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Acceleration and velocity question-easy-need help
1. Sep 17, 2011 #1
A car is waiting at a stoplight. Just as the light turns green and the car starts to accelerate, a truck passes at a constant velocity in the next lane. The truck passes at a velocity 25.0 m/s while the car accelerates 5.00 m/s^2 both in the same direction,
Calculate the distance travelled by the car before it overtakes the truck?
Car's speed as it overtakes the truck?
2. Relevant equations
I am a little confused on this one.
3. The attempt at a solution
I think you have to use the formula vf^2=Vi^2 +2ad but am not sure. Do you combine 2 formulas?
any help would be appreciated
2. jcsd
3. Sep 17, 2011 #2
4. Sep 17, 2011 #3
When I solve for t it become zero, therefore the distance becomes zero which is impossible. any other suggestions
5. Sep 17, 2011 #4
You should probably show how you solved for time, because you clearly made an error at some point.
6. Sep 17, 2011 #5
Recheck your equation. This is how it goes:
X = Xi + Vi(t) + (.5)Ax(t^2)
Xc = 0 + 0(t) + (.5)(5.00)(t^2) = 2.5t^2
XT = 0 + 25.0(t) + (.5)(0)(t^2) = 25.0t
SO....2.5t^2 = 25.0t.......THEN.....t=10.
7. Sep 17, 2011 #6
car 1-
vi=0 m/s
a=5.00 m/s^2
v=25.0 m/s
assuming the distances are the same at the beginning
distance would equal zero as they are stopped
using the formula d=Vi(t)+1/2at^2
plug that back into the formula
this is my work for this and it is not getting me the right answer which in the back of the book says 250m for A and 50 m/s for B
any help please.
8. Sep 17, 2011 #7
They are definitely not stopped considering the truck has a constant velocity.
The reason we set the distance equal to one another (NOT TO 0, because we dont know the distance) is that we are finding WHEN the car meets up with the trucks position. By solving for t, as I did above, you do that.
So if you look at my equation above and then plug in t=10 to either X function.....you get exactly 250m.
9. Sep 17, 2011 #8
Also, the reason you were getting t=0 is that you were solving for when the cars were at distance 0...which is t = 0.
10. Sep 17, 2011 #9
I am still a bit confused with the x's u are using in your formula. We were given the formula
d=vi(t) + 1/2at^2
how did u get all of those x's into it and 0's for the x's
thanks for all the help!
11. Sep 17, 2011 #10
So the whole equation is:
d(the position of x from Xi aka the distance) = Xi(Initial position of x which is 0 and why they probably left it out) + Vi(t)(which is initial velocity, 0 for the car cause it is at rest in the beginning, and 25 is given for the truck) + 1/2Axt^2(I put the x because it just means Acceleration in the x direction, but you probably haven't went into acceleration in the y direction yet so that is why it is tripping you up. Just think that Ax is equal to what you have for a, Also, A is 0 for the truck because the velocity is constant, and 5.0 is given for the car.)
That should cover everything, hope that helps.
12. Sep 18, 2011 #11
thanks i got the answer!
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How exactly is digital information sent with radio waves?
1. Sep 8, 2011 #1
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What I am interested in here specifically is - how are bits represented?
Is it as "1" is represented with a sent photon [at those specific frequencies] and "0" with a .. silence (no photon sent) ?
... but this, in that case, would get really complicated, because other photons from other sources would interfere and the "silence" would easily be filled with something.
.. or is this avoided by making the silence not necessarily as long [think wavelength] as the photons, so that, even if disturbance occurs, it cannot possibly be interpreted to be from the same signal as the timing would not mach they would overlay .. so only the photon that comes i at specific time is registered..
im just really just thinking out loud here as I write.
But this bothers me. At a fundamental level.
2. jcsd
3. Sep 8, 2011 #2
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Staff: Mentor
The concept you are asking about is "modulation":
4. Sep 8, 2011 #3
There is a whole science involving how one best stores or transmits information through a noisy channel. But the simple answer to your question is this: a reasonable modulation method is chosen (might be the on-off method you described, or might be some other modulation method) and then one must simply make sure there is enough power (loudness) in the signal to make it possible for the receiver to hear it among the noise. In practice (for a typical radio link) there will be guzillions of photons for each bit of information. For example, if your modulation method were used, the transmitter sends a guzillion photons in a split second to mean a "1" bit, but no photons to mean a 0 bit. This is done because a single photon isn't nearly loud enough for the receiver to hear it above the noise.
Last edited: Sep 8, 2011
5. Sep 9, 2011 #4
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mm, ok, that explains quite much. [that one photons is to .. weak] I made this fast calculation and, with a frequency of about 1000MHz, we could send more than 100MB per second.. that is quite fast. And could potentially get up to 200MB (mega frikin bytes, not bits) if one just makes the "silences" short enough.
More, if the frequency is higher..
so, one photon is not enough, but.. I heard of these "super photons" when a bunch of them travel as a single thing.. If we could learn how to generate these things efficiently, we could maybe get up to those speeds mentioned above?
That would be insane [..ly cool]
6. Sep 9, 2011 #5
A single electrical pulse of just a few watts sent into an antenna does produce guzzillions of photons.
You can actually send more than one bit per single wave of the signal. For example, you might define your modulation where there might be 32 different values for the amplitude of a single wave of a signal, where each amplitude value represents a different pattern of 5 bits (2^5=32). So ten waves could send fifty bits. See how the frequency of the carrier signal is not a limit on the data rate?
There is a theoretical maximum data rate that can be sent through any channel, and it depends on the signal power (your transmit power), the frequency bandwidth occupied by the signal (You can send more data through a 5MHz channel than you can through a 1MHz channel even with the same signal power), and how much noise is in the channel. In fact, if there is no noise in the channel then you can send with an infinite data rate (assuming you use a clever modulation). for example you could have thousands of amplitude levels for each wave of the signal where each one means a different sequence of bits (you could only do that if there were very little noise). You could do the same thing with the time that the wave is sent (phase modulation). That's why a 56K modem can work in a 3KHz bandwidth phone line. phone lines are typically fairly low noise.
Last edited: Sep 9, 2011
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Comparative Religion for Dummies (Heftet)
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Forfatter: og
Innbinding: Heftet
Utgivelsesår: 2008
Antall sider: 384
Forlag: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Språk: Engelsk
ISBN/EAN: 9780470230657
Omtale Comparative Religion for Dummies
Understand the beliefs, customs, and rituals of each faith The fun and easy way to know the common elements of these widespread religions Want to know more about the faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? This plain-English guide traces their evolution from their commonorigin - Abraham - and explains their different, yet linked, beliefs.You'll see how each religion developed, endured setbacks, and became a fixture in modern society - and you'll learn how members havedeveloped similar approaches to worship. Discover: How the belief in one God originated The roots of Abraham's family tree The sacred texts of each faith Major similarities and differences How these religions influenced the world
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Andrew R Holmes
The Reformation had radically altered the religious role and social standing of the clergy. The Protestant Reformers insisted on a general priesthood of believers, though it was rarely realized, and they rejected the view that ordination was a sacrament. Despite the apparent reduction in status this implied, the Protestant clergies remained a privileged body through the symbolism of their ordination, their university education, and their links by marriage with the ever-emerging middle classes. Their domestic arrangements helped to define religious and social respectability within the community, as they performed their role as the godly head oftheir household. In Zurich they modelled appropriate behaviour and piety as a reflection of the authoritarian state, while Toby Barnard notes that the Anglican parsonages of eighteenth-century Ireland were to be 'miniature godly commonwealths'. The reformers' ideal for an educated parish ministry was eventually achieved, but the process was a long drawn-out and complex affair. As with cultural change more generally in early modern Europe, the influence of tradition and the constant interplay between ideals and reality were often more important than revolutionary changes.
Between 1660 and 1780, the confessional rancour of the previous century gradually subsided and the Enlightenment exerted a moderating influence upon European religious life. The churches of Europe began to consolidate their position within society and in Protestant countries the general understanding of the status and function of the clergy outlined above was widely understood. Yet it is clear that the Protestant clergies of Europe between 1660 and 1780 must be described in the plural. Economic, geographical, and cultural differences shaped the type of minister called to a particular parish or church and how he was likely to approach his pastoral role. Different types of church organization, or ecclesiology, also influenced how a clergyman related to his congregation and what he felt able or unable to do. The nature of the state and the power relationships therein determined the precise associationbetween the secular authorities and the clergy in matters such as appointment, promotion,
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Sunday, 29 November 2015
Differential Geometry (Notes from Prof. David Forsyth's lectures at UIUC): PART 2
Reimannian Geometry
Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Geometry
Prior to Riemann, geometry was studied from an extrinsic point of view, i.e, lines, curves and surfaces were considered to be embedded in a Euclidean space which adhered to the usual notions of distances, angles, translation and rotations. But Gauss showed through his Theorema Egregium, that Gaussian curvature is intrinsic, that is it can be computed by measuring angles, distances and their rates on the surface without considering the embedding itself (recall that $\kappa=\det(-I^{-1}II)$). That means that the embedding can often be ignored while studying certain geometric properties which are intrinsic
But this means, that properties like Gaussian curvature are invariant to isometry, i.e. deformations that bend the surface without stretching or contraction since local geometric properties are preserved. This in turn implies that a sphere could never be unwrapped onto a plane surface without stretching or contraction of the surface because a plane has a 0 Gaussian curvature whereas a sphere has a Gaussian curvature of 1. This basically says you cannot map all of earth in a single chart without messing up distances between far away cities or areas of continents? So what do we do? We build an atlas consisting of multiple charts where each chart provides a good approximation of local distances and angles in a specific location on the earth. The motivation behind Reimannian geometry and the concept of Manifold is similar.
Now let us define a few terms in a top down fashion - earlier definitions use terms or details that are defined later on.
Riemannian Geometry
Branch of differential geometry that deals with Riemannian Manifolds.
Riemannian Manifold
A smooth manifold $M$ equipped with an inner product $g_p$ (Riemannian metric such as $I$) on tangent space (vector space of tangents at a point) $T_pM$ at each point $p$ that varies smoothly from point to point. Meaning that if $X$ and $Y$ are vector fields on $M$, then $g_p(X(p),Y(p))$ is a smooth function.
A topological space that locally resembles a Euclidean space. Meaning that each point of the $n$-dimensional manifold is homeomorphic to a Euclidean space of the same dimension.
A function $\phi$ between topological spaces $U$ and $\Omega$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ such that
• $\phi$ is one-to-one and onto
• $\phi$ is continuous
• $f^{-1}$ is continuous
$C^p$ Atlas
A $C^p$ atlas on $M$ is given by
• An open cover $\{U_i | i \in I\}$ of $M$
• A family of homeomorphisms $\phi_i : U_i \rightarrow \Omega_i$
• For all $i,j\in I$, $\phi_j \circ \phi_i^{-1}$ is a $C^p$ diffeomorphism (differentiable homeomorphism) from $\phi_i(U_i \cap U_j)$ to $\phi_j(U_i \cap U_j)$
$(U_i, \phi_i)$ together define a $chart$.
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Search Algorithms in AI
Search in AI
Many problems in AI can be formulated as finding a sequence of actions that lead us from the current state to one of the goal states, for instance finding the shortest path through a maze. Such problems can be categorized as follows:
• Based on the nature of search space: Discrete vs Continuous
• Based on the type of percept or information available: Uninformed vs Informed
• Based on the type of solution desired: Global vs Local
• Based on ability to find optimal solution: Complete vs Incomplete
• Based on the environment: Deterministic vs Non-deterministic
• Miscellaneous: Adversarial
Searching as traversing a tree
When the search space is discrete it is possible to enumerate all possible sequence of states that can be reached from a given state. This is often done in the form of a tree where the nodes represent states and branches represent actions that can be taken at a particular state. Leaves of such a tree are reached as a result of taking a finite sequence of actions that either end in a goal state or a dead-end. Goal states might also occur at non-leaf nodes. Any path from the root node to the goal node is a valid solution sequence but often we are looking for shortest sequence that gets us to the goal. If at any state the maximum number of possible actions/branches is $b$ and the maximum length of action sequences is $l$, then searching for the goal can take upto $\mathcal{O}(b^l)$ time. Some brute force search algorithms are:
• Breadth-First Search: Expand the node at the shallowest depth
• Depth-First Search: Expand the node at the deepest depth
• Uniform-Cost Search (Dijkstra): Expand the node with the smallest cost of reaching it from the root
• Iterative Deepening Search: Repeatedly run DFS with increasing depth limits
• Bidirectional Search: Search from both start and goal until the paths meet
In cases where no additional information is available about the states these are the only options. However, when additional information is available to guide the search other possibilities exist:
• A*: Expand the node $n$, with the lowest $C(n)+h(n)$ where $C(n)$ is the cost of reaching that node and $h(n)$ is an estimate of closeness to goal. This algorithm is complete iff $h(.)$ is admissible, meaning that it never overestimates the distance to goal, for instance straight line distance to the target on a map.
• Branch & Bound: Perform an inorder traversal of tree while updating the bounds on the optimal solution based on the information available at the node each time it is visited. If the bound at node $n$ does not have an intersection with its parent then prune the subtree.
Searching as exploring the energy landscape
In discrete or combinatorial optimization problems with some kind of structure and an available energy function to measure the goodness of the solution (more energy meaning a better solution), one can explore the local neighborhood of a current state to incrementally improve the solution. Some algorithms in this domain are:
• Hill Climbing: Move the neighboring state which results in maximum increase in energy until no neighbor can increase the energy
• Simulated Annealing: Randomly choose a neighboring state and if it the change in energy $\nabla E$ is positive then accept the move. Else accept the move with probability $e^{\nabla E/T}$ where T decreases with each iteration
• Local Beam Search: Keep track of $k$ best states rather than just $1$. In each iteration generate all $k$ successors of all $k$ states and select the $k$ best
• Genetic Algorithms: Begin with a population. Assign a fitness score to each member. Choose pairs for cross over with probability proportional to the fitness score. Merge/Cross over the members in each pair. Mutate the result and iterate
Searching in continuous spaces
Two simplest algorithms are:
• Gradient Ascent: $x \leftarrow x + \alpha\nabla f$
• Newton Raphson: Used to find zeros of a function. Maxima occurs when the gradient is $0$ leading to $x = x - H^{-1}(x)\nabla f(x)$
Searching with non-deterministic actions
If actions can lead to stochastic transition behaviour, then contingencies need to be planned for. This usually amounts to constructing an AND-OR search tree and modified version of DFS algorithm to look for goal while handling cycles appropriately. Some of the paths from the root lead to loops while others lead to goal state. One needs to find the path which avoids the loop.
Searching in presence of adversary
Searching in presence of adversary amounts to playing a two player, zero sum game (utility values at the end of the game are always equal and opposite). Optimal decision can be taken by using the minimax algorithm. First a state space search tree is created. The minimax value (utility of being in a state assuming both players play optimally from there to the end of the game) at each node is then defined as being one of the following:
• Terminal state: Predefined for instance $\{0, 1, 0.5\}$ for outcomes {Checkmate, Win, Draw} in chess
• Our (max's) turn: Choose the action that leads to a state of maximum minimax
• Adversary's turn: Choose the action that lead to a state of minimum minimax
However, sometimes the search tree might be exponentially large to enumerate all possible state sequences. Alpha-Beta Pruning can be used to prune out subtrees early on avoiding further search along those paths. It is a form of Branch & Bound algorithm where an inorder-DFS-traversal is performed in the tree and whenever a node is revisited the bound on the minimax value is updated based on the children that have been observed so far. If the bound on a node has a null intersection with its parent then the subtree situated at that node is pruned out.
Monday, 19 October 2015
Machine Learning (Notes from Prof. Dan Roth's Lectures at UIUC): PART 2
In PART 1 we have already seen different paradigms of learning with respect to how the training data is provided. We also saw some online learning algorithms and provided mistake bounds for them. However, the problem with mistake bounds is that we don't know when the mistakes would occur. So a more general strategy to provide some guarantee on learning success is to bound the generalization performance by the number of training samples. Such guarantees are provided by the PAC learning framework.
PAC Learning
It refers to the situation where the goal is to Probably learn an Approximately Correct hypothesis. Here correctness is defined with respect to an error measure which is the expected error given that both our training and future samples belong to a distribution $\mathcal{D}$
\text{Error}_{\mathcal{D}} = \mathbb{E}_{\mathcal{D}}[f(x)\neq h(x)] = P_{\mathcal{D}}[f(x)\neq h(x)]
where $f$ is the target function and $h$ is the chosen hypothesis.
Defining PAC Learnability
A concept class $\mathcal{C}$ defined over and instance space $\mathcal{X}$ of dimensionality $n$, is said to PAC learnable by $\mathcal{L}$ using the hypothesis space $\mathcal{H}$, if for a given $0 < \epsilon, \; \delta < 1$
• $\forall \: f \in \mathcal{C}$
• $\forall \: \mathcal{D} \: \text{over} \: \mathcal{X}$
$\exists \: m$ polynomial in $1/\epsilon, 1/\delta, n$ and $|\mathcal{H}|$ such that
P(\text{Error}_{\mathcal{D}} > \epsilon) < \delta
This is a restriction on the sample complexity. One can also think about time complexity, i.e, whether such an approximation can be found in polynomial time.
PAC Analysis for Learning Conjunctions
Recall that in order to learn conjunction we eliminated non-active literals on every positive example and did nothing on negative examples. In doing so, we shall make mistakes only on positive examples. Such mistakes occur when a literal $z$, which is not part of the target conjunction, has survived all previous positive examples. This can happen only if its value is 1 in all examples seen so far. The PAC learning framework argues that since we haven't seen a positive example with $z=1$ we won't be seeing it in future training samples as well. Thus we assume the probability of this occurrence to be small
p(z) < \epsilon/n
Then union bound implies
\text{Error}_{\mathcal{D}} \leq \sum_{z\in h} p(z) = \epsilon
Another possibility is that there actually are bad literals. In this case PAC argues that by definition ad bad literal is one which has does not occur in the target function but has high probability of occurring as a negative variable in a positive example ($p(z) > \epsilon/n$)and so the chances of not seeing it in training data is very low. To show this consider the probability that $z$ survives $m$ training examples
Pr(z \: \text{survives one example})^{m} &= (1-Pr(z \: \text{gets eliminated in an example}))^{m} \\
&= (1-p(z))^{m} \\
&< (1-\epsilon/n)^{m} \\
&< e^{-m\epsilon/n}
In the worst case since there could be at most $n$ bad literals, and mistake could be made if any of them survives, the probability of the cases where the error could be greater than $\epsilon$ is
Pr(\text{any bad literal survives}) = n(1-\epsilon/n)^m < ne^{-m\epsilon/n}
Bounding this by $\delta$ gives us a lower bound on the number of examples that need to be seen
ne^{-m\epsilon/n} &< \delta \\
\implies m &> \frac{n}{\epsilon}[\ln{n} + \ln(1/\delta)]
Occam's Razor
It says that for any hypothesis $h\in H$ which is consistent with $m$ examples, the probability that it has a generalization error, $Error_D(h)>\epsilon$ is less than $|H|(1-\epsilon)^m$. Note that this is often interpreted as "The simplest explanation is the best explanation", where $|H|$ encodes simplicity.
If we want $P(Error_D(h)>\epsilon) < \delta$ then $|H|(1-\epsilon)^m < \delta$ which implies
m > \frac{1}{\epsilon}\left\{ln(|H|)+ln(\frac{1}{\delta}) \right\}
Infinite Hypothesis Spaces
If the hypothesis space is infinitely large then Occam's Razor is not of much use. In such cases VC dimension comes to the rescue.
VC Dimension
Defined as the maximum cardinality set of points which can be shattered by the hypothesis class $H$. Note that this is a property of the hypothesis class. A set of points is set to be shattered by $H$ if for any partition (or labelling) of points into positive and negative sets, there exists a hypothesis $h\in H$ consistent with this labelling.
• If any set of $d$ points can be shattered by $H$, then $VC(H) \geq d$
• If no set of $d+1$ points can be shattered by $H$, then $VC(H) < d+1$
• Together they can be used to show $VC(H) = d$
Relation between $VC(H)$ and $|H|$
In order to shatter $VC(H)$ points, for every labelling there must be at least one $h\in H$ consistent with it. Hence $|H| \geq 2^{VC(H)} \implies VC(H) \leq log(|H|)$. A result similar to Occam's Razor exists for infinite hypothesis spaces
m > \frac{1}{\epsilon}\{8VC(H)log(13/\epsilon) + 4log(2/\delta)\}
Structural Risk Minimization
The training error provides a bound on the generalization error which holds with probability $1-\eta$. If $h\in H$ is hypothesis learned by the learning algorithm then
Error_D(h) < Error_{TR}(h) + \sqrt{\frac{VC(H)(log(2m/VC(H)) + 1) - log(\eta/4)}{m}}
A hypothesis $h$ is said to overfit the training data if there exists another hypothesis $h'$ which has a higher training error but a lower test error. Overfitting occurs when:
• Training data is not representative of instance space
• Noisy features or labels in the training data
A class of ensemble algorithms with strong guarantees. Fall out of a theoretical question - Does weak learnability imply strong learnability?
Strong and Weak PAC Algorithms
An algorithm is said to be Strong PAC Algorithm if for any distribution, $\forall \; \epsilon, \; \delta$, given polynomially many random samples, the algorithm finds a hypothesis with generalization error $\leq \epsilon$ with probability $\geq 1-\delta$. An algorithm is Weak PAC Algorithm if the above holds for $\epsilon \leq 1/2 - \gamma$.
1. Construct a distribution $D_1$ (initialized to uniform) over training examples
2. In each iteration
• Learn a weak hypothesis $h_t$ with $Error_{D_t} = P_{D_t}(h_t(x)\neq y) < 1/2$
• Modify the distribution by increasing the weight of misclassified examples and vice-versa using $D_{t+1}(x_i) = D_t(x_i) e^{-\alpha_t y_ih_t(x_i)}/Z_t$ where $\alpha_t = ln\left((1-\epsilon)/\epsilon\right)/2$
3. Produce the final hypothesis as $h(x) = \sum_t \alpha_t h_t(x)$
If $\epsilon_t = 1/2 - \gamma_t$, then training error of the final hypothesis is bounded by $\exp(-2\sum_t\gamma_t^2)$.
Another ensemble algorithm involving creation of multiple bootstrap replicates of the learning set and aggregating the predictors learnt on each of these. Eg - Bagged Decision Trees
Random Forests (Bagged Trees ++) where not only is the data sample for creating each tree but also for each node candidates for splitting are chosen from a randomly sampled subset of available attributes.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Machine Learning (Notes from Prof. Dan Roth's Lectures at UIUC): PART 1
Learning Protocols
1. Protocol I: Active learning, where learner queries an oracle
2. Protocol II: Teacher who knows the true function provides training data
3. Protocol III: Random samples from nature are the training data
An example that illustrates the difference in requirement of training data in each of these protocols in that of a monotone conjunction.
1. Protocol I: $N$ examples where $N$ is the number of variables
2. Protocol II: $M+1$ examples where $M$ is the number of variables in the true conjunction
3. Protocol III: With limited training data we might end up with an approximation to the true conjunction.
Online Learning
Useful in the following cases:
1. If batch training has either high time or memory complexity
2. If the true function changes with time
Mistake bound algorithms
A class of online algorithms $A$ is said to be mistake bound for the concept class $C$, if in the worst case of the target function $f$ and input sequence $S$, the number of mistakes the algorithm makes is polynomial in $n$, the complexity parameter of the target function (dimensionality).
M_A(C) = \underset{f \in C, S}{\text{max}}\;\; M_A(f,S) = \mathcal{O}(poly(n))
Generic mistake bound algorithms
CON Algorithm
• At step $i$, let the concept class consistent with previous inputs be $C_i$
• Randomly choose $f_i \in C_i$ to make the current prediction
• $C_{i+1}\subseteq C_i$ and $|C_{i+1}| = |C_i|-1$ if it makes a mistake
• The algorithm can make at most $|C|$ mistakes
The Halving Algorithm
• At the $i^{th}$ step, evaluate make a prediction using every $f_j \in C_i$.
• Let the final prediction given by the majority
• Then at every mistake $|C_{i+1}| \leq |C_{i}|/2$
• The algorithm can make at most $log|C|$ mistakes
While we have bounds on the mistakes, it may not be possible to efficiently learn the function.
The Algorithm
Iterate over examples and if a mistake is made update the weight using
w = w + \eta y x
Perceptron Convergence Theorem
The algorithm will converge if the data is linearly separable.
Perceptron Cycling Theorem
If data is not linearly separable, the algorithm will repeat the same set of weights and enter an infinite loop.
Mistake bound for Perceptron (General)
If the data is linearly separable and $\exists \; u,\gamma \ni \|u\|=1$ and $\gamma > 0$ with
$y_i u \cdot x_i \geq \gamma \; \forall i$, then the maximum number of mistakes made by perceptron is $R^2/\gamma^2$ where $R$ is the upper bound on the norm of input features for the given training data.
Mistake bound for Perceptron with Margin (General)
Given margin $\gamma$ define $\xi_i = \max(0,\gamma - y_i w \cdot x_i)$ and $\mathcal{D}_2 = (\sum_i \xi_i^2)^{1/2}$. Then the number of mistakes made by perceptron is bounded by $(R+\mathcal{D}_2)^/\gamma^2$
Question: What is the mistake bound of Perceptron algorithms for k-disjunction? We will compare it to that of Winnow later.
Perceptron is Stochastic Gradient Descent
The update rules for perceptron with and without margin can be derived by recognizing them as gradient descent steps where the cost function at the $i^{th}$ step is $max(0,\gamma - y_i w \cdot x_i)$. In the case of no margin $\gamma = 0$. Given this cost function the update to the weight vector is given by
\Delta w = -\eta \frac{\partial{\xi_i}}{\partial{w}}
Clearly, this derivative is 0 when $y_i w \cdot x_i > \gamma$ and its $-y_i w_i$ when the point falls inside or on the wrong side of current margin.
Similar to perceptron but with multiplicative update rule:
• Initialize $w = 1$ and $\theta=n$ ($\theta$ never changes)
• If $y_i=1$ but $w\cdot x_i < \theta$, for all $i \ni x_i=1$ set $w_i\leftarrow 2w_i$ (promotion)
• If $y_i=0$ but $w_i\cdot x_i> \theta$, for all $i \ni x_i=1$ set $w_i \leftarrow w_i/2$ (demotion)
Update rule can be slightly modified for certain concept classes. For instance, in learning monotone disjunctions demotion can be replaced by elimination.
Mistake bound for Winnow (k-disjunction)
Let $u$ and $v$ be the number of mistakes made on positive and negative examples respectively.
Observe that for k-disjunction, the weight of any variable that is in the disjunction (good variable) never decreases but doubles on every mistake on a positive example. Winnow will stop making mistakes on positive examples when the weights corresponding to good variables reaches $n$ which will take $\log{n}$ time for each variable and hence $u = k\log{n}$.
For mistakes on negative examples, we will first need to bound the total weight $TW(t)$by some linear function of $u$ and $v$. Then since we know that $TW(t) > 0$, we will have a bound on $v$ in terms of $u$. So observe that
• For mistakes on positive examples $TW(t+1) < TW(t) + n$
• For mistakes on negative examples $TW(t+1) < TW(t) - n/2$
Now we see that $0<TW(t) < n + un - vn/2 \implies v < 2(u+1)$.
The total number of mistakes is bounded by $u+v = 3u+2 = \mathcal{O}(k\log{n})$.
Limitation of Winnow
Winnow works only for monotone functions. For the general case, duplicate variables and learn monotone function over 2n variables.
Is there a downside to this?
If the weight of $x$ goes up then we also know that the weight of $\neg x$ should go down but winnow update rules will only change one of them at a time. A better way is to keep 2 weights for each of the $n$ variables such that the effective weight is their difference.
• If $y=1$ but $(w^+ - w^-)\cdot x \leq \theta$, $w_i^+ = 2w_i^+$ and $w_i^- = w_i^-/2$ where $x_i=1$
• If $y=0$ but $(w^+ - w^-)\cdot x \geq \theta$, $w_i^+ = w_i^+/2$ and $w_i^- = 2w_i^-$ where $x_i=1$
Winnow - R
Version of winnow robust to moving target (Adaptation). Simply do not let weights go below $1/2$. This has a mistake bound of $5u+4$ as compared to $3u+2$ but in case of moving target makes $\mathcal{O(c\log{n})})$ where $c$ is the cost to the adversary which in each iteration is allowed to add or drop variables from the disjunction.
Loss Functions and Regularizations
Let a training sample be denoted by $z_i = (x_i, y_i)$. Then any convex differentiable functions $Q(z,w)$ and $R(w)$ can be minimized over $w$ to learn a classifier. Here $Q$ drives the learning and $R$ ensure the simplicity of the solution.
1. LMS: $Q(z,w) = (y-w\cdot z)^2$
• Ridge Regression: $R(w) = \|w\|_2^2$
• LASSO: $R(w) = \|w\|_1$
2. Hinge Loss: $Q(z,w) = max(0,1-yw\cdot x)$
• SVM: $R(w) = \|w\|_2^2$
3. Logistic Loss: $Q(z,w) = \log(1+exp(-yw\cdot x))$
• Logistic Regression: $R(w) = \|w\|_2^2$
Saturday, 3 October 2015
Differential Geometry (Notes from Prof. David Forsyth's lectures at UIUC): PART 1
Curve is an embedding of a line into higher dimensional space
&\vec{x}: t \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^n \\
&\vec{x}(t) = (x(t), y(t), z(t), \cdots)
Special Case: Arc Length Parametrization
Usually denoted by $s$. In arc length parametrization, a small step $ds$ in the parameter space amounts to moving the same distance along the curve. For any other parametrization, $t$, a step $dt$ in the parameter space leads to covering a distance
\|d\vec{x}\| = \left(\sqrt{\left(\frac{dx_1}{dt}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{dx_2}{dt}\right)^2 + \cdots} \right) \cdot dt
By comparison for arc length parametrization
\sqrt{\left(\frac{dx_1}{ds}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{dx_2}{ds}\right)^2 + \cdots} &= 1 \\
\implies \|\frac{d\vec{x}}{ds}\| &= 1
Tangent to the curve at a point
Tangent to a curve at $t_0$ is defined by
This can be thought of as a vector in the direction of a ray originating at $\vec{x}(t_0)$ which is in 2 point contact with the curve in the limit of the 2 points being arbitrarily close together.
A unit tangent is usually denoted by $\vec{T}$ and is given by
\vec{T} = \frac{d\vec{x}/dt}{\|d\vec{x}/dt\|}
For arc length parametrization this reduces to
\vec{T} = \frac{d\vec{x}/ds}{\|d\vec{x}/ds\|} = \frac{d\vec{x}}{ds}
Curvature at a point on the curve
For a curve parametrized by $s$, rate of change of tangent is along the normal direction and its magnitude is governed by curvature, $\kappa(s)$. This relation is given by
\frac{d\vec{T}}{ds} = \kappa(s)\vec{N}(s)
where $\vec{N}(s)$ is a unit normal.
Binormal and Torsion
For plane curves $\vec{T}$ and $\vec{N}$ define a moving coordinate system. For space curves there is an entire family of directions orthogonal to $\vec{T}$ and hence a binormal $\vec{B}$ is also defined. At a point, the space curve is locally planar and $\vec{N}$ is chosen to lie in this plane such that $\vec{N}.\vec{T}=0$ and then $\vec{B} = \vec{T} \times \vec{N}$. For such a coordinate system, for an infinitesimal change in $s$, $\vec{B}$ swings in the direction of the $\vec{N}$ and the magnitude of the rate of this change is governed by torsion, $\tau(s)$. The following equation summarizes the relation between the rate of change of each of these unit vectors
\frac{d}{ds} \left[
T \\
\right] =
0 & \kappa & 0\\
-\kappa & 0 & \tau\\
0 & -\tau & 0\\
T \\
A surface is a mapping $\vec{x} : \mathbb{R}^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^3$.
Gauss Map
Its a mapping from a point on the surface to a point on the sphere which has the same normal. Since the normal at a point $\vec{z}$ on the unit sphere is given by the $\vec{z}$ itself, Gauss map just tells us the normal at every point $\vec{x}$ on the surface $\vec{N}(\vec{x})$.
Gaussian Curvature
Defined as
\kappa = \underset{radius\rightarrow 0} \lim \frac{\text{Area on Gauss Map}}{\text{Area on Surface}}
Based on sign of $\kappa$ surfaces can be classified as:
1. Hyperbolic: $\kappa < 0$
2. Parabolic: $\kappa = 0$
3. Elliptic: $\kappa > 0$
• Bending does not change $\kappa$. Area need to be added or subtracted in order to change it.
• At each point on the surface there are 2 orthogonal directions in which directional curvature is extremal. These are known as principal curvatures, $\kappa_1, \kappa_2$
• Given the principal curvatures a surface can locally be written as \begin{align}
\vec{x}(s,t) = \left(s,t,\frac{1}{2}(\kappa_1s^2 + \kappa_2s^2)+O(3)\right)
• Gaussian curvature $= \kappa_1 \cdot \kappa_2$
• Mean curvature $= \frac{\kappa_1 + \kappa_2}{2}$
Tangents to the surface at a point
There is a vector subspace of tangents at a point with a basis defined by
\{ \frac{\partial \vec{x}}{\partial s}, \frac{\partial \vec{x}}{\partial t} \} = \{x_s, x_t\}
The First Fundamental Form
It is an operator defined at every point on the surface that can be used to measure dot product between tangents at that point. Any tangent vector $\vec{u}$ can be written in terms of its basis
\vec{u} = a\vec{x}_s + b\vec{x}_t
Similarly we can write any other tangent vector $\vec{u}$ as
\vec{v} = c\vec{x}_s + d\vec{x}_t
Then their dot product is given by
I(\vec{u}, \vec{v}) =
a & b \\
\vec{x}_s \cdot \vec{x}_s & \vec{x}_s \cdot \vec{x}_t \\
\vec{x}_s \cdot \vec{x}_s & \vec{x}_t \cdot \vec{x}_t \\
c \\
d \\
The Second Fundamental Form
If we think of $\vec{N}(\vec{x})$ as a map from a point on the surface to a point on the sphere (the Gauss Map), then it would have a directional derivative $d\vec{N}(\vec{u})$ which is a map from the tangent plane to the surface to the tangent plane to the sphere. Some properties:
1. $\vec{N}_s\cdot \vec{N} = 0$ and $\vec{N}_t\cdot \vec{N} = 0$ (follows by differentiating $\vec{N} \cdot \vec{N} = 1$)
2. $d\vec{N}(\vec{u}) = a\vec{N}_s + b\vec{N}_t$
3. It follows from above 2 properties that $d\vec{N}(u)$ lies in the tangent plane to the surface
Now the second fundamental form is defined as
II(\vec{u}, \vec{v}) = -I(d\vec{N}(\vec{u}),\vec{v})
which turns out to be
a & b \\
\vec{N} \cdot \vec{x}_{ss}& \vec{N} \cdot \vec{x}_{st} \\
\vec{N} \cdot \vec{x}_{st} & \vec{N} \cdot \vec{x}_{tt} \\
c \\
d \\
Key results
1. Gaussian Curvature, $\kappa = det(-I^{-1}II)$
2. Mean curvature, $H = trace(-I^{-1}II)$
3. These are local geometric properties of the surface which are invariant under
• Rigid Motion (because $I$ and $II$ do not change)
• Reparametrization $\vec{x}(s(u,v), t(u,v))$ (non-trivially compute $I$ and $II$ with respect to $(u,v)$ and use the above equations)
A transformation $\psi$ that maps one surface $S_1$ to another $S_2$ is called an isometry iff lengths along the surface (and hence the angles) are preserved.
Intrinsic Properties
Geometric properties invariant under an isometry are called Intrinsic properties.
Given an isometry $\psi: S_1 \rightarrow S_2$, there is a parametrization of $S_2$ such that $I$ does not change.
Any property that can be expressed in terms of elements of $I$ (or their derivatives) is intrinsic.
Theorem Egregium:
Gaussian curvature is intrinsic.
Isometric surfaces have same gaussian curvature at corresponding points.
Contour generator
A contour generator on S is a curve where rays from a chosen point $P$ are tangent to the surface. Related but different:
1. Outline: Projection of a contour generator (including invisible regions) into an image plane
2. Silhouette: Visible exterior points of the outline
Contour generator on an implicit surface as a locus
For an implicit surface $\phi(\vec{x}) = 0$, contour generator w.r.t external point $\vec{p}$, is the locus of points which satisfy the following conditions:
1. $\phi(\vec{x}_1) = 0$
2. $\nabla\phi^T \vec{p} - \nabla \phi^T \vec{x} = 0$ (follows from the fact that tangent plane at a point $\vec{x}_0$ is given by $\nabla\phi^T \vec{x} - \nabla \phi^T \vec{x}_0 = 0$ and the point $\vec{p}$ lies on this plane for every point on the C.G)
Sunday, 30 November 2014
Sorting Network
- A basic comparator
- Comparison network
- Depth of a sorting network
- Sorting network for insertion sort - $O(n^2)$ gates and $2n-1$ time units to sort n numbers
Zero-One Principle
A comparison network that can sort all binary inputs correctly can sort any input correctly
Using the following lemma -
If a comparison network transforms input sequence $<a_1,\cdots ,a_n>$ to $<b_1,\cdots ,b_n>$, then for any monotonically increasing function $f$, the comparison network would transform $<f(a_1),\cdots , f(a_n)>$ to $<f(b_1),\cdots , f(b_n)> $
Given a sorting network with $n$ inputs which sorts all binary strings of length $2^n$ correctly, we need to show that it sorts all sequences correctly. We prove this by contradiction.
Let the network sort $a_1, \cdots, a_n$ incorrectly, i.e, $\exists \; a_i, a_k$ such that $a_i < a_k$ but $a_k$ proceeds $a_i$ in the output sequence (sorting being in ascending order). We define a monotonically increasing function $f$ as follows
f(x) = \left\{
0 & x\leq a_i \\
1 & x>a_i \\
Now using the above lemma if the input is a binary string defined by $<f(a_1),\cdots , f(a_n)>$, then the output string would also be a binary string but with $f(a_k)$ appearing before $f(a_i)$. This is a contradiction to our hypothesis that the network sorts every binary string correctly.
Hence proved by contradiction.
Definition: Bitonic Sequence
A sequence which first increases and then decreases or can be converted to such form by circular shifting. A binary bitonic sequence is either of the form $0^i1^j0^k$ or $1^i0^j1^k$
Definition: Half Cleaner
A comparison network which connects $i^th$ line with $(i+\frac{n}{2})^th$ line. For binary bitonic sequences it results in two possible cases:
- Top $\frac{n}{2}$ is $0$s and bottom half is a bitonic sequence
- Bottom $\frac{n}{2}$ is $1$s and top half is a bitonic sequence
Note- This provides a recursive way of sorting binary bitonic sequences. Also given two sorted sequences, a bitonic sequence can be easily obtained by flipping and concatenating the second sequence to the first sequence. This gives us the construction of Merge network whose components are listed below.
Sorting Network
- Sort top $\frac{n}{2}$
- Sort bottom $\frac{n}{2}$
- Merge
- Flip-Cleaner$[n]$
- Top Bitonic Sorter$[n]$
- Bottom Bitonic Sorter$[n]$
Number of Comparators required in Merge Circuit: $O(\frac{n}{2}log \;n)$
Number of Comparators required in the sorting network:
G(n) &= 2G(\frac{n}{2}) + O(\frac{n}{2}log \;n) \\
\implies G(n) &= O(n \; log^2 \; n)
Depth of Merge Circuit: $O(log\; n)$
Depth of sorting network:
D(n) &= D(\frac{n}{2}) + O(log\; n) \\
\implies D(n) &= O(log^2 \; n)
Yeah!! This is significantly better than $O(n \; log \; n)$ time taken by programmatic sorting algorithms.
Saturday, 29 November 2014
Fast Polynomial Multiplication using FFT
• Point Value Representation of Polynomial
• Linear time polynomial multiplication in point value form
• Collapsible Set ($n$ $n^{th}$ roots of unity)
• Computing a polynomial in $O(nlogn)$ time on a collapsible set of size $n$
• Converting from point value form to standard polynomial form in $O(nlogn)$ time using the fact that Inverse of the Vandermonde matrix is just a permutation of the rows of the Vandermonde matrix |
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Where is Amelia?
In October of this year, Fox will debut the movie "Amelia" a bio-pic about Amelia Earhart. Doubtless Hollywood has and will put the spin on where THEY think Amelia is. About 71 years after her infamous disapperance, conspiracy theories abound.
In all likelihood Amelia Earhart along with navigator, Fred Noonan crashed into the Pacific Ocean near the island nation of New Guinea. But the question remains unanswered because there was no wreckage and no bodies found.
The more puzzling question is why isn't there anything left of Earhart, Noonan or the Lockheed Electra they were flying? In 2002, the Md-based company, Nauticos conducted a nearly 650-mile search of the area and found nothing at the bottom of the ocean.
Tighar International Group, under the Earhart Project, investigated reports of wreckage on a tiny island near New Guinea, but it turned out to be the ship wreck of the S.S. Norwich City. They are still investigating tidbits of items discovered on other islands that may or may not be long to Earhart.
There are several problems with investigating plane crashes in the sea. In 1937, there was no "black box" or flight recorders, there was no GPS systems on planes. Pilots flew with navigators who reported longitude and latitudes, there were compasses maps and radios, but they could not definitively give location. Radar was just beginning to be used. Without exact coordinates rescuers combed hundreds of thousands of miles perhaps in the wrong direction and only looking at the surface of the sea. Combine that with fact that Earhart was unfamiliar with all the equipment on board the Electra.
When a plane hits the water at say, 200 miles per hour the plane will shatter, throwing bits of itself hundred of yards from the impact point. Likewise its contents will also explode.
Confounding the search was the airplane itself. The Lockheed Electra was plagued with problems--wings and engine mounts would vibrate and then come off. The fault? A high-speed aircraft stuck in a conventional design. The plane may have ripped apart and sent Earhart and Noonan to their watery graves. In addition, the aircraft was metal which would have sank shortly after a crash. Today's planes are fitted with flotation devices and much of their fuselages are made of lightweight durable materials which also float.
Amelia Earhart paved the way for women (and men) pilots in transcontinental flight, but unfortunately is better known for her disappearance than her achievements.
Sources: Stuart Lee "Lockheed Electra: Killer Airliner", National Geographic,
Monday, July 13, 2009
July 4th, less known history
In 1776, as every child has learned from school the Continental Congress drafted, edited and then signed the Declaration of independence.
Here's what they didn't tell you:
It was actually July 2, 1776 that the Continental Congress actually voted on freedom from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was a formality.
It was read out loud to the public in three locations: Philadelphia, PA; Trenton, NJ; Easton, PA on July 8, 1776.
The document was approved and went into effect on July 4th, but wasn't fully signed by all members of congress until August 2, 1776. The dispute arise from the fact that certain members weren't all present. Jefferson, Adams and Franklin recall it differently.
There were thought to be 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence. Today only 25 copies are known to exist.
Sources: Fourth of July Celebrations Database, US |
Rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus) Image Credit: Pixabay
Drunk birds: inebriation in the wild
• BY Natalie Muller |
• October 14, 2011
Humans are not the only animals who like getting drunk. Plenty of birds and mammals get tipsy on natural brews.
DR STEPHEN Cutter's is used to riding out the drunken parrot season before the rains each year, when scores of intoxicated red-collared lorikeets (Trichoglossus rubritorquis) are picked up off Darwin's streets and brought to the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston.
"People find them huddled in a corner or at the bottom of a tree. Mostly they just look sick - just a sad little bundle of feathers hiding from the world," Stephen says. "They tend to be depressed, they can't fly, and they have difficulty climbing or balancing on perches."
In northern Australia, mango, umbrella, and other trees, can cause mild drunkenness in birds when the fruit or nectar ferments at different times throughout the year. But many of the lorikeets brought to the hospital aren't just mildly drunk - they're completely sloshed, and sometimes for days at a time.
The most probable culprit is the Schotia brachypetala, a southern African native, commonly known as the drunken parrot tree. Stephen says he's seen this species pop up in gardens all over Darwin in recent years, and its rapid rise to abundance may be taking its toll on the birds
Drunk animals can't help their problem
Birds aren't experienced drinkers - unlike humans, they don't drink to get drunk.
"They don't want to ingest a lot of alcohol, but they're probably just being forced into the situation because there's not a lot of fruit available to them," says Dr Glen Chilton, ornithologist at James Cook University, Townsville.
Fruit-eating birds are particularly vulnerable because they depend so heavily on a food source that ferments, and to get enough proteins they need to eat a lot of it.
Glen says if the lorikeets in Darwin appear to be getting drunk on a larger scale, it is probably related to the limited supply of ripe fruit, a challenge that isn't unique to Australian birds.
In the northern hemisphere, heavy winter snows make it very difficult for birds to find fruit, and the rotting varieties that emerge once the snow starts to thaw - blackberries, hawthorn berries, juniper berries, crab apples - can produce very toxic levels of ethanol as the natural sugars ferment.
In the United States, robins, waxwings and starlings have been found dead in large flocks after eating toxic berries and diving into the ground or colliding with solid structures. In Vienna, Austria, 40 songbirds were found with broken necks and damaged livers after eating fermented berries and flying into windows.
Drunk animals like to party
Fermented fruits are not a first choice for many birds, but other animals would give anything to get their dose. (See a list of 10 animals known to get intoxicated)
"There's plenty of evidence that orangutans, and apes and elephants will wonder for miles to seek the pleasure of fermented fruits; so they basically like to get drunk," says Professor Gisela Kaplan, an expert in animal behaviour at the University of New England in Armidale.
The drawback for these keen drinkers is that happy hour only comes around at certain times during the year. "The opportunity to be inebriated is limited in animals, simply because they have to wait for the natural processes to occur," says Gisela. "They can't just go to a store and ask 365 days a year."
So when the fruits are overripe, the party animals make the most of it. Gisela says orang-utans in Borneo binge on the Durian fruit, which produces a very strong alcohol when it ferments. While in Africa, elephants and monkeys have been reported - though anecdotally - getting tipsy on the fermenting fruit of palm trees and the Marula tree.
In Sweden just last month, an intoxicated moose made international headlines when it became entangled in an apple tree in a residential area after gorging on the fermented fruit. But while animals seem to enjoy behaving badly under the influence, the phenomenon is seldom studied.
Even if alcohol isn't physically harmful to birds, it does make them vulnerable in other ways. When birds are drunk they lose mobility, making them helpless in the presence of predators. And if they can manage to fly while under the influence, their lack of coordination may have devastating consequences, much like those affecting humans who drink and drive.
"We know that [drunkenness] doesn't have serious side effects on mammals," says Gisela. "Mammals just sleep it off, but we have little knowledge of how birds deal with it."
Drunken parrot season begins
Why parrots and other birds talk
Ex-pet parrots teach wild birds to talk
Drunken parrots fall from the sky |
The FBI’s attempt to pressure Apple to access the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter has passed, and while it raised questions regarding privacy versus encryption for the general population, there is no doubt that enterprise and governments must continue to employ encryption and other cyber security measures to safeguard their information and assets.
These entities should implement cyber security measures to secure their state secrets, and intellectual property. It remains critical to prevent eavesdropping, espionage and proprietary data leakage, especially that we have seen the rise of cyber criminals offering hacking-as-a-service (HAAS) to the highest bidder and the proliferation of cyber-warfare by nation states against critical computer infrastructure of their target countries in support of terrorism, hacktivism, espionage, cyber crime and cyber war.
A lack of cyber security and the low levels of cyber immunity could cripple governments and countries following a debilitating attack on critical infrastructure including the oil & gas distribution systems, power grids, financial markets, air traffic controller’s networks, nuclear power plants, military drones and satellites. The current cyber threat now contains the most sophisticated, multi-channel, all avenue attack vectors and represents a clear-and-present danger to the most advanced economies and countries in the world. Such an attack could potentially destabilise the global economy.
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What is Your Response to the Suggestion that Raveloe is the Main Character Of The Novel, Silas Marnerl?
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What is Your Response to the Suggestion that Raveloe is the Main Character Of The Novel? Throughout the book, we see that George Elliot has a distinct pre-occupation and interest with presenting the working class rural community in an authentic light. She writes the book as a social anthropologist, studying the more primitive community of the time. She has a large amount of sympathy towards the poor, although she herself was not a member of the working class. Using the story as a vehicle she aims to expose the plight and indignity of the poor in Victorian England, it was her main motive. Therefore, her focus throughout the book is in fact village life; in this case a fictional village named Raveloe. Focusing on the villagers, their attitudes and their way of life acts as a way of also commenting socially and politically on the injustices they face. Raveloe can easily be regarded as the main character as without it, the narrative following Silas has little significance. The village shapes the narrative, being responsible for most of the major areas of interest in the tale. ...read more.
However this all represents a symptomatic characteristic of the village - a concern to help others. The villagers' reaction concerning the pedlar, is an indication of another key characteristic of Raveloe - a belief in superstition. Although the villagers provide lengthy descriptions of this so called thief, we know that no such character even exists. It is an example of how, in such close cut communities, little matters, true or false, can be embellished, escalating into common belief, leading to the creation of new superstitions. Silas is initially associated with the devil and spirit worship. These suspicions are only heightened by his apparent skill with herbal remedies, his strange cataleptic fits, as well as his past home, 'North'ard', where wizards, magic and folklore were associated. However his evident massive bereavement following the loss of his gold dispels any former rumours. Much of this superstition originates from the villagers discussions in the 'Rainbow', an important focus of the novel. This can be seen in the tale of 'Cliff's Holiday', a well known rehearsed tale. Mr Macey, the apparent head of this specific social community, describes how a tailor, known as Cliff, had tried to 'ride the tailor' out of his son, attempting rising up the class system by making a gentleman out of his son. ...read more.
Dunstan ends up dying due his greed, while, although it is unknown to them, because of his rejection of Eppie, Godfrey is seemingly punished by Nancy being unable to conceive. Silas' innocence on the other hand, is eventually rewarded. He is blessed with Eppie, who changes his life. These conclusions follow the villager's moral code, maintaining justice. Categorically speaking, the village has a variety of overall attributes and a predictable nature so therefore can be described as a character. Furthermore, being the main focus of the novel, we can go on to suggest it is the main character. We are more aware of the values and nature of Raveloe as a whole than any specific character - even Silas. All the main events of the novel are shaped by the village. Each personality of each character represents a different aspect of the village as a whole. These individual characters amount to create one, main character which dictates the narrative and plot of the novel. Elliot's concentration on her depictions of the village, indicate that she desired it to be the main focus. Obviously Silas is important, however, it is the events that unfold around him in Raveloe that really influence the direction of the novel. Euan O'Byrne Mulligan ...read more.
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p. 535. Sympathy, compassion, empathylocked
• Rob Boddice
Sympathy and its correlates have played and continue to play an essential role in helping humans to determine who or what is in pain. ‘Sympathy, compassion, empathy’ looks at recent neuroscientific research into a biological empathy mechanism that would explain how we can sense if someone else is in pain. What is the functional connection or overlap between the neural pathways involved in sensing and combating physical pain and those that sense and experience the pain of others? Working out whose pain counts, which in turn determines whose pain is treated or ameliorated, and whose ignored, depends upon the instrumentalization of sympathy or empathy—the root of a politics of pain.
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Modern Feminism
Essay by Alessia December 2004
download word file, 4 pages 5.0
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I would like to start with the fact that many people fear and oppose feminism. The word "feminism" has many connotations. Some include lesbians, feminazis, man-haters, and baby-killers. It is interesting to note that all these words convey some negative feeling. It has become rare to describe feminism as female empowerment or as an organised activity on behalf of women's rights and interests. Why has feminism taken on such a negative meaning? It is a very difficult and disputable issue. In my opinion, any strong and independent woman is labelled as a feminist. Very often a concept "feminist-woman" deals with false assumptions about her sexual preference, cultural beliefs, and general outlook on life. It's not at all easy to describe a feminists, because all of them have their own ideas and beliefs. And in order to point out what feminism actually is we should apply to some traditional view of this concept.
Feminism is traditionally considered to be a social and intellectual movement that seeks to transform individuals and society. Its goal is to create a society that is equitable for all women and man by eliminating discrimination based on gender, race, race, ethnicity, class, age, religion beliefs, sexuality and other negative biases. Many feminists believe that these types of oppression intersect with and intensify each other.
The USA model of feminism describes it as "the gender ideology of society". It is everywhere - in politics, the law, the schools, the universities, the churches, the business world and the family.
I think it is necessary to point out that the term feminism originated in France and is usually associated with British and American women. The so-called first-wave-feminists appeared in 1880s when they advocated for their right to vote. They believed that the emancipation of women hinged on changing relations between... |
Grow taller with these exercises
Wanna be fitter? Grow taller? Here are some simple exercises that can help children gain height
Children lead busy lives with school, tuitions, extra classes, television and games on mobile. Holistic health guru Mickey Mehta says, “Kids do not get enough time to go out and exercise. They need simple exercises that help them develop better.”
Here are a few exercises:
Hopping with one leg: This is one of the simplest exercises ever and can be done anywhere — while watching TV at home, while playing in the park, even in school during recess! Just hop on your left leg eight times with your hands up pointing towards the sky and then hop the same way on your right leg.
Benefits: This bouncing activity is great for brain development. It also strengthens the legs and generates growth hormones.
Cat stretch: This is the Indian dandwat. Put your palm and toes on the floor and become a mountain shape. Then, slowly glide down getting the chest towards the ground and become serpentine, thereby getting into bhujangasan. Your spine at this position is arched; bum is low, shoulders high and elbows straight, pelvic bone touches the floor. Then simply reverse the position and glide out. Now, push yourself out and become a mountain again.
Benefits: This activity helps to open up your spine, strengthen your shoulder, palms, chest, back, and puts a stress on the stomach and stretches hamstrings. It is good for circulation.
Hang on:This exercise involves hanging from a rod and stretching your body completely.
You should keep your toes pointed to the ground, stomach and buttocks should be sucked in tight and chin should be up.
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History Lesson Part II: Man’s Invisible Messenger
stock-footage-an-old-fashioned-graphic-of-an-antenna-transmitting-a-signal-around-the-world-with-audioHistory Lesson Part II: Man’s Invisible Messenger
(Or, Maxwell, Morse, Hertz, Branly, Popov, Poulsen, Edison, Stubblefield, Fessenden, Monkeyface, Marconi and how!)
by Austin Rich
Playlist & Footnotes: http://anywhereanywhen.com/2015/07/07/history-lesson-part-ii-mans-invisible-messenger
The story of the 20th Century is, in many ways, the story of the nerd. In the early 1900s, the train was technological revolution, and steam-powered printing presses saw a proliferation of newspapers and magazines in a way that allowed for quick and direct communication, at a time when prices dropped so low enough for anyone who could read to have access to the very ideas of the entire modern world. As communities slowly formed around these new technologies and forms of communication, the first attempts to connect the planet with phone lines was also underway. Electricity was in the air, and the stage was set for the real nerds to plan the next revolution that would radicalize the country and change culture forever: music & radio.
Nerds played a muted role in the world around us in those days. Inventors have been at the core of the world’s evolution, one piece at a time, as Mr. Cash would later say. Academics cloister themselves much like monks, emerging with a new form of math or a new insight in geology, or a different take on roots rock. Explorers forge new paths and return with artifacts, or new albums that will blow our minds. The nerds changed the way our lives were lived, day to day. Once electricity was the plaything of inventors, it was a race to find the things that this new discovery could bring to the world around us. To this end, people gathered in their sheds, their kitchens, their bedrooms, and at their desks, reading about this and experimenting with that.
Isolated, alone, immersed in new research & cutting edge technology, the late 19th Century gave rise to the modern nerd in the form of inventors. Before long, these nerds would develop a new form of communication that makes The Magazine seem quaint and old-fashioned: Radio.
Electricity, and what could be done with it, was starting to become old news, and even hobbyists were more interested in bigger things. With all the benefit this wired gear was getting us, the ideas of wireless – the properties of electricity in a form that was not contained in wires – still seemed absolutely fantastic. Wireless was an old notion, and had been floated well before light bulbs and telephones, but where it had been fantasy up until the late 1800s, now it was a Sci-Fi concept that absorbed the imaginations of many young inventors as they toiled in their workshops. The stage was set.
This is the story of Radio. Of enthusiasts who wanted to shape the future and had visions that many Americans were not yet able to imagine. As we continue our journey through these stories, what stands out to me is the solitude of these pioneers. Much like their modern counterparts, there were those who felt cut off and isolated from the world at large. Having few peers who understood their dreams and passions, these inventors spent endless hours at their desks, imagining the world and future as interpreted through books and magazines. The story of radio is as much technological breakthrough as it is mythology, hype, and marketing, performed by amateurs, hoping to make it big. In this way Radio and Internet have so much in common, and the way they each describe themselves is eerily familiar.
Presently, Radio is a quaint innovation, something that seems obvious and old fashioned, a relic of an era that must be buried in some physical book from the ancient past. But the impact Radio had on the world cannot be understated. In the first 20 years of the 20th Century, Wireless Telegraphy went from the stuff of pulp novels to a service that offered incredible communication over great distances. By 1930, Crystal Radio Sets were available to hobbyists in stories across the country. By 1940, regular broadcasts could be heard everywhere, all day, every day. Within the lifetime of my grandmother, she moved from a world devoid of instantaneous communication, to a world completely transformed by fireside chats and baseball games beamed straight into her home, all via a new piece of furniture that looked smart, too.
I can only equate it to being exposed to the blinking cursor on the TRS-80 I received for Christmas in 1987. Try to put in mind a paradigm shift of that proportion, and imagine how absolutely radical it must have been for those who understood the implications. I cried when I encountered that cursor, as I hacked out my first piece of BASIC code, trying to let sink in what this new reality afforded me. If Electricity was the rock and roll of our conception of the world, radio was punk rock, spreading ideas far and wide in a dangerous way that electricity could never dream.
As important as the story of electricity is, along side it is the story of radio, and both are so entwined with each other that they are essential to each other’s stories.
In addition to more excepts from Ken BurnsEmpire of The Air” documentary, I also turned to 90 minute recording by Ben Brooks, “The First 50 Years of Radio,” something I found on one of my rabbit hole dives through a link slog. Ben was a radio & TV columnist for the New York Daily News, and Brooks helped assemble this recording to celebrate the November 1970 anniversary of the first broadcast of KDKA, one of the oldest radio stations in the United States. You’ll be hearing more from this documentary as this series progresses.
Now, let us get into this week’s history lesson.
* * * * * *
Side A: Hot Wire My Heart (The Fathers Of Radio)
This first side of this week’s collection is all about the many characters who all played roles in the development of early radio. When you get down to it, there are just too many people who played a part in mastering one small component that would later become part of the overall puzzle of radio. In spite of this, many claim to have been ground zero, and in some cases, used this title to market themselves. The ones mentioned here are Maxwell, Morse, Hertz, Branly, PopovPoulsenEdison, Stubblefield, & Fessenden.
The truth is each depended on the other to make the breakthroughs that would become an element of the next breakthrough, and so on. In this pre-Internet era, inventors were all watching each other (and each other’s patents) in the same way you would follow any other hobby, and those who were leaders in those areas. The thought that anyone could completely invent and envision all the technology necessary to create Radio on their own undercuts the value of the scientific method itself, and how useful it can be for some people to become an expert in one very small area.
By having a community work on the problem, you can each solve the other’s problems without even knowing you’re doing it. While there are, inevitably, omissions that I’ll surely get e-mail about, I have done my best to represent as many as I could given the resources at my disposal. I would love to make this story complete, so please, send my your corrections.
01.) Turn It On * The Flaming Lips * Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
02.) Excerpt Part I * Ben Brooks * The First 50 Years of Radio Part One
03.) Edited Excerpts * Mike Staff * How To Become A Radio DJ
flaming-lipsIt’s easy to defend The Flaming Lips when they put out a great album, and have a hit song like, “Do You Realize?” and everyone is excited about festival concerts and the extreme production value they bring to their shows. But the cruel eye of hindsight is not so kind to them at times. While their output is treasured by hardcore fans, they become increasingly panned as the flops start to add up. This particular era of the band – we’ll call it the “Don’t Use Jelly” years – was not their strongest, to be perfectly frank. They had not yet written Clouds Taste Metallic, and where quite a long way off from The Soft Bulletin. In many ways they have become a bit of a cut-out-bin band, a novelty act that puts out Zaireeka (an album where you listen to all four discs simultaneously), or their absurd “7 Skies H3” (a 24 Hour Long Song), not to mention the song-for-song cover of Dark Side of The Moon, and “Christmas On Mars,” a holiday movie that is as inscrutable as it is terrifying. I can see why some people find them a problematic start to any story.
I don’t want to argue about their relevance or importance; I don’t want to claim that they are essential or a must for any smart psychedelic music fan; I don’t even want to convince you that you need to own or listen to anything else by them.
I just want to ask: have you ever heard anything as uplifting and strangely funny as “Turn It On” with these Mike Staff samples?
I gotta say, it’s better than it should be.
Now that you’re reconsidering The Flaming Lips, let’s get into it for a bit. I can’t change your mind, but they began to click for me when I had a better understanding when I considered the time and place. Mid-West in the early ’80’s, where the rules of punk rock were trying to set fire to the entire pre-history before The Ramones. Punk insisted that the bullshit excess of rock music from the ’60’s was completely valueless, and that only when we get loud and fast do we break out of the norms that had become “standard practice”. The past had nothing to teach us, and in the name of punk, we could only look forward to getting drunk and fucking shit up. The loudfastfuckyounow of punk awoke in their fans a rigidity of thought and uniform, behavior and musical ethos. Its narrowmindedness is often better summarized as a rejection of everything else rather than an articulate analysis of what they didn’t like about… well, anything.
The Flaming Lips understood that punk rock was due for an infusion of something new to save it: psychedelic rock. The story of punk had, ironically, been paved when rock & roll discovered psychedelia, spinning out of it a million permutations on a similar three-chord idea. Punk was a revolution, to be sure, but was insular and defined by negation, following a narrow aesthetic ideology. It had stagnated without anything new to expand it, and the fascistic denouement of all other things became a hinderance. The Flaming Lips never planned to create psychedelic punk per se, and even still, The Butthole Surfers beat them to the punch. But the Lips were such students of psychedelic rock and punk that their ideology was equally in those two worlds. In essence, the heart of the Flaming Lips is their curiosity about music in these varied forms and structures, and they have dedicated their lives to it.
