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Beef Liver – Nutrition Beef liver is a very popular meat among non-vegetarians. It is rich in important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, proteins and amino acids. An almost 70 gram of liver slice contains 5-10% of the daily value amount of fat, 2-4% daily value of sodium and 1-2% daily value of carbohydrates. It has approximately 130-140 calories. Liver is a big repository of many useful nutrients and hence it is good if you include it in your diet. Beef Liver Nutrition If compared with chicken and pork liver, Beef liver has the maximum amount of nutrition. Following are nutrition details- Sponsored link. Protein is very important to run the body. It is involved in making and repairing the body cells, converting the food into energy, making hormones and enzymes. Basically, it is like the basic building blocks of body. Protein breaks down to form amino acids. Out of 21 essential amino acids, our body can produce only 12 of them. The rest are obtained from various amino-acid rich foods. Beef liver is a big source of rest of the 9 amino-acids. Hence, it has great nutritional value as it provides with one of the most important substance crucial to survive. Vitamin B-12 which is naturally synthesised in human body is very important resource to generate genetic material, red blood cells (RBC) and neurological health as well. A 65-70 gram beef liver slice has around 2000% of recommended daily allowance (RDA) of Vitamin B-12 and 900% of RDA of Vitamin A for adult females. Vitamin A is prime source of vision, cell activities and reproductive health. Riboflavin a protein required for good metabolism and same amount of Beef Liver provides around 200% RDA of Riboflavin for female adults and 185% for males. Riboflavin is also helpful in maintaining healthy skin. Zinc is a mineral which is necessary for daily body activities like- immunity, cellular metabolism, protein and genetic material generation etc. A 65-70 gram slice of beef liver provides zinc amount- approximately 125% RDA for female adults and 90% RDA for male adults. Also, Iron is another mineral and everybody is aware of its function in the body. It forms haemoglobin in the red blood cells which carries oxygen to body-cells for breaking down the digested food to produce energy. Hence, this important mineral is also present is large quantities in beef liver- around 50% RDA of males and 25% RDA of females which is a lot as compared to the total amount of .006% present in the human body. Beef Liver fails at this part as it has lot of cholesterol. Our body does not require it because it is naturally produced in enough amounts required for cell and hormone creation. Sponsored link. Apart from the above mentioned nutrition there is a long list of items present in each category discussed above. Beef Liver is high on nutritional value and must be included in diet for healthy living. Benefits of eating Beef Liver 1. Low calories- A single serving or a slice has only 130-150 calories only. But a large amount of minerals, proteins and vitamins in the same small slice. A win-win diet it is! 2. Maximal Amount of Nutrients- Nutrient packed diet in a single food is given by beef liver. 3. Much lower fat content as compared to chicken and pork liver. Hence it should definitely be preferred. 4. Anti-fatigue Factor- As per an experiment conducted on rats, it has been proved that those who eat liver don’t get fatigued easily. Their threshold is much higher than any normal healthy person who does not eat liver. It magically shoots up the body-energy! 1. High on cholesterol content. 2. If consumed daily then the body may not accept it as it has higher amount of certain vitamins and proteins and the body needs time the process it. Too much amount may lead to toxin production in the body. Myths Related to Consuming Liver The function of liver in human body is to filter out toxins. So it was believed that it should not be consumed as its’ job is filthy and it may harm the body. But this is a total myth. Liver does filter out toxins but it does not store them. In fact, it has the powerful substances or nutrients required to work against the toxins’ harmful effects. Always go for liver of animals who spend their lives outdoors on pastures. One can also buy the stored one from Wal-Mart. Conventionally raised animals must be avoided to have their liver. If you feel icky to eat liver then grind it and freeze to form small cubes. This way you can add it in your dish and hide it with flavours and spices. Simple enough! Try eating it and slowly the taste will be developed. Beef Liver fails nowhere except for the cholesterol amount which can be managed with some physical workout. The high amount of energy that it provides is unbeatable till date and doctors recommend it to cure many diseases like- anaemia, osteoporosis etc. Sponsored link. Filed in: Diet \| Tags: , , About the Author (Author Profile) Leave a Reply Trackback URL \| RSS Feed for This Entry
July 03, 2013 Understanding China’s maritime aspirations MAEBASHI, GUNMA PREF. – One strong signal that the Chinese Communist Party's 18th National Congress sent to the international community in November 2012 was that China had included becoming a sea power in its national strategy for the coming decade. What followed were the vigorous maritime institutional reforms announced during the annual National People's Congress meeting in March 2013, which marked the actual once-in-a-decade leadership transition. China established a National Maritime Committee and combined a series of fragmental governmental sectors into the highly integrated and greatly enlarged National Maritime Bureau under the direct supervision of the Ministry of National Territory and Resources. This was a major step to strengthen the governance and management on ocean and maritime affairs, both civil and military. Meanwhile, China significantly increased its national defense budget, a large part of which was distributed to naval development. The first aircraft carrier commissioned, Liaoning, showcased China's sophisticated naval development and deployment. Through it China projected its amplified naval power and declared its maritime strategy to the world. China's declaration to become a sea power and its claim of maritime interests is not a sudden action. China has long dreamed of becoming a "maritime civilization." In 1988, the state-operated China Central Television (CCTV) produced a documentary that attributed China's miserable historical experience to its land civilization's inferiority to the "maritime civilization" of Western powers and Japan. It implicitly expressed a desire to develop a maritime civilization. This episode can be viewed as China's initial consciousness of maritime importance. But at that time China's national strategy, set by leader Deng Xiaoping, focused on the domestic agenda and keeping a low global profile. China's ascent in the 21st century led to the agenda of setting an aggressive maritime strategy. In 2005, China's "National Defense White Book" noted that China should build a strong and modernized navy to protect its maritime interests. In 2006, as an echo to the international discussion on China's rise, another CCTV documentary, "The Rise of Great Nations," featured the great powers in history and implied that they were all sea powers. In 2008, President Hu Jintao first pointed out that China must make a transition from being from a land power to being a sea power. In December 2011, the CCTV launched a new documentary, "Toward the Sea," as a bold proclamation of China's sea-power dream. These paved the way for openly declaring the maritime strategy at the 18th National Congress of the CCP. Traditionally China has been a continental nation. There were no substantial threats from the sea until the arrival of British and French naval vessels in the mid-19th century Opium Wars. After that, China went on to lose to Japan in a critical sea battle in 1895. History warns that China faces much greater threats from the sea than from the land. China has abundant experience in land security management dating back to the construction of the Great Wall, but its maritime deployment is weak despite its long coastlines. In China's eyes, all existing great powers such as the United States, Japan and Russia are sea powers, while China remains a continental one. As China rises, it wants to ensure that it can protect its expanding geopolitical interests and vital sea routes used to import critical resources. For example, 85 percent of China's oil imports has to go through the Strait of Malacca. More importantly, the mainstream guideline of Chinese foreign policy has subtly changed. Since around 2009 China has gradually abandoned Deng Xiaoping's strategy of "hiding the capability and biding time" (taoguangyanghui) and actively increased its global engagement, with Asia as the focus. It is under these circumstances that China is ramping up its maritime strategy. Geographically there are three directions in China's maritime strategy: the East China Sea, South China Sea, and Indian Ocean. Given their geopolitical value, China is determined to develop strongholds in the three areas to ensure access to world markets and channels for resource supplies. But there is no clear definition on the goals and spheres of China's maritime strategy so far. This ambiguity led to harboring of doubt and distrust by neighboring countries. China's growing naval presence is inevitably perceived as a threat and a source of conflict. The territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the East China Sea have intensified as China has become more assertive and expands its maritime interests and claims. China defines "core interests" in disputed waters in a manner that had never applied to its land border disputes. China's tough stance demonstrates its strong will to build its sea power and expand its maritime interests. China has long championed the notion of a "peaceful rise" and claims that this rise will not conflict with the interests of other nations. However, its ambitious maritime strategy has raised concerns in Japan, the U.S. and Southeast Asian countries. As China continues to expand its sea power in years to come, conflicts may result if distrust and tensions escalate. China needs to clearly explain its maritime policy to the world and increase its maritime cooperation with other countries in the region in a transparent manner. China should strengthen its nontraditional security cooperation such as anti-piracy activities in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea with India and Southeast Asian countries, respectively. In particular, China and Japan should seek areas of common interests including fisheries to initiate maritime cooperation in the East China Sea. Only bilateral and multilateral conversations and cooperation can help China gain the understanding and trust of the international community regarding its regional maritime deployments. Xie Zhihai is an assistant professor at Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College in Gunma Prefecture. Previously a research associate at the Asian Development Bank Institute and a Japan Foundation research fellow, he received his Ph.D. in international relations from Peking University in July 2011. No comments:
The Epitaph By Thomas Grey Essay Research The Epitaph By Thomas Grey Essay, Research Paper In the Epitaph, Thomas Gray shows his discontent toward the way that life and death are categorized on this planet. He speaks of earth as a place which holds people for the time being that they are going through this grand cycle of what is called life. When somebody only “rests his head upon the lap of Earth” it is not a way of approving the way that people are laid down for their final resting. The Epitaph shows , properly titled, the lot about how people are being brought up and brought down in a dark sort of way. Someone?s personal epitaph is just a place where their head rests and Even “Fair Science frowned” on the aspects of the person’s life and now the incapacity that they have toward this world. Their one and only sole purpose in this world is to waste space in the earth and rot away for eternity. Gray?s style is very intriguing. He speaks of god and how there are certain things around that are only now known as “frailties” of what used to be life. Gray speaks out against the way this person was treated in society which is symbolic of how people are being treated as a whole and the hollowness and shallowness of people in the world. Now the person is dead, there is no other help that you could give him. “Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere” was how the man lived, and although his soul was a true one, he was still a marked man, and now he is only marked with a stone that protrudes from the ground known as The Epitaph. God is a part of life which gray dispises. He goes against the idea of a belief in one immortal being who rules over people and casts judgments and leaves some people for broke. “The bosom of his father and his god” were those that were unhelpful in the dead man?s life, because he ended up just as everyone else will, dead, it is just that he was not blessed with as much life. Gray probably knew someone who died at a young age and it had a traumatizing effect on him, then he turned to writing of dark and dreary times and those of the epitaphs and of graveyards and the beliefs of gods and how they relate to life and death. Thomas Gray?s The Epitaph shows the way that we treat moral and social problems and help to alert us of another and how faulty our beliefs towards the juxtaposition between life and death are in our society. ДОБАВИТЬ КОММЕНТАРИЙ [можно без регистрации] перед публикацией все комментарии рассматриваются модератором сайта - спам опубликован не будет Ваше имя: Хотите опубликовать свою статью или создать цикл из статей и лекций? Это очень просто – нужна только регистрация на сайте. opyright © 2015-2018. All rigths reserved.
Thursday, July 27, 2017 How Everyone Might Reasonably Believe They Are Much Better Than Average In a classic study, Ola Svenson (1981) found that about 80% of U.S. and Swedish college students rated themselves as being both safer and more skilled as drivers than other students in the room answering the same questionnaire. (See also Warner and Aberg 2014.) Similarly, most respondents tend to report being less susceptible to cognitive biases and sexist bias than their peers, as well as more honest and trustworthy -- and so on for a wide variety of positive traits: the "Better-Than-Average Effect". The standard view is that this is largely irrational. Of course most people can't be justified in thinking that they are better than most people. The average person is just average! (Just between you and me, don't you kind of wish that all those dumb schmoes out there would have a more realistic appreciation of their incompetence and mediocrity? [note 1]) Particularly interesting are explanations of the Better-Than-Average Effect that appeal to people's idiosyncratic standards. What constitutes skillful driving? Person A might think that the best standard of driving skill is getting there quickly and assertively, while still being safe, while Person B might think skillful driving is more a matter of being calm, predictable, and within the law. Each person might then prefer the standard that best reflects their own manner of driving, and in that way justify viewing themselves as above average (e.g., Dunning et al. 1991; Chambers and Windschitl 2004). In some cases, this seems likely to be just typical self-enhancement bias: Because you want to think well of yourself, in cases where the standards are ambiguous, you choose the standards that make you look good. Changing example, if you want to think of yourself as intelligent and you're good at math, you might choose to think of mathematical skill as central to intelligence, while if you're good at practical know-how in managing people, you might choose to think of intelligence more in terms of social skills. But in other cases of the Better-Than-Average Effect, the causal story might be much more innocent. There may be no self-flattery or self-enhancement at all, except for the good kind of self-enhancement! Consider the matter abstractly first. Kevin, Nicholas, and Ana [note 2] all value Trait A. However, as people will, they have different sets of evidence about what is most important to Trait A. Based on this differing evidence, Kevin thinks that Trait A is 70% Property 1, 15% Property 2, and 15% Property 3. Nicholas thinks Trait A is 15% Property 1, 70% Property 2, and 15% Property 3. Ana thinks that Trait A is 15% Property 1, 15% Property 2, and 70% Property 3. In light of these rational conclusions from differing evidence, Kevin, Nicholas, and Ana engage in different self-improvement programs, focused on maximizing, in themselves, Properties 1, 2, and 3 respectively. In this, they succeed. At the end of their training, Kevin has the most Property 1, Nicholas the most Property 2, and Ana the most Property 3. No important new evidence arrives in the meantime that requires them to change their views about what constitutes Trait A. Now when they are asked which of them has the most of Trait A, all three reasonably conclude that they themselves have the most of Trait A -- all perfectly rationally and with no "self-enhancement" required! All of them can reasonably believe that they are better than average. Real-life cases won't perfectly match that abstract example, of course, but many skills and traits might show some of that structure. Consider skill as a historian of philosophy. Some people, as a result of their training and experience, might reasonably come to view deep knowledge of the original language of the text as most important, while others might view deep knowledge the the historical context as most important, while others might view deep knowledge of the secondary literature as most important. Of course all three are important and interrelated, but historians reasonably disagree substantially in their comparative weighting of these types of knowledge -- and, I think, not always for self-serving or biased reasons. It's a difficult matter of judgment. Someone committed to the first view might then invest a lot of energy in mastering the details of the language, someone committed to the second view might invest a lot of energy in learning the broader historical context, and someone committed to the third view might invest a lot of energy in mastering a vast secondary literature. Along the way, they might not encounter evidence that requires them to change their visions of what makes for a good historian. Indeed, they might quite reasonably continue to be struck by the interpretative power they are gaining by close examination of language, historical context, or the secondary literature, respectively. Eventually, each of the three might very reasonably regard themselves as a much better historian of philosophy than the other two, without any irrationality, self-flattery, or self-enhancing bias. I think this might be especially true in ethics. A conservative Christian, for example, might have a very different ethical vision than a liberal atheist. Each might then shape their behavior according to this vision. If both have reasonable ethical starting points, then at the end of the process, each person might reasonably regard themselves as morally better than the other, with no irrational self-enhancing bias. And of course, this generalizes across groups. I find this to be a very convenient and appealing view of the Better-Than-Average Effect, quite comforting to my self-image. Of course, I would never accept it on those grounds! ;-) Friday, July 21, 2017 New Journal! The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy This looks very cool: Call for Papers General Theme The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy, a peer-reviewed, open access publication, is dedicated to the analysis of philosophical themes present in science fiction stories in all formats, with a view to their use in the discussion, teaching, and narrative modeling of philosophical ideas. It aims at highlighting the role of science fiction as a medium for philosophical reflection. The Journal is currently accepting papers and paper proposals. Because this is the Journal’s first issue, papers specifically reflecting on the relationship between philosophy and science fiction are especially encouraged, but all areas of philosophy are welcome. Any format of SF story (short story, novel, movie, TV series, interactive) may be addressed. We welcome papers written with teaching in mind! Have used an SF story to teach a particular item in your curricula (e.g., using the movie Gattacca to introduce the ethics of genetic technologies, or The Island of Dr. Moreau to discuss personhood)? Turn that class into a paper! Yearly Theme Every year the Journal selects a Yearly Theme. Papers addressing the Yearly Theme are collected in a special section of the Journal. The Yearly Theme for 2017 is All Persons Great and Small: The Notion of Personhood in Science Fiction Stories. SF stories are in a unique position to help us examine the concept of personhood, by making the human world engage with a bewildering variety of beings with person-like qualities – aliens of bizarre shapes and customs, artificial constructs conflicted about their artificiality, planetary-wide intelligences, collective minds, and the list goes on. Every one of these instances provides the opportunity to reflect on specific aspects of the notion of personhood, such as, for example: What is a person? What are its defining qualities? What is the connection between personhood and morality, identity, rationality, basic (“human?”) rights? What patterns do SF authors identify when describing the oppression of one group of persons by another, and how do they reflect past and present human history? The Journal accepts papers year-round. The deadline for the first round of reviews, both for its general and yearly theme, is October 1st, 2017. Contact the Editor at with any questions, or visit for more information. Wednesday, July 19, 2017 Why I Evince No Worry about Super-Spartans I'm a dispositionalist about belief. To believe that there is beer in the fridge is nothing more or less than to have a particular suite of dispositions. It is to be disposed, ceteris paribus (all else being equal, or normal, or absent countervailing forces), to behave in certain ways, to have certain conscious experiences, and to transition to related mental states. It is to be disposed, ceteris paribus, to go to the fridge if one wants a beer, and to say yes if someone asks if there is beer in the fridge; to feel surprise should one open the fridge and find no beer, and to visually imagine your beer-filled fridge when you try to remember the contents of your kitchen; to be ready to infer that your Temperance League grandmother would have been disappointed in you, and to see nothing wrong with plans that will only succeed if there is beer in the fridge. If you have enough dispositions of this sort, you believe that there is beer in the fridge. There's nothing more to believing than that. (Probably some sort of brain is required, but that's implementational detail.) To some people, this sounds uncomfortably close to logical behaviorism, a view according to which all mental states can be analyzed in terms of behavioral dispositions. On such a view, to be in pain, for example, just is, logically or metaphysically, to be disposed to wince, groan, avoid the stimulus, and say things like "I'm in pain". There's nothing more to pain than that. It is unclear whether any well-known philosopher was a logical behaviorist in this sense. (Gilbert Ryle, the most cited example, was clearly not a logical behaviorist. In fact, the concluding section of his seminal book The Concept of Mind is a critique of behaviorism.) Part of the semi-mythical history of philosophy of mind is that in the bad old days of the 1940s and 1950s, some philosophers were logical behaviorists of this sort; and that logical behaviorism was abandoned due to several fatal objections that were advanced in the 1950s and 1960s, including one objection by Hilary Putnam that turned on the idea of super-spartans. Some people have suggested that 21st-century dispositionalism about belief is subject to the same concerns. Putnam asks us to "engage in a little science fiction": Imagine a community of 'super-spartans' or 'super-stoics' -- a community in which the adults have the ability to successfully suppress all involuntary pain behavior. They may, on occasion, admit that they feel pain, but always in pleasant well-modulated voices -- even if they are undergoing the agonies of the damned. The do not wince, scream, flinch, sob, grit their teeth, clench their fists, exhibit beads of sweat, or otherwise act like people in pain or people suppressing their unconditioned responses associated with pain. However, they do feel pain, and they dislike it (just as we do) ("Brains and Behavior", 1965, p. 9). Here is some archival footage I have discovered: A couple of pages later, Putnam expands the thought experiment: [L]et us undertake the task of trying to imagine a world in which there are not even pain reports. I will call this world the 'X-world'. In the X-world we have to deal with 'super-super-spartans'. These have been super-spartans for so long, that they have begun to suppress even talk of pain. Of course, each individual X-worlder may have his private way of thinking about pain.... He may think to himself: 'This pain is intolerable. If it goes on one minute longer I shall scream. Oh No! I mustn't do that! That would disgrace my whole family...' But X-worlders do not even admit to having pains" (p. 11). Putnam concludes: "If this last fantasy is not, in some disguised way, self-contradictory, then logical behaviourism is simply a mistake.... From the statement 'X has a pain' by itself no behavioral statement follows -- not even a behavioural statement with a 'normally' or 'probably' in it. (p. 11) Putnam's basic idea is pretty simple: If you're a good enough actor, you can behave as though you lack mental state X even if you have mental state X, and therefore any analysis of mental state X that posits a necessary connection between mentality and behavior is doomed. Now I don't think this objection should have particularly worried any logical behaviorists (if any existed), much less actual philosophers sometimes falsely called behaviorists such as Ryle, and still less 21st-century dispositionalists like me. Its influence, I suspect, has more to do with how it conveniently disposes of what was, even in 1965, only a straw man. We can see the flaw in the argument by considering parallel cases of other types of properties for which a dispositional analysis is highly plausible, and noting how it seems to apply equally well to them. Consider solubility in water. To say of an object that it is soluble in water is to say that it is apt to dissolve when immersed in water. Being water-soluble is a dispositional property, if anything is. Imagine now a planet in which there is only one small patch of water. The inhabitants of that planet -- call it PureWater -- guard that patch jealously with the aim of keeping it pure. Toward this end, they have invented technologies so that normally soluable objects like sugar cubes will not dissolve when immersed in the water. Some of these technologies are moderately low-tech membranes which automatically enclose objects as soon as they are immersed; others are higher-tech nano-processes, implemented by beams of radiation, that ensure that stray molecules departing from a soluble object are immediately knocked back to their original location. If Putnam's super-spartans objection is correct, then by parity of reasoning the hypothetical possibility of the planet PureWater would show that no dispositional analysis of solubility could be correct, even here on Earth. But that's the wrong conclusion. The problem with Putnam's argument is that, as any good dispositionalist will admit, dispositions only manifest ceteris paribus -- that is, under normal conditions, absent countervailing forces. (This has been especially clear since Nancy Cartwright's influential 1983 book on the centrality of ceteris paribus conditions to scientific generalizations, but Ryle knew it too.) Putnam quickly mentions "a behavioural statement with a 'normally' or 'probably' in it", but he does not give the matter sufficient attention. Super-super-spartans' intense desire not to reveal pain is a countervailing force, a defeater of the normality condition, like the technological efforts of the scientists of PureWater. To use hypothetical super-super-spartans against a dispositional approach to pain is like saying that water-solubility isn't a dispositional property because there's a possible planet where soluble objects reliably fail to dissolve when immersed in water. Most generalizations admit of exceptions. Nerds wear glasses. Dogs have four legs. Extraverts like parties. Dropped objects accelerate at 9.8 m/sec^2. Predators eat prey. Dispositional generalizations are no different. This does not hinder their use in defining mental states, even if we imagine exceptional cases where the property is present but something dependably interferes with its manifesting in the standard way. Of course, if some of the relevant dispositions are dispositions to have certain types of related conscious experiences (e.g., inner speech) and to transition to related mental states (e.g., in jumping to related conclusions), as both Ryle and I think, then the super-spartan objection is even less apt, because super-super-spartans do, by hypothesis, have those dispositions. They manifest such internal dispositions when appropriate, and if they fail to manifest their pain in outward behavior that's because manifestation is prevented by an opposing force. (PS: Just to be clear, I don't myself accept a dispositional account of pain, only of belief and other attitudes.) Thursday, July 13, 2017 [first published in Apex Magazine, July 2017] In most respects, the universe (which some call the Library) is everywhere the same, and we at the summit are like the rest of you below. Like you, we dwell in a string of hexagonal library chambers connected by hallways that run infinitely east and west. Like you, we revere the indecipherable books that fill each chamber wall, ceiling to floor. Like you, we wander the connecting hallways, gathering fruits and lettuces from the north wall, then cast our rinds and waste down the consuming vine holes. Also like you, we sometimes turn our backs to the vines and gaze south through the indestructible glass toward sun and void, considering the nature of the world. Our finite lives, guided by our finite imaginations, repeat infinitely east, west, and down. But unlike you, we at the summit can watch the rabbits. The rabbits! Without knowing the rabbits, how could one hope to understand the world? The rabbit had entered my family's chamber casually, on a crooked, sniffing path. We stood back, stopping mid-sentence to stare, as it hopped to a bookcase. My brother ran to inform the nearest chambers, then swiftly returned. Word spread, and soon most of the several hundred people who lived within a hundred chambers of us had come to witness the visitation -- Master Gardener Ferdinand in his long green gown, Divine Chanter Guinart with his quirky smile. Why hadn't our neighbors above warned us that a rabbit was coming? Had they wished to watch the rabbit, and lift it, and stroke its fur, in selfish solitude? The rabbit grabbed the lowest bookshelf with its pink fingers and pulled itself up one shelf at a time to the fifth or sixth level; then it scooted sideways, sniffing along the chosen shelf, fingers gripping the shelf-rim, hind feet down upon the shelf below. Finding the book it sought, it hooked one finger under the book's spine and let it fall. The rabbit jumped lightly down, then nudged the book across the floor with its nose until it reached the reading chair in the middle of the room. It was of course taboo for anyone to touch the reading chair or the small round reading table, except under the guidance of a chanter. Chanter Guinart pressed his palms together and began a quiet song -- the same incomprehensible chant he had taught us all as children, a phonetic interpretation of the symbols in our sacred books. The rabbit lifted the book with its fingers to the seat of the chair, then paused to release some waste gas that smelled of fruit and lettuce. It hopped up onto the chair, lifted the book from chair to reading table, and hopped onto the table. Its off-white fur brightened as it crossed into the eternal sunbeam that angled through the small southern window. Beneath the chant, I heard the barefoot sound of people clustering behind me, their breath and quick whispers. The rabbit centered the book in the sunbeam. It opened the book and ran its nose sequentially along the pages. When it reached maybe the 80th page, it erased one letter with the pink side of its tongue, and then with the black side of its tongue it wrote a new letter in its place. Its task evidently completed, the rabbit nosed the book off the table, letting it fall roughly to the floor. The rabbit leaped down to chair then floor, then smoothed and licked and patiently cleaned the book with tongue and fingers and fur. Neighbors continued to gather, clogging room and doorways and both halls. When the book-grooming was complete, the rabbit raised the book one shelf at a time with nose and fingers, returning it to its proper spot. It leaped down again and hopped toward the east door. People stepped aside to give it a clear path. The rabbit exited our chamber and began to eat lettuces in the hall. With firm voice, my father broke the general hush: "Children, you may gently pet the rabbit. One child at a time." He looked at me, but I no longer considered myself a child. I waited for the neighbor children to have their fill of touching. We lived about a hundred thousand levels from the summit, but even so impossibly near the top of our infinite world, one might reach old age only ever having seen a couple of dozen visitations. By the time the last child left, the rabbit had long since finished eating. The rabbit hopped toward where I sat, about twenty paces down the hall, near the spiral glass stairs. I intercepted it, lifting it up and gazing into its eyes. It gazed silently back, revealing no secrets. [continued here] [author interview] What Is the Likelihood That Your Mind Is Constituted by a Rabbit Reading and Writing on Long Strips of Turing Tape? (Jul 5, 2017) Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence, Scrambled Sideways (Oct 31, 2012) Wednesday, July 05, 2017 Your first guess is probably not very likely. But consider this argument: (1) A computationalist-functionalist philosophy of mind is correct. That is, mentality is just a matter of transitioning between computationally definable states in response to environmental inputs, in a way that hypothetically could be implemented by a computer. (2) As Alan Turing famously showed, it's possible to implement any finitely computable function on a strip of tape containing alphanumeric characters, given a read-write head that implements simple rules for writing and erasing characters and moving itself back and forth along the tape. (3) Given 1 and 2, one way to implement a mind is by means of a rabbit reading and writing characters on a long strip of tape that is properly responsive, in an organized way, to its environment. (The rabbit will need to adhere to simple rules and may need to live a very long time, so it won't be exactly a normal rabbit. Environmental influence could be implemented by alteration of the characters on segments of the tape.) (4) The universe is infinite. (5) Given 3 and 4, the cardinality of "normally" implemented minds is the same as the cardinality of minds implemented by rabbits reading and writing on Turing tape. (Given that such Turing-rabbit minds are finitely probable, we can create a one-to-one mapping or bijection between Turing-rabbit minds and normally implemented minds, for example by starting at an arbitrary point in space and then pairing the closest normal mind with the closest Turing-rabbit mind, then pairing the second-closest of each, then pairing the third-closest....) (6) Given 5, you cannot justifiably assume that most minds in the universe are "normal" minds rather than Turing-rabbit implemented minds. (This might seem unintuitive, but comparing infinities often yields such unintuitive results. ETA: One way out of this would be to look at the ratios in limits of sequences. But then we need to figure out a non-question-begging way to construct those sequences. See the helpful comments by Eric Steinhart on my public FB feed.) (7) Given 6, you cannot justifiably assume that you yourself are very likely to be a normal mind rather than a Turing-rabbit mind. (If 1-3 are true, Turing-rabbit minds can be perfectly similar to normally implemented minds.) I explore this possibility in "THE TURING MACHINES OF BABEL", a story in this month's issue of Apex Magazine. I'll link to the story once it's available online, but also consider supporting Apex by purchasing the issue now. The conclusion is of course "crazy" in my technical sense of the term: It's highly contrary to common sense and we aren't epistemically compelled to believe it. Among the ways out: You could reject the computational-functional theory of mind, or you could reject the infinitude of the universe (though these are both fairly common positions in philosophy and cosmology these days). Or you could reject my hypothesized rabbit implementation (maybe slowness is a problem even with perfect computational similarity). Or you could hold a view which allows a low ratio of Turing rabbits to normal minds despite the infinitude of both. Or you could insist that we (?) normally implemented minds have some epistemic access to our normality even if Turing-rabbit minds are perfectly similar and no less abundant. But none of those moves is entirely cost-free, philosophically. Notice that this argument, though skeptical in a way, does not include any prima facie highly unlikely claims among its premises (such as that aliens envatted your brain last night or that there is a demon bent upon deceiving you). The premises are contentious, and there are various ways to resist my combination of them to draw the conclusion, but I hope that each element and move, considered individually, is broadly plausible on a fairly standard 21st-century academic worldview. The basic idea is this: If minds can be implemented in strange ways, and if the universe is infinite, then there will be infinitely many strangely implemented minds alongside infinitely many "normally" implemented minds; and given standard rules for comparing infinities, it seems likely that these infinities will be of the same cardinality. In an infinite universe that contains infinitely many strangely implemented minds, it's unclear how you could know you are not among the strange ones.
Math That Matters (Part IV—Solar Power for the U.S.) (Part A) How big a solar array is necessary to provide all the electricity currently used in the United States? Renewable energy (particularly, solar and wind) use is way up over the last 20 years, both globally and in the United States. Annually, rates of growth for PV (photovoltaic) solar and wind are both above 20% over this time, with solar being closer to +40%. This amazing growth appears ready to continue as more and more areas of the world are looking to install solar due to its many benefits (ref 1). However, some believe that solar would have to cover huge expanses of land in order to make a significant contributor to our energy portfolio. Let’s take a look at this belief by asking a simple question, “How big a solar array is necessary to provide all the electricity currently used in the United States?” Well, there is some background information and a few assumptions that one needs to make in order to calculate this. First, how much electricity do we use in the U.S.? Looking this up, we find: (1) 12.6 Q = 3,704 PWh (ref 2) (1 Q = 1 Quad BTU = 294 PWh, where 1 PWh is 10 to the 12th power (or 1,000,000,000,000) Watt-hours) Next, we need to know how much electricity is produced by a typical solar panel. This requires other information as well: (a) Power rating for solar panel = 345 W (b) Size of solar panel (61” x 41”) = 17.37 square feet Thus, Maximum power output = (a)/(b) = 19.9 W/sq. ft Note: From these values one can compute an efficiency for the panel (which is typically between 15-20%), but one need not calculate the efficiency for our purposes. Since no panel produces maximally (due to inverting DC current to AC current, losses in wires, snow/dust on panels, etc.), a “de-rating” of 75% is typically used. (c) Power output expected = Max. power * de-rating = 19.9 W/sq. ft * 0.75 = 14.9 W/sq. ft Now we need to consider how many hours of sunlight there will be for this panel. Typically, this is done by computing the “average” number of “full-sun” hours per day a panel would be expected to receive at a location. In the U.S., most locations range from 3.5-6.5 hours. We’ll take 4.5 “full-sun” hours to be conservative (central IL has these types of values). (d) True electricity provided = Power output expected * “full-sun” hours (daily) * days in year (2) = 14.9 W/sq. ft * 4.5 hrs/day * 365 days/year = 24.5 kWh/sq. ft Now, we can determine how many square feet we need to provide the electricity for the entire nation of the United States: Size of solar array = Electricity usage (nation)/Electricity production density = (1)/(2) = 3,704 PWh/24.5 kWh per sq. ft = 151,184,000,000 sq. ft Wow, 151 billion square feet. That’s huge, isn’t it? Let’s convert this to square miles: # square feet in a square mile => 1 sq. mile = (5280 ft) * (5280 ft) = 27,900,000 sq. ft So, 151.2 billion square feet is __X__ square miles; where, X = 151,200,000,000 sq. ft/(27,900,000 sq. ft/sq. mile) = 5418 sq. miles But, how much is 5,418 square miles? Just about a squared area with 74 miles on a side! The area of the state of Illinois is ~58,000 square miles. So, 5,418 square miles is ~9.3% of the state! It is also only 25-times the combined size of the 10 largest airports in the United States. This area, again, if covered with solar panels, would be produce enough electricity to power the entire nation! In conclusion, the belief that solar panels sufficient to power the U.S. would have to cover a huge amount of area is just plain wrong! Wondering why this information isn’t widely distributed? Well, are you going to distribute it or not? If not, why not? This might provide you part of the answer as to why it isn’t widely known. (Part B) Now, what if we wanted to produce all the energy resources we use, not just electricity, with solar PV power? Understandably, most things that use fossil fuels now are not currently able to use electricity (as in, most of the cars/trucks on the road are not yet electric), but most could be made to use electricity if it was available. So, then, if we need to produce 97.3 Quad (not 12.6 Q which is the current electricity demand alone), we’d need ~7.7 times (or 97.3/12.6) more land than stated above. However, since our fossil-fuel dominant energy economy currently requires 37.5 Q of energy to produce 12.6 Q of electricity (due to the inefficiencies in the use of such sources), we actually wouldn’t need to use this wasted energy (or 24.9 Q (37.5 Q – 12.6 Q)) at all; this is a HUGE understated benefit of moving towards solar energy sources. Thus, we would need only to produce 72.4 Quad which would require 5.7 times more land than calculated in Part A, or ~31,000 square miles. This amounts to about 11% of the land area of the state of Texas, not much land considering the size of the United States. In fact, since the area of the U.S. is 3.8 million square miles, we would need to cover less than 1% of the U.S. land surface with solar PV in order to produce all the energy we would need in a fully “electrified” nation! (A recent study by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) found that we could provide 1,432 TWh of electricity by putting solar panels on suitable buildings in the United States. This would be enough to provide 39% of our national electricity needs and 7% of our national energy needs!; see report.) Caveats: The above calculations only relate to solar PV. The future renewable energy system, that will become dominate in the 21st Century, displacing almost all fossil fuels, will rely on wind, geothermal and hydropower as well. In addition, the need for the world’s poor to use more energy than they do now (in order to live fully actualized lives) will require greater amounts of energy to be produced. Additionally, as the U.S. is one of the more wasteful energy users, its consumption could easily decline (perhaps by 50%) without any detrimental impacts. These factors are important when looking at the future land needs of the entire energy system. Math that Matters (Part III—The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election) We often are told that we should vote. Yet, how many of us have ever participated in an election where our vote was the deciding one? Consider that a national or statewide election usually consists of millions of votes, the opportunity to be the deciding vote is clearly very rare. However, not to long ago there was a national vote that was extremely close and it had huge consequences on the course of history. November 7, 2000 appeared to be a normal voting day in the United States. Two major party candidates as well as several dedicated third-party ones were running for the premier office—the Presidency of the United States. What would transpire that evening and the subsequent days caught most of us by surprise and its ultimate outcome certainly reminds us of the importance of voting. George W. Bush beat Albert Gore by winning the electoral votes by less than 1% (actually, 0.93%) in one of the closest races in history; Gore actually won the popular vote by 1% (actually, 0.51%), or 540,000+ votes. And while these are very close numbers indeed, nothing was closer than what took place in the state of Florida (although there were 5 states that were decided by less than a 0.5% margin—and all of these others narrowly supported Gore over Bush). When all the votes were “counted” and confirmed (though 20 U.S. Representatives objected to the Florida recount), Bush won the Florida popular vote over Gore by a mere 547 votes. Now, the closeness of this result needs to be properly understood. In the state of Florida, there were nearly 6 million votes counted for the U.S. Presidency in 2000. Thus, 547 votes out of 6 million represents 0.009%. Converted into a language that we might understand better, this represents approximately 1 in 10,000. Thus, if just 1 in every 10,000 voters had voted for Gore, rather than Bush (or any other Presidential candidate on the ballot), Gore would have won the state of Florida’s 25 electoral votes, and, therefore, the election. Now that is about as close as it gets! (This mathematical exercise ignores the huge issue of voter suppression revealed in 2000, which continues today, and the amazing potentiality of voter fraud given the issue of “hanging-chads” or electronic voting machines (that often had/have no credible validation option). These are huge omissions and for the sake of completion, links to such issues are provided below, for interested parties.) Voter Suppression: In 2000: ref 1 In 2012: ref 2 In 2016: ref 3a, ref 3b Hanging Chads: ref 4a, ref 4b Electronic Voting Machines: ref 5a, ref 5b Math that matters (Part II–Atmospheric Changes) Everyone now knows (or denies) that CO2 has been increasing in the atmosphere for the past couple hundred years and this increase is largely responsible for the climate changes that have occurred over that time. And 400 ppm (parts per million) is a number that more and more people are familiar with as well; it represents the average concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (up from 280 ppm when the Industrial Revolution commenced, ~1750). Well, there are a few other very interesting/compelling numbers that we can determine based on this information alone, including: (1) What is the average annual growth rate of the CO2 over this period (1750-2017)? (2) What is 400 ppm in percentage terms? (3) How many molecules of CO2 are there in a regular sized balloon? (4) Considering CO2 changes alone, by what percentage has the composition of the atmosphere changed since Industrialization? Let’s do some calculations: Atmospheric CO2 concentration has risen exponentially so we use an exponential growth equation to model it: (a) Cf = Ci x e^(rt), where, Cf = final concentration, Ci = initial concentration, e = 2.718 (Euler’s number), r = annual rate of growth, and t = duration of time (^ is used as an exponential symbol) The variable we want is r (as we have all the other numbers). Solving for r requires using a little “Algebra II”: First move Ci over by dividing both sides of (a) by Ci and flipping the equation around; this leaves: e^rt = Cf/Ci Now, if we take the log of both sides (here the natural log, ln) and use the fact that ln(e) = 1, we get: ln(e^rt) = ln(Cf/Ci)  rt x ln(e) = ln(Cf/Ci)  rt = ln(Cf/Ci) Now, if we divide both sides by t, we get an equation solved for r, the desired variable: r = ln(Cf/Ci)/t Inputting the values of the three known variables (Cf = 400 ppm, Ci = 280 ppm, and t = 2017-1750 = 267 years) yields the annual growth rate: r = ln(400/280)/267 = 0.00134 (or 0.134% per year) If we just look at the growth of CO2 concentration since 1950 (when industrialization became global; CO2’s concentration in 1950 was ~310 ppm), we can once again use the exponential equation above to determine the growth rate in more recent times: r = ln(400/310)/67 = 0.0038 (or 0.38% per year) In either case, notice that humans are increasing CO2’s concentration only very slightly each year. (Over the past 267 years, CO2’s concentration has gone up 43%.) However, what may appear “slight” is definitely not slight in terms of its current and future impacts. (2) What is 400 ppm in percentage terms? Answering this merely requires us to understand what ppm (parts per million) means. Unlike some words in English, ppm means literally what it says. If the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is 400 ppm then for every million parts (or molecules) of atmospheric gas, CO2 will be 400 of them. With this understanding we can compute a percentage by expressing the amount of CO2 (relative to everything in the atmosphere) as a ratio: % of CO2 in atmosphere = ppm of CO2/1,000,000 parts of atm = 400/1,000,000 = 0.0004 (or 0.04%) Again, this is a very, very small amount but as we know this small amount of CO2 is responsible for a significant amount (~30-40%) of the Natural Greenhouse Effect (NGE) and the bulk (~50-60%) of the Anthropogenic Greenhouse Effect (AGE), associated with “global warming” and “climate change.” While (2) tells us what proportion of gases in the atmosphere are CO2 it doesn’t really tell us how much CO2 is a particular volume. If we take a typical balloon (1 foot in diameter; let’s assume it is a sphere), we can find the volume of the balloon using this formula: V = 4/3 x pi x r^3, where V = volume, pi = 3.14159, and r is the radius of the balloon. Plugging in the numbers leads to: V = 4/3 x 3.14159 x (0.5)^3 = 0.52 cubic feet Since 1 liter = 0.0353147 cubic feet, the volume of the balloon is: V = 0.52 cubic feet x (1 liter/0.0353147 cubic feet) = 14.7 liters This seems quite high when one considers a two liter bottle of soda but rest assured this is the correct value. Now that we have the volume, we’ll need to determine how much CO2 is in such a volume. Here we have to use some chemistry laws; here the most well-known of them all, the Ideal Gas Law: (c) PV = nRT, which can be rewritten as, n = PV/RT, where P = pressure, V = volume, n = number of moles of gas, R = the Ideal Gas Constant = 0.082 L-atm/mole-K) and T = temperature in Kelvin degrees. Assuming that we have a standard atmospheric pressure of 1 atmosphere and we are at room temperature of 27 deg Celsius (equivalent to 81 degrees Fahrenheit or 300 K), we can plug the numbers into equation (c): n = (1 atm)(14.7 L)/((0.082 L-atm/mole-k)(300 K)) = 0.60 moles So what is a mole? Chemists define one mole as 6.02 x 10^23 molecules (or 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules). Notice that our use of the Ideal Gas Law was for all the molecules of gas, not just CO2. Thus, if the 14.7 L (of a balloon) contains 0.60 moles of gas, we calculate the number of molecules of gas in the balloon as such: # of molecules of gas (in balloon) = 0.60 moles x (6.02 x 10^23 molecules/mole) = 3.61×10^23 molecules Now to determine how many of these molecules are CO2 we use the information determined in the previous question thusly: # molecules of CO2 in a balloon = 3.61 x 10^23 molecules of gas x (0.0004) = 1.4 x 10^20 molecules of CO2 There we have it. There are 140,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of CO2 in every balloon (assuming it isn’t filled with helium 😊). Now, while this balloon’s gas is very light, it certainly is filled with a lot of molecules of CO2. This might lead one to wonder how much does all the CO2 in the atmosphere weigh. Well, this calculation is a bit trickier. According to web references, the entire atmosphere weighs approximately 1.1 x 10^19 pounds (or 5.5 quadrillion tons). We might want to just multiply this by the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere in order to determine the total weight of CO2 in the atmosphere but we would be wrong to do so; though it wouldn’t be a terribly bad approximation (if we did so we get 4×10^15 pounds). The different molecules of gas have different weights. Thus, we would have to do a calculation that would include all of these different gases and their weights. This is a bit more complicated than I choose to get right now, so suffice it to say that all the CO2 in the atmosphere weighs approximately six thousand times more than all the humans on the Earth combined (which is approximately 7×10^11 pounds). Calculation (1) clarified how small CO2’s concentration is the larger scheme of things, while (2) and (3) suggested how much CO2 there is. Notice, it all depends on how we look at things, as do most things. The question asked here aims to provide a sense of how much change has occurred in our atmosphere since industrialization. We know that the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration has gone from 280 ppm to 400 ppm (a 43% increase). And we calculated that CO2 comprises 0.04% of the atmosphere. Thus, to determine how big a change in the atmospheric composition has been caused by Industrialization, we need only to multiply these two percentages together, as such: Change in Atmospheric Composition since industrialization = % Change in CO2 concentration x % of atm. that is CO2. Putting numbers in yields, Change in Atmospheric Composition since industrialization = 43% x 0.04% = 0.017% Since most don’t work with percentages this small, what does this amount of change mean. Well, if you had 5,814 molecules of atmospheric gas–represented by 5,812 red polka dots (each representing a molecule of gas other than CO2) and 2 blue polka dots (each representing a molecule of CO2)—over the 267 years of Industrialization, one more molecule of CO2 has been added to the atmosphere (or one more blue polka dot). Another way to look at it: If you had 5,814 fans sitting in a gymnasium, 267 years later, one more fan would join the fray. Would you notice a change of this amount? Most definitely not (unless of course the fan was decked out in the rival’s colors 😊). But we can thank modern science for building equipment that can measure such small (yet powerful) changes in the atmosphere. Perhaps the most salient question is: have we built a political/social apparatus to respond to the future/predictions that this information clarifies? Math that matters (Part I–Missing Women) If we want kids/adults to learn math, we might as well make it relevant. Here are a few relevant calculations (that employ nothing more than algebra) which I find very relevant to our future. Imagine these calculations being taught to an 8th grade algebra class! Here is the first installment: Missing women Most people are not aware that females were systematically removed from the population during the 20th Century and it is a practice that continues today. How do we know? Well, as Nobel Prize winning economist, Amartya Sen, noted back in the 1990s, if we look at sex ratios of nations, we find several that have ratios that are far from 1:1. Pakistan and China have ratios of 0.94:1 and India has a ratio of 0.93:1 (in 2016) (these numbers are pretty much the same as they were in 1990, though Pakistan has improved slightly from 0.91:1). Given that women live longer than men, nations should have sex ratios above 1–most European nations are above 1.03:1. Given these “small” differences among nations, one might just dismiss the low ratios as “normal” variation. Unfortunately, this would be a huge mistake. Here is the math to determine what a ratio of 0.93:1 means, in comparison to a 1.03:1. First, let’s define the variables needed: F = number of females in a population M= number of males in a population T = total population = F + M R = sex ratio = F/M So the above two equations have 4 variables (F, M, T, & R)…if you know two (and you do, T and R, from Internet sources), you should be able to use simple algebra to compute the other two, F and M. Again, the equations are: (1) T = F + M and (2) R = F/M Here is how you solve these two equations: Solving (2) for M yields (3) M = F/R, substituting (3) into (1) yields, F + F/R = T; this can be rewritten as: F(1+(1/R)) = T which can be rewritten as (4) F = T/(1 + 1/R) So, you can determine how many females are in a population using this equation. This can be considered the Actual Females (Fact). So, with a population of 1 billion (1,000,000,000; which is smaller than both India’s and China’s current population) and a sex ratio of R=0.94, we use equation (4) to solve for Fact as such: Fact = 1,000,000,000/(1 + 1/0.94) = 485 million So, Mact = 1 billion – 485 million = 515 million Now to determine the Expected Females (Fexp) in a “healthy” society, with F/M = 1.03, we use equation (4) again with this new R value. Fexp = 1,000,000,000/(1 + 1/1.03)) = 507 million So, Mexp = 493 million Now you can determine the “missing females” (Fmiss) using this simple formula: Missing Females = Fmiss = Expected Females – Actual Females = Fexp – Fact In our example above (the hypothetical nation of 1 billion people), we find: Fmiss = 507 million – 485 million = 22 million Is this a large number? Well, when one considers that between 50-60 million people died in World War II, I’d say it is! Also, this is only for one country (say China or India). If you were to add up all the nations in the world with “missing women,” it comes to close to 100 million! Now that is an abominable figure, isn’t it? Yet, how many of you have heard of this figure before? If you are wondering why women are missing, do some research. It isn’t a pretty story. (I wrote about this issue over 10 years ago and got it published in a local paper’s front page. Sadly, as I recall, it hardly drew any attention.) Just to put these numbers in perspective it is sometimes valuable to imagine what a sex ratio looks like when you bring it down to a scale that we can see. Let’s say, if you had a party of 100 people and a sex ratio of 0.94, you would have 52 men and 48 women. This would hardly be noticeable, would it? Hence, now we see why we need to do the large-scale calculations to expose something very sinister. We will, yes we will! [This journal was inspired by the 68 students who just finished their first week of classes with me. Their blogs, journals and in-class comments provoked me to reexamine the prospects for humanity.] Things don’t look too promising right now. Super hurricanes have just pummeled two regions of the U.S. and forest fires continue to burn millions of acres of land in another. These are just the most recent calamities that pervade our consciousness. Bees, birds, bats, butterflies, and bears (nearly everything beginning with a “b”) seem to be suffering greatly. Pick another letter and you will find some of the same depressing trends (how about “I”, ice sheets, icebergs, infectious diseases, islands, invasive species, etc.). However, these trends can be reversed and humanity can bring about peace within their own species and across the entire biosphere. How in the face of all this disaster can I say something optimistic? Well, you definitely cannot claim the opposite of what I’ve said. Saying that you know that humans are incapable of reversing these trends requires a degree of self-righteousness (and clairvoyance) unimaginable. And if you can’t argue the opposite, then you are left with only two options. You can assert that you don’t know or you can, as I just did, assert that humanity can resolve these matters. Saying you don’t know if humans are able to (or will) reverse these ominous trends, while inherently true (we actually can know nothing of the future with certainty), is equivalent to being ambivalent (or “pleading ignorance”), and we frankly have no time for this; to claim ignorance is a cop out of the worst kind. Humanity must do something to reverse these trends and the time is now to do so. Logically, then, we are left asserting that humans can (and will) do this! But there is more than mere logic that forces us to accept that we can. Consider two additional insights. First, the world we live in is so different from the worlds that humanity has lived in the past. In no time in the past has a human being in Venezuela been able to visually see and talk to a human being living in Indonesia (the exact opposite side of the planet; if you want to see what is directly on the other side from you, check out this website, link). In no time in the past have foods/materials been able to move from one place on the planet to any other place on the planet in less than 24 hours. Never in past worlds have all humans had the capacity to find out almost any known information at the click of the mouse. These three incredible “technologies” permit possibilities that are just as unlimited as they are unimaginable. Second, consider how much we have learned about the world in the past 100 years, e.g., penicillin was discovered in 1928 and DNA’s helical structure became known in 1953. If we consider how few humans have been involved in this type of discovery, particularly with the existing underclass that pervades almost every modern nation, we should anticipate that unlimited insights from new knowledge await us. Furthermore, despite all that we currently know about how to reverse the “trends” (through research in the fields of environmental studies, ecology, biomimicry, engineering, medicine, horticulture, communication, renewable energy, sociology, computer science, atmospheric science, etc.), consider how few of us are actually engaging directly with this knowledge in practice, whether it be researching phenomena, disseminating/teaching findings, or implementing solutions. There is so much that could be shared and accomplished. So, for all the above reasons, I look at the future with a confidence that humans will reverse these trends. I didn’t say it will be easy. However, I can promise you this. It will be incredibly satisfying and uplifting for those who were involved in doing so! And if you are wondering where to start, you are exactly where you need to be! Check out your local scene. There are probably many people already at work on reversing trends–whether they are doing urban farming, enhancing biodiversity, teaching/mentoring, engaging in grassroots politics, building social capital, et cetera. They would love more support and camaraderie and if more of us work together we can succeed in reversing the trends and building a sustainable society. The Illusion of Poverty: The Age of Sharing Awaits Us Huge caveat: The author fortunately has not suffered directly from impoverishment during his life. (We all suffer from it indirectly.) Thus, he contributes this piece, not as an expert on the “topic,” but as attempt to generate productive exchange. People in the world, in fact most people in the world, suffer greatly because they are economically poor. (Many are spiritually and culturally rich and this should give many unfulfilled “Northerners” pause regarding the “civilized” nature of our lifestyle.) They go without food, water, housing, health care, education, etc., because they cannot purchase these necessities. Why? It is because these items, despite being core basic necessities for a fully actualized life, have all been commodified. (All resources are commodified, even air–you don’t pay a monthly fee for air yet but you suffer, and pay for medical treatment, from the reckless polluting of the atmosphere.) Commodification in our capitalist world dictates that these (all) resources are provided (or not) so as to maximize profits for the few. This is a terribly inhumane situation and one that will continue to bring great suffering to the world if not ultimately trigger the elimination of our species. But hold on. There is something incredibly simple about this terrible situation. It is completely an artificial construction! It isn’t like we don’t have enough food, land, water, or shelter to provide every human sufficient resources to self-actualize. We do! Yet we don’t make this grand aim a priority and most of us are not yet willing to share. But we could change this, couldn’t we? What is holding us back? I think three things are key. One, we accept inequality and selfishness as reasonable/normal and a natural outcome of human society. I see this point of view as a cop out/rationale which can be tackled by intentional efforts to share and redistribute resources so that every person is a “have” and no one is a “have not”. Two, we must change the economy from a profit-based one to an equity-based one. We need progressive taxes (not more regressive ones) and shared resources. One need look no further than the difference between health outcomes in the USA (where more and more hospitals are becoming privatized and costs are skyrocketing) and those in Europe (where socialized medicine reigns)–U.S.’s health system is ranked #37 by the WHO while 17 of the top 20 ranked are European (link) Similar benefits would come by making sure that all of us have true access to the best education possible, clean water, healthful food and safe housing. (Recent efforts to privatize these resources has resulted in worse conditions, not better.) Three, we should have more free time to give to our families, children, friendships, & communities; some European countries are moving in this direction. Capitalism has demanded more of our time (men and women) and not made us any happier or fulfilled. It is also destroying the planet due to its “rational” short-sightedness that dictates that an old-growth forest is worth more as a ream of paper now than a flourishing ecosystem for perpetuity. So, some big changes in consciousness and structures are necessary, but we are closer than we think. Recall it was just 150 years ago that many thought slavery was necessary to deliver a good life. Some still do, but most do not and we are part of that most and we can make a better future for ourselves and the future. Or were they? lessons learned in 2016 [Note: some of these lessons were mere reminders but even so they were still noteworthy if only that] We don’t live in a democracy. Despite our repeated boasts about how we live in the “greatest democracy” of all-time, we must come to terms with the fact that we don’t. Evidence? While too abundant to mention exhaustively in a BLOG, here are a few of the most compelling to me: the Electoral College (ref 1), extensive voter suppression (before election day, on election day, and after election day) (ref 2a, 2b), inability to have a full recount (in several states) (ref 3a, 3b), extensive use of “no paper trail” electronic voting machines (ref 4a, 4b, 4c), exclusive “two-party” Presidential debates (ref 5a, 5b, 5c), and dominant media forms that fail to hold candidates accountable (ref 6a, 6b, 6c). No country is above electing a racist, sexist, xenophobic, egomaniacal person. Largely because of our failures in democracy, a person with horrific human qualities was given a chance to win/steal a presidential election. According to the Democratic Party’s leadership, a Russian computer hacking or a FBI director’s questionable action had the most to do with Clinton’s loss. However, this take wrongly deflects us from the more significant reasons, many mentioned earlier; this misfocus by a major party isn’t surprising given the little attention they have paid to the other factors (factors, sadly, they seem to accept as “normal”). Add to these, significant miscalculations in strategy (including, saying that many people were “deplorables” and claiming that things are going quite well (as if neoliberalism is good), when they aren’t (and it isn’t)). Too many continue to spend 90%+ of their political energy focused entirely on the presidential race. This is probably the most vexing to me. I see it in my own community. If only a couple of handfuls of citizens would dedicate themselves to the local political process signficant &#$ could happen. Hopefully, now that folks see how discombobulated the national election scene is, more will look to act locally. Misogyny is alive and well! When I first read that White women actually voted more for Drumf than HC, I was shocked (source). I didn’t believe it. When I heard some women easily discounting the blatantly misogynistic statements revealed by Drumf recordings, disregarding it as mere “boy” or “locker room” talk, I was sickened. How could this be? It is clear that the extreme attack on Hillary, one that has lasted more than a decade, has worked. She was built as the devil and enough people came to believe this. (She may not be an ideal candidate but she is no devil.) Also, this attitude is consistent with our generally condoning of violence (physically as well as economic) against women (and people of color) for hundreds of years, examples which have become more easily revealed to us by cell phone videos and texts. Clearly, we all must be more vigilant to expose and censure sexist and racist actions/statements. They are reprehensible and no person who revels in them should ever have the opportunity to be our commander-in-chief. I thought we had made more progress but recent events suggest we still have a long way to go. Cancer is as debilitating mentally as it is physically. I’ve come toe-to-toe with this disease. It is something that many of us still don’t openly discuss (out of fear?) and yet it affects more and more of us every day. I applaud those that provide care to those who are sick. The doctors, nurses, social workers, and other care givers, often who work exhaustive hours even on holidays, deserve a lot of admiration. Despite all the fear, hatred, irrationality, and hopelessness that we are fed every day, many good things continue to happen. Every day people are growing TONS of food in Detroit and elsewhere (ref 7), renewable energy is booming almost everywhere (such as the Philippines, ref 8), and volunteerism continues to thrive as well (ref 9). So, as we begin 2017, remember what the great Frederick Douglass said 160 years ago: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” (full speech here: ref 10). Friday is “BND.” Celebrate it! Based on the increased energy coming from commercials, this Friday purports to be a day of great significance. Every retailer is having a sale and what else is there to do on a Friday but shop. It seems only natural that we would buy (another) large TV or computer, or take advantage of the “incredible” discounts available at most stores. Sadly, there is something quite disturbing about this situation. Just as we can be lured into pro-war sentiment—remember post-9/11 and the ubiquitous flags—apparently we can be persuaded quite easily to buy more stuff, particularly if we feel we are getting it for a “steal”. So, what could be wrong with this? We are going to buy new things after all, aren’t we? Why does it matter when we do it? And, definitely, we should try to get the most for our dollar, shouldn’t we? First off, the compulsion to buy things (which we do to make us feel better, notice that the ads make consumers look cool and savvy) is an addiction. Identified by scholars as affluenza (see PBS program on topic, link), this illness is perhaps the greatest challenge we face as a humanity. Overconsumption causes tremendous problems. For every pound of waste that we “see” (for example that old working TV that is going to be put curbside because the new TV is bigger and has better graphics), it is estimated that ~80 pounds are produced upstream (see Annie Leonard’s The Story of Electronics, ref 1). And much of this upstream electronic waste is highly toxic. So, our addiction has grave consequences for the planet. Second, our addiction is a false solution. Overconsumption doesn’t bring long term happiness. Psychological research has established that the more materialistic one is, the more unhappy he/she/they tends to be (here is a short video that clarify this, link). In this way, buying something for a pick me up is similar to taking an “upper.” At the end of the day, one feels less happy and has more stress caused by financial difficulties driven by spending money one doesn’t have; actually, substance abuse also tends to be higher for materialist people. Ultimately, we must all find more productive ways to deal with our anxieties and unhappiness. According to experts, more social interaction is highly recommended. There are many resources for those that are looking to fight against consumerism. Enough (link) is a group in England focused on this. Adbusters is a journal that has lots of material on the subject (link). Buy Nothing Day is this Friday, that sounds a lot better than “Black Friday,” doesn’t it? (link to Adbusters’ BND page!) So, join the anti-consumeristic movement this Friday and feel good about yourself in a way that is powerful, purposeful, and longer lasting. Let others know too, because that is how it will become the new norm. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! vote, but As mentioned in my last blog, I do think that people should vote. This may come as a “no brainer” to most reading this but it’s not as simple as it looks and a more detailed inspection highlights valuable insights. Many who argue that we are obligated to vote remind us of the thousands (if not millions) that fought and died for their/our right to vote. In fact, this is no understatement. Our nation’s history does contain innumerable examples of tremendous struggle tied to obtaining “right to vote.” Women didn’t get this fundamental right until 1920!; so much for the “Land of the Free.” Many, many women were threatened, beaten, arrested and/or worse in their struggle for suffrage. To think it took our “enlightened” nation almost 150 years of existence to provide half the population this fundamental human right is astounding; and the US took longer than most Western nations–New Zealand was the first country in the world in 1893 (if interested in other nations, visit link). While African-American men were granted the right to vote in 1870 (15th Amendment), in practical terms, most were forbidden to do so because of racist “grandfather clauses,” literacy tests, and poll taxes that existed until 1965 (see link for historical timeline); thus, a significant component of our population has only been able to vote for ~50 years. Felons and others “being watched” by state are often not able to vote. This represents unfair disenfranchisement as our criminal justice system is extremely discriminatory (see Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”). This is a strong argument for voting but it fails to consider exactly what voting means. Most elections are “majority rules” in our nation–to the winner goes all the spoils. This greatly disenfranchises minority groups. Sadly, even today, many voices of people overlooked and undervalued are ignored. The Native Americans struggling in the Dakotas (and elsewhere) are but one such example. Since these groups rarely have the ability to impact the outcome of an election, voting doesn’t help their cause(s). Other countries have governing bodies where representation is proportional. Then at least more voices are being heard (though, perhaps, not listened to). Most of our elections (even many local ones) see two people vying to be the lone representative of “all.” So when one votes, one must decide between these two, and only these two, people. There are many shortcomings of this characteristic—-one true to the vast majority of our elections. First, typically the two people that reached the “top two” have been propelled there by corporate funded publicity, and, thus, have very pro-corporate mindsets. Let’s face it, it costs hundreds (if not thousands) of thousands of dollars to run even a statewide election. This severely limits candidates to those who are independently wealthy or “puppets” for those that have immense wealth. Second, the two people each typically represent one of the two major political parties. This is problematic because these two parties have become very pro-corporate and elitist; there are definitely exceptions to this but I am talking here about the vast majority of candidates representing these two parties. Third, having only “two” parties represented greatly limits the scope of what will be said/voiced and disseminated. We see how powerful this is in the current Presidential election. No “third party” representatives were invited to take part in the three debates (masquerades, might be a better word) that took place this year. If anyone watched the alternative debate organized by Jill Stein (it can be found online and at her Facebook page), you saw how significant having a third voice, particularly one not beholden to deep pockets and multinational corporations, can be. Interesting, there is sound evidence that the “two party” state was a natural outgrowth of the USA which was founded & organized by wealthy male landowners. These men understood the conservative nature of a “two party state,” one that gave them incredible power to control the policies and programs and any conversations held about them; see more on this in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. The terrible lack of coverage of third parties by the mainstream media clarifies how culpable this potentially democratizing entity is in controlling/limiting the coverage. (As a side note, this is one major reason that the two parties spend so much of their campaigns discussing social issues (such as, abortion, drugs, crime, guns, etc.), as these issues don’t upset the apple cart of extreme economic inequality that continues to expand over the past 40+ years independent of what political party is in the White House or in control of either legislative chamber.) Fourth, having only two choices often means that there is no way to submit a protest vote (such as “None of the above”) or a “write-in” candidate. In my mind, there should always be both of these for every election. For these, and other reasons, some decide, “why vote if both candidates represent the ‘status quo’,” when real economic, environmental and health challenges only get worse. All of this is to say, “yes, vote, but do a lot more!”; I focus on the “more” in many of my other blogs and I encourage commenters to speak their minds on this as well. I voted but I am under no illusion that by doing so I have somehow done my part to build a better world. It will take a lot of other contributions, today, tomorrow, and every day in the future; and not just by me, but by you as well. This, the illusion associated with voting, may be the greatest challenge we face. Whoever wins next month, we will have our plates full of things to do and ways to contribute. Why not start making those lists today. We definitely don’t want to be (nor do we have time to be) complacent.
By: Shanyn Olpin Our ancestors had to physically work hard for their food. The foods that they ate provided calories, but rarely the surplus of calories that we easily find in our foods today. There were also times of shortage, or famine when food was scarce and they went hungry. Through the ages, the DNA in our cells has remembered that. This is part of the reason our bodies crave fatty – sugary “comfort foods.” Sugar is easily converted into fat and fat is easily stored. Fat stores were great news for our ancestors. Today, our bodies still prefer to have fat reserves because that increases the chance of survival. They reward us with “feel good” chemicals like dopamine, whenever we eat, or have sex, or do anything that furthers human survival. Dopamine is the same “feel good” chemical that the body releases when people consume alcohol, cocaine, or any addictive drug. In other words, we really do feel good when we eat those foods! When we volunteer for famine by going on a diet and rigorously restrict calories, (not just cut back a bit on sweets), our brain goes on the defensive. It will not direct fat cells to release those stores without a fight. So people who go on diets end up battling with their own brain. Mind over matter isn’t just will power anymore. The brain automatically responds to cues in the environment to signal the body to prepare to eat. Smells, the time of day, the food we see all indicate to the brain that food is on its way. When your brain sees food it automatically calculates how filling it is most likely to be and it sends signals to the stomach to squeeze out whatever is left from lunch to make room for dinner. We get hungry. We eat. We are happy. In the short term, most diets appear to be successful because the brain will not release fat. Instead, when your body needs energy, it releases glucose supplies from the liver. Glucose is the sugar that muscles use and is almost instant energy. But glucose is stored in water and when it is released, water is released too. During the first week or two, dieters often urinate an extra two pints of water a day and that is a lot of weight. This is why many diets claim to be successful, because people lose 10 to 15 pounds the first week or two. The problem is they are losing water weight, not fat. If the dieter stays true to the diet, the brain may take desperate measures. Hunger pangs surge, dieters become irritable, all they can think about is food, and their weight loss plateaus. To make matters worse, the brain directs the body to “slow down” so it can keep its fat reserves. Metabolism drops. You burn fewer calories doing the same activities that you did before. This is the opposite of what you want to happen. This may eventually lead to the “splurge” that replaces glucose stores, and water, and the weight that was lost is suddenly back again. The way the body responds to dieting may explain why those who skip breakfast, tend to eat more calories throughout the day than those who eat a healthy breakfast. Perhaps, when the body starts out with a good meal, it isn’t as worried about famine and gathering food for the rest of the day. (There are more scientific reasons, but I like this one.) The truth is that most people who lose weight by dieting, gain it back again within a year, plus two to five pounds because the body will prepare for another famine. Many people who “diet” every year, no matter how much weight they lose, tend to weigh 20 to 50 pounds heavier after 10 to 15 years. The other problem with dieting is that people usually go back to their old eating habits when the desired weight is lost, the same eating habits that got them into trouble the first time. Eating unhealthy after restricting calories can be detrimental to a person’s health, depriving them of much needed nutrients needed to repair and maintain the body. If you have experienced any of this, don’t be discouraged! There is a way to lose weight and keep it off permanently. You can train your fat cells to release the grease! Look for the article, Release the Grease!” to find out more. • Jaynee Pendleton Thought that this was interesting and very informative. I have always hated diets, and now have a reason to never participate in one! • Rick I do find everything to be true in this artical. I myself have been on a diet for the last six months losing about 15 pounds. I felt like I had to train my mind to make this transformation and to help change my lifestyle. • Jeremy Brown Its interesting how people will bounce back and forth from diet to diet without really thinking that your body is going to change with them. And some diets, in my opinion, are even harmful to you. But since they “guarantee results” people tend to look at the positive and none of the negatives. But that’s really another topic altogether. I used to not eat very healthy at all and would diet on occasion, finding no real results of course. It wasn’t until i started eating drastically different before i started to see a real change. A change in lifestyle, like others have stated before me, is what is necessary to be healthy. Then dropping that extra body fat, usually, follows up. • Melinda Fults I am a strong dieter so to say. I can not remember a time when I was not dieting. It seems like no matter how much weight I loose it always comes back. This is very interesting to me how those of us who diet so much will actually end up weighing more in the end. I understand that we have to have a lifestyle change not so much a diet. What I am really wondering is how do we convince our bodies that we are making a lifestyle change and not getting on one more diet? • Ryne Barrington It is very interesting how the things we think are doing the most good can actually be causing us the most damage and blocking our roads to success. There is so much emphasis on dieting to maintain our weight – when it is actually a lifestyle change that we should be working towards. We have to remember that there are no quick fixes in life – it is the steady road that offers us success. Comments are closed.
Answer to Map #71 Back to this week’s maps and hints. Answer: This week’s map was a dot map depicting the locations of every open U.S. embassy and consulate around the world. The U.S. maintains embassies in most of the world’s capital cities. In addition, it maintains consulates in many other large cities that are not national capitals. If you look at the capitals where the U.S. does not have an embassy, you can find lots of interesting stories. Let’s start in Africa. The U.S. has not maintained an embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia, since the early 1990s, when the country was embroiled in a bitter conflict. In 1993, two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Somalia, an incident that killed 18 U.S. soldiers. Recently, American officials have talked about formally re-opening an American embassy in the country. When then-Secretary of State John Kerry visited Mogadishu in 2015, the Somali president presented him with a deed for land on which the U.S. could build a new embassy. For now, however, the U.S. ambassador to Somalia works out of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The U.S. does actually have an embassy in Tripoli, Libya, but it is currently closed on account of that country’s dangerous civil war. It’s mainly a semantic difference, but the official status of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli (“closed”) is different from the official status of the U.S. embassy in Damascus, Syria, which technically continues to exist even though a quick perusal of its website will tell you that it is not actually performing any of its usual functions as Syria’s civil war rages on. The U.S. also does not maintain embassies in Iran or North Korea, two countries with which the U.S. does not have official diplomatic relations. In both countries, the U.S. is represented by a “protecting power,” a neutral country that functions as an intermediary between the U.S. and the local government. In Iran, Switzerland fulfills this function; in North Korea, Sweden plays this role. (In case you’re wondering: Pakistan is the protecting power of Iran in the U.S., Oman is the protecting power of Iran in Canada, and Turkey is the protecting power of the U.S. in Libya.) You may also have noticed that there are many countries that are so small that the U.S. does not maintain embassies there. In those cases, a single U.S. embassy in a nearby country fulfills its function for multiple countries. For example, the U.S. ambassador to Senegal serves concurrently as the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Guinea-Bissau. One person with a particularly busy job is the U.S. ambassador in Bridgetown, Barbados; she is concurrently accredited to every country in the Lesser Antilles. Finally, one country that has been in the news a lot lately is Israel. When Israel was established in 1948, most countries that established relations with Israel set up embassies not in the capital of Jerusalem, but in another city, Tel Aviv. The contested border between Israel and (at that time) Jordan ran right through the heart of Jerusalem, and the city’s status was always a matter of some dispute. Since the 1990s, the U.S. government has been formally committed to promoting the “two-state solution” to achieve peace in the region. That plan calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Most Palestinian officials assert that Jerusalem should also be the capital of Palestine. One of the obstacles to finding a lasting resolution to the Israel–Palestine conflict has been disagreement over the future status of the city of Jerusalem. As a result, American presidents long resisted exacerbating tensions in the region by formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Last month, however, the Trump administration broke with this precedent by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing that the U.S. will soon relocate its embassy. One of the challenges that the U.S. State Department faces in a time of global conflict is the prospect of building embassies that can house huge staffs with the most modern equipment in locations safe from such threats as terrorism and espionage. Once upon a time, embassies tended to be small buildings in the heart of capital cities. Not any more! When the U.S. builds new embassies, it tends to opt for enormous compounds on the edges of cities. The new embassies are inevitably ringed with blast walls, and some recent structures have even been guarded by moats. The new U.S. embassy in London, for example, cost over $1 billion. The U.S. embassy planned for Mexico City has already cost $120 million for the land and $56 million in planning costs—and workers haven’t even started building it yet. Given these challenges, it’s hard even to imagine how much a new American embassy in Jerusalem would cost to build and to defend.
