hymn-book of 1880). 4. 'A Candid . . . Reply to . . . Dr. Priestley,' &c., 1791, 8vo; 1792, 8vo. 5. 'Twenty Sermons,' &c., Birmingham, 1792, 8vo. 6. 'On the Lord's Prayer,' &c., 1803, 12mo. 7. 'Fifteen Discourses,' &c., 1804, 8vo. 8. 'The Unitarian Doctrine ... Refuted,' &c., 1806, 8vo (against Thomas Belsham [q. v.]) 9. 'Lectures on the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity,' &c., 1808, 8vo; a second course, 1810, 8vo (includes poetical pieces). 10. 'Six Discourses to Young Persons,'&c., 1810, 12mo. 11. 'Hymns and Songs for Children,' &c., 1810, 12mo. 12. 'Calvinism without Modem Refinements,' &c., 1812, 12mo (a poem, anon.) 13. 'The Divinely Inspired Names of . . . Christ,' &c., 1817, 12mo. 14. 'The Aged Minister's Last Legacy,' &c., Birmingham, 1818, 12mo. ; 2nd edition, abridged, with memoir by E. Madeley, 1854, 8vo. In 1799-1800 he was one of the editors of the 'Aurora,' a 'new church' monthly.[Memoir by Madeley, 1854; Wood's Hist. of General Baptists, 1847, pp. 185, 205, 208; White's Swedenborg, 1867, ii. 605 seq. ; Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892. pp. 1105 seq. ; Rutt's Memoirs of Priestley, 1832, ii. 91.]
Eric A. Stach Associate Professor of Materials Engineering Dr. Eric A Stach was employed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA where he was a Materials Staff Scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and in 2003 became a Program Leader in the Metals Program, Materials Science Division. He began his career at Purdue in the School of Materials Engineering in January 2005. In 1992, Professor Stach received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering from Duke University; in 1994 he received his M.S. from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Virginia, both in Materials Science and Engineering. The research in his group revolves around the unique ability of the transmission electron microscope (TEM) to observe the internal structure of a material at extraordinarily high spatial resolutions (< 2 Å) and moderate time resolution (< 50 ms). This allows direct observation of the effect of applied stimuli (temperature, stress, electrical current, magnetic field, environment) on the structure and properties of a material. Exploitation of these capabilities is done to understand how to create nanostructured materials, as well as to determine the reliability of nanoscale systems during use. A unique new facility for in-situ TEM studies at Purdue (expected Summer 2005) will allow us to perform nanomaterial synthesis in gaseous environments inside the microscope, concomitant with high-resolution imaging. This will be exploited to study such processes as nanotube, nanowire and nanoparticle growth, catalytic activity, and chemical vapor deposition of films and nanostructures. They also continue to work to understand how nanometer length scales affect the mechanical, thermomechanical and electromechanical behavior and reliability of thin films and nanostructures, the primary research theme of his tenure at LBNL.
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, competition, congress, consumer advocacy, environment, faa, labor, politics, regulation, us airways on March 24, 2009 \| TEMPE — Echoing Doug Parker’s plea for the government to “do no harm” to the airline industry, C. A. Howlett, US Airways’ top government affairs officer, outlined the challenges the industry — and US Airways in particular — face in the policy environment. His primary focus was the pending FAA reauthorization bill. Put off since 2007, the bill has been passed by the House but no action has been taken in the Senate. “We will maybe get this in calendar year 2009 but no one is betting anything heavy on that particular forecast,” he quipped. Howlett is in no rush to get the House bill passed, because it has several provisions that give US Airways and other airlines pause. The bill increases the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) from $4.50 to $7.00. PFCs are used to fund airport improvements but are levied by airlines when passengers buy tickets. This, Howlett said, would add $2 billion to the airline industry’s costs. “Airports have the ability to raise revenues by raising our landing fees and charges,” he added. “Not all airports are the same. . . . [Raising landing fees is]a better way to finance projects.” Besides, he said, airports got $1.1 billion in the stimulus bill, plus $1 billion for security improvements. Also of concern in the House’s FAA bill are labor issues regarding collective bargaining procedures, the passenger’s bill of rights provisions, and limitations on foreign repair stations. Howlett said that there is a provision inserted at the behest of the firefighters’ union that would cost US Airways alone $15 million per year at their hubs. (more…) Read Full Post » . . . besides being an Illinoisan. From John Kass at the Chicago Tribune comes this dispiriting item about Obama’s DOT nominee Ray LaHood: Obama selected outgoing Illinois U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine) for the post of secretary of transportation, putting LaHood in charge of Obama’s planned trillion-dollar public works bonanza being sold as a jobs bill. “Every dollar that we spend, we want it spent on projects that are there, not because of politics, but because they’re good for the American people,” Obama said. “If we’re building a road, it better not be a road to nowhere.” Not because of politics? What does the great reformer take us for, a bunch of chumbolones? What Obama forgot to mention is that with LaHood in charge of the roads, they’ll lead to one place: Cellini, the Republican boss of Springfield who has been indicted in the Blagojevich scandal for allegedly shaking down the producer of the movie “Million Dollar Baby,” is a strong LaHood ally. Cellini runs Sangamon County, and LaHood has enjoyed Cellini’s political support. They also joined to help oust the last true reformer in Illinois politics, former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the Republican who was denied an endorsement from his own state party after he brought federal prosecutors to Illinois with no connection to the bipartisan Combine that runs things here. Republican money man Cellini is not only the Chicago political connection to machine Democrats and Mayor Richard Daley‘s City Hall—and a Blagojevich fundraiser—he’s also the boss of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. Read Full Post » Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged Aviation08, dot, faa, politics on December 18, 2008 \| One of the surprises about the rumored Ray LaHood nomination for secretary of transportation — set to be announced tomorrow — is that he has so little transportation experience. He is on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and would thus be well positioned to oversee Barack Obama’s planned burst of infrastructure spending. LaHood did serve on the Aviation Subcommittee back in the late 1990s, and during that time, he cosponsored — which, in Congress, usually means you slapped your name on the bill for some political reason — several aviation-related pieces of legislation: - Federal Aviation Administration Revitalization Act of 1995 (HR 2276, 104th Cong.). This legislation would have made the FAA an independent agency no longer under the authority of the DOT, although DOT approval would have been required for FAA rulemaking. Also gutted the aviation staffers at DOT who report to the secretary. This legislation passed the house in 1996 before stalling in a Senate committee. - Airline Passenger Safety Act of 1996 (HR 3618, 104th Cong.). Prohibits chemical oxygen generators from being transported by aircraft. Went nowhere in the House. - Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996 (HR 3923, 104th Cong.). Requires the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates airplane crashes, to appoint a liaison for families of plane-crash victims and name a national nonprofit to handle post-crash care for victims’ families. Also requires airlines to submit plans for their dealings with victims’ families and urges state bar associations to forbid their ambulance-chasing members from contacting victims’ families for thirty days. Passed by House; not taken up in the Senate. - HR 2252, 105th Cong., directs the transportation secretary to retaliate against foreign countries that violate air service agreements with the U.S. with respect to cargo carriers. Hearings were held. - Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (HR 1000, 106th Cong.). The FAA reauthorization bill. - HR 4529, 106th Cong., which amends federal aviation law to prevent people with criminal convictions that “indicate a propensity for placing contraband aboard an aircraft in return for money” from holding aviation-security jobs. No action. - Small Airport Safety, Security, and Air Service Improvement Act of 2002 (HR 1979, 107th Cong.). This bill, which never made it past the Senate, would have provided funding for construction of control towers and installation of equipment. Interestingly, LaHood voted “no” on the 2007 FAA Reauthorization Act — the as yet incomplete FAA legislation. The House’s version, spearheaded by Rep. James Oberstart (D-Minn.) did not include a provision for user fees for air traffic control services, unlike the Senate version that saw the two houses at loggerheads. Why did LaHood join most Republicans in voting no? I’ll try to find out. LaHood is an Arab-American (of Lebanese and Jordanian descent). In 1998, he vociferously opposed the use of profiling in rooting out potential terrorists or hijackers. He insisted that screening systems be entirely non-discriminatory. Adrian Schofield offers a couple of notes over at Things with Wings. One may be related to one of the bills above and involves a vigorous response on international air services agreements. The other places him in opposition to FAA commercialization or restructuring in 1995. Now, the secretary of transportation works on more than aviation. But the FAA is the largest subagency