Their early work borders on avant guarde, as the band is clearly still learning how to be a band. But after a handful of albums like this, a thread starts to emerge, and they get good at playing and writing songs. As the ’80’s closed, The Lips were a fairly strong band that could get a crowd, keep ’em, and put on a fun show the whole time. As the ’90’s began, they released records when everyone was watching for the next big alternative act. In the wake of this, Transmissions From The Satellite Heart hit stores, an album that not only summarized their sci-fi / earnest aesthetic in a nutshell, but wove a radio metaphor into the very fabric of their music, specifically the album opener, “Turn It On.”
If a mainstream band wore their heart on their sleeve more in the ’90s than The Lips, I’m hard pressed to name them at this time. “Put your life into a bubble / we can pick you up on radar / hit a satellite with feeling / Give the people what they paid for.” They have chosen this life, have dedicated themselves to being artists on display for us. We, as listeners, have a chance to pick up the signal they are sending, and fortunately for us they are the kind of band who will “hit” us with a feeling that is as real as possible. For the Lips, there is no better experience than that of celebration, or raising your voice to sing along to a song you hear on the radio, to Turn It On and On and WAY UP, and share that moment across the country at the same time and moment connecting us all in a positive expression of loving a simple rock and roll song.
How cool is that?
You can see that thread throughout all their work: this idea of sharing a celebratory feeling with a large number of people to create a magical moment, even a sad one, or a mundane one, and share that feeling through these transmissions, these records and songs The Lips have been making for almost 40 years now. Their perspective is so much a radio metaphor that, while it might seem crazy at first, they are the perfect band to kick off any story about radio.
This particular mix – with the Mike Staff Samples – comes from another audio essay I made in 2009, “A Sound Salvation.” I was rummaging through the library and came across this self-help tape by a NuRock style DJ, Mike Staff, who was going to reveal his tips for those who wanted to become successful professional DJs. This tape was perfect to mix with songs about radio and DJs, and the show wrote itself. While I don’t usually like to listen to individual songs from a show like this one (as I think the show works great as a whole), there is something about the way the mix during “Turn It On” worked that really sounds good to me. Mike Staff is over the top and full of himself, but his voice has that tone that makes you want to believe what he’s saying. And, for all his cheese, he makes a good point: Your Dream is Important to you, and can guide you if you will let it.
04.) Music On A Long Thing Wire (1979) [Excerpt I] * Alvin Lucier * OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music
lucierThere are a pair of selections from the OHM compilation in this show, and any discussion of radio pioneers parallels the conversation about artists featured in that three disc set (which saw a DVD Movie version in 2005). While the modern perception of electronic music seems entirely focused on a post-Kraftwerk definition of the genre, and as we discussed in Part I, electricity had a huge impact on the world of music, in that it could now be recorded easily. Artists from the very beginning found ways to use electricity, building new devices and creating music as actual experiments involving new technology. As with any such overview, OHM has some glaring omissions and evident biases. But as an entry point into the world of early experimental electronic music artists, it is an excellent set, offering music from the late ’30’s to the early ’80’s, with tracks that range from actual music recording and production experiments performed by curious individuals, to melodic and fascinating songs that are structured anew with electronic sound sources. These artists work well at underscoring the narrative of radio pioneers, as both led similar lives, alone in their home-brewed studios with gear they designed themselves. Listening to music like this evokes an image of men in lab coats, experimenting in every sense of the word.
05.) How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part I) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
993810462_23846c7bcfTo help tell this story of radio, I turned to a hero and inspiration of mine, Don Joyce, who has been hosting Over The Edge since the early ’80’s. Over The Edge is a freeform collage program where Don mixes a three-to-five-hour version of the kinds of stuff that Negativland puts on their albums, of which Don is also a member. Over The Edge can be musical, surreal, and psychedelic, and involves heavy use of listener calls as part of the mix of the show. In the past the show has featured scripted comedy and drama, note perfect parodies of other kinds of radio (Christian, Conspiracy, or just plain old Call In), and often includes musical performances by other electronic / noise artists who work in a similar style or form. Don himself usually performs live booper on the show, and the overall effect is equivalent to that of a pallet-cleanser, forcing you to think about radio as something other than the advertising machine it has become.
Over The Edge covers a lot of ground, and by the ’90’s (when I started listening), multi-part programs were becoming a feature on the show. In the 2000s, Don began to extend these multi-part narratives in the same way his show extends throughout the evening. His year long exploration of the various foibles and mistakes that happen “on-air” was a 150 hour presentation that was very impressive by any definition of the word. His next trick was something even closer to my own obsessive interests: a 106 Part feature spread out over three years, charting every moment of radio’s lengthy and storied history, in a series called How Radio Was Done. It is an achievement that is unparalleled in broadcasting, and while Don is now in the middle of another 90+ Part series called “Universe,” it’s good to look back at his previous work and give this 300+ hour presentation the praise it deserves. I’ll be including parts of How Radio Was Done in my History Lesson series as long as they are relevant and fun to listen to.
06.) Excerpt Part II * Ben Brooks * The First 50 Years of Radio Part One
07.) Morse Code * Don Woody * MCA Rockabillies
don woodyDon Woody is not anyone about which you should necessarily know, and even his place in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame is more as a footnote than as a true heavy hitter in the story Rock & Roll. But his song “Morse Code” is not only entirely relevant to the conversation at hand, but is a good example of how many lesser known figures are also movers and shakers behind the scenes. Don was a support act for Red Foley, and Brenda Lee recorded a version of one of this tunes. Don’s backing band was none other than the Slewfoot Five, known for working with country legend Grady Martin (who popularized “The Lord Knows I’m Drinking,” among other things). But outside of his six or so songs released on Decca & Arco Records as cheap 45s, Don Woody’s career never broke into the national consciousness, and even in these MCA Rockabillies collections, he’s still more footnote than star.
People like this are often forgotten entirely if it weren’t for hardcore fans preserving music for future generations, and this series on Norton Records (picking up where Big Tone Records left off) deals with those forgotten gems and lost treasures that are not talked about much by modern fans. Music, like mythology, is dependent on the stories the culture is telling at any given moment, and while Don Woody’s tale – if there was ever much of one to tell – probably mirrors that of 100s of has-been artists who have put their hair up with pomade and tried to write a love song or two. The big difference here is that Don’s music, like all the artists featured on the MCA Rockabillies series, is as good, if not better, than anything that qualifies as well known from the same era.
A travesty? Maybe. If we knew enough about Don we could speculate more about what might have led to this minor god never gaining a reputation to make that of Hercules. Don’s career flamed out before the ’60’s really began, and maybe it was better that he took a shot and retreated to a simple down-home life, rather than become front page news when there’s nothing much worth reporting. His is certainly a more common story, and one that everyone can relate to to better than that of Carl Perkins, or Johnny Cash.
Don fell in love. Don wrote some songs about it. He made a small name for himself, and then went home to BE in love, on his own terms, and not just for his own sake.
How many of us can say that?
08.) How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part II) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
09.) Hot Wire My Heart * Crime * Once Upon A Time Vol. 2: USA 1976
Crime07The B-Side to Crime’s “Hot Wire My Heart” is “Baby You’re So Repulsive.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
1975 was on the cusp of punk’s big debut, where a sea of rock bands that were stewing in the proto-punk beginnings were coming to a head in the big explosions happening in the UK, LA & New York, when Punk, capital P, legendarily “started.” But to say even that is a pretension that ignores the very, very obvious: it wasn’t in a vacuum. It wasn’t like there were no rock bands before Television first took the stage. The stage was there already, and other bands in the years between had climbed on it before them. The world was stewing in weridness that was as perverse as it was diverse: The Flaming Groovies, MX-80 Sound, Debris, Simply Saucer, The Gizmos, Zolar-X, The Memphis Goons, The Count Five, The Seeds. The list goes on and on. And during those in-between years, guys were growing up in the suburbs who were learning to play from copying Ventures records, filtering The New York Dolls through their own peculiar perspective. Those very guys turned into something that more or less approximates San Francisco’s First & Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Band, Crime.
Their story is as improbable as it is absolutely fascinating. The members of Crime all met hanging out at bars in San Francisco, all united by this strange mix of glam rock tastes that quickly led to photo shoots before they even had a name. After getting into a rigorous three times a week practice ethic, they burst into a studio one day and recorded a handful of tracks in front of a befuddled hippy engineer who was told outright he was cutting “the first west coast punk record.” (This same engineer stormed off after the band told him they wanted to record it live, without mixing anything.) Those tracks would make up their first two 7″s, which they self-released at a time when very few bands imagined such a thing was possible. Their records always sold poorly, in spite of the fact that the band thought it would be clever to market material as “punk” to jump on a trend that was up and coming, despite the fact that they saw it as a fad with no real substance. It was only when Crime decided to start playing for audiences that they dropped the punk label and insisted on being called the first and only Rock ‘n’ Roll band from San Francisco (at the time, a pointed dig at the way Jefferson Airplane used to promote themselves).
Their debut performance for an audience was on Halloween, 1976. It was a “GayPolitical fundraiser” (their words), where they played to movers and shakers in the activist community, and for a few friends that came with the band. Their willingness to play in unusual venues became as much a staple of their shows, as did the S&M Police Uniforms they wore on stage: a Tuesday night at a gay club on Market, San Quentin Prison (dressed in guard uniforms), and occasionally at the Mabuhay Gardens to befuddled audiences who never seemed impressed. When no where else would give them a gig, they rented their own venues and financed the shows themselves, DIY before there was even a name for it.
Their flyers featured war criminals and serial killers (including Hitler), all designed to send a very specific message that was confrontational in every way imaginable. When you experienced the band Crime, it was on their terms, period. It was the antithesis of everything that was hip and cool at the time, but a completely unsustainable way to conduct a band. After three obscure seven inches and six years worth of shows that almost all lost money, they packed it in before it was possible to consider selling out as an option (though some claim that they did so on the third record, where they were paid largely in drugs, and the songs on it sound different than the rest of their stuff). What they had left in the very end was a pile of glam-tinted stories to last the next 40 years, and an astounding gauntlet to be thrown down at a time when punk had barely even begun to start in earnest.
Crime were, by all accounts, drugged out, drunk, on too much coffee, all of the above, and argumentative, with each other and anyone who would engage them. This never really won them over a devoted fan base, but they had a circle of friends who came to the shows mostly so they could all get fucked up together. They did score some opening spots for touring acts, but their performances were mostly controlled violence, where the band played mid-tempo “rock” songs at a time when people wanted fast and loud. It seemed that they were a band without a home: outside of close friends, scensters active in pre-punk San Francisico ran in very tight circles. Crime did not play their bullshit games, in a complete rejection of all things cool. Crime took the Suicide approach to performances: loud, plodding, and in your face. Crime took a fascist approach to their imagery, and made such a reputation for themselves that they were rejected by the scene itself.
Crime insist that they are too wild for radio, but the problem is that there’s a dirty, filthy pop song at the center of “Hot Wire My Heart,” a song with drugs and prostitutes, improbable bedroom talk in the form of a Velvet Turner Group reference, and this car radio metaphor as the narrative frame. “Got your eye on the main control / turn it on and let’s go.” Not the most subtle analogy, true, but neither is having to create a short in your own circuitry to get you to feel anything – sex, drugs, ANYTHING – at this jaded stage in your bored life. Through the sneering and slop they pour into the tune, the story of a stereo blasting to life after you finish twisting the wires to get the motor running, the band playing couldn’t be anyone but Crime, could it? The radio blasts to life, and its like a spike in your arm, a mean installation of dominating rhythm.
Crime is probably better known now than when they were initially around, and their reputation is easier to digest when they are old and on a reunion tour, rather than the drunken spitting hot mess they once were. But in their first release they admit that they don’t have a place on modern radio, in spite of their contrary belief that rock music needed, desperately, to be saved from itself, by any means necessary. They knew going in that their vision did not fit the format of their time, but now, in a post-Crime universe, radio is more than ready to Hot Wire the Hearts of people who missed this incredible band the first time.
10.) How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part III) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
11.) Music On A Long Thing Wire (1979) [Excerpt II] * Alvin Lucier * OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music
(End of Side A)
* * * * * *
Side B: An Epoch In History (Monkeyface & Marconi)
Guglielmo_Marconi220px-Lee_De_ForestThe flip side of today’s presentation is structured as the strangest morning DJ Zoo-Crew Duo, Monkeyface & Marconi! Lee de Forest had the unfortunate nickname of “Monkeyface,” and that detail stuck out as I was trying to summarize who these two men were. Their race to outdo the other through wild promotional stunts has become a thing of legend, but it was clear that they each contributed to the dark origins of radio in very different ways. You can be sure that their story will continue to develop as time goes on.
13.) Excerpts * Ken Burns * Empire Of The Air
14.) Wireless Fantasy (1960) [Excerpt I] * Vladimir Vussachevsky * OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music
15.) Relaxing With Lee * Buddy Rich / Charlie Parker / Curley Russell / Dizzy Gillespie / Thelonious Monk * Bird: Complete Charlie Parker
Bird_The_Complete_Charlie_Parker_on_VerveAs we get comfortable with the details of Lee de Forest’s life, we continue to explore other realms new to this author’s ear. One project on the shelf in my office has been learning jazz, something I chip away at as the years go on, but feel like I make such minor progress when I assess it each time. The first thing that was really hard to wrap my head around was to realize that all these great jazz dudes all played with each other. I mean, I got that they all crossed paths, and that they might even play the same gig. But when it clicked that no, really, they all played with each other – in each other’s groups – and they each had their own groups, as well. I’ve given up long ago trying to draft a family tree, and instead try to focus on absorbing the songs. I still marvel at tracks like this, when you have five highly skilled performers all grooving to the same scene and were co-stars in each other’s movie about incredible artists.
Jazz really started to open up for me in big way when I heard bebop.
Charlie Parker was, in a lot of ways, the father of bebop, but his own demons and faults were his inevitable downfall. Bebop was a new permutation that was seen by the old fashioned jazz cats as an upraised middle finger to the sanctity of form, a sort of – ahem – flipping the bird.
Charlie didn’t give a fuck. He blazed his own trail, fueled by drugs and determination, and mastered his craft at a young age. Bird recorded with some of the greatest artists bebop, but spent most of those years hooked on smack, with occasional bouts of alcoholism. Parker’s crime was, of course, timing; because of the Musician’s Union recording ban between 1942 & 1944, Bird’s initial performances were never recorded. When he started to make a name for himself, the previous generation found him to be over the top, subverting jazz in a way that the moldy figs would never understand.
As time went on his reputation and virtuosity spoke volumes about who was right or wrong. No matter where Charlie found himself, trouble followed, and over the 18 years of his formal career, he drove his body to death, which finally gave up one night in 1955, on the cusp of Rock & Roll beginning to take hold of the country. It was clear that his boozy records were much worse than his heroine laced tracks, but most of that 18 years was spent trying to hold himself together long enough to produce some of the greatest music ever recorded.
The story of Parker differs in that his is a cautionary tale, a nerdy pioneer who flew too close to the sun. Bird was well know for his collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, but dig: he worked with Miles Davis, in addition to becoming the supreme icon of the beat generation, who managed to combine base passions and desires with unparalleled intellectual curiosity, and set a template for what “cool” was for the rest of the 20th Century. His relentless pursuit of the chromatic scale was not only an ultra-hip means of expressing his own identity at a time when that was rarely possible for any artists, and more pointedly, any well-dressed black man in post-WWII America. Like most mavericks, his interest in his ideas isolated him from like-minded folks, and much of his life was spent wrestling with his music and his chemical interests. What was left of him when he passed could be described in many ways, but I like to imagine it was spontaneous human combusion; his work consumed him.
16.) Wireless Fantasy (1960) [Excerpt II] * Vladimir Vussachevsky * OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music / How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part IV) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
17.) Blue Spark * X * Beyond & Back: The X Anthology
X-Beyond_and_Back-_The_X_AnthologyAside from the loosest connection to Spark-gap broadcasting, I take every opportunity I can to include an X tune in a show, so I can again remind people that I got to meet Exene Cervenka, and interview her form my 12th Anniversary broadcast. It was one of the coolest moments in my career, and she was game to hang out and chat and make my night.
As a huge fan of X ever since I was introduced to them via The Decline of Western Civilization, I’ve seen them several times now, and I find their songs an endless well of inspiration and perfect rock music structure. In many ways X distilled the entire history of rock and roll into a hopped up unit of cool, painting these perfect and harrowing images in song form. There’s a reason I ended the program with “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts” for so long, and I will find any reason to play X. They’re just one of those bands.
But like I was at 20 when my friend Lyra Cyst forced me to watch Decline, there was a point when I didn’t have most of their albums, and when I was completely new to their stuff. For someone in that theoretical position, who wasn’t sure about a new band as they were generally skeptical about all things new, the Beyond & Back two-disc set would have been a great entry point. It not only gives you a very good overview of the band and their history, but offers treasures, unreleased tracks, all the hits, live bits, and other mixes of well known tunes.
What is genius about this collection is that it rocks all the way through – essential for hooking new accolades – and rewards long-term fans with treats you didn’t know you needed to own. A lot of collections like this tend to fall short of being anything other than a greatest hits shtick, or a contractual obligation release. To make it a two disc set that complements and introduces all at once is pretty fantastic, and a rarity for most artists.
“Blue Spark” has a sort of stop-start structure to it that you can imagine acting as an SOS Signal, sending out bum-bump message to someone across the bar. There is always an undercurrent of smoldering sexuality running beneath most X songs, a sort of pulse that vibrates in time with the rest of the tune. When X is firing on all cylinders they are sex, strutting around the stage with beers in hand and cocaine eyes that want to have their way in spite of the terrifying world that exists outside the club door. They’re looking to create a spark in the listener’s mind, to turn them on and make them dance and celebrate in this secret corner of the city, away from the pain and misery and violence and horror that the rest of city pummels them with each day. They just want to look you in the eye as they sway in ecstasy and know that you are feeling it too, in that moment. They paint a picture of a horny dude waiting for his famous wife to finally fuck him after a long day, but they do it in the most sexually propulsive way imaginable, ignoring the subtext of the loneliness and isolation both characters feel in their lives, separate and together in spite of their orgasms.
The build-up and release form does, when you squint at it, mirror the morse code that radio took before voices were seamlessly integrated into wireless broadcasts, and the penetrative power of radio itself could take the sex metaphor to other places, if I wanted to make that case. But I think X handles those with a little more deft that is not only the perfect rock song, but is more suggestive upon repeated listenings.
18.) How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part V) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
19.) Static Radiates (Underwater Meditation) * Leb Laze * Library Catalog Music Series: Music For Troubled Machinery
20.) How Radio Was Done Part I (Excerpt Part VI) * Don Joyce * Over The Edge Radio (27 April 2006)
21.) The Message * The Estranged * Static Thoughts
0004312394_10Sometimes when you are building stories like this one, you start with a specific ending in mind. I knew I wanted to close with We The People, but I needed a lead in that offered the proper climax to its denouement. As I was flipping through different discs and records and digital albums, I accidentally fell down a rabbit hole that led to The Estranged, as is often the case. I put the album on and turned it up, and the end of the show revealed itself to me. Of course. Sometimes, you let rock and roll be your lodestone, and everything will work itself out; even though static thoughts, they were still able to get through.
In the wake of a new millennium, rock and roll was entering a dangerous period of synthesizers, Bumford & Lames, and laptop DJs that was threatening the future of guitars. Every party bleeped and blooped with a steady sonic pulse of un-ironic Erasure re-mix 12″s, and more and more kids were trying to ignore the work done by garage rock bands and punk-inspired retro acts, in favor of a future that was shiny and plastic. It was easy to get discouraged as math rock failed to hit it big, and while indie made a polished and tiny foothold in CW dramas, it felt as if someone had walked over Keith Moon’s grave. Where were the three-chord wonders? Who was gonna save the world from itself?
Like their heroes The Wipers, The Estranged came out of Portland, where Pierced Arrows and a few others were trying to save the scene from itself. The gimmick was simple: rock songs, well played, well written, and polished by guys who practiced relentlessly. Their movement from the garage to the studio was a tactical progression, and as they each became skilled performers, they worked out the tunes for Static Thoughts as their version of Is This Real? – a mission statement of influences – that was to become the blueprint for the rest of their output. The most strategic move was to get Jason Powers to engineer, who had made a name for producing great work with Scout Niblett, Holy Sons, The Decemberists, Grails & The Swords Project. The Estranged believed if they could get the kind of Indie Rock polish on a straight rock record, they could capture a new audience and bring them into the dirty sonic landscape that was punk.
“The Message” returns us to the beginning of our thematic story: broadcasting to an audience, trying to make yourself be heard. Many of us spend our days in a barrage of Static Thoughts, a swarm of ideas and notions that overwhelm us with a constant din of binge-watched TV, 100s of gigs of new .mp3s, computers inserted into every flat surface imaginable, and 10 layers of management each telling us what to do. This largely mirrors the relationship Monkeyface & Marconi had with each other, competing so hard to become well known that when they try to demonstrate their own technologies, their signals jam each other, so much static that neither could pick out a signal. Sometimes, it is all we can to do send out one message, anything, and make ourselves be heard. “The Message” uses a propulsive bassline to anchor the tune, a bouncy guitar riff, and Joy Division meets Television-esque vocals to cut to the heart of the matter. How can I get through? What can I say that will reach you? It feels like the message is not clear, and not getting through, no matter how hard you want to say what you mean. In the end, all we have are these awkward attempts, these moments where we work and craft and make ourselves as articulate as possible, and leave The Message behind for others to interpret.
22.) Wireless Fantasy (1960) [Excerpt III] * Vladimir Vussachevsky * OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music
23.) In The Past * We The People * “In The Past” b/w “St. John’s Shop” (Challenge, 1966)
wethepeopleAnd, while we’re at it, one more for the road:
In the wake of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s initial explosion at the end of the 1950s, American kids got the message very quickly: pick up a guitar, grab some friends, and start a band. This compulsion was so prevalent in the US that an entire genre of music – Garage Rock – developed, and kids from Tacoma Washington to the wilds of Florida found common ground when they all tried to learn “Louie Louie” and play at their friend’s backyard party. Now that the children of post-WWII families were starting to come of age, and the Viet Nam war was only just getting started, the combination of better education, more leisure time created a demand for entertainment to fill both leisure and radio air time. It also helped that rock and roll was, compared to the music of their parents, fairly easy to play. You could figure out how to strum a song from a record with a little patience and some beer, unlike the popular music of their parent’s generation, which required practice and study. Rock and Roll was closer to the metal, and the distance between you and a song was developing a good Pete Townsend windmill and being able to play “Psychotic Reaction” on demand.
The Garage Rock movement was unique in that it was fractured. The majority of Garage Bands never recorded, and even fewer played regular gigs. The scene was spread across the country, but due to the newness of rock journalism, the slim number of outlets that were interested in Rock Music, and the fact that the touring circuit was not yet carved in stone, each region had their own unique take on Garage that was largely unaware of what was happening elsewhere. The scene in Texas wasn’t grooving on records from Massachusetts, and vice versa. Garage Bands were only seeing releases on regional labels, often in small runs of 100 or less, if a recording was even possible. These bands didn’t always write original tunes, making their bread and butter in covers and playing local dances or shows at a VFW hall. After the Pat Boone-ification of rock music, garage became the line that was drawn across generations. The period between 1960 and 1965 saw an unbelievable uptick in these kinds of bands, all united by a love of Music and a belief that jamming on a riff with your buddies was the only sensible way to spend an afternoon.
By 1965 a number of changes – culturally and musically – were beginning to take hold. Music was beginning to mutate again, political and social tension was coming to a head, and in a post-Kennedy Assassination world, it as difficult to imagine the naiveté of the early ’60s continuing for much longer. The beginnings of a musical political consciousness was starting to awaken, and you could no longer play a sort of primitive frat rock and be taken seriously.
Enter Ron Dillman, a newspaper writer covering the music beat for the Orlando Sentinel. Ron knew the score, and followed the local scene pretty closely, in spite of his square dress and stupid hat. Ron was at all the shows, and was always supportive of new acts. Ron was noticing the changes, how the bubble gum of the last few years wasn’t sticking anymore. It was the perfect name – We The People – a populist slogan that communicated you were a dove, but in a strange in a psychedelic way, like The United States of America. Ron was on the cusp of a modal shift, and he knew that the right gimmick could bag him a few hit records. He just needed a band.
It was serendipity when Ron showed up at a Trademarks show to hear that it was their last show with Ralphie, their drummer, an account that he didn’t own his own set, and was never available to do road gigs because he couldn’t get the time off from work. Ron instantly thought of The Offbeats, who just lost their singer / songwriter to another band, and were looking to keep the act together. He realized that they were both sort of chasing the same idea, but from different angles, and that they might complement each other better than either of them thought. The Trademarks featured really fuzzy guitars and harmonicas as part of their sound, while The Offbeats had a member – Wayne Proctor – who played a thing they called “the octochord,” which sort of sounded like a sitar. This octochord was homemade by a family friend, and might just work with the sound everyone else was developing. Ron’s philosophy was: throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks.
Ron introduced the bands to each other at a local watering hole, where they all talked shop for three hours, running over gear and records. Ron went on to sell the band on his name (We The People), mentioning that he could get them a record deal (maybe) if they used it, and that it would be a hit, guaranteed (lie) if they just tried it out. The band dug what Ron had to say, and before long they were jamming out future hits like “You Burn Me Up And Down” and “Into The Past.” Ron ran into a streak of luck when he successfully managed to get someone from Hotline Records to drop by a rehearsal, who immediately agreed to put out “My Brother, the Man” in 1966. To everyone’s surprise, it was a top 10 regional hit in Florida. Ron couldn’t believe it. He was doing everything he could imagine to get We The People off the ground, and in a strange turn of events, it was starting to work.
Challenge Records caught wind the group, and struck a deal to release three 45s to follow up the success. Challenge had lucky with “Tequila” by The Champs, and with records by Jan & Dean and The Knickerbockers among their releases, it seemed a little strange to be making a foray into psychedelic garage. But Challenge was taking a lot of chances in those days, as they were doing rather poorly, and were looking anywhere for a hit like “Tequila” to give them the money they needed to continue. Bands like We The People benefited from Challenge’s risky behavior, and before long their follow up, “Mirror of Your Mind” was getting airplay as far north as Nashville. The band released two more singles in fairly rapid succession, and while they were generally liked, only the B-Side to their last release with Challenge hit #2 in the region, keeping them on the radio for a while but never bringing them to a national audience. Challenge stopped offering We The People deals, and soon the label folded.
Ron quickly made the calls to get the band on RCA Records for a three single deal. However, Wayne Proctor, one of the primary songwriters, suddenly quit. He was dodging the draft, using college as his “out,” but this meant he couldn’t be associated with a socialist rock band in order to make the argument fly. In spite of the loss, their RCA Singles did okay, and hit the local airwaves, unfortunately to tepid success. When Tommy Talton left after their last 45 failed to make it big, it seemed like the end for the band.
Ron made a few last ditch efforts to course correct with the remaining members. But the writing on the wall was clear; this band now only existed “Into The Past.” Ron tried desperately to keep the band alive, and sunk every last dollar into promoting and renting a venue for a Halloween 1970 show. After an endless number of phone calls to replace last minute members dropping out, he managed to get some form of We The People to finish playing 10 songs in capes that evening, the bare minimum needed to count as a full set and not get called out for ripping off the audience. After that night Ron realized that managing the band no longer has the spark it once did, and dissolved We The People, paying out the remaining members with his own money, leaving him in the hole for years to come.
What We The People left behind is more than some bands ever get to do. 14 songs recorded in a studio, and a story that is so set in a time and a place as to sound like a joke from my parent’s generation. But their sound was pretty mind blowing, and prefigured punk in a number of ways. But if Lee de Forest and the other mavericks that helped pioneer radio had a band manager analog, it would have to be Ron Dillman, manager of We The People. He had a vision, an idea, and the tenacity to do it, in spite having no real idea how the music industry really worked. Sure, he did not succeed; Ron wanted a hit, and Lee wanted to be The Father of Radio. What neither of their realized was that their efforts in the past have left an indelible mark on the present, and to those who want to follow the story, their reward is something that sounds like it could have happened to them if the circumstances were just a little different.
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Indiana Virtual School
Algebra I
Subject: Mathematics
Course Description:
Algebra I emphasizes the importance of algebra in everyday life through hundreds of real-world examples. Assessments are designed to ensure that your understanding goes beyond rote memorization of steps and procedures. Upon successful course completion, you will have a strong foundation in Algebra I and will be prepared for other higher-level math courses.
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• Course Credits: 2.00 |
Researchers Find That Some Breast Milk Sold Online Contains Cow’s Milk
Many parents choose to buy breast milk to feed their babies, for various reasons, but those folks are under the belief that the stuff is coming from humans. Researchers published a report into the online breast milk industry that said despite the expectation that the milk comes from women, some samples tested positive for cow’s milk.
That milk poses a potential danger for some babies, according to a study published in Pediatrics that warns against breast milk sold online that could’ve had cow’s milk added to it.
“It could be very harmful to babies with allergies or intolerance” to cow’s milk, Sarah Keim, a researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH told USA Today.
A previous study from the group using the same samples, collected in 2012 from several sites, found that 75% were contaminated with viruses or bacteria as well. Since 2010, the Food and Drug Administration has warned that milk sold or shared online could be unsafe.
Some sites like Only The Breast offer breast milk from thousands of nursing mothers, with prices ranging from $1 to $6 for an ounce. Ads featured on the site show mothers claiming to only eat organic diets, are drug-free, don’t drink alcohol or caffeine, and other habits seen to be healthy.
Other sites encourage women to share breast milk, but none of those free sites had samples included in the study. Keim says that kind of milk is unsafe because it hasn’t been tested for contamination.
Only The Breast issued a statement saying that its terms of use forbid members from adding anything to milk sold or donated there: “We believe most OTB members are honest, abiding by OTB terms and are simply looking to provide safe milk for babies in need.”
So why mix up the milk? Whoever’s topping off breast milk with cow’s milk adds instant opportunity to make a product stretch a bit farther than it otherwise would, which means more money to be made.
Instead of seeking out breast milk online, mothers who have trouble breastfeeding should turn to health professionals instead of ordering online, says Kim Updegrove, executive director of the Mothers’ Milk Bank in Austin.
There are 18 non-profit banks in Human Milk Banking Association of North America that provide safe, screened breast milk for sick and low-weight babies in hospitals, but they don’t get enough donations to provide access to the general public, Updegrove notes.
“Body fluids are dangerous, and milk is a body fluid,” she says. Adding cow’s milk could result in things like upset stomachs, to bloody diarrhea and eczema in some infants, Updegrove adds.
Cow’s Milk Contamination of Human Milk Purchased via the Internet [Pediatrics]
Some online breast milk might contain cow’s milk [USA Today] |
Public Release:
As recording technology rapidly improves, neurons give up their secrets cell by cell
Edelman Public Relations
CHICAGO (January 26) - Scientists at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), designated the "#1 Rehabilitation Hospital in America" by U.S. News & World Report since 1991, report that, thanks to improvements in technology and data analysis, our understanding of the functional principles that guide the development and operation of the brain could improve drastically in the next few years. The advances could herald a neuroscientific revolution, much as increasing processor speeds paved the way for the computing revolution of the last half century.
In the February, 2011 issue of Nature Neuroscience, the researchers, Dr. Ian H. Stevenson and Dr. Konrad P. Kording, performed a meta-analysis of 56 studies conducted since the 1950s (the advent of multi-electrode recordings) in which the activity of neurons was recorded in animals or humans. They found that the number of simultaneously recorded single neurons has grown exponentially since the 1950s, doubling approximately every seven years.
The researchers likened the progress in neuronal recording techniques to Moore's law, which describes the exponential growth of processing speed that has doubled approximately every two years, making computers smaller and technology accessible to more people.
"As it becomes easier for us to access and interpret information coming from the brain, we will be able to better help those with disabilities and conditions of the nervous system," said Dr. Kording. "Our goal is to take what we are learning about how and why the brain works so we can quickly and successfully use it to help patients. By decoding how neurons communicate with each other, we may one day be able to restore connections by conditioning different neurons to talk to each other, or to talk to each other in different ways, thereby restoring ability in our patients."
The "firing" or "spiking" of a neuron is really a signal sent along a gradient to other neurons and throughout the entire nervous system. These signals send messages and convey important information, including representations about the world and messages that control our behaviors and actions.
According to Dr. Kording, "Recording of only a single neuron at a time was possible in the late 1950s. Now, researchers can record activity from hundreds of neurons simultaneously, gathering valuable information about when and why neurons fire or do not fire."
In patients with conditions caused by lost connections in the brain, such as stroke or spinal cord injury, information from the brain sent via neurons cannot get relayed to certain limbs or parts of the body. Researchers at RIC are using data from neurons to pioneer research designed to restore connections and ability using novel technologies. In fact, RIC researchers recently reported that they have identified novel ways of potentially re-routing the flow of information in the nervous system using stimulation technology. Currently, RIC researchers are on the cutting-edge of exploring the use of novel brain-machine interface, functional electronic stimulation and virtual reality technology to restore function in individuals suffering from paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries or stroke.
About The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
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Allanblackia - a species of choice: interview with Pauline Buffle
Discussing the quality of Allanblackia oil at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana Photo: Pauline Buffle
1) What is the Allanblackia project and how did the project start?
“The Allanblackia project is funded by the Swiss Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) for the development of a sustainable supply chain of the Allanblackia oil. Allanblackia is a fruit-bearing tree found in Western central tropical forests of Africa. The fruit contains nuts that can be crushed to obtain oil that has similar properties to palm oil. Traditionally, Allanblackia oil is used in soap-making in Ghana but is also used in Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon and a few other countries. The Allanblackia project started in 2002 with a public-private partnership called the Novella partnership, involving several members including, ICRAF (the World Agroforesty Centre) IUCN and Unilever to develop a sustainable supply chain of the Allanblackia oil. The project aimed at launching a new export commodity, giving local farmers an alternative agricultural income through environmentally sustainable harvesting methods. Allanblackia is an endemic African forest tree, and local communities have traditionally gone into the forest to collect the fallen fruits in order to harvest the seeds. However, Unilever realized that wild harvesting would not meet commercial demands in terms of volume–so they decided to domesticate the tree in agroforesty systems following sustainable, social and ecological standards in order to increase the volume of Allanblackia production.”
2) Will Allanblackia replace palm oil?
“Allanblackia oil is not meant to replace palm oil. Unilever has stressed that they will not grow the tree out of its endemic areas. Unilever also does not want Allanblackia to be based on unsustainable monoculture agricultural model but instead based on sustainable agroforestry schemes and maybe sustainable big plantations in the future.For example in Ghana, Allanblackia seedlings are most often combined with cacao trees and research is showing that this combination of crops has very good economical and environmental potential. Some farmers incorporate Allanblackia with other trees such as plantain, palm oil, Rauvolvia vomitoria a plant used as shade tree and/or for medicinal purposes, and many other species.”
3) How long does the wild tree grow? When can you harvest the fruits?
“In the wild, the Allanblackia tree starts fruiting after 12 years. However domesticated trees start fruiting after 7 years. FORM International has assessed that the peak of tree yield is reached around 20-30 years, which remains the same until the tree is 40 years old. So an Allanblackia tree is an investment which will give returns for a long time.”
4) How is Allanblackia oil different from palm oil?
“Allanblackia oil consists almost entirely of stearic and oleic acids and has a precise melting point of 34 Degrees Celsius. Hence, Allanblackia oil will melt easily once swallowed and ingested but will remain solid at room temperature. It has excellent properties for spreads and potentially also for chocolate. In addition to its high melting point, Allanblackia oil does not have the deep red colour of palm oil. Allanblackia oil can therefore be much more easily incorporated - without requiring the costly processing of eliminating colour - into beauty products and food, such as soap and margarine. It has a mild taste, so it makes a good all-purpose oil.”
5) Who are the partners in this project? What is the role of IUCN in this partnership?
“This Allanblackia project is mainly focused in Ghana. We have TechnoServe (TNS), the Institute for Cultural Affairs (ICA of Ghana), UEBT who set up the standard for a sustainable supply chain and FORM International helping us with the forestry aspects. At the global level, we have the Novella partnership (private-public partnership) composed of the World Agroforestry Centre of Research (ICRAF), Unilever, IUCN, UEBT, FORM international and the River State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) in Nigeria. Our role in IUCN is to ensure that the supply chain is set up in a sustainable way. We are for example, involved in some of the domestication work such as nursery development, as part of research into the potential of Allanblackia as a species of choice for Forest Landscape Restoration, or in the monitoring of the trees. In general we support a lot of the activities with the communities but also work closely with the international partners to keep sustainability high on the agenda."
6) What are the future plans for this project?
“After a first phase of wild harvesting, we are now in the “domestication phase” which is ending soon. We are looking into the possibility of developing a third phase. Meanwhile, the Novella Partnership is still investing in the development of the domestication and supply chain of Allanblackia. For the moment, further research on domestication of Allanblackia trees and wild harvesting of nuts will continue until the necessary volumes are met. At the same time, we are monitoring interests and potential entry points within the local, national, regional and international markets.”
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Brain Games: 9 Benefits of Play-Based Learning
Photo by U.S. Army (Flickr)
Play-based learning motivates and engages kids.
Play-based learning builds positive relationships with education and learning.
Play-based learning enhances creativity.
Play-based learning provides opportunities to practice skills.
Play-based learning reinforces social cognition.
Play-based learning improves abstract thinking.
Play-based learning helps kids problem-solve.
Play-based learning teaches critical-thinking skills.
Find more about the author: Kim Hart
Friday, October 23, 2015
Smart Seeds: 7 Ways That Young Brains Blossom Through Play
Photo by J Aaron Farr (Flickr)
When your kids play, it might look like they're merely having fun. However, they're actually developing their brains. Numerous studies show that play helps young brains blossom. Learn more as you encourage the kids you love to play.
Play Improves Attention Spans
Recess is more than a way for kids to get fresh air. Studies show that kids pay more attention in school after they take breaks for free play without adult direction. Chinese and Japanese students understand the correlation between play breaks and improved attention. They rank high in academics perhaps in part because they take short breaks every 50 minutes.
Play Improves Language Skills
We know kids aren't born with the ability to talk, but did you know that play develops essential language skills? Our kids learn how to communicate with receptive and expressive language, which means they understand more words and speak more words, thanks to play.
Play Improves Problem-Solving Skills
Learning how to solve problems is a skill I want my girls to learn. They can become better problem-solvers as they play with multi-solution toys and pretend.
According to psychologists, there are two types of problems. Convergent problems have one solution, and divergent problems have multiple solutions. Kids are better able to solve divergent problems when they play.
In one experiment, some kids were given puzzles, a convergent toy, while others played with blocks, a divergent toy. They were then given a divergent-thinking test, and the kids who played with blocks were better able to solve the problems. In another study, kids who played pretend also had a greater ability to solve divergent problems.
Play Improves Self-Regulation
The ability to control impulses, attention, and emotions is super-important for kids, and they can actually learn this skill through play. One study found that kids who frequently engage in pretend play also frequently practice cooperation and conforming to rules. This practice develops their self-control and hones their self-regulation over time.
Another study links counterfactual reasoning and pretend play. Basically, play helps our kids learn how to infer what's going to happen even though it hasn't happened yet, and I know that I want my kids to master "what if" scenarios as they go through life.
Play Improves Math Skills
The blocks your kids play with aren't just toys for building, sorting, or stacking. Studies show that kids who engage in more complicated or sophisticated block play in preschool take higher-level math classes and perform better than their peers in high school. IQ does play a part for these kids, but they need play to develop their math skills, too.
Play Improves Kids' Real-Life Coping Skills
Do your kids enjoy playing imaginative and make-believe games like my girls do? If so, they're building real-life coping skills. Preschoolers as young as three understand the difference between real life and fantasy in part because of their pretend play. They also know that they can put their pretend experiences into practice with friends, at home, or in school.
Play Improves Scientific Awareness
The next time your kids ask to play in the mud or build a sand castle, let them. These types of messy play activities promote scientific awareness and build a child's understanding of physics, textures, and matter.
Have you ever made the connection between play and brain growth? Our kids grow and learn because we give them freedom to play. Let's raise smart seeds as we encourage young brains to blossom while they play!
Find more about the author: Kim Hart
Monday, October 19, 2015
VaniaRaposo (Pixabay)
Find more about the author: Kim Hart
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Wondrous Worlds: 7 Ways That Kids Benefit From Pretend Play
Photo by Lars Plougmann (Flickr)
Social Skills
Emotional Skills
Problem-Solving Skills
Language Skills
Find more about the author: Kim Hart
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Fit Family, Fun Fall: 9 Ways to Stay Active as the Temperature Drops
Photo by Steven Depolo (Flickr)
It's easy to stay active during warm weather, but cooler temperatures tempt me to hibernate indoors under the blankets. If you're like me, you might need some encouragement to stay active. Here are nine activities my family enjoys, and they might motivate your family to stay active, too, when the temperature drops.
My girls love to play Just Dance on Wii, dance as they get ready for school, and dance to music as they clean their rooms. I've also been known to break out in a dance while prepping dinner or during commercial breaks as we watch TV. You can even host a dance party or do Zumba as you stay active and have fun this fall.
Go Camping Indoors
Plummeting temperatures may prevent you from heading to your favorite outdoor camping spot, but you can pitch a tent in the basement or set up air mattresses in the master bedroom. Turn off your devices, cook on your indoor grill, and plan a scavenger hunt. Your entire family will still have fun while staying active and spending time together.
Take the Stairs
Wherever you go this fall, look for opportunities to take the stairs as often as possible. I advocate this fitness activity all year, but I especially like it during the colder months. It keeps me healthy and warms my fingers and toes, which is an extra bonus I definitely appreciate!
Go Ice-Skating
Whether you're an ice-skating newbie or expert, take time during cooler weather to try this aerobic sport. It's family-friendly and affordable. Plus, you'll have fun cheering for and supporting each other on the ice.
Jog in Place
Sitting still for too long isn't good for your circulation, heart, or health. As you watch a movie or a TV show, stay moving by jogging in place. If you can't jog, walk in place, jump on a mini-trampoline, or do push-up competitions with the whole family. You'll still see your favorite shows as you add activity into your family time.
Play Twister
Active games like Twister keep my girls moving all winter. They have fun tying themselves in knots, and I appreciate that they're moving. Other active games your family could try include Simon says, hide and seek, and hide the button.
Walk the Mall
If your kids love shopping as much as my girls, walk the mall this fall. Park as far away as possible from the entrance, speed-walk between stores, and opt for the stairs instead of the escalators as you get a workout and enjoy retail therapy.
Do At-Home Workouts
I love the fact that my family can access dozens of workouts at home. We can watch YouTube videos, play fitness games on the Xbox, and use our exercise ball, Hula-Hoops, or yoga poses to get a great workout. And while we're staying fit, we have fun together.
Join a Rec Center
At our local rec center, we can play basketball, swim, and take fitness classes. There's an activity for everyone in our family, and we love the opportunity to be active together. If you don't think you have time for another thing on your schedule, try meeting up for a basketball game after dinner or swim on Sunday afternoons.
Staying active is more challenging when cooler fall weather hits, but you and your family can keep moving with these nine tips. What are you waiting for? Be a fit family and have fall fun as you stay active today and all season!
Find more about the author: Kim Hart |
Hi, my name is Andrew and I am a rising senior at Monta Vista High School. I worked on the Minty Boost as my starter project, and a USB charger as my main project. The Minty Boost takes the voltage supplied by two 1.5V batteries and steps up the voltage to 5V in order to charge your phone. My USB charger converts both mechanical and solar energy into electrical energy. The user can generate electricity by turning a crank, which is converted to a lower voltage to charge a phone. The solar panel generates energy that a power regulating module makes it usable by a phone to charge. Blue Stamp was a great experience to apply what I learned in my physics class this year to something tangible. Overall, I learned a lot of valuable skills such as troubleshooting as well as a lot of factual knowledge such as how circuits, switches, and solar panels work.
Main Project: Hand Cranked USB Charger
Crank Base
Crank Handle
Lid Design
Motor Clamp
Final Milestone:
For this last milestone, I decided to integrate a solar charging option with my crank USB charger. I achieved this using a 6V 0.5 W solar panel and connected this to a voltage regulating circuit. The voltage produced by the solar panel depends on the intensity of the sunlight. Depending on the voltage produced, the voltage is either stepped up or stepped down to around 5V. This output voltage is connected to a switch, which controls which type of charging the user would like. One problem with the circuit is that the solar panel produces a small current, and this could be solved by adding solar panels in parallel to increase the current. In addition, the voltage regulating module does not work for voltages below 3V, and as a result, the intensity of the sunlight needs to be above a certain threshold for the charging to be achieved. This can be prevented in the future by using a module that functions with a lower input voltage. From this milestone, I learned about how solar panels and switches work, and specifically how to wire them into a circuit.
Milestone 2:
For this milestone, I decided to make my hand cranked charger more efficient, while also providing and enclosure that would hold and protect the circuit. I achieved this through creating 3D designs using Autodesk’s Inventor 3D modeling program. Creating these designs were more difficult than I thought they would be, since I had never created 3D designs using programs before. In addition, I had to have precise measurements for the placement of each part of the circuit as well as for the placement of screws to hold everything in place. One challenge was figuring out how to secure the screws in place, since the plastic used to print out the designs was not strong enough to provide a foundation for threads for the screws. I ended up including many slots for nuts in order to secure the screws in place. In addition, my initial crank design failed due to the metal shaft of my motor biting into the plastic of the crank. As a result, I had to incorporate the metal wheel hub of my original crank into my new design that included a handle. From my experiences, I learned how to use Inventor and how 3D printing works.
Milestone 1:
For my main project, I decided to build a hand cranked charger. This project converts mechanical energy provided by the user and converts it into electrical energy, using a motor and a step down transformer. This is achieved through cranking a 12V DC motor, creating a current and voltage that needs to be converted to a usable voltage by the phone being charged. There is a diode attached to the motor to protect the circuit from reverse current if the motor is spun in the opposite direction. In the circuit, there are a couple of components. The inductor stores energy and helps stabilize the current, while capacitors store energy and stabilize the voltage. The input voltage from the motor is reduced to a lower voltage using a step down transformer, and the output voltage can be adjusted using a potentiometer, which allows the user to control the resistance of the circuit. The output is 5v and a current around 550 mah . During this project, I came across many problems. The initial problem was due to my motor having faulty soldering, and as a result, it needed to be fixed. However, the motor further caused problems and had to be replaced. After the new motor arrived, I discovered I had a short in my circuit board, and I needed to replace it. After fixing these problems, I discovered that having my phone plugged in further increased the resistance of the circuit, making charging difficult by making the crank harder to turn, creating a lower voltage than is needed. As a result, I decided to switch back to my old motor, which still worked, due to it working at a higher RPM and being easier to turn. In addition, I decided to work on a more efficient hand crank attached to the motor to provide a more steady current. In addition, my major problem that took the majority of the time to solve was that some solder connecting the positive output from the IC to the positive terminal of the USB connector touched the outer metal portion of the connector, which is ground. After noticing this small mistake, the circuit worker.
Starter Project: MintyBoost v3.0
For my starter project, I built the MintyBoost. This project takes the 3.0V input provided by the batteries and converts it to an output of 5.0V which is usable by devices such as phones. This project is composed of a few main components: diodes, resistors, capacitors, inductors, power supply, and boost converters. All of the parts came in the kit, but knowing their functions was important. As a result, most of the work necessary to complete the project involved soldering, which was not that difficult since I had done it before. The most difficult part of the starter project was identifying the direction of the current and identifying the polarity of each component of the circuit.
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Wednesday, 26 November 2014
The fate of HMS Bulwark
On the 26th November 1914 at 7.45 in the morning and the pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Bulwark was laying off number 17 buoy at Kethole reach coaling from the Kingsnorth Naval base. The water was calm, no tide and not a single disturbance on the water.
The crew of the aging warship had been on shore leave in Sheerness and had reported for duty at 7.00 am that morning. Now the majority were having breakfast in the mess rooms around the ship, others were on duty carrying out necessary shipboard tasks whilst others were conducting drill as the ship's band began to rehearse.
For next five minutes all continued as it should.
What happened next was heard as far away as Whitstable and Southend where the pier vibrated and shook and German civilians interned on vessels gathered in fear as the noise and vibration reverberated across the estuary.
Lieutenant Benjamin Carroll who was serving as the assistant coaling officer in Sheerness was checking Bulwark's coaling level signal flag from a boat on the river when something caught his eye. He noticed a flame spurt from the abaft of the after barbette turret, then the flame passed along the vessel towards the after funnel in what he would later testify as an internal explosion.
Another witness reported to a local newspaper that;
I was at breakfast when I head an explosion, and I went on deck. My first impression was that the report was produced by the firing of a salute by one of the ships, but the noise was quite exceptional. When I got on deck I soon saw that something awful had happened. The water and sky were obscured by dense volumes of smoke. We were at once ordered to the scene of the disaster to render what assistance we could. At first we could see nothing, but when the smoke cleared a bit we were horrified to find the battleship Bulwark had gone. She seemed to have entirely vanished from sight, but a little later we detected a portion of the huge vessel showing about 4ft above water. We kept a vigilant look out for the unfortunate crew, but only saw two men.
Aboard Prince of Wales men on deck reported seeing smoke coming from the stern of the ship before an explosion in an after magazine. Elsewhere witnesses reported hearing a low rumbling and roaring followed by a great sheet of flame shooting upwards with debris with a force so strong that it lifted the 15,000 ton warship out of the water before sending her crashing down and sinking into the murky estuary waters, the only thing marking her spot was a grey-green cloud of smoke that billowed from the waters surface.
With in moments, as the shock passed rescue boats rushed to the scene to see who could be saved from the water as debris rained down upon the town and river covering an area of four miles. An engineering officers jacket was found hanging in the Formidable's radio aerials, the former owner must have been blasted to smithereens. Flotsam like hammocks, furniture, pieces of superstructure and bodies... and uncountable amount of bodies and pieces of bodies bobbed about in water. There were few survivors.
Chief Gunner Breakspere's grave at Woodlands cemetery
In all 745 men and 51 officers were killed outright. Some blown to pieces others completely disintergrated. Only 14 men were pulled from the water and five of them died from their wounds, including Able Seaman Crow and Private Gilbert Guy RMLI. The coroner's hearing at Medway Naval hospital ruled that the cause of death for the majority of bodies recovered and those of the men who died subsequently was extreme burns. Of the 51 officers, 11 bodies were recovered and a further 30 bodies (14 were identifiable by Cooks mate William Cooper who had been onshore on sick leave.) after the disaster although bodies were washing up on the beaches of Sheppey up to January the following year.
During the days that followed the Navy sent divers to investigate the wreck and found that the port bow from the aft sick bay lay 50 foot away from the mooring and the Starboard bow was a further 30 foot away but the blast had been so terrific that nothing else remained.
The big question was; what caused one of His Majesty's warships to explode at mooring. Fanciful stories of a rogue U-boat, spies or even Zeppelin attack quickly gripped the people of Sheppey and Medway but after a few days reason set in and with Lt Carroll's statement a U-boat was quickly discarded as was the notion of a German Airship. The Coroner was not satisfied with the findings of the court. Admiralty divers were certain that they had found all of the loose shells from the Magazine cross corridors (where they were being stored as the magazines were full) and that there was no evidence of treachery or loose cordite. The conclusion was reached that no one really knew what caused the explosion and could not provide an adequate answer. The enquiry returned a verdict of accidental death and the book was closed. It has been since argued that the cordite in the shells in the cross corridors must have overheated and exploded causing a chain reaction through the magazines that tore the vessel apart.
Woodlands road cemetery in Gillingham is the final resting place for many of the crew, be it in the communal mass grave of the unidentified (containing 70 with a further 12 individual graves) as well as 67 named graves.
The full casualty list for Bulwark can be read here
Sunday, 9 November 2014
The end of the raider SMS Emden and the battle of Cocos
Franz Joseph Hohenzollern
Prinz Franz Joseph von Hohenzollern, the Kaiser’s nephew, was having the worst day of his Naval career, possibly of his life as he stood on the burning deck of SMS Emden looking at the remains of the vessel he had served upon as torpedo officer. The fore deck was covered with wounded German sailors and marines suffering from burns, abrasions, broken limbs, splinters and disfigurements from the hour long battle with the Australian cruiser that had now left the scene. He and a small band of sailors held rifles and Lüger pistols and aimed them at the sky trying to drive off the Albatross that had descended upon the wounded tearing at cheeks, eyes and wounds.
It hadn’t always been this way. He remembered the day they left Tsingtao to look for Russian vessels as the band played Am Wacht Am Rhein, the day they returned with the Ryazan, the first victory of the war, the journey to meet von Spee, the last signal from Scharnhorst back on the 14th August;
Emden detatched – (Emden detached.)
The vessel had gone on to have an impressive career commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean having rigged up a dummy funnel to appear like HMS Yarmouth she was able to act in secrecy able to approach British vessels and then once on top of them raise the German Ensign and signal:
Stop your engines, send no wireless signals
On the 10th September, whilst operating on the Calcutta to Colombo trade spine, Kapitän von Müller captured the Greek vessel Pontoporros carrying equipment for the English but instead of sinking the vessel took the vessel into his service as a collier and began paying the crew. The next three days saw them pull over seven more vessels which had their crews removed to another captured vessel, Kabinga which was released to take the crews back.
Two encounters with neutral vessels changed the situation for von Müller’s command drastically. The first, a Norwegian, informed him of the British warship, HMS Hampshire patrolling for him and others were joining them. The second vessel, an Italian, immediately reported the incident to the British. Admiral Jerram responded by halting all trade in the area and dispatched British and Japanese cruisers to find the German cruiser whilst his armoured cruiser Minotaur and the Japanese battle cruiser Ibuki were sent to seek out where the Emden was getting her coal, if she, like Karlsruhe had a secret base that she was operating from. There were plenty of islands and deserted coast line, as well as many in India who did actively wanted rid of the British who might aid the Germans as a means to the end to remove the Imperial yoke. As for von Müller, he had already decided to quit for the east coast of India.
The 22nd September saw the German’s most audacious move and von Hohenzollern stood upon the deck of Emden in the early hours of the evening as the cruiser approached
Madras harbour and began firing. Oil storage silos were set on fire, a ship was sunk in the harbour, defensive guns silenced, 20,000 people fled and the British admiralty were left red faced by one German cruiser and 130 rounds of ammunition in half an hour.
Despite the irritation and many victories of Emden and her crew, the British admiralty and Churchill grew to admire the bravery of the plucky German commander and the gentlemanly conduct with which he carried out his war. All prisoners were treated fairly, they were fed well and kept until it was safe to release them in a group, on one occasion with a cheer for von Müller.
Trying to keep the British guessing he struck out at Western Ceylon taking another two vessels and then turning to the Maldives to re-coal and proceed to fruitlessly interdict the trade route from Australia to Calcutta. By then the crew was tired, strained and his engines and vessel long over due for repair and refit having sailed so many miles in the previous two months. Von Müller brought his vessel to the British outpost Diego Garcia some 600 miles from his hunting grounds. The gamble paid off as the islanders were unaware of the commencement of hostilities and they welcomed the German cruiser and von Müller played up to the charade and allowed his engineers to repair the island's motor launch whilst the crew rested, his boilers and pipes were cleaned and the cruiser's belly scraped off. After ten days von Müller heard that the Royal Navy had reinforced the Hampshire and Chikuma with the auxiliary Empress of Asia which meant the area was safe to return to and so they left port with all their repairs completed. Yet again Emden was successful and between the 16-19th October they caught out seven vessels and released prisoners on the Saint Egbert to Cochinon the 20th October.
Admiral Jerram immediately ordered all merchant vessels to leave the trade routes and to black-out at night time. He also ordered that Askold and Yarmouth be released from convoy duties to begin searching for the Emden. He also ordered the Chikuma and Zhemchung to link up with the armoured cruisers Tokiwa and Yakimo to scour the east of the bay of Bengal.
The most daring raid came on the 28th October when Emden brazenly cruised into Penang harbour, an island off Malaya, with her false funnel raised, and began firing. Her torpedo officer von Hohenzollern gave the order to fire the first torpedo which struck the Russian cruiser Zhemchug as it lay at anchor. Moments later the German guns riddled the hull sending most of the Russian sailors fleeing for cover before a second torpedo struck igniting the forward magazine causing an explosion that lifted the ship up in the water before sinking her leaving 88 dead and a 121 wounded out of a crew of 250. The Commander, Cherkassov was off ship with a lady friend whilst the crew were drinking on deck without anyone on watch. All the ammunition, save twelve shells, were locked away so the one salvo that the Russians fired was all the ammunition they had available.
The French destroyers in port began to get up steam and von Müller worried that a torpedo attack was imminent and despite the array of merchant ships and facilities that were prime targets the Kapitän decided it was not worth the risk to stay and made for the open sea.
French destroyer Mousquet
The French destroyer Mousquet was encountered as Emden withdrew and began opening fire but the German fire was too accurate and heavy killing the Captain, Lieutenant Théroinne and 46 of the crew with 36 wounded. Emden rescued 33 French sailors from the sea and put them on a passing British steamer with an apology for shooting at an unarmed Government launch during the raid.
The raid's purpose, apart from to cause chaos and damage Allied ships and prestige and to draw the Allied vessels to the east. His next raid, the severance of the radio transmitters at the Cocos islands severing communications between Australia and India. They were also aware that there was a troop convoy heading across the area and with his activity in this area it would cause the Allies to concentrate in the east meaning von Müller could return to the west coast of India again.
After coaling from the Exford on the 8th November, having spent the night searching for her, von Müller ordered Emden onwards and Exford to sail for Cape Horn and to steer away from where he believed the troop convoy was sailing in radio silence (it was actually 150 nautical miles southeast of the Cocos making for Ceylon) and von Müller and his crew were unaware of the real proximity of the Allied warships cutting through.
Early on the morning , 5.50am of the 9th November, a four funnelled cruiser heaved into view of Cocos island and came under the watchful eyes of the Superintendent of the Eastern telegraph company, Darcy Farrant. They had been warned by Admiral Jerram that they could come under attack at any time and to keep an eye on the horizon. As he examined the vessel he noticed that the fourth funnel looked wrong and examined it closely discovering it was in fact canvas. He immediately found Mr La Nauze and got him to run to the W/T sets and send an immediate SOS.
Offshore the Emden lowered a steam launch with first officer Hellmuth von Mucke leading fifty hand picked armed men with machine guns, demolition charges and W/T operators who could identify the right kit to destroy. Some of the team included gunners who were included as a reward for their excellent work at Penang. The Germans rushed ashore and overpowered the La Nauze and Farrant. Von Mucke's men began by placing charges on the tower (accidentally bringing it down on a large stock of whiskey), destroying motor rooms, electrical generators, the radio rooms and began pulling up the Atlantic cables. This took over two and a half hours, longer than von Müller had hoped for as von Mucke was having trouble cutting the cables.
Out at sea the SOS transmission had reached HMAS Melbourne via HMS Minotaur. The Melbourne was leading the troop convoy and was only fifty miles away from the beleaguered radio station. Captain Silver, her commander, was in two minds. Naval strategists feared that the Konigsberg from Africa, had broken into the Indian ocean and was either working with Emden or in concert with her and targeting other targets. The IJN battle cruiser Ibuki under Captain Kato pleaded that for the honour of Japan and the cruiser they would like to be the ones to take the Emden. Silver, however had was worried that Konigsberg could still attack the convoy and if he detatched the battle cruiser, he could be putting the vulnerable soldiers in danger as well as Melbourne and Sydney. However Konigsberg could be at the Cocos too. After great deliberation and much to Captain Kato's horror, Silver detached the Sydney at 7.00
von Müller, German corsair
At 9.00 von Müller was alerted by his lookouts that there was smoke on the horizon - it could only be one thing. Despite his operator's best efforts to jam the Island's signals he knew that some must have got through. He ordered the recall signal be blown from the ship's horn and for Emden to raise steam. Knowing it was a light cruiser he decided to put the ship to sea and brought the crew to high alert and left a bewildered von Mucke with his landing team bobbing in their launch watching Emden leave.
As they hadn't been expecting action Emden's engines were not at full steam and the engineering officer told von Müller that it would take an hour to get up to full speed. This was Emden's greatest strength over the Sydney who had larger guns and armour, von Müller would have to try to buy time but it was not to be.
Sydney opened the ball sending her first salvo over, Emden returned fire but with the same consequences as the gunners tried to find the range. Gaede, the gunnery officer ordered corrections and relayed to his Captain that the Australian vessel was firing 6" shells. Von Müller ordered Emden to close the range and brought her closer to the enemy bringing her 4" guns to a more effective range. The move paid off as the third salvo took out both of Sydney's fire control stations and another shell fell into the fo'castle between Captain Glossop and his first officer but did not explode. The German gunners had failed to turn their shells to active and were in effect, firing blanks. Had it gone off, the confrontation with Sydney would have ended much differently.
As the Australians brought their guns under manual range fire control the Germans fired another five salvos from 9000 yards starting a fire on Sydney's aft Starboard gun which could have started a magazine fire that could have caused catastrophic explosion but again, nothing. Emden's luck had run out. It had reached 10:05 and the Engineers could not provide full speed yet. The battle looked to be turning against them.
The Sydney's first major hit on Emden ripped the radio room apart killing all of the inhabitants, a second took off the foremast, the third killed the gun crews of the bow guns below the Conning tower and splattering the Command crew with blood and splinters. This was only the beginning as round after round ripped through the German cruiser taking down the fore funnel, ripping the rest of the fore gunners to shreds and wounding von Müller, another took out the stern guns knocking over a large stack of ammunition which started a fire. Damage control crews rushed to the area and tried to control it and recover the wounded gunners. Sixteen were dead including their officer, Levetzow who was a close friend of von Hohenzollern. The signals officer Guerard and his men were killed next as the foremast was taken out.
