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by Sierra Trudel
SIPPA President
“All our knowledge begins with the senses.”
-Immanuel Kant
Western society is plagued with the detrimental effects of daily stress. The contemporary lifestyle in the United States, characterized by a 24/7 economy and on-the-go lifestyle, is leaving its citizens with feelings of tension, overwhelming stress, feeling rushed, and restless. These experiences often lead to damaging health effects. Stress can lead to headaches, depleted immune systems, muscle tension and strain, elevated blood pressure, sleep deprivation, burnout, impaired brain functioning, relationship problems, anxiety, depression, digestive problems, and chronic illness; a symptom list most would want to avoid. However, these effects are projected to continue to rise (de Bruin, Formsma, Frijstein, & Bogels, 2017). Of the population experiencing stress, graduate students are among them. Of these students, those training in school counseling or special education are expected to experience high levels of stress during their educational training and throughout their careers. Many students entering these fields are equipped with self-help strategies to help others, yet lack the means to cope and relieve their own stress (Tarrasch, 2015).
Now imagine an activity that is easy to learn and that could alleviate the symptoms of stress in only 10 minutes. That activity is called meditation (Smith, 2014). Kabat-Zinn (2013) describes mindfulness meditation as being present to where you are and allowing you to authentically experience each moment, all the while free from judgment. So often our thoughts become so overpowering that we lose track of the present moment or our minds tend to wander ruminating on the tasks we need to complete. There are infinite reasons why our minds rapidly jump from one thought to another, but through practicing mediation we can learn to be aware of our minds and bodies and elicit necessary change. “In order to release this tension, you first have to know it is there. You have to feel it. Then you have to know how to shut off the automatic pilot and how to take over the controls of your own body and mind” (Kabat-Zinn, 2013, p. 13). Mindfulness meditation often places emphasis on awareness of breathing, surrounding sounds, and bodily sensations. When thoughts or distractions arise awareness is brought back to the breath. Often, in guided mindfulness meditations themes may be assigned for the session, such as compassion, peace, or forgiveness for self and others (Sears & Kraus, 2009). de Bruin, Formsma, Frijstein, and Bogels (2017) eloquently state:
We do not have much control over our life events and inner turmoil, but we do have control over how we relate to it. Mindfulness will not eliminate life’s pressures, but it can help us to respond to them in a more deliberate and calm manner that benefits our mind and body, as well as our relationships with others (pp. 205).
Mindfulness meditation intervention studies have demonstrated significant health benefits (e.g. treatment of anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and immune functioning), positive impacts on affect (e.g. increased self-compassion, overall well-being, and adaptive emotional regulation; de Bruin, Formsma, Frijsten, & Bogels, 2017; Menezes, C. B. & Bizarro, L., 2015; Sears & Kraus, 2009), changes in brain development (e.g. strengthens connections within the brain that enhance perspective and understanding; Smith, 2014) and benefits those in higher education (e.g. better test performance, increased concentration, and overall better cognitive performance; Tarrasch, 2015; Menezes, C. B. & Bizarro, L., 2015). Tarrasch (2015) noted additional significant benefits for graduate students, specifically those in counseling and special education programs. These benefits include: increased calmness, concentration, sleep, and awareness of thoughts, actions, and sensations; decreased anxiety and rumination; indicating positive effects in cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal domains. The culmination of these effects lead to an overall improved quality of life and the ability to balance their academic, professional, and personal lives.
Your senses are a powerful tool that can be used to quickly ground yourself to the present when you only have a moment. As students, the demands we face daily can often leave us feeling overwhelmed and stressed. The goal of the following exercise is to notice something that you are currently experiencing through each of your senses.
• What are 5 things you can see? Look around you and notice 5 things you hadn’t noticed before. Maybe a pattern on a wall, rays of light shining through a window, or the facial expressions of others around you.
• What are 4 things you can feel? Maybe you can feel your jaw clenching or the space between your eyes tightening, your hair resting on your shoulders, or a breeze on your skin. Try picking up an object and notice its texture and weight.
• What are 3 things you can hear? Notice all the background sounds of your surrounding. Can you hear people typing, is there music, or what does the silence sound like?
• What are 2 things you can smell? Take a slow, deep breath in. Maybe you can smell coffee brewing, a neighbors perfume, or food in the microwave. It doesn’t have to be a nice smell either, maybe there’s a trash can nearby or the air is stagnant and still.
• What is 1 thing you can taste? Move your tongue around in your mouth. Simply notice how your mouth tastes. Or, try taking a bite of chocolate or popping a piece of gum in your mouth. You can also “taste” the air to see how it feels on your tongue.
The suggestions listed above are meant to act as a guideline only. Feel free to do more or less of each. Also, try this exercise while doing an activity like washing dishes, listening to music, or going for a walk.
Back to SIPPA Newsletter: August 2018
de Bruin, E. I., Formsma, A. R., Frijstein, G., & Bogels, S. M. (2017). Mindful2Work: Effects of combined physical exercise, yoga, and mindfulness medications for stress relieve in employees. A proof of concept study. Mindfulness, 8,204-217. doi: 10.1007/s12671-016-0593-x
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain and illness. New York: Bantam Books.
Menezes, C. B. & Bizarro, L. (2015). Effects of a brief meditation training on negative affect, trait anxiety and concentrated attention. Paidéia, 25(62), 393-401. doi: 10.1590/1982- 43272562201513
Sears. S. & Kraus, S. (2009). I think therefore I om: Cognitive distortions and coping style as mediators for the effects of mindfulness meditation and anxiety, positive and negative affect, and hope. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(6), 561-573. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20543
Smith, O. (2014, Spring). 10 minutes of bliss. Montessori life, 48-50.
Tarrasch, R. (2015). Mindfulness meditation training for graduate students in educational counseling and special education: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Child Family Studies, 24,1322-1333. doi: 10.1007/s10826-014-9939-y |
Value Engineering
Value Engineering - short version
Value Engineering - long version
Value engineering is sometimes taught within the project management or industrial engineering body of knowledge as a technique in which the value of a system's outputs is optimized by crafting a mix of performance (function) and costs. In most cases this practice identifies and removes unnecessary expenditures, thereby increasing the value for the manufacturer and/or their customers.
VE follows a structured thought process that is based exclusively on "function", i.e. what something "does" not what it is. For example a screw driver that is being used to stir a can of paint has a "function" of mixing the contents of a paint can and not the original connotation of securing a screw into a screw-hole. In value engineering "functions" are always described in a two word abridgment consisting of an active verb and measurable noun (what is being done - the verb - and what it is being done to - the noun) and to do so in the most non-prescriptive way possible. In the screw driver and can of paint example, the most basic function would be "blend liquid" which is less prescriptive than "stir paint" which can be seen to limit the action (by stirring) and to limit the application (only considers paint.) This is the basis of what value engineering refers to as "function analysis".
Value engineering uses rational logic (a unique "how" - "why" questioning technique) and the analysis of function to identify relationships that increase value. It is considered a quantitative method similar to the scientific method, which focuses on hypothesis-conclusion approaches to test relationships, and operations research, which uses model building to identify predictive relationships.
Value engineering is also referred to as "value management" or "value methodology" (VM), and "value analysis" (VA). VE is above all a structured problem solving process based on function analysis—understanding something with such clarity that it can be described in two words, the active verb and measurable noun abridgement. For example, the function of a pencil is to "make marks". This then facilitates considering what else can make marks. From a spray can, lipstick, a diamond on glass to a stick in the sand, one can then clearly decide upon which alternative solution is most appropriate.
Value engineering is often done by systematically following a multi-stage job plan. Larry Miles' original system was a six-step procedure which he called the "value analysis job plan." Others have varied the job plan to fit their constraints. Depending on the application, there may be four, five, six, or more stages. One modern version has the following eight steps:
1. Preparation
2. Information
3. Analysis
4. Creation
5. Evaluation
6. Development
7. Presentation
8. Follow-up
Four basic steps in the job plan are:
* Information gathering - This asks what the requirements are for the object. Function analysis, an important technique in value engineering, is usually done in this initial stage. It tries to determine what functions or performance characteristics are important. It asks questions like; What does the object do? What must it do? What should it do? What could it do? What must it not do?
* Alternative generation (creation) - In this stage value engineers ask; What are the various alternative ways of meeting requirements? What else will perform the desired function?
* Evaluation - In this stage all the alternatives are assessed by evaluating how well they meet the required functions and how great will the cost savings be.
* Presentation - In the final stage, the best alternative will be chosen and presented to the client for final decision.
VE follows a structured thought process to evaluate options as follows.
Gather information
1.What is being done now?
Who is doing it?
What could it do?
What must it not do?
2.How will the alternatives be measured?
What are the alternate ways of meeting requirements?
What else can perform the desired function?
3.What must be done?
What does it cost?
4.What else will do the job?
5.Which Ideas are the best?
6. Develop and expand ideas
What are the impacts?
What is the cost?
What is the performance?
7.Present ideas
Sell alternatives
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Mathematical Literacy: A Necessary Skill cover
Mathematical Literacy: A Necessary Skill
I regularly work with undergraduate and graduate students in statistics, and I notice that many of them, while they have all the skills to do math, are absolutely terrified of it. But you need it for daily life. Mathematical literacy is the knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, to numbers embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a checkbook, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement.
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Mathematical Literacy: A Necessary Skill
My Grade 9 math teacher was a jolly British man, and probably taught me one of the most useful things I ever learned in high school:
how to do basic math in my head (or, since I was in the British educational system, it was Grammar School). Every so often we’d go into our math class and find little bits of paper on every desk. This was a harbinger of doom – it meant we were having a 20 question surprise quiz. And not just any quiz, a mental arithmetic quiz. He would read a question out loud twice, and then we’d have to do the math. He’d give us some leeway (you didn’t have to be exact), but man did I ever hate those quizzes. At the time, they seemed impractical and a colossal waste of time. In retrospect, they were incredibly useful.
Chocolate Pi
Chocolate Pi
Photo by Flick user s-guilana
CC BY 2.0
Now, being on the other side of the divide, I see something that concerns me. I regularly TA undergraduate and graduate students
in statistics, and I notice that many of them, while they have all the skills to do math, are absolutely terrified of it. And as soon as you fear a subject, or don’t want to learn it, you won’t. Your mind will shut down and every instinct you have will prevent you from engaging in the material.
As a result, I spend the first hour of any class I’m teaching talking to the students and determining what it is they don’t understand to tailor my sessions accordingly. But the comments generally involve variations on:
“I just don’t get math.”
“I’ve never been any good at math.”
“I don’t like it.”
Math Anxiety
Of these, the first two concern me. The third I can’t help – I don’t need my students to love math, but I do want them to understand
enough to pass the course and feel comfortable interpreting statistical analyses. There’s a culture among school kids to dislike math and the perception that it’s largely useless.
While in chemistry you can see stuff blow up, and in biology you can dissect animals, math is a largely abstract concept. That perception then manifests as a lack of interest, which results in poorer performance, and that puts people off math. This is further compounded by a phenomenon known as“Math Anxiety” or “Math Phobia.”
Math Anxiety
Math Anxiety
Photo Courtesy Wilson Dias/ABr
CC BY 3.0 BR)
Mathematical Literacy
Ashcraft and Kirk discuss this extensively in their 2001 paper, and suggest that much of the anxiety is a result of the fear
of getting the wrong answer in their tests. I’m not going to delve into it now as the whole area of math performance, both in terms of math anxiety and performance anxiety as well as cultural and gender differences in math warrant a dedicated post. For now, let’s just talk about what constitutes “mathematical literacy.”
The OECD released a report in 2000, where they defined literacy in three domains, and the way they defined numerical literacy was:
Quantitative literacy – the knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a chequebook, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement.
Identify and Understand
The OECD also conducts the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) which evaluated the performance of 15-year olds
in math, science and reading. It defines mathematical literacy as:
Tips, Order Forms and Interest
Tips, Order Forms and Interest
Not Calculus!
As you can see, the idea of numerical or mathematical literacy, as defined above, isn’t advanced math like calculus
or algebraic manipulations. We’re talking about being to understand the order of operations and activities requiring that level of mathematical understanding.
Given that the world is moving towards a knowledge based economy, the lack of mathematical literacy is a big concern. Now more than ever the ability to critically evaluate information presented to us to draw our own conclusions, rather than have someone tell us what they mean, is of the utmost importance.
Challenges with Age
In Canada, this has particular relevance as we (like most of the Western world) are in the midst of an aging population.
This comes with its own set of challenges, but one is that as patients age, they suffer from illnesses, and if they are unable to interpret medical information or if doctors are unable to explain to patients in a way they’ll understand, then patients are unable to make informed decisions about their health.
I’m not implying that everyone needs to be able to advanced math and statistics. Given the advances in technology (see abacus app above), you can now use an app to calculate how to split the bill or calculate a tip
(iLounge reviews bit.ly/1xVArDC ).
You don’t need to be able to do hierarchical ordinal regression using bootstrapping, or factor analyses, or structural equation modelling.
But given how much data we are presented with on a regular basis, be that in the form of interest rates on a bank loan, discount on sale items or even polling numbers for political parties (the latter discussed by Swans on Tea bit.ly/1m11Pes), a basic level of numerical literacy is not only important, it’s necessary.
Ashcraft, Mark H.; Kirk, Elizabeth P., “The Relationships Among Working Memory, Math Anxiety, and Performance”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2001 pp. 224-237
Ciampa PJ, Osborn CY, Peterson NB, Rothman RL., “Patient numeracy, perceptions of provider communication, and colorectal cancer screening utilization.” J Health Commun. 2010;15 Suppl 3:157-68. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154091
OECD. “Assessing Scientific, Reading and Mathematical Literacy: A Framework for PISA 2006? 2006. Available online at: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2006/37464175.pdf
OECD. “Literacy in the Information Age: Final report of the International Adult Literacy Survey” 2000. Available online at: http://www.oecd.org/education/educationeconomyandsociety/39437980.pdf |
Alex Colvin - 4
Facts about a Giraffe
Giraffes are known for there very long necks. They can be as long as 18 inches so they can reach the tall trees because, they are herbivores that's why they only eat plants and flowers. Giraffes are also known for there patterns on there skin. Every single Giraffes has a different pattern. The patterns are very pretty on them and they make the Giraffe pop out. They are the tallest living animal in the world.
Predators of the Giraffe
What giraffes eat
Giraffes are herbivores so they only eat plants. They have a very long neck so they can reach the plants and flowers that are high in trees. But its hard for them to eat the grass because, there neck is so long its hard for them to bend there back.
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The Annotated Bushido
Summary / Notes
Chapter XIII
and made it [1905 start: Bushido made the sword] the emblem of power and prowess. When Mahomet proclaimed that "The sword is the key of Heaven and of Hell," he only echoed a Japanese sentiment. Common people had ample reason to fear it, and the samurai boy early [1905: Very early the samurai boy] learned to wield it. It was a momentous occasion for him when at the age of five he was apparelled in the paraphernalia of samurai costume, placed upon a go-board and initiated into the rights of the military profession, by having thrust into his girdle a real sword instead of the toy dirk he had been playing with. [1905: with which he had been playing.] After this first ceremony of adoptio per arma, he was no more to be seen outside his father's gates without this badge of his status, even if it was usually substituted for every-day [1905: everyday] wear by a gilded wooden dirk. Not many years pass before he wears constantly the genuine steel, though blunt, and then the sham arms are thrown aside and with enjoyment keener than his newly acquired blades, he marches out to try their edge on wood and stone. When be reaches man's estate at the age of fifteen, [1905: man's estate, at the age of fifteen,] being given independence of action, he can now pride himself upon the possession of arms sharp enough for any work. The very possession of the dangerous instrument imparts to him a feeling and an air of self-respect and responsibility. "He beareth not his sword [1905: the sword] in vain." What he carries in his belt is a symbol of what he carries in his mind and heart,--Loyalty and Honor. The two swords, the longer and the shorter,--called respectively Daito and Shoto or Katana and Wakizashi,--never leave his side. [1905: the longer and the shorter,--called respectively daito and shoto or katana and wakizashi,--never leave his side.] When at home, they grace the most conspicuous place in study or parlor; [1905: in the study or parlour;] by night they guard his pillow within easy reach of his hand. Constant companions, they are beloved, and proper names of endearment given them. Being venerated, they are well-nigh worshipped. The Father of History has recorded as a curious piece of information that the Scythians sacrificed to an iron scimitar. Many a temple and many a family in Japan hoards a sword as an object of adoration. Even the commonest dirk has due respect paid to it. Any insult to it is tantamount to personal affront. Woe to him who carelessly steps over a weapon lying on the floor!
The question that concerns us most is, however,--Did Bushido justify the promiscuous use of the weapon? The answer is unequivocally, no! As it laid great stress on its proper use, so did it denounce and abhor its misuse. A dastard or a braggart was he who brandished his weapon on undeserved occasions. A self-possessed man knows the right time to use it, and such times come but rarely. Let us listen to the late Count Katsu, who passed through one of the most turbulent times of our history, when assassinations, suicides, and other sanguinary practices were the order of the day. Endowed as he once was with almost dictatorial powers, chosen repeatedly as an object for assassination, he never tarnished his sword with blood. In relating some of his reminiscences to a friend he says, in a quaint, plebeian way peculiar to him:--"I have [1905: way peculiar to him: "I have] a great dislike for killing people and so I haven't killed one single man. I have released those whose heads should have been chopped off. A friend said to me one day, 'You don't kill enough. Don't you eat pepper and egg-plants?' Well, some people are no better! But you see that fellow was slain himself. My escape may be due to my dislike of killing. I had the hilt of my sword so tightly fastened to the scabbard that it was hard to draw the blade. I made up my mind that though they cut me, I will [1905: would] not cut. Yes, yes! some people are truly like fleas and mosquitoes and they bite--but what does their biting amount to? It itches a little, that's all: [1905: that's all;] it won't endanger life." These are the words of one whose Bushido training was tried in the fiery furnace of adversity and triumph. The popular apothegm--"To be beaten is to conquer," meaning true conquest consists in not opposing a riotous foe; and "The best won victory is that obtained without shedding of blood," and others of similar import--will show that after all the ultimate ideal of knighthood was Peace.
It was a great pity that this high ideal was left exclusively to priests and moralists to preach, while the samurai went on practicing and extolling martial traits. In this they went so far as to tinge the ideals of womanhood with Amazonian character. Here we may profitably devote a few paragraphs to the subject of [1905: to the subject of the training and position of woman.] << continue >>
One might note the anachronistic use of foreign sources to "echo" Japanese sentiments, and Nitobe's avoidance of the phrase "common people."
It is also worth remarking on the paradox of a samurai's having the sword always at the ready even though it is of no more use than a bishop's crozier(!). The apparent contradiction inherent in the existence of a warrior class in the Edo period during a time of (relative) peace requires some deft logic to resolve.
Muhammed (c. 570-632), the Arab prophet through whom the Qur'ân (Koran) was revealed and who founded Islam. The quotation is a Hadith, or recorded saying of Muhammed. Nitobe may have taken it from Chapter L of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), where Gibbon (1737-1794) writes as follows:
"The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell: a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven; at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim."
The game of go is sometimes called Japanese checkers, but is much more intricate than the English game. The go board contains 361 squares and is supposed to represent a battle-field--the object of the game being to occupy as much space as possible. [Nitobe's note] Nitobe reveals himself here to be unfamiliar with the game of go, since there are in fact only 324 squares on the go board. These squares are created by 19x19 intersecting lines, meaning that there are 361 intersections or points on the board, and stones are placed on these points in the attempt to surround or control as much space as possible ("space" is counted by the number of intersections occupied or controlled). Furthermore, although there is a "battle" involved, it is thought that the game has its origins in divination, so that the battle is between night (black stones) and day (white stones) over the course of a year (about 361 days).
"Adoption by arms." A ceremony of investing with arms by means of which one party is symbolically "adopted" by another. It appears to be the origin of dubbing in knighthood.
Romans 13:4. The first four verses of Romans 13 read as follows in the King James Version:
A reference to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), who wrote the first great history of the ancient world. The relevant passage is Herodotus Histories 4.62, which describes the akinakes (which is short and straight rather than curved like a medieval scimitar) as an image of the god Ares (Mars). The following passage is from the 1862 translation by George Rawlinson (1812-1902):
No specific source has been identified.
Both Toledo (in Spain) and Damascus were famous for their steel and swords, although the latter location was not necessarily where the swords were made ("Damascus steel" has come to refer to a technique of swordmaking rather than to the origin or quality of the steel itself).
A reference to Katsu Kaishū (1823-1899), the Tokugawa vassal who captained the Kanrin Maru on its famous voyage to the United States in 1860. He also negotiated the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle during the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and served in a number of imperial-government positions afterward.
A quotation from Kaishū yoha (Kaishū's Influence), a collection of oral reminiscences taken down by educator and critic Iwamoto Yoshiharu (1863-1942) and published in 1899 shortly after Kaishū's death. An expanded version of this book was published in 1930 under the title Kaishū zadan (Conversations with Kaishū, in the Iwanami Bunko series). The (second) friend mentioned by Kaishū in the quotation is Kawakami Kensai (1834-1872), a fervid opponent of opening Japan to the Western "barbarians" who was executed by the new Meiji government ostensibly for assassinating two officials. The vegetable Nitobe for some reason translates as "pepper" -- kabocha -- is more accurately rendered "pumpkin" or "squash." Perhaps he thought that peppers were more conducive to producing a fighting spirit.
The Amazons were a legendary race of female warriors believed by the ancient Greeks to live at the outer boundary of the known world. There are myths about the Amazons involving such Greek heroes as Heracles and Theseus. |
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Can we know the color of a 200-million-year-old insect? Some people will say we can only imagine its actual color. But no! Scientists from China, Germany and the UK have new evidence to reveal the “true color” of fossil insects. The research was recently published in Science Advances.
Structural colors have evolved in a myriad of animals and plants and result from the wavelength-selective scattering of incident light. Such colors are typically more vibrant and visually arresting than those produced via pigmentation and are often multifunctional, playing important roles in intraspecific sexual signaling, aposematism and crypsis.
Lepidoptera exhibit in their scales some of the most diverse structural colors produced by insects, with this diversity undoubtedly having contributed to the evolutionary success of the order. Despite sustained interest in the structure, development, and photonic and other biomimetic properties of lepidopteran scales in neontological studies, as well as recent research into structural colors in fossil beetles and feathers, the deep evolutionary history of scales and structural colors in lepidopterans is poorly understood.
Recently, researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their colleagues from Germany and the UK reported scale architectures from Jurassic Lepidoptera from the UK, Germany, Kazakhstan and China and Tarachoptera (a stem group of Amphiesmenoptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber.
They used optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) to reveal the gross morphology and ultrastructure of the scales.
Using the ultrastructural parameters identified in Jurassic specimens, they demonstrated the use of optical modeling to describe the theoretical optical properties of the type-1 bilayer scale arrangement, thus providing the earliest evidence of structural colors in the insect fossil record.
The Jurassic lepidopterans exhibit a type1 bilayer scale vestiture: an upper layer of large fused cover scales and a lower layer of small fused ground scales. This scale arrangement, plus preserved herringbone ornamentation on the cover scale surface, is almost identical to those of some extant Micropterigidae. Critically, the fossil scale ultrastructures possess periodicities measuring from 140–2000 nm and are therefore capable of scattering visible light.
The fossil tarachopteran scales exhibit a unique suite of characteristics, including small size, elongate-spatulate shape, ridged ornamentation and irregular arrangement, providing novel insight into the early evolution of lepidopteran scales. Combined, these new results provide the earliest evidence for structural coloration in fossil lepidopterans and support the hypothesis that fused wing scales and the type1 bilayer covering are fundamental features of the group.
"These findings have broader implications,” said Prof. WANG Bo from NIGP, the leader of the research group. The widespread occurrence of wing scales in Jurassic lepidopterans and in tarachopterans strongly suggests that wing scales (including some possibly unknown morphotypes) were widespread in stem Amphiesmenoptera prior to their apogee in the Lepidoptera.
Given the presence of structural coloration in these basal fossil lepidopterans, the advent of major lepidopteran clades by the Cretaceous raises the possibility that this taxonomic radiation may have been accompanied by increased diversity in scale shape, microstructure and optical effects.
Future studies will characterize the optical response of scale nanostructures in other fossil specimens and will provide evidence for the presence of scale pigments in fossil lepidopterans in order to inform models of the evolution of structural colors in lepidopterans.
Reference Zhang Qingqing, Mey W., Ansorge J., Starkey T.A., McDonald L.T., McNamara M.E., Jarzembowski E.A., Wichard W., Kelly R., Ren Xiaoying, Chen Jun, Zhang Haichun, Wang Bo* (2018) Fossil scales illuminate the early evolution of lepidopterans and structural colors, Science Advances 4: e1700988. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700988.
Fig. 1. Wings and scales of Jurassic Lepidoptera and extant Micropterigidae.(Image by ZHANG Qingqing et al.)
Fig. 2. Tarachoptera from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber .(Image by ZHANG Qingqing et al.)
Fig. 3. Optical modeling showing the photonic response of a simplified fused cover scale structure. (Image by ZHANG Qingqing et al.)
Fig. 4. Ecological restoration of moths in the Cretaceous Burmese amber forest. (Image by YANG Dinghua)
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology Chinese Academy of Sciences |
Recently, smart home gadgets are emerging to the commercial market such as Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo and Google Home. Broadly classification they are IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Managing IoT devices are challenging. Apple, Amazon and Google implemented their own solutions. For general Iot devise Microsoft is offering a solution it is known as Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
This project is to implement a mobile IoT smart home gadget named HomeBot. HomeBot is with sensors for gas detection, temperature, humanity, led light on/off/dimming; actuators for simply pick and place; video streaming for home monitoring; speech and voice recognition with Google Assistant. HomeBot mobility can be implemented to use legs and wheels. Managing HomeBot is via Microsoft azure iot hub so that users can reach HomeBot from the Internet. You will use 3D printing and modelling for HomeBot design and prototyping. A design of a cute look for an example will be desirable.
Following materials will be relevant to this project.
Reference Books:
Programming Language and Tools
Tutorials will be given on 3D printing and modelling, writing IoT application for Raspberry Pi |
The Art of the Photogravure Test Your Royal Wits: Crack Codes, Solve Mysteries, and Deduce which Royal Rumurs are True
About the Book
Art Clues on...
Vlad Dracula
Richard III
Henry VIII
Anne Boleyn
Anne of Cleves
Mary Queen of Scots
Elizabeth I
Louis XIV
Peter the Great
Marie Antoinette
Napoleon Bonaparte
Catherine the Great
George III
Art Detectives
Elizabeth: Forever young
Elizabeth with fan Painting the queen was serious business. Painters had to have a license to paint her and their work was often thrown away if it did not meet Elizabeth's approval. For this reason, she commissioned very few artists to paint her portrait and used those selected works as the master for all artists to copy. Because artists were often copying younger depictions of the queen, very few paintings show Elizabeth's true age. At one point, Elizabeth even had images showing her older self destroyed. It was not entirely due to vanity that Elizabeth was so careful of her image on canvas. She needed her portraits to show her as a strong, yet chaste, "virgin queen" married to her kingdom. This was an age where women were positively dried up at the age of 35. No one must ever doubt that the queen still held the reigns of England steady in her aging hands.
It's also important to remember that very few people would ever meet the queen in person, but they could hang a copied painting on their walls. In an age where we are bombarded with images of our leaders from internet, print and tv media, we take for granted that portraits were often a queen's only chance for public exposure.
A close up of the eyes and ears on Elizabeth's dress from the Rainbow portrait (above).
As powerful propaganda messages, these portraits contained symbols of the monarch's reign. Elizabeth is often shown wearing pearls or holding a white ermine, both symbols of her virginity. In other paintings, she has eyes and ears covering her dress to show that she was constantly watching her enemies. You wouldn't want to mess with a queen who had a thousand eyes and ears on her dress!
Elizabeth's Favorite Things
On page 38 of The Raucous Royals, the mouse is wearing the crown that Elizabeth wore at her coronation. Seen here
Elizabeth with fanOn page 36, Elizabeth is shown holding a feathered fan. Elizabeth loved presents, but she let it be known that her favorite gift was a feathered fan. In many of Elizabeth's portraits she is seen holding a fan made of ostrich or peacock feathers. Marie Antoinette later also used feathered plumes in her hair to give her royal dos towering heights.
Elizabeth's pottage
Princess Elizabeth
There are only two paintings that historians can say for certain depict Elizabeth as a teenager. Read More about the recent discovery of a painting once believed to be Lady Jane Grey>>
Elizabeth's pottage
Breakfast of Champions
Elizabeth often ate succory porridge or "pottage" for breakfast. Succory tastes like dandelions and was used to flavor beef or mutton.
To make your own succory porridge boil the following ingredients in a big pot and enjoy: Mutton or Beef, Water, Violet leaves, Endive, Succory, Strawberry leaves, Spinach, marigold flowers , Scallions, Parsley, Oatmeal.
Elizabeth the Heartbreaker
Why did Elizabeth never marry? Read more about Elizabeth and her favorite bachelors>>
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Human-Robot Trust
Nonverbal behaviors communicate our underlying intentions, goals, and values.
Nonverbal behaviors communicate our underlying intentions, goals, and values.
But what are the nonverbal behaviors that constitute a signal related to the trustworthiness of a novel person? The psychology department at Northeastern University identified a candidate set of nonverbal cues–face touching, arms crossed, leaning backward, and hand touching–that was hypothesized to be indicative of untrustworthy behavior. However, in order to confirm and further validate such findings, a common practice in social psychology is to employ a human actor to perform certain nonverbal cues and study their effects in a human-subjects experiment. A fundamental challenge inherent in this research design is that people regularly emit cues outside of their own awareness, which makes it difficult even for trained professional actors to express specific cues in a reliable fashion. Our strategy for meeting this challenge was to employ a social robotics platform. By utilizing a humanoid robot, we took advantage of its programmable behavior to control exactly which cues are emitted to each participant (see example video above). In collaboration with the Social Emotions Lab at NEU, Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Cornell University, we found through a human-subjects experiment that the robot’s expression of the hypothesized nonverbal cues resulted in participants perceiving the robot as a less trustworthy agent.
When Nexi expressed these distrusting behaviors participants perceived the robot to be a less trustworthy partner.
We developed a system that allowed the psychologists to remotely control our complex (38 skeletal jointed) humanoid robot. Our goal was to enable them to have a natural conversation with another person through this robotic medium. The primary technical challenge was to provide expressive but precisely-timed control of the robot’s motions to non-expert users. By combining various fully-autonomous behaviors along with semi-autonomous interfaces, we developed a tele-robotic interface to control the robot’s face and body motions for a human-subjects experiment.
Social Robots, a new scientific tool to study human behavior |
Natural Selection and Developmental Constraints in the Evolution of Allometries
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Science 04 Feb 2005:
Vol. 307, Issue 5710, pp. 718-720
DOI: 10.1126/science.1105409
In animals, scaling relationships between appendages and body size exhibit high interspecific variation but low intraspecific variation. This pattern could result from natural selection for specific allometries or from developmental constraints on patterns of differential growth. We performed artificial selection on the allometry between forewing area and body size in a butterfly to test for developmental constraints, and then used the resultant increased range of phenotypic variation to quantify natural selection on the scaling relationship. Our results show that the short-term evolution of allometries is not limited by developmental constraints. Instead, scaling relationships are shaped by strong natural selection.
Among species, populations, and even sexes, morphological traits exhibit an impressive diversity of scaling relationships with body size; most traits scale positively with body size, although the rate at which trait size changes with overall size often differs from isometry and can even be nonlinear (1, 2). This is particularly true of insects, which exhibit extremes in trait–body size allometries (3). This extreme variation among groups is in marked contrast to the extent of variation within groups; typically, individuals within these groups exhibit low variation around some average allometry, reflecting a tight scaling between body parts and overall size [e.g., (47)].
Although these patterns have long been recognized (2, 8), surprisingly little is known about the evolution of scaling relationships (3, 9); in particular, the relative importance of processes shaping their evolution is largely uninvestigated (10). Presumably, tight adherence to particular allometries results from external selection against traits with atypical or nonfunctional relative sizes. Such selection is predicted to favor the evolution of genetic and developmental systems that properly scale the growth of traits across body sizes, maintaining functional size relationships in the face of environmental and genetic variation (11, 12). However, this scenario presents a paradox: The proximate mechanisms that evolve to maintain the relative size of traits will then produce developmental constraints [as defined in (10)] that must be overcome if allometries are to evolve. Here, we present empirical data addressing the relative roles of natural selection and developmental constraints in the evolution of the allometry between forewing area and body size in the butterfly Bicyclus anynana.
In the context of the evolution of allometries among morphological traits, the scaling relationship between wing area and body size (i.e., the ratio of body size to wing area, or “wing loading”) is of interest, because it is ecologically important and taxonomically diverse (13, 14). The size of the wings and flight musculature relative to body mass affects flight performance directly (14), as well as indirectly through thermoregulatory effects while basking or during ectotherm flight (13). Lepidoptera have the lowest average wing loading among flying insects (15) and exhibit lineage-specific, seasonal morph–specific, or sex-specific scaling relationships associated with life historical or behavioral correlates [e.g., (6, 1620)]. As with most insects, adult body size in B. anynana is a highly plastic trait (21), and forewing area (FW) exhibits a strong, positive phenotypic correlation with total body mass (BS) across the natural range of body size (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.86, N = 691 stock population females, P = 0.0001). Moreover, artificial selection for changes in FW and pupal mass revealed a genetic correlation between these traits (r = 0.75) (Fig. 1) (20).
Fig. 1.
Response to artificial selection on absolute trait size. Forewing area (FW, triangles indicate direction of selection) and pupal mass (PM, squares) are shown relative to control means (horizontal line) as a function of the cumulated selected differential. Regression was used to calculate the realized heritability for each trait. Pupal mass increased ∼1.5 SD and decreased ∼1 SD in six generations. Realized heritabilities were moderate in each direction (+PM h2 = 0.28, –PM h2 = 0.16). FW responded rapidly and asymmetrically to selection, increasing ∼1.5 SD and decreasing ∼0.5 SD relative to controls. Realized heritabilities were moderate and similar to those for pupal mass [+FW h2 = 0.38, –FW h2 = 0.16; note that these values are twice the slope of the regression for FW because only females were selected in these lineages (20)].
The strong genetic correlation between FW and body size should constrain their independent evolution (22), inhibiting phenotype evolution in a direction perpendicular to that of the wild-type allometry (23). To determine whether such internal constraints limit the short-term evolution of the scaling relationship, we performed artificial selection on the FW/BS allometry (20). The FW/BS allometry evolved rapidly, diverging ∼2 SD in each direction relative to that of the control lineage to produce distinct, novel phenotypes [Fig. 2; discriminant function analysis correctly classified 94.8% of females from generation 13 (–2 log likelihood = 107.4; N = 766, replicates pooled)]. The response to selection resulted almost entirely from changes in FW (Fig. 3); BS changed in the appropriate direction in only one lineage (–FW/+BS, lineage E; F1,11 = 5.55, P = 0.038) (20). This extreme asymmetry in the contribution of each trait to the evolution of the allometry was unexpected, as both individual FW and body size exhibited very similar realized heritabilities (Fig. 1), indicating adequate and equivalent genetic variation in both traits. Moreover, the observed pattern of response is not due to differences in the phenotypic variance between the traits, because they were subject to similar indirect selection pressures in all but one case (Fig. 3). A low frequency of alleles in our starting population that affect BS independently of FW or a sieving out of key alleles that affect FW but not BS could account for the pattern. In any case, the rapid evolution of the allometry demonstrates a surprising absence of developmental constraints restricting change in this scaling relationship. However, the pattern of response exhibited by FW and BS indicates a strong bias [or developmental constraint (10)] in how these traits respond indirectly to direct selection on their scaling relationship. Hence, the allometry itself is not developmentally constrained; what does appear to be constrained is the way in which the individual components contribute to the evolution of this complex phenotype.
Fig. 2.
Scatterplots of static allometries of individuals from lineages selected for changes in FW/BS and the evolution of the mean allometry. (A) Phenotype distributions of lineages selected for changes in forewing–body size scaling. Each selected population is shown as a different symbol; replicates of a selection direction have the same shading. The mean allometry of each selected direction (replicates combined) is shown as the model II regression through the points and is enclosed by a 95% confidence ellipse. (B) Realized heritabilities of the mean allometries. Mean phenotype (through which the mean allometry passes) for each lineage is shown relative to control values (horizontal dashed line) as a function of the cumulative selection differential. Mean heritabilities (+FW/–HW = 0.18; –FW/+HW = 0.24) are equal to twice the slope of the regressions fit to each selected direction (95% confidence intervals shown by dashed lines). Target phenotypes are represented by cartoons in both panels.
Fig. 3.
Indirect response of mean forewing area (triangles indicate direction of FW selection relative to fresh mass) and fresh mass (squares) to direct selection on their scaling relationship. Values are plotted relative to control lineage means (horizontal dashed line) as a function of the cumulative indirect selection on each trait. The average indirect response of each trait is shown by the individual regression line for that trait. In lineage F, divergence in the values did not occur until generation 4; hence, the mean indirect response to selection is shown from generation 3 onward for this replicate. Cartoons represent the selected target phenotype.
Our results, together with the few other studies that have used artificial selection to alter scaling relationships between morphological traits in insects (2426), indicate that even strong genetic correlations do not constrain phenotype evolution in the short term. It seems that the developmental basis of these genetic correlations is more important than their strength in determining the response to selection (27). In particular, under novel selection regimes such as the artificial one we imposed, the developmental program coordinating the growth of the individual traits may influence how these traits and the relationship between them evolves (28).
The lack of developmental constraints on the evolution of the allometry motivated us to determine the pattern of natural selection on wing loading. To examine the fitness consequences of deviating from the wild-type FW/BS scaling relationship, we measured the mating success of competing wild-type control and novel-phenotype males (two treatment male classes, +FW/–BS and –FW/+BS) in a spacious, naturally planted, tropical greenhouse. Treatment and control males taken from reciprocal crosses of the replicated lineages of each selected direction were selected for inclusion in the experiment on the basis of their static allometries (20). Hence, all males came from similarly outcrossed populations, and treatment and control males were drawn from the same genetic background. Mating success was determined by the transfer of phenotype class–specific colored powder from males to females (20, 29). In both trials, males with the wild-type phenotype acquired three times as many matings as did males from both phenotype classes with novel wing loadings (Fig. 4; trial 1, G = 30.2, P < 0.001; trial 2, G = 18.381, P < 0.001). These results demonstrate strong stabilizing selection favoring the natural scaling relationship between forewing and body size in B. anynana.
Fig. 4.
Distributions of static allometries for FW/BS allometries and relative mating success of three male phenotype classes. (A) Distributions of individual males with +FW/–BM, wild type, and –FW/+BM phenotypes included in the experiment (extreme phenotypes are represented by cartoons). Solid circles denote novel phenotype classes; open circles denote wild-type controls. (B) Mating success of each phenotype class. Columns indicate percentage of recaptured females that mated with males in each class and are shown with 95% confidence intervals based on a bimodal distribution. Numbers in the columns indicate the number of males recaptured in each group. Data from replicate trials are indicated by similar shading (shared between panels).
Survival among male phenotype classes (recapture rates) did not differ (trial 1, G = 0.110, P = 0.947; trial 2, G = 0.641, P = 0.726), a finding consistent with results from manipulative studies of wing loading in free-flying butterflies [e.g., (15, 30, 31)]. Because survival was the same among male phenotypes, the higher fitness of wild-type males must be due to other, nonexclusive, selective factors. In the greenhouse, males engage in prolonged bouts of chasing both other males and females, as they do in nature (29), which suggests that the lower fitness of treatment males may result from decreased locomotor performance (20). Intrasexual competition among male phenotypes may also play a role; +FW/–BS and –FW/+BS males may be excluded from females in the presence of superiorly flying, wild-type males. Alternatively, wild-type males may be selected by females because of favored signals produced during courtship or flight (29) or because treatment males are less appealing visually. In any case, because treatment and wild-type males were drawn from the same outbred populations, any female preference must be largely unrelated to male genetic background in our experiment. Regardless of the cause of the higher fitness of wild-type males, we have documented strong stabilizing selection on male wing loading.
Our findings indicate that it is not internal developmental constraints, but rather external natural selection, that is the primary force shaping the short-term evolution of morphological allometries in insects. However, the surprising bias in the morphological basis of how the allometry evolved suggests that development may strongly influence how individual traits respond to selection on their scaling relationships.
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Article Four of the United States Constitution Article
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Section 1: Full faith and credit
Section 2: Rights of state citizens; rights of extradition
Clause 1: Privileges and Immunities
Clause 2: Extradition of fugitives
In Kentucky v. Dennison, [1] the Supreme Court held that the federal courts may not compel state governors to surrender fugitives through the issue of writs of mandamus. The Dennison decision was overruled by Puerto Rico v. Branstad; now, the federal courts may require the extradition of fugitives. [2] Alleged fugitives generally may not challenge extradition proceedings.
Clause 3: Fugitive Slave Clause
Pierce Butler and Charles Pinckney, both from South Carolina, submitted this clause to the Constitutional Convention. James Wilson of Pennsylvania objected, stating it would require that state governments enforce slavery at taxpayers' expense. Butler withdrew the clause. However, on the next day the clause was quietly reinstated and adopted by the Convention without objection. This clause was added to the clause that provided extradition for fugitives from justice. [4]
In 1864, during the Civil War, an effort to repeal this clause of the Constitution failed. [5] This clause was rendered mostly moot when the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery.
Section 3: New states and federal property
Clause 1: New states
The First Clause of Section Three, also known as the Admissions Clause, [6] grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50. It also forbids the creation of new states from parts of existing states without the consent of the affected states and Congress. This latter provision was designed to give Eastern states that still had claims to Western lands (e.g., Virginia and North Carolina) to have a veto over whether their western counties (which eventually became Kentucky and Tennessee) could become states. [7] It would later be applied with regard to the formation of Maine (from Massachusetts) and West Virginia (from Virginia). [8]
At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, a proposal to include the phrase, "new States shall be admitted on the same terms with the original States", was defeated. It was feared that the political power of future new western states would eventually overwhelm that of the established eastern states. Once the new Constitution went into effect, however, Congress admitted Vermont and Kentucky on equal terms and thereafter formalized the condition in its acts of admission for subsequent states, declaring that the new state enters "on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever." Thus the Congress, utilizing the discretion allowed by the framers, adopted a policy of equal status for all newly admitted states. [7] With the growth of states' rights advocacy during the antebellum period, the Supreme Court asserted, in Lessee of Pollard v. Hagan (1845), [9] that the Constitution mandated admission of new states on the basis of equality. [10]
Congressional restrictions on the equality of states, even when those limitations have been found in the acts of admission, have been held void by the Supreme Court. For instance the Supreme Court struck down a provision which limited the jurisdiction of the state of Alabama over navigable waters within the state. The Court held,
The constitution is silent on the question of whether or not a state may unilaterally leave, or secede from, the Union. However, the Supreme Court, in Texas v. White (1869), held that a state cannot unilaterally do so. [11]
Clause 2: Property Clause
This clause, commonly known as the Property or Territorial Clause, grants Congress the constitutional authority for the management and control of all territories or other property owned by United States. Additionally, the clause also proclaims that nothing contained within the Constitution may be interpreted to harm (prejudice) any claim of the United States, or of any particular State. The exact scope of this clause has long been a matter of debate.
The federal government owns about twenty-eight percent of the land in the United States. [14] These holdings include national parks, national forests, recreation areas, wildlife refuges, vast tracts of range and public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, reservations held in trust for Native American tribes, military bases, and ordinary federal buildings and installations. Although federal property can be found in every state, the largest concentrations are in the west, where, for example, the federal government owns over eighty percent of the land within Nevada. [15]
Pursuant to a parallel clause in Article One, Section Eight, the Supreme Court has held that states may not tax such federal property. In another case, Kleppe v. New Mexico, the Court ruled that the federal Wild Horse and Burro Act was a constitutional exercise of congressional power under the Property Clause – at least insofar as it was applied to a finding of trespass. The case prohibited the entering upon the public lands of the United States and removing wild burros under the New Mexico Estray Law. [16]
Section 4: Obligations of the United States
Clause 1: Republican government
This clause, sometimes referred to as the Guarantee Clause, has long been at the forefront of the debate about the rights of citizens vis-à-vis the government. The Guarantee Clause mandates that all U.S. states must be grounded in republican principles such as the consent of the governed. [17] By ensuring that all states must have the same basic republican philosophy, the Guarantee Clause is one of several portions of the Constitution which mandates symmetric federalism between the states.
The Luther v. Borden ruling left the responsibility to establish guidelines for the republican nature of state governments in the hands of the Congress. This power became an important part of Reconstruction after the American Civil War. The Radical Republican majority used this clause as the basis for taking control of the ex-Confederate states and for promoting civil rights for freedmen, plus the limiting of political and voting rights for ex- Confederates, abolishing the ex-Confederate state governments, setting guidelines for the readmission of the rebellious states into the Union.
Clause 2: Protection from invasion and domestic violence
Section Four requires the United States to protect each state from invasion, and, upon the application of the state legislature (or executive, if the legislature cannot be convened), from domestic violence. This provision was invoked by Woodrow Wilson during the 1914 Colorado coal strike. [20]
See also
Notes and references
1. ^ Kentucky v. Dennison, 65 U.S. 66 (1860)
2. ^ Puerto Rico v. Branstad, 483 U.S. 219 (1987) ("Kentucky v. Dennison is the product of another time. The conception of the relation between the States and the Federal Government there announced is fundamentally incompatible with more than a century of constitutional development.")
3. ^ Hyatt v. People ex rel. Corkran, 188 U.S. 691 (1903) ("We are of opinion that, as the relator showed…he was not within the state of Tennessee at the times stated in the indictments found in the Tennessee court, nor at any time when the acts were, if ever, committed, he was not a fugitive from justice within the meaning of the Federal statute upon that subject…")
6. ^ Biber, Eric; Colby, Thomas B. "Common Interpretation: The Admissions Clause". National Constitution Center. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
9. ^ Lessee of Pollard v. Hagan, 44 U.S. (3 How.) 212 (1845).
10. ^ "Doctrine of the Equality of States".
11. ^ Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1868).
12. ^ Texas v. White, 74 U.S. at 726.
13. ^ "Constitution". Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2010. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
14. ^ Vincent, Carol Hardy; et al. "Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data" (PDF). Federation of American Scientists. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
15. ^ Merrill, Thomas W. "Essays on Article IV:Property Clause". The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Heritage Foundation.
16. ^ Kleppe v. New Mexico, 426 U.S. 529 (1976).
18. ^ Kesler, Charles R. "Essays on Article VII: Ratification Clause". The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
19. ^ Luther v. Borden, 48 U.S. 1 (1849).
20. ^ Wilson, Woodrow (1979). Link, Arthur, ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. 29. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 525–528. ISBN 9780691046594.
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circular flow of income
Use this term in a sentence
You should try and make sure that you understand how the circular flow of income works and are using it to your advantage.
The path to sustainable living is to have multiple streams of income. When you have income from several rental properties monthly, you reach a circular flow of income.
When Sam looked at the circular flow of income in his community, such as the grocer buying boots made at the local factory and the factory workers buying groceries, he knew the town was lucky to have such a system.
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circular circular letter of credit |
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Canada plans to increase its Arctic military presence
Canada wants to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage - a potentially oil-rich region the United States says is international territory.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said six to eight patrol ships will guard what he says are Canadian waters. A deep water port will also be built in a region the U.S. Geological Survey estimates has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
Harper said the Arctic is central to the Canadian identity.
The Northwest passage is historically famous for being a possible route that could connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but ice and weather made it inhospitable for explorers who longed to find such a route to Asia.
Sir John Franklin, a veteran Arctic explorer, and 128 hand-picked officers and men perished mysteriously in 1845 on their expedition to find a northwest passage. Their disappearance prompted one of history's largest rescue searches from 1848 to 1859, which resulted in discovery of a passage.
As global warming melts the passage - which now is only navigable during a slim window in the summer - the waters are exposing unexplored resources such as oil, fishing stocks and minerals, and becoming an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles (3,990 kilometers) from Europe to Asia comparable to the current routes through the Panama Canal.
The disputed route runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic archipelago. Canadians have long claimed the waters, but their government has generally turned a blind eye to the United States, which has sent naval vessels and submarines through what it considers an international strait.
Canada also wants to assert its claim over Hans Island, which is at the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage.
The half-square-mile (0.8-kilometer) rock, just one-seventh the size of New York's Central Park, is wedged between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-ruled Greenland, and for more than 20 years has been a subject of unusually bitter exchanges between the two NATO allies.
Denmark sent a letter of protest to Ottawa, while Canadians and Danes took out competing Google ads, each proclaiming sovereignty over the rock 680 miles (1,094 kilometers) south of the North Pole.
Some Canadians even called for a boycott of Danish pastries.
Harper did not name the location of the new port but said it will serve as a naval operating base and for commercial purposes.
"It is no exaggeration to say that the need to assert our sovereignty and protect our territorial integrity in the North on our terms have never been more urgent," Harper said.
The patrol ships with steel-reinforced hulls will be able to go through ice a meter thick and will be armed and equipped with helicopter landing pads to accommodate the new helicopters being purchased by the Canadian military.
Harper said the government opted for a more versatile fleet than heavy icebreakers because there is little need to patrol the area during the winter when ice prevents it from being a shipping route.
U.S. Embassy spokesman James Foster said Ambassador Wilkins declined to comment on Monday.
"It's an international channel for passage," Foster said. |
Primary 6 Problem Sums/Word Problems - Try FREE
Score :
(Single Attempt)
A container X was packed completely with castor sugar.
It was found that it could hold a maximum of 1200 g of castor sugar.
The dimensions of the container were 25 cm in length, 18 cm in width and 10 cm in depth.
If 7.2 kg of the same castor sugar were to be packed into container Y with a rectangular base of 50 cm by 40 cm,
what must minimum height of container Y be?
Notes to students:
1. Round your answer off to 2 decimal places
The correct answer is : 13.5 |
Mujerista/Feminista (I will use the two interchangeably) theology brings together elements of feminist theology, Latin American liberation theology and cultural theology.
The mujerista movement was founded by poorer Hispanic women who believed in ending sexism. They cannot call themselves traditional feminists because the stereotype of a feminist is a rich white woman; their own class and ethnic group rejects them. Instead, they call themselves mujeristas because it reflects their ethinicity and their purpose.
Mujeristas also speak out on one more important topic: religion. This is why they call their beliefs a "theology": because they feel that women are underrepresented in the Roman Catholic Church, to which most Hispanics belong. They feel that women do most of the praying, and yet are ignored. One of their more radical, and more popular, fights is that to bring women into the priesthood. Another aspect of their alternative theology is to include components of all the ancient religions of Central America (think Aztecs, Mayas, Olmecs) into their beliefs.
For more information, see: but be warned, you will have to be able to read Spanish to understand it. |
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Beekeeping 101
Essential Hive Components
So, you want to start keeping bees - but don't know where to start? Here's a quick description of a basic bee hive. Below are the common elements of the majority of hives. For each of the components below you do, indeed, have many choices but the basic principles are essentially the same. We are going to build our standard hive from the ground up.
Stand and Bottom Board
The bottom of the hive is the bottom board, which come in two varieties: solid and screened. Screened boards incorporate a screen open to the space below to help with ventilation, which helps the colony keep the temperature at the right level, as well as removing moisture. To make working on the hive easier, the bottom board is often placed on a stand that raises the hive off the ground, to make working on the hive easier.
Entrance reducer
An entrance reducer can be placed between the bottom board and the brood box (see below). The intent to reduce the entrance to keep out unwanted creatures, such as mice. They are often used while a hive is establishing itself.
Langstroth Deep Box (brood box)
The brood box sits on the bottom board and is, in many ways, the soul of the hive. This is where the queen will live - the hive is constructed to ensure she can't leave the brood box - and therefore where she will lay her eggs and young bees are raised. The deep brood box is also used by the colony to store reserves of pollen and honey. The brood box is the deepest and largest component in the hive. It houses a number of vertically hanging "frames", either 8 or 10 of them. A common size for a deep brood box is approximately 20" x 16" x 9 1/2". For some hobbyists this is a large and heavy unit to handle and so some prefer to use a medium brood box, with a height of 6 1/2".
Queen excluder
The queen is constrained to the brood box by placing a framed grid on top, which has gaps sufficient to allow worker bees to pass through, but not the larger queens or drones.
Langstroth Medium Box (supers)
Above the queen excluder there are generally one or more "supers". These are areas in which the colony can expand (in the summer, a lack of space can lead to swarming, so it's important to ensure the colony has sufficient space). The supers, which are less tall than the brood box, are used by worker bees to store honey. Many beekeepers have three supers in total, including the brood box, during the active season, allowing the colony to expand and for the storage of yet more honey.