within DOT, and LaHood’s aviation record is pretty thin on the ground. Read Full Post » I’ve got a busy morning, so more on Ray LaHood’s transportation (and especially aviation) record soon, but I’ll just say that the likely appointment of retiring Republican congressman Ray LaHood as secretary of transportation seems to indicate that Barack Obama does not plan to devote a great deal of attention to transportation issues — much like our current president, whose cabinet’s token Democrat was also at DOT. Read Full Post » It’s pretty common knowledge that the United States has for years underinvested in “infrastructure” — from the power grid to physical plants to transportation — and thus one of the first priorities of the next administration should be to devote massive resources to repairing infrastructure. And I’m sure the commuter inching forward on a Dallas interstate on his way home from work or a passenger on a regional jet at LaGuardia groaning as yet another thirty-minute delay is announced would agree. And Barack Obama has endorsed a massive infrastructure spending program in hopes of stimulating the economy. So then — let’s get busy! Where to start? As Bob Poole writes in yesterday’s WSJ, the mayors of 427 cities have helpfully identified more than 11,000 “ready-to-go” infrastructure projects worth $73 billion. Okay, there’s a start. And what kind of projects are these? Poole lays out several of them: a “waterfront duck pond park,” community centers, tennis centers, “life style centers,” a “Grand Central Station” in San Francisco for a rail line that doesn’t exist, and the like. (More “infrastructure priorities are listed here.) That is, the mayors have, in a recession and what is widely acknowledged as a crisis in infrastructure, presented the taxpayers with a gold-plated wish list. No doubt Congress would be happy to pony up the money in exchange for naming rights. Why are these projects even on the list? For several reasons. First, they’re discrete and local. Highway, airport, and major transit projects often require consultation with and the involvement of multiple authorities, making it harder for the spending to have a quick impact — even if its long-term effect would outweigh that of a duck pond by a factor of, oh, infinity. Another reason might be the “spaghetti” approach: throw it at the wall to see if it sticks. No harm in trying, right? ask the mayors. (No harm, indeed, except perhaps the derision of a few lowly bloggers.) (more…) Read Full Post » Shikha Dalmia, a policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, an L.A.-based think thank that sets itself apart in the right-of-center policy community by focusing on transportation, offers a libertarian perspective on the best and worst cabinet appointees that Barack Obama might choose at the Department of Transportation. Dalmia writes that one of the top priorities of the next transportation secretary should be to speed up the NextGen transformation by “extricating air traffic control operations from the Federal Aviation Administration’s bureaucratic shackles and spinning them off as a separate ‘company’ with the authority to fund the $25 billion revamp through revenue bonds paid by user fees.” The candidate who is best suited for this job is, in fact, the current Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters. She began her term in 2006 and since then she has repeatedly drawn attention to the imminent bankruptcy of the National Highway Trust Fund and the need, therefore, to explore leasing arrangements with private companies to build new toll roads and to implement congestion pricing — an idea that Obama has praised — in our most-congested urban areas as well as airports. . . . Peters has proven herself to be an able administrator. More to the point, she would offer creative and sensible ways for Obama to deliver on his idea of using infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy without burdening taxpayers. Dalmia’s “second-tier picks” include Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Clinton-era deputy transportation secretary Mort Downey, and San Francisco Bay Area transportation commission director Steve Heminger. Unlike Peters, the latter two are thought to be on Obama’s shortlist. Dalmia also mentions some positives about former FAA administrator Jane Garvey, who has apparently made favorable noises on highway pricing. But Dalmia writes that “she starved the air traffic system of funding, partly because she didn’t have the gumption to standup to the demands for a sweetheart contract by the controllers’ union.” And Dalmia’s worst options: Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). “They routinely advocate spending gas tax revenues on everything but highways and are huge champions of mass transit, regardless of a project’s effectiveness. Oberstar, a bike enthusiast, is arguably the worse of the two because he also has a taste for larding highway pork on favored constituencies. . . . Oberstar would be a great friend of the decrepit transportation status-quo, something that America’s economy can ill afford.” Obama’s Cabinet: Hoping for an Empirical Presidency [Reason Foundation] Read Full Post » There’s a lot of virtual ink being spilled in the blogosphere about Obama’s shortlist for FAA administrator. Some of those rumored to be under consideration include Representative Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), the chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee; Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); Clinton-era FAA chief Jane Garvey; Robert Herbert, an aide to Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.); Boeing executive Neil Planzer, and former Air Line Pilots Association president Duane Woerth. Regarding the latter, the Wall Street Journal‘s Middle Seat Terminal blog has this to say: Woerth . . . has met with House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar and has his tentative support, according to people familiar with their discussions. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who heads an aviation subcommittee, is slated to meet with Woerth in the next few days. . . . Still, the Journal reports that Woerth has the strong backing of various unions seeking to cash in political capital for their aggressive support of Obama’s candidacy. But Woerth, who frequently prodded the agency to step up air-safety efforts, also has garnered bipartisan endorsements on Capitol Hill and enjoys the backing of some aircraft makers and airline-industry officials. I called a airline pilot friend and ALPA member at one of the nation’s largest airlines to get his impressions. This pilot thought Woerth did an “OK” job as head of ALPA. My source especially praised Woerth’s handling of the critical time surrounding the September 11 attacks: “He was head of ALPA during 9/11. He had a huge amount dumped on his plate with the tremendous challenges to the industry” — including persuading pilot groups to make wage and benefit concessions in attempts to save their airlines. (more…) Read Full Post »
“World Database of Happiness: A Continuous register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life” is being created by Ruut Veenhoven at the Erasmus University Rotterdam It collects all the available information about what makes people happy and why. According to the research, married, extroverted optimists are happier than single, pessimistic introverts. Nurses enjoy life more than bankers, and it helps to be religious, sexually active and a college graduate with a short commute to work. The wealthy experience more mirth than the poor, but not much. Sounds to me that if you don’t know any better and feel that you are expected to be happy then you would probably say you were happy, And currently the happiest people are in Iceland and the country with the highest rate of suicides is Lithuania and the UK gives out the most anti-depressants to its population but the US deems to be the most depressed country perhaps based on their long working hours and the fact that they have no statutory holidays. other related links: The secret of happiness \| It’s in Iceland \| Economist.com The science of happiness season on BBC last year Happiness is the measure of true wealth by A C Grayling Suicide rates of the world The happiest country in the world The most depressed place in the world Bureau of labor statistics: how leisure time is spent in the US Centre for Economic and Policy research: The No-Vacation Nation The international labour organization National Statistics Online Found out about this institute via the Horizon programme about decision making. The main “scientist”, Dean Randin , has been Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences since 2001. His initial career as a concert violinist diverted into science after earning a Masters degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. For a decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories; for over two decades he has focused on consciousness research at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, and three Silicon Valley think-tanks, including SRI International, where he worked on a classified program investigating psychic phenomena for the US government. At the institute of noetic sciences he was carrying out experiments that were suggesting that we subconsciously predict what will happen next: that we have precognition and therefore allows us to make intuitive decisions. This theory was highlighted via an experiment that used a slideshow that randomly selected positive and negative imagery. By attaching GSR sensors to the respondents, the anticipation that each slide would be an emotionally charged or non emotionally charged created varying results. These results were interpreted as being the key moment of precognition. More about Paul randin and The Institute of Noetic Sciences Yes it is another new year, another January and anther excuse for publishers to not only predict the future but tell you how to change your life and be happy! The future of self-knowledge is here again!