The situation was dire as Emden burned, her gunners were dead, wounded or dying as were their replacements, the ammunition hoists were wrecked and with the speaking tubes from the bridge destroyed as well it was really only a matter of time. Gaede was killed trying to assist on the decks and von Müller tried to asses his options. He ordered his loyal helmsman, the only survivor left in the bridge, to bring her to starboard and try and make a torpedo run. It was all he had left but even that was impossible. Von Hohenzollern reported that the torpedo flats were out of action. It was only 11:00. There was only one option left to von Müller and he ordered his helmsman to change course for Direction island and the reef and try and beach the cruiser. The Sydney continued to bombard them in rapid succession tearing more holes in the superstructure but the German's kept their nerve until the reef stopped the vessel with a loud grinding screech of metal on rocks.
The wreck of Emden
As Sydney left to catch Emden's collier, Buresk, von Müller assessed the situation. His ship's fighting, indeed sailing career was over, a third of his men (100) were dead and another twenty were badly injured. Ship's doctor Luther and von Hohenzollern reported to the Kapitän for orders. They were dispatched to the decks to rally the able-bodied and lightly wounded to put the fires out and gather the wounded on the foredeck. Others destroyed the code books and smashed gunnery equipment, if the Australians were to take this ship they would not get anything useful from her. Apart from the heat, fire and wounds the crew soon discovered that there was no fresh water available as the tanks were below decks surrounded or contaminated with salt water. Volunteers dove into the sea to swim to the island and bring back coconuts but the razor sharp rocks and strong currents ripped the men to shreds, von Müller would have to wait and make do.
Sydney found the Buresk out at sea and boarded her only to find the German prize crew had already opened the seacocks and she was already past saving. The Australian crews pulled the Germans free and brought them aboard where it was reported that one of the officers had said that there was no way that von Müller would surrender. This was backed up when Sydney returned to the wreck and saw the German ensign still fluttering in the wind. Captain Glossop signalled the Germans asking them if they surrendered, no response, he tried again and received a message saying they didn't understand the signal as codebooks were destroyed. They tried a morse code signal but no response. Glossop felt there was no other recourse but to open fire again for a solid five minutes tearing greater holes in the already ruined German vessel. Von Müller had been too busy trying to get his wounded together and stabilise his vessel and he had neglected to pull down the ensign, its' still flying meant that she was still at action stations. With another fifteen men killed in the shelling and more diving over the sides into the reef. He ordered the flag torn down and the battle came to a quick halt. Sydney turned away for Cocos to secure von Mucke's command slowing to pick up German sailors who'd been blown overboard.
Von Mucke had watched Emden charging off towards Sydney and realised what was happening. He ordered the pinace back to the island where they secured the radio crew and began digging slit trenches and deploying the machineguns. As they watched the on going battle von Mucke realised that Emden was doomed and made a daring decision. His men decamped to the island's sailing schooner Ayesha and made her seaworthy and fled the island whilst Sydney was hunting the Buresk. The journey they undertook over the next six months was to become one of the greatest escape stories of the First World War with von Mucke leading his men across the Indian ocean, through the Ottoman empire and finally arriving in Constantinople and reporting to Admiral Souchon.
By the time Sydney had secured the W/T station it was nightfall and von Müller's men had to stay aboard the remains of the swan of the Pacific with wounded dying from their wounds. The next morning the Australians approached with the doctor from Cocos to assist the German crew. With 137 men dead and another 69 wounded, von Müller handed over the remains of the crew and with a last look around his command stepped off onto the Australian lifeboat as the last man aboard, the sparkling career of the raider was over, much to the relief of the British Admiralty.
Von Müller's career was summed up by a reporter for the New York Times;
Her commander is doing with luck and skill an appointed task fully legitimised by the laws of war. Our own Paul Jones did the same thing, and to this day is occasionally called a pirate by the British. They know, however, that he wasn't one, and no more is the commander of the Emden.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
The fate of SMS Karlsruhe
Fregatenkapitan Erich Kohler
On 4th November 1914 an explosion ripped through the German Cruiser SMS Karlsruhe breaking it in two and taking more than half the crew with her. One of Germany's newest warships, having only been commissioned in January of that year. Fregattenkapitan Erich Kohler was criticised by Geoffrey Bennett in his book Naval battles of the First World War for being ineffective compared to Kapitan von Muller's Emden. However this is not entirely accurate as after Emden the Karlsruhe was the most successful lone raider capturing 16 vessels in three months.
Kohler's campaign almost stuttered to a stop within days of the outbreak of the war. At the outbreak of the war the Karlsruhe was in the Caribbean sea to having relieved SMS Dresden on station to fly the flag for Germany and protect German citizens (and interests) during the Mexican revolution. The standard order to Cruiser commanders serving in overseas was to conduct cruiser warfare against any military targets and trade at the best of your ability. The Captain of the cruiser would have full jurisdiction and freedom to make the best choices. Kohler took his vessel out in a remote corner of the Bahamas laying 120 miles north of Watling Island where on the 6th August he rendezvoused with SS Kronprinz Wilhelm and began the slow process of transferring weaponry and crew over. Not long after putting two of the 10.5cm guns, a machine gun and a small compliment of crew under the Karlsruhe's navigation officer Kapitanleutnant Thierfelder when smoke was spotted over the southern horizon. It was HMS Suffolk the flagship of Rear Admiral "Kit" Craddock and she was heading straight for them. Kohler ordered the transfer to cease, to raise steam and prepare to get underway, an order that Thierfelder echoed on the liner and the two German vessels parted company at top speed, the Karlsruhe heading up to 27 knots and the liner at 23 with HMS Suffolk giving chase to the cruiser which made course away from the liner. After a spirited chase that spanned around eight hours Suffolk was forced to finally give with the German's speed out pacing them. This was not the end of the chase though. At 20:15 HMS Bristol which had reversed course on Admiral's orders caught a glimpse of the German cruiser in the moonlight. Captain Fanshawe closed to 7000 yards and opened fire. A brief exchange began but being caught at a disadvantage Kohler decided to retreat using his superior speed. The darkness again saved her as HMS Berwick changed course at the last minute when near enough on top o her.
The encounter worried Kohler. The Royal Navy were obviously searching for him and having been chased by at least two cruisers he decided that the Caribbean was too risky for a sustained campaign. The other thing that swayed his decision was coal. If he could pull over enough freighters (as Emden did.) he could sustain his coal but that was a big if especially that it seemed the Royal Navy were actively searching him for him (with more ships than were searching for Emden). He could not do as von Muller did and relocate somewhere else quickly if there was a lack of coal. There was the option of raiding ports and colonies but this presented the problems of temporary gain and no guarantee that he could take coal stocks as to do so took time, time that he may not have if a radio transmission was sent and Craddock's ships were coming. There was also a choice that the port authorities may do what the French did at Tahiti to von Spee and ignite the stocks which would mean Kohler would have expanded fuel, ammunition and men for nothing. All three of these resources were irreplaceable and beyond value. The easiest target was the British merchant marine but where to find them?
On the 9th of August the Karlsruhe pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico with only 12 tonnes of coal left and began coaling. Whilst in port he took control of the Hamburg-Amerika line Patagonia to coal up and head off the coast of St Thomas and wait for him to reach there. Karlsruhe pulled into Curacao three days later and took on another 1,100 tonnes and met another German vessel Stadt Scheieswig and ordered them to carry as much coal as she could to the coast of Brazil. He then headed out along the coast of Venezuela picking up the Patagonia before proceeding in the Dresden's tracks.
Karlsruhe's first victory was on the 18th August some 180 miles east of Barbados and well off the usual trade route, some 70 miles north in fact. The Bowes Castle had been advised by Captain Luce of the HMS Glasgow that a German cruiser may be stalking merchant shipping and so it was best to avoid the usual routes. At 16:45 she had the misfortune to be overhauled by that very same German cruiser. After removing the crew to the Patagonia and any supplies the merchant ship was scuttled.
The following week he rendezvoused with his second collier Stadt Scheieswig at St Joao Island where he re-coaled and sent her on to Maranham where it arrived on the 2nd September. The arrival of a German ship buying up coal and supplies was reported to Admiral Craddock. Kohler took his cruiser along the coast trying to stay hidden and in a secluded inlet coaled from the Patagonia on the 30th. The following day he received good news via his wireless sets. Three German ships made themselves available to him. The Nord Deutsche line Crefeld and the Hamburg-Sud Amerika line vessels Asunchion and Rio Negro who were all directed to meet at Rocos reef.
Rocos reef was a focal point for trade travelling down from Europe and for the route that ran from New York to Cape San Roque. Here Kohler could have a massive impact on trade and gather a huge amount of supplies. He was immediately rewarded by overhauling the Strathroy which was on to Rio from Virginia bringing coal to the Brazilian government. The steamer realised something was wrong despite being some 80 miles off the trade route and when she saw Karlsruhe on the horizon and tried to escape but was quickly pulled over. Kohler sent a prize crew aboard and had the prisoners were transferred to the Asuncion though a contingent of Chinese sailors were retained with the German prize crew to assist in the running of the Strathroy. He brought his officers together and explained his plans.
Coaling at sea was not only impractical due to the rough seas but also because it meant that both the tender and Karlsruhe would be vulnerable should the Royal Navy come over the horizon he would be caught. Kohler's plan was simple. Whilst cruising the coast he had identified a small inlet that was remote. The Strathroy would go with the Patagonia and lay at anchor. When supplies ran low Karlsruhe would sneak back to the inlet to coal and resupply. It would mean leaving the trade routes for the best part of a week but it was preferable to the alternative.
Luck played a big part again as at this time the Dresden pulled over two cruisers (Hyades and Holmwood) at the River Plate which immediately drew off the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy (Otranto, Glasgow and Monmouth) had already started a sweep of the Brazilian coast from the Rocos reef but three days before Karlsruhe arrived there with her flotilla of tenders! Admiral Stoddart, who was in command of the second nearest squadron had his hands full watching the Canaries from Cape Verde and policing ships heading towards England from South Africa and neither he or Craddock had the vessels available to police the route permanently which meant the Karlsruhe could operate with relative impunity. Kohler also devised a scheme to try and catch scattered shipping, his cruiser would sit between two tenders at a distance which increased the visibility of the squadron and they either drifted (to conserve coal) or cruised during the day time and at night they went into darkness and pulled in together. Where as Emden played a daring fast paced campaign, Karlsruhe played the waiting game. He also redistributed coal and supplies amongst the ships in the flotilla so that he could accommodate hundreds of prisoners which had the effect that he didn't have to send ships back to port to drop them off and meant that little to no intelligence was gathered about her movements for seven weeks! Kohler was incredibly cautious not to give away his position, even to the point of ignoring direct W/T messages from the Kronprinz Wilhelm which was in the vicinity on the 4th September.
SMS Karlsruhe
Along with coal the Karlsruhe was also reliant on the merchant ships to provide him with food and on 3rd September he boarded the Maple Branch out of Liverpool that was carrying livestock for exhibition in Brazil. The freshly slaughtered pigs, sheep and cows were a very welcome addition to the German crew and the foreign prisoners.
There was another close call where Karlsruhe and the Asuncion barely missed the Cornwall and Good Hope on the 6th as the Germans cruised to their secret base. After returning on the 10th they floated for four days without seeing anything until the Highland Hope was pulled over on the 14th. The British vessel had been running without lights through the night as per Admiralty instruction but was still sighted and pursued until daybreak. This encounter led to yet another lucky escape for Kohler's men. Whilst his men were boarding the vessel he received a W/T message from a neutral Spanish vessel, Reina Victoria Elene asking what was going on. Kohler managed to bluff his way through the meeting and told them they were a British convoy. He ordered his men to hurry up with stripping their prey which proved to be a prudent move as his Radio operators reported intercepting communications between the Spanish vessel and a British vessel, HMS Canopus a pre-dreadnought battleship that was cruising south to meet Craddock. This episode forced Kohler's hand and he again relocated to another part of the trade spine.
He returned on the 20th September after a period of coaling and captured an amazing five vessels in two days! Two of them were neutral (Swedish Prinsessan Ingeborg and Italian Ascaro and they were set free.) and on their release they provided the first intelligence on the Karlsruhe on the 28th September when Ascaro arrived at her destination of St. Vincent. A third neutral, Maria, a Dutch ship carrying wheat to Ireland which was deemed by Kohler, and in the German high courts in 1915, to be a reasonable target as they were going to a British port and could go to the British army.
One of his captured colliers, the Indriani, was a modern vessel with a modern Marconi set and was soon renamed Hoffnung (Hope) and became one of Karlsruhe's permanent consorts. The Strathroy was scuttled having run out of coal and the last of her crew were transferred to the Crefeld which had become the flotilla's prison ship and carried in excess of 150 prisoners! Although the treatment of these crews was good it was getting more than a little crowded aboard and there were a lot of hungry mouths to feed, something the Germans were struggling to do with the long periods with no victims.
SS Crefeld a liner for 192 passengers carried 415 prisoners!
In the beginning of October things improved again. News arrived that Craddock's vessels had gone south to find von Spee, which was doubly good news that the Karlsruhe was less likely to run into the armoured cruisers and that the East Asiatic squadron could be on her way, however there was also news that another British cruiser was nearby and Kohler again relocated to another part of the spine which proved fortuitous because he sailed into a stream of homeward bound vessels catching another four vessels in three days carrying general stocks and much needed foodstuff. Their capture was very lucky and as all the vessels were forty miles off the trade routes and travelling with lights dimmed following to the letter the Admiralty orders. Crefeld now carried 350 prisoners and it was decided that on the 13th October she should make for the distant Tenerife so that by the time she arrived any intelligence about the German cruiser's position would be out of date. Thankfully before she left the cargo ship Condor was pulled over with a cargo of foodstuffs and 2000 cases of condensed milk! Although the journey was uncomfortable the vessel arrived without incident, though narrowly missing the auxiliary HMS Victorian and arrived on 22nd. The 415 prisoners could not tell the Allies any information beyond what had happened to them and their time in captivity and that Kohler had four tenders and ample fuel. They couldn't tell him about the German's plans or whereabouts.
Kohler continued to operate in the same area until the 22nd October which was the allotted date for the Crefeld's arrival. He moved off and spent time coaling in preparation for his next move. He had formulated a plan to strike where the British would not be looking. The Caribbean.
On the 4th November with the Hoffnung and Rio Negro in attendance the Karlsruhe was heading towards Barbados for a daring raid that would bring the Royal Navy back to the Caribbean to search for him whilst he slipped back to the trade routes. Most of the crew had gathered on the fore of the ship to hear the Ship's band along with their Captain up in the fore-bridge when a massive explosion ripped through the vessel tearing the vessel in half. As the aft bobbed for a further twenty minutes before disappearing below the waves the two tenders rushed forward and saved 129 of the crew and 15 officers. Sadly though Kohler, 14 officers and 259 men were killed. Although the explosion's cause has never been definitively identified it is considered to have been an ammunition explosion that caused a chain reaction.
The crew of the Hoffnung were taken off with all needed supplies and promptly sunk by Rio Negro which then made the slow journey back to Germany arriving in December having run the British blockade. In a sad coincidence it arrived at a time when the German admiralty were planning on recalling Kohler's vessel.
Although Kohler's campaign is not as glamorous as von Muller's in the Indian ocean it still managed to capture a large number of vessels. Despite this its impact was much less significant. Where as Emden became infamous and von Muller a legend Kohler and Karlsruhe were more of an irritant. The two ships pulled over by Dresden had more of an impact on shipping and Naval deployment than Karlsruhe's actions and the arrival of Crefeld with news of all of her successes. The trade route was so lucrative and made shipping companies so much money that they weren't worried about the possibility that there was an unlocated German raider on the route and Kohler's secretive and overly cautious moves meant that no one really thought much of a vessel being overdue at first coupled with the amount of ships that had gone up the trade routes without seeing anything. The sixteen vessels destroyed is impressive but was a mere drop in the ocean of vessels that had got past and the losses were more than sustainable. If they hadn't been then Stoddart would have had to make a concerted search for him.
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Royal Navy's first loss - Coronel
TThe first of November 1914 became a historic date in the History of the Royal Navy and Admiral Christopher Craddock, who feared repercussions similar to Trowbridge, would not survive the day.
HMS Good Hope, Glasgow, and Monmouth along with their axillary Otranto were a long way from their Atlantic station as they approached Coronel on the Chilean coast.
Craddock, a professional and well liked flag officer had swept down the east coast of South America chasing the white whale that was SMS Dresden and any auxiliary vessels and the spectre of SMS Karlsruhe.
Terror of the Caribbean; SMS Karlsruhe
When the war started the German cruiser Karlsruhe was at Havana having relieved Dresden from her post and duties of flying the flag and protecting German interests and citizens during the Mexican revolution. Dresden had not left the Caribbean and was at Port au Prince. The threat that these two cruisers presented was very real. Both ships were fast modern and well armed and it would take quite a few vessels to track them down in the island filled Caribbean and like the corsairs of old Dresden and Karlsruhe could strike any vessel or port and colony at anytime working together or striking at opposite ends of the sea forcing the Royal Navy to divide their forces and commit a far larger force to find them.
The Caribbean sea is also the starting point for many journeys to Britain and a vital trade hub for vessels bringing merchandise south from the USA and raw materials from the South Americas as well as those coming through the Panama canal. Merchant trade would freeze up as Captains refused to sail and run the risk which could be crippling all because there were two German ships. There was also the lightly defended colonies that could be shelled or at worse have German Marines land and cause havoc amongst the populous.
Understandably Craddock saw that finding and defeating these enemies as quickly as possible as his number one priority. There were five cruiser squadrons operating around the Atlantic and Caribbean so dealing with any auxiliary cruisers could be coordinated at leisure but he would personally deal with these surface units with the vessels available in the Caribbean. From Vera Cruz on HMS Suffolk he ordered Essex and Lancaster to Halifax to cover New York and to reinforce the HMCS Niobe in case the German's went north. HMS Berwick was directed to Jamaica to defend Kingston and Bristol was sent south to join Glasgow off Pernambuco to watch the way south. It was a wide net and he would react with his armoured cruisers as soon as the two German light units appeared.
In London, the same wisdom at the Admiralty which interfered with the hunt for Goeben and Breslau and redistributed Admiral Jerram's forces and sabotaged the hunt for von Spee's fleet intervened again. The Admiralty believed the primary threat was the clutch of liners that were currently in New York harbour being armed to harass British trade. HMS Good Hope was detached from the Grand fleet for Halifax. Admiral Stoddart who's squadron was stationed at Cape Verde was ordered to detach Monmouth and send to Pernambuco and the Bristol was sent north with Essex, Lancaster and Suffolk to Sandy Hook.
Kapitän Kohler had anchored Karlsruhe in a remote area of the Bahamas to rendezvous with the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm of the North German Lloyd line and a former Blue Riband winner (in 1902). They lay 120 miles north of Watling Island and began trading crew and equipment to bring the liner up Auxiliary status. Captain Grahn of the liner was demoted to First officer and Karlsruhe's Navigation officer Kapitanleutnant Thierfelder took command and began overseeing the transfer of equipment and crewmen.
HMS Berwick passed Karlsruhe in the night
Through a fluke of war Admiral Craddock's flagship on her northern journey came over the horizon onto the two German vessels miles from anywhere. Craddock couldn't believe his luck and ordered the Armoured Cruiser to intercept. Karlsruhe and Kronprinz Wilhelm began heading in different directions at full speed. Craddock prioritised catching the cruiser and set to chasing Kohler's vessel and signalled Bristol to reverse course and summoned up Berwick to try and cut off the German's retreat. Despite the speed of the German cruiser and the fact that she had only been commissioned that year compared to the eleven year old heavier vessel, Craddock managed to keep pace from 11am until nightfall when he finally lost contact. In the moonlight Captain Fanshawe of Bristol caught sight of the German vessel and opened fire at 7000 yards. Over the next two hours the vessels exchanged fire but to no avail and Kohler managed to slip away. Berwick prowled the Caribbean night searching for the German raider but to no avail. Craddock's luck had run out though, as his last cruiser swept for its' prey it changed course little knowing that just out of sight a desperate Kohler was fleeing. On the 12th August, with only 12 tonnes of coal left in her bunkers, Karlsruhe pulled in to Puerto Rico.
Craddock revaluated the situation and following reports that Dresden had passed the Amazon and was heading south and Karlsruhe was trailing behind her and with the lack of liners heading out of New York he decided to head south too. He transferred his flag to Good Hope, which was fractionally faster and left Suffolk and his already northerly stationed vessels to deal with any Auxiliary vessels and Karlsruhe should she change course. Craddock took Berwick and Bristol south to St Lucia to meet the French vessels Conde and Descartes on 23rd August. Meanwhile the Admiralty had also directed HMS Cornwall and the Auxiliaries Otranto and Macedonia to support the Glasgow and Monmouth. Craddock also considered, in agreement with the Admiralty that von Spee would probably be heading towards the Straits of Magellan. He began communicating with London and deploying his force to patrol the River Plate area whilst Glasgow and Monmouth were sent around the Magellan straits and requested information about von Spee. No one had sighted Scharnhorst and Gneisnau since early August in the Caroline Islands but they agreed that it was a possibility that von Spee could head that way.
Dresden had continued to sail south and had captured two merchant ships Hyades and Holmwood (on 14th and 24th August respectively) before learning that the Royal Navy was forming up on the Eastern end of the straits of Magellan. Kapitän von Ludecke put in to Hoste island to overhaul his engines on the 5th September and isolated his vessel laying low in case the British were sweeping the straits. After eleven days the repairs had been completed and von Ludecke had to make a decision as to what to do now. It would be too dangerous to return north to try and meet up with Karlsruhe would be met with British warships looking for him and sewing up German trade. Ahead of him was friendly but neutral Chile with a lack of British warships. There was also the promise of SMS Leipzig operating off the west coast of the Americas and the possibility of von Spees squadron. His decision was clear, even with out the orders from Berlin advising him to join Leipzig. He put to sea and headed around the straits.
On the 14th September Craddock received fresh instructions from London outlining what was expected of his squadron.
Leave sufficient force to deal with Dresden and Karlsruhe. Concentrate a squadron strong enough to meet Scharnhorst and Gneisnau, making Falkland Islands your coaling base. Canopus is on route to Abrolhos; Defence joins, keep at least Canopus and one 'County' class cruiser with your flagship. As soon as you have superior force, search Magellan Straits, being ready to return and cover Plate, or search north as far as Valparaiso. Break up German trade and destroy German cruisers.
His force now consisted of the armoured cruisers Monmouth, Good Hope, light cruiser Glasgow, the AMC Otranto, with the battleship Canopus inbound and the modern Armoured cruiser Defence which would prove invaluable against the von Spee's vessels and could keep pace with them should the German decide to run.
Then von Spee threw the British a curve ball. Despite Captain Maerker, the Commander of Gneisnau's consul not to, the Admiral had led his two Armoured Cruisers to Apia in Samoa and feinted North North West. The Admiralty reassessed this move and thought that the Germans weren't heading for South America but were disappearing into the Pacific again. They believed that Craddock would only be sweeping away German trade and merchant ships with perhaps a chance encounter with Leipzig or Dresden which should be caught in a pincer of Craddock and Newcastle, Rainbow, Idzumo and the IJN battleship Hizen coming down from the north. The Admiralty signalled Craddock to that effect on the 14th September requesting the Admiral's intentions.
HMS Canopus
The Admiral agreed with his superiors in London, the four vessels he had available were sufficient enough to police the German trade he did however have severe misgivings with
Canopus. The aging battleship had been due to be scrapped and was held under care with a reserve crew that had been augmented with reservists. There were also serious problems with the engines that were significantly reducing their speed. There was also a problem with the acting engineering officer who maintained that the engines could not produce a speed greater than 12 knots. Craddock believed that this millstone would only slow him down and would be of little benefit especially if von Spee's squadron wasn't present and even if they were there the lumbering leviathan would be left in the German's wake. His appraisal was to take Good Hope, Monmouth, Otranto and Glasgow on a sweep around the straits and leave Canopus to escort the colliers trailing along behind the rest of the fleet at her best speed. He made a full sweep of the Straits looking for Dresden in rough weather. Although there was evidence that the German vessel had been there, the British liner Ortega reported being chased by Dresden in early September to Craddock, von Ludecke however was nowhere to be seen. He divided his forces and took his cruisers back to recoal at the Falklands and sent Otranto on to Punta Arenas to interdict German trade. Once ready he ordered Glasgow and Monmouth back around the straits to sweep Orange bay whilst he waited at the Falklands in case von Ludecke doubled back around.
The Admiralty signalled Craddock on the 7th October with fresh intelligence;
It appears that Scharnhorst and Gneisnau are working across to South America. You must be prepared to meet them in company, possibly with a 'Dresden' (Either SMS Emden or Dresden) scouting for them. Canopus should accompany Glasgow, Monmouth and Otranto, to search and protect trade in combination. If you propose Good Hope to go, leave Monmouth on east coast.
Craddock responded that he was going to concentrate his forces with Canopus at the Falklands and that he was not going to allow his vessels currently on the west coast to travel north above Valparaiso. He also expressed concern that von Spee now had five vessels with (his two Armoured and three light cruisers) and also that Karlsruhe was operating again in the north and suggested to their Lordships that Essex be sent up north to relieve Cornwall which could then be sent to him. He also asked for an update on Defence.
Events began to overtake Craddock. The main thing was Karlsruhe. The German cruiser, after a hiatus to carry out engine and boiler repairs, was operating with success similar to Emden's of the coast of Brazil capturing 15 British and 1 Norweigan merchant vessel. The Admiralty were getting nervous about it and rediverted HMS Defence away from Craddock to sit with Admiral Stoddart's squadron which was patrolling the River Plate. The Admiralty were concerned that should Craddock have concentrate all the British ships and proceed around the straits then von Spee could out manoeuvre him, get behind him and shell the Falklands and Abrolhos coaling bases leaving the Royal Navy nowhere to coal below the Caribbean. Spee could then disappear. Battenberg and Churchill were shore that Craddock was going to only send Glasgow up to Valparaiso but concentrate the rest of his ships at the Falklands whilst Defence and Carnarvon formed a squadron off Rio.
They also signalled Stoddart to order him across from the African coast to head for Montevideo with his force of five vessels and the Defence trailing from Gibraltar.
When Canopus arrived on the 18th October Captain Grant reported to Cradock that his engines needed a refit and her boilers cleaned which would take five days, there was no guarantee that this would indeed would increase the speed. Craddock decided he had to go to the aid of Monmouth and Glasgow and set sail leaving orders for the Canopus to follow when able with the colliers. Before leaving he wrote a letter for Admiral Meux in England with instructions to send it should he be lost, he also buried his medals and decorations in the Governor's garden. Although the letter has been lost to the mists of time, it has been speculated that he wrote a defence of his actions so that he wouldn't face the same disgrace Trowbridge had or be made a scapegoat. He felt the Admiralty had stitched him into a corner and that should he fail to stop Spee he would be disgraced.
Indeed the Admiralty still believed that the situation on the west coast "seemed safe." They were full of faith that the Newcastle with the Japanese cruiser and battleship were heading south with all due haste and that Glasgow and Otranto would lead von Spee onto Craddock's cruisers and Canopus. Of course the ocean is a big place and there was every possibility they would miss one another which is where Stoddart's force was to form a second line. That is why they still withheld Defence which Craddock again requested and denied him on 28th October. Further to this, the IJN Hizen was still at Honolulu trying to capture the SMS Geier and nowhere near HMS Newcastle let alone chasing down von Spee from the north.
On the 13th October von Spee departed Easter Island with his force; Scharnhorst, Gneisnau, Nurnberg, Leipzig and Dresden with their flotilla of colliers. Spee was more than aware through reports from the German consul and agents throughout South America, that the British force was in the area. This would be his first test.
With Canopus some three hundred miles behind him (now moving at a faster speed when the Captain found the truth out about his engines capability.) with the colliers, Craddock ordered Glasgow to Coronel to send a message to the Admiralty whilst he spread his other ships into a search pattern of twenty miles apart to search for the Germans.
Spee received word that Glasgow had left Coronel and decided that he should give his men a taste of action and set sail to catch the light cruiser whilst she was alone. At the same time Craddock's men picked up a radio signature coming through clear as day.
"Le, Le, Le"
It was the Leipzig. Craddock, like his opposite number, decided to catch the light cruiser on her own. Obviously she hadn't met up with Spee's squadron and was still operating on her own. He ordered his vessels to find and engage her.
At 16:30 in rough seas and clear weather with interspersed squalls of rain Good Hope sighted smoke on the horizon. It wasn't Leipzig. It was Scharnhorst and Gneisnau supported by Dresden and Leipzig whilst the Nurnberg carried out a stop and search of a merchant vessel. He quickly brought his squadron into formation and using his speed to out pace the British kept them from closing knowing that he had the disadvantage of being on the shoreline side of Craddock. He kept up the dance until the sunset around 19:00. Then with his British force was silhouetted against the sunset.
At 12,000 yards the German armoured cruisers fired their first salvo first firing over their target and then short to judge the range. The third salvo struck Good Hope taking out the front gun turret killing the reservist officers and men who were trying to prepare for fire. The Good Hope caught fire. Moments later Monmouth was on fire as Gneisnau's shells struck home. Otranto had already fled the scene and Glasgow which was the only vessel crewed by regular Crews and gunners was opening fire on the Germans but her shells were falling short. She was also under fire from Leipzig and Dresden who were scoring hits. The gunners on Monmouth and Good Hope were also unable to return fire from the majority of their guns as they were too close to the waterline and in the rough seas they could not see the Germans. Further to that the German vessels were hard to spot against the coastline.
Craddock ordered his ships to close the range so that he could try and use his smaller guns and Good Hope and Monmouth charged forward, both aflame, Good Hope ploughed forward trying to fire and fearing that Craddock meant to launch torpedoes Spee ordered his vessels to scatter away from her and concentrate fire. Good Hope was struck by thirty five shells, the final one striking her forward magazine which sent a massive explosion through the ship and broke her apart sending 919 men, including Admiral Craddock, his dog Nelson and four Canadian midshipman (who were the first Canadian sailors killed) to the depths. The time was 19:50.
Monmouth was also aflame and taking on water. A shell from Gneisnau had struck the fore turret starting a fire that caused an ammunition explosion so violent that it blew the gun into the air and off the ship. She fell away and out of line with Good Hope at 19:35. Glasgow managed to close with her at 20:05 but could do very little to assist her. Captain Luce tried to encourage the vessel to turn North west but he received a reply that the she was so badly holed that should she turn she would sink even more quickly. With the moonlight behind them Luce made the decision to leave her behind and save his own vessel and protect Otranto.
Nurnberg closed with the stricken vessel and ordered her to surrender. Monmouth wouldn't or couldn't lower her flags and the German light cruiser fired a warning shot, the only response was Monmouth turning towards her so she fired her guns into the British vessel which promptly capsized at 21:58. In the rough seas and lack of light Leipzig tried to locate survivors but couldn't find any and the German squadron moved on leaving another 800 men dead in the cold seas.
Admiral von Spee was only certain that he had sunk Monmouth and was certain that Good Hope had eluded him at first but after searching the area was satisfied he had succeeded in turning back the British squadron.
I am well and almost beside myself with happiness one German sailor, Hans Stutterheim wrote in a
Scharnhorst coaling in Valparaiso showing signs of damage
letter home.
It was great news that was celebrated through Germany when von Spee reported it to the German consul in Valparaiso.
HMS Glasgow collected up Otranto and met up with Canopus and warned her of the German squadron and their ability. Luce took the stragglers back around the cape to the Falklands and safety. The Germans did not follow, they went to Valparaiso to repair and recoal. Letting the Glasgow escape would have deadly consequences for the Leipzig six weeks later... |
Television in America
Document Type
Publication Date
Publication Title
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
Television is an ever-evolving and multi-dimensional medium, being at once a technology, an industry, an art form, and an institutional force. In the United States, it emerged as an idea whose time had come at the end of World War II. TV eventually grew and matured into the most influential social and cultural catalyst shaping and reflecting American civilization during the second half of the 20th century. Television revolutionized the way citizens and consumers in the United States learned about and communicated with the world; it also recast and re-envisioned the way they experience themselves and others. More than just escapist entertainment, TV reveals the dynamism and diversity of everyday life in the United States and the evolving nature of the nation’s core values. Television is moreover in a continual state of change and renewal. Its history has developed through a prehistory (before 1948) to a network era (1948–1975), a cable era (1976–1994), and finally the current digital era (1995–present). Today there are more than 650 networks in the U.S. marketplace whereby members of the typical domestic household receive 189 channels and watch more than eight hours of TV a day on average. TV in the 21st century also travels anywhere at any time, given its synergistic relationship with the Internet and a wide array of digital devices. It is now increasingly personalized, interactive, mobile, and on demand. Television is presently a convergent technology, a global industry, a viable art form, a public catalyst, and a complex and dynamic reflection of American society and culture.
Link leads to full text provided by Oxford Research Encyclopedias. |
Organic. Off Grid. Treading Lightly.
Stacks Image 767
Hard Red Spring Wheat
Ladoga was introduced to Canada around 1888 after the then-Agriculture Minister asked a wheat trader from Riga, Latvia for early ripening varieties with promising quality. It is named after Lake Ladoga, north of St. Petersburg, Russia. Ladoga was never widely grown in Canada or the US as it was determined to be inferior to the current reference wheat of the time, Red Fife. However, its earliness made it popular for wheat breeding.
- Classification of Wheat Varieties Grown in the United States in 1939, USDA Technical Bulletin No. 795, June 1942; From a Single Seed: Tracing the Marquis wheat success story in Canada to its roots in the Ukraine, Stephan Symko
1/2 oz. packet - $3.00
Quantities can be increased in your cart, provided the inventory is available. |
Counting calories Works
If you found out that the fat counts you are reading on straight back of meals labels aren’t 100per cent precise, can you find this news shocking? Like most things in life, it’s challenging anticipate perfection but, regarding calorie-counting, be assured you don’t need excellence to reap the benefits. We’ll just take you through where calories originate from, which help you better understand just why calorie counting is useful.
Just How Calories Are Counted
Ever before question exactly how food businesses develop calories the diet realities panel? The device they use is named the Atwater Method, designed by Wilbur Atwater. Food is burned in a device called a “calorimeter.” The amount of temperature (also called energy) circulated can be used to warm liquid. Foods that generate even more heat, and are also for that reason capable raise the liquid to raised conditions, were greater in calories. One fat could be the power it will take to increase the heat of 1 gram liquid by one level Celsius.
FUN FACT: One food Calorie (notice the capital “C”), that will be what’s typically found on the straight back of food labels, is actually corresponding to 1, 000 calories. The Calorie is exactly what we indicate when we relate to “calories.” I'm sure, confusing, right?
Problem no. 1: Overestimation
The issue with using a calorimeter is it doesn’t work nicely on all types of food. Calorimeters much more accurately determine calories from highly processed, processed carbs (believe white loaves of bread, rice, pasta), but not high-fiber or high-protein foods. Meat and nuts, for example, tend to be harder to split straight down because of the human anatomy and thus we don’t fully extract the calories from the foods.
A far more accurate calorie-counting technique would account for not only the readily available calories in food, and the vitality we’d want to eat up and process that food. This process is suggested by the un Food and Agriculture business (FAO), but has yet is adopted.
Does this mean calories might be overestimated for many meals? Indeed, however it doesn’t impact united states, as consumers, to any appreciable level. It’s easy to understand why experts aren’t keen on making the switchover to your more accurate system:
1. Excess fat and obesity is an issue in a lot of nations. It might send the wrong message to express the existing system is overestimating calories as it indirectly informs consumers for eating more when they must be consuming less.
2. Switching the present system calls for some time resources which may be better spent on much more prominent problems (think cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, cancer tumors).
3. Switching over doesn’t guarantee 100per cent reliability. Whilst brand-new calorie-counting method are more accurate than that which we have, it’s impractical to count calories with complete reliability. The Reason Why? Because there’s a bewildering wide range of facets that influence calorie matter.
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Nye 7
argument paper notes:
How has technology changed work?computer says type faster or I will report you What is it that technology has done for us?
Are we going to get to the point where we don't need to work because machines will do our work for us? This idea was taken seriously in the early 20th century but less so todayworking hours
since 1870
Key issues:
robot worker
Technology has made work less physically strenuous and more efficient, but not necessarily less.
The hope that technology would give us lives of leisure has not come true.
The fear that technology will result in not enough jobs for people has not come true.
long term trends
What will happen now that that third trend has stopped
19th & 20th century pattern: technology makes possible more and more mass production
handmade gun
Compare someone who makes beautiful hand carved guns with someone who works in a gun factory on an assembly line
What about the quality of work?
technological innovation tends to mean:
has technology given us leisure--no
has it taken away jobs and left us with mass unemployment--no
has it changed work for the worse as well as for the better--yes
future of work map
October 1920 cover
In the 1890s, conditions for American workers were particularly bad
spinning in Georgia
Consider workers in the early 20th century who protested the way work was changing. The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), often known as the Wobblies, was founded in 1905 (video) World War I put an end to the movement
Society has sometimes looked to engineers for efficiency--make human life more rational with the idea that this will make progress possible. Efficiency tends to become the goal.1930s technocracy pamphlet
Why haven't we seen robots replacing workers as much as expected?
• we thought that machines would give us a life of leisure
• some simple jobs are hard for a robot to do because it is hard to program a robot to adjust to small variations
• workers are often cheaper than robots--would it be worthwhile for McDonalds to replace all its workers with robots?
• workers are particularly cheaper in other countries--eg. outsourcing of computer programming to India
• we may say we want to interact with people, but there wasn't much resistance to the replacement of bank tellers with machines
• computerization gave workers more information rather than taking away control
• hours worked per year has actually been increasing since 1970, not continuing to decrease
• efficiency has tended to mean fewer workers are expected to do more (this is true of professionals as well as factory workers)
• technology gives us more and more things to buy
• would you rather work longer hours or make less money?
robot fast food worker
Will technological advancements replace manual labor?
• is the machine cheaper
• are there skills that are hard to program into a machine
• will people value doing the work or a hand made product
Melvin Kranzberg's six laws of technology state:
2nd - Invention is the mother of necessity.
3rd - Technology comes in packages, big and small.
This page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack
HIST 122
last updated 11/17/17 |
FAQ»About Human Trafficking
About Human Trafficking
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1. What is human trafficking?
UAE Federal Law No. 51 of 2006 defines human trafficking as, ‘the recruitment, transportation or receipt of persons by means of threat or force or by coercion, kidnap, fraud, deceit, abuse of power, exploitation or the offer or receipt of money or inducements to secure the consent of a person who is in control of another for the purpose of exploitation. This includes all forms of sexual abuse, involuntary servitude, mistreatment, coercion and work force abuse, as well as the illegal trading of human organs.’
2. Who are the victims?
There are millions of human trafficking victims worldwide. Contrary to stereotypes, victims are not only young girls who fall into the trap of sexual exploitation networks, but also include older women, men and children of all ages, who are exploited in forced labour, sexual exploitation and all other forms of this globally widespread crime.
3. Who are most vulnerable to human trafficking crimes?
Although human trafficking affects various categories of society, the poor and uneducated are the most vulnerable. Women and children constitute the largest percentage of victims. Women account for 80% of total victims, the proportion of children is estimated at 50%. However, some victims of war and natural disasters, in addition to some cases of students and men who often work for free and are treated like slaves, also fall prey to human traffickers.
4. Who are the human traffickers?
Under international law, human traffickers are criminals committing crimes against human rights. Although they usually work in organised networks, ‘hunting’ victims, some of them work independently. The criminal may be a close associate of the victim, from the family, a neighbour or friend. Human traffickers, who treat their victims very badly in inhumane living conditions, are found on farms, in factories, and begging and prostitution networks. Some also work in marriage networks that hunt for poor families who give up their daughters without even knowing the fate that awaits them.
5. Where do human trafficking networks get their support and assistance from?
Like other organised crimes, the human trafficking ‘industry’ is based on supply, demand and all related factors. When favourable conditions and circumstances exist, children, women and men become the ‘commodity’ that drives this market. There are some parties that contribute directly to human trafficking, including financiers and investors who own human trafficking networks, money laundering companies, recruiters specialised in sourcing victims,’ people who supervise the transfer of victims, facilitate their travel and falsify their papers, and some officials of departments who do not adhere to professional ethics. Parties that contribute indirectly are hotels, real estate companies, airlines, employment offices, marriage offices, newspapers, advertising companies, social websites, banks, some financial institutions, and owners of farms, factories and shops.
6. Is human trafficking limited to sexual exploitation?
Sexual exploitation, along with forced labour, is the most common type of human trafficking. However, there are many other forms, such as the use of victims in crimes of theft, fraud and begging, the trafficking of girls for forced marriage, the use of children in armed conflict, and the use of illegal and forced labour in homes.
7. Do criminals use physical violence to exert pressure on victims?
Yes, criminals use all kinds of physical violence against victims, including beating, torturing and rape. However, physical violence is not the only tool used to exert pressure on the victims. Criminals use the most extreme forms of violence and psychological persecution to gain control over the victims, including:
- Threatening to harm their families and relatives,
- Threatening to kill or disfigure the victim,
- Threatening victims with imprisonment or with-holding food and drink,
- Preventing victims from communicating with others,
- Defaming victims within their community
- Distorting the reception they would receive from police so they become afraid to escape and report their case.
8. What is the difference between human trafficking and smuggling?
Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which is the organised, illegal movement of persons across international borders with their consent, in exchange for money. This concept of human smuggling is different, in the eyes of the law, from the other crimes of human trafficking, which fraudulently transfer and use victims in various forms of exploitation without their consent. Unlike smuggling, human trafficking may occur within or outside a state. Because some of the victims are caught in human traffickers’ nets during their search for better job opportunities outside their own country, it is possible that there is an overlap between human smuggling and trafficking crimes when human traffickers target those who seek to illegally get out of their countries.
9. Are there statistics on the number of human trafficking victims in the world?
According to United Nations statistics, human trafficking generates $31 billion annually and enslaves 5.2 million people around the globe. Statistics of the International Labor Organization (2005) show that there are about 2.5 million victims in the hands of human traffickers all over the world, and most of them are victims of sexual exploitation. This inhuman phenomenon is growing rapidly in the world, and has been described by experts as the world’s third-largest criminal activity after drug and arms trafficking.
10. What happens to human trafficking victims?
Human trafficking victims are exposed to total deprivation of freedom of movement, torture, beating, starvation and even rape. Victims are threatened with death or the harming of one of their families. They are subjected to constant extortion and exploitation of their hard work by being forced to repay a ‘due debt’ i.e. travel card, visa, accommodation expenses etc. They are also subject to serious physical and psychological illnesses that may lead to addiction or death.
11. Why don’t the victims attempt to escape from the networks that control them?
It's not that easy! Due to the circumstances of their ‘detention,’ the complete control the traffickers have over them and the continuing threats to them and their families, victims lose self-confidence and trust in the outside world and become slaves in every sense of the word. They become deprived of all their rights, including the freedom of thought. They are characterised by caution and extreme fear. However, many victims around the world succeed in escaping and rescuing many other victims after network members have been detected, arrested and brought to justice on their evidence.
12. What global efforts are there to combat human trafficking?
There are many global efforts aimed at combating and preventing human trafficking crimes. The United Nations has established several conventions and initiatives that emphasise the importance of co-ordination and co-operation between all parties, and it obligates its member states to abide by them. The most important of these conventions and initiatives are:
- The 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime,
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations 2000 Convention against Transnational Organised Crime,
- Optional Protocol 2000 on Child Rights covering the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and the
- United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.
Based on these legal and ethical foundations, conferences were held, legislation introduced, agreements signed and states have made efforts to combat this phenomenon.
13. How can human trafficking crimes be prevented?
By taking practical and legal procedures that contribute to fighting the phenomenon. One of these is the important security and legislative role of governments in monitoring migration issues, passports, entry and residence of foreigners, especially children, to protect them from exploitation, in addition to imposing more control over the effectiveness of the ports of the countries, and joining efforts and co-ordinating with embassies to monitor the employment and recruitment processes. On the other hand, prevention of human trafficking crimes requires raising awareness through combating poverty, supporting education, protecting women and children in crises and wars, as well as activating the role of civil society organisations and voluntary work.
14. What efforts has the UAE made to reduce human trafficking crime?
The UAE has been vigorous in combatting human trafficking crimes. Its efforts are on several fronts, including developing legislation related to human trafficking issues, enabling the concerned authorities to apply deterring and preventive measures, and providing protection and support to victims. In addition, the UAE has created initiatives and adopted prominent role in concluding dual agreements and strengthening international co-operation. UAE seeks to work on all fronts to combat human trafficking so that the country can become an active member of the international community, and a sterling example for the region. The UAE established specialised shelters that care for human trafficking victims. Also, it launched several campaigns that are supervised by different social, rehabilitative and health entities to raise awareness of the importance of fighting the phenomenon at international, regional and local levels.
15. If I'm looking for an employment contract in the UAE, how do I avoid getting caught in the human traffickers’ nets?
Verify everything about the entity that offers you employment in the UAE. To avoid the risk of getting caught in these nets, you should verify the credibility of the entity by consulting the embassy of the country you plan to work in, contact the company, verify its address and browse its website, if any. Also, you must be wary of excessively attractive offers; as they are usually used as bait to lure victims.
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GITA ASSEFI: How nicely and romantically Rabindranath Tagore, the famous poet and painter of the Victorian era has defined marriage. Each time you read this quote, it sounds like music into your ears. A soothing answer to such a nice but at the same time challenging bindings as marriage. I believe that it is too difficult and too optimistic if we think of this quote as a reflection of what family lives are in our time. We have entered a new era of technology and globalization which sadly has a formidable impact on our communication and relationship. The less we communicate, the less we can have an understanding of the needs and the requirements of our spouse. But as any issue, it is the mind and the creativity of mind for every individual that can make good things happen. We cannot expect of a marriage as a steady journey where the couple tend to live happily ever after but we can make changes in our expectations and insight towards this bindings so that to make it work for our good. Let us not forget that marriage wasn’t as nicely portrayed by the artists and the poets in the Victorian times. Inside the seemingly happy figures as depicted in the paintings back then, there was a sad side to it. This is very similar to what most of the surviving marriage institutions are nowadays
GITA ASSEFI: . Let us make a division between infatuation that has a lot of chemical effects on the brain to mutual understanding and love. Most of us fall into the trap of mixing the first for the latter. That’s why most of the psychologists suggest the couples who have newly met to spend some time getting to know each other before they involve in a sexual relationship which blinds them of truly understanding a person.
GITA ASSEFI: I think we need to have a great understanding of our opposite gender. This even should go into the syllabus of the schools. We need to understand that men are so different than women in terms of their thinking and approach to certain issues. Later, we need to be ready to show kindness, love and understanding and a certain level of sacrifice for a marriage to last. Nowadays, sadly eveything can be discarded in a second and thrown to the garbage bin.
GITA ASSEFI: . Patriarchal system usually keeps its sustainability when the woman is economically poor and needs the man for the continuity of her life. Nowadays, women started being very successful in business and they have achieved their independence but we still have examples of Patriarchal families and happiness is absolutely not a term used for them. I think they just keep appearances to fulfil the task of what their near society asks them to do. For a marriage to be happy, it is ought to be built on strong footholds and one of these footholds is equality.
GITA ASSEFI: I absolutely agree with Tolstoy. Although not necessarily every relationship that is rooted in love is bound to last for the lifetime but as Elizabeth Gilberth says in her book “Committed”, ‘ It is the prerogative of all humans to make ludicrous choices, to fall in love with the most unlikely of partners and to set themselves up for the most predictable of calamities’. I would say yes to love when after all it is a short life that we have and I don’t think we can have a definite worldwide solution to our blunders rather than trying our best to know a person well as well as showing some patience and love for our relationship to work for us without having great expectations that it will 100 percent work as nothing in the world comes with a guarantee paper.
GITA ASSEFI: Yes, definitely. It will result in feeling suffocated and thus fosters the tragic ending. I think the best marriage is the one in which there is some kind of freedom and space for every spouse with the maturity level that no relationship may last forever. However, I highly believe that with the right proportion of love and understanding and definitely space, a marriage can last long.
GITA ASSEFI: Marriage institution is a serious institution that shouldn’t be confined into cohabitation of two people and reproduction. In our modern society, we see many examples of successful marriages in which the couple decide not to have any offspring. We cannot assume that if there are two people and some children, that is a successful marriage. In the Victorian period, where having a family life was something that any dignified person want to have, the reality inside wasn’t very pleasing. All the things that could bring the demise of a family life happened behind the close doors. For a marriage life to work, there has to be more. People should be able to see if they enjoy being together and if they respect each other’s differences and point of view. More than anything love is the essence of a good marriage. A marriage without love would be an unhealthy situation for both people involved.
GITA ASSEFI: The intolerance of society towards the independence of women is one of the reasons that trigger instability in the marriage life. Some men seem not to be fully satisfied with this new modal of a woman that can do multi-tasking on the contrary to the men. Some men don’t really comprehend the share of household chores when their wives have to work both outside and inside. Women too should be aware of the expectations of their spouses. We just arrive to the same conclusion that the path to a happy marriage is mutual respect and understanding.
GITA ASSEFI: If making a compromise can change things then it should be a mutual compromise. When there is a need for a divorce, women are usually blamed for. Of course this can get harsher in more conservative societies. Nowadays as the number of divorce is skyrocketing, people started to deal with it as a more normal issue. But still women feel the pressure of acting in accordance to the society’s norms not to be singled out and stigmatized. Women seem to still carry a big pressure while married and while divorced. Society seems to have greater expectation from women than men.
GITA ASSEFI: For children to be in a family household where their parents constantly fight and disgrace each other is worse than to live with single parents. Divorce may have irremediable effects on children if the parents haven’t reached the maturity level to have a civilised relationship. What is normal and approvable is that even divorced, parents can do their best for the welfare of their children and thus to build up a friendly relationship. This may sound hard in the beginning but once you get a peaceful life and see your kids are still smiling and have confidence in themselves, you will know that you are doing the right thing.
GITA ASSEFI: Children definitely need to be with their mothers after divorce, but they also need their father. Especially, boys need their fathers as a role model. As boys reach puberty, they want to cut ties with their mothers and step into manhood. During this time, they definitely need their fathers as a role model more than any other time. Mothers should facilitate and encourage the relationship between children and their father.
GITA ASSEFI: . I am not so optimistic about the condition of marriage life in the coming years. When we look at the young people, we see a group of highly egocentric beings that want the world revolve around them. We see wealthy, educated parents who endeavour to create perfections by sending their kids to different courses without putting their skills and feelings into consideration. We see a society which is becoming more competitive, mechanical, constantly addicted on their computers, and mobile phones unable to express their emotions, or communicate. We see a group of people who are constantly bored and easily ready to end things without enough patience to build and improve. I just can hope that some kind of awareness will come into people and they make a new beginning. Some artists paint some paintings, some writers write the history with its examples and some poets write poems that raise awareness in the societies. But still for a change to happen, one needs to have an open mind...
Aparajita Sen
(Editor: Songsoptok)
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Saturday, December 4, 2010
Understanding the weakest link and more ideas.
Some more ideas and thoughts, and why we find LBP and the weakest link. Read Athletes weakest link to get the background on this article.
This is the scenario: A pro cyclist has a well developed leg muscular system which has a good capillary network to delivery oxygen to mitochondria. The cyclist may have a vital organ as a limitation. Now move the cyclist to a rowing machine where his arms are poorly developed and utilisation of fuel to the muscle will be a problem even though he's vital organs are providing sufficient blood and oxygen to the upper body. Make the cyclist do cross country skiing, here will be another scenario where same as rowing the upper body is the limitation involved but coordination may be more of a problem.
In each of these cases LBP will be different and a different system will create LBP. Which is why LBP needs to be tested for every sport activity. To add to the previous paragraphs scenario, using tools such as NIRS and Phisio Flow, a coach can easily find out what system in the body is the weak link, muscular, respiratory or cardiac. Then adapt the training so that the weakest link will improve the LBP which will lead to a faster athlete.
Training the Weakest link if:
The heart is the weak link, then one could perhaps train the heart in a way so that the respiratory system will challenge the oxygen delivery so that the heart has to react. Using Pulmonary Endurance Training PET is a example. If we have a portable device to monitor heart hemodynamics we can monitor stroke volume training. Intervals may have the ability to improve Stroke volume but only if the interval intensity (rest and load) period is so fixed, that we do not create a 'storage of blood' or a occlusion in the working muscles but rather move as much blood back into the system and to the heart to increase circulatory blood volume.
It is muscular limitation where utilization is the problem then work needs to be done on capillarisation and mitochondria density.
The respiratory system is the the athletes limitation then keeping the heart rate low by using SpiroTiger to stimulate the respiratory system.
Blood system is the limitation, then it could be improved with nutrition and IHT (Intermittent Hypoxic Training) and PET.
If the limitation is coordination and stabilisation you might think swiss balls and sit ups! Worst choice, (see my last article why)! A better answer is once again specific diaphragm training. The diaphragm is a vital stabilisation muscle of the core, strengthening of the diaphragm with breathing training will strengthen the core indirectly and stop the 'falling apart' at the core when a athlete is fatigued. The dead lift and squat actively activates the core better than core exercises! Training with specific coordination training is the better answer.
Most of these ideas needs equipment to check respiratory information, heart hemodynamics, and the muscle situation. Even not having access to this type of equipment and just understanding what is happening to the body and why we need to look for certain biomarkers will improve our training programmes. Here is a very basic idea on how we can build training programmes around recovery instead of the recovery around training as the body adapts and becomes stronger when we recover: Test LBP, then do a session where we stress the LBP or a session where we go above LBP, then retest LBP to see if the body has recovered from the session. If LBP is lower the athlete has not yet recovered, if it is back to baseline we are ready to go again. This is the beauty of the LBP assessment over a standard Lactate Test in that the athlete doesn’t need to be pushed to maximum and a LBP assessment can be done before a session to see if a athlete is ready for the next push or needs to just go for a easy bimble.
When we know what the athletes limitation is for each sport activity, then we need to decide what will improve the limitation, and not just do a set of exercises because everyone else is doing that exercise (i.e. sit up for core instead of diaphragm strengthening), once we understand what will improve the limitation then we can focus on structural training rather than functional training.
We strive to push our selves to the limit in every training session and sometimes athletes will push so hard that they may see God for a brief few seconds. The question during such hard intensities where overload and stress takes place, is there any point in stressing the system further with more repetition to over stress it? A session that stressed the respiratory system, would it be a good idea to complete another respiratory session with the SpiroTiger so that we have a drop in performance and LBP when we want to do another session the next day? Probably not until the respiratory system has recovered, what if the cardiac system was overloaded then followed by something that challenges coordination or the respiratory system? That would be a smarter idea as you are challenging something which has not yet been stressed. This idea comes from the Austrian researcher, Hans Selye. Except that most coaches will take his idea too literally and push the athlete so that the athlete has to complete the predetermined set of intervals to get the most out of the session, even though (ie cardiac workout) with the same perceived exertion the heart rate can not be maintained, lap times are getting slower and the Central Governor Model (CGM) is kicking in because the body is more interested in survival than performance, the athlete systems is now in overstress mode. The Coach missed the point where the athletes system reached its overload point and the session should have been done for the day. What Hans Selye meant with overload is perhaps not overload but simply change the way we stimulate and challenge the systems. i.e. today we challenge the respiratory system, then the cardiac system which is still fresh, coordination or technique, once a system has recovered it can be challenged again.
Example of listening to the body:
Here is a picture where we follow physiological reactions rather than set intervals, this is a profile from NIRS. Green line is total blood flow (tHB), red oxygenated blood which tell you how much blood is loaded with O2, blue deoxygenated blood. The time frame from 0 to 1400 is where the athlete warmed up to get get blood flow into the working muscle (rise in green line) upto the point (900) where the intensity increased and the blood volume started dropping and deoxygenated blood (blue line) increased as a sign of O2 usage. From line A the the intervals start, blood volume rises dramatically as there is more blood in muscle during the recovery and drops during intensity as muscle tension and occlusion takes place, the last interval by 2400 was stopped due to not reaching the recovery Tisue Saturation Index (TSI%) which was also indicated by a slower rise in the green line, so the session was over. The interval before already, the tHb (Green line) did not drop to the same level as the previous intervals. The athlete ran into ATP delivery problems due to increased intramuscular tension and thus a reduction in blood flow. (The feeling of 'blown up legs' due to a occlusion situation in the muscles).
We will always have a overall programme with a idea of what we are going to do in a session, but a perfect training session will be where, neither coach nor athlete has any idea of the sessions outcome. They do not know how many reps or how long the recovery will be, as this will be decided by biomarkers such as heart rate, glucose, lactate, breathing frequency, tissue saturation etc. instead of a paced workout where we complete 10x400m meters, after the second interval we know how to pace the session and by knowing this we have changed the physiological end result. What if we followed some of the pre mentioned biomarkers and were able to achieved more physiologically in 6 reps than the planned 10 by rather stopping when we reach the same physiological stress as the first interval? Why train for 60min when you can achieve the same result in a shorter period, or perhaps you need longer for the overload, but you will not know unless you start to understand the physiology and look at the biomarkers that is available to you. This is where we start training smart versus being sheep following a cook book.
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Leaf Turtle basic information
A very small turtle, the Leaf Turtle is rarely longer than 4.5 inches. Its carapace, or upper shell, is usually brown and can range in shade from tan to dark brown. The carapace has three keels, or raised ridges, and serrations on the front and rear edges. The plastron, or lower shell, has yellow or cream rings on a black or dark brown background. Female Leaf Turtles have a yellow or cream stripe on either side of their brown or olive head. The skin is usually brown with markings of tan, orange, or olive. They have partially webbed feet and large eyes that protrude from the face.
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Countries Latin America: On The Path To Growth
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By Ariel Dess
Various economic studies are placing Brazil and Mexico within the top 10 largest economies in the world within the next 10-20 years. With the exception of Mexico, countries in Latin America surprised the world by their resistance to the economic crisis and recent growth forecast stay very optimistic. Chile, Peru and Colombia have reformed their institutions and economy in the past 15 years and the results are significant: Countries in Latin America are one the path to a bright future.
Countries in Latin America such as Chile, Peru, Colombia and Panama have implemented major political and economic changes to improve their competitiveness with great results.
In terms of economic pragmatism, Brazil has taught the world a lesson. The country is now the symbol of Latin America's capacity to adjust their business practices to adapt to globalization. The result of this policy is a great success: Brazil has formidably mitigated the effect of the economic crisis on its country and gained credibility at the international level. The Brazilian model is often used as an example in international conferences. Today Brazil is the biggest exporter in Latin America and the country's growth domestic product (GDP) is the highest the region.
Chile is another good illustration of the ability of countries in Latin America to adapt to economic reform. This country is recognized as the best place to do business in Latam and has the highest GDP per capita amongst countries in Latin America. This is the consequence of major reforms initiated to enhance trading, make business relationship more flexible and attract investments from foreign companies. This economic strategy is very successful: Chile is ranked number 30 of the most competitive countries in the world and number among countries in Latin America.
Other sectors such as real estate and tourism are booming. Latin America countries still suffer from problems such as poverty, high unemployment rate or monetary policies issues; however it is now certain that Latin America countries are on the path that leads en emerging country to a developed one.
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I Could Do That!
Author: White Linda A.
Publisher: FSG
Subject/Category: 3-5
Year Reviewed:: 2006
ISBN: 0374335273
Review: Esther Morris's answer to many of her life's challenges was "I can do that!" And she did. She was the one who started the movement to get women the right to vote. Esther was a 6 ft. tall, strong-willed woman who seized many opportunities to show that women can do the same things men can. She became a justice of the peace; Judge Morris was the first woman to hold public office. This picture book is a biography of a woman we should remember.
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What is euthanasia?
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Coursework 2 Euthanasia Part a) i) What is Euthanasia? The word euthanasia comes from Greek and means 'easy death'. The dictionary explains euthanasia as the act of killing someone painlessly, especially to relieve suffering from an incurable illness. It is also known as mercy killing. Euthanasia is always for the benefit of the person who will die and in most cases, the person who will die asks for it, but in some cases, that person cannot make the request. There are many situations in which a person may request euthanasia, and this is called voluntary euthanasia, for example, a terminally ill person, a paralysed person and even a person who is depressed. ...read more.
Active euthanasia is illegal. Active euthanasia is when action is taken to bring a person's life to an end; for example, a lethal dose of a drug being administered. Passive euthanasia is when the decision is made to stop giving treatment, even though death may be the result. Involuntary euthanasia is when another person makes the decision that it would be best for the person's life to end because the person is unable to make the decision for himself or herself, for example, if they are in a coma or only a few hours old. ...read more.
Who decides whether the person should live or die and how do we know that this person can make a fair and reliable decision? There may be selfish reasons why the doctor or person making the decision does not want the person to live. For example, if they were due to inherit something upon the person's death. Therefore, if euthanasia should be allowed, how can it be decided who makes the decisions if the person is not in a position to make the decision for themselves. Some people think that euthanasia should never be allowed because it might be abused and used as a cover for murder. ...read more.
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The Four-Leafed Clovers of Subatomic Particles: Tetraquarks
Monday, February 29th, 2016
Hadrons, the particles made of quarks, are almost unanimously produced in the two or three quark varieties in particle colliders. However, in the last decade or so, a new frontier has opened up in subatomic physics. Four-quark particles have begun to be observed, the most recent being announced last Thursday by a collaboration at Fermilab. These rare, fleetingly lived particles have the potential to shed some light on the Strong nuclear force and how it shapes our world.
The discovery of a new subatomic particle was announced last Thursday by the DØ (DZero) collaboration at Fermilab in Chicago. DØ researchers analysed data from the Tevatron, a proton-antiproton collider based at Fermilab. The new found particle sports the catchy name “X(5568)” (It’s labelled by the observed mass of 5,568 Megaelectron-volts or MeV. That’s about six times heavier than a proton.) X(5568) is a form of “tetraquark”, a rarer variety of the particles known as hadrons. Tetraquarks consist of two quarks and two antiquarks (rather than the usual three quarks or quark-antiquark pairs that make up hadrons particle physicists are familiar with). While similar tetraquark particles have been observed before, the new addition breaks the mould by consisting of four quarks of totally different flavours: bottom, strange, up and down.
