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The Last Phase: Crosscurrents
Icon of the Nativity, Constantinople, first quarter of 15th century, tempera and gold on wood, Athens, Benaki Museum, Gift of Petros Andreadis in memory of Rena Andreadis
In 1204 crusaders from Western Europe abandoned their quest to recapture the Holy Land and sacked Constantinople. They installed a Frankish knight, Count Baldwin of Flanders, on the imperial throne and partitioned the empire among themselves. The Byzantine aristocracy fled and established successor states centered on Nicaea in Asia Minor, Trebizond on the Black Sea, and Epirus in northwestern Greece. The period known as the Latin Conquest ended in 1261 when the army of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine state. The empire never fully recovered, but Byzantium experienced a final artistic flowering during the reign of the Palaiologan dynasty, which lasted until succumbing to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II in 1453.
Latin- and Greek-speaking populations intermingled during the Latin Conquest and afterward in territories that the Palaiologans never regained. One result was the creation of hybrid works of art combining Gothic and Byzantine styles and imagery. The island of Crete, a Venetian possession from 1211 to 1669, attracted artists from Constantinople and became a major artistic center serving both Orthodox and Catholic clients. Merchants there exported hundreds, probably thousands, of icons to Italy and Northern Europe, influencing religious painting in Western Europe. Renaissance patrons such as the Medici in Florence also collected Byzantine mosaics and manuscripts, which they prized for their preciousness, rarity, and as relics of a lost Christian empire.
Banner photo by Velissarios Voutsas of the Church of the Pantanassa, c. 1428, Mistra, Greece |
The second New Deal essay
The second stage of the New Deal basically aimed at the recovery of the national economy after the Great Depression and its negative effects. In actuality, the measures undertaken during the first stage of the New Deal did not bring the recovery to the national economy but only stabilize it. At this point, it should be said that the stabilization was an essential condition of the recovery and the second stage of the New Deal could not be implemented until the first stage was unaccomplished. In fact, the stabilization of the national economy, including the stabilization of inflation and prices, allowed companies to forecasts the development of their business, while the decrease of unemployment contributed to the growth of the buying power of Americans that also produced a stimulant effect on the development of business. In addition, the assistance of the state facilitated the economic recovery of the country.
However, the complete recovery of the USA after the Great Depression was possible only after the accomplishment of the second stage of the New Deal. In this respect, it should be said that the second Ne Deal lasted for a considerably longer period of time form 1935 to 1941 and was actually interrupted by World War II, when the country had to mobilize and the government could not develop social programs anymore.
On analyzing the implementation of the second New Deal, it should be said the government continued the relief and recovery measures launched in terms of the first New Deal. However, in addition to the measures used during the first stage of the New Deal, the government provided for social and economic legislation to benefit the mass of working people. What is meant here is the fact that the second stage of the New Deal was oriented only on the stabilization of the national economy but it mainly aimed at the assistance to people in need, who could not afford living without the external support from the part of the state. at this point it is worth mentioning the fact that a large number of Americans lived in poverty at the epoch and could not afford elementary, basic health care services, education, etc. Hence they could not exercise their basic human rights and the state, for the first time in history of the USA, took social responsibility of these people.
During the second stage of the New Deal, the social security system was established in 1935 (Heintz and Folbre, 2000, p.144). This was an extremely important step in the regard to the increasing role of the state in social and economic affairs of the country because the introduction of the social security system implied that the state either provided the basic social support to people who cannot afford basic services and products they need for survival or it obliges companies to ensure the social protection of employees. In such a way, ordinary Americans could feel secure in face of a crisis because the state ensured their protection. This means that the state took social responsibility, which it had never had before. In the context of the socioeconomic situation at the epoch, it was a logical decision because the Great Depression led many American families to an extremely desperate position when they could not afford living.
At the same time, the state kept working on the creation of specialized state agencies and institutions which could have helped to recover the US economy and citizens after the crisis. For instance, in 1935, the National Youth Administration and the Work Projects Administration were set up (Heilbroner and Milberg, 1998, p.218). In such a way, the state ensured that the young people will have larger opportunities to get employed. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that many young employees were deprived of an opportunity of being employed because of the lack of experience, while the creation of the two administrations mentioned above could solve this problem or, at any rate, prepare and assist young adults to find a job and earn for living as well as to protect their rights in case of their violation.
Furthermore, in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was implemented. This act was an important step toward the elimination of discrimination in the process of recruitment and employment. Obviously, it was crucial at the epoch of crisis to protect people from the violation of their rights and provide them with equal opportunities to get employed along with other people. In such a way, the state established rules of the game in the labor market in order to avoid unfair competition or exclusion of some categories of Americans from the labor market in the time of a profound socioeconomic crisis. At the same time, the state decreased the pressure on the state budget since the fair standards of employment decreased the expanses of the state on social programs for the most deprived categories of the US population which needed the most substantial financial support from the part of the state.
In addition, the Revenue Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 provided measures to democratize the federal tax structure. In fact, the state attempted to close the gap between the level of income of the rich and the poor and decrease the fiscal pressure on the middle class, which constituted the majority of the US population. In such a way, the tax structure became more effective in regard to a more equal distribution of income and national wealth in the USA. At the same time, it should be said that some of the New Deal measures were invalidated by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, they proved to be effective and helped to overcome the economic crisis and negative effects of the Great Depression.
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Motherhood + Parenting Tips
How To Notice Trauma and Seek Therapy for Children
During the holiday season, children who have experienced trauma tend to act differently during a time of change in their schedules. Many children rely on routines to hold it together throughout the day. Adults don’t always realize that their traumatic event, such as divorce or a breakup, can really affect their own children. As they are able to cope with a situation, it leaves children not being able to. This article will help you to understand why it’s important for children of trauma to seek therapy.
What is trauma?
Traumatic experiences include but are not limited to divorce, alcoholism, drugs, abuse, being taken away from parents, living with other families, losing your home, and losing a relative. Many children of trauma act out completely different. There are a lot of signs that you can be looking for when dealing with children who have experienced trauma. The Child Mind Institute has a great article on the signs of trauma in children.
[blockquote align=”none” author=”National Child Traumatic Stress Network”]
A traumatic event is a frightening, dangerous, or violent event that poses a threat to a child’s life or bodily integrity. Witnessing a traumatic event that threatens life or physical security of a loved one can also be traumatic. This is particularly important for young children as their sense of safety depends on the perceived safety of their attachment figures.
Acting out at school, being overly emotional, wearing an excessive amount of clothing, running away, problems with sleeping and eating, and anger are all signs of trauma. For parents experiencing a similar trauma to their children, it is hard to notice the signs. That article is a great beginning reference of how to notice trauma in your child.
Seek therapy immediately
Once you have identified that your child is experiencing trauma or have witnessed a traumatic event, therapy is the best option. Unlike adults, children have no idea how to handle their emotions about situations. Even if they look like they are handling the situation appropriately, still seek therapy. Children have no idea how to handle emotions, especially sadness. They need to talk about it and understand it. If parents are going through the same trauma, a breakup or divorce, they are most likely feeling similar emotions. This makes it hard to help a child deal with the situation because there might be bias and anger involved. BetterHelp provides options for therapy that can work with your schedule.
But they’re fine!
A child’s main goal is to please you. So if they see you upset, then they are going to do their best to make you happy. This can include putting on a happy face for you, but then when going to school is where their real emotions are coming out. The best thing that you can do for a child who has experienced trauma is to get them some extra help. Being able to help them express their feelings and get out their anger or sadness is extremely important for them in their upcoming years. Teaching to the fact that having emotions is okay and that there are outlets to express them. Don’t just assume that they are fine because they aren’t crying every day.
Final Thoughts
Knowing that children are not going to handle situations the same way is the first step to helping them. Finding therapy is not only important for them but also for you. When life changes occur, it is important to talk them through and try to deal with them instead of pushing them aside. Just because you are able to cope through something does not mean everyone else can. Love them with open arms and listen to what they need.
[blockquote align=”none” author=””]This is a sponsored post. Please visit the disclaimer page for more information. [/blockquote]
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Location:Home >> Dunhuang - Silk Road >>Content
Dunhuang Artisans and Patrons
Author:by Lou Jie, Liang Xushu, and Huang Yuanwei Published:2014.3.24 Views:
Construction of a Buddhist cave shrine at Dunhuang involved a series of steps: preparing the cliff face, excavating the cave, making paintings and sculpture, and building the decorative eaves and temple halls. Specialized artisans were needed for each step in the building of such caves.
Sources of Dunhuang's painters and artisans
Textual research and analysis of art styles of different periods show that the painters and artisans at the Dunhuang caves came from many different places. They were mainly composed of the following types:
1.Painters coming from the Western Regions (Central Asia west of Yumen) along with the transmission of Buddhism.
2.Artisans coming with ousted officials or powerful families, part of the migration from the China’s Central Plains to the frontiers.
3.Artisans coming with officials appointed by Chinese emperors.
4.Painters coming from the Central Plains.
5.Ethnic minority painters from bordering areas like Tibet or Mongolia, bringing with them new art styles and techniques during the Tibetan Occupation, the Western Xia dynasty, and the Yuan dynasty.
Fig. 1. Origins of the Dunhuang Artisans.
Division of labor among the artisans at Mogao
Patrons and donors hired specialized, highly accomplished artisans to construct the Mogao Grottoes. The artisans were divided into lianggong (excellent workmen), who hollowed out the caves from the cliff face, and qiaojiang (skilled artisans), who created the paintings and sculptures.
Therefore, construction of caves involved detailed division of labor from the very beginning. They include the following:
1.Chiselers who carved the cave into the cliff.
2.Stonecutters who handled stone materials and stone tools and also excavated caves.
3.Bricklayers who built wooden or earthen structures.
4.Carpenters who built structures and also made and repaired wooden tools.
5.Sculptors who modeled and colored the clay figures.
6.Painters who made the paintings.
Within these groups, artisans were ranked according to their technical ability as follows:
1.The duliao (dushi, dujiang), which refers to the highly skilled artisans who could develop and oversee the plan for a project as well as execute the technical work.
2.The boshi, which refers to senior artisans who had mastered technologies and could undertake difficult technical work; they could also independently implement a technical undertaking in the field. There were boshi in all kinds of trades.
3.The shi (master), who were mainly highly-ranked painters and sculptors. Technically, they should at least be boshi. Any boshi among the painters and sculptors who could teach disciples could be addressed as shi or master.
4.The jiang, which refers to those able to undertake general technical work. They accounted for the majority of the artisans.
5.The sheng, which refers to the level at which painters could paint under the guidance of masters or independently.
In the late Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, and perhaps some earlier periods, imperial and local “Painting Studios” and similar civil guilds were founded in which a group of highly skilled Buddhist art experts made a living by creating Buddhist paintings on silk or paper and in caves. Most painters from local painting studios or guilds were hired to paint the caves at Dunhuang.
Patrons of the Dunhuang caves
Construction of caves required a lot of manpower and financial resources. The people usually associated with commissioning cave construction at Dunhuang are as follows:
1.Powerful or noble families—they were the only group who could sponsor an entire cave or build a large cave.
2.Frontier generals and soldiers.
3.Temple monks and nuns as well as lay persons.
4.Commoners—devout believers, community members, merchants, artisans, and the like—who due to their lower social position and financial limitations would usually come together to build a cave.
5.Elite members of ethnic minorities, such as the king of Khotan and Uighur princesses. |
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Article Id: WHEBN0000232674
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Title: Turntablism
Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Language: English
Subject: Scratching, Pinoy hip hop, Hip-hop dance, Experimental hip hop, Hip hop
Collection: Djing, Experimental Music, Musical Techniques, Turntables
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using turntables and a DJ mixer. Turntablists generally prefer direct-drive turntables over belt-driven or other types. The word turntablist was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu[1] to describe the difference between a DJ who simply plays records and one who performs by physically manipulating the records, stylus, and mixer to produce sounds. The new term coincided with the resurgence of hip-hop DJing in the 1990s.
• History 1
• Precursors 1.1
• Hip hop 1.2
• Turntablism 1.3
• "Chopped and screwed" 1.4
• Visual turntablism 2
• Turntablist contests 3
• See also 4
• References 5
• Further reading 6
• External links 7
The use of the turntable as a musical instrument has its roots dating back to the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s when musique concrète and other experimental composers (such as John Cage, Halim El-Dabh, and Pierre Schaeffer) used them to sample and create music that was entirely produced by the turntable. Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) is composed for two variable speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano and cymbal. Edgard Varèse experimented with turntables even earlier in 1930, though he never formally produced any works using them.
Though this school of thought and practice is not directly linked to the current definition of turntablism, it has had an influence on modern experimental sound artists such as Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Philip Jeck, and Janek Schaefer.
Examples of turntable effects can also be found on popular records produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1968 self-titled debut album features a backspin effect in the song "Walk on the Water." However, turntablism as it is known today did not surface until the introduction of hip hop in the late 1970s.
Hip hop
To understand the significance of this achievement, it is important to first define the "break." Briefly, the "break" of a song is a musical fragment only seconds in length, which typically takes the form of an "interlude" in which all or most of the music stops except for the percussion. Kool Herc introduced the break-beat technique as a way of extending the break indefinitely. This is done by buying two of the same record and switching from one to the other on the DJ mixer: e.g., as record A plays, the DJ quickly backtracks to the same break on record B, which will again take the place of A at a specific moment where the audience will not notice that the DJ has switched records. Using that idea, Grandmaster Flash elaborated of Kool Herc's invention of break-beat DJing and came up with the quick-mix theory, in which Flash sectioned off a part of the record like a clock.[4] He described it as being " cutting, the backspin, and the double-back." [5]
While Flash and Bambaataa were using the turntable to explore repetition, alter rhythm and create the instrumental stabs and punch phrasing that would come to characterize the sound of hip hop, Grandmaster DST was busy cutting "real" musicians on their own turf. His scratching on Herbie Hancock's 1983 single, "Rockit," makes it perhaps the most influential DJ track of them all – even more than (Grandmaster Flash's) "Wheels of Steel," it established the DJ as the star of the record, even if he wasn't the frontman. Compared to "Rockit," West Street Mob's "Break Dancin' – Electric Boogie" (1983) was punk negation. As great as "Break Dancin'" was, though, it highlighted the limited tonal range of scratching, which was in danger of becoming a short-lived fad like human beat-boxing until the emergence of Code Money's DJ Brethren from Philadelphia in the mid-'80s.
Hip hop became very much at the service of the rapper and Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff were accorded maybe one track on an album – for example, DJ Jazzy Jeff's "A Touch of Jazz" (1987) and "Jazzy's in the House" (1988) and Cash Money's "The Music Maker" (1988). Other crucial DJ tracks from this period include Tuff Crew's DJ Too Tuff's "Behold the Detonator" "Soul Food" (both 1989)," and Gang Starr's "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" (1990).
The appearance of turntablists and the birth of turntablism was prompted by one major factor – the disappearance of the DJ in hip-hop groups, on records and in live shows at the turn of the 1990s. This disappearance has been widely documented in books and documentaries (among them Black Noise and Scratch: The Movie), and was linked to the increased use of DAT tapes and other studio techniques that would ultimately push the DJ further away from the original hip-hop equation of the MC as the vocalist and the DJ as the music provider alongside the producer.
Beat juggling was invented by Steve Dee, a member of the X-Men (later renamed X-Ecutioners) crew. Beat juggling essentially involves the manipulation of two identical or different drum patterns on two different turntables via the mixer to create a new pattern. A simple example would be to use two copies of the same drum pattern to evolve the pattern by doubling the snares, syncopating the drum kick, adding rhythm and variation to the existing pattern. From this concept, which Steve Dee showcased in the early 1990s at DJ battles, Beat Juggling evolved throughout the decade to the point where by the end of it, it had become an intricate technique to create entirely new "beats" and rhythms out of existing, pre-recorded ones. These were now not just limited to using drum patterns, but could also consist of other sounds – the ultimate aim being to create a new rhythm out of the pre-recorded existing ones. While beat juggling is not as popular as scratching due to the more demanding rhythmical knowledge it requires, it has proved popular within DJ battles and in certain compositional situations.
This evolution took many shapes and forms: some continued to concentrate on the foundations of the art form and its original links to hip hop culture, some became producers utilising the skills they'd learnt as turntablists and incorporating those into their productions, some concentrated more on the DJing aspect of the art form by combining turntablist skills with the trademark skills of club DJs, while others explored alternative routes in utilising the turntable as an instrument or production tool solely for the purpose of making music – either by using solely the turntable or by incorporating it into the production process alongside tools such as drum machines, samplers, computer software, and so on. Digital turntablism techniques later was coined into a term called controllerism, which inspired a movement of new digital DJs such as DJ Buddy Holly and Moldover. DJ Buddy and Moldover went on to create a song called "Controllerism", a song that pays homage to the sound of digitally emulated turntablism.
Within the realm of hip hop, notable modern turntablists are the cinematic DJ Shadow, who influenced Diplo and RJD2, among others, and the experimental DJ Spooky, whose Optometry albums showed that the turntablist can perfectly fit within a jazz setting. Mix Master Mike was a founding member of the influential turntablist group Invisibl Skratch Piklz and later served as the DJ for the Beastie Boys. Cut Chemist, DJ Nu-Mark, Kid Koala are also known as virtuosi of the turntables.
"Chopped and screwed"
DJ Screw of Texas, innovated the art of chopping and screwing coining the phrase "chopped n screwed," taking original contemporary hit records and replaying them in the "chopped n screwed" art form. This gained a very large following finally paving the way for small, independent rap labels to turn a decent profit. However, it is thought by many that DJ Michael Price started slowing down vinyl recordings before the era of DJ Screw.
Visual turntablism
Visual turntablism is a more recent phenomenon in which "visual turntablists," or "VJs," incorporate pictures, video, and computer generated effects into their live performances utilizing a separate video mixer in combination with their turntablist equipment. It can contain visuals without the audio being necessarily directly associated or synchronized. Since video mixing became incorporated into DJ hardware from Pioneer, and dj software such as Scratch Live, visual turtablism have moved from being a DJ with a "VJ," to being solely the DJ mixing music videos much the same way as music was mixed before. In 2005 the International Turntablist Federation World final introduced the 'Experimental' category, Australian DJ/VJ 'DJ J-red' took first place, becoming the first Australian to win a World DJ competition championship title as well as becoming a pioneer of the Visual Turntablist movement.
Turntablist contests
See also
1. ^ Newman, Mark "Markski" (January 3, 2003). .History of Turntablism
2. ^
3. ^ a b Hansen, Kjetil Falkenberg (2000). Turntable Music, . Norway: NTNU and Sweden: KTH, p. 4
4. ^ [Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Picador, 2005, p 113.]
5. ^ [Chang 2005, p. 113]
6. ^
7. ^ DJ Screw
8. ^ DMC staff. DMC World Champions. Retrieved 2007-10-17
• Alberts, Randy. "Scratch and the Hip-Hop Book of Grand Mixer DXT." DigiZine 1/7 (October 2002).
• Shapiro, Peter. Rough Guide to Hip-Hop. Rough Guides, 2001, p. 96.
• White, Miles. "The Phonograph Turntable and Performance Practice in Hip Hop Music." Ethnomusicology OnLine 2 (1996) Retrieved February 4, 2013]
Further reading
• Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun. Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8025-0
• Katz, Mark. "The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the DJ Battle." Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, pp. 124–45. ISBN 978-0-520-26105-1
• Katz, Mark. Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-533111-0.
• Pray, Doug (Dir.). Scratch. 2001. A documentary about the History and Culture of Turntablism.
External links
• The history of turntablism All about the history of the turntable and scratching.
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Moai Main Event Loop
The previous Moai example I posted before only setup a scene, but it didn’t have a main game loop. The main loop can be important if you want to try to do something at a regular interval, like polling for input or advancing some game logic. Here’s a basic example you can add to the bottom:
gameOver = false
local mainLoop = ()
mainLoop:run (
function ()
while not gameOver do
-- Do processing here
coroutine.yield ()
print("Game Over!")
The loop here uses the Lua concept of a coroutine, which is something used to run multiple tasks at once. It doesn’t actually use real threads, so you don’t need to worry about all those multithreading concerns you usually have to deal with in other languages. On the other hand, since it is all actually happening in one thread, you’re not going to benefit from multiple processors either. To use a coroutine, you define a function which has “coroutine.yield()” called in it. When the function is run by a coroutine, it will go until it hits the “yield()” call, and then return. The next time the coroutine calls the function, it will pick up where it left off, and then continue until it hits another “yield()” call. By having a bunch of coroutines lined up, and then running them one after the other, you have something that is similar to running a bunch of threads at the same time.
In this example, the first I do is declare the global variable “gameOver”, which is a bool we will use to signal that the game is over and the program should terminate. Next we create an instance of MOAICoroutine, and pass a new function into it’s run() function. This is what Moai will use to run every simulation step. All we have to make sure we do is call “couroutine.yield()” at the end of every step, and then call “os.exit()” once we are all done. In the while loop, before you “yield()” call, you should do all your game logic.
An alternative to this could be to use callbacks to respond to certain user events like mouse clicks or key presses. However, as your program becomes more complicated and has different game states (start menu, gameplay, pause menu), I think it becomes a little harder to track of who should be responding to these callbacks. The game loop is also closer to the setup I’ve seen in some other frameworks, so it should be a little easier to port later if you go that way.
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The curious origin of the Empanada
The curious origin of the Empanada
March 19, 2020 11:50 am Published by Nonna Maresca
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Categorised in:
Hasn’t it happened to you that just after you take the first bite out of an Empanada you feel like you want to thank the maker of this small and delicious miracle of cooking? The combination of the dough and the filling, whether it is an opulent and seasoned preparation of meats or vegetables, can easily be enjoyed to the end and it almost always leaves space and appetite for the next empanada. This is reason enough to celebrate this dish, which with certain variations can be found in different cultures, but then, who can be attributed to the creation of this wonder?
Even though there are several theories, the consensus is that the empanada was a creation of the ancient nomad people of the Middle East, who needed ways to keep food from going bad during their desert travels. We must remember that we also owe them the conservation of protein with oils, so in the search of alternatives, they might have thought the following: why don’t we protect our stews from weather variations and sand by keeping them in a recipient?
But instead of using their rustic tools, they thought of using a cover that would not alter the flavor and kept the isolation, so they thought of using the dough they used on their pieces of bread but baked for a short time. This way, when they wanted to eat their protein ration, they just heated the bread, opened it and took out their stews. This meant that: They didn’t eat the dough! Of course, it was only a matter of time before they started eating the dough with the filling, so from then on, we can say that the empanada was born.
This idea was so successful that it doesn’t matter if it is with traditional wheat dough, puff pastry, corn or rice dough, just to name a few of the most well-known ingredients. Each culture has adopted the idea of the empanada, and surely right in this very moment millions of people are enjoying one.
More about empanadas…
Indian style yogurt sauce for your empanadas
Torrontes and argentinian empanadas
Empanadas are a completely versatile food
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Nuclear Power for Australia
Other webpages on this site with info about nuclear power
Articles on other sites
The conservative Howard government made nuclear power illegal in Australia in the late 1990s (EPBC and ARPANS Acts) and those prohibitions remain as of mid-2018.
No power reactors have ever been built in Australia. The strongest push was for a power reactor at Jervis Bay in the late 1960s to early 1970s. That push was underpinned by a hidden weapons agenda as then Prime Minister John Gorton later acknowledged.
As of mid-2018, nuclear power is off the mainstream political agenda in Australia. There is a push to build nuclear power plants (and repeal the legal prohibitions) driven by the far-right (e.g. Senator Cory Bernadi, the Minerals Council of Australia) and a few nuclear lobbyists (such as Ben Heard – whose fake environment group accepts secret corporate donations).
In 2019, some dopey politicians are claiming that nuclear power is cheap. Here is a link to a June 2019 FoE briefing paper on nuclear power’s global economic crisis, including a letter sent to all federal MPs and Senators.
Some reasons to say ‘no’ to nuclear power in Australia
We don’t need nuclear power. Several renewable energy sources – such as bioenergy, geothermal hot rocks, solar thermal electricity with storage, and sometimes hydroelecticity – can provide reliable baseload electricity.
More information:
Nuclear power is the one and only energy source with a direct and repeatedly-demonstrated connection to the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. For example, the first and only serious push for nuclear power in Australia was driven by a weapons agenda as then PM John Gorton later acknowledged.
More information:
More information:
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation notes that international cancer incidence and mortality data demonstrate statistically-significant links between radiation and all solid tumours as a group, as well as for cancers of the stomach, colon, liver, lung, breast, ovary, bladder, thyroid, and for non-melanoma skin cancers and most types of leukaemia.
More information:
The 2006 government-commissioned Switkowski report envisaged the construction of 25 power reactors, which would produce up to 45,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste. There is not a single permanent repository for spent fuel or high-level nuclear waste anywhere in the world.
More information:
Democratic rights have often been trampled in the pursuit of nuclear projects. The Howard government sought legal advice on its powers to override state laws banning nuclear power plants. The current (2012) Labor government is working to impose a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the NT despite the opposition of many Traditional Owners, an unresolved Federal Court challenge, and NT legislation banning the imposition of nuclear dumps. The government also plans to give itself the power to override any and all state/territorry laws, and affected local councils and communities have no say.
Too cheap to meter, or too expensive to matter? The nuclear power industry survives only because of huge taxpayer subsidies.
More information: EnergyScience Briefing Paper #1:
A nuclear power plant would reduce local property values. The government may use compulsory land acquisition powers to seize land for reactors – just as it has previously seized land for a nuclear waste dump. Insurance companies do not insure against the risk of nuclear accidents.
Nuclear power is the most water-intensive of all the energy sources. Reactors typically consume 35-65 million litres of water per day.
More information:
It would take 15 years or more to develop nuclear power in Australia. Clean energy solutions can be deployed immediately.
Nuclear power emits three times more greenhouse gases than wind power according to the 2006 Switkowski report. Nuclear power is also far more greenhouse intensive than energy efficiency measures.
More information:
Joint NGO statement
Joint Australian NGO Statement of Opposition to Nuclear Power (Dec 2010)
Even Ziggy Switkowski has given up on nuclear power!!
‘Australia has ‘missed the boat’ on nuclear power’, Cole Latimer, 11 Jan 2018, The Age,
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg supported the Mineral Council’s stance.
This reliance on nuclear energy has played a role in helping the nation slash its CO2 emissions, with OECD data outlining France averaging 4.32 tonnes per capita compared to Australia’s average of 15.8 tonnes per capita.
The nuclear renaissance is stone cold dead
Well, actually, as of 2018 there is a micro-renaissance resulting from the large number of nuclear power reactor construction starts in the three years before the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Beyond that, decline is near-certain. For more info see:
Nuclear power in crisis: The era of nuclear decommissioning
1 Feb 2018,
Where would reactors be located in Australia?
Andrew Macintosh (The Australia Institute), 2007, “Siting Nuclear Power Plants in Australia Where would they go?”, Web Paper No. 40,
Do you live near one of the areas most likely to be targeted for nuclear power reactors? Using four primary criteria and six secondary criteria, a report by The Australia Institute identified the following sites as potential sites for nuclear power:
Rockhampton (e.g. around Yeppoon, Emu Park or Keppel Sands)
Sunshine Coast (e.g. near Maroochydore, Coolum or Noosa)
Bribie Island area
New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory:
Port Stephens (e.g. Nelson Bay)
Central Coast (e.g. near Tuggerah Lakes)
Port Kembla
Botany Bay
Jervis Bay and Sussex Inlet
South Gippsland (e.g. Yarram, Woodside, Seaspray)
Western Port (e.g. French Island, Hastings, Kooweerup, Coronet Bay)
Port Phillip (e.g. Newport, Werribee, Avalon)
South Australia:
Mt Gambier/Millicent
Port Adelaide
Port Augusta and Port Pirie
Western Australia and the Northern Territory were excluded from the Australia Institute siting study because they are not on the National Electricity Market grid. The report does not consider Tasmania in any detail and considers it unlikely that a nuclear power plant would be constructed in Tasmania in the short to medium term.
Siting criteria
The study used four primary criteria for the siting of nuclear power plants in Australia:
1. Proximity to appropriate existing electricity infrastructure; sites close to the National Electricity Market, preferably near existing large generators;
2. Proximity to major centres of electricity demand;
3. Proximity to transport infrastructure to facilitate the movement of nuclear fuel, waste and other relevant materials; and
4. Access to large quantities of water for reactor cooling − coastal sites
Secondary criteria included the following:
1. Population density − sites with adequate buffers to populated areas.
2. Geological and seismological issues.
3. Atmospheric conditions − sites with low risk of extreme weather events and suitable pollution dispersion conditions.
4. Security risk − sites with low security risks (e.g. sufficient buffers to potentially hazardous areas).
5. Sensitive ecological areas − sites that pose minimal risk to important ecological areas.
6. Heritage and aesthetics − sites that pose minimal risk to important heritage areas.
7. Economic factors – sites that accommodate local economic and social factors.
Nuclear priced out of Australia’s future energy equation in new report
By Sophie Vorrath and Giles Parkinson, 26 November 2015, RenewEconomy,
(The so-called nuclear renaissance was faltering even before the Fukushima disaster as discussed in this 2009 article.)
Nuclear economics just don’t add up
Michael R. James, December 24, 2009
The fall-out from Copenhagen has left the world’s biggest “carbon criminals”, among them Australia, exposed on climate change. With the overthrow of Malcolm Turnbull in the Liberal party along with the proposed ETS, the ascension of Tony Abbot and his emphasis on “direct action” it was inevitable that the federal Opposition would revisit nuclear power as an option for a low-carbon future in Australia. Given the recent sobering Government report on carbon capture and storage, “clean coal” seems less and less as the likely saviour.
An article on this website by Martin Nicholson (Renewable energy is not as reliable as nuclear, 14/12) proposed nuclear power over alternative renewable energy as the solution to a low-carbon energy future for Australia. Elsewhere with his colleague Barry Brook they have discussed common objections to nuclear power such as safety, waste handling and storage, and weapons proliferation. These, however, are among the most contentious and unresolved issues, both scientifically and politically, and by no means did the authors resolve them to the satisfaction of anyone informed on these topics.
Surprisingly they avoided the single major issue that is much more convincingly resolvable: costs. And a second major issue, that of time.
Advocates of an Australian nuclear industry often cite France as an excellent model to emulate because the French obtain 75 per cent of their electrical power from nuclear. As someone who has lived for a decade in France I agree that it is impressive but since they established their industry four decades ago, partly as a strategic response to poor indigenous energy resources and rising oil import bills, many things have changed. And no one should need reminding that we are nothing like France not least in their bipartisan consensus among both politicians and citizens.
The French not only solved their energy supply but created a successful high-technology export industry. Therein lies a lesson for Australia, but not today in the realms of nuclear energy. It is unconvincing to imagine, with many long-established suppliers of nuclear technology, that there is any space for a Johnny-come-lately such as Australia to establish a competitive industry. The Switkowski report into uranium mining confirms that if we actually started building reactors we would import enriched uranium fuel processed from our own uranium ore exports. A bit like buying back Japanese paper products made from Tasmanian woodchips.
Contrary to the claims of a nuclear resurgence in Europe and the world, it is far from certain how much of Europe will actually implement their plans. Most nuclear plants under construction are in Asia, principally China (15 plants), India (six), South Korea (five) and Russia (nine). Among developed economies Austria, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Poland and Eire (Ireland) have no active nuclear plants and none under construction, though some have plans of varying credibility. The Netherlands has one plant and no plans for any new ones. In France the last completed plant was in 1999. In the UK the last one completed, Sizewell-B, was in 1995 after 14 years of inquiries and protracted construction delays. In the US, the last completed plant took 25 years, opening in 1996.
Only time will tell if the UK, the US or others with much less political and social cohesion can implement their proposed nuclear renaissance. The British Government has already said it will suspend many of the usual democratic processes involved in licensing and site selection. The world will watch to see how that goes.
In the US despite up to 45 new applications for nuclear power plants (licensing processes are advanced for three), no hard investment decisions have been taken on a single new reactor. Of course nuclear power has never stood on its own economic legs and relies upon endless subsidies, tax concessions and government guarantees not to mention government liability insurance including for the unsolved long-term waste handling — or as in France and China, the whole project is government financed and operated.
In countries where the state plays less of a role and the private profit motive reigns, there are obvious reasons why no private interests (stock market, private companies etc) are seriously putting up the money for such plants. As Michael Grunwald reported in Time a year ago: “It turns out that new plants would be not just extremely expensive but spectacularly expensive. The first detailed cost estimate, filed by Florida Power & Light (FPL) came in at a shocking $12 billion to $18 billion.” He cites Rocky Mountains Institute chairman and chief scientist Amory Lovins’ calculations that “new nuclear wattage would cost more than twice as much as coal or gas and nearly three times as much as wind”.
In Europe there are two nuclear plants under construction, one in Flamanville, France and one in Olkiluoto, Finland both by France’s state-owned Areva. Both have been subject to significant troubles, partly related to being the first-build of the most evolved advanced model in production, Areva’s EPR, which was supposed to be simpler, more efficient, cheaper and faster to build. In Finland’s Olkiluotu a 50 per cent blowout in costs (to $US6.4 billion so far, lawsuits pending) and doubling in construction time (from 3.5 years to at least seven years) is typical of nuclear projects over the decades. Today Areva concede that construction of a similar reactor of 1.6 gigawatts would be $US8 billion ($A9 billion).
The reasons why nuclear plants routinely run into such troubles are that it is hugely capital intensive so delays greatly add to the cost of capital long before any revenue is generated. Construction is extremely complex, which is greatly compounded by safety regulation — this was another major cause of the slowdown at Olkiluoto. For these reasons the industry prefers to use “overnight” costs, which are the costs as if a plant was constructed overnight at today’s prices.
Australia’s current electricity consumption is almost 40 gigawatts from installed capacity of about 50 gigawatts. So, to replace most of this would require about 25 reactors of the EPR design, each of 1.6 gigawatts (or 40 of the Westinghouse AP1000 1 gigawatt design). This could cost about $225 billion in today’s money, or close to half a trillion dollars for 50 reactors. Using Smith’s more modest suggestions the cost could be up to $126 billion but displace a lot less coal burning. Switkowski may be correct in the sense that why create all these contentious issues and still not substantially solve the problem? This points to another weakness: with nuclear it appears to be an all-or-nothing gamble with hundreds of billions of dollars.
Nuclear advocates always cite “next-gen” designs and purported much swifter and cheaper construction but the figures given above are the actual costs of the plants being constructed in Europe today, not even the much higher industry estimates reported by Grunwald for the proposed US plants. The timetable of this construction is anyone’s guess except that history warns us to be pessimistic. By comparison China plans for 50-60 of the simpler, smaller Westinghouse design by 2030, but nuclear will still account for only about 4 per cent of their energy needs.
Those are just the construction costs. As is well known, liability insurance needs to be covered by government. The other big cost is the decommissioning of reactors. Even with many of the world’s 439 existing reactors approaching the end of their productive lives, so far none have been decommissioned. The world’s first commercial nuclear power generator, Calder Hall at what is now called Sellafield (previously Windscale), was turned off in 2003. It has been estimated by the UK industry that full decommissioning of Calder Hall, if ever done, will cost about $2 billion at today’s prices. Meanwhile, old plants need continuous maintenance and high-security against decay and incursion including against potential terrorists.
Dr Michael R. James is an Australian research scientist. |
5 Things You Didn't Know About The Sinking of The Titanic
April 15, 1912, is the day the British ocean liner Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Here are five surprising facts you may not know about the sinking of the Titanic...
The Sinking of the Titanic Was Predicted in More Than One Book At least four fictional books had eerily similar tales of liners that met the same fate as the Titanic. That might not sound so weird until you realize that all four were written before the ship sank. The first was the 1886 novel The Sinking of a Modern Liner, a British story about a ship that leaves Liverpool for New York, hits something, sinks, and loses most of her passengers because she lacked the correct number of lifeboats. What's even stranger is that the author of this book, W.T. Stead, died on the Titanic. Another book is 1898's Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, in which a liner named Titan, supposedly unsinkable, hits an ice shelf and sinks. Additional creepy details include sinking off Newfoundland, like the Titanic; not having enough lifeboats; and traveling at similar speeds. A third book was 1908's The Ship's Run. However, there were so many similarities between the Titanic and the ship in the book that there is speculation that the author saw construction plans for the Titanic before writing the story. The fourth book was 1912's The White Ghost of Disaster. This book, released as the Titanic was setting sail, saw a ship crash at a specific speed—the same one that the Titanic traveled at when it hit the iceberg.
The Last Titanic Survivor Died in 2009 The last survivor of the Titanic died at age 97 in 2009. According to the BBC, Millvina Dean, was also the youngest passenger on the ship, which she boarded with her parents and brother at just two months old. Although third-class passengers, she, her mother, and her brother escaped in a lifeboat, but her father went down with the ship. Before Dean's death, Titanic director James Cameron and stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio joined together to help pay her nursing home fees.
One of The Ship's Musicians Wasn't Officially Declared Dead Until 2000. One of the ship's musicians, a 21-year-old cellist, was not actually declared dead until 2000. Roger Bricoux was the Titanic's cello player when he perished during the ship's sinking. But Bricoux wasn't officially declared dead until 2000 although he went down with the ship. The French army even called him a deserter when he failed to show up to serve in World War I. The Association Française du Titanic (French Association of the Titanic) worked to clear his name and officially put Bricoux to rest, but didn't succeed until 88 years after the Titanic sank.
One Little Key Might Have Prevented the Collision A number of factors contributed to the sinking of the ship, of course, but being able to spot icebergs ahead of time, would have really helped. And the ship did carry binoculars that lookouts could have used. However, the binoculars were all locked away -- and the one key that could have given the crew access was carried by the ship's second officer who was replaced from the ship's crew at the last minute. The ship's lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee instead had to rely on their eyesight alone. The key resurfaced at auction in 2010, where it was sold for over $130,000.
It Took Nearly 100 Years to Identify One Victim Of the 1,500-plus who perished, only 300 bodies were recovered. One of the bodies that was recovered was a toddler called the "Unknown Child," and wasn't identified until almost 100 years later. The child's body was recovered from the water five days after the Titanic went down. The body was misidentified three times before he was finally identified as 19-month-old Sidney Goodwin. For almost a century, Goodwin's gravestone in the Fairview Cemetery read "Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster to the Titanic April 15th 1912". |
2014-05-13T18:27:01-04:00Nutrition & Fitness|
What can parents do to ensure their athletes are getting the right food when they are too busy for a sit-down dinner before practices/games?
Parents need to make sure that their children are fueling right at most meals and snacks not just at dinner. Many families are always on the go which makes dinner time challenging. Parents can have easy-to-prepare foods on hand consisting of the 3-Step Fueling Tactics Model by Dave Ellis, RD, consisting of the following…
Step 1: Fruits, Vegetables, and Healthy Unsaturated Fats
These foods are natural antioxidants and natural anti-inflammatories consisting of vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene. These foods lessen and prevent inflammation, optimize the immune system, increase energy, help speed recovery time, and decrease the risk of disease. Get color on your plate from a variety of fruits and veggies. Eat more of the good guy fats which include nuts and seeds, olive and canola oil, vinaigrette salad dressings, natural peanut butter, avocados, trans-fat free margarine spreads, lite mayonnaise, and cold-water fish like salmon and tuna, as well as flaxseeds and walnuts.
Step 2: Carbohydrates such as Fiber-Rich Starches and Fruits
Choose whole grains (e.g. whole wheat pasta, whole grain breads, whole grain cereals, brown rice, whole wheat cous cous, and quinoa); starchy veggies (e.g. potatoes – white or sweet, corn, peas, and winter squash), beans, and fresh fruit – all of which are fiber-rich and slow digesting to help keep energy levels high. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for the body and brain. We need carbohydrates daily.
Step 3: Protein
Children should aim for a variety of protein sources from dairy, meats, and plant sources. Smart proteins include chicken breast without the skin, at least 93% lean ground beef, buffalo, sirloin, flank steak, turkey, fish, eggs, nuts and peanut butter, beans and lentils, and 1-2% fat dairy products. Protein is critical in building and maintaining muscle; strengthens the immune system, maintains energy levels, and is useful only when we eat enough carbohydrates. If young athletes are wanting to gain muscle, they need to make sure to meet their daily protein needs by eating protein at each meal and snack and obtaining the majority of their extra calories from carbohydrates while making sure to follow an appropriate and individualized resistance training program.
Some quick lunch and dinner examples may include:
*Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a piece of fruit and a glass of low-fat milk or yogurt.
*1-2 slices of veggie pizza with a banana on the side.
*Stir-frys consisting of rice, veggies and either steak, chicken, shrimp, or tofu.
*Leftovers consisting of Steps 1, 2, and 3.
*Turkey (or ham) and cheese wrap with lettuce, tomato, and avocado slices and a piece of fruit and yogurt or milk on the side.
*Breakfast for dinner consisting of scrambled eggs, an English muffin with butter and 100% fruit preserves, and a glass of milk or yogurt.
What kind of effects do energy drinks have on young athletes? What should players drink/eat instead if they need an energy-boost?
Keep in mind that energy drinks are not FDA-regulated and for this reason, we can’t always believe that what is written on the label in terms of ingredients and potency is 100% accurate. Your best bet is to first choose whole foods that offer vitamins and minerals in their most natural state. When young athletes are in need of an energy boost, make sure that they are following an optimal sports diet every day. When looking for a snack, young athletes should choose a snack that consists of a mix of lean protein and fiber-rich carbohydrates. Some of these examples include yogurt with granola; a slice of whole grain toast with peanut butter or sunflower butter and a sliced banana on top; or a granola bar and a glass of low-fat milk. Staying well-hydrated is also key for maintaining energy levels.
How can the parents of a picky-eater ensure their child is getting the proper nutrition to perform athletically?
The answer to this question is found in my answer to question number one. In addition, some children lack variety in their diets where they seem to eat the same foods at every meal and snack due to personal preference and maybe pickiness. In these cases, I encourage young athletes to incorporate variety in at least one of their meals and one of their snacks every day. This can be as simple as subbing in a whole grain wrap in place of bread for a sandwich at lunch or trying a new fruit or vegetable with lunch or dinner. If your child isn’t a fruit and vegetables fan, try offering them dips for their fruits and veggies such as hummus, nut butters, salsa, or guacamole, and yogurt or nutella to dip fruit slices into.
Should youth athletes take any nutritional supplements? Are there any supplements they should avoid?
I always recommend choosing food first and supplement as needed. Foods provide us with vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) in their most natural state, which our bodies are best able to metabolize. The only supplements I would recommend for youth athletes would be a high quality, trusted daily multivitamin mineral meeting 100% of the daily value for most micronutrients as well as additional calcium and vitamin D as needed and omega-3 fatty acids as needed preferably from fish oil.
How can a youth athlete with food allergies (gluten, dairy, eggs, etc) ensure they are eating right when traveling for sports and options are limited?
A youth athlete with food allergies can ensure that they are eating right when on the road by eating a varied, balanced, and moderated sports nutrition meal plan. I always encourage athletes to prep and plan ahead of time by packing some of their tried and true favorites. It may also be beneficial to have a plan in terms of what restaurants to try that offer foods for those with food allergies. In this day and age, many restaurants accommodate those with food allergies including by offering gluten free menus.
What are your go-to snacks? Do you have any favorite kid-friendly snacks that are bound to be a hit with youth athletes?
A handful of my favorite go-to snacks typically include a combo of lean proteins with fiber-rich carbohydrates. Some of these examples include the following:
*Peanut butter and 100% fruit jelly on whole grain bread or a wrap (or sunflower butter for those with peanut allergies)
*Bars such as KIND, Luna Bars, and Clif Bars
*Homemade trail mix consisting of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, dry whole grain cereal and/or whole wheat pretzels.
*Yogurt parfaits with berries, yogurt, and granola
*Instant oatmeal with mix-ins of your choice such as peanut or almond butter, chopped nuts, brown sugar, raisins, dark chocolate chips, and low-fat milk.
*Baked chips in individual snack size bags with string cheese
*Banana with nutella
*Low-fat pudding cups
*Peanut butter whole grain pretzels
*Smoothies made with low-fat milk or yogurt and fruit
What benefits could yoga provide to young children and youth athletes?
Yoga provides a myriad of benefits to young children and athletes including:
• Improved breathing
• Mind-body connection
• Mental focus
• Reduction of stress
• Increased flexibility and range of motion
• Improved balance, posture, and agility
• Physical strength
• Sportsmanship |
• Using search engines and find two different recent articles involving data mining. Describe the role of “data mining” in the story using your own words.
Here is an example of an article:
New police unit to check cyber crime
Social media users to face stringent watch; police can detect users quickly
Citation is must
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Roger Williams statue yields to one of suffragists Rhode Island's Chafee comes to grips with move from Rotunda
WASHINGTON - In the name of women's suffrage, religious rights champion Roger Williams is being exiled again.
At least his statue is, to make room in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for a monument to pioneer American feminists that Congress has kept in a basement for three-quarters of a century.
Williams' first exile was in 1636, when the celebrated freethinker was driven out of Puritan-dominated Massachusetts for his notions of religious freedom and separation of church and state.
He founded what became Rhode Island, and a handsome statue of him by 19th-century sculptor Franklin Simmons has long stood in the Rotunda with other major figures of U.S. history.
Now, as Rhode Island Republican Sen. John Chafee has conceded, the Williams statue will have to go so that the statue commemorating women's suffrage can be reinstalled after an absence of 76 years.
"I don't disagree with having women in the Rotunda, where there aren't any," Chafee said. "I just feel badly that it's Roger Williams who has to go."
When the women's statue returns, Williams is to be moved to the area outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.
Often called "Three Ladies in a Bathtub" - and never a contender in aesthetic competitions - the suffrage statue is a massive marble rectangle topped with the busts of early feminists Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Their crusading efforts resulted in women winning the universal right to vote in America in 1920.
Commissioned to commemorate them and the event, the statue was placed in the Rotunda in 1921. But a few weeks later the all-male Congress had it removed. It was later hauled down to a shadowy, lower-level Capitol chamber called "the Crypt," where it has remained for decades.
For years, the Virginia-based Women's Suffrage Statue Campaign lobbied for its return, hoping to have the outsized sculpture reinstalled in the Rotunda in 1995 to mark the 75th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
But contract delays and strong opposition by conservative members of the House blocked "the raising," as it was called, until a compromise was finally reached this winter.
Now, the suffragists are to be placed in the Rotunda on a trial basis for one year, after which Congress may decide to let them remain or move them to another "place of honor."
Reinstallation ceremonies have been scheduled for May 8, right before Mother's Day.
"It's the logical thing to have the foremothers of our country go up with the forefathers," said women's statue committee co-chair Joan Meacham.
That much has been easily settled, but not the game of musical pedestals in the Rotunda that the compromise agreement set in motion.
In addition to the Williams statue, the display space in that chamber is taken up by statues of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and James Garfield, plus busts of Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a Plexiglas copy of England's Magna Carta.
One of these had to go if the suffragists were to be accommodated.
No one dared suggest that two sculptures of Washington were too many. Proposals that Lafayette be removed because he wasn't American were met with the argument that his bust is needed to balance the one of Washington on the opposite side of a doorway.
Though Garfield is not considered one of the nation's immortals, he was the second president to be assassinated, served bravely as a general in the Civil War, was a former congressman and was a brilliant intellectual who could write simultaneously in Greek and Latin using both hands.
A consensus began to form around exiling the Magna Carta replica to Lott's office or its equivalent, on the grounds that it was English, only a copy and made of plastic. But Sen. John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over all this, was adamant that it should stay.
As he wrote to Chafee in a gentlemanly but passionate exchange, "I have a very strong view that the replica of the Magna Carta should remain for our visitors to see and gain some understanding of its relevance to the origins of our basic laws."
In a response, Chafee restated his "deep regret" over the ouster of Williams, adding that, on the day the Williams statue is lifted off its pedestal, he will introduce a resolution requiring that the statue be put back in its old place the minute the suffrage statue's year is over.
"I look forward," Chafee wrote, "to continuing to work with you to ensure that the Capitol Rotunda contains works of art that reflect our national consciousness."
Pub Date: 4/10/97
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By authors: Marcelo Epstein, Ruth Spivak
Product Code: 8601
ISBN: 978-0-86516-860-2
Availability: In stock
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This unique text provides a firsthand experience of what was for centuries the universal language of science—Latin. A historical survey sets the context for Latin selections from seventeen authors who wrote in Latin and three whose works were translated into Latin. The anthology of twenty-two science readings in Latin covers eight subject areas from general knowledge selections from scholars like Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville to writings on optics from Alhazen and Newton. A brief essay introduces each author while vocabulary, syntax, and contextual notes facilitate reading the Latin passages. Images present the Latin selections as their original readers would have experienced them.
• Authors: Agricola, Alberti, Alhazen, Bacon, Copernicus, de Soto, Euclid, Faventinus, Galvani, Harvey, Isidore of Seville, Kepler, Leibniz, Libavius, Maimonides, Newton, Oresme, Pliny the Elder, Seneca, Vitruvius
• Subject Areas: Architecture and Engineering, Astronomy and Rational Mechanics, Chemistry, Economics, General Knowledge, Mathematics, Medicine, and Optics
Special Features
• Historical survey of science texts in Latin and essays for each author
• Images drawn from original manuscripts, incunabula, and first print editions accompany each selection
• Vocabulary, syntax, and context notes
• Three appendices: The Pronunciation of Latin, A Compendium of Latin Grammar, Manuscript and Original Source Quirks
• Complete Latin-English Glossary
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Review by: Christopher Trinacty, Oberlin College - February 4, 2020
This innovative work is based on a class taught for over twenty years at the University of Calgary and offers a selection of scientific texts (with facsimiles of incunabulae of the passages), commentaries aimed at an introductory/intermediate Latin student and a Latin grammar and glossary. The course itself pairs a semester-long introduction to the grammar and syntax of Latin with a semester of Latin scientific readings covering topics such as optics, astronomy and mathematics from a diverse group of authors (e.g. Seneca, Alhazen, Oresme, Newton). For Latin students interested in STEM fields or for professors who want to introduce such material to their introductory and intermediate level students, this book has much to recommend it. I certainly was unfamiliar with the psychological depth of Maimonides, who analyzes depression with the same complexity and descriptive power as Seneca in his de Ira, and the careful observation of prisms found in Newton's Lectiones Opticae. The concise historical survey of scientific authors that opens the work provides a wealth of information, and Epstein and Spivak's introductions to each author are strong. The excerpts are generally interesting, and, at times, quite gripping; I especially enjoyed Vitruvius' explanations of Caryatids, Harvey's excitement about the workings of the heart and Galvani's Frankenstein-esque description of muscular movements via electricity. But, while I appreciated the texts themselves and much of the commentary, I believe the work is stuck between two disparate genres - textbook and commentary - and it sits uneasily in this position.
The authors begin with a note on "How to Use This Book" and it immediately shows the problems with this hybrid text. While noting that certain authors are easier than others, and thus spurring the student to begin with Isidore of Seville or Leibniz, it is surely the case that the student will need substantial Latin to get through the opening sentence of Book 4 of Isidore (Medicina est quae corporis vel tuetur vel restaurat salutem cuius materia versatur in morbis et vulneribus).1 The authors continue with some "Helpful Hints for Translation" including advice like, "Do not panic!...Do not start translating words sequentially...Pay great attention to cases" (xviii), before brief comments on the subjunctive mood and indirect speech. This would seem to indicate some familiarity with Latin but, if students should read the grammar first, then why not place it first in the text instead of after the readings? Indeed, the model reader for this text is rather hard to discern. If it is an introductory student, problems arise immediately: the lemmata are not keyed to the 80-page grammar, so it is difficult to know how students would use it efficiently and effectively when they find stumbling blocks in the texts (nor is there an index that could help point a student to their explanations of concepts such as the passive periphrastic or the ablative absolute). While the authors encourage students to read the facsimiles of early editions provided with each reading, at times their legibility and size make it difficult, and one finds some odd forms that make it into the transcriptions (e.g. navigij for navigii and caussa for causa are both found in the first reading). In my opinion, it would have been preferable to key the commentary to an accepted grammar such as Allen and Greenough and excise the grammar section of the text. Because the grammar "covers most, if not all, of the fundamental tools necessary to analyze and translate a text" (xii, my emphasis), why not simply beef up the grammatical/syntactical aspects of the commentary that speak to neo-Latin or scientific terminology, but suggest a traditional textbook?2 The commentary itself is uneven in its help and explanations. For example, a passage of Francis Bacon references Heraclitus, but Heraclitus is given no note,3 whereas a line of Vitruvius (umbram non rem persecuti videntur) leads to comparanda from Ben Jonson, Wordsworth, Burke, Shakespeare, Psalm 102:11 and more! Most grammatical and syntactical difficulties are well noted, although the explanations are sometimes short (e.g. they often note if a word is ablative but do not describe the use of the ablative), and at times they betray their origins as a teaching-text (e.g. a note on page 170 reads "generet: subjunctive. Why?" and on page 220 we find "indivisibili: Recall that adjectives of the third declension form the ablative in -i"). While they give sporadic references to further reading, it would benefit the reader to know that there have been a bevy of recent books on ancient science in the last couple of years that cover many of the same topics.4 The website does offer additional exercises, electronic versions of the images, and an answer key to the exercises to aid the reader's progress (the publisher informed me that a companion volume is also in the works). Might I suggest that Bolchazy-Carducci add further links on the website to the scientific content and contexts?
In conclusion, The Latin of Science sheds light on the importance of Latin as the very language of science from antiquity to the 19th century. This volume provides readings that are seldom seen in Latin language syllabi, and the authors make a strong case for their future inclusion. Although some aspects of this textbook are problematic, The Latin of Science certainly made this reader want to include selections of Latin scientific literature in my future classes as a way to speak to those students who are more interested in the vascular system than Vergil.
1 The only note on this line in their commentary is "tuetur: tueor, tueri, tutus sum to look at, to look after, to protect." One could imagine an introductory student wondering about the antecedent of cuius, for instance. In a similar vein, while the Latin of Leibniz' passage may be relatively "simple," the infinitesimal calculus undergirding it is rather difficult (a note speaks how "the differential of a product of two objects x and y abides by what we now call Leibniz' rule, namely, d(xy) = x(dy) + (dx)y. He remarks that the symbols x, y are themselves immaterial").
2 Their "Compendium of Latin Grammar" is in itself a fine overview, but it simply does not have the depth and detail of an introductory textbook. Some sections, such as "Building Latin Vocabulary for Free!" (270 about the derivation of English nouns from Latin nouns) and their summary of the indicative active mood (284–85), are very helpful and handy for students.
3Especially shocking considering the general penchant for science of Heraclitus and many of his fellow pre-Socratic philosophers.
4E.g. The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World (eds. P.T. Keyser and J. Scarborough, 2018), A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome (ed. G.L. Irby, 2016), The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science (eds. A. Jones and L. Taub, 2018).
CJ-Online, 2020.02.04
Review by: Maria Americo, Saint Peter's University - February 1, 2020
Marcelo Epstein and Ruth Spivak's The Latin of Science fills an immense gap in the corpus of Latin textbooks: it is the only anthology of which I am aware devoted to the presentation of selections from the twenty centuries during which Latin was a major language of scientific writing.
Epstein and Spivak's Preface provides some context essential to understanding how they envision this unique textbook might be used. They have taught, at the University of Calgary, a two-semester course geared towards science majors (not Classics majors!) whose purpose is to make students aware of the legacy of two thousand years of science composed in the Latin language. In the first semester, students receive an introduction to Latin grammar. In the second, they dive straight into reading scientific texts in the original language, during which "some of the minutiae of Latin grammar can happily be avoided without detriment to the original aim," a strategy which the authors recognize as a "non-standard route of presentation" (xi).
Because of the enormous length of history that the anthology's texts span, the authors' introduction has much work to do. In only 10 pages, the introduction aims to orient the students within the historical periods from which the texts in the anthology come: the Classical Period (from "the beginnings" until 476 CE), the Middle Ages, and the Modern Era (from 1300 until today).
The order of the texts' presentation is "non-standard." A "standard" Latin textbook strategy might be to build from simple to complex in a cumulative fashion, presenting "easier" grammatical concepts and shorter, more heavily adapted Latin passages in the beginning and progressing gradually to more difficult concepts and longer passages closer (or identical) to their original Latin forms by the end. Instead, the passages of this book are organized according to the field of scientific study to which they belong. Each excerpt includes a short introduction to the author's life and works, the passage itself (most are around 1–2 pages) , and the textbook authors' notes to aid in comprehension. In addition, a facsimile of a manuscript of each text is provided. While an interesting idea, and one that may spark a student's hidden interest in paleography, the reproductions are not always clear and may be a distraction.
All the passages are un-adapted. Many passages come from eras of the Latin language rarely taught to undergraduates, and the scientific concepts introduced may be difficult or unfamiliar. Therefore, the notes also have much work to do in addressing both the Latin and the scientific concepts. Some are historical, shedding light on a figure of ancient science named by the text's author. Some are grammatical; and many of those highlight the instances in which "later" Latin differs from the Classical Latin that students with some exposure to the language would most likely be familiar with; for example, in their notes to Nicole Oresme's Tractatus de Origine, jure et Mutationibus Monetarum, a treatise on the origins, legal status, and variations of coinage, Epstein and Spivak write that "in typical Renaissance Latin, the indirect statement/oratio obliqua is avoided and replaced by quod" (207). Finally, some notes aid in elements of the translation process, such as word order or word choice, which is, of course, both important and difficult when scientific terminology from eight different fields of study is being presented in one book.