As a guideline, a fully laden brood box can weigh 80 lbs or more - not easy to move around. Therefore, the honey supers are less tall, to reduce their weight, although they can still exceed 30 lbs. Another tradeoff is associated with the claiming of honey by the beekeeper. The number of frames in a deeper super is the same as a shallow super but obviously has a greater surface area (read: volume of honey). Therefore larger supers allow the retrieval of more honey, for the same amount of physical work by the beekeeper.
Inner and Telescoping covers
Topping off the hive is the inner cover, along with a telescoping cover. The inner cover is helpful in ensuring bees don't glue the top of the uppermost super to the roof. It also forms an air pocket which is helpful in regulating temperature. The telescoping cover is generally covered in aluminum or plastic, and covers the entire hive.
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1. pertaining to the production, distribution, and use of income, wealth, and commodities.
2. of or relating to the science of economics.
3. pertaining to an economy, or system of organization or operation, especially of the process of production.
4. involving or pertaining to one's personal resources of money: to give up a large house for economic reasons.
5. pertaining to use as a resource in the economy: economic entomology; economic botany.
6. affecting or apt to affect the welfare of material resources: weevils and other economic pests.
7. economical.
Origin of economic
Related formsan·ti·ec·o·nom·ic, adjectivenon·e·co·nom·ic, adjectivepre·ec·o·nom·ic, adjectivequa·si-ec·o·nom·ic, adjectivesub·ec·o·nom·ic, adjectiveun·ec·o·nom·ic, adjective Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for quasi-economic
1. of or relating to an economy, economics, or financeeconomic development; economic theories
2. British capable of being produced, operated, etc, for profit; profitablethe firm is barely economic
3. concerning or affecting material resources or welfareeconomic pests
4. concerned with or relating to the necessities of life; utilitarian
5. a variant of economical
6. informal inexpensive; cheap
Word Origin and History for quasi-economic
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper |
Chinese Refugee Developed Fiber-Optic Technology That Made the Internet Possible
Chinese Refugee Developed Fiber-Optic Technology That Made the Internet Possible When others thought it was a pipe dream, Charles Kao saw potential for transmitting light pulses through glass By James R. Hagerty, Sept. 28, 2018, Wall St. Journal
In the 1960s, Charles Kao often annoyed his wife, Gwen, by coming home late for dinner.
Dr. Kao, a refugee from the Chinese Communist revolution, told her his research for a British subsidiary of International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. could change the world one day.
Oh, really, his wife later recalled saying with a dash of sarcasm. So youll get the Nobel Prize, will you?
That didnt happen until 2009, long after Dr. Kao really did change the world.
In a 1966 paper written with George Hockham, he outlined the potential for using pulses of light to carry huge volumes of voice and data signals long distances through strands of glass that became known as optical fibers. Few took him seriously until several years later, when Corning Glass Works found ways to do just that.
Fiber-optic cables began carrying telephone signals in the late 1970s. By the 1990s, a global mesh of fiber optics had made the internet possible and turned copper telephone wires into relics.
When people stream video at the beach, they tend to thank wireless technology. Few recognize the role of Dr. Kao. Its a little silly we call it the wireless industry, said Daniel Berninger, a communications-network architect. Theres nothing wireless in the network except for that distance from your phone to the nearest cell tower, where optical fibers take over.
By the time he got his Nobel, Dr. Kao was suffering from Alzheimers disease and had trouble speaking. He died Sept. 23 in Hong Kong at the age of 84.
Kao Kuen, who adopted the English name Charles, was born Nov. 4, 1933, in Shanghai. His father, who attended law school in Michigan, was a judge. His parents, whose first two children died of measles, pampered him, hired tutors and didnt send him to school until he was 10.
Maybe it was the home tutoring, or the late start to formal schooling, or an overly cautious and protective upbringing, he was quoted as saying in his Nobel biographical note, but in any case I never became a talkative person. As an adult I am not always comfortable in social gatherings with small talk.
As Chinese Communists battled Nationalists in 1948, his family fled to Hong Kong, where Charles finished high school. Naturally curious, he used phosphorus to make exploding mud balls and once accidentally splashed nitric acid on his little brothers trousers, prompting his parents to impound his chemicals.
During a six-week sea voyage to England, where he would study electrical engineering at Woolwich Polytechnic, he met a professor who passed the time at sea teaching him quantum mechanics. Upon arrival in London, disappointed by the meager provisions at his London boardinghouse, he developed a taste for fish and chips.
After finishing his undergraduate degree in 1957, he got a research job at Standard Telephones & Cables, a British unit of ITT, and later earned a doctorate from University College London.
Though scientists were excited about the potential of light beams to carry data, it was unclear how to do it. Efforts to send laser signals through open air ran into interference from the weather, causing the beams to bounce around, as Dr. Kao put it. Another approach, streaming light pulses down hollow tubes, proved overly complicated.
Transmission through glass strands was seen as another possibility, but impurities in glass available at the time meant light signals could travel only a few yards. Dr. Kao calculated the degree to which impurities could be reduced. He concluded it would be difficult but not impossible to create sufficiently pure glass. So it proved.
The key, wrote Jeff Hecht, the author of a history of fiber optics, was Kaos question. He asked what was possible to do, not what had been done.
In an oral history recorded in 2004, Dr. Kao described his landmark 1966 paper as the result of a bit of detective work as well as good theory and good fundamentals. So there was really nothing spectacular.
Dr. Kao spent 30 years at various units of ITT, including a posting in Roanoke, Va., and became director of corporate research. He later was vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
His family established the Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimers Disease to educate the public and improve care.
Dr. Kao was once asked how long fiber optics would be used. Nothing better was likely to come along for 1,000 years, he said. But dont believe what I say, he added, because I didnt believe what experts said either.
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Black Spider Monkeys
Are we really on the verge of losing them for good?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
The overall climate conditions of the Amazon River and the Amazon Rainforest are starting to claim the innocent lives of these poor monkeys. But now it's time to stop making excuses about why we are unable to save them, and actually DO SOMETHING!
The best way to begin the journey is to learn more about them, their lifestyle, and habitat area.
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Where do they live?
They live mainly in and around the Amazon Rainforest and River. This makes them South American. In addition, they rely on most of the plants and fruits that grow there to survive.
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This picture shows a more broad visual of where our furry little friends live. The Amazon Rainforest in South America is HUGE! These monkeys can be all over that area. Ain't that something cool?
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So, what do they eat?
Black Spider Monkeys are omnivores. They are mainly fruit eaters. Since that's mainly all that they have around them, its pretty obvious that's what they'll chow down on.
Their diets range from eating mangos, pears, and anything else found.
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Did you know females reach sexual maturity at just the age of 5?
Their scientific name is "Ateles"
What is the WWF doing to save them?
The WWF is starting to conserve forest area and natural resources that the monkeys rely on. But the WWF needs your help.
Surprised Monkey-
Amazon Rainforest-
Amazon Rainforest Map-
Fruit Stack- |
tech blog
17 January
A Guide to Artificial Intelligence at Any Age
Do you think artificial intelligence is scary?
You are one amongst many who believe that artificial intelligence will somehow make it difficult for humans to do their job. However, AI is just a sophisticated program that quietly been changing the way you have computed over the years. Don’t believe us? Take the example of SIRI or Google voice recognition. These two are beautiful and classic examples of what artificial intelligence could do for humans. This is not all. Amazon Echo is a device that can bring a very advanced form of artificial intelligence your way. Even your Facebook newsfeed is not generic. It is designed by a set of algorithms that are managed through AI.
What is artificial intelligence and why should you know about it?
Artificial intelligence can simply be defined as a set of cognitive programs that can interact with their environment without human interference. AI is based on the idea of machine learning i.e. it is easy for a machine to learn generic patterns in data without needing a specific algorithm. The machine or program can use its own logic and cognition abilities to find these generic patterns and give largely reliable results. Your Facebook newsfeed, for example, understands the pages and people you interact with the most and tries to bring the posts by these people to the top of your feed.
You should know about artificial intelligence because it will start to dominate the tech field within the next 5 years. Experts and entrepreneurs alike have understood that AI is the future of business and technology. Therefore, they are preparing themselves for the big day when AI finally becomes a supremely viable business solution. IBM’s Watson has already taken a step ahead in this direction and has the computing ability of 10m records per second. With AI, the question is not ‘why’ but ‘when’.
Will AI overthrow humans?
Per the International Data Corp, AI will be a $16.5 billion market in 2019. As more businesses start opening to this technology, this market will continue to grow with hundreds of new automation programs releasing regularly. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and IBM have recently decided to handle public concerns related to AI. They want to regulate this field by creating the best practices in the industry.
The issues of surveillance and privacy are more rampant with AI than with any other latest technology. This is because AI is based on big data that could cause a threat to the privacy of the individuals. However, there is no doubt that AI is already transforming lives and making many tasks easier for us. The fact that AI will make people lose their jobs is only partially true. This is because AI will create millions of jobs at the same time, which will help many millennials get job opportunities we never thought about 5 years ago.
Is learning AI difficult? No. If you spend some time on learning about AI, you will find that it is an incredibly useful technology, especially at an enterprise level. Your smartphone also works as a small AI factory. However, it has only small computing powers. With time, regulations will be brought in and AI will become a useful technology that does not create any threats to anybody’s privacy. |
Another NASA spacecraft runs out of steam, 2nd this week
Mindy Sparks
November 5, 2018
This ends the spacecraft's 11-year mission, which sent it on a 4.3 billion-mile journey to two of the largest objects in our solar system's main asteroid belt.
Once the spacecraft lost the scheduled communication with NASA's Deep Space Network for two times on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. space agency officially declared the mission as "ended".
"The unbelievable images and data Dawn collected from Vesta and Ceres are fundamental to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system", he said.
Launched 27 September 2007, the Dawn machine was created to study the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Strict planetary protection protocols govern how NASA can dispose of crafts like Dawn, as they do not want to interfere with the chemistry on Ceres.
Dawn was a space probe launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. Currently, it's in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.
Another NASA mission came to an end after just a few days after the announcement of the shutdown of the telescope "Kepler". "The demands we made on Dawn were tremendous, but she always faced the challenge". Before joining Sun Star Times Andy has written for NPR, Motherboard, MSN and the Huffington Post.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the NASA science mission directorate in Washington, hailed Dawn's "vital science" and "incredible technical achievements". Based on the data from the Dawn mission, scientists were also able to confirm that Vesta is the parent object the of howardite-eucrite-diogenite meteorites found on Earth.
"In many ways, Dawn's legacy is just beginning", Principal Investigator Carol Raymond at JPL said.
Dawn produced a complete map of the surface of Ceres and discovered ice volcanoes. "Dawn's data sets will be deeply mined by scientists working on how planets grow and differentiate, and when and where life could have formed in our solar system".
The Dawn mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with spacecraft components contributed by European partners from Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The craft will continue to orbit Ceres for at least 20 years, though many on the team put that number closer to 50.
Other reports by Iphone Fresh
Discuss This Article |
A Dhammatalk by Ajahn Chah
On Meditation1
To calm the mind means to find the right balance. If you try to force your mind too much it goes too far; if you don't try enough it doesn't get there, it misses the point of balance.
Normally the mind isn't still, it's moving all the time. We must strengthen the mind. Making the mind strong and making the body strong are not the same. To make the body strong we have to exercise it, to push it, in order to make it strong, but to make the mind strong means to make it peaceful, not to go thinking of this and that. For most of us the mind has never been peaceful, it has never had the energy of samādhi2, so we must establish it within a boundary. We sit in meditation, staying with the 'one who knows'.
If we force our breath to be too long or too short, we're not balanced, the mind won't become peaceful. It's like when we first start to use a pedal sewing machine. At first we just practise pedalling the machine to get our coordination right, before we actually sew anything. Following the breath is similar. We don't get concerned over how long or short, weak or strong it is, we just note it. We simply let it be, following the natural breathing.
When it's balanced, we take the breathing as our meditation object. When we breathe in, the beginning of the breath is at the nose-tip, the middle of the breath at the chest and the end of the breath at the abdomen. This is the path of the breath. When we breathe out, the beginning of the breath is at the abdomen, the middle at the chest and the end at the nose-tip. Simply take note of this path of the breath at the nosetip, the chest and the abdomen, then at the abdomen, the chest and the tip of the nose. We take note of these three points in order to make the mind firm, to limit mental activity so that mindfulness and self-awareness can easily arise.
When our attention settles on these three points, we can let them go and note the in and out breathing, concentrating solely at the nose-tip or the upper lip, where the air passes on its in and out passage. We don't have to follow the breath, just to establish mindfulness in front of us at the nose-tip, and note the breath at this one point - entering, leaving, entering, leaving.
There's no need to think of anything special, just concentrate on this simple task for now, having continuous presence of mind. There's nothing more to do, just breathing in and out.
Soon the mind becomes peaceful, the breath refined. The mind and body become light. This is the right state for the work of meditation.
When sitting in meditation the mind becomes refined, but whatever state it's in we should try to be aware of it, to know it. Mental activity is there together with tranquillity. There is vitakka. Vitakka is the action of bringing the mind to the theme of contemplation. If there is not much mindfulness, there will be not much vitakka. Then vicāra, the contemplation around that theme, follows. Various weak mental impressions may arise from time to time but our self-awareness is the important thing-whatever may be happening we know it continuously. As we go deeper we are constantly aware of the state of our meditation, knowing whether or not the mind is firmly established. Thus, both concentration and awareness are present.
To have a peaceful mind does not mean that there's nothing happening, mental impressions do arise. For instance, when we talk about the first level of absorption, we say it has five factors. Along with vitakka and vicāra, pīti (rapture) arises with the theme of contemplation and then sukha (happiness). These four things all lie together in the mind established in tranquillity. They are as one state.
The fifth factor is ekaggatā or one-pointedness. You may wonder how there can be one-pointedness when there are all these other factors as well. This is because they all become unified on that foundation of tranquillity. Together they are called a state of samādhi. They are not everyday states of mind, they are factors of absorption. There are these five characteristics, but they do not disturb the basic tranquillity. There is vitakka, but it does not disturb the mind; vicāra, rapture and happiness arise but do not disturb the mind. The mind is therefore as one with these factors. The first level of absorption is like this.
We don't have to call it first jhāna, second jhāna, third jhāna3 and so on, let's just call it 'a peaceful mind'. As the mind becomes progressively calmer it will dispense with vitakka and vicāra, leaving only rapture and happiness. Why does the mind discard vitakka and vicāra? This is because, as the mind becomes more refined, the activities of vitakka and vicāra are too coarse to remain. At this stage, as the mind leaves off vitakka and vicāra, feelings of great rapture can arise, tears may gush out. But as the samādhi deepens rapture, too, is discarded, leaving only happiness and one-pointedness, until finally even happiness goes and the mind reaches its greatest refinement. There are only equanimity and one-pointedness, all else has been left behind. The mind stands unmoving
Once the mind is peaceful this can happen. You don't have to think a lot about it, it just happens by itself when the causal factors are ripe. This is called the energy of a peaceful mind. In this state the mind is not drowsy; the five hindrances, sense desire, aversion, restlessness, dullness and doubt, have all fled.
But if mental energy is still not strong and mindfulness weak, there will occasionally arise intruding mental impressions. The mind is peaceful but it's as if there's a 'cloudiness' within the calm. It's not a normal sort of drowsiness though, some impressions will manifest - maybe we'll hear a sound or see a dog or something. It's not really clear but it's not a dream either. This is because these five factors have become unbalanced and weak.
The mind tends to play tricks within these levels of tranquillity. 'Imagery' will sometimes arise when the mind is in this state, through any of the senses, and the meditator may not be able to tell exactly what is happening. ''Am I sleeping? No. Is it a dream? No, it's not a dream...'' These impressions arise from a middling sort of tranquillity; but if the mind is truly calm and clear we don't doubt the various mental impressions or imagery which arise. Questions like, ''Did I drift off then? Was I sleeping? Did I get lost?...'' don't arise, for they are characteristics of a mind which is still doubting. ''Am I asleep or awake?''... Here, the mind is fuzzy. This is the mind getting lost in its moods. It's like the moon going behind a cloud. You can still see the moon but the clouds covering it render it hazy. It's not like the moon which has emerged from behind the clouds clear, sharp and bright.
When the mind is peaceful and established firmly in mindfulness and self-awareness, there will be no doubt concerning the various phenomena which we encounter. The mind will truly be beyond the hindrances. We will clearly know everything which arises in the mind as it is. We do not doubt because the mind is clear and bright. The mind which reaches samādhi is like this
Some people find it hard to enter samādhi because they don't have the right tendencies. There is samādhi, but it's not strong or firm. However, one can attain peace through the use of wisdom, through contemplating and seeing the truth of things, solving problems that way. This is using wisdom rather than the power of samādhi. To attain calm in practice, it's not necessary to be sitting in meditation, for instance. Just ask yourself, ''Eh, what is that?... '' and solve your problem right there! A person with wisdom is like this. Perhaps he can't really attain high levels of samādhi, although there must be some, just enough to cultivate wisdom. It's like the difference between farming rice and farming corn. One can depend on rice more than corn for one's livelihood. Our practice can be like this, we depend more on wisdom to solve problems. When we see the truth, peace arises.
The two ways are not the same. Some people have insight and are strong in wisdom but do not have much samādhi. When they sit in meditation they aren't very peaceful. They tend to think a lot, contemplating this and that, until eventually they contemplate happiness and suffering and see the truth of them. Some incline more towards this than samādhi. Whether standing, walking, sitting or lying, enlightenment of the Dhamma can take place. Through seeing, through relinquishing, they attain peace. They attain peace through knowing the truth, through going beyond doubt, because they have seen it for themselves.
Other people have only little wisdom but their samādhi is very strong. They can enter very deep samādhi quickly, but not having much wisdom, they cannot catch their defilements, they don't know them. They can't solve their problems.
But regardless of whichever approach we use, we must do away with wrong thinking, leaving only right view. We must get rid of confusion, leaving only peace.
Either way we end up at the same place. There are these two sides to practice, but these two things, calm and insight, go together. We can't do away with either of them. They must go together.
That which 'looks over' the various factors which arise in meditation is sati, mindfulness. This sati is a condition which, through practice, can help other factors to arise. Sati is life. Whenever we don't have sati, when we are heedless, it's as if we are dead. If we have no sati, then our speech and actions have no meaning. Sati is simply recollection. It's a cause for the arising of self-awareness and wisdom. Whatever virtues we have cultivated are imperfect if lacking in sati. Sati is that which watches over us while standing, walking, sitting and lying. Even when we are no longer in samādhi, sati should be present throughout.
Whatever we do we take care. A sense of shame4 will arise. We will feel ashamed about the things we do which aren't correct. As shame increases, our collectedness will increase as well. When collectedness increases, heedlessness will disappear. Even if we don't sit in meditation, these factors will be present in the mind.
And this arises because of cultivating sati. Develop sati! This is the quality which looks over the work we are doing in the present. It has real value. We should know ourselves at all times. If we know ourselves like this, right will distinguish itself from wrong, the path will become clear, and cause for all shame will dissolve. Wisdom will arise.
We can bring the practice all together as morality, concentration and wisdom. To be collected, to be controlled, this is morality. The firm establishing of the mind within that control is concentration. Complete, overall knowledge within the activity in which we are engaged is wisdom. The practice in brief is just morality, concentration and wisdom, or in other words, the path. There is no other way.
An informal talk given in the Northeastern dialect, taken from an unidentified tape
Samādhi is the state of concentrated calm resulting from meditation practice.
Jhāna is an advanced state of concentration or samādhi, wherein the mind becomes absorbed into its meditation subject. It is divided into four levels, each level progressively more refined than the previous one.
... shame4
This is a shame based on knowledge of cause and effect, rather than emotional guilt. |
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ORIGIN OF VITAMIN C
Centuries ago, in a city in Europe. A city with land full of water, scanty trees, crops and fruit plants. A place where fishing was the order of the day; inhabitants fed mostly on crabs, fishes and other sea foods.
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The navy men with their well armoured and gigantic ship went to wars and tours round the world. On a fateful day, a navy man called Vasco da Gama decided to go on an expedition to India with his crew, they set sail on their journey, bided their kinsmen and family farewell with promises of safe return with stories of fun-filled adventure and experience.
After six days of travelling on the sea, Vasco da Gama, the leader of the crew, discovered many of his men had fallen ill with swollen feets and hands, with spots on their skins and gums growing over their teeth such that they could not eat.
Along the way, some died and were buried due to the unidentified sickness. With sadness, they moved towards the east of Africa coast and Alas! They found at the bank of the sea, dry lands with some local traders selling stuff they werent familiar with (which they later learnt were called orange). They bought the stuff anyway and continued with their journey, eating while what they bought while enroute.
Few days after taking the oranges, the sick navy men discovered changes in their body and concluded the oranges were magical and with powerful curatives. Vasco da Gama on the other hand, in his religious mind said it only pleased God in His mercy that all sick recovered their health for the air of the land of Africa is very good.
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Few years later, James Lind, a ship surgeon in the British Royal Navy conducted a test at sea, with men divided into two groups. The first group was provided with a lemon juice and two oranges per day for six days while the second group was not provided with any. Lind discovered that the group provided with lemon and oranges were healthy and fit to work unlike the other group.
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Together, with other nutritionists and chemical scientists, the disease was named scurvy and the powerful curative in the fruits, named, vitamin c.
Africa is a blessed continent with good soil and weather to aid the growth and cultivation of different fruit trees among which citrus is common.
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Vitamin C has been discovered to have much significant impact on mortality and very positive effect on the health, especially, the elderly. It is essential for building blocks of muscles, bones, tendons and tissues, strong teeth and it also assists in building up the immune system in fighting against diseases, especially, polio.
It also aids in the cure of cancer.
Would you care to make it an onus to feed on fruits, especially orange and lemon on daily basis to promote healthy growth and well-being.
Written By: Taiwo Iyiola |
Moving from toxic to positive masculinity
19 Jun 2018 - 11:00
By Lauren October
Toxic masculinity transcends national borders, age, generations, and ideas of race and ethnicity. It is the root cause of many social ills in South Africa. Indeed, men are overwhelmingly both the perpetrators as well as the victims of violence. This is because notions of masculinity, and what it means to be a man, seem to be the driving factor behind much of the risky behaviour that males engage in.
Many young men identify violence as an important way of displaying power and proving their masculinity in their communities. However, there is still very little understanding about what causes this toxic masculinity, how it impacts society and individual behaviour, and how to get rid of it.
Masculinity is not a natural occurrence but is a socially constructed collective gender identity. The idea is that men are supposed to act in a certain way according to certain definitions of “the ideal man”, and those who diverge from this concept are seen as less masculine than others. Hyper-masculinity is when men are insecure about not adhering to this concept of the ideal man so they overcompensate by increasing their aggressive and violent behaviour to prove their masculinity. However, toxic masculinity occurs when these violent, unemotional and sexually aggressive norms of masculinity start to have a harmful impact on society and the individual.
Many factors contribute to the emergence of toxic masculinity, including the temperament and character of the individual in question. However, the three that are important for the case of South Africa are: family structure, socialisation, and the liberalisation of society. Apartheid left South Africa with an unusual pattern of family structure. Nearly half of all households are female-headed. By 2002, the proportion of children with absent (living) fathers had jumped to 46%. This had major implications for poverty, as the one-parent homes and those headed by women are the poorest families. Relatedly, South Africa has high levels of violence. This is likely due to the sense of powerlessness and aggression that comes with poverty, as well as the hyper-masculinity that emerged to overcompensate for the lack of masculine training that boys are missing from their absent fathers. In addition, boys are often socialised into believing that they should be the leaders in all spheres of life (e.g. income, relationships, workplace relations). This message is being delivered through parents, peer pressure, media, religious institutions, as well as military and political influences among others.
Even schools are implicitly subscribing to and endorsing male entitlement and superiority by discouraging empathetic, compassionate and nurturing behaviours in favour of heavy-handed discipline and control. Boys have been taught to believe that they would not be reprimanded for wrongdoing and that they rarely have to take responsibility for their actions. From a young age, children are taught that girls should “act like a lady” if they do something wrong; but if boys do something wrong it is shrugged off with the words “boys will be boys”.
Society also discourages boys from talking. In the home, fathers are often emotionally absent, strict, less tolerant and less reasonable than mothers. Fathers also find it difficult to talk about sex, HIV/Aids, condom-usage and other risk-taking behaviours with their son. As a result, boys are often uneducated about risky behaviour and struggle to reflect on society and themselves. However, over the last 50 or so years the socialised notions of leadership that men have inherited have been challenged by an increasingly liberated society. Social, economic and political changes have empowered women and non-hegemonic males (gay, black, and working-class men) to thrive in areas previously reserved for specific men alone. This is especially prevalent in terms of income and breadwinner status, which are often key traits for measuring manhood and self-worth. Therefore, societal changes have led to increased feelings of resentment when women and non-hegemonic men take on breadwinner status over men with hegemonic masculinities.
There are far-reaching consequences of toxic masculinity which are not always acknowledged. Domestic and sexual violence are often linked back to toxic masculinity. Yet, male dominance and control within intimate relationships is often overlooked. Research has shown that it is invariably men who make decisions about sexual intercourse, including about timing, place, manner, condom-usage, and conception. Additionally, abusive men tend to control the movements of their partners due to fear of being “emasculated” through infidelity. Male rape is also overlooked and disregarded in society. It is severely under-reported because many male rape victims are embarrassed and perceive victimisation as a sign of femininity. Being raped thus demolishes their claim to manhood.
Often rape victims in prison erupt in violence when released, seeking to recover their manhood through the very way it was lost: rape. However, the effects of toxic masculinity can be even more subtle and complex. For example, the empowerment of women in traditionally masculine spheres has led to men becoming increasingly concerned about their physical appearance and muscularity as one of the few surviving marks of masculinity. Males who struggle with body image often suffer from depression, low self-esteem, poor weight control measures and steroid use, as well as a number of other negative outcomes.
Men who display toxic masculinity also avoid behaving in any manner that can be vaguely perceived as feminine or gay. They then tend to overcompensate to prove that they are in fact manly and straight. They do this through homophobia, misogyny, and risky behaviour leading to binge-drinking, drug abuse, high rates of motor accidents, and hyper-sexuality (which itself creates higher rates of unprotected sexual activity and vulnerability to HIV and other STDs).
Men with toxic masculinity also tend to avoid conflict resolution strategies that are perceived as feminine. Toughness, dominance, and the willingness to resort to violence to resolve interpersonal conflicts are preferred over dialogue. Seeking help or advice for pain symptoms or mental distress is also regarded as a sign of weakness for ‘real’ men. Consequently, men are extremely reluctant to seek medical attention or visit a counsellor. This means that boys and men tend to have very poor methods of relieving tension and intra/inter-personal conflict without resorting to aggression.
Yet, despite these alarming consequences and the seemingly intractable problem of toxic masculinity, this problem should not be dismissed offhand with the idea that “boys will be boys”. We can work towards building positive masculinities within our societies and communities. Too often intervention programmes against gender-based violence have been aimed at women and how they can protect themselves from violence and take control of their sexual lives.
But if we are to succeed in curbing violence in society these interventions need to involve men and boys as well. We need to help boys change their attitudes and behaviours, and discover positive notions of social position and identity. In South Africa, interventions such as One Man CanMen as Partners and Stepping Stones have demonstrated positive behaviour change among men and boys, but the determination to roll these programmes out at a national level seems to be lacking.
The City of Cape Town has recently launched a Men and Masculinity initiative in Delft to help tackle gender-based violence, but national government in South Africa is still emphasising interventions aimed at women. The need is to work with pre-adolescent children to promote a culture of human rights, to promote gender-equitable behaviours by developing alternative masculinities, and to teach boys and men different methods of resolving conflict that do not resort to notions of masculinity, violence, and pride. We need to start the move from toxic masculinity towards a framework of positive masculinity, and we need to start now.
Lauren October is a researcher at the Safety and Violence Initiative (SaVI) at the University of Cape Town
This article originally appeared on Daily Maverick on 19/06/2018 |
Why are there carnivals?
Carnivals —like in Rio de Janeiro, Barranquilla, Salvador, Venice or Cajamarca— are a few days in which everybody lets loose. People drink, dance, party, wear costumes or organize authentic festivals which summon not only the locals but thousands of people from all over the world.
Why? Well, carnivals exist for religious reasons: They are a few days before the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday.
During Lent, Christians are invited to prayer, penitence, alms giving, contrition, and some fasting for forty days until the start of the Holy Week.
Carnivals are a farewell. Actually, the word carnival comes from the Latin voice "carnevale", which means "good-bye meat". Maybe that's why carnal excesses are, say, very common.
Knowledge + Why? |
The Sexual Slavery of Yazidis by ISIS
In August 2014, ISIS attacked the largely Yazidi populated region of Sinjar, Iraq. The Yazidis are a minority group located primarily in northern Iraq, by the Syrian border.
The Yazidi religion has aspects of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but differs in their belief in reincarnation and the idea that God put the world in the care of seven holy beings. Because of this, the group has been targeted heavily by ISIS, who label the Yazidis as devil worshipers. ISIS believes that because the Yazidis are not Muslims, they can be killed or used as property under their Islamic law. Concrete data on the 2014 attacks is limited, but multiple reports estimate that over 3,000 were killed and over 6,000 were kidnapped by ISIS. Women and small children were separated from the boys and men. While the males were mostly killed, the women and children were taken away as prisoners. Many of these women were sold to ISIS soldiers as sex slaves. There have been reports of systematic selling of Yazidis as sex slaves. Women are sold in formal sex slave markets as well as online, where they are evaluated for their age, marital status, number of children, and beauty.
Some Yazidi women have escaped or been rescued from ISIS captivity. Germany has been at the forefront for providing psychological treatment and health care to these Yazidi survivors. Trauma specialist Jan Kizilhan, in partnership with Winfried Kretschmann, governor of the state of Baden-Württemberg, has pioneered a program to help Yazidi women heal from the physical and mental trauma inflicted on them during their enslavement. Over the course of 2015, Kizilhan and his team made multiple trips in to refugee camps in search of the most in-need women and girls to be part of the two-year program in Germany. More than a refugee resettlement program, this program holistically addresses the sexual abuse ISIS has inflicted on thousands of women and girls. Participants are given shelter, therapy, school and language classes, and a small stipend of spending money. The program currently can only accommodate 1,100 women, but is designed to be adapted for other locations and languages. Kizilhan is now training psychologists in Iraq and Syria to implement the program in their home countries. Other countries, like Canada, are beginning to prioritize Yazidi women in their resettlement programs.
READ MORE by Nora Coyne- the HTS Europe Summer Fellow.
No. 1-2
Not a good approach
This is way too bad |
Wild Bees, Farms, and Pesticides (0.75 credit)
Did you know that over 400 species of wild bees live in New York State, and honey bees are just one species? Many of these other bees, not just honey bees, provide critical pollination services. This module begins with a general introduction to pollination and society’s need for resilient pollination services, particularly in light of threats to honey bee health. It then introduces the general characteristics of wild bees and specifically highlights a few of the most interesting and useful wild bee species. The presenters will outline the multiple threats facing our bees, discuss the specific risks posed by insecticide and fungicide exposure and how pesticides can interact with other stressors that bees face. Finally, mitigation strategies to minimize harm to bees, taking into account their biology, habits, and points of vulnerability, will be discussed.
Learning Objectives:
• Describe the number and variety of bee species, and some important ways that their diversity assists pollination and biodiversity.
• Describe the multiple threats and pressures on wild bee populations, and how pesticides fit into that bigger picture.
• Explain the lethal and sublethal effects of insecticides and fungicides on wild bees.
• Name several immediate action-able strategies for minimizing pesticide exposure, and how to find more specific recommendations.
Price: $22.50 |
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Removing a pupil from the SEND register
Ref: 11327
Last updated on 25 October 2017
School types: All · School phases: All
In-depth article
What is the process for removing a pupil from our SEND register? In this article, one of our associate experts explains why a child might be taken off the SEN register and suggests ways to communicate this decision to parents. We also include examples of policies on this from schools.
Article tools
1. 1 Step 1: establish whether the pupil has SEN
2. 2 Step 2: communicate with the pupil's parents
3. 3 School policy examples
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Preparing for College Biology
1. Focused Attentiveness and Attention to Detail: The successful biology student needs to be able to keep track of a myriad of detailed facts and discover new ones by detailed observation.
2. Time Management: Due to the elevated demands on the student's time in the university setting, the successful biology student needs to carefully prioritize and plan an effective schedule for time management.
3. Professional Etiquette & Integrity: A professional in this field must operate under the highest standards of ethical behavior in the scientific enterprise and in his/her dealings with colleagues. From teamwork activities to public presentations a biology student must be an effective communicator and collaborator.
4. Inquisitive Mindset & Internal Motivation: Progress in science is often driven by asking "why" questions and proposing reasonable explanations for natural phenomena. Moving forward into new areas of inquiry and not just reflecting the previous views of others is a key attribute of successful biologists. Students should practice the habit of asking questions.
5. Superior Reading Comprehension: Technical reading in the biological sciences is very demanding and is often required by teachers, particularly in upper division courses. The successful student will have good reading skills and a broad vocabulary to help in the successful navigation of the scientific literature which will be presented in a variety of forms.
6. Technical Laboratory Skills & Research Design: Biologists need to be able to apply the information they learn to a wide range of laboratory and field settings. The student should be familiar with the scientific method and comfortable with answering questions using the basic tools of science.
Visit the Biology Department website to learn about programs of study and who to contact for more information. |
Full Day Kindergarten
Strategic Intent
What are we trying to accomplish?
Why is accomplishing this important to achieving the mission of the district?
The implementation of a full day kindergarten program will provide increased instructional time and learning opportunities for all students. Students who have been historically underperforming in the district, such as English Language Learners (ELL) and students in special education will have extended programming that will provide interventions and supports to increase their growth beginning in their first year of school. Access to kindergarten will increase for students of working parents who are unable to provide day care or mid-day transportation and as a result, opt to keep their children out of kindergarten altogether. As students leave the full day kindergarten program and move through the elementary and secondary grades, the strong foundation provided by the program will promote the continued academic growth of our students so that they are well prepared to succeed.
By extending kindergarten from half to full day, AGSD will be able to provide a competitive program with charter and neighboring schools to draw students to the district. Increasing enrollment in the district from charter schools will reduce expenses paid to those schools.
Full Day Kindergarten Strategic Intent |
Birmingham professor counters myths surrounding tonight's "Blood Moon"
A "blood moon" or lunar eclipse. Credit: Alfredo Garcia, Jr (public domain)
Tonight and tomorrow morning, if the weather holds, people around the world will be able to see a “blood moon” lunar eclipse. The phenomenon has revived interest in ancient myths surrounding how the moon affects our mood. Birmingham astrophysicist Professor Ilya Mandel was on hand to bring the focus back to the fascinating science.
A "blood moon” is the name given to the phenomenon when the moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth. Tonight's blood moon is expected to be the longest lunar eclipse of the century (so far).
There are people who believe that lunar activity can have a direct effect on the behaviour and wellbeing of beings on earth. This is known as the “lunar effect”. Perhaps the most famous of these myths is is effect the moon is said to have on our mood. Throughout human history, lunar activity has also been linked to mental illness, blood pressure and even fertility.
Commenting in the Independent, Ilya Mandel, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy, expressed scepticism over the claims and instead chose to focus on what makes a blood moon so special from an astronomical perspective:
You can read more about both the science and myths surrounding the blood moon by following the link below:
Independent - Lunar eclipse: This is how the blood moon will affect your mood
Image credit: January 2018 lunar eclipse by Alfredo Garcia, Jr (public domain) |
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Freedom of speech
Updated Friday 26th January 2018
Should there be limits to freedom of speech? Professor of Philosophy, Derek Matravers, explores this idea.
Political banner promoting free speech (US) Copyright free image Icon Copyright free: Unknown under CF licence
The pros and cons
There are good reasons to preserve freedom of speech – the case is made with formidable power in John Stuart Mill’s classic text, On Liberty (1859). In a society in which speech is free, there will be an interchange of ideas, truths that damage those in power will be more difficult to suppress, and common views will not ossify into dead dogmas. However, freedom of speech also has its dangers: speech could damage a state (that is, betray state secrets); speech could incite violence against people, and speech could offend other people.
We can look at these, as indeed Mill looked at these, against the background of his ‘one simple principle’: ‘That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.’ However, when it comes to the actual details, things are not so clear.
Take betraying state secrets. When Edward Snowden leaked all kinds of state secrets to the press, was he inflicting damage on the legitimate activities of the state, or was he bringing to light activities that really should not have been being performed by the state? What is the line between protecting information, the release of which would be damaging to the state, and protecting information, the release of which would be embarrassing to the state? Where that line should be drawn is one matter, but all sides agree that it should be drawn somewhere.
The dangers of free speech
The second issue, speech that incites violence, is also tricky. Mill himself thought that people should not be allowed to put the blame for hunger on corn dealers to an angry mob outside a corn dealer’s house (in his example), even though they should be allowed to express those views in a newspaper. There are all too many instances of speech causing, or being part of the cause of terrible events.
The genocide in Rwanda was helped along by radio broadcasts in which Tutsis were called ‘cockroaches’, who needed to be ‘exterminated’. Should, however, all speech that might incite violence be banned? What if there really is a group of people in a society who really are doing terrible things? Drawing attention to those things might well increase the probability of violence being committed against that group, but would it be wrong to do so? This, of course, underpins the complaint that ‘political correctness’ has prevented those in authority from calling out bad behaviour supposedly characteristic of certain racial groups.
Harm and offence
Perhaps the trickiest is whether we should ban speech that causes offence. Mill’s thought seemed to be that offence will cause discomfort, but discomfort is not a harm. At least, discomfort is not enough of a harm to outweigh the benefit of freedom of speech. There are at least two issues here that we would need to sort out. The first is to work out where to draw the line between speech that causes offence that should be banned, and speech that causes offence that should be allowed. The second is to work out whether there really is a difference, in principle, between offence and harm.
Some might say that any speech that gives offence should be banned. The implications of doing this would be draconian. Some people are very sensitive – imagine if I were offended by the very mention of homosexuality. Would that be a reason – any reason at all – to ban such speech? Knowing this fact about me, it might be polite not to bring the topic up in my company (on the other hand, there might be other reasons to do so), but that falls a long way short of banning it.
Social challenges
Others might say the mere fact that speech causes offence should never be a reason to ban it. As Voltaire’s biographer put it in summing up the great philosopher’s views, ‘I don’t agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ This also does not seem right. Should people have to endure racist or sexist abuse? Should whole communities be made to feel uncomfortable by being described in derogatory terms? Somewhere between these two positions, a line needs to be drawn, but it is difficult to see where. On the other issue, whether there really is a clear distinction between harm and offence, Mill now seems a little naïve. We know more than he did about the psychological damage done to people by relentless hounding, or by hate speech.
Treading the line between being too restrictive about what people are allowed to say, and being too permissive, is one of the big challenges faced by societies. Getting it wrong either way brings real dangers. It is, perhaps, one of the best ways of judging a society to see where it draws the line.
Mill, John Stuart. (1974). On Liberty. London: Penguin Books.
Hall, Evelyn Beatrice. (2015). The Life of Voltaire. London: Arkose Press.
Have a question? |
Geography Of Dairy Farming
Environmental Impacts Of Dairy Farming
1. production of milk has large impacts on the environment. cows produce methane and nitrous oxide in their digestive system. These greenhouse gases 21 and 296 times stronger than carbon dioxide. therefore, the dairy industry contributes to 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions.
2. one cow can produce up to 54KG of wet manure per day. cows manure pollutes water and soil and can disturb the natural nutrient balance needed for normal plant growth.
3. the Australian dairy industry is responsible for using mass amounts of water and land. In 2005, the industry used 19% of all water needed for the agriculture industry. this is more than 12% of all the water used in Australian.
4. deforestation occurs for the need to produce cattle feed.
Social Impact Of Dairy Farming
1. Creates Australia alone 43000 direct employee's and indirectly employes 100000 people.
2. Provides milk for Australias consumption, 107 litres per annum per capita and 13.5 KG of cheese.
Economic Impacts Of Dairy Farming
1. Large economic revenue $2.76 billion dollar industry, and makes up 7% of global trade |
Barbara HauckUncategorized
Copaiba is a stimulant oleoresin obtained from the trunk of several pinnate-leaved South American leguminous trees (genus Copaifera). The thick, transparent exudate varies in color from light gold to dark brown, depending on the ratio of resin to essential oil. Copaiba is used in making varnishes and lacquers. Oil is a wonderful essential oil that has traditionally been used to support the body’s natural response to irritation and support healthy digestion.From the oleoresin of the Copaiba Tree.
In the 21st century, studies have shown that the beneficial effects of Copaiba are due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-tetanus, antiseptic and antihemorrhagic properties.[7][8]
Some of the most important and impressive health benefits of copaiba essential oil include its ability to reduce pain, eliminate inflammation, protect against infection, heal the skin, prevent fungal growth, boost respiratory health, improve the health of the skin and hair, improve bladder control, speed healing, tighten the skin, and lower blood pressure.
Health Benefits of Copaiba Essential Oil
Skin Appearance: Not only does it protect the skin and physically change it, copaiba essential oil also heals the skin and infuses the body with powerful nutrients and organic compounds that can eliminate the appearance of blisters, marks, and pimples. In fact, copaiba essential oil is often topically applied to scars in order to speed their healing and reduce their visibility.
Respiratory Health: In an aromatherapy context, copaiba essential oil is often turned to by people suffering from some sort of congestive problem or respiratory issue. When inhaled, the soothing nature of the copaiba essential oil, which is famed as an anti-inflammatory substance, can ease any discomfort and loosen the tensed muscles and glands that might be causing the irritation.
Pain Relief: This seems to be something that everyone looks for, but few people find. Copaiba essential oil is a wonderful analgesic and has been used in this capacity for generations. Whether in an aromatherapeutic context or when topically applied, the oil can help to reduce pain and loosen muscles, eliminating pain in joints, and even easing the discomfort of headaches and migraines.
Anxiety and Mood: As an element of aromatherapy, copaiba essential oil has often been used to lighten the spirits and improve mood. There aren’t many essential oils that have such a sweet, pleasant smell of rich honey, but the combination of the scent and its gentle effects on your hormonal balance can significantly improve your day.
Diuretic in Nature: Copaiba essential oil can help to cleanse the body and detoxify the system by stimulating urination. As a diuretic substance, copaiba essential oil can help everything from incontinence to bedwetting when applied properly.(**)
Aromatic Scent:
Copaiba Essential Oil has a very delicate aroma. It is sweet, smooth and has a creamy-woody scent. To order go here: http://yldist.com/a2z4health/
PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in this blog is not intended to diagnose, or treat medical conditions. This information is of a traditional use, manner, and shows the history of Copaiba and how scientific studies show its chemical properties and how they have been used throughout history. If you have a medical condition, please consult with your doctor before using this product.
** Credit sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaiba, http://www.experience-essential-oils.com/copaiba-oil.html; https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/copaiba-essential-oil.html |
Sea Level Rise
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Sea Level rise is a trend 110 year old recorded by Tide gauges in Victoria, no change in trend.
This means Climate isn’t changing, its trending upwards slowly, ancient Greeks called these times Optimums. Its a similar story from most tide gauges all over the world, except for the ones going down. The biggest shifts of sea levels going down are caused by the Northern Regions rebounding upwards because of the lack of weight of the Major Glaciers during that last deep freeze of ice age just 18,000 years ago. This is part of the reason the Atlantic coast line is subsiding faster than avg from Florida to Rhode Island, as the continent shifts upwards in Ontario & Quebec the East coast of the States is tilting deeper into the sea giving them above avg sea level rise. Plenty of the Scandinavian countries are rising out of the sea as well because of Glaciers that melted 18,000 years ago are gone, it takes a while for the Earths crust to shift back.
One of the most rising coastlines is Tofino!They are gaining 13 Centimeters a Century! We are so close to them but going down because of tectonic shifts our island is tilting, we are below global avg for Sea level rise. The important thing to notice is the trend, there is no change in trend anywhere meaning Co2 isn’t causing any change to Climate. Below is a Video of many data sets from around the world showing Sea Level trends are unchanging, that is not to say they aren’t changing, its to say the trend in change is stable & loner lived than the rise in Co2. Here is a link to NOAA America’s National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration where you can find Global tide gauge results you can check for yourself to see that they are accurately portrayed in the Video. Since the Oceans are the primary absorber of the Sun’s energy and the largest source of warmth for the atmosphere it defines the Climate we are in. Since the trend in change is stable this indicates the stories about Co2 are exaggerated for political purposes.
The burden of Leadership is knowing. I wouldn’t spend any money from Victoria Budgets on Climate change with out much better evidence as to why we should. |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
CleanCoat™ (13)
1. What factors influence the efficiency of CleanCoat™ coatings?
Light and airflow have a strong influence on the reaction of the TiO2 catalyst, as both provide elements needed for the reaction.
Regular lighting is effective, especially fluorescent lights, such as those found in many kitchens and offices. The equivalent of a 60W light bulb has been shown to be enough to start and continue the photocatalytic process.
However, direct sunlight, UV radiation, and black lights (UVA) create the most oxidants.
2. How long does CleanCoat™ have to be exposed to light before it releases oxidants into the air to get rid of indoor air pollution?
This process begins immediately, but varies with the strength of the light striking the CleanCoat™ surface. Regular lighting will activate the process, especially fluorescent lights, such as those found in many kitchens and offices. However, it is direct sunlight, UV radiation and black lights (UVA) that create the largest amounts of oxidants.
3. How does CleanCoat™ work as a "self-cleaning surface"?
In the presence of light, either from the sun, or artificial sources, the CleanCoat™ TiO2 [Titanium Dioxide] coating catalyses a reaction in ambient oxygen and water vapor, creating Hydroxyl radicals.
These hydroxyl radicals are highly reactive and they rapidly break down any organic compound exposed to them, including bacteria, viruses, mold, algae, mildew, organic particulates, VOCs [Volatile Organic Compounds], oils and dirt in general. These organic contaminants are continuously destroyed, and never have a chance to grow on or adhere to the treated surface. The decomposed compounds are shed directly, or easily washed off with water (including even rain), resulting in a self-cleaning effect.
4. How does CleanCoat™ prevent and remove contamination from surfaces?
Airborne contaminants such as second-hand smoke, car exhaust, molds, viruses, bacteria, and other organic compounds cannot adhere to surfaces treated with the CleanCoat™ coating because they are oxidized by it. They are broken down and are discarded as harmless substances (carbon dioxide CO2 and water H2O).
5. Why does CleanCoat™ have a sterilizing and antimicrobial effect?
The longtime standard for eliminating airborne microorganisms has been strong UVC radiation (over 20,000 μW of UVGI per second). UVC germicidal radiation eliminates microbes by destroying their DNA. However, some microorganisms, anthrax in particular, have very strong DNA coatings and can resist even 30,000 μW of UVGI.
6. The CleanCoat™ coating works in a different way, as TiO2 decomposes and destroys the cell membrane, not the DNA.
Most microbes are single-celled organisms, so they die quickly when any part of them comes into contact with a treated surface. Accordingly, TiO2 even eliminates MRSA (Staphylococcus Aureus), a major cause of hospital infections. Japanese hospitals have demonstrated great antibacterial results with CleanCoat™ treatment. The CleanCoat™ coating has been proven to eliminate microbes that are immune to antibiotics.
Further, due to its oxidizing mechanism, it even decomposes toxins that are discharged when microbes die (Verotoxins, Enterotoxins), rendering them into harmless vapors.
7. How is CleanCoat™ applied?
CleanCoat™ is best applied to hard surfaces using an electrostatic sprayer. It can be brushed or sprayed onto softer, or fabric surfaces. When applied to fabrics, spray the surface until it is completely moistened, then a brush (of any sort) should be used to work the solution into the fabric.
When applied to non-fabric surfaces (plastic, metal, glass, etc.) the initial coating will leave a fine milky residue. Allow the area to completely dry, then wait several hours and wipe the area with a damp cloth.
8. How long does it take for CleanCoat™ to dry?
CleanCoat™ dries within minutes on solid surfaces, but takes a little longer to dry on fabrics. The time needed for this (evaporation time) will vary with temperature, air circulation, and humidity. CleanCoat™ takes 1-1½ hrs to harden fully, so heavy traffic on flooring is not advised immediately after coating.
9. How long does it take for CleanCoat™ to settle and dry before I can enter the treated area?
Tests done at the the Danish "National Research Centre for the Working Environment" show that it takes a maximum of 3 hours, worst case, for all the CleanCoat™ particles to settle and dry.
Good ventilation and air circulation can shorten this period of time to about 2 hours.
During this time, only Anano Sphere trained and approved professionals may be in the area, and must use the stated Health and Safety materials.
10. Does CleanCoat™ smell after application?
No. Once applied, CleanCoat™ is invisible and odor free.
11. Does CleanCoat™ cause any fabric discoloration or any streaking effects on solid surfaces?
CleanCoat™ coatings can be applied to fabrics, curtains, carpets, woods, tiles, ceramics, glass, even metal and painted surfaces. If the surface is exposed to direct sunlight, it should not be applied to black or very dark colored surfaces, as the oxidation process can remove some pigments from the surface.
Indoor light is not strong enough to cause this oxidative reaction however.
When spraying any surface with the CleanCoat™ coating, it is always advisable to spray a small test area first, and then allow it to dry, to make sure the solution does not react with the surface.
12. How long after the application of CleanCoat™ does its properties remain active?
Anano Sphere certifies 1 year of Active Environmental Control if the correct cleaning procedures are followed. CleanCoat™ forms bonds that are semi-permanent, depending on the surface to which it is applied. Physically flexible materials, like carpets, mats and clothing, may undergo a physical peeling off as they are repeatedly reshaped over time.
Generally speaking, the CleanCoat™ coating has a service life of 1 year or so, depending on the wear and tear on the coated surface.
13. Does CleanCoat™ have a shelf life?
Yes. In optimal conditions, CleanCoat™ has a shelf life of 1 year. As CleanCoat™ is light reactive, it should be stored in a dark, cool environment. |
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Health & Happiness: Are all calories created equal?
| September 1, 2018 | 0 Comments
By Aloha Curves/Jenny Craig
For decades, nutritionists and other health professionals have focused on the importance of the calorie in weight loss – balancing the number of calories we consume with the amount of energy we burn. And while there is science and credibility behind this equation, recent research has found it may not be giving us the complete picture. We asked our Jenny Craig Nutritionist, Monica Ropar, to help explain why all calories may not be created equal and why maintaining a balanced diet is so important.
What is a Calorie, Anyway?
Simply put, calories are the energy your body needs to keep working, running, parenting, playing and so on. By definition, a calorie is an amount of food having an energy-producing value of one large calorie. Your body uses three basic kinds of macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates and fat—to create caloric energy. Each type of macronutrient provides a specific amount of calories per gram (protein and carbohydrates contain four calories while fat provides nine calories), and are used as an energy source.
So, the question arises, “Does it matter which foods I eat in order to lose weight?” If we use the simple equation of calories in vs. calories out—the types of food you eat shouldn’t make a difference, as long as excess calories are not being consumed. However, recent research has found that food quality may have an impact on weight loss beyond calories. To understand why, well take a more in-depth look at each nutrient source next month is this publication.
The Bottom Line: Balance is Key
While eating 300 calories worth of chips may not provide the same nutritional value (or feeling of fullness) as a similar amount of vegetables, maintaining a healthy balance between all the food groups is a key component of weight maintenance and health. By reaching for quality food the majority of the time, you’ll be setting yourself up for success!
For more information on how Jenny Craig can help you find your optimal caloric balance for weight loss, contact Aloha Curves/Jenny Craig at 503-356-5454.
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Category: Beaverton, Health & Happiness
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Thursday, January 27, 2011
The Theme of Flooding in the Old Testament
In considering the theme of flooding in the Old Testament, it is best to view the initial period that the earth was covered by water after God created the world as being the first instance of flooding recorded in the Bible (Gen 1:2). God dealt with the “problem” of the formlessness and emptiness of the intial creation by creating form and filling the domains so delineated. God did this through the power of his word. As part of this, God spoke such that the waters upon the earth might be gathered to one place, in order that dry land might appear (Gen 1:9). In this way, God divided the land from the seas (Gen 1:10). The original flooded state of the world could not continue on if animal and human forms of life were to exist and flourish.