YOUR HEALTH: Helping brain surgeons by making tumors glow SEATTLE, Washington – Doctors are testing the safety of "tumor paint", a new drug that helps to light up brain tumors during surgery. And early tests are promising for families. Laura Coffman knew something was wrong with her son Hunter, but had no idea he had a brain tumor. "Christmas day he vomited first thing in the morning. I kept taking his temp all day," said Coffman. They found the mass and about ten minutes later the family was walking up to put him into surgery. The family agreed to allow Hunter to be part of a study at Seattle Children`s Hospital to light up his tumor during surgery using tumor paint. "A couple weeks later, he was up and walking and was back to his normal self," said Coffman. "It was absolutely amazing." Doctor Jim Olson, Brain Tumor Physician with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was inspired by a patient and using a molecule in scorpions that binds to cancerous tumors he created a drug that makes the cancer stand out for surgeons. "You don`t want to just take a big margin around the cancer like you do for other types of cancers because that could be a part of the brain that is for speech or thinking or remembering," says Dr. Olson. Tumor paint has been used in 75 patients across four phase one clinical trials. This first part of the study is focused on safety and it looks promising. "The fact that the tumor tissue fluoresces and that we can see the differentiation between normal tissue and abnormal tissue is really going to be a valuable tool for surgeons to use in the future," says Dr. Amy Lee, Pediatric neurosurgeon with Seattle Children's Hospital. So far there have been no major side effects. Some time in 2017, tumor paint will be used in 15 hospitals across the country for further study. Researchers hope to have it approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019. They are also starting to look at how it might help in other tumors, like breast cancer. TREATMENTS: The treatment for brain cancer will depend on the patient’s age, general health and the size and location of the tumor. The most common treatments are radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. Most of the times a combination of these are performed. Brain surgery is usually performed to sample the tumor, or to partially or completely remove it. Nevertheless, performing a brain cancer surgery is a very delicate procedure since the brain is a vital organ for the body. Some side effects include seizures, weakness, balance/coordination difficulties, memory or cognitive problems, spinal fluid leak, meningitis, brain swelling, stroke, excess fluid on the brain, coma and death. (Source: &
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) On an atoll in the far-flung west of the Marshall Islands, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, sits “the dome”. Approaching from the water, it’s hard to appreciate the true scale of the concrete vault, with its shallow profile obscured by palm trees and scrub. But from the air it looks like a giant flying saucer has crashed on the tip of a deserted island. Source: joboneforhumanity Thousands of cubic metres of radioactive waste lies buried under a concrete dome on the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the legacy of over a decade of US nuclear tests in the Pacific. Now rising sea levels are threatening to spill its contents into the sea. Read more here: ab.co/2BdJKCz Forgotten Nuclear Waste Dump in the Pacific – by Michael B. Gerrard – Testing Exposure, Illness, Death and Forgotten During the Cold War the United States detonated sixty-seven nuclear weapons over the atolls of Bikini and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands. In the late 1970s the United States addressed the massive amount of residual contamination by abandoning Bikini as permanently uninhabitable and pushing much of the waste at Enewetak into the open lagoon. Much of the plutonium was dumped into the crater that had been left by an atomic bomb explosion, and then covered with a thin shell of cement. The resultant “Runit dome” sits unmarked and unguarded in a small island and one day will be submerged by the rising waters of the Pacific Ocean, unless it is first torn apart by typhoons. Radiation from the Marshall Islands has already been detected in the South China Sea. Using the experience of the Marshall Islands as a case study, this article seeks to shed light on the environmental and security challenges of nuclear waste disposal in the Pacific and beyond. Continue Reading: linkedin.com/pulse/americas-forgotten-nuclear-waste-dump wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear… The nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll program was a series of 23 nuclear devices detonated by the United States between 1946 and 1958 at seven test sites on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air and underwater.[2] The test weapons produced a combined fission yield of 42.2 Mt of explosive power. The testing began with the Operation Crossroads series in July 1946. The Baker test’s radioactive contamination of all the target ships was the first case of immediate, concentrated radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion. Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, the longest-serving chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker “the world’s first nuclear disaster.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati… Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships. The Crossroads tests were the first of many nuclear tests held in the Marshall Islands, and the first to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps. They were conducted by Joint Army/Navy Task Force One, headed by Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy, rather than by the Manhattan Project, which had developed nuclear weapons during World War II. A fleet of 95 target ships was assembled in Bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki, each with a yield of 23 kilotons of TNT (96 TJ). The first test was Able. The bomb, named Gilda after Rita Hayworth’s character in the 1946 eponymous film, was dropped from the B-29 Superfortress Dave’s Dream of the 509th Bombardment Group on July 1, 1946, and detonated 520 feet (158 m) above the target fleet. It caused less than the expected amount of ship damage because it missed its aim point by 2,130 feet (649 m). The second test was Baker. The bomb, known as Helen of Bikini, was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater on July 25, 1946. Radioactive sea spray caused extensive contamination. A third deep water test, Charlie, planned for 1947, was canceled primarily because of the United States Navy’s inability to decontaminate the target ships after the Baker test. Ultimately, only nine target ships were able to be scrapped rather than scuttled. Charlie was rescheduled as Operation Wigwam, a deep water shot conducted in 1955 off the California coast. Bikini’s native residents agreed to evacuate the island, with most moving to the Rongerik Atoll. Later, in the 1950s, a series of large thermonuclear tests rendered Bikini unfit for subsistence farming and fishing. Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, the longest-serving chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker “the world’s first nuclear disaster.” Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here
Designing with Linux 3-D printers are becoming popular tools, dropping in price and becoming available to almost everyone. They can be used to build parts that you can use around the house, but more and more, they also are being used to create instruments for scientific work. Although a growing library of objects are available in several on-line databases, there is nearly an infinite number of possible things you might want to build. This means you likely will want to design and build your own creations. In this article, I take a look at FreeCAD, an open-source parametric 3-D modeler ( A parametric modeler builds the structures in the design based on a set of properties. Changing the design, thus, is simply a matter of changing the properties of said design. FreeCAD can read and write several different file formats used in modelling and 3-D printing. It is built as a core application, with plugin modules made to handle specific jobs. Python is the language of choice, because there actually is a built-in Python engine. Additionally, FreeCAD itself can be imported into your own Python script. This gives you access to all of the geometric tools for use in your own code. FreeCAD already should be in your distribution's package management system. In Debian-based ones, it is simply a matter of using the command: sudo apt-get install freecad In the latest version of Ubuntu, the latest version of FreeCAD actually is available. But, you always have the option of building FreeCAD from source, if you need some non-standard option. To start it, you can just run freecad. It will pop open a window with a blank workspace in it (Figure 1). Figure 1. On start up, FreeCAD gives you a blank workspace so you can begin working. FreeCAD uses a workbench concept to give you groups of tools based on the task you are doing at any particular time. You can access the available workbenches by clicking on the View→Workbench menu item. Here, you will get a drop-down list of all of the available options. As I'm focusing on the idea of building a 3-D object, let's start by activating the parts workbench. Clicking on the View→Workbench→Part menu item will rebuild the interface and introduce all sorts of new tools for you to use (Figure 2). Figure 2. Selecting the parts workbench will change the interface, giving you access to all sorts of new tools to use for building. On the left-hand side, you should see two sub-windows providing a tree view of the objects in your design and a property view of specific objects. Along the bottom are a report view and a Python window. The majority of the display currently is a blank slate. You need to start a new design by clicking on File→New. This will open a new, unnamed document in the main part of the GUI. It will be renamed when you first save the project. You can do this by clicking File→Save. You can add primitive objects to this new document either by clicking on the associated icon in the top toolbar or by clicking on the Part→Primitives menu item. Once you have an object in the document, you can click on it to see its properties on the left-hand side. There are two tabs in the property view pane. The initial tab is the View tab, which provides details on the presentation of your object. The second tab is the Data tab, which contains the details for the construction of your object. In Figure 3, you can see a torus that I have started to construct. A torus is described by three angles and two radii. The first two angles describe how much of the torus exists in the cylindrical direction. The third angle describes how much of the torus exists around the circle. The first radius gives the overall radius of the torus, and the second radius represents the cylindrical radius. Figure 3. You can build your design based on primitive objects. Lots of other tools are available as well. You can select a different workbench by clicking on the View→Workbench menu item, or you can select a new workbench from the drop-down menu in the center of the top toolbar. To look at another example problem, say you wanted to generate a mesh from your design to feed into some other program, like a computational fluid dynamics program. To start, you will need to select the mesh workbench. This will bring in a new set of tools to work with meshes. You can generate a mesh from your design by clicking the Meshes→Create mesh from shape menu item. This will pop open a new pane on the left-hand side to control the meshing process. You can choose either standard or mefisto meshing, along with the maximum edge length. Once these are set, you can select the shape you want to mesh and click OK. This will generate the mesh and leave you with a mesh information box describing the number of points, facets and so on (Figure 4). Figure 4. You even can do work on meshes with FreeCAD. Tools are available to work on these meshes as well. For example, click on the Meshes→Analyze→Evaluate & Repair mesh menu item. This will pop up a new pane on the right-hand side where you can analyze your new mesh and find problems like duplicated faces, duplicated points or degenerated faces. If any of those issues are found, a repair button is available to go ahead and fix those issues. This is something that is more likely to happen with very complex objects created from several primitives stitched together. Once you have your mesh generated and properly tweaked and optimized, you can click on the Meshes→Export mesh menu item, and select the file format you need. For example, if you want to use it in some project in CFX, you could export it as a NASTRAN file. There are several options that should be supported by most other programs that can take mesh files as input. So FreeCAD can act as a very good pre-processing step in many projects. Once you have finished your object, you will want to have it in a format that can be used in some other context. To do this, you can export your design in one of any number of available formats. For example, if you want to send your design to a 3-D printer, you can export it in an STL file format. To do that, click on File→Export and select the stl option from the drop-down list (Figure 5). You then can take this file and use it in the printing software for your 3-D printer. Figure 5. You can export your design to the STL file format. Now that you can build your own objects, you can design the exact piece you need for that scientific experiment, or create that specific replacement part you need. If you can, you also should consider sharing your work in one or more of the on-line libraries. That way, you may become famous for your miracle widget or amazing do-hickey. In any case, it is always good to share information so others can build on it to do even greater things.
A Publication of Reliable Methods for the Preparation of Organic Compounds Annual Volume Org. Synth. 1939, 19, 36 DOI: 10.15227/orgsyn.019.0036 [Cyclohexane, phenyl-] Submitted by B. B. Corson and V. N. Ipatieff. Checked by John R. Johnson and E. A. Cleveland. 1. Procedure In a 1-l. three-necked flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, dropping funnel, and thermometer are placed 468 g. (530 cc., 6 moles) of benzene and 92 g. (50 cc.) of concentrated sulfuric acid (sp. gr. 1.84). The mixture is cooled in an ice bath, and 164 g. (203 cc., 2 moles) of cyclohexene (Note 1) is added with stirring over a period of one and one-half hours, while the temperature is maintained between 5° and 10°. Stirring is continued for an additional hour after all the cyclohexene has been added. The hydrocarbon layer is separated, cooled in ice, and washed with four 50-cc. portions of cold concentrated sulfuric acid (Note 2). The material is then washed twice with warm water (50°), twice with 3 per cent sodium hydroxide solution, and twice with pure water (Note 3). The hydrocarbon mixture is dried over anhydrous calcium chloride (Note 4) and subjected twice to fractional distillation, using a 30-cm. Vigreux or similar column; the cyclohexylbenzene is collected at 238–243° (Note 5) and (Note 6). The yield is 210–220 g. (65–68 per cent of the theoretical amount). 2. Notes 1. For the preparation of moderate amounts of cyclohexene the dehydration of cyclohexanol with 85 per cent phosphoric acid, according to the procedure of Dehn and Jackson, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 55, 4285 (1933), is very convenient. Furthermore, very little carbonization occurs, in contrast with the sulfuric acid method described in Org. Syn. Coll. Vol. I, 1941, 183, where there is much carbonization and the product is contaminated with sulfur dioxide. In a 2-l. three-necked flask, carrying a separatory funnel and three-bulbed Wurtz column filled with broken glass tubing, is placed 200 g. of 85 per cent phosphoric acid. The column is attached to an efficient condenser leading to a receiver cooled in an ice bath, and the flask is heated in an oil bath at 165–170°. Through the funnel 1 kg. (10 moles) of practical cyclohexanol is dropped in over a period of four to five hours. After the addition has been completed the temperature of the bath is raised gradually to 200° and maintained at 200° for one-half hour. During the whole operation the temperature at the top of the column does not rise above 90°. The upper layer of the distillate is separated (salt may be added to break up emulsions) and dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate; the lower aqueous layer is saved for reworking if desired; likewise the spent drying agent may be treated with water to recover admixed cyclohexene. The crude cyclohexene is distilled in an efficient column, and the fraction boiling at 81–83° is collected. The yield is 660–690 g. (79–84 per cent of the theoretical amount). The residue consists largely of cyclohexanol and may be recycled as described below. An additional 25–30 g. of cyclohexene may be obtained by combining the residue from the distillation of the crude cyclohexene with the water layer from the original distillate and distilling with 25 g. of 85 per cent phosphoric acid. This distillate is added to the low-boiling fraction from the distillation of the crude cyclohexene and separated. The upper layer is dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate and distilled as described above. The phosphoric acid may be recovered by diluting with water and filtering, then evaporating with a little nitric acid to the proper concentration. The same procedure when used with 86 g. (1 mole) of cyclopentanol and 15 cc. of 85 per cent phosphoric acid gave 55 g. (81 per cent of the theoretical amount) of cyclopentene, b.p. 44–45°. No attempt was made to recover the cyclopentanol. (Oliver Grummitt and John R. Johnson, private communication.) 2. The purpose of the sulfuric acid is to convert dicyclohexyl sulfate to cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate, which is removed by the subsequent washing operations. 3. To avoid emulsification as much as possible it is advantageous to use warm water rather than cold, and dilute alkali rather than concentrated. The milkiness of the aqueous wash liquid represents only a very small loss of material. 4. It is well to allow suspended water to settle by standing overnight and to separate again before adding the drying agent. 5. In a typical preparation the fractions collected during the second distillation were as follows: 78–85°, 296 g.; 85–235°, 2 g.; 235–238°, 2 g.; 238–243°, 215 g.; 243–265°, 2 g.; residue above 265°, 46 g. 6. The distillation residue becomes semi-solid on cooling owing to the separation of 1,4-dicyclohexylbenzene. The latter may be recovered by filtering with suction, washing with methyl alcohol, and crystallizing from acetone (using 4 cc. of acetone per gram of the crude solid). The yield of purified dicyclohexylbenzene, m.p. 100–101°, is 15–24 g. 3. Discussion Cyclohexylbenzene has been prepared by the hydrogenation of biphenyl1 and of cyclohexenylbenzene;2 by the reaction of cyclohexyl chloride3 or bromide4 with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride; and from benzene and cyclohexene or cyclohexanol in the presence of aluminum chloride,5 sulfuric acid,6 or boron halides.7 This preparation is referenced from: References and Notes 1. Eijkman, Chem. Weekblad 1, 7 (1903). 2. Sabatier and Murat, Compt. rend. 154, 1390 (1912); Alder and Rickert, Ber. 71, 379 (1938). 3. Kursanoff, Ann. 318, 309 (1901). 4. Braun, Ber. 60, 1180 (1927). 5. Bodroux, Ann. chim. (10) 11, 511 (1929); Berry and Reid, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 49, 3142 (1927); Corson and Ipatieff, ibid. 59, 645 (1937); Nametkin and Pokrovskaya, J. Gen. Chem. (U.S.S.R.) 7, 962 (1937) [C. A. 31, 5332 (1937)]; Tsukervanik and Sidorova, J. Gen. Chem. (U.S.S.R.) 7, 641 (1937) [C. A. 31, 5780 (1937)]. 6. Deschauer, Ger. pat. 515,177 (Chem. Zentr. 1931, I, 1829); Truffault, Compt. rend. 202, 1286 (1936); Corson and Ipatieff, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 59, 645 (1937). 7. Hofmann and Wulff, Brit. pat. 307,802 (Chem. Zentr. 1929, II, 2101); McKenna and Sowa, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 59, 470 (1937). Chemical Abstracts Nomenclature (Collective Index Number); (Registry Number) calcium chloride (10043-52-4) sulfuric acid (7664-93-9) Benzene (71-43-2) methyl alcohol (67-56-1) sodium hydroxide (1310-73-2) nitric acid (7697-37-2) Cyclohexanol (108-93-0) Cyclohexene (110-83-8) sulfur dioxide (7446-09-5) acetone (67-64-1) aluminum chloride (3495-54-3) phosphoric acid (7664-38-2) Biphenyl (92-52-4) cyclohexyl chloride (542-18-7) magnesium sulfate (7487-88-9) Cyclohexane, phenyl- (827-52-1) cyclopentanol (96-41-3) Cyclopentene (142-29-0) dicyclohexyl sulfate cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate 1,4-dicyclohexylbenzene (1087-02-1) cyclohexenylbenzene (771-98-2)
Dholak Drumming Style of Rajasthan The North Indian Dholak is used by bards in a type of conversational poetry recitation where the singer lays out a poem, parable or comical lesson told in verse. (This reveals a kinship to the Qawwali chanting of devotional poetry except that Qawwali is usually call & response) Upon completion of the story the drummer and instrumentalists play a round of rousing chorus to let the message sink in before the next bout of stories. It's a delightful musical style that unfortunately can't be seen in concerts outside the country. (And it's good to have an interpreter on-hand to get a translation.) The Dholak is vaguely similar to it's brethren drums the Pakhawaj and Mridangam. However it's syahi is usually afixed inside the drum head. The syahi in the center of the bass head gives the Dholak a deep bass thud which counters to the trill work done on the smaller left head. Delhi's Craft Museum More on Dholak Rhythmuseum Indian Drumming Website
"Things fall apart" by Chinua Achebe. Essay by crazysoccerplyr606 November 2005 download word file, 3 pages 4.0 1 reviews Downloaded 75 times Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" deals with societal changes and how they affect individuals. Resistance to change and the harm such resistance does to people collectively serve as the novel's theme. To support this theme, Achebe relies heavily on characterization, constantly focusing on how Okonkwo's stubbornness slowly destroys him. The author also concentrates on two separate conflicts: that between Okonkwo and the changes occurring around him and that between the Umuofia clan and the Christian missionaries who come to the village. Under attack by the missionaries, the traditional values of Okonkwo's people undergo changes throughout the book, further highlighting the theme's relevance to Okonkwo. Achebe covers great territory over theme, characterization, conflict and values in a proverb spoken by Okonkwo's uncle Uchendu: "There is no story that is not true. . . . The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others" (130). This line elucidates Achebe's theme by depicting the world as having "no end" and thus eternally progressing from the past to the future. In the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo's father Unoka clearly expresses the view that humans have to embrace change in order to appreciate its potential benefits: "Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them" (11). Okonkwo is one of "those who kneel under them," refusing to adapt and absorb the sunlight. To him, the change Mr. Brown and the missionaries bring with them is not "good" but rather "an abomination." In addition to clarifying Achebe's theme, Uchendu's words sharpen his characters and give them distinction. When Uchendu says, "what is good among one people," his words possess a very clear connection to the Christian faith and its appeal to the more malleable...
he following are basic tips for health and hygiene at camp. • Anti-bacterial cleaners are types of disinfectant and can kill germs. They often come in spray form. • Anti-bacterial cleaners won't work if you don't use them properly, so always follow the instructions. • Always clean surfaces first with detergent to remove any grease or dirt, then apply disinfectant to kill any remaining germs. • Use separate cloths or sponges for separate tasks; where practicable use disposable cloths. • If using them more than once, wash in hot water and soap then place in a suitable disinfectant, rinse thoroughly and allow to dry. Do not soak overnight as disinfectant solutions weaken and may allow bacteria to grow. • Keep serving bowls covered to protect them from dust, insects and pets. • 'Bugs' and 'germs' are the common name for the harmful organisms - such as bacteria and viruses - that cause food poisoning. Because we can only see them through a microscope they are also called microbes or micro-organisms. • They can get into our food at any point in the food chain - from the time when an animal or food is in the field to the moment food is put on to the table to eat. If they are allowed to survive and multiply they can cause illness when that food is eaten. • Food poisoning bacteria multiply fast but to do so need moisture, food, warmth and time. They multiply best between 5 and 63°C. One germ can multiply to more than 4 million in just 8 hours in the right conditions. • Food poisoning microbes can be dangerous and can kill - though this is rare. They are very hard to detect since they do not usually affect the taste, appearance or smell of food. • Before opening cans wipe over the tops to remove any dust - and don't forget to clean the can opener. • Never put open cans in the fridge - transfer contents into a storage container or covered bowl and remember to use within two days. • Don't use food from rusty or damaged cans. Chopping Boards • Wash and dry knives and chopping boards thoroughly after every use and especially between chopping raw meat, fish and poultry and chopping cooked and ready-to-eat foods. • Ideally use separate chopping boards for raw and cooked foods. Cling Film • Cover dishes and other open containers with foil or film before storing them in the fridge. Don't re-use foil or film to wrap other foods Cool Bags • Use an insulated bag or cool box to keep chilled and frozen foods cool when shopping and buy these foods last. • Use enough ice packs to keep cool bags really cool. • When having a barbecue or picnic keep meats, salads and other perishable foods cool in the fridge or in a cool bag until just before you are ready to cook/eat them. • Ideally use separate cool bags for raw meats and cooked/ready-to-eat foods. • Cool bags can only keep food cool for a limited period so cook sooner rather than later. Washing Hands Don’t forget to wash hands: a) before handling food – any food b) before handling meat after veg c) before handling veg after meat d) before eating or sampling food during cooking e) after eating or sampling food during cooking f) before cooking g) after cooking Finally, EVERYONE to wash their hands before they sit down to eat.
Sentence Examples with the word solomonic The objections to the Solomonic age as the time of origination of the book apply also to the period extending from Solomon through the 6th century. The supposition of a Solomonic authorship for Proverbs is excluded by the whole colouring of the book, in which monotheism and monogamy are assumed, without discussion, to be generally accepted, while in Solomon's time and by Solomon's self the worship of many gods and the taking of more than one wife were freely practised, without rebuke from priest or prophet. The Solomonic authorship has long since been given up: the historical setting of the work and its atmosphere - the silent assumption of monotheism and monogamy, the nonnational tone, the attitude towards kings and people, the picture of a complicated social life, the strain of philosophic reflection - are wholly at variance with what is known of the 10th century B.C. and with the Hebrew literature down to the 5th or 4th century B.C. The introduction of Solomon, the ideal of wisdom, is a literary device of the later time, and probably deceived nobody. View more With his wide linguistic knowledge Eichhorn perceived that the language alone (though he also adduces other considerations) betrays the late origin of Ecclesiastes, which he places in the Persian Period (538-332 B.C.): Canticles, too, preserves linguistic features which are not of the Solomonic age.
12:51pm Sunday 21 January 2018 Caffeine fiend? It's in your genes Dr Enda Byrne from QIMR said that coffee is the most popular beverage in the world and the study has shown there is a small genetic variant in the population that determines how people react to coffee and therefore explains why some people will consume coffee at higher levels and why others won’t drink it at all ”Our study found coffee consumption is not only influenced by genes, but caffeine can also affect the expression of genes,” Dr Byrne said. “With caffeine impacting gene expression, we believe that caffeine then influences chemical pathways in the body. “We also found a link between caffeine genes and other complex conditions, such as hypertension and Parkinson’s disease. “Our study showed there were changes in the expression of genes previously linked to Parkinson’s disease after exposure to caffeine. This follows previous studies that have shown caffeine to be protective against Parkinson’s disease. “While this finding relates directly to coffee consumption, it provides another small piece of the puzzle and could lead to further discoveries around the affect of caffeine on a range of complex disorders.” QIMR worked closely with researchers from the Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and looked at genes across the entire human genome of over 18,000 participants. “In the Genetic Epidemiology Lab at QIMR, we are constantly looking at small genetic changes that increase disease risk. We often find interesting genetic variants, such as this coffee consumption gene, during our investigations,” Dr Byrne said. “This study would not have been possible without the information collected from thousands of identical and non-identical twins taking part in the QTwin study. “By comparing data from identical and non-identical twins we can establish how much of who we are is determined by our genes and how much is influenced by environment. “Twins help us understand how small genetic changes can have large impacts on our health.” If you are a twin and would like to be a part of studies like these, please visit http://www.qtwin.org.au/ or freecall 1800 257 179. The paper has been published in Molecular Psychiatry. The paper is available online at: http://www.nature.com/mp. Share on: MORE FROM Genetics and Birth Defects Health news
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollections The War on Football Some feminists say it's killing off less popular men's sports on college campuses. But the real culprit is Title IX. June 16, 2002\|JESSICA GAVORA \| Jessica Gavora is the author of "Tilting the Playing Field: Schools, Sports, Sex and Title IX." WASHINGTON — Today, 30 years after Title IX outlawed sex discrimination in education, the number of men's college sports teams done in by "gender equity" is depressingly large. A few recent sacrifices: Howard University, with a 60% female student body but "only" a 30% female roster of athletes, recently killed baseball and wrestling. Bucknell dropped wrestling and men's crew. Bowling Green State University eliminated men's swimming, men's tennis and men's track and field. The University of Vermont, Tulane and Bowling Green all eliminated men's track but kept women's. The Universities of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas eliminated their male swimmers and divers but continue to fund the women with whom the men used to share facilities and road trips. Unquestionably, women have achieved much in the 30 years Title IX has been on the books. Once unwelcome interlopers, girls and women now make up just under 40% of high school and college athletes. And although Title IX surely played a role in this progress for women, the sacrifice of men's teams to fill a federally imposed gender quota has been the law's most obvious accomplishment.As a result, pro-quota women's activists are desperately looking for ways to change the subject. Their latest tactic is to return to an old grudge most of us thought the women's movement had left behind decades ago: the war on football. "It's not Title IX's fault, it's chicken college presidents and athletic directors who won't bite the bullet on the irresponsible spending of their football programs," Women's Sports Foundation Executive Director Donna Lopiano said recently of cuts to men's programs. The logic--such as it is--of sports-gender bean counters like Lopiano holds that football, for schools that have it, is the fat man tipping the canoe of gender equity in college sports. With rosters approaching 100 players and scholarship limits three and four times higher than other sports, football programs make Title IX's mandate of reaching "proportionality" much more difficult. Schools struggling to match female athletic participation with female enrollment find they have to have four or five women's teams just to "make up" for the numbers that football adds to the male side of the athletic ledger. Many schools offer the maximum number of scholarships in each sport played by women in their conference and still can't match the number of men who turn out--many of whom never even get a chance to play--on the gridiron each Sunday. Big-time college football may be complacent and uncaring, but is it responsible for losses in men's collegiate athletics? Most participants in men's minor sports don't think so. They understand that the phenomenon that wins the multimillion-dollar television contracts and fills the stands every Sunday at Notre Dame, Michigan, North Carolina and Nebraska also pays the bills for nonrevenue-generating men's--and women's--teams. The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. reports that the average Division I-A football program cleared $3.8 million in profit after expenses in 1999. Women's sports teams at the same schools, meanwhile, lost an average of $2.3 million per school. Not all football programs make money, but those that do are the most successful in creating what Title IX activists claim they want: more athletic opportunities for women. Colleges and universities that belong to conferences with big-time football and basketball television contracts and bowl games--powerhouses like Iowa, Minnesota and Florida--field the largest and most diverse women's sports programs. Schools with less-successful men's programs have fewer female athletes relative to male athletes. Meanwhile, Title IX's reverberations are being felt everywhere. Marquette University eliminated its wrestling team this year, something officials there say they did to comply with the law's mandate that the percentages of women and men who play athletics match the percentages of women and men in the student body. The blame-football-first crowd can't pin this one on its usual scapegoat: Marquette has no football team. Caught between higher education's love of football's money-making potential and its loathing of the wrath of the women's lobby are men's so-called "nonrevenue" sports. Less popular sports like wrestling, men's gymnastics, track and swimming are hemorrhaging teams under Title IX. Their losses have been so great--the number of collegiate wrestling programs has been cut in half--that organizations representing coaches from wrestling, gymnastics, track and field and swimming have joined in a lawsuit against the Department of Education challenging the current interpretation of Title IX. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington earlier this year argues that Title IX quotas are discriminatory against men. Meanwhile, the big guys--football and men's basketball--have stayed on the sidelines, surveying the carnage and cynically calculating that Title IX cuts will never affect them. Los Angeles Times Articles
Tricks, tips, tutorials, pictures and words Method and apparatus to create and induce a self-created hypnosis This invention provides a method and apparatus operable within an interactive computer device for presentation to the visual and auditory senses. The invention uses the creation and use of a custom hypnosis script to induce a state of hypnosis and make behavioral suggestions, Through questions presented, the user is queried for the user's preferences for hypnotic induction imagery and behavioral suggestion. The user enters the preferences, employing a keyboard, and/or a mouse, and/or other such device used to enter information. The program inserts the user responses into a preprogrammed textual material to compile a complete hypnosis script. A text-to-speech component of the program enables the user to then listen to the custom hypnosis script, and thereby experience a complete, custom hypnosis. Patent number: 6565504 Filing date: Jan 25, 2001 Issue date: May 20, 2003 Inventor: Richard A. Blumenthal Method and apparatus to create and induce a... - Google Patents mind, brain
Is coffee actually good or bad for you? The effects of caffeine on the body have been widely researched, so what’s the verdict? This article looks at both sides of the debate. Coffee lovers tend to be passionate about their caffeine fix and can be reluctant to give it up. The good news is that while consuming too much caffeine can carry health risks, there’s little problem with enjoying it in moderation. And, if you are trying to cut back, there are some great, healthy, tasty alternatives available. “For adults consuming moderate amounts of coffee, there is little evidence of health risks and some evidence of health benefits,” says Rosalyn D'Angelo, an Accredited Practising Dietitian at Bupa. Coffee can improve sports performance when used correctly, and contains antioxidants. However, D’Angelo notes that the best way to get antioxidants into your diet is to consume two serves of fruit and at least five serves of vegetables each day, as part of a healthy balanced diet. “Simply put, I wouldn’t start drinking coffee for health reasons, but in moderate amounts, it doesn’t seem to do you any harm.” The downside of too much coffee Too much caffeine may lead to irritability, dizziness, anxiety, dehydration, headache, increased heart rate and stomach pains. Caffeine is a stimulant drug that acts on the brain and nervous system. Because of this, you can build up a tolerance to it, where you need more to derive the same effect. It is possible to become dependent on caffeine and experience withdrawal symptoms if you stop drinking it. These symptoms may include headaches, sweating, anxiety and muscle pain. Caffeine toxicity is more often seen with the use of caffeinated energy drinks, with the most commonly reported symptoms including heart palpitations, a racing heart, tremors, shaking, agitation and restlessness. “Interestingly, some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others, and we think it might be an inherited trait,” D’Angelo adds. coffee infographic Healthy consumption guidelines It's recommended that you have no more than three or four cups of coffee a day, which will provide you with 300–400mg of caffeine. The Sleep Health Foundation of Australia recommends avoiding caffeine for at least three hours before bedtime so that it doesn’t affect your sleep. Some people will need longer, some people less – your body weight, age and health status can all affect how you react to caffeine. Consuming high amounts of caffeine when pregnant may increase your risk of miscarriage or low birth weight. Limit your caffeine intake to 300mg per day or less, stay away from caffeinated energy drinks, or avoid caffeine-containing items altogether. Some groups of people, such as children, people with high blood pressure and older people, may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of caffeine. However, for most of us there is nothing wrong with enjoying coffee or tea in moderation, alongside plenty of water. Back to top
By Mandy Oaklander December 28, 2016 TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health. When it comes to exercise, the aerobic kind steals all the glory. All of the fun ways to sweat can help you get the government-recommended 150 minutes of aerobic activity each week, like swimming, volleyball, brisk walking—anything that speeds up your blood flow and breath. Less appealing is the other, more neglected kind: strength-training. While about half of Americans meet the goals for aerobic exercise, only 20% do the recommended muscle-strengthening activities that work major muscle groups. Women, especially, tend to shy away from it. But they neglect it at their own peril. Strength-training significantly lowers the risk for type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, finds a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. The researchers wanted to see if the lesser-known benefits of strength training, like these, actually influence a person’s risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Whether a woman did these muscle-strengthening exercises or not predicted much about her health. “Women who reported participating in any amount of strength training were more likely to have a lower BMI, more likely to engage in healthy dietary patterns, and less likely to be a current smoker,” compared with women who avoided it, the authors write. Strength training was also linked to a woman’s risk for the two conditions. Those who said they did any amount of strength training had a type-2 diabetes risk 30% lower and a cardiovascular disease risk 17% lower than those who did none, even after the researchers controlled for other variables like age, vegetable and fruit intake and physical activity. Not surprisingly, adding in aerobic exercise helped drive both risks down even more. Those who did at least 120 minutes a week of aerobic exercise and some strength training had a type-2 diabetes risk 65% lower than women who didn’t do either. More research is needed to determine the optimum amount of strength training for women and men to reduce their risks. But the study suggests that both kinds of exercise impart unique benefits—and that strength training has some serious scientific weight to it. You May Like
Study tips from AU students I'm definitely a list person, so I like to write down little lists on Post-It notes and stick them on my desk. The lists might contain tasks I need to complete or terms I need to learn or remember. When I finish each item, I cross it off the list; when I cross off all the items on the list, I get to throw the Post-It away-a very cathartic experience! Being able to see all in one place what I need to accomplish gives me motivation to finish it all and ensures that I don't forget anything. Mike Wittman, 2012, CAS The most important concepts to take note of when studying a science are terms and words that you didn't know before. Many times, just by knowing the terminology, you can weave a more comprehensive understanding of the chapter or even the subject that you are learning. Science is its own language, and by understanding the most effective words you can use, you can get a more complete understanding of the subject. Steven Moss, 2012, CAS One tip for success is to read the syllabus carefully. This is particularly important if you feel you have no background in the field. Beyond the sternly worded nature of some syllabi, their contents tell you what the professor expects from you both for the class sessions and for your assignments. Often you can figure out based on the subject headings for class sessions what the professor wants you to focus on in your readings. When you read, read to understand as much as you can, try to piece together what you don't, and bring your questions up in class. (Chances are, if you have questions about it, other people do too.) Look for and note connections between the readings you are doing and past readings. This will help when tests and papers come around. Pair this with short summaries that you write in your notebook on each day's lecture (preferably immediately after the lecture, but also before an exam, which is more helpful than just rereading your notes before the test) and you have a great base of work for studying an exam. Jeremy Cohen, 2012, SIS and CAS It may sound trite, but practice really does make perfect. The best way to study for a calculation-heavy exam is to do as many practice problems as possible. This is the best way to commit the concepts to memory. Laura Lee, 2012, CAS Find a method to stay organized that works for you and then keep it. Over the years I have found that the best method for me is to have a list of my immediate goals and long-term goals. Each night I make a schedule for the next day, consulting the list. I make sure that I give myself enough time to accomplish the immediate goals and some time to work on the long-term goals. Then, it is a matter of sticking to the schedule. Whenever new assignments or goals come up, I just add them to the list and schedule them in when I can. This method has worked for me, but may not work for everybody, so try new organizational techniques and find the best one for you. Omar Eltorai, 2012, Kogod and CAS Make a reference sheet of formulas to use for assignments and practice problems. This helps organize the ideas from the chapter, and then when test time rolls around, you can easily decide which formulas you'll need to remember for the exam. Emma Morgan, 2012, CAS Make study guides before important exams. Just the act of looking back through your notes and re-writing important terms and key concepts can refresh your memory and be a great start to studying for a big test. Making one can also help you understand what you don't know or what concepts you might need to study more. Plus, they're super helpful when reviewing for a cumulative final. If it helps, put key concepts or those you're having trouble with in bold (or italicize or underline them) for emphasis. Study guides are also more portable than textbooks-great for studying at the gym or when you have a few extra minutes between classes. For basic economics classes (macro and micro), there are often two different components to the class: the more conceptual topics and the graphs. For both of these components, flashcards can be effective study tools. One study technique is to put the graph on one side of the flashcard and the corresponding concept on the other side; that way you can practice associating the concept with the specific graph. This is especially helpful for different cost concepts and curves in microeconomics, and if you go on to take Intermediate Macro or Micro, those flashcards will come in handy-I promise! Emily Hoerner, 2012, SIS In order to manage my time effectively, I often make myself a schedule--what activities I have going on, what classes I have when, and also when I am going to get my assignments done. It helps me to see when I have time available to do my work and then get it done. If I don't end up doing it, then I change the schedule. Lawren Allen, 2011, Kogod I learn best when I physically use a pen and paper. I have never been a person who likes to bring a computer to class. Number one, it distracts you and takes away from learning. Second, mapping out concepts on paper in your own way can be a great way to understand the material. Oftentimes physically drawing out ideas on paper helps me piece together what is necessary to make something work. It is more effective for me than typing, even when just note-taking, because there is more thought going into the work. I can build my own style of taking notes on paper because I am not confined to the formats of a word processing program. I will still make final review sheets with ink and paper because I absorb the material better, much better than copy-and-pasting a Word document. Mark Kruzel, 2012, Kogod I use numbering to remember the points I need to remember about different topics. For example, I can remember that I have seven points for topic one and quiz myself or others out loud on the seven points. When there are many readings for a class, I highly recommend making a chart of authors in one column and a short (2-4 sentences) summary of the author's view in the other column. The summary should cover the topic, the conclusion, the methods if it is research, and a point or two to support the conclusion. You can skim the reading if you run short on time, or work with a friend in the class, but do not skip the summaries. This will help you write exceptional essays for midterms and finals- the professors love when you can name the authors! Finally, I keep myself organized by using Microsoft OneNote. I can take notes, make charts or outlines, and record classes. Colleen McCracken, 2011, CAS and SIS The secret to successful group work is awareness of both yourself and others. Know your strengths and weaknesses, using your strengths to help the group while self-monitoring your weaknesses. You also have to be aware of others to maintain a balanced group dynamic. Know when to adjust your style for a particular group. You can use the strengths of your group members to offset your weaknesses and your strengths to offset theirs. For example, if you find you tend to be a more dominant personality, you might want to make sure you're stepping back to let other group members contribute. In terms of group awareness, if you notice particular members rarely speak up, you can encourage them by asking their opinion of the group discussions so that they feel more comfortable speaking up. I did that for an individual in a group once, and they started to voice opinions without encouragement. Corin Reade, 2010, Kogod Every time you are given a new assignment, immediately figure out when you will commit time to complete it. I am constantly budgeting and re-budgeting my time to handle my workload for the coming weeks. This helps me to determine how much time I have for the stuff I need to do and the stuff I want to do. David McGarry, 2012, CAS and Kogod My suggestion is quite simple: Take a "what type of learner are you?" quiz and embrace your learning style! I am someone who learns by writing. I need to take notes during lectures even when a power point is being used or I won't internalize anything. When reading, I need to take extensive notes and underline. When I have to write a paper, I have to write out key quotations from my sources on post-it notes. I stick the notes all around a table, placing them in groups according to different sections of my paper-to-be. My learning style means studying, reading and writing take a lot of time! I resisted this at first, but putting the time in to learning the way I do best is worth it as I am really learning, internalizing, and engaging with knowledge. I hope this helps! Erin Scanlon, 2009, SIS
Environment cartoon. Cut down a tree with a chainsaw that uses biofuel? biofuel chainsaw cartoon Environment cartoon Biofuel cartoon Chainsaw cartoon A lumberjack with a chainsaw cutting down a tree, explaining that it’s okay because the chainsaw runs on biofuel. A cartoon that illustrates the way that biofuel is promoted and packaged as eco-friendly or environmentally friendly, when in fact it isn’t A cartoon about tree felling, deforestation, chainsaws, biodiesel,alternative fuel sources,ecology, ecological sustainability, environmentally sustainable energy use. Ref env055 How to obtain license to use cartoon
Swimming Towards Health Swimming isn't done just for fun. It's also considered as the most complete workout. What's more, you won't get all sweaty afterwards. Published: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 \| 2:12 PM Swimming is always fun. Who doesn’t like cooling one’s self down, splashing happily with friends, while enjoying a feeling of weightlessness? But swimming is more than that. It’s a complete workout that has a plethora of health benefits for both young and old. Swimming for just 30 minutes does more good than running or hitting the gym the same amount of time. Consider, 30 minutes of swimming: - burns 200 to 350 calories - boosts metabolism the same way 45 minutes to an hour’s worth of land based exercise does - reduces blood pressure - lowers the risk of cancer by strengthening the immune system - at least once a week, can cut the risk of early death significantly - increases energy levels - improves mood and reduces stress, anxiety and depression Even those at an advanced age can enjoy the benefits of swimming. Especially since swimming is known to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes. Feeling older than your age suggests? Research shows that swimmers are biologically 20 years younger than their actual age. So instead of resting your tired legs, hitting the pool 30 minutes a day, up to three times a week will make you feel younger, literally. Those suffering from neck and back pain would be pleased to know that swimming also strengthens the muscles in the back, shoulders, arms, legs, and neck, improving the state of whatever pain ails you. Additionally, swimming can also overcome pains stemming from a herniated disc, pinched nerve and bone spurs. The benefits of swimming are indeed vast and varied, but as with all things, keep things in moderation. Overdoing your workout can strain your muscles causing more injuries, while swimming without proper stretching beforehand can lead to potential damage. Before you go out and swim your way to health, it is important to consult with a doctor or physical therapist to ensure that you are not putting yourself at risk for further injury. If all is right, and you don’t over exert yourself, swimming may be the only form of exercise you’ll ever need. And you’ll do it all without that sweaty feeling. Head on down to Waterworks Pasadena today at 2290 East Foothill Blvd., and discover for yourself how to swim for your health. Visit http://www.waterworksswim.com/pasadena or call (626) 836-1200 for more details.
Post-Trauma Stress: Officer Well-being Post Confrontation (Part 2) Part one of this two-part article introduced readers to the diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) and the range of emotional reactions officers may experience after a traumatic event. As discussed, while officers may have little control over when confrontations occur, they do have control over how they respond to these events before, during and after. This article concludes the discussion by considering the debriefing process and protocols to follow post-incident. A debriefing is any post-event discussion that assists officers come to terms with and learn from it. Hopefully, it helps to gain closure so the event will not continue to cause emotional distress. An informal debriefing can be a discussion that arises spontaneously post event, while a formal debriefing is organised and facilitated to ensure it helps everyone. There are two primary functions of a critical incident debriefing: 1. It is needed to reconstruct the event from the beginning to the end, to learn what was done rightly/wrongly and to help develop operational lessons. 2. It is a time to put everyone back together. There might be memory loss, memory distortion, irrational guilt and a host of other factors that cloud the ability of the officers to deal with everything that happened. Debriefing is a tool to sort out these matters, and to restore morale and unit integrity. It can make lives healthier and sometimes it even saves them. The first objective is to capture and preserve the event in the minds of the participants, so the information can be dissected and everyone can learn from what happened. The first step in maximising memory retention is to have everyone involved make a report immediately after the occurrence. To get detailed information, participants need to be kept calm and collected. From the very beginning, the goal is to delink the memory from the emotions. Initially, participants should be removed from where the stressful event took place, as there are many associations there that can act as powerful stressors. Sometimes, for legal purposes, investigators are concerned about ‘contaminating’ the memory process. In those situations, encourage everyone involved not to rehash the event with others, but rather go home and get a good night’s sleep to help recover additional memory. Sleep helps them achieve a calmer mental state, which in turn helps them consolidate information into their long-term memories. The next day, a second interview can be conducted, and then they can conduct their own informal debriefings with each other. To prevent their memories from being contaminated, instruct the participants not to read the paper or watch the news. After the first night’s sleep, an interview can be conducted at the location, but it may be necessary to help the participants separate their emotions from their memories. Anticipate that the interview might have to be stopped to help an especially emotional person through the tactical breathing process, because by returning to the scene, the participants are exposed to memory cues that facilitate their recall of how the event unfolded. Objects that seem to be inconsequential to people who were not involved just might provide the missing link that brings all the information together. The day after the incident, agencies should conduct a group ‘critical incident debriefing’. Everyone involved in the incident should attend. The idea of a group critical incident debriefing is to ‘get back on the train’ and derive specific memory cues from each other. All this is not without its flaws. A process called ‘memory reconstruction’ is unavoidable in a group debriefing. What happens is that some participants reconstruct, or fill in their missing pieces of memory with information learned from other participants. The mind hates a vacuum, so they might fill in the gaps and ‘remember’ it as if it had actually happened to them. Some degree of memory reconstruction is inevitable, but the group debriefing is still the best possible tool for giving participants accurate information to help them remember, for helping them learn from mistakes, and for helping them on the path to returning to normal after a horrific incident. Consider conducting a second debriefing 24–48 hours later. This allows participants to get another night or two of sleep, which often provides for further memory consolidation. The first thing officers must understand is their obligation to participate in a critical incident debriefing. Unmanaged stress is a major factor that can destroy officers and devastate their families. PTSD is ‘the gift that keeps on giving’. When officers are impacted by stress symptoms, their families are also impacted and if it is left unchecked, they will continue to be affected in the years to come. One key tool to prevent PTSD is the critical incident debriefing. There are always those people who say something like ‘Debriefing? I do not need a debriefing!’ But the debriefing is not necessarily for them; it is for their colleague, partner, spouse and their children. It is important to let participants know that any thoughts or reactions they experienced during a critical incident debriefing are okay. Once they realise that the physical and emotional responses they experienced are normal, then they are more likely to relax and open up, and these reactions no longer have the power to hurt officers. The most important objective of a debriefing is to separate the memory from the emotions, delinking the memory of the event from the sympathetic nervous system arousal. Officers need to make peace with that memory, so that it does not haunt them. As the debriefing unfolds and they work their way through the memory of the event, know that anything and everything is permitted, except anxiety. Post-Incident Protocol After surviving a force response encounter, many officers are further traumatised in word and deed. Because of the treatment they receive, they feel betrayed and abandoned by their own people, and the psychological injuries they experience can hurt more than their physical injuries. Often, fellow officers unwittingly inflict trauma because they do not know how to appropriately relate to a colleague who has been involved in a critical incident. Here is a post-event protocol that will heal rather than harm: First words: The initial response by peers and command staff should be, ‘I am glad you are safe’. This suggests concern, care and support and very effectively eases the immediate emotional trauma that the involved officer may be experiencing. Make contact: Avoiding an officer after an incident may make him feel he has done something wrong. Sometimes peers are ordered not to contact the officer so as not to damage an investigation, but this leaves the officer feeling alone and anxious. At a minimum, if the incident cannot be discussed or others do not know what to say, they should give the officer a handshake, a hug, or an understanding nod. These nonverbal gestures can be a powerful indication of support. Avoid second guessing: No one was in the officer’s shoes during the incident; no one saw it evolve from his perspective. Others may think they would have acted differently, but no one knows for sure how they will act in a violent encounter until they are actually in one. Do not second guess another officer’s actions, and discourage him from second guessing himself. He likely had only milliseconds to make his decisions, and usually on only partial information. Second guessing could lead to dangerous hesitation the next time around. Share experience: Those who have been in a similar critical incident should lend an empathetic ear and share their experience. They can help normalise how the officer is thinking, feeling and acting. If the officer is having some adverse reactions, it is particularly important to emphasise that he is not crazy but is responding normally to an abnormal and crazy event. Officers that have had counselling after an event can ease another officer’s concerns about ‘seeing a shrink’. Watch humour: Black humour is traditionally used as an effective coping mechanism in everyday life. But after a critical incident, be sensitive to the effect of humour on an involved officer. Use restraint: Do not lionise the officer – he may not feel heroic, especially if he had to take a life. At the same time, do not dehumanise the subject who forced the officer into responding – especially if the officer had eye contact with the subject as he was injured or dying, the officer may see the subject in very human terms and resent denigrating comments. Encourage talking: Do not allow the officer to withdraw from the world. When that happens, intrusive thoughts about the incident tend to become overwhelming. For legal reasons, it may be best to avoid discussing details of an incident, but without pressuring him, be ready to actively listen and not judge while the officer unloads about his emotions. A subject can potentially leave psychological skeletons in an officer’s emotional closet. Helping the officer unload emotional garbage by encouraging him to talk can be very beneficial. Talk over coffee, though, not over alcohol. Show respect: An officer surviving a threat to his life deserves to be honoured with dignity and respect, not in the manner of bitterness and resentment. He has followed his training and survived the most extreme of threats to carry out the duty bestowed on him to ensure public safety. These are important and require an openness and sensitivity that many officers find challenging if not downright intimidating. There is no hesitation is responding to an officer-needs-assistance call on the street. Officers will risk injury and even death to save another person’s life. But when a response is needed to an officer-needs-emotional-assistance call, it is often a different matter. That is something to think about, because responding appropriately to that kind of call is sometimes exactly what is needed. Richard Kay is an internationally certified tactical instructor-trainer, Director and Senior Trainer of Modern Combatives, a provider of operational safety training for the public safety sector. Visit for more information. %d bloggers like this:
How Disease Is Classified Infectious Diseases Cardiovascular Diseases Respiratory System Diseases Skin Diseases Nervous System Diseases Nervous System Infections Noninfectious Nerve Disorders Neuritis and neuralgia Parkinson’s disease Multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, degenerative disease of the central nervous system. In MS, the fatty myelin sheath that surrounds the nerves is progressively destroyed, thus interfering with proper nerve-signal transmission to muscles and organs (see nervous system). MS develops slowly but eventually involves the entire brain and spinal cord. Muscle control, vision, mental abilities, and many other body functions are eventually impaired. Most experts agree that MS is an autoimmune disease. However, the… Click Here to subscribe Endocrine, Metabolic, and Deficiency Diseases Autoimmune Diseases Bone and Muscle Diseases Kidney and Genital Diseases Research Against Disease Additional Reading
Posted in Picture Books Author/Illustrator: Mike Austin Publisher: Beach Lane Books Publication Date: May 2013 ISBN: 978-1442459618 Lexile Level: AD (Adult Directed) Junkyard is the story of two robots living in a junkyard. But there’s so much junk that there’s no room for anything new. So the robots get munching, and then they get to building. Before long they’ve formed a nice green space to plant, grow, and play. The text is in a rhyming format, with illustrations in an interesting sort of painted print style. The pictures work really well–the junkyard and robots have a slightly grungy, dirty look. Then as the robots clean, the setting because brighter and friendlier. The illustrations provide a lot of the enjoyment, but they are not crucial to the story. Someone with visual impairments would still be able to enjoy the story and know what was happening without them. The story provides a subtle environmental message that could be used to start discussions on recycling or taking care of our environment. The reader could also use the book as an example of why they do certain environmental chores around the house, such as composting. The only flaw in the book is the rhyming scheme. While large parts of the book are consistent in meter, some are not. Some lines are too long to make the rhyming feel natural. If reading out loud, it is easy to get tripped up on some of the lines. Alternatively, sometimes the first part of the stanza fails to match the first part of the stanza, making it hard to build up a natural pace. It’s not devastating–but it does mean the book would require practice before being used in front of an audience. Final Thoughts: A good recommendation for fans of robots, or as an environmental tie-in. A humble librarian spreading knowledge across the interwebs. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
whether / if Is there any slight difference between 'whether' and 'if'? When I'd like to use these words in reporting questions and expressing doubts, do I have to choose 'whether / if' properly depending on the situation? [:^)] Many many thanks for your help in advance. .......Ah........should I have said 'depending on the situationS' ?....... Thanks again for your help....! "Can you take care of Tommy for me? "Is James still around? I wondered whether / if James had left the country as I hadn't seen him for some time." However, after prepositions, before to-infintives, in 'whether…or…' constructions and whenever we start a sentence with the conjuntion, we HAVE to use whether: "Whether I'll get there in time for Sarah's lecture, I don't know." "I can't make up my mind whether to buy some new clothes now or wait until the sales.. " "There was a lot of discussion about whether Ian should have his tongue pierced or not." "Whether we go by bus or by train doesn't really matter. It's bound to be a slow journey." "I'm going to spend all of granny's money on a new kitchen whether you like it or not!" 1. When both choices are given, we generally use whether rather than if: I don't know whether she's coming or not. (It would be possible to use if here, but less common.) 2. Before an infinitive with 'to' we use whether: I don't know whether to accept their offer or not. (If would not be used here.) 3. We use whether after a preposition: It's a question of whether we can agree on everything. (If would not be used here.) 4. Both whether and if can be used in indirect speech to introduce a yes\no question: Did they say whether\if they were going to be late? 5. After some verbs, we use whether: I doubt whether they'll make it. We discussed whether it was the correct decision. Many thanks for your great help Emotion: smile May I ask a few more questions? If I use 'whether' in indirect speech, does it sound a little bit more formal than using 'if'? 5. After some verbs, we use whether: I doubt whether they'll make it. We discussed whether it was the correct decision. Do you mean it sounds natural using 'whether' after these verbs? Or should I always use 'whether' afther them? Some verbs....'doubt,' 'discuss,' ......are there any other verbs that follow this rule? Emotion: rolleyes Thank you. Emotion: smile Hello Candy Richard summarized the differences between "if" and "whether" in an excellent way. I'd like to add three things more to his summaries. [1] "Whether" clauses can follow "a question" as an appositive clause EX-1 Candy raised a question whether there is any difference between if and whether. [2] "Whether" clauses can be used as an indirect question for asking listener's choice beside an Yes/No answer. EX-2 She asked him whether it was his turn or hers. [3] We can use "whether" in a indirect question that directly leads "or not". EX-3 I wonder whether or not my ex-wife is still alive. Beside these special characteristics (including what Richard already explained about), "if" clauses and "whether" clauses are almost inter-exchangeable though the latter is high in the degree of formality. The verbs that people use more often with "whether" than "if" are "inspect", "discuss", "ponder", "argue" and "inquire". Please refer the Google survey results below given. verbs more often combine with suspect if/whether 105,000/5,090 ; think if/whether 2,410,000/74,600 ; see if/whether 36,300,000/3,650,000 ; hear if/whether 292,000/84,000 ; know if/whether 24,600,000/6,170,000 ; wonder if/whether 8,720,000/1,510,000; ask if/whether 3,690,000/1,600,000 ; query if/whether 147,000/45,200 ; study if/whether 555,400/216,000 ; doubt if/whether 886,000/697,000 verbs more often combine with investigate if/whether 208,000/1,050,000 ; discuss if/whether 85,500/544,000 ; ponder if/whether 22,000/40,100 argue if/whether 43,500/64,700; inquire if/whether 141,000/177,000 Hello Paco, Many thanks for answering my questions. (Many, many thanks for showing the survey results on google, too Emotion: smile ) Natural use of if/whether was difficult for me to understand, but I think it's getting a little clearer.......! I think I need to read rwiles and your postings carefully(again and again!) to understand how to use 'whether/if' properly. Thanks again. Emotion: smile BTW.........Paco, you're from Japan, aren't you? Me too.....! I've read many of your posting on EF, and I always wish I could write/understand English like you! I take my hat off to you!! Emotion: wink Hello Candy Yes, I am from Japan. I have learned English for decades but still am very poor at English. I believe you will get much more proficient in English in a few years as long as you continute the study as you are doing now. Students: We have free audio pronunciation exercises. Hello there! My name´s Tiago from Brazil!!! Paco, you´ve really helped with informations!!! Understanding how to use whether and is used to be a hard work to me but now you opened up my mind!!!!! Thank you so much for your great job! Kind Regards from Brazil!!!! tnx Emotion: smile)
List of Chinese Inventions China has always prided itself with its ancient and ground breaking discoveries. In fact, some of the world's most important inventions were made by the Chinese. Their inventions have shaped our history. A cursory look at the list of Chinese inventions will give you a sense of how critical these discoveries were when it came to building civilizations. Joseph Needam, a British scholar, recognized the importance of these discoveries. He studied these inventions extensively, even listing four of them as being the greatest inventions of ancient China. These include the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing. The list of Chinese inventions includes familiar tools and some lesser known materials. A lot of these are even still used today. Many more are considered as direct descendants of modern day tools and methods. Let's take a look at some of these inventions shall we? First up on our list of Chinese inventions is the compass. Without a doubt, this tool has greatly expedited and eased how our ancestors navigated the globe. To this day, the compass is still considered as an important navigation tool, and little has changed on how compasses are manufactured. Next up on our list is gunpowder. It was first discovered in China during 1000 A.D. This was about 300 years before the first recorded gunpowder use in Europe. Unlike their European brethren, the Chinese never really pursued the use of explosives as a weapon. This was a tragic irony for the Chinese; since with the aid of gunpowder, the Europeans went on to win their wars against the Chinese. Another important material included in the list of Chinese inventions is paper. First invented somewhere around 105 A.D., we can all thank the Chinese for this wonderful and infinitely important piece of discovery. Printing was also first discovered by the Chinese. This includes both moveable type, and block printing. Europeans seem to have learned about block printing from the Chinese playing cards which they introduced to Europe. Tea lovers should be thankful to the Chinese since tea drinking was first invented in China. Two other forms of beverage - this time alcoholic ones - also originated in China, brandy and whiskey. Distillation was discovered in China during the seventh century A.D., well before its twelfth century discovery in the west. These are but a few of the items included in the list of Chinese inventions. Some of them have been of significant import to us, others, well we can do without. One thing is for certain, those ancient Chinese inventors made a lot of impact on our history. Please click these links if you want to know more about list of Chinese inventions or 1137 in general.
Bigger brain, greater degree of sociability? • Gregarious cetaceans play more frequently than solitary ones, though the latter also breach. © GREMM 24 / 10 / 2017 Par Béatrice Riché Is there a correlation between brain size and the diversity of social behaviours exhibited by a species? In cetaceans, it seems that there is, reveals a study published this month in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. By comparing the size of the brain, the diversity of social and cultural behaviours, and the size of the social group in various cetacean species, researchers found that species with larger brains tend to have a broader repertoire of social behaviours, live in medium-sized groups of 5 to 20 individuals, and be united by strong social bonds. The smallest brains were found in solitary species or those that live in small groups. Algae seem to be a “toy” enjoyed by right whales and humpback whales. © GREMM In humans, the brain is believed to have grown larger (a process known as encephalization) as our social skills (e.g. language, pursuit of common goals, teaching, consensus-based decision-making and empathy) developed. These skills favour cooperative social interactions and have allowed humans to colonize the majority of terrestrial ecosystems. Cetaceans also have proportionally large and anatomically sophisticated brains. Could it be that even though they have evolved in very different environments, cetaceans and humans have developed a similar survival strategy, that is, a large brain that allows for a wide variety of complex social interactions? Even if, anatomically speaking, humans and cetaceans have very different brains? Indeed, the frontal lobe, the part of the human brain that is involved in planning, language and most complex thoughts, is absent in cetaceans. On the other hand, cetaceans possess large, well-developed brain regions that are not present in humans. To answer these questions, a group of researchers from Stanford University, the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the University of Manchester have identified the social behaviours observed in 90 species of cetaceans, i.e. whales, rorquals, dolphins and porpoises. These behaviours include, for example, the presence of alliances within the group, care for young by individuals other than parents (alloparental care), inter-species cooperation, group hunting, social play, social learning and complex vocalizations. The results show that brain structures that are quite different – in humans and cetaceans, for instance – can give rise to similar social skills. A little like the wings of birds and the “wings” of bats (which perform the same function, i.e. flight) are anatomically very different and the result of independent evolutions, separated in time by several millions of years. Scientists believe that the presence of the killer whale mother near her male offsprings, even if they are adult and sexually mature, increases their chances of survival. © Robert Pittman But what came first, a bigger brain, or more complex social relationships? According to Kieran Fox, a postdoctoral student at Stanford University and co-author of the study, the two probably developed in parallel. The development of new complex social behaviours may require a larger and more powerful brain. And the development of a more powerful brain facilitates the learning of new social behaviours and new skills. This is what researchers call a positive feedback loop. “Let’s say a random increase in brain size or complexity gives you a greater capacity for social co-operation. If these new social skills pay off, then natural selection will keep favouring expansion of this same brain area. The capacity for social skills and cooperation will expand in turn, and the cycle will repeat,” explains Fox in an interview with CBC News. “What you’ll eventually expect to see is that species that have large, complex brains will also tend to possess a wider repertoire of social behaviours – and this is exactly what we found among the whales and dolphins.” However, as in the case of primates, diversity of social behaviours is not the only trait associated with the size of the cetacean brain. Researchers also found that cetaceans with larger brains tend to have a more varied diet and larger ranges. Fox, K.C.R., M. Muthukrishna and S. Shultz. 2017.The social and cultural roots of whale and dolphin brains. Nature Ecology and Evolution, doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0336-y Whales and dolphins lead ‘human-like lives’ thanks to big brains, says study (The Guardian, October 16, 2017) Whales and dolphins have human-like social structures and culture, say researchers (CBC, October 16, 2017)
American Association of Blind Teachers Telephone: (865) 692-4888 Home \| Join Us \| Subjects Our Members Teach \| Contact Us The following news story was broadcast on in Madison, Wisconsin. It might seem paradoxical, but blind and visually impaired students are frequently discouraged from the teaching of the blind and visually impaired themselves. This story highlights the value of having a teacher who shares your disability. Melissa Wollering A student teacher in Madison has a relationship with her pupils that no other teacher has had as long as the district can remember. One single mother of four, who decided to go back to school in her forties, is now giving kids independence in a world that is only accessible to them through sound, smell and touch. 14-year-old Trevor Hei is an eighth grader at Toki Middle School. Trevor was born blind and struggles with some symptoms of autism. "When Trevor started to learn braille several years ago he was barely reading," says Trevor's student teacher, Judy Turner. Now Trevor is making significant strides with Turner's help. The two share quite a bit in common, including the fact that Judy herself is visually impaired. At the age of 39, Judy enrolled at Northern Illinois University. At age 43, she will graduate with a bachelors degree in education and be certified to teach the visually impaired. "It was a lot of hard work as a visually impaired person to go to school and I maintained a 4.0 while I was at college," says Turner. "We do not have any other visually impaired teachers on staff nor have we ever in my history of working in this district," says Judy's supervising instructor, Sandy Adams. Judy was inspired by a visually impaired teacher she had in elementary school. With a nationwide shortage of vision teachers, Judy believes her unique perspective may fill a gap that has been growing for years. "She is able to have a sense of empathy with the students that sighted people don't necessarily have," says Adams. "I'm learning the software [that] I'm teaching my students," says Turner. "I'm using them every single day and my braille, I'm highly qualified in braille because that's what I use, that's how I read!" Judy uses a special notetaker that acts as a portable computer. It has a refreshable braille display on it and serves as a laptop, allowing Judy to store and retrieve information from it in braille. To access the school hallways, Judy's guide dog, Lambert, navigates through traffic. Judy can decipher color as well as sense light and certain shapes, but teaches students with all level of visual impairment. She hopes to continue teaching in the Madison School District upon graduation and credits the visually impaired childhood instructor she had for her courage to enter the profession. "I never had a chance to tell her how important she was to my life so it's okay if they don't tell me, it's just wonderful to be able to inspire another visually impaired person the way she did me." Top of Page
created: 11/07/98; revised: 10/27/99, 01/22/00, 07/17/02, 05/24/03, 01/19/06; audio: 03/21/04 CHAPTER 39 — Increment, Decrement, and Other Operators You already know everything that is essential about arithmetic expressions and assignment statements. This chapter discusses additional operators that can be used to write shorter expressions and assignment statements. You will use them often and will need to know them to read most Java programs. Chapter Topics: (Thought question:) What simple operation does an executing program perform most often? Click here for a . Click here for a . You are not thinking very hard if you need a .
She shared with me a recent exciting experience. Would I love to have 11,000 views! Bria stopped by. Lovely! Enjoyed her singing afterwards. Tennessee Williams time. Too many accidents at the crosswalks. Serious injuries the result. Enjoy your Sunday! The War of 1812 primarily involved the United States and Great Britain. Britain had not readily accepted its defeat by the Colonial army. Britain did things to aggravate the new nation. The aggravations included impressment of ten thousand American merchant seamen into the Royal Navy, trade restrictions, and the launching of minor invasions on U.S. shores. Britain also wanted to prevent the expansion by the United States westward. The United States declared war on September 12, 1814. A war of importance and significance to the new nation. Britain considered the war an extension of the Napoleonic wars going on in Europe. Once again, Britain failed to take seriously America’s interests. Britain won the first two major battles of the War. The second being the Battle of Washington. Britain burned Washington, including what today would be described as the White House. Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane was the British leader during the first two victories. Following his Washington victory, Cochrane wanted to do battle next in Rhode Island. His judgment was overridden by higher authority. He was told to take Baltimore. The Battle of Baltimore began with the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The bombardment was ineffectual. Cochrane was reluctant to get his fleet and men too close to the Fort. He feared the Fort’s return fire would gravely damage his fleet and men. Cochrane kept his ships quite a distance away. Cochrane used his bomb vessels and rocket ships to attack the Fort. Both long range guns. Both highly inaccurate at the distance. A large American flag flew over Fort McHenry. It was still flying after a night long bombardment. Cochrane’s soldiers consisted of British professional soldiers and Corps of Colonial Marines. The Colonial Marines were made up of two groups. One a company, the other a battalion. They were black American slaves. Escaped slaves. Some 20,000. They had joined the British forces based upon Britain’s promise of freedom. Freedom in return for fighting their former masters, the The Colonial Marines had assisted in the burning of Washington. Britain lost the War of 1812. Britain honored its promise however. Following the War, the former slaves and their families were relocated to Halifax and Trinidad. Francis Scott Key was a prominent Washington attorney. Well respected. A consummate Washington insider. An important player in the early days of the United States. A competent lawyer. Argued more than one hundred cases before the United States Supreme Court. Served for a time as U.S. Attorney for the District of Washington, D.C. Key was opposed to the War of 1812. Considered it “abominable”, as well as a “lump of wickedness.” The evening that Cochrane was bombing Fort McHenry long distance, Key was on one of the British vessels. A client had been taken prisoner by the British. He was on board seeking his release. The release was granted. On one condition. Key and his client had to remain aboard the entire evening till the bombardment had been completed. Key remained awake all night. Observed the bombs and rockets being fired on Fort McHenry. With the dawn, his heart was gladdened. The American flag still flew. While still on the British vessel, Key wrote a poem in recognition of the event. A poem of pride in the American flag still waving. He titled it the “Defence of Fort McHenry.” Note, a poem. Not yet set to music. London had many men’s clubs in those days and the years before. One was The Anacreontic Society. Amateur musicians. One of its members was John Stafford Smith. Some forty years earlier in 1773, Smith had written an official song for the Society. The song was titled The Anacreontic Song. The music of The Anacreontic Song was applied to Key’s poem. The musical version renamed the Star Spangled Banner. The Star Spangled Banner first consisted of four stanzas. A fifth was added some time later. The United States Navy began officially using the Star Spangled Banner in 1889. The only governmental department to do so at the time. President Woodrow Wilson decreed it should be used officially as a national anthem in 1916. However, Wilson had two lines removed from the third stanza which he thought might be considered objectionable by the British. In 1916, the U.S. and Britain were close allies. Britain was already in World War I. The two lines were reinstated in 1931 when Congress passed a resolution signed by President Herbert Hoover declaring the Star Spangled Banner the United States National Anthem. Baseball got into the act in 1918. During the seventh inning stretch of game one of the World Series, the Star Spangled Banner was played. Patriotism hit its peak during World War II. The Star Spangled Banner was played before every game. It still is to this day. The first stanza is generally the only one played. The others rarely heard. Key’s experiences on the ship that night evident in the words he wrote: …..by the dawn’s early light…..bombs bursting in air…..rockets red glare. Two lines in the third stanza that Wilson thought objectionable in 1916 have returned to the forefront in recent weeks. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave Key regarded the British professional soldiers as mercenaries. He described them in the two lines as “hirelings.” Without question, Key considered the British soldiers scoundrels. He was upset with the havoc and destruction the British had brought to the Chesapeake area. Key looked upon the escaped black slaves making up the Corps of Colonial Marines as traitors. Slave or not, the United States was their country. Key feared more slaves would escape and join the British ranks. He was concerned such would spark a national slave insurrection. An interesting observation by a man who considered slavery a moral wrong. His position apparently was country first. Which brings me to the motivation for this column. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting and kneeling while the Star Spangled Banner was being played. In a nation where burning the American flag is Constitutionally protected free speech, sitting or kneeling while the Star Spangled Banner is played is significantly less offensive. Kaepernick had something to say. He had a right to say it by his actions. Especially as an African-American. He was speaking out. Protesting racial injustice, minority oppression and police brutality. I sometimes think we have not come very far from pre-Civil War days. Nor from the anti-black happenings in our country in the 1950s and 1960s. I have written and spoken about the police shooting of blacks the past two years. My message was…..Beware! What goes around, comes around. You can only tread on a people for so long before they retaliate. That time has come this past year with the killing of police by blacks. I tolerate neither. Without any question however, Kaepernick has the right to protest in his fashion. He kills no one. He did not yell or scream. He made a silent showing of protest. Legal and proper. Too many Americans have condemned him. Wrong. Condemn that which caused him to make his statement by sitting and kneeling. I read somewhere this past week that the “home of the brave” is not necessarily the “land of the free.” Think about it. Our country is mired in discrimination. It is part of the national fabric. It will remain such till there are few if any persons of white color remaining. With the increasing number of colored making up our society, the day will come sometime in this century where discrimination will have disappeared. Via intermarriage of the races. It is inevitable. America, land of the free. Not really. Not for persons of color. Strange that a Civil War, a Civil Rights Movement, and a black President have failed. Failed after 150 plus years to bring the United States to accepting and treating all persons equally. This article highlights two individuals and one situation. All three from different time periods. All three telling the same story. Equality yet a distant hope, a distant dream. His name Eugene Bullard. Better known as Gene. He was born in 1895 in Columbus, Georgia. The grandson of a slave. His father a Haitian, his mother a Creek Indian. He was fortunate to have received formal schooling till age 10. He learned to read and write. Ten opened his eyes big time to racial discrimination. He saw his father narrowly escape a lynching. He decided America was not the place for him. Gene stowed away on a ship to Scotland. Eventually ended up in Paris where he settled. World War I began in 1914. Gene tried to join the French Army. He was refused. Not because of color. Rather because he was a foreigner. He was permitted however to fight with other foreigners for France in the French Foreign Legion. Trained as a machine gunner, he fought in several major battles. At some point during the war, France permitted foreign troops to transfer to the regular French Army. Gene was assigned to the Metropolitan French Army. Crack troops. The division became known as the Swallows of Death. Gene was seriously wounded in March 1916 at the Battle of Verdun. Recovered by October, he joined the French Air Force. He was the first black combat pilot in history. The U.S. was still not in the war. Americans who wanted to fly joined the French Air Force. The group was known as the Lafayette Escadrille. By the time Gene applied, the group was filled. He took more training. Another American volunteer group was formed. The Lafayette Flying Corps. Part of the French Air Force, also. Gene joined. He took part in heavy combat missions. Racial discrimination had left its mark on him. His life became one opposed to discrimination. Reflecting his feelings, his plane was named Tout Le Sang Qui Est Rouge. All Blood Runs Red. When the U.S. entered the war, the U.S. Army sought out all Americans flying with the French Air Force to transfer to the U.S. Army Air Force. Gene took and passed the physical. However, he was rejected because of race. Only white pilots were permitted to fly for the U.S. Gene was a hero to the French people. He was awarded 15 medals. One medal came later in life in 1959 when he was awarded France’s highest honor, the Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur. Another recognition came a few years earlier when he was invited to Paris to rekindle the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. He remained in Paris after the war. Initially employed as a drummer, he became manager of Le Grand Duc night club. Paris’ most famous night spot at the time. Frequented by friends such as Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong. He also opened his own night club. L’Escadrille. World War II began. Following France’s invasion by Germany, Gene joined the French Army. He was seriously wounded. Friends helped him escape to neutral Spain and then to the United States. He spent significant time in New York hospitals for his war wounds from which he never fully recovered. His French fame did not accompany him to New York. He was a black nobody. Broke. He worked menial jobs. His last as an elevator operator at Rockefeller Center. His night club in Paris was destroyed by the war. However, he was able to obtain some settlement from the French government for it. He used the money to buy an apartment in Harlem. He remained a stranger in his homeland. Spent his days sitting in his Harlem apartment. In obscurity and poverty. All he had were photos from World War I and his decorations which covered the walls. Gene died in 1961 at the age of 66 of stomach cancer. He was buried in the French Veterans’ War Section of New York’s Flushing Cemetery. On August 23, 1964, 33 years after his death and 77 years to the day after passing his physical for transfer to the U.S. Army Air Force, Gene was commissioned posthumously a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. World War II brought another person of color to the forefront. Josephine Baker. In reality, during the war she was a spy. A spy for France. A woman whose life was on the line for five years because of her activities. During that time she was a singer and dancer. The most popular in the world. Known as the Black Pearl, Bronze Venus and Creole Goddess. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, her father deserted her and her mother early on. Josephine was poor. Very poor. She dressed poorly and was always hungry. Her playground was the train yards of the St. Louis Railroad Station. A place where she developed street smarts. At 8, she worked for a white family as a domestic. She dropped out of school at 13. Homeless, she slept in cardboard shelters, scavenged food from garbage cans. At 15, she was dancing on street corners for pennies. A producer saw her and brought her to Harlem to work as a show girl. She began as a chorus girl. The last girl in the line. Her comic ability revealed itself. She became the highest paid chorus girl in vaudeville. In 1925, she went to Paris. Her fame instantaneous. Night clubs the venue. She engaged in erotic dancing initially. Topless and only a stringof artificial bananas around her waist. Later, she took singing lessons. She excelled as a singer also. Became recognized as a grand diva. She was the most successful American entertainer in France. Ernest Hemingway said she was “…..the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.” Her close friends were Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and Christian Dior. They ran together. She returned to the United States in 1935 and 1936. Starred in the Zigfeld Follies. America did not take to her. They could not accept a black woman in a starring role. She was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee. Time Magazine described Josephine as a “Negro wench.” She returned to Paris, married a french Jew and became a French citizen. She renounced her American citizenship with no difficulty. Her time as a patriot came during World War II. When Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany. French Military Intelligence immediately recruited Josephine. She frequented embassy balls and parties. Information was easily picked up. She reported back what she heard. When Germany invaded France, Josephine moved to her chateau in southern France. She housed friends of De Gaulle and escapees from the Germans. She obtained visas for many. As an entertainer, she was allowed to move freely throughout Europe and North Africa. She also visited neutral Portugal and South America. She picked up information concerning German airfields, harbors and troop concentrations. The information was returned to French intelligence in invisible ink on her sheet music and on notes pinned to the inside of her underwear. She figured no one would subject her to a strip search. When North Africa was freed, she remained and entertained British, American and French troops. In 1949, she returned to Paris. Welcomed with open arms! She visited the United States again. This time as a ball of fire. She refused to accept segregation in any form. Josephine had an appearance scheduled at a Miami night club in 1951. The night club practiced segregation re its customers. No blacks. She openly went to war with the nightclub. Loudly. She won. The night club desegregated. That same year, the NAACP designated Josephine Woman of the Year. One hundred thousand attended her parade in Harlem. The Stork Club became a problem. The Stork Club also had a policy discouraging black customers. The Stork Club refused to serve her. She took the Stork Club on publicly. She also attacked her supposed friend Walter Winchell for remaining silent when she raised the issue. Winchell retaliated. He rebuked her and called her a Communist. The publicity killed Josephine. Winchell was a power. Her work visa was terminated, all her engagements cancelled. She returned to France. It was almost 10 years before she was permitted to enter the United States again. One of the good things to come out of the Stork Club incident involved Grace Kelley. The two did not know each other. Kelley was there the night the club refused to serve Josephine. Kelley walked out with Josephine. Never to return to the Stork Club again. A close relationship developed from the incident. Josephine and Kelley became excellent friends. In Josephine’s later years when she was near bankruptcy, Kelley allowed her to use two homes she and her husband owned in Monaco. Las Vegas refused to integrate its shows. No blacks could perform. Josephine went after Vegas. Vegas relented. As a result, Josephine began receiving calls from the Klu Klux Klan. Another thorn in Josephine’s side was the practice of New York hotels to refuse admission to blacks. During the 1950s trip to New York, she and her husband were refused admission to 36 hotels. She stood next to Martin Luther King in 1963 in Washington. Right next to him. She spoke. The only woman to speak. She also introduced Rosa Parks. Josephine wore her Free French uniform with the medal of honor of the Legion d’honneur which France had awarded her. Josephine died broke. Were it not for friends like Grace Kelley, her last days would not have been as caring as they were. The Civil War did nor solve the black/white problem. During World War I, the problem still existed. Gene Bullard was denied acceptance into the U.S. Army Air Force. Finally World War II, before and after, shows the prejudice that still existed as regards Josephine Baker. Which brings me to the third and final episode. The Charleston, South Carolina massacre of last week. Where nine blacks were shot to death while Bible reading in church. By a 21 year old young man whose words during the event clearly reflected the tenor that still exists regarding blacks. Then there are the killings of blacks by police. Where does it all end? Does it all end? I don’t know. It has been more that 150 years since the Civil War and as a nation we are still mired indiscrimination and prejudice.