The eight fields Epstein and Spivak have chosen are General Knowledge (headed off by a passage from Pliny's Quaestiones Naturales), Architecture and Engineering, Medicine, Mathematics, Astronomy and Ra tional Mechanics, Optics, Economics, and Chemistry. Economics seems an odd choice for an anthology of science—the texts included are from Oresme's (1320–1382) Tractatus (mentioned above) and Domingo de Sow's (1494–1560) De Justitia et lure—but their inclusion would interest any economics majors who may have found their way into the class. The sixteenth-century texts from the Chemistry chapter come from a fascinating period of the changing field, when this science straddled ancient alchemical practice, metallurgy, and modern chemistry. One of the challenges and rewards of studying the history of science is understanding how, when, and why scientific fields change and develop over time, and the transition from alchemy into chemistry is a fruitful nexus for such study.
The anthology ends with three appendices. Appendix I is on the pronunciation of Latin; Appendix III is a brief guide to the "quirks" of the manuscripts and early print ings of the texts presented in the book. Appendix II is a compendium of Latin grammar, and, as such, takes up almost a fourth of the book. However, for an introduction to Latin grammar, especially one meant to enable students who have never encountered the language to read texts from Vitruvius' Classical Latin to a medieval Latin translation of Ibn al-Haytham's Arabic text on optics, it is slim. Many college students, even Classics, English, or other humanities majors, find themselves learning grammar in general through their study of a new language- particularly an ancient language, where instruction is often focused on, and through, grammati cal concepts. Though the grammatical appendix is clear and concise, it might not be sufficient as students' sole introduction to Latin grammar, despite the authors' hope that this anthology be "self-contained" (xii) as a teaching tool.
This book could be used as the authors intend: as a tasting menu for science majors with more focus on scientific concepts and history of science than the finer points of Latin grammar and would work well as such. Considering the popularity of STEM fields in today's university and workforce, it seems profitable to wel come science students into the Classics department, and to make them aware of the ancient origins of their fields. But for students who are interested in the gram mar and language of the texts and not only the content, I would recommend this anthology for intermediate or advanced Latin learners, whether on the college or the secondary school level. Students who have some command over Classical Latin grammar can adapt more eas ily to the changes presented by later Latin, and from there can appreciate the history, legacy, and reception of classical science, a rich and global field that spans from Late Antique Egypt to medieval Spain to Renaissance Poland and beyond.
The Classical Outlook, Vol. 94, No. 4
Review by: John Bulwer, Euroclassica - January 14, 2020
This is a book for curious persons interested in the legacy of Latin in the medieval and modern periods and in the interaction in these later periods between ancient science, Arabic science and mathematics, and the beginnings of modern scientific discovery, all in Latin. It is an anthology containing texts that would not normally be read by intermediate to advanced students of Latin. We are presented with authors such as: Isidore of Seville, Francis Bacon, Copernicus and Kepler; some are more familiar: Pliny the Elder and Seneca from the classical period but also Vitruvius from his work on architecture; others come from outside the usual western tradition: Maimonides and Ibn Al-Haytham. The book arises from the University of Calgary where a Latin of Science course has run for a number of years, as a collaboration between different science and engineering faculties and Classics, a good example of how Classics can be an interdisciplinary subject linking different areas of inquiry in an age when the strict barriers between disciplines are breaking down. The texts are grouped thematically (Architecture and Engineering, Astronomy, Medicine) rather than chronologically, each section containing a variety of authors. The texts are fairly short and are accompanied by running notes which are mainly designed to help in translation and understanding. There is a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book. It seems that this volume is not aimed principally at students of Latin as it provides a number of appendices, of which one sets out how Latin pronounced and a second gives a fairly full compendium of Latin grammar over eighty pages. Intermediate or advanced Latin students would not normally need this or would have other resources to help with basic linguistic questions.
In an extract from Euclid, translated into Latin from an Arabic translation of the original Greek by Adelard of Bath, the mathematics seems far more difficult than the Latin which would suggest that some of these extracts are aimed more at scientists than at Latinists. Images of the original books or manuscripts are included and the introductions to each section are informative and interesting in a brief space. (Who knew that the wife of President Hoover, Lou Henry Hoover, has translated with her husband On Mining by Georgius Agricola 1494-1555?) Extracts are brief and a researcher would probably not find a particular passage that they were looking for, but they are intended as an introduction and primer in the reading of original Latin scientific texts. With the generous help provided, a reader with some Latin and some experience in the history of science would, with perseverance, be able to tackle these texts in Latin with some success.
Facsimiles to read online or project for use in your class. Use this link to open the list of available images. Click on the image thumbnail to view full size.
Exercises to Accompany The Latin of Science. Use this link to download the file containing exercises coordinated with the material presented in the chapters of the Compendium of the Latin Grammar presented in Appendix II of The Latin of Science, page 249.
Answers for the Exercises. Use this link to download the file containing the answers for the exercises.
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Bed Bug Common Myths
For homeowners across the US, as well as those who travel abroad, bed bugs are a greater concern now than they have been in more than fifty years. After having been nearly eradicated in the 1950s, through the use of chemical pesticides like DDT, these diminutive parasites are back with a vengeance. There has been a surge in cases of bed bug infestation in every major US city, as well as in cities throughout Europe and South America.
Before spending money on how to stop bed bugs or ways of preventing bed bug infestation, it’s good to do a little research. With most of us having grown up without bed bugs being a widespread concern, a lot of myths, fables, and old wives’ tales have replaced widespread common knowledge as to just what they are, whether or not bed bugs are a threat to human health, and how bed bugs establish a colony.
Here are 8 of the most common myths that many people have come to embrace about how to deal with bed bugs.
Myth #1: Pesticides are Effective Against Bed Bugs
In the 1950s, DDT drove bed bugs to the brink of eradication. Unfortunately, this odorless, tasteless and colorless pesticide also proved to be dangerous to the health of small children, household pets, wild animals, the elderly and infirm, people with a wide range of allergies, and individuals with existing respiratory problems. Modern bed bug populations have demonstrated tremendous resilience to other pesticides.
Myth #2: Some Bed Bugs Can Fly
This myth takes on many forms. Some people believe that certain species of a bed bug can fly. Others believe that all bed bugs can fly under the right circumstances. One version of this story holds that bed bug nymphs (their young) can fly, with variations on that which match the previous list. All versions are false; no bed bug, at any stage of its life, can fly. They have no wings.
Myth #3: Bed Bugs Can Survive for Up to a Year Without Feeding
Under typical conditions in America today, including average room temperature and environmental hazards, a bed bug can survive at room temperature for up to 3-6 months without food. This does vary somewhat depending upon a variety of factors, but the full year has only been observed under strict, laboratory-controlled conditions.
Myth #4: Mattress Covers Can Prevent Infestations
Early in the 20th century, many people bought mattress covers to try and keep out bed bugs. There are even companies which sell mattress covers specifically designed to keep out bed bugs. These mattress covers do exactly what they’re presented as doing: they protect your mattress. They don’t protect your home, your other furniture, your electronics, your books, your linens, your clothes, or any of the people who live in your house.
Myth #5: Bed Bugs Can be Treated by Bug Bombs
Pesticide foggers, or “bug bombs,” release pesticides and chemicals into the air circulation of your home. In response to this, insects will immediately run for cover. The fact is that, short of using highly toxic substances like DDT, modern pesticides have little effect on bed bugs—and even less, with anything short of a direct application. It takes individual spraying to kill bed bugs, not a bug bomb.
Myth #6: Bed Bugs Prefer to Live in Beds
Bed bugs will reproduce and defecate right where they feed. This has led many people to believe that bed bugs live within beds (hence the name). Bed bugs will also set up long-term residence in bags and suitcases, linens, piles of discarded clothing, cars, trains, movie theatres, and within cracks and separations in a wide range of common surfaces in living areas.
Myth #7: Bed Bugs Are Completely Nocturnal
Bed bugs are typically nocturnal, but one of their great strengths is the ability to adapt to our activity cycle. Bed bugs bite primarily while we’re sleeping, and can learn to be active during daylight hours; they will also feed on resting individuals during the day if they’re particularly hungry.
Myth #8: Bed Bugs Reproduce Quickly
Most insects can produce thousands of eggs over the course of a lifetime. In comparison, the bed bug is actually fairly slow: a single female can only produce about 500 eggs over her year-long lifespan, the equivalent of what a fly can lay in just a few days.
Bed Bug Bully is the Safe, All-Natural Pesticide Alternative
Over millions of years, many plants have evolved complex chemical deterrents to protect themselves from insects and other harmful pests. Take advantage of the pest-fighting power of essential oils like clove, mint, citronella, and rosemary. Buy Bed Bug Bully, and start fighting back today!
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S. 1178 (113th): Educating Tomorrow’s Engineers Act
We don’t have a summary available yet.
6/18/2013--Introduced. Educating Tomorrow's Engineers Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require states to incorporate engineering design skills and practice into their academic content standards and academic achievement standards and assessments in science by the 2016-2017 school year.
Requires states to reserve 10% of the grant they receive under the Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund program to award competitive grants to nonprofit organizations and other entities with expertise in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to develop and provide professional development and instructional materials for STEM education in their state.
Changes current references to the mathematics and science partnerships program to references to the STEM partnerships program, which provides funding to states, institutions of higher education, and high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) to recruit and train STEM teachers and improve STEM curricula.
Amends the 21st century community learning centers program to include STEM activities (currently, mathematics and science activities) within the before- and after-school activities funded under that program.
Amends the rural and low-income school program to include professional development in engineering education among the uses of the funds provided to rural LEAs.
Amends the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 to require the National Center for Education Research to sponsor and conduct research geared toward improving STEM, rather than just mathematics and science, teaching and learning.
Directs the Secretary of Education to support research on engineering education and use that research to provide information to the public, and technical assistance to states, on best practices and promising innovations in kindergarten through grade 12 engineering education. |
The Principles of Political Economy
Henry Sidgwick
Chapter 3
The Method of Economic Science
§2. Why then, it may be pertinently asked, does Mill say---as he certainly does say---that Political Economy is essentially an abstract science, that its method is essentially ``the method à priori'', and that it ``has been so understood and taught by all its most distinguished teachers''? The only answer I can give is that in this and similar passages Mill is thinking, not of the Theory of Production as he himself conceives and expounds it, but of the Theory of Distribution and Exchange: and primarily of that portion of this latter subject which he distinguishes as ``statical'' and not ``dynamical''---i.e. that which treats of the determination of the reward of services and the value of products in the existing condition of industry. This is the part of the subject to which, since Ricardo, the attention of economic theorists has been chiefly directed (though they have often not distinguished it clearly from other parts): and it is easy to show how a method largely different from that adopted in treating the question of Production naturally suggests itself here. The broad and striking fact which originally led and still leads reflective minds to discuss the question ``how a nation is made wealthy'' is the vast difference between the amounts of wealth possessed by different nations and by the same nation at different periods of its history; especially the great increase in the most recent times, in consequence of what we speak of vaguely as ``advance of civilisation'', ``progress of arts and sciences'', ``development of trade and commerce'', &c. Hence in our method of dealing with this question induction from historical facts is naturally prominent; though a certain amount of deduction inevitably comes in when we analyse the combined play of the forces of economic change whose effects history presents to us. And we may, of course, examine the phenomena of Distribution from the same point of view of Comparative Plutology; we may ask why the share of wealth annually obtained by an English miner is larger than that obtained by a German miner, or why English landowners now obtain higher rents than they did 100 years ago: and if in our answers we ``include directly or remotely, the operation of all the causes'' that have combined in causing the differences investigated, it seems evident that our method of investigation must be---just as in the case of Production---a primarily inductive and historical one. We shall have to note and explain differences and changes in national character generally, in the habitual energy, enterprise, and thrift of special classes, in law and administration and other political circumstances, in the state of knowledge, the state of general and special education, and other social facts; and in this explanation the ``method à priori'' can evidently occupy but a very subordinate place.
But such questions are not, I think, those which most obviously suggest themselves in connexion with the phenomena of distribution. Here the broad and striking fact, that at once troubles the sympathy and stirs the curiosity of reflective persons, is the great difference between the shares of different members of the same society at the same time. Thus what economists have been primarily concerned to explain is how the complicated division of the produce of industry among the different classes of persons who have co-operated to produce it is actually determined here and now; and what is likely to be the effect of any particular change that may occur in the determining conditions, while the general state of things remains substantially the same. Similarly as regards the phenomena of exchange, the most natural and obvious question is why each of the vast number of articles that make up what in the aggregate we call wealth is exchanged and estimated at its present price; and how far any particular event, other things remaining the same, would tend to raise or lower its price.
It is in answering these questions that the general theory of Political Economy, as commonly treated, uses mainly an abstract, deductive, and hypothetical method. That is, it considers the general laws governing the determination of remunerations and prices, in a state of things taken as the type to which modern civilised society generally approximates, in which freedom of exchange and freedom in choice of calling and domicile are supposed to be---broadly speaking---complete within a certain range, and in which the natures and relations of the human beings composing the industrial organization are supposed to be simpler and more uniform than is actually the case in any known community. By means of this simplification we obtain exact answers to our general economic questions through reasonings that sometimes reach a considerable degree of complexity. It is obvious that answers so obtained do not by themselves enable us accurately to interpret or predict concrete economic phenomena; but I hold that when modified by a rough conjectural allowance for the difference between our hypothetical premises and the actual facts in any case, they do materially assist us in attaining approximate correctness in our interpretations and predictions.
It is, however, evident that the applicability and utility of such hypothetical reasonings will depend largely on two conditions: first on the degree of success attained in forming our original suppositions, so that they may correspond as closely as possible to the facts, without becoming unmanageably complex; and secondly on the extent to which we recognise and attend to the divergence from facts which is---in most cases---inevitable in such abstract reasonings, and the insight and skill which we show in conjecturing roughly the effect of modifying causes whose operation we cannot precisely trace. To secure success in either of these respects we require an accurate knowledge of the general characteristics of the matter with which we are dealing; and I do not see how we are to obtain this knowledge without an inductive study of economic facts. It is not perhaps necessary that the deductive and inductive investigation of any class of economic phenomena should be always carried on simultaneously, or even by the same persons; but the latter is certainly an indispensable supplement to the former.
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Carpal Tunnel syndrome (median nerve compression)
Carpal Tunnel syndrome results in a numbing and tingling in the hand and arm due to a pinched nerve in the wrist.
The carpal tunnel is a space between the carpal bones and a ligamentous band
(retinaculum) running between the pisiform and the hook of hamate, and the scaphoid and the trapezium. Its role is to keep the flexor tendons close to the carpal bones as they pass over the wrist. The median nerve lies between the ligament and the flexor tendons. If the ligament shrinks or the tendons swell, pressure is put on the median nerve producing the following signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel.
*pin and needles
*pain in palm and forearm (may cause wasting of the thenar muscles).
*Carpal tunnel is often worse at night due to an accumulation of fluid in the arm and hand which puts more pressure on the median nerve.
In Chinese Medicine this is generally diagnosed as qi stagnation in the Heart and Pericardium Channels (down the inner soft surface of the arm).
The use of appropriate acupuncture points and techniques can help alleviate the signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel.
Phone your nearest qualified (AHPRA registered) acupuncturist today.
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1/185 Darby Street, Cooks Hill NSW Australia 2300
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How do electoral math differ from popular votes?
After the 2000 election one might think that everyone in the world understands how an American president is elected. For those who don’t remember or don’t understand, electors are allocated to each state based on how many congressmen and senators that state has. For example, South Dakota has one congressman and two senators, and is therefore entitled to 3 electoral votes. Therefore, with the total number of congressmen being 435 and there being 100 senators, along with three electors allocated by Constitutional amendment to Washington D.C., there are total of 538 electors.
So how far off from the popular vote could an electoral vote get? To figure this out, you need to know how many voters there are in each state and the number of electors per state. 270 electors can be gotten by winning evenly 50% of the votes in the 11 largest states in the Union. If the loser were to take 50%-1 vote in those states, plus all the votes in the other states, using 2008 voter information, the winner would need only 43 million votes, while the loser could have over 110 million, or 71% of all the votes. This is how President Bush won the election 2001 but lost the popular vote.
The electoral system almost always produces less dramatic results that do not mirror the popular vote. Let’s look at a few percentages:
>Year Who Winner Electoral Votes Loser Electoral Votes Percentage Electoral Win/Loss Winner Popular Votes Loser Popular Votes Percentage Popular Win/Loss
1904 Roosevelt v. Parker 336 140 70.6%/39.4 7,630,457 5,083,880 56.4%/37.6%
1908 Taft v. Bryan 321 162 66%/34% 7,678,395 6,408,984 51.6%/43.0%
1912 Wilson v. Roosevelt 435 88 82%/17% 6,296,284 4,122,721 41.8%/27.4%
1916 Wilson v. Hughes 277 254 52%/48% 9,126,868 8,548,728 49.2%/46.1%
1920 Harding v. Cox 404 127 76%/24% 16,144,093 9,139,661 60.3%/34.1%
1924 Collidge v. Davis/Follette 382 149 72%/28% 15,723,789 13,217,948 54%/45.4
1928 Hoover v. Smith 444 87 84%/16% 21,427,123 15,015,464 58.2%/40.8%
1932 Roosevelt v. Hoover 472 59 89%/11% 22,281,277 15,761,254 57.4%/39.7%
1936 Roosevelt v. Landon 523 8 98%/2% 27,752,648 16,681,862 61%/37%
1940 Roosevelt v. Wilkie 449 82 85%/15% 27,313,945 22,347,744 54.7%/44.7%
1944 Roosevelt v. Dewey 432 99 81%/19% 25,612,916 22,017,929 53.4%/45.9%
1948 Truman v. Dewey/Thurmond 303 228 57%/43% 24,179,347 23,167,222 49.6%/47.5%
1952 Eisenhauer v. Stevenson 442 89 83%/17% 34,075,529 27,375,090 55%/44%
1956 Eisenhauer v. Stevenson 457 73 86%/14% 35,579,180 26,028,028 57%/24%
1960 Kennedy v. Nixon 303 219 56.5%/40.9% 34,220,911 34,108,157 49.7%/49.6%
1964 Johnson v. Goldwater 486 52 90%/10% 43,127,041 27,175,754 61%/39%
1968 Nixon v. Humphrey/Wallace 301 191 + 96 56%/36%/18% 31,783,783 41,172,957 (total) 43.4%/56.2%
1972 Nixon v. McGovern 520 17 97%/3% 47,168,710 29,173,222 61%/38%
1976 Carter v. Ford 297 240 55%/45% 40,831,881 39,148,634 50.1%/48.0%
1980 Reagan v. Carter 489 49 91%/9% 43,903,230 35,480,115 50.7%/41.0%
1984 Reagan v. Mondale 525 13 98%/2% 54,455,472 37,577,352 59%/41%
1988 Bush v. Dukakis 426 111 79%/21% 48,886,597 41,809,476 53.4%/45.7%
1992 Clinton v. Bush 370 168 69%/31% 44,909,806 39,104,550 43%/37.5%
1996 Clinton v. Dole 379 159 70%/30% 47,401,185 39,197,469 49.2%/40.7%
2000 Bush v. Gore 271 266 50.4%/49.6% 50,456,002 50,999,897 47.9%/48.4%
2004 Bush v. Kerry 286 251 53%/47% 62,040,610 59,028,444 50.7%/48.3%
2008 Obama v. McCain 365 173 68%/32% 69,456,897 59,934,814[ 53%/46%
In this table, the closest the popular and electoral votes come together is in 1916, although Bush v. Kerry comes close.
So what do we learn from all of this? I see two key messages:
• The nature of the electoral voting system wildly distorts popular will in favor of each state getting at least some voice. This was, after all, the reason for its design.
• National polls are, at best, a finger in the wind, and may be entirely misleading.
What do you think of the electoral system?
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Taxation and Representation, Take 2
Voting Machines: Thank Heavens for Academia
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A Review of Accelerated Reader
a young student reading a book
Deborah Pendell/Moment/Getty Images
Accelerated Reader is essentially a three-step program. Students first read a book (fiction or nonfiction), magazine, textbook, etc. Students may read individually, as a whole group, or in small group settings. Students then individually take the quiz that corresponds to what they just read. AR quizzes are assigned a point value based on the overall level of the book.
Teachers often set weekly, monthly, or yearly goals for the number of points they require their students to earn. Students who score below 60% on the quiz do not earn any points. Students who score 60% - 99% receive partial points. Students who score 100% receive full points. Teachers then use the data generated by these quizzes to motivate students, monitor progress, and target instruction.
Accelerated Reader is Internet-based meaning that it can be accessed easily on any computer that has Internet access.
Accelerated Reader allows students to read on their own levels and to read at their own pace. It does not dictate which book a student reads. There are currently over 145,000 quizzes available to students. In addition, teachers may make their own quizzes for books that currently are not in the system or they may request that a quiz is made for a particular book. Quizzes are added continuously for new books as they come out.
Easy to Set Up
Motivates Students
Assesses Student Understanding
Uses the ATOS Level
Encourages Using the Zone of Proximal Development
Allows Parents to Monitor Progress
The program allows parents to do the following:
• Monitor a student’s progress towards reading goals.
• Conduct book searches.
• Review results, view the number of books read, words read, and quizzes passed.
Provides Teachers With Tons of Reports
Provides Schools With Technical Support
Accelerated Reader allows you to receive automatic software updates and upgrades. It provides live chat support to answer questions and provide immediate resolution to any issues or problems you have with the program.
Accelerated Reader also provides software and data hosting.
Accelerated Reader does not publish their overall cost for the program. However, each subscription is sold for a one-time school fee plus an annual subscription cost per student. There are several other factors that will determine the final cost of the programming including the length of the subscription and how many other Renaissance Learning programs your school has.
Overall Assessment
Accelerated Reader can be an effective technological tool for motivating and monitoring a student’s individual reading progress. One fact that can’t be ignored is the program’s immense popularity. Observations show that this program benefits many students, but the overuse of this program can also burn many students out. This speaks more to how the teacher is using the program than it does to the overall program itself.
The fact that the program allows teachers to quickly and easily assess whether a student has read a book and the level of understanding they have from the book is a valuable tool. Overall, the program is worth four out of five stars. Accelerated Reader can have immense benefits for younger students but can lack in maintaining its overall benefits as students get older. |
Wednesday 04 April 2012
complete blood count hemoglobin abnormal
Hemoglobin - Complete Blood Count
Blood loss and bone marrow suppression reduce total RBC count and therefore . Red blood cells with abnormal types of hemoglobin are often fragile and .
CBC: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
The CBC test also provides information about the following measurements: Average red blood cell size (MCV); Hemoglobin amount per red blood cell (MCH) .
Hemoglobin: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A blood . The hemoglobin test is almost always done as part of a complete blood count (CBC).
Complete Blood Count (CBC) Test, Values, and Interpretation ...
A complete blood count (CBC) measures the concentration of white blood cells, red . shortens life expectancy, is cause by an inherited abnormal hemoglobin.
Complete blood count - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A complete blood count (CBC), also known as full blood count (FBC) or full . Abnormally high or low counts may indicate the presence of many forms of . Hemoglobin - The amount of hemoglobin in the blood, expressed in grams per decilitre.
hemoglobin test - definition of hemoglobin test in the Medical ...
Hemoglobin is often ordered as part of a complete blood count (CBC), a test that . abnormal hemoglobins cause diseases, such as sickle cell or Hemoglobin C .
Complete Blood Count: The Test
Sep 6, 2011 . Describes how the complete blood count or CBC test is used, when the CBC . And in certain disease states, such as leukemia, abnormal and immature . They have hemoglobin inside them, a protein that transports oxygen .
Hemoglobin - What is Hemoglobin
Hemoglobin is a part of a Complete Blood Count (CBC) test. . in the diet, to serious, such as abnormal bleeding due to colon cancer or other health problems .
Hemoglobin Bart's and Alpha Thalassemia Fact Sheet - Washington ...
Examine baby for splenomegaly and do a complete blood count (CBC). ? If both are normal and no other hemoglobin abnormality other than Hemoglobin Bart's .
Cepmed - Promoting the Practice and Science of Personalized ...
When a CBC is abnormal the next step is a blood test that looks specifically for hemoglobin abnormalities. There are many kinds of normal and abnormal .
routine CBC abnormalities? hematocrit, hemoglobin & rbc all low?
Oct 2, 2011 . Does anyone else have routine below normal CBC results for hematocrit, hemoglobin and RBC? As I posted in my earlier thread today .
Complete Blood Count (CBC) Glossary of Terms with Medical ...
Complete Blood Count (CBC) medical glossary includes a list of Complete Blood Count (CBC) . Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled . Hemoglobin forms an unstable, reversible bond with oxygen.
Hemoglobin C Disease - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment of ...
Feb 8, 2012 . Hemoglobin C is an abnormal type of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood . Complete blood count; Hemoglobin electrophoresis · Peripheral .
Approach to the abnormal CBC
Always repeat counts to establish validity of abnormality, and its . Erythrocytosis. (Elevated hemoglobin or hematocrit). 1. . Confirm abnormal CBC. ? Include .
Complete Blood Count (CBC) - DeafMD.org
The CBC is one of the most common types of blood test. . Abnormal hemoglobin levels may be a sign of anemia, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, or other blood .
Hemogram (CBC)
The hemogram or complete blood count (CBC) is used as a broad screening . in conditions where the hemoglobin is abnormally diluted inside the red cells, .
Immune System
The most common blood test used is called a complete blood count, aka a CBC. . Common causes of an abnormally low hemoglobin: anemia iron deficiency .
Hemoglobinopathy Profile sickle cell test abnormal hemoglobin blood
sickle cell test looks for the presence or absence of abnormal hemoglobin in the . also be ordered along with or following an abnormal CBC and blood smear, .
Complete Blood Count - Tests and Procedures - Women's Heart ...
Jan 21, 2011 . A complete blood count, often referred to as a CBC, provides detailed . Women tend to have lower red blood cell counts and hemoglobin and . A low WBC can signal bone-marrow abnormalities, liver problems, other .
Complete Blood Count
The Complete Blood Count (CBC) test is an automated count of the cells in the . are seen in conditions where the hemoglobin is abnormally diluted inside the .
Pregnancy: Physiologic Changes and Laboratory Values | Nursing ...
Maternal bleeding may be indicated by falling hemoglobin and hematocrit or abnormal CBC (complete blood count); signs and symptoms of placental abruption, .
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“Can we do neo-geography this lesson?” asked a student today. Well no because it was supposed to be History. Nevertheless I’ve decided that I’d like my Year 7 students to be able to create an original map by the end of the term using Google Earth/Maps. The kind of map I envisage could include for example:
Hazards on way to school
Land-use in a rural area
Micro-climate study
Affective mapping of local area
Geo-located poems photos or artwork
Geo-located story
Guide for local visitors
A parkour / BMX / skate map
A “know-where” hang out map
A best dog walking route
For example:
map link
Thinking about the skill progression required to elevate younger students into fully qualified neo-geographers would go something like this: (some of the steps require just a few minutes to consolidate, others would need a lesson or two) Google Earth / Maps required!
1. Find a place / use postcode look-up / search box
2. Create a placemark / select appropriate icon
3. Measure distance using ruler – e.g from home to school
4. Create a path e.g from home to school
5. Collaborate with others e.g. save placemarks / paths to a shared folder / collaboration tool in My Maps
6. Organise the Places folder
7. Use layers to add information to the map e.g roads / Wikipedia / Panoramio / 3d buildings / real-time data e.g weather / earthquakes
8. Be able to turn terrain on and off and adjust exaggeration
9. Take a photo with a phone / digital camera and upload to Flickr (issues in some schools – need for parent’s permission?)
10. Add photos to a place mark (from Flickr etc) using img tag (from Flickr) <img src=” replace this text with the link to the photo “> and use You Tube embed code to add video
11. Create multimedia tours / be able to adjust tour settings
12. Add polygons to represent land use / data etc. Be able to adjust colour and opacity
13. Be able to import data from GPS (optional)
14. Create simple geo-located graphs using Google Spreadsheets or even easier, Rich Chart Live (see this post)
15. Complete a decision-making exercise using multiple data sources e.g my San Francisco lesson
16. Understand relative advantages / disadvantages of different mapping systems for example by using Where’s The Path?
17. Create a Google account (with parent’s permission) and be familiar with My Maps
18. Create an original map as a final assignment. More able students could create Sketch Up models / use GE Graph / create overlays to demonstrate advanced neo-geography skills.
The core geographical concepts are based on location, scale and place. Students should be able to collect field data and create a map for a real audience. The learning sequence offers the opportunity for some highly personalised, participatory geography. The best outcomes would see students sharing their work on a blog or some other public community. Any thoughts? |
MOZAMBIQUE GEOGRAPHY Total area: 801,590 km2; land area: 784,090 km2 Comparative area: slightly less than twice the size of California Land boundaries: 4,571 km total; Malawi 1,569 km, South Africa 491 km, Swaziland 105 km, Tanzania 756 km, Zambia 419 km, Zimbabwe 1,231 km Coastline: 2,470 km Maritime claims: Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; Territorial sea: 12 nm Climate: tropical to subtropical Terrain: mostly coastal lowlands, uplands in center, high plateaus in northwest, mountains in west Natural resources: coal, titanium Land use: arable land 4%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and pastures 56%; forest and woodland 20%; other 20%; includes irrigated NEGL% Environment: severe drought and floods occur in south; desertification PEOPLE Population: 15,113,282 (July 1991), growth rate 4.6% (1991); note--900,000 Mozambican refugees in Malawi (1990 est.) Birth rate: 46 births/1,000 population (1991) Death rate: 17 deaths/1,000 population (1991) Net migration rate: 17 migrants/1,000 population (1991) Infant mortality rate: 134 deaths/1,000 live births (1991) Life expectancy at birth: 46 years male, 49 years female (1991) Total fertility rate: 6.4 children born/woman (1991) Nationality: noun--Mozambican(s); adjective--Mozambican Ethnic divisions: majority from indigenous tribal groups; Europeans about 10,000, Euro-Africans 35,000, Indians 15,000 Religion: indigenous beliefs 60%, Christian 30%, Muslim 10% Language: Portuguese (official); many indigenous dialects Literacy: 33% (male 45%, female 21%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.) Labor force: NA, but 90% engaged in agriculture Organized labor: 225,000 workers belong to a single union, the Mozambique Workers' Organization (OTM) GOVERNMENT Long-form name: Republic of Mozambique Type: republic Capital: Maputo Administrative divisions: 10 provinces (provincias, singular--provincia); Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Nampula, Niassa, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia Independence: 25 June 1975 (from Portugal) Constitution: 30 November 1990 Legal system: based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law National holiday: Independence Day, 25 June (1975) Executive branch: president, prime minister, Cabinet Legislative branch: unicameral Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da Republica) Judicial branch: People's Courts at all levels Leaders: Chief of State--President Joaquim Alberto CHISSANO (since 6 November 1986); Head of Government--Prime Minister Mario da Graca MACHUNGO (since 17 July 1986) Political parties and leaders: Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO)--formerly a Marxist organization with close ties to the USSR--was the only legal party before 30 November 1990 when the new Constitution went into effect establishing a multiparty system; note--the government has announced that multiparty elections will be held in 1991; parties such as the Liberal Democratic Party of Mozambique (PALMO), the Mozambique National Union (UNAMO), and the Mozambique National Movement (MONAMO) have already emerged Suffrage: universal adult at age 18 Elections: electoral law--to be ratified in 1991--will provide for periodic, direct presidential and Assembly elections Communists: about 200,000 FRELIMO members; note--FRELIMO no longer considers itself a Communist party Member of: ACP, AfDB, CCC, ECA, FAO, FLS, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, ITU, LORCS, NAM, OAU, SADCC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WMO Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Hipolito PATRICIO; Chancery at Suite 570, 1990 M Street NW, Washington DC 20036; telephone (202) 293-7146; US--Ambassador Townsend B. FRIEDMAN, Jr.; Embassy at Avenida Kenneth Kuanda, 193 Maputo (mailing address is P. O. Box 783, Maputo); telephone 258 (1) 49-27-97, 49-01-67, 49-03-50 Flag: three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an open white book ECONOMY Overview: One of Africa's poorest countries, with a per capita GDP of little more than $100, Mozambique has failed to exploit the economic potential of its sizable agricultural, hydropower, and transportation resources. Indeed, national output, consumption, and investment declined throughout the first half of the 1980s because of internal disorders, lack of government administrative control, and a growing foreign debt. A sharp increase in foreign aid, attracted by an economic reform policy, has resulted in successive years of economic growth since 1985. Agricultural output, nevertheless, is at about only 75% of its 1981 level, and grain has to be imported. Industry operates at only 20-40% of capacity. The economy depends heavily on foreign assistance to keep afloat. GDP: $1.6 billion, per capita $110; real growth rate 5.0% (1989 est.) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 22.9% (1990 est.) Unemployment rate: 50% (1989 est.) Budget: revenues $186 million; expenditures $239 million, including capital expenditures of $208 million (1988 est.) Exports: $90 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.); commodities--shrimp 48%, cashews 21%, sugar 10%, copra 3%, citrus 3%; partners--US, Western Europe, GDR, Japan Imports: $764 million (c.i.f., 1989 est.), including aid; commodities--food, clothing, farm equipment, petroleum; partners--US, Western Europe, USSR External debt: $5.1 billion (1990 est.) Industrial production: growth rate 5% (1989 est.) Electricity: 2,265,000 kW capacity; 1,740 million kWh produced, 120 kWh per capita (1989) Industries: food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), petroleum products, textiles, nonmetallic mineral products (cement, glass, asbestos), tobacco Agriculture: accounts for 90% of the labor force, 50% of GDP, and about 90% of exports; cash crops--cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, shrimp; other crops--cassava, corn, rice, tropical fruits; not self-sufficient in food Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $350 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $3.8 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $37 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $890 million Currency: metical (plural--meticais); 1 metical (Mt) = 100 centavos Exchange rates: meticais (Mt) per US$1--1,700 (November 1990), 800.00 (1989), 528.60 (1988), 289.44 (1987), 40.43 (1986), 43.18 (1985) Fiscal year: calendar year COMMUNICATIONS Railroads: 3,288 km total; 3,140 km 1.067-meter gauge; 148 km 0.762-meter narrow gauge; Malawi-Nacala, Malawi-Beira, and Zimbabwe-Maputo lines are subject to closure because of insurgency Highways: 26,498 km total; 4,593 km paved; 829 km gravel, crushed stone, stabilized soil; 21,076 km unimproved earth Inland waterways: about 3,750 km of navigable routes Pipelines: 306 km crude oil (not operating); 289 km refined products Ports: Maputo, Beira, Nacala Merchant marine: 5 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 7,806 GRT/12,873 DWT Civil air: 5 major transport aircraft Airports: 197 total, 145 usable; 27 with permanent-surface runways; 1 with runways over 3,659 m; 5 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 27 with runways 1,220-2,439 m Telecommunications: fair system of troposcatter, open-wire lines, and radio relay; 57,400 telephones; stations--15 AM, 3 FM, 1 TV; earth stations--1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT and 3 domestic DEFENSE FORCES Branches: Mozambique Armed Forces (including Army, Naval Command, Air Defense Forces, Border Guards), Militia Manpower availability: males 15-49, 3,407,234; 1,957,123 fit for military service Defense expenditures: $NA, 8.4% of GDP (1987) |
Free Technology Choice
Microservices offer technological freedom. Since microservices only communicate via the network, they can be implemented in any language and platform as long as communication with other microservices is possible. This free technology choice can be used to test out new technologies without running big risks. As a test, one can use the new technology in a single microservice. If the technology does not perform according to expectations, only this one microservice has to be rewritten. In addition, problems arising from the failure will be limited.
The free technology choice means that developers really can use new technologies in production. This can have positive effects on both motivation and recruitment because developers typically enjoy using new technologies.
This choice also enables the most appropriate technology to be used for each problem. A different programming language or a certain framework can be used to implement specific parts of the system. It is even possible for an individual microservice to use a specific database or persistence technology, although in this situation, backup and disaster recovery mechanisms will need to be considered and implemented.
Free technology is an option—it does not have to be used. Technologies can also be imposed for all microservices in a project so that each microservice is bound to a specific technology stack. Compare this with a deployment monolith, which inherently narrows the choices developers have. For example, in Java applications, only one version of each library can be used. This means that not only the libraries used but even the versions used have to be set in a deployment monolith. Microservices do not impose such technical limitations.
Decisions regarding technology and putting new versions into production only concern individual microservices. This makes microservices very independent of each other, but there has to be some common technical basis. The installation of microservices should be automated, there should be a Continuous Delivery pipeline for each microservices, and microservices should adhere to the monitoring specifications. However, within these parameters microservices can implement a practically unlimited choice of technical approaches. Due to the greater technological freedom, less coordination between microservices is necessary.
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Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English Wikipedia has an article on:
From Ancient Greek κυβερνητικός (kubernētikós, good at steering, good pilot), from κυβερνάω (kubernáō, I steer, drive, guide, act as a pilot), possibly based on 1830s French cybernétique (the art of governing). The term was coined in 1948 by U.S. mathematician Norbert Wiener, influenced by the cognate term governor, an early control device.
• (UK) IPA(key): /ˌsaɪ.bə(ɹ)ˈnɛ.tɪks/
cybernetics (uncountable)
1. The theory/science of communication and control in the animal and the machine.
2. The art/study of governing, controlling automatic processes and communication.
3. Technology related to computers and Internet.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
See also[edit] |
Spring Writing, Week 13
We can learn a lot from a simple tool like a screw.
It’s week 13 of the semester.
Hour 1
Free writing (10)
Descriptions and Word Order (5)
Read critically.
• Read blue box page 127.
• Then read the watch story on page 132.
Describe the pattern of adjectives.
Patterns (5)
page 134.
Practice seeing (10)
Page 135-136 C and D.
A Practical Skill – Product Descriptions (15)
Writing product descriptions is a great job if you have the talent to make boring things sound interesting. There are heaps of part-time gigs for writers who can describe things for sale on Amazon, Spotify, and other platforms.
One trick is to write a story. Another trick is to use interesting descriptions with good adjectives.
Read this short article.
• What’s the story?
• What’s the topic?
• What’s the structure?
• What’s the purpose of this article?
• What’s the difference between a feature and a benefit? can you find one example of each in the article?
Hours 2-3
Writing drill (10)
Go to page 134 in the book.,
Write 10 descriptive sentences. Each sentence should have at least 3 adjectives.
Place the adjectives in the correct order.
More Product Descriptions (10)
Read the product descriptions on page 140.
What patterns of descriptions do you see?
What does a good product description have? (10)
Read the slide show.
Write an article (40)
You are going to write a short article about travel gear.
Page 141 has 2 pieces of gear. Add 2 more pieces of gear.
Think of a theme. Write a story with 4 product descriptions.
More Practice (20)
Watch this short TV commercial. It shows many differences in lifestyle and technology.
Make notes about 8–10 differences.
Describe the differences with clear language.
It’s not unusual.
Extra Work (10)
Page 146. Read and edit. Answers on page 246.
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Samantha Shapiro
Warren Montag, in his work, The “Workshop of Filthy Creation”: A Marxist Reading of Frankenstein, notes that a literary text, is a “node within a network” (469), perhaps a part of a whole. However, a literary text doesn’t merely have a place within history, but also develops meaning through readership, and shines a light on a collective readership. From this view, I interpret that Montag determined that Frankenstein’s creation was established as “the modern…singularity” of the masses, and thus indescribable due to breadth from the absence of the proletariat within the novel (480).
Through a defined and educating viewpoint, he unveils the tension and conflict in Frankenstein and his creation, basing the relationship between the two on a comparison of the new elites in the French and English revolutions “…[conjuring] up a monster that, once unleashed, could not be controlled” (471). He establishes tension created from the omissions in the text as a creation of a “world of effects without causes” (477).
Within his interpretation, the symbolism of the monster may hold true. However, the larger picture of history to me involves why and how a conflict was established, which can bring in human emotion. From Montag’s educating manner, the readers are neglected their ability to empathize with the creation/masses due distancing the reader from relating to the creation. While he notes there could be sympathy or pity, he fails to mention any other emotion, which is motif throughout the novel. Chapter Ten notes Victor’s change of emotions from seeing both nature, from grief to “rage and horror” from seeing the creation (92). The conflict between the two is characterized with rage and a lack of acceptance between one another, and Shelley does this through their dialogue. This expressive dialogue is seen with Victor exclaiming, “Begone, vile insect! or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!” or the creature responding, “Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me…How dare you sport thus with life?” (92). These elements that develop the complex relationship between the two could add more depth to the conflict between the two, but remains untouched. |
Harnessing the body’s electrical system to help it heal
, | | August 24, 2018
Scientists like Michael Levin of Tufts University have discovered that cellular charges control how and where a structure forms in a developing embryo. Even more surprising, he’s found that it’s possible to manipulate bodily forms just by changing the voltage patterns of its cells.
[Levin] recently spoke with Knowable Magazine about the state of bioelectric research and his thoughts on its future prospects. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What applications could this have in the medical world?
I think about that a lot. The most obvious ones are things like fixing birth defects. If we can understand and manipulate bioelectric signaling, we could potentially repair things that go wrong as an embryo forms.
Related article: Podcast: Glyphosate, cancer and clickbait: Epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat on how to spot junk science in the news
Another one is fighting cancer. There’s a fair amount of research being done now on bioelectric signals as both a cause and a potential suppressor of cancer cells. You can normalize certain tumors by exposing them to specific drugs that change their electrical potential.
A third area is regenerative medicine. If we can use electrical signaling to convince tissues and organs to grow after injury, we could replace entire structures or organs for patients. Bioelectricity gives you a great new set of control knobs with which to regulate cell behavior.
Read full, original post: Controlling electric signals in the body could help it heal
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Are You Nutritionally Fit? Nutrition Are You Nutritionally Fit?
Are You Nutritionally Fit?
A recent survey of nearly 700 Americans showed that 72 percent believe they are healthy eaters, yet government data proves otherwise. The USDA recently revealed that Americans get plenty of protein and carbohydrates, but often fall short on key nutrients such as magnesium, potassium and vitamins C and E. “Fifty years ago, we only recognized extreme cases of vitamin deficiencies, like scurvy, which is caused by a lack of vitamin C,” said Carroll Reider, MS, RD, Nature Made vitamins director of scientific affairs and education. “Science has advanced. We now know that even small amounts of vitamin deficiencies hurt us much more than people realize.”While most Americans appear well fed, a key question is Are you nutritionally fit? To assess your nutritional condition, Reider posed the following questions Do you shun the sun? People who wear sunscreen, live in northern climates or have darker skin may not receive optimal levels of vitamin D, which is made following exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and may also promote ovarian, breast, prostate, heart and colon health. Reider suggests 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily for people who spend most of their time indoors and those who don’t synthesize vitamin D easily, such as darker- skinned individuals and the elderly. Vitamin D food sources include milk and fatty types of fish; however, it is hard to achieve optimal intake through food alone. It is also available in supplement form.Do your meals lack color? Does dinner typically consist of meat, starch and the same green vegetable? For optimal health, add more colors to your diet. Vegetables such as steamed carrots, peppers and red cabbage add vibrant hues to the dinner plate while citrus wedges brighten the standard bed of greens. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables maximizes nutrient intake and provides antioxidants, which help fight free radicals that may cause premature aging. “A multivitamin formulated for your age and gender is also a good way to compensate for dietary imbalances,” Reider said.Is fish a regular dish? The American Heart Association recommends two servings of fish per week. Reider suggests salmon and tuna, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Some studies suggest omega-3 fatty acids may promote heart health. Other sources include walnuts, flaxseed or vitamins.
Are You Nutritionally Fit?
Are You Nutritionally Fit?Are You Nutritionally Fit? Nutrition Are You Nutritionally Fit? Are You Nutritionally Fit? Nutrition Are You Nutritionally Fit? HealthCheckr Rated 5 / 5 based on 431 reviews.
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How Much Protein Should You Eat? Nutrition personal health and grooming keep healthy through grooming good grooming best grooming
How Much Protein Should You Eat?
Don’t sacrifice your carbohydrates for a high protein diet, and think twice before “bulking up” those biceps with protein to look better at the gym. Your daily diet shouldn’t contain more than 30% protein ideally, because an excess of it will do you more harm than good. So says Gail Butterfield, Ph.D., director of Nutrition Studies at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Medical Center.Dr. Butterfield says that excess protein in your diet may have harmful effects. If you increase protein without adding more calories and exercise to your daily life, instead of building muscle mass you will put your other body systems under undue stress. And eating more protein while increasing calorie intake — but keeping at the same exercise levels — builds an equal amount of additional fat and muscle. Meanwhile, a diet where protein is more than 30% of your calorie intake causes a buildup of toxic ketones. A “ketogenic” diet, or one high in ketones, pushes your kidneys to excessively flush themselves free of toxins. This can cause you to lose a significant amount of water, which puts you at serious risk of dehydration, especially if you exercise heavily during your workouts.Such water loss will make it appear you’re losing weight, when in actuality you’re not. Plus you will be losing, not gaining, muscle mass and bone calcium from this ketogenic diet, while the stress of dehydration can also badly affect your heart. Dehydration from a ketogenic diet can make you dizzy and weak, give you bad breath, and lead to other health-related problems. This can be the result of a high-protein, low-carb “fad” diet – one that emphasizes proteins excessively.Actual protein deficiency is a very rare condition and is confined usually to elderly women or persons with eating disorders. Protein deficiency is defined as eating 50-75% of the recommended daily amount of protein. You should consume 0.36 grams of protein for every pound of your normal body weight, according to the US recommended daily allowance — or RDA — guides. And protein should make up about 15% of your daily caloric intake, not go well over 30% of it.Protein is absolutely required for your body’s normal functioning, as it helps synthesize your enzymes and hormones. It maintains your fluid balance and the building of antibodies against infections. It also is the basic building block for your muscles, bones, cartilage, skin, hair and blood, and is essential for the formation of all of the cells in your body You should eat protein-rich foods such as meat, cheese, milk, fish and eggs to get enough protein in your daily diet. You can also find protein in soy products, as well as in combinations of food such as rice or corn with beans, when it comes to vegetable proteins that you may consume.You should eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish and complex carbohydrates, not one heavy in protein alone. But protein is optimal for immune functioning, and you may need heavier amounts of it when injured or otherwise undergoing any serious healing processes.Proteins are made up of several different amino acids, some of which your body can make on its own. But some of them have to be ingested. These are called the “essential” amino acids. You must eat a variety of foods to make sure you’re getting all of your essential amino acids. Lack of these can cause growth failure, loss of muscle mass, decreased immune system functioning, weakening of the circulatory and respiratory systems – and even death.The most common source of protein in the American diet is meat, but milk and other dairy products are rich in it. To avoid too much fat with your protein, eat leaner cuts of meat, and cook without adding fat by baking, broiling, barbecuing or boiling your meat. By eating beans and lentils as well as a variety of vegetables and grains, you can add terrific sources of vegetable protein to your diet. Nuts and seeds are also great sources of non-animal protein.The average adult American needs eight grams of protein each day per twenty pounds of normal body weight. Yet we generally eat twice that much protein daily. If you balance your carbohydrates with your proteins, and eat a variety of foods to make sure you get all of the amino acids you need, you will be eating a healthy diet. You should also make sure you keep your diet low in fats, oils and refined sugars. Those substances have no proteins, and hardly any other nutrients, with one gram containing nine calories of energy. You do need some saturated and unsaturated fats in your food, every day. Unfortunately, “junk food” laden American eating habits tend to provide far too much of these fats.Your daily diet should contain no more than 30% total calories from fats, hopefully far less than that. The upper limit on the amount of fat in your diet will depend on how many calories you need to maintain your weight, and cutting back on fat can help you consume fewer calories. But some dietary fat is needed for good health. It supplies energy and the essential fatty acids, which like the essential amino acids can only be gleaned from your consumption of certain foods. Fats also promote absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.High levels of saturated fat and cholesterol are linked to increased blood cholesterol and put you at risk for heart disease. Fat is also associated with protein-rich food such as meat and dairy products. So you should lower the daily amount of protein and fat that you consume to an acceptable level, while raising the amount of complex carbohydrates you consume to at least 50% of your daily calorie intake. This will ensure that you are eating a proper and not a “fad” — or risky to your health – diet every day. Eating meals and snacks rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, as well as some high protein and certain “fatty” foods, will help you to obtain your desired weight and to keep fit — not fat.
How Much Protein Should You Eat?
How Much Protein Should You Eat?How Much Protein Should You Eat? Nutrition personal health and grooming keep healthy through grooming good grooming best grooming How Much Protein Should You Eat? Nutrition personal health and grooming keep healthy through grooming good grooming best grooming HealthCheckr Rated 5 / 5 based on 431 reviews.
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An urban design tool powering the development of safer streets.
Made by Ravi Seethapathy
Cities have been built around automobiles over the last century. With climate change and population growth, urban designers know we need to promote other modes of transportation. New York City is a great example where cars, public transportation, bikes, and pedestrians all share the same space.
URBN helps urban designers identify and update streets for safety and efficiency. By tying into the goals projected for the city, it helps the urban designer identify particular locations quickly, project potential conflicts, and resolve them easily.
Process Book
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Slavery, Psychology, and Bibi’s Or Hachaim: A Vort for Parshas Shemos
titleBritish psychologist Steve Taylor describes a phenomenon he discovered in his research which he calls, SITE – “Suffering Induced Transformational Experiences”. Taylor found that individuals who went through painful experiences (medical, emotional, loss, etc.) would often emerge from them with a new state of being which included, “increased well-being, intensified perception, a sense of connection, improved relationships, a less materialistic and more altruistic attitude, decreased cognitive activity, and reduced fear of death”.
Taylor’s discovery also explains the silver lining of our slavery in Egypt. In one of the most powerful pesukim in this week’s parsha, the painful abuse of the Egyptians is described: וְכַאֲשֶׁר יְעַנּוּ אֹתוֹ, כֵּן יִרְבֶּה וְכֵן יִפְרֹץ, But the more they afflicted them so did they multiply and so did they spread. On a simple level, the Torah tells us that in spite of the harsh treatment of the Jewish nation, they continued to increase in numbers.
mendelevichHowever, the Or Hachaim, commenting on the pasuk, tells us that this pasuk actually describes the mechanism of Taylor’s SITE long before he coined the term. כֵּן יִרְבֶּה וְכֵן יִפְרֹץ do not only connote growth in numbers, they also refer to becoming great and growing spiritually stronger. The Or Hachaim says that the pasuk is teaching us that the more painful and traumatic the affliction of the Egyptians to the Jews was, the stronger the Jewish nation grew in spirit and identity. Indeed, the Hebrews who came forth from Egypt had the greatest “Suffering Induced Transformational Experience” in history – they transformed into Jews. This type of transformation began in Egypt and has continued throughout Jewish history. Our survival for so many millennia is intimately tied to the incredible strength our people draws from the difficult chapters of our history. In fact, when Bibi Netanyahu spoke to the Grand Synagogue of Paris (skip to 10:50) , following the horrific terrorist attacks against the Jewish community, he actually quoted this pasuk and used it for this same message (I don’t think he realized he was being mechavein to the words of the Or Hachaim).
Yosef Mendelevitch, the famed prisoner of zion, spent years in the Soviet gulag. He recounted that at one point in his imprisonment he decided to start cutting kippa-shaped pieces of clothe from his uniform and put them on his head. Every time he did so he was severely beaten by the guards; but he would do it again nonetheless. It came to the point that he had holes all over his uniform from so many kippot. One day he heard the guards talking among themselves. The name Mendelevitch came up. One of the guards commented, “there is nothing we can do to him – he’s a free man already”.
paris6206The stubborn ability of Jews to grow from their suffering was not only the secret to our freedom from Egypt, it is the key to our freedom for eternity. Only when we see our national and personal hardships as a part of a “Transformational Experience” to better, more altruistic people and a freer, more connected nation will we truly receive the blessing – כֵּן יִרְבֶּה וְכֵן יִפְרֹץ |
How did oil come to run our world?
The first recorded uses of oil: 3,000 BC
We are not the first people in history to exploit oil as a resource. Some of the earliest civilisations relied heavily on oil.
Crude oil that had bubbled to the surface was used by the ancient people of the Middle East. The Babylonians – modern day Iraqis – used oil to waterproof their boats and as mortar in building construction. The Egyptians also used oil in the preparation of mummies to help preserve corpses. However it would be a long time before the full potential of this mysterious black substance would be understood, or exploited.
The modern oil industry is born: 1859
The oil industry as we know it began in the mid-19th Century with the discovery of the world’s first commercially viable oil well in the USA.
It came at a time when emerging technology created new products from oil. One product, kerosene, became popular as a cheap, clean fuel for lighting homes. A few years later, America’s first commercial oil well was created at Titusville, Pennsylvania when a new technique was pioneered using a pipeline to line the bore holes to allow deeper drilling. The success of the well, plus a demand for kerosene, triggered an oil rush and began a major new industry.
Oil is used to fuel motor cars: 1885
The demand for oil really accelerated with the invention of the motor car.
German engineer Karl Benz invented the first motor car in 1885. This new vehicle ran on a cheap by-product of the kerosene production process called gasoline. The demand for gasoline rose dramatically after Henry Ford made good his promise to create a car that anyone could afford with the Model T in 1908.
First oil discovered in an Arab nation: 1908
As car ownership grew so did the demand for oil to make the gasoline used as fuel. At this time oil was also discovered in the Middle East.
Soon other reserves were found across the region. Middle Eastern nations lacked the technology and knowledge to extract oil. This led to Western companies securing oil exploration and extraction rights for a relative pittance. Middle Eastern production would develop to provide over 60% of the world’s supply.
WW1 shows how much the world depended on oil: 1914-1918
With the outbreak of a global war, WW1 showed how important oil was to the defence of the nation. It was needed for tanks, trucks and warships.
The run up to WW1 saw a naval arms race as the world’s superpowers updated and expanded their navies. Modern warships were converted from coal-burners to run on oil as it allowed them to move faster and stay at sea for longer. Oil was one of the few resources the British Empire did not produce and access to Middle Eastern oil became a strategic priority. Rival nations also rushed to secure their own sources of oil.
Post-war carve up of Middle East oil: 1944
After the end of WW2, post-war leaders knew that oil was an important commodity. The control of oil had been a key factor in who won the war.
Even during WW2, Roosevelt and Churchill had been eyeing the growing oil reserves of the Middle East. On August 8, 1944, the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement was signed, dividing Middle Eastern oil between the US and the UK. Roosevelt said, “Persian oil… is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it’s ours.” However this arrangement did not include the people of the countries concerned.
The Suez Canal crisis: 1956
In the 1950s the balance of power shifted as the Middle East began to realise its power. This shift became apparent to Britain during the Suez Crisis.
Britain used the Suez Canal as an import route for Middle Eastern oil. When Egypt regained the canal, not only was it a blow to British pride and power but it also saw Britain pay a higher price for oil. Other oil-producing nations began to exert their influence. As Western nations’ dependency on oil increased, Middle Eastern nations realised the strength of their bargaining position and renegotiated existing deals with Western oil companies for a greater share of the oil profits.
The world’s first oil crisis: 1973
Arab oil producers wielded their power even further when they used their control of oil to influence the political agenda.
In 1973, the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries instigated a Western oil embargo following American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War against Egypt and Syria. Oil supplies became scarce and prices nearly quadrupled. Around the world, economies were damaged and Western governments began to explore other sources of oil to break the Middle Eastern stranglehold on crucial supplies.
North Sea oil comes ashore for the first time: 1975
Some freedom from Middle Eastern oil worries came with the discovery of oil reserves deep below the surface of the North Sea.
After a decade of oil exploration and substantial investment, on 3 November 1975 North Sea oil flowed for the first time. A pipeline serving the Forties Field ran from Cruden Bay in the north-east of Scotland to Grangemouth. The increasingly high oil price helped make extraction of expensive North Sea crude oil profitable. This boosted the UK government’s coffers but it did not free the nation from its dependency on Middle Eastern oil.
The Gulf War: 1990
The West was still very dependent on Middle Eastern oil. This became most evident when Iraq invaded Kuwait and captured its oil fields.
A long-running dispute between Iraq and Kuwait over territory and ownership of oil fields led Iraq to invade Kuwait in August 1990. The occupying Iraqi forces set fire to over 700 Kuwaiti oil fields. After the failure of diplomatic talks with Iraqi leaders, a US-led coalition of forces liberated Kuwait and occupied Iraq. Keeping oil supplies flowing was a major strategic objective.
American fracking revolution: 1998
The West has continued to seek new methods of oil extraction. One technique in particular – fracking – is a major development.
The pumping of high pressure fluids into the ground fractures – or ‘fracks’ – oil-bearing rocks allowing the oil to be extracted. Encouraged by government money and high oil prices, fracking became profitable. US oil production flourished and resulted in a sharp fall in oil imports from the Middle East. Other nations, such as the UK, are also exploring options to frack oil and gas from their domestic fields.
The oil price collapse: 2015
Today the price of oil has dropped. Middle Eastern nations are again using oil – this time in a trade war to damage other oil-supplying nations.