[Regular readers and those familiar with the theory of QCD may wish to skip to the section marked ——]
a) An example of a quark-antiquark pair, known as Mesons. b) An example of a three-quark particle, known as Baryons. c) An example of a tetraquark (four quarks) Source: APS/Alan Stonebraker, via Physics Viewpoint, DOI: 10.1103/Physics.6.69
The particle’s decay is best explained Strong force, aptly named since it’s the strongest known force in the universe[1], which also acts to hold quarks together in more stable configurations such as inside the proton. The Strong force is described by a theory known as Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD for short), a crucial part of the Standard Model of particle physics. The properties of X(5568) will provide precision tests of the Standard Model, as well as improving our understanding of the nature of Confinement. This is a dimly understood process by which quarks are bound up together to form the particles (such as protons) that make up most of the visible matter in the universe.
Quarks are defined by the strong force, being the only particles known to physics that interact via QCD. They were originally conceived of in 1964 by two of the early pioneers of particle physics Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig, who posited the idea of “quarks” to explain the properties of a plethora of particles that were discovered in the mid-twentieth century. After a series of experiments in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, the evidence in favour of the quark hypothesis grew much stronger[2] and it was accepted that many of the particles that interacted and decayed very quickly (due to the magnitude of the strong force) in detectors were in fact made up of these quarks, which are now known to come in six different varieties known as “flavours”. A more precise model of the strong force, which came to be known as QCD, was also verified in such experiments.
QCD is a very difficult theory to draw predictions from because unlike electromagnetism (the force responsible for holding atoms together and transmitting light between objects), the “force carriers” of QCD known as gluons are self-interacting. Whereas light, or photons, simply pass through one another, gluons pull on one another and quarks in complex ways that give rise to the phenomenon of confinement: quarks are never observed in isolation, only as part of a group of other quarks/antiquarks. These groups of quarks and anti-quarks are what we call Hadrons (hence the name Large Hadron Collider). This self interaction arises from the fact that, unlike light which simply couples to positive or negative charges, QCD has a more complicated structure based on three charges labelled as Red, Green and Blue (which confusingly, have nothing to do with real colours, but are instead based on a mathematical symmetry known as SU(3)).
The hadrons discovered in the twentieth century tended to come in pairs of three quarks or quark-antiquark pairs. Although we now know there is nothing in the theory of QCD that suggests you can’t have particles consisting of four, or even five quarks/antiquarks, such particles were never observed, and in fact even some of the finest minds in theoretical physics (Edward Witten and Sidney Coleman) once thought that QCD would not permit such particles to exist. Like clovers, however, although the fourfold or even fivefold variety would be much rarer to come by it turns out such states did, in fact, exist and could be observed.
A visualisation of the production and decay of X(5568) to mesons in the Tevatron collider. Source: Fermilab http://news.fnal.gov/
The first hints of the existence of tetraquarks were at the Belle experiment, Japan in 2003, with the observation of a state called X(3872) (again, labelled by its mass of 3872 MeV). One of the most plausible explanations for this anomalous resonance[3] was a tetraquark model, which in 2013, an analysis by the LHCb experiment at CERN found to be a compatible explanation of the same resonance found in their detector. The same year, Belle and the BESIII experiment in China both found a resonance with the same characteristics, labelled Zc(3900), which is now believed to be the first independently, experimentally observed tetraquark. The most recent evidence for the existence of tetraquarks, prior to last Thursday’s announcement, was found by the LHCb experiment in 2014, the Z(4430). This verified an earlier result from Belle in 2007, with an astonishingly high statistical significance of 13.9σ (for comparison, one typically claims a discovery with a significance of 5σ). LHCb would also go on, unexpectedly, to find a pentaquark (four quarks and an antiquark) state in 2015, which could provide a greater understanding of QCD and even a window into the study of neutron stars.
Z(4430) was discovered from the analysis of its decay into mesons (hadrons consisting of quark-antiquark pairs), specifically the ψ’ and π mesons from the decay B0 → K + ψ’ π. In the analysis of the B0 decay, it was found that the Z(4430) was needed as an intermediate particle state to explain the resonant behaviour of the ψ’ and π. The LHCb detector, whose asymmetric design and high resolution makes it particularly well suited for the job, reconstructs these mesons and looks at their kinematic properties to determine the shape and properties of the resonance, which were found to be consistent with a tetraquark model. The recent discovery of X(5568) by the DØ collaboration involved a similar reconstruction from Bs and π mesons, which was used to infer its quark flavour structure (b, s, u, d, though which two are the particles and which two are the antiparticles remains to be determined).
X(5568) is found to have a large width (22 MeV) in the distribution of its decays, implying that it decays very quickly, best explained by QCD. Since quarks cannot change flavours in QCD interactions (while they can do so in weak nuclear interactions), this is what allowed DØ to determine its quark content. The other properties of this anomalous particle, such as its mass and its lack of spin (i.e. S = 0) are measured from the kinematics of the mesons it produces, and can help increase our understanding of how QCD combines the quarks in such an unfamiliar arrangement.
The two models for tetraquarks: Left, a single bound state of four quarks. Right, a pair of mesons bound to one another in orbit, resembing a four quark state. Source: Fermilab http://news.fnal.gov (Particle Physicists have a strange relationship with Comic Sans)
One of the long-standing controversies surrounding tetraquark states is whether the states are truly a joint four particle state or in fact a sort of molecule of two strongly bound mesons, which although they form a bound state of four particles in total, is actually analogous to two separate atoms in a molecule rather than a single, heavy atom. The analysis from DØ, based on X(5568)’s mass seems to imply that it’s the former, a single particle of four quarks tightly bound in an exotic hadron, though the jury is still out on the matter.
DØ’s discovery is based on an analysis of the historic data collected from the Tevatron from the 28 years it was operating, since the collider itself ceased operation 2011. Despite LHCb having found tetraquark candidates in the past and being suited to finding such a particle again, it has not yet independently verified the existence of X(5568). LHCb will now review their own data as well as future data that will recommence being collected later this year, to see if they too observe this unprecedented result and hopefully improve our understanding of its properties and whether they are consistent with the Standard Model. This is definitely a result to look out for later this year and should shed some light on one of the fundamental forces of nature and how it acts to create the particles, such as protons, that make up the world around us.
[1] That is, the dimensionless coupling of the force carrier particle interactions is greater than electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, both of which in turn are stronger than gravity (consider how a tiny magnet can lift a paper clip against the gravity of the entire Earth). Many theories of Beyond the Standard Model physics predict new forces, and it may turn out that all the forces are unified into a single entity at high energies.
[2] For an excellent summary of the history of quarks and some of the motivations behind the quark model, check out this fantastic documentary featuring none other than the Nobel Prize wining physicists, Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann themselves.
[3] Particles are discovered by the bumps or resonances they leave in the statistical distributions of particle decays/scattering events. See for example, one of the excesses of events that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Spun out of proportion: The Proton Spin Crisis
Monday, February 1st, 2016
Proton structure
[2] To the best of our knowledge.
Dark Matter: A New Hope
Monday, December 7th, 2015
[Apologies for the title, couldn’t resist the temptation to work in a bit of Star Wars hype]
To call the direct detection of dark matter “difficult” is a monumental understatement. To date, we have had no definite, direct detection on Earth of this elusive particle that we suspect should be all around us. This seems somewhat of a paradox when our best astronomical observations indicate that there’s about five times more dark matter in the universe than the ordinary, visible matter that appears to make up the world we see. So what’s the catch? Why is it so tricky to find?
An enhanced image of the “Bullet Cluster”: two colliding galaxies are observed with ordinary “baryonic” matter (coloured red) interacting as expected and the dark matter from each galaxy, inferred from gravitational lensing (coloured blue), passing straight through one another. Source: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 24/08/2006
The difficulty lies in the fact that dark matter does not interact with light (that is, electromagnetically) or noticeably with atoms as we know them (that is, with the strong force, which holds together atomic nuclei). In fact, the only reason we know it exists is because of how it interacts gravitationally. We see galaxies rotate much faster than they would without the presence of some unseen “dark matter”, amongst other things. Unfortunately, none of the particles we know from the Standard Model of particle physics are suitable candidates for explaining dark matter of this sort. There are, however, several attempts in the works to try and detect it via weak nuclear interactions on Earth and pin down its nature, such as the recently approved LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, which should be built and collecting data by 2020.
Direct detection, however, isn’t the only possible way physicists can get a handle on dark matter. In February 2014, an X-Ray signal at 3.5 keV was detected by the XMM-Newton, an X-ray spectroscopy project by the European Space Agency, in orbit around Earth. Ever since, there’s been buzz amongst particle cosmologists that the signal may be from some kind of dark matter annihilation process. One of the strongest candidates to explain the signal has been sterile neutrino, a hypothetical cousin of the Standard Model neutrino. Neutrinos are ghostly particles that also interact incredibly rarely with ordinary matter* but, thanks to the remarkable work of experimentalists, were detected in the late 1950s. Their exact nature was later probed by two famous experiments, SNO and Super-Kamiokande, that demonstrated that neutrinos do in fact have mass, by observing a phenomenon known as Neutrino Oscillations. As reported on this blog in October, the respective heads of each collaboration were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their efforts in this field.
“Handedness” refers to how a particle spins about the axis it travels along. Standard Model neutrinos (first observed in 1956) are all observed as left handed. Sterile neutrinos, a hypothetical dark matter candidate, would be right-handed, causing them to spin the opposite way along their axes. Image source: ysfine.com
The hope amongst some physicists is that as well as the neutrinos that have been studied in detectors for the last half a century, there exists a sort of heavier “mirror image” to these particles that could act as a suitable dark matter candidate. Neutrinos are only found to “spin” in a certain way relative to the axis of their propagation, while the hypothesised sterile neutrinos would spin the opposite way round (in more technical terms, they have opposite chirality). This difference might seem trivial, but in the mathematical structure underpinning the Standard Model, it would fundamentally change how often these new particles interact with known particles. Although predicted to react incredibly rarely with ordinary matter, there are potentially processes that would allow these sterile neutrinos to emit an X-Ray signal, with half the mass-energy of the original particle. Due to the sheer number of them found in dense places such as the centres of galaxies, where XMM-Newton was collecting data from, in principle such a signal would be measurable from regions with a high density of sterile neutrinos.
This all seems well and good, but how well does the evidence measure up? Since the announcement of the signal, the literature has gone back and forth on the issue, with the viability of sterile neutrinos as a dark matter candidate being brought into question. It is thought that the gravitational presence of dark matter played a crucial role in the formation of galaxies in the early universe, and the best description we have relies on dark matter being “cold”, i.e. with a velocity dispersion such that the particles don’t whizz around at speeds too close to the speed of light, at which point their kinematic properties are difficult to reconcile with cosmological models. However, neutrinos are notorious for having masses so small they have yet to be directly measured and to explain the signal at 3.5 keV, the relevant sterile neutrino would have to have a relatively small mass of ~7 keV/c2, about 15,000 times lighter than the usual prediction for dark matter at ~100 GeV/c2. This means that under the energy predicted by cosmological models for dark matter production, our sterile neutrinos would have a sort of “luke-warm” characteristic, in which they move around at speeds comparable to but not approaching the speed of light.
A further setback has been that the nature of the signal has been called into question, since the resolution of the initial measurements from XMM-Newton (and accompanying X-ray satellite experiments such as Chandra) was not sharp enough to definitively determine the signal’s origin. XMM-Newton built up a profile of X-ray spectra by averaging across measurements from just 73 galaxy clusters, though it will take further measurements to fully rule out the possibility that the signal isn’t from the atomic spectra of potassium and sulpher ions found in hot cosmic plasmas.
But there remains hope.
A recent pre-print to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) by several leading cosmologists has outlined the compatibility of a 7 keV/c2 sterile neutrino’s involvement with the development of galactic structure. To slow down the sterile neutrinos enough to bring them in line with cosmological observations, “lepton asymmetry” (a breaking of the symmetry between particles and antiparticles) has to be introduced in the model. While this may initially seem like extra theoretical baggage, since lepton asymmetry has yet to be observed, there are theoretical frameworks than can introduce such an asymmetry with the introduction of two much heavier sterile neutrinos at the GeV scale.
A Black Brant XII sounding rocket, similar to the type that could be used to carry microcalorimeters, capable of recording X-ray signals of the type XMM-Newton and Chandra have been observing in galactic nuclei. These rockets are used to conduct scientific experiments in sub-orbital flight, including attempts at dark matter detection. Source: NASA/Wallops
Under such a model, not only could our dark matter candidate be reconciled, but neutrino oscillations could also be explained. Finally, baryogenesis, the description of why there was slightly more matter than antimatter in the early universe, could also find an explanation in such a theory. This would resolve one of the largest puzzles in Physics; the Standard Model predicts nearly equivalent amounts of particles and antiparticles in the early universe which should have annihilated to leave nothing but radiation, rather than the rich and exciting universe we inhabit today. On the experimental side, there are a few proposed experiments to try and measure the X-ray signal more carefully to determine its shape and compare it with the prediction of such models, such as flying rockets around with calorimeters inside to try and pick up the signal by observing a broader section of the sky than XMM or Chandra did.
With the experts’ opinions divided and further research yet to be done, it would be facetious to end this article with any sort of comment on whether the signal can or will gather the support of the community and become verified as a full blown dark matter signal. At time of writing, a paper has been released claiming signal is better explained as an emission from the plasmas found in galactic nuclei. A further preprint to MNRAS, put on arXiv just days ago, claims the sterile neutrino hypothesis is incompatible with the signal but that axions (a dark matter model that supposes a totally different type of particle outside of the Standard Model) remain as a candidate to explain the signal. Perhaps sterile neutrinos, are not the particles we’re looking for.
This kind of endeavour is just one of the hundreds of ways particle physicists and our colleagues in Astrophysics are looking to find evidence of new, fundamental physics. The appeal for me, as someone whose work will probably only have relevance to huge, Earth-bound experiments like the Large Hadron Collider, is the crossover between modelling the birth of colossal objects like galaxies and theories of subatomic particle production, using comparison between the two for consistency. Regardless of whether future rocket-based experiments can gather enough data to fully validate the signal in terms of theories produced by physicists here on Earth, it is a perfect example of breadth of activity physicists are engaged in, attempting to answer the big questions such as the nature of dark matter, through our research.
Kind regards to Piotr Oleśkiewicz (Durham University) for bringing this topic to my attention and for his insights on cosmology, and to Luke Batten (University College London) for a few corrections.
*The oft-quoted fact about neutrinos is that 65 billion solar neutrinos pass through just one square centimetre of area on earth every single second. The vast majority of these neutrinos will whizz straight through you without ever having noticed you were there, but by chance, in your entire lifetime, it’s likely that at least one or two will have the courtesy to notice you and bump off one of your atoms. The other interesting fact is that due to the decay of potassium in your bones, you actually emit about three hundred neutrinos a second. |
Seeing Earth from space changes you—and you don't even have to leave the planet
January 19, 2016 by Annahita Nezami, City University London, The Conversation
Mind altering. Credit: NASA
People who have seen Earth from space report a "cognitive shift in awareness". Space philosopher, Frank White, calls this "the overview effect". It is often experienced as a profound feeling of awe and interconnection, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
I asked them if their experience had enhanced their personal growth and promoted . I also asked them if they had used their experience to deal with the challenges of daily life back on Earth.
Mind expanding
The analysis revealed that the participants clustered into two groups based on the intensity of the changes they experienced in terms of both attitude and behaviour. It appears that distance made the heart grow fonder – that is to say, the physical separation from "mother Earth" helped them appreciate the beauty of life and created a stronger bond to the planet.
A new type of therapy? Credit:
Past research has suggested that being apart from Earth can cause separation anxiety, also known as "breakoff phenomenon". However, this state might also solidify the astronauts' attachment and dependence to Earth. From the vantage point of space, divisions and boundaries could not be seen and were pointless. Earth was seen as a "living bio-sphere" and as a "fragile oasis" harbouring and cocooning life in unlikely circumstances in the void of space.
The astronauts orbited 16 times every 24 hours and became more familiar with its topography and landscape. Some of the participants commented how they were initially drawn to man-made structures such as bridges, roads, harbours, and cities at night. But Earth's raw beauty really came alive during daylight. Once they had bypassed the "superficial" features of the planet, they were overwhelmed by how fragile and alone Earth looked in space. They were also shocked by the sight of humankind's impact on the planet, such as deforestation and pollution.
One of the astronauts, Ronald Garan, spoke of the "sobering contradiction between the beauty of the Earth and the injustices and unfortunate realities on it". This contradiction appears to have evoked a state of tension in some of the astronauts that psychologists refer to as "cognitive dissonance" – the stress or discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.
Feeling significant
They thought it was extraordinary that our planet was in the "goldilocks zone" in our solar system, harboured life and existed at all. They developed what might be called a "cosmic consiousness" which appears to have strengthened their resilience when facing problems and existential challenges back on Earth.
Meanwhile, back on Earth
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Health Innovation Challenge Fund: projects we've funded
Next generation engineered T-cell therapy for brain lymphoma
Most patients with aggressive brain lymphoma die of their disease. T-cells are white blood cells that are part of our immune system. T-cells can be imagined as ‘robots’ moving through the body on a ‘seek-and-destroy’ mission against virus-infected cells. T-cells do not normally attack lymphoma cells, only infected cells. However, it is possible to genetically engineer T-cells taken from a patient's blood so they recognise lymphoma cells. These engineered T-cells are called ’CAR T-cells‘ and once they are reinjected into the patient, they find and kill lymphoma cells.
Dr Martin Pule at University College London will test a CAR T-cell treatment for aggressive brain lymphoma in a clinical study. While CAR T-cells may be good treatments for lymphoma outside the brain, treating brain lymphoma is harder: the brain is more difficult to reach than other parts of the body. Additionally, when CAR T-cells work quickly, they cause inflammation which the brain may not tolerate compared with other organs. The project plans to engineer CAR T-cells in an advanced way so that the team can track them using a special MRI scanner and control how quickly they work with a drug. This will help to safely and effectively develop the new treatment.
GOLD imaging in acute stroke: further technology development incorporating a perfluorocarbon oxygen carrier (Oxycyte)
Acute ischaemic stroke is common and disabling, but lacks acute treatment options. The thrombolytic drug rt-PA (alteplase), given within 4.5 hours of onset based on clinical symptoms and basic brain imaging, significantly increases independent recovery, but is under-utilised (<5% of UK patients). Advanced brain imaging offers a means of targeting treatment to a wider population but existing technologies are not widely used because of additional time incurred, and limited diagnostic validation.
GOLD (Glasgow-Oxygen-Level-Dependent) is a new combined diagnostic and therapeutic approach in which an IV oxygen carrier perfluorocrabon (Oxycyte) enhances imaging of brain metabolic responses to inhaled oxygen with MRI, differentiating potentially salvageable penumbral tissue from irreversibly damaged tissue. Unlike alternatives, additional imaging time carries no penalty (“time lost is brain lost”) since PFC+oxygen maintains brain viability and reduces ischaemic damage.
The project's goals are to optimise dose for diagnostic sensitivity and to confirm Oxycyte+50%O2 preclinical safety when coadministered with thrombolytics and radiological contrast agents. The project also aims to establish safety and tolerability in acute ischaemic stroke patients in an ascending dose, randomised, controlled study and confirm diagnostic imaging feasibility in stroke patients. GOLD, developed by Professor Keith Muir and Dr Celestine Santosh, will allow individual treatment decisions based on brain pathophysiology, not time alone, widening eligibility and improving safety of rtPA, and stratifying patients for future research.
Clinical validation of eye movement abnormalities as diagnostic biomarkers of psychiatric disorders
Unlike other branches of medicine there are currently no tests to help with the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and recurrent depression. Diagnosis is based solely on patient history, symptoms and observed behaviour. This means that diagnoses are unreliable and patients often get the wrong diagnosis and treatment.
Dr Philip Benson and Professor David St Clair from the University of Aberdeen have discovered that a battery of tests based on simple eye movement recordings when watching pictures is a good diagnostic method for a range of major psychiatric disorders. This technology is better than any blood, radiology or gene based tests.
Saccade Diagnostics, in collaboration with Dr Benson and Professor St Clair and also Professor Andrew Mcintosh from the University of Edinburgh, have received a Health Innovation Challenge Fund award to replicate the team’s exciting findings on new sets of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and recurrent depression. They will also test a large group of community based people with depression and normal subjects and also patients attending hospital with borderline personality and obsessive compulsive disorders.
If the new findings are as good as the existing ones, the technology will be developed for use in diagnosis, risk evaluation and management of individuals with major psychiatric disorders. It will improve patient wellbeing, satisfy an enormous unmet need and reduce costs in the NHS and other healthcare services worldwide.
Automatic anomaly detection for brain imaging triage and classification
Modern brain imaging contains vastly more information than historical radiographs, yet its clinically informative output has remained the same: a radiologist’s verbal report. As the information content of imaging increases, a void has opened between what we expensively collect and what we actually use.
This is both a lost opportunity, and an obstacle to the continued growth of brain imaging. Technology being developed by Dr Parashkev Nachev and colleagues at University College London seeks to close this gap by applying novel computer-assisted algorithms so as to exploit much more of the information in each scan than a verbal report contains. An automatic “anomaly map” for each scan, indexing the deviation from normality of each point, will assist radiological reporting, allow the application of computer systems that predict clinical outcomes from patterns of anomaly, and guide radiological triage and resource/performance management.
The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility, robustness, clinical, and managerial value of the approach using a large collection of standard brain imaging, and to deliver a pilot system capable of translation into a full clinical product. Without changing any clinical pathways or adding new investigations, the system will improve radiological reporting and optimise radiological triage and management, while creating a scalable major new platform for computational imaging analysis.
An automated tool to identify vertebral fractures in various imaging modalities
Osteoporosis is a condition in which patients have too little bone, and so are more prone to suffering fractures, most commonly in the spine, wrist and hip. These lead to pain and deformity and often death. Osteoporosis affects 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men over age 50 years. The treatment of fractures will cost £2 billion in UK by 2020.
Vertebral fractures are the most common fractures in osteoporosis, and if present indicate that the patient is at significantly increased risk of future fractures and should be treated. However, over 50% of vertebral fractures are not associated with symptoms and so their presence may not be suspected, and are often not reported if present on various imaging techniques. Professor Tim Cootes and colleagues at University of Manchester have developed world-leading technology for locating and analysing bones in medical images.
In collaboration with Optasia-Medical Ltd and Central Manchester University Hospitals they will develop a fully automated computer tool for identifying vertebral fractures on X-ray images. This will be designed to be easy to use and will be suitable for adoption within the NHS. They will demonstrate the tool’s performance by installing a system in an NHS radiology department and testing it on routinely collected clinical images. By identifying subjects with vertebral fractures who would benefit from referral for further assessment for osteoporosis the system should ultimately reduce the number of fractures, including the numbers of potentially fatal hip fractures.
Virtual coronary physiology: an angiogram is all you need
Disease inside the heart’s arteries kills more people in the UK than anything else. Dr Julian Gunn and his team at the University of Sheffield have developed a computer system called 'VIRTU', which predicts blood pressure changes inside coronary arteries.
This is important because doctors make better decisions regarding when and how to treat patients with coronary artery disease if they have these blood pressure measurements. Currently, doctors have to insert a metal wire inside the heart to measure artery pressures. This is time-consuming and requires special equipment, staff and medicines. Although this invasive technique saves lives and money, more than 95% of patients do not receive the procedure and thus do not get the benefits that it can provide.
VIRTU provides a solution to this problem since it only needs X-ray pictures and does not require any wires, drugs, or additional time, equipment or staff. This project aims to improve the speed and accuracy of VIRTU and test it in people with more complicated coronary disease so that eventually it can be used in all patients. The research will make VIRTU 'patient-ready' and will deliver all the advantages of the current invasive technique (i.e. reduced deaths, heart attacks and cost) whilst being less invasive and usable in 100% of patients.
Comprehensive molecular diagnostics for inherited cardiac conditions
Some diseases of the heart run in families (inherited cardiac conditions). In the UK they are the most common cause of sudden death in the young and a major cause of death and disability across all age groups. Although we know a lot about the genes that cause these diseases and healthcare experts around the world advise that genetic test should be used routinely to guide healthcare decisions, they are in fact rarely and inequitably used for inherited cardiac conditions.
A research group headed by Professor Stuart Cook at Imperial College London, working with Colleagues at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, will use cutting edge sequencing technology to test all the known genes that cause these diseases in a single test. The test will provide faster, more affordable and far more comprehensive and accurate genetic testing than currently available and will change the way we treat patients and their families.
Rapid detection and treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia - towards improved antibiotic stewardship
Critically ill patients whose lungs are supported by breathing machines (ventilators) commonly develop new lung infection, called ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Because VAP is often fatal, antibiotics are administered whenever it is suspected.
However VAP is hard to distinguish from several non-infective lung conditions and most patients with suspected VAP do not have pneumonia. Therefore many patients receive unnecessary antibiotics for several days, promoting emergence of 'superbugs'. Laboratory infection results for VAP typically return in 3 days. A simple test rapidly and confidently excluding VAP would improve patient care, reduce unnecessary antibiotics and decrease costs.
Professor John Simpson and his team at University of Newcastle has recently showed that low levels of specific proteins in fluid from the lungs of patients with suspected VAP effectively excluded VAP within 4 hours. The test used is an extension of existing technology produced by the team's commercial partner Becton Dickinson (BD) Biosciences. This test will be rigorously analysed in a clinical trial and if rapid, safe, cost-effective reductions in unnecessary antibiotics are confirmed the test will be rapidly introduced into hospitals through the commercialisation expertise of the University of Newcastle technology transfer team and BD Biosciences. Every intensive care unit worldwide deals with suspected VAP, and this new test would have a significant global healthcare impact.
At least 40% of all patients in ICU need a ventilator to support their lungs, with many associated complications. Once established on mechanical ventilation, critically ill patients are at risk of Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and secondary infection resulting in ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). Both ALI and VAP increase hospital mortality, illness costs and result in poor functional long-term patient outcomes.
Professor Chris Haslett's team at Edinburgh University aims to develop a technology to improve the diagnosis of these lung diseases. The team will synthesise and test in vitro and in vivo three novel smart probes. These novel imaging agents in conjunction with revolutionary techniques will be designed to detect the presence of neutrophilic infiltration, the presence of bacteria at sites of lung injury, the gram-status of the bacteria, and the presence of MRSA.
This technology has the potential to determine at the earliest possible stage which patients in ICU are developing secondary infection, identifying the organism responsible and allow rapid and accurate detection/exclusion of hospital-acquired infections. It could also provide a rapid, 'real-time' in situ approach to establishing mechanism-based efficacy of new drugs.
Development and application of a targeted array test to diagnose and direct therapy in haematological cancers
Leukaemia is a form of cancer that affects blood cells and arises in the bone marrow or lymphoid organs. There are several types of leukaemia, depending on which blood cells are affected.
Although several treatments are available, the current genetic tests used to guide therapy are not sufficiently precise. This means that some patients suffering from leukaemia may not respond to treatment or may suffer adverse side-effects. In order to be most effective, treatment must be tailored to the individual. This is also important when considering emerging therapies that are extremely expensive and must be used judiciously.
Dr Sam Knight and colleagues at University of Oxford have developed specialized approaches that use microarray technology to test, in detail, the genetic make-up of blood cells from patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. During their three year HIC Fund study, these approaches will be validated and adapted specifically for use in a clinical setting. The more precise detection of relevant genetic alterations will enable doctors to provide the most suitable treatment for patients, minimizing side-effects of treatment, reducing mortality and NHS care costs. The approach will be suitable for use in hospital laboratories worldwide.
Digital health
Hospital Alerting via Electronic Noticeboard (HAVEN)
Hospitalised patients may suffer deterioration in their medical condition, or develop a complication of their illness such as a chest infection or life-threatening blood clot. Hospital staff monitor patients for these problems using “vital signs” such as temperature and blood pressure. However, in spite of advances in the way the vital signs are recorded and assessed, in the UK each year 40,000 inpatients deteriorate sufficiently to require admission to an intensive care unit, 10,000 of which subsequently die.
Modern hospitals now collect much information electronically, including patient descriptors (for example age and previous admissions), laboratory results, and vital signs. When clinicians assess patients they mentally weigh up each of these pieces of information to gauge how ill the patient is at the time, and their likely future course. Clinicians and clinical managers can only do this one patient at a time.
A research group at the University of Oxford headed by Dr Peter Watkinson plans to produce a hospital-wide IT system that makes this risk assessment in all hospital patients continuously. The score will be made available via a display specifically designed to allow expert clinicians to identify and rank at-risk patients quickly and initiate treatment. The aim is to deliver a validated prototype system ready for commercialisation in partnership with industry.
Improving patient assessment after stroke: The Cambridge and Oxford Automated Screening Test (COAST)
Every year 150,000 UK residents suffer a stroke. Cognitive problems (e.g. difficulties with language) and low mood are common and undermine recovery. Consequently NHS guidelines recommend that all patients have brief test ‘screens’ to detect these problems and better target care. Unfortunately, due to a lack of materials, skilled staff and staff-time, audits show these targets are often unmet.
The Cambridge and Oxford Automated Screening Test (COAST) is designed to solve this problem. It is a set of brief computerised cognitive and mood measures, easily administered by staff using touchscreen tablets. COAST guides health workers through the tests, collects responses from patients, and automatically generates clinical reports.
The tests are specially designed to detect problems prevalent after stroke and to include all patients. It is highly portable and requires no specialist equipment beyond devices already widely in use. It frees staff from administrative chores allowing increased patient contact.
A project team led by Dr Tom Manly (MRC Cambridge) and Professor Glyn Humphreys (University of Oxford) have developed COAST from a rigorous evidence-base. The award will support the crucial final stages of the project (collecting assessment results from patient and healthy populations and NHS field trials), enabling COAST to make a real difference to clinical care within 3 years.
Accurate and patient-friendly measurement of binocular visual function using a 3D smartphone
Stereo vision, often called 3D vision, is the ability to use both eyes together to see depth. Clinicians use specialised vision tests, called stereotests, to measure patients’ 3D vision in disorders like squint. This helps them monitor progress, assess whether treatment is helping, and can guide decisions like when to operate. However, existing stereotests are not very reliable. Young children may not understand the test or be willing to cooperate, e.g. by wearing 3D glasses. This limits the usefulness of current stereotests.
Recently, the first glasses-free 3D tablet computers have come on the market. A team led by Dr Jenny Read at Newcastle University wants to use these to produce a better stereotest. For children, the stereotest will be embedded in a fun, colourful game. Patients will give their answers by touching the screen. The device will use these responses to interactively adapt the test for that particular patient, customising it for each individual. The device will monitor patients while they do the test and automatically correct for any changes in viewing distance.
As a result, it will provide clinicians with more accurate data on 3D vision, especially in small children. This will help healthcare professionals to track the progress of treatment and make the best clinical decisions.
Real-time Adaptive & Predictive Indicator of Deterioration (RAPID)
Of the 1.5 million children admitted to UK hospitals every year; 650 suffer cardiac arrests and 3000 die. Most have signs that indicate deterioration before the life-threatening event. Current early warning scores have reduced avoidable life-threatening illness and death, but these systems need to be improved.
Deterioration can be missed when vital signs change rapidly, observations are made infrequently and slowly deteriorating trends can occur between alarm thresholds. A team led by Dr Heather Duncan of Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust proposes a system where continuous observations are taken from patients and this data is used to understand, in real-time, what is normal for each patient and detect the changing patterns in their physiology.
Small chest and hand sensors wirelessly connect patients in the wards. Continuous monitoring allows deterioration to be recognised, triggering an alert and provoking timely intervention to prevent patients suffering further deterioration and death.
The technology uses software adapted from Formula 1, with Aston University and Birmingham Children’s Hospital algorithms to interface seamlessly with NHS IT systems. The key goals are to deploy RAPID in two cardiac wards, demonstrate reliable collection and processing of data, provide clinical interpretation of processed data and create new patient pathways for better and more effective utilisation of nursing and doctors.
Post-Intensive care risk-adjusted alerting and monitoring
One tenth of the 85,000 patients discharged annually from UK intensive care units (ICUs) apparently recovering from their acute illness, die before leaving hospital. Frequent visits to the patients' wards by the ICU nursing team reduce this risk but suitably trained nurses are expensive and in short supply.
A research team in Oxford led by Dr J. Duncan Young plans to develop a comfortable wearable physiological monitoring device linked to computers with 'knowledge' of patterns of vital signs in post-ICU patients to automatically measure vital signs, and detect warning signs of serious problems, in patients discharged from the ICU.
Using the hospital wi-fi network they will monitor the patients' vital signs continuously with a computer system, which will be programmed with information on each individual patient's risk of deterioration obtained during their ICU stay. If the computer detects a change in the patients' vital signs, it will alert medical staff.
This approach will allow hospitals to monitor far more patients for a far longer time than would be possible using nurses alone, whilst minimising false alarms by tailoring the alarm limits to each individual patient. Even modestly reducing these post-ICU deaths to one in twelve discharged patients would save 1,400 lives annually, equivalent to more than half the road deaths in Great Britain. Compliance with government guidance, reduced costs, improved safety and a reduction in insurance premiums will all be used to persuade healthcare teams to adopt the system.
Open-architecture telehealth platform for COPD
COPD affects 210 million people globally, with 50% of costs (unplanned hospital admissions) that could be avoided with more responsive models of care. 30% of COPD patients in the NHS are re-admitted to hospital once within the year. Within 10 years, COPD will become the third leading cause of death. Even if everyone stopped smoking today, the effect on COPD statistics would not be seen for up to 20 years.
A research group headed by Professor Lionel Tarassenko at University of Oxford proposes to develop an easy-to-use system for patients to monitor their condition, based on mobile communications technology (hence the name of mHealth). The project will make use of the latest generation of smartphones and tablets to enable COPD sufferers to complete patient diaries, respond early to worsening symptoms, and receive support from a respiratory nurse who has access to all of their data.
This will lead to improved self-management and a higher quality of life for these patients, with a reduction in the number of severe exacerbations which they experience and which require an unplanned and costly hospital admission. A key goal of their approach is to bring the costs of telehealth technology by at least an order of magnitude to enable it to be adopted on a much larger scale than at present.
Monitoring of upper limb rehabilitation and recovery after stroke through gaming
Stroke frequently damages the area of the brain controlling movement, as a consequence there are thousands of people with weakness down one side of their body. This has a major impact on their lives because everyday activities require two hands.
Drug repurposing
Re-purposing of 13-cis-retinoic acid for children with neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that predominantly affects children aged 5 years or less. Children with neuroblastoma are commonly treated with a combination of therapies including a drug called 13-cis-retinoic acid (13-CRA). Treatment with 13-CRA improves survival chances of children with neuroblastoma and is standard therapy for this disease worldwide.
Presently, 13-CRA is only available as a capsule. As few young children will take capsules, carers often have to administer the drug by first extracting liquid out of the capsule. Studies show that this method of administration commonly results in children being given the wrong dose of drug which, in turn, increases risks of treatment failure and drug toxicity. Furthermore, since 13-CRA can cause birth defects, pregnant women (e.g. parent of a child with NBL) risk accidently exposing their unborn babies when drawing up the drug from capsules.
Despite requests by governmental agencies, no manufacturer has yet developed a child-friendly preparation of 13-CRA. Dr Hussain Mulla, Head of Clinical Development at Nova Laboratories Limited and his team aim to develop a fully tested oral liquid preparation of 13-CRA as an unlicensed special medication for the NHS for use in children with neuroblastoma. This product will be available in the United Kingdom and Ireland and may be available elsewhere subject to the local regulatory environment and addresses an unmet need for children with a disease that still has poor outcomes.
Protecting organ function in severe trauma/haemorrhage using the anti-malarial drug artesunate
Trauma is the most frequent cause of death in people under the age of 40. Despite resuscitation in the emergency room, severe blood loss can lead to the dysfunction of vital organs (kidney, lung, heart, liver, brain), which ultimately may cause the death of a trauma patient. At present there are no specific treatments for organ failure in routine clinical use, and management is only supportive.
A research group headed by Professor Christoph Thiemermann at Queen Mary University of London, has discovered that small doses of a commonly used and safe anti-malarial drug (artesunate), reduces multiple organ failure after trauma-haemorrhage in a rat model. The team at Queen Mary's plan to conduct a trial with artesunate in patients with trauma and severe haemorrhage.
The team hopes to demonstrate that this therapeutic agent is safe and also effective at reducing the incidence and severity of multiple organ failure. This early treatment of trauma patients against organ failure could have a major positive global impact on patient outcomes and resource utilisation.
Repurposing anti-TNF for treating Dupuytren’s disease
Dupuytren’s disease is a very common condition, affecting 4% of the general UK population. It causes the fingers to curl into the palm and can be extremely disabling. There is no approved treatment for early disease. Once patients have established deformities, the diseased tissue is removed surgically or cut using less invasive techniques such as a needle or an enzyme.
However, recovery following surgery usually takes several months and recurrence rates with the non-surgical techniques are high. A team from the University of Oxford led by Professor Nanchahal has unravelled the molecular mechanisms that initiate and maintain the disease process. Based on these findings they plan to test a new treatment with anti-TNF, a drug currently approved for use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. If effective, this will represent the first targeted therapy involving a simple injection for patients with early Dupuytren’s disease that will preserve hand function and avoid the need for subsequent more invasive treatments such as surgery.
Albumin to prevent infection in Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (ATTIRE)
Liver disease is the 5th commonest cause of death in the UK and the only one of the top 10 currently rising. Approximately 110,000 patients with symptoms of advanced cirrhosis, (commonly related to alcohol excess) e.g. jaundice, confusion and bleeding from the stomach, were admitted to UK hospitals in 2011-12.
The most common cause of death in these patients is infection. These patients have a weakened immune system making them highly vulnerable to infection and no effective strategy exists to improve this. A research group headed by Dr Alastair O’Brien at University College London discovered that the cause of this vulnerability is an increase in blood levels of a lipid hormone called Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) which reduces white blood cell function, the cells that fight infection.
Dr O’Brien and colleagues have discovered that patients’ immune systems can be boosted for at least 24 hours by infusing albumin into a vein which reduces PGE2’s effects. This safe process is currently given when patients need extra fluid e.g. those with kidney damage. The group propose this new exciting use for albumin to be given daily to improve cirrhosis patients’ immune systems and therefore prevent infection. The long-term goal is that this will save lives and reduce health-care costs and propose to investigate this in a large scale clinical trial.
Topical tropomyosin kinase inhibitor as a treatment for inherited CYLD defective skin tumours
Approximately 1 in 100,000 people in the UK suffer from a rare genetic condition that leads to the development of multiple, disfiguring, skin tumours called cylindromas on the scalp. The condition is caused by an inherited mutation in the CYLD tumour suppressor gene.
Up to 1 in 4 affected patients require complete scalp excision to control tumour burden. These patients also develop tumours on the body that require surgery when they become painful or impair function due to their size.
Researchers at Newcastle University and the Institute of Cancer Research, London, conducted whole genome molecular profiling experiments that led to the discovery of an attractive molecular target in these skin tumour cells, named Tropomyosin kinase (TRK). Now, a team led by Dr Neil Rajan at Newcastle University will conduct a trial of the topical TRK inhibitor CT327, developed by a European biotechnology company known as Creabilis, in patients with CYLD genetic mutations.
The team hopes to demonstrate that delivering a TRK inhibitor to patients with this inherited skin tumour may represent a safe and feasible treatment for early tumours and reduce the need for surgical interventions.
The HAEM (Haemorrhage and Antifibrinolytics in Emergency Medicine) Project
Sudden severe bleeding is an important medical problem in the UK and worldwide. Recent results from a large international clinical trial in bleeding accident victims show that a cheap drug called tranexamic acid reduces the chances of dying from the injuries and improves other patient outcomes without any increase in side effects.
Tranexamic acid is not a new drug. It has been used to control bleeding during major surgical operations for many years. The realisation that this drug could be used to treat a much wider range of bleeding conditions holds the promise of important benefits for patients at low cost.
The research team, lead by Professor Ian Roberts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, responsible for the accident victim research are now conducting a trial to see if this drug improves outcome in post-partum bleeding.
Genetics and genomics
Pre-clinical development of a stem cell based gene therapy protocol and clinical proof of principle for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Stem cells have the potential to cure many severe and currently untreatable diseases. Among these is Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) which is a relatively frequent (1:4,000 males), X-linked, genetic disease, characterised by lack of the protein dystrophin which leads to progressive deterioration of skeletal and cardiac muscle, leading to a variable but progressive limitation of the patient’s mobility and heart and/or respiratory failure.
Professor Guilio Cossu and his team from the University of Manchester will examine the effect of correcting the genetic defect in the cells of patients and injecting them back into the foot muscle. Initially the project will examine the safety of this procedure before examining its efficacy. The cells will be also be injected into the muscle of the thumb of the dominant hand, aiming to increase its force of contraction, hand mobility and the patient’s quality of life.
First-in-human trial of an optimised lentiviral vector for cystic fibrosis ne therapy
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic condition that shortens patients' lives, usually because of lung disease. A person with CF inherits two faulty copies of a gene called CFTR, one from each parent. Lacking normal CFTR, CF lungs become clogged with sticky mucus and cannot easily get rid of inhaled bacteria and viruses that damage the lungs. The annual cost of treating the 10,000 UK patients is ~£300million. Time-consuming treatments such as antibiotics and physiotherapy slow down, but don’t stop, the lung disease. New drugs can improve lung function in some patients, but effective medicines to treat lung disease in all CF patients are required.
A team led by Chris Boyd (Edinburgh), Eric Alton (Imperial College) and Stephen Hyde (Oxford) have made a new gene therapy product designed to meet this need by putting normal CFTR genes into patients' lungs. The new gene therapy was developed from a virus to make it better at getting into nose and lung cells, and the team want to make it suitable for a clinical trial. The ultimate aim is to bring the gene therapy into clinical use to treat CF lung disease.
The Application of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to the analysis of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL)
Each year in the UK there are approximately 400 new cases of childhood ALL and 30 cases of relapsed ALL. It is really important if this treatment is to be successful to use a marker, known as Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) that indicates risk so that the treatment can be tailored to each child.
Although extremely helpful, the current method of measuring MRD is time consuming, expensive, complicated and doesn’t give a result for all children.
A team led by Dr John Moppett of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust is developing a new method that will enable delivery of a cheaper, faster and more sensitive test, involving more patients, whilst also enabling further understanding of why children with the disease sometimes relapse.
Applications of next generation sequencing in newborn screening
UK newborn babies are currently screened for five rare disorders using dried blood spots (DBS) taken shortly after birth and four further disorders will be added in 2015. Screening use biochemical tests performed on the DBS to identify babies affected with these conditions. Some “screen-positive” babies have genetic tests to confirm the disorder. The disorders being tested are potentially life-threatening but are treatable if identified early.
The severity of the disorders differs between patients. The link between genetic defects (mutations) and the disorder severity are not well understood. To improve knowledge of the link between mutations and symptoms/severity, a team jointly lead by Dr Ann Dalton (Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust) and Prof Anne Goodeve (University of Sheffield) proposes to use a new technology, next generation sequencing (NGS), to find mutations in six screened disorders.
The researchers will collect details of patients’ symptoms, blood chemicals and mutations in a database to understand the links between them for each disorder. This will help provide more appropriate and personalised treatment to affected babies. They will also investigate whether NGS could be used to identify patients with disorders having no abnormal chemicals in the blood by creating a system to deliver rapid genetic results which could be used for NBS and other purposes.
Prenatal Assessment of Genomes and Exomes (PAGE)
Women have ultrasound scans of their baby in pregnancy to check for structural abnormalities (such as a heart defect). If a problem is found, women are offered prenatal testing to check for chromosomal abnormalities in the baby, such as Down’s syndrome. This helps to predict the outcome for the child.
The chromosomes in our cells consist of strands of DNA which encode all the genes. Standard genetic testing detects large chromosomal changes that can be seen down a microscope. In some centres additional testing can detect smaller chromosomal changes. Dr Matthew Hurles at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and colleagues plan to look in the greatest possible detail, down to the level of individual building blocks of DNA, to examine the genes.
In this study, as the amount of information generated by this testing is vast and the interpretation time-consuming, results cannot be given during the pregnancy. If a genetic reason for the abnormal scan findings is found, this information would be given to parents after pregnancy. This could provide important information about the health of the child or implications for future pregnancies. This research will allow the team to discover new genes responsible for causing abnormalities and, if appropriate, to develop methods for speedy feedback of important information during pregnancy in the future.
Translation of whole genome sequencing into clinical practice
Genetic diseases occur when changes in a particular gene (called mutations) disrupt its normal function. There are many diseases that are caused by mutations in an individual’s DNA sequence.
However, our knowledge of the causative genes is often incomplete, and many patients remain undiagnosed even when all possible tests have been performed. Furthermore the testing process is slow since genes are often tested one at a time, for technical and economic reasons.
A research group headed by Dr Jenny Taylor at University of Oxford is aiming to improve this situation, by working out how new DNA sequencing technology, which can test an individual’s whole DNA sequence at once, can be used for genetic testing in the NHS. This should lead to much higher rates of success in diagnosing genetic conditions.
However, there are many technological hurdles to overcome in the collection and use of this ‘whole genome’ sequence data, and the way in which genetic testing is conducted in the NHS will need to adapt. Their goal will be to ensure that this new sequencing technology is rolled out in the NHS in a socially responsible manner so that any patient with a genetic disease can benefit, providing a benchmark for the NHS more widely, and other countries.
The sooner diseases are detected, the sooner they can be brought under control - limiting their health and financial impact. It is known from outbreaks of Escherichia coli O104 in Germany and O157 at Godstone Farm in Surrey that surveillance is key to detection, but with fewer people now consulting their GP over diarrhoea, outbreaks are increasingly difficult to detect using traditional methods. This hides the true burden of disease.
This will serve as a model for a national surveillance system and a faster, more informative alternative to centralized reference facilities for infection prevention and control. Currently analysis of a single clinical sample may take days-to-months. The aim is to provide complete pathogen information within 24 hours of culture, linked to a national surveillance database thereby enabling more timely and better targeted patient treatment.
Translating whole genome sequence technology into diagnostic and public health microbiology
Infection response through virus genomics
Translation of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) for selected single gene disorders into a clinical setting
Current prenatal genetic testing is by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling which each carry miscarriage risks. Recently developed tests, called “non-invasive” prenatal diagnosis (NIPD), do not have miscarriage risks.
These are possible since the discovery that there is a small amount of a baby’s genetic material, known as free fetal DNA, present in a pregnant mothers blood. Tests for some genetic disorders, such as the muscle disorders Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies are currently being developed. However because there are thousands of different genetic disorders, many extremely rare, it is challenging to make these tests available to a wide range of different families.
Scientists must show that the NIPD tests are accurate on stored blood samples for a range of conditions and then show that the tests are possible in the antenatal clinic and provide the same accurate results. Once proven the tests can be considered by the UKGTN (UK Genetic Testing Network) for implementation into routine NHS service.
This project led by Dr Stephanie Allen of the West Midlands Regional Genetics Service aims to accelerate the safe transfer of genetic research into improved patient care for many different genetic disorders. Removing the miscarriage risk with the introduction of NIPD will increase the acceptability, and therefore availability, of prenatal genetic testing for many couples.
Gene therapy for blindness caused by choroideraemia: a Phase I clinical trial
Professor Robert MacLaren and colleagues from University of Oxford are undertaking a clinical trial using gene therapy to treat a disease that causes blindness known as choroideraemia. This condition is currently incurable and affects thousands of people worldwide.
The principle of gene therapy is to use the shell of a virus (known as a vector) to carry a segment of DNA into the cells of affected patients where it can have a beneficial effect. In the case of choroideraemia there is deficiency of a gene known as REP1.
The project team have put this gene into a viral vector and shown in their laboratory that it can correct the choroideraemia defect. The project has reached the point where the team are ready to assess the potential benefit of this treatment in patients. Professor MacLaren and colleagues have designed a study involving 12 patients across four NHS sites that would represent the world's first ever clinical trial for this disease. The effects of the gene therapy will be assessed two years after treating each patient. If these are shown to be successful, subsequent regionally located follow-on studies will be set up.
Advanced antisense oligonucleotide technology for exon skipping in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common lethal variant of muscular dystrophy, and affects 1 in every 3500 live male births or 250,000 people world-wide.
Recent encouraging clinical trials have used antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) which, like 'molecular velcros', are able to temporarily repair the mutated DMD gene and restore the lost dystrophin protein to the muscles of DMD patients. However this approach requires repeated administration of the AO drug in order to achieve some repair of the gene in the skeletal muscle; in addition the heart muscle cannot be targeted efficiently with the current AO chemistries.
New generation AOs, never tried before in the human, are able to dramatically improve skeletal and cardiac muscle uptake of these molecules in animal models of DMD and significantly improve their therapeutic efficacy. In this study the MDEX Consortium, a world-leading group of preclinical scientists and clinicians based in the UK developing state-of-the-art therapies for neuromuscular disease plans to focus on the development and optimisation of a safe new generation AO drug which we intend to administer to a group of 9 patients affected by DMD after appropriate safety studies. The project is being lead by Dr Matthew Wood, University of Oxford and Dr Francesco Muntoni, UCL Institute of Child Health.
Using pharmacogenetics to improve treatment in young-onset diabetes (UNITED)
Monogenic diabetes is an unusual form of diabetes. It usually presents in patients under the age of 30, so is often misdiagnosed as Type 1 diabetes which is more common. Patients with monogenic diabetes can often be treated with tablets rather than insulin injections, leading to better control of their diabetes, and fewer side-effects and complications. Less than 5% of people with monogenic diabetes in the UK have been identified, meaning up to 20,000 patients may still be misdiagnosed and receiving inappropriate treatment.
The aim of project 'UNITED' is to identify the prevalence of patients with monogenic diabetes resulting from mutations in the HNF1A, HNF4A, or GCK genes, amongst patients with early-onset diabetes, diagnosed at less than 30 years of age. A team led by Professor Andrew Hattersley of the Peninsula Medical School and University of Exeter aims to develop a health economic model of a care pathway leading to the testing of monogenic diabetes.
This will help to identify the best way of ensuring that people diagnosed with diabetes under the age of 30 have all the necessary tests to ensure they have the correct treatment for their particular type of diabetes. A small number of people may, as part of this study, be found to have a specific genetic cause of their diabetes and, in these cases, the success and benefits will be measured of changing their treatment, usually from insulin to sulphonylurea tablets.
Deciphering developmental disorders
Thousands of babies born each year in the UK fail to develop normally because of errors in their genetic makeup. Currently, diagnosis is restricted to a small minority of children and requires the clinician to recognise the appearance of the child and the pattern of symptoms, supplemented by the use of microscopes to identify large rearrangements of the genetic material in chromosomes.
Research shows that the latest molecular testing methods identify previously undetectable changes in chromosomes allowing new diagnoses to be made. However, clinical use is hampered by the limited availability and inconsistent application of these technologies, and by lack of basic knowledge to link genetic changes directly to symptoms. The consequence is that clinical diagnoses remain impossible except for a small number of children.
Dr Nigel Carter of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and colleagues propose to apply state of the art genetic sequencing and molecular testing to 12 000 UK children with abnormal development. The results will provide a unique online catalogue of genetic changes linked to symptoms that will enable clinicians to diagnose developmental disorders. Furthermore, they will design more efficient and cheaper diagnostic assays for relevant genetic testing to be offered to all such patients in the UK and so transform clinical practice for children with abnormal development.
Quantifying disease burden in patients with cancer using tumour-specific genomic rearrangements
Cancer is caused by the accumulation of genetic damage (mutations) in cells within a particular organ. These mutations are only found in the cancerous cells and therefore could be used to track the malignancy during treatment. Advances in DNA sequencing allow the high-throughput identification of these mutations from any cancer sample in a clinically relevant time-frame. As tumour cells die, they release their DNA into the bloodstream.
Dr Peter Campbell, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and colleagues propose to use the new generation of genetic sequencing technologies to identify a particular class of mutations caused by the abnormal rearrangement of chromosomes in patients with breast cancer and colorectal cancer. From these rearrangements, the team will develop assays to detect DNA from each patient's cancer that has been released into the bloodstream. Such assays will be highly specific (minimal risk of falsely positive results) and sensitive (capable of detecting one copy of tumour DNA in many millilitres of blood).
The programme will measure the amount of disease using blood samples collected before surgery, after surgery, during chemotherapy and at regular time-points post-therapy. Dr Campbell and colleagues will therefore be able to assess the ability of this approach to identify high-risk patients before treatment begins, to monitor response to treatment and to predict cancer relapse before it is clinically apparent.
Medical devices
Efficient intraoperative detection of tumour margins through X-ray phase contrast CT
Many breast cancer patients undergo operations that are local excisions to remove the cancerous tissue rather than the entire breast. This has advantages but also risks. To minimise the risks of tumour recurrences, the surgeon must remove a margin of healthy tissue from around the cancer to provide a sufficient safety margin. The tissue sample is then analysed to ensure the whole tumour has been removed. It currently takes about ten days to test that the surgeon has removed enough tissue, leading to a delay in women knowing whether they will need another operation. It would be a huge advantage to the surgeon to know quickly and accurately whether the safety margin is adequate.
Ian Haig from Nikon Metrology UK proposes using a new X-ray imaging method invented by his project partner, Professor Alessandro Olivo at University College London. The method uses refraction instead of attenuation to detect small tissue changes, such as tumours. The technique has already detected tumour features missed by other technologies.
This award will allow the team at Nikon, University College London and Queen Mary University of London to build and validate a scanner that visualises the tissue safety margin in minutes, and is compact enough for use in an operating theatre. This will allow ‘intra-operative’ use, so that a surgeon will know whether the safety margin is correct while the patient is still on the operating table. It is hoped this new technology will significantly reduce breast cancer recurrence and avoid the cost and distress of repeat operations.
Development of a synthetic bioactivated membrane dressing
Scarring impacts many patients, for example by reducing movement of the limbs or even making people blind. Scars are also often unsightly, sometimes causing psychological problems. When wounds such as burns are treated, the main priority is to stop dehydration and infection; no dressings are designed to actively prevent scar formation.
A research group headed by Professors Ann Logan and Liam Grover at University of Birmingham has invented membrane technologies that can incorporate a molecule that is one of the body’s natural protections against scar formation, called Decorin. They have shown that this molecule, delivered from a membrane wound dressing, can stop formation of scars in the lab.
In this project, they will demonstrate that the new anti-scarring dressing is successful in both animals and humans. Importantly, they will make sure that the technology can be produced in large quantities that behave in a predictable way, so that it could be turned into a medical product and used in the clinic. The resulting medical product will help to improve the quality of life of many patients who have been injured in a way that would normally result in scarring. If this new dressing is successful in treating burns it could also be used in many other applications where scarring is a problem.
Tissue oxygen monitoring for detecting impending shock states and guiding therapy in the critically ill and those at high-risk
Complications frequently occur following trauma, infection and major surgery. This can lead to failure of organs (e.g. lung, kidney, gut) necessitating admission to intensive care for organ support. Mortality rates are high and long-term disability common in survivors.
Studies already show how early resuscitation of the circulation in these patients can considerably improve outcomes. Although it is possible to gauge how much blood the heart is pumping to the tissues (cardiac output) better bedside monitors are needed to assess if the cardiac output is actually adequate for perfusing the organs.
Patients who are unwell or undergoing major surgery routinely have a bladder catheter placed to drain urine. Dr Andy Obeid of Oxford Optronix Ltd, together with Professor Mervyn Singer at University College London, plan to use this catheter to co-insert a small, flexible fibre-optic based sensor to continuously monitor oxygen levels within the bladder wall. This device will indicate whether or not the local blood supply transporting oxygen to the bladder is indeed adequate and whether oxygen measurements from the bladder reflect the situation in other parts of the body.
Their aim is to assess whether this new technology provides an easy and readily applicable solution to monitoring tissue health during acute injury. This will pave the way for a further clinical investigation in which the circulation is optimised using the device to see if a reduction in post-trauma complications can be achieved.
Totally automated blood pressure monitoring at home to improve care of patients with Heart Failure or Pulmonary Hypertension
Many older people suffer from the long-term disabling illnesses of heart failure and/or pulmonary hypertension. The symptoms are shortage of breath and severely restricted walking range. Without medication, patients get progressively worse until the disease kills them. With medication - a combination of three types - the symptoms can be successfully alleviated. Both over-medication and under-medication can be medically dangerous and costly, either a waste of drugs, side effects or the patient requiring re-hospitalisation.
The vital measurement for controlling medication is pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) which currently can only be measured by catheterisation, involving a hospital procedure and some risk. Professor Chris McLeod and colleagues at Imperial College London have developed a tiny pressure sensor with which they propose to measure PAP. Once the device is placed securely within the artery, measurements can be made at any time by interrogating the sensor by radio from a pocket-sized reader. The reader will be permanently and wirelessly linked to the hospital.
Professor Tarassenko's research group at Oxford University will apply its extensive technical and clinical experience of real-time monitoring of patients in hospital and of the use of mobile-phone based telehealth to improve the management of chronic disease. Close control of the medication will be possible, leading to improved patient condition, slower progression of the disease and reduced re-hospitalisation. Measurement quality is guaranteed and measurements during normal activity will be better than current catheter-based measurements in a clinic or hospital bed. The patient will know that they have 24/7 care.
Real-time detection of the onset of secondary brain injury in the intensive care unit
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - a major cause of death and disability in all age groups, and the most important cause of these outcomes in working people, is now recognised as a ‘silent epidemic’ in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Central to TBI’s devastation is a delayed ‘secondary’ injury that occurs in 30% of TBI patients each year, while they are receiving Intensive Care. Currently, secondary injury is unpredictable, hence unpreventable.
This project, led by Dr Martyn Boutelle of Imperial College London, will deliver a new solution: a real-time Brain Injury Index. This will be produced with a new clinical instrument that will collect electrical and chemical signals from the injured brain, process them and for the first time derive clinically useful risk factors in real-time that will assist doctors with diagnosis and treatment.
The healthcare implications are important: The Brain Injury Index will show clinicians when secondary damage is starting and what is causing it. This will allow them to start the best treatment for that patient at the right time. The Brain Injury Index instrument will save lives, and reduce incidences of severe disability with its huge personal cost to patients and their families.
Surgical technology
Viability testing and transplantation of marginal livers
Liver transplantation is the only therapeutic option for patients with end-stage liver disease. There are two types of cadaver organ donors: donation following brain death (DBD) and donation following circulatory death (DCD). The latter are from patients with no prospect of recovery who have supportive treatment withdrawn. In DCD, the organs are exposed to an additional warm period without oxygen and so recipients have a higher risk of graft failure or complications. DBD donation is decreasing, so DCD organs are a vital source. However a significant number are rejected due to their poor condition.
Normothermic machine liver perfusion (NMLP) is a technique by which a liver is perfused with a combination of blood and other fluids at the body's normal temperature. It aims to mimic the environment that a liver experiences in the body. Professor Darius Mirza and colleagues at the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust have discovered a technique that uses NMLP to enable clinicians to test the viability or function of the organ before transplantation. This may reduce the risk of primary non-function for patients. This additional feature may also facilitate safer use of higher-risk organs. The key objectives of the research are to validate the protocol for viability testing of discarded donor livers, and increase the number of livers available for transplantation.
Characterisation of cell types obtained from mixed cell cultures of the human olfactory mucosa, for the application of central nerve repair
Spinal cord and root injuries are commonly due to road traffic accidents and can result in permanent paralysis with major physical, psychological and economic impacts. Although surgical repair of spinal root and cord injuries can restore some movement, patients seldom report good functional outcome.
Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are a promising cell candidate for nerve repair and can be obtained from the olfactory mucosa of the nose, where they normally induce repair of damaged olfactory nerve fibres for the sense of smell. They can be obtained by a simple biopsy of the olfactory mucosa using an endoscope.
Through funding from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, Mr David Choi and colleagues at UCL aim to better understand the cell quality attributes and final product formulation to ensure a robust, well-characterised cell product that is effective in laboratory assay systems and satisfies regulatory requirements. With this information the team can then proceed with production of cells for transplantation and plan to start a phase 1 clinical trial involving transplanting a patient's own OECs during the surgical repair of brachial plexus avulsion, within three years. Positive results would impact not only patients with brachial plexus injuries, but also patients with spinal cord injury or stroke.
Magnetic resonance guided ablation system for treatment of ventricular tachycardia
Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a form of cardiovascular disease where patients suffer from a dangerously fast heart rhythm. This results in a reduced pumping capacity of the main heart chambers, the ventricles, and is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death. The occurrence of VT is related to scar tissue formation in the heart muscle.
VT is treatable using minimally invasive surgery with ‘ablation’ technology. Treatment involves destroying the abnormal scarred regions of heart muscle, this is accomplished using a catheter to deliver energy at the treatment location. The current success rate is around 50%: as a result patients still frequently require a defibrillator (ICD), an expensive implanted device that shocks the patient back into a normal rhythm. These shocks are unpleasant and impact both patient quality of life and long term survival.
This study aims to use magnetic resonance imaging technology (MRI) to improve VT ablation accuracy by allowing direct visualisation of the scar that causes the VT. With improved ablation outcomes and higher success rates, fewer patients would receive frequent ICD shocks, and in the future it may even be possible to avoid implantation of an ICD altogether.
Professor Reza Razavi’s team at KCL have developed a prototype system for treating irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) inside an MRI scanner and have shown in a first-in-man study that it is possible to treat simple arrhythmias using the MRI images. Application of this technology to treat VT will enable a more detailed analysis of the cause of the VT, improved targeting of the treatment and more rigorous assessment of treatment results, greatly improving patient outcomes.
Bioactive nanofibrous sutures to enhance endogenous repair of rotator cuff rears
Rotator cuff tendon tears are very common and are found in around 15% of 60 year olds, 25% of 70 year olds and 30% of 80 year olds. Tendon tears often cause significant pain and loss of function and present a substantial and growing social and economic burden. Many patients are unable to work effectively due to their symptoms and pain which significantly disrupts their sleep is common. Unrepaired tears grow in size and very large tears are associated with joint failure and the development of secondary osteoarthritis. In patients with persistent symptoms surgical repair is commonly performed.
Professor Andrew Carr at the University of Oxford is developing is a novel suture material (Bioyarn) that is designed to stimulate repair when in contact with the torn and damaged tissue. Bioyarn is constructed of biodegradable electrospun polymeric nanofibres and is designed and manufactured to mimic the architecture of normal tendons. Studies have demonstrated that the new material stimulates cell growth and new tissue formation, and has a good safety profile. The aim is to further evaluate the technology and undertake a clinical study in humans to examine how effective the Bioyarn technology is at increasing the success of rotator cuff tendon repairs.