Anarchy: Breaking Up with Socialism For well over a century, some anarchists have aligned themselves with socialists of various shades, even fighting on the same side for different periods of time in several failed revolutions. We do not wish to rewrite history or to downplay this alliance, but to learn from it, challenge it, and question its role in the fight for anarchy today while advocating for its immediate and total annulment. We can define socialism loosely as an economic system in which wealth and property are held either in common or by the state and/or party, in which the means of production and control of distribution are held by the state and/or party, workers, or the whole of society. Socialism can range from leninist totalitarianism to social democracy, to libertarian socialism and social anarchism. Even under these broad strokes, anarchy escapes. Anarchy is not production and consumption, federations and councils, meetings, and voting and it certainly isn’t the state. Such institutions are authoritarian. Anarchy is autonomous individuals associating with others voluntarily to fulfill their needs and desires. This is probably best exemplified among hunter/gatherer bands. Socialism, like capitalism is an economic system, and anarchy seeks to abolish economics altogether. Leninism is a form of socialism largely characterized by a vanguard party seizing power and imposing the dictatorship of the proletariat (sic) upon the masses, allegedly to guide them through socialism into communism. There are some things that most leninists know that most anarchists don’t seem to and should. They know that anarchists are enemies of leninism and that anarchy and leninism are antithetical to one another. They understand that authority is a key issue. They will not budge in their defense of it. We should not budge in our opposition to it. Leninists know too that anarchists have a history of trusting them. They know that they have always been able to fool us with rhetoric for as long as they need us, and lock us up or shoot us when they no longer find us useful. Many an anarchist has been deceived at one time or another (and this writer is no exception) by rhetoric to the tune of “we want the same things, we just have different ideas about how to get there.” While it may be true that many of the rank and file socialists truly believe that their program will lead to a liberated, classless society, the methods they use are statist and authoritarian and traditionally include the respression, incarceration, and execution of anarchists and other anti-authoritarians. Libertarian/Anarcho- Socialism and Authoritarian Socialism? A trotskyist acquaintance once said something about it not being helpful to distinguish between authoritarian and libertarian socialism. At the time I disagreed, but now I think he is right. Socialism is inherently authoritarian. Even with anarcho-prefixes and red and black flags, socialism subjugates the individual, EVERY individual, to the authority of the masses, the headless, unaccountable bureaucracy and separates each individual from the masses, from society as a whole. Each individual must struggle then against the whole of society for freedom, for anarchy. What good is it to free society if each individual is not free from society? From economics? From the commune? From the federation? It is not anarchy if it is not free of bureaucracy, no matter how “directly democratic” it is purported to be. A highly organized society of councils, unions, and federations just replaces one impersonal, bureaucracy with another and renders people cogs in a new machine. Granted they are cogs in a self organized machine, but cogs in a machine they remain, slaves to a phantom. Standing on Our Own Ground The enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend. All too often I hear anarchists defending or supporting socialist regimes past or present. Those are the very same regimes that would have us imprisoned or killed. Rather than defending leninist or other left/socialist regimes out of some perceived sense of obligatory allegiance to the left, we should instead be honest and forthcoming with an anarchist critique. We should make it very clear that we oppose both capitalism and socialism. In doing so, we stand on our own ground rather than defending someone else’s indefensible ideology and history. We should not back away from anarchy to defend socialism, an ideology that is inconsistent with our wills and desires and one that has consistently systematically oppressed our comrades. It is not our job to be apologists for leninism or socialism. Rest assured the socialists are not spending their time defending anarchy. Liberalism, Social Democracy, and Leninism make up a good chunk of what is commonly referred to as “the left.” All of them are characterized by authoritarian rule and bureaucracy. Nowhere along such a trajectory would anarchy fall. Liberalism (at least in rhetoric) and social democracy offer a large, bloated, bureaucratic welfare state and leninism offers a bureacratic totalitarian dictatorship. The pattern along this trajectory shows an increase in the strength, might, and authority of the state. How does one arrive at the conclusion that anarchy, the absence of all government falls somewhere further along this trajectory? How close do we expect to get to anarchy following a trajectory that leads to an all powerful, authoritarian state? How long do we fight alongside the socialists, and the rest of the left advancing their cause at the expense of the fight for anarchy? We should not view socialists as folks who “just need to take their beliefs a bit farther” because regardless of what lies beyond leninism on that trajectory, of this we can be certain: it is not anarchy. In all likelihood they have already taken their beliefs as far as they intend to. Because anarchy and socialism are on different trajectories and have such vastly different means of revolutionary practice it is inevitable that we will reach an impasse. The longer we misalign ourselves, the more devastating it will be when we reach that impasse. If you do not understand what happens at this impasse, just ask the ghosts of the anarchists of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions or the Spanish Civil War who were either incarcerated or executed at the hands of “comrades.” Fight For Anarchy! Many times allegiance to the left or to socialism manifests itself as anarchists constantly placing themselves in a role where they leave the fight for anarchy to fight for leftism. The socialist doesn’t leave the fight for socialism to fight for anarchy out of “solidarity.” They know what they are fighting for, and it is certainly not anarchy. But do we know what we are fighting for? Are we so enchanted by co-opted language and pseudo-radical rhetoric, so desperate for allies that we continue to repeat past mistakes knowing full well the consequences? Do we really think think that anarchy is anything remotely like leninism or social democracy, and that if we tag along with lefties long enough, we’ll end up there? It is true that some early anarchists called themselves socialists or communists. Some still do. It is true that some early anarchists even carried the red flag. We are not frozen in time, however. Since that time, the red flag has been stained with the blood of many an anarchist, autonomist, and other anti-authoritarians. We did not sign a lifetime commitment, for better or worse, to socialism. We are not married to these ideas or these organizations. Perhaps we are historic allies with the socialists, but that brand of nostalgia and unquestioning allegiance has no place in a revolution and has proven to lead us to jails, prison camps, and death at the hand of the socialists. In the days ahead and the uncertainty they hold, it would behoove us to question our tactics and our allegiances and make sure that we really are aligning ourselves with people who want the same things we do. We set ourselves up to fail again when we align ourselves with and invest trust in authoritarians. The have shown us over and over again what they will do when we ally ourselves with them. To continue to do so in the face of all evidence is sycophancy at best. Anarchy has nothing to concede to authority or statism and we have nothing to concede in the fight for anarchy. Guerrilla News contributor Bobby Whittenberg-James is an Iraq war veteran turned Post-Left Eco-Anarchist. He offers a unique veteran’s perspective combined with an anarchist critique. He can be found online at his blog, Veter(A)narchy! This entry was posted on December 27, 2010 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Environment, Government, Police State, Revolution with tags anarchism, anti-authoritarianism, authoritarianism, post-leftism, socialism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
More “un-Googleness” and what that can look like in practice Several months ago, I posted some thoughts about the importance of creating better problems for our kids to solve. Basically I asked: “If a kid can Google whatever you’re asking, what value are you bringing to the process? If they can ask Siri the answers that are on your test, why do they need you?” The value we bring is a deep understanding of not just the content but the process needed to understand and apply that content. And the ability to create authentic and engaging questions that lead your kids into that content and process. In the earlier post, I listed a few suggestions about what those sorts of questions might look like. I called them “un-Googleable” questions, the kinds of questions that Siri can’t really answer: - What really happened in Boston on March 5, 1770? - Was dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the humane or inhumane thing to do? - What is the best form of government? - Were African Americans really free following the US Civil War? - What is the best balance between state and federal power? - What does a “More Perfect” union mean? - Is it ever okay to violate the Bill of Rights? - What is the solution to the dropping water table in Western Kansas? - Should the local county commission allow energy companies to drill fracking wells within county boundaries? - How much influence does the environment have on historical events? - What name should be given to the federal land contested by General Custer’s 7th Calvary and the combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in June 1876? But the learning can be very powerful when kids create their own questions. In fact, the NCSS College, Career, and Civic Framework standards encourage the idea of having kids look at a situation and begin to develop compelling questions that need answering. The issue for many of us is that we don’t have a structure in place that supports that type of process. Luckily Ewan McIntosh and his staff have such a structure and have used it with kids. Check out their step by step suggestions below. Then head over and explore all of their stuff, including video clips, more suggestions, and additional resources. - Provide your class with an initial piece of inspiration – a TED Talk, some objects, a provocative discussion - Give students plenty of post-it notes to write one question per post-it in a short period of time – maybe 10-20 minutes. - Ask students to post their questions onto a window or wall, under two headings: Googleable and NonGoogleable - Discuss what might constitute a NonGoogleable question to create even more questions - Share out the Googleable questions for independent research - Give time for students to present their answers to the Googleable questions to each other: students as teachers - Explore the NonGoogleable questions as the basis of a rich project That’s what I’m talking about. Sweet questions created by the kids themselves. Give it a shot and let me know what your kids come up with.
Psychological pressure in competitive environments: New evidence from randomized natural experiments Dynamic competitive settings may create psychological pressure when feedback about the performance of competitors is provided before the end of the competition. Such psychological pressure could produce a first-mover advantage, despite a priori equal winning probabilities. Using data from a randomized natural experiment-penalty shootouts in soccer-we reexamine evidence by Apesteguia and Palacios-Huerta [Apesteguia J, Palacios-Huerta I (2010) Psychological pressure in competitive environments: Evidence from a randomized natural experiment. Amer. Econom. Rev. 100(5):2548-2564]. They report a 21-percentage-point advantage for first movers over second movers in terms of winning probabilities. Extending their sample of 129 shootouts to 540, we fail to detect any significant first-mover advantage. Our results are fully consistent with recent evidence from other sports contests. To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three 1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online. 2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available. 3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available. \|Date of creation:\|\|Aug 2012\| \|Date of revision:\| \|Publication status:\|\|Published in Management Science 8 58(2012-08): pp. 1585-1591\| \|Contact details of provider:\|\| Postal: \| Web page: http://www.vwl.uni-muenchen.de More information through EDIRC This item is featured on the following reading lists or Wikipedia pages: When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:18160. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc. For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Tamilla Benkelberg) If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about. If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form. If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form. If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation. Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.