The global recession has triggered a drop in demand for oil. Rather than reduce oil supplies, the Arab oil-producing nations have maintained production levels and let the price fall. The intention was to damage rival oil producers, such as the USA oil frackers, Russia and North Sea oil, most of whom depend on high oil prices to remain profitable. By the end of 2014 the price of oil had dropped by over 40% and investment in new oil ventures by Western companies was being cut.
Source: BBC |
Hw 10 Flashcard Example #6284
What determines the level of output in the long-run classical model?
capital, labor, productivity
Which of the following would tend to increase the natural rate of unemployment
more college graduates entering the labor force
Welfare reforms enacted in 1996 put more pressure on welfare recipients to look for work. The new law mandated cutting off benefits
the natural rate of unemployment and the unemployment rate are likely to increase
What determines the real interest rate in the long-run classical model?
savings and investment
Which of the following is a source of frictional unemployment
The time it takes to search for jobs that best matches one’s skills
Structural unemployment exists because
technological changes make the skills of the workers incompatible with the skills used on the job
The natural rate of unemployment
includes frictional and structural unemployment, is the unemployment rate that exists when the quantity of labor demanded is equal to the quantity of labor supplied
In the long run, unemployment will be at the natural state. This implies that
there is no relationship between unemployment and inflation and consequently, the Phillips curve is vertical
What does the phrase “jobless recovery” refer to?
It refers to a recovery from a recession which does not produce strong growth in employment
What determines prices and inflation in the long-run classical model?
money supply
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a person who is not working and is not looking for work is
not a member of the labor force
People who are in the process of changing jobs are counted as
frictionally unemployed
Which of the following is true of the economy in the long run?
In the long run, real GDP eventually moves to potential because all wages and prices are assumed to be flexible. The economy can achieve its natural level of employment and potential output at any price level, there is no cyclical unemployment
The labor force is made up of
those who are employed plus those who are unemployed
The natural level of employment occurs if there is no
cyclical unemployment
Unemployment that results from a mismatch between worker qualifications and the characteristics employers require is called
Cyclical unemployment
occurs only during a recession
Which of the following reduces the duration of frictional unemployment?
establishing unemployment agencies which give out information about job vancancies
What do economists mean by the term “sticky wage”?
It refers to a wage that is slow to adjust to its equilibrium level, creating sustained periods of shortage or surplus in the labor market
A number of semi-skilled workers in an industry find themselves out of work when improvements in technology render their jobs obsolete. These workers experience
Structural unemployment
Which of the following individuals would not be included in the labor force
Kit, who has retired and is not looking for work
The long-run aggregate supply curve is upward sloping rather than vertical in the short run due to
sticky wages
The long run in macroeconomics is a period in which wages and prices are flexible and there is full market adjustment
According to Okun’s law
an increase in real GDP growth above trend, will lower unemployment
Which of the following is a source of wage stickiness
Fixed wage contracts, minimum wage laws, workers and firms want to avoid complexity of negotiating contracts frequently
In general, the duration of job search will be shorter if
unemployment compensation benefits decrease
Which of the following is an example of structural unemployment
A geologist who is permanently laid off from an oil company due to a new technological advance
If the population of the united states is 260 million, the labor force is 130 million, and 120 million workers are employed,
The natural rate of unemployment
equals the sum of frictional and structural unemployment
For a given labor force, an increase in real GDP implies a decrease in unemployment.
According to classical marginal productivity, workers are paid
The value of their marginal product
Suppose that product prices start rising but nominal wages do not. In that case,
real wages will fall and firms will want to produce more because doing so will be profitable.
Consider the following: A country’s frictional unemployment rate is 3%, the natural unemployment rate is 5.5%, and the cyclical unemployment rate is 2.45. Calculate the structural unemployment rate and the unemployment rate
Structural unemployment rate = 2.5%; the unemployment rate =7.9%
Wage and price stickiness
prevents the economy from producing its potential level of real GDP
An unemployed person is
a person without a job who is actively seeking and available for work
The vertical long-run aggregate supply curve implies that shifts in aggregate
change prices only
The Philips curve implies a positive relationship between inflation and unemployment
The long-run Phillips curve shows an inverse relation between inflation and unemployment
If more people find jobs, the unemployment will definitely fall
What’s meant by the NAIRU (Natural Rate of Unemployment)?
It is the full-employment unemployment rate, it is the unemployment rate at which there is only frictional and structural unemployment, it is the unemployment rate at which the labor market has fully adjusted
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National / History | JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Japan Times 1944: Kamikaze Attack Corps lives up to its name
Saturday, Nov. 1 1919
Bomb explosion at the Foreign Office
At five o’clock yesterday evening, what is thought to be a bomb exploded in a ditch near the Foreign Office.
Shortly before the explosion, a passerby noticed a blue flame in the ditch, near a side gate, and called it to the attention of the policeman in the police box near the Foreign Office.
The policeman and two other men hastened to the spot and were peering into the ditch when the explosion incurred with a loud report.
The men had a narrow escape, as the policeman’s cap was torn to shreds but no one suffered any injury, except being made deaf for the time being.
Some damage was caused in the immediate vicinity of the spot where the explosion took place, and houses in the neighborhood were badly shaken up.
Friday, June 9, 1944
Kamikaze Attack Corps lives up to name
Determined to follow in the footsteps of the First Special Kamikaze Attack Corps, the men of the Second Special Kamikaze Attack Corps hopped off from their base at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27 and successfully fulfilled their glorious mission of crash-diving on the enemy task force in Leyte Gulf.
Prior to its departure, the Air Corps led by a certain first-lieutenant under Commander K. was named the Second Special Kamikaze Attack Corps. The units attached to the corps were designated the Chuyu (Courage), Giretsu (Gallantry), Junchu (Pure Loyalty), Shisei (Sincerity) and Seichu (Unswerving Loyalty). The first-lieutenant who was to lead the units was 25 years old, while the youngest of the group was not older than 19.
In a farewell message to these members, the commander said:
“No real fighters expect to return safely. Even our enemies fight at the risk of their lives, but such deeds of bravery and patriotism as using their own bodies as bullets are beyond the comprehension of the enemy.
“Such superb spirit and peerless loyalty embedded in the Japanese enable them to fight in a valiant way worthy of the fighting men of the Divine Land. You officers and men are the incarnation of the sublime loyalty worth of “Divine Warriors.”
The corps commander’s final instructions to the men were:
“You are all going to your death. It will be a grave mistake to think that the enemy fighter planes do not matter. Although our covering fighter units will protect you against the enemy fighters until the final plunge is directed against the enemy’s task force, your bodies are of priceless value. It will be a dog’s death if you die before you are directly above the enemy ships. You must be on the lookout for enemy fighters. Keep vigilant watch as you go.”
The men simultaneously nodded their heads. They could not die until their objective was attained. Till then their bodies were precious. The final objective was to self-blast against the enemy ships.
After watching their comrades zooming down with their planes for the final attack, those left behind are as grimly and as resolutely determined that they, too, will wing their way through the skies and strike furiously and unerringly to fulfill their mission of becoming the “divine wind.”
Sunday, Nov. 9, 1969
Man missing for years found hiding in cave
A 74-year-old man missing from his home in Aomori Prefecture for the past 32 years has been discovered living in a cave outside Nara.
Toyosaburo Sasaki, a former fisherman, however, refuses to leave his second home dug out on the side of a tomb mound in Taima, Kitakatsuragi-gun, in Nara.
He disappeared from his home shortly after he was questioned by police on suspicion of setting fire to a farmhouse in his home village.
The fire destroyed four farmhouses and damaged a fifth.
The Japanese Rip Van Winkle has lived in the cave, about 3 meters tall and 2 meters deep, for the past 10 years.
Villagers of Taima saw him come out from the wooded area almost daily to beg for food, clothing and other alms, but no one knew exactly where he lived.
He was discovered last week in the cave by policemen who were searching the area in connection with the forthcoming visit of Prince Hiro to Nara.
The policeman questioned the man, who is hard of hearing, by jotting down questions on a pad and found that his address was Kushihiki, Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture.
Further inquiry revealed that he left his home in 1937, shortly after police questioned him on suspicion of arson.
His wife, Chiku, 68, and second son, Toyokatsu, 49, a fisherman, still live in Hachinohe.
Toyokatsu, alerted by the police, came to meet his father but he refused to go home, saying, “I am more comfortable this way.”
Thursday, Nov. 10, 1994
Cat-repelling bottles attract fires instead
A clear plastic bottle filled with water and placed on a wall to repel cats caused a fire in Tokyo, prompting the Fire Defense Agency to issue a warning against placing the bottles near combustible materials.
The blaze in Edogawa Ward began around noon Nov. 1 after the bottle focused sunlight on discarded lumber leaning against the wall about 3 centimeters away, agency officials said. A neighbor extinguished the fire.
The agency confirmed that the bottle was the cause of the fire through an experiment run under similar conditions, the officials said.
The 64-year-old woman who resides at the site said she used the bottle to keep cats away from the area.
Plastic bottles like those used to sell mineral water or soft drinks are refilled with water and placed in front of houses or on fences to repel cats, who are reportedly frightened by the diffused light.
Compiled by Elliott Samuels. In this feature, we delve into The Japan Times’ 123-year archive to present a selection of stories from the past. The Japan Times’ archive is now available in digital format. For more details, see
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
ISBN: 1788282507
EAN13: 9781788282505
Language: English
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.00 lbs.
Format: Paperback
Book Overview
To escape from his violent and drunken father, a 13-year-old boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Huckleberry Finn, fakes his own death and floats away on a raft down the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave. In a series of unforgettable adventures narrated by Huck, they encounter a cross-section of characters from slave-hunters, and con men to feuding aristocrats. This was the first major American novel to be written in the vernacular, a dark and funny satire that exposes the bigotry and hypocrisy of provincial America during Mark Twain's lifetime. |
v. reached, reach·ing, reach·es
1. To stretch out or put forth (a body part); extend: reached out an arm.
2. To touch or grasp by stretching out or extending: can't reach the shelf.
3. To arrive at; attain: reached their destination; reached a conclusion.
a. To succeed in getting in contact with or communicating with: They reached us by phone. Our newsletter reaches a specialized readership.
b. To succeed in having an effect on: No one seems able to reach her anymore.
a. To extend as far as: The property reaches the shore.
b. To project as far as: A distant cry reached our ears.
c. To travel as far as: a long fly ball that reached the stadium's wall.
6. To aggregate or amount to: Sales reached the millions.
7. Informal To grasp and hand over to another: Reach me the sugar.
a. To have extension in space or time: a coat that reaches to the knee; a career that reached over several decades.
b. To have an influence or effect: a philosophy that reaches into many disciplines.
c. To make an effort to address the needs of a group or community. Often used with out: a program to reach out to disengaged youth.
3. Nautical To sail with the wind abeam.
1. The act or an instance of stretching or thrusting out: The frog caught the insect with a sudden reach of its tongue.
2. The extent or distance something can reach: a boxer with a long reach.
a. Range of understanding; comprehension: a subject beyond my reach.
b. Range or scope of influence or effect: the reach of the transmitter. See Synonyms at range.
4. often reaches
a. An expanse of land or water, such as a stretch of water visible between bends in a river or channel.
b. A rank or level in a social group or organization: the lower reaches of society.
5. A pole connecting the rear axle of a vehicle with the front.
6. Nautical The tack of a sailing vessel with the wind abeam.
[Middle English rechen, from Old English rǣcan; see reig- in Indo-European roots.]
reach′a·ble adj.
reach′er n.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.reaching - the act of physically reaching or thrusting outreaching - the act of physically reaching or thrusting out
outreach - the act of reaching out; "the outreach toward truth of the human spirit"
2.reaching - accomplishment of an objectivereaching - accomplishment of an objective
accomplishment, achievement - the action of accomplishing something
attainment - arrival at a new stage; "his attainment of puberty was delayed by malnutrition"
advent, coming - arrival that has been awaited (especially of something momentous); "the advent of the computer"
References in classic literature ?
My whole soul was so bent upon reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness toward the hotel-keeper.
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, I presented myself before the head teacher for an assignment to a class.
I now felt that in our present situation it was in vain for us to think of ever overcoming the obstacles in our way, and I gave up all thoughts of reaching the vale which lay beyond this series of impediments; while at the same time I could not devise any scheme to extricate ourselves from the difficulties in which we were involved.
The remotest idea of returning to Nukuheva, unless assured of our vessel's departure, never once entered my mind, and indeed it was questionable whether we could have succeeded in reaching it, divided as we were from the bay by a distance we could not compute, and perplexed too in our remembrance of localities by our recent wanderings.
That evening, on reaching Paris, I saw Monsieur Cassette, dealer in walking-sticks and umbrellas, and wrote to my friend:
"If Musqueton were with us," observed Athos, on reaching the spot where they had had a dispute with the paviers, "how he would tremble at passing this!
The only chance of scaling it was by broken masses of rock, piled one upon another, which formed a succession of crags, reaching nearly to the summit. |
How and Why to Talk About Mental Health
Updated on June 3, 2018
Ezria Copper profile image
My game plan is to research, condense my findings, and translate it into everyday language for busy people.
How We Talk About Mental Health
The Stigma
People avoid talking about mental health for a variety of reasons, including stigma surrounding the issue, fear, and a general uncertainty about what to say. However, as long as the subject is taboo, the recovery of people suffering from mental health problems may be hindered. People often react with anger, shame, or embarrassment when asked about mental health.
People throw around phrases like "crazy," "nut," "whack-job," "fruitcake," etc. These terms are used to insult people we don't agree with, and the slurs suggest that these people have mental health problems. The fact that these terms are used as insults demonstrates how some view mental illness as a character defect or flaw to be looked down upon—when in fact it is a medical condition requiring clinical attention.
We don't stigmatize people with cancer, liver disease, diabetes, or heart disease and we shouldn't for those living with mental illness—after all it is a brain disease. Ultimately, remarks like these hurt and they keep people from seeking help.
— Dan Reidenberg, Executive Director of SAVE (suicide awareness organization)
Talking About Mental Health
One of the ways to challenge stigma against mental health is to have conversations about mental health. It can be a way to allow other people to think about their perceptions and/or stereotypes of mental health. People have no problem talking about their physical health. However mental health is just as important as physical health even though it is often a topic swept under the rug because of the stigma surrounding it. When you talk about mental health it allows people to reanalyze and dispel negative stereotypes and/or misconceptions about mental health
There's a need for deeper understanding, empathy, and advocacy. These phrases are alienating for sure and only point out how most people don't understand the fullness of the disorder.
— Christine Moutier, Chief Medical Officer, American Foundation of Suicide Prevention
Royalty on Mental Health
Starting a Conversation on Mental Health
• Text someone and ask them how they are doing.
• Tell someone how you feel.
• Ask someone how they unwind after a tough day.
• Tell someone thank you for something that they did that impacted your mental health positively.
Mental Health
Problems surrounding mental health are often based on an inability to communicate about it. A huge part of the reason we can't communicate about mental illness according to Sarah Caddick, a neuroscientist, is that when someone says that they broke their arm you can understand what is wrong very easily. However, when someone is suffering from a mental health problem people do not understand what is going on in the three pound mass in a person's skull. It is suggested that when talking about mental health to avoid associating mental health with criminality. However, it is encouraged to associate mental health with suicide. If you read about someone who committed suicide, you often read that he or she ended their life because their career was going down hill or something else was going wrong in their life. These things might be triggering events. However, the real reason they committed suicide is because they were suffering from a mental health problem.
People still think that it is shameful if they have a mental illness. They think it shows personal weakness. They think it shows a failing. If it's their children who have a mental illness, they think it reflects their failure as parents.
— Andrew Solomon, journalist
Things to Avoid or Not Do When Talking About Mental Health
• Avoid making comments that can make a person feel worse like, "snap out of it," "perk up," "forget about it," "I am sure this will pass."
• Avoid saying, "I know how you feel," especially if you do not because it can invalidate the other person's emotions or experiences.
• Avoid pointing out others have it worse because it is dismissive.
• Do not start blaming the person for changes in their behavior because you are tired and frustrated.
• Avoid or ignore the person.
• Do not make fun of mental illness.
• Do not use stigmatizing words like "pyscho" or "crazy."
• Do not get mad or frustrated.
• Do not feel remorseful because you didn't know the person had a mental health problem as people often hide it.
We need to talk about mental disorders. We generally don't let having a medical illness define a person's identity, yet we are very cautious about revealing mental illness because it will somehow define a person's competence or even suggest dangerousness.
— Thomas Insel
Defining Terms
People use playground slang like "weirdo", "crazy", "psycho", "fruit loop", etc. to describe someone with mental health problems. It is like the disorder defines who the person is. If it were someone with a broken bone, it would not define the person's identity and neither should a mental health problem. Thomas Insel, the NIMH director does not even like the term "mental health problem". He thinks that because we do not call cancer a "cell cycle problem", mental health problem is not a good term. The thinking is that calling a serious mental illness a behavioral health problem is like calling cancer a pain problem. The same as a tumor does not define someone, neither should a mental health problem.
There's a lot of things that go on in the brain, and just because one thing goes wrong doesn't mean that everything goes wrong.
— Caddick
Resources Used
These articles were accessed on June 29 and June 30, 2017.
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With last Saturday’s Multicultural Education Conference came talks about a variety of cultural and ethnic concerns, with many speakers focusing on the academic careers of minorities in the US, and the challenges they face. One such speaker, psychologist Melissa Holland, explained to her audience at the University of California, Sacramento audience the “achievement gap” between minority and non-minority students across the country, as well as the notorious “school to prison pipeline.”
Citing a disparity of dropout rates between, black, Hispanic, and white high school students, Holland sought to explain the causes of such imbalances. She also gave some solutions put together by her own students, who designed teacher curriculums for their thesis projects.
A major source of inequality in the classroom she identified was the use of “exclusionary discipline,” which is a form of discipline that removes a student from the classroom. Detention, suspension, and expulsion are all punishments that Holland views as counterproductive, because they take away that student’s opportunity to learn.
Her students outlined a series of sessions as part of a “group curriculum.” These sessions include a class just for teachers to take the time to reflect on their own cultural awareness and biases, as well as group activities for students and instructors to better understand each other and their goals.
In another session, students would be asked to take the free VIA Strength Assessment to determine their strengths and how to use them to their advantage in class.
In addition, a common theme among discussions on at-risk youth is the need to have a caring adult figure, which Holland echoed in her discussion.
“It doesn’t have to be a parent, or a guardian,” she explained. “It can be a counselor. It can be a school psychologist. It can be someone who that child has semi-regular contact with who is a caring, consistent adult, and we can provide that for them.”
Another major topic addressed was the harm being done to by what is called punitive justice. This form of justice focuses on three issues: what law or rule was broken, who broke it, and what their punishment should be. According to Holland, this approach is all wrong. Instead, she hopes to make the switch to what is called restorative justice, which instead “maximizes student involvement” in “repairing the damage that has been done.”
Instead of conventional discipline, restorative discipline seeks to identify what harm was done and to who, what the needs of are of the people or things involved, and who is responsible to make that those needs are met and justice is restored.
If a student has been suspended or expelled, “reintegration” is the key to rebuilding relationships in the classroom, according to Holland. She goes on to cite Oakland School District as an example of restorative justice in action.
If other districts were to follow Oakland’s model, Holland, her graduate students, and many others in the field believe that it would help minority high school students make it to graduation day, which would in turn help their communities.
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General Prompts about Research Paper Writing Style
It happens. The dreaded writer’s block has hit, but that is difficult to understand when all someone does is stare at a computer and looks at a blank Word document, waiting for the words to flow into the hands to start writing.
Sad part is, the paper is due in a few days and the writer has no idea what to write about.
Here are some prompts that might help when it comes to choosing a topic for the research paper when research does not inspire.
Write about what truly grabs your interest:
In college, some instructors will assign the topics or a group of topics that one can write on. Most instructors though will leave the topics up to the student to actually write about and choose from. Take a look at what grabs your interest, such as economics or politics. Never know what might spark from it.
Ask your instructor:
After looking into the soul, the writer might not be able to figure out what makes them interested, or feels that maybe it will not be interesting enough to the instructor. Go and talk to them. The instructors are there to help a person succeed , so take advantage of them and talk to them about what you could possible do the paper on. Never know, the talk might inspire an interest that you did not think would be there or even worth researching.
Write your way to it:
Sometimes a writer just needs to write. After focusing so hard and trying to figure it out, it can really burn someone out. Free writing and brainstorming are great tools for pre-writing, which is essential for not only preventing writers block at the beginning of the process, but can help generate ideas when none come to mind, or a writer can refer back to the ideas that were created later on as a starting point for research or even for including in the draft.
Pose it as a problem to be solved or a question:
When writing it out does not work or talking it out does not work, giving it a while new perspective might be the way to go. If someone is more problem solving oriented, then looking at the topics for a research paper as a problem that needs a solution would be a good way to go because then they look at it as they need a solution to a problem. Sometimes it also helps to look at it as a question such as what can I write my paper on? |
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Zemskiy sobor
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Zemskiy sobor
The zemskiy sobor (зе́мский собо́р) was a Russian council of nobles, the term roughly means assembly of the land.
The first zemskiy sobor was held by tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1549. During his reign he held a number of such gatherings and they became a common tool used to enact major pieces of legislation or to decide controversial issues. They usually consisted of nobles and church leaders, but also would sometimes contain representatives of the townspeople.
Under Ivan the sobor had no real power. They were primarily a tool used to rubberstamp decisions that Ivan had already made.
The council continued in this very subservient fashion until the Time of Troubles ("сму́тное вре́мя"). When the Rurik Dynasty died out in 1598 it was a sobor that appointed Boris Godunov as the next tsar. The council also selected Michael Romanov to take the throne in 1613.
Once the Romanovs were firmly in power, however, the council lost its power. It also never developed into anything resembling a parliament, unlike royal councils in western Europe. |
Seven Foods That Could Lower Your Risk of Cancer
The development of cancer, in particular, has been shown to be heavily influenced by your diet. It protect people against cancer completely. The term cancer-fighting foods refers to foods that may lower the risk of developing cancer if a person adds them to their diet along with exercise.
In your diet you have to focus to add eating whole,organic foods over processed and pesticide-laden ones.There are certain nutrients that have been shown to be especially good at striking down cancer cells.Following are 7 foods,ingredients that you should take center stage in any diet meant to prevent cancer or support recovery from it.
Quitting smoking improves the prognosis of cancer patients. For patients with some cancers, quitting smoking at the time of diagnosis may reduce the risk of dying.
1.Folate-Rich foods
Low or deficient folate status is associated with increased risk of many cancers and linked in mutations in DNA. Folic acid supplementation and higher serum levels are associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.Studies shown that consuming 400 micrograms per day can lower the risk of cancer significantly.Folate is a B-complex vitamin that’s so important it is used to fortify many foods that don’t otherwise contain it.
You can add folate in your diet.if you struggle you can have it by supplement. Ading folate rich foods in your each meal is worthy.Great ways to get folate include orange juice, fortified cereals, peanuts, and beans. Spinach and romaine lettuce are also rich in folate, as is asparagus and Brussels sprouts.
2.Vitamin D
Vitamin D is the name given to a group of fat-soluble prohormones required for the regulation of the minerals calcium and phosphorus found in the body. It also plays an important role in maintaining proper bone structure.and helps protect against depression, heart disease, and weight gain.
It also works to curb the growth of cancer cells. In fact, The analysis showed that people who took vitamin D supplements had a 13% lower risk of dying from cancer than those who took a placebo over the same period.
The two main ways to get vitamin D are by exposing your bare skin to sunlight and by taking vitamin D supplements. You can’t get the right amount of vitamin D your body needs from food. The most natural way to get vitamin D is by exposing your bare skin to sunlight (ultraviolet B rays). Salmon.milk, eggs, and seafood such as cod, shrimp, and Chinook salmon contains vitamin D.
Tea is one of the most ancient and popular beverages consumed around the world. Black tea accounts for about 75 percent of the world’s tea consumption.Tea is particularly rich in polyphenols, including catechins, theaflavins and thearubigins.
This comforting and highly customizable beverage is loaded with antioxidants, which are your best line of defense against free radical damage.Tea polyphenols act as antioxidants.When free radicals are allowed to damage cells, it leaves them weakened and vulnerable to cancer. One particular antioxidant in tea, called kaempferol, has been shown in studies to reduce the risk, especially in reproductive cancers.
The Harvard School of Public Health recommends consuming between 10-12 milligrams of kaempferol each day. It takes about four cups to get there. so it is lttle you can consume it by diet.Other food sources include fruits like apples, peaches, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and “technically a fruit” tomatoes. Veggies high in kaempferol are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, onions, squash, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, and spinach.
4.Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae with many genera, species, and cultivars being raised for food production such as cauliflower, cabbage, kale, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and similar green leaf vegetables. Broccoli and Brussels belong to the group of cruciferous vegetables. Which can reduce the risk of cancer.
There are plenty of ways to incorporate cruciferous vegetables into your diet. The only thing you can’t do (and still get the benefits) is swallow them whole. veggies seem particularly good at protecting against prostate and colon cancers. In fact, in animal studies sulforaphane and other substances produced upon cutting or chewing these veggies actually shrunk tumors.
5. Curcumin
Curcumin known as turmeric is the bright yellow spice that gives curry dishes their distinctive taste and color. It is also known for having anti-inflammatory effects that can fight cancer by suppress the inflammation and prevent the transformation and proliferation of cancer cells.. Inflammation is a factor in the development of pretty much all diseases, and cancer is no exception.
It’s being explored as a cancer treatment in part because inflammation appears to play a role in cancer. Laboratory and animal research suggests that curcumin may prevent cancer, slow the spread of cancer, make chemotherapy more effective and protect healthy cells from damage by radiation therapy.
Perhaps best at reducing the risk of bladder and gastrointestinal cancers, researchers nonetheless insist that no cancer is immune from curcumin’s effects. Dried and powdered curcumin can be sprinkled into all sorts of savory dishes to provide a little Indian flair along with cancer protection.
Ginger is another popular spice, traditional in Asian cuisine but utilized heavily in Europe and the Americas, too. Ginger is commonly used for various types of “stomach problems,” including motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), nausea, nausea caused by cancer treatment, nausea caused by HIV/AIDS treatment,Beyond being an excellent preventative in our diets, ginger may soon be an integral part of cancer treatments.
Ginger May Have Cancer-Fighting Qualities. Oct. 11, 2011 — Ginger supplements appear to lower some indicators of inflammation in the colon, a new study shows. The study, published in Cancer Prevention Research, is an early step toward finding out whether compounds found in ginger root might prevent colon cancer.Researchers have discovered that ginger can cause the death of cancer cells in two distinct ways. One is called apoptosis, in which the cancer cells basically commit suicide without harming healthy cells that surround them. Another way is autophagy, in which cancer cells are tricked into digesting themselves. Either way, adding more ginger to your diet is a no-brainer.
Berries may be among the most beneficial fruits to eat for cancer prevention.Research is providing new evidence that berries not only contain strong antioxidants that help to prevent cell damage that precedes cancer.they also appear to affect genes that are associated with inflammation and the growth of cancer.
All berries feature high levels of phytonutrients, which are known to offer protection against cancer. Black raspberries could be the cream of the crop though, as they contain a great deal of a particular phytochemical called anthocyanin. Anthocyanin has been found to slow the growth of premalignant cells. It also prevents the growth of new blood vessels that would feed the resulting tumor.
Berries seem to especially protect against colon, esophageal, oral, and skin cancers. Scientific studies typically use concentrated berry powder, but adding a few servings of fresh or frozen berries to your daily diet is also quite beneficial.
You can multi-task your cancer prevention diet as well with ginger tea or a veggie omelet sprinkled with curcumin. Since you are starting with fresh, whole foods, the only limit to the diverse meals you can make is your creativity!
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Sola Scriptura Impossible for 400 Years
Charles: The Holy spirit gave us the Bible and the NT gospels and letters which
had been used for 300 years by christians before the official canon
was adopted. Christians already knew the accepted NT scriptures.
BFHU: What you say is correct. But there is more….The Christians were also familiar and accepted other writings for use in liturgy that were not later canonized. But no one is trying to convince anyone that no one knew or read any of the writings that were canonized 400 years later. The point is that people who believe in sola scriptura and Luther himself, possessed the whole Bible. It seems to make a lot of sense to believe that one should use ONLY the Bible to derive doctrine for Christian belief.
But most people never realize that there are many problems with this idea. For instance:
1. This cannot have been a divine principle because the Bible as we now know it was not known for 400 years after the birth of Christ.
2. Most Churches for years did not possess a complete set of the writings that centuries later became what we know today at the Bible.
3. For the first 400 years of Christianity or so churches read excellent writings in their liturgies that were later NOT canonized.
4. Scripture must be interpreted. To decide which of several differing interpretations is authentic one MUST go outside of the Bible and determine what has always and everywhere been believed. But b/c Protestants do not understand that they do not have infallible interpretation, they split and split and split into various sects based on differing interpretations.
5. Sola Scriptura is not found in scripture and is therefore self-refuting.
6. Jesus never told the disciples to write the New Testament.
7. The Bible is not a book of systematic theology therefore it is VERY difficult to derive doctrine from it alone.
8. Protestants, without realizing it, automatically adopted a lot of Catholic doctrine and Tradition (and rejected others) . They did not really sit down with the Bible Alone and make up their religions. That is why most Protestants believe in the Trinity and yet this doctrine is not clearly explicated in scripture alone and the word never appears in Scripture. This doctrine was clarified at Catholic Church councils. Primarily the Nicean council.
30 Responses
1. bfhu Sola scripture is better than no scripture – a trickle of scripture every week at church is almost equivalent to no scripture.
The OT was known by all the disciples and apostles from the start and was complete. All the writings which were later put into the NT bible were known by the early Christians – at the time they were written -helpful teachings would also be known – heretic teachings were known – this would be all the way through to Constantine. So it would be sola scripture as the final arbiter of correct doctrine as Paul et al commanded.
2. I would dispute that most churches did not have copies of all the canonised scriptures and also useful teachings – such as the didache.
You can find this out from early historical scriptural evidence such as that on the Alpha course – more than any other historical writings by a vast amount.
4 Scripture can be interpreted by anyone unless they are handicapped. The salvation issues are understandable to a child.
Difficult areas such as some prophecies will take scholarship.
To go outside what is written to determine the meaning of what is written would be dangerous waters – since what everywhere or always has been believed may actually be wrong – but we know that the Bible can be trusted.
Although protestants are perceived to rely on scripture alone there are thousands of protestant commentaries on the scriptures – sola scripture does not preclude relying on commentaries or oral teaching – this was never the case – plus they have much longer teaching sermons than catholics.
The 30.000 splits of prots has been exaggerated – they are mainly different churches with no more differences than catholic churches have from area to area. The mormons and witnesses who have followed a man’s teachings instead of the bible (they had no bereans to check them out) are an example of ignoring scripture and following two men’s satanic delusions.
Jesus’s report cards on the 7 churches of revelation are addressed to each church proving that the churches were under different bishops and not one leader – they had different practices.
5. It is called the WORD and we are commanded to read the word throughout the OT and NT even as little children. – just google up the sheer number of scriptures on this.
6. The NT was written before the beginning of the universe – Jesus did not say – whoops- they have written the NT. The NT was written by the Holy Spirit and He would be at one with Jesus. The NT was not an accident.
7. I would say that the bible is a book of systematic theology and as Jesus says someone with a childlike faith can understand the gospels.
8 Since it was supposed to be a reformation then I am not surprised that the protestant churches adopted nearly all the beliefs of the CC since the baby should not be thrown out of the bathwater.
The Trinity is plain in scripture – Father Son and Holy Spirit and also the Holy Spirit can be grieved and is called – He.
I think if the priest Savonarola had been listened to just before Luther there might have been a different story but the papal authorities burned him alive. He had preached against immorality corruption and idolatry.
• ” Scripture can be interpreted by anyone unless they are handicapped. ”
Really? What must I do to be saved? Which of the following are required?
* All are saved, since God is loving and if hell exists, it’s only temporary.
* Making a confession of faith, and then you’re assured salvation.
* Making a confession of faith, and then working out your salvation in fear and trembling.
* Be baptised in the name of Jesus?
* Be baptised in the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
* Be baptised in the name of The Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier?
* Be baptised any time in ones life, including infanthood.
* Be baptised as an adult, but only after making a confession of faith.
* Working out your salvation in fear and trembling.
* Obey the 10 commandments
* Obey the Jewish Sabbath (Sunday worship is from Papist Pagans)
* Be a part of a particular Church.
* Believe a certain set of doctrines (Which ones?)
* Read the Bible
* Love God
* Love others
* Eat the Eucharist
* Repent
* ….
The list goes on. Different Bible-only Christians today have different answers to this most basic question. With so many opinions, how can one possibly know which are correct? Your own judgement? Why that’s just one more opinion unless you claim to be infallible.
If you can’t even be certain how to be saved from the Bible, how can you say the Bible can be interpreted by anyone?
• Anil
Just because readers of the bible can deliberately mislead themselves does not mean that no one should read the bible – this would be a straw man argument. Some people even after good biblical teaching oral or otherwise can twist scripture.
The bible is quite clear that not all are saved.
A confession of faith is a start but the bible teaches a host of other commandments.
Yes we are told in the bible to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
We are told in the bible to be baptised in the name of the Father , Son and Holy Spirit.
Baptism comes after believing and repenting we are told in the Bible.
So only a person who is mature enough to do this should be baptised – this is my personal viewpoint and I understand the arguments . Many are baptised as babies but still fall away. However I got all my babies baptised and confirmed. In the bible it always seems to be full immersion.
We have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and obey the commandments – all of them – from the bible.
Sunday worship is allowed by Paul.
Paul commands the believers to meet as a church.
Follow the doctrines in the Bible – all of them.
Read the bible is not an option but a commandment
Love God and others is a Bible commandment.
Participate in the Lord’s supper.
You have used things not commanded in the bible mixed with the things commanded to try and make a case for not going by the Bible – not a safe road.
• Anil makes an excellent point. Charles, I am afraid that you are making the straw man argument b/c you set up the premise that we are saying:
No one should read the Bible.
And then proceed to argue against this premise. This is a straw man b/c we are not saying that at all, at any time, or anywhere. Can you find one Catholic that ever said no one should read the Bible?
We are saying that the Protestant theory that anyone can read and INTERPRET Scripture ACCURATELY b/c the Holy Spirit will lead them into all Truth has been proven to be FALSE by the last 500 years of historical application of this theory.
Could the Holy Spirit lead each and every individual into true and accurate interpretation of Scripture?
Yes. He could. But does He?
The Protestant theory of Sola Scriptura is not irrational. It could have been true. But this has not been the case. He has chosen to lead the Church He founded into ALL TRUTH. Protestant churches have a lot of truth because they got it from the Catholic Church. But they also have a lot of confusion and contradiction, as Anil pointed out, which they got from private interpretation of Scripture.
A person who believes in God but does not want to join or be associated with any religion or church also has this theory.
God can save me without religion or any church.
Again, this is a rational theory. God could do this if He wanted to. But, did He?
NO, He has chosen to bring salvation through Christ and His Church.
Just because we can think of something that God could do, does not mean that that is the way He does do it.
• bfhu – if you do some research you will find that most catholics never read the bible for themselves – there are many posts from catholics and the priesthood confirming this . If you look at your own catholic history people were burned for possessing a bible. The general culture of anti bible is hard to change in the CC .
“in 860, Pope Nicholas I, sitting high on a throne built specially for the occasion in the town square, pronounced against all people who expressed interest in reading the Bible, and reaffirmed its banned public use (Papal Decree). In 1073, Pope Gregory supported and confirmed the ban, and in 1198, Pope Innocent III declared that anybody caught reading the Bible would be stoned to death by ‘soldiers of the Church military’ (Diderot’s Encyclopedia, 1759). In 1229, the Council of Toulouse, ‘to be spoken of with detestation’, passed another Decree ‘that strictly prohibits laics from having in their possession either the Old or New Testaments; or from translating them into the vulgar tongue’. By the 14th Century, possession of a Bible by the laity was a criminal offence and punishable by whipping, confiscation of real and personal property, and burning at the stake.
With the fabricated Christian texts safely hidden from public scrutiny by a series of Decrees, popes endorsed the public suppression of the Bible for twelve hundred and thirty years, right up until after the Reformation and the printing of the King James Bible in 1611. ”
There are thousands of protestant churches with bible believing spirit filled christians so how can you say the promise has not come true.
As for people who misread plain scripture or just make things up these
exist in any catholic or protestant churches who have not tested the spirits by the bible. Look at chicken sacrifice in mexico, Haiti and south america mixed with the catholic faith – or the worship of demonic apparitions in medjugorge that even the catholic priests cannot suppress.
That most Christians would not find the way is prophesied sadly – there are wheat and tares and five foolish virgins etc (christians).
My people are destroyed or lack of knowledge – proverbs – lack of the Word of God .
2. Sola Scriptura is not even Scriptural, and that comes from someone who is not Roman Catholic. Jesus Christ speaks out vehemently against the Traditions “OF MEN” What St Paul exhorts people to keep steadfast are the Traditions “OF CHRIST”. The difference is the source from which the tradition stems from. The Jews and Pharisees invented their own traditions like washing vessels and certain dietary laws but neglected the heart of God “Love, mercy forgiveness. St Paul learned from the apostles who walked and talked and were thus taught by Christ Himself. In Greek Tradition or “Paradosis” which means “that which is passed down” and refers to scripture as well as written tradition.
Interesting point that in the NIV bible when Jesus talks negatively about the traditions “of men” the word traditions is retained but when St Paul talks about the Oral tradition “Of God” the word is translated into “teachings”. But in Greek the same word Paradosis is used. So let us be honest and say there is some other factor at work here “Romophoboia”…But that doesn’t give you the right to ALTER the meaning of scripture
The bible is our most important source of tradition that’s for sure, but for those protestant churches ( and I don’t mean disrespect here because there are many beautiful and God fearing Christians within protestant churches) I ask you one truthful question. If the bible is sufficient of itself, so that a believer filled with The HOly Spirit can understand the meaning of scripture then:
1. Why 25,000 different protestant denominations who can’t agree on theological points
2. Why the need to have thousands upon thousands of books on commentary
3. How can you reconcile the fact that Scripture itself is for tradition, but the tradition “NOT OF MEN, BUT OF GOD”
4. How can you neglect the fact that each Protestant Church has its own tradition
1 Corinthians 11:2
Galatians 1:14
2 Thessalonians 2:15
The sad fact is that the early reformers used the tradition of the Church not to cast away tradition altogether but to weed out those elements in the Roman Catholic Church ( please understand that although I’m not Roman Catholic, I do love the Catholic and Protestant Churches) that didn’t square with scripture. And I have to say regarding purgatory and Indulgences they were correct. No offence meant to Roman Catholics.
However the later reformers were very radical and attacked anything that reminded them of Roman Catholicism which was an overreaction to say the least, to the extent that they even rejected most of the sacraments.
• May I ask why you think that the early reformers were right about purgatory and indulgences?
• That’s a very good question. Now the early church always said prayers for the departed which was taken from the Jewish rites still in use today, and I believe is still practiced by the Catholic, Orthodox and ? High Anglican churches. In actual fact in the Septuagint version of the bible, which is the one that was used by the Apostles and quoted by Christ (since the Masoretic text came much later), you see the Jews praying for the sins of their departed brethren who had erred. This is in Macabees, and I must say this is incorrectly called the Apocrypha when in actual fact it’s called “The DeuteroCanonical scriptures” in Greek . Surprisingly these were used in all churches up just after the Reformation and I believe in America during the colonial period. The decision was made to use the Masoretic text, much much later AFTER the reformation.
Now coming to your valid question. I do believe that the church is comprised up of the departed and the living. There are many, many scriptural passages that confirm this:
Matthew 22:32
Christ Himself tells us that those of faith are alive in Christ. There is no such thing as a dead saint. The Church comprises those who have departed and the living, with Christ uniting us in faith through Grace.
John 8:56
How is it possible that Abraham who has been dead for centuries rejoiced to see Christ’s day. This is only possible if he is ALIVE in Christ and aware of what’s happening, as opposed to someone in a dormant sleep.
Hebrews 12:1
This invisible cloud of witnesses can only refer to the saints that have departed this world but notice that the word “WITNESSES” is used, so they are very much aware of what is going on
Matthew 17:1-4
Here you have Christ conversing with Moses and Elijah who have been dead for a very long long time
Luke 16:24-26
Here is yet another example of a conversation between Abraham and the rich man who has just passed away but notice that Abraham says there is a greta gulf between us and that passage is barred either way.
Now I firmly do believe in prayers for the departed as a sign of our love for those dear to us and especially those of the faith. I believe that love in the form of prayer is beneficial, but as an outward expression of love. God being God is capable of doing anything, even pardoning someone at the point of death who has truly repented and giving them by grace the Crown of eternal life. But this is different to stating that everyone is given a chance to repent after they have died, and I’m sorry to say but this goes against scripture. I’m all for tradition that complements scripture, and in this case it doesn’t. If God chooses to in HIs power I’m sure that He is quite capable of granting to someone after death, but this is NOT up to us to decide and is not scriptural.
Now regarding indulgences many protestants are for faith, and some catholics in the past for works, but the thing is it’s not one or the other but BOTH go together
James 2:18
James 2:22
James 2:24
Now let me say from the outset that there is NOTHING we can do that EARNS us salvation. Salvation is a free gift from God given to those of faith by GRACE. However, those of faith manifest their faith through WORKS.
A christian with humility and a love for God can not help but love those around him and he yearns to act out his faith, through words and actions. Words on their own are simply not adequate.
However this is DIFFERENT to indulgences, which required that MONEY be payed for the forgiveness of SINS. This was unheard of in the Church.
Luther was right to be indignant at this and wanted to stay within and reform the church. Unfortunately after he was excommunicated he went to far and fell to pride. He actually toyed with the idea of taking out James and Hebrews altogether. Interestingly though he kept the Deuterocanonical books in the bible. Sad to say, subsequent generations of reformers acted radically and rejected all Church tradition while inadvertently making up their own, based on an unfair and unjust hatred of the Roman Catholic Church. By doing so they have opened up their ecclesiastical circles to secular forces such as Humanism and modern theology which have manifested in rampant secularism.
In all fairness to the reformers they did have some valid and just concerns that they reacted against, that is abuses within the Catholic Church, but there was sadly an OVERREACTION by the subsequent reformers. The result, over 25,000 different denominations who don’t altogether agree with one another.
• There were certainly abuses of indulgences in certain part of the Catholic world by believers incl. ranking officials in their private practices. However, the failure of sinners is not to be confused with the Church which never taught that indulgences were for sale. The danger is to throw out the baby with the bath water. As revealed truth, purgatory and indulgences are doctrines of the Christian faith from antiquity.
• I think that you misunderstood purgatory. It is NOT a place of second chance or repentance. It’s simply a place or state where we need to be purified before seeing God. People in purgatory are already destined for heaven. It’s a reality, not just simply prayers being offered for the departed. A good scriptural reference for the reality of purgatory is 1 Cor 3:15 and Matt 12:32 (“in the age to come”).
3. Correction in the first paragraph it should read
In Greek Tradition or “Paradosis” which means “that which is passed down” and refers to scripture as well as oral tradition.
• Before the NT books, they were all simply the oral preaching of the apostles (called “Apostolic Preaching”). Most but not everything were written down as scripture as indicated in 1 Thess 2:15 and Jn 21:25. Only the Church established by Christ has kept “alive” the “Oral Traditions” in her bosom. These have nothing to do with the Protestants’ small “t” traditions which cannot be traced back to the original revealed Sacred Traditions. The “Sola Scriptura” is an example of a Protestant tradition which has its authority on a man, Martin Luther, from the 16th Century only.
• Greetings again Surkiko, I’m in total agreement with you here. In fact if protestants are honest with themselves they have invented their own traditions.
• Very interesting point Surkiko and thank you for pointing out my misunderstanding, but my initial interpretation was only based on my experiences with some Roman Catholics who do believe in the possibility of Forgiveness of all sins in Purgatory for those not of faith during their mortal life. So please forgive me for my misunderstanding and thank you for the presenting the correct definition as defined by the Roman Catholic Church.
Having read the scriptural passages I would politely say that I am not convinced. Please allow me to outline several reasons why. Having said this I must say that there are seeds although not based on a firm foundation where the concept of Purgatory can be manifested, although I have more problems with the interpretation. One must understand that the Early Greek fathers had a better grasp of the Greek language than their Latin brethren in Christ and especially when concerning the allegorical meaning of biblical words. And in this case the biblical words are meant to be allegorical from the scriptural passages
Matthew 12:32
This passage and the passages before and after in no way make suggestion of a place after death. To me it’s quite clear that the passage is referring to our mortal life.
1 Corinthians 3:9-16
Now regarding this passage, especially concerning the passage 3:13 where fire is mentioned you may have a point nevertheless regarding purgatory however I’d disagree on several reasons.
1. The Eastern Greek Fathers, who were by far the most numerous in Christendom, comprising the bishoprics of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch were almost unanimously against the introduction of this otherwise unknown doctrine. In all humility I think that they had a better understanding and interpretation of Greek then their Latin brethren.
2.In explanation of the Apostle’s words, St. John Chrysostom, who, using the word fire, gives it the meaning of an eternal, and not temporary, purgatorial fire; explains the words wood, hay, stubble, in the sense of bad deeds, as food for the eternal fire; the word day, as meaning the day of the last judgment; and the words saved yet so as by fire, as meaning the preservation and continuance of the sinner’s existence while suffering punishment.
3I think the early Greek Fathers of the Church Greeks were in a better position to understand Greek words and their allegorical meaning than the blessed St. Augustine, who came from a more juridical latin school of thinking.The expressions sothenai, sozesthai, and soteria, used by writers, to mean in Greek language continuance, existence (diamenein, einai.)
4. Besides, what has forgiveness of sins to do with punishment by fire and tortures? Only one of these two things can happen: either punishment or forgiveness, and not both at once.
5.I think that since the Reformation in an attempt to win back the protestants later Roman Catholicism was heavily influenced by rational thought, which although has its place can not and should not be used to explain all biblical instances.
So although I don’t think that the concept of Purgatory was plucked out of nothing; I do see how the manifestation came about, I would in all humility disagree with the concept. Having said this I mean no offence and appreciate conversing with a fellow brother in Christ.
God bless
4. @ photographymemoirs:
I think what you meant to say is that Eastern Orthodoxy does not use the Latinized term “purgatory” because the Eastern (and Oriental) Churches certainly do believe in an after-death transitional state or condition of purification for the righteous ones who died in God’s grace and friendship. The difference is merely nuance and the historical theological expression and spirituality of the East.
I believe they call it “the Final Theosis” in the East with a tradition of saying 40 Liturgies (another nuance for “Masses”) for the souls of the departed (the “Philipovka” – from St. Philip). Many of us will die still burdened with impurities, specifically venial sins and the temporary punishment due to sins already forgiven. We all agree that some form purification is necessary because we are asked to strive “for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14) and since “nothing unclean” will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev 21:27). The pre-Christian Jews (2 Macc 12:46) and current Orthodox Jews still believe in the final purification by praying the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months. So the reality of “purgatory” exists to Jews, Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox whether the bible use that specific theological term or not. Only the johnny-come-lately Protestants are denying this truth by teaching imputed grace (“snow-covered dunghill” justification) and salvation as a one-time past event (OSAS).
For an interesting Q&A on purgatory, give a listen to Dr. Scott Hahn here:
5. Greetings again Surkiko,
Firstly, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please forgive me for the late reply; I have been extremely preoccupied with many challenges of late. Thank you kindly for the reference. I will definitely have a look at them when I have some spare time. My background is Eastern Orthodox Christian, which is different to “Oriental Orthodox”. Allow me to say from the outset that there is much “common ground” in our sacramental and apostolic Churches. Despite there being some differences between our churches, I think looking at the current secularisation and indeed radicalisation of the world ” we need to build bridges” between one another, based on a common heritage. I think that a spirit of mutual respect and indeed love is essential for discussion and debate, not simply between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians, but also our fellow Protestant brethren.
God bless you and thank you kindly for the references
1 Corinthians 13 The Greatest Gift
6. @ photographymemoirs: This is still Christmas season (before we advance into Epiphany) so Merry Christ-mas and also a blessed and prosperous New Year to you too. Where are you in Europe? Which orthodox affiliation?
I can’t agree with you more on Christian charity (love) because all the intellectual knowledge, doctrinal correctness and theological exactness is nothing without the interior conversion of the heart and of the human spirit. As Christians, we should indeed always seek the commonality which we shared so we can move forward together in accomplishing the will of the our Father on this earth as well as in heaven.
If I may, you’ve alluded to the Sacred Traditions in your first post here. A purgation for those who died destined for heaven was also of this apostolic origin. Unfortunately, the East never get around to define it [as well as for the “archrantos” (“the immaculate, spotless one”, Immaculate Conception) or “Feast of the Dormition” (Assumption of Mary) and others] because the conglomerate of “autocephalous” Eastern churches are unable to call for an Ecumenical Council after 1054.
What do you think?
7. Pam,
If, as the vast preponderance (at least) of the manuscript evidence and uniform catholic tradition has always held, the word “Gospel” was attached to the four Gospels by the Holy Spirit through their inspired authors, then they identify themselves by their titles as the Word of God. How, then, do I need the church as an institution to authenticate them to me by a formal process of canonization?
Keith Fredrickson
8. Dear Keith,
During the first centuries, before the Bible was canonized by the Catholic Church after 400 years since Jesus was born, there were many writings and “gospels” (Gospel of Thomas). Some were written by impostors such as the Gnostic Gospels, others were written by Holy Men and were acclaimed at times to be worthy of canonization and used in early Church liturgies; however they were not later canonized. The writings of the Apostles were prominent and gained early universal approval, but pretty much only among the educated. The laymen had nothing like what we call the Bible today.
But then around the beginning of the fifth century AD several popes and councils all approved the same canon of scripture and finally closed the canon. Without the Catholic Church you would not have a Bible as we know it today.
Please take a look at these posts:
Canon of Scripture
Who Decided Which Books Should be in the Bible?
• Pam,
Thank you for your response and the interesting links.
Here is an additional question I wish to pose:
Is your statement that “the Bible was canonized by the Catholic Church” consistent with these words from the *Catechism of the Catholic Church*:
(105) ?
I think that “relying,” “accepts,” and “on the grounds that” are key words in this statement.
• The answer to your question is an unequivocal YES!
May the Lord Bless You, Pam Forrester
• Is there any statement in the *Catechism of the Catholic Church*, or, more importantly, Denzinger’s *Sources of Catholic Dogma* that supports the proposition that the authority of the Bible depends upon the authority of the Roman Catholic magisterium?
I have not looked into this specific matter so I am seeking input.
Also, doesn’t the magisterium merely claim to be “infallible” while
affirming that the Bible is also “inspired”? If so, I wonder what the meaning of such a distinction would be?
9. Dear Keith,.
“Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” – St. Jerome (4th century A.D.)
I don’t know how to research your question. I would like to recommend
Where We Got The Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church
Henry Graham set out to write this book as a Protestant to disprove Catholic claims about the Bible but ended up converting after his research.
The magesterium is not infallible unless it is in union with the Pope and teaching to the whole Church on Faith on Morals.
Yes Scripture is inspired and inerrant. The Magesterium in union with the Pope can interpret scripture infallibly.
If this does not answer your question please explain what you mean more fully. Just ask it and don’t worry about offending Catholic sensibilities.
10. Pam,
Thank you for your thoughtful response and recommendation—and openness.
Upon further reflection, my main question is this: Has the Roman Catholic magisterium contradicted the common Lutheran and Reformed conviction that the Bible is self-authenticating? I am beginning to think that the answer is “No”.
In seeking to answer this question, I have one reservation about any book that is said to set forth Roman Catholic doctrine and it is this: Even if the book possesses a *NIHIL OBSTAT* and *IMPRIMATUR*, the certifying authority is essentially only one of the over 5,000 Roman Catholic bishops in the world (with all his own peculiar cultural and personal idiosyncrasies) and the fact certified is merely that nothing in the book *clearly* contradicts the magisterium. Am I mistaken about this?
In contrast, here are the two sources for the teachings of the magisterium that I consider most reliable (in order of reliability):
1. *Sources of Catholic Dogma* (*Enchiridion Symbolorum*) by Heinrich Denzinger: While unofficial, it represents the highest quality of Roman Catholic scholarship and it is, I believe, the closest thing in existence to an infallible list of infallible statements.
2. *Catechism of the Catholic Church* (1994)
The next three on my list (and I am not sure how they should be ranked) are:
3. *Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma* by Ludwig Ott
4. *Catholic Encylopedia*, 1913 edition
5. *Catholic Encylopedia*, 1967 edition
Please give me any criticisms that you know of concerning this list and rankings of sources.
As I indicated, I am beginning to wonder whether any of these sources say that the concept of the Bible as self-authenticating is contrary to the teachings of the magisterium.
11. I should add for clarity that, by “self-authenticating,” I mean that the Bible proves itself to be the Word of God–by its contents as being spoken to us by God whenever we read or hear it. At this point, I am not speaking about whether it is self-interpreting, or clear in itself.
12. What do you mean by “self-authenicating” ?
A Nihil Obstat does not mean that the book is infallible or inerrant. It only means that the book does not teach outright heresy. However, a heterodox bishop might give his nihil obstat to a book of very questionable authenticity. One must know the publisher and the bishop and the author from outside sources. Not always easy to do. I have been guided by the Holy Spirit and would get a sick feeling when reading something I later found out was written by a heretic or heterodox person.
I think I would put the Catechism first b/c it was published by the Pope and Magesterium. All of those books are excellent as far as I know. However I am not familiar with Denzinger but I think I have heard good things about it. The 1967 Catholic Encyclopedia may be less reliable than the 1913 b/c after Vatican II socialists, heretics and the heterodox began to exert an inordinate and unfortunate influence on many things Catholic.
We are only now coming out of that period as the “biological solution” prunes and purifies the Church. (ie. the hippies are aging out of influence.)
13. Pam,
According to my understanding, the text of the *Catechism of the Catholic Church* was approved by Pope John Paul II and promulgated with his apostolic constitution, Fidei depositum. However, I gather that, even though an apostolic constitution is the highest category of decree issued by a Pope, significantly less than half of apostolic constitutions are regarded as infallible and, in any event, the Catechism itself has not been declared infallible.
However, the Denzinger list, as I understand it, is a set of source documents par excellence, consisting of nothing but statements considered infallible. As I recall, it starts with the Apostles’ Creed and includes all of the authoritative statements of the early councils, the affirmation of transubstantiation, the condemnation of Luther, all of the pronouncements of Trent (the most sizable section, I think), many papal pronouncements, and more. Just notice how many references to it are found in the footnotes of the *Catechism*!
I have considered it essential to an accurate understanding of the teachings of Rome.
Downloadable copies are available on the web–even a Latin one, the last time I checked!