Posts tagged ‘colonial architecture’ In the natural playground of Bahia's Chapada Diamantina region Trek to Cachoeira da Fumaça Scenes from Quito's Old Town, a colonial gem of a city Quito’s Old City, a wondrous maze of colonial architecture, is the largest and best-preserved in the Americas. Having endured a massive upgrade in recent years – with historic buildings restored and dicey barrios revitalized – the Old Town now boasts an impressive list of notable wonders: nearly 60 colonial churches and plazas, a bevy of Independence-era buildings, dozens of private homes, and a long list of outstanding museums. Wandering the Old Town is a treat for the eyes and I was entertained for days. I’m not normally a huge fan of Latin American capital cities but the lure of Quito’s centro histórico is hard to resist!
1.2.4 Photophosphorylation and ATP synthesis Printer-friendly version During photosynthetic electron transfer from water to NADP+, energy captured in two photoacts is stored as an electrochemical potential gradient of protons. First, such reduction of QB requires protonation with protons drawn from the stromal side of the membrane. Reoxidation (and deprotonation) occurs towards the thylakoid lumen. In addition, protons are lost from the stromal side via protonation of reduced NADP and they are also generated in the lumen during photolysis. A massive ΔpH, of approximately 3–4 pH units, equivalent to an H+ ion concentration difference of three to four orders of magnitude, develops across the thylakoid membrane. This immense gradient drives ATP synthesis (catalysed by ATP synthase) within a large energy-transducing complex embedded in the thylakoid membrane (Figure 1.11). ATP synthesis in chloroplasts (photophosphorylation) proceeds according to a mechanism that is basically similar to that in mitochondria. Chemiosmotic coupling (Mitchell 1961) which links the movement of protons down an electro-chemical potential gradient to ATP synthesis via an ATP synthase applies in both organelles. However, the orientation of ATP synthase is opposite. In chloroplasts protons accumulate in thylakoid lumen and pass outwards through the ATP synthase into the stroma. In mitochondria, protons accumulate within the intermembrane space and move inwards, generating ATP and oxidising NADH within the matrix of these organelles (Figure 2.24). In chloroplasts, ATP synthase is called the CF0CF1 complex. The CF0 unit is a hydrophobic transmembrane multiprotein complex which contains a water-filled proton conducting channel. The CF1 unit is a hydrophilic peripheral membrane protein complex that protrudes into the stroma. It contains a reversible ATPase and a gate which controls proton movement between CF0 and CF1. Entire CF0CF1 complexes are restricted to non-appressed portions of thylakoid membranes due to their bulky CF1 unit. Direct evidence for ATP synthesis due to a transthylakoid pH gradient can be adduced as follows. When chloroplasts are stored in darkness in a pH 4.0 succinic acid buffer (i.e. a proton-rich medium), thylakoid lumen equilibrate to this pH. If the chloroplasts, still in the dark, are rapidly transferred to a pH 8.0 buffer containing ADP and Pi, ATP synthesis then occurs. This outcome confirms a central role for the proton concentration difference between thylakoid lumen and stroma for ATP synthesis in vitro; but does such a process operate on that scale in vivo? Mordhay Avron, based in Israel, answered this question in part during the early 1970s via a most elegant approach (Rottenberg et al. 1972). Working with thylakoid preparations, Avron and colleagues established that neutral amines were free to exchange between bathing medium and thylakoid lumen, but once protonated in illuminated preparations they became trapped inside. By titrating the loss of such amines from the external medium when preparations where shifted from dark to light, they were able to infer the amount retained inside. Knowing that the accumulation of amine depended upon H+ ion concentration in that lumen space, the difference in H+ ion concentration and hence ΔpH across the membrane were established. At saturating light, chloroplasts generate a proton gradient of approximately 3.5 pH units across their thylakoid membranes. Protons for this gradient are derived from the oxidation of water molecules occurring towards the inner surface of PSII and from transport of four electrons through the Cyt b/f complex, combined with cotranslocation of eight protons from the stroma into the thylakoid space for each pair of water molecules oxidised. Electrical neutrality is main-tained by the passage of Mg2+ and Cl across the membrane, and as a consequence there is only a very small electrical gradient across the thylakoid membrane. The electrochemical potential gradient that yields energy is thus due almost entirely to the concentration of intrathylakoid H+ ions. For every three protons translocated via ATP synthase, one ATP is synthesised. Linear electron transport therefore generates about four molecules of ATP per O2 evolved. Thus eight photons are absorbed for every four ATP molecules generated or for each O2 generated. Cyclic electron transport is slightly more efficient at producing ATP and generates about four ATP per six photons absorbed. However, linear electron transport also generates NADPH, which is equivalent, in energy terms, to six ATP per O2 released. As implied in Figure 1.11, the four thylakoid complexes, PSII, PSI, Cyt b/f and ATP synthase, are not evenly distributed in plant thylakoid membranes but show a lateral heterogeneity. This distribution is responsible for the highly characteristic structural organisation of the continuous thylakoid membrane into two regions, one consisting of closely appressed membranes or granal stacks, the other of non-appressed stroma lamellae where outside surfaces of thylakoid membranes are in direct contact with the stroma. This structural organisation is shown on a modest scale in Figure 1.7, but extreme examples are evident in chloroplasts of shade-adapted species grown in low light (Chapter 12). Under such conditions, membrane regions with clusters of PSII complexes and Cyt b/f complexes become appressed into classical granal stacks. Cyt b/f complexes are present inside these granal stacks as well as in stroma lamellae, but PSI and ATP synthase are absent from granal stacks. Linear electron transport occurs in granal stacks from PSII in appressed domains to PSI in granal margins. Nevertheless, shade plants have only a low rate of linear electron transport because they have fewer Cyt b/f and to a lesser extent fewer PSII complexes compared to PSI, a consequence of investing more chlorophyll in each PSII to enhance light harvesting (see Anderson (1986) and Chapter 12 for more detail).
Alien Civilization Exists In The Milky Way After doing a research, scientists came up to a conclusion that there is at least one alien civilization in the galaxy that communicates with Earth in our galaxy through the Milky way. Three American scientists Luis A. Anchordoqui, Susanna Weber and Jorge F. Soriano in an article published on the website of the University of Cornell, discussed the possibility of the existence of an alien civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy that communicates with humans. Experts relied upon the Drake formula so that they could estimate the number of civilizations in our galaxy and according to their result, there is at least one extraterrestrial civilization that communicates with Earth through technology that could intercept or transmit radio emissions. Moreover, scientists compare these planets where there are some potential civilizations with the rate of birth of heavenly bodies within the settled zone around their star. Scientists agree on one potential thing, that the existence of the aliens is endagered by the powerful gamma ray bursts. Their note,however, will be verified with the help of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope). This research is additionally complicated by the fact that the scientists have come up to,which is the small percentage of intelligent alien civilizations in the Milky Way,about 0.5% of the total number of alien civilizations that may exist in the Universe. This is also their explanation of having not found any aliens so far. The discovery of other civilizations will only be sucessfull if the scientists discover more of Earth’s “twin” planets. In the research paper the scientists note that a new data is needed so that they can understand better the occurrence of exoplanets in the habitable zone, the early star formation rate models and GRB phenomenology. Finding new Earth-like planets has been a challenge since these planets produce weaker signals. The technology for detecting these kinds of planets has been developed for the next generation space telescopes. So, NASA’s next search for planets is through Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satelite (TESS). The NASA roadmap will continue with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as well as with Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope – Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST-AFTA) early in the next decade. The discovery of alien life will probably take some more time, but the search is on its way. In 2016, scientists adapted the Drake Equation data with data from Nasa’s Kepler satellite on the number of exoplanets that could harbour life. Researchers also adapted the equation from being about the number of civilizations that exist now, to being about the probability of civilization being the only one that has ever existed. Facebook Comments Like us!
Marie Curie. Credit: Wikipedia Marie Curie. Credit: Wikipedia Anytime you or I feel particularly content with our achievements, we would be well advised to review the biography of Marie Curie. We would then quickly realize that we are unambitious mediocrities who should be much more productive. The magnitude of her accomplishments is dizzying. Virtually everything we know about radioactivity rests on the work of Madame Curie and her husband Pierre. The Curies coined the term radioactivity. She discovered the elements polonium and radium. She received two Nobel Prizes. Your last broken bone was diagnosed thanks to her pioneering work on x-rays. This week’s news relates to Madame Curie’s discovery of radium-226 over a century ago. She even published a paper describing that tumor-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radium. Radium emits alpha particles which are much more lethal to living cells than x-rays or gamma rays but penetrate living tissue less than a tenth of a millimeter. This would seem to be an ideal treatment for cancer if the radium could be transported to the tumor and not to healthy tissues. The insurmountable problem at Curie’s time was that radium-226 has a half-life of over a millennium and decays to radioactive radon gas, a substance you don’t want inside you. Fast-forward to the present. Advanced cyclotrons now allow production and purification of specific isotopes that Madame Curie could only dream about, like radium-223. Radium-223 also emits alpha particles, but has a half-life of 11 days and decays to stable chemicals. That means that in a month only about an eighth of the original amount remains. Radium appears chemically to the human body a lot like calcium, so the body transports it rapidly to the bones, especially to areas where bone is being destroyed and rebuilt. Given the tiny tissue penetration of alpha rays, that would seem to be a perfect way to irradiate bone tumors. This week the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published the results of a fascinating study testing the effects of radium-223 in patients with metastatic prostate cancer in whom hormonal treatment had already failed. Patients with prostate cancer that has spread to the bone eventually develop bone pain which can be severe, and are at high risk for disabling fractures. Once their cancer stops responding to hormonal medicines, their life expectancy is about a year. That means these patients typically have both very little life expectancy and a miserable quality of life. The study randomized over 900 such patients to receive intravenous injections of radium-233 or placebo every four weeks for six total doses. The primary endpoint measured was survival, but measures of quality of life like fractures and bone pain were also recorded. The patients given radium survived an average of 14 months, while those who received placebo survived an average of 11 months. That may not seem like a big difference, but I suspect it’s a huge difference to someone who has only 11 months to live. It’s also a very important difference because cancer treatments that prolong survival (rather than just shrink tumors) are notoriously difficult to find. The patients receiving radium also had fewer adverse events – like fractures – and had better quality of life. The radium did not cause serious side effects. This is a very exciting finding, and not only for patients with advanced prostate cancer. It is the first time alpha rays have been used to treat disease. Given the excellent tolerability of radium-232 future trials should test it earlier in the course of metastatic prostate cancer. The treatment of other cancers that spread to bone should also be tested. Madame Curie would have been delighted by this advance, and would be quite impatient for us to get to the next discovery. Learn more: Radium-223 and Metastatic Prostate Cancer (Summary video from the editors of NEJM) New Radiation Therapy Prolongs Prostate Cancer Survival (NY Times) New Drug May Extend Survival for Some Prostate Cancer Patients (US News) Fighting Prostate Cancer with Radium-223 — Not Your Madame’s Isotope (NEJM editorial) Alpha Emitter Radium-223 and Survival in Metastatic Prostate Cancer (NEJM article)
Hemorrhoid Banding Dayton Gastroenterology, Inc. » Services » Procedures » Hemorrhoid Banding What are Hemorrhoids? Hemorrhoids are swollen veins in the lower rectum and anus caused by increased pressure or straining, typically due to constipation, pregnancy, childbirth, obesity, heavy lifting, long periods of sitting, or diarrhea. Hemorrhoids can cause pain, itching, bleeding, burning, blood clots, and infection if left untreated. They are common in both men and women. In Western countries, hemorrhoids due to constipation are associated with diets low in fiber and high in fat. After age 30, the incidence of hemorrhoids increases, and by age 50, about half of the population will have experienced them. Hemorrhoid Treatment Treating hemorrhoids with creams and suppositories provides temporary relief for symptoms such as pain and itching. They cannot shrink the hemorrhoid, stop it from growing larger or make it go away. In the past, chronic hemorrhoid sufferers had to resort to surgery for relief when treating symptoms was not enough. Today, a procedure called the CRH-O'Regan Disposable Hemorrhoid Banding System has all but eliminated the need for surgery. Hemorrhoid Banding allows patients to be treated quickly and resume normal activity with very little discomfort. Most patients with office jobs find they can return to work the same day. Our physicians have performed thousands of rubber band ligations on patients. It is the most frequently used non-surgical treatment for hemorrhoids in the world. What to Expect from the CRH-O'Regan Disposable Hemorrhoid Banding System The CRH O'Regan method - unlike traditional banding techniques - uses a gentle suction device that reduces the risk of pain and bleeding. The doctor will place a small rubber band at the base of the swollen vein to strangle it, which cuts off the blood supply to the hemorrhoid. This causes the banded tissue to shrink and fall off, along with the rubber band. Typically, this happens within a few days after your appointment during a routine trip to the toilet, and you may not even notice when it happens. The treatment itself takes less than five minutes and can be performed in one of the Dayton Gastroenterology offices or endoscopy centers. The band placement is relatively painless due to this refined technique, and it does not require anesthesia or other numbing agents. You may experience a dull ache or sense of fullness in the rectum within the first 24 hours, but this can generally be relieved by over-the-counter pain medication. Some patients may have a little bleeding, discomfort, and urine hesitancy, but these are considered minor complications. It's important that you refrain from rigorous activity immediately following your treatment to reduce the risk of any complications. Our doctors perform one treatment per visit. Patients with multiple hemorrhoids may require two or three treatments, which are scheduled a few weeks apart. Dayton Gastroenterology, Inc.
Where results make sense Topic: Embryo Related Topics In the News (Mon 22 Jan 18) EMBRYO's Homepage Bitte klickt auch auf die Klaus Unland Embryo Seite. festival (where we played in 2001) that Embryo is still alive and well. Please contact embryo for avaiable CD´s and DVD´s. embryo.de (604 words) In Vitro Fertilization Embryo Quality Embryo quality as we see it under the microscope in the IVF lab gives us some reasonable ability to predict the chances for pregnancy from an embryo transfer. The true genetic potential of the embryo to continue development and the quality and receptivity of the uterine lining are really impossible to measure. www.advancedfertility.com /embryoquality.htm (712 words) Embryo Information Animals: The embryo of a vertebrate is defined as the organism between the first division of the zygote (a fertilized ovum) until it becomes a fetus. www.bookrags.com /wiki/Embryo (396 words) Embryo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Embryo (432 words) Embryo adoption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Embryo adoption is the adoption of human embryos for subsequent in-vitro fertilization. Since embryos are not considered to be children under the law, they cannot be legally "adopted." Thus, an embryo adoption is legally a transfer of ownership of embryos (ordinarily up to nine embryos are transferred in one adoption because pregnancy may not result with the first attempt). Embryo adoption differs from ordinary donation of embryos in that a regular adoption agency performs a homestudy and matches the donor and adoptive families as in an open adoption. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Snowflake_baby (380 words) embryo - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about embryo (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-07) At four weeks, the embryo is 3 mm/0.1 in long, with a large bulge for the heart and small pits for the ears. In humans, the term embryo describes the fertilized egg during its first seven weeks of existence; from the eighth week onwards it is referred to as a fetus. In animals the embryo exists either within an egg (where it is nourished by food contained in the yolk), or in mammals, in the uterus of the mother. encyclopedia.farlex.com /embryo (547 words) Understanding Embryo Donation If the embryos have not been frozen (as occasionally occurs when patients undergoing IVF donate remaining embryos to another couple during their fresh cycle, rather than cryopreserving them), a donor eligibility determination is mandatory. Depending on the stage the embryos were in when they were frozen (at fertilization, day 3 or day 5), between 50-80% of the frozen embryos typically survive the thawing process and continue dividing. www.miracleswaiting.org /understanding.html (3920 words) In botany, the radicle is the first part of a seedling (a growing plant embryo) to emerge from the seed during germination.... A cotyledon (greek:) is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant.... Embryo space colonization is an interstellar space colonization proposal that involves sending a robotic mission to a terrestrial planet (having a biosphere)... www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/e/em/embryo.htm (1089 words) embryo - Encyclopedia.com www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1E1-embryo.html (1222 words) Embryo Transfer (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-07) is the process of removing an embryo (a fertilized egg) from a broodmare and placing it in a surrogate mare where it develops into a foal. The Embryo Transfer begins with breeding the donor mare (the mare "donating" the embryo) at Vessels Stallion Farm. A transferable embryo is between the ages of 6 and 8 days old. www.vesselsstallionfarm.com /embryotransfer.html (474 words) Embryo Storage and Disposal Embryos shall not be created using semen or oocytes of client-depositors or directed donors who are blood relatives of the other gamete provider to a degree that their sexual contact would constitute incest under New York State law. This statute relates to children; authorizes human embryo donations and transfers; requires performance of certain techniques by physicians; prohibits certain activities; requires written consents; specifies certain procedures; requires confidentiality; specifies legal status of certain persons; provides that certain donations and transfers are not trafficking in children; specifies conditions; provides for codification; and declares an emergency. www.ncsl.org /programs/health/embryodisposition.htm (1566 words) Embryo Transfer in Cattle www.cruachan.com.au /html/body_embryo_transfer.htm (1866 words) SingaporeMoms - Parenting Encyclopedia - Embryo An embryo (Greek: έμβρυον) is an animal or a plant in its earliest stage of development. Animals: The embryo of vertebrates is defined as the stages between the first division of the zygote (a fertilized ovum) until it becomes a foetus. An embryo is called a foetus at a more advanced stage of development and up until birth or hatching. www.singaporemoms.com /parenting/Embryo (151 words) Historical Implications for Today’s Embryo Transfer: Day 3 Vs. Day 5 by G. John Garrisi, Ph.D. A discussion of the optimal day for embryo transfer is, in its essence, a discussion of the IVF laboratory environment, and the ability of human embryos to respond in a "normal" way to the artificially created embryo culture system. The cells of the embryo (called blastomeres) continue to divide, and on Day 4 the embryo is called a morula; at this stage, the cell number may be difficult to determine because of continued division and a developmental process called compaction. The embryos are challenged by the conditions present in the blastocyst culture system, and the fittest are able to continue development and become normal blastocysts. www.inciid.org /article.php?cat=infertility101&id=245 (2172 words) Embryo Adoption and Donation (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-07) With embryo donation, neither the mother nor the father is genetically related to the couples have a child. If pregnancy occurs through the use of donor embryos, prenatal genetic testing will be advised depending on the age of the woman who created the donated embryo (rather than the age of the recipient).Other prenatal tests, based on the recipient's age and risk for complications of pregnancy, may be suggested. Embryo donation or embryo adoption may be used for the same reasons as egg donation. www.conceivingconcepts.com /learning/articles/embryo.html (1363 words) Genetics & IVF Institute Since we know the pre-freeze characteristics of each embryo frozen, and the embryo score is related to the probability of implantation, we can purposely thaw and transfer more embryos when the embryo quality is lower without concern for high multiple gestation rates while maximizing each embryo’s potential for implantation. Embryos that are 2, 4 or 8 cells when frozen have about 5-10% greater survival than embryos with an odd number of cells. www.givf.com /fertility/embryofreezing.cfm (1501 words) Embryo Summary At the beginning of the embryonic period, a structure known as the embryonic disc is formed from the inner cells of the fertilized egg. Louise Brown, the first "test tube baby," was born in July of 1978 with the help of in vitro fertilization, which is performed outside the mother—in a test tube or petri dish—using her eggs and the father's sperm. This followed previous legislative and executive measures banning federal funding of embryo research, which is seen as controversial because of its possible links to the abortion issue and to the debate over whether the embryo—which contains the entire "genetic program" needed to produce a human being—represents the beginning of human life. www.bookrags.com /Embryo (1259 words) Embryo Culture Embryos can be cultured for a various lengths of time, depending upon the reproductive history of you and your partner. Embryos cultured for three days can be checked by the embryologist for gene activation and cleavage, which improves the likelihood of transferring a viable embryo. sharedjourney.com /define/culture.html (1023 words) Pacific Fertility Center To prevent the embryo from shriveling as the water is extracted, we replace the water with antifreeze. This is done by incubating the embryo in decreasing concentrations of the antifreeze, and increasing concentrations of water. Some are thawing embryos after failing to become pregnant during their IVF cycle, and some are using the embryos years after a successful IVF cycle, to have a second or third child. www.infertilitydoctor.com /lab/lab_freeze.htm (2850 words) Multi-dimensional Human Embryo, Atlas embryo.soad.umich.edu /carnStages/carnStages.html (183 words) The English Embryo Biographie Embryo is still going on strong, constantly surprising with their innova-tions, proving to be the only Krautrock band to have stuck to their ideals over 25 years whilst always moving on. The history of Embryo is firmly connected with the foundation of the independent record label Schneeball, a project initiated by members of Embryo and the band "Checkpoint Charlie" in the middle of the seventies. Embryo was founded in the late 60s, after Burchard had played in several jazz combos and allegedly had spent a short time in Amon Düül II. www.spacelook.de /embryo/embryobioenglish.htm (6380 words) Veterinary Services Embryo Transfer www.dvmservices.com /embryo_transfer.htm (581 words) Embryo - Biography - AOL Music Originally a jazzy space rock group, Embryo was formed in 1969 in Munich, Germany, by former R&B and jazz organist Christian Burchard (vibraphone, hammer dulcimer, percussion, marimba), Edgar Hofmann (saxophone), Luther Meid (bass), Jimmy Jackson (organ), Dieter Serfas (drums, percussion), Wolfgang Paap (drums), Ingo Schmidt (saxophone), and John Kelly (guitar). By the time of Embryo's Rache (1971), the group was already adding ethnic touches to their music. Embryo also set up their own record label, Schneeball, with the rock band Checkpoint Charlie during this time. music.aol.com /artist/embryo/17312/biography (473 words) Training manual for embryo transfer in cattle Embryos of various stages are illustrated in Figures 14 to 25. www.fao.org /DOCREP/004/T0117E/T0117E07.htm (1989 words) Which embryo is human? The embryos here are all in the same stage of development. This exhibit was developed with support from the Genentech Foundation for Biomedical Sciences. Embryo photos courtesy of Dr. Michael Richardson and Dr. Ronan O'Rahilly, St. George's Hospital Medical School, U.K., and Dr. Charles Kimmel, University of Oregon. www.exploratorium.edu /exhibits/embryo/embryoflash.html (303 words) Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis) Copyright © 2005-2007 www.factbites.com Usage implies agreement with terms.
(redirected from frequencies) Also found in: Dictionary, Medical, Legal, Encyclopedia. Graphic Thesaurus 🔍 Display ON Animation ON • noun Synonyms for frequency Synonyms for frequency the number of observations in a given statistical category References in periodicals archive ? When researchers put two fish in an unfamiliar tank or used a field-emitting dummy to mimic an intruder in a fish's home tank, both males and females tended to raise their electric-field frequencies as they attacked. The average bad part frequency is lower because of the reduced stiffness, but a few bad castings have higher frequencies because the defect (a large shrink porosity) reduced the component's mass. The high durometer polychloroprene may last longer due to its high modulus, but at high frequencies it becomes stiffer. In five of these seven ears, DPOAE amplitudes were significantly above the noise floor at 500 Hz, 750 Hz, and 1 kHz and below the noise floor at the higher frequencies. For example, cell phones can use frequencies between 800 and 900 megahertz (a unit of frequency measurement). The few birds that can echolocate use lower frequencies, and they do so only to navigate in the dark, says J. It is clear that the physical sound pressure is concentrated at low frequency, and we can assume that the forces through the bushings are largest at low frequencies. An octave is a doubling of frequency; there are six octaves between 125-4000 Hz, with center frequencies of 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. During the last 2 years, this time scale has been used to evaluate the relative frequencies of NIST-7, an optically pumped cesium-beam standard, and NIST-F1, the cesium-fountain frequency standard. The remarkable spectrum exiting the fiber, when applied as a sort of ruler, takes the ordeal out of measuring visible-light frequencies. However, balancing heat dissipation and performance characteristics in high frequencies is a critical issue with GaAs, and is reaching to the point that the material is fast approaching the upper limits. The comb concept, developed at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, provides a large set of equally spaced frequencies that can be used, almost like a ruler, to make measurements of very large frequency differences, in this case a difference of 76 THz. Virtually any strong source of radio waves can cause interference if its signals stray too near the frequencies at which scientists are observing. For the three test conditions, measured natural frequencies occur at approximately 28 Hz, 40 Hz and 70 Hz for shear strains of .
identify your lightbulb > bulb identification key This is a un-tipped, drawn tungsten lamp, whose filament has a very low electrical resistance so that it is longer (approximately two feet in total length) and thinner than a carbon filament. Drawn tungsten filaments were beginning to be replaced by the shorter coiled tungsten filaments about the same year that the tip-less bulbs came out in 1919. So this bulb dates from 1919 afterwards. It is not known in what year the un-tipped, drawn tungsten lamps were fully discontinued. For further dating, if the top of the bowl of the bulb has the MAZDA trademark and the GE monogram on a label or sticker [see A44a?] affixed to the outside surface of bulb or to the stem tube inside bulb, the bulb should date from 1919 until 1926, when etched trademarks first appeared. If the bulb should have the MAZDA name, GE monogram, wattage, and voltage etched on the top of bulb [see A44], bulb was manufactured after 1926. NEXT PAGE in the Evolution of Incandescent Light Bulbs
Get the SixWise e-Newsletter FREE! Google Web Free Newsletter Subscription Share Email to a Friend Print This The California Wildfires May be Impacting Your Health -- Here's How to Keep YOUR Air Clean The tragic October wildfires in Southern California took seven lives and destroyed 2,000 homes. But even though the flames have died down, there's still a threat lurking in the air over Southern California, and beyond: extreme amounts of pollution. california wild fires 2007 The California wildfires that burned from October 19-26, 2007 released nearly 9 tons of carbon dioxide into the air. The wildfires that burned from October 19-26 emitted an amount of greenhouse gases that's equivalent to 500,000 cars traveling on the road for one year, according to the California Air Resources Board. And according to two Colorado scientists, the fires likely emitted 8.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming gas, into the air. Aside from taking a heavy toll on the environment -- wildfires, for instance, may be causing the boreal forests in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, China, Scandinavia and other areas to give off more carbon than they absorb -- the pollution presents a risk to your health. Health Risks of Wildfire-Related Air Pollution The majority of wildfire smoke is made up of water vapor, but it also contains gases and small particles including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, irritant volatile organic compounds, and air toxics, according to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District (SDAPCD). When you breathe these particles in, they can build up in your respiratory system, resulting in burning eyes, cough, a runny nose and illnesses like bronchitis. Children and the elderly are particularly at risk from smoke-contaminated air, as are people with chronic illnesses. The particles in wildfire smoke can aggravate: • Heart disease such as congestive heart failure • Lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease • Emphysema • Asthma Part of what makes wildfire pollution so dangerous is that the tiny particles in the smoke -- they're smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, which means several thousand of them could fit on the period at the end of a sentence -- reach the deepest recesses of your lungs and enter your bloodstream where they accelerate hardening of the arteries, negatively affecting heart function. The tiny particles can actually overwhelm your lungs and mucus membranes, according to the American Lung Association of California, which results in mucus and soot build-up. This, in turn, increases your risk of infections like sinusitis and bronchitis. If you have had a heart attack, being exposed to tiny particles will also increase your risk of having a second one. Air Pollution is All Around Us If you live in an area affected by wildfires, you know that the air quality is poor if you see or smell smoke. But even areas far removed from the actual fires are impacted. For instance, U.S. wildfires release an average of 322 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, according to a new study in Carbon Balance and Management. Although these emissions make up just 5 percent of the carbon dioxide released from burning gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels, at the state level fire emissions can exceed the annual emissions from fossil fuels. Of course, wildfires are not the only source of air pollution. Cars, trucks, fireplaces, coal-burning power plants and many, many other factors also contribute. Exposure to air pollution has been linked to at least 16 health problems, including genetic abnormalities. Consider that every day we breathe in about 15,000 liters of air (that's about six to 10 liters every minute), according to the American Lung Association. So efficient are our lungs, that that air is drawn across 600 to 900 square feet of surface area in the tiny sacs in our lungs. wildfire air pollution Dangerous particles in the air can stay in an area for weeks after the flames of a wildfire have been put out. This gives you an idea of how important having clean air to breathe truly is. How to Keep Your Home's Air Clean First off, if you live in an area impacted by wildfires, you should not go outside if it's smoky. You definitely don't want to do any exercise outdoors or let your children outside to play if there's smoke in the air. You should also keep the particle levels you release indoors to a minimum by not burning anything including wood stoves, gas stoves, candles and cigarettes. It's important to also avoid vacuuming when smoke levels are high, as this will stir up particles that are in your home. PIONAIRWatch a live animated demonstration of how the PIONAIR Air Treatment System works, and why its "photocatalysis" technology makes it superior to other air purifiers. See the Animated PIONAIR Demonstration Now! Next, whether you live in an area with wildfires or not, you should consider very seriously getting a high-quality air purifier for your home. Indoor air can be two to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, so air purifiers are becoming more and more of a necessity. The challenge with most air purifiers, however, is that the air must be drawn to the unit, either through natural airflow or through the use of a fan. This method results in uneven treatment and can leave pockets of polluted air. Unlike most air purifiers, the PIONAIR Air Treatment System, which highly recommends, doesn't wait for pollutants to contact a filter or plate. Instead, the PIONAIR generates air-purifying technology that migrates through the area and neutralizers organic odors, microbes and molds at their source. As a result, the PIONAIR produces fresh, clean air throughout your home or office uniformly, by addressing the pollutant source, without the use of fans, filters or plates. How does it work? Aside from a high-quality air purifier, there are other steps you can also take to keep your home's air pure and fresh, and your family healthy. • If pollution is particularly heavy in your area, keep your windows and doors closed and run your air conditioner (make sure the filter is clean). • When smoke is outside, or pollution is heavy, be sure to drink plenty of fluids (non-alcoholic) to keep your respiratory tract moist. • Avoid high levels of smog and pollution. These are typically highest during the midday and afternoon. If you're in a high-risk group, don't go outside when ozone levels are high. • Exercise when the air is cleaner. When you exercise (or work strenuously), you draw air more deeply into your lungs, and therefore risk more damage from air pollution. To protect yourself and get the numerous health benefits of exercise, avoid exercising near congested streets and during rush-hour traffic, and definitely if there's a wildfire burning in your area. Recommended Reading BEWARE: Your Fireplace or Wood Burning Stove May Be Harming Your Health in an Unexpected Way Health Threats from Air Pollution Greater for Diabetics Nature 450, 89-92 (1 November 2007) Carbon Balance and Management 2007, 2:10, November 1, 2007 County of San Diego Air Pollution Control District California Air Resources Board Share Email to a Friend Print This
Post 8: Muslim Integration in Europe 1. How do Zemni and Parker explain the “failure of integration” of Muslims in Europe? Why is the way Europeans think about integration and multiculturalism problematic in the discourse surrounding Islam and Muslims in Europe? Explain and give examples. In European Union, Islam and the Challenges of Multiculturalism, authors Sami Zemni and Christopher Parker discuss the “failure of integration” of Muslims in Europe. They explain how there is a “perceived failure of migrants/immigrants of non-European origin to integrate into host societies.” There is an ongoing social construction of an immigrant being a problematic participant in social and political life of Europe, especially Muslim migrants. The historical context of the so-called “failure of integration” of Muslims in Europe is first, the fulfillment of low wage jobs in European countries in the early 1950s to the 1970s when the economy fell and lead many countries to appoint a stop to immigration. The second dramatic movement of immigrants to Europe was due to economic and political upset in home countries during the Cold War, leading to an increase in the migrant population, especially in Western Europe. The “failure” refers to the notion that immigrants failed to “adopt styles and practices of daily life” considered normal in European societies. Today, all of these apparent outsiders are Muslims, whereas in the 1970s they were called the “Other.” This shift directly correlates with the view of the Islamist movement across the world political scene. Slowly, migrants have been “de-linked” from there nationality and linked to a cultural matrix, remaining a stranger to what is still seen as “normal” European society. The way Europeans think about integration and multiculturalism is problematic in the discourse surrounding Islam and Muslims in Europe because of the embedded suspicion associated with the group. There is a thought that “the migrant, as determined by his or her culture of origin, is incapable of meeting and respecting the demands and responsibilities of citizenship in the “secular” European state.” This lends to problems for both the Muslims themselves, and the way the policymakers in Europe interact with one another. For example, Muslim immigrants may be less inclined to participate in society because of the way they may come across as less-educated, or incapable of seeing eye-to-eye with others in a community because of their religion. 2. How is the Islamic gender system different from that of the French? Why does the Islamic headscarf pose a challenge to the French republic’s ideal of “abstract individualism” and “laïcité”? What are your own thoughts on this debate and controversy? The Islamic gender system is different from that of the French system, especially in terms of women. In Joan Wallach Scott’s book, “Politics of the Veil,” she discusses the differences in the two systems. While in both systems, men are viewed as secondary to men, in the Islamic system, women downplay their sexuality, whereas French women celebrate it. The headscarf is a symbol of modesty, privacy and morality. In a poor and ethnically mixed middle school in France, three girls were expelled for failure to remove their headscarves. The principal claimed to be enforcing “laïcité,” the French version of secularism in which religion is meant to be kept private. The headscarf posed a problem to this ideal of “laïcité” because religion was not being kept private. Disallowing the headscarf to be worn in school also took away the values of Islamic culture like modesty and morality discussed previously. One argument was that “laïcité” meant respect for and tolerance of differences of religious expression among students. Another side saw the discussion of the hijab as a chance for Muslims to start a revolution. Many saw the focus of secularism teachings in school as a direct aim at the Muslim community. Abstract individualism occurs when people are stripped of traits that represent their culture or religion. Thus, the hijab directly reflects the wearer’s’ religion and culture and goes against the French ideal of keeping the traits private. My view on the debate is that people should be allowed to demonstrate their culture and values in private and public. Not allowing girls to wear headscarves in school seems wrong because it’s stripping them of their identity. At the same time, French and Islamic cultures are very different than my own, so seeing both sides of the argument is important in order to be part of the discussion. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
When we think of fall prevention for seniors, most of the time people either suggest doing strength training or doing balance exercises. While those suggestions are both critical in helping seniors prevent tripping and falling, they miss one main area. While the area that most people miss is related to strength, it is more characteristically attached to the way we walk. Walking when you look at it in its slowest form is a balance exercise. The better you walk, the more likely it will prevent tripping. To improve the function of your walking, I suggest 3 steps. 1. Strengthen the Front – the tibialis anterior or also known as your shin muscles, are responsible for getting us to lift our foot up or “dorsi flex.” This movement is important because it prevents us from shuffling. When we have weak tibialis anterior muscles, we shuffle and are more likely to catch our toe and fall because of lack of the range of motion in the ankle. To strengthen the Tibialis Anterior, I would suggest exercises like toe raises, “penguin walks” or just balancing while standing on your heels. 2. Stretch the Back- Most of us either through a lot of walking or maybe even wearing high heels, have very tight calf muscles. The calf muscles also help contribute to a good range of motion in your ankle when walking. To stretch the calves, I would suggest either putting your foot against the wall or leaning forward to feel a good stretch. 3. Lengthen Your gait- Your Gait is your stride when you walk. Normally, individuals that have a short gait likewise tend to shuffle. The best way to lengthen your gait would be to practice taking bigger steps within a predetermined distance. For example, if it usually takes you 20 steps to walk 10 metres, try to take 19 steps. By practicing longer strides lengthen; it encourages you to be comfortable with a longer stride. Share This
Sociology & Psychology Double Major Dec 26, 2017 Individuals interested in learning about human behavior, social structures and how social structures can influence behavior may be particularly interested in a double major in sociology and psychology. View popular schools Overview of a Double Major in Sociology and Psychology Psychology focuses on human behavior and its underlying causes. Sociology looks at how people are grouped together and how those social groups interact. Studying both fields simultaneously can provide students with a unique and in-depth appreciation for how people learn, why they behave the way they do and how to influence their behavior. The double major requires the same number of credits as a normal bachelor's degree but blends coursework from both fields. Many careers in sociology and psychology require graduate studies, but bachelor's degree holders with a double major in psychology and sociology may be ideal candidates for careers in social services, education or sales. Graduates will have an appreciation for what causes people to identify with specific social groups and what prompts them to make specific behavioral choices. They can apply this knowledge to counseling, working with juvenile delinquents and even developing marketing strategies to sell products to specific groups of people. Admission Requirements for a Double Major in Sociology and Psychology When students are applying to postsecondary institutions, their high school transcripts and test scores, such as SATs or ACT scores, are required. Some schools have specific requirements for high school courses that must be completed, such as four years of English courses and four years of mathematics courses. Set numbers of courses in social sciences, foreign languages and science may also be required. Some schools may also require applicants to submit reference letters or essays. Once a student is admitted, they must maintain accepted academic standing during their freshman year and complete any required first-year courses needed to be eligible to pursue the majors they are interested in. Students typically choose their majors in their second year; those who pursue a double major may need to get permission from the staff who oversee those programs. Find schools that offer these popular programs • Behavioral Sciences, General • Biopsychology • Clinical Psychology, General • Cognitive Psychology and Psycholinguistics • Cognitive Science • Community Psychology • Comparitive Psychology • Counseling Psychology, General • Environmental Psychology • Experimental Psychology • Family Psychology • Forensic Psychology, General • Industrial and Organizational Psychology • Medical Psychology • Personality Psychology • Physiological Psychology • Psychology, General • Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology • Social Psychology Double Major in Sociology and Psychology Program Coursework When a student is pursuing a double major, they need to pay close attention to the core requirements for both majors to ensure that they take the right courses. All psychology and sociology majors are typically required to take introductory courses in their field. Since sociology focuses on social groups, students may also be particularly interested in psychology courses that deal with group classifications such as race or culture. Introduction to Sociology What is sociology? What is the relationship between culture and society? How is a social structure created? Students will learn the answers to these key questions and more in an introductory sociology course. This course will provide students with a foundation in the theories of sociology essential for advanced studies in this subject. Social Research Methodology Sociologists are often involved in research work. A course in social research methodology can provide students with an understanding of how to conduct effective research. They will learn how to effectively gather relevant information. They'll also learn how to use computers to process research data. Introduction to Psychology Students will learn about the governing principles of psychology. They will explore psychological theories. They will also learn about different factors that affect human behavior, including biology, perception, and personality. Students will also be introduced to abnormal behavior. Psychology and Learning How do people learn? Are behaviors taught or inherited? A course in psychology and learning will introduce students to theories about how people learn, as well as ways to eliminate or encourage behaviors. Studies specifically include reinforcement as well as extinction strategies. The course also covers different types of learning. Psychology and Culture Psychologists perform data analysis in their work, and a course in psychology and culture prepares students to process data while considering cultural factors. Students will learn to look at how culture impacts their research in key psychology research fields. How culture shapes a person's relationship with society and how it affects their development are some of the areas that students will explore. This type of course can be beneficial to students who are considering working in public policy because they will understand the implications of culture when developing effective policies. Why do people commit crimes? Students will explore the theories that try to explain why people become criminals. This course will also explore the relationship between law enforcement and criminals. As part of the course students will also look at the victims of crime and how the criminal justice system works. How to Choose a Bachelor's Degree Program in Sociology and Psychology Some institutions actively promote the option of pursuing a double major in psychology and sociology. Students may favor those schools because they may be more receptive to the choice to pursue the double major and may offer some program variations to prevent overlap in core course requirements. There are many institutions throughout the country that offer the opportunity to major in both psychology and sociology, so students want to consider location and cost. Students should also investigate the difference between a double major and a dual degree; a double major confers a single degree in two fields, while a dual degree confers two different degrees. Some schools offer both, and dual degrees usually take longer to complete. Most positions in the field require an advanced degree. Not all institutions offer graduate studies, and students who are considering pursuing a master's degree may want to pursue studies at a school that offers master's degree programs in these subjects. Career Options with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology and Psychology A bachelor's degree with a double major in psychology and sociology opens career options in counseling and social service work. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a median annual income of $64,680 per year for social and community services managers in 2016, while substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors earned $41,070 the same year. The BLS forecasts a 20% increase in positions for substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors from 2016 to 2026, while social and community service managers should see a 16% job growth rate during the same ten-year period. Other potential career paths can be explored below, though some require graduate education: Next: View Schools What is your highest level of education? Some College High School Diploma Explore schools that offer bachelor and associate degrees. Still in High School Earn your diploma of GED. Plan your undergraduate education. Schools you may like: Popular Schools Find your perfect school What is your highest level of education?
Fortunes and misfortunes of war War and Underdevelopment. Volume One - War and Underdevelopment. Volume Two January 25, 2002 Some 17.5 million people are estimated to have died from war-related causes between 1960 and 1995. War and Underdevelopment examines the nature and impacts of some of these wars, focusing on the economic and social effects of civil wars. The authors define war as systematic and sustained violence for political purposes and put forward a set of hypotheses about the economic impacts of civil wars. The book starts from the hypotheses that civil wars lead to reductions in gross domestic product and many of its core components - exports and imports, savings and investment, tax revenue and non-military government expenditure - and to a worsening of human welfare indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy and educational attainment. Market transactions and production of tradables decline. Foreign debt increases. Production of non-tradables and, in particular, subsistence production increase. Even while many suffer, some groups gain. Throughout the two volumes, there is a sustained effort to describe the scale of the decline in basic human welfare and to identify the beneficiaries of civil wars. The latter are important in explaining why some civil wars continue for so long. The material in the country studies (of Afghanistan, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda), as well as in the first volume's chapters, highlights what are the diverse economic and social impacts of civil war - a diversity that does not always sustain the book's starting hypotheses. The proportion of the population directly affected through death, displacement or destruction of home and property ranges from 5 per cent or less in Sri Lanka and Nicaragua to more than one-third in Afghanistan and Mozambique. There are also notable variations in GDP performance and in delivery of welfare services to conflict zones. GDP growth was strong in Sri Lanka throughout the civil-war period and in Uganda after 1986. Both experiences suggest that when civil conflict is localised, it does less damage to the national economy. Basic welfare services were maintained within conflict zones in Sri Lanka and, to some extent, Nicaragua. Sri Lanka outperformed other South Asian economies in terms of GDP growth and social indicators. However, the country studies show that the level of basic human welfare in and outside conflict zones depends on actions taken by a range of actors apart from the state - the combatants, people directly affected by the war, civil society and international aid agencies. Because they received external aid, the 6 million people displaced from Afghanistan to Iran and to refugee camps in Pakistan between 1980 and 1995 experienced better welfare, including education opportunities, than the 2 million to 3 million people who were displaced but remained within the country. But after 1995, the political situation changed and aid to Afghan refugees in Pakistan was cut. Sometimes aid agencies play into the hands of one or other warring side. When food aid was sent to the war destitute in southern Sudan, the agencies worked through and under the control of the northern government. Little aid reached the intended beneficiaries. As David Keen shows, such interventions will not necessarily accelerate the end of war and may strengthen the interest of unintended beneficiaries in perpetuating it. Meanwhile, Mark Chingono, writing on Mozambique, highlights the role of individual initiative in the survival of the displaced. Although the conflict in Mozambique had the expected effect on economic aggregates, Chingono argues that at the micro level the picture is much more complex. Basing his account on the experiences of displaced people in and around the city of Chimoio, he argues that one positive outcome of the conflict has been to encourage small-scale entrepreneurship in production and trade. As some of the country studies graphically illustrate, civil wars can also provide scope for economic gain directly linked to engagement in violence. In the chapter on Sierra Leone, Keen emphasises the economic attraction of enrolling in the military when civil employment opportunities are low: enhanced access to food and basic medical care, plus opportunities for looting. In Sierra Leone, the military on both sides have also recognised the opportunities to profit from controlling mineral-rich regions. In Sudan, opportunities for northerners to benefit from the war with the south include, in addition to discovery of substantial oil reserves in the south, northern profiteering from distress livestock sales and the opportunity to exploit cheap, even slave, labour displaced from the south. Keen argues that where one or both sides of the conflict have a strong economic interest in its perpetuation, it is meaningless to analyse prospects for peace solely in terms of attainment of stated political goals such as replacement of a corrupt regime. The search for long-term solutions must start from a recognition of opportunities for econo-mic gain experienced by influential groups during the conflict. To be effective in securing lasting peace, proposals for conflict resolution must provide alternative opportunities in the peacetime economy, including enhanced education and employment opportunities for young males. The authors of War and Underdevelopment reject the view that civil war creates economic chaos in which policy is ineffective, and, equally, the view that civil war can be treated like any other exogenous shock to the economy. They argue instead that rational economic activity continues during war, including civil war, although the nature of this activity is transformed. It follows that economic policies have a role during as well as after the war, but these are likely to differ from those that are appropriate for stabilisation and structural adjustment in peacetime. For instance, import rationing is more likely to be relevant than import liberalisation. However, the very success of these volumes in highlighting the diversity of civil-war experiences limits the scope for identifying generally valid policy recommendations. As the country studies confirm, economic impacts of civil war vary widely. They depend on the nature of the war itself, the structure of the prewar economy and polity and the pattern of any foreign intervention. These factors influence and constrain the range of viable economic and social policy options during wartime. This study is more successful in identifying the constraints on policy than in generating policy guidelines that are likely to be generally viable. Given that the country studies explore the causes of conflict, it is disappointing that these volumes do not also contain some systematic discussion of appropriate policies for conflict prevention. There are countries, such as Malaysia in the 1970s, where the preconditions for conflict have been present but the state has contained or reduced underlying tensions. As Ravi Kanbur has suggested, there is an outstanding need for a systematic comparison of these countries with others, including those reviewed in War and Underdevelopment , where such policies have not been attempted or have failed. Diana Hunt is lecturer in economics, School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex. War and Underdevelopment. Volume One: The Economic and Social Consequences of Conflict Editor - Frances Stewart and Valpy Fitzgerald ISBN - 924188 0 and 924189 9 Publisher - Oxford University Press Price - £45.00 and £17.99 Pages - 312 You've reached your article limit. Register to continue • Sign up for the editor's highlights • Receive World University Rankings news first • Get job alerts, shortlist jobs and save job searches • Participate in reader discussions and post comments Have your say Log in or register to post comments
1897 b. Narbonne, March 19 French - Poet - Writer School at Carcassonne where he met and befriended Ferdinand Alquie ->. 1918 May; wounded at Vailly near the Aisne battlelines and paralysed for the rest of his life. Lived largely bedridden, surrounded by his books. His physical incapacity and constant pain (for which he took opium) caused a retreat from the world, but also became the starting point for an extensive body of poetry and writing. 1925 Signed the Declaration of January 27 1925. 1928 Founder of the revue Chantiers with de Francois-Paul Alibert ->, Ferdinand Alquie, Claude-Louis Esteve and Rene Nelli ->. 1936 Published his first work La Tisane de sarments. 1938 Given a Medal -> made by Rene Iche, a tribute from friends. The reverse, an allegory of wisdom within the tortured body, is an illustration from the first page of his Le Mal d'Enfance published the same year. 1941 Traduit du silence. He contributed poetry to the Carcassonne poetic review Cahiers du Sud, and carried on a correspondence with many writers and friends, including Louis Aragon, Andre Gide, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Paul Valdry? and Simone Weil?. Letters to contemporaries like Gide, Andre Breton, Hans Bellmer and Rene Char. His home in Carcassonne is now a museum -> in his memory along with those of the writer Francois-Paul Alibert and the philosopher Claude Louis Esteve. 1946 Introduced to Nora Mitrani by his friend Hans Bellmer. 1947 Painted by Jean Dubuffet. 1950 Max Ernst published a lithograph for Joe Bousquet and Michel Tapie -> who had both commented on his earlier works. d. Sept 28th. Carcassonne. See wiki (Fr) ->. Posthumously: - 1967 Lettres a Poisson d'Or. 1969? Correspondance. 1973 Mystique. 1980? Papillon de neige. 1989 Le Cahier noir. See Timeline
Maths Core One Core One is the non-calculator exam. But don't panic! Keep breathing! Everything will be fine if you just revise! Indices ... Well, there's no worse place to start, I suppose ... Indices are powers. For example: 4 is 4 to the power of 4. Look at this pretty pattern: 4 = 64 4 = 16 4 = 4 4 = 1 4 = 4 = From this, we can see why anything to the power of 0 is always 1. General Rules 1. Multiplying means adding the powers. E.g. 33 x 33 = 36 (notice the 3 remains the same.) a x a = a(m+n) 2. And so dividing means taking away the powers. E.g. 33 32 = 31. = a(m-n) 3. Raising by a power means multiplying. E.g. (33)3 = 39. (am )n = amn 4. Anything to the power of 1 is just itself. 5. Anything to the power of 0 is 1. Fractional powers These are pretty obviously where you have a number to the power of a fraction. It just means the same as taking a root. The denominator tells us the root and the numerator then tells us to what power it needs to b. For example: a = a a = a a = a a = (a)² or a² 64 = (64)2 = 42 =16 The proof of this is simple too: If we have a x a = a( + ) = a1 = a. To the Top Simplifying Surds Solving Quadratics What are quadratics, you might ask? If you recall GCSE, they're a form of polynomial, the one with the x2 term in them. For example: x2 - 4x + 4 is a quadratic equation. How do we solve them? There are three main methods and all three are cool. Depending on the question, it might be easier to use one over the other. • Factorising • General Formula • Completing the Square Factorising is the simplest. It just means sticking some brackets in. Sketching Curves One of the worst parts of Maths... graphs. shudders Well, let's get it over with. The general quadratic curve is: y = ax² + bx + c • If a is positive, you have a happy graph shape: • If a is negative, you have a sad graph shape: • As usual, c is where the graph crosses the y-axis. • The discriminant tells us how many roots the graph has (how many times it crosses the x-axis.) • If b²-4ac = 0 there is 1 root. • If b²-4ac > 0 there are 2 roots. • If b²-4ac < 0 there are no real roots. • The x-value for line of symmetry is: . • If you have one coordinate, it's pretty obvious you need to sub in for the other. • To find where it crosses x, use general formula, completing the square or factorising. • To find a maximum/minimum point, put it into the completing square form: (x + a)² + b. Example - Sketch the graph y = 15x - 2x² and write down the coordinates of where it crosses x and y, the line of symmetry and the minimum point. First, what do we know? Well, it's a sad graph, because it has a = - 2. We also know it crosses the y-axis at 0 because there's no c. Therefore, we have one point it crosses the x-axis: (0,0). To find the second point, we put y to 0 and solve the quadratic: -2x² + 15x = 0 -x(2x - 15) = 0 => x = 0 or x = 7 The second point it crosses x = (7, 0). The line of symmetry is: x = - 15 -4 = 3 To work out minimum point of y = 15x - 2x², put in completing the square form: (x - 3)² - (3)² = (x - 3)² - 14.0625 => Minimum value is - 14.0625 when x = 3. Sub 3 into y = 15x - 2x² to get y-value of 28. Coordinate (3, 28). Finally, we do a sketch, remembering to include all these: Curves you need to know y = x2 or its reflection y = -x2 y = x3 or its reflection y = -x3 y = or it's reflection y = - The quick hand way of writing y=x-whatever, is to use call it f(x). f(x) just means 'function of x'. This is how we display transformations, using the general graph y=f(x). There are 5 transformations and you must learn them! The red line shows the new position. 1. f(x) + a This moves the graph up if a>0 and down if a<0. For example: f(x) + 3, where y=x3. 2. f(x+a) This moves the graph left if a>1 and right if a>1. For example: f(x+3), where y=x2. 3. af(x) This stretches the graph by scale factor 3 in the y direction. (This means that every y value is x3). For example: 3f(x), where y=x2-1. 4. f(ax) This is a stretch in the x-direction. If a>1, the curve appears to shrink, whereas if 0<a<1, the curve appears to expand. For example: f(x), where y=x2. (in other words, a stretch of scale factor 2). 5. Reflections: -f(x) is a reflection in the y-axis. f(-x) is a reflection in the x-axix. (Pretty obvious why, if you consider the previous two rules.) Back to the Top Simultaneous Equations Series and Sequence A series is something like this: 5, 8, 11, 14, 17... etc. You can obviously see that we're adding +3 each time. But how do you write that in algebra? There are two ways of doing it, and the first is by the nth term. You should be familiar with it from GCSE. nth term = dn + a d is the common difference. In the example above, we had +3. To find out a, look at the 1st term. Times 1 by d. a is the number you need to add to make the first term. In the example above 1 x 3 = 3 + 2 = 5 and therefore a = 2. For the series above, we have the nth term = 3d + 2. Instead of writing "nth term", we use the denotation: un. The same applies for the first term: u1, second term: u2, etc... The difference between terms is called "first difference". This is important with numbers with powers, because you then need the "second difference". To be a series, there has to be an nth term. By knowing the first term, we can work out how to get to the next. Looking at the example above, we can say: un+1 = un + 3 (in other words, the next number is just the number you have add 3). If u1 = 5, we can say: u2 = u1 + 3 => u2 = 5 + 3 = 8 u3 = u2 + 3 => u3 = 8 + 3 = 11 This is called a recurrence relation. An Arithmetic Series produced from a recurrence relation like the one above. It is produced by adding the same number (which could be negative) to each term, to get the next term. un+1 = un + d ('d' stands for difference). In general 1st term: u1 = a 2nd term: u2 = a + d 3rd term: u3 = a + 2d 4th term: u3 = a + 3d nth term: un = a + (n - 1)d a is just the number you start with. n is obviously the number of terms. If you're ever unsure of how to find the common difference, d, just take two consecutive terms and take the first from the second. How is this useful? Well, a question might ask: The 4th term in an Arithmetic Series is 8.1 and the 8th term is 17.3. Find the 100th term. We can look above and see that the 4th term would be: u4: a + 3d = 8.1 While the 8th term would be: u8: a + 7d = 17.3 From here, we can use simultaneous equations to work out a and d. 4d = 9.2 d = 2.3 a + 6.9 = 8.1 (subbing into a + 3d = 8.1) a = 1.3 Now we have a and d it's a simple matter of putting them into the formula to work out the 100th term: u100 = 1.3 + (99 x 2.3) u100 = 228.9 Note: n must be an integer and can't be negative. Pretty obvious why if you think about it! Arithmetic Progression This is where you add up all the numbers in an arithmetic series. While there's a formula, you need to learn the proof (they once asked poor AS students to write it in the exam!) The notation for sum of n terms is Sn. So we can say: Sn = u1 + u2 + u3 + .... un-1 + un A quick way of adding them all up is to put them all in order, and then below, put them in the reverse order: 1. Sn = u1 + u2 + u3 + .... un-1 + un 2. Sn = un + un-1 + .... u3 + u2 + u1 Each little group is equal to the first term add the last term. (a + l). There are n of these. Add them all together and you 2Sn. 2Sn = n(a + l) Sn = (a + l) Now that's fine, but what if you don't know what the last term is? Well, we know from earlier what un is: un = a + (n - 1)d If we sub this into the Sn equation for l we get: Sn = (2a + [n - 1]d) This is the formula usually used to work out the sum of an arithmetic series. For example: Σ 3r + 2 The Σ symbol is just another way of writing 'sum of'. r tells us where in the series we're adding numbers from, in this case from 1, the first term. The number above the Stigma (Σ) tells us that there are 30 terms. From this, we can write out a few terms to make things easier: r=1, r=2, r=3 5 + 8 + 11 + ..... Now we can see that a=5, d=3, n=30. Put these into the formula: Sn = (2a + [n - 1]d) S30 = 15(10 + 29x3) S30 = 15 x 97 S30 = 1455 A trickier example might involve inequalities: What n first exceeds 1000 in: Σ 5r + 3 The series is: r=1, r=2, r=3 8 + 13 + 18 + ..... We know: a=8 and d=5. Translated into maths, the question is looking for Sn > 1000. Sn = (2a + [n - 1]d) 1000 > 2(16 + [n - 1]5) 2000 > n(16 + 5n - 5) 2000 > 16n + 5n2 - 5n 2000 > 5n2 + 11n 5n2 + 11n - 2000 > 0 Solve as you know from inequalities using general formula: 5n2 + 11n - 2000 = 0 -11 40,121 n = -21.13 or 18.93022716 Draw a sketch of the graph and interpret when n>0: From this, we can see that n < -21.13, n > 18.93. n can't be negative, and so n > 18.93. It must be a whole number, so n = 19. Back to the Top Back to the Top
lesson Why Music Matters: Howard Gardner is a Professor of Cognition and Education, he has developed a well-known theory (The Theory of Multi Intelligences) claiming that a child has multiple intelligences and learns most effectively if their preferred intelligence is being challenged. One of the intelligences is called the Musical Intelligence. Some children simply see the world through a “Musical Intelligence filter “ and Gardner claims, that if a child is strengthened in his or her preferred intelligence, they will progress in all other cognitive areas as well. In other words: If your child is developing his or her musical skill by singing or playing an instrument, they are also improving their ability to read, write, and do math at the same time! How wonderful! Find more information at: It is my goal to develop every student’s voice to the best of their ability and to help each singer understand basic parts of music such as pitch, tone, rhythm and harmony. Finally, I strive to instill confidence in each student through personal growth so that each individual will go on singing and further their love of music for many years to come.
Thursday, February 15, 2007 Maps of Mars As a souvenir for myself when travelling, I used to collect topographical maps of the of the places that I had visited. In the era before, this offered a great opportunity to continue the trip after coming back home. TAGS: , , Garrett said... If you want to fly around Mars, Earth, Moon, Jupiter, this program is pretty cool: Sadly, I think it only works under windows. :( Bee said... nice post :-) I think men should try to explore Venus... Rae Ann said... I guess these maps completely kill that "face on Mars" thing from several years ago. ;-) And I agree with Bee... Arun said... At least, the future astronauts exploring Mars won't get lost! Since presumably astronauts will precede a GPS system for Mars, how will they do this? Will some instrument take a measurement of local features and then correlate with the map? A human could do it if they roughly knew which area of the map to look at, but they'd also need to orient themselves. Mars has too weak a magnetic field to use a compass, I suppose? Also, there is a philosophical issue on what constitutes being lost? Is it with relation to base camp? Or is it with relation to a pickup vehicle (that might just home on where the astronauts currently are, and so they're never lost)? Just being pedantic :D stefan said... Hi Garrett, thank you for the link! The ESA Mars Express site has, beside a great conventional collection of photos, a fancy Mars Express image browser where images a marked by small flags on a rotating planet. stefan said... Dear Bee, Rae-Ann, yeah, but Venus is much more difficult ;-) At least, the planet has those thick clouds that completly obscure the view of the surface. There was a mission to Venus in the early 1990s, Magellan, which produced maps of Venus from radar data. Here is a collection of images from Magellan - also a time trip back to the beginnings of the www ;-). And there is some kind of interactive atlas. And, I just realized that ESA has currently a space probe in orbit around Venus, called Venus Express. But if I understand that correctly, the instruments onboard cannot see down onto the surface in detail. Some photos of the Venusian clouds are here ;-) stefan said... Dear Rae-Ann, yes, the famous face eventually has turned out to be a not so very special hill in a region called Cydonia - see for example from the ESA website: 'Face on Mars' in Cydonia region. The FU Berlin group has a recent news item about the face, where you can find more details BTW, their HRSC Press Release Archive has much more photos from Mars. stefan said... Hi Arun, good point with the missing magnetic field. Is the atmosphere on Mars thin enough so that one can see bright stars in plain daylight? But I think that before astronauts set foot on Mars, there will be much more space probes in orbit, so perhaps they can install some kind of GPS system before? there is a philosophical issue on what constitutes being lost? Now, that's a deep question indeed ;-) Maybe astronauts on Mars are lost anyway? What I had in mind, I thought they need some kind of base camp, with stationary facilities for life maintainence systems, recycling of water, air, energy supply, etc...? They better would find their way back to this base... amaragraps said... No Martian astronomy is possible in broad daylight, but some interesting astronomy has been performed from the surface of Mars at night with the Rover Spirit. Rae Ann said... stefan, thanks for all those great links to images!