Many, many great military commanders have emerged amongst the myriad strands of human history. Napolean, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Hannibal, Patton, Frederick the Great, Huayna Capac, Julias Caeser, Sargon II, Cao Cao, the list goes on and on and on. But far fewer never lost a single battle. Below I’ve compiled a list of some of history’s undefeated generals, with some information about each one. Many of these generals I had not heard of before, but discovered them during my research. Alexander the Great – not for nothing is this commander called Great. The son of Philip II of Macedon, a great commander in his own right, Alexander inherited the title of King of Macedon at the age of 16. He quelled Greek revolts against his rule before invading the Balkans, Persia, Egypt, and India. He died in Babylon at the age of 32. In 16 short years, he had created an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River, from the Nile in Egypt to modern-day Kandahar in Afghanistan. Sadly, within a few years of his death, his mighty empire was torn apart by civil wars between his generals and heirs. Sources: Wikipedia – Alexander the Great Alexander Suvorov – A general in the Russian Empire who earned the title of generalissimo, the highest military rank in the Empire. Born in 1730 into a noble family, Suvorov joined the military in 1748, and honed his skills fighting the Prussians during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). He then battled Poland, followed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. He achieved many great victories against the Turks, including a successful capture of the supposedly “impregnable” fortress of Izmail. After these victories, he was immediately sent back to Poland to quell revolts there. Several years later he came out of retirement to participate in an invasion of Italy, which was then under the control of French Revolutionary forces. During the campaign, Suvorov was forced retreated his starving forces across the frozen Alps, a spectacular military feat compared with Hannibal’s crossing of those same mountains some 2,000 years before. Suvorov died the following year. Sources: Wikipedia – Alexander Suvorov; Joseph Cummins – The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns, pg. 27; R. R. Milner-Gulland, Nikolai J. Dejevsky – Atlas of Russia and the Soviet Union, pg. 114; Richard Harris Barham – The Ingoldsby Legends, Volume 2, pg. 29-30 Jan Žižka (c.1360-1424) – Czech general and a member of the Hussites, followers of religious reformer Jan Hus. He fought against the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald, but started rising to prominence during the Hussite Wars. He successfully repelled invasions by the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) and Hungary, and led troops during a subsequent civil war. Following his victory in the civil war, he launched an unsuccessful but tactically brilliant invasion of Hungary. Ever an innovator, Žižka helped pioneer the Wagenburg (“wagon fort”), where the Hussites would arrange wagons and carts in a circle or square formation surrounding their troops, from which they could fire on enemy troops with crossbows, guns, and artillery. Sources: Wikipedia – Jan Žižka; André Crous – “Jan Žižka biopic in the works”; Mikulas Teich – Bohemia in History, pg. 90 Khalid ibn al-Walid – A companion to the Islamic prophet Mohammed, al-Walid was a brilliant commander who led the forces of Medina under Mohammed and subsequently served under Mohammed’s successors, Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab. Between the years 632 to 636 he united Arabia under the Caliphate and conquered Syria and Mesopotamia, among other victories. He fought over a hundred battles, including major battles, minor skirmishes, and personal duals. Ultimately, he was relieved of command by Umar ibn Khattab, who believed that al-Walid’s victories were causing Muslim’s to trust in Al-Walid instead of in God. On his deathbed, he expressed to his wife his regret that he did not die as a martyr in battle. His wife replied that “You were given the title of ‘Saif-ullah’ meaning, ‘The Sword of Allah’ and, the sword of Allah is not meant to be broken and hence, it is not your destiny to be a ‘martyr’ but to die like a conqueror.” Sources: Wikipedia – Khalid ibn al-Walid Maurice, Count of Saxony (aka Maurice de Saxe) – A Saxony German who fought in French service, Maurice was born in 1696 and started serving in the military at age 12. The many wars he participated in include the War of the Spanish Succession, the Great Northern War (between Russia and Sweden), a campaign against the Ottoman Empire, the War of Polish Succession, and War of the Austrian Succession. He died in 1750, a legendary hero in France. Sources: Wikipedia – Maurice de Saxe; Memim Encyclopedia – Maurice de Saxe Muqali – A Mongol general who served under Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. Originally in service of a rival to Genghis Khan, Muqali was captured and subsequently joined Genghis. Though perhaps not as overall a great a general as his fellows Jebe and Subutai, he was indispensable to Genghis in the Mongol invasions of China. In his seven years of service, he reduced the northern Chinese dynasty of Jin to a single lone province. He even managed to maintain a vigorous invasion of China when most of his forces were dispatched to help invade the Khwarazm dynasty (in Central Asia and modern-day Iran). On his deathbed he proudly declared that he had never suffered defeat. Sources: Wikipedia – Muqali; Leo de Hartog – Genghis Khan: Conqueror of the World Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck – A German commander who led Gemany’s forces in that country’s East African campaign during World War I. With a combined German-African army that never numbered more than 14,000, he managed to hold off British, Belgian, and Portuguese forces totaling around 300,000. He battled across modern-day Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. A master at guerilla warfare and fluent in Swahili, he managed to attract recruits, mostly African, and launched raids to acquire more food and ammunition. Historian Charles Miller opined that “It is probable that no white commander of the era had so keen an appreciation of the African’s worth not only as a fighting man but as a man.” On November 25, 1918, Lettow-Vorbeck had to surrender his undefeated army to the Allies. Sources: Wikipedia – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck; Steven J. Rauch – World War I: A Student Encyclopedia, Spencer Tucker and Priscilla Mary Roberts, eds., pg. 1089; Dean Nicholas – “Video: The Funeral of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck” Scipio Africanus – Arguably Rome’s greatest general, Scipio, later dubbed Africanus due to his successful African campaigns, expanded the burgeoning Roman Republic’s territories beyond the Italian peninsula. Born in approximately 236 B.C., Scipio joined the military at an early age, fighting against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Though he fought in armies that saw defeat at that hands of Carthage, once Scipio himself, ate age 25, was given troops to command, he never lost a single battle. While the Carthaginian general Hannibal busied himself invading the Roman homelands in Italy, Scipio battled Hannibal’s brothers in what is modern-day Spain. Highly successful in this endeavor, he was unanimously elected consul and invaded the Carthaginian home territories in Africa. He famously squared off with Hannibal, who up to that point had been undefeated, and thoroughly crushed Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces. After over a decade of subsequent political service, he retired to his country seat at Liternum. Sources: Wikipedia – Scipio Africanus; socionaut – “B.H. Liddell Hart’s ‘Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon’ (Steak Knives)”; Daniel A. Fournie – “Second Punic War: Battle of Zama” Zafar Khan – A commander under the Khilji dynasty, which ruled the Delhi Sultanate in what is now India and Pakistan, is known primarily for his successful attempt to repel invasions by the Chagatai Khanate, a break-away state from the Mongol Empire, in the 1290s. The Mongols were supposedly so terrified of Zafar that, afterward, whenever their horses refused to drink water, the Mongols would ask them if they’d seen Zafar Khan. Zafar ultimately was trapped and killed during a battle against the Mongols when he pursued them too recklessly once the Mongols started retreating. Sources: Wikipedia – Zafar Khan; Sunil K. Saxena – History of Medieval India, pg. 70-71 So, the above is what my research came up with. I know the list is not exhaustive, so who did I miss? If you want more historical articles, then recommend a topic and I’ll see what I can do.
Q: Aren’t Living Wills or Health Care Powers of Attorney just for older people? A: It is important for anyone over age 18 to think about filling out one or both of these documents. Serious illness or injury can strike at any stage of life. A Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney will help to ensure that your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment are followed regardless of age, and that when you are no longer able to voice your own wishes, your prior decisions are followed or made for you by the person you choose. Q: Can I include the fact that I wish to donate my organs after death through a Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney? A: The best way to ensure that your organs will be donated after death is to complete the Donor Registry Enrollment Form included in this packet. Q: If I state in my Living Will that I don’t want to be hooked up to life support equipment, will I still be given medication for pain? A: Yes. A Living Will affects only care that artificially or technologically postpones death. It would not affect care that eases pain. For example, you would continue to be given pain medication and other treatments necessary to keep you comfortable. The same is true with a Health Care Power of Attorney. The person you name to make your health care decisions would not be able to order the withholding of treatments that provide you comfort or alleviate pain. Q: If I have a Living Will, won’t my physician be more likely to give up on me if I become really sick? A: No. Physicians have a duty to maintain life as long as there is hope of recovery. A Living Will simply allows you to determine how much life-sustaining treatment you wish to receive in order to postpone dying once two physicians have determined that you will not recover. Q: Which is better to have, a Living Will or a Health Care Power of Attorney? A: Actually, it is a good idea to fill out both documents because they address different aspects of your medical care. A Living Will applies only when you are terminally ill and unable to communicate your wishes or if you are permanently unconscious. A Health Care Power of Attorney becomes effective even if you are only temporarily unconscious and medical decisions need to be made. For example, if you were to become temporarily unconscious due to an accident or surgery, the person you name in your Health Care Power of Attorney could make medical decisions on your behalf. If you have both documents and become terminally ill and unable to communicate or become permanently unconscious, the Living Will would be followed since it speaks to your wishes in these situations. Q: When does a Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney become effective? A: A Living Will becomes effective if you are terminally ill and unable to express your wishes regarding health care or if you are permanently unconscious. In both cases, two physicians, not just one, must agree that you are beyond medical help and will not recover. If you have indicated that you do not want your dying to be artificially prolonged and two physicians say that there is no reasonable hope of recovery, your wishes will be carried out. A Health Care Power of Attorney becomes effective whenever you lose the ability to make your own decisions, even if only temporarily. At these times, health care decisions will be made by the person you designate. Q: Can I draft a Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney that says if I become critically ill, I want everything possible done to keep me alive? A: Yes. But you can’t use the standard forms in this packet. You would need to speak with an attorney about drafting a special document. You also may want to discuss this approach with your personal physician. Q: If I name someone in my Health Care Power of Attorney to make decisions for me, how much authority does that person have and how can I be certain that he or she is doing what I want done? A: The person you name as your attorney-in- fact has the authority to make decisions regarding aspects of your medical care if you become unable to express your wishes. For this reason, you should tell the person you name how you feel about life-sustaining treatment, being fed through feeding and fluid tubes, and other important issues. Also, it is important to remember that a Health Care Power of Attorney is not the same as a financial Power of Attorney, which you might use to give someone authority over your financial or business affairs. Q: If my condition becomes hopeless, can I specify that I want my feeding and fluid tubes removed? A: Special instructions are needed to allow for the removal of feeding or fluid tubes if you become permanently unconscious and if the feeding and fluid tubes aren’t needed to provide you with comfort. If you want to make certain that the tubes are removed should you become permanently unconscious, you need to place your initials on the space provided on the Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney form. If you don’t want the tubes removed when you are permanently unconscious, then don’t initial the forms. Q: Do I have to use the standard forms for a Living Will or Health Care Power of Attorney or can I draw up my own documents? A: These forms (click here to access details), which were produced jointly by the Ohio State Bar Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Hospital Association and the Ohio Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, comply with the requirements of Ohio law, but you do not have to use these forms. You may wish to consult an attorney for assistance in drafting a document or you may draft your own. However, in either case, the documents must comply with the specific language spelled out in the Ohio Revised Code.