The work of God separating the dry land from the seas at the time of creation established a dichotomy between the dry land and the sea, a dichotomy that is reflected in a number of places in the Old Testament (e.g., Exod 14:16, 22, 29; Neh 9:11; Ps 66:6; 95:5; Jon 1:9, 13; Hag 2:6). Proverbs 8:29 describes this work of separation as involving a divine command, reflecting divine wisdom, by means of which God assigned a limit to the sea, a command that the sea could not ordinarily “transgress.” Just as Gen 1 implies, it is God who controls the boundary between the land and the waters of the rivers and the seas. Thus, the psalmist could say that God “puts the deeps in storehouses” (Ps 33:7).
Yet ever since this first separation, the waters have always threatened to overcome the land; nevertheless the word of God has maintained the boundary between the land and the sea, preventing the flooding of the land by the waters on a worldwide scale, apart from the time of the great flood of Noah (see “The Theme of Flooding in the Bible: Noah’s Flood”). The role of the word of God in this matter is important. If it was the word of God that brought order out of chaos in the beginning, then without the word of God the world would revert to its default state with the waters overcoming the land. This is what happened at the time of Noah: “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” (Gen 7:11). Through that event, God showed the human race the consequences of disobedience. Human disobedience results in a reversion to the default state, which is chaos.
The theme of flooding also occurs in the account of the exodus. The water of the Reed Sea stood as a symbol of the impending death of Israel at the hands of the pursuing army. But God “divided the sea, and let [Israel] pass through it … he made the waters stand like a heap” (Ps 78:13). Or as the Song of Moses puts it: “At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea” (Exod 15:8). Conversely, the destruction of the Egyptian army was as a result of flooding. As the Song of Moses celebrated: “The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone” (Exod 15:5). See also Ps 106:9–11.
The relationship between water, chaos, and death on the one side, and dry land, salvation, and life on the other, as developed in Gen 1, the Noah narrative, and the incident of the Reed Sea, provides the conceptual framework for the biblical metaphor of being overcome by water as an image of death, and also for the related metaphor of being rescued through or from water as an image of salvation from death.
In Psalm 18, for example, David pictures the threat of death from the opposition of enemies as being like a torrential flood dragging him down to Sheol (Ps 18:4–5). But in response to the psalmist’s cry for salvation, God acted to “lay bare” “the channels of the sea” through his word of rebuke (Ps 18:15). “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters … He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me” (Ps 18:16, 19).
Psalm 69 is another example:
Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me … Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me (Ps 69:1–2, 14–15).
Flood imagery also appears in Ps 88:
You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves … Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together (Ps 88:6–7, 16–17).
Similarly Ps 124:
If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters (Ps 124:2–5).
Flood imagery also occurs in Ps 32:6; 42:7; and Jonah describes his experience in the stormy sea in terms of flooding (Jon 2:3, 5–6).
Finally, it should be noted that the power of floodwaters is also used as an image of the power of God. The floodwaters surge and roar, but “mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty!” (Ps 93:3–4). “Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood; Yahweh sits enthroned as king forever!” (Ps 29:10).
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Theme of Flooding in the Bible: Noah's Flood
The tragedy of the widescale flooding in Queensland and other parts of Australia recently has prompted me to consider the theme of flooding in the Bible.
The most famous flood in the Bible is, of course, Noah’s flood. As a response to the growing wickedness of humanity (Gen 6:5–7), God “brought a flood of water upon the earth” with the intention of “destroying all flesh” with the exception of Noah and his family and a remnant of the land animals and birds (Gen 6:17–19). This was achieved by the unleashing of torrential rain over a period of forty days and forty nights (Gen 7:11–12). The floodwaters were so great that “all the high mountains that were under all of heaven” were covered by up to seven meters of water (Gen 7:20).
The effect of the flood was catastrophic:
“all flesh that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all of humanity, died. Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life from all that was on the dry ground died. [God] exterminated every living thing that was on the face of the ground: human beings, and animals, and creeping things, and the birds of the sky. They were exterminated from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark” (Gen 7:21–23).
The floodwaters “prevailed upon the earth” for five months (Gen 7:24)! On the seventeenth day of the seventh month (around seven days after what would later on become the Day of Atonement, during the period of the Feast of Tabernacles) the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, and the floodwaters began to abate (Gen 8:3–4). It was not until some two and a half months later that the tops of the mountains were seen (Gen 8:5), and another three months until the floodwaters had dried up completely! In the meantime, the olive leaf in the mouth of the dove was a sign to Noah that the waters had begun to abate, a sign that new life had emerged out of the destructive waters of the flood. The day that the floodwater had dried up completely was the first day of the first month (Gen 8:13), a new beginning for the human race. Even then, Noah had to wait another 57 days until the ground was dry (Gen 8:14). Altogether, the floodwaters ravaged the earth for around 315 days, while Noah was in the ark for around 378 days. This was an enormous flood.
Yet God’s purposes for the world would continue. The repetition of the creation mandate of Gen 1:28 to Noah in Gen 9:1–2, 7 signaled that the work of extending the kingdom of God on earth (a privileged task that God had assigned to the human race back in the beginning) was to continue.
The theme of flooding in the rest of the Old Testament will be explored in my next post; but it should be noted that, because Noah’s flood is the paradigmatic flood in the Bible, it provides the referential point for the metaphor of being encompassed by floodwater and the related metaphor of being rescued from floodwater, which occur at various points thoughout the Old Testament.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
An SIL Biblical Hebrew Keyboard for Linux Operating Systems
One of the advantages of Linux is the ability to customize your computer’s operating system. In this regard, Linux seems to be a lot more flexible than Microsoft Windows. Like when it comes to designing your own Hebrew keyboard; all it basically requires is the editing of a single file! Vern Poythress has some helpful information on the “Keyboard Entry of Polytonic Greek and Biblical Hebrew in GNU/Linux” on his website. Poythress shows you how to edit the xkb keymap so that you can customize your Hebrew keyboard according to the way you like it. For Poythress (and me), this is a keyboard that is similar to the SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard that was designed by SIL International and built by John Hudson (who also designed the SBL Hebrew font).
But there is another way of mapping your own Hebrew keyboard using IBus, the Intelligent Input Bus, which is now the default input method for Ubuntu and some other Linux systems. This involves editing the he-kbd.mim file in the ibus-m17n software package. I have edited this file to develop a Hebrew input method that substantially simulates the SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard. The result is an input method that replicates the keystrokes of the SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard for all numbers and English punctuation marks, all Hebrew consonants, all common Hebrew vowel points, plus the maqef, dagesh, meteg, atnakh, rafe, and sof pasuq. The accent ole is also included as it can be used as a general marker of syllabic stress in non-accented texts. Departing a little from the SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard, the backslash key inputs a backslash rather than the paseq. The layout also uses CTRL+ALT for the third and fourth keyboard levels rather than ALTGR.
For anyone interested in typing Hebrew on a Linux system using a keymap similar to the SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard using IBus, the necessary steps are as follows (in Ubuntu 10.04; 10.10; and 11.04):
1) Make sure you have the ibus software package installed, and download and install the ibus-m17n package;
2) Backup the original /usr/share/m17n/he-kbd.mim file somewhere safe;
3) Download my version of the file he-kbd.mim—if the link is down, a copy of the content of the file can be found at Vos Linux—and copy it into your /usr/share/m17n/ folder; or
4) If you prefer to design your own Hebrew keyboard, then edit the he-kbd.mim file—you need to edit the file yourself particularly if you want the full range of Hebrew accents to be available;
5) Configure General IBus Preferences (in Keyboard Input Methods in the System Preferences Menu in GNOME 2.32) by defining the keyboard shortcuts and language bar behavior;
6) Configure Input Method IBus Preferences by clicking on Select an input method to select your desired language and input method, then press add for it to be listed;
7) Reboot;
8) Run the ibus-daemon (if this is not automatically run by the system), and use your IBus Preferences keyboard shortcut in a text editor, word processor, or input window, to enable the IBus language bar;
9) Toggle to select א kbd on the language bar by using the appropriate keyboard shortcut (if necessary);
10) Start typing Hebrew SIL style!
If for some reason the ibus-daemon does not run automatically at startup, you can create an ibus-daemon.desktop file in the /etc/xdg/autostart/ folder with content as follows:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=IBus Daemon
Comment=The IBus input method daemon
Exec=ibus-daemon -d
Recommended fonts to use for typing Hebrew are the stylish SBL Hebrew font, and the more traditional Ezra SIL font. If you intend to use the SBL Hebrew font exclusively, then the entries for the key sequences "f=", "f+", "j=", and "j+" can be removed from the he-kbd.mim file. These key sequences allow the dagesh to be entered with the letters sin and shin when using the Ezra SIL font (and others).
Please note that SBL Hebrew is a trademark of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Using Linux Operating Systems for Bible Research
I have had fun experimenting over the last year or so with Linux computer operating systems. Many of these operating systems are available for free download. I am particularly impressed with the Ubuntu distribution;
Ubuntu 10.04 Gnome Desktop
and the lightweight derivative Lubuntu has extended the life of my favorite 2005 year model laptop, probably for several years into the future.
The Linux operating systems are an amazing resource, and I can’t help to think of the potential for the use of Linux systems to promote biblical research in less developed parts of the world. There are also Bible software programs freely available for use on Linux systems. My favorite among these is Xiphos.
Xiphos 3.1.3 Showing the Open Scriptures Morphological Hebrew Bible
I will be a very happy man when the Open Scriptures Morphological Hebrew Bible finally has Hebrew morphology attached. At the moment it has been tagged with Strong’s numbers, but it is still a great resource.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The Worth of a Child according to Scientific Atheism Compared to Christianity
How valuable is the life of a child? What value would you place of the life of a child?
What value would you place on the life of this child?
Is she precious? I may be biased, but I reckon she looks rather cute.
Well, how about this one? What value do you place on the life of this little boy?
As you look at the two of these children, can you honestly say that one is more precious than the other? Yet according to the majority opinion in many societies in the world, one of these children—the little boy—should have been destroyed in the womb. One of these children, to quote the obstetrician, “has so many problems it won’t last long.” This particular doctor said three times that the normal thing to do in this situation is to terminate the pregnancy. Because the child was not “normal” or “perfect,” it no longer had the right to live.
Suffering from the effects of spina bifida (such as being unable to walk), this child may have more difficulties to face than others, and even though I cannot say that he is more precious than the little girl, perhaps the child that your heart goes out to more is the child who through no fault on his own will have more challenges to face in life than many of us able-bodied types.
But why should you pity him? In fact, why should we pity any child? Do you pity the child destroyed in the womb? Do you pity the newborn child abandoned by its mother, left to die in a shoe box, or left to drown in a toilet? If the existence of this universe and life on our planet is merely the product of chance, if we human beings are merely the result of a random process of evolution, then why pity anyone? If there is no God, if we exist here as a result of some random fluke, then life is merely the survival of the fittest.
Western civilisation is currently in the middle of a battle between two philosophical systems: a battle between Christianity and so-called scientific atheism. Some of us might think that we do not need to make a choice between these two systems, but to sit on the fence is not an option. Either God exists, or he doesn’t.
According to the latest theories of scientific atheism, our universe somehow—without any cause but simply by chance—began with the big bang some 13.75 billion years ago. They say that life on this planet is simply the result of 3.5 billion year process of random mutation and natural selection.
But what do you think? The universe is actually so big that the scientists say that it is effectively infinite. The observable universe has a diameter of 93 billion light years. In terms of kilometers, that’s virtually a 9 followed by 26 zeros. And they reckon that this observable universe is filled 100 billion galaxies, and contains at least sextillion stars (that’s 10 to the power of 21 stars), although a recent study has suggested that this figure is out by a factor of 300 (that makes it 3 times 10 to the power of 23). The maximum possible number of stars the average person can see on a dark night in the countryside is about 45,000, but typically it’s only about 5,000 or so. The figures are simply mind-blowing. If this is just random, we have to conclude that it is amazingly productive randomness.
And I am yet to mention the abundance of life on the planet that we call Earth. Have a guess how many species of life exist on this planet! I can’t give you a definite number, because the scientists themselves can’t. Their best guess is that the total number of species on earth is anything from 7–100 million. This includes anything from 5–100 million species of bacteria (possibly many more); around 100,000 kinds of fungi (which includes around 14,000 different kinds of mushroom); and around 300,000 plant species. When it comes to animals, there are over a million different species, most of them insects. Altogether there are around 950,000 different species of insect (including 4,500 different species of cockroach); over 30,000 species of fish; over 6,000 different kinds of amphibian (mainly frogs); over 8,000 species of reptile (mainly lizards and snakes); around 10,000 species of bird; and around 5,400 kinds of mammal. Millions of different species, and this all the result of of 3.5 billion years of random mutation?
Honestly, what is easier to believe? That all of this variety—the billion upon billions of stars, and the millions of different species that inhabit our planet—is just a fluke; or that there is some amazingly powerful, creative designer behind the universe? Which view requires the biggest leap of faith? What odds do you give everything coming from absolutely nothing? What odds of a new species randomly developing on earth on average every 35 years (assuming there are 100 million different species)? Yet scientific atheism laughs at Christianity for believing in miracles!
But putting aside the incredulous nature of the kind of faith demanded by scientific atheism, the biggest problem with scientific atheism is the consequences of this worldview for morality. If this is all some big fluke, if the existence of the universe and life on earth is simply the result of chance and the survival of the fittest, then whoever has the biggest gun wins, and you have no right to complain about it when you lose. Scientific atheists have no real right to speak of love, of justice, and what’s fair and what’s not. Why are you fighting for the rights of workers when they are just random blobs of genetic material? Why cry for the poor children of Africa? Why care for the sick, or the aged, or the young? If it’s all just chance, then why not be honest with yourself, and admit that you have no sound philosophical basis for any non-arbitrary moral code in life? Scientific atheism is logically amoral.
Scientific atheism is about the survival of the fittest, the converse of which is the elimination of the weak; and that is why in many societies today it is considered the norm for children diagnosed with spina bifida to be destroyed within the womb. I have been told by a doctor specializing in spina bifida that the rate of termination in Australia is heading toward 75%. This is particularly tragic when you consider that most kids with spina bifida are children of average intelligence with nice personalities and the ability to speak. The one pictured above has a wonderful sense of humor, an infectious laugh, and is a budding cricketer. So what if they can’t walk, or if they need a shunt in their head to deal with hydrocephalus? They don’t deserve to live or to be protected and nurtured like any other child? Eliminating such children before they travel through the birth canal is consistent with the scientific atheistic worldview, which promotes the idea that the history of the world is structured on the principle of natural selection, where the stronger random blobs of genetic material subjugate or terminate the weaker random blobs of genetic material.
But this is not the Christian understanding of reality. Christianity says that this universe was made by a powerful Creator. It also says, as the story of the incarnation of Christ clearly reveals, that the Creator of this universe values his creation so much that he was willing to enter into his creation, to take his place within it. Many religions believe in God, but Christianity is the only religion radical enough to say that the Creator values his creation, and human beings in particular, so much that the powerful Creator himself was willing to become one of us, to come down to our level in order to take us up to his. The story of the incarnation of God is not a story about the survival of the fittest. It is a story about the strongest becoming weak in order that the weak might become strong. The incarnation of God is God affirming the value of human life. The incarnation of God honors the human race, and places great value on every individual human being. And to think that Christianity says that the Creator of this universe became incarnate with a view to dying on the cross for humanity! Surely this is one of the most radical ideas that has ever been proposed in the history of religion and philosophy. The incarnation is the Creator saying that you are so valuable as to be worth the Creator of the universe dying for. In this way Christianity gives a sound moral basis for the ideals of love, justice, and human rights. God the Creator becoming a child means that every child is more than just a random blob of genetic material, and that every child (no matter their ability or disability, whether born or unborn) deserves to live and to grow to his or her full potential.
So which philosophical system affirms the value of humanity, and the precious worth of every child? Scientific atheism or Christianity? Philosophically I think the answer is obvious. |
Resisting candy binges
GLENN ELLIS | 11/5/2018, 5:11 a.m.
By the time you read this column, you’re either preparing for Halloween, or you’re looking at the piles of candy ...
Stock photo
High-fat, high-calorie and high-sugar diets are responsible for a whole host of health conditions. Large amounts of sugar contribute to insulin resistance, which can cause diabetes. Sugar leaches calcium from your bones, making osteoporosis a worry.
Eating a lot of fat increases your risk of heart disease, obesity and depression. Poor diets lower the effectiveness of your immune system, making it easier for your body to succumb to a virus. Many of these conditions play a role in the development of others. For example, being overweight increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes.
If you’re eating sugar-free candy, a wild and crazy binge could give you what’s known as “Halloween diarrhea,” the explosive effect of the artificial sweetener sorbitol.
One of the most common health warnings about Halloween candy comes from the FDA: Don’t eat too much black licorice.
This isn’t about the calories inherent in candy, but rather about glycyrrhizin, the natural sweetening compound that comes from the licorice root. The compound causes the body’s potassium levels to fall, which can have nasty side effects for some people. These effects include abnormal heart rhythms, high blood pressure, swelling, lethargy and even congestive heart failure.
If you’re chowing down on tons of black licorice and you feel your heart rhythm going funny, stop eating it and talk to a doctor. Take it easy on the black Twizzlers – the red ones aren’t even licorice, mind you, but they have their own health implications if eaten in excess.
If you’re looking for additional advice about dealing with Halloween candy and children in your household, let me leave you with the results of a recent study: It only takes 2 weeks to see increases in cholesterol levels in young, healthy people. Increases in cholesterol levels, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, might start to show up even sooner.
Disclaimer: This column is for informational purposes only. If you have a medical condition or concern, please seek professional care from your doctor or other health professional. Glenn Ellis is a Health Advocacy Communications Specialist and is available through http://www.glennellis.com. |
Unit Overview
P1 - Stages of Project
P2 - Members of the Build Team
P3 - Resources
P4 - Techniques to Plan, Control and Organise
P5 - Proceedures to Monitor and Control
P6 - Discuss Examples
P7 - Create Documentation
M1 - Produce Organisational Charts
M2 - Compare Resource Management Techniques
M3 - Factors that Affect Project Progress
D1 - Compare Software
D2 - Evaluate Planning, Organisational and Control Techniques
P4 - Techniques Used to Plan
Explain the techniques used to plan, organise and control a construction project
The company currently only build small extensions and as one person manages the project, they just keep a diary of what materials they have used when subcontractors have been on site.
Your boss has asked you to look at what techniques could be used to plan and organise the following aspects of the larger projects, in particular he would like you to look at:
1. Gantt Charts
2. Methods of controlling materials and deliveries
3. Keeping records of subcontractors
To help with this use pages 243 to 246 of the level 3 text book.
Your report should cover the following aspects of management
Scheduling of Materials
Labour Management Techniques (How do you monitor and look after your staff)
Plant Management (How will you manage the heavy machinery you will need on site)
Example for P4 |
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What is a Temazcal?
Saunas, steam baths, sweat lodges, and sweat houses have been around for thousands of years. Modern versions of these ancient structures varies with their place of origin, with native Mexicans referring to a traditional sauna as a "temazcal," native cultures north of Mexico cultures calling it an "inipi" or "kiva," Europeans calling it a "savusauna" or "sudatory," the Chinese calling it "桑拿浴," and the Russians naming it "banya" or "banja."
The Mesoamerican Temazcal
Many PreColombian Mesoamericans celebrated at least a portion of their spiritual belief system in the steam bath, or "temazcal" (sometimes anglicized to read, "temascal"). The word comes from Nahuatl, a language family of the ancient Mesoamericans. They called it, "temāzcalli," which translates loosely to the "house of heat." Some sources, like Aaland (1997) attribute its origin to the Aztec words, "teme," meaning, "to bathe," and "calli," meaning, "house."
Evidence of temazcal celebration goes back at least 1,200 years, and the XVI Century Spanish, when they came to the New World, found the Mayans actively using temazcales (Aaland 1997). Students, Luis Antonio Rico-Velázquez, Arlen Ríos-Popoca, Sandra Karina Zagal-García, and Diana Cristina Carranza-Vergara (2011), of the Independent University of the State of Morelos (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos), explained the importance of the ancient Mexican steam bath:
"The pre-Hispanic baths used in central Mexico played an important role in the development of good hygienic and spiritual practices. Participants worshiped the Goddess Tonantzin, who is our mother and concerns herself with good health. She allows us to return to her belly on earth, where we may purify ourselves and become born again, achieving an optimum state, both spiritually and physically."
Pre-Colombian Mesoamericans also practiced temazcal ceremonies as part of curative, healing processes, for purification after physical activity or trauma, overall health, and childbirth. Temazcaleros, or those who participate in temazcal ceremonies, today also make claim to the temazcal as an effective medium for maintaining spiritual and esthetic health, as well as physical, emotional, and psychological healing processes.
According to the authors, "The Spaniards, arriving [in the New World] prohibited these practices, due to the worship of Tonanzin." The Spanish conquistadores (those who conquer) destroyed and prohibited much of the native culture.
Conquistadores and Aztecs.
Image Source: Public domain on Pixabay.
The Resurgence of the Temazcal
Dr. Horacio Rojas-Alba (1997), of the Mexican Tlahuilli Institute of Traditional Medicines (Instituto Mexicano de Medicinas Tradicionales Tlahuilli), discussed how Mexicans, recently, looking back to their ancestral ceremony, have effected a resurgence of the temazcal in their country:
"Some ten years or so ago, a renewed interest in the ancient sweat bath, still called by the name given to by the Aztecs, the Temazcal, sprang up in Mexico, ... return[ing], to the healing practices preserved in their traditional medicine. These sweat baths, still a living tradition in many parts of the country, are usually small round stone or mud structures looking rather like old fashioned bee-hives. Many more began to be constructed everywhere, and more and more often, people who are ailing will turn to them for relief ..."
Since Dr. Rojas-Alba's writing, temazcal ceremonies have popped up throughout the country and other parts of Latin America. Commercial, spa-type temazcales have become popular tourist attractions.
What Does a Temazcal Look Like?
Temazcaleros build temazcales in many shapes and sizes, but most make dome-shaped structures, like that of the Lakota (Sioux) inipi, or sweat lodge, illustrated below. In the Mexican city of Durango, temazcal guide, Oso Mario, commented, modern ceremonial temazcal design came largely from Lakota culture, brought to the region by persons who learned the practice from Lakotas.
Many modern temazcaleros base their structure design on the Lakota inipi.
Image Source: Wikipedia Commons
I have seen many permanent structures of adobe, brick, cement block, and rock. Many of the commercial, spa-type temazcales utilize such permanent structures.
Temazcal in form of a snake at
Nanciyaga Ecological Reserve in Catemaco, Veracruz.
Source: Wikimedia.
What Happens Inside a Temazcal?
Just as structures vary, so do temazcal ceremonies. They differ from region to region and clan to clan, but most include some common elements.
Each opening of the puerta (literally, "gateway," "door," or "doorway") begins by introducing "medicina" (medicine), "water," and "abuelitas" into the lodge. Abuelitas, refers to, "grandmothers," or "ancient ones," coming from the Madre Tierra (Mother Earth). Entering the dark interior of the temazcal, they glow red, from hours of heating on the sacred fire, and they hiss and crackle, filling the tiny, dark space with the "voces de las abuelitas" (the voices of the ancient ones).
Medicine introduced into the ceremonial space varies, likewise, depending upon the particular traditions of the circle and the decision of the guia (guide). The ceremony, on any particular day, may have a specific celebrational focus, healing requests or petitions from caminantes (those who walk the red road) participating in the ceremony. Common medicines include sage, sweet grass, copal resin, and Brazilian Pepper Tree leaves.
The ombligo of the temazcal.
Source: Wikipedia - La Enciclopedia Libre
Once the abuelitas have settled into the ombligo and been anointed with the ceremonial medicines, the guide requests the closure of the door, leaving the temazcaleros in the warm darkness of the "matriz" (womb). From the darkness, the guide will generally request permission to initiate the ceremony. Osa Lety, of the Circulo de los Osos (Circle of the Bears), in Durango, Mexico would shout, in a powerful, feeling voice:
Todos los ancianos y ancianas de la tradicion sagrada!
Te pedimos permiso para inciciar nuestra ceremonia de temazcal.
Gracias a la Madre Tierra!
Gracias al espiritu guardian del sur!
Gracias ...
In English, that's ...
"To all the ancient ones of the sacred tradition!
We ask your permission to iniate our temazcal ceremony, ...
Thanks to Mother Earth!
Thanks to the guardian spirit of the south!
Thanks ..."
It's a powerful moment, and, from that moment, one feels the energy stir from within as the dry heat of the ancient ones radiates outward from the navel of the Madre Tierra, to her children, the temazcaleros. The guia then begins dousing the red-hot grandmothers (and, yes, many temazcaleros jokes and pun about them, in case you were wondering) with the sacred, purifying water.
Ceremonies follow a four-puerta sequence. The guides request that the hombre fuego (guardian of the fire) open and close the door three more times, each time introducing more rocks, water, and medicine. A doorway consists of introducing the rocks, water, and medicine, covering the entrance with a blanket, and a round of steam, song, prayer, and petitions.
The entire ceremony lasts somewhere between an hour and two hours. Some of those puertas, or doorway periods, can become "get-your-face-on-the-ground-and-pray" hot!
Hot Enough for You?
If this post gets you warmed up to learn a little bit more about the temazcal, subscribe to InTheTemazcal (above, to the right), and take a look at some of other posts. Also, we'd like to hear your questions, comments, and criticisms (below). We'll do our best to address them directly in the feed or in a new post.
... con todas mis relaciones! Aho!
References Cited
• Aaland, M. 1997. Native American Sweat Lodge: Origin of the Temescal. Originally from Mikkel Aaland's Cyber-Bohemia, now archived on webpage capture (, Reviewed 7 February 2017.
• Rojas-Alba, H. 1996. Temazcal I / III. The Traditional Mexican Sweat Bath. Tlahui-Medic 2(2) (, Reviewed 7 February 2017.
• Rico-Velázquez, L.A., A. Ríos-Popoca, S. K. Zagal-García, and D. C. Carranza-Vergara. 2011. Una mirada más de cerca al temazcal: renaciendo del vientre de la madre tierra. Tlahui-Medic I(31) (, Reviewed 7 February 2017.
Image Sources
Thanks to Kim Lopez-Gallagher, of New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, who came forth with a very simple, yet critical question that inspired this much-needed post.
Most Popular Posts InTheTemazcal.
Temazcal at Casa Mágica, Acapulco, Mexico
The caminantes at Centro Holistico Casa Mágica (Magic House Holistic Center), in Acapulco, Mexico, have taken the temazcal a step beyond the ancient Mayan steam bath ceremony, integrating it into a modern holistic health center. The center provides temazcales, through its Circulo de MujeresMariposa(Circle of Butterfly Women), and also offers yoga, massages, meditation, reiki, vegetarian food workshops, transpersonal therapy, hypnosis, tai chi, drawing, zumba, painting, acupuncture, and other services.
Hidden away, next to a bustling bus station, just a block from the Playa Hornitos beach, on Acapulco Bay, and just a few hundred feet from the Parque Papagayo Acapulco, my duality, Berenice "Gatuño" Martinez, and I visitedCasa Magicalast week. There, Cesar Salazar, Gilberto Chavez, Miriam Lucero, and a youngster namedAlex greeted us. They were kind enough to talk about their facility, services, and temazcales, in general. Today's post just touches on their basic philosophy …
The Element Chant - Tierra Mi Cuerpo
The first time I heard the temazcaleros sing, "Tierra mi Cuerpo," in the Temazcal, I knew that I had heard the song long ago ... somewhere in my childhood. There, though, it bore a name from my native tongue, English. I later remembered that I had learned it as "The Element Song," also known as "The Element Chant."
The harmony took me back to a circle around a campfire, and, as it drifted through my mind, I heard its echo from a classroom in the Midwest, ... maybe in Greenwood Elementary School. I know that I have heard a number of versions and interpretations by different artists, in several languages.
The song, or chant, ... simple and direct ... verbalizes a very basic relationship between the temazcalero, the human participant in the temazcal ceremony, and the elements of the temazcal: earth, water, air, and fire. In the temazcal, or Mexican steam bathrecall, ... in its most basic form, the temazcalero sits on an earthen floor, exposed to steam (wa…
Guide Cesar Salazar: Dying to Be Reborn
For temazcal guide, Cesar Salazar, of the Centro Holistico Casa Mágica (Magic House Holistic Center), in Acapulco, Mexico, the temazcal, or steam bath, comprises one of several components of the center's holistic methods. He commented that the temazcal is part of the Mexican heritage and noted that it has been practiced throughout the Americas.
In a previous post, entitled, "Temazcal at Casa Mágica, Acapulco, Mexico," InTheTemzacal, we talked about the center's mission and philosophy. Aside from serving as a source of income, Salazar described it as ...
... the beginning of a spirituality ... to bring ourselves closer to our creator. That is our goal, more than anything ... showing people the way.
He went on to describe his philosophy of the temazcal:
In the temazcal we have the philosophy that we die to be reborn. This they do in all of [the temazcales] ... die to rise again. What does this consist of? We mean dying not physically, but consciously ... in terms of o… |
Language design: Escaping escapes
Most languages use special characters or special sequence of characters to denote the use of special directives. For instance, in C format strings:
"\n" denotes new line, and if you wanted to have backquote n, you'd have to write "\\n".
In VB, since " is used to delimit strings, you'd use "" to mean double quotes. eg. "He said ""Boo""!"
In each case, if you wanted to show source code in the same language, it gets very painful, since you'd have to escape escapes. For instance to show the example of <img> tag in HTML, I'd have to do this:
<img src="example" >
In C you'd do this:
printf("For example: printf(\"Hello World\\n\"); prints \Hello World\"\n");
Are there any languages or patterns which handle this kind of situation more elegantly?
Examples of patterns:
1. Escaping HTML escapes is not really necessary because the user can "View source"
2. Another example is python, which uses triple quotes """.
3. ASP, JSP, PHP use a sequence of unusual characters eg: <php?>
Comment viewing options
Shells and Perl have "here-documents":
print <<END
this is a "here document"
Perl also offers "q" and "qq":
q*'non-interpolated' string to the "star"*;
qq winterpolated string to the next "double-u"w;
ruby does too
but ruby is a perl in the end ;)
so it uses 'string' , "string" and heredocuments, and even charater delimited strings:
%somecharacter blabla somecharacter
Not that I find the usage of % or q/qq reasonable.. why can't this just be named 'string' :)
In Python..
This is the relevent python doc. You have both raw strings, which avoid escapes but do not tolerate newlines, like
r'this\n is a raw string with a windows path: c:\bof\ping.png'
and triple-quoted strings, which allow anything but unescaped triple-quotes, like this:
is a\nnice
triple-quoted string'''
which becomes:
is a
triple-quoted string
You can also combine the two, having a raw triple-quoted string. String interpolation in Python is done with the % operator, so there is no need for interpolated/non-interpolated quoting distinction.
Python is programmer friendly
Python's three ways of quoting is extremely programmer friendly, because I can usually get around quoting problems by adopting a different set of quotes.
str1 = '<a href="">Hyper Link</a>'
str2 = "Tom's Thumb"
str3 = '''
This is how you do a
triple quotes in python:
"""Triple quote"""
i agree
Python is the only language I've ever used that made working with string literals reasonably painless. I've never understood why more people haven't followed the Python approach. Yes, there are a lot of options, but in this case, they really are all useful. And it's not like it's a hard change to make in a language... only the lexer needs to change, in many cases...
Particularly for languages aspiring to compete in the Python/perl space (some Schemes, for instance), more options for string literals is just essential.
Even his record doesn't match his record.
I've never understood why more people haven't followed the Python approach.
I can think of two reasons.
First, next to integers (and maybe lists), strings are probably the most overused data type. People use strings when they are too lazy or inept to define a more structured representation for something. For example, when you manipulate XML or HTML, you should not be using a string type; you should be using at least a tree type, and preferably a set of tree types which correspond to the Schema in question, so you can read only well-typed documents and write only well-typed documents. It is really appalling to see how many webpage-producing applications don't do this. Adding all sorts of bells and whistles to string literals encourages this sort of misuse.
Second, many people (not necessarily me, though) are of the opinion that program source should not be littered with constants. For example, if you are developing an application, it is better to put message text in an external resource file, or database, or whatever, which helps for example with localization. Here again, adding features to string literals would be sending the wrong, er, message.
Personally, I am not opposed to adding a few more bells and whistles to string literals, but IMO it is generally the poorest languages that spend the most effort on those sorts of trivialities. It's the language-design equivalent of bit-twiddling. Perl is a perfect example.
Mild disagreement on Perl...
While I don't like Perl very much, I think you are being somewhat unfair to its designers. Their focus on string manipulation really has led them in the direction of higher-level abstractions -- for example, Perl 6's string manipulation facilities are basically a nice syntax for parser combinators. This seems like fundamentally the right way to go to me, and they should be praised for adopting it.
I also think that there's some fairly interesting research questions about what the best way to print data is! All I know of in this regard is Olivier Danvy's paper on functional unparsing and Hughes's famous paper on pretty-printing, and I don't think that's the end of the story. A format string can be seen as sugar for these kinds of APIs, and as long as the language designers are thinking about this sort of issue when they are designing their literal syntax I don't think it's bit-twiddling.
Take my wife, please!
You are far too generous. If what you say were true and Perl's designers actually had that much insight into what they were doing, then 1) those facilities would not be limited to strings, which are after all merely sequences of characters, 2) the facilities could handle other sorts of monads, and 3) they would be described via a source-to-source translation, like derived forms in Scheme or do-syntax in Haskell.
I've looked at the Perl apocalypses and they are hardly more than a scatter-brained enumeration of trivia and faux pas; it reads like a blind man's account of constructing a puzzle. It doesn't solve problems by solving problems; it's a misadventure in stochastic symbol-pushing. Perl 6 is just another iteration in that language's interminable and drunken meandering. Occasionally it stumbles across a good idea, in the same way that a construction worker might unearth a fossil when drives his pickaxe through it. According to you, I guess "we can regard him as" a paleontologist, then.
It can also be seen as a format string, that is, as a hack.
No reasonable designer would represent formats as strings by choice. Hell, we can represent anything as a string, right? That's not a brilliant observation: it's why we use text editors to write programs. Brilliant observations arise from revealing the structure of an object, not burying it. To say that the integers form a monoid is more insightful than to say they form a set. To say they form a group is more insightful than to say they form a monoid. To say they form a ring is more insightful than to say they form a group.
Hell, why stop at formats? Why not represent a numbers as strings too? And characters? And arrays? And records? Or functions? Oh wait, I'm starting to get a brilliant idea... why don't we shove every data type into one universal data type! Yeah, that will solve all our problems.
Gee, how many other hacks "can be seen as sugar for" rationally-designed language features? Let's see: XML is just sugar for algebraic datatypes; goto, break and continue are just sugar for first-class continuations; const and final are just sugar for referential transparency; operator overloading is just sugar for type classes; C++ templates are just sugar for bounded polymorphism and MetaML.
Yeah, I guess you're right. PLT is superfluous—it's all been done before!
Well, I'm sorry for being so caustic, but I'm really sick of this "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" attitude. Even if "worse" is "better", that doesn't mean that the people who design the "worse" actually know they are doing it. In fact, in my experience, they often think they are designing the "better".
Format strings
I've been reading with interest. How about some concrete examples of what you mean? and what alternatives are available? At the bottom of this discussion I suggested that if programs can be represented by Non-ASCII characters, some of these problems can be avoided.
What are your thoughts?
I really should start reading the posts in full.
quasiquote vs. quote
These are examples of quasiquotation and regular quotation, and they don't get much more elegant than they are in Lisp and Scheme. The difference is between, for example:
`(hello world ,newline)
'(hello world ,newline)
The first expression, prefixed with the backquote operator, computes the value of newline and splices that value into its position in the list. The second expression is entirely quoted, so it comes out exactly as-is.
Quasiquotation/quotation turns out to be a prevalent but somewhat subtle concept. (A common mistake is to leave out ordinary quotation, since quasiquotation is seemingly "more powerful." But this causes problems like you describe.) It shows up whenever you're dealing with embedded languages like format strings. This also includes web development, since web pages designed with technologies like PHP, ASP, and JSP are typically creating quasiquoted HTML with unquoted meta-language code.
I recommend Alan Bawden's Quasiquotation in Lisp, which is a nice journal article summarizing the technology and history of quasiquotation in Lisp.
The Quasiquotation article was certainly comprehensive in its treatment. I only know rudimentary Scheme, and my head started hurting at about page 7.
String formatting to language embedding
Isn't this related to the more general problem of language embedding?
It starts with a few control characters in some strings, expands with the printf string formatting minilanguage and soon you see source code written in no less than four languages: a general purpose host language, a database query language, a markup language for output and special markers and expressions in comments for automatic documentation extraction.
I find it interesting because it's the kind of problems that manifests itself as question of syntax, but will take you all the way to general programming and language design questions.
paired quotes make the need for escapes less common
In Postscript, string literals are written in parentheses and can include nested matched parentheses. For example, (this is a (string) literal) is a single string literal. You only need escaping if you want to include unmatched parens, e.g. (this string contains \) an unmatched paren).
M4 (the macro language) uses matched quotes with nesting, like `this is a `quoted' m4 string containing a matched set of quotes', but has no escape. Instead, if you want to use an unmatched quote, you must change the quote strings entirely (using the changequote command).
Changequote is most structurally correct
In the end, the problem of escaping escapes arise because ASCII is being used to represent ASCII + 1.
In templating languages, ASCII is used to represent different data structures and it fails to varying degrees.
Changing quotes will work only if the change quote command itself is immune to the structural change.
Here's an imaginary language which uses [] and a command called changequote.
The quick brown fox jumps over the [username]
The quick brown fox jumps over the (username).
But I'm stuck because I can't show you how to
changequote in this language, unless I intentionally break the command. eg.
changequote-`' (ignore the dash between the word "changequote" and the back tick)
In the end, this kind of problems are solved by View source in HTML, or Edit in a wiki... because it allows users to actually learn what the correct representation is.
There's been some debate that source code shouldn't be represented as ASCII anymore than building plans should be represented by words. The case of the escaping escape is a damning example of how software development is still stuck in the days of the teletype terminals.
I kinda liked the BRL approach.
nice nod to R5RS
From the section you linked to:
From R5RS:
BRL's approach is very similar to how an ASP or JSP compiler breaks up the embedded script and template into an actual program. Where it differs is how more forgiving it is when the special brackets are enclosed twice. eg.
[ [literal string] ]
is syntactically correct in BRL. whereas in ASP, this isn't
<%= lt;% literal string %> %>
This reminds me of C-style comments where
/* /* this style of comment is illegal */ */
How does BRL resolve the bracket's though? If I wanted to represent a right square bracket, how would it be done?
[ ] ]
Does BRL have some precedence rules to resolve the ambiguity above?
What ever you do, don't copy make...
I once drove some one line perl scripts from "make".
I realised that I had to contend, layered on top of each other, with the quote conventions of "make", the shell that make invoked and perl.
I drove me scatty.
editor feature
I'm not really a fan of languages which people demand you use a smart editor before the language is really fully functional, but it seems to me that this scenario is a good one for it. In particular, Color Forth comes to mind--I don't know the exact details of what it allows though. Chui Tey's comment about needing ASCII+1, and "There's been some debate that source code shouldn't be represented as ASCII anymore", seems to hit at the core issue: if we can have rich text and word processors showing more than ASCII, then why not a program editor?
However, realistically, for transportability and such, I think it makes more sense not to demand that programs use some non-ASCII document format as source code; rather, we just continue using escapes like we do now, but give the editor smarts. I'm also no fan of syntax hilighting generally, but suppose you had an editor that displayed strings with a different background color (not foreground--you want to see spaces at ends of lines, and strings wrapping across lines); it could show embedded newlines and quotation marks unambiguously but unescaped. It could allow you to type them yourself using a mode of operation like word-processor's ctrl-i and ctrl-b for italics and boldface. The editor could still read in plain text files and save the the program as plain text files with the strings escaped normally. As long as we're only doing simple things with them (like quotations and newlines), there's not much lost by hiding the innards of the string. (Tabs would be trickier.)
Intentional programming
For more on this topic, search for "intentional programming".
Also have a look at Interactive Source Code (Caution: powerpoint viewer required) by Lutz Roeder. The focus here is not on editing source code visually but browsing source code visually.
Current IDEs for JSPs and other embedded templating languages just don't recognize the existing embelishments and tags. Which of the following would you consider more readable?
<div class="header"><b>User Names </b><br/>
<% for user in users
response.write("<i>" + user + </i>")
User Names
<% for user in users
In terms of readability, the latter wins hands down, and is more likely able to point out errors. Let us not forget when VI was first invented, doubters would say that it's not as portable as "ed" and they'd be right.
How Felix handles these things
Well, people have opinions on this kind of thing it seems. It's easy to analyse with hindsight, but how about lending your brains to a new design?
What I want is: convenience, expressiveness, predictability, regularity, familiarity.
Here's what Felix does with strings that may be relevant to this discussion. The most important issue needs special mention though: there are no character constants, which is an idea stolen from Python but doesn't work well in Felix.
• It provides Python style strings, with single and tripled delimiters using single or double quotes. The Python 'r' prefix is also supported for raw stings.
I still run out of quotes. I'm trying not to add backquotes as a third kind of quote mark in case I need them for something else.
• ISO10646/Unicode supported by 'u' prefix.
• slosh u and slosh U for short and long hex encoded code points, in 8 bit strings, generates UTF-8 sequences
• traditional C style \n \t \r
• Octal escapes banned
• I waver on hex escapes
• Application of a string to a string is interpreted as concatenation. Application of a string to an integer concatenates the code point the integer represents. For example:
"Hello" 32 "World" // "Hello World"
"Hello " person_name // works with any expression
removes the need for escapes sometimes.
• Combinator style regular definitions:
regdef ident = letter (letter | digit) *;
and syntax supporting matching and tokenisation eliminates the need for out-of-language lex script and reduces need for string based in language regular matching:
regmatch expr with
| regexp1 => expr1>
| regexp2 => expr2
This construction is ultra fast and linear. There's a related reglex construction which uses iterators.
• There is no special support for printf style formats. You can use them if you want, Felix doesn't try to stop you calling C functions, not even bad ones.
At present, there is a convention to use overloaded 'print' and 'str' for quick printing and formatting.
Actually I don't really have a more general design concept here: C++ iostreams is an example of such a more general system, but I'm not at all sure I like it.
• MISSING. Here are things I know are missing that I'm thinking about.
• Tcl style interpolation "hello $name"
• Extension of regexps to 32 bits and perhaps generalised sequences
• Easy run time compilation of regexps
• Perl style quotations
• HERE docs, and perhaps some more advanced control over formatting |
Math 20 Math 20 logo Math 25 Math 25 logo Math Tips Math tips logo valid HTML 4.01
Study Skills
Two Brain Personalities link to here link to index
In the 1960s, Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Sperry studied patients in whom surgeons had cut certain connections between the two halves of the brain to try to reduce epileptic seizures. In those patients, the halves would develop specializations in different tasks. This led to an incorrect belief that the left and right halves of brain worked quite independently.
However, the flawed research of Gazzaniga and Sperry did lead to some practical discoveries. Even though the brain works as a whole to do its things, some types of things do go together. Certain types of brain activity happen quite naturally together.
We know that our muscles have some patterns that fit together easily and others that resist each other. It is much easier to circle both arms the same direction than in opposite directions. Our brains work the same way. Some patterns of thinking fit together easily and other patterns of thinking do not.
Most famously, our brains have what I nickname a Possibility Brain Personality and a Participatory Brain Personality. This is not because of the brain structure as two halves, but because of patterns of whole-brain activity.
The Possibility Brain PersonalityThe Participatory Brain Personality
rapid pace, stimulatedmellow pace, relaxed
uses large-motor muscles consciouslyuses metabolic and proprioceptive muscles unconsciously
ponders what might beattentive to what is now
linguistic thoughts about relational informationpictoral and emotional thoughts about sensory information
loves to create rules and ultimatumsloves to accept and experience possibilities
Practical Relaxation link to here link to index
The Possibility Brain Personality is not relaxed. It worries, plans, and makes up stories—usually pondering the past or future instead of dwelling in the present moment.
The Participatory Brain Personality is mellow and relaxed. It observes the present moment happily without adding commentary. (We are assuming you are someplace pleasant. It does feel the annoyance or pain of hurtful sensory stimulation!)
We can trick our bodies into relaxing by jump-starting the Participatory Brain Personality. If we do two of its types of brain activity, then its whole pattern of associated behaviors will soon happen. Also, the behaviors of the Possibility Brain Personality will shrink or pause because they do not fit the neurological pattern we are emphasizing.
First, we can focus on metabolic and proprioceptive muscle use (and minimize large-motor muscle use). Pay attention to something metabolic: our breathing, heartbeat, diaphragm, stomach, etc. Also pay attention to something proprioceptive: feel where our arms and legs are, how our scalp feels, how our clothes press against your skin, or the air pressure on the skin of our hands or face. Stand or sit as still as we can, to stop large-motor muscle use.
Second, we can focus on immediate sensory information (instead of abstract relational information). What colors can we see that we were too busy to notice a moment ago? What sounds and smells do we notice now that we are paying attention? Try to acknowledge this changing stream of sensory input wordlessly. If it helps, we can briefly accept how stimuli make us feel or what pictures they stir up. Now, we cannot stop linguistic thoughts from happening (stories, relationships, comparisons, judgments, "if..."). But we can also treat those as if they were sensory information! Instead of letting those lead us down a linguistic train of thought we again briefly accept how those make us feel or what pictures they stir up, and then turn our focus back to the actual stream of sensory input.
If we do those two things for a few minutes then the rest of the Participatory Brain Personality kicks in. We feel mellow and relaxed, compassionate and non-judgmental, sensitive to the unity of our body and also the sense that we are part of something bigger, and accepting of possibilities without worry.
This should sound familiar. Many, many religions and philosophies have developed their own ways of doing this. These traditions are called praying, meditating, communing, mindfulness, self-soothing, and many other names. They have different emphases. They do other things beyond this. But their relaxing commonality is that they jump-start the Participatory Brain Personality.
If this understanding of relaxation is new to you, try it! It is simple! Pick one kind of metabolic muscle use, one kind of proprioceptive muscle use, and be as still as you can while focusing on those and your stream of sensory input.
Let's not call it anything but relaxing. Saying it is meditating is dishonest. If we tell a wiggly toddler "go play outside" the child will be using his or her large-motor muscles more, but we do not say the toddler is practicing actual gymnastic routines. In the same way, we can exercise our relaxation habit without needing to claim it is anything formal with an official name. If you want to move onward to a more formal tradition, you certainly can. But that is a second step, like enrolling the toddler in an actual gymnastic class. |
the memorial ceremony for Genghis Khan-Folk Customs-Global Final of the 62nd Miss World
Mongolian hero Genghis Khan is a strategist and statesman of ancient China. He has been dead for over 700 years since 1227, but on the prairie, the memorial ceremony for him is still been carried on from generation to generation. According to historical records, various memorial ceremonies for Genghis Khan would be held over 30 times in one year, and each ceremony has different times, forms and offerings. In the past, limited by the nomadic life, Genghis Khan’s mausoleum was mobile, so on each memorial ceremony, the Darkhans, Genghis Khan’s personal guards, would carry the mausoleum ger onto a nanmu hearse, which would be pulled by white horses without a single foreign hair——by legend they are the offspring of Genghis Khan’s two horses——to the place for ceremony. People would put out offerings, and the flamen would chant the praises of Genghis Khan’s feats with resounding and cadent voice. The usual practices and methods of the memorial ceremony basically inherited Genghis Khan’s ceremony to sacrifice to heaven, and the ceremonies were held in scattered places adjusting to the local conditions. In 1955, in order to made the memorial ceremony easier to hold, after getting consents from Darkhans and Mongolians, the local government gathered Genghis Khan’s portrait, sword, and saddle scattered among different Mongolian tribes to the location of Genghis Khan’s mausoleum, and properly concentrated the ceremonies, so the ceremonies would be carried out four times in one year respectively on the 21st day of the third month, 15th day of the fifth month, the 12th day of the eighth month, and the 3rd day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar.
Every time when this day comes, numerous worshippers will come from far away with a devout heart to worship this legendary figure’s statue, and offer the most holy and pure offerings: pure white hada, bright candles, aromatic joss sticks, tallowy whole sheep, delicious cow’s and ewe's milk, yellow butter, and mellow kumiss. The ceremony will be presided by Darkhan servants.
The traditional memorial ceremony is carried out in this way: the worshipers first go to the golden pillar a hundred steps away out of the wall in the south, then walk around the pillar three times, and each day there must be 99 people to do this, after that, people will go to the place 81 bows away to sprinkle milk toward outside. After walking around the pillar, people will walk around the big white horse and its foals, and also splash milk with small wooden spoons. After walking around the horses, the mausoleum guards will put a bowl full of milk upside down on the horse’s back, then the horse will be startled and prance, and the bowl will fall to the ground. If the bowl is still upside down on the ground, then the process must be repeated again. After walking around the pillar and the horse, people will start libation. The people offering kumiss will kneel outside the temple, the mausoleum guards will pour the kumiss from the pot of the people into two small wine cups, then the people offering kumiss will hold the two cups with a rectangular tray into the temple. The mausoleum guard will take over the tray and put it on the mutton. After salute, the people offering kumiss will retreat outside to their original places to kneel down. The mausoleum guard outside the temple will go to fetch the tray in the temple, and he will murmur: “Oh, Oh, Oh!” when he goes into the temple, then he will pour the kumiss on the tray into one cup, and refill the two cups with new kumiss, and another people offering kumiss will take the tray and go into the temple. While offering kumiss, two old mausoleum guards outside the temple will pray, but the prayers have no written version, so no one can understand them, as a result the prayers are called “divine words”. After libation, people will go into the temple and kneel down on the felt before the altar, then offer hada, candles, sheep, and aromatic joss sticks (with prayers). People will prostrate on the ground when they offer the oblations, after offering the oblations, everyone will throw a piece of sheep tail mutton into the brazier before the altar, murmuring prayers, and some people even throw two times. After this, people will burn the fragments of hada, drink the arrack in turn with big silver cups and eat small pieces of mutton on their knees. The whole memorial ceremony will last over two hours. |
Back Up - English Phrasal Verb
View on Youtube
Amelie: Hello everybody. Let's learn how to use the phrasal verb 'back up' today.
Yana: Yes, Amelie. To 'back up' means to support, doesn't it?
Yana: I get it. 'Back up' means to support an idea and also to support someone morally. It also means to give encouragement. For example: 'The jury asked for evidence to back up what the prosecution was saying'.
Amelie: Correct. Here's another example: 'Carter revived his enthusiasm to become a professional ball player, when his mother backed him up'.
Yana: 'Back up' also means to keep something as substitute or to save something for the future. At home we have the solar panels to back us up in case of power cuts!
Amelie: You mean something like a traffic jam? Please give an example.
Amelie: 'Back up' also means to move back or to be back into a previous place.
Yana: Alright! That's why cops shout 'back up' all the time in the movies!
Amelie: Exactly! How about some more examples?
Yana: Yes, let's see some conversations now.
Backup from the Crowd.
Seth: Congratulations, Duke! I can't believe you scored at the last minute!
Duke: Thank you! I was so overwhelmed when the crowd backed me up!
Seth: Why not?! You are the homeboy favorite!
Seth: Don't worry. Just talk to the coach. I'll back you up on this for sure.
Duke: Thank you, Seth. I'll do it.
Backed up Traffic.
Duke: Man, what happened?! You look like a drowned cat!
Duke: Why did you have to walk in the rain?
The Broken Fence.
Yana: The fence fell and broke my flower pots.
Seth: Oh! I backed it up with some sticks in the morning.
Yana: I told you to fix it, Seth. You are just too lazy!
Seth: I was thinking about it but I had to do some laundry.
Yana: C'mon, I don't think Jenna would back you up on that. She did the laundry today.
Seth: Okay! I will fix it now. Here I go, alright?
Yana: Thank you dear. Get me some new flower pots, too.
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If Nuclear Power Has a More Promising Future ...
By Leslie Allen The Washington Post Magazine Sunday, August 2, 2009
(Posted with the author's concurrence, 6 August 2009; not intended as endorsement)
In a drab Moscow building set amid acres of Cold War architecture, Seth Grae peers down through 30 feet of water into IR-8, an old nuclear research reactor. In IR-8's glowing blue maw, he sees the future -- one he claims will revolutionize the way we think about nuclear power.
But at Grae's corporate offices in McLean a few weeks later, the talk turns to cars. It is a balmy spring morning outside. In the news, the price of crude oil seesaws, and oil-rich Bahrain baffles the world by announcing its intention to develop. Inside, Grae is unreeling a pitch for potential investors -- in this case a half-dozen investment bankers and money managers gathered around his conference table.