30 April 2016 Iroquoian Peoples of Eastern North America To their Algonquin-speaking neighbors in the north, they were known as ‘Mengwe’; to those in the south the name was ‘Mangoak’. By this, they referred in groups of people sharing similar, though not identical languages, and a number of cultural traits. The Dutch version of the name was ‘Minqua’, which the English further corrupted into ‘Mingo’. According to many authorities, the original word means “without penises” (as in "dickless"). Who said Indians have no sense of humor. Cultural generalities Among the more admirable traits of the Iroquoian-speaking peoples is the high status accorded to women among them, a few of the tribes and confederacies being “ruled”, as much as that can be said about the governance of any groups outside the Mississippian cultures (such as the Natchez and the Wateree which survived into the colonial era). Sometimes war parties included women as well as men, and if attacked, Iroquoian women could fight as well as the men. Less admirable was their avidity for the consumption of human flesh. That fact comes not from wild rumors or vicious slander but from eyewitness accounts, particularly of the French, who indeed did not want to defame those about whom they were reporting at all, for often the reporters were Jesuit missionaries who wanted to convert them. One notable account comes from Abbe Gallinee, associate of Robert La Salle; in his journey down the Ohio River, his Seneca guides and bodyguards brought with them a prisoner from the north just for that purpose. The dominant feature of the towns of the western and eastern Iroquoians, and possibly the middle Iroquoians also, was the longhouse, some as long as an American football field and housing up to sixty persons, all of the same clan. The southern Iroquoians and later composite groups followed the pattern of their surrounding neighbors. Clans were matrilineal and exogamous, and children belonged to that of their mother. Besides hunting and fishing, they engaged in agriculture of the “three sisters” (maize, beans, squash) and gathered wild edible plants as well. Religiously, there were no all powerful deities, just powerful spirits, but there was a force behind all life. The Huron called this force the “Orenda”, but they made no sacrifices no offered prayers to it. At least among the western Iroquoians, that part of the Orenda in each individual being was called its “otkon”; among the eastern Iroquoians the connotation was more of “evil spirit”. All the Iroquoians practiced sky burial. The western Iroquoians would hold a Feast of the Dead every ten to twelve years, the same time they were moving their town to a new location, burying the bones in the old grounds. About this essay What follows is a list of the known tribes and confederacies, which far exceeds in number those most usually known, with a brief description, note of their subgroups, their fate, participation in the colonial wars of the 1700s, and their descendants. In these passages, the word “Iroquois” refers specifically to the League of Five Nations, those most commonly referred to as Iroquois. The word ‘Iroquoian’ in singular or plural refers to all Iroquoian-speakers in general or to those on groups not members of the League. For example, the “western Iroquoians” are the Huron, Erie, Chonnonton, Petun, etc., while the “western Iroquois” are the Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga; the “eastern Iroquoians” are the same group as “the Iroquois”. The divisions are ones that seemed to me most convenient to divide them into biteable size chunks and generally follows standard arrangements, except for the inclusion of the “composite groups” division. When Jacques Cartier made trips to Canada attempting to establish a permanent colony, he found several tribes dwelling there in fortified villages, most of them hostile to each other. The people of these towns, or villages, spoke similar languages from the Iroquoian family. In addition to the French, fishermen from Europe—Basques, Portugese, Bretons—plied the fish-rich waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Labrador Sea, and also came into contact with these natives. Nomenclature: Historians and archaeologists call them the Laurentians or St. Lawrence Iroquois because they lived along that river. The Basque fishermen called them the ‘Canales’; their neighbors the Micmac called them the ‘Kwedech’. Territory: Various towns along the St. Lawrence River. Towns and/or constituent tribes: In ascending order, the towns, all on the right bank (north shore), included: Ajoaste, Starnatam, Tailla, Sitadin, Stadacona, Tequedonay, Achelacy, and Hochelaga. The towns/tribes which were the most bitter rivals among the Canales or Kwedech were Stadacona (where Champlain built Quebec) and Hochelaga (on Ile de Montreal). Fate: Basque fishermen who visited the area in 1570 reported that all the tribes were engaged in war with powerful enemies to the south (the Five Nations Iroquois). Other Basque fishermen visiting in 1580 reported all the towns were deserted. What became of them is one of the great mysteries of Canadian prehistory and archaeology. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. Spelled ‘Atiouandaron’ on the Boudon map of “Nouvelle France” of 1641, a mistaken reading of accounts of the 1640 journey of the Jesuit Fathers Jean de Breboeuf and Pierre Chaumonot might lead one to believe those passages referred to those people rather than the Wenro. A list of tribes in the Jesuit Relation for 1640 calls this particular group the ‘Attiouendarankhronon’. Nomenclature: Usually spelled ‘Atiouandaron’ or some variation thereof on French maps, this term is not an ethnonym but a Huron word meaning “their speech is awry’, or, to put it more colloquially, ‘those funny-talking people’. The corresponding word of the Five Nations Iroquois is ‘Hatiwantarunh’. The people most often called Attiwandaron in French records are the Chonnonton, also known as the Neutral Nation. Another group also so designated appear west of the Appalachian Mountains across from Virginia. These latter were almost certainly those known to the Algonquin-speaking natives east of the mountains as the ‘Massawomeck’. By the way, the Huron designation for those speaking a completely different language, such as the Algonquin-speaking Ottawa, for example, was ‘Akwanake’, which is one of the names the Huron-descended Wyandot gave to the Cherokee in the next century. Territory: In southern Lower Michigan, south of the Winnebago and west of the Fox, perhaps as far as the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. Towns and/or constituent tribes: None known. Fate: They may have been the group of Petun who invaded Lower Michigan looking for more sources of beaver for trade with the French in 1630. If so, or even if not, they likely joined with the refugee Huron, Petun, and Chonnonton who became the Wyandot later in the century. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: None known, unless they did in fact join the Wyandot. Nomenclature: Their autonym was ‘Wendat’, and other native peoples called them the ‘Tionontati’ and the ‘Dinondadies’. To the French they were the ‘Petun’, or the ‘Hurons de la Nation du Petun’, ‘petun’ being French for ‘tobacco’, for which one of the English names for them was ‘Tobacco Indians’. The Mohawk called them ‘Tionontatecaga’. Territory: Southwest of Georgian Bay, northeast of the Ottawa, north of the Chonnonton, and west of the Huron. Towns and/or constituent tribes: Two tribes are known, the Oskennonton and the Annaariskwa, who lived in nine towns, the capital of which was Etarita or Ekarenniondi. Fate: In revenge for their taking in Huron refugees following the collapse of that confederacy, the Iroquois targeted the Petun, destroying Eharita in the winter of 1649. Afterwards, many of the Petun fled south to the Chonnonton while the rest, along with the Huron refugees among them, retreated to their two northernmost towns. The next year, these latter went with their Ottawa allies to Mackinac Island. By mid-1653, the combined refugees had merged with refugee Chononton to become the Wyandot in the Green Bay area. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Besides those adopted by the Iroquois and possibly any who may have gone south to become part of the Cherokee, Petun descendants survive among the Wyandot, among whose own descendants their bloodlines remain. The Seneca called them the ‘Sastharhetsi’ while the Mohawk called them the ‘Quatoghi’, the latter of which was adopted by the English and later by the Americans, for whom it was the preferred term for the Huron and Wyandot throughout the nineteenth century. The Lenape referred to the Huron as the ‘Talamatan’, which some writers have interpreted as ‘people who dwell in caves’. Algonquian speakers in general referred to them as the ‘Little Minqua’, the modifier ‘Little’ distinguishing them from other Iroquoian-speakers, specifically the Five Nations. Some French writers, mostly the Jesuits writing reports for those across the water, muck things up even further by referring to all non-League Iroquoian groups as Huron, at least the ones in the vicinity of New France, especially in writings. ‘Hurons les bons Iroquois’ refers to those in the Huron confederacy; ‘Hurons de la Nation du Petun’ refers to the Petun; and ‘Hurons de la Nation Neutre’ refers to the Chonnonton confederacy. The Mohawk call the Huron of Wendake the ‘Radinyagwenghtha’. Territory: At the time of the French entrée, the Huron occupied the high ground between Lake Smile and Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, east of the Petun, north of the Chonnonton, and east of the Chondake. Archaeology has clearly demonstrated, however, that they originated as a people on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. One of the major excavations has been the tremendous Mantle Site, occupied 1500-1530, the largest and most cosmopolitan ever found in the Great Lakes region, with some fifty-five longhouses occupied at one time and trade with all Five Nations of the later Iroquois League and with the Laurentians. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The Huron had some twenty towns, of which the chief of the confederacy was Ossossane, at the site of modern Perkinsfield, Ontario. The confederacy began as the alliance of two tribes in the home region, the Attignawantan (‘Bear People’) and the Attiguenongha (‘Cord People’), probably in the mid-fifteenth century. The Arendahronon (‘Rock People’) joined around 1590, and the the Atahontaenrat (‘Deer People’) about 1610; both tribes likely driven out of the St. Lawrence Valley by the Iroquois. In 1644, during the Beaver Wars, the confederacy formed a new tribe, the Ataronchronon (‘People of the Bog’) out of refugees from defeated groups, primarily Christians from the Weskarini Algonkin, Algonquian-speaking Atonontrataronon (‘Cord People’), and a portion of the Wenro. Fate: The Iroquois began frequently raiding their long-term enemies the Huron in 1642, and continued until they were dispersed or assimilated. When the Huron formed an alliance with the Susquehannock in 1647, the western Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga) attacked them in force, destroying the chief town of the Atahontaenrat and dispersing the Arendaronon, some of whom fled to other Huron while others were assimilated. In 1648, the Iroquois destroyed the town of Teananstayae and dispersed the Attignawantan Huron who took refuge with the Petun and the Chonnonton. When the Iroquois destroyed two mission towns in 1649, the Huron burned the remaining fifteen and scattered, the Atahontaenrat to the Chonnonton and the Ataronchronon to Christian Island in Georgian Bay. Those of the last group who survived the brutal winter moved to Lorette the next year north of Quebec, and remain as the Huron of Wendake. Those who sought refuge among the Petun ended up merging with them to become the Wyandot. When the Chonnonton confederacy collapsed in 1651, the Atahontaenrat surrendered to the Seneca, who adopted them and gave them their own town, Gandougarae. The Arendahronon and the portion of Attignawantan refugees among the Chonnonton removed to the Ile d’Orleans, where they lived until surrendering in 1657, with the Onondaga adopting the former and the Mohawk adopting the latter. Colonial wars of the 1700s: The Huron at Wendake, the only remaining population still identifying as Huron, sided with New France in all its wars against the British until 1763, when their allegiance switched to Great Britain following its victory in the French and Indian War. During that war, the Huron became one of the Seven Nations of Canada supporting the French then the British, all the way through the American Revolution and the War of 1812. They were also part of the Western Confederacy during the Northwest Indian War as one of the Seven Nations. The Wyandot are covered below. Descendants: The Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake, Ontario, are the only remaining group with an individual Huron identity. Their descendants also made up a good portion of the Wyandot. Others became part of the Cherokee or were adopted by various tribes of the Iroquois; many of these latter became part of the non-Six Nations Iroquois who became the Mingo in the eighteenth century. These are similar to the first group of western Iroquoians listed, a small group known only by a few mentions and one or two placements on maps. Nomenclature: No autonym known, but listed in various sources and media as Chonkande, Konkhandeenhronon, and Chonchradeen. Territory: It appears from the 1641 Nouvelle France map that they occupied the territory north of Lake Ontario and east of the Huron. Towns and/or constituent tribes: None known. Fate: Outside of their appearance on maps and a couple of entries in the Jesuit Relations that merely note their existence, nothing is known of them. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. The Chonnonton confederacy was similar in some respects to the Powhatan confederacy to the south, and like the latter had been formed by its current paramount chief at the time of first contact, in this case, Tsouharissen (‘Child of the Sun’), in the 1620’s. It was the largest and most politically complex grouping in the Great Lakes region. Upon Champlain’s arrival, they numbered 40,000. By 1640, they were one-third of that. Nomenclature: Their autonym was ‘Chonnonton’ (‘people of the deer’), but the French knew them best as the Neutral Nation, not because they never went to war (they did, particularly against the Algonquians of Lower Michigan), but because they did not take sides between the Huron confederacy and the Five Nations Iroquois. Canadian historians almost universally use this name, while Americans call them the Neutrals or the Attiwandaron. Territory: They occupied the northern shores of Lake Erie west of the Niagara River north to the territories of the Huron and the Petun and west to that of the Ottawa. After the Seneca drove away the Wenro, the Onguiaahra tribe of the confederacy occupied four villages in the Niagara Frontier also. Towns and/or constituent tribes: This confederacy made up of an average (membership was somewhat fluid) of ten separate tribes had evolved more than even the League of Five Nations, into a proto-chiefdom living in about forty towns and villages, twelve of them fortified towns and twenty-eight unfortified villages at the time the Jesuits visited them. The seat of the proto-chiefdom was at Andachkhroh, also called Ounontisaston after the dominant tribe. Other tribes in the confederacy whose names we know were the Kandoucho, the Teotondiaton, the Antouaronon, the Attiragenrenga, the Onguiaahra, the Aondihronon, the Oherokouaehronon ‘(people of the grass country’), and the remnant Wenro, who lived in the town of Khioetoa after they relocated west of the Niagara River in 1643. Fate: When Tsouharissen died without a successor in 1646, the Chonnonton proto-chiefdom collapsed, and the confederacy began to unravel. The Iroquois destroyed the chief town of the Aondirronon in 1647, and the Chonnonton’s alliance with the Erie collapsed the next year. After the Huron confederacy dissolved in 1649, half the Attignawantan and the Atahontaenrat sought refuge among them, and at the end of the year, a good portion of the Petun. Their town of Teotondiaton was destroyed in fall 1650, and their towns of Kandoucho and Andachkhroh, after which the Chonnonton were assimilated or dispersed. While many fled to the Erie, a large portion remained independent to continue the fight, and the Antouaronon moved as a group to the southern shores of Lake Erie west of the Erie, but were eventually destroyed or dispersed. The free Chonnonton allied with the Susquehannock in 1652 to deliver a sizable enough defeat on the Seneca for them to send their women, children, and elders to the Cayuga. These wintered at Skenchioe (Thumb of Michigan) near Teochanontian (Detroit), attempting to form a league with the Upper Algonquin. The next year they migrated to Aotonatendie (Door Peninsula on Green Bay) and probably merged with the Wyandot who settled on Rock Island. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Their bloodlines survive in the Wyandot, in most of the Six Nations, especially the original Five, and among the descendants of the Mingo. Though small, these people carried out trade with both the English and the Dutch through the Massawomeck and the Susquehannock respectively. The Wenro are most notable for their use of petroleum-tainted water for medicinal purposes when first encountered by a European. Nomenclature: The name by which they are known, variously written as ‘Aouenrehronon’, ‘Ahouenrochrhonon’, and ‘Awenrehronon’, is probably an exonym. Territory: When first encountered by Jesuit Father Joseph de la Roche Daillon in 1627, they were centered around Oil Springs. Later, they occupied the Niagara Frontier. Towns and/or constituent tribes: When living on the Niagara Frontier, they occupied four villages between the river and Lake Ontario. How many they had in the Oil Springs region is unknown, and they are believed to have been a single tribe. Fate: In 1635, they moved northwest from Oil Springs to the Niagara Frontier to escape the Seneca who lived not far across the Genesee River, after being admitted as a member of the Chonnonton confederacy. Three or four years later, they were attacked there as well, and a majority sought refuge with the Huron or the Chonnonton. A belligerent contingent kept fighting until 1643, when they joined their cousins among the Chonnonton. Afterwards, they shared the fates of their various hosts. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Most of the remaining identifiable Wenro joined the exodus to the west in company with the Petun remnant and the Huron refugees who did not surrender, the group that became the nucleus of the Wyandot, among whose descendants the Wenro bloodlines survive. This group may actually have been the largest of all. One tribe of this confederacy alone was said to have had nineteen settlements before the Iroquois destroyed them all. While probably not approaching the sophistication of a chiefdom, they may have been a large confederacy of smaller confederacies. They traded with the Dutch, probably through the Susquehannock, and with the English, both directly and through the Massawomeck, who may have been tributary. That they were the last confederacy of Iroquoian speakers in the west that the Iroquois took on lends credence to allusions by the Jesuits to their numbers and ferocity. Their chief leaders were women, and they are noted for their use of poison-tipped arrows. Nomenclature: Their autonym is not known, but since Huron did not call them ‘Attiwandaron’ as they did the nearby Chonnonton and the Massawomeck beyond them to the southeast, they likely spoke a nearly identical language and may have called themselves ‘Wendat’. The Huron called them ‘Yenresh’ (more properly ‘Yenreshronon’), which the French corrupted into ‘Erie’ or ‘Enrie’, as well as Enrielhonan, Rhiierrhonnon, and Eriehronon. However, the French most often called them ‘Nation du Chat’, a more or less exact translation of the Huron name, and some variation of the word ‘Riqueronon’, after their chief town ‘Rique’, or Arriga, though properly speaking that designation should have been reserved for the tribe which hosted it. The Seneca called them ‘Gwageoneh’, the Mohawk called them ‘Arrigahaga’, the Onondaga called them ‘Onnontioga’, and the Tuscarora called them ‘Kenyrak’, and all of the Iroquois gave them the pejorative nickname, ‘Otkons’ (‘bad spirits’ or ‘demons’). The Lenape called them ‘Allegewi’, the Ottawa called them ‘Olighin’, and the Dutch called them the ‘Black Minqua’. Territory: At the time of the French entrée, their territory extended south from the shores of Lake Erie to the lands of the Shawnee in the Ohio Valley, southeast to the lands of the Massawomeck, and west from the lands of the Wenro (when the latter were at Oil Springs) to the Cuyahoga River. After the Wenro moved northwest while at the same time the Kickapoo harried them from the west, the Erie shifted east, and their territory extended to the Genesee River. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The Erie confederacy was composed of four or five tribes, the Atrakwaeronon, the Arrigahaga, the Kentaientonga, the Oniansontke, and, possibly, the Takoulguehronnon. In addition, the Antouaronon may have formed part of the confederacy after relocating south of Lake Erie and west of the Kentaientonga upon the disintegration of the Chonnonton. Only three town names are known for sure: Atrakwae, Arrigha (‘Rigue’), and Kentaienton, and these were all large fortified towns. But they were not the only settlements, with the Kentaientonga alone reportedly having at least nineteen towns and/or villages. Fate: The Seneca attacked the Atrakwaeronon in late 1651 and were seriously defeated, but came back with the rest of the western Iroquois in summer 1652, capturing Atrakwae and ending the Atrakwaeronon as a tribe. After sealing an alliance with the Susquehannock, the Erie as a whole, at the time governed by a woman, launched a war agains the Seneca in 1653. In 1654, the Iroquois destroy Arriga, but the counterattack by the Erie drove the Seneca into the lands of the Onondaga. The next year the whole Iroquois League petitioned the French for a military alliance because the war was going so badly, but they later managed to destroy Kentaienton all on their own. By the end of 1656, most of the major fighting had ended. After Arriga was destroyed in 1654, most of the surviving Arrigahaga/Rigueronon/Herekeenes removed southwest to the head of the Falls of Virginia, where the locals called them the ‘Rechahecrians’. Along with some surviving Huron and members of the Shawnee and Powhatan and other peoples, these moved further south and southwest to become the Cherokee, and probably absorbed more refugees from the north as well. In 1662, a large group of the Oniansontke (800 warriors plus women, children, elders) settled across the river from the Susquehannock to aid them in the war with the Iroquois. The Iroquois reported the “final defeat” of the Erie to the French in 1664, but there were still independent Oniansontke on the middle Ohio River in 1669, and a large group (600) of Erie, the last reported as such, surrendered to the Seneca near Virginia in 1682. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Besides the Cherokee, those who were adopted by the various nations of the Iroquois League made up a large portion, perhaps even a majority, of the conglomerate people known as the Mingo, and so survive among their descendants as well. This branch of Iroquoian-speaking peoples is made entirely of the Five, later Six, Nations of the League of the Iroquois. Late nineteenth through twentieth century legend held that the Iroquois League has existed for six hundred to a thousand years, but in truth the league was not wholly formed even in the seventeeth century. Throughout at least the early decades of that century, the western Iroquois and the eastern Iroquois operated as two separate but closely allied groups; Champlain referred to the western group (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga) as “Entouhronon” and the eastern group (Mohawk, Oneida) as “Iroquois” proper. The Great Law, which established the League in its current form, most likely dates to no earlier than the early mid-seventeenth century. Besides seeking more sources of beaver to trap for trade with European powers, one of the major motivating factors for the League’s conquest of other Iroquoian-speaking peoples was to bring them all under “one roof”, a crusade carried out with a missionary zeal reminiscent of that of the Arab tribes united by Muhammad seeking to bring all of Arabia under the “roof” of Islam. This zeal was intensified by the drastic losses from the smallpox epidemic which swept through the region in 1635, reducing their bumers by 63%. Nomenclature: Though the Nations of the League have their own names for the confederacy, the most common autonym, the official one used in English, is “Haudenosaunee”. The name outsiders most commonly use is “Iroquois”, the French form of an Algonquian-language name. Territory: The territory which the original Five Nations held at the French at the time of Champlain lay between the Genesee River in the west and the Hudson Valley and Green Mountains of Vermont in the east, southward from the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario into what is now northern Pennsylvania. During the Beaver Wars of the seventeenth century, the League expanded this territory to include nearly all of the western Great Lakes regions, even for a time possessing seven towns on the north shores of Lake Ontario, and the Ohio Country, including the lands south to the Cumberland River. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The original Five Nations were, west to east, the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Onondaga, the Oneida, and the Mohawk. The Tuscarora were added in 1722, with the confederacy becoming the League of Six Nations, but on a less-than-equal status. The Mohawk have always been recognized as the “elder brother” of the League. The number of towns each Nation had varied, depending on level of hostilities with surrounding peoples. The people of the Five Nations speak three distinct but mutually intelligble languages, the Mohawk and the Cayuga sharing one and the Seneca and the Onondaga another, while the Oneida, like later member the Tuscarora, having one all to itself. A bit odd, considering the arrangement of their separate geographic locations at the formation of the League. Fate: As the overwhelming victors of the wars of the seventeenth century, the League not only thrived but grew. Despite a number of splits in the eighteenth century, the League held together and eventually its separated parts came back to the central council fire. Colonial wars of the 1700s: The League of Five (later Six) Nations invariably supported the British in their colonial wars against the French until the French and Indian War, when the League split. The League supported the British against the French and the Wabanaki confederacy in King William’s War of 1688-1697. The League fought for the British in Queen Anne’s War of 1702-1713. The Mohawk supported the New England colonies against the Wabankaki confederacy and their native allies in Dummer’s War of 1722-1725. The League again supported the British in King George’s War of 1744-1748. In the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, a majority remained steadfast with the British, but a sizable minority chose to support the French, resulting in their secession and subsequent creation of the Seven Nations of Canada later formed: Mohawk of Akwesasne, Mohawk of Kahnawake, Mohawk and Anishnaabeg (Algonkin and Nippising) of Kanesetake, Onondaga of Oswegatchie, Huron of Wendake, Abenaki of Odanak, and Abenaki of Wolinak. This alliance lasted until after the War of 1812, supporting the British after their victory over New France. The Seneca fought alongside the western tribes against the British in Pontiac’s War of 1763. During the American Revolution, the League itself did not support either side. The Oneida and the Tuscarora adhered to the cause of the American colonies while the Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga supported the British and the Mohawk split between the two. After the war, a majority of the entire League moved north into Canada, though the “central fire”, along with a significant minority, remained in south in the United States. Some Seneca participated in Tecumseh’s War of 1811-1813. Both the League of Six Nations and the Seven Nations of Canada were members of the Western Confederacy during the Northwest Indian War. Both also supported the British during the War of 1812, their last attempt to regain control over their lost colonies. Descendants: In Canada, homes of the League today include the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario, the Mohawk of Kahnawake, the Mohawk of Kanestake, the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, the Thames Oneida in Ontario, the Tyendinaga Mohawk in Ontario, and the Wahta Mohawk in Ontario. In the United States, there are the Seneca Nation, the Cayuga Nation, the Onondaga Nation, the Oneida Indian Nation, the Tuscarora Nation, the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk, the Ganienkeh Mohawk, and the St. Regis Band of Mohawk Indians in New York; the Oneida Tribe of Indians in Wisconsin; and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, the “Seneca” portion of this group composed of the Mingo that became known as the “Seneca of Sandusky” who later combined with two separate groups of Cayuga that joined them decades apart. Very little is known of these people at all, mostly from a couple of engagements in which the Huron attacked them in alliance with the French under Champlain. Nomenclature: The Huron called these people the ‘Scahentoarrhonon’, which Champlain corrupted into ‘Carantouannais’, which is closer to their Seneca name, ‘Carantowan’. All of these mean ‘People of the Great Flats’. Territory: The Carantowan occupied the Wyoming Valley and the North Branch of the Susquehanna River in what’s now northern Pennsylvania, roughly three days south of the lands of the Seneca. Towns and/or constituent tribes: There were three towns, but no mention was ever made of their being comprised of more than one tribes. Fate: They were destroyed or dispersed by their Seneca enemies in the third or fourth decade of the seventeenth century. They were most likely absorbed by the Seneca, the Susquehanna, or, most likely, both. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. Even less is known about these people than the Carantowan, only from one of two mentions. Nomenclature: The name means ‘People of the Demon’s Dens’. Territory: They occupied the upper West Branch of the Susquehanna. Towns and/or constituent tribes: Unknown. Fate: Unknown. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. Another little known group, known only from one or two mentions in early colonial records. Nomenclature: The name means ‘People of Standing Stone’. Territory: They occupied Juniata Branch of the Susquehanna. Towns and/or constituent tribes: Unknown. Fate: Unknown. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. A populous confedracy of six or seven tribes, this group was at one time rival to the League of Five Nations to the north, a position they gained by securing for themselves the position of primary trading partner with both New Amsterdam (and later New York) and Jamestown, for the northern tribes (the Occaneechi filled that spot for the southern tribes). In the first instance, they conquered and displaced the Lenape to take their place. Their trading partners among the Iroquoian peoples were the Wenro, the Huron, the Erie, and the Massawomeck. They were allied militarily at various times with the Huron, the Chonnonton, and the Erie. Nomenclature: Their autonym is unknown. To the French, they were the ‘Andaste’, from ‘Andasteronon’, or the ‘Andastaron’. To the Dutch, they were the ‘Black Minqua’. A few hundred who went south from Iroquois territory in 1697 became known as the ‘Conestoga’. Territory: Centered on the Susquehanna River, they occupied the middle and lower valley and the lower valleys of some of the river’s tributaries. At the height of the Beaver Wars, and to help protect themselves against the British colonials, the entire confederacy withdrew into one single fortified town, with several European canons, on the lower Susquehanna, some twelve thousand people with 1300 warriors. Towns and/or constituent tribes: As mentioned above, this confederacy was made of six tribes, which we know from John Smith’s writing of them having six “kings”. The main tribe were the Susquehannock, on the middle Susquehanna River at the time of first contact. Twenty miles above them were the Quadrogue, and beyond them the Utchowig on a western branch and the Tesinigh on an eastern branch. On a branch sixteen miles below the main tribe were the Attacock. The Cepawig lived on the heads of the Patapasco River. The Wysox may have been another tribe. Fate: The Susquehannock were destroyed as a power by the British colonies of Maryland and Virginia in 1675 after the two signed treaties of peace with the Five Nations, and due to the chaos of Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia. The majority moved north and were absorbed by the Seneca and the Onondaga, but some fled south seeking refuge among the Meherrin and the Nottoway within the borders of modern southern Virginia. Around 1697, the League gave leave to a few hundred of the former Susquehannock to remove south to Pennsylvania, where they established the town of Conestoga. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Though they took no part in any of the colonial struggles of the eighteenth century, the Conestoga remnant did not escape the ravages of colonial war. In 1763, the “Paxton Boys” of Pennsylvania wiped out the surviving Conestoga in response to Pontiac’s War along the western frontier. Descendants: Though their origins are most likely forgotten, the bloodlines survive among the Seneca and the Onondaga of today. The first record of these people comes from John Smith of Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia, with which the Massawomeck developed a thriving trade. Nomenclature: The Powhatan and other Algonquian-speakers of Virginia called them the ‘Massawomeck’. French maps of the first half of the seventeenth century designate them as ‘Atiouandaron’. In their oral history, the Seneca refer to them as the ‘Cohnowaronon’. Territory: Roughly, northwestern Virginia, southeastern Ohio, and southwestern Pennsylvania, centered on the trans-Appalachian (from Virginia) Kanawha Valley, to which they gave their name (or, rather, to which was given their Seneca name). Towns and/or constituent tribes: According to the Massawomeck themselves, there were four of these, the towns with their satellite villages clearly equating to tribes: Tonhoga, Usserahak, Shaunnetowa, and Mosticum. Fate: Though the confederacy was apparently quite populous, there is no mention of them in any colonial records after 1635. According to Seneca oral history, they migrated into the region in the late sixteenth century, about 1570, and were driven out around 1635, the year colonial records cease to mention them. They may have headed south or west, but with their antagonists being in the north, they almost certainly did not go there; they also may have been wholly or partially adopted by the Seneca. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Not applicable. Descendants: Unknown. The first of the groups whom their Algonquin-speaking neighbors called ‘Mangoak’, a southern form of the Lenape word ‘Mengwe’. Nomenclature: ‘Cheroenhaka’ is their autonym; ‘Nottoway’ is one of the names given them by their Algonquin neighbors. Territory: Originally living on the Nottway River in the southern Virginia Piedmont when first encountered by Edward Bland in 1650, they moved into what is now Surry County in 1681, then to Southampton County in 1694, both times to escape hostile tribes. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The Nottoway were a single tribe, with a female head chief, living in three towns. Fate: After dwindling to to disease and warfare, most migrated north with the Tuscarora who joined the League of the Iroquois in 1722, though a small remnant remained south. Colonial wars of the 1700s: The Nottoway of the south remained mostly quiet, though a small portion moved south to support South Carolina in the Yamasee War of 1715-1717. The Nottoway who went north with the Tuscarora followed their hosts’ allegiances. Descendants: Their descendants survive in the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, both state-recognized tribes of Virginia. Descendants also remain among the Tuscarora and the Oneida tribes in the north. Territory: Their original home was along the Meherrin River west of the Nottoway when encountered by Edward Bland in 1650. In the early eighteenth century, they moved south into North Carolina to evade encroachment by the growing colony of Virginia. Towns and/or constituent tribes: They were a single tribe inhabiting no more than one or two towns. A significant number of refugee Susquehannock joined them after their serious defeat by the Iroquois in 1675. Fate: The Meherrin were confirmed in their lands by the colony of North Carolina in 1726. Colonial wars of the 1700s: They supported the southern Tuscarora who rose up against the colonies in the first phase of the Tuscarora War 1711-1712, and played little or not part in any of the subsequent actions during the century. Descendants: Their putative descendants survive as the Meherrin Nation, a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. Territory: When first encountered by Edward Bland in 1650, they occupied the valleys of the Roanoke, Neuse, Tar, and Pamlico Rivers in northeastern North Carolina. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The Tuscarora were a confederacy of three distinct tribes, the Skaruren, the biggest and most important; the Katenuaka; and the Akawenteaka. At the time of first contact, they had twenty-four towns and six thousand warriors; by 1708 this was reduced to fifteen towns and two thousand warriors. By then, even while still recognizing the three tribes, the Tuscarora had reorganized geographically into two separate groups, a northern group on the Roanoke River and a southern group south of the Pamlico River. Colonial wars of the 1700s: The southern Tuscarora conspired with several other tribes to attack settlements all along the North Carolina frontier to stop their encroachment, beginning the Tuscarora War of 1711-1713. The northern Tuscarora fought alongside North Carolina and its colonial and native allies. There, they supported the British against the French. During the American Revolution, they supported the American colonists. Fate: After their defeat in the Tuscarora War, most of the southern group travelled north to refuge with the League of the Iroquois, who granted them nation status in 1722. In 1715, seventy warriors of the group who remained went south to aid South Carolina in the Yamasee War, and after it ended in 1717, they were granted lands to live on with their families and joined with groups of Nottoway and Meherrin who had come south into one tribe, which eventually assimilated. Descendants: Their descendants survive today primarily in the Tuscarora Nation in New York and the Tuscarora of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario. Persons claiming to be of Tuscarora descent in North Carolina have organized several “tribes”, none recognized even by the state; however, nearly all remaining south after the Tuscarora War eventually joined their cousins in the north. Originated as a composite tribe of refugee Huron and Petun later joined by some Chonnonton during the height of the Beaver Wars. Nomenclature: ‘Wyandot’ is just a corruption of the name ‘Wendat’, the autonym of both the Petun and the Huron. The Mohawk call them the ‘Tionontatecaga’, the same by which they earlier knew the Petun. This Mohawk name appears on various maps in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in the same location as the ‘Atiouandaron’ of trans-Appalachian western Virginia, which, if accurate, accounts for the name of the Guyandotte River (the Petun and the Huron both used autonym ‘Wendat’). Territory: Most of the Attignawantan of the Huron confederacy had taken refuge with the Petun in 1648. Near the end of the following year, the combined group migrated west with the Ottawa to Mackinac Island. In the winter of 1652-1653, the tribe stayed at Teaontofai near a free band of Chonnonton at Skenchioe (the Thumb of Michigan) near Teochanontian (Detroit). In the spring, both groups removed with the Ottawa to Aotonatendie (Door Peninsula of Green Bay), later tranferring to Rock Island nearby where they merged. From 1658 to 1665 they wandered in northern Wisconsin before settling at Sainte-Esprit. Upon conflict with the Dakota, they left for Sainte-Ignace in 1671, where they stayed until the French built Fort Poncartrain du Detroit in 1701 after the Great Peace. There the Wyandot became the elder brothers of the French-alled tribes who also settled there. By 1680, one band had migrated to the Guyandotte Valley in southwestern West Virginia, where they are shown on maps of various cartographers from1680 through 1718 under the Mohawk name for the Wyandot tribe, ‘Tionontatecaga’. The name for the river valley clearly derives from their autonym, ‘Wendat’. Towns and/or constituent tribes: By the time of their arrival at Detroit, the Wyandot had become a single entity, composed from the majority of both tribes of Petun, the Attignawantan of the Huron, the Wenro refugees among the Petun, and that remnant band of Chonnonton. Colonial wars of the 1700s: In the early part of the century, the Wyandot universally supported the French. In 1738, the Wyandot at Detroit split between those who continued to support the French and those who heeded Iroquois entreaties to move to the Ohio Country and supported the British. The latter, under Orontony (also known as Nicholas), first moved to the Lower Sandusky after refusing to join an attack against the Cherokee (in revenge for their support of the Chickasaw), then in 1748 into the Ohio Valley. During the French and Indian War, the Wyandot of the Ohio Country supported the British while their cousins around Detroit supported the French. Both factions took part in Pontiac’s War of 1763 alongside all the other western tribes. In the American Revolution, both groups supported the British. Both groups were also members of the Western Confederacy and fought the Americans in the Northwest Indian War. Fate: The ‘Tionontatecaga’ of the Guyandotte Valley cease to be mentioned after 1718; they may have died out from disease and warfare, been absorbed by the Iroquois, joined the Cherokee, or moved northeast to merge with the former Erie of Mingo Flats, West Virginia. The Wyandot of Sandusky were removed to Kansas, then part of Indian Territory, in 1843, and the majority of those to Oklahoma, to which Indian Territory was reduced when Kansas became a state in 1855. Descendants: The Wyandotte Nation, in Oklahoma, is the only federally-recognized tribe in the USA, and is composed of descendants of those moved south in 1855. The Wyandotte Nation of Kansas, state-recognized, is composed of those who had become U.S. citizens by 1855 and remained there. The Wyandots of Anderdon, headquartered in Trenton, Michigan, and living in the cross border region of Michigan and Ontario, descend from those Wyandot who remained in the Detroit area in 1738 and mostly acculturated, though without losing memory of their origins. When first visited by the English, the Cherokee were a confederacy of fifty to sixty independent towns of Iroqouian-speakers in the southern Appalachian region grouped into five divisions or “council fires”. Their origin, however, was in the north. Though ethnologists and historians from the late nineteenth century have maintained that the Cherokee are of ancient origin, arising in the territory in which the English encountered them in the late eighteenth century, historians and missionaries among them from the eighteenth century until the late nineteenth universally recognized their “foreign” roots. Even some of the oldest tales of the Cherokee themselves point to this origin. The nucleus of those who later became the Cherokee originated as members of the Riqueronon tribe of the Erie confederacy, appearing as the ‘Richahechrians’ in Virginia in 1654, identified as the ‘Rickohockans’ in western North Carolina in 1670. According to Moravian missionaries and others in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Cherokee were made of former Erie (including from the other tribes), Huron, Shawnee, Powhatan, and other refugees from wars among natives and against European colonists. In addition, they assimilated the remnants of Mississippian peoples remaining in the areas they settled rather than allowing themselves to be displaced. Nomenclature: Their most common autonym in the Cherokee language is ‘Ani-Yunwiya’ The common name by which they are known, and that contained in the official names of each of their three (four) modern tribes, ‘Cherokee’, derives from the extinct dialect of Lower Cherokee; otherwise they would be known as ‘Chelokee’. It may be related to the name which Champlain most commonly referred to the Huron after 1613, ‘Charioquois’. The first notice of them in English colonial (1674) records calls them the ‘Chiokees’. They first appear on French maps in three groups of towns, presumably by their distinct dialects, as the ‘Tchalaka’, ‘Katugi’, and ‘Taligui’. The first is the same as above; the second is similar to ‘Quatoghi’, the Mohawk name for the Huron; the third is identical to the Lenape name for the Erie and is still their name for the Cherokee, and, under the alternate version ‘Allegewi’, is also similar to another name Champlain used for the Huron, ‘Allegonantes’. Among the Five Nations Iroquois, the Cherokee were known as ‘Oyatageronon’. The Seneca called them ‘Oyadageono’. The Onondaga called them ‘Tkwetaheuhane’. The Wyandot name was ‘Wataiyoronon’. The Catawba name was ‘Manteran’. Territory: As the Cherokee, they originally occupied the Southern Appalachian region in East and Southeast Tennessee, western North Carolina, northwest South Carolina, and northeast Georgia. Later, during the Revolution, they shifted to Southeast Tennessee, western North Carolina, North Georgia, and Northeast Alabama. Towns and/or constituent tribes: English traders and explorers identified sixty-four towns a decade before the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1738 and fifty-four a decade after. Though made of many diverse peoples, they had no separate “tribes”. They spoke three major Iroquoian-based dialects, the southernmost differing significantly from the others two. The first of these was referred to as “Lower Cherokee”, spoken almost exclusively in the Lower Towns, which in the early decades of contact comprised half the Cherokee population. The second was referred to as “Middle Cherokee”, and was spoken in the Middle and Out Towns. The third was referred to as “Upper Cherokee”, and was spoken by those in the Valley and Overhill Towns. Politically, the Cherokee grouped themselves into five “council fires”, known by their English designations. These “council fires” were a matter of geographic social and political convenience rather than hard divisions. The Out Towns stood along the Tuckasegee and Oconluftee Rivers in the foothils of the Great Smoky Mountains; the Valley Towns along the Valley and Upper Hiwasee Rivers in southewestern North Carolina; the Middle Towns on the upper Little Tennessee and Nantahala Rivers and Little Tellico Creek in western North Carolina; the original Lower Towns along the Chattooga, Keowee, and Tugaloo Rivers, and the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River in northwestern South Carolina and Northeast Georgia; and the Overhill Towns along the lower Little Tennessee and Tellico Rivers in east and southeast Tennessee, and later the Hiwasee and Ocoee Rivers as well. During the Cherokee-American wars of the late eighteenth century, these division evolved into five new groupings as the population shifted west. The Middle Towns (except those on the Natahala River) and the original Lower Towns were completely abandoned. The Out Towns (now including those on Nantahala) became known as the Hill Towns, the Valley Towns and the Overhill Towns remained, and two new groupings appeared, the Upper Towns in North Georgia and the Chickamauga Towns in the Chattanooga region. The later removed even further west to southern Marion County, Tennessee, and areas of Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama, where they became known as the “new” Lower Towns. In 1794, they officially became the Cherokee Nation, but most power remained with the five councils of the local regions. In 1809, the individual regional councils were officially abolished, though for all intents and purposes the divisions remained until 1820, when the Cherokee National Council divided the nation into eight legislative and judicial districts. Colonial wars of the 1700s: Besides wars with the Iroquois, the Creek, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Shawnee, the Catawba, and the Yuchi, the Cherokee fought more actions against European colonial powers than any other southern native group, and more than any other Iroquoian-speaking people. In 1708, they joined the Abikha and the Catawba in a campaign against the French at Mobile that ended with the destruction of the town of the French-allied Mobile Indians. In the Tuscarora War of 1711-1713, they fought as allies of South Carolina and North Carolina against the Tuscarora and their native allies. In the Yamasee War of 1715-1717, they began as allies of the insurgent Yamasee and their fellow “rebels” but switched sides mid-way to that of the British colonies of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. In the Third Natchez War of 1729-1731, they fought alongside the Chickasaw after 1730 in support of the Natchez. They again supported the Chickasaw in the First French-Chickasaw War of 1736, earning enough enmity that the French planned a major invasion in 1738 that was aborted by the division of the Wyandot. From 1755 to 1756, they fought a war against North Carolina over encroachment of settlers into Cherokee territory that only ended when the British called them into service against the French. The Cherokee started out the French and Indian War as allies of the British, then quit and switched sides, fighting the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1758-1761. In Lord Dunmore’s War of 1774, small groups of Cherokee fought alongside the Mingo, Lenape, and Shawnee, other small groups attacked frontier settlements in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They sided with the British in the American Revolution, fighting in most of the actions in the South in which native groups engaged. The Cherokee were founding members of the Western Confederacy and fought in the Northwest Indian War of 1783-1795. Simultaneous with the the above two wars, they fought their own campaigns against the frontier American settlements in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, and the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in the Cherokee-American wars of 1776-1794. In this, they had as allies Great Britain until 1783, then New Spain, the Creek, and the Shawnee. Though condemnation by Cherokee leaders of Tecumseh was nearly universal, small groups of warriors nonetheless travelled north to fight in his confederacy. During the War of 1812, the Cherokee supported the Americans against the British. A regiment of Cherokee fought under Andrew Jackson in the Creek War of 1813-1814. Fate: Small groups of Cherokee had long roamed west of the Mississippi River, most returning though many also stayed, but in 1809, the first large group migrated to Arkansas Territory, becoming the foundation of the Cherokee Nation West. After this, those remaining in the former homeland became known informally as the Cherokee Nation East. After the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, emigration rate increased, and in much larger groups. Most of those remaining were forcibly removed west to Indian Territory in 1838-1839. The Cherokee along the Oconaluftee and Nantahala Rivers, already outside the bounds of the Nation by earlier land cessions, were allowed to stay, as were partially or largely acculturated residents of the Valley Towns. The Cherokee remaining east managed to avoid dissolution in the early nineteenth century largely due to the anamolous relationship with the state vis-à-vis the federal government. The Cherokee Nation East and the Cherokee Nation West merged in 1839; the Cherokee Nation dissolved in 1905 under the Dawes Act. Descendants: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is composed of desecendants of the Oconaluftee, Nanatahala, and Valley Cherokee who evaded Removal. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is made up of descendants of the Cherokee Nation West and the Cherokee forcibly removed from the East. The United Keetowah Band of Cherokee Indians, also based in Oklahoma, is composed of descendants of the same populations as the CNO, but requires a one-fourth blood quantum. All three of the above are federally-recognized. The Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands-Mount Tabor Indian Community is composed of descendants of Cherokee who moved south in from the 1840’s and of smaller among whom they came to be seen as “elder brothers”, particularly during the wars with the Republic and later Sate of Texas. Until their disenfranchisement at the organization of the CNO in 1975, they had seats on the Cherokee National Council that remained after the dissolution of the original Cherokee Nation in 1905. The Mingo were a population that emerged in the early 1700s, made up largely of descendants former Erie, Huron, Chonnonton, and Susquehannock adopted by the various nations of the Iroquois League and given leave to settle west of the League homeland, provided they remained loyal, much the same way as the Susquehannock who became the Conestoga. At first they inhabited the valleys of western Pennsylvania alongside and among the Lenape, Munsee (originally a Lenape subtribe that became more or less separate), and Shawnee, as at Logstown (est. c. 1725) near the later Fort Dusquene and even later Fort Pitt. After the French and Indian War, the Mingo, along with their allies, spread to the Ohio Country. Another major source were the Erie who surrendered en masse in 1682 and were allowed to remain in Mingo Flats, West Virginia, until the outbreak of the French and Indian War. Individuals and small groups from the Five Nations also merged with groups of Mingo. Nomenclature: The name Mingo derives directly from the Dutch ‘Minqua’, their version of the Lenape word ‘Mengwe’, a general designation for all Iroquoian-speakers. Less commonly, the people in question were also called ‘Blue Mingo’, primarily to distinguish them from the White Mingo (Susquehannock), Black Mingo (Erie), Little Mingo (Huron), and Big Mingo (Five Nations Iroquois), though most groups of Mingo were composites of these. Territory: While in western Pennsylvania, the Mingo had only minor independence, and it was not until after the French and Indian War when they migrated into Ohio Country away from the League’s direct control that they flowered. The former Erie at Mingo Flats in eastern West Virginia moved to what became Crow’s Town at the later Mingo Junction in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1755, because they sided with the French rather than the British. Later the settlement spread across river to Old Mingo Bottom in Follansbee, West Virginia, but retreated back after the Treaty of Stanwix in 1768. After the multi-ethnic Logstown was abandoned in 1759 when Fort Pitt was constructed atop the ruins of Fort Duquesne, this was the only Indian town on the Ohio River between it and the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville, Kentucky). Crow’s Town was abandoned after Dunmore’s War in 1774. Most of the towns and villages the Mingo inhabited were multi-ethnic, and few permanent. The most important were those along the Sandusky and Scioto Rivers in western Ohio, at least after the French and Indian War. Towns and/or constituent tribes: The Mingo were a collection of multi-ethnic Iroquoian-speaking groups. Fate: The various bands of Mingo eventually coalesced into two major groups, the ‘Seneca of Sandusky’, upriver from the Wyandot, and the ‘Mixed Band of Seneca and Shawnee’ on the Scioto River who founded Lewistown, Ohio. There were likely few, if any, actual Seneca in either group. The Seneca of Sandusky absorbed a group of Cayuga in 1807. Both the Seneca of Sandusky and the Mixed Band of Seneca and Shawnee relocated from Ohio to Indian Territory in 1831, the latter becoming the United Nation of Seneca and Shawnee in 1832 while the former became the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, which assimilated a group of Cayuga from Canada in 1881. Colonial wars of the 1700s: The first time the Mingo took part in the colonial wars was during the French and Indian War alongside their close allies the Shawnee and the Lenape as well as the others natives in the north supporting the French. Their fight in this war ended along with that of the other two mentioned in 1758. They participated in Pontiac’s War with the other western tribes of the north in 1763. In 1774, they instigated Lord Dunmore’s War, fought mostly in Kentucky and the Ohio Country with their close allies the Shawnee and the Lenape plus small parties of Cherokee. During the American Revolution, they sided with the British against the colonists. They were members of the Western Confederacy and fought in the Northwest Indian War. Some Mingo took part in Tecumseh’s War of 1811-1813. In the War of 1812, they sided with the British against the Americans. Descendants: Descendants of the Mingo live in the Seneca-Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma and among the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, successor of the United Seneca and Shawnee; their bloodlines also probably survive among other Shawnee and Lenape tribes.
In a study, artificial intelligence correctly distinguished between homosexual and heterosexual men in 81% of cases. Image of similar technology which measures facial features Image: Image of similar technology which measures facial features Artificial intelligence can detect homosexuality by analysing facial features, researchers have said. In an academic study from Stanford University, the scientists claim that faces "contain much more information about sexual orientation that can be perceived and interpreted by the human brain". The team used deep neural networks, a kind of artificial intelligence algorithm, to analyse more than 35,000 facial images they had collected from a US dating site. According to the team, the AI was able to correctly distinguish between heterosexual and homosexual men in 81% of cases, and in 74% of cases for women. Human judges achieved much lower accuracy, with 61% for men and 54% for women. The researchers claim their results are consistent with the prenatal hormone theory of sexual orientation, which would drive people of differing sexualities to have different physiological attributes. A composite image of heterosexual and homosexual male and female faces also seemed to suggest that heterosexual individuals were more likely to be overweight. Composite faces of hetero- and homosexual Caucasian men and women Image: Composite faces of heterosexual and homosexual men and women used in the study "Gay men and women tended to have gender-atypical facial morphology, expression, and grooming styles," they claimed. In the authors' note to the study, they recognise that their means of classifying faces may be detecting something unrelated when making predictions. "We hope that future studies will help to prove or disprove the predictability of sexual orientation from human faces. We have, however, put much effort into controlling this issue." Responding to the hypothetical criticism that gay men have better style or take better pictures, the researchers said that there was clearly a difference between heterosexual and homosexual faces in terms of morphology. "We would be delighted in our results were wrong," the researchers wrote. "The fact that algorithms can predict sexual orientation from human faces has serious privacy implications. "The ability to control when and to whom to reveal one's sexual orientation is crucial not only for one's well-being, but also for one's safety."
Michio Kaku Michio Kaku/Photo © Andrea Brizzi Professor Michio Kaku is one of the world’s most thoughtful theoretical physicists. A cofounder of string field theory -- a unique blend of string theory and the advanced-algebra topic called fields -- he has also proved adept at explaining his work to the rest of us, via highly readable science books. His latest work, The Future of the Mind, uses his brand of theoretical physics -- a beguiling mix of quantumness and consciousness -- to push past the current frontiers of neuroscience. Biographile spoke with this bravely unusual mind about where today’s most daring scientific research is taking our brains. Our sit-down adventure included storied science notions like telekinesis, implantable knowledge, memory erasure, and even sentient robots. Biographile: In your introduction you stress that you are a physicist, not a neuroscientist. What are some of the things a physicist adds to the world of neuroscience? Michio Kaku: Within the past two decades, more has been learned about the brain than in all of human history, largely due to advances in physics. An avalanche of brain scanners, such as EEG, fMRI, PET, CAT, DBS, TES, TCM, etc. have, for the first time in history, revealed the intimate details of our thoughts. So physicists have created the instruments that have allowed neuroscientists to probe the thoughts of the living brain. Moreover, advances in physics can blaze entirely new trails for the next generation of neuroscientists to follow. For example, MRI machines were invented by physicists, and hence they know how to make them even more powerful. Physicists can now make MRI machines the size of a briefcase. The smallest MRI possible, using the laws of physics, is the size of a cell phone, which is like the “tricorder” in Star Trek. Pocket-size brain scanners could revolutionize the field. Also, physicists have a different way of viewing the question of “consciousness,” one of the most difficult questions in science. Using a physicist’s perspective, I even give an entirely new definition of consciousness in my book. BIOG: The future you present here is an exciting one, filled with mind-reading, telekinesis, implanted memories, and altered states of consciousness. What do you think are the biggest advantages to such research? MK: The most immediate advantage of these technologies is to relieve human suffering. Already, people who are totally paralyzed, who are living souls trapped inside a vegetable of a body, are now being given the gift of movement. Chips connected to their brains allow them to manipulate mechanical arms, surf the web, write e-mails, play video games, control household appliances. Anything that we can do via a computer, they can do as well. Eventually, this technology will become widely available. We will be able to walk into a room and immediately control all the chips hidden in that room. We will be like magicians, able to control everything around us mentally. We might also be able to control robots with superhuman bodies (like in the movies “Surrogates” and “Avatar”) so that we can live on other planets, explore the heavens, work in dangerous environments, or have powerful exoskeletons like in “Iron Man.” BIOG: What are some of the dangers we have to look out for along the way? MK: All science is a double-edged sword. One edge can cut against ignorance, poverty, and disease, the other side can cut against innocents. One downside to this technology raises the question of privacy. Our thoughts are our most private part of who we are. We don’t want our thoughts to be read by strangers from a distance. However, reading a person’s thoughts over a distance is extremely difficult, since radio and electrical waves dampen extremely fast outside the brain. Even in controlled laboratory situation, sensors must be placed directly on the scalp. Signals quickly become lost in the gibberish of the environment once you leave the scalp. So mind-reading by strangers is unlikely. But there are real problems. To protect our privacy, we must also learn self-control. Eventually, the internet might be replaced by a “brain-net,” in which emotions, memories, and sensations are routinely sent to our Facebook friends. We will have to learn a new set of social skills so that these brain-net messages don’t come back to haunt us. So if we let our thoughts go viral, we must be sure that they don’t have unintended consequences. BIOG: What do you think will be the most exciting brain science breakthrough in the next five years? MK: One of the most exciting developments in the coming years will be a better understanding of mental illness, which is one of the greatest source of human suffering, going back to the dawn of humanity. Using brain scans of schizophrenics, for example, one can actually see areas of the brain light up that are used when we talk to ourselves. However, in schizophrenics, this happens without their permission or knowledge. They are literally talking to themselves, but are convinced the voices come from external sources, such as aliens. Similarly, one can use brain scans to see precisely where the brain goes awry in bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, etc. A cure is still far away, but this technology allows us to see precisely how the brain is malfunctioning. BIOG: In this book you also explore artificial intelligence, with looks at self-aware and ethical robots. It was hard for me not to think of shows like the “Battlestar Galactica” remake. What roles do you see these robots playing in our future? MK: Fifty years ago, scientists made a mistake thinking that the brain was like a digital computer. Yet , the brain has no programming, no Pentium chip, no central processor, no Windows, no operating system, no subroutines, etc. We now realize that the brain is entirely different; it’s a learning machine, a neural network of some sort, that rewires itself after learning every new task. This means that our robots are simple adding machines when compared to the brain. Currently, our most advanced robots have the intelligence of a bug. (But even bugs can rapidly hide, find food, and mates, etc., which our robots cannot.) In the coming decades, robots will be as smart as a mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, or cat, and eventually as smart as a monkey. So they will inevitably play a role in our lives. In fact, robotics may eventually become an industry larger than the automobile industry today, performing the 3 D’s, i.e., jobs that are dirty, dreary, and dangerous. But when robots become commonplace, we will have to bond with them, so they will have to understand our emotions as well. They will have to recognize changes in our face and voice, allowing them to understand our emotional state, and then have a menu of responses to these emotions. Emotions also help us assign a value judgment on everything, which robots do not have. For example, robots will have to know whom and what to save in case of an emergency, and hence will have to make snap-value judgments. In fact, there is a whole branch of artificial intelligence theory, called “friendly AI,” which analyzes the programs necessary to make robots acceptable to humans. BIOG: An emphasis on the role of the mind over that of the body or spirit is bound to make some people uncomfortable. What can you say to reassure them that in this brain-centered future we’ll still be human, only better? MK: The object of the multimillion dollar Human Connectome Project is to map every neural pathway the brain, to have a complete blueprint of every neural connection. This may mean we will eventually have Brain 2.0, i.e. a chip containing every pathway of our brain. In this case, the question is: Can the mind exist independent of the body? Indeed, can the mind become immortal? This a favorite theme in Hollywood (see the latest Superman movie, where Superman’s father does not die on Krypton, but lives on as a conscious holographic computer program). One day, we might have something similar, a computer program that simulates the consciousness of loved ones who have passed away. But does this mean that we are immortal? Probably not. It will probably be clear that the loved one is deceased, and that the program you are talking to is only a very good simulation of that person. We may take comfort in talking to a simulation that is remarkably real, but we will know that it is a simulation. BIOG: One of my favorite subjects -- quantum consciousness -- appears at the end of your book. Could you briefly explain the concept and expound on how it’s tied to theoretical physics? MK: In my book, I give an entirely new definition of consciousness which describes the consciousness of animals and human alike. My theory is testable, reproducible, falsifiable, and even measurable. This definition in particular focuses on the consciousness of animals and humans. However, there is also another type of consciousness, which is sometimes called cosmic consciousness, which goes to the heart of the quantum theory (my specialty). It is so sensitive that even Nobel Laureates today are not in uniform agreement. Basically, the quantum theory (which I teach to our grad students, and which is the most successful physical theory of all time) says that you have make an observation to determine the state of any object (e.g., atoms, electrons, laser beams). Before you observe something, it exists in a never-never-land world, being neither here nor there. (For example, this means that a cat in a closed box is neither dead nor alive in this nether state, before it is observed.) But once you make an observation, you know precisely the state of the cat (e.g., it is alive.) So, in some sense, an observation was necessary for the cat to exist. But observations imply consciousness. Only conscious beings can make an observation. Hence, it seems that consciousness is more fundamental that reality, and that a cosmic consciousness is necessary to observe the universe so that the universe can exist. The greatest minds of science have struggled with this question, without a final resolution. But in my book, I give you a critique of the various bizarre solutions that have been proposed. As J.B.S. Haldane once said, the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose. BIOG: If you could be granted telepathy, telekinesis, or control over your dreams, which one would you choose and why? MK: One of the most practical devices would [instead] be one that allows us to upload memories. For the first time in history, this was recently achieved in mice. This means that we might eventually upload entire subjects (such as mathematics and physics) into the mind. Not only would we be able to assimilate entirely new college level subjects, it would allow workers to learn new skills necessary to function in a technological society. Millions of workers, instead of being left behind, would be able to keep up with the latest advances. This could have a profound impact on the economy. One reason why income inequality seems to be increasing is because the economy itself is changing. Entry-level factory work, which was once the conveyor belt that moved unskilled workers into the middle class, is no longer available. The technical skills of workers have not kept up with the rapid advances in science, leaving those workers in the dust. And universities often graduate students to live in the world of 1950. One cure for this problem is increased education, especially technical training. But in the long term, perhaps uploading memories might be the permanent solution to this problem.