14. That is interesting. I will look into it. Is there a searchable version online?
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FRENCH POLYNESIA (overseas territory of France) GEOGRAPHY Total area: 3,941 km2; land area: 3,660 km2 Comparative area: slightly less than one-third the size of Connecticut Land boundaries: none Coastline: 2,525 km Maritime claims: Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; Territorial sea: 12 nm Climate: tropical, but moderate Terrain: mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs Natural resources: timber, fish, cobalt Land use: arable land 1%; permanent crops 19%; meadows and pastures 5%; forest and woodland 31%; other 44% Environment: occasional cyclonic storm in January; includes five archipelagoes Note: Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean--the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru PEOPLE Population: 195,046 (July 1991), growth rate 2.5% (1991) Birth rate: 31 births/1,000 population (1991) Death rate: 6 deaths/1,000 population (1991) Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991) Infant mortality rate: 22 deaths/1,000 live births (1991) Life expectancy at birth: 66 years male, 71 years female (1991) Total fertility rate: 3.9 children born/woman (1991) Nationality: noun--French Polynesian(s); adjective--French Polynesian Ethnic divisions: Polynesian 78%, Chinese 12%, local French 6%, metropolitan French 4% Religion: mainly Christian; Protestant 54%, Roman Catholic 30%, other 16% Language: French (official), Tahitian Literacy: 98% (male 98%, female 98%) age 14 and over but definition of literacy not available (1977) Labor force: 76,630 employed (1988) Organized labor: NA GOVERNMENT Long-form name: Territory of French Polynesia Type: overseas territory of France since 1946 Capital: Papeete Administrative divisions: none (overseas territory of France); there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are 5 archipelagic divisions named Archipel des Marquises, Archipel des Tuamotu, Archipel des Tubuai, Iles du Vent, and Iles Sous-le-Vent; note--Clipperton Island is administered from French Polynesia and may have become a dependency of French Polynesia Independence: none (overseas territory of France) Constitution: 28 September 1958 (French Constitution) Legal system: based on French system National holiday: Taking of the Bastille, 14 July (1789) Executive branch: French president, high commissioner of the republic, president of the Council of Ministers, vice president of the Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers Legislative branch: unicameral Territorial Assembly Judicial branch: Court of Appeal Leaders: Chief of State--President Francois MITTERRAND (since 21 May 1981); High Commissioner of the Republic Jean MONTPEZAT (since NA November 1987); Head of Government--President of the Council of Ministers Gaston FLOSSE (since 10 May 1991); Vice President of the Council of Ministers NA Political parties and leaders: People's Rally (Tahoeraa Huiraatira; Gaullist), Gaston FLOSSE; Polynesian Union Party (Te Tiarama; centrist), Alexandre LEONTIEFF; New Fatherland Party (Ai'a Api), Emile VERNAUDON; Polynesian Liberation Front (Tavini Huiraatira), Oscar TEMARU; other small parties Suffrage: universal at age 18 Elections: Territorial Assembly--last held 17 March 1991 (next to be held March 1996); results--percent of vote by party NA; seats--(41 total) People's Rally (Gaullist) 18, Polynesian Union Party 14, New Fatherland Party 5, other 4; French Senate--last held 24 September 1989 (next to be held September 1992); results--percent of vote by party NA; seats--(1 total) party NA; French National Assembly last held 5 and 12 June 1988 (next to be held June 1993); results--percent of vote by party NA; seats--(2 total) People's Rally (Gaullist) 1, New Fatherland Party 1 Member of: FZ, SPC, WMO Diplomatic representation: as an overseas territory of France, French Polynesian interests are represented in the US by France Flag: the flag of France is used ECONOMY Overview: Since 1962, when France stationed military personnel in the region, French Polynesia has changed from a subsistence economy to one in which a high proportion of the work force is either employed by the military or supports the tourist industry. Tourism accounts for about 20% of GDP and is a primary source of hard currency earnings. GDP: $1.2 billion, per capita $6,300; real growth rate NA% (1990 est.) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.3% (1989 est.) Unemployment rate: 8% (1986 est.) Budget: revenues $614 million; expenditures $957 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1988) Exports: $75 million (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--coconut products 79%, mother-of-pearl 14%, vanilla, shark meat; partners--France 54%, US 17%, Japan 17% Imports: $806 million (c.i.f., 1988); commodities--fuels, foodstuffs, equipment; partners--France 53%, US 11%, Australia 6%, NZ 5% External debt: $NA Industrial production: growth rate NA% Electricity: 72,000 kW capacity; 265 million kWh produced, 1,390 kWh per capita (1990) Industries: tourism, pearls, agricultural processing, handicrafts Agriculture: coconut and vanilla plantations; vegetables and fruit; poultry, beef, dairy products Economic aid: Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $3.95 billion Currency: Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (plural--francs); 1 CFP franc (CFPF) = 100 centimes Exchange rates: Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (CFPF) per US$1--93.28 (January 1991), 99.00 (1990), 115.99 (1989), 108.30 (1988), 109.27 (1987), 125.92 (1986), 163.35 (1985); note--linked at the rate of 18.18 to the French franc Fiscal year: calendar year COMMUNICATIONS Highways: 600 km (1982) Ports: Papeete, Bora-bora Merchant marine: 3 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,128 GRT/6,710 DWT; includes 1 passenger-cargo, 1 cargo, 1 refrigerated cargo; note--a captive subset of the French register Civil air: about 6 major transport aircraft Airports: 43 total, 41 usable; 23 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 2 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 12 with runways 1,220-2,439 m Telecommunications: 33,200 telephones; 84,000 radio receivers; 26,400 TV sets; stations--5 AM, 2 FM, 6 TV; 1 Pacific Ocean INTELSAT earth station DEFENSE FORCES Manpower availability: males 15-49, 50,844; NA fit for military service Note: defense is responsibility of France |
U.S. groundwater continues to go dry based on humanity’s seemingly insatiable desire to drink and grow food. Who'd a thunk? People need to eat. Eating requires water. As populations increase, more food is needed, meaning more water is needed.
Alternatively, any livestock grown for consumption needs water, too. The best place to get the water? From the ground.
According to a recent study published in the journal Nature, water stored in aquifers underground makes up the vast majority of accessible freshwater on Earth. Its abundance has fueled forays into drier locales, enabling a boom in crop production.
People and livestock are not the only things relying on aquifers. While about 70% of all groundwater used worldwide goes to agriculture, surface waterways, including rivers and streams, need groundwater, too. As groundwater gets pumped to Earth too quickly, these water arteries diminish, too.
The Nature study shows the water is at an “ecological tipping point” that scientists call the “environmental flow limit.” Environmental flows are the quantity, timing, and quality of water flow required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems.
This limit has been reached in 15% to 21% of watersheds tapped by humans. The majority of these resources are in drier regions like parts of Mexico and northern India, where groundwater is used for irrigation. At this rate, in about 30 years — by 2050 — the study authors note that anywhere from 42% to 79% of pumped watersheds will have crossed this threshold.
“Already, unsustainable groundwater pumping exceeds recharge from precipitation and rivers, leading to substantial drops in the levels of groundwater and losses of groundwater from its storage, especially in intensively irrigated regions,” the study’s authors note.
“When groundwater levels drop, discharges from groundwater to streams decline, reverse in direction or even stop completely, thereby decreasing streamflow, with potentially devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems.”
According to the American Geosciences Institute, groundwater is any water found underground in the cracks and pores in soil, sand, or rock. Groundwater is replenished almost entirely by rainfall. In the United States, roughly one-quarter of all rainfall becomes groundwater. Groundwater makes up approximately 90% of the total available freshwater in the United States.
In many areas, groundwater use outpaces groundwater recharge. “Groundwater is replenished when rainfall soaks into the ground, but it can take hundreds to thousands of years to replace what we extract,” the institute said. “In arid areas, high demand for groundwater and slow replenishment provide challenges for sustainable groundwater management.”
A healthy aquifer ecosystem protects against seasonal fluctuations in water availability, providing stability for resident plants and animals. “But if too much groundwater is pumped, surface waters begin to seep into the aquifer, draining the life from many river and stream habitats,” the institute notes.
Irrigation provides about 80% of freshwater consumption. Annually, groundwater provides 43% of the freshwater used for irrigation. Groundwater accounts for around 40% of U.S. freshwater consumption, and is not easily, nor quickly, replaced. |
Fighting The Gypsy Moths
This section provides some information on efforts over the years to rid the country of gypsy moths.
spraying of insecticides to eradicate gypsy moths
Spraying Insecticide in 1891
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climbing trees to find gypsy moth eggs
Finding and destroying
egg masses
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Finding gypsy moths under folded burlap strips
Wrapping trees with burlap
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More powerful sprayers to spray gypsy moths
More powerful sprayers
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Aerial spraying to eradicate gypsy moths
Aerial Spraying
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Gypsy Moth Wars
Following their escape from Mr. E. Leopold Trouvelot's property in 1869, gypsy moths became an annoyance, then a bother, then a major problem when in the spring of 1889, the population of gypsy moths exploded in Medford, Massachusetts. The problem was so bad that the State of Massachusetts stepped in and appropriated funds to fight the gypsy moth. Economic entomologists thought that they could eradicate the gypsy moths, and promised to do so. Attempts to fight them included spraying insecticide, finding and destroying egg masses, cutting and burning trees, and banding trees with burlap. Pictures of some of these activities are shown in the pictures on the right.
The main insecticides used during these times were Paris Green and Lead Arsenate. These were not very effective and there were concerns of safety and contamination. There was also dissatisfaction with the widespread damage caused by the cutting and burning of trees, and with the harm done to any possible natural enemies, including birds. Surprisingly, one of the most effective means of decreasing the gypsy moth's numbers was the banding of trees with burlap. At times they had wrapped 2,500,000 trees with burlap and had a team of 570 men re-visiting them each day to collect and destroy caterpillars found hiding under the burlap.
After 11 years of trying to eradicate the moths, they were still around and in fact had spread over a much wider area. In 1901, Massachussets State funding was stopped as the promised results from the eradication efforts failed to be realized.
Detailed descriptions of the gypsy moth wars fought in Massachusetts from 1890 to 1901 are provided in ref. 4.
By 1905 the gypsy moths were found in the states of New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. As the problem now encompassed many states, the Federal Government became involved. In 2005 Federal funding was approved to fight the gypsy moth.
The federally supported programs also involved spraying lead arsenate. However, by then more powerful spraying equipment had been developed that could spray higher into a tree. Also, efforts were pursued to find natural enemies of the gypsy moth. Forty different parasites were tried, most imported from other countries. Few if any helped the gypsy moth problem, and some attacked beneficial insects. Efforts to introduce a fungus deadly to the gyspy moth were also pursued, but the results were disappointing. The government also set up inspection and quarantine programs to try to stem the spread of the gypsy moths. These programs were unsuccessful.
Despite the expenditure of significant amounts of Federal funds, the territory infested by gypsy moths continued to expand. By the start of the World War I, gypsy moths in Massachussets were found in an area of more than 2,500 square miles, and by then were also in New York.
After World War II, DDT became available, and aerial spraying of DDT from airplanes was used to spray gypsy moths. DDT worked better than Lead Arsenate, and aerial spraying was more effective than spraying from the ground. DDT was later found to harm the environment and its use was discontinued.
Aerial spraying is still used to spray gypsy moths by state and local government programs, but with limited success.
After over a century of trying to wipe out the gypsy moth, it is still here. If over a century of governmental-supported programs haven't gotten rid of them, the lesson to be learned is that you can't depend on the government to protect your property from gypsy moths. Yes, they might spray, and it might do some good. However, you better also work to combat them. There are things you can do. These are described in the Control section of this website. Some of these methods take work and time, but you can make a difference, and may be able to save your trees.
Link back to the top |
Understanding the Richter Scale and the power of exponential arithmetic
Some of the headlines this morning read, “Last night’s 7.1 quake was five times more powerful than Thursday’s 6.4 quake.” This is absolutely correct, and yes, we felt it in Phoenix. How is it that a 7.1 is 5x stronger than a 6.4? I’m glad you asked!
The Richter magnitude scale is not a linear multiplier, but rather, exponential. Each increase in whole number represents a 10x increase in magnitude. The accelerating force of exponents is best learned graphically:
Screenshot 2019-07-06 at 08.40.55
So as the exponents increase, the scale keeps getting steeper, or taller.
Here is another graphic that is really helpful in order to relate the numbers to past actual earthquakes, as well as notable examples of energy releases. Remember your physics class: An earthquake is essentially a sudden conversion of Potential Energy into Kinetic Energy, like an explosion or a lightning bolt, so we are able to compare magnitudes between these.
Screenshot 2019-07-06 at 08.51.07
If you were alive in the United States in 1989, you surely remember the Loma Prieta quake, because it happened on live TV during the broadcast of the World Series in San Francisco (yes, back in the 80s, everyone still watched the World Series). The damage was quite widespread, with the enduring images being cars driving off the collapsed Bay Bridge, the pancaked double-decker Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, and the fires in the Marina District. I can still remember how nauseated I felt upon seeing the pancaked freeway, wondering how many cars were crushed beneath. HERE
That was a 6.9 magnitude. If yesterday’s 7.1 had hit a hundred miles farther south, at Palmdale on the fault line, Los Angeles would be in ruins right now.
Stay frosty, and stay Confessed.
For video of chandeliers shaking and pools overflowing, IN ARIZONA, go HERE.
For a terrifying exercise in exponential arithmetic and the fate of your eternal soul, go HERE. |
Differences Among Friends on Energy
Blog discussion
Friendly and UnFriendly responses to Friends Energy Project
The ideas expressed on this site have been a challenge generally for Friends, who maintain two conflicting commitments. They wish to give a fair hearing to divergent views, and at the same time they hold to truths they feel have stood the test of time. One of the gifts of traditional Friends Process is a method for seasoning new ideas and collectively discerning Truth. This process is sometimes honored more in self-image than in practice. The tension between these worthy goals has been particularly evident as Friends debate energy and the environment.
Friends hold a range of views on energy and the environment. On the whole, Friends, like the larger society, became interested in climate change after seeing the film, An Inconvenient Truth. While climate skepticism is no longer as common among Friends, many see global warming as only one of many concerns, with social justice issues or other environmental worries (such as water and air pollution) carrying greater weight. The solutions many Friends envision resemble those energy policies or environmental causes they liked before they had ever heard of climate change—for instance, solar energy and individual choices about simple living. The fear of science and technology, particularly nuclear power and transgenic crops (GMOs), remains strong. Increasingly, however, Friends are reconsidering their entire approach to energy and environmental issues in the light of the threats from climate change.
Among those who have embraced climate change as a concern, there remains much disagreement, particularly in these areas:
Of these controversies among Friends, the conflict over nuclear power is probably the most heated to date. Some Friends have always supported nuclear power. Others have come to this view more recently. A sizeable number, however, maintain a stalwart and unwavering opposition to nuclear energy as part of the solution to the climate crisis. They have many fears: that building more power plants increases the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation; that the mining and processing of uranium and the eventual storage of radioactive wastes present an unacceptable threat to human health and the environment; that the risk of accidents is too great; that large, centralized power sources controlled by big business are better avoided in favor of locally controlled sources. An underlying assumption is that big business cannot be trusted, and that government cannot be trusted to regulate big business. Most compelling of all is the hope and belief that sufficient investments in other power sources, such as wind and solar, will make nuclear power unnecessary.
Many Friends cling to the belief that conservation—relying on voluntary individual behavior change—is the most critical factor in addressing environmental concerns, and should obviate the need for nuclear energy. Unfortunately, those who espouse behavior change in theory often find it hard to do in practice. While some Friends have made major changes in behavior, such as giving up driving and flying, not all share a sense that such changes are moral acts.
In debating these and other conflicts of opinion, Friends disagree on what are reliable sources of fact. It is difficult to find the truth among so many contradictory viewpoints. In particular, Friends tend to fall into opposing camps regarding scientific knowledge versus direct revelations and spiritual discernment. Friends Energy Project is firmly aligned with scientific thinking, getting the science from scientists (peer review is a must, and the most reliable reports are the major reports coming from organizations like Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and National Academy of Sciences). Friends, like much of the public, often dismiss these sources or assume they are in agreement with their own beliefs.
Concerns Excluded from Current Debate
The eventual challenge will be for Friends to confront the hard issues, the ones society has to wrestle with before legislators can do something about them without losing their elected offices. While Friends engage in passionate debate about technology choices, the easiest of the hard issues, they largely ignore questions that require our attention:
Friends Process in Theory and Practice
“We continue to have the challenge of disagreeing with those we love and loving those with whom we disagree.” (Thought to be from an Ohio Yearly Meeting Epistle, mid 1990’s).
In addition to differing opinions about what is true, and what is important in the practical world, there are questions about process which Friends would do well to discuss more frequently and in greater depth. What are we called to do as individuals? Corporately? How do we check whether solutions we are drawn to are actually effective? Are we called as individuals to reduce our own consumption, and if so, how? Is there a role for Friends Meetings to play in encouraging GHG reduction, through either personal or corporate behavior change? How can Friends be part of facilitating communication among people with very different beliefs? Among themselves? How much energy do we give to protesting/changing others vs. changing ourselves? What is Friends process for recognizing and reversing errors of opinion or information? How do Friends hear divergent views when one of their own “speaks truth” to the established views of the community? (It’s always harder to handle doubt within than to challenge wrongs without.)
Return to Friends Energy Project |
Blood in the Jungle: Battle of Guadalcanal
By: Nathan Chandler
6 Min Quiz
Image: YouTube
About This Quiz
Japan was on the march, the Allies were reeling -- and the two forces clashed in the South Pacific. How much do you know about the Battle of Guadalcanal?
What is Guadalcanal?
Guadalcanal is a 2,000-square-mile island in the southwest Pacific Ocean. During World War II, it became a scene of some of the conflict's most ferocious fighting between Japanese and Allied forces.
What was the codename for the Battle of Guadalcanal?
The codename for the action was Operation Watchtower. At first, the codename applied only to the capture of one small island, but eventually, it was used as a moniker for the entire campaign.
As the operation commenced, securing Guadalcanal was the primary objective of the Allies.
Guadalcanal eventually became the Allies' primary target. But as the battle started, they were more concerned about the nearby Santa Cruz islands, and another island, named Tulagi.
Why did Japanese patrol aircraft fail to see the invasion fleet as it approached Guadalcanal?
There were severe storms around the islands as the Allies approached, so visibility was very poor. This turned out to be a tremendous advantage for the Allies, who achieved a degree of surprise.
As the battle began, the Allies began attacking several islands at once. How did they fare against the Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal?
The Allies immediately captured the Japanese airfield thanks to little enemy resistance. Marines attacking the other islands, however, encountered a determined enemy.
Why did the Japanese give up their prized airfield on Guadalcanal without a fight?
Japanese leaders were aware that the Allies were coming to the area, but they figured it was a short-term raid. Instead, they were wrong -- the Allies took the airfield and set up a perimeter around it.
When the Japanese began constructing an airfield on Guadalcanal, it meant that their planes could suddenly threaten which country?
A Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal was bad news for the Allies. It meant that Japan could attack the Australian mainland and threaten Allied supply routes, a situation that was untenable for all Allied countries.
Soon after landing, many Marines were afflicted with which health problem?
Roughly 20 percent of the Marines suffered from severe dysentery. Plagued by diarrhea, many men struggled to contribute to the battle efforts. Sickness took a terrible toll on forces from both sides.
In August 1942, which force launched a surprise attack to begin the Battle of Guadalcanal?
In late summer of 1942, U.S. Marines were ordered to stop the Japanese from using the Solomon Islands (including Guadalcanal) as a military base of operations. The Marines launched a surprise attack to begin the battle.
How long did the Guadalcanal Campaign last?
The Marines had their work cut out for them. The Japanese were partially surprised by the initial Allied attack, but they decided to stand and fight the Allies. The battle raged for half a year.
Why was the battle a logistical nightmare for both sides?
The battle took place on remote islands that were near the limits of the supply lines for both sides. The distance made it difficult for either side to send supplies and reinforcements.
Why did Japan want to deploy dozens of warplanes to the airfield on Guadalcanal?
Japan wanted to keep expanding its war gains by sending its ships farther and farther from the homeland. To do so, they needed air cover for naval vessels.
Which force did NOT take part in the battle as part of the Allied attack?
Canadian forces weren't present at this particular battle. The Allies were made up mostly of soldiers from the U.S, U.K, Australia, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga.
Guadalcanal was first major Allied offensive in the Pacific Theater.
After the Battles of Midway and Coral Sea, the Japanese were on their heels. Guadalcanal was the first real shot that the Allies had in terms of an offensive operation.
After capturing the Japanese airfield, what name did the Allies give to their prize?
The proud Marines that captured the landing strip decided to name it Henderson Field. The name honored Major Lofton Henderson, who had been killed at the Battle of Midway two months earlier.
After World War II, Sealark Channel (near Guadalcanal) became known as what?
Sealark Channel was a peaceful-sounding name, and it was ill-suited to the destruction that occurred there during World War II. So many ships sank here (on both sides) that the passage became known as Ironbottom Sound.
What was the "Tokyo Express"?
The Japanese were fearful of Allied planes attacking their ships during daylight hours. To counter this threat, they began making fast overnight shipping runs for troops and supplies, a process that the Allies called the "Tokyo Express."
During the campaign, the two sides engaged in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. What happened to the Allies at this battle?
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was a ferocious naval fight. The Americans lost the USS Hornet, one of their aircraft carriers, and another (USS Enterprise) incurred major damage.
The Japanese intended to eventually use their foothold on Guadalcanal to attack which area?
The Japanese were nothing if not ambitious. They wanted to push their war gains as far as possible, and with a base in Guadalcanal, they hoped to eventually attack Australia, a major Allied country.
Early in the battle, a group of 25 Marines set out on what became known as the Goettge Patrol, which hoped to convince some Japanese troops to surrender. What happened during the patrol?
Instead of finding an enemy that was willing to give up, the patrol encountered fierce resistance. Almost all of the Marines were killed or wounded, which prompted a major attack from the Allies a week later.
During the battle, the Allies lost more aircraft than the Japanese.
The Japanese lost more aircraft than the Allies, but in the end, the statistics were nearly a wash. The Japanese lost 638 planes; the Allies, 615.
How did the concept of "Bushido" affect Japanese troop behavior?
Japanese troops adhered to the concept of Bushido, a set of guidelines for warriors. Rather than surrender, many chose to fight to the death, a fact that made the battle even more treacherous for U.S. soldiers.
Eventual president John F. Kennedy was aboard a Navy vessel that was sunk attempting to do what?
Kennedy was on a PT-109 torpedo boat that attempted a poorly planned and executed attack on supply ships in the Tokyo Express. The boat accidentally veered in front of another Allied ship and was sunk, killing two sailors.
Why did the U.S. military avoid releasing casualty figures from the campaign?
Allied losses in the battle were staggering -- too high for public consumption, lest the figures become demoralizing. It wasn't until years later that U.S. officials began acknowledging just how bloody the battle really was.
By December 1942, the Japanese resorted to what technique to deliver supplies to their starving troops?
The Allies were clamping down on Japan's supplies in the area, forcing the Japanese to try desperate measures for supply delivery. They attempted to use submarines, but the tactic was unsuccessful.
How many casualties did the Allies suffer during the battle?
During six months of fighting, the Allies suffered more than 14,000 casualties. That included about 7,000 dead. The Allies also lost nearly 30 ships.
How many casualties did the Japanese absorb during the campaign?
The Allies incurred large numbers of casualties during the battle, but the Japanese fared far worse. About 30,000 Japanese personnel died, and they lost nearly 40 ships.
What was the ultimate outcome of the Allied victory in Guadalcanal?
The Allied victory brought Japanese expansionism to a halt. It also gave the Allies a tremendous strategic advantage that helped them turn the tide of the Pacific War.
During the battle, most Japanese soldiers died from which causes?
Japanese soldiers had it rough during Guadalcanal, and most of them died from non-combat challenges. Sickness and starvation caused many thousands of deaths.
After Guadalcanal, the Allies began an island-hopping campaign to push back Japanese forces. How long did it take the Allies to reach the Japanese mainland?
It took a three-year slog for the Allies to complete their island-hopping campaign. Near the end of this campaign, America dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese mainland, quickly ending the war.
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Earth Is Hotter Than at Any Time Since Steam Engine Was Invented
The last five years on Earth have been hotter than at any time since the industrial revolution kicked off almost two centuries ago.
That’s the conclusion of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which published data on Wednesday showing that global average temperatures since 2015 were some 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than when steam engines began powering industry. Last year was the second warmest on record after 2016.
2019 was Europe’s warmest year, marginally higher than temperatures in 2014, 2015 and 2018. Global average temperatures in 2019 were 0.6 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1981 to 2010 average. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration increased by about 2.3 parts per million in 2019, to the second-highest level on record.
Cops Around the World Are Using An Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool
ProPublica reports that dozens of state and local agencies have purchased “SCAN” training from a company called LSI for reviewing a suspect’s written statements — even though there’s no scientific evidence that it works.
1. Give the subject a pen and paper.
3. Analyze the statement and solve the case.
In 2009 the U.S. government created a special interagency task force to review scientific studies and independently investigate which interrogation techniques worked, assessed by the FBI, CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense. “When all 12 SCAN criteria were used in a laboratory study, SCAN did not distinguish truth-tellers from liars above the level of chance,” the review said, also challenging two of the method’s 12 criteria. “Both gaps in memory and spontaneous corrections have been shown to be indicators of truth, contrary to what is claimed by SCAN.”
SCAN’s creator “declined to be interviewed for this story,” but they spoke to some users of the technique. Travis Marsh, the head of an Indiana sheriff’s department, has been using the tool for nearly two decades, while acknowledging that he can’t explain how it works. “It really is, for lack of a better term, a faith-based system because you can’t see behind the curtain.”
Planet at Risk of Heading Towards Apocalyptic, Irreversible ‘Hothouse Earth’ State
This summer people have been suffering and dying because of heat waves and wildfires in many parts of the world. The past three years were the warmest ever recorded, and 2018 is likely to follow suit. What we do in the next 10-20 years will determine whether our planet remains hospitable to human life or slides down an irreversible path to what scientists in a major new study call “Hothouse Earth” conditions.
Survival of the Richest
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Australasian Science: Australia's authority on science since 1938
Did Standing Up Drive Human Evolution?
Credit: travenian /iStockphoto
Credit: travenian /iStockphoto
By Mac Shine & Rick Shine
Watching a toddler learn to walk has led to a new hypothesis that bipedalism drove the evolution of the human brain.
Although lots of animals are smart, humans are even smarter. No other species can build spaceships that fly to the moon, or write operas, or understand the intricacies of mathematical theory. How and why do we think so differently from other species?
Watching a child learning to walk has suggested a new explanation to that age-old question. The generation of the hypothesis, recently published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, has been a family affair: the child in question (Tyler Shine) is the son and grandson of the two authors of that paper (and of this article).
We’re an unusual son-and-father team: Mac is a neurobiologist interested in neuroimaging, and Rick is an evolutionary ecologist who specialises in reptiles and amphibians. But watching young Tyler as he stumbled around the living room suggested a novel hypothesis to us: that the big difference between humans and other species may lie in how we use our brains for routine tasks. The key to exploiting the awesome processing power of our brain’s most distinctive feature – the cortex – may have been to liberate it from the drudgery of controlling routine activities.
Humans are smart not just because we have bigger brains – although that helps. More importantly, we have evolved a cognitive system that delegates control of routine tasks to other parts of the brain. That capacity to delegate allows us to save our superfast processing unit for new and unpredictable challenges.
And that’s where young Tyler Shine, now 2 years old, comes into the story. When Tyler was first learning to walk, his doting father and grandfather noticed that every step took Tyler’s full attention. But before too long, walking became routine and Tyler was able to start noticing other things around him. For example, he was better at maintaining his balance, which freed up his attention to focus on more interesting tasks, like trying to find out where his father had hidden chocolate in the kitchen.
How did Tyler improve his walking skills? Modern neuroimaging studies suggest that one of the keys to Tyler’s increasing mobility was that he began to transfer the control of his balance to “lower” parts of the brain. That delegation of routine movements freed up his cortex to focus on unpredictable challenges, such as a bumpy floor covered in stray toys.
The same transition is familiar to all of us. Any complicated activity – like driving a car or playing a musical instrument – consumes all of our attention at first but eventually becomes routine.
So the basic idea is simple. Humans are “smart” because we can automate lots of routine tasks, and thus can devote our most potent mental faculties to deal with new, unpredictable challenges. Although other species automate tasks in much the same way, we think that humans are distinctly better at it.
What event in the early history of humans made us change the way we use our brains? Watching Tyler learn to walk suggested that it was the evolutionary shift from walking on all fours to walking on two legs.
The fossil evidence shows that our ancestors switched from quadrupedal to bidepal life not long before our brains started expanding. These two shifts might well be related. As soon as we began to move around on two legs we were faced with the complicated challenge of keeping our balance – and the best kind of brain to have was one that didn’t waste its most powerful functions on controlling routine tasks.
We suggest that natural selection favoured pre-humans with brains that were good at shifting control of the routine balancing task to “lower” neural centres. An ancestor with a brain like this was more likely to notice a lurking predator or outwit an edible antelope. His cousin, who needed to concentrate entirely on what he was doing if he wanted to avoid falling over, fared less well in the evolutionary battle.
So what parts of the brain might be involved in this ability to delegate control from “higher” to “lower” centres? Young Tyler Shine couldn’t really provide much assistance to his father or grandfather here, so we had to resort to recent research on neural architecture in humans and closely related species.
Interestingly, the human brain doesn’t seem to contain any distinctly new regions. Rather, natural selection has expanded and inter-connected pre-existing regions, opening up new channels for the effective processing of information.
Human brains have tightly interconnected networks of brain activity that are not present in our nearest relatives. These networks have emerged via a reorganisation of existing brain regions, akin to installing a new software program onto an existing computer. Although the hardware remains the same, the computer is now capable of running more sophisticated tasks at a greater speed.
If the improvements in brain function exhibited by humans are due to changes in brain function rather than structure, how do we automate routine tasks? The system depends upon feedback – that is, input from reinforcement signals.
Behaviour in the early stages of learning is very flexible. This enables a comparison of a large array of potential behaviours to determine the most effective strategy. But over the course of learning this system trades off flexibility for consistency.
Importantly, the system needs to have global access to all of the brain. We think we know which parts of the brain have taken over this delegation function: pathways that interconnect the cortex, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum. Each of these structures has undergone rapid expansion in recent evolutionary history.
This three-part system connects large regions of the cerebral cortex (capable of flexible and rapid processing) with the cerebellum (responsible for habitual and inflexible processing) and the basal ganglia (subcortical brain structures that constantly monitor the environment for subtle changes). In our proposed model, the basal ganglia nuclei flexibly “switch” activity between these two systems in the face of changing environmental circumstances (Fig. 1).
Although metaphors of brain function that invoke computers are often criticised, an analogy with computer-based memory helps to explain concepts at the core of this “delegation” hypothesis. The difference between the “higher” and “lower” systems in the brain is similar to the difference between Rapid Access Memory (RAM) and Read-Only Memory (ROM) in a computer. Like the “higher” cortex, computer RAM is a flexible and high capacity storage system. It is adaptable to multiple functions and can be rapidly modified by user-defined processing decisions. In contrast, ROM is a rigid, inaccessible system that performs automatic tasks but is outside the control of the system operator.
Viewed through this analogy, our hypothesis suggests that the computational problems associated with bipedal locomotion led to the development of a system that delegates behaviours from RAM to ROM, effectively “hard-wiring” rewarded behaviours into memory. By doing this, the brain frees up its awesome computational processing power (the RAM) for other, unpredictable tasks.
Importantly, this analogy is about function and not mechanism: we do not suggest that the computational algorithms used by the human brain are similar to those required for RAM and ROM. Indeed, it is far more likely, based on the precise connectivity of the human brain, that the process of “delegation” from goal-directed to habitual behaviour emerges as a function of complex dynamics within neuronal networks.
We believe that those first pre-humans who began to stand upright faced a new evolutionary pressure, not just on their bodies but on their brains as well. Just as young Tyler Shine switched control over bipedal balance from conscious to unconscious brain centres as he grew older, we suggest that the challenges of standing up on two legs imposed a powerful evolutionary advantage to early humans capable of using their brains in a different and more effective way.
Mac Shine is a medical doctor who was recently awarded his PhD in cognitive neuroscience, and is currently using neuroimaging techniques to clarify brain function. Rick Shine is Professor in Evolutionary Biology at The University of Sydney. Tyler Shine is a rambunctious toddler who loves playing with Lego, running around and eating chocolate. Lots of chocolate. The Frontiers in Neuroscience research paper is available online at |
Why small seed is an economical choice.
October 30, 2018 | Kelly Barany, Chin Ridge Seeds
Tough year for dryland crops from a yield and seed size perspective.
It was a tough year for dryland yields last year. We didn't have rain at the right time and as a result crop yields suffered and it shows when you look at the harvested seed. Some of our pedigreed seed has a smaller seed size this year.
Seed Quality in terms of germination and disease is excellent though.
That said, the germination on all our crops is excellent. Our lab tests are all coming back at >95% germination with 0% fusarium graminearum results due to the nice dry conditions. So the seed quality is right there with the best looking seeds you could find. In addition, with the small seed size, customers can really save money on seed cost.
Small seed size can allow you to reduce your seeding rate.
Agronomists advise farmers to seed their land to reach a certain target plants per square foot population. The target population varies by crop and by land potential (for example you would seed heavier on irrigation than you would on dryland typically in southern Alberta). Your seeding rate is determined by a calculation which includes your target plants per square foot, your seed weight (thousand kernel weight), and your seed's germination rate in %.
More and more farmers are using this calculation to determine their seeding rates. In fact, I see that the canola companies are now recognizing seed size and adjusting their seeding recommendations and packaging.
For example, see the new bag sizes for Invigor canola:
So the canola companies are changing their bags to reflect the relationship between seed size and seeding rate per acre.
How seed size affects your seed costs in cereal crops:
Since cereal crops are typically sold by bushel based on a standard bushel weight, you are essentially paying for cereal seed by weight. So the seed size (as determined by thousand kernel weight in grams) is key to determining your seed cost per acre.
For example, if you are seeding wheat seed and aiming for a plant population of 24 plants per square foot, then there is quite a difference in the required seeding rate between the two lots below:
Both of the seed lots in the example above would produce the same excellent plant stand. However, lot 2 has a smaller seed size, meaning that it has more seeds per pound. So the smaller the seed size, the less pounds required to achieve the same seeds planted per square foot. So in the example above if both wheat lots had the same cost per bushel (pound), the wheat lot with the lower thousand kernel weight will result in a lower cost per acre. Said another way, using the lot with the smaller seed size, you could seed more acres with the same pounds of seed.
Many factors to consider when buying seed.
There are many factors to consider when buying seed and one of them is cost. It is possible to achieve a great plant stand for less cost with a smaller seed size. So thousand kernel weight should be an important factor to consider when buying cereal seed. |
The legacy of the UK’s woodland
In partnership with The Woodland Trust
What legacy will you leave for your children and grandchildren? A landscape we can all be proud of, which works for wildlife, people, businesses and future generations
Woodlands form a cherished part of our historical and cultural identity
Trees and woods are a phenomenally important feature of our landscape and form a cherished part of our historical and cultural identity.
In the UK, 13% of our land is covered by woodland, but the European average is 37%. Irreplaceable ancient woodland—land that has been consistently wooded since at least the 1600s or 1750 in Scotland—now covers only about 2% of the UK because of past clearances for agriculture and development. This land provides important habitats for rare and vulnerable species and also often contains significant historical features. Ancient trees, trees outside woods and other woodland are all under threat and the amount of new native woodland being created is decreasing.
Factors such as climate change, pollution, pests and disease, changing land use and management practice all pose a threat to our trees. We need to make our landscapes more resilient as both urban and rural landscapes need support to absorb and recover from natural and human pressures and change.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Dutch elm disease arrived on our shores. Twenty-five million elms were destroyed by the disease and it’s expected that the effects of Chalara, or ash dieback, will be far worse. The disease is known to be present at hundreds of locations across the UK and there are an estimated 12 million mature ash trees outside woods across Britain that are now at risk from the spread.
Many wooded areas could be destroyed by the onslaught of pests and disease, such as the ash-intensive Derbyshire Dales, as well as many trees outside of woods.
The threat from tree pests and disease alone could have serious financial implications. It could destroy important wildlife habitats and negatively affect the benefits that woods provide, including better water quality, cleaner air and biodiversity. The loss of trees to disease can also affect the character of the landscape and have an impact on tourism.
What we need to do
Planting new trees will allow us to leave the legacy of a beautiful, tree-covered landscape in the UK for generations to come. To ensure the protection of whole woodlands, we need to plant a diverse mix of native tree species. It is particularly vital to plant a mix of native trees outside woods—in gardens, public spaces, hedgerows, copses and field corners—to ensure the connectivity of our landscape and the development of wildlife corridors. This mix of trees will help to mitigate loss when a species-specific disease presents itself in a wood.
Sourcing and growing trees in the UK will prevent the spread of disease from overseas and ensure that the saplings are adaptable within our climate.
Whether you’re planning to plant trees in your community, school or on your own land, you can help to create a landscape that’s strong in the face of tree disease. You will find help and advice as well as a wide range of subsidised tree-planting products at
Visit for more information and to apply for a Tree Disease Recovery Pack |
(855) 4-ESSAYS
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death penalty
Death penalty has always been a problem in this country for half a century. Since that time, people have become more concerned about the rightness or wrongness of this topic and have written many articles about it. There are two groups of people who have different opinions about this topic. The first group agrees with death penalty and the second group disagrees with it. Usually these people are trying to persuade each other about their opinions. Here I will compare two different articles about the death penalty to see which one of them is more persuasive.
The first article named " Death Penalty Is Justice," written by Edward I. Koch, is trying to persuade its audience that death penalty is justice. According to this article, the author has been in public service for twenty-two years and has "heard the pros and cons of capital punishment expressed with special intensity" during these years. This shows intrinsic ethos because the author has the authority to talk about capital punishment and its pros and cons. Moreover, he has been a district leader councilman, congressman, and mayor, which adds to the power of his ethos. Also as a footnote it has been written that Koch has served as mayor of New York City for 12 years and he is also the author of Mayor: An Autobiography. This is an example of extrinsic ethos, which gives more power to the authority of Koch.
The other article, which is called "No Death Penalty", written by David Bruck, is persuading people about the injustice of death penalty. When looking at the source of article, it mentions that Bruck is a lawyer in the South Carolina office of appellate defense and many of his clients are prisoners on death row. This shows extrinsic ethos to persuade people of his ideas. Moreover, Bruck has mentioned that the "moral" argument about death penalty "had to be considered in the abstract" by the time that no one was being executed in the United States.
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An inquest last week concluded that baby Libby had died of natural causes after falling ill with deadly Meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia. Following the inquest, South Western Ambulance Service Trust acknowledged that it had learnt lessons from Libby’s death on the importance of spotting the signs of and treating sepsis.
Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming and life threatening response to infection and can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Sepsis is often very difficult to detect, particularly in children and babies, as the early symptoms are easily confused with other, less serious conditions. It is essential that sepsis is diagnosed and treated early to ensure a good recovery but sadly it is not always detected by healthcare professionals, as was the case with baby Libby.
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Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 120 Ma
Nemicolopterus fossil cast.jpg
Cast of the holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Pterodactyloidea
Clade: Tapejaromorpha
Genus: Nemicolopterus
Wang et al., 2008
Type species
Nemicolopterus crypticus
Wang et al., 2008
Nemicolopterus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur described in 2008. N. crypticus is the type species and sole species known. The generic name "Nemicolopterus" comes from the following Greek words: "Nemos" meaning "forest", "ikolos" meaning "dweller", and Latinised "pteron" meaning "wing". The specific name crypticus is from "kryptos", meaning "hidden". Thus "Nemicolopterus crypticus" means "Hidden flying forest dweller". It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago.
N. crypticus is known from a single fossil, catalog number IVPP V-14377, in the collection of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. The fossil was collected from the Jiufotang Formation, which is of Aptian age (120 mya). It was discovered in the Luzhhouou locality of Yaolugou Town, Jianchang County, Huludao City, western Liaoning Province in northeastern China.
The wingspan of slightly under 25 centimeters (10 in) makes N. crypticus smaller than all but a few specimens of hatchling pterosaurs.[1] The specimen is not fully grown, but Wang et al. (2008) cite the amount of bone fusion and the ossification of the toes, gastralia and sternum as indicating that it was a sub-adult rather than a hatchling. Darren Naish argued on his popular weblog that, due to the fact pterosaurs are highly precocial, bone fusion and ossification could occur very early, and Nemicolopterus might in fact be a hatchling individual of the genus Sinopterus.[2]
Nemicolopterus is a toothless pterosaur. Wang et al. (2008) concluded that it is a primitive intermediate between the Pteranodontoidea and the Dsungaripteroidea. Though Nemicolopterus is tiny, some of the members of these groups eventually evolved into the largest flying animals that ever lived, such as Quetzalcoatlus.
Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few known pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy. It is worthwhile, however, to note that the contemporaneous pterosaur lineage Tapejaridae (such as Sinopterus, which might be synonymous with Nemicolopterus) also shows strong adaptations to climbing.[3]
The cladogram below follows the 2014 analysis Andres and colleagues.[4]
Bennettazhia oregonensis
Eopteranodon lii
"Sinopterus" gui
Nemicolopterus crypticus
Huaxiapterus jii
Sinopterus dongi
"Huaxiapterus" benxiensis
"Huaxiapterus" corollatus
Tupandactylus navigans
Tupandactylus imperator
Bakonydraco galaczi
Europejara olcadesorum
Tapejara wellnhoferi
See also
1. ^ Wang, X., Kellner, A.W.A., Zhou, Z., and Campos, D.A. (2008). "Discovery of a rare arboreal forest-dwelling flying reptile (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from China." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(6): 1983–1987. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707728105
2. ^ Darren Naish, Tiny pterosaurs and pac-man frogs from hell, March 19, 2008
3. ^ artist's depiction
4. ^ Andres, B.; Clark, J.; Xu, X. (2014). "The earliest pterodactyloid and the origin of the group". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1011–6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054.
External links
• Preliminary skeletal restoration by paleoartist John Conway
• Sparrow-Sized Pterodactyl Was Smallest Ever |
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perovskite research
Recent advances in solar cell technology use polycrystalline perovskite films as the active layer, with an increase to efficiency of as much as 24.2%. Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites are especially successful, and they have been used in optoelectronic devices including solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and lasers.
But the surface of hybrid perovskites is prone to surface defects, or surface traps, where charge carriers are trapped in the semiconducting material. To solve this problem and reduce the number of traps, the crystal surface must be passivated.
Before use, perovskites can be treated with chemical solutions, vapors and atmospheric gases to remove defects that make the material less effective. Benzylamine is one particularly successful molecule for this purpose. A detailed understanding of the physical and chemical mechanisms by which these treatments work is key to increasing the collection of charge carriers in solar cells.
In their article in this week's Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing, the authors describe their work testing hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite crystals treated with benzylamine to investigate the mechanisms by which the surface of the crystal is passivated, and traps states are reduced.
"This molecule has been used in polycrystalline fields in solar cells, and people have demonstrated that the solar cells were improved," author Maria A. Loi said. "We wanted to study, in a clean system, why the solar cells were improving and understand why adding this molecule makes the devices better."
The experiments revealed benzylamine enters into the surface of the crystal to create a new, two-dimensional material -- 2D perovskite -- on the surface of the three-dimensional crystal. Where the 2D version forms and later breaks away from the surface, a terraced etching pattern occurs.
"The main purpose was to passivate the surface to reduce defect states," Loi said. "To our surprise, we found out the surface was modified, which was not an expected mechanism. People report that this molecule can improve the quality of devices, but nobody has reported that, in reality, it was creating a two-dimensional layer and could also restructure the material."
The authors also discovered the combination of benzylamine and atmospheric gases is most effective for passivation. That could mean, Loi said, that more than one type of trap state exists. Further investigation of multiple types of trap states could enable precise tuning of the mechanisms involved in preparing crystals for efficient optoelectronic devices.
Story Source:
Journal Reference:
1. Herman Duim, Hong-Hua Fang, Sampson Adjokatse, Gert H. ten Brink, Miguel A. L. Marques, Bart J. Kooi, Graeme R. Blake, Silvana Botti, Maria A. Loi. Mechanism of surface passivation of methylammonium lead tribromide single crystals by benzylamineApplied Physics Reviews, 2019; 6 (3): 031401 DOI: 10.1063/1.5088342
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Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects
how a person communicates and relates to other people.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism affects four major areas of development:
• Language and communication
• Social interaction
• Thinking and behavior
• Sensory processing
Asperger’s is a form of autism; they tend to have fewer problems with speech, but may still have difficulties with understanding and processing language.
How we can help
• Treatment to improve articulation of individual sounds and production of sound patterns. This includes demonstrating how to produce the sound correctly, learning to recognize which sounds are correct and incorrect, and practicing sounds in different words.
• Phonological process treatment involves teaching the rules of speech to help them say words correctly. |
Saturday, June 9, 2018
The Japanese term waka refers to a type of poem that has its origins in classical Japanese literature. A waka and its collateral forms consist of at least three phrases the first of which has five characters and the second two with seven characters each. The longer forms simply vary the phrase pattern and then uses repeated patterns to lengthen the poem.. The most common form of waka is known as tanka. It has five phrases of 5-7-5-7-7 characters. Commonly, the first three phrases pose a problem, and the last two phrases resolve the problem.
Novels often are plotted, roughly speaking, on an existing framework. The scheme of Joyce's Ulysses, obviously, alludes to the Greek classic of the wandering Aeneas; and Joyce's character 'wanders' through equivalent adventures. Lewis Carroll, in Through The Looking-Glass, used a chess problem to structure his plot.
The Blind Geisha uses the waka format for structure. Three parts of five sections each allude to the classic poem format. Problems presented in the first three sections of each part are resolved in the final two sections (each of these begins with '...Elizabeth wrote...')
The novel is published sequentially beginning with CwHD 41.
I - 4
Elizabeth wrote:
The short prose introduction that Ikkyu added to his poem Pai-chang's hoe poses more problems then it solves. He addresses Mori, in most translations, as my blind attendant, Mori; but the characters he uses offer many opportunities for variation. Literally, the characters from the first line translate as 'blind', 'woman', her name 'Mori', 'samurai' or 'one who serves', 'feelings', 'love'and a marker that indicates that a person is the subject of the phrase or sentence. There is one other character that we have had difficulty with. Grace suspects we have selected the wrong radical. The image of the ideograph is smeared and unclear. We have an inkling, but would like to be sure.
The first consideration is this: If Mori is professing her love for him, surely their relationship is beyond that bland naming. "Mori, my blind friend' or 'my blind companion' might be more appropriate. Ikkyu was never one to stand on ceremony.
If the dating of the poem places the composition during the calamity of the Ōnin War, then much is explained. Kyoto was the battlefield for that conflict. The city was devastated. Those who could flee, did so. Ikkyu and Mori were, for a time, in Takigi; but the war found them there and they fled to Sumiyoshi.
And what of her refusal to eat. She has attempted and failed at suicide once before (or so says Ikkyu). They are short of both money and food. The war rages on (The Ōnin War---need more on this); and all the horrors and deprivations of such a conflict do not spare this odd couple. Is this why she refuses to eat? What food they have, she wants Ikkyu to eat. Does she feel that she has become a burden? There are characters for pain and grief, for anxiety, for bitterness. Suicide, in 15th century Japan, did not bear the onus or reprobation that our culture brings to that act. More honorable than not. So Mori's attempt must be seen as noble and selfless. Ikkyu certainly must have viewed it as such. Were they on the run?
Another consideration is this: Seppuku, or ritual suicide, had already become the accepted means of discharging the debt incurred by one's misdeeds or failures. Jigai, Japanese for suicide, is made up of two characters: 自害. (Need more on this business. Another bit of research for Grace.)
Elizabeth removed her glasses, rubbed her eyes. And where was the nobility and selflessness of Michelle's death? Sordid, it seems, more desperate than otherwise. Or so I thought at the time.
"Still think so. A waste, such a waste."
Something you might should want. Such nonsense.
Elizabeth pushed herself away from the desk and stood. Another early morning, candlelight and quiet. She didn't particularly care for the scent of vanilla that the candle in her old brass lantern gave off. Exuded. That's the word. Had Grace given her that one? Somebody. She turned and walked the length of the room; peered out the window that looked onto the carport and beyond, the tiled roof of her neighbor's summer home. Rather large people. Name forgotten. No doubt I'll dredge it up later.
She turned and walked back to her desk. Twenty steps. Mincing? Was that the word? Hercule Poirot's walk. With his little gray cells. Not one to mince words. Or onions. She made a note on her post-it pad to check with Mr Skeat on 'mince.' Have some mincemeat pie for lunch.
The incessant chirping, almost yapping, like a small dog, of her Douglas squirrels brought her to the window. There they were, circling the trunk of the pine. So territorial. Must be males. They both shared the small wooded corner of her property. The adjacent lot had a few cedars, but mostly a sizable wood of stunted scrub pine, specie's name actually appropriate: pinus contorta.
Elizabeth snubbed out the taper in the dancing frog, puffed twice at her lantern. She would take a walk before lunchtime. Grace this afternoon.
"We need to finish that translation," she said. And that errant kanji. Must be somewhere. Must be.
A neap tide, gulls and whimbrels, plovers and the oddly named killdeers all feeding across the wide apron of sand. Kelp strands littered the far end of the beach, and just beyond were the tide pools where Elizabeth spent so many afternoons poking with her stick.
Poking the little gray cells, she thought, considering a rather large anemone. "Fat little fellow, you are," said the woman. The tentacles are living organisms. How did they work that out? Nematocysts. Like a barbed arrow, piercing and poisonous. Just a polyp, a sac that eats.
She was squatting on her haunches; as Grace walked down the beach towards her the young woman called out and waved the envelope that she held in her hand.
"A problem solved," Grace said.
"Oh good," said with a grunt as Elizabeth pushed herself to her feet.
"That kanji we couldn't translate?" Grace said.
"Just as we thought. 'Very' covers it, but it seems to me that something a bit more intense is needed."
"Then just use 'intense'." And Elizabeth quoted the line: "Mori, my blind friend, has such intense feelings of love ..."
Grace nodded. "That will do nicely." They entwined arms walking the hard sand at water's edge. "The radical is number 99, amai, with a meaning of 'sweet' or ''slightly sugared'. The compound we were looking for is Jin, meaning 'exceedingly' or 'severe' or 'intense'. Some others."
"Ah." Said softly. Elizabeth shuffled along, stopped, sighed.
"Are you all right, Bess?"
"Just the whirlies, dear."
She disliked this feeling of dizziness. Happens all too often these days, she thought. Vertigo. Turning in Latin. Turning ... "Just getting old. Stood up too quick," she said. And afflicted. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Ever since my bad ear.
"Shall we sit?"
"No no. It passes." She nodded down the beach. "We'll walk to the creek."
A small stream ran off the hillside, cut the low dunes, and fanned across the beach to the sea. A path followed the creeks meander through the dunes and brought the walker back to the gravel road that led to several houses built along the bluff. The loop from beach to road to home was just short of two miles and Elizabeth managed it daily.
She said, "Have you noticed, the smell of the tides, how distinct they are?"
"You have the nose, Beth. I'm immune."
"Had a fellow down visiting me. Fisherman, he was, biologist. Started in on sulfate-reducing bacteria, critters feeding on sulfur ... no, not 'fur', 'fates' ... sulfates. Said that was what caused that funky tang like rotten eggs. Decomposers at work. How he did go on."
"And not so much when the tides in. Yes?"
"That's right. Sweeter then. Amai, desu ne."
Grace laughed.
"The eyes fail, the nose compensates," Elizabeth said. "Though the vastness of the horizon is clear enough, bright enough, to stun my reason." She stopped and turned to the sea. "The sea-glim. Nothing there, nothing not there. Not an original thought, that. Some poem. Forgotten. Most people miss that empty enormity. They watch waves or gulls. The more observant might see a boat or ship, passing. The prescient few might be found by the whale's misty spout. Or earth's elegant arc. How odd that the most profound is hidden by such simplicity." She patted the young woman's hand. "I'm sorry, dear. I ramble. Saying nothing. Just a maudlin old woman today. What's our latitude and longitude here? Do you know? We need a little science for ballast."
"44º north, 124º west." Grace smiled.
"Now why in the world would you know that?"
"You forget Bernard."
A vacant look, a dawning. "The sailor," Elizabeth said. "And Tahiti?"
"17º south, 149º west."
"You miss that fellow, don't you?"
Grace shrugged. "He was good company."
They stood quietly as the swish of wave, a bit of white foam, began to run up the beach and surround them.
"If one could truly see," said Elizabeth, "there he'd be on his little boat out riding the big ocean."
"If one could truly see."
"And Ikkyu. Him, too. Wandering the streets, Mori in tow."
"With her shamisen."
"Yes, she must have had one. Was there ever a mention?"
"We'll look again. Perhaps when they were in Sumiyoshi. He was down with dysentery again. Then there was something about earning some money begging on the Taika Bridge; but perhaps it wasn't begging at all. Perhaps it was entertaining. We'll check the kanji."
"We shall. But enough. Let's be home. Crackers and cheese, I think, and some of that Beaujolais you brought down."
"No work this afternoon?"
"Oh, we'll find something to do. Still need a timeline for Iccky. Maybe do that? Or make up a life for our friend, Mori."
"Fiction truer than life."
"Often think life is a fiction."
Hand in hand now, the two women angled across the dry soft sand, trudging to the creekside path that led to the road. Head down, Elizabeth's breathing became labored.
"Ah," she said.
"Rest?" asked Grace, slowing.
"No,no. No matter."
Robin song; in the distance, a barking dog raised the shrill cry of a small child.
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Sunday, November 21, 2004
How to collect money for charity by playing pinochle:
I heard an enjoyable speech full of reminiscences last Saturday, including the fact that the speaker’s father-in-law had collected money for charity by playing pinochle (about 80 years ago). I suspected that hardly any of the two hundred listeners knew how to collect money in this way. Here’s how it worked:
Pinochle is traditionally a 2, 3 or 4-handed card game. The three-hand version is usually played for money. If you lose a hand, you pay the other two players and also a virtual player called the “kitty”. If you win, you win from the other two players, but not from the kitty (unless you win a rather high bid). The balance of game rules and human nature is such that the kitty always comes out ahead. Players traditionally used the kitty to pay for sandwiches and drinks, but here’s a case where the kitty went to charity.
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law and legal
The permission model challenges longstanding views of stare decisis. For instance, stare decisis is often lambasted for being a malleable doctrine that overlaps with the merits. But the permission model would actually have fun that state of affairs. Malleable, merits-sensitive stare decisis helps judges manage controversial legal transitions primarily based on their understanding of underlying rights. And the binding mannequin may merely be infeasible without enforcement.
While formalism is often regarded as entailed by positivism, it seems that authorized realism is not solely in keeping with positivism, but also presupposes the reality of all three of positivism’s core theses. Indeed, the realist acknowledges that law is basically the product of official exercise, but believes that judicial lawmaking occurs more frequently than is often assumed. But the concept that regulation is basically the product of official exercise presupposes the truth of positivism’s Conventionality, Social Fact, and Separability theses. Though the preoccupations of the realists had been empirical (that is, trying to establish the psychological and sociological elements influencing judicial determination-making), their implicit conceptual commitments have been decidedly positivistic in taste. As an historic matter, legal realism arose in response to legal formalism, a specific model of authorized reasoning that assimilates authorized reasoning to syllogistic reasoning.
This is to insure towards the danger of financial crises, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Space regulation is a relatively new subject dealing with elements of international law concerning human actions in Earth orbit and outer area. While at first addressing space relations of countries by way of treaties, more and more it’s addressing areas such as area commercialisation, property, legal responsibility, and different points.
By the mid-twentieth century, however, this account had lost its influence among working legal philosophers. Its emphasis on legislative establishments was replaced by a give attention to legislation-applying institutions such as courts, and its insistence of the position of coercive drive gave approach to theories emphasizing the systematic and normative character of regulation. The most essential architects of contemporary legal positivism are the Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) and the 2 dominating figures in the analytic philosophy of regulation, H.L.A. Hart (1907–92) and Joseph Raz, among whom there are clear lines of affect, but in addition essential contrasts.
Smallpox prevention additionally was on the root of the 1905 landmark decision inJacobson v. Massachusetts during which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Massachusetts statutory requirement for smallpox vaccination . Primary objectives of PHLP are to boost the general public health system’s authorized preparedness to address rising threats, continual ailments, and different nationwide public health priorities and to improve use of legislation to assist program activities. PHLP does not present authorized advice to CDC applications; that is still the separate duty of the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. The concept of public well being law has developed into overlapping paradigms.
University of Arizona Law’s Master of Legal Studies (MLS) is a one-12 months diploma program pursued on a full-time or half-time foundation. The MLS is designed to reinforce the effectiveness of a broad spectrum of professionals whose work involves rules, negotiations, or working with lawyers or authorized issues. While critical approaches to the study of rights discourses, racial formation, and international law have had dramatic effects on scholarship in those respective fields, these insights have performed solely a marginal role in mainstream legislation and safety debates. This underscores the necessity to develop a clear crucial alternative within the field that may question some or all of its assumptions.
Stare decisis just isn’t absolute; judges can deviate from it to replace the legislation to adapt to society’s trendy expectations. An instance of judicial review is ready forth in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 . In Johnson, the US Supreme Court dominated that burning a flag is protected self-expression underneath the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Thus the Court reversed the defendant’s conviction beneath a Texas statute that criminalized the desecration of a honored object. Note how Johnson not only invalidates a state statute as being inferior to the US Constitution but also modifications the US Constitution by including flag burning to the First Amendment’s safety of speech.
Building on the LSA custom, students involved on this CRN work with the complete vary of obtainable empirical strategies – qualitative and quantitative, ethnographic and statistical. Our aim is to encourage a truly interdisciplinary strategy to researching regulation “in motion” and “in books.” We additionally supply help and networking for LSA members who’re actively involved in law faculties and/or regulation apply, and who are dedicated to social science approaches to studying legislation. The dynamic social and financial setting implies that food methods invoke law in a number of methods and throughout a number of jurisdictions, and consequently, it is an incredibly complicated institutional environment that few, if any, individuals perceive in its entirety.
U.S. Senate: Laws and Regulations
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Billy Mitchell and the Outer Banks
Two US battleships, the USS New Jersey and the USS Virginia, rest 300’ beneath the waters of the Atlantic. About 16 miles from Cape Hatteras, they were sunk by friendly fire in a deliberate attempt to prove the potency of air power.
Their fate and how the oddly named Billy Mitchell Airport five miles east of Hatteras Village in Frisco came to be a part of the Outer Banks are bits of the same story.
Billy Mitchell Airport Outer Banks
Billy Mitchell Airport in Hatteras. Photo – Jamie Dudiak
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell is generally considered the father of the US Air Force. Years before anyone was advocating for air power, or even considered aircraft as potentially decisive on the battlefield, Mitchell was a lone voice in the wilderness.
Following WWI, he maintained that every ship in the US Navy was vulnerable to air attack. The Navy brass and military leaders, in general, were skeptical.
In 1921 aircraft under Mitchell’s command sank the supposedly unsinkable Ostfriesland, a surplus German battleship seized from Germany at the close of the war. The ship was sunk off the Virginia coast.
The demonstration was—and actually still is—somewhat controversial. Military leaders wanted Mitchell to bomb the ship in a series of attacks, allowing experts to examine damage between attacks.
Mitchell ordered his pilots to throw all their bombs at the ship at once, sinking it in 20 minutes.