Cars and nuclear power plants both run on fuel, he begins, and aims his analogy straight ahead. Cars that once took leaded gasoline now run on a newer, less toxic and environmentally more benign gas: unleaded. The same concept holds true for the 104 nuclear power plants that supply 20 percent of this country's electricity, Grae says, as well as for the dozens of new reactors expected to come online worldwide in the next few decades.
"Everyone knows nuclear plants run on uranium, right?" Grae continues, and then launches into a litany of uranium's persistent problems. Nuclear plants in service today run on a fuel mix that generates enough spent uranium and plutonium to build dozens of nuclear weapons each year in the United States alone. That waste will remain highly radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. It already adds up to more than 78,000 metric tons, with highly uncertain prospects for safe, long-term storage.
But what if these very same nuclear power plants were able to run on a different fuel mix? A mix that: first, would generate only a minor amount of waste, if any, that could be used to build a nuclear weapon. Second, could destroy tons of plutonium instead of generating it. Third, would produce less than half the volume of current fuel waste, which would remain radioactive for only a few hundred years. And, fourth, is made from an element far more abundant, less radioactive and cheaper than uranium: thorium.
And what if the technology had already gotten positive reviews from the American Nuclear Society, the World Nuclear Association and, in particular, from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world's nuclear watchdog, which, in a 2005 report titled Thorium Fuel Cycle -- Potential Benefits and Challenges, called it "an attractive way to produce long-term nuclear energy with low radiotoxicity waste?"
You'd have the nuclear equivalent of unleaded gas, in Grae's analogy.
Glancing around the room with a small smile, Grae is more than ready for skepticism. He's heard it many times over the years while explaining the new nuclear fuel that his company, the Northern Virginia-based Thorium Power Ltd., has been testing in Russia for several years and that he says will be ready to license for commercial use within a decade.
One banker says flatly that many investors believe nuclear power, any nuclear power, is an "outdated technology." Grae, 46, who holds both law and business degrees, answers smoothly, occasionally deferring to Thomas Graham Jr., a courtly Kentuckian who is the company's executive chairman of the board and a retired ambassador. During his long State Department career, Graham participated in the negotiation of every major arms control and nonproliferation agreement drawn up over about three decades. (Hans Blix, who was director general of the IAEA and the United Nations' chief weapons inspector for Iraq from 2000 to 2003, is a senior adviser to the company.)
By the time Graham excuses himself to attend another meeting, almost every question has been put to rest, it seems, but one: How come no one's heard of this technology?
Under the "Atoms for Peace" program, the era of commercial nuclear power formally began in 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Colorado at the time, waved a baton-shaped "neutron wand" (with a light bulb attached to one end for futuristic dazzle) that activated a radiation detector that flipped a telephone switch that started a robot bulldozer that broke ground 1,200 miles away at Shippingport, northwest of Pittsburgh, for the first U.S. commercial reactor. Adm. Hyman Rickover, the "father of the nuclear Navy," headed up the whole project. But the reactor itself was designed by Alvin Radkowsky, the Navy's top nuclear scientist and the inventor of its seagoing reactors.
Years earlier, Radkowsky had been Edward Teller's star student at George Washington University. Unlike his mentor, who invented the hydrogen bomb, Radkowsky never designed nuclear weapons. But he did have a special interest in thorium, a slightly radioactive metal found commonly in sand, seawater and rock. It glows brightly when heated and has been used for, among other things, Coleman lamp mantles.
Like some other early reactors, Shippingport ran uneventfully for a few years on thorium-based fuel. But in civilian reactors, thorium was soon eclipsed by uranium. The United States and the Soviet Union, along with a few other countries, had already built vast infrastructures to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which provided full-blown uranium-based industrial complexes. Also, Cold War powers believed they could muddy the waters of intent by enriching uranium for military purposes and for civilian nuclear energy in the same buildings.
With thorium in its core, Shippingport became the first U.S. commercial nuclear plant to be decommissioned, in 1982. But by then the whole industry had turned on its head. Nuclear's growth in the United States was already slowing for a mix of economic reasons in the late '70s. In 1979, the near-core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear station near Harrisburg, Pa., dealt the industry's prospects a body blow by turning public opinion against it.
And that is where those prospects have mostly stayed. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees nuclear power plants and materials, has not issued a construction permit for a new commercial plant in more than 30 years, since 1978. The Westinghouse Electric Co., which built Shippingport, hasn't received a firm order for a new reactor in the United States since 1987, though it has signed initial contracts for six.
Most experts agree that for many years major nuclear engineering firms invested little in the kind of research and development that propels technology forward. "In the past 40 years, we got crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, airbags and all the rest," Seth Grae says. "Cars changed more in 40 years than nuclear reactors did."
Aside from a few physics courses at Brandeis, about as close as Grae had come to the nuclear industry before getting involved with thorium was as a law student working pro bono for refusenik Soviet scientists. In 1991, when he first met Radkowsky, Grae was a bored associate at a Manhattan law firm, spending his days on a grab bag of international business clients ranging from video game startups to cement companies.
Meanwhile, Radkowsky, an observant Orthodox Jew, had moved to Israel from Silver Spring and was teaching part-time at Tel Aviv University. But he never lost his passionate interest in thorium.
His old mentor, Edward Teller, had reignited it in 1983. Radkowsky and Teller had stayed in touch since they first met at GWU. It was Teller who had seen the potential in his quiet, awkward young master's candidate, urging him to continue for his PhD. When Radkowsky emerged from Catholic University with his doctorate during the Depression, Teller helped him find a job troubleshooting for the Singer Sewing Machine Co.
It was also Teller who, after World War II, mentioned Radkowsky to Adm. Rickover, who was barreling ahead with a controversial new program to power submarines and carriers with nuclear reactors, and was looking for an out-of-the-box thinker. Radkowsky-designed naval reactors have never suffered an accident.
But late in life, Teller became convinced that surplus plutonium from old nukes or spent fuel posed a grave threat of falling into the wrong hands and triggering a nuclear catastrophe. When he contacted Radkowsky in 1983, he urged him to revisit his early work with thorium and come up with a new fuel design that wouldn't produce weapons-usable materials in its spent fuel -- and that, in fact, might be used to start getting rid of bulging stockpiles of nukes in the United States and Russia.
Radkowsky himself also envisioned a new nuclear fuel that would allow even unfriendly governments -- Cuba's and North Korea's topped the list in those days -- energy-generating capacity without creating weapons-usable materials. "If we don't put a stop to conventional uranium cores now, nuclear terror will ensue, and the use of legitimate nuclear energy will be barred worldwide," Radkowsky said in a 1997 interview.
Eight years after his meeting with Teller, he was ready to start applying for patents and getting on the road to commercialization. Radkowsky was no businessman; he had no idea how to go about locating the expertise he needed. But he did have a wide network of friends and acquaintances. One was an Israeli investor who knew a New York real estate developer who knew Grae and had done business with his father, Joel, a high-tech entrepreneur and developer. Word got back to Radkowsky about Seth Grae, whose cases dealing with international law, high-technology companies and Russian refusenik physicists seemed to intersect in a relevant way.
"One day, I was sitting there in my office and in came a fax from Alvin, describing this new technology," Grae recalls.
Radkowsky's thorium project just didn't sound that promising -- a mix of has-been and pie-in-the-sky. It definitely didn't sound like billable hours. Grae turned him down. But Radkowsky persisted. Gradually, the two fell into step. Grae asked Radkowsky to recommend the best nuclear physics texts, which he read one by one at night after work.
In 1992, Radkowsky Thorium Power Corp. slipped into the world largely unnoticed. (It moved to Northern Virginia in 1996.) Joel Grae, Seth's father, became its first president; Seth started as outside counsel; the family's friends were its board of directors. "No one knew anything," Grae says.
Back in Israel, Radkowsky spent long days in his lab and paced the floor into the night when he got home, trying to work out his fuel design. In New York, Seth Grae's fax machine periodically spat out Radkowsky's latest thoughts, rendered in multipage single-space type. Back at his day job for the time being, Grae began looking for a nuclear research lab to partner with. Representatives of the Kurchatov Institute -- the Russian Los Alamos -- were in the United States actively seeking just such partnerships.
Grae decided to check it out. What he found was not just an opportunity but also a lucky break. Kurchatov had dozens of highly respected nuclear scientists; relationships with other good research facilities around Russia and in the United States; and support from the U.S. government, which wanted to keep Russia's post-Soviet nuclear workforce gainfully employed.
In 1994, Seth Grae quit his law firm job, met his future wife, went on two dates with her, and then left to spend a frigid winter in Moscow. There, he rented an apartment just outside Kurchatov's gates and went to work every day for two months with Alexei Morozov, chief scientist of the new thorium project. When Radkowsky visited, the two would take long midwinter walks and make the rounds of Moscow's concert halls and restaurants.
Grae loved being at Kurchatov, and he enjoyed Moscow. But back at home, things didn't seem quite as rosy. "No one would listen to them," says Alfred Rubin, an early board member and investor. "A nuclear company with a new concept was not well received."
"Everybody thought we were crazy, without exception," Grae says. "We were the two men from Mars."
In 1995, Radkowsky tweaked his fuel design into something close to what Thorium Power has today. His new "non-proliferative" fuel involved a concept known, with almost storybook simplicity, as a "seed and blanket" design. Thorium can't sustain a chain reaction on its own. It needs something else -- a very small amount of a fissile material, such as uranium, whose nuclei can be split more readily -- to kick-start the reaction by bombarding the thorium with spare neutrons. So Radkowsky wrapped clusters of "seeds" -- fuel rods made of uranium and zirconium -- in much larger "blankets" of rods made of thorium oxide pellets. The unique reaction that followed, he believed, would result in real improvements over the standard all-uranium nuclear fuel.
His goal was that no weapons-usable plutonium be generated in the reaction, and that any weapons-usable uranium isotopes produced be consumed in the process. Radkowsky's fuel would leave comparatively little waste and less radioactive waste. Among other intriguing characteristics, it also would have a fuel cycle that would allow most of its fuel to last several years longer than uranium fuel in a reactor core before needing to be replaced and stored. Though other countries, such as Canada and India, were experimenting with thorium, Radkowsky's formula was the only one that could potentially be dropped into existing light-water reactors, such as the U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants.
And if the "seeds" were made of plutonium from old nuclear weapons (or from nuclear waste from civilian reactors) instead of uranium, then thorium could theoretically create electricity while disposing of old nuclear weapons. It was a prospect that would later land Thorium Power in the middle of an inside-the-Beltway slugfest.
As Radkowsky's new fuel designs began hurdling testing milestones, Grae and Radkowsky went on the road for long stretches. At universities, they paid calls on eminent nuclear physicists, who occasionally suggested alterations in the fuel design; Brookhaven National Laboratory was officially providing technical advice.
In the Navy's nuclear program, it had taken just a few years for Radkowsky to see his designs move from drawing board to deployment of the nuclear-powered Nautilus and Seawolf submarines. He thought the same could happen with his thorium-fuel designs -- and was frustrated by a lack of the support that would have made it possible. Meanwhile, investors and board members began to wonder when they'd see some outside backing. "There was a limit to how far the company could go on borrowed money," board member Alfred Rubin says.
At this point, Thorium Power has not been analyzed by any major financial institutions. ***
Grae had become the company's president in 1997, when his father returned full time to his work with medical startups. By 2001, the company had shed "Radkowsky" from its name, though Alvin Radkowsky was still its chief scientist. But with his designs completed and the patents approved or applied for, Radkowsky's role was evolving into that of an elder statesman. Still, the two men remained close.
Radkowsky had always been exceptionally vigorous, so when he entered an Israeli hospital with pneumonia in 2002, Grae was not terribly concerned at first. But Radkowsky's sudden, unexpected death from a heart attack a few weeks later shook him.
"Alvin was a humble man who contributed a great deal to the world," Grae says. "It was a time to reflect on a remarkable life."
Earlier, in September 2000, the United States and Russia had signed an agreement committing each to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. (That would still leave enough to readily build thousands of new nuclear bombs in each nation.) Originally, both countries were to dispose of most of the agreed-upon material by turning it into a mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel (MOX), based on technology developed by the French government-owned nuclear firm Areva. But MOX produces two-thirds as much new plutonium as it burns, resulting in a net increase. Critics also worried about proliferation risks, since spent MOX fuel can be separated and its plutonium used for weapons.
In 2004, Congress appropriated $4 million, through the Department of Energy, to explore thorium's potential to get rid of weapons-grade plutonium. Most of that money was directed to support the ongoing research at the Kurchatov Institute. The rest would go to the Westinghouse Electric Co. to evaluate thorium fuel independently.
Early the following spring, Westinghouse's report landed back at the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which handles the disposition of excess uranium and plutonium. Thorium-based fuel, the report concluded, could destroy much more plutonium than MOX and do it three times faster than MOX at a third of the cost, leaving much less toxic waste behind. Unlike MOX, it wouldn't require that new plants be built to manufacture the fuel, either.
"It was a great idea for disposing of nuclear weapons," says Regis Matzie, then Westinghouse's chief technology officer. "It could just burn the heck out of that plutonium."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, who has supported a number of high-technology initiatives over the years, is an advocate of thorium technology. "It's unbelievable," he said in an interview. "If NNSA could give a valid argument against thorium, I'd like to hear it. But they couldn't."
Hatch was referring to a report that NNSA issued shortly after Westinghouse's. The assessment concluded that the thorium technology was "unproven" and "not suitable" for disposing of the surplus military plutonium.
The Westinghouse report "was based on what the Russians claimed," says a NNSA official who requested anonymity. "We wanted to 'trust but verify' -- see the technology." He says officials were denied access to Kurchatov's tests three times.
The NNSA report said the technology also "shows no clear cost advantage over competing technologies" and that the concept entailed "a relatively high technical risk of failure" when compared with other technologies.
The position that thorium is not sufficiently tested has also been cited in the industry, where the French version of MOX -- though designed to burn plutonium from spent commercial fuel rather than weapons -- is at least familiar. With thorium, on the other hand, "there is no track record of performance," says Felix Killar, a director of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association. But Mujid Kazimi, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, is confident that "the use of thorium limits additional plutonium production."
Hatch offers an explanation for the NNSA's resistance. "All agencies are filled with bureaucrats who are simply unwilling to take chances."
In 2007 and 2008 (the latter along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid), Hatch introduced legislation providing $250 million over four years to support thorium use. In June, the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act passed the House with a requirement that the Department of Energy explore thorium. The Senate version is expected to be brought up on the floor this fall.
But can Americans ever be coaxed into embracing nuclear power again, with or without thorium? Global warming has altered some people's perceptions about nuclear power: What was long regarded by many as a dirty and unacceptably dangerous business, from the mining of uranium through the disposal of highly radioactive waste, is now more widely seen as a greener alternative to fossil fuels that produce planet-warming greenhouse gases.
Others, however, say nuclear power is no panacea. To avoid global warming's catastrophic consequences, "we have just 20 years or so to turn it around," says Christopher Paine, a nuclear expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. "In that time, nuclear can make only a very modest contribution." Lead times for licensing and construction of new nuclear plants can run to decades. There is a bottleneck in the creation of reactor vessels and components, and as the U.S. nuclear workforce ages, expertise is rapidly being lost.
Americans also may balk at funding new plants, which would carry price tags in the billions and be supported partly by generous federal incentives. And looming over it all is the question of safety. Experts generally agree that nuclear plants are much less accident-prone than they were even a decade ago. But nuclear physicist Ed Lyman, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says "safety, security, proliferation and waste have still never been addressed to the level that they should be." One of his worries with Thorium Power's formula is that when a very small amount of uranium is used to prime the thorium, it is enriched to a level approaching weapons-usable grade.
Like many industry experts, Seth Grae believes that possibly half of all the new commercial nuclear reactors built in the next 20 years will be in countries that have none yet, places such as Vietnam, Argentina, Turkey, Belarus, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.
The United Arab Emirates? Its proven oil reserves, mostly in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, are estimated at about 100 billion barrels. But oil, for as long as it lasts, is more profitable as an export. What to do? The supply of gas is limited; imported coal, another option, is dirty; wind, undependable. You can invest billions in solar generation, as Abu Dhabi has. And you can develop policies to explore nuclear power.
When Abu Dhabi's government heard about thorium, it called in Thorium Power. The company helped the government develop a policy as it began to explore a nuclear future. Among other safeguards, the policy commits the UAE to buying nuclear fuel abroad and returning it when it's spent. In doing that, it becomes the first country to renounce its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium, which cuts off its means of making its own weapons. It has agreed to intrusive and unannounced inspections by the IAEA.
The policy "is very far-reaching, a model that other states going into nuclear energy could use," says nuclear expert Matthew Bunn of Harvard University. It now also forms the basis of a new nuclear-cooperation pact with the United States, awaiting congressional action -- controversial because of the UAE's ties to Iran -- that would help the UAE become the first Arab country to develop nuclear power.
One thing the UAE's policy did not commit to was thorium itself. Instead, David Scott, director of economic affairs for the emirate of Abu Dhabi's Executive Affairs Authority, calls Thorium Power's fuel a "long-term solution." In the meantime, though, the UAE has hired Thorium Power to help it develop a framework for its civilian nuclear industry.
Last January, Seth Grae moved into a spacious office at the brand-new Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. in Abu Dhabi for a temporary sojourn. Obstacles in other countries, such as huge upfront costs, don't necessarily apply here. Nor does public opposition to nuclear power, since the UAE has neither the democratic institutions nor the free-speech traditions that would make it a factor.
With the UAE aiming to have at least one nuclear power plant ready to go online within a decade, the brisk pace of business around Thorium Power's Abu Dhabi offices slows only when Muslim colleagues retreat to the prayer room at various times of the day. But in general, "the day-to-day is much the same as in Virginia -- meetings, conference calls, government relations -- business," Grae says.
Or at least a more globalized version of Virginia. He still travels to Moscow occasionally. Likewise India, which is interested in thorium-fueled reactors. He fields inquiries from other countries that want to develop a civilian nuclear power industry. Grae has even gotten a general query or two from U.S. utility companies. Every so often, in Abu Dhabi, he takes a moment to look out beyond its mirror-faced buildings to the Persian Gulf and the tankers that carry 17 million barrels of oil each day toward the Strait of Hormuz, and from there, to the world beyond.
The Rest of the Story...?
(Letter to the Washington Post Magazine 16 August 2009, two weeks after above article appeared)
Herbert Feinroth of Silver Spring, president of Gamma Engineering, e-mails:
It is true that thorium does have a role in the future of nuclear power, but not in the seed-and-blanket variety invented by Alvin Radkowsky and being promoted by Seth Grae. I worked closely with Radkowsky and for Adm. Rickover in the 1960s as the seed-and-blanket concept was demonstrated; it was a wonderful demonstration, but this design has never been adopted for commercial use because it was extremely costly.
The thorium seed-and-blanket reactor [Seth Grae] and Radkowsky developed and tested uses a metallic fuel seed, not the oxide ceramic fuel used in commercial reactors. The metallic fuel will melt and release radioactivity much more quickly during the low-probability accidents that are examined by regulators before they issue a license. That, and the poor economics are the main reasons his thorium design is not viable.
Curator: Dr. David P. Stern
Mail to Dr.Stern: stargaze("at" symbol) .
Posted 6 August 2009, Hiroshima day |
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Math Troubles
fq pqv yqtta cdqsv aqwt fkhhkewnvkgu kp ocvjgocvkeu. k ecp cuuwtg aqw okpg atg uvknn itgcvgt. - cndgtv gkpuvgkp
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Passing at High Speed
Why was the man able to pass three cars going 70 miles-per-hour, while he was going only 60 miles-per-hour?
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Summer Jobs
Five young people are working over the summer. Each one is working hard towards their own goal. Using the clues, find out how many each makes per hour, how much each has earned and what their goal is. Keep in mind they have a last name and surname.
1. Dylan has earned the most so far, even though he earns the least per hour.
2. Carson has worked 19 hours, 23 less than Wills.
3. Gray makes $4.75 and has worked 35 hours so far. She's saving for a bicycle.
4. The person saving for a computer (not Amelia or Ellis) earns $5.25 per hour and has earned $99.75 so far.
5. The one saving for clothes is neither Elvin nor Jones.
6. Sands has worked 66 hours so far.
7. The person saving for college has worked 38 hours so far; the one saving for clothes has worked 42 hours.
First name: Amelia, Bobby, Carson, Dylan, Elvin
Last names: Ellis, Gray, Jones, Sands, Wills
Earn per hour: $4.00, $4.50, $4.75, $5.00, $5.25
Earnings: $99.75, $166.25, $189.00, $190.00, $190.00
Goals: bicycle, clothes, college, computer, trip
This puzzle was taken from Kurt Smith's logic book.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Six Seconds to Answer
If a clock takes six seconds to strike six times at six o'clock, how many seconds will it take to strike eleven times at eleven o'clock?
Monday, April 02, 2012
Good Old Fashioned Banking
John needed some small bills because he was traveling. He went into a bank and gave the teller a $100 bill. He told her, "I need some two-dollar bills, ten times as many one-dollar bills, and the rest in five-dollar bills. Assuming she didn't tell him to try his request online instead, how many of each did the teller give him?
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Regional accents of English speakers: Wikis
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Distribution of the English language in different countries of the world
The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety of Standard English between various populations of native English speakers.
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Local accents are part of local dialects. Any dialect of English has unique features in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The term "accent" describes only the first of these, namely, pronunciation. See also: List of dialects of the English language.
Non-native speakers of English tend to carry over the intonation and phonemic inventory from their mother tongue into their English speech. For more details see Non-native pronunciations of English.
Among native English speakers, many different accents exist. Some regional accents are easily identified by certain characteristics. Further variations are to be found within the regions identified below; for example, towns located less than 10 miles (16 km) from the city of Manchester such as Bolton, Oldham and Salford, each have distinct accents, all of which form the Lancashire accent, yet in extreme cases are different enough to be noticed even by a non-local listener. There is also much room for misunderstanding between people from different regions, as the way one word is pronounced in one accent (for example, petal in American English) will sound like a different word in another accent (for example, pearl in Scottish English).
Great Britain
English accents and dialects vary widely across Britain. This may be related to the fact that the language has its origins there and has been evolving there for many hundreds of years.
The main accent groupings within England are between Northern England and Southern England; the dividing line runs roughly from Shrewsbury to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash.
For many years, the BBC and academic bodies employed Received Pronunciation as a 'standard', although this is no longer a requirement for broadcasting. Received Pronunciation has its roots in the speech patterns of the counties just north of London, where many of the monied classes in London originated from during the 16th and 17th centuries, but is now more a marker of a particular social class than a region.
There is considerable variation within the accents of the English. Notable geographical accents include West Country (the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Avon (Bristol) and Cornwall); North East England (Northumberland, County Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland); North West England (Cumbria, Lancashire, with regional variants in Bolton, Manchester, Preston, Blackpool and Merseyside); Yorkshire (which has differences between the North Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire); West Midlands (The Black Country, Dudley, Birmingham and Wolverhampton); the accents of the counties comprising the East Midlands (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Kettering) and East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire). Even within these broad categories there are considerable differences in inflection and pronunciation.
The arrival of large scale immigration to England has produced another layer of regional accents that have merged with the accents of immigrants. Such examples include London-Caribbean, West Yorkshire mixed with Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi.
With respect to phonology, Scottish English generally has the following characteristics:
• Scottish English is rhotic; /r/ is most often an alveolar tap [ɾ], but a continuant [ɹ] similar to that of RP is also heard.
• For most speakers, the short vowels /ʌ, ɛ, ɪ/ are kept distinct before /r/, so that burn, earth, and bird have three different vowels, unlike in most other accents.
• The contrast between /o/ and /ɔ/ before /r/ (as in hoarse vs horse) is preserved.
• The contrast between /hw/ (as in which) and /w/ (as in witch) is preserved.
• There is no contrast between the vowel of pull, foot and that of pool, food; the merged vowel is typically a short, central [ʉ].
• For many speakers, the vowel of cot and that of caught are merged, usually to [ɔ].
• For many speakers, there is no short A-broad A distinction, so that palm, trap and bath have the same vowel, typically [a].
• /l/ is dark in all positions.
• Due to the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, crude contrasts with crewed, need with kneed and side with sighed, the latter item in each pair having a longer vowel.
• There are many different dialects and accents throughout Scotland not only between island communities and the mainland but also between villages, towns and cities.
• Accents heard in the west (Glasgow) are noticeably different from those spoken in the east (Edinburgh). Similarly, there are variations between the speech norms of the Lowlands and those of the Highlands (Aberdeen, Inverness).
Ireland has two main accents that can be differentiated between by outsiders owing to the varying speech patterns/intonations of the two: (1) the flat, unfluctuating tone of urban, working class Dublin City, characterised by a heavy influence from the unchanging speech modes of the English aristocracy that governed Ireland from the capital city for over 4 centuries; and, (2) the multi-toned (sing-song) speech of the remainder 31 counties of the island, wherein the input of Scots, Huguenot French and Spanish elements can be observed - depending on the region.
The Ulster accent has two main sub accents, namely Mid Ulster English and Ulster Scots. The language is spoken throughout the nine counties of Ulster, and in some northern areas of bordering counties such as Louth and Leitrim. It bears many similarities to Scottish English through influence from Ulster Scots, which is has many distinct characteristics and is often seen as a variety of Scots.
Some characteristics of the Ulster accent include:
• In Belfast, /eɪ/ is a monophthong in open syllables (e.g. day [dɛː]) but a rising diphthong in closed syllables (e.g. daze [deəz]). But the monophthong remains when inflectional endings are added, thus daze contrasts with days [dɛːz].
• /t/ often undergoes flapping to [ɾ] before an unstressed syllable, e.g. eighty [ɛːɾi]
Connacht, Leinster and Munster
The accent of these three provinces is relatively similar.[citation needed] Despite generalization from people within the nine counties of Ulster that refer to the "southern accent", there are important exceptions, to this generalization
There is stereotypically a difference between the accents of the Northside, Southside and Westside of Dublin, but as each these areas have many working class and middle class areas there is very little truth in this.
Historically the Dublin county area, parts of Wicklow and Louth, became under heavy exclusive influence from the first English settlements (known as The Pale). It remained up until Independence from Britain as the biggest concentration of English influence in the whole island.
Though big differences are obvious between the class divide -influence from the original English settlers are seen in certain English-rooted colloquialisms (e.g. "bleedin...") and certain vowel forms like ow (e.g. "I don't know" pronounced "I downt now")- Dublin English is more similar to Estuary English in relative respect than say the neighbouring counties of Leinster province where in general this would be pronounced under the same general Southern accent. The flat intonation of the 'working-class' Dublin accent remains an anomaly on the island with all other accents retaing the signature Irish 'sing-song' intonation.
Another feature in the Kerry accent is the S before the consonant. True to its Gaelic origins like nowhere else in Ireland "s" maintains the shh sound as in shop or sheep. The word Start becomes "Shtart". Stop becomes Shtop.
Irish Travellers
Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely related to a rural Hiberno-English. Many Travellers who were born in parts of Britain have the accent, despite the fact that they do not live in Ireland. They also have their own language which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English, see Shelta.
North America
• Rhoticity and mergers before /r/. Most North American English accents differ from Received Pronunciation and some other British dialects by being rhotic; the phoneme /r/ is pronounced before consonants and at the end of syllables, and the "r-colored vowel" [ɚ] is used as a syllable nucleus. For example, while the words hard and singer would be pronounced [hɑːd] and [sɪŋə] in Received Pronunciation, they would be pronounced [hɑɹd] and [sɪŋɚ] in General American. (Exceptions are certain traditional accents found in eastern New England, New York City, and the Southern United States.) R-coloring has ultimately led to some phonemic mergers before historic /r/ that are unknown in most other native dialects: in many North American accents, Mary, merry and marry sound the same, despite having different vowels in RP ([ɛə] , [ɛ] , [æ] respectively); likewise, hairy rhymes with ferry, and nearer rhymes with mirror.
• Mergers of the low back vowels. Other North American mergers that are absent in Received Pronunciation are the merger of the vowels of caught and cot ([kɔːt] and [kɒt] in RP) in many accents, and the merger of father (RP [fɑːðə]) and bother (RP [bɒðə]) in almost all.
• Flapping of /t/ and /d/. Another feature distinguishing North American English dialects in general from British Received Pronunciation is the voicing or flapping of /t/ before an unstressed vowel, causing the word better to sound like "bedder" [bɛdɚ] or [bɛɾɚ].
American English has a 'standard' accent, analogous to Britain's Received Pronunciation, that of the upper Midwest region, which is used by news broadcasters due to its clear understandability. It is spoken in northern Ohio, northern Indiana, Michigan, northern Illinois, and in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Americans who, for many years, have been trying to shed their stigmatizing local accents, such as Southern state accents or Brooklynese, take classes to learn Upper Midwestern. It prominently features the flat A, but does not consistently merge low back vowels, so that 'caught' generally rhymes with 'nought' and 'cot' rhymes with 'not'.
Upper Midwestern as spoken at home does have some idiosyncratic inconsistencies in pronunciation. In some areas, for example in northern Indiana, speakers may rhyme 'route' with either 'gout' or 'boot', and 'root' with either 'soot' or 'boot', so that the two may or may not be homonyms. Even individual speakers are not always totally self-consistent in usage. However, 'routing' almost always rhymes with 'pouting', and 'rooting' with 'booting', while 'uprooted' may go either way.
The phonology of West/Central Canadian English, also called General Canadian, is broadly identical to that of the Western U.S., except for the following features:
• The diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ are raised to approximately [əɪ] and [ʌʊ][1] before voiceless consonants; thus, for example, the vowel sound of out [ʌʊt] is different from that of loud [laʊd]. This feature is known as Canadian raising.
• There is no contrast between the vowels of caught and cot (cot-caught merger, as above); in addition, the short a of bat is more open than almost everywhere else in North America [æ̞ ~ a]. The other front lax vowels /ɛ/ and /ɪ/, too, can be lowered and/or retracted. This phenomenon has been labelled the Canadian Shift.
With respect to phonemic incidence, the pronunciation of certain words has American and/or British influence. For instance, shone is /ʃɒn/; been is often /bin/; process can be either /prosɛs/ or /prɒsɛs/; etc.
Words like drama, pyjamas, pasta tend to have /æ/ rather than /ɑ/=/ɒ/. Words like sorrow, Florida, orange have /or/ rather than /ɑr/; therefore, sorry rhymes with story rather than with starry.
United States
West Indies and Bermuda
For discussion, see:
Southern Hemisphere
The greatest variation in Australian accents is along educational and occupational lines, expressed as three class-based accents: Broad Australian, General Australian and Cultivated Australian. However, some regional variation has been documented. Generally, accents are found to be broadest in the more remote and rural areas.
A 1995 survey by D. Crystal of the usage of /aː/ ("long a") and /æ/ in the same words ("graph", "chance", "demand", "dance", "castle", "grasp" and "contrast", across five cities, found that /aː/ was generally strongest in Adelaide, where it was used on average 88% of the time, and weakest in Hobart at 39% (Crystal, 1995, Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language).
Some people in Victoria have a tendency to pronounce the vowel in words like dress, bed and head as /æ/. As a result, the words "celery" and "salary" are pronounced alike.[2][3] In Western Australia, a tendency to pronounce words such as "beer" with two syllables (/biː.ə/ or "be-ah"), in cases where other Australians use one syllable (/biə/), has been noted.[4]
According to anecdote and stereotype, Queenslanders tend to use Broad Australian more and to drawl, although this does not appear to have been verified by research, and General and Cultivated accents are also widespread in Queensland.
New Zealand
The New Zealand accent is distinguished from the Australian one by the presence of "clipped" vowels, slightly resembling South African English. Phonetically, these are raised or centralised versions of the short "i" and "e" vowels, which in New Zealand are close to [ɨ] and [ɪ] respectively rather than [ɪ] ands [ɛ]. New Zealand pronunciations are often popularly represented outside New Zealand by writing "fish and chips" as "fush and chups", "yes" as "yiss", "sixty-six" as "suxty-sux". Scottish English influence is most evident in the southern regions of New Zealand, notably Dunedin.
Geographical variations appear slight, and mainly confined to individual special local words. One group of speakers, however, hold a recognised place as "talking differently": the South of the South Island (Murihiku) harbours a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with a "Southland burr" in which a back-trilled 'r' appears prominently. The area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland.
South Atlantic
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands have a large non-native born population, mainly from England, but also from Saint Helena. In rural areas, the Falkland accent tends to be stronger. The accent has resemblances to both Australia-NZ English, and that of Norfolk in England, and contains a number of Spanish loanwords.
Saint Helena
Southern Africa
South Africa
South Africa has 11 official languages, one of which is English. Accents vary significantly between ethnic and language groups.[5] Native English speakers (white, Indian and Coloured or Cape Coloured) in South Africa have an accent that generally resembles British Received Pronunciation (modified with varying degrees of Germanic inflection due to Afrikaans). Native English speakers in South Africa may employ Afrikaans and Bantu loanwords into their speech.
"For `Coloureds' whose traditional language was Afrikaans, English has become increasingly influential since the early nineteenth century (Mesthrie 1993). While complete language shift to English has occurred among this group, this appears to be a trend only amongst more affluent and educated individuals. In total, 51% of `Coloureds' indicated a speaking knowledge of English in the 1991 census."
David H. Gough, English in South Africa[6]
The Coloured community are generally bilingual, however English accents are strongly influenced by primary mother-tongue (Afrikaans or English). A range of accents can be seen, with the majority of Coloureds showing a strong Afrikaans inflection. Similarly, Afrikaners (and Cape Coloureds), both descendant of mainly Dutch settlers, tend to pronounce English phonemes with a strong Afrikaans inflection. It should be noted that the English accents of both related groups are significantly different and easily distinguishable (primarily because of prevalent code-switching amongst the majority of Coloured English speakers, particularly in the Western Cape of South Africa). The range of accents found amongst English-speaking Coloureds (from the distinctive "Cape Flats or Coloured English"[7] to the standard "colloquial" South African English accent) are of special interest. It should be noted, that geography and education levels play a major role therein.
Black Africans generally speak English as a second language, and accent is strongly influenced by mother-tongue (particularly Bantu languages). However, urban middle-class black Africans have developed an English accent, with similar inflection as native English speakers. Black, Indian and Coloured students educated in former Model C schools or at formerly white tertiary institutions will generally adopt a similar accent to their white classmates.[8] Interestingly, code-switching and the "Cape Flats" accent are becoming popular amongst white learners in public schools within Cape Town. This trend appears to be similar to the adoption of urban African-American accent and slang by suburban or urban white children in the US.
Examples of South African accents (obtained from
Additional samples of South African accents and dialects can be found at
Regardless of regional and ethnic differences (in accents), the "colloquial" South African English accent is often mistaken with Australian (or New Zealand) English by British and American English speakers.[10][11]
Example of a Zimbabwean English accent (obtained from
Namibian English tends to be strongly influenced by that of South Africa.
Madagascar has 3 official languages: Malagasy, French and English. Malagasy English is a combination of French and English due to the strong influence of French spreading across the country.
Philippine English employs a rhotic accent that originated from the time when it was first introduced by the Americans during the colonization period to replace Spanish as the dominant language used in politics. Philippine English is the only English accent that has survived The AmE phonology in colonized territories because[citation needed] by the time the Americans started introducing American English in its conquered colonies, people have already become increasingly hesitant in adopting the accent since it was viewed as not elegant as the BrE at the time and the fact that virtually all known territories have already had a strong British English foothold. American English pronunciation still remains the official pronunciation taught in schools but is hardly followed by most Filipinos not because it is difficult to pronounce but because sporting an American accent or American pronunciation raises judgments or prejudices of having a colonial mentality, not being faithful to the country, showy, gay, or too American. Even brilliant politicians, businessmen, and academicians have shied away from the correct pronunciation for fear of giving away an impression or for fear of being ridiculed. People who sport American English accent are often labeled "spokening dollar". The way English is pronounced in the Philippines has created a rift between the rich and the poor. Brilliant individuals who are not necessarily rich but who pronounce English correctly are often discredited because of the "English-is-for-the-rich-only" stigma occurring in the Philippines.
Philippine accent is the most laid back of all English accents. This can be traced from the residual phonology of regional languages primarily the Tagalog. Tagalog accent has been made popular lingua franca because of the widespread reach of Tagalog media over the archipelago through films, televisions, and radios, and aside from the fact that one of the two official languages in the Philippines, one of which is English, virtually rose out of the Tagalog dialect. The introduction of Taglish, a coined word for Tagalog-English combination, gave rise to a different English accent that is largely popular among the upper classes of the Tagalog-speaking affluent urban communities. One of the most famous Taglish speakers is the celebrity socialite Kris Aquino.
Philippine English accent is American English specific such that variations in pronunciation would leave the listener unable to comprehend the word because Filipinos understand the meaning by relying on the correct spelling. So, if the word "writer" was dictated with a British or Australian accent, the Filipino would not be able to understand it because the "t" was heavily stressed and "r" has been omitted as opposed to the American pronunciation where the "t" is soft and the "r" is clearly audible.
Hong Kong
The accent of English spoken in Hong Kong follows mainly British, with rather strong influence from Cantonese on the pronunciations of a few consonants and vowels, and sentence grammar and structure. In recent years there are some Canadian and Australian influences, attributable to the return to Hong Kong of persons who had emigrated to these countries.
South Asia
A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken in South Asia. There are many languages spoken in South Asia like Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, Marathi, Bengali, Maithili, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Rajasthani and many more, creating a variety of accents of English. Accents originating in this part of the world tend to display several distinctive features, including:
English is the lingua franca of Malaysia, a former British colony.
The Malaysian accent appears to be a melding of British, Chinese, and Malay influences.
• Non-rhoticity, like most varieties of English language in England. Hence caught and court are homophonous as /kɔːt/ (in actuality, /kɔːʔ/ or /koːʔ/, see "Simplification" below); can't rhymes with aren't, etc.
English is the first language of Singapore. Singapore is unique as it is the only country in Asia which has English as its first language.
English is the language of instruction in all government schools. All students in government schools are educated in English as their first language. Students in Primary and Secondary schools also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are either taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil. A main point to note is while "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language (L1) overseas, in Singapore, it is used by the Ministry of Education to denote the second language (L2).
There are two main types of English spoken in Singapore - Standard Singapore English and Singlish.
A 2005 census showed that around 30% of Singaporeans speak English as their main language at home.[12]
There is a large number of foreigners working in Singapore. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector.[13] Therefore, it is very common to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English. Most of these staff speak Mandarin Chinese. Those who do not speak Mandarin Chinese tend to speak either broken English or Singlish, which they have learnt from the locals.
Some people mistake the Standard Singaporean accent as similar to the accent of Malaysian English speakers but both accents are very different.
See also
External links
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Fado Coimbra
Portuguese Guitar
The Portuguese guitar descends from the western European Cithern. Once a very popular instrument with numerous models, during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, only a few models survived to the 19th century: the English guitar, from England and northern France; the Thuringian zither from Germany (Fig. 1); the Portuguese mandolin and the Portuguese guitar [1].
Figure 1: German cithern from the ”Manual of Guitar Technology” and Portuguese guitar
Each instrument evolved in slightly different ways, changing the sizes and the number of strings. The curved pegbox was replaced by metal screw mechanisms for tuning, in some places a rosette was inserted in the sound hole, and the instruments are less decorated. The English guitar changed the tuning for a perfect chord scheme (CEG) while the Portuguese guitar remained faithful to the old cithern tuning.
By 1796, Silva Leite wrote a method for the guitar called ”Estudo da Guitarra” for the usage of his students, being this the first time that the guitar is mentioned in Portugal [2], although the tuning used suggests that the method is written for the English guitar.
Caldeira Cabral [3] argues that the tuning used today indicates that the Portuguese guitar descends directly from the cithern. The cithern used to be played as an erudite instrument in high society places, but entered in decadence by the 18th century, still resisting in the hands of some urban classes with economical power. By the middle of the century it was only played by beggars or in the taverns of the old neighborhoods.
Figure 2: Lisbon’s fado seen by Malhoa at the beginning of the century; Coimbra’s fado
As Fado (Fig. 2) started to be a national song we assist to the rebirth of the instrument in Portugal in the middle of the 19th century, almost extinct in the rest of the Europe. Around 1870 the guitar is introduced in the academic student life of Coimbra, in which is still today, and gaining strength, an important component. The number of skilled players has rise constantly, namly Anthero da Veiga, Artur Paredes, Flávio Rodrigues, Carlos Paredes, Antonio Brojo and Antonio Portugal in the Combra’s style or Armando Freire, Jaime Santos, José Nunes, Raul Nery and Jorge Fontes in the Lisboa’s style.
Recently the guitar captured the interest of erudite composers in Portugal and abroad, like Andrew Jackson (England), Yuasa (Japan) and Woody Man (USA). Also performers from different world locations are using it or its music: the Finnish musician Pekka Nylund, the jazz musician Charlie Haden, or the famous Kronos quartet are excellent examples.
Like the Bouzouki in Greece and the Saz in Turkey, it is also a widespread instrument among the music groups in Portugal.
[1] - F. Jahnel, Manual of Guitar Technology. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag das Musikinstrument, 1981.
[2] - E. V. de Oliveira, Intrumentos Musicais Populares Portugueses. Bertrand, 3rd ed., 2001.
[3] - P. C. Cabral, Intrumentos Musicais Populares Portugueses, ch. Guitarra Portuguesa, pp. 194–199.
Bertrand, 3rd ed., 2001.
Further reading:
Measurements of String Instruments (pdf)
by João Martins
The aim of this paper is to show an overview of the methods for analysis of string instruments' acoustical and mechanical properties. Some physically meaningful quantities such as the mechanical admittance of the bridge, sound radiated and modal analysis are discussed. The measurement of these quantities is not a straightforward process, all methods having their advantages and drawbacks. Problems concerning the holding of the instrument, the excitation process and excitation signals, and the recording of the response are shown. Finally we use the Portuguese guitar and the Turkish saz as case study.
Was presented as part of the the seminar "MEASUREMENTS AND MODELING IN ACOUSTICS AND AUDIO" and published in technical report of the Helsinki University of Technology.
Sjokulla 6.5.2002
the Guitar
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From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
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The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of mass. Its original use as a measurement of volume has continued in the capacity of cargo ships and in terms such as the freight ton. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.
It is derived from the tun, the term applied to a barrel of the largest size. This could contain a volume between 175 and 213 imperial gallons (210 and 256 US gal), which could weigh around 2,000 pounds (910 kg) and occupy some 60 cubic feet (1.7 m3) of space.[1]
In the United Kingdom the ton is defined as 2,240 pounds (1,016 kg) (avoirdupois pounds).[2] From 1965 the UK embarked upon a programme of metrication and gradually introduced metric units, including the tonne (metric ton), defined as 1000 kg (2,204.6 lbs). The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 explicitly excluded from use for trade many units and terms, including the ton and the term "metric ton" for "tonne".[3]
In the United States and formerly Canada[4] a ton is defined to be 2,000 pounds (907 kg).
Where confusion is possible, the 2240 lb ton is called "long ton" and the 2000 lb ton "short ton"; the tonne is distinguished by its spelling, but usually pronounced the same as ton, hence the US term "metric ton". In the UK the final "e" of "tonne" can also be pronounced (/ˈtʌnɪ/),[5] or "metric ton" when it is necessary to make the distinction.
Where accuracy is required the correct term must be used, but for many purposes this is not necessary: the metric and long tons differ by only 1.6%, and the short ton is within 11% of both. The ton is the heaviest unit of weight referred to in colloquial speech.
In refrigeration, a ton is a unit of power, sometimes called a ton of refrigeration. It is the power required to melt or freeze one short ton of ice per day. The refrigeration ton·hour is a unit of energy, the energy required to melt or freeze 124 short ton of ice.
Units of mass/weight
There are several similar units of mass or volume called the ton:
Full name(s) Common name Quantity Notes
long ton,[6] weight ton, gross ton "ton" (UK)[lower-alpha 1] 2,240 lb (1,016.047 kg) Used in countries such as the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations that formerly used, or still use the Imperial system
short ton,[7] net ton "ton" (US) 2,000 lb (907.1847 kg) Used in the U.S., and formerly in Canada
tonne[8] "tonne";[lower-alpha 1] "metric ton"
(mainly UK)
1,000 kg (2,204.623 lb) Defined in the International System of Units.
In the UK, Canada, Australia, and other areas that had used the imperial system, the tonne is the form of ton legal in trade.
1.58% less than the long ton.
ton shortweight[lower-alpha 2] 2240 lb Used in the iron industry in the 17th and 18th centuries.
ton longweight[lower-alpha 2] 2400 lb[lower-alpha 3] Used in the iron industry in the 17th and 18th centuries.
1. 1.0 1.1 In the UK "ton" (2240 lb) and "tonne" are usually pronounced the same, /tʌn/. As they only differ by 2%, ambiguity is not necessarily a problem; where accuracy is required in speech, "long ton" or exaggerated pronunciation of "tonne" emphasising the "e", /ˈtʌnɪ/, are used.[5]
2. 2.0 2.1 The longweight and shortweight tons were used as a means of making an allowance for wastage in an industrial process. The workman is provided with a longweight ton and is expected to return a shortweight ton of processed product. These measures were particularly used in the operation of hammering iron blooms into shape.[9]
3. In other industries, a different longweight ton might be used. Coal miners delivered coal to the surface in longweight tons but were paid only for a shortweight ton. This was supposedly to allow for "dirt" (non-coal rocks) in the output. Mine owners, however, were free to set the value of the longweight ton at a value of their own choosing, and in at least some cases, it was set to 25 cwt (2800 lb) compared to the 20 cwt shortweight ton. This was a source of discontent amongst the miners who saw the practice as unfair in favour of the mine owners.[10]
• Deadweight ton (abbreviation 'DWT' or 'dwt') is a measure of a ship's carrying capacity, including bunker oil, fresh water, ballast water, crew and provisions. It is expressed in tonnes (1000 kg) or long tons (2240 pounds, about 1016 kg). This measurement is also used in the U.S. tonnage of naval ships.
• Increasingly, tonnes are being used rather than long tons in measuring the displacement of ships. See tonnage.
• Harbour ton used in South Africa in the 20th century, 2000 pounds or one short ton.
Both the long ton and the short ton are 20 hundredweight, being 112 and 100 pounds respectively. Before the twentieth century there were several definitions. Prior to the 15th century in England, the ton was 20 hundredweight, each of 108 lb, giving a ton of 2,160 pounds (980 kg).[citation needed] In the nineteenth century in different parts of Britain, definitions of 2240, 2352, and 2400 lb were used, with 2000 lb for explosives; the legal ton was usually [sic] 2240 lb.[11]
Assay ton (abbreviation 'AT') is not a unit of measurement, but a standard quantity used in assaying ores of precious metals; it is 29 16 grams (short assay ton) or 32 23 grams (long assay ton), the amount which bears the same ratio to a milligram as a short or long ton bears to a troy ounce. In other words, the number of milligrams of a particular metal found in a sample of this size gives the number of troy ounces contained in a short or long ton of ore.
In documents that predate 1960 the word ton is sometimes spelled tonne, but in more recent documents tonne refers exclusively to the metric ton.
In nuclear power plants tHM and MTHM mean tonnes of heavy metals, and MTU means tonnes of uranium. In the steel industry, the abbreviation THM means 'tons/tonnes hot metal', which refers to the amount of liquid iron or steel that is produced, particularly in the context of blast furnace production or specific consumption.
Units of volume
The displacement, essentially the weight, of a ship is traditionally expressed in long tons. To simplify measurement it is determined by measuring the volume, rather than weight, of water displaced, and calculating the weight from the volume and density.[12] For practical purposes the displacement ton (DT) is a unit of volume, 35 cubic feet (0.9911 m3), the approximate volume occupied by one ton of seawater (the actual volume varies with salinity and temperature).[13] It is slightly less than the 224 imperial gallons (1.018 m3) of the water ton (based on distilled water).
One measurement ton or freight ton is equal to 40 cubic feet (1.133 m3), but historically it has had several different definitions. It is sometimes abbreviated as "MTON".[14][15][16][17] The freight ton represents the volume of a truck, train or other freight carrier. In the past it has been used for a cargo ship but the register ton is now preferred. It is correctly abbreviated as "FT"[citation needed] but some users are now using freight ton to represent a weight of 1 tonne (1,000 kg; 2,205 lb), thus the more common abbreviations are now M/T, MT, or MTON (for measurement ton), which still cause it to be confused with the tonne, or even the megatonne.
The register ton is a unit of volume used for the cargo capacity of a ship, defined as 100 cubic feet (2.832 m3). It is often abbreviated RT or GRT for gross registered ton (The former providing confusion with the refrigeration ton). It is known as a tonneau de mer in Belgium, but, in France, a tonneau de mer is 1.44 cubic metres (50.85 cu ft).
The water ton is used chiefly in Great Britain, in statistics dealing with petroleum products, and is defined as 224 imperial gallons (35.96 cu ft; 1.018 m3),[19] the volume occupied by 1 long ton (2,240 lb; 1,016 kg) of water under the conditions that define the imperial gallon.
Units of energy and power
Ton of TNT
Note that these are small calories (cal). The large or dietary calorie (Cal) is equal to one kilocalorie (kcal), and is gradually being replaced by the latter correct term.
Early values for the explosive energy released by trinitrotoluene (TNT) ranged from 900 to 1100 calories per gram. In order to standardise the use of the term TNT as a unit of energy, an arbitrary value was assigned based on 1000 calories (1 kcal or 4.184 kJ) per gram. Thus there is no longer a direct connection to the chemical TNT itself. It is now merely a unit of energy that happens to be expressed using words normally associated with mass (e.g., kilogram, tonne, pound).[20][21] The definition applies for both spellings: ton of TNT and tonne of TNT.
Tonne of oil equivalent
A tonne of oil equivalent (toe), sometimes ton of oil equivalent, is a conventional value, based on the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil. The unit is used, for example, by the International Energy Agency (IEA), for the reported world energy consumption as TPES in millions of toe (Mtoe).[22]
Unit conversion factors for toe
toe MWh GJ Gcal MMBtu tce
1 11.63 41.868 10 39.6832072 1.42857143
Source: conversion factors as used by the IEA[23]
Other sources convert 1 toe into 1.28 tce[24] One toe is also define as 6.6–8.0 actual barrels of oil (boe), depending on actual specific gravity.[citation needed]
Tonne of coal equivalent
A tonne of coal equivalent (tce), sometimes ton of coal equivalent, is a conventional value, based on the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of coal. Plural name is tonnes of coal equivalent.
Unit conversion factors for tce
tce MWh GJ Gcal MMBtu toe
1 8.141 29.3076 7 27.778245 0.7
Source: conversion factors as used by the IEA[23]
The unit ton is used in refrigeration and air conditioning to measure the rate of heat absorption. Prior to the introduction of mechanical refrigeration, cooling was accomplished by delivering ice. Installing one ton of mechanical refrigeration capacity replaced the daily delivery of one ton of ice.
• In North America, a standard ton of refrigeration is 12,000 BTU/h (3,517 W). "The heat absorption per day is approximately the heat of fusion of 1 ton of ice at 32 °F (0 °C)."[26] This is approximately the power required to melt one short ton (2,000 lb or 907 kg) of ice at 0 °C (32 °F) in 24 hours, thus representing the delivery of 1 short ton (0.893 long tons; 0.907 t) of ice per day.
• A less common usage is the power required to cool 1 long ton (2,240 lb or 1,016 kg = 1 long ton or 1.120 short tons or 1.016 t) of water by 1 °F (0.56 °C) every 10 minutes = 13,440 BTU/h (3,939 W).[27][28]
A refrigeration ton should be regarded as power produced by a chiller when operating in standard AHRI conditions, which are typically 44 °F (7 °C) for chilled water unit, and 95 °F (35 °C) air entering the condenser. This is commonly referred to as "true ton". Manufacturers can also provide tables for chillers operating at other chilled water temperature conditions (as 65 °F or 18.3 °C) which can show more favorable data, which are not valid when making performance comparisons among units unless conversion rates are applied.[citation needed]
The refrigeration ton is commonly abbreviated as RT.
Informal tons
• Ton is also used informally, often as slang, to mean a large amount of something, material or not. For example, "I have a ton of homework to do this weekend."
• In Britain, a ton is colloquially used to refer to 100 of a given unit. Ton can thus refer to a speed of 100 miles per hour, and is prefixed by an indefinite article, e.g. "Lee was doing a ton down the motorway"; to money e.g. "How much did you pay for that?" "A ton" (£100); to 100 points in a game e.g. "Eric just threw a ton in our darts game" (in some games, e.g. cricket, more commonly called a century); or to a hundred of any other countable figure.[29][30][31]
• In Dutch, when talking about money a ton is used to indicate 100,000. For example a house costing 2 ton would cost 200,000 euros.[32] This convention has been in use since at least the 18th century.[33]
• In Finnish, tonni is often used as a synonym for one thousand (1000), especially when referring to money. For example, "tonnin seteli" was a 1000 mark's banknote and a popular TV show was called "Kymppitonni" ("ten tons" = 10,000 marks).