Glastig (glaistig, glaistic, glaisein, glaishrig) To Gwythyr fab (Celtic mythology and folklore) Glastig (glaistig, glaistic, glaisein, glaishrig) Scottish and Welsh folkloric figure. A fairy of Scotland and Wales, "the gray-handed one" was a gray thin woman (sometimes, a giant) whose long yellow hair hit the ground behind her; like others of her race, she wore the preferred fairy color, green, from which she was sometimes known as the green glastig. Rarely seen in company (although sometimes a pair could be spotted together), the glastig hung around farms where there were cows; she was also found around people of friendly demeanor but low intelligence, whom she loved and cared for. The glastig had a preternaturally loud voice that could be heard many miles away. As a spirit of the milk cattle, she demanded an offering of the first milk taken each morning; failure to observe this politeness resulted in her drying up the milk or otherwise punishing the stingy dairyman. If offered regular libations of milk, left in pitcher or bowl on the doorstep, the glastig stayed for some time. As a householding spirit like the brownie, she cleaned especially well whenever guests were on the way, so awakening to a sparkling clean house was an immediate signal to look out for visitors. As with other laboring spirits, it was important never to speak of the glastig or, even worse, to compliment her labor, for that forced her to move away to another farm. In the Isle of Man the fenodyree was a figure similar to the glastig; she lived in the mountains but snuck down to the farmlands to tend to the fields and to help secretly about the house. Like similar fairy figures, she refused to accept payment or recompense for her work and disappeared if it was offered. British mythological site. Considered by some to be the site of the other-world island of avalon, the small southwestern English city of Glastonbury has many mythical and legendary associations. Below its pyramidal hill, the tor, lie the ruins of several significant Christian sites, including Glastonbury Abbey, beneath which king arthur and queen guinevere are said to be buried, and the renowned Chalice well, also called the Blood Spring, with its iron-red waters. The legend of joseph of ari-mathea says that he built the first Christian church in Britain there. As Christian chapels and churches were often established on older Celtic and pre-Celtic sacred sites, it is no surprise to find that Glastonbury was held in legend to be the entry to annwn, the Welsh Otherworld, where the fairy king gwynn ap nudd reigned; there is evidence of Iron Age, probably Celtic, settlement on the Tor, which may point to a Celtic origin for that folkloric character. Thus the site remains connected in legend to the sacred even if the original monuments and myths have been lost. Glastyn (glashtin) Manx folkloric figure. On the Isle of Man lived this form of the spectral water horse, who appeared as a handsome man with curly hair, beneath which, if carefully examined, were ears that looked remarkably like those of a horse. Handsome he might be, but he was also dangerous. He snuck into the homes of young women when they were alone—their families having gone to market or out fishing— and dragged them into the sea to their deaths. Glen Lyon Scottish mythological site. In an astonishing survival of ancient, possibly Celtic, ritual, a Scottish region continues an age-old tradition centered on summer’s beginning at beltane on May 1. Located in the Grampion mountains of Tayside near Fortingall is a small valley called Glen Lyon. Within the small valley are many place-names associated with the ancient goddess, the cailleach or hag: Glen Cailliche (Hag’s Glen), Allt Cailliche (Hag’s Stream), and Tigh nam Cailliche (Hag’s House), the last being a pile of water-smoothed rocks of roughly human form. The largest, a bit over a foot in height, is named the Cailliche; two smaller stones go by the names of the Bodach (old man) and Nighean (daughter). Some small unnamed rocks represent the old woman’s babies. Each Beltane, a local resident washes the stones and replaces them in a traditional spot; each samhain the hag and her family are put away into a small stone house. The connection of the ritual appearance and disappearance of the stone family with the Celtic holidays may indicate that it derives from Celtic times, although the hag goddess herself is believed to reach back even deeper into prehistory and represent a cosmic goddess of the pre-Celtic people. Legends in the area say that the Irish hero, fionn mac cumhaill, once lived there. Glewlwyd Gafaelwar Welsh hero. This warrior and guardian figure of Wales was absorbed into Arthurian legend as the watchman at the gates of king Arthur’s court at camelot. Folkloric figure. Not a Celtic creature at all, the gnome found in Celtic lands derives from medieval science and alchemy that imagined creatures appropriate to each of the four elements: salamanders (fire), nereids (water), sylphs (air), and gnomes (earth). The gnomes were thought to live under the earth, working perhaps as miners; the word itself may derive from genomus, "earth-dweller." They are easily confused with such truly folkloric creatures as fairies and knockers, but have no real legends attached. The dwarfs familiar to modern children from the tale of Sleeping Beauty are a variation of the gnome. Symbolic animal. There is evidence that the goat was among the animals considered sacred to the Celts and therefore useful for sacrifice. Because of a curse, goats were forbidden near the Christian abbey in kildare, originally a site of Celtic worship. As the sanctuary was sacred to women, and men were barred from it, the goat may have represented the male force; the horned god cernunnos was often depicted with goat’s legs, though with stag’s horns. The sexuality of the male goat is legendary; in Christian imagery, derogation of the male sexual force is indicated by showing the devil as a goat-footed being. Perhaps this connection explains why st. patrick was so often described as a goatherd: a symbolic way of describing Christianity’s control over male sexual instinct. In folklore the same energy is personified as puck or the pooka, a fairy being. The most notable remnant of ancient regard for the animal is the still-extant puck fair, a harvest festival in the town of Kilorglin in southwestern Ireland, where a white male goat is crowned as king, fed fresh cabbage, and displayed aloft on a platform while festivities go on beneath it. The fair’s name comes from the Irish wordpoc, meaning "he-goat." The fair traditionally lasts three days in mid-August: Gathering Day, when the goat is installed as king; Fair Day, when festivities abound; and Scattering Day, when the goat is taken from his perch and sold at auction or released into the wild. Documented evidence shows that the fair has been continually held since at least 1613, although it is believed its earliest date is much earlier; some, however, contend that the obvious pagan symbolism of the rite would have caused its eradication during the period of Christianization and claim it is a medieval or Norman invention. Goayr heddagh Manx folkloric figure. The Isle of Man is haunted by this fairy creature or ghost that takes the form of a goat. Goban Saor (Gobhan Saor, Gubawn Seer) British and Irish folkloric figure. In parts of Britain and Ireland where Vikings lived, we find vestiges of the divine smith, wayland, in this folktale character. An amoral figure, he once put an old woman into his furnace so that he could hammer her into a young maiden. He is said to have served as architect on many significant churches. It is often difficult to tease out the various cultural strands in tales of Goban Soar, who like the Celtic smith god goibniu is sometimes described as the owner of the great cow of abundance, the glas ghaibhleann. Goblin (hobgoblin) British folkloric figure. A general name for evil fairies, "goblin" indicates a being who is at best mischievous and irritating, at worst dangerous. Goblins came in various guises, including the VOUGH and the pooka, the bogie and the water horse; all have roots in the Celtic vision of the otherworld; they are thus distinct from gnomes, which belong to the lore of medieval alchemy. English poet Christina Rossetti used aspects of traditional fairy lore in her long poem "Goblin Market," linking the image of leering, evil goblins with the motif of fairy kidnapping to create a frightening vision of emotional distress. Gobnat (Gobnait, Cobnat, Abby, Abigail) Irish heroine, saint or goddess. A Christian shrine in Ireland’s Co. Cork, at the town of Ballyvourney, shows a sheela na gig, a self-exposing hag whose image has been linked to ancient mother goddesses. The resident spirit of the shrine is said to be St. Gobnait, patroness of bees, who may be a Christianized version of an ancient goddess of the locality. The bees served as her watchdogs, warning her against any danger that approached. She is said to have been one of three sisters, the others being the more clearly mythological crobh dearg (or lasair) and latiaran. In early February the beginning of spring in Ireland and the time of the Celtic feast of imbolc are devoted to Gobnait, suggesting that she was the first of a triad of seasonal goddesses, for her sisters are also linked to dates in the ancient calendar. A famous shrine to her is located at what is now Kilgobnet (church of Gobnat) in Co. Kerry. Irish mythological race. A branch of the ancient mythological Irish race known as the fomorians, the Goborchinn were ruled by eochaid Echchenn, "horse-head." As the Fomorians were consistently associated with the sea, the Goborchinn may have some connection to the mythological water horse. Those who interpret the BOOK OF INVASIONS, in which the Goborchinn appear, as a mythological record of actual immigrations into Ireland suggest that the Fomorians represent a pre-Celtic people of which the Goborchinn were part. God (gods) Cosmological concept. It is impossible to speak of the "God of the Celts," for the Celts were polytheistic in the extreme; they did not believe in one but in many gods. Unlike the Romans, who conquered the Celts and reinterpreted their religion even as they recorded it (see interpretatio romana), the Celts did not arrange gods in a hierarchical order. Despite Caesar’s announcement that mercury was the chief Celtic god, there seems to have been no such head of a ranked pantheon. In particular, the Celts did not believe that male gods took precedence over goddesses; there is significant evidence that the reverse was true. While goddesses seemed to represent stable parts of the landscape (mountains and rivers and the like) as well as the force of fertility and many human arts, gods more typically lent their energies to the changeable aspects of life: the surging sea, the transformations of magic, the burgeoning of vegetative and animal life. Often gods were seen to reflect the life of human men, as with ploughman gods and hunters, although even those could also indicate the cycle of fertility that led to abundance. Goddess (goddesses) Cosmological concept. The prominent role played by the goddess in Celtic lands has been noted by virtually all scholars of the subject, although whether that prominence translated into greater freedom or power for actual women is a subject of fierce contention. Similarly, there is debate about whether the strong goddess figures found in Celtic lands were adopted from earlier, presumably matrilin-eal, cultures such as the Picts, or whether they represented the Celtic worldview. Whichever is true, Celtic goddesses had in common with Celtic gods their special link to place; most goddesses are found in only one place and seem to have been envisioned as intertwined with its powers. Goddesses are particularly connected with fresh water, both in the form of springs (usually called wells) and of rivers; with animals, especially the cow; and with mountains, especially high peaks. Celtic goddesses had several functions: They were maternal, caring for the earth itself as well as for individual children; they were prophetic, especially foretelling death; and they were transformational, connected with poetry and smithcraft and healing. The domain of the various mother goddesses included the entire life-cycle, from birth through adolescence and the fertility of maturity. Such maternal goddesses were envisioned as protective forces, providing the necessities of life—especially food—to their huge families of human children. These maternal goddesses are often envisioned as being the earth itself; round mountains were envisioned as the breasts of the great mother goddess, and rivers were imagined alternatively as her blood and her nourishing milk. Images of the mother goddess are ubiquitous throughout the Celtic world; probably they were used as protective amulets as well as objects of worship. The strength of the mother goddess has led many scholars to propose that the Celts had a matrilineal social organization in which descent was traced through the mother-line; others, however, contend that vestiges of such a social structure represent the heritage of pre-Celtic groups like the Picts, as does the practice of polyandry or multiple husbands so common in Celtic mythology. Yet others deny all indications of the importance of the ancestral mother as feminist propaganda and propound the idea that the Celts were completely patriarchal and patrilineal. In addition to the mother goddess, we find the feminine divine associated with prophecy throughout the Celtic world. In many cases she seems a goddess of death, predicting rather than bringing about the inevitable end of life. Finally, we find goddesses associated with transformation: with the inauguration of kings (see sovereignty) and with shape-shifting, as well as with poetry, with smithcraft, and with healing. Some contend that all are aspects of maternity, but goddesses associated with prophecy and transformation are not usually described as having children, which suggests that the domains were separate. Godiva (Godgifu, Dame Goode Eve) British heroine. In 1967, on the reputed 900th anniversary of Lady Godiva’s death, the town of Coventry held a celebration in her honor. Her apparently historical story incorporates so many Celtic mythological motifs that it is difficult to discern the truth behind the legend. Both she and her husband, Leonfric earl of Mercia, are mentioned in medieval chronicles, which praise her generosity and record details of her famous ride. When Leonfric piled such ruinous taxes upon his vassals that the land was groaning and people were starving, Godiva pleaded for mercy. But Leonfric refused to alleviate the people’s woes. Cruelly, he taunted his wife that only if she rode naked through Coventry town would he ease the tax burden on his people. The brave lady took up the challenge, but to preserve her modesty she asked that the windows of the town be shrouded with fabric on the day of her ride. Then, dressed only in her long hair, she rode through the empty streets. Only one person—Peeping Tom—ignored her request, and he was struck blind at the sight of her resplendent body. The region around Coventry was home to the Celtic tribe called the Brigantes, who recognized the horse goddess either as epona or under another name. Their own tribal name indicates that they honored brigit, a goddess known in other contexts to have the power both to blind and to restore sight. The image of a mounted woman clad only in her hair is known in Ireland from the story of the forthright heroine grainne. Finally, female nakedness as a Celtic cult practice to increase the fertility of the fields is known from classical sources, including the Roman author Pliny; Lady Godiva’s ride had the effect of providing more abundance for her impoverished people. Thus the legend of Lady Godiva both disguises and preserves the image of an ancient goddess protector. Welsh heroine or goddess. Chosen to perform the ceremonially important office of footholder to king math of Wales, whose feet were never to touch the ground—a common indicator of a sacred king—Goewin had the misfortune to inspire lust in the heart of one of Math’s nephews. Aided and abetted by his brother, the trickster poet gwydion, gil-faethwy raped Goewin. He was punished severely for the crime, but Goewin lost both her virginity and her position, for only an untouched girl was permitted to hold the king’s feet. As partial recompense, Math married her and made her queen. Gog (Gogmagog, Gigmagog) Cornish folk-loric figure. This Cornish giant was described by Geoffrey of Monmouth as attacking the British king Brutus during his inauguration ceremonies, only to be soundly defeated by the warrior Corineus. The legendary figure later developed into two threatening beings, Gog and Magog, who attacked Londinium (London) during the reign of king Vortigen. Goibniu (Goibne, Gaibnenn, Gobnenn) Irish god. The smith of the tuatha de danann, the tribe of the goddess danu, Goibniu was one of the three gods of craft who created a new arm for their king nuada when his arm was struck clear off in battle. As a blemished king, it appeared Nuada would be forced to resign his rulership. Goibniu set to work, crafting a silver arm so perfect that, attached to the stump, it began working like a real arm. (Some versions say the god of healing, dian cecht, crafted the silver arm.) Nuada of the Silver Arm was still not considered unblemished, and so the stingy and evil half-Fomorian bres mac Elatha ascended to the throne, only to be driven out not long after. The situation was resolved when the gifted physician and magician miach sang incantations that made skin grow over Nuada’s silver arm, making him whole once again. With that bionic arm, Nuada was able to lead his people to victory in the second battle of mag tuired, which established the Tuatha De’s dominion in Ireland. Before the battle, the son of Bres and brigit came to spy upon Goibniu and steal his magical secrets. Goibniu killed the lad, ruadan, which caused his mother to invent the wild sound of keening to express her grief. For himself, Goibniu was able to heal his wounds by traveling to the sacred well on slane hill. Every smith was a magical figure in ancient Ireland, turning raw stone first into metal and then into beautiful and useful objects such as jewelry and weapons. Such high prestige carries over to the mythological sphere as well. Sometimes named as the owner of the glas ghaibhleann, the cow of abundance, Goibniu was said to live in Co. Cavan, where the name of the Iron Mountains suggest an early mining industry. This connection with abundance is also emphasized by the myth that Goibniu possessed a cauldron from which his guests could endlessly drink and, instead of becoming intoxicated, grow ever younger and more healthy. In folklore Goibniu survived as goban saor, a sharp and clever smith who appears in many tales. Goidel (Gadelus, Gaedhal, Gael, Gaedel Glas, Gathelus) Irish hero. It is probable that this figure is a literary invention rather than a real divinity; he is named as the ancestor of the Goidelic (Gaelic) Celts of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In a complicated and clearly Christianized text, he is said to have been the grandson of an Egyptian Pharaoh, healed of a childhood illness by the biblical Moses. English poet and propagandist Edmund Spenser described Goidel or Gathelus as the son of Cecrops of Argos, a mythological Greek king, who married a princess of Egypt and took her to Spain, where they became the ancestors of the Irish race. Goidel may be the same as the figure who otherwise appears as Mil (see milesians), although he is also called one of Mil’s sons or grandsons. His ancestor rifath scot was the one who, in the chaos of the biblical Tower of Babel, became a speaker of Scots Gaelic; Goidel himself created the Irish language by joining words from the other 72 languages he knew. Symbolic metal. Gold was a valuable metal to the Celts, who were renowned as metalworkers, but its value was based as much in myth as in commerce. It was associated with the sun and, as such, with prosperity brought about through the growth and abundance of summer’s vegetation. This association made gold a sought-after metal for personal ornamentation; torcs or neck-rings of twisted gold are among the treasures of ancient Celtic design and craftsmanship. Ritual objects, like the golden boat found in Broighter bog, also attest to the importance of gold to the Celts, both insular and Continental. The Celtic reverence for gold was noted by ancient authors. Diodorus Siculus noted that the Celts had "a strange and peculiar custom in connection with the sanctuaries of the gods; for in the temples and sanctuaries which are dedicated throughout the country a large amount of gold is openly placed as a dedication to the gods." The openly displayed gold would not be stolen, for that would bring on unshakable bad fortune; the same tradition can be found in the placing of coins in sacred spots in Ireland and Britain today, which similarly tend to remain undisturbed. Gold was also linked with the goddess and her diminished form, the fairy queen, for such beings were often described as having long golden hair. aine and etain are described as combing their golden locks with a golden comb. The lights of fairyland are often said to be gold, and human greed could be tempted by the apparent wealth of gold found there, though stolen pocketsful would reveal themselves to be only the butter-colored flowers of the gorse when the visitor returned to earth. In degraded form after the decline of Celtic religion, this magical substance became nothing but money, as when leprechauns were sought for their pot of gold and the treasure of the goddess was transformed into the "Money Hole" of munster, a place of inexhaustible wealth lost somewhere on the slopes of the Loughfennel mountains. Thistles were sometimes said to grow at locations of buried fairy gold. Welsh heroine or goddess. The legend of this Welsh princess, whose name means "bright day," probably disguises an ancient goddess of fertility, who may derive either from Celtic or pre-Celtic sources. She married a prince, cilydd, but was unable to conceive by him, causing consternation among her people, who both wished for an heir to the throne and worried over the symbolism of a barren couple on the throne. Unfortunately, when she finally became pregnant, Goleuddydd went mad and refused to live indoors, raging through the wilderness instead (the same motif is found in the Irish tale of mess buachalla). When the time of her labor came, she went to the sty of a swineherd and there bore her son, thereafter called kulhwch or "pig." Like rhiannon, the Welsh horse-goddess who bore a colt, we have here a transparent disguise for an ancient pig goddess of fertility. Goll mac Morna (Aed, Aodh mac Fidga) Irish hero. This one-eyed warrior was the traditional enemy of the great Irish hero fionn mac cumhaill. He was a hero originally named Aed ("bright"), son of Morna (hence, mac Morna). His father may have been a giant of the fir bolg people, who are associated with the province of connacht, also Goll’s domain. When Aed lost an eye in combat with a man named Luchet, he became Goll ("the one-eyed"). Other versions of the tale say that Goll’s opponent was cumhall, Fionn’s father, whom Goll promptly killed and beheaded. This initiated an endless feud between Goll’s family, the clan morna, and Fionn’s, the clan ba^scne. Goll was not always Fionn’s enemy, for he rescued the hero from the clutches of three powerful hags who held him captive in the cave of Keshcorran, and Fionn rewarded him by giving Goll his daughter in marriage. Nor was Fionn always Goll’s foe, for he once found him sleeping by the Shannon River and, sheathing his sword, let the weary one-eyed warrior rest. Thus many see Fionn and Goll as part of a mythological cycle in which each relies upon as well as opposes the other. Ultimately, however, enmity rules: Fionn, freed from Keshcorran, promptly killed Goll’s grandson fer i, which began the cycle of violence again. Ultimately driven to the edge of Ireland, Goll lived without food or water for 30 days, becoming wild with despair and hunger before dying at the hands of a minor member of the fianna, Mac Smaile. Goll’s death did not end the feud, which continued until the Fianna was finally overcome at the battle of gabhair. Some legends say that after his death Goll found a new home in one of the magical islands of the western sea, on whose shores he had met his doom. Goll also appears in the legend of lugh, the half-fomorian, half-tuatha de danann hero best known for killing his grandfather, the fierce and evil balor. One version says that Lugh was killed by Goll, while in another Lugh killed Goll after the great second battle of mag tuired. Goll himself is easily confused with the Fomorian king Balor, who had one evil eye that killed with a glance. Finally, a minor tale describes Goll’s death at the hands of the young warrior laoghaire mac Crimthann, who won the hand of his beloved der greine as a result of his successful battle against the gigantic Goll. Goll mac Morna may be connected with, or identical to, another one-eyed figure, the salmon who swam in the pool near the famous waterfall of assaroe and sometimes named fin-tan, who also bore the name of Goll Essa Ruaid. This identification further links Goll to Fionn, for it was the salmon of Assaroe that, cooked and accidentally eaten by Fionn (see finneces) that gave Fionn his magical insight and wisdom. Finally, Goll mac Morna has been linked to another one-eyed hero, Goll mac Carbada, killed by the ulster hero cuchulainn in a fight that echoes Fionn’s with Goll. Golwg (Golwg Haffddydd) Welsh heroine. In some early Arthurian legends, this is the name of the maidservant to esyllt, who later became the lover of a friend of trystan’s. When the story evolves into that of Tristan and iseult, the maid’s name is given as brangien. Symbolic bird. Both the tame and the wild goose (see barnacle goose) had mythological and symbolic significance to the Celts. The barnyard goose, a notoriously aggressive being, was seen as an image of the warrior divinities, both male and feamle. Stone geese lined the temples of Gaul, while Brittany produced bronzes of war goddesses with goose-head helmets. Given this symbolism, it is ironic that the Celtic siege of Rome was ended when the geese of the goddess Juno Moneta’s temple set up such a commotion that the defenders were roused and the invading Celts defeated. So strong was the identification of Celtic people with the goose that the animal was a taboo food among the Britons, used for divination and eaten only on ritual occasions. Some fairy beings could change by shape-shifting into geese, as could the waterbird-hero Geroid Iarla. Goreu (Goreu fab Custennin) Welsh hero. A relatively obscure character, Goreu appears as a hidden child in the story of KUHLWCH AND OLWEN—hidden because a giant, olwen’s father yspaddaden penkawr, had eaten his 22 earlier-born siblings. Freed by king arthur, Goreu became a member of the court of camelot and ultimately slew his family’s gigantic enemy. Greek goddess. A familiar icon to the Romans was the decapitated head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose image from Greek mythology was taken over by them and used as an apotropaic or warning sign. When the Roman legions arrived in Celtic lands, they found a well-established cult of the head; the Gorgon seemed a familiar emblem and was adopted into some Romano-Celtic temples,most notably that of sul at the famous thermal springs or aquae sulis at Bath in southwestern Britain. While Medusa was a goddess, the Celtic sacred head was typically a male one; thus the "male Gorgon" found in the temple of Sulis is a unique melding of Greek, Roman, and Celtic meanings in one image. Irish mythological site. Somewhere in the otherworld was the magical city of Gorias, from which the tuatha de danann received one of their great treasures, the spear of lugh. Arthurian hero. igraine, one of the most beautiful women in Wales, was married to the duke of Cornwall, Gorlois, and was the mother of several daughters, including the magical morgan and the doomed morgause. Although she was happy with her husband, Igraine caught the attention of the heroic uther pendragon, who wished to take her to bed. Igraine was a faithful wife, however, and so Uther conspired with the magician merlin to appear to Igraine in the body of her husband. Igraine did not know that Gorlois was already dead by Uther’s hand when she conceived arthur, the once and future king of Britain. Gorm (Gorm the Grim) British mythological site. The image of a giant of this name is carved into the side of the gorge of the River Avon. Gorm probably descended from a local divinity made monstrous by the interpretations of Celtic (possibly Viking) religion by Christian priests. The image was said to represent a cannibal; vestiges of belief in a figure with this name are also found in Orkney. Symbolic plant. A hardy plant found throughout Ireland and Britain, gorse grows in harsh as well as fertile conditions. In spring the tough prickly bushes burst out with velvety fragrant yellow flowers, some of which remain through the summer. It had two major uses: as a fuel, for it is plentiful and burns at an intense heat; and as the mainstay of hedges, for cattle hesitate to approach its spiny, dense growth. In Wales, a sprig of gorse was worn as protection against witchcraft. (See also furze.) Govannon (Gofannon, Gafannon) Welsh god. The Welsh smith god, a parallel deity to the Irish goibniu, was a great artificer linked with the magician king math. Smithcraft was considered almost magical in early times, when the refining of metal was still a new and rare process. The divine smith had agricultural powers as well, for it was he who cleaned the plows at the end of planting, to ensure that the tools of abundance would serve another year. Govannon appears in the collection of myths called the MABINOGION as the accidental murderer of the goddess arianrhod’s magical son dylan, who was mourned by the very waves of the sea. In folklore Govannon was renamed goban saor and described as the builder of early churches. In addition to his role as god of craftsmanship, Govannon had power over the elements and the weather; some have found in him an ancient thunder divinity like taranis. Gradlon (Gradlon Muer, Grallon, Garallon, Gralon) Breton hero. In one of the most dramatic stories from the Celtic region of France— Cornuoille or Brittany—we learn of the king Gradlon and his beautiful pagan daughter, dahut. He was a loving father who indulged his daughter’s every wish, including attending her nightly balls and other diversions within the walls that protected the low-lying city from the surging sea. A monk, guenole, warned him about his daughter’s allegedly evil proclivities, but Gradlon would hear nothing against Dahut. Yet the beautiful city of ys was doomed, for Dahut attracted the attention of cado, a sea god or sea monster who wanted to drag the princess down to the undersea world with him. The monk saved Gradlon, for the king had accepted Christianity despite his daughter’s more traditional beliefs; in some variants, Guenole forces Gradlon to sacrifice Dahut to the sea in order to save himself, while in others the two simply escape as the deluge pours into the magnificent city of Ys. Gradlon appears in several other tales from Brittany, which show him as a model of the Celtic regional king who made his land wealthy and who protected it by defeating the Vikings on the Loire river. In some texts, his name is said to have been borne by later kings of the region. Grail (Holy Grail) Symbolic object. Generally pictured as the sacred cup from which the Christian savior Jesus drank at his Last Supper in Jerusalem, the Grail is also sometimes said to be the platter on which he was served his bread or paschal lamb at the Passover dinner he shared with his disciples on the night before he died. A third alternative holds that the Grail was a cup that caught the blood of Jesus as he lay dying. After his crucifixion and resurrection, joseph of arimathea, a merchant at whose house the Last Supper was held, transported the Grail to Britain. Thus the Christian emblem of the mystery of transubstantiation—the change of common bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus—became grafted onto a series of legends and myths of Celtic origin to become a complex yet compelling tale that continues to inspire poets and thinkers. The Grail quest was set in motion by a young knight of the round table, percival, who found himself in a dead kingdom ruled over by a king who had been wounded in his groin, the symbol of his fertility, and so could do nothing but fish in the land’s increasingly empty lakes, for which reason he was called the fisher king. The king welcomed Percival to his castle, where a banquet was prepared. There the young knight was presented with strange visions: Before his eyes appeared a floating chalice and a bleeding lance that hovered in midair while the court sat in silence. Percival chose to remain silent in the face of these marvels, never asking what they signified. The vision then evaporated, as did the palace and the king and all his court. And so the quest began. The Grail quest took a different form for each knight who embarked upon it, for each was granted the quest appropriate to his character. Various endings are proposed in various texts: The thinly disguised Christian hero galahad receives the Grail and is transfigured into sanctity; lancelot finds the Grail Castle but falls into a trance and does not enter; Percival returns to the Grail Castle, asks the relevant questions—whose is the cup, why does the lance bleed, and what does it all mean?—and thus heals the king and restores the land, after which he himself is elevated to the kingship. The story of the quest for the Grail includes several Celtic motifs. The Fisher King is the blemished king of Celtic tradition, which held that any king with a physical blemish could not rule. The Grail itself is the cauldron that appears in many forms in Celtic myth: It is the Welsh goddess ceridwen’s cauldron wherein wisdom was brewed, the cauldron of rebirth of the Welsh hero efnisien, and the great ever-abundant cauldron of the Irish god dagda. The symbolic meaning of the Grail fluctuates, but it is connected generally to fertility, although in some Christian tellings it appears to represent the opposite, being linked with the refusal to accept sexuality and thus with sterility. Grainne (Grania, Grainne, Grace) Irish heroine or goddess. The story of this fiery woman and her lover diarmait Ua Duibne is one of the most famous of the entire fenian cycle, told and retold in many variants. It begins with a race up the sides of the munster mountain called slieve-namon, "the mountain of the women." When the aging hero fionn mac cumhaill announced that he would wed the fastest woman in Ireland, the self-possessed princess Grainne decided that the honor should be hers. Fionn sat on the cairn atop the mountain, and at a signal all the women raced toward him. Fleet of foot and fierce of heart, Grainne reached the prize first. And so the wedding was set. Various texts claim that Grainne was a princess of ulster, of Munster, or of tara. Most agree that the wedding feast was held on the royal hill of Tara, where a monument called Rath Grainne still stands. But before the wedding festivities had ended, Grainne had noticed that her new husband was considerably older than she was. Restlessly, she looked around. Among the gathered heroes of Fionn’s band, the fianna, was Diarmait Ua Duibne, a young man who had many clearly visible attractions but whose most irresistible was under cover. Either a cap or bangs always covered Diarmait’s forehead, for there was a dimple or birthmark called a BALL SEIRC—a beauty mark that caused any woman who saw it to grow crazy with love. At the festival, Diarmait was playing with Fionn’s dogs, and as he did so he happened to toss his hair from his forehead, and the ball seirc was revealed. Instantly Grainne fell hopelessly in love with him. (This theme of fated love occurs as well in the Celtic-inspired story of tristan and iseult, but there the fated affair is launched through mistaken sharing of a love elixir.) Diarmait had no desire to run off with the new wife of his leader, one of Ireland’s fiercest warriors. But he did not reckon on Grainne’s willfulness. Grainne learned that Diarmait was under a GEIS, a sacred vow, never to refuse a woman who came to him neither clothed nor unclothed, neither afoot nor on horseback, in neither daylight or dark. And so Grainne arrived veiled in mountain mist or catkin down, mounted on a goat, just at sunset, and thus found a way to force him to run away from Fionn with her. In some versions of the tale, Grainne drugged the entire Fianna—including her intended husband, but sparing the man she desired—and convinced Diarmait to elope with her. The couple ran toward the Shannon River that cuts Ireland in half, sleeping there in what became known as the Wood of the Two Tents, for Diarmait feared to sleep in the same tent with Grainne, knowing that Fionn was on their trail. Once again Grainne prevailed, mildly mentioning to Diarmait—after a narrow escape from a monster—how nice it was to know something, at least, found her desirable. Shamed, Diarmait joined Grainne in her tent. Fionn was indeed behind them, together with the entire Fianna. The couple kept a step ahead of their pursuers, Grainne wrapped in a cloak of invisibility while Diarmait leaped stupendous lengths to stay out of danger’s reach. Each night they slept on a different stone bed, so that the dolmens that mark the Irish countryside are now known as the "beds of Diarmait and Grainne." They ran so far and so fast that they never slept two nights in one place nor ate a cooked supper— but they ran far and fast together. Finally, however, they grew exhausted by their constant travel and took refuge with a giant named searbhan, who let the couple hide in his magical rowan tree, warning them however to leave the berries strictly alone. But hungry Grainne could not resist, and Diarmait killed Searbhan so that the two could eat the magical fruit. Unfortunately, Searbhan’s dying screams revealed the couple’s location to the pursuing Fionn. Climbing quickly up the tree, Diarmait and Grainne hid from her former suitor, his former leader, but Fionn suspected where they were. He sat beneath the tree and began to play FIDCHELL, a cribbage-like board game that had been Diarmait’s passion, against his friend oisin the bard. Unable to resist indicating the best move to his chum, Diarmait dropped berries onto the board from above, thus revealing his location to Fionn. And so the pursuit began again, until the god aonghus og pleaded the lovers’ cause to the pursuing Fionn, and the pair was restored to favor. They did not return to Fionn’s abode at the fort of Almu, rather, they retired to Grainne’s rath near the magical cave of Keshcorran in Co. Sligo. Fionn finally had his revenge: He lured Diarmait into a wild boar hunt atop the legendary peak of ben bulben, knowing that the young man was under a geis never to hunt boar and realizing that Diarmait would have a hard fight against the boar, Gulben, who was a man whom his father had killed, enchanted into that fierce form. When the magical boar lay dead with no injury to Diarmait, Fionn again taunted his rival, forcing him to pace out the length of the corpse. A sharp bristle stabbed him and Diarmait fell down, near death from unquenchable bleeding. He begged Fionn to bring him water, and the old man did so, but then let it trickle away as the dying Diarmait watched, remarking that Grainne should see his beautiful body like that, all covered with gore and blood. Because of her name, which hides the word for sun within it, Grainne has been often interpreted as a diminished goddess of sovereignty, whose selection of Diarmait over the failing Fionn meant the passage of her power to the younger man. Similarly, the circuit of Ireland by the loving couple recalls the king’s circuit of his lands with the goddess as well as the daily movement of the sun across the landscape. Irish heroine. In Co. Limerick, at Carrigogunnel ("rock of the candle"), a light shone every night, killing whoever cast eyes upon it. Grana was the name of the witch or fairy who lit the smiting candle; she may be a diminished form of grainne or grian, goddesses associated with that area. One of the valiant fianna, Regan, donned a cap of invisibility and snuffed Grana’s candle, thereby destroying her power. Gray Man (Far Liath, Liath Mhor) Scottish folkloric figure. A giant specter who haunted the Scottish shores as well as those of Ireland, the Gray Man is thought to personify the sea mist in which travelers can be lost and, thereafter, drowned. He looked especially for boats carrying red-haired people and women but would attack any other boats at whim. Symbolic color. Together with red, this was the color most favored by the fairy races who inhabit the ancient Celtic lands. Many humans, especially in Scotland, traditionally refused to wear this color so as not to offend their fairy neighbors; indeed, some Scottish families considered it fatal to don the color. Common associations between the color green and flourishing vegetation point to the fairies’ earlier incarnation as spirits of fertility and abundance. Green Children British folkloric figures. Mythology and history collide in the tale of the Green Children, a girl and boy with green skin and hair who abruptly appeared in Suffolk in the 12th century. They spoke no known language and, although clearly ravenous, refused to eat the meat they were offered. Although the boy died shortly after the pair crawled out of a hole under a downed tree, the girl lived to learn enough human speech to tell her rescuers that she and her brother came from a race that lived beneath the earth. She called her home St. Martin’s Land, which she described as a land of constant rain that otherwise closely resembled the upper world. The girl explained that she and her brother had become lost while tending their flocks and had accidentally come up to the surface world. The girl later married, but she kept frequenting the place of her emergence and one day disappeared, presumably to find her way home. Recent theories hold that the children were not fairies at all—as their coloring sug-gested—but that their green hue was the effect of malnutrition, and that they were simply lost children from a war-torn area of England who had reached the unfamiliar "surface" by traveling through abandoned mineshafts. Green Isle Scottish mythological site. One of the fortunate isles, the Green Isle was a part of fairyland filled with orchards of magical fruit, especially apples. The Green Isle was sometimes called the Isle of Apples and imagined to be inhabited only by women. Green Ladies British folkloric figures. Like the identically named dames vertes in France, these fairy maidens were thought to haunt fresh water—wells and lakes and pools—in Britain. They were sometimes destructive, luring people to their death like mermaids, but could be jovial and pleasant as well. Green Man British folkloric figure. Found carved in stone and wood in English medieval art, this figure of a man’s face peering out from leaves and branches—or perhaps composed of those leaves and branches—is one of the most evocative and mysterious evidences of folk belief in Celtic lands. Although known by no other name than the Green Man, he has been interpreted as representing a guardian spirit of the corn, a masculine force of abundance. Most faces have a mild or even benevolent look, although a few look angry or threatening; some seem intoxicated. A similar figure is found outside England as early as Roman times, when a male Medusa was sometimes used as an ornament; whether the head had religious significance is unknown, although he may have represented the woodland god silvanus. But the male mask in Britain is distinct in that the leaves are not a decoration but part of the face, which either emerges from them or dissolves into them. If there was a myth or legend that defined the meaning of the Green Man, it has been lost. It is possible, however, that vestiges remain in literature and folk tradition. The Knight that gawain meets in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is often interpreted as a literary reflection of this figure. The dancer called jack-in-the-green, who wears a leaf-covered mask in some British festivals on beltane (May 1), may be a living representative of the Green Man. Irish goddess. Although many commentators find evidence of sun gods among the Celts, there is equal or stronger evidence that the sun was seen as a goddess, at least in Ireland where a goddess with the clearly solar name of Grian ("sun") is found. As her name is pronounced like "green," some places that include this syllable, like Pallas Green near the fairy hill of knockainy, may refer to Grian; some have posited the derivation of that word from the solar power to bring forth plants. Although no myths remain of Grian in Ireland, she is found in place-names like Tuamgraney and Lough Graney, which are also described as locations important to the obscure figure gillagreine. Grian is described as the sister or twin of another goddess with solar attributes, aine, the goddess or fairy queen of the magical lake lough gur. As Aine was associated with summer rituals, it has been proposed that Grian ruled the winter sun. Whether there is any connection between Grian and the vibrant heroine grainne is not established. Many goddesses were called Grian as a kind of title; thus Macha is called "sun of womanfolk." Grianan Aileach (Greenan Elly, Aileach, Oileach; Ailech Neit; Aleach Ned) Irish mythological site. An impressive, huge stone triple-walled hillfort in Co. Donegal goes by this name, which means the "sunroom" (grianan) of the otherwise unknown Aileach, said to be a woman or a goddess buried under the structure. But the vast circle of stone is no sunroom, and Aileach has also been defined as the name of the land or the tribe of its builders. Thus while the structure itself speaks eloquently of past importance, the name is more puzzling than explanatory. Occasionally it is said to have been named after grian, the hypothesized sun goddess, but that is true only insofar as the word grianan derives from that of the sun. Aileach is listed in early texts as the capital of the province of ulster after the fall of emain macha, thus putting it on the same level of such important sites as tara and cruachan. Legend has it that the tuatha de danann, the mythological tribe of the goddess danu, built Grianan Aileach and held it against the milesian invaders; their king, nuada of the Silver Arm, is said to be buried beneath its walls. The site was also the special home of the beneficent god dagda, who buried his son aed Minbhrec there. Grianan Aileach was one of the last forts to be held by the historical rulers who descended from the Celts, for it remained the seat of the Ui Neill dynasty, descendants of niall of the Nine Hostages, until the 13 th century. Grimes Grave Goddess British goddess. Because it is difficult if not impossible to date rock, the cultural origin of the tiny figure that goes by this name cannot be unquestionably established. The goddess was found in Norfolk, England, in the area of prehistoric (4000 b.c.e.) flint mines called Grimes Graves, where pit-mines as deep as 50 feet were dug with only deer antlers as shovels. Roughly shaped from white chalk, the goddess figure is squat and smirking, possibly pregnant; she reminds many observers of the sheela na gig, controversially labeled a goddess figure. That the Grimes Goddess was deliberately deposited in the mine is argued by the offerings found with it: a chalk phallus and several small chalk balls, a chalk lamp, flint blocks, and antlers. The original name of the goddess has been lost, and her meaning can only be a subject of conjecture. Breton folkloric figure. In Brittany we find a folkloric figure that may be related to the Scottish and Irish GRUAGACH, but which had an evil disposition in contrast to the gruagach’s helpful one. Once, it was said, there was a boy and a girl, promised as spouses to each other at birth but orphaned and left to grow up as best they could. When he came of age the boy, Huarn, went off to seek his fortune. His intended, Bellah, gave him three talismans: a bell that would ring when he was in danger; a knife that would free him from any bonds; and a staff that would take him wherever he wanted to go. Off Huara set, walking until he reached the Isle of Lok, where a fairy woman lived surrounded by the waters of the lake. She took him beneath the water and showed him a palace, all built of seashells with crystal and coral decorations that made soft music as he passed. A garden of water plants grew around it, and within it people were celebrating merrily. Inside the palace the groa’ch lay down upon a golden bed, her green dress clinging to her voluptuous body and coral ornaments winking from her silky black hair. She urged the boy to stay with her, promising him the riches of the sea, for her lake opened into it through a secret passage, and all her treasure was gathered from ships that sank in the ocean. Huach almost forgot himself in the splendor of this fairyland, but back home Bellah heard the bell ring and, disguised as a boy, came rushing to save her promised lover. As they escaped together, the sea drowned the palace of the tempting but destructive water-witch. Gromer Somer Joure Arthurian hero. The beautiful maiden ragnell was turned into a hag by this evil magician. Gronw Pebyr Welsh hero. After the Welsh poet-hero gwydion had created a woman of flowers for his son/nephew lleu llaw gyffes, the flower-wife blodeuwedd grew tired of her husband and fell in love with the hunter Gronw Pebyr. The two conspired to kill Lleu, with Blodeuwedd providing the secret information about her husband’s vulnerability and Gronw Pebyr striking the fatal blows. Gruagach (grogan, grogach) Scottish and Irish folkloric figure. This figure may descend from Celtic guardian divinities who watched over specific families and may originally have been divine ancestors. In Scotland the gruagach was a fairy woman who watched the cattle like a barnyard brownie; she required frequent libations of milk, preferably poured into special hollowed-out stones (see BULLAUN) called leacna gruagach. She dressed in green, as was the fairies’ habit, and had long golden hair, another indication of her otherworld nature. Even on sunny days, she was often drenched, as though she had been out in a downpour, and quietly asked humans who encountered her if she could stand beside the fire and dry herself. The gruagach could also be male; in Co. Donegal, an immigrant Scottish family reported seeing a small man hanging about the farmstead, dressed only in his long red hair (a sure sign of fairy blood). When the farmer was later injured while threshing oats, the little naked fellow took over and kept a steady pace of work despite his lack of appropriate attire. The woman of the place, apparently suspecting her laborer was a fairy, avoided speaking to him or thanking him for his work (see laying the fairies). But after several days of work by the gruagach, the woman took pity upon his nakedness and knit him a tiny sweater. That was all it took; the little guy disappeared the next day. The gruagach’s name has been connected with terms for "hair," with which they were believed to be spectacularly endowed. Irish hero. The father of the mountain goddess ebhlinne of munster, Guaire lived in the great bru na boinne, the prehistoric stone complex on the banks of the River Boyne, far to the north of his daughter’s land. Another Guaire was an historical king of connacht, renowned for his generosity; he even provided meals to anchorites in the nearby mountains by having the food whisked through the air. Guaire’s castle at Kinvarra in Co. Galway, which can still be visited today, was the site of the challenge to the bard Senchan, which resulted in the return of the lost epic, TAIN BO CUAILNGE, from the otherworld. Manx curse or prayer. On the Isle of Man, it was traditional to both pray and curse while kneeling; cursing was called "wishing upon the knees." One strong traditional curse was called the Skeab Lome or "naked broom," in which a broom was invoked as a power to sweep away evil (or one’s enemies). Guenole (Guenole, Gwennole, Winwaloe) Breton hero. This Breton saint was the abbot of ys, the beautiful doomed city of the pagan princess dahut. It was Guenole who saved gradlon, Dahut’s father, while sentencing Dahut to die beneath the waves of the sea. Such figures, interpolated into Celtic myth with the coming of Christianity, sometimes have at their root an ancient elemental divinity, transformed and humanized. As Guenole is connected with the sea, he may have taken on some aspects of an ancient sea god; conversely, he may simply represent the intrusion of Christian morality into Celtic culture. Guinevere (Guenievre, Gwenhwyvar, Gwen-hwyfar, Ganore) Arthurian heroine or goddess. The theory that the stories of the quasi-historical king of Britain, arthur, derive from Celtic mythology is strongly supported by the central position of Guinevere in the tales. If, as many agree, Arthur’s "wife" is a thinly disguised Welsh goddess, the sad tale of her betrayal of the aging king for the noble younger man becomes a variant of the common story of the king’s marriage to the goddess of sovereignty—a goddess who married one king after another, for she was the land itself. In offering herself to the manly knight lancelot, by this interpretation, Guinevere enacted the traditional role of the goddess. Variants in which Arthur married three women, each named Guinevere, further strengthen the identification of this queen with the three-fold goddess, as does the derivation of her name (gwen, white; hwyvvar, fairy or spirit) from words that link her to the other-world and to the Irish goddess/heroine finnabair. Similarly, her marriage to Arthur on the festival of summer’s beginning, beltane, points to a ritual drama rather than merely a dynastic alliance. The story of Guinevere’s marriage to an aging king and her later love for a handsome knight almost exactly parallels the Irish story of fair grainne and her young lover diarmait, who ran away from the aging fionn mac cumhaill; there are also parallels in the forced marriage of the the young heroine iseult to king mark of Cornwall despite her love for the younger tristan. Like Diarmait, Lancelot at first attempted to maintain his loyalty to his king while sleeping next to the woman he loved, placing a sword between them to deter intimacy, just as Diarmait pitched two separate tents. Ultimately, however, love conquered caution, and the resulting affair between Lancelot and Guinevere split the loyalties of Arthur’s knights of the round table. Many of them went off on hopeless quests, including that for the grail. Guinevere finally determined that she could no longer live with Arthur and arranged an abduction, instructing her maidens to dress in green—the color of fairyland—on the morning of Beltane, further support for the idea that she was herself from the Otherworld. Some versions of the story describe a decision by Arthur to execute Guinevere for her unfaithfulness, with Lancelot rescuing her at the last minute from the flames. Her escape, however, was followed by an eventual return to Arthur. By then the court of camelot was in ruins and its king was in combat with his mortal enemy and bastard son, mor-dred. Although in many tellings Guinevere is blamed for the shambles that Camelot became, it was Arthur who had planted the seed of its downfall. Arguments for interpretation of Guinevere as the goddess of Sovereignty point to early legends that Mordred carried off and married Guinevere in an attempt to solidify his claim to Camelot’s throne, suggesting that she, rather than Arthur, held the keys to the kingdom. Contemporary renderings of the tale, including Marion Zimmer Bradley’s wildly popular Mists of Avalon, attempt to redeem centuries of disdain for Guinevere. Arthurian hero. A minor figure in the tales of camelot, Guinglain was the son of the transformed hag, ragnell, and the exemplary knight of the round table, gawain. Gundestrup Cauldron Archaeological treasure. In 1891 a great silver cauldron was found in a Danish peat bog, where it may have been either ritually deposited or hidden in a time of crisis. Bas-reliefs across the face of the vessel, which is believed to date from the 2nd or 1st century b.c.e. show enigmatic scenes that appear to be rituals, and figures that appear to be divine. Because the site where the treasure was found is of ambiguous history, it has sometimes been argued that the cauldron represents Germanic rather than Celtic material, but most scholars agree that the cauldron either was of Celtic manufacture or was influenced by Celtic belief. A goddess being conveyed on a cart and a horned god resembling the one known elsewhere as cer-nunnos are among the most important figures on the vessel. Scottish folkloric figure. A cattle-herding brownie of the Scottish islands, the gunna hung about small farms making sure the cows did not trample the garden. As with many such helpful sprites, he went naked despite the weather. Any attempt to provide clothes drove the gunna away (see laying the fairies). Gutuatros (pl., Gutuatri) Continental Celtic social role. This name was born by certain continental Celtic druids who served at specific temples. As the name appears to mean "speakers," they may have practiced divination. Guy Fawkes British folkloric belief. The 1605 failure by Roman Catholics to destroy the English Houses of Parliament, led by a man named Guy Fawkes, led to an annual festival, supposedly in honor of the conspirators’ execution. The date of the festival, November 5, is suspiciously close to the old Celtic feast of winter’s beginning, samhain, on November 1. In addition, the typical celebration involves bonfires, which may have replaced the festival fires traditional to Samhain. Arthurian hero. The lover of king arthur’s half sister, the sorceress morgan, Guyomard was an untrustworthy knight who so angered Morgan that she cursed a valley in the magical forest of broceliande. Any knight who wandered into that perilous valley after being unfaithful to his mistress would be trapped there forever, surrounded by imagined demons and insurmountable obstacles. lancelot, who was ever true in his heart to his beloved Guinevere, finally broke the enchantment. Gwalchmei (Gwalchmei fab Gwyar) Welsh hero. In Arthurian legend, Gwalchmei appears as the world’s speediest runner and as one of the advisers to the mythological king arthur. Gwarthegy llyn Welsh folkloric figures. Most Celtic lands have tales of fairy cows that recall the supreme importance of their herds to the ancient Celts. In both Scotland and Ireland these cattle of the otherworld were imagined as having the typical coloring of fairy beings: red body and white ears. In Wales the pattern changed slightly, for the gwartheg were completely white like ghosts. They could interbreed with the stock of earthly farmers, much to the advantage of the mortal cows visited by a stray white fairy bull. Alternatively, a fairy cow might decide to settle down on this side of the veil, producing prodigious amounts of milk until, like the mythical cow of abundance called the glas ghaibhleann, she was driven away by greed. One farmer who attempted to slaughter his fairy cow found her and all her progeny called away by a lake-maiden. Welsh hero. A minor character in the Welsh MABINOGION, he was a suitor for the hand of the goddess/queen rhiannon against the heroic king pwyll. Through trickery, Gwawl forced Pwyll to step back from his suit, but Pwyll returned the favor by tricking Gwawl into crawling into a bag, which he then used like a football with his warriors. Gwendydd (Gwendolyn, Gwendolena, Gwend-dydd, Gwyneth, Ganieda, Venotia) Welsh heroine. This Welsh woman was the sister of the renowned magician merlin—perhaps his twin,perhaps his lover, perhaps both. It was to her that Merlin passed on his magical powers and his knowledge, once the seductive viviane had trapped him in her magical forest. In tales that describe her as Merlin’s wife, Gwendydd married the generous king rhydderch hael after Merlin went mad. Gwenfrewi (Winefride) Welsh heroine. The quasi-historical 7th-century Gwenfrewi was assaulted by a local prince, whose attempt on her virtue she managed to escape. He came after her and, drawing his sword, decapitated her as punishment for her self-control. Rolling down a hill, her head came to rest in a little valley, where a healing well immediately burst forth. Bueno, a minor saint and Gwenfrewi’s uncle, put her head back on her shoulders, where it instantly knit together, leaving only a small thin scar across the throat as evidence of the crime. Welsh hero. The child of the Welsh princess branwen and her Irish husband, king matholwch, did not live long. His uncle efnisien mutilated Matholwch’s horses without reason, which gave the king cause to hold Branwen a prisoner in Ireland, during which time she bore Gwern, who was named king of the land in his infancy. Efnisien killed Gwern by burning him alive when he was only three years old, causing the great battle in which most of the Welsh heroes and all the warriors of Ireland were killed. Gwion (Gwion Bach) Welsh hero. The name of the great Welsh bard taliesin in his first incarnation was Gwion, whose adventures began when he was a little boy hired by the great hag goddess ceridwen to tend to household tasks. An important one was to stir the cauldron in which Ceridwen brewed herbs for a year and a day, intending to make her ugly son afagddu wise, in order to make up for his appearance. Warned not to taste the brew, Gwion tried to follow orders, but the stuff bubbled out and seared his skin. The boy popped his finger into his mouth and, therefore, absorbed all the wisdom intended for the goddess’s son. In a series of transformations, Ceridwen pursued him until he turned himself into a grain of wheat that, transformed into a hen, she gobbled up. It impregnated her so that she gave birth to a reborn Gwion, who became the great poet Taliesin. Gwrach y rhibyn Welsh folkloric figure. Like the washer at the ford, this banshee-like fairy woman warned of imminent death, usually by standing at a crossroads or near a bend in a stream. She was huge and hideous, with coarse red hair, a massive nose, and eyes that shone red. Gwragedd annwn Welsh folkloric figure. While most fairy women were dangerous to humans, luring men to fairyland to enjoy and discard, the Welsh lake maidens or Gwragedd Annwn were a different breed, for they enjoyed settling down with human men and made excellent wives. However, there was a firm taboo against ever lifting a hand to such a lake maiden. Even a blow struck in jest caused them to leave husband and children behind, taking all their fairy wealth—which could be substantial—and plunging into the nearest lake. Welsh hero. This name was given to the kidnapped hero pryderi by his foster father, after the boy had miraculously appeared from out of the night sky one beltane. Gwyar (Anna) Welsh goddess. The story of this ancient Welsh goddess, wife of the god of heaven, is fragmentary. All that is left is the meaning of her name ("gore"); her relationship to king arthur, said to have been her brother (at other times the name given for Arthur’s sister is morgause or morgan); and the information that she had two sons, one good, the other bad. Gwyddno (Gwyddno Garanhir) Welsh hero. A minor figure in the story of KULHWCH AND OLWEN, he was said to have a basket that was magically filled with food at all times—a basket that Kulhwch had to steal in order to gain his beloved Olwen. Gwydion (Gwidion, Gwydion ab Don) Welsh hero. The son of the great Welsh mother goddess don, Gwydion figures importantly in the great compilation of myths called the MABINOGION. Although he is central to the action, he plays a secondary role to the more active parties: his brother gilfaethwy, his uncle math, his sister arianrhod. When Gilfaethwy conceived a lustful fixation upon the maiden goewin, ceremonial footholder to king Math, Gwydion helped him find an opportunity to rape her. In punishment, Math turned the brothers into deer, pigs, and wolves consecutively. When he gained his human form back, Gwydion proposed that, as the deflowered Goewin could no longer be footholder to Math, Arianrhod take her place. But Arianrhod failed to pass a magical test of virginity, giving birth to a wriggling lump of flesh that leapt into the sea to become dylan Son-of-Wave and another unformed child whom Gwydion nursed in a chest until he was old enough to claim arms and a name from his mother. Arianrhod, still angered by Gwydion’s connivances, refused, but Gwydion found a way to trick her into naming the boy lleu llaw gyffes. Next, with Math’s help, Gwydion formed a woman, blodeuwedd, from flowers to be the boy’s bride. That, too, ended poorly, with the girl attempting to murder her husband, who turned into an eagle. Gwydion, always ready with magic, brought Lleu back to human form and sent Blodeuwedd away in the form of an owl. Other tales show Gwydion changing fungus into horses and creating seagoing ships from thin air. Under the name of Gwion, he was imprisoned in the otherworld, where he became a bard as a result of the inspiration he received. He may have brought back more than poetry from the Otherworld of annwn, for one text refers to him as a thief who stole magical swine and brought them to the surface world. This magician, poet, and trickster is believed to be a diminished version of an earlier Welsh god, one whose domain included both the stars, where he lived in the Milky Way (Caer Gwydion), and the underworld of Annwn. Welsh folkloric figure. In Wales strange female spirits were said to haunt lonely roads. With her apron thrown over her shoulder, trudging wearily along carrying a wooden milk-pail, this ancient hag wore ash-colored rags and an oblong four-cornered hat. There is no record of her attacking those she met on the roads, but her appearance was fearsome enough to frighten lonely travelers. Like other members of the fairy races, she feared metal, especially iron, and vanished instantly if confronted with a knife or other piece of cutlery. Gwynn ap Nudd (Gwyn ap Nudd, Herne, Herne the Hunter, Gabriel) Welsh hero. The Welsh king of fairyland, "White One, son of the Dark," was said to reside under glaston-bury tor, the small pyramidal hill that is southwestern England’s most significant feature. Gwynn reigned over the folk called the TYLWYTH TEG, beautiful tiny people who wore blue and danced all night in the fashion of Irish fairies. His special feast was spring’s beginning, beltane, when he led the wild hunt to raid the land of the living. His name means Gwynn, son of Nudd; his father was king of a Hades-like Otherworld called annwn. He could materialize at will, surrounded by his beautiful host playing fairy music. His queen was the daughter of lludd, creiddylad, on whom Shakespeare based the character of Cordelia in King Lear. Alternative names used of Gwyn ap Nudd are Herne the Hunter, the frightening figure who skulks around Windsor Forest in England; and Gabriel, known best for his vicious fairy hounds. Gwythyr fab Greidawl Welsh folkloric figure. This warrior was one of two contenders for the hand of the maiden of springtime, creiddy-lad, in Welsh folk ceremonies that marked the beltane season. Representing the summer, Gwythyr always won, defeating the winter king, gwynn ap nudd. Next post: Previous post:
Our Impact : 3,36,97,500 people served and 5,01,97,500 ltr water dispensed What Are Water ATMs And How Do They Work? 06 August, 2016 Water is one of the most important amenities that a human being needs. It is also known to be the Liquid of Life as it is essential in many aspects of living. Be it for health or be it for daily needs, water supply is what everybody needs. However, in India, water has always raised problems in lives as there is insufficient supply of it. A lot of people struggle to get water for daily chores and a lot of people don't even have clean water to drink. To decrease this deficiency of clean drinking water, ATMs for water are being installed all over the country. This is going to be a huge boon as most of the cities and villages in India constantly face extreme water crises. So,what is water ATMs and how do they function? Let's know! What is a water ATM? The water ATMs are basically decentralized water purification plants, many of which work on the principle of reverse osmosis.They are nothing but water kiosks installed in various parts of India from where you can get clean drinking water. Nowadays, a lot of unauthorized colonies are showing up and there is scarcity in the supply of water. To solve such problems, the water ATMs are set up at important places where there is a need. How does the water ATM work? Firstly, you must know that water ATMs can be either powered by solar energy or through electrical energy. These ATMs usually operate on smart technologies like cloud computing, GSM etc. to capture usage and impact data. For purification the most commonly used techniques are reverse osmosis, ultra filtration, activated carbon filtration, precision filtrations etc. These technologies are often used in combination to give pure water to the users according to the quality of water available in a particular area. The pure water can be dispensed after chilling or at normal temperature depending upon availability of chiller in the ATM. . People can obtain water from such ATMs through the usage of smart cards.Such cards could be recharged and the recharge is done at the designated franchisee or by the plant operators. In one single go, the user can obtain nearly twenty liters of pure water. The planning To install water ATMs in different locations, knowledge of water quality of that particular location is a must as RO technology may not be apt for all locations, especially in those regions where the water's salinity is not that high . In locations like these, different technologies are to be used to treat the water. Future These Water ATMs are certainly going to play a major role in providing clean drinking water to the people who are in severe need of it. As these units are stand alone, they can be located in wide, scattered areas where government donot have piped water infrastructure to cater to drinking water needs of people. In the coming times, Water ATMs could serve as the most important way to make safe water available to common people. Want to Join Us...?
Category:Regions of Europe From ArticleWorld Regions of Europe are areas located in Europe and divided due to historical, cultural or geographical reasons. For example: the Balkans, Caucasus, British Isles, Iberian Peninsula, Nordic countries, Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, Basque Central Europe, etc. There is 1 subcategory to this category. Articles in category "Regions of Europe" There are 0 articles in this category.
Are You Electrosensitive? If you are, it’s not ‘just in your head.’That’s the conclusion made by a British government agency who acknowledged that electrosensitivity, a heightened reaction to electrical energy, is a physical, rather than a psychological, ailment. This action follows Sweden who has long recognised electrosensitivity as a physical impairment since 2000. (Not so in the USA, where it is still ignored by mainstream medicine.) When exposed to electromagnetic fields, people who have this condition suffer symptoms that include nausea, irregular heartbeat, fatigue, loss of memory, headaches, dizzines, muscle pains, skin problems, etc. In Sweden people who are allergic to electrical energy receive government support to reduce exposure in their homes and workplaces. This is a very important development. It is an official acknowledgement that electropollution is not a hype but a real problem. Here’s great quote from Olle Johansson, associate professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden: “If you put a radio near a source of EMFs you will get interference. The human brain has an electric field so if you put sources of EMFs nearby, it is not surprising that you get interference, interaction with systems and damage to cells and molecules.” Well, I don’t think you can get a plainer and simpler explanation than that. Read the report, Electrical Fields Can Make You Sick.
Categories: Atypical Family Date: Jul 29, 2015 Title: Helping Hands Sign language helped our baby communicate By Deborah Cavanagh My kindergarten report card stated, “I am not sure little Debbie is aware she is talking half the time she is talking.” Huntstock \| Getty Images My kindergarten report card stated, “I am not sure little Debbie is aware she is talking half the time she is talking.” I naturally assumed the apple would not fall far from the tree and I would have talkative children. I daydreamed a parenthood experience with baby talk, sing song conversations and hilarious mimicry. But my first little apple was born with challenges that made it difficult for her to prattle away. Amanda was diagnosed with Down syndrome and airway issues at birth. She had multiple surgeries that damaged her vocal cords. A tracheostomy tube was placed before she was 2 to assist with breathing. The diagnosis, hospitalizations and surgeries limited her ability to build pre-speech skills. We were told by many specialists that in most cases a baby’s receptive language, or what she comprehends, develops more quickly than her expressive language, what she can say. The gap can cause the child to experience frustration. That frustration can lead to tantrums by kiddo and parents—I’m just saying. We started exploring alternative communication options. While we fully expected Amanda to speak one day, we felt it necessary to give her the ability to get her point across as soon as possible. Researchers had discovered that babies could communicate using simple signs and gestures. Amanda was being treated by speech therapists who supported this idea. And the method has gained traction in recent years. “I feel that it helps a child communicate better, especially when the sign is paired with the verbal word. At a young age, a baby can’t articulate what they need but they can use hand gestures. They also comprehend what is being said to them. Signing gives the ability to link the two together, speech and gesture. It can lessen frustration and helps reduce temper tantrums because the child expresses what they need. A total communication approach bridges the gap,” said Christine Aiello, a speech therapist with Fayetteville-Manlius Schools who has worked with Amanda, in an emailed response to my question. But back in 1997 teaching babies sign language was controversial. The late Dr. Stanley Greenspan, author of several books on child development, believed teaching babies to use specific signs and gestures introduced an artificial element into the naturally developing communication system. “Anytime you do something repetitive with a baby, you’re reducing the flexibility and creativity of the child,” Greenspan told the Baltimore Sun. “I don’t want to say that parents who use sign language are doing something bad or wrong; that only makes the parent feel bad. But why not let your child learn to ask for a drink 30 different ways instead of just using one sign? What if there was only one way to express love? Or one gesture to show love?” Another concern at the time was that a signing child would not have the motivation to learn to talk and subsequently would begin to speak at a slower rate than those who did not use signs. My husband, Brian, and I read the pros and cons of introducing sign language. We wanted to know what was going on in the brain of the little person sharing our house. It was obvious to us that Amanda understood what we were saying to her. It was also obvious she had ideas she wanted to convey. We needed to let them out. We bought the book Baby Signs, by child development experts Linda Acredolo, Ph.D., and Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D. We began learning a combination of American Sign Language and “baby friendly” alternatives for things like Cheerios, the snack food and pincer-grasp tool used by occupational therapists everywhere. We chose our first sign: “more.” Easy to make the sign, and one we would use many, many times a day. Sitting Amanda in her high chair, I began by putting one Cheerio on the tray. She of course snarfed it down and looked to me as the tray was empty. “Does Amanda want more?” I asked as I signed “more.” I then placed another Cheerio on her tray. Boom! It disappeared and she was once again looking at me expectantly. “More?” I signed, and away we went. The first sign sighting was much like the first time you think you see your baby smile. Was it gas? A grimace? So: Did she just sign “more” or did she mean to clap? Swat at a fly? Give herself a high five? With every sign we said the word or phrase associated with it. The “eureka moment” was much like that scene in The Miracle Worker, in which the young Helen Keller makes the sign for “water.” Once Amanda figured out the link, new signs accumulated quickly. Amanda even made up a few signs of her own. Her grandmother used to give Amanda a “thumbs up” whenever Amanda did something good or accomplished a task. The sign for her grandma became “thumbs up.” Eventually, as Amanda’s vocal word bank grew, her sign language usage diminished. It was a natural progression. But we were able to fall back on signing when we couldn’t quite figure out what she was trying to say. This helped us all. Amanda, age 17, is a verbal speaker now. Every now and then we still use a sign. They actually come in handy. You can be across the room at a party and sign “time to go.” Or let a family member know you have to use the “bathroom” without announcing it for all to hear. I recently asked Amanda if she remembered one of my favorites, “all done.” She immediately did the same dramatic sign she used when she was 3: hands clapped in front of her and then arms flung out straight and wide at her sides, palms outward, fingers straight as if saying “STOP!” to everyone in the room. That sign always told us Amanda was finished, and she clearly meant what she said. Deborah Cavanagh lives in Manlius with her husband and two children. She has written for local organizations supporting children and adults with special needs.
startAbout UsFor ConsumersFor FoodserviceFor Educators Frequently Asked Questions Search Knowlege Base Home \| Category: Foods -- General Foods -- General Do you have any instructions for making soy milk at home? Rating: 0 Rodale's Basic Foods Natural Cookbook provides the following instructions for making soy milk. You need 1 cup dried soybeans, and water. Soak soybeans in 4 cups water overnight, using a deep container so the beans are well covered to allow for expansion. Drain beans and discard soaking water. Puree them for 2 minutes in a food processor or blender, using 1 cup cooked beans to 1-1/2 cups water at a time. In a large pot, combine the puree with 4-1/2 cups of water. Bring mixture to a slow rolling boil, stirring frequently to minimize sticking. When it has reached the boiling point, reduce the temperature and simmer mixture for 10-15 minutes. Spoon mixture into a colander that has been lined with cheesecloth and placed over a large bowl to catch the liquid. Strain out as much of the liquid as possible. Lift the cheesecloth and mixture out of the colander and place the cheesecloth wrapped mixture in a separate container full of cold water and stir the water through the soybean paste that is now referred to as "okara." Lift the okara (surrounded by cheesecloth) from the water and place it in the colander again. Press out the liquid. With the cheesecloth-surrounded okara still in the colander, pour 2 cups of water through it, pressing, squeezing and twisting the mass to drain all the water into the bowl. YOU NOW HAVE SOY MILK! Soy milk is also available commercially. Look for it in the store next to canned milk. Soy milk is not the same thing as soy infant formula and should not be substituted for it. Not UsefulVery Useful
Alternative names Acne rosacea Causes, incidence, and risk factors • You are fair skinned. • You blush easily. • You are a woman. However, men are usually more severely affected. • You are between the ages of 30 and 50. Rosacea involves enlargement of the blood vessels just under the skin and may be associated with other skin disorders (acne vulgaris, seborrhea) or eye disorders (blepharitis, keratitis). • A tendency to flush or blush easily • A red, bulbous nose • Acne-like skin eruptions (may ooze or crust) • A burning or stinging sensation of the face • Irritated, bloodshot, watery eyes Signs and tests There is no known cure for rosacea. The goal is to identify and avoid possible triggers, and thus reduce flare-ups. In fact, the National Rosacea Society strongly recommends that you keep a symptom diary to identify the specific triggers you may have. As you keep track of your symptoms, you should start to see a pattern within several weeks of what makes your rosacea worse. Use this information to avoid future flare-ups. Here are some steps that may help: • Avoid sun exposure. Use sunscreen every day. • Avoid prolonged exertion in hot weather. • Limit spicy foods, alcohol, and hot beverages. Triggers vary from person to person. Other triggers may include wind, hot baths, cold weather, specific skin products, exercise, or other factors. Booklets and a symptom diary containing more detailed management tips can be found at Oral antibiotics (such as tetracycline, minocycline, or doxycycline) or topical antibiotics (like metronidazole) applied to your face may control skin eruptions. Other medications (isoretinol or Accutane), which are similar to vitamin A, are stronger alternatives that your doctor or dermatologist might consider. Expectations (prognosis) • Psychological damage, loss of self esteem Johns Hopkins patient information Last revised: Diseases and Conditions Center
What Is The Control Arm Of The Car For? - Aug 26, 2017 - What is the control arm of the car for? The control arm, as the guiding and transmitting element of the automobile suspension system, transfers various forces acting on the wheels to the vehicle body, while ensuring that the wheels move in a certain trajectory. The control arms elastically connect the wheels and the body together by means of a ball hinge or bushing. Control arms (including bushings and ball heads) shall have sufficient stiffness, strength and service life. Hangzhou Danna Auto Parts Co., Ltd Address: Room 1018,Yaqi Building,No 3786 Jiangnan Avenue,Binjiang Tel: +86-571-86967573 Fax: +86-571-86967537 E-mail: zxl@shinesea-intl.com
Diseased arteries, angiogram Diseased arteries, angiogram M270/0260 Rights Managed Request low-res file 530 pixels on longest edge, unwatermarked Request/Download high-res file Uncompressed file size: 25.1MB Downloadable file size: 965.6KB Price image Pricing Please login to use the price calculator Caption: Buerger's Disease. Coloured angiogram of a heavy smoker's right hand showing decreased blood flow to the vessels in the hand (ischemia). Blood flow to the feet can also become disrupted. Eventually, ulcers and gangrene develop. However, Buerger's Disease only affects the hands and feet; organs such as the lungs, kidneys and brain remain unaffected. The reason for the confinement of ischemia to the extremeties is unknown. An angiogram is produced by taking an X-ray of tissue containing arteries filled with a radio-contrast substance, such as barium sulfate. Keywords: anatomical, anatomy, angiogram, angiography, arteries, artery, blood flow, blood vessels, buerger's disease, coloured, damaged, diagnosis, diagnostic, diseased, disrupted, false-colour, false-coloured, gangrene, hand, human body, injured, ischemia, medical, medicine, painful, physiological, physiology, poor circulation, radio-contrast, radiography, smoker, ulceration, x-ray, x-ray machine, xray
Blacky the Crow Thanakorn Papan 1.0 0.3mb CHAPTER I: Blacky The Crow Makes A Discovery Blacky the Crow is always watching for things not intended for his sharp eyes. The result is that he gets into no end of trouble which he could avoid. In this respect he is just like his cousin, Sammy Jay. Between them they see a great deal with which they have no business and which it would be better for them not to see. Now Blacky the Crow finds it no easy matter to pick up a living when snow covers the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, and ice binds the Big River and the Smiling Pool. He has to use his sharp eyes for all they are worth in order to find enough to fill his stomach, and he will eat anything in the way of food that he can swallow. Often he travels long distances looking for food, but at night he always comes back to the same place in the Green Forest, to sleep in company with others of his family. Blacky dearly loves company, particularly at night, and about the time jolly, round, red Mr. Sun is beginning to think about his bed behind the Purple Hills, you will find Blacky heading for a certain part of the Green Forest where he knows he will have neighbors of his own kind. Peter Rabbit says that it is because Blacky's conscience troubles him so that he doesn't dare sleep alone, but Happy Jack Squirrel says that Blacky hasn't any conscience. You can believe just which you please, though I suspect that neither of them really knows. Requires OS: 1.6 and up ...more ...less
This file contains some information on the essential concepts and principles involved in the use of this software. To build the software, perhaps as part of a packaging process, you can run the following command: python build To directly install the software in a system-wide location, you can run the following command: python install The installation adds the java and javaclass packages to your site-packages directory and the program to the same bin directory that python resides in. However, it is arguably preferable to make an operating system package for the software and use the system's package manager to install and potentially uninstall the software. It should be possible to just run the program and see the results: Python Tested with Python 2.3, although javaclass.classfile should work on any recent Python 2.x release. A Java toolchain Tested with whichever Sun JDK for Java release was current in 2005. ;-) Class Search Paths Java classes belonging to packages are located using sys.path or PYTHONPATH in the same way that they would be located using the Java classpath (or CLASSPATH environment variable). Thus, the rules for locating package classes are as follows: • Classes residing within plain directories which represent a package hierarchy can be accessed by putting the parent directory of the top of the package hierarchy on the PYTHONPATH (or sys.path). For example, a package called mypackage, represented by a directory of the same name at /home/java/classes/mypackage, would be made accessible by adding the /home/java/classes directory to the PYTHONPATH. • Classes residing within .jar files can be accessed by putting the path to each .jar file on the PYTHONPATH. For example, a package called mypackage, represented by a file located at /home/java/lib/mypackage.jar, would be made accessible by adding the /home/java/lib/mypackage.jar file to the PYTHONPATH. Note that classes not belonging to a package cannot be accessed via such search paths and are made available using a special module (see "Non-package Classes" below). Importing Classes In Python, the following statement should be enough to enable Java class import: import javaclass.classhook (Other modules reside in the javaclass package, so it is possible to access them without changing Python's import mechanisms, should such modification be undesirable or unnecessary.) Importing Non-package Classes Classes which do not belong to a package are only accessible when residing in the current working directory of any program attempting to use them. Such classes will not be made available automatically, but must be imported from a special module called __this__. • Usage of the "import __this__" statement will cause all classes in the current directory to be made available within the __this__ module. • Usage of the "from __this__ import" construct will cause all classes in the current directory to be processsed, but only named classes will be made available in the global namespace unless "" was specified (which will, as usual, result in all such classes being made available). Running Java Classes Java classes with a public, static main method can be run directly using the program. • Free-standing classes (ie. not belonging to packages) can be run from the directory in which they reside. For example, suitable classes in the tests directory would be run as follows: cd tests MainTest hello world • Classes residing in packages can be run by ensuring that the packages are registered on the PYTHONPATH (see "Class Search Paths" above). Then, the testpackage.MainTest class (for example) would be run as follows: testpackage.MainTest hello world Accessing Python Libraries from Java To wrap Python libraries for use with Java, skeleton classes need to be compiled corresponding to each of the wrapped classes. Each of the methods in the skeleton classes can be empty (or return any permissible value) since the only purpose they serve is to provide the Java compiler with information about the Python libraries. 1. Compile the skeleton classes: javac examples/Tkinter/tkjava/.java javac -classpath examples/Tkinter examples/Tkinter/ 3. Run the tool on the directory where the skeleton class files reside, providing the name of the Python package or module being wrapped. This converts the directory into a Python package: python tools/ examples/Tkinter/tkjava Tkinter Since the Java class files, if left in the processed directory, would be detected and imported using the special import hook, and since this would result in two conflicting implementations being imported (with possibly the non-functional Java classes being made available instead of the generated wrapper classes), the tool removes all processed class files, leaving only Python source files in the processed directory. 4. The Java classes which use the wrapped Python libraries can now be imported and used as described above. The wrapper package (tkjava in the above example) needs to reside in sys.path or PYTHONPATH, as must the wrapped library (Tkinter in the above example). cd examples/Tkinter Application Fix the class initialisation so that non-Java classes (and already imported classes) are obtained. Prevent re-entry into module importing for modules already being imported (if this is not handled already by the Python import mechanisms). Implement better importing mechanisms so that circular module dependencies can be avoided. For example, when dealing with java.lang classes which depend on classes which then inherit from java.lang.Object, the classes should all be imported but only initialised after no more importing is necessary. Since usage of external names is recorded in the bytecode translation process, it should be possible to reach such a condition definitively. The test program crashes, fairly quickly under Python 2.4, too. There seems to be some kind of memory allocation problem. Investigate better exception raising. Currently, exceptions have to be derived from object so that object.__new__ can be used upon them. However, this seems to prevent them from being raised, and they need to be wrapped within Exception so that the information can be transmitted to the exception's handler. Consider nicer ways of writing the method names in Python, perhaps using a function which takes the individual parameter types as arguments. New in javaclass 0.3 (Changes since javaclass 0.2) • Merged David Drysdale's support for Java 1.5 and 1.6 class files, together with more test cases, some bug fixes, and support for successful round trips of class files (so that serialisation of loaded class files should provide the same data as that found in the input files). New in javaclass 0.2 (Changes since javaclass 0.1) • Added Braden Thomas' class file serialisation patches. • Relicensed under the LGPL version 3 or later. Release Procedures Update the javaclass/ __version__ attribute. Update the release notes (see above). Update the and PKG-INFO files. Check the file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned. Tag, export. Archive, upload.
Enigmatic Code Programming Enigma Puzzles Enigma 373: Date the painting From New Scientist #1522, 21st August 1986 [link] Enigma 373 (R = Red, B = Blue, G = Green, Y = Yellow) You will no doubt have recognised this as the latest masterpiece by the artist Pussicato, which has just gone on display at the National Gallery. I visited Pussicato in his studio at the end of March, just before he began work on the picture. He showed me the canvas divided into 36 squares which were numbered 1 to 36. He planned to paint the squares in order, one per day starting with square 1 on 1 April, using the four colours in strict rotation. He had numbered the squares so that from one day to the next he always moved to an adjacent square either horizontally or vertically; also, squares 1 and 36 were similarly adjacent. As I looked at the canvas, I pointed to two horizontally adjacent squares and remarked that the right-hand one contained a number which was 8 times the number in the left-hand square. Pussicato had no reply. On what date did Pussicato paint the top left hand square of the picture? 2 responses to “Enigma 373: Date the painting 1. Jim Randell 2 December 2016 at 7:35 am This Python 3 program runs in 65ms. from enigma import printf # label the colours (R, B, G, Y) = (0, 1, 2, 3) # the grid grid = ( (R, B, G, B, G, Y), (Y, G, Y, R, B, R), (R, B, R, Y, G, Y), (Y, G, B, G, B, R), (G, Y, R, B, R, B), (B, R, Y, G, Y, G), # find paths on the grid # (r, c) - row and column # ps - positions on the path # cs - colours def solve(r, c, ps, cs): # are we done? if len(ps) == 36: # check we form a circuit (r1, c1) = ps[0] (r2, c2) = ps[-1] if (r1 == r2 and abs(c1 - c2) == 1) or (c1 == c2 and abs(r1 - r2) == 1): yield ps # move to an adjacent path of the right colour for (i, j) in ((+1, 0), (-1, 0), (0, +1), (0, -1)): (r2, c2) = (r + i, c + j) if r2 < 0 or c2 < 0 or r2 > 5 or c2 > 5: continue if cs[grid[r][c]] != grid[r2][c2]: continue if (r2, c2) in ps: continue yield from solve(r2, c2, ps + [(r2, c2)], cs) # try labelling the circuit def check(ps): # move along the path for (i, (r, c)) in enumerate(ps): # look at the square to the right if c > 4: continue j = ps.index((r, c + 1)) # look for numbers that differ by a multiple of 7 n = j - i (m, x) = divmod(n, 7) if x > 0: continue # m will be negative for a reverse traversal (m, m1, s) = ((m, m + n, 1) if m > 0 else (-m, -m - n, -1)) printf("{m} is at position ({r}, {c}), {m1} is at position ({r}, {c1}) [s={s}]", c1=c + 1) # (0, 0) contains number... p = (0, 0) n = ((ps.index(p) - i) * s) % 36 + 1 printf("{p} contains number {n}") for ps in solve(0, 0, [(0, 0)], { R: B, B: G, G: Y, Y: R }): Solution: The top left hand square was painted on Day 31, i.e. 1st May. The path that follows the painting order visits the colours in a strict repeating order and finishes in a square adjacent to its start. As there are 36 squares in the grid and 4 colours we must cycle through the colour sequence 9 times, and so we can close the path into a circuit. By inspecting the corners (there is one of each colour) we can see that the order the colours are visited in is either …RBGY… or …RYGB…, one of these is the reverse of the other, so we only need to consider one of these possibilities as the visiting the colours in the other order would just amount to traversing the circuit in the opposite direction. It turns out there is only one circuit on the grid that traverses the colours in strict rotation, as seen below: When we number the squares along the circuit there must be two squares horizontally adjacent to each other where the number of the right-hand one is 8 times the number on the left-hand one (i.e. 1 \| 8, 2 \| 16, 3 \| 24, 4 \| 32), so we are looking for adjacent squares that have numbers different by 7, 14, 21 or 28 (multiples of 7). Again there is only one way to number the squares to satisfy this: and this arrangement has 1 next to 8. The number in the top left-hand corner is 31, so this is coloured on the 31st day. If we start on 1st April that would be 1st May. 2. Brian Gladman 3 December 2016 at 10:24 am # number the colours in the order we want to traverse the grid R, Y, G, B = 0, 1, 2, 3 # form the grid of squares g = ((R, B, G, B, G, Y), (B, R, Y, G, Y, G)) # find closed paths through the grid def find_path(p): # the number of squares visited so far ln = len(p) # have we visited all the squares if ln == 36: # if so, are the first and last squares on the path adjacent? (xs, ys), (xe, ye) = p[0], p[-1] if xs == xe and abs(ys - ye) == 1 or ys == ye and abs(xs - xe) == 1: yield p # the coordinates of the square at the end of the path so far x, y = p[-1] # consider the squares left, right, above and below it for xx, yy in ((x - 1, y), (x + 1, y), (x, y - 1), (x, y + 1)): if 0 <= xx < 6 and 0 <= yy < 6: # if the square has not been visited and has the correct colour if (xx, yy) not in p and g[yy][xx] == ln % 4: yield from find_path(p + [(xx, yy)]) fs = 'He painted the top left square on {}{} {}. [{} @ {}, {} @ {}, {} @ {}]' # consider possible closed paths through the grid for p in find_path([(0, 0)]): # consider each square on the path (except the first) for n, (x, y) in enumerate(p): # and the square to its right if n and x < 5: nn = p.index((x + 1, y)) # if the top left square has the number n0 and we traverse the # path in colour order R, Y, G, B then 8.(n0 + n) = (n0 + nn); n0, r = divmod(nn - 8 * n, 7) if not r: # compute the positions with the revised numbering m, mm = n0 + n, n0 + nn # and ensure that n0 is in range (1..36) n0 = (n0 - 1) % 36 + 1 # compute the day and month the top left square was painted day, mth = (n0 - 1) % 30 + 1, 'April' if n0 < 31 else 'May' sf = ['st', 'nd', 'rd', 'th'][min(day - 1, 3)] print(fs.format(day, sf, mth, n0, (0, 0), m, p[n], mm, p[nn])) Leave a Comment WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
CNS Neurosurgery \| Concussion Welcome to Dr Khurana’s Concussion page. See the PDF at the bottom of this page for our review on Concussion including a brief overview of “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy” (CTE) which has recently been found to be present in almost 100% of brains of deceased US NFL players who donated their brains for medical scientific analysis. CTE is likely to be present in many Australian AFL and NRL players, and there are obvious implications for children with repeat sports concussions. Concussion” is defined as a sudden, transient alteration of consciousness induced by traumatic biomechanical forces transmitted directly or indirectly to the brain. Concussion does involve some period of transient amnesia (especially ‘antegrade’). The term concussion: • Is derived from the Latin word “concutere“, which means ‘to shake violently’; • Should NOT be used interchangeably with “mild traumatic brain injury” or “post-concussion syndrome”; • Should not be trivialised by using inappropriate terms such as “knock” and “ding” in a concussed sports player. concussion-AFLForces that cause concussion are typically strong and “rotational” forces (higher G-force) that shear brain tissue directly or indirectly. Lower G- (and also perhaps more “linear” / less rotational) forces might not cause concussion and are referred to as sub-concussive forces. However, repeated sub-concussive forces may still damage brain structure and function in the longer term. • To simply illustrate the difference between sub-concussive and concussive forces, check out this 1 minute CNS YouTube VIDEO (P.S., Thanks AC/DC Thunderstruck; No one got hurt!) Concussion is very common. In Australia, in the AFL code alone there are 6 to 7 concussions per team per season, and in the U.S.A., the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports there are approximately 4 million sports concussions per year in that country alone. The most common (reported) symptoms of concussion are “headache”, dizziness (this could be ‘off balance’, ‘light headed’, or ‘woozy’ etc.) and confusion. The common (observed) signs of concussion are a dazed appearance, disorientation to (e.g.,) game details, and impairment of balance and coordination. In only 10% of sports concussion patients is there an actual loss of consciousness (but there is a transient alteration of consciousness in 100%, by definition). Most sports concussion patients will not have identifiable pathology on routine investigations such as CT and regular MRI; some however will have, particularly in more severe instances. The MRI image below (FLAIR sequence) is from of a young concussed patient (a motor vehicle accident in this case) and shows punctate cerebral white matter changes (circled in red below) consistent with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) from rotational forces causing axonal shear. Using more specialised MRI scanning modalities (e.g., MR tractography and functional MRI), structural abnormalities may be more readily detectable. For most concussed individuals, symptomatic recovery occurs within 2-10 days of the injury. However, concussion can progress to a “post-concussion syndrome” (PCS) which can persist for a few to several months: concussion-soccerAs defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) criteria, PCS can be diagnosed when there is the development of symptoms in at least 3 of the following 6 categories within 4 weeks of the concussion: 1. Headache, dizziness, fatigue, noise intolerance 2. Irritability, depression, anxiety, emotional liability 3. Subjective concentration, memory or intellectual difficulties 4. Insomnia 5. Reduced tolerance to alcohol or stress 6. Hypochondriacal concerns & adoption of a “sick” role There are no specific medical therapies for concussion, the mainstay of treatment is true physical and cognitive rest until the symptoms completely resolve (2-10 days), plus the following: • Good hydration, temporary mild analgesics for headache, anti-nausea medications as needed (but avoid narcotics) • Education of players, parents and coaches regarding concussion, its associated risks, and principles of safe return-to-play (RTP) concussion-football NFLWith regard to return-to-play (RTP) following a sports concussion injury, the principles are: • Follow a 6-stage (minimum 6-day) RTP protocol recommended by an international sports concussion consensus group • The 6-stage protocol ONLY applies in the days AFTER complete resolution of all concussion symptoms • Each stage is 24 hours, transitioning from no activity, to light aerobic exercise, sport-specific drills without head impact, then more complex non-contact training drills, then full contact practice, and then actual return to the field; if any symptoms develop during any of the 6 stages, the player should rest until the symptoms resolve, and then recommence the 6-stage protocol • RTP should be no less than 7 days AFTER complete symptom resolution for adults and no less than 14 days AFTER complete symptom resoluion for those < 18 years old • The above RTP guidelines may be more applicable to a first, mild / self-limiting concussion in a given season • There should be a prolonged absence from play if the player has sustained 2 or more concussions in a season or if the severity of his/her symptoms are greater than the expected severity of the impact itself For further details on concussion and its management, including return-to-play guidelines, and for information about “chronic traumatic encephalopathy” (CTE; which is an emerging medical and medicolegal concern in multiply-concussed players), see:
Below you will find more information about Boils from Medigest. If you believe that you are suffering from any of the symptoms of Boils it is important that you obtain an accurate diagnosis from a medical professional to ensure that you obtain the correct medication or treatment for your condition. There are medical conditions that carry similar symptoms associated with Boils and therefore the information provided by Medigest is offered as a guideline only and should never be used in preference to seeking professional medical advice. The information relating to Boils comes from a third party source and Medigest will not be held liable for any inaccuracies relating to the information shown. Painful, pus-filled bumps that form under your skin when bacteria infect and inflame one or more of your follicles are called boils and carbuncles. They usually start as red, tender lumps that quickly fill with pus, growing larder and more painful until they rupture and drain, which mostly take about two weeks to heal although some boils disappear in a few days after they occur. They may appear anywhere on your skin, but appear mainly on your neck, face, armpits, thighs or buttocks where these hair-bearing areas are most likely to sweat or experience friction. Boils can be diagnosed by doctors by looking at your skin, but sometimes they take a sample of pus to check for the bacteria it contains. The doctor may make a small incision in the tip to be able to drain a large boil, relieving pain and speeding recovery which could also help to lessen scarring. Sometimes, antibiotics may be prescribed to help heal severe or recurrent infections. Symptoms and Signs A painful pink or red bump that's generally not more that 1 inch in diameter is a symptom for a boil appearing on your skin which may also be red and swollen. The bump fills with pus within a few days and it grows larger and more painful for about five to seven days, and would sometimes reach like a golf ball size before developing a yellow-white tip that finally ruptures and drains. A large boil leaves a scar while small boils usually heal without scarring. Staph bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) generally cause boils, when one or more hair follicles become infected. These bacteria are responsible for a number of serious diseases, including pneumonia and meningitis which normally inhabit your skin and sometimes your nasal passages and throat. Discuss Boils in our forums Discuss Boils with other members of Medigest in our forums.