Image-guided neurosurgical treatment of epilepsy
At University College London, teams led by Professor John Duncan and Professor Sebastien Ourselin have developed software to visualise the whole range of 3D brain imaging, including normal architecture, abnormalities of structure and function, arteries, veins, critical brain areas and nerve pathways, and the skull. This increases the safety and precision of implantation of the electrodes necessary to pinpoint the brain tissue that needs to be removed to cure the epilepsy.
Note this is a HICF award but funded solely by the Trust as a Translation Fund project.
Micro-IGES – Microscopic Image Guided Endoluminal Surgery
The current surgical technique for removing cancer from the body is generally effective, however it carries a significant risk to patients during surgery and long-term post-operative problems such as chronic pain, disfigurement and poor quality of life.
Early stage cancer within a lumen, such as the colon, and precancerous polyps, can be removed endoscopically, thus avoiding the need to make a large incision on the body and potentially the creation of an artificial opening from the colon through the abdominal wall (colostomy). However, with the current instrumentation design, even tumours close to the external orifices of the bowel are difficult to remove with absolute certainty of completion.
A project team led by Professor Guang Zhong Yang and Professor Ara Darzi at Imperial college are developing a robotic surgical device to facilitate tumour removal without the need for invasive surgery. Micro-IGES provides a novel microscopic surgical platform with a greater degree of precision and accuracy through integrated sensing, probe-based microscopic imaging and robotically assisted intra-operative guidance. The platform will be evaluated in both in-vivo animal models and human clinical studies.
Perfecting soft tissue attachment interface to an osseointegrated transdermal implant to deliver a predictable and robust patient outcome
About 5000 new amputees each year are referred to limb fitting centres in the UK. Traditionally amputees attach their artificial limb using a socket that fits onto the limb stump. Often attachment is cumbersome, uncomfortable and restricts daily activities.
In addition, the stump does not effectively transmit load and control movement. This causes tissue problems, which means that patients must frequently visit clinic and sometimes the artificial limb is not used due to discomfort. These long-term problems are a burden on the NHS and reduce amputees' quality of life.
The ITAP system being developed by Paul Unwin and colleagues at Stanmore Implants Worldwide Ltd uses an implant attached to the bone that projects through the skin, to which the artificial limb is easily attached. This arrangement transmits load through the skeleton, which is how loads are naturally transferred. The success of the ITAP implant is reliant on the integration of the skin around the implant to create a seal to prevent infection. The objective of this programme is an implant that provides patients with an effective solution for the attachment of artificial limbs.
SmartTarget: Image-guided diagnosis and treatment of localised prostate cancer
In current practice, the prostate cancer pathway is often compromised by lack of information on tumour location. This leads to ‘blind’ biopsies causing under-diagnosis of clinically important cancer, over-diagnosis of clinically unimportant cancers and poor risk-stratification. As a result, once diagnosed men usually undergo whole-gland treatments that confer significant rates of incontinence, impotence and rectal toxicity due to collateral tissue damage.
Research led by Professor Mark Emberton and Dr Dean Barratt at University College London (UCL) seeks to rectify this situation. Their project proposes to combine state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging with advanced image guidance technology so that doctors are provided with information on cancer location, shape, and size during surgical procedures. The aim is to transform prostate cancer care by enabling doctors to target clinically important cancers so that these are diagnosed more accurately.
The project focuses on developing a novel device called “SmartTarget” which will ensure that information on the location of cancer from medical imaging is at the centre of the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. The SmartTarget device will exploit magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can detect clinically important cancers more accurately, and translate information on cancer location, size and shape automatically into the surgical setting. The device aims to achieve this by presenting the doctor with a “picture” that combines information from MRI with information from ultrasound images that are widely used to guide the biopsy needle and treatment delivery. This will allow the doctor to identify and target the cancer on a computer screen in a similar way to a fighter pilot presented with a target on a head-up display.
Anticipated benefits of this technology include fewer biopsies and more accurate cancer diagnosis. The ability to implement a more selective treatment strategy will result in less harm and cost significantly less than current strategies which treat the whole prostate gland. The specific objectives of the project are to develop and test the prototype SmartTarget device on patients, to develop detailed plans to commercialise the device, and to introduce the technology within the NHS (and potentially other healthcare systems) within a 5 year period.
Smart laparoscopic liver resection: integrated image guidance and tissue discrimination
Liver cancers can be removed using key-hole surgery with less pain, tissue damage, and blood loss and faster recovery times than traditional open surgery. However few cancers are removed by this method because of the difficulty in identifying and dividing blood vessels within the liver using key-hole surgery techniques. In addition, the position of the tumour and major vessels in the liver alters during the surgery due to patient breathing and liver traction.
A research group headed by Professor Brian Davidson and Professor David Hawkes at University College London proposes to use the CT scan taken prior to surgery to identify the precise location of the cancer to the surrounding vessels and bile ducts and hence build a computer model of the liver for each individual patient. They will use this to monitor the position of the cancer and the major structures to the liver during the course of the key-hole surgery. This will be combined with a new method of detecting what kind of tissue is directly in front of the cutting instrument.
This system is likely to result in a significant increase in the proportion of patients who undergo liver resection using key-hole surgery. The system will be validated on pigs and then evaluated on at least 25 patients. The system developed will also be applicable to operations on the pancreas, kidney and gallbladder.
A new minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of corneal endothelial disease
The cornea is the transparent tissue at the front of the eye which allows light to reach the retina. If the cornea becomes cloudy, vision is impaired, a bit like looking through a frosted glass window.
Often the only treatment is a cornea transplant in which a surgeon removes the damaged cornea and replaces it with a donor cornea or part of a donor cornea. Often this has a good outcome, but the number of donor corneas available for surgery is limited, and risks such as infection or rejection remain.
Professor Andrew Quantock’s team at Cardiff University together with collaborators at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and Doshisha University in Japan plan to develop a new surgery for corneal cloudiness which is caused by diseased or damaged cells that line the inside of the cornea. Under local anaesthetic, they will very gently touch the front of the cornea for a few seconds with a new surgical device which very quickly freezes cells. In doing so the diseased endothelial cells at the back of the cornea are destroyed. The researchers will then apply eye drops which will encourage healthy endothelial cells to grow and repopulate the inside of the cornea. In this way the cornea can become healthy and clear again.
Topical delivery of Ranibizumab for non-invasive treatment of retinal disease
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness, affecting 30-50 million people worldwide, with a rising incidence due to the rapidly increasing ageing population.
Current treatments – of which Ranibizumab is the most frequently prescribed – involve monthly injections into the eye to block a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) which is responsible for new blood vessel formation. The injections require specialist administration at clinics and cost £85 million per year in the UK which is a high burden for the NHS. There is a clear, unmet need for anti-VEGF treatments to be non-invasive, easy to administer and less expensive.
Professor Francesca Cordeiro and her team at University College London have developed a formulation that can be used to replace monthly hospital-administered intraocular anti-VEGF injections with daily self-administered eye drops. This project aims to optimise the formulation for Ranibizumab, develop its manufacturing process, and assess its safety and tolerability to enable it to be tested in first-in-man clinical trials. If successful, the Ranibizumab eye-drop will lead to widespread treatment programmes that have the potential to reduce the burden of AMD on the individual and society by changing the way treatment is delivered. |
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Intro to Analysis (Boundedness of Cauchy)
1. Mar 5, 2012 #1
Prove the Boundedness Theorem for Cauchy Sequences by a contrapositive argument.
2. Relevant equations
3. The attempt at a solution
If {an} is not bounded then {an} is not a cauchy sequence.
We will prove that {an} is not a cauchy sequence by showing that there exists an ε>0 so that for every pos. int. N there exists an n,m>N so that abs(an-am)≥ε.
Set ε=1
Consider positive N arbitrary.
Since by hypothesis {an} is not bounded to mean for every B there exists an n so that abs(an)>B. Choose such an n.
This is where I am stuck, how do I find/choose an m? Also how do I get the inequalities to work out at the end?
2. jcsd
3. Mar 6, 2012 #2
The same way you found n. You know that {a_n} is unbounded, so for any B, there exists something greater than it, right? well, what about a_n? Shouldn't there be something greater than a_n?
Also, look at some consequences of the triangle inequality.
4. Mar 6, 2012 #3
Alright I am following what you are saying but get stuck at:
abs(an-am) ≥ abs(an) - abs(am)
Then I do not know how to make it bigger than one.
5. Mar 6, 2012 #4
So take a peek at the reverse triangle inequality. There's another one, like you have, but a little different.
But if we know that we can some large a_n, well, since {a_n} is unbounded, there exists some |a_m| > |a_n|, right? Then certainly there's some |a_m| > |a_n| + 1?
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On This Day (1995) O.J. Simpson was Acquitted of Murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
By JonathanMcCorkell
Oct. 03, 2016
On October 3, 1995, more than 100 million people nationwide tuned in to watch or listen to the not guilty verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles.
In June, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson was wanted by the LAPD and after failing to turn himself in, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV that interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals. The pursuit, arrest, and trial were among the most widely publicized events in American history. The trial was often characterized as the Trial of the Century and millions of people watched the coverage obsessively.
Immediate reaction to the verdict was notable for its division along racial lines: a poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African-Americans there felt that justice had been served by the "not guilty" verdict, while the majority of whites and Latinos there expressed an opinion that it had not,
On February 5, 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, unanimously found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman, and battery against Brown. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages.
The murdered of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman has never been found and O.J. Simpson is serving prison time on an unrelated criminal convictions for kidnapping armed robbery in Nevada. |
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Philosophy is also one of the principals in this teaching.
However, there are some differences. One of them is the Psychology thought in regular schools, we can call it Official Psychology it considers only one Ego. Sometimes such Ego is subdivided, however, for this purposes there is only one Ego. In the case of these studies it is considered that there are many egos. The human being is accessed and possessed by innumerous egos.
Also, there is a difference between Objectivity and Subjectivity. For these Studies all that is perennial, forever, during several lives, and normally abstract is Objectivity. This is like love, God, and so on. Therefore, it is Subjectivity for these study matters that cannot last forever. Please keep in mind what we said before the 360 grades, several dimensions, and so on.
So, what is objectivity for these studies is subjectivity for the Official Science and the Official Psychology too.
Indeed, these Studies consider as Plato said that “it is possible to go from known to unknown”. Therefore, Aristotlean logic going only from known to known is part of the Sensual Mind, being subjectivity logic.
“Nosce Te Ipsum”. “Man Know Thyself and you will know the universe and its Gods”. This is an ancient golden proverb written on the invincible walls of the temple at Delphi in ancient Greece .
Gnostic Philosophy is a “Philosophia Perennis et Universalis”. The Gnostic Anthropology is a Psychoanalytical Anthropology. This is the extraction the content of archaeological remains like pyramids, tombs, steles, holy books, papyri, Mexican codices, Assyrian bricks, Dead Sea Scrolls, millenary sepulchers, ancient temples, sacred monoliths, and so many other symbols.
“There’s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. W. Shakespeare
From the Book the Secret Doctrine of Anahuac of Dr Samael it is following extract. Magnifica Animan Mean! “Your destiny, dear reader, will never be as that of other mortals if, after having deeply studied this book, you practice the methods or systems taught here in order to awaken your consciousness. Indeed, to support what I wrote here, I could use widely known medieval manuscripts, which can be found in many places”. |
Saturday, May 26, 2012
5 Things Your Nails Say About Your Health
Most of us take nails for granted. Nails are hardly world record worthy but in reality they actually play a quite significant role. Our nails are made up of layers called keratin. Finger nails grow about 2-3 millimeters per month while toe nails grow 1 millimeter every month.
The following are 5 things that your nails tell about your health:
1. Undiagnosed Disease
Always keep your nails clean and watch out for changes. This is because warning signs of undetected diseases can show up in your nail discoloration, detachment, clubbing, pitting and lines may indicate serious condition.
Nail Discoloration is frequently nothing more than stain from polish, but it can sometimes hint at disease. There's an array of nail color to watch for white may suggest liver disease: half white, half pink may signal kidney disease and red may mean heart disease. Yellow, thick, slow - growing nails that may detach from the nail bed are an indicator of lung diseases. Lung disease causes low oxygen level in your blood which can lead to clubbing-enlarged fingertips and nails that begin to curve around them. Pitting, tiny dents in the nail plate, is common in psoriasis sufferers and is first seen in the nails in about 10% of psoriasis patients. Pitting can lead to crumbling, splitting nails and damaged cuticles.
Additionally, there are many types of lines that can form in or under your nails. Irregular red lines at the nail base suggest lupus melanoma appears as dark lines underneath the nail.
Changes to nails, aren't the only warning signs to underlying disease but can provide clues to your overall health. As part of your annual physical, ask your doctor to take a look at them, just in case.
2. Infection
Painful, red and itchy skin around your nail is a big clue that something's not right. Just like other parts of your body finger nail and toe nails are also prone to infection. These infections are usually caused by fungus, bacteria and viral warts. Fungus is extremely hard to treat, thus see a doctor for medicine and expect to see results only after you nails have gone through complete growth cycle. Bacterial Infections mostly target the skin under and around the nails. This can cause nail loss if left untreated. Skin viruses can cause warts around and under the nail, which doctor can freeze off or chemically remove them. Always clean your nail gentle and properly and buy your own manicure tools to avoid the spread of bacteria from person to person.
3. InjuryAccidents and injuries to your nails do happen if you unintentionally caught a finger in a door or dropped something heavily onto your toe. Mild injuries to nail will cause a small white spots (leukonychia) in the nail plate. These spots grow as your nail grows and you eventually will clip off the damaged part. More severe injuries will cause dark spots (onycholysis), nail detachment and splinter hemorrhages. Splinter hemorrhages are broken blood vessels that look like reddish-brown lines under the nail. These changes are also symptoms to serious medical conditions such as infection, allergic, psoriasis and even melanoma. So if you're seeing the symptoms even though you haven't injured your nail you should see the doctor.
4. Anxiety and StressMost people bite their finger nail due to anxiety. If you're a nail-bitter you are not alone. Nail-biting is a hard habit to quit, but most people able to give it up by the age of 30. Like fidgeting and thumb-sucking, nail-biting is also a nervous habit. We usually bite our nails when we are nervous or bored. Mild nail-biting doesn't cause much damage to your hands besides leaving them looking unkempt and bloody. This could also cause you to be more prone to infections in your fingernails and your mouth. Frequent visits to the manicure will keep your fingernails clean and prevents you from gnawing them. Nail-biting could also indicate compulsive disorders and this requires behavior therapy. If you're biting your fingernails and was accompanied by hair-pulling, you'll need a doctor to consult with.
5. Nutritional Deficiencies
First of all, you are want you eat. Your inner beauty will reflect your beauty on the outside. Healthy food choices rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lean protein and iron are essential for healthy skin, hair and nails. Nails are known for their ability to reflect nutritional deficiencies such as low levels of iron, biotin and protein. For example if have anemia your nail beds will be looking pale and whitish. Most nail problems aren't associated with nutritional problems but if have iron deficiencies your nail will show the symptom.
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Comments on a cultural reality between past and future.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Painting of Snowy Owl (1996) © Kim Hunter.
Birdwatchers in the UK report unusual flocks of Arctic Kumlien's Gulls, Ross's Gulls and Iceland Gulls - all are high Arctic species - flying south: "This [Ross Gull sighting] comes on top of one of the largest influxes of Kumlien's and Iceland Gulls ever known in the region, including no less than 83 individuals in Stornoway Harbour on Lewis (Outer Hebrides) alone."
Puffins have also been surprising bird-watchers in places slightly further south than usual, although not in huge numbers. Several reports from Montreal suggested that one Puffin had become seriously disoriented: Montreal, Canada. Puffins spotted: in Suffolk, UK; in Essex, UK, also here; and Boundary Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Another Arctic bird species that has some unusual information concerning it this year is the Snow Bunting. The Canadian blogger at Ruthven Park Nature Blog, who monitors Snow Buntings, has been alarmed to find that he can barely find any Buntings where they would normally be at this time of year; he is writing from Ruthven Park, Ontario:
I don’t know any other way to put it: this season’s Snow Bunting banding has been a disaster. Consider the numbers: at this same date in 2010, we had banded 619 (total for the whole Winter – 985); at this date in 2011, we had banded 1,074 (Winter total – 2,844); so far this year we have banded only 33! And it’s not just us: David Lamble, who bands in the Fergus area and who banded just under 7,000 last Winter, has banded only 200 so far this season. So what’s going on?
The blogger, Rick L., hit upon something strange and explained it all thanks to Earth Labs (a collaboration between the Center for Science Teaching and Learning at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.)
2012: an extreme positive Arctic oscillation. Image Source: Wiki.
2012 is an abnormally mild winter, a result of a record shift in Arctic air pressure. This winter features an extreme positive Arctic oscillation, which follows on two previous winters that were extreme negative Arctic oscilations. What are Arctic oscillations? Very roughly, they are sort of an Arctic counterpart to El Niño. They involve the movement of air between the North Pole and areas to the south, propelled by changes in air pressure. When the air pressure in southern regions is higher, the oscilation is called 'positive' and results in warm air moving north (hence a milder winter across much of the northern hemisphere), with the really cold air concentrated in the far north. When the air pressure in the Arctic is higher, the oscilation is called 'negative' and cold air is distributed further south.
Thus, massive fluctuations in Arctic air pressure, possibly influenced by solar winds (see recent posts on unusually vibrant Arctic auroras here), are apparently affecting bird populations.
Huge shifts in Arctic air pressure, from negative in 2009-2011, followed by positive in 2012, the magnitude of which are also much higher than the previous 60 years. Image Source: Ruthven Park Nature Blog.
Meanwhile, the 2012ers and other doomsayers have taken the owl migration as an apocalyptic sign: here, here, here and here. One blog, The Celestial Convergence, sees the irruption as a precursor of disaster and some forum commenters think it has to do with Fukushima radiation. The only connection I can see with Fukushima (latest on its many leaks here) regards shifting weather patterns and the corresponding spread of radiation.
1. The actual explanation you've found is a lot more intelligent than the "oh it must be global warming" I get everywhere. -J
2. Thank you, although I am not sure why a warmer winter would lead to some species leaving the tundra (owls and arctic gulls) while others not (buntings). I concluded it must be related to their food supply, which is something mentioned in the original report.
Also I wondered about changing wind currents and geo-magnetic shifts, which might additionally affect avian irruptions and migrations. As I said in an earlier post, Canada Geese were still leaving this area on **Christmas Eve** 2011. I have never seen that over the decades that I have spent the holidays here. I can't help feeling that the Arctic Owls are responding to a much larger phenomenon; I don't think global warming has anything to do with it - this was a sudden change from one year to the next. |
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Milky Way to Quarks : Powers of TEN
If we start from viewing the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth and go down by a factor of 10^-1 ( a tenth), how does the world look like in each step? Here is a very nicely programmed Java applet to answer this question. Please read the caption, while viewing the slides.
This is a quick view of a VERY BIG to a VERY SMALL world !
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(The US to the CRASH of 1929 – continued)
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The US to the CRASH of 1929 (7 of 10)
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The Ku Klux Klan and Others
Joining the move against big-city immorality was the Ku Klux Klan. In 1920, it had fewer than 5,000 members. In 1922, its membership reached 100,000. The Klan believed that it was on its way to cleaning up and saving America, and by 1925, its membership reached its all-time high, perhaps as many as 5 million. In 1925, an estimated 40,000 Klanspeople marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.
The Klan claimed that the Bible, the United States flag and the Constitution were their keystone principles. They believed that to be one hundred percent American one had to be white and Protestant. Klan-persons were hostile to Catholicism, blacks, Jews and foreigners-in-general. The Klan had its greatest appeal among the less educated and the poor, and largely people in small towns, the Midwest, the Southwest and the Far West – less in the deep South, where, in previous decades, enthusiasm for the Klan had diminished.
The Klan succeeded in dominating politics in Texas and Colorado, the Texas Klan led by a dentist, Hiram W. Evans. Oregon elected a Klan governor, Walter Pierce. The Klan in Oklahoma controlled the state legislature, and it succeeded in impeaching the state's anti-Klan governor, J.C. Walton. The Klan reached its greatest power in Indiana, where its leader, David Stephenson, won control over the state's Republican Party and made one of his men, Ed Jackson, governor. Stephenson commanded the Klan in the Midwest, and he spoke against petting parties and other forms of what he called vice.
In Birmingham, Alabama, a Klansman murdered a Catholic priest – but was acquitted. The Klan's image was tarnished by this act, by church burnings and by the blowing up homes, beatings. The Klan began to lose a substantial portion of its support as it became involved in more scandals. In Indiana, Grand Dragon Stephenson fell into ill repute after he brutally assaulted a 28 year-old female secretary. She took poison. Henchmen held her incommunicado in a hotel without medical attention, and she died. In 1925, Stephenson was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. His former friend, Ed Jackson, the governor of Indiana, refused to pardon him. In retaliation, Stephenson made public information that sent a congressman, the mayor of Indianapolis and other officials to jail and that resulted in an indictment against Governor Jackson for bribery.
More Intolerance
Many in the US were with the Klan in their opposition to the "melting pot" and in seeing interbreeding as weakening their race. Chinese were still being referred to as heathens. Many still viewed the Jews as collectively guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Anti-Semitism had flared with the Red Scare in 1919, Jews seen as having been prominent in the Bolshevik revolution and Jews having been at the forefront in labor struggles in the United States. White Protestants had dominated the entertainment industry before the decade, but, in the twenties Jews had become prominent, giving entertainment a new variety and vitality – among them the popular singer, Al Jolson. And Jews had started the studio system in motion pictures in Hollywood, with some people complaining the Jewish money in the movie industry was subverting Christian family morality.
Henry Ford ran for US Senator in Michigan and lost, and he blamed his loss on the intrigues of Jews and Jewish capitalism. He blamed the failure of his peace mission during the war on Jews. In 1919, he had bought the Dearborn Independent and had begun slandering Jews and publishing the notoriously anti-Semitic distortions called the "Protocols of Zion."
Jews were advancing into the middle-class. More Jews were becoming doctors, dentists and entering other professions that required an education. Jews protested against the rising tide of anti-Semitism, especially the admissions quotas at universities. Enrollment by Jews at universities had been disproportionately high, and in the twenties hostility toward Jews was widespread at some of the nation's best universities. The president of Harvard University, A. Lawrence Lowell, suggested limiting Jewish enrollment. The Board of Governors of Harvard's alumni shared his view. They were opposed to socializing with Jews. So too were many Harvard students, who declined an invitation to a speech by a Harvard law school professor, Felix Frankfurter, because he was a Jew. Harvard limited enrollment of Jewish students, which inspired other universities to do the same. Among them were Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Rutgers, Barnard, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern Pennsylvania State and Ohio State University. At Syracuse Universit, Jews were excluded from most social organizations. At Ohio State University, female dormitories segregated Jewish and gentile students. At universities in Michigan and Nebraska, gentile students were advised against associating with male Jewish students.
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Home : Torah Online : Parsha : Metzora : 5768
Parshat Metzora (5768)
This week's Torah portion contains the strange, extinct laws of "House Leprosy'. As we mentioned last week Tzoraat (loosely translated as 'leprosy'.) is a Torah disease caused by haughtiness and malicious talk whose ugly symptoms appear on the skin, the garments or even house of the offender!
But here it doesn't seem so bad. G-d tells the Jews: "And when you enter the land of Canaan that I give to you as a possession …. I will put the plague of Tzoraat in the houses etc." (Lev. 14:34)
According to the commentary of Rashi, when the Amorites heard the Jews were coming to drive them out of Israel they hid their valuables in their walls hoping to reclaim it when the Jews would get evicted themselves because of their sins (see Lev. Raba 17:6).
But man plans and G-d laughs; G-d put 'Tzoraat in the Amorite's houses so when their walls were torn down (one of the laws of 'house leprosy') the Jews would claim the hidden treasures.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe asks several questions on this. First; how did the Amorites know the Jews would conquer the land? Maybe not? Second, there were several nationalities in Canaan, why did only the Amorites hide their valuables and why were only their homes affected with Tzoraat? And finally, what does this teach us today when there is no Tzoraat?
To answer this, here is a story about the second Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rebbe DovBer (who was born some 200 years ago and passed away on the same date he was born only 54 years later).
He was an awesomely holy person who knew every book of the Torah by heart, But he visibly lived much more in the spiritual realms than in the physical. For instance; there were times that during his morning prayers or when he publicly spoke a Chassidic discourse, he would be totally oblivious to the world or even any bodily sensations for hours on end. Indeed once he spoke to his Chassidim for some thirteen hours straight about the loftiest mystical subjects without taking a break.
But he also had unusual 'worldly' customs. For instance, he encouraged the more musically inclined Chassidim to form a musical entourage that sang and played instruments before him when he desired. And even stranger, he encouraged others to ride horses and do various tricks to accompany the music. And regularly he would order a performance, stand in his office and view the entire show though his open window.
Now, usually this entertainment was reserved for holidays like Purim, Chanukah or the Chassidic holiday of 19th of Kislev (when the first Chabad Rebbe was released from certain death in Czarist imprisonment) and the Chassidim would practice and look forward to these holidays with extra optimism.
[The Rebbe explained that because he was an extremely serious person he needed an 'additional lift' to do his job as a Rebbe helping Jews and "Joy sweetens the bitterest situations".]
But it so happened that once the Rebbe sent out word that he wanted the 'Circus' to take place immediately… on an ordinary weekday!
Surprise!! In no time the musicians and equestrians were there, arranging themselves outside the Rebbe's window waiting for the sign while the other Chassidim, dressed in their best clothes, full of wonder and apprehension, tried to find places around the yard to see the sight. Sure enough, the Rebbe appeared at his window, gave the signal and the show began.
The music began blaring, the Choir sang and the riders galloped and jumped and everyone was smiling! It was marvelous, just like a holiday. Everyone was involved in the action they forgot it was a weekday; it was a joyous sight to see!
Suddenly one of the horses stumbled. The crowd gasped, women screamed as his rider was tossed high in the air and fell with a thud under the hooves of the other horses! It was complete confusion! But … oh no!! In the dust and noise another horse also fell with a sickening blow....on top of the helpless rider lying on the ground! People were screaming, pandemonium … it looked very serious; he was clearly unconscious.
But imagine the horror when it became clear that the fallen rider was none other than Nachum....the Rebbe's own beloved son!
He had been one of the more talented riders but now … this!! If he was alive at all, which was very improbable, he certainly was in very critical condition.
There was nothing anyone could do! It looked lost! The eyes of the crowd turned to the Rebbe, two Chassidim ran to him perhaps to comfort him, perhaps for orders, but the Rebbe seemed completely calm and simply signaled that the performance should… Continue!
The performers could not understand but they complied. Two burly fellows dragged the Rebbe's son off to a side and the singing, music and horses began again… nothing was missing. The Rebbe even raised his hand several times indicating that music and joy should be no less than before.
Then, when things were going full steam again the Rebbe turned from the window and went back to his room.
Meanwhile a doctor had been called and a crowd gathered around him as he began to check the boy.
But to everyone's amazement he scratched his head in wonder, turned to the immediate family, shrugged his shouders and declared that except for a broken leg the boy seemed to be completely healthy!
In fact after he rubbed some ointment and applying a compress or two to the broken leg, the boy was able to stand on his own power and limp home … almost completely on his own.
After several days the Chassidim and the Rebbe's family couldn't hold themselves back. They were amazed at the miracle but were also curious; why did the Rebbe insist on continuing the festivities when he saw his son's condition?
The Rebbe answered, "Why don't you ask why I made the performance on a regular weekday in the first place? Doesn't that surprise you?
"Well, I'll explain." He continued.
"The fact is, I saw that misfortune and severity were decreed from heaven for my son Nachum on that day. I knew that something terrible was about to happen to him.
"So that is why I called for the celebration; because joy (and only joy) has the power to counteract even the worst heavenly decrees.
"And it worked! That is why when he fell and the horse fell on him he did not die, G-d forbid; the joy saved him. But when I saw that the fall left him in critical condition I told everyone to resume the celebration… against everyone's natural feelings (including my own) and the joy cured that also.
"His broken leg is just a trace of what could have happened.. and G-d willing, if we continue the joy and optimism, that will also pass. (Otzer Sipurei Chabad vol 16 pg 55)
This answers our questions.
The word 'Amor' in Hebrew means "To speak". The Amorites represent the evil trait of malicious speech; the opposite of what man was designed for. Namely, just as G-d 'spoke' (and speaks) to create the world anew every instant, so man is 'created in G-d's image' to say positive and constructive things and improve the world constantly.
Therefore the Amorites were the only nation mentioned in G-d's covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Canaan: "The fourth generation (in Egypt) will return to Israel when the sin of the AMORITES will end"(Gen. 15:16). Because they were the worst of all the races inhabiting Canaan and they knew it. That is why G-d put Tzoraat, the punishment for evil speech, only in their homes
They also knew of G-d's promise to Abraham, but their evil pessimistic nature made them sure that the Jews couldn't change: that they would sin just like all the other nations.
But they were wrong. And it made the Jews rich.
This is the lesson for us today
Curses can be blessings in disguise. But the only the way to find out and claim the blessings is through joy.
Joy breaks barriers, changes the world for the good and transforms a dead past to a live and flowing future. We only have to believe that G-d wants us to (and gives us the power to) effect this change in ourselves and the world around us. And, of course, we must force ourselves (if necessary) to be happy.
And we have a LOT to be happy for: That we are alive, that we can improve the world with just one good word (or even thought), that G-d is giving us power and energy constantly to do so. But, most important, we should be happy that we are living in the generation of Moshiach and before we know it all the walls, diseases, plagues and misfortunes will be transformed into joyous treasures with....
Moshiach NOW!!
(5760- )
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©2011 by Deborah Beasley ACPI CCPF
How to handle toddler temper tantrums has always been a hot topic among parents and experts. Kicking feet and flailing arms can fray a parent’s nerves and flip the balance of your day topsy-turvy. When you are standing in line at the super market and your toddler is throwing a royal fit over a piece of candy you want a solution that best meets the needs of the whole child. Don’t lose your cool!
Here are three ways to successfully meet the emotional needs of your toddler, model internal self-regulation, and transform those terrible tantrums.
1. Transform tantrums by being attentive to your toddler’s needs.
Your toddler’s strong reaction is the measure of his internal frustration or confusion over whatever is happening to him. These reactions are common toddler behaviors. He needs your attention and gets it the only way he knows how.
Attention seeking behaviors at this age are never about cognitive pre-planning; rather, all behaviors come from underlying unmet needs. Gaining a better understanding of what your child really needs will help you address the problem appropriately and restore his sense of feeling safe and cared for once again.
ACTION: Ask yourself what is driving the behavior? Finding the unmet need is the first step to filling it. Is your child tired, hungry, and overwhelmed by the tantalizing sights and sounds of the supermarket, playground, or other environment? It’s easy for little minds and bodies to confuse being tired with being hungry. Adults do that all the time. The sweet red taffy just beyond his reach has now pushed him beyond his level of tolerance.
2. Transform tantrums by calmly acknowledging your child’s feelings.
Toddlers do not have the ability to accurately verbally express how they feel and often will let you know through their emotional upset and crying.
ACTION: You can hep diffuse difficult behavior by ‘describing’ or ‘naming’ what your toddler is feeling. This action will let your toddler know you care about what he feels and you are capable of helping him feel better about it.
EXAMPLE: “I see how upset you are because you want the candy so much.”
Or, “I can see how angry you are right now. I understand how hard this is for you not to have candy.”
Or, “Wow, this is a noisy place. I don’t thing you like all this noise right now. Help mommy finish shopping so we can go somewhere quiet and have fun.”
3. Transform tantrums by creating a positive response to a negative reaction.
It is more productive and effective to provide your child with choices of what she can do or have, instead of focusing on what you do not want her to do or have.
ACTION: Seperate the child from the cause of the upset while lending emotional support. This might mean heading down a different isle, redirecting her attention to something else, or, in extreme cases, leave your basket at the customer service desk while you and your child get some fresh air and a change of scenery. Always reassure your child they are going to be okay.
EXAMPLE: (Describing) “We have been out for a long time this morning, Sam.”
(Positive choice and outcome) “Pick out your favorite cereal so Mommy can get you home quickly and you can have your nap.”
(Reassurance) “Next time we won’t be so long.”
Points to Remember
* A toddler’s ability to regulate their emotional and impulsive reactions is experience limited. They are navigating their rapidly expanding world for the first time and can become easily overwhelmed and frustrated.
* The goal is to help your toddler master his internal and sometimes unruly emotions that lead to less than desirable behavioral displays. Your toddler will need a very patient caregiver to help her learn these lessons well.
How a toddler eventually internalizes self-regulation will depend upon the models they have available from a loving family, friends, pre-school or other caregivers to the community in which they live. All young children need nurturing guidance and lots of patience. Parents who respond to tantrums in calm, consistent, and positive ways meet deep emotional needs in their children. Meeting needs at this level secures your toddlers positive self-esteem.
Once you have mastered all these skills, parenting through the tween years should be a piece of cake! Or, will it? See you then. 🙂 |
What Kids Learn When They Don’t Learn About Patriarchy 2 comments
“Boys and girls are equals,” we tell kids, and then we send them to school to learn about presidents and emperors and generals and religious leaders and explorers and astronauts and civil rights activists and revolutionaries and judges and scientists and inventors and philosophers and composers and painters and sculptors and poets and novelists–almost all of whom were men. Of course kids can’t help but wonder how it is that men achieved so much and women so little. Did women try to accomplish great things as much as men but weren’t smart enough, talented enough, driven enough, strong enough, good enough? Or perhaps women were perfectly content to be wives and mothers because women are meant to raise sons and support husbands who do great, important things instead of doing great, important things themselves?
If we don’t teach kids the truth about our history, those are the type of conclusions they’ll draw. The truth, of course, is that for thousands of years, women were chattel. A girl was her father’s property from birth. When she reached a certain age, she was given or sold to another man in an arrangement called marriage. Her purpose in life was to serve her family (first her father’s, then her husband’s) and bear her husband’s–preferably male–children. She had no choice in the matter, and her owner/husband was socially and legally empowered to beat and rape her if she disobeyed his orders or attempted to resist his sexual advances. Even murder was often permissible, particularly if her husband could argue convincingly that she was an adulteress.
Unlike boys, girls were not raised to be individuals with interests and aspirations of their own. The goals of a woman’s father or husband became her goals. The traits valued in men–intellect, creativity, curiosity, leadership, courage, ambition, self-determination, individuality, independence, and so on–weren’t valued in women. A woman’s life revolved around serving her family–particularly its male members–and her value was in her sexual attractiveness and reproductive capacity. The “good woman” was obedient, nurturing, chaste, and above all, selfless. Women had no access to political power (including voting rights), higher education (go back far enough and most women were deprived of even an elementary education), the marketplace (outside of prostitution and a few low status, low pay positions), or the world of ideas (not only were women considered incapable of all but the most rudimentary logical and analytical reasoning, but depending on the time period, women who dared to challenge the status quo ran the risk of being shunned, killed, or institutionalized and lobotomized). A woman wasn’t able to sign contracts or own property because she was property. A crime against her was literally considered a crime against the man who owned her–her father if she was unmarried or her husband if she was married.
Until fairly recently, THAT–with minor variations for place, time, and social class–was women’s reality for most of recorded history. If a woman was very, very lucky, she had a father or husband who recognized her basic humanity and saw to it that she received an education, encouraged her interests, and nurtured her talents. Some of those women were responsible for amazing accomplishments: scientific breakthroughs, groundbreaking inventions, great art and literature. Yet they were aberrations. Not because most women were small-minded imbeciles who wanted nothing more out of life than to scrub floors, change diapers, and cater to their husband’s every whim, but because the patriarchy ensured that they never had even the remotest opportunity for self-realization or any accomplishment outside the realms of motherhood, physical attractiveness, and domestic service.
Unfortunately most people are blissfully unaware of this history. That becomes readily apparent every time a question such as “Why have all the great fill-in-the-blank throughout history been men?” or “Why have there been virtually no female fill-in-the-blank?” sparks an animated discussion in which all possibilities but the truth–the systematic oppression of women because they are female–are proposed as likely answers. Always popular as an explanation is gender essentialism. Men and women are just different, the argument goes, and most women lack(ed) the skill/intellect/desire/drive/character/strength/etc necessary to be a fill-in-the-blank. The fact that countless women have proven themselves every bit as capable as their male counterparts when given even half a chance (made possible by the women’s liberation movement, a.k.a. feminism) leaves the biological determinists cold. In their eyes, women succeeding in the traditionally masculine arena of fill-in-the-blank are forever aberrations, acting in opposition to their feminine nature.
Some, like well-known misogynist Bill Maher, argue that women can’t possibly be oppressed because they aren’t a minority group. Women are the majority of the population, so how can the male minority oppress them? Others concede that men have oppressed women, but claim that this is the natural and unalterable result of men’s greater physical size and strength.
Both arguments are wrong. It’s true that the most physically powerful man is stronger than the most physically powerful woman. It’s also true that the “average man” (whoever he is) is bigger and stronger than the “average woman.” So what? There are many women who are bigger and stronger than many men. And women could be far stronger than they usually are if it wasn’t for the patriarchal prescription that women’s bodies be as petite as possible. More important, though, is the fact that physical size and strength do not determine societal power, influence, and leadership for men, so why should they for women?
Throughout history, the most powerful men have very rarely been the biggest and strongest. Societies have generally not been led by hulking twenty-year-olds with arms the size of tree trunks. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, for thousands of years, human beings have used weapons that greatly or entirely neutralize an opponent’s size and strength advantage. But most importantly, brains–not brawn–have been key to human survival and success. Even on the battlefield, combatants were expendable and easily replaced, but the loss of a brilliant strategist or tactician could spell disaster.
Women’s oppression is not the “natural” consequence of physical or psychological inferiority but the intended result of the patriarchal system that stripped them of rights and made them the property of the men they were attached to. Once a class of people has been systematically disempowered, they can’t simply break free and assert themselves against the oppressor–not even if they’re physically stronger or intellectually superior or greater in numbers than the oppressor group. Under South Africa’s apartheid regime, black South Africans outnumbered their white oppressors almost 7-to-1, but disenfranchised and stripped of most civil rights, individuals were powerless to fight the system. Those who tried were killed or jailed. It took massive outside pressure, including economic boycotts, to topple the regime.
Even if a woman managed to run away from her family, where would she go? How would she survive? And of course it wasn’t just boys who were taught to believe in male supremacy and dominance. Girls were taught from birth that men were destined to rule and women were destined to serve and have babies. And with men’s invention of the three major patriarchal religions during the last few thousand years, it was no longer just men saying these things; it was now God the Creator (another dude of course) himself who insisted that women submit to their husbands and never be in a position of authority over men.
Fear of offending religious sensibilities probably plays a big role in our failure to teach kids about the history of patriarchy and women’s oppression. There’s also the fact that patriarchy isn’t exactly history. While feminism has succeeded in eliminating most (though not all) of the laws overtly discriminating against women, culture and attitudes are harder to change. For instance, although men in the US lost the legal right to rape their wives almost twenty years ago, marital rape prosecutions remain extremely rare. And while sex-based pay discrimination was outlawed nearly half a century ago, women working full-time still make only 78% of what men make on average. Laws no longer restrict women’s ability to move freely about the community, but the ever-present threat of male violence against women fulfills the same purpose. And while we now tell little girls that they can grow up to be anything they want to be, the message they get from our culture is that women are valued above all else (and often to the exclusion of all else) for their looks and sexuality.
Clearly we still have a long way to go, but we won’t get there if we fail to teach kids the real history of women’s oppression. If kids aren’t told why almost every great leader, explorer, inventor, thinker, and artist they learn about is a man, we can’t be surprised when they grow up to espouse male supremacist and gender essentialist views.
2 responses to “What Kids Learn When They Don’t Learn About Patriarchy
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1. Well said.
Schools go to great lengths to teach kids about the civil rights movement, and the history of oppression which necessitated it. Yet we don’t seem to do the same when it comes to patriarchy and women’s liberation.
Ask any 4th grader what Harriet Tubman did for her race, and you’ll get an answer. Ask what she did for her gender, and you’ll get a blank stare.
2. Excellent post. I think guys like Bill Maher derive their sexism (not their misogyny–that’s a whole different thing that arises from I-have-no-clue-where) from the same place that I used to get some of mine from when I was a little kid.
Part of of it was exactly what you said–even tho I always liked girls and respected women, including strong women (probably because my mother always worked and was on equal footing with my father in our household)–I just kinda soaked in the whole “girls are different and boys are naturally superior” from the surrounding culture.
And the rest was because I was always the smallest kid in my class and a little behind my elementary school peers athletically, and this was a *very* traditionalist area of the country that placed great store in boys’ atheltic ability, I took comfort in the fact that “at least I’m better than the girls.” Most of the girls being significantly better than me at all the games and races and such (and a few being as good as any of the more athletic guys) notwithstanding.
Unfortunately, I don’t think guys like Maher ever outgrew that prepubescent stage. I confess to some lingering sexism even into my early 20’s, tho it started disappearing long before that, even before I was exposed to any feminist literature, and I was basically already a feminist without knowing it even thought of “feminists” as being typified by the “in Living Color” character “Angry Woman.”
OTOH, my best male friend in high school and one of my best friends throughout college, while he also was never remotely a misogynist and had as many female friends as well, also picked up the sexism and didn’t throw it off so much. He actually used to make exactly the same arguments you mentioned above when arguing with me and with his girl friends (and later with the girlfriend who wound up marrying him), “where are all the women leaders throughout history?” to “prove” the truth of the biblical injunction about men being the head of the household and why women shouldn’t be leaders over men. (he was a very fundamentalist southern baptist, tho I feel compelled to point out, hard as it may be to believe while reading this, an exceptionally nice person as well).
Why did people like him and Maher never grow out of this? Because the culture reinforces it. Sure, there are elemetns in the culture that challenge it at the same time, and if you stop to think about it for very long it’s hard to see how anyone’ *can* hold on to those attitudes, but preconceptions die hard, and while there aren’t as many reinforcers in later life as in childhood, there don’t have to be–just enough to let people justify to themself that their opinion is right, and they don’t have to think “oh crap, I was wrong” on some level. There’s a strong psychological tendency to keep thinking what you’re thinking, so those early years are *really* important, and not enough is done later to counteract them.
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Why would anyone use a chemical weapon to make drugs? Money
AP News
Posted: Oct 07, 2016 6:09 AM
Why would anyone use a chemical weapon to make drugs? Money
SHANGHAI (AP) — This summer, carfentanil — one of the most potent opioids on the planet — hit the streets of North America. Many users who thought they were taking heroin actually injected or snorted a substance that has until recently been viewed as a chemical weapon . First responders pumped hundreds of dying, bluish people full of the antidote naloxone to try to make them breathe again.
Legally used as a tranquilizer for large animals like bears and elephants, carfentanil is so potent that an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person. How such a toxic substance made its way into global narcotics supply chains is a matter of economics, and desperation.
Carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, a related drug that increasingly has been mixed into narcotics such as heroin. But carfentanil is only slightly more expensive than fentanyl, and it can be cut into much larger volumes, creating stronger, cheaper highs.
"There's an advantage to the drug distributor: They make more money," said Russell Baer, a special agent at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington. Addicts, meanwhile, "want the best high at the cheapest price and they're willing to take whatever risks are involved," he said.
Carfentanil is typically sold as a powder. Mixing it poorly into other drugs can create lethal hotspots of concentrated carfentanil, presenting enormous risks for users.
Those concerned include drug users themselves. In online forums, much of the talk is about carfentanil as a threat, not a means to an epic high.
One user was so distressed when he received a package labeled carfentanil — a free sample from his supplier — that he asked for advice on Reddit on how to dispose of it safely. He worried that flushing it down the toilet "carried the risk of harming wildlife down the line."
"Honestly," wrote another, "the only use I could think of would be to kill people."
"Dealers are just starting to learn how to volumetrically dose these fentanyl POISON bags, but killing us in the process. We are their guinea pigs," wrote a third.
None of the posters responded to Associated Press requests for further comment. |
Upton Sinclair Biography
Although he published over 90 books throughout his 65-year literary career, and his novel Dragon's Teeth won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Upton Sinclair is best known for his controversial and often misunderstood novel The Jungle. Sinclair's primary interest was in social change, and his concern for social and moral improvement dominated his prolific writings: Sinclair's novels, plays, pamphlets, and articles reflected social themes.
The honors and output would seemingly have assured Sinclair a favorable place in American literary history; however, this is not the case. Although he was extremely popular during his day, critics focused on his political ideology and did not embrace his work as receptively as the general reading public did. Historically, his peers, such as Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, and fellow socialist Jack London, tended to be the critical favorites, whereas Sinclair's works were often routinely dismissed. Today, The Jungle is the only one of his works that is widely read. The pendulum of perception continually shifts, however, and Sinclair's work is slowly creeping back into favor with contemporary critics. Contemporary scholars look beyond his political agenda when analyzing his literary efforts.
Personal Background
He was born Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, into a relatively poor family, although his mother's family had money. Because his father's financial failures mixed with his mother's affluent family, Sinclair was able to experience two diverse lifestyles. As his father continued to face hardships, he succumbed to the temptation of liquor. Sinclair's distaste for alcohol is apparent in many of his works, including The Jungle.
When Sinclair was 10, he moved to New York City. An advanced student and gifted writer, at 14 he entered the College of the City of New York (though called a college, it was closer to a high school) and supported himself by writing routine and often dull novels (called hack or pulp fiction) for popular magazines. Under various pseudonyms he wrote stories for boys' magazines, too. Sinclair saw himself, at this time, as a poet, embracing Jesus, Hamlet, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
While in New York, Sinclair developed his passion for moral and social justice through his relationship with Reverend W.W. Moir, an Episcopalian minister who was a strong influence during Sinclair's adolescent years. Sinclair admired Moir's abandonment of familial wealth for the clergy, and Moir served as a father figure for Sinclair. The relationship, mixed with Sinclair's study of what he considered conflicting messages in official church teachings, resulted in Sinclair's lifelong following of the moral teachings of Jesus while having little use for organized religion. He earned his B.A. from City College of New York in 1897 and subsequently entered a graduate program at Columbia University.
Literary Career
In 1900, Sinclair left his graduate program to write a poetic novel, and later that year married Meta Fuller. This novel, Springtime and Harvest (later published as King Midas) was published a year later, the same year his first son, David was born. During the next three years, he continued writing pulp fiction and worked as a journalist to support his family. These jobs, combined with his interest in socialism, conflicted with his desire to be a poet. Sinclair wanted to use words and language to express universal ideals and truths, but instead he found himself using words and language to amuse, entertain, and pay the bills. He recognized that the life of a poet was not always the life of practicality, but having a wife and son to support, Sinclair needed to be practical and abandoned the life of a poet.
The editor of Appeal to Reason, Fred D. Warren, read Manassas (1904), Sinclair's third novel, and commissioned Sinclair to write about the conditions of the Chicago stockyards for the Appeal, a weekly socialist newspaper. After accepting the assignment, Sinclair lived in Chicago for nearly two months, studying the people and the working conditions of the industrial town. His observations became The Jungle, his next serious novel. After being published as a series in the Appeal, it took the work and financing of fellow socialist and author Jack London to get privately bound versions of the text printed. While Sinclair was publishing his book privately, five publishers rejected it based on content. Some wanted to print the book, provided that Sinclair delete some inflammatory and offensive passages. He refused. Eventually, Doubleday, Page and Company agreed to publish it, after verifying the basic truth of his allegations.
Throughout his career, Sinclair continued to write literature that depicted social issues: Oil! (1927) focused on the illegal leasing of oil reserves known as the Teapot Dome scandal and The Brass Check (1919) is a fictional account of his demonstration and subsequent arrest for speaking out against the 1914 coal mine strike. The extent of the prestige that Sinclair enjoyed during his lifetime is revealed in his 1960 collection of correspondence, My Lifetime in Letters. Included in the compilation are letters from Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Roosevelt, Jack London, H.L. Mencken, and Albert Einstein. Sinclair's career concluded with his final publication, The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair.
Political Background
The publication of The Jungle thrust Sinclair into the national limelight. For the first time in his career, a serious work of fiction made money for him. Sinclair's one major disappointment about his novel's reception was that The Jungle did not ignite the public into a frenzy over socialism.
Sinclair used his earnings to establish Helicon Hall, a commune for writers in Englewood, New Jersey. Helicon Hall was to be the epitome of cooperation, where people would live day to day looking out for the best interests of one another while simultaneously pursuing individual interests. Less than a year into its existence, Helicon burned to the ground, and Sinclair abandoned the project.
In 1908, Sinclair founded a socialist theatre to provide a site for the performance of plays with socialist messages, including his own. He continued to write a number of books, though none captured the fancy of the reading public and most were privately printed. His marriage, which was essentially a sham, continued to be a distraction to Sinclair's writing, and he tried to divorce his wife, but the courts refused his request, so Sinclair moved to Europe. The loss of Helicon Hall, combined with his inability to resolve his differences with his wife, pushed Sinclair harder to pursue a divorce. He later provided a fictional account of his marriage in the novel Love's Pilgrimage (1911). In Europe, he wrote two novels and finally received a divorce in1911 with little difficulty.
Sinclair married again in 1913; his bride was Mary Craig Kimbrough. The same year, he returned to the United States, continued to write, and remained politically active. In 1915, he moved to California where he continued his writing and attempted to establish a political career. In 1923, he founded the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He was the socialist candidate for one of California's seats in the House of Representatives in 1920. Two years later, on the same ticket, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to become a U.S. senator. Three times he ran for governor of California: 1926, 1930, and 1934. His most nearly successful attempt was the only time he ran on the democratic ticket (1934). His platform became known as the EPIC (End Poverty in California) plan. He had an early lead in the polls, but Sinclair had alienated himself from the powers in Hollywood because he criticized their methods and because he was seen as a communist. This prompted an organized effort by production studios, led by MGM Pictures, to defeat Sinclair.
Sinclair's switch from socialist to left-wing democrat was a gradual change. Before the United States' involvement in World War I, Sinclair alienated himself from many of his colleagues because, unlike most American socialists, he favored America's entry into the war, mostly because of the German occupation of France. Later he resigned from the Socialist Party when the official position became one of pacifism. His reaction to socialism mirrored his reaction to organized religion — belief in the ideals but not in the execution of those ideals.
Career Highlights
Sinclair's post-World War I period was a combination of an incredible outlay of writing as well as the aforementioned political activisim. In 1927, Oil! was published. Often considered his most effective piece of writing, Oil!, according to critics, illustrated a mark of maturity in Sinclair's writing. Just like the author, the protagonist of the novel rejected the ideals of World War I and was a religious cynic. Oil!, like the majority of Sinclair's fiction, currently is not widely available nor widely read.
During his lifetime, Sinclair received a more generous critical reception abroad than in his homeland. His work was translated into several languages and served, for many Europeans, as an information center about life in the United States. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, considered Sinclair one of the world's great novelists. In 1932, Sinclair was a finalist for the Nobel Prize in Literature, although he did not win the award.
Sinclair continued to print most of his novels privately until Viking Press published the Lanny Budd series in the 1940s and 1950s. This series was extremely popular and had a critical following, too. The most respected book in the series was Dragon's Teeth (1942), which chronicled the rise of Nazism in Germany and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The protagonist in the series — Lanny Budd — is the illegitimate son of a munitions tycoon and witnesses or figures in almost every crucial historical event in a 30-year period, a precursor to the Forrest Gump. Sinclair thought this series of literary history could serve as the texts for school children, but that did not occur.
Sinclair moved to Arizona in 1953 and continued to write. The following year his second wife died. Later that year he married his third wife, Mary Elizabeth Willis. After his wedding, Sinclair published The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair. Willis died in 1967, and on November 25, 1968, Sinclair died. For most of the latter part of the twentieth century, Sinclair was not widely read, primarily because literature with themes of social-change was not regarded as quality literature. Many critics felt that quality literature comments on the human condition but does not explicitly advocate change. That perception may be changing. But even if Upton Sinclair's reputation as an important and significant literary figure does not gain widespread acceptance, The Jungle will undoubtedly remain an American classic.
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At the end of The Jungle, Marija is working as a
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How successful was Wilson in elisting the forces of humanity to help child labores, farmers, and railroad and federal workers?U.S. History
Expert Answers
brettd eNotes educator| Certified Educator
Assuming you mean US progressive President Woodrow Wilson. while he was certainly a progressive, Wilson was also quite distracted during his two terms by a World War, and his desire for a permanent peace afterwards. On the domestic front, workers did make some gains, there were child labor laws put in place, a minimum wage (of sorts) established, but worker safety did not improve much, nor did unions make significant gains. In fact, Wilson allowed a backlash against communism during the First Red Scare that drug some union workers and leaders into the net of the Attorney General's office, wrongfully so. I don't give him very high marks. |
Administrative Expenses
What are 'Administrative Expenses'
Administrative expenses are the expenses that an organization incurs not directly tied to a specific function such as manufacturing, production or sales. These expenses are related to the organization as a whole as opposed to an individual department. Salaries of senior executives and costs of general services such as accounting are examples of administrative expenses.
BREAKING DOWN 'Administrative Expenses'
Administrative expenses are non-technical charges necessary for the basic operation of an entity. These expenses are vital for a company’s success as they occur to increase the efficiency of an organization. Centralized organizations typically have higher administrative expenses than decentralized organizations.
Nature of Administrative Expenses
Administrative expenses are typically fixed in nature as they incurred to be the foundation of business operations. These expenses would exist regardless of the level of sales that occur. Therefore, not many administrative expense are variable. Because they are fixed, they are often hard to reduce.
Expense Classification
Administrative expenses are frequently aggregated with general expenses. These two classifications of expenses make up the non-operating expenses of a business. This main group of expenses is often compared to the operating expenses which includes the cost of goods sold. Administrative expenses are listed on the income statement below cost of goods sold and may be shown as an aggregate with other expenses such as general or selling expenses.
Examples of Administrative Expenses
Wages and benefits to certain employees, such as the accounting department, are considered administrative expenses. All executive compensation is considered an administrative expense as well. Building rent, insurance, subscriptions, utilities, and office supplies may be classified as either a general expense or an administrative expense. Depending on the asset being depreciated, depreciation expense may be classified as a general, administrative or selling expense. Organizations may choose to include consulting fees and legal fees as an administrative expense as well. Research and development are not considered administrative expenses.
Cost Reduction Incentive
Because administrative expenses may be eliminated without having to sacrifice any quantity of product being sold or produced, they are typically the first expenses looked into for budget cuts. There is strong motivation from management to maintain low administrative expenses relative to other expenses as an organization may utilize leverage more effectively with lower administrative costs. An entity may utilize the sales-to-administrative ratio to gauge the portion of sales revenue attributable to covering administrative costs.
Tax Considerations
Administrative expenses that are reasonable, ordinary and necessary for business operations may be deducted on a company’s corporate income tax return. These expenses must be deducted in the year they were used and must have been used during the course of business. |
A joint Fermilab/SLAC publication
Image: Cinderella and her pumpkin
Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago
Winner: Cinderella’s convertible carriage
Reader Emily Conover wins symmetry’s latest contest with her fairy-tale description of neutrino oscillation.
Last month we at symmetry challenged readers to send us their best metaphors to describe the strange behavior of subatomic particles called neutrinos.
The nearly massless particles come in three types, or flavors. But neutrinos refuse to settle on just one option; they oscillate among all three.
University of Chicago student Emily Conover submitted the winning contest entry, a text that explained neutrino oscillation in the manner of the Brothers Grimm:
Imagine Cinderella riding in her carriage to meet the prince at the ball. As she gets closer to the ball, the probability that her carriage will morph into a pumpkin increases. She started out in a vehicle that was definitively a carriage, but there’s a chance that it will suddenly become something entirely different! It turns out that this doesn’t just happen in fairy tales.
If Cinderella tried to hitch a ride on a neutrino, she’d have the same problem. Imagine that Cinderella jumped on the back of an electron neutrino. When she gets to the ball she may discover she arrived on a muon neutrino. What a social faux-pas!
An added complication is that, due to the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, the neutrino is actually multiple flavors at once. Yes, this means that a neutrino can be two different things at the same time! Only when the neutrino interacts is it finally determined which flavor the neutrino is. So, imagine this: Cinderella is inside the carriage, so she can’t tell if it’s a pumpkin or not. Until the prince pops his head out to look for her, Cinderella’s carriage is simultaneously pumpkin and not-pumpkin!
It’s too bad; it seems Cinderella might have had a handle on neutrino oscillation, and yet all people know her for are her shoes.
Honorable mentions
Three more readers earned a symmetry honorable mention for their entries:
• David Boehnlein, who started his great contribution with the line, “Imagine a pitcher hurling a baseball from the mound and the batter seeing a golf ball cross the plate;”
• Bruce Howard, who took the initiative to make an “explain it in 60 seconds” style video comparing neutrinos to shape-shifting billiard balls;
• Alvaro De Rújula, who used “the cow oscillation paradigm” to describe the manner in which neutrinos change flavors.
This last one merits further explanation.
In De Rújula’s metaphor, two identical Swiss passenger trains, traveling side-by-side, offer through their aligned windows a view of cows in the Swiss countryside. However, one train, holding a larger number of passengers, starts to drag, causing it to fall behind. As the faster train passes the slower one, the windows of the two trains come in and out of alignment. When the windows align, an observer sees the cows; when they do not align, the cows are out of sight.
The cows are always there. But whether or not the observer can see them depends on the point on the journey at which the observer takes a look. In the same way, a neutrino always has the potential to be any of the three flavors; the flavor it takes on depends on the point at which it is observed.
We wanted to give De Rújula the “thinking most like a physicist” prize, but it turns out that wouldn’t be fair; he is a physicist.
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest, and a special mention for Kyle Simpson, who pointed out an excellent related video on the Veritasium YouTube channel.
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The Disobedient Heart
Gravity is a great parallel for God’s law. A thousand years from now, if you throw something up, what will happen? It will come down. A thousand years from now, what is right will still be right and what is wrong will still be wrong. Right and wrong don’t change. Show how the heart obeys gravity and slides down the rope from top to bottom. Then talk about how people try to change right and wrong and suddenly show how the heart no longer obeys but stops in the middle. Of course, this is just a trick to warn your students not to be tricked in life.
There are many other uses for this illusion as well. This is a great way to show the contrast between someone who does what is right and someone who does what is wrong.
Cost: $20.00
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How to Make Bearded Dragons Grow Faster
BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images
With the proper care and feeding, bearded dragons can grow up to 2 feet in length. Just like humans, they grow at different rates, sometimes up to 1 inch a week when juveniles. Factors influencing growth rates within your control include cage size and placement, amount and type of food, competition for food, amount of light, type and amount of UV light, proper vitamins and supplements.
Place your dragon in a tank at least 40 gallons in size; two dragons need a 55-gallon tank for proper room to grow. A hatchling up to 12 inches can be kept in a 15-gallon tank. As it grows, the tank size should be increased.
Providing proper lighting for heat will ensure active digestion. Include a basking spot around 90 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the lizard's digestive system working fast. If it digests too slowly due to cool habitat temperature, it will eat at a slower pace.
Feed your dragon as much as it will eat to grow fast. This could mean up to 12 crickets three times a day. These feeder insects should be “gut-fed” (fed with vitamin and mineral rich foods prior to feeding to other animals). Supplement its diet with high-calcium greens such as collard greens, mustard greens, kale and beans.
Provide a calcium supplement by dusting over crickets or spraying over greens every other day.
Provide a lot of water by spraying its head directly or misting its vegetables to prevent dehydration which contributes to thinning.
• Do not feed your dragon iceberg lettuce as is has very little nutritional value and may give it diarrhea prompting dehydration.
• Regulate the size of the cricket fed to your dragon, especially in the juvenile stage. Too large a meal has been associated with partial paralysis and hind leg extension. If you take your dragon outside or allow it to roam about the house, be sure to check that the possible munchies are not poisonous.
A steady diet of high-fat foods will make your dragon grow faster, but can also cut its lifespan in half.
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Anglo-Saxon Hoard Discovered in 2009, Sent to US Museum
An article from National Geographic “Stafforshire Hoard: Magical Mystery Treasure” discusses an Anglo-Saxon gold and weapons stash found buried in England in 2009. The weapons and gold worth 5.3 million dollars and the article discusses the reason why such valuable treasures would be buried and damaged by their owners. The article says that the exact reason is a mystery. The soldiers who found the loot could have either been hiding it with the intentions of going back to get it, or more realistically, as argued by the article, the treasure was buried as part of a religious ceremony. The pagan Anglo-Saxons believed in many gods and spirits and the article says that the treasure’s destruction represents, “the donor’s irrevocable surrender of the valuable weapon’s use.” This “surrender” was done because of the soldier’s belief in “malicious elves, and many charms” that were placed upon soldiers who have killed in battle. This argument seems reasonable but I think it is wise for the article to conclude that the true reason for the burial can never be known.
The article “Staffordshire Hoard to be sent to America” from the Birmingham Mail website talks about how the hoard is now being sent to an American museum in order to spark interest in a National Geographic documentary on the subject that comes out in November. The hoard is also being sent to America to spark interest in tourism to England’s Staffordshire and Birmingham “to view the region’s rich history.” I think this exhibit will be popular because of the natural allure of gold people have. I also think Anglo-Saxon history is an intriguing topic for many people as this term has become so loaded in modern society, and people will desire to know more about the origins of this culture/race. This is perhaps an ingenious plan to create more tourism revenue in England. Hopefully people will be persuaded into going to the museum to see the gold, and leave with a broader understanding of history and culture.
This entry was posted in Early Medieval Europe, Western Europe in the Middle Ages and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.
One Response to Anglo-Saxon Hoard Discovered in 2009, Sent to US Museum
1. rcdegraaff says:
These blog is very intriguing to me because it makes me think of all the hidden treasures that are still out there, waiting to be discovered. Every new treasure that is found has its own unique story and can unveil a different part of history that was previously unrecognized or unknown. While this treasure provides some insight into the pagan Anglo-Saxon rituals, the next discovered treasure might unlock other secrets. Discoveries like this keep history alive and well today.
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Q&A: 7 Year Old Cannot Pronounce “K” and “G” Sounds
Day2DayParenting Child Development, Early School Age
blockquote_bgMy 7 year old daughter is unable to pronounce K & G sounds correctly. Please suggest any exercise or any good speech therapist in Delhi or Gurgaon (India).