See also
2. "Weights and Measures Act 1985" (PDF). Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1985-10-30. Retrieved 2010-02-03.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
3. A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units, edited by Donald Fenna, Oxford University Press
4. "Weights and Measures Act: Canadian units of measure". Department of Justice. Retrieved 2011-07-06.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
5. 5.0 5.1 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed. lists both /tʌn/ and /ˈtʌnɪ/ as pronunciations of "tonne"
9. Chris Evans, Göran Rydén, Baltic iron in the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century, p.257, Brill 2007 ISBN 90-04-16153-8
10. "Report of the select committee on mines", Reports from Committees 1866, vol.9, pp.134-136, London: House of Commons, 23 July 1866
11. Definitions of 2000, 2240, 2352, and 2400 lb are included in citations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. OED cites an 1858 dictionary of trade products "the legal ton by weight is usually 20 cwt".
12. Displacement ton Dictionary of international trade retrieved 22July2010
13. A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units, Donald Fenna, 2002, ISBN 0-19-860522-6
14. "MSC 2003 in Review - Financial and Statistical Review". 2003-09-30. Retrieved 2010-07-31.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
15. Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, 2009
16. "182 F.2d 916". Retrieved 2010-07-31.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
17. "Pos Ttariff General Definitions". Retrieved 2010-07-31.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
18. Panama Canal Tolls, Panama Canal Authority. Retrieved 10 May 2006.
19. NIST: Units and Systems of Measurement Their Origin, Development, and Present Status
20. GC(42)/INF/3 - Measures to Strengthen Co-operation in Nuclear, Radiation and Waste Safety
21. Radioactive residues of the Cold War period
22. "2014 Key World Energy Statistics" (PDF). IEA. 2014. p. 6. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. External link in |website= (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 "IEA – Unit Converter". International Energy Agency. Retrieved 5 May 2015.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
24. José Goldemberg and Oswaldo Lucon. 2010. London: Earthscan. pp20
25. "Coal Conversion Statistics". World Coal Association. Retrieved 5 May 2015.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
26. Marks' Standard handbook for Mechanical Engineers, 8th Ed., McGraw Hill, p. 19–3
27. "ton (of refrigeration)". Retrieved 2006-09-01. External link in |work= (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
28. Gérard P. Michon. "Measurements and Units". Retrieved 2006-09-01.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
29. Colin R. Chapman, Weights, Money and Other Measures Used by our Ancestors, p.93, Genealogical Publishing Com, 1996 ISBN 0-8063-1501-6.
30. John MacRae-Hall, A Deniable Asset, p.85, iUniverse, 2011 ISBN 1-4502-8078-1.
31. The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed. lists colloquial use of "ton" from 1946 for £100, and later 100 mph, and for 100 in general.
32. Bruce Donaldson, Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar, page 357, Routledge, 2008 ISBN 1134082363 .
33. A Description of Holland, page 267, J. and P. Knapton, 1743.
nn:Megagram te:టన్ |
Horace ii.10
english translation
Horace ii.10
original Latin poem
Horace ii.10
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.
Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
pinus et celsae graviore casu
decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montis.
Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
alteram sortem bene praeparatum
pectus. Informis hiemes reducit
Iuppiter; idem
summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim
sic erit : quondam cithara tacentem
suscitat Musam neque semper arcum
tendit Apollo.
Rebus angustis animosus atque
fortis adpare ; sapienter idem
contrahes vento nimium secundo
turgida vela.
Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), commonly known as Petrarch in the English-speaking world, is the great Italian master whose work helped to create the Renaissance sonnet craze in England. He was a Franciscan tertiary, a scholar of the Classics, a friend to Decameron author Giovanni Boccaccio, and an immensely popular poet in his day. Despite his religious vows, he had two children out of wedlock, and is best known for sonnets professing intense love for a woman named Laura.
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Feng Zhi
Feng Zhi was born Feng Chengzhi in 1905 in Hebei province. He graduated from Beijing University, where he had studied German from 1921–27 and later (1930–35), studied German philosophy and literature in Berlin and Heidelberg. He published two poetry collections, Songs of Yesterday (1927) and Northern Wanderings and Other Poems (1929), and then didn’t publish for over a decade. He began writing again after fleeing Beijing for the south of China.
Sonnet 15: Look at Those Teams of Pack Horses
english translation
Sonnet 15: Look at Those Teams of Pack Horses
original Chinese poem
15. 看这一队队的驮马
Chou Ping
Chou Ping is a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He has coedited/co-translated several books with Tony Barnstone, including Chinese Erotic Poetry (Everyman, 2007); The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry (Anchor, 2005); and The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters (Shambhala, 1996).
Ballade 37 from Other Ballades
english translation
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Maryann Corbett reads the poem in translation, Ballade 37 from Other Ballades by Christine de Pizan (translated from the Middle French.)
Ballade 37 from Other Ballades
original Middle French poem
Autres Balades : XXXVII
Jadis avoit en la cité d’Athènes
Fleur d’estude de clergie souvraine ;
Mais, non obstant les sentences certaines
De leur grant sens, une erreur trop vilaine
Les decepvoit, car pluseurs divers dieux
Aouroient, dont aucuns pour leur mieulx
Y preschierent qu’ilz devoient savoir
Qu’il n’est qu’un Dieu, mais mal en prist à cieux ;
On est souvent batu pour dire voir.
Aristote le très sage, aux haultaines
Sciences prompt, d’ycelle cité, pleine
De tel erreur, fu fuitis ; maintes peines
Il en souffri Socrates qui fontaine
De sens estoit ; fu chaciéde cil lieux
Pluseurs autres occis des envieulx
Pour verité dire, et apercevoir
Peut bien chascun que partout soubz les cieulx
On est souvent batu pour dire voir.
Se ainsi va des sentences mondaines ;
Pour ce le di que pluseurs ont ataine
Sur moy, pour tant que paroles très vaines,
Deshonnestes et diffame incertaine,
Reprendre osay, en jeunes et en vieulx,
Et le Romant, plaisant aux curieux,
De la Rose, que l’en devroit ardoir !
Mais pour ce mot maint me sauldroit aux yeux
On est souvent batu pour dire voir.
Princes, certes, voir dire est anyeux
Aux mençongeurs qui veulent decevoir,
Pour ce au pere voit on mentir le fieulx :
On est souvent batu pour dire voir.
Maryann Corbett
Maryann Corbett’s third book, Mid Evil, was the winner of the Richard Wilbur Award for 2014. She is also a past cowinner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize. Her poems and translations have appeared in many journals and in anthologies, most recently Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters. Her work has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, and the Writer’s Almanac.
Christine de Pizan
Christine de Pizan was the first woman in France, and possibly in Europe, known to have supported herself and her family by means of her writing. She took up the pen after the death of her husband and produced several collections of poems, but she is best known now for her prose works on the role of women, such as The City of Ladies.
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Egyptian vulture
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Related to Egyptian vulture: Pharaoh's chicken
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Synonyms for Egyptian vulture
small mostly white vulture of Africa and southern Eurasia
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Summary: Young Egyptian vultures reared in northern areas migrate south to places like Oman
According to Liberatori and Penteriani (2001), habitat modification by human was the main factor in population change of Egyptian vulture in Italy.
One third of the pairs of Egyptian vultures left on the Balkan peninsula reside in Bulgaria.
The Environment Society of Oman's (ESO) project on Egyptian vultures in Oman, sponsored by Shell Development Oman, recently broke new ground in its conservation efforts toward this Egyptian vulture by successfully tagging two juvenile birds at the Al Amerat dumpsite.
According to environmentalists there are 82 bird species in the area, including the griffon vulture, laggar falcon, peregrine falcon, kestrel, Indian sparrow hawk, Egyptian vulture and white-cheeked bulbul.
This provides a useful reminder for UAE birders that some species seen here regularly are of international conservation concern, like Sociable Lapwing (Critically Endangered), Egyptian Vulture (Endangered--i.
Emaciated lions greet you upon entry, followed by hyenas kept in cages barely large enough to walk in, native snakes dying of cold because of the lack of electricity to artificially heat their enclosures and a large and well built aviary dedicated solely to pigeons simply because the resident veterinarian has a personal love for pigeons while the globally endangered Egyptian Vulture is kept in an enclosure three times its wing span.
An Egyptian vulture with a distinctive yellow face, addressed affectionately as Vulchi, has taken up position under the table, waiting for lunch.
Abdo said the Egyptian vulture was not a resident species, but it came to cope with the environment that its number reached 50 birds, adding that the existence of falcons is an indication of the reserve's cleanliness given that falcons are sensitive to chemical pollutants.
2009: Poison-related mortality effects in the endangered Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus population in Spain.
Ornithologists will enjoy the abundance of bird life along the stretches of the blue waters of the Chambal Siberian Cranes, Egyptian Vulture (now an endangered species) and various waterfowl inhabit these areas in good numbers.
APP learnt on Friday that Hazarganji Chiltan National Park Quetta that stretches over 32,500 acres of land, habitats a large number of species of animals and birds including -Chiltan wildgoat or Markhor, Suleiman Markhor, Urial sheep, wolf, Jackal, Red fox, and Desert hare, species of birds include Houbara bustard, Griffon vulture, Egyptian vulture, Honey buzzard, Laggar falcon, Peregrine falcon, Kestrel, Indian sparrow hawk, Scops owl, Common cuckoo, European bee-eater, Rock partridge, European nightjar, Long-billed pipit, Orphean warbler, Variable wheatear, Blue rock thrush, Stonechat, and Lichtensteins desert finch and reptiles- Monitor lizard, Russells viper, Saw scaled viper and Spiny tailed lizard.
It is an Egyptian Vulture, a species officially declared endangered, now taking its turn in the sultry late afternoon air.
They also found two golden eagle eggs, two honey buzzard eggs and four Egyptian vulture eggs along with a stuffed rare Montagu's harrier, four owls, a marsh harrier and a honey buzzard.
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Int J Rehabil Res. 1992;15(3):227-33.
Creating a disability mythology.
Author information
World Institute on Disability, Oakland, California 94612.
People with disabilities have, for the most part, failed to identify with each other as a group. This has been detrimental because it has built a sense of isolation when a camaraderie based upon existing commonalities could have been developed. During the past ten to twenty years, there has been a great deal of discussion about appropriate language to use when discussing disability issues. This discussion has been a part of a larger debate concerning the existence of a disability culture. I believe that there is indeed a disability culture and I am a proponent of identifying and passing on stories which contribute to that culture. I have chosen to use mythology to convey this message and have begun with a focus on heroes - people who do something out of the ordinary. It is contended that almost all people with disabilities have performed heroic activities because of the pervasive discrimination encountered by each individual with a disability. Creating a disability mythology is an attempt to recognize and promote heroes within the disabled community and to advocate the importance of telling other people how positive change has occurred through instances of individual heroism.
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Tuber Lung Dis. 1996 Dec;77(6):537-44.
Author information
Centre de Prevenció i Control de la Tuberculosi Dr I.I. Sayé, Barcelona, Spain.
Passive smoking-related respiratory disorders in children.
To assess the effect of passive smoking on the development of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in children immediately following infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the family.
An unmatched case-control study in which 93 contacts who became cases (active PTB diagnosed) and 95 contacts who did not became cases (tuberculin-positive children without evidence of active disease) were included. All were household contacts of a new case of pulmonary bacillary tuberculosis. Smoking habits were investigated by a questionnaire. Urinary cotinine was analysed. Odds Ratio (OR) was adjusted for age and socio-economic status using multiple logistic regression analysis.
Passive smoking was a risk factor for PTB (OR: 5.29; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.33-12.82; P < 0.00005). The adjusted OR was 5.39 (95% CI: 2.44-11.91; P < 0.00001). The risk increased when contacts were passive smokers both at home and outside the home within the family (OR: 6.35; 95% CI: 3.20, 12.72; P < 0.00001). Contacts 0-4 and 5-9 years old showed a significantly higher risk than those aged > or = 10. There was a dose-response relationship between the risk of developing active PTB immediately following infection and the number of cigarettes smoked daily by the household adults (P < 0.001). Mean (SD) urinary continine detectable concentrations (ng/ml) were different between disease contacts (119.46 [68.61]) and non diseased contacts (91.87 [73.10]). The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001).
Passive exposure to tobacco smoke in children was associated with an increased risk of developing pulmonary tuberculosis immediately following infection. This is an association of great concern requiring health education programmes and antitobacco medical advice.
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The Quin Unify China
Chapter 6, Lesson 2
By: Rachel Sanders, Nicole Sechelski, Macee Sperling, Christian Hieden, Morgan H.
Essential Questions
• How can different philosophies influence a culture?
• What factors can help a dynasty stay in power?
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How did Qin Shihuangdi unify the Chinese world?
The Quin Dynasty
The Quin Dynasty was formed in 221 B.C. and was ruled by Qin Shihuangdi meaning "the first Qin Emperor. He came to throne at the age 13 and the year 246 B.C. Qin Shihuangdi created a single monetary system. This system was run by builders that put roads throughout the entire empire. The roads lead out from the capital city Xianyang. Qin Shihuangdi divided land amongst the peasants to reduce power from the aristocrats. The peasants were also taxed by the state eliminating rivals while gaining tax revenues for the central government.
The Emperoer's Army
In 1974 farmers digging a well about 35 miles east of Xi'an discovered a underground pit near the bueial mound of the first Qin Emperoer.
Archaeologist estimate that there are more than 6,000 figures in the first pit alone, along with horses, wooden chariots an 7,000 bronze weapons. Clay armies were built, slightly larger than a life size man. Each soilder were designed to look alike in the body but uniquely in the face.
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What was that extent and purpose of the Great Wall in China?
The Great Wall
The Great Wall was to keep out the northerns and protect their live stock, and servered as architectural of the Quin Dynasty. The wall required the efforts of thousands of laborers. Many died while working on the wall, according to legend, are now buried within the wall.
What were the politics of the qin dynasty and why did the dynasty fall?
Politics of The Qin Dynasty
The Qin dynasty dramatically changed the political face of classical China when it adopted legalism as the offical ideology of the regime. Any one who didn't agree was executed or punished. Unlike the Zhou dynasty the Qin dynasty ruled a highly centralized state. The three divisions that the bureaucracy was divided into
• The civil division
• The military division
• The censorate
The censors (officals) who were not doing their doing correctly were executed. " The first qin emperor had angered many chinese. Lamded aristocracts and confuscian interllectuals, as well as the common people, groaned under the censorship of speech, harsh taxes, and forced labor project institute by the ruler.
The emporeror died in 210 b.c. and his dynasty was overthrown four years later. The fall of the Qin dynasty was followed by a period of civil war, but it did not last long. A new dynasty soon arose, the Han.
Qin Shihuangdi
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by: Bryce A. Kiefer
Wait, what's a compass?
A compass is a machine that people have been using since 206 BC. It is used to position yourself with the directions. North, northwest, west, Southwest, South, Southeast, east, and Northeast. It has a needle, normally red, that is suspended and made of metal. This means that it'll point to magnetic objects. It normally points to the North Pole because of the magnetic field.
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Parts of a Compass
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How does the Earth's Magnetic Field affect compasses?
Earth's Magnetic Field is often compared to a bar magnet. They both have a North and South Pole that are magnetic. The red needle on the compass is made of metal and that causes it to point to the North Pole. The magnetic North pole is about 11 degrees from the geographic North pole.
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What does this mean?
You see the Needle points to the Magnetic North Pole which is slightly off of the Geographic North Pole. That means the South Magnetic Pole is also slightly off the Geographic South Pole.
How can I use a compass?
First you need to know which direction you want. Move you dial to line up with top arrow. Then move yourself and the compass until the needle is in the outline. You are now facing the direction you need.
Compass Video
Compass 101 - How to Use a Baseplate Compass |
Did you attend in person or watch it online?
Help with Humanities Culture and Diversity class.
For this paper, you are required to write about two cultural events world wide and relate them to ideas about culture, and the arts in humanities. You are strongly encouraged to attend at least one cultural event in your local area, but it is not required if you are unable to do so. Instead, you may experience a cultural event through available forms of media, such as a learning-based television program or Internet video. (It is important to see and hear the event, so please do not simply read an article about it!)
What is the Definition of a Cultural Event?
For the purposes of this project, a cultural event must provide a higher learning experience about a culture through the lens of humanities. Listed below are examples of cultural events acceptable for this paper.
Cultural events include:
A visit to a history museum that provides information about the history of the local region
A performance of music, dance, or drama that reflects the culture in its performance
A writer’s book-reading session or poetry recitation about their culture or experience as a member of a specific culture
For each of your chosen cultural events, please consider the following as you write your paper:
origination of the event and the era in which it began.
Has the cultural event changed since it began?
This has to be a minimum of 5 pages paper, talking about two different cultural events. APA format and font 12 Time New Roman, not including the reference page. The reference page must be web-based with minimum of 2 different references.
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10 months ago
Sally, Ann, and Danny
Sally, Ann, and Danny 129 bility of error, and the effect of context and history on interpretation. But the historicity of scientific interpretation does not render scientific truth meaningless. Parents often are confused by this conflict of interpretations— genetics on the one hand and the leaky gut on the other. If the theory we believed in the past (that parents can cause autism) is untrue, what confidence can parents have in what scientists say today? How can they tell the difference between evidence and junk science when there is so much conflicting information on the Web, at conferences, in newsletters, in the media, and by word of mouth? The key is in the language. Skepticism is the heart and soul of good science. The language of good science is iconoclastic, argumentative, and critical. Nothing is accepted as true unless all the findings are accounted for and the interpretation is true to the evidence. The story must cohere with other discourses and narratives. As such it is a never-ending story; the whole story can never be told, because every new finding goes deeper and deeper into the heart of the matter. The British author Jeanette Winterson writes that the truth is precisely what we do not know—all truths are partial truths. In science, as in life, the more we know, the less we understand, or, perhaps more accurately, the closer we come to the mystery of things. The source of the mystery recedes farther and farther from our grasp as we approach it. It is like going up a river: Seeing one bend in the river only makes one aware of the next bend around the corner. The problem is that good science is hard to access for most parents. It’s published in high-impact journals, and the language is often technical, full of jargon, and not easy to digest. Publications are often communications between scientists and are not meant to be read by parents. That’s unfortunate, and there must be a way for parents to obtain the most up-to-date evidence-based information. The World Wide Web is certainly accessible to many, but there is so much junk science on it that parents are all too often led astray. At the very least, parents should avoid all Websites that solicit business, whether it is clients for class action suits, consultations to help their children, medications, or any other product. Probably the best place to start are government Websites that have health information or public health libraries on the Web. These will also have links to other sites such as parent support groups or other sources of reputable information. As a clinician answering questions about what causes ASD, I am very much aware of the enormous gulf between my aspirations to tell as complete and true a story as possible and the limitations of our methods
130 A MIND APART to unravel these mysteries. For parents, this gulf is painful to experience and to tolerate. It can sometimes drive parents to years of fruitless exploration. The temptation to weave a convincing story to help parents understand their tragedy is strong. After all, parents have come to the expert for an informed opinion. I recognize this is a powerful encounter, and I am keen not to disappoint them. I am painfully aware of the limits of science, but I try not to transfer that anxiety to parents and not to pull any junk science out of the hat at the last moment to make them feel better. Part of the necessary therapeutic alliance is trust and respect. As the doctor who makes the diagnosis I am supposed know what I’m talking about. But the story I have to tell does not have an overall narrative, a grand and logical structure. It’s a pastiche, a collage of isolated bits of information. It is a truncated narrative; not all the pieces fit together. Each part of the story is told from one particular perspective, and to be faithful to the science, disparate narratives need to be brought together. But the overall story is unsatisfying at the end. Ultimately it does not cohere. It’s like a modern novel, difficult to read. The allergists and leaky gut doctors and scientists have no such qualms. They cheerfully ignore the abyss between evidence and interpretation in their stories and plow ahead, writing stories that cohere, filling in the gaps with suppositions and guesses, confident that what they are saying can accommodate any intrusion of evidence. They glide over these gaps with facility. I envy their brazen confidence. I envy their ability to communicate a story that makes sense. Good science is located at the holes in knowledge. It lives in the spaces between findings and stories. It explores them, lives in them, and celebrates them. It is the disjunction that fascinates the good scientist and distinguishes him or her from the junk scientist. The writer Annie Dillard says that the scientist is like the tightrope walker, who must never look down for fear of becoming aware of the emptiness of the foundation—the lure of simple explanations, the impact of the method on the findings, of the context on the interpretation of results. The point is that not all interpretations are equal, not all stories are the same, not all evidence is of equal value. There are rules of evidence. We can tell good science from junk science once we realize that good science is not the search for truth but an attempt to learn the error of our ways. * * * |
Prensky Response #2
1.How do you prevent technology from taking over the curriculum essentials that you are trying to teach? What role do Prensky’s “verbs” and “nouns” pose in answering this question? Justify your answer
Preventing technology from taking over the curriculum in the classroom is great concern among teachers. Many times teachers think students will get technology in their hands and they will get off task. However, this is not the case if the lessons have been properly designed. Prensky discusses the differences between the “nouns” and “verbs.” Teachers must focus on the verbs and what we want students to learn. Prensky states that “nouns change increasingly frequently” (p 46). Overall, this means that what the students learn is much more consistent than the way they are learning. Growing up I often used Power Point in school for presenting research or for persuading students. However, today students can present the same information or persuade their audience through the use of SlideShare, Prezi, or Picsveiwr. An example that the nouns have changed although the verbs have remained. So how does focusing on the verb help keep technology from taking over the content and curriculum? When students understand what they are learning and the focus is on the goal or the objective, then the noun they use to get there is less relevant. Prensky also notes that it is important to know which nouns match most properly with which verbs. Another way is to allow students to choose which noun they would like to use. Prensky also states that it is important that the teacher make connections for students and ensure that they have a good understanding of the verbs they are required to learn during learning and research as well as after presenting their findings and answers. Planning and using partnering appropriately and following the guidelines.
Click HERE to articles collected by US News on technology and education
Click HERE for some more Web 2.0 Tools.
2. In Dan Pink’s talk about the science of motivation, he says, “There is a mismatch between what science knows and what education does.” (Yes, I took the liberty of substituting “education” for “business”.) How do his three points (at the end of his talk) agree with Prensky’s teacher and student roles in partnering?
Dan Pink’s talk discusses that there are three pieces of the business model that need to be addressed: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy refers to the ability to guide and direct your own life. Mastery refers to the desire to get better at something that you think is important. Finally, purpose refers to the desire to do something that is bigger than ourselves. These three points align with Prensky’s teacher and student roles in partnering. In Chapter 2 Prensky says that teachers must see their students as partners that also have skills. He does go on to say that the differentiation of teacher and student dies not disappear, but that students are simply seen as having different skills and that are their own. I think this aligns with Pink’s discussion of autonomy. When students are thought of as equal rather than lesser, their autonomy increases. When teachers allow students to have some control over their own learning such as the way in which they find information to answer the guiding question, or they way they present information, their autonomy increases as well. Mastery can also fit into the teacher and student roles. Most often in schools teachers decide what is going to be taught in the classroom. However, Presnky suggests that students get a chance to provide input on topics they would like to discuss or learn about. This helps build mastery that Pink’s speaks of because the students feel a personal connection to the material and it is important to them. In chapter 3 when Prensky discusses considering what the students are passionate about, he is directly relating to the mastery level that Pink’s is speaking of as well. If you can allow students to learn by using topics they are passionate about, then they are more likely to invest in the learning, and get into the flow (that Csikszentmihalyi speaks of) when learning, producing amazing learning gains. The last think that Pink’s discusses is allowing people to have a purpose or doing something bigger than themselves. In teaching , many times this can come in the form of project based learning. This makes learning REAL instead of just RELEVANT. Students should know that their learning matters, and that they can make a difference in the world. For example, when I teach science and I teach habitats and ecosystems, students are not overly interested. However, if I present them with a real world problem such as saving endangered animals, students are more likely to engage. They work hard because they know they can make a difference and that their learning or their product matters. In all Pink’s ideas of how the business world should work are directly like the education world should work. When we do this we create students that are ready for the real business world when their education is complete.
3.What does “passion-based learning” mean to you? Discuss three examples of how teachers (or you, if you are a teacher) can individualize instruction by using students’ passions.
4. Passion-based learning to me is individualized learning. It is learning that meets the interests of each student in the room on their own level. Prensky suggests that teachers should know what their students are passionate about, and should also ask students input on how lessons could be designed and done better. Whatever students are passionate about, they will be willing to work with and work hard at. Incorporating it with the curriculum and content can only bring positive results. Teachers need to feed off students’ passions to create better teaching and learning environments. After reading chapter 3 I can see many opportunities in my classroom for allowing students passions to be used to increase learning. One way this could be done is to discover what real-world interests the students have and then allow them to read passages on their chosen topic. Students could still work on the required skills in reading, but when being able to read a passage of their choosing, they will be more engaged, more interested, and will increase their retention of the material. I could easily allow my students to choose their passages to bring to class and use for the lesson or unit. Another way I could incorporate students’ passions is to use students as assistants. For students who are technology gurus, they could run the technology for the lesson, or be a resource for other students during research or project based learning. Finally, teachers are always evaluated by administrators or other teachers, but why not be evaluated by the ones who are receiving the instruction? Students best understand how students want to learn. I could use survey’s, polls, and feedback forms to ask students what I could do better and improve upon. This allows me to see into their worlds and the way they view the classroom and then change it to fit their needs and desires.
Click HERE to read a three article series by Lisa Nielsen of the Huffington Post on Passion Based Learning.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004). Flow, the secret to happiness. Retrieved from /mihaly _csikszentmihalyi_ on_flow? language=en
Nielsen, Lisa (2011). Passion based learning. Retrieved from
Pink, D. (2009). Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation. Retrieved from
Prenksy, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: partnering for real learning. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.
About heakor
I am from Kentucky, currently a 5th grade teacher and a grad student. I love to sing, read, and hang out at a beach or pool. I am a huge Louisville Cardinals fan and I love the NFL. Seahawks and Steelers. Fantasy Football takes up most of my August-January :) I blog right now about teaching and technology. Check me out!
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3 Responses to Prensky Response #2
1. I agree that when students know exactly what they are learning because of a clear objective the noun becomes less important. While being able to use nouns effectively is important, being able to execute the verb is more important because those verbs can be applied to a wide range of nouns. Verbs will be the same long-term, while the nouns change rapidly, as you mentioned.
I also really liked your point that when students are thought of a more equal to the teacher and not lesser, more autonomy is possible. Students have important skills to share with teachers and vice versa. Teacher’s don’t have to be the manager of the students all the time, it is ok to let the students manage their own learning when doing partnering.
2. Stacy Jones says:
Hi Heather,
In response to your statement in Question #3 that students are the best evaluators of a teacher/lesson, you are absolutely correct. It is very uncomfortable to open yourself up like that, but if students see you taking the feedback seriously, they will provide quality feedback that will make a teacher better and provide students with more meaningful instruction.
I have been hearing all year about KY’s new teacher evaluation system. I have heard that student evaluations will be a part of the new system. Why not go ahead and have students perform evaluations on their instruction now so that we can begin making improvements to our instruction immediately? This way, we will be used to the feedback and be in the process of becoming better 21st Century teachers in the meanwhile.
3. seo plugin says:
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The early February 2019 North American winter storm was a major snowstorm that struck the Contiguous United States. Forming out of a low pressure system spawned by the Pineapple Express, it moved ashore of the Pacific Northwest on February 2, bringing over an inch of hail to the region and heavy mountain snow. After impacting the Northwest, it dove southeastwards as an Alberta Clipper, after absorbing the remnants of another system. The storm spawned two surface lows, while affecting the Central and Eastern United States between February 3-6. The intensifying system transitioned into a nor'easter and a bomb cyclone off the Eastern Seaboard. As much as 4 feet of snow fell in the hardest hit areas. Over 100 million people were affected by this winter storm as warnings were issued in 19 states including the Eastern Seaboard from Georgia to Maine. The storm was given various unofficial names such as The Abominable Snowstorm.
Meterlogical History
On February 2, at 2:00 UTC, an extratropical cyclone moved ashore of the coast of the Pacific Northwest. As the cyclone had its origins from the Pineapple Express, the storm produced hailstorms and heavy mountain snow throughout the region, due to its moisture level. At 18:00 UTC that day, the storm absorbed the remnants of another extratropical cyclone, which gave it more energy. The storm dove southeastwards as an Alberta Clipper, while producing moderate snowfall in the Central part of the United States. On February 4, at 12:00 UTC, the clipper system spawned a surface low over Central Texas, about 15 miles SW of Brownwood. This was also point where the NWS began issuing storm summaries. The new surface low began to move across the Southeast and would later become the dominant low of the system. At the time snow began to subside in parts of the Southeast and Ohio Valley. Meanwhile a precursor system had formed off the north coast of Cuba and was already starting to affect the Bahamas. With the tropical origins, the precursor system had plenty to moisture to become a surface low. Sure enough at February 5, at 0:00 UTC, a new surface low formed off the coast of Florida, while the original system was located over Central Mississippi. At 14:00 UTC, that day, the two lows merged while located offshore of the North Carolina coast. The system morphed into a nor'easter while undergoing bombogensis with the central pressure dropping to 965 millibars while located off the New Jersey coastline at 22:00 UTC that day. After that the storm began to weaken, while moving offshore of the New England coast. During February 6, the storm system moved through Atlantic Canada. For the next two days, the storm remnants drifted northwestward over the Hudson Bay, before being absorbed a frontal system on February 8.
Snowfall Totals by State.
Washington (state): 32.8 inches at Snoqualmie Pass
Oregon: 22.1 inches in Crater Lake National Park |
LITTLE FALLS -- We are coming off Minnesota's 6th coldest winter in 120 years, and it could mean additional winter fish kill in some Minnesota lakes.
Eric Altena is the DNR Area Fisheries Manager in Little Falls. He says it's normal to have some winter fish kill, especially in some shallower lakes in southwestern Minnesota. Altena says thick ice and heavy snowpack can reduce the oxygen levels in the lakes.
Altena says, "Typically lakes achieve a common temperature throughout, especially in the wintertime when the water is actually a little warmer toward the bottom. They have good oxygen content with the colder water. As the winter progresses and you have less light transmission and still the high nutrient levels, the oxygen gets used up."
Lakes in central and northern Minnesota are generally deeper and can sustain the necessary oxygen levels for fish survival.
Walleye and bass are the most susceptible species to winter kill. |
Tuesday , 13 November 2018
Monthly saga of pain
Sujal Torgal Patil
We are conditioned to believe menstruating is supposed to be a hush-hush affair. Furthermore, in the rigmarole of cultural impositions, emotional turbulences that follow after menarche and lack of proper awareness about menstrual periods, young girls develop an aversion towards this natural process right from the start and it becomes rather an imposition. 70 to 80 per cent of the female populace in any region suffers from some form of menstrual disorder for sure. Some find solace in hiding it; some just consider it to be normal. In any case, everybody takes it as the way of life.
Conventionally, dysmenorrhoea or painful monthly periods is one of the most common gynaecological complaint in young women, affecting approximately 40 to 70 per cent women of the reproductive age, with 10 per cent women describing severe symptoms. It is classified into primary and secondary. Primary dysmenorrhoea occurs when pelvic anatomy and ovarian function are normal and no organic cause can be found for pain. Secondary dysmenorrhoea describes pain due to pelvic pathology. It can occur at any age but it is most commonly observed in women between 20 and 45 years of age.
Going against nature has its effects. As a combined effect of today’s hectic lifestyle, erratic schedules, unjust food habits, increased pollution levels, improper sleep or increase in stress levels we see an ever-increasing number of gynaecological disorders on a rise today. And often it all starts with that very difficult period. If one suffers from irregular; painful, heavy, scanty periods associated with headaches; cramps; nausea or vomiting; giddiness; swelling or anorexia, it needs to be corrected.
Primary dysmenorrhoea usually coincides with the start of menstruation. The initial onset is usually shortly after the first menses. Secondary dysmenorrhoea is associated with a later age of onset, after years of pain-free menses and the patient is usually over 30 years of age. The pain begins as a dull pelvic ache three to four days before the menses and becomes more severe during menstruation. Other symptoms that may be associated with it include pain during sex, irregular cycles, heavy bleeding, bleeding in between cycles or after sex. It should be noted that all these symptoms can also be caused by other gynaecological conditions.
Symptoms experienced may vary in different individuals and these include:
Low midline abdominal or pelvic pain but may radiate to back or thighs
Varies from a dull dragging to a severe cramping pain (especially in a uterine pathology like endometriosis)
Maximum pain at the beginning of the period may commence up to 12 hours before the menses appear
Usually lasts 24 hours but may persist for two to three days
May be associated with nausea and vomiting, headache, syncope or flushing, etc.
There are no specific tests to diagnose primary dysmenorrhoea. Specific investigations are ordered based on history, examination findings and severity of pain or other associated symptoms. Investigations are only important if a secondary cause is suspected or in refractory cases of primary dysmenorrhoea. For patients with the secondary, investigations should be directed to the most likely cause.
Common causes of secondary dysmenorrhoea include endometriosis, uterine fibroids, pelvic adhesions, pelvic inflammatory disease, ovarian cysts, gastrointestinal disturbances and very rare causes such as malignant tumours of the uterus, ovary, bowel or bladder. Investigations should be directed to the most likely after history and examination.
The conventional approach of treating primary dysmenorrhoea is with pain medication usually NSAIDs. In the secondary type dependant on the cause, analgesics, NSAIDs or combined oral contraceptives (COCPs) are prescribed along with vitamin supplements. There is rarely any consideration of the causative factors related to the diet or lifestyle of the patient. Moreover, the analgesics and other kinds of pain medications tend to increase the possibility of a gastrointestinal upset in women who are already suffering. Through scientific ayurvedic management, the pain can be reversed in a menstruating patient in minimal time with a minimal dosage of medication without any side effects.
According to ayurveda, vata dosha is responsible for maintaining the intricate physiology of hormones pertaining to the female reproductive system along with other factors. Vata dosha is responsible for the easy flow of menstrual blood, known as raja through the uterus every month. Causative factors which hinder the functions of vata are responsible for pathologies like pain, excessive or decreased menstrual pain, irregular cycles, etc.
Vata has a multitude of directional flows and without a fine balance; the downward flow of menstruation can be compromised by strong, upward functions in the body. Apana vata is a type of vata that governs downward flow, particularly in the pelvis, and is the vehicle for a continuous and easy outlet of wastes such as stools and urine, in addition to menstruation. Without normalcy of this vata subtype, many imbalances happen in the pelvis, creating a variety of disorders. Generally, it is the upward flow of energy caused by activities that pull apana up (retrograde direction) out of its normal directional flow (downward) leading to painful menses or scanty flow.
Causes are eating heavy or oily food, diet predominant in non-vegetarian food, fermented or stale food, foods dominant in cold properties like cold water or beverages or astringent foods like tea, coffee in excess before or during menstruation, and activities like too much speaking, thinking, laughing, and running, exercising, biking, swimming, jumping, jogging, excessive talking or laughing, sexual intercourse, exposure to heat and radiations, heavy work, weight lifting, etc, during or immediately before periods precipitate the abnormalities by deranging vata.
It is important to speculate the dietary inclusions of menstruating women in detail as most disorders pertaining to the female reproductive system are borne out of faulty food habits and lifestyle and therefore can be reversed easily too with the correction of the same.
To be continued…
(The writer is CMO at Traya Natural Health Centre and can be reached at wellnesstraya@gmail.com)
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Nikola Tesla
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Nikola Tesla (Serbian: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He was an important contributor to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor. This work helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, in the Austrian Empire, Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen.[1] Because of his 1894 demonstration of wireless communication through radio and as the eventual victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America.[2] He pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. In the United States during this time, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture.[3] Tesla demonstrated wireless energy transfer to power electronic devices as early as 1893, and aspired to intercontinental wireless transmission of industrial power in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.
Because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life.[4] Tesla never put much focus on his finances and died with little funds at the age of 86, alone in the two room hotel suite in which he lived, in New York City.[5]
The International System of Units unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960).
In addition to his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics.
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Volcano In Iceland Is Dangerous?
volcano in Iceland
volcano in Iceland had erupted. The volcano is actually located in the ice glacier and the volcano is called Efjafjalla glacier meaning island mountain glacier. Eyjafjallajökull is the name of one of volcano in Iceland that was erupted on the year of 2010. It was frightening the air traffic to be disrupted by the ash clouds mass debit.
There is an island with many volcanoes positioned in the land that could actually endanger the people outside its region. That one island is Iceland. The Island of Icelandis regarded of part of the most active volcanic places in the world. In the time that is about 5 years in the past.
The story back in the past of tectonic plates in this location is proved evidence that the plate tectonics (North American and Eurasia plate) under this island which moved in a pace of 1 to 5 centimeters a year sets apart in forming a constructive boundary divergent causing cracks zone that later is to be called the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The Mid Atlantic Ridge is a zone of crack caused by the separation of the North American plate shifting to the west and the Eurasia plate shifting to the east. There was happened millions of years ago.
The Mid Atlantic Ridge itself is located on the Atlantic Ocean. The Iceland Island that is located on the separation zone, actually offer a chance to the people to walk on the different tectonic plates at once. When on the Westside is set the North American plate and on the Eastside is set the Eurasia plate.
The volcanoes in Iceland were formed through the molten rocks in the earth’s crust to be pulled up from its cracked zone of the Mid Atlantic Ridge and set a new sea floor. Then the new formed sea floor got bigger and formed a new island towards above the sea level. Iceland was formed and the volcanoes in Iceland were created across the Mid Atlantic Ridge along the boundary of constructive divergent tectonic plates that set apart.
volcano in Iceland
When the volcano in Iceland which is Eyjafjallajökull exploded and released a high amount of ash clouds in 6 kilometers high onto the air. Those clouds were causing disruptions on most European countries airplane companies. As a result, there were a lot of flight departures schedule during the blocking ash clouds in the atmosphere in territory of Europe that were canceled to wait the atmosphere back to normal. It was frightened by the scientists since the ash cloud could damage the airplane engines as well as the air was blocked by large ash cloud. The stop was run for at least 6 days in a row.
On the air industry itself, the loss of economy was estimated more than a billion dollars worldwide. The national airport company had estimated the loss of about 80 million dollars as days of closing down the airport. There were over 6 million passengers at minimum abandoned in the domestic airports as well as in the foreign airports. The recent time of ban of flights was done in the time of 9-11 attacks in the US.
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July 22 2014 09:10 AM
Manure spill response demonstrations give farmers tools to deal with a potential spill.
Manure is a valuable commodity that provides needed nutrients for crop acres, but it takes multiple steps to get it from Point A to Point B. Most times, moving manure from storage to the field happens with few problems. However, occasionally a mechanical or equipment failure, an accident or negligence occur and cause a spill.
"It's not illegal to have an accidental spill," said Kevin Erb, University of Wisconsin-Extension conservation professional development and training coordinator. "Failure to report it is when you'll have problems."
A spill is any manure release that has the potential to threaten ground or surface water, or any spill that has the potential to create a hazardous situation. The amount of manure that quantifies the seriousness of a spill is site specific. For example, 3,000 gallons applied on an acre of cropland is not the same as 3,000 gallons applied a few feet from a stream or spilled in a road ditch.
To help teach livestock producers, first responders and government officials alike how to contain spilled manure, Erb has conducted more than 20 real-life demonstrations in Wisconsin and beyond. The most recent manure spill response demonstration was held during the North American Manure Expo in Springfield, Mo. earlier this month.
"Being prepared is critical," Erb said to the conference attendees. "It's best to follow the law and contain the spill."
Not being prepared in the event of a manure spill can cost critical time. Erb recommends having a plan in place, including the following steps:
1. Assure human safety. Call 911 immediately for all road incidents.
2. Stop the flow at the source. This is very important if flow is from a manure storage structure.
3. Contain and control existing spill. Keep manure from entering waterways, ditches and wells. Hay bales, plywood and a chisel plow are all useful for creating dams and stopping the flow.
4. Notify the proper authorities. Reporting a manure spill is mandatory in most states; check yours for specific requirements. In Wisconsin, for example, all spills must be reported to the DNR.
5. Clean up the spill. Know who you can contact to locate the equipment, such as a vacuum truck or a backhoe, needed to collect spilled manure and apply it to cropland. Use water to flush manure solids out of ditches and waterways. You should work to restore the site to its original form.
In Erb's presentation, he emphasized the ability to be adaptable, since you often can't predict where manure will flow. "Manure spill response is more on an art than a science," he said. "Flexibility is key."
Kevin Erb, UW-Extension, conducts manure spill response demonstrations to teach producers, first responders and government officials how to properly deal with a manure spill. Typically, Erb's demonstrations use real manure, but since this one took place at the Ozark Fairgrounds, water was used instead to simulate the flow and show observers containment techniques.
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Famous Female Scientists and Their Contributions
Updated on March 8, 2014
When it comes to female scientists, everyone has heard of Jane Goodall and Marie Curie. However, there’s been many more recent important contributions made by female scientists.
Nobel Prize laureates Carol Greider (left) and Elizabeth Blackburn (right), co-discoverers of the enzyme telomerase.
Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn
You can’t mention one of these remarkable microbiologists without the other, thanks to the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize they share with Jack Szostak for the discovery of the enzyme telomerase.
Before the discovery of that enzyme, they already knew that something called a telomere tipped the ends of the chromosomes. When a cell divides, chromosomes should get shorter, causing aging. However, they asked themselves, if that happens every time a cell divides, how do organisms live as long as they do?
The research resulting from this question is how this protective enzyme was discovered.
Because Elizabeth Blackburn already had an interest in cancer research, she saw potential in this new discovery for cancer treatment. This new enzyme has changed the way science links genetics to diseases like cancer forever.
Although these women to eventually work together, they came from very different backgrounds.
Carol Greider was born on April 15, 1961 in California. Her dad was a physics professor, so she had ready access to scientific materials from a young age. However, her early schooling was difficult due to her dyslexia.
Your determination and self discovery, she mastered the basics and went on to become a professor and the director of Molecular Biology Department at Johns Hopkins University.
More About Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Blackburn was born on the other side of the world, in Tasmania, the island just south of Australia, on November 26, 1948. Her parents were both physicians, and they encouraged her to pursue her passion in science.
Elizabeth continued to study the field of genetics and discovered that poor health and shorter lifespans could result from prolonged heightened stress as well as being a victim of domestic abuse. After conducting studies of both women who had been abused in those who had not, she found that victims of abuse showed shortened telomere length of the their chromosomes, causing them to be prone to premature aging.
She also worked for the second Bush administration on the Council of Bioethics. However, her employment there was terminated under controversial circumstances. Blackburn was a supporter of embryonic stem cell research, which the Bush administration was very much against. Owing to the difference in ideologies, and the lack of evidence of poor performance, many believe the decision to dismiss her was based on politics rather than any kind of deficit in ability.
Blackburn is also a staunch believer in allowing women to have the choice of pursuing a career without sacrificing the chance to have a family. She’s written and lectured at length about how women are still the target of societal pressure and why they shouldn’t succumb to it. She uses her own coping mechanisms of balancing work and family duties as an example of how it can be successfully done.
She was also the first woman to be chairperson of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Shirley Ann Jackson at the 2010 World Economic Forum.
Shirley Ann Jackson at the 2010 World Economic Forum. | Source
Shirley Ann Jackson - Thoughts On Education and Technology
Shirley Ann Jackson
This remarkable woman has spent her life obliterating social expectations based on race and gender. Born to parents who gave her great deal of support and educational pursuits, on August 5, 1946, Washington DC, she grew up to be one of the first African-American students to attend MIT in 1964. That first group of students numbered under twenty.
She stayed in that school to earn her PhD in physics in 1973, and was the first African-American woman to do so in the institution’s history.
Throughout her professional life, she lectured about and studied the properties of nuclear power. She also worked with a number of companies and universities in various capacities.
She was brought into the political field when President Clinton appointed her chairperson of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Not only was she the first woman to be given that post, she was also the first African-American to do so.
In 1999, she again took the honor of being the first woman and African-American to become president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In 2009, Obama appointed her to be on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and is a lifetime member of the MIT Board of Trustees.
In addition to playing a profound role in educating the public about and researching nuclear energy, she is also a strong advocate for strengthening the US in the field of innovation. She does this by encouraging Americans of all underrepresented groups to pursue their passions and scientific careers.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell at a 2009 astronomy event in Paris, France.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell at a 2009 astronomy event in Paris, France. | Source
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
In the field of astrophysics, Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a trailblazer. She was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 15, 1943, to parents who fully supported her interest in science.
Like Greider, she also faced a bit of difficulty in her early education. At the age of eleven, she failed a test required for higher education at the time. Because of this, her parents sent her to a boarding school to improve for scores. There, found inspiration in a physics teacher, which helped her continue on in educational path.
Once she finished her primary schooling. She enrolled in Lurgan College, and was the first girl to replace more “appropriate” subjects, like cooking and needlework, with science classes.
By the year 1967, she had started work under Anthony Hawlish. During the course of her work, she played a large role in setting up the radio telescope they used to monitor spectral events.
It was that year that she happened to notice a strange pattern paper readouts tracking half stars. That anomaly had a high level of regularity, with a rate of about one pulse per second. She dubbed the pattern at first as “Little Green Man 1”. Years later, the cause was determined to be a neuronstar with a very rapid rotation.
This was the first discovery of a radio pulsar.
This discovery did actually worried a Nobel Peace Prize, but her name was not included with her colleagues Anthony Hawlish and Martin Ryle.
This development sparked quite a bit of controversy in the astrological community. Although she did not get the Nobel Prize, she was received in of many other honors, and was credited in 1970 by Doctor Iosif Shklovesky as having made “one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century”.
Currently, she’s a visiting professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Mansfield’s college. She’s also a professor at Open University, which is an alternative educational organization.
Socially, she is an active Quaker, patron of a Cambridge grammar school, as well as a strong campaigner and advocate for women in science.
TEDx Talk About Sexism in Science by Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Although the culture in which we live may not encourage women to take part in science and math quite the same way it does boys, these women are wonderful examples that it can be done. They each overcame the challenges society puts in their way in regards to gender, ability level and race.
These remarkable scientists teach us that although pursuing our passions may be extremely difficult at first, it is possible to do what you set out to with determination, support and a willingness to work hard.
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Soreness of nipples
Many women experience painful nipples at certain times. It can cause different reasons, because the nipples are one of the most sensitive areas of the body.
Chest pain on the right
Let's see on what pain receptors indicate, when you feel chest pain on the right.
Pain in the left part of a chest
Only in few cases pain in the left part of the chest is associated with heart diseases.
Chest pain right
The pain in the chest on the right is a fairly common symptom of many diseases. It is very important to determine the nature of pain and the duration of spasmodic reactions in order to correctly diagnose the disease.
Pain in the muscles of the chest
In order to classify the pain in the muscles of the chest requires a complex, comprehensive diagnosis, including specific anatomical, topographic designations of the localization of pain.
Pain in the area of scapula
The pain in the back, and especially in the field of scapula, is today a fairly common phenomenon. The truth can not be described as the group of people most often prone to pain in the back - pain in the area of the shoulder blades can be observed both in old people and in young people.
Pain in the diaphragm
Pain in the diaphragm can be caused by several factors, among which the following: Injuries (open or closed); liaphragmal hernia (associated with trauma or non-traumatic, which in turn can be congenital or acquired).
Pain in the region of the heart
According to statistics, pain in the heart is the most common reason for people to go to the ambulance service. However, often this symptom is not at all a sign of a violation in the work of the main muscle of the human body.
Pain under the left breast
The pain under the left breast is not a specific symptom that indicates a particular disease, although it worries first of all about possible cardiological problems.
Pain under the right breast
The pain under the right breast is a rather unpleasant problem, which can be associated not only with some discomfort and temporary deterioration of health, but also with serious diseases and even death.
The portal is about human organism and a healthy lifestyle.
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Answer to Question #54751 in Microeconomics for Sunil
Question #54751
An economy comprises two consumers, 1 and 2,
with two consumption goods bi-cycles (b) and
wheat (w). Both consumers have the same utility
function (b, w) = bw. Bi-cycles and wheat are
produced by two firms which use only labour
according to the production functions.
CD b = \r/T, and w = 0.5 \Ft,
Both firms are owned by consumer 1, and
CD consumer 2 owns 200 units of labour. Cr.)
(a) Find the production possibility frontier for
this economy.
(b) Find the competitive equilibrium.
(c) Find competitive equilibrium if every
consumer owns 100 units of labour and
owns one firm.
Expert's answer
(a) A production possibility frontier (PPF) is a graph representing production tradeoffs of an economy given fixed resources. The graph shows the various combinations of amounts of two commodities that an economy can produce (e.g., number of guns vs kilos of butter) using a fixed amount of each of the factors of production. Graphically bounding the production set for fixed input quantities, the PPF curve shows the maximum possible production level of one commodity for any given production level of the other, given the existing state of technology.
(b) In this case, the competitive equilibrium can't be found, as there is not enough data.
(c) If every consumer owns 100 units of labour and owns one firm, the competitive equilibrium will change.
(d) We can't find the Pareto efficient allocations for this economy, because there is not enough data.
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Are You Really Lactose Intolerant?
Ayurveda has always included dairy products as part of a varied and recommended diet due to its various benefits. However, dairy, as we know it has changed considerably.
When you consider that about 5,000 years ago, dairy was always organic and raw, generally arriving directly from the cows of the village.
Sadly nowadays though, due to the persistence of factory farming, Many or most of our available dairy products are tainted, laced with harmful hormones and various other additives.
Over and above this, as they inevitably pasteurized, the live enzymes and key nutrients are destroyed including the naturally beneficially occurring vitamins and calcium like vitamin E, C and B12
Nowadays thankfully,( as many people have discovered) there are a plethora of dairy alternatives are available. These include a variety of products such as coconut, hemp or flax milk. There are also alternative varieties such as rice or pea milk available. These are often recommended (and enjoyed by vegetarians or vegans) as they are totally plant-based, hormone free and generally organic.
However, many people still enjoy traditional milk products and consume them regularly, within Ayurveda it is recommended that if you do consume traditional dairy products, ensure that they are free of any growth hormones and organic. Many dairy products nowadays contain a growth hormone know as (rGBH), which is often sadly injected into dairy cows to increase their level of milk production.
If consuming dairy, wherever possible consume raw dairy products, which are highly nutritious and contain many vitamins and enzymes. As these dairy products are raw as opposed to pasteurized they are not only easier to digest but also contain more healthy bacteria than their pasteurised counterparts.
Not only does raw cows milk contain more than 50 percent of vitamin E, but it also contains magnesium, and potassium, all of which are vital vitamins and minerals utilised by the body.
Your body will naturally struggle to consume pasteurised dairy products as they are generally enriched with what we consider synthetic vitamins. These are often laboratory created and will not be able to be absorbed by your body in the same way as plant and mineral based vitamins.
Within the Ayurvedic diet regime, raw dairy products shouldn’t be consumed with meat or fruit and consumed an hour at least before the intake of any other foods |
Reverse a String!
Reverse a String!
Tell us what’s happening:
This is my code.My exercise tell me that:
reverseString(“Howdy”) should become “ydwoH”.
reverseString(“Greetings from Earth”) should return “htraE morf sgniteerG”.
What else I should do?
Your code so far
function reverseString(str) {
return str = "olleh";
Your browser information:
Link to the challenge:
You might find these helpful:
I had read it but again I can’t do it.
Take a look at the links I posted, if you work through them in order, then you will have all the info you need to complete the challenge.
Don’t forget that you are looking for a solution that works for all strings- at the moment yours only works for the string “Hello”.
I read it but it isn’t clear in my brain.Can you help me more.
You can’t reverse a string because they are immutable (can’t be changed). You can change an array as they are mutable.
What you need to do is convert the string to an array, reverse it and then convert it back into a string.
You can use those methods (in the links above) to do this (try the examples in the links to see how they work- you can change the code in them to see what happens).
• the split method will split a string into an array
• the join method will join an array into a string
Try and see if you can come up with anything and post the code so we can see you what you at.
Hope this helps :slight_smile:
Thank you for help I do it.