Because the results were considered insufficient to prove or disprove Mitchell’s theories, a second test was established, this time off Diamond Shoals.
The two ships selected, the New Jersey and Virginia were sister ships commissioned in 1906. Under the terms of the WWI armistice, they were considered surplus weaponry.
The test that the Mitchell devised this time was far more ambitious than the Ostrriesland. It was his intent to prove that naval ships were susceptible to long range bombing attacks.
On September 5, 1923, bombers took off from Langley Airfield, 175 miles from the ships. As military brass watched from another ship, the first of Mitchell’s bombers arrived, dropping bombs from 10,000’, followed by a second run from 6000’. Then aircraft from a temporary airfield constructed near Buxton finished the bombing run.
Although naval command continued to insist air power could not sink a ship under steam that was protecting itself, the Cape Hatteras bombing runs were significant for a number of reasons.
Mitchell was able to effectively demonstrate that long range bombing was feasible. He had been maintaining for some time that the best defense of the American borders were bombers that could intercept any foreign fleet well before they came close to our shoreline.
It was also the first time a bombsight was used. Although primitive compared to the designs that followed, the fact that four of the bombs dropped from 10,000’ either struck their target or were near misses, proved they were effective.
The official report, however, downplayed the effectiveness of the demonstration. Mitchell, incensed, battled his superior officers in the Army—which had acquiesced to the report—and Navy who issued the report.
In 1925 he was transferred to San Antonio, Texas, as air officer to a ground forces corps. The reassignment was short-lived.
In September of that year, the naval airship Shenandoah crashed in bad weather with a loss of 14 lives. Mitchell issued a public statement accusing the War and Navy Departments of “incompetence, criminal negligence, and almost treasonable administration” when it came to aviation.
He went on to write, “Brave airmen are being sent to their deaths by armchair admirals who don’t care about air safety.”
His views may or may not have been accurate, but they were certainly insubordinate, Brought to Washington, DC for a court martial, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years of suspended service at half pay.
Mitchell resigned his commission at that time.
Billy Mitchell Airport is a 3002’ runway, owned by the National Park Service but managed by NCDOT Department of Aviation. It is close to the location of the temporary field. |
Symbolism, Typology, and Methodology in the Renaissance Art of Perio della Francesca
Piero della Francesca, Flagellation of Christ, c. 1455-65, oil and tempera on wood, 58.4 × 81.5 cm (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, Italy)
By Christine Zappella / 08.09.2015
PhD Student in Medieval and Early Modern Art
University of Chicago
Flagellation of Christ
The subject of the Flagellation
Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ is proof that, sometimes, good things really do come in small packages. Despite the panel’s size (only 58.4 cm × 81.5 cm), the painting has been a mainstay in the last century in discussions of Quattrocento (fifteenth century) painting. An early example of the use of oil paint—though Piero used both tempera and oil in its execution—the work depicts the moment in Christ’s Passion when he was whipped before Pontius Pilate. Though the New Testament says very little about this moment, mentioning only that Pilate ordered Christ to be flogged, later Christian writers wrote much about the event, and even speculated about the number of lashes Christ received. Though the New Testament does not say that Christ was tied to a column while being whipped, during the fifteenth century this became a convention in depictions of the scene, which Piero here follows.
A masterpiece of the early Renaissance
This painting is a masterpiece of the early Renaissance. The figures are expressive; especially noteworthy is the face of the bearded man in the foreground. They are also given real volume through the use of modeling (the passage from light to dark over the surface of an object). True to Humanism, the painting shows a preoccupation with the Classical world, as seen especially in the architecture and inclusion of the golden statue in the background. Above all, Piero’s obsession with perspective (the naturalistic recession in to space), is evident. In fact, the artist was the author of a treatise on perspective, entitled De Perspectiva Pingendi (On the Perspective of Painting) and was also known as a mathematician and geometer.
Who are the men in the foreground?
Three men in foreground (detail), Piero della Francesca, Flagellation of Christ, c. 1455-65, oil and tempera on wood, 58.4 × 81.5 cm (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino)
But Piero della Francesca’s picture is also highly unusual. The flagellation, which is the gruesome main event, takes place in the background, while three extraneous men are painted prominently in the foreground. Piero uses two main devices to further emphasize the division of subjects. The first is setting. While the flagellation takes place inside of a covered courtyard with dramatic black and white checked tiles, the men are outdoors standing on the reddish tiles that pervade the scene. The second is the use of the orthogonal lines of the perspective, which divide the painting in half, and also delineate the interior and exterior space.
Not only is the painting strange because Piero marginalized the primary subject, relegating it to the back of the painting, but also because art historians cannot agree on who the three men in the foreground are. Theories abound.
The traditional identification of these three men is that the young man in the center is Oddantanio da Montefeltro, ruler of Urbino, flanked on either side by his advisors. All three of these men were killed in a conspiracy. In this case, it is suggested that the patron of the painting was Federigo da Montefeltro (who was later immortalized in a famous diptych by Piero) to commemorate his brother’s death and compare his innocence to that of Christ.
Art historian Marilyn Lavin offered another notable interpretation of the painting. She suggested that the two older men are Ludovico Gonzaga and a friend, who had both recently lost their sons, symbolized by the young man in the center. The painting in this case would compare the pain that the two fathers felt to that of Christ during his Passion.
Other art historians have suggested that the painting is an allegory for the suffering of Constantinople after its fall to the Muslims in 1453. In this view, the two men watching the flagellation are Murad II (the Islamic sultan who waged a decades-long war against Christianity), and Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos (against whom that war was waged). The emperor had gone to the 1438 Council of Florence to ask for protection from the Muslims, but received no aid. The three enigmatic men, then, represent nobles who stood by and let the Christian nation be destroyed.
Christ tied to a column, being flogged by two men (detail), Piero della Francesca, Flagellation of Christ, c. 1455-65, oil and tempera on wood, 58.4 × 81.5 cm (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino)
Still another interpretation suggests that the key to understanding the painting lay in the lost inscription on the frame, which putatively said, “Convenerunt in unum,” or “They come into one.” This is a line from the Bible that was traditionally read each year on Good Friday, the day that commemorates Christ’s Passion. “They” would refer then to the Sanhedrinists, or councilmen of Israel, who were present during Christ’s suffering. In this way of looking at the panel, Piero did not include a contemporary political message, but rather painted a narrative that is true to the text, and depicts exactly what it purports to, the flagellation of Christ.
No definitive interpretation
The enigmatic nature of Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation underscores the fact that works of art, regardless of their age, continue to engender interesting art historical research. In the case of this painting, it is unlikely that a definitive interpretation will ever be accepted, as there is little documentation to support a single argument. Perhaps this ambiguity is partially why the painting continues to intrigue, and, almost 600 years later, grants multiple entry points to the viewer, drawing him into Piero’s fictional world.
Saved from destruction
Although Da Vinci’s Last Supper is perhaps the most famous fresco that was nearly destroyed during World War II, the people of the Italian town Sansepolcro in Tuscany contend that they, in fact, hold the most important work spared in the war. For this, they can thank commanding British artillery officer and great appreciator of art, Tony Clarke, who was supposed to raze the city, but defied orders—having read Aldous Huxley’s comment that Sansepolcro was home to the best painting in the world. Huxley, of course, was referring to Piero della Francesca’s famed fresco, The Resurrection.
A relic of the holy sepulcher
Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection, c. 1463-5, fresco, 225 x 200 cm, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro (photo: Jan Van Duppen, with permission)
Piero painted this fresco around 1463 in the civic hall of Sansepolcro, which had been occupied by the Florentines but was recently returned (the Italian city-states were often at war). The subject matter then—the triumphant Christ arising from his tomb the third day after his death—may be a reference to the triumph of the town itself, which was named after the Holy Sepulcher (Sansepolcro in Italian, and the Holy Sepulcher is the tomb that Christ was buried in). The presence of the large stone in the lower right hand corner of the fresco supports this, as it possibly represents the relic of the sepulcher (the burial place, in this case of Christ) putatively brought to Sansepolcro by the saints who founded the town, Arcano and Egidio.
An interest in more than naturalism
Unlike other paintings by Piero (The Flagellation for example), The Resurrection is less interesting iconologically than it is formally; that is, art historians are less concerned about what it might mean than what it actually looks like. Although The Resurrection is often depicted by having Christ emerge from a cave from which a boulder has been “rolled away,” Piero instead chose to show Jesus stepping out of a Roman sarcophagus. In the foreground of the painting, the Roman soldiers ordered to guard the tomb have all fallen asleep. The position of their bodies is quite interesting. The reclining soldier certainly could never actually maintain that pose while sleeping in real life, and his comrade next to him, holding the lance, doesn’t even have legs. These two details show that Piero was more concerned about achieving a pleasing composition than being true to life.
Also noteworthy is that, although we know that Piero was the author of a major treatise on perspective and was also a mathematician and geometer, the painting contains two vanishing points (the point at which all the lines of the painting should converge). On one hand, we see the faces of the soldiers from below, but on the other hand, the face of Christ is painted straight on. If the perspective were consistent throughout the painting, we would see all the faces from the same vantage point. Again, Piero has sacrificed realism for effect.
A self-portrait?
Face of soldier in brown armor (detail), Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection, c. 1463-5, fresco, 225 x 200 cm (Museo Civico, Sansepolcro)
Perhaps the most striking feature of Piero’s fresco is the physical reality of the people he paints. Piero has been lauded as one of the first painters of the Renaissance to capture realistic faces that show emotion. In fact, Giorgio Vasari, the great sixteenth century art historian and painter, reported that the face of the soldier in brown armor was a self-portrait of Piero. Although there is no way of knowing if this is true—and Vasari is known for not always being accurate—his inclusion of this detail underscores the fact that Piero’s human figures are not just made-up “types,” but contain a spark of individuality that makes them feel like they are based on observations from real life. This is one of the major differences between Renaissance and Medieval art, and is partly why Piero is considered one of the great early Renaissance painters.
Geometry and mass
Piero has organized the figures so that an isosceles triangle is formed from the top of Christ’s head, through the soldiers, to the lower corners of the paintings. In addition, a tree is placed almost-symmetrically on either side of Jesus. This emphasis on geometric order and harmony is typical of the Renaissance, as best exemplified by paintings such as Raphael’s School of Athens, and Leonardo’s Last Supper.
Also characteristic of Piero’s work is the mass of the bodies, an effect achieved in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most obvious is the stalwart pose of Christ, who appears anchored to the tomb by both his left leg and the flag in his right hand. At the same time, he seems to actively be using the flagpole and the hand on his knee to raise his other leg out of the tomb. The flexed muscles of his abdomen also emphasize the reality of Christ’s body, which is physically engaged despite the serenity of his face.
Mary and Christ (detail), Giotto, Lamentation, c. 1305, fresco (Arena Chapel, Padua)
The complex positioning of the soldiers’ bodies also adds to this feeling of mass. Piero overlaps the men, intertwining their feet, so that they appear to exist in real space. The abdomen of the soldier in brown also echoes that of Christ, lending him an even greater sense of realism. The soldier all the way to the left, whose body is curled almost into a ball and whose face is hidden, is reminiscent of a similar figure in Giotto’s Lamentation, who is also used at the corner of the painting to anchor the eye and add weight to the composition.
Thanks, Tony
Not many of Piero’s paintings have survived, and the ones that do exist are scattered around the globe; few are in major museums. However, it is certainly worth the train ride from Florence to see this gem of the early Renaissance. And when you do, be sure to remember to thank Tony Clarke, without whom this painting would have become a pile of dust.
Additional Resources
R. Wittkower and B. A. R. Carter, “The Perspective of Piero della Francesca’s FlagellationJournal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 16, no. 3/4 (1953), pp. 292-302.
Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation: The Triumph of Christian Glory, The Art Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 4 (Dec., 1968), pp. 321-342.
Ludovico Borgo, “Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation: The Figures in the Foreground” The Burlington Magazine,vol. 121, no. 918 (Sep., 1979), pp. 546-553+557.
Ludovico Borgo, New Questions for Piero’s Flagellation, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 121, no. 918 (Sep., 1979), pp. 546-553+557.
Joseph Hoffman, Piero della Francesca’s “Flagellation”. A Reading from Jewish History, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 44. Bd., H. 4 (1981), pp. 340-357.
The Man who Saved the Resurrection from BBC News
James Elkins, “Piero della Francesca and the Renaissance Proof of Perspective,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 69, No. 2 (June, 1987) , pages. p. 220-230.
Piero’s polyhedra
Polyhedra and plagiarism in the Renaissance
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Grackle Control
The adult grackle has a long dark bill, pale yellowish eyes and a long tail. The plumage is an iridescent black, or purple on the head. The adult female is a bit smaller and less glossy. Grackles' nests are well-concealed cups in dense trees or shrubs, usually near water. Sometimes, they will nest in cavities or in man-made structures like eaves. They often nests in colonies, some being as high as 200 pairs.Predators of the grackle include hawks, owls, and harriers. In addition, cats, squirrels, snakes, and raccoons sometimes eat grackle eggs. |
Are Sea Levels Rising?
The UN secretary general has warned the planet is close to “the point of no return” and branded global efforts to combat climate change “utterly inadequate”, as world leaders gather for a vital conference on the Paris Agreement.
Antonio Guterres issued the stark warning ahead of the fortnight-long UN climate change conference (COP25) in Madrid.
Rulers and delegates from almost 200 countries will attempt to firm up the commitments made in 2015, establish new international rules for emissions trading, and broker systems of compensation for poorer countries already affected by global warming.
The Alliance of Small Island States, representing nations most at risk from rising seas, views the talks as the last chance to avert potential “catastrophe”, while Save the Children warns 33 million African children are facing hunger as a result of cyclones and droughts made more likely by climate change.
Never heard of the Alliance of Small Island States. Are they really at risk from rising seas?
It’s only been a couple of days since I remembered the smallest and most low-lying island I ever set foot on: the Isla dos Amores in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara bay. If sea levels have been rising all over the world, as a result of melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, then the Isla dos Amores should surely have disappeared by now, because sea levels would have risen in Guanabara bay just like everywhere else. Or it would at least have shrunk in size a bit as the water rose. But, if anything, the Isla seemed to be slightly bigger than the day I set foot on it back in 1958, over 61 years ago.
I suppose that a climate alarmist might say that, actually, sea levels in Guanabara bay can’t rise very much, because Guanabara bay, like the San Francisco bay in the USA, has a narrow entrance through which sea water flows slowly, effectively insulating it from tidal swings in the ocean outside the bay. He might add that sea levels don’t rise the same amount everywhere, and cite cases where islands have actually disappeared beneath the rising sea. He might add that you need to study lots of islands, and not just one. But could he name an island that has disappeared beneath the rising sea?
A remote Hawaiian island has totally disappeared overnight – two decades before scientists predicted. East Island was an 11-acre strip of gravel and sand in the north west of the Hawaiian archipelago. Now it’s beneath the sea, washed away by a hurricane.
Is being washed away by a hurricane an example of rising sea levels? I don’t think it is. Hurricanes cause storm surges that can raise sea levels locally by several metres as they pass through. But after the hurricanes have left, sea levels return to their former levels. And furthermore low-lying islands that are just sand and gravel can probably easily be swept away by storm surges flowing over them. And many Pacific islands are just low-lying sand and gravel. But there are more, as the Guardian hastens to point out:
Only the Guardian doesn’t point out the line in the associated report that says:
However, the limited research on reef islands in the western Pacific indicates the majority of shoreline changes and inundation to date result from extreme events, seawalls and inappropriate development rather than sea-level rise alone.
But wait! Forbes has got eight islands that have vanished:
Need a reason to be concerned about rising sea level? I’ve got eight. A recent study found that at least eight islands in the Pacific Ocean have disappeared due to rising sea levels. This is a trend that has continued for several decades, with low-lying, often coral atoll islands being submerged by rising seas.
A recent study documented the effect of sea level rise, which averages 3 mm per year globally and up to 12 mm per year in the western Pacific in recent decades. The team found that islands in Micronesia have disappeared in recent years with little to no evidence they existed at all. Several Solomon Islands had similar fates in recent decades as they were overtaken by the sea.
Do they mean that there is little or no evidence that some of these islands ever existed at all? Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps they were geographical errors, accidental ink blots that were given names.
But some numbers at last. If sea levels have been rising on average by 3 mm per year, and 61 x 3 = 183 mm = 18.3 cm. No wonder the Isla dos Amores hasn’t disappeared.
Guanabara bay was also a port. So are port authorities worried about rising sea levels? Not Vancouver, it would seem:
Vancouver Fraser Port Authority defends itself
The sticking point is around the terminal’s preliminary design, which forecasts the local sea level to rise by 50 cm by 2100. “Sea level rise is not expected to adversely affect the project over the long term,” reads the planning document.
Yet, according to storm simulations conducted by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, if hit by a one-in-500-year storm, much of the port’s facilities would be severely impacted. Throw into the mix a 1 m sea level rise expected by 2100, and most of the port would find itself underwater, claims the study.
If sea levels are rising by 3 mm per year, Vancouver might expect a 30 cm sea level rise by 2100. So if they’re planning on a 50 cm rise, they’re factoring in a sea level rise of nearly double that.
Add to all that the fact that sea levels have already risen 60 metres over the past 12,000+ years, and there’s nothing new about it at all. So why the big fuss about it now?
Furthermore, the past 12,000 years have been an interglacial warm period in Earth’s history. If the ice returns, we’ll start seeing sea levels fall, as it gets locked up in new ice sheets. I wonder if Vancouver Port Authority factored that in as well?
About Frank Davis
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3 Responses to Are Sea Levels Rising?
1. Furtive Ferret says:
Interesting piece here from Anthony Watts’ blog:
I read it at the time of publication and thought it very germane to this posting.
2. Philip Neal says:
Years ago, also on What’s Up With That, Willis Eschenbach observed that coral atolls are “floating islands” and in no danger of being drowned by rising sea levels because, as Darwin first realised, living corals grow upwards towards the sea surface as the rubble of old, dead coral sinks beneath them.
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Tag Archive: reflections on the revolution in france
False Confessions
It is evident that Justine’s death in Frankenstein was a tragic and unjust one. Despite her innocence, shortly after her conviction, she confessed to have murdered William knowing that it would end in her execution. During her last encounter with Elizabeth, Justine admits to have lied about being responsible for Williams murder when saying, “Dear lady, I had no one to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition. What could I do? In an evil hour I subscribed to a lie; and now only am I truly miserable” (83). Here, she makes it clear that she felt alone during her moments of conviction because although there really was no solid evidence that proved her guilty, once blamed, Justine was labeled the murder by the entire town without any hesitation. In addition to this, Justine also voices how from the moment she was condemned, “[her] confessor besieged [her]”, as well as “threatened and menaced, until [she] almost began to think [she] was the monster he said [she] was”(83). It was during her time of weakness that the law took advantage of her in order to obtain a confession; even if it meant manipulating her into believing she truly was a demented murderer.
See the source image
Now, taking into consideration Justine’s death in Frankenstein, a lot of the way it was handled can be interpreted through Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790. As described in Burke’s writing, death was a prominent occurrence due to the ongoing revolution; including executions as well as the suffering of many. In one instance, Burke confesses, “that much allowance out to be made for the Society, and that the temptation was too strong for common discretion” (72). Returning once again to Justine’s death, she felt isolated from her homes community after she was accused of murder and because of it she saw no other option but to untruthfully confess. As one can see, society played a big role in a persons downfall and although some may have thought it to be unjust, the “temptation” or inclination to be on the side the majority thought to be right, was so powerful it caused individuals to loose their “common discretion”. Another point brought up by Burke describes how he began to think, “such treatment of any human creatures must be shocking to any but those who are made for accomplishing Revolutions” (74). By this he means the suffering that was allowed to go on during the revolution in France would be surprising to those who would normally be opposed to violence and an uprising. In the same manner, Justine’s confessor threatened and pressured her into a false confession; something no one in their right mind would take part in. Yet, this individual tortured Justine because they needed an murder and would stop at nothing spill their blood in an execution; even if that person was innocent.
– Juanita Espinoza
By ~ Amber Loper
In Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, he talks briefly about the importance of beauty in the role of natural order. Should anything disturb the natural order of things, justice, and therefor beauty, die. A minor character in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, plays a crucial role in advancing this rhetoric. Justine, a servant to the Frankenstein household, favorite to the late Mrs. Frankenstein, and serving the family for most of her life, ends up tragically accused for the murder of their youngest boy, William. The family claims to love her dearly, but at the appearance of the smallest amount of evidence, they all turn their backs on her, except Victor who knows for a fact she is innocent. She is a pretty young woman, death_of_the_justice_by_quadraro-d6sapo4.pngobedient and humble in her ways, which makes her death all the more poignant. Burke examines the effects of the French Revolution, saying, “never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience…”(p.70). He believes the French Revolution was the end to such niceties and never again would society prosper as well as it had. Such is the way that Justine accepts her fate. She is well aware of her rank in society as a servant, and she is a woman. Being the epitome of her sex and class, she obediently confesses to a murder she did not commit. In her final moments with friends, she says, “learn from me, dear lady, to submit in patience to the will of Heaven”(FRANKENSTEIN p.83). Justine believes her death is not the failings of society, but an act of God’s will, something far beyond anyone’s control and it is not to be tampered with and only met with patience. Her death, as is the French Revolution, is the end of Justice in Frankenstein’s world.
Burke would admire Justine’s actions, thinking her an exemplary woman. Maybe even comparable to Marie Antoinette. He briefly mentions Antoinette’s death, saying, “in the last extremity she will save herself from the last disgrace, and that if she must fall, she will fall by no ignoble hand”(BURKE p.75). That is to say, a woman in the face of death, no matter what ranking, must go down gracefully, not fighting or begging, that is not the way of life. To fight back is disgraceful, piteous, and frankly, ugly. The French Revolution is a wart on society in Burke’s eyes. Similar, everything in Frankenstein after Justine’s death goes against the dignified, obedient world Burke believes in. Dr. Frankenstein descends into madness, tries to fight back against his monster and all sense of justice becomes lost on him.
Tania De Lira-Miranda
In his political pamphlet, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke wrote against the French Revolution. He specifically talks about how because of the revolution, the age of chivalry, “the sum of the ideal qualifications of a [person], including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arm (dictionary.com)” would come to end. He explains this in his pamphlet that before the revolution, when he saw the queen of France, she “hardly seemed touched, a more delightful vision…glittering like the morning-star. full of life, and splendor, and joy” (75) but that now because of the revolution “disasters [falls] upon her in a nation of fallen men” (76) which shows that the age of chivalry is gone.
The idea that the age of values such as bravery, honor and great gallantry toward women were held in high esteem is no over can be seen in Frankenstein. In the novel, Justine Moritz is being accused of murdering William Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s brother. While mostly everyone in the town believes that she is guilty, only two people other than herself think otherwise: Elisabeth and Victor. But of those two, the only one who truly knows that Justin is innocent is Victor. He knows that the actual killer is the creature as when he saw the creature in the Alps, Victor realized that “Nothing in human shape could have destroyed the fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it. The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact.” (75) But even though Victor knew that Justine was not the murderer, he did not tell anyone of the creature’s existence or of the fact that it was the creature, not Justine who killed William. Instead of coming forward to defend Justine’s honor, Victor just let the town kill Justine. It is only to himself at the graves of William and Justine that he admits that they are “the first hapless victims to [his] unhallowed arts.” (85) By staying quiet, Victor is cowardly in the fact that he did nothing to stop Justine’s unjustly death. His actions were not chivalrous thus proving Burke’s points that the age of chivalry is gone.
Justine Moritz’s trial and execution are explored carefully over several pages in Frankenstein, commanding the reader’s attention to the treatment of justice in this scene, even as it involves a seemingly minor character. In a particularly powerful moment, Justine finishes testifying before the court and seems almost immediately to acknowledge and accept the direction of the trial: “I commit my cause to the justice of my judges, yet I see no room for hope. I beg permission to have a few witnesses examined concerning my character; and if their testimony shall not overweigh my supposed guilt, I must be condemned, although I would pledge my salvation on my innocence.” (Shelley 81)
What we see here is a sort of self-abandonment in the acceptance of the law – To Justine, it represents something that is absolute, and in a way, faultless. Although she knows she is innocent, she believes in the certainty of the law, and this belief is manifested in her decision to confess to the crime she did not commit. We can gather from Justine’s confession and her trial as a whole, that enforcing the law and enacting justice are separate to such a degree that judges act solely on their own “harsh unfeeling reasoning” (Shelley 85) in accordance with the law – so powerful is this separation that it even soaks through to the individual level, where it compromises freedom from personal guilt and responsibility.
Based on Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790, it seems he would have a mouthful to say about this as well. In particular, he makes the point that the core values of the revolution undermined sentiment, and lacked an element of humanity. On pages 76-77, Burke states that “This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its origin in the antient chivalry…if it should ever be totally extinguished, the loss I fear will be great… All the pleasing illusions, which made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason.” Through the lens of this particular quote, we can see that Burke would identify Justine/justice as a tool of the law, rather than a guiding light, to be molded according to reason over human sentiment – and since, as Burke says, the “reason which banishes the affections is incapable of filling their place”, what we observe is that law has an unnatural and absolute power, and “we have no compass to govern us.” (Burke 78). Placed in the context of his entire argument in Reflections, the implication of such a philosophy is a regression of humanity and society into total anarchy. |
Module 10 Learning Activity
Using 250-350 words, describe why biodiversity is important for humans to consider, and also explain what we can do to preserve biodiversity around the world, keeping the H.I.P.P.O. acronym in mind.
Biodiversity is vital for us to understand, not only to protect species of animals, but also to protect our way of life now and in the future. In protecting species around the world, we preserve the “circle of life” for various habitats. For us to sustain our way of life, we need food chains around the world to continue to thrive, because we are a part of the global food chain ourselves. If a species of plant goes extinct due to overharvesting, not only will humans no longer be able to use it, but also we could drastically alter sources of food for many organisms, leaving them to go extinct, causing another organism to lose their source of food and go extinct, and so on and so on until we lose whole food chains from the bottom up.
The H.I.P.P.O. acronym stands for Habitat loss, Invasive species, Pollution, Human Population, and Overharvesting. To do our part to preserve biodiversity, we must make sure that we do not force rare native species out of their habitats for purposes ranging from urban development to agriculture. We should also make sure that we do not introduce invasive species that could negatively impact the ecosystem they are brought into, such as the brown tree snake in Guam. We must strive to reduce pollution levels in every activity that requires a source of energy to prevent bioaccumulation from disrupting food chains from the bottom up and causing serious damage in regions around the world. The human population’s rapid growth is a serious issue facing the world in the coming years. As more and more humans come into the world, the more space and resources they will need to survive, which will impact biodiversity negatively. Harvesting practices need to be closely monitored to prevent overharvesting of plants and animals, not only for the particular species’ sake, but to allow humans to continue to have the species as a resource in the future. Keeping all of these things in mind, we can preserve biodiversity now and in the furue
Tom Devenney Module 8 Learning Activity
Lititz Ideas Module 7
I hail from Lititz, a town in Lancaster County in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In the center of town, it is extremely pedestrian-oriented. It is similar to the example of Beacon Hill in Boston, where many different shops, places of work, and sources of entertainment are within walking distance. In the areas surrounding the center, there are many automobile suburbs, where most of the residents live, including myself. Due to this, the automobile suburbs enjoy low urban density, with plenty of room for children to play and dogs to run around in yards. This is also a mixed-use area, where people do not necessarily need to go far to find residential areas, shops, or places of work. According to the 2013 census, Lititz has 9,388 residents. I love living in Lititz. It is a great place to start a family or retire. Besides all of the friendly people, there are great places to eat, get a drink, or just walk around the town. We have a great park and great places to enjoy on sunny days.
Copenhagen, Denmark is a shining example of a city that attempts to be extremely sustainable. Copenhagen instituted a policy they refer to as traffic calming. In an effort to deter cars from interfering with people, they have car-free streets and slow speed zones. This leads to many more people choosing to walk or ride bikes, which is a much more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable method of transportation than driving cars. In my town of Lititz, these methods could easily be applied. It would be relatively simple because Main Street is always packed with people, and it is hard to drive on it anyway, so it could easily become a car-free street or slow speed zone. The town would just need more bike racks, which would cut down on the need for parking, allowing more room for trees and grass that residents could enjoy. It could also cut down on gas usage, especially if gas-friendly foods are provided more in our town.
Bogota, Columbia is another great example of attempting to be sustainable by cutting down on driving in their city. Every Sunday and holiday is a Ciclovia, in which cars are forbidden or significantly restricted. Lititz could definitely benefit from having Ciclovias on specific days throughout the years. In the center of Lititz, everything is within walking or biking distance, so a few days a year without cars on the road, while not incredibly significant environmentally, is still more environmentally sustainable than allowing cars to drive downtown every day and a viable option to stimulate the downtown economy and celebrate everyone coming together to do something for the environment as a community. Again, this would require more bike racks and road blocks, but this cost could easily be covered by the stimulated economy of our town. Also, if gas-friendly foods are provided on these days, the gas being saved by walking, biking, or skating could be maximized.
Thomas Devenney Food Choice and Social Norms
Subway is an example of exceptional marketing in the food service industry. First of all, their slogan, “Eat Fresh,” generates an association with clean, healthy food. Also, their spokesperson Jared was an example of how eating Subway could help a person become healthy from eating their food. This marketing association led me to be a huge fan of their food. I consistently chose to eat their food as a teenager because I believed it to be healthy food as opposed to other sources of fast food. I wanted to eat healthy food because it is a social norm to be skinny in this day and age. One can become a social outcast by being overweight or seemingly unhealthy in appearance. This is why I consistently chose to eat their food, to avoid ridicule for being overweight.
Subway’s fresh food policy is a sustainable food consumption policy because fresh food needs to be from a local source, cutting down on fuel and energy consumption. Also, Subway claims to not contain any genetically modified organisms, which is more healthy for the human body. A major societal issue associated with Subway is obesity. Subway’s marketing suggests that an obese man can lose a lot of weight from eating their food over a long period of time. My view on the social norm for body image and health is that someone should not be an outcast for being overweight, but at the same time they should be encouraged to eat healthy and make healthy decisions to reach a healthy weight that they can sustain without using unhealthy means to get there.
Tom Devenney Development Learning Activity
The first case study that I’ve selected takes place in Santa Monica, California. The information has been provided by the City of Santa Monica, so it is possible that there may be some bias in the information. The goals of this course of action were to implement sustainable development in the areas of community and economic development, construction and development, education, energy, hazardous materials, housing, purchasing, solid waste, storm water and wastewater, transportation, and water. The general goal of sustainable development is to generate development in the present without comprimising the needs of future generations, so the development that the city is doing needed to be environmentally, socially, and economically friendly in the present and in the future, which is generally extremely difficult to do without impacting fossil fuels, freshwater resources, minerals, trees, and food sources. Here is a link to the web page:
The second case study that I’ve selected takes place in Malaysia. The information comes from the Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia and studies by professors at the University of New South Wales. This case of sustainable development is interesting because the ultimate goal is to increase tourism in their country. The specific goal is to implement sustainable practices into resource development and operation. This would generate more tourism because the amount of visitors that support environmentally and socially responsible tourism is increasing. This is an extremely difficult challenge for Malaysia because tourist locations consume more energy, water, and non-durable products that other buildings of similar size. This sustainable development could be incredibly important, not only for the natural resource conservation for future generations, but also for the increased tourism and lift to the economy for future generations as well. Here is a link to the web page:
My hometown of Lititz, Pennsylvania is in the middle of a huge economic and social development. I see how my small town is growing commercially and residentially through new buildings, homes, and businesses. My hometown is similar to Santa Monica’s development in terms of recognizing the need to develop sustainably to ensure the welfare of future generations, however sustainable development on the west coast in 1994 is different than sustainable development in rural Pennsylvania due to the differences in resources, climate, and topography. We can learn from Santa Monica that there are a lot of different aspects that an area needs to focus on to ensure sustainable development. My hometown’s development is similar to that of Malaysia’s because Lititz is a hotspot for tourism and intends to keep it that way. It is different again because of the differences in climate and demographics in Lititz and Malaysia. Lititz can learn from Malaysia in that a way to ensure tourism growth is to develop in a sustainable way.
Tom Devenney Module 4
Part 1-a:
My hometown is Lititz, Pennsylvania. I live in the Lititz Borough, which is one of many boroughs and townships that make up our school district area. The Lititz Borough has several wells throughout our area, and the locations of these wells were not revealed to me. The well water from each of these sources is sent to the Lititz Water Treatment Plant. From there, water travels through a series of pipes that converge under the Lititz Springs Park. The water is then sent through pipes in different directions to households and places of work in the Lititz Borough. Water that goes down the drain is sent through sewer pipes to the Lititz Wastewater Treatment Plant. Unfortunately, information from that point forward would not be revealed to me; however, through my own research, the wastewater is sent into the Lititz Run, a stream in my borough that leads into the Chesapeake Bay, where the wastewater ends up.
Part 1-b:
Teeth brushing: .25 gallons
Water bottle in the morning: 16.9 fl oz (1.05 pints)
3 water bottles during/after morning workout: 50.7 fl oz (3.15 pints)
Post-workout shower: 10 gallons
Small cup of coffee: 6 fl oz (.373 pints)
3 Toilet flushes: 9 gallons
3 hand washes: 3 gallons
2 bottles of water during the day: 33.8 fl oz (2.10 pints)
Dishwashing by hand: 2 gallons
Bottle of water: 16.9 fl oz (1.05 pints)
Teeth Brushing: .25 gallons
Total: 25.47 gallons
Part 1-c:
Major areas of water use in the experiment for me were drinking water and restroom use. I chose a day in which I did not have to attend classes or try to impress anyone so I would not have to shower or shave. This left my main priorities to drinking, using the bathroom, and washing hands. I limited myself to not wetting my toothbrush before using it, and very quickly rinsing it afterwards. I also would take a sip of water to quench my thirst from time to time. Toilet flushing was the trickiest obstacle in this situation, so I was a slave to however much water flushed the toilet. Even my best attempt at this was a failure due to how much I rely on water on a regular day. Compared to part 1-b, I used much less water than I would on a normal day, which makes me seriously consider how much I need to do all of the things I normally do. Geography scopes the availability of water, essentially. Water is a natural resource more readily available in some parts of the world than others, which really shows how water usage is a collective action issue.
Thomas Devenney Ethics Views Learning Activity
To answer question number 2, I believe that each situation would need to be seen from a larger view to say whether ends justify means or not. I hold this view because it depends of the depth of the action itself or the consequences to truly determine whether the ends justify the means or not. For example, if someone wants to raise the property values of an area of a city, one would think that the ends are a very good thing. However, if his or her way of doing it is to drive people out of lower income residences to replace their residences with something of more value, I would argue that the ends do not justify the means. If his or her way of doing it was renovating the lower income residences while not displacing the residents, these means would be an excellent solution. This is why it is important to take into account the whole process, not just the end results. In a scenario where a student cheats on an exam to pass a class, this student may argue that the ends justify the means, but the rest of the students would most likely argue otherwise.
To answer question number 5, I believe that the pleasure and pain of humans is more important than those of the other animals. I hold this view because I am a human and I want to live in a world that we, as humans, have control of. Even though I do believe this, I believe that the welfare of other animals is important to the welfare of humans in that we need them for food, agriculture, and general enjoyment, but not to the point where we should see them as equals. This would lead to a slippery slope where we may not be able to eat meat or hunt for pleasure. In the case of race horses, they get injured and get put down in today’s society. In a society that sees animals as equals, horses would not get put down, leaving them to suffer on a daily basis until they would inevitably pass away. My dog was suffering to the point where she could not move, and we had to put her down, which would have been much worse for our entire family if she had to suffer for days.
In answering question number 6, I believe that the lives of others is worth the same as my life. I believe this because each person has an impact, directly or indirectly, on other peoples’ lives, and they should try to make most of these impacts positive. I try to live my life in the exact middle of selfishness and altruism, because either one on its own can lead to poor decision making. For example, I would do a lot of things for charity, but I would not give away all of my money. Doing things for yourself is not always bad. For example, not letting a student cheat off of your exam may be seen as selfish, but my molar compass would tell me that I would be doing the right thing. It is best to find a healthy medium in which you give to those that need it, but still have the ability to provide for yourself comfortably. This would be like giving your time and effort to charity, but still be able to do the things you want and live the way that makes you happy and fulfilled.
Thomas Devenney Learning Activity Module 2
biogas_twd5204My systems diagram proves that the carrying capacity of areas using a biogas system increases by increasing the energy resources (fuel), money, and schooling (opportunities for increased monetary resources in the future) available to the people that work in handling the cow dung, compost, and biogas system itself. It is possible to argue that this systems diagram could represent a positive feedback loop in job creation in the short term for a much larger system, being the Indian rural community as a collective. This could be due not only to the initial jobs that the first biogas systems create, but also the potential jobs that it could create for other rural communities in India that hear about how beneficial the biogas system is and want ones for their own communities. My diagram is similar to the Marten digram in that mine shows how the biogas system affects education, money, health, air pollution, plant growth, and plant preservation. My diagram is different than the Marten diagram in that it does not show how values, social organization, animals, microorganisms, or water are impacted by the biogas system. There are similarities and differences between the two diagrams because this video did not portray possible effects to the topics that I did not include, however, it is more than likely that all of these areas are effected in ways not explained by the video. We can learn from this comparison that not every system affects each of these areas, as each system is different.
Learning Activity: Getting to Know You
My name is Thomas Devenney, but I prefer to be called Tom. I grew up and have my permanent residence in Lititz, Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. I am staying in State College, Pennsylvania while I am attending Pennsylvania State University Main Campus. My major is Environmental Systems Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Science. I hope to one day pursue a career in engineering with an environmental focus. I hope to be a registered engineer to have flexibility in being able to design and help design many different things. I am interested in this course to further my understanding of the relationship between humans and our planet. I am playing varsity football at Penn State and enjoying doing this very much. My favorite hobby is playing guitar.
The two concepts that stand out to me as important issues moving forward as a society are human impacts on the environment and environment impacts on humanity. As humanity has evolved throughout our history, we have made incredible advancements in technology. The issue with this is that these advancements come at a cost. We are depleting natural resources at a rate that we will not be able to replace them for future generations. The use of these natural resources play a significant part in generating greenhouse gases that cause Global Warming. Global Warming is causing the melting of the polar ice caps which cause shifts in climate all over the world that could threaten humanity in certain places of the world. This is why we need to move to make our technology sustainable to slow the effects of Global Warming and to reduce dependence on our natural resources to preserve our planet for future generations. |
header Notes Collection
20000 Dobras 2013, Sao Tome e Principe
in Krause book Number: 67е
Years of issue: 31.12.2013
Signatures: Ministro do Plano e Finanças: Hélio Silva Vaz de Almeida, Governadora do Banco Central: Maria do Carmo Trovoada Pires de Carvalho Silveira
Serie: 2013 Issue
Specimen of: 1996
Material: Cotton fiber
Size (mm): 144 х 67
20000 Dobras 2013
Rei Amador.
20000 Dobras 2013
Rei Amador
Rei Amador was a member of the king of the Angolars and leader of a famous slave rebellion that took place in 1595 in the African islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. According to some historic documents, Rei Emadir was "a slave" who avoided slavery and mobilized all the Angolares along with other Africans and made a free nation under the middle of the mentioned islands.
The Angolars inhabited the south of the island of São Tomé, there are different versions on the history.
The first source on the Angolars, which were African slaves where brought from the mainland, probably from Angola who survived a shipwreck that happened about 2–3 miles (4 km.) in the south coast of São Tomé Island. Another version was that the Angolars were African slaves who had evaded their owners around 1470, when the Portuguese discovered the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe and have created their own free nation within the islands called Kilombo or Quilombo. The name Kilombo or Quilombo derives from (Kimbundo one of the most spoken Bantu languages in Angola), it can mean a settlement kingdom, population and union. Kilombo was an independent nation made by African slaves, who fought against slavery, once they fled, build their independent state with the system of slavery, The Kilombos, in general were localized in its regions densely forested, far from the plantations.
A third version, was that the Angolars were Africans which were immigrated from the mainland to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, long before the arrivals of the Portuguese into the islands. However, the very particular remains inhistory of the Angolars and their reign in São Tomé and Príncipe are part of a history of self-determination and independence carried out by Rei Amador.
On 9 July 1595, Rei Amador, and his people, the Angolars, allied with other enslaved Africans of its plantations, marched into the interior woods and battled against the Portuguese. It is said that day, Rei Amador and his followers raised a flag in front of the settlers and proclaimed Rei Amador as king of São Tomé and Príncipe, making himself as "Rei Amador, liberator of all the black people".
Between 1595 and 1596, the island of São Tomé was ruled by the Angolars, under the command of Rei Amador. On 4 January 1596, he was captured, sent to prison and was later executed by the Portuguese. Still today, they remember him fondly and consider him a national hero of the islands.
Oriolus crassirostris Oriolus crassirostris Oriolus crassirostris
On foreground is The São Tomé oriole.
The São Tomé oriole (Oriolus crassirostris), or great-billed oriole, is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. The species was named by Gustav Hartlaub in 1857. It is endemic to the island of São Tomé. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
It is widely distributed throughout the island of São Tomé, except the northeast (the urban area of São Tomé). It is most abundant in the southwest and on the central massif.
The São Tomé oriole is threatened by habitat loss of the remaining lowland rainforest of São Tomé.
Coffea Coffea Coffea
On background is Coffea arabica tree.
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Coffea species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. The seeds of some species, called coffee beans, are used to flavor various beverages and products. The fruits, like the seeds, contain a large amount of caffeine, and have a distinct sweet taste and are often juiced. The plant ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded commodity crops and is an important export product of several countries, including those in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Centered, above is the coat of arms.
The coat of arms of São Tomé and Príncipe consists of a red-footed falcon on the left and a grey parrot on the right holding a coat of arms with a palm in its center. The coat of arms is surmounted by a blue star. Above, there is a band that states the name of the country. At the base of the arms the national motto, "Unity, discipline, work" is inscribed.
20000 Dobras 2013
Santo Antonio
Santo António (Portuguese for Saint Anthony), also known as Santo António do Príncipe, is the main settlement of the island of Príncipe in São Tomé and Príncipe. It lies on the north east coast. It is the capital of the Autonomous Region of Príncipe. The town is known for its colonial architecture and for its churches: Church of Our Lady of the Conception and Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. The town is also known for the Auto das Floripes play, which is performed by the citizens.
The town Santo António was founded in 1502, and was a center of sugarcane cultivation. In 1695, the Fort of Ponta da Mina was built at the entrance of the bay of Santo António. Town and fortress were destroyed by French privateers in 1706. From 1753 until 1852, it was the colonial capital of Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe.
Santo António has a tropical savanna climate, with little temperature variation year round. The average temperature is 24.8 degrees Celsius. The average annual precipitation is 1872 mm., with the least precipitation in July and the most in October. |
Coping technique: Hypersensitivity
1. Recognize that high sensitivity is part of your experience. There is nothing wrong with you.
2. Develop a practice of exploring your emotions in a safe place, such as through journaling or in therapy.
3. As you explore your feelings identify triggers for sensitivity in order to decrease the impact of your responses. Triggers can include stress, such as an overcrowded schedule. Therefore consider which ways are available to you to decrease stress. One way is to manage your schedule. For instance, if possible space out demanding tasks or appointments so that they’re not back-to-back. As well, schedule break time for yourself, so that there are periods of time throughout the day, even if brief, when you’re at rest.
4. If you notice that you respond to sensory overload you can develop management practices with this as well. If noise in the environment is a stressor consider some ways in which you might decrease it or replace it with sounds of your own choosing, such as ear plugs or listening to calm music through earphones or humming quietly to yourself. Remind yourself in a noisy environment that the noise does not constitute a threat, even if it is an annoyance. Talk yourself through such times (“I’m not in danger, that’s just the sound of traffic”). If the sense of touch is a source of sensitivity select clothing made from soft smooth fabrics. In this regard do you prefer light touch or heavy touch? If smell is a source of sensitivity consider carrying a handkerchief sprinkled with a few drops of a preferred scent or with a neutral aroma. If visual overload is an issue consider dimming the lights or wearing sunglasses, or clearing the table or desk where you work in order to reduce distractions. And don’t forget that you can simply close your eyes in some situations (though not when driving, of course).
5. When stressed consider taking a break. This can be from newsfeeds and social media. It can be alone time, which will give you an opportunity to sort out and integrate your responses. It can be a brief walk instead of a coffee break at work, in order to remove yourself to a less stimulating environment.
6. On the flips side, consider whether sensory input can provide you with soothing. For instance, sucking on a piece of candy, or drinking something through a straw are both linked to increased feelings of calmness. Depending on your own preferences a soft garment or other piece of cloth can decrease feelings of agitation.
7. Another way to manage your sensitivity is to disclose to and educate important people in your life about your responses. Practice assertive communication of your thoughts and feelings.
8. Notice if you feel triggered when you experience frustration, either with completing goal-oriented behaviors such as at work or school (which can be experienced as a threat to autonomy) or in your relationships (which can feel like abandonment, loss or the imminent threat of loss). If so consider whether you may be experiencing a cognitive distortion.
9. Become familiar with cognitive distortions that may be adding to your sensitivity. These are unconscious beliefs or automatic conclusions that are neither helpful nor accurate. Personalization is when we identify ourselves as the cause of things we have no control over, and when we take things that aren’t aimed at us personally. Emotional reasoning is assuming that our feelings are facts (“I’m angry, therefore you must have been trying to make me mad”). Labelling is when we generalize from a single event (“You were busy tonight, so I know you don’t want to see me ever again”). Should statements refer to external standards that are often unreasonable, and that we punish ourselves or others for not living up to (“We should always be happy”). Jumping to conclusions describes rapidly assigning negative meanings when there aren’t enough facts to support doing so. Catastrophizing is when we jump to the worst possible conclusion, again often without any supportive facts.
10. Meditation can support the ability to recognize and sit with feelings without the need to do anything with them. Yoga and exercise can help manage the physical aspects of the arousal that often accompanies high sensitivity. Deep breathing techniques, such as locating where in your body you’re carrying a sudden increase of stress and breathing directly into that area, can help you relax in the moment.
11. Take sufficient time in the evening to practice good sleep hygiene. Decrease your exposure to bright light for the last hour. Avoid heavy food in the evening. Let yourself be finished with tasks so that you can relax with a soothing book.
12. Be compassionate with yourself, and take this process slowly. |
Kinetising Pranayama’ and Relaxation Potential Pranayama.
Kinetising Pranayama’ and Relaxation Potential Pranayama.
Pranayama (Art of Breathing) is the ancient Indian (Bharath)-art of fusing energy by techniques of relaxed sitting, breathing and the use of Mudras and easy postures.
Pranayama (Art of Breathing) is proven to be of great help to individuals for maintaining good health and for helping
one find a new energy.
The practice of Pranayama involves learning effortlessness as well the right kind of effort.
Right technique customized for personality and individual development is performed.
Instruction and Practice is imparted in True Authentic Indian traditional method.
This method, guide one from right sitting to natural breathing followed by ventilation of the lobes of the lungs and the use of Mudras along with breathing.
Mudras can also be used to direct Prana to centres of quietness within ourselves.
Prana kriyas, the use of Mudras, without including breathing is included in syllabus.
‘Kinetising Pranayama’ and Relaxation Potential Pranayama.
This beautiful place located in original natural solace of ” God’s own Country” – Kerala, India provide accommodation for about 20 people with vegetarian food and sauna facilities at a time.
Submitted at the Lotus feet of Sad Guru.
Contact :- +919447649836
Breathe Links and Resources on Web
Breath ! Breath ! Breath !!
Praana - the vital energy
Breathing is essential and basic necessity of humans and other mammals, to life, to exist.
The breathing rhythm relies on an area of the brain stem known as the preBötzinger complex
** – a network of neurons exhibiting rhythmic bursts of activity that initiate inspiration.
Please Breath !
The frequency of the rhythm varies in response to such challenges as exercise, sleep, or changes in altitude.
The preBötzinger complex also participates in detecting reduced concentration of oxygen in the blood, stimulating a gasping response in order to restore healthy oxygen levels.
This response is critical to humans diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a disorder in which a sleeping individual’s breathing undergoes prolonged pauses broken by gasps or sighs.
The failure to gasp has been implicated in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
It has become clear that an understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying normal and distressed breathing would be invaluable in treating these and a host of other respiratory ailments.
The right side represents the Sun and
The left side represents the Moon.
During a headache try to close your right nose and use your left nose to breathe. In about five min, you feel recovery from headache.
If you feel tired, just reverse the process; close your left nose and use your right nose to breathe.
After a while you feel your mind is refreshed.
Right side(Sun) belongs to “hot” , hence it gets heated up easily
Left side(Moon) belongs to “cold”, hence the soothing effect.
Most female breathe with their left noses, hence female get “cooled off” faster.
Most of the guys utilize more of the right nose, they get worked up.
Do you notice the moment we wake up, which side breathes faster? Left or Right ??? If left is faster,you will feel tired. So, close your left nose and use your right nose for breathing, you will get refreshed quickly.
Pranayam teaches us this. Closing one nose , first exhale and inhale thru the other, then by closing the other exhale and inhale thru the 1st. Continuing this process several times , you get totally refreshed. Hence can be used as a precaution than cure for headache, cold and throat/nose/ lungs infections. Beware that you are in empty stomach and sit upright in lotus posture or sit on a chair upright with legs crossed. Right hand thumb and any other fingure can be used for closing nose on both sides alternately.
There are seven spiritual charkas in our body, embodying the awakening of the spirit, work in tandem to vitalize and enrich the mind and body.
1)Muladhara (Root) Chakra::–is located in the base of the spine (Color-Golden yellow, Element-Earth, Bij Mantra-LAM), is home to the Kundalini and it’s main aspect is innocence and purity. This reservoir of force symbolizes objective consciousness, the awareness in the physical & terrestrial universe and maintain peace. Good for health if you meditate on this charka.
2)Svadhihana (Sacral) Chakra::–is located slightly below the belly button (Color-Orange, Element-Water and Bij Mantra-VAM), is the charka of creativity, undivided attention and pure knowledge. It is the one which allows partners to reach the inner source of inspiration, and enables them to experience the celestial aura created thus. Meditating on this charka will increase psychic capacities, genial creative imagination, intuitive knowledge, imprisoning passions, anger, attachments, vanity, jealousy and other physical impurities. Also increases regenerative capacity and finally overcomes death.
3)Manipura (Solar) Chakra::–is located one hand span above the belly button (Color-Golden, Element-Fire and Bij Mantra-RAM), is one that gives the sense of generosity, complete satisfaction and contentment. It represents expansive consciousness and the desire for power. The main quality of this chakra is peace. By meditating on this chakra, it gives ability of discovering hidden treasures, person is never touched by illness and his fear of death gets diminished.
4)Anahata (Heart) Chakra::– is located in the centre of the chest (in the area of the cardiac plexus) (Color-Green, Element-Air and Bij Mantra-YAM), symbolizes the consciousness of love, empathy, selflessness and devotion. This is the place wherein resides one’s true self, which is eternally pure and unaffected by anything. Meditating on this chakra, helps normal functioning of the heart and lungs, to get rid of Asthma, keeps blood pressure normal.
5)Vishudhi (Throat) Chakra::–is located in the base of the throat (above where it joins the chest) (Color-Sky Blue, Element-Space, Bij Mantra-HAM), symbolizes pure consciousness and creativity. It is the chakra of pure relationships with others. It also signifies playful detachment, maintains mutual trust and cooperation. Meditating on this chakra, removes all our guilt and remorse when it is opened by the Kundalini and gives us a kind and compassionate voice., removes the feelings of superiority or inferiority and all jealousies & enhances ability to telepathy and clairaudience.
6)Ajna (Brow) Chakra::–is located at the exact centre of forehead.(Element- Brahma, Bij Mantra-AAM), represents the superior mental consciousness that favors the direct perception over the invisible worlds and the direct perception of the subtle aspects of manifestation. The level of consciousness where misunderstanding never occur. Meditating on this Chakra, gives great mental insight, self control, clairvoyance, superior intuition and extra sensorial perception, gets rid of blunt past life karmas, enhances person’s ability to tune in to the highest or deepest levels existence that is , the Tao, Dharma or Boddhisatva.
7)Sahasrara (Crown) Chakra::–is the state of super consciousness, which is to be experienced. The experienced cannot disclose or explain his experience, when the creator and the created become one, where the knower, knowledge and known all the same.
It is a mix of yoga, meditation and pranayama which enables the kundalini to raise from Muladhara to Ajna and attain the state of being in Sahasrara, Aham Brahmasmi, Tatvamasi.
Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum |
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Unless your vision has changed, you may not give your eyes much thought when it comes to health. But your eyes can actually tell us a lot about your general health, even if they don't feel any different. That's why it's so important to have your eyes tested regularly.
Eye Conditions and Symptoms
We want to make sure you enjoy healthy, happy eyes for as long as possible. So we've put together some information about various eye conditions, their symptoms, and advice on what to do if you're ever concerned about your eye health.
Myopia is a common eye condition when objects which are far appear blurry and objects closer appear to be clear.
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy damages the blood vessels within the retinal tissue, causing them to leak fluid and distort vision.
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness for people worldwide. But blindness from glaucoma can often be prevented if detected early.
Cataracts form in the center of the lens and as a result, the lens gradually turns yellow and causes a clouding of the vision.
Eye Health |
Common Tools You Can Use To Diagnose Network Issues
From time to time you may experience network performance issues. This could include download speeds, upload speeds, or even laggy interactive desktops. Below are a few utilities that you can use to test your network performance.
How To Use Traceroute
Traceroute is a simple tool to show the pathway to a remote server. A pathway is generally a "hop" to other devices, like a router or firewall, between you and the end-point you're trying to reach.
The traceroute program is installed by default on just about every Linux distribution, so you shouldn’t need to install it.
To use it, you simply need to provide a hostname/FQDN and or an IP address, like in the example below:
traceroute to (, 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 ( 5.708 ms 3.803 ms 4.524 ms
2 ( 3.388 ms 2.651 ms 3.476 ms
3 ( 15.311 ms 24.615 ms 12.443 ms
4 ( 53.782 ms 381.648 ms 42.707 ms
5 ( 12.319 ms 16.224 ms 17.797 ms
6 ( 17.940 ms 17.911 ms 23.496 ms
7 ( 25.419 ms 27.011 ms 25.869 ms
8 ( 29.930 ms 45.762 ms 19.684 ms
9 ( 26.000 ms 22.830 ms 25.965 ms
10 * ( 23.235 ms 24.234 ms
11 ( 21.231 ms 24.859 ms 20.984 ms
12 ( 21.605 ms 21.725 ms 25.149 ms
13 ( 21.818 ms 22.078 ms 18.856 ms
14 ( 22.533 ms 21.399 ms 18.875 ms
15 * * *
How To Read Traceroute’s Output
traceroute to (, 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
traceroute -m 255
traceroute 70
traceroute to (, 64 hops max, 70 byte packets
After the first line, each subsequent line represents a “hop”, or intermediate host that your traffic must pass through to reach the computer represented by the host you specified.
Each line has the following format:
hop_number host_name (IP_address) packet_round_trip_times
Here is an example of a hop you might see:
3 ( 15.311 ms 24.615 ms 12.443 ms
Here is what each field means:
• host_name: This field contains the result of a reverse DNS lookup on the host’s IP address, if available. If no information is returned from the reverse DNS query, the IP address itself is given.
traceroute -q1
traceroute -n
If your traceroute dissolves into some asterisks (*), there could be a problem with the route to the host.
5 * * *
6 * * *
What Does a Route Issue Mean?
If your traceroute attempt stops at a particular hop or node and cannot find a route to the host, you may have a problem.
Due to the fact that each ping represents a round-trip packet and the situation where packets often use different pathways in either direction, it may indicate a problem in a completely different, possibly closer route.
Another thing to consider when reviewing the output of your traceroute and you see a *, is that often times devices will de-prioritize ICMP traffic, which is what traceroute uses. When devices de-prioritize this, you'll see a * which doesn't necessarily mean there's an issue. The real value of using a traceroute is to in-fact determine which path you're taking to arrive at a particular destination.
How To Use MTR
Another alternative to the traceroute is mtr. While not available on Windows, mtr is generally available on Linux platforms. We'll get into a Windows alternative, shortly, after discussing the value of mtr on Linux. Combining the functionality of ping and traceroute, mtr allows you to constantly poll a remote server and see how the latency and performance change over time.
How To Use Pathping?
As we mentioned above, while mtr is only available on Linux, Pathping is available on Windows and is very similar to mtr and mtr values when determining possible network issues. Pathping is one of the most extremely useful built-in Windows network utilities that allows you to check the packet loss on a route to some remote network node (server or router), information about latency (delay) on a network, and also to understand at what stages of the packet transmission these losses or delays are happening. The pathping.exe utility has been included in the Windows since Windows NT/2000 and is located in the %windir%\System32 directory. It is also present in modern OSs like Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016/2019.
The utility combines the capabilities of two other standard Windows network utilities: ping and tracert, and also works on the basis of the ICMP protocol. The pathping first performs a route tracing to a remote node (like tracert), and then polls the destination node and all transit nodes using ICMP echo requests like ping. In this way, it is possible to obtain information about the losses at each stage of the transmission of network packets between your computer and a remote server.