I would suggest contacting a local speech and language pathologist for a speech evaluation for your child. You may find resources through your local school, hospital or clinic. Perhaps this agency in Delhi can point you in the right direction if you have difficulty as we do not have contact info outside the USA and I could not find any specific pediatric resources in your area by doing a Google search.
Institute Of Child Development
T-5, Begampur,
Malviya Nagar,
New Delhi-110017
Contact No. : +91-98101-5441
E-mail: mansooralam100@yahoo.com or appointment@icddelhi.org or info@icddelhi.org
Both the /k/ and /g/ sounds require the tongue to move back toward the throat (retract) and it’s sometimes hard to show a child this, but if a child lays on their back on the floor, gravity will pull the tongue back into the proper position and it might be easier for them to make the sounds correctly. Lie on the floor with your child and read the /g/ and /k/ pages of an alphabet book or use flash cards with words you want to practice. Let your child look in the mirror while doing so she can see what her tongue and mouth are doing. When she can get the sound lying down, try semi-reclining and gradually move to making the sounds sitting up. Here is a website which suggests other /g/ and /k/ sound practice ideas.
This is a link to the article on our website regarding articulation of speech sounds.
Day2DayParentingQ&A: 7 Year Old Cannot Pronounce “K” and “G” Sounds |
Ben's Eval for 2/8
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Ben's Eval for 2/8
Post by Tfay88 on Sun Feb 08, 2015 10:49 am
I. What was the main point of the sermon (telos)?
The focus and value of God's name and how we should treat it.
II. Textual Faithfulness (1-4):4
Exodus 20:1-7
Great explanation of the text
III. Instruction (1-4):3
A. How did this sermon engage your mind?
Made me think a lot of how I approach God
B. Were you persuaded by the sermon’s main point?
C. Was the passage adequately explained?
Somewhat, yes
IV. Gospel Tone (1-4):3
A. Was Christ preached in this sermon?
How does being a new creation in Jesus teach us how to glorify God's name?
B. Was the Gospel made clear as a challenge to unbelievers?
C. Were the Gospel and its benefits preached to challenge, comfort, and encourage Christians?
V. Communication
A. Movement
1. Introduction got my attention (1-4):4
2. Introduction laid foundation for the sermon (1-4):4
3. Did sermon have clear outline? (1-4):4
4. Sense of momentum? (1-4):3
B. Order and Unity
1. Main headings developed (1-4):4
2. Organized progression to sermon (1-4):4
3. Illustrations subservient to truth (1-4):4
4. Imperatives were specific (1-4):4
5. Transitions were clear (1-4):4
6. Was the sermon unified? (1-4):4
7. Length of sermon (1-4):4
C. Point
1. Did the sermon affect you? (1-4):4
2. Was the sermon compelling? (1-4):4
D. Delivery
1. Language and vocabulary (1-4):4
2. Voice inflection/volume/clarity (1-4):4
3. Eye contact (1-4):4
4. Pulpit presence (1-4):4
VI. Overall Evaluation of sermon (1-4):4
I offer the following advice and suggestions to the preacher that he might continue to grow in effectiveness as a preacher:
Great sermon. Very well done on the application. Could have spent more time on the exposition of the text.
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On a molecular level, why does condensation form on the outside of a cold glass of water whereas bubbles form on the inside of a hot glass?
Question Date: 2013-08-29
Answer 1:
Let's think about what kind of molecular processes are happening in each situation. In the case of the cold glass, the air surrounding the glass is warm relative to the glass. Now, air typically has some water molecules (in the form of vapor/gas) that comprise it, but warm air holds more water than cold air. So when we set a cold glass on a table, the relatively warm air that existed there begins to cool as it comes into contact with the glass. As the air cools, it can't hold as much water, so water beads form on the exterior of the glass. Thus, we are looking at a vapor --> liquid phase transition.
However, in the case of the water that's being heated, the water is undergoing a liquid --> vapor phase transition. As heat energy is transferred to the liquid water molecules, they acquire enough energy to break the hydrogen bonds that keep water molecules together in liquid form. If we happen to be heating the water in a pot on a stove, for instance, you'll notice bubbles tend to form more at the bottom and then rise to the top, since the liquid water molecules at the bottom are the first to get heated and converted into little pockets of gas phase water molecules. They rise to the top because gas water is less dense than liquid water.
Answer 2:
Condensation forms when water transforms from a gas to a liquid. Similarly, bubbles form when water transforms from a liquid to a gas. If there's a cold glass of water sitting on a table, gaseous water molecules in the air touch the cold surface of the glass and condense to form a liquid, which makes the glass look "foggy," and we call "condensation." In the case of a hot bubbly glass of water (water that is almost boiling), the liquid on the inside of the glass is turning into water gas (or vapor), and forming bubbles that are less dense than water liquid. These bubbles rise and then escape. Naturally, water vapor on the outside of the glass is already a gas, so touching the outside of the glass won't change anything (it just heats the gas).
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
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A 65 year old woman and her 77 year old husband were recently killed by a pack of wild dogs. This didn’t happen in the outback or the African bush. This happened in the United States, in Georgia, on a quiet neighborhood street.
Feral dogs are wild dogs that have not been socialized by humans. These are usually the offspring of household pets that have been turned out by their owners. The United States leads the world in the numbers of pet dogs.
DVM Magazine (February 2009) published an article that stated the ASPCA believes that 1 million dogs and cats could become homeless within the United States due to economic reasons. As financial difficulties press, some owners prefer to abandon their animals rather than euthanize them, thinking this is a kindness.
According to the PBS documentary Dogs and More Dogs (2004), selectively bred wild foxes produce puppies that have domestic characteristics -- in both nature and appearance -- within 2 to 3 generations. The reverse is also true. As dogs are forced to fend for themselves, they will breed with other dogs that display survival traits and produce offspring with these same characteristics – often within the first or second generation.
This means that within a year, one dog can become a skilled hunter and contribute to the numbers of wild animals in a homeless pack. Deaths due to feral dog attacks are shocking, but considering these facts, it is surprising that it doesn’t happen more often.
The following information is provided to give you options to survive a wild dog attack or avoid it in the first place. Recommendations to use lethal force are given in order that you may defend life, but they may not be legal and could cause you to be liable for legal actions later. The goal here is to remain alive.
If approached by a strange animal, there are steps you can take to avoid being bitten and increase your chances of survival. Remember that dogs respond to your body language not the meaning of your words. You must use your body to communicate to the dog that you aren’t a good target.
Carry a repellent with you when on foot. A good dog repellent for aggressive nuisance pet dogs is a mixture of ammonia and hot pepper sauce in a pump sprayer set to half-way between stream and mist. This works best when sprayed into the mouth and nostrils or eyes.
Carry a weapon. These can range from baseball bats, golf clubs, knives or walking sticks. Use your imagination. Any of these can keep some distance between you and a threatening animal.
A strange animal that approaches you should be treated as a potential threat. Don’t ignore warning signs because you think that a breed is always friendly. One sign of aggression is if the animal holds his head level – not high or low. An even steady run – as opposed to a loping gait – means the dog is charging. Wolf
Don’t look the animal in the eye. This is seen as a challenge. Avert your eyes. Don’t stare the animal down.
Don’t smile. Bared teeth signify aggression and a challenge. A wild dog will want to meet this challenge.
Stand at a 45 degree angle towards the dog. Present your less dominant side, and keep the dog in your peripheral vision. This signals that you are not a threat and that you are not in a position to attack (which is face forward in dog language).
Don’t turn your back on an approaching dog. This is a sign of weakness to a dog and will encourage the animal to lunge at you.
NEVER run. This will excite the dog’s chase response – and dogs can run faster than you.
Remain still and calm. Hold your position. The dog may lose interest if he does not sense you are afraid. If you panic, the dog may feel threatened or become more confident in his attack.
If you speak, use a commanding tone. Lower your voice and issue commands like “GO HOME!” or “DOWN!” Shrieking in a shrill tone is not using a commanding voice.
If you can slowly do so, fold your arms tightly to protect your hands. If you can’t do this without exciting the dog, keep your arms lowered and your hands balled into tight fists to protect your fingers. If you extend your arms or hands, you are inviting a bite.
Put something between you and the animal. The dog will fixate on this (umbrella, hat, bag, stick) and be lured to bite the object instead of you. Remember, even if the dog bites your arm, that still leaves you one good arm and two legs to get away.
If possible back away slowly (remember not to turn your back to the dog) and try to place an obstacle between yourself and the dog. Climb on top of a car, a tree or some other object that places you out of reach of the animal. THEN you can shout for help.
Don’t pull on your dog’s leash. If you do, you will cause puncture wounds to become tears. Additionally, your tugging in the opposite direction will keep your dog from being able to defend itself. Let the leash loose. Evaluate the situation. If you have a lethal weapon, use it. If the other animal is small enough, you may be able to use your stick to beat him off of your animal, but not if he is part of a pack. If you aren’t sure you can overcome the attacking animal, it is better in my opinion to use the opportunity to escape. Living is honoring the sacrifice of your beloved pet in my opinion.
Use whatever lethal weapon you have to stop the attack.
Focus on the attacking dog FIRST. Don’t try and tug the victim away from the dog. This will rip the person’s skin and cause puncture wounds to become gashes. Force your own hand and arm into the dog’s mouth. Your larger limb can be used as a lever to open the dog’s mouth and remove the other person’s limb without tearing at the wounds. Keep driving your arm in and downward into the dog’s mouth to minimize damage to your arm. A variation of this is to jam the pointed end of a stick into the dog’s mouth, ramming it down the throat.
In the event that there is a pack of animals attacking a child, cover the child with your own body. Curl into a ball, face down, with your knees pulled inward and your hands locked behind your neck to protect your face, ears and neck. Become a rock to shield the child from further attack.
Use any weapon at your disposal to stop the dog with deadly force.
Put something between you and the dog. This can be a hat, book, purse, jacket, umbrella, stick, a bicycle or piece of lawn furniture – whatever is on hand. If nothing else is available offer your arm, preferably have something wrapped around it. This leaves you with a free arm and two legs. Offering the dog your arm will keep him from grabbing onto your leg and dragging you to the ground or from leaping for your throat.
If an arm bite does occur, try to hold the arm so that the bite will clamp down on the sides of the forearm or wrist. Teeth puncturing the soft, flat flesh could damage arteries inside the forearm or wrist. Remember to keep your hand balled into a fist to protect your fingers.
Work to avoid getting knocked onto the ground. Keep your balance.
Use your stick to block the attack if you can. If not, shove the stick down the dog’s throat. If he has your arm, he may release his hold at this point.
If you don’t have a stick, consider shoving your arm down the dog’s throat. Shoving your arm down the dog’s throat can cut off his oxygen or make him gag. Pulling your arm away, rather than shoving your arm forward, will increase your injuries.
If the dog has your arm, attack his vulnerable places: use your thumb to gouge out an eye or deliver a sharp blow to the throat. In this position, you can choke the dog until he passes out by feeding him one arm and placing the other behind his head and pulling upward until the neck snaps. Another method is to grab one of the dog’s hind legs and jerk it upward. This will put the dog on its back – a submissive stance. Use the leg as a lever to keep the dog on his back and drag it to a safer place for you. Be careful with this, though, as you don’t want to end up on the ground.
If you get knocked to the ground, try to remain calm and as motionless as possible, unless the attack continues. If the attack continues, curl into a ball and roll onto your stomach, arms over ears, knees protecting your throat. Use your hands to protect the back of your neck by clasping your hands behind your neck. This is a passive position and may end the attack.
Make a mental note of the dog’s size, breed, sex and color.
Wash the wound with warm, soapy water, wrap in a clean cloth, applying gentle pressure to stop the bleeding. Seek medical attention and follow wound care procedures.
Report the attack to authorities and warn neighbors, especially those which are elderly or have small children.
I’m a dog owner. I love my dog, and she is well-trained. I take good care of her, and I respect her dog-ness. A dog left to its own devices will do what dogs were designed to do. When we respect the design and intent of these animals, we can take appropriate measures to keep our families safe.
Preparing Yourself for Dog Encounters from Hector Hernandez on Vimeo.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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Genesis 1:29
Healthy plants and animals have been designed to reproduce after their own kind. As gardening practices developed, seeds were saved from the previous season for planting the following season. Farmers would select seeds from the plants that fared the best in their environment.
In recent history, major US corporations have been formed which retail seeds to farmers. This has been a beneficial relationship as it saved the farmer labor hours and allowed him to try new varieties of crops. The corporations were able to devote their resources exclusively to seed collection, storage and retail.
Scientific developments have made it possible to alter seeds in order to increase their profitability. Some of these newer methods have had dire consequences for farmers, food quality, and the consuming public. In the name of protecting standards, this new technology could create a world-wide dependency on seed corporations. This would be accomplished by retailing seeds that have been engineered to produce for one season and then yield seeds that are either sterile or very unpredictable in their ability to reproduce.
Three popular methods currently used to accomplish this include hybrid plants, genetically modified (GM) seeds and Terminator Technology.
Hybrid plants can produce food and seeds, but their seeds don't produce after their own kind because the plants are a cross of two different varieties. Genetically modified (GM) seeds are designed to produce plants resistant to chemical poisons and sprays. This enables farmers to use more chemicals during the growing season which has a damaging effect on the soil and the microbial and micronutrient content available to the plants. Terminator Technology is a type of genetic modification that insures a seed will only produce plants for one season, rendering subsequent seeds sterile.
Individuals can act to help insure that a fertile source of seeds remain available to the general public by starting their own seed banks. You don’t have to be a farmer to harvest and store seeds for future use. When purchasing seeds, look for catalogs that state they do not retail GM seeds. Purchase only heirloom seeds, as these are unaltered. Look for fruits, vegetables, grains and various herbs that you would use for seasoning, spice and/or medicinal purposes.
Seeds harvested from flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs can be placed onto waxed or parchment paper to air dry at room temperature. Use a marker to label the paper, so you won't forget the date and the variety. When dry, move the seeds to a labeled paper envelope. This can be kept in a glass jar in your refrigerator for long term storage. If you have dark, cool, dry area, seeds are generally known to store well in such an environment. For grass and grain seeds that would be broadcast over a large area, you may want to make some seed balls for convenience in storage and later planting.
But why store seeds if you don’t plan to grow them?
Currently, there is a bill before Congress (H.R. 875) that threatens to so regulate sources of food that it has the potential to put a stop to roadside stands, backyard gardens and organic farming practices. Whether this will become law and how it will be enforced remains to be seen. Yet, it may be wise to begin saving seeds now, while the practice is still unregulated.
Consider harvesting and storing seeds that you may not be interested in growing. Do your research and label the seeds with both their botanical and common names. There are internet sites devoted to trading seeds. You may be able to get the seeds you want for free by trading your unwanted surplus.
Without heirloom seed companies, these seeds could cease to exist. In the current economic and political climate, this is a possibility. Individuals that enjoy the freedom of growing their own foods -- or even purchasing foods grown without chemicals -- would do well to take the time to secure their source of heirloom seeds.
No Greater Joy Magazine is a bi-monthly publication that featuring articles on simple living and strengthening family ties. Visit Mike and Debi Pearls’ web site at www.NoGreaterJoy.org to get your free subscription today.
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5. Cell manipulation: Magnets assume control
Cell manipulation: Magnets assume control
• 2010/09/30
Careful orientation of permanent magnets allows biologists to manipulate cells with high precision
Fig. 1: A microfluidic chip with three orthogonally arranged magnetically driven microtool (MMT) arms for cell manipulation. Each of the three tool arms, pointing toward the center, is controlled by a set of four permanent magnets.
Physical scientists and engineers have often made substantial contributions to biology and medicine. X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging are classic examples. Now another useful tool, this time for scientists working with cell manipulation, is emerging from work by biorobotics experts at Nagoya University. Fumihito Arai from the GCOE for Micro-Nano Mechatronics and co-workers have demonstrated how to achieve precise positioning of large cells using permanent magnets1.
The researchers developed magnetically driven microtools (MMTs) that can be used to manipulate cells inside microfluidic chips. "MMTs allow non-contact manipulation, which is good for realizing mechanical interactions inside the chip," says Arai.
Previously, tiny electromagnets have been used to achieve reasonably precise manipulation of small objects, but the magnetic forces generated are usually too small to control large molecules or cells. To overcome this problem, Arai and his co-workers set out to build a device based on permanent magnets instead.
Their task was more difficult than it sounds. An MMT can be dragged around on a surface by moving a permanent magnet underneath the stage, but control over the tool is lost when the magnet passes directly underneath, an effect referred to as the 'dead band'. In practice, the dead band area extends for about half a millimeter around the MMT, around five times the size of the cells that researchers would like to manipulate.
The team's first challenge was therefore to understand the origin of the dead band. They performed computer simulations of an MMT dragged by a neodymium magnet and found that the magnetic friction generated by a permanent magnet exceeds the dragging force when the magnet passes directly beneath the tool. However, the same simulations showed that simply rotating the magnetic axis of the magnet by 90° lowered the friction substantially.
Based on these findings, the team fabricated a new driving tool using a 'horizontal polar drive' design in which a set of four permanent magnets control an extended MMT arm (Fig. 1). This configuration ensures that the position of the MMT arm can be controlled very precisely in two dimensions. Arai and his team demonstrated the potential of the device was by using it to translate and rotate an oocyte cell of about 120 micrometers in diameter.
"The resolution in positioning was 51 micrometers when we submitted our paper. However, we have improved this by a few micrometers by reducing the friction between the MMT and the microchannel," says Arai.
Affiliated Researchers
The Nagoya University affiliated authors mentioned in this highlight are from the Education and Research of Micro-Nano Mechatronics GCOE program of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering.
1. Hagiwara, M., Kawahara,T., Yamanishi, Y. & Arai, F. Driving method of microtool by horizontally arranged permanent magnets for single cell manipulation. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 013701 (2010). | article
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What does wolf-hirschhorn syndrome mean?
Definitions for wolf-hirschhorn syndrome
Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word wolf-hirschhorn syndrome.
U.S. National Library of Medicine
1. Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome
A syndrome caused by large deletions of the telomereic end of the short arm of CHROMOSOME 4 (4p) in Wolf-Hirchhorn syndrome critial regions (WHSCRs). Several candidate genes have been identified including WHSC1 and WHSCH2 which appear to be responsible for the core phenotype and in combination with other linked and unlinked genes determine the severity and inclusion of rarer phenotypes. Most cases have a characteristic cranio-facial defect often referred to as "Greek helmet face" - a combined result of MICROCEPHALY, broad forehead, prominent glabella, HYPERTELORISM, high arched eyebrows, short philtrum and micrognathia. In addition there is mental retardation, growth delays, EPILEPSY, and frequently a wide range of midline and skeletal defects, including HYPOSPADIAS; CONGENITAL HEART DEFECTS; CLEFT LIP; CLEFT PALATE; colobomata; CLUBFOOT; clinodactyly; SCOLIOSIS; and KYPHOSIS.
1. Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of wolf-hirschhorn syndrome in Chaldean Numerology is: 3
2. Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of wolf-hirschhorn syndrome in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1
Images & Illustrations of wolf-hirschhorn syndrome
1. wolf-hirschhorn syndromewolf-hirschhorn syndromewolf-hirschhorn syndrome
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Kissing Sisyphus
ink on paper, lights, mirror, rubber sheet, cast plastic figures
Birds have a single hole for excretion and reproduction. When birds have sex, they must align their holes to allow for the sperm to pass into the female. The holes, or vents, are called cloaca. (Certain species including many male waterfowl have a phallus, but most birds have just the cloaca vent, both male and female alike.)
It is awkward for the bodies of birds to have sex, to align holes amongst the wings and tails. It happens quickly but perhaps with many attempts.
In thinking about these awkward bodies in such fleeting moments of union, images of birds having sex were downloaded from the internet and then drawn in ink on paper. The drawings are meant to slow down the moment of copulation and put the bodies at ease, with grace and perhaps pleasure.
In Kissing Sisyphus, the drawings are lit by the light of the moon, or reflected light, and accompanied by birds. A rubber night sky curtains the window. |
patient story Patient Video ask doctor find doctor
patient story Patient Video ask doctor find doctor
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Muscle Weakness In Dialysis Patients
Muscle Weakness In Dialysis PatientsFor patients with dialysis, if they have muscle weakness, it is very common, and muscle weakness is a common symptom of patients with dialysis. Here we will explain how doe it happen and how to treat muscle weakness effectively.
Causes of muscle weakness in dialysis.
There are five leading factors which result in muscle weakness in dialysis.
1. Malnutrition
As proteinuria is very serious in dialysis and they need to pay attention to diet in daily life, they can have malnutrition or weight loss. In this way, muscle weakness can be caused at last.
2. Anemia
As red blood cells can leak out from body through urine, anemia can be caused in the long term.
In this way, anemia can lead to muscle weakness.
3. Hyperkalemia
For patients with dialysis, they are very prone to high potassium level, leading to hyperkalemia. And according to research, muscle cramps are very closely associated with hyperkalemia. Thus, this is one of causes of muscle cramps in dialysis.
4. Calcium
As kidney function is almost lost, phosphorus can deposit much in body, making calcium in bones get out to maintain the balance of phosphorus and calcium in blood. In this way, bones are in lack of calcium, causing bone problems. In this case, muscle weakness can be resulted in.
5. Exercise
Due to fatigue and disease, patients with dialysis always have very less exercise in daily life. In this way, muscle can become weak. Taking regular exercise can do good to patients with dialysis a lot by enhancing immune system and lower blood pressure.
Then how to treat it very well?
Chinese medicines can recover kidney function, alleviating the above symptoms which can cause muscle cramps in dialysis. Thus, muscle cramps can be treated fundamentally.
Besides, many side effects can be caused by dialysis, like low blood pressure and sleeping problems. More information or treatment, you can consult us freely.
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Coordinates: 51°58′11″N 2°48′36″W / 51.9697°N 2.8100°W / 51.9697; -2.8100
Kilpeck is a small village in Herefordshire, England. It is about 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Hereford, just south of the A465 road to Abergavenny, and about 5 miles (8 km) from the border with Wales.
It is renowned for its small but outstanding Norman (Romanesque) church, SS Mary and David's, but also has the earthworks of a Norman motte and bailey castle, no longer standing.
Until the 9th century, when it was taken over by Mercia, the area around Kilpeck was within the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng. After the Norman conquest, the area became known as Archenfield and was governed as part of the Welsh Marches. It became part of Herefordshire, and England, in the 16th century, although the use of Welsh in the area remained strong until the 19th century.[1] The English name for the village derives from the Welsh name, Llanddewi Kil Peddeg,[2] with Llanddewi meaning "church of St. David" and Kil Peddeg probably meaning the "cell of Pedic", an otherwise unknown local early Christian hermit.[3]
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Kilpeck (entered as Chipeete) was given by William the Conqueror to William Fitz Norman de la Mare, son of Norman de la Mare. The clan de la Mare is one of the oldest in Normandy and is descended from Ragnvald Eysteinsson, earl of Møre and Romsdal. According to the Domesday survey, Kilpeck had '3 ploughs, 2 serfs and 4 oxmen and there are 57 men with 19 ploughs.' There are mentions of a church on the site possibly from as early as the 7th century. There are vestiges of an enclosure, 200 yds (183 metres) by 300 yds (274 m) in the field, defining a Saxon village.
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List of cemeteries |
Nerve & Muscle Tissue
Histology of Glands
Basic Terminology
Number of interconnected units
acinus / tubule / cord Arrangement of secretory cells
Destination of product
Nature of product:
intercalated / striated / secretory
Duct function
Duct location
Tissue composition
Examples of glands
Introduction to Glandular Tissue
Glands are organized arrangements of secretory cells. All exocrine glands (and also most endocrine glands), are composed of epithelial tissue. Even the lung and the kidney, although not properly glands, have a glandular pattern of tissue organization.
Although most glands give the appearance of being "solid" tissue, their epithelial nature is expressed by the organization of their cells, with each cell attached laterally to its neighbors. Every exocrine secretory cell has some portion of its plasma membrane exposed to an external surface, communicating with the outside of the body by a system of ducts.
In most glands, the secretory cells are organized into secretory units, which are described according to their shape as tubules, acini, or cords.
In the diagrams here and below, secretory units are colored orange and ducts are colored blue.
The basic organization of epithelial tissue into a gland can be best seen in a very simple gland, from frog skin, like the one from frog skin shown here. Click on here or on the image to open an enlarged view.
Simple / Compound
The simple / compound distinction is based on on duct shape.
A simple gland has an unbranched duct (or no duct at all). There is only a single secretory unit (acinus or tubule). Examples include sweat glands, gastric glands, intestinal crypts, and uterine glands.
Random tissue sections seldom show ducts branching. Nevertheless, the appearance of multiple duct profiles, in various sizes, provides evidence of a branching duct system.
Acinus / Tubule / Cord
Acinus (or alveolus)
Secretory cells may also arrange themselves into secretory tubules (in contrast to the small balls of cells which comprise secretory acini). Sweat glands are probably the most familiar tubular glands. Other tubular glands include gastric glands (in the lining of the stomach), uterine glands, and various mucous glands of the GI system.
Cords are epithelial cells arranged into sheets separated by vascular sinusoids. In section, the predominant pattern appears linear (hence, "cord"), even though the lines may twist and branch.
The liver (in the thumbnails) is notable for having cells arranged into cords in spite of its major exocrine function. In order to maintain communication with ducts, the liver cords contain a network of intercellular channels called bile canaliculi.
Endocrine / Exocrine
Link to the endocrine system.
Serous / Mucous / Mixed
Serous Secretion
Mucous Secretion
Cells which are specialized to secrete mucus are called mucous cells. Examples include secretory cells of the salivary glands, esophageal glands, stomach surface, pyloric glands, and Brunner's glands of the duodenum. These cells are typically organized into tubular secretory units.
In routine light microscopy, mucous cells are most conspicuously distinguished by "empty"-appearing (i.e., poorly stained) apical cytoplasm and by densely-stained, basal nuclei. (More on mucous cells of the gastro-intestinal system.)
Ducts are relatively simple tubular structures which are (usually) easily distinguished from blood vessels by their conspicuous cuboidal to columnar epithelial lining. Blood vessels, in contrast, are lined by simple squamous endothelium.
For the purpose of describing duct structure and function, especially in compound glands which include branching ducts of various sizes and appearances, some special terminology can be useful. (By and large, the distinctions that these terms allow represent minor details rather than essential knowledge.)
Intercalated / Striated
Intercalated ducts are small ducts which drain individual secretory units. These are usually inconspicuous, lined by a simple epithelium consisting of low cuboidal cells.
In some glands, intercalated ducts lead to striated ducts lined by a simple epithelium consisting of conspicuous cuboidal to columnar cells. In the basal cytoplasm of these cells, fine striations are visible at high magnification.
The cells of the striated ducts are specialized for concentrating the secretory product that is flowing duct. They do this by pumping water and ions across the duct epithelium, from the duct lumen and into interstitial fluid. This striated duct function is carried to extremes in the proximal and distal tubules of the kidney.
Secretory / Excretory
Both intercalated and striated ducts are sometimes called secretory ducts. They are located within lobules (intralobular). More distal ducts (interlobular), sometimes called excretory ducts, are generally passive conducting tubes. Their size varies, depending on how many branches have converged proximally. Larger excretory ducts may be lined by stratified cuboidal epithelium.
Parenchyma / Stroma
In most glands, the parenchyma consists of secretory epithelial cells. However, the parenchyma / stroma distinction can be convenient for describing not only glands but also other organs and even tumors. Examples:
Some examples of ordinary exocrine glands
Sweat gland
Gastric glands
Esophageal gland
Esophageal gland
Duodenal glands
Salivary gland
Salivary glands
Parotid gland
Uterine glands
Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu
SIUC / School of Medicine / Anatomy / David King
Last updated: 15 September 2010 / dgk |
Essay by shells88University, Bachelor'sB+, October 2012
download word file, 5 pages 0.0
Downloaded 6 times
This paper explores the differences between the International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principals that all companies use to prepare financial statements. Now more than ever companies feel the need to be more globalized and expand into different markets within foreign countries, and in doing that their needs to be one set of accounting standards that all companies should be in compliance with; The United States operates under the GAAP standards, note that there are comparable differences between the two standards, but operating under IFRS standards would be very beneficial for the US because they would have a better understanding of the markets they are trying to capture if there is only one accounting language.
IFRS are mandated standards by the International Accounting Standards Broad, and majority of foreign countries such as Russia, Australia, Europe, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia all are required to use IFRS. GAAP principles are set forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board which is what the United States follows.
Taking into consideration that the world and our economy is becoming more globalized, the SEC decided back in 2008 that by 2014 all US companies should operate under one set of accounting standards. Operation under the IFRS standards US would have a better understanding of the global market in which the are trying to operate in or expand to. Under one set of standards American and foreign countries would be able to compare financial statements which would aid them in producing foreign capital. Also, cost that some the companies have would be cut, many companies have to fill out two sets of financial statements which is not very cost effective, under one standard companies would only be required to fill out one book. As our market becomes more and more global it is... |
New York the Empire state
Essay by Anonymous UserElementary School, 5th grade January 1997
download word file, 1 pages 4.0 3 reviews
Declaration Of Independence which the Continental Congress had adopted on July
4. The congress also organized an Independent goverment. The next year, New York
adopted its first constitution George Clinton was elected governor. About a third of
all the battles were fought in New York. New York City was the United States
capital from 1785 to 1790. In 1789, George Washington became the first presjident
of the United States. He took the oath of office at Federal Hall on Wall Street.
In the
early 1800s, settlers moved to western New York. Buffalo was begun in 1803.
Rochester was settled in 1812. Some people headed even farther west. They moved to
states like Illonois and Michagen. These places were on the Great Lakes. Between
1817 and 1825, the Erie Canal was dug across New York. It ran from Albany to
Buffalo. The canal connected the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean with the
Great Lakes.
Ancient Indians reached New York more than 11,000 years ago. They hunted
animals with spears. Some of thier spear points have been found. Giovanni de
Verranzo was the first European to explore New York. He was Italian, but he
worked for France. American leaders wrote the United States Constitution in 1787.
It created the county's goverment. New York approved the Constitution on July 26, |
Sleep Apnea
Essay by aprilrainCollege, UndergraduateA+, August 2008
download word file, 4 pages 3.0
The Greek word "apnea" literally means "without breath." There are three types of apnea: central, mixed, and obstructive. In central sleep apnea, the brain centers responsible for breathing fail to send messages to the breathing muscles. In mixed sleep apnea, there is a combination of both obstructive and central sleep apneas, and of the three,obstructive is the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses and closes the airway during sleep. Despite the difference in the root cause of each type, in all three, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night, and often for a minute or longer. I once took care of a 84 year old patient that had obstructive sleep apnea. I can remember when I used to watch him while he slept during the night, and count how many seconds he would stop breathing.
It was a scary thing to watch because sometimes he would stop breathingfor a whole two minutes. I saw the sadistic cycle he went through every night while he slept. With each apnea episode, he would wake himself up, then fall asleep again. This cycle would happened 100 - 150 times a night. I noticed his sleep pattern was severely disrupted, and during the day he would be irritable and tired from not sleeping all night. Moreover, there was no escaping the inevitable. The apnea episodes would even happen as he took afternoon naps. As I continued to take care of him, I learned more about the sleep disorder. Obstructive sleep apnea is very common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institute of Health. Risk... |
india 022
Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in Northern India. It was founded on 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber,after whom the city has been named. (wikipedia)
Jaipur is known as the Pink City of India because of the colour of the stone used exclusively in the walled city
Jaipur is popular tourist destination in Rajasthan. There are series of palaces and hill forts.Amber fort is one of six Rajasthan hill forts on Unesco’s World Heritage Site.
amber fort-ganesh gate
amber fort-ganesh gate
The observatory Jantar Mantar is also one of The World Heritage Sites.
Jaipur is 260 km from Delhi and 240 km from Agra and forms the golden triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur
Jaipur in one day
albert hall
albert hall museum
Statue of Sawai Man Singh II, Ramniwas Garden
Statue of Sawai Man Singh II, Ramniwas Garden
IMG_3392jantar mantar-2
The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Sawai Jai Singh who was a Rajput king(WIKIPEDIA)
Nadivalaya Yantra (Equinoctial Dial)
Nadivalaya Yantra (Equinoctial Dial)
It has been inscribed on the World Heritage List as “an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period”
Jai Prakash Yantra (Hemispherical Inst.)
Jai Prakash Yantra (Hemispherical Inst.)
One of the most magnificent marvels is the City Palace Complex,which includes the Mubarak Mahal and Chandra Mahal and other buildings, which has a rare combination of the finest blends of Rajasthani and Mughal architecture. It was the seat of Maharaja Jaipur.The palace was built between 1729 and 1732
virendra gate
virendra gate
udai gate (stable gate)
udai gate (stable gate)
mubarak mahal
mubarak mahal
royal guard
royal guard
the flag of the royal family, seen unfurled when the Maharaja is in the palace
Diwan I khas
A private audience hall of the Maharajas, a marble floored chamber. There are two huge sterling silver vessels of 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) height and each with capacity of 4000 litres and weighing 340 kilograms (750 lb). They were made from 14000 melted silver coins without soldering. They are officially recorded by the Guinnes Book of World Records as the world’s largest sterling silver vessels.
Pitam Niwas Chowk
The inner courtyard, which provides access to the Chandra Mahal
out of the atish gate we will see interesting sights
snake charmer
I wondered how crackers can stay crunchy in the open air
Built of red and pink sandstone, the palace forms a part of the City Palace and extends to the zenana, or women’s chambers.It was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh and designed by Lal Chand Ustad in the form of the crown of Krishna, the Hindu god.
india 032
india 006
Besides this, the lattice also provides cool air caused by the Venturi effect (doctor breeze) through the intricate pattern and thereby air conditioning the whole area during the high temperatures in summers.
india 024
IMG_3463Jaigarh Fort
Jaigarh Fort is situated on the Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles) of the Aravalli range. The fort was built by Jai Singh II in 1726 to protect the Amber Fort and its palace complex and was named after him
View of Aravalli Hills from Jaigarh Fort
View of Aravalli Hills from Jaigarh Fort
Jal Mahal (“Water Palace”) is a palace located in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake
JAL MAHAL-Sagar Lake
Nahargarh Fort stands on the edge of the Aravalli Hills, overlooking the city of Jaipur. The view of the city from the fort is impressive
jaipur seen from nahargarh fort
jaipur seen from nahargarh fort
Amer Palace (also spelled and pronounced as Amber) is located in Amer ,a town with an area of 4 square kilometres, 11 kilometres from Jaipur
IMG_3522amber fort
suraj pole (sun gate) and jaleb chowk (main courtyard)
sila devi temple
sila devi temple
the details
Ganesh Pol or the Ganesh Gate is the entry into the private palaces of the Maharaja
Ganesh Pol or the Ganesh Gate
Diwan-i-Am or the Public Audience Hall
Diwan-i-Am or the Public Audience Hall
The Raja held audience here to hear and receive petitions from the public
Diwan-i-Am or the Public Audience Hall
Sattais Kacheri (27 offices)
sattais kacheri
sattais kacheri
mirror palace (sheesh mahal) or Jai Mandir
mirror palace (sheesh mahal) or Jai Mandir
The third courtyard is where the private quarters of the Maharaja, his family and attendants were built. The courtyard has two buildings, one opposite to the other, separated by a garden laid in the fashion of the Mughal Gardens.
mughal gardens
mughal gardens
The building to the left of the entrance gate is called the Jai Mandir (mirror palace), which is exquisitely beautified with glass inlaid panels and multi-mirrored ceilings
jai mandir
IMG_3572Jal Mandir(Hallof Victory)
mirrored ceiling
The other building seen in the courtyard is opposite to the Jai Mandir and is known as the Sukh Niwas or Sukh Mahal (Hall of Pleasure)
the wall of hall of pleasure
The fourth courtyard is where the Royal family women, including concubines or mistresses lived
other attractions
Lakshmi Narayan Temple
Lakshmi Narayan Temple
india 034
all pictures taken by me and properties of ani krisnamurti
description taken from wikipedia
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Myanmar’s Tourism
Myanmar’s Tourism
Since 1992, the government has encouraged tourism in the country; however, fewer than 270,000 tourists entered the country in 2006 according to the Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board. Myanmar’s Minister of Hotels and Tourism Saw Lwin has stated that the government receives a significant percentage of the income of private sector tourism services.
Tourist destinations
The most popular available tourist destinations in Myanmar include big cities such as Yangon and Mandalay; religious sites in Mon State,Pindaya, Bago and Hpa-An; nature trails in Inle Lake, Kengtung, Putao, Pyin Oo Lwin; ancient cities such as Bagan and Mrauk-U; as well as beaches in Nabule. Ngapali, Ngwe-Saung, Mergui. Nevertheless, much of the country is off-limits to tourists, and interactions between foreigners and the people of Myanmar, particularly in the border regions, are subject to police scrutiny.
the government has encouraged tourism in the country
They are not to discuss politics with foreigners, under penalty of imprisonment and, in 2001, the Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board issued an order for local officials to protect tourists and limit “unnecessary contact” between foreigners and ordinary Burmese people.
Flights to Myanmar
The most common way for travellers to enter the country seems to be by air. According to the website Lonely Planet, getting into Myanmar is problematic: “No bus or train service connects Myanmar with another country, nor can you travel by car or motorcycle across the border – you must walk across.”, and states that, “It is not possible for foreigners to go to/from Myanmar by sea or river.”
Flights to Myanmar
There are a small number of border crossings that allow the passage of private vehicles, such as the border between Ruili(China) to Mu-se, the border between Htee Kee (Myanmar) and Ban Phu Nam Ron (Thailand) (the most direct border between Dawei and Kanchanaburi), and the border between Myawaddy (Myanmar) and Mae Sot (Thailand). At least one tourist company has successfully run commercial overland routes through these borders since 2013.”From Mae Sai (Thailand) you can cross to Tachileik, but can only go as far as Kengtung. |
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Control Garden Insect Pests
You spend a lot of time and money in your garden and you deserve a break, to sit back and just watch your flowers grow, but NO, wait what is that pesky little thing on your plant? Oh No it is a devastating bug and worse it is eating your beloved flowers, what to do, what to do....don't fret, the following list of pest descriptions and control measures provides a good starting point for tackling pest control in gardens throughout the United States and Canada. Control solutions are listed in order of environmental friendliness. Botanical sprays, which can have detrimental effects on beneficial insects and other animals, should be used only as a last resort.
1. Aphids (many species).
Tiny, pear-shaped; long antennae; two tubes projecting rearward from abdomen.
Host/Range: Most fruits and vegetables, flowers, ornamentals, shade trees. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Aphids suck plant sap, causing foliage to distort and leaves to drop; honeydew excreted on leaves supports sooty mold growth; feeding spreads viral diseases.
Control: Wash plants with strong spray of water; encourage native predators and parasites such as aphid midges, lacewings, and lady beetles; when feasible, cover plants with floating row cover; apply hot-pepper or garlic repellent sprays; for severe problems, apply horticultural oil, insecticidal soap, or neem.
2. Cabbage maggot (Delia radicum)
Adults: 1⁄4-inch gray flies. Larvae: white, tapering maggots.
Host/Range: Cabbage-family crops. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Maggots tunnel in roots, killing plants directly or by creating entryways for disease organisms.
Control: Apply floating row covers; set out transplants through slits in tar-paper squares; avoid first generation by delaying planting; apply parasitic nematodes around roots; burn roots from harvested plants; mound wood ashes or red pepper dust around stems.
3. Caterpillars (many species)
Soft, segmented larvae with distinct, harder head capsule; six legs in front, fleshy false legs on rear segments.
Host/Range: Many fruits and vegetables, ornamentals, shade trees. Range varies with species.
Damage: Caterpillars chew on leaves or along margins; droppings soil the produce; some tunnel into fruits.
Control: Encourage native predators, parasites; hand pick; apply floating row covers; spray with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) or spinosad.
4. Cutworms (several species)
Fat, 1-inch-long, gray or black segmented larvae; active at night.
Host/Range: Most early vegetable and flower seedlings, transplants. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Cutworms chew through stems at ground level; they may completely devour small plants; most damaging in May and June.
Control: Use cutworm collars on transplants; delay planting; hand pick cutworms curled below soil surface; scatter bran baits mixed with Btk (B.t. var. kurstaki) and molasses before planting.
5. Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata)
Adults: yellow-orange beetles with 10 black stripes on wing covers. Larvae: orange, hump-backed grubs with black spots along sides. Eggs: yellow ovals, laid in upright clusters.
Host/Range: Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, petunias. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Beetles defoliate plants, reducing yields or killing young plants.
Control: Apply floating row covers; use deep straw mulches; hand pick; attract native parasites and predators; spray with Beauveria bassiana or spinosad; spray with neem.
6. Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestris)
Adults: oval, yellow-brown, 1⁄4-inch beetles with 16 black spots on wing covers. Larvae: fat, dark yellow grubs with long, branched spines.
Host/Range: Cowpeas, lima beans, snap beans, soybeans. Found in most states east of the Mississippi River; also parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah.
Damage: Adults and larvae chew on leaves from beneath, leaving characteristic lacy appearance; plants defoliated and killed.
Control: Apply floating row covers; plant bush beans early; hand pick; plant soybean trap crop; put out lures to draw spined soldier bugs (predators) to your yard. Spray Beauveria bassiana, insecticidal soap, or neem.
7. Flea beetles (several species)
Small, dark beetles that jump like fleas when disturbed.
Host/Range: Most vegetable crops. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Adults chew numerous small, round holes in leaves; most damaging to young plants; larvae feed on plant roots.
Control: Apply floating row covers; repel the pests by spraying plants with garlic spray or kaolin clay; for a serious infestation, try repeated sprays of Beauveria bassiana or spinosad.
8. Tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris)
Fast-moving, mottled, green or brown bugs, forewings with black-tipped yellow triangles. Nymphs: similar to adults, but wingless.
Host/Range: Many flowers, fruits, vegetables. Found throughout North America.
Damage: Keep garden weed free in spring. Apply floating row covers; encourage native predatory insects; spray young nymphs with Beauveria bassiana or neem.
9. Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica)
Adults: metallic blue-green, 1⁄2-inch beetles with bronze wing covers. Larvae: fat, white grubs with brown heads.
Host/Range: Many vegetables and flowers, small fruit. Found in all states east of the Mississippi River.
Damage: Adults skeletonize leaves, chew flowers, may completely defoliate plants; larvae feed on lawn and garden plant roots.
Control: Shake beetles from plants in early morning; apply floating row covers; set out baited traps upwind of your garden on two sides and at least 30 feet away; apply milky disease spores or Herterorhabditis nematodes to soil; spray beetles with insecticidal soap.
10. Scales (more than 200 species)
Adults: females look like hard or soft bumps on stems, leaves, fruit; males are minute flying insects. Larvae: tiny, soft, crawling larvae with threadlike mouthparts.
Host/Range: Many fruits, indoor plants, ornamental shrubs, and trees. Found throughout North America.
Damage: All stages suck plant sap, weakening plants. Plants become yellow, drop leaves, and may die. Honeydew is excreted onto foliage and fruit.
Control: Prune out infested plant parts; encourage native predators; scrub scales gently from twigs with soft brush and soapy water, rinse well; apply dormant or summer oil sprays; spray with neem oil.
reprint Organic Gardening
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"Be careful what you wish for, because you may have to give up what you didn't"
Weighing The Opportunity Costs/Image: Michael Moffa
“….researchers found that exposure to introductory economics instruction was strikingly counterproductive”—Cornell University professor Robert H. Frank, New York Times, September 1, 2005
Do you think you know what opportunity cost is or why anyone should care what it is? “Sure,” you say. You’ve read Economics for Dummies. Or you picked up some version of the concept in a finance seminar, in economics 101, or simply Googled it. More likely, you’re clearly very smart and think you intuitively understand the idea. It’s not rocket science, you say. Presumably, even those who can’t define “opportunity cost” understand it–like the executives at the Decca, Pey, Philips, Columbia and HMV labels in 1963 after they all rejected the Beatles in 1962.
The Stumped Experts
A 2005 study by Paul J. Ferraro and Laura O. Taylor of Georgia State University, reported by the New York Times, September 9, 2005, suggested that the vast majority of professional economists and students of economics don’t really understand this key economic concept that underlies all decision making, including recruitment and job application decisions.
As a job applicant or a recruiter, do you think you understand the opportunity costs of your decisions any better than the experts and students did? Here is your chance to find out. At the 2005 annual meetings of the American Economic Association, researchers asked almost 200 professional economists to answer this question:
“You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton? (a) $0, (b) $10, (c) $40, or (d) $50.” [Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/business/01scene.html?_r=3]
In the New York Times article, “opportunity cost” was characterized as including “not only the explicit cost of the ticket, but also the implicit value of other opportunities that must be forgone to attend the concert”. Cornell economics professor Robert H. Frank, who offered that characterization as author of the New York Times article was also co-author, with Ben Bernanke, of Principles of Micro Economics.
The real shocker is that he said the survey reported that only 21.6% of the experts were able to answer the question correctly—a smaller percentage than the 25% that would have resulted if they had chosen an answer randomly! The correct answer: $10 (assuming the researchers themselves actually understood the concept).
The statistics were even more dismal for students presented the same question: “When they posed their original question to a large group of college students, the researchers found that exposure to introductory economics instruction was strikingly counterproductive. Among those who had taken a course in economics, only 7.4 percent answered correctly, compared with 17.2 percent of those who had never taken one.” [Ibid.] Notice how the performance of those with no background in economics compared with the 21.6% of the professional economists: quite favorably, from the viewpoint of the former, at least.
Something Wrong with the Survey?
To couch this challenge in recruitment terms, I have recast the question as this: “One of your interns is volunteering to do for free a one-hour job that must be done today. An outside contractor is under consideration and is asking $40 per hour to do the one-hour job. In fact, you would be willing to pay the contractor up to $50 for that hour. Assume there are no other dollar-denominated or other categories of costs of taking on either candidate. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of using the intern? (a) $0, (b) $10, (c) $40, or (d) $50.” Again, analogously and according to the researchers’ logic, the correct answer is supposed to be $10.
What was the reasoning behind the original conclusion? Professor Frank: “The opportunity cost of seeing Clapton is the total value of everything you must sacrifice to attend his concert – namely, the value to you of attending the Dylan concert. That value is $10 – the difference between the $50 that seeing his concert would be worth to you and the $40 you would have to pay for a ticket. So the unambiguously correct answer to the question is $10.”
But, wait a minute: The total value of anything is not the same as the total cost. After all, there are bargains in life, which offer value that exceeds cost. Aren’t we talking about “opportunity cost”, rather than “opportunity value”? Moreover, costs should never equal value, since no one should exchange money or anything else for something of only equal or less value to themselves, unless it’s largesse or a donation. Otherwise, charity, misinformation, incomplete information and stupidity aside, if costs merely equal benefits, why do the deal?
And there is this: Taken literally, “the total value of everything you must sacrifice” is infinite, since there are an infinite number of things and opportunities to be forgone in choosing anything! (More on this below.)
The Opportunity Cost of Decisions vs. The Opportunity Cost of Allocated Resources and Dollars
It does, however, need to be noted that the original reasoning did imply a valid distinction that must be maintained: the distinction between the opportunity cost spent dollars represent and the opportunity cost a decision involving those spent dollars incurs. In the concert ticket case, although the spent dollars were zero, the decision to spend those zero dollars on the free concept incurred an associated dollar cost of $10—even though the explicit, upfront dollar cost of the Clapton ticket was $0. Don’t forget: An example like this one demonstrates that the opportunity cost of a decision doesn’t always equal the opportunity cost that corresponds to the numerical dollar value of the cash outlay. In this concert ticket scenario, the “decision opportunity cost” was greater than the “resource/cash outlay opportunity cost”.
Secondly, to prevent any misunderstanding, even if it were “total value”, it wouldn’t be total value “of everything you must sacrifice” as Professor Frank may have inadvertently and certainly ambiguously suggested, since this would include the value of the dinner you didn’t have, and—not or?–of the book you didn’t read, the walk you didn’t take, the time you might have spent with your sophomore economics-major daughter trying to figure out what “opportunity cost” really means, etc., ad infinitum.
The opportunity cost of a spent $10 bill is one—not all—of the other things you could have bought with that $10. [Remember: the opportunity cost of a spent $10 bill is not the same thing as the opportunity cost of the decision to spend the $10 bill.] Instead of the book you bought with that $10 or the employee you paid for an hour’s work, you could have bought a $10 dinner or a $10 DVD or….but not all of them with the same specific $10 expenditure.
So the opportunity cost of anything is measured either by what your decision or by what your resource (money, time, energy, etc) could have gotten you in terms of any one of the specific alternatives that were not selected—not by the aggregate of all of them. If it were the latter, the opportunity cost of anything would, given the infinite possibilities, be infinite, which it is not. Again, the decision to use the free Clapton ticket had a $10 opportunity cost; however, the free, $0 ticket had no associated dollar-denominated opportunity cost, because a $0 expenditure is worth nothing. Therefore, it costs nothing.
Explicit vs. Implicit Opportunity Costs—a Confusing Distinction?
We must be very careful in defining “opportunity cost” in the way Professor Frank did—as comprising not only “the explicit cost of the ticket, but also the implicit value of other opportunities that must be forgone to attend the concert”. –which he also characterized as “the true economic cost of attending a concert”. Why the need for circumspection?
First, because this characterization totally and confusingly obliterates the important difference and valid distinction between “the cost of an opportunity” and “the opportunity cost”. If I go to the movies and pay $10 for a ticket, when I could have gone to dinner with the same money, what is my opportunity cost in this instance, measured purely in dollar-denominated terms, as it was in the original survey question? On Professor Frank’s analysis it has to be the explicit cost of $10 for the ticket PLUS “the implicit value of other opportunities forgone”. Well, the implicit value of the forgone dinner is $10, since that was the price of the dinner forgone. Hence, Professor Frank’s analysis suggests that the opportunity cost of going to a $10 movie is actually $20, i.e., $10 for the movie ticket + $10 value of the forgone dinner. This is the “cost of the opportunity”, not what is normally intended by “the opportunity cost”.
Within the sphere of job searches and recruitment, this “explicit-implicit” model of “cost of an opportunity” confusingly conflates “cost of an opportunity” and “opportunity cost”, while it combines the two kinds of opportunity costs I’ve identified: the decision cost and the dollar or other resource-denominated cost. I say “confusingly”, because this “explicit + implicit cost” approach, despite whatever validity it may have in some applications, would lead to calculating the opportunity cost of hiring someone as the sum of the salary to be paid—the explicit cost—plus the implicit decision cost, estimated in whatever opportunities were lost by deciding in favor of the chosen candidate.
If you were to use this “explicit + implicit” approach, you would have risked succumbing to the same confusion as a boss who thinks that since hiring Jones is “a good opportunity”, his opportunity costs are Jones’ hourly wages plus the “value” of the “next-best candidate”/”next best-candidate that hourly wage could have purchased. Only the alternatives that had to be given up should be considered as incurred opportunity costs of the decision—which, as was shown, trump the dollar-denominated cash costs—and only individually, one at a time, not collectively. The wages have, but are not, an opportunity cost. They are part of “the cost of an opportunity”, which has been confused with “opportunity cost”.
That kind of confusing calculation and the $20 figure in the preceding illustrative example would indeed be correct—but only if we are talking about “the cost of an opportunity”, i.e., “the true economic cost”, not what is more commonly and ambiguously considered to be “opportunity cost”. As the movie ticket example illustrates, this “explicit-implicit” model of opportunity cost can lead to results at direct variance with common expectations of what the opportunity cost of a $10 movie ticket should be.
What made $10 the correct answer to the survey question was that since the “resource opportunity cost” was $0 in that specific example, adding it to the “decision opportunity cost” reduced the “cost of the opportunity” to the (decision) opportunity cost. Had the ticket cost more than $0, the sum of the two costs—resource opportunity cost + decision opportunity cost—would have been transformed into “cost of the opportunity”.
The lesson here is that for non-zero costs, “opportunity cost” can be conceived as “resource opportunity cost” or “decision opportunity cost”—not their sum. Their sum will yield “cost of an opportunity”, which, as needs to be repeated, is not the same as “opportunity cost”.
Here are some non-equivalent, divergent, yet apparently widely accepted or intuited interpretations of that “opportunity cost”:
1. The dollar-denominated “opportunity cost” of a $10 movie ticket vis-à-vis a $10 dinner is $0. Why? Because the “net opportunity cost”, i.e., the difference in dollar-denominated value is $0. This is an application of what I have identified as “resource opportunity cost”: what an expended resource could have purchased or obtained, but did not. Since what was forgone exactly equaled what was obtained, the net difference, which is a good measure of the attractiveness of one or the other, was $0. Call this concept the “net resource opportunity cost” or “resource comparison opportunity cost”, or “comparative resource opportunity cost”.
Also note that this dollar-denominated net opportunity cost will not always be zero, as the original survey puzzle solution, above, showed, inasmuch as accepting the $0 free Clapton ticket carried a $10 “decision opportunity cost” with respect to the Dylan concert. It is to be expected that if the decision opportunity cost of an expended resource is used to determine the net opportunity cost, the result will often be a non-zero opportunity cost.
2. The dollar-denominated “opportunity cost” of a $10 movie ticket vis-à-vis a $10 dinner is $10.Why? Because the dinner that was forgone could have been substituted for the movie, at the same price. Call this “resource substitution opportunity cost”.
3. The dollar-denominated “opportunity cost” $10 movie ticket vis-à-vis a $10 dinner cannot always be calculated objectively. Why? Because if the opportunity cost is calculated on the basis of the “decision opportunity cost”, and not the “resource opportunity cost”, the decision to spend $10—not the spent $10 as an expended resource!—will have incalculable consequences, not only because decisions rather than dollars should be compared, but also because attaching a reliable dollar value to alternative, forgone non-dollar denominated decisions may not be possible.
I repeat: in this instance and model it is the opportunity cost of a decision, not of a resource, that is being estimated. Unlike the resource-based case in which we clearly know of at least one dollar-denominated alternative to the $10 movie, viz., a $10 dinner, we may have to choose between deciding to go the $10 movie or to visit our sick grandmother in the hospital. We may also have to choose between completely non-dollar-denominated decisions and their consequences, such as choosing between listening to Mozart and listening to Lady Gaga.
Because the opportunity costs of two mutually exclusive decisions cannot be compared if only one or if neither is dollar-denominated—which is probably the rule, rather than the exception, in many instances the difficulty of monetizing the alternative of the main decision or both decisions will preclude any accurate and precise estimate of the opportunity cost of the decision actually made.
Moreover, if this decision-based model is adopted, then the discussion of whether it should be “net” or “comparative” opportunity cost would have to be renewed in this decision-based, rather than resource-based, framework, which would then be called either “net/comparative decision opportunity cost” or “decision substitution opportunity cost”.
I leave that as an exercise for anyone whose brain is not yet fried by all of this.
Finally, in regard to Professor Frank’s conceptualizations, if you pay an employee $10/hour, you may, given Professor Frank’s characterizations of opportunity cost, be tempted to think that the money paid out is a “sacrifice” made in exchange for the value of labor, in the sense of having given it up as a benefit to another.
True, you gave money to the employee for his or her benefit, but the benefits are normally not one-sided, because the $10 is your half of an exchange, not a donation. So, you cannot imagine, as the survey question may be taken to suggest, that your opportunity costs include both your upfront cash costs and the foregone opportunities. For if the explicit cost of a ticket or an employment payment is included in the calculation of opportunity costs, as it was in the survey question, all opportunity costs will be exaggerated and transformed into “costs of an opportunity”.
The Doubled Opportunity Costs of Donating
In the case of donation, mentioned above, e.g., a donated $10 bill, it seems the money can legitimately count twice in the calculation, to yield an opportunity cost of $20. That’s only because in addition to what the $10 as a resource could alternatively have been used to get as a donation, e.g., malaria pills for kids in Africa, instead of cash for the Salvation Army, there is the opportunity cost associated with the decision to donate the cash instead of spending it on something of benefit to oneself.
The job application analogy to donation of cash would be this: Instead of charging an employer $10 for one hour, you work for free as an intern for that hour. Your explicit cost is your expended resource, in this case, time—1 hour. If you had been paid for that hour, your opportunity cost would have been only any one of the other countless ways in which you could have “spent” that hour, but did not, e.g., an hour spent re-writing your resume. However, since you decided to donate that hour, there is a second opportunity cost—the cost associated with the decision to not require payment for that hour.
For, in virtue of having given up that hour for free (but only in the exclusively dollar-denominated terms of the 2005 survey, excluding other benefits you may, e.g., as an unpaid intern, have rightly or wrongly expected from working for no pay, such as a letter of recommendation), you have incurred the opportunity cost associated with choosing no pay instead of payment. Hence, your opportunity cost in this case is indeed double your explicit cost—2 hours, not 1 hour. Alternatively, assuming your labor is to you or your last boss worth $10/hour, your opportunity costs come to $20, rather than the $10 worth of alternatives that would have been available to you, but passed up, if you had decided to require payment and had been paid. Here, there is a doubling effect–and a legitimate one, unlike the doubling effect in Professor Frank’s apparent rendering of “opportunity cost” as “cost of opportunity”.
Given the blurred distinctions teased from the survey and from Professor Frank’s comments about and interpretation of the survey, perhaps it is not so surprising that even the experts were stumped. As for you and for now, as a prelude to a second, upcoming article about opportunity costs, try to answer this second opportunity cost-related brain-teaser: Is it imaginable that you or I could have done anything as valuable as spending time on this article?
in Job Applications] |
acrostic poems for water cycle
19. února 2013 v 11:01
water cycle: Science Poem - Science Poems.
• Water poems and songs for the primary.
Round & Round It Goes! The Water Cycle. Click on the image to read about different parts of the water cycle.
Properties of Water, Water Cycle and.
Acrostic Poem For Water An acrostic poem for water has 5 lines which begin with the letters W,A,T,E,R. Scroll down for poems about water, show words
Properties of Water, Water Cycle and.
Water Cycle poem (Waterway Cycle). Acrostic poem for water
Sciencelion- science poems/animals/acrostic
Water Cycle poem (Waterway Cycle).
Mr. R.'s science poem about the water cycle. Condensation, precipitation, and evaporation! Also with Mr. R.'s water cycle music video! Great for Earth Day
A water cycle poem to educate about the new definition for Earth's "waterway cycle". This is part of a "live" world-wide simulcast to eleven countries
Here is a poem that I turned into a song and my kids loved it. I don't remember where I got it though. The Water Cycle The heat from the sun (arms in big circle over
EEK! - Round & Round It Goes! - Water.
Science poem about lions. Looking over, In his pride One large lion said, Nonsense eating sweets my cub- Go eat meats instead Read more fun elementary science
acrostic poems for water cycle
water cycle poem - The ProTeacher.
by Meish Goldish, 101 Science Poems & Songs for Young Learners, Instructor Books (sung to "It's Raining, It's Pouring") It's raining, it's pouring,
Some concepts taught and skills readily reinforced through poems daily: •love of poetry and language •increase memory skills •develop concepts •rhyme scheme
Acrostic Poem Sheets with themes covering - Pancake Day , Saint George's Day, St. David's Day, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Easter Story, Remembrance Day, Space, Bonfire
acrostic poems for water cycle
Acrostic Poem Sheets Teaching Resources.
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Professional Development
Clif Mims sharing the keynote presentation at Podstock 2009.
With more than 20 years of teaching and professional development experience Clif can customize professional development workshops, keynote addresses, and training camps to meet your needs. This section is dedicated to Clif’s educational consulting and showcases some of the resources he has developed for recent professional development workshops. You can use the table of contents below to navigate through the broad units and individual workshops.
Workshops, Presentations, Courses and Camps
Unit 1: Instructional Design in the Digital Age
1. 21st Century Skills
2. National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers and Students
3. Higher-Order Thinking and Digital Technology
4. Making Thinking Visible
5. Thinking Routines
6. Multiple Representations of Understanding
7. Effective Facilitation
8. Inquiry-Based Learning
9. Making the Curriculum POP!
10. Designing and Developing Content for Online Learning
Unit 2: Learning with Technology
1. Exploring Web 2.0
2. Digital Tools for Teachers’ Toolboxes
3. Web 2.0 by Subject Area
4. Making Thinking Visible with Technology
5. Thinking Routines and Technology
6. Multiple Representations of Understanding
7. Introduction to Professional Learning Communities
8. Personal Learning Networks and Technology
9. Webquests
Unit 3: Technology Integration
1. Photo Scavenger Hunts
2. Blogging
3. PowerPoint Games
4. Commercial off-the-Shelf Games
5. Storybird
6. Developing Tutorials
7. Mobile…
Unit 4: Digital Citizenship
1. Digital Citizenship
2. Online Identities
Unit 5: Other
1. Current Trends and the Future of Educational Technology |
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« Gravity Battery | Main | Youth in Asia »
Most people live near coasts. My plan is to build whole towns (but perhaps starting with just novelty tourist shops and cafes) on floating pontoons with some sort of hydraulic pistons fixed to both the pontoon and the sea or river bed. As the tide rises and falls (a distance of around two metres where I live) a constant flow of high pressure water would be forced through a turbine to supply power to the buildings on the pontoon.
I believe such things have been tried before and it turns out to be extremely difficult to build sufficiently robust hardware. But still, it should work in theory. I think.
If we say we have: 50 kW hours / day, 20% of which needs to be stored overnight (more if you are in a cold climate), with a 1/3 efficiency in energy recovery, and a drop of 20m from the storage tank to the generator.
The volume of water needed is 550m^3. If we assume that the house has a footprint of 2000 square feet (185 m^2), then a storage tank under the floor would have to be 3 meters high, with the generator another 20m below the bottom of that.
On the plus side, the 550 tonnes of water under your house will save on heating overnight if you just warm it during the daylight hours.
Better yet, make it double as a giant heated indoor pool (unfortunately, no swimming before dawn).
"If this was such a wonderful idea, dont you think water which falls down those huge dams and and generates hydro electricity would have been pumped back up in a perpetual cycle?"
According to wikipedia, this is exactly what's done: hydroelectric plants sometimes use their output to draw water into resevoirs, which act as batteries, storing the energy for later use. You get something like eighty percent of the energy used to fill the resevoir back when you empty it.
Assuming scott is right about the future cheapness and effective ness of solar cells, this might be a useful method for storing energy in a hiusehold situation.