If an illegal hacker wants to do something to your system, such as plant a virus, a Trojan horse program or spyware, he has to gain access to the system's root directory and the unlimited power that goes with that access. Once established as root, the intruder can modify system commands to hide his tracks from the systems administrator and preserve his root access. The easiest way to do this is via a rootkit. Generally, a hacker obtains normal, user-level access to a computer or network by guessing or stealing a password or exploiting some known vulnerability. Then he finds a way to collect user identities and passwords to other machines on that network while simultaneously erasing all evidence of his activity. Years ago, the hacker would have done this by exploiting his direct knowledge of and experience with the system and his personal programming skills. Today the job is simplified - the hacker can use one of many available rootkits that pretty much automate the process. Originally, the term rootkit referred to a set of modified and recompiled Unix tools (typically including ps, netstat and passwd) designed to hide any trace of the intruder's presence or existence. David O'Brien has traced the lineage of rootkits back to the early 1990s, when Solaris and Linux operating systems were the primary targets. Rootkits are no longer limited to Unix-like systems; similar tools are available for other operating systems, including Microsoft Windows. The name rootkit may suggest a set of canned attack scripts for obtaining root access, but this is not really the case. A rootkit may include programs to monitor traffic, create a back door into the system, alter log files and attack other machines on the network. In almost all cases, a rootkit itself causes no direct damage. Instead, its function is to mask the presence of other types of (usually malicious) software, such as keylogging Trojan horses, viruses or worms. Rootkits do this by hiding or removing traces of log-in records, log entries and related processes. Some rootkits replace the binary files for system commands with modified versions designed to ignore attacker activity in order to escape detection. For example, on a Unix or Linux system, the rootkit may replace the list files command (ls) with one that ignores files located in specified directories. Or it may replace the ps command, which lists processes running on the system, with a similar command that ignores any processes that the attacker has started. Programs that log system activities can be similarly modified, so that when the systems administrator checks the logs, everything looks normal despite the fact that the system has been compromised. Both rootkits and computer viruses modify core software components, inserting code to hide their presence and perform some additional function (what is called the payload). The key difference is that the computer virus attempts to spread itself to other systems, whereas a rootkit generally limits itself to a single system. The rootkit's payload attempts to maintain the integrity of the rootkit itself -- i.e., to ensure that the target system remains compromised. For example, every time a computer runs one of the rootkit's commands, the rootkit also checks to see that other system commands on that machine are still compromised and reinfects them as necessary. The rest of the payload generally involves back doors, hidden command-line switches or "magic" environment-variable settings that circumvent normal access controls. A rootkit sitting inside one of your systems is prima facie evidence that your system has been hacked, and it's something you want to know about. One of the rootkit's main goals is to hide its very existence, but you can detect user-mode rootkits, which accomplish their task by replacing binaries, by looking for changes in the size, date and checksums of key system files. Kernel-mode rootkits are harder to find, because they take advantage of Unix's (or Linux's) ability to load kernel extensions on the fly. These rootkits sit deep inside the operating system, intercepting system calls from legitimate programs and returning only the data the attacker wants you to see. The fundamental problem in detecting rootkits is that you can't trust your operating system. You can't believe what the system tells you when you request a list of running processes or files in a directory. One way to get around this is to shut down the suspect computer and check its storage after booting from alternative media that you know are clean, such as a rescue CD-ROM or a dedicated USB flash drive. A rootkit that isn't running can't hide its presence, and most antivirus programs will find rootkits by comparing standard operating system calls (which are likely to be altered by the rootkit) against lower-level queries, which ought to remain reliable. If the system finds a difference, you have a rootkit infection. How do you get rid of a rootkit infection? Removing rootkits presents two distinct problems: removal of the rootkit itself, then removal of the payload the rootkit was hiding. Because rootkits change the operating system, you might not be able to remove the rootkit without causing the system (especially a Windows machine) to become unstable. Russ Cooper, founder of the NTBugtraq mailing list, notes that "only a person with very little knowledge would try to remove a rootkit." Ultimately, the only safe and foolproof way to handle a rootkit infection is to reformat the hard drive and re-install the operating system. Find your next job with techworld jobs
Isaiah 17 Pulpit Commentary Verses 1-3. - THE BURDEN OF DAMASCUS. The eye of the prophet travels northwards from Moab, and, passing over Ammon as an enemy of small account, rests once more upon Damascus, already threatened in Isaiah 7:1 - 9, and probably already partially punished. Damascus is seen once more in alliance with Ephraim (ver. 3), and the two are joined with a new power, Aroer (ver. 2), which possesses several "cities." Woe is denounced on all the three powers: desolation on Damascus and Aroer; on Damascus and Ephraim, the complete loss of the last shadow of independence. The Assyrian inscriptions point out, as the probable date of the prophecy, the commencement of Sargun's reign - about B.C. 722 or 721. Verse 1. - Damascus is taken away from being a city. According to Vitringa, Damascus has been destroyed oftener than any other town; but it has a wonderful power of rising again from its ashes. Probably a destruction by Sargon is here intended ('Records of the Past,' vol. 9. p. 6). Verse 2. - The cities of Aroer are forsaken. That the Aroer of this passage cannot be either that on the Arnon, or that facing Rabbath-Ammon (Joshua 13:25), has long been perceived and recognized (see Mr. Grove's article on "Aroer" in the 'Dict. of the Bible,' vol. 1. p. 115). It is evidently a city of the same name lying much further towards the north. Arid it is a city of far greater importance, having "cities" dependent on it. Now, Sargon's annals tell us of a "Gal'gar," a name well expressing the Hebrew ערער, which was united in a league with Damascus, Samaria, Arpad, and Simyra, in the second year of Sargon, and was the scene of a great battle and a great destruction. Sargon besieged it, took it, and reduced it to ashes ('Records of the Past,' 50.s.e.). There is every reason to recognize the "Aroer" of this verse in the "Gargar" of Sargon's inscriptions. They shall be for flocks (comp. Isaiah 5:17; Isaiah 7:25). It marked the very extreme of desolation, that cattle should be pastured on the sites of cities. None shall make them afraid; i.e. "there shall be no inhabitants to make any objection." Verse 3. - The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim. Sargon did not destroy Samaria on the occasion of his first capture. But he says that he "reduced it to a heap of ruins" on the occasion of its second capture ('Records of the Past,' l.s.c.). And the kingdom from Damascus. We do not hear of any King of Damascus after Rezin, who was slain by Tiglath-Pileser about B.C. 732. Damascus, however, reasserted her independence in B.C. 721, and probably set up a king at the same time. In B.C. 720 she was reduced and destroyed. Nothing more is heard of her until B.C. 694 - the eleventh year of Sen-nacherib - when her "governor" is Assyrian Eponym, and she must therefore have been absorbed into the Assyrian empire. The remnant of Syria. This phrase shows that the great blow which struck down Syria - Tiglath-Pileser's capture of Damascus and slaughter of Rezin - was a thing of the past. Syria was already but "a remnant." Now she was to cease to exist altogether. They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel. Ironical. The irony is made apparent by the next verse. Verses 4-11. - A DENUNCIATION OF WOE ON ISRAEL, COMBINED WITH THE PROMISE OF A REMNANT. Israel, having united herself with Syria to resist the Assyrians, will incur a similar fate. Her glory will decay, her population dwindle and almost disappear. Still there will be a few left, who, under the circumstances, will turn to God (ver. 7). But it will be too late for anything like a national recovery; the laud will remain "a desolation" on account of the past sins of its inhabitants (vers. 9-11). Verse 4. - The glory of Jacob shall be made thin. There is reason to believe that the deportation of the Israelites was gradual. Sargon, on taking Samaria for the first time, in B.C. 722, carried off no more than 27, 290 of the inhabitants (G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' p. 125). Over the remainder he appointed governors, and required them to pay the same taxation as before. About B.C. 715 he placed a number of Arabs in Samaria, probably deporting natives to make room for them (ibid., p. 128). The continuant of a remnant of Israelites in the land down to B.C. 625 is indicated by 2 Chronicles 34:9. The fatness of his flesh shall wax lean (comp. Isaiah 10:16). Depopulation is primarily intended; but there is, perhaps, also a more general reference to depression, wasting, and misery. Verse 5. - As when the harvestman gathereth the corn. Death is the "harvestman" here, and gathers the Israelites by shocks, or sheaves, into his garner. A great depopulation appears in 2 Kings 17:25, where we learn that lions so multiplied in the land as to become a terror to the few inhabitants. Reapeth the ears. Mr. Cheyne well remarks that the "ears" only were reaped, the stalk being cut close under the ear. This was the practice also in Egypt (Rawlinson,' Hist. of Ancient Egypt,' vol. 1. p. 162). In the valley of Rephaim. The valley of Rephaim was the scene of David's double victory over the Philistines, related in 2 Samuel 5:17-25. It is disputed whether it lay north or south of Jerusalem; but the connection with Bethlehem (2 Samuel 23:13-17) and with the cave of Adullam seem decisive in favor of a southern position. A "valley," however ('emek), suitable for the cultivation of corn, in this direction, has yet to be discovered. Verse 6. - Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it; rather, yet gleanings shall be left in it. There is no mention of grapes, and it is clear that the "gleaning" intended is that of an olive-ground. As the shaking of an olive tree; rather, as at the beating of an olive tree. The olive crop was obtained, not by shaking, but by beating the trees (Deuteronomy 24:20). The owner was forbidden to "go over the boughs again," in order that a portion of the crop might be left for the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless to glean. In the top of the uppermost bough. Where the sticks of the beaters had not reached. Four or five in the outmost fruitful branches; rather, four or fire apiece on its fruitful branches, This is the average that would be left, after beating, on a good-sized branch. Verse 7. - At that day shall a man look to his Maker. We have evidence of this revulsion of feeling on the part of Israel in the statement of Chronicles that, in the reign of Josiah, offerings of money were made for the temple service by men of "Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel," which the Levites collected and brought to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 34:9). Verse 8. - And he shall not look to the altars. The altars at Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:28-33) may be intended, or the Israelites may have had other idolatrous altars besides these (2 Kings 17:11; Hosea 8:11). Josiah, about B.C. 631, broke down altars throughout all the land of Israel, in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon (?), even unto Naphtali (2 Chronicles 34:5-7). Apparently he had the consent of the inhabitants to this demolition. Either the groves, or the images, Asherah, the word here and elsewhere commonly translated "grove" in the Authorized Version, is now generally admitted to have designated an artificial construction of wood or metal, which was used in the idolatrous worship of the Phoenicians and the Israelites, probably as the emblem of some deity. The Assyrian "sacred tree" was most likely an emblem of the same kind, and may give an idea of the sort of object worshipped under the name of Asherah (comp. 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. 2. pp. 235-237). The Israelites, in the time of their prosperity, had set up "groves" of this character "on every high hill, and under every green tree" (2 Kings 17:10). Many of them were still standing when Josiah made his iconoclastic raid into the Israelite country (2 Chronicles 34:5-7), and were broken down by him at the same time as the altars. The "images" of this place are the same as those coupled with the Israelite "groves" in 2 Chronicles 34:7, namely "sun-images," emblems of Baal, probably pillars or conical stones, such as are known to have held a place in the religious worship of Phoenicia. Verse 9. - In that day. While a remnant of the Israelites shall repent and turn to God, throwing in their lot with Judah, as it would seem the country generally shall feel the weight of God's chastening hand, on account of Israel's former sins and offences. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch; rather, as the forsaken tract of woodland and mountain-crest (Kay). The reference is to the condition of the land when it passed out of the possession of the Canaanitish nations. It was then forsaken and desolate. So shall it be once more, when Israel is expelled for the same sins (see 2 Kings 17:7, 8). Which they left because of the children of Israel; rather, which men forsook before the children of Israel; i.e. from which the Canaanites fled as the children of Israel advanced and took possession. The writer ignores the long and fierce struggle which the Canaanites made, and looks only to the result - retirement from a desolated country. Verse 10. - Because thou hast forgotten; rather, because thou didst forget. The late repentance of a "remnant" which "looked to their Maker" (ver. 7) could not cancel the long catalogue of former sins (2 Kings 17:8-17), foremost among which was their rejection of God, or, at any rate, their complete forgetfulness of his claims upon them. The Rock of thy strength. God is first called "a Rock" in Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31. The image is caught up by the psalmists (2 Samuel 22:2, 32, 47; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalm 16:1, 2, 31, 46; 19:14; 28:1, etc.), and from them passes to Isaiah (see, besides the present passage, Isaiah 26:4; Isaiah 30:29; and Isaiah 44:8). Among the later prophets only Habakkuk uses it (Habakkuk 1:12). Israel, instead of looking to this "Rock," had looked to their rock-fortresses (ver. 9). Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants; rather, dost thou plant, or hast thou planted. Forgetfulness of Jehovah has led to the adoption of a voluptuous religion - one of debased foreign rites. There is possibly, as Mr. Cheyne thinks, a special reference to the cult of Adonis. Shall set it; rather, settest it, or hast set it. "It" must refer to "field" or "garden" understood. The later Israelite religion has been a sort of pleasant garden, planted with exotic slips from various quarters - Phoenicia, Syria, Moab, etc. It has been thought permissible to introduce into it any new cult that took the fancy. Hence the multiplication of altars complained of by Hosea (Hosea 8:11; Hosea 10:1; Hosea 12:11). Verse 11. - In the day; or, in a day (Kay). Shalt thou make; rather, thou makest. Each new slip that is planted is forced to take root and grow and flourish at once; the next morning it is expected to have formed its seed and reached perfection. So the harvest is hurried on; but when it is reached, the day of visitation has arrived - a day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Verses 12-14. - A PROPHECY AGAINST ASSYRIA. This passage is, apparently, out of place. At any rate, it is quite unconnected with what precedes, and almost equally so with what follows. Still, it must be borne in mind that, until the destruction of Sennacherib's army, Isaiah has the thought of the Assyrians, as the pressing danger, always before him, and continually reverts to it, often abruptly, and without preparation (see Isaiah 5:26-30; Isaiah 7:17-25; Isaiah 8:5-8; Isaiah 10:5-19, 24-34; Isaiah 14:24-27). The present prophecy seems, more distinctly than any other in the purely prophetical chapters, to point to the miraculous destruction of the hoot which Sennacherib was about to bring against Jerusalem. Verse 12. - Woe to the multitude of many people; rather, Ho for the tumult of many peoples! The advance of an army composed of soldiers from many nations is descried. They advance with noise and tumult - a tumult compared with that of "seas that are tumultuous." Under the circumstances of the time, it is reasonable to suppose the Assyrians to be intended (comp. Isaiah 22:6, 7). The rushing sound of the advance is borne in strongly upon the prophet's mind, and made the subject of three consecutive clauses. Verse 13. - God shall rebuke them; literally, he shall rebuke them - he who alone can do so. There is no need to mention his name. They shall flee far off. The destruction of the great bulk of Sennacherib's army in the night was followed, as soon as morning came, by the hasty flight of the survivors (2 Kings 19:36; Isaiah 37:37). And shall be chased. Herodotus says that the Egyptians pursued the army of Sennacherib and slew vast numbers (2:141). As the chaff of the mountains (comp. Hosea 13:3). Threshing-floors were ordinarily placed upon eminences (2 Samuel 24:18; 2 Chronicles 3:1), where the wind had freer course and consequently greater power. Like a rolling thing; or, like whirling dust (Kay). The word used commonly means "a wheel." Verse 14. - Behold at evening-tide trouble; rather, terror, as the word is elsewhere always translated (comp. 2 Kings 19:35, "It came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out," etc.). He is not (comp. 2 Kings 19:35, "They were all dead corpses"). That spoil us... that rob us (see 2 Kings 18:13-16). Bible Hub Isaiah 16 Top of Page Top of Page
Degradable Waiakea Water Bottle Changing the Industry Waiakea Water has been producing some of the best tasting purified water since 2012, all due in part to their unique purification process. The water comes from the Hawaiian mountains and is naturally funneled through thousands of feet of natural volcanic tubes, resulting in an endless supply of the best tasting water on the planet. Not only does the aquifer produce millions of gallons of water each day, there doesn’t appear to be an end to the supply in the near future. Waiakea Water could simply capitalize on their fortunes, but this company has their focus on environmental initiatives. Each time a bottle of their volcanic water is sold, they donate a week’s supply of clean water to a community in need. What may surprise many is that millions of people are drying each year because they lack access to fresh water. Waiakea Water has also teamed with PumpAid, to help teach these communities how to access fresh water and to preserve it for generations to come. Recently, Waiakea Water teamed with TimePlast to create a better plastic water bottle. The company already uses 100 percent recycled plastic for their bottles, but the company wanted to do better. CEO Ryan Emmons, says Waiakea Water has made a breakthrough and developed an additive that will allow plastic bottles to degrade faster than anyone thought possible. Instead of the plastic lying around landfills for 1,500 years, Waiakea Water has a new fully degradable water bottle that will begin to degrade faster and be gone in only 15 short years. The hopes of Emmons is that the rest of the plastic bottling industry follows along with his company’s lead. The new additive can degrade a thousand pounds of plastic with only one pound of addictive, something every bottling company can absorb into their production costs. This new plastic bottle will simply revolutionize an industry, speeding up the degradation process by 97 percent and relying less on the limited natural resources of the planet. Future generations will certainly benefit when Waiakea Water releases their new plastic water bottle and changes the way the world and industry looks at recycling moving forward.
Keyword Definition An iron-bearing weathered product overlying a sulfide deposit. It is formed by the oxidation of sulfides and the leaching-out of the sulfur and most metals, leaving hydrated iron oxides and rarely sulfates. Source: AGI Glossary of Geology, 4th edition, 1997 Category: Geological Geological keywords, such as “granite”, “lake”. The definitions are generally taken from the AGI Glossary of Geology. Keywords with a geographic context (e.g. Cape Smith Fold Belt, Selwyn Basin, Grenville Province) are assigned to a separate category. Date modified:
Pearson - Always learning All your resources for Economics RSS icon Subscribe \| Text size Posts Tagged ‘Secured Lending’ Increasing debt among young people adds to concerns over debt levels BBC Interview Statistical Interactive Database Bank of England 1. What does it mean if people are financially distressed? 5. What is meant by inter-generational fairness? Share in top social networks! Increasing stress over financial distress An economy that becomes dependent on credit can, in turn, become acutely volatile. Too much credit and there exists the potential for financial distress which can result in an economic slowdown as people cut back on spending. Too little credit and the growth in aggregate demand is subdued. Some argue that this is what now faces a financialised economy like the UK. Even it this overstates the significance of credit, there is no doubt that UK credit data is keenly followed by economists and policymakers. Recent rates of credit accumulation by individuals have raised concern. In July 2014 the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) of the Bank of England issued a statement voicing its concern that the growth in consumer credit, also known as unsecured lending, was stretching the financial well-being of individuals and that the resilience of lenders’ consumer credit portfolios was therefore reducing. Chart 1 illustrates the scale of the flows of both consumer credit (unsecured lending) and mortgages (secured credit) from banks and building societies to individuals. It shows the amount of credit net of repayments lent over the last 12 months. In the 12 months to July 2017 the net accumulation of consumer credit was £18.2 billion while that of secured borrowing was £40.8 billion. Although the 12-month level of consumer credit accumulation was down from its recent peak of £19.2 billion in November 2016, total net lending (including secured lending) to individuals of £59.0 billion was its highest since September 2008. (Click here to download a PowerPoint of the chart). To help put in context the size of flows of net lending Chart 2 shows the annual flows of consumer credit and secured debt as percentages of GDP. In this case each observation measures net lending over the past four quarters as a percentage of annual GDP. The latest observation is for 2017 Q2 and shows that the annual net flow of consumer credit was equivalent to 0.94 per cent of GDP while that for secured borrowing was 1.78 per cent of GDP. While the flows of consumer credit and secured borrowing as shares of national income have eased a little from their values in the second half of last year, they have not eased significantly. (Click here to download a PowerPoint of the chart). Despite the recent strength of borrowing, levels are nothing like those seen in the mid 2000s. Nonetheless, we need to see the current accumulation of debt in the context of two important factors: debt already accumulated and the future macroeconomic environment. Chart 3 gives some insight to the first of these two by looking at stocks of debt outstanding as shares of GDP. The total debt-to-GDP ratio peaked 90 percent in 2009 before relatively slower growth in credit accumulation saw the ratio fall back. The ratio has now been at or around the 78 per cent level consistently for the past two or so years. (Click here to download a PowerPoint of the chart). The ratio of the stock of consumer debt to GDP peaked in 2008 at 13.3 per cent. It too fell back reaching 9.05 per cent in the middle of 2014. Since that time the ratio has been rising and by the end of the second quarter of this year was 10.1 per cent. The PRA appears not only to be concerned by this but also the likely unwinding of what it describes as the ‘current benign macroeconomic environment and historically low arrears rates’. Going forward, we might expect to see ever closer scrutiny not only of the aggregate indicators referred to here but of an array of credit indicators. The PRA statement, for example, refers to the number of , ‘0% interest credit card offers’, falling interest rates on unsecured personal loans and the growth of motor finance loans. The hope is that we can avoid the costs of financial distress that so starkly affected the economy in the late 2000s and that continue to cast a shadow over today’s economic prospects. PRA Statement PRA Statement on Consumer Credit PRA, Bank of England (4/7/14) Bank of England demands consumer credit vigilance; construction growth slows – as it happened Guardian (4/7/14) Bank of England warns more defences may be needed against consumer credit Telegraph (24/7/17) Beware the bubble: Bank of England clamps down on credit Telegraph, Tim Wallace (1/7/17) Bank of England raises capital requirements on UK lenders amid concerns about excessive consumer borrowing Independent, Ben Chu (27/6/17) Bank of England tightens mortgage borrowing rules amid fears of debt boom Express, Lana Clements (27/6/17) Rise in personal loans dangerous, Bank of England official says BBC News (25/7/17) Bank of England takes action over bad loans BBC News (27/6/17) Statistical Interactive Database Bank of England 1. What does it mean if people are financially distressed? What responses might people take in response to this distress? 2. How can financial distress affect the economy’s growth path? 3. How would you measure the financial well-being of an individual? What about the financial well-being of firms? 4. What role mights banks play in affecting levels of financial distress in the economy? 5. What does it mean if credit conditions are pro-cyclical? 6. Why might banks’ lending be pro-cyclical? 8. Why do some economists refer to the economic downturn of the late 2000s as a balance sheet recession? How likely is another balance sheet recession in the short term? What about in the longer term? Share in top social networks! More interest in the interesting case of UK interest rates In a recent blog Accelerating interest in the interesting case of UK interest rates we compared the level of the official Bank Rate, which has now been at 0.5 per cent for over seven years, with a representative unsecured borrowing rate. In doing so, we found some evidence that credit conditions might be easing following the credit market disturbance of the late 2000s. Here we take the opportunity not only to review that data again one month on, but also to see whether a similar picture is true for the mortgage market. Theories of the financial accelerator argue that the macroeconomic environment can affect commercial banks’ lending practices. One way in which this can operate is through the difference between banks’ lending rates and the official Bank Rate. We can think of such interest-rate differentials – or spreads – as a credit premium. The size of the premium may be thought to reflect lenders’ perceived risk of default by borrowers. It is argued by some economists that interest-rate differentials will fall when the economy is doing well and increase when the economy is doing less well. This is because the probability of default by borrowers is seen as smaller when the macroeconomic environment improves. The effect of interest-rate differentials that are contingent on the macroeconomic environment is to amplify the business cycle. For example, a positive demand-side shock, such as a rise in consumer confidence, which causes the economy’s aggregate demand to rise will, in turn, lead to lower borrowing rates relative to the official Bank Rate. This financial effect further stimulates the demand for credit and, as a consequence, aggregate demand and economic activity. It is an example of what economists called the financial accelerator. The chart shows the Bank Rate along with the average unsecured borrowing rate on loans by Monetary Financial Institutions (MFIs) of £10 000. Unlike secured borrowing, which we consider shortly, unsecured borrowing is not secured against property. As expected, we can see that the unsecured borrowing rate is greater than the Bank Rate. In other words, there is a positive interest-rate differential. However, this differential is seen to vary. It falls sharply in the period up to the financial crisis. In early 2002 it was running at 8 percentage points. By summer 2007 the differential had fallen to only 1.7 percentage points. (Click here to download a PowerPoint of the chart.) The period from 2002 to 2007 was characterised by consistently robust growth with the UK economy growing by about 2.7 per cent per annum over this period. This may point to economic growth can contributing to an easing of credit conditions as implied by the financial accelerator. The story from 2008 changes very quickly as the interest-rate differential increases very sharply. In 2009, as the official Bank Rate was cut to 0.5 per cent, the unsecured borrowing rate climbed to close to 10.5 per cent. Consequently, the interest-rate differential rose to 10 percentage points. Inter-bank lending had dried up with banks concerned that banks would default on loans. The increase in interest rates on lending to the non-bank private sector was stark and evidence of a credit market disruption. The interest-rate differential for unsecured borrowing has steadily declined since its peak at the end of 2009 as the unsecured borrowing rate has fallen. This implies that credit conditions have eased. In March 2016 our interest-rate differential for unsecured borrowing stood at 3.8 percentage points, not dissimilar to levels over the past 12 months. Interestingly, today’s differential on unsecured borrowing is lower than the 6.5 percentage point average over the period from 1997 to 2003, before the differential then went on its pre-crisis fall. Our second chart repeats the analysis but this time for mortgages. The representative mortgage rate is the average standard variable mortgage rate. Unlike that for unsecured borrowing, the interest-rate differential for mortgages is fairly constant up to the financial crisis. The widely report credit easing in the mortgage market appears to have operated more through amounts lent rather than through price, as evidenced by rising mortgage advance-to-income ratios. (Click here to download a PowerPoint of the chart.) The second chart shows clear evidence of a credit market disruption from 2009. Hence, the markets for secured and unsecured lending saw credit conditions tighten with interest-rate differentials rising markedly. However, it shows that the higher interest-rate differential for secured lending following the credit market disruption remains. So while the differential has fallen sharply for unsecured lending the situation is quite different in the mortgage market. In fact, February and March 2016 saw the mortgage rate spread at 4.17 percentage points which is an historic high. Our interest rate data show that interest-rate differentials can vary significantly over time. This is important to understand when we are thinking about the relationships between the macroeconomy and the financial system. Significantly, the data suggest that interest rates on different financial instruments can behave differently such that differences emerge in the patterns of spreads over the official Bank Rate. The evidence on UK mortgage rates suggests that the market remains affected by the financial crisis and the credit market disruption that arose. Although the level of mortgage rates is historically low – which tends to capture many of the headlines – this masks an historically high premium over the official Bank Rate. Bank warns EU vote may hit growth as it holds rates BBC News, (14/4/16) Carney issues a warning as interest rates are held Belfast Telegraph, (15/4/16) Bank Of England Leaves Interest Rates On Hold Sky News, (14/4/16) UK banks plan to boost lending to households but not firms – BoE Reuters, (13/4/16) Mortgage rates reach record lows as threat of Bank Rate rise evaporates Telegraph, Tara Evans (1/4/16) Statistical Interactive Database – interest and exchange rates data Bank of England 1. Why would we expect banks’ borrowing rates to be higher than the official Bank Rate? 2. How might banks’ credit criteria change as the macroeconomic environment changes? Explain your answer. 3. As well as the macroeconomic environment, what other factors might lead to a change in the interest-rate differential between banks’ borrowing rates and the official Bank Rate? 4. How would we expect a credit market disruption to affect the interest-rate differential? 5. Explain how the financial accelerator affects the change in the size of the economy following a positive demand shock. 6. Explain how the financial accelerator affects the change in the size of the economy following a negative demand shock. 7. What is the impact of the financial accelerator of the amplitude of the business cycle? 8. How might regulators intervene to minimise the effect of the financial accelerator? 9. Why might explain the high interest-rate differential on mortgages that continues to persist following the financial crisis? 10. Analyse the ways in which the financial system can stabilise or destabilise economies. Share in top social networks! Consumers lose appetite for HEW We have learnt a lot this week about the appetite of households for spending. And, it appears that they are not particularly hungry. On Monday, the Quarterly National Accounts for Q1 revealed that, in real terms, household sector spending fell by 0.1% in the quarter despite disposable income growing by 2.1%. Today, we have learnt that households have continued to increase the amount of equity in their homes. The Housing Equity Withdrawal (HEW) figures for Q1 show that households increased their stake in housing by some £3.2 billion. Housing Equity Withdrawal occurs when lending secured on dwellings increases by more than the investment in the housing stock. Housing investment relates largely to the purchase of brand new homes and to major home improvements, but also includes housing moving costs such as legal fees. What the Bank of England does is to compare these levels of housing investment with the amount of additional secured lending. If the Bank of England finds that additional secured lending is equal to the amount of housing investment then HEW is zero. If it is positive, then additional secured lending is greater than the levels of housing investment. This would show that the household sector was extracting equity from the housing stock and using mortgage lending to fund consumption, to purchase financial assets or to pay off unsecured debts, like credit cards. But, the point here is that HEW is actually negative and has been so since the second quarter of 2008. Negative HEW means that housing investment levels are greater than the levels of new secured borrowing. In other words, household are increasing their housing equity. But, there is a cost to this choice because by doing so households are using money that could otherwise be assigned for spending or purchasing financial assets. One way of measuring the potential extent of foregone consumption is to note that the Bank estimates that the level of equity injected into housing in Q1 was equivalent to 1.3% of disposable income. Since Q2 2008 households have injected equity into housing to the tune of £38.34 billion, which is equivalent to 1.97% of disposable income, some of which might have otherwise been used to fund spending. The negativity of HEW is not that surprising. In difficult economic times many of us might be tempted, if we can, to reduce our exposure to debt. Low interest rates may also be inducing households to pay off debt either because the interest rates on saving products are low and unattractive or because the size of mortgage payments for those on now lower variable rate mortgages gives them income with which to pay debt off. The bottom line is that after many years happily spending, households appear to be dining off a different menu. Homeowners raise stakes in homes, says Bank of England BBC News (15/7/10) Mortgage debt drops £3.2 billion Independent, Nicky Burridge (15/7/10) Drop in outstanding mortgage debt UK Press Association (15/7/10) Equity withdrawal still negative Financial Times, Cara Waters (15/7/10) Saving may cause a double-dip recession Telegraph, Harry Wallop (13/7/10) Housing equity withdrawal (HEW) statistical releases Bank of England Quarterly National Accounts, 1st Quarter 2010 ONS 1. What do you understand by the term ‘housing equity withdrawal’? 2. Compare the possible implications for consumer spending of positive HEW and negative HEW. 3. What factors do you think lie behind the eight consecutive quarters of negative HEW? 4. Why might a low interest rate environment affect the incentive to withdrawal housing equity? What other variables might also affect levels of HEW? 5. How does HEW affect the net worth of households? Share in top social networks!
Article Text Preventive human papillomavirus vaccination 1. M Lehtinen, 2. J Dillner 1. National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland, and Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Lund, Malmö, Sweden 1. Correspondence to:  Dr M Lehtinen, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Mannerheimintie 166, FI 00300 Helsinki, Finland;  llmale{at} Statistics from Considerable gains at the individual and societal level would be obtained if cervical cancer could be prevented The cancer burden causally associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infections is high. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among females in the world, with 500 000 new cases and 300 000 premature deaths a year.1 Because of the long preclinical period cervical cancer can be prevented by screening, diagnosis, and treatment of premalignant cervical lesions, but for developing countries preventive vaccination may be the only possibility to significantly reduce cervical cancer incidence. Also in the developed countries considerable gains at the individual and societal level would be obtained, if a significant proportion of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions could be prevented by HPV vaccination (for a systematic review see Lehtinen et al2). In addition, other anogenital cancers, oropharyngeal and base of tongue cancers, and probably a small proportion of oesophageal cancers are all strongly associated with past HPV infection.3–5 For these and other possible HPV associated cancers, vaccination may be the only possibility for prevention. Overall prevention of HPV infections may result in a 5–10% reduction of cancer mortality worldwide. This editorial seeks to answer the following two questions: what kind of vaccines will be tested and how should their efficacy be defined? Preventive HPV vaccines entering clinical efficacy (phase III) trials are plain virus-like particles (VLPs), DNA free capsids comprising the major viral capsid (L1) protein (manufactured by Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and by NIH), or chimeric VLPs (CVLP), containing various combinations of early viral proteins attached in different ways to the major L1 or the minor (L2) capsid proteins of the virus. In phase I and II trials HPV VLPs have proved to be safe and highly immunogenic.6 HPV VLP immunisation induces approximately 100-fold higher neutralising antibody titres than natural infection. The level of mucosal immunoglobulin G (IgG) is 10% but it varies following the menstrual cycle and is lowest at the time of ovulation. The prevailing theory of the mode of action of the vaccine, however, suggests that this variation may not be a major problem. In natural infection the entry of HPV into the basal cells of the epithelium, which support the initial stages of viral replication, is facilitated by a microscopic trauma resulting from, for example, sexual intercourse. Following this micro trauma, circulating antibodies leak to the epithelial surface and neutralise the virus. The L1 antibodies recognise a conformational, type specific epitope, and have shown close to a 100% protection in animal studies against homologous challenges with both HPV and animal papillomaviruses.7 While the increasingly large number of oncogenic HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 51, 52, 58, 59) that associate with cervical cancer may make it impossible to achieve 100% protection against cervical cancer, it is relatively easy to include the most prevalent oncogenic HPVs (HPV16 and HPV18) into a multivalent VLP vaccine, and even tailor the vaccine composition by the HPV types most prevalent in different geographic areas should this prove necessary. Analogously to hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine HPV VLPs also induce cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses by entering the MHC class I pathway.7 If the antibodies fail to neutralise all HPV virions, CTLs recognising viral capsids bound for as long as 10–12 hours to more or less specific cellular receptors (integrin and/or heparan sulphate proteoglycans8, 9) might block spread of the virus at its most primordial state in the initially infected cells. Production of new virions takes place in the upper layers of the epithelium, and CTLs targeting these cells might effectively reduce spread of the virus. Indication of this has, however, been shown only for the non-oncogenic HPV VLPs, and it is not clear whether such a response is able to eliminate oncogenic HPVs from the basal cells.10 CVLPs may offer a significant advantage in this regard. The expression of various early HPV proteins responsible for viral replication (E1), transcription (E2), and oncogenesis (E6, E7) is abundant both in the basal and the differentiating epithelial cells providing good targets for the CTLs. Two vaccines based on different gene constructs—HPV16 L1, L2 truncated E2–E7 CVLP (by an NIH group) and HPV16 L1–E7 CVLP (by Medigene)—have passed or are passing safety and immunogenicity tests. In addition to the induction of high titres of neutralising antibodies, some of which (anti-L2 antibodies) may be cross protective against several HPV types, the CVLP vaccines induce CTL responses against the early proteins in humans.11 However, for CVLPs data on humans are scarce and need to be expanded. CTL responses against the early HPV proteins are important not only in order to provide theoretically improved protection and possible therapeutic effect, but because they may also offer cross protection against several HPV types. The E1 and E2 proteins are particularly well conserved among the HPVs. The analogy between the different HPV VLP vaccines and the first human cancer vaccine, HBV vaccine, is very encouraging. The HBV vaccine has an overall efficacy of 95%,12 and even when given to infants born to mothers with active hepatitis (HBV-e antigen positive women, the offspring of whom are prone to become chronic HBV carriers) its efficacy exceeds 75%. These figures also fit the first available data on long term effects of universal HBV vaccination. The incidence of liver cancer has reduced by 75% among 12–14 year old Taiwanese children 15 years after implementation of the nationwide HBV vaccination programme.13 This was to be expected on the basis of seroepidemiological data showing that HBs antibody positive individuals have a reduced risk of liver cancer, whereas HBs antigen positive individuals have an increased risk. This was the first randomised trial proving the efficacy of HBV vaccination against both acute hepatitis B and becoming a chronic HBV carrier. But, however encouraging, analogies should be considered with caution. While it appears that most of the women treated for the HPV induced premalignant lesions by, for example, laser or loop excision can tackle the residual low amount of virus and eventually clear the infection, recurrences do occur with varying incubation times and for reasons that are not totally understood.14 Restricting the viral load plays a part, and new strategies for cervical cancer control are also based on identification of women with moderate to high levels but not low levels of oncogenic HPV DNA (for a systematic review see Cuzick et al15). The role of natural infection or vaccine induced VLP antibodies in restricting mucosal HPV infection may, however, be qualitatively different from the central role of circulating HBV antibodies in preventing systemic hepatitis B infection. While HBV antibody positive individuals have a reduced risk of liver cancer, the HPV16 VLP antibody positive individuals remain at an increased risk of developing cervical cancer and other HPV16 associated cancers 10–20 years after infection.2–5 There are no good data to suggest that the antibodies would do any harm—for example, by inducing latency, but we simply do not know to what extent the paradigm on prevention of liver cancer by preventing acute HBV infection and HBV carrier status can be applied in the HPV infection-cervical neoplasia context. The main effector function of VLP vaccination is neutralising antibodies7 but these may never be able to induce totally sterilising immunity and the concept of significantly reducing the viral load becomes an issue.16 While the minimum HPV viral load for development of cervical and other cancers is not known, it is highly likely that HPV vaccine induced neutralising antibodies and/or CTLs will prevent or significantly restrict and aid in clearing of the primary HPV infection, and reduce transmission of the infection to others. Randomised clinical trials will eventually define efficacy of the different vaccines against persistent HPV infection and other surrogate end points, such as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade II/III. A proof of the principle that HPV vaccines can prevent these necessary steps in cervical carcinogenesis might be considered sufficient to demonstrate efficacy and to compare different vaccines, and limited licensures will be considered probably sooner rather than later. There are, however, several possible pitfalls that could prevent effective vaccines from actually achieving their expected health benefits. For example, if vaccination failure is preferentially associated with determinants of progression or if vaccination induces changes in the population biology of the different HPV types. To find out these pieces of information one has to organise a long term follow up of the initial randomised trials. Countries with stable and vaccination prone populations, population based health registers, standardised public health care, and organised mass screening for cervical cancer have the appropriate infrastructure and setting for direct extension of the clinical trials to the invasive cervical cancer (ICC) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III (CINIII) end points based on registry follow up.17 Population based randomisation and informed consent based linkages of the different study and health registers from the very beginning to death are most important especially to avoid different selection biases, performance bias resulting from “contamination” of the population after licensure of the vaccines,18 and loss to follow up bias. The ultimate proof will be that immunisation with HPV vaccines significantly reduces the incidence of (and mortality from) cervical cancer and its immediate precursors compared to unvaccinated population based referents.17 If it turns out that the plain VLP vaccines fail to do it, while the chimeric VLP vaccines are successful we can infer that simple reduction of the HPV load at the port of viral entry is not enough, and that the second barrier of cell mediated immunity against the early viral proteins is also needed. At the moment, however, there is no indication of this and both alternatives should be pursued. For all end points it would be optimal to target large numbers of young boys and girls who are about to start their sexual activity, since they will have the highest event rates of both HPV infections and associated cancers. Targeting both sexes may, however, not be necessary at this stage since the assumed vaccine efficacy against HPV infection (90%) is high enough to bring the beneficial long term effect to the females.19 With an assumed attack rate of 0.65% and 60% vaccine efficacy against CINIII+ICC, enrolment of altogether 15 000 such vaccinees and referents for 15–20 years of registry based follow up would give 80% statistical power to judge whether a vaccine which covers two thirds of the oncogenic HPV types protects against CINIII+ICC. Comparison of different HPV vaccines and gradual implementation of the adolescent vaccination into the general vaccination programme using the same setting would bring in considerable synergy and needs to be considered seriously. Last but not least, possible ethical problems associated with ending or discontinuing the early end point clinical trials would be largely solved by the possibility of referring the vaccinees to an organised mass screening. Key messages • DNA free virus-like particle vaccines containing either structural (L1) HPV proteins or both structural and early viral proteins have passed/are passing safety/immunogenicity trials. • Phase III efficacy trials with the different VLP vaccines using intermediate end points such as protection against HPV positive squamous intraepithelial lesions will start soon. • Long term follow up of the phase III trials would be important to obtain proof for the vaccine efficacy against cervical cancer. • Phase III and the long term follow up trials may help future public health policy decision making. Pieces of the preventive HPV vaccination puzzle are on the table. If the scientific community, together with the public health authorities and vaccine manufacturers, manages to solve the puzzle the expected health benefits are immense. The authors wish to thank Drs Maurice Hilleman and Eero Pukkala for stimulating discussions. View Abstract Request permissions
≡ Menu How Fear Impacts On Our Lives Fear. It is something everyone has experienced at some point in time during their lives. Brief moments, like someone cutting in front of you with a car, a bully at school, even something as mundane as whether or not youâ€™ve passed a class. They happen for all of us and for some of us, fear can be more than a brief moment, it can be an all consuming emotional disability. Everyone has experienced fear and most say itâ€™s hard to describe. So, what exactly is fear and how does it affect us. What is fear? There are many definitions of the word fear, an emotion experienced in anticipation, to be uneasy or apprehensive, to have a profound emotion that is related to or inspired by a deity or high spiritual being. Fear can also be defined as a group of biological responses that occur during a situation that activates a humanâ€™s flight or fight survival response. What ever the fear response is, it will fall into various categories. There are levels of fear, and degrees in which fear is felt. Fear can be everything from distrust of a person or of a situation. Many people feel that distrust is actually when a person has lack of faith or there is an absence of belief in a situation or in an individual. However, this is not actually the case. Distrust is usually a feeling of uneasiness or a subconscious twinge that letâ€™s us know that something might not be right or that there is something that should be watched out for. It is a protective fear response. Paranoia is another classification of fear response. This is used when a fear of something causes the individual experiencing the fear to change their behavior in extreme ways. The ultimate result of paranoia is classified as a phobia. Finally, the classification of fear known as terror. This is an extreme state of fear, usually resulting from an overwhelming flight response. This can be caused but a situation or by coming across something that is a phobia or fear for the person experiencing it. In these instances, instead of just a radical change in behavior, irrational decisions can occur because the level of fear is so high that the chemical response prevents individuals from being able to make rational decisions. How fear stops us from experiencing life Have you ever known someone with glossophobia, the fear of speaking in public, all of us have it to some extent, getting up in front of a crowd and talking about something. Even those who are experts in what they are going to be discussing experience this fear in some fashion. Someone with a strong case of glossophobia might be a wonderful speaker, but no one would ever know. They might have wonderful ideas, but this fear prevents them from speaking and getting those ideas across. Some people experience fear to such an extent that they become trapped in their homes, unable to leave because of the symptoms of fear they experience. Allowing fear to make decisions for us prevents us from enjoying and experiencing life the way it can be experienced. Because of fear, some people never travel by plane, or take long car trips missing out on visiting family, friends, and events and missing out on perhaps life changing experiences because fear stops them from taking part in the experience. Steps for over coming fear The first step is to identify the fear. What is it exactly? Then identify where the fear came from, an experience, faith based, or social based? All fear has some sort of situation or reason behind it. Now that the fear has been identified and the cause, the next step is to work out a plan. Depending on the type and level of the fear, it might be a good idea to seek professional help. Then face the fear and follow the steps. If you are afraid of dogs, start by visiting a dog park, work up to playing with puppies, then larger dogs. That way, the situations are manageable and time can be taken to work through the fear. Rushing through overcoming fears can often lead to an increase in the phobia or response rather than a decrease. Some fear is good Having some fear is healthy. Fear protects us. A biological response to a situation that could endanger life or progeny. Without fear, we would get into dangerous situations, and cause dangerous situations. Fear is a natural biological reaction to situations that may prove dangerous, or it can be a learned response to a situation or event that happened in our past. It is important to identify these fears, discover their origins and over come them so that we can experience life to the fullest. { 0 comments… add one } Leave a Comment
Download!Download Point responsive WP Theme for FREE! Traditional Economy: US vs. The Rest of the World Traditional economy was a standard for all a while back, and only relatively recently has the US changed to modern economics: capitalism. However, as the economy developed so did the needs and demands of many people, and it has led to industrialization of production to meet such a high demand. Nevertheless, both sides serve a purpose in order to make society survive, but, nowadays, without a modernized economy it would be practically impossible not only to enjoy the finer things, but to barely survive. However, all of it is changing drastically in today’s world, and for a good reason. Countries Relying on Tradition Would Have Trouble Surviving Today While nowadays it is possible to transfer possession to almost anyone you wish, it was not possible in the olden days. It could be only passed on through lineage, and unless you were part of the family, you had a hard time achieving greater goods in your lifetime. On one side of traditional economy people were discerned by their title and group, which created some kind of hierarchy. And on the other hand, the economy was very fragile, because if the conditions were not ideal, nothing could be produced. There was very little commerce for the sake of gaining profit, it was all done in order to survive. The US Took a Different Turn Than the World The US has always excelled at being different from the rest of the world, and they have quickly adopted the idea of capitalism, or the modern economic style. It had great impact on how people have changed from a more traditional upbringing to be able to gain power, no matter the roots. Inheritance was still very important, but any individual could make a name for themselves. Moreover, consumerism pumps capitalist markets now which dictates the supply and demand chains as well. In other words, without a higher need for acquiring possession, it would be impossible to fuel the entire economic state of the US. The Greater Impact of Modern Economy on World Economy Many countries have adopted the western style of economics, which has proved to be useful in raising their industrial and economic powers. However, the US relies heavily on the influence of the Internet and the networking prowess it brings into the equation. Moreover, it has enabled many new ways of earning money and creating markets never imagined before. Online gambling is currently in its golden age, because anyone who has a connection is eligible to participate, to read more go to casino blog. Such major changes enable the spirit of the US economy to live on and prosper in other countries too. It is inevitable for an economy to change in order to flourish. Otherwise growth and development would be at a halt. Capitalism is already seeing major changes happening, which does not necessarily mean that everyone will benefit from it. However, so far, it has proved to be a beneficial way for people to gain not only power but personal wealth as well. With the introduction of the Internet, globalization has become more obvious and it has enabled many businesses to develop rapidly and to find new markets. The transition from traditional to modern economics is visible, and still has a noticeable impact. Add a Comment
Year 6 Maths worksheet: Ordering fractions The big question: how do you put fractions in order of size? It is easy to compare fractions if the bottom number (the denominator) is the same for each fraction. 3/12 is smaller than 5/12 etc. But if the denominators are different it becomes more tricky. There are several ways to do this (eg treat each [...] get the Maths Worksheets here Leave a Reply You can use these HTML tags
St. Mary’s Hospital No Longer Uses Plastic Water Bottles by Masha Vodyanik, age 14 As part of an effort to become more “green”, St. Mary’s Hospital recently implemented a ban on plastic water bottles. To encourage more eco-friendly operations the hospital will no longer sell or distribute water in plastic containers. To make these bottles, industries use 900,000 tons of plastic, 17 million barrels of oil, and produce 2.5 million tons of CO2 annually. On top of that, only 20 percent of these water bottles are actually recyclable. The rest usually end up in landfills or the ocean. Plastic bottles may also contain toxic or cancer-causing chemicals, which can seep from the plastic into the water. Eco-friendly consumers can now use their reusable water bottles instead of having to buying a new one every time they get thirsty. This is a big leap towards restoring the environment. Health and environmental experts hope other companies and organizations will follow in St. Mary’s footsteps. [Sources: Capital Times;] Please enter the word shown below (reduces spam). Click the image to generate a new one.
Human Sacrifice In The Aztec Culture Essay Sample Human Sacrifice In The Aztec Culture Pages Download Pages: Word count: Rewriting Possibility: % () When the words “Human Sacrifice” come to your mind, what do you think? To me I think it is abnormal and horrific. Most people could agree with me, but others not so much. Human sacrifice is really popular in the Aztec culture. The Aztecs were the Native Americans who took over Northern Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest, during the 14th through the16th century. The Aztecs were fearless warriors and pragmatic builders. When it came to their religious beliefs, they were very specific in whom they believed in. They had many ways to thank and praise their gods, and one of those ways was through Human Sacrifice. Now there are many different ways to remember the Aztecs, such as their amazing agriculture. But if we had to choose between those two topics, human sacrifice is more intriguing. Historians should emphasize human sacrifice in the Aztec culture because there was an enormous sale that cannot be ignored, the connections to religion, and also the most important factor, the human connection. To begin with, there was an enormous scale of deaths. Most of the sacrifices were prisoners of war. According to source Friar Diego Duran, there was two thousand three hundred men that were killed (Doc D). We don’t exactly know how many were sacrificed over the years, there’s no exact number. There was a possibility that they sacrificed thousands each year. There was an estimate of 20,000 a year. Also, there was a connection to religion. The Aztec sacrifices were an important factor of the Aztec religion. The Aztecs sacrificed all these men for their gods, but most importantly the sun god named Huitzilopochtli. Those who were of higher status in the religious community were expected to give the most blood during the Aztec rituals. Most illustrations of the Aztec sacrifices were made by catholic priests who were over exaggerating on how the rituals actually happened. No one knows exactly what happened in these rituals, unless they were apart of them. Most of the sacrifices were all somewhat connected to Aztec gods, each one with a different reason of human blood. The most important reason why we should emphasize human sacrifice is the human connection. To know what really happened in these rituals, you would have to be someone performing the ritual or be the one who is being sacrificed. According to the Aztec teenager Friar Bernardino de Sahagun interviewed, the Aztecs believed if they were going to sacrifice someone, they were going to sacrifice the best of the people for their god (Doc E). The enemy warrior was treated like a god because he was going to die (Doc E). Some sacrifices were live to the public for everyone to see, even the young children. Finally, there are many reasons why historians should emphasize human sacrifice in the Aztec culture and those reasons are the human scale/ deaths, the religion and human connections. We all think of human sacrifice to just be human sacrifice and nothing else. The Aztecs had reasons for everything that they did and believed in. Many other people wouldn’t understand why they did the things that they did but it didn’t matter because that was their culture and their ways of life. There are methods to everything in life, and the Aztecs methods to life just happen to be through human sacrifice. Search For The related topics • aztec • sacrifice • Olivia from Bla Bla Writing Haven't found the Essay You Want? For Only $13.90/page
Thread: question about time conversion 1. #1 Registered User Join Date Oct 2010 question about time conversion I was wondering if someone could tell me what is wrong with this code. I am trying to write a program which will ask the user to enter a time and then add 12 to it if the end char entered is P and the numerical value of the hour is < 12. With the following code, the program adds 12 regardless and I am trying to figure out how to resolve this. Thanks. cout << "Enter start time (hh:mm A/P): "; float start_hour = 0; float start_minute = 0; char A = 0; char P = 0; char dummy(0); cin >> start_hour >> dummy >> start_minute >> A \|\| P; if ( P && start_hour <12 ); start_hour = start_hour + 12; 2. #2 and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar Join Date Aug 2001 The edge of the known universe What's A \|\| P supposed to mean? What's the ; at the end of the if statement do? The answer to both is "not what you're expecting" Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed Similar Threads 1. Using pointers By Big_0_72 in forum C Programming Replies: 3 Last Post: 10-28-2008, 07:51 PM 2. boost posix time question By l2u in forum C++ Programming Replies: 4 Last Post: 03-05-2008, 01:31 PM 3. need help in time zone By Gong in forum C++ Programming Replies: 2 Last Post: 01-03-2007, 04:44 AM 4. It's a question of time ... By Mandy_C in forum C Programming Replies: 4 Last Post: 04-09-2006, 02:18 PM 5. Dikumud By maxorator in forum C++ Programming Replies: 1
Breaking News! Exciting Discovery of a 2,000-year-old Tibetan Root Last month, a group of geneticists from UC Irvine published an article about Rhodiola root, confirming that feeding it to fruit flies makes them live 20% longer, and reporting a negative finding about how that might work: benefits of Rhodiola appear to be entirely separate from the response to hunger, the “CR Effect”. Why was the article featured in the prestigious journal, PLoS One, which is targeted at a broad audience of non-specialists? You might imagine that if living longer was as simple as eating an herb that has been known to traditional medicine since the time of the ancients, then this would have been validated by Science some time in the last hundred years, and health food store would be advertising it and every doctor recommending it. Curiously, it hasn’t worked that way. To study life extension in people takes too long, so a preliminary screening is done in mice. To test a single candidate treatment costs about $100,000 and takes over two years. Because herbal medicines can’t be patented, there is no company motivated to put up the money, and aging has never been a high priority for government grants, and the Federal budget for science has been dwindling. (Stephen Spindler of UCLA has taken on the project of testing dozens of compounds to see if they extend the lives of mice, and has advocated that it’s just too slow and expensive, and we might gather information more quickly and cheaply by looking at how the compound effects the mouse’s gene expression. This is expected to work because we know that gene expression changes in some characteristic ways in older mammals, and this is thought to be causally connected to aging. Is anyone asking, “Why don’t we try to artificially engineer a youthful profile of gene expression?” Well, yes …but that’s a digression for another column.) Only a handful of compounds are known that have been documented to extend life span in mice: Deprenyl, metformin, melatonin, and rapamycin are three that come to mind. They are all prescription drugs. Melatonin is widely-available and cheap, useful for regularizing sleep and adjusting to change in time zones. Metformin is a genuine anti-aging compound, in my opinion. Its benefits are clearest for people who are overweight or diabetic; though I am neither, I take it myself, in subclinical doses. Rapamycin is not ready for prime time. It is a powerful immune suppressant and its long-term effects in humans have not yet been charted. Deprenyl (= Selegeline,Eldepryl, Emsam, or Zelapar) has been around for decades and its side-effects are better charted. It is a stimulant, a cousin of methamphetamine, and it will change the texture of your experience, in ways that you may like or may not. A fourth compound is a Vietnamese herb called dinh lang, for which I’ve been able to locate just this one intriguing study from 1992. Fruit flies are much easier to breed and quicker to produce results. The tradeoff is that they are more distant from humans. It’s a striking and quite general finding from the science of aging in the last 20 years that genetic mechanisms of aging tend to be similar, conserved over great stretches of evolutionary time, so that there is reason to hope that a genetic pathway that affects aging in flies will have a corresponding pathway in people. There are more compounds known to extend life span in flies, and studying them for potential human therapies is one more promising, underfunded research project. Stem Cell 100 is a product that claims to induce very long life span in flies in experiments also conducted at Irvine. I’ve asked, but have been unable to find any peer-reviewed confirmation of this claim.) The herb Rhodiola has a venerable history The new paper starts with a quick summary of what is known about Rhodiola from modern experiments with animals. Reading it, one might garner the impression that experiments have been haphazard. The root extract of Rhodiola rosea, also known as the golden root, has been widely used in traditional and integrative medical practices in Europe and Asia, where it has been purported to mediate a variety of beneficial effects in humans, such as improved mood, improved physical and mental stamina, and enhanced protection against high altitude sickness [1]. The extract has also been reported to protect against tumor progression in mice, improve endurance in rats, improve blood glucose profiles in diabetic mice, and protect snail eggs against oxidative stress, heat, and heavy metals [2][5]. Our group has previously reported that R. rosea can extend the lifespan of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, protect flies and human cultured cells against oxidative stress, and decrease the production of reactive oxygen species in isolated fly mitochondria [6][8]. (Does the prose remind you of the Findings page from the back of Harpers magazine?) Why we might raise an eyebrow The authors of this paper raise the possibility that Rhodiola ought to be of interest for further investigation whether it might be a candidate for human life extension. There are two reasons for optimism. First: Treatments that extend life span almost always increase stress resistance as well. Animals that are pre-treated with caloric restriction prove to be much hardier when exposed to toxins. Any compound that increases stress resistance becomes an interesting candidate for experimental investigation for life extension potential. In one experiment, mice were exposed to a 100% lethal dose of gamma radiation.. But among those mice that were prepared with Rhodiola 30 minutes beforehand, 90% of them survived the same treatment. The mechanism for such a dramatic protection is not completely understood. The gamma radiation acts like the proverbial bull in the body’s china shop, randomly breaking apart the delicate and complex molecules on which life depends. It’s unlikely that Rhodiola can do anything to stop that process. However, the body has its own chemical machinery for repairing the damage, and it is likely that these are upregulated in response to the Rhodiola. This makes sense at least on the surface, but it leaves you wondering: if there is such a survival advantage to enhanced presence of these repair enzymes, why does the body wait until it sees Rhodiola in order to produce a little extra? Second: Most of the known interventions that extend life span in animals have proven to be related to the biochemical pathways that the body uses to resist stress and stave off aging during periods of starvation. CR mimetics are chemical or other means to harvest this potential without suffering hunger. But the potential for using these is in danger of become saturated in humans because we already have several good ideas for mimetics. Already 8 years ago, Aubrey de Grey was warning us that caloric restriction works much better in short-lived animals than in long-lived animals, and that the potential for extending human life by eating less (and mimetics) might be limited. Bottom line Rhodiola is interesting for all these reasons, and the fact that it is reported to increase energy, enhance concentration, and counter depression has tempted me to try it. I’ll let you know. Dietary Salt: Medical Science Corrects a Long-Standing Error The Federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) commissioned a review of the health benefits of reducing salt intake, and a draft of the final report is available on line. The take-home message is that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazzard. The average American eats about 1½ tsp. per day. What the CDC study reported explicitly is that there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp per day But even above 1 tsp, the evidence is tenuous and inconsistent. It may be that we’re better off with more salt than less, up to 2 or even 3 tsp per day. How did it happen that such standard medical advice drifted astray, then went un-corrected for so long? This review by the National Academies Institute of Medicine (IOM), commissioned by CDC, considered dozens of studies, from cross-cultural (less reliable) to prospective, randomized with control (most reliable). Most studies showed no relationship between salt intake and any health outcome. Some seemed to indicate that more salt had a beneficial effect. Gina Kolata of the NYTimes published an excellent summary of the report a few weeks ago, and I won’t try to improve on her article. Here’s an excerpt: One 2008 study the committee examined, for example, randomly assigned 232 Italian patients with aggressively treated moderate to severe congestive heart failure to consume either 2,760 or 1,840 milligrams of sodium a day, but otherwise to consume the same diet. Those consuming the lower level of sodium had more than three times the number of hospital readmissions — 30 as compared with 9 in the higher-salt group — and more than twice as many deaths — 15 as compared with 6 in the higher-salt group. Another study, published in 2011, followed 28,800 subjects with high blood pressure ages 55 and older for 4.7 years and analyzed their sodium consumption by urinalysis. The researchers reported that the risks of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and death from heart disease increased significantly for those consuming more than 7,000 milligrams of sodium a day and for those consuming fewer than 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day. To translate this last study into teaspoons: the finding was that anything between 1½ and 3 tsp of salt per day is just fine, and there were adverse effects from eating more than that or less than that. Most Americans who are not consciously restricting salt fall in this range (1½ to 3 tsp). People who are on low-salt diets for medical reasons are getting as little as ½ tsp, and they’re well into the range where dearth of salt is harming them. The worst impact of low salt is on insulin sensitivity. Loss of insulin sensitivity is a big risk factor for all the diseases of old age. Comments and Context Perspiration is the biggest source of variability in individual requirement for salt. Given that our need for salt varies widely with exercise and with temperature, it’s surprising that most of the studies proceeded blindly with a “one-size-fits-all” model. A few tested for salt excreted in the urine, which is a better measure than the amount consumed. The IOM finding was heralded by a great number of alternative web health sources which have told us for years that salt has been falsely demonized (Dr Mercola, Dr Weill, Adele Hite) How did the medical community fall into such a large error, lasting so long? The medical research community gets a lot of things right, and when they make major errors, you can usually see the trail of money leading them astray (Vioxx, hormone replacement therapy…). But there was no Pharma Giant making hay from people who ate less salt, so how did this happen? I have a personal theory: Blood Pressure and Clogged Arteries – Chicken and Egg The central problem (I believe) is that the causal association between salt and heart disease was and still is based on faulty logic. The error is in the connection through blood pressure as an intermediate variable. The new review does attempt to look for direct evidence of a link between salt and CVD (cardio-vascular disease), independent of blood pressure, but the IOM review also echoes the faulty reasoning, perpetuating the old error. As Kolata writes: “Until about 2006, almost all studies on salt and health outcomes relied on the well-known fact that blood pressure can drop slightly when people eat less salt. From that, and from other studies linking blood pressure to risks of heart attacks and strokes, researchers created models showing how many lives could be saved if people ate less salt. Here’s the logical fallacy: High blood pressure is associated with increased risk of heart attack. Salt causes blood pressure to increase. Therefore, (the community consensus concludes), salt increases the risk of heart attack. The problem with this thinking is an example of the old warning, “correlation is not necessarily an indication of causation.” In this case, there may be no causation at all. Here’s why: Atherosclerosis is the most common precursor to heart disease. In atherosclerosis, arteries lose their elasticity and also become clogged with inflamed fatty deposits. The deposits can break off and block blood flow. If this happens in the brain, the result is a stroke, and if it is in a coronary artery, the result is a heart attack. So we understand why atherosclerosis implies a big risk of heart attack and stroke. It’s also true that atherosclerosis causes elevated blood pressure. This is a simple mechanical effect. When you have a narrower tube, it takes more pressure to drive the fluid through it. Atherosclerosis causes high blood pressure and also causes risk of CVD. And most people are subject to atherosclerosis as we age. So it’s no mystery that high blood pressure should be correlated with CV risk. But that doesn’t mean that high blood pressure causes CV risk. Eating salt causes the body to retain water, and the swelling increases ambient pressure in surrounding tissues, and blood pressure increases in response. So salt increases blood pressure and atherosclerosis increases blood pressure, but they work via two very different mechanisms. There’s every reason to believe atherosclerosis causes CV risk, but no reason to think that salt should lead to CV risk, even though it increases blood pressure. It’s clear from epidemiology that atherosclerosis is correlated with blood pressure. It’s clear from simple physics that atherosclerosis causes high blood pressure. (A => B.) But maybe there’s a causal link in the other direction as well (B => A). This is what doctors and medical researchers have long assumed: that high blood pressure causes a mechanical strain in the arteries, and that in some unexplained way the body’s response is atherosclerosis. It’s a long-standing theory. And if it is true that B causes A, then of course we’d have reason to think that salt, which raises blood pressure, would also increase severity of atherosclerosis. This hypothesis (B =>A) was first confirmed in an experiment on rabbits in 1989. The experiment seems questionable, with hindsight. Perhaps the researchers were looking too hard for evidence to support an important and popular theory, and they were fooled by confirmation bias. This is the well-studied tendency of all of us – with and without scientific training – to easily take in new information that fits well with what we already know, but to ignore or cast aside information that doesn’t fit with our existing beliefs. When experiments don’t turn out the way we expect, we take it as a failure, and often we try to “fix” the problems, until the experiment “works”. The 1989 study was by a senior team of researchers at Boston University, headed by Aram Chobanian (who subsequently served as University president). They operated on young rabbits, removing one kidney and constricting blood flow to the other with a tight-fitting band around the artery. About half the operated rabbits developed hypertension, and the other half either died or were excluded from the study. The remaining rabbits, all of whom had high blood pressure, developed atherosclerosis – the result they were looking for. The Chobanian study made a big splash, and has been cited hundreds of times since 1989. But could it be that the experiment came out the way it did for a different reason entirely? (This is my own thought, and I haven’t seen it in print. You’re the first to read it.) Restricting kidney function can lead quite directly to atherosclerosis, independent of the blood pressure connection. Atherosclerosis is known to be elevated in kidney dialysis patients. A 2011 study comparing autopsies of heart patients and dialysis patients found that the arteries of the dialysis patients were even more clogged than those of the heart patients. This is not B=>A but K=>A. Maybe the idea that B=>A has been a long detour into the wilderness. Surveying web sites that offer the best in standard medical advice, I’m surprised to see that all of them embrace the logic (B=>A) without any acknowledgment that (A=>B) is the expectation of elementary physics, and that evidence for (B=>A) is tenuous and indirect. None of them have yet updated their advice on salt to comport with the newly-recognized reality. Crystal Ball Given what we know about confirmation bias, it was rather brave of the IOM to report conclusions that were at odds with medical advice of the last 50 years. Officially, the recommendation to reduce daily intake below 1 tsp has been lifted, but some of the studies cited seem to show that our bodies need more than this to avoid impaired insulin sensitivity. Now that IOM has made it respectable to take a different view of salt, we can expect a sea change in the medical establishment’s attitudes toward salt, as the force of confirmation bias has been shifted to the other side of the scale. How to be skinny We know that cutting calories has multiple health benefits and makes you thinner. But suppose we play tricks to be thinner without eating less – is there still a benefit for health and longevity? This week we review Irvingia, Metformin, Pycnogenol, Green Coffee Extract, Acarbose, and old-fashioned amphetamides for weight loss. Also avoiding carbs and increasing fiber, intermittent fasting and bursts of exercise before eating. Weight loss drugs have a bad name from the days when people were a little too eager to lose weight for appearance’s sake, and willing to take risks with their health to do so. Early weight loss drugs were stimulants, with all the associated risks: they make you feel good, they keep you from sleeping, they let you down, they’re habit-forming. Now we know that keeping weight down is an increasingly important part of staying healthy as we age. There is a new generation of drugs and supplements that work through different channels than the old ones, and some of them have long-term benefits independent of weight loss. I’m coming from a perspective based on the loss of insulin sensitivity as a primary driver of aging. This is the essence of “metabolic syndrome” or “Type 2 Diabetes”, but in a milder form, this is a part of how we all age. Loss of insulin sensitivity causes us to gain fat cells, which exacerbates loss of insulin sensitivity in a vicious cycle. Metabolic syndrome, even in its mild form, is associated with increased risk of cancer and heart disease. Simply eating less is the best medicine in principle, but a large majority of people who start off well by applying willpower end up actually gaining weight. [ref1ref2] Hence there are tricks and treatments, strategies and diet fads. My advice (as usual) is to recognize that diet is very individual, to try different diets and diet aids until you find something that works for you. Here’s a brief guide to what’s available. Green Coffee Extract Note added in 2015: I have become aware of fraud in the science behind Green Coffee Extract, and I no longer know whether I can recommend it. Here is the article with retraction notice. This is the latest among the new generation of supplements that affect the insulin metabolism. GCE slows the absorption of sugar and reduces the secretion of the enzyme (amylase) that turns starches to sugar in the digestive tract, and also blocks the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase that makes sugar in the liver. Overall less of the food energy passing through the intestine is absorbed into the body, and to this extent taking green coffee extract should be expected to have the same benefit as eating less. The primary active ingredient may be chlorogenic acid, but its effect has not been separated from other phytoesters included in the extract. The extract contains no cafeine. In the best results to date, subjects lost an average 8 kg over 22 weeks, without consuming less calories. A 2011 review (before this latest study) found clear evidence that GCE is effective as advertised, but bemoaned the fact that all the research in the field was linked to companies that stood to pofit from the sale of GCE. Chlorogenic acid is also found in sunflower seeds and prunes. Leptin is a hormone that signals your brain that you’ve had enough to eat, and signals your fat cells to burn up their fat stores. As we age, we lose sensitivity to leptin (as to insulin). Irvingia is the extract of an African bush mango, purported to increase leptin sensitivity. There are reports of large weight loss in a short time with irvingia, [ref1, ref2] , but the studies are short-term and there are ambiguities in their design, so results are often summarized by reviewers as “inconclusive”. [ref1, ref2] Other ways to prepare the insulin system before eating There are several other foods reported to help prevent the insulin spike from a meal, when taken 20 before eating anything else. These include cinnamon, vinegar, and grapefruit. Lowers blood sugar after eating, effectively improving insulin sensitivity. This is a supplement in the same class as others mentioned here, and may offer long-term health benefits including longevity, but no effect on weight reported. Previously reported on this page, metformin is a prescription drug that has been the treatment of choice for diabetes for over 40 years. It lowers cancer risk so effectively that we speculate it might be useful for non-diabetics as well. Weight loss from metformin is primarily by appetite suppression. Blood sugar is lowered by metformin, and yet people feel more satisfied and eat less. The reported weight loss in studies of metformin is modest compared to irvingia, but it tends to stay off (irvingia studies are all short-term) and the studies are well-controlled. [ref] This is a prescription drug that slows sugar absorption from the stomach, mimicking a low-carb diet without restriction of carbs. It is effective in avoiding diabetes, and shifts the body toward a “younger metabolism”. But no weight loss has been associated with acarbose, perhaps because the slow sugar absorption leads to slow signaling of satiety. Other tricks to lose weight Exercise is #1. A few minutes of exercise just before eating signals the body that “this food is to be burned, not stored”. Intermittent fasting has been mentioned in this column, and works for some people. Filling the belly with high-fiber food is a favorite trick of mine. I eat mountains of green leafies, and half a cup of raw wheat bran every day. It’s my impression that wheat bran has “negative calories” in the sense that food goes through me faster and less of it is absorbed when I eat large quantities of bran. (I have seen no studies on this, and have only my personal experience to report.) I suspect that nutrients are adsorbed on the bran and excreted with the stool, so I try to take my supplements in a different meal from the bran. I’ve adjusted to bran and it doesn’t give me the runs, but, not to put too fine a point upon it, let’s just say that I don’t worry about constipation. The most promising of the new generations of supplements that affect absorption of calories are green coffee extract and irvingia. Weight loss from the two seem to be large and of similar magnitude. And the evidence for both suffers from suspicion that the researchers had financial ties to the companies that sell these products. (Someday, I want to live in a country where taxes pay for independent medical research, so that we all have unbiased information about foods and drugs that is not linked to their sponsors.) In addition to aiding with weight loss, both are likely to have positive long-term benefits for health and longevity. Metformin has the disadvantage of being available only by prescription, but it is better-studied than either of the two supplements, it has been around for 50 years, and is known to be safe and effective. It works by a slightly different mechanism, but is also likely to produce supplementary benefits for long-term health. There is a huge amount of individual variability in all these studies. It makes sense to experiment on yourself to learn what works for you. You can’t judge by your weight loss from one day to the next, because that is dominated by water retention and salt intake. But if you weigh yourself daily in the morning and stick with a trial for at least two weeks, you will be able to tell what is working and find a program that’s effective, and that you can live with. Cafeine may have benefits and costs for insulin sensitivity as well as costs for cardiovascular health. Many epidemiological studies have identified a net effect of lower mortality rates in people who drink modest amounts of cofffee. Short Takes from the 2013 AGE meeting, Baltimore June 1-3 I’ve been at the annual meeting of the American Aging Association this weekend. Here are some brief take-home messages from the presentations I’ve attended. Growth Hormone Several talks involved growth hormone one way or another. Growth hormone is hyped as an anti-aging remedy by many supplement sources, but its benefits are likely to be short-term, and there is substantial risk that it actually increases mortality risk in the long run. Holly Brown-Borg made this point quite explicitly. Her research is centered on two strains of mice, a dwarf strain which has a genetic defect for growth hormone, and lives 50% longer, the other is genetically engineered to have extra growth hormone, and it lives 50% shorter than ordinary lab mice. The dwarf mice are super-healthy and don’t get cancer, but you can make them sick by giving them growth hormone. Ames Dwarf Mouse Ames Dwarf Mouse Valter Longo reported on his research with the little people of Ecuador. Their distinctive genetic endowment is called GHRD for “growth hormone receptor deficiency”. They never get cancer, and have lower rates of cognitive decline with age. Many of them love to eat and drink, and despite their habitual Bachanalia, maintain their insulin sensitivity with age and don’t get diabetes. Many people enjoy the effects of HGH in the short run, and like what it does to their body image, but it’s likely to be pro-aging in the long run. Greg Fahy is knowledgeable, innovative, courageous, and looks 15 years younger than his chronological age, and is my friend as well as colleague in this field. He suggested that a short course (<1 year) of HGH might be used to regrow the thymus, and is seeking funds for a pilot experiment with ten subjects, age 50-65. The thymus is a small organ behind the breastbone that trains our white blood cells to distinguish “self” from “invader”, and which shrinks steadily over our lifetimes. “Thymic involution” is closely associated with aging of the immune system. If Greg is able to follow through, I’ll let you know how this works out. Blueberry Man comes to these meetings, and cites dozens of studies for diverse health benefits from eating blueberries. He talks about being on crutches with degeneration of his joints a few years ago, from which he recovered completely after starting to eat two cups of blueberries a day. The research of Eric Smith is centered on glutathione, and its precursor, a gene called nrf2. Glutathione is an anti-oxidant working throughout every cell, detoxifying especially the liver. We need glutathione more as we get older, but our bodies make less of it. Centenarians and people on calorie restriction both have more glutathione than the rest of us. In genetically modified animals, glutathione is associated with longevity. I have been down on dietary anti-oxidants in the past, but I believe that up-regulating our own glutathione is a good thing for longevity. Unfortunately, we can’t take a glutathione pill. It doesn’t make it through the digestive system, and it doesn’t last in the body, as it is continually being used and recycled. There is a supplement called NAC (n-acetyl cysteine) which is a biochemical precursor, and some people take it to try to induce the body to make more glutathione. SAMe has also been demonstrated to increase glutathione levels. Nrf2 is a gene important to the synthesis of glutathione, and there is a commercial mixture of herbs called Protandim that purports to stimulate the body’s production of nrf2. Interesting to me is that the first ingredient in Protandim is also the first ingredient in Product B, which I take as a telomere activator. That is silymarin, or milk thistle. This is a prescription drug that slows the body’s uptake of sugar, so blood sugar doesn’t spike after a high-carb meal and then plummet back down afterward. I believe these cycles are related to the loss of insulin sensitivity that is a common characteristic of human aging, leading to diabetes and higher risk of all the diseases of old age. I have heard of many treatments to promote insulin sensitivity, and promise to do some reading and write a post about these herbs and drugs soon. In the meantime, there’s background in my article on metformin. In 2009 came a sensational report from David Harrison’s group at Jackson National Labs. Mice received a short course of rapamycin late in life, and still showed a 15% life extension (measured from birth). Researchers have been excited about its anti-aging potential, and in three short years, there have been 10 more studies documenting life extension up to about 25% in various strains of mice. There were several major presentations at the conference focused on rapamycin. Rapamycin binds to two sites, called TORC1 and TORC2 (TOR stands for “target of rapamycin”). Joe Bauer reported his theory that TORC2 holds most of the benefits, and TORC1 most of the dangers of rapamycin, and he is working to separate the two effects. Arlan Richardson offered an hour-long advertisement for rapamycin as a cancer treatment, for cardiac health and prevention of cognitive decline. He reluctantly admitted that it also causes cataracts, slows healing, and contributes to Type 2 diabetes. Conference consensus (including this author) is that rapamycin is an exciting new vehicle for studying aging, but as a general tonic, it’s not ready for prime time. Dueling Monkeys There have been two ongoing studies of caloric restriction in rhesus monkeys, at University of Wisconsin (UW) and at National Institute of Aging (NIA). Last year and the year before, these two groups came out with their preliminary conclusions from the 25-year project. Newspapers picked up the UW results, and reported: CR Study in Primates Shows Positive Results! The next year, the NIA report was summarized: CR Study in Primates Shows Negative Results! At this meeting, Julie Mattison of NIA and Roz Anderson of UW charmed us with a well-coordinated presentation seeking to clarify the differences between the two studies. Both studies found that the CR animals were healthier, suffered less disease, were more active and looked better than the control animals. (Interesting that Sai Krupa Das summarized the CALERIE study <of CR in humans with almost the identical words.) Both studies found no difference in overall schedule of deaths in the two groups. But when they separated aging-related deaths from accidental deaths, the UW group reported that there was a big difference, with CR animals living far longer on average. Meanwhile, the NIA group reported that there was little difference between the life spans of the two groups. Some of the difference is due to the fact that the UW diet was heavier in sugar, and monkeys assigned to the control group got to eat as much as they wanted. Meanwhile, the NIA group fed both groups of monkeys more protein, less fat, and complex carbs instead of sugar. They also limited the food intake of the control monkeys (though, of course, they ate more than the CR monkeys). It’s still not clear that these are the crucial differences between the two results, and since the total number of monkeys was so small, it is conceivable that the difference was only a statistical fluke. Fasting before Surgery or Chemotherapy Calorie restriction not only increases life span but dramatically improves resistance to many kinds of stress. Valter Longo had the idea that it might help the body to withstand the shock of chemotherapy. What he found was promising beyond his expectations, but resistance among doctors and patients has been frustrating to say the least. I’ve known Valter Longo for 10 years, since he had to work like heck to convince the biology community that yeast cells commit suicide, for altruistic reasons. In the 1990s, he proved that yeast colonies, when starved, partake of a remarkable adaptation in which 95% of them commit suicide, digesting their cytoplasm into food for the other 5%. Most curious is the fact that these animals are genetically homogeneous. How do 5% of them choose themselves as survivors? How could such an adaptation evolve, when there’s so much motivation to “cheat” and bias the odds to be among the 5% beneficiaries rather than the 95% martyrs? Longo has worked the last several years to establish that fasting before chemotherapy (and radiotherapy) doubly pre-conditions the body. Cancer cells become more sensitive to the chemo, and are killed with more certainty. Meanwhile, the rest of the patient’s cells become less sensitive to chemo, and they survive the insult much better. Patients who fast before chemo report that their nausea and fatigue are greatly reduced. At first, Longo found it was a tough sell to get patientswho are willing to try fasting for two to three days before chemo. Even tougher was the opposition from oncologists, who not only advised against the procedure, but (in the worst cases) found that their patients’ blood sugar was “too low”, and put them on intravenous sugar before chemo! But in the last three years, his idea has taken off, and there are now many, many chemotherapy patients in which the technique has been successful. James Mitchell of Harvard reported on parallel work with mice, demonstrating that pre-conditioning with fasting protects mice against surgical trauma, dramatically reducing risk of death and improving recovery time. He also experimented with reducing protein only, making up the difference with carbohydrates, and was able to get much of the same protection. Combining calorie restriction and protein restriction worked better than either separately. Mitchell recommends fasting, or perhaps juice fasts before surgery of any kind, except if the patient is frail or emaciated to begin with. The title of his paper was “Calorie restriction and essenial amino acid restriction contribute additively to the benefits of short-term dietary restriction in mice.” Previously, there had been a lot of speculation whether the mechanism by which calorie restriction worked was really just that the animal was starved of protein, and the mechanism by which protein restriction worked was that the animal was just starved of one essential amino acid (usually methionine). This was the first demonstration I have seen that the effects can be separated, and the benefits of both calorie restriction plus methionine restriction are greater than the benefit of either restriction separately I’ve been attending these meetings for several years, and I continue to find that the meetings are small, there are almost no MDs, and the research seems to occupy a backwater between bench science and medical research. Compared to cancer research or heart or lung disease, the field is way underfunded. Still, research in anti-aging medicine is growing, as policy-makers realize it is a way to address many diseases of old age with a powerful new paradigm. For basic information about healthy living for a long life, see the author’s permanent page at
Featured post Necessary Tools for Solar PV installation Monday, 5 January 2015 Faults in Power System "A fault in an electrical circuit is defined as the defect in the electrical circuit because of which the current in the circuit is diverted from the intended path." For example suppose a circuit has two parallel paths, opening up of a path will divert the current to the other path and in the process it may damage the path or the conductor. Thus, faults can damage or disrupt the power system in many ways. In a power system, the faults occur because of insulation failure which may be because of a system over-voltage such as switching surges or lightning stroke. Faults may also be due to a broken insulator or a conductor. Various other reasons such as improper operating habits may also lead to a fault; for example, loading a distribution transformer beyond its normal rated capacity. Nearly one half of the faults occur on power lines which are widely branched, have greater length, operate under variable weather conditions and are more exposed to atmospheric disturbances. Also read: Effects of fault Faults give rise to abnormal operating conditions. When a fault occurs at any point in the power system large currents, large forces and or abnormal voltages are developed. The excessive current because of the fault is determined by the internal e.m.f.s of the machines in the network, their impedances, and the impedance in the network between the machines and the fault. Faults currents, also called short circuit currents, are many times greater than the normal currents. Large voltage stresses the insulation of the various equipments, which are on the way, beyond their breakdown value causing the failure. Similarly large currents overheat the equipment or the element of the power system. Sometimes faults lower the system voltage below the permissible voltage limit causing unwanted and teasing interruption of various equipments and components. Faults can also cause a three-phase system to become unbalance. Action to be performed during a fault It is necessary that the faults or the faulty section should be removed immediately so that the normal operation of the rest of the system is maintained. The protective relays employed in the power system or network should immediately detect the faults or the faulty section without fail and send trip signal for the operation of circuit breakers. To obtain proper setting of the protective relays and the interrupting capacities of circuit breakers, the values of these fault currents and voltages should be known with great accuracy. Short circuit studies and calculations provide currents and voltages on a power system during fault conditions.