Klaudia in this question, like most questions, you need to be able to write a function that works with arbitrary input
You can’t just write the answer to the example and have the right solution, you need to write a function that takes in str and returns the string backwards
This means that you can use your function on any text and it’ll work |
Kharkiv Photos
Browse 2 attractions, meet 241 travelers, 50 tour guides and discover 3 photos
Kharkiv or Kharkov or Char’kov is the second-largest city in Ukraine. The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was formed. Kharkiv became and…
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Freedom Square, Kharkiv
The Assumption Cathedral Belltower
The Derzhprom Building
Monument To The Persecuted Kobzars
Memorial To The Thousands Of Ukrainian Intellectuals Murdered
23 August Memorial
The Annunciation Cathedral |
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» Medications
Medications have to pass safety tests before they can be prescribed, and these tests are routinely carried out on non-human animals. Medications may also contain animal ingredients such as gelatin and lactose. In some cases alternative medications can be prescribed. However, they may be unsuitable for you or less effective, or they may have more side effects. In other cases there are no alternatives.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your concerns regarding animal ingredients. You can also read this blog written by a pharmacist for more information.
'As far as practicable and possible'
Vegans avoid using animals 'as far as is practicable and possible'. This definition recognises that it is not always possible to make a choice that avoids the use of animals. Sometimes, you may have no alternative to taking prescribed medication. Looking after yourself and other people enables you to be an effective advocate for veganism.
Looking ahead
Concerns about medications were raised during the first meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism, and discussions continue. Charities like Animal Free Research UK (formerly the Dr Hadwen Trust) are supporting the development of techniques and procedures to replace the use of non-human animals in biomedical research.
Together with your doctor, decide what is best for your health. Never stop taking prescribed medications without first talking to your doctor.
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The Traditional Concept of HELL ...is a Myth
Compiled by
Anthony V. Gaudiano
The traditional concept of 'Hell' has sinners tortured with fire for eternity. They are assumed to feel searing pain, yet their flesh is not consumed.
Few question why sinners are not burnt to ashes in a fiery Hell, or why eternal life, which is promised only to the faithful, is seemingly given to sinners ... just to be tortured? A study of the scriptures can resolve these and other contradictions.
Surprisingly, fire is NOT mentioned in 78% of the verses where the word Hell appears in the King James Version (KJV) bible. In the few remaining verses where fire and sinners are associated, it is clearly NOT torture, but ANNIHILATION, which results.
The traditional concept of Hell does NOT come from the inspired Hebrew or Greek manuscripts. It is a pagan myth adopted as Christian doctrine in the third century by church fathers. Yet, then as now, innocent people are taught the traditional concept of Hell by trusted authority figures. That trust deters questions, so for hundreds of years the myth has perpetuated. The KJV and other translations have also perpetuated the myth by less than the most accurate translation of the word Hell. But this is changing as seen in Table A.
This article is a compilation of out-of-print publications from Ambassador College and other sources which are identified herein. Bold fonts, all capital letters, etc., are author's emphasis.
Anomalies in the words translated as Hell
The word Hell occurs in a total of fifty-three verses in the KJV; Thirty-one times in the Old Testament, and twenty-two times in the New. This article will show that:
FOUR separate words from Hebrew and Greek were translated into the ONE English word Hell. In English Hell refers to a conceal place, a hole in the ground as for storing potatoes, etc., covered with soil during winter.
TWO words, one Hebrew and one Greek, mean the SAME THING. Fire is NOT associated with FORTY-TWO occurrences of these words.
One Greek word for Hell occurs just once. Fire is NOT associated with the occurrence, neither are HUMANS.
One Greek word is used ELEVEN times; FIRE is associated with EVERY occurrence.
Anyone can find the definition of the four Hebrew and Greek words translated, and the context in which they are used. Only two common study aids are required. Most people already have them. Other publications referenced herein can be easily obtained through a public library.
The study aids to verify that the traditional concept of Hell is a myth are the KJV, and a KJV based Concordance. Examples are: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible - with Brief Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original with References to the English Words, or Young's Concordance. Strong's Concordance is used here.
Strong's Concordance
Strong's Concordance was published near the mid-1900s after 35 years of effort. It is a compilation of all non-common words in passages of the KJV. The words are listed in biblical order by book, chapter, and verse. A short passage from the verse containing the word being studied, is shown.
Appended to the end of each passage may be one or more symbols, but always an Arabic number.
Strong's Concordance contains a paragraph titled: Directions and Explanations, which should be read. The following synopsis relates to those instructions:
Where the asterisk (*) symbol is appended to a verse, it indicates a change in the leading word of the passage from the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of the bible. Similarly, the symbol obelisk (+) is a leading word change by the British revisers only, and a double obelisk is a word change by American revisers.
An appended number of UPRIGHT Arabic numbers indicates a Hebrew or Chaldean word in the original scriptures, commonly of the Old Testament. The meaning of the word can be found by sequentially looking up the appended number in the Hebrew Dictionary which follows the concordance section.
An appended number of SLOPING Italic Arabic numbers indicates a Greek word in the original scriptures, commonly of the New Testament. The meaning of the word can be found by sequentially looking up the appended number in the Greek Dictionary.
If a passage contains a word which is italicized, it means that it did not appear in the original scriptures, but is an insertion by a translator.
Insertions are usually a translator's attempt to make text read smoother or be more understandable. However, occasionallyerror is introduced. An example of an error critical to correctly understanding a verse about the traditional concept of Hell, is identified in this article.
Three Greek words are translated Hell in the New Testament. Examine the meaning of each word by looking up the appended number in the Greek Dictionary.
Ten passages have number 86 appended. Looking up number 86 shows it to be Hades. The word essentially means 'an concealed place for dead people,' (i.e., a grave). A grave is the clear common sense understanding of every instance of Hades. The word is synonymous with Sheol, both mean GRAVE.
As with Sheol, fire is NOT mentioned in the ten verses where Hades is translated Hell. Again, there is no connotation of the traditional concept of sinners in a 'fiery hell.'
Word number 5020 'Tartaroo'(Tartarus) is mentioned one time. It essentially means 'a deep dark abyss, a place of restraint, or incarceration.' It refers to the place where Satan and spirit beings will be confined for a thousand years near the end of the age:
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit [Tartaroo], and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while"... (Revelation 20:1)
Notice that fire is NOT mentioned in the only passage where Tartaroo is translated Hell.
Other scripture mentions the incarceration of spirits also, however the place is not Tartaroo, nor is fire mentioned. For example:
"for Yahshua died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to Yahweh. He was put to death in the body but made alive in SPIRIT through which ALSO he went and preached to the spirits in 'prison' [Word number 5438 means (im-)prison(-ment)] who disobeyed LONG AGO"...(1 Peter 3:18-20) The Scriptures Bible.
The pre-Genesis earth is described as 'dark and void' when the Archangel Michael cast the defeated Lucifer and his fallen angels down to EARTH (Isa.14:12-14). Earth is their 'prison.' Logically, when Yahshua preached to these fallen spirits, he was then ALSO a spirit, as after his resurrection.
Yahshua became mortal, died, and was placed in a sepulture carved in rock. He prophesied he would be "in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." He did not lie! NOWHERE in Yahweh's scripture does it say that while there, Yahshua 'descended' into the traditional concept of 'Hell.' Only the manmade APOSTLES CREED, written in the third century, mentions such nonsense. It is in the same category and by the same people as the manmade 'Limbo' and 'Purgatory.'
The spirits in 1 Peter 3:18-20 above, and their fate are described in Jude 1:6:
"and the angels [spirits] who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these he [Yahshua] has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgement on the great day." (The Scriptures Bible).
The four words which have been translated Hell in the KJV, and the meaning(s) of those words, are obtained by first alphabetically looking up the word Hell in the Concordance, then looking up the number appended to each verse in the Hebrew or Greek Dictionary, as applicable. Start with the Old Testament at the top of the list.
Notice in the Old Testament that for all thirty-one passages where the word Hell appears, the appended number is 7585.
Look up number 7585 in the Hebrew Dictionary. It is the Hebrew word Sheol. The meaning of Sheol is essentially 'a pit in the earth where dead people are placed' (i.e., a GRAVE).
The meaning may not be clear in Deuteronomy 32:22, however. Reading verse 31:19 to 32:24 reveals that it is the range of anger - from the depths (bottom of a grave) to the whole surface of the earth, which is being described (i.e., NOT physical fire).
Read all remaining passages in the Old Testament listed, but mentally substitute the word GRAVE for Hell. Grave is the clear common sense understanding. Notice that fire is NOT mentioned in the thirty-one passages where the word Hell occurs. The traditional concept of sinners tortured in a 'fiery hell' is NOT connoted in the ENTIRE Old Testament.
Word number 1067 'Gehenna' appears eleven times. It refers to the Valley of Hinnon (i.e., Ge-Hinnon = Gehenna). It means a 'steep sided gorge or valley.' It is mentioned in Nehemiah 11:30, II Kings 23:10, etc.
Some hold that Kings Ahaz and Manasseh made their children "pass through the fire" to the pagan god Molech in this valley. The rites were celebrated in a place called Torphet (II Kings 23:10) the "place of abhorrence," one of the chief groves there. King Josiah put an end to these abominations as described in II Kings 23:10.
And further, that Aceldama, the "field of blood," purchased with the money Judas received for the betrayal of Yahshua Messiah (Matt. 27:8), is also a part of the valley of Hinnon. The valley of Hinnon is still shown on maps South of Jerusalem.
Notice that in EVERY passage with 'Gehenna,' fire IS mentioned.
In latter biblical times 'Gehenna' was a trash dump where refuse, dead animals, executed criminals, etc., were thrown and burned (Jeremiah 19:6).
Fire requires fuel, oxygen, and a kindling temperature. All three are commonly present in most trash dumps. Objects exposed to the fire in 'Gehenna' were burnt to ashes. As with present day trash dumps, Gehenna undoubtedly smoldered and burned continuously. At night the glow from the fires in Gehenna would have appeared as 'a lake of fire' at Jerusalem.
When word #1067 was mentioned in parables by Yahshua, the listener would have had a vivid picture of what would happen to a living creature thrown into 'Gehenna.' Obviously, that the creature would be burnt to ashes (i.e., annihilated).
The fire referred to by Yahshua, however is that described in the book of Revelation. That lake of fire and brimstone (burning sulphur) will exist at the end of the age and will be infinitely hotter than any trash dump.
In Mark 9:24 it says that the people are going to "look upon the carcasses of men that have transgressed against me." "They will be BURNED UP like fat on a stove" (Psalm 37:20).
There is a passage in Mark 9:44-48 in which Yahshua Messiah spoke of worms that "dieth not" (KJV). Some have thought that this was a reference to Satan as a serpent living in flames. Others thought it referred to wicked people. But it is THEIR (i.e., the victim's) worms that were being referred to.
Look up word Number 4663 in the Greek Dictionary. It describes the kind of worm. In Isaiah 66:24 as in Mark 9:48, it is a maggot, the larvae of the common fly.
A fly lays 200 to 400 eggs at a time. A few days afterward the eggs grow into maggots and cover their food. Shortly afterward they pupate into flies. The cycle is repeated frequently because decaying material and flies are common in trash dumps.
Dead bodies thrown into Gehenna would initially have a high content of water. Accordingly, the flesh would not burn immediately. It would decay and eventually be consumed either by maggots, or fire when the tissue dried. To the casual observer the ever present maggots would appear to be immortal, apparently living in fire without evidence of dying.
The passage in Revelation 20:10 of the KJV says:
Note that the word 'are' is in ITALICS. As noted above, this word was NOT in the original Greek. It was inserted by a translator.
The inference is that the beast and false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire at the beginning of the millennium (Rev. 19:20) and tortured eternally in accordance with the traditional concept of 'Hell.'
Clearly, if the beast and the false prophet are living creatures, they will 'cease to exist.' Similarly, death and the grave will 'cease to exist' because the faithful will have been given eternal life.
The common sense understanding of Revelation 20:10 requires that the verse to be translated as:
"where the beast and false prophet were [now annihilated]"
Luke 16 is commonly used by those who advocate the traditional concept that sinners will suffer eternal torture by 'hell fire.' But this was a PARABLE, spoken by Yahshua to teach MERCY.
In the parable the rich man died and was buried. All the events which follow are from his being in 'Hell'(i.e., Hades,) his grave.
The word translated as Hell in the parable is the same word used by Peter in Acts 2:31:
"He [David] seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Yahshua, that his [Yahshua's] soul was not left in Hell [hades = grave], neither his flesh did see corruption."
The word translated as 'soul' throughout the KJV is word number 5315. In the Hebrew Dictionary it is 'Nephesh' which means 'a living a breathing creature, animal or human, i.e., a being, a life.' The meaning of Nephesh must not to be confused with the meaning of the word 'spirit.' The book of Ezekiel 18:4 states Yahweh's word:
"Behold, all souls [human beings = living breathing creature(s)] are mine, as the soul [being] of the father, so also the soul [being] of the son is mine: The soul [being] that sinneth, it shall die." KJV
Where in the bible does it say that spirits die?
In the PARABLE of Lazarus and the Rich man, the rich man opens his eyes and sees the flames of the lake of fire which are about to annihilate him. He is horrified and his tongue goes dry from grief. He asks for a few drops of water for his tongue, obviously an insufficient amount to cool his entire body if he were then immersed in searing flames.
He is tormented by the thought of the flames. Word #3600 translated 'tormented,' is the Greek word Odoonaho. The meaning of the word is: 'to grieve - sorrow, [mental] torment, by extension from word number 3601: grief as dejection.'
The inference in the PARABLE is that the rich man has knowledge of Ezekiel 18:4 (i.e., " the soul that sinneth, it shall die"). He knows he is guilty and about to face terrible retribution. His punishment is death by fire, annihilation for eternity (i.e., eternal punishMENT).
If humans sin willfully after receiving the Good News, their fate is described in Hebrews 10:26-27.
"there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which will devour [annihilate] the adversaries."
The passage in Revelation 14:11 refers to any man who worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark. That man shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Lamb [Yahshua Messiah]. Perhaps the fire and brimstone will be the same as RAINED down on Sodom and Gomorrah, which may have been divinely directed meteorites of burning sulphur ignited by friction with the atmosphere.
The inference is that those who are a part of the 'government system of Babylon' and who receive the mark of the beast, will have no rest day or night as long as they remain in the land falling under Yahweh's wrath. They will either have to flee to receive mercy, or be tormented by sulphurous fumes until they die.
What happens after we die? Most of us are placed in a grave and we decompose into a small amount of elements and compounds. We cannot reckon time when asleep, unconscious, or dead. At the second coming of Yahshua, the faithful who have died will be resurrected as spirit beings and will meet Yahshua in the air. Accordingly, none will know if they were dead one day or for Centuries.
The faithful which are alive at Yahshua's coming will also be changed into spirit beings and also meet him in the air. These are the 'First Fruits' of the harvest, Yahshua being the First of the First Fruits. The faithful will likely be assigned ministerial duties as part of Yahshua's sovereign government.
After the millennium, all others who have died will be resurrected as human beings, not spirit beings. The inference is that this will occur even though their bodily remains have dispersed. Those who remain will have the Good News preached to them by the Two Witnesses (Archangels Michael and Gabriel, now mortal) for three and one-half years. During this same period Satan will be loosed from Tartaroo. There will be some who will accept the Good News then, and some who will not.
Then comes the great 'White Throne' judgement when Yahshua opens "the Book of Life" as described in Revelation 20:12.
Those whose name is "not written in the Book of Life " will receive eternal punishment. They will be thrown into the lake of fire "which is the SECOND DEATH from which there is NO RESURRECTION (Revelation 21:8). Malachi 4:3 says " the ASHES of the WICKED will FINALLY be under the feet of the righteous."
Plainly, those who are thrown into the 'lake of fire' will be ANNIHILATED. Their second death prevents them from being in the presence of Yahweh, and his son Yahshua, for eternity.
Peter gives the answer to this question when he talks about David in Acts 2:29 and 2:34.
"He is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day."
Even David, whose entire life (with one exception) was pleasing to Yahweh:
"is NOT ascended to the heavens."
Neither do the scriptures identify any sinful person who died and descended to the traditional concept of a fiery Hell.
Most people believe that when a person dies, they immediately go either to 'Heaven' or 'Hell.' Plain common sense begs the question: If this were true, none of the faithful would be on earth to be 'raised from the dead' at the second coming of Yahshua Messiah.
The answer to this question is in Matthew 25:41 "Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angles." What could be more clear?
The scriptures say that at the end of the age Satan and his fallen angles will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where THEY will be tormented for eternity. The inference is that even though spirit beings, they will experience eternal punishING, NOT a one time punishMENT (annihilation).
Satan and his demons already know their fate. The scriptures gives an example of this when a demon addresses Yahshua saying:
"art thou come hither to TORMENT us before our APPOINTED time?" (Matthew 8:29) KJV
It is not generally understood that Satan and his legions are NOT trying to win people over to 'their side.' They care nothing about people. They are only interested in luring as many people as possible away from obtaining the reward of eternal life, worshiping Yahweh and his son Yahshua.
In Revelation 20:1 "But after these things he [Satan] must be released for a little while. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished"...
Those who have never heard the Good News will have it preached to them. The inference is that this will be done by the aforementioned Two Witnesses. Even so, some will accept the Good News and some will not.
As has been established, nowhere in the fifty-three passages of the Old and New Testament where Hell is used in the KJV, is there support for the idea of TORTURE (punishING) of PEOPLE by a merciful creator. Instead, the scriptures repeatedly support a reward of eternal life, OR death, a one time event for eternity (punishMENT). As the scriptures say "the wages of sin is death," not torture.
Where did the concept of eternal torture (punishING) come from? It is apparent they come to us from early teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. From the Encyclopedia Americana:
"The main features of hell as conceived by Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian, and Christian theologians are essentially the same. The Western religious from Roman times through the Middle Ages borrowed the doctrine of eternal torture from the Pagan Philosophers. Certain writers of the Middle Ages had such tremendous influence on the Christian-professing world, that their writings and teachings came to be generally accepted and believed, until it became the doctrine of the Christian-professing world. Among these influential writers were Augustine and Dante Alighieri"
The Italian renaissance poet Dante Alighieri (1265 to 1321) wrote the then popular fictional narrative THE (DIVINE) COMEDY - Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Thomas Nelson Page describes in his 1923 book "Dante and His Influence" that Dante was not the first to conceive of a journey into the Infernal regions:
"Homer and Virgil had both pictured in immortal verse such an experience and other poets had done the same"..."But he [Dante] was the first to make such a journey the central thread on which to hang in epic form the whole of Human Life together with the conditions that brought it into being,"...
"All the preaching of the time was of a material or physical Inferno and Purgatory. None doubted the existence, or even within limits the location of such places of punishment. Many Ages have passed since then without substantial change of this fundamental idea, and up to a generation or two ago, it may be said to have been generally accepted, and even now is distinctly taught by a great portion of the body of the Church"
Dante's 'Inferno' was based on Virgil and Plato who were PAGANS. Dante is said to have thought their ideas and philosophies were inspired.
Again from the encyclopedia Americana:
"Virgil, pagan Roman poet, 70-19 B.C. belonged to the national school of pagan Roman thought, influenced by the Greek writers. Christians of the Middle Ages, including Dante, believed he had received some measure of divine inspiration"
Plato was a pagan Greek philosopher, born in Athens, 427 B.C., a student of Socrates also a pagan. He wrote the famous book Phaedo, on the 'Immortality of the soul', and this book is the real origin of the modern religious belief in the immortality of the soul. The traditional concept of sinners tormented for all eternity in a fiery hell is clearly from the imaginations of PAGANS!
Regardless, over the centuries the myth of sinners being tortured in a fiery hell has been perpetuated by sincere well meaning people of various religions backgrounds, and less than the most accurate translation of Hell in the KJV.
The KJV was used to illustrate the necessity of studying more than one translation to accurately understand scripture. The same is true of Concordances, Interlinears, and Lexicons.
We should know what we believe in... and why we believe it. Will you continue to believe the traditional pagan myth of Hell, or the scriptural truth?
The Traditional Concept of HELL... is a Myth
Trend in the occurrence of the word Hell in bible translations -
As can be seen in the table below, 'modern' bible translations tend not to perpetuate the word Hell as compared to the KJV.
King James Version
New King James Version
American Standard Version
New American Standard Version
Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version
New International Version
Revised English Bible
Derby Translation
Amplified Bible
New Century Version
New Living Translation
Rotherham Emphasized
New American Bible (1986)
World English Bible
J.B. Philips
Young s Literal NT
John Wesley s NT
New Covenant (1884)
Western NT (1959)
NT of Our Lord and Savior anointed (1958)
Concordance Literal NT (1983)
Christian Bible (1991) |
Secondary Indexes
CQL supports creating secondary indexes on tables, allowing queries on the table to use those indexes. A secondary index is identified by a name defined by:
index_name ::= re('[a-zA-Z_0-9]+')
Creating a secondary index on a table uses the CREATE INDEX statement:
create_index_statement ::= CREATE [ CUSTOM ] INDEX [ IF NOT EXISTS ] [ index_name ]
ON table_name '(' index_identifier ')'
[ USING string [ WITH OPTIONS = map_literal ] ]
index_identifier ::= column_name
| ( KEYS | VALUES | ENTRIES | FULL ) '(' column_name ')'
For instance:
CREATE INDEX userIndex ON NerdMovies (user);
CREATE INDEX ON Mutants (abilityId);
CREATE INDEX ON users (keys(favs));
CREATE CUSTOM INDEX ON users (email) USING '' WITH OPTIONS = {'storage': '/mnt/ssd/indexes/'};
The CREATE INDEX statement is used to create a new (automatic) secondary index for a given (existing) column in a given table. A name for the index itself can be specified before the ON keyword, if desired. If data already exists for the column, it will be indexed asynchronously. After the index is created, new data for the column is indexed automatically at insertion time.
Attempting to create an already existing index will return an error unless the IF NOT EXISTS option is used. If it is used, the statement will be a no-op if the index already exists.
Indexes on Map Keys
When creating an index on a maps, you may index either the keys or the values. If the column identifier is placed within the keys() function, the index will be on the map keys, allowing you to use CONTAINS KEY in WHERE clauses. Otherwise, the index will be on the map values.
Dropping a secondary index uses the DROP INDEX statement:
drop_index_statement ::= DROP INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] index_name
The DROP INDEX statement is used to drop an existing secondary index. The argument of the statement is the index name, which may optionally specify the keyspace of the index.
If the index does not exists, the statement will return an error, unless IF EXISTS is used in which case the operation is a no-op. |
Cultural sensitivity and the hand gesture..
As one who is frequently misunderstood, even by those who speak the English language, I was alarmed to find that there were a host of non-verbal ways to cause offense without ever intending to. I discovered this post on the, and am reposting it for your cultural sensitivity training and enlightenment. I will now be keeping my hands in my pockets for the foreseeable future – who knew the ScottEVest was a diplomatic relations tool..
It’s not just what you say that you need to mindful of, here’s 6 innocent gestures that could actually land you in big trouble.
1. The Okay Sign
Picture of the okay signMany westerners use their thumb and forefinger to form a circle, and use this gesture to signal that they are feeling fine or are happy with a situation. However, if you’re tempted to do this when living in countries like Greece, Turkey, Brazil or the Middle East, don’t! In many areas of the world this gesture is viewed as highly vulgar and is often used to indicate that you are calling someone homosexual.
2. Pointing
Beware of protruding fingers. In many areas of the world pointing something out with your finger is considered incredibly vulgar and it is best to avoid doing this altogether wherever you are. If you wish to highlight something, indicate it with an open palm. Never be tempted to summon someone to you by using an outstretched finger it is so offensive in the Philippines that it is punishable by arrest.
3. Thumbs up
Picture of thumbs upIn many areas of the world a thumbs up signal is interpreted as meaning “Okay” or “I agree.” However, in Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South America, the Middle East and parts of Italy and Greece it is an obscene insult meaning “sit on it” which is their equivalent to holding a middle finger up.
4. The V Sign
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand an inverted peace sign, i.e. with your palm facing towards you is an offensive gesture that has a similar meaning to a raised middle finger.
It is believed to have its origins in the battle of Agincourt (1415) when the English fought the French with longbows. The French apparently threatened to cut off the arrowing-shooting fingers of any English solders they caught and the English retaliated by waving their two fingers in the air at the French in a taunting gesture.
5. Raising your hands with your palms facing out
Picture of the moutza
In Greece, showing five spread fingers with the palm facing out is offensive. This is called moutza and it dates back to Byzantine times when prisoners were paraded through the town with their faces covered in charcoal or excrement. The dark material was applied to their faces with their own palms. Today, it is one of the most common gestures of insult among Greeks.
It’s not just Greece where this gesture should be avoided. In Pakistan, showing someone the palm of your hand represents a curse, in the Persian Gulf it is an insult mainly used by women and in Mexico showing someone your palm while repeatedly moving it towards the receiver means that you are warning them that you may take action they won’t like.
6. Using Your Left Hand to eat or shake hands
Avoid using your left hand to eat or shake hands in Hindu and Muslim countries. This hand is often used by people to wipe themselves clean after using the bathroom, so it is considered to be soiled. To hand someone something using that hand is highly offensive.
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Case Study Apollo 13 Facts
Apollo 13 was supposed to be NASA's third moon-landing mission. Instead, in an instant, the spacecraft pivoted from a moon-bound landing unit to a crippled vessel. The spaceflight stands today as a demonstration of NASA innovation saving lives on the fly, and vividly illustrates the dangers of working in space as well.
The Apollo 13 astronauts
First-time flyer Jack Swigert, 38, had been an astronaut since 1966, and had previously been part of the support crew for Apollo 7. He was initially Apollo 13's backup command module pilot but joined the crew just 48 hours before the launch after prime crew member Ken Mattingly was unwittingly exposed to the German measles. Since Mattingly had no immunity, NASA doctors yanked him from the mission over commander Jim Lovell's protests.
Lovell, 42, was the world's most traveled astronaut. He had three missions and 572 spaceflight hours of experience. Lovell participated in Apollo 8, the first mission to circle the moon, and flew two Gemini missions — including a 14-day endurance run.
Rounding out the crew was Fred Haise, 36. Haise was in the same astronaut class as Swigert and had previously been a backup crew member on Apollo 8 and 11.
The entire crew had test flight experience before they became astronauts, meaning they were used to dealing with in-flight problems. That experience would come in handy on Apollo 13.
'Houston, we've had a problem'
Swigert flipped the switch for the routine procedure. A moment later, the entire spacecraft shuddered around the startled crew. Alarm lights lit up in Odyssey and in Mission Control as oxygen pressure fell and power disappeared. The crew notified Mission Control, with Swigert famously uttering, "Houston, we've had a problem." (The 1995 movie "Apollo 13" took some creative license with the phrase, changing it to "Houston, we have a problem" and having the words come out of Apollo 13 commander James Lovell's mouth.)
Much later, a NASA accident investigation board determined wires were exposed in the oxygen tank through a combination of manufacturing and testing errors before flight. That fateful night, a spark from an exposed wire in the oxygen tank caused a fire, ripping apart one oxygen tank and damaging another inside the spacecraft.
Luckily for Apollo 13, the damaged Odyssey had a healthy backup: Aquarius, which wasn't supposed to be turned on until the crew was close to landing on the moon. It didn't have a heat shield to survive the trip back to Earth, but it could keep the crew alive long enough to get there. Then, the astronauts could switch to Odyssey for the rest of the trip home.
Haise and Lovell frantically worked to boot Aquarius up in less time than designed, while Swigert remained in Odyssey to shut down its systems to keep power for splashdown.
Cold days before splashdown
It was a long few days back home; the entire crew lost weight, and Haise developed a kidney infection. In the hours before splashdown, the exhausted crew powered up Odyssey (which had essentially been in a cold soak for days, and could have shorted out if they were unlucky). They prepared for splashdown, not knowing if the explosion had damaged the heat shield. [Video: What If Apollo 13 Failed to Return Home?]
Lovell, Haise and Swigert returned safely to the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The spacecraft design was reconfigured with better wires and an extra tank, and subsequent missions did not face the same problem.
Apollo 13 legacy
Numerous design changes were made to the Apollo service module and command module on subsequent missions in the Apollo program. According to former mission controller Sy Liebergot on the website collectSPACE, these changes included:
• Removing all cryo tank fans and wiring.
• Adding water storage bags to the command module.
In 1982, Swigert was elected to Congress in his home state of Colorado. However, during the campaign, he learned that he had bone cancer, and he died before he could be sworn in.
In 1994, Lovell and journalist Jeffrey Kluger co-wrote a book about Lovell's spaceflight career that primarily focused on the events of the Apollo 13 mission. The book was called "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13", and spurred the movie "Apollo 13" (1995), which starred Tom Hanks. The movie won two Academy Awards and was filmed in cooperation with NASA.
Other biographical accounts of the Apollo 13 mission include Liebergot and David Harland's "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime" (2003) and Kranz's "Failure Is Not An Option" (2000). Several non-fiction books have also examined Apollo 13; a notable but older example was Andrew Chaikin's "A Man On The Moon" (1994), which included interviews with all of the surviving Apollo astronauts.
Notable fictional accounts of Apollo 13 include:
• "Houston, We've Got A Problem" (1974), which focuses on the stress on ground personnel during the crisis;
• "From The Earth to the Moon" (1998), which had an entire episode about Apollo 13 called "We Interrupt This Program." The episode focused mostly on television reporters on the ground, rather than the crew in space.
• The interactive theater show "Apollo 13: Mission Control" debuted in 2008 in New Zealand, and went on tour in the United States.
Established in 1978 [PDF] and covering 244,000 acres of South Dakota, Badlands National Park is home to one of the most distinct landscapes in the country. Close to 1 million people visit the site each year to see the formations striped by millennia of sedimentary rock. Here are some facts worth knowing about the park.
The Badlands were covered by a shallow sea when they first started forming 75 million years ago. As the water receded, it left behind sediment (grains of clay, sand, or silt) that helped form the plateaus and pinnacles that make up the landscape today. The ancient sea also left behind a trove of fossils. The Oglala Lakota [PDF] people were the first to uncover large fossils of bones and shells in the area and deduce that the land had once been underwater.
The rock formations at Badlands are characterized by their unusual shapes and vibrant red, tan, and white stripes. Both features are products of the powerful waters that have shaped the site. Each stripe in the rocks represents a different layer of sediment that was swept there by rivers and seas millions of years ago. Over time, that wet mud and grit hardened into sedimentary rock, with the old rock layers starting at the bottom and becoming gradually newer the closer they get to the top.
Depositing sediment wasn’t the only way water helped shape the landscape. About 500,000 years ago, after most of the sedimentary rock had already formed, erosion from the White, Bad, and Cheyenne rivers began carving away at the flat floodplain. This resulted in the sloping hills, jagged cliff faces, and precarious spires that now draw visitors to the park.
At Badlands National Park, you can witness a geological wonder. The forces of nature that sculpted the park over so many years are still at work, which means the terrain is constantly, albeit slowly, shifting. According to the National Park Service, the Badlands erode at a rate of one inch per year.
Badlands isn’t all dirt and rocks. The park is also home to one of the country's largest areas of mixed-grass prairie. That means both ankle-high grasses and waist-high grasses grow abundantly there. According to scientists, the ecosystem fosters over 400 species of plant life.
The Oglala Lakota people were the first to give the site of modern-day Badlands National Park a name. They dubbed the harsh, rocky landscape mako sica, which translates to “land bad.” When the French arrived, they had the same idea. They called the region les mauvaises terres a traverser, or "bad lands to traverse."
If you’re unable to visit Badlands National Park in person, you can see it on film as the backdrop of some popular movies. At the beginning of the 1990 film Dances With Wolves starring Kevin Costner, the park is used as the setting for part of Lieutenant Dunbar’s wagon trek. The otherworldly terrain has even appeared in science fiction. In Starship Troopers (1997), the landscape stands in for an alien planet of man-eating bugs. It’s used as the surface of an asteroid in the 1998 film Armageddon.
The same forces that shaped the Badlands also embedded fossils there millions of years ago. The site is home to more late Eocene and Oligocene mammal fossils than any other place on Earth. Some of the ancient creatures whose remains have been uncovered there include three-toed horses, rhinoceroses, and marine reptiles. Badlands fossils are on display along the park's Fossil Exhibit Trail and in museums around the globe.
Indigenous tribes used the Badlands as hunting grounds for thousands of years, and in the late 19th century much of that land was taken from them [PDF]. White settlers were moving into South Dakota and pushed the Oglala Lakota from their homes. In response, a Native American prophet named Wovoka began organizing "Ghost Dances" on Stronghold Table in the Badlands where his followers danced while wearing "Ghost Shirts" they believed to be bulletproof [PDF]. The ritual was meant to restore the area back to its pre-colonial state. Instead, the dances ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, which saw 300 Indians shot and killed by United States Cavalry officers. Today the Stronghold District falls inside Oglala Lakota territory and is managed by the National Park Service.
The Stronghold District’s tumultuous history extends beyond the Ghost Dances. During World War II, when Badlands was just a national monument, the U.S. Air Force seized 341,726 acres of Oglala Lakota land and turned it into a gunnery [PDF]. The space was used to test air-to-air and air-to-ground explosives, and undetonated bombs are still being discovered in the area today.
Black-footed ferrets, once widespread across the Great Plains, came close to extinction in the 20th century. Prairie dogs are their main food source, and the destruction of this prey population had a drastic effect on ferret numbers. Experts once thought the species had been wiped out for good, but in the 1980s a small ferret colony was spotted in Meeteetse, Wyoming. That group was captured and used as the basis for a population rebuilding program. In 1994, the first batch of captive-bred ferrets were reintroduced to Badlands National Park where they once roamed wild. Today, there are hundreds of ferrets in the area [PDF] and the park has even hosted a black-footed ferret festival.
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Losing weight is not easy, but growing awareness of the health impacts of excess body weight is leading more people to make the effort to lose the extra pounds.
People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, strokes, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, and cancer. Fortunately, losing weight can reduce your risk of developing some of these problems.
Regular exercise and a healthy diet can go a long way toward reaching your weight loss target. However, people often make mistakes in planning their diet.10-Foods-You-Should-Never-Eat-if-You-Want-to-Lose-Weight
Just like there are certain foods that help you lose weight, there are certain foods that have the opposite effect.
When you consume these foods more often than you should, you end up messing with your weight-loss target.
Here are the top 10 foods you should never eat if you want to lose weight.
1. Sugary Cerealsbreakfast-cereal-unhealthy-opt
Regularly eating a healthy breakfast may help in your weight loss efforts by reducing your hunger later in the day. When you skip breakfast, you are tempted to reach for unhealthy snacks.
However, if you start your day with a bowl of sugary cereal, it will not help.
These cereals are loaded with sugar that the body converts to fat. Moreover, the refined carbohydrates are among the most fattening ingredients in existence.
To make things worse, starting your day with sugary cereals will cause your blood sugar and insulin levels to spike. This will increase your appetite and cravings for unhealthy sweet and fatty foods.
When buying breakfast cereals, check the label carefully and avoid those that include sugar or highly refined grains.
Choosing a cereal higher in dietary fiber can be helpful for weight management.
2. Potato Chips and French Friescooking-fries-opt
Potato chips and french fries are markers for junk food diets and if you love munching on them, you can forget about weight loss.
These fried forms of potatoes are high in calories and fat, making them the worst choice for your weight loss diet. Plus, fried potatoes cause a rapid increase in blood sugar and insulin levels, causing a negative impact on appetite and weight.
Plus, when carbohydrate-rich foods like potatoes are fried at high temperatures, they produce acrylamide. This substance is a known risk factor for cancer.
A 2011 Harvard study on of 120,000 healthy, non-obese participants found that when it comes to unhealthy weight gain, potato chips as well as regular potatoes are the biggest offenders.
The study found that each 1 ounce daily serving of potato chips consisting of about 15 chips contributed to almost 1.69 pounds of weight gain over a period of 4 years.
If you like potatoes, plain boiled potatoes are very satiating and a healthy option for you to try.
Other deep-fried foods like onion rings, fried chicken and breaded cutlets are also unhealthy and work against your effort to lose weight.
3. Diet Sodadiet-soda-opt
If you think switching to diet soda from regular soda is helping you lose weight, you need to think again.
The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas can stimulate your appetite, leading you to eat more junk foods.
In fact, a 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reports that people who drank diet soda gained about triple the abdominal fat over nine years than those who did not.
Though counterintuitive, like sugar, sugar substitutes such as aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin also increase the risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at Purdue University.
To quench your thirst, nothing is better than plain water or water with lemon. You can even try sparkling water, a calorie-free but carbonated drink. Just avoid those that are flavored with sweeteners, even artificial sweeteners.
4. Bacongreasy-bacon-opt
Processed meat, such as bacon, is something you should avoid completely or eat strictlyin moderation if you wish to lose weight.
Bacon is rich in saturated fat as well as sodium, nitrate and nitrite content. Excess saturated fat is not good for your weight. Plus, the excess salt in it can lead to water retention and bloating.
A 2011 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that weight gain is most strongly associated with the intake of processed meats, along with potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages and unprocessed red meats.
Eat bacon in moderation, and grill or roast it rather than frying, to keep control of your weight.
5. Commercial Salad Dressingscommercial-salad-dressing-opt
Salads are part of nearly everyone’s weight loss diet.
Vegetables and fruits are very healthy, being loaded with nutrients, antioxidants, soluble fiber, low calories and various other nutrients that are good for health and weight loss.
But this healthy food turns out to be one of the worst for weight loss when you use commercial salad dressings to improve the bland taste.
Salad dressings are often loaded with a lot of fat and calories, due to ingredients like high-fat mayonnaise, soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup.
To improve the taste of your salad, put a little extra-virgin olive oil or vinegar over it. You can also use herbs to turn a salad into a great meal.
Also, don’t order a salad at a restaurant. Many of them are loaded with salad dressings as well as candied nuts and raisins, which can be a major cause of weight gain. Make your own salad at home with organic fruits and vegetables.
6. Oil Popped Popcornpopcorn-opt
Popcorn is a tasty and healthy snack. Its complex carbohydrates give you energy and stamina and its high fiber content fills you up. Plus, it has a rich antioxidant content.
But, the commercial oil-popped popcorn you enjoy at the movie theater is not at all a healthy choice, especially when you are striving to lose weight. It is laden with calories, fat and sodium.
Enjoy homemade air-popped popcorn and flavored with a variety of herbs.
7. Margarinemargarine-opt
Marketed as a healthier alternative to butter, margarine is another calorie dense and fatty food that you need to avoid.
It contains hydrogenated fats that are more harmful than the saturated fats present in butter. In fact, it contains almost 3 grams of trans fats per tablespoon. Plus, it lacks nutrition.
In addition to causing weight gain, it increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. A diet high in hydrogenated fats is also linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
8. White Breadwhite-bread-plate-opt
If you’re watching your weight, it’s important to watch your white bread consumption, too.
While white bread is a staple food item for many, the truth is that it doesn’t have any nutritional value but only empty calories.
The carbohydrates in white bread are fattening, as they are a high glycemic index food. This means white breads do not keep you satisfied for very long. After eating a few slices of white bread, you will get hungry sooner and end up eating more.
Plus, the starch in it increases the blood sugar level in your body, raising the risk of diabetes as well as excess weight gain.
If you like bread, switch to whole-wheat bread, which is higher in nutritional value as it is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Just like white bread, you need to avoid paste and other items make with white flour. Also, avoid white rice as it is rich in carbohydrates and low in nutrition. Instead, switch to brown rice.
9. Alcoholic Drinks
You need to stop drinking if you are serious about losing the extra pounds.
Alcoholic drinks contain empty calories that don’t fill you up or provide any nutrients. When these empty calories get mixed with carbohydrates, fats and proteins, they postpone the fat-burning process and contribute to increased fat storage.
Plus, alcohol leads to increased production of the hormone cortisol that breaks down muscle and retains fat. The loss of muscle has a direct impact on your metabolism, making it easier to gain weight.
A 2005 study published in Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences reports that moderate alcohol intake may represent a risk factor for the development of a positive energy balance and thus weight gain.
Try to totally abstain from alcoholic drinks until you reach your weight loss goal. Then, you can add them back in moderation, watching the impact on your weight to help you determine how much you can enjoy without weight gain.
10. Packaged Fruit Juice
Fruit juices are popular in weight loss diets. That’s because fruit juices are full of nutrients that keep us energized and fresh.
However, drinking fruit juice in excess does not benefit your health much. The nutritious fiber in fruits gets lost in the juicing process and you end up consuming pure sugar in the form of fructose.
A 2010 study published in Physiological Reviews highlights the link between high fructose intake and weight gain.
The worst thing is when you drink prepackaged juices. You may actually be drinking a mixture of water, sugar and some chemicals that taste like fruit.
For weight management, whole fruits are a better choice. Whole fruits do contain some sugar, but because the sugar is within the fibrous cell walls, the release of the sugar into the bloodstream is slow and less harmful to your body.
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Losing weight is not easy, but growing awareness of the health impacts of excess body weight is leading more people to make the effort to lose the extra pounds. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, strokes, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression,... |
What it takes to Become a Lawyer
A lawyer is someone whose profession is to represent clients in a court of law or to advise or act for clients in other legal matters. Upon completion of school, lawyers undergo more training to prepare for their profession. Each lawyer can specialize, performing their services for divorce, injury, business, and so on, or simply keep a wide range of law practice. Regardless of what specialty, lawyers are required to undergo proper schooling and training before being allowed to practice law.
How To Become A Lawyer?
The first step to becoming a lawyer is to obtain a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college. There is no specific degree that an individual needs in order to get into law school. Most law school acceptances come from students with a degree in political science, mathematics, journalism, and even English. However, there is no specific required field of study for a Bachelor’s degree before getting into law school. One thing to keep in mind, is pre-requisites for getting into law school. As long as you perform your pre-requisites successfully, and obtain your bachelor’s degree successfully, you are one step closer to a law career.
During the time of your undergraduate career, you should not simply just be getting your undergraduate degree. To become a lawyer, many people will obtain the proper experience during this time. The coursework taken for your undergraduate degree should be carefully planned out, to ensure you are on the right track to becoming a lawyer. You should also consider volunteer positions and internships in the law field of work, in order to gain experience and professional affiliations. All of this will help you develop your admissions package for your prospective law school career.
You would think that the next step to becoming a lawyer is to apply and enroll in law school. While technically this is the next step, you should take your law school exam first. This exam is called the Law School Admission test (LSAT), and is required by all law schools in America. Certain law schools require certain test scores, so make sure to research what score range you should be getting on your LSAT. Proper preparation and studying for the LSAT will guarantee you a great score and admission into law school.
Hopefully by now, on your journey to becoming a lawyer, you have researched potential law schools. At this point, it is time to apply to law school by submitting a complete application.
Your next step is to earn your juris doctor degree. During this time is when young, prospective lawyers are starting to plan out their career. This is when lawyers typically specialize in areas such as real estate, death, injuries, crime, and so on. This is typically a three year program, which is followed by the ever-so-famous bar exam.
Once you pass your bar exam, and a thorough background check from your respective state, you can begin to practice in your law career. Many lawyers start at the bottom ranks, and move their way up over time. Becoming a lawyer is a lengthy, strategic process. With the right guidance and patience, becoming a lawyer is do-able for anyone looking to practice law.
Three Types of Lawyers You May Need To Call
When we say types, we mean specialties. Each lawyer, upon earning their Juris Doctor degree, a lawyer can specialize in a certain field. They can become criminal lawyers, real estate lawyers, business lawyers, family lawyers, etc. There are many different specialties offered to lawyers, and each lawyer becomes proficient in their selected specialty. Below is a short overview of three different types of lawyers: business, criminal, and family.
1. Business Lawyers
The business attorney (lawyer) is the person who is involved with the company’s bare bones. This means that the business lawyer is in charge of all legal matters of the business, resolve legal disputes, taxation, property, and so on. Depending on the size of the business, the business may hire one lawyer or a team of lawyers. Business lawyers play a vital role in any legal matters that the company may have. They can also represent other employees during court hearings, should they need to. A business lawyer follows the same educational path as any other lawyer, but it is highly recommended that they obtain a master’s degree in some point of their law career. The master’s degree in business law provides information for a more in-depth business law practice.
two guys shaking hands
1. Criminal Lawyers
At this point, the majority of the world’s population already know who a criminal lawyer is. Criminal lawyers specialize in crime from representing clients, defending clients, and being extremely familiar with criminal law. Their main task is to represent a defendant in a criminal court system. The criminal lawyer is the person responsible for developing a case for their defendant. Developing the case includes hours of law research, gathering witness testimonies, reviewing police records and if applicable medical records, and attending all legal based hearings on their current case. Gathering information for a criminal case and attending each legal hearing is enough work on its own. However, most criminal lawyers have a team behind them to help them gather up necessary information for their current case.a criminal behin bars
1. Family Lawyers
While family lawyers still have to go through the same schooling as other lawyers, they are a bit less involved in the court world—at least compared to a business or criminal lawyer. Family lawyers are those who help with wills, estates, divorce, marriage, prenuptial agreements, and so on. Family lawyers are able to sit in on mediation meetings, and even offer legal advice to their clients. They also help families with adoption, custody battles, and even juvenile troubles.
Becoming a lawyer is not an easy task, but for those passionate about law, it is worth it. If you are unsure of what kind of lawyer you should hire, figure out how to categorize your legal issue. Once you know which category your legal issue falls, you are able to research other types of lawyers to determine which would be the best lawyer to get into contact with. Lawyers are here to help you with the legal process of any issue, and their specialties will guarantee that!
Should you get a Lawyer after a Loved one has passed?
For most of us, the thought of losing a loved one hardly ever passes our minds—I mean, they are going to live forever, right? Unfortunately, at the current time, humans are not able to live forever. People will eventually pass, and we need to be able to handle their passing. Everyone copes in different ways, but there is no doubt that the legal side of death is a difficult one.
What to do if a loved on Passes:
You may have gone through this before. Someone close to you passes, and you are now set to deal with their final affairs. Whether you are the executive of the will, next of kin, or even the spouse, you will have to manage their final affairs.
This can get a little bit stressful (as if death was not stressful enough!), because you need to take into consideration your lost loved ones personal affairs. What was their debt like, did they own their house or were they still making payments, did they even leave a will, is there a life insurance policy, how are you going to pay for a funeral, etc. The list goes on and on.
People avoid hiring lawyers due to the cost. They will spend a few hundred dollars on a lawyer that will only provide a few sessions of guidance to you. Some people find this to be useless spending, while other people stick to hiring a lawyer.
The truth is, you should hire a lawyer—but not just any lawyer. Lawyers practice law in different ways. You have divorce lawyers, criminal lawyers, personal injury lawyers, and so on. Your best bet is to hire a lawyer who specializes in death affairs, estates, wills, and trusts. These lawyers know the law when it comes to death and will keep you out of any trouble.
Sure you can simply google any questions you have, and even ask people around your community for advice. The thing is though, what are the credentials of said advice? Has the person gone through this before (did they hire a lawyer?), have they only ever been on the outside of the situation, were they able to handle their lost loved ones affairs effectively?
rest in peace
Why hire lawyer?
By hiring a lawyer to handle after death affairs, you are getting legal and reliable information. Especially lawyers who have specialized in estates, trusts, wills, etc., they will lead you in the right direction to make the after death process a little less stressful for you.
Even if you just consult with a lawyer after your loved one has passed, you are one step closer to the after death process going smoothly. An initial consultation with a lawyer can give you general information and point you in the right direction for the task at hand. Even though you would be doing most of the heavy lifting, you are still cutting yourself a break by seeking legal advice about what to do after death of a loved one.
If you have any questions after a loved one has passed, please feel free to reach out at my contact form. |
Murder Law
If you would like to be referred to High Profile Murder Lawyers and Murder Defense Lawyers in Pakistan, you have come to the right place.
The crime of murder is loosely defined as the unlawful killing of a human being by a person who had an intent to kill. It requires, first of all, that a living person be killed. Some jurisdictions still follow the common law rule that for a murder to exist, death must occur within a year and a day after the accused inflicted the fatal wound.
The traditional definition of murder required the murderer to possess a certain intent, known as malice aforethought. No actual hatred, ill will, or spite is required. Under judicial definitions and some statutes, malice aforethought is present under any of the following conditions:
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter). As the loss of a human being inflicts enormous grief upon the individuals close to the victim, as well as the fact that the commission of a murder is highly detrimental to the good order within society, most societies both present and in antiquity have considered it a most serious crime worthy of the harshest of punishment. In most countries, like Pakistan a person convicted of murder is typically given a long prison sentence, possibly a life sentence where permitted, or death penalty may be imposed for such an act.
The elements of common law murder are:
3.of a human another human
5.with malice aforethought.
The Unlawful—This distinguishes murder from killings that are done within the boundaries of law, such as an execution, justified self-defense, or the killing of enemy soldiers during a war.
Killing—At common law life ended with cardiopulmonary arrest—the total and permanent cessation of blood circulation and respiration. With advances in medical technology courts have adopted irreversible cessation of all brain function as marking the end of life.
of a human—This element presents the issue of when life begins. At common law a fetus was not a human being. Life began when the fetus passed through the birth canal and took its first breath.
by another human—at early common law suicide was considered murder.The requirement that the person killed be someone other than the perpetrator excluded suicide from the definition of murder.
with malice aforethought—originally malice aforethought carried its everyday meaning—a deliberate and premeditated killing of another motivated by ill will. Murder necessarily required that an appreciable time pass between the formation and execution of the intent to kill. The courts broadened the scope of murder by eliminating the requirement of actual premeditation and deliberation as well as true malice. All that was required for malice aforethought to exist is that the perpetrator act with one of the four states of mind that constitutes “malice.”
If you would like to be referred to High Profile Murder Lawyers and Murder Defense Lawyers in Pakistan, you have come to the right place, and we will be willing to assist you in the such legal battle. Do drop a message and we will get back to you very soon.
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Dry Cough at Night
Dry Cough at Night
Dry or wet cough is not a disease but a symptom of some other medical conditions that might affect the body. It may interfere with sleep, and daily functioning of the affected person. In most cases, a dry cough (also known as a non-productive cough) usually worsens at night.
Mental Illness
Poor physical health is not the only reason behind occurrence of this cold sensation that causes shivering without fever. People suffering from emotional problems like anxiety disorders (panic attacks) could get this sudden cold feeling from time to time. Visible shivering is often considered as a body's natural response to fear resulting from anxious thoughts. Nervousness, dry mouth and a reduction in body temperature also accompany during anxiety disorders.
• Popular home remedy to manage cough is chewing ginger.
• Every night before going to bed, put a small piece of freshly cut ginger in your mouth, and chew it slowly and swallow the juice.
• Also, you can prepare a paste of ginger and honey, and use it whenever needed.
• Food allergies are not very well-known in causing chest congestion; however, their impact is eminent in nature.
• Increased levels of histamine in the lungs causes the individual to succumb to this trouble.
• As histamine is produced in the lungs, the soft tissue become inflamed; thereby, restricting the airways.
• Known to be a chemical in the body, histamine protects the body from infection; however, it can cause inflammation.
• When you ingest the food item you are allergic to, the immune system reacts to the proteins in that food, treating them as harmful.
• The body reacts by creating Immunoglobulin E (IgE) -- antibodies that defend it.
• The production of IgE antibodies causes cells in the lungs to produce histamine.
• There are some people who are allergic to milk and other dairy products.
• They cause allergic asthma in an individual.
• Allergy to molds can also cause this health issue.
• Dust mites and molds have a higher degree of infestation, especially during winters.
• Dust mites are spider-like creatures that are invisible to the naked eye.
• They are found predominantly on bedding.
• When one develops bronchitis, it can be in an acute form occurring due to a bacterial, or viral infection.
• It is mostly a viral infection, and hence, antibiotic therapy is not of much use.
• Pneumonia, on the other hand, can occur due to a variety of factors.
• It can either be community-acquired infection, or a nosocomial infection.
• It, generally affects immunocompromised individuals, like children, the elderly, pregnant women, etc.
• The main causative agent of pneumonia is the bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Chronic Cough
"Dry", "wet", "hacking", "productive" and "chesty" are all ways to describe a cough. According to a recent USA Today article, nothing helps a doctor diagnose your ...
Marshmallow roots and leaves contain a gummy substance called mucilage. It is mixed with water to form a gel, which may be applied to the throat to reduce irritation.
Fenugreek seeds are rich in mucilage, lipids, and protease inhibitors, and is used to treat sore throat. It also helps to remove mucus and phlegm from the air passages.
• Is Chronic Bronchitis Contagious?Is Chronic Bronchitis Contagious? Coughing, repeated blowing of the nasal area as a result of mucus accumulating, problems inside breathing . these are common signs of bronchitis, an infection of the lungs. It is often associated with asthma sufferers or a negative cold. Yet what if...
• Cough,Dry Cough,Wet Cough
Lobelia is the Indian tobacco, which is a highly toxic herb. Therefore, it is always recommended in very small doses. It is used to treat respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and severe coughing.
Other Causes
Other conditions associated with a nocturnal dry cough or a dry cough that aggravates at night include:Self-Care Measures.