But I have no idea how big such a resevoir would have ot be to be useful.
As a first step, how about just an adobe (or brick) house? The Spanish used these in California and the Southwest because they are suited to the climate. During the day, they tend to be cooler than outside because the heat takes a while to penetrate the material, then at night they are warmer as the walls release the pent up heat. I lived in a brick house in New Mexico and we didn't have air conditioning and did fine. Kept the house closed up during the day, opened it up at night and ran a fan to bring in cool air.
There is a better idea - you already almost mentioned it. When solar power is that cheap, everybody will want to drive an electric car anyway. Electric cars have batteries and if everybody plugs in their car when they are not driving, all this storage capacity can be used to stabilize the net. Your car won't get charged overnight - it will instead put power back into the grid, while it is charged during the day, during work time when you don't use your car anyway.
this is utopian .... can't be done .... Scott I can't believe you fell for such childish ideas.... the amount of energy required by your motor to pump all the water up into the reservoir would be equal to the amount of potential energy released by the water while falling down .... and factor in the inefficiencies and the fact that you cannot capture all the potential energy released, you end up expending more energy in getting all the water up than you get.
Thats why if u want to use potential energy for your good then you need to take advantage of some natural phenomenon for the refilling.... maybe collect rain water or sth .....
I once was a sailor named bob...
To all of the anti-nuke people...
The US Navy has more than a 40 year safety record with Nukes. AND they have to float and work while being shot at. I think we are at a level of technology were we can do it safely.
Think - Chernobyl was before we even knew what the hell happened in a reactor, and 3 mile island was just a scare. but we know more now.
Have you considered ice plants instead? They offer a similar energy storage function, except they can also provide direct cooling without an additional conversion step.
Underneath Stanford University is the third largest ice storage facility in the world:
I toured the inside of the tank before it was filled...it's almost like going into the Grand Canyon.
(Ok, i exaggerate a bit)
Mr. Wampus
All we need is for someone to invent a sort of "Gravity Mirror." That would be a device that reflects gravity. The effect would be like when you put 2 magnets together with the magnetic poles reversed so they repel each other. The gravity mirrow would not require an external power source, it would simply reflect existing gravitational pull and therefore push against it. I'm sure it would have to be made of some sort of exotic material that would itself be controversial, like baby kittens. Nothing is entirely free, but we'd learn to live with it.
You could adjust the lifting power by changing the angle of the gravity mirror to the source of gravity. To keep it stable you would probably have an array of smaller gravity mirrors that reflected in different directions. If you pointed them all straight down at the earth, the platform would accelerate at 9.8 M/sec squared away from earth. That would solve a bunch of problems for NASA. Come to think of it, it would solve a bunch of problems for the airline industry too. In fact, gravity would become our chief source of energy. It is abundant and it would be essentially free.
Now all we need to do is figure out exactly what gravity is and how it could be "reflected" and we'd be in business.
OK, I've done the hard part of thinking up the idea. Someone else can thake this and implement it and pay me a small but endless royalty.
What about flushing toilets?
Interesting thought, but too much political hype like ethanol. Instead of feeding corn to livestock or making cornmeal, the US makes hooch out of it, and helps to drive up the price of food.
Instead of ensuring clean water supply for everyone, rich nations hoard water so they can heat/cool their homes while using all the power hungry devices with all the lights on 24/7.
You are all wrong. The answer is 42.
Scott, you aren't trying to put together a super army of geniuses, because you know they aren't any good in a combat situation, right? Are you going to get all of your smarter readers into MENSA with you? I always get stuck in the shallow end of the dream pool...
To all advocates of nuclear power:
It is misleading to refer to nuclear energy as "clean," unless:
1. You have figured out what to do with all the primary and secondary radioactive waste (not in general terms, but in specific terms that account for the NIMBY problem); and
2. You have figured out how to eliminate the kinds of engineering errors, human errors, "deferred maintenance" issues and earthquakes that can lead to Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl, and other disasters (real or potential).
I have yet to see any practical solution to the first, and the second is impossible to solve. Nuclear energy may still be the answer, but let's not delude ourselves about the costs and risks involved.
"...but wouldnt' creating that many windmills cause dragon on the earth resulting in higher tides and possibly messing up how fast our days are?"
We have ripped down so many trees all over the planet which has reduced the natural drag. Adding some drag that was eliminated would be a good thing.
Instead of water you could lift and lower your ENTIRE HOUSE to store energy:
During the day use an electric motor to slowly lift your entire home one store, making the basement become first floor.
Then during the night let your house slowly lower again, making it spin the electric motor backways becoming a generator...
Just remember to use the correct door when going to work on the morning ;-)
Some interesting reading here on perpetual motion / free energy.
Scott, what about a global power grid for solar energy. We already have national power grids. Seeing that it is always daylight somewhere in the world, we could just hook all the grids together and have constant solar power, day and night.
I'd be half crazy too if I learned to draw poses out of a Penthouse magazine. That's not art training, that's some crazy $hit. Hell– I'd feel ripped off if that were my childhood.
If I told a plumber that I was hiring an architect to design my new house, I doubt he'd be offended I didn't ask him to do it. LOL!
did very deep holes in the ground until you get to the hot bits, pour in water. Job done.
On a larger scale, it's been done already. See here:
Jaime Bakulic
...not a lot, not a few.
Why would each house need its own reservoir? In NSW, Australia, excess power generated within in the grid can be used to pump water back up the hydro electricity system. If all houses had the solar panels, excess power during the day could be fed into the grid and do the same. A few large projects would provide economy of scale and probably better efficiency than many small systems.
You forgot to provide an envelope.
OK, really, the right answer is "none of the above".
You want heat at night, you want cool during the hot part of the day, and you have lots of water. Pumping it isn't the right approach, using it as a heat-sink is. Water has one of the highest specific heats of any material (meaning it takes more energy to heat it up than just about anything else). So your swimming pool out back is average temperature of the day, minus a few degrees from evaporation. That's usually cool enough to use to replace your air conditioner with a simple heat exchanger. (Think "big car radiator + fan, plus a pump to circulate the water.) Your A/C bill just dropped to almost zero. At night, you use the same system to pump air through the water you warmed up all day while cooling your house. Your heating bill just dropped to almost zero.
If you don't have a pool and you aren't living where it gets hot during the day, then you buy a septic tank and byry it in the backyard and do the same trick, except you add a heat pump and use the water in the septic tank (not hooked up to your toilets, a separate dedicated heat reservoir with brine to keep it from freezing) to store the heat from the day for the following night to keep you warm. Heat pumps are more energy-efficient than A/C units or furnaces, but do require a fraction of the energy produced to run, and the buried-brine-tank method is the most energy-efficient approach. (On second thought, you'd probably want something other than brine, as it's corrosive to metals. Antifreeze would be bad for the groundwater if it leaks, so maybe somebody with a chemistry background could provide a good alternative.)
You lose energy when you compress air because air gets hot when it compresses, and that's heat that's generally lost by the time you want to use the compressed air for energy. When the compressed air is released, it's cold air at lower pressure than it was in the tank when you compressed it.
Water pumps are not efficient, either to get the water up into the attic or to recover the energy later.
You lose energy whenever you convert it, so the fewer conversions the more efficient the system. Just save the heat from the hot part of the day for night, when you need the heat. Water's cheap and good for storing heat. Underground concrete tanks are already available cheap (septic tanks cost about $500), and you really can use car radiators as viable heat exchangers. The rest is plumbing, and PVC pipe is about as cheap as anything gets.
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Gum Guardians-Protect your health
I'm only in my 20s; I'm too young to get gum disease, aren't I?
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The truth is that you can get gum disease at any age – even some young children have gum disease. While proper oral care can reduce the risk that you will get it, here are some of the reasons that you could develop gum disease, even at a young age.
Smoking: If you're a smoker you may be five times more likely to get gum disease than a non-smoker. Nicotine reduces blood flow to the gums. As well, smoking dries the mouth, burns the tissues, stains the teeth and therefore plaque and tartar build up more quickly. Chemicals in the smoke combine with bacteria in the mouth to make plaque and tartar even more harmful to gums. Since gums usually bleed less when you smoke, they can look healthier than they really are.
Heredity: Some people, by virtue of their genes, are simply more vulnerable to gum disease than other people. If your mother, father, brother or sister has gum disease, you may be more likely to develop it.
Saliva transfer: Gum disease is a bacterial infection and it can be transferred from one person to another through saliva. So you can acquire gum disease from someone else who has it such as your parents, siblings or even your sweetheart by, for example, sharing food, a toothbrush or a kiss.
Poor nutrition: If you don’t eat the right foods, your body doesn’t have the building blocks to repair damaged cells and to keep the immune system healthy. People with lowered immune systems are at higher risk for gum disease.
As well, harmful bacteria feed on starchy junk food and sugary treats and drinks, often leading to the accumulation of plaque and tartar.
Stress and illness: Both stress and illness lower the body's immune response and make us more vulnerable to infection. So if you're having friend troubles or money problems or even suffering from a cold or flu, you may be more susceptible to gum disease.
Medical conditions: People with certain medical conditions, like diabetes, are at higher risk for developing infections, including gum disease. Other illnesses like cancer or AIDS and their treatments can also affect the health of gums.
Medications: There are hundreds of medications that can reduce the flow of saliva, which helps to protect our gums. Without enough saliva, a dry mouth is more vulnerable to gum infections and decay.
Hormonal changes for women: Women are more susceptible to gum disease at certain stages of their lives (puberty, monthly menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause). Hormones influence the flow of blood to gum tissue and the body's ability to fight the toxins in plaque and tartar. These changes can cause gums to be more sensitive and make it easier for gum disease to develop.
Braces: Braces tend to trap food and because the areas around the braces are difficult to clean, lots of bacteria can cling and grow. As well, braces often cause tiny scratches around the tongue and inner lip and bacteria can enter the body through these scratches.
There are a number of other risk factors for gum disease. Be sure to discuss diet, lifestyle, medications and medical conditions with your dental professional so he or she can help you prevent gum disease. |
also referred to as a skin abscess, is a localized skin infection that begins as a reddened, tender area. The area soon becomes firm, hard, and more tender, due to the infection.
The center of the
then softens and fills with infection fighting white blood cells in the bloodstream to eradicate the infection.
The white blood cells, bacteria, and proteins are what forms the pus.
Next, the pus “forms a head,” which can be opened or drained through the surface of the skin. Pus enclosed within the tissue is called an abscess.
A “furuncle or carbuncle” is an abscess in the skin usually caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. A furuncle can have one or more openings on the skin and may be associated with a fever or chills. The term “furuncle” is used to refer to a typical boil that occurs within a hair follicle.
The term “carbuncle” is used to represent a larger abscess that involves a group of hair follicles and involves a larger area than a furuncle.
A “carbuncle” can form a hardened lump that can be felt in the skin. Having chronic or “recurring boils” is referred to as “furunculosis or carbunculosis.”
are caused by an ingrown hair. Others form as the result of a splinter or foreign material that’s become lodged in the skin, or those of acne, from plugged sweat glands that become infected.
Our skin is an essential part of our immune defense against microbes, germs and bacteria, that are foreign to our body. Any cut or scrape in our skin, can develop into an abscess should it become infected with bacteria.
People with a lowered immune system from taking certain medications are more likely to develop boils. Illnesses that can be associated with impaired immune systems are diabetes and kidney failure. Diseases where there’s inadequate antibody production, that are associated with deficiencies in the immune system can increase the tendency to boils.
Medications like cortisone (prednisone, Deltasone, Liquid Pred and prednisolone Pediapred Oral Liquid, Medrol) and medications used for cancer chemotherapy, can suppress the normal immune system and increase the risk of developing boils.
The diagnosis of boils can be made by observation. Blood tests or specialized lab tests are not required to make the diagnosis of a boil. If the infection within a boil has spread to deeper tissues or is extensive, cultures of the pus can be taken to identify the precise type of bacteria. This helps decide the antibiotics for treatmHome treatment is good for most simple boils. Treatment should begin as soon as a boil is noticed, since early treatment may prevent later complications.
As long as the boil is small and firm, opening and draining the boil is not helpful, even if the area is painful. However, once the boil becomes soft or “forms a head,” it may be ready to drain.
Once the pus is drained, pain relief can be dramatic. Most small boils, like those that form around hairs, drain on their own with hot soaks.
Larger boils will need to be drained or “lanced” by a health care professional. Larger boils contain several pockets of pus that must be opened and drained.
Antibiotics are often used to eliminate an infection of the surrounding skin. Antibiotics are not needed in every situation. Antibiotics have difficulty penetrating the outer wall of an abscess and often will not cure an abscess without additional surgical drainage.
When Do I Need To See A Doctor?
Boils usually resolve on their own and therefore have an excellent prognosis, but there are special cases in which medical care should be sought when boils develop.
Any boil associated with a fever should get medical attention. Increased reddening of the nearby skin and/or formation of red streaks on the skin, the failure of a boil to “form a head,” or the development of multiple boils are other symptoms that warrant a visit to the doctor.
A “pilonidal cyst,” a boil that occurs between the buttocks, is a special case. These almost always require medical treatment, including drainage and packing (putting gauze in the opened abscess to assure it continues to drain). Any painful boil that is not rapidly improving should be seen by a health care professional.
Author: Steve Berchtold
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Monday, November 17, 2014
You may have seen this replication of Picasso's Guernica done in Legos on the internet by Veronica Watson of Legoland. Very ambitious.
Guernica was a small Spanish Basque village where Franco and Hiltler bombed and strafed unsuspecting villagers in their town and fields. Hitler did it to show off and show the power of terror. Picasso painted it to bring attention to The Spanish Civil War.
Picasso knew this was a new form of warfare and his painting was shown at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris in the Spanish Pavilion. The Spanish were quite nervous about it's reception because of the strong presence the Germans whose exhibit was one of the largest as Germany was just coming into power before WW2.
On seeing a picture of the painting on Picasso's wall during the occupation of Paris a German Officer is to have said to Picasso "Did you do that" and Picasso replied "No, you did"
Considering the world of terrorist acts we live in I don't care what medium this important work is shown in as long as people see it and know its history.
And I am NOT say Germany made the only Terrorists. I think my own country has done it's share of damage.
What would you paint to depict terror today, Be headings, drones, refugee camps? CM
1. Interesting question. What would you paint? Great post.
2. I would make the Viet Nam War Veterans Mounment out of black legos.
Yes I know miniatures are,how shall I put it. a less serious medium generally. Faerie gardens and all. There is an absurdity when "twee" meets somber. But had to notice this. |
SIU Recycling History
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The first recycling program at Southern Illinois University was implemented in 1977. Called "Reuse News," the program employed students and volunteers to collect newspaper on campus. In 1986, this program was suspended because of poor markets.
In 1990, recycling efforts were begun again by the Pollution Control office, which in 1992 became the Center for Environmental Health and Safety (CEHS) The program was operated by students, who collected white, computer, and newspaper with a pick-up truck from approximately 250 offices on campus. The program was understaffed and underequipped to carry out a comprehensive recycling effort on campus.
SIU's current recycling efforts are in response to the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act (415ILCS 20/1 et seq.), enacted in 1990. This act mandated that all state run universities develop recycling plans by January 1, 1995. The plan outlines how the University intends to meet mandatory 40% reduction in solid waste by the year 2000.
SIU's Plant & Service Operations (PSO) department assumed responsibility for the recycling program on January 1, 1996. PSO has expanded the program to every academic building on campus (86 buildings) and to the facilities leased by the University at the Southern Illinois Airport. PSO's custodial staff collect recyclables on an established schedule, usually one night per week, and consolidate them at a collection point for the recycling truck to pick up the following day. This system has been extremely effective, as the custodial staff are in the buildings daily, and prevent recycling bins from overflowing and becoming a problem for the building occupants. The custodial staff have also been very helpful in identifying areas where occupants need assistance with recycling information, such as what can be recycled or how to properly sort recyclables. The custodial staff can readily identify such areas by what the occupants throw into their trash cans and how well the contents of the recycling bins are sorted.
PSO has also expanded the types of commodities accepted for recycling. All grades of paper including white paper, color paper, newspaper, greenbar computer paper, books, magazines, cardboard, junk mail, catalogs, phone books, and shredded paper are accepted. In addition to these materials; aluminum, tin, and scrap metal are collected as well as grass and leaves for composting, wooden pallets, motor oil, and #2 plastic. |
What Exactly Is A Flash Drive?
A flash drive is a small and extremely portable storage device that has no moving parts, unlike traditional hard drives.
These devices connect to computers and other devices with USB ports, making the flash drive a combination of a cable and USB device.
Many also often refer to custom flash drive storage devices as jump drives, pen drives, or thumb drives, and occasionally USB drive and solid state drive (SSD) are used to describe them, though the latter two terms are typically reserved for larger storage devices.
How to Use Flash Drives
If you want to use a flash drive, simply plug it into a free USB port on a laptop or desktop computer. Most computers will indicate when a device is inserted along with the contents stored on it. However, different operating systems will allow for different types of functionality.
Choose from Different Sizes
A majority of flash drives have data storage capacities of anywhere from 4 GB to 128 GB. Smaller and larger flash drives are also available in some places, but they can be difficult to find.
Writing and Rewriting for Data Storage
Similar to traditional hard drives, flash drives can be written and rewritten an unlimited amount of times depending on what you want stored or erased. These devices are designed to allow you to store most types of files, whether you need to store Word documents, movie files, .mp3s, or even applications.
Smaller flash drives are ideal for temporary storage of files, along with transportation between devices, while larger flash drives are ideal for larger files and applications that you need to run on a computer or other device.
Keep in mind that you can run flash drives on many types of devices beyond computers. Today, smart TVs and video game consoles are typically compatible with USB drives, playing certain media from them such as films and music.
Keeping Flash Drives Secure
One of the biggest issues revolving around flash drive data storage today is security. People need to be able to make sure that all stored files are consistently safe from theft and exploitation by unauthorized third parties.
Thankfully, many contemporary flash drive devices feature encryption and other security measures such as password protection to keep your data safe in the event of a lost or stolen flash drive. You won’t need to worry about the integrity of your files and sensitive data with many of today’s high-end security implementations.
Still Among the Most Reliable Data Storage Devices
While flash drives have long since replaced floppy discs and CDs as the most popular storage device, we’re unlikely to see anything else come along to surpass them. Today, you’re still better off using a flash drive to store data over any other type of portable device, whether for use as permanent or temporary storage. Depending on the size, you can fit most types of data on these devices without worrying about damage from falling, or certain security issues that might otherwise compromise your data.
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Monday, 26 June 2017 12:24
Open Plan VS Closed Plan Offices
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Open plan
Helps to create an environment of collaboration
When employees work within a short distance of each other, it is much easier for them to discuss tasks and share skills. Group projects are easier to coordinate and employees are able to learn as they work.
Can be more cost effective
Rather than having to provide each employee with their own individual office, open plan layouts help to make good use of the space available. Reducing the need for complicated construction and additional heating and cooling costs, open plan offices also allow employees to share desks and other resources, such as printer and photocopiers.
Creates an inclusive environment
Open plan offices help to create a sense of camaraderie, where a sense of respect and friendship arises through constant contact and collaboration. This can help to forge an environment that employees thrive in and enjoy making their way to each day.
Can aid in encouraging better communication
Sitting within close proximity of each other, communication is naturally encouraged between employees in an open plan office. Compared to a closed layout, face to face communication is generally adopted instead of the endless email threads that develop when people are located far from each other.
Reduces distractions
Sitting in their own individual office space, workers in closed plan offices generally encounter fewer distractions than their counterparts in open plan spaces. With a quieter work environment, fewer interruptions and the option to close their door when they need privacy, workers can settle into their office chairs and enjoy greater productivity.
Offers more privacy
One great advantage closed plan offices hold over their open plan counterparts is the way in which they allow for increased privacy. Important for making confidential phone calls and handling sensitive material, a closed office helps to ensure that only the intend people are privy to the information being handled.
Can reduce absenteeism
Sitting together and sharing equipment in an open plan office may be more economical, but with workers sitting in such close proximity, illnesses tend to spread faster between workers than in closed plan spaces. Getting sick less often and missing fewer days at work, workers in closed plan spaces tend to have the upperhand on their open plan counterparts in this respect.
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Additional Windows 2000 Glossary Entries
Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) defines a set of COM interfaces that let directory service client applications access network directory services such as Active Directory (AD). With ADSI, clients can use one set of interfaces to communicate with any namespace that supports ADSI implementation. Instead of making network-specific API calls, clients can take advantage of ADSI to access namespace services. In addition to standard COM features, ADSI supports Java, Visual Basic (VB), VBScript, C, C++, and ActiveX technology.
An attribute is a characteristic or property of an AD object. Attribute values define all AD objects. For example, a user object's attributes (e.g., first name, last name, phone number) define the user object. The schema defines the attributes. You can apply one attribute definition to several different classes because the schema defines attributes and classes separately. For example, an attribute named location can apply to two different classes: printers and computers.
A Certificate Authority (CA) is a service that issues digital certificates to individuals, computers, and organizations. A CA can be either one that you create within your organization by installing Win2K Certificate Services or a third-party CA such as VeriSign. A CA is responsible for publishing a Certification Revocation List (CRL). A root CA, also known as the root authority, is the most trusted CA in an organization. Typically, organizations use root CAs only to issue certificates to subordinate CAs, which are CAs that a root CA or another subordinate CA has certified. Generally, subordinate CAs issue certificates for secure email, smart card authentication, and other authentications. A root CA and subordinate CAs form a certification hierarchy.
A forest is a collection of one or more AD trees that connect through transitive bidirectional Kerberos trust relationships. Trees in a forest share several things, including a common schema, a global catalog, and certain configuration information, but they don't form a contiguous namespace. With one logon, users can access resources in any domain in a forest because of transitive trusts. Only transitive trusts exist between Win2K domains in the same forest; you can't create nontransitive trusts between Win2K domains in the same forest. However, the only trust you can create between two forests is a nontransitive trust. Throughout a forest, you can have only one schema master domain controller, which handles updates and changes to schema, and one domain naming master, which handles addition or removal of domains in the forest.
Group Policy
A Group Policy is a policy that an administrator applies to a group of users and computers within an organizational unit (OU). A group policy object (GPO) is a collection of such policies. Group Policies in Win2K take the NT 4.0 system policy concept to the next level: You can apply Registry-based changes, as you could with NT system policies, but Group Policies also let you perform various tasks, including deploying applications on client desktops, configuring startup-shutdown and logon-logoff scripts, and enforcing domain security. Although Win2K's Group Policies replace any NT system policies you created with System Policy Editor (SPE), Win2K still supports system policies. By default, a Group Policy updates every 5 minutes on domain controllers and every 90 minutes on clients, with a random offset of 0 to 30 minutes.
Kerberos V5 Authentication
Kerberos V5, the primary security protocol that Win2K uses for authentication, uses encrypted authentication instead of sending clear-text passwords over the wire. Kerberos refers to several things: Kerberos is the Authentication Service (AS), the protocol that AS uses, and the code that implements AS. Kerberos V5 authentication issues tickets for accessing services on the network. The Kerberos protocol consists of several subprotocols and can operate across domains. The Kerberos V5 authentication service, Key Distribution Center (KDC), runs as a service on each domain controller.
Transitive Trust
A transitive trust is a trust relationship that exists by default between domains in a Win2K tree or forest. Transitive trusts also exist inherently between trees in a forest. With transitive behavior, if domain X trusts domain Y, and domain Y trusts domain Z, then domain X also trusts domain Z. When a Win2K domain joins an existing tree, a two-way transitive trust establishes automatically. In NT, two-way trusts are really two one-way trusts that establish one at a time. The transitive trusts in Win2K are bidirectional and allow authentication and access to resources all across a forest.
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Octopus Predators
Octopus Predators
Octopus and Types of Predators
There are quite a few different types of predators out there that find Octopus to be the perfect meal. The location of the Octopus will affect the types of predators it has to contend with. The species of Octopus also affects it due to the different sizes of these animals.
Some of the most common predators include large fish, birds, and some types of whales. In some areas they have to worry about eels and dolphins. It seems that when the normal food sources for these types of animals are hard to find they will become more dependent upon the Octopus. With the reduction in the number of sharks and dolphins remaining those predators have become less of a problem for the Octopus.
More than 2/3 of all the offspring will become food within the first couple of weeks of their young lives. They are living at the surface of the water and that makes them extremely vulnerable. While more than 200,000 young can be hatched, a single predator can consume hundreds or thousands of them in a matter or minutes. The low survival rate is why there are so many young born.
The larger Octopus will put up quite a fight for their survival with these types of predators. That is why they will often be left alone unless there is really nothing else for these predators to consume. They don’t want to risk being in a confrontation with an Octopus. They can bite too which can release a powerful venom from their bodies. In fact, that is what they release to be able to consume their own prey.
The Octopus is one creature with an instinct to run when they feel they are in danger. They have a body that is able to fit into small spaces which makes it easier for them to hide when they need to. They can often get away from a predator by moving very quickly into one of these small areas. The predator generally won’t sit around and wait for them to come back out. Instead they will continue on their way trying to find other sources of food that are easier for them to grab.
The fact that they can release ink from their bodies is their other line of defense. This ink gives them time to get away from predators while they are trying to re-orient themselves. They have a gland that created ink and then they can release it instinctively when they feel stress. Sometimes predators can get too close though before they are able to release the ink and then it doesn’t protect them.
They also have the unique ability to change their body colors for camouflage, very similar to what the Chameleon can do. With this process they can go a step further by mimicking other animals in the water. They may try to act like an Eel, Lion Fish, or Sea Snake. It can be very comical to see them behave in such a fashion. Yet doing so has worked wonders for them in the water. It has allowed them to be left alone instead of a predator trying to eat them.
Even with all of these efforts though, there are plenty of times when they Octopus is just too slow for them to survive. They also don’t have the ability to hear so if they aren’t seeing a predator come their way it can be over before they know it. There has been plenty of observing the Octopus in their natural setting to see the balance of things and how predators are able to take control of them in a matter or seconds. |
Neurofeedback Therapy for AD/HD
By Dr. Doug Seiden
Although it’s been 20 years since I worked as a psychologist in the Coney Island, New York, school system, there is a moment that continues to stand out in my memory.
At the time, I was doing weekly therapy with an elementary school student who rarely stayed in his seat and even more rarely paid attention to his teachers’ lessons. One day, I went to fetch him from class for our therapy session, and was told that he was in the computer room.
When I went there, not only he but several of my other clients with attention, impulsivity or hyperactivity problems were in front of computers, sitting still and paying complete attention to the screens.
“So?” might ask any parent of a child with an attentional challenge who knows that this difficulty strangely doesn’t carry over to video games. But the children in that room weren’t playing video games. They were learning math.
During their classroom math lessons these students either spaced out or zoomed around the room. Why were these kids so quiet and attentive while they were being taught math on a computer? The answer is that the computers were teaching them at a level and speed that at any given moment was not so easy as to be boring, yet not so hard as to be frustrating. One solution to attention problems is to change characteristics of the object or thing requiring attention.
A second approach is to change characteristics of the person having the difficulty. Most people can pay attention to things that are too easy, too difficult, or not particularly stimulating. But for some of us, there is something that interferes with paying attention under less than optimal conditions. Current research suggests that this “something” involves the power of brainwaves of various speeds in certain regions of the brain.
You may have wondered why when some overactive children take a stimulant medication such as Ritalin they slow down, rather than speed up. The simple answer is that difficulty with attention can sometimes be caused by slow brainwaves being much stronger than fast brainwaves.
The hyperactivity we often see in people with attention problems may be a way of self-stimulating — zooming around in an effort to speed up their brains. When their brain is sped up with stimulant medications, they no longer feel the urge to speed it up themselves. It is now easier to sit still, and even pay attention to a teacher expounding on long division or some other topic that doesn’t involve superheroes.
The downside of using stimulants is that they can reduce sleep and appetite and increase heart rate and blood pressure. The most common alternative, behavior modification (such as a point system to reward attention, sitting still and doing schoolwork) has some success, but it still does not address the brainwave issue.
A lesser known treatment that due to its effectiveness has been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a “Level 1 – Best Support” treatment — along with medication, behavior therapy, parent management training and self-verbalization — is neurofeedback, which trains the brain to self-regulate. Whereas medication for AD/HD is helpful only while being used, and the other therapies help to manage symptoms without necessarily reducing the underlying distress, neurofeedback trains the brain to self-regulate.
Neurofeedback's beneficial effects on attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity have been found to last and even to further improve after treatment is completed. |
Holmes on Conversation Styles Essay
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Holmes (2000: 300) stated that :
It seems possible that for men mock-insults and abuse serve the same function – expressing solidarity and maintaining social relationships – as complements and agreeing comments do for women
For the writer, he agrees with this statement because for male counterpart; it’s hard to find and identify the equivalent for men towards women’s gossip. Men tend to discuss and focus on things and activities, rather than feelings and also personal experience as the main topic for conversation. Some topics like sports or cars turn up regularly and the focus were more on facts and information compared from feelings and reactions.
The verbal sparring is reported by others who have examined all-male interactions and in some groups, the verbal insult is an established and ritual speech activity. Evidence of this kind makes the task easier to understand why some researchers have suggested that men and women belong to totally different cultural groups. In the other hand, it also helps to explain why women and men sometimes miscommunicate when communicating with each other.
Meanwhile, it should being noted once more that most of the research which have been referred in order to describe women’s and also men’s interaction patterns were in Western English-speaking communities, and most of the data came from white middle-class adult speakers. While there are some evidence that proves women tend to be more supportive and men become much more competitive conversationalist in the other cultures too, but still there are some increasing amount of research which describing the alternative patterns.
So, the writer here would like to say either he agree or not with this kind of statement. For the writer himself, h...
... middle of paper ...
...e seems to stray away from the main topic which been discussed, but bear in mind that for language which someone utters; all those factors were need to take into account in judging person’s personal language choice. So, that was why it need to be discussed altogether when explaining about this issue. Then, as the statement which Holmes had mentioned above, men’s mock-insult and abuse. It truly shows that the environment itself and situation plays very huge role in men’s language choice. The psycholinguistic factors also cannot being just simply put aside but need to be discussed together in this issue as well.
In the end of this issue discussion, again the writer would like to emphasize on his stance which he actually supports the particular statement made by Holmes when analyzing between men and also women conversation style.
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The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the longest and most spectacular bridges in the world. Spanning the Pacific Ocean for 6,450 feet it con-nects northern California to the peninsula of San Francisco with a total length of 8,981 feet.
It was built at a cost of $35,000,000 (or about $140 mil-lion by today's standards) and took four years to complete. Towers on either side stand 746 feet high and hold two steel cables 3-1/2 feet in di-ameter which support thousands of tons of con-crete and steel. The center section is 4,200 feet in length, one of the longest spans in the world. A six-lane highway and sidewalks make up the floor of the bridge.
Joseph B. Strauss, the chief engineer, battled against unrelenting opposition and criticism. Many said it was impractical to throw his 100,000 tons of steel across the San Francisco Bay . The unlearned scoffed and jeered while the learned said that the southern pier was over a geologic fault and would threaten the harbor in case of an earthquake. But undaunted and determined, Strauss pursued his solitary dream to span the Bay battling the difficulties of rapidly running tides, frequent storms and fogs and the problem of blasting rock under water to plant earthquake proof foundations.
Begun in 1933 the bridge was completed after four years and on May 27, 1937 amid the shouts of working men and the populace, the ribbon was cut and the first car made its maiden journey across the bridge.
Some have asked if this was the most important bridge ever built. No, there was an even greater bridge built 2,000 years ago. The towers are remarkable. One was raised outside the gates of old Jerusalem ; it was a wooden struc-ture with a cross beam at the top; it was soaked with divine blood and seared by judgment fires.
The other tower stands high on the "Immovable Mountain of Immortality" and around it on every side flash walls of jasper, and over it the arching rainbow of perpetual peace. The span is the longest ever swung by an engineer. It stretches all the way from the road to hell to the gates of heaven. It was built at an awe-some cost to the Chief Designer. As the last rough rivet was driven in place by a Roman sledgeham-mer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God died shouting "IT IS FINISHED."
Before his bloody body has been removed from this magnificent superstructure of redemption, the bridge had been crossed by a thief. Millions more have crossed it since. For written there in bold blazing letters of fire for all men everywhere to read:
"For as much as ye know that ye were not re-deemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold...
but with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
1 Peter 1:18-19
"In whom we have redemption through His blood,
Ephesians 1:7
"For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of Cod is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23
Acts 2:21 |
Judge Johnson Goes Home To Hills Of Alabama
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July 27, 1999|By Howell Raines, New York Times
Like so many of the public figures of his generation, Judge Frank Minis Johnson Jr. was marked irrevocably by the place of his birth. It is unthinkable that, in death, he should rest anywhere else. So today he will be received by the hills of the ``Free State of Winston,'' that remote, impoverished and contrary jurisdiction where he came to life in 1918.
As one who knows that territory well, I can tell you that the strength of those Alabama hills was in Johnson. Its patriotic history as the center of Unionist sentiment in Civil War Alabama is woven like a silver thread through Johnson's interpretations of the Constitution.
But I can also tell you that birth geography cannot fully explain the unflagging moral courage and legal brilliance that emanated from this lanky, back-country lawyer during what was a season of cowardice and failure for most white Southerners.
During the high-tide years of the civil-rights movement, when Gov. George Wallace dictated the political reality of Alabama, Johnson was the counter reality.
Wallace prattled incessantly about his feckless crusade to preserve segregation. Johnson dismantled it, starting with a breathtaking ruling in 1955 that applied the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision to buses and other public services. Ten years later, he overrode Wallace and allowed the Selma march to go forward.
These decisions carried a message for Southerners that extended beyond the law. Southerners of all colors had long understood that segregation could survive only if the Constitution was kept in chains, as it had been since Reconstruction with Washington's implicit approval. Johnson unlocked those chains and used them to swing the Constitution like a wrecking ball against a series of barriers to civil liberties.
To Wallace's dismay, Johnson began to be called ``the real governor of Alabama.'' He used court rulings to correct Wallace's mistakes in everything from voting rights to prison conditions. Reforms that were achieved at the ballot box in Georgia, Florida and even Mississippi had to be imposed by federal court order in Alabama.
``Well, he did what the governor was supposed to do,'' said one of my longtime friends, Tennant McWilliams, a dean at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. ``The interesting thing is that Alabama never got a New South governor, but it did get a judge who was more progressive and liberal than any of those governors, and he did more than all those New South governors did. He did all that he could do.''
For a generation, the novelistic saga of George Wallace and Frank Johnson has been everyone's favorite chapter in the Alabama political catechism.
They had been law-school buddies, and Johnson's wife, Ruth, had befriended the brash and unfashionable Wallace. Decades later, alone and crippled, Wallace told the Johnsons that, for old times' sake, he wanted to be forgiven for stirring up public hatred against them to the point that their lives were in danger. Johnson sent back word that ``if he wanted forgiveness, he'd have to get it from the Lord.''
The split had been probably unmendable since 1959. First, Wallace defied one of Johnson's court orders as a way of promoting his gubernatorial hopes, then came skulking into the judge's kitchen under cover of night to beg to stay out of jail. The heart of Wallace's problem, really, was that he always looked like a skulker when measured against Johnson, and the governor died in 1998 knowing that was exactly how history would measure him.
The judgment of history on Frank Johnson will, I think, be straightforward.
He stands with Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black as one of the two most important Alabamians of the century in national affairs. As for courage, Johnson stands alone, for he remained in the violent heartland of segregation even as he was outlawing it.
He had a stainless-steel core, yet he was not a steely man. On the personal side, which I glimpsed a few times in his last years, he had an ambling, hill-country fondness for down-home yarns and the outdoor life.
I went fishing with him once on the Suwannee River in Florida. ``It's time to salute the Constitution,'' he announced at noon on the first day, producing a bottle of George Dickel, his favorite sour mash. Those words and the accompanying shot of Dickel were, it turned out, a Johnson fishing ritual known to all his friends.
Last week, when I learned of his death, I remembered that moment and thought that, indeed, the man's entire life had been a salute to the Constitution.
Orlando Sentinel Articles |
CHARGE Syndrome
Updated diagnostic criteria states that any baby born with one of the major features of CHARGE (listed below) with other congenital defects should be considered for a diagnosis of CHARGE. Also, in 2004, a genetic discovery was made regarding CHARGE in the Netherlands; they discovered mutations or microdeletions on the 8th chromosome, on a gene called CHD7, causes CHARGE. Studies are ongoing; this may be only the first of many genetic findings. A negative CHD7 test does not preclude your child from having CHARGE; it is expected that more genetic findings related to CHARGE will be made in the future.
Kennedy's blood, as well ours, was tested for the CHD7 mutation. She tested positive for the mutation, but we did not; in other words, she has what is known as a "de novo" mutation. The testing was done at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. This means we do NOT have an increased risk for having another child with CHARGE syndrome, nor do her brothers. We learned from Dr. Lalani at the Miami CHARGE conference in July that the mutation Kennedy has is R1069x on exon 13 of the CHD7 gene on chromosome 8. Yikes! this didn't mean much, but she explained it very well: the "R" represents arginine, a protein that grows on that particular gene (CHD7). The "x" represents a "stop" - if the arginine protein was supposed to grow to 3000 at exon 13 (a section of the gene), it stopped at 1069, so it is shorter than it is supposed to be.
The results of this study were published in the Nature Genetics Journal in September, 2004.
Before the genetic findings and refinement of major & minor criteria to make a diagnosis, CHARGE diagnoses were made clinically using the acronym.
C= "C"oloboma of the eye or eyes - Can range from different parts of the eye not forming properly to different levels of vision loss and blind spots. "C"rainial Nerve abnormalities - can cause such things as facial palsy and swallowing problems, problems with the movement of food down the GI tract, lack of smell and taste, and hearing loss.
H= "H"eart defects - these can range from minor to major, some requiring surgery.
A= "A"tresia of the choanae - The passages at the back of the nose/throat do not form properly and may be "blocked" which may require surgery to make it possible to breathe.
R= "R"etarded growth and developmental delay - Often caused due to feeding/nutrition problems, growth hormone deficiency, surgeries, lengthy hospital stays, and sensory impairments. Please note, just because the word "retardation" is part of the CHARGE acronym, this does not necessarily mean "mental" retardation.
G= "G"enital hypoplasia - Mostly in boys, small penises, undescended testes. There can also be urinary and or renal abnormalities
E= "E"ar anomalies - Malformed ears and/or different levels of deafness.
This is just a short snippet about CHARGE. The very best source for information relating to CHARGE syndrome is the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation. They have a great "About CHARGE" page; please visit them for more information on the full listing of the major & minor features, medical, educational, and developmental
Kennedy explains CHARGE. This is a video Kennedy's teacher took of her presenting what CHARGE is to her sixth grade classmates. Many students just thought she had a hearing loss and were curious. We thought Kennedy was the best person to explain it. Some terms and information were simplified for the audience.
*Note: If you are having trouble viewing this, this can be viewed in a larger window by going to
On A Personal Note
I would just like to add some of my own thoughts about CHARGE syndrome, and how we've been coping so far. If you are a parent of a newly diagnosed baby or child, I'm sure you are extremely "shell-shocked" at the moment. Kennedy was born in 1998, and we are pretty much settled into a "normal" (whatever that is!) routine, but we still have bouts of CHARGE craziness when something pops up we weren't expecting, etc. It hasn't always been easy, but definitely always worth it!
The first year was much harder, but I'm happy to say that it does calm down eventually. Sometimes, just when we thought things were getting "normal", something new would surprise us, but we've found it a little easier everytime.
One thing I want to mention is that even though all the "possibilities" of CHARGE symptoms are listed above, that doesn't mean every baby or child with CHARGE has all of them - they are all different, and each symptom can vary in degrees of severity. I can tell you that for us, information has been the key in how we've coped. We have tried to read and find out all that we can about CHARGE.
I can't stress enough how the people within the CHARGE mailing list have helped us, you can ask them ANYTHING, or just go there and vent your frustrations, because you know that they all will understand. If there is something you are wondering about, someone on this list can help, either by answering it, or pointing you in the direction of someone who can.
If you get the opportunity to attend one of the CHARGE Syndrome International Conferences, I highly recommend it. For more information, please visit the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation. Meeting other families who are going through similar situations and being in a place for a short time where everyone "gets it" is a life-changing opportunity.
If you would like to contact me personally, please email me, I would be happy to speak to anyone online or on the phone who wants someone to talk to.
Kennedy being cute - 2006
Kennedy blowing bubbles - 2006
Princess Kennedy - 2006
Singin' In The Rain - 2006
Funny Face
Lovely Girl
Look How Cute I Am! |
Early detection of breast cancer minimizes the likelihood that the cancer has spread, and increases the chances of making a complete recovery. Treatment depends on individual circumstances, such as the rate of growth, how it responds to treatment, and whether or not it has spread.
When the tumour is confined to the breast, the best choice is surgery, followed by systemic therapy and possibly also radiation. Part or all of the breast is surgically removed soon after the diagnosis to avoid having the cancer spread. Removal of a small part of the breast - only the tumour and some surrounding tissue - is called a lumpectomy, or partial mastectomy if a larger area of the breast is removed. A simple mastectomy involves removing the whole breast, and a radical mastectomy includes the underlying chest muscle and tissue as well. The lymph nodes in the underarms may also be taken out.
Systemic therapy consists of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. Chemotherapy is often given over six to eight months, and hormonal therapy may continue for five years or longer, if tests on the original cancer find receptors for hormones (receptor-positive cancers). The use of systemic therapy is now very common, and greatly reduces the risk of recurrence of the cancer, often by as much as 50%.
On rare occasions, systemic therapy is used prior to surgery. This is called neoadjuvant therapy. This type of treatment is used to improve chances of recovery, to allow surgery to take place successfully, and to assess the response of the tumour to systemic therapy (which cannot occur if the tumour is already removed).
Radiation therapy is often administered after lumpectomy or partial mastectomy. It is used if the resection margins are very close, or if the tumour was large and involved a lot of lymph nodes. Radiation kills any remaining cancer cells in the breast and sometimes in the armpit and chest wall as well. Side effects of radiation therapy are the result of healthy tissue in the area being destroyed, and go away on their own following the completion of therapy.
While successful surgery and radiation therapy rely on exact knowledge of where the tumour is located, systemic therapy does not. Chemotherapy involves taking one or more medications to destroy secondary tumours or in an attempt to suppress growth of cancer cells that may appear in other locations. Hormone therapy works on cancerous cells that have estrogen receptors, making them susceptible to estrogen-blocking medications. The source of the hormones that stimulate growth - ovaries or the adrenal gland - may also be surgically removed or destroyed using X-rays.
As far as we know, breast cancer can't be prevented. Research is ongoing to confirm that medications known as anti-estrogens can help prevent breast cancer for women at high risk. In the meantime, keep in mind the non-drug steps you can take to reduce your risk of breast cancer:
• exercise regularly
• reduce alcohol intake (one to two drinks per day slightly increases your risk)
In addition, women should get to know their breasts. One way to do that is to perform monthly breast self-examinations - your doctor can show you the correct way to do this. From age 50, women of average risk should also have mammograms and physical examinations every two years. These measures help detect any unusual lumps or abnormalities in breast tissue. Early detection can make a big difference in successful treatment. |
Sleep is an essential aspect of living, but unfortunately, continues to be very common health concern in our society. Diminished sleep quality affects our health in many more ways than just a feeling fatigued the next day. Sleep disturbances including problems falling asleep, staying asleep or being a light sleeper all decrease quality of sleep. Poor sleep quality can contribute to symptoms such as memory loss, poor concentration, mood disorders. Furthermore, dysregulated circadian rhythm and can negatively impact our hormonal health. It’s paramount that we establish an understanding of the underlying causes depriving you of quality sleep and strive to regulate your sleep patterns. Through thorough intake and functional testing we’re able to determine whether your sleep concerns are stemming from nutritional deficiencies, a consequence of hormonal dysregulation and/or a result of poor sleep hygiene. Once the root cause of the sleep disturbances assessed, effective and accurate naturopathic treatments can be implemented to restore healthy circadian rhythm. |
GOLDEN TRIANGLE was once the world's largest and most famous opium growing region but production has dropped dramatically—particularly in Thailand—and now Afghanistan is far and away the world’s largest illicit opium producer . Covering an area the size of Nevada and at one time the source of 60 percent of the heroin consumed in United States, it embraces the lovely green mountains and valleys of northern Thailand, western Myanmar (Burma) and northeastern Laos.
The Golden Triangle is an area of around 350,000 square kilometers that overlaps the mountains of three countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. The Golden Triangle originally designated the confluence of the Sop Ruak River and the Mekong river and may have been coined to describe the payment of gold for opium. Later the term was used to describe the opium and heroin trade around the nearby junction of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. Later still it was appropriated by the region’s tourist industry to describe the region where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar all come together.
Most of the opium and heroin is produced today in the region comes from Myanmar and to a lesser extent Laos. The section of the Golden Triangle in Thailand is pretty tame these days. Many former opium-growing areas are now popular trekking areas. King Bhumibol of Thailand has been active in promoting alternative crops to opium. Some hill tribe villages see a lot of foreign trekkers. Other are still remote and relatively untouched.
At one time about 70 percent of the heroin on the streets in the United States originated in the Golden Triangle. The region produced 3,000 tons of opium in 1996, 60 percent of the global supply. In the late 1990s, the Golden Crescent in Pakistan, Iran and particularly Afghanistan surpassed the Golden Triangle as the world's largest opium-growing area.
Myanmar produces 90 percent of the heroin and opium produced in the Golden Triangle. Laos produces some but much less than Myanmar. Thailand used to produce quite a lot but it doesn’t anymore. Many of the former opium growing areas in Thailand are now popular trekking areas. Sometimes opiums harvests are lower than they otherwise might be due to heavy rains and cold winters in the area. In addition, Chinese authorities have tried to crank down on the drug production and smuggling along China’s border with the Golden Triangle area.
Opium was introduced to China by Arab traders during the reign of Kublai Khan (1279-94). The drug was highly valued for its medicinal qualities and was grow by some ethnic minorities in south China to raise money to pay tributes to the Chinese Emperors.
Opium as a major cash crop was introduced to the Golden Triangle by the British in the colonial period. It was grown as a cash crop for the French as well as the British. But it was Chinese who once fought for the Kuomintang troops with Chiang Kai-shek against Chairman Mao's Red Army that introduced big time production and smuggling.
The British aggressively marketed opium in China. The result: lots of addicts. Some smoked the drug in opium deans. Others took opium pills. Cheap pill known as pen yen gave rise to the expression have a "yen" for something. Chinese who came to the United States in the 19th century to work as laborers brought opium smoking with them. Opium dens opened in San Francisco and towns where Chinese railroad workers stayed. By 1890, there were a number of "smoke houses" in the basements in back-ally buildings in New York. The customers included prostitutes, showgirls, businessmen and tourist as well as Chinamen.
In 1949, the remnant's of Chiang Kai-shek's defeated Kuomingtan (Chinese nationalists) army retreated to the mountain of Burma along the Chinese border and tried to organize attacks against the Red Army. To raise money the Kuomintan encouraged peasant farmers to raise opium, which the Chinese nationalists sold for huge profits. Later the Beijing-backed Communist Party of Burma financed their operation with money from the opium and heroin trade.
Bert Lintner wrote on Asia Online: “Following Mao Zedong's victory in China in 1949, thousands of Kuomintang soldiers came streaming south, and, supported by the surviving Republic of China government in Taiwan—and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)— they tried in vain to "liberate" the mainland from their new sanctuaries in Myanmar, then known as Burma. The Kuomintang invasion resulted in a reign of terror for the ordinary people who lived in the areas, as the nationalist Chinese collected taxes, forcibly enlisted recruits and encouraged poppy cultivation in the area to finance their "secret" army. At the age of 16, Khun Sa formed his own armed band to fight the intruders. In the early 1960s, his small private army was even recognized officially as the "Loi Maw Ka Kwe Ye", a home guard unit under the Myanmar army. [Source: Bert Lintner, Asia Online, November 1, 2007*]
The Vietnam War was a boon for the opium and heroin business. Americans in Southeast Asia not only provided a fairly well paid source of buyers they also provided ways for Asian drug producers to export their products around the world. Before that time Turkey and the Middle East were the primary source of opium. As time went on demand increased and to meet demand production increased as more drugs flooded the market more people had access to drugs. Joe Cummings wrote in the Lonely Planet Guide of Thailand: “As the cycle expanded opium cultivation became a full-time job for some hill tribes within the Golden Triangle. Hill economies were destabalized to the point where opium production became a necessary means of survival for thousands of people, including the less nomadic Shan people.”
As part of their effort to combat Communism, the CIA allegedly helped expand the opium trade in Southeast Asia—first in Laos, then in Burma and finally in Vietnam—to help groups fighting Communism raise money and sew instability. From 1960 to 1973, the C.I.A. allegedly trained Hmong tribesmen to fight against Communist in Laos and the Hmong in turn financed some of their efforts by selling opium. There is much controversy about how deeply the CIA was involved in the Southeast Asia drug trade. If the CIA was not involved in the drug trade, it did know about it. As former DCI William Colby acknowledged, the Agency did little about it during the 1960s, but later took action against the traders as drugs became a problem among American troops in Vietnam. The CIA's main focus in Laos remained on fighting the war, not on policing the drug trade. See Opium Under Southeast Asia.
William M. Leary, the University of Georgia historian, wrote: “For more than 13 years, the Agency directed native forces that fought major North Vietnamese units to a standstill.... As Joseph Westermeyer, who spent the years 1965 to 1975 in Laos as a physician, public health worker, and researcher, wrote in Poppies, Pipes, and People: "American-owned airlines never knowingly transported opium in or out of Laos, nor did their American pilots ever profit from its transport. Yet every plane in Laos undoubtedly carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors--just as had virtually every pedicab, every Mekong River sampan, and every missionary jeep between China and the Gulf of Siam."
According to Alfred McCoy, a historian at the University of Wisconsin, the French administration of Indochina had financed its covert operations with the drug trade, and the CIA had simply replaced the French, to finance similar operations. He said he was told by retired general Maurice Belleux, the former head of the French equivalent of the CIA that the French military intelligence had financed all their covert operations from the control of the Indochina drug trade: “The French paratroopers fighting with hill tribes collected the opium and French aircraft would fly the opium down to Saigon and the Sino-Vietnamese mafia that was the instrument of French intelligence would then distribute the opium. The central bank accounts, the sharing of the profits, was all controlled by French military intelligence. He concluded the interview by telling me that it was his information that the CIA had taken over the French assets and were pursuing something of the same policy.
“During the 40 years of the cold war, from the late 1940s to this year, the CIA pursued a policy that I call radical pragmatism. Their mission was to stop communism and in pursuit of that mission they would ally with anyone and do anything to fight communism. During the long years of the cold war the CIA mounted major covert guerilla operations along the Soviet-Chinese border. The CIA recruited as allies people we now call drug lords for their operation against communist China in northeastern Burma in 1950, then from 1965 to 1975 [during the Vietnam war] their operation in northern Laos and throughout the decade of the 1980s, the Afghan operation against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
The CIA set up an airline called Air America that was involved in various activities associated with the war: moving fighters, flying reconnaissance missions, dropping and picking up spies and searching for downed aircraft. Some say Air American was involved in drug smuggling.
Most of the opium produced in the Golden Triangle is grown by subsistence farmers on two acre plots of land. Opium is usually raised as second crop after their main food source rice is planted in May and harvested in September. On average the farms earned about $650 in the 1990s from five kilograms of opium crops. The money was used to buy everything from fertilizer to guns. In many places where opium is grown, the land is too high and too cold for rice and corn grown there doesn’t taste good.
A 2013 United Nations report said that just over 9 metric tons of heroin was seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2012, compared to 6.5 metric tons in 2010, while 2.7 metric tons of opium was seized in 2012 compared to 2 metric tons in 2010.
The opium harvesting season is in January and February. In Southeast Asia opium is usually in wrapped bundles called jois. Each joi weighs 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds), the amount of opium produced by 3,000 poppies. In Thailand about 2.2 kilograms of raw opium is grown on one rai of land (1,600 square meters).
Much of the opium grown in the Golden Triangle in the 1970s, 80s and 90s was refined into a super-pure form of heroin known as China White (also known Heroin no. 4). Favored by intravenous drug users in the United States, it was stronger and cheaper than heroin from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan that circulated during the 1960s. Golden Triangle opium was also made into Heroin No. 3 smoking heroin, favored by addicts in Southeast Asia.
Most of China White has been refined from opium in remote but sophisticated jungle laboratories. In the 1990s these laboratories also began producing amphetamines such as "ice" which are very popular in Asia as well as in Europe and the U.S.
After the crackdown on opium and heroin production in Thailand in the 1980s most of production was done by opium farmers in Myanmar and heroin labs in Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Thailand remained a key link in the smuggling.
There was a steady increase of opium production in the Golden Triangle in the 1980s and 1990s. About 4,000 tons of opium was produced in the Golden Triangle in 1995, most of it from northeast Myanmar. At that time it was estimated that two tons of f heroin was smuggled through Thailand, with only about two percent of it being intercepted by authorities despite a large DEA presence in the area.
Opium Production in Myanmar, Decline in Opium Production in Myanmar , See Myanmar. Opium Production in Thailand, See Thailand. Opium Production in Laos, See Laos
Tachileik (on the Myanmar - Thai border in the Eastern Shan State) is being upgraded as a tourism gateway to the heart of the Golden Triangle and cross-border trade center for Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and China.. The Friendship Bridge across the small Mae Sai stream links Tachileik with the northern Thai border town of Mae Sai. One can fly direct from Yangon to Tachileik in an hour. There is a ferry-landing site at Wanpon port on the Mekong River at the Myanmar - Laos border, 29 kilometers from Tachileik. The port also handles goods shipments to and from Thailand and China. A one-and-half hour drive away from Tachileik is Mai Pong, where one can enjoy a boat tour of Mekong River. See Thailand
Kyaing Tong (452 kilometers from Taunggyi and 176 kilometers from Tachileik) is the capital of Eastern Shan State. Located in the Golden Triangle near China, Laos and Thailand, this part of Myanmar is known for its scenic mountains and hill tribes. The road from Tachilek on the Thai border winds 100 miles to Kyaing Tonge and passes through mountains, forests, streams and tribal villages.
Many of the hill tribes found here are similar to those in Thailand except they are more unspoiled. Places of interests include a colorful active open market used by local hill tribes, - Akha hill tribe villages, Lishaw village, traditional dances, Maha-Myat-Muni Pagoda, Naung-Tong lake, Sunn-Taung Monastery, Hot Spring, traditional lacquer ware works and weaving factories and One, Three Pagoda. Loiw-mew, a misty 5500-foot-high peak is located about 20 miles from Kyaing Tong. Kyaing Tong can be reached by air from Heho or a seven hour drive along the rough road from Tachileik.
Ethnic tribes residing around Kyaing Tong include the Gon, Lwe, Li, Wa, Lah Hu, Thai Nay, Shan, Li Shaw, Li Su, Palaung and Akha, many of which are differentiated by their colorful traditional clothes. Visitors can observe their tribal dances and visit their mountain villages.
The Maha Myat Muni of Kyaing Tong (Wat Pra Sao Loang) is a Buddha statue housed in a pagoda encircled by a traffic circle, just around the corner from the Kyainge Tong Hotel. The walls and ceiling of the temple’s hall is resplendent with " Shwezawa" (gold lacquer) decorations yet it was not so lavish as to offend the eye. The Buddha statue was caste in Mandalay in 1921 and is based on a famous Maha Muni statue in Mandalay. The face of the image was cast from a mixture of 1.7 viss (1 viss = 3.6 pounds) of pure gold, 17 viss of silver and some copper. In 1920 the Takaw-Kyainge Tong road was merely a buffalo track, so the image had to be transported in separate parts. It was transported with great difficulty from Hsipaw to Takaw, a village situated on the western bank of the Thanlwin river by bullock cart, and from Takaw to Kyainge tong by buffalo cart. When the Buddha arrived the people of the town turned out in full force to welcome it with the rhythmic beating of gongs and Shan long drums. In 1926 the Buddha image was moved from it temporary thatched Vihara to the present building. This new Vihara had a roof of teak wood shingles with a ceiling of thick planks. A brick wall was also built to enclose the precincts. In 1938, it was again renovated and the roof replaced with a splendid tapering nine-tiered roof.
Northern Shan State: Shan State can be divided into Northern Shan State, Southern Shan State and Eastern Shan State. Tourist towns in Northern Shan State include Hsipaw, Lashio and Muse. The Shweli River forms the border between Myanmar's Shan State and China's Yunnan Province at Muse. Border crossings are at Lwe-ge, Muse, Namkhan, Kyu Koke, Kun-lone and Mongla.
Mong La (2 hour drive from Kyaing Tong, near China in Northern Shan State) is one the main towns in the Golden Triangle. It is known for its 24-hour casinos, hostess bars, brothels, loan shark outlets, and clubs with Russian women and Thai “lady boys” and golf courses, whose fairways and putting greens used to sit among poppy fields. It was said that many of those who used the course were lieutenants for the drug lords and Chinese tourist who flew into western Yunnan Province in China and drove into Myanmar.
Places of interest include a casino, elephant show, night dance show and drug museum. At its peak bout 200,000 mostly male Chinese visitors came to the town. Most come for the gambling. Some played a blackjack-like game called bajiale The stakes sometimes reached $100,000 a bet.
Mong Lar is a major stop in the opium and heroin trade. It has been since British colonial times. Towns further south like Muse and Pangsang are following a similar trend.
Chinese Gamblers in Myanmar: Casinos began sprouting in Myanmar along the Chinese border in the 1990s, and eventually up to a hundred were operating. Most were modest in scale, sometimes featuring a hotel. In the Golden Triangle Area followed a similar formula: deploy fleets of boats to ferry gamblers along the Mekong River, mainly from China but also Thailand.
Mang Lar, a town near the Chinese border, has grown wealthy from the tides of Chinese who come to gamble in its casinos and visit karaokes and brothels filled with Chinese girls. The city is rich and full of action by Myanmar standards.
Forbes reported: “Casinos began sprouting in Myanmar along the Chinese border in the 1990s, and eventually up to a hundred were operating. Most were modest in scale, sometimes featuring a hotel, but all followed the same formula: deploy fleets of boats to ferry gamblers along the Mekong River, mainly from China but also Thailand.” [Source: Forbes, July 27, 2011]
Ruili in Its Gambling Heyday: Describing the border town of Ruili in the mid 2000s, when it was a mecca for Chinese gamblers, Mark Magnier, wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “The vans stopped in front of a yellow building the size and shape of a small airplane hangar. There was little to distinguish it from nearby industrial buildings other than a garish arrangement of pulsing neon flowers near the glass door -- and the nonstop arrival of customers despite the late hour. Inside, a hall the size of two football fields was jammed with eight banks of roulette tables immediately inside the door, a line of electronic blackjack machines against the back wall and 12 pits to the left for a game called heaven-earth-harmony. [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2005 //\\]
“The mostly male clientele of the Ruili casino placed bets through a haze of cigarette smoke. There was no alcohol and almost no small talk. A small crowd gathered as one winner collected three thick stacks of bills totaling about $4,000 and stuffed them into the sequined purse of his female companion. The building's interior was bright and clean, with recessed lighting and newly plastered walls. But the gambling machines, chairs and tables were battered, suggesting an operation that has been moved repeatedly on short notice. //\\
"Great, I finally won one," said a gambler placing $5 bets at heaven-earth-harmony, a game in which a pingpong ball is dropped onto a grid, with players betting on where it will land. "It's about time." A businessman from Jiangsu province, who, like many of the gamblers, declined to be identified, said the government crackdown hadn't deterred him. "When business is slow, I go every day," he said, smoking as he rubbed a quarter-sized mole on his right cheek. "Whenever I win, I stop. Over the past few months, I've won $2,400." //\\
Muse (179 kilometers north of Lashio) is the main border gateway between Myanmar and Yunnan Province (China). A small town on the banks of the Shweli River, it is a bustling trading center with an interesting market used by minorities in the area and Chinese. The Muse Motel has modern facilities. Namkham and Kyukoke are the border towns. Special permit used to needed to visit the area. That still may be the case.
Lashio (280 kilometers, 7 hour drive, 8 hour train ride from Mandalay) is a dirty, medium-size town and trading center that was off limits to tourist until the mid-1990s and is now a bustling, busy place due to expansion of trade with China. There isn't much to see in Lashio: its main attraction is the train trip to get there. Lashio is the capital of Northern Shan State and the terminus of the railroad line from Mandalay.. It can be reached by train or by car. There is accommodation for overnight.
Lashio is perhaps best known as the starting point of the Burma Road in World War II. Many Shan and Chinese live in the town, which in near Yunnan province of China. Many hill tribes lives in the mountains around Lashio but you are advised not to visit them because the region is also a major opium growing and heroin smuggling area controlled mainly by the Wa tribe. Places of interest include hot springs and the Chinese Quan Yin San Temple
The train from Mandalay to Lashio passes through beautiful scenery and traverses the 980-foot-high Goehteik Viaduct (read Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar for a good description of this bridge). The Gokteik Viaduct was built in 1899 by the Pennsylvania Steel company for the British Raj . A magnificent steel trestle bridge, it was one of the last links to be built on a network of railroads that connected Europe with the far east. The bridge is off limits. Ghet trains that go there from Maymo are outfit with iron rail cars with gun emplacements. Theroux described the viaduct as "a monster of silver geometry in all the ragged rock and jungle, its presence was bizarre".