For my first post, I thought I’d write about one of my favorite children’s books The Relatives Came. This is such a touching story about a big family coming together one summer for a family reunion. The illustrations are wonderful and the author uses perfect descriptions so that you feel as if you are right there with all the relatives- hugging and laughing and hugging some more. I’m including a lesson plan I created for this book. It was an assignment for a class I took last semester and I know I will be using this in my own classroom someday (hopefully soon!). The Relatives Came- A Reading Comprehension Lesson Purpose: In this lesson students will learn how to make connections to improve reading comprehension. Students will make text-to-self connections - Students will activate prior knowledge about families. - Students will make text-to-self connections to the story. - Book: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant - Visual Aid Poster: Text-to-Self - Sticky notes (2 different colors) - Chart paper - Making connections worksheet: “It reminds me of…” - Stock paper (one for each student) - To begin the lesson start a discussion with the students about what the word relative means. - Who are the people in your family? - What does relative mean? extended family? - Do you have special names for your grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents? - Why do relatives gather together? - Introduce the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. Explain that this is a book about relatives coming together for a summer visit. - Explain that while you read you are going to make text-to-self connections. A text-to-self connection is made when something in the story reminds you of something in your life. - At the beginning of the story, model for the students. Make a text-to-self connection and share it with the class: “Class, this family is waiting for their relatives to visit. This reminds me of when my family took a car trip one summer all the way to Indiana to visit my cousins. It was so fun and I was so excited! I have just made a text-to-self connection here.” - After modeling for the students, continue to read the book. Stop every few pages and allow some students to tell the class the text-to-self connections they are making. Make sure every student gets at least one turn to give a connection. Some questions you may ask: - What does this story remind you of? - Can you relate to any of the characters in the story? - Did anything that happened in this story remind you of something that happened in your own life? - After reading the book, students should return to their tables. Pass out the making connections worksheet to each student, sticky notes (2 of one color and 2 of another), and have everyone take out a pencil. - Tell the students you are going to read through the story one more time. This time when you read the story the students should make two text-to-self connections and write them down. - Students will write them down on sticky notes, so they can share with the class. On one color sticky note they should write what happened in the story and on the other sticky note they should write “It reminds me of…” and then write about something that has happened in their own life. - After you have finished reading the story through a second time and the students are all finished, students may share with the class what they wrote and then come up to the front of the room and post their sticky notes on chart paper. - To close the lesson, students should pick one of their connections (“It reminds me of…”) to draw. Students can share their pictures with a partner, with their table, or of there is enough time with the whole class. - Drawing can be done on card stock paper and then a bulletin board will be posted in the class of the cover of the book, quotes from the book, and then all the students pictures of their connections to the book. The teacher should assess the students by looking at the sticky notes and the text-to-self connections each child has made. - Did students participate in the pre-reading discussion? - Did students participate and make connections during the 1st read-aloud? - Do the students sticky notes show that they made connections to the story? Students who are English language learners should be encouraged to make connections to their family and their traditions. Some students may need extra help writing their ideas on their sticky notes. Allow for time after the 2nd reading to walk around the room and assist students if they need help scribing or with ideas. Students can use their own memories to begin a graphic organizer for their own story. (In the middle box write the connection. In the outer boxes write in supporting details.) Students can do a Readers’ Theatre: Students can write and perform a play on the book, acting out the different sides of the story (relatives visiting, or relatives being visited).
Structure and functions of the bacterial microbiota of plants Bulgarelli, Davide Schlaeppi, Klaus Spaepen, Stijn Ver Loren van Themaat, Emiel Schulze-Lefert, Paul # × Annual Reviews Inc. Annual Review of Plant Biology vol:64 pages:807-838 Plants host distinct bacterial communities on and inside various plant organs of which those associated with roots and the leaf surface are best characterized. Relatively few bacterial phyla define their phylogenetic composition, including Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. A synthesis of available data suggests a two-step selection process by which the bacterial microbiota of roots is formed from the surrounding soil biome. Rhizodeposition appears to fuel a first substrate-driven community shift in the rhizosphere and converges with host genotype-dependent fine-tuning of microbiota profiles in the selection of root endophyte assemblages. Substrate-driven selection also underlies the establishment of phyllosphere communities, but takes place solely at the immediate leaf surface. Both leaf and root microbiota contain bacteria providing indirect pathogen protection, but root microbiota members appear to serve additional host functions through the acquisition of nutrients from soil for plant growth. Thus, the plant microbiota emerges as fundamental trait that includes mutualistic interactions as exemplified by numerous long-studied plant growth and plant health promoting bacteria.
Posted by lpearle on 1 February 2010 One of the sessions I “attended” at Educon was “Managing Filter Failure: Getting to the Good Stuff“. This wasn’t about how schools (and students) often miss out of “good stuff” because of CIPA-mandated filters, it was about what we often call “information overload” and what Clay Shirky says is really “filter failure”. We talked a lot about what our concerns were and how we managed things. The word that kept coming up the most was “guilt” – guilt that we weren’t as aware as we should be, that others were getting ahead while we were treading water, that we weren’t doing the best job/providing the best experience for our schools because we weren’t staying on top of it all. There are some (and I’m not going to name names, you know who you/they are!) that appear to always been in the know, following every new trend/pedagogical change/tech innovation and Thinking Big Thoughts about it all in coherent, concise posts and tweets. There are also those that have such wide-ranging interests, some of which I share and some of which I really care less about. As my New Year’s Resolutions suggest, this is an area of some concern for me. I’m not saying that there is no value to keeping up – there is! there is! – but that there’s no way we can do it all. So then comes the question, how do I manage? RSS and iGoogle and Pageflakes and the delete button are all fine and dandy, but they don’t meet all my needs. There are some really wonderful people I get a lot from, but then they have a child/adopt a pet and half their conversation is about the new addition to their lives; there are others who are now playing with Foursquare and that kind of intimate knowledge of their lives clutters their professional contribution to mine. How do I filter out the clutter and keep the good stuff? Is there a twitter feed filter that will delete all the Foursquare and puppy tweets? How do I get rid of the multiple retweets/link love so that I only see the same information once? This just popped into my RSS feed. It reminds me that it’s ok to not be the most In the Know, that there are things I can let go. And that most of all, it’s important to breathe. This entry was posted on 1 February 2010 at 8:32 am and is filed under Life Related, Techno Geekiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The word fantasy is most often referred to as a term in psychology as a “mental apprehension of an object of perception; the faculty by which this is performed” and further as “the fact or habit of deluding oneself by imaginary perceptions or reminiscences” or “a day-dream arising from conscious or unconscious wishes or attitudes.” These definitions present an obstacle between reality and desire, and define fantasy as the mediator. “Fantasy” and its many derivations originate in the Greek word, ‘phantasia,’ which literally means “to make visible.” Conflicting definitions arise from the varying modern uses of the word fantasy and its counterpart, phantasy, which is derived from the German word ‘phantasie’ (meaning imagination, in the sense of “the world of imagination, its contents and the creative activity which animates it”) (Laplance, 314). Despite their identical sound and etymology the later is usually used more in psycho-analytic discussion, and the former in discussions of aesthetics and media, for example. In 1948, Susan Isaacs proposed in her article “The Nature and Function of Phantasy” that “the two alternative spellings fantasy and phantasy should be used to denote ‘conscious daydreams, fictions and so on’ and ‘the primary content of unconscious mental processes’ respectively (318). Issacs’ intention in distinguishing the two terms was to maintain consistency with Freud’s thought (Freud being one of the fundamental writers on the subject of fantasy in psycho-analysis). Freud used the German word ‘phantasie,’ of course, and there remains debate over how to translate his word, as either fantasy or phantasy, to avoid arbitrary interpretation. In modern American usage, however, “fantasy” is much more prevalent, and has come to reflect both definitions. To understand the notion of fantasy and its role in various forms of media (such as literature, film, painting, theater, and the internet) it is important to first look at how it is understood in psychology. The clinical summation of the word “Phantasy (or Fantasy),” as noted in The Language of Psycho-Analysis, is “[an] imaginary scene in which the subject is a protagonist, representing the fulfillment of a wish (in the last analysis, an unconscious wish) in a manner that is distorted to a greater or lesser extent by defensive processes” (314). This definition is based in the analysis of Freud’s work. Freud’s writings support the use of the term fantasy in evoking a distinction between imagination and reality (or perception). This axis of reference forces one to consider fantasy as an illusory production which cannot be “sustained when it is confronted with a correct apprehension of reality.” Freud presents the internal world, one which tends towards satisfaction by means of illusion, against the outside world, which is understood as the reality, or mediation of the perceptual. To properly understand the Freudian notion of fantasy, distinctions must be made on a number of levels. Fantasies are day-dreams, episodes, romances or fictions which one creates and recounts in the waking state. Unconscious fantasy seems to be subliminal, and not necessarily reflexively apparent, but closely related to day-dreams. Alternatively, Freud suggests in The Interpretation of Dreams that certain unconscious fantasies are related to unconscious wishes. Fantasy, therefore for Freud, presents a unique focal point where it is possible to observe the transition, or mediation, between “the different psychical systems in vitro – to observe the mechanism or repression, or of the return of the repressed in action” (317). The duality of fantasy is therefore recognized as both organized, conscious thoughts of imagination or of unconscious thought. The origin of the fantasy, therefore, decides their category. [See: reality/hyperreality, (2)] Desire and fantasy it seems are closely related. Desire has its origin in the experience of satisfaction. As Freud analyzed, if desire is articulated through fantasy, then fantasy, itself, is a mediator between the subject, and their wishes, and the negation of acting on their desires, in reality. Among philosophers, the term fantasy is often only studied in relation to the imagination. Albertus Magnus considered imagination “the repository of images and fantasy the active power operating them” (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics). Reynolds considers imagination with genius and fantasy with taste. Fantasy, the lower, more restricted term, is defined in relation to imagination, the higher more comprehensive term. (see: imagination) In contemporary society and media the term fantasy is often considered a subset, and lower class possibility of the imagination. Fantasy is a genre of its own, in film, television, theater, and literature, but it is generally considered a lower, more perverse, and unsophisticated reflection of reality in art. This class distinction, if you will, is due in large part to the culture of commodities and capitalism which supports the genre of fantasy in these varying media. Consider for example, the many examples of “fantasy architecture.” Restaurants such as the Rainforest Café, and Medieval Times rely on the publics’ need to consume and their desire to be relocated outside of reality, to an Amazon rainforest rather than their dinning room table. In Fantasy Island: The Dialectic of Narcissism, Michael Budd argues that many television programs, for example, trade on human desires in order to produce audiences for commercials. By representing itself as therapy, the culture of commodities, produces dissatisfaction by the falseness of its promises, generating a “dialectic of containment and excess.” He continues writing that “not only are the fantasies manufactured by the culture industry unable to contain the real excessive desires of human beings, they also produce—to the extent that they are successful in their appeal—more dependence and hence more excesses and frustrations” (Budd, 87-88). Like Freud and the psycho-analytic view of fantasy, the modern media representation of the genre fantasy is also deeply rooted in fantasy as desire, an escape from reality through an imaginary scene representing the fulfillment of a wish. It is important, however, to distinguish the private or individual experience of fantasy in the mind, which is understood through psychology and Freud, with represented fantasy in art and mass media, which is essentially a collective experience. The medium of film allows for a successful creation of represented fantasy in its ability to craft a physical universe through the manipulation of time and space with editing and special effects. The private experience of fantasy in prose narratives may allow room for the imagination, but film creates the fantasies of our imagination. The Complete Film Dictionary follows Freudian precedence when noting that “fantasy films have been seen as projections of human fears and desires, as objectified situations where both unconscious and conscious anxieties of the audience find release and satisfaction… but all fantasy films satisfy the ever-present child in us with magic and wonder” (Konlgsberg, 129). The main category of fantasy film can be divided into various genres or subgroups of film (which were derived from earlier mediums such as literature and theater): science fiction (Star Wars); horror (Frankenstein); romantic fairy tales (Beauty and the Beast); and musicals (Chicago). For playwright and director Anton Artaud the use of fantasy, or the fantastic, in cinema and theatre must be viewed in conjunction with Surrealism. The Surrealists consider that rationalism cannot provide one with an accurate knowledge of the real, because of its limitation on reality to the confines of logic. The Surrealist movement therefore searched for a new set of criteria to define reality. Breton expresses these terms in the Second Manifesto: “Everything leads us to believe that there exists a certain point in the mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the uncommunicable,…cease to be perceived as contradictory. And it is in vain that on would seek in Surrealism another motive but the hope to determine this point” (Lalande, 113). Fantasy and the fantastic therefore play an important role in the work of Surrealists, as both a source of inspiration and as a means of expression. In artist Odilon Redon’s painting Fantastic Monster, Paul Gauguin noted that he did not see “in what sense Redon makes monsters. They are imaginary beings. He is a dreamer, a man of imagination. Ugliness – a burning question and one that is the touchstone of our modern art and its criticism” (Hobbs, 99). In this sense, the medium of painting is used to convey fantasy and imagination, often through surrealistic techniques, generating new questions and theories in art. Artaud, in The Theatre and Its Double, considers both theatre and cinema as a means of escape for the imagination, by harnessing their power of suggestion to cause “a liberation…of all the dark forces of our thinking process” (Lalande, 114). He aims, in his many plays, such as Les Cenci, to represent the “secretes which lie buried in our consciousness,” by way of helping one achieve a better knowledge of oneself and one’s environment. Escapism is often a term used to describe the activity of fantasy, but also a process which brings one closer to their own reality and understanding of the world. With the Internet, escapism in both the individual and collective sense is possible. Through chat-rooms, cybersex, fantasy sport leagues, and virtual gaming an individual can privately fulfill their desires in a communal, but anonymous world. In The Plague of Fantasies Slavoj Zizek reconstructs the psychoanalytic notion of fantasy and through numerous examples, such as virtual reality and cybersex, explores the relation between fantasy and ideology, and how fantasy animates enjoyment while protecting against its excesses. For Zizek cyberspace is a key symptom of our ideological condition, which is characterized by the “neo-gnostic desire to leave one’s body and to enter a purely spiritual domain” (1). The “plague” is centered in cyberspace and is “brought to its extreme in today’s audiovisual media.” The Internet provides a medium for a private/public escape, where all communication is anonymous and unlike reality, where fantasy is the both the inciting and mediating action; where the private and communal, the psychoanalytic and artistic definitions collide. (see: virtuality) The use of fantasy as a genre in the arts consistently draws upon, and to some extent exploits, the original psycho-analytic understanding of the term as considered by Freud. The mediating factor of fantasy in the arts allows for a viewer to connect more fully with their own desires and wishes of imagination in reality, through the process of spectating fantasy in media, and not in their mind.
[IPython-dev] about ipython-zmq Sun Jul 25 20:29:05 CDT 2010 On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Brian Granger <email@example.com> wrote: > The case that I am worried about is if a frontend hangs. Almost Everyone > will try Ctrl-C to try to kill the frontend, but if the frontend is enough > alive to trap Ctrl-C and send it to the kernel, the kernel will get it > instead. If the kernel is running code, it is likely that someone will be > unhappy. This is especially true because of the possibility of multiple > frontends running the same kernel. > Like most GUI applications (and Mathematica for example), I think Ctrl-C > should be disabled and the frontend should provide a different interface > (possibly using a kernel magic) to signal the kernel. But let's talk more > about this. A terminal is a good example of a gui application that forwards Ctrl-C to the underlying process it exposes. When you type Ctrl-C in a terminal, it's not the terminal itself (say xterm or gnome-terminal) that gets it, but instead it's sent to whatever you were running at It makes perfect sense to me for IPython frontends to forward that signal to the kernel, since frontends are thin 'handles' on the kernel itself, and interrupting a long-running computation is one of the most common things in everyday practice. I know it would drive me positively insane if I had to type a full command to send a simple interrupt to a running kernel. In full GUI frontends we can certainly expose a little 'interrupt kernel' button somewhere, but I suspect I wouldn't be the only one driven mad by Ctrl-C not doing the most intuitive thing... The case of a hung frontend should be handled like other apps: a close button, a 'force quit' from the OS, etc. Killing a hung gui in general is done like that, and it should be indeed a special 'kill' operation because in general, the front ends should not be hung under normal conditions: they run very little code, so there's no reason for them to block other than when they are waiting for a kernel to return. Now, for asynchronous frontends, then we certainly want an 'interrupt kernel' command/button, so Gerardo probably should implement something like that. But a blocking, line-based frontend that 'feels like a terminal' should 'act like a terminal', I think... More information about the IPython-dev
Upgrading Web Performance and Load Tests from Visual Studio 2010 Your existing Web performance and load tests that were created in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate will be upgraded when opened in Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate and continue to run. However, Web performance and load tests do include some client-side changes that you should be aware of. More than one test project type is available in Visual Studio 2012, including a new Web performance and load test project type. Any new Web performance and load testing efforts you create in Visual Studio 2012 are now created in a Web performance and load test project type instead of a test project. For more information, see Upgrading Tests from Earlier Versions of Visual Studio and How to: Create and Configure Test Projects for Automated Tests. Visual Studio 2012 has deprecated the Test View window that you might have used previously to run your Web performance and load tests. To run your Web performance and load tests, you must now do so from either the Web Performance Test Editor, the Load Test Editor, or the LOAD TEST menu, as shown in the illustration below. For more information, see Running Load and Web Performance Tests. Running Coded Web Performance Tests In Visual Studio 2012, the Test menu that was in Visual Studio 2010 has also been deprecated. To run or debug your coded Web performance tests, you use the shortcut menu in the code editor. Alternatively, with the coded Web performance test selected in the code editor, from the new LOAD TEST menu, choose Run, and then choose Select Test. Selecting the coded Web performance test in Solution Explorer and using the LOAD TEST menu to run the selected test will run all the tests. For more information, see How to: Run a Coded Web Performance Test. In Visual Studio 2012, the Test View window has been replaced by Test Explorer, which provides for a more agile testing experience for code development for unit tests and coded UI tests. Test Explorer does not include support for Web performance and load tests. For more information about Test Explorer, see How to: Run Tests from Microsoft Visual Studio and Running Unit Tests with Test Explorer. To use load tests, you can use SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB which is installed with Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate and is the default database server for load tests (including Microsoft Excel integration). SQL Server Express LocalDB is an execution mode of SQL Server Express that is targeted to program developers. SQL Server Express LocalDB installation copies a minimal set of files necessary to start the SQL Server Database Engine. If you upgrade from Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and SQL Server Express is detected with an existing load test database, Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate will try to connect to and use it. Additionally, if SQL Server Express is detected, Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate will try to create the load test database using SQL Server Express instead of SQL Server Express LocalDB. If your team expects heavy database needs, or your projects outgrow SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB, you should consider upgrading to either SQL Express or full SQL Server to provide further scaling potential. If you upgrade SQL Server, the MDF and LDF files for the SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB are stored in the user profile folder. These files can be used to import the load test database to SQL Server Express 2012 or SQL Server 2012. You can download SQL Server Express 2012 from the Microsoft Download center: Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012. If you are using test controllers from Visual Studio for Web performance or load testing—these test controllers are not configured with Team Foundation Server—then the version of test controller must match the version of Visual Studio. For more information, see Upgrading Test Controllers from Visual Studio 2010 and Installing and Configuring Test Agents and Test Controllers.
A little over a month ago, we blogged about celebrity-themed malware campaign that was redirected through Google , . Even though the spam campaign linking to the malware is now two months old, it is still going strong. Hence, it is worthwhile to look at how this campaign has evolved. Here is a graph showing the malware campaign as a percentage of total messages received during the last three weeks: Just yesterday, the campaign reached a total of 2% of all detected spam. It seems that malware authors are having success with redirecting through Google to distribute their malware. Fortunately, we have been proactively detecting the message spams since the beginning of the campaign. The malware authors did not rest on their laurels, however. They have changed both the look of the spam and the malware itself. At least three different variants of the emails were seen in the past day, as shown in the following three messages: The first message looks very similar to the original messages seen in February . The second message can be called the “bare-bones” version of the campaign. Lastly, the third version is themed to look like an embedded video player inside an email, much like those sent out by services like Youtube. Common to all three messages is the reliance on social engineering to trick the users. Readers who are curious about celebrity gossip (or their neighbor) may be tricked to click the link. While the spam messages themselves are changing, the distributed malware have also been updated frequently. The first samples we received are proactively detected as Troj/Exchan-Gen. Recent samples are detected by the Troj/Exchan, Mal/TibsPk, and Mal/EncPk families of identities, as well as Troj/Bdoor-AJR. The malware authors are clearly experimenting with a lot of different methods to avoid detection. Nevertheless, we’ll continue to monitor the situation to ensure the detection of this campaign regardless of what the malware authors try to do next.
I was thinking about what I should write about today and started to read some inspirational stories and one of them that I read today is called Open the Rose. Have a read. OPEN THE ROSE A young, new preacher was walking with an older, more seasoned preacher in the garden one day and feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was inquiring of the older preacher. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the WILL OF GOD for his life and for his ministry. Because of his high respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to TRY to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact…It wasn’t long before he realized how it was impossible to do so. Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older preacher began to tell the following poem… It is only a tiny rosebud, A flower of GOD’s design; But I cannot unfold the petals With these clumsy hands of mine. The secret of unfolding flowers Is not known to such as I. GOD opens this flower so sweetly, When in my hands they fade and die. If I cannot unfold a rosebud, This flower of GOD’s design, Then how can I think I have wisdom To unfold this life of mine? So I’ll trust in Him for His leading Each moment of every day. I will look to Him for His guidance Each step of the pilgrim way. The pathway that lies before me, Only my heavenly Father knows. I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments, Just as He unfolds the rose. After reading this I thought to myself that many a time in our lives we often try to manage that which should be handled with the Divine. When you think of how God works intricately in the fine details of our lives, the most important factor to any outcome is based on our measure of Faith. In the same way where God says to us that those who are trusted with little can be trusted with much, He too is in this equation. If we can trust God with little, we should be able to trust Him for much, but how often do we allow God to function in the fine details of our lives? We in a way have a natural tendency to rely a lot on our human capacity to rationalize things and reason, but when we think of areas that require miracles…what room does rationality and reason play in such instances? I think to some extent we no longer seek miracles because we are too busy trying to work out everything within our human limitations and capabilities even if they become done in vain. However, when our limitations are fully realized we then turn to God for miracles. I feel that each day is a miracle and that when you start to thank God for every little victory you had in your day like for example, you needed something to work and function properly at work and for some reason…your computer starts acting up….pray for God to intervene…and poof voila…God starts making it work for you… (Disclaimer: I’m not saying that this happens all the time… this is a hypothetical example of your faith in action to seek God in this fictitious example). Now it’s easy to forget to say “THANK YOU” in such instances because we just see it as a technical error…but if you prayed and then it started working…God must get the Glory even for such a small matter. I know that I have issues sometimes with technology and I pray for God to intervene…and let me tell you, it works people, but that’s all dependent on whether or not you can even trust God for even the minor details of your lives. It’s easy to explain it away as a technical glitch and ignore how God had a role to play to make it work…but that’s where we need to repent and give God honor where honor is due. You can’t claim miracles that were divine in nature to be your own doing when GOD divinely intervened by your faith in action through prayer. This is how we drown out God in the fine details of our lives. We cannot afford to be this ungrateful to our Father God. Praise Him, Thank Him and INCLUDE HIM in all that you do. He is Sovereign and if you want Him to be Lord over your life… include Him in the minor details. You’ll always have a reason to give Him praise after that. He will feel moved to bless you more and more when you remember the name of the LORD. The question is….where, what and whom are you putting our trust in???? Some trust in chariots , and some in horses ; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. What I’m trying to say today is that… learn to trust God for little so that you can cultivate an attitude that is receptive to even larger and greater miracles yet to come in your life. When you thank Him for the small stuff…it won’t be hard to give Him glory for even the big things. God is your beginning and the end of each day….so thank and praise Him every chance you get. The more you do this…the more you will start to see GOD operating in your life and in even in the minute details of your life. Some people lay in wait for big miracles to see God…but I’m telling you that miracles are happening everyday….but you have to consider the small ones first so that you can appreciate the big ones when they start to arrive at your address. God loves to walk and talk with people all the time….but are we inclined to do the same? We tune Him out of our lives very often when we try to manage everything in our limited human capacities and levels of understanding. If you want to understand God, allow Him in the minor details of your life so that you can see Him in the major details of your life. Don’t expect Big things from the Lord when you can’t even expect for Him to be present in something small. Consider that you reading this today is a miracle because you have eyes to see whereas a percentage of the population in this world is blind. Food for thought. Marinate in this thought Today. I have a song to minister to you today from Marvin Sapp called Lift those Hands. May it bless you today everybody! “For My thoughts are not your thoughts , Nor are your ways,” says the LORD. “Whoever can be trust ed with very little can also be trust much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with Trust in the LORD with all you , And lean not on you r own understanding; [ By Faith We Understand ] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believe s in Me has everlasting life. He who believe s in Me , as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” [ The Way, the Truth, and the Life ] “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in also in Me [ The Answered Prayer ] “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believe s in Me , the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
By Barb Stephens Good Health Habits Circle the correct answer(s). - Bathe/shower (every/day OR 1/week) and especially after exercise. - Wash your hair (1/month OR 2+ times/week). - Wash hands (before eating OR after using the restroom) and when they're dirty. - Eat right - (3 OR 4 OR 6) regular meals each day at regular times! - Eat (just some OR a variety of) food from each of the 4 food groups. - The average 10 year old should get (6 OR 9 OR 12) hours of sleep each night. Clean & Strong Circle T for True or F for False. T F 1. Our bodies "repair" themselves while we sleep. T F 2. Clean clothes aren't necessary after a bath or shower - they are just in the morning. T F 3. Use proper lighting for all activities including reading, TV viewing, and playing. T F 4. Fitness is never just physical - it involves both the mind and body together. T F 5. Stand tall, and walk tall with shoulders back and stomach in. T F 6. It's OK to share drinking cups, washcloths and towels. T F 7. Different foods provide different nutrients, and no one food can sustain us. T F 8. Rushing meals or skipping meals can be harmful to your body. Basic Food Groups Match each food to the appropriate food group. DAIRY PROTEIN GRAINS VEG & FRUIT banana egg cereal yogurt porkchop apple butter pasta cheese hotdogs corn bread melon nuts crackers ice cream potatoes milk oatmeal steak Last updated June 8, 1996Visit Pack 114's Fun Pages Index Visit Pack 114's Library
- Practical English-Lao-Korean Dictionary and Practical Lao-English-Korean Dictionary 36000 version. - English-Lao-Korean about 36000words provided and Reply to on Phonetic Symbol in English. - English-Lao-Korean Conversation 2000words provided. - English keyboard, Lao keyboard, Korean keyboard provides in applications. - Search results are English, Laotian, Korean written in three languages - Easy and fast search service 2. Lao MAP and Location Search Service - School, Building, Resturant, Tour, etc location service. - Business and company information service in Laos. - Using GPS location service.
I installed an advert blocker for some reasons; 1) I am worried about adverts tracking my online activity, 2) I am worried that adverts might introduce security risks (by using flash etc.), 3) I am worried that adverts slow down my browsing. The problem for free websites is that I have cut off their revenue stream. If everybody installed an ad-blocker, sites like pastebin will not be able to operate anymore. Pastebin's approach (see screenshot) is quite good. They are asking me to buy a pro account to subsidise my use of ad-blocking. Yahoo mail took a different stance. They will not allow you to access your email until you have removed the ad-blocking software. My problem is that I do not use pastebin enough to warrant a pro account, so I will not subscribe to them. What might work for me, would be a subscription to multiple sites for a monthly fee. Would be good if I can pay a small fee to have ad-free browsing on all of the Internet. If that is possible, the sites I use can get funded, and I would not have to use ad-blockers anymore. Easier said than done, but this might a a model we will see in the future. If you ban one encryption method, another one will be used. The argument that ISIS has turned Kik/twitter/fb/internet into a weapon is not good. ISIS breathe air and drink water. Does that make air and water an ISIS weapon that should be banned? Surely not! Furthermore, if a terrorist uses Kik, and advertises his Kik handle, catching him would be trivial. Just pretend you are a new recruit, contact the terrorist, arrange to meet somewhere and then arrest him. Kik, developed in Waterloo, Ontario. After a few weeks, the worm heads transformed back into their own species. This kind of study shows that genes are not solely responsible for the expression of cells. Environmental factors can change the way cells form. This has implications into treating birth defects in humans, and influencing the way in which our body heals. Sad... I hope someone keeps their DNA so that some day we may clone these huge double-horned beasts. - Middlesex UniversityLecturer, 2010 - present - setcomProduct Manager, 2012 - present - STC TrainingLecturer, 2005 - 2014 - IBMSenior Business Consultant, 2009 - 2010 - setcomSenior Sales Engineer, 2006 - 2009 - GFI SoftwareSenior Software Engineer, 1997 - 2006 - Charles de Giorgio Ltd.Medical and Sanitary Supplies, 1996 - 1997 I post about science, technology, education and humor. I also post outdoor photos from time to time. I am also the main curator of the MaltaPlus, a circle of the most interesting Maltese plussers. You can see the circle here: MaltaPlus Circle - Middlesex UniversityMSc Business Information Systems Management, 2011 - 2013 - London Metropolitan UniversityBSc Computing and Information Systems, 2003 - 2005 - NCC EducationAdvanced Diploma - De La Salle College MaltaPrimary and Secondary School NASA's Kepler mission announces a planet bonanza, 715 new worlds NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple- BlackBerry posts larger-than-expected loss, shares plunge Shares of BlackBerry plunged nearly 30 per cent Friday after the company posted a loss and warned of future losses despite releasing its mak
The series of events linking the electrical signal to muscle contraction Extracellular space between the neuron terminal and the muscle cell membrane (sarcolemma) The period during repolarizaton when the cell is insensitive to further stimulation An action potential, once initiated, ultimately results in full contraction of the muscle cell An enzyme located on the sarcolemma in the neuromuscular junction which degrades acetylcholine lower motor neuron that comes from the spinal cord and muscle fibers it stimulates. They can be small or large. the protein that is pulled toward the center of the sarcomere by the myosin during contraction contains myosin heads that stick out in six different directions to pull thin filaments. Step 1a - active site exposure impulse from CNS, ACh released, diffuses across cleft, stimulates fiber/cell Step 1c This movement exposes the binding site actin Ca+2 diffuses out of sarcoplasmic reticulum, binds to troponin, alters its shape and position of tropomyosin Step 3 "ratchetting" "power stroke" myosin cross brindge bends, pulling thin filaments toward center of sarcomere + contraction/muscle fibers shorten Step 5a Myosin reactivation ATPase (enzyme in myosin) breaks down ATP, energy is released (catabolism), myosin uses energy to straighten its cross-bridge Myosin cross-bridge can now combine with another binding site further down the actin filament and pull again No more ACh = no stiumlation to sarcolemma = SR pumps Ca+2 back inside = no Ca+2 meansactin binding sites are covered Ca+2 floods ICF from sarcoplasmic reticulum AND extracellular fluid, actin & myosin are binding but no ATP to break the myosin/actin bond a quick way to get more ATP, used to convert ADP to ATP. provide ATP before aerobic metabolism only last 15 sec Tropomyosin & troponin proteins attached to actin that help control the myosin-actin interactions involved in muscle contraction converted into lactic acid What happens to pyruvic acid when there is a lack of oxygen in the muscle? composed of the protein titin. Extends from the z disk to the thin filament and runs with it to attach to the m line smooth ER that surround each myofibril. Mitochondria and glycogen granules produce energy during contraction positioned on either side of the sarcomere and are pulled toward the center of the sarcomere during contraction warm up effect Single cell- can experience treppe effect where subsequent twitches can generate more force Recruitment of motor unit Whole muscle you have many motor units with different thresholds. Recruit more motor units for stronger whole muscle contraction. Crossbridge step 1 1. Energized thick filament (give ATP and phosphorus.) Myosin heads in a cocked back position. Crossbridge step 2 stimulus 2. Stimulus- causes binding sites on actin to be uncovered. Myosin heads bind to actin binding site. Crossbridge step 3 powerstroke "ratchetting" of myosin heads---thin filaments are pulled torward the center of the sarcomere. During the powerstroke the ADP & phosphorus leave the myosin head. Crossbridge step 4 4. Myosin head detaches from the actin thin filament . This occurs when ATP binds to the myosin head. Crossbridge step 5 5. ATP is hydrolyzed to ADP and inorganic phosphate to energize the myosin head and cock it back again. "same-length" muscle generates the same force through whole muscle during contraction. Intero sensory receptor detect muscle stretch and contraction (shortening) Protects from overstretching larger diameter, pailer color (less 02 carrier mypglobin,) faster contracting, less mitochondria, more anaerobic metabolism, can generate more power. Power lifting fatigues fast. darker= myoglobin that carries the 02 to mitochondria for aerobic metabolism. High endurance but fairly low power. when does crossbridge formation occur? When myosin heads bind to actin molecules located on the thin filaments.

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