Walton- Proposition 2 revisited The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John H. Walton. Walton, contrary to my initial impression, has a second part of his treatment of proposition 2 that marshals evidence for his belief that Genesis 1 reflects a functional understanding of creation. This evidence begins with a list of Near Eastern texts that illustrate a functional approach. The way this starts out as just a list is what caused me to think it was a kind of appendix after the end of the chapter. What it says But after a few pages of listing Egyptian, Babylonian, and Sumerian texts, he argues that these texts represent a functional approach to cosmology and creation. An important point is that they developed their cosmology from their own vantage point. The reason we have our scientific cosmology is because microscopes, telescopes, satellites, and other instruments have given us a new vantage point. The ancients just had their observation and logic. For instance, they observed rain. Rain meant that there had to be water up there someplace. But since it did not always rain, something had to restrain the water above. This was the basis for the idea that we find both in old Near Eastern texts and Genesis 1 that a solid firmament or canopy separates us from the water above. Walton brings forth several arguments to show that the ancient Near Eastern texts display a functional view of cosmology and creation. The Egyptians thought of the sun, moon, and stars as divinities. There was no emphasis on any idea that these were material structures. Rather, the emphasis was on how they functioned in the universe. The ancient myths speak of a non-functioning state before creation. In the beginning there was darkness, non-flowing water, and unrealized potential. The creation occurs, not when things come to exist materially, but when they receive order, partly by gods giving them names, and partly by the gods separating one thing from another. A significant feature of the texts is that the gods organize time by separating day and night, summer and winter, and by creating seasonal weather. In all of this Walton sees the functional nature of Near Eastern cosmology and creation ideas. Creation does not consist of granting material existence to creatures. It consists of dividing and organizing them into functioning entities. He admits that, if asked, the ancients would probably have agreed that the gods also gave everything its material existence. But they were not interested in this. In the end (and this really is the end of this chapter) he comes back to his contention that our culture’s material definition of existence is only one way of looking at the world. He reasserts his thesis that in the ancient Near East people saw existence as consisting in having a function in an ordered system. Walton is an expert on ancient Near Eastern thought. He has written Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. I am assuming that his treatment of the Near Eastern texts here is a summary of some of that book. So in this chapter he has contrasted the view of some creationists that the Bible’s creation story is in direct competition with a scientific account of material origins to a different conceptual world–one where the question of material origins would not seem relevant. Therefore, on second thought and further reading, Walton’s treatment of cultural assumptions seems more appropriate. He does present evidence that the world that produced Genesis 1 was one where a functional definition of existence prevailed (although I am sure no one in that world would have used such abstract language as “function” and “system”). My only question is whether the material definition of existence really represents our culture or is just a positivist or fundamentalist oddity shared by atheists and biblical literalists. It seems to me that most people would have a more elastic view, a view more open to imagination and possibilities. About theoutwardquest This entry was posted in Genesis and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Why Do Dogs Eat Grass, and Is There Any Harm In It? Home > Dog Wellness > Why Do Dogs Eat Grass, and Is There Any Harm In It? Dogs eat grass, and no one is sure exactly why. Is it because they are sick? Does it make them sick? That is the age-old question, usually brought up after your dog noshes on your lawn, followed by them upchucking on your good carpet! Why do dogs eat grass, and does it make them sick? Can it hurt them? Read on for more information on dogs and grass eating behavior. Possible Explanations Why dogs eat grass is not exactly well understood. There are several possible reasons: ■ It tastes good. Dogs are carnivores, but they have omnivorous tendencies. ■ It contains some nutrient they are trying to obtain. Although, since dogs cannot digest grass well this would not be a very effective way of obtaining nutrients missing from their diet. ■ They are experiencing gastrointestinal problems, and grass may stimulate vomiting by irritating the throat and stomach lining, and vomiting may relieve tummy troubles. If you suspect your dog is having gastrointestinal troubles and eating grass to relieve them, you should seek out your veterinarian to address any digestive conditions if the behavior persists. ■ It may be a residual behavior from their feral days when eating grass may have served to disguise their scent and help them hunt. ■ It may stimulate motility in the GI tract to help the dog rid themselves of intestinal parasites. ■ Your dog may be bored or just hungry and looking for a snack. Providing them with chew toys or several small meals, instead of one or two large ones, may resolve this. Is Eating Grass Safe? Usually there is little risk in your dog eating grass as grass is not toxic, however, the pesticides and fertilizers we put on grass can be toxic, or cause allergies. So be aware what products you use on your lawn if your dog is going to be exposed to it. Also, if large amounts of indigestible grass are consumed, blockages in the gastrointestinal tract can occur. Blockages, if severe, can be life-threatening if passage of gas and foodstuffs is completely stopped and circulation is cut off to the small intestine or other digestive organs. Grass can also become lodged in a nasal cavity, causing irritation and even infection of the upper respiratory tract, or can become inhaled deep into the lungs where lung infections can occur. It is possible that the dog is seeking to add nutrients from the grass to their diet. Providing your dog with vegetables that they can digest may provide nutrients more effectively to your dog. Switching foods and adding supplements to support your dog's digestive system health may be necessary to address any deficiencies. Keep an Eye Out for Issues Some grass eating behavior is normal, but if it is excessive or is causing problems, you may need to take steps to address it. Seeking veterinary advice to ensure that your dog is getting everything they need in their diet and checking their digestive health to ensure that a problem does not exist that requires veterinary care is recommended. If grass eating behavior persists and is causing problems, you may need to take steps to supervise your dog when they are outside to prevent ingestion of large amounts of grass, which can result in intestinal blockage, or to prevent them from consuming treated grass that may have chemicals that can cause a reaction. Usually, grass eating behavior is only sporadic with dogs and rarely results in a problem. If it does, steps to address it will need to be taken. Book me a walkiee?
How are Della and Jim poor in material things, but rich in love?O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" Expert Answers mwestwood eNotes educator\| Certified Educator There is a saying, "The most important things are not things." Truly, this saying is applicable to the characters of Della and Jim, who, though they possess few material things, are indeed rich in the important things of life. Living in an apartment in New York that is somewhat rundown as the 'Dillingham' had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid thirty dollars a week. Now, when the income was shrunk to twenty dollars, the letter of 'Dilllingham' looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modes and unassuming D Della must sell her luxuriant hair in order to have enough money to purchase a watch chain for her husband; similarly, Jim must sell his watch in order to purchase the lovely combs for Della's beautiful hair. But, in the act of selling their prized possessions, the young "foolish children" of O. Henry's narrative exhibit such unselfish motives and genuine love for their spouses that the narrator feels compelled to intrude upon the narrative and announce that Della and Jim are the wisest of all--they are the Magi. Therefore, they are rich in love, one of those "important things" that "are not things." They are rich in knowledge that the other loves him/her. For, there is no greater love than charity, according to Christiandom.
Write a paragraph explaining how Odysseus uses his "guile" to avoid "succumbing" to Circe. Expert Answers noahvox2 eNotes educator\| Certified Educator It is certainly true that Odysseus is a person of cunning and guile, but his initial encounter with Circe is facilitated by a discussion with one of the cleverest beings in the Greek world, the god Hermes. Before Odysseus meets Circe, Hermes comes down to Circe's island and tells Odysseus what he will have to do to avoid being transformed into an animal (as had happened to some of Odysseus' men). Hermes also gives Odysseus a special plant that will protect him against Circe's magic. So, thanks to detailed instructions from Hermes, Odysseus avoids being turned into a pig (or suffering some other strange fate). As for "succumbing," Hermes actually gives Odysseus permission to succumb, at least sexually, to Circe's "charms." In Odyssey 10, Hermes states: Then she’ll invite you to her bed, and don’t refuse the goddess’ favours, if you want her to free your men, and care for you too. But make her swear a solemn oath by the blessed gods that she won’t try to harm you with her mischief, lest when you are naked she robs you of courage and manhood.” (A.S. Kline translation) So, in some ways, Odysseus does succumb to Circe, as he follows Hermes' instructions quite closely. Indeed, Odysseus ends up staying with Circe for an entire year. In sum, I'm not sure Odysseus uses his guile to avoid succumbing to Circe. In Odyssey 10, any guile used belongs to Hermes in my view.
Star cursor Logic and Reasoning Thinking and problem-solving helps children take in information and understand how things in their world are related. Young children use their logic and reasoning skills in everyday experiences when they build with blocks, complete a puzzle, or discover that peeling the paper from around a crayon gives them more crayon to draw with. Plays: 128 Guess What's Next A guessing game with patterns 3:25 Runtime Plays: 878 The Spy Who Loved Cookies Cookie Monster stars as Double Stuffed 7 in this spy spoof. 5:0 Runtime Plays: 315 Turn On the Toys Help Elmo unwrap the toys. Help Elmo open the present and then talk with your child about the toy hiding inside. As you play with the toy, ask questions about it such as ?What does it do?? or "What do you like best about it?" Plays: 448 Tooth Fairy Training Help the fairies pass the Tooth Fairy Test. Talk about the steps in an everyday activity such as getting dressed or brushing teeth. Help your child draw a picture of each step. Mix them up and see if he can put them back in the right order. Plays: 755 Oscar's Junk My Jacket Make a filthy mess with Oscar the Grouch! Go on a shape hunt. Draw five shapes on a piece of paper and then go for a walk and look for items that are the same shape. When you find one, check it off. Try going on a color hunt next. Plays: 407 Elmo the Musical: Cowboy Imagine and play along with Cowboy Elmo Look in a mirror with your child and encourage her to point to some of her body parts that come in pairs such as ears, arms, and feet. What else can you find that comes in pairs? Plays: 553 Ernie's Dance Ernie and Big Bird play hide and seek. 5:25 Runtime Plays: 364 Ernie Plays House Ernie plays house. 1:33 Runtime Plays: 885 Peek-A-Boo with Elmo and the Noodle Family Hide and laugh with Elmo and the Noodle family as they play a silly game of Peek-A-Boo! 1:28 Runtime Plays: 268 Ernie Plans Ernie tries to organize his toys. 1:15 Runtime Plays: 184 Pick a Card, Any Card Grover does a card trick with Chris. 3:31 Runtime Plays: 281 Waiting for Big Grover shows big, bigger, and biggest. 3:9 Runtime
Monday, August 17, 2009 Pfizer Diazepam What is Diazepam? Diazepam is an active ingredient which helps to stabilize the chemical levels in the brain and the neuron activities. Diazepam is a psychoactive drug which acts on the cerebral cortex and is widely prescribed to relieve anxiety disorders. Diazepam is prescribed to relieve anxiety, agitation, insomnia, seizures, muscle twinges, and shakeups. Diazepam is one of the most frequently prescribed medicines for anxiety disorder in last 40 years of pharmaceutical history. Diazepam was first synthesized by Dr. Leo Sternbach of Roche and was approved by FDA in 1960. Roche later released its improvised version with brand name Valium. Valium soon became a household name and the extreme popularity of the drug made Roche able to climb up the ladder of success in the pharmaceutical industry. Seeing the demand of Valium, many renowned pharmaceutical companies released their own versions of valium which contained diazepam as the primary ingredient. 1 Comment: carlos said... Excellent post my mother always buy diazepam and I need to have information about advantages of Cialis Online in my body.
Exposure Foundations Exposure Foundations The foundation of any good exposure is understanding light, as an exposure is merely capturing light successfully. In the pre-digital days, photos were created by exposing negative or slide film to light for a certain period of time in order to record an image. Nowadays, it involves capturing that light digitally on a camera sensor. At the core of that exposure is a combination of factors that allow the right amount of light into the camera for a specific period of time. We know these elements as aperture and shutter speed, which represent different “stops” of light. Understanding their relationship, and how they are impacted by the ISO setting of a camera, is essential to making the right decisions on how to set an exposure. There are four elements of exposure. The first element is light sensitivity, or ISO. The second is the exposure mode you are shooting in (manual or aperture priority, for example). The third is aperture setting, or f-stop. The fourth is shutter speed. Light Sensitivity In the pre-digital days, photographers were capturing their images on film. When you purchased film, you always purchased film that had a set ASA, or film sensitivity. ASA 50, 64 and 100 film lay at the bottom of the light sensitivity spectrum. Thus, they were the film chosen for daylight landscape photography. Film ranged from those lower numbers to 400, 800 and 1600 ASA. There were higher numbers, but they were rarely used. The higher the number, the less light was necessary to capture an image. But also, the higher the ASA number, the higher visible grain you could see in the image. Now, with digital cameras, you can find a range of ISO settings from 50 to 125,000. But ISO is more than just light sensitivity, it is a crucial element in determining what aperture and shutter speed to use in capturing an image. Selecting your ISO is key to setting the foundation for your exposure. I always use standard starting points for ISO settings: 50 or 100 ISO for landscape photography, 400 ISO for wildlife photography, and 1600 ISO for aurora borealis photography. Choosing your light sensitivity setting drives the rest of the exposure process. Exposure Mode There are essentially four exposure mode settings for any DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera: manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, and program. Manual exposure is when the photographer makes all of the exposure setting decisions: the ISO, the aperture, and the shutter speed. With aperture priority, the photographer sets the ISO and aperture setting, but the camera selects the shutter speed based on the meter reading in the camera. With shutter priority, the photographer selects ISO and shutter speed, but the camera sets the aperture. Finally, with program, the camera makes all decisions, leaving the photographer with no technical or creative decisions. My preferred mode for daytime photography is aperture priority, as controlling the ISO and aperture setting are integral to my artistic control. For nighttime photography, I shoot exclusively in manual mode. The key thing to remember about any exposure mode is that the camera’s meter will want to translate the world into a neutral (18%) grey. That means, it will underexpose bright or white subjects and overexpose dark or black subjects. Have you ever taken a picture of a snowy scene and it comes back looking kind of muddy? That’s why. If shooting in any mode other than manual mode, you will need to use exposure compensation to get a correct exposure that provides detail in the blacks as well as the highlights. Aperture and Shutter Understanding the relationship between aperture setting and shutter speed is understanding stops of light. As a measurement unit of exposure, the f-stop corresponds primarily to the aperture setting on your lens: f/2.8, f/4.0, f/8.0 and so on. There is one f-stop between f/2.8 and f/4.o, one f-stop between f/4.0 and f/5.6 and all the way up the ring. These settings distinguish between an aperture that is really open, and thus bringing in more light when open (like f/2.8) or one that is really narrow, and thus bringing in little light (like f/16 or f/22). These settings also control depth of field, but that is a discussion for another time. In contrast, shutter speed tells us how long the shutter on the camera body will remain open once the shutter has been triggered. The aperture on the lens controls how much light is coming in, but the shutter speed controls how long the film/sensor is exposed to light. Simply put, the wider the aperture, the shorter the shutter speed required for exposure; in contrast, a more narrow aperture will require a longer shutter speed for exposure. As the f-stop on the lens goes up, the amount of time for the shutter to be opened increases. For example, to get the same exposure in mid-day light, a simple exposure would be ISO 100 with an aperture of f/16 and shutter speed of 1/125 seconds (also known as the Sunny F/16 Rule). Let’s say for artistic reasons, you need a slower shutter speed (say, to get some movement in water). In order to get movement, you will need to drop your shutter speed down to 1/30 of a second – that is a difference of two stops of light. In order to get that shutter speed, you would have to either increase your aperture to f/32, or, take other measures to reduce the amount of light coming in. A polarizing filter will take away about two stops of light. You could drop your ISO to 25 (no DSLR that I know of provides that). You could also add a full-frame 2-stop graduated neutral density filter. My Common Settings To illustrate how this all works in practice, I will share my primary settings for my most common lighting situations. For daytime landscape photography, I typically shoot ISO 100 in aperture priority, with the aperture setting at f/16. Most often, shutter speed is either not a factor, or I want the slower shutter speed to get motion (like in moving water). But, if I am shooting a field of wildflowers and it is breezy, I may want to increase my ISO in order to provide for a faster shutter speed. For wildlife photography, I start at ISO 400 in aperture priority, with the aperture set at f/5.6. I want a shallower depth of field to reduce background distraction and get a higher shutter speed, which is important when using a longer lens. And as a side note, the general rule of thumb for an ideal shutter speed to minimize camera movement is to have a shutter speed that equal to or greater than your focal length. So, for example, when shooting with a 500mm lens, you want a shutter speed of 1/500 or greater. Finally, for nighttime photography, it all depends on the subject. If I am shooting the aurora borealis, I am going to start with ISO 1600 in manual mode, with the aperture set at f/2.8 and shutter speed at 8 seconds. Then I adjust to how bright or active the aurora is. For star trails photography, ISO 100 in manual mode on the bulb setting with the aperture set at f/2.8 and the shutter speed … well, the shutter is left open for 2-3 hours. Understanding how all of this works takes a bit of time in the filed and a lot of tossed slides or deleted files. Experiment, try new things, and enjoy capturing the light! If you want to learn from me out in the field, keep an eye out for my listings of photo excursions. I always provide instruction on exposure as part of any outing. Leave a Reply
Learning About Reinforcers (Warning: Snake!) All About Reinforcers This gorgeous snake (this is likely an albino boa constrictor, but don’t quote us on that; also, the comments refer to it as a “danger noodle”, which we’re pretty sure is not its Latin name) appears to be enjoying some chin scratches. All kinds of animals, from mice to elephants, have things that they enjoy. These things can be activities, like scratching, or items, like food, or experiences, like warmth. You can tell they enjoy these things because they actively seek them out (the snake is not being held in that position, and is willingly keeping its head near the human’s hand), and seek them out in preference to other things. The snake has, say, water and food in that cage but is preferentially hanging out with the human, and is also hanging out with the human rather than wander off into the room. Enjoyment and it’s role in reinforcing behavior Another quality of the things we enjoy is that, if we find some behavior that causes those things to happen, we will perform that behavior more and more often. For example, if the snake enjoys being petted, and finds that hanging over the edge of the tank causes the human to reach out and pet it, the snake will hang over the edge of the tank more often to get some of that awesome petting. We call things like this “reinforcers” because they “reinforce” — increase the likelihood of — the behaviors that trigger them. Petting is a reinforcer to the snake, and it reinforces the “hanging over the edge of the tank” behavior. Reinforcers come in all shapes and sizes Petting is not the only reinforcer. Food is a reinforcer that works for almost every animal. Some foods are more reinforcing than others (ice cream vs. celery), but, in general, everybody pretty much enjoys food, and is willing to engage in behaviors which make food happen. You do this every day, when you engage in meal-preparation behavior knowing that, at the end, you get to eat what you made! Your dog does this too, when he or she learns that sitting behavior makes you produce a kibble. The basics of learning This basic principle of learning (“I enjoy X…doing this thing Y makes X happen…I will do Y more often so X happens more often!”) works with almost every creature on earth, and is a fundamental principle of training. You can learn even more about learning here. What other behaviors do you think you could ask this snake to do in return for chin scratches? What do you think the snake might do in return for, say, a hamburger? A dead mouse? Your 2013 tax returns? What reinforcers do you see active in your life? Whether it’s reinforcing for you, your dog, or even your children, share some of those common reinforcers in the comments!
Child Planet - The Only Kids Site of its Kind Prevent Cancer: Eat, Drink and be Veggie An industrialist and a minister both of the same age were admitted to the same hospital, on the same day, at exactly the same stage of gastro oesophgeal malignancy, a cancer that occurs at the junction of the food pipe and the stomach. There was just a day's gap in the two men's surgery. While the industrialist is no longer with us, Mr. Minister is still active and lives on with little change in his lifestyle. Obviously, the minister's immune system was much stronger than that of the industrialist's says, Dr. Sameer Kaul, oncologist at Apollo Hospital. A good diet and a balanced lifestyle is what makes a strong immune system, which was perhaps lacking in the case of the industrialist, says Dr. Kaul. According to Dr. Kaul, Cancer does not develop in a day. The final emergence of a full blown clinically detected tumour takes place over a long period of time, through a series of steps - initiation, promotion and progression, collectively called carcinogenesis. Stepwise evolution of tumours allows opportunities for protective action and diet is one of the main protective agents. Although we Indians are much better equipped to take care of our diet vis a vis cancer, by virtue of being conventionally vegetarian and having abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, the drift towards rising affluence, bringing with it a leaning towards junk food, is unfortunate and needs timely intervention. Cancer of the lung, stomach, colon, breast and prostate are kept at bay by a diet rich in vegetables and fruits. A 17 - year study conducted in Japan, from 1966 to 1982 confirmed that regular consumption of dark green and deep yellow vegetables and fruits - pumpkin, carrots, spinach, green lettuce, green asparagus, significantly reduced the risk of suffering from these cancers despite simultaneous consumption of smoking, drinking and consuming meat. Haldi (turmeric) is proven as effective in curbing initiated cancers. In fact turmeric has been patented by the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) of USA as useful in healing of cancerous wounds, says Dr. Kaul. Nutrition has also been shown to play an important role in the management of a patient with cancer, says Dr. Sarath Gopalan, consultant in paediatric gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition at Pushpawati Singhania Institute. There is a significant protien loss due to an ongoing tissue breakdown and so, it is vital to ensure that the cancer patient gets enough protein supplementation,, he explains. In terminally ill cancer patients, nutrition has a major supportive role in improving quality of life even though it may not influence the overall outcome. Unfortunately, most medical people have moved to community nutrition and most hospitals, except the big ones, are woefully lacking in diet counselling, says Dr. Gopalan. There is very little awareness about the importance of good nutrition and diet in families with a cancer patient. The best effort would be to give suitable food to the patient like chicken sout and khichdi. But that need not be, says Poopali Dutta, dietician at Batra Hospital. Diets of cancer patients should ensure that all the nutrients are provided in adequate quantity, but more importantly, it should be in the form that they like. Which means a little modification here and there and you have food that would look after your patient's special needs. Cancer destroys the healthy tissues and due to its treatment i.e, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, patients loose the ability to consume normal quantities of food and much of their appetite. So their diet should include concentrated sources of energy i.e., a parantha would compensate for two chappatis. Nuts and dried fruits, sugar and jaggery also give good protients and calories in small amounts. Jaggery is also a rich source in Iron. Traditional foods like besan and sooji ladoos, matthis, panjiris also help the patient's taste buds, says Roopali. A modern way of supplementing a balanced diet, is chemoprevention, which means the patient can be given tablets like Betacarotene, that contain trace elements like Selenium, which is an anti-oxidant, says Dr. Sameer Kaul. Food for Thought 1. It is not necessary to have a three meal pattern if the appetite is small. Have small frequent meals. 2. Have all the meals in a sitting position as far as possible and keep sitting for a while after your meal. Walk a little before getting into bed. It helps settling the stomach. 3. Starting the day with one teaspoon of honey and lemon or a glass of water helps wash away the acidity after 12 hours of overnight fasting. 4. Ice cubes, ice creams (no nuts or flavours), chilled juices, cold milk, cold lassi, chilled lemon juice helps a patient get over nausea and vomiting. 5. Loose motions, which are common with medication can be helped with dahi, lassi, banana, steamed apple, apple juice which help bind the motion. 6. Oral blisters are also very common. These should be tackled by increasing the intake of fresh fruits, soothing drinks like coconut water. If it becomes impossible to eat salted foods, one can consume chilled custard, jellies, chilled homemade desserts which can be quite nourishing without irritating the blisters. Your good eating guide A balanced meal would consist of two chappatis, one katori dal, one katori dahi and a vegetable dish. Make the food attractive with: 1. 2 Kulchas with khatta channa, with lassi and salad. 2. Vegetarian noodles with stir-fried chicken and an ice cream. 3. A burger bun, paneer or chicken patty with mayonnaise salad and milk shake. 4. One pizza base topped with vegetables or chicken, keema or paneer with cheese and a glass of fruit juice. 5. Channa dal pulao with mixed vegetable raita. 6. Vegetable pulao with dahi bhalla. 7. One bowl of khichdi with mixed vegetable raita. Some words of Caution: 8. When a patient's blood count is low, avoid raw vegetables, fruits and fresh juices. 9. Although it is a good idea to consume dal in the form of soups, in dal or non-vegetarian soups, the dal or chicken should be blended into it as proteins are not water soluble. A clear channa or chicken soup provides only salts and no nourishment. Cancer What causes it Mouth Alcohol, Paan Stomach Salt, pickled vegetables, fried food, smoked fish Pancreas Meat (grilled) Liver Alcohol Large Intestine Red Meat, Animal Fat, Alcohol [ Back]
Format String Attacks by Tim Newsham , Guardent Inc. Mon Sep 11 2000 Format String Attacks Tim Newsham Guardent, Inc. September 2000 Copyright (c) 2000. All Rights Reserved The cause and implications of format string vulnerabilities are discussed. Practical examples are given to illustrate the principles presented. INTRODUCTION I know it has happened to you. It has happened to all of us, at one point or another. You're at a trendy dinner party, and amidst the frenzied voices of your companions you hear the words "format string attack." "Format string attack? What is a format string attack?" you ask. Afraid of having your ignorance exposed among your peers you decide instead to break an uncomfortable smile and nod in hopes of appearing to be in the- know. If all goes well, a few cocktails will pass and the conversation will move on, and no one will be the wiser. Well fear no more! This paper will cover everything you wanted to know about format string attacks but were afraid to ask! WHAT IS A FORMAT STRING ATTACK? Format string bugs come from the same dark corner as many other security holes: The laziness of programmers. Somewhere out there right now, as this document is being read, there is a programmer writing code. His task: to print out a string or copy it to some buffer. What he means to write is something like: printf("%s", str); but instead he decides that he can save time, effort and 6 bytes of source code by typing: printf(str); Why not? Why bother with the extra printf argument and the time it takes to parse through that silly format? The first argument to printf is a string to be printed anyway! Because the programmer has just unknowingly opened a security hole that allows an attacker to control the execution of the program, that's why! What did the programmer do that was so wrong? He passed in a string that he wanted printed verbatim. Instead, the string is interpreted by the printf function as a format string. It is scanned for special format characters such as "%d". As formats are encountered, a variable number of argument values are retrieved from the stack. At the least, it should be obvious that an attacker can peek into the memory of the program by printing out these values stored on the stack. What may not be as obvious is that this simple mistake gives away enough control to allow an arbitrary value to be written into the memory of the running program. PRINTF - WHAT THEY FORGOT TO TELL YOU IN SCHOOL Before getting into the details of how to abuse printf for our own purposes, we should have a firm grasp of the features printf provides. It is assumed that the reader has used printf functions before and knows about its normal formatting features, such as how to print integers and strings, and how to specify minimum and maximum string widths. In addition to these more mundane features, there are a few esoteric and little-known features. Of these features, the following are of particular relevance to us: It is possible to get a count of the number of characters output at any point in the format string. When the "%n" format is encountered in the format string, the number of characters output before the %n field was encountered is stored at the address passed in the next argument. As an example, to receive the offset to the space between two formatted numbers: int pos, x = 235, y = 93; printf("%d %n%d\n", x, &pos, y); printf("The offset was %d\n", pos); The "%n" format returns the number of characters that should have been output, not the actual count of characters that were output. When formatting a string into a fixed-size buffer, the output string may be truncated. Despite this truncation, the offset returned by the "%n" format will reflect what the offset would have been if the string was not truncated. To illustrate this point, the following code will output the value "100" and not "20": char buf[20]; int pos, x = 0; snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, "%.100d%n", x, &pos); printf("position: %d\n", pos); A SIMPLE EXAMPLE Rather than talking in vagaries and abstractions, we will use a concrete example to illustrate the principles as they are discussed. The following simple program will suffice for this purpose: /* * fmtme.c * Format a value into a fixed-size buffer / #include int main(int argc, char *argv) { char buf[100]; int x; if(argc != 2) exit(1); x = 1; snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, argv[1]); buf[sizeof buf - 1] = 0; printf("buffer (%d): %s\n", strlen(buf), buf); printf("x is %d/%#x (@ %p)\n", x, x, &x); return 0; } A few notes about this program are in order. First, the general purpose is quite simple: A value passed on the command line is formatted into a fixed-length buffer. Care is taken to make sure the buffer limits are not exceeded. After the buffer is formatted, it is output. In addition to formatting the argument, a second integer value is set and later output. This variable will be used as the target of attacks later. For now, it should be noted that its value should always be one. All examples in this document were actually performed on an x86 BSD/OS 4.1 box. If you have been on a mission to Mozambique for the last 20 years and are unfamiliar with the x86, it is a little-endian machine. This will be reflected in the examples when multi-precision numbers are expressed as a series of byte values. The actual numbers used here will vary from system to system with differences in architecture, operating system, environment and even command line length. The examples should be easily adjusted to work on other x86 machines. With some effort and thought, they may be made to work on other architectures as well. FORMAT ME! It is now time to put on our black hats and start thinking like attackers. We have in our hands a test program. We know that it has a vulnerability and we know where the programmer made his mistake. We are also armed with a thorough knowledge of the printf function and what it can do for us. Let's get to work by tinkering with our program. Starting off simple, we invoke the program with normal arguments. Let's begin with this: % ./fmtme "hello world" buffer (11): hello world x is 1/0x1 (@ 0x804745c) There's nothing special going on here. The program formatted our string into the buffer and then printed its length and the value out. It also told us that the variable x has the value one (shown in decimal and hex) and that it was stored at the address 0x804745c. Next lets try providing some format directives. In this example we'll print out the integers on the stack above the format string: % ./fmtme "%x %x %x %x" buffer (15): 1 f31 1031 3133 x is 1/0x1 (@ 0x804745c) A quick analysis of the program will reveal that the stack layout of the program when the snprintf function is called is: Address Contents Description fp+8 Buffer pointer 4-byte address fp+12 Buffer length 4-byte integer fp+16 Format string 4-byte address fp+20 Variable x 4-byte integer fp+24 Variable buf 100 characters The four values output in the previous test were the next four arguments on the stack after the format string: the variable x, then three 4-byte integers taken from the uninitialized buf variable. Now it is time for an epiphany. As an attacker, we control the values stored in the buffer. These values are also used as arguments to the snprintf call! Let's verify this with a quick test: % ./fmtme "aaaa %x %x" buffer (15): aaaa 1 61616161 x is 1/0x1 (@ 0x804745c) Yup! The four 'a' characters we provided were copied to the start of the buffer and then interpreted by snprintf as an integer argument with the value 0x61616161 ('a' is 0x61 in ASCII). X MARKS THE SPOT All the pieces are falling into place! It is time to step up our attack from passive probes to actively altering the state of the program. Remember that variable "x"? Let's try to change its value. To do this, we will have to enter its address into one of snprintf's arguments. We will then have to skip over the first argument to snprintf, which is the variable x, and finally, use a "%n" format to write to the address we specified. This sounds more complicated than it actually is. An example should clarify things. [Note: We're using PERL here to execute the program which allows us to easily place arbitrary characters in the command line arguments]: % perl -e 'system "./fmtme", "\x58\x74\x04\x08%d%n"' buffer (5): X1 x is 5/x05 (@ 0x8047458) The value of x changed, but exactly what is going on here? The arguments to snprintf look something like this: snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, "\x58\x74\x04\x08%d%n", x, 4 bytes from buf) At first snprintf copies the first four bytes into buf. Next it scans the "%d" format and prints out the value of x. Finally it reaches the "%n" directive. This pulls the next value off the stack, which comes from the first four bytes of buf. These four bytes have just been filled with "\x58\x74\x04\x08", or, interpreted as an integer, 0x08047458. Snprintf then writes the amount of bytes output so far, five, into this address. As it turns out, that address is the address of the variable x. This is no coincidence. We carefully chose the value 0x08047458 by previous examination of the program. In this case, the program was helpful in printing out the address we were interested in. More typically, this value would have to be discovered with the aid of a debugger. Well, great! We can pick an arbitrary address (well, almost arbitrary; as long as the address contains no NUL characters) and write a value into it. But can we write a useful value into it? Snprintf will only write out the number of characters output so far. If we want to write out a small value greater than four then the solution is quite simple: Pad out the format string until we get the right value. But what about larger values? Here is where we take advantage of the fact that "%n" will count the number of characters that should have been output if there was no truncation: % perl -e 'system "./fmtme", "\x54\x74\x04\x08%.500d%n" buffer (99): %0000000 ... 0000 x is 504/x1f8 (@ 0x8047454) The value that "%n" wrote to x was 504, much larger than the 99 characters actually emitted to buf. We can provide arbitrarily large values by just specifying a large field width [1]. And what about small values? We can construct arbitrary values (even the value zero), by piecing together several writes. If we write out four numbers at one-byte offsets, we can construct an arbitrary integer out of the four least-significant bytes. To illustrate this, consider the following four writes: Address A A+1 A+2 A+3 A+4 A+5 A+6 Write to A: 0x11 0x11 0x11 0x11 Write to A+1: 0x22 0x22 0x22 0x22 Write to A+2: 0x33 0x33 0x33 0x33 Write to A+3: 0x44 0x44 0x44 0x44 Memory: 0x11 0x22 0x33 0x44 0x44 0x44 0x44 After the four writes are completed, the integer value 0x44332211 is left in memory at address A, composed of the least-significant byte of the four writes. This technique gives us flexibility in choosing values to write, but it does have some drawbacks: It takes four times as many writes to set the value. It overwrites three bytes neighboring the target address. It also performs three unaligned write operations. Since some architectures do not support unaligned writes, this technique is not universally applicable. SO WHAT? So what? So what!? SO WHAT!#@?? So you can write arbitrary values to (almost any) arbitrary addresses in memory!!! Surely you can think of a good use for this. Let's see: Overwrite a stored UID for a program that drops and elevates privleges. Overwrite an executed command. Overwrite a return address to point to some buffer with shell code in it. Put into simpler terms: you OWN the program. Ok, so what have we learned today? printf is more powerful than you previously thought. Cutting corners never pays off. An innocent looking omission can provide an attacker with just enough leverage to ruin your day. With enough free time, effort, and an input string that looks like the winning entry in last year's obfuscated-C contest, you can turn someone's simple mistake into a nationally syndicated news story. [1] There is an implementation flaw in printf in certain versions of glibc. When large field widths are specified, printf will underflow an internal buffer and cause the program to crash. Because of this, it is not possible to use field widths larger than several thousand when attacking programs on certain versions of Linux. As an example, the following code will cause a segmentation fault on systems with this flaw: printf("%.9999d", 1);
Friday, April 8, 2011 "Out of Body Experience" Etymology According to Wikipedia: “An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body.” The term “out of body experience” was coined in 1943 by G.N.M Tyrrell in his book Apparitions, and has since become a widely researched topic over the past six (ish) decades. However, the physiological and psychological underpinnings of the phenomenon continue to evade researchers, causing attempted scientific explanations to be speculative (at best) in nature. An OBE can be completely spontaneous, or it can be induced through a variety of physical and psychological pathways. For example, mass trauma, severe dehydration, and the use of psychedelic drugs have all been cited as causes of out of body experiences. Near-death experiences have also commonly produced the effect of feeling as if one was on the outside of one’s own body or looking down on it, almost from a spectator’s point of view. Scientists have attempted to reproduce these experiences through magnetic/electrical brain stimulation, sensory deprivation (or, conversely, sensory overload), meditative and sleep techniques, and also by using various types of chemicals. While some studies have been able to replicate OBE’s, there is still no hardcore scientific proof that they actually occur, or what exactly causes the sensation of them. No comments: Post a Comment
How Economics Helped Shape American Judaism Carmel Ullman Chiswick in The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Economics Published in print December 2010 \| ISBN: 9780195398625 Published online September 2012 \| \| DOI: Series: Oxford Handbooks How Economics Helped Shape American Judaism Show Summary Details The United States presents an economic environment unlike any other in the millennia-long experience of the Jewish people. As the “Great Experiment” in democracy and religious freedom, America broke with its European roots in ways that greatly reduced the economic penalties imposed by society on Jews per se. The major focus of this article happens to be how economics helped shape American Judaism. American Jews were subject to no special taxes and faced no laws restricting their freedom. Although anti-Semitism was not completely absent, other minority religious and ethnic/ racial groups also faced challenges in America. The article explores the economic forces that facilitated and supported these and other changes in American Judaism. It deals first with the immigrant experience and a change in economic incentives associated with upward educational and occupational mobility and then looks specifically at how this context affected the economics of Jewish religious education in the twentieth century. Keywords: economics; American Judaism; Great Experiment; religious freedom; anti-Semitism Article. 7847 words. Subjects: Economics ; Economic History Full text: subscription required How to subscribe Recommend to my Librarian Buy this work at Oxford University Press »
(A preliminary report) Copyright © 1997 A stele, an upright gravestone with inscription and sculpture erected at the grave of a deceased person, was found in 1885 at Kaminia on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. This stele which is dated as having been made in the 6th century B.C., is now in the National Museum in Athens, Greece. A diagram of this stele and its inscription is given in References 1 and 2, [1, p. 51; 2, p. 39]. For the purposes of this study, it is also shown in Figure 1of this paper. The inscription on this tomb-stone is written in an alphabet similar to some of the alphabets, such as the Chalcidian alphabet [1, p. 44], used at that time in the Hellenic world covering Greece, western parts of Asia minor and the islands in the Aegean Sea. Scholars believe that the language of the inscription on this stele is akin to that of Etruscan (Rasna) Language. The Etruscan language is not known to be an Indo-European language and neither is the language of the inscription written on the Stele from Lemnos. Scholars have not been able to identify the nature of these two languages with any of the known languages so far. According to Herodotus, the pre-Greek population of the Lemnos island was Pelasgian, a non Indo-European people, and according to Thucydides they were Tyrrhenian [2, p. 38] which makes them kin to Etruscans. The Etruscan people who lived and ruled in the northern and central Italy (Etruria) between about 1000 B.C. and 100 B.C. created a very prominent culture from which the culture of the Roman Empire has heavily borrowed. The inscription on the tomb-stone has 198 letters forming 40 words. In general, the words of the inscription are separated from each other by two dots and occasionally with one or three dots aligned vertically. However, some very long words seem to be combination of multiple words although they are not marked with separation dots. H. H. Scullard describes the tomb-stone as follows [2, p.38]: "........ the tomb-stone (stele) of a warrior was discovered in 1885, not dissimilar from that of Avele Feluske of Vetulonia in Etruria (cf. Figs. 1 and 2 and p. 223). It not only shows his head in profile, but also bears two inscriptions in an alphabet which closely resembles that of old Phrygian inscriptions of the seventh century. The language has some analogies with the tongues of Asia Minor, but philologists are in general agreement that both in its morphology and vocabulary it has many similarities with Etruscan. When this document stood alone, it might have been dismissed as the epitaph of a foreigner who was buried in Lemnos, but more recently other short inscriptions have been found on vases, and these show that this was in fact the language spoken on the island before its conquest by the Athenian Miltiades (c. 500 BC). Thus we have a very important document, pointing both to Asia Minor and to Etruria, and it comes from the very island where Thucydides placed the Tyrhenoi. Though it does not afford conclusive proof that 'Lemnian' and Etruscan were the same, or even dialects of the same language, it provides a valuable link for those who accept an eastern origin and suggests that some Etruscans from Asia Minor may have settled in this Aegean island instead of continuing further west. Those who reject an eastern origin have to explain away the similarities of language as due to survival from a hypothetical widespread pre-Indo-European linguistic unit which once occupied a vast area in Italy and the Aegean until it was broken up by the advance of Indo-Europeans: in Italy it was confined to Etruria, while in the Aegean, relics of it were left in Lemnos." In this study, I have analyzed the inscription on the stele from Lemnos from an Asiatic point of view. I took this approach because during historic times, Eurasia and many parts of the Eastern Europe all the way to the Balkan Peninsula have been inhabited by Central Asiatic peoples at some time or another. In most cases, they are known to be the Turkic peoples from Central Asia who spoke an archaic Turkic language. There is no reason that the very same land masses should not have been similarly inhabited by the Central Asiatic peoples during the pre-historic times. In fact, it is highly probable that the pre-historic people of Europe were more Central Asiatic in origin than the Indo-European speaking Mediterranean people. After studying the Lemnos inscription, I am convinced by my findings that the language in which this inscription was written is indeed related to Turkic languages. My analyses regarding the reading of the inscription are given below. The inscription consists of two vertically and one horizontally written parts. Text in each part seem to be similar in meaning to each other. This is indicated by the fact that a number of words are used in the same way in each part of the inscription, though with minor differences which will be discussed in detail in the body of this paper. The three parts, indicated as Text No. 1, 2 and 3 in this paper, Figure 2, also seem to be dialects of one main language, but influenced by Greek language endings particularly in Text No. 3. Although, the inscription on the stele seems to have been written in the Chalcidian type alphabet, it differs from this alphabet in some aspects. My proposed alphabet for this inscription is given in Table I. In Figure 2, I have the inscription reproduced word by word, in a way similar to its original written format, the corresponding transcription of the words in Latin characters and the meaning of the recognizable words, using the alphabet that I have charted in Table I. I have numbered the words of the inscription from 1 to 40 in order to facilitate comparison. In addition to this numbering, I have sub numbered the word Nos. 16, 21, 24, 25, 27, 37 and 38 as a) and b) although there is no separation shown in these words in the inscription. The words No. 1 to 11 are written vertically in three lines on the face of the stele. One of the lines is written behind the head and the other two lines are between the face of the man and the spear that he is holding in his hand. I call this text of three lines as Text No. 1. Words in each line of this text are to be read from right-to-left direction as is the case in Etruscan. Words No. 12 to 22 are written horizontally on the face of the stele above the head of the pictured man. I have named this part of the inscription as Text No. 2. This text constitutes five lines. In this part of the inscription, there is a mixed right-to-left and left-to-right writing arrangement used by the scriber. Most likely, it is meant to be read bustrophedon (i.e., 'as the ox plows'). In this text, while word No. 12 needs to be read from right-to-left, word Nos. 13 to 19 must be read from left-to-right. Again, while word Nos. 20 to 21 must be read from right-to-left, the word No. 22 must be read from left-to-right direction. The double-dot word separators used in the inscription help in determining the direction of the reading. The third set of words, word numbers 23 to 40 which I call Text No. 3, are written vertically on the side of the stele in three lines two of which are aligned in one way while the third one is upside down with respect to the other two. Again, these three lines were also meant to be read bustrophedon by the scriber. I consider the first line of this text the line which is next to the main frame of the stele. I have indicated this line as Text 3, Line No. 1. The base for this assumption is the fact that this line also starts with the name of the deceased man. The name of the deceased man also appears in Text No. 1 , i.e., the word No. 1. To read the first line of Text 3, one needs to turn the page 90 degrees clock wise from the portrait position and in order to read the remaining two lines, one needs to turn the page 90 degrees counter clock wise from the portrait position. Hence the middle line becomes the Text No.3 Line 2 and must be read from right-to-left direction while the last line becomes Text No.3 Line 3 and must be read from left-to-right direction with one exception of the word No 38a. Since word No. 35 in Text No. 3 is the same as the word No. 22 in Text No. 2, it must also be read in a similar manner. The Lemnos island inscription seems to have considerable amount of features in common with the Turkic Orhun and Yenisei inscriptions of Central Asia. For example: a) right to left reading of the written text, b) separation of words from each other in general with two dots, c) style of composing the text of the inscription. It should also be noted that vowels are not always present in the words of Lemnos inscription and proper vowels must be filled in to read the words. This feature is also similar to that of the Turkic inscriptions of Central Asia. In Turkic languages, the vowel harmony rule helps to fill in the missing vowels. Because of this Turkic languistic rule, in the transcription given below, the upper case letters represent the original lettering present in the inscription and the lower case vowels represent the filled-in vowels. In the Turkish transcription (shown as Turkish below), some of the -s endings, which probably were due to Hellenic influence, of some words were removed. Translation in English (Eng.) is also shown below. Words whose meanings are not clear to me at this time are marked with a (?) mark. The detailed analyses of the this inscription, the alphabet used, the words in their original ancient lettering and all the reasons for reading the inscription the way that I have read are given in a report entitled "A Study of the Lemnos Island Inscription (A preliminary report)", identified with ISBN 0-9696949-3-8. Thus, in view of above described considerations, I have the following transcription and reading of the Lemnos Island inscription in Latin alphabet: Text 1 transcription: [Hatapase : i : anaapatata aker: takariste qam . apa . ançasap : ierata anasamata eresenasap ] Turkish : Hatapasa : iy : anaapa tata ak er : takariste kam . apa . ançasap : iy erata anam atasi er esen asap Eng.: Hatapasa : O grandfather honest man : Thracian? shaman .father. thus lays? : O brave father my mother's father sound thinking? man Text 2 transcription: [ançasais : qam : i . apam : ançasap içekesi.i : aqas : ieqisençtata ierata anasata isaqas] Turkish : ança SAIS [= Sayas, Ais, Ak Ayas, Tengri, Zeus, Ajax] : kam : iy apam : boylece yatip? iç akasi . iy : aga : iy ekesenç [=ikiz?] tata [=dede] iy er ata anaata iy Saka Eng.: thus Sais [=Ais, Zeus, Ajax] : shaman : O my father : thus laid? local's gentleman [=local's elderman] . O : Lord : O twins? grandfather O brave father my mother's father O Saka Text 3, line 1 transcription: [Hatapasaqis : apatakas ançasape : ierata iasata : eqesenç tata : tataqer atana] Turkish : Hatapasa : apataka? boylece yatip? : iy er ata iy as [us, akilli] ata : eqesenç [=ikiz?] tata [=dede] : tatak [atak?] er ata ana Eng.: Hatapasakis : apataka=? thus laid? : O brave father O wise father : twins? grandfather : fearless? man father mother Text 3, line 2 transcription: eRaTaM : HARAPaSaTa : ISAQAS : EPeTeISTe : ARAS : TaS 50? : aPaTaKE : [eratam : Harapasata : isaqas : epeteiste : aras : tas 50? : apatake :] Turkish : er atam : Harapas [falci] ata : iy Saqa : Epeteiste : aras?: tas [=yas] 50?: apatake? : Eng.: my brave father : haraspex father : O Saka : Epeteiste : aras=? : age 50? : apatake=? : Text 3, line 3 transcription: [isaqas : aqasi : ançasap içekesi : apam kam : aqasi : atamas] Turkish : iy Saqa : agasi (beyi) : boylece yatip? içekesi[=yerin olgun kisisi]: apam kam : agasi : atama Eng.: O Saka : Lord : thus laid? local's gentlman [local's elderman]: my father shaman : Lord : to my father Text No.1 Transcription ...../..... Turkish Definition .....//..... English definitions 1. HaTaPASE : ...../..... Hatapasa .....//..... [Hatapasa, name of deceased man] : 2. I : ...../..... i (=iy) : .....//..... [O] : 3. aNAaPaTaTa ...../..... anaapa tata [=dede].....//..... [grand father (from mother's side)] 4. AKER : ...../..... ak er : .....//..... [honest man; flawless man] : 5. TAKARISTe ...../..... takariste .....//..... [=Possibly ancient name of Thrace] NOTE : probably Takariste > Takar + ia? >> Tarak + ia? > Trakya]; [-iste (=-ia?) indicative of a place] 6. QAM . ...../..... kam . .....//..... [shaman] . 7. APA . ...../..... apa . .....//..... [father] . 8. aNÇaSAP : ...../..... ançasap (=böylece yatip?):.....//..... [thus he is dead or laid?] : 9. IERaTa . ...../..... i (=iy) er ata . .....//..... [oh brave father] . 10. aNASaMaTa ...../..... anam ata(=anamin atasi) .....//..... [my mother's father] 11. eRSeNASaP ...../..... er sen asap (=ölüp?) .....//..... [you brave man died?] Text No. 2 12. aNÇaSAIS : ...../..... ança Sayas {Sayas(Sais=Ak Ayas, Tengri)} : .....//..... [here Sais(=Ais, Zeus)] : 13. QAM : ...../..... kam : .....//..... [shaman] : 14. I . ...../..... i (iy) . .....//..... [O] . 15. APAM : ...../..... apam : .....//..... [my father] : 16a. aNÇaSAP ...../..... ançasap (=böylece yatip?) .....//..... [thus laid?] 16b. iÇeKeSi . ...../..... içekesi (=yerin efendisi; yerin olgun kisisi) . .....//..... [local's gentleman; local's elderman] . 18. AQaS : ...../..... aka (=aga, bey) : .....//..... [lord] : 19. I ...../..... i (=iy) .....//..... [O] 20. eQiSeNÇTaTa: ...../..... ekisenç (=ikiz?) tata: {tata (=dede)} .....//..... [twins? grandfather] : 21a. IERaTa ...../..... i (=iy) er ata .....//..... [O brave father] 21b. aNASaTa ...../..... anaata .....//..... [mother's father] 22. ISaQAS ...../..... i (=iy) Saka .....//..... [O Saka! (Scyth as called by Greeks)] Text No.3, line 1 23. HaTaPASaQIS: ...../..... Hatapasa : .....//..... [Hatapasakis, name of the deceased man]: 24a. aPaTaKaS ...../..... apaataka (?) .....//..... [apaatakas= ? ] 24b. ANÇaSAPE : ...../..... ançasape (=boylece yatip?): .....//..... [thus he is dead?] : 25b. IASaTa : ...../..... i(=iy) as (=us,akilli) ata : .....//..... [O wise father] : 26 EQeSeNÇTATA : ...../..... ekesenç tata {(=ikiz? dede)} .....//..... [one of a twins? father] 27a. TaTaQER ...../..... tatak (=atak?) er .....//..... [fearless? man] 27b. aTaNA ...../..... ata, ana .....//..... [father, mother] Text No.3, line 2 28. eRaTaM : ...../..... er atam : .....//..... [my brave father] : 29. HARAPaS aTa : ...../..... Harapas(=falci) ata : .....//..... [Haraspex (=diviner) father] : 30. ISAQAS : ...../..... i (=iy) Saka : .....//..... [O Saka] : 31. ePeTeISTe : ...../..... Epeteiste (birth place) : .....//..... [Town of Hephaistia in Lemnos island] : 32. ARAS : ...../..... aras (=?) : .....//..... [aras=?] : 33. TaS 50? : ...../..... tas (=yas) 50? : .....//..... [at the age of 50?] : 34. aPaTaKE : ...../..... apatake (=?) : .....//..... [apatake =?] : Text No.3, line 3 36. AQaSI : ...../..... akasi (=agasi, beyi) : .....//..... [Lord] : 37a. aNÇaSAP ...../..... ançasap (=burada yatip?) .....//..... [here lies?] 37b. iÇeKeSI : ...../..... içekesi (=yerin efendisi, olgun kisisi) .....//..... [local's gentleman; local's elderman] : 38a. APAM ...../..... apam .....//..... [my father] 39. AQaSI : ...../..... akasi (=agasi) : .....//..... [Lord] : 40. ATaMAS ...../..... atama .....//..... [to my father] 1. This study which is a first attempt by the author, does not provide a complete translation of the inscription from Lemnos. The meaning of few words still need to be determined. I am hoping that this will be filled in by linguists. Although, not all of the words in the text of the inscription are recognizable at this time, however, those which are recognizable are definitely Altaic words and are unquestionably Turkic. 2. The words No. 1 and No. 23 represent the name of the deceased man talked about in the inscription. It is read as 'HaTaPASE' in word No. 1 and as 'HaTaPASaQIS' in word No. 23. It seems that the word No. 23 is an Hellenized version of the No. 1. The name becomes clearer when we remove the word ending '-qis' in the second word which becomes 'Hatapasa' indicating that it is the same as 'Hatapase' in word No. 1. The Hellenic suffix '-QIS' or '-KIS' in the word 'HaTaPASaQIS' is an indication that the assumed values of ' Q', ' I ' and ' S' for the corresponding letters in the inscription are correct. 3. Text No. 1, 2 and 3 have similar meanings, repeated in three or at least in two different dialects of the same language. Apparently same words, when written in different dialects, show some minor differences both in writing and their arrangements in sentences. In Text Three, Hellenic influence is highly visible by the presence of the Hellenic suffix -kis and suffix s. 4. Words numbered 6, 7 and 8 of Text No. 1 and 13, 15 and 16a of Text No. 2 and 38b, 38a and 37a in Text No. 3 are the same words respectively used in the inscription. They are read as 'kam apam ançasap'. The words 38b, 38a and 37a in Text No. 3 are written in an order which is different than the previous two cases. The first two words read as 'kam apam' mean 'my shaman father' or in this case 'my shaman grandfather'. The Turkic word 'kam' (also gam or qam) means 'male shaman', [8, p. 4] and 'apam' means my father. The word 'kam' is written in the form of "QAM" in words Nos. 6 and 13, it is written with a downward arrow and M. The downward arrow symbol has the value of "K" in Turkic Orhun inscriptions. The word 'ançasap' may also be read as 'ança sap' in which case 'ança' is also a known Turkish word meaning 'thus, this way' [4, p. 760]. The word 'sap' needs to be determined, possibly means "laid or died". Here I would also like to note the following observation: In the inscription, word 7 is written as "APA" while the words 15 and 38a are written as "ARAM". I believe that the letter "R" in both of these words is a mistake and should have been "P". The error could have been made by the scriber while chiselling the inscription, or could have been made by the transcriber who copied the inscription into paper. Therefore, I have read these two words as "APAM" rather than "ARAM" in my reading of the inscription. 5. In Text 2, word Nos. 12 to 15 inclusive, the scriber writes: "O God SAIS, here is my shaman father". Here we should note that the Pelasgian Sais must be what Greeks called as Zeus, Etruscans called Ais or Ac Ais or Tin, the Central Asiatic Turkic shamans called and still call Ak Ayas. They all have the Turkic word "Ai", the Turkic word for Moon, as the root word. However, they all represent the "Sky God". 6. I read word No. 31 as 'epeteiste' which seems to correspond to the ancient town name 'Hephaistia' which is a town in the northern coast of Lemnos Island [12, p.57]. 'Epeteiste', being probably same as the ancient name of 'Hephaistia', could be the birth place of 'Hatapasa' or "Hatapasha". 7. Word Nos. 22, 30 and 35 are the same word and read in Turkish as "i (=iy) Saka". When it is read together with the word No. 36, it addresses the deceased man as "i Saka agasi (Beyi)" meaning "O Saka lord". Here one should note that the people to whom the deceased man and the scriber belonged, were known to Hellenic people as Pelasgians. In the inscription, the scriber identifies themselves as being from "Saka" people. This is understandable because of the fact that about 600 B.C. when Pelasgians were living in the Lemnos and Imbros islands and also in Thrace, the Turkic Saka people had an empire extending all the way from Altay mountaines in Central Asia to Balkans in Europe. Greeks called them as Scytians. In view of the Lemnos Island inscription, we get the view that Pelasgians must have been among the earlier waves of Central Asiatic peoples and members of the Turkic Saka peoples. So this document written in stone identifies the language of both the Pelasgians and the Sakas as being a Turkic language. 8. Word Nos. 39 and 40 finish the dedication by saying "aga atama" meaning "to my Lord father". 9. In this Turkic inscription, we see that Pelasgians who called themselves SAKA, used both words 'apa' and ata' for father and interchangeably for 'grandfather' as well. We also see a word "tata" whish is derived from the word 'ata'. "tata' would be equivalent to Turkish 'dede'. They also used the word 'ana' for mother. Hence, we again observe that these three words and their derivatives are the oldest living words of the Turkish language. 10. I read the word No. 33 as TaS 50? The symbol which is an upright arrow head and with a right slanting tail at the bottom is not present in Hellenic alphabets. However, it is most interesting to find this symbol in an inscription written on a silver bowl found in a Saka (Scythian) Kurgan (Issik Lake Kurgan) near Almati in Kazakistan. Ïlhami Durmuß [9, p. 81-83] gives a transliteration of this inscription [9, p. 146-147] and attributes its description to Kemal Alißar Akißev [10]. This symbol appears twice in this Saka inscription. Olcas Süleymanov has read this inscription and has given the value of T1 in the alphabet that he described [11]. On the other hand, G. and L. Bonfante give a numeral value of 50 to an upright arrow symbol (without a tail) in Etruscan writings, [1, p. 64]. The symbol in the Issik Kurgan inscription is also a vertical arrow but with a right-slanting tail at the bottom as it is in the Lemnos island inscription. However, whether the Etruscan symbol and the Pelasgian symbol, i.e., Lemnos Island inscription, have the same meaning is not clear. If we use a value of 'T' as done by Süleymanov for the Issik Kurgan inscription, then the reading of the word No. 33 would be as 'TaSaT' which needs to be identified yet. On the other hand, if we use a numeral value of 50 as indicated by Bonfantes, then we would get a reading of 'TaS 50'. The word 'TAS' suggests us the Turkic word 'yas > yaß' meaning 'age'. Actually, in different dialects of Turkish, there is the replacement of "y" with "d or t". With this in mind, I believe it is safe to read this word as "yas = age". The inscription from Lemnos island being an inscription on a tomb stone, it is quite likely that this word may be referring to the age at which the man died. With this reasoning, I have temporarily assumed it to be 'TAS 50', indicative of 50 years of age at which he died. 11. The inscription on the stele from Lemnos seems to have been written by someone very close to the deceased man. The scriber sounds to be a grand child of the deceased person. 12. In the culture of Turkic world, it seems that it is a tradition to describe a newly deceased person in a way similar to the way that this scriber of the stele from Lemnos island has described his deceased grandfather by using descriptive words like: 'kam apa' [shaman grandfather], 'kam apam' [my shaman grandfather], 'er atam' [my brave father], 'er' [man, brave], 'aker' [flawless man], "i apam" [O my father], "i aga" [O Lord], "i Saka agasi" [O Saka Lord] and "agasi atama" [to my Lord father]. 13. We should note that in this kind of description of a dead person, not only a sense of lamentation is being expressed but also a highly respected and esteemed grandfather is being honored. It is quite in line with the culture of Turkic peoples to do this. 14. The lamentation and 'honoring' expressed in this inscription points distinctively the presence of a cultural affinity between the people of Lemnos island and the Central Asiatic peoples like Turks. The meaning of the Lemnos inscription is very similar to the Turkic tomb-stone inscriptions found in Central Asia [4, p. 481-483]. Even some of the words used in the inscription of the Lemnos island tomb-stone and the inscriptions found on Central Asiatic tomb-stones are the same. 15. The ending in '-p' in words No. 8, 11, 16a and 37a is indicative of past tense in archaic Turkic languages like in words such as 'ölüp', 'gelip', 'gidip', etc.. It seems this is what we are observing in words No. 8, 11, 16a and 37a, particularly in the expression 'kam apam ançasap'. 16. In word Nos. 15 and 26a 'apam', No. 28 'eratam', the ending '-m' is like the Turkic genitive ending (suffix -m) for first person singular which means 'my'. Thus the word means 'my father' or in this case 'my grandfather'. The word 'qam' or 'kam' is used to designate 'male shaman'. What we get from this bit of information is that the dead man was a 'shaman' and/or a 'learned man', and he was a respected person. 17. The word 'aker' in word No. 4 consists of two parts: for example in Turkish, the first part 'ak' means 'white' or figuratively 'clean, honest, flawless'; the second part 'er' means 'man', 'hero', 'brave', 'trustworthy' or 'dependable'. The word 'er' also appears as part of 'erata' and 'eratam' in word Nos. 9, 11, 21a, 25a and 28. Hence, ' aker < ak+er ' in No. 4 means 'honest man' or 'flawless man'. 18. The word 'anapatata' in No. 3, is most likely "mother's father", not "mother's father's father". Similarly, the words 'anasamata', in No. 10, meaning "my mother's father" and 'anasata' No. 21b, meaning "mother's father" are combinations of Turkic words 'ana', apa' and 'ata' to expres the grandfather from mother's side. The word 'atamas' No. 40 is the final dedication word meaning 'to my father'. 19. The word 'eqisençata" in words No. 20 and No. 26 may be looked at as "eqe sen[ç] ata >> iki sen ata? = ikiz ata?", probably meaning that the dead man was one of a twins. Thus a grandfather that was probably one of a twin brothers or brother sister set. We should note that the first part of this word, namely "eqi" or even "eqe" suggests the Turkish numeral "iki" meaning "two". 20. The words 'apa' in No. 7, means 'father'; 'apam' in Nos. 15 and 26a means 'my father'; 'eratam' in No. 28 means my hero father. We should note that the ending -m in the words 'apam' and 'atam' is the Turkic genitive suffix for the first person singular. 21. We see similar words in word Nos. 10 and 21b as 'anasam ata' and as 'anas ata' respectively. In these last two words, the infix -s- and suffix -s respectively are clearly due to Hellenic influence. In the first one, the root word is 'ana' meaning mother, with the probable Hellenic suffix -s, word becomes 'anas'. The suffix -am has two parts. -a is the connecting vowel used between s of 'anas' and the Turkic genitive suffix -m. Thus, the word 'anasam' means 'my mother'. Additionally, we should note that the statement "iy Saka akasi" fits the Turkish grammar rules perfectly. 22. We should also note that the Runic symbol for Z which appears frequently in the Lemnos island inscription, also appears in the Issik Kurgan inscription as well as in Turkic Orhun and Yenisei inscriptions [4]. This is another 'symbolic' connection between the Lemnos island inscription and the Issik Kurgan's Saka inscription. Of course, one must not forget the fact that the words in this inscription, are also separated with two dots as is the case with other Turkic inscriptions. It is also read from right to left direction as is the case in Turkic inscriptions. 23. H. H. Scullard in his book, like in many of Western books about the Etruscans, labels the man in the picture as a 'warrior' [ 2 , p. 39], probably considering the fact that he is holding a spear in his hand. The Lemnos inscription does not suggest that the person depicted on the stele was a warrior. It is most likely that in the deceased man's time, he would normally carry with him either a stick or a spear for personal protection irrespective of him being a warrior or not. Therefore, as the text of the inscription states clearly, the person in the picture was not a warrior but was a 'learned shaman'. In word No. 29, we also have the words 'Harapas ata'. I believe the word 'Harapas' is the same as 'Haraspex' in Etruscan meaning a diviner. Historians tell us that the population of Lemnos island at about 600 B. C. were Pelasgians. In view of these revelations from the inscription on this stele, we may have to think of the Pelasgian population as people of Central Asiatic origin and also as people who spoke a form of Turkish language. Pelasgians were pre-Hellenic, non Indo-European speaking people who inhabited the area long before the Greek migrations to the area started. In order to shed more light on Pelasgians, I have chosen to quote the entry on Pelasgians in the Encyclopedia Britannica [5, p. 448] by B. C. F. Atkinson, formerly Under-Librarian, University Library, Cambridge University, below (I have indicated in bold parts of Atkinson's entry in order to highlight the relative importance of the Pelasgians in the area they lived and their identity with respect to the real Greeks): "PELASGIANS. Various traditions were current among the Greeks with regard to the pre-Greek inhabitants of their country. They were inclined to call all these by the general name of Pelasgians, although they recognized Carians and Leleges as distinct. The Dorians claimed that the Ionians were Pelasgian or at least mainly so, and that they themselves were true Greeks. The inhabitants of Attica, who were regarded as Ionian, boasted that they were autochthonous, the original inhabitants of the land. In the Homeric poems Pelasgians appear as allies of Troy. They appear to be settled in south-eastern Thrace close to the Hellespont in a district called Larissa (Il., ii. 840-843, x.429). Some suppose that the Larissa here mentioned is the town of that name in Thessaly, but the catalogue of ships, in which the passage occurs, appears to follow a definite geographical order. Larissa stands between the Hellespont and Thrace. The Iliad also refers to the district of Argos near Mt. Othrys in Tessaly as Pelasgic, and also uses the same epithet in a famous passage of the Zeus of Dodona (Il., ii. 681-684,xvi. 233-235). In the Odyssey Pelasgians appear in Crete (Od. xvii. 175-177). Hesiod refers to Dodona as 'seat of Pelasgians,' while Hecataeus refers to Pelasgus as king of Thessaly. To Aeschylus and Sophocles Argos in the Peloponnese is the Pelasgian land. Herodotus knows of actual Pelasgians at Placie and Scylace and the Asiatic coast of the Hellespont as well as near Creston on the Strymon. The islands of Lemnos and Imbros had also, he informs us, a Pelasgian population, conquered by Athens at the close of the 6th century. Apart from these actual instances of Pelasgians, both Herodotus and Thucydides appear to regard any survival from pre-Greek times as Pelasgic. A well known example of this is the prehistoric wall of the Athenian acropolis, anciently regarded and still commonly referred to as Pelasgian, and the epithet spread to all similar prehistoric masonry, especially that built of large blocks, in any part of Greece. It has been held that the common Greek tradition arose from a misunderstanding, particularly perhaps by Hesiod and Hecataeus, of the two passages in the Iliad in which the Zeus of Dodona and the Thessalian Argos are referred to as Pelasgic. Where Homer used a general epithet meaning 'remotely ancient,' later writers have wrongly concluded that he referred specifically to actual Pelasgians as inhabitants of these places. If this is so, the problem is merely thrown farther back, for an explanation is needed of how the epithet Pelasgic had attained the general meaning of 'ancient' by the time of the composition of the Homeric poems. To certain people at a certain period 'Pelasgic' must have been a specific epithet. The Pelasgians must have been regarded either as very ancient people or as former inhabitants of the land. Much turns upon the meaning of the epithet Pelasgic as applied in the Iliad to the Zeus of Dodona. Zeus is the last one would expect to be referred to as Pelasgic, for of all the gods' names his is most certainly Greek. The simplest explanation is perhaps that there existed at Dodona a very ancient pre-Greek or pre-Achaean shrine occupied by Greeks who attached to the deity the name of their own god Zeus. All instances of actual Pelasgians from Homer to Herodotus point to their being a northern people. Thrace, Epirus and Thessaly are their homes. It is certain that there were pre-Achaeans inhabitants of Greece. The simplest view now held is that Greek-speaking peoples broke down into Greece from the North in three successive waves, Ionian, Achaean and Dorian, subduing a previous 'Helladic' population and setting up, after a second invasion (i.e., of Achaeans), the Mycenean civilization in the Peloponnese. If this is the simplest view, it does not solve all problems and it does not as yet rest upon a certain foundation of fact. An early stratum of population in Greece was in close touch with Anatolia. A large number of Greek place-names point to the conclusion that Greece was colonized from Anatolia. By whom we do not know, and we are also ignorant of what language these early people spoke. It is also possible that the Achaeans themselves were in Asia Minor before they were in Greece and that they brought thither the Anatolian place-names. It is no more than tradition that connects such early people with the Pelasgians. The name Pelasgi which almost certainly stands for Pelak-skoi or Pelag-Skoi has been connected with pelagos, 'the sea,' and the people consequently regarded as sea-faring. The connection is not very convincing. It has also been related to the name of the semi-Illyrian Pelagones of Macedonia, and it is possible, though unproven, that the names do represent the same stem. Possibly the Pelasgians were no more than Vlachs, or Wallachian shepherds, who in classical as in modern times have been in the habit of wandering in large numbers down into Greece. The name is perhaps no more than Velak-Ski. If this were so, it would account for their being dotted over various regions in Thrace and the north and also, if their habits were the same at the dawn of history as afterwards, of their being an ancient and integral part of Greek tradition and life. G. Sergi describes as Pelasgian' one branch of the Mediterranean or Euro-African race. BIBLIOGRAPHY.- Beloch, Griechische Geschichte I. 2 p. 162 seq,; E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums I., 2 p. 767 seq. (3rd ed.); A. Fick, Vorgriechische Ortsnamen (1905); J. L. Myers, 'A History of the Pelasgian Theory,' in Journal of Hellenic Studies XXVII., 171 seq. (1906); Treidler, 'Alte Volker der Balkanhalbilsel' in Archiv. fur Antropologie XL. 101 seq. (1913); H. Ehrlich, 'Pelasger und Etrusker' in Verhandlungen d. 52 Phil-Vers. in Marburg (1913), p.150; A. Debrunner, 'Der Besiedlung des alten Griechenland im Licht der Sprachwissenschaft' in Neue Jahrbuch fur d. Klassische Altertumwissenschaft, XLI. p. 443 (1918). (B. F. C. A.)" From Atkinson's well researched entry given above, we may infer and/or add to it the following points: a) Could it be that only the Dorians represented the Greek identity while Carians (Kara + ian), Leleges (Lelek + es), Achaean (Aka + ean), Pelasgians (Pelesge + ian) which are all Altaic sounding words, were all non Indo-European and all probably Central Asiatic origin? Indo-European speaking Greeks had a way of Hellenizing foreign words that they could not say. Obviously, that is what they did in the case of the many names related to these non Indo-European people. b) It appears that a good portion of mainland Greece, Thrace, western Balkans, western coasts of Anatolia and a number of Aegean islands including Crete were inhabited by Pelasgians. In these lands, after they were conquered by Hellenic people, Pelesgians eventually blended in with the Hellenic people and lost their non Indo-European Central Asiatic identity. c) From the reading of the Lemnos Island inscription, It is now quite clear that Pelasgians called themselves SAKA and their "Sky God" as "SAIS". Thus, it seems that the Greek name "Zeus" is nothing but an Hellenized version of this Pelasgian name. Similarly, 'Zeus of Dodona' is the Pelasgian SAIS. We should note that the Pelasgian SAIS also corresponds to 'Ais' of Etruscans [1, p. 142], a deity which is same as the 'Ak Ayas' or 'Ayas' of Central Asiatic people [8]. Hence, it is clear that Pelasgians brought their deity SAIS [= Ak Ayas or Ayas] to Balkans (e.g. Dodona) from Central Asia and eventually the epithet SAIS turned into Hellenic 'Zeus' by ancient Greeks. It seems that this Lemnos island inscription puts the 'Greek origin' of the Greek mythological god Zeus into question. d) It should also be noted that all these divinity names such as "Sais, Zeus, Ais, and Ayas or Ak Ayas, represent the Sky God in the Pelasgian, Etruscan, Hellenic and Turkic Saka and Central Asiatic Turkic shaman cultures. The name of this divinity must have been brought all the way from Central Asia to the Balkans and Mediterranean coasts by the Turkic speaking SAKA peoples and their ancestors. For example, if some scholars find cultural affinity between the Etruscans and Pelasgians, and also find their inscriptions related to each other, it seems that this affinity between these two ancient peoples is due to the existence of a real kinship between them. e) It is most likely that Greek culture borrowed considerably from and was built upon the Pelasgian culture during its well known development. However historically, Pelasgians did not get any credit for their achievements while Greeks took all the credit. f) Historians say that in about 600 B. C., Athens fought against Pelasgians of Lemnos for the control of a town named Sigeion (Sige +ion) [12,p.56] on the Asian side of the southern tip of Hellespont (Dardanelles). We also note from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey that at about 1200 B. C. when Troy was attacked by the King Agamemnon of Mycenae, Pelasgians were allies of Troy. The reason for this alliance may be that either Pelasgians had land holdings next to Troy and did not want to lose it to Mycenaeans or they were kins of Troyans or both. In any case, Pelasgians must have been in control of not only the islands of Lemnos and Imbros in the Aegean Sea but also some land in Thrace and in Asia Minor between 1200 B.C. and 600 B. C.. This shows the extend of the Pelasgian presence in the area. 1. The people inhabiting the Lemnos island at and before 600 B.C. were called PELASGIANS, although according to the Lemnos island inscription, they called themselves as SAKA. The Pelasgians were a non Indo-European people and were speaking a non Indo-European language. The Lemnos island inscription represents the language of this people. This first time reading of the Lemnos island inscription clearly identifies the Altaic nature of the language in which the inscription is written. The readily recognizable words are not only Altaic in nature but are unquestionably Turkish. This study identifies the language of Pelasgians as an early form of Altaic languages, perhaps a year-600 B. C. version of Turkish. 2. Deciphering of this ancient inscription, as I have shown in this study for the first time, establishes the presence of Turkic speaking SAKA (Scytians) peoples and their kins PELASGIANS called as such by the Greeks, in the Aegean islands and in the Balkans during the pre-historic times from 1200 B.C. to 600 B.C.. Ancient Greek historians, like Heredotus, identify the population of Lemnos and Imbros islands as Pelasgians. 3. Turkic speaking Pelasgians must have been direct kins of Central Asiatic Saka people who arrived in the Balkans and then onto some of the Aegean Sea islands in waves of migrations from Central Asia long before the 6th century B. C. and adapted themselves to the environment conditions of the area. They became sea faring people as well as carried on their animal husbandry under the local conditions. It is most likely that they used the Eurasian landmass which has been one of the most active migration paths of the Asiatic people into the European continent. 4. The lettering found in the inscription from Lemnos island makes a definite connection to the Runic inscriptions from Central Asia: for example, a) to the inscription found in the Issik Kurgan near Almati (Alma Ata) in Kazakistan; b) to the Turkic Orhun and Yenisei inscriptions; c) to the Saka and Hun inscriptions, and d) to Pechenek writings. The Runic alphabet that Turks have used in their inscriptions does not seem to have originated in Europe, although it was used by Europeans. It seems that the Runic type of writing has spread into Central and Northern Europe from Eurasia. Surely, new studies will enlighten this further. 5. At the risk of attracting criticism, I will pose the question, "did the Pelasgians learn their alphabet from Hellenic people or did they bring it with them from their Asiatic homeland? There seems to be an unquestioned acceptance by some scholars that non Indo-European peoples (such as Etruscans and Pelasgians), living in Europe contemporarily with Indo-Europeans, took their alphabet from Hellenic people. How sure are we about such declarations? Have all the European and Asiatic artifacts been truly examined and appraised in fairness in a light other than the Indo-European light? Perhaps new scholars in the field could be more open minded and examine it from an Asiatic view point also. 6. It is said that there are many already discovered Pelasgian artifacts (some probably with inscriptions on them) and most likely, more will be discovered in the future. In trying to read such documents, the inquiry should encompass all possibilities. 7. It is hoped that scholars will complete translation of the inscription on the Lemnos stele and check out the validity of what I have described in this study. 1. Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante, "The Etruscan Language An Introduction'", New York University Press, New York and London, 1983. 2. H. H. Scullard, "The Etruscan Cities and Rome", Thames and Hudson, 1967. 3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 1, p. 662-669, 1963, under the entry of "Alphabet". 4. Hüseyin Namik Orkun, "Eski Türk Yazitlari", Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari: 529, Ankara,1987 . 5. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963, vol. 17, p. 448-449, under the entry of "Pelasgians". 6. Adile Ayda, "Etrüskler Türk mü idi?", Türk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü Yayinlari, No.43, Ankara,1974. 7. Faruk K. Timurtas, "Seyhi ve Cagdaslarinin Eserleri Üzerinde Gramer Arastirmalari II Sekil Bilgisi", Türk Dili ArastirmalariYilligi, Belleten,1961, 2. baski. 8. Mircea Eliade, "Shamanism Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy", Princeton University Press, 1964. 9. Dr. Ilhami Durmus, "Iskitler (Sakalar)", Türk Kültürünü Arastsrma Enstitüsü Yayinlari:141, Seri III - Sayi: B-8, Ankara,1993. 10. Kemal Alisar Akisev, "Kurgan Issik" Moskova : Iskustvo, 1978. 11. Olcas Suleymanov, "Ceti Sudin Kone Cazbalari", Kazak Edebiyati, 25 September 1970: 1-3. 12. Anton Powell, "Cultural Atlas of Young People ANCIENT GREECE", Facts on File, New York, 1989. 13. Prof. Dr. Muharrem Ergin, "Orhun Abideleri", 12. Baski, Bogaziçi Yayinlari, Istanbul 1988. 14. "Karsilastirmali TÜRK LEHÇELERI SÖZLÜGÜ I ve II", Kültür Bakanligi / 1371, Kaynak Eserler /54, Ankara, 1991. Lemnos Island Inscription graphics:
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2015 — Over the last 10 days, Saudi Arabia has experienced terrorist attacks on Shia mosques, with attackers killing men, women and children as they pray for peace. On May 22, 2015, a suicide bomber entered Imam Ali mosque in Al-Qudaih, Qatif, Saudi Arabia, killing more than 20 people and leaving more than 130 wounded. Ambulances and medical staff did not respond to the scene of the explosion – a Shia mosque – leaving neighbors to move the bodies to the hospital in their own cars. A second explosion took place on My 29, 2015. A car bomb in front of Imam Hussein mosque in the Dammam left four dead. While ISIS detonated the bombs, the House of Saud laid the groundwork for the anti-Shia attacks. While the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, a major contributing factor is the hate against Shia Muslims; a hate fomented by the Wahhabi leadership in Saudi Arabia that believe that as Shia Muslims are not Wahhabi they are are heathens and enemies. This is the culture that has encouraged ISIS to target Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism, a Sunni-based movement that started in the mid-18th century is the basis of Saudi Arabia’s religious ideology. Wahhabism is the most austere and strict of the four schools of Sunni Islam and follows a literal interpretation of the Koran and adherents believe that all who do not follow Wahhabism are infidels. Founded on the tenets of Wahhabism, the theology has long dominated Saudi Arabia. In 1744, the founder of the current Saudi royal family, Muhammed bin Saud, joined forces with the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab making pact whereby Wahhab backed Saud in his efforts to unify the various tribes of Arabia into a single country, Saudi Arabia, which Saud controlled. In exchange, Saud agreed to continue his adherence to Wahhab’s religious ideology. The agreement brought the nomadic militias that backed Wahhabi, called ikhwan (“brotherhood”), under the Saud umbrella and allowed Saud to win political and military victories that established the Saudi state. The Saud dynasty has used Wahhabi scholars to provide religious legitimacy for its actions since that time and to move against its rivals. As a result, Wahhabism and anti-Shia ideology has dominated the Saudi culture. This extreme view of Islam by Saudi Arabia has led Riyadh to back extremist groups in the region who target Shia Muslims as well as Christians, Jews and Izidis. The Islamic State, also known as Daesh or ISIS, shares the Wahhabi’s extreme ideology. The Saudi government has designated ISIS a terrorist group and provides no direct funding to ISIS. It also prohibits private citizens from donating to terrorist groups. However, Saudi donors, likely including at least some government officials, were believed to be the most significant funding source for the precursor group to ISIS. This funding likely allowed ISIS to thrive and develop its own financial sources. The same ideology that prevented women from driving in Saudi Arabia leads to taking Christian, Izidis and Shia women as slaves and to selling young girls to wealthy elder men in Iraq and Afghanistan. For Wahhabi followers, the term “jihad” means a form of violence. For Shia Muslims, the term “jihad” means sacrificing your time and life to make the community better, not pledging to fight against others. In Saudi Arabia, Shia Muslims make up 15 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia. The Shia are systematically discriminated against, thanks to the prevalence of Wahhabism. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Shia Rights Watch regularly report inhumane treatment of Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Yet there has been no action to prevent discrimination against the Shia minority in this country. Shia, who have no right of citizenship in Saudi Arabia, are marginalized and excluded from government. Even in provinces where the majority of the population is Shia, they have virtually no rights and are barred from participating in elections. This Article was published at Community Digital News Author: ShiaSentinel Get Connected
Skip to content Fetal tissue allografts in the central visual system of rodents by Frederic Gaillard and Yves Sauve Frederic Gaillard and Yves Sauve 1. Introduction Injury to the brain areas concerned with vision can cause a variety of disorders ranging from visual field defects to much more complex deficits like visual agnosia. It all depends on the location and the extent of the damage. Injury to the occipital striate cortex results in corresponding homonymous visual field defects where typically all visual capacities are lost in the fields. Injury to occipito-temporal structures can affect discrimination, selection and recognition of visual stimulus dimensions and, at higher stages of processing, of objects, faces, scenes, and letters (for review, see Zihl, 2000). Fig 1: Visual deficits in human and related injured brain regions. A) Visual location (lateral occipital gyrus). B) Motion blindness (middle temporal gyrus). C) Achromatopsia (occipito-temporal gyrus). D) Visual agnosia (posterior and medial temporo-occipital cortex). E) Visual neglect (inferior parietal lobe). F) Balint-Holmes syndrome (posterior parietal lobe). For more details, see Zihl 2000; Since the seventies, numerous investigations have focused on trying to restore lost function by replacement of injured brain structures with homologous allogeneic embryonic neural tissue. Such approaches have even reached the clinical level as a therapy for the treatment of some neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. With the exception of these specific cases, though, we are not yet ready to go to the clinic. Intracerebral grafting presently remains an experimental model used to address fundamental questions concerning brain development, neuronal plasticity, regeneration and formation of topographic connections. The latter is a minimal requirement for functional recovery in point-to-point sensory systems such as the visual system (see previous chapter). Putting fetal brain tissue grafts in the mature central nervous system (CNS) differs from peripheral nerve (PN) grafting in at least the following two ways. Firstly, while a PN graft is used to bridge two brain areas, an intracerebral embryonic tissue graft is meant to restore the function of the damaged area. The fetal grafted tissue must develop its own set of connections with the right structures in the host brain, and these connections must be orderly arranged. Secondly, while all elements in PN grafting are at the same age, the intracerebral embryonic tissue graft is heterochronic with respect to the host tissue. For a short period post-implantation, grafted tissue behaves as an immature piece of brain. Theoretically, this immature status should allow circuitry reconstruction. Donor embryonic cells have a greater potential for axonal outgrowth and regeneration than mature host neurons (Chen et al., 1995; Shewan et al., 1995). Thus they may be better at establishing contacts with host target cells. Furthermore, the fetal graft may produce trophic factors or signaling cues, which are present in the brain only at early developmental stages, and should reactivate neurotropic processes in a ‘dormant’ host neuron populations. For instance, embryonic cortical transplants will produce NT-3 which is absent from the cortex past two weeks of age (Schoups et al., 1995; Friedman et al., 1998). In vitro assays (Castellani and Bolz, 1999) have shown that NT-3 has dual effects on layer 2-3 and layer 6 cortical neurons. Fifteen days after implant, cortical grafts will also produce a glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a potent survival factor for claustral neurons that project to the occipital cortex (Trupp et al., 1997; Matsuo et al., 2000). Unfortunately, there is abundant literature suggesting that environmental constraints from the mature host brain alter the restorative capacities of fetal grafts in various ways. Firstly, the mature environment affects both the number of surviving neurons within a graft and the size of the graft itself (Hallas et al., 1980; Gage et al., 1983; Crutcher, 1990; Collier et al., 1999). Secondly, the mature CNS environment is non-permissive for axonal regeneration of host neurons (Caroni and Schwab, 1988; Schwab and Caroni, 1988; Schwab, 1996, 2004; Spencer et al., 2003; see section 2 from the previous chapter). Thirdly, the mature CNS environment is poorly permissive for receiving outgrowing axons from embryonic allogeneic neurons (Walker and McAllister, 1987; Sofroniew et al., 1990; Cicirata et al., 1992; Grabowski et al., 1995; Sorensen et al., 1996; Armstrong et al., 2002). These above mentioned results suggest that intracerebral embryonic tissue grafts might only be effective in “diffuse” projection systems, i.e. by exerting a paracrine effect (Lescaudron and Stein, 1990; Bjorklund, 1991; Gage and Fisher, 1991; Stein and Glasier, 1995; Dunnett, 1999). In opposition to this, a few investigations have demonstrated that such grafts can restore, at least partially, complex motor behaviors (skilled forelimb reaching for food) that require a precise interaction between neuronal circuits, much more than expected of paracrine effects (Cicirata et al., 1992; Plumet et al., 1993; Riolobos et al., 2001). However, even in such reports, the donor neurons appear to establish a very limited number of connections with the host. Pioneer work in the visual system model was done in the mid-seventies by Drs Raymond Lund and Alan Harvey and colleagues, who transplanted parts of the embryonic CNS to various brain locations in neonatal rats (for a review see Lund, 1978). Most of their studies were focused on CNS development and, therefore, consisted of examining whether such grafts developed near-normal architecture, and established extensive connections with appropriate host structures. The outcome of fetal grafts into adult hosts has been studied less extensively, but a limited number of reports suggest that fetal tissues can integrate functionally within the adult host CNS. We will review these investigations that, in contrast to the mainstream opinion, show that tectal and cortical allografts can receive highly ordered inputs and can project to distant visual targets in the adult brain. 2. The visual system of rodents: a brief overview Unless reconstruction of neural circuitries comparable to normal in terms of amount, extension and topical organization are achived, we cannot expect complete functional recovery in point-to-point neural systems. The normal structural and functional organization of the visual system of adult rodents has been investigated extensively and now forms a basis for regeneration experiments (for review see Sefton and Dreher, 1995; Zilles and Wree, 1995; Sefton et al., 2004). A brief summary of the major findings is given below for comparative purpose. Retinal output In the adult rat, virtually all (> 95%) retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) project contralaterally to the superior colliculus (SC) and to the dorsal division of the lateral geniculate nucleus (DLG). In the SC, axons from the retina enter at the level of the stratum opticum (SO) and arborize in the SO and the superficial gray layer (SGL). Dense terminals are also found in lateral posterior nucleus, LP; ventral division of the lateral geniculate nucleus, magnocellular part, VLG; intergeniculate leaflet, IGL and pretectal nuclei (nucleus of the optic tract, OT; olivary pretectal nucleus, OPT; posterior pretectal nucleus, PPT). Some of these inputs (30-50%) are collateral branches of retinocollicular axons. A small contingent (< 5%) of the RGCs contacts the same structures ipsilaterally. Thus each retinorecipient center receives input from both eyes. Sparse projections are found in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the various nuclei of the accessory optic system, the hypothalamus and the inferior colliculus. A schematic view of these connections is given in Figure 6 of the previous chapter. Subcortical network The DLG is much more than a relay center for RGC projections to the cortex. In fact, it receives most of its input from structures other than the retina, namely the visual thalamic reticular nucleus (Rt), layer 6 small pyramidal neurons in the occipital cortex (areas 17, 18, 18a; also called respectively areas Oc1, Oc2M, Oc2L; or areas V1, V2M, V2L), the SC (SGL layer), some pretectal nuclei (OT, OPT) and the contralateral parabigeminal nucleus (PBg), an homolog of the isthmo-optic nucleus in lower vertebrates. Projections arising from relay cells in the DLG are restricted to Rt (dorsal part) and occipital cortex. The retinorecipient layers of the SC have reciprocal connections with the VLG, the pretectum and the ipsilateral PBg nucleus (ventral and dorsal divisions). They receive further afferents from the contralateral PBg and from layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the visual cortex. Major efferents go to the DLG, the LP thalamic nucleus and to the intermediate (IGL) and deep (DpL) gray layers of the SC where other sensory systems are represented. The LP nucleus (equivalent of the LP-pulvinar in cats and of the pulvinar in primates) has reciprocal connections with visual (mainly Oc2L, layers 5 and 6) and temporal areas in the ipsilateral cortex. The LP receives additional inputs from the Rt, zona incerta (ZI), and the pretectum (OT). Neurons in the IGL and DpL layers of the SC project to various structures in the pons, brain stem, cervical spinal cord and hypothalamus. The VLG has reciprocal connections with the pretectum (OT, OPT and APT, the anterior pretectal nucleus), SC (SGL and SO layers) and its contralateral homolog. It receives further projection from the occipital cortex (layer 5 neurons) and projects to the ZI, central gray, pons and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Finally, in addition to retinal and collicular inputs, the pretectum receives cortical afferents from the occipital cortex and projects to the LP, to the adjacent lateraldorsal (LD) thalamic nucleus (which has reciprocal connections with the occipital cortex) and to the pons (largely to the reticulotegmental nucleus. Cortical network Afferents to cortical area Oc1 originate predominantly from the three thalamic relay nuclei DLG, LP and LD. Termination sites are localized in layers 4, lower 3, 6 and 1. Other thalamic sources are the posterior complex (Po), ventromedian (VM), centromedian (CM) and the ventrolateral (VL) nuclei. Projections from Po and VM terminate in layer 1; those from CM and VL in layers 1 and 6. Further afferents are provided by frontal (Fr2), temporal (Te1-2), retrosplenial (RSA/RSG), perirhinal (PRh) and adjacent visual areas in the ipsilateral cortex. With respect to this scheme, area Oc2M receives no afferent from Te2 and PRh but an additional input from orbital cortical areas (MO/VO/VLO) whereas area Oc2L receives no afferent from Te1 and PRh but an additional input from the hindlimb region (HL) in the sensorimotor cortex. Afferents from the claustrum (CL) are mostly distributed in the infragranular layers of Oc1 and/or Oc2M areas (Shameem et al., 1984; Carey and Neal, 1985). Oc1-2 areas also receive some callosal inputs from visual areas (layer 2-3 and 5-6 neurons) in the opposite cortex. Callosal terminations extend throughout the cortical depth at the borders of area Oc1 and adjacent extrastriate areas as well as in multiple patches through Oc2M-L areas. Prominent labeling also occurs in the infragranular layers of the temporal cortex. Finally, the visual cortex and subcortical retinorecipient nuclei both receive nonspecific cholinergic, noradrenergic and serotoninergic innervations from various structures in the basal forebrain, from locus coeruleus (LC) and from dorsal raphe nuclei (DR), respectively. Fig 2. Major ipsilateral connections (designed as arrows) of the visual cortex of rodents. Green-coded connections are valid for all areas. Specific, additional connections for Oc1 (17) are white-coded; those for Oc2M (18) area are red-coded; and those for Oc2L (18a) area are blue-coded. Reciprocal connections between visual areas are symbolized by large stripes. Abbreviations are given in text. In addition to reciprocal connections, visual cortical areas have widespread ipsilateral projections through the normal adult brain. At the cortical level, efferents from area Oc1 are found into the dorsomedial frontal area Fr2 (layers 1 and 6), the ventrolateral orbital area (VLO), the retrosplenial areas (layers 1 and 6), the perirhinal area (layer 5-6, up to the caudalmost pole of the cortex) and the entorhinal cortex. Additional efferents originating from area Oc2M are observed in the cingulate area Cg1, the parietal areas S1-2 (caudal part; layers 1-3 and 6), the temporal areas Te1-3 (layer 1-3 and 6, mainly) and the claustrum (full extent). Efferents from area Oc2L also target the dorsal half of the prelimbic cortex (PrL area) as well as lateral, basal and central amygdaloid nuclei (McDonald and Mascagni, 1996). Projections from Oc2 areas to Fr2 and Cg1 extend up to the rostralmost pole of the cortex. At the subcortical level, Oc1 and Oc2 areas have dense terminals in hippocampal structures (presubiculum, PrS; and parasubiculum, PaS), striatum (the dorsomedial portion; Serizawa et al., 1994), visual thalamic nuclei (DLG, VLG, LP/LD, Po, Rt), ZI, various pretectal nuclei (P-TECT), SGL and IGL layers of the SC, and pontine nuclei (dorsolateral division; Wiesendanger and Wiesendanger, 1982). Contralateral projections are confined to Oc1-2 and Te1 areas as well as, but sparsely, to the dorsomedial sector of the striatum and the dorsolateral subdivision of the amygdala. Visual field topography. Retinofugal axons arising in different retinal quadrants maintain their relative positions in the optic nerve, loose this initial order as they progress toward the chiasm, and reform a distinct dorsal-ventral arrangement in the optic tract before reaching primary visual targets where they terminate in a precise topographic manner (Baker and Jeffrey, 1989; Simon and O’Leary, 1991; Chan and Guillery, 1994; Chan and Chung, 1999). Retinotopy in visual centers was first seen by Lashley (1934a, b) and then abundantly documented by both electrophysiological and anatomical approaches (Simminoff et al., 1966; Montero et al., 1968; Lund et al., 1974; Drager, 1975; Wagor et al., 1980; Espinoza and Thomas, 1983; Olavarria and Montero, 1984). Recently, optical imaging technique have confirmed all previous findings(Schuett et al., 2002; Hubener, 2003). A schematic representation of the visual field topography onto the DLG, SC and visual cortex is given below (Fig 3). Fig 3. Schematic representation of the right visual field topography onto the DLG, SC and visual cortex of normal rats. Color code: red, upper nasal field; pink, upper temporal field; deep blue, lower nasal field; sky blue, lower temporal field. Subdivisions of extrastriate areas are from Espinoza and Thomas (1983). Visual topography in areas 18(AM/PM) and 18a(LL/LI) is not shown. AL, anterolateral area; AM, anteromedial area; ANT, anterior; DORS, dorsal; HM, horizontal meridian; INF, inferior; LAT, lateral; LI, laterointermediate area; LL, laterolateral area; LM, lateromedial area; MED, medial; NAS, nasal; OD, optic disk (black stars); PM, posteromedial area; POST, posterior, SUP, superior; TEMP, temporal; VENT, ventral; VM, vertical meridian (dotted line). (adapted from Sefton et al., 2004). At the geniculate level (Fig 3A,D), the nasal field (temporal retina) is represented caudally and dorsomedially; the temporal field (nasal retina) occupies most of the rostral part of the nucleus; the lower field (upper retina) is mostly represented in the caudal part of the nucleus, lateroventrally; and the upper field (lower retina) projects mainly to the rostral part of the nucleus, dorsally. The dorsomedial part of the DLG also receives input from the lower temporal quadrant (red sector; Fig 3B) of the ipsilateral retina. On the contralateral SC (Fig 3A,C), the nasal visual field is mapped rostrally; the temporal visual field, caudally; the upper field, medially; and the lower field, laterally. In rats, the representation of the central visual field is not substantially magnified. The ipsilateral retinal contingent projects anteromedially (red sector; Fig 3B). At the cortical level (area Oc1/17), the naso-temporal axis of the visual field projects from lateral to medial, the lower field (upper retina) projects rostrally, and the upper field projects caudally. A retricted caudal region of area Oc1 receives input from the ipsilateral retina. The vertical meridian (body axis) is set at the border between area 17 and area 18. Beyond this point, the naso-temporal direction is inverted. Borderline zones in areas 17 and 18 contain binocular neurons. Multiple ordered representations of the visual field are present in the adjacent extrastriate areas (for discussion, see Rosa and Krubitzer, 1999). 3. Standard strategy for intracerebral transplantation: Graft morphology Grafts usually consist of blocks or sheets of neural tissue excised from 15-16 day-old (E15-16) embryos, which are put into previously surgically-made cavities in the host. Older grafts survive poorly and have reduced size (Jaeger and Lund, 1980; Majda and Harvey, 1989). Though not critical for axonal sprouting (see below), delayed implantation has been assumed to enhance cell survival and outgrowth (Bjorklund and Stenevi, 1979; Sprick, 1991; Grabowski et al., 1994) probably because endogenous neurotrophic factors can accumulate at the lesion site (Nieto-Sampedro et al., 1982). Fig. 4. Basic transplantation protocols. A) For current anatomical studies. Blocs of embryonic tissue are implanted in aspirated lesion cavities performed in the host brain 3 days earlier. B) Used by Girman (1993) for electrophysiological recordings. Grafts are covered by a perforated plastic lid allowing multiple recording sessions of the same locus. Cx, host cortex; Oc1, rat visual area 17 (Paxinos and Watson, 1986). As in newborns (Harvey and Lund, 1984; Kurotani et al., 1993), primary connections with the host brain appear 3-4 days post-transplantation (Roger and Gaillard, 2004) whereas neovascularization and blood supply require approximately another week to be completed, a delay which may seriously hamper graft cell metabolism (Rosenstein, 1995a). Nonetheless, both graft implantation and development in adults can be as successful as in neonate recipients (McLoon and Lund, 1983; Harvey and Lund, 1984; Domballe et al. 2003). Investigations are usually performed 3-4 months post-grafting. In serial histological sections, all implants look like disorganized cellular masses that are more or less clearly separated from the host tissue by a region of lower cell density or host white matter. Glial scarring at the host-graft interface, although highly variable, is usually minimal (Bjorklund and Stenevi, 1984; Sprick, 1991). At this time point, graft development is achieved. Most neurons in cortical grafts (60-80%) seem mature (expression of Hu/Elav proteins; Domballe et al., 2003) and look ‘normal’ at the ultrastructural level (Albert and Das, 1984). The remaining neurons have immature characteristics such as multiple nucleoli or binuclear somas (Aleksandrova and Polezhaev, 1984; Sprick, 1991). Fig. 5. A-B) Typical cellular aspect of tectal (from Girman, 1993) and occipital (from Domballe et al., 2003) grafts 3 months post-grafting. Nissl staining. C-D) Graft vascularization as observed in wild-type E15 mouse cortical tissue grafted in an adult mouse expressing the eGFP protein under the control of a §-actin promoter (Okabe et al., 1997). C) Low power view of the graft (which did not filled the lesion cavity). Darkfield microscopy. D) Blood flow supply to the graft relies on the formation of new vessels by the host (GFP+ labeled endothelial cells). Fluorescence microscopy. CC, corpus callosum; Cx, host cortex; SC, superior colliculus; Tr, transplant. Scale bars, A-B: 1 mm; C-D: 400um. A typical feature of fetal tectal tissue transplants in adult hosts is the presence of dorsally located, myelinated “fiber-free” areas (Fig. 6). In addition there is a proponderance of cells with small perikarya and short dendrites (McLoon and Lund, 1983; Girman, 1993), a relatively high acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, a high concentration of alpha-bungarotoxin binding sites, and a low number of neuroglial elements (Harvey and MacDonald, 1985; Tan and Harvey, 1987; Harvey et al., 1987; Majda and Harvey, 1989). Similar characteristics are found in the retinorecipient layers of the SC in normal rats. In neonate hosts, “fiber-free” layer over the “fiber-rich” core of the graft (Fig 6), are penetrated by regenerated retinal afferents (Lund and Hauschka, 1976; Lund and Harvey, 1981). Fig. 6 Typical morphological features of embryonic tectal grafts (sheets of tissue) in neonate hosts. A) Holmes neurofibrillar staining. Note the fiber-free (ff) area covering the fiber-rich core of the graft (T). B) Nissl staining. C) Widespread retinal input throughout the fiber-free lamina. Autoradiogram after 3[H]-Proline injection in the contralateral eye. Arrow points to the afferent retinal tract. Cb, cerebellum. Scale bars, 190 um. (from Lund and Harvey, 1981) Grafts of blocks of fetal cortex lack the typical layered organization when integrating into the host CNS. Neurons are 80-60% of the normal density and gathered into clusters separated by myelinated bundles (Fig 7A-C). They also contain high number of neuroglial and microglial cells (Albert and Das, 1984). Regardless of their origin, cortical grafts typically receive diffuse cholinergic and aminergic input, mostly in their lower part, near the corpus callosum (Leong et al., 1991; Schulz et al., 1993, 1995; Domballe et al., 2003). Though roughly similar at a first glance, different cortical grafts show differences in their neuronal phenotypes. Based on Golgi-Cox stained material, Aleksandrova and Girman (1995) proposed a 3-group classification. Type I: grafts contain multiple neuron morphologies resembling those in the normal cortex. The small layer 2-3 pyramids have small or medium perikarya (10-16 and 20-26 um in diameter, respectively), and apical dendrites running for considerable distance along the graft boundary with unpredictable orientations. Type II: grafts contain a single class of multipolar neuron with oval or pyriform soma, a short apical dendrite and several thick processes. Soma sizes are typically large or hypertrophied, ranging between 16 and 50 um in diameter (Fig 7D). Finally, Type III: grafts have intermediate characteristics. In addition to the neuronal phenotypes found in the first group, one-third of the neurons have large somas (30-32 um in diameter). Interestingly, whereas type I and III graft neurons respond to visual stimuli (see below), type II graft neurons do not, displaying only highly synchronized burst-like spontaneous discharges (Fig 10). It remains to be clarified whether unresponsiveness is linked to abnormal neuron morphology or lack of input(s), or both (Girman, 1994). Fig. 7. Gross morphology of cortical grafts. A) Absence of lamination. Cresyl violet staining. B) Typical cell cluster (inset in A). C) Intragraft myelin sheets (arrows). Luxol blue staining. D) Distribution of the soma sizes in the normal rat cortex, responsive type I grafts and unresponsive type II grafts. Golgi-Cox staining method. (redrawn from Aleksandrova and Girman, 1995). Cx, host cortex; Hip, hippocamus; Tr, transplant; w.m., white matter. Roman numbers denote cortical layers. Scale bars, 200 um 4. Neurons within the transplant can be driven by host eye visual stimulation What we learned from the above-mentioned and other histological studies is that fetal tissue blocks grafted in a mature brain will never develop the specific architecture of the normal tissue they replace. They lack continuity with the host tissue, intrinsic laminar organization and neuronal arrangement in columns. Structural disorganization, however, does not prevent the formation of synapses able to excite grafted neurons (Albert and Das, 1984; Lubke et al., 1994; Bragin et al., 1988, 1989; Walsh et al., 1988; Wilson et al., 1990). Girman and Golovina (1990) provided indisputable evidence that both transplanted tectal and cortical neurons can respond to visual stimuli presented to the adult host eye. Tectal graft responsiveness Girman (1993) reports good visual activity in about half of the tectal implants. Spontaneously active at rest, single-units respond to flashing light spots as well as to stationary and manually moved targets (5-16 degrees in diameter) with circular receptive fields (RFs). Best responses are obtained with small (3-5 degrees in diameter) black disks moved on a white background. Some units (29%) are direction selective. Response latencies to flashing spots (Fig 8) are in the normal range. Tactile and auditory stimuli are ineffectual. No visual response can be recorded in cortical tissue grafts placed at the tectal level. Fig. 8. Neuronal discharges in visually responsive (A) and unresponsive (B) tectal grafts in response to light flashes (s). PSTH for 30 presentations. E, excitatory phase. I, inhibitory phase. Time bin: 1 ms. (redrawn from Girman, 1993). C) Stimulating electrodes pairs (solid lines) in the occipital cortex (neonate host) are effective in driving units from the transplant (black dot). B) Graft unit response (four sweeps). Note the short latency (Å 6.7 ms) and the weak amplitude. C) Response to the same stimulus but in the host inferior colliculus. (adapted from Harvey et al., 1982) Cortical graft responsiveness Both field potential (FP) and single unit recordings have been done in type I and III cortical grafts. FPs in grafts always consist of a negative-positive component. Wave onset and peak have normal latencies (Girman and Golovina, 1990; Gaillard et al. 1998, 2000; Domballe et al., 2003). However, it is interesting to note that none of the FPs undergo polarity reversal with depth, as occus in the normal rat primary visual cortex, Montero, 1973), and peak amplitudes correlate with the density of afferents (Fig 9, 10). Fig. 9. A) Field potential mapping in a large occipital tissue graft. Low responses are from the medial yellowish area devoid of thalamic afferents (see Fig 10). Note the wave reversal with depth (400 vs. 100 um) in the adjacent host cortex (point 5), not in graft (point 6). B) Depth profile of FPs (average of 20 stimulations; F = 1Hz) elicited by a flashing light spot placed adequately in the visual field. C) Single neuron discharge induced by this flash. D) Post-stimulus time histogram (PSTH) for the same neuron (compiled for 20 stimulations; time bin: 2 ms). (B-D: redrawn from Girman and Golovina, 1990) Fig. 10. Thalamic input to the preceding graft (Fig 9A) is restricted to the most responsive area. A) Biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) injection confined mostly to the LP nucleus (doted line, lower inset). Strong projections are present in the host cortex either close to the graft (B) or more laterally, in Oc2L area (C). In contrast, very sparse thalamic fibers innervate the graft (B). The arrow points to a bouton-like terminal structure (see upper inset).cp, cerebral peduncle; Cx, host cortex; DLG, dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus; LP, lateral posterior nucleus; Po, posterior thalamic nucleus; Tr, transplant; VLG, ventral lateral geniculate nucleus; VPM, ventral posteromedian nucleus; w.m., white matter. Roman numbers denote cortical layers. Scale bars, 100 um Although recording field potentials is useful for delineating the graft outer limits and the most active zones within the graft for tracer injections, field potentials do not mean that these neurons can actually partake in any visual operation. Girman and Golovina (1990), however, showed at the single-unit level, that many graft neurons did respond to visual stimuli. Approximately 84% of the spontaneously active neurons in type I grafts have well defined RFs (5-20 degrees in dia., Fig. 11) and exhibit clear responses for either moving or stationary stimuli. Cells preferring the same stimulus seem to be in clusters. Flashing light spots typically evoke a biphasic excitatory/inhibitory response of 36-62 ms latency followed by a second excitatory discharge. Movement-sensitive neurons fire weakly, or not at all, to light spots. Most of them show clear direction selectivity and orientation specificity. A few active neurons (16.5%) can be driven by stimulation of either eye; the contralateral stimulation being dominant. Visually driven neurons are less frequently encountered in type III grafts. These neurons have larger RFs (20-30 degrees) and react only to light spots after a long delay (100-250 ms). Fig. 11. Upper row: autocorrelograms of spontaneous neuronal activity. A) In visually responsive grafts (desynchronized regular pattern). As in the intact visual cortex (Girman et al., 1999), the spike rate increases with the recording depth. B) In unresponsive grafts (periodic bursting). Time bin: 10 ms. Lower row: evidence that graft neurons have defined receptive fields. C) Flashing light spot placed at the center of the most responsive spatial locus for this neuron. D) Flashing light spot placed 20¡ away from the central position. PSTHs for 50 presentations. Recording depth: 100um. Time bin: 3ms. (redrawn from Girman and Golovina, 1990) Finally, graft neurons also fire in response to electrical stimulation (10-50 uA) of either the host ipsilateral DLG nucleus or the contralateral visual cortex. An important finding, suggestive of some form of topographic organization between the DLG and the cortical graft, is that small displacements (200 um) of the stimulating electrode from the optimal geniculate site lead to a decrease or a complete loss of response. Are responses from the graft retinotopically ordered To a degree, they are. The same studies by Girman and Golovina indicate that large (3 mm in dia.), highly responsive cortical grafts contain an ordered representation of the contralateral visual field, at least of its central part which projects normally onto area 17. First, neurons recorded simultaneously at a given electrode position have roughly the same RF location. Second, there is no change in RF position with depth during a single penetration. Third, ordered changes in the recording positions on the graft surface induce concomitant changes in the RF locations. Fourth, the orientation of the visual field projection onto the graft appears normal relative to the skull landmarks (Fig 12). A rough retinotopic order is also observed in large type III grafts. The larger the grafts, the better the visual field projection: small grafts contain only a non-ordered representation of a restricted part (20-30 degree wide) of the nasal visual field. Visual map order and neuron properties remain unchanged up to at least 10 months post-grafting. This is a logical result in view of the fact that long-term survival (2 years in situ) does not significantly affect the basic morphological features of cortical grafts (Russell et al., 1990). Fig. 12. Near-normal visuotopic projections in type I graft placed in the right primary visual area (Oc1/V1) of an adult rat. A) Recording loci at graft level (greyish inset). Dorsal view. Graft is centered approximately 8 mm caudal to bregma and 4 mm lateral to the sagital midline. B) Map of the related receptive fields in the left eye visual field. Animal is facing the screen. Graft locus 1 projects to the nasal field (N); graft locus 13 projects to the temporal field (T); graft locus 3 projects to the lower field (INF); graft locus 15 projects to the upper field. HOR., horizontal plane. V.M., vertical meridian. (redrawn from Girman and Golovina, 1990) 5. Do grafts receive extensive afferents? By this point, it seems evident that under some highly controlled and replicable experimental conditions, allogeneic fetal tissue grafts implanted at homotopic positions in the visual brain can respond to visual stimulation of the host eye. Some cells from the graft perform rather complex operation of visual driven signals – just like the SC and area 17 in the normal rat (Wiesenfeld and Kornel, 1975; Fukuda and Iwama, 1978; Burne et al., 1984; Girman et al., 1999). The graft can resume at least a partial, ordered map of the visual field, a prerequisite for recovery of function. However, topographic visual field representation on a graft is likely to involve many more regenerated host afferents than the few, randomly branching, fibers reportedly able to generate light flash responses in the PN graft paradigm (Keirstead et al., 1989; Sauve et al., 1995; Thanos et al., 1997). Direction selectivity, orientation specificity and binocular activation imply sophisticated synaptic input to graft neurons (Hubel and Wiesel, 1962). The next question then is whether homologous fetal grafts in the adult primary visual cortex receive extensive input from appropriate brain areas. Tectal graft connectivity The actual substrate of the visual responses recorded in tectal grafts is a puzzling, still unsolved problem. Receptive field properties, latency values and ordered organization together suggest the presence of direct, widely distributed host retinal input to the grafts. However, the early studies in neonate hosts showed that retinal afferents never filled the transplants and were restricted to discrete fiber-free patches. Within these patches, the density of optic terminals was nearly equivalent to that seen in the stratum griseum superficiale of normal rats. By electron microscopy, these terminals made asymmetric (excitatory) contacts onto small post-synaptic profiles, many of which were dendritic spines (Lund and Harvey, 1981). However, in striking contrast with Girman’s findings, neither visually (light flash and moving disk) nor electrically (optic nerve stimulation) evoked activity were obtained from these grafts (Harvey et al., 1982; Golden et al., 1989). Only a minor fraction of the tested units could be excited orthodromically from the ipsilateral visual cortex, the major source of graft input in these preparations (Fig 8). The failure to record retinal activity in the latter experiments, could be due to the low number of electrode tracks (<10%) that passed through the fiber-free areas (Harvey et al., 1982). No further experiments have Tectal tissue grafts implanted in juvenile (P15/P18) and adult hosts with the same technical approach also display discrete “fiber-free” patches dispersed dorsally within the fiber-rich core. However, no definitive projections from the host brain have been identified (McLoon and Lund, 1983), and retinal innervation to the patches remains a matter of debate (McLoon and Lund, 1983; Harvey, 1984; Harvey et al., 1987; Harvey and Tan, 1992). In short, there is yet very little anatomical evidence for the visual responsiveness recorded in tectal grafts. As suggested earlier by Golden et al (1989), a possible reason for this discrepancy may be the grafting technique. While grafts done by Golden et al. (1989) consist of partly dissociated cells injected onto the surface of the SC, the transplants done by Girman consist of “solid sheets of embryonic tectal tissue laid in the appropriate dorsoventral orientation over the SC surface devoid of superficial laminae”. In neonates, a similar paradigm as used by Girman leads to the formation of a single, densely innervated retinorecipient lamina covering a large part of the graft surface (Fig 6) (Lund and Harvey, 1981). Up to now, neither the connectivity nor the neurofibrillar structure of such tectal implants in adult hosts have been studied. Host afferents to cortical grafts. As the electrophysiological data suggest, there should be a strong relationship between graft responsiveness and the presence of regenerating axons (or collateral sprouts) from ipsilateral DLG neurons. Indeed, retrograde tracers injected in type I grafts label high numbers of DLG neurons (one-third of which projected initially to the lesioned cortical site), whereas similar injections in type II grafts produce no labeling at all (Girman, 1994). Whether direct DLG input alone can account for graft visual responsiveness is, however, very unlikely since some type I grafts receive only extra-geniculate, and no direct geniculate inputs. Major graft input originates in host layer 5-6. After retrograde tracer (CTB: cholera toxin, b subunit) injection into type I-III grafts,Gaillard and colleagues (Gaillard et al., 1998, 2000; Domballe et al., 2003) saw a diversity of afferents. These afferents (always in very low number; Fig 17) appear in visual-related brain structures ipsilateral to the graft. The densest labeling (55-90%) is observed in the isocortex, mostly in the occipital areas surrounding the graft (see also Galick et al., 1991; Schulz et al., 1993). Together, neurons in claustrum, periallocortical areas and various non-visual subcortical nuclei account for some 20% of the graft input. As expected, labeling in dorsal thalamus is highly variable. While practically absent in half of the subjects, it represents 10-30% of all the graft afferents in the other half. DLG input never exceeds 10% of the total graft input. Orbital (VO/VLO), motor (Fr2) and brainstem structures (such as basal nucleus of Meynert, locus coeruleus and dorsal raphe), all projecting to the normal visual cortex (Fig 2), are never labeled (Zilles and Wree, 1995). Labeling in the hemisphere opposite to the graft is always negligible. Fig. 13. Representative labeling of projection neurons (arrows) in the host cortex (Cx) after injection of a retrograde tracer (CTb; cholera toxin, b-subunit) in a visually responsive graft (Tr). Note their location in layer 6, close to the white matter (w.m.). Non-counterstained, DAB treated material. Scale bar, 200 um Fig. 14. A-C) Gallery of retrogradely labeled layer 5 pyramidal cells after CTb injection into 3 different responsive grafts. Arrowheads indicate axons. All cells are located 400-500 µm from the graft boundary. Scale bars, 13 µm. D-G) Gallery of retrogradely labeled cells in layer 6 of visual area Oc2L. These cells are found in the same subject, between 500 and 900 µm from the lateral border of the graft. Arrowheads denote the upper limit of the white matter. Scale bars, 50 um Apart from the isocortical area, most labeled neurons (91%) are confined to the infragranular layers (Fig 13, 14), noticeably layer 6 and sublayer 6b, close to the white matter. Layer 6b neurons in normal adult rodents exhibit diverse cell body morphologies (Fig 14, 15) and have widespread terminal arborizations (> 3-4 mm) in superficial cortical layers (Clancy and Cauller, 1999). They appear to be remnants of subplate neurons (Marin-Padilla, 1978; Reep and Goodwin, 1988; Valverde et al., 1989) which have pivotal functions during early cortical development, for instance in guiding thalamic fibers to their appropriate cortical target area (Chun and Shatz, 1988; Bayer and Altman, 1990; Ghosh et al., 1990) and in governing the functional maturation of connections between DLG axons and layer 4 neurons (Kanold et al., 2003), They are also involved in coordinating ocular dominance column formation (Lein et al., 1999; Grossberg and Seitz, 2003). In the adult cat, subplate (white matter) and pyramidal cells of the normal and inverted types in the infragranular cortical layers, support long-range tangential connections (Galuske and Singer, 1996). Fig. 15. Left panel: camera lucida drawings of retrogradely labeled cells in layer 6b after CTb injection into another responsive graft. Dotted lines denote the upper limit of the white matter (w.m.). Arrowheads indicate the location and the distance of the graft. A) Fusiform bipolar cell (Oc1B). B) Giant multipolar cell (Oc1B). C) Horizontally oriented pyramid-like cell (Oc2L). D) Multipolar and flat bipolar cells (Oc2L). E) Multipolar cell (Oc2L). Right panel: camera lucida drawings of representative subgriseal neurons filled with intracellular injections of biocytin. Normal adult rodent. F) Fusiform neuron. G) Triangular neuron. Arrows indicate location of the majority of corticocortical fibers. Scale bar, 100 um. (from Clancy and Cauller, 1999) This pattern is specified by eye opening When performed in neonate hosts, the same experiments always lead to greater density and diversity of graft inputs (Chang et al., 1984; Gaillard et al., 2000). At the cortical level, for instance, frontal (Fr2; the frontal eye field in primates) and orbital (LO/VLO) areas are moderately but systematically labeled; and the somas of the isocortical afferents distribute about equally between layers 2-3 and 5-6. At the thalamic level, owing to the severe (75%) atrophy of the DLG (Cunningham et al., 1979; Frappe et al., 1999), most inputs originate in the LP/LD complex and the central intralaminar nuclei, an unlabeled cell group in adult hosts. Fig. 16. Upper row: quantitative differences (mean±SD) in graft input between neonates (P0) and adult (P120) recipients. A) Raw number of isocortical cells. B) Proportions of cells per isocortical layer. Counts performed on half the brain of each subject. (redrawn from Domballe et al., 2003). Lower row: decrease in graft afferents (mean±SD) with the age of the host. A) In the isocortex. B) In the periallocortex (cingulate, perirhinal and retrosplenial areas). Stars indicate significant differences (p<.05). Counts performed on half the brain of each subject. (redrawn from Domballe et al., 2003) We conclude that the age of the recipient appears to affect both the density and the topology of the graft afferents (for similar data with parietal grafts, see: Castro et al., 1989; Schulz et al., 1993). Additional studies show, moreover, that the most dramatic changes in the afferent pattern occur in the second postnatal week, before the onset of the critical period for rat visual cortex (Fagiolini et al., 1994). Nearly all isocortical inputs to the graft in P15 hosts originate in the infragranular layers, mostly from layer 6; a proportion not significantly different from that found in older recipients (Domballe et al., 2003). This age-related laminar shaping is a two-step process which affects all layers, but the supragranular layers more specifically. It is completed in frontal and temporal areas about one week earlier than in the occipital areas surrounding the graft (Fig 17). The delay is likely related to the cortical ontogenetic program which proceeds radially (Rakic, 1974) as well as tangentially through rostrocaudal and lateromedial directions (Luskin and Shatz, 1985; Ignacio et al. 1995). Fig. 17. Proportions of labeled cells (mean ± SD) in the temporal (Te 1-3) and occipital (Oc 1-2M) areas as a function of the age of the host. Note the absence of supragranular input from temporal areas in two weeks-old recipients. (redrawn from Domballe et al., 2003) The potential of layer 6 neurons to survive injury and to drive grafts. A major outcome of all the above mentioned studies is that afferent innervation to a cortical graft in adult host originates mostly from a small population of layer 6 neurons located in the immediate graft surround. Cortical layer 6 is a target for thalamic fibers. The layer 6 neurons display all known visual response types (Wiesenfeld and Kornel, 1975; Girman et al., 1999) regardless of their morphology. Of the four layer 6 cells injected with HRP by Parnavelas et al. (1983), one multipolar cell was an “on-off” cell, two pyramidal cells were “complex” cells, and the last fusiform cell type was a “non-oriented” cell. In the absence of direct thalamic input, layer 6 neurons may thus be able to drive visual information to the graft. Why layer 2-3 neurons do not contact the graft in adults is not understood. Among many possibilities, one would be that these late generated (E17-E20) corticocortical projection neurons, which have low survival rates during development (Miller, 1995), are very sensitive to lesion-induced retrograde degeneration and/or deleterious changes in their environment (but see Szele et al., 1995). Conversely, these neurons may be able to regenerate axons, but these axons do not penetrate the graft due to negative influences from reactive astroglial elements and/or graft neurons. For instance, in vitro assays (Castellani and Bolz, 1999) have shown that endogenous levels of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) reduce axonal branching and repel layer 2-3 neurons, but have opposite effects on layer 6 neurons. For some days after implantation, the graft (which is producing NT-3) may thus be repulsive to layer 2-3 axons, but attractive to layer 6/6b neurons which express NT-3 receptors (Ringstedt et al., 1993). Regardless of how fascinating these latter observations are, multiple survival and growth promoting factors produced by the graft and the injured cortex may also allow layer 6 neuron survival and axonal elongation. For instance, NT-4 (neurotrophin-4) is as effective as NT-3 in increasing the length of the dendritic processes of layer 6 pyramidal cells of juvenile ferrets (McAllister et al., 1995). Furthermore layer 6b neurons have receptors to basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2), a critical survival substrate for subplate neurons (Cooke et al., 1999). FGF-2 is suspected to protect adult layer 6b neurons from death after lesions (Gomez-Pinilla and Cotman, 1992), but has no survival effect on one week-old layer 2-3 callosal projection neurons (Catapano et al., 2001). Deciphering why some layer 6 neurons in the adult brain have the potential for elongating their axons, and whether these neurons have excitatory phenotypes will be an interesting challenge, especially in the context of these cells consistently labeling regardless of the grafting strategy (Schulz et al., 1993; Barbe and Levitt, 1995). Anatomical support for topographic order in grafts is still lacking Mapping studies suggest that host afferents are topically organized in large tectal and cortical E15-17 embryonic tissue grafts. These results need anatomical confirmation, however. Beside occasional statements (Castro et al., 1989), this issue has only been specifically addressed in a single study using neonate recipients. The triple labeling approach by Worthington and Harvey (1990) shows that tectal tissue grafts receive non topographically organized, but nevertheless non-random, rudimentary ordered cortical inputs. To date, no such investigation has been carried out with adult hosts, likely because one can hardly imagine how the discrete afferent projections reviewed above may form a coherent visual map onto grafts (see section 2.7.3 from the previous chapter). This negative reasoning does not consider, first that map formation may require a specific, highly controlled transplantation procedure (Worthington and Harvey, 1990; Girman, 1993) including possibly the correct orientation of the graft in the lesion cavity (Andres and Van der Loos, 1985; Kawaguchi et al., 1994), second that labeled graft afferents may reflect only a negligible proportion of the actual projecting host neurons, and third that single-unit recordings with carefully engineered microelectrodes (Levick, 1972) may be more powerful than tracer injections to detect small point-to-point shifts in connectivity between restricted brain areas. Meticulous surgical preparation, ingenious recording conditions and utilization of self-made highly specific tungsten in glass electrodes of the Levick’s type, may together account for Girman’s successful recordings (see Girman et al., 1999). In our opinion, unequivocal assessment of topographic host-graft projections requires further studies combining an optimal surgical strategy, a highly sensitive fiber detection process (see below) and a careful electrophysiological approach replicating Girman’s approach. 6. Can grafts send afferents to host targets? In line with numerous results showing low numbers of afferents coming to the transplant, it has been repeatedly assumed that allogeneic embryonic tissue grafts do not send long-range projections to the adult host. Our own attempts using either biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) or the carbocyanine dye DiI (1,1′-didodecyl-3,3,3′,3′-tetramethyl-indocarbocyanine perchlorate) as anterograde tracers confirm this assumption. This failure is commonly attributed to growth inhibitory conditions present in the mature brain (Schwab, 1996; Fournier and Strittmatter, 2001). Possible technical limitations are rarely addressed (Vercelli et al., 2000; Wu et al., 2003; Senatorov et al., 1993; Nelms et al., 2002). Yet, there are some intriguing morpho-functional observations (Walsh et al., 1988; Lubke et al., 1994; Rutherford et al., 1987; Rosenstein, 1993; 1995b; Triarhou et al., 1990; Woodhams et al., 1989; Xu et al., 1991, 1992) suggesting that blocks of embryonic neurons grafted into the mature brain might not be able to transport exogenously provided tracers beyond the graft-host transition zone. In opposition to this, long axonal trajectories have been clearly detected in some experimental conditions, either after pre-loading dissociated donor cells with dyes (Stoppinni et al., 1989; Hernit-Grant and Macklis, 1996) or by targeting specific markers expressed by grafted cells (Thy-1.2 allelic system; microtubule associated protein MAP1x/1B) (Zhou et al., 1985, 1989; Fujii, 1991, 1994; Brook et al.,1993). This has been a routine procedure for xenogeneic tissue grafts (see for example: Lund et al., 1985; Li and Raisman, 1993; Davies et al., 1994; Isacson and Deacon, 1996; Armstrong et al., 2002). A plausible hypothesis is then, that all fetal graft neurons, regardless of their origin, are intrinsically capable of elongating processes when placed in a mature brain, but that detection of these processes outside the graft structure requires a non-invasive anatomical approach. This hypothesis has been verified recently in occipital cortex tissue grafts (Gaillard et al., 2004) using transgenic E15 mouse fetuses expressing a GFP protein variant under the control of a chicken beta-actin promoter (Okabe et al., 1997) as donors (Figs. 18 and 19). Fig. 18 Fig. 18: Dr Okabe’s eGFP-expressing neonate mice look “green” all over their body when illuminated with an UV source (see: Fig. 19. : A) location of the eGFP+ grafts at the cortical surface with respect to bregma (B=0) after reconstruction from serial brain sections. B) Representative implantation (B-3.5). Dark field microscopy. Note white matter bundles around and within the grafted tissue. Abbreviations are given in text. Scale bar, 500 um. (from Gaillard et al., 2004) Embryonic cortical tissue allografts have massive efferents. A major finding of the above study is that despite immediate implantation nearly all grafts into mature (P60/P90) wild-type mice appear physically well integrated in the host cortex (Fig 19). Moreover, they show massive outgrowth all along their interface with the cortical parenchyma and send extensive efferents throughout the host ipsilateral pallium, mainly to its cortical mantle (Fig 20). Fig. 20. Camera lucida drawings of graft projections into the ipsilateral cortex of the former case as seen at a low magnification power (x4). Brain sections are arranged according to their bregma level. The greyish zone in each section corresponds to the extent of the labeling readily detectable in this condition. Outside this zone, fiber detection requires a higher magnification. Except local variations in fiber density, present topography is valid for all grafts. (from Paxinos and Franklin, 1997 Rostrally, graft fibers innervate a large medial sector of the brain including frontal association (FrA), secondary motor (M2), prelimbic (PrL), anterior cingulate (Cg1-2), medial orbital (MO) and infralimbic (IL) areas. Discrete fibers terminate within the orbital areas VO/LO and the claustrum (CL). At bregma level, efferents distribute from area Cg1 medially to the somatosensory cortex laterally. Labeling extends throughout layers 2-3 and 5-6 in motor (Fr2) and sensorimotor (HL) areas, but remains in lamina 6b at the barrel field (BF) level. Fig. 21. Composite images showing the cortical distribution of graft efferents in HL (left) and V2L (right) areas of two different animals. Note the high density of fibers in layer 6. Inverted contrast from fluorescent material. Corpus callosum (CC) is downward. Scale bar, 100 um At the transplant level and beyond, labeling from the GFP donor tissue fills the host ipsilateral cortex from the retrosplenial granular area to the lateral entorhinal region. Efferents in V2L and Te1-2 areas are especially dense in layers 1-3, 5a and 6. Further caudally, labeled fibers occupy predominantly the cortical layers 5-6 as well as the PrS/PaS hippocampic regions. Fig. 22. Graft efferents in the caudal brain (4 mm beyong bregma). A) Schematic drawing (adapted from Paxinos and Franklin, 1997) showing the location of the accompanying pictures (red dots). Grey levels are representative of the fiber density. B) Efferents in occipital (V1, layer 6) and hippocampic (S and PrS) regions. Fluorescence microscopy. Note the fiber-free white matter (w.m.). C,D) Terminal field in the lateral pontine nucleus (Pn). Camera lucida drawing. Arrows point to bouton-like profiles. Abbreviations are given in text Finally, afferents with terminal-like profiles are systematically present in the dorsomedial sector (as well as along the lateral rim) of the striatum and into the basolateral and central amygdaloid nuclei (Fig 23). All these structures, including the cortical areas listed above, are normal targets of the rodent visual cortex (see Fig. 2). Fig. 23. Graft efferents in the striatum and the amygdala. Fluorescence microscopy. A) Labeling in the dorsomedial striatum, below area Fr1 (B+1.2). Scale bar, 100 µm. B,C) Labeling in the amygdala, laterodorsal nucleus (B+1.0). Scale bars, 150 and 50 µm, respectively. D,E) labeling in the striatum, lateroventral rim (B=0). Scale bars, 150 and 50 µm, respectively. Red arrows point to blood vessels as landmarks. White arrows indicate terminal-like profiles. Open triangle shows collateral branching. Am, amygdala; St, striatum; w.m., white matter Though always disrupted by surgery (Fig 19, 27), the white matter (external capsule and corpus callosum) never appears to provide an attractive substrate for graft efferents. Even at the exit point from the graft, outgrowing fibers always appear to prefer elongating through the deep gray matter (layer 6) of the cortex, the major pathway for long distance intrahemispheric corticocortical axons in rodents (Vandevelde et al., 1996). Fig. 24. Fiber outgrowth from a small (0.5 mm2) transplant centered 2 mm caudal to bregma within the lateral parietal association (LptA) area. Outgrowth occurs throughout the graft-cortex junction (V2L area). More laterally (S1 area), fibers display obvious preference for the deep gray versus white matter (w.m.). Photographic montage from unstained, DAB-treated material. Hip., hippocampus. Scale bar, 250 um Very few fibers can therefore extend to subcortical visual targets and the opposite hemisphere. Terminal-like arrangements can nevertheless be detected in the dorsal visual thalamus (Rt, LP/LD, DLG, Po), the pretectum (APT), SC and even in the lateral division of the pontine nuclei (Pn; Fig. 22); the ultimate target of the rodent visual cortex (Wiesendanger and Wiesendanger, 1982). Fig. 25. Graft efferents into the corpus callosum (CC). All pictures are taken between the cingulate bundle (cg) and the brain midline. Fluorescence microscopy from Alexa-fluor treated material. A) Callosal fibers are rare at this brain level (B-1.7). Note the fiber coursing vertically from cortical layer 6 to the pyramidal layer (Pyr) of the hippocampic (Hip) CA1 field, a non-visual target. B) Just at the rostral pole of the graft (B-2.1), callosal fibers appear much denser. A significant contingent travels into the dorsal hippocampic commissure (dhc). C) Contralaterally, very few fibers extend beyong the cingulate bundle (cg). Note the branching pattern to this structure. Or, oriens layer; IG, indusium griseum; DG, dentate gyrus. Scale bars, 100um Fig. 26. Single graft fiber elongating in the internal capsule to zona incerta, a normal subthalamic target of the occipital cortex. Terminal fields are never seen in this region. Fluorescence microscopy. Scale bar, 150 um. Upper inset, enlargement of the selected area. Lower inset, location of the section (B-1.6 mm). i.c., internal capsule; VPL, ventral posterolateral nucleus; w.m., white matter; ZI, zona incerta. (from Gaillard et al., 2004) Implications for future research Besides the unequivocal demonstration that developing and regenerating fetal allograft neurons possess a strong capacity for extending axons over considerable distance in the mature host brain parenchyma, the results deserve further comments. Firstly, allowing a delay between tissue sampling and implantation is clearly not necessary for outgrowth. Using a similar surgical protocol, extensive outgrowth can be achieved with cortical frontal and substantia nigra tissue grafts (Gaillard et al., 2004; Roger and Gaillard, 2004). For instance, eleven days after grafting, frontal graft growth-cone-like figures end up in the cerebral peduncle. Secondly, the massive fiber outgrowth taking place along the graft-host parenchyma interface argues against the current suggestion that lesion-induced glial scar formation and local overexpression of repulsive molecules (Fournier and Strittmatter, 2001) impede neurite growth in vivo. Thirdly, most outgrowing axons follow a normal route in the brain parenchyma and terminate in normal target fields indicating that cues for correct axonal guidance are readily present in the mature brain (Isacson and Deacon, 1996, 1997). However, some outgrowing axons spread into inappropriate targets. Fibers and terminal fields have been detected at considerable distance from the graft locus in the acumbens area; olfactory peduncle; tenia tecta and PBg nucleus, raising again the question of the specificity of innervation (see section 2.4 from the previous chapter). Non-targeted-directed elongation in the mature brain has already been reported for olfactory bulb neurons transplanted ectopically into the frontal cortex (Fujii, 1991). Fourth and finally, adult white matter appears to be an insurmountable obstacle for most developing axons in view that graft fibers grow clearly less through white matter tracts than through infragranular cortical gray layers. In addition, accidental removal of the white matter during surgery allows graft efferents to invade the underlying hippocampic structures (neuropil layers, dentate gyrus and subiculum). Fig. 27. Destruction of the underlying white matter (arrows) allows graft efferents to invade the hippocampus (B-3.6). Darkfield microscopy. Cx, host cortex; DG, dentate gyrus; Hip, hippocampus; Tr, transplant; Sub, subiculum; w.m., white matter Neurite growth inhibition by myelin is currently (but not exclusively; Raisman, 2004) explained by interactions between myelin-related inhibitory factors (Nogo-A protein; myelin-associated glycoprotein, MAG; and oligodendrocytes-myelin glycoprotein, OMgp) and a common neuronal Nogo receptor (Fournier et al., 2001; McGee and Strittmatter, 2003; Filbin, 2004). Whether such inhibitory interactions make for graft axon repulsion in graft situations is debatable, in part because the neuronal Nogo receptor seems barely detectable in the normal brain at least till the end of the first postnatal week (Wang et al., 2002). The implication is that graft axons would be able to navigate for some two weeks in white matter tracts before being stopped by inhibitory ligands. This is clearly not what we saw. 7. Restoration of visual behavior Only a few behavioral studies have investigated whether fetal tectal or occipital grafts can mediate recovery of impaired visual function in adult rats. Results are inconsistent. Stein et al. (1985) transplanted frontal and occipital E18-19 tissue blocks into bilateral aspirated occipital cortices and then trained subjects (albino rats) on both a brightness (neutral-grey levels) and a pattern (oblique stripes) discrimination task. Rats with frontal tissue grafts can learn the brightness task more rapidly and more accurately than animals with lesions alone. Occipital tissue grafts are inefficient. None of the grafted subjects can solve the pattern discrimination problem. In no case can graft efferents be clearly identified following HRP tracing methods. In a later work, Stein and Mufson (1987) obtained equally good results in both types of transplants in solving both tasks after pretreatment of the recipients (pigmented rats) with cyclosporin A. How these experimental modifications might affect the performance of rats having occipital tissue grafts is not discussed in this study. The puzzling effect of the frontal grafts is attributed to the release of specific (but unknown) recovery-promoting factors able to spare some residual visual circuits in the host brain. 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Effect of timing of transplantation in relation to deafferentation. Neuroscience. 1989;32:349–362. [PubMed] Zhou W, Raisman G, Zhou C. Transplanted embryonic entorhinal neurons make functional synapses in adult host hippocampus. Brain Res. 1998;788:202–206.[PubMed] Zihl J. Localised CNS lesions and their effect on visual function. 2000. Zilles K, Wree A. Cortex: areal and laminar structure. In: Paxinos G, editor. The rat nervous system. 2nd ed., Academic Press, Sydney; 1995. p. 649-685. The authorsDr Frederic Gaillard was born in Tours, France. He attended the University of Poitiers where he received his B.Sc. (1969) and his M.Sc. (1971) in physiology. He then obtained a Ph.D. (1975) and a Doctorat-es-Sciences (1984) in neurophysiology. Until recently, most of his studies focused on aspects of binocular information processing in the amphibian visual system, mainly on the functional properties of the crossed isthmo-tectal pathway. He is now examining host-graft relationships in the adult mammalian visual system. Since 1977, Dr Gaillard has been a senior investigator (Charge de recherches) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at the Institut de Physiologie et Biologie Cellulaires (UMR 6187). Poitiers, France. The authorsDr. Yves Sauve was born in Montreal, Canada. He attended the University of Montreal where he received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1983 and his M.Sc. in Neuroscience in 1988 with Dr. Thomas Reader, focusing on the neurochemistry of catecholamines and their receptors in the CNS. He then obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology under Dr Michael Rasminsky at McGill University in 1995 where his research focused on the electrophysiological evaluation of reformed synapses between regenerating RGC axons and neurons in the superior colliculus, using the preparation developed in Dr Albert Aguayo’s group. Dr. Sauve subsequently undertook postdoctoral studies with Dr. Raymond Lund at the Institute of Ophthalmology (University College London) where he developed electrophysiological approaches to evaluate visual responsiveness in rodent models of retinal degeneration. In 2001, he became assistant professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Moran Eye Center (University of Utah). Yves has since moved to Canada and is now Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton. He is currently evaluating rod and cone function following retinal degeneration, transplant therapies, and regeneration in the adult mammalian visual pathways. Comment Feed One Response Continuing the Discussion
Christian Pilgrim 67. Gabriel There are four references to "Gabriel" in the Bible. Note that he is NOT an archangel, there is only one of those, i.e. "Michael": Daniel 8:16 - "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." Luke 1:26 - "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth" In Daniel 8:16 and 9:21 he is called a man, but in Luke 1:19 and 1:26 he is called an angel. In the Bible, angels are sometimes referred to as men. In Luke 1:19 he is described as one "that stand in the presence of God." Could he be one of the seven angels that do this? c.f. Revelation 8:1 "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets."
The Power Of Devotion Once upon a time, the Bodhisattva was born as a Kinnara or celestial musician. During summers, he would come down to the plains on earth and live with his beloved Chanda on the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains. One day, while they were frolicking in the water of a stream, King Brahmadatta was passing by. His eyes fell on the lovely Chanda singing and dancing gaily in the water and he fell in love with her. Guessing that the Kinnara was her husband, King Brahmadatta shot and killed him with his arrow. He thought that with the Kinnara dead, Chanda would agree to marry him. But soon he was proved wrong. Chanda sat wailing aloud beside her dead husband. And when King Brahmadda came up and offered his love to her, Chanda flared up at his words. “How could you think that I would forgive the man who has killed by husband?” she shouted. Her heartrending cries shook Sakka’s throne in heaven. Pleased with Chanda’s devotion, Sakka came down and restored the Bodhisattva back to life. The author of this story is unknown and greatly appreciated! What Do You Think About This? Write A Comment! Pin It
How is Vaginal Agenesis Treated? Many ask at what point a girl should think about having a vagina created. But when she starts this process is up to her. Most girls start treatment in their teens, but some may want to wait until they are ready to become sexually active. Some young women can have a vagina made without having surgery. A very small tube, called a dilator, is pressed against the skin where the vagina should be for about 15 to 20 minutes a day. This is easier after a bath because the skin is soft and stretches well. This works best for girls who have a dimple in the area. Most young women will need surgery, and how this is done can vary. The vagina can be made with a graft of skin or buccal mucosa (inner lining of the cheek), or with part of the large bowel. Skin Graft Method The surgeon takes a thin piece of skin from the patient’s buttocks and places it over a mold to make a vagina. Artificial skin has also recently been recommended. The surgeon then makes a small cut where a vagina would normally be, between the rectum and the urethra, and places the mold so the graft will attach to make the inside of a vagina. After surgery, you are likely on bed rest for a week. A catheter is placed into the bladder so urine can drain. The mold is removed after 7 days. Bowel Vaginoplasty This method is more complex. The night before surgery, you must empty your bowels to remove stool and bacteria. During surgery, part of the lower colon is removed through a cut in the belly. One end of the bowel is then closed while the other stays open. The colon is sewn onto the vaginal remnant, acting as a vaginal opening. After the surgery, a mold is placed in the new vagina for 3 days. A catheter is placed in the bladder through the urethra so that urine can drain.
of, relating to, or affecting both sides. ambilateral am·bi·lat·er·al (ām’bĭ-lāt’ər-əl) Relating to both sides. Read Also: • Ambiophony noun the reproduction of sound to create an illusion to a listener of being in a spacious room, such as a concert hall • Ambilevous ambilevous ambilevous am·bi·le·vous (ām’bĭ-lē’vəs) adj. Having the ability to perform manual skill tasks with both hands. • Ambipolar working in two directions simultaneously. Physics, Chemistry. pertaining to both positive and negative ions; applied to both positive and negative ions at the same rate. adjective (electronics) (of plasmas and semiconductors) involving both positive and negative charge carriers • Ambisextrous Informal. sexually attracted to both sexes; bisexual. used by or suitable for either sex; unisex: ambisextrous hair styles. held in common by both sexes, especially sexual characteristics. adjective Sexually attracted to both sexes; bisexual •Used by or suitable for either sex. Jocular; a blend of ambidextrous and sex: introduced her ambisextrous friend (1926+)
返回列表回覆發帖 Pope upstaged by spider Posted: Sep 29, 2009 11:52 AM Updated: Sep 29, 2009 12:06 PM Some people in the audience held their breath when a large spiderappeared on Pope Benedict's robe while he was giving a speech in theCzech Republic. The pope spoke before hundreds of people after a concert in a medieval castle in Prague. While Pope Benedict was speaking the spider appeared on the pope's left side and began crawling up his white robe. The pope seemed not to notice. The spider continued on its way and walked along the pope's shoulder to his right side...then people began to flinch when the spider walked to the pope's neck. It disappeared for a bit, but then could be seen walking on the right side of the pope's face..to his ear. That's when the pope swatted it, but it didn't go away. It just went out of sight. Then it reappeared on the pope's left shoulder and scampered down his robe in the direction from where it came. As the pope left the hall in the castle the spider could be seen hanging from its web. de omnibus dubitandum 高級模式 \| 發新話題 B Color Image Link Quote Code Smilies

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