The Goteik viaduct, also known as Gohteik viaduct, is a railway trestle in Nawnghkio, western Shan State, Myanmar. The bridge is between the two towns of Pyin U Lwin, the summer capital of the former British colonial administrators of Burma, and Lashio, the principal town of northern Shan State. It is the highest bridge in Myanmar and when it was completed, the largest railway trestle in the world. The bridge is located approximately 100 kilometers northeast of Mandalay. [Source: Wikipedia +]
The viaduct stretches 689 metres (2,260 feet) from end to end with 15 towers which span 12 metres (39 feet) along with a double tower 24 metres (79 feet) long. The 15 towers support 10 deck truss spans of 37 metres (121 feet) along with six plate girder spans 18 metres (59 feet) long and an approach span of 12 metres (39 feet). Many sources have put the height of the bridge at 250 metres (820 feet). This is supposedly a measurement to the river level as it flows underground through a tunnel at the point it passes underneath the trestle. The true height of the bridge as measured from the rail deck to the ground on the downstream side of the tallest tower is 102 metres (335 feet). The cost of the bridge construction was 111,200 £(Pound sterling). Due to its technical and natural condition it was considered as a masterpiece of the world standard. +
Lashio is the starting point of the Burma Road (See World War II). What is called the Burma Road was actually two roads: 1) the roughly 600-mile-long Burma Road, built in 1937 and 1938 between Lashio, Burma and Kunming, China under Chiang kai-shek to bring supplies through a backdoor of China after the Japanese invaded China; 2) and the roughly 500-mile-long Ledo Road. The roads cost 1,133 American lives, roughly a man a mile.[Source: Donovan Webster, National Geographic, November 2003; Book: The Burma Road by Donovan Webster (Macmillan, 2004) ]
The Burma Road was the major overland supply route to China after the Japanese took over much of coastal China in 1937 and 1938 and blockaded its seaports. It was built at a break-neck pace, often by Chinese laborers forced to work for the Nationalists for two years without pay. When it was finished it was little more than a supply track that could only be used by trucks in the dry season.
The Burma Road was built by 160,000 Chinese laborers with virtually no machinery. One worker, who worked on the road between Ruili in Burma and Kunming in China told National Geographic, “It was not easy. I was a boy. In 1937 the engineers came through with stakes, marking where they wanted the roadway. We worked seven days a week, from sunrise to sunset.”
Today, the Burma Road is a rutted 1½ lane road that is in such bad condition it takes cars one day and trucks two days to cover the 116 miles between Lashio and Mu Se on the Chinese border. The Burma Road used disintegrates into a track as one approached the China-Myanmar border but now is better shape to accommodate trade between China and Myanmar. About half the length of the Burma and Ledo Roads is off limits to foreigners.
The Burma Road today is filled with trucks heading north from Burma with raw materials, and heading south from China with manufactured goods. Over one two mile stretch a National Geographic writer counted 104 trucks. Most of the China-bound trucks with food carry thing like rice and dried coffee, which don't need refrigeration. Truck stops along the route sell whiskey, toilet paper, candles, machetes and engine parts. [Source: Joel Swerdlow, National Geographic, July 1995]
Thipaw (200 kilometers or about 124 miles northeast of Mandalay), also known as Hsipaw, is a town in the North of Shan State situated at an elevation of 1370 feet and thus cool in the evenings. The city has occupied several sites around the Dokhtawaddi River. It's fertile valley is an ideal place to grow fruit and vegetables. The present town is almost 400 years old. It's position on the infamous WW II 'Burma Road' makes it a favorite place for truck drivers plying between Burma and Yunnan to stop, rest and eat. On the strength of the trade between the two countries Hsipaw has become relatively prosperous.
Thipaw is a lively and friendly town with minority villages accessible in a day's hike. Thipaw is accessible by train, bus, or car. Leaving Mandalay in the pre-dawn hours the train is supposed to reach Thipaw sometime in the afternoon, but when it does arrive is anybody’s guess. The bus is cheap. Car is convenient. Thipaw is a compact. The town center hosts a lively morning market. In the evenings the downtown movie is a popular gathering place. Scattered around are restaurants serving up local Shan dishes, Chinese dishes, and more recently a number of teahouses have added banana pancakes to their list of offerings to accommodate backpackers. Places of interest include the palace of the Shan Princess from Austria and the Shan style Bawgyo Paya on the Mandalay-Lashio Road. The Gokteik bridge can be seen on the way.
MAYMYO (72 kilometers east of Mandalay) is a 3,500-foot-high, British-built hill station known for its pleasant climate, colonial style houses and rich gardens. In the colonial era it is where Burma's old colonial masters went to escape the heat and dust of the plains. Maymyo still boasts red-brick mansions covered in ivy and pleasant gardens with roses, which flourish in the almost alpine climate of the hills. See Military
The drive and the train ride from Mandalay to Maymyo are noted for their views and wonderful scenery. The Maymyo area is famous for strawberries and orchids. Books: For an interesting description of the town in the early 1970s read Paul Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar . For information on its history read Barbara Crossete's Great Hill Stations of Asia .
Shaded by fragrant eucalyptus, pine, silver oak and teak trees and also known as Pyin Oo Lwin (Pin U Lain) , Maymyo has many colonial buildings, such as the Candacriag Hotel and Nanmyaing Hotel, which were built after the hill station was established in 1886. Near the clock tower is a lively fruit, vegetable and flower market which is frequented by members of hill tribes that live in the mountains around Maymyo.
Maymyo is situated on a plateau over 1,000 meters in the Shan Hills. Even at the height of the hot season, Maymyo is pleasantly cool and at certain times of the year it can get quite chilly. Sweater-knitting is the biggest occupation in town. Getting to Maymyo is part of its attraction. At the half-way mark you pass ‘View Point’, which was spectacular views. The standard transport around the town is miniature, enclosed wagon pulled by a pony. Another highlight is the magnificent botanical garden. Strawberries are in season in February and March. They’re cheap and delicious.
Military Regime’s Maymyo: The two military academies in Pin U Lain, a new town built from scratch near Maymo, have new buildings and young cadets walk about in sharp uniforms. The golf course has a helipad. Describing Pin U Lain, Bertil Lintner wrote in the Washington Post, “Built in the lush hills northeast of Mandalay, the new town is a kind of refuge -- but for the Burmese military. Instead of the British Victorian-style mansions of the old Maymyo, you'll find gaudy luxury villas in the new one. The town is also home to the Defense Services Academy, Burma's West Point, which trained many of the generals. [Source: Bertil Lintner, Washington Post, September 30, 2007 \>
“When construction on the officers' town began in late 2005, the Irrawaddy, a magazine published by Burmese exiles in Thailand, reported that "no expense has been spared to allow the generals to live in what basically is a resort, complete with an artificial beach and a man-made stretch of water to lap onto it." The theme-park retreat will also include replicas of a famous pagoda in Rangoon, the old royal palace in Mandalay and a popular beach resort -- which, the magazine dryly noted, "is probably where the fake beach comes in." \>
Thanks to a newly upgraded airport, the retreat is a quick plane ride to Burma's new capital, Naypyidaw, built in the wasteland and jungle 200 miles north of the old capital, Rangoon. Naypyidaw means "Abode of Kings," and kings are precisely what the Burmese generals see themselves as. On the capital's parade ground stand newly erected, larger-than-life statues of three famous pre-colonial warrior kings whom the junta's leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, sees as his role models. \>
Kandawgyi Botanical Garden (Maymyo) was founded in 1915 by a British botanist named Mr. Roger who began collecting local plants and trees and cultivating them on 30 acres of land at the present site. It was only in 1919 that the Government gave official sanction to it. The original area of the Botanical Garden was 170 acres of land and 70 acres of water totaling 240 acres. With a constant supply of sufficient spring water from a lake nearby, the garden was laid out in the design of Kew Gardens in England. In several plots were planted 4840 trees, mostly pine varieties, and 575 different floral species as well as many exotic fruit and shade trees from abroad that were acclimatized to grow in the Garden. In addition, vast meadows and several seasonal flower beds were arranged and hundreds of wild orchids from different parts of the country were collected and displayed in the Orchid greenhouse.
Maha Nandamu Cave (five kilometers south of Wetwun village, 20 kilometers east of Maymyo) is known for its stalactites. Also known as Peik Chin Myaung, the cave is at the entrance to the Peik Chin Myaung ravine and was formed out of a fault. On entering the cave you see springs flowing from different directions. The water at some places is as deep as five feet. Water seeps from the walls of the rock; and is clean and cool. It is said that this water cures eye ailments and itching. So pilgrims take this spring water home in bottles. The Great Cave covers an area about 48 acres. Once inside the cave. you shiver with cold what with the springs and small waterfalls. The Buddha-to-be's life story up to His Enlightenment is featured at appropriate places. There are also Buddha images and pagodas in corners and niches.
Maha Anthtookanthar Paya is a pagoda that was not planned, but just came to be. The reason for this is that three marble Buddha figures made in Mandalay were being transported to their planned home in China. On this journey one of the Buddha figures fell from the lorry and could not be reloaded due to its weight. After many attempts it was left behind and the other 2 were taken on their way. The Buddha image left behind. needed to be moved. but no one knew how to go about this task. A local Buddhist monk decided he would try faith. He sat for 7 days on this figure and preached to the locals and recited teachings of Buddha. After 7 days the figure was. apparently. easily lifted and placed in its current location and the local people built a pagoda as an offering to Buddha.
Other Sights Around Maymyo include Pwekauk Waterfall (also known as "Laughing Water" and Hampshire Falls) and 200-foot-high Anisakhan Waterfall. The village of Aungchantha is noted for its flower, fruit and vegetable market.
MEKONG RIVER is one of the world's great rivers. Originating in Tibet, not far from the source of the Yangtze River, it tumbles down through the Himalayas and southern China into Southeast Asia and flows along the borders of Laos, Burma and Thailand through the heart of the Golden Triangle into Cambodia, where it flows in one direction in the wet season and the opposite direction in the dry season. It finally empties into the South China Sea at the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Its source in Tibet as not discovered until 1994.
The Mekong River goes by many names. It is known as Lancang Jiang (Turbulent River) in China,the Mae Nam Khing in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, Tonle Than (Great Waters) in Cambodia and Cuu Long (Nine Dragons) in Vietnam. It is also known as River of Stone, Dragon Running River, Mother River Khong, and Big Water.
The Mekong is the longest river in Southeast Asia, the 12th longest in the world and the 10th largest in terns of volume. With about half of its length in China, it flows for 4,880 kilometers (2,600 miles) and provides food and water for 60 million people and disgorges 475 billion cubic meters of water each year into the South China Sea.
The Mekong basin cover an area the size of France and Germany. More than 80 percent of the people that live in the Mekong River basis in rely on the river for agriculture or fishing. More than 41 percent of the land in the heavily populated Lower Mekong basin is used for agriculture, which accounts for 90 percent of all water use.
The Mekong River is one of the wildest rivers in he world and is surprisingly undeveloped for such a large river. There are no large cities or industrial zones along its banks. It is not dammed. Until 1994 there were note even bridges across it. For the most part the it is brown and muddy and still wild and free. The Upper Mekong features turbulent rapids, steep gorges and long section with no people. Often the only way to cross it is on cables strung between cliffs. The Lower Mekong River is calmer and more placid and incredibly wide in some places.
During spring melt and the monsoon season from May too October, the Mekong became a raging torrent, sometimes producing a flood wave that is 46 feet high. Annual floods often kill dozens of people. Floods in Cambodia and Vietnam in 2000, killed 500 people and wiped out herds, crops and orchards. At the end of the dry season in March, April and May the river level can drop as much as 40 feet in some places, exposing large rocks and sand bars, and making navigation even in small boats difficult.
The Mekong flows through some poorest countries and regions in the world. For many the countries that border it development of the river is vital to the development of the country. China wants to develop the river to help the impoverished Yunnan Province.
The Mekong River Commission (MBC) is an organization with representatives from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam committed to water utilization, basin development and environmental protection. Myanmar and China are not members just observers.
A good book on the river is Mekong by Edward AA. Gargan (Knopf, 2002). Written by a former correspondent for The Times,
Route of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia: The Mekong River flows through a narrow, 200-kilometer-long gorge in southern China and along the Myanmar-Laos. From the tripoint of China, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos the river flows southwest and forms the border of Burma and Laos for about 100 kilometres (62 miles) until it arrives at the tripoint of Burma, Laos, and Thailand. This is also the point of confluence between the Ruak River (which follows the Thai-Burma border) and the Mekong. The area of this tripoint is sometimes termed the Golden Triangle, although the term also refers to the much larger area of those three countries that is notorious as a drug producing region.
As one travels south on the Mekong its become easier to navigate and higher numbers of greater varieties of boats appear. From the Golden Triangle tripoint, the Mekong turns southeast to briefly form the border of Laos with Thailand. It then turns east into the interior of Laos, flowing first east and then south for some 400 kilometres (250 mi) before meeting the border with Thailand again. Once more, it defines the Laos-Thailand border for some 850 kilometres (530 mi) as it flows first east, passing in front of the capital of Laos, Vientiane, then turns south. A second time, the river leaves the border and flows east into Laos soon passing the city of Pakse. Thereafter, it turns and runs more or less directly south, crossing into Cambodia. At Khone Falls the river cascardes over rocks and separates into several branches, divided by forested islands, before it enters Cambodia.
History of the Mekong: It is believed that Marco Polo may have set eyes on the Mekong River in the 13th century. The Portuguese Dominican missionaries Father Gaspar da Cruz was the first European to describe traveling on the Mekong River. He spent 1555 to 1557 in Cambodia. The Dutch explorer Gerrot van Wuystoof wrote about it in 1641
The French had ideas of using the Mekong to navigate through Southeast Asia into China but these dreams were dashed when an expedition led by Francis Garnier in the 1860s discovered a major obstacle, Khone Falls, in southern Laos. He suggested blasting a canal next to the canal but a short railroad was built instead (see Khone Falls, Laos) but the effort led to only minimal increases of commerce on the river.
A treaty signed in 1893 by France and Siam designated it as the border between Thailand and Laos. In World War II, a number of battles were fought in the proximity of the Mekong in China. During the Vietnam War, the river Mekong Delta in particular was the site of some bloody guerilla warfare.
Wildlife and Fishing on the Mekong River: The Mekong River is home of rare Irrawaddy river dolphins and rare pla buk, the world's largest freshwater fish, the Mekong Giant Catfish. By one count only around 100 river dolphins are eft and they are mostly in northern Cambodia. Dolphins.
Fish caught in the river are an important source of protein for an estimated 65 million people. Many of these fish rely on the natural annual flood cycle of the river to reproduce. In Laos, Thailand , Cambodia and Vietnam, fishermen catch about 1.3 million tons of fish a year, four times the yearly catch in the North Sea. One of the riche fish ground is the Siphandone, or Four Thousand Islands, area between Laos and Cambodia.
Fish stocks have been reduced by overfishing, habitat destruction and development. Large fishing operations—some fo them legal, some of them not—employ large nets and traps that can catch hundreds of thousands of fish ay a time. Some people catch fish with bed-sheet-size butterfly nets that they dip into rice paddies flooded by the river.
Mekong Giant Catfish : According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest specimen freshwater fish ever caught was a pla buk netted in the River Ba Mee Noi, a tributary of the Mekong. The monster was reportedly 9 feet and 10¼ inches long and weighed 533½ pounds. There have also been reports of fish larger than 650 pounds.
The paa beuk takes between six years and 12 years to reach full size,
The Mekong Giant Catfish, also known as the pla buk, is seriously endangered, a victim primarily of overfishing, It is so rare now that when ever one is caught by a fishermen it is big news. The remaining members of the fish species are found mostly in Cambodia and Laos. One of its primary breeding areas, a stretch of reefs near Chuang Khong in Thailand, is currently dredged for navigation purposes.
In 1969, Thai fishermen near the Burmese border caught 69 giant catfish, In 1998 they caught one. In Thailand it has been several years since on has been caught. In Cambodia about five fish are a year. When one is caught in Cambodia conservationist often rush to the scene and buy it from the fishermen, then weigh and tag the fish and release it. The money the fishermen is often equal to a decades worth of pay.
The best place to catch paa beul is a stretch of the Mekong between northen Thailand and Laos near the Huay Xai, The fish is caught in April and May when river levels are low ad the fish migrates to Lake Tali in Yunnan Province in China to spawn. Local fishermen sacrifice a chicken and spill its blood into the river as an offer to the river spirit who protect the catfish. The fish are caught with special nets strong enough to hold them
The paa beuk is regarded as a delicacy in Thailand. The flesh is meet and is said to have a taste similar tuna and swordfish A single fish can fetch $5,000 at a market in Bangkok and ate sought after by gastronomes. Fishermen can only tale 50 or 60 a year. Efforts to breed and restock the river have e with some success.
As part of the breeding process when a male or female is caught it is kept in captivity until a fish of the opposite sex is caught The eggs are removed by massaging the female and mixed with sperm milk from a male. More than million young catfish have been produced this way and released into the Mekong.
Transportation on the Mekong River: The Mekong River and its tributaries provide crucial transportation links in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The runs for 786 kilometers between Simao in the Yunnan province of China and Luang Prabang in Laos.
Passage between Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand is blocked by Khone Falls in Laos, one of the world’s most powerful cataracts. The series of rapids and falls drops 70 feet. The river is eight miles wide at this spot.
The idea of using the Mekong River as the hub of a major transportation hub became a possibility in the 1990s when the peace was finally achieved in Cambodia and the insurgency in Laos became more manageable.
In the early 1990s there were no bridges over the Mekong River. Now there are several, in Vietnam and between Laos and Thailand.
Myanmar, Thailand, China and Laos have signed an agreement to open a navigation route along the upper reaches of the Mekong River. Under the agreement the four countries allowed commercial navigation across each other’s borders. There are plans to make an access route from southern China to the Indian Ocean via the Mekong River.
China is currently involved in dredging upper parts of the river to make them navigable. In the dry season, 150-tons can not navigate these sections. Dredging will remedy this. Dredging between Vientiane and Simao in Yunnan Province in China will make section of the river capable of handing 2,000 ton ships throughout the year except for a couple weeks in the dry season when water levels are exceptionally low. Both the Chinese and Laotian governments support the project as a means of promoting economic growth through increased trade.
Many locals oppose the dredging operations, They complain large ship creates wakes and waves that can sink smaller boast and worry that large Chinese boats will take away cargo business from smaller local boats and flood the market with cheap Chinese goods and produce. Environmentalist say the dredging damagesriver banks, destroys fish stocks and threatens endangered animals. The dredging operations involves using explosive to blast apart shallow rocks, reefs and shoals and widen channels.
Development of the Mekong River is still minimal but large amounts of water that flow into it are being siphoned off by large dams, small dams, canals and irrigation projects along it tributaries. The Mekong and its tributaries have the hydroelectric potential of all the oil in Indonesia. A large amounts of development has already by done. More than 50 dams built by the Asian Development Bank have built on the Mekong in recent decades. There are plans for many more.
China is currently involved in building large dams on the Mekong to provide electricity, control floods and provide water for irrigation. Some are being built. More than a dozen are in the planning stages. The $4 billion Xiaowan Dam is currently being built. When it is finished it will be the world’s tallest dam, over 300 meters (100 stories) high and create a reservoir 169 kilometers long. Only the Three Gorges dam will be larger.
Dams hat have already been built include the $600 million, 30-story-high Dachaishan Dam in Dachaishan Gorge, which created a 88-kilometer-long reservoir that filled up in just five days; the 35-story-high Manwan Dam, 100 kilometers south of Dali in Yunnan, with 40 foot tunnels through the mountains and a 1500 megawatt electricity generating capacity; and the Jinghong Dam.
The dams have displaced thousands of people, many of them ethnic minorities, and disrupted normal water patterns and fishing migration routes and reduced the flow of soil-enriching sediment..The Cambodian government has expressed its concern that development projects on the Mekong River could caused the Tonle Sap lake to dry up. The Tonle Sap is Southeast Asia’s largest lake and an important source of fish for Cambodians.
Its not just China that is building dams. A World Bank report was very critical of the Pak Moon dam Thailand, which was build near the Noon River; confluence with the Mekong and blocked important fish migration routes. Of the 265 species found on the Noon River before the dam was built only 96 remain. And fish catches dropped 80 percent. The $260 million Theun-Hinboun dam in the mountains of the central highlands of Laos supplies two thirds of that country’s electricity but has turned a once vibrant river into a stagnant lake and dramatically cut fish catches.
Supporters of the dam say the dams will help not hurt the people and wild life that use the river. They say the dams will increase the flow of water in dry season and reduce it I the wet season, reducing the chance of flooding and make ore water available for irrigation. Experts have also pointed out that Lower Mekong gets more water from the highlands of Laos and Vietnam than it does from China, where the dams are located.
One study found that local dams used to divert water for irrigation pose a much greater threat than the large dams. There are 20,000 local dams on the river, most them in Thailand, and they have been linked to fluctuating river levels. Others who studied the river have also said that massive numbers of people who live on the river har, the river through land degradations and water pollution, logging, erosion. . There also worried about sedimentation and salinization in the reservoir. The slay cold contaminate rice fields. sedimentation could make the dams unusable after a few decades.
The Mekong fell to record low in the dry season of 2004. River boats were stranded. In Cambodia the fish catch fell 50 percent after it declined 15 percent the previous year. Some blamed the problem on dam construction and the release of water to allow Chinese ships to navigate the river. Drought and overfishing also played a role.
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© 2008 Jeffrey Hays
Last updated May 2014
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Tips in Motivating Students
Maintaining student motivation during classroom discussion is the most difficult steps in delivering educational subject matter. Here are some tips to maintain student's interest. Most of the time, intelligent student stay with you during lesson proper while the average student can lost their attention due to their classmate or friends noisiness.
Classroom management is an skills that teacher learn gradually. Normally, teacher will acquire this after one full year of experience. Knowing this technique will helps teacher easily adjust to the teaching and learning situation.
1. Praises should be informal. Other student should hear teacher praises so that he/she will boost his own confident.
2. Give him additional task after the classes. The task should be unusual to the student so it will not serve as ordinary teachers favor. Asking student to check test paper involve great trust to the student. The pupils will directly feel the trust of the teachers. Give this technique right at the moment the student get a good score in quiz. Rotate the task to others to bring more motivation.
3. Show to the student some respect by asking their opinion in matured problem. It means the problem should not be included in the lesson. It might be political, social or environmental. This question will motivate the student to think of the future. Make sure the level of question is enough for him/her to answer or produce answer in the future.
4. Be watchful on student specific development. Once you see some, let them speak with you on they did the task or let them speaks before the class.
5. Avoid creating intense competition among students. Competition produces anxiety, which can interfere with learning. Reduce students' tendencies to compare themselves to one another
6. Find student interest and once you have it, exhaust more effort to bring the new task to satisfactory level.
7. Vary your teaching methods periodically. Device something at least 2x in a week.
Lance Ruch
Career Change Options - What's Your Best Way Forward?
Are you getting bored and frustrated in your job? Is it time for a new challenge? Are you wondering what career change options might be open to you?
Well, that all depends on how ready you are to take a big, bold step, or whether you want to play safe for now.
Many people are afraid to change careers, especially with all this talk of recession. A new career seems like a risky move, and discretion often seems the better part of valour.
But career change does not always have to involve a radical shift. Below, I outline the three main career change options open to you. Which is the best fit for you at this moment in time?
New job, same company
If you have worked for the same organisation for some time, they will know you well and will understand what your particular strengths and abilities are. A considerable amount of time will have been invested in you through formal and informal training, so it makes sound business sense for them to continue to take advantage of that investment and keep you on the team.
But if you are feeling bored, or undervalued in your job, why not have an honest and open discussion with your manager or with your HR team about the possibility of a move within the company? This might initially just be some kind of job swop or short to medium term secondment. This could be just the shot in the arm you need to revitalise your interest. It could lead to a permanent role switch or might just rekindle your enthusiasm for your work generally. Why not give it a try? If you don't ask, you'll never know what is possible.
New company, same job
This is an alternative strategy that will allow you to continue to take advantage of the skills and experience you have gained, but put them to use in a new environment. The main change here is the context in which you are working. This is not just about a change to a very similar situation, but one where you intentionally seek out an organisation that is very different. It could be much bigger or much smaller. It could be a switch from private to public sector. It could be a change to an organisation with very different values from your current one.
The advantage of this kind of move is that you can be confident about what you have to offer as you are building directly on your current experience. You can argue that your previous employment will mean that you can bring in a valuable new perspective. Does this sound like what you need?
Complete career change
This is the big one. You need to think carefully whether you feel ready and able to take this radical step and move out into completely new territory. Yes, this is a challenging step to take, but if the two other options listed above leave you feeling uninspired, maybe the time is right to be bold. Sometimes having the courage to take the bigger risk can result in much greater rewards in the long term.
I do not recommend taking an unplanned leap in the dark when you are considering a total change of direction. It is well worth spending time and effort exploring in detail what new career ideas are worth serious consideration. Remember, even a total change can still allow you to use many of the skills you have developed in your work and life so far, but at the same time it can also be an opportunity to develop new skills which have lain dormant in you up to now. Are you ready to give it a try?
And one more option...?
Well, you could always do nothing. Just put your head down and slog through another week in a boring and unfulfilling job. But is that really how you want to spend your life? No, I thought not. So it is down to you to take action, to make some kind of change so that you can feel that you are driving your career rather than your career driving you.
And if you are seriously interested in making a complete career change, then I invite you to visit the How To Change Careers website and download a copy of my free ebook 11? Ways To Kick Start Your Career Change
From Cherry Douglas, Your Career Change Guide
Colon Hydrotherapist Career Overview
Many people believe that by cleansing the colon, one can obtain an abundance of health benefits. In fact colon cleansing procedures have been performed since ancient times. It was typically employed as a medical treatment in curing headaches, fevers, bowel problems, and any other diseases related to the digestive system. And in 1600's Europe, a cleansing procedure called clyster or enema was regarded as an orthodox medical treatment for curing various diseases including constipation, diarrhea, migraine, bad breath, body odor, and even mental and emotional imbalances such as depression and anxiety. Physicians of the time often performed the treatment to cure minor ailments and even serious ones. Furthermore, such treatment was favored by the elite class that it eventually became a part of their paradigm of health habits.
However, it was not until the 19th century that the popularity of the said treatment reached its climax in the United States. During that time, colon machines were commonly used and the employment of the treatment was a standard in hospitals and physician clinics. However, due to the aggressive and often exaggerated advertising of non-medical practitioners and the introduction of medical drugs in orthodox medicine eventually lead to the eventual decline of the popularity of colonics.
However, about ten years ago, when some people realized that synthetic drugs no longer seemed to help with their health conditions, they gradually turned to healing that employed natural methods. With the resurgence of alternative medicine people soon rediscovered the tremendous benefits of cleansing procedures in the optimization of one's overall health. True enough, a lot of people have to feel better through the various rediscovered naturopathic treatments. Eventually, more and more people became advocates of alternative medicine.
Colon hydrotherapy's popularity as a therapy that greatly aids in the renewal of one's vitality, and as well as a preventive measure for various diseases is increasing, thus, the demand for trained and competent colonic therapists will surely rise as well. That is why there are various colonic therapist schools that offer colonic hydrotherapy trainings and certifications. The training is usually available as a continuing education for health professionals. However, it is not exactly necessary for an interested individual to have a health background in order to study colonic therapy.
The International Colonic Association for Hydrotherapy, or IACT, has developed a 100-hour training course that is chiefly accepted as the industry standard. Thus, if you intend to take a colonic therapy course, it is best to make sure that the school you are going to is IACT approved.
Most colon therapy programs include discussions on anatomy and physiology, digestive health, nutrition, herbal remedies, colon hydrotherapy techniques, abdominal massage techniques, personal health and sanitation, as well as basic skills.
But since the practice of colon hydrotherapy is not exactly regulated in most areas of the United States, IACT elaborates that colon hydrotherapy must only be performed by licensed medical professional or with the supervision and consent of one. This is done so to maintain high-standard quality as well as to avoid undersirable circumstances since there are still orthodox practitioners who refute the medical and health benefits of colon hydrotherapy. Moreover, people with certain medical conditions are not advised to undergo colonic irrigation that is why medical professional advice and diagnosis are vital in this procedure.
Come Visit our Colon Hydrotherapy fasting Clinic in Maui, Hawaii. We use a special mineral element sea water formula that creates miraculous results with clients. From clearer skin, to losing a pound a day, to healing emotional traumas people come visit us from all over the world and order from our online store.
Getting Ready For an Online Degree
Since online education is now the newest learning type of education for most students, this has proliferated websites especially those websites for learning. It creates a catchy and encouraging offer to students. Before, students were just being intrigued by the name "online learning" or "e-learning". During the starting years of this new type of education, students could easily sign-up for this type of learning because the new words it promises are encouraging as well as the name itself.
Since, traditional education was the only type of education then, promises like studying on the most available time for students and studying in the comfort of their homes are very catchy that made them enroll in online education.
Some would admit they made a mistake for deciding too fast, to the point of not thinking the consequences of this type of education. The goal here is not for students to realize that they made a mistake but for choosing online education but indeed for students to realize that in any decision-making, there should be a step-by-step process before the final decision point.
Here are some things that should be followed by a student before deciding to enroll in an online degree.
First and foremost, the student should evaluate herself if she is really in need of an online type of learning. There are some students especially the active ones who would like to interact with their classmates and teachers personally than interacting with them online.
Second, if finally decided that he wants to have an online learning, then the student should think of the degree that he wants to take. There are a lot of best online degrees that are available in the websites of schools who are offering online degrees. Sometimes, the chosen field of the student is not available in the degrees offered online. For this case, maybe an alternative course would solve the problem. Best online degrees are well-researched and tested by universities and schools, meaning the student will eventually gain in this degree in the future.
The student should know the best type of learning where he can learn fast. Sometimes, even though the students got the best online degrees in the world, they cannot perform well in online schools because the form of learning is not their type. Meaning, they cannot learn that fast using online reading materials or reference materials on PDF format or in compact disks.
Best online degrees should be taken into consideration seriously by students. Not because they were able to get the best online degree but in the future their imagined career path is very different, there will come a point that they will be bored on their studies. There are two effects of that. First, they will drop out of the online university. Second, they will get bad grades. It is somehow frustrating especially for those parents who are expecting a degree from their children.
What happened to those students before who automatically signed up for online degree and in the end realized they made a lot of mistakes are not considering taking online degree as a failure but indeed, the steps like choosing a degree course and checking their style of studying are some areas they forgot to consider.
Keith Londrie II is the Webmaster of A website that specializes in providing information on Online Degrees that you can research right on his site. Please Visit now and try our FREE schools search
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About South Africa
South Africa has experienced a significantly different evolution from other nations in Africa arising primarily from two facts; immigration from Europe reached levels not experienced in other African communities and a level of mineralogical wealth that made the country extremely important to Western interests, particularly during the Cold War. As a result of the former, South Africa is a very racially diverse nation. It has the largest population of people of Coloured (i.e., mixed racial background), White, and Indian communities in Africa. Black South Africans account for almost 80% of the population.
Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a large part in the country's history and politics, culminating in apartheid, which was instituted in 1948 by the National Party, although segregation existed prior to that date. The laws that defined apartheid began to be repealed or abolished by the National Party in 1990 after a long and sometimes violent struggle (including economic sanctions from the international community) by the Black majority as well as some White, Coloured, and Indian South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d''tat, and regular elections have been held for almost a century; however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. The economy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on the continent, with modern infrastructure common throughout the country.
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Which::title State::first Press::social Human::egoism Society::moral Thought::books
{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual.<ref name="britannica.com">http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286303/individualism "Individualism" on Encyclopædia Britannica Online</ref><ref>Ellen Meiksins Wood. Mind and Politics: An Approach to the Meaning of Liberal and Socialist Individualism. University of California Press. 1972. ISBN 0-520-02029-4. Pg. 6</ref> Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance<ref name="thefreedictionary.com">http://www.thefreedictionary.com/individualism "individualism" on The Free Dictionary</ref> and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group,<ref name="thefreedictionary.com"/> while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.<ref name="thefreedictionary.com"/> Individualism is often contrasted with totalitarianism or collectivism.<ref name="Hayek 1994 17, 37–48">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref>
Individualism makes the individual its focus<ref name="britannica.com"/> and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Liberalism, existentialism, and anarchism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis.<ref name="ReferenceA">L. Susan Brown. The Politics of Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal Feminism, and Anarchism. BLACK ROSE BOOKS LID. 1993</ref> Individualism thus involves "the right of the individual to freedom and self-realization".<ref>Ellen Meiksins Wood. Mind and Politics: An Approach to the Meaning of Liberal and Socialist Individualism. University of California Press. 1972. ISBN 0-520-02029-4 Pg. 6-7</ref>
It has also been used as a term denoting "The quality of being an individual; individuality"<ref name="thefreedictionary.com"/> related to possessing "An individual characteristic; a quirk."<ref name="thefreedictionary.com"/> Individualism is thus also associated with artistic and bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards self-creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors<ref name="thefreedictionary.com"/><ref name="jstor.org">http://www.jstor.org/pss/2570771 Bohemianism: the underworld of Art by George S. Snyderman and William Josephs</ref> as so also with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.<ref>"The leading intellectual trait of the era was the recovery, to a certain degree, of the secular and humane philosophy of Greece and Rome. Another humanist trend which cannot be ignored was the rebirth of individualism, which, developed by Greece and Rome to a remarkable degree, had been suppressed by the rise of a caste system in the later Roman Empire, by the Church and by feudalism in the Middle Ages."The history guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History"</ref><ref>"Anthropocentricity and individualism...Humanism and Italian art were similar in giving paramount attention to human experience, both in its everyday immediacy and in its positive or negative extremes...The human-centredness of Renaissance art, moreover, was not just a generalized endorsement of earthly experience. Like the humanists, Italian artists stressed the autonomy and dignity of the individual.""Humanism" on Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>
Individualism sections
Intro Etymology The individual Individualism and society Political individualism Philosophical individualism Economic individualism As creative independent lifestyle See also References Notes Further reading External links
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Female Circumcision Threatens Girls in Germany
Female circumsion isn't just a problem in African countries. In Germany, as many as 6,000 girls of African origin are also threatened by the gruesome ritual.
Educational campaigns in Africa aim to end the practice.
Germany is home to at least 24,000 women from African countries who've undergone female circumcision, or, as many experts call it, female genital mutilation (FGM). That's because the practice involves either the full or partial removal of a woman's external genitalia, and has painful physical and psychological consequences.
Jeanette Zachäus of the German human rights organization "Aktion Weisses Friedensband" says the daughters of some African immigrants in Germans are potential victims of FGM -- about 6,000 girls.
"We became aware of the problem through Somalian women living here in Germany, who were going to German doctors. They said it was difficult to get treatment when their doctors didn't know much about FGM," Zachäus told Deutsche Welle.
German doctors helpless
Her organization has launched a new initiative, supported by the Society for German Technical Co-operation and women's rights groups such as Terre Des Femmes, to raise awareness about FGM, and put a stop to the practice. "Aktion Weisses Friedensband" has also started an educational campaign aimed at German doctors, to make them better able to treat women and girls who've undergone FGM.
The practice is a culturally sanctioned tradition in about 30 African countries. But Zachäus says an awareness campaign is needed in Germany, because African families living here often take their four- to seven-year old daughters back to their home country to be circumcized.
Jawahir Cumar is a Somalian woman living in Germany. She was circumcized as a young girl, and now works for the organization "Stop Mutilation," which mainly runs awareness programs in Africa to educate people about the devastating effects FGM has on girls and women. But she's also active in Germany.
"Here, we invite women who've been affected by FGM to meet with us, so they can speak to other women. No men are allowed to be there. And when we work in Africa, we drive from village to village and speak to parents. We also go to schools there and show the students posters and photos of what the circumcision operation looks like."
Deadly consequences
Beschneidung mit Messer Klingen und Amulette
Typical tools for carrying out female genital mutilation.
The photos are shocking. The operations are often carried out with little or no regard to hygiene. The girls aren't given any sedatives. Their genitals are cut with dirty razor blades, knives, or shards of glass. Many of the girls die from the operation, because of infection, injury, or AIDS. The girls who survive often have their vaginal openings sewn closed, only to be cut open again on their wedding night.
"The people who promote female circumcision sometimes give religious reasons why the operations are necessary. And sometimes, they give health reasons, for example, that women who haven't undergone circumcision aren't able to bear children later in life," said Christa Müller of "INTACT," an international initiative against FGM.
"Another reason you hear is that uncircumcized women aren't as attractive as those who've been circumcized. I would say that it's the men's interests that play the largest role. A man has an interest in knowing that the woman he marries is a virgin. And she shouldn't be able to take too much pleasure from sex, so that she won't have affairs with other men. He wants a guarantee that the children she bears are from him," Müller said.
"Aktion Weisses Friedensband" and its partner organizations are trying to counter these cultural beliefs and replace them with a new message: No religion requires female circumcision, and its practice goes against every person's right to bodily integrity. According to the United Nation's Declaration on Human Rights, female circumcision is both a form of child abuse, as well as an infringement of a person's basic rights.
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Fr Marcus Holden & Fr Andrew Pinsent
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What is grace? What is its purpose? How do we receive it? Who can receive it? Are there different types of grace? Are there mistaken or erroneous teachings about grace? How does modern research help us understand the idea of grace?
In Christian theology, the various names and types of grace share one key idea: a
second birth into a new and holy life, like
a seed in the ground that grows into a plant and bears fruit. In this new life of grace, a human being participates in the life of God, becoming one of His adopted children, and calling Him “Father”.
St Augustine, as a young man in the Roman Empire, speculated about the existence and nature of divinity. Only after his conversion into the life of grace, however, did he speak to God in personal, passionate, and intimate terms: “Late have I loved You, O beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved You!”
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LUMEN - The Catholic Gift to Civilisation
Fr Andrew Pinsent, Fr Marcus Holden
LUMEN - The Catholic Gift to Civilisation
Saint Augustine
Fr Marcus Holden
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Knowing God
Frank Sheed
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No matter if you choose to believe it or not, our world is changing. This is not an attempt to sway your opinion of why or if change is occurring, but a discussion of a specific change that should be of concern to us all.
Ebola is still in the news and unfortunately will probably continue to be so for the foreseeable future. But think back and you will probably remember other deadly diseases that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, bursting on to the news cycle. Remember SARS, Hanti Virus, and HIV? All these are zoonotic diseases: originating in animal populations and making the jump to a human host. In a review of 1,415 pathogens know to infect humans, 61% (863 pathogens) of them are zoonotic. The occurrence of zoonotic diseases is not a new phenomenon, but does seem to be capturing our attention more in the last couple of years and especially as of late. The emergence of pathogens from one species to a new host species, such as humans, is called “disease emergence.” This dates back into our history as a species and a civilization.
Much of our prehistory was spent in small groups of hunter-gatherers that were not often in contact with other groups of humans. This facilitated diseases entering into the human population. Once in a population, the disease tended to burn itself out by killing everyone in the first run of the infected population. The pathogens mutated to become a chronic infection in the human population, allowing the infection to stay alive in a host for longer periods or develop a non-human reservoir in which to live and wait for new host to infect.
In many instances, humans are actually accidental victims and a dead end host. Most of human development has been shaped in relation to zoonotic diseases. Among the best known examples of this are the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages and the AIDS/HIV crisis. There is good evidence that diseases such as measles, smallpox, the common cold, and tuberculosis may have jumped from animals to humans. Now current research is showing human actions and activities are helping this process along.
Human population booms, habitat encroachment (think the Everglades and the cutting of the rain forest), consumption of bush meat, and climate change are forcing people and animals into closer contact. Species formally living isolated in remote areas and deep in the rain forest are now being forced to eke out a living in very close proximity to humans. The concentration of humans, domesticated animals, and wildlife facilitate the spillover of pathogens between species. Highly mobile species like birds and bats present a greater risk of zoonotic transmission due to their increased mobility.
Thankfully, we have begun to come to a consensus that actions should be taken to combat the climate and environmental changes we are beginning to experience. Hopefully these actions will not be too little, too late to make a difference.
Dr. Pierre Bland is owner of “Dr. Bland’s Vet House Calls” a veterinary house call service. He can be reached at 954 673-8579 or at |
Characteristics of mental disorders
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Characteristics of Phobias
Overview: irrational fear to a specific object or situation.DSM diagnoses phobias. Persistant fear which effects their life. 3 types
1) specific Phobias - situation/ object
2) Social Phobias - humiliation in public
3) agoraphobia- public places
Emotional: Phobias are classed as an anxity disorder, the primsry emotional charaterisic of a phobia is fear- this is persistant and is likely to be excessive and unreasonable, endured with extreme anxiety and stress.
Behavioural: The most obvious behavioural charateristic associated with phobias is avoidence. when the person is faced with situation/fear the individual will immediately try and avoid it. A person will ensure that they don`t encounter the phobias, this can impact on their day to day life.
Cognitve: these charateristics relate to thought processes, in regards to phobias it is the irrational nature of the individual thinking and there resistance to rational arguements
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Charateristics of Depression
Overview: Mood disorder which usuall occurs in people aged 20- 40 years. The two core symptoms are depresssed mood and diminished or lack of intrest in pleasure or activities
Emotional:depressive disorder which requiresx the presence of at least five symptoms an must include either sadness or loss of interest and pleasure in normal activities.
Behavioural: most individuals who have depression will have a reduced or increased activity level. many individuals experience reduced energy, a sense of triedness and want to sleep all the time. however some will become more agitated and restless and therefore pace around the room. Appetite may be affected and again some may have an increased appetite whereas others may not want to eat.
Cognitive: the negetive emotions related to depression are normally linked to negative thoughts. these individuals will normallly have a negitive view of the world and expec bad things to happen rather than good.
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Characteristics of OCD
Overview: obsessions are persistant intrusive thoughts; they are classed as internal components because they are thoughts. compulsions are repetitive behaviours amd classed as external components because they are behavours. to be diagnosed with OCD these need to be persistant over a significant period of time over two weeks.
Emotional: obsessions and compulsions bring out anxiety and distress. individuals who suffer from OCD are aware theor behaviour is excessive and this can cause embarrasment and shame.
Behavioural: compulsive behaviours are performed to reduce anxiety created by the obsessions. They are repetative and unconcealed. individuals are compelled to perform these actions otherwise something dredful may happen.
Cognitive:obessions are recurrent, intrusive thoughts or impulses that are percived as inapropriate or forbidden. these may be frightening and/or embarrasing and they are not shared with others.
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More Quick Fillers!
Guess Who
It is like the board game Guess Who. You divide the group into two teams sitting in neatly set up rows of chairs. One person from each team is picked to guess who the judge has in mind from the other team. (The judges must write the name down as proof.)
The pickers switch off asking yes or no questions (i.e. does he wear glasses). Any one who doesn’t fit in with the answer must sit down until the picker guesses who.
That team gets a point and two new people are picked and you do it all over again.
One person sits a little ways away from the group, not looking at the group. You pick someone to say “Hello,” and the person’s name. Suggest that they use a different voice. The person then has to try to figure out who was greeting them.
Hot Seat
*Have one person sit facing the group. (This person is in the “hot seat.”) The teacher will write a vocabulary word on a piece of paper and hold it up behind the contestant in the hot seat for everyone to see. Then the group has to try and get the hot seat contestant to guess the word by giving hints and clues.* Spelling Word Practice
That’s Not Funny!
One student sits in a chair in front of the class and the students have to try to make that student laugh without speaking. The teacher can time each student to see who can last the longest.
This is like one of those story-building games, only it’s all about building an image. Nothing changes or moves. I like to play it with my eyes closed because it’s easier to build the image.
It’s called “Polaroid” because the image develops, like a Polaroid picture.
One player starts with anything, like, “a penny.” Someone else adds a detail the he or she actually imagines when picturing a penny – a 1978 penny. The next player adds yet another detail. “On a red checkered table cloth.” Again, the direction here is not to tell a story, not to try to be cute, but simply to say what you’re seeing.
Question Game
1. Arrange the group in a circle.
2. In order, each person asks an open-ended (can’t be answered with “yes” or “no”) question to the person to their left.
3. Instruct everyone to remember the question that they asked and the answer they gave to the question they were asked. Those are now the only 2 phrases each person is allowed to say.
4. Instruct everyone to get up and sit next to someone new in the circle.
5. Then you will go around the circle and people will ask their original questions, and give their original answers, regardless of their question.
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Salmon aquaculture virus study leaves one big unanswered question
A study by Norwegian researchers published late last month is apparently ” the first study confirming the presence of virus-infected escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in a nearby river shortly after escaping.”
The study makes some interesting speculations:
The recapture of the infected escaped salmon in nearby marine sites highlights the potential contribution of escapees in virus transmission to other salmon farms in the area.
…little is known about the effect of viral disease outbreaks in aquaculture on the wild salmonid populations. Disease outbreaks in salmon farms may lead to a substantial increase in infection pressure on wild fish in the surrounding area.
…escaped salmon may disperse over long distances, may enter rivers and may interact with wild conspecifics in their habitats. Therefore, an infected escapee may spread pathogens from the sea to wild fish populations in both sea and rivers distant from a disease outbreak.
That’s interesting, but there’s one big problem, which the researchers acknowledge.
…baseline data from the river regarding these viral infections in salmonids are lacking.
They cannot answer the question: how do the levels of viral loading on farmed salmon escapees compare to the natural viral loads in wild salmon?
As Yoda once said:
ControlToo bad this flaw doesn’t stop their speculation.
This could have been an excellent study if the researchers had taken some time to get data on wild fish in the rivers where escapees were found and sampled. Of course, wild fish sampled from these rivers post-escape would not provide any valuable baseline data, but they could at least provide information about viral loading in wild fish.
And the researchers could have also gotten some control data from other similar rivers where no escapees are found.
But it seems that in the rush to be able to declare this paper the “first” at something, or because it was outside the scope of the finding grant, they decided to sacrifice context in favour of speculation.
At least it does provide some good information about viral loading in escaped farmed salmon in Norway. It will undoubtedly be valuable to the researchers that decide to investigate natural viral loading in wild fish in Norwegian rivers.
Don’t like GM plants? Too bad, they’re going to feed the world, and aquaculture too
This genetically-modified camelina plant could be the harbinger of a new revolution in feeding aquaculture farms, and the world.
So much hate and fear has been directed at genetically modified plants in the past couple years you’d think that eating one would make your head explode or give you instant cancer.
But the truth is that genetically-modified plants are no more dangerous to humans than any other kinds of plants.
Every living thing on this planet, plants included, have evolved to avoid being eaten, or to turn their tastiness to their advantage. Plants are the product of millions of years of biological warfare, evolving new survival strategies to avoid being eaten or to make themselves tastiest when their seeds are fully developed (and can be conveniently deposited in new locations, fertilizer included, in the dung of their eaters).
People forget this. Mother Nature is all about living things eating other things to survive and plants are no different.
But there is a loud public opposition to genetic modification, in which humans bypass millions of years of slow evolution to give plants traits that help them survive in modern conditions. Plants such as papayas that don’t get ringtail disease, corn that is resistant to drought, rice that has an added vitamin which is crucial to human nutrition have all been engineered in recent years with the intent of providing more food with fewer resources for more people.
Sounds good, but a lot of people are scared of this evolution in farming.
It’s normal to be fearful of change, every technological advance humans have been criticized by detractors. But in the end, if it’s a truly valuable advancement, we collectively get over it and add it to our growing toolbox of civilization.
Genetic modification of plants is one of those tools that’s going to be a big part of humanity’s future. The current toolbox isn’t adequate to feed us all in the future.
Aquaculture is already part of it, but as it grows, responsible aquaculture farmers realize they can no longer depend on fishmeal and fish oil from wild fisheries.
That’s where genetic modification comes in.
From FIS today:
Oil from genetically modified (GM) camelina plants – developed to produce essential omega-3 fatty acids in their seeds – has been found to be suitable for feeding Atlantic salmon, aiding the development of an alternative feed for the aquaculture industry to help preserve wild fish stocks and maintain nutritional value of farmed fish for humans.
In a collaborative research project between the University of Stirling and Rothamsted Research, scientists developed GM plants to produce high levels of essential omega-3 fish oils.
This significant development enables the plants to produce up to 20 per cent of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), one of the two omega-3 nutrients conferring human health benefits, while preserving wild fish stocks.
It’s going to happen. It has to happen. Otherwise, we will all have to take a giant step backwards, eat less fish, eat less meat, eat non-modified plants (good luck finding enough farmland to grow them all), based on nothing but fear of the unknown.
Can you bang a drum? Dial-a-protester needs you!
While reviewing video from a recent farmed salmon protest in the Lower Mainland last week (published on Jan. 26), we noticed a couple curious things.
For one thing, the “science” spouted by the personalities in the clip is total nonsense, urban legends and old wives’ tales crafted to scare people. There’s no evidence for anything they say.
That’s not the curious part, that’s just normal for this crowd. The curious part was that no shoppers were listening. Maybe they don’t like people banging drums and shouting at them for some reason.
The other curious thing was the appearance of one particular individual, Audrey Siegl, who also appeared in another video published this week.
Audrey Siegel protests farmed salmon at Costco in Vancouver Jan. 24.
Audrey Siegl protests farmed salmon at Costco in Vancouver Jan. 24.
Audrey Siegl helps disrupt a private dinner party for Vancouver Wharves employees on Jan. 24.
Audrey Siegl helps disrupt a private dinner party in North Vancouver for Vancouver Wharves employees on Jan. 24.
It was a busy day for Ms. Siegl! Protesting farmed salmon in the afternoon, then crashing the wrong dinner party to protest pipelines in the evening!
Guess the motto “have drum, will travel” is taken seriously by this group.
One key to preserving our planet will be eating more farmed seafood, less pork and beef
US seafood consumption
“If 3 billion people move up into the middle class between now and 2050 and they are eating primarily beef and pork, the planet is going to be in a lot of trouble. The growing middle class should be eating seafood, rather than terrestrial animals. Aquaculture provides a clear way to scale and meet these growing demands.”
That’s one of the many excellent points in favour of aquaculture in a white paper prepared for the upcoming SeaWeb Seafood Summit in New Orleans next month.
The paper, titled “Aquaculture’s Prominent Role in Feeding a Growing Global Population,” was written by two heavy-hitters involved in aquaculture and seafood research: Dr. Michael Tlusty, director of Ocean Sustainability Science at the New England Aquarium, and Neil Sims, co-founder of Kampachi Farms LLC.
The paper points out that aquaculture has suffered a bad rap in the past but people need to take another look.
“Aquaculture today is far different than it was 30 years ago because there is better rule setting and environmental monitoring,” the paper states.
Farms depend on clean environment
And the paper reminds us all that many fish farmers depend on a healthy environment — it’s in their best interests to keep the ocean environment clean, despite the claims of anti-aquaculture activists that net pens pollute and promote disease.
“In many cases, aquaculture involves farming species that haven’t been domesticated. They are inextricably linked to their environment, which is why we must pay such close attention to that environment. Because when we start tipping that balance towards too much production, the farms will lose money because they will lose animals. This also leads to environmental impact.”
Read the whole paper by registering at Seafood Source.
Alternatively, download it here.
Recycling your old iPhones… with salmon semen
This story was too weird to pass up:
“Japanese scientists have discovered that salmon semen from industrial fish farms could help to recycle rare earth metals.
Researchers led by Yoshio Takahashi from the University of Tokyo, found that salmon semen, known as milt, can be used in a process to extract certain rare earth elements that are used in products such as catalysts, alloys, magnets, optics, lasers and notably mobile phones.”
Only from Japan: salmon semen can help recycle electronics. Apparently.
Apparently the semen, known as milt, “has the capacity to bind to positively charged ion material” making it a potential replacement for many caustic and dangerous chemicals currently used in the electronics recycling process.
The craziest part about this story is that there is a huge source of material available.
According to the paper, “More than 10,000 tonnes per year of milt from salmon, trout and others have been discarded as industrial wastes from fishery industries in Hokkaido, Japan.”
Again that’s
BC salmon farms only raise about 70,000 tonnes of fish per year. There’s no way that there’s that much milt being used, let alone discarded, in BC. Japan doesn’t farm salmon on any significant scale, certainly not enough to produce that much milt.
This milt must be leftover from Japan’s massive “salmon ranching” aquaculture enhancement projects, which release more than 1 billion Pacific salmon from Hokkaido Island (referred to in this study) each year.
Kokanee salmon infected with IHN virus in BC, Montana
Kokanee salmon are a type of sockeye salmon that do not have an ocean phase in their lifecycle.
They were introduced to Montana in 1914 as an exotic species for fishing. Since then, they have become widespread in the western part of the state.
But now a fish virus common in native sockeye and kokanee populations in BC has made it to Montana, too.
Boaters are being asked to clean and disinfect their boats and equipment when they travel between lakes, but that almost never works. Looks like Montana is stuck with IHN.
So far it hasn’t caused any problems, but the virus can be a problem in dense populations of salmon, such as in a hatchery or a salmon farm. Trout farmers in Idaho have struggled with it for years.
The virus is carried by sockeye up and down the west coast of North America, and its prevalence waxes and wanes with little discernible pattern.
What’s interesting about this article is that it makes reference to the APEX IHN vaccine and states that this vaccine is not approved for use in the USA.
Guess that means none of the salmon farms in Washington State are vaccinating against IHN?
All BC companies have been using the vaccine since 2012, when IHN was detected in three farms. The companies quickly culled all fish on those farms before the virus could spread, and strict biosecurity protocols were implemented until the winter.
Eco-lawyers get sucked into personal vendetta in nuisance lawsuit
Ecojustice is a charity which exists to file environment-related lawsuits against corporations and the government. Once again, they’ve set their sights on the topic of salmon aquaculture at the behest of Alexandra Morton.
But what the idealistic and eager team of lawyers hoping to sink their teeth into the next “Erin Brockovitch” case might not realize is that they, and everyone who donates money to them, are being sucked into one woman’s personal vendetta against someone who once made her look foolish.
The Case
Ecojustice is suing the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia for, it says, “refusing to investigate a complaint Ms. Morton made against a government aquaculture veterinarian. The lawsuit seeks to force the College to investigate the complaint.”
Ecojustice, and Morton, allege that in 2007 the provincial aquaculture veterinarian, Mark Sheppard, misled the provincial Minister Of Agriculture and Lands with incorrect information about the ISA virus and Atlantic salmon egg imports into BC. They are filing the lawsuit to “investigate whether the veterinarian’s erroneous advice amounted to professional misconduct.”
The nut of it is that in the memo signed by Sheppard, the grammar structure of one sentence suggests he is saying BC doesn’t, didn’t, or never has (the grammar is unclear) imported Atlantic salmon eggs.
That’s it.
This lawsuit is as pedantic as they come.
But the 2007 memo isn’t even what it’s really about.
It’s personal.
The Background
In 2007, Dr. Mark Sheppard joined the provincial government as its aquatic animal health veterinarian. He served there until a court challenge by Morton resulted in aquaculture regulation responsibilities moving from the province to DFO.
Interestingly, despite the Supreme Court of BC decision, aquaculture on the East Coast of Canada still remains under provincial jurisdiction.
The Testimony
In 2010, after a poor return of Fraser River sockeye in 2009 prompted a flurry of public concern and a federal commission of inquiry, both Morton and Sheppard spoke to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans in Ottawa.
Morton spent her audience with the committee congratulating herself on how easy it is to study sea lice (her words) and predicting environmental doom because of salmon farms.
Two days later, Sheppard spoke to the committee, which posed many of Morton’s concerns to him as questions. He clearly explained why Morton was wrong, and why some of her statements were “misleading and quite frankly, irresponsible.”
He went on to definitively pin her to the wall.
“Some people–who are not qualified to make comments on it in my
opinion–have decided to put forth a wildly speculative conclusion… That case in itself is just a matter of someone who either doesn’t understand the science or simply prefer to move forth with a perspective to suit their agenda.”
The Vendetta
Morton was left looking like a hysterical fool by Sheppard’s factual, honest testimony. And as we’ve seen with the Character Assassination of Simon Jones, she holds grudges against anyone who exposes her scientific ignorance and her predilection to manipulate science to her own ends.
After DFO took over BC salmon farming regulation, Sheppard went to work with DFO as lead veterinarian for aquatic environmental operations. He recently left DFO to pursue a private veterinary practice in Campbell River.
And that’s when Ecojustice and Morton dredged up this smear campaign. If Sheppard gets dragged into the case, he’ll have to do it all on his own dime, since he no longer works for the government.
It’s a mean-spirited vendetta by a woman ruthless in her pursuit to be right. It’s going to be a waste of time and money for the College of Veterinarians, and it’s a smear on the reputation of a man who was conscientious, careful, and most of all committed to protecting the environment while he served both the provincial and federal governments.
Anyone who donates to Ecojustice should be embarrassed their money is being spent on nuisance lawsuits like this.
BONUS: Why opinions in BC about salmon farming are polarized
During his testimony to the standing committee, Sheppard accurately described why salmon aquaculture in BC is perceived as a controversial issue.
“It is frustrating. There appear to be two different stories, but I think that’s largely because the silent majority, the credible scientists who bring a modicum of objectivity to this entire topic, don’t appear in the newspaper or on the Internet. They publish their articles, they’re factual, and the average Canadian citizen doesn’t read them. It’s very technical information. So communication is one problem.
I think there needs to be better communication from the industry,
better communication in lay terms from the scientific community, and from the provincial and federal governments.
Instead what we hear is the vocal minority who, quite frankly, are not aquaculture specialists. Rather, they are anti-aquaculture specialists. They’re very good at what they do. They’re very
intelligent people, very passionate people, and they’re very good at communicating to the media and to the Internet. For the majority of Canadians, that’s what they hear. Of course, that’s what
they will believe because they’re only hearing one side of the story.
…there is a tremendous amount of collaboration on the go in
British Columbia right now between the industry, fish farmers, and the ENGOs who are willing, of course, wanting things to improve, as the farmers are, and as the province is. There’s always room for improvement, but there is a tremendous amount of collaboration that is happening: joint funding, joint projects, both looking at the same things, comparing notes. There is an awful lot of transparency and communication between those groups. Again, that’s the helpful group.
There is another faction that is just quite simply anti-aquaculture, and that’s where the transparency stops. That’s where the information is not generally forthcoming because, in many
cases, the information is abused.”
Examining the science behind salmon farming
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A summary slide showing the equations necessary to compute the
theoretical thrust of a turbojet engine.
On this slide we have gathered together all of the equations necessary to compute the theoretical thrust for a turbojet engine. The general thrust equation is given just below the graphic in the specific thrust form.
Fs = F / m = (1 + mf) * Ve - V0
where Fs is the specific thrust, F is the net thrust, m is the air flow rate through the engine, mf is the fuel-air ratio, Ve is the nozzle exit velocity, and V0 is the free stream velocity. The equation for the exit velocity was developed on the nozzle performance slide:
Ve = sqrt( 2 * Cp * Tt8 * n8 * [1 - {1 / NPR} ^((gam - 1) / gam) ] )
where Cp is the specific heat at constant pressure, Tt8 is the total temperature in the nozzle, n8 is an efficiency factor, NPR is the nozzle pressure ratio, and gam is the ratio of specific heats. The NPR is simply the ratio of the total pressure in the nozzle pt8 to the free stream static pressure p0.
NPR = pt8 / p0
The nozzle total pressure pt8 and the total temperature Tt8 depend on the engine pressure ratio EPR and temperature ratio. ETR.
Tt8 = Tt2 * ETR
pt8 = pt2 * EPR
The equations for these ratios are given on separate slides and depend on the pressure and temperature ratio across each of the engine components. The engine pressure and temperature ratios are referenced to conditions at the compressor face, station 2. Compressor face conditions depend on free stream conditions and inlet performance, IPR:
Tt2 = Tt0
pt2 = pt0 * IPR
The equations at the bottom of the slide are compressible forms for determining the total pressure and temperature conditions from the corresponding static conditions and the free stream velocity.
Tt0 = T0 * (1 + .5 * [gam -1] * V0 ^2 / a0 ^2)
pt0 = p0 * (Tt0 / T0) ^ ( gam / ( gam -1))
where a0 is the free stream speed of sound.
a0 = sqrt (gam * R * T0)
where R is the gas constant from the equation of state. With the set of equations, knowing the free stream temperature, pressure and velocity, one can calculate the thrust generated by a engine design. These calculations are performed in the EngineSim engine simulator. A technical paper describing the details of the method used in EngineSim is also available.
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Funding “Mother Nature’s Bypass”
A new $435,371 award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health will fuel the next stage of investigation as researchers on two continents seek a way to help prevent heart attacks in people with ischemic heart disease—without performing bypass surgery.
For years, William Chilian, Ph.D., Chair of Integrative Medical Science and professor of physiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University, has collaborated with the University of Amsterdam. A few years ago, this partnership evolved with Dr. Chilian providing support (as a collaborating investigator) to develop a new technology that not only enables three-dimensional reconstruction of the heart, but simultaneously tracks the locations of certain types of cells. This innovative technology, called a 3D Cryomicrotome, was developed by Maria Siebes, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam.
Ischemic heart disease occurs when a patient has insufficient blood flow to the heart, due to a blockage in a large artery. Often a preventive surgery known as bypass surgery is recommended to alleviate the blockage, but Dr. Chilian is looking for another solution. A process called coronary collateral growth can provide what Dr. Chilian calls “Mother Nature’s bypass,” by allowing blood flow to the area from a different source–thus mitigating the need for bypass surgery.
“When a patient has well-developed collateral circulation, their risk of sudden death or size of heart attack decreases,” says Dr. Chilian.
He will collaborate with Liya Yin, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of integrative medicine, on the grant-funded project “What Mechanisms Underlie Coronary Collateral Growth?” Vahagn Ohanyan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of integrative medical science; and Feng Dong Ph.D., associate professor of integrative medical science, are members of the research team.
New Equipment Opens Research Doors
The University of Amsterdam is a key partner in the project, as the only institution in the world with a three-dimensional fluorescence cryomicro-tomograph (known as a 3D Cryomicrotome). The equipment allows a researcher to take images of thin slices of the heart and build them into a 3D model that tracks the bone marrow cells. These cells are a potent weapon, since they can potentially improve circulation to the extent that a person with ischemic heart disease could avoid the operating room.
The researchers are studying how bone marrow cells become a part of the heart (such as the blood vessel or muscle) and how the heart lets the body know it is ischemic. This latter process is critical for the homing of the bone marrow stem cells to the site of injury in the heart.
“By better understanding the mechanism, we hope to amplify it and determine exactly what types of stem cells are needed to stimulate coronary collateral growth,” says Dr. Chilian. “Most studies just re-inject the bone marrow cells into the body, but by knowing which cell to focus on, we can be far more effective in preventing heart attacks in the future.” |
August 22, 2012
Beautiful Prodigy
Sor Juana was regarded as an intellectual prodigy when she entered the court of the Marquise de Mancera, the viceroy of New Spain, at age 16. She served as a handmaiden to the Marquise’s wife, Leonor Carreto. Sor Juana was a reputed beauty. Some say she had her share of marriage offers, while others believe she was not an eligible candidate for marriage due to her illegitimacy. Sor Juana continued to impress the court—male and female alike—with her intelligence and education. At age 20, she left court unmarried to join a convent. |
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