Usage: pathping [-g host-list] [-h maximum_hops] [-i address] [-n] [-p period] [-q num_queries] [-w timeout [-4] [-6] target_name
In our example above we don't see any packet loss, during our testing effort. Keep in mind, some packet loss is expected, which can be for a number of reasons. Typically if you see 100% packet loss, this is likely due to ICMP being blocked, and not a network performance issue. That said, any consistent packet loss of over 2-3% could indicate an issue, where you might normally expect ICMP traffic to be allowed.
Hopefully, the above utilities and tools are useful in helping you determine and test if you have potential network issues.
Let us know if you have a favorite tool you like to use in troubleshooting network performance-related issues, we'd love to hear from you.
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The Season Of Rebels And Roses
Ranging from Puerto Rico to Cuba and the United States, this engaging novel for teens follows historical figures that were instrumental in the fight for self-determination in Puerto Rico. Addressing issues that remain relevant today racism, women’s rights and Puerto Rico’s status. The Season of Rebels and Roses also sheds light on women’s involvement in their nation’s liberation and their own.
Los Tres Reyes (A Caballo)/ The Three Kings (On Horseback)
Una historia antigua, relatada en el estilo de la decima puertorriquena. Los Tres Reyes Magos, Gaspar, Melchor y Baltasar, llegan a Puerto Rico en una nube voladora. Se les aparece un caballo que los lleva a repartir sus regalos por toda la isla. A partir de entonces, los Reyes visitan Puerto Rico a caballo, en vez de en camello. An old tale retold in the lively Puerto Rican folksong style called decima. The Three Kings, Gaspar, Melchor and Baltasar, reach Puerto Rico on a flying cloud. They are met by a horse that helps them distribute their gifts to children all over the island. Ever since then, the Kings visit Puerto Rican homes on horseback, rather than on camels. |
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SETI: A Detectable Neutrino Signal?
Somehow I never thought of the IceCube neutrino telescope as a SETI instrument. Deployed in a series of 1,450 to 2,450 meters-deep holes in Antarctica and taking up over a cubic kilometer of ice, IceCube is fine-tuned to detect neutrinos. That makes it a useful tool for studying violent events like galactic collisions and the formation of quasars, providing insights into the early universe. But SETI?
Perhaps, says Zurab Silagadze (Novosibirsk State University), who notes that most SETI work in the past has focused on centimeter wavelength electromagnetic signals. Says Silagadze:
Here we question this old wisdom and argue that the muon collider, certainly in reach of modern day technology… provides a far more unique marker of civilizations like our own [type I in Kardashev’s classification… Muon colliders are accompanied by a very intense and collimated high-energy neutrino beam which can be readily detected even at astronomical distances.
Image: The IceCube array in the deep ice, with Eiffel Tower suggesting scale. The dark cylinder is the AMANDA detector, incorporated into IceCube. Credit: NSF.
Muons are elementary particles that, like all such particles, have a corresponding antiparticle of opposite charge. Because they have no known substructure, muons and antimuons offer interesting opportunities for a collider. Their advantage over protons is that the effective collision energy is about ten times higher than for proton beams with the same energy. Moreover, muons are much heavier than electrons and produce less synchrotron radiation. You get higher energy levels with a cheaper collider that is shorter in circumference. Here’s a short backgrounder from Physics World on this.
So it makes sense that, if we can get around formidable practical challenges, we’ll eventually want to develop a muon collider. So, presumably, would an extraterrestrial civilization. And indeed, Silagadze discusses the practical uses of a high-energy neutrino beam in, for example, the study of the inner structure of a planet, or the use of collimated neutrino beams for communications. A 1979 paper by Mieczyslaw Subotowicz went so far as to argue that advanced cultures might deliberately choose neutrino channels for interstellar communications to shut out immature emergent civilizations from the ongoing conversation.
For that matter, is it possible that neutrinos could be used to set interstellar time standards? Note the following from Silagadze’s paper, which places these ideas in the context of the Kardashev scale for measuring the growth of technological civilizations:
Neutrino SETI was also proposed earlier with somewhat different perspective… It was suggested that type II (which have captured all of the power from their host star) and type III civilizations, spread throughout the Galaxy, may require interstellar time standards to synchronize their clocks. It is argued that mono-energetic 45.6 GeV neutrino pulses… produced in a futuristic dedicated electron-positron collider of huge luminosity may provide such standards. If there is an extraterrestrial civilization of this type nearer than about 1 kpc using this synchronization method, the associated neutrinos can be detected by terrestrial neutrino telescopes with an effective volume of the order of km3 of water…
IceCube, anyone? The beauty of neutrino SETI is that it can readily run in the background of concurrent neutrino-based astrophysical studies. Thus keeping an eye out for possibly artificial high-energy neutrino signals produced in muon colliders light years away makes a certain degree of sense. Will it succeed? Silagadze quotes Cocconi and Morrison’s classic paper: “The probability of success is difficult to estimate: but if we never search, the chance of success is zero.”
The paper is Silagadze, “SETI and muon collider,” Acta Physica Polonica B39 (2008), pp. 2943-2948 (available online). The paper on neutrino channels for interstellar communications is Subotowicz, “Interstellar Communication by Neutrino Beams,” Acta Astronautica 6 (1979), pp. 213-220 (abstract).
Comments on this entry are closed.
• Jean Schneider June 23, 2009, 9:55
Note that in a paper submitted in 1975 to Nature (not accepted)
“Can life exist in neutron stars?” I have suggested that this kind of
life based on nuclear forces could communicate via neutrinos.
This was before the electronic era and I have not electronic version
of the paper (yet).
A softer version of the paper has been published in
Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres (8, 33, 1977)
“A model for a non-chemical form of life: crystalline physiology.”
see http://www.springerlink.com/content/gl66u1411h17ml3l/
• serenity June 23, 2009, 10:11
But… Muons have a mean lifetime of 2.2 µs. How could we possible accelerate them to 99.9…% the speed of light before they decay? Even at very high velocities they decay in seconds. I’m guessing they would somehow have to be produced *after* some particle has been sufficiency accelerated?
• ljk June 23, 2009, 10:20
An earlier Centauri Dreams thread most relevant to this one may be found here:
• ljk June 23, 2009, 12:15
The main obstacle to conducting SETI with a neutrino detector is that those who operate IceCube and similar devices are not only not in the business of using their instruments for seeking out alien intelligences, but would probably either ignore or dismiss such signals as anything other than natural.
Perhaps I am wrong here because I am not directly involved with IceCube, but my experience with those astronomers who detect supernovae and their reactions to the idea of ETI using them as natural beacons to get our attention does not make me think the neutrino physicists will be much different.
Granted I would not want to see astronomers and others think that every unusual signal is a message from alien beings – pulsars coming to mind here – but there seems to be too little middle ground in this area. I know professional scientists are rightly worried about the stigma that the UFO has attached to SETI, but I am more concerned about what we may be missing because of our deliberate blinders when it comes to extraterrestrial life.
And of course when the day comes that we do have proof of ETI, everyone and their brother will be screaming that they knew it all along but were repressed by others and so forth.
• T_U_T June 23, 2009, 13:26
I think that this would be extravagantly expensive even for very advanced civilization, because it confers simply no advantage to traditional photons.
Creating a detectable amount of neutrinos will always require orders of magnitude more energy than producing detectable amount of photons. So what is the advantage, even if the energy per se is not a hindrance to your supercivilisation ? You would still need a reason to use neutrinos instead of more practical photons. ( you don’t walk on your arms instead of legs just because you are potentially capable of doing so )
Secrecy ? You could build a planet sized antenna, and then send signals precisely to one single planet with a fraction of the cost. Or, you could use quantum encrypted broadband which is according to our primitive understanding of physics unbreakable in principle.
And neutrinos don’t confer better secrecy. They are as easily detected for you as for the eavesdroppers, no high tech required. Just a cubic kilometer of photomultipliers in ice. Not much more difficult than giant radio dishes.
So what ? Penetration through nebulae ? Better, but old-fashioned relay stations are orders of magnitude better.
Demonstration of technological superiority ?
Still better, but, There are many ways of doing that. Why particularly this one ?
Completely different technology, like civilization of deep ocean creatures that discovered high powered muon accelerators even before they discovered effective radio transmission ?
This is probably the best reason why a civilization might attempt to communicate via neutrinos I can imagine. Highly speculative, I admit, but there is no other way to find out than trying.
• Ron S June 23, 2009, 13:51
Our detectors have to be of km^3 order, but ET may have something better. All you need is a far denser “antenna”. They could then even weaken the signal to discriminate against lower-technology civilizations such as ourselves.
There was one SF novel (that I’m aware of) that featured the detection of an ETI neutrino signal, although in the end that point was left nicely ambiguous. It was “His Master’s Voice” by Stanislaw Lem.
• philw1776 June 23, 2009, 14:06
I’m the anthethis of a UFO fan but ljk has well illustrated some established career focused scientists’ antipathy to what I’d term “a dangerous idea”. Sad to say, human nature remains constant through the generations. I think that there are zero other technological species in the Virgo sector, but it is arrogance, folly and closed mindedness not to look, especially in exotic manners yet unexplored.
• James M. Essig June 23, 2009, 14:29
Sorry for the a’ symbols. What was supposed to be a right arrow or yield symbol showed up as a’
It is interesting to see what percentage of muons would survive accelerating over a potential of 30 GeV/km to a relativistic kinetic energy of 1 TeV, according to the calculations below for a Muon Linac.
E = electric field, p = momentum = (gamma)(Beta)(MoC)
F = qe = dP/dt = (MoC) d[(gamma)(Beta)]/dt = (qe)/(MoC) yields (gamma)(Beta) = (qe)(t)/(MoC).
(gamma) EXP 2 = 1 + [(gamma EXP 2)(Beta EXP 2)] yields gamma = {1 +[[(qe)(t)/(MoC)] EXP 2]} EXP (1/2).
E = (gamma)(Mo)[C EXP 2] yields 1 + [[(qe)(t)/(MoC)] EXP 2] = {E/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]]} EXP 2.
t = [(MoC)/(qe)]{{[(E/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]] EXP 2] – 1} EXP (1/2)} ~ [(MoC)/(qe)] [(E)/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]]], E >> Mo[C EXP 2].
tau = proper time
dt = (gamma)d (tau) yields d(tau) = dt/{1 +[[(qe)(t)/(MoC)] EXP 2]} EXP (1/2) yields tau = [(MoC)/(qe)] ln {{1 +[[(qe)(t)/(MoC)] EXP 2]} EXP (1/2)} + [(qe)(t)/(MoC)]}
Replace (qe)(t)/(MoC) with E/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]] yields = [(MoC)/(qe)] ln [(2E)/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]]]
Muon rest energy = Mo[C EXP 2] = 0.1066 GeV with a half life of 2.2 x 10 EXP -6 seconds.
(MoC)/(qe) = [(Mo)[C EXP 2]]/[qeC] = 0.1066 GeV/{[30 GeV/km][(3 x 10 EXP 5) km/second]} = 1.18 x 10 EXP – 8 second.
E = 1 TeV yeilds tau = 1.16 x 10 EXP -7 second yeilds percentage of surviving muons = 2 EXP [- tau/(half life)] = 96 %.
But the muon needs to travel 1 TeV/[30 GeV/km] = 33 km.
But, I then calculated tau for E = 10 TeV as follows.
tau = [(MoC)/(qe)] ln [(2E)/[(Mo)[C EXP 2]]] = {{(0.1066 GeV)/[[ (3 x 10 EXP 5) km/second] EXP 2]}[( 3 x 10 EXP 5) km/second]/[(30 GeV/km)]} ln {[ 20,000 GeV]/[0.1066 GeV]} = (1.18444 x 10 EXP -8) ln (187,617) = 1.438165 x 10 EXP -7.
Surviving percentage of muons is 95.57 %, but the accelerator length would be 333 km
I went ahead and ran computations for a whole host of composite particles, charged Mesons and Charged Baryons as well as for the Tauon which required much higher length specific acceleration potentials.
For most of these particles, if a high enough length speciific acceleration potential can be obtained, perhaps a Linac is the easiest to utililize instead of a synchrotron, the reason being the very short life time of the particles. In order to accelerate the particles rapidly enough to the point where many of the particles would still survive due to time dilation effects, such a very high accelerating potential might as well be used in a Linac.
However, their are some possible candidates of short half live particle for synchrotrons and the muon and antimuon are two of them.
• tacitus June 23, 2009, 14:38
I guess this is possible, but a more likely explanation for a non-electromagnetic ETI communications system is simply that it’s more efficient in some way. If we ever locate an ETI (RF) beacon, I would not be at all surprised to find that the beacon’s signal contained instructions on how to access a more advanced means of communications. And depending on how advanced the ultimate interstellar communications technology is, there may be additional steps along the way (kind of like an extended bootstrapping process).
• ASJ June 23, 2009, 15:08
The solar gravitational focal point for neutrinos that pass through it
is at 24 AU (orbit of Uranus).
ABSTRACT. The transparent Sun is modeled as a spherically symmetric and centrally condensed gravitational lens using recent standard solar model (SSM) data. The Sun’s minimum focal length is computed to a refined accuracy of 23.5 ± 0.1 AU, just beyond the orbit of Uranus. The Sun creates a single image of a distant point source visible to observers inside this minimum focal length and to observers sufficiently removed from the line connecting the source through the Sun’s center. Regions of space are mapped where three images of a distant point source are created, along with their associated magnifications. Solar caustics, critical curves, and Einstein rings are computed and discussed. Extremely high gravitational lens magnifications exist for observers situated so that an angularly small, unlensed source appears near a three-image caustic. Types of radiation that might undergo significant solar lens magnifications, as they can traverse the core of the Sun, including neutrinos and gravitational radiation, are discussed.
• ljk June 23, 2009, 15:46
I cannot recall – do the Cheela in Robert Forward’s SF novels Dragon’s Egg and
Starquake communicate via neutrinos, living on a neutron star as they do?
So how does one control a particle that could pass through a block of lead one billion miles long like it isn’t even there?
Perhaps most life in the Universe lives on neutron stars, or floats like a balloon in Jovian atmospheres, or is made of silicon and lives deep underground, or exists as a form of plasma at the cores of suns. Such beings if they can think might think we are implausible and never bother to look for us.
• Administrator June 23, 2009, 18:02
ljk writes:
I cannot recall – do the Cheela in Robert Forward’s SF novels Dragon’s Egg and Starquake communicate via neutrinos, living on a neutron star as they do?
That’s a good question, and I wish I could put my hands on my copy of Dragon’s Egg to find out. But I wouldn’t be surprised. It would be just like Forward to be writing about this all those years ago…
• MadeR June 24, 2009, 2:51
ljk, I would really propose to search for life that we know CAN exists (water, carbon, etc), before descending into unsupported fantasy.
• Adam June 24, 2009, 5:22
Hi All
I’m rereading Greg Egan’s “Diaspora” and when they’re in orbit around a life-bearing planet the Carter-Zimmerman polis uses passive neutrino sensing to scan the oceans below. They get high resolution via exciting certain neutrino sensitive isotopes so only the modest neutrino energies from Vega’s output cause them to transition. Quite clever really. If we can imagine such in fiction, then why not in reality if nothing forbids it physically?
• Tibor June 24, 2009, 6:18
Here is the arxiv link to the Patla & Nemiroff article on the Sun’s gravitational lensing: http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.4811
• ljk June 24, 2009, 9:38
MadeR said:
Of course – I was merely pointing out some possible reasons why SETI has not succeeded yet, among a host of others.
The whole point of this thread is that some intelligences may be using neutrinos to communicate and it may require beings way ahead of us or very different from us.
• ljk July 6, 2009, 2:56
Large Scale Cosmic Ray Anisotropy With IceCube
Authors: Rasha Abbasi, Paolo Desiati, for the IceCube Collaboration
(Submitted on 2 Jul 2009)
Abstract: We report on a study of the anisotropy in the arrival direction of cosmic rays with a median energy per Cosmic Ray (CR) particle of ~ 14 TeV using data from the IceCube detector.
IceCube is a neutrino observatory at the geographical South Pole, when completed it will comprise 80 strings plus 6 additional strings for the low energy array Deep Core. The strings are deployed in the deep ice between 1,450 and 2,450 meters depth, each string containing 60 optical sensors.
The data used in this analysis were collected from April 2007 to March 2008 with 22 deployed strings. The data contain ~ 4.3 billion downward going muon events. A two-dimensional skymap is presented with an evidence of 0.06% large scale anisotropy. The energy dependence of this anisotropy at median energies per CR particle of 12 TeV and 126 TeV is also presented in this work.
This anisotropy could arise from a number of possible effects; it could further enhance the understanding of the structure of the galactic magnetic field and possible cosmic ray sources.
Comments: 4 pages, 6 figures, to be presented at ICRC (2009)
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
Cite as: arXiv:0907.0498v1 [astro-ph.HE]
Submission history
From: Rasha Abbasi Dr. [view email]
[v1] Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:40:46 GMT (798kb)
• ljk July 8, 2009, 11:07
SETI and muon collider
Authors: Z.K. Silagadze
(Submitted on 4 Mar 2008)
Abstract: Intense neutrino beams that accompany muon colliders can be used for interstellar communications. The presence of multi-TeV extraterrestrial muon collider at several light-years distance can be detected after one year run of IceCube type neutrino telescopes, if the neutrino beam is directed towards the Earth. This opens a new avenue in SETI: search for extraterrestrial muon colliders.
Comments: 3 pages, ReVTeX4
Cite as: arXiv:0803.0409v1 [physics.pop-ph]
Submission history
From: Zurab Silagadze [view email]
[v1] Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:53:14 GMT (6kb)
• david hardtke July 24, 2009, 14:05
When I was a member of IceCube, I thought of this idea and actually took the time to do some feasibility studies. Unfortunately, it won’t work. The problem is that for the energies attainable by accelerators (GeV to TeV), the neutrino cross-section is still fairly small. Most neutrinos pass through any neutrino detector. It is simply impossible to produce a high enough flux of neutrinos to be detectable on a distant planet.
When I brought up this idea with my colleagues, the first thing someone asked was whether we could “see” the LHC. Even a very powerful particle accelerator on our own planet turns out to be invisible.
• Pat Galea July 24, 2009, 17:01
One question this raises is whether the process of scientific discovery would necessarily take place in a way analogous to the manner in which humans do it.
We make hypotheses, and design experiments to test them. Is this the only way to do it? For us, it may be so. But I wonder whether creatures whose ‘brains’ (for want of a better word) are built differently may have another way of progressing.
Perhaps they, like the ancient philosophers of Earth, just think really really hard about the problem, and they come up with a glorious unified theory without actually doing any experiments. Sure, I can’t actually imagine how they could do this, but who knows what they might be capable of if they’re really very clever, and perhaps conceptualize in a totally alien way.
I think the question of whether they could do this or not would depend on the nature of the universe. If the laws of physics are necessarily the way they are, then this kind of physics-by-deduction would be possible (at least in principle). If the laws of physics are contingent (or perhaps there’s a multiverse of varieties) then no-one – no matter how clever – could think their way to the answer.
Of course, there are other scenarios. Perhaps the progression of knowledge for ET follows a completely different path to ours. Again, I can’t really imagine too many major diversions from the path we took, but then I only have one example of an advanced technological civilization to play with! What I’m getting at is that certain experiments that we think are necessary might simply never occur to ET, either because they’ve worked out the answer without needing the experiment, or they’ve progressed in a completely different way.
• ljk August 18, 2009, 17:19
Aug 14, 2009
Neutrino trigger could reveal gravitational waves
SN 1987A: not close enoughExisting neutrino and gravitational-wave detectors can be used in concert to observe gravitational waves given off during a nearby supernova — say physicists in Italy.
Gravitational waves are vibrations of space–time predicted by the general theory of relativity. A number of experiments are trying to detect gravitational waves by measuring tiny changes in the separation of two masses that are expected to occur when the waves traverse a detector.
However, none have been successful so far and the most convincing evidence yet for gravitational waves is that the orbital period of the Hulse–Taylor binary star system is shrinking at the precise rate associated with the emission of gravitational waves.
With a little bit of luck, however, the first direct detection of the waves could happen if a supernova occurs in our own galaxy. Such a massive stellar explosion produces a vast amount of light and other radiation, which could help physicists narrow down their search to the precise moment that the gravitational waves reach Earth. This would be a great help in boosting the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors.
Full article here:
• Tim September 9, 2009, 17:03
Perhaps it would be very difficult to generate neutrinos detectable across interstellar distances, however, we have a very powerful neutrino generator in our backyard, namely, the sun. Would it be possible to modify existing neutrino emissions to carry information? It is known that matter can modify neutrino oscillations, i.e. the MSW Effect (though not sure how practical this would be for a comm system). Thoughts?
(ok, I’m a layman who watched too much ‘trek)
• Administrator September 9, 2009, 20:33
Tim writes:
What an interesting concept. I don’t know how workable it might be, but I’m hoping others will have thoughts on the matter.
• bigfc252 June 26, 2010, 15:41
“On Neutrino SETI” pdf: http://www.box.net/shared/fb2cvsahp2 |
The Ankh: Ancient Symbol of Life
What is the general meaning behind this well-known heiroglyph?
Detail of Sculpture at Temple of Ramesses III
Bob Krist/Getty Images
The ankh is the most well-known symbol to come out of ancient Egypt. In their hieroglyphic system of writing the ankh represents the concept of eternal life, and that is the general meaning of the symbol.
Construction of the Image
The ankh is an oval or point-down teardrop set atop a T shape. The origin of this image is highly debated. Some have suggested that it represents a sandal strap, although the reasoning behind such a use is not obvious. Others point out the similarity with another shape known as a knot of Isis (or a tyet), the meaning of which is also obscure.
The most commonly repeated explanation is that it is a union of a female symbol (the oval, representing the vagina or uterus) with a male symbol (the phallic upright line), but there's no actual evidence supporting that interpretation.
Funeral Context
The ankh is generally displayed in association with the gods. Most are found in funerary images. However, the most surviving artwork in Egypt is found in tombs, so availability of evidence is skewed. The gods involved in the judgment of the dead may possess ankh. They may carry it in their hand or hold it up to the nose of the deceased, breathing in eternal life.
There are also funerary statues of pharaohs in which an ankh is clutched in each hand, although a crook and flail — symbols of authority — are more common.
Purification Context
There are also images of gods pouring water over the head of the pharaoh as part of a purification ritual, with the water being represented by chains of ankhs and was (representing power and dominion) symbols. It reinforces the close connection the pharaohs had with the gods in whose name he ruled and to whom he returned after death.
The Aten
Pharaoh Akhenaten embraced a monotheistic religion centered on the worship of the sun disk, known as the Aten. Artwork from the time of his rule, known as the Amarna period, always includes the Aten in images of the pharaoh. This image is a circular disk with rays terminating in hands reaching down toward the royal family. Sometimes, although not always, the hands clutch ankhs.
Relief of Akhenaten and Nefertiti under the rays of the sun-god Aten, Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Relief of Akhenaten and Nefertiti under the rays of the sun-god Aten, clutching ankhs—Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Print Collector/Getty Images
Again, the meaning is clear: eternal life is a gift of the gods meant most specifically for the pharaoh and perhaps his family. (Akhenaten emphasized the role of his family much more than other pharaohs. More often, pharaohs are depicted alone or with the gods.)
Was and Djed
The ankh is also commonly displayed in association with the was staff or djed column. The djed column represents stability and fortitude. It is closely associated with Osiris, god of the underworld and also of fertility, and it has been suggested that the column represents a stylized tree. The was staff is a symbol of the power of rulership.
Together, the symbols appear to offer strength, success, longevity and long life.
Uses of the Ankh Today
The ankh continues to be used by a variety of people. Kemetic pagans, dedicated to reconstructing Egyptian traditional religion often use it as a symbol of their faith. Various new agers and neopagans use the symbol more generically as a symbol of life or sometimes as a symbol of wisdom. In Thelema, it is viewed as the union of opposites as well as a symbol of divinity and moving toward one's destiny.
The Coptic Cross
The early Coptic Christians used a cross known as a crux ansata (Latin for "cross with a handle") that resembled an ankh. Modern Coptic crosses, however, are crosses with arms of equal length. A circle design is sometimes incorporated into the center of the symbol, but it is not required. |
Vitamin C Cancer Treatment: Can Vitamin C Prevent and Treat Cancer?
By Arturo Galindo, Cert. Nutritional Therapist
A vitamin c cancer treatment can be a powerful weapon to fight and heal from cancer. Do you know someone with cancer? This can be valuable information for them.
Vitamin C can also help you prevent cancer. Are you concerned about hereditary factors or increased risk due to bad habits?
But what is cancer? How do people get cancer? Can you “cure” cancer? How exactly can vitamin C helps fight and prevent cancer? Why is your doctor not aware?
In this article, I help answer all these questions and more.
You can eat all the “super-foods” with the highest concentrations of vitamin C on the planet, but your body most likely needs much more.
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What is Cancer?
Dr. Linus Pauling defines cancer as a disease where some of the body cells change their DNA... and they start to look like cancer cells instead of normal body cells.
Let me explain...
Your body has trillions of cells and each cell has a specific function. Brain cells, skin cells, liver cells, breast cells, and so on.
And there's a "cement" substance that holds the cells together. This is key to understand the value of vitamin C. More on that below. Keep reading.
These normal cells divide to create new children's cells, while other cells die... for example, brain cells have children cells who look like brain cells while other brain cells die, and so on.
If you’re healthy, your body controls this process. It makes sure that the number of cells created never exceeds the top ceiling that your body can handle. (around 10 trillion cells).
Some cells rebel and escape this mechanism that your body uses to keep them under control.
These renegade cells look different than other normal cells in your body because of their DNA changes. They don’t look like normal body cells... they look like malignant cancer cells.
Cancer cells may travel to other parts of the body and have more children. They may continue to replicate and take over other parts of the body. They deplete the body of important nutrients to continue their uncontrolled growth.
But it’s likely that every person has cancer cells in them.
If you have a healthy body and immune system, your body will keep these cancer cells under control.
If you have cancer, you need to help your body increase its natural resistance. One of the best ways to do this is to use a vitamin C cancer treatment.
Why do People get Cancer?
There are people that have certain hereditary tendencies to cancers. Other people may have increased risk, for example, if you smoke your risk of lung cancer increases.
But many people believe most cancers today are the result of the pollution of our environment... which affect the DNA of your cells.
Some examples are:
• The contaminated water we drink. For example, the long term effect of fluoride in water
• The processed food we eat. This includes the use of antibiotics, steroids, and so on.
• The chemicals and pesticides used in agriculture. An example is roundup pesticide.
• The polluted air that we breathe. This includes gas emissions and substances used in weather modification programs... such as aluminum.
• The toxic pharmaceutical drugs that we use. This includes many chemicals, toxic substances used in most drugs, including vaccines.
This is plenty of evidence to support this theory.
Some recent examples include:
• Losartan drug for high blood pressure was recently recalled. The FDA found carcinogenic substances.
• Ranitidine drug for acid reflux was recently recalled. The also found carcinogenic substances.
• Roundup pesticide causes cancer. It's a glyphosate-based herbicide that most farmers use to grow food.
Now, most likely cancer cells accumulate over time.
Think about all the people who have been exposed over the years to harmful products, food, drugs, and so on.
This means that your body needs to be healthy enough and strong enough to fight cancer cells and keep them under control.
Can you “cure” Cancer?
Cancer is not cured...but you can control it.
How do you control cancer? By helping your body increase its natural resistance mechanisms.
As I mentioned above, there's a cement substance that "holds" the normal cells in your body together.
This cement or glue needs to be strong. Why? Because a strong cement stops malignant cancer cells from spreading.
It contains two substances called glycosaminoglycans and collagen
They both help to make the cement of connective cell tissues strong.. like steel rods that help make the concrete strong in a building.
Here's the thing.
Cancer cells release two enzymes or substances called hyaluronidase and collagenase... and they weaken the cement of normal cells.
If the cement is weak, cancer cells take over normal cells and continue to replicate.
And now the interesting part.
Enter Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, or ascorbate.
Vitamin C to Prevent Cancer
Cancer patients have very low vitamin C in the blood... and one of the benefits of vitamin C is that it reduces the risk of cancer.
The problem is that you can eat a lot of vitamin c super-foods but your body may need much more in the form of vitamin C supplements.
What we need is proof of the therapeutic use of supplemental vitamin C to prevent and fight cancer.
The great news is that we already have this proof... and we've had it for several decades from many experts. Experts who dedicated their lives to research and use ascorbic acid.
Among the experts are Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron. They both made important discoveries about the value of vitamin C in cancer back in the 1970s.
Dr. Pauling is a two-time Nobel Prize winner. Dr. Ewan Cameron is a surgeon with over 30 years of experience in the treatment of cancer patients... and was also the Director at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine.
The book Cancer and Vitamin C document their findings, and here is a summary:
Vitamin C protects the cement that keeps your cells together
In 1971, Dr. Cameron found that vitamin C triggers the production of the substance hyaluronidase inhibitor in normal cells.
This substance prevents cancer cells from attacking the inter-cellular cement of normal cells.
Vitamin C strengthens the cement that keeps your cells together
Around the same time, Dr. Pauling found that the body needs enough vitamin C to produce enough collagen.
Enough collagen makes the inter-cellular cement of normal cells strong.
Vitamin C makes the immune system strong
The immune system helps the body to tell the difference between normal cells and other cells ... such as bacteria or malignant cells.
It acts as a police force, patrolling the body and checking all cells.
This is why people with weak immune systems are prone to certain cancers.
Vitamin C helps the body produce immunoglobulins or antibodies (types IgG and IgM). And more vitamin C means more antibody production.
Vitamin C cancer treatment
Cancer patients often have a weak immune system and very low levels of vitamin C.
The simplest and safest way to make their immune systems more effective is to take more vitamin C.
Ewan Cameron treated 500 patients with advanced terminal cancer using a vitamin C cancer treatment.
Here are his findings:
• Vitamin C improved the state of well-being. It also improved appetite, increased mental alertness, and less need for pain-killing drugs.
• Patients treated with ascorbate lived 10 months longer than other patients who were not given vitamin C... and 22 percent of those living longer than one year.
• Vitamin C reduced the pain of patients from the use of narcotic drugs in advanced cancers... to the point where heroin or morphine was no longer needed
A vitamin C cancer treatment is much more effective when it starts as early as possible. The longer the wait, the less effective it is.
Irwin Stone dedicated 40 years of his life to research vitamin C... and found that vitamin C makes the immune system more effective. It’s an activator of the glandular systems of your body.
Vitamin C can attack poisons including cancer... assuming you always have enough vitamin C in your blood.
A Vitamin C cancer treatment research study
The US National Library of Medicine published a study in 2018 about Intravenous Vitamin C Cancer Treatment ... to identify the current gaps in the knowledge of this amazing substance.
Here’s a summary of the findings from the study:
• Cancer patients have lower vitamin C levels
• Intravenous vitamin C is the preferred option to administer vitamin C to cancer patients
• Intravenous vitamin C is safe
• Intravenous vitamin C works synergistically with chemotherapy and radiation
• Intravenous vitamin C can reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs and improve the quality of life
Vitamin C Cancer Treatment Clinics
There are many alternative clinics that have a vitamin C cancer treatment. And most of them also use other non-toxic cancer therapies.
Here are some of them:
• Riordan Clinic with several locations in Kansas, USA.
• Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico
• Hope4Cancer in Tijuana, Mexico
• Rowensu Clinic in Santa Rosa, California, USA.
There are vitamin c cancer treatment clinics across the world... including Germany, China, Switzerland, and many others.
A good resource for vitamin C cancer treatment clinics in the USA is the Cancer Cure Foundation
Here's the protocol for the use of vitamin C in the treatment of cancer.
Why your doctor may not be aware of the value of vitamin C against cancer
It’s unbelievable that many doctors are not aware of the value of vitamin C to prevent chronic disease... and the value of vitamin C cancer treatment.
But you can help increase awareness by pointing your doctor to the evidence.
There's a huge misconception that large doses of vitamin C are dangerous... and that doses larger than the RDA offer no value against any diseases.
Doctor’s are not to blame. They are busy taking care of patients and do not have time to read medical and scientific literature... and consider the possibility that other alternative treatments may have value.
So what do doctors do?
They rely on the medical and nutritional authorities... who are in large part influenced by Pharmaceutical companies in many different ways.
Enter the Food and Nutrition Board who issues RDA values for vitamins and minerals.
The RDA values are set large enough to prevent nutritional vitamin deficiency diseases. Scurvy for vitamin C. beriberi for vitamin B1, pellagra for vitamin B3, and so on.
Nutritional values prevent vitamin deficiency disease.
Therapeutic values prevent disease in the long term... but those would compete with drugs.
Many experts think the Food and Nutrition Board has a clear bias towards vitamins.
The Board is not willing to examine the evidence on the therapeutic value of the proper use of vitamins, including vitamin C... and they select only medical and scientific references that it needs to support its bias.
• Pauling L., Cameron E. (1993) Cancer and Vitamin C
• Stone, I. (1972) The Healing Factor, Vitamin C Against Disease
By Arturo Galindo
Certified Nutritional Therapist
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Who are they and what is their story?
Illegible abandoned grave in Toronto.
Sadly, time and neglect are rapidly destroying a critical part of our history. As villages became towns and towns became cities, many gravesites were moved or simply plowed over as urban sprawl pushed city boundaries further and further out. Still other graves were abandoned as families moved and the dead were eventually forgotten. As these stones disappear, so too does a chunk of someone's genealogical story.
From 1825-55, many of Toronto's dead were buried in Potter's Field which was situated just west of Yonge on the north side of Bloor St. Eventually urban sprawl forced its closure and from 1851-8 about 6700 bodies were re-located to Mount Pleasant and Toronto Necropolis Cemeteries. Upon reinterment, most of the stones were placed flat on the ground and have succumbed to a state of overgrowth and damage due to neglect.
Not all the bodies were actually moved. Several hundred bodies were left behindand still resting under 'Mink Mile'. So if you're in the Bloor/Yonge area, do tip your hat and say hi to the pioneers who built this great City of Toronto.
St James Cathedral at Church and King Streets still has about 3,000 bodies buried in the old cemetery beneath the car park and playground where victims of a 19th-century cholera epidemic and soldiers killed in the War of 1812 are buried. They say the mound on the north side is full of bodies.
Not all of the stones below were fading but included here because they are interesting. The rediscovered (see the shaving cream topped stones) were buried and difficult to read. We've done a bit of research and added death detail found in the original burial registers. More will information will be added over time.
• Solve your puzzle past
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Chapter 7 Alex
Ways arguments can break down
• faulty uses of
• reasoning or logic
• credibility
• emotion
Weak Evidence
Evidence may seem relevant and sufficient to you but may not be to an audience
• Over-generalization
• Fallacies do not build the best possible case
Unqualified Claims
• People don't change their minds easily
• Readers can be picky
• Qualification is a stated restriction that limits a claim's strength
• Qualifying claims tend to avoid exaggerated arguments
• Weaken the verb
• Narrow the subject
• Limit the object
• Add support
Correlation versus Causation
Correlation-when two or more things that can occur at the same time, ex ice cream sales and drowning, they both go up in the summer
Causation-when two or more events become more than coincidental
Changing the Subject
Talking about information that is barely related to the subject
Straw Man Arguments
oversimplified, exaggerated arguments or incorrect opposing arguments to make the opposition seem weak
Truth as Support
things such as religious beliefs or patriotism
Relying Too Much on Credibility
Believing that something is right because of who is saying it, ie dentists on a toothpaste commercial
Getting Emotional
Emotions can cloud good judgement
The Usefulness of Fallacies
Arguments based on sound reasoning can withstand harsher scrutiny
Fallacies aren't necessarily false
Anticipate and Respond to Opposing Views
Anticipate Objections
Imagine potential objections
Walk in Reader's Shoes
Imagine what reader's will think as they read your argument
Identify Potential Controversies
Pg. 61
Play the Devil's Advocate
Challenge ideas, pretend to support opposition, push to consider the implications of our claims
Respond to Objections
We can Concede
acknowledge legitimate objections
We Can Refute
Explain how you arrived at your alternate position
Elaborate to Fill in Gaps
1. Incorporate more examples
2. Respond to more objections
3. Relate the argument to more real-life contexts
4. Discuss the larger implications of your argument
5. Make connections to other related issues |
What are the signs of Amblyopia? - Magrabi Hospitals
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What are the signs of Amblyopia?
Amblyopia generally develops in young children, before age six. Its symptoms often are noted by parents or health-care professionals. If a child squints or completely closes one eye to see, he or she may have amblyopia. Other signs include overall poor visual acuity, eyestrain and headaches.
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There are some basic components that are needed by any military so that they can succeed. The military force is required to have the appropriate technology to create an advantage and the training to overcome any adversaries corresponding advantage. The key is asymmetry since equally opposed opponents will simply annihilate each other. Since an attacker can choose the place and time of a fight the defender must be aware constantly. Since cyber warfare is of a totally different kinetic and cognitive dimensions there are specific differences within the scope of similarities of conflict. The naval commander has much in common with the infantry command, but each is a specialist within his or her own domain. Why would you think to mix the two unless you were trying to make Marines? To do so would require twice as much training and a principle of generalized training through the entirety of the force. In some ways you could say every cyber warrior is a rifle man.
Cyber space is a dangerous place. For some reason people try to make cyber space into a version of the Internet. They try to keep cyber warfare related to personal computers and eBay. People try to equate and limit cyber warfare in ways they would instantly understand were wrong about other terrains like the sea or air. The consistent narrowing of the cyber focus is like a naval commander only looking at the surface for naval warfare. Submarines? Who cares about them they aren’t as cools as battleships! Narrowing the focus has detrimental effects on understanding the risks. Cyber warfare is a broad spectrum of capabilities, skills, targets, and strategies. The tactical picture of cyber warfare is a spectrum rather than a point.
Technology is a key concept. The type of technology though is especially important. A cyber warrior is going to use the technology of the adversary against them. As such the basics of scrounging off the land like some type of special operator or guerilla insurgent is going to be needed. In the land of cyber space the concept will be to harvest the configurations from computing systems, leave the metaphorical snares such as Trojans and root kits behind, and operate as an anonymous entity until needed. The technology needs include fast computing power, high speed data lines dropping into global networks in numerous (millions) of locations, high speed databases with rapid deployment tool sets, large amounts of background data on targets and support for collating that kind of data. These kind of support technologies need to be highly flexible and adaptive to the needs of the operator.
I have this concern. We create some special cyber force that operates in dark buildings and all of these cyber Ninjas read my blog and snicker at my obtuse and decrepit ways. Well they would laugh at me except the military and government information technology types have banned my website because I have the word BLOG on it. These cyber Ninjas operate in the dark dank foul encrusted halls of autocratic protectionist administrators who say “you might get hurt”. Turning cyber Marines into day care sycophants.
Training is important to success. NSA has some pretty good red team guys but they might not be the perfect cyber warriors. All right NSA put away the long knives and let me continue. The NSA is not a combatant command. They are basically intelligence and though that is sometimes combat what we are talking about his a consumer of NSA capabilities as a combatant commander or CIA operative in the field might consume information. The cyber militia would operate not as a gathering mechanism that is the NSA role, but they would use tools to operate under the notice of foreign (and domestic) system administrators. There are intelligence conundrums that occur when a capability might be degraded by the action on intelligence. That should not be an intelligence agencies decision, but should be a decision for the political entities for domestic and combatant commanders for military operations.
Much of the education a cyber warrior is going to need can be found in any information technology or computer science program of a university. Like anything though technical education has to be backed up with thinking and cognitive education. A sprinkling of networking, operating system, security, and programming will go a long way when mixed with social sciences. What won’t be found is the inherent mental twist to look at things sideways. Students will need to understand at a fundamental level how computers communicate externally and internally. A principle based fundamental (not low level education, but depth of the medium) understanding of computer systems is required. Here is one of the traps.
In a society of pervasive computing we have a tendency to make the personal computer and the operating systems of that technology primary rather than secondary. The Internet does not run on personal computers the personal computer is an edge device. For the sake of cyber warfare we want to know about all of the edge devices and all of the core devices. Suddenly the requirements for education jump forward. The good thing is that different categories of equipment, and in fact all equipment, have patterns or ways of doing things.
The purpose is to create an asymmetry in technology which is realized in battlefield wins. If they have a new tank, our new tank is bigger, and faster. If they have faster ships we make ours into hovercraft with lasers. The key is to maintain asymmetry within the technology space. It is also important to do so with training. Superior training, conditioning, and mental acuity can overcome adversarial advantage. Think of the Spartans taking on an army (go ahead and imagine the 300 from the movie the metaphor sticks). The Spartans had better tactics and training, but not the flexibility or technology. Though they fought bravely the volumetric asymmetry means they lost. Coincidentally there are now 300 million Americans. The population ratio is on the adversaries’ side and they have been building their technologies as well. Can America not repeat the Spartan defeat even if glorious?
A new domain and a new force structure do not necessarily mean a new combatant command. There are large and onerous legal issues with militarizing cyber space. Since the battle space for cyber encompasses so much the implications are huge when considering the American experience. Since cyber is so wide and inherently a domestic issue along with trans-national issue any force working within this domain will have to mirror the political realities. Those realities are constitutional and legislated restrictions. The force for this would be very flat with a high quality open minded managerial layer operating in geographic/mission teams. Within each team an offensive and defensive role would be set with mission objectives. The offensive team would take action while the defensive team covered those actions. In law enforcement there is a technique that officers use called contact and cover. This is necessary to insure that while the suspect is being dealt with they aren’t blind sided by a sideways attack. The combatant commander structure of the United States military could be layered into this organization. Thereby following the specific legislated rules of how combatant commanders wage war.
However, Northern Command would require special consideration and a larger constituency for their cyber efforts. The legal hurdles of domestic operation mean that several players need to be within the command. This would include private parties. When I say private I mean the telco carriers. Waging war is inherently a government activity and should not be outsourced at all to contracting companies. The terrain may be different but it is still war and should not be profitized. The National Guard and Coast Guard (and interesting enough the Marine Corps) are the only government entities that can truly operate currently in this domestic space legally and cover foreign and domestic issues equally. Since domestic incidents are a foregone conclusion the issues of attribution and consideration of proportional response need to be up front in a ladder of force hierarchy.
A few of my friends in the Air Force are going to notice I am not talking about a cyber command or a special unified command. StratCom is also off the table. I am not sure in my opinion that a military command can accomplish this mission. I am not sure that any government command can accomplish this mission. For all the skill at Fort Meade and Langley they get stomped on by 15 year olds too often. Remember we are no longer talking about just hardening systems or probing personal computers. The way to cyber warfare is creating kinetic results through use of command and control networks on either end of the OSI 7 layer model.
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Everyone knows the rags-to-riches story of Cinderella. Especially the animated Disney version which came out in 1950. But what a lot of people might not know is that Disney was going through its own Cinderella story during the making of the film, and if the film was not a box office success, it’s very likely the Disney studio would have gone bankrupt.
The origin of the film goes back to the pre-Mickey Mouse days when Walt Disney produced a 1922 Laugh-O-Gram based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault. He loved the story so much that he was interested in adapting it as a Silly Symphony in the 1930s, but the story proved too complicated to condense into such a short running time so it was decided that the studio would make it a feature-length animated movie instead with several treatments being attempted as early as 1938.
In 1943 a year after Bambi was released, Walt had assigned animator Dick Huemer and artist Joe Grant to supervise the film but it was in continual limbo and production was finally halted in 1945 with Song of the South writer Maurice Rapf reassigned to the project at one point to strengthen Cinderella as a character by making her less passive than Snow White and more assertive.
Other changes include the names of almost every character, the idea of Cinderella having a pet turtle, Cinderella’s transformation from a child to an adult, the Fairy Godmother’s transformation from tall and beautiful to bumbling and elderly (a great suggestion from Milt Kahl) and putting the animals more in the center of the plot.
Chances are the film would have been released much earlier had it not been for the studio being in so much financial debt following the box office disappointment of Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi after World War II cut off the foreign market. This is why all the Disney movies released in the forties following Bambi were package features that were basically compilations of animated shorts, including Make Mine Music (1946), Fun & Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948) and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).
In order for the studio to get back into financial shape they would need a guaranteed hit. In the late forties, three films that Walt had wanted to make since the thirties were in development: Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. But Walt leaned towards Cinderella as his return to feature films because it was the one that was the most similar to the studio’s first financial hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and by 1948 the film was progressing much quicker than Alice and Peter Pan due to the story problems those two films were having.
In addition to Cinderella’s importance as the studio’s comeback story, the production of the film also signaled a change in the politics of animated feature film production at Disney, as Walt was less involved in the day-to-day production of Cinderella than he had been on previous films.
It is widely believed by those who knew Walt Disney best that the 1940s were such a stressful time for him that he had become somewhat jaded by animation (not only did ambitious projects he loved like Bambi and Fantasia fail with the public, but his own animators went on strike against him when he refused to unionize the studio) and this led to him seeking creative fulfilment elsewhere, particularly in live-action movies and in his own personal hobbies that helped him relax, most significantly his life-size train set that he loved riding and ultimately inspired him to create the theme park Disneyland.
The three directors put in charge of Cinderella, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, were more or less left to their own devices determining the direction of the film with Walt occasionally offering notes and suggestions, many times via long-distance correspondence from England where Walt Disney was on the set of Treasure Island.
Despite Walt being more hands-off than usual, the movie turned out great (although no Disney film in Walt’s lifetime following Bambi would ever reach the prestige of the films from the early forties) and the standard for quality had been well-established enough that the animators themselves had become good storytellers by this point, especially since this was the first film where all nine of Disney’s top animators (nicknamed the “Nine Old Men” by Walt) had all worked together on a film as supervising animators.
The soundtrack was also great with classics like “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” and “So This Is Love” standing comfortably alongside the songs of Disney’s golden age. The songs were written by Tin Pan Alley hit makers Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman and the score was written by Oliver Wallace and Paul J. Smith.
Highlights in the voice cast include Ilene Woods (Cinderella) who had her own radio program (The Ilene Woods Show) which Walt heard before calling her and offering her the role over the phone. Eleanor Audley (Lady Tremaine) would later be known for starring as Eunace in the sitcom Green Acres and for voicing Maleficent (another Disney villain) in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Verna Felton was a Jack Benny regular known for playing bossy no-nonsense characters such as the lead circus elephant in Dumbo, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland and Pearl the mother-in-law from The Flintstones, but in Cinderella she played against type as the Fairy Godmother and she excelled at warm grandmotherly types just as well.
Other notables include Jimmy MacDonald (Jaq and Gus) the Disney sound man who took over from Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey Mouse; June Foray (Lucifer) who voiced Looney Tunes mainstay Granny and Rocky and Bullwinkle characters Rocky, Natasha and Nell Fenwick among countless others; Lucille Bliss (Anastasia) who voiced such characters as Crusader Rabbit (the first made-for-TV cartoon character), Smurfette from the ’80s cartoon The Smurfs and Mrs. Bitter from the Nicktoon Invader Zim; Mike Douglas (Prince Charming’s singing voice) who starred in his own show The Mike Douglas Show (just like Ilene Woods); and in the film’s opening we hear Betty Lou Gerson (narrator) who would later voice Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
When the film was released in 1950, it did everything Walt Disney had hoped it would do. It received the best box office success since Snow White and the best critical reception since Dumbo. Michael Curtiz, director of Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy, hailed it as Walt Disney’s masterpiece and most film critics praised the film as imaginative and funny for both children and adults. It also received Oscar nominations for Best Sound, Best Score and Best Song for “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” and is widely acknowledged as one of the best animated films.
The box office success of the film combined with the record sales and merchandise connected with it gave Disney the cash flow they needed to stay afloat in the fifties and expand their empire into television and theme parks. So the movie very literally saved the Disney studio from going under and almost single-handedly helped put Disney further on the map.
It was ultimately the talents of everyone who worked on the film that saved the studio, and it was Walt Disney’s ability to spot talent and his ability for understanding his audience and the kinds of stories they wanted to see that made Cinderella‘s success possible. |
Which one is correct: examination center or examination centre? What is the difference between center and centre? Is the difference only in spelling? What is the usage difference?
Originally, everyone spelled it centre, but because of Noah Webster's spelling reforms, people in the US started spelling it center, particularly in the last century. Although the revised spelling center has been adopted internationally to varying extents, centre is still more popular in most regions. But regardless of how you spell it, it's the same word, so it has the same meaning either way.
To get a clearer picture of which spellings are used in which countries, I turned to the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE). After searching for both terms, I took the raw data and created a chart of percentages using the formula center / (center + centre), which I sorted in descending order. Here's what I found:
Percent of the time center is used rather than centre, by region
United States 92.2%
Philippines 87.5%
Pakistan 54.0%
Hong Kong 51.8%
Bangladesh 51.2%
India 43.8%
Tanzania 42.5%
Singapore 40.7%
Kenya 40.3%
Jamaica 40.3%
Nigeria 39.1%
Malaysia 35.1%
Ghana 34.4%
Sri Lanka 33.8%
Canada 33.0%
New Zealand 24.2%
Ireland 20.1%
South Africa 19.8%
Great Britain 19.4%
Australia 18.1%
As you can see, center is more popular in the US, while centre is more popular in the UK. Many regions fall closer to the center of the spectrum, with India favoring centre only somewhat, and Hong Kong using both spellings in roughly equal proportions. Overall, centre is more popular in international English.
Which should you use? Well, if you're required to follow a style guide, use whichever spelling it suggests. If you have a choice, and you're writing in a region like the US or UK that strongly prefers one spelling, I suggest you use that spelling. (I don't think either spelling is ever "incorrect", but it's possible that the person grading your test might disagree with me!) Otherwise, you can spell it however you like.
Finally, I'd like to add one note about the percentages above. The tendencies at the top and bottom ends of the chart are likely to be stronger than the percentages indicate, primarily because spellings are usually respected in proper nouns regardless of region. If you talk about the Capital Centre, for example, you're likely to spell the word centre rather than center regardless of which region you're in. But since most uses of this word are not in proper nouns, the percentages should be roughly accurate, particularly toward the center of the list; it should be enough for you to decide how to spell the word.
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+1 for "otherwise you can spell it however you like", although remember: be consistent and only use one or the other - never both! – Matt Oct 21 '13 at 10:40
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This even may be skewed by the CSS on pages, since center is an alignment choice. I'd be willing to bet that explains almost all of the UK's 18%. – Julian Oct 21 '13 at 11:35
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@Julian I'm afraid not; that's not how the GloWbE corpus was compiled. In fact, I'm unable to find any examples at all that fit the pattern you suggest; feel free to look for yourself. – snailplane Oct 21 '13 at 11:49
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Center would definitely be incorrect in the UK (i.e. it would be marked as an incorrect spelling by any experienced writer, teacher or editor). – mikera Oct 22 '13 at 15:59
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"it has the same meaning either way" - In Canada, the two words have different meanings. centre is a place where people congregate, e.g. shopping centre, town centre (building). center is the central point of something, e.g. center of a graph, center of a map, etc... – noahnu Aug 10 '16 at 15:42
Centre is correct in international and British English.
Center is an alternative spelling used mainly in American English.
The meaning is the same.
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• That means Centre is the right word to choose? – anish Oct 22 '13 at 7:27
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@anish - Generally yes, unless you are writing in US English. – mikera Oct 22 '13 at 15:59
• Native speakers of US also use center? – anish Oct 23 '13 at 4:21
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Centre is correct everywhere, except in America and to most people in the Philippines (it is a former US territory). – Bryant Donner Apr 23 '14 at 16:40
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Native speakers of American English use "center". The only common usage of "centre" in American English is as an affectation in the names of shopping centers and buildings that want to seem snooty, but usually fail. – Jasper Feb 10 '15 at 17:09
I'm Australian, so the following refers to British/Australian/New Zealand spelling and also for most Commonwealth (ex-British Empire) countries too. The spelling of these two words is different depending on it's meaning. If it is referring to the middle of something, such as the middle of a circle or in fact any shape, then the spelling is CENTER. An example is "I walked to the center of the circle". If the word is referring to an organisation or a building, then it's spelt as "CENTRE". An example would be "I started my new job at the Australian Centre for International Relations" or another example would be "the music score was deposited at the University Music Centre".
As for "meter" vs "metre" the spelling is also different depending on what it's referring to. An instrument of measurement is spelt "METER" - example: the gas meter or the water meter. If it's referring to distance it's "METRE" - example: "the 100 metre sprint" or "the steel pipe was 20 centimetres long". Also the metric measurement of volume is spelt "LITRE". The United States spells it as "liter", everybody else (I believe) spells it as "litre". In the US the spelling for both "meter / metre" is just "meter". I hope this is of some help!
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I walked to the center of shopping centre. – Will Calderwood Feb 17 '17 at 10:16
• It surprises me how many people assume them both to have the same meaning. In any language there is a difference in meaning between the positioning of something and the a designated area of activity. – captain_G Sep 12 '17 at 11:39
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This is completely incorrect about centre/center. In Brit/Aust/NZ English, the middle of a thing is centre, same as the building. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Monica Oct 12 '18 at 12:15
• As a Briton, I can tell you that we most certainly do not use 'center' to refer to the centre of anything. We use 'centre' and no other spelling. However, 'meter' is still used for a measuring instrument, that much is true. See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre#Spelling – Pharap Mar 18 at 0:20
I don't see any difference between the two forms except the spelling. Center is commonly regarded as an American spelling, whereas in Britain, people tend to spell it as centre. This is similar to some words like meter and metre, color and colour, etc.
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Though note that "metre" is only "re" for the unit of length. A measuring device such as a "gas meter" is "er" in Britain, Canada and the US. – Eric Lippert Oct 21 '13 at 16:00
From Wiktionary.
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• The other answers are correct, this answer isn't true in general. However I've seen this explanation for Canadian english specifically. (It could well be that the same applies to other countries shown as mixed usage). Googling found a Wikitionary entry (which is possibly where I saw this mentioned before). en.wiktionary.org/wiki/center#Usage_notes – sourcejedi May 28 '14 at 21:13
They are two ways to spell the same thing:
centre is the UK spelling for center.
center is the US spelling for centre.
Source: Cmabridge dictionary.
enter image description here
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What is Meso-Zeaxanthin?
Similarly to Lutein and Zeaxanthin, Meso-Zeaxanthin (MEE-so zee-ah-ZAN-thin) is a yellowish carotenoid, which has powerful antioxidant qualities and an ability to filter harmful visible blue light, however unlike Lutein and Zeaxanthin it is not found in plants and is therefore not part of our normal everyday diet.
Meso-Zeaxanthin is also the third carotenoid present in the retina and together with Lutein and Zeaxanthin they form the macular pigment. Of the 700 carotenoids present in nature only these three specific carotenoids gather in the macula. Furthermore Meso-Zeaxanthin is not present anywhere else in the body and can only found in this highly targeted point, right at the very centre of the macula where vision is at its sharpest.
Key Benefits
Recent research has suggested that the antioxidant potential of the macular pigment and its ability to neutralise harmful free radicals is greatly enhanced when Meso-Zeaxanthin is present.
Furthermore, studies have shown that the visual benefits were better amongst those with a diet rich in all three macular carotenoids including Meso-Zeaxanthin, as opposed to those who were only consuming Lutein and Zeaxanthin and therefore lacked this key centrally dominant carotenoid.
Where can I find it organically?
Up until very recently it was thought that Meso-Zeaxanthin was exclusively derived from the breakdown of Lutein within the retina, concluding that a deficiency of Meso-Zeaxanthin within the macula was caused by an individual’s inability to make this conversion. Current research however is now calling this into question suggesting that Meso-Zeaxanthin can also be found a number of marine organisms including shrimp and sea turtles and appears to be particularly concentrated in the skin of specific fish, such as trout and salmon.
Studies are currently underway to quantify the exact levels of Meso-Zeaxanthin in more food types, although to date Meso-Zeaxanthin has only been detected in very specific foods, that are by no means part of a typical diet, moreover the quantities found have been very small.
How does Macu-STRENGTHTM help?
Based on research it would appear that, as Meso-Zeaxanthin is not a compound generally found in our everyday diet or indeed in the quantities that are needed to be of benefit to eye health, diet alone is not an option.
Macu-STRENGTHTM contains 10mg Meso-Zeaxanthin in combination with 10mg Lutein and 2mg Zeaxanthin, which most leading experts in the field of eye science believe to be the optimum quantities needed to fully supplement the macular carotenoids. |
The Gift of Life: Organ and Tissue Donation | Phaneuf
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The Gift of Life: Organ and Tissue Donation
Organ and tissue donation is the process of removing organs and tissues of the human body from someone who has either recently died or a living donor so that they may be transplanted to a living recipient. This process is accomplished in two surgical procedures, the harvesting and the transplant.
Typically, organ donation takes place after clinical brain death, which is defined as the irreversible loss of brain functions. Tissue donation takes place after either brain or cardiac death, which is defined as the irreversible loss of cardiovascular function.
Who can donate tissues and/or Organs?
Donors can be of any age, gender, or race. A determination is made at the time of death, based on the person’s medical and social history, whether the tissues and/or organs are suitable for harvesting and transplantation.
Donation Legislature in the United States
Under current law, states regulate donation and transplant laws, but all state legislation must adhere to the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. This Act, sponsored by Al Gore and Orrin Hatch, outlawed the sale of human organs and established several legislative bodies to regulate organ procurement organizations, transplantation networks, and a registry of transplant recipients. At the state level, each individual state has its own legislation in the form Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and generally, states streamline the process by noting consent on an individual’s driver’s license.