Treatment of Dry Cough Depends on Its Underlying Cause
That is why, it is crucial to determine what is causing the cough, and take appropriate measures for treating it. Apart from following a doctor's advice, the following self-care measures can be taken to reduce discomfort and manage the symptoms.
• Bell Pepper: Bell pepper is a natural expectorant.
• So, add it to your diet, and try to eat at least one meal in a day which has bell pepper in it.
• It will help to thin out the mucus, and it will be easy to cough it out.
• Drink a lot of Fluids: Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day.
• Be it soups, herbal teas, or plain warm water.
• Drinking lots of fluids will thin the mucus and make coughing up white mucus easier, also it will decrease the span of infection.
• Mix 5-10 grams of donkey-hide gelatin in hot water.
• Let the mixture cool down, and drink.
• You can also use wine, instead of water.
• This is a traditional Chinese home remedy used to relieve dry cough and other common illnesses.
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Victor CooleyVictor Cooley |
Thin film Si solar cell and solid oxide fuel cell technologies for a low cost, environmentally friendly and sustainable source of energy
Thin-film solar cell technology based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon has
matured over the last two decades and is capable to deliver commercial modules with
almost 10 % stabilized efficiency. Moreover attention on hydrogen fuel cells is increasing
as the range of potential commercial applications expands, with more than 3800 fuel cell
systems being installed and operated worldwide. These systems attain high theoretical
efficiencies in the range of 43.7-70.4 %, with an additional 20% as heat recovery, and
operating at carbon-free conditions between 50 °C and 900 °C. In this paper the status of
thin-film silicon solar cell technology is reviewed by comparing it to other major solar
cell technologies. A discussion is also made upon the benefits obtained from the few
potential applications, as long-term potential actions for sustainable development, and
the future of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). Applications of thin-film silicon modules
and SOFCs are presented. EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association) estimates
that half of the growth in the next two years will come from thin-film technology.
Document joint
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Hamstring It
As an athlete it's crucial to never neglect the "Go" muscles of the body. What are the "Go" muscles you ask? Sometimes when people lift they stand in front of the mirror and work on the "Show" muscles. Anterior, front, of the body is for show and posterior, back, is for Go. Aside from being a dangerous path to idolizing the temple, this decreases a persons athletic potential.
The most common imbalance I can think of is the Quad and Hamstring. [a little anatomy] The Quad is made of 4 strong muscles and is anterior. The Hamstring is made of 3 muscles and is posterior. They both originate around the hip and innervate, end, around the knee and tibia. The Quad is responsible for extending the knee and flexing the hip and the hamstring is the antagonist, does the opposite. Ideally the strength ratio of Hamstring to Quad is between 2:3 and 3:4.
To achieve this ratio an athlete has to spend a lot of time either moving with a full range of motion or training hamstring specific. It's very easy for an athlete to work out their Quads by doing pulls, dead lifts, high squats, and assisted upper body movements. When the athlete then goes to the field to run both quad and ham are being worked, never allowing the hamstring to catch up. A very common consequence is a pulled hammy. Exercises such as: back peddle running; deep [below parallel] squats; RDL; Glute ham machine; even using a leg curl can assist in some of your training. As a side note, I believe anything machine related should only be in a therapeutic exercise setting.
The consequences of poor hamstring strength stretch further than a muscle tweak. A study was done on athletes who had poor hamstring quad strength ratios [peak torque was less than 45 Nm]. They tested the mechanical compromise of them during the landing phase of a jump. The compromise led to increased ACL loading and a higher possibility for injury [1].
weak hamstring on the left
If an injury in the hamstring does occur there are ways to increase recovery. Number one is rest. Without proper healing and laying of collagen at first, full contraction will be almost impossible. One research showed that following normal recovery protocol it took an athlete 6 months AFTER RETURNING TO A SPORT to reach optimal strength even due to heavy scar tissue [2]. The research suggested that neural strength could compensate for muscular atrophy. However, by having a rehab protocol that breaks down collagen build up can make buildup stronger. Techniques such as pressure ball and foam rolling can be used.
Every training regimen should have specific Posterior chain [hamstring, glute, etc.] specific workouts. If what you're doing lacks these things you should without a doubt do some "Go" work. What you can't see in a mirror is more important than what you can.
1. Wild CYSteele JRMunro BJ. (Oct 2012) Insufficient Hamstring Strength Compromises Landing Technique in Adolescent Girls.
2. Sanfilippo JSilder ASherry MATuite MJHeiderscheit BC. (oct 2012) Hamstring Strength and Morphology Progression after Return to Sport from Injury.
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BS, MS - exercise Physiology
EPC - Board Certified Exercise Physiologist
Published Thesis
The impact of three different forms of warm up on performance
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How to Write Literature Term Paper?
How to Write Literature Term Paper?
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Aristotle - The Organon TOPICA Book 1 Part 8
Confirming the senses of 'definition'
1. Of 'sameness' then, as has been said, three senses are to be distinguished. Now one way to confirm that the elements mentioned above are those out of which and through which and to which arguments proceed, is by induction: for if any one were to survey propositions and problems one by one, it would be seen that each was formed either from the definition of something or from its property or from its genus or from its accident. Another way to confirm it is through reasoning. For every predicate of a subject must of necessity be either convertible with its subject or not: and if it is convertible, it would be its definition or property, for if it signifies the essence, it is the definition; if not, it is a property: for this was what a property is, viz. what is predicated convertibly, but does not signify the essence. If, on the other hand, it is not predicated convertibly of the thing, it either is or is not one of the terms contained in the definition of the subject: and if it be one of those terms, then it will be the genus or the differentia, inasmuch as the definition consists of genus and differentiae; whereas, if it be not one of those terms, clearly it would be an accident, for accident was said to be what belongs as an attribute to a subject without being either its definition or its genus or a property.
UPHOME HTML edition © RBJ created 1996/11/25 modified 2009/04/26 |
The Full Wiki
International community: Wikis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banners of the "international community" at the United Nations in Geneva
The international community is a vague term used in international relations to refer to all the governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them, frequently in the context of calls for the respect of human rights and for action to be taken against repressive regimes.
States may sometimes refer to "the will of the international community" to strengthen their own point of view. It is sometimes claimed that powerful countries and groups of countries use the term to describe organisations in which they play a predominant role, regardless of the opinion of other nations. For example, the Kosovo War was described as an action of the "international community" even though it was undertaken by NATO, which represented under ten percent of the world's population during the Kosovo War.
For example, the term is used by some Western leaders when criticising Iran for its nuclear ambitions by saying that "Iran is defying the will of the international community by continuing uranium enrichment". The league of non-aligned nations (122 countries out of 193 states recognised by the United Nations) has in fact backed Iran's right to enrich uranium.[1]
From a broader view, an individual anywhere in the world, who is interested in international issues could be considered a member of International Community (IC).
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The Full Wiki
Sabbatical: Wikis
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sabbatical or a sabbatical (from Latin sabbaticus, from Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a "ceasing") is a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible (Leviticus 25, for example, where there is a commandment to desist from working the fields in the seventh year). In the strict sense, therefore, sabbatical lasts a year.
The foundational Bible passage for sabbatical concepts is Genesis 2:2-3, in which God rested (literally, "ceased" from his labor) after creating the universe, and it is applied to people (Jew and Gentile, slave and free) and even to beasts of burden in one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11, reaffirmed in Deuteronomy 5:12-15).
Biblical Sabbath is the origin of the present-day practice of "the weekend", Saturday and Sunday, in which most employees usually do not have scheduled work. Whereas Shabbat (or seventh-day Sabbath) and Christian Sabbath themselves are just one day per week each, both came to be taken off. Among Christians it was considered necessary to do preparatory tasks at home that would permit proper Sabbath observance (i.e., cessation from work) the next day.
In recent times, "sabbatical" has come to mean any extended absence in the career of an individual in order to achieve something. In the modern sense, one takes sabbatical typically to fulfill some goal, e.g., writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, and/or academics offer the opportunity to qualify for paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called sabbatical leave. Some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks; this is a growing trend in the United Kingdom, with 20% of companies having a career break policy, and a further 10% considering introducing one.[1]
Sabbaticals are often taken by professors, pastors, cartoonists, musicians, programmers, and sportsmen.
In the United States, academic sabbaticals are typically granted by an academic dean only if the faculty member who applies is qualified in terms of consistently high job performance, has demonstrated success in previous research, and possesses a well-conceived, well-planned, and promising research proposal that requires sustained effort. Sabbaticals are not granted automatically and usually are not even scheduled automatically. Provided the faculty applicant is first granted academic tenure, the opportunity to qualify for one's first sabbatical usually comes only after an initial waiting period that may vary. Thereafter, the opportunity to qualify for sabbatical typically follows at seven-year intervals of full-time employment. The most common arrangement is for a half-year at full pay, or a full year at half pay.
In British and Irish students' unions, particularly in higher education institutions, students can be elected to become sabbatical officers of their students' union, either taking a year out of their study (in the academic year following their election) or remaining at the institution for a year following completion of study. Sabbatical officers are usually provided with a living allowance or stipend.
See also
1. ^ Confederation of British Industry survey, 2005.
• Eells, Walter C. "The Origin and Early History of Sabbatical Leave." Bulletin, American Association of University Professors, XLVIII (1962), 253-256.
• Zahorski, K.J (1994). The Sabbatical Mentor: A Practical Guide to Successful Sabbaticals. Anker Publishing.
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Neurological diseases have historically been very complex to treat. That’s partly because brain diseases are caused by complex interactions between many genes, while many researchers and drug discoveries target just one gene at a time.
Verge Genomics is a startup in our current class that takes an algorithmic approach to map out the hundreds of genes that cause a brain disease such as Alzheimers, ALS, and Parkinsons. Verge Genomics then searches for drugs that target all the relevant genes at once. This system means that Verge Analytics can find the right combination of drugs for a brain disease up to 1000 times faster than current approaches.
TechCrunch’s Jordan Crook interviewed Verge Genomics’ co-founders in a story today:
“‘I like to use a basketball analogy,’ said co-founder Jason Chen. ‘Big pharma is taking the approach of covering the best player on the
court, whereas we approach the game by spreading out our defense and
covering the whole team, man-to-man.’
The plan is to partner with pharmaceutical companies to accelerate
what is now an antiquated process of blind testing of single genes.
Using the Verge Genomics technology, these companies will be able to
locate entire gene networks causing neurodegenerative diseases, as well
as using existing approved drugs (which may have expired patents) to
treat these diseases while saving time and money.”
You can read more about Verge Genomics on TechCrunch here, and participate in the related discussion on Hacker News here. |
Switch power based on pulsed signal
Discussion in 'Power Electronics' started by NRC, Dec 14, 2016.
1. NRC
Thread Starter New Member
Dec 14, 2016
Hey Guys,
First post so please be gentle with me, I only play with electronics so I am probably being exceptionally stupid..
I am trying to create a circuit to switch on and monitor a digital output from an outboard motor. I have three signals I can connect to:
+12v power (permanently on)
a signal which is only active when the outboard is running and has an output of 12V 50% duty cycle and frequency of between 50-1000Hz
To save on power I wanted to detect and respond to the signal to then power up the circuit which would ultimately monitor the signal and send it via wifi (ESP8266) to the boats central PC.
I thought that I could use a resistor and capacitor (sort of low pass filter) to generate a voltage from the pulse signal (if i understand correctly think this will give me a voltage or around 6V) to operate an analog switch such as DG419, but on rereading the datasheet I think that my overall current draw is too much for that.
My next thought is towards a solid state relay with a 6V coil voltage, but after advice if there is a more straightforward or appropriate solution that I could deploy.
2. Alec_t
AAC Fanatic!
Sep 17, 2013
Welcome to AAC.
How much current can the 12V 'signal' drive? If only low current then you could apply the signal via a diode to the gate of a MOSFET used as a switch for your circuit. A capacitor and resistor in parallel between the MOSFET gate and source would smooth the 12V. |
fundamental groupoid
Definition 1.
Given a topological spaceMathworldPlanetmath X the fundamental groupoidMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath Π1(X) of X is defined as follows:
It is easily checked that the above defined category is indeed a groupoidPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath with the inverseMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath of (a morphism represented by) a path being (the homotopy class of) the “reverse” path. Notice that for xX, the group of automorphismsPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath of x is the fundamental groupMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmath of X with basepoint x,
Definition 2.
Let f:XY be a continuous function between two topological spaces. Then there is an induced functorMathworldPlanetmath
defined as follows
• on objects Π1(f) is just f,
• on morphisms Π1(f) is given by “composing with f”, that is if α:I X is a path representing the morphism [α]:xy then a representative of Π1(f)([α]):f(x)f(y) is determined by the following commutative diagramMathworldPlanetmath |
Are EV’s (Electric Vehicles) the Future?
By Staff
At the Kicker, we’ve given a lot of attention to AV’s (Autonomous Vehicles) and touched upon EV’s (Electronic Vehicles) a little in passing because the two types of car are closely aligned in our minds.
Perhaps its time to dig into EV’s a bit deeper by themselves. Let’s start with a little clarification. In the mind of most consumers EV’s and Hybrids sort of run together, but there’s a difference and it matters.
car-engine-231213_1920.jpgHybrids use a gas engine to assist an electronic engine. This gives a sort of best of both worlds experience. When an electric engine would be adequate, ie the around town stuff, then you have that. On long trips, the gas engine kicks in to top off the batteries. The gas engine also assists when power is needed, not because you can’t get good power from an electric engine but because you don’t really need a big electric engine just for a few occasions when it’s needed and the gas engine is just sitting there.
EV’s don’t carry a way to generate power unless you count regenerative braking systems (which turn forward velocity back into power to slow the car and recapture electricity). EV’s rely on batteries to store power from a source.
EV’s comes with some advantages and some disadvantages. One potential advantage is that electric power can be generated by multiple fuel sources, which in theory allows each area to use the most cost-effective source to power your car. It’s certainly true that most electricity is created locally, unlike oil which is bought as crude, often from nations that don’t align perfectly with US ideology. However, the fact remains that some source of power is required and you can’t really find a generation source that’s truly free of controversy.
Another advantage to EV’s is that without gallons of flammable, even combustible, fuel on board, the risk of fire and explosion is cut way down. Making them safer to operate and cheaper to insure.
electric-car-734573_1920Another controversy is the batteries themselves which are hazardous to dispose of and rely on material that’s mined in places that don’t really align with US ideology.
For whatever reason, consumers haven’t taken to EV’s as enthusiastically as manufacturers and environmentalists had hoped. Laws are coming soon to force the issue, essentially banning new car sales of petroleum powered vehicles. This would include hybrids depending on which version of which countries bill you’re referring to.
This article by DriveTribe identifies potential sources of consumer resistance:
Range Anxiety – EV’s top out at or below 300 miles, which wouldn’t be a big deal if you could charge them as quickly as you can fill up at a gas station.
Investment Anxiety – As with any new technology we’ve yet to see if EV’s are more or less reliable mechanically, but we’re pretty sure they will cost more to fix. We do know how long we can use a cell phone before we need to trade it in or buy a new battery…about a year…and most of us don’t want to get caught up in that racket with something a pricey as a car.
Just Not A Proper Vehicle – Which doesn’t seem quite rational because anything that gets you around is a vehicle. If we stop to think about it, nuclear subs are pretty cool and they don’t run on gas. But as we’ve mentioned many times at the Kicker, there is a certain romance around cars, which is fading, but not as quickly as many folks expected.
Side Note about the fading romance with cars: For much of the car’s existence it represented freedom. Cars expanded our range the way horses let the Tartars build a vast empire. A teenager couldn’t wait to get a vehicle because it uncoupled him/her from their parents. However, clogged freeways, mass transit, online shopping, social media and cheap rideshare companies have eroded our desire to sit many hours a day in a car.
So what would overcome these concerns, and the others too numerous to list here?
Well, not all disadvantages are created equal. One key is going to be infrastructure. We will need enough charging stations to meet our anxiety level and we’ll need them to charge in about the same time frame we can refuel. This isn’t too far away, at least in the U.K. where shell and the National Grid have invested in creating dozens of charge stations capable of fast charging your car in as little as ten minutes. electric-car-2728143_1920
Cost is another huge factor. The reality for most Americans is that we lack the money to invest. Assuming an EV’s low of fuel costs are enough to make them overall cheaper to operate than fuel engines, then you’re exchanging a higher upfront cost in the hopes of making it up over the lifetime you own the vehicle. This may not be a reality until we start seeing more EV’s on the used car market.
The final ingredient that might nudge the American consumer sentiment towards EV’s is to conquer the range issue. A range over 400 miles would be more needed in a place like America than it is in the UK or Europe due simply to the amount to road and sprawl we have and the lack of an alternative transportation in the 400-mile to 800-mile range. Unless you get a smoke’n deal from an airline it’s cheaper and easier to drive your personal vehicle to the in-laws (and the train is just as expensive but the slowest option of all).
One hopes that a market solution is used to push consumers toward EV’s, if in fact, they are cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly. The laws banning new combustion engine sales prior to fixing the issues listed above seems like the kind of laws that work some places and not others.
Are AV’s on hold? Should they be?
OP-ED by A. Bunch
There’s so much we could say on the topic. Actually, there’s a lot we have said on the topic. The opinion above is interesting and worth viewing.
I notice these city tests always take place in a special zone of a city that’s pretty straightforward. More than that, they’re also specially mapped. That means that they don’t just download the same navigation you or I do, they specifically vet the maps in that zone. This means even if AVs start taking over certain city zones, the outlying areas will still require human assistance.
Why is that? Because things happen that haven’t been specifically foreseen and accounted for by programmers. Will these zones be the challenging downtown areas with heavy pedestrian use that TNC (rideshare) drivers already hate to navigate? NO! Not at all. GPS is notorious for dropping when the signal is blocked by skyscrapers.
The goal of all automation should be to replace the types of routine work that people don’t like to do and therefore grow bored and unproductive at. But if humans will still be needed for rural areas and inner-city areas, what’s the point of automation?
Crash avoidance systems, automated braking, and automatic transmissions reduce driver fatigue but it seems like the challenge of replacing drivers entirely may not be worth the billions some folks are willing to spend to do it. Will automakers be able to train their machines to recognize a human in a crosswalk? I’m sure they will. Will it justify the money they’re spending? Only the future will tell.
Self-Driving (AV) Car First Fatality
Op-Ed by Managing Editor of the Kicker Blog A. R. Bunch
We at the Kicker, have waited a couple days to comment on this story because it’s important to acknowledge the loss of life before engaging in what will no doubt be a ruckus brawl of a debate regarding the fall out of the event. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t respond to it at all.
Last Sunday, a 49-year-old Arizona woman was struck by one of Uber’s autonomous (self-driving) vehicles while pushing her bike across the street outside the crosswalk. The collision seems to have occurred at roughly the speed limit of the road, with no sign that the AV attempted to slow down.
The is a myriad of legal viewpoints on who should be held responsible. The owner of the vehicle? The person behind the wheel, though not driving the vehicle, Uber, the state of Arizona!? Seriously. Was this a workplace accident? Was it vehicular manslaughter? Without being a lawyer, we can’t answer those types of questions. But let’s talk about another question that seems relevant.
Who could have predicted such a tragedy? Frankly everyone. I don’t know that anyone didn’t expect it to happen at some point. Cars hit people. Here at the Kicker we’ve also warned that self-driving cars are further from reality than we’re being told for one big reason. Mindset!
There’s an inevitable transition happening in vehicles away from mechanical and toward technological. We’ve covered it in several posts. But we’ve hit a tipping point where manufacture and design is shifting away from the car industry and toward technology companies. The leaders of these different industries have radically different approaches to development and often for good reasons.
In the late 1960’s Ford leadership came to their designers with a unique and exciting challenge–design a new subcompact car that weighed less than 2,000 pounds and bring it to market in under two years, for less than $2,000. pinto-699303_1920
The met that goal and the resulting Ford Pinto. burst into flames when struck from behind at low speeds. It didn’t need to. The issue was brought to the attention of decision-makers, but the suggested fix was a couple pound hunk of hard plastic that cost $11. It put the car over cost, and overweight. The controversy came when the public discovered that Ford had run a cost-benefit analysis to determine how many people would be injured or killed by not improving the design and decided it would be cheaper to settle lawsuits than to prevent them.
In other words, there was an acceptable number of people who could be killed or maimed if it let them meet their goals and profit margin. The resulting outcry tot Ford a valuable lesson–one which technology companies have yet to learn.
Ever buy a new computer and find it runs horribly? Ever find it buggy or insecure from hackers? Ever think, these people are releasing their beta version and letting us debug it for them? Well, that sort of thinking won’t be very compatible with the commuting public. Especially when they’re touting how much safer we’ll all be when their product is behind the wheel.
I’m going to make a prediction about how these new laws around AV’s are going to shake out. 100% of the fault for anything your car does will be blamed on you–the official operator of the vehicle. The only thing the law can hold accountable is the driver. That means insurance rates for people with AVs may be higher until actuaries determine if they are actually safer. It means, you can’t just sit back and watch TV while your car drives you to work, which could make the car less attractive to buyers and less attractive to companies like Apple who are jumping in with both feet because AVs are the next iPod.
If the sudden craving doesn’t create demand then the irrational exuberance driving us to rush AVs to market will slow and we can actually test these cars before they get on the road instead of just killing people and debugging later. So it’s a self-correcting process. However, it does mean two things–we were right that we’re more than 5 years away from self-driving cars AND no one is going to realize that until it kills someone.
This tragedy was avoidable. There is no acceptable number of people who can be injured or killed in the process of helping companies hit their financial goals. I hope that everyone involved in designing and testing AVs reflects hard on this tragedy, and I hope that the lawmakers of AZ consider their role in it.
Rest in Peace Elaine Herzberg
Until next time–this is A. R. Bunch hoping you stay safe on the roads.
Blindspot in Tesla Volvo AV’s AI
workshop-2104445_1920A recent CA accident involving a Tesla Model S highlights a glaring bug in the automated driving system. Volvo admits their self-driving function might well have the same bug.
The blind spot is ironically right in front of the car and happens when a vehicle the autopilot is following suddenly dodges out of a lane that’s become obstructed leaving the automated vehicle to acquire a new car to tail. As with the accident in California, the Tesla may continue at the same speed or even attempt to resume the previous speed without detecting the obstacle–in this case an enormous firetruck with flashing lights parked while it helps save lives.
Thankfully no one was hurt, and you could draw the conclusion that the human being is still the pilot of the car even if the car has an enhanced cruise control engaged.
This notion is further underscored by a recent DUI given to a San Francisco man who argued that his car was guiding him home. Much as with cruise control the person behind the wheel is responsible for the operation of the car. It seems obvious, but with all the press from the AV industry, you’d think that AV’s are vastly superior drivers capable of covering your shortcomings in all scenarios.
The reality is that you can delegate power but you can’t delegate responsibility. We might hope that the enthusiasm of those developing this technology would be tempered a little by this thought and stress that, much like an automatic transmission makes driving simpler, automated driving is not actually autopilot and even planes that have autopilot are landed by experienced pilots.
Is The Car In An Identity Crisis?
Wimsett AV 1
OP-ED from across the pond by Paul Wimsett
People see a car as a way of getting from A to B, a status symbol or an extension of personal tastes and character. What people tend not to see is a computer.
Looking at the computer it did have a mechanical history, first made of cogs and gears then bulbs and transistors. It doesn’t take much to imagine the pipes and chambers under the hood as the early beginnings of a computerized device. As more people get AVs (autonomous vehicles) we may have to change how we see the humble car, I feel.
The idea of AVs seems to be growing in popularity even if it seems unlikely to become a reality any time soon. It seems that AVs will cause accidents in the early days, but each country’s legal system will have to determine if the fault is with the driver or the programmer? I also feel that a certain amount of driving is culture. In some places, everyone runs amber lights or stops at crosswalks and other places they don’t. We grow accustomed to how we drive locally. As a motorist, you can’t follow the habits of a fellow driver who isn’t even in the driving seat. We’ll have to learn what the computer does or doesn’t do and it won’t match what the other human drivers are doing. It’s a different way of driving completely.
This post, however, isn’t about how safe or unsafe the driverless car is, merely how our relationship may change. My feelings are that a car will stop being a personal possession. It may well become a family-owned possession, maybe passing down generations if the car is expensive enough. It may also mean that cars are harder to buy and keep their values more, as houses do today.
Wimsett_AV 2
How do cars not being personal change their meaning? Well, there may be a lack of stickers and go-faster stripes. This is a shame as it so much part of American society, including political interest. However, if an automobile is no longer a personal thing, this will alter, I feel. The interior of the car might become neutral and the form of the interior less some kind of hierarchy where the driver is in charge.
Okay, will we be driving by committee? No, but even now the driver shares the load with a navigator. At least for now (perhaps, fortunately) folks in the back seat cannot physically control the vehicle, but that could change.
This will essentially change the way cars are marketed too. No longer just to the breadwinner and now more to the family as a whole. The idea of a car being a “macho-wagon” and “chick-attractor” may alter as the automobile changes its character.
Less obviously, how women see cars may also change. Even with a female “driver” there may be more neutral colors, fewer turquoise, and other pastel colors. (It seems these days women prefer the color green to other colors, ( The car may be in future designed with all the family in mind.
Does this mean that a car will be more of an investment? It would seem so, IHS says that a self-driving technology will add $7,000-$10,000 to the value, at least up to 2025. Even now, cars can be collateral against a loan. In the future will expensive cars be “remortgaged” and become an income source? It doesn’t seem likely at the moment, but at a time of fluid change, who knows?
It seems to me that drivers who drive themselves will become the outsiders, the people who chose the cheaper car. As stated above they will also find it harder to drive in a world of non-drivers. So what if you know a three point turn? No one else does. That information will not be valuable anymore.
The predictor of the future will no doubt get many things wrong. Maybe the world of the driverless car will always be considered unsafe except in arranged convoys or it will never happen at all. We can never totally predict what the future might bring.
Will Self-Driving Cars Really Make the Roads Safer?
BenRoussey_Will 1
Do we really want automated vehicles on our roads?
Can people trust automated car companies?BenRoussey_Will 2
BenRoussey_Will 3
What about the law?
AVs Autonomous Vehicles (part 10?)
Progress toward Autonomous Vehicles So Far:
2016 Qualcomm’s purchased NXP Semiconductors for it’s chip tech for AVs ($39 billion)
2017 Intel purchased Mobileye for its AV sensors ($15 billion)
2017 GM purchased Cruise Automation for AV tech patents ($1 billion)
Other companies with AV projects…Apple, Baidu, Google/Waymo, Intel, Tesla, and Uber. Experts are projecting a $7 trillion market for AVs.
Predictions about when we can expect them, range from as early as 2019 (Morgan Stanly) to 2032 (ABI Research). The National Highway Trafic Safety Administration predicts 2025. However, there’s a big push to make it by 2020: NuTonomy, Ford, Audi, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen. Uber ex-CEO said 2030.
The reason its become such a holy grail is based on a prediction that they’ll be more reliable than humans at driving safely, and allow more cars on the road per mile, traveling faster, which equates to less need to expand or improve
Critics point out that while AI’s might drive more consistently that doesn’t always equate to safer, and of course if you need to spend a bunch of money to say, equip every bridge, crosswalk, and road sign with a transmitter broadcasting don’t hit me, that negates the savings on infrastructure.
There’s often a disparity between the potential a new technology represents and how the market responds. Look no further than Electric Powered Vehicles (EVs). President Obama predicted one million EVs driven by 2016 and missed it by 700,000. Look at the initial launch of the personal computer. A lot of Apple 2e’s sat next to kitchens being the world’s most expensive Rolodex/recipe holder until the internet came along and gave them purpose.
And who do we hold responsible when a crash does happen? The car owner or the programmer that created the algorithm that told the car it’s okay to run over your poodle if it avoids a 27% chance of concussing a passenger? States like Oregon require an attendant to pump your gas for you in order to create jobs. Will the threat of mass professional driver layoffs cause legislature to throttle the spread of AV’s? What happens when some states okay AVs and others don’t. I private owner/driver can simply engage or disengage the feature during travel, but if you’re a package delivery service trying to save money paying CDL drivers for long haul, do you drive around certain states in order to use driver-less trucks?
What about mapping every square inch of the US? Most people assume that navigation has been on the market long enough that virtually everywhere is mapped. But companies like Uber are buying whole other companies for their mapping data. Not how they map but the maps themselves. Road’s change, constantly and we don’t need AVs driving through a building that used to be a road or going the wrong way on a one way street because its maps are 6 months out of date.
Take for example a simple thing. GPS navigation will take you to the front door of a local restaurant where you can get out and walk in. Except that the restaurant has it’s front door on the street instead of the parking lot. So the car will stop in traffic for you to exit because it’s at it’s destination. What happens when a teenage girl hails a ride from a rides hare company and the GPS puts the car in the alley behind her apartment complex? When she walks to meet it and is attacked is the ride share company going to compensate her?
These aren’t hurtles that can never be overcome, but when a programmer says he’s six months from producing a program that doesn’t mean your seven months from seeing it on store shelves. A lot has to happen in a lot of areas a programmer wouldn’t think about because it’s not his/her responsibility.
Another similarity to electric vehicles is that what makes sense in one setting doesn’t in another. Dense populations in highly developed areas may be early adapters to EVs and AVs where they’d be less attractive in rural Texas (for example). When a technology executive does an interview and says we’re only a year away from having AVs roaming the road around you ask yourself if she’s more intimately familiar with the programming capabilities than the legal implications and if she more likely lives in a dense urban area or a ranch in Montana. Could there be some paradigm blindness going on?
Perhaps one of the most telling indicators is a 2016 Kelly Blue Book Survey. Among EV owners only 53% said they’d re-buy the same car (31% if it only plugged in) compared to traditional engine vehicles where 82% would re-buy. 74% of Americans surveyed felt that AVs weren’t safe. Think about that. Imagine for a second that three out of four people felt you were less likely to die from a crash if you didn’t wear a seat belt. That’s a significant PR problem for companies that hope to sell $7 trillion worth of these cars.
Here’s an aspect seldom covered when pondering the topic, you can’t buy a new car today for less than $8,000 because in part that’s the cost of building it to modern safety standards. Even if the law requires cars be able to drive themselves how much more will people pay for the feature? We actually have some data on this. The Tesla model 3 sells for $10,000 more than cars in it’s class. Certainly Tesla has showed they can sell cars, but Tesla has more going for it than just autonomous driving and it’s not a Traditional Automotive Manufacturer. So you can’t get an apples to apples comparison to establish what consumers are willing to pay $10,000 more for. When surveyed directly they report that their willingness to pay more for automation has dropped by a 30% since 2014 and that they don’t trust Original manufacturers to provide safe AVs to market.
So while most writers on this topic are defending the position that they can get a car to drive itself by a certain date, there remains some doubt as to it’s market viability.
AVs (self-driving) & Job Market Impact
Andy_AV P3
By Andy Bunch
Original Article by Cathy Engelbert & Scott Corwin
The topic of automation touches every type of job market and where the Kicker Blog is concerned professional driving jobs seem conspicuously next on the chopping block. We’ve covered this topic from both sides of the debate, where the timing is concerned, and concluded that self-driving cars are inevitable but likely not imminent.
Industry expert and LinkedIn influencer Cathy Engelbert has written a great article on the topic based on its impact on the job market and since we’re always scouring the web for people talking about what we’re talking about we’d love to point you at it. For the full article go here. Our executive summary is below.
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Automation will impact different job markets differently—there’s no single answer, good or bad. A balanced, fact oriented approach will lead to the most accurate prediction, not the over-enthusiastic or terror approaches that currently dominate the discussion.
Let’s consider a particular case to illustrate these points. When the media cites professions that may decline because of automation, some of the most common are jobs involving the movement of people and goods—trucking, taxis, ride-sharing, and the like. It often makes for good headlines and everyone “gets it” quickly. But the outlook is way more complicated, nuanced, and not necessarily as dire as portrayed.
While roughly 94 Million professional drivers currently answer the needs of moving people and goods, as people work and shop more at home, and cars begin to drive themselves the need for actual drivers will likely decline. However, we have an aging baby-boomer population that will continue to require assistance to live independently. Someone will need to take responsibility for good being delivered long distances and even when city’s become automated it could be years before particularly tricky areas become autonomous friendly. So a whole new industry of driver assistant could pop up. These jobs would require both driving skills as a backup to automation, but also another primary skill, like customer savvy.
If travel becomes cheaper and easier through automation, the demand will rise. This could lead to jobs serving the transportation industry in other ways. Roadway systems could wear out faster-increasing maintenance. Logistics to get people and items to destinations will likely increase. Automation could result in more interesting, less fatiguing labor that in turn causes reduced turn over and more interest in younger workers. This could mean that as the driving workforce loses workers to retirement it gains a lesser number of replacements who stay longer. Since currently there are nearly a million drivers needed it’s not likely that thousands of long-haul truckers will suddenly be out of work, which is the picture shoved at them by media daily.
So the conclusion is that the best predictor of what will happen as driving jobs are automated is the way automation has impacted other areas. A net reduction in the number of workers needed to produce the same output, which is felt heavily in industries that suffer an overall decline and not at all in industries that with growing demand over all. Jobs that are retained require more technical training and skill but are more interesting to do, and less physically dangerous. As a result, there’s no basis to fear going into an industry because the field won’t exist in 10 years. Some workers will need to make a lateral move and others will move up. Still, others will age out and retire. What isn’t likely? That professional drivers will become suddenly obsolete.
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How Close are AV’s (Driverless Cars)?
“The results of a national survey last year by Kelley Blue Book found that—perhaps unsurprisingly—American consumers are not nearly as excited about the car of the future as the experts are.”
In a LinkedIn article dated August 1st, 2017, Scott Nyquist echoed sentiments of a previous post here on the Kicker Blog. The LinkedIn article, entitled “why driverless cars might not hit the road so fast,” makes well-researched points that reinforce the conclusion that driverless cars will likely be a part of the future but not in the near future.
Nyquist compares AVs to EVs (all electronic vehicles) in that experts were enthusiastic about them and were quick to predict their inevitable dominance. If the comparison is true then EVs will also not become the norm as quickly as experts predict.
In late 2010, for example, one expert prediction was that by 2013, 200,000 electric cars would be sold in the US, and in 2015, 280,000; in fact, the figures were 96,600 and 119,000, respectively. Carlos Ghosn, the well-respected CEO of Nissan, said in 2011, that by 2016, there would be1.6 million Renault-Nissan EVs on the road; that forecast was off by more than 80 percent. President Obama saw a million EVs on American roads by 2016; the real figure is fewer than 300,000.
Considering the legal and physical blockades that need to be overcome it seems more likely that autonomous cars will become a feature of cars in the future but will be restricted in use much the way current cruise control is. Certain well-mapped zones will open up to them to take advantage of their ability to crowd more cars onto the roads, but other areas that are under construction or too rural to be mapped up to the minute will remain human-required. This balanced, gradual approach will take decades to bring about a total driverless age.
But that’s just an opinion. We’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
The Number 1 Consumer Complaint
By A.R. Bunch
We’ve written several times about the American Love Affair with cars and driving. We’ve also written about a growing trend among younger drivers, who see human error as the major cause of commuter risk and who would gladly let autonomous vehicles do the driving.
Now, according to an article in money watch, there are a few more threats to the American love affair with the car. It’s the number one complaint among consumers.
According to who? According to a report from the (CFA) Consumer Federation of America and the (NACP) North American Consumer Protection Investigators, who combined to survey 39 state and local agencies in 23 states about last year’s consumer complaints.
To be fair, the biggest complaints were among used car leases. With low to no down payment and shorter commitments, these programs have become more popular lately, but consumers are not fully savvy to these new programs and the lack of consumer protections afforded leasers when compared to purchasers. Still, dishonest salesmen, misrepresentation of performance capabilities like mileage and handling, and cost of repair play a role in people’s recent dissatisfaction with cars.
If it’s such a source of pain could it cause US drivers to finally separate from their beloved cars? It’s likely to depend on age. The answer is likely to depend on age. When the Kicker Staff interviewed drivers at random the majority of drivers believed that automated driving wouldn’t be able to replace an experienced human driver and would therefore only be “safer” if by law all vehicles were driven by a computer.
One driver in particular, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed to have driven for roughly thirty years without an accident. He believed that a computer could likely outdrive his fifteen-year-old son, and his eighty-year-old mother, but would not trust one more than he or his wife.
Another driver interviewed, who worked at a technology company in Portland, Oregon, suggested that drivers could be retested periodically to retain the best human drivers while potentially weeding out commuters who’re better off letting another person or robot drive for them.
The Kicker staff is all for treating a driver’s license as a privilege and not a right. So in the end, the answer to the question of the love affair with driving, no one answer fits all. Some commuters can’t wait for the more economical option to owning their own vehicle that’s also more useful than mass transit. Others will let go of their personal vehicle when you pry their cold dead body from it. Lucky for us all that we’ve got a little time to prepare for a transition. |
Racism in America has a long history. It has been in America since the colonisation of North America during the 17th century. This was manifested through the discriminatory laws, existing social practices and crime directed to the targeted groups. With the arrival of the Europeans, racism started against the Native Americans. This was manifested through genocide, assimilation, branding natives as savages and elimination of traditions. African Americans arrived as slaves in the 17th century taken from their homelands in Africa as slaves. Racism was directed to them through torture, denial of basic rights, discrimination and inequality. At the moment, racism is still directed to them through in subtle ways. Japanese in America faced racism after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. They were targeted through harassment, surveillance and discrimination. In addition, they lost their jobs and houses and some sent to camps. Jews were also a target even during the holocaust with groups such Ku Klux Klan directing rage to Jews as well as African Americans. At the moment, Islam and Muslims in the United States of America have faced manifested prejudice. This is especially after the 9/11 terror attacks. Despite the critics claim that racism in USA is being overblown, it still exists to some degree and its legacy still lives.
America still has a long way to eradicate the racial problem. The country still faces disparate aspects of racism ranging from hate crimes, police mistreatment and poverty. Racial minorities still face barriers both socially and economically. Research shows that almost half of all crimes which are committed in America are race based. There have been a lot of cases of hate crimes which are racially motivated. Over the past months, black men have been targeted by the law enforcement. In fact, it has been proved that black men are high likely to be shot and killed by police compared to the white men. Hate groups such as Ku Klux Klan have been gaining presence in a lot states. These are white supremacy groups which are motivated by the race. At the moment, some people are still opposed to interracial marriages or dating. In addition, there are those who support the right for individual homeowner to exercise discrimination when selling home. It is clear that America incarceration has been race based. The minority have been bearing the largest share of incarceration where about two third of the incarcerated are the racial minorities despite forming only a third of the population. Racial bias has also been shown on job earning where racial minorities earns less than whites.
However, people were struggling for racial equality. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in a society that treated him inferior due to his racial orientation. His speech “I have a dream” was based on demanding racial justice for the mistreated black society in America. This is a speech that advocated all human must be treated in an equal manner as a case for American future. He advocated for non-violence provocation which was very successful. The speech touched millions of Americans and showed them the plight of black Americans. His appeal for tolerance and fairness helped in removing the discriminatory laws and create a country that was true to the ideals of justice and equality. Despite succeeding in ending segregation and disenfranchisement of the black Americans, racism in the country is still thriving and the economic gap among the black and white Americans persists. America is still struggling with racial equality years after Martin Luther King Jr. speech.
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
1979 Words Feb 26th, 2018 8 Pages
In the words of Chris de Burgh, “It’s the classical dilemma, between the head and heart.” Love can cause people to do crazy things and act in irrational ways. They think of their love first before considering the consequences. Heartbreak can also cause people to have odd behavior. “Like an addict chasing a high, someone in love might act rather odd or lose inhibitions or their sense of judgement.” (“The Head versus the Heart – Is Love Rational?) In the following novels, the characters are blinded by love and passion and it causes them to ignore rational thoughts and responsibilities and the pursuit of a happy ending leads to their eventual tragic deaths. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a perfect example of love clouding rational behavior. Catherine Earnshaw feels an immediate connection with the orphan boy, Heathcliff, that her father takes in from Liverpool. They grow up together and fall in love and are as happy as they can be. One day they decided to run across the moors to the Linton residence. They spy through the windows at Edgar and Isabella Linton until they get caught. As they were trying to run away, a dog grabs Catherine by the ankle and injures her. Heathcliff has no other choice but to leave her. After five weeks of recovery, Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights well mannered and ladylike which is an immense contrast to her wild and rude behavior before the accident. During her weeks of recovery, Catherine’s older brother, Hindley,…
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Vehicles that Sail on Water and Land
written by: Raunekk • edited by: Lamar Stonecypher • updated: 5/25/2011
Wouldn't you love to drive a boat that can run at a speed equal to that of the fastest car on the earth? Engineers have been looking for ways to make the transportation on water faster and smoother. Hovercraft, in a way, have proved to be the solution to this problem. So how do they work?
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A boat that can run both on land and water! No, we aren't talking about some hi-tech vehicle from a James Bond movie but a real amphibious vehicle that can run both on land as well as water and that too with the same speed.
Hovercraft, also known as Air Cushion Vehicles (ACV), can run on any type of surface. These vehicles uses a cushion of high pressurized air to lift it slightly above the surface so that there is no contact with the later. The main objective is to remove any form of friction that is generated when a vehicle runs on a surface. This means that a hovercraft runs in air. But how can such a huge thing be lifted in air just with the help of pressurized air? Let's find out.
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How does it work?
Hovercraft run on two main important functions, lifting and propelling. The craft is lifted above the surface with the help of a giant fan that creates a massive air draft in the downward direction which pushes the craft upward. The lift can be of a few centimeters or nches. The fan is moved with the help of an engine which is located at the rear of the craft.
To quarantine the air underneath the craft a flexible rubber skirt is used. This skirt prevents the escape of air from beneath the craft and flexible rubber allows it to move over any obstacle in the way. The skirt has small holes to allow the air to escape, which also helps the craft to move. The edges of the skirt are made of extra thick rubber to create a seal between the skirt and the surface, which prevents the escape of air and also to reduce wear and tear due to the constant contact with the surface.
For the propulsion of the craft, small propeller fans are fitted on the top of the craft. These fans are run by separate diesel engines. These fans pushes the craft forward by creating a backward force. The fans are not like normal fans which pushes the air in a spiral way but are fitted with stationary blades which resist the spiral flow of air and thus provide a greater thrust.
For steering the craft, rudders are installed behind the fans. The rudder swivels the air from side to side to provide the required steering.
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Stability and additional information
As the hovercraft moves without any contact with the surface, it is imperative that proper stability is maintained. For this the airflow should be adequate, cause if the air pressure generated is more than the craft will be lifted to a greater height which can make the craft to tip. If the air pressure is lower than required than the craft will remain grounded.
It is also imperative that the air cushion is equivalent throughout the surface of the base of the craft to maintain stability. Also it is proved that larger the base surface area of the craft greater would be the stability, but this would reduce the speed considerably.Also, the part of the craft which mounts the fan and engines would require additional air pressure to lift them off the ground.
The total amount of weight a hovercraft carries depend on the lift the fan can generate. As we know that pressure= force/ area, the higher the pressure generated the better weight carrying capacity craft will have. Which also means that broader the surface area , the greater the weight carrying capacity.
Hovercrafts are used in military and in carrying goods and passengers. They can run at a speed of 70 - 120 Km/hr.
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Ships and submarines by Chris Woodford 2004
Discover the Hovercraft by Kevin Jackson 2004
Hovercraft Principle |
What's the Buzz
How to reduce intake of air pollution
Alison Tomlin, who led the research, claims that air pollution levels change dramatically within small geographical areas due to many factors. Apparently, wind patterns, the location of traffic queues and the position and shapes of the surrounding buildings determine the level of pollution.
Traffic flow and carbon monoxide levels were watched over an eight week period at the intersection between Marylebone Road and Gloucester Place in West London to come to the conclusion.
It was observed that pollution hotspots generally tend to accumulate on the leeward side of the street, in relation to the wind’s direction at roof-top level. The researchers also found that carbon monoxide levels were up to four times lower in parallel side streets compared to the main road. Tomlin said: “CO levels were highly variable over remarkably short distances.”
Depression raises internet addiction
Teenagers who have psychiatric symptoms such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), social phobia, hostility and depression could be more prone to develop an internet addiction, according to a report.
The study underlined that although the internet has become one of the most significant information resources for adolescents, addiction to the internet can negatively impact school performance, family relationships and adolescents’ emotional state. “This phenomenon has been described as problematic internet use and classified as a possible behaviour addiction,” wrote the authors.
Mosquitoes can fight malaria!
A new study suggests that the mosquitoes that transmit malaria can actually help scientists find potential new ways to fight this disease. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) in Strasbourg, France, have found that variations in a single gene affect mosquitoes’ ability to resist infection by the malaria parasite.
“Malaria parasites must spend part of their lives inside mosquitoes and another part inside humans, so by learning how mosquitoes resist malaria, we may find new tools for controlling its transmission to humans in endemic areas,” says Stephanie Blandin. The scientists looked for clues in the genome of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, a major carrier of the parasite that causes the most severe form of human malaria in Africa.
Breast milk best as soon as expressed
Breast milk should be given to a baby at the same time of day it is expressed, a new study has said. The levels of the components in breast milk change every 24 hours in response to the needs of the baby. And a new study published in the journal ‘Nutritional Neuroscience’ shows, for example, how this milk could help newborn babies to sleep.
Breast milk contains various ingredients, such as nucleotides, which perform a very important role in regulating babies’ sleep. The new study confirms that the composition of breast milk changes quite markedly throughout the day.
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Orlando’s historic districts: a history of protecting history
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1980 started off as kind of a bleak year. Mortgage rates hovered around 16 percent, the country was hobbling in an economic malaise, and disco had officially been declared dead. Growth in downtown Orlando, like many southern towns, was focused on adding modern conveniences, with little regard to protecting significant historic architectural charms. Formerly glorious circa 1890 buildings were summarily being demolished to make way for “surface parking,” which is a slightly more palatable way of saying parking lot.
Spooked by the fast evaporation of parts of Orlando’s history, a chorus of community leaders and anxious citizens organized efforts to slow down the demolition madness. Their mantra: Once you tear it down, it doesn’t come back. Their purpose was not to impede modern growth, but rather to protect and stabilize property values by creating a process to encourage new development that would harmonize with existing historical structures.
(Photo by Katie Bray)
Perhaps inspired by a new wave of architectural preservationist movements in Savannah and Charleston, or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ heroic (and rare) public advocacy in the effort to save New York’s Grand Central Station from destruction, Orlando created its first historic preservation district, The Downtown Orlando Historic District. The next 20 years would see the formation of five more preservation zones: Lake Cherokee, Lake Copeland, Lake Eola Heights, Lake Lawsona and Colonialtown South. The city agency that oversees the districts is the Historic Preservation Board and its members are appointed volunteer Orlando citizens.
The creation of a historic district is complex and widely misunderstood. First, property owners, and not the City of Orlando, petition to create a district. Signatures of at least 15 percent of owners within a proposed geographical boundary begin the initiative. This typically involves a long series of public meetings, planning meetings, city staff meetings, and, if history is any gauge, a few heated conversations between some neighbors not keen on their inclusion in the district. If the efforts to form a new district are successful, the City Council eventually passes an ordinance that officially codifies its establishment and governing rules. Contrast the model of the historic district’s gradual emergence in older neighborhoods to the difference of a modern homeowner’s association in a contemporary (usually gated) community. There, the HOA rules run with the land upon the initial development of the neighborhood. Upon buying the premises, the owner consents to the HOA’s rules and restrictions.
Another largely unknown premise of Orlando’s historic preservation districts is that during their creation process, each decides the extent to which its rules apply to owners. For example, in one district (Colonialtown South), paint colors are not under the purview of the Historic Preservation Board, but in another (Lake Cherokee), paint colors are reviewed.
One of the hsitoric homes in Lake Cherokee District. (Photo by Katie Bray)
Throughout the years, critics of historic districts have often claimed them to be overreaching or some sort of government land grab. But the goals of the historic preservation board are not to micromanage neighbors. The intent is to protect property values in historic districts — by using a democratically selected, vote-yourself-into-a district process — that seeks to ensure architecture and aesthetics in a neighborhood remain true to the prevailing architecturally significant period.
Likewise, fewer protections are afforded to a structure that does not contribute to the historic core of a district. Think a random 1972 house built in an area where, say, homes are nearly all the bungalow style of the 1920’s. Once an historic district is in place, demolition of that 1972 home would be less of an issue, especially when the owner commits to build a new structure that would reflect the historic characteristics of the original homes — in this case, bungalows. But without historic preservation rules in place, that 1972 home could be demolished and a large zero-lot-line McMansion could ostensibly go up, along with the blood pressure of the neighbors. Therein lies the preservation board’s method to balance development with genuine preservation integrity.
No new district has emerged in nearly 20 years, most likely because the creation process was quite memorably contentious when forming Colonialtown South in 2000. Eyes are now on quaint unprotected neighborhoods like Colonialtown North, where several architectural gems have gotten flattened and replaced with charmless, over scale structures. Maybe Orlandoans should channel a bit of our predecessors’ concerns that made 1980 a good year after all for Orlando’s historic buildings.
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Is it Severe ADHD, or is it Asperger's? The Case for a Good Assessment
Charlie is seven years old. He hates school; he has no friends. Charlie is aggressive and angry most of the time, but particularly when his parents set a limit. A pediatric neurologist diagnosed him with Asperger’s syndrome and told the parents that he was an “odd duck.” Charlie was then evaluated in a tertiary care setting (a medical school). They agreed. Charlie was put on Risperdal, an antipsychotic. Charlie got “better” according to the parents, but he still did poorly in school and he still had no friends.
Charlie’s parents were reluctant to pursue educational testing. Not only was the price high, they did not want Charlie to think that his entire life was about going from one medical appointment to another. I understood that, but I said this is the most important step you can take in terms of understanding Charlie’s brain. Reluctantly, the parents agreed. Meanwhile, I explored the family history. Charlie’s dad, Tony, never did well in school either. Now, he works as a fire fighter. Charlie’s mom, Gaby, was a good student, as were her six siblings. I wondered about Charlie’s attention span. Gaby explained to me that “he could never sit on the circle, like the other kids could in preschool. He was always running around.”
The neuropsychological evaluation confirmed my suspicion. Charlie had severe ADHD. He could not focus; he has no frustration tolerance. Hence, he could not engage in a dialogue with other children, so he had no friends. He could not wait his turn in games. He blurted out what he was thinking. He had no ability to inhibit his thoughts, so other kids found him to be a “a bit strange” according to Gaby. I stopped the Risperdal, gave him a stimulant (Concerta), and within days, he was doing his work at school, he was no longer a behavior problem and he was getting along with other children. As Charlie said “that medicine really makes my friends nice to me.”
Social skills are dependent on attention. In order for Charlie to make friends, he has to be able to listen, wait, and think before he speaks. If his ADHD makes it so that he has no control over his brain, he will come across as odd, intrusive, and uncooperative. On the other hand, if he takes a stimulant, he will then be able to ponder his next move and thereby prevent the embarrassing moment of saying something that other kids will laugh about. In other words, he will have a space between thought and action. This space is critical for social success.
Untreated ADHD looks like Asperger’s Disorder. That is a simple, yet often missed, truth. The treatment for ADHD is stimulants. The treatment for Asperger’s Disorder ranges from special education to antipsychotic medication. These are very different paths. Diagnosis is essential. A comprehensive approach to assessment demands that the clinician consider all conditions, factoring in the statistics which reinforce the obvious; common diseases are common. ADHD is one out of twenty kids. Asperger’s is hard to pinpoint, but it is roughly one in a hundred kids. Those numbers alone make it so that ADHD should be a leading contender in the mystery of Charlie’s behavior. Adding on, Charlie has a potential family history of ADHD, as his dad might have it as well. This data, combined with the neuropsychological testing, combined with Charlie’s long history of hyperactivity makes the diagnosis straight-forward.
Charlie’s parents have gone through what so many parents suffer from. Charlie has behavior problems. Who should he see? A pediatrician? A pediatric neurologist? A child psychiatrist? Who should pay? Insurance? Out-of pocket? Should they go to a University for an “expert” opinion? There is no road map for these questions. Parents are understandably confused. Child psychiatrists are the experts at diagnosing behavior problems in children, yet the public does not understand that; pediatricians do not understand that either. Universities can be very helpful, but because the patient sees someone in training, there is variability in quality. Once again, the fault lies in my profession. We have not presented our expertise to the public in such a way that it is clear how we can be helpful. Shame on us for not helping more kids like Charlie. Shame on us for putting families through multiple evaluations with confusing answers.
Child psychiatrists need a public relations firm to announce our skill set. We should use the money from our dues in the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Association to pay for this public education. Maybe we can figure out a way to make it happen. For the sake of our “children” we must. |
Category Archives: Jury Research
Articles and posts on the psychology of juries in criminal cases.
Recent Study Suggests Older Jurors Are More Likely To Convict
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance!
-Zachary Cloud
Psychology Weekends: What Does “Reasonable Doubt” Really Mean to a Jury?
There are some concepts in the law that are frustratingly amorphous. One of those principles is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” What does that even mean? Jury instructions purport to explain it but have the tendency to just complicate the matter. We know from past precedent that it can’t be quantified into some percentage of certainty and that it’s not a requirement of absolute, 100% certainty. But that’s about it…leaving one to wonder how jurors grapple with the concept and apply it in actual criminal trials.
Today, I’m gonna tell you how.
1. Jury Instructions Lower The Amount of Certainty Jurors Need to Feel When Deciding to Convict
There are two pieces of research that we should look at. The first, by Daniel Wright and Melanie Hall, is an interesting attempt to determine what level of confidence may actually be the threshold for reasonable doubt in the real world. The design of the study is fairly simple: have participants read a fact pattern and make a decision about the criminal defendant’s guilt. Next, have the individual rate his or her level of confidence in the guilt. Finally, determine the confidence “point” at which 50% or more of participants will vote to convict. Essentially, this is applying statistical methods most common to pharmacology and biochemistry in general—we look to see what the “LD-50” or lethal dose for which 50% of the population would die.
The study examines a far more intriguing question. Namely, can a judge’s instructions defining reasonable doubt have an effect on the belief of guilt itself? Or, put a different way: would a jury that’s been given no definition of reasonable doubt tend to have a different threshold for what’s enough evidence than a jury instructed on the concept? The researchers theorized that jury instructions telling jurors that they didn’t need to be absolutely certain would have the effect of increasing conviction rate.
To investigate this inquiry, the researchers conducted 2 experiments. In the first one, participants were put into two conditions: no jury instruction given and jury instruction given. Half of the participants were told only to find the fictitious defendant in a fact pattern guilty if they believed him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The other half of participants were told this and then given a jury instruction clarifying that “beyond a reasonable doubt” does not require 100% certainty. Lastly, participants rated their confidence in their decision and provided a brief, written explanation for why. The second experiment used the same methods as the first experiment but a substantially larger group of participants.
Some interesting results came out of the experiments. There was not statistically significant evidence to support the theory that detailed jury instructions will make people more likely to convict. However, the instruction did affect the “LD50” for how much proof is needed. That is, when jury instructions were given that told people they needn’t be absolutely certain of guilt, the confidence level at which 50% of jurors chose to convict decreased.
This is both an intuitive and remarkable finding if you think about it. The results tell us that when people are given a jury instruction saying that total certainty isn’t necessary, people will convict on a 63% level of confidence. However, when no jury instruction is given explaining reasonable doubt, people will not convict unless they are 77% convinced of guilt.
How do we square this what I said earlier—that jury instructions don’t make people more likely to convict? It’s a little tricky but the authors explain it as follows: “[A]lthough the instruction lowered the threshold for a guilty verdict, because belief in guilt was also lowered, there was no significant effect on the number of guilty verdicts.” (Wright & Hall, 2007: 96).
This study, like so many others, has a downside in that it relies upon students for its group of participants. It also has the limitation of occurring in settings remarkably different from an actually jury—these were participants in a university setting rather than a group of jurors who were assembled in a courtroom. Further still, this study assess how a juror would make decisions prior to group deliberation and the power of group dynamics for altering one’s perspectives can be strong. However, the limitations of this study can simultaneously be assets. Its crisp, simple design lets us have more certainty that the results are due to the variables manipulated rather than intervening or moderating variables. It also is worth remembering that every jury is a group of jurors who sat down, watched a trial, heard judicial instructions about the law, and formed an opinion before deliberations. Understanding how people form their individuals opinions that they ten take with them into the deliberations is quite important in and of itself.
2. Alternative Explanations for What Happened Tend to Decrease Likelihood of Conviction
That jury instructions may actually cause people to convict under lower certainty is alarming—at least to a practitioner and believer in a high burden of proof. Is there anything we can do to counteract this effect?
Thankfully, yes.
Researchers at University of Virginia and Georgetown University considered whether creating an alternate narrative could reduce the likelihood of conviction. You see, in the early ‘90s, Nancy Pennington and Reid Hastie suggested the “Story Model” of jury deliberations. I talked a little bit about it here. A quick recap is that jurors work to build a story of what happened rather than performing a surgical breakdown of proof by each legal element.
The theory makes sense and is intuitive enough; one of its implications is that, where jurors are not sure which of two stories is the right one, there should probably be reasonable doubt. For example, if prosecutors allege a defendant committed a crime and the defendant presents credible evidence that it had to be someone else because he wasn’t at the scene, a jury should acquit. In fact, unless the jury decides that the defendant’s “story” is lacking in believability, they should acquit. But does this work in practice?
To find out, the authors designed an experiment where participants read a trial transcript. The prosecution case was designed to make it appear virtually certain that the defendant was guilty and the defense transcript introduced evidence that suggested another individual was actually the culprit. The experimenters varied the specifics of the alternate story such that some participants received a greater number of potential alternatives. Participants read the trial transcript for their assigned condition, then read a description of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and finally made determinations of guilt. Notably, participants were asked to indicate their level of confidence in the guilt of the defendant and, where applicable, of any other suspects that the defense suggested.
The results show that an “alternative story” does indeed increase the likelihood of acquittal. It’s worth pointing out that participants who chose to acquit didn’t merely feel “less certain” of guilt but actually felt more certain in innocence. This effect is not a minor one—the researchers found a sizeable change in confidence when an alternative story was provided to jurors.
Hold your horses, because there’s more. Although an alternate story where the defense provides additional suspects beyond the defendant decreased likelihood of conviction, jurors still found the defendant as “more likely” to be guilty than the other suggested perpetrators. This is quite an important point because it highlights that jurors actually were operating on the principles of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” They may have felt the defendant was most likely out of a group of suspects but they didn’t feel convinced enough to convict. That’s justice as it should be.
This research is seemingly common-sense. After all, providing juries with another story should, if believed, cause them to be less clear on the prosecution’s theory. Some might say this research just goes to confirm what we already know…and yet, I’m not sure I’d agree. First of all, research can be valuable merely for providing empirical support for what we assume to be true. Secondly and more importantly, this disconfirms a concern that I’ve had for some time: that jurors see all defense attorneys as just out to trick them or manufacture reasonable doubt. If jurors felt that way, they would pay no heed to an alternative theory or explanation. Accordingly, this gives me some encouragement that jurors take their jobs seriously and aren’t out just to convict.
3. Final Thoughts
These two pieces of research show us interesting things about juries. They show us that jury instructions on reasonable doubt can actually lower an individual’s threshold for the amount of certainty he or she needs to feel in order to convict. On the other hand, they also show us that jurors are willing to examine a defense’s contentions rather than flatly rejecting them or tending to presume guilt. If there are any take-home points, they would be: (1) push for a jury instruction that does not overly emphasize the nature of “beyond a reasonable doubt” as a lower standard than complete certainty, and (2) build your theory of the case to explain why the prosecution’s story is the incorrect one. Those two methods appear to have an impact on how juries process and evaluate their confidence in guilt.
The concept of proving something “beyond a reasonable doubt” has a long history of evading any real meaning. Judges who have tried to come up with concrete jury instructions have sometimes been reversed on appeal or otherwise criticized for meddling with the standard. Legally speaking, no one really knows exactly what it means. In truth, that’s probably no accident. For example, the law often uses a “reasonable standard” or a “Totality of the Circumstances” test to avoid bright line rules and make the determination of some legal issue rest on its facts. It is a way of turning fact-finders into legal decision makers. It is a way of building flexibility into the system. This is both a blessing and a curse because it allows for flexibility and equity while simultaneously removing any guidance. Jurors are almost always lay persons who don’t practice law for a living and would probably very much like more guidance and clarity they receive. Yet the law refuses to tell them what to do with a detailed definition or explanation of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Essentially, the law tells them: “use your best judgment based on what you understand this legal concept to mean.” In the face of such an instruction, jurors have worked hard to comply. And as the research presented here tends to show, those jurors tend to be doing a decent job.
-Zachary Cloud
Tenney, E.R., Cleary, H. M. D., & Spellman, B. A. (2009). Unpacking the Doubt in “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”: Plausible Alternative Stories Increase Not Guilty Verdicts. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31, 1-8.
Wright, D.B. & Hall, M. (2007). How a “Reasonable Doubt” Instruction Affects Decisions of Guilt. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 29, 91-98
Psychology Weekends: Ingroup Effects on Sentencing
Last week, I noted that I went on a hunt for interesting studies. One of the ones I found is an interesting look at sentencing. Specifically, do people sentence members of their ‘ingroup’ more harshly than outgroup members?
A couple thoughts up front before I dive into the research. First, this is a piece that has some definite, real-world implications. People get sentenced every day in courts across this country. For the vast majority, the sentence imposed is by a judge though, more broadly, prosecutors plea deal recommendations also play a significant role. Second, I think this study has a particularly limiting component reducing external validity. It, like so much other research that psychologists do, relied upon college students. I think that such reliance could be particularly problematic in the realm of sentencing, where it’s essentially guaranteed that the person passing judgment will be older—and usually much older—than college aged people. Generational effects can be powerful and likely play a role here that the current study was simply unable to identify.
That said, let’s take a look at the research. German researchers Mario Gollwitzer and Livia Kelle (2010) investigated how members of a group punished repeat offenders considered to be a part of the ingroup. In their study, they hypothesized that (1) people would punish a repeat ingroup offender more seriously than a first-time ingroup offender, and (2) people would not display this effect when sentencing outgroup members.
In order to test their hypotheses, the researchers designed an experiment where participants read a narrative describing a student who hid library material where only he could find it in order to keep others from using it or gaining access to it. Participants randomly were assigned to an “ingroup” or “outgroup” condition. The ingroup condition held the perpetrator out to be a fellow psychology student while the outgroup condition held the perpetrator out to be majoring in a different subject. Additionally, participants were also randomly assigned to either a “first time” or “repeat offender” condition. Participants read the fact pattern they received then answered questions measuring their “anger/outrage” with the crime and their “societal concerns” about such conduct. Finally, participants indicated if they thought the perpetrator should be punished and, if so, how severely.
The results provided support for the researchers’ hypothesis. People gave repeat offenders harsher sentences when they were members of the ingroup. Additionally, evidence did not show the same effect for members who were in the outgroup. Their prior records did not appear to drive the severity of their punishment.
It’s worth noting the authors’ discussion of these results. They put forward the suggestion that the results are due to what the judging person (participant) thinks is threatened. A participant might see an ingroup perpetrator with a prior history as someone who threatens “normative cohesion” of the group and its values. On the other hand, a perpetrator in the outgroup is more likely to threaten the ingroup’s “power and status” as whole.
My thoughts reading the study are that we should consequently expect outgropu members to be judged more harshly on average. Here’s what I mean: a judge may be particularly harsh with a member of the ingroup who has a history of bad acts but may be especially lenient on a ingroup member with no prior transgressions. However, if a judge sees outgroup behavior as a threat to his group overall, even first time offenders should see at least a moderate punishment. So on average, the two types (ingroup v. outgroup) of perpetrators should either end up getting roughly equal treatment or, more likely, outgroup members should get it worse.
In addition to my caveat at the beginning about generalizing due to age, I also worry about how useful this particular case is. The researchers paint a student doing a bratty thing (hiding library books). Would the same results occur if the crime in question were severe such as beating someone to death or burning a building to the ground? What effect would it have if the act was a victimless one (e.g. speeding or possessing illegal narcotics)? I tend to think that punishment doesn’t act linearly. In other words, I think that a sentencing individual responds differently when the consequences of punishment are severe (e.g. life in prison) than when they are minor (e.g. probation). This point about the nonlinear psychology of sentencing is, from what I can tell, greatly under-researched. I would like to see more treatment of it.
Another flaw with the study is the questionnair method. This is an easy way of conducting research and not necessarily as bad as you might think. It lets a researcher control for some other observable traits such as race. For example, a written can hid a person’s race by not mentioning that detail but a live, mock sentencing of a human being necessarily implicates this quality. So, there are indeed some advantages to using questionnaires. There are also some downsides. It is likely easier to punish the hypothetical individual on paper than to do so to a live person. Now, perhaps the Stanford Prison Experiment should suggest to me that participants would be just as willing to exact punishments on their living colleagues but I still would like to see an acknowledgement of this limitation.
All in all, this is some interesting research. If true, it no doubt has some implications for how practitioners might want to approach sentencing matters. You may want to take into account if your client is from the same background as the judge who may sentence that client. I suspect usually, the client will be an outgroup member. But it’s never good to assume. And moreover, if your client has no prior record, it might be worth the effort to paint him or her as similar to the judging figure—it might just make the difference in getting lenient treatment.
-Zachary Cloud
Gollwitzer, M. & Keller, L. (2010). What You Did Only Matters if You Are One of Us: Offenders’ Group Membership Moderates the Effect of Criminal History on Punishment Severity. Social Psychology, 41, 20-26.
Psychology Weekends: What Makes A Police Officer Tick?
I went trawling around this afternoon through a variety of psychology journals to see if there was anything worth writing about. Lo and behold, I came across a brand new, intriguing article by two researchers in France about the psychological motivations of police officers. For this weekend’s post, I thought I’d take some time to review their work and give my thoughts on it.
The study by Gatto & Dambrun, entitled “Authoritarianism, Social Dominance, and Prejudice Among Junior Police Officers,” attempts to explain more or less why police exhibit observed social psychological traits such as Social Dominance Orientation and Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Before we dig in to the current study, let’s take a quick look at what those two traits are. Social Dominance Orientation refers to “the degree to which individuals desire and support the group-based hierarchy and the domination of ‘inferior’ groups by ‘superior’ groups.” (Gatto & Dambrun, 2012: 61 (quoting Sidanius & Pratto (1999)). The authors do a poorer job of defining Right-Wing Authoritarianism though they note that it is a construct made up of three subcategories: aggression, submission, and conventionalism. I don’t want to get too hung up on defining the constructs because it’s not critical to understanding the study’s design or results. I will just note, however, that a little bit more time defining the constructs on the authors’ part would not have been time wasted.
At any rate, the authors note previous studies showing that officer tend to score high in these two traits…meaning that they strongly exhibit characteristics of Social Dominance Orientation and Right-Wing Authoritarianism. But why? What is it that makes a police officer exhibit these traits? That’s the question these researchers set out to solve. In essence, they put forward to possible hypotheses: (1) group socialization, or (2) social projection. That is, perhaps officers tended to adopt these traits as a result of becoming socialized by their fellow officers or maybe they started exhibiting traits they perceived were important in the group to fit in.
So how did they test their hypotheses? The researches administered a survey to newly hired police officers about to begin training with questions assessing traits for the two constructs and also with questions measuring what they thought the desirable traits were among their peers and others in their organization. Finally, the participants answered questions designed to measure prejudice toward “disadvantaged groups.”
To determine the results, the authors examined descriptive data then ran the data through “EQS Structural Equation Program.” They found significant correlations between the two constructs and they also found that each construct showed a strong, positive correlation with bias against disadvantaged groups. More to the heart of the matter, the authors found statistical support for their theory that expected group norms drive individuals’ personality traits in the police context.
Okay. So here are my thoughts on the paper. First and foremost, I was a little dissatisfied with the reliance solely on a self-report measure. I am no opponent of using surveys; I think they can be particularly effective when used correctly. But here, I don’t think they were. It’s not really enough to analyze survey-item response correlation by itself absent some sort of experimental manipulations. The authors in this study didn’t have any “experimental” or “control” that might have allowed for some causal inferences to be drawn. Why not run this same survey with civilians who have no connection to law enforcement then compare those civilians scoring similarly high on these two constructs with their police counterparts?
Another complaint with methodology is the reliance on “Structural Equations.” I know a fair amount about statistics in general and the statistical methods in the social sciences in particular…and I hadn’t ever heard of this term. It turns out to be a generic one that can refer to a variety of modeling techniques such as ANOVA, ordinary least squares regression, and the like. I would have preferred a little bit more detail regarding the specific tests being run…I certainly see familiar symbols like chi-square statistics but I am not entirely sure what to make of the data without a more descriptive explanation of the statistical models involved.
But perhaps the largest problem I see with the study is that it isn’t all that helpful in explaining or even investigating what the authors wanted to examine. In other words, if we’re interested in knowing why police tend to be so hierarchical and authoritarian, we’re no closer to knowing now than before the study was conducted. First of all, we’re facing a chicken and egg problem: do people high in these constructs tend to be come police and thus the role reinforces previously-existing character traits or does the job actually change a person’s affect? Secondly, it might be fine to say that groups of other officers tend to amplify or drive a new officer’s character traits but then you have to turn around and ask what caused those other officers to act they way they act. Again, this study is no help in answering that.
All in all, I found this research a little disappointing. I had hopes when I started to read through it that we might have some pretty interesting insights into why police have the observed character traits that we often see (e.g. strong on authoritarianism, big on hierarchy, etc…). Regrettably, this study only took some baby steps toward answering that mystery. Perhaps next week, I can share some research that’s a little bit more insightful.
-Zachary Cloud
Gatto, J. & Dambrun, M. (2012). Authoritarianism, Social Dominance, and Prejudice Among Junior Police Officers. Social Psychology, 43, 61-66.
Sidanius, J. & Pratto, F. (1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierary and oppression. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Psychology Weekends: You’re Probably Bad at Spotting Liars
I am dying to find some time to sit down and write a post about the various revelations about what the National Security Agency is doing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you live under a rock and need to go read here and here and here IMMEDIATELY. However, my discussion of that is for another time. Right now, it’s the weekend and we’re talking psychology…and I thought it might be sort of timely to talk about lying. Given all the news coverage about spying, a post on deception seems fitting. So, let’s talk about how good we are about spotting a person telling a lie and some steps we might take to improve our personal lie-detection abilities.
For quite some time, psychologists have been looking into humans’ abilities to perceive deception. For instance, almost 20 years ago, DePaulo (1994) noted that people are generally quite bad at accurately rating the deceptiveness of other people. Participants who watched another discuss something (e.g. what they did for a living, how they felt about something, what they believed, what they knew, etc…) could not reliably determine which people were lying and which people weren’t. This same effect holds true for law enforcement; when they were pitted against untrained college students, they were no more accurate at detecting when a person was lying. Though it’s worth highlighting that law enforcement thought they were better.
Some might be quick to point out that detecting a liar requires a baseline. In other words, you need to have some knowledge of how people respond when being truthful in order to spot when they act differently (e.g. give off some sort of tell). And indeed, polygraphs are useless unless a physiological baseline can be established. Nevertheless, most people are also bad at detecting lies told by people they know well (DePaulo, 1994).
All of this is old news. Let’s talk about what you may not have heard about. The first big point to note is that there are some minor exceptions to the general rule that we’re bad at spotting lies. Consider the work of Ekman and colleagues (1999), which shows that a small number of professionals have much greater accuracy than the rest of us. The researchers gathered a large number of different law enforcement and federal personnel including members of the CIA and Secret Service. Additionally, the study compared these law enforcement agents against clinical psychologists. Interestingly enough, the authors did find that federal agents trained in detecting behavior cues (e.g. facial muscle movements) outperformed other categories and in fact had a 70% or better accuracy rate.
Ok, but let’s say you don’t have the time or money to go through lots of formal training on what types of body cues suggest potential deception. Is there anything the average joe can do to help spot a lie??
There might just be…
A fairly recent study suggests that the key may be in avoiding mimicking. You see, we very commonly will imitate the physical behaviors of people with whom we’re communicating. This is so for a variety of reasons mostly related to rapport-building. It allows us to “smooth[] interaction” and “facilitate emotional understanding” (Stel, et al., 2009: 693). However, the researches wondered if this tendency to mimic might also mask our ability to see others’ deception. To find out, they designed a study where participants were assigned to one of three categories: (1) control group, (2) do mimic the target, or (3) don’t mimic the target. Thus, half of participants received particular instruction on whether they should mimic the potential liar during a conversation while the other half received no instruction at all. Meanwhile, other participants were recruited and assigned as “targets.” They were given an opportunity to donate to a charity then later told either to be “truthful” or “dishonest” with their conversation partner about whether they decided to donate. Then the participants paired up and had 3 minute conversations where the regular participants could interact and ask questions of the target. These sessions were videotaped for analysis by the researchers.
The results showed what the authors of the study hypothesized. Participants who actively chose not to mimic the target conversation partners were more accurate at predicting if the partner was lying. This effect was true across both the experimental and control groups such that people in the control who naturally didn’t mimic their partners enjoyed the effect in the same way that participants actively choosing not to mimic did.
Additionally, there is one other option you might consider if you want to improve your own accuracy in spotting lies. Recent research suggests that creating high cognitive loads and time pressures makes it much more difficult for liars to lie well. Walczyk and colleagues tested their “time restricted integrity confirmation (TriCon)” system of detection by using methods similar to an Implicit Attitude Test. Namely, the experimenters had participants answer questions on a laptop designed to measure how long it took participants to provide their answers. Of course, participants were told ahead of time to lie when they got to certain questions. The basic results—though the authors’ paper gets into more depth and describes two related experiments—is that people will respond faster when they are being truthful.
The take-home point here seems to be that people under pressure will have a harder time lying. So, if you keep the heat on the person you suspect and put them under other cognitive load (e.g. multitasking while answering questions), you will probably see them take longer to answer on questions where they are not being truthful.
That’s all I have for this weekend. I should note that each of these studies presents at least a couple areas worth skepticism or criticism. In other words, aspects of the study that might properly discourage you from relying too heavily on it. While I say that much, I leave it to you to read the studies and be your own critical thinkers…I just don’t have the time to do an in-depth analysis of each one’s methods nor do you probably want that. Even still, I encourage you to read the studies yourself!
Until next time…
-Zachary Cloud
DePaulo, B.M. (1994). Spotting Lies: Can Humans Learn to Do Better? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 83-86.
Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., & Frank, M.G. (1999). A Few Can Catch A Liar. Psychological Science, 10, 263-266.
Stel, M., van Dijk, E., & Oliver, E. (2009). You Want to Know the Truth? Then Don’t Mimic! Psychological Science, 20, 693-699.
Walczyk, J.J., Mahoney, K.T., Doverspike, D., & Griffith-Ross, D.A. (2009). Cognitive Lie Detection: Response Time and Consistency of Answers as Cues to Deception. Journal of Business and Psychology, 24, 33-49.
Psychology Weekends: Three New Studies You May Want to Read
This time around, I decided to do something shorter and more focused than last week’s psychology post. Today, I decided to peruse the latest volume of Law & Human Behavior to see what interesting studies have recently hit the press. Below, I’ll do a quick review of three that caught my eye
1. “Postincident Conferring by Law Enforcement Officers: Determining the Impact of Team Discussions on Statement Content, Accuracy, and Officer Beliefs.”
This article by Lorraine Hope and Joanne Fraser (University of Portsmouth), and Fiona Gabbert (University of Abertay) presents work in which the authors investigated police discussing an incident with each other prior to writing up their official police reports. Essentially, the authors were interested in determining what effects it might have on police to “get their stories straight” (my phrasing, not theirs) before writing up an account.
To do that, the authors recruited right around 300 police officers and paired them up into groups of six officers on average. The groups were randomly assigned into “conferring permitted” or “conferring not permitted” and then made to respond to a mock incident. Afterward, they either had to write up what happened and what actions they took without any discussion amongst colleagues or they were allowed to talk with their teammates before drawing up reports. All mock incidents were filmed so that the officers’ written statements could be accuracy-checked.
The results?
Interestingly, there was no evidence of a main effect for either improved or decreased accuracy when officers were allowed to confer with each other before writing up reports. BUT, far more interesting is that officers who were allowed to chat with their teammates felt more confident about their accuracy.
The take-home?
As I see it, a big take-home point is this. Police who have had a chance to “get their stories straight” post-incident will likely present as more sure of themselves. That could be a double edged sword at trial. If the officer’s version of events is effectively contradicted by other evidence then the credibility of the officer may be called into question. Of course, it might also make the jurors feel more likely to believe the officer. In much the same way, an officer who is less sure may have a lower overall effect on the jury’s willingness to believe him but simultaneously look more human and less biased for acknowledging the shortcomings of memory.
Full Citation:
Hope, L., Gabbert, F., & Fraser, J. (2013). Postincident Conferring by Law Enforcement Officers: Determining the Impact of Team Discussion on Statement Content, Accuracy, and Officer Beliefs. Law and Human Behavior, 37, 117-127.
2. “False Alibi Corroboration: Witnesses Lie for Suspects Who Seem Innocent, Whether They Like Them or Not.”
This is an interesting piece of research. The authors wanted “[t]o test the commonly held assumption that individuals who share a personal relationship are more likely to lie for one another than are strangers.”
Here’s how the study was set up: in a 2 x 2 design, participants got assigned to either a “friendship-enhancing” or “stranger-maintaining” condition. They were placed in a room with a confederate who would either worked with them to complete a group project or not. Next, the confederate left the room and either returned with some money or empty-handed to create either “apparent theft” or “no apparent theft” conditions.
The next stage was interrogation. Both the confederates and participants were questioned by an experimenter. At this point, the confederate denied ever leaving the testing room and claimed being with the participant the whole time. The experimenter split the confederate and participant up and asked the participant if that statement was true.
The results?
The participants would lie. They would back up the confederate’s false statement about never leaving the room. However, they were more likely to lie when there was no presence of evidence. That is, when the confederate returned to the testing room without any money. In the instances where the confederate returned to the room with money, participants were less often willing to lie and cover for the confederate.
Particularly noteworthy though: no evidence was found that “friendship-enhancing” or “stranger-maintaining” had any effect on the likelihood of a participant lying. As the authors of the study say it, “it would seem that people tend to underestimate how likely it is that strangers, or individuals sharing distant social relationships, would lie for one another.”
The take-home?
I find this study encouraging. It seems to provide evidence that people are less concerned about whether they like you than if there is evidence against you. Of course, absence of proof isn’t proof of absence. The authors here simply didn’t find any statistically significant difference between “friendship-enhancing” and “stranger-maintaining” when evaluating likelihood of lying. This doesn’t prove there isn’t an effect. It’s just lack of any hard evidence. Perhaps the bigger take-home is that we’re fairly willing to cover for strangers who are accused. There must be something to this…that we’re willing to stick up for each other by potentially tarnishing our own reputation for truthfulness. Interesting indeed.
Full Citation:
Marion, S.B. & Burke, T. M., (2013). Alibi Corroboration: Witnesses Lie for Suspects Who Seem Innocent, Whether They Like Them or Not. Law and Human Behavior, 37, 136-143.
3. “Callous-Unemotional Traits Robustly Predict Future Criminal Offending in Young Men.”
This study is not necessarily unintuitive and I won’t spend too much time on it. I thought it worth pointing out because it provides further (and perhaps better) empirical support for the general notion that certain traits in adults tend to predict likelihood to commit crimes. Specifically, the traits include: lack of empathy, deficient guilt/remorse, and shallow affect.
The authors point out that prior research examining this topic have not necessarily separated the predictive effect of such personality traits from other intermediary variables such as prior offense records, association with delinquent individuals, etc… This study sought to isolate potentially confounding variables that were driving likelihood to commit crime and see if Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits had predictive value in and of themselves.
In order to do this, the authors assessed participants in their homes. They administered self-report scales measuring various CU traits and also gathered information on the participants’ arrest records, convictions, alcohol/substance use, and demographic information (education, employment, marital status, ethnicity, etc…). The authors followed up on each participant (the average follow-up period was 3.5 years) to see what if any criminal offending the participants had engaged in. The authors built a logistic regression model to determine the effect of CU measures and other variables on likelihood to offend.
The result?
Self-reported CU factors are a “robust” predictor of a person’s likelihood to offend and held their predictive power even after other “well-established risk factors” had been controlled for in the regression model. The authors found that CU traits predicted arrests and being charged with crimes. However, authors did not find that any one particular CU trait (e.g. lack of empathy) had predictive power on its own.
The take-home?
I don’t see it as all that suprising that people whose personality traits don’t align with the status quo would frequently be at odds with the law. A person who doesn’t place the same value on your right to property or your right to be left alone might well do things that cause him trouble with the law. What I found worth pondering is that no one trait is predictive. In other words, you need to have some critical mass of CU traits. The wider implications of that could be scary. Might employers, insurers, or the government start evaluating people on their CU traits and trying to predict who will offend before it happens in a Minority Report type fashion? And even more fundamentally, does this observed effect indicate a health issue we need to address? Would it be arrogant to label people scoring high on these CU predictors as ‘unhelathy’ or ‘ill’? Those are larger questions perhaps to be answered another time.
Full Citation:
Kahn, R.E., Byrd, A.L., & Pardini, D.A. (2013). Callous-Unemotional Traits Robustly Predict Future Criminal Offending in Young Men. Law and Human Behavior, 37, 87-97.
4. Conclusion
Well that’s it folks. I just wanted to take a glimpse of new work and leave you with some food for thought and material to digest should you so choose. Until next time…
-Zachary Cloud
Psychology Weekends: Why We Tend To Presume A Criminal Suspect is Guilty
For this inaugural weekly post on psychology, I want to explore a topic that has intrigued me for a long time: the tendency to assume suspects are guilty of the crimes they’re charged with. I hear, with some frequency, the basic sentiment that people arrested of crimes are probably guilty. People say things such as “why would the police arrest him if he weren’t?” or “he looks like he did it” or things of a similar nature. Of course, these are snap judgments made by uninvolved people…not informed decisions of jurors who have heard evidence from both sides and come to a reasoned decision. Why does this happen? Why are people quick to presume guilt…particularly when they have such limited information (i.e. that which they hear, see, or read in media)? That’s the topic I want to delve into. This is an informal piece where I’ll propose a set of possible factors at play based on a review of known psychological phenomena.
1. A Hypothetical
Let me start with a scenario. A rash of break-ins occurs in a middle-class neighborhood of your city. Over the past couple of weeks, almost a dozen good, honest, hard-working people like you have had their privacy invaded and their possessions stolen. The hot items tend to be electronics (e.g. flat screens, blu-Ray players, laptops) and cash. Less frequently, jewelry goes missing. A vast majority of these break-ins occur during the day and when the homes are unoccupied.
The local news outlets have all been reporting on this disturbing trend. Then, one day the media announce that police have made an arrest in connection with the burglaries. A shot of the perp in cuffs appears on the TV along with a sound bite from the local police head saying: “We got him!”
Okay, now let’s pause. How do you feel?
Yes, yes, I know this is just a hypothetical but I have little doubt you’ve come across real-life scenarios that are quite similar to what I described above. So, how does that make you feel? I’m probably not too far off the mark to guess that it made you feel relieved. And why would you feel relieved? Because you presumed that the person who posed a threat to people like you (i.e. good, honest, hard-working people) is now in custody and you won’t be at risk of a break-in yourself.
Your assumption is in opposition to law. Any person who is charged with a crime is legally presumed innocent. The United States Supreme Court said so way back in the 19th century, at which point the presumption of innocence was already deemed “undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary … .” Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432, 453 (1895). Now, if we wanted to we could get into an extended discussion of what it means to be found legally guilty of committing a crime because there is, after all, a distinction between whether a person acted in a certain way and whether such action would subject them to criminal penalty. Honestly though, I don’t want to get bogged down in that discussion. What I’m interested in is a discussion of why we tend to believe did what they’re accused of doing.
2. Basics of Ingroup / Outgroup bias
It seems to me that at least part of the reason people tend to assume a criminal suspect’s guilt has to do with the basics of “ingroup” and “outgroup.” There is plenty of research in the literature on the topic of the ingroup and the outgroup and the basic effect is that we tend to prefer people we view as similar to ourselves and we tend to dislike people who are dissimilar. Thus people like us are a part of the ingroup and people we view as different are a part of the outgroup. Researchers have provided evidence that we often see members of our ingroup as being more diverse while we often perceive outgroup members as being much more similar to each other (termed outgroup homogeneity bias). This is the essential psychological mechanism at play when we say people of a different race “all look the same” (Ackerman et al., 2006). Jost and colleagues (2004) provide a decent review of some of the major implications for those wishing to get up to speed.
As Ackerman (2006) also rightly noted, the outgroup homogeneity bias is a function of our reliance on heuristics. Rodin (1987) provided a series of experiments about how we allocate our cognitive resources and “disregard” things and people that we are not interested in paying much attention to. In other words, “[w]hen there are multiple events or stimuli competing for limited attentional resources, attention is mainly allocated to those that are most informative or suprising” (Rodin, 1987: 146).
Now let’s apply this. The label of “criminal” is a way of categorizing people—presumably people in your outgroup. I’m guessing you likely don’t view yourself as a criminal. In fact, you probably don’t consider yourself a criminal even if you have had some trouble with the law in the past. Say you got a DUI once or maybe when you were a kid you were charged with trespassing. It was a slip-up, a limited circumstance. You’re not a criminal, just a person who made a mistake. Of course, if you’ve never been charged breaking the law before then your belief in yourself as someone who isn’t a criminal will be doubly true.
Similarly, you probably aren’t arrested very often if ever. Again, some of you might have had a minor incident here or there but that’s it. So, when you see someone on TV in handcuffs it’s hard to relate to that.
From every angle, your conception of yourself as being different from a “criminal” helps create an “outgroup” mentality. People like you don’t do bad things nor do the police hassle your or arrest you. Therefore, the people who are arrested must be different. They must be in the outgroup.
3. Trusting Authority’s Ability to Get the Right Guy
The next component that I think goes into a tendency to presume a criminal suspect’s guilt is our pre-disposition to trusting certain authority figures. As Glanville and Paxton (2007) demonstrated, our tendency to trust is influenced in large party by social learning. That is, we learn based upon our particular life experiences whether people are generally trustworthy or not. This general method of forming trust can apply to the government and its actors. For example, concerns over security relate to our willingness to trust government. This has been particularly clear in the context of our response to government after 9/11 (Chanley, 2002). And, as one political philosopher / psychologist has described it, “when in doubt, follow a lead” (Searing, 1995: 680). Indeed, Searing (1995) might agree that a small portion of our trust is reciprocity-based; that we reward the government when it keeps us safe by giving it our trust.
So again, some application. The police say that they have caught a burglar or a bank robber. We assume that they are acting in good faith…that they have pieced together evidence and leads to find the right guy and place him under arrest.
4. Why Trusting Authority’s Ability Is Problematic
Here’s why that’s a bad thing to assume. Police are not necessarily any better at figuring out if someone is guilty or innocent than you are. Kassin and colleagues (2003) have examined the ability of police to successfully determine guilt through a series of experiments. Drawing on the work of Akehurst et al. (1996), Ekman & O’Sullivan (1991), and DePaulo & Pfeifer (1986), Kassin sought to confirm the fact that police “hold many false beliefs about the behavior indicators of deception and that groups of ‘experts’ who make such judgments for a living … are highly prone to error” (Kassin et al., 2003: 188).
The result? He found that investigators with “guilty expectations” not only were predisposed to interpret behavior and responses by suspects as indications of guilt but that it led them to utilize interrogation techniques “which constrained the behavior of suspects and led others to infer their guilt—thus confirming the initial presumption” (Kassin et al., 2003: 199). In other words, police and other law enforcement seem particularly prone to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the effect of interpreting information in a way that “confirms” your preconceived belief. For example, a person who dislikes Chevrolets is most likely to give stronger weight to negatives that he learns about the brand. He is less likely to pay attention to, or give equal weight to, positives about the brand. In sum, Kassin and colleagues suggest that this tendency on the part of law enforcement to come into the interrogation room already thinking they have the right guy causes them to act in a way that both makes them particularly prone to confirmation bias and probably in a way that subjects a criminal suspect to high levels of coercion at the same time. The problem with coercion is, of course, that it has reliably translated into false confessions because suspects think saying what police want to hear will help them end the encounter.
In other words, investigators are every bit as prone to bias and getting it wrong as you and I are. What’s worse, there is some evidence to suggest that a suspect’s attempt to explain his innocence or present another story will not only be disregarded but may actually be used as further evidence of his guilt. Kassin observed that “it appears that [investigators] interpreted [an innocent person’s] denials as proof of a guilty person’s resistance—and redoubled their efforts to elicit a confession.” (2003: 200). This observation aligns with new research from Esposo and colleagues (2013), which illustrates we generally refuse to legitimately consider the possibility that a person’s argument is correct when that person is a member of an outgroup.
5. Concluding Remarks
In this post, I’ve put forward the mechanisms that seem to be at play in our tendency to presume a criminal suspect is guilty. I have not come across research that empirically tests precisely how common it is for us to consider an arrested person guilty nor any articles that have proposed models for the seeming effect. Accordingly, this is my informal and original suggestion of what is probably going on…or at least what known psychological tendencies probably play a role.
I have suggested that many people who presume criminal suspects guilty do so because they view “criminals” as members of an outgroup and because they are willing to trust that police do a good job of catching the right guys. I then have illustrated why there is strong psychological evidence to suggest that law enforcement aren’t necessarily that good at figuring out who is guilty versus who is innocent and reviewed studies explaining why.
For the most part, I aimed to keep this post descriptive rather than normative. I didn’t set out to g on a long tirade about how awful people are for presuming everyone is guilty rather than following the grand tradition of “innocent until proven guilty.” However, I do think at this point it’s appropriate to remind ourselves of a valuable college lesson: be a critical thinker.
We have a lot of information we have to process every day. It’s overwhelming and it’s lead us to, quite understandably, use short-cuts for processing. These heuristics let us parse all the data we receive quickly and efficiently. We put people into ingroups and outgroups. We make generalized determinations about who to trust. All of this saves us time and psychological energy. Unfortunately, it’s also lazy and dangerous. When a person’s liberty is at state—as it is with the criminal suspect—we owe it not just to them but to ourselves to be critical thinkers. This is something we owe ourselves because the legitimacy of our justice system depends upon it. The respect of process and justice that we desire can only come from us treating such judicial mechanisms seriously and giving them a rigorous foundation to rest upon. Our ability to think through things carefully, critically, and rationally is not in question—our ability to be disciplined enough to actually behave in such ways is. If we are willing to treat matters like guilt an innocence with proper gravity than we have gone a long way to ensuring that our system is fair and just. And a system that is fair and just is good for all of us.
-Zachary Cloud
Ackerman, J., et al. (2006). They All Look the Same to Me (Unless They’re Angry): From Out-Group Homogeneity to Out-Group Heterogeneity. Psychological Science, 17, 836-840.
Akehurst, L., Kohnken, G., Vrjj, A., & Bull, R. (1996). Lay persons’ and police officers’ beliefs regarding deceptive behaviour. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 461-471.
Chanley, V. (2002). Trust in Government in the Aftermath of 9/11: Determinants and Consequences. Political Psychology, 23, 469-483.
DePaulo, B. & Pfeifer, R. (1986). On-the-job experience and skill at detecting deception. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 16, 249-267.
Ekman, P. & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar? American Psychologist, 46, 913-920.
Esposo, S., Hornsey, M., & Spoor, J. (2013). Shooting the messenger: Outsiders critical of your group are rejected regardless of argument quality. British Journal of Social Psychology, 1-10
Glanville, J. & Paxton, P. (2007). How do We Learn to Trust? A Confirmatory Tetrad Analysis of the Sources of Generalized Trust. Social Psychology Quarterly, 70, 230-242.
Jost, J., Banaji, M., & Noesk B., (2004). A Decade of System Justification Theory: Accumulated Evidence of Conscious and Unconscious Bolstering of the Status Quo. Political Psychology, 25, 881-919.
Kassin, S., Goldstein, C., & Savitsky, K. (2003). Behavioral Confirmation in the Interrogation Room: On the Dangers of Presuming Guilt. Law and Human Behavior, 27, 187-203.
Rodin, M. (1987). Who is Memorable to Whom: A Study of Cognitive Disregard. Social Cognition, 5, 144-165.
Searing, D. (1995). The Psychology of Political Authority: A Causal Mechanism of Political Learning Through Persuasion and Manipulation. Political Psychology, 16, 677-696. |
Most secondary schools receive children from several feeder primary schools, and this can pose a problem for secondary science staff who need to ensure all necessary curriculum content is clearly understood in preparation for progression through Key Stage 3. The temptation to err on the side of caution and work from a 'lowest common denominator' may, however, result in unnecessary repetition of work, and may not be the best way to maintain children's enthusiasm and excitement at the start of the new key stage.
How do we ensure effective transition? Here are some possible ideas for strategies to think about:
These ideas are starting points, and you will no doubt have other equally valid ideas of your own.
None of these are mutually exclusive, and can creatively be used in combination.
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Monday, November 12, 2018
A Short History of the Republican Party
As I recall it, the Republican party grew out of the Whig party (whatever that was) as a party opposed to slavery. This led to the Civil War, won by anti-slavery forces. After the war, reconstructing the nation began well but ended with Rutherford B. Hayes, who traded away the civil rights of men of color in exchange for the Presidency. Jim Crow began and lasted for nearly 100 years.
During the Great Depression the Democratic party won the loyalty of a majority of voters by trying to help them. The Democrats included both America's main progressive elements and the most racist voters. About 60 years ago, the Republicans realized that one way to return to power would be to hint that they were now the genuine home of racists. That would split off some of the Democrats' voters.
So the Republicans began to hint that they might support a little more racism. This was the dog whistle tactic used by Nixon and Reagan. Soon Southern racists began to shift their loyalties. With more racists voting in Republican primaries, candidates began to compete, seeking racist votes more openly. The most obviously racist candidates began to win primaries.
To stand out among so many racists, some Republican leaders began to add that women were forgetting their place, which was pregnant, barefoot and in kitchens. Abortions should not be tolerated by men. Now armed with two issues, white supremacy and male supremacy, the Republicans began to attract fringe elements like the KKK. Soon the KKK and Nazis were voting in Republican primaries. Instead of nominating Wilkie, Dewey or Eisenhower, the Republicans were nominating Nixon (paranoid), Reagan (senile) and Trump (nuts). Each election the Republicans slid deeper into a concentration of America's worst muck, until, today, the old-style Republicans are leaving the degenerating party in disgust. (This summary omits the Wall Street factors and attempts to repeal social security, Medicare, Obamacare, etc.)
Saturday, November 10, 2018
The Captain of the Titanic
This is the captain of the Titanic. We just crushed a major iceberg. We won bigger than I said--I said we would win huge. The North Atlantic loves me. It always has. It loves me. People tell me there's never been a bigger victory in the history of ships. That's right. People know I have a big brain, really big, and the best words. Lots of the best words. These icebergs are small, little things, but cold. Fine. I can be colder than they are. Everyone is telling me I am the coldest. Icebergs are losers. They're ugly and low I.Q, somewhere in the mid-30s. You ever see an iceberg? They don't know what they're doing.
Friday, November 9, 2018
In the Land of the Fraud
Probably you've seen or heard that the White House distributed a fake video clip yesterday. This fiction showed (supposedly) a respected reporter pushing around a young female intern at a press conference.
We live in a tech age of faked data used to manipulate ignorant voters.
Politics has always been rife with lying. Lies were told for and against President Washington. More recent political leaders have often presented absurd travesties of the truth. Johnson lied about Vietnam. Richard Nixon was paranoid. Reagan was senile in office. Bill Clinton perjured himself chasing young women. George W. Bush started a war with the wrong country, killing hundreds of thousands (by mistake?).
This increasingly steep downhill slide has produced today a rich President who is mentally blighted, emotionally warped, vulgar in the worst ways, cruel and utterly incompetent. He's a lout a dog couldn't love. Trump is unbearably ugly inside and out, but nearly half the nation worships him. That's what our system has come to. We need to change something.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
The Outcome
I'm trying to come to terms with Tuesday's outcomes. On the positive side, I still live in the Republic of California, which has deep flaws (including politicians groveling to real estate corporations)-- but the state rejects the mad Trumplets who ate and excreted the Republican party. In the larger nation, I am grateful to the many ignored but decisive organizations like Indivisible that organized and brought out women candidates and encouraged the votes of the women and young people. Independent volunteers won the House of Representatives. They did for the Democratic party what the party remained too backward, too Bill Clinton-enfeebled to do for itself.
The last Republican congressmen from L.A. county is packing his bags. The Republicans lost Statin Island and the last Republican congressman from New York City.
On the negative side, 45% of the voters still approve of the zombie, our vulgar, misogynist, openly racist and brain-dead President Spank-My-Buttocks. White-Wingers prevailed in the South 150 years after the end of the Civil War. We lost, at least for now, three promising leaders to the nasty lunacy of racism. That's hard to accept. When I was young I once stood within a few feet of MLK, and now that I'm old, this?
Monday, November 5, 2018
The Democrats
We are at a peculiar corner in history where one of our two major political parties has collapsed into white-winged, radical-right nihilism. There is one relatively rational major party left on the field, the Democratic party. As an independent democratic socialist, my view is that it is up to the Democrats now to represent a spectrum of voters ranging from Bernie Sanders to Ronald Reagan, from FDR to Eisenhower. Responsible people have no place else to go.
Voters have the options of supporting third parties or not voting at all, but they won't restore sanity to our governance system.
The Democrats have been claiming for decades to be a big tent party. At this point we need an absurdly big tent party, and we may have one. I see surviving Reaganites on television asking people to vote for Democrats. They are trying to save what little exists of a representative system already stacked against women, the working poor and people of color. Republicans and Democrats had better hang together on Tuesday or we will, as Thomas Paine wrote, all hang separately.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Who Is White?
The definition of the white race depends on which culture you dwell in. Below I reproduce the official position of American white nationalists (Trump). It's from a website called STORMFRONT. According to nationalist guidelines, my wife, children, grandchild and son-in-law are not white.
What follows below is a quote from a leader in the movement. By his definition, which is reminiscent of the old "one drop" rule, white-wingers are a minority group.
So in response to the question, "Who's White?" we answer: "Non-Jewish people of wholly European descent. No exceptions."
What comprises "European?" Those areas north of the Mediterranean and west of the Urals corresponding roughly to what was formerly known as European Christendom.
If someone were to say that they (sic) were 12.5% Amerindian then, as far as we're concerned, that's what they are, 1/8th non-White. This is something about which we can't compromise. You're either White or you aren't.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
"Prepare to Squat," a True Story
In our first war against Mexico (1846), which trained the military leaders of the Civil War (Grant, Lee), one outfit was led by a general named Doniphan. Maybe he was a colonel.
Anyway, Doniphan soon faced an enemy army at the Battle of Brazito (Little Arm). Both sides loaded their muskets and lined up to exchange volleys. At this point Doniphan, like many a good Irishman before him, was struck by an idea. He turned to his troops and uttered the first command he had ever given in combat. "Prepare to squat!"
Doniphan squatted his men as the Mexican army fired its volley, which passed overhead, wounding only a few traditionalists who had rejected the new order. He then stood his men up, and they fired a volley into the ranks of the confused and possibly indignant Mexicans, killing many and winning the day.
This is today's small piece of history.
Fort Bragg
Civil War General Braxton Bragg was responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, starting with Shiloh, one of many battles he lost for the Confederacy. Anyone familiar with the Civil War knows that Bragg was mightily disliked by many soldiers and generals of the Confederacy, including James Longstreet. Bragg was sustained by the high regard of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, but nearly everyone else considered Bragg a toxic loser.
Recently I read the republished diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, DOWN THE SANTA FE TRAIL AND INTO MEXICO, in which this 18-year-old woman, newly married, records her journey into Chihuahua in the middle of the Mexican War. Her portrait of life on the road in 1846 is compelling; this is what she says about Bragg, then a major. "The Maj. is called a great disciplinarian, drilling his men twice a day much to their dissatisfaction, they a few nights since placed a shell (under his cot) with a slow match, intending to kill him, but fortunately tho' it exploded about 11 O'clock shattering the roof of his tent, his trunk, part of his cott and even piercing the bed-clothing, he was unhurt."
This was one of two attempts the men made to kill Bragg during a short and unwarranted war.
I mention this because there's a town in California named Fort Bragg. It's located a few miles west of Fort Benedict Arnold.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Technology-Enabled Savagery
In The New Yorker John Cassidy wrote about America:
"Despite a rising tide of gun violence and political extremism, it has repeatedly failed to adapt its institutions and its laws—particularly those relating to guns and the online spread of hate speech—to an age of technology-enabled savagery." Cassidy's point is that our country is malfunctioning.
I'll add this. We are now down to one political party, and it is out of power. |
THE FIRST INTERPLANETARY WAR (C)1995 Alan M. Schwartz is already engaged. The initial shot was fired 18 October 1989. The projectile reached its target 1425 hrs Pacific Standard Time 07 December 1995. The weapon is unleashed. The volume of targeted devastation exceeds the entire bulk of our Earth. The campaign will not surface in the Media for years. The scheme is clandestine, merciless, unstoppable and irreversible. No negotiations are offered; no capitulation is sought. On 18 October 1989 the political porkbarrel christened space shuttle Atlantis launched the Galileo mission - itself a political football. Had a rational heavy lifter been employed, the mission would have traveled to Jupiter in a forthright manner. Weight, dimensional, and safety considerations attendant to the shuttle converted scientific enquiry into a costly joke. The mission was multiply canceled given weather and mechanical faults (the Challenger explosion). The shuttle is unexcelled at busting schedules. Galileo was hauled, mounted, demounted and rehauled so many times that its high gain antenna was rendered undeployable. The miniature booster acceptable in the shuttle's cargo bay forced a six year gymkhana of caroming the 2.5 ton spacecraft off two planetary gravitational wells until it acquired the speed and direction needed to visit Jupiter. Technicians sweated out data acquisition reprogramming to minimize the collected bits and subject them to maximum compression, that the low-gain antenna could transmit at fully 1% of the (inoperable) main antenna's rate. Galileo's four track, reel-to-reel 900 megabit tape recorder - the data storage fallback lest the high gain antenna fail - also failed, but not quite completely. A duplicate on the ground snapped its tape within a few hours of Galileo's chronic glitch. (Note that tape backups for your computer are not only physically smaller and more rugged, they have tremendously larger capacities. What they lack is a Senator shilling for his home district.) On 13 July 1995 the atmospheric probe separated from the Galileo platform to approach Jupiter on a different trajectory. It entered Jovian atmosphere at 1415 hrs Pacific Standard Time on 07 December 1995 at 6.5 degrees north latitude, transmitted for 75 minutes after popping its chute, then succumbed to the local environment. It bestowed a hitchhiking gift. Nobody bothered to sterilize the thing before launch - not the hardware, not the thousands of square feet of parachute (both sides plus fabric interstices). Did passage through Jupiter's radiation belts bestow a minimum five megarad medical sterilization? The uppermost of Jupiter's atmosphere is primordial gas - hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia - ravaged by raw sunlight rich in hard ultraviolet, seared by particulate radiation, and scorched by whatever else the universe has to offer. 100 miles lower the pressure is 20-30 atmospheres and liquid water is abundant, dosed with a smorgasbord of the first 18 elements and their volatile compounds, constantly replenished by downfalling and upwelling chemistry. A huge volume of Jupiter's atmosphere is paradise to Terran bacterial and fungal anaerobic heterotrophs who make their living metabolizing inorganics at ocean floor volcanic vents, hot springs, abandoned mines, and sewers. A volume of churning gas and clouds exceeding the entire volume of our planet from the edge of our atmosphere fifty miles above Earth's surface to the very center 3965 miles beneath our feet, awaits colonization. Terrestrial environments suffer physical crowding, isolated habitats, limited raw materials, and waste accumulation. Every Terran organism introduced into the mighty winds mixing the Brobdingnagian atmosphere of Jupiter will enjoy an all but infinite supply of Lebensraum, ecological niches, and inorganic nutrients. Metabolic wastes will swirl into the largest recycling bin in the solar system. Gigatons of microbes will scarcely constitute an infinitesimally dilute soup. Think of it as Genesis with a kickstart. Like Darwin's finches, the new visitors will evolve. Unlike Darwin's finches, the simplicity and short reproductive cycle - hours - of bacteria and fungi allow for explosive natural selection. The classical example is a yeast cell doubling every six hours, multiplying its numbers by 16 every day. In nine weeks of unlimited reproduction it would outweigh all of creation, 10^80 cells. If even one microorganism finds a happy new home, that is what we have unleashed within Jupiter. Assuredly there will be a high mortality rate among the colonizers, doubling time might be much longer under trying circumstances as life finds its way, and Jupiter is a very large place. Even so, within a few years or decades the fruits of our carelessness will consume the largest planet. Some may call it terraforming, others trespass and atrocity on a celestial scale. The consummate god of the planets will go rancid microgram by microgram, petatonne by petatonne. Lest anyone believe that Little Green Men are engaged in local commerce, an ultimate lesson in disastrously nonchalant cross- cultural hygiene is aborning. |
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