Tissues and Organs are in High Demand
By far, the demand for healthy tissues and organs surpasses the number of donors all over the world; there are many potential recipients on organ donation wait lists. In the United States, there are well over 100,000 people on waiting lists, and generally, a third of those patients are inactive and unable to receive a donation. Success rates and wait times vary greatly between organs and tissues, due to both the difficulty of the procedure and availability of the organ.
Becoming an Organ Donor
Although each state has its own set of laws regarding organ donation, the steps are generally fairly similar:
1. Register with your state’s donor registry:
2. Designate your decision on your driver’s license when you obtain or renew.
3. Talk to your family about your donation decision, so that they understand your wishes before crisis occurs.
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Web Applications
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What is a web application?
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application
"... a Web application is an application delivered to users from a Web server over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of the Web browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain Web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity. Web applications are used to implement webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, wikis, discussion boards, weblogs, MMORPGs, and perform many other functions."
What can a web application do for me?
A web application is usually a fancy database-based system running through a web browser. In some cases, such as our system for CHOC, there are multiple data-entry portals: a web-based front end for visitors, and a Microsoft Access back end for the database maintainer.
The three applications showcased here allow the owners to enter data themselves. The data they enter are immediately available on the web site for viewing (with the appropriate permissions, of course). |
Definition:Closed Invariant
From ProofWiki
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Let $P$ be a property whose domain is the set of all topological spaces.
Suppose that whenever $\map P T$ holds, then so does $\map P {T'}$, where:
$T$ and $T'$ are topological spaces
$\phi: T \to T'$ is a mapping from $T$ to $T'$
$\phi \sqbrk T = T'$, where $\phi \sqbrk T$ denotes the image of $\phi$
$T'$ is a closed set.
Then $P$ is a closed invariant.
Loosely, an closed invariant is a property which is preserved in the closed image of a mapping.
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5.2.2 Integration Time Estimates
FIFI-LS will operate such that the detectors are always background-limited, infrared photodetectors. Under this assumption, the overall performance of FIFI-LS as a function of wavelength has been estimated. Further assumptions about the emissivity of the telescope, optics, and baffling, the efficiency of the detectors had to be made. Figure 5-3 shows the resulting sensitivities for continuum and unresolved lines as minimum detectable fluxes per pixel, i.e. detected with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 4 and an on-source integration time of 900 s or 15 min.
The FIFI-LS on-line exposure time estimator should be used to estimate the on-source exposure times used in proposals and observing preparation. The time estimator requires the following input:
• Observatory Altitude (in feet; < 60,000 ft): default 38,000 ft
This value is used in ATRAN to derive the atmospheric absorption. For more details about ATRAN (see Sect. 3.6).
On a typical SOFIA flight, observations start at 38,000 ft or 39,000 ft and 43,000 ft are reached 3.5 h before the observations end. The default value of 38,000 ft ensures that time estimate does not underestimates the water vapor overburden. If an observations is rather sensitive to the water vapor, a higher altitude can be entered and justified in the proposal. In Phase II, select "Low" or "VeryLow" for "Requested WV Overburden" in the "Observing Condition"-panel in SSPOT, if the altitude used in the time estimation is 41,000 ft or 43,000 ft, respectively. Note, that this limits the schedulability of the observation to the last 5.5 h or 3.5 h of observations.
• Water Vapor Overburden (in microns; 0 if unknown): default 0
If a value of 0 is given, ATRAN assumes a typical amount of water vapor to derive the atmospheric absorption.
• Telescope elevation (between 20 and 60 deg): default 40
For northern sources an elevation of 40° is okay, but sources south of a declination of -15° will most likely be observed at a respectively lower elevations unless an observation from the southern hemisphere is required.
• Signal to Noise Ratio or Integration Time (s): default SNR of 5
Specify either a requested SNR and the required on-source exposure time is returned, or specify an on-source exposure time and the resulting SNR is returned.
• Wavelength (in microns, between 51 and 203): default 157.741 μm (rest wavelength of [CII] line)
Specify the rest wavelength of the requested transition.
• Source: default 2.087e-17 W m-2 line flux (MDLF per pixel for [CII])
Specify the expected source flux per FIFI-LS pixel either as integrated line flux in W/m^2 or as continuum flux density in Jansky. Make it obvious in the technical feasibility section of the proposal that the referenced flux estimates have been converted to FIFI-LS pixels sizes.
• Source velocity (in km/s): default 0 km/s
Enter the radial velocity of the source relative to the local standard of rest (LSR).
• Input Observer Velocity (VLSR in km/s): default 0 km/s
In many, but not all cases, the default value of zero can be used. However, if the observing wavelength is near a strong narrow telluric feature, the earth's velocity relative to the LSR becomes important, eg. for galactic sources and the [OI] line at 145.525µm. Then either enter the velocity directly or have it computed by entering time, date, source coordinates, and SOFIA's location. The Doppler-shift due to the source's and the observatory's velocity is important to estimate the atmospheric extinction. See also Atmospheric Transmission
• Bandwidth: default 0 km/s
Enter the desired width of the spectrum. The width should allow for sufficient baseline on both sides of the expected line/spectral feature to allow a good estimate of the underlying continuum telluric and astronomical. This value enters the time estimate as the factor l. If the desired spectrum is wider than the instantaneous bandwidth, I is the ratio of the requested width of the spectrum and the bandwidth (Figure 5-3). Otherwise I is equal to 1.
The time estimator calculates the on-source integration time per map position for a source flux, F and a desired SNR using,
where MDF(λ) is either the Minimum Detectable Continuum Flux (MDCF) in Jy per pixel or the Minimum Detectable Line Flux (MDLF) in W m-2 per pixel at the entered wavelength (see Figure 5-4).
Atmospheric Transmission
The factor α is the transmission of the atmosphere for the observing wavelength derived by ATRAN. The on-line time estimator includes a plot of the transmission of the atmosphere at full spectral resolution and smoothed to the spectral resolution of FIFI-LS at the observing wavelength over the bandwidth. Two integration times are calculated using the transmissions from each curve. The value derived from the unsmoothed curve applies to an observation of a very narrow line, while the value from the smoothed curve applies to a continuum source or a line broader than the instrument's spectral resolution. If the atmospheric transmission is smooth near the observing wavelength, the two values will not differ much and the more conservative or appropriate observing time should be chosen. Furthermore, the observing time will not depend strongly on the source velocity. The velocity correction can be rounded to 100km/s and the earth's velocity can be ignored.
However, if there is a telluric feature near the observing wavelength, one has to carefully check the feasibility of the observation (a special warning is displayed if the ratio of the derived observing times exceed 1.5). This usually happens when the observing wavelength is near a strong and narrow atmospheric feature. A typical example is the [OI] line at 145.525µm, which is near a narrow and strong telluric feature at 145.513µm or at -25km/s relative to the [OI] line. In such a case, it is crucial to enter a good estimate of the source velocity accurate to ~1km/s. The source velocity needs to be the combination of the source velocity relative to the LSR or another reference frame and earth's velocity relative to that reference frame, which depends on the observing date and target location. Therefore the time estimator includes a calculator for the earth's velocity relative to the LSR. It may be necessary to add a time constraint for the observation to avoid an adverse earth's velocity relative to the source.
If the observing line is near a strong and narrow telluric feature, not only the observing time estimate needs greater care, but the correction for the atmospheric absorption of an observed line flux will have a large uncertainty. To derive the correction factor, the atmospheric transmission curve would need to be integrated while weighted with the intrinsic line profile of the observed emission line with the correct relative Doppler-shift. In most cases FIFI-LS will not be able to resolve the line profile and cannot resolve the atmospheric feature. Any attempt to correct the measured line flux would depend strongly on assumptions of the source's line shape and position and assumptions of the water vapor content and shape of the telluric feature. In short, expect a large uncertainty of a line flux measured near a strong and narrow telluric feature.
The exposure time estimator returns the on-source exposure time per map position ton. If mapping is planned, this values has to be multiplied with N, the number of map positions, to derive the total on-source observing time. More on mapping can be found in Sect. 5.3.5. The total on-source observing time N x ton has to be entered into SPT during phase I of the proposal process. The overhead depends on the observing mode (Sect. 5.3.5) and gets automatically added by SPT.
Be conservative with the time estimates! Unforeseen issues like thunderstorms or computer crashes may cut the observing time short. Better to aim for 5σ and get a 3σ result, than aim for a 3σ and then wonder, what to do with a 1.8σ signal.
Minimum detectable continuum flux
Minimum detectable line flux
Figure 5-4: Continuum and emission line sensitivities for a monochromatic point source: The values are calculated for a SNR of 4 in 900 s. The MDCF is in Jy per pixel and the MDLF is in Wm-2 per pixel. Both sensitivity values scale as SNR / √(t), where t is the on-source integration time.
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Malcolm X’s Legendary Speech: “The Ballot or the Bullet”
In his speech, The Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm X challenges African Americans to practice black nationalism and become more active in their pursuit of equal rights by means of cooperation or violence.
Born May 19, 1925 Earl and Louise Little had given birth to a baby boy named Malcolm Little, the fourth child of eight, who would later go on to change his last name to X, to symbolize that his true African name had been lost. Malcolm looked highly of his father, … a preacher who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey ( Editors). From his fathers involvement and status in the civil rights activism movements, Malcolm and his family suffered many attacks and threats from white supremacy groups including the Ku Klux Klan. Supremacists burned his home to flames as a child and killed his father, leaving his mother mentally scarred and unstable, which lead to her arrival in an insane asylum, separating her children into foster homes. At the tender age of 13, Malcolm was kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile detention home, later attending Mason Junior High School where he was elected class president by his predominantly white classmates ( Editors). As well as Malcolm did academically in school, it all came to a stop for him when his school teacher told a heart-wrenching comment that would stick with him forever, …his aspirations of being a lawyer were ‘no realistic goal for a nigger’… It made him feel that there was no place in the white world for a career-oriented black man, no matter how smart he was (Rodgers). Malcolm dropped out of school in the eighth grade at the age of 15.
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Jobless, a young Malcolm turned to the criminal underworld, and got involved with drugs and theft, which in turn supported him with a lavish lifestyle, until he was caught at the age of 21 charged with larceny. While in prison, X educated himself by reading every book he could get his hands on, making him even more educated and intelligent than he had already proven to be. His newfound knowledge and frequent visits from siblings lead him to make the decision to convert to the Nation of Islam, like most of his brothers and siblings had already done. Malcolm had soon became a minister of a few temples, and preached to the followers of this religious movement that they had the power to fight off segregationist ideals and form their own independent black nation, with or without violence. Malcolm X repeatedly asserted that, there has never been a nonviolent revolution??¦ imploring Black people to take the fight beyond civil rights and expand it to human rights (Daniels). However, in 1964 Malcolm departed from the Nation of Islam for two main reasons, one being his mentors sins and the other on his response to a touchy subject for the American citizens. Malcolms mentor and friend Elijah Muhammad had been conducting affairs with the Nations secretaries, which went against the beliefs both Malcolm and Muhammad had preached for. Second, Malcolm had been angered by the actions of the Nation, so when asked about the assassination of Americas then president, John F. Kennedy, he spoke his truth with no regards for the reaction of the public. When specifically told not to comment on this subject Malcolm stated, … the infamous ‘Chickens coming home to roost’ Saying America reaped what they sowed (McNeil). He furthermore stated murders of black civil rights activist and leaders implying that his assassination should be treated not differently than these Black activists were mourned, leading to a public outcry from all over America.
Shortly after Malcolms excommunication and departure from the Nation of Islam, he presented America with one of the most influential and diaguinshed speeches in the history of African American civil rights, The Ballot or the Bullet. Malcolm delivered his notorious speech during the current election year between democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and republican Barry M. Goldwater. This was an influential moment in time for this speech to occur, because Malcolm wanted the Black people of America to know that they had a voice and the power to make equality a reality if they banded together to make a political change in the nations system of government. … his target was not to enrage white people in ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’, as it was a message of self-help and personal responsibility toward black men and women (McNeil). In his speech, X covered a wide variety of topics concerning to the Black community including: religion, politics, job creations, voting rights and most importantly, human rights. The main message was that African Americans had a choice to move forward with their future and how it can change, by choosing the Ballot, or the Bullet. The Ballot or the Bullet is a wordplay on the infamous phrase by Patrick Henry, Give me liberty, or give me death in which the Ballot represents America giving Black people equal voting rights and the Bullet representing the violence that would occur in the nation if equality was not granted.
In his speech, Malcolm X used a series of rhetorical devices to better express his opinions and views on the subject. Malcolm’s tone throughout the speech was that of much anger and he criticizes American society. His tone reaches the audience in an inspirational way, as he progressively becomes more outraged and translates that through the audience. His goal of the speech was to expose all of the injustices America and its citizens had been committing toward African Americans. His diction was informal as he projects his speech in a way that would make the audience know he was apart of this injustice and so they would easily understand his mindset for those who were uneducated as well as educated. However, he also incorporates a formality into his speech, using strong vocabulary showing that he was a well-educated man, proving that he is perfectly capable of making a change for human rights. He was emotionally charged and his persuasive language and rhetoric made it compelling for the audience to evoke feelings on the subject of civil rights. Rhetorical questions are said a numerous amount of times to emphasize his point and make the audience question and think about the illogical approaches the government has made progressively for carrying out the Black communities rights. For example, The question tonight, as I understand it, is ‘The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From here?’ or What Next?’ (Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet). While Malcolm uses a series of devices in his speech, the most evident was his use of repetition of the speeches title, The Ballot or the Bullet. He repeatedly quotes this significant phrase, because it stays within the audience’s mind and draws their attention to the focus of the speech time after time. Another important strategy used, was his use of ethos to strategically convince his audience to to agree and understand where he was coming from. His use of ethos can be found in many instances but when he first began his speech he stated this, We all have the same problem. They don’t hang you because you’re a Baptist; They don’t attack me because I’m a Muslim; they attack me cause im black. They attack all of us for the same reason (Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet). Ethos is shown through that specific quote, because he was relating himself to the people he was standing up for, creating a sense of credibility.
On February 21, 1965, almost a year after his monumental speech, Malcolm X was shot down and assassinated by members of The Nation of Islam while he was speaking at a rally in New York City. While Malcolm was alive, many people, outside of his supporters, viewed him as a babble- mouth who preached for violence, but after his death, America started to view his ideologies in a different perspective. The publication of his autobiography skyrocketed and movements were created in honor of his legacy. Malcolm X’s speech is classified as a great American speech because of the way he connected to his audience, expressed his radical ideals, empowered a change in the government, and showed the Black community that they are capable of creating a new future for themselves by any means big or small. His impact on American society and his legacy will forever stay current, to inspire our nation at the lowest times, Because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action”” ( Editors).
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The Twentieth Century: Why Keep Writing?
ENGL 104.601
T 6:30-9:10
This general survey of 20th century American and British literature asks the question: "Why keep writing, in a time of new and seemingly more effective media of communication and expression?" Indeed, what can literature offer that radio, motion pictures, music, telephones, comic books, painting, television, and the Internet cannot? We'll look at literary responses to this flood of competing forms, and concentrate on the new ways twentieth-century writers use language to make literature as compelling as the movies, as personal as the telephone, as urgent, as the news. In looking at how writers adapt to the necessities of the 20th century, we may read works by Virginia Woolf, T.S Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Richard Wright, Robert Frost, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Nathanael West, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsburg, Frank O'Hara, Thomas Pynchon, and Toni Morrison. We'll end the class by thinking about what literature may look like in the 21st century. |
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• Category: Education
Why mangrove forests are important to the ecosystem?
Ever wondered why and how mangrove forests are important to the eco system? Interested in knowing the correct reasons for growing mangrove forests? Check out this page where our ISC experts have answered your queries.
A mangrove commonly refers to two different things. A tidal swamp ecosystem found in tropical deltas, estuaries, lagoons or islands, and the characteristic tree species populating this ecosystem. Mangrove trees have developed unique adaptations to the harsh conditions of coastal environments.
but don't know the exact clarification of why the mangrove forests are important to our ecosystem. can you give me brief information about this?
• Answers
4 Answers found.
• The green bushes, plants and trees present in the tidal region between sea and land are known as mangrove and has an important role in ecosystem. They are found worldwide in many countries which have their boundaries with the open seas and oceans. These plants and bushes have adopted to the difficult and harsh environment which is present in a tidal zone and it is surprising to note that a number of plants, bushes, ferns, trees and other species manage their lives in such an environment and appear lush with the greenery and have a big network of roots below in the water as well as soil below the water.
Though mangroves are found in many countries of the world but they are more abundant in countries like Indonesia and Myanmar. Wide and extensive mangroves are also found in south and central America and west and central Africa, northeast India and northern Australia. It is seen that mangroves are more prolific in areas where delta formation is there from the rivers bringing continuous terrestrial sediments and fresh water along it. That is the ideal environment for the mangrove propagation. Mangroves are important for the ecosystem and have a large contribution to the human habitat and ecology. Some of the highlights are as under.
The wide and large network of the roots of the mangroves help in the stabilisation of coastal land areas and significantly stops their erosion or loss due to the tidal waves from the sea. This provides a type of fencing from the high tides and storms from the sea side especially to the villages or towns which are in the vicinity of the mangroves.
Mangroves have a still bigger role of absorbing some of the nutrients and pollutants from the water which indirectly acts as a cleaner and reduce the sewage and other harmful constituents from the water.
Another great advantage of mangroves is that they are a very good breeding ground for a variety of sea creatures like fishes and crabs which have a great economic value and the coastal dwellers make a living out of that. In Malaysia they are a big source of income generation. The contribution of mangrove for shallow marine life is remarkable.
In many places big trees are present in the mangrove forests which are very valuable and provide timber which is used for making boats, houses, traps, charcoal, firewood etc. There are mangroves which can also be used as animal fodder. Some of the mangrove plants and bushes have medicinal characteristics also.
Knowledge is power.
• A group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone are known as mangroves. They are very important for the ecosystem. These are the only plants and trees which can survive in very difficult conditions and also under saltwater. Mangroves are very important for the ecosystem. They will have a big role to play in the human habitat and ecology. The points are given below.
1. Mangroves prevent and reduce erosion by stabilizing sediments with their root systems. They see that shorelines will never get damaged because of storms and hurricane winds, waves, and floods. Pollutants and sediments will be filtered off and see that the water will be pure.
2. Mangroves will be nursery areas for fish and other seafood. Seafood suffers a decline if they have no access to mangrove habitats.
3. These mangroves protect many threatened and endangered species. Some of these threatened species reside their entire life spans within the mangroves.
4. Many people will be using mangroves as a renewable resource. In these areas used for cultivating durable, water-resistant wood. mangroves will be used in building houses.
always confident
• Mangroves are trees or plants grow in the tidal area in tropics and subtropics like deltas, debouchures, lagoons or islands. They help to keep coastal zones healthy by preventing erosion of land, stabilize shorelines from waves and storms, trap sediment and pollutants from the sea and provide habitat to thousands of species.
Q: Why the mangrove forests are important to our ecosystem?
A: Let me explain in points the importance of mangrove forests to our ecosystem:
i) Maintaining water quality - The mangrove forests through their dense network of roots and surrounding vegetation help to filter and trap sediments, heavy metals, and other pollutants that float and contaminate the waterways thus providing clean and filtered water in the downstream.
ii) Store excess carbon - We know that carbon dioxide is taken by plants during photosynthesis and oxygen is released in the process. This CO2 is stored by plants in leaves, branches and roots by trees and plants and even dried leaves covered in soil when covered in tidal waves release CO2 slowly which results in carbon storage to a significant quantity thus helping to fight climate change.
iii) Add biological diversity - Mangroves are breeding grounds for fish, crab, shrimp, turtle, shellfish, crocodile and many amphibia as well as numerous species of fish. They are also the nesting place for migratory birds and other endangered species.
iv) Source of Livelihood for many - Many local communities like fishermen and farmers uses mangroves to catch fishes, shells, crabs and farmers depend on the natural environment to farm and provide for their families. Nearly 60% - 80% of the global fish catch depends on mangrove forests.
v) Natural protection to land - Mangroves stabilize heavy waves at the shorelines, slow down the land erosion from the storm, floods, hurricanes from the frequent weather and climate change.
vi) Materials for human use - The mangroves provide a direct product like wood for construction and burning and other produce like fruit, honey, vinegar, salt, or cooking oil. The other part of trees can be used to manufacture synthetic fibers, corks and floats, cosmetics, dyes, soap alternatives, etc. It is also breeding ground for a wide range of fish larvae and other species when grown can be used by humans as food or other purposes.
• Mangroves are the most important part of the echo system though its value is least noticeable initially. It is a type of echo tone signifying an intermediate part of land form which lies between two dominant land forms. These are the wet lands lying between land and sea. Whenever, there is an intermediate land form, diversity of spices will be amazingly high. These spices in such land form will be unique to the ecosystem.
The mangroves will support the vast range of spices from microorganism to the Royal Bengal Tiger. It may be categorised as a special type of echo system containing loosely packed sediments having constant influence of tides and have high salinity as compared to the river - water.
Take the example of corals. These are very sensitive organisms and can live only in clean salt water having the moderate temperature. When a river mixes with a sea at its mouth, it would deposit tonnes of sediments into the sea but these corals cannot survive in the turbid muddy water.
The role of the mangroves is to filter the river - water and take up all sediments leaving only water to mix with the sea. Whenever a river crosses the mangroves, the mangroves reduce the freshness of of the river water making it salty. Thus there were not the sudden formation of mixture of fresh water into the sea. Thus in this process coral has played a role of rescuing part.
Mangroves act as breeding ground for the sea fishes. Small fishes need to be protected from the bigger ones. The sea - fishes approach the places and lay eggs between the mangroves and leaves. During the process, the organic matters are consumed by small worms and again worms are consumed by the fish hatchlings.
Thus it serves as the basic unit in maintaining the fish - population in the sea. Mangroves can act as reservoirs containing more carbon than terrestrial plants.
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My Super Cells
What is Molecular Hydrogen?
What is Molecular Hydrogen?
Molecular hydrogen could be the future in terms of health regimen, overall wellness, management of pain and inflammation, and longevity. So, what actually is molecular hydrogen? Hydrogen is the smallest and most abundant element in the Universe. Everything has a relationship to hydrogen. In fact, hydrogen forms 90% of all atoms in the cosmos and our sun is made up of 72% hydrogen. The magnitude of this seems scary, however as hydrogen is a naturally forming part of each and every one of us, there is no reason to fear it.
Hydrogen (symbol H) likes to hang out in pairs, hence the H2. It’s called ‘molecular hydrogen’ because a set of two or more atoms is called a ‘molecule’. Hydrogen could actually be called the ‘miracle molecule’. Well, that’s what science is pointing to!
There are more than 700 scientific studies that display hydrogen’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-ageing and anti-obesity effects, with no known side effects. Hydrogen has been shown to have marked therapeutic effect across 170 disease models and every organ in the human body!
Hydrogen is the best of all antioxidants, helping to prevent cell damage and inflammation, whilst protecting DNA. Hydrogen can be likened to fuel for your cells, helping to create more energy in the mitochondria, the energy production centre of the body.
Being so small (90 times smaller than Vitamin C molecule and even smaller than oxygen), hydrogen can pass the blood brain barrier and go straight through the cell wall, eradicating toxic free radicals and healing where it is most effective. No other antioxidant can do this and that’s why hydrogen is so amazing in achieving such outstanding results across practically every ailment and disease model.
The reason molecular hydrogen is causing such a stir in the medical industry
, is that it scavenges the harmful free radicals and selectively leaves the beneficial ones to do their job. It is the only antioxidant that has the ability to do so. Furthermore, when molecular hydrogen neutralises the harmful free radicals, it simply reacts with them to form water and hydrates you in the process.
The benefits of supplementing with molecular hydrogen are numerous and can in
fact be life-changing. Science has proven that molecular hydrogen has a marked therapeutic effect across many illnesses including rheumatoid arthritis, allergies,diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and Alzheimer’s.
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Liquid Oxygen
Liquid Oxygen
It’s very easy to take oxygen for granted. We breathe it automatically to live and when we stop breathing it, we die. Oxygen is important because it is the key element responsible for the healthy life and activity of all cells. When you realise all the key roles oxygen plays in the way your body functions, it becomes clear that the little O2 molecule is the most important nutrient we consume.
Your brain requires 25% of your body’s total oxygen supply, otherwise your brain function is affected. After our twenties, we lose the ability to carry oxygen in our body by about 1% per year, which contributes to ill health and the effects of ageing.
In 1931, biochemist Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work around oxygen- deprived cells. He stated that “all normal cells have an absolute requirement for oxygen, but cancer cells can live without oxygen – a rule without exception. Deprive a cell 35% of its oxygen for 48 hours and it may become cancerous.” Dr. Warburg claimed that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency, which creates an acidic state in the human body. Dr Warburg also discovered that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state
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Complex Minerals
We believe it’s possible to create cellular health that defies genetic disposition and unlocks the potential of every human being. Our mission is to meet people at their current health baseline and propel them to a superior level, across all aspects of their life.
We believe that health begins and ends at the cellular level. We all started out as a single cell and now each of us is a multi-trillion cell organism. We are a community of cells acting together in a way that is unique and different from everyone else.
It all comes down to the cell and keeping it healthy, so we can live life to its full potential.
We can’t choose your lifestyle for you, however, what we can do is provide you with a choice of products that support your cells in every way and help them to thrive better than they would have otherwise.
We welcome you to join us in making health simple again.
So simple, it all starts with a single cell.
Complex Minerals
There’s a saying “you are what you eat”,
however A few decades ago it was easy for people to get trace minerals simply through their diet. Many people grew their own crops organically and had a variety of
it should probably be “you are what you absorb”. Even if you’re eating a healthy diet, if your cells fail to absorb the nutrients, they simply pass through you.
cropsin the same ground, which helped the soil to stay balanced.
Today, it’s almost impossible to get all the trace minerals you need from diet alone. This is because commercial farming techniques are extremely harsh on soil. Individual crops are planted on thousands of acres of land at a time, with no other crops mixed in. This lack of biodiversity leaches the ground of specific minerals that never get replaced.
Furthermore, most farmland is farmed year after year, without a break. This prevents the land from “resting” and allowing nature to replenish the soil. Many crops are sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides, which seep into the ground and poison the food we eat.
Because farmland is overused and under-rested, the fruits and vegetables we eat today don’t have the same nutritional value as they used to have 60 years ago. For example, studies have shown a single bowl of spinach in the 1950’s would have had the nutrient equivalent of eating 42 bowls of spinach today. An orange back then was equivalent to 9 oranges today. You’d need to eat 6-12 apples today to get the same nutrient value as 1 apple in that era. Therefore, your body is in a perpetual state of starvation, which is why people eat so much and are never really satisfied. Food will never be enough again.
The thing we’re missing the most makes up a huge component of the periodic table, which of course makes up nature. Your body is a masterpiece formed from the same elements that comprise the entire Universe. As such, it’s important to constantly replenish your body with the elements it expends on a daily basis.
Vitamins control the body’s appropriation of minerals,
however if you are lacking minerals, vitamins are useless. There are two groups of minerals – macro and trace.
Macro minerals are needed in larger amounts and include calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and phosphorus. Trace minerals such as zinc, boron, iron, chromium, selenium and iodine are needed in minute amounts but are essential to good health. For instance, boron is needed for calcium uptake and to prevent arthritis, iodine helps to metabolise excess fat and is needed for a healthy thyroid gland, chromium is involved in the metabolism of glucose, iron is needed for healthy blood, sulfur for muscles, zinc for immune system and chromium for a healthy metabolism. Unfortunately we’ve destroyed them in the soils and now its estimated around 90% of people are deficient in these minerals, which can’t be made by the body.
Poor diets filled with overly refined and nutrient-deficient foods, stress, over- exercise and reduced absorption are all weakening our immune systems and making us more vulnerable to infections and diseases.
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Ayurveda- The ancient Indian medicine methodology to treat several disorders. How Ayurveda acclimates into the modern sciences. Pros and Cons of Ayurveda.
Ayurveda or Ayurved is an ancient system of treatment discovered in India and has been in practice ever since. The methods of Ayurveda deal in natural sciences incorporating non-medicinal ways and remedies to upkeep our health. Different Ayurvedic products are now a part of our everyday life in the form of natural, compositions, medicines and herbs.
Many scholars consider Ayurveda as the oldest healing science that has been in practice for over 5000 years ago. History and effects of Ayurveda in modern age earn this science the title of “Mother of all Healing.” Ayurveda sprouts from the ancient Vedic culture and has been taught through practical and oral methods to practitioners.
Though this branch of science is vast, some of it is still inaccessible in the modern age. Ayurveda, as a healing science, focuses on the prevention of diseases and encouraging healthy practices to bring a perfect balance to life through the use of herbs. Ayurveda is the powerful science to help us understand how to balance up the body, mind, and consciousness.
Since the ancient times, many infectious ailments have been treated through Ayurveda, which is now scientifically proven. You can find a wide range of Ayurvedic products and supplies in your locality and use it per your requirement. Some herbal products are commonly used to treat chronic diseases, infections, and disorders that work on your skin, hair, and nervous system to the digestive system. This section introspects proven benefits/advantages and possible disadvantages/side effects of different methods of Ayurveda. |
The Boys who Challenged Hitler
By Zach
Character Traits: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill club
The Churchill club disrupted the Nazi occupation by destroying vehicles and plans with their leader Knud Pedersen. In the story The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, Knud Pedersen is the protagonist. He is the leader and makes everyone do work for the Churchill club,the teenagers Resistence club. Knud Pederson is inclusive because he always lets people into his club to help the fight against Hitler. “The Churchill Club expanded into a force with nearly twenty members, active and passive.” (pg53). This mean that Knud Pedersen let other people know about his secret club and let them join the fight against Germany.
Turning Points: The Churchill Club Rebellion
Spotlight On History:The Nazi's Occupation
The Denmark government helped the Nazi occupation. “The king Christian the 5th took a horseback ride through the streets, saluted by both the Danish citizens and the German soldiers he passed.”(pg45). This passage shows how the King liked both the Germans and the Denmark people. There were some Demmark people who liked the Nazi’s (usaully shop keepers to get money from them.) “Some Danish manufacturers collaborates with their “protectors” by making weapons and parts to facilitate German war plans.” (pg39). The Denmark manufacturer helped the Germans make guns. Some people also didn’t like the Nazi’s. “On signal a third tossed a lit match into each cabin and we tore out of there as fast as we could.” (Pg46) That showed when the Churchill club boys blew up three trucks.
Book Summary: The Churchill Club
The Boys
Who Challenged Hitler, by Phillip Hoose, is a really inspiring book. It is inspiring that kids who wanted their freedom back would do these kind of heroic acts. The book takes place in Denmark. Knud Pedersen is the protagonist and main character of the story. Knud is also the leader of the Churchill Club, the boys activists club. Other key characters are Jens Pedersen and Hans Jorgen, but there were other less important characters. They are all part of the Churchill Club.
Knud Pedersen went through many troubles in his lifetime. Knud pedersen goes character vs character conflict in the story as he fights with many German officials. He helps his country by doing anything He can to disrupt the occupation. He risks his life many times to help his country and his fellow club members. When he destroys and steals things from the Germans he witnesses character vs character conflict.
Knud and the Churchill club helped Denmark take back their country.
The boys blew up cars and stole guns and ammunition to mess with the German army. They stole and destroy these things because of their hatred for the Nazi’s taking over there country. After a couple of months of their disruptive behavior, the boys were caught and brought to jail. All the boys had different sentences, Knud and Jens though, had the longest at 2 years. After they were released in 1944 they stop their acts and became civilized. When the war ended in 1945, the boys were recognized for their heroism in the fight against Germany.
The Story's Place in Time
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Cells Analogy Project
By Om Patel. Dallas Analogy
A spherical and rod shaped organelles with a double membrane. Like the cowboys stadium is round and on the inside it's spherical on the bleachers.
Is where most of the cells nutrients take place. Food courts provide food for humans and go to cells for nutrients.
Golgi Body
A flattened layer sac-like organelles that looks like a stack pancakes. Like the football field in the Dallas cowboys stadium.
The cytoplasm is the jellylike platform in which the organelles are located. In the cowboys stadium
The centrosome is close to the nucules and has a dense structure. The football field has a dense structure.
Big image
Is the jellylike material outside the cells nucleus in which organelles are located. In the cowboys stadium the furniture in the suites room are smooth like jelly. |
Expired News - 10 common outdoor plants that can be toxic to your pets - The Weather Network
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10 common outdoor plants that can be toxic to your pets
Cheryl Santa Maria
Digital Reporter
Friday, May 20, 2016, 3:00 AM - Warmer weather is making its way across Canada, and that means pets -- and their pet owners -- will be spending more time outdoors.
While there's nothing wrong with a little fresh air, there are some things to keep in mind.
Animals are curious by nature and many like to sniff and nibble on everything they come across.
Here are 10 common outdoor plants you'll want to steer your furry friends away from.
If your pet has ingested a toxic plant or you suspect you pet has come into contact with a poisonous plant, take the animal to a vetrinarian immediately. The sooner possible poisoning is identified and treated, the better your pet's chances for a speedy recovery.
Ingesting an azalea can cause serious health problems in pets. Eating just a few leaves can lead to vomiting, diarrhea and drooling. If not treated by a veterinarian, an animal could fall into a coma, possibly leading to death.
Some types of lilies -- like the peace, Peruvian and calla lily will do nothing more than irritate the mouth, tongue and esophagus if ingested.
Other types of lilies, like the day (pictured above), day, Asiatic, Easter and Japanese show varieties can result in kidney failure in cats. Between 2 and 3 petals or leaves is enough to cause serious issues. (Editor's note: A previous version of this article referred to the day lily as a tiger lily. It has since been corrected).
Daffodils aren't just toxic to animals -- they can cause upset in humans, too.
The flowers contain an alkaloid called lycorine, which is known to induce vomiting.
Ingesting an entire bulb can cause stomach upset, diarrhea, as well as heart and respiratory issues.
Tulip bulbs are more toxic than the actual flower and its leaves.
They can cause stomach upset, with the severity depending on how much is eaten.
This tiny flower is toxic to cats, dogs, horses and cows.
While it generally doesn't cause serious issues (vomiting, drooling and stomach upset are the most common side effects) it can, it rare instances, result in paralysis.
While pretty to look at, try to keep your cats and dogs away from gladiolas.
If ingested, drooling, lethargy and stomach upset are possible.
The effects of morning glories can be mild to moderate for cats and dogs, depending on how much they eat.
Symptoms include: Stomach upset, anemia and, in some cases, liver failure.
Cats and dogs can experience drooling, skin irritation, slowed heart rate and pupil dilation if they get too close to a poppy.
Chives are a staple in many herb gardens, and animals seem to flock to it, often mistaking it for grass.
This plant, along with onion, garlic and leek, is part of the allium family and it's toxic to both cats and dogs. Akita and shibu inu dogs, along with cats, seem to be most susceptible.
Abdominal pain can be an issue, along with an elevated heart rate, weakness, and an increased respiratory rate. It could take several days before symptoms are apparent.
Dogs and cats that dine on hydrangeas can experience lethargy, vomiting and diarrhea.
Related: Toxic creatures in Canada
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AI News, One-Step Optogenetics for Hacking the Nervous System
One-Step Optogenetics for Hacking the Nervous System
German and Swiss researchers four years ago developed an all-in-one optogenetics probe, and published a report onit in the journalLab on a Chip.But that design hasn’t been adopted by many optogenetics research labs.
A Better Way to Probe the Brain
The brain is often described as the most complex structure known: a multitude of cells, joined into networks and abuzz with electrical and chemical activity.
Though her lab is less than four years old, prominent journals have published a string of her group’s papers demonstrating new technologies, including thin, flexible polymer-fiber probes for stimulating and recording activity from neurons, as well as magnetic nanoparticles that could be used to stimulate them with no wires at all.
She began her doctoral research in 2004 in the lab of Vladimir Bulović, then an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who was developing new electronic and optical devices using nanotechnology.
But “before I would arrogantly go and try to solve problems that I didn’t know existed,” she says, “I decided that I needed to actually spend some time in a biological environment.” That decision led her to Karl Deisseroth’s neuroscience lab at Stanford University.
“It’s something that I have some chance of understanding.” Deisseroth’s group needed hardware to send light into specific areas of mouse brains while also taking electrical recordings from the illuminated cells.
They were too large and too bulky and didn’t have enough capability.” The biologists Anikeeva worked with were manipulating individual wires under microscopes, a far cry from sophisticated fabrication techniques used in the electronics industry.
better hammerIn a basement lab at MIT, Andres Canales, SM ’13, a PhD student in Anikeeva’s group, is watching a physical transformation take place: a cylinder of polymers and metal is being slowly melted and pulled into a long, vermicelli-like wire from a tall tower in one corner of the room.
One reason Anikeeva was keen to return to MIT was to work with Yoel Fink, the director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics and a leading innovator in this technique of fiber drawing, in which materials are assembled together, heated, and pulled like taffy into ultrathin fibers that preserve the original structure and functionality.
Thanks to this collaboration, her team has incorporated optical waveguides, electrodes, and drug delivery channels into a single fiber that can be as thin as a human hair and flexible enough to wrap around a finger.
With a thin, multifunctional device, he says, “you can have all the capability with minimal perturbation or damage to the brain tissues.” The devices can also be used in the spinal cord, which is challenging to access and requires a flexible device because it is often moving and stretching.
Although electrical stimulation of the spinal cord can evoke movement in paralyzed animals and has been used clinically in humans with modest results, Chet Moritz, a professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, says that optical stimulation could allow more precise control of specific cells.
“With optogenetics, you can have fairly high confidence that you are activating a specific circuit.” Moritz works on stimulating the upper spinal cord—ultimately in order to restore movements like reaching and grasping, which require more finesse than walking.
In a recent paper in , her group demonstrated a technique that uses magnetic fields and injected nanoparticles to activate cells deep within the brains of mice.
The particles are made from iron oxide (commonly used as a contrast agent in MRIs) and coated in polymers to keep the body’s immune system from whisking them away.
And while this study used genetic engineering to get a heat-sensitive protein into mouse cells, she says that TRPV1 is prevalent in the human brain, so such tinkering may not be necessary to use the technique in humans.
She envisions using soft polymer probes to precisely map the brain, or to deliver a drug or optical stimulation and then monitor its effect on cell activity.
To better understand neuromuscular diseases and how the body recovers from spinal cord injuries, scientists require tools that can record and modulate neural activity in the spine during normal movement.
Described recently in Science Advances, the probes, made of thermally drawn elastomer fibers coated with a mesh of silver nanowires, could accurately record the neural activity in the spines of freely moving mice and elicit leg movements in anesthetized mice through optical impulses.
“We now have a stretchable optoelectronic fiber, which is able to perform chronic probing and interrogation in spinal cord circuits in a freely moving subject,” says study lead author Polina Anikeeva, an MIT materials scientist.
Being able to record neural activity in the spine during optical or electrical stimulation could allow scientists to discover neural pathways important for recovery from spinal cord injuries, which frequently cause loss of organ function or voluntary limb control.
Naturally, the rubber-like properties of elastomers make them the perfect material to turn into fibers for the spinal cord, but elastomers are not suitable for the thermal fiber drawing technique, which involves heating and pulling the material through a furnace.
To provide the fibers with electrical connections for electrical stimulation and monitoring, the team deposited uniform 1-mm-thick conductive mesh layers of silver nanowires using dip coating.
Seung Hwan Ko, a materials scientist at Seoul National University, said the work was “very interesting and somewhat exciting,” adding that the difficulty in making stretchable optoelectronic stimulators lies mainly in finding highly stretchable materials that are good electrical conductors.
“The authors showed a very smart way to combine a highly stretchable optical stimulator and a highly stretchable metal electrode in a highly stretchable fiber form,” says Ko, who was not involved in the study.
The earliest genetically targeted method that used light to control rhodopsin-sensitized neurons was reported in January 2002, by Boris Zemelman (now at UT Austin) and Gero Miesenböck, who employed Drosophila rhodopsin cultured mammalian neurons.[8] In 2003, Zemelman and Miesenböck developed a second method for light-dependent activation of neurons in which single inotropic channels TRPV1, TRPM8 and P2X2 were gated by photocaged ligands in response to light.[9] Beginning in 2004, the Kramer and Isacoff groups developed organic photoswitches or 'reversibly caged' compounds in collaboration with the Trauner group that could interact with genetically introduced ion channels.[10][11] TRPV1 methodology, albeit without the illumination trigger, was subsequently used by several laboratories to alter feeding, locomotion and behavioral resilience in laboratory animals.[12][13] [14] However, light-based approaches for altering neuronal activity were not applied outside the original laboratories, likely because the easier to employ channelrhodopsin was cloned soon thereafter.[15] Peter Hegemann, studying the light response of green algae at the University of Regensbug, had discovered photocurrents that were too fast to be explained by the classic g-protein-coupled animal rhodopsins.[16] Teaming up with the electrophysiologist Georg Nagel at the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt, they could demonstrate that a single gene from the alga Chlamydomonas produced large photocurents when expressed in the oocyte of a frog.[17] To identify expressing cells, they replaced the cytoplasmic tail of the algal protein with the fluorescent protein YFP, generating the first generally applicable optogenetic tool.[15] Zhuo-Hua Pan of Wayne State University, researching on restore sight to blindness, thought about using channelrhodopsin when it came out in late 2003.
In August 2005, Karl Deisseroth's laboratory in the Bioengineering Department at Stanford including graduate students Ed Boyden and Feng Zhang (both now at MIT) published the first demonstration of a single-component optogenetic system in cultured mammalian neurons,[20][21] using the channelrhodopsin-2(H134R)-eYFP construct from Nagel and Hegemann.[15] The groups of Gottschalk and Nagel were first to use Channelrhodopsin-2 for controlling neuronal activity in an intact animal, showing that motor patterns in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans could be evoked by light stimulation of genetically selected neural circuits (published in December 2005).[22] In mice, controlled expression of optogenetic tools is often achieved with cell-type-specific Cre/loxP methods developed for neuroscience by Joe Z.
An example of this is voltage-sensitive fluorescent protein (VSFP2).[37] Additionally, beyond its scientific impact optogenetics represents an important case study in the value of both ecological conservation (as many of the key tools of optogenetics arise from microbial organisms occupying specialized environmental niches), and in the importance of pure basic science as these opsins were studied over decades for their own sake by biophysicists and microbiologists, without involving consideration of their potential value in delivering insights into neuroscience and neuropsychiatric disease.[38] Light-Activated Proteins: Channels, pumps and enzymes The hallmark of optogenetics therefore is introduction of fast light-activated channels, pumps, and enzymes that allow temporally precise manipulation of electrical and biochemical events while maintaining cell-type resolution through the use of specific targeting mechanisms.
Building on prior work fusing vertebrate opsins to specific G-protein coupled receptors[42] a family of chimeric single-component optogenetic tools was created that allowed researchers to manipulate within behaving mammals the concentration of defined intracellular messengers such as cAMP and IP3 in targeted cells.[43] Other biochemical approaches to optogenetics (crucially, with tools that displayed low activity in the dark) followed soon thereafter, when optical control over small GTPases and adenylyl cyclases was achieved in cultured cells using novel strategies from several different laboratories.[44][45][46][47][48] This emerging repertoire of optogenetic probes now allows cell-type-specific and temporally precise control of multiple axes of cellular function within intact animals.[49] Hardware for Light Application Another necessary factor is hardware (e.g.
Most commonly, the latter is now achieved using the fiberoptic-coupled diode technology introduced in 2007,[50][51][52] though to avoid use of implanted electrodes, researchers have engineered ways to inscribe a 'window' made of zirconia that has been modified to be transparent and implanted in mice skulls, to allow optical waves to penetrate more deeply to stimulate or inhibit individual neurons.[53] To stimulate superficial brain areas such as the cerebral cortex, optical fibers or LEDs can be directly mounted to the skull of the animal.
Longer photostimulation of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb led to observations of longer lasting neuronal activity in the region after the photostimulation had ceased, meaning the olfactory sensory system is able to undergo long term changes and recognize differences between old and new odors.[76] Optogenetics, freely moving mammalian behavior, in vivo electrophysiology, and slice physiology have been integrated to probe the cholinergic interneurons of the nucleus accumbens by direct excitation or inhibition.
The few cholinergic neurons present in the nucleus accumbens may prove viable targets for pharmacotherapy in the treatment of cocaine dependence[41] In vivo and in vitro recordings (by the Cooper laboratory) of individual CAMKII AAV-ChR2 expressing pyramidal neurons within the prefrontal cortex demonstrated high fidelity action potential output with short pulses of blue light at 20 Hz (Figure 1).[34] The same group recorded complete green light-induced silencing of spontaneous activity in the same prefrontal cortical neuronal population expressing an AAV-NpHR vector (Figure 2).[34] Optogenetics was applied on atrial cardiomyocytes to end spiral wave arrhythmias, found to occur in atrial fibrillation, with light.[78] This method is still in the development stage.
In addition, this approach has been applied in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) as a new biological pacemaker as a substitute for electrode based-CRT.[79] Lately, optogenetics has been used in the heart to defibrillate ventricular arrhythmias with local epicardial illumination,[80] a generalized whole heart illumination[81] or with customized stimulation patterns based on arrhythmogenic mechanisms in order to lower defibrillation energy.[82] Optogenetic stimulation of the spiral ganglion in deaf mice restored auditory activity.[83] Optogenetic application onto the cochlear region allows for the stimulation or inhibition of the spiral ganglion cells (SGN).
Moreover, this technique has been shown to extend outside neurons to an increasing number of proteins and cellular functions.[58] Cellular scale modifications including manipulation of contractile forces relevant to cell migration, cell division and wound healing have been optogenetically manipulated.[88] The field has not developed to the point where processes crucial to cellular and developmental biology and cell signaling including protein localization, post-translational modification and GTP loading can be consistently controlled via optogenetics.[58] While this extension of optogenetics remains to be further investigated, there are various conceptual methodologies that may prove to immediately robust.
There is a considerable body of literature outlining photosensitive proteins that have been utilized in cell signaling pathways.[58] CRY2, LOV, DRONPA and PHYB are photosynthetic proteins involved in inducible protein association whereby activation via light can induce/turn off a signaling cascade via recruitment of a signaling domain to its respective substrate.[89][90][91][92] LOV and PHYB are photosensitive proteins that engage in homodimerization and/or heterodimerization to recruit some DNA-modifying protein, translocate to the site of DNA and alter gene expression levels.[93][94][95] CRY2, a protein that inherently clusters when active, has been fused with signaling domains and subsequently photoactivated allowing for clustering-based activation.[96] Proteins LOV and Dronpa have also been adapted to cell signaling manipulation;
treating PC12 cells with epidermal growth factor (inducing a transient profile of ERK activity) leads to cellular proliferation whereas introduction of nerve growth factor (inducing a sustained profile of ERK activity) is associated with a different cellular decision whereby the PC12 cells differentiate into neuron-like cells.[102] This discovery was guided pharmacologically but the finding was replicated utilizing optogenetic inputs instead.[103] This ability to optogenetically control signals for various time durations is being explored to elucidate various cell signaling pathways where there is not a strong enough understanding to utilize either drug/genetic manipulation.[58]
Implantable devices for optogenetic studies and stimulation of excitable tissue
The paper deals with the currently available implants used in optogenetic experiments on laboratory animals in vivo.
The device can be used in medical diagnostics, prosthetics, myostimulation, neurostimulation and cardioacceleration, for instance, at neurological and rehabilitation medical institutions.
It is necessary to provide a point generation and layer-by-layer scanning of excitation pulse through integration of individual microelectrode arrays into a single test-system. |
Battle of the Bulge explained
Conflict:Battle of the Bulge
Partof:the Western Front of World War II
Date:16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945
Place:The Ardennes: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany
Result:Allied victory
• Western Allied offensive plans delayed by five or six weeks.
• German offensive exhausts their resources on the Western Front.
• German collapse opens way for the Allies to ultimately break the Siegfried Line.
• Soviet offensive in Poland launched on 12 January 1945, eight days earlier than originally intended.
Units1: 12th Army Group:
6th Army Group:
21st Army Group:
Units2: Army Group B:
Casualties3:Approximately 3,000 civilians killed
The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and, later, Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement) also sustained heavy losses. The Germans had attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, and in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant, being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944.[1] [2] [3] Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. On 26 December the lead element of Patton's U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south, ending the siege. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line.
The Germans' initial attack involved 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; 1,600 anti-tank guns; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles (AFVs). These were reinforced a couple of weeks later, bringing the offensive's total strength to around 450,000 troops, and 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. For the Americans, out of a peak of 610,000 troops, 89,000 became casualties out of which some 19,000 were killed. The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II[4] and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.
After the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than anticipated. The Allies were faced with several military logistics issues:
General Dwight D. Eisenhower (the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front) and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region which was occupied by the U.S. First Army. The Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain (a densely wooded highland with deep river valleys and a rather thin road network) and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They also had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as a rest-and-refit area for its troops.[5]
Allied supply issues
The speed of the Allied advance coupled with an initial lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems. Over-the-beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas, and direct landing ships on the beaches, were unable to meet operational needs. The only deep-water port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg on the northern shore of the Cotentin peninsula and west of the original invasion beaches, but the Germans had thoroughly wrecked and mined the harbor before it could be taken. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. The Allies captured the port of Antwerp intact in the first days of September, but it was not operational until 28 November. The estuary of the Schelde river, that controlled access to the port, had to be cleared of both German troops and naval mines. These limitations led to differences between General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, over whether Montgomery or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the U.S. 12th Army Group, in the south would get priority access to supplies. German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast until the end of the war in May 1945.
The Allies' efforts to destroy the French railway system prior to D-Day were successful. This destruction hampered the German response to the invasion, but it proved equally hampering to the Allies, as it took time to repair the rail network's tracks and bridges. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. By early October, the Allies had suspended major offensives to improve their supply lines and supply availability at the front.
Montgomery and Bradley both pressed for priority delivery of supplies to their respective armies so they could continue their individual lines of advance and maintain pressure on the Germans, while Eisenhower preferred a broad-front strategy. He gave some priority to Montgomery's northern forces. This had the short-term goal of opening the urgently needed port of Antwerp and the long-term goal of capturing the Ruhr area, the biggest industrial area of Germany. With the Allies stalled, German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Gerd von Rundstedt was able to reorganize the disrupted German armies into a coherent defensive force.
Field Marshal Montgomery's Operation Market Garden achieved only some of its objectives, while its territorial gains left the Allied supply situation stretched further than before. In October, the First Canadian Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt, opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. As a result, by the end of October, the supply situation had eased somewhat.
German plans
Despite a lull along the front after the Scheldt battles, the German situation remained dire. While operations continued in the autumn, notably the Lorraine Campaign, the Battle of Aachen and fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, the strategic situation in the west had changed little. The Allies were slowly pushing towards Germany, but no decisive breakthrough was achieved. The Western Allies already had 96 divisions at or near the front, with an estimated ten more divisions en route from the United Kingdom. Additional Allied airborne units remained in England. The Germans could field a total of 55 understrength divisions.
Adolf Hitler first officially outlined his surprise counter-offensive to his astonished generals on September 16, 1944. The assault's ambitious goal was to pierce the thinly held lines of the U.S. First Army between Monschau and Wasserbillig with Army Group B (Model) by the end of the first day, get the armor through the Ardennes by the end of the second day, reach the Meuse between Liège and Dinant by the third day, and seize Antwerp and the western bank of the Scheldt estuary by the fourth day.[6]
Hitler initially promised his generals a total of 18 infantry and 12 armored or mechanized divisions "for planning purposes." The plan was to pull 13 infantry divisions, two parachute divisions and six panzer-type divisions from the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht combined German military strategic reserve. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets' Operation Bagration during the summer had destroyed much of Germany's Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte). The extremely swift operation ended only when the advancing Soviet Red Army forces outran their supplies. By November, it was clear that Soviet forces were preparing for a winter offensive.
Meanwhile, the Allied air offensive of early 1944 had effectively grounded the Luftwaffe, leaving the German Army with little battlefield intelligence and no way to interdict Allied supplies. The converse was equally damaging; daytime movement of German forces was rapidly noticed, and interdiction of supplies combined with the bombing of the Romanian oil fields starved Germany of oil and gasoline. This fuel shortage intensified after the Soviets overran those fields in the course of their August 1944 Jassy-Kishinev Offensive.
One of the few advantages held by the German forces in November 1944 was that they were no longer defending all of Western Europe. Their front lines in the west had been considerably shortened by the Allied offensive and were much closer to the German heartland. This drastically reduced their supply problems despite Allied control of the air. Additionally, their extensive telephone and telegraph network meant that radios were no longer necessary for communications, which lessened the effectiveness of Allied Ultra intercepts. Nevertheless, some 40–50 messages per day were decrypted by Ultra. They recorded the quadrupling of German fighter forces and a term used in an intercepted Luftwaffe message—Jägeraufmarsch (literally "Hunter Deployment")—implied preparation for an offensive operation. Ultra also picked up communiqués regarding extensive rail and road movements in the region, as well as orders that movements should be made on time.
Drafting the offensive
Hitler felt that his mobile reserves allowed him to mount one major offensive. Although he realized nothing significant could be accomplished in the Eastern Front, he still believed an offensive against the Western Allies, whom he considered militarily inferior to the Red Army, would have some chances of success. Hitler believed he could split the Allied forces and compel the Americans and British to settle for a separate peace, independent of the Soviet Union. Success in the west would give the Germans time to design and produce more advanced weapons (such as jet aircraft, new U-boat designs and super-heavy tanks) and permit the concentration of forces in the east. After the war ended, this assessment was generally viewed as unrealistic, given Allied air superiority throughout Europe and their ability to continually disrupt German offensive operations.
Given the reduced manpower of their land forces at the time, the Germans believed the best way to seize the initiative would be to attack in the West against the smaller Allied forces rather than against the vast Soviet armies. Even the encirclement and destruction of multiple Soviet armies, as in 1941, would still have left the Soviets with a numerical superiority.
Hitler's plan called for a Blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes, mirroring the successful German offensive there during the Battle of France in 1940—aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.—British lines and capturing Antwerp.[7] The plan banked on unfavorable weather, including heavy fog and low-lying clouds, which would minimize the Allied air advantage. Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before the anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive. The disputes between Montgomery and Bradley were well known, and Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity. If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four complete armies would be trapped without supplies behind German lines.[7]
Several senior German military officers, including Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model and Gerd von Rundstedt, expressed concern as to whether the goals of the offensive could be realized. Model and von Rundstedt both believed aiming for Antwerp was too ambitious, given Germany's scarce resources in late 1944. At the same time, they felt that maintaining a purely defensive posture (as had been the case since Normandy) would only delay defeat, not avert it. They thus developed alternative, less ambitious plans that did not aim to cross the Meuse River (in German and Dutch: Maas); Model's being Unternehmen Herbstnebel (Operation Autumn Mist) and von Rundstedt's Fall Martin ("Plan Martin"). The two field marshals combined their plans to present a joint "small solution" to Hitler. When they offered their alternative plans, Hitler would not listen. Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking."[7]
Model, commander of German Army Group B (Heeresgruppe B), and von Rundstedt, overall commander of the German Army Command in the West (OB West), were put in charge of carrying out the operation.
Operation names
The Wehrmachts code name for the offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), after the German patriotic hymn Die Wacht am Rhein, a name that deceptively implied the Germans would be adopting a defensive posture along the Western Front. The Germans also referred to it as "Ardennenoffensive" (Ardennes Offensive) and Rundstedt-Offensive, both names being generally used nowadays in modern Germany. The French (and Belgian) name for the operation is Bataille des Ardennes (Battle of the Ardennes). The battle was militarily defined by the Allies as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, which included the German drive and the American effort to contain and later defeat it. The phrase Battle of the Bulge was coined by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps.
While the Ardennes Counteroffensive is the correct term in Allied military language, the official Ardennes-Alsace campaign reached beyond the Ardennes battle region, and the most popular description in English speaking countries remains simply the Battle of the Bulge.
See main article: Wehrmacht forces for the Ardennes Offensive.
See also: Battle of the Bulge order of battle.
Four armies were selected for the operation. Adolf Hitler personally selected for the counter-offensive on the northern shoulder of the western front the best troops available and officers he trusted. The lead role in the attack was given to 6th Panzer Army, commanded by SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich. It included the most experienced formation of the Waffen-SS: the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. It also contained the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. They were given priority for supply and equipment and assigned the shortest route to the primary objective of the offensive, Antwerp, starting from the northernmost point on the intended battlefront, nearest the important road network hub of Monschau.[9]
The Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel was assigned to the middle sector with the objective of capturing Brussels. The Seventh Army, under General Erich Brandenberger, was assigned to the southernmost sector, near the Luxembourgish city of Echternach, with the task of protecting the flank. This Army was made up of only four infantry divisions, with no large-scale armored formations to use as a spearhead unit. As a result, they made little progress throughout the battle.
For the offensive to be successful, four criteria were deemed critical: the attack had to be a complete surprise; the weather conditions had to be poor to neutralize Allied air superiority and the damage it could inflict on the German offensive and its supply lines; the progress had to be rapid—the Meuse River, halfway to Antwerp, had to be reached by day 4; and Allied fuel supplies would have to be captured intact along the way because the combined Wehrmacht forces were short on fuel. The General Staff estimated they only had enough fuel to cover one third to one half of the ground to Antwerp in heavy combat conditions.
The plan originally called for just under 45 divisions, including a dozen panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions forming the armored spearhead and various infantry units to form a defensive line as the battle unfolded. By this time the German Army suffered from an acute manpower shortage, and the force had been reduced to around 30 divisions. Although it retained most of its armor, there were not enough infantry units because of the defensive needs in the East. These 30 newly rebuilt divisions used some of the last reserves of the German Army. Among them were Volksgrenadier ("People's Grenadier") units formed from a mix of battle-hardened veterans and recruits formerly regarded as too young, too old or too frail to fight. Training time, equipment and supplies were inadequate during the preparations. German fuel supplies were precarious—those materials and supplies that could not be directly transported by rail had to be horse-drawn to conserve fuel, and the mechanized and panzer divisions would depend heavily on captured fuel. As a result, the start of the offensive was delayed from 27 November to 16 December.
For these reasons Allied High Command considered the Ardennes a quiet sector, relying on assessments from their intelligence services that the Germans were unable to launch any major offensive operations this late in the war. What little intelligence they had led the Allies to believe precisely what the Germans wanted them to believe-–that preparations were being carried out only for defensive, not offensive, operations. The Allies relied too much on Ultra, not human reconnaissance. In fact, because of the Germans' efforts, the Allies were led to believe that a new defensive army was being formed around Düsseldorf in the northern Rhineland, possibly to defend against British attack. This was done by increasing the number of flak (Flugabwehrkanonen, i.e., anti-aircraft cannons) in the area and the artificial multiplication of radio transmissions in the area. The Allies at this point thought the information was of no importance. All of this meant that the attack, when it came, completely surprised the Allied forces. Remarkably, the U.S. Third Army intelligence chief, Colonel Oscar Koch, the U.S. First Army intelligence chief and the SHAEF intelligence officer Brigadier General Kenneth Strong all correctly predicted the German offensive capability and intention to strike the U.S. VIII Corps area. These predictions were largely dismissed by the U.S. 12th Army Group. Strong had informed Bedell Smith in December of his suspicions. Bedell Smith sent Strong to warn Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, the commander of the 12th Army Group, of the danger. Bradley's response was succinct: "Let them come."[10] Historian Patrick K. O'Donnell writes that on 8 December 1944 U.S. Rangers at great cost took Hill 400 during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. The next day GIs who relieved the Rangers reported a considerable movement of German troops inside the Ardennes in the enemy's rear, but that no one in the chain of command connected the dots.[11]
Two major special operations were planned for the offensive. By October it was decided that Otto Skorzeny, the German SS-commando who had rescued the former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, was to lead a task force of English-speaking German soldiers in "Operation Greif". These soldiers were to be dressed in American and British uniforms and wear dog tags taken from corpses and prisoners of war. Their job was to go behind American lines and change signposts, misdirect traffic, generally cause disruption and seize bridges across the Meuse River. By late November another ambitious special operation was added: Col. Friedrich August von der Heydte was to lead a Fallschirmjäger-Kampfgruppe (paratrooper combat group) in Operation Stösser, a night-time paratroop drop behind the Allied lines aimed at capturing a vital road junction near Malmedy.
After the 20 July attempt on Hitler's life, and the close advance of the Red Army which would seize the site on 27 January 1945, Hitler and his staff had been forced to abandon the Wolfsschanze headquarters in East Prussia, in which they had coordinated much of the fighting on the Eastern Front. After a brief visit to Berlin, Hitler traveled on his Führersonderzug ("Special Train of the Führer" (Leader)) to Giessen on 11 December, taking up residence in the Adlerhorst (eyrie) command complex, co-located with OB West's base at Kransberg Castle. Believing in omens and the successes of his early war campaigns that had been planned at Kransberg, Hitler had chosen the site from which he had overseen the successful 1940 campaign against France and the Low Countries.
Von Rundstedt set up his operational headquarters near Limburg, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit Adlerhorst on 11 December, traveling there in an SS-operated bus convoy. With the castle acting as overflow accommodation, the main party was settled into the Adlerhorst's Haus 2 command bunker, including Gen. Alfred Jodl, Gen. Wilhelm Keitel, Gen. Blumentritt, von Manteuffel and SS Gen. Joseph ("Sepp") Dietrich.
Initial German assault
On 16 December 1944 at 05:30, the Germans began the assault with a massive, 90-minute artillery barrage using 1,600 artillery pieces across a 80order=flipNaNorder=flip front on the Allied troops facing the 6th Panzer Army. The Americans' initial impression was that this was the anticipated, localized counterattack resulting from the Allies' recent attack in the Wahlerscheid sector to the north, where the 2nd Division had knocked a sizable dent in the Siegfried Line. Heavy snowstorms engulfed parts of the Ardennes area. While having the effect of keeping the Allied aircraft grounded, the weather also proved troublesome for the Germans because poor road conditions hampered their advance. Poor traffic control led to massive traffic jams and fuel shortages in forward units.
Units involved in initial assault
Forces deployed North to South
Northern Sector: Monschau to Krewinkel
U.S. Forces
German Forces
Central Sector: Roth to Gemünd
U.S. Forces
German Forces
Southern Sector: Hochscheid to Mompach
U.S. Forces
German Forces
Attack on the northern shoulder
See main article: Battle of Elsenborn Ridge.
While the Siege of Bastogne is often credited as the central point where the German offensive was stopped,[12] the battle for Elsenborn Ridge was actually the decisive component of the Battle of the Bulge, stopping the advance of the best equipped armored units of the German army and forcing them to reroute their troops to unfavorable alternative routes that considerably slowed their advance.
Best German divisions assigned
The attack on Monschau, Höfen, Krinkelt-Rocherath, and then Elsenborn Ridge was led by the units personally selected by Adolf Hitler. The 6th Panzer Army was given priority for supply and equipment and was assigned the shortest route to the ultimate objective of the offensive, Antwerp. The 6th Panzer Army included the elite of the Waffen-SS, including four Panzer divisions and five infantry divisions in three corps. SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper led Kampfgruppe Peiper, consisting of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles, which was charged with leading the main effort. Its newest and most powerful tank, the Tiger II heavy tank, consumed 7.60NaN0 of fuel to go 16000NaN0, and the Germans had less than half the fuel they needed to reach Antwerp.
German forces held up
The attacks by the Sixth Panzer Army's infantry units in the north fared badly because of unexpectedly fierce resistance by the U.S. 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. Kampfgruppe Peiper, at the head of Sepp Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army, had been designated to take the Losheim-Losheimergraben road, a key route through the Losheim Gap, but it was closed by two collapsed overpasses that German engineers failed to repair during the first day. Peiper's forces were rerouted through Lanzerath.
This created a bottleneck in the German advance. Kampfgruppe Peiper did not begin his advance until nearly 16:00, more than 16 hours behind schedule and didn't reach Bucholz Station until the early morning of 17 December. Their intention was to control the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt which would clear a path to the high ground of Elsenborn Ridge. Occupation of this dominating terrain would allow control of the roads to the south and west and ensure supply to Kampfgruppe Peiper's armored task force.
Malmedy massacre
See main article: Malmedy massacre.
At 12:30 on 17 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper was near the hamlet of Baugnez, on the height halfway between the town of Malmedy and Ligneuville, when they encountered elements of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, U.S. 7th Armored Division. After a brief battle the lightly armed Americans surrendered. They were disarmed and, with some other Americans captured earlier (approximately 150 men), sent to stand in a field near the crossroads under light guard. About fifteen minutes after Peiper's advance guard passed through, the main body under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Pötschke arrived. The SS troopers suddenly opened fire on the prisoners. As soon as the firing began, the prisoners panicked. Most were shot where they stood, though some managed to flee. Accounts of the killing vary, but at least 84 of the POWs were murdered. A few survived, and news of the killings of prisoners of war spread through Allied lines. Following the end of the war, soldiers and officers of Kampfgruppe Peiper, including Joachim Peiper and SS general Sepp Dietrich, were tried for the incident at the Malmedy massacre trial.
Kampfgruppe Peiper deflected southeast
Driving to the south-east of Elsenborn, Kampfgruppe Peiper entered Honsfeld, where they encountered one of the 99th Division's rest centers, clogged with confused American troops. They quickly captured portions of the 3rd Battalion of the 394th Infantry Regiment. They destroyed a number of American armored units and vehicles, and took several dozen prisoners who were subsequently murdered. Peiper also captured of fuel for his vehicles.[13]
Peiper advanced north-west towards Büllingen, keeping to the plan to move west, unaware that if he had turned north he had an opportunity to flank and trap the entire 2nd and 99th Divisions. Instead, intent on driving west, Peiper turned south to detour around Hünningen, choosing a route designated Rollbahn D as he had been given latitude to choose the best route west.
To the north, the 277th Volksgrenadier Division attempted to break through the defending line of the U.S. 99th and the 2nd Infantry Divisions. The 12th SS Panzer Division, reinforced by additional infantry (Panzergrenadier and Volksgrenadier) divisions, took the key road junction at Losheimergraben just north of Lanzerath and attacked the twin villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt.
Wereth 11
See main article: 333rd Artillery Battalion (United States). Another, smaller massacre was committed in Wereth, Belgium, approximately northeast of Saint-Vith on 17 December 1944. Eleven black American soldiers were tortured after surrendering and then shot by men of the 1st SS Panzer Division belonging to Schnellgruppe Knittel. The perpetrators were never punished for this crime.[14] [15]
Germans advance west
By the evening the spearhead had pushed north to engage the U.S. 99th Infantry Division and Kampfgruppe Peiper arrived in front of Stavelot. Peiper's forces were already behind his timetable because of the stiff American resistance and because when the Americans fell back, their engineers blew up bridges and emptied fuel dumps. Peiper's unit was delayed and his vehicles denied critically needed fuel. They took 36 hours to advance from the Eifel region to Stavelot, while the same advance required nine hours in 1940.
Capitalizing on his success and not wanting to lose more time, Peiper rushed an advance group toward the vital bridge at Trois-Ponts, leaving the bulk of his strength in Stavelot. When they reached it at 11:30 on 18 December, retreating U.S. engineers blew it up. Peiper detoured north towards the villages of La Gleize and Cheneux. At Cheneux, the advance guard was attacked by American fighter-bombers, destroying two tanks and five halftracks, blocking the narrow road. The group began moving again at dusk at 16:00 and was able to return to its original route at around 18:00. Of the two bridges remaining between Kampfgruppe Peiper and the Meuse, the bridge over the Lienne was blown by the Americans as the Germans approached. Peiper turned north and halted his forces in the woods between La Gleize and Stoumont. He learned that Stoumont was strongly held and that the Americans were bringing up strong reinforcements from Spa.
To Peiper's south, the advance of Kampfgruppe Hansen had stalled. SS-Oberführer Mohnke ordered Schnellgruppe Knittel, which had been designated to follow Hansen, to instead move forward to support Peiper. SS-Sturmbannführer Knittel crossed the bridge at Stavelot around 19:00 against American forces trying to retake the town. Knittel pressed forward towards La Gleize, and shortly afterward the Americans recaptured Stavelot. Peiper and Knittel both faced the prospect of being cut off.
German advance halted
German efforts to reinforce Peiper were unsuccessful. Kampfgruppe Hansen was still struggling against bad road conditions and stiff American resistance on the southern route. Schnellgruppe Knittel was forced to disengage from the heights around Stavelot. Kampfgruppe Sandig, which had been ordered to take Stavelot, launched another attack without success. Sixth Panzer Army commander Sepp Dietrich ordered Hermann Priess, commanding officer of the I SS Panzer Corps, to increase its efforts to back Peiper's battle group, but Prieß was unable to break through.
Small units of the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, attacked the dispersed units of Kampfgruppe Peiper on the morning of 21 December. They failed and were forced to withdraw, and a number were captured, including battalion commander Maj. Hal McCown. Peiper learned that his reinforcements had been directed to gather in La Gleize to his east, and he withdrew, leaving wounded Americans and Germans in the . As he withdrew from Cheneux, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division engaged the Germans in fierce house-to-house fighting. The Americans shelled Kampfgruppe Peiper on 22 December, and although the Germans had run out of food and had virtually no fuel, they continued to fight. A Luftwaffe resupply mission went badly when SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke insisted the grid coordinates supplied by Peiper were wrong, parachuting supplies into American hands in Stoumont.
The U.S. 99th Infantry Division, outnumbered five to one, inflicted casualties in the ratio of 18 to one. The division lost about 20% of its effective strength, including 465 killed and 2,524 evacuated due to wounds, injuries, fatigue, or trench foot. German losses were much higher. In the northern sector opposite the 99th, this included more than 4,000 deaths and the destruction of 60 tanks and big guns.[16] Historian John S. D. Eisenhower wrote, "... the action of the 2nd and 99th Divisions on the northern shoulder could be considered the most decisive of the Ardennes campaign."[17]
Operation Stösser
See main article: Operation Stösser. Operation Stösser was a paratroop drop into the American rear in the High Fens (French: link=no|Hautes Fagnes; German: link=no|Hohes Venn; Dutch; Flemish: Hoge Venen) area. The objective was the "Baraque Michel" crossroads. It was led by Oberst Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, considered by Germans to be a hero of the Battle of Crete.
It was the German paratroopers' only night time drop during World War II. Von der Heydte was given only eight days to prepare prior to the assault. He was not allowed to use his own regiment because their movement might alert the Allies to the impending counterattack. Instead, he was provided with a Kampfgruppe of 800 men. The II Parachute Corps was tasked with contributing 100 men from each of its regiments. In loyalty to their commander, 150 men from von der Heydte's own unit, the 6th Parachute Regiment, went against orders and joined him. They had little time to establish any unit cohesion or train together.
Chenogne massacre
See main article: Chenogne massacre. Following the Malmedy massacre, on New Year's Day 1945, after having previously received orders to take no prisoners, American soldiers murdered approximately sixty German prisoners of war near the Belgian village of Chenogne (8 km from Bastogne).
Attack in the center
Battle for St. Vith
See main article: Battle of St. Vith. In the center, the town of St. Vith, a vital road junction, presented the main challenge for both von Manteuffel's and Dietrich's forces. The defenders, led by the 7th Armored Division, included the remaining regiment of the 106th U.S. Infantry Division, with elements of the 9th Armored Division and 28th U.S. Infantry Division. These units, which operated under the command of Generals Robert W. Hasbrouck (7th Armored) and Alan W. Jones (106th Infantry), successfully resisted the German attacks, significantly slowing the German advance. At Montgomery's orders, St. Vith was evacuated on 21 December; U.S. troops fell back to entrenched positions in the area, presenting an imposing obstacle to a successful German advance. By 23 December, as the Germans shattered their flanks, the defenders' position became untenable and U.S. troops were ordered to retreat west of the Salm River. Since the German plan called for the capture of St. Vith by 18:00 on 17 December, the prolonged action in and around it dealt a major setback to their timetable.
Meuse River bridges
To protect the river crossings on the Meuse at Givet, Dinant and Namur, Montgomery ordered those few units available to hold the bridges on 19 December. This led to a hastily assembled force including rear-echelon troops, military police and Army Air Force personnel. The British 29th Armoured Brigade of British 11th Armoured Division, which had turned in its tanks for re-equipping, was told to take back their tanks and head to the area. British XXX Corps was significantly reinforced for this effort. Units of the corps which fought in the Ardennes were the 51st (Highland) and 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, the 29th and 33rd Armoured Brigades, and the 34th Tank Brigade.[18]
Unlike the German forces on the northern and southern shoulders who were experiencing great difficulties, the German advance in the center gained considerable ground. The Fifth Panzer Army was spearheaded by the 2nd Panzer Division while the Panzer Lehr Division (Armored Training Division) came up from the south, leaving Bastogne to other units. The Ourthe River was passed at Ourtheville on 21 December. Lack of fuel held up the advance for one day, but on 23 December the offensive was resumed towards the two small towns of Hargimont and Marche-en-Famenne. Hargimont was captured the same day, but Marche-en-Famenne was strongly defended by the American 84th Division. Gen. von Lüttwitz, commander of the XXXXVII Panzer-Korps, ordered the Division to turn westwards towards Dinant and the Meuse, leaving only a blocking force at Marche-en-Famenne. Although advancing only in a narrow corridor, 2nd Panzer Division was still making rapid headway, leading to jubilation in Berlin. Headquarters now freed up the 9th Panzer Division for Fifth Panzer Army, which was deployed at Marche.
On 22/23 December German forces reached the woods of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, only a few kilometers ahead of Dinant. The narrow corridor caused considerable difficulties, as constant flanking attacks threatened the division. On 24 December, German forces made their furthest penetration west. The Panzer Lehr Division took the town of Celles, while a bit farther north, parts of 2nd Panzer Division were in sight of the Meuse near Dinant at Foy-Nôtre-Dame. A hastily assembled Allied blocking force on the east side of the river prevented the German probing forces from approaching the Dinant bridge. By late Christmas Eve the advance in this sector was stopped, as Allied forces threatened the narrow corridor held by the 2nd Panzer Division.
Operation Greif and Operation Währung
See main article: Operation Greif.
For Operation Greif ("Griffin"), Otto Skorzeny successfully infiltrated a small part of his battalion of English-speaking Germans disguised in American uniforms behind the Allied lines. Although they failed to take the vital bridges over the Meuse, their presence caused confusion out of all proportion to their military activities, and rumors spread quickly. Even General George Patton was alarmed and, on 17 December, described the situation to General Dwight Eisenhower as "Krauts ... speaking perfect English ... raising hell, cutting wires, turning road signs around, spooking whole divisions, and shoving a bulge into our defenses."
The tightened security nonetheless made things very hard for the German infiltrators, and a number of them were captured. Even during interrogation, they continued their goal of spreading disinformation; when asked about their mission, some of them claimed they had been told to go to Paris to either kill or capture General Dwight Eisenhower. Security around the general was greatly increased, and Eisenhower was confined to his headquarters. Because Skorzeny's men were captured in American uniforms, they were executed as spies.[20] This was the standard practice of every army at the time, as many belligerents considered it necessary to protect their territory against the grave dangers of enemy spying.[21] Skorzeny said that he was told by German legal experts that as long he did not order his men to fight in combat while wearing American uniforms, such a tactic was a legitimate ruse of war.[22] Skorzeny and his men were fully aware of their likely fate, and most wore their German uniforms underneath their American ones in case of capture. Skorzeny was tried by an American military tribunal in 1947 at the Dachau Trials for allegedly violating the laws of war stemming from his leadership of Operation Greif, but was acquitted. He later moved to Spain and South America.
Operation Währung was carried out by a small number of German agents who infiltrated Allied lines in American uniforms. These agents were tasked with using an existing Nazi intelligence network to bribe rail and port workers to disrupt Allied supply operations. The operation was a failure.[23]
Attack in the south
Further south on Manteuffel's front, the main thrust was delivered by all attacking divisions crossing the River Our, then increasing the pressure on the key road centers of St. Vith and Bastogne. The more experienced U.S. 28th Infantry Division put up a much more dogged defense than the inexperienced soldiers of the 106th Infantry Division. The 112th Infantry Regiment (the most northerly of the 28th Division's regiments), holding a continuous front east of the Our, kept German troops from seizing and using the Our River bridges around Ouren for two days, before withdrawing progressively westwards.
The 109th and 110th Regiments of the 28th Division fared worse, as they were spread so thinly that their positions were easily bypassed. Both offered stubborn resistance in the face of superior forces and threw the German schedule off by several days. The 110th's situation was by far the worst, as it was responsible for an 11order=flipNaNorder=flip front while its 2nd Battalion was withheld as the divisional reserve. Panzer columns took the outlying villages and widely separated strong points in bitter fighting, and advanced to points near Bastogne within four days. The struggle for the villages and American strong points, plus transport confusion on the German side, slowed the attack sufficiently to allow the 101st Airborne Division (reinforced by elements from the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions) to reach Bastogne by truck on the morning of 19 December. The fierce defense of Bastogne, in which American paratroopers particularly distinguished themselves, made it impossible for the Germans to take the town with its important road junctions. The panzer columns swung past on either side, cutting off Bastogne on 20 December but failing to secure the vital crossroads.
Siege of Bastogne
See main article: Siege of Bastogne.
Senior Allied commanders met in a bunker in Verdun on 19 December. By this time, the town of Bastogne and its network of 11 hard-topped roads leading through the widely forested mountainous terrain with deep river valleys and boggy mud of the Ardennes region was under severe threat. Bastogne had previously been the site of the VIII Corps headquarters. Two separate westbound German columns that were to have bypassed the town to the south and north, the 2nd Panzer Division and Panzer-Lehr-Division of XLVII Panzer Corps, as well as the Corps' infantry (26th Volksgrenadier Division), coming due west had been engaged and much slowed and frustrated in outlying battles at defensive positions up to 10miles from the town proper, but these defensive positions were gradually being forced back onto and into the hasty defenses built within the municipality. Moreover, the sole corridor that was open (to the southeast) was threatened and it had been sporadically closed as the front shifted, and there was expectation that it would be completely closed sooner than later, given the strong likelihood that the town would soon be surrounded.
Gen. Eisenhower, realizing that the Allies could destroy German forces much more easily when they were out in the open and on the offensive than if they were on the defensive, told his generals, "The present situation is to be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster. There will be only cheerful faces at this table." Patton, realizing what Eisenhower implied, responded, "Hell, let's have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then, we'll really cut 'em off and chew 'em up." Eisenhower, after saying he was not that optimistic, asked Patton how long it would take to turn his Third Army, located in northeastern France, north to counterattack. To the disbelief of the other generals present, Patton replied that he could attack with two divisions within 48 hours. Unknown to the other officers present, before he left Patton had ordered his staff to prepare three contingency plans for a northward turn in at least corps strength. By the time Eisenhower asked him how long it would take, the movement was already underway. On 20 December, Eisenhower removed the First and Ninth U.S. Armies from Gen. Bradley's 12th Army Group and placed them under Montgomery's 21st Army Group.
By 21 December the Germans had surrounded Bastogne, which was defended by the 101st Airborne Division, the all African American 969th Artillery Battalion, and Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division. Conditions inside the perimeter were tough—most of the medical supplies and medical personnel had been captured. Food was scarce, and by 22 December artillery ammunition was restricted to 10 rounds per gun per day. The weather cleared the next day and supplies (primarily ammunition) were dropped over four of the next five days.[24]
Despite determined German attacks, the perimeter held. The German commander, Generalleutnant (Lt. Gen.) Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz, requested Bastogne's surrender.[25] When Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st, was told of the Nazi demand to surrender, in frustration he responded, "Nuts!" After turning to other pressing issues, his staff reminded him that they should reply to the German demand. One officer, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard, noted that McAuliffe's initial reply would be "tough to beat." Thus McAuliffe wrote on the paper, which was typed up and delivered to the Germans, the line he made famous and a morale booster to his troops: "NUTS!" That reply had to be explained, both to the Germans and to non-American Allies.
Both 2nd Panzer and Panzer-Lehr division moved forward from Bastogne after 21 December, leaving only Panzer-Lehr division's 901st Regiment to assist the 26th Volksgrenadier-Division in attempting to capture the crossroads. The 26th VG received one Panzergrenadier Regiment from the 15th Panzergrenadier Division on Christmas Eve for its main assault the next day. Because it lacked sufficient troops and those of the 26th VG Division were near exhaustion, the XLVII Panzerkorps concentrated its assault on several individual locations on the west side of the perimeter in sequence rather than launching one simultaneous attack on all sides. The assault, despite initial success by its tanks in penetrating the American line, was defeated and all the tanks destroyed. On the following day of 26 December the spearhead of Gen. Patton's 4th Armored Division, supplemented by the 26th (Yankee) Infantry Division, broke through and opened a corridor to Bastogne.[24]
Allied counteroffensive
By 24 December the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse. Units of the British XXX Corps were holding the bridges at Dinant, Givet, and Namur and U.S. units were about to take over. The Germans had outrun their supply lines, and shortages of fuel and ammunition were becoming critical. Up to this point the German losses had been light, notably in armor, with the exception of Peiper's losses. On the evening of 24 December, General Hasso von Manteuffel recommended to Hitler's Military Adjutant a halt to all offensive operations and a withdrawal back to the Westwall (literally Western Rampart). Hitler rejected this.
German counterattack
See main article: Operation Bodenplatte and Operation Nordwind.
On 1 January, in an attempt to keep the offensive going, the Germans launched two new operations. At 09:15, the Luftwaffe launched Unternehmen Bodenplatte (Operation Baseplate), a major campaign against Allied airfields in the Low Countries. Hundreds of planes attacked Allied airfields, destroying or severely damaging some 465 aircraft. The Luftwaffe lost 277 planes, 62 to Allied fighters and 172 mostly because of an unexpectedly high number of Allied flak guns, set up to protect against German V-1 flying bomb/missile attacks and using proximity fused shells, but also by friendly fire from the German flak guns that were uninformed of the pending large-scale German air operation. The Germans suffered heavy losses at an airfield named Y-29, losing 40 of their own planes while damaging only four American planes. While the Allies recovered from their losses within days, the operation left the Luftwaffe ineffective for the remainder of the war.
On the same day, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G) and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) launched a major offensive against the thinly-stretched, 70order=flipNaNorder=flip line of the Seventh U.S. Army. This offensive, known as Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation North Wind), was the last major German offensive of the war on the Western Front. The weakened Seventh Army had, at Eisenhower's orders, sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes, and the offensive left it in dire straits.
By 15 January Seventh Army's VI Corps was fighting on three sides in Alsace. With casualties mounting, and running short on replacements, tanks, ammunition, and supplies, Seventh Army was forced to withdraw to defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River on 21 January. The German offensive drew to a close on 25 January. In the bitter, desperate fighting of Operation Nordwind, VI Corps, which had borne the brunt of the fighting, suffered a total of 14,716 casualties. The total for Seventh Army for January was 11,609. Total casualties included at least 9,000 wounded. First, Third, and Seventh Armies suffered a total of 17,000 hospitalized from the cold.
Allies prevail
While the German offensive had ground to a halt during January 1945, they still controlled a dangerous salient in the Allied line. Patton's Third Army in the south, centered around Bastogne, would attack north, Montgomery's forces in the north would strike south, and the two forces planned to meet at Houffalize.
The temperature during that January was extremely low, which required weapons to be maintained and truck engines run every half-hour to prevent their oil from congealing. The offensive went forward regardless.
At the start of the offensive, the First and Third U.S. Armies were separated by about 25miles. American progress in the south was also restricted to about a kilometer or a little over half a mile per day. On 2 January, the Tiger IIs of German Heavy Tank Battalion 506 supported an attack by the 12th SS Hitlerjugend division against U.S. positions near Wardin and knocked out 15 Sherman tanks. The majority of the German force executed a successful fighting withdrawal and escaped the battle area, although the fuel situation had become so dire that most of the German armor had to be abandoned.
On 7 January 1945 Hitler agreed to withdraw all forces from the Ardennes, including the SS-Panzer divisions, thus ending all offensive operations. On January 14, Hitler granted Gerd von Rundstedt permission to carry out a fairly drastic retreat in the Ardennes region. Houffalize and the Bastogne front would be abandoned.[27] Considerable fighting went on for another 3 weeks; St. Vith was recaptured by the Americans on 23 January, and the last German units participating in the offensive did not return to their start line until 25 January.
Force comparisons by date
ForceAllied[29] Axis[30]
Tank destroyers
and assault guns
Other AFVs1,9215,3527,7697,0791,2611,4961,090907
Anti-tank and
artillery pieces
Armored divisions26887888
Armored brigades122111
Infantry divisions615222213161516
Infantry brigades222
Initial and Final manpower commitments for all units in Ardennes Campaign[31]
American British German
Initial687,498 111,904 498,622
Final680,706 111,100 425,941
Strategy and leadership
Hitler's chosen few
The plan and timing for the Ardennes attack sprang from the mind of Adolf Hitler. He believed a critical fault line existed between the British and American military commands, and that a heavy blow on the Western Front would shatter this alliance. Planning for the "Watch on the Rhine" offensive emphasized secrecy and the commitment of overwhelming force. Due to the use of landline communications within Germany, motorized runners carrying orders, and draconian threats from Hitler, the timing and mass of the attack was not detected by Ultra codebreakers and achieved complete surprise.
After officers of the regular German Army attempted to assassinate him, Hitler had increasingly trusted only the Nazi Party SS and its armed branch, the Waffen-SS. He entrusted them with carrying out his decisive counterattack. But following the Allied Normandy invasion, the SS armored units had suffered significant leadership casualties. This included SS-Gruppenführer (Major General) Kurt Meyer, commander of the 12th SS Panzer (Armor) Division, captured by Belgian partisans on 6 September 1944.[32] [33] Thus Hitler gave responsibility for the key right flank of the assault to the best SS troops and a few Volksgrenadier units under the command of "Sepp" (Joseph) Dietrich, a fanatical political disciple of Hitler, and a loyal follower from the early days of the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The leadership composition of the Sixth Panzer Division had a distinctly political nature.
Despite their loyalty, none of the German field commanders entrusted with planning and executing the offensive believed it was possible to capture Antwerp. Even Dietrich believed the Ardennes was a poor area for armored warfare and that the inexperienced and badly equipped Volksgrenadier soldiers would clog the roads the tanks needed for their rapid advance. In fact, their horse-drawn artillery and rocket units became a significant obstacle to the armored units.[34] Other than making futile objections to Hitler in private, Dietrich generally stayed out of planning the offensive. Model and Manteuffel, technical experts from the eastern front, told Hitler that a limited offensive with the goal of surrounding and crushing the American 1st Army would be the best goal their offensive could hope to achieve. Their ideas shared the same fate as Dietrich's objections.
The German staff planning and organization of the attack was well done. Most of the units committed to the offensive reached their jump off points undetected. They were for the most part well organized and supplied for the attack, although they were counting on capturing American gasoline dumps to fuel their vehicles. As the battle ensued, on the northern shoulder of the offensive, Dietrich stopped the armored assault on the twin villages after two days and changed the axis of their advance southward through the hamlet of Domäne Bütgenbach. The headlong drive on Elsenborn Ridge lacked needed support from German units that had already bypassed the ridge.[35] Dietrich's decision unknowingly played into American hands, as Robertson had already decided to abandon the villages.
Allied high-command controversy
One of the fault lines between the British and American high commands was General Dwight D. Eisenhower's commitment to a broad front advance. This view was opposed by the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, as well as Field Marshal Montgomery, who promoted a rapid advance on a narrow front, with the other allied armies in reserve.[35]
Montgomery's actions
British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery differed from the U.S. command in how to respond to the German attack and his public statements to that effect caused tension in the American high command. Major General Freddie de Guingand, Chief of Staff of Montgomery's 21st Army Group, rose to the occasion, and personally smoothed over the disagreements on 30 December.[36]
As the Ardennes crisis developed, the U.S. First Army (Hodges) and U.S. Ninth Army (Simpson) on the northern shoulder of the German penetration lost communications with adjacent armies, as well as with Bradley's headquarters in Luxembourg City to the south of the "bulge". Consequently, at 10:30 a.m. on 20 December, Eisenhower transferred the command of the U.S. First and Ninth Armies temporarily from Bradley to Montgomery.[37] Command of the U.S. First Army reverted to the U.S. 12th Army Group on 17 January 1945,[38] and command of the U.S. Ninth Army reverted to the U.S. 12th Army Group on 4 April 1945.
Montgomery wrote about the situation he found on 20 December:
Due to the news blackout imposed on the 16th, the change of leadership to Montgomery did not become public information until SHAEF announced that the change in command had "absolutely nothing to do with failure on the part of the three American generals".[39] The announcement resulted in headlines in British newspapers and Stars and Stripes, which for the first time mentioned British contributions to the fighting.
Montgomery requested permission from Churchill to give a press conference to explain the situation. Though some of his staff were concerned at how the press conference would affect Montgomery's image, it was cleared by CIGS Alan Brooke, who was possibly the only person from whom Montgomery would accept advice.
On the same day as Hitler's withdrawal order of 7 January, Montgomery held his press conference at Zonhoven. Montgomery started with giving credit to the "courage and good fighting quality" of the American troops, characterizing a typical American as a "very brave fighting man who has that tenacity in battle which makes a great soldier", and went on to talk about the necessity of Allied teamwork, and praised Eisenhower, stating, "Teamwork wins battles and battle victories win wars. On our team, the captain is General Ike."
Many American officers had already grown to dislike Montgomery, who was seen by them as an overly cautious commander, arrogant, and all too willing to say uncharitable things about the Americans. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill found it necessary in a speech to Parliament to explicitly state that the Battle of the Bulge was purely an American victory.
Montgomery subsequently recognized his error and later wrote: "Not only was it probably a mistake to have held this conference at all in the sensitive state of feeling at the time, but what I said was skilfully distorted by the enemy. Chester Wilmot[42] explained that his dispatch to the BBC about it was intercepted by the German wireless, re-written to give it an anti-American bias, and then broadcast by Arnhem Radio, which was then in Goebbels' hands. Monitored at Bradley's HQ, this broadcast was mistaken for a BBC transmission and it was this twisted text that started the uproar."[40]
Bradley and Patton both threatened to resign unless Montgomery's command was changed. Eisenhower, encouraged by his British deputy Arthur Tedder, had decided to sack Montgomery. Intervention by Montgomery's and Eisenhower's Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Gen. Freddie de Guingand, and Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, moved Eisenhower to reconsider and allowed Montgomery to apologize.
Speaking subsequently to a British writer while himself a prisoner in Britain, the former German commander of the 5th Panzer Army, Hasso von Manteuffel said of Montgomery's leadership:
However, Ambrose, writing in 1997, maintained that "Putting Monty in command of the northern flank had no effect on the battle".
Casualty estimates for the battle vary widely. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, American forces suffered 89,500 casualties including 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 missing. An official report by the United States Department of the Army lists 105,102 casualties, including 19,246 killed, 62,489 wounded, and 26,612 captured or missing, though this incorporates losses suffered during the German offensive in Alsace, Operation "Nordwind."[44] A preliminary Army report restricted to the First and Third U.S. Armies listed 75,000 casualties (8,400 killed, 46,000 wounded and 21,000 missing).[10] The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest battle for U.S. forces in World War II. British casualties totaled 1,400 with 200 deaths. The German High Command estimated that they lost between 81,834 and 98,024 men in the Bulge between 16 December 1944 and 28 January 1945; the accepted figure was 81,834, of which 12,652 were killed, 38,600 were wounded, and 30,582 were missing.[45] Allied estimates on German casualties range from 81,000 to 103,000. Some authors have estimated German casualties as high as 125,000.
German armored losses to all causes were between 527 and 554, with 324 tanks being lost in combat. Of the German write-offs, 16–20 were Tigers, 191–194 Panthers, 141–158 Panzer IVs, and 179–182 were tank destroyers and assault guns. The Germans lost an additional 5,000 soft-skinned and armored vehicles. U.S. losses alone over the same period were similarly heavy, totaling 733 tanks and tank destroyers.[49] The outcome of the Ardennes Offensive demonstrated that the Allied armored forces were capable of taking on the Panzerwaffe on equal terms.[50]
Although the Germans managed to begin their offensive with complete surprise and enjoyed some initial successes, they were not able to seize the initiative on the Western Front. While the German command did not reach its goals, the Ardennes operation inflicted heavy losses and set back the Allied invasion of Germany by several weeks. The High Command of the Allied forces had planned to resume the offensive by early January 1945, after the wet season rains and severe frosts, but those plans had to be postponed until 29 January 1945 in connection with the unexpected changes in the front.
The German losses in the battle were especially critical: their last reserves were now gone, the Luftwaffe had been shattered, and remaining forces throughout the West were being pushed back to defend the Siegfried Line.
In response to the early success of the offensive, on 6 January Churchill contacted Stalin to request that the Soviets put pressure on the Germans on the Eastern Front. On 12 January, the Soviets began the massive Vistula–Oder Offensive, originally planned for 20 January. It had been brought forward from 20 January to 12 January because meteorological reports warned of a thaw later in the month, and the tanks needed hard ground for the offensive (and the advance of the Red Army was assisted by two Panzer Armies (5th and 6th) being redeployed for the Ardennes attack).[51]
Churchill was elated at Stalin's offer of help,[52] thanking Stalin for the thrilling news.[53]
During World War II, most U.S. black soldiers still served only in maintenance or service positions, or in segregated units. Because of troop shortages during the Battle of the Bulge, Eisenhower decided to integrate the service for the first time.[54] This was an important step toward a desegregated United States military. More than 2,000 black soldiers had volunteered to go to the front. A total of 708 black Americans were killed in combat during World War II.[55]
The Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, and it became the most widely used name for the battle. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops and equipment under cover of darkness. Intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies.[56] [57]
Media attention
The battle around Bastogne received a great deal of media attention because in early December 1944 it was a rest and recreation area for many war correspondents. The rapid advance by the German forces who surrounded the town, the spectacular resupply operations via parachute and glider, along with the fast action of General Patton's Third U.S. Army, all were featured in newspaper articles and on radio and captured the public's imagination; there were no correspondents in the area of Saint-Vith, Elsenborn, or Monschau-Höfen.[58]
Bletchley Park post-mortem
Missed indicators
At Bletchley Park, F. L. Lucas and Peter Calvocoressi of Hut 3 were tasked by General Nye (as part of the enquiry set up by the Chiefs of Staff) with writing a report on the lessons to be learned from the handling of pre-battle Ultra. The report concluded that "the costly reverse might have been avoided if Ultra had been more carefully considered".[59] [60] "Ultra intelligence was plentiful and informative" though "not wholly free from ambiguity", "but it was misread and misused".[61] Lucas and Calvocoressi noted that "intelligence staffs had been too apt to assume that Ultra would tell them everything".[62] Among the signs misread were the formation of the new 6th Panzer Army in the build-up area (west bank of the Rhine about Cologne); the new 'Star' (signals control-network) noted by the 'Fusion Room' traffic-analysts, linking "all the armoured divisions [assembling in the build-up area], including some transferred from the Russian front";[60] [63] the daily aerial reconnaissance of the lightly defended target area by new Arado Ar 234 jets "as a matter of greatest urgency"; the marked increase in railway traffic in the build-up area; the movement of 1,000 trucks from the Italian front to the build-up area; disproportionate anxiety about tiny hitches in troop movements, suggesting a tight timetable;[61] the quadrupling of Luftwaffe fighter forces in the West;[61] and decrypts of Japanese diplomatic signals from Berlin to Tokyo, mentioning "the coming offensive".
SHAEF failures
For its part, Hut 3 had grown "shy of going beyond its job of amending and explaining German messages. Drawing broad conclusions was for the intelligence staff at SHAEF, who had information from all sources," including aerial reconnaissance.[64] Lucas and Calvocoressi added that "it would be interesting to know how much reconnaissance was flown over the Eiffel sector on the U.S. First Army Front".[62] E. J. N. Rose, head Air Adviser in Hut 3, read the paper at the time and described it in 1998 as "an extremely good report" that "showed the failure of intelligence at SHAEF and at the Air Ministry".[65] [66] Lucas and Calvocoressi "expected heads to roll at Eisenhower's HQ, but they did no more than wobble".[67]
Five copies of a report by "C" (Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service), Indications of the German Offensive of December 1944, derived from ULTRA material, submitted to DMI, were issued on 28 December 1944. Copy No. 2 is held by the UK National Archives as file HW 13/45.[68] It sets out the various indications of an impending offensive that were received, then offers conclusions about the wisdom conferred by hindsight; the dangers of becoming wedded to a fixed view of the enemy's likely intentions; over-reliance on "Source" (i.e. ULTRA); and improvements in German security. "C" also stresses the role played by poor Allied security: "The Germans have this time prevented us from knowing enough about them; but we have not prevented them knowing far too much about us".[69]
Battle credit
After the war ended, the U.S. Army issued battle credit in the form of the Ardennes-Alsace campaign citation to units and individuals that took part in operations in northwest Europe.[70] The citation covered troops in the Ardennes sector where the main battle took place, as well as units further south in the Alsace sector, including those in the northern Alsace who filled in the vacuum created by the U.S. Third Army racing north, engaged in the concurrent Operation Nordwind diversion in central and southern Alsace launched to weaken Allied response in the Ardennes, and provided reinforcements to units fighting in the Ardennes.
In popular culture
The battle has been depicted in numerous works of art, entertainment, and media, including:
See also
Further reading
. Antony Beevor. Ardennes 1944: Hitler's Last Gamble. 2015. Viking. London. 978-0-670-91864-5.
External links
Notes and References
1. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge; By Hugh M. Cole, pgs 565 – 57
2. Encyclopedia of World War II, Volume 1; By Alan Axelrod, Jack A. Kingston, pg 73
3. Battle of the Bulge; By Turner Publishing Co, pg 55
4. McCullough, David . 2005 . American Experience – The Battle of the Bulge. Videotape.
5. Web site: The Operations of the 3rd Battalion, 395th Infantry (99th Infantry Division) Prior to and During the German Counter-Offensive, 10 November – 24 December 1944 (Ardennes Campaign) (Personal Experience of a Company Commander and Battalion Operations Officer) . Fabianich . Maj. Keith P. . 1947 . Advanced Infantry Officers Course, 1947–1948 . General Subjects Section, Academic Department, the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia . 3 . 24 February 2009 . . 18 March 2009 . dead. dmy .
6. Web site: The German Counteroffensive in the Ardennes . Charles V. P. . von Luttchau . U.S. Army Center for Military History.
7. Book: Cole, Hugh M.. United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations. The Ardennes. Office of the Chief of Military History. Washington, D.C.. 1965 . Chapter V: The Sixth Panzer Army Attack.
8. Web site: Operation Nordwind: The "Other" Battle of the Bulge. en. 2018-02-02.
10. Book: United States Army in World War II European Theater of Operations . The Supreme Command . Forrest C. . Pogue . 1954 . 607.
12. Web site: Explaining the silence surrounding Elsenborn Ridge battle. 99th Infantry Division Association. 20 June 2014.
13. Web site: Battle of the Bulge: U.S. Troops Fight at Elsenborn Ridge . . Hersko . Ralph E., Jr. . November 1998 . 14 July 2010.
14. Web site: Remembering the invisible soldiers of the Battle of the Bulge . U.S. Wereth Memorial website . 29 June 1944 . 12 July 2011 . dead. . 28 July 2011 . dmy-all .
15. Web site: Steven . Hoover . Wereth 11 Remembered in Ceremony . . 12 July 2011 . dmy .
16. Web site: Why the Bulge Didn't Break: Green Troops Grew Up Fast to Become Heroes of Hofen . Dean . Rob . American Forces in World War II . Military History Online . 17 March 2009 . 25 February 2009 . live.
17. Web site: The Battle of the Ardennes . 2009 . Office de Promotion du Tourisme de Wallonie et de Bruxelles . 26 August 2010.
18. Web site: The British in the Battle of the Ardennes . Guy . Blockmans . 6 May 2002 . 10 July 2015.
19. Book: Decisive Battles: From Yorktown to Operation Desert Storm . Jonathon Riley . 11 August 2010 . . 171.
20. Book: Men of Steel: I SS Panzer Corps: The Ardennes and Eastern Front, 1944–45 . Michael Reynolds . 1 February 2006 . 58 . . 1-932033-51-3 .
21. Book: Substantive and Procedural Aspects of International Criminal Law: The Experience of International and National Courts . Gabrielle McDonald . 1 May 2000 . 1951 . . 90-411-1135-2 .
22. Book: The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War . Gary D. Solis . 15 February 2010 . 432 . . 978-0-521-87088-7 .
23. Web site: Operation Währung. 16 May 2016. 4 June 2016. dead. dmy-all.
24. Book: Marshall, S.L.A. . . Bastogne: The First Eight Days . The Relief . 1946 . Infantry Journal Press.
25. Web site: NUTS! Revisited . The Drop Zone . 23 February 2010 . . 14 March 2010 . dead. dmy-all .
26. Web site: World War II: Pathfinders Resupply 101st Airborne Division Troops in Bastogne Via Daring Parachute Drop . World War II Magazine . . 12 July 2011 . 12 June 2006.
27. Book: Bergström, Christer . 2014 . The Ardennes, 1944–1945 . Casemate Publishers . 379 . 978-1-61200-277-4 .
28. Web site: Overview – Battle of the Bulge . United States Army . 16 December 1944 . 16 June 2013 . dead. . 7 May 2013 . dmy-all .
29. Book: Dupuy. Trevor. Hitler's Last Gamble. 1994. HarperCollins. New York. 0-06-016627-4. Appendices E and F
30. Book: Dupuy. Trevor. Hitler's Last Gamble. 1994. HarperCollins. New York. 0-06-016627-4. Page 18.
31. Dupuy, appendix E
32. Book: Mitcham, Samuel W.. Samuel W. Mitcham
. Panzers in Winter, Hitler's Army and the Battle of the Bulge. Samuel W. Mitcham. 2006. Praeger Security International. 0-275-97115-5.
33. Book: Meyer, Kurt. Grenadiers, The Story of Waffen-SS General Kurt "Panzer" Meyer. 2005. Stackpole Books. 978-0-8117-3197-3.
34. Book: Astor, Gerald. A Blood Dimmed Tide, The Battle of the Bulge by the Men Who Fought It. 1992. Donald I. Fine, Inc.. 1-55611-281-5.
35. Book: Eisenhower, John S.D.. The Bitter Woods. registration. First. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 1969. 0-306-80652-5.
36. Book: Larrabee, Eric. Commander in Chief, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War. 1987. Simon & Schuster Inc.. 0-671-66382-8.
37. The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery (1958) p. 308
38. The Supreme Command, Forrest C Pogue, Chapter XX - The Winter Counteroffensives, pages 378 & 395
39. Book: Charles . Whiting . 312. Battle Of Hurtgen Forest . Da Capo Press . 9 October 2007.
40. The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery (1958), p. 311–314
41. Web site: This Day in History: Monty holds a press conference . . 21 September 2014 . . 5 July 2014 . dead.
42. The Struggle for Europe, p. 611
43. Montgomery, Brian. A Field Marshal in the Family, Pen and Sword, 2010, p. 296.
44. Web site: Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II . Combined Arms Research Library, Department of the Army . 12 June 2012 . 25 June 1953.
45. Parker p. 293
46. Web site: Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1944. 29 May 2018 . dead. . 25 May 2013 . dmy-all .
47. Web site: Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1945. 29 May 2018 . dead. . 25 May 2013 . dmy-all .
48. "American Military History, Volume 2"
49. Parker p. 292
50. Dupuy, p. 501. The US 2nd Armored Division put on perhaps the best performance for the Allies, achieving a Combat Efficiency Value of 1.48 when it smashed the 2nd Panzer Division (0.52) at Celles in late December.
51. Book: Beevor, Antony . Antony Beevor
. Antony Beevor . Ardennes 1944: Hitler's last gamble . Viking . 2015 . New York . 331 . 978-0-670-02531-2.
52. Book: Holroyd-Doveton, John. Maxim Litvinov : A Biography. Woodland Publications. 2013. 367.
53. Book: Churchil, Winston. The Second World War Volume 6 "Triumph and Tragedy". 244.
54. Book: Blumenson, Martin . Eisenhower . Ballantine Books . New York . 1972.
55. Book: Clodfelter . Michael . Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000 . 2002 . McFarland . Jefferson, North Carolina . 0-7864-1204-6 . 2nd.
56. Book: Top Secret Ultra. Calvocoressi, Peter . 1980. Cassell. London. 48 . 0-304-30546-4. Peter Calvocoressi .
57. Book: Secret Days: Code-breaking in Bletchley Park. Briggs, Asa . 2011. Frontline Books. London. 122–3 . 978-1-84832-615-6. Asa Briggs .
58. Web site: Léon . Nyssen . The Battle of Elsenborn December 1944 (Part V). Centre de Recherches et d'Informations sur la Bataille des Ardennes. 15 July 2007 . 6 June 2011.
59. [Harry Hinsley]
60. Calvocoressi, Peter (1980). Top Secret Ultra. London: Cassell.
61. Bennet, Ralph. Ultra in the West Hutchinson, 2011
62. Annan, Noel, Changing Enemies (London, 1995), p.121
63. Pearson, Joss ed. Neil Webster's Cribs for Victory: The Untold Story of Bletchley Park's Secret Room Polperro Heritage Press, 2011. pp. 66-67
64. Calvocoressi to Neil Leslie Webster, in Pearson, Joss ed. Neil Webster's Cribs for Victory: The Untold Story of Bletchley Park's Secret Room (2011), p. 67
65. Smith, Michael, The Secrets of Station X (London, 2011), pp. 270-272
66. Millward, William, "Life in and out of Hut 3" in F. H. Hinsley and Alan Strip, eds. Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park Oxford 1993, p. 24
67. 'Peter Calvocoressi: Political writer who served at Bletchley Park and assisted at the Nuremberg trials
68. Web site: The Discovery Service . . 31 August 2018.
69. UK National Archives HW 13/45, "Indications of the German Offensive of December 1944", Part C, para. 5
70. Units Entitled to Battle Credit
71. .
72. BoardGameGeek
73. News: Stone. Tim. The Flare Path: Bulges. 26 December 2014. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 26 December 2014.
74. Book: Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt. 1969 . Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. New York City. Delacorte Press. 0-385-31208-3. |
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What Are The Common Problems With Cosmetic Plastic Bottles?
Apr 07, 2018
1, in the design of extrusion plastic bottles, if is made of high density polyethylene or polypropylene, plastic bottles of cross section should be rectangular or oval, low density polyethylene or other flexible material for plastic bottle, its round cross section as well. This allows content to be squeezed out of the plastic bottle. The plastic parts used in conjunction with plastic bottles are mainly bottle caps and seals. The design of plastic bottle mouth should be focused on; Consider how to make the plastic bottles better fit with the lid and the seal to fit the bottom of the plastic bottle, which is a weak part of the mechanical properties of the plastic bottle. Therefore, the bottom of the plastic bottle is generally designed as an inner concave shape; The corner of plastic bottle, and inside concave place, all do a big arc over. To facilitate the stacking of plastic bottles, increase the stacking stability of plastic bottles, and the bottom of plastic bottles should be designed with grooves.
2. When the surface of plastic bottle is labeled, the label should be flat. A "frame" can be designed on the surface of the plastic bottle so that the label can be accurately positioned and no movement is generated. In blow molding, the first contact of the billet blow up, always tends to harden the site. Therefore, the wall thickness of this part is also larger. At the edge and corner, it is the last contact part of billet blowing, which has a smaller wall thickness. Therefore, the edge of the plastic bottle and the area should be designed into rounded corners. Change the surface shape of the plastic bottle, such as the middle part of the plastic bottle, increase the surface of the plastic bottle to the groove or the convex ribs, which can improve the rigidity and bending resistance of plastic bottles. Longitudinal grooves or reinforcing bars can remove the drift, droop, or deformation of plastic bottles under long-term loads.
3. The printing surface of plastic bottles is the most concentrated part of consumers' attention. The printing surface shall be flat and continuous; If the plastic bottle contains handle, groove, reinforcement and so on, the design should be careful not to cause inconvenience to the printing operation. Elliptical plastic bottle, the rigidity is also high, but the mold manufacturing cost is higher. Therefore, in order to ensure the rigidity of plastic bottle, in addition to the materials with high stiffness, it is also necessary to design the plastic bottle to enhance the rigidity and strength of the plastic bottle.
4, since most plastic with notch sensitivity, plastic bottles at the sharp corners, mouth thread roots, in areas such as the neck, prone to fracture and cracking phenomenon, so these parts should be designed with rounded corners. For the transfer of rectangular plastic bottles, most of the load of the plastic bottle needs to be supported, so the wall thickness of the plastic bottle should be increased locally, and the stiffness and load resistance of the plastic bottle can be improved. |
What is Finance? A Major Or An Essay?
Is finance a major or an essay? It depends on the way you look at it
Finance has the reputation to be truly a”main” because it is all about finance institutions and the way in which they function. The expression is most often used to refer to a major within the area of company or mathematics. But in the event that you are searching for a definition, then a meaning would be the fund is some learning tool which assumes many contours that are different or an informative article.
Financial courses start with a history and also how people think about how other things and also money are got and are stored. That really is followed closely by a study of how financial institutions work. It www.zoalna.com is followed with some kind of application of this info. It is an informative article which relates a great deal of things that are unique to the world we dwell in.
Finance majors learn how money works. They get a very basic understanding of how the financial world operates. And they also learn how to apply what they have learned in a way that makes sense and teaches them something new.
Finance also looks at how different types of people make money. There are several different ways that finance majors make money. Those who decide to major in finance can choose between finance and management.
If you do not want to deal with the complicated business of managing, then you may prefer a more general college. People who do not want to get into the intricacies of finance might find themselves very interested in business or economics.
When it comes to your grades, you should take time to figure out whether or not your academic credits count towards graduation. You will be able to find out from the admissions office of your prospective school.
Is finance capitalized or major capitalized? It depends on the way you look at it.
In the event you wish to earn capitalization, then move up right on and check out the industry. Then get into a business, if you wish to make a fund major capitalized informative article. With a fund major capitalized essay, you could get the best credit potential.
If you want to earn a finance major capitalized essay, then work on the business side of your major. If you want to earn a finance major essay major, then focus on learning about the business before you focus on the business side of your major.
To recap, the major is written as the term capitalized. The essay is written as the term major.
If you are searching to earn your Finance as a Finance key Capitalized Essay go right ahead and start thinking about your major. Put in an application to get a company. Combine company and finance advice to get a thesis paper.
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Not much between the ears: how to say that someone is stupid
by Liz Walter
There are many different ways of saying that someone is stupid, depending on factors such as who you are talking to, whether or not you care about offending someone, or how serious you are being.
We can describe someone who has trouble understanding things as slow or dim, but note that we almost always put words like a bit or rather in front of these words: Her husband’s a bit dim. My pupils were rather slow. A kinder way of describing a student who isn’t doing well is to use the verb struggle: My daughter struggles with maths. She’s struggling at school.
At a more advanced level, someone with a vacuous expression has little sign of intelligence in their face, while an inane remark is silly and has no real meaning.
In English, it is common to express critical ideas by using positive words in negative sentences. We say things such as: He’s not that bright. She’s not the sharpest pupil I’ve ever taught. They are the less intelligent ones.
As with most difficult subjects, we often use humour to talk about stupidity. Again using negative forms, we say that someone is no Einstein, or that a person doesn’t have much between the ears or isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer/in the block.
Some of the phrases we use to talk about stupid people have many different forms. For example, we can say that someone is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, a few bricks short of a load, or a few cents short of a nickel. The speaker is also free to invent other variations. As long as the phrase follows the general structure x short of a y, the meaning is clear.
There are no generally used endings for the phrase have the IQ of a …, but a quick search reveals plenty of inventive examples such as parsnip, wet teabag, jellyfish and tomato soup can.
Foolish and silly are both slightly softer ways of saying ‘stupid’, but they would not be used in a situation that is really serious. For real emphasis, you could use a strong word such as idiotic, or even the colourful British idiom as thick as two short planks.
There may seem to be endless ways of saying that someone is stupid, but Einstein himself was reported to have said ‘Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.’
8 thoughts on “Not much between the ears: how to say that someone is stupid
1. Two more phrases, both suggesting that a person is alert and cordial but misses the more complicated or sophisticated points:
“The lights are on, but no one is home” and “His/Her elevator doesn’t run to the top floor.”
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Things you need to know about Budgets and budgeting worksheets
Individuals and organizations use budgets to help them use their finances appropriately. By drawing a budget, it is easier to realize how you are spending your money so you can make alterations where you think it is necessary. It is sad that most people have not yet realized the importance of budgeting for your earnings. A budget is crucial regardless of how much you earn. It can help you to cut back on your leisure activity if you have a low income. You might see as a call to sacrifice too much, but it is worth it in the end. This is because you will have money to invest, and your earnings are bound to increase in the end.
Tips for Creating Effective Budgets
The first thing you should do when you are developing a budget is to come up with a budget breakdown. To do this, you will need to list down your expenses and determine how much you are going to spend on each expense. Divide your expenses into different categories, so you have those that are fixed and those that are variable. This will help you to identify the expense which you will need to cater for first. They are expenses that have the same cost throughout.
The next thing you must do is to identify your sources of income. This will be easy if your paycheck is the only source of income you have. On the other hand, if you have other sources of income besides your income, you will need to add them together. After calculating your total income, it is time to make estimates of how much you are going to spend. You can use budget percentages whereby you indicate the portion of the total income you will be using for each expense. Make sure your costs do not exceed your earnings.
Budgets and budgeting worksheets
Budgeting worksheets are used to record your expenditures and incomes. You can create your own worksheet or download a template from the internet. Whichever you decide to use, make sure it is easy to use and access. You should be able to see clearly your expenses and how much you have allocated to them. The advantage of using a worksheet is that you can easily monitor your spending. Make a list of your daily spending and at the end of the day compared with what you had previously budgeted for. Make sure to stick to the budget for the entire month.
Budgets should be flexible to accommodate changes. You should be able to make alterations when you get a salary increment, or the price of gas is hiked.
We use budgets to manage our finances. Without budgeting, you might find yourself getting broke in the middle of the month simply because you are overspending. If you find yourself in such a situation, a budget will come in handy. It will help you to plan for your spending so that they do not exceed your earnings. However, this can only happen if you follow your